Top Photo Group/Thinkstock(GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.) -- Like many brides, Kierstynn Foster Rozema chose to celebrate her wedding day with her family and friends. But she also spent it with the doctors who saved her life when she was diagnosed with leukemia as a teenager.



Rozema; her groom, Daniel Rozema; and their entire wedding party arrived in a white limousine and posed for wedding photos at Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Childrens Hospital last Saturday.



The Grand Rapids, Michigan, hospital is where Rozema, now 22, was treated for more than two years after being diagnosed at age 16 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.



Rozemas father, Bret Foster, of Byron Center, Michigan, told ABC News that things seemed fine before her diagnosis, with Rozema attending two proms the week before. Shed just been having headaches and some pain in her shoulder, just really odd things going on, and we ultimately scheduled a doctors appointment," Foster said.



Rozemas doctor sent her to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, where she immediately began chemotherapy under the care of Drs. James Fahner and Beth Kurt.



We know how incredibly difficult it is to have a teens life turned upside down overnight, said Fahner, division chief of pediatric hematology and oncology at Helen DeVos Childrens Hospital. Kierstynn went from doing all things teens normally to do being in our clinic and being exposed to heavy chemotherapy drugs.



Rozemas treatment continued into her freshman year at Hope College, where she met her future husband. Rozema completed her leukemia treatment in August 2013 and got engaged last year, the weekend before both she and Daniel Rozema graduated from Hope.



When it came time to plan her wedding, Rozema, who is overseas on her honeymoon and not available for comment, knew just what she wanted to do.



She contacted her medical team here and said the day just wouldnt seem complete without a stop to the hospital where she had so many caregivers -- and, really, extended family -- who cared for her, Fahner said.



Fahner and Kurt, Rozemas pediatric oncologist, welcomed the wedding party to the hospital and posed for photos in front of a mural in the hospitals lobby, an area special to Rozema and her family.



We spent a lot of time in that nook, Foster recalled. Its where we congregated quite a bit if we werent in her room.



Fahner said he and the hospital staff saw Rozemas wedding day visit as a gift for them just as much as it was for Rozema and her family.



There were lots of tears and lots of hugs and mostly lots of smiles, for sure, he said. To be part of the full circle of life for these remarkably brave people is a huge privilege.



Fahner, who couldnt attend Rozemas wedding due to a scheduling conflict, said having a bride come to the hospital on her wedding day was also a first for him in his 28 years with the hospital system.



We get invited to open houses and graduations, but I think this is a first for us, he said. There were lots of children and family members who were coming and going in the lobby, and I cant imagine that couldnt have been just an amazing source of inspiration for them too.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Colm: CAL got subsidy of $3B

Imbert said the Government gives a subsidy of $50 per adult seat for CALs Tobago airbridge. He listed the subsidies to CAL in recent years under both the former Peoples Partnership government and the present Government, later on saying the subsidies also applied to other routes operated by CAL.

For 2011, CAL got $243 million (made up of $136 million in subsidies and $106 million in transfers).

For 2012, CAL benefitted from $1.139 billion, made up of $412 million in loan guarantees and $726 million in subsidies. For 2013, CAL got $860 million, comprised of $413 million in loan guarantees and $477 million in subsidies. For 2014, CAL received $1 billion, consisting of $140 million in subsidies and $859 million in transfers.

For 2015, CAL was given $655 million. In 2016, CAL received $453 million awarded by the former PP government, plus $28 million given by the present Government, that he described as a reduction of several billion dollars.

Imbert said CAL received $3 billion in total since 2011, and added of the PP regime, And they burnt $1 billion in cash. He listed steps now underway to make CAL self-sufficient namely implementing cost-relevant strategies, revenue enhancement (aimed at a break-even position), developing a strong brand for CAL and building the necessary coprorate culture (destroyed under the last government), and updating a network plan for more utilisation of aircraft.)
Young: Probe into Stollmeyers restoration

Asked of the planned use for the restored edifice, Young said that as soon as Cabinet decides, the population will be notified.

However, it should be noted that as soon as this administration came into place, one of the first Cabinet sub-committees (established) under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister (Dr Keith Rowley) was the Restoration of Historical Buildings of which Stollmeyers Castle is but one.

The population would have noted that under the former administration, they left a series of buildings to decay and did nothing about them, including Stollmeyers Castle, White House (White Hall), Presidents House, Mille Fleurs and others. He said this Government thinks it is important to preserve such historical houses.
Ministry: No cause for concern over Brazil beef

Referring to the USDA decision, the Agriculture Ministry yesterday said it is reassuring the public that Trinidad and Tobago does not import fresh beef or any other fresh meat from Brazil and, as such, there is no cause for concern. The ministry added that it is actively monitoring all developments out of Brazil related to food safety and will take immediate precautions, should it determine there are credible or potential health risks to TT consumers. Regarding this latest suspension in the US of fresh beef imports from Brazil, the ministry said Agriculture Minister, Clarence Rambharat, is collaborating with TTs Ambassador to Brazil, Dr Amery Browne, on any developments which may impact TT. On March 21, the ministry temporarily stopped issuing import permits for meat products from Brazil and advised the Chemistry, Food and Drug Division of the Ministry of Health to immediately recall from supermarkets and other retail outlets corned beef, chicken patties and chicken nuggets originating from Brazil.

That decision followed an investigation by Brazilian authorities that uncovered major meat-processing plants in the country which sold rotten beef and poultry for years, while bribing health officials to issue fraudulent inspection reports.

In a statement issued on April 25, the ministry said it would immediately resume issuing import permits for Brazilian meat products.

The ministry said at the time that the ban had been lifted following, clear and unambiguous assurances on April 24 from Brazils Agriculture Minister, Blairo Maggi, that meat products exported to TT did not come from any of the processing plants under investigation.
Okinawa on Friday marked 72 years since the end of a fierce World War II ground battle that killed a quarter of its civilian population, as resentment continues to run deep over the heavy concentration of U.S. military bases there.

Touching on a U.S. Osprey that ditched off the main island in December and other accidents, Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga said at a memorial service for the war dead the same day that residents' needs weren't being addressed.

"We see moves running counter to a reduction of the burden," Onaga said.

He also criticized the central government for moving ahead with the contentious relocation plan for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which he has fiercely opposed.

Onaga, who wants the air base removed from the island prefecture, said he cannot tolerate the construction work and described it as against "the will of the people."

The governor said he understands the importance of the Japan-U.S. security alliance and that the use of Okinawan facilities and land are being granted for the nation's security, but noted that the burden should be shared by the "entire nation."

"I want people in this country to sincerely think about Okinawa's situation and how Japan-U.S. security arrangements should be," Onaga said.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who also attended the ceremony at Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, the site of the final stage of the Battle of Okinawa, renewed the government's pledge never to wage war again.

Acknowledging that Okinawa's base-hosting burden is heavy, Abe added, "I'm determined to produce definite results to allay the burden."

The U.S. bases in the prefecture were built on land expropriated from islanders during a U.S. occupation that lasted until 1972. Despite only accounting for 0.6 percent of the nation's land, Okinawa is home to about 70 percent of the total area set aside exclusively for U.S. military facilities in Japan.

Jun 23 (ANNnewsCH) - 20aaaeaaaaaaaaaYcaa72aa23aeaaaaeaaaaaYaaaaaYa1945aaaaaaaYcccaaeaaaYaaaaaaaccaeacecYaaaaaasaacaeaaaaaaaaYa
A US appeals court has ruled that hundreds of American navy personnel can pursue a compensation suit against the government of Japan and Tokyo Electric Power Co. for illnesses allegedly caused by exposure to radioactivity in the aftermath of the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled on Thursday that the 318 sailors who have so far joined the $1 billion class action lawsuit do not need to file their case in Japan.

Most of the plaintiffs were aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, an aircraft carrier that was dispatched to waters off north-east Japan after the March 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima plant.
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Members of the Moroccan contingent taking part in the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, MINUSCA, have thwarted a violent attack by the Christian militias, known as the Anti-Balaka rebels, on Muslim civilians in the area of Bangasso.

In a joint press briefing with the spokesperson for the MINUSCA, a Moroccan MINUSCA official said that the attack took place on June 21 when a group of armed Anti-balaka rebels opened fire on the Moroccan peacekeepers guarding the site where 200 Muslims including women and children sought refuge. He added that the Moroccan contingent successfully repelled the attack and averted casualties among MINUSCA peacekeepers and civilians.

Violence have flared in the area of Bangasso, about 700km away from the capital Bangi, after the Anti-Balaka rebels perpetrated deadly attacks on Muslim civilians and UN peacekeepers alike.

Last May, a Moroccan peacekeeper was killed in a fire exchange after an attack by the anti-Balaka group on a Moroccan checkpoint in downtown Bangassou. The attack also claimed the lives of several civilians.

The attack came just hours after the UN held a memorial ceremony to honor five peacekeepers, four Cambodians and one Moroccan, killed on May 8 in a nearby village of Yogofongo, in a deadly attack perpetrated by suspected anti-Balaka elements.

Ten peacekeepers, 9 Moroccan and a Cambodian, were injured in this attack.

Morocco sent 1470 peacekeepers to the MINUSCA, which has a total of 12,870 uniformed personnel including 10,750 military personnel and 12,080 police personnel.

Since 2013, the Central African Republic has been mired in a civil conflict after clashes surged between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition and anti-Balaka militias.
I am not a sheep, I have my own mind

I have had enough of being told what and how to think

Whilst we are still allowed the remnants of free speech,

I will speak out.



I also reserve the right to discuss less controversial matters should I feel the urge.
Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain.

Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred.

For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here.
Michelle Nunn and Jon Ossoff were two of the Georgia Democratic Partys most recent Election Night disappointments. 2018 gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams thinks they were barking up the wrong demographic tree. Photo: Getty Images

Last night was an excruciating evening for activist Democrats everywhere who had been riveted by Jon Ossoffs special-election campaign in the Sixth District of Georgia. This was supposed to be a breakthrough win in a famously Republican district, represented most recently by a Trump cabinet member and back in the day by Newt Gingrich during his speakership. Ossoff came very close to winning the thing without a runoff in the first round in April. He led in most runoff polls. He had bottomless barrels of money, a huge staff supplemented by an army of volunteers, and a legendarily relentless field operation.

But instead of a win, it was a loss, made worse by Donald Trumps gloating and quick second-guessing from fellow Democrats.

Democrats from outside Georgia will move on to other contests in other places. For Georgia Democrats, though, the Ossoff loss was just the latest in a long line of disappointments. Old-timers remember Georgia as the state that had never voted for a Republican presidential candidate until Barry Goldwater came along in 1964. More recently, in the latter days of the 20th century, Georgia kept electing Democrats to statewide office. Bill Clinton won the state in 1992 and came close in 1996. The state even boasted the rare accomplishment of electing two African-American Democrats (Attorney General Thurbert Baker and Labor Commissioner Mike Thurmond) to statewide offices, three times each.

But beginning in 2002, it all started falling apart for Georgia Democrats. That year two heavily favored Democratic incumbents, Gov. Roy Barnes and Sen. Max Cleland, lost in upsets. Democrats lost control of the state legislature soon thereafter. When Sen. Zell Miller, already a Democratic apostate, retired in 2004, Republicans began to systemically take over statewide offices, and hold them all today.

Like their counterparts in other Deep South states, Georgia Democrats were thwarted by the ideological sorting out of the two major parties, with white rural, small-town, and outer-suburbs conservatives trending rapidly toward the GOP. The old formula for statewide success among Georgia Democrats in the postCivil Rights era had been 4090  40 percent of the white vote and 90 percent of the African-American vote. As the 21st century unfolded, the Democratic share of the white vote steadily sank. John Kerry won 23 percent of white voters in Georgia in 2004, and more alarmingly, moderate-conservative white Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Taylor won 27 percent of the white vote in 2006.

But Georgia was not Mississippi or Alabama. A steadily growing minority population (partly the result of an influx of African-American transplants to Atlanta, and partly the result of a very diverse immigrant population) gave Georgia Democrats new hope that they could win even with a depressed share of the white vote. There were false dawns: In 2008, Democrat Jim Martin knocked incumbent Senator Saxby Chambliss into a general-election runoff (Georgia requires majorities for both primary and general-election wins)  but Chambliss won the runoff by a landslide. In 2014, Democrats were very excited by the two candidates at the top of the ticket: political scions Jason Carter (President Carters grandson, running for governor) and Michelle Nunn (Sam Nunns daughter, running for his old Senate seat). They ran what one might call an updated version of the old Blue Dog strategy for winning in the South: aiming at the center on most policy issues but in a socially progressive context with zero discomfort about reaching out to minority voters.

In a disappointment for Democrats that felt a lot like last nights, Carter and Nunn lost by identical eight-point margins and won an identical 23 percent of the white vote.

Still, there was a general sense in Georgia and nationally that the Peach State was demographically destined at some point to join Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina as southern outliers where Democrats were highly competitive in both national and state elections. In 2016, some thought the great day had arrived when the Clinton campaign flirted with making a play for Georgia in the general election. Disappointment reigned again: Even though the nonwhite portion of the electorate grew to 40 percent, Clinton lost the white vote 21/75 and only took 46 percent of the total vote. Eyebrows were raised when she came surprisingly close to beating Donald Trump in the North Atlanta suburban enclave of the 6th congressional district. And that led eventually to the startling challenge mounted by Jon Ossoff when Rep. Tom Price resigned to join Trumps cabinet.

Undoubtedly some of the Democratic activists who were unhappily watching the returns from GA-06 last night were veterans of similarly disappointing election nights in 2016, 2014, or earlier. This was not an evening for any kind of public recriminations  but underneath the surface there was grumbling that the Ossoff campaign had devoted too many resources to chasing (even harrassing!) upscale white suburban voters and too little effort to finding, registering, and mobilizing the districts relatively small but rapidly growing minority population.

Georgia Democrats will soon hear more talk like that as the Democratic leader in the state House, Stacey Abrams of Atlanta, pursues a gubernatorial run in 2018. Abrams, a 43-year-old African-American with rural roots, has gotten considerable national attention for her voter-registration efforts  which have led to frequent collisions with Republican election officials she credibly accuses of voter suppression. But shes also well-known for arguing that the path to revival for southern Democrats is through aggressively expanding the partys minority base instead of endlessly chasing white voters whose willingness to support them is limited. As Abrams recently told The Nation:

There are two theories of the case, running in a red state, she says. You convince conservative voters who left the party years ago to come back, by offering them a candidate who appeals to the value system they hold to be true. But if you look at Georgia, thats about 23 percent of our base. John Kerry, Barack Obama, Michelle Nunn  they all got about 23 percent of the white vote. The likelihood that we can increase that by the margins necessary to win statewide is a theory I do not share.

I look instead at the greenfield opportunity of other progressive voters: African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and some white voters who dont vote. I believe the alternative theory of the case, and one weve never tried in Georgia, is to cultivate voters whove never been reached.

This is obviously music to the ears of Bernie Sandersstyle national progressives who have expressed a disdain for centrists generally and the Jon Ossoff strategy specifically. So its no surprise Abramss campaign is attracting early national support from left-bent groups and politicians, along with a good number of her legislative colleagues. More generally, as my colleague Rebecca Traister reports, Democrats in Georgia and elsewhere, regardless of ideology, are wondering if Abrams is right that Democrats ought to hunt where the ducks are instead of endlessly pursuing voters who are in an entirely different pond.

But Abrams wont win the 2018 gubernatorial nomination, or the argument about how to win in the South, without a contest. Another state legislator, Stacey Evans of Smyrna (a close-in suburb in, as it happens, GA-06), is challenging Abrams, and championing something closer to the Carter-Nunn-Ossoff strategy, though with a progressive ideological twist. Shes accusing Abrams of selling out low-income Georgians back in 2011 by helping Republican governor Nathan Deal reduce funding for the famous HOPE scholarship fund, the Zell Miller legacy initiative that has given millions of Georgians access to tuition-free college and technical education. That is interesting in part because HOPE was a big vote-winner in the Atlanta suburbs for Miller, helping him survive a GOP tide in 1994. And you get the impression that Evans looks at Ossoff and sees someone who, while losing, showed how to increase that 23 percent of the white vote enough to make a statewide victory possible.

So Georgia Democrats could soon witness a battle between two young women named Stacey  one white, one black  who are by Georgia standards both progressives but are offering competing visions for their party. Democrats in other Deep South states should pay close attention. Some day soon, the regular disappointments could end.
Still got it. Photo: Teresa Kroeger/FilmMagic

Earlier this year, at the age of 74, Joe Biden finally got some time off. After more than 40 years in elected office, the former veep is now in that late stage of life during which ex-politicians give paid speeches and buy new vacation homes. Of course, this is Amtrak Joe, so his new vacation home is in Delaware.

But youll be glad to know that Biden hasnt lost the famous fire in his belly, a point made abundantly clear by this story from Fox correspondent Charlie Gasparino.

It takes place in Vegas, at last Mays SkyBridge Alternatives Conference, a get-together that was started by Trump hanger-on Anthony Scaramucci. This is the same event at which Biden said Hillary Clinton was never a great candidate, unlike himself.

The topic of Bidens potential 2016 run came up again at a private dinner during the event, where Jeb! Bush himself asked Biden why he didnt take a crack at the presidency.

He reportedly gave an emotional answer about the 2015 death of his son Beau Biden, then stopped himself. Im sorry  Ive said enough, Biden said.

As Gasparino reports, hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman, best-known for some famously bad bets, then said, Why? Thats never stopped you before.
According to a new report, Obama personally confronted Putin about messing with the U.S. presidential election. But he didnt stop him. Photo: Alexei Druzhinin/AFP/Getty Images

During one of his recent tweetstorms, the 45th president asked this question about his predecessor:

By the way, if Russia was working so hard on the 2016 Election, it all took place during the Obama Admin. Why didn't they stop them?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017

A new blockbuster report from the Washington Post offers a pretty clear answer. The Obama administration had a lot of intelligence about Russian meddling in the election, its sources in the Kremlin, and its objectives. But it didnt stop it, because some tampering had already happened; the administration was running into Republican obstacles in Washington and the states; and ultimately, the White House feared being accused of its own interference in an election they were sure Hillary Clinton was going to win. The subsequent postelection measures to punish Russia were literally too little and too late, because by then Putins apparent goal  the elevation of Donald Trump to the presidency  had already been achieved.

The Post account begins with a closely guarded August 2016 CIA intel report to Obama that argued Putin himself was orchestrating an intervention in the U.S. elections plainly intended to elect Trump. Over the next few weeks, Obama confronted Putin personally, while the White House reached out to GOP congressional leaders and state election administrators (many of them Republicans) with warnings of Russias evil intentions. These distress signals in Moscow, Washington, and U.S. state capitals were largely rebuffed.

Obama also considered strong unilateral measures against Russia, including cyber-retaliation. But he held back, and didnt go public with his personal understanding of what was going on, because he figured anything he said would be interpreted as designed to help his intended successor Hillary Clinton.

And when, a month before the election, the intelligence community did unveil its consensus conclusion that Russia was trying to control an American election, it happened on the same day as the first WikiLeaks dump of John Podesta emails and the appearance of the Access Hollywood video of Trump talking crudely about his ability to sexually assault women. It was a media triple witching hour that robbed the intelligence report of much of its punch.

There is a lot in the Post story about the retrospective remorse among Obama advisers concerning the administrations failure to more aggressively describe and deal with what Russia was doing. But here is the simple explanation:

Our primary interest in August, September and October was to prevent them from doing the max they could do, said a senior administration official. We made the judgment that we had ample time after the election, regardless of outcome, for punitive measures.

The assumption that Clinton would win contributed to the lack of urgency.

Yes, the Obama administration took punitive measures right before it left office, but there was little or no follow-up from the Trump administration. You dont have to believe the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to understand why the new administration did not want to go there: Why should it undermine its own electoral legitimacy?

And so, Russia interfered, Obama couldnt stop it, and Putin was rewarded for his very bad behavior. Will the Trump administration and its allies in Congress do anything other than wish the whole thing away? Probably not. And that is a travesty, even if Team Trump was an innocent beneficiary of the Kremlins intervention.
President Trump with Secretary of Defense James Mattis. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Last week, President Donald Trump unveiled his strategy for how his administration would fight the ongoing war against the Taliban and various other jihadist groups in Afghanistan. The good news and the bad news is that Trump himself will not be actively managing the U.S. participation in the Afghan conflict, but instead will give the Defense Department latitude to set troop levels and their level of engagement at its discretion, without interference from the White House.

Its good news because Trumps hands-off approach averts the risk of the president, an impulsive leader with no military experience, ordering a reckless escalation of the war for, say, PR purposes. Secretary of Defense James Mattis is perhaps the most intelligent, levelheaded, and mature member of the Trump administration (which is not to damn him with faint praise), and so far, intends to pursue the Afghan War as part of a regional strategy, in partnership with allies, and without dramatically increasing the number of American soldiers on the ground. Right now, hes only talking about deploying another 2,000-to-4,000 troops on top of the 8,400 already there. In terms of risk to our tax dollars and American lives, that is not such a heavy price to pay if Mattis is indeed successful at finally routing the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and ISIS in Afghanistan.

Hawkish pundits like Eli Lake are praising Trumps strategy for another reason: By declining to set a definite end date for the U.S. military engagement, it avoids the mistake critics of the Obama administrations approach said the former president made in broadcasting to the Taliban and other terrorist organizations, as well as other regional malefactors like Russia, Iran, and Pakistan, exactly when it would be safe to gallivant around the Central Asian country again without the risk of running into an American soldier.

Now for the bad news. Mattis may be a grown-up but he is also a general, and giving a military leader carte blanche to handle a war as he sees fit, with little civilian oversight, certainly has its downsides. Lake notes that military commanders under Obama complained that the White House at times micromanaged the war and put restrictive limits on how much battle support our troops could provide to the Afghan soldiers they were there to train, but those restrictions were meant to avoid mission creep and a reescalation of our military role, as well as to ensure that our military kept the terms of the agreements we had signed with the Afghan government.

Letting the Pentagon decide for itself how to handle our presence there doesnt necessarily guarantee an escalation, but it raises the possibility of military men deciding (as they are wont to do) that more aggressive military action is the key to breaking the current stalemate, and thus opening a can of worms that proves hard to close. As Lakes Bloomberg View colleague Noah Feldman points out, The fundamental drawback to this presidential outsourcing comes from the way it structures incentives over the long run.

Put simply, the Pentagon will always ask for more. The Defense Department is not in the habit of saying it doesnt need any more soldiers, weapons, or money, and Mattis certainly has no reason not to take as much as he can get for a war that looks no more decisively winnable today than it has for the past decade and a half weve been fighting it. In Feldmans view, delegating authority for Afghanistan to Mattis lets Trump take credit for any victories and distance himself from any failures that might arise from the defense secretarys efforts.

Furthermore, while setting no deadline for withdrawal may not give the Taliban a precise idea of when the U.S. will no longer be a factor in Afghanistan, they know full well that their strategy of wearing us down until we get fed up and leave is working and will eventually prevail. Smoking the Taliban out of their innumerable hiding places in the Af-Pak region is a thoroughly unrealistic proposition, and whether in two years, five, or ten, at some point, we will leave. Millenarian fanatics with their eyes on Armageddon and the afterlife will happily wait us out a little longer if need be. Foreign powers great and super have been failing badly to stamp out Afghan insurgencies for going on 180 years now; anyone who thinks a little strategic ambiguity will make them crack is kidding themselves.

In an op-ed in the Washington Examiner, Daniel L. Davis, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a senior fellow at Defense Priorities, argues that Trump would be better off abandoning the pipe dream of defeating the Taliban and stabilizing Afghanistan militarily, which he describes as a physical impossibility given the countrys size and inhospitable terrain.

Instead, the president would be far wiser to focus on the goal of protecting the U.S. from terrorism by engaging in a robust diplomatic effort to convince Pakistan to cease or severely curtail cross-border support for the insurgency. According to Reuters, the administration is indeed weighing a strategy of coercive diplomacy to pressure Pakistan in just that regard, which may include an escalation of drone strikes there, withholding aid, or even downgrading our relations. On the other hand, the goal of getting Pakistan to clean up its act is one both the Obama administration and the Bush administration before it tried and failed to achieve, and its not immediately clear why Trump should be any more successful.

However that plan goes, we can be sure that getting out of Afghanistan for good and all is the one strategy America wont try anytime soon, at least not as long as the public barely remembers were still there.
With Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office, one things for sure: Nobody would be obsessing over the Sixth Congressional District of Georgia. Photo-Illustration: Daily Intelligencer; Photos: Getty Images

In a year like 2017, it is probably a good thing for Democrats to maintain some perspective on what continues to feel like the baleful consequences of a presidential election that went horribly wrong. Whether or not the election of Donald J. Trump was due to the mistakes of Democrats, the intervention of Russian hackers, media distortions of the news and the issues, or just bad luck, it has depressed and/or frightened many millions of people, and made others long for the Hillary Clinton presidency that might have been.

But it is worth remembering that a Hillary Clinton presidency would hardly have been a walk in the park. Indeed, you can make a pretty good case that aside from the ever-present possibility that we will awaken to some sudden presidential decision far more distressing than a poorly written tweet, the actual facts on the ground in Washington might not be completely different had the small group of Rust Belt voters who lifted Trump to the White house changed their minds or stayed at home.

Five months into the Trump presidency, his legislative accomplishments (other than ratifying the predictable reversal of very late regulations issued by Obama) are virtually nil. That would change, of course, if Congress passes the American Health Care Act  but the bill might go off the rails yet. In any case, a President HRC facing a Republican Congress would have almost certainly had the same dismal five-month legislative record.

Trump has proposed a draconian budget that he cannot enact without Democratic votes. Clinton would have proposed a much more generous budget that she would not have been able to enact without Republican votes. The odds of fiscal gridlock, a government shutdown, or a debt default would have been roughly the same with a Democratic president. The same Federal Reserve Board would have been shepherding the economy, subject to the same global trends.

The 45th president and his closest associates are under constant scrutiny and investigation. If the 45th presidents name had been Clinton, she, too would be under constant scrutiny and investigation, though probably from Congress exclusively rather than Congress and the FBI and a special counsel.

The one very tangible counterfactual difference between a Trump and Clinton presidency is that in the latter there would be no Justice Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. But there might not be a new progressive Justice, either, given the vows of many Republicans to block her from placing anyone on the Court. Certainly the names of lower federal court nominees would be different, but then again, a President Clinton would not have been in a position to impose her own judges on a Republican Senate, or secure a nuclear option to make their ratification easier.

However you weigh the differences between the real and the alternative 2017 at this point, one thing is very sure: The short-term electoral prospects for both parties would be very different. Since midterm elections almost always cut against the party controlling the White House (a tendency that grows stronger when that party has been in control for an extended time), it is very unlikely wed be talking about a Democratic wave election in 2018, or of a Democratic House as a realistic goal. Instead, wed probably be talking about the odds of Republicans getting to a supermajority of 60 seats in the Senate. They have the landscape for it, and absent the kind of antiWhite House factor that has Republicans worried today, theyd probably have no reason to fear significant House losses.

More immediately, its a lead-pipe cinch the whole political world would not be obsessing over a special election in the Sixth District of Georgia right now. Instead of four special elections (and another one in Alabama later this year) in Republican districts caused by Donald Trump hiring their incumbent members, wed probably have a different special election landscape. Since congressional Democrats are relatively well concentrated in urban areas, and any Clinton Cabinet would have been far more diverse than Trumps, the odds are high any vacancies would have been in heavily Democratic districts with sizable minority voting blocs. There might well be no competitive special elections at all. Even if they did exist, they would not feature Jon Ossoff and Karen Handel and Greg Gianforte and Rob Quist. Ben Jacobs would probably still have his glasses.

Its much harder to game out what the mood would be like in the two parties had Clinton won. There would be no Democratic resistance, and while restive populists would be watching HRC closely, at this point theres no reason to think Democrats would not have remained relatively united. Who knows what Donald Trump would have done in defeat? It is clearer that the many, many Republicans who opposed him or kept him at a distance until he won would have by now exerted enormous energy in trying to elbow him into retirement, preempt his message, and win over his following.

In any event, it is useful to reflect on the things that might have been, yet might not have been all that different from our real-life 2017, along with the things that might have turned the world upside down. You will never be able to convince the passionate people who cheered or wept on the night of November 8, 2016, that the turn of events we all witnessed were not fateful for the republic. But over time, it may all balance out  especially if the glass ceiling HRC has tried so hard to break is finally shattered soon, as in 2020.
time for the urn

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Nah, just leave him out somewhere high, have carrion eaters have him. Although..would that infect them? Maybe better to feed him to some (WH) assholes then.



Edited at 2017-06-24 04:21 pm (UTC)

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he deserves to lose all his money for some fucked up ish like this! nasty!

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This is all fucked up! I hate how mainstream media finds this shithead entertaining.



Also I randomly dove into the deep hole of AIDS denialism and its crazy to me that it's still a thing eventhough a lot of the big names there died -____-

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Vile

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he sounds like that one user on here that argued people with HIV don't have to tell people they're sleeping with they are positive because they have a "right to privacy."

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Comment twins!!

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I seriously think that knowingly withholding an incurable STD status from someone and then having sex should be grounds for a rape claim. A person's "right to medical privacy" about those ailments ends when someone else is making the choice to have sex with them.

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That post was fucking insane.



I retroactively went back and made a note for that person bc I could not.

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that person probably has HIV too, which makes me feel sorry for them, but also terrified

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lol Mte.

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oh man I remember this D:

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that post was fucking wildT

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Swear to god, one of Tyler Perry's shows (House Of Payne) had an episode where the moral of the story was "I didn't need to tell you (the person I'm dating) I had HIV. I would've told you if we were about to get into bed."

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and i still look at their username and recoil at how fucking stupid that post was

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- had not previously disclosed his HIV status because it was none of her fucking business.

fucking asshole...

fucking asshole...

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None of her business?!?!?



I remember when this first came out and a user was trying to argue that you don't need to disclose having HIV to your sexually partner

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WAIT WHAT

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Soooo we got HIV stans??

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I can't believe people think that, the treatment has come a long way but it's still fatal and people die early from it.

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~Just take some prep, it's not a big deal, I have 5 orgies without condom every week and of course you virgins think that is dangerous~



I hope someone gives a dictionary and links to medical studies to that user tbh

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~if you're being safe you don't have to tell anyone anything~





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There was another user that said that as long as you're on Prep you don't need to worry about HIV and condomeless sex, because is 2017!

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It becomes her business when you're going to expose her to the virus! Omg. Sheen's reasoning is just...

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- made repeated use of the n-word

- described himself as the dumbest fucking n in the room.

- referred to women (who had slept with him) as fucking ns who had committed treason which was punishable by death."



Whew doggy, caspers sure do love that word

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He's an untalented, violent drug addict who has given multiple unwitting sex partners HIV. Its kind of like being called 'uneducated' by Floyd Mayweather.

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He's such a fucking shitstain

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I mean it's Charlie Sheen. Him having an STD and possibly spreading to other people is exactly what you would expect from him so who would honestly be surprised enough to keep talking about it?



Everyone just accepted long ago he's useless trash

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What the fuck did I just read...

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Pretty sure it's classified as assault (exposure without disclosure). Might be sexual assault but don't quote me on that. The dissuasion for using the drugs... not sure

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I think it typically is criminal but it depends on the state. In some places, it'll get an assault with a deadly weapon charge.

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Can his family put him out to pasture with a block of cement near to a body of water.

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i hope he develops aids and dies

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Die slow

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Rising demand and a need to boost connectivity to the national grid are driving rapid expansion in Papua New Guineas electricity sector, with a range of sources tapped to meet the governments power access targets.

Currently, PNG has less than 600 MW of installed generation capacity, according to the Department of National Enterprises, and frequent outages due to spikes in demand mean the existing grid is consistently under pressure. On top of this, much of the country lacks access to electricity  particularly in rural areas  hindering economic growth.

Growth prospects for hydro and solar

One way the government is working to address this is through large-scale hydroelectric projects. The largest of these is a $2bn dam to be built by Italys Salini Impregilo and the PNG government at Karimui in Chimbu Province, adding some 1800 MW of capacity when it is switched on in 2023. Awarded the contract in 2015, Salini is due to start construction this year.

Another facility  known as Ramu 2  will be built on the Ramu River in Eastern Highlands, contributing a further 180 MW. The contract to develop this project has been awarded to Sinohydro and Shenzhen Energy Group, both Chinese firms.

A third project in Central Province will boost capacity by another 50 MW, with much of its output to be sold on to the Port Moresby market. The plant is being built by Chinese firm PNG Hydro Development for PGK640m ($201m) and is expected to wrap up by 2020.

These investments, alongside other state outlays on green generation sources such as solar and biomass, are intended to lift renewable energys share of the power mix to at least 32 percent by 2030, rising to 100 percent by 2050.

Hydropower will be central to achieving this: studies estimate that PNG has around 15,000 MW of hydro potential, if you combine large-scale plants (those with more than 10-MW capacity) with smaller hydro projects.

The sharper focus on renewable energy, and on diversifying power sources, is also vital to the governments goal of ensuring 70 percent of the population has access to electricity by 2030, up from around 15 percent at present. Related: Underperforming Energy Sector May Soon See M&A Wave

Such a connectivity boost will require extensive investment given the rugged terrain in much of the country, as well as the long distances between power stations and many consumers.

To overcome such constraints, in mid-April Origin Energy PNG, the local arm of the Australian electricity and gas supplier, partnered with the International Finance Corporation to launch a new pilot venture in solar power, offering off-grid home systems that can power rural communities.

These systems are now being tested in villages outside Port Moresby and can later be scaled up by adding more panels and devices, according to Lesieli Taviri, CEO of Origin Energy PNG. Origin is also looking to partner with a local telecoms provider or bank to facilitate digital or electronic payment methods.

About a third of the 70 percent [power access] goal is a potential market for scalable off-grid solutions, Taviri told OBG. The cost to venture off-grid using traditional energy sources is huge, but technology has now caught up to where we can offer scalable solutions in a more commercially viable manner.

Foot on the gas

The country is also tapping its considerable fossil fuel resources to meet rising demand for electricity in the near term. Related: The Biggest Obstacles For Chinas $900 Billion Silk Road

Earlier this year ExxonMobil said that approximately 20 percent of the power demand in Port Moresby was being met using PNG LNG gas, and that good progress was being made on a 50-MW power project that will also use PNG LNG gas as a feedstock. When completed  a date for which has not yet been announced  the plant will be able to meet 40 percent of peak demand in Port Moresby, with the potential to expand to 200 MW.

This capacity boost will feed directly into the economy and fuel new efforts to extend electrification, according to Andrew Barry, managing director of ExxonMobil PNG.

We clearly see the value, through the multiplier effect, of making reliable cheap power available to everyone  particularly in Port Moresby, he told OBG. Small and medium-sized enterprises in the area will benefit the most, as one of their biggest initial challenges is to get reliable, affordable power to start their business.

Potential also exists for gas-fired plants elsewhere in PNG, Barry added, as ExxonMobil has the capacity to sell gas on to other independent power producers.

By Oxford Business Group

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Chinas Belt and Road Forum, hosted with great fanfare, signals the priority of this flagship connectivity initiative while also underlining its credentials as the new shaper of global trends and norms. Exhorting all countries to participate, Chinese President Xi Jinping suggested that what we hope to create is a big family of harmonious co-existence.

But India, an emerging economy that shares a contested border with China, worries about containment and new pathways for aggression from Pakistan. Other nations wonder if hegemonistic designs are hidden behind the rationality of connectivity and trade. The policy initiative aims to enhance Chinas centrality in the global economic unilateral approach in how the project is conceived and implemented so far belies the rhetoric of multilateralism emanating from Beijing.

Taking inspiration from the ancient Silk Road trading route, Chinas One Belt One Road initiative, or OBOR, hopes to link more than 65 countries, encompassing up to 40 percent of global GDP. Xis signature foreign paradigm  linking China to Asia, Europe and Africa via an ambitious network of ports, roads, rail and other infrastructure projects. Beginning in China's Fujian province, the projected Maritime Silk Route passes through the Malacca Strait to the Indian Ocean, moving along the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, ending in Venice.

The scale and scope of OBOR is huge, with at least $1 trillion in investments. At the Shanghai summit, Xi announced an additional $124 billion in funding for OBOR, including $8.7 billion in assistance to developing countries. China, desperate to deflect criticism that OBOR is primarily an instrument for Chinese expansionism, managed to convince heads of 29 states and governments to participate in the summit, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Russian President Vladimir Putin and United Nations chief Antonio Guterres. Most western leaders sent representatives.

The West views this as a Chinese bilateral project being touted a multilateral venture. The outgoing president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China complains that the OBOR has been hijacked by Chinese companies, which have used it as an excuse to evade capital controls, smuggling money out of the country by disguising it as international investments and partnerships.

The rest of the world is more receptive. Lavishing praise on China for the OBOR initiative while targeting the U.S., Putin warned at the summit that protectionism is becoming the new normal, adding that the ideas of openness and free trade are increasingly often being rejected (even) by those who until very recently expounded them.

South Asia also welcomes OBOR, and most of Indias neighbors attended. India refused to participate, maintaining opposition to China's investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. India, boycotting the event, announced in an official statement: No country can accept a project that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity. Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar articulated this position at the 2017 Raisina Dialogue: China is very sensitive about its sovereignty. The economic corridor passes through an illegal territory, an area that we call Pak-occupied Kashmir. You can imagine Indias reaction at the fact that such a project has been initiated without consulting us. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reinforced this point, asserting that connectivity in itself cannot override or undermine the sovereignty of other nations.

(Click to enlarge)

New Silk Roads: China, with about 60 other nations, pursue ambitious plans to connect three continents with infrastructure investments (Source: The Economist)

The advantages for India of joining Chinas multibillion dollar OBOR initiative are apparent, and the economic logic is compelling. With bilateral trade of $70.08 billion in 2016, China remains Indias largest trading partner. Last year also saw record Chinese investments into India reaching close to $1 billion. Compared to this, Chinas economic ties with Pakistan remain underwhelming with bilateral trade volume reaching $13.77 last year. Related: Underperforming Energy Sector May Soon See M&A Wave

Yet against the backdrop of deteriorating Sino-Indian ties, India cannot feasibly join the OBOR project without challenging the very foundations of its foreign policy. The $55 billion CPEC would link Chinas Muslim-dominated Xinjiang Province to the Gwadar deep-sea port in Pakistan. Despite the rhetoric, Beijings priority in pumping huge sums into a highly volatile Pakistani territory is not to provide economic relief for Pakistans struggling economy or to promote regional economic cooperation.

The development may not subdue restive Muslims in either country. The challenges are huge as underscored by the related militarization. Pakistan has deployed more than 15,000 troops to protect the CPEC, and is raising a naval contingent for protection of Gwadar; China will also station part of its growing naval forces at Gwadar. Concerns are already being expressed that Pakistan could become a Chinese colony once the corridor is operationalized. For the Chinese, security in the province of Balochistan is the biggest concern. Economic conditions in Balochistan remain dire with over two-thirds of its inhabitants living in poverty, and local opposition to the project is mounting by the day. Baloch separatists, especially those from the Baloch Liberation Army, are reported to have abducted and killed foreigners, particularly the Chinese. Such turmoil could have regional consequences.

The long-term strategic consequences of OBOR for India could also allow China to consolidate its presence in the Indian Ocean at Indias expense. Indian critics contend that China may use its economic power to increase its geopolitical leverage and, in doing so, intensify security concerns for India. CPEC gives China a foothold in the western Indian Ocean with the Gwadar port, located near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, where Chinese warships and a submarine have surfaced. Access here allows China greater potential to control maritime trade in that part of the world  a vulnerable point for India, which sources more than 60 percent of its oil supplies from the Middle East. Whats more, if CPEC does resolve Chinas Malacca dilemma  its over-reliance on the Malacca Straits for the transport of its energy resources  this gives Asias largest economy greater operational space to pursue unilateral interests in maritime matters to the detriment of freedom of navigation and trade-energy security of several states in the Indian Ocean region, including India. Related: Saudi Reshuffle Could Completely Shake Up Oil Markets

More generally, the Maritime Silk Road reinforces New Delhis concerns about encirclement. Beijings port development projects in the Indian Ocean open the possibility of dual-use facilities, complicating Indias security calculus.

India has its own set of connectivity initiatives such as Myanmars Kaladan project, the Chabahar port project with Iran, as well as the north-south corridor with Russia which could be potentially leveraged. The proposed 7200-kilometer International North South Transportation Corridor is a ship, rail and road transportation system connecting the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea via Iran to Russia and North Europe. The Indian and Japanese governments are working on a vision document for developing an Asia-Africa Growth Corridor largely meant to propel growth and investment in Africa, in part a response to Chinas ever-growing presence on the continent.

The Belt and Road Initiative is a highly ambitious undertaking in line with Chinas aspirations to emerge as the central economic power at a time when the United States makes plans to step back from global affairs. Its success depends on Chinas ability to move beyond the bilateral framework and allowing a truly multilateral vision for the project to evolve. Otherwise, China can expect to contend with opposition from more countries than India.

By Yale Global

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
While oil markets were battered again this week over persisting oversupply concerns, the diplomatic crisis in the Middle East continued to brew, peaking when the Arab states boycotting Qatar issued a list of 13 demands to the tiny gas-rich country, which most analysts and insiders consider nearly impossible to meet.

Saudi Arabia and its several other Arab allies that severed ties with Qatar almost three weeks ago have issued a list of 13 demands to Qatar, giving their now-isolated neighbor 10 days to meet those demands, which include cutting ties with Saudi archrival Iran, and closing the Al-Jazeera TV network.

The AP obtained a copy of the 13-point list in Arabic just days after Saudi King Salman made his favorite son and Deputy Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince, empowering the 31-year-old reformist as next in line to the throne in a move suggesting more hawkish Saudi foreign policy in regional conflicts. The new crown prince is also expected to adopt a harder line towards Iran, in what could be seen as a return of the political premium in oil prices.

So far, however, the markets were mostly focused on the global glut, what with U.S. shale production rising, OPECs output-cut-exempt Libya and Nigeria boosting production, and stubbornly high inventories despite the Saudi-led efforts to draw down oversupply.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and Bahrain were drafting a list of demands for Qatar, about which U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday that We hope the list of demands will soon be presented to Qatar and will be reasonable and actionable.



Related: Macquarie: OPEC Deal To Collapse In 2018

According to diplomats and analysts briefed by Bloomberg and Reuters, the demands are severe, and Qatar is likely to reject them.

The demands are so aggressive that it makes it close to impossible to currently see a resolution of that conflict, Olivier Jakob, a strategist at Switzerland-based oil consultancy Petromatrix, told Reuters.

Qatar, for its part, has said that it would not negotiate while the neighbors are boycotting it, and would not give up what it believes are its own internal affairs.

Meanwhile, oil prices were tentatively looking up early on Friday, after having hit a 10-month low on Wednesday. At 1:27pm EDT, WTI Crude was up 0.21 percent at US$42.83, while Brent Crude was up 0.29 percent at US$45.35.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Greece has approved an application by a consortium of ExxonMobil, Frances Total SA, and domestic oil refiner Hellenic Petroleum, to drill for oil and gas off the island of Crete, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting the Greek energy ministry as saying.



Greece has also approved another application, by local company Energean Oil, to start drilling for oil offshore western Greece.

The countrys oil and gas resources management body will launch a tender for exploration licenses in the blocks by the end of June, with the goal to award licenses by the end of this year.

Last month, the energy ministry held talks with Exxon and Total to discuss the potential of offshore gas exploration. Back then, a government official told Reuters that a consortium of ExxonMobil, Total, and Hellenic Petroleum was expected to file an application to explore south of the island of Crete.

Greece, which has been struggling with a severe debt crisis in the past few years and has received billions of euros of EU- and IMF-backed bailout support, is trying to resume efforts to search for hydrocarbons both onshore and offshore and possibly lessen its dependence on energy imports in the future.

In October last year, Greeces energy ministry named a consortium led by Total SA and comprised of Italys Edison and Hellenic Petroleum as the preferred bidder to drill for gas in an offshore block in the Ionian Sea west of the country.



Related: Underperforming Energy Sector May Soon See M&A Wave

The head of the Hellenic Hydrocarbons Resources Management (HHRM), Yannis Bassias, said last month that the country would start opening new onshore oil and gas blocks for exploration in 2018.



As of next year, and perhaps earlier, we will begin announcing that we are opening the door to whoever is interested in onshore sites, according to the head of Greeces oil and gas resource management body.



By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Deadly bomb blasts in Quetta-Parachinar 24 June, 2017



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Hand Wash and Toiletries in Pakistan And the Role of DUPAS in Reshaping the Industry

Ways that Players Used to Take Advantage of Slot Sites BOMBS targeted civilians and security personnel in Parachinar and Quetta on Friday, leaving at least 54 people dead and over 120 injured. Most casualties happened in Parachinar  41 dead and about 100 wounded  because a second bomb was detonated when people gathered at the place where the first explosion had occurred to carry out the rescue work.



While no group claimed responsibility for the twin attacks in Parachinar, two outfits said they had carried out the suicide car bomb blast in Quetta  Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and, according to AFP news service, the militant Islamic State group.



About three weeks ago, security forces claimed to have conducted an operation near Mastung town of Balochistan in which 12 suspected IS men had been killed.



Eyewitnesses in Parachinar said that the first blast took place in the busy Turi Market when people were busy shopping for Eid, minutes after an Al Quds Day demonstration had concluded at some distance from the crime scene.



Muhammad Hussain, who sustained injuries in the incident, told reporters that he was heading for his poultry shop after the conclusion of the Al Quds rally when the first blast took place. Another explosion shook the area soon after a large number of people rushed to the site to help the injured.



I lost consciousness after the second blast and later found myself on a hospital bed, Mr Hussain said.



Abdullah, a political administration official, said 41 people died and about 100 others suffered injuries.



However, the medical superintendent of the Parachinar agency headquarters hospital, Dr Sabir Hussain, confirmed 31 fatalities. He said that army choppers airlifted 11 seriously injured people to Peshawar and they were treating 85 others at the facility.



He said some bodies might have been taken away from the blast site.



The town, which has been caught in the cross hairs of the militant attacks for the past several years, sank into paralysis, as the communication links were broken soon after the incident.



Better ask the hospital about death toll as we are dealing with a security situation, a political administration official told Dawn when approached for comment.



The nature of the blasts was not immediately clear.



Todays blasts were the third major such attack to hit Parachinar during the year.



The suicide car bomb in Quetta left seven policemen and a leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Nazaryati) dead as well as 24 others injured and the perpetrators carried it out in front of the Balochistan police inspector generals office at Shuhada Chowk.



We received 13 bodies and 20 injured people, said Wasim Baig, spokesperson for Quettas Civil Hospital.



The injured include nine policemen, four army personnel, a girl and a woman, and the condition of at least five of them is said to be serious. The army men were taken to the Combined Military Hospital.



Official sources said that a car approached the IGPs office from Gulistan Road at around 8:30am and rammed into the buffer of sandbags around the boundary of the Central Police Office (CPO).



According to an eyewitness, the attacker initially tried to enter the CPO premises, but drove into the sandbags instead.



Assuming that the car had veered into the bags by accident, the policemen on security duty in front of the IGPs office helped push the car towards the Shuhada Chowk.



They asked the driver to get out, but he refused. Then the bomb planted in the vehicle went off killing seven people, including four policemen, on the spot.



Following the explosion, law enforcement personnel cordoned off the area and took the deceased and those injured to Quetta Civil Hospital.



The roads linking to Shuhada Chowk were strewn with dismembered body parts, Muhammad Zahid, who had witnessed the attack, told Dawn, adding that some bodies were beyond identification.



Soon after the attack, officials of the Bomb Disposal Squad arrived at the site and collected evidence. They said the car had been carrying 90-95kg of explosives.



Provincial government spokesperson Anwar-ul Haq Kakar said it was likely that attacker wanted to target the IGPs office. However, the IGP was not in his office when the bomb went off, a constable said.



Sources said that law enforcement agencies had received a threat alert for the possibility of such an attack.



There are several important government offices in the vicinity of Shuhada Chowk, including the State Bank of Pakistan, the Armys China check post, the entry to the Quetta Cantonment, and the residence of provincial home minister. A vehicle carrying army personnel was damaged in the blast, and a captain and three soldiers were injured.



Several others vehicles were damaged and the walls of a house in the Mission Girls School collapsed and windowpanes of surrounding buildings shattered.



Home Secretary Dr Akbar Harifal told reporters that security had been tightened in the provincial capital.



Sarfaraz Ahmad, one of the injured policemen, told Dawn that he hailed from interior Punjab and did not have any immediate family members in the city. I am a Special Branch inspector responsible for frisking people at the IG police office, he introduced himself, adding that his family lived in the Punjab but he had a nephew in Quetta who taught at a public school.



The bodies of 12 people were handed over to their families but one body could not be identified. The deceased include: Sajid Ali, Ghani Khan, Ghulam Shabbir, Faisal Khan, Sajjad Hussain, Muhammad Amin, Sanaullah, Anwar Ali, Muhammad Naeem, Lal Khan, Muhammad Kashif and Dr Abdul Rehman of the JUI-N.



The funeral prayers of the seven policemen were later offered at Police Lines.
Surge in foreign troops would not solve Afghan problem: Maulvi Hibatullah Akhundzada

ISLAMABAD: Afghan Taliban chief Maulvi Hibatullah Akhundzada said on Friday that surge in foreign troops would not solve the Afghan problem, urging the Americans to adopt a diplomatic approach to resolve the issues in Afghanistan.



The comments came amid reports that the US is most likely to deploy 4,000 additional troops that will increase the number of American troops to 12,400. Besides, 6,600 troops from other NATO countries are also present in Afghanistan.



In February, top US commander Gen John Nicholson sought a few thousand additional troops as the US and its NATO allies were facing a "stalemate".



As President Donald Trump's administration is set to announce its review for Afghanistan next month, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress this month that the US was "not winning" the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.



"If you think that you may break our determination with your military presence and surge of troops, you are making a mistake! This is not the solution of the issue - to continue your occupation on the request of the inept administration of Kabul," the Taliban chief said in his message ahead of Eidul fitr.



Afghans are likely to celebrate Eid on Sunday at a time when a series of recent attacks killed and injured hundreds of people, mostly civilians.



On Thursday, Taliban killed nearly 30 people outside a bank in Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand province, when military personnel and government employees gathered there to receive salaries, according to Afghan officials.



"Those who attacked Afghanistan under the name of maintaining security have themselves destabilised the whole region. The more they insist on maintaining the presence of their forces here or want surge of their forces, the more the regional sensitive against them will intensify. This will lead to instability of the entire region, including Afghanistan," the Taliban chief claimed in the message released in English, Pashto, Dari, Urdu and Arabic languages.



The US and Afghan officials have not commented on the Taliban leader's latest statement; however, they in the past played down such remarks and call it part of propaganda.



Hibatullah insisted that the US lost a great number of soldiers and wasted 16 years in the "meaningless war". "Don't ignore our history! The last 16 years, which you wasted on prolonging the meaningless war, accruing futile expenditures and tarnishing your military and political status can be sufficient enough for you. You lost a great number of your soldiers; martyred and handicapped the Afghans; destroyed their houses and other infrastructures and turned Afghanistan into virtual ruins."



He said that the Taliban have "a comprehensive policy to maintain constructive and good relations with you (US) and the world, including the neighbours, as per the principles" whenever the "illegitimate occupation of Afghanistan comes to an end".



He pressed the Americans to resolve the Afghan issue through diplomatic means instead of confrontation with what he called the "Jihadic" resistance.



"The solution of the Afghan issue through peaceful means is part and parcel of the policy of the Islamic Emirate, should the occupation come to an end. The Political Office has been given the task to find a peaceful solution," he went on to say.



Calling the Afghan rulers "stooge figures", he said they were ready on the behest of America to tip Afghanistan against its neighbours and the region and solely make it a scapegoat of the American interests.



Describing Americans as the key factor behind the war, he urged religious scholars, academics, political personalities, writers, professional cadres and teachers to become one voice against the invasion.



He also showed concern at the current diplomatic tensions in the Gulf and called for peaceful solution.



"We are deeply upset (saddened) by the recent row between Qatar and a number of other Arab countries. We urge the brotherly Arab countries to resolve their internal issues, whatever they are, through understanding," Hibatullah said.
US revoking MNNA status for Pakistan

WASHINGTON: Two US lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill in Congress, seeking to revoke Pakistans status as a major non-Nato ally (MNNA).



The movers also argue that since Pakistan has failed to effectively fight terrorism, it no longer deserves US economic and military assistance.



The focus of the bill, however, is on revoking the MNNA status, which was granted to Pakistan in 2004 by then President George W. Bush to encourage Islamabad to help the United States fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban. If passed, the legislation will greatly hurt military to military relations between the two countries.



The status grants critical benefits in foreign aid and defence cooperation, as a major non-Nato ally is eligible for priority delivery of defence material and expedited arms sale process. The designated country also benefits from a US loan guarantee programme, which backs up loans issued by private banks to finance arms exports.



A major non-Nato ally can also stockpile US military hardware, participate in defence research and development programmes, and can buy sophisticated weaponry.



Pakistan must be held accountable for the American blood on its hands, said Republican Congressman Ted Poe, who introduced the bipartisan bill with Congressman Rick Nolan, a Democrat.



Mr Poe, who is a member of the foreign affairs committee and serves as chairman of the subcommittee on terrorism, non-proliferation and trade, said that for years, Pakistan has acted as a Benedict Arnold ally of the United States, referring to an 18th century American general who defected to the British army.



From harbouring Osama bin Laden to backing the Taliban, Pakistan has stubbornly refused to go after, in any meaningful way, terrorists that actively seek to harm opposing ideologies, said Mr Poe, who always plays a leading role in sponsoring anti-Pakistan legislation. His moves are usually rejected by other lawmakers. And the continued presence of thousands of US troops in Afghanistan can prevent Congress from passing this bill as well, because the United States still uses Pakistans land route for supply for its troops.



Pakistan also has deployed tens of thousands of troops along the Afghan border and more than 6,000 Pakistani soldiers have died fighting the extremists in the border area.



But such sacrifices had little impact on the movers of the bill.



We must make a clean break with Pakistan, but at the very least, we should stop providing them the eligibility to obtain our own sophisticated weaponry in an expedited process granting them a privileged status reserved for our closest allies, Mr Poe said.



Backing his Republican colleague, Congressman Nolan said, Time and time again, Pakistan has taken advantage of Americas goodwill and demonstrated that they are no friend and ally of the United States.



Urging Washington to stop supporting Pakistan, he said that the billions of dollars the US has sent to Pakistan over the last 15 years have done nothing to effectively fight terrorism and make us safer.



It is time to wake up to the fact that Pakistan has ties to the same terrorist organisations which they claim to be fighting, he said. The legislation will protect American taxpayer dollars and make the US and the world safer.



The two lawmakers reminded the Trump administration that last August, then-Secretary of Defence Ash Carter withheld $300 million in military reimbursements because he could not certify that Pakistan was taking adequate action against the Haqqani network.
Former National Security Advisor in the erstwhile Prof. John Evans Atta Mills administration, Brigadier General Nunoo-Mensah has described the late President, as an over-the-top person in private life and as a President.



To him, Prof. Mills was incorruptible and always eager to at least change Ghana whiles in office.



Its ever unfortunate that he had to die that early, He said during an interview on UTVs morning show Adekye Asroma.



Brigadier General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah however said President Mills and I were like twins. He is always truthful.







Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007









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Patrick Nelson of Stillwater, a political activist and Bernie Sanders delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, is the only announced Democratic candidate so far.

Among other political parties, Chris Schmidt, a political activist from Fort Edward, is exploring running on the Libertarian Party line.

Matt Funiciello, the Green Party 21st Congressional District candidate in 2014 and 2016, has said that two other Green Party members are seriously considering the race, and that if not other Green Party members step forward he likely will run.
The Trump administration is urgently lobbying Congress to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the National Security Agency to collect the electronic communications of foreigners living abroad. Before he was fired, FBI Director James Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee that losing Section 702 would be disastrous.

But Congress should not simply rubber-stamp the law as it exists. Rather, Section 702 should be fine-tuned to afford greater privacy protections for Americans.

Yes, Americans. Because even though residents of this country arent the targets of Section 702s elaborate electronic dragnet, their emails, phone calls and internet chats can be caught up in it incidentally  for example, when a foreign target is emailing or talking on the phone to an American living in the U.S.

Section 702 is the direct descendant of the warrantless electronic surveillance program instituted by the George W. Bush administration after Sept. 11, 2001, that caused a sensation when its existence was exposed by the New York Times in 2005. Unlike that shadowy program, Section 702 was duly enacted by Congress and is overseen fairly rigorously by a federal court, albeit one that meets in secret.

Under Section 702, the government does not need to obtain individual warrants authorizing the surveillance of each person who is targeted. Instead, at the request of the attorney general and the director of national intelligence, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court certifies categories of foreigners who may be appropriately targeted. The court also approves procedures for minimizing (protecting the privacy) of information about U.S. citizens collected as part of the surveillance.

Comeys view of the value of Section 702 is widely shared. Sen. Dianne Feinstein says it has been a valuable part of our counter-terrorism effort. In a report published in 2014, after Edward Snowdens revelations, the presidents Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board concluded that intelligence collected under Section 702 has enabled the discovery of previously unknown terrorist operatives as well as the locations and movements of suspects already known to the government.

But civil liberties groups argue that the program does not sufficiently protect Americans privacy, although they concede that there is no evidence of egregious abuses.

One persuasive complaint about Section 702 is that the intelligence community hasnt quantified the number of Americans whose conversations have been captured by surveillance under the program, making it difficult to assess whether it is sufficiently circumscribed. Trumps director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, told the Senate that it remains infeasible to generate an exact, accurate, meaningful and responsive methodology that can count how often a U.S. persons communications may be collected. That strikes us as defeatist. Congress should insist the intelligence community make a good-faith effort to keep track of how many Americans are caught in the Section 702 net.

And while the acquisition of intelligence under the law is supposed to be consistent with the 4th Amendment, information about Americans (which, remember, is gathered without an individualized warrant) can be retained and turned over to law enforcement if it shows evidence of criminal activity. The chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has recommended that the FBI be required to obtain approval from the FISA court before searching a database of communications gathered under the program in connection with criminal matters so that the Section 702 database doesnt become a repository for fishing expeditions.

That recommendation might seem less urgent given statistics from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence showing that the FBI searched the Section 702 database only once in 2016 in connection with criminal matters unrelated to national security. Still, Americans shouldnt have to face the possibility of prosecution based on information gathered  without a warrant  for foreign intelligence purposes. That contravenes the guarantee of the 4th Amendment that searches must be reasonable and the long-standing practice of requiring warrants based on probable cause.

Another way to protect Americans privacy would be for Congress to codify a recent decision by the NSA to no longer collect communications in which the email address of a foreign target appeared in the text of a message between Americans. The NSA stopped collecting such about messages because it apparently felt it couldnt do so without inadvertently violating safeguards of Americans privacy.

Finally, unlike the Trump administration and some Republicans in Congress, we believe that this law  even in an improved version  should be authorized for no more than five years, as the current version was in 2012. A program that collects so much personal information about Americans, and that was enacted in response to a terrorist threat that we all hope is temporary, should be subject to periodic review.

This editorial appeared June 21 in the Los Angeles Times.
The head of Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, on Friday warned Israel against attacking Lebanon or Syria, saying hundreds of thousands of Arab and Muslim fighters would be ready to strike back.

The Israeli enemy should know that if it launches an attack on Syria or Lebanon, its unknown whether the fighting will stay just between Lebanon and Israel, or Syria and Israel, Hassan Nasrallah said.

Im not saying countries would intervene directly  but it would open the door for hundreds of thousands of fighters from all around the Arab and Islamic world to participate in this fight  from Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, he said.

Nasrallah made the remarks in a speech broadcast on television to mark Jerusalem (Quds) Day, an annual show of solidarity with the Palestinians marked by marches and speeches that rail against Israel and the West.

The commemoration was first launched by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late revolutionary leader of Iran  a main sponsor of Hezbollah and staunch rival of Israel.

Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon, and others from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, are battling alongside regime forces in Syria to defend the government of President Bashar Assad.

Tensions were rising this week along the frontier, with Israel accusing Hezbollah of expanding observation posts to conduct reconnaissance missions across the border under cover of a purported environmental NGO

The UN rejected the claim on Friday with the UNIFIL reporting that Green Without Borders members have planted trees in the area, but it has not observed any unauthorized armed persons at the locations or found any basis to report a violation of resolution 1701, said UN spokeswoman Eri Kaneko.

Danons letter came on the same day that IDF intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Hertzl Halevi released video and photographs the IDF said showed the installations in question.

Hezbollah is using an environmental organization as a cover for activities along the border with Israel, Halevi said.

Earlier this week, the head of Israels air force said it would have unimaginable military power at hand in any future conflict with Hezbollah.

What the air force was able to do quantitatively in the Lebanon war over the course of 34 days we can do today in 48-60 hours, Major General Amir Eshel said on Wednesday.

This is potential power unimaginable in its scope, much different to what we have seen in the past and far greater than people estimate.
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SPRINGFIELD -- Day three of the special session of the Illinois General Assembly called by Gov. Bruce Rauner saw the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate spend the least amount of time working yet.

The Senate on Friday adjourned after only 10 minutes and one second, while the House was in special session for only six minutes and 44 seconds. Over three days, the two legislative chambers have put in less than 60 minutes of work in special session.

Also, Senate President John Cullerton said his chamber has previously accomplished everything Rauner outlined on the special session agenda.

Cullerton told reporters Friday that special sessions are a "political stunt" to offer the governor political cover. Cullerton added that the budget the Democrat-controlled Senate approved draws on Rauner's ideas.

With each day of special session costing taxpayers about $50,000, according to an estimate from the Chicago Tribune, the special session has run taxpayers about $2,500 for each minute the House and Senate have worked.

As on the second day, many senators were absent from the floor at the special sessions noon start time on Friday.

The special session lasts through June 30, when the current fiscal year expires.

Both parties claim to want a compromise on a budget to prevent Illinois from becoming the first state with a junk credit rating. However, Democrats and Republicans alike have proposed plans to raise taxes by more than $5 billion, which would increase the average Illinois households tax burden by $1,125 each year. But Illinoisans have expressed that they dont want a budget that hikes taxes.

Nearly two-thirds of likely Illinois voters dont want an income tax hike as part of the state budget, according to polling conducted by Fabrizio, Lee & Associates and commissioned by the Illinois Policy Institute. More than three-quarters of respondents oppose hiking sales taxes. And nearly 80 percent agree Illinois state lawmakers should pass major structural reforms before passing any tax increase.

The Illinois Policy Institute has introduced a budget proposal that offers real reform without raising taxes. This kind of reform-minded, no-tax-hike proposal is in line with what Illinoisans want. Lawmakers should use that as a framework while taxpayers pay for their costly special session.
St. Paul Lutheran Church, 2136 Brady St., Davenport, will host a free midsummer mental health movie series by the mental health awareness team for four weeks, beginning Wednesday, July 5. A discussion will follow after the movie. Movies begin at 6:30 p.m. and popcorn is included. For more information, contact Ann McGlynn at ann@stpaulqc.org or call 563-326-3547.
The end of the Supreme Court term looms, and with it the prospect -- the terrifying prospect -- of a retirement. Specifically, the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who will turn 81 next month and is the longest-serving current justice, named to the high court almost 30 years ago.

So if Kennedy is inclined to retire, it is hard to begrudge him that choice. But his departure would be terrible for the court and terrible for the country. It could not come at a worse time. Any court vacancy these days, under a president of either party, triggers a battle between liberal and conservative forces. Kennedy's retirement would unleash nomination Armageddon, given the pivotal role he plays on the closely divided court and the feral political environment.

To understand the impact of Kennedy's departure, just look back to his selection to fill the seat vacated by Justice Lewis Powell. Like Kennedy now, Powell was the ultimate swing justice; his was the key fifth vote for liberals on issues including abortion rights and affirmative action, topics as charged then as they are today.

President Reagan's original choice to take Powell's place was conservative federal appeals court judge Robert Bork. The ferocious confirmation fight that ensued -- and resulted in Bork's rejection -- still echoes in today's unceasing warfare over judicial nominations. Kennedy's unanimous confirmation -- he was Reagan's third choice, after Douglas Ginsburg's nomination fizzled over reports that he smoked marijuana with law students -- calmed only the immediate furor.

Imagine, then, a Kennedy retirement in this partisan and unstable political landscape. It could make the Bork fight look like a kindergarten squabble. With President Trump under investigation by the special counsel and his approval rating mired below 40 percent, his incentive may be to cater to his base with a pick as far to the right as possible, an instinct enabled by the Republicans' move, during the confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch, to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.

Justice Kennedy, perhaps it is unfair to pile all this onto your shoulders, but is it really wise to subject an already divided country to even more turbulence?

And to another nomination by this president, with his evident ignorance of the role of the judiciary and disdain for judicial independence?

Your career has been characterized by insistence on civility, respect for the dignity of all individuals, and commitment to the rule of law -- qualities absent in our president. Just read Trump's tweets and ask yourself: Do I really want my successor named by this man?

No need to look back to the campaign, and his repugnant comments about the "Mexican" judge presiding over the Trump University fraud lawsuit. Just consider the president's tweets about judicial rulings in the case that has now reached your own court. He blasted the "so-called judge"; assailed "slow and political" courts; and, most alarming, suggested that blood would be on the judiciary's hands if a terrorist incident took place while his travel ban was being delayed.

The hearing didn't get much attention, but consider, too, the Trump appellate court nominees who came before the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month. One, Kentucky lawyer John Bush, nominated to the 6th Circuit, posted pseudonymous writings on a political blog that touched on President Obama's Kenyan heritage; referred to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as "Mama Pelosi" and suggested that someone should "gag the House speaker." In another post, Bush described slavery and abortion as "the two greatest tragedies in our country" and said they "relied on similar reasoning and activist justices at the U.S. Supreme Court, first in the Dred Scott decision, and later in Roe." Query whether you, Justice Kennedy, would count as one of those activist judges, having joined the controlling opinion that kept Roe from being overturned in 1992?

Another nominee, Damien Schiff, nominated to the Court of Federal Claims, used a different blog to denounce anti-bullying efforts for "teaching 'gayness' in public schools," and criticize the court's ruling in Lawrence v. Texas -- that's your ruling, Justice Kennedy -- striking down state laws criminalizing homosexual sodomy.

Oh, and also, to observe that "it would seem that Justice Kennedy is (and please excuse the language) a judicial prostitute, 'selling' his vote as it were to four other justices in exchange for the high that comes from aggrandizement of power and influence, and the blandishments of the fawning media and legal academy."

Justice Kennedy, does the president who chose this man really deserve to name your replacement?
Hills Alive

The 32nd annual Hills Alive free summer music festival will be held in Memorial Park in Rapid City on July 15 and 16. There will also be an Artist Showcase at Main Street Square on Friday, July 14.

More than 20 Christian bands from all over the country will be performing throughout the weekend and there will be activities for the entire family.

Gospel concert

Calvary Baptist Church in Rapid City, will hold a gospel concert Sunday, July 2, at 6 p.m. The southern Gospel music will be performed by the Redeemed Quartet and there will be a love offering taken that night.

St. Paul's Vacation Bible School

St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church will hold Vacation Bible School July 17 to July 21. The program will be "Operation Arctic: Exploring the Coolest book on the Planet." The program will run from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. each day with children per-kindergarten to 6th grade able to attend.

Seventh-day Adventist Church Fruit Sale

Monday, July 3, is the deadline to order sweet dark cherries, Rainier cherries, blueberries and apricots for delivery Sunday, July 16, through the Seventh-day Adventist Church at 4703 South Canyon Road.

Order online at rcadventistfruit.com or call 605-519-8074 for more information. Funds raised through the fruit sale go to the churchs school fund.

4 Colorado churches align to safeguard immigrants

Four Colorado churches formed a coalition to protect immigrants facing deportation and assist them with the legal process.

The Gazette reports the alliance, known as the Colorado Springs Sanctuary Coalition, announced its formation Monday and its intent to provide a facility where immigrants would be able to live while shielded from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church will serve as the coalition's host sanctuary church, with First Congregational Church, First United Methodist Church and the Colorado Springs Friends Meeting making up the rest of the alliance.

The members of the coalition are joining a national cause known as the Sanctuary Movement. The movement is growing in response to the expansion by President Donald Trump's administration of criteria for deporting immigrants living in the country illegally.
ABC/Randy HolmesRoyal Blood has the number-one album in their home country. The British duo's sophomore effort, How Did We Get So Dark?, arrives at the top spot of the U.K.'s Official Albums Chart.

"Wow. Just wow," says Royal Blood in response to the news. "Can we just say, thank you so much."

Royal Blood's self-titled debut album also arrived at number one in the U.K. when it was released in August 2014. That record was the U.K.'s fastest-selling rock debut in three years.

How Did We Get So Dark? features the lead single "Lights Out." Royal Blood will kick off a U.S. headlining tour in support of the album the end of July.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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BISMARCK, N.D. | U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has authorized emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program land in the Dakotas and Montana in response to drought.

Perdue says that without alternative forage options, ranchers could be devastated economically. The emergency grazing is authorized to begin immediately, and extends through Sept. 30 unless conditions improve.

Parts of all three states are experiencing severe or extreme drought.

U.S. Sen. John Hoeven says other federal drought aid also is available to ranchers in counties classified as being in extreme drought. The assistance is through the Agriculture Department's Livestock Forage Disaster Program.

Counties in extreme drought are immediately eligible. For counties in severe drought, eligibility begins after eight straight weeks of drought.
DEADWOOD | Following months of successive downturns, gaming revenues in this tourist town rebounded in May, while hotel occupancy rates showed a corresponding increase, bolstering the economic outlook for casino and lodging property owners and operators.

The South Dakota Commission on Gaming reported Friday that gaming revenues jumped 7.6 percent in May compared with the same month of 2016. While table game revenues were off 5.4 percent for the month, slot machines  the bulk of Deadwoods overall gambling action  posted an 8.4 percent increase, commission data showed.

Taxable adjusted gross revenues for May were $8,626,613, the commission reported.

After an incredibly disappointing winter and spring for Deadwoods gaming revenues, the Deadwood gaming operators have been extremely optimistic over this positive start of the all-important summer tourism season, said Mike Rodman, executive director of the Deadwood Gaming Association. All indications are that the summer season will remain strong, and Deadwood is hopeful that we will be able to erase the gaming revenue deficits that were racked up early in 2017.

Meanwhile, Deadwood hotel occupancy rates soared by nearly 3 percent for May, according to the Deadwood City Finance Office. Overall occupancy for the month was more than 49 percent, meaning Deadwood hotels sold 1,394 more rooms in May than last year, the city reported.

Rodman said lodging property operators were encouraged by the uptick for the month that traditionally signals the start of the summer tourist season.

Increased hotel numbers show a positive impact on length of stay, all of which is very positive for Deadwood and tourism in the northern Black Hills, he said.

While Deadwoods bolstered occupancy for May beat the national increase of 1.5 percent, Rodman noted that the tourist towns overall occupancy rate was still well below the national average of nearly 70 percent.
WASHINGTON | The "health care bill" that Republicans are trying to pass in the Senate, like the one approved by the GOP majority in the House, isn't really about health care at all. It's the first step in a massive redistribution of wealth from struggling wage-earners to the rich  a theft of historic proportions.

Is the Senate version less "mean" than the House bill, to use President Trump's description of that earlier effort? Not really. Does the new bill have the "heart" that Trump demanded? No, it doesn't. The devil is not in the details, it's in the big picture.

Fundamentally, what Republicans in both chambers want to do is cut nearly $1 trillion over the next decade from the Medicaid program, which presently serves almost 70 million people. Medicaid provides health care not just for the indigent and disabled but also for the working poor  low-wage employees who cannot afford health insurance, even the plans offered through their jobs.

Additionally, about 20 percent of Medicaid spending goes to provide nursing home care, including for middle-class seniors whose savings have been exhausted  a situation almost any of us might confront. Roughly two-thirds of those in nursing homes have their care paid by Medicaid.

Why would Republicans want to slash this vital program so severely? You will hear a lot of self-righteous huffing and puffing about the need for entitlement reform, but the GOP's intention is not to use the savings to pay down the national debt. Instead, slashing Medicaid spending creates fiscal headroom for what is euphemistically being called "tax reform"  a soon-to-come package of huge tax cuts favoring the wealthy.

That's the basic equation in both the House and Senate bills: Medicaid for tax cuts. Both bills start with various of the taxes imposed by the Affordable Care Act, but those are mere appetizers. The main course is intended to be big cuts in individual and corporate tax rates that would benefit the rich.

There is no other point to this whole exercise. All the "Obamacare is in a death spiral" talk is Republican wishful thinking, aided and abetted by active sabotage.

The ACA is far from perfect, but recall that it was designed with input from the insurance industry. The main reason so many insurers are pulling out of the program is that Congress and GOP-dominated state governments refuse to live up to their end of the bargain. Congress will not commit to funding promised subsidies to cover treatment for the poor and those with expensive ailments, or to keeping in place the mandate forcing individuals to buy insurance or pay a penalty. Republican governors and state legislatures refused to set up exchanges that would make insurance more affordable and declined the opportunity to expand Medicaid coverage.

It's actually a wonder that the ACA works as well as it does, given the GOP's determination to make it fail.

Neither the House nor the Senate bill fully dismantles the scaffolding of Obamacare; rather, they allow the states to do most of the dirty work. Philosophically, Republican majorities in both chambers want to erase the central concept that the ACA established: that health care is a fundamental right, not a privilege depending on one's income.

Like the House, the Senate wants to offer tax credits rather than subsidies to help the needy afford insurance. Like the House, the Senate wants to leave up to the states whether policies must cover such services as emergency, maternity and mental health care. Like the House, the Senate wants to eliminate the requirement that large employers offer insurance plans to their workers.

There are a few distinctions, though I wouldn't call them real differences. The Senate would determine who gets tax credits to help buy insurance by income, rather than age. And the Senate bill would take more time to phase out the ACA's expansion of Medicaid coverage; despite claims that this represents "heart," it may have less to do with compassion than skewing how the bill is scored by the Congressional Budget Office. This pig's lipstick is being applied with a trowel.

Ultimately, however, the impact is the same: sacrificing Medicaid for tax cuts. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had the bill drafted in strict secrecy and hopes to ram it through as early as next week. The ACA, by contrast, was drafted over the course of a year, with more than 100 public hearings.

Does McConnell have the votes? Wavering senators should know that we're not fooled. We see exactly what you're doing  and you should expect to be held fully accountable.
Three U.S. soldiers were shot to death recently in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. A fourth was wounded. The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack, reportedly carried out by an Afghan army commando working for the Taliban.

These American deaths and injury werent headline news back home  deplorable evidence of how distracted we are from the world events that matter most. Americans are preoccupied with either defending President Donald Trump or criticizing him. Every presidential tweet receives more public attention than those soldiers deaths. Lets try to correct the dearth of information about these fallen American heroes.

On Monday, the Department of Defense identified them as Cpl. Dillon C. Baldridge, 22 of Youngsville, N.C.; Sgt. Eric M. Houck, 25, of Baltimore, Md.; and Sgt. William M. Bays, 29, of Barstow, Calif. All three were married fathers of young children, according to Stars and Stripes. They were assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 3rd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and Company D, 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.

According to the Washington Post, they reportedly were killed by an Afghan soldier who opened fire on U.S. troops in the Achin district of Afghanistan's Nangahar province, where both Islamic State and Taliban insurgents are contesting territory. The shooter was killed immediately.

Baldridge, Houck and Bays deaths bring the total number of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan to six this year. Special Forces Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, 37, was killed in action in April. Army Rangers Sgt. Joshua P. Rodgers, 22, and Sgt. Cameron H. Thomas, 23, were killed later in April during a raid on an ISIS hideout in Achin.
HELENA  Another Republican has jumped into the pool of those vying to run against U.S. Sen. Jon Tester next fall.

Ronald Murray, of Belgrade, filed his paperwork with the Federal Election Commission earlier this month. Murray previously ran for a state House seat and lost in the primary. He later settled with the Commissioner of Political Practices after an investigation over claims of coordinating with a national anti-union group.

The number of people that will be getting into this primary, it shows there is a lot of concern for what is already happening in our Senate, Murray said Friday. Montanans are going to have a real chance to meet a lot of really good people and a chance to speak their mind.

So far candidates that have announced they're seeking the seat include Kalispell state lawmaker Albert Olszewski, Scott Roy McLean of Missoula and Troy Downing of Big Sky.

Other names that have been floating around are Yellowstone County District Court Judge Russell Fagg, who a few weeks ago announced he would retire in October. Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Matt Rosendale is also a probable candidate. Some have pointed to new Montana GOP chairwoman Debra Lamm as a possibility, and Kurt Allen Cole, of Troy, previously told Lee Newspapers he was considering a bid.

Montanas 2018 Senate race is expected to be hard-fought and expensive. Nationally, Democrats are playing up the elections as a referendum on President Donald Trump, who has faced low approval ratings in his first six months on the job. Republicans are encouraged by victories in special elections this spring, including one by now-U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte in Montana, who beat Democrat Rob Quist even after Gianforte assaulted a reporter on the eve of the election. Tester has navigated Trump's presidency so far at times falling on the same side of issues as Trump, thought not always.

Murray said hes a supporter of Republican President Donald Trump and that the president needs another ally in Congress.

Hes doing all he can to help our nation as much as possible, but he needs to have people out there. Looking at what Trump is trying to do across the nation, he just needs to have grounded, good individuals in Congress who are looking out for the best interests in everybody.

Right now his campaign is focusing on five main issues: infrastructure, border security, tapping Montanas natural resources, the economy and veterans affairs.

Murray said liberal immigration policies in Canada potentially leaves our northern border open to a vulnerability weve never had before.

He also said a bill Tester introduced to permanently ban mining in the Paradise Valley is the wrong approach. Montana has so much to offer. Are we doing the most we possibly can for the industries and the jobs they create?

The VA is one of Testers main focuses, as is health care. Murray said he hasnt had a chance to fully read the Senates version of the American Health Care Act released Thursday. The legislation is the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obamas landmark health care legislation.

I feel we are on the right track. We do need to repeal and replace Obamacare. But its hard to make a solid comment on it because its going to change so much, Murray said.

Murray operates a kennel in Belgrade that employs nine people. In 2010 he ran for a state House seat and lost in the primary to Ted Washburn, who filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Political Practices Office against Murray.

After an investigation, Murray reached a settlement with the commissioner in which he said he inappropriately received services from the National Right to Work Committee. Several other Republican were also found to have inappropriately taken services from the nonprofit known as a social welfare organization.

Murray agreed to pay $6,000 and do $14,000 worth of community service. Right-to-Work is a national organization that is anti-union.

On Friday, Murray said that though he reached a settlement with then-Commissioner Jonathan Motl, he didnt intend to do anything wrong and the print-shop he had hired contracted his printing work out to Right to Work.
Donations are being accepted to help cover funeral costs and other expenses for a Darby couple whose two adult sons drowned in an accident in Utah.

Jacob Tilt, 29, and Jason Tilt, 33, were in a black Chevy Silverado with a friend when the truck apparently missed a curve and drove into the Green River on May 26. Their bodies and the truck weren't discovered at a depth of 19 feet until June 21, after the friend's father dragged a magnet through the water.

J.R. and Tami Sanchez, who live in the West Fork of Darby for two years and work for the Triple Creek Ranch, went to join the search effort for their sons two weeks ago.

Darby neighbor Rebecca Garrietson said the Sanchez family could use a helping hand.

Im seeking donations for my best friend that lost two of her sons at one time, Garrietson said. Tami and J. R. have missed two weeks of work. They didnt have insurance on the boys and now have two funerals and cremations to pay for.

She added that Jason Tilt had sole custody of four children after their mother died about a year ago.

The grandchildren  Jakobe - 15, Maddix  11, Jayclyn  8 and Jaylyssa  6 are temporarily with their other grandparents.

Bitterroot Community Federal Credit Union in Darby has created an account for the family - Sanchez Memorial. To donate, checks can be mailed to the credit union at P.O. Box 467 in Darby, MT 59829, or dropped off at 218 S Main St in Darby or at 706 So. 1st in Hamilton.

A GoFundMe website for online giving is at www.gofundme.com/jacob-and-jason-tilt.
The Daly Hospital Foundation held a donor appreciation gathering to recognize major donors on June 16. Additional names were added to the Power of Health Partners donor display at the entrance to Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital.

The elaborate metal design depicting a mountain scene with donor names on the metal rocks was created by Tim Campbell in 2011. Additional stones were cut and donated by Terry Frey from Valley Sheet Metal and names were engraved by recent Hamilton High School graduate Colter Mason.

Owen Robbins, treasurer of the Daly Hospital Foundation board, said the Power of Health Honor Wall was created to recognize generous doors to several campaigns.

During the capital campaign for the Intensive Care Unit (2011-2014) hospital employees were encouraged to do regular payroll deductions. Due to generous and consistent giving some employees became major donors and others moved up to the next level of giving.

Today, we are presenting a major update to the board with the addition of 23 new rocks, Robbins said. They recognize the generosity of new donors as well as incredibly committed employee donors.

Three of those employees were at the presentation: Dr. Jennifer Feighner, Michele Adams - Lab, and Pam Chaplin - Business Analyst.

I strongly believe in the mission of Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital and the outstanding care we provide, Feighner said. From medical to maintenance to housekeeping everybody is so committed to high quality care of our patients. We, as a family, have made a commitment as well and stand with the hospital. Im proud to be part of this organization.

Adams said she also believes in the mission.

Im proud to be part of a team that really looks out for the community, Adams said. Health care changes drastically every day and as a group weve done well to keep up. Weve done well to stay independent and state-of-the-art. I enjoy my job.

Robbins said he is proud to be associated with the Daly Hospital Foundation.

All three of my children were born here and I think I had frequent flyer miles here as a kid, he said. Thank you all for being here.

To get the names engraved, the Daly Hospital Foundation established a working relationship with Hamilton High School shop teacher Brent Holmes and shop student Colter Mason.

Robbins thanked Mason.

We thank Colter Mason who dedicated many hours to engraving all of name plates replacing the stickered names that were not surviving the test of time, Robbins said. His milling work and problem solving will be admired and appreciated for years to come.

Mason said he took shop classes every semester of high school.

That knowledge helped me speed up the process of making these plaques, he said. It wasnt too difficult, just time consuming. The hard part was completing 167 names on steel.

Most plaques are brass and easier to engrave.

Thats why they came to us, Mason said. Other engravers wouldnt do it. It took the whole last week of school, the week of make-up tests and then the week after I graduated.

Mason said he feels good to leave a legacy.

I didnt think about leaving something behind at first, he said. But now I see its going to be here a long time and it gives me a good feeling.

Masons work was compensated with a scholarship that was announced at the end-of-the-year scholarship assembly and will be sent directly to Montana State University in Bozeman.
The effects of the towns rise in short-term vacation rentals and dearth of available long-term housing have rippled out to families unable to afford to live in town.
GRAND RAPIDS TOWNSHIP, MI - Tucked into the rolling hills between Ada and Grand Rapids, the all-brick Georgian Colonial at 6410 Bradford Street NE offers a countryside refuge that's less than 15 minutes from downtown and the airport.

The grounds of the 10-acre estate include mature trees and an array of solar panels which supply most of the home's electrical power needs.

Longtime owners John and Nancy Kennedy recently listed the property for $1.995 million with Tim Anders of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services.

The spacious patio behind the house also includes a 20-foot- by 40-foot in-ground swimming pool by Garter. The 10-acre parcel includes paved walking paths that lead into the wooded surroundings.

The 7-bedroom house with nearly 10,000 square feet of living space offers the height of executive convenience.

Built in 1983, the Kennedys have kept the property up to date through the years, expanding the footprint and adding a one-bedroom wing with its own kitchen facilities and two-stall garage for relatives, guests or nanny.

The front door opens to a two-story foyer with a classic winding staircase and crystal chandelier. The entrance opens to a crystal chandeliered dining room with white picture-frame molding and one of six fireplaces found in the home.

A great room with quarter-sawn white oak flooring includes a kitchen with cherry cabinets, high-end appliances and a 38-inch-high island that overlooks an informal dining area and connects to a richly carpeted living room.

The main floor also includes a more formal parlor with a grand piano and wet bar that's big enough to entertain large gatherings.

On the second level, the master suite includes a bright sunroom with a cottage-style beaded panel ceiling and ceramic tile flooring and an outdoor sun deck.

The walk-in closets lead to a master bath and second floor laundry room designed to keep clothes on the same floor as the bedrooms.

Four other bedrooms on the second floor include two bedroom suites and one shared bathroom.

On the lower level, there's a family room with a billiards table and a pull-down screen for watching movies. The lower level includes a bedroom and home office area.

This is one in a series of articles we have published about High-End Homes in West Michigan. Here are similar articles we have published recently:

* Lake Michigan sunsets are focus of this $1M-plus Parade of Homes cottage
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The sole suspect in the triple homicide at a UPS facility in San Francisco last week, 38-year-old Jimmy Lam, remains a bit of a mystery to investigators, and at a press conference Friday afternoon the SFPD said they still do not have a motive in the shooting. But they did release a photo of Lam, who shot himself at the scene just as police were arriving  and apparently they have body camera image of that terrible moment as well, though that has not been released.

As the Examiner reports, Lam was carrying two stolen guns with him last Thursday morning at the Potrero Hill warehouse, a MAC-10 with an illegal 30-round clip, which he used in the killing, and the automatic pistol he used to kill himself. One gun was stolen in Napa, and the other in Utah, and it's unclear how Lam obtained them.

Per the Associated Press, Commander Greg McEachern said that while they have not established Lam's exact motive, "the shooting appeared purposeful and targeted." As we learned earlier, Lam arrived at a regular 9 a.m. meeting of drivers and specifically targeted three drivers, chasing one, Mike Lefiti, out into a parking lot. All three victims, including Wayne Chan, 56, and Benson Louie, 50, had worked alongside Lam for many years, and so far no coworkers have suggested that Lam had a specific reason to have animus against them.

Police continue to review a journal retrieved from Lam's Richmond District apartment, as well as his computer.

We learned last week that Lam had been arrested in both 2010 and 2013 on DUI charges, but that was the extent of his criminal history as far as we know.

Related: UPS Shooting Suspect Described As 'Loner'; All Three Victims Identified
San Francisco-based filmmaker Leo Herrera has been at work over the last year on a film that explores a vision of a contemporary world in which AIDS never happened, a 59-year-old Keith Haring was still graffiti-ing penises over subway station posters, and a 68-year-old Robert Mapplethorpe had an active Instagram account. It's called Fathers, and Herrera refers to it as a "sci-fi documentary" that combines fiction with real footage of contemporary LGBTQ culture, including the first LGBTQ krewe Mardi Gras in New Orleans and San Francisco Pride, which he'll be shooting this weekend.

"I describe it as Cruising meets Black Mirror, meets Beyonce's Lemonade," says Herrera, a Mexican visual artist, activist, and filmmaker who has called both San Francisco and New York home over the last decade. He's known for queer viral films like 2015's "3 Eras of Gay Sex in 3 Minutes," tackling issues of queer politics, sex, HIV stigma, and history.

In Fathers, Herrera creates cultural artifacts from this imagined present in which the fears around sex that grew out of the AIDS crisis never existed  for instance, he's created faux TV commercials for famous bathhouses, and he's spent time documenting the leather community, which arguably could have become a much larger element of queer culture were it not for AIDS deaths.

"The tools we have to combat HIV [today] will give us the privilege of keeping our queer artists," Herrera says. "But the injustices of AIDS should always live in our collective memory and, more importantly, in our imagination. Its the only way that we can find creative cures to the damage it caused to our culture and harness the power it gave our community to join against political forces that threatened our lives, now more than ever."

The entire film is being funded by individual donations and art patrons, and you can donate to the project here. Donations come with various rewards that include artwork like the imagined portraits of an aged Haring or Sylvester like those below.

SFist talked to Herrera further about the origins of the project

SFist: How did the initial inspiration form for what youre calling a sci-fi documentary?

Leo Herrera: The inspiration came from wanting to have an answer to what could have been had AIDS not destroyed so much of our culture, but also incorporate all of the incredible things that are happening today in queer culture. A mix a real life events and fantasy to create a vision of queer utopia.

How do you see this as differing from a typical documentary  will you still include talking-head type interviews or archival footage?

We are interviewing queer elders, doing research at the GLBT Historical Society in SF, the Leather Archives in Chicago, recording real-life events such a Mardi Gras in New Orleans and SF Pride (whom we are working closely with), as well as incorporating historical footage, so it is very much created in the format of a documentary, but we are also creating fictional characters, fake commercials, and staged political events. The end-product will be somewhat of a fever dream.

Beyond the what-ifs like what would Robert Mapplethorpe's social media presence have been like, where else are you taking this fantasy visually and narratively?

We are imagining the election of a gay president and what he could have achieved, we are also focusing on the sex-positive communities that were at the forefront of gay culture, such as the leather and Radical Faerie community, and imagine what American sexuality would have looked like now.

For example, we have commercials for bathhouses that closed during the AIDS crisis, and for senior citizen resorts for what would have been a huge GLBT Senior community.

Among those what-ifs, and all the notable names you touch on in the teaser, whats your most compelling example of someone you wish was still alive in our world, providing an example for a younger generation?

I touch upon many famous people in the project, but it's also folks forgotten by history that intrigue me the most. In my research at the GLBT Historical Museum, I've come across men like Duke Armstrong, who was a queer politician in the 1980's or Marty Blecman, who was 1978's Billboard DJ of the year for SF and helped define the disco era. Of course, there are all of the countless QPOC (queer people of color) and trans family that could have grown to be powerful activists. These are the stories that were buried the deepest, but just by telling them, I think they will already will inspire a younger generation.

Below, an earlier trailer for the project. Learn more about the Fathers project here.
San Francisco's 14th Annual Trans March will take place today with Dolores Park events beginning at 3 p.m. and the actual march commencing at 6 p.m. Obviously, as with any major event in San Francisco where people will be walking down major thoroughfares, members of the San Francisco Police Department will be providing security.

NBC Bay Area reports that a since-removed guideline posted by organizers of this year's Trans March advised participants:

"...law enforcement is generally hostile towards trans people, particularly those who are black and brown. From harassment and abuse to violence and outright murder, law enforcement has not been a friend to our communities and many of our allies. Do not talk to them. Do not take selfies with them. Do not high-five them. Do not thank them."

Following backlash, organizers have amended the march's guidelines and deleted any mention of instructions on how to interact (or not) with members of law enforcement.

"For the officers who volunteer at the Trans March because they are LGBTQ, because they want to support their own community, it means the world to them," said San Francisco Police Department chaplain and transgender pastor Meghan Rohrer, speaking to NBC Bay Area.

In fact, the Trans March's own Flickr page features a gallery of past marches and includes photos of participants smiling and posing with members of the SFPD, including at least one trans officer.

The Trans March's guidelines page allows for users to comment and it appears a number of people left reactions to the "no high-fiving cops" rule. Some are in support of the guideline, other's disagree.

Coy A. Meza writes, "when you say not to be friendly to cops. I for one have had many Transgender friends in the police force including Miss T. Sparks (Theresa Sparks) who openly served at the head of the police commission. I find your wording a bit of a hate speech against one's own. I agree with the rest of your guidelines, Just not the one enforcing the divisions in our community, I am sure its ok to say hi or thank someone for at that time keeping cars from running you over."

On the other side of the issue: "If the police want to be respected, they need to show that they deserve it first. Respect for the community they claim to serve is worthless if it's held dependent on praise. By all means, civility is a reasonable policy, but no, saying bad things about violent institutions like policing in the United States is not 'hate speech,'" wrote user tin.

The march's board of directors were too swamped with preparations for today's event to respond to media requests for a quote. At last year's march, several politicians including Mayor Ed Lee and then-Senator Mark Leno were booed from the stage as they tried to address the crowd.

"I'm tired of people using our community as a prop. A political prop. I'm tired of politicians coming here for five minutes and doing a sound bite and running off. But do they really care about us? Wiener is against homelessness. A lot of trans are suffering from being homeless," explained journalist and marcher Ashley Love, at last year's Trans March.

As for this year's Pride celebrations, Rohrer is hoping the community can come together.

"We need all the colors of the rainbow at our Pride celebrations, even the blue," said Rohrer.

Thanks @sfpd for all you will do to keep #pride2017 safe this year. You can't have a rainbow without the blue!  Rev. Megan Rohrer (@mmrohrer) June 23, 2017

For some historical context as to why some members of the trans community might not be big fans of the SFPD, here's a Bay Area Reporter article on the anniversary of the 1966 Compton Cafeteria Riot, when trans women and gay men fought back against police harassment and brutality towards their communities. The riot is believed to be "the first known instance of collective militant queer resistance to police harassment in U.S. history."

Here's some info we put together about a documentary about the Compton's Cafeteria Riot, called Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria.

Obviously, this is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the tense and sometimes violent history between members of the LGBTQ community and members of law enforcement. For its part, the SFPD is currently home to several gay, lesbian, and trans officers, an official LGBTQQI Resource Guide, and it runs an LGBT Community Advisory Forum.

Meanwhile, this week's historic SF Weekly cover story focuses on San Francisco's long trans history and the city's sanctioning of a part of the Tenderloin as the nation's first official transgender neighborhood in the United States. That area is now officially called Compton's TLGB District.

Security in general has been ramped up for this weekend's Pride festivities. The SFPD have issued bag size restrictions and inspections, as well as a statement that read, "There will be a significant police presence during Pride activities, with both uniformed and plainclothes officers on duty to monitor public events."

Related: Video: Politicians Booed As Trans March (Un)Officially Kicks Off SF's Pride Weekend
God has a heart for refugees and immigrants, and people of faith ought to follow that example. Any who doubt that need only to look in the Bible to see how much God values those people, a trio of pastors said Thursday.

Joseph ended up in Egypt as a slave in the Old Testament, said the Rev. Mike Mulberry, pastor at First Congregational Church in Billings. A famine drove Naomi and her family to Moab.

And in the New Testament, Joseph and Mary, with Jesus, fled to Egypt to avoid persecution. On top of that, multiple verses exhort believers to care for the foreigners in their midst.

Mulberry points to one in particular: Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.

What do you do with a verse like that? he said in an interview with the Revs. Stacey Siebrasse, pastor of First English Lutheran Church, and the Rev. Becky Taylor, pastor of Seekers Harbor Faith Community. Its repeated over and over in the Bible. Its one of the basic themes of Passover, its at the heart of it.

The three faith leaders have joined 28 others to create Sanctuary Rising, a group representing people of different faiths who want to start a constructive dialogue about the policies and practices related to immigrants and refugees.

The group is sponsoring a forum on Tuesday at 2905 Montana Ave. from 5:30-7 p.m. Its titled A Bridge to Dream On: A Faith Forum on the Future of Immigration.

Taylor quoted a statistic by the International Rescue Committee, a global relief organization, that every 60 seconds, 20 people are displaced from their homes. The situation can feel overwhelming, she said, regarding policies or where even to start.

But there are things we can do now going forward about loving our neighbor, Taylor said. The Bible is full of stories about reaching out to the little, the lost, the last, the least and the lonely.

Mulberry knows firsthand the difficult plight of immigrants. He was a pastor in Postville, Iowa, in 2008 during the largest roundup of immigrant workers, when 400 people were arrested at a plant for having false identity papers.

You had mothers and children screaming and crying with no idea where their husbands or dads were, he said. We detain people in jails far away. Whats the purpose? Whats the point? I think its punitive to dehumanize whole populations of people.

Siebrasse also feels for people seeking to enter the United States and being denied the opportunity.

Ive traveled to other countries and been received so warmly with such hopes, she said. I want to live in a country where we can do the same.

The Montana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America attempted to bring in clergy from South Africa and Bolivia for visits. But the South Africans visa was denied, and the same is likely for the pastor from Bolivia.

It breaks my heart that we cannot show people this beautiful country, that we cannot offer the same hospitality were offered when we travel abroad, Siebrasse said. I take great issue with that.

Issues surrounding refugees and immigrants are complex, Taylor acknowledged. But she also sees fear clouding the thinking of people of faith.

For instance, many dont understand the extensive vetting process those from other countries must undergo to enter the United States. Many fear that people with bad intentions can easily slip into the country.

The way you counter that is through love and education, she said.

Something else people need to understand, Mulberry said, is that sometimes the policies of the United States are directly responsible for the immigrant crisis the country is dealing with. For instance, a country like Mexico that has a lot of poor subsistence farmers is affected when the North American Free Trade Agreement allows the U.S. to dump cheap produce in their country.

Subsistence farmers have no chance in the local markets, he said. Those farmers have to either die with their families in their own country or decide theyre going to try something else.

Mulberry said his church has declared itself a sanctuary for immigrants who need a safe haven. Sanctuary Rising is also developing a relationship with Soft Landing in Missoula, a refugee resettlement program, about what it might mean to have refugees in Billings.

The group is also reaching out to law enforcement officials in Billings. And its talking with faith communities to see how they can work together to help some of the most vulnerable population.

Mulberry points to those in Germany who hid the Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust.

They said we did what we were supposed to do. he said. They could do nothing else.
Vietnam objects to any unilateral embargoes that a country imposes on another country, she said on June 23.Hang added Vietnam wants Cuba and the US to resolve disagreements through negotiation and dialogue in the spirit of respecting each others independence and sovereignty and looking towards the full normalisation of bilateral relations, for the legitimate interests of the two countries people, thereby actively contributing to the maintenance of peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.Vietnam calls on the US to lift its embargo against Cuba which has been enforced for more than five decades, the spokesperson noted.

VNS
Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Tran Dai Quang sent congratulatory letters to Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc sent a letter of congratulations to his Cambodian counterpart Samdech Techo Hun Sen. Meanwhile, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan extended congratulations to Senate President Samdech Say Chhum and National Assembly President Samdech Heng Samrin of Cambodia.



The Vietnamese leaders expressed their delight at the continually sound development of Vietnam-Cambodia relations over the past five decades. They affirmed that despite difficulties and challenges, the people of the two nations have always been united together, stood side by side and given each other disinterested and pure support and assistance during their struggles for national liberation in the past as well as the process of national construction and development at present.



This is an invaluable and sacred asset of the two nations that needs to be further maintained and consolidated, they said, expressing their belief that the good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation and long-term sustainability between Vietnam and Cambodia will continue to be solidified and developed for the sake of their people, as well as for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.



Meanwhile, King Norodom Sihamoni also extended letters of congratulations to Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Tran Dai Quang. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen sent a congratulatory letter to his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Senate President Samdech Say Chhum and National Assembly President Samdech Heng Samrin sent congratulatory letters to National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.



The Cambodia leaders underlined the centuries-old relationship between the two countries, noting that the Cambodian and Vietnamese have together experienced numerous difficulties and hardships. The strong historical relations, basing on friendship and mutual respect, have created a solid foundation for the current close bilateral cooperation under the motto good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation, and long-term sustainability.



In their letters, the Cambodian leaders expressed their admiration for the great achievements that the Vietnamese people have obtained under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam.



They wished the Vietnamese people will successfully accomplish the industrialisation and modernisation process and affirmed that Cambodia will forever keep in mind the Vietnamese peoples assistance and sacrifice in the liberation of the Cambodian people from the genocidal disaster.



On this occasion, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Cambodias Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn also exchanged congratulatory letters.

Vietnamplus
Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, is well-known for being a loud and boisterous speaker at rallies.

Some of his remarks at President Donald Trumps rally in Cedar Rapids this past week were heard across the country.

Before Trump hit the stage, Kaufmann lambasted so-called Never Trumpers, Republicans who pledged during the 2016 presidential campaign that they would not support Trump as the GOPs candidate.

Kaufmann in particular singled out Ben Sasse, a Republican U.S. senator from Nebraska who was critical of and campaigned against Trump during the lead-up to Iowas first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses in February of 2016.

Weve got Never Trumpers out there. You know what? Im getting just a little tired of that, too, Kaufmann said. We had Sen. Ben Sasse from Nebraska. He crosses the Missouri River and in that sanctimonious tone talks about what he doesnt like about Donald Trump. You know what, Sen. Sasse? I really dont care what you like. We love Donald Trump. And if you dont love him, I suggest you stay on your side of the Missouri River.

Kaufmanns remarks spread like wildfire the next day on social media and in news coverage. Stories detailing his comments about Sasse appeared online in Politico, multiple media outlets in Nebraska, and The Hill. The story also was reported on conservative news sites, such as Breitbart and Newsmax.

The state GOP leader doubled down on his remarks in an interview with Politico, saying he thinks Sasse before the caucuses was treating Trump supporters with condescension.

Hes an arrogant academic, Kaufmann said of Sasse in an interview with Politico. Sasse is a former college president. (Kaufmann is a college history professor.) Hes sanctimonious. His statements are geared toward what can help him. Hes arrogant. And hes not a team player, when in reality the only reason hes got any clout at all in the Senate is because the Republican Party has the majority.

Sasse has not responded to Kaufmanns remarks.

Sasse is, however, scheduled to cross the Missouri River and appear in Iowa on July 7 as the keynote speaker at the Story County GOPs annual fundraising dinner.

In Iowa, unwavering support for Trump

Perhaps Kaufmann felt free to lay into Sasse because he knows Iowans who voted for Trump have not wavered in their support of the president.

That has been evident at Republican rallies --- this reporter found nothing but Trump loyalty at U.S. Sen. Joni Ernsts Roast and Ride fundraiser, which featured Vice President Mike Pence.

And it was evident in new polling published this week.

In a sampling of Iowa voters in four rural counties --- Cass, Clay, Hardin and Page --- the individuals polled who said Trump is doing an excellent job rose from 25 percent in April to 27 percent in June.

Trump is losing support among voters in swing districts in other areas polled, but not in Iowa, the poll results showed.

The poll was conducted by Brown University, in Rhode Island, and the Iowa-based, bipartisan polling firm RABA Research. It also surveyed Trump voters in working class suburbs in Rhode Island, rural areas in the Carolinas, upper middle class suburbs in Pennsylvania, and wealth suburbs in Colorado.

Results underscore that President Trump is losing support in locales that switched into the Republican column in the November 2016 election. But hes gaining support in places that traditionally vote Republican, said a press release that accompanied the poll results.

As examples, the press release noted in the working class suburbs in Rhode Island, those saying Trump is doing an excellent job fell from 30 percent in April to 23 percent in June, but that those percentages increased from April to June in what the poll called a rural, Midwestern sample of Iowa.
SOUTH SIOUX CITY | South Sioux City leaders expect a proposed five-megawatt natural gas generation plant to be up and running as early as the end of 2018.

If the project advances, it would be the latest of several recent moves by the city to continue to diversify its energy portfolio and to keep residential and industrial electrical rates low.

The South Sioux City Council will vote Monday on two items related to the project: an agreement for soil testing at a proposed site in the city's Roth Industrial Park and an advertisement for bids on the proposed $5 million natural gas plant.

"This is just another area we're looking at to diversify our portfolio," Mayor Rod Koch said Friday. "Were trying to keep our electric rates down, and we're looking at ways to cut costs for our citizens and our industries."

The city plans to place the single-story, 50-by-80-foot structure in the Roth Industrial Park north of Beef Products Inc. Once completed, the facility would use natural gas purchased from the MidAmerican Energy or Northern Natural Gas pipelines to generate electricity, City Administrator Lance Hedquist said.

The facility will include up to three generators and give the city the option to expand it in the future by 2 1/2-megawatt increments.

"That's really primarily dependent on our industrial growth," Hedquist said.

The facility would not have any connection with Big Ox Energy, a natural gas-producing renewable energy facility also located in the Roth park, Hedquist said.

The soil testing on Monday's agenda will ensure the proposed site has proper weight-bearing soil. The city is working with JEO Consulting Group Inc. to plan the plant.

In recent years, South Sioux City's municipal electric utility has taken several steps to diversify its portfolio, adopt more renewable forms of energy and lessen its dependence on the Nebraska Public Power District, or NPPD, the state's largest electrical utility.

With the addition of clean-burning natural gas, counting the city's current and proposed energy sources takes more than one hands' worth of fingers.

The city in May approved an agreement with Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources LLC that could bring 15 megawatts -- the equivalent of 33 percent of the city's power needs -- via the Cottonwood Wind Farm, a project currently under construction in Webster County.

The city also has welcomed projects that bring solar and wood waste-based electricity energy to supplement its needs. Additionally, the city purchases 5 percent of its power through hydroelectric sources.

"One of our goals has been to be the greenest city in the state of Nebraska," Koch said. "We take that seriously."

Hedquist has said the city plans to fully phase out of its wholesale power contract with NPPD by 2020.
Sierra Gross was pretty sure after four years of medical school and three years as a resident physician that she wanted to practice medicine in a big city, pursuing a fellowship at a large hospital with a research arm.

Instead, after finishing her three-year residency at Billings Clinic this month, she chose to move down to Sheridan, Wyoming, and practice family medicine at Bighorn Mountain Medicine.

"(It was) the patients," she said. "They were so appreciative. You just felt like you were making a difference."

Gross, along with seven other physicians, graduated Friday from Billings Clinic's first internal medicine residency program. The eight doctors, right out of medical school, came to Billings three years ago to pilot the new program, which was designed to place high-quality doctors in rural communities in the mountain West and Midwest.

Attracting quality medical professionals to some of the more remote parts of the country and retaining them has long been a struggle, said Wayne Booze, program officer with the Helmsley Charitable Trust, who helped launch the residency program at Billings Clinic.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust is based in South Dakota, and its focus is on creating and supporting programs that build a strong professional medical workforce in the seven states of the upper Midwest, including Montana.

When Billings Clinic made its pitch to the Helmsley Charitable Trust nearly five years ago, it laid out its plan to bring in and train up residents in rural health care.

"That matched really well with our mission," Booze said.

And so the two organizations began working together to create the program.

The trust donated nearly $6 million to Billings Clinic in three grants that allowed the hospital to create a medical education center and offer direct support to a residency program. It also gave the hospital seed money it could use to attract other donations.

Perhaps most importantly, it paid for the residents to do a monthlong rotation at the medical centers in Lewistown and Sheridan.

That's what ultimately inspired Gross to change her career plans.

"After my experience in the two locations I knew that's what I was going to do," she said.

A residency program at Billings Clinic was always a long shot, said Bob Ficalora, a doctor and director of the internal medicine residency program. Most experts said it would be too difficult to attract the money and the talent the hospital would need to pull it off.

"We couldn't have ever expected to attract high-quality residents," he said. "But we did. We did it four times."

The Billings Clinic residents have distinguished themselves, been published in medical journals and presented at regional and national conferences, he said.

"I'm incredibly proud," he said.

Every year since 2014, when Billings Clinic brought in its inaugural batch of residents, the hospital has welcomed in a group of new resident physicians. At the graduation ceremony for Gross' group on Friday, Billings Clinic recognized 12 new doctors  its fourth group  who will begin their residency this month.

Booze said he and the others involved with the program didn't know quite what to expect with this first group of residents. They weren't sure how many would choose to go on and practice medicine in a rural setting.

So Gross changing her mind and electing to go to Sheridan was unexpected and rewarding for the program directors, he said.

"That's a huge win," Booze said.

In the end, six of the eight residents will go on to practice in rural hospitals or in medical centers that serve a rural population, including Gross in Sheridan and two others who decided to stay with Billings Clinic.

Gross called the last three years of her life a roller coaster. She acknowledged it was challenging at times to be part of the first group going through a new program. But overall it was a great experience and she's excited to be graduated.

"I couldn't have imagined it being this good," she said.
WASHINGTON -- What we learned from Tuesday's special congressional election in Georgia is that there is no magical solution to the country's Trump problem. This will be a long fight.

Karen Handel's victory over Democrat Jon Ossoff was not an endorsement of the president. It was a personal and party success achieved despite him.

Democrats are, well, blue because a loss is a loss. You can measure their disappointment by imagining the triumphalism we'd be hearing had Ossoff prevailed. But nothing that happened should make Republicans feel secure about their hold on the House of Representatives. Nationalizing the swings against them in the special elections held for GOP seats this year would likely deprive them of control in 2018.

The key for Handel was the time she had between April's first round of voting (which Ossoff led in an open primary with 48.1 percent, just short of the majority he needed to settle matters then) and the second (in which Ossoff's vote almost precisely matched his earlier share).

"Ossoff's problem is that he didn't win the first round," Brian Fallon, senior adviser to Priorities USA, a Democratic super PAC, said in an interview. "The longer this race was in the national spotlight, the more money it drew from the Republicans, and the more they were able to consolidate their base."

And while Democrats were mourning in Georgia Tuesday night, they almost stole a House seat in South Carolina where Archie Parnell came within about 2,800 votes and 3 percentage points of defeating Republican Ralph Norman.

In races without the national focus and Fort Knox-level spending, energized anti-Trump voters appeared to turn out at far higher rates than dispirited Republicans. Thus did Democrats sharply cut the Republicans' 2016 margins in Kansas and Montana districts earlier this year. The moral for GOP strategists: They face real threats in less hospitable territory. This also suggests that Democrats should broaden their aspirations beyond suburban areas seen as especially hostile to President Trump.

Whit Ayres, a Republican consultant and Handel strategist, underscored her success in turning the contest into a normal partisan choice. "The voters decided that Karen Handel was a better representative of their values, their interests and their perspective than Jon Ossoff," he told me. "Karen Handel ran a relentlessly localized campaign that focused on that perspective."

Notice those words: "relentlessly localized." To pull this off Handel had to keep her distance from Trump. Ayres put the matter diplomatically: "The president structured the broader environment but didn't determine the outcome of this particular race." Exactly.

Yet if Trump was unpopular in the district, his approval rating, Fallon said, was "6 or 7 points higher" there than his standing nationwide. Trump was thus disliked enough to give Ossoff a chance, but not so unpopular that "a screechingly anti-Trump campaign," as Fallon put it, would have gone over well.

However, Fallon did see a lost opportunity. Ossoff, he said, could have run much more forcefully against the House Republican health care bill, particularly its unpopular provisions that would undercut protections for those with pre-existing conditions. Paradoxically, if Georgia's result encourages the Senate to join in passing a deeply flawed Obamacare repeal bill, it could hurt the GOP in the long run.

Handel also turned Ossoff's residency about two miles outside the district into a cultural argument that his heart was actually 2,100 miles away, in San Francisco. "He's just not one of us," her ads said, and this message was reinforced by tying him to House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi -- and perhaps inadvertently by Ossoff's own promise to "grow metro Atlanta's economy into the Silicon Valley of the South." Pelosi's enduring role as a Republican punching bag revived debate over whether her leadership is an electoral drag on the party, or if she is simply a convenient (female) symbol for attacks on liberalism that the GOP would level with or without her.

Everybody uses special elections to ratify whatever they thought before a single vote was counted. Do Democrats need a compelling economic message? Yes. Would the existence of such a message have won Ossoff this race? Probably not. Did Georgia make Republicans feel better and Democrats worse? Sure. Does this mean that Trump and the GOP are out of the woods? Not in the least.

Trump's foes hoped that a district in Georgia would strike a decisive blow against him. But miracles rarely happen in politics, and suburban Atlanta Republicans were loyal enough to their party to decide that it wasn't their job to deliver one.
CHICAGO -- When "The Bell Curve" by Charles A. Murray and Richard Herrnstein was published in 1994, I was a junior in college and didn't know anything about the book except that it had my white literature professors in an uproar. A few of them inveighed against the book's premise -- the very notion of intelligence as something people possess in varying degrees -- and then the whole controversy eventually died out.

It returned last March when Murray was chased away by angry students from Middlebury College in Vermont on the grounds that his speech, centering on his magnificent 2012 book "Coming Apart," about the fracturing of American society along education and income lines, was illegitimate because his earlier work on intelligence "proved" that Murray is a white supremacist.

My kneejerk reaction was to buy "The Bell Curve" and read it -- an act I'm confident few of the book's vociferous detractors have done, as it is extremely long and dense.

"The Bell Curve" triggered such an uproar at Middlebury that not only was Murray shouted down, but a female professor who was to interview him onstage sustained a concussion from the violent actions of the students (over five-dozen of whom were disciplined by the college).

But even a waiting-at-the-doctor's-office reading of "The Bell Curve" bears it out as a fair accounting of dissenting opinions on the history, processes for measuring and analysis of data about human intelligence and its correlation to human genes.

Political contexts are laid out for novices to the field of intelligence research, and there are extensive discussions about systemic injustices based on race and the challenges that the financially disadvantaged face. Concerns over whether the instruments used in assessing intelligence are tainted by cultural bias are investigated in compelling detail across a variety of well-known standardized tests like the SAT.

"The technical literature is again clear. In study after study of the leading tests, the hypothesis that the [black/white] difference is caused by questions with cultural content has been contradicted by the facts," reads one section. "Items that the average white test taker finds easy relative to other items, the average black test taker does too; the same is true for items that the average white and black find difficult."

It's a shame that the controversy regarding "The Bell Curve" centered on the book's delineation of the differences in measured intelligence between blacks and whites. But an assertion that the authors were peddling white supremacy is derailed by their detailing that -- at the time of the book's publication, and still widely accepted -- Asians (who are currently the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the U.S, according to the Pew Research Center) had higher IQs than whites.

The authors also noted that all the literature at the time pointed to Jews testing higher in intelligence than any other ethnic group.

But questions of racism grabbed all the headlines.

Less well-known is that Murray and Herrnstein's predictions about selective self-sorting based on educational attainment and income -- and how it has accelerated and magnified economic inequality -- have been proved undeniably true.

And that the authors repeatedly note that intelligence is neither the determinant of a fulfilling life nor an accurate measure of whether someone will contribute to society: "Inequality of endowments, including intelligence, is a reality. ... [We must understand that] the success of each human life is not measured externally but internally; that of all the rewards we can confer on each other, the most precious is a place as a valued fellow citizen."

There are opposing views and contrary interpretations of many of the data points and conclusions found in "The Bell Curve" -- not to mention that there is now a wide body of research on how malleable and improvable the mind is.

The authors contend: "This thing we know as IQ is important but not a synonym for human excellence," yet we encourage an economy that increasingly devalues physical labor and repetitive work and financially rewards those with advanced college degrees.

Ultimately, debates about whether the authors invite pre-judgment of people's innate abilities based on race are undeniably necessary. As are dialogues about how much importance society should even place on intelligence.

But any informed discussion about this book's merits and deficiencies can't happen without understanding its contents. Disagree with "The Bell Curve" -- hate it, even -- or decide its authors were biased. But do so after actually reading it.
Local media celebrity Erin Montgomery hauled down reigning champion Dave Landry in deep stretch to win Grand River Raceway's fourth annual Media Race on Friday night (June 23).

Each media personality was paired with a professional driver in a two-person jog cart for the half-mile exhibition contest prior to the evening's ninth race.

Montgomery, Morning Show Host of The Grand 101 FM, drove trotter Callie Magoo with pro reinsman Alfie Caroll to the victory after sweeping wide in the final turn and passing the reigning champions. The winning time for the half-mile dash was 1:04.

Award-winning equine photographer Landry and co-driver Bob McClure aboard Killean Sweep had led throughout the race with Kate Marentette, Community Cruiser Reporter of The Grand 101 FM, and Scott Young challenging on the backstretch in rein to New Favorite. Dave Hannah, Morning Show Host of 1460 CJOY, was also part of the media race line-up but his mount was a late scratch.

"That felt incredible!" said Montgomery in the winner's circle. "But I'd like to thank my driver Alfie, of course, and horse 'Callie', of course."

In a post-race interview, Montgomery revealed the winning strategy on advice of her co-driver: "He told me to keep my mouth closed and hang on tight!"

On the betting card, Willyorwonthe ($6.60) was a wire-to-wire winner in the $7,500 Preferred 3 Trot featuring Billings Series amateur drivers.

In his 2017 driving debut, Sherwin Edwards steered Willyorwonthe to tally his eighth career win in the sulky. The four-year-old Angus Hall-Mikestory gelding carved out fractions of :28.1, :58.1 and 1:28 en route to the one and three-quarter length score in 1:58.4. Lexis D J and Shane Arsenault followed in the pocket to finish second while the parked out 3-2 favourite Hldontghttoyurdrms and Natasha Day finished six lengths back in third.

Willyorwonthe and driver Sherwin Edwards winning the $7,500 Preferred 3 Trot on June 23 at Grand River. (Iron Horse Photo)

For Willyorwonthe, the win was his sixth this year from 18 starts and 11th overall pushing his bankroll over $110,000 for owner, trainer and breeder Bill Megens.

Shane Arsenault was also a Billings Series winner in the following race for $6,500 claimers, driving 10-year-old pacing gelding Lulus Boy ($9.90) to a neck decision in 1:58.2. They held off Bet On Art and David Drew with Every Girls Desire and Ben Hollingsworth finishing two lengths back in third.

Arsenault notched his 128th career driving win, but first of the year.

Kyle Fellow trains Lulus Boy, a career earner of more than $235,000 who has won two of his last three starts, for owners Louie Sorella and Katie Gene Miller.

Earlier on the card, a group of freshmen made their career debuts in a $6,000 two-year-old pace, which ended in a photo finish between stablemates Mckinnon and Redwood Again for Amy and Anthony MacDonald's Thestable.ca.

McKinnon, who was driven by Anthony MacDonald, crossed to command from the outside post six and led the way through opening panels of :30 and 1:01.1 before being confronted by his favoured barn buddy Redwood Again, who advanced from fourth and edged ahead at three-quarters in 1:32.2 in rein to Ryan Holliday. The top pair fought down the lane, with McKinnon out-sprinting his stablemate in a :28.4 final quarter to prevail by a head at the wire in 2:01.2. Bob McIntosh trainees Bit Of Luck (Bob McClure) and On The Take (Alfie Carroll) finished third and fourth, respectively.

McKinnon (6) winning his career debut over stablemate Redwood Again (2) on June 23 at Grand River Raceway. (Iron Horse Photo)

McKinnon was the 9-2 third choice in the wagering and paid $11.60 to win.

The Mcardle-Platinum Choice colt was a $20,000 yearling purchase from the 2016 Ohio Select Sale by Thestable McKinnon Group.

To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Grand River Raceway.
Trekking poles are modern versions of staffs that date back to Moses for easing the way along difficult routes, catching your balance and prodding the occasional sheep along the way.

Although no longer used for parting the Red Sea, trekking poles that resemble cross-country ski poles are considered essential equipment by many hikers looking to make their walks more efficient and less stressful on ankle, knee and hip joints.

Ive also used them to probe brush ahead for rattlesnakes and to fend off aggressive dogs as well as one insanely food-habituated marmot in Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park.

Some ultralight backpacking tents are designed to save weight by incorporating trekking poles into their structure.

Critics point out that trekking poles are just another gear item to buy and pack around, and others question the cumulative impact countless carbide tip pokes will have in trails.

But using trekking poles helps a hiker power up a hill with aerobic engagement of the arms and upper body. Then they help reduce the body-jarring impacts of descents. Theyre a full-body deal.

Dr. Meredith Heick, a Spokane rheumatologist (also my wife) recommends Nordic walking sticks or heavier duty trekking poles to some of her arthritis patients regardless of age. Many orthopedists also recommend trekking poles, especially to ease stress on knees.

Heick also practices what she preaches by religiously using two trekking poles on all of her hikes as a hedge against becoming a patient herself.

For Christmas years ago I bought her a pair of three-section trekking poles that could be telescoped to user height, shortened for uphills, lengthened for downhills and collapsed to fit in the side of a pack when not needed or in airline baggage for hiking vacations abroad.

But the poles became hard to find when she wanted them because our daughters kept taking them for their hikes. Before the year was out, everyone in the family was happily outfitted with trekking poles.

Weve used them effectively crossing streams safely, pole-vaulting over puddles and checking the speed of snowfield glissades. Trekking poles have reduced the impact to my body from hundreds of trail miles covered in researching regional hiking trail guidebooks.

I sometimes use only one trekking pole to leave a hand free for walking a dog on leash or when photography is a priority.

However, using two poles is clearly better for upper body workout, reducing joint impacts and maintaining side-to-side balance.

When bushwhacking or scrambling in talus where handholds are necessary, its often best to collapse the poles and attach them to your pack.

The first question we ask customers is what they will be doing with them, said John Schwartz, whos been studying, selling and getting feedback on trekking poles for more than two decades as manager of Mountain Gear retail store in Spokane.

If theyre Nordic walking on concrete and asphalt theyll want poles with rubber tips for traction, he said. Hikers heading to forest trails will need carbide tips.

The biggest change since we first started selling trekking poles is the dramatic increase in whats offered, Schwartz said, noting that weight-wary hikers can find an assortment of ultralight poles, usually at the price of less durability and more cost.

Instead of fixed-length poles, Schwartz says most hikers prefer poles that can be adjusted for terrain.

Most people start with poles adjusted to form a 90-degree bend at the elbow with the tip planted by the foot.

From there you might shorten for long uphills or lengthen for extended downhills, he said. You might even adjust length for sidehills.

Avoid straight handles and opt for handles with ergonomic designs that are less fatiguing to the hand and wrist, he recommended.

Most of Schwartzs customers say cork handles are more comfortable to sweaty hands. Plastic handles dont absorb moisture and may be preferable in cool weather.

Most people arent aware that some poles have shock absorbers built in to the handles, Schwartz said. But once they try them, they quickly become fans.

Whether you chose poles made of aluminum, fiberglass, carbon fiber or titanium, Schwartz said customers should expect to pay about $80-$200 or more for good quality.

You can get trekking poles for $30, but dont be surprised if they break or fall apart. The quality just isnt there.

My good-quality poles have lasted many years. The paint graphics are mostly worn off, but even the old twisting expansion-nut length adjusters still work.

Thats old school, Schwartz said, noting that adjustable poles nowadays use flick locks that are easier to use and more reliable. No more need for the pliers to twist frozen expansion nuts free, he said.

Before trekking pole customers leave the store, Schwartz said Mountain Gear staff makes sure they know how to use them.

Cross-country skiers know how, but its not intuitive to everybody, he said. A lot of people try to use them as they would a crutch. You want to stride with them and swing your arms alternately as you would when walking normally.

With a little practice, trekking poles help orchestrate a hikers stride into a rhythm with additional points of balance to put away the miles more safely and efficiently.
The California Horse Racing Board conducted its regular meeting Thursday, June 22, at Santa Anita Park.

First Vice Chair George Krikorian presided. Second Vice Chair Madeline Auerbach and Commissioners Jesse Choper, Araceli Ruano and Alex Solis also were in attendance.

The audio of this entire Board meeting is available on the CHRB Website (www.chrb.ca.gov) under the Webcast link. In brief:

 The Board approved licenses for five Advance Deposit Wagering companies --

NYRAbets.com, Twinspires.com/Bet America, WatchandWager.com, XpressBet and TVG -- for 18 months. By the time those licenses are up for renewal at the end of 2018, the CHRB plans to have an amended license application in place requiring ADW companies to provide more extensive financial information specific to their California operations.

 The Board approved the license for the Los Alamitos Racing Association to conduct a daytime Thoroughbred race meet at Los Alamitos from July 5 through July 18 on condition that LARA submit all required documents to the CHRB by June 30.

 The Board approved the license for the Sonoma County Fair to operate a fair meet in Sonoma from August 2 through August 22.

 The Board approved the license for the Humboldt County Fair to operate a fair meet in Ferndale from August 23 through September 5.

 The Board approved the license for the Pacific Racing Association to operate a Thoroughbred meet at Golden Gate Fields from August 23 through September 19.

 The Board authorized Watchandwager.com to distribute $5,400 in race day charity proceeds to six beneficiaries.

 The Board approved the funding agreement for CHRB operations for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

(CHRB)
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz announced on Wednesday his decision to replace Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz with his own son, Mohammed bin Salman.



After the decision was announced, the Israeli air force sent 18 of its fighter jets, including F16I, F15CD and F16CD, along with two Gulfstream aircraft, two tanker airplanes and two C130 planes, special for electronic warfare, to Saudi Arabia at the demand of the new crown prince bin Salman to block his cousin (bin Nayef)'s possible measures.



According to a royal decree, Mohammed bin Salman, 31, was also named deputy prime minister, and shall maintain his post as defense minister, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Wednesday.



Saudi media announced that King Salman has called for a public pledge of allegiance to the new crown prince in the holy city of Mecca on Wednesday night.



The SPA also confirmed that 31 out of 34 members of Saudi Arabias succession committee chose Mohammed bin Salman as the crown prince.



Just days ago, the Saudi king stripped Nayef of his powers overseeing criminal investigations and designated a new public prosecution office to function directly under the kings authority.



In a similar move back in 2015, the Saudi king had appointed his nephew, then deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef as the heir to the throne after removing his own half-brother Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud from the position.



Under the new decree, King Salman further relieved Mohammed bin Nayef of his duties as the interior minister. He appointed Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef as the new interior minister and Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Salem as deputy interior minister.



Mohammed Bin Salman is already in charge of a vast portfolio as chief of the House of Saud royal court and chairman of the Council for Economic and Development Affairs, which is tasked with overhauling the countrys economy.



The young prince was little known both at home and abroad before Salman became king in January 2015.



However, King Salman has significantly increased the powers of Mohammed, with observers describing the prince as the real power behind his fathers throne.



The power struggle inside the House of Saud came to light earlier this year when the Saudi king began to overhaul the government and offered positions of influence to a number of family members.



In two royal decrees in April, the Saudi king named two of his other sons, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Prince Khaled bin Salman, as state minister for energy affairs and ambassador to the United States, respectively.



Late April, media source disclosed that Mohammad bin Salman has literally bribed the new US administration by paying $56m to Donald Trump.



According to reports, bin Salman is paying off the US to buy its support for finding a grip over the crown.



"Since Uncle Sam's satisfaction is the first step for the Saudi princes to get on the crown, paying off Washington seems to be a taken-for-granted fact," Rami Khalil, a reporter of Naba' news website affiliated to the Saudi dissidents wrote.



He added that since the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) is like a sword over the head of the al-Saud, they have no way out but to bribe the US, noting that the Yemen quagmire is also another reason for Riyadh to seek Washington's support.



Also, a prominent Yemeni analyst said earlier this month that the US has been paid several trillion dollars by Saudi Arabia to protect its crown, adding that Riyadh has recently bribed Washington's support for the Yemen war with $200bln.



"Washington has asked for more money to defend the Saudi regime and Riyadh has recently paid $200bln to the US for the costs of its support for the war in Yemen," Saleh al-Qarshi told FNA.



"This is apart from the huge amounts of money that Saudi Arabia pays to the US treasury for protecting its crown," he added.



According to al-Qarshi, former Saudi Intelligence Chief Turki al-Feisal revealed last year that his country has bought the low-profit US treasury bonds to help the US economy.



As the defense minister, Mohammed bin Salman has faced strong international criticism for the bloody military campaign he launched against neighboring Yemen in 2015 amid his rivalry with bin Nayef, the then powerful interior minister.



Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 14,000 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.



The World Health Organization (WHO) in Yemen also announced that more than a thousand Yemenis have died of cholera since April 2017 as Saudi Arabia's deadly campaign prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country, continues hitting residential areas across Yemen.



Despite Riyadh's claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.



According to several reports, the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen has drove the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster.



Nearly 3.3 million Yemeni people, including 2.1 million children, are currently suffering from acute malnutrition. The Al-Saud aggression has also taken a heavy toll on the countrys facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.



The WHO now classifies Yemen as one of the worst humanitarian emergencies in the world alongside Syria, South Sudan, Nigeria and Iraq.


tech2 News Staff

The console wars have always been about a philosophical outlook than actual hardware and games. Microsoft wants to combine the Windows and Xbox gaming experiences into one and put a PC in your living room, Sony is working on VR and, frankly, incredible exclusives and Nintendo, well, it needs no introduction.

Shawn Layden, the chairman of Sony Interactive Worldwide Studios spoke to German site Golem.de and revealed some more details about Sonys philosophy going forward.

In the interview, Layden spoke about the future of the PlayStation platform and addressed concerns about the platform adopting a smartphone-like upgrade cycle. Gamers were concerned that since the PlayStation 4 Pro was a mid-cycle refresh, Sony would start pushing out updated consoles on the same architecture every few years rather than a new console.

Layden told Golem.de that the PS4 Pro was meant to address issues of 4K gaming, HDR and VR. He clarified that there would never be a PS4 Pro exclusive game, but also didnt actually confirm or deny that more mid-cycle refreshes will happen. When asked, Layden did, however, confirm that a PlayStation 5 will indeed happen, but that it will take some time before we see one.

When asked about games, Layden had some interesting insights. Being a Japanese company, Sony does have a large user base and pool of developers in Japan. Speaking of his early days in the company  hes been there since 1987, Layden says that initially, western developers could simply not compete with Japanese developers in the market. Today, that gap has come down significantly.

He adds that publishing high quality titles is much easier now. Theres no fixed season for publishing them.

Overall, the interview revealed some rather interesting things about Sony and the PlayStation. However, there are still a lot more questions that need to be answered, and only time will tell how things will pan out.
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., will decide whether to support his partys health care bill after hearing from Montanans next week, the lawmaker said Friday.

The senator said he will spend the weekend reading the 142-page bill and then hear from Montanans at Wednesday's telephone town hall meeting. Daines expects 30,000 people to participate in Wednesdays call, based on the 28,000 people who participated in a call a couple of weeks ago.

What Montanans have told me they want to see, first and foremost, is a reduction in premiums, the affordability question, Daines said. Number two, taking care of those with pre-existing conditions, that they have access to care and affordable care. And number three, very important for Montana is, we are one of the Medicaid expansion states, is that we save Medicaid and protect Medicaid.

Concerns about Medicaid cuts topped criticisms Thursday when Senate Republican leaders published the Better Care Reconciliation Act. The bill, crafted behind closed doors by 13 key Republican lawmakers, didnt seem out of step with the House Republican American Health Care Act passed in May. The Congressional Budget Office had estimated 23 million people would lose health coverage under the House plan, mostly because of Medicaid cuts affecting the working poor.

The Montana Health Care Foundation put lost coverage in Montana at 70,000 or more people, basically by ending Medicaid coverage offered to working people earning 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or $16,400 a year. The Affordable Care Act, championed by Democratic congressional majorities and President Barack Obama in 2010, sought to cover working people who couldnt afford insurance. Medicaid had previously not been offered to the working poor and instead primarily protected children and people with disabilities.

Republicans have argued since ACAs conception that Medicaid needed to return to its original mission, which meant winding down federal Medicaid funding of coverage for the working poor. Daines said the Republican bill unveiled last week would continue through 2020 the current federal level of support for Medicaid expansion, at more than 90 percent of the cost.

After 2020, federal support for Medicaid would begin declining. The federal government would step down support starting with an 85 percent match in 2021 and ultimately lowering support to about 68 or 70 percent, the normal Medicaid reimbursement rate, after 2024. States would continue to offer Medicaid to the working poor, but would have to either spend more to offset the lower federal support level, or scale down their Medicaid programs to levels not seen since before the ACA. Republicans consider Medicaid unsustainable at its current size.

Medicaid is a very important safety net. The disabled, elderly pre-Medicare, pregnant moms, children. In fact, one of the highest percentage of Medicaid enrollees are children, Daines said. So, its very important for rural states, frankly its important for every state, and we want to make sure we got a Medicaid system that is sustainable and that weve allowed the state a greater voice in the way Medicaid is administered.
PTI

In a day of meetings, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha discussed policy issues with TRAI Chairman R S Sharma, even as the inter-ministerial group began brainstorming separately to look for remedies at the whopping Rs 4.6 lakh crore debt that is ailing telcos. Sinha and Sharma held discussions in the presence of new Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan and Telecom Commission Member (Finance), and Universal Services Obligation Fund Administrator.

According to sources, the high-level meeting was held to discuss regulatory and policy issues in the sector and expedite the Bharat Net project. A separate meeting was also held among the members of the inter-ministerial group (IMG) which has been constituted to look into the telecom industry's financial woes. The IMG, last week, held extensive dialogue with all telecom companies as well as large banks to discuss the industry's financial stress and look for measures that can be taken to address the situation.

The telecom industry is reeling under Rs 4.6 lakh crore debt and even large operators are complaining that competition, intensified by agressive newcomer Reliance Jio, has put a severe pressure on their revenues, profitability and other key financial metrics. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular as well as other telcos are making an aggressive pitch for reduction in levies and taxes, and are also seeking an extension in the deferred payment liability for spectrum. "The IMG members met today and dicussed the demands placed by the industry...their demands were reviewed and another meeting may be held in the coming week," a person familar with the matter told PTI.

On Thursday, the minister had assured industry bigwigs Sunil Mittal and Anil Ambani as well as other telecom players that "corrective steps" will be taken to ensure orderly growth of the beleaguered sector. After a two-hour meeting with telecom honchos yesterday, the Minister had said that the IMG will give its report "soon". Apart from Bharti Airtel Chairman Mittal and Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Ambani, Thursday's meeting was attended by Idea Cellular Managing Director Himanshu Kapania, Tata Sons Director Ishaat Hussain and Reliance Jio Infocomm Board Member Mahendra Nahata.

Jio has been ascribing the financial stress in the telecom sector to existing operators like Airtel and Idea running businesses on debt and investing heavily in unrelated sectors. Jio has alleged that the incumbent operators had been reluctant in infusing equity and hence the financial stress is their own creation. The incumbent operators have outrightly rejected these charges and, in turn, accused Jio of predatory pricing. They have also demanded that operators should be paid more for calls terminating on their networks. The large operators have also spoken in one voice on reduction of levies like licence fee, spectrum usage charges and GST. They sought an extension on deferred spectrum liabilities - meaning that the amount they bid for radiowaves should be payable over a longer period.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) too had met the telecom companies last week, where Idea Cellular suggested imposition of a minimum floor price for voice and data services.

(Disclaimer: Reliance Jio is owned by Reliance Industries, who also own Network18, the publisher of Firstpost and Tech2.)
hidden

Hoping to get an accurate count of anti-Muslim hate crimes in the United States, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on 23 June, 2017 launched a mobile app allowing victims to report bias incidents.

The group launched its Making Democracy Work for Everyone app a month after it reported a 44 percent surge in the number of hate crimes reported by U.S. Muslims last year. Concerned that the 260 hate crimes CAIR learnt of last year represent just a fraction of the actual total, the group intends the app to increase reporting.

"In a moment of trauma, you're not thinking that I need to go online and enter something, but your phone will always be in your hand," said Corey Saylor, who runs the group's anti-Islamophobia efforts.

The application allows a user to file a description of an alleged incident, which CAIR staff will then investigate. If the group concludes the incident was the result religious bias, it will include it in its reporting, and if it believes the incident was criminal, it will share the details with local police.

The app offers advice about what rights are protected by the U.S. Constitution and contains contact information for CAIR's national headquarters in Washington and chapters nationwide.

The group this year resumed tracking anti-Muslim incidents, following a surge in bias cases last year. While the group saw an increase in anti-Muslim incidents prior to Donald Trump's stunning rise in last year's presidential primaries and November election victory, it said the acceleration in bias incidents was due in part to Trump's focus on militant Islamist groups and anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Trump has said his policies do not reflect religious discrimination but rather efforts to improve national security, following a series of attacks.

It is not the first time a U.S. advocacy group has used an app to try to track bias incidents. The Sikh Coalition Organization launched a similar app in 2012 to report bias incidents in U.S. airports.

Reuters
IANS

The third flight for the NASA-funded CHESS mission to probe how the interstellar cloud is structured is scheduled to take place on June 27.

CHESS  short for the Colorado High-resolution Echelle Stellar Spectrograph  is a sounding rocket payload that will fly on a Black Brant IX suborbital sounding rocket, NASA said.

This would be the third flight for the CHESS payload in the past three years, and the mission's most detailed survey yet, the US space agency added.

Deep in space between distant stars, space is not empty. Instead, there drifts vast clouds of neutral atoms and molecules, as well as charged plasma particles called the interstellar medium  that may, over millions of years, evolve into new stars and even planets.

These floating interstellar reservoirs are the focus of the CHESS sounding rocket mission, which will check out the earliest stages of star formation.

CHESS measures light filtering through the interstellar medium to study the atoms and molecules within, which provides crucial information for understanding the lifecycle of stars.

"The interstellar medium pervades the galaxy," said Kevin France, the CHESS Principal Investigator at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

"When massive stars explode as supernovae, they expel this raw material. It's the insides of dead stars, turning into the next generation of stars and planets," France said.

CHESS would train its eye at Beta Scorpii  a hot, brightly shining star in the Scorpius constellation well-positioned for the instrument to probe the material between the star and our own solar system.

As light from Beta Scorpii streams toward Earth, atoms and molecules  including carbon, oxygen and hydrogen  block the light to varying degrees along the way.

Scientists know which wavelengths are blocked by what, so by looking at how much light reaches the space around Earth, they can assess all sorts of details about the space it travelled through to get there.

CHESS data provides observations such as which atoms and molecules are present in space, their temperatures and how fast they are moving.

The scientists also use CHESS data to evaluate how the interstellar cloud is structured, which can help them pinpoint where it stands in the process of star formation.

The flight of a sounding rocket is a short one. CHESS would fly for about 16 minutes total.

Just six-and-a-half of those minutes are spent making observations between 90 and 200 miles above the surface? Observations that can only be made in space, above the atmosphere, which the far-ultraviolet light that CHESS observes cannot penetrate.

After the flight, the payload parachutes to the ground, where it can be recovered for future flights.
hidden

Western technology companies, including Cisco, IBM and SAP, are acceding to demands by Moscow for access to closely guarded product security secrets, at a time when Russia has been accused of a growing number of cyber attacks on the West, a Reuters investigation has found.

Russian authorities are asking Western tech companies to allow them to review source code for security products such as firewalls, anti-virus applications and software containing encryption before permitting the products to be imported and sold in the country. The requests, which have increased since 2014, are ostensibly done to ensure foreign spy agencies have not hidden any "backdoors" that would allow them to burrow into Russian systems.

But those inspections also provide the Russians an opportunity to find vulnerabilities in the products' source code - instructions that control the basic operations of computer equipment - current and former U.S. officials and security experts said.

While a number of U.S. firms say they are playing ball to preserve their entree to Russia's huge tech market, at least one U.S. firm, Symantec , told Reuters it has stopped cooperating with the source code reviews over security concerns. That halt has not been previously reported.

Symantec said one of the labs inspecting its products was not independent enough from the Russian government. U.S. officials say they have warned firms about the risks of allowing the Russians to review their products' source code, because of fears it could be used in cyber attacks. But they say they have no legal authority to stop the practice unless the technology has restricted military applications or violates U.S. sanctions.

From their side, companies say they are under pressure to acquiesce to the demands from Russian regulators or risk being shut out of a lucrative market. The companies say they only allow Russia to review their source code in secure facilities that prevent code from being copied or altered.

The demands are being made by Russias Federal Security Service (FSB), which the U.S. government says took part in the cyber attacks on Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign and the 2014 hack of 500 million Yahoo email accounts. The FSB, which has denied involvement in both the election and Yahoo hacks, doubles as a regulator charged with approving the sale of sophisticated technology products in Russia.

The reviews are also conducted by the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEC), a Russian defence agency tasked with countering cyber espionage and protecting state secrets. Records published by FSTEC and reviewed by Reuters show that from 1996 to 2013, it conducted source code reviews as part of approvals for 13 technology products from Western companies. In the past three years alone it carried out 28 reviews.

A Kremlin spokesman referred all questions to the FSB. The FSB did not respond to requests for comment. FSTEC said in a statement that its reviews were in line with international practice. The U.S. State Department declined to comment.

Moscow's source code requests have mushroomed in scope since U.S.-Russia relations went into a tailspin following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, according to eight current and former U.S. officials, four company executives, three U.S. trade attorneys and Russian regulatory documents.

In addition to IBM, Cisco and Germany's SAP, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co and McAfee have also allowed Russia to conduct source code reviews of their products, according to people familiar with the companies' interactions with Moscow and Russian regulatory records.

Until now, little has been known about that regulatory review process outside of the industry. The FSTEC documents and interviews with those involved in the reviews provide a rare window into the tense push-and-pull between technology companies and governments in an era of mounting alarm about hacking.

Roszel Thomsen, an attorney who helps U.S. tech companies navigate Russia import laws, said the firms must balance the dangers of revealing source code to Russian security services against possible lost sales. "Some companies do refuse," he said. "Others look at the potential market and take the risk."

"We Have A Real Concern"

If tech firms do decline the FSB's source code requests, then approval for their products can be indefinitely delayed or denied outright, U.S. trade attorneys and U.S. officials said. The Russian information technology market is expected to be worth $18.4 billion this year, according to market researcher International Data Corporation (IDC).

Six current and former U.S. officials who have dealt with companies on the issue said they are suspicious about Russia's motives for the expanded reviews.

"Its something we have a real concern about," said a former senior Commerce Department official who had direct knowledge of the interaction between U.S. companies and Russian officials until he left office this year. "You have to ask yourself what it is they are trying to do, and clearly they are trying to look for information they can use to their advantage to exploit, and thats obviously a real problem."

However, none of the officials who spoke to Reuters could point to specific examples of hacks or cyber espionage that were made possible by the review process.

Source code requests are not unique to Russia. In the United States, tech companies allow the government to audit source code in limited instances as part of defence contracts and other sensitive government work. China sometimes also requires source code reviews as a condition to import commercial software, U.S. trade attorneys say.

Clean Rooms

The reviews often takes place in secure facilities known as "clean rooms." Several of the Russian companies that conduct the testing for Western tech companies on behalf of Russian regulators have current or previous links to the Russian military, according to their websites.

Echelon, a Moscow-based technology testing company, is one of several independent FSB-accredited testing centres that Western companies can hire to help obtain FSB approval for their products.

Echelon CEO Alexey Markov told Reuters his engineers review source code in special laboratories, controlled by the companies, where no software data can be altered or transferred. Markov said Echelon is a private and independent company but does have a business relationship with Russias military and law enforcement authorities.

Echelons website touts medals it was awarded in 2013 by Russias Ministry of Defense for "protection of state secrets." The companys website also sometimes refers to Markov as the "Head of Attestation Center of the Ministry of Defense."

In an email, Markov said that title is only intended to convey Echelons role as a certified outside tester of military technology testing. The medals were generic and insignificant, he said. But for Symantec, the lab "didn't meet our bar" for independence, said spokeswoman Kristen Batch.

In the case of Russia, we decided the protection of our customer base through the deployment of uncompromised security products was more important than pursuing an increase in market share in Russia, said Batch, who added that the company did not believe Russia had tried to hack into its products.

In 2016, the company decided it would no longer use third parties, including Echelon, that have ties to a foreign state or get most of their revenue from government-mandated security testing.

"It poses a risk to the integrity of our products that we are not willing to accept," she said. Without the source code approval, Symantec can no longer get approval to sell some of its business-oriented security products in Russia. "As a result, we do minimal business there," she said.

Markov declined to comment on Symantecs decision, citing a non-disclosure agreement with the company.

Trusted Labs

Over the past year, HP has used Echelon to allow FSTEC to review source code, according to the agency's records. A company spokesman declined to comment.

An IBM spokesman confirmed the company allows Russia to review its source code in secure, company-controlled facilities "where strict procedures are followed."

FSTEC certification records showed the Information Security Center, an independent testing company based outside Moscow, has reviewed IBMs source code on behalf of the agency. The company was founded more than 20 years ago under the auspices of an institute within Russias Ministry of Defense, according to its website. The company did not respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, McAfee said the Russia code reviews were conducted at "certified testing labs" at company-owned premises in the United States.

SAP allows Russia to review and test source code in a secure SAP facility in Germany, according to a person familiar with the process. In a company statement, SAP said the review process assures Russian customers their SAP software investments are safe and secure.

Cisco has recently allowed Russia to review source code, according to a person familiar with the matter. A Cisco spokeswoman declined to comment on the company's interactions with Russian authorities but said the firm does sometimes allow regulators to inspect small parts of its code in "trusted" independent labs and that the reviews do not compromise the security of its products.

Before allowing the reviews, Cisco scrutinizes the code to ensure they are not exposing vulnerabilities that could be used to hack the products, she said.

A White House official said the administration is generally opposed to broad source code requirements because they impede free trade, but whether or not to comply is "a private business decision."

Reuters
London council evacuates tower blocks as fire fallout widens

Camden council representatives talk as they help residents as they are evacuated from the Burnham residential tower block on the Chalcots Estate, in the borough of Camden, north London on Friday.

AP, London :

The scope of Britain's fire-safety crisis broadened Saturday after a local government agency evacuated four public housing towers due to concerns about fire doors and the insulation around gas pipes, expanding the focus beyond the external cladding blamed for the rapid spread of a deadly inferno in west London.

Camden Council said it decided to evacuate the buildings on the Chalcots Estate after fire inspectors told officials they couldn't guarantee the safety of residents. Inspectors uncovered problems with "gas insulation and door stops," which combined with the presence of flammable cladding meant the buildings were unsafe, council Leader Georgia Gould said in a tweet.

"The London Fire Brigade advised that there were a number of fire safety issues that we and the LFB were previously unaware of in the Chalcots buildings and recommended that residents should not remain in the buildings until these issues are resolved," Gould said in a statement early Saturday.

Residents trooped out of the buildings Friday night with suitcases and plastic bags stuffed with clothes as council workers in high-visibility security vests guided them to a local community center where some spent the night on inflatable beds. The council said residents would be out of their homes for three to four weeks while it completes fire-safety upgrades. Some complained of confusion as the council first announced the evacuation of one building, then expanded it to five and later reduced it to four. While some news reports said as many as 800 households were affected, the council didn't specify a number in its latest release. Peter Bertram, 94, who has lived at the complex for 46 years, said the evacuation came in a "rush."

"It was a shock really, it happened so quick," he said. "I'll just have to accept it now. It will be three or four weeks. I don't know what's going to happen, that's the trouble."

One building, Blashford Tower, was removed from the evacuation order because it is smaller than the other four blocks, the fire doors are different and the council has already cleared corridors to increase fire safety, according to the council, which serves a swath of central London from the British Museum to Hampstead Heath.

The evacuation comes as local authorities around Britain scramble to assess the safety of apartment buildings following the June 14 inferno that engulfed Grenfell Tower in west London, killing an estimated 79 people.


Bangladesh's export to China rises 23 pc

Economic Reporter :

The country's merchandise export to China registered a robust 23.65 per cent growth during the first 11 months of the current fiscal year (FY17).

The latest statistics, released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), showed that export to China stood at $881.67 million in July-May period of the current fiscal year.

The value was $713.18 million in the same period of the past fiscal year.

Export to China has been growing modestly in the last couple of years after registering a rapid growth in the recent years thanks to Chinese preferential treatment to the Bangladeshi products.

Total annual export to China stood at $808.14 million in FY16, registering a modest 2.17 per cent growth over the FY15 when export to the dragon economy stood at $791 million.
Eid : Ensure joy for all

M. Mizanur Rahman :

Our National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam thus sings the song on Eid-ul-Fitr:

"Oh! Great soul, pleasant Eid has come

after the end of Ramadan-fasting!

Now be resigned yourself

by Allah's gracious bidding;

Distribute your jewelry-treasury's sum

and building-asset's sum as Zakat

but in the name of Allah

by waking up the slumberous dead Muslims!

Today you'll say your prayer of Eid by heart at that Eidgah

and that warfield where Gazi Muslims became martyrs!

Today forget your friend and foe,

better embrace each other hand in hand

mingling the whole universe

with sweet love of Islam.

On the tray of your heart keep sweets of Tawheed.

It is hoped, Your invitation will be accepted by Rasulullah.

Eid-ul-Fitr has its universal appeal. It taught human being equality in all human status. But, as a matter of fact, human beings are yet to be mentally fit to have themselves understood that every person has come on earth having equal physical body along with other physiological criteria. That is what we are yet to learn in Islam. Our outward fashions bragging of artificial riches seem to have been meaningfully exposed just on the coffin. After the burial of the dead body one can expect nothing from the dead. Death the leveler can always give us the sense that we people are all equal. Hence instead of wasting money and materials in blood-feuding wars of attrition we should inculcate the spirit of love that is preached by Islam.

The teaching of Islam is paradoxically a matter of love for human and ideologically it asks us to be so good for each one's welfare without an iota of poisoning mind with arrogance and enmity. The last Prophet of Islam Hazrat Muhammad (Sm) never wield sword or any kind of arms of violence to preach this religion of peace. One must have to learn Islam in the truest sense of the term and refrain from doing anything irrelevant about this Faith where peace and tranquility should have been prevailed to maintain equality and fraternity for the betterment of mankind in general and for the very essence of the Faith itself. Hence whatever idea of good and beneficial to human beings is Islam, where there is no room for greed and avarice. Accumulation of undesirable wealth and riches is absolutely forbidden in Islam for the benefit of all mankind.

Any kind of inordinate behaviour or cruelty to human beings is said to be causing directly hurt to the Creator of the universe.

Man cannot live alone. He is to take the help of another person. Similarly the woman is the sacred body to assist her man who naturally work together to benefit each other for the accomplishment of a family. By and large they make a community. Thus they create an environment conducive to a society. This is the relative factor that works among the people all over the world.

Islam is the religion of man on plain cause of its ethics. Here equality in all respect among human beings without any distinction between the male and the female requires to be preserved. Both social and economic equality in Islam is just obligatory. While observing fast from the beginning of the month of Ramadan one has to realise the torment of those who remain hungry for want of food. So the person must do something to ensure that no one among his neighbours should remain unfed:

Here is the soul-searching ritual realisation of the person fasting in accordance with the tenet of Islam.

You ask yourself as a Muslim how far you are obliged to perform your fasting properly or making show-business of fasting. This is a great learning in Islam. It taught the Muslim how to remain self-restraint (self-purified). The fasting of Ramadan symbolises a sort of Jehad (holy war waged against evils out of the soul). During this period abstinence is a boon to an individual while charity is an opportunity for a wealthy Muslim to succor the suffering humanity in distress.

This month of Ramadan is against the gluttonous greed of the rich people. These people are warned also to reduce their caprice and temptation to nil. Thus fasting inspires one for self- rectification.

Through this learning none of the Muslims can become the evildoer. Fasting also makes the mind of an individual balanced and patient towards recluse of purified soul where the spirit of love for the have-nots wakes up. Scientifically a moral obligation among human beings is built up here to bring about a serene and sacred compassionate heart from all of the social turbidity.

At the end of the month of Ramadan comes the great day of festival of Eid-ul-Fitr that is the most ecstatic joy of charity. Prior to saying prayer of Eid-ul-Fitr every able person among Muslims must pay Fitra to the needy relatives or neighbours. After saying the prayer one embraces another to confirm amity according to Islamic brotherhood. In this performance there should not be made any difference between the rich and the poor, high and low, distinguished and undistinguished. Everybody must be treated equal irrespective of so-called social status.

This is the glaring example of social uniformity in Islam. Eid-ul-Fitr festival does neither invite competition of fashion shows on any account nor allow undue privileges of unfair income or expenditure. This joyous day of great grand festival otherwise hardly entertain fun or frolics, pomp and grandeur, aristocratic pride of passion or vaunt of riches. It is straight love for humanity as a whole. Be happy here making others happy. That is why distribution of sweetmeats among all irrespective of age, sex, caste or creed, Muslim or Non-Muslim, poor or rich, high or low of any status is in vogue in the Muslim families.

And this cosmopolitan custom is continuing with such a great festival started by the great Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Pbuh) since his Hijrat (migration) from Makka to Yathrib Madina) in 622 AD. At that time the people of Arabia got influenced by the Persian people in some of their culture, tradition and civilisation.

They used to celebrate Nouroz and Mihirjan for a few days with funs and frolics, enjoying vulgar dances of women and drinking bouts of those highly placed people and gambling, violence and conflicts often led them to bloodshed.

Moreover there was a gulf of difference between the rich and the poor in course of celebration of this auspicious day of the New Year (Nouroz) along with other festivals. These were absolutely incompatible with Islam. Hazrat Muhammad (Pbuh) was shocked having seen such immoral and inhuman carnival. Thus Eid-ul-Fitr was introduced for the Muslims. This is a huge congregation of people saying prayer to the Almighty Allah's blessings for the benefit of all. This great assembly of pleasant people, united people of all classes that throng with the great expectation of love and amity among all in the community. There is no bar of such ritual assembly and congregation on the part of Muslim women also. They can share such joy of prayer equally with their counterpart men. And that is why the poet sang :

O great Eid! O song of humanism!

Let all sorrow go, let all heart sing that psalm.

Welcome O Eid! Touch all hearts, welcome!



Delighting and lighting every human heart.

This is the green land

Which needs everything that's good.

Come O come to each abode.

O immortal Eid come!

Ward off sickness, suffering and diseases

and separation between man and man ..

Let all strife and conflict of man is gone.



Overwhelming the mental horizon,

Let only good abide in the heart,

Welcome O welcome heart unto heart!

Some of the aforementioned basic important aspects of Islamic ideals have been discussed meticulously in accordance with the Quran and Hadith without an iota of misgivings. Why Islam is said to be the complete Code of Life? The answer is inherent in different Ayats (Verses) of Al-Quran. These Ayats are required to be interpreted by the wise academics properly and propagated among the common people in simple but explicit language, so that no ambiguity takes place anywhere. It is observed that some of the interpreters boost on miraculous aspects of Behesht (heaven) and Dojokh (hell) stories only before the common people. All aspects of Islamic concept should be preached and propagated in details. Islam, the simple religion, should not be complicated by contradictory interpretations in order to exploit the people of candid mentality anyway. The poet says:

Who says heaven and hell are far away?

Both heaven and hell, pious and devil exist among human beings.*

Religious ideals are not mere words of ethics. We must have them in our everyday life in practice. The very simple adage is to be considered that 'practice makes a man perfect'. Islam professes perfect unity of human entity. That is the reason why five times prayer in Jamat (assembly) is obligatory for the Muslims. And each mosque is the local assembly house for the Muslims to strengthen the fortitude of Faith without any distinction between the rich and the poor. This Faith must have reciprocal interests both social and economic in order to make the community free from all material bonds to live peacefully. Eid-ul-Fitr is the proof of that large assembly of the faithful to have the test of Islamic fraternity. Honestly speaking if Muslims used to practice their Faith in the truest sense of Islamic terms the people of other Faiths would have been attracted to the beauty of this religion. Let us fortify that spirit of Islam faithfully by the grace of Almighty Allah.

Let us sing of Nazrul's song on Eid-ul-Fitr in unison:

"After the end of the fasting of Ramadan

the Eid-ul-Fitr of our grand pleasure has come ...

Let's sacrifice our excess wealth to those have-nots

expecting their shares of our riches.

And every Muslim must remember Allah's message:

"Behold, Allah enjoins justice, and the doing of good and generosity towards [ones] fellowmen; and forbids all that is shameful and all that runs counter to reason "AI-Koran, Surah UnNahl-90Cpart)."

Eid-ul- Fitr should be considered as the demonstration of Islamic faith towards definite unity among the faithful that inculcates discipline to bring about peace for social equilibrium politically and economically for the Muslim Ummah all over the world. This is not for the Muslim community alone for one day's performance. Rather this is a bright example for the people of the world irrespective of caste and creed in order to maintain peace and harmony among mankind. This terrestrial affinity of Islam binds humanity in oneness without distinction where violence does not have place to exist and where every individual's interests have its inherent protection with natural discipline.

This universal festival should not be treated as one day's performance. This performance of social and economic equality between human beings in the truest sense of terms and conditions that boosts harmonious affinity should be carried on perpetually.

*Welcome To Eid by poet M. Mizanur Rahman ( Under The Same Sky/Under The Same Sun). *Poet Sk. Fazlul Karim, Tr. by M.Mizanur Rahman *Lyrics by poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, Tr. by M. Mizanur Rahman. 'O Mon Romjaner oi Rozar seshe elo Khusir Eid'... Translated by M. Mizanur Rahman :

(The author is a poet, essayist, storyteller, translator and columnist.)
Machine learning

Joanna Hughes :

Machine learning is widely considered to be one of today's hottest fields. But many of today's students are unaware of what machine learning is and why it matters so much. Wondering whether you've got a future in machine learning? Here's a closer look at this increasingly important area, along with why it matters so much.

What is Machine Learning?

SAS defines machine learning as "a method of data analysis that automates analytical model building. Using algorithms that iteratively learn from data, machine learning allows computers to find hidden insights without being explicitly programmed where to look."

Princeton University lecturer Rob Schapire puts it in simpler terms: "Machine learning studies computer algorithms for learning to do stuff. We might, for instance, be interested in learning to complete a task, or to make accurate predictions, or to behave intelligently. The learning that is being done is always based on some sort of observations or data, such as examples, direct experience, or instruction. So in general, machine learning is about learning to do better in the future based on what was experienced in the past."

Why machine learning matters

With the power of machine learning, says SAS, "it's possible to quickly and automatically produce models that can analyze bigger, more complex data and deliver faster, more accurate results - even on a very large scale. And by building precise models, an organization has a better chance of identifying profitable opportunities - or avoiding unknown risks." This leads to improved decision-making capabilities independent of human intervention with applications in a broad range of industries, including financial services, government, healthcare, marketing and sales, oil and gas, and transportation.

Machine learning is so promising, in fact, that Business Insider recently declared it to be "a revolution as big as the internet or personal computers." With a track record of world-changing developments including everything from Amazon product recommendations to Google's self-driving car, machine learning has already changed the world and how we live in it.

But that's all just the beginning, according to experts like computer scientist and author of "The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake our World" Pedro Domingos, who told BI, "There were two stages to the information age. One stage is where we had to program computers, and the second stage, which is now beginning, is where computers can program themselves by looking at data."

Meanwhile, Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt forecasts that machine learning "will be the basis and fundamentals of every successful huge IPO win in five years."

Machine learning is also lauded for its potential to improve customer care by automating certain tasks. Machines don't always outperform humans-especially in matters of high-touch decision making-but in improving both efficiency and efficacy where technology prevails, machine learning can free people up to focus on what they do best.

And while we often think of machine learning as future terrain, it's also happening all around us, including in the higher education space as a means of improving teaching and learning. Moving forward, it will support unprecedented personalized learning for use by everyone from students to advisors. In other words, with a background in machine learning, you can not only change the world, you can also apply what you know much closer to home.

Is machine learning for you?

Of course, machine learning studies aren't for everyone. But if you possess an interest in and aptitude for computer science fundamentals and programming; probability and statistics; data modeling and evaluation; and software engineering and system design, you may be suited for an in-demand career in this red-hot field.

The reality is, however, that if you want to "future-proof" your career, these subjects may be the key.

Concludes The Atlantic on career planning for today's college students, "Students who are embarking upon their college studies should embrace one of two possible career strategies. The first is to look for jobs that are likely to favor human capabilities over artificial intelligence-jobs that depend less on having great swathes of technical knowledge than on having creativity and strong interpersonal skills, such as the ability to empathize.

The second career strategy is to aim to be directly involved in the development and delivery of these increasingly capable systems, for example as a systems engineer, a data scientist, an AI specialist, or a knowledge engineer. In short, students can plan to compete with machines or to build the machines."

(Joanna worked in higher education administration for many years at a leading research institution before becoming a full-time freelance writer. She lives in the beautiful White Mountains region of New Hampshire with her family).
Mackenize River Pizzas two Billings stores will partner with law enforcement agencies July 18 to host the Tip-A-Cop fundraiser to benefit Special Olympics Montana.

The annual fundraising event involves local law enforcement officers volunteering as celebrity servers to earn tips for Special Olympics Montana athletes.

Last year law enforcement representatives raised $3,569 during the event, nearly $900 more than the total raised during the 2015 fundraiser.

The fundraiser will be held from 11 a.m. through closing at two Mackenzie River Pizza locations in Billings: at 3025 Grand Ave. in the West End and 405 W. Main St. in the Heights.
Common interview mistakes

Elizabeth Koprowski :

Bad interviews are a sit-com staple - like the time on Friends when Rachel literally kissed the interviewer at Ralph Lauren. Rachel managed to land the job regardless, but in the real world, mistakes during an interview are more likely to see you back on the job market than in a corner office. Of course, everyone makes mistakes, but there's no reason that you can't perfect your interview skills and avoid some of the most common (and problematic) mistakes made by job-seekers. Let's count down the six biggest offenders and find out how to make your interview go off without a hitch...or a kiss.

1. Bragging

If recent political events are any indication, egotistic displays of self-promotion may seem like a good idea. And yes, it's a good idea to impress a potential employer with your skills and accomplishments. But there's a big difference between giving relevant information about your abilities and self-aggrandizement. A good rule of thumb: answer honestly when asked about achievements but remain modest. You can also focus on areas in which you excel that also demonstrate your ability to work with or support others.

2. Answering but not asking

Think of the interview as more of a conversation than a Q&A session. Your future employer isn't just interested in how you respond to questions - they want to see that you can interact with the information and think critically about both your answers and their questions. Most experts recommend coming prepared with questions about the position, the company, and other relevant issues, but don't be afraid to ask a question if the interviewer presents new information that wasn't available earlier. Actively engage with the interviewer, demonstrate your knowledge and interest, and show that you are willing to get the answers you need.

3. Not knowing the company

Asking questions is a good way to show that you've prepared for the interview. In fact, before arriving at the interview make sure to do thorough research on the company and its role in the relevant sector. A quick Google search is a good starting point - look for recent articles about the company, find out information about the company's goals and potential, and if possible do some research on the person, or people, who will be conducting the interview. Make sure that you know as much as possible about the position - and if the role is new to you, or outside of your usual field of expertise, be prepared to give a clear explanation of how your current or past experiences make you a good choice.

4. Not paying attention

Interviews aren't just about questions and answers, and as we've already established, you should approach the process like a conversation, or more accurately, a professional discussion. Think of the interview as a meeting, listen carefully to what the interviewer says, asks, and implies, and find ways to address their needs. Be an active listener, and use the tone of the interview to your advantage so that you can present information about yourself or your skills that will help the interviewer understand how you will contribute to the company.

5. Making a bad first impression

This should go without saying but always put your best foot forward at an interview. Show up on time by giving yourself an extra thirty minutes. Dress nicely and appropriately - research both the sector and company beforehand to get an idea of what's typical attire, but if in doubt it's better to be overdressed than underdressed. But impressions aren't just about timeliness and clothing.

Your handshake, demeanor, and etiquette will all help or hinder the interviewer's perception of you. Be friendly but not overly familiar, avoid jokes and informal conversation, and don't complain about or belittle your current employer or coworkers. Your potential employer wants to hire someone who takes the position seriously and will fit well with the existing team.

And last, but definitely not least, be polite and respectful throughout the entire process. You never know who is observing you, and the woman standing behind you in the elevator could be the head of the department.

6. Trying to fake it

Remember when you thought it would be a good idea to list InDesign as one of your tech skills on your resume?

Or when you assumed that no one would ever find out that the extent of your Spanish fluency is limited to a couple of spring breaks in Cancun and reruns of Dora the Explorer? Fudging skills on a resume is, unfortunately, a common practice but is one of the biggest issues potential candidates face when interviewing. Made-up resume points are a problem, but lying in an interview can be disastrous. If an interviewer is asking about a skill or experience, it's almost a given that they have the knowledge to know if you're the real deal.

Of course, it's scary, but if a potential employer asks a question to which you don't know the answer, be honest. If they enquire about a skill you don't possess, tell the truth and explain how you would either use other abilities to compensate or acquire the necessary expertise. Remember, it's better to be yourself on paper and in person than to sweat your way through an interview hoping that no one will ask you to conjugate Latin verbs, or worse yet, end up in a position for which you don't have the skills.



(Elizabeth Koprowski is an American writer and travel historian. She has worked in the higher education system with international students both in Europe and in the USA).
Reading the road less travelled : A global journey

Alyssa Walker :

"Think before you speak. Read before you think." ?Fran Lebowitz, The Fran Lebowitz Reader

Hear a voice from the past, from across an ocean, from the future, or maybe even one that you could hear on your own street. Whether it's the crack of a new book's spine, the worn, well-loved pages of a favorite, or the soft glow from your e-reader, the act of reading a book transports you. To another place. Another time. To a group of people whom you don't know. And everyone is looking for something. Join us on our journey around the world-in books. Find something that speaks to you and tuck in.

Written in 2006, Adichie's wrenching tale chronicles five people's lives as they navigate politics, power, academics, journalism, women's rights, marriage, and the struggle for daily survival during Nigeria's Civil War in the late 1960s. How blurred are the lines between life and death? What does it mean to be in love? How does war affect humanity-and its soul?

A Chinese classic on feminism, circa 1827. While the Qing Dynasty period wasn't known for embracing femininity, the author was. Ruzhen offers us a subversion of gender roles in a fantasy classic-often with a humorous twist. He believed in equal rights for men and women and wrote Flowers in the Mirror as one fantastical version of what that kind of world could look like.

Travel to Barcelona, on Zafon's meticulously detailed streets with young Daniel in 1945, just after the Spanish Civil War. Pick up an obscure, tattered book in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and join Daniel on a dangerous mystery that will take you throughout past and then-present Barcelona-and the heartbreak of the human spirit. Also Try Zafon's 2009 prequel, The Angel's Game, written in 2008, seven years after Shadow of the Wind.

Winner of the Cairo International Book Fair Prize, Egyptian author Radwa Ashour details the ethnic cleansing of Deir Yassini in April of 1948. Using metaphoric "doubles," Ashour parallels the stories of two women, Shagar Abdel Ghaffar, and "Radwa Ashour" who live through atrocities-both personal and political-in a fractured time and place. How much strength can the human spirit hold?

Winner of the National Book Award, The Corrections offers us an ironic and often funny glimpse of a multi-generational family fraying at the edges at the beginning of the 21st century. With larger themes like economic collapse overshadowing the finer movements of a family's collapse, Franzen sets the stage with an older couple hosting "one last Christmas" with their middle-aged children. Anxiety, uncertainty, and apprehension apply to the state of the family-and the state of the world.

1991 Winner of the Miles Franklin and NBC Awards in Australia, Cloudstreet details the bonds created between two families who flee rural life for different reasons. Watch them scrabble, struggle, laugh and cry twenty years in the city before they find what they want. What do they want? What we all do. Love and acceptance.

Marquez's magical realism does not disappoint in his 1967 epic that chronicles seven generations of the fortunes-and humorous misfortunes-of the Buendia family and their grandfather's town, Macondo. The story of the family is the story of the town. History, for better or worse, consistently repeats itself. With lyrical beauty, Marquez explores the ghosts of family and place-and what it means to be a part of both.

Find something that speaks to you? Tickles your soul? Makes you think? Check it out and settle in. Happy reading!

(Alyssa Walker is a freelance writer, educator, and nonprofit consultant. She lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with her family).
Patients discharged to ensure doctors` holidays

PUBLIC hospitals in the capital discharged many of their patients in last couple of days as many of the doctors and nurses would be on leave on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the major festivals of the Muslims, as per a report of a local daily.

Several patients and their relatives alleged that they were induced to leave the hospital as there would be a scarcity of doctors and nurses during the three-day Eid holidays beginning from Sunday. Hospital authorities, however, claimed that they discharged only those patients who got well and needed no emergency interventions. They said that many patients had left the hospitals on their own to celebrate the Eid festival with their family and friends.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the country's biggest hospital, discharged about 1,000 patients on Thursday morning to early Friday, said a record keeper at the hospital. The hospital is usually crowded with about 3,800 to 4,000 patients against the capacity of 2,600, but the hospital record keepers said on Friday afternoon there were about 2,500 patients as many others were already discharged.

Other major hospitals like National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedic Rehabilitation, Dhaka Shishu Hospital and Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital also discharged a large number of patients on Thursday and Friday.

It is perfectly natural for patients to be discharged if no major anomalies are found in their medical reports and health. However the discharge of almost a quarter of the patients ahead of Eid holidays can look suspicious - if it is not a regular occurrence. It is quite alright for doctors to take leave ahead of a major holiday such as Eid since they work the year round. But the need for doctors to take a holiday must be balanced against the need for patients to get proper and timely medical care.

And this care for the patients must take precedence. While we certainly don't want overworked and irate doctors and nurses looking after critical care patients, there must be some substitute mechanism in place to ensure that timely care is provided to patients during Eid times. Perhaps we can utilize doctors who get holidays at another part of the year, or rotate holidays to ensure that all doctors are available. Public hospitals could also bring in doctors from other parts of the country, or from private hospitals by paying them fees. All of these mechanisms would be more than adequate to ensure that patients get the timely help that they need during Eid holidays.


Eid Mubarak

THE nation is set to celebrate EID-UL-FITR on Monday subject to sighting of the moon of Shawal. It is also known as the 'Feast of Breaking the Fast' through the whole month of Ramzan. Preparations are afoot throughout the country to end the fasting through festivities. Eid is an important religious event for the Muslims and we share our joy and happiness with everybody on this occasion wishing friends and family members the heartiest celebration.

Muslims all over the world observe the event with festivities and offering of Eid prayers in big congregation. People distribute Zakat, which is a share of their wealth to the poor. It also teaches us equality and fraternity between the rich and the poor. It is a day for feast and visiting friends and neighbours after month long restricted life from temporal pleasure and daytime eating. Eid-ul-Fitr leaves behind a month that purify everybody through self-restraints in religious devotion by seeking the blessings of Allah. The day embodies the unity of the Muslim Ummah all over the world.

It goes without saying, that the Eid-ul-Fitr is the biggest Muslim festival in Bangladesh when people enjoy long public holiday to visit families and friends. Schools, business and other higher educational institutions go on long vacation for celebration. This year a long public holiday is looming over the entire week that will offer plenty of opportunity to people to spend time away from busy office or business schedules. In fact the Eid-ul-Fitr is one of the few occasions when the entire nation take festive look and celebrate the occasion with indoor and outdoor programmes. Highways become overcrowded and people become excited how to go home and families wait for their dear ones coming home.

Eid-ul-Fitr also reminds us to learn sacrifice. The rich must sacrifice for the poor and share Zakat as an informal tax on their wealth in which the poor have their legitimate claim. It is one of the five pillars of our religious faith and a good Muslim would always adhere to fulfill the obligation. Zakat has been treated in Islam as an effective instrument of poverty alleviation and ensure distributive justice of wealth and income in our society, although giving Zakat or helping the one who needs help can be an all time round the year affair. However one should not use the occasion to demonstrate the wealth he possesses that often causes death of the poor at their doorsteps.

Eid is an occasion of joy and sharing joy with others. We wish everybody a happy and safe Eid-ul-Fitr.
Eid Mubarak !

Abdul Muqit Chowdhury :

The continuous process of fasting to attain 'Taqwa'-to be 'Muttaqi' (righteous) has passed. We are going to celebrate the Holy Eid-ul-Fitr-symbol of equality and brotherhood of the Ummah.

Eid is the greatest Muslim festival. Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha are the two main festivals in the Islamic calendar. At the end of the Holy Ramzan, the Muslims

all over the world including Bangladesh celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr.

'Eid'means 'joy'. So the occasion conveys the message of 'joy'. We should seek forgiveness from Allah for our known and unknown faults and sins relating to the observance of fasting of Holy Ramzan.

All the members of Muslim Ummah have the right to share the joy. It has been observed that the vast majority of the community is deprived of the joyful celebrations, because of their poverty. The poor, destitute and have-nots fail to share the joy. There is another section of people who are chained. Their lands are subjugated, dominated and ruled by alien tyrant rulers or their puppet representatives. They have become the victim of inhuman oppression and tyranny. These helpless people are also deprived of the 'joy' of 'Eid' celebration. Eid celebration should not exclude the ill-fated section of humanity under economic exploitation and alien atrocities and domination.

Muslim Ummah has long been a victim of conspiracy, aggression and genocide. The recent decades also witnessed inhuman atrocities in the name of establishing peace. Some of the countries have lost sovereignty and people in those lands are groaning under repression. And the root cause of all defeat and disaster is the deviation of Muslims from the spirit and injunctions of the Holy Quran and Sunnah. The division and conflict among the adherents to the Faith is an important factor which is the outcome of deviation contributing to the victory of the aggressors. It is a matter of deepest concern that the Muslims, who once dominated the globe, imparting justice and ensuring peace for mankind, lost hold of the Quranic teachings, and are living without sovereign entity in some countries.

The Holy Quran contains many verses on Muslim Ummah and related affairs. There is guideline for their survival as a free, leading nation ensuring justice to mankind, upholding right and shunning evils--thus achieving the most prestigious role of teaching mankind the way of emancipation and salvation.

Here, the number of the Suras and verses are given so that eagerful readers can easily get clear conception about the Ummah-related verses with meanings and comments of the most dependable scholars as may be available.

Some of the verses are : 6:14, 163, 2:128, 22:78, 39:12, 49:17

3:103, 6:159, 8:73, 9:71, 15:88, 21:92, 23: 52, 53, 48:29, 49:10, 51:55,

8:53, 13:11, 22:27

2:113, 256, 3:20, 64, 4:48, 80, 10 :19, 99, 11:118, 16:93, 22:40, 25: 52, 42:8, 49.13, 50:45, 59:2, 109:6, 114:2

8:53, 23: 43, 46

2: 143, 201, 249, 3: 13, 110, 125, 139, 7: 86, 129, 137, 8:9 9:71, 10:2, 21:105, 22:78, 33:43, 40: 51, 48:1, 61:64

30:47

3:13, 126, 150

2:214, 8:10, 29:22, 30:5, 47, 33:17, 42:13, 31

37: 116, 48:3, 29

The members of the Ummah, expecting positive change to have a bright future, should be dedicated in their struggle and be attentive to the message of warning revealed in the Holy Quran : " For him are angels ranged before him and behind him, who guard him by Allah's command. Lo! Allah changeth not the condition of a folk until they (first) change that which is in their hearts ; and if Allah willeth misfortune for a folk there is none that can repel it, nor have they a defender beside Him." (Verse 11, Ar-Ra'd 13, The Meanings of the Glorious Qur'an by Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall.)

"For each (such person)/ There are (angels) in succession/Before and behind him:/They guard him by command/of God. Verily never/ Will God change the condition/ Of a people until they/ Change it themselves/(With their own souls)./But when (once)/ God willeth /A people's punishment/There can be no/Turning it back, nor/ Will they find, besides Him,/any to protect."

(Verse 11, Ar-Ra'd 13, The Holy Qur'an Translation and Commentary by A. Yusuf Ali)

Allama Yusuf Ali comments : "God is not intent on punishment. He created man virtuous and pure ; He gave him intelligence and knowledge, He surrounded him with all sorts of instruments of His grace and mercy. If, inspite of all this, man distorts his own will and goes against God's Will, yet is God's forgiveness open to him if he will take it. It is only when he has made his own sight blind and changed his own nature or soul away from the beautiful mould in which God formed it, that God's Wrath will descend on him and the favourable position in which God placed him will be changed. When once the punishment comes, there is no turning it back. None of the things which he relied upon-other than God-can possibly protect him." (The Holy Qur'an Translation and Commentary by A. Yusuf Ali. P. 606)

And for the cherished future: " Faint not nor grieve, for ye will overcome them if ye are (indeed) believers." (Verse 139, Al-i-'Imran 3, The Meanings of the Glorious Qur'an)

"So lose not heart/ Nor fall into despair : /For ye must gain mastery/ If ye are true in Faith." (Verse 139, Al-i-'Imran 3, The Holy Qur'an Translation and Commentary)



Eid Mubarak!

Fitra obligatory

The Arabic word 'fitr' means 'to break' 'Sadaqatul Fitr' is the charity paid at the time of breaking of fasting. It marks the end of Ramzan. It is given to the poor and the needy on the occasion of Holy 'Eid-ul-Fitr'-meaning 'Eid of Fitr.' The Sadaqah, popularly known as 'Fitra' is obligatory for any person who is matured, conscious, sane and financially able at the sunset on the last of Ramzan. Fitra is to be paid for a person and his dependants.

Fitra is a means of practical sympathy, a symbolic co-operation to the poor and the needy to enable them to participate in joys of Eid festival. The Holy Quran and the Sunnah proclaim the right of the poor in the wealth of the rich. The Fitra is also that right due to them. It reminds us of our social responsibility and economic obligation to the destitute. Rasulullah (Sm.) said. "Make such charity in the Day of Eid so that the poor people become rich and there remains no need for them to seek alms from anyone," (Abu Daud Sharif)

Hazrat Ibne Sa'ad (Ra) said, "Rasulullah (Sm.) directed us to pay Fitra before Jakat was commended to be obligatory. After that, Jakat was ordained as Farz (obligatory)," (Musnad-e-Ahmad, Sunan-e-Nasayee, Sunan-e-Ibne Mazah and Mustadrake Hakim) Fitra is also a kind of Jakat. The aim of giving Fitra according to Hadith is to arrange for the food of the miskin.

Rasulullah (Sm) described the 'Sadaqatul Fitr' as 'Kaffarah' of the faults/deficiencies of fasting.

According to 'Hidaya', the person who has more than the capacity of managing foods for him and his family for the Eid day, should have to pay Fitra. Rasulullah (Sm.) directed about Fitra in the word : "Pay." So it may be taken as Wajib (next to Farz-obligation).

According to Imam Abu Hanifa  it is 'Wajib.' while Imam Shafi  and Imam Ahmad Bin Hambal  took it as 'Farz' and Imam Malik  as 'Sunnat-e-Muakkadah' (next to Wajib).

The Fitra must be paid or at least set aside before one offers the Eid prayers. Ibne Umar (Ra) narrated : "Rasulullah (Sm.) has directed us to pay the Sadaqat-ul-Fitr before going out to offer Eid prayer." (Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmizy, Nasayee and Abu Daud Sharif)

"Fitra of a person, given before the Eid prayer, will be accepted by Allah, as 'Sadaqatul Wajib' (due) and Fitra given by a person after the Eid prayer, will be taken as his general charity." (Abu Daud and Ibne Maza Sharif). This Hadith speaks of the social significance and aim of 'Sadaqatul Fitr.' It is a help through which Allah wants the participation of the insolvent persons in the celebration of Holy Eid festival.

It should be given to such poor people, whose income or cash in hand is not enough to meet his/her family expenses. It is to be paid to a needy, who is helpless and indigent.

Fitra was introduced as a compulsory charity, two days before Eid-ul-Fitr, in the second Hijri.

It is to be paid at a fixed rate (1.34kg of wheat) subject to price variation of wheat.

Fitra is obligatory on every person, who is Saheb-e-Nisab. The low income people, who are not solvent, should also pay this minor compulsory charity.


Abandoning BNP`s Rangamati tour was wrong: Gayeshwar

UNB, Dhaka :

BNP senior leader Gayeshwar Chandra Roy on Saturday said their party senior leaders' decision to cancel their Rangamati, Chittagong tour after being attacked by ruling party men was not the right one.

"I can't accept the return of our senior leaders shelving their plan to go to

Rangamati following the attack on our secretary general's motorcade. We must reach our destination braving all the hurdles and attacks," he said.

Speaking at a discussion, the BNP leader further said, "We'll neither be able to carry out a movement nor fulfill people's aspirations if we retreat from our decision due to government's obstructions. We must overcome all the barriers to be created by our opponents to ensure our victory."

Jatiyatabadi Projonmo '71 arranged the programme at the Jatiya Press Club demanding the release of BNP's detained leaders, including Barkatullah Bulu.

Gayeshwar, a BNP standing committee member, urged his party colleagues to be courageous to make their all the programmes, including rallies, a success despite the denial of permission by the government to hold those.

On June 18, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and some other party senior leaders were injured as local Awami League supporters allegedly attacked their motorcade at Isakhali in Rangunia upazila, Chittagong on their way to hillslides-hit Rangamati.

About the next general election, Gayeshwar said no more election will be held under Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh.

He said, BNP did not make any mistake by boycotting the January-5 election as the country's 98 percent people supported it refraining from casting their votes.

Rather, the BNP leader said, Awami League committed crimes by holding a unilateral and voter-less election.

He came down hard on Awami League general secretary for questioning BNP's capacity to wage a movement, saying Obaidul Quader is not a leader of such a stature to mock BNP. "Even, his party men get ashamed the way he talks like actors."
Traffic jam eases in city

Staff Reporter :

Traffic jam in the Dhaka city is a common scenario. But ahead of Eid-ul Fitr, the city residents are enjoying some kind of relief in absence of nagging traffic congestion, and for mass exodus to celebrate Eid at homes.

Many city residents said, there was no pressure of transports on Saturday on the city roads. Yet they had to pay increased bus fare for going to one place from another.

Ahmed Reza Humayun, a resident of Mohammadur said, it did not take more an hour to reach Mirpur from Gulistan. "Surely it will be a very nice thing if this continues throughout the year," he said.

The Eid-ul Fitr is likely to be held on June 26 or 27 depending on the sighting of the moon. Schools and colleges were closed about a week ago, while the government offices and several business houses passed last working day on Thursday.

It is estimated that around seven to eight million people of the mega-city are leaving for their homes to celebrate Eid with their near and dear ones.

While visiting different areas, this correspondence did not find any crowd or traffic jam in the city streets. The railway stations stations, bus and launch terminals, however, witnessed weighty presence of home bound passengers.

Expressing deep satisfaction, Jhorna Begum, who was



waiting for bus at Fakirapool said, I can take now fresh air from the horizon. It is apparently an unknown gesture, clean and free.

Interestingly, super markets and shopping malls, and groceries were seen bit crowded with buyers for their last minute shopping. Those of the shoppers, who did not go to the markets earlier fearing excessive crowds, were seen roaming around the malls to buy their cloths.

Availing the opportunity, rickshaw and auto-rickshaw drivers have started to raise the fare. "I have to wait for a long time for passengers due to Eid holiday. So, I charged a little bit extra fare," said Hossain Mia, a rickshaw puller from Mirpur said.

Meanwhile, the law enforcement agencies have taken massive security measures to ensure safety of people and properties in the capital during Eid holidays. The police and RAB have increased the number of patrol parties also, including foot patrol.


UP member sent to jail over domestic help killing case

UNB, Beanibazar :

A union parishad member of Lauta union in the upazila has been sent to jail in connection with the case filed for killing of a domestic help.

The accused UP member is Muminul Islam Rumon, of Kalaiura village of the upazila.

Mostaq Sarker, additional superintendent of Sylhet police, said that Resham Begum, daughter of Montaz Ali of Digholbak village of Sheola union, used to work in the house of the UP member from last February.

The UP member and his wife Farhana Islam used to torture Resham, alleged the victim's family members.

They also tortured her on Thursday night which left her dead.

Nijhush, sub-inspector of Beanibazar Police Station, and also the investigation officer of the case, said that there were several injury marks on the body of Resham.

A case was filed accusing the UP member and his wife in connection with the incident.

Later, police arrested Rumon while his wife remains absconding after the incident.
Tragic home journey

17 RMG workers among 31 killed

Staff Reporter :

At least 31 people were killed in road accidents on Saturday in several districts. Of them, 17 died in Rangpur alone when a cement-laden truck, carrying homebound Eid passengers, overturned on the Dhaka-Rangpur Highway at Kolabari in Pirganj upazila of the district.

Three died in Comilla and Gazipur each, two in Magura, Rajshahi and Tangail each, while one each in Rajbari and Pirojpur.

Police said that the death toll might rise, as the conditions of 10 of the injured persons are stated to be critical. They are now under treatment at Rangpur Medical College and Hospital.

The deceased have been identified as Rabiul Islam, 40, Azizul Islam, 35, Suporna Begum, 10, Kohinur Begum, 30, Jhantu Mia, 35, Moznu Mia 29, Nasida Akter 40, Alamgir Hossain, 27, Delwar Hossain, 25, Jashim Uddin, 26, Anisuzzaman, 35, Shahiduzzaman 30,

Saddam Hossain, 24, Munir Hossain, 24, Rafiqul Islam, 24, and Khalil Mia, 32.

Of the deceased, Alamgir, his brother-in-law Delowar, Saddam, and Munir are from Lalmonirhat's Kaliganj upazila.

Among the injured, seven persons have been identified as Jamila Begum, 55, Moyna Begum, 30, Mominul Islam, 35, Khalil, 25, Dulal, 30, and Motin, 25. They are also inhabitants of the same district and upazila.

The victims are mostly readymade garment workers and day labourers, said Rezaul Karim, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Pirganj Police Station. They were coming to Rangpur from Gazipur by a cement-laden truck.

Eleven people were killed on the spot after the truck overturned and six others died in a local hospital, the police official said.

Assistant Superintendent Dhirendra Nath Sarkar of Borodarga Highway Police said that the truck was filled with cement to the brim.

"On top of the truck, there were 40 passengers. It was a exceedingly risky journey. The fact is that the driver gave the steering to the helper to take a nap and thereby showed irresponsibility and utter disregard for regulations. That is why the unfortunate accident took place," Dhirendra Nath said.

One of the injured, Momtaz Begum, said, "All of us are from the same upazila. Every year we travel together. But this time we could not manage tickets. Alternatively we chartered a truck for Tk 20,000. We were 25 passengers in total. The driver picked up several more near the Bangabandhu Multipurpose Jamuna Bridge ignoring our protests."

Moreover, he was driving drowsily. We warned him several times, but he did not pay much heed. Then he exchanged seats with the helper to take a nap, she said.

Each of the deceased families has been given Tk 20,000 and injured families Tk 5,000 on behalf of the local administration, said our local corresponded after quoting the deputy commissioner of the district.

The bodies have been kept at Pirganj upazila Health Complex and Barodargah High Police Station.

At Gazipur, three persons were killed and 10 others injured in a head-on collision between a truck and a human hauler near the Mouchak on Saturday noon. The deceased could not be identified istantly

Police said the truck collided head-on with the human hauler on the Dhaka- Tangail highway, leaving three dead on the spot and 10 others injured. The injured have been admitted to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Medical College Hospital.

In Comilla, three persons were killed and two others injured as a covered van hit a CNG-run auto-rickshaw in Otiya area of Laksam upazila in the district on Saturday afternoon.

In Magura, two persons were killed in Magura district on Saturday afternoon.

In Tangail, two persons were killed in the district on Saturday evening. In Rajshahi, two persons were killed in Putia upazila in the district on Saturday morning In Rajbari, a man was killed in sadar upazila on Saturday morning. In Pirojpur, another person was killed Kaukhali upazila in the district.

Earlier, at least 265 people were killed on roadways, waterways and railways in the country while making journey for the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, claims a passenger welfare body.

Total 210 incidents of accidents took place during September 7 to September 18, said Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, secretary general of Bangladesh Jatri Kalya.
Travelling on rooftops, unfit vehicles

Md Joynal Abedin Khan :

The scene of risky journey is very common during Eid occasion compare to normal period as several lakh people travel on roof-top of buses, trains, launches and some other unfit vehicles due to inadequate number of long-distance transports, said Atiqul Islam, Deputy Inspector General (Highway Range) of Police.

The journey became alarmingly risky when ticket deprived passengers, mainly low-income people, move on using roof-top of buses, trains and trucks amid high risk of life to save some money, the DIG said.

He said the poor people are also traveling mainly city buses, trucks and some low-quality transports for long distance to celebrate Eid festival that might have the key causes of tailbacks and road accidents on the highways.

As the drivers are steering vehicles for more than five to 15 hours compare to normal days that causes drowsy and absent mind for maximum drivers. As a result, they loss control on the steering and led to fatal road accidents, according to him.

Such as way, a truck driver lost control on his vehicle and 17 people were killed and 11 others injured in a tragic road accident in Rangpur on Saturday. The countrymen also gathered reports of killings of 45 people in separate road accidents in a span of 11 hours yesterday, a high official of Highway Police said.

According to sources, many desperate commuters, particularly the poor who cannot afford overpriced tickets, often undertake perilous journey riding on the roofs of trains, buses, trucks and launches.

Around 15,00,000 lakh passengers can go by bus and 2,75,000 in train while 60,000 in launch normally. But around 85 lakh people generally leave the capital city during Eid occasion, they said.

During visits to Gazipur, Sreepur and Rajendrapur railway stations this correspondent found that thousands of home-bound people traveling on train roof coming from Dhaka to their respective destinations.

Emarat, a worker of ACI factory at Sreepur, said, "I need to go home by any cost. I could not enter the train due to heavy pressure of passengers. Now I climbed on the roof by paying Tk 40 to ladder owner."

Monir Hossain, a ladder owner of Rajendrapur railway station, said: "Every year we helped people to climb on the train roof and they pay us for this."

Selim from Sreepur rail station said, "Every year ahead of Eid we gather in the station with ladders to help people though sometimes law enforcers chased us not to help people to ride on train roofs."

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on Saturday urged Eid holidaymakers not to travel on roof of vehicles risking their lives.

"The accident in Rangpur took place due to reckless driving. We shouldn't travel on vehicles' roof as it is risky," said the minister while talking to reporters after visiting the Dhaka-Aricha Highway on Saturday afternoon.

Passenger Alamgir Hossain, unable to find a seat on the Nilsagar Express, was standing by the door on a compartment for his trip to Parbatipur, said "I did not get a ticket so I have to go like this."

Selim Shikdar, an official of Shyamoli Paribahan, said slow moving and slight traffic gridlocks on the Dhaka-Rangpur Highway creates suffering to people.

At least 50 launches left Dhaka for different destinations in southern part of the country yesterday with over loaded passengers defying the restriction of the authority concerned.

Saiful Hque Khan, Joint Director of Naval Security and Traffic Management, said the passengers boarded on launch as they have no chance to use alternative way to Eid journey.
KALISPELL  Law enforcement officials in northwestern Montana have released the name of a woman whose body was found in the Flathead River this week.

The Flathead County Sheriff's Office says 68-year-old Kassy Lynn Browning's family reported her missing from the Hungry Horse area on June 10. Her body was found 10 days later near Columbia Falls.

Sheriff's officials said Friday that Browning's cause of death is still under investigation.
Sholakia Eidgah under tight security

Staff Reporter :

The country's biggest Eid congregation of the country will be held on Sholakia Eidgah Maidan in Kishoreganj. All preparations have been completed for Eid congregations.

"We have bought the Sholakia Eidgah under unprecedented security arrangement with deployment of five platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel and a large number of police, RAB and Ansar personnel," Kishoreganj Police Super Md Anwar Hossain said.

Plain clothed personnel from different intelligence agencies have been entrusted with strict vigilance in and around Sholakia, he also said.

Closed Circuit Camera Televisions (CCTVs) and watch towers have been set up at each of the entry points of Kishoreganj town and the Sholakia Eidgah to make the security foolproof. None will be allowed to enter the Eidgah without search. Police are now conducting search at each of the houses and the house owners have been asked not to rent out their houses to new tenants. The largest Eid jamaat was held at the Sholakia last year even after the deadly militant attacks at the Eidgah.

The 190th jamat on the maidan will be held at 10.00am that will begin following the custom of opening blank fire on the Eid day.
Saudi security foils terror plot targeting Mecca Grand Mosque and pilgrims

Saudi official inspect a scene of a foiled terrorist attack in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The Guardian :

Saudi Arabian security forces have foiled a terror plot targeting the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, exchanging gunfire with one of the suspects who blew himself up inside a home on Friday, the interior ministry said.

The ministry described the plot as part of "self-serving schemes managed from abroad".

Five people, including a woman, were arrested in security operations in Mecca, the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news website said, citing interior ministry security spokesman Mansour al-Turki.

Five security force members and six other people

were injured, the report said.

Turki said police "foiled the terrorist plan that targeted the security of the Grand Mosque, pilgrims and worshippers". In dawn raids on Mecca and the Red Sea city of Jeddah officers arrested suspects before surrounding the bomber's location close to the Grand Mosque.

"Unfortunately he started shooting towards security personnel once he noticed their presence in the area, which led to an exchange of fire before he blew himself up," Turki said. The blast partially collapsed the building where he had taken refuge, injuring six pilgrims, Turki said. He added that four had already been released from hospital, and five security men were also slightly hurt. The interior ministry said in a statement it "confirms that this terrorist network, whose terrorist plan was thwarted, violated, in what they would have perpetrated, all sanctities by targeting the security of the Grand Mosque, the holiest place on Earth. "They obeyed their evil and corrupt self-serving schemes managed from abroad whose aim is to destabilise the security and stability of this blessed country," the statement said. The ministry did not name the group involved in the attack. The ultraconservative Sunni kingdom battled an al-Qaida insurgency for years and more recently has faced attacks from a local branch of the Islamic State group.

Since late 2014 Saudi Arabia has faced periodic bombings and shootings claimed by Isis.

Near the end of Ramadan last year in the Saudi city of Medina four security officers died in an explosion close to Islam's second holiest site, the Prophet's Mosque.

It was one of three suicide blasts around the kingdom on the same day, in which a total of seven people were believed killed. The others occurred in Jeddah and in the Gulf city of Qatif. The US Central Intelligence Agency said those attacks bore the hallmarks of Isis.

Most of the targets in Saudi Arabia have been the Shiite minority and security forces, killing dozens of people.

Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks against the kingdom, a member of the US-led coalition battling the group in Syria and Iraq. Since July last year police have arrested around 40 people, including Saudis and Pakistanis, for alleged extremist links. Saudi Arabia's counter-terrorism capabilities - which for years were led by Prince Mohammed bin Nayef - are well-regarded internationally.
Bangladeshi working with UN charged with visa fraud

Reuters/New York :

US prosecutors have accused a United Nations employee in New York of committing visa fraud by bringing into the country a domestic worker from Bangladesh and then failing to pay her a lawful wage.

Hamidur Rashid, a Bangladeshi national, was charged with visa fraud, fraud in foreign labour contracting and aggravated

identity theft in a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.

Rashid, 50, appeared at a brief court hearing on Tuesday afternoon before US Magistrate Judge James Cott, and was released on bail. Christopher Flood, a public defender representing him at the hearing, said Rashid would be hiring another lawyer and declined to comment on the case.

Prosecutors said that Rashid, an economist at the United Nations' Department of Economic and Social Affairs, initially contracted with the unidentified employee to pay her $420 per week, and submitted that contract to the US State Department to obtain a visa for her.

Before the employee entered the United States in January 2013, the complaint said, Rashid had her sign a new contract with a wage of $290 per week.

Rashid took away the worker's passport, and told her at various times during her employment that she would go to jail and be sent back to Bangladesh if she worked for anyone else, according to the complaint.

At first, Rashid did not pay her at all, but instead sent about $600 per month to her husband in Bangladesh, the complaint said. In October 2013, Rashid did pay the employee $600 and she left late that month, it added.

While working for Rashid, prosecutors said, the employee worked far more than 40 hours a week, in violation of her original contract.

Rashid is also charged with committing identity theft by setting up a sham bank account in the employee's name to make it appear to the UN that he was paying her a lawful wage. In fact, the complaint said, Rashid and his wife controlled the account.

United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the UN was aware of Rashid's arrest, and that "all UN personnel are expected to honour their private legal obligations, including with respect to engaging foreign domestic workers."
4-tier security at National Eidgah

Every devotee to enter thru archway: DMP

Staff Reporter :

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Md Asaduzzaman Mia has said that every devotee will have to go through metal detector and archway scanning to enter the National Eidgah maidan for performing Eid prayers as part of the four-tier security measures of the law enforcing agencies.

The city police commissioner also echoed with the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Director

General of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) about the security and said there is no threat of militant attacks in the country during the Eid festival.

The DMP chief made the comments on Saturday while inspecting the National Eidgah where the main Eid congregation will take place.

"There is no militant threat during Eid. But keeping the militant attack on Sholakia Eid congregation and Gulshan cafe attack in mind, we have taken highest security measures," Asaduzzaman said.

Within a week of Gulshan attack, another militant attack was carried out near Sholakia Eidgah where hundreds of thousands had gathered for Eid congregation last year.

Asking the devotees not to carry any types of bags, sharp weapons and firecrackers, Asaduzzaman sought their cooperation during the security checks.

He also informed that security would be beefed up during Eid vacation to guard the holidaymakers' houses in the capital.

"Swat team members of police would be deployed. We have set up emergency gates for the Musallies to come out of the ground beside the main gate," he said.

Asaduzzaman said police will not let any vehicles and motorcycles to come within half a kilometer of the Eidgah and called upon all to park their vehicles at the designated parking places.

According to police sources, 10,000 policemen will be deployed across Dhaka while another 3,000 law enforcers will be guarding the National Eidgah maidan area. The DMP Commissioner informed that 500 Eid congregations will be held in Dhaka.
Eid in Saudi Arabia today

Samaa Web Desk , Riyadh :

The Saudi Supreme Court has called on all Muslims throughout the kingdom to sight the moon of Shawwal on Saturday evening (29 Ramazan), 1438 H (June 24).

In an announcement, the Saudi Supreme Court said that whoever sees the Shawwal crescent moon by

the naked eye or binoculars should report to the nearest court and register his testimony.

According to astronomical projections, there is a chance of seeing the moon on the 29 of Ramazan on Saturday.

If the moon sighted, the Saudi Arabia, Gulf states and some North African countries will celebrate Eid.

In Pakistan, Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee (CRHC) will meet in Peshawar on June 25 in connection with Shawwal moon sighting.

The meeting would be held on June 25 at Aiwan-e-Auqaf - Eidgah, Charsadda Road in Peshawar with Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Chairman Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman in chair.

Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman has asked the people from across the country to approach the committee members via phone numbers 03002043428, 0919626663 and 03356329700 for providing evidence/information about moon sighting.

Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has already predicted that Eid-ul-Fitr is likely to fall on June 26. - Samaa
New VAT law execution may face postponement

Govt weighing its repercussions ahead of next election

Badrul Ahsan :

Faced with strong opposition from the mass people and businesses, the government is now set to find alternatives to the implementation of the new VAT Act in its existing form, a Finance Ministry high-up said.

Prior to any alternative, its implementation might be postponed, the official hinted.

The government is weighing up impacts of the new VAT rate on public life, especially on those in limited-income bracket, and its repercussions ahead of the next general election.

A recent meeting where high-ups from the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Finance Division were present analysed the repercussion of the new VAT Law before the 2019 election.

A uniform 15 per cent VAT rate is supposed to be

introduced as per the VAT Act 2012, which many believe will raise the cost of living.

People familiar with the developments told the New Nation that the last cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, reached a consensus on the imperative of postponing implementation of the VAT law from July 1.

However, no new timeline for enforcement of the new VAT Act has been set.

Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh Dr Ahsan H Mansur, who was involved with the framing of the new VAT Act, said he also heard about government's unwillingness to go for implementing it this year. "This is one of the major reform programmes this government has taken up. Dropping the new VAT act won't be a wise move," he told the New Nation.

Dr Mansur thinks the businesses will also be loser as the new VAT system is much progressive.

The economist said the revenue collection would also be impacted as it is believed to be the biggest source of revenue.

Contacted over telephone, Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), told The New Nation that he was aware of the developments on the new law.

"I am not sure if the entire act will be dropped this year. But, it will definitely be revised," said the chief of the apex trade body.

Mohiuddin said he had a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on this issue. "She does not want the essential prices go up and common people suffer."

Contacted, NBR Chairman Nojibur Rahman said no decision was taken about execution of the VAT Act this year.

"The issue is openly being discussed in Parliament. We are working on it," he said.

Another NBR high official said non-implementation of the new VAT act will impact budget financing and it may raise the deficit, which is now estimated at 5.05 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

The NBR has targeted mobilization of Tk 912.54 billion, up by Tk 225.79 billion from revised budget estimation, from VAT next year, according to budget documents.

Following suggestion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government framed the new VAT Law. The introduction of 15 per cent VAT was one of the conditions of the IMF for extending US$1 billion worth of Extended Credit Facility (ECF) to Bangladesh in 2010.

The IMF in its Article IV Consultation Mission report, published after the proposed budget, welcomed Bangladeshi authorities' commitment to launching the modern VAT Act from July next.

The planned launch of the modern value-added tax in July 2017 and improvements in tax administration are expected to give boost to tax revenues, providing space for increased public investment and social spending.
It is an attempt to politely ask Qatar not to exist

Editorial Desk :

From the list containing 13 requirements presented by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries on their lifting up of the three- week long blockade on Qatar -- at least one truth has become starkly visible, and that is - it is blackmailing to halt the advancement of a progressive Islamic country so to turn it in one of the many submissive Arab states of a global superpower. Moreover, given the type of conditions imposed on Qatar, all of them clearly smacks of pure American interests designed outside but to be implemented inside the Arab world. Two of the conditions for instance - first the calling to end diplomatic ties with Iran while cutting all joint military cooperation, and second the demand to shutdown Al Jazeera, and its affiliate stations, and four other news outlets which receives Qatari funding have no rationale at all.

The first condition to cut ties with Iran is most likely to seriously destabilise regional peace in the Middle East and worsen the existing chaotic situation there. And the second is clearly targeted to obstruct the freedom of speech voiced by one of the globally reputed media house. Concerning the other eleven or so conditions, we see no viability or use of sensible logic in them.

One important point, however, related to funding of terrorism raises a serious question. Qatar is reported to be one of the three Islamic countries to fund the three active Pro-Sunni groups operating in Syria at the moment and the other two are being funded by Turkey and Saudi Arabia. So if Qatar's funding is anyhow considered for aiding terrorism then why not the other two? The major Arab powers must realise that they are quickly becoming victims of a dirty global politics and hatred. All the Arab countries must together demonstrate their opposition to terrorism of all kinds.

On the whole, what we now see is that there is a blatant attempt to create an endless series of confrontations and anarchy in the Middle East, and sorrowfully the main Arab countries have become the main proxy states in this premeditated game of self-destruction. Following this set of whimsical and egoistical demands the crisis in the Gulf is now deepening. Most significantly, their sweeping nature of demands would - if accepted by Qatar - represent an effective end to Qatar's independent foreign policy. According to one of the 13 points, Qatar would have to align itself with other Arabs and the Gulf, militarily, politically, socially and economically, as well as in financial matters. It has less than 10 days before it becomes the next sacrificial goat in the Arab world.

We want to see a reasonable and respectable arrangement among the Muslim countries in the Middle East. Together they can be a formidable force and not a subject of humiliation.


The Undead Archives

I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry. But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world.
BUTTE  A slow snow-melt, moderate temperatures and recent soaking rains have held off an active wildfire season in western and southwestern Montana so far.

That should stave off extra restrictions on fireworks in these parts going into the Fourth of July, a federal fire official said Friday. But it wouldnt take much for the outlook to change.

At some point we could turn off the faucet  it stops raining  and we turn up the thermostat, said John Thompson, fire management officer for the U.S. Bureau of Land Managements Western Montana district.

That really drives how quickly fire season comes on, he said. If we move up to 80 to 90 degrees in the next week and it stays that way for a week to 10 days and we have a little bit of wind, it changes things very, very quickly.

So far, however, conditions have worked against widespread wildfires in the Rocky Mountain regions of Montana.

Snowpack was average to above average in most of the region, officials say, and snowmelt has been on the slower side.

Look at the Pintlers, Thompson said. The Pintlers still have snow probably down to 8,000 feet. There is still a significant amount of snow up there. That means we have high country that is still green.

Even if other conditions changed dramatically, the high country is still a ways away from being available to burn, he said.

Rains in May and June have helped, too, and are one of the reasons the National Interagency Fire Center predicted a below normal significant fire potential for Western Montana in June and July.

The agency noted a storm system from Canada in mid-May brought heavy rains to southwestern Montana, and heavy snowfall in some mountain ranges in the state as well.

Then came the two days of steady rainfall earlier this month, Thompson said, when the Butte area picked up 1.5 to 2 inches in 48 hours and areas near Drummond got 3 inches.

That alone probably set back wildfire season by two to three weeks, he said, especially because it fell steadily for so long, saturating the ground and vegetation instead of coming down quickly and running off.

It was the right kind of rain and really slowed things down, he said.

Conditions were different in 2015, when low snowpack that winter and hot, dry conditions fed fires that burned nearly 746,000 acres in the Northern Rockies region that includes all of Montana, northern Idaho, most of North Dakota and Yellowstone National Park.

Persistent hot and dry conditions in June that year led fire officials and Butte-Silver Bow commissioners to ban the sale and use of fireworks over the July 4 weekend.

Thompson noted that fireworks are not allowed on state or federal lands, but he doubted restrictions would be needed locally. That prediction, of course, came with a disclaimer.

That could change, he said. That happened to us a few fire seasons ago. However, everything looks great (now).

Fireworks sales begin Saturday, June 24, in Butte, said Fire Chief Jeff Miller.
WHITEFISH  Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is coming home to Montana with a lot of baggage. Zinke is coming back to visit his hometown next week to address the Western Governors' Association after four months as Montanas first Secretary of Interior.

There were reasons to be cautiously hopeful when then-President-Elect Trump floated then-Congressman Zinkes name for the post. We were hopeful because Zinke comes from a place whose economy depends on a balance between our outdoor heritage and resource development. He has also repeatedly said he opposes the sale or transfer of federal public lands.

However, his long history of close relations with the oil and gas industry that desperately lobbies Interior for unfettered access to drill on public lands was more than enough reason to be cautious about his candidacy for the job.

It turns out that caution was justified. In his confirmation hearing Zinke committed to fight for much needed funds for our nations largest public land agency. Now hes defending a budget that has less for programs that help the public access our lands, and more for oil companies that want to profit from them. Whats worse is that it kills thousands of jobs in the process.

National Parks have seen record visitation in the last few years, including in Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. Thanks to their popularity, these parks face a maintenance backlog worth billions of dollars. Despite this, Zinke supports a budget that cuts even more from the Park Services budget.

To rub salt into the wounds, hes called Park Service employees serpents and questioned their ability to do their jobs. Hes now floating the idea of privatizing national park campgrounds  a move that will pass the buck to visitors in the form of higher entrance and user fees.

Without explanation, Zinke cancelled local stakeholder meetings and delayed important access and public land funds for states only to release them months late. There was no response to federal, state or local inquires as to why the funds were delayed.

After years of collaborative work, Interiors Sage Grouse Initiative resulted in plans that avoid listing the bird under the Endangered Species Act by allowing for both resource development and the protection of sagebrush landscapes. Despite its success, Zinke is now reviewing the initiative leaving many, including Western governors, to wonder whats next. Additionally, he hasn't responded to two bipartisan letters from Western governors imploring him to not change course.

Altogether, Zinkes time at the Department of Interior has been characterized by decisions that benefit the special interests that brought him to power, and harm public lands users. Thats a record hes not likely to mention at the Western Governors' Association meeting in Whitefish, but it will be widely felt by Westerners who need him to take a more responsible approach to the management of our public lands.
With less than 60 days to go until the solar eclipse, the to-do lists are growing, projects are piling up and reality is starting to set in.

But, in the heart of all of the stress, theres one thing that always keeps me going. Thats the thousands expected to be in Carbondale eclipse weekend.

As actor Will Rogers once said, You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

What an opportunity we have to leave a lasting impression on people from all over the world, but we have to seize the moment.

If youve been downtown lately, youve probably noticed a lot of activity. Construction on the citys Streetscape Project is beginning to take shape along Illinois Avenue between Mill and Cherry streets. Youll notice changes to the sidewalks and curbs as well as the addition of plants and flowers throughout the downtown area.

In an effort to make the best possible first impression, the city is encouraging all businesses and property owners to give their buildings some extra attention. We want to show our visitors we take pride in our community. Small improvements like repairing sidewalks or adding a fresh coat of paint will go a long way. If you need help with this or have questions, contact the citys Development Services Office at 618-457-3259.

Large events, like the Kentucky Derby or the Indianapolis 500, can be overwhelming to navigate around, especially if youre like me and have a terrible sense of direction. But, isnt it a huge relief when you find someone warm and friendly who can show you around?

Sometimes all it takes is a warm smile, a set of directions or even a simple hello to make someone feel right at home. Its the small things that make the difference. Its the small things that keep people coming back. Its the small things that leave a lasting impression. It doesnt matter if youre a business owner, resident or even a volunteer, lets all do our part to roll out the red carpet for our visitors.
BEIJING - The draft law on national supervision was submitted for review at the ongoing bi-monthly session of the top legislature, according to a statement issued after a plenary meeting of the session Friday.

Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, attended Friday's meeting.

"The legislation is aimed at deepening the national supervision system and forming a unified, authoritative and efficient supervision system," said Li Jianguo, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, while making an explanation of the draft at the meeting.

China has begun to pilot the supervisory system reform in Beijing Municipality and the provinces of Shanxi and Zhejiang.

The pilot sees the establishment of local supervisory commissions at three levels - provincial, municipal and county - in order to form an integrated supervision system.

The draft was formulated based on pilot experience and in-depth research by the NPC Standing Committee and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, Li said.

A chairpersons' meeting decided to submit the draft to lawmakers for review at the ongoing session, Li said.
COLEHARBOR  Steve Knorr is absolutely sure hell get 24 inches of water on his crops this year.

Its expensive water, but, in an area under extreme drought, he can look out over brilliant fields of green into a cash-flow scenario at the other end.

Without it, I wouldnt have a crop, he said.

Knorr draws that precious water from a pump station on the McClusky Canal into a network of underground pipes and 37 pivot systems that sprinkle fresh water across his nearly 4,000 acres between Coleharbor and Turtle Lake.

The relatively poor ground wouldnt produce much without the water even in the best of years. Because of it, he can count on twice the yield and income to pay down a $2,000-per-acre investment in addition to water and electric fees.

He has millions invested, each dollar a reason to be concerned about an emerging plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that could imperil his access to canal water during an extreme drought, just when he needs it most.

Whats afoot is the corps decision to create a first-time plan to protect the dam works infrastructure that separates the enormous Lake Sakakawea from its smaller sidekick, Lake Audubon, in a drought scenario.

The two waters are the same, only cleaved by the Snake Creek Embankment that holds the pumping station that sends water from the big lake to the smaller one. The embankment is a critical causeway that carries four lanes of Highway 83 on its surface, the Canadian Pacific rail and mammoth steel towers that bear electric transmission wires across the water.

The problem the corps hopes to forestall is what could happen when Lake Sakakawea drops extremely low in a drought while Lake Audubon remains at its standard operating pool. All that pressure on one side of the embankment unanswered from the other side could lead to embankment failure, says Matt Nelson, an engineer from the corps water control section.

Nelson says this isnt guesswork.

Slippery slope

Back in 2005 in hindsight a year that doesnt seem particularly remarkable for being dry  Lake Sakakawea dropped to an elevation of 1,806 feet. Meanwhile, on the other side of the embankment, Lake Audubon clocked in at its usual 1,847-foot elevation, the level thats maintained every summer, all summer to provide water out its rear door into the 73.6-mile McClusky Canal. That 41-foot difference in elevation from one side to the other was the biggest swing in the lakes history.

Nelson said the low water did allow the corps to observe the performance of 13 relief wells  installed at the time of construction on the Lake Sakakawea side in the 50s precisely to relieve that unequal water pressure. What they observed wasnt good.

We could see the relief wells werent flowing like they should. Some were blocked with sediment, and others just had very low flow, Nelson said.

Conversely, pressure gauges inside the embankment had readings of significantly higher hydrostatic pressure than the corps wanted to see.

Thats what pushed us to move on this, he said.

A primary concern is that, without the relief wells, a seam of original gravel below and under both lakes could blow out.

In response, the corps proposes to set 43 feet as the largest differential that can be tolerated. At that point, it will start assessing whether to back-flow water out of Lake Audubon into Lake Sakakawea.

Its not a set-in-stone number. If the embankment is performing well under that severe loading, we could go to a higher number or it could go the other way, Nelson said.

A 43-foot difference has never occurred in dam operation history, but that doesnt mean it never will, Nelson said.

What if it did?

Duane DeKrey directs the Garrison Diversion Unit, the state entity that manages the McClusky Canal complex. Its his job to worry about what would happen if Lake Audubon were drawn down too far to supply the canal.

Hes frustrated on two levels: First, that the corps is only now realizing 70 years after construction that its original design is flawed; and, second, that the failure of the relief wells is coming to light 11 years after the fact.

Here we are 70 years later, and were just learning that the relief wells dont work. If they did, we probably wouldnt be here, DeKrey said.

The way the Lake Audubon feeds into the McClusky Canal works doesnt leave much room for maneuvering.

Kip Kovar, Garrison Diversion Unit engineer, says the standard summer elevation of 1,847 feet in Lake Audubon is required to maintain flow through the canal headworks and push the water down the canal. Anything lower only compromises the flow until, at 1,837 feet elevation, There is no water in the canal, he said.

That means the diversion unit could not honor the dozen irrigation contracts it has with landowners, promising to deliver up to 24 inches of canal water annually to 5,900 acres. Perhaps more worrisome is the effect on the Red River Valley Water Supply Project, which is a partially funded plan to divert treated canal water into the Sheyenne River then into the populated valley out east, DeKrey said.

About $43 million in state funds have been committed to the water supply project and initial work is planned to start this biennium.

Thats 50 percent of the population of North Dakota, says DeKrey, emphasizing the impact if the diversion were unable to supply water because of the corps drought management plan.

Other solutions

Nelson said the corps recognizes the potential impact of drawing down Lake Audubon, but says its primary responsibility is to ensure the safety of the embankment. Its also hard to imagine the impact if the highway, the railroad and the power lines were damaged or lost in an embankment failure, not to mention the reality that Lake Audubon wouldnt be capable of storing water anyway.

There is no going back, either, and rebuilding the relief wells and probably no point, even if it were possible to drain Lake Sakakawea to do it.

Theres the performance issue  would they even help? Nelson asks.

DeKrey says hes interested in engineered solutions but concedes that would likely cost in the hundreds of millions, if one could be devised, and, at any rate, its not happening under the corps criteria.

People shouldnt be worried, but it definitely can happen and thats why we want to go through and formalize the plan. This way, water managers can plan. Droughts take a long time to form, two to three seasons, so this wouldnt come about overnight, Nelson said.

Back on the farm, Knorr drives along the gravel canal road, where he can watch his pivots deliver the promised water to crops that would otherwise be a total loss this year. He appreciates that the corps is taking an inclusive, methodical approach, and that no one is in a panic mode.

My concern is that we look at all the plans, the engineering, and decide what is the best path forward and is there anything else we can do. I hope that with all entities working together, we can come up with solutions, he said. If they shut off the water, there would be an 'out of business sign on my front window.
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The world population is now nearly 7.6 billion, up from 7.4 billion in 2015, spurred by the relatively high levels of fertility in developing countries  despite an overall drop in the number of children people have around the globe, according to a report by United Nations.

The concentration of global population growth is in the poorest countries, according to World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, presenting a challenge as the international community seeks to implement the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, which seeks to end poverty and preserve the planet.

"With roughly 83 million people being added to the world's population every year, the upward trend in population size is expected to continue, even assuming that fertility levels will continue to decline," said the report's authors at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

At this rate, the world population is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and surpass 11.2 billion in 2100, they stated.

The growth is expected to come, in part, from the 47 least developed countries, where the fertility rate is around 4.3 births per woman, and whose population is expected to reach 1.9 billion people in 2050 from the current estimate of one billion.

In addition, the populations in 26 African countries are likely to "at least double" by 2050, according to the UN report.

That trend comes despite lower fertility rates in nearly all regions of the world, including in Africa, where rates fell from 5.1 births per woman from 2000-2005 to 4.7 births from 2010-2015.

In contrast, the birth rate in Europe was 1.6 births per woman in 2010-2015, up from 1.4 births in 2010-2015, stated the report.

"During 2010-2015, fertility was below the replacement level in 83 countries comprising 46 per cent of the world's population," according to the report.

The lower fertility rates are resulting in an ageing population, with the number of people aged 60 or over expected to more than double by 2050 and triple by 2100, from the current 962 million to 3.1 billion.

Africa, which has the youngest age distribution of any region, is projected to experience a rapid ageing of its population, the report noted.

"Although the African population will remain relatively young for several more decades, the percentage of its population aged 60 or over is expected to rise from five per cent in 2017 to around nine per cent in 2050, and then to nearly 20 per cent by the end of the century," the authors wrote.

In terms of other population trends depicted in the report, the population of India, which currently ranks as the second most populous country with 1.3 billion inhabitants, will surpass China's 1.4 billion citizens, by 2024.

By 2050, the third most populous country will be Nigeria, which currently ranks seventh, and which is poised to replace the United States.

The report also noted the impacts of the flows of migrants and refugees between countries, in particular noting the impact of the Syrian refugee crisis and the estimated outflow of 4.2 million people in 2010-2015.

In terms of migration, "although international migration at or around current levels will be insufficient to compensate fully for the expected loss of population tied to low levels of fertility, especially in the European region, the movement of people between countries can help attenuate some of the adverse consequences of population ageing," the authors wrote.-TradeArabia News Service
Tata Sons, the holding company of India's leading conglomerate, said it would buy 83.6 million shares (2.85 per cent stake) in Tata Motors from Tata Steel on or after June 23, said a report.



These shares of the automaker are currently valued at Rs3,809 crore, at the current market price of Rs 455.5 a share on the BSE, reported Business Standard.



In September 2015, Tata Steel sold 38.5 million shares of Tata Motors at Rs 324.6 to institutional investors. The same day, it sold an additional 37.9 million shares to parent Tata Sons for Rs 330 each.



The transaction together brought Rs 2,500 crore to Tata Steel. With todays announcement Tata Steel will sell its complete holding in Tata Motors, said the report.



Tata Motors continues to hold 0.46 per cent stake in Tata Steel, which is valued at Rs 222 crore, it added.



After Tata Steel, the highest cross-holding is by Tata Power: A 4.7 per cent stake in Tata Communications valued at Rs 988 crore.
UAE-based Thuraya Telecommunications Company has announced the launch of the its new IP M2M Service to support high volume, high throughput machine-to-machine (M2M) applications.



The service is powered by Thuraya's real-time, two-way IP network with speeds of up to 444 Kbps, a state-of-the-art remote terminal management (RTM) platform and the Thuraya IP+ terminal, said a statement from the company.



The new Thuraya IP M2M service extends the capabilities of the Emirati group's successful IP+ terminal to support a wider range of M2M applications. It is designed for efficient communication between devices and for the control and consolidation of data from remote equipment.



The service targets a number of sectors including oil and gas, utilities, renewable energy, banking and government, it added.



The RTM platform provides a rich set of connectivity management features including usage monitoring, connection control, abnormal session management, geo-fencing, firewall management, usage traffic graphs and charts.



Its device management features allow users to view a connected terminal's position, signal strength and current status. Users can also reboot and configure the terminal remotely.



Rashid Baba, acting chief commercial officer, Thuraya, said: The rise in IoT applications and M2M adoption has triggered an increase in demand among several sectors for higher throughput applications deployed over satellite.



Some of these solutions include video- and image capturing for surveillance and security; oil and gas real-time applications; smart-grid Remote Terminal Unit recloser connectivity, and wind and solar farm monitoring, noted Baba.



The service addresses these requirements while taking operational efficiency for our customers to a whole new level by reducing the total cost of ownership and operation of their IoT apps and services, he added.



The service enhances Thuraya's M2M product range by addressing market requirements for bandwidth hungry M2M applications, said a statement.



It allows users to send bulk amounts of data per month, offering a scalable solution for high-volume Scada connectivity, remote asset control, and other telemetry requirements, it said.



Baba said Thuraya's announcement about joining the LoRa Alliance adds further momentum to its M2M aspirations.



We are expanding our services and solutions to areas such as rural IoT and M2M connectivity, cargo and shipping, smart agriculture, and smart metering. The service is one of the key components of our exciting Futura capability plans, and positions us well to effectively address the market requirements, he concluded.  TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Arabia-based Jeraisy Group has been named the authorized seller for solutions and products of Everteam, a leading provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions.



The aim of this upgraded platinum partnership is to deliver the most advanced technologies & data solutions to the highest number of corporates in Saudi Arabia who wish to take their businesses to a whole new level through automation.



Jeraisy Group now promotes more than four cutting-edge solutions concerned with enterprise data automation and management.



The news was announced during an Iftar held at the Four Seasons Hotel - Riyadh, shortly after Jeraisy Group was awarded the Best Partner for the year 2016 by Everteam. Top management, sales & presales teams from the three companies, including CompTechCo attended this Iftar.



This partnership is seen as an important step towards the growing use of solutions in the Saudi market and creating an automated business culture in Saudi Arabia. Both public and private organizations in Saudi Arabia understand the importance of automation and the vital role it plays for a Digital Transformation. Due to that, a number of Saudi companies choose to collaborate with Everteam, among the leading solution providers in the Gulf region.



"We have offered the Saudi community our best services in different fields, but what we are providing today, in collaboration with Everteam is on an international level. Businesses will match the latest universal data management standards and practices through a variety of solutions which will transcend the operations to a whole new level," said corporates from Jeraisy Computer and Communication Services.



"Organizations in the Kingdom are developing rapidly, and people are depending more on IT to handle and manage their documents, data, mail, business processes and other types of information. It would be amazing if we could match their desires with our high-tech solutions to maximize the benefits and help them develop their operations," said Bilal Hmedeh, executive manager at Everteam Global Services.  TradeArabia News Service
IT and networking giant Cisco said it has launched an intent-based networking solutions that represent one of the most significant breakthroughs in enterprise networking.

The introduction is the culmination of Ciscos vision to create an intuitive system that anticipates actions, stops security threats in their tracks, and continues to evolve and learn, said the company in a statement.

It will help businesses to unlock new opportunities and solve previously unsolvable challenges in an era of increasing connectivity and distributed technology, it added.

This new network is the result of years of research and development by Cisco to reinvent networking for an age where network engineers managing hundreds of devices today will be expected to manage 1 million by 2020.

The network has never been more critical to business success, but its also never been under more pressure, said Chuck Robbins, chief executive officer for Cisco.

By building a more intuitive network, we are creating an intelligent platform with unmatched security for today and for the future that propels businesses forward and creates new opportunities for people and organizations everywhere.

Today companies are managing their networks through traditional IT processes that are not sustainable in this new age. Ciscos approach creates an intuitive system that constantly learns, adapts, automates and protects, to optimize network operations and defend against todays evolving threat landscape.

Ciscos Encrypted Traffic Analytics solves a network security challenge previously thought to be unsolvable, said David Goeckeler, senior vice president and general manager of networking and security, Cisco. ETA uses Ciscos Talos cyber intelligence to detect known attack signatures even in encrypted traffic, helping to ensure security while maintaining privacy, he stated.

With the vast majority of the worlds internet traffic running on Cisco networks, the company has used its unique position to capture and analyze this immensely valuable data by providing IT with insights to spot anomalies and anticipate issues in real time, without compromising privacy, remarked Goeckeler.

By automating the edge of the network and embedding machine learning and analytics at a foundational level, Cisco is making the unmanageable manageable and allowing IT to focus on strategic business needs, he noted.

Already, 75 leading global enterprises and organizations are conducting early field trials with these next-generation networking solutions, including DB Systel, Jade University of Applied Sciences, Nasa, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Scentsy, UZ Leuven and Wipro.-TradeArabia News Service
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash has said that diplomacy is the priority for the solution of the crisis with Qatar despite the Gulf nation's leaking of the demands made by the four Arab countries, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt.



The leaking of the demands has undermined the Kuwaiti mediation and has taken the crisis back to 'Square One', Dr Gargash was reported as saying by the Emirati news Agency Wam.



On the impact of the leakage by Qatar of the demands made by the four countries, Dr Gargash said: "Diplomacy is a priority to resolve the crisis with Qatar, but it should change its behaviour and position regarding the support of extremism and terrorism." The UAE minister thanked Kuwait for its mediation efforts."



"The alternative, if Qatar does not handle seriously the demands presented to it by the Kuwaiti mediator, will not be an escalation, but separation," stated Dr Gargash while speaking at a press conference held at the Dubai office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Dubai, held to discuss the latest developments regarding the crisis with Qatar.



"We are not talking about regime change in Qatar, but behavioural change. There are a number of rules to deal with the crisis with Qatar. These rules are the diplomatic solution that requires Qatar to change its approach regarding support of extremism and terrorism," stated the minister.



"There is another rule concerning the failure to achieve the list of demands, in this case the option would be separation," he added.



The disagreement between Egypt and the three GCC countries and Qatar is not a matter of sovereignty but of its support for extremism and terrorism, remarked Dr Gargash.



"We hope that Qatar will realise the consequences of its policy against neighbouring countries and that wisdom will prevail in Doha," he said.



"What is happening is an attempt to stop Qatar from supporting extremism and terrorism." "If the Qatari government hears wisdom and the voice of reason and begins to implement agreements between the two sides, we want safeguards and a monitoring system for these agreements," remarked the UAE minister.



"We have noticed the European and American interest in this, especially as these countries are also affected by extremism and terrorism," stated Dr Gargash.



The Europeans are aware about Qatar's substantial funding of extremist groups, he added.



He pointed out that Qatar had not respected existing agreements, therefore there is a need for safeguards and monitoring system.



"For several years there had been an agreement with Qatar, which includes a number of items. Qatar has implemented only one - the closure of Al-Jazeera Live Egypt. Al-Jazeera is a platform for promoting the agendas of extremist groups in the region," he added.
Does a nation have the right to preserve its cultural values, even if it means defying an EU policy? And can it do so while accepting EU money? asks Marcin Rzegocki. Specifically, European politicians are threatening to withhold EU funds from three nations that refuse to accept mostly Muslim refugees from the Middle East and Africa out of security concerns.

After European politicians invited refugees to resettle in Europe, they promptly determined the exact quota of refugees that each EU member nation must accept. But four nations  Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia  have resettled 28 of their combined 11,069 obligation, and they have announced no further refugees will be accepted.

In retaliation, the EU is threatening to cut off development funds, which flow from wealthy nations treasuries into EU coffers before being redistributed to less affluent nations. The pot is worth millions of euros to countries like Rzegockis native Poland. But are the funds worth the price in lost sovereignty? How should leaders weigh their moral responsibility of providing for their citizens economic well-being and possible threats to their safety? Can government money and government regulation be separated?

In a new essay for Religion & Liberty Transatlantic, Rzegocki writes that Western leaders may see this policy as a strict quid pro quo:

[O]thers might see it as thinly disguised paternalism of richer, post-colonial Western Europe towards less affluent, post-Communist Eastern Europe. The leaders of the Western countries, as well as the non-democratic structures of the EU they dominate, are persuaded that the money invested in these less developed countries gives them the right to make the supreme decisions about the shape of overall EU policy and the internal affairs of each member state.

In a richly researched and documented essay, he notes how money from the European Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund  intended to reduce wealth disparities between Eastern and Western Europe  flows back to the wealthier nations, often in ways that defy market signals. Rzegocki also details how well-connected firms benefit from these centrally administered grants, how the policy undermines national governments core functions, how refugees may be led into danger by the incentive, and how liberal Western European nations use these funds to impose their more secular progressive values on the East by financial coercion. Much of the material in this wide-ranging and penetrating article is little-reported in the Western media.

The backdrop to all of these moral questions is the notion that he who receives Caesars funds must dance to his tune. Is it possible to maintain autonomy while remaining economically dependent upon another institution? He answers:

Nations have an inherent moral duty to protect their citizens, to represent their interests in international tribunals, to preserve social cohesion, and to discourage vulnerable populations from risking their lives thanks to perverse incentives offered by the EU. Only by shunning EU funds can any nation be free from the coercion of EU leaders and fulfill its moral obligations.

You can read his full essay here.

(Photo credit: European Commission DG ECHO. This photo has been cropped. CC BY-SA 2.0.)
Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding, the investment firm owned by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has acquired a seven per cent stake in Careem, a leading ride-hailing service in the Middle East region.



It was done through a secondary share purchase as well as participating in the latest Primary Round E-1 Capital Raise amounting to a total transaction value of $62 million.

As part of the deal, Abraaj Group, a leading investor operating in growth markets, divested its shareholding in Careem to Kingdom Holding Company.



Careem announced the second close of its Series E funding round from leading investors KHC and Daimler AG, the German multinational automotive financing and mobility services provider. In addition, global internet investors DCM Ventures and Coatue Management LLC also participated in this round.



The transaction makes KHC one of the largest holders of Preferred Shares in Careem and will grant the Saudi group a seat in Careems board of directors.



This most recent funding is an extension of the $350 million raised in December 2016 that established Careem as a homegrown unicorn, and commits new investors with enormous capital resources and international expertise to Careems success, said a senior official.

Abraaj said it had closely partnered with Careem and its management team through a critical phase of the companys growth.



The group helped drive and increase corporate client outreach through its strong regional networks, accelerated strategic hiring, and supported the company with expansion into new markets.



Ahmed Badreldin, partner and head of Mena at The Abraaj Group, said: We recognized the opportunity for Careem to scale and rapidly grow its offering across the region. We are proud of the rapid advancements the company made based on our investment and partnership."

Mudassir Sheikha, co-founder and CEO of Careem, pointed out that Abraaj Group had been a great partner for over the past two years and the companys unique regional insights and global resources had been a major contributor to its current success."

"We will continue to expand, innovate, lead and serve our mission of simplifying the lives of people in the region, he noted.



Sheikha pointed out that KHC and Daimler AG bring vital knowledge and insight to the organization as it prepares the next big advances in the journey to shape future outcomes in urban transportation in the region.



"The opportunity for further expansion in this region is huge, not just broadening and deepening our presence in the broader Middle East markets, but also in driving innovation that can have a meaningful impact on our communities," he stated.



Operating in more than 80 cities in the broader region, Careems growth trajectory has continued over the past six months: the ride-hailing service launched operations in Turkey, doubled its number of operational cities in Pakistan, is operational in more than 50 cities in Saudi Arabia and has re-entered Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.



He pointed out that KHC and Daimler AG both bring deep-pockets and a long-term perspective on global technology adoption, and "we are excited to welcome them on this journey to improve the lives of people in the Middle East."



On the key stake buy, KHCs CEO Talal Ibrahim Al Maiman: "The investment in Careem is a continuation of our strategy to invest in new technologies as we have done with previous investments in Twitter, JD.com and Lyft."



"As the leading ride hailing company in the region, and positioned with excellent growth prospects, Careem sets an example for regional businesses by providing employment opportunities to locals and developing talent," he noted.



KHC has nominated its current CFO Mohamed Fahmy Soliman to represent the group in Careems board, he added.



With this transaction KHC has become the second major Saudi-based company to invest in the tech unicorn, following STC, the largest telecom operator in the Middle East, who first invested in Careem in 2013, with the aim of helping build a mobility platform across the Mena region.



This round of funding will promote Careems services across the region, deepen its investor base, now among the strongest in the region, and accelerate its technological innovation, including the roll-out of its Driverless Pods.



In addition to expansion, a series of strategic innovations has seen Careem integrate with Google Maps and Digital Barriers  world leading facial recognition software and global surveillance, - and collaborate with Dubai-based regulator RTA to enable Dubai Taxi booking via the App.



Klaus Entenmann, CEO, Daimler Financial Services AG, said: With our investment in Careem, we are now taking the strategic step to becoming the worlds leading provider of mobility services."



"Careem has quickly leapt to the leadership of ridesharing within the MENA regions by delivering rapid innovation and customer growth, and it is spearheading new ways to transport people from point A to point B," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Wyoming will receive nearly a million federal dollars to address water pollution, an award praised by U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.

The $850,000 grant will be used for seven state projects that include stream restoration and the reduction of pollutants like selenium in rivers to lakes. That type of pollution occurs from runoff, when rain and snowmelt carry contaminants from cities, bacteria or pesticides from ranches and pollutants from mines and drilling activities down to Wyomings waterways.

Cheney praised Wyoming regulators for their work in a statement Friday.

Wyomings waters are a precious natural resource that have tremendous impact on our local economy and every facet of our way of life, Cheney said in a statement Friday. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality deserves to be recognized for crafting effective, efficient and actionable watershed plans worthy of this funding that will help to improve the quality of our impaired waters today and for generations to come.

The Wyoming DEQ received $6.7 million in grant money from the EPA in 2016 and expected about 60 percent of its 2017 budget to come from similar federal programs. Often grant money from federal agencies helps pay for federally mandated programs. In 2016 alone, the EPA provided $23 million to Wyoming agencies.

For that reason, budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration sparked worry earlier this year that state regulators would lose critical funding as Congress sought to balance the nations budget.

Drinking water standards are one of the few areas that state regulators do not control; that responsibility rests with the Denver region offices of the EPA.

But it does have wide responsibilities regarding water quality, from streams to reservoirs deep beneath the surface.

Trump appointee Pruitt said the grant reinforces the idea that states are the best managers of environmental standards.

Providing funds directly to Wyoming is an excellent example of EPA partnering with states to help address their unique and critical environmental challenges, the EPA administrator said in a statement. EPA is making investments like this grant to help empower states who know best how to protect resources, and grow their economy while solving real environmental problems in local communities.
Gov. Matt Mead will join other Western governors Wednesday in Montana to talk sage grouse, prompting a six-figure ad campaign in Wyoming from conservationists hoping to encourage staunch support for habitat preservation.

Earlier this month, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced that federal management plans designed to conserve sage grouse were overdue for a review that would prioritize state flexibility in conserving the grouse.

The 60-day examination could lead to changes in the federal approach to sage grouse management, Zinke said, noting that states should be able to consider population targets and captive breeding to conserve the bird, which recently faced an endangered species listing.

Mead, however, supports habitat over numbers, said David Bush, spokesman for the governor.

The governor believes firmly in habitat-based conservation being the best way to go and wants to hear what the secretary thinks about population-based and how thats going to work, Bush said.

Mead has cosigned three public letters to the secretary, criticizing a population-based strategy, advising caution revising existing plans and emphasizing the importance of state leadership.

On Tuesday, the governors invited Zinkes team of sage grouse reviewers to Whitefish, Montana, where the Western Governors Association Sage Grouse Task Force will convene and Zinke will deliver the keynote address.

The governors hope to have a private meeting with the secretary to discuss the grouse, Bush said.

[The governor] wants to express the tremendous effort Western states put into preventing a listing of the sage grouse, Bush said. Like theyve said in numerous letters, they dont want to jeopardize that and get to a point where they may be looking at a listing of the bird.

Mead also expressed appreciation for Zinkes promise to work with the states, Bush said.

Concern over rollback

Conservationists hope the governors can stand in the way of a potential rollback of federal rules.

It appears Secretary Zinke wants to scrap all the work done by Western communities, coalitions, sportsmen and women, wildlife managers, private landowners and industry groups, said Chris Saeger, executive director of the Western Values Project, which is launching the ad campaign.

If Gov. Mead has an audience with Secretary Zinke next week, he must use it to insist that Interior continue with the sage grouse plans. We simply cannot afford to turn back the clock on sage grouse conservation.

The risk, conservationists say, echoing Mead, is another endangered species listing.

The key to saving the grouse is habitat protection, said Dan Heilig, senior conservation advocate for the Wyoming Outdoor Council, which is not part of the media campaign but has spoken against changes to the federal plans.

Zinkes mention of population targets and captive breeding stoked conservationists fears that a review would direct the course of sage grouse management away from habitat preservation. Adding birds isnt the problem, they say.

You can put 1,000 birds on a diminished habitat and that habitat will support whatever it can support, Heilig said. Its so key to conservation of the species. Ive never heard any scientist say otherwise.

But industry groups have by and large welcomed the planned review and its implication that states will have more control over their sage grouse habitats and industry will get more opportunities to drill.

The federal plans are heavy-handed and did not defer to the state plans, said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance. Lets say tomorrow, magic wand, the federal plans go away. We are still bound by the state plans.

Operators have also expressed an openness to change.

I believe this administration understands the landscape, said Paul Ulrich, director of government affairs for Jonah Energy, a prolific player in the Jonah gas field. And even with the sage grouse review, I think we are going to come out again with stronger plans, more federal cooperation and much more local and state input.
Casper, Wyoming / April 26, 1970June 20, 2017

A light went out in our world June 20, 2017 when Tracey L. Ross left with the Angels to be with her Lord. Tracey was born April 26, 1970 to Gary Wyatt and Mary Burgess Wyatt in Casper, Wyoming where she lived most of her life. After her marriage to Scott Ross, they moved to Laramie where her son Alex was born. Alex was who she lived for. Her love for him was unending and her playful spirit with him was more than endearing to witness. Later, as a single mom she returned to school at Casper College and received her associates degree in counseling the same month her son Alex graduated from high school. Tracey would have loved a career in addiction counseling. The time spent on her education and hands on work in preparation for her degree were some of her happiest years where she really shined.

Tracey was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003. That is when her new education began in medical research, protocols, new treatments.

Having been introduced to the Lord at an early age by her Grandmother Wyatt, her strong faith in the Lord was a force behind her that most people could only stand back and watch in amazement. It gave her the strength and courage to endure the many surgeries and treatments throughout her fourteen years with cancer.

While her life direction and aspirations were changed, her free spirit, light hearted giving way, kindness and iron will were not. Tracey was our hero. Her sparkling eyes that lit up her beautiful smile made anywhere she was more inviting. We will see that smile and hear her adorable laughter always. To the very end after the cancer had metastasized to her bones, she still remained willful, thankful, and funny. We laughed with her and cried with her, and she made us accountable like every good counselor does.

Tracey is survived by her son, Alex Ross; her mother, Mary Nicolaysen (Jon); her father, Gary Wyatt (Donna); her aunt, Kathy Bowers (David); uncle, Michael McCoy (Sondra); her aunt, Dr. Karen Wyatt (Larry George); her cousins, Joel Bowers (Kelli); Dr. Owen Bowers (Jenn); Jeff McCoy (Stephany); Aaron George; Emily George; and her extended family, Kirsten Nicolaysen (Tim Parker), Peter Nicolaysen (Pam Brondos), Kem Nicolaysen (Michelle), and nieces, nephews and second cousins.

Tracey was preceded in death by her grandfather, Clint Wyatt; grandmothers, Margaret Wyatt and Marie Burgess; and uncle, Jerry McCoy.

Traceys life will be celebrated at the Restoration Church, 411 South Walsh Drive on Thursday June 29th, 2017 at 2:00 PM.

In honor of the nurses and certified nursing assistants who cared for Tracey, in lieu of flowers, donations to Central Wyoming Hospice will be appreciated by the family.
The David Street Station has hired its first employee as the downtown plaza readies to partially open in time for the August eclipse. The project came within 5 percent of its full funding goal earlier this week and plans to open the western half of the plaza on Aug. 15.

Operations Manager Amy Crawford started work on Monday and is already finalizing musical headliners to perform during the Wyoming Eclipse Festival from Aug. 18 to 21 and looking ahead to fall events.

Im just really excited to be a part of a project and really continue their momentum, Crawford said. This is something Caper has needed for a really long time.

Crawford is the first full-time employee of the plaza, though she is currently working under the auspices of the Downtown Development Authority, which is directing the project. She previously worked as a regional live events manager in Wyoming for Townsquare Media, which owns several local radio stations.

Crawford said plans for the August opening are still being determined but that musical acts and food vendors will be on hand during the eclipse festival, which is projected to attract 35,000 visitors to Casper.

Everything that we do at the David Street Station is going to be free and open to the public throughout the day, she said.

The DDA announced Wednesday that it had completed fundraising for the Brian Scott Gamroth Community Stage after $250,000 in community donations were raised, triggering an additional $250,000 in anonymous matching funds.

Gamroth, a local radio personality and board member of the DDA, died in a September motorcycle crash. The community fundraising effort solicited relatively small donations from Casperites and others in the region.

To know that over 1,000 people contributed to this great community effort to recognize Brian is amazing, said DDA CEO Kevin Hawley.

Notable contributions include $40,000 from the American Petroleum Institutes central Wyoming chapter, $33,000 from the Thankful Thursday promotion, $13,00 from a fundraiser in Kaycee, $10,000 from the Lockhart family and $7,000 from a Casper Elks Club pancake breakfast.

Hawley said Kaycees contribution especially stood out. The funds came from a potluck dinner fundraiser.

One hundred fifty of the 200 people in that town  during a winter storm  came out, Hawley said. We were kind of shocked.

Following Gamroths death last fall, John Jorgensen, George Bryce and Cathy Carson began a fundraising push that raised $1 million by November, including the pledge to match up to $250,000 in community contributions to the stage.

That brings the total sum raised for the plaza within $455,000 of the $9.1 million budget, which includes an operational endowment.

The city of Casper contributed $3 million two years ago.

Hawley said the goal was to start construction on the plazas east side, including the splash pad, before a winter hiatus. Thats because spring weather will make it difficult to install foundations and lay concrete on the plaza.

Its rainy and muddy and sloppy, Hawley said. We do not want to miss having a full opening by late spring 2018.

While the DDA has enough money to begin that construction, Hawley said the group does not want to sign a contract for the second phase until it is confident that it will be able to complete the project.
JACKSON  Rivers are running high and fast in northwest Wyoming, but officials caution people looking to float with inner tubes to stay out of the water for now.

Bridger-Teton National Forest River Manager David Cernicek says the cold water from melting mountain snow can be more perilous than the high water.

Cernicek said that even some people wearing protective clothing are feeling the effects when they go in the cold water on a tube.

A United States Geological Survey temperature gauge on the Snake River at Moose registered the water temperature at 54.5 degrees last Monday.

People are at risk of hypothermia in water colder than 70 degrees.

Local rafting outfitters are currently requiring customers to wear a wetsuit as a precaution.
CODY  A Wyoming man has been sentenced to 25 to 40 years in prison for killing and dismembering a suspected drug dealer.

Pedro Garcia Jr. was sentenced Friday in the December 2013 death of Juan Antonio Guerra-Torres. Garcia had pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

Guerra-Torres' decapitated body was found in 2014 on a remote road near the northwest Wyoming town of Clark, about 30 miles north of Cody. It took months for authorities to identify him. One hand and his other arm also had been removed.

Garcia's sister and the victim's wife, Sandra Garcia, is serving 10 to 18 years for aiding and abetting manslaughter and being an accessory after the fact to second-degree murder.

A third defendant, John Louis Marquez, pleaded guilty to shooting Guerra-Torres. He was sentenced to 25 to 35 years in prison in May.

Marquez testified that he killed Guerra-Torres after Pedro Garcia, a longtime family friend, told him the victim owed thousands of dollars to drug traffickers who were threatening to kill Sandra Garcia's family.
The reason I keep looking back in Wyoming history is because this state, perhaps more than others, continues to react the same way to the repetitious economic cycles.

Mineral revenues drop, the Legislature authorizes various studies, mineral revenues increase, the Legislature ignores its own recommendations and moves on.

At the beginning of the 1993 legislative session, then-Gov. Mike Sullivan, a Democrat, warned lawmakers about the serious structural problems in the states tax system.

The states problem was reliance on mineral tax income, which paid about 70 percent of the property tax for schools.This was great for the average citizen, who enjoyed low sales and property taxes and, of course, no income tax.

But it put too much dependence on that one leg on the wobbly stool that reflects he states tax system.

Last year, Gov. Matt Mead, a Republican, issued the same warning.

In the years between, no major changes were made in the tax system.

Revenues rebounded and the important Tax Reform 2000 report was shoved aside. The document probably has had more readership in the current economic crisis than ever before.

Currently the Legislatures joint Revenue Committee is studying the entire tax system with reform as the goal.

Yet it is clear that many legislators cringe at the idea of voting for a tax next year, an election year, regardless of the deficit ahead.

The same attitude was prevalent in 1993, when Sullivan asked for a 1 percent increase in the state sales tax, to bring the total to 4 cents, where it remains today.

The legislators were so tax-shy that the House Democratic leadership balked at sponsoring the bill for Sullivan. Instead, they pushed the freshmen House Democrats to carry the burden of the tax bill.

Republicans opposed the bill but it passed narrowly as a temporary sales tax, with the condition that it sunset, or expire, in 1996 unless the Legislature extended it.

In January, 1995, a new governor, Republican Gov. Jim Geringer, who had opposed extending the tax during the election campaign, took office.

The Republican legislators also had campaigned against any tax increases.

Geringer changed his mind after getting a good look at the dwindling revenues projected for the next four years. He supported the extension with the caveat that it be cut to .5 percent if the sales tax revenues increase by $35 million in one year.

At the time, the Legislature was facing a shortfall of $80 million, which seems insignificant compared with todays red ink totals.

Geringer said that passing the extension early would avoid the chaos that would occur if it did not pass in the budget session in an election year.

It would give some certainty to his budget preparations to know the tax money would continue to come in.

During the debate the Republicans, with some exceptions, supported Geringer and the tax extension despite their anti-tax postures.

Senate President Boyd Eddins, R-Smoot, led the opposition in the Senate. In the House, Rep. Eli Bebout of Riverton, a former Democrat who switched to the Republican Party, was opposed on grounds that if the state has money, it spends it.

Bebout currently is the Senate president and opposes all tax increases.

The Republican majority, however, warned that the schools may not be financed adequately without the extension.

This time, however, the Democrats opposed the tax extension because of the Republicans action early in the session to push through a $24 million tax break for the mineral industry.

The bill passed both houses and became law, and more extensions followed.

In 2002, the Legislature made the fourth cent temporary tax permanent, according to the Wyoming Taxpayer Association website.

It should be noted that the first 2 cents sales tax, adopted in the 1930s in the depths of the great Depression, began as an emergency temporary tax and went on to become permanent.

The historical lesson here is if you want to increase the state sales tax to raise money, do it in a non-election year and make it temporary.

It is obviously more palatable, and legislators can tell themselves and their constituents that they can always let it expire. But of course, they never do.
What would my father or Charlie think?

I see the same pictures every day several times a day because they hang on the wall in my bathroom. Marys bathroom is still waiting to be adorned with her favorites, but I brought these two to our new house and immediately put them in a relatively private location.

One photo is of a North American P-51D Mustang, and the other was taken from above and to the right of a silver beauty in majestic flight. I took the photo of a B-17 Flying Fortress with my old 35mm film camera. The plane in the photo is the last surviving flyable B-17 built at Douglas Aircraft.

My dad built planes at Douglas Aircraft during WWII, and I remember when he came home one day to say that they were working on something that would win the war! with Japan, but he couldnt discuss it. No, it wasnt the atom bomb. He was anxious to see the P-61 Black Widow go into action and since he had taken me to the desert to watch the P-38 Lightning fighters go through their paces, he felt the P-61 would finally bring the war up close and personal to the Japanese. But of course it never happened.

Another item in my bathroom is my reading material. On top of the archaeological periodicals is a nice color pamphlet about CM Russell by the Montana Historical Society.

Included in the fine art reproductions are quotes from Charlie Russell. Heres one: I came West 31 years ago at that time baring the few Indians an (sic) a few scattered whites the country belonged to God. But now the real estate man an (sic) nester have got most of itan (sic) most of the cows that are left feed on shuger (sic) beet pulp. But thank God I was here first an (sic) in my time Iv (sic) seen som (sic) roping and riding.

Charlie was a good artist, but certainly no speller. But he got the point across.

I think about these two men, Charlie Russell and my dad. What would they make of the things that are happening today?

Charlie lived in a simpler time. People then traditionally relied mostly on themselves and their God-given talents, asked for nothing they didnt deserve and stood up for the basic principles of natural law.

My father was by trade first a blacksmith, then a machinist and welder. I watched him take on extra work for a few extra dollars so his family would have shoes on their feet and food in their tummies. In between the jobs that required his chosen skills, he took some really nasty jobs of menial labor and never once thought of abandoning his pride to apply for some sort of assistance that he saw others around him do. Perhaps that is where I learned to scorn welfare that was not deserved.

Now enter the terror bomber into the discussion. What would the people in Charlies time do about suicide bombers?

What would people from my fathers era do? I do know that thrust into todays world they both would be totally bewildered not by the bombings so much as the petty bickering and infighting and downright hostility each political party shows to the other.

I dont think either man would be shocked that a black man was elected president. I know my father would take it in stride and knowing Russells esteem for the American Indian he would probably say, Its about time.

The thing that would dismay both men would be the deepening of the racial rift and the general contempt many Americans have for law and order that the first black president did little or nothing to discourage and in some cases encourage by the sheer act of tacit agreement with the lawbreakers.

The horrible shtick by Kathy Griffin holding a severed head made up to look like Donald Trump would leave Dad and Charlie speechless if not sick to their stomachs. To have that action defended as free speech by the likes of Alec Baldwin, et. al. would have both men wondering if theyd stumbled into an alternate universe. In a way, we have.
One of the ethical leaders of Americas largest Protestant denomination has weighed in on the case of a British politician whose Christian faith cost him his job  and how modern evangelicals should respond to acts of religious bigotry in the West.

Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC)  the public policy arm of the 15-million-member Southern Baptist Convention  highlighted the importance of religious liberty during his evening plenary speech at Acton University 2017. During a question-and-answer session with Dr. Paul Bonicelli, an attendee asked about the case of Tim Farron, an evangelical Christian forced to resign as the leader of the UKs Liberal Democratic Party after his party members suspected he privately held orthodox Christian social beliefs. (These views had no discernible impact upon his voting record. More details are available here.)

Dr. Moore replied that, in a U.S. context, he had been asked whether church websites should list the names of deacons and church members who were prominent in the community, even if:

that might cause these people to lose their positions, whether thats in government, or a law firm, or whatever. I think the answer to that is we cannot be scared and intimidated. And so, we have to be upfront about who we are as religious people, so that even if we are going to be persecuted, people know what it is they are doing.  I think that if you have people who are self-consciously saying, This is who we are religiously, this is who we are as citizens, and if you seek to eradicate that, were going to tell you what youre doing, I think thats an important piece of this.

In the last generation, Pope John Paul II addressed his native Poland, laboring under the yoke of Communism, and said, Do not be afraid. He knew that over time, a system built upon falsehood cannot sustain itself. His speech helped bring down an Iron Curtain and curtail its systematic oppression of religious freedom, conscience, and individual integrity. Today, Moore brings a similar message to the United States and the transatlantic sphere, charging people of faith to assure that acts of oppression do not pass unnoticed, undocumented, or unopposed.

(Photo credit: Dr. Russell Moore speaking at Acton University 2017. Photographer: Mark Schmidbauer. Property of the Acton Institute.)
PHOENIX  The political career of Joe Arpaio ended last year when the six-term sheriff of metro Phoenix known for cracking down on illegal immigration and housing inmates in tents outside in the desert heat was trounced in an election that focused on his own legal troubles.

Now, the 85-year-old who called himself America's toughest sheriff will face his day of reckoning in court for defying a judge's order to stop traffic patrols that targeted immigrants.

Arpaio's trial starts Monday on a criminal contempt-of-court charge for prolonging the patrols for nearly a year and a half. The judge later found that Arpaio's officers had racially profiled Latinos.

The former sheriff could face up to six months in jail, though lawyers who have followed his case doubt he would get locked up if convicted.

His critics hope the case will bring a long-awaited comeuppance for the former lawman who led crackdowns that divided immigrant families and escaped accountability when he regularly flouted the rules.

Attorney Mike Manning, who isn't involved in the case but has sued Arpaio several times over deaths in the jails, said the famously defiant Arpaio deserves his fate because he "saluted the court with his middle finger" when he violated the court order.

Jack Wilenchik, an Arpaio attorney, said the former sheriff is charged with a crime for cooperating with federal immigration authorities, which the Trump administration now is encouraging more police agencies to do.

"This is really just a fight about immigration law and what it means," Wilenchik said. "And Arpaio is trying to do what a good cop does, which is to enforce the law."

Arpaio, reached by phone last week, declined to comment.

He rode to national prominence by launching highly publicized immigration crackdowns, landing him in court when Hispanic immigrants sued. He was ousted from office last year in the same election that sent Donald Trump to the White House after using some of the same immigration rhetoric that made Arpaio a national name a decade earlier.

The key issue in the trial will be whether Arpaio intentionally violated a judge's 2011 order to stop the patrols. Arpaio acknowledges that he kept up the immigration enforcement but says it was not on purpose. For a conviction, prosecutors must prove he intended to disobey the judge.

The judge found Arpaio ignored the order because he believed his immigration enforcement efforts would help his 2012 re-election campaign. His legal troubles likely contributed to his crushing defeat in November to retired Phoenix police Sgt. Paul Penzone.

The things that Arpaio used over the years to boost his popularity  TV interviews, news releases and tough talk about America's border woes  are now being used against him in court.

Arpaio said in a news release a week after the judge told him to stop the patrols that he would continue to enforce immigration laws. A few weeks later, he told a TV interviewer that deputies were still detaining immigrants in the country illegally.

It's not clear if Arpaio will testify, but two people who were illegally detained plan to take the witness stand to describe their traffic stops.

Arpaio has brought several longshot legal efforts. He tried unsuccessfully to bar prosecutors from mentioning his comments about immigration during his last three campaigns. And he subpoenaed U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions as a witness.

Attorney Andy Jacob, who isn't involved in the case but has watched much of it as a court spectator, said the criminal charge will ensure that the sheriff's office will comply the next time a judge hands down an order.

"This is to vindicate the power of the court," he said.

Tom Morrissey, a retired chief U.S. marshal who has been a friend of Arpaio's for more than two decades, said the former sheriff's supporters are furious about how he's being treated in the courts and in news coverage.

"That fury is growing. Joe is just one of the victims of a corrupt process and a corrupt system," said Morrissey, a former state GOP chairman.

Lydia Guzman, a Latino civil rights advocate and longtime Arpaio critic, said a criminal conviction would help hold the former sheriff accountable for breaking the rules and tarnish his reputation.

"This will be his legacy, that he abused his power," Guzman said. "It will end in a mugshot. I don't think he is afraid of jail. I think he is afraid of what this will do to his image and the legacy he leaves behind."
After 30 years in business, Picante Designs is closing its doors permanently at the end of July.

The stores owner, Hazel Rugg, says its time to retire.

I want to do some other things, Rugg said. Im going to miss my customers. I have mixed feelings, but, you know, Im tired. Ive been doing retail standing on my feet for 50 years, and I think Ive done it enough. I want to travel and really I just want to sit down and not do anything and not have to go anywhere. Although, I think thats a dream, but in any case, thats my plan.

The colorful midtown store combines everything you love about Mexico and Arizona into one local shop, selling skull figures, jewelry, textiles, clothing, handbags, home furnishings, tableware, ceramic figures, folk art, handmade crafts and more.

Picantes most popular product is oilcloth. Several brightly colored rolls of it sit in a crate at the front of the store.

It all comes from Mexico, Rugg said. I think other stores carry it, but I have a big collection ... Its fun. Its like I dare you to put that on your table and not feel good about the day. ... Oilcloth pays our rent.

Rugg hopes to sell all of her inventory before the doors close for good. Everything is marked down by at least 25 percent, except for the oilcloth and some sterling silver Mexican jewelry. Prices will probably go down as the closing date gets closer.

The plan is to close July 31, but she may stay open 10 to 15 days longer if she still has a lot of inventory and nobody is scheduled to move into the shops space.

Picante Designs has been a labor of love since it opened in its first location downtown next to Yikes Toys  which was also owned by Rugg and several partners at the time  30 years ago.

Picante has spent the last 17 years in its current location at 2932 E. Broadway.

Since her days downtown, Rugg has seen generations of shoppers come through her store.

I have had people come into my store when they were pregnant and now their kids are coming in with the grandkids, Rugg said. So, its like generations of shoppers. Its really amazing when I see a friend come in with her daughter and shes this tall woman and she has children and youre like, How did this happen? 

SHARING BEAUTY

As a child, Rugg traveled a lot to Mexico, so shes always been interested in the culture.

Plus, she was inspired by an old store she visited with her mom.

My first job was in a store similar to this in a way, not clothing, but lots of crafts from all over the world, Rugg recalled. It was called Desert House and it was owned by John Tanner. ... My mom used to take me to his store as a kid, and I wanted to work there. And when I graduated from college with a degree in English literature, I went to work as a retail clerk.

When Picante first opened, Rugg made the clothing she sold there out of fabric from Guatemala and then it morphed into a store, she said.

Her focus for clothing has always been natural fabrics, so she likes to sell handmade clothing  as in hand-stitched  and hand-embroidered things from Mexico, as well as handwoven pieces from Guatemala.

Part of why I started the store was really to share all the beauty thats created in the world by hand. ... I think handmade things are really worth the extra money you pay, Rugg said. Theres a certain energy in them. ... Things made by hand and one-of-a-kind things really have a special place in my heart, and I hope people in the future appreciate that. I guess part of the thing is, like with these blouses, is to honor the women who make them and the men who make them. This is how they make their living and they do a fantastic job ... I cant imagine how they make them. It just seems like magic.

Rugg can tell you a story related to every collection in her store. There are the handwoven textiles with hand-dyed threads that she saw women in Guatemala working on. There are the skull boxes made in Mexico, much like the one she bought the first time she went for All Souls Day. The box didnt make it home in one piece, but she had a sugar skull from the trip in her fridge for years.

Sharing stories and personal interactions with shoppers is the one thing Rugg says she will miss the most.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some June 24 papers in history. With a subscription to newspapers.com you can search the Arizona Daily Star and many other newspapers using keywords or dates, and download articles or pages.
Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild asked Eegee's for help to beat the heat this week as the city faces record high temperatures.

His request? Release the popular flavor of the month, watermelon, a few days early for customers. The mayor's request did not go unheeded, with an Eegee's official replying that a limited amount of the watermelon-flavored frozen treat would be available by Thursday in Tucson restaurants.

"As a long-time local restaurant with an iconic product  the Eegee," the mayor said. "(I am asking them) to provide to our citizens as they often do in the summer one of the most popular drinks in the community  which is the watermelon Eegees."

"When it gets as hot as it is, the demand for watermelon Eegee goes almost as high as the thermometer, and I am asking that Eegee's put out  early perhaps  in the interest for the good of the Tucson public the watermelon Eegee's," he said Wednesday afternoon.

The mayor received an email from Don Weymer, the COO of Eegee's, which said the company would have "very limited supplies" of watermelon available in Tucson restaurants by Thursday.
A Tucson woman was arrested at the Nogales port of entry Thursday after she was found carrying heroin, immigration officials said.

The 21-year-old woman was referred for further inspection when a drug-sniffing dog alerted officers at the Morley pedestrian gate on June 22, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release.

Officers searched the woman and found almost eight pounds of heroin taped to her chest and stomach areas, officials said.

The heroin was valued at more than $135,000.

In another incident, a 40-year-old Nogales, Arizona man was referred to a secondary inspection of his GMC truck at the Dennis DeConcini crossing, said officials.

A drug-sniffing dog alerted to the truck's spare tire, which was cut open, exposing multiple packages of more than 60 pounds of cocaine. The cocaine had a value of more than $694,000, said authorities.

Officers seized the drugs and vehicle and turned over the woman and man to federal authorities.
 Newsweek: "Why Is Israel So Corrupt?" | Main | BBC Misleads Again 

June 24, 2017

University Professor Who Cheered Students Death is a BDS Supporter



A University of Delaware professor who said that student Otto Warmbier, a victim of the North Korean regime, got exactly what he deserved,? after he was held and possibly murdered by North Korea, is a supporter of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) effort which seeks to delegitimize Israel.

Kathy Dettwyler, an adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Delaware, wrote on her personal Facebook page that Warmbier was typical of the mindset of a lot of the young, white, rich, clueless males who come into my class.?

Warmbier was a University of Virginia student visiting North Korea on a January 2016 trip. Accused by North Korean authorities of stealing a propaganda poster from his hotel, he was subsequently arrested and sentenced to 15 years hard labor. On June 13, 2017to his parents shock and horrorWarmbier was returned to U.S. soil, unresponsive and in a coma. Six days later, Warmbierwho was reportedly in good health at the time of his tripdied from his injuries, having been in a coma for at least 15 months.

Gordan Chang, a foreign affairs analyst who specializes in North Korea and China, pointed out that although Pyongyang claims Warmbier had contracted botulism, doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, which examined the student upon his return, found no traces of botulism but did find dead brain tissue?likely the result of severe trauma.

In her Facebook post, Dettwyler justified the young mans death at the hands of a brutal, authoritarian regime. Writing for the News Journal, reporter Jessica Bies noted some of the professors troubling remarks:

"These are the same kids who cry about their grades because they didn't think they'd really have to read and study the material to get a good grade ... His parents ultimately are to blame for his growing up thinking he could get away with whatever he wanted. Maybe in the US, where young, white, rich, clueless white males routinely get away with raping women. Not so much in North Korea. And of course, it's Ottos' parents who will pay the price for the rest of their lives."

Dettwyler is also a BDS supporter, according to research by CAMERA that found that she was a signatory for the Anthropologists for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions.?

The movement's co-founder, Omar Barghouti, has stated that the purpose of BDS is to permanently end Jewish self-rule in the region; he advocates a Palestinian Arab state to replace the Jewish one, not a two-state solution.? (BDS, Academic/Cultural Boycott of Israel, and Omar Barghouti,? Feb. 24, 2010, CAMERA).

As CAMERA has noted (J Street's Unreported Pro-BDS PartnerJewish Voice for Peace,'? June 18, 2015), the Palestinian civil society groups? behind the founding of the BDS movement include U.S.-designated terrorist organizations Hamas and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Fatah and non-Palestinian Syrian extremist movements. The charter of Hamas calls for the destruction of Israel and genocide of the Jews.

Indeed, in his April 19, 2016 testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Jonathan Schanzer, a former U.S. Treasury Department terror analyst, highlighted ties between the BDS movement and Hamas-linked charities. Schanzer testified that the U.S. Coalition to Boycott Israel (also known as the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine) is led by a Chicago resident named Ghassan Barakat, a member of the Palestine National Council (PNC), and its coordinator is Senan Shaqdeh. Shaqdeh is a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated terrorist group, and a self-described founder of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a pro-BDS group.

Given her support for BDS, Dettwylers decision to blame the victim of an autocratic, anti-Western regime, seemingly on the grounds of his racial/ethnic makeup, is perhaps unsurprising.

Amid calls for Dettwylers dismissal, the University of Delaware has stated that the professors distressing? comments do not reflect the values or position? of the school.



Posted by SD at June 24, 2017 02:17 PM

UPDATE:

The University of Delaware said Dettwyler would not be hired to teach there in the future. I don't know if that means she's done right now or if it means she's been told she can hang around on terminal leave until they kick her ass out of the campus, but either way it sounds like she got the right reaction to her utterly disgusting comments on the torture and murder of an American citizen by an indefensible regime.

Posted by: Ben at June 26, 2017 10:53 AM

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A motorcyclist was killed early Friday morning after he struck a guardrail when traveling on East Valencia Road, east of Interstate 10.

He was identified as Michael Ray Fischella, 63, said Sgt. Pete Dugan, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.

The crash occurred June 23 shortly after midnight in the 5300 block of East Valencia Road.

Paramedics treated Fischella and took him to Banner-University Medical Center where he was pronounced deceased, Dugan said.

Traffic detectives determined that Fischella was traveling east on Valencia when he struck a guardrail on the south-side of the road. Fischella, who was wearing a helmet, was thrown from his black 2011 Yamaha motorcycle.

It is uncertain why Fischella struck the guardrail. Speed does not appear to be a factor, said Dugan.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call 88-CRIME.

Since January, there have been 29 traffic fatalities in the city, compared to 28 at this time last year, police data shows.
More than a month after a former Pima County sheriffs official revealed in federal court a two-decade criminal conspiracy to misuse federal funds, the sheriff is asking the state to step in and conduct a second investigation.

In September, former Chief Deputy Christopher Radtke was indicted on several felony counts of conspiracy to launder money and theft concerning programs receiving federal funds. In February, Radtke accepted a plea agreement for three misdemeanor counts of theft of federal funds and was sentenced in May to one year of probation, 100 hours of community service and ordered to pay $3,000 in fines.

Sheriff Mark Napier said that after the sentencing, a number of employees in the department and community members expressed concern over what they saw as a lenient sentence, leading him to request the state investigation, according to a news release from the department.

After extensively conferring with the FBI, obtaining legal device and doing considerable research, it appears there may be another avenue available that could be explored, Napier wrote in the release, saying laws allow for a second state-level investigation.

Some in the community and within my department feel that others may have culpability, and the sanction provided was inadequate given the scope and apparent vast nature of the offense, Napier said.

The present question is whether this investigation completely addressed all criminal conduct and bad actors from a state perspective.

A state review of the departments use of federal funds from the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as RICO, will allow the department to put to rest any remaining speculation on the matter, as well as allowing the department to say it has exhausted every avenue available, Napier said.

A review by the state will also ensure public confidence in the department and its resolution of the matter, he said.

During his court case, Radtke said the diversion of RICO money for other unapproved uses had been occurring at the Sheriffs Department for nearly 20 years. The investigation revealed that several members of the department were involved in practices to divert RICO money intended for the sheriffs auxiliary volunteers fund, which was intended for crime-fighting and prevention. No one else was charged in the federal case.

Napier has asked the Pima County Attorneys Office to review the evidence to see if any state laws were broken, in addition to the federal statutes that were already addressed.

Napier defeated then-Sheriff Chris Nanos in the November 2016 general election. Nanos was appointed sheriff in August 2015 after Sheriff Clarence Dupnik retired after 35 years in office.

Its possible the County Attorneys Office could recuse itself, in which case Napier will ask that the Arizona attorney general review the case.

I have received Sheriff Napiers request and am in the process of evaluating it, Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall wrote in an email to the Star. I cannot comment further at this time, given that this involves a matter at the investigation stage.

The FBIs investigation into the departments use of funds began after the Stars November 2015 story about cafes inside sheriffs headquarters and the Pima County jail being run by Radtkes niece without a contract and rent-free.

Public-records requests revealed the department spent nearly $30,000 on the two spaces, which officials initially said was paid for by RICO money but later said came out of the departments general fund.

As a result of the story and inquiries from Sheriffs Department employees that followed, the FBI launched an investigation into the departments spending, but the U.S. Attorneys Office didnt have enough evidence to charge anyone other than Radtke.

After the sentencing, U.S. Attorney David Backman said there was evidence that another employee was more culpable than Radtke, referring to former chief of staff Brad Gagnepain, who took his own life last summer.

The U.S. attorneys goal in prosecuting the case was to rid the department of corruption, which Backman said had been achieved.
WASHINGTON  Heres how members of Congress from Arizona voted on major issues in the week ending June 23.

House

Forest fires, environmental rules: The House on June 21 voted, 300-118, to waive environmental rules to speed the removal of dead trees and combustible vegetation adjacent to power lines in utility rights-of-way on federal land. The GOP-drafted bill is now before the Senate. A yes vote was to pass HR 1873 over arguments its loose definitions would allow clear-cutting in the name of fire prevention.

Voting yes: Tom OHalleran, D-1, Martha McSally, R-2, Paul Gosar, R-4, Andy Biggs, R-5, David Schweikert, R-6, Trent Franks, R-8, Kyrsten Sinema, D-9

Voting no: Raul Grijalva, D-3, Ruben Gallego, D-7

Water projects, environmental rules: The House on June 22 voted, 233-180, to ease environmental rules so as to give state and local water officials more authority for developing projects that divert river flows and build dams and reservoirs on federal land in western states, with California especially affected by the bill. A yes vote was to send the GOP-drafted bill (HR 1654) to the Senate.

Yes: McSally, Biggs, Schweikert, Franks, Sinema

No: OHalleran, Grijalva, Gallego

Not voting: Gosar

Protection of commercial fisheries: The House on June 22 defeated, 179-232, an amendment to HR 1654 (above) that sought to prevent environmental waivers or shortcuts for any projects on federal land that would diminish fish populations and inflict economic harm on commercial fisheries. A yes vote was to adopt the Democratic-sponsored amendment.

Yes: OHalleran, Grijalva, Gallego, Sinema

No: McSally, Biggs, Schweikert, Franks

Not voting: Gosar

GOP tax overhaul, Trump returns: Voting 227-188, the House on June 21 blocked a Democratic bid for floor debate on a measure delaying the GOPs planned overhaul of the tax code until after President Trump has released his personal returns for 2006-2015 along with returns or tax information for the 500-plus companies worldwide that he either controls or serves in some official capacity. A yes vote opposed the bid for tax disclosure.

Yes: McSally, Gosar, Biggs, Schweikert, Franks

No: OHalleran, Grijalva, Gallego, Sinema

Wage subsidies for welfare recipients: Voting 377-34, the House on June 23 passed a bill that would allocate $100 million over one year for subsidizing up to half the wages of welfare recipients hired by companies and other employers for work-training and apprenticeship programs. States would operate these ventures within the federally funded welfare-to-work program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). A yes vote was to send HR 2842 to the Senate.

Yes: OHalleran, McSally, Grijalva, Schweikert, Franks, Sinema

No: Biggs, Gallego

Not voting: Gosar

Senate

Marshall Billingslea confirmation: The Senate on June 22 voted, 65-35, to confirm Marshall Billingslea as the Treasury Departments assistant secretary for terrorist financing. A yes vote backed a nominee who held high positions at the Department of Defense and NATO under President George W. Bush.

Yes: Jeff Flake, R

No: John McCain, R
OPINION: "People have a perverse attraction to bad news and in todays digital world, bad news has become easier and easier to access. No group is quite as vulnerable to its influence than the digital natives of Gen Z," writes Marana resident Mitch Carroll.
Help India!

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter

National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations (NCHRO) will join other human rights organisations worldwide to commemorate June 26 as the International Day in support of torture survivors and in commemoration of victims.

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Throughout the years, NCHRO have been moved by some powerful anti-torture campaigns seeking to highlight the horrors of torture and its devastating impact on the victims and their families.

NCHRO is in nationwide campaign mode with Anti-Torture Posters in all major Indian languages namely Hindi, Urdu, Telugu, Marathi, Manipuri, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and English, which depict torture victims images were accompanied by the message: Torture in any Form is a Crime: Prevent Torture.

The poster campaign is being conducted in 17 Indian states. The states are Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu and Pondicherry. NCHRO has been conducting this campaign for the past two decades and since 2007 at national level.

Advocate Mohammad Yusuf, National Secretary at NCHRO said in a statement, The reality is, torture and torturers exist and is a common practice around the world. Victims of torture continue to be ignored, silenced, abandoned or re-victimized. Impunity and insufficient protection measures for victims stand in the way of a torture free world.

NCHROs campaign has already received plenty of attention and support from the social media.
Help India!

By Shafeeq Hudawi, TwoCircles.net

Kozhikode: 65-year-od Ayisha (name changed) is alone in her house at Karassery in Kozhikode district of Kerala. The hexagenerian is unable to earn as various ailments stop her from working. But the holy month of Ramadan has brought a cheer to her family, thanks to the Indian Muslim Relief and Charities (IMRC). The food kit which she received from Mukkam Muslim Orphanage, through which IMRC has been holding its charity activities for past few decades, will help her easily survive for three or four months.

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Inhabitants of a poor housing colony at Mukkam, where more than 40 underprivileged families are living, have various tales to narrate relating to the charity of IMRC. Like Ayisha, several families here also have been getting aid from IMRC during Ramadan.

This year too IMRC has come in aid for us. IMRCs programme lends us much relief, said one of the residents here. .

This Ramadan, as part of its Ramadan charity initiatives, IMRC has allocated food kits for 1,000 underprivileged families in and around Mukkam. Kits were distributed to 400 families on June 23 while 300 families received Fitr Zakat kits from the orphanage on June 23.

Each Ramadan kit, which costs Rs. 1500, consists various food items in addition to 25 kilogram rice. Five kilogram rice is given in Fitr Zakat kit.

According to Mohammed Mon Haji, vice president of Mukkam Muslim Orphanage, the kits were distributed to families residing at Mukkam, Koodaranji, Kodiyathur, Pathanapuram, Karassery, Nellikkapparamba, Malamkunnu, Aanayamkunnu, Chathoth, Koolimadu and Chennamangaloor.

Ahead of Ramadan, we list out the beneficiaries by holding a survey jointly with mosque committees in these localities, says Mohammed Mon Haji.

Mohammed Mon Haji said 600 more food kits will be delivered to beneficiaries at a function, to be held at the orphanage on July 8.

IMRC has been active in relief and charity activities in the area by joining hands with Mukkam Orphanage. For more than last five years, poor families have been receiving relief from IMRC.

Last two years, food kits were distributed to 600 families. Besides, according to Mukkam Orphanage project coordinator Amal Abdulla, the organisation had delivered Rs. one lakh towards the expenses of Ifthar parties, organised by various mosques at Mukkam, Chennamangaloor, Manassery and Pathanapuram.

Last year, IMRC had organized medical camps at Mukkam and nearby areas as part of its seventh annual India Health Initiative. Free medical services were extended to around 1,000 patients through the social outreach programme of IMRC. Ten US doctors, practicing in internal medicine, family medicine, gynaecology, paediatrics, surgery, geriatrics and emergency medicine attended the medical camps.
Help India!

Read part one here

Read part two here

Read part three here

Read Part four here

Read Part five here

The association of Bhatkal with the Arab world goes back to over a thousand years and this coastal town in Uttara Kannada takes immense pride in it. From clothes, perfumes to streets named after Arab cities, the Arab influence is visible. But one of the most enriching experiences of this tradition is the language of Nawayathi, which is a mix of Persian, Urdu, Arabic, Marathi and Konkani. The language is almost exclusive to Bhatkal, with only a few villages outside the town speaking this language. In the sixth of the nine-part series, Amit Kumar talks about the origins, history and legacy of Nawayathi and how it seeks to survive in the modern age.

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No matter where we go, we can identify our people. All it takes is a few words of Nawayathi, says Maulavi Abdul Aleem Qasmi, the owner and editor of Naqsh-e-Nawayath, the only Nawayathi newspaper published in India. The 73-year-old resident of Bhatkal has been running the newspaper, published fortnightly, for the past 41 years, first as the owner and then as the editor after the demise of its founding editor Syed Abdul Rahim Irshad in 1996, after which the newspaper shifted from Mumbai to Bhatkal. Now run from an old building in Dubai market in Bhatkal, the fortnightly newspaper remains an important face of the language and the efforts to safeguard it. In fact, it is with a glint in his eye that Qasmi points out that even after all these changes, the newspaper, which has 16 pages, still sells about 3,000 copies per issue. About 80% of the copies are sent via post to its readers while the remaining are bought in the city. The numbers have remained consistent and that makes me happy. The entire paper is proofread and published by two people, he adds.

Bhatkalis offer a number of perspectives to now Nawayathi came into being. According to Qasmi, it is an amalgamation of nine languages (naw/nav=nine, ayath=language), although he is unable to suggest all the nine languages from which the language originated. In its current form, the language is closest to Konkani. Qasmi says that when the Arab traders came to India, a number of them settled here in Bhatkal due to its favourable climate and location. The descendants of these Arabs would later be identified as Nawayath.

While the language itself owed its roots to a number of languages, from the very beginning it used the Persian script. His newspaper, which once focussed on the most important news from the region, made the shift to more feature-based items over the past decade. With the advent of the internet and the emergence of local websites and news channels, there was little for us in the form of news. So we now focus on Islamic teaching, columns from our readers and obituaries and marriages. In fact, now the obituaries and marriages sections are the main USP of our newspaper, he adds.

Persian, Nawayathi and Urdu: How written documents evolved in Bhatkal

According to Maulana Abdul Aziz Kaziya, an expert on Nawayathi and a member of Nawayath Mehfil, an organisation which is working to restore the glory of the language, Nawayathi was not initially used in a written form. Up to the 17th century, almost all our records and written material remained in Persian even though Nawayathi was the spoken language. It was only around the end of 17th century that the language began to be used in written form too in the Persian script. I have seen documents, contracts and official letters written from that period in Nawayathi, he says. But with the 20th century, a new challenge faced the Bhatkalis. When the Anjuman Hami-e-Muslimeen was established in 1919, they were faced with a decision, says Kaziya. They wanted to create an education system that would help students equip themselves with the modern world while retaining the core Islamic principles. So, they chose Urdu over Nawayathi and since then Urdu has become the de facto language of education here, he adds. While it proved to be a positive for students, it nevertheless relegated Nawayathi to the status of a home language, Kaziya adds. Even today, almost all families speak Nawayathi at home and amongst each other. But it was never, and is unlikely, to be taught in schools, he says.

Scholars, poems and the future of the language

Aikage Sayyano-Khalabe Ismail (18th century): Nawayathi Dua

The original song has 143 verses. Here are the first ten.

Aikage Sayyano, mege sangta

Allahche Pashi, Taufiq Mangta

Toge naito amige kiwro,

Tekage waknuk napawe Iwro

Toge postolo amchoge dhani

Teka nai zodo upawanit koni

Manat mokhat aslale to Zane

Techege mazuk na-hale pane

Izanak suzanak techege niamato

Inwa gawrwa techege sifato

Inauche gaurauche tekachge sazawar

Techege athwen inauta janawar

Mohammed nabiyacho karage wakan

Allahge rakhnit tumchige Iman

Gosacho mogyo amchege wari

Yeko zan nahi techege pari

Taikage fetaules amcher rabban

Aplege kudrat ko karuk bayan

Jibreel yawn teikage Sangile,

Quran ghewn teicharge diwile

Translation:

Listen, friends (female) I am going to tell you;

I am going to pray to Allah for prosperity

He is the master, we are the slaves;

Words are not sufficient to praise him.

He looks after us, he is our Lord;

None is born equal to him.

Whatever is in the mind and mouth (lips) he knows;

Without his knowledge, the leaf does not move.

His bounties are bestowed upon the small as well as the great;

His attributes are to be found in both the rich and the poor.

He is the only one fit to be praised and respected;

His praises are sung by animals.

Sing the praises of Prophet Muhammad;

Allah will safeguard your faith.

The Friend of God is unto us;

There is no one like him.

God sent him unto us;

In order to reveal to us his Power.

Gabriel came and revealed to him;

He gave the Quran to him.

(From The Nawayaths of Kanara: Victor DSouza, 1955)

These lines are still taught to many children in Bhatkal as a dua (prayer). Nawayathi has been blessed with a number of eminent authors: Sairul Nisa, Maulud Nanna, Garvo Vakhan and Kaile Bayan among others, but you would struggle to find their books in Bhatkal today. The former editor of Naqsh-e-Nawayath, Syed Abdul Rahim Irshad is regarded by many as the most prominent author/contributor Nawayathi, and his book Faal-e-Sakhan is regarded as the first attempt to go beyond Islamic teachings/writings in Nawayathi and delve into the realm of imagination and poetry. However, you would be hard pressed to find a copy of even this book in Bhatkal.

While the language flourishes in the spoken form, it is clear that the same cannot be said of its written form and the literary works. According to Qasmi, the preference for Urdu and Arabic over Nawayathi has in some ways, negatively impacted the local language. I doubt if the present generation has read much in Nawayathi since the local schools and madrasas give preference to Urdu, English and Kannada, he adds. In light of the decline in the status of Nawayathi, a committee called Nawayath Mehfil was formed about 12 years ago. Mohammed Zubair Jakaku, joint secretary of the Mehfil, has written four books in Nawayathi, including the languages first-ever dictionary and a grammar book, says that there is an attempt to revitalise books written in Nawayathi, and that they are republishing old authors to ensure that these treasures are not lost forever.

The committee is working on reviving old Nawayathi texts along with working on a translation of Quran to Nawayathi. We have Quran in 55 languages in our museum and I believe that a copy of the Nawayathi Quran will be a welcome addition to the same. This language is distinctly unique and a matter of pride for us. I hope we do justice to it, says Qasmi. For now, the language looks safe in the hands of Bhatkalis and in a city that has been given undue attention for all the wrong reasons, it acts as a glue that keeps the society together.
The conserve Italia-owned tomato brand Cirio is launching a massive social campaign in the United Kingdom to bring people closer together and share the love of food. Known for being not just mere food to the table of many European families, the company steps into wider vision.

Cirio taps on the current beauty of this generations love for photo sharing and plans to bring back that enthusiasm to food sharing and covert it to happy moments celebrating great dishes.

What is the campaign about

Cirios latest Alfredo campaign aims at involving online customers through a contest.

The contest main tenet will revolve around the menu staple Fettuccine Alfredo. This dish has always been known, in the UK and in many other countries of the world, as the typical Italian dish, but nobody really cooks it in Italy with the exception of the restaurants for tourists.

Cirio finds this interesting and makes it the contests main theme by adding a pinch of humour. The notion on whoever chef originated Fettuccine Alfredo becomes even playful when the topic is brought to its birthplace, Italy. If you ask an Italian whether they know this famous dish, the answer will be, inevitably: Whos Alfredo?

How does it work?

This Who is Alfredo? campaign branches out to #IAmNotAlfredo contest.

The funny side of the notion difference in UK and Italy regarding fettuccine gives quite a run for every food lover. The concept embraces the wave of online trend of photo sharing.

Most people in the internet uploads much of their selfies. And Cirio tries to reach them and reintroduce the value of true, authentic foods, their real provenance, and the beauty of shared happy moments.

The mechanics are simple: take a photo of yourself or with your squad while eating or cooking any kind of tomato based dish then post on your Facebook timeline or into the dedicated website for the campaign whoisalfredo.com.

Each photo upload should bear the #ImNotAlfredo hashtag to reaffirm that none of us is, or aspires to be, Alfredo.

On the contrary, all of us aspire to be the Ambassador of oneselfs authenticity! Entries are limited to one from each person per day from June 15th to July 15th. The possibility to share more pictures offers a higher chance of winning.

Cirio will pick a new winner of a rich Goodie Bag each day until the last promo date. Five entries will be picked as grand winners and will be rewarded with a 3-day travel package for 2 people to Tuscany, in Italy, with a cooking class. However, the travel package winners will be required to demonstrate the purchase of a Cirio product within the contest period by presenting a dated receipt.
Italy has always been the dream destination for adventure seekers and food aficionados. From authentic-barrel-aged wine to delectable pastries, this European country is haven for anyone who fancy rich and mouth-watering dish.

Cirio knows too well its customers affinity to Italian fulsomeness. One major example to this connection is the widespread popularity of Fettuccine Alfredo in the United Kingdom. Being the most famous Italian dish on the land, it has been a staple best sellers in cafes, posh restaurants and even in ordinary household gatherings.

But when you come to Italy and ask about Fettuccine Alfredo. They will inevitably answer back with Who is Alfredo? This funny coincidence births Cirios initiative to use the same phrase Who is Alfredo? as name and inspiration to its new innovative campaign.

This major Italian food company campaigns to provide people with an opportunity to get together and share happy times with one another. The campaign is set to benchmark online to reach its customers who wanders on the internet.

How to win the travel package?

To make the campaign more exciting, Cirio is putting up #whoisalfredo contest. To join the said contest, customers should accomplish a preliminary registration at the campaigns official site WhoIsAlfredo.com After that they are encourage to take happy pictures in a convivial situation either solo or with other people while eating or cooking with Cirio products.

Since this competition mainly revolves around the different notions about Fettuccine Alfredo in UK and Italy, #iamnotalfredo should appear in every photo captions which will be uploaded on the site. This is to reaffirm that no one can be the Alfredo associated with the Fettuccine dish, if he/she aspires to be authentically Italian, being Alfredo Fettuccine basically a fake Italian traditional dish, served into touristic menus in Italy.

Whats up for grabs?

As promised, the 5 winning entries will receive a 3-day travel package for two to Toscana Cooking Holiday.

Daily winners will also receive Cirio Goodie Bag throughout the duration of the contest and have another chance to win the grand prize. The promo runs from June 15 to July 15.

For the winners of the travel package, winners must be able to demonstrate the purchase of one Cirio product within the campaign duration supported by a receipt. Moreover, registered entrants are allowed to upload one image per day all throughout the contest.
The Indian state of Kashmir is in the news for the wrong reason. An insurrection is on in the valley which has a Muslim majority. The insurrection is partly financed and supported by militant organizations operating from Pakistan. The government of Kashmir, for reasons of political expediency, has given the anti-India agitation a long rope and despite the presence of security forces the animosity of the locals against the government has increased.

On Friday in the morning, Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammed Ayub Pandith was Stoned To Death by a mob near Jamia Masjid, Nowhatta, Srinagar.

As per eyewitness accounts, the officer was paraded naked and then stoned to death while other just watched, some even eating chicken while it happened, the New York Times reported.

The police officer had been assigned to provide security cover to the separatist leader of the Hurriyat, Mirwaiz Farooq. The officer belonged to the J&K police cadre and the government has a policy that provides security cover for all the important leaders of the Hurriyat, despite the leaders always supporting Pakistan. The DGP of the J&K police has said that two people have been arrested for this crime. The Mirwaiz has condemned the killing has taken to Twitter to condemn the killing Al Jazeera News Channel said.

Lynching of the officer

The lynching to death of the police officer is a first. and this has not happened in the past. The fact that the killing took place inside a mosque when the officer was supposed to be protecting the Hurriyat leader is cause for concern. The Jand K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has called the lynching a"shameful act".

Such statements cannot, however, detract from the reality that the situation in the Valley has been allowed to get out of hand.

Modi silent

There is no statement from the Prime Minister of the ruling BJP on the killing of Mohammed Ayub Pandith. The BJP is also part of the collation with the PDP ruling Kashmir. The party has been in power for almost three years in the state, but overall the situation has gone from bad to worse.

Rahul Gandhi the leader of the opposition Congress party has put the entire blame on the PDP-BJP alliance. In a tweet, he said that the entire blame was due to " complete failure of the PDP-BJPGovernment.

Future

Ever since the BJP-PDP government came to power the situation in the Valley has worsened. Incidents of stone throwing by young Kashmiris including girls has shot up alarmingly. The government does not seem to have any strategy in place to counter the growing problem. Modi came to power on a set of promises including abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which confers a special status on the state. But nothing has moved on that front. In the meantime, Modi is off to meet Trump on 26 June and the Valley burns.
Young Muslims boys and girls are motivated by fundamentalists to throw stones at the Security Forces in Kashmir. There is a similar stone throwing also in the Gaza Strip. Stones are hurled by young boys at the Israeli security forces. In Kashmir, this is a recent phenomenon. Information is gleaned from intelligence sources that the young boys and girls are each paid Rs 500 by the militants who are funded from Pakistan. In a recent case, a young Major of the Indian Army was confronted by a similar situation. A massive crowd of stone throwers surrounded the army convey.

the army could not react as there is a ban on using guns against the students. Heavy stone throwing started when the Army Major Gogoi took a brave decision. His men caught a stone pelter and tied him to the bonnet of a jeep. With the man bound to the front of the jeep, the convey moved forward. It had the desired effect and the stone throwers fearful of hitting their man stopped the stone throwing and melted away.

The act of Major Gogoi

Human rights activists have condemned the act of Major Gogoi. But almost entire India has supported the courageous decision of the army major. His act saved the lives of many persons including soldiers of his convey. The prime minister Narendra Modi is appreciative of the incident and the Chief of the Indian Army General Bipin Rawat has awarded him a commendation card for his brave act.

There is no doubt that Major Gogoi thought of an out of box solution to a problem that has dogged the valley for the last few months.

The Pak army plan

Kashmir acceded to India as per the terms of accession signed by Maharajah Hari Singh in 1947. Pakistan did not recognise this and has fought 4 wars to try and capture the valley.

In all the wars the Pakistan army has been decisively defeated and in 1971 over 100,000 Pak army soldiers surrendered and the independent state of Bangladesh was created. The Pakistan army has not been able to live with this ignominy and a plan was hatched by sending terrorists into the valley and incite the locals.

The way forward

This also has failed as the Indian grip has not been loosened.The agent provocateurs have now started paying young boys and girls to hurl stones at the Indian army in the hope that the army will react with force and there would be bloodshed. This has not happened, but something had to be done about the stone throwing. Major Gogoi has shown the way and the stone throwers fearful of hitting their colleague just ran away. Maybe this is the way forward and the Israeli army could also adopt it in Gaza and the West Bank.
It was widely believed that, according to the polls, Theresa May would secure a majority in the UK General Election earlier this month. She did not. It is as a result of this that questions are increasingly being asked about the reliability of such polling. In investigating the use, outcome and reliance of such polling, certain questions do need to be asked. Why have Opinion Polls been criticised? What essentially is the problem? And where do we go from here?

Definition

Before the first question is addressed, let us outline what exactly an opinion poll is.

According to the Merriam Webster website, an opinion poll is described as "an activity in which many people are asked the same questions in order to find out what most people think about something".

Why have polls been criticised?

However, with regards to the first question, opinion polls have been criticised mainly because they have been wrong on a number of occasions. Let me explain in greater detail. There are numerous examples over the past few years. In 2012 the polls predicted that the Republican Mitt Romney would defeat President Obama for the presidency. He did not. In 2014, opinion experts in 2014 stated that Scottish voters were "deadlocked" on whether to seek full independence from Great Britain.

The Scottish people, however, overwhelmingly chose to "keep ties" with the United Kingdom. And more recently too. Almost a year ago to the day, the people of Great Britain voted in the EU referendum. As the Guardian reported, just two of six polls released the day before the referendum gave leave the edge. But as we all know, the nation did vote to leave.

In addition, let us look at the US presidential election for starters. For months the majority of polls taken forecasted a victory for the Democrat, Hillary Clinton. Although it was believed to be a close call, nevertheless, Clinton was predicted to be winner. But she did not, and Donald Trump won. And finally, to this month's general election in the UK.

Whilst some pollsters such as BMG gave the Conservative's a large lead, YouGov and Survation predicted a small Tory lead, as the Telegraph newspaper stated. They were all wrong, as we know that a hung parliament followed the election results.

What is the problem with polls?

What this proves is the essential unreliability of polls themselves. But the second question to ask is, what essentially is the problem with polls taken? One major problem is that only a small number of people are used in the polls taken and they may not represent the views of the general public. Another issue is that people do rely on them so much. A number of people do check the latest polling data just before heading out to the vote.

The main point here is the importance attached to polling data. This was further summed up by Michael Traugott from the University of Michigan who said that, according to the USA News website, "polling is a very important element of democracy". This was the case, he believed, because polls "give the public an independent voice that's generally not present". Such was the issue that in the United States investigations have been launched in the past. As a result of the 2012 election, the polling company Gallup admitted that it had "made mistakes in its core samples". These included its "racial makeup and political ideology, as well as its overall methodology", according to USA News. It must also be stated that there have been times where opinion polls have been correct.

In France, pollsters were very close to the vote share received by Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen in the presidential election. My fear though is that this is an exception to the rule and not a sign of things changing.

Where now?

The final question to be asked is, where do we go from here? It is clear that pollsters have to change their methods; they have to be more accurate and start showing that they can be trusted again. If they can do that, there is no reason why they cannot be relied upon by the public in determining who will win the election at stake in the future. It will take time though.
The Assessment Report will be produced by civil servants in the federal government (mainly unfireable GS15s reporting to Obama Administration bosses), many of whom handle large amounts of climate research money. It has always been in their interest to portray global warming as alarming, and therefore in need of even more federal research dollars.

Thus, the analyses indicate that the test favored by Dr. Michaels, when applied in a manner consistent with the intended use of the model results (that is to look at long-term trends), does indicate that the models pass the test. By contrast, the failure of the models to pass the test as formulated by Dr. Michaels is a result of a fundamental misunderstanding on his part of how the models were to be used -- namely to provide plausible scenarios for how the long-term climate might change rather than predictions of how the climate is expected to change over the next decade or two.







Deniers are scared of change and scared of being scared

It featured this scary introduction: Evidence of climate change appears in every region and impacts are visible in every state. Explore how climate is already affecting and will continue to affect your region.

Unsubstantiated claims

Forget risk mitigation

It will be especially critical for authors to consider low-probability, high-consequence, climate futures, as these fat tail outcomes will often pose the greatest risks and thus must be considered in any comprehensive risk assessment. Therefore, in framing their findings, authors should not only ask themselves, What is most likely to happen? (e.g., with future climate, given assumptions about RCPs), but also How bad could things get? (e.g., as a result of uncertainty in climate sensitivity and the climate system response), and assess the degree to which the available literature addresses both.

Replacing scientific experts with deniers?

The Draft NCA4 chapters are about to go out to agencies for review. Here the Trump people are in charge and they need make the National Assessment realistic and in line with the best and newest data. EPA in particular should take a hard look at these draft chapters, since risk assessment is a big part of their mission.

Red team blue team vs peer review

Red team tactics so far

Fake experts (e.g. Pat Michaels putting himself forward as an expert on climate models)

Logical fallacies (e.g. straw men)

Impossible expectations (expecting that short term internal variability will show up in climate models at the same time as it happens on Earth)

Cherry picking (I'd argue this includes quote mining, leaving out important parts)

Conspiracy theory (e.g. civil servants exaggerate global warming for money).

These sort of techniques are probably what Pat Michaels hopes to draw on if he decides to be part of a "red team". It's what he's relied on for the last few years, without putting any dent in the body of knowledge about climate science. So I cannot imagine what he would hope to achieve by applying it to this new report





Now, the "red team blue team" approach could work quite well if it were applied to climate policy. Provided policy experts were involved on both teams, it would be one way of testing different policies and their likely impacts, and success or failure.





For example, in Australia the government wants to subsidise new coal plants. This approach could test that idea, as well as other ideas such as subsidising new wind and solar installations instead. The pros and cons of a carbon tax could be assessed with the help of red and blue teams. This would not only help evaluate the merits or otherwise of a carbon tax, it could help refine the policy so that if implemented it would be successful.





The thing is, Judith and Pat have had decades to act as a "red team", as have all science deniers and disinformers. They may have had some impact. Climate science is now probably the most transparent of all sciences, with data being readily available to the general public. I don't know how much, if any, credit for that goes to deniers, though. A lot of it is technology-enabled, and driven by the real concern of real scientists to inform the public of the risks of climate change. Deniers can take no credit for the major synthesis reports being prepared from time to time, however, they might have helped make them more robust, if they submitted meaningful critiques during the review phases. (Most of them didn't, but there were probably some useful comments.)





As for the "red team" adding knowledge, well I don't know of any major contribution to climate science from a denier. Most of the "red team" activities take place on denier blogs, and in government committee hearings and are not backed up by published science.









Invitation to be on the red team for the Fourth National Climate Assessment





The NCA4 team issued an open invitation to be on both the "blue team" and the "red team" for this upcoming report. It will be interesting to see if Pat Michaels or Judith Curry took up the invitation.









A footnote





One final thought. Pat's article was at Judith Curry's blog. Does that mean he's abandoned WUWT as having lurched too far into crazy-land even for the Cato Institute?









From the comments





George Devries Klein doesn't want any more science:

June 21, 2017 at 7:27 pm

What can and should be done is for everyone reading this post to email President Trump, Secretary (EPA) Pruitt, Secretary (Interior) Zinke and Secretary (Energy) Perry, for openers, telling them to can the whole exercise. Links to do so are available on WH and agency websites.

George Devries Klein, PhD, PG, FGSA



Patrick J. Michaels (@CatoMichaels) agrees. June 21, 2017 at 10:30 pm

An excellent idea!










Barron Trump will get a special souvenir from Israel's first lady when his parents return home from their nine-day foreign trip. The 11-year-old stayed home while they traveled to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Italy, and Belgium. Israeli President Reuven Ruvi Rivlin's wife, Nechama, thought of the Donald's youngest son when he and Melania visited the nation.

A book mirroring Barron and his mother

Nechema gave Melania a book called "The Hug" about a young boy and his mother that closely resembles their own story, as reported by the Independent Journal Review.

A review from the Jewish Book Council reveals that the book was originally published in Hebrew and was given to Melania for Barron Trump in three different languages. The story is about a boy named Ben who goes for a walk with his mother and they talk about what makes him special. Being the son of a powerful family can be a lonesome journey, and the story identifies with feelings a boy like Barron might feel. Ben is reassured by his mother that he's never all alone in this world.

The book is written by David Grossman and Ira Michal Rovner; Melania was given copies of it in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Israel's first lady wrote a message on her Facebook page saying that it was important for her to give Barron a souvenir from Donald and Melania Trump's visit to the country.

She added that Barron's mother was "moved" and immediately understood that the story reflected her story with her only son.

Nechema continued in her post that she found Melania to be a "charming woman inside and out" and was also sensitive and special. Barron's mother has been taking on a central role joining her husband on his first major trip as U.S.

president.

Barron preparing to move from NYC to the White House

Barron and his mother will move to the White House at the end of June, according to multiple reports. He's finishing up the school year at the prestigious Columbia Grammar and Preparatory school in Upper East Manhattan. When he moves to Washington, D.C., he'll attend St.

Andrew's Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland this fall.

A few weeks ago Barron Trump's classmates from Columbia visited the White House. The field trip included 80 students and teachers. They had a tour of the White House, listened to a speech delivered by President Trump, and had a large buffet. The special guests stayed overnight at a hotel in Washington before returning home the next day.
With Donald Trump in the middle of his first foreign trip as commander in chief, his administration is doing their best to fan the flames of controversy back in Washington. After Presidential Counsel Kellyanne Conway used a recent poll from Fox News to promote Trump's agenda, she quickly faced backlash on social media.

Conway on Twitter

As Donald Trump picked up steam during the 2016 presidential election, he was forced to make a major move after he locked up the GOP nomination at the Republican National Convention last summer. Paul Manafort, who was serving as campaign manager at the time, had been exposed for having financial dealings with Russia.

As the scandal allegedly linking Trump to the Kremlin was heating up, Manafort resigned in an attempt to throw water on the fire. In his place, the former host of "The Apprentice" hired veteran Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway to lead the campaign. While Conway made a name for herself by getting into heated confrontations on cable news, she was able help steer the campaign in the right direction, pulling off the upset win over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton last November. However, since Trump's inauguration, Conway has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, most notably the criticism she received for her use of the term "alternative facts," and citing the nonexistent "Bowling Green Massacre" to defend the president's "Muslim ban." As seen during a May 25 Twitter post, Conway posted the results of a recent Fox News poll, but revealed Americans concern about Russia in the process.

#poll: Again, the difference between what Americans say is important to them versus what they are told is important to them. "I'm With Them" https://t.co/XjkbFTRVys  Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) May 25, 2017

Fox News Poll: Issues facing country today. pic.twitter.com/6JJAGXhOwV  Fox News (@FoxNews) May 25, 2017

Taking to Twitter on Thursday afternoon, Kellyanne Conway tweeted out the findings of a Fox News poll, which inadvertently backfired on the White House.

"#poll: Again, the difference between what Americans say is important to them versus what they are told is important to them. 'I'm With Them,'" Conway tweeted. Unbeknownst to Conway, the Fox News poll also revealed that the majority of the American people were concerned over what impact Russia played in the election, an issue that has caused problems for Donald Trump his team for nearly two years.

Twitter reacts

In response to Kellyanne Conway's tweet, social media users were quick to troll the White House and point out her blunder. "Kellyanne- Thanks for sharing the fact that 61% of Americans are concerned about Russia's meddling in our election. Pretty high percentage," podcaster David Nuzzy Nussbaum tweeted.

@KellyannePolls I thought it was fake news & no evidence, yet 61% of Americans are extremely concerned about it. Interesting. Thanks for sharing, Kellyanne!  david nuzzy nussbaum (@theNuzzy) May 25, 2017

@KellyannePolls A Fox News poll is basically them calling you and your five friends and asking what they think, KELLYANNE.  Kristina Wong  (@mskristinawong) May 25, 2017

@KellyannePolls Try again. This word salad is barely edible.   #FireHannity  (@williamlegate) May 25, 2017

"Try again.

This word salad is barely edible," another Twitter user wrote. "A Fox News poll is basically them calling you and your five friends and asking what they think, KELLYANNE," comedian Kristina Wong tweeted out.

@KellyannePolls Counterpoint: The fact we live in a time where "Russian Meddling" is a thing that more than 61% would even identify as a concern is amazing  Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) May 25, 2017

@KellyannePolls pray tell, KC, which polls are valid/which don't matter? You didn't retweet Fox's latest approval rating for your boss, which is at 40%  Jon-Marc McDonald (@JonMarcMcD) May 25, 2017

"Counterpoint: The fact we live in a time where 'Russian Meddling' is a thing that more than 61% would even identify as a concern is amazing," director Robert Maguire added. The backlash continued as it was evident that many Americans were not going to let Kellyanne Conway slide over her questionable Twitter post.
Melania Trump Dressed In Black to meet the Pope while visiting the Vatican, and it spawned morbid jokes that quickly circulated on social media on Wednesday. Haters of Donald Trump were not afraid to voice their intense opposition of everything he stands for, but some had macabre thoughts when they saw the first lady in a black dress and veil.

Melania widow joke gone too far?

Mrs. Trump dressed according to protocol when she met Pope Francis at the Vaticans Apostolic Palace -- the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. The dress code for women is long, black, sleeved dresses and veils, which Melania complied with.

Ivanka Trump also wore all black and a veil, and wasn't exempt from the jokes, either.

According to Yahoo, many joked that Melania Trump looked like a widow by writing the caption, "Dress for the job you want." The comments outraged many who felt it was disrespectful to the U.S. president. Still, the morbid joke was shared multiple times on Twitter, as seen below.

As the report points out, the same could've been said about former First Lady Michelle Obama when she met Pope Benedict XVI in 2009. The jokes were nothing like what's being said about Melania Trump in her Dolce & Gabbana dress and veil.

By comparison, Barack Obama didn't draw the level of opposition that the current president has.

Haters entertaining the idea of the president's death

The jokes were highly inappropriate in the minds of a lot of users because it was entertaining the idea of Melania mourning the death of her husband. U.S. presidents, regardless of who they are, inherently have countless enemies who want to do them harm, and many opponents to speak of.

No headscarf in Saudi Arabia, but veils in Italy

Melania and Ivanka wore veils to meet the Pope, but didn't cover their heads in Saudi Arabia. Reports emphasized that world leaders and spouses of world leaders aren't required to wear a headscarf, whereas it's part of the dress code to meet with the Pope. Additionally, neither Melania nor Ivanka are of the Muslim faith.

It was revealed on Thursday that Melania is Catholic, making her the first Catholic first lady in the White House since Jackie Kennedy. Ivanka, however, shares her husband's faith of Judaism.

While the comments about Melania looking like a widow might be humorous to some, others aren't so amused. What do you think of Twitter users likening Melania Trump to a widow in her black dress and veil?
On Wednesday night, Greg Gianforte, a Republican candidate in Montana's special election, physically assaulted a reporter after being questioned about Donald Trump's health care plan and the recent score from the Congressional Budget Office. As the news took over the headlines, one host on MSNBC put the blame at the doorstep of the White House.

Morning Joe on Trump

During the 2016 presidential election, it became clear that political tension between the left and right was not going to improve at any point in the near future. Riots at Donald Trump rallies became routine, often dominating that news coverage in the process.

One Trump rally in Chicago became so heated that law enforcement forced the event to shut down due to violence breaking out between supporters and protesters. Trump's war of words with the media has also created a hostile environment for journalists covering the election and its aftermath, as it's been made clear that those on the political right are not a fan of the press. When the news broke that Greg Gianforte had reportedly "body slammed" Ben Jacobs of The Guardian on Wednesday night, the story horrified many, but it didn't come as a surprise. As seen during the May 25 edition of "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, host Joe Scarborough gave his thoughts.

During a segment on Thursday morning's "Morning Joe," Joe Scarborough didn't hold back his opinion on what went down between Greg Gianforte and Ben Jacobs, and decided to put the blame on Donald Trump.

"The fish rots, again, from the head," Scarborough said. The host went on to rhetorically ask and scold the Republican Party, wondering when they will start criticizing Trump for "attacking federal judges" and "calling the press the enemy of the people."

The fish rots from the head: Morning Joe blames brutish Trump for Gianfortes assault on reporter https://t.co/RpUIs8l2Ye pic.twitter.com/X3nG3kyJkK  Raw Story (@RawStory) May 25, 2017

Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman himself, blasted the GOP for tolerating Donald Trump's "brutish behavior from the top." " I want to hear Republicans speak out against it," he continued, while labeling the party as "cowardice." Fellow panel guests, including Elise Jordan and Willie Geist, doubled down on Scarborough's remarks, as the MSNBC crew appeared dumbfounded by what took place between Greg Gianforte and Ben Jacobs.

Moving forward

With Greg Gianforte being charged with a misdemeanor assault just hours before voters head to the polls, it appears as if the altercation could cost Republicans a seat in the House of Representatives. As for Donald Trump, he continues on with his first foreign trip as president, having already made stops in Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Rome.
When we last left the California State Legislature, it had discovered, much to its horror, that its plan to impose a government-run, Canadian-style health care system would essentially triple the state budget and hence the tax burden for Californians. The left-leaning lawmakers in Sacramento really want universal healthcare as much as Christians crave salvation or a drunkard needs his next drink. But that kind of tax and spending increase was too much, even for them. So California decided to punt.

Universal healthcare has always been dashed on the rocks of its cost

Universal or single payer health care has been the holy grail of the left at least since the Teddy Roosevelt administration. The idea that the government can run a massive industry such as the practice of medicine efficiently and cheaply may seem quaint for most people, but the idea of free health services is a beguiling one. Medicare, for the elderly, and Medicaid, for the poor, were always seen as stepping stones toward that goal. The collapse of Obamacare is considered as an opportunity to nationalize the health providing industry.

However, the main factor standing in the way of single payer has always been cost. Vermont, a small state with a homogeneous population, tried going down the path and balked because of cost considerations.

Colorado rejected a ballot initiative for government-run health care. Now it is the turn of California, the most populous state in the Union,

California punts

However, California lawmakers discovered that imposing single payer would cost $400 million a year, for starters. To understand the scale of the undertaking, the entire state budget, bloated to be sure, is but $200 billion.

What to do?

According to the Sacramento Bee, California has decided to punt, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon has declared the government health care bill to be woefully incomplete and thus dead for the current session.

The decision has incensed the California Nurses Association which, for some reason, wants to institute a system that has resulted in health services rationing and death panels where it has been tried elsewhere.

In any case, the nurses are threatening to primary state lawmakers in 2018. They do not want to hear about a proposal to put the matter on a state ballot initiative.

Bernie Sanders pushes for Medicaid for all

While California steps back from the brink, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, fresh from his defeat in the 2016 presidential race, is still pushing for his Medicaid for all scheme. Republicans are still trying to unravel Obamacare, which is gone into a full-bore death spiral. The political chaos surrounding the various government schemes to help us go to the doctor continues.
Dean Heller has joined the ranks of Republican senators who have come before him. In the eyes of some of his compatriots, though, that won't be seen as a good thing. The Nevada GOP senator has announced that he does not support the new health care bill set to be put forth in the chambers in the coming week, becoming the fifth member of his party to announce opposition to the measure. His resistance could deal a critical blow to the legislation.

Heller's reasons for opposition

Heller withdrew his support of the bill on Friday morning. He made the announcement during a joint press conference in Las Vegas with Brian Sandoval, his state's GOP governor.

He claimed that the new health care bill does not protect states like Nevada that chose to expand Medicaid in light of the Affordable Care Act. He claimed that it would be "very difficult" for him to join the rest of his Republican counterparts and switch his vote to an affirmative.

Heller cited that millions in the country and plenty of people in Nevada would lose health care under the new bill. In response, America First Policies is already preparing to take out ads against the Republican senator in his state. That seems unlikely to move him, however, as he would still have a year before the next elections to prove he's making the right decision. He will simply have to endure the forthcoming battle against his own party.

Health care bill in serious trouble

With Heller now out of the picture, five Republican senators have stated opposition to the draft of the new health care bill. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson have all come out against it. Susan Collins of Maine appears to have issues with it as well. Rob Portman, Lisa Murkowski, Shelley Moore Capito, and Bill Cassidy could all take issue with the bill along the same narrative lines that Heller does now.

The bill needs 50 votes to pass. The Republican Party can only afford to lose two votes if senators vote along party lines - right now, they have lost five and are in danger of potentially losing more. Heller's reason for backing out of accepting the deal could be applied to other senators. Even if Mitch McConnell does rally the votes, a compromise bill will likely be needed to rectify the differences between the House of Representatives and the Senate. The GOP is getting closer to overhauling health care in the United States, but they may fall short of their goal once again.
The driver of a self-driving car from Tesla was killed in a Car Crash a few months ago. The case drew a lot of attention and people blamed Tesla for devising faulty systems which may have caused the crash. However, federal investigators revealed that the driver had ignored several warnings to put his hands on the wheel before the crash occurred.

A 538-page report on the accident from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration brings to light several new details about the crash. The accident in which Ohio resident and former Navy Seal, Joshua Brown was killed in Florida, is deemed to be the first ever case of a fatal crash while the car was engaged in self-driving mode.

At the time, the driver was relying on the new technology to accelerate, steer, and brake the vehicle.

Brown ignored several warnings issued by the car

The federal agency started an investigation following claims that Teslas self-driving technology was at fault for the accident. They revealed on Tuesday what could have caused the car crash. The NHTSA had said in January that they had not found any defects in Teslas systems which the company had introduced in its vehicles.

The accident killed Brown when his Tesla Model S crashed into a truck which was in the vehicles path. The National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, reported that Browns car was cruising at speeds of around 74 miles per hour on a stretch of road where the speed limit is 65mph.

He also did not have his hands on the wheel while the self-driving systems were engaged.

Tesla has always recommended that drivers keep their hands on the wheel even while self-driving is turned on so that they can take over manual control at any time. The investigations revealed that Browns car was running for around 41 minutes, out of which he had engaged the Self-Driving Mode for 37.5 minutes.

However, after engaging the auto drive feature, he had kept his hands on the wheel for a total of half a minute. The NTSB stated that the driver most likely received seven visual warnings through the instrument panel to hold the wheel, followed by six audible warnings. All of them were disregarded.

What Browns family lawyer said

According to USA Today, Jack Landskroner, Browns family lawyer said the NTSB report proved that claims of the crash occurring while Brown was watching a Harry Potter video were false. There was no video or other electronics operating inside the car, other than those required by the vehicle itself. He, however, did not comment on whether the Brown family was considering filing a lawsuit against Tesla.
Two men have died while searching for $2 million worth of hidden treasure. Pete Kassetas, the Police Chief of New Mexico is pleading with millionaire author Forrest Fenn to either retrieve the treasure or call off the treasure hunt because people are dying.

The Chief of Police said he has spoken to Fenn on numerous occasions, but the author contends that he wants people to have fun and enjoy the outdoors. Kassetas reminded him that the lives of police officers and search and rescue teams are in danger when they have to search for missing people or find their dead bodies.

Fenn is trying to convince the police and the public that the treasure is not hidden anyplace that will endanger anybody's life.

Two deaths

Kassetas' reaction comes after the body of Paris Wallace, a 52-year-old pastor from Colorado was found this week in the wilderness. This was the second death in two years.

Paris Wallace's wife, Mitzi Wallace, told ABC that she does not blame Feen for her husband's death. She said she may even go searching herself for Fenn's treasure with her 19-year-old and 21-year-old sons.

Randy Bilyeu went missing in January 2016 while searching for the Hidden Treasure chest. The 54-year-old's remains were not found by the Sante Fe Police until July of that year. Unlike Wallace's wife, Linda Bilyeu, whose ex-husband died, says she doesn't believe there is any treasure at all.

She said she thinks it is a hoax.

The hidden treasure

According to Fenn, there is a chest of gold and gems, and it is not a hoax. In 2015, the author told ABC News that the chest includes gold coins, gold nuggets, and all kinds of jewels that could add up to $2 million. The Sante Fe author and antiquities dealer self-published his 2011 memoir, "The Thrill of the Chase" where he included a poem with nine clues to where the treasure is located.

The 86-year-old art and antique dealer told ABC News that he doesn't know what it would accomplish to end the search. Instead, he is leaning toward giving more clues to keep people safe.

After six years, about 65,000 people, including men and women, are thought to have searched for the buried treasure from Montana to New Mexico.

So far, none of them have been successful. Fenn confirmed that many searchers have been within 500 feet of the treasure and some have even been within 200 feet.

Do you think Forrest Fenn will eventually call off the treasure hunt or retrieve the chest so no more deaths will occur?
Blasting News reported on the story of 35-year-old Aramazd Andressian Sr., who was found passed out in a South Pasadena park in mid-April, while his five-year-old son was nowhere to be found. While the search for Aramazd Andressian Jr. still continues, the father has been arrested a second time on suspicion of murder. Andressian was arrested on Friday in Las Vegas and is currently being held on $10 million bail.

No report yet on evidence found by authorities

As reported by ABC7, the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department is working closely with officials in Las Vegas relating to the arrest, following evidence given to Los Angeles County prosecutors by investigators.

At present it is unknown what evidence has been found against Andressian, but it was clearly enough to lead to the fathers arrest.

Father of missing 5-year-old South Pasadena boy arrested on suspicion of muder https://t.co/8Eab6zzu0i pic.twitter.com/1JbJ6JSfgx  FOX 10 Phoenix (@FOX10Phoenix) June 24, 2017

Father found unconscious in a park with his son missing

It happened in mid-April, when Andressian was found unconscious in Arroyo Park in South Pasadena and his son was nowhere to be seen. The father was arrested on charges of child abduction and child endangerment, but was released after only a few days behind bars, as investigators chose not to move forward with charges against Andressian. Since that time a search has been launched over several counties for the five-year-old or his body, but with no success.

Andressian and the boys mother were going through a divorce and custody battle at the time and were sharing custody of Aramazd on a week to week basis. The boys mother, Ana Estevez, had last spoken to her son a few days before he disappeared via Skype. Andressian was supposed to return the boy to his mother at a pre-arranged meeting place, but didnt show up.

When Aramazd was not returned to her, Estevez then alerted the police to the fact that her son was missing.

#BREAKING: Father of missing San Gabriel valley boy arrested in Las Vegas on suspicion of murder https://t.co/xONX9kqXXI  KTLA (@KTLA) June 23, 2017

The New York Daily News reports that authorities are still trying to establish why Andressian had passed out in the South Pasadena park, as he did not appear to have been attacked.

Police also found his statements regarding the loss of his son to be contradictory and convoluted.

Mother still hopes for her missing sons return

In the meanwhile, the boys mother has released a statement, still hoping for his safe return. She said in the statement that her son must be brave and that she is counting the days until she sees him again. Estevez added that she will never stop looking for her son.

More information is to be released by the Los Angeles Sheriffs department at a press conference to be held on Monday.
The New York Post is reporting that the Obama administration may be about to get its own special counsel. The issue at hand is accusations of Obstruction Of Justice by then Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Ironically, the origin of the drive to examine Obama era legal practices originates, as with Robert Mueller examining Donald Trump, former FBI Director James Comey.

What is Loretta Lynch alleged to have done?

Lynch, according to sworn testimony by Comey to the Senate Judiciary Committee, interfered with his investigation of Hillary Clintons unsecured email server on a number of occasions.

Lynch at one point ordered Comey to mislead the public by referring to the investigation as a matter. Lynch also held a secret meeting with former President Bill Clinton on a parked private plane. She claimed that the conversation concerned grandchildren and other benign things. However, Comey cleared Ms. Clinton of wrongdoing three days after he confronted Lynch about the meeting. Lynch also allegedly reassured that Clinton campaign that she would impede the investigation, thus making sure that no embarrassing indictments would occur that would derail her candidacy.

How will a special counsel happen?

The Senate Judiciary Committee intends to call Lynch to testify under oath about the meeting she had with former President Clinton.

It will also likely call in other witnesses, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Amanda Renteria, the senior Clinton campaign staffer with whom Lynch is alleged to have been in communication. Comeys notes taken of meetings with Lynch will also be subpoenaed.

At a certain point, after the committee has gathered enough evidence, the matter will be handed over to the Justice Department for investigation.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions will likely recuse himself, as he did with the Russian case, and arrange for a special counsel. Since Sen. Dianne Feinstein has already indicated that the obstruction of justice charge is worthy of investigation, the call will be bi-partisan.

What happens then?

Then the Trump administration will have a new narrative to counter the Russian collusion story., A special counsel, as history shows, has an unlimited brief and can investigate anyone and anything, whether related to the original reason for his appointment or not.

One of the primary questions that will be asked, bringing to mind the one asked during Watergate, what did the president know and when did he know it? Indeed, what did Hillary Clinton know and when did she know it.

Where an investigation of this nature will lead to is anyones guess. But it should be noted that no special counsel or special prosecutor has ever failed to take at least one scalp. The Obama-Clinton axis looks like a target rich environment in that regard.
According to the Conservative Tribune, Loretta Lynch, ex-attorney general for the Obama admin, is under investigation. The Senate is probing her suspicious passing of Hillary Clintons email investigation. During the 2016 elections, Lynch dismissed the investigation after a leisurely plain flight with Bill Clinton. Since then, the Senate members have suspected foul play.

The plane flight with Hillarys husband Bill was a conflict of interest. Mrs. Lynch refuses to disclose the details of their conversation. After President Trump was elected, Mrs.

Lynch made some strange comments about the way the people were protesting. Now, the Senate investigation committee has her in their crosshairs.

Does Lynch call for violence?

In a video right after the election, some have said that Mrs. Lynch has called for violence and blood in the streets of America. Others, according to the Daily Caller say that this is taken out of context. No matter how you interpret her speech, we all have to admit that the request sounded really strange. Here is the video, you be the judge.

With that being said, the fact that she let go of the Clinton email investigation raises eyebrows in the Senate. As you may recall, then FBI Director Comey cited several laws that Clinton broke while being the secretary of state for Obama.

But the most suspicious thing that Clinton was done was to bleach bit her email server. Was she hiding something? Through the whole ordeal, America was glued to the edge of their seats anticipating the results of the email investigation. Now, the shoes are on another foot. Mrs. Lynch is under investigation.

Who got away with what?

From the evidence that I gather, I often wonder how many people have gotten one over on the American people. After all, it is us who are left in the dark. Often times, we hear absolutely nothing about the investigations. However, when President Trump asked Comey to let the Flynn investigation go, many were up and ready to point fingers.

If someone has truly broken the law, they should be punished. If Flynn broke the law, he should go to jail. The same with the Clinton email scandal.

Yet all we get is a tit-for-tat game. The thing that gets me is this: all over social media, people are demanding that Donald Trump is put in jail. However, there is no evidence that he has done any wrong doing. If we went around locking up random people just because we dont like them, the world would be an empty place, eventually. I dont like

Pelosi, but one thing she said during a speech a few weeks ago really touched home for me. She said, I dont like Donald Trump, but screaming impeachment without any evidence is not the American way. Let that sink in for a moment.
Latest social media buzz about the "Alaskan Bush People" revealed that the Brown family might be in Colorado now, as Noah and Rhain are reportedly getting married there.

Noah to tie knot with Rhain

A Facebook page called "Alaskan Bush People Exposed" said that Noah and Rhain's wedding is taking place in Colorado. There were photos which suggest that the couple is in Dolores, Colorado. It was not clear whether the whole family is with them, but the latest update said they left Los Angeles and were later seen in Arizona.

During the finale of "Alaskan Bush People" Season 6, Noah brought up with his family the prospect of having Rhain live with them in Browntown.

This was after Rhain told him that she might have to return to Orlando because she was having a difficult time finding a job or a place to stay in Hoonah.

Shortly after, Noah and Rhain Alisha revealed their engagement through some photos that emerged on social media. In one of the photos, Rhain was smiling at the camera with her hand on Noah's shoulder, showing off an engagement ring. Other photos came out with Rhain holding a wedding planner, which confirmed that the two are already preparing for the wedding.

In addition, there was a hint about the wedding in one of the posts on "Alaskan Bush People" official Twitter page. It stated, "What do you think of Noah's thoughtful gift for his girl?

(And does anyone else hear those wedding bells?)"

What do you think of Noah's thoughtful gift for his girl? (And does anyone else hear those wedding bells?) #AlaskanBushPeople  Alaskan Bush People (@AlaskanBushPPL) June 22, 2017

ABP filming Season 8?

The "Alaskan Bush People" already finished production for Season 7, and the Brown family and the crew packed up and left Browntown.

ABP Exposed said a crew was spotted filming in Colorado, which could be part of the next season. They even said that Season 8 might premiere in October.

If a production crew is following the Browns in Colorado, it is likely that fans would be able to witness Noah and Rhain's wedding. Furthermore, as the details of Ami's health condition are just starting to unfold in Season 7, a new season is imminent.

The story could focus on the living condition of the Browns as they are forced to live away from the Alaskan wilderness. Billy, Ami, and Matt already confirmed that they are leaving Browntown because Ami is undergoing treatment. In addition, the show's rating soared to the top spot last Wednesday, raking in a 0.6 rating in adults 18-49 with 2.62 million viewers, as reported by TV By The Numbers.

"Alaskan Bush People" Season 7 airs every Wednesday at 9 p.m. on the Discovery Channel.
After his sexual assault trial ended in a mistrial due to deadlock, comedian Bill Cosby plans to educate young people about sexual assault and how to avoid being accused of it. According to Cosbys spokespersons  Andrew Wyatt and Ebonee Benson  the comedian will conduct a series of Town Hall Meetings this summer to teach young people, especially athletes, about sexual assault. The two told Good Day Alabama in an interview that Cosby will focus on discussing how to look out for warning signs from potential victims and accusations that could follow.

Wyatt said young people need to "know what they're facing when they're hanging out and partying when they're doing certain things they shouldn't be doing." Wyatt said Cosby will start the tour in July.

Cosby avoided conviction after case ended in mistrial

Cosbys aggravated indecent assault case ended in a mistrial after a Pennsylvania jury  composed of seven men and five women  failed to reach a unanimous verdict on the case filed by Andrea Constand against the 79-year-old comedian after a six-day deliberation. According to one of the jurors, who spoke on condition of anonymity to NBC News, some of them had serious questions about Constand's claim that Cosby drugged and molested her at his Pennsylvania home in 2004.

Cosby earlier entered a not-guilty plea, saying his encounter with Constand was consensual.

However, one juror claimed that they voted to convict the comedian on two counts of sexual assault by a vote of 10-2. The juror, in an interview with ABC News, said 10 of them believed Cosby digitally penetrated Constand without her consent and also believed he drugged her.

On the claim that she was unconscious or unaware, the jurors voted 11-1 for acquittal.

On the sixth day, Judge Steven O'Neill announced that the jury reached a deadlock on the case that put the spotlight on one of the countrys most beloved comedian until a series of assault accusations that occurred in the past surfaced.

Cosbys wife hits prosecution, judge, and media

Cosby did not issue a statement but his wife, Camille, through a spokesperson, released a statement outside the court, criticizing the district attorney and judge. She did not spare the media, accusing them of intentionally omitting the truth to sell sensationalism at the "expense of a human life."

The prosecution said it will "evaluate and review the case" in an effort to retry Cosby.
Over the last week, Donald Trump continued to face an onslaught of criticism over a variety of issues. As expected, comedian Bill Maher highlighted many of these with a scathing takedown of the president during his Friday night show on HBO.

Maher on Trump

For two years Donald Trump has been in the political spotlight. While his candidacy for president was initially viewed as a joke, that was quickly put to rest after he locked up the GOP nomination at the Republican National Convention last summer. During that time, Trump didn't hold back his thoughts on many topics, with his controversial rhetoric resulting in either increased support from those who agreed with him, or more criticism from those who oppose him.

It became commonplace for the former host of "The Apprentice" to lash out at his critics, which often included, but was not limited to, Democrats and liberal celebrities. Since his election win over Hillary Clinton, the controversy surrounding the billionaire real estate mogul has only gotten worse, most notably due to the growing Russian scandal that shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. As the pressure mounts on the White House, Bill Maher decided to poke fun at the commander in chief during the June 23 edition of "Real Time with Bill Maher" on HBO.

As part of his routine opening monologue, Bill Maher didn't pull any punches when it came to the current status of Donald Trump in the White House.

"Donald Trump is the worst person ever," Maher said to the cheers of the audience. "And yet he's a Republican and president, and yet since he's been president there's been four special elections," Maher pointed out in reference to last weeks GOP victories in Georgia and South Carolina. "Democrats are so lame that Russians were like, 'we were gonna hack this election but why bother?'" he said sarcastically.

The GOP healthcare bill is built on one guiding principle: Rich people, if you like your money, you can keep your money.  @BillMaher pic.twitter.com/8lGcIcKVds  Real Time (@RealTimers) June 24, 2017

"Democrats have to stop losing elections because the wrong people are in power," Bill Maher noted, before turning his attention to Donald Trump's Health Care Bill.

"The Senate unveiled their super secret health care bill," he continued, before adding, "like me after the show, it was hashed out behind closed doors." "Unveiled is not the right term. You unveil a sculpture. Nobody goes 'behold a turd,'" Maher said.

Firearms in the U.S. Capitol? Sounds like a good plan, until John McCains cellphone rings and he answers his gun.  @BillMaher #RealTime pic.twitter.com/m45vX2gpJj  Real Time (@RealTimers) June 24, 2017

"Health care bill? More like a manifesto from the Zodiac killer," the comedian went on to say, before listing off what programs the Trumpcare bill cuts from, including preexisting conditions, Medicare, and Planned Parenthood. "Just for spite, it defunds Planned Parenthood.

No more gynecological exams, though Trump says he is still available to grab pu**ys," Bill Maher mockingly stated. "One group of Republican senators says they can't support it because it's not mean enough!" Maher pointed out, before taking a shot at Ted Cruz for leading the charge.

Moving forward

While Bill Maher and other high-profiled critics of the president continue to speak out, Donald Trump and his administration have been backed into a corner. As the Russian scandal heats up and the questions are raised over issues like health care and taxes, only time will tell how it all plays out.
Year of exploration to take Jiaolong to the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans

China will begin a global deep-sea scientific exploration mission with its Jiaolong manned deep-sea submersible starting in 2020, an official from the State Oceanic Administration said as the sub returned home on Friday.

Sun Shuxian, deputy director of the administration, told reporters at a news conference on Friday that the mission will begin around June 2020 and last about one year. It will cover the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, he said.

The grand mission is intended to strengthen China's capability in surveying and researching the deep-sea environment and resources and will earn the nation a bigger say in this field, Sun said. The administration also regards it a gift for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China in July 2021, he said.

No country has carried out such an extensive exploration mission, Sun said.

The mission will use a new mother ship for the submersible. Construction will begin soon on the ship and it will be put into use in 2019, he said. The new vessel's displacement will be around 4,000 metric tons and it will be able to travel at least 11,000 kilometers during each journey, giving it greater capabilities than Jiaolong's current mother ship, Xiangyanghong 09.

The Xiangyanghong 09 returned to its home port, the National Deep-Sea Base in Qingdao, Shandong province, on Friday morning, concluding the nation's 38th oceanic expedition and the sub's five-year trial run.

During the 138-day expedition that began on Feb 6, the mother ship sailed nearly 34,000 kilometers to the South China Sea and the northwestern Indian and northwestern Pacific oceans, while Jiaolong conducted 30 dives, according to a news release from the administration.

Researchers from the State Oceanic Administration, Ministry of Education, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Geological Survey had the Jiaolong collect 624.6 kilograms of seabed rocks, 5,968 liters of seawater as well as 2,115 marine creatures.

It made five dives each in the Mariana Trench, the world's deepest known trench, and Yap Trench, both in the western Pacific Ocean. These operations have enabled scientists to better understand the trenches' geochemical and biological conditions, according to the news release.

Yu Hongjun, head of the National Deep-Sea Base Management Center, said the recent expedition boosted China's efforts in exploring and developing seafloor mineral resources and its research in oceanography and marine biology.

Now, Jiaolong will receive a yearlong overhaul and technical upgrade before starting its formal operating period, which will involve travel farther from China and deeper in the ocean and include more dives each year, he said.

Liu Feng, an official from the China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association, under Sun's administration, said the country is also doing preliminary research on the construction of a manned deep-sea station that, initially, would be able to remain up to 15 days at a depth of 1,000 meters with 12 crew members.

Named after a mythical dragon, Jiaolong is China's first manned deep-sea research submersible. It was developed by Chinese designers starting 2002 and entered service in 2010, making China the fifth country with deep-sea exploration technology, after the United States, France, Russia and Japan.

During a test dive in June 2012, Jiaolong made its deepest dive - to 7,062 meters - in the Mariana Trench. During its trial run, the submersible made 152 dives.
Just in time for Veterans Day Lambda Legal has filed a legal challenge to the U.S. Military policy that prevents people living with HIV from...
US President Donald Trump (third from right) poses for a picture with China's State Councilor Yang Jiechi (third from left); General Fang Fenghui (second from right), chief of the People's Liberation Army's Joint Staff Department; Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai (first left); US National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster (second from left) and Jared Kushner, senior advisor to President Trump. Yang and Fang were in Washington to attend the inaugural China-US Diplomatic and Security Dialogue held on Wednesday. Provided to chinadaily.com.cn
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An education advocacy group has rated five states plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act and while Louisiana and New Mexico end up look looking pretty good, Colorado and Illinois come out less rosy.



The Alliance for Excellent Education, which focuses on college-and-career readiness and students from low-income backgrounds among others, has released equity dashboards for those four states, as well as the District of Columbia. These dashboards examine states long-term goals for academics and graduation rates, supports and interventions for struggling schools, and accountability systems to see how well they represent the interests of disadvantaged learners and maintain high standards for rating schools.

A state gets a green light if the group is pleased with the measure, a yellow light if the states approach is a mixed bag, and a red light if the group has significant concerns. Overall, states are rated in 13 categories. Need an example? Heres the green-yellow-red analysis of Illinois plan:

Louisiana only gets two yellow ratings, for how it plans to define consistently underperforming subgroups of students, and for how it would measure English-language proficiency. New Mexico gets a yellow for its school quality indicator, and a red for not explicitly including the performance of student subgroups in its proposed school rating system. On the other end of the spectrum, Colorado gets marked down for how it handles academic proficiency and graduation rates.



In an interview, Lindsay Dworkin, the director for policy development at the alliance, said the group want goals high for all students, and aggressive goals for achievement gaps in those ESSA plans. We tried to pick policiesequity indicatorsthat were objective, measuring how states were doing for all students, Dworkin said, adding that the group also was looking for indicators that were simple and easy to understand.

A couple of highlights: Phillip Lovell, the groups vice president for policy development, said it was mostly pleased with how the five states had handled the school quality indicator, because they were generally not outweighing the academic factors in accountability.

But he criticized Colorados plan for not laying out tangible consequences for schools in which at least 95 percent of students do not participate on mandatory state exams. That should be in all state plans, Lovell said, even in states (like Colorado) that have a law allowing parents to opt their children out of those tests.

There are many things about ESSA that are vague. This is not, Lovell said.

Want more details about the 17 ESSA plans that have been submitted so far? Click here to see what states want to do under ESSA on a range of key issues . And go here to see information about school improvement plans .

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .


Caodaism is a Vietnamese religion founded in 1926 in the southern province of Tay Ninh. It is now one of

the major religions in Vietnam with millions of followers. Photo: Nguyen Luan/VNP







The main entrance to the Tay Ninh Cao Dai Temple. Photo: Nguyen Luan/VNP







The unique architecture of roofs shows the mixture of both Vietnamese and Muslim architecture. Photo: Nguyen Luan/VNP







Inside the main hall stands a giant star-speckled globe on which is painted the

Divine Eye, the official symbol of Caodaism. Photo: Nguyen Luan/VNP







The Devine Eye is worshipped in the house of Caodaism followers. Photo: Nguyen Luan/VNP







The Devine Eye is used for decoration on windows in the Tay Ninh Cao Dai Temple. Photo: Nguyen Luan/VNP







Caodaism followers attend a ceremony at the Tay Ninh Cao Dai Cathedral Temple. Photo: Nguyen Luan/VNP .
Almost from the day in 2002 that the ink dried on the No Child Left Behind Act, educators worried whether putting so much emphasis on English/language arts and math tests would crowd out all the others, like history, P.E., music, and art.

And over the next 13 years, they offered literally thousands of anecdotes of schools that reduced time spent on other subjects: by double-blocking reading and math classes, and by turning art and music into electives, rather than giving students a steady dose.

Its actually less clear whether this happened systematically across the country, or only in certain places. (Theres some data indicating it was more prevalent at the elementary school leve l than at the high school level .)

But now under the Every Student Succeeds Actat least as its writtenstates have a lot more leeway to use additional content-area indicators in their accountability plans. They can choose more than math and reading exams to determine academic achievement, and they have to add school quality indicators that get at non-academic factors impacting school climate.

My look at states plans shows that at least four out of the 17 that have submitted explicitly want to incorporate subjects other than math and ELA into either their academic- or school quality indicators.

Of course, it remains to be seen about how these new indicators might affect curricular real estate in schools and broaden the teaching of physical fitness, the arts, social studies, and science. Most of the states arent weighing these more than a few percentage points. But its definitely worth following. Now, lets dig in:

Connecticut : As part of its school-quality indicators, Connecticut wants to measure arts access and physical fitness, which together will account for 7.4 percent of each schools rating. For P.E., the state would track students meeting or exceeding a benchmark on all four areas of the Connecticut Physical Fitness Assessment, which measures muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and cardiovascular fitness in grades 4, 6, 8, and once in high school.

For arts access, the state plans to measure the extent to which students in high school participate in at least one dance, theater, music, or visual arts course in the school year.

Illinois : All states have to test students at least three times in science as they progress through school, but they dont have to count the results for anything. Now, Illinois says it will start working the results into its academic indicators, though they would only count for 5 percent of a schools overall rating.

And, as part of its school quality measure, Illinois plans to include a fine arts indicator, based on participation of students in fine arts courses. But for the first four years under ESSA, this indicator wouldnt be weighted. Instead, the state will look at the data and use it to refine the indicator.

Vermont : Vermonts additional subject areas show up in its school quality indicator. The state explicitly frames this as pushing back on curriculum narrowing: we remind all schools of the value that we place on all subjects and hope to avoid an over-narrowing of instruction to only literacy and mathematics, officials wrote in the plan.

Science is one of the new subjects to be included. And the states looking for a vendor to help measure physical education progress. It proposes measuring the percentage of students who fall within a Presidential Youth Fitness Program -aligned healthy zone, or possibly the percentage of students who are assessed as making sufficient progress towards that zone.

Delaware: Delaware wants to work its science-test results into its academic indicators. It also appears to be the only state that plans to consider proficiency in social studies as part of its school grades. In Delaware, students are assessed at grades 4, 7, and in high school in social studies.

However, theres a big asterisk with respect to Delaware, because the U.S. Department of Education has put the state on alert that it doesnt like its plan to use some of these additional subjects . How this will be resolved, and whether it will affect the other states plans, remains to be seen.

State officials and other policy geeks: Did I miss something in the other plans? Email me to let me know. In the meantime, if youre wondering where you can track some of the other features in states plans? Weve got you covered, thanks to Politics K-12s wonderful ESSA tracker.

For more on curriculum narrowing:
HA NOI  The corporate sector in Viet Nam is ahead of every other country in Asia in terms of gender diversity, with women accounting for 17.6 per cent of the countrys total company board members.

The fifth edition of Women in the Boardroom: A Global Perspective, put out by Deloitte Global, says Viet Nam has the continents largest percentage of women holding top corporate jobs. If it achieves its plan, 35 per cent of the nations entrepreneurs will be female by 2020.

With 50 per cent of the population being women and the percentage of women-owned enterprises reaching 30 per cent in 2015, Viet Nam is seeing a growing number of women serving on boards, said Ha Thi Thu Thanh, Chairwoman of Deloitte Vietnam.

Thanh suggested that having female board members helps broaden company perspectives, promotes creativity and facilitates sustainable development decisions. She said that over the past 25 years, businesses led by women have been growing steadily in the country.

Deloittes study looked at 7,000 companies across 64 economies, and found that women account for only 7.8 percent of board directors in Asia despite diversity quotas and other initiatives. Though this number is slightly higher than that of Latin and South America at 7 per cent, it is much lower than Europes 22.6 per cent and North Americas 14.5 per cent.

Nonetheless, Asia Pacific countries still lag behind other nations in gender diversity. The majority of Asias leading economies have the lowest corporate gender equality percentage points, just a handful of countries in the region have gender quotas or other measures to redress the imbalance.

In Asia, Viet Nam outperformed Malaysia at 13.7 per cent and Singapore at 10.2 per cent. Surprisingly, advanced economies such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were placed at the bottom on the regional list.

The percentage of women occupying board seats in Asia is improving but the pace of change is still slow compared to global statistics, said Ernest Kan, who heads the Deloitte Southeast Asia Centre for Corporate Governance.

There is much more that can be done to create an environment that would enable women to break the glass ceiling and accelerate boardroom diversity. Strong leadership is needed to change the boards composition by focusing on identifying capable and board ready individuals, Kan added.

The Deloitte study argues that having a female chief executive officer breeds further diversity, as female company leaders are more eager to hire other women to higher paying positions. It also warns that despite the current favourable environment for women in Viet Nam, gender inequality is still widely prevalent in the country and around the world.  VNS
HCM CITY  The rapid growth of freight forwarders in Viet Nam has put pressure on e-commerce businesses to seek new avenues for development.

Figures from the Ministry of Industry and Trade show that by 2022 e-commerce sales turnover will grow by 150 per cent annually, to US$10 billion per year, thanks to the popularity of smartphones and Facebook.

The e-commerce logistics industry has been active in establishing rapid delivery services, most of which have been founded by students.

Nguyen Thanh Binh, a third-year student at HCM City Foreign Trade University, established a website with an interface for rapid delivery 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Binh is a member of a trade association for online businesses.

Our business does not require high investment. What we need are motorbikes, handphones, good health, serious and punctual working attitude and good communication skills, he said.

However, since 2015, his business has been facing harsh competition as hundreds of freight forwarders (cargo agents) have been established in the country.

To survive the competition, Binh has had to lower his prices and deliver cargo at any time of the day.

Tran Cong Tham, who delivers cargo, said he can earn from VN150,000 to VN200,000 per day for 10 deliveries.

Alexandre Danly, CEO of Lazada Viet Nam, said the company has seen robust growth.

Its website, which has one million products from 5,000 suppliers, has had 30 million page views per month.

The firm receives an order every two seconds, with 70 per cent of them coming from mobile phones, he said.

E-commerce is now popular in urban as well as rural areas.

In addition to well-known cargo agents such as VNPost, Viettel Post, Tin Thanh Kerry, giaohangnhanh, giaohangso1 and shipchung, new delivery services have opened recently, including GrabExpress Giao Hang, Sship and Sapo.

Facebook is also considered a popular tool for e-commerce in Viet Nam.

Experts warn that e-commerce firms will face harsh competition when newcomers join the market in the near future.

Trends

Offering fast delivery services is the trend of the future, but it remains a big challenge for cargo agents who face human resource shortages.

A recent survey conducted by Temando Pty Ltd, which operates a multi-carrier shipping platform for e-commerce, shows that 80 per cent of online customers want their goods to be delivered on the same day, while 61 per cent want even delivery within one to three hours.

CEO of Lazada Viet Nam, Alexandre Dardy, said the company has prepared its development plans, focussing on quick delivery services, especially within one day.

Cargo agents are also targeting the same time frame, aiming to become delivery partners for Lazada.

Luong Duy Hoai, CEO of Giaohangnhanh.vn, said that cargo delivery and COD (cash on delivery) services remain the domain of professional cargo agents.

He said online companies want high quality cargo delivery services at low costs.

His company provides around 10,000 cargo delivery services and collects about VN2 billion of COD per day.

The figures show that after nearly four years in operation, e-commerce firms have become more professional, as delivery speed has become the decisive factor among competitors.  VNS
During the war against the Americans, an Australian journalist called Wilfred Burchett used to write letters to his children in Moscow, from Viet Nam.

He told them about all the wild animals he saw in the country.

When his son, George, wrote back to his dad he drew pictures of the animals his father had told him about.

Recently, George found a film about his father. It mentioned the pictures he had drawn.

Wilfred Burchett was the first international journalist to visit liberated areas during that war.

by George Burchett

In April 2015, I was invited by the Cercle des Francophones (Francophone Association) of Ha Noi to present the film Loin du Vietnam (Far from Viet Nam) at the Ha Noi Cinematheque. The film was made collectively in 1967 by some of the great names of new French cinema: Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Agnes Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker and Alain Resnais, in support of Viet Nams resistance to US aggression.

I was familiar with the film, but decided to do some extra research for the occasion.

Quite by chance, I stumbled upon the website of a film festival at Casa de Cinema at the Villa Borghese in Rome titled, Il vietnam e il cinema francese  Viet Nam and French Cinema. One of the presented films was Wilfred Burchett in Viet Nam, France/Viet Nam, 1963, 44min.

Wilfred Burchett is my father, the Australian journalist, the first to visit the liberated zones of South Viet Nam (Viet Cong controlled) in late 1963, early 1965.

I knew a film had been made of his visit but had never seen it and had never been able to track it down. And there it was, on the program of a film festival in Rome.

I e-mailed the organisers at Casa de Cinema, who put me in touch with the AAMOD (Archivio Audiovisivo del Movimento Operaio e Democratico) film archive in Rome. I contacted them and they kindly made the film available to me.

So I finally watched it for the first time in my life at home in Ha Noi. It was a highly emotional experience to watch the almost half-century-old black and white footage, first downloaded on my laptop, then on my TV screen.

Eight minutes into the film, a VC postman delivers my father his mail. The commentary says:

"From Europe, your son sends drawings of the jungle and wild animals. He is a little afraid for you, but he doesnt yet know that here the most dangerous animals are American imperialists."

Well, that son is me, artist George Burchett. Yes, these were my drawings "of the jungle and wild animals", inspired by the letters my father sent my brother, sister and me  then living in Moscow  in which he explained why he was away for so long. To make it more interesting for us, he told stories of tigers, elephants, monkeys and other exotic creatures from the jungles of South Viet Nam.

Motorised cavalry

Sixteen minutes into the film, my father crosses a river on horseback  very heroic-looking, like Indiana Jones  and suddenly this extraordinary panorama fills the screen. The narration says:

"After an arduous journey you are now in the Central Highlands.

Have you ever seen so many elephants?

Did you know they are the heavy motorised cavalry of the local guerillas?"

Extraordinary. Like some lost world suddenly re-discovered. When this scene was filmed, thousands of elephants, tigers, panthers and other wild animals roamed the jungles of South Viet Nam. Elephants played a special role.

From my fathers letters from the jungles of South Viet Nam:

"There are lots of tigers and elephants; lots of deer and wild pigs around where I am. I found out lots of interesting things about elephants and the more I hear about these animals, the more I like them. They are very, very intelligent and very sensitive. They worry about things just like human beings. I heard of one the other day who loved his master very much. They had worked together in the forest for many years together, the elephant pulling the trees away from the land being cleared for cultivation and afterwards, carrying the grain and master together back to the village. The master got quite old and died and the elephant wept and was very unhappy. For a whole week he would not eat and then he died.

The elephant becomes very affectionate towards everyone in the family with whom he works. If there are some big rows, between Mummy and Daddy for instance, or between Annichka and George, the elephant simply cannot stand it. He stalks off, deep into the forest and someone must go after him, blowing a certain note on a buffalo horn, and then talk to him nicely and explain that there will be no more quarrelling. Then he agrees to come back."

My fathers words merged with the scene of elephants in the shimmering water. It took a long time for this image to reach me, and it reached me in a strange, round-about way. So I invite you, who read this, to look at it very carefully. Ive counted about 60 elephants, each with a man riding it.

Verge of extinction

There are about 60 wild elephants left in Viet Nam today. Not in one big group like in the image I am sharing with you, but scattered around the few remaining wilderness areas of Viet Nam. Another 100 or so lead a miserable existence carrying tourists, mostly in ak Lak Province in the Central Highlands. These figures are provided by Vietnams Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. And they are dire. The number of wild elephants in Viet Nam is unsustainable and the elephants are on the verge of extinction. Yes, extinction.

What bombs and defoliants could not accomplish, modern man is on the verge of achieving: the total elimination of elephants in Viet Nam. The main causes are deforestation and loss of habitat, man-elephant conflict, poaching. Elephants do not reproduce in captivity. Those who die from exhaustion, malnutrition or disease cannot be replaced. So domestic elephants are also doomed.

Elephants have played an important role in Viet Nams long history of resisting invaders. Elephants carried the Trung Sisters into battle against the Chinese invaders. The virgin lady warrior Ba Trieu also rode an elephant into battle. As did many other great Vietnamese heroes. And elephants were the "heavy motorised cavalry" at the Battle of ien Bien Phu during the war of resistance against French colonialism and in the jungles of Central and South Viet Nam during the war of resistance against US imperialism. They should be treated like national heroes, with the respect due to war veterans.

Saving the elephants of Viet Nam should be a national duty and a matter of national pride. Elephants, tigers, rhinos and many other species are being hunted and exterminated to satisfy mans vanity.

Yes, there are economic and social realities that mean that wilderness areas are shrinking to make way for crops and other forms of land exploitation. Everybody understands that. But everybody should also understand that unless we embrace models of sustainable development, not only the elephants of Viet Nam will be doomed, our whole planet will be doomed.

The jungle and its animals were Viet Nams allies in the wars against invaders, colonisers and imperialists. They are now crying for help. But are we listening? VNS





GLOSSARY

French cinema: Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Agnes Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker and Alain Resnais, in support of Viet Nams resistance to US aggression.

Resistance means refusing to accept something.

Aggression happens when someone wants to attack someone else.

I was familiar with the film, but decided to do some extra research for the occasion.

Research means investigation to get to know more about something.

Quite by chance, I stumbled upon the website of a film festival at Casa de Cinema at the Villa Borghese in Rome titled, Il vietnam e il cinema francese  Viet Nam and French Cinema.

To stumble upon something means to find it when you are not actually looking for it.

Wilfred Burchett is my father, the Australian journalist, the first to visit the liberated zones of South Viet Nam (Viet Cong controlled) in late 1963, early 1965.

Zones are areas. Liberated zones are areas that have been freed form an enemy.

It was a highly emotional experience to watch the almost half-century-old black and white footage, first downloaded on my laptop, then on my TV screen.

An emotional experience is one that brings about new moods and feelings that are close to your heart.

The commentary says:

A commentary is a story that explains something as it happens; in this case it is a story that explains what is happening in a series of pictures that make up a film.

"He is a little afraid for you, but he doesnt yet know that here the most dangerous animals are American imperialists."

Imperialists are people who go to other countries to conquer them and occupy them as well as take away their resources.

 Yes, these were my drawings "of the jungle and wild animals", inspired by the letters my father sent my brother, sister and me  then living in Moscow  in which he explained why he was away for so long.

If something inspires you it gives you the energy to want to go out and do something positive.

To make it more interesting for us, he told stories of tigers, elephants, monkeys and other exotic creatures from the jungles of South Viet Nam.

Exotic means coming from somewhere else, and unusual.

Sixteen minutes into the film, my father crosses a river on horseback  very heroic-looking, like Indiana Jones  and suddenly this extraordinary panorama fills the screen.

Heroic-looking means looking like a hero.

A panorama is a wide, unbroken view.

"After an arduous journey you are now in the Central Highlands.

Arduous means difficult and tiring.

Did you know they are the heavy motorised cavalry of the local guerillas?"

A cavalry means soldiers who fight on horseback. A motorised cavalry means soldiers who fight from vehicles.

Guerrillas are fighters in an unconventional army.

They are very, very intelligent and very sensitive.

Intelligent means clever.

Sensitive means quick to respond to even small signs and changes.

The elephant becomes very affectionate towards everyone in the family with whom he works.

Affectionate means loving.

He stalks off, deep into the forest and someone must go after him, blowing a certain note on a buffalo horn, and then talk to him nicely and explain that there will be no more quarrelling.

Stalks means walks off briskly.

My fathers words merged with the scene of elephants in the shimmering water.

Merged means mixed.

Shimmering means shining in a soft, twinkling light.

Another 100 or so lead a miserable existence carrying tourists, mostly in ak Lak Province in the Central Highlands.

To have an existence means to live but without quality of life.

And they are dire.

To be dire means to be of very poor quality.

The number of wild elephants in Viet Nam is unsustainable and the elephants are on the verge of extinction.

Something that is unsustainable cannot keep going.

When animals become extinct they are gone forever. When they are on the verge of extinction they are very close to disappearing forever.

What bombs and defoliants could not accomplish, modern man is on the verge of achieving: the total elimination of elephants in Viet Nam.

Defoliants are chemicals that strip plants of their leaves.

The elimination of elephants means getting rid of elephants.

The main causes are deforestation and loss of habitat, man-elephant conflict, poaching.

An animals habitat is a place where it has the right amount of food and shelter to survive.

A conflict between man and elephant is a battle between the two.

Poaching is illegal hunting.

Elephants do not reproduce in captivity.

To reproduce means to have babies.

When elephants are in captivity they live in pens and cages rather than in the wild.

Those who die from exhaustion, malnutrition or disease cannot be replaced.

Exhaustion is a state of being very tired.

Malnutrition is a state of being in bad health because you have not eaten properly.

So domestic elephants are also doomed.

Domestic elephants are those that are looked after by people and do not live in the wild.

Elephants have played an important role in Viet Nams long history of resisting invaders.

Invaders are people who come to a country from another country and try to take it over.

The virgin lady warrior Ba Trieu also rode an elephant into battle.

A virgin is a woman who has never been with a man.

Elephants, tigers, rhinos and many other species are being hunted and exterminated to satisfy mans vanity.

Exterminated means got rid of.

Vanity means too much pride in yourself.

Yes, there are economic and social realities that mean that wilderness areas are shrinking to make way for crops and other forms of land exploitation.

When wilderness areas start shrinking, they become smaller and smaller in size.

Exploitation means getting as much as you can out of something, such as land, to the point that the land suffers.

The jungle and its animals were Viet Nams allies in the wars against invaders, colonisers and imperialists.

Allies are people who are on your side in a fight or a struggle.

WORKSHEET

State whether the following sentences are true, or false:

The Casa de Cinema at the Villa Borghese is in the Italian city of Rome. George Burchetts home is in HCM City. There are only about 60 wild elephants left in Viet Nam today. During the war against the Americans, elephants were used for the first time in Viet Nams history. ak Lak Province is in the Central Highlands.

ANSWERS:

 Duncan Guy/Learn the News/ Viet Nam News 2017

1. True; 2. False; 3. True; 4. False; 5. True.
QUANG NGAI  The 65-year-old war veteran Tran uc Minh has never forgotten the moment he stumbled on a tree trunk while chasing poachers in Nhan mountain, leaving his feet bleeding.

Falling is merely one of many risks forest rangers face daily. Minh has volunteered to protect Nhan Mountain in Tinh Son Commune, Son Tinh District, central Quang Ngai Province for nearly 40 years.

Some 40 years ago, the 36ha primeval forest, located close to Highway24B, was his and fellow volunteers base. Every tree, every rock used to be their hiding places. His life has been spent in this forest. In 1978, when the war ended, the veteran returned to his hometown and has been living in a Ngo village on the foot of Nhan Mountain since.

Living next to the mountain, every day, Minh hated hearing the sound of axes chopping down trees. Seeing the forest bleeding day by day, Minh wondered why this forest was not damaged by bombs and bullets in the war but was destroyed during peace.

Prompted by this thought, Minh decided to chase forest destroyers out.

Minh remembers that years ago, locals went into the forest to cut trees to build houses and to burn.

I came to each house to ask residents to keep forest to maintain long-term livelihoods. Forest resources will run out. When water runs out, how will we plant rice? Minh told the locals.

Gradually, local awareness has been raised. When strangers climb up Nhan Mountain, locals report them to Minh.

"Thanks to Minhs efforts, although acacia prices have risen, no one chops down trees," Nguyen Thanh Son, chairman of Tinh Son Communes Peoples Committee said.

"Minh takes a piece of rock or a tree trunk as a mark to split residents production forest and primeval forest to make sure no land is lost," Son added.

The reputation of the forest ranger has spread far. No poachers dare to venture into the forest. However, his biggest fear now is people from ethnic minority groups from Son Ha District. They come into the forest to poach animals and to find bees.

Minh said that when they identify weasels on trees, they chop down a vast area of trees to spread a net on the other side and cut trees on this side to frighten the animal.

Bee burning for hunting can easily cause forest fire. During bee seasons, Minh and other forest rangers sleep in the forest to remind people not to drop ashes on dry layers of leaves to avoid flames.

When I remind them, they immediately listen to me, Minh said.

When asked how much he is paid every month, he said Dont mention the wages when talking about forest protection. No wages are equal to conscience

Each year his forest protection team of three members receives only VN1 million (US$45).

On average, each person receives less than VN1,000 per day besides a portion of 1,000sq.m of land for rice cultivation they did receive at when embarking on the job.

Minh said that his health has recently declined. He is trying to find young people to pass the baton to.  VNS
Located just 20km from the central Nam inh City, the village of Co Chat in Phuong inh Commune has been one of the countrys best-known sericulture and silk villages for hundreds of years.

The village saw its golden days after winning numerous prizes at trade shows and exhibitions during the French colonial era. Silk products made here were so famous that the French built a factory right next to the village to capitalise on its reputation and skilled labour force.

The best months for sericulture are February, March, August, September and October, said elder oan Thi Cay, because good weather conditions allow villagers to cultivate white silkworms.

The traditional production method is 100 per cent handmade with silk threads said to be thin, soft, durable and vibrantly colourful. However, the once-thriving silk makers have struggled to survive in recent years, with more and more villagers opting out for other jobs for better pay.

Local authorities, in an attempt to preserve and revitalise the villages craft, have encouraged local businesses to set up local cotton factories.  VNS
HA NOI  Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang answered reporters question regarding the USs recent policy adjustment towards Cuba, saying the country should lift its embargo of Cuba.

Viet Nam objects to any unilateral embargoes that a country imposes on another country, she said yesterday.

Hang added Viet Nam wants Cuba and the US to resolve disagreements through negotiation in the spirit of respecting each others independence and sovereignty and looking towards full normalisation of bilateral relations, for the interests of the two countries people, thereby contributing to the maintenance of peace, stability, co-operation and development in the world.

Viet Nam calls on the US to lift its embargo against Cuba which has been enforced for more than five decades, the spokesperson noted.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam will spare no effort to strengthen the ties of good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive co-operation and long-term sustainability, with Cambodia, NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said yesterday.

The nation considers this relationship an invaluable common asset that should be passed to future generations, she said in talks with her Cambodian counterpart Heng Samrin in Ha Noi.

Ngan spoke highly of the Cambodian delegations visit which takes place at a time when the two nations are celebrating the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties - the major activity of the Viet Nam-Cambodia Friendship Year 2017.

Briefing his host on the current situation in his country, Cambodian National Assembly President Heng Samrin said they have achieved an annual average economic growth rate of seven per cent over the past decade. Cambodias per capita GDP increased from just US$288 in 2000 to $1,300 in 2016, he said.

The country is striving to become a high middle-income nation by 2030 by promoting open-door policies, attracting more foreign investment, enhancing connectivity with economies and integrating deeper into the region and the world, he added.

Heng Samrin said he was delighted to see that parliamentary ties between the two countries have been strengthened through the exchange of delegations at all levels and the organisation of workshops to share lawmaking experiences.

While updating her guest on Viet Nams socio-economic development and the 14th NAs activities, Ngan stressed that Viet Nam persists with its consistent foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, diversification and multilateralisation of foreign relations, comprehensive international integration, proactive participation in and active contribution to important international organisations and regional co-operation mechanisms such as the United Nations, ASEAN, APEC and ASEAN Regional Forum.

She congratulated Cambodia on the successful commune/ward elections, which she said, were an important prerequisite for the election in 2018 and to build a peaceful, stable and prosperous Cambodia.

Ngan affirmed that Viet Nam always treasures the fine sentiments and precious support and assistance that late King Norodom Sihanouk, King Norodom Sihamoni, other Cambodian leaders, including President Samdech Heng Samrin, and the people of Cambodia have given to the Vietnamese people during the fight for national independence in the past and the process of national construction and development at present.

At the talks, the parliament leaders agreed that the two sides will increase delegation exchanges and meetings between senior leaders, ministries, sectors and localities so as to coordinate better in implementing reached agreements.

They will also share information, experience and set concrete measures to solve any problem arising in bilateral relations in the spirit of mutual understanding and trust, and in conformity with law of Viet Nam and Cambodia, international practices and the two countries traditional friendship.

President Heng Samrin agreed with Chairwoman Ngan that both sides should maintain strong relations in all Party, State and people-to-people diplomacy channels. They also need to press ahead with friendship activities and educate people from all walks of life, especially younger generations, on Viet Nam-Cambodia solidarity, friendship and comprehensive cooperation.

NA President Heng Samrin also agreed with Ngans proposal to continue negotiations for the early signing of the Viet Nam-Cambodia Border Trade Agreement to replace the one on Trade and Exchange of Goods and Services in Border Areas inked in 2001.

He said the Cambodian parliament backs supports facilitating Vietnamese businesses investment projects in Cambodia.

Chairwoman Ngan called on the two sides to intensify their cooperation in defence and security, and join hands to fight smuggling and cross-border crimes. She also suggested stronger co-ordination in searching and repatriating remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who sacrificed their lives in Cambodia.

The two legislatures should create conditions for Vietnamese and Cambodian Governments as well as relevant ministries, agencies and localities to complete the construction of auxiliary border markers and poles along the common border line in 2017, she said.

They should also finalise the dossier on border demarcation and marker planting towards finalising a legal document acknowledging outcomes of this work.

In this regard, the Cambodian legislator pledged to seek measures to accelerate land border demarcation.

Ngan expressed her belief that under the instruction of his Cambodian counterpart, difficulties regarding the legal status of overseas Vietnamese in Cambodia will soon be removed, helping them stabilise their lives in the host country.

She informed her guest that the Vietnamese legislature has decided to provide sets of computers worth VN3 billion ($132,000) for the Secretariat of the Cambodian Senate in 2017.

At the talks, the two leaders also discussed several regional and international issues of shared concern.

NA Chairwoman Ngan said Viet Nam will join hands with other ASEAN countries, including Cambodia, to build a strong ASEAN Community, and actively and responsibly contribute to forging consensus of the ten-member group.

She asked Cambodia to increase exchanges, consultations and information sharing with Vietnam under the framework of Greater Mekong Subregion mechanisms like Cambodia-Laos-Viet Nam (CLV), Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Viet Nam (CLMV), Mekong River Commission (MRC) and Mekong-Langcan Co-operation.

Cambodia should actively work with Vietnam and other ASEAN nations to complete the frame of a Code of Conduct (COC) in the Ease Sea between ASEAN and China in 2017, she said.

Ngan also said that hosting APEC Year 2017 is one of the diplomatic focuses for Viet Nam, showing the countrys determination to boost intensive and extensive international integration.

She expressed her wish that Cambodia will support Viet Nam in successfully organising the event.  VNS
HA NOI  The 50th founding anniversary of Viet Nam-Cambodia diplomatic relations (June 24, 1967) was celebrated with a grand ceremony at the Hanoi Opera House in the capital city of Viet Nam on Saturday.

Vietnamese participants included National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh who chairs the National Steering Committee for the Viet Nam-Cambodia Friendship Year 2017, Secretary of the Ha Noi Party Committee Hoang Trung Hai, and President of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee Tran Thanh Man.

Among the Cambodian officials at the event were Honourary President of the Cambodian Peoples Party, President of the NA of Cambodia, and Chairman of the National Council of the Solidarity Front for Development of the Cambodian Motherland Samdech Heng Samrin; Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia and Chairwoman of the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Association Men Sam An; and senior officials of the Cambodian parliament.

In her speech, Chairwoman Ngan underlined that Viet Nam and Cambodia are neighbouring countries with long-standing relations. On the basis of the time-honoured relationship and the fight against colonialism, the establishment of their diplomatic ties created favourable conditions for the two peoples to continue standing side by side in the struggle for national liberation, and they together won a historic victory in the spring of 1975.

In response to the urgent call of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation, the army and people of Viet Nam once again continued to be on the side of the patriotic forces and people of Cambodia to liberate the country and save the Cambodian people from the Pol Pot genocidal regime, prevent the return of the genocidal regime and bring recovery to Cambodia, she noted.

On this special occasion, we express our sincere gratitude to the two peoples for their efforts and sacrifice in that lofty fight, particularly of heroic martyrs, war invalids, formers experts, former volunteer soldiers of Viet Nam who did not spare their blood and bones and sacrificed themselves to consolidate the traditional solidarity and friendship between the two nations and peoples of Viet Nam and Cambodia, she said.

At the celebration, Samdech Heng Samrin described the organisation of the ceremony as a great historical event reflecting that the countries traditional solidarity, friendship and sound co-operation throughout history have brought about common benefits for the two nations, especially in gaining peace, stability and prosperity.

On behalf of the Cambodian people, he expressed his deep sense of gratitude to the Party, State and people of Viet Nam for their precious support and assistance to the Cambodian people in recovering and re-constructing his country. He highlighted the great sacrifice of Viet Nams volunteer soldiers who helped free the Cambodian people from the Pol Pot genocidal regime on January 7, 1979.

In their speeches, Chairwoman Ngan and President Samdech Heng Samrin noted with satisfaction that despite countless difficulties and challenges over the past five decades, the solidarity, traditional friendship and comprehensive co-operation between Viet Nam and Cambodia have continually been reinforced and developed, which is a priceless, sacred and sustainable asset of the two nations.

They noted the growing bilateral co-operation between the two parliaments and in politics, security-defence, economy-trade-investment, tourism, training, culture, health care, telecommunications, and cultural exchanges. They added during the implementation of the foreign policy of multilateralisation and diversification of international relations, the two countries have also co-ordinated closely at international and regional forums, thus helping to promote their respective prestige and stature in the region and the world.

They voiced their belief that the countries time-tested amity and all-round co-operation will keep thriving for the sake of the two peoples.

At the ceremony, Colonel Le Cuong, who represented Viet Nams former volunteer soldiers in Cambodia, shared his sentiment towards the land and people of Cambodia. He also congratulated Cambodia on its enormous achievements and affirmed that he will continue to help nurture the two countries friendship.

Meanwhile, Xiu Kim Hua  a Cambodian student at Ha Noi Medical University, said the youth of Cambodia always keep in mind the assistance and support that the Vietnamese leaders and people have given to their country throughout history, especially the liberation of Cambodia from the Pol Pot genocidal regime in 1979.

On behalf of the two countries younger generations, Xiu Kim Hua and Tran Phuong Thao, a Vietnamese student at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, affirmed younger generations responsibility towards the consolidation of the Viet Nam-Cambodia traditional friendship.  VNS
The New Hampshire legislature has passed a bill to help the states school districts pay for full-day kindergarten by legalizing and taxing electronic Keno gambling machines.

(For those who, like me, do not know what Keno is: Wikipedia describes it as a lottery-like game where you win money by matching numbers generated by a computer.)

The bill, which passed Thursday, is headed to Republican Gov. Chris Sununu for his signature. Sununu, who is in his first term, has made full-day kindergarten a legislative priority .

In New Hampshire, about 70 percent school districts already offer full-day kindergarten , and those districts account for about 80 percent of the states kindergarten students. But those districts werent getting any state support to offer the programsthe state funds each district $1,800 for a kindergarten student, but for students in grades 1-12, districts receive $3,600.

Under the new bill, districts will receive $1,100 per full-day kindergarten student starting in 2019. Additional tax revenues could mean more for the district, but the bill said the disbursement wont drop below $1,100. Democrats in the state wanted school districts to receive an additional $1,800 for kindergarten students, and other lawmakers said they were troubled by the funding mechanism. But the measure ended up passing easily: The vote counts 251-111 in the New Hampshire House and 15-8 in the states senate.

I am proud to be the first governor to deliver a real full-day kindergarten program for communities across our state, which will close the opportunity gap and provide students, regardless of their economic status, an extra step up as they enter the first grade. Full-day kindergarten is good for children and families, and a critical tool in retaining our future workforce, Sununu said in a statement after the bill cleared the legislature.

State Kindergarten Policies Vary Widely

With all the policy focus on prekindergarten, its easy to forget that full-day kindergarten is optional in most states, and that many states dont require students to attend school until age 6 . The Education Commission of the States reported last year that only 13 states and the District of Columbia require districts to offer full-day kindergarten , though many districts, including in New Hampshire, offer a full-day program on their own, paying for it through local tax revenues or through tuition.

Theres also some variation within states: For example, Wyoming requires at least one school in a district to offer a full-day program. In New Jersey, the states highest-poverty school districts, known as Abbott districts, must also offer full-day kindergarten. In other New Jersey districts, its optional.
HA NOI  President of the Cambodian National Assembly Heng Samrin delivered a speech at the ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Viet Nam-Cambodia diplomatic ties held in Ha Noi on Saturday.

Following are key excerpts from his speech translated by the Vietnam News Agency.

"On behalf of the Cambodian National Assembly delegation, I would like to thank leaders of Viet Nam, the National Assembly, and people for giving us a warm welcome since we arrived in Ha Noi. Its truly that each time I was here, I have always witnessed rapid aesthetic appearance changes and unceasing development of this city.

I highly valued and would like to commend on the sound organisation for the ceremony to take place in a solemn manner which is full of solidarity, brotherhood and closeness.

The organisation of the 50th anniversary of Viet Nam-Cambodia diplomatic ties today is a great historical event, constituting that the well-established traditional solidarity and friendship and sound co-operation between our countries haven brought mutual benefits for our nations, especially in winning back peace, stability and prosperity.

This big political event offered a good chance for the two countries to communicate, educate and promote deeper understanding of the importance and value of the traditional solidarity and friendship and all-faceted co-operation between our countries for young people, including those born today and those to be born tomorrow, so they would work together to preserve and further foster this relationship for it to thrive in a more stable fashion.

In addition to this, this anniversary was aimed to herald immense achievements attained together by the two countries Parties, Governments, National Assemblies and people over recent time, especially the efforts reached the upcoming completion of the Viet Nam-Cambodia border of peace, amity, cooperation, and development.

As said by Madame Chairwoman of the Viet Nam National Assembly regarding how the countries good co-operation and ties were born and have developed as well as robust growth achieved by Vietnamese under the sound and mindful leadership of Vietnamese leaders through various periods, the Cambodian NA would like to congratulate and highly value the immense gains and successes that Viet Nams Party, State, Government, and people have unceasingly achieved during their recent socio-economic development cause, and believe that the realisation of the 2016-20 five-year socio-economic development plan of the Communist Party of Viet Nam will make Viet Nam grow faster and achieve its goal as an industrialised and modernised country by 2020.

The diplomatic ties of our countries founded by Cambodias Head of State Norodom Sihanouk and President of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam Ho Chi Minh have gone through half a century. The two countries possessed a history of together fighting, sharing and surmounting difficulties, hardships and challenges in the struggle against colonialism and imperialism for our each countrys noble cause, freedom, peace and independence. At present, both our countries have ushered in a new page of history and have gained peace, territorial integrity, and development. They have advanced firmly toward with confidence in building a strong national economy to bring growths for our nations and to contribute importantly to maintaining peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

I as well as other partners and Vietnamese veterans present here must still remember clearly the atrocity suffered by Cambodia during the mid-1970s and the bravery of the Vietnamese volunteer soldiers, who fought shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers of the Cambodian National Salvation Front in breaking up the Pol Pot genocidal regime - who killed more than three innocent Khmer people, ruined their country to ashes, and completely destroyed the national economy, which has never ever happened in Cambodias history. After being liberated on January 7, 1979, grave support and assistance from fraternal Vietnamese people and other friend countries have allowed Cambodia to restore, build and develop the country of Cambodian as it is today. This fact and bravery have ingrained in the heart of Cambodian people and cannot be forgotten.

During the past 50 years, the relations and cooperation between the two countries in the framework of the Parties, States, Government and National Assemblies have been reinforced and stepped up constantly, reaching a never ever new height in history following the motto "good neighbours, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation and long-term sustainability", and respect for the respective independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Our countries relations and cooperation have been reaping fruits in many fields, including politics, social-economic affairs, tourism, culture, education, science and trade. The historical, important outcome reached by both sides is the border demarcation and border marker planting, which are completing around 83 percent of the workload. This manifested efforts made and real goodwill of the two countries in tackling land birder issues to make the shared border the one of peace, friendship, cooperation and development for peace, stability and wealth of their people. These factors have created a peaceful and stable environment, helping accelerate economic growth to raise the living conditions and reducing poverty for our people.

In addition to, the exchange of visits, including State, official and friendship ones made by high-ranking leaders as well as by experts and businesses has been carried out regularly and on the rise, contributing to cementing and deepening further the sound friendship and solidarity and closely-knitted cooperation between the two countries. Within the economic-trade framework, the two countries have accelerated affiliations across spheres, with the two Governments prioritising trade and pushing it towards the goal of US$5 billion in the near future. Specifically, in 2015, two-way trade hit $3 billion and Viet Nam ranked fifth among investors in Cambodia.

Though bilateral cooperation and assistance from other friend countries and the international community, especially the tireless efforts by the Royal Government, Cambodia has become an island of peace achieving robust growth. Cambodia has worked to turn into a new economic tiger in Asia after having experienced poverty, difficulties and crisis over the past decades. The once-war-victim country has owned successes that relied on solid economic growth, averaging 7 percent and above during 2011-16, helping millions of Cambodians escape from poverty with average GDP per capita rising from $288 in 2000 to $1,300 in 2016.

Together with maintaining the macro-economy stability, Cambodias economy could continue retaining its 7 per cent growth to help the country achieve its long-term goal of becoming a mid-income country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2050. Cambodian will continue consistently embarking on the open economic policy in a more active manner via endeavouring to make connectivity in all forms and integrating extensively and intensively into the regional and global economies.

Im so glad to inform you that in the preliminary outcomes of the commune/ward peoples council election, the fourth tenure in June, 2017, the Cambodian Peoples Party won in 1,150 communes/wards, accounting for 70 per cent of the 1,646 communes/wards nationwide and 6,512 seats in the commune/ward peoples councils, accounting for 56.27 per cent of the total commune/ward peoples council seats nationwide. This result showed the huge victory of the Cambodian Peoples Party in the upcoming Senate election and the General election in 2018.

Within the legal framework, relations and cooperation between the two countries national assemblies have been unceasingly strengthened and developed through the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the two parliaments, bringing common benefits. The two National Assemblies are also pleased and support traditional solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two Governments.

During the last four tenures, the two National Assemblies strengthened their sound cooperation and mutual support through the delegation exchange at high level as well as at specialised committee and expert levels, while supporting each other at regional and international forums. Particularly, the official visit by Madame Chairwoman of the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam to Cambodia in early September 2016 and the official visit by the President of the Cambodian National Assembly to the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam in August 2014 have significantly contributed to strengthening and consolidating bilateral cooperation between the two countries legislatures in a deep, practical and effective manner. In addition, the two National Assemblies conducted visits between specialised committees and the friendship parliamentary groups, organised Cambodia-Laos-Viet Nam workshops, ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Alliance Forum, Asian Inter-Parliament, World Inter-Parliamentary Union, and so on. Thereby, they have created opportunities for the two National Assemblies to share experience and information for interests of the two countries and peoples of Viet Nam and Cambodia.

On behalf of the Cambodian people, I would like to sincerely thank the Party, State and people of Viet Nam for their valuable support and assistance to the Cambodian people in recovering and rebuilding the country, especially the precious service and great sacrifice of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers who performed the international mission to help free Cambodians escape from the Pol Pot genocidal regime on January 7, 1979.

I believe that the heroic sacrifice examples in the history of traditional friendship, solidarity and cooperation in nation building of the leaders of previous and today generations are further preserved, nurtured and fostered by the two people of the future generations.

Finally, I wish the traditional friendship, solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Viet Nam and Cambodia will last forever."
thanhdoan.hochiminhcity.gov.vn  Photo The HCM City Peoples Councils Cultural and Social Affairs Board has instructed the citys Department of Education and Training to speed up school construction to meet the increase in the number of students.

HCM CITY  The HCM City Peoples Councils Cultural and Social Affairs Board has instructed the citys Department of Education and Training to speed up school construction to meet the increase in the number of students.

As many as 1,497 new classrooms will be put into use in the 2017-2018 academic year, according to the department.

The number of students is expected to increase by 59,000.

For a number of years, an average of 25,000 students whose families do not have permanent residency status newly enroll in school. Most of them live in districts 12, Go Vap, Binh Tan, Binh Chanh and Cu Chi.

At a meeting between the board and the department held earlier this month, Le Hoai Nam, the departments deputy head, said the annual increase of students posed serious difficulties for HCM City.

The citys policy is to ensure that all children attend school, Nam said.

The department has made a detailed construction plan for each district, and all districts should draw up detailed land plans, he added.

o inh Thien, deputy head of Peoples Committee in Binh Tan District, told Viet Nam News that the district has 100,151 students this year, an increase of 6,928 compared to last year.

The district has allocated VN12.43 billion (US$545,175) to upgrade and buy teaching aids. One new kindergarten and one new primary school are under construction.

The district is also following the citys policy to ensure that all children, including those whose family does not have permanent residency status, attend school, which has led to a high number of students in each classroom, Thien said.

At primary schools in the district, for instance, each classroom has 38 students on average.

To reduce the number of students in every classroom, the district must build 100 more new schools by 2020.

That number is a dream number, he said, adding that it would be difficult to reach.

The district does not have enough public land to build schools, he said.

It also needs VN500 billion to VN1,000 billion each year from the citys budget for school construction, but the citys budget is too limited.

The entire city needs more than VN50,000 billion for 722 school projects with a total of 12,000 classrooms by 2020. VNS
QUANG NINH  The floating Vung Vieng fishing village in Ha Long Bay, northeastern Quang Ninh Province usually hosts about 15,000 visitors each month. During peak periods the number of visitors soars to 21,000.

On arrival in the village, visitors are welcomed to have meals with local residents, go fishing and sightseeing around the village.

They also have the chance to experience the daily lives of people and children living there. Many of them bring presents, like books, pens, clothes for children or tools for adults.

Visitors, seeking eco-tourism or responsible tourism experiences, are flocking to the fishing villages in ever greater numbers.

The village started as a shelter for boats traveling to Vung Ha Islet in the centre of Ha Long Bay. It takes about three hours by boat to travel from the shore to the floating village.

By 2014, the village was home to 260 people, living in 60 floating houses. That year, residents of Vung Vieng were relocated to land, but they still continue to raise and catch fish in the area.

Since the move, things have changed significantly for the villagers.

Instead of using live trash fish [small fish with little economic value] as feed, fish farms there now use industrial fish feed.

Tang Van Phien, head of Van Chai Ha Long Tourism Co-operative said that the use of trash fish could threaten the marine environment and production because the supply was unstable and its quality is easily degraded if the trash fish was not stored properly.

The trash fish can carry diseases that threaten other species, Phien said.

He said that since April, 2016, fish farms in Vung Vieng floating village were given assistance to build floating houses and fish cages that are made of environmentally-friendly materials.

Phien said that the assistance was part of the Ha Long  Cat Ba Alliance Project, a three-year initiative funded by the United State Agency for International Development, which aims to build partnerships between Government, businesses and civil society. The aim is to catalyse action in order to improve environmental management and protect the natural integrity of the Ha Long Bay World Heritage Site, including the Cat Ba Archipelago.

Under the project, 32 floating houses would be used as a tourism product of Vung Vieng floating village. Until now, seven floating houses have been opened for visitors.

Nguyen Van Huan, a member of the Van Chai Co-operative said that he was happy to learn about environmentally-friendly fish farms.

Since April this year, his family has started growing fish in the new fish cages with industrial feed thanks to assistance from the Alliance Project.

Huan said that the first members developing environmentally-friendly fish farms would raise funds which offered preferential loans to other members of the co-operative.

Head of the co-operatives Phien said that the co-operatives was established in 2008 with the aim of developing new tourism products in Ha Long Bay, and help improve incomes for locals.

As many as 115 local residents were offered to work as boatmen for tours to Vung Vieng Village. Each earns on average VN5-6 million monthly.

As the number of visitors to the village increases, even up to 21,000 visitors in a month during peak time, the areas environment faces a heavier burden, particularly the increased amount of waste, Phien said.

The co-operatives arranged for two people to collect garbage and the boatmen were also asked to help in cleaning up, he said.

Deputy director of Quang Ninh Provinces Agriculture Department Nguyen Van Cong said the model to develop eco-tourism in Ha Long Bay had proved effective, particularly in improving local residents income and attracting tourists.

He said that those results proved the need for improved awareness about responsible tourism among Government, businesses, local residents and tourists.  VNS
HA NOI  Hospitals in Ha Noi are in dire need of more accommodation for hospital patients and their relatives from outside the city.

Patients and health sector workers hope that in the future, patients will have one bed each and relatives who need it will have accommodation.

Big hospitals in the city, such as Bach Mai Hospital, Viet uc Hospital and Central Pediatrics Hospital every day receive thousands of patients from other provinces and cities.

Each patient often has one or several family members accompanying them.

Its common to see patients relatives resting in corridors, under stairs, on benches or under shade of tress in hospitals premises in Viet Nam. They cant afford to rent accommodation while their loved one gets treated, putting them at risk of theft.

Facing this situation, many hospitals have called for social investment to construct temporary accommodation for patients relatives.

Central Lung Hospital provided new accommodation for patients relatives at the beginning of this year. The accommodation area, located on the top floor of a newly-built six-storey building, has three rooms with a total 34 beds.

Pham Thanh Chung, a hospital social worker, said that the rental fee was VN50,000/ per person per day, cheaper than renting houses in the areas around the hospital.

Also early this year, Ha Noi-based Cancer Hospitals Unit No 3 in Tan Trieu Commune, Thanh Tri District launched cheap accommodation for patients and their relatives, with financial support from several charitable organisations.

The area, at a cost of VN3.3 billion, includes three fully-equipment buildings behind the hospital. The hospital offers a bed free-of-charge to patients for their first month in the hospital then VN15,000/ person per day afterwards.

Nguyen Van Anh, a patients relative said the price was ten times cheaper than renting a house outside the hospital. However, demand was twice as high as the capacity of 240 beds.

The Hospital K in Ha Noi is also offering free accommodation for 300 patients.

Nguyen Thi Dan, 60, a patient at Hospital K in Ha Noi said that she felt very good when she could avail of this facility.

On the first day here, other patients and I enjoyed a sweet party, she said.

Ho Nguyen Hoang, a patient suffering from esophagus cancer at Hospital K, said: We do not have to spend on accommodation and can stay at a warm place. I hope all hospitals have shelters like this for poor patients to have a place to sleep when they are admitted to the hospital.

Hospital K director Tran Van Thuan said that to meet the real demand of patients, following the urging of Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, the hospital has co-operated with the Viet Nam CP Breeding Joint Stock Company to construct a residential complex for patients.

It will be offered for free at first, and later, the patients only have to pay VN15,000 per person each day for electricity and water, he said.  VNS
BEIJING - At least five people were found dead and over 120 remained missing hours after a massive landslide buried a mountain village in southwest China on Saturday as rescuers scoured through rocks for survivors.

A couple and a baby were rescued and taken to hospital after dozens of homes in the village of Xinmo were swallowed by boulders when the side of a mountain collapsed.

A fourth survivor was found but rescuers were still trying to get to him hours after heavy rain triggered the avalanche of rock in Sichuan province, officials said.

Wu Xiaobin, captain of the local fire department, told state broadcaster CCTV that five bodies were pulled from the rubble.

The early morning landslide, which occurred following heavy rains in the region, struck 62 homes and blocked a two-kilometre stretch of river and 1.6 kilometre of road, according to state media.

Rescuers used ropes to move a massive rock while dozens of others, aided by dogs, searched the rubble for survivors, according to videos posted online.

Bulldozers and heavy diggers were also deployed to remove boulders, the images showed. Medics were seen treating a woman on a road. Hundreds of police, military and firefighters were taking part in the rescue.

More than 120 people were still missing hours after the landslide, CCTV and Chinas official news agency Xinhua reported. State media had earlier reported that 141 people may have been buried but did not explain why the figure had been revised.

Wang Yongbo, one of the officials in charge of rescue efforts, said the vital signs of one of the survivors "are weak".

"Its the biggest landslide in this area since the Wenchuan earthquake," he said, referring to the disaster that killed 87,000 people in 2008 in a town in Sichuan.

More rain forecast

Local police captain Chen Tiebo said the heavy rains that hit the region in recent days had triggered the landslide.

"There are several tonnes of rock" over the village, he told CCTV.

"Its a seismic area here. Theres not a lot of vegetation," Chen said.

Trees can help absorb excess rain and prevent landslides.

Tao Jian, director of the local weather service, told CCTV that the 2008 earthquake had "weakened the mountain" and that "a weak rain can provoke a geological catastrophe".

President Xi Jinping called for rescuers to "spare no effort" in their search for survivors, according to CCTV.

Chinas national weather observatory said more heavy rain was expected in parts of Sichuan and other southwestern provinces.

Past disasters

Landslides are a frequent danger in rural and mountainous parts of China, particularly at times of heavy rains.

At least 12 people were killed in January when a landslide crushed a hotel in central Hubei province.

In October landslides battered eastern China in the wake of torrential rains brought by Typhoon Megi, causing widespread damage and killing at least eight.

More than 70 were killed by a landslide in the southern commercial hub of Shenzhen in December 2015, caused by the improper storage of waste.

One of the deadliest landslides took place in 1991, when 216 were killed in southwestern Yunnan province.  AFP
Like famous dancing duos Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, or Gene Kelley and Jerry Mouse, dancing is inextricably intertwined with music. But exactly how to convey that in a thoughtful, inviting way to a Cedar Valley Chamber Music Festival audience has been on Hunter Capoccionis mind for some time.

There are serious ways to explore dance through time periods, examine how it has shaped musical meaning through the centuries. I wanted to find the right way to do it, and in the end, what spurred it for me was a Facebook post, Capoccioni recalls.

The post suggested Dancing Czech to Czech as a great title for a program, and the artistic director suddenly had his concept, Shall We Dance?

Its the sort of pun and play on words l like  so I came up with music that would fit the title and had program No. 1 for the festival, he says.

The 12th season for the Cedar Valley Chamber Music Festival is July 14-24, featuring light-hearted music hand-in-hand with folk dances, courtly dances and popular dances that explore the rhythmic and melodic styles of various dance traditions.

Tickets are $51 for the three-concert series, or $21 for each concert, available online at http://cedarvalleymusic.org/festivaltix, or at the door.

Over the last 12 years, founder Capoccioni has remained true to the festivals philosophy and mission, which is bringing classical music to new audiences through the intimacy of chamber music performed at unique venues.

The festival showcases Iowa musicians by bringing them back to the state for the event, as well as musicians who choose to live and work in the Iowa.

Dancing Czech to Czech begins at 3 p.m. July 16 at the Cedar Falls Womans Club, and will feature Suks String Quartet Movement, Schulhoffs Concertino and Dvoraks String Sextet, Op. 48.

Russian composers are highlighted on Dancing with the Tsars, exploring courtly dance music from the age of Chekov, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. That concert takes place at 7 p.m. July 19 in the Veterans Lobby at the Grout Museum District. On the program will be Arenskys String Quartet No. 2 Op. 35, Tchaikovskys Arioso and Lenskys Aria and Borodins String Quartet No. 2.

Dirty Dancing is the theme for the third concert at 3 p.m. July 23 in the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center lobby in Cedar Falls. Featured will be Lanners Die Mozartisten Walzer, Golijovs Last Round, Bruces Gumboots and Piazzollas The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.

The Dirty Dancing title is sort of a double entendre. It refers to the sensual side of dance with tango music from Argentina, and some 19th century Austrian waltz music which was considered quite risque because couples touched while dancing. Then theres just plain dirty with Gumboots, Capoccioni explains.

The title refers to the Wellington-style boots worn by black South African coal miners to protect their feet while working below ground, and the music is loosely based on a dance that developed among the workers. It is believed to have been an alternative to drumming, restricted by authorities, and perhaps a means of communication for relaying messages among workers while in the mines.

Capoccioni describes the festival as a challenge for guest musicians who are asked to bring to the table a bunch of different styles, and its true to our idea of covering a wide portfolio of music in a short amount of time.

Musicians scheduled to perform are Daniel Friberg, clarinet; Michelle Cheramy, flute; Nathan Cook and David Bjella, cello; Michelle Gasworth and Julia Bullard, viola; Mia Hagarty, Zo Manfredi, Katie Wolfe and Emily Osinski, violin; and Capoccioni, bass.
WATERLOO  A credit union employee has been arrested for allegedly stealing money from the businesss vault and taking money from customer accounts.

Waterloo police arrested Barbara Jean Einfelt, 60, of 108 Eldene Court, Evansdale, on Thursday for first-degree theft and forgery. She was later released from the Black Hawk County Jail.

Authorities allege she took a total of $40,101 over the course of a year.

Einfelt was working at Chicago Central and Commerce Credit Union on East Fourth Street when officials noticed discrepancies surrounding cash in the vault. They discovered that $27,300 was missing from the vault, and the investigation that followed also discovered that $12,801 had been taken from two member accounts.

The victims were Einfelts relatives, and she allegedly forged their signatures to remove funds, records state.

Officials allege Einfelt created a fake certificate of deposit in one of the account holders names in an effort to cover up the thefts.

Waterloo police were contacted in February.
The Troth held its 30th annual Trothmoot at Crowder State Park in Missouri from Thursday, June 1 through Sunday, June 4. To provide members in different regions equal opportunity to attend, the international Asatru and Heathen organization rotates the location of the gathering between western, midwestern, and eastern regions. This year, attendees arrived from 13 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, with Illinois and Washington making the strongest showings.

On Thursday afternoon, attendees performed a blot to the god Tyr. The central ritual of Heathenry, blot is focused on the making of offerings to gods, goddesses, land spirits, and other figures. To open Trothmoot, participants honored the god described as presiding over community gatherings in the organizations monumental text Our Troth, Volume One: History and Lore:

Tyr simply established a framework for managing the struggles and conflicts inherent in any community such that the community, rather than being torn apart, emerged stronger. To call Tyr, therefore, a god of right, after the German Recht, would come nearer to the truth, although perhaps the most accurate term would be ing-god, after the institution with which Tyr was most closely identified in later Heathen times.

We followed the Troths traditions of honoring Tyr in blot and asking for his aid in maintaining the fellowship and frith [peace] of our community. Traditionally, we use a spear and a glove both as his hallowing tools and to represent the establishment of the frithstead and of a ve [shrine] to Tyr. We located the shrine by a flagpole and raised the Troth banner as an announcement of the taking of the land by the Troth. We then walk the entire premises that we will utilize for our business meetings, rituals, workshops, and fellowship and honor the land wights in each of the cardinal directions, moving in a clockwise circle. This year we also stopped and hailed other deities along the route, particularly when we came across plants that bear an association with one in particular. For example, we hailed Thor at an oak tree and Holle at an elderberry bush. On Sunday, we walked the same route counterclockwise, honored Tyr and other deities in a closing rite, disassembled the shrine, and took down the banner.

Robert L. Schreiwer , beginning his second year as Troth steer (roughly equivalent to chairperson of board of directors), led both the blot and a ceremonial land-taking. He explains the significance of the rituals:

In one of the buildings of the campsite, members also set up individual shrines to Odin, Frigg, Holle, the Matronae, and several others.

Thursday night featured a presentation on Speakers to the Dead by Alvilldr in fagra, author of Sheathenry, Volume I: Ritual Practices of Modern Heathen Women. When I asked her to explain her work, she said,

Whether they study their genealogy, construct ancestor shrines where they give offerings, follow a predecessors career path, or visit the graves of their forebears to commune with the dead, Heathen women endeavor to create or continue relationships with their relatives who have gone to the afterlife. This presentation utilized the voice recordings of many of the women I interviewed for my book in order for the audience to hear how various Heathen women honor their ancestors in their own voices.

Ben Waggoner, the organizations shope (publications director), discussed the Germanic Night Sky late Thursday night. He explained names of specific stars and constellations in various Northern European societies and stated that the shope will someday publish [his research] as a book, once he gets everything else out of the way, which is not likely to happen soon, so dont hold your breath. A lot of people  Heathen and not  are interested in learning more about Germanic star lore, so hopefully he will be able to publish some form of his work sooner rather than later.

Waggoner also presented an introduction to Old Norse language on Friday morning, preceded by Schreiwers introduction to Urglaawe, which the Troth steer defines  in his Dictionary of Urglaawe Terminology, written with Ammerili Eckhart  as a Heathen path that is derived from the living, pre-Christian traditions of the Deitsch [Pennsylvania German] nation.

During the rede (board) meeting on Thursday night and during the general business meeting on Saturday morning, several officers swore new or renewed oaths regarding their official roles. Last fall, the Troth amended the oath taken by all titled representatives so that it would to be more closely aligned with the Troths mission and stated positions. Reaffirming the organizations commitment to inclusive Heathenry, the new passage in the relatively length oath reads:

With the Troth I stand against any use of Germanic religion and culture to advance causes of racism, sexism, homophobia, white supremacy, ableism, or any other form of prejudice.

I didnt know if I won a seat on the High Rede until the first evening of Trothmoot. I felt the weight of history associated with those whove held this office and the organization itself. It was a welcome feeling. I knew I would take my oath of office, and since I had only made a written oath as Steward, I knew I would speak my oath for that as well. I stood in the Hall surrounded by members of the Troth as I grabbed the Troth oath ring. The High Steward and the Steer held the Ring as well. Each took a turn repeating the Troths officer oath that I spoke in return. That moment is one of the proudest achievements of my life that I shall never forget.

Lonnie Scott  the Troths Illinois steward, a member of Thors Oak Kindred in Chicago, and now a member of the Rede  was one of those who publicly made the oath. He explains the personal significance of the act:

On Friday night, Winifred Hodge-Rose led a walk through a large maze that was constructed to represent the journey to Mimirs Well of Wisdom at its center. Jamie Juliansdatter describes the experience of walking the maze:

Intentionally moving into the maze was an unexpected gift. It was both a shared experience in community and an individual journey that was perfectly orchestrated by Winfred Hodge-Rose and kindred members. Participating in the maze (and Trothmoot) gave me permission I rarely give myself in the midst of so many mundane commitments  the permission to slow way down, enter into sacred space according to my own rhythm, and listen deeply for much needed wisdom. The maze was an opportunity to connect and reflect, as well as a reminder that I need these experiences much more often than I get.

Late the same night, Diana L. Paxson led a ritual of Spae (Oracular Seir), which she calls Germanic oracular practice on her website, Seeing for the People: High Seat Sei and the Core Oracular Method. Trothmoot programmer Lorrie Wood describes Fridays rite:

Every year on Friday night of Trothmoot, Diana reaches out to the local and regional Heathen community, and asks them to help her put on her oracular ritual. Here, attendees of the moot are encouraged to bring their most important questions, and the seers answer them. Without tools, but as the result of talent, skill, and training, answers are direct and immediate, although theres often Heathen imagery involved in an answer. Sometimes a question is asked directly of an ancestor or a god, and the seer will get their point of view of the answer, if possible.

Throughout the day on Saturday, Rosten (Dean Michael Rose) led a forge demonstration and helped interested people make Thors hammers and other objects of pewter. He reflects on his work:

So far as I can remember, I have nearly always showed up to Trothmoot with a forge. It is an activity that many find interesting, and some are even eager to give it a try! Usually there are a few that leave the gathering with a new skill. In this line of work, one learns quite a bit as creations whoosh up in a communal setting. I brought a variety of tools and a few ideas but left it to the folk to actualize their ideas. I had not done much with the white metal before, but we all had fun, and a number of interesting works resulted. I left with more ideas than I came with. This moot was different in that I did very little forging. However, a couple of members were busy at the fire, so the opportunity was theirs for the taking! It was a friendly crowd, so I was able to be a bit more relaxed leaving tools lying around.

Paxson led a blot to the goddess Idunn on Saturday afternoon. Attendees had been asked to bring water from their home regions to add to a bowl of the waters of the world. When each person or groups turn came, they walked forward, explained where they had collected the water  stream, lake, well  and added it to the bowl. Schreiwer added water preserved from the Idunna blot of last years Trothmoot, and Paxson poured the water on the roots of the oak tree that stood over the main meeting area.

When the blot had been completed, Rede member and Communications Officer John T. Mainer officiated at the wedding of Kentucky steward Amy Kincheloe and Ethan Dunbar in a beautiful ceremony surrounded by trees in the campgrounds amphitheater. The married couple has decided to combine their last names into a new family surname of Dunloe.

After the final feast prepared by Tanya Peterson and her staff of volunteers, the entire group met for the grand sumbel. In A Practical Heathens Guide to Asatru, former Troth steer Patricia M. Lafayllve defines sumbel as a ritualized drinking ceremony which is meant to strengthen bonds within a community. Two large drinking horns  providing a choice of mead or apple juice  were passed around the assembled participants. In the first round, each member hailed a god or goddess by giving a short or long speech and drinking from the horn. In the second round, ancestors or other departed individuals were hailed. The third round was open to whatever the participants chose to address.

Trothmoots have notoriously had defining conflicts. This year was no exception. During the sumbel, one longtime member gave a passionate and heartfelt speech in strong opposition to current organization rules on oaths made during the rite, insisting that oaths should be allowed in front of the assembly without being first discussed with the Rede. He was opposed by the fiercely determined guest of another Troth member, who asserted that witnessing oaths made by those outside of ones own worship group would necessarily have a negative effect on the individual, and who insisted on walking out of the building to avoid hearing any oaths made. Schreiwer, possessed of an impressive ability to lower tempers while hearing all sides, was roundly applauded for his quick-witted resolution of the conflict. In relation to past blowups at Trothmoot, this was relatively painless.

Several attendees told me that attendance was noticeably down from previous years. In 2016, there were nearly two dozen more participants, and some earlier Trothmoots have had nearly three times as many attendees. Given that there has been a steady increase of new memberships in the organization, Wood suggests that the lower numbers this year may be due to a lack of current members in the midwestern region. She says that this years location was deliberately chosen to build a stronger presence in the area: Trothmoot hasnt been held in the Midwest since 2010, but as a committee we felt it imperative to hold the moot there to help grow our membership in that part of the country.

Members of the Trothmoot planning committee are already looking at locations near Baltimore, Nashville, and Philadelphia as possible sites for next years event. There was a feeling among some members that, after many years of Trothmoots held at campgrounds, it might be nice to finally meet somewhere with a swimming pool and air conditioning.

* * *

The views and opinions expressed by our diverse panel of columnists and guest writers represent the many diverging perspectives held within the global Pagan, Heathen and polytheist communities, but do not necessarily reflect the views of The Wild Hunt Inc. or its management.
Want to know what your state has planned for high school in its new accountability system? Theres a new dashboard you can check.

The Alliance for Excellent Education, which monitors high school issues, has created a new way to gauge the equity and rigor of states plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act . As you no doubt recall, ESSA requires states to submit plans that outline their goals and how theyre going to meet them. Seventeen have done so already. The rest will submit plans in the fall.

The plans can be long, full of jargon, and hard to wade through. So the Alliance has set up summaries that take a dashboard approach, featuring red, yellow, and green lights to indicate what it considers the strengths or weaknesses in how states handle 13 aspects of their accountability plans. (EdWeeks Politics K-12 team has a nifty grid summarizing state plans , too.)

Some of the Alliances 13 indicators are specific to high school. The dashboards, for instance, rate how states factor their graduation rates into school ratings. Other indicators, like how states plan to close achievement gaps among subgroups of students, cover all grade levels.

The Alliances project includes dashboards for only five states so far: Colorado, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, and New Mexico. Twelve more are scheduled to be added in July.

From the first batch of five states, an example of a green light in high school accountability came from Louisiana . That state got high marks for its strength of diploma index.

Under that index, schools get a standard 100 points for students who earn diplomas in four years. They get 60 additional points for graduating students with associate degrees, and 50 for those who finish with postsecondary credits, according to Louisianas ESSA plan .(See page 53.) They get some extra pointsthough not as manyif students complete at least some college-prep courses.

Schools earn 75 points for students who take five years to graduate, and 50 points for those who take six years. Theyd get 25 points for students who earn diplomas by way of a high school proficiency test.

That approach, in the Alliances view, does a good job of balancing the need for rigor and college readiness with the need to recognize schools commitment to students who need more time or support.

In Louisiana, theyre balancing the need to prioritize kids graduating in four years, while also pushing for a diploma to matter and giving credit for students who make progress toward it, but taking more than four years, Phillip Lovell, the Alliances vice president for government relations, said in an interview.

Is your states dashboard posted yet? How does it rate?
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"We take a dynamic, collaborative approach to our work,"

PROVIDENCE, RI, June 23, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick LTD (CCK) is honored to be named one of the 2017 Best Places to Work in Rhode Island by the Providence Business News. Honorees are selected based on an analysis of confidential employee surveys and management data compiled by the Best Companies Group.



Recognized as one of only three law firms in the Medium Employer category (50-149 employees in the region), 2017 marks the fourth consecutive year CCK has received this coveted designation. The firm is known for its dedication to improving clients' lives and maintaining its core values of integrity, excellence, respect, professionalism, and teamwork.



The firm's managing partners expressed profound gratitude to Providence Business News, its employees and the community for the honor of being included among this year's honorees.



"We take a dynamic, collaborative approach to our work," said Founding Partner, Robert V. Chisholm. "Our firm is dedicated to helping disabled military veterans and other underserved groups who need an advocate. Every member of our team shares this commitment to serving the community and it creates an amazing workplace culture."



Founding Partner, J. Scott Kilpatrick, expressed the firm's gratitude for having been recognized again with this honor. "Our firm is committed to fighting for the rights of our clients, and to restoring the independence and pride of those who have been harmed. Knowing that members of our team receive personal satisfaction from and appreciate the value of what we achieve together makes our accomplishments even more meaningful," Mr. Kilpatrick said.



The Providence Business News will honor the award winners on June 21 during a gala event held at the Crowne Plaza Warwick.



About Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick LTD



Based in Providence, Rhode Island, Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick LTD is a public interest law firm and leader in Veterans Law, ERISA Law, and insurance litigation. The firm's ERISA attorneys and veterans lawyers have earned a national reputation for litigating cases against some of the country's largest corporations and insurers, as well as representing clients in VA disability claims. An unflinching willingness to litigate against even the most venerable opponents has earned the firm national regard.



In addition to being recognized among the Best Places to Work in Rhode Island in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick LTD has been named to U.S. News & World Report's list of Best Law Firms. The firm is AV rated by Martindale Hubbell and recognized by Super Lawyers.



Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick LTD is located in downtown Providence, at One Turks Head Place, Suite 1100, Providence, RI 02903.



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Federal Court Orders 'Making a Murderer' Subject Brendan Dassey to Be Released

Brendan Dassey was just 16 when he was railroaded into confessing involvement in the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach. Those who watched his interrogation in "Making a Murderer" saw all the hallmarks of an impressionable and possibly mentally impaired teen harangued by officers until he gave them a nonsensical confession, all without a parent or attorney present.

Now 27, Dassey has been ordered to be released from prison after a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that Dassey's confession had been coerced, calling it "death by a thousand cuts." But that release may not happen right away.

Coerced Confession

Dassey was interrogated four times in just 48 hours in 2005, including three times in just a 24-hour span, most of it without a parent or an adult present, and all without legal representation. Not that his lawyer would've been much help. Dassey's first attorney, Len Kachinsky, urged Dassey to confess to him prior to the interrogation, then passed on that information to police officers. Kachinsky's ineffectiveness, to put it mildly, was one of the many factors to which the Seventh Circuit pointed in finding Dassey's confession unreliable; the actions of the officers and Dassey's mental state were others:

Because of the cumulative effect of these coercive techniques -- the leading, the fact-feeding, the false promises, the manipulation of Dassey's desire to please, the physical, fatherly assurances as Wiegert touched Dassey's knee etc. -- no reasonable court could have any confidence that this was a voluntary confession.

The court ordered Dassey's release unless the state of Wisconsin either retries him within 90 days or appeals the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Another Appeal

But Wisconsin may choose another option that will keep Dassey incarcerated. The New York Daily News reports that Wisconsin's attorney general, Brad Schimel, plans to petition the full Seventh Circuit to review the decision. Schimel reportedly told WTMJ-AM today that the state will have a better chance of having the decision reversed with a full and "balanced" court. If the state loses there, it would still have the option of Supreme Court review.

Dassey has been incarcerated since his March 2006 arrest, and may remain behind bars until his appeal is resolved, though his attorneys say they will work to secure his release in the meantime.

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Jun 23, 2017 | By David

Developments in the 3D printing world keep coming thick and fast, and we don't blame you if you're struggling to keep up. Here's a quick rundown of things you might have missed, including Optomec getting a NASA contract and Concept Laser collaborating with French aerospace company LAUAK.

Optomec receives NASA contract for new laser sintering 3D printing system

Leading global 3D printing expert Optomec announced today that it has been awarded a NASA SBIR contract, for the further development of an Adaptive Laser Sintering System (ALSS). Optomecs patented LENS (Laser Engineered Net Shaping) metal 3D printers and its Aerosol Jet technology for 3D printing electronics have proved enormously popular across a huge range of industries, and this latest announcement is a further confirmation of the companys expertise in the field.

Optomec will be working in conjunction with Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, with the aim of advancing its Aerosol Jet technology into a fully automated curing system for printing electronics. This full automation and the minimal human intervention that it requires will pave the way for ALSS 3D printing techniques being used on NASAs long-term space exploration missions.

After the successful design, test and implementation of ALSS, the science and technology of laser sintering will be better understood for controllable adaptive operations, said Optomec CTO, Mike Renn. ALSS can be a key solution to NASA's challenge of in-space, on-demand manufacturing capabilities to support the unique challenges of long-duration human spaceflight, which requires an automated adaptive in-line quality control system along with the associated manufacturing process."

Designer Sid Neigum receives major Canadian grant to explore 3D printed fashion

The Be3Dimensional Innovation Fund has chosen to award CA$50, 000 to Sid Neigum, an acclaimed fashion designer .The fund is run by Ryerson University and 3D printing studio Think2Thing, which was co-founded by photographer Edward Burtynsky and designer David Didur. It is intended to promote the use of 3D printing and scanning technologies across a range of fields, including engineering, art and medicine.

Born in Alberta, Neigum has received numerous accolades for the sculptural quality of his work, which tends to include sharply defined silhouettes and involve draping and knotting techniques. He will be the first recipient of the Be3Dimensional prize from the fashion world, and he was chosen by a jury of industry veterans led by journalist Jeanne Beker. Previous recipients of the grant include Vancouver-based Geoffrey Farmer and North Bay, Ont.-based Duane Linklater from Moose Cree First Nation, both in the art category. Winners from other categories are due to be announced in the upcoming weeks.

K2Ms MOJAVE PL 3D printed spinal device hits market after getting FDA clearance

K2M, a global leader in providing surgical devices and solutions for spinal problems, today announced that its MOJAVE PL 3D Expandable Interbody System has received FDA clearance and is ready to go on sale, as the first product of its kind on the market. The 3D-printed expandable posterior-lumbar (PL) interbody system features K2Ms Lamellar 3D Titanium Technology, which is also used for its successful CASCADIA 3D family of static 3D-printed interbody cages. K2Ms advanced 3D printing methods allow the creation of complex internal structures that would otherwise be impossible, allowing for vastly improved integration of their devices and better bone growth.

The Mojave PL is a fusion device designed to allow for independent control of the anterior and posterior height in the lumbar spine, which is a new capability not available with any other product in the market today. It features infinite adjustment within the expansion range and the implant may be locked at any desired height and lordosis, aiding in the restoration of sagittal balance.

According to K2M President and CEO Eric Major, We are proud to be the global leader in 3D printing of spinal applications. We have developed internal 3D expertise that is allowing us to accelerate the rate of spinal innovation. As the first-ever FDA-cleared 3D-printed expandable interbody technology, MOJAVE PL 3D exemplifies our leadership in this space and provides surgeons the ability to expand the implant in-situ.

Concept Laser to collaborate with aeronautical company LAUAK to advance 3D printing in aerospace industry

At this years Paris Air Show, a Letter of Intent was signed by Germany-based 3D printing specialist Concept Laser and French aeronautical company LAUAK to seal a partnership between the two companies. They will work together in order to advance use of 3D printing technology in the aerospace industry. The alliance will see investment in Concept Laser from LAUAK as well as its technology being displayed in LAUAK showrooms. Concept Laser will be assisting LAUAK with designs for new products and re-designs for old ones, as well as implementing 3D printing techniques in their manufacturing process.

LAUAK sees the potential of additive manufacturing and Im delighted theyve chosen Concept Laser equipment to help the company on its journey, said Frank Herzog, CEO of Concept Laser. We will support them with equipment, processes, and people to allow them to meet their objectives.

According to Mikel Charritton, CEO of LAUAK, We see the huge potential in additive manufacturing and we want to use this technology to complete and improve our current manufacturing processes, as well as the manufacture of new components for the aviation industry.

Rize begins shipping its latest Rize One 3D printer

Rize, Inc has reported major growth over the past 6 months, expanding its U.S channel as well as adding Santhana Krishnan to the board of directors. It has now commenced commerical shipment of its Rize One 3D printer, which became available back in February of this year.

The Rize One has been labelled the most versatile 3D printing technology in the world, and boasts the industrys fastest, on-demand turnaround of injection molded-quality parts due to a very limited need for post-processing. It makes use of the companys patented Augmented Polymer Deposition (APD) process, as well as unique part strength and material properties.

We are seeing increasing worldwide demand for our Rize One 3D printer, particularly among global manufacturers and healthcare facilities, and we are excited to have begun shipping, said Eugene Giller, Rize Founder and President. Our passionate and deeply experienced team has accomplished an enormous amount in a very short timeframe. We are working to quickly expand our go-to-market initiatives, while continuing to develop innovative new products.

Smallest 3D-printed satellite - NASA launches world's lightest satellite designed by 18-year-old Rifath Sharook

NASA has launched the world's lightest 3D printed satellite into space, designed by 18-year-old Rifath Sharook and his team from Tamil Nadu in India.

Named as Kalamsat, after former President APJ Abdul Kalam, the 3D printed tiny satellite weighs just 64 grams. It was launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virgia on Thusday. "We have made history. The world's smallest satellite has been launched in space. It was not possible without my team," Rifath Sharook said.

The satellite is 3D printed with reinforced carbon fiber polymer and equipped with a nano Geige Muller counter to measure radiation in space. According to Dr. Srimathy Kesan, project supervisor and founder and CEO of Space Kids India, the satellite separated from the rocket 125 minutes after it took off. "Kalamsat fell into the sea. It will be recovered and Nasa will be sending it back to us for decoding the data," she said.

Renishaw's Lucy Ackland named one of UK's top 50 female engineers

Lucy Ackland, senior development engineer at global engineering company, Renishaw, has been selected as one of the UK's Top 50 Women in Engineering in 2017.

The Top 50 Women in Engineering was launched last year to celebrate women's achievements in the industry by the Daily Telegraph. The 2017 list is made up of outstanding female engineers under the age of 35, who have all made a significant contribution to the field.



Ackland joined Renishaw aged 16 as an apprentice and has been actively involved in Renishaw's education outreach programme, where she has been a science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) ambassador for nine years. She now runs weekly events to inspire young girls to consider engineering careers and show young people where an apprenticeship can take them.

"Historically, women's achievements in STEM have gone unnoticed, and this needs to change," explained Ackland, "The Top 50 Women in Engineering celebrates the great work done by women in the engineering sector.

"The awards showcase the amazing work that women are doing, highlighting how women are performing and achieving so much. Showcasing these achievements gives young women role models, challenges stereotypes and shows that engineering is an exciting career path."

"We are very proud of this recognition for Lucy, who works tirelessly to promote engineering to young people. Only nine per cent of engineers in the UK are female, a figure which puts us behind the rest of Europe," explained Chris Pockett, Head of Communications at Renishaw. "It is important to promote the achievements of female engineers to change the status quo and open up a new pool of talent to help solve the engineering skills shortage."

Posted in 3D Printer Company

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Jun 23, 2017 | By Benedict

New York City 3D printing company Voodoo Manufacturing has raised $5 million in a financing round led by venture capital firm General Catalyst, with participation from NextView Ventures, 645 Ventures, and Y Combinators Continuity Fund. The round takes Voodoos cumulative seed funding to $6.4 million.

Voodoo Manufacturing, an additive manufacturing company known for its factory-of-the-future 3D printing clusters, has had a prosperous 2017. In January, the New York-based company raised $1.4 million in seed funding from KPCB Edge, setting a positive mood for what was to come. The following months brought the introduction of Project Skywalkera nine-printer, robotic arm 3D printing system for automated print job handlingand the companys graduation from Y Combinators Winter 2017 startup program.

Now, thanks to Y Combinator and other contributors, Voodoo Manufacturing has raised a further $5 million in funding, following a successful financing round led General Catalyst. Voodoo says it will use this money to further develop its digital factory, making manufacturing as fast, affordable, and scalable as software.

Although it offers a range of 3D printing services, Voodoo Manufacturing is perhaps best known for its large-scale additive manufacturing production capabilities. Using large numbers of synchronized 3D printersits current machine of choice is the MakerBot Replicator 2 FDM 3D printerVoodoo enables clients to produce up to 10,000 iterations of a 3D printed part in a single order.

Voodoo Manufacturing claims that its Brooklyn-based facility can make thousands of plastic parts and products faster than any manufacturing service that exists today. But that doesnt mean the 3D printing company plans to take its foot off the gas: the large-volume printing specialist now intends to fully automate its factory as a way to reduce costs by 90 percent over the next three years.

This cost reduction plan will purportedly involve automating much of the repetitive labor within the factory. But Voodoo also will use the new round of funding to expand its operations: the New York additive manufacturing company plans to double in size by the end of 2017, adding key positions from factory to sales to engineering.

There is currently a lot of discussion around robotics and job automation, said Max Friefeld, co-founder and CEO of Voodoo Manufacturing. The truth is, as AI-enabled robots become more capable and collaborative, there will be new demand for jobs that require human skill-sets, like system maintenance and customer support.

This will redefine what it means to be a factory worker, and were excited help make the United States a hub for manufacturing innovation once again with the help of our amazing investors.

The financing round would not have been possible without General Catalyst, an American venture capital firm focused on early stage and growth investments. The company led the $5 million financing round, and partner Spencer Lazar had positive words to say about Voodoo Manufacturing.

"While the last wave of desktop 3D printers delivered affordable and accessible technology, Voodoo finally brings digital manufacturing to scale, Lazar said. Bridging the gap between idea and production has long been the dream of makers. Voodoo's approach to the 3D printing process incorporates automation and networking, yielding the fastest turnaround times at the best prices. We are excited to support the team.

Voodoo Manufacturing was founded in 2015, and says it has built a reputation within the industry by offering fast, affordable, and scalable 3D printing services.

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Samuel Argyle in Africaisacountry:

A shadow underlies many artistic expressions, including human spirituality and religion. In 1962, with Nelson Mandela imprisoned, the Cape Town-born Ibrahim left South Africa for Europe  where he met his mentor, Duke Ellington  and then on to New York to attend Juilliard. After struggling with alcohol and marijuana misuse and searching for spiritual harmony in an increasingly fractured life, Ibrahim returned to Cape Town. Years of smoking and drinking had battered his body, writes John Edwin Mason, a professor of African History at University of Virginia. In New York, doctors and a Native American medicine woman both told him to straighten up. And he did, entering a period of cleaning and embarking on a spiritual quest that began in New York City and culminated with his conversion to Islam, in Cape Town. Speaking about this turning point in his life with the UK Guardian in 2001, Ibrahim said, I went back to church; I didnt find it there. I went into all religions  the [Bhagavad] Gita, I-Ching. Then I realized most of the friends I grew up with were Muslim. Cape Town has a rare harmony, intermarriage. The musician converted to Islam in 1968. During this period in the 1960s, harmony was sought after in America as well. Many American jazz musicians viewed Islam as part of a decolonization movement, as an escape from their countrys segregation laws. Before his conversion, Ibrahim was exposed to many musicians involved in the Muslim movement in America. Figures like Sheikh Daoud Faisal, a fellow alumnus of Juilliard, inspired up-and-coming jazz musicians like Ibrahim. Faisal lead a mosque in Brooklyn Heights and was a representative of Morocco at the United Nations. Archie Shepp, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and Pharoah Sanders, to name a few, were also influenced by Islam, specifically Sufism and the Gnawa music of Morocco.

While tawhid refers to the unity of God, it also maintains that the rest of the world is many. This paradox of oneness and multiplicity is central to Islam. It is also a major theme in Ibrahims music. Musicians perform in aggregate, forming an apparent whole. This dialectical relationship forming a captivating breathe of sound is only possible with someone as talented and devoted as Ibrahim guiding the movement. The most beautiful, potent aspect of Islam is the unity of things, Ibrahim told the Guardian. You cant throw anything out of the universe. This realization has been a driving force for me.

More here.
US judge blocks President Biden's student debt forgiveness plan

The injunction is the second to block the president's signature program, which could cut or eliminate student loan debt for up to 40 million people.
Liberal Politics from the Heart of Bluegrass Country
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Periods of rain. High 71F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 59F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph.
Bravo, CNN artist Bill Hennessy.

CNN equated the briefing to a Supreme Court argument  an on-the-record event at which cameras are banned.

Hennessy has been a Washington-based courtroom sketch artist for decades. He has covered a wide range of cases, including the Clinton impeachment proceedings, terror suspect trials, and Guantanamo Bay detainee hearings. He worked for CNN at the Supreme Court on Thursday.

Hennessy's presence highlighted the significant change in White House access that has taken place recently.

Press secretaries for Democratic and Republican presidents have held on-camera briefings on a regular basis for the past quarter century. But the Trump White House has been cutting back on the frequency and the length of on-camera briefings.
Trump told public lies or falsehoods every single day of his first 40 days in office, and he hasn't stopped yet.

Out today, an ambitious attempt by the New York Times to catalogue and to visualize all of the lies Donald Trump has told as President of the United States.

"Many Americans have become accustomed to President Trump's lies," write David Leonhardt and Stuart A. Thompson.

"But as regular as they have become, the country should not allow itself to become numb to them. So we have catalogued nearly every outright lie he has told publicly since taking the oath of office."

President Trump's political rise was built on a lie (about Barack Obama's birthplace). His lack of truthfulness has also become central to the Russia investigation, with James Comey, the former director of the F.B.I., testifying under oath about Trump's "lies, plain and simple." There is simply no precedent for an American president to spend so much time telling untruths. Every president has shaded the truth or told occasional whoppers. No other president  of either party  has behaved as Trump is behaving. He is trying to create an atmosphere in which reality is irrelevant. We have set a conservative standard, leaving out many dubious statements (like the claim that his travel ban is "similar" to Obama administration policy). Some people may still take issue with this standard, arguing that the president wasn't speaking literally. But we believe his long pattern of using untruths to serve his purposes, as a businessman and politician, means that his statements are not simply careless errors. We are using the word "lie" deliberately. Not every falsehood is deliberate on Trump's part. But it would be the height of naivete to imagine he is merely making honest mistakes. He is lying.

New from me and @DLeonhardt: "President Trump's Lies, the Definitive List" https://t.co/cjdGuEVdRa  Stuart A. Thompson (@stuartathompson) June 23, 2017
June 22, 2017

BAGHDAD  Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's foreign tour this week included three stops, most notably Saudi Arabia. It was his first visit to the country since he assumed his position about three years ago. Also, the visit occurred at a time when Gulf relations are going through a historic crisis that erupted after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates officially cut ties with Qatar.

Before leaving for Saudi Arabia, Abadi said in a May 17 meeting attended by Al-Monitor and a group of media professionals that his visit to Saudi Arabia was planned more than a year ago and that he would not discuss the Gulf crisis. He also added that Iraq will not take part in the crisis in any way whatsoever.

The visit to Saudi Arabia aims to strengthen the relationship between the two countries, especially on the economic level, as Riyadh promised to provide facilitations to Iraqi investors and contribute to the reconstruction of Iraqi cities liberated from the Islamic State [IS], in addition to raising the level of security coordination between the two countries in the fight against terrorism.

Abadi arrived in Riyadh on June 19 as the head of a high-level government delegation. He met with King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, then-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and then-Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The meetings mainly led to the establishment of a joint coordination council, as per the Saudi-Iraqi joint statement, in order to take into account everything that could strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries to the desired strategic level; open new horizons of cooperation in various political, security, economic, development, trade, investment, touristic and cultural fields; activate the partnership between the private sectors of both countries; and follow up on the implementation of the agreements and memorandums of understanding signed between the two countries in order to achieve common goals.

However, some international newspapers, including Emirati daily The National, revealed that Abadi is mediating to calm the situation in the region and end the state of tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran, especially as the Iraqi prime ministers jet flew from the city of Mecca directly to the Iranian capital city of Tehran in a move aimed at achieving political balance and playing an implicit role in mediation.

Adnan al-Sarraj, a member of the State of Law coalition and a close associate of the prime minister, told Al-Monitor that Abadi had no plans of officially mediating between Tehran and Riyadh, but he repeatedly expressed hope that the hostility that reached the level of direct threat between Saudi Arabia and Iran would end.

Sarraj added that Iraq is the most qualified party to play the role of mediator because it is the first victim of any clash that takes place in the region. Meanwhile, Iraq has good relations with everyone  but the main objective of the Abadi tour is to urge these countries to help reconstruct the cities liberated from IS.

Sarraj denied reports that Abadi's visit to Tehran was a spur-of-the-moment thing and unplanned, as opposed to the statements made by some officials in Iran, including Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari. These statements expressed Irans unwillingness to receive Abadi, which reflected the countrys discontent at Iraqs openness to Saudi Arabia and mediation attempt with Riyadh.

Abadi arrived in Tehran June 20 and met with President Hassan Rouhani, parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who stressed during his conversation with the Iraqi delegation the need to maintain the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), which he described as a blessed fruit and one of Iraqs backbones. Khamenei also praised the arrival of the PMU to the Syrian border as a major strategic step and warned Abadi against confiding in the Americans and following their policies in Iraq.

A source in the Iraqi delegation accompanying the prime minister told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that while Abadis visit to Riyadh was upon the invitation of Saudi Arabia, it was the Iraqi government that requested the Iranian side to receive the Iraqi government delegation at this particular time.

The goal behind the timing of the two visits is to deliver a message of reassurance to Iraqis and the regional powers that the Iraqi government will not side with a regional party against another and will reject the policy of regional axes, the source added.

Asked about reports that Iraq is seeking to mediate between Saudi Arabia and Iran or even interfere in the Gulf crisis, the source said, There were no mediation attempts, but Iraq expressed its position on the current crises in the region and explained that [Iraq] is the most affected party therein. Abadi stressed the need to fathom Iraq's domestic situation and establish calm.

Abadi's visit to Kuwait was symbolic after the visits to Saudi Arabia and Iran, whose competition in the region has largely contributed to the majority of the regional crises. Kuwait has initiated an intermediation between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Iraq also has proposed an intermediation between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Knowing that Qatar's relationship with Iran was one of the reasons behind the Gulf rupture with Qatar, Abadi's visit to Kuwait can strengthen the role of the moderate group (Kuwait, Iraq and Oman) in the region to bring the enemies together and solve the crisis in the Gulf.

On May 21, the Iraqi delegation met with Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad and discussed with him the possibility of postponing the indemnities of the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which amount to about $4 billion, and called for bringing Kuwaiti investments to the Iraqi provinces that suffered from the war against IS.

Abadis success in gaining excellent relations with Saudi Arabia  which also infers strengthened relations with the UAE, Bahrain and even Egypt  and in restoring diplomatic representation to the highest levels while attracting Saudi investments will put Iraq to the test and require it to prove that it is not siding with the Saudi axis that is hostile to the Iranian axis. This will probably lead the country to lose some of its Shiite allies who reject any Saudi role in Iraq.
June 23, 2017

RAMALLAH, West Bank  Iman Bani Jameh, the wife of former prisoner Jihad Bani Jameh, from the village of Aqraba near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, was shocked to find out that the Palestinian government had cut off her husbands salary starting June 1.

At the beginning of every month, the government pays the salaries of its employees and those of prisoners. Bani Jameh told Al-Monitor that this month she was unable to withdraw money because the government did not transfer her husbands salary to his bank account.

Jihad spent 21 years in Israeli jails and was released in a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas in 2011 before the Israeli army arrested him again in a massive arrest campaign after the kidnapping of three settlers in Hebron in 2014. Jihad was then released six months later because of his deteriorating health condition due to Parkinson's disease.

Cutting off Jihads salary, which amounts to 7,000 Israeli shekels ($1,970) per month, has made things harder for his wife who uses the money to pay for his treatment and support their two children as well as her husbands family. My husband cannot move, let alone work. His monthly treatment costs 2,000 shekels [$565]. Our two children need a daily allowance and we only had my husbands salary to support us before it was cut off without prior notice, Bani Jameh said, noting that Jihads condition would deteriorate if he is unable to continue his treatment.

According to Hamas leader Abdel Rahman Shedid, himself a former prisoner who was exiled to the Gaza Strip and currently serves as the head of the prisoners media bureau in Gaza, Jihad is one of the 277 prisoners released in the 2011 prisoner exchange deal and affiliated with Hamas, whose salaries were cut off by the Palestinian Authority (PA) without specifying why. Although this decision was not officially announced by the PA, it was implemented in early June.

He told Al-Monitor that the decision will negatively affect former prisoners because many of them have no alternative sources of livelihood, especially those exiled abroad, while others are sick and depend on the salary in order to secure the cost of treatment, describing the decision as unpatriotic and immoral.

Shedid, whose salary has also been cut off, said he was informed by PA officials, which he refused to name, that the salaries of the 277 former Hamas prisoners released as part of the 2011 swap deal were cut off.

It is noteworthy that the decision to cut off the salaries of the 277 former Hamas prisoners is not related to the Israeli and US pressure on the PA to stop paying the allowances of current Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and their families. The decision to stop paying the 277 former prisoners falls within the context of the Palestinian division (Fatah-Hamas) and comes as part of the PAs pressure on Hamas to cede power in Gaza to the consensus government.

Issa Qaraqe, the chairman of the Palestinian Committee for Prisoners Affairs (formerly the Ministry of Prisoners), told Al-Monitor, The PA is still paying the stipends of the families of prisoners and martyrs and will continue to do so. This issue is considered a red line.

As for the salaries of the 277 former prisoners that were cut off, Qaraqe said, This decision was taken by the PA amid the ongoing dispute with Hamas. The decision is part of the [PAs] pressure on the movement and has nothing to do with the United States and Israel calling on the PA to stop paying the Palestinian prisoners [currently in Israeli jails].

Head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club Qadura Fares said on Quds TV June 11 that the governments decision to cut off the salaries of the 277 former Hamas prisoners is related to internal decisions the PA is taking against Hamas to pressure it and achieve reconciliation.

The recent decision to stop paying the former Hamas prisoners comes as part of a series of steps the PA is taking to pressure the movement into ceding control of the Gaza Strip to the consensus government. In early April, the PA had cut off the salaries of Gazas government employees by 30-50%.

Meanwhile, the PA has yet to comment or explain the decision it took. However, government spokesman Yusuf al-Mahmoud told Al-Monitor, I'm not sure how accurate this is, and that's why I cannot comment on the issue because no official decision was issued. But the government would never take any action that does not serve the interests of the Palestinian citizens and prisoners. He explained that the governments general stance would always take into consideration the peoples best interest.

In addition to cutting off the salaries of former prisoners on June 1, the government cut off the salaries of nine members of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) who were dismissed from the movement for having other allegiances, in reference to dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan.

PLC member Najat Abu Bakr, whose salary was cut off, told Al-Monitor that she received a letter from the bank informing her that her account, to which her monthly salary is usually transferred, had been frozen. She then found out that other PLC members also did not receive their salaries, including Jihad Tomaleh, Shami al-Shami, Alaa Yaghi, Naima Sheikh, Majid Abu Shamala, Ibrahim al-Masdar and Abdul Hamid al-Eila.

Abu Bakr said that there was no justification for cutting off the salaries, noting that this is a form of bullying and a violation of all laws and conventions that preserve the freedom and dignity of the human being. She noted, This decision violates the law because the salary of PLC members is guaranteed by law. We are not employees to have an employer cut off our salaries. We are elected by the people, and the law ensures our right to receive our salaries.

Law No. 10 for the Duties and Rights of PLC Members and Law No. 11 for the Remuneration of PLC Members of 2004 stipulate that a PLC member shall receive a monthly salary of $3,000.

Although the decision to cut the salaries of prisoners and PLC members was issued by the government, it would not have seen the light without the approval and ratification of President Mahmoud Abbas. This comes two months after the government decided to reduce 30-50% of the salaries of the PAs employees in Gaza, which indicates that the decision could later on expand to include other categories as a result of pressure by Israel and the United States or the presidents political opponents.
June 23, 2017

ALEPPO, Syria  Thousands of Syrian refugees in Turkey have rushed since June 1 to the Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam crossings on the Turkish-Syrian border to spend the Eid al-Fitr holiday in their homeland. The dates of the holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan, vary by location and Islamic sect. This year it will begin June 25 or 26.

Authorities opened the Cilvegozu/Bab al-Hawa crossing June 1, and refugees with proper identification documents can use that crossing to return to Turkey until Sept. 30. The Oncupinar/Bab al-Salam crossing is more restricted: It was open June 13-23 for people to leave Turkey, and refugees with ID using that crossing may return no later than July 14.

For Syrian refugees in Turkey, the chance to meet with relatives and visit their homeland is not to be missed, particularly since the border crossings have been closed to civilians and crossing into Turkey illegally has been an almost impossible journey.

At Oncupinar/Bab al-Salam, hundreds of people were crossing into northern Aleppo on June 18.

When the refugees arrive at the Turkish side of the crossing, they are required to complete legal procedures and hand over their temporary protection IDs. At the same time, they obtain a card allowing them to return to Turkey. Then they are bused to the Syrian oppositions immigration and passport office, where they select a return date, allowing the crossing administration on the Syrian side to organize their return to avoid overcrowding.

Some plan to return; some do not. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a woman from Aleppo told Al-Monitor, I am definitely returning to Turkey.

While waiting in the line to register at the passport office, she said that although the Syrian regime regained control over the whole city of Aleppo in late 2016, The situation is still unstable in Aleppo city. I am going there to check on the house in al-Shaar neighborhood before I come back. I am very happy to be [going] back to Aleppo for the first time since I left in 2012.

In the Karaj Sajou area, also near the Bab al-Salam crossing, those arriving from Turkey were using public and private transportation to reach their various destinations.

Mohammed Fawzi was waiting for other passengers to take their seats. He was going by bus along with his four family members to Afrin. He told Al-Monitor, It has been an exhausting journey. It took me 20 hours in the waiting line at the Turkish Oncupinar crossing. It is very hot and overcrowded.

He added, Despite the arduous journey, I am glad to be home to meet with my relatives and friends. I cant tell you how I feel; it's been three years since I came to Gaziantep.

Asked whether he will be returning to Turkey, he replied, Sure. I booked to return June 28. I have my sewing atelier there, and my children have their future; they are pursuing their studies in Turkey." However, "I long to settle in Syria one day, when the war is over," he added.

The majority of Syrians have opted for the Cilvegozu/Bab al-Hawa crossing because they can stay in Syria longer. An official there told the Anatolia news agency June 20 that nearly 92,000 Syrians had arrived in Syria using that crossing since early June.

In contrast, Qasem al-Qasem, the director of the Bab al-Salam crossing, told Al-Monitor June 20 that 40,000 Syrians used the Oncupinar/Bab al-Salam crossing, though he did expect thousands more by June 23.

Jabhat al-Shamiya, an opposition group affiliated with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), runs the Bab al-Salam crossing and provides services facilitating the citizens movement, such as buses and baggage handlers.

It's normal to see the big crowds, particularly since the Bab al-Salam crossing had been shut down since March 2015. The people of northern Aleppo [province] long to visit their hometowns, particularly since [the towns] were liberated from the Islamic State organization [IS].

The FSA, backed by Turkey, expelled IS from large parts of northern and eastern Aleppo earlier this year.

Saleh Asfour, who was returning from Turkey to al-Bab in northeastern Aleppo, told Al-Monitor, I will get to see my father and family for the first time in three years.

Asfour arrived in Turkey after IS took control of al-Bab in January 2014. The FSA cleared IS from the area in February.

He added, I cant believe that Im in Syria now. I cant describe my feeling.  The air smells different here.
June 22, 2017

Once again, Turkey and the European Union appear destined for a head-on collision in their relations, one that looks very difficult, if not impossible, to avert.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament on June 20 adopted a revised, strongly worded draft of its Annual Turkey Report 2016, which angered the Turkish government. The committee showed formidable support for the report: Only three members voted against it, while 51 voted in favor and 14 abstained.

The committee emphasized that Turkeys pending constitutional amendments granting extraordinary powers to the presidency aren't in line with the Copenhagen criteria  which are used to determine a country's eligibility to join the EU  and called on member states to formally suspend accession talks with Turkey if the changes are implemented in their current form. The amendments aren't scheduled to take full effect until after the presidential and parliamentary elections in November 2019.

In a way, the committee is asking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to declare the April 16 referendum results null and void. This is, naturally, unacceptable for Erdogan. Even though the validity of the election and the narrow margin of victory have been widely challenged, there isn't the slightest possibility that Turkey will refrain from implementing the referendum results or make changes.

After the committee accepted the report, Kati Piri, a Dutch Social Democrat and the European Parliament rapporteur on Turkey, said, The continuation of [Turkey's] state of emergency has disproportionate negative effects on Turkish society, and the arbitrary arrest of thousands of citizens, including parliamentarians and mayors, is of utmost concern to us.  We expect the Turkish government to take the Venice Commission recommendations seriously, as well as the fact that half the Turkish population voted against the changes in the referendum.

Erdogan had dismissed the Venice Commission's conclusions in March, saying the commission "does not count for anything."

"You can write as many reports as you want. We do not recognize your reports. We will not recognize them in the future, either, for your information, he said.

Turkish daily Cumhuriyet noted a nuance in the adopted text of the Foreign Affairs Committee: The earlier wording, the accession talks should be suspended, was changed to should be suspended without delay, thus hardening the European stand regarding Turkey.

The text adopted in the Foreign Affairs Committee will be put to debate July 5 at the European Parliament and will be voted at the plenary parliament meeting July 6. Given the significant support in the Foreign Affairs Committee, where all the diverse political groups and blocs of the Parliament are represented proportionally, Parliament is likely to suspend accession talks with Turkey.

Piri, in an interview with the Turkish edition of the BBC, articulated the European Parliaments position and said that despite the proposal's strong wording, it doesn't seek to end the accession immediately. "Without delay" refers to quick action Parliament should take if the constitutional amendments are implemented at the next elections in 2019. Yet she also reiterated that as fundamental human rights and supremacy of law are constantly violated in Turkey, it is impossible to consider Turkeys EU membership.

Although the European Parliament has no executive powers, it is more or less the EU's trend-setting institution, and its resolution on Turkey indicates the climate Turkey should expect in the near future. The resolution is certain to create additional uproar in the Turkish government.

Erdogan's trip to Germany, set for just one day after the European Parliament's vote, could accelerate the oncoming crash. Erdogan will be attending the G-20 meeting in Hamburg, and this visit will be his first to the country since he likened some of the current government's practices to Nazism, which unsurprisingly infuriated the Germans.

Erdogan, most probably, will be received with protests by certain Turkish and Kurdish groups, and the German police announced they will not allow a repetition of what happened recently in Washington, where the Turkish presidents security guards attacked peaceful demonstrators who were US citizens. Now, his security detail is wanted by US law enforcement authorities. Eyes will be focused on Erdogan and his entourage, as tensions with his German hosts undoubtedly will grow. Two German halls, in Dortmund and Oberhausen, have already rejected Erdogan's request to deliver talks to Turkish audiences during his trip.

Erdogan's visit, on top of the European Parliament's stand on Turkeys accession to the EU, will most likely exacerbate ongoing Turkish-EU skirmishes. The dismal human rights situation and violations of basic freedoms in Turkey drive increasing concern in Europe.

Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu organized a "March for Justice" from Ankara to Istanbul that began June 15. The 480-kilometer (300-mile) march is expected to take 23 days and is designed to galvanize the opposition, which is bitter over the allegedly fraudulent constitutional referendum, among other things. Thousands of opposition members could descend on Istanbul in mid-July if Erdogan allows the march to proceed. He would then likely send security forces to confront peacefully marching crowds.

Those marchers, participating in what could become the biggest public undertaking in recent Turkish politics, could very well arrive on the first anniversary of the July 15 coup attempt. The government is making preparations for mammoth demonstrations by Erdogan loyalists to commemorate martyrs and celebrate the "victory of democracy"  meaning the consolidation of Erdogans grip on power.

Imagine the turmoil that could arise if these two groups converge.

Adding to the tension are trials related to the failed coup. The main trial, in which Erdogan expected great fanfare in his favor and against alleged putschists, began to produce contrary results. Some testimony proved counterproductive for the Erdogan narrative, so the trial was postponed until Oct. 30.

However, the first trial involving prominent journalists accused of being associated with the Gulen movement, which is alleged to have instigated the coup, has begun. Many Turkish media outlets, strictly controlled by Erdogan, are muted, yet the trials aren't escaping international notice, and they add to Turkey's bleak human rights record.

The country's EU relations need a miracle. Now is the time to cross fingers, wait for July and pray that the situation doesn't get even worse.
Comcast says it is deploying 600 new outdoor Wi-Fi hotspots in popular locations in Huntsville and Tuscaloosa. They will be free for Comcast customers, and non-customers can use them free twice a month.

The locations chosen include parks, shopping centers, restaurants and schools, including several on the campus of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Comcast says.

"Today's announcement is a true game-changer for Comcast customers in Huntsville and Tuscaloosa," said Vic Pascarelli, Comcast Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "Accessible Wi-Fi service supports a more seamless online experience for our customers, especially in the high-traffic areas where connectivity is in such demand."

Most Xfinity Internet customers can access the hotspots by selecting "xfinitywifi" from the list of available networks and entering their Comcast email and password.
Nearly 800 donors successfully raised $72,505 in just over five weeks to keep the Crescent Theater open in its current location at 208 Dauphin St. for two more years, Max Morey said.

This past week, the final week of the fundraising effort, has been "extremely stressful" for Morey, who has managed the theater since it opened in 2008, as he watched and waited to see if the goal would be met. But then came a happy surprise: "Two or three benefactors were waiting until Thursday to bring it over the top with significant donations," he said.

"The community has spoken loudly twice now through two large and successful fundraisers," Max Morey wrote on the Crescent Theater's Facebook page.

The Crescent is known for showing movies that often don't play anywhere else in Mobile, and has traditional annual offerings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "It's a Wonderful Life." The popular Morey sells tickets and offers concessions - including beer and wine - on the honor system. He also enthusiastically introduces the films, welcoming theater-goers as if they're in his own living room. The first two rows of seats are coveted leather recliners.

This is the second time Morey has appealed to the Mobile community to keep the single-screen theater open in downtown Mobile. In 2012, when the theater needed a new, $75,000 digital projector, donors contributed more than $84,000 through a Kickstarter campaign.

In April, the Crescent Theater Film Society, the nonprofit group that has managed the theater since 2010, announced that the Crescent would soon close because of a rent increase.

After searching for another building in downtown Mobile and realizing he "couldn't afford to move," Morey made a video that was posted on May 17, announcing that the Crescent needed $72,000 to pay the rent for the next two years.

Morey said he was "hesitant to even do a fundraiser, but so many of you have come to the theater and said, 'Do a fundraiser! We'll help you!'"

As of Friday, the goal had been met a day ahead of the deadline. The nonprofit group signed a lease agreement with the building's owner, John L. Switzer, according to Morey, and the Crescent will remain in its current location for at least two more years.

In a post on the Crescent Theater's Facebook page, Morey thanked the hundreds of people who donated to save the theater. "We have always been dependent on the generosity of others," he wrote, "and the community has spoken loudly twice now through two large and successful fundraisers."

In response to his announcement, Marty Henken wrote, "We love Max Morey. He makes the Crescent Theater what it is. Without Max Morey's vision there would've never been a theater in the first place."

"So happy I could do a small amount to help keep my favorite theater open," wrote Janie Brown. "Can't imagine Dauphin Street without it."

On Friday afternoon, Morey met with some of the Crescent Theater Film Society's board members to plan a donor appreciation party for Thursday, July 6, at 5:15 p.m., he said. Everyone who gave to the Crescent is invited to meet in front of the theater, drink free Champagne and help cut a "ribbon" made of film to celebrate the goal being met.

Always the movie lover and theater promoter, Morey added, confidently, that the Crescent has "a great summer and fall lineup."
Amere Savage

Friends and family will gather Sunday night to remember a young boy killed while riding a scooter on Father's Day.

The candlelight vigil is being held one week after 8-year-old Amere Savage was hit by a car in the Gate City neighborhood park. Community spokesman Jeremy Love said The Gate City Foundation will be accepting donations to help with Amere's funeral, which will be handled by Aubrey Bushelon Funeral Services.

The accident happened about 4 p.m. on Joppa Avenue and 66th Court Way South in the Gate City neighborhood. Amere was taken to Children's of Alabama, where he was pronounced dead.

The unidentified driver who struck Amere stayed on the scene, and Birmingham police have since said the person driving the car was not speeding. Love said the motorist was distracted by texting while driving, but police have not confirmed that.

"It appears it was just a case of accidentally running into the street without checking for cars and unfortunately a car was traveling on that street at the same time the child went into the street,'' said Lt. Sean Edwards. "The driver of the car was extremely torn up about the accident."

Love said that since Amere's death, the foundation has been working with the City of Birmingham and District 5 City Councilman Jonathan Austin to install speed bumps, caution signs, sidewalks and additional lighting at Lewis Park.

The vigil will be held Sunday, June 25, at 7:30 p.m. at Lewis Park. The park is located at 7500 66th Street South.

Amere just finished the third grade at Center Point Elementary. He had been bugging his father about getting him a dog, which Savage did, so Amere had come to spend the summer with him in Gate City.

"He was a happy boy. He loved to be around his father,'' 32-year-old James Savage said during an interview with AL.com. "He just liked to have fun. He always kept a smile on his face."

Sunday afternoon, Amere asked his father if he could go outside and play with other young family members. He went back inside a short time later, and asked for money to go to the local candy store. "I went upstairs and got him some money," Savage said. "In about another 30 minutes, that's when my stepson came in and said he had got hit by a car at the park."

Savage rushed to the park, which wasn't far from his home. "I panicked. I lost words,'' he said. "When I seen my child out there laying on the ground, he wasn't responding."

"It hurts to lose a child on Father's Day,'' said a grief-stricken Savage. "It hurts me so bad."

For more information on the vigil, contact Love at gatecityfoundation@gmail.com.
It was last summer when somebody gave Alabama Board of Education members an unsigned letter saying a finalist for state superintendent had broken the ethics law some seven years earlier.

Almost a year later, it's still unknown who wrote and distributed that letter about Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Craig Pouncey.

Pouncey denied allegations of plagiarizing and using state resources to write his dissertation in 2009 and retired employees who worked with him at that time backed him up.

But fallout continues because of a sharp disagreement among school officials about the response to the unsigned letter.

That bitter divide deepened this week after the release of an internal investigation report by Department of Education attorney Michael Meyer.

Meyer accused three other department lawyers of conspiring to smear Pouncey. Meyer said former Interim Superintendent Philip Cleveland and Board Member Mary Scott Hunter took part in that "tawdry scheme."

Those accused denied that and others questioned Meyer's conclusions.

But the Board of Education voted 6-1 to accept his report on Wednesday, with Hunter casting the only no vote.

How did this get started?

Pouncey was one of six finalists for state superintendent last year. When board members arrived for a July meeting, they found an anonymous letter accusing Pouncey of using his office for personal gain when he was an assistant state superintendent in 2009.

It alleged, among other things, that Pouncey plagiarized his dissertation and used state employees on state time to help finish it. Attached were Department of Education emails and excerpts of emails between Pouncey and employees intended to support the allegation.

How did Pouncey respond?

Pouncey denied the allegations and offered to answer questions from the board. Retired state employees named in the emails backed Pouncey in letters to the board. They had volunteered to help type and edit the dissertation and did so, with minimal exceptions, on their own time, they said. A Samford University professor who served on Pouncey's dissertation committee wrote to the board praising the depth and originality of Pouncey's work.

How did the state Board of Education respond?

Most of the board members disregarded the allegations because they had no name attached. "File 13," Board Member Jeffrey Newman said. Three board members said it did raise concerns.

Hunter, an attorney, said she was concerned about the legal obligation to report the complaint to the Ethics Commission. State law requires agency heads to report matters that constitute a violation of the ethics law.

Hunter gave the letter to interim Superintendent Cleveland and instructed him to give it to Dean, the general counsel. Hunter also called the Ethics Commission. The Ethics Commission called Dean and asked for the letter, which she delivered, and in turn got a written acknowledgment saying that the board had fulfilled its legal responsibility to report the complaint. Dean shared the acknowledgment letter with board members.

The acknowledgment letter, which named Pouncey, was leaked and published with a news story in the Alabama Political Reporter on Aug. 9. Other news stories followed. The board took the vote on hiring a superintendent on Aug. 11.

Meyer's report also notes that Hunter told legislators about the anonymous complaint against Pouncey at a Business Council of Alabama conference the week before the vote.

How did the anonymous complaint affect the vote?

No one has said definitively, but Pouncey came in second in the voting. The board selected Michael Sentance, a former education official from Massachusetts, over Pouncey and the other four finalists. Sentance received five votes and Pouncey received four.

What was the reaction to the choice of Sentance over Pouncey?

Some of Pouncey's supporters said the anonymous allegation had undermined his chance to be superintendent.

Legislators who believed Pouncey was unfairly smeared formed a special committee to investigate what happened with the anonymous letter.

They questioned board members and Department of Education officials. The leaders of the committee, Sens. Gerald Dial and Quinton Ross, told Hunter she should have consulted with the board before telling the Ethics Commission about the letter.

In October, the board voted to ask for an investigation by the Ethics Commission or Attorney General's office into the "unauthorized and potentially illegal dissemination in 2016 of information concerning the position of Alabama State Superintendent of Education."

The attorney general's office asked the department to do an internal review first. In January, Sentance asked Department of Education attorney Michael Meyer to review the electronic evidence related to the anonymous complaint. Meyer completed his report on June 6.

What did Meyer report?

Meyer took a deposition from David Pope, chief information security officer for the Department of Education. Pope said that he collected emails from 2009 relevant to the anonymous accusation against Pouncey, at Cleveland's direction, and gave them to Cleveland on a thumb drive.

In his report, Meyer said the evidence from those emails and attachments "sharpens the conclusion that Dr. Pouncey is innocent of the anonymous ethics allegations."

Meyer's report said Pope had turned in the thumb drive on July 22, more than two weeks before board voted to hire a superintendent.

Meyer wrote that the evidence on the thumb drive could have been promptly used to clear Pouncey, but the alleged conspirators carried out a "tawdry scheme" to conceal Pouncey's innocence.

Meyer did not interview anyone except Pope because Sentance had limited the scope of his investigation to a review of the electronic records.

What did the five accused of carrying out the scheme say?

Hunter said Meyer reached faulty and "bizarre" conclusions and called the report "garbage."

Hunter said she didn't know about the thumb drive. And if it contained proof that the allegations were wrong, Hunter questioned why the contents of the emails were not included with Meyer's report.

Attorney Dennis Bailey, who represents the three department lawyers -- Dean, Crowther and Ward -- issued a statement, saying they were fulfilling their duties appropriately and had sought and followed independent legal advice about how to handle the anonymous complaint.

Cleveland, who is retired from the Department of Education, has not responded to phone calls.

Has this gone to court?

Yes. In February, Pouncey sued the same five people named in Meyer's report, alleging they conspired to prevent him from getting the superintendent's job. The defendants, including Cleveland, have denied that and asked to have the case dismissed. The judge has not ruled on those motions.

What happens next?

The state Board of Education will forward Meyer's investigation report to the attorney general's office. Board members who approved Meyer's report said they believed they had fulfilled their responsibility and would rely on the attorney general's office to decide whether a deeper investigation is warranted.

Pouncey's lawsuit is pending in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Hunter and others have said the situation shows that the department needs a policy for how to deal with "whistleblower" accusations, including those that are anonymous.

On Friday, the Board of Education voted to hire an outside legal firm to represent the board because of the pending litigation against three of its lawyers.

Also on Friday, Bailey, the attorney for the three lawyers, said he would give the board a written rebuttal to Meyer's report within seven days.
A vehicle was submerged in a drainage ditch at the Southgate Mall parking lot in Muscle Shoals after a storm moved through the area on Friday, June 23, 2017.

Thousands of Alabamians are without power and dealing with flooding issues after a round of severe weather swept across the state on Friday.

Alabama Power officials said about 11,000 customers are without electricity, as of 9 p.m. That's down from 36,500 at 4 p.m.

The majority of the reports are coming from Birmingham with 4,000 outages. Tuscaloosa has 1,800 reported outages. About 875 were reported in the Montgomery area. Anniston is experiencing nearly 450 outages.

Huntsville Utilities officials said 50 customers are without electricity in the service area. Crews restored power to the southwestern portion of the city by 5:20 p.m this afternoon. Crews are working on outages in the Triana, Harvest-Monrovia, New Market, West Huntsville and Dug Hill Road area.

Residents can also check out the power outage map for more information.

A tornado watch remains in effect for central Alabama until 8 p.m. Reports of wind and flooding damages are coming out of north Alabama, which did experience a few tornado warnings earlier today.

Residents in Muscles Shoals came together to help pull a woman out of her car when it was almost submerged in flood waters.

Muscle Shoals police are asking residents to avoid the Southgate Mall parking lot. A car was submerged in a drainage ditch. Officers will be blocking the entrances to prevent prevent any injuries or loss of property.

If you have experienced flooding in your area, please email Jonece Starr Dunigan at jdunigan@al.com. You are welcome to share photos or videos.

This post will be updated when more details are released.
Sarah Harmening (Facebook)

North Alabama Chick-fil-A restaurants are selling T-shirts for the community to wear during a day designated to honor and remember missionary Sarah Harmening who was killed in a bus crash.

July 14 has been designated #servelikesarah day, Chick-fil-A of Athens announced on Facebook. The restaurant is selling T-shirts, with proceeds benefiting the Lottie Moon mission fund in Harmening's name. The fund supports international missions and is named for Moon, who served as a missionary in China for nearly 40 years.

"The principle behind our efforts is to help a cause that was close to her (Harmening's) heart," reads a post on the restaurant's Facebook page.

Harmening's sister Katelyn said in an email to AL.com the event was created by a manager at Madison's Chick-fil-A store, prompting other locations to join.

In an effort to honor a young lady that we lost too soon, we will be hosting a #servelikesarah day here at Chick-fil-A... Posted by Chick-fil-A Athens (AL) on Thursday, June 22, 2017

Harmening was killed in a bus crash near Atlanta as she and others from Huntsville's Mt. Zion Baptist Church were traveling to the airport. They were to board a plane to Africa for a mission trip. The June 8 crash left dozens injured, including the bus driver.

T-shirts are $10. Through June 30, they can be pre-ordered here and will be available for pickup by July 7.

Written on the back of the T-shirts is: "This is not about us. Life is not about us. It's about God who is eternal. So I want to dedicate the one moment I'm here completely and entirely to him."

Harmening wrote in her final journal entry of the great things she hoped God would do through her youth group when they arrived in Botswana.

"I was just sitting here (on) the bus feeling a little sad. I guess because I'm going to be gone so long and I was a little uncomfortable. Then I decided to read my Bible. I prayed and opened up to 1 Peter 5 and 2 Peter 1. Pretty much everything I read applies to me now," Harmening wrote in the message shared by Alabama Baptist Newspaper.

"It talked about watching over the flock entrusted to you, which would be my little buddies in Botswana. Humbling yourself, which I will need to do also (and that also means being a little uncomfortable). It talked about the devil prowling about like a lion seeking whom he may devour, which he will especially be doing on this mission trip, and how we need to be alert and of a sober mind.

"And lastly how we get to participate in his divine nature! I mean, how awesome is that? So mostly, I was reminded of why I am here and why God has called me here... So I know He's going to do incredible things."
An Alabama man was in serious condition after being robbed and shot while vacationing with his family in Turks and Caicos Islands.

Kevin Newman, an American tourist from Alabama, was shot and robbed in Turks and Caicos on Friday. He was in serous condition.

Kevin Newman, of Smith's Station in Lee County, was injured in the shooting in Grace Bay of Providenciales, an island in Turks and Caicos early Friday morning, ABC News reports.

Newman was taken for treatment at a local hospital but had to be medically evacuated to the United States, according to ABC. The Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force responded to the shooting, for which an arrest has not yet been made.

Newman was being treated in Fort Lauderdale, Florida until he can be transported to Atlanta, according to WTVM, a Georgia TV station that interviewed the victim's family.

Newman was in a medically-induced coma after sustaining three gunshot wounds, including on that hit the main artery to his heart, WTVM reported.

The man was on vacation with his wife and son. A gofundme account had raised more than $21,000 this afternoon. The account was set up to raise $15,000 to cover the cost of transporting Newman to the U.S. for treatment.
Former Alabama governor Robert Bentley is back to practicing medicine.

Bentley is listed as the owner and only physician for Dermatology Care of Alabama. The practice is located at 900 Veterans Memorial Parkway in Tuscaloosa.

"Dr. Robert Bentley comes to Dermatology Care of Alabama, known as a familiar face to Alabamians and a skilled and caring physician to patients," the clinic's website notes. "Dermatology Care of Alabama is pleased to have Dr. Bentley leading our staff to serve our patients' dermatological needs."

Bentley, 74, resigned in April as part of plea deal related to campaign finance and ethics violations in connection to his relationship with former staffer Rebekah Caldwell Mason. Part of his plea deal required him to perform 100 hours of community service as a doctor.

Bentley's term as governor is referenced on the clinic's website.

"Dr. Bentley retired from private practice in 2010 when he was overwhelmingly elected by the people of the state to serve as Alabama's 53rd Governor. During his time in public service, Dr. Bentley prioritized the needs of the average Alabamian, drawing particular attention to rural and impoverished parts of the state, and led efforts to bring not only well-paying jobs, but also qualified physicians and greater access to healthcare to those areas of Alabama," the website notes.

At the time of his resignation, Bentley said he hoped to teach medical residents at a family medical program in Centreville. The Cahaba Family Medicine Residency Program in Centreville did not respond to AL.com's questions related to Bentley working at the facility.

Bentley had a dermatology practice in Tuscaloosa before becoming governor and maintained his medical license. His plea deal prevents him from seeking political office in the future.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi security forces said Saturday they disrupted a plot to attack the Grand Mosque at Mecca, home to the holiest site in Islam, just as the fasting month of Ramadan concludes.



The Interior Ministry said it launched raids in Jiddah province, as well as two areas in Mecca itself, including the Ajyad Al-Masafi neighborhood, located near the Grand Mosque.



There, police said they engaged in a shootout at a three-story house with a suicide bomber, who blew himself up and led to the building's collapse. He was killed while the blast wounded six foreigners and five members of the security forces, according to the Interior Ministry's statement. Five others were arrested, it said.



The Interior Ministry "confirms that this terrorist network, whose terrorist plan was thwarted, violated, in what they would have perpetrated, all sanctities by targeting the security of the Grand Mosque, the holiest place on Earth."



"They obeyed their evil and corrupt self-serving schemes managed from abroad whose aim is to destabilize the security and stability of this blessed country," the statement said.



The ministry did not name the group involved in the attack. The ultraconservative Sunni kingdom battled an al-Qaida insurgency for years and more recently has faced attacks from a local branch of the Islamic State group.



The disrupted attack comes at a sensitive time in Saudi Arabia as King Salman earlier this week short-circuited the kingdom's succession by making his son, Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman, first in line to the throne. The newly appointed crown prince, 31 years old, is the architect of Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen against Shiite rebels, now stalemated. He has also offered aggressive comments about the kingdom confronting Shiite power Iran.



Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have cut diplomatic ties to neighboring Qatar and are trying to isolate the energy-rich tiny country over its alleged support of militants and ties to Iran. Qatar long has denied those allegations.



The Grand Mosque has been the target of militants before. In 1979, a group of militants seized the mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray toward five times a day, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne. The official toll of the assault and subsequent fighting to retake the mosque from hundreds of armed militants was over 100 people killed and 500 wounded.
It took a tragedy for Lauren Jacobs to realize just how important the Magic City Acceptance Center has become to Birmingham-area LGBTQ youths.

Alabama's tight-knit LGBTQ community was rocked on June 1, when transgender 13-year-old Jay Griffin's parents found his dead body in his room in their Trussville home. Like too many troubled transgender teens before him, Griffin had committed suicide.

As news of Griffin's death quickly rippled through the Alabama community, local LGBTQ youths flocked to the Magic City Acceptance Center, a burgeoning organization offering specialized services to young gay, transgender and queer people who travel there from across the state and beyond.

"I don't like that it kind of takes times of tragedy for the importance of the space to sink in, but I had a moment on [June 1] where I was realizing that if we did not exist, I have no idea where all these people would be," Jacobs, the center's youth outreach coordinator, said. "They would still be upset and they would not be sitting in a room together where they could actually talk about it."

Exceedingly rare

For many years, there was no community center in or near Jefferson County where LGBTQ youths could openly gather in a structured, inclusive and affirming environment.

That all changed in June 2014, when the nonprofit Birmingham AIDS Outreach opened the Magic City Acceptance Center in a low-slung storefront east of downtown Birmingham.

Today the acceptance center shares a converted warehouse on Birmingham's south side with the Magic City Wellness Center, which opened in its doors in January 2016. Together, the two organizations offer a range of services that can be hard to come by elsewhere in the region.

The acceptance center offers young LGBTQ people everything from art workshops and movie nights to support groups and free counseling. Just down the hall, the wellness center provides members of the LGBTQ community with primary medical care and professional counseling, as well as specialized services like hormone replacement therapy and HIV prophylaxis.

Gina Mallisham, client and guest relations coordinator for Birmingham AIDS Outreach, poses in a room in the Magic City Wellness Center used for counseling services.

According to Amanda Keller, director of the Magic City Acceptance Center, the two centers combine to create a space that is exceedingly rare in the South. There are a number of centers across Dixie offering various support services and events for LGBTQ youths. A couple of freestanding clinics in cities like New Orleans and Jackson, Mississippi, offer services similar to those provided by the Magic City Acceptance Center.

But Keller says that the only other outfits she is aware of in the Deep South that offer the combined benefits offered by the joint Magic City centers are located in the Tampa area. As such, LGBTQ folks flock to Birmingham from Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and all across Alabama.

"We've expanded on a level we never thought possible. We never thought there were that many queer youth in this city, and we have folks who drive hours," Keller said. "There's a carpool that drives from the country because one father picks them all up and brings them here. It's stories like that that are so special."

'You don't have to worry'

To date, the Magic City Wellness Center has had about 3,000 patient visits, while the acceptance center has served nearly 500 youth and hosted countless meet-ups, free counseling sessions and events like the uber-popular Queer Prom.

Services like those offered by the wellness center can be obtained from select medical and counseling professionals, but the Birmingham center openly serves the LGBTQ community and prides itself on being an affirming place for people of all stripes. That's almost unheard of in southern states, and is still uncommon in most other parts of the country, Kyle Pugh, director of the wellness center, said.

"You don't have to worry about the front desk or the nurse calling you the wrong name or the wrong pronouns," he explained. "You're comfortable from start to finish."

The Magic City Wellness Center offers members of the LGBTQ community a range of medical services.

That commitment to openness and affirmation has been an inspiration to other groups throughout the nation that would like to follow the Magic City centers' lead, Pugh said. Some groups have been hamstrung by boards of directors who have not been willing to take the steps the Birmingham centers have, and others have simply not had the gumption or confidence to do so.

"I think honestly a lot of organizations have been afraid to take the lead and we just said, 'You know what? We know that this is needed, we're going to try it,'" Pugh said. "And fortunately with a lot of hard work it's really worked out and I think that as a result of that, we're getting a lot of other organizations - not just in the South but throughout the country - that are kind of looking to us now and going, 'Wait a minute, if they can do that in Birmingham, we can do it in Portland or we can do it in Austin, Texas.'"

Birmingham's magic

The center has sustained its share of threats, but overall Keller says that she and her colleagues "feel really safe" in Alabama's largest city.

"In Birmingham, the leadership might not be there, and the people that make the decisions might not be there - [city officials] and business leaders and things - but when it comes to the people of Birmingham, it's a little city with a surprisingly big-city mentality," Pugh said.

"I love to think of it in the simple-minded way of, like, New Orleans, where it's, like, live and let live. For the most part, if I went to Avondale Brewery holding hands with my husband, nobody would even look twice."

The Magic City Acceptance Center hosts a range of events for LGBTQ youths.

Yet there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that wide swaths of the population understand the issues facing LGBTQ people, the relevant terminology, and how to ensure that their needs are being taken into consideration, Keller said.

As such, Keller spends much of her time nowadays outside of the office, spreading knowledge to community organizations, businesses and other groups.

"So much more of my job has become, 'Can you come talk to my staff? Can you tell us how to work with transgender people?' So much of my job has become training and education because people are desperate to have it and to learn more," she said.

"It's become a huge focus because people just want someone who can speak from a point of authenticity and ... knowledge, and so we are very happy to provide that knowledge to the community because it's necessary and Birmingham is hungry for it, which is really exciting to us."
Russia "meddled" in last year's presidential election as part of a decades-long effort to "undermine American democracy," CIA Director Mike Pompeo said.

"I can't talk about the details of the intelligence, but we have, the intelligence community has said, that this election was meddled with by the Russians in a way that is frankly not particularly original," Pompeo said, according to the transcript of an interview with MSNBC broadcast Saturday morning. It was his first interview with a news network since he became Central Intelligence Agency director in January.

Before President Donald Trump took office, the outgoing director of the director of national intelligence released a report concluding that Russia attempted to influence last year's presidential election under orders from President Vladimir Putin.

The White House has downplayed Russia's involvement, even as multiple investigations look into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials to sway the election. As recently as last week, White House spokesman Sean Spicer declined to say whether Trump believes Russia interfered.

Pompeo, 53, said it isn't surprising that Russia would meddle in a U.S. vote.

"They've been doing this for an awfully long time. And we are decades into the Russians trying to undermine American democracy," he said. "So in some ways, there's no news, but it certainly puts a heightened emphasis on our ability to figure out how to stop them."

But the spy chief said he couldn't confirm whether Putin personally directed the plan.

Asked about the Middle East, Pompeo said Iran represents a "longer challenge" to the U.S. than Sunni extremists such as the Islamic State, which he said poses an "enormous risk" to America.

"It remains the world's largest state sponsor of terror," he said of Iran. "We find it with enormous influence, influence that far outstrips where it was six or seven years ago."

Pompeo said North Korea is a "very real danger" that's getting closer to threatening the U.S. with nuclear weapons.

"For 20 years, America has whistled past the graveyard, hoping on hope that North Korea would turn colors and become part of the Western civilization," he said. "There's no evidence that that's going to take place, absent a very real, very concrete set of policies that put pressure on the North Koreans to de-nuclearize."

In March, the website WikiLeaks released thousands of documents it said contained secrets about how the CIA hacks into smartphones and other devices as part of the agency's cyper-espionage efforts. Edward Snowden became a celebrity after leaking classified information from the National Security Agency about how the government monitors communications.

"There is a phenomenon, the worship of Edward Snowden, and those who steal American secrets for the purpose of self-aggrandizement or money or for whatever their motivation may be," Pompeo said, adding that the trend seems to be accelerating.

(c) 2017 Bloomberg. Andrew Mayeda wrote this story.
A woman found dead on the morning of June 16 in Mobile has been identified as 37-year-old Eppie Farris by the Mobile Police Department.

MPD Spokesman Donald Wallace confirmed the woman's identity and said that police received a call around 7:05 a.m. on June 16 in reference to a body found.

When officers responded to the 1000 block of Caroline Avenue they located Farris deceased.

Police have not listed a cause of death at this time, but said the case is a homicide investigation. Wallace said police are now asking for the public's assistance with information about crime.

Anyone with information about the homicide or who may have seen Farris on the day of the incident can contact Mobile police at 251-721-0507.
The University of Alabama has released a statement regarding a former student who committed suicide after attempting to press criminal charges for rape.

Megan Rondini was a UA student from Texas when she was reportedly raped by a man from a powerful Tuscaloosa family in 2015. According to Rondini's story, told to Buzzfeed News by her family and friends, the 20-year-old was mistreated by Tuscaloosa police, the university, and DCH Regional Medical Center.

Rondini hanged herself in February 2016.

Her parents have hired Birmingham lawyer Leroy Maxwell Jr. of the Maxwell Firm to represent them in filing a federal Title IX complaint against the university, and with possibly other complaints.

Maxwell told AL.com the complaint will be filed by the end of June.

"Megan was loved by everyone who came in contact with her. Her loss is everyone's loss. Title IX, the University of Alabama, the Tuscaloosa Sheriff's department and the overall judicial system in Tuscaloosa let her down on every level. Through litigation our firm is committed to doing everything in our power to shine a light on Tuscaloosa's systemic problem with sexual assault," he said.

A spokesperson for UA released a statement after Rondini's story was published by Buzzfeed. That statement is below.

"The University of Alabama has been deeply saddened by the death of Megan Rondini, and we continue to offer our sympathy to her friends and family.

Information published by news outlets this week has unfortunately ignored some significant facts. When Megan went to the hospital, a University advocate met her at the hospital to provide support and stayed with her throughout the examination process. Megan also received information from University representatives regarding services available to her on campus, including counseling through the University's Women & Gender Resource Center. When she sought counseling and her first therapist identified a potential conflict as defined by her professional obligations, Megan was immediately introduced to another therapist, who provided care and support. Additionally, the UA Title IX Office was in contact with Megan, including offering academic accommodations and helping to streamline her withdrawal when Megan elected to return to Texas.

Because the reported incident occurred off-campus, the University's police department was not involved in the formal criminal investigation.

We hope these recent news accounts, which do not tell the full story, will not discourage others from reporting sexual assault or seeking help and support."

This story will be updated when a federal complaint is filed.
Tel Aviv could use diplomatic capital gained in its approval of Tiran and Sanafir deal for support on Palestinian issue.

Two small, uninhabited islands, Tiran and Sanafir, stand guard between Egypt and Saudia Arabia at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba. It is Israels only gateway to its southern port of Eilat and its vital trade connections to south-east Asia.

Exactly 50 years ago, Egyptian restrictions on Israeli shipping through the Straits of Tiran contributed to the outbreak of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

In a highly controversial move, the Egyptian parliament earlier this month approved the handover of the two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. In return, Riyadh is to provide billions of dollars in loans and investments to help Egypts ailing economy.

But while the transfer has provoked widespread protests in Egypt, with opponents claiming it amounts to selling off Egypts sovereign territory, Israel has quietly given the deal its blessing.

This surprised some observers, especially since the movement of vessels to Eilat hangs on a peace treaty signed by Israel and Egypt in 1979. Effectively, Riyadh will now become responsible for upholding the treatys clauses relating to Israeli shipping through the Straits.

Riyadh, unlike Egypt, has never signed a peace agreement with Israel and, at least ostensibly, has no diplomatic relations with it. The two have traditionally been seen as regional enemies.

READ MORE  Saudi and the Brotherhood: From friends to foes

But Israeli and Palestinian analysts say that picture of historic hostility between the two states is obsolete, and that Israel has potentially much to gain from the handover.

The benefits include increasingly normalised relations with Saudi Arabia and the chance to bring into the daylight an emerging Israeli-Arab military and diplomatic front against a common enemy: Iran.

But perhaps most importantly, say analysts, improved relations will help Israel further isolate the Palestinian leaderships in Gaza and the West Bank. That will add to the pressure on them to accept final-status arrangements on the best terms possible for Israel.

According to Menachem Klein, a politics professor at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv and an expert on Israeli-Egyptian relations, Israel regards Egypt and Saudi Arabia as the regions two key Arab power brokers.

Israel wants to deepen security and diplomatic cooperation with both of them, he told Al Jazeera. It hopes eventually to use its leverage with them to gain their support for imposing a regional solution on the Palestinians.

Improved relations with Saudi Arabia will help Israel further isolate the Palestinian leaderships in Gaza and the West Bank. That will add to the pressure on them to accept final-status arrangements on the best terms possible for Tel Aviv. by

Israels increasingly tight ties with both Cairo and Riyadh, said Klein, have made possible an increasingly relaxed attitude towards the 1979 peace treaty, which required Israel to pull its occupying forces out of Sinai.

In particular, noted Klein, since Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power in Cairo in 2013, Israel had turned a blind eye to Sinais status as a demilitarised zone. Instead, it has allowed ever-larger numbers of Egyptian troops into the peninsula, on its southern border, to deal with violent Islamist groups there and enforce Egypts blockade of Gaza, alongside Israels own siege.

The two are definitely coordinating in Sinai, Klein said. Israeli drones fly over the area with Egyptian permission, and they share intelligence.

Meanwhile, said Klein, there had been widespread reports of the Saudis and Israelis normalising relations on trade, security and intelligence matters. Israel is even reported to be training Saudi army officers.

Israel raised no objections over Donald Trumps recent announcement of a $110bn weapons deal with Riyadh, even though Israel usually objects to any moves that threaten what it terms its qualitative military edge.

In addition, the Times of London cited US and Arab sources last week saying that Israel and Saudi Arabia are forging economic ties that would allow Israeli businesses to open in the Gulf and permit Israeli aircraft to fly through Saudi airspace. The report echoed claims made in the Wall Street Journal last month.

The Israeli media has assumed these are incentives hammered out as part of Donald Trumps visit to the region last month to help the new US president realise his ultimate deal to create a Middle East peace.

READ MORE  Gaza power cuts: This is the worst it\s ever been

His son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, arrived in Israel last week. According to the Israeli media, the US administration intends to up the pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to renew peace talks.

And in a further sign of tightening relations between Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel, there are reports that Cairo and Riyadh have revived a scheme to build a 10km-long bridge connecting their two peninsulas, at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba.

That would create a rail and road link, making it easier to transport goods to Egypt and providing thousands of jobs for Egyptian workers.

The plan was first raised in 1988 but dropped in the face of strong Israeli objections. It now appears that Israel has given the project its backing. Other reports suggest there may be plans to extend a rail line between Saudi Arabia and Jordan to Israel.

Bonds between Israel and Saudi Arabia are likely to become stronger under 31-year-old Mohammed Bin Salman, who was named as Crown Prince this week by his father, the Saudi king.





Writing in the Israeli daily Haaretz, Daniel Shapiro, a former US ambassador to Israel, observed that Bin Salmans elevation was nearly a dream come true for Israel. The newly crowned prince is expected to make targeting Iran and its regional Shia allies his top priority.

We are seeing a regional realignment, said Samir Awad, a politics professor at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah. If Iran is now the biggest enemy, then the Saudis believe they need Israels military might and its intelligence to help in that fight.

He told Al Jazeera: Israel is not denying the Saudis anything at the moment.

Shawqi Issa, a Palestinian analyst and former government minister in the Palestinian Authority, said Israel may, in fact, have been the one pushing for the handover of the Tiran and Sanafir islands to Riyadh.

One theory is that Israel prefers Saudi authority over the islands because it will effectively tie Riyadh to the commitments made by Egypt in the 1979 peace treaty.

An unnamed source close to the Saudi royal family told Al-Monitor last month that the islands transfer would require closer regional security arrangements in the Gulf of Aqaba between Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.

That, in turn, would allow Israel to become more closely involved in surveillance of the activities of Islamist fighters in Sinai.

The Palestinians are at the weakest point ever in their history. They are territorially split between the West Bank and Gaza, the economy is in deep trouble, and Palestinian society is breaking apart. This is Israels opportunity to impose any solution it wants. by Shawqi Issa, Palestinian analyst

Issa told Al Jazeera: Whats new is that Saudi Arabia is now happy to go public with its alliance with Israel against Iran and anyone else it opposes in the region.

But, according to the analysts, Israel will seek to parlay the diplomatic capital it has gained in approving the handover of the islands into Egyptian and Saudi help on the Palestinian issue.

Israel would try to persuade Cairo and Riyadh to assist in its plans to impose on the Palestinians a potentially disastrous final-status arrangement, said Issa.

The strategy already has a name among Israeli and American officials, who call it the outside-in approach.

The US would sponsor regional peace agreements between Israel and Arab states, fostering the necessary favourable conditions for a deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

A regional agreement normalising relations with Israel has long been on the table. Saudi Arabia, with Arab League backing, offered a comprehensive peace initiative back in 2002.

Israel has studiously ignored it, however, because in return Israel was expected to recognise a Palestinian state.

But in the current circumstances, Israel may stand a better chance to realise a deal more to its liking.

The Palestinians are at the weakest point ever in their history, said Issa. They are territorially split between the West Bank and Gaza, the economy is in deep trouble, and Palestinian society is breaking apart. This is Israels opportunity to impose any solution it wants.

Awad said most Arab countries now preferred to focus on Iran over the Palestinian issue. The Palestinians are mostly seen as a hurdle to their regional strategy.

If the Americans cannot force the Palestinians to accept a peace deal that is good for Israel, they will turn to Saudi Arabia and Egypt to make them do it for them.

Issa believes the outlines of a US-Israeli-Saudi-Egyptian plan for the Palestinians are starting to emerge.

It would offer Hamas a mini-state in Gaza, under Egyptian oversight, cementing the enclaves separation from the West Bank, he said. Egypt and Saudi Arabia would use former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan, a rival to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, as their intermediary.

OPINION: Watching Wonder Woman in Gaza

Earlier this month Hamas leaders met Dahlan in Cairo. Egypt reportedly wants Dahlan to oversee Gaza in return for alleviating the mounting humanitarian crisis there.

In return, Arab states would pump millions into the economy, while Egypt would open its Rafah crossing to Gaza and increase the electricity supply to the enclave, relieving its current power blackouts.

Ben Caspit, an Israeli analyst, referred to a secret program last week that would involve the US, Europe, Egypt and the Gulf states.

He cited an Israeli military source stating that they would seek to pressure Hamas into agreeing to a long-term ceasefire and moves towards demilitarisation in return for aid.

Issad said: The crisis in Gaza gives Hamas an excuse for signing on to a bad deal, saying its people cant live like this forever. And Israel will be able to tell the world the Palestinians have a state.

As for the West Bank, Issa suggested the slivers of territory there currently under nominal Palestinian control would, on the Israeli-US plan, become Jordans responsibility.

The danger is Amman wont be able to resist the pressure when it comes from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and the US, he said.
Residents reflect on how life has changed since Israel blockaded the Strip and Hamas took control.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have entered their 11th year under a suffocating siege imposed by Israel.

The blockade dictates the day-to-day reality for people in Gaza, where Israel controls the borders, airspace, and waters.

Gazas isolation has devastated its economy, impoverished much of the Strips two million people, and left them without adequate electricity, water and health services.

June 2017 also marks the tenth year of Hamas rule over the Strip, after the group won elections in 2006 and pushed out its rival, Fatah, which refused to recognise the vote.

Al Jazeera spoke to Palestinians in Gaza about life before and after the 2007 Israeli siege was imposed and Hamas rise to power.

Mohammad Abu Jayyab  35  editor-in-chief of Al-Eqtesadia*

The economic situation were experiencing since the 2006 elections until today is a complex reality. Every year, the living, humanitarian and social situation gets progressively worse.

Were talking about some 17,000 to 18,000 university students graduating each year who have not been able to find work.

Even the industrial and production sectors, which used to offer more than 120,000 job opportunities, now do not offer more than 7,000 opportunities. The construction sector is practically idle and out of business; it used to contribute to about 22 percent of local production and offered some 70,000 opportunities.

In the sectors of education, health, infrastructure, there have been major problems, especially in water and sanitation. Water today in Gaza is not suitable for drinking or human use. We are on the brink of an environmental and health catastrophe.

This is largely due to the setback that internal Palestinian politics witnessed after Hamas won the elections and the divisions within the political scene, which pushed Hamas to militarily control Gaza and push out the Palestinian Authority to Ramallah.

READ MORE: Gaza headed for environmental catastrophe

The level of income is continuously decreasing and the level of poverty is increasing. At least 80 percent of people in Gaza live on international aid and about 60 percent are under the poverty line. The PA also took some steps a few months ago that have complicated things and resulted in gloomy economic prospects in Gaza.

Hamas does not have alternatives to make up for the horrible reality were living in  it is like every resident in Gaza, hostage to external intervention and at the mercy of Israel, the Arabs and the international community.

*Al-Eqtesadia is a newspaper that focuses on economic issues in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories

Hammam Alyazji  35  marketing specialist

The past 10 years have been tragic and disastrous. The conflict within internal Palestinian politics has also been disastrous, and the Israeli occupation has been the principal beneficiary.

We used to speak about the right of return, about Jerusalem, about a Palestinian state. Today, no one talks about these issues. Today, we talk about electricity  were asking for just eight hours, not even 24 hours. Were asking for the crossings to open so that we can get out of here.

The number one issue on the minds of youth right now in Gaza is to immigrate. As soon the crossing opens, without exaggeration, some 50 percent of youth in Gaza, if they could leave, they would leave.

There is no future here, no work and no life. We dont have even the most basic necessities in life, which many people do not even think about, such as electricity.

READ MORE: Israel  Water as a tool to dominate Palestinians

Freedom of movement, electricity, and open borders are a luxury to us. I think in the past 10 years, Gaza has been pushed back by 50 years. The energy of the youth is going to waste.

Its really impacted our state of mind. When you go out and see the increasingly aggressive attitudes among the population  its not normal. There is so much pressure on everyone in society, you cannot tell me that any group of people who have been under siege for 10 years is normal.

The only option we have is to remain steadfast and patient; we will not accept bowing down and giving in, nor will we accept to be defeated. Were not patient by choice, its our destiny. To stay sane, I tell myself that nothing lasts forever and that this situation were in will not last forever.

Shaymaa Marzouq  30  journalist

The past 10 years have changed the face of Palestinian resistance. The Gaza Strip has turned into the front line of defence for the Palestinian cause and against the projects that aim to dissolve the Palestinian right to self-determination.

Gaza has become the icon of the resistance movement, and there has been massive popular support for Gaza whether in the rest of Palestine, in the areas occupied in 1948, or in the Arab world in general. Weve seen huge campaigns in support of Gaza across the world, especially during the Israeli assaults.

The presence of Gaza, as the bearer of the resistance movement with military resistance of this size, unprecedented in Palestine in confronting the occupation, carries so much value. Unfortunately, it has led to harsh consequences imposed by Israel against the Gaza as a whole.

The Gaza Strip has turned into the front line of defence for the Palestinian cause and to all the projects that aim to dissolve the Palestinian right to self-determination. by Shaymaa Marzouq, journalist in Gaza

It was a reality that was imposed on us. Israel did not abide by the Oslo Accords, which was meant to lead to a Palestinian state, and therefore many people were bound to choose the path of resistance.

Anyone you ask today will realise that Gaza after 2007 deteriorated greatly. There is a total collapse in all of the financial sectors in Gaza.

We were expecting things to get better after the Israeli withdrawal in 2005. I think the fact that things got worse was a shock for some people, but the occupation imposed the siege on us so you will obviously see more negative effects after 2007.

The three wars have proved to be the most difficult experience for Gaza, but there are two sides to this.

The wars showed Gaza it is capable of fighting back through resistance. At the same time, we had to face repercussions such as the destruction of the wars and the purposeful delays in Gazas reconstruction. I believe this was Israels message: You chose this path, so you have to pay the price.

Mustafa Ibrahim  54

One of the factors that led to Hamas win in the 2006 elections was that Fatah could not bear responsibility for the lives of Palestinians on the level of economic, cultural and societal rights, and it could not change the situation they were in.

Fatah could not prove that there was an adequate government for Palestinians and the corruption flourished. The elections came in 2006 and Hamas won. Hamas won within the existing government  the Palestinian Authority (PA)  and within the rule of law.

It wasnt aware of the risks or the challenges that it would face with it being both a resistance movement and wanting to be a governing party within the PA, which has internal and external obligations both regionally and internationally.

We saw that when Hamas tried to form a government, the international community, as represented by the Middle East Quartet, tried to pressure the movement to recognise Israel and renounce armed resistance, for it to be recognised as a legitimate player in the Palestinian political system.

READ MORE: Gaza power crisis  We want to end this nightmare

True, there have been internal and external challenges, but what matters to people is their source of livelihood. Weve seen a rise in poverty, unemployment, social and health issues, crime, suicide  they are all emerging due to the current economic situation. Hamas says the reason behind it is that it is a resistance movement and the Strip as a whole is being targeted.

Yes, it is being targeted, but at the end of the day, people realise that the occupation is the reason.

Even the PA, since the Intifada, has not been able to take control and it has become very weak.

I dont think that any government under occupation would be able to function normally.

Fatma Ashour  38  lawyer

No one can deny the changes that took place in Gaza over the past 10 years.

Today, were talking about almost complete deprivation from electricity, were talking about contaminated water, three extremely violent wars and the constant threat of another, and the almost complete closure of the crossings from both sides.

Yes, were aware that there are a lot of external pressures that caused this to happen, but as residents, the only thing that concerns us is that our needs are met and our dignity is preserved.

After Hamas arrival to power, we, as women, were faced with many restrictions with regards to public freedoms, with our clothing, with going to cafes and going out, being seen in public with a man. It was humiliating and degrading.

To be honest, the past 10 years have been horrible on all levels and we pray that reconciliation [between the PA and Hamas] happens soon for the benefit of all people.

Mohammad Tayseer Qadada  29  unemployed

When Hamas took power in the legislative elections, I was in my final year of school. Since then, Ive been unemployed. I thought life would turn out to be better  I had aspirations and dreams.

We live under a suffocating siege from all sides. Weve lived through three wars.

For a while, we had only eight hours of electricity a day  a third of what the Gaza Strip needs on a daily basis. We live like beetles with a short life span.

Immigration has become our number one goal, unfortunately.

On the personal level and in terms of career development, I was only able to achieve one years worth of work in the past 10 years due to the frequent electricity cuts and the blockade.

I do not see anything positive other than the fact that we're still alive and breathing. by Mohammad Qadada, resident of Gaza

I write sometimes, but I did not have the freedom to express myself openly for fear of being confronted with security issues. Instead, I started writing about issues unrelated to politics  about social issues and trivial things  anything other than politics.

I worked in media platforms, but I was being chased for any political commentary that I made. It was stressful and I feared for my parents and for my own safety.

My transformation as someone who studied political science in Gaza to someone talking about non-political, trivial matters, is a real shame and humiliation for someone who had aspirations to play a vital role in the political scene in Gaza.

I do not see anything positive other than the fact that were still alive and breathing.
In a nationally watched case, the Shandong Provincial High People's Court cut a man's life sentence to five years in prison on Friday after he appealed on the basis of self-defense.

Yu Huan, 22, was sentenced to life in prison for intentional injury on Feb 17 by a court in Liaocheng, Shandong province, after he stabbed four debt collectors with a knife. One of them died.

Yu appealed, saying that he and his mother, Su Yinxia, were confronted by several debt collectors in April 2016, and one of them insulted Su by exposing his body to her.

The case ignited a public outcry after it was posted online, with many people saying the punishment was too harsh. Some criticized the police, saying they had not done a good job on the case.

The high people's court publicly reheard the case on May 27, when prosecutors and Yu's lawyer debated whether Yu's behavior constituted self-defense.

On Friday, the high court made the final ruling, which overturned the initial sentence based on Yu's self-defense appeal. But it said that Yu's actions were excessive and affirmed his guilt.

"The case caused one death and two serious injuries. The convict has brought great harm to others, which constitutes the crime of intentional injury for excessive defense," the verdict said. "Laws respect human dignity, as well as protecting people's health and right to life," it said. "The debt collectors' insulting behavior should be punished and blamed, but it doesn't mean Yu's defense could be excessive."

Under the Criminal Law, people convicted of intentional injury will be sentenced to at least 10 years in prison, but those who defend themselves excessively can be given leniency or exempted from punishment.

"The dignity of Yu and Su was harmed and their health also damaged in the case, but given the serious results that Yu brought on the other four people, we decided to punish Yu leniently, giving him a five-year sentence and not the exemption," the verdict said.

All information about the case, including photos and videos, was disclosed on the court's micro blog.

Chen Weidong, a law professor at Renmin University of China, applauded the transparency the high court demonstrated during the trial and the final judgment. "The more open our trials are, the better justice is achieved," he said, adding that transparency also lessens anxiety and confusion among the public.

Shandong prosecutors also released an official investigation report saying that while officers in the case failed to effectively separate Yu and the debt collectors, the officers' behavior should not be considered dereliction.
In the past week, Moroccos decision to send planes loaded with food to Qatar has been criticised in light of the internal problems the North African country has recently been facing. People accused the Moroccan government of trying to aid a foreign country before responding to the grievances of its own people. Such a critique, however, is superficial and fails to take the historical context of regional relations and Moroccos foreign policy ambitions into consideration.





Certainly, Moroccan government is currently facing serious problems in several regions of the country and it needs to address them efficiently without further delay. To solve these problems, the government needs to embark on several large-scale projects.

The Moroccan government must address the needs of the citizens who have been protesting in Al Hoceima and elsewhere in the country. It needs to acknowledge the need to listen to the oppressed and work seriously to improve their living conditions. A weak response to the demands of these protesters will surely precipitate additional problems.

A humanitarian decision

However, the states commitment to addressing internal problems cannot come at the expense of its foreign policy interests. Putting their emotions and hasty judgements on the issue aside, Moroccans should be proud of this symbolic, yet humanitarian, decision demonstrating Moroccos political savoir-faire.

READ MORE: Morocco offers to mediate Qatar-GCC crisis

By announcing that it would be sending food supplies to Qatar, Morocco showed that it would not take part in an unwise dispute among the Gulf countries. Instead, it confronted the crisis with a well-reasoned and balanced approach calculated to reflect its leadership on the world stage.

Morocco's decision to play the card of neutrality in the Qatar-GCC rift is strategic and the country may soon take up a bigger role in this crisis by acting as a mediator. by

By staying neutral and deciding not to follow countries that are blockading Qatar, Morocco is preserving the balanced relationship between King Mohammed VI and the other kings and princes of the Gulf.

In so doing, the country is preserving the independence of its foreign policy decisions, and proving that its moves in the international arena are not based on the agendas and stratagems of other countries. The decision is courageous as it distinguishes Moroccos foreign policy from Saudi Arabia.

Moroccos decision to send food aid to Qatar, which came only days after the king offered to mediate between the parties, demonstrates that the country has learned its lesson from its hasty 2009 decision to sever relations with Iran because of Bahrain.

Not only was Moroccos decision to aid the people of Qatar politically wise, but it will likely be beneficial to Morocco, in the short, medium and long terms. Morocco is in urgent need of foreign investment to embark on necessary large-scale infrastructure projects. Qatar and its people will never forget Moroccos symbolic humanitarian gesture in their time of need.

Strong relations with Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Moroccos decision to send food to Qatar is unlikely to harm its relations with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Relations between Moroccos king and the leaders of these two countries are currently too strong to be affected by a decision like this.

OPINION: Making sense of recent protests in Morocco

Saudi Arabia and the UAEs strong relations with Algeria also influenced Moroccos decision to continue its relations with Qatar. Algeria has been trying to destabilise Morocco and establish an independent state in the Western Sahara for over four decades. Yet King Mohammed VI has not asked the Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to sever their ties with Algeria. In fact, both countries are working towards strengthening their relations with Algeria and the UAE is among the largest foreign investors in Algeria.





Its renewed ties with Iran were also influential over Moroccos decision to stay neutral in this crisis. Morocco restored its diplomatic relations with Iran last October, after more than six years of severed ties due to Irans conflict with Bahrain. The decision to renew ties came at the height of tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, because of Irans nuclear ambitions and the war in Syria. Despite this, Moroccos decision to restore ties with Iran did not affect its relations with its Gulf allies.

Similarly, in Egypt, Morocco did not immediately recognise General Abdel Fattah el-Sisis presidency after the coup against Mohamed Morsi, although Saudi Arabia and the UAE did so. Since Sisi seized power, relations between Morocco and Egypt have not returned to the same level as before 2011 and remained tense. Yet, while relations between the two countries have not improved, this has not affected relations between Morocco and its Gulf allies.

In the past month, King Mohamed VI cancelled a trip to a summit in Riyadh and a visit to Egypt at the last moment and these decisions were neither arbitrary nor coincidental. It is far more likely that Morocco received intelligence that the outcome of the conference would not serve its interests. Therefore, by cancelling these visits, the King aimed to avoid being trapped in regional calculations of the Gulf states.

Moroccos decision to play the card of neutrality in the Qatar-GCC rift is strategic and the country may soon take up a bigger role in this crisis by acting as a mediator.

Samir Bennis is a political analyst with more than eight years of experience as a political adviser with an Arab mission to the United Nations in New York. He is the co-founder of Morocco World News, and an expert on Moroccos foreign policy, UN-related issues and the Maghreb.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
UNs World Health Organization also warns that as many as 300,000 people could be infected by the end of August.

A cholera epidemic has killed some 1,310 people in war-torn Yemen since late April, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, warning that as many as 300,000 could get infected by the end of August.

More than 200,000 suspected cases of cholera have been recorded in the country, WHOs Yemen office said in a statement on Saturday.

READ MORE: WHO  Speed of Yemen cholera outbreak unprecedented

A UN report has said children account for half of the registered cases to date, and about a quarter of the recorded fatalities.

Cholera is a highly contagious bacterial infection spread through contaminated food or water. It can be fatal within hours if left untreated.

Although the disease is easily treatable, doing so in conflict-torn Yemen has proved particularly difficult.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemens embattled government.

Two years of conflict have killed more than 10,000 people, wounded 45,000 others, and displaced more than 11 percent of the countrys 26 million people.

The United Nations has put the blame on all the warring sides and their international backers for the spread of cholera, which it calls a man-made humanitarian catastrophe.

This is because of conflict, its man-made, its very severe, the numbers are absolutely staggering. Its getting worse, Stephen OBrien, a senior UN humanitarian affairs official, said.

The cholera element in addition to all the lack of food, the lack of medical supplies is, of course, primarily, one has to put that at the door of all parties to the conflict.

Call for a ceasefire

On Friday, the humanitarian group Oxfam called for a ceasefire because of the outbreak, but the war shows no sign of letting up.

At the Sabeen hospital in the capital, Sanaa, two to three new patients arrive every minute  with many suffering from cholera.

READ MORE: Yemen cholera crisis  Disease kills one person per hour

The outbreak began last year, but a second wave of the waterborne disease has spread even more quickly in the last two months.





We are receiving many patients from all over the country, and some are in bad condition, physician Ismail Mansouri said.

We are facing many obstacles. We lack much medical equipment, rehydration solutions and medicine.

The hospital does not have enough doctors and nurses, Mansouri said. Those who are there have been working around the clock to deal with the crisis.

Because of the war, many Yemenis face difficulties accessing clean water.

A large number of patients also have difficulty reaching the closest medical facility.

Some patients had to travel for hours just to reach the Sabeen hospital.

Meanwhile, Saudis Ministry of Culture and Information announced on Saturday that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has donated $66.7m to the WHO and UNs Childrens Fund to fight cholera in Yemen.
Low-ranking fighters are pardoned as they do not have blood on their hands, the Raqqa Civil Council says.

A civil council in Syrias Raqqa has pardoned 83 captured ISIL fighters, in what it said was a goodwill gesture designed to promote stability as the fighting to recapture the city from the armed group intensifies.

The council, which is expected to rule Raqqa once the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS) group is dislodged from its self-proclaimed capital, said on Saturday that the pardoned fighters were low-ranking members and were not involved with violence.





The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have gained significant ground in the battle for Raqqa, the operational base for ISIL over the past three years.

Senior SDF figures predict Raqqa could fall within months.

The youngest of the prisoners pardoned was 14 years old, according to the Reuters news agency.

They were transported to the headquarters of the Raqqa City Council in the village of Ain Issa, north of Raqqa, in an amnesty coinciding with the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

No senior posts

Leila Mustafa, co-leader of the council, read out a speech saying the prisoners released had no blood on their hands and held no senior posts.

Syria has been locked in a multi-sided civil war for more than six years involving regional powers and a US-led coalition whose air raids put ISIL on the defensive.

We would never release senior Daesh officials or anyone who has blood on their hands, senior council member Omar Aloush told Reuters, using an Arabic term for ISIL. We are giving these men a second chance.

READ MORE: Syrias SDF rebels capture parts of ISIL-held Raqqa

Speaking on the street outside the council, he told pardoned ISIL members, some of whom had surrendered, that they would be integrated into society and given a chance to attend schools.

This amnesty is a sign that Syrians are already looking ahead to a time when ISIL does not rule Raqqa, Al Jazeeras Natasha Ghoneim, reporting for the Turkish city of Gaziantep bordering Syria, said.

Richard Wheitz, an analyst with the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera that such pardons were a common strategy in an attempt to pull fighters off the forces fighting against you as they are likely to think they can get amnesty as well.

He added that pardoned prisoners are likely to tell the problems they had with ISIL to people with potential to get radicalised.

Several young ISIL members, like 17-year-old Kays al-Hadi, provided a simple explanation on why they joined the armed group.

There were no opportunities before they arrived, he said, according to Reuters.

Abdel Rahman Kalas, 43, who worked in the ISIL department that imposed taxes on Raqqa citizens, said: I have seven children. I had no choice but to cooperate. They paid me $115 a month.

The amnesty may be one small step towards easing tensions that run deep in Raqqa after three years of ruthless ISIL occupation, followed by war.

Going forward, the hope is that an amnesty like this will help to restrict the fabric of society that has ripped Syria apart for more than six years, Ghoneim said.

The question is how will these men be received by members of the community, many of whom have suffered gravely at the hands of ISIL.

Separately, the Syrian government announced the release of a total of 672 detainees on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan.
Officials say Derk Bolt and Eugenio Marie, abducted earlier this week, released in rural area in Norte de Santander.

Colombias Marxist ELN fighters have released two Dutch journalists they had captured earlier this week, according to officials.

The ombudsman office, which handles human rights-related issues, wrote on Twitter on Saturday that the ELN, or the National Liberation Front, freed reporter Derk Johannes Bolt, 62, and his cameraman Eugenio Ernest Marie Follender, 58, in a rural area of Norte de Santander state, posting an accompanying photo purporting to show the pair.

En zona rural del Catatumbo acaban de ser entregados por parte del ELN a una Comision de la @DefensoriaCol los dos periodistas holandeses. pic.twitter.com/okNyB4yapv  Defensoria delPueblo (@DefensoriaCol) June 24, 2017

(Translation: In the rural area of Catatumbo, two Dutch journalists were handed over to ombudsman by the ELN.)

The military said on Monday that the two journalists were captured by the ELN in northeastern Colombia near the border with Venezuela.

The ELN later confirmed it was holding the pair on Twitter, saying they remained in perfect condition.

In an interview with a local radio station following the release, Bolt said the pair were never threatened with death.

Ongoing peace talks

Bolt and Follender work for Spoorloos, a programme on Kro-Ncrv TV that helps Dutch people trace their biological relatives around the world.

Their capture was the latest in a series of incidents that officials feared could disrupt peace talks between the ELN and the government.

Earlier this week, the governments chief negotiator with the ELN gave warning that the kidnapping complicated negotiations with the group that began in February.

In May 2016, ELN fighters kidnapped a Colombian-Spanish journalist and two Colombian TV reporters in the same region.

They were handed over to intermediaries a few days later.

The countrys biggest armed group, the FARC, is scheduled to complete its disarmament by June 27 under a peace deal it signed last year.

Colombias President Juan Manuel Santos said the FARC would complete their historic disarmament on Friday. He spoke during an official visit to France.

But UN observers had yet to confirm the formal end to the disarmament process.

The Colombian conflict erupted in 1964 when the FARC and the smaller ELN took up arms for rural land rights.

The violence drew in various anti-government and paramilitary forces and drug gangs, as well as state forces.

The conflict has left at least 260,000 people dead and displaced more than seven million, according to authorities.
Suicide bombings kill at least three people in shopping arcade in citys east in run-up to Islamic Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Suicide bombers have killed at least three people while attacking a shopping district in east Mosul that was retaken from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group a few months ago, according to Iraqi medical and security officials.

The attack struck the areas Muthanna neighbourhood late on Friday as residents shopped in advance of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The first suicide bomber blew himself up as he was being stopped by a policeman, who died on the spot, a senior police officer told AFP news agency.





A second bomber managed to enter a shopping arcade and blew himself up among civilians, killing at least two and wounding nine, according to the same officer and a medic at Al-Khansaa hospital.

A third suicide bomber was killed by police before he could detonate his vest, the sources said.

The attack was not the first but among the bloodiest since Iraqi forces retook the eastern side of Mosul in January as part of a massive offensive to wrest back the countrys second city from ISIL.

Residents in areas retaken from ISIL have cautioned that sleeper cells remain a threat and that cursory screening has allowed many ISIL supporters to return to civilian life without facing justice.

There had been growing calls in east Mosul before Friday nights attack for the families of ISIL members to be, among other measures, banished for 10 years.

READ MORE: The rise and fall of ISIL explained

On Thursday, Iraqs prime minister said the liberation of the city of Mosul from ISIL would be announced in a few days.

Its a matter of a few days and we will announce the total liberation of Mosul, Haider al-Abadi was quoted by Baghdad-based Sumaria TV as saying.

The announcement came as Iraqi forces were continuing the battle against ISIL fighters in their last stronghold in western Mosul, the citys old town  a densely populated quarter with narrow, winding alleys.

Up to 150,000 civilians are believed to be trapped in there, where conditions have been described by the UN as desperate.

Mosque destroyed

The fight for Mosul has now lasted for more than eight months.

On Wednesday ISIL fighters blew up al-Nuri Mosque as Iraqi forces advanced on the ancient religious compound.

Officials from Iraq and the US-led anti-ISIL coalition said the destruction of the site was a sign of ISILs imminent loss of Mosul, with Abadi calling it an official declaration of defeat.

The loss of the iconic 12th-century minaret  one of the countrys most recognisable monuments sometimes referred to as Iraqs Tower of Pisa  left the country in shock.
Eid al-Fitr, which means festival of breaking the fast, marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and other Arab countries announced on Saturday that Sunday will be the first day of Eid al-Fitr 1438.

Iran, Oman, Morocco, South Africa, Brunei and Sri Lanka have not sighted the moon, and thus declared Monday, June 26 as the first day of Eid al-Fitr.

Confirmed June 25 Australia

Algeria

Bahrain

Canada

Egypt

Iraq (Sunnis)

Indonesia

Jordan

Kuwait

Palestine

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Syria

Sudan

Tunisia

Lebanon

Libya

Malaysia

UAE

UK

United States

Yemen

Bangladesh, Pakistan, India will be sighting the moon on Sunday. These countries started Ramadan on May 28 and so Sunday will be the 29th of Ramadan for them.

Eid al-Fitr, which means festival of breaking the fast, marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Turkey and Muslim communities in North America, Europe and Australia had previously announced they would celebrate Eid al-Fitr from Sunday, June 25 based on astronomical calculations.

Eid al-Fitr is an official holiday in all Muslim-majority countries.

How many days is the Eid al-Fitr holiday by country? https://t.co/L4Bsfoa1Kh #EidMubarak pic.twitter.com/HPu13uOZ1t
UAE minister also says if demands are not met the alternative is not escalation, but the parting of ways.

A top minister from the United Arab Emirates has said the Arab countries imposing a blockade on Qatar are not seeking to force out the countrys leadership, but are willing to part ways if it does not agree to their list of demands.

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told reporters in Dubai on Saturday that his country and its allies  Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain  do not want regime change in Qatar, but behavioural change.

The comments come after the four countries presented a list of 13 demands to Qatar on Thursday, according to a report by the state-run Qatar News Agency.

READ MORE: All the latest updates on the Qatar-Gulf crisis

Qatar dismissed the 10-day ultimatum, which included shutting down the Al Jazeera network, closing a Turkish military base and scaling down ties with Iran.

Doha said the list of demands confirms what Qatar has said from the beginning  the illegal blockade has nothing to do with combating terrorism, it is about limiting Qatars sovereignty, and outsourcing [Qatars] foreign policy.

It added that it is preparing an official response after confirming the receipt of the demands.

Referring to the ultimatum, Gargash said the alternative is not escalation, but the parting of ways, adding that it is very difficult for [the UAE and its allies] to maintain a collective grouping.

He did not make clear what more could be done since the four Arab states have already cut diplomatic relations with Doha and severed most commercial ties.

READ MORE: Qatar says Saudi-led demands not reasonable or actionable

Kuwait has been acting as a mediator to defuse the crisis that erupted on June 5 when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt announced they were severing relations with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism.

The four countries have not provided any evidence, and Qatar has repeatedly denied the allegations as baseless.

Ibrahim Fraihat, associate professor in conflict management and humanitarian action at the Doha Institute, said that Qatars response is most likely going to be a very short document.

With such high expectations and not very realistic demands I dont think theres much room to negotiate, he told Al Jazeera.

Because its no longer about the issue of terrorism or the relationship with Iran  its about much more than that. Its about media freedom, the right of the people in the region to receive information and people around the world to get information about the Middle East, he added.

Fraihat said the crisis is serious, noting that there is a huge gap between the positions of the two sides.

I think this will require very intensive diplomacy from Kuwait in order to bridge the gap, which is going to take not weeks, but months, he said.
Indonesian detainee at Guantanamo blamed for both 2002 bombings and 2003 JW Marriott Hotel attack in Jakarta.

A US military court has charged an Indonesian detainee at Guantanamo Bay in connection with a 2002 bombing in Bali, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press news agency.

The detainee, known as Hambali, was also charged in connection with an attack on the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2003.

According to rules of the US military commission, a military court will later decide whether a trial will be held.

The October 12, 2002, Bali resort island attacks, which occurred near the US consulate, killed 202 people.

A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a nightclub jammed with tourists at a popular beach, killing many instantly and forcing others to run outside.





Another suicide bomber detonated a massive bomb loaded into a car parked on the street in front of two clubs.

In the second bombing, which occurred on August 5, 2003, the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta was targeted because the building was susceptible to the type of bomb that was being constructed.

The perpetrators believed there would be a large American presence at the hotel and they believed it would have the biggest overall impact, the charging documents said.

The August 5, 2003, car bomb in front of the hotel in Jakarta killed 12 people and wounded 150.

Last fall, a US government review board rejected the release of Hambali, saying he continues to be a significant threat to the security of the United States.

Hambali, whose real name is Encep Nurjaman, appeared before the board in August by video link, seeking his release after being held 10 years at the base without charge.

The Pentagon described him in a profile released before the hearing as a leader of the Southeast Asia-based Jemaah Islamiyah armed group. Hambali also is alleged to have had links to al-Qaeda.

Hambali has been charged with murder and attempted murder in violation of the law of war; intentionally causing serious bodily injury; terrorism; attacking civilians; and related charges.

Australias reaction

Australia on Saturday welcomed the reported US charges against Hambali.

I hope that should this prosecution succeed, it will bring closure to those devastated by the loss of loved ones, family and friends, Julie Bishop, Australias foreign minister, said.

It has been a scar on the hearts of all Australians since these attacks occurred in 2002.

WATCH: Bali bombing  Nine years later

For Australia, which suffered the most casualties, the Bali bombs were the worst peacetime attack on its citizens.

Seven Americans and 38 Indonesians citizens were also among the dead.

Bishop said Australia would provide whatever support it could, but did not support the death penalty.

Those responsible for the murder of 202 people, including 88 Australians, should be prosecuted, should receive the severest of punishment and should never be freed, she said.
Authorities seize weapons and explosives, but do not say how many were detained, or where the operation took place.

Irans intelligence ministry says its forces have foiled bombings and suicide attacks targeting religious centres after arresting suspected members of a group linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, known as ISIS), state television reported.

Security forces were able to arrest a group linked to Daesh that intended to carry out terror operations in religious cities  and (seized) explosive and suicide attack equipment, the state broadcaster IRIB said on Saturday, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.

It did not say how many people were held, or where the operation took place

Authorities seized three assault rifles, a machine gun equipped with a silencer, three suicide belts, as well as explosives and bomb-making equipment, according to the report.

READ MORE: Irans Khamenei blames US for regional instability

They also seized night-vision goggles, three phones for remote detonation and a large number of bullets, it added.

The arrests came days after Irans Revolutionary Guards fired missiles from western Iran at ISIL positions in eastern Syria in retaliation for two attacks in Tehran earlier this month that were claimed by the armed group.

Since the June 7 attack, Iranian authorities have carried out several operations inside Iran, detaining dozens of people, and targeting groups suspected of having links to ISIL.
Governors office bans event for third year in a row, but organisers wow to hold it despite threats by various groups.

Authorities in the Turkish city of Istanbul have banned a parade organised by the local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community due to security concerns, as ultranationalist groups threatened to block the event.

The march will not be allowed after considering the security of citizens, especially the participants themselves, and tourists who will be in the area, Istanbul governors office said in a statement on Saturday, referring to the LGBT parade that is scheduled for Sunday on the busy Istiklal Street in the heart of Turkeys most populous city.

The governorship referred to very serious reactions expressed against the event, which has now been banned for three years in a row, on social media.

The statement did not offer any more details but various groups, including Alperen Hearths, a youth organisation loyal to the ultranationalist Great Union Party (BBP), had threatened to intervene and prevent the parade.

Even if the state allows them to march, we will not. In any case, we will prevent it. Wherever they want to walk, we will go there and block the streets, an Alperen Hearths representative in Istanbul told local media earlier this week.

Istanbuls governorship also said that no proper application had been filed for the march.

Yet, this was denied by the organisers, who said they had applied for permission on June 5 and asked for an appointment with the governors office.

Consecutive bans

Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride Week has been organised since 1993, ending with a march on Istiklal Street since 2003, according to the organisers.

The week consists of various events, such as discussion panels, workshops, social gatherings and art courses.

Organisers say the parade attracted tens of thousands of people until the early 2010s, making it the largest pride march in a Muslim-majority country.

The Istanbul pride parade in June 2015, which overlapped with the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, was banned by the governorship hours before the event over security concerns. Soon after, it was shut down through police intervention for the first time in its 13-year history.

Last year, it was banned again and arrests were made as participants tried to hold the rally regardless of the prohibition.

Organisers vow to hold march

Organisers say the ban over security concerns effectively legitimises individuals and groups who make threats and commit hate crimes.

Lara Guney Ozlen, a spokesperson for Pride Week, said that their call for the parade is still valid and they will still hold the event.

The reasons for the ban of our parade are not valid or convincing. Many other marches are held in the same area. The government should protect us, the group that is being threatened, not nationalist fundamentalist groups, she told Al Jazeera.

For the last two years, the march overlapped with Ramadan. This year it does not. So, that is not an excuse [to prevent it] either. I believe the ban is about not accepting our sexual orientation and it is a reaction to the movement getting stronger.

https://twitter.com/actorhoe/status/875332949230710784

Earlier in June, similar parades took place in Izmir, the largest city in western Turkey, the city of Kocaeli neighbouring Istanbul and the southern city of Mersin. The events passed peacefully without police intervention.

Homosexuality is not illegal in Turkey, but intolerance towards LGBT citizens exists in large parts of the society.
France Television says Robert died from wounds suffered in a landmine blast that killed two of her colleagues in Mosul.

A previous version of this story stated that Veronique Robert was a French journalist. According to Reporters Without Borders and the French embassy in Baghdad, Robert was a Swiss citizen.

Journalist Veronique Robert has died after being wounded in an explosion while covering the battle for the Iraqi city of Mosul earlier this week, her employer France Televisions has said.

The landmine blast on Monday had already killed her French colleague Stephan Villeneuve, 48, and Iraqi Kurdish reporter Bakhtiyar Addad, 41. Another freelance reporter also suffered minor wounds.

The journalists were covering Iraqi special forces operations as they close in on the last remaining areas held by the Islamic State of the Levant and Iraq (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group in Mosul.

READ MORE: Kurdish and French reporters killed in Mosul explosion

Robert, 54, underwent surgery in Iraq and was flown to France for treatment on Friday, but died of her wounds in the capital, Paris, on Saturday, the public broadcaster said in a statement.

France Televisions said Robert was an experienced war correspondent specialising in coverage of the Middle East, and particularly Iraq.

The word sadness is not enough to describe how we feel, Nicolas Jaillard, Roberts producer, wrote on Facebook.





Emilie Raffoul, a producer who worked with Robert for 15 years, told the AFP news agency: She was someone who was very determined.

She was used to combat zones, she was a professional war (correspondent) who had covered several conflicts, a specialist in the Middle East.

Reporters without Borders (RSF), the Paris-based media rights watchdog, also saluted her.

Lamenting the death of foreign correspondents on the front lines of war, Christophe Deloire, the RSF secretary-general, said there were too many headstones in the cemetery of great reporters.

According to RSFs own tally, Roberts death brings to 29 the number of journalists killed in Iraq since 2014.

On Tuesday, the French presidents office announced that Villeneuve would be posthumously awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honour, one of Frances highest honours.
Case with the same overtones of racial discrimination as other recent police shootings ends in mistrial for second time.

An Ohio judge declared another mistrial in the case of a white policeman who shot and killed an unarmed black man during a routine traffic stop in July 2015.

It is the second time a mistrial has been declared in the case of former University of Cincinnati campus police officer Ray Tensing who is accused of killing Sam DuBose in an incident tinged with the same overtones of racial discrimination and heavy-handed tactics as other recent high-profile US police shooting cases.

The jurors had said on Friday that they were unable to reach a verdict in Tensings trial, but the judge had sent them back to try again on the counts of murder and voluntary manslaughter.

Instead, they sent her another note some three hours later, saying: We are almost evenly split regarding our votes. The note said they didnt foresee reaching a unanimous verdict.

OPINION: The cameras could not save Philando Castile

Tensing, 27, told investigators that he opened fire out of fear for his life after DuBose, 43, tried to drive away and dragged the officer along with him.

But prosecutors said a review of police body camera footage showed Tensing was not in danger during the July 2015 incident involving the unarmed motorist.





The first trial in 2016 ended in a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

The NAACP of Cincinnati blasted the hung jury result and said they will demand justice.

The message that is being sent is, if you are black, all the police officer has to do is say they were in fear of their life and they get away with murder because the victim (is) black, the local NAACP said in a statement.

This jury had nine white people and three black people. His first trial had 10 white people and two black people.

Prosecutors will have to decide whether to try Tensing for a third time. A spokeswoman for the county prosecutor, Joe Deters, said he wont comment until next week.

High-profile shooting cases

The prosecutor during the first trial, Joseph Deters, had strongly criticised the shooting.

This is the most asinine act I have ever seen a police officer make, he said at the time. It was totally unwarranted.

US prosecutors have found it difficult to convict police officers in high-profile shooting cases involving black victims  despite recent incidents being captured on video.

Anger over the failure to find the officers guilty has sometimes boiled over, leading to violent protests.

Peterson Mingo, a DuBose family spokesman and Cincinnati church pastor, appealed on Friday for calm.

Right now, the family wants peace. The family wants reconciliation, he told reporters.

The family does not want any upheaval. They dont want any violence, Mingo said.

OPINION: Structural racism in the US wont diminish with time

A Wisconsin jury earlier this week acquitted Dominique Heaggan-Brown in the killing of Sylville Smith, who was carrying a semi-automatic pistol during a brief foot chase.





Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez was found not guilty last week in the shooting death of motorist Philando Castile, whose dying moments were live-streamed on Facebook.

And all six Baltimore officers charged over the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, due to spinal cord injuries suffered in the back of a police van, were eventually cleared.

The University of Cincinnati fired Tensing in 2015 after his indictment. It restructured its public safety department and made other policing reforms. The university reached a $5.3m settlement with DuBoses family, including free undergraduate tuition for DuBoses 13 children.

To convict Tensing of murder, jurors had to find he purposely killed DuBose. The charge carries a possible sentence of 15 years to life in prison.

The voluntary manslaughter charge means killing during sudden passion or a fit of rage. That carries a possible sentence of three to 11 years.

More than 1,000 killed in 2016

According to the Guardian newspapers The Counted database, at least 1,092 people were killed by police in the United States last year.

Nearly a quarter of those killed were African Americans although the group accounts for roughly 12 percent of the total US population.

Civil rights campaigners and activists say the disproportionate number of black Americans killed by police is part of a broader pattern of racial discrimination in the countrys justice system.

According to a watchdog group The Sentencing Project, African American men are six times more likely to be incarcerated than white men.

READ MORE: Will killings by police rise in Trumps America?

People of colour make up around 67 percent of the 2.2 million people in US prisons and jails.

These disparities, particularly the killing of African Americans by police, has prompted the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, a popular civil rights movement aimed at ending police violence and dismantling structural racism.

On Friday, a grand jury in Oregon declined to indict a police officer who killed a 24-year-old man, who was allegedly armed with a knife.

Court documents from recent arrests said Terrell Kyreem Johnson, who died of multiple gunshot wounds, was African American.

The jury found that the officer involved used a lawful exercise of self-defense.

On Tuesday, hundreds of activists and mourners gathered in Seattle to protest the police killing of Charleena Lyles, a 30-year-old African American woman, who was pregnant at the time of her death.

Police claimed that Lyles, who had a history of mental illness, had been armed with a knife. But her relatives and critics questioned why the officers did not use non-lethal weapons.
Ongoing violence in central Kasai region has killed more than 3,300 people since October, according to Catholic church.

The United Nations has opened an investigation into killings in central Democratic Republic of Congo, though some Western countries and campaign groups say they had hoped it would have a stronger mandate.

Congos government has been fighting armed groups in the Kasai region since August, prompting fears of a wider conflict in the central African country, riven by ethnic rivalry and competing claims over mineral resources.

Congos Catholic Church said this week the violence had killed more than 3,300 people since October, with both government forces and the militia responsible for hundreds of deaths.





On Friday, the UNs Human Rights Council (UNHRC), composed of 47 member states, adopted by consensus the resolution calling for an investigation, brought by African countries.

Zenon Mukongo Ngay, Congos ambassador, addressing the inter-governmental body, said President Joseph Kabilas government would cooperate to shed light on atrocities.

But the Congolese justice system would be in charge of the joint investigations, with the UN providing technical or logistical support, he said.

Zeid Raad Al Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, who is to name fact-finding experts to the investigation, had called repeatedly for an international inquiry into the events in Kasai, an opposition stronghold.

We fully support the establishment of an international investigation  as a step forward in identifying the perpetrators of gross violations and bringing them to justice, Zeid said in a statement.

His office, the OHCHR, is counting on the full cooperation of the government and on the experts having unfettered access to all sites, files, people and places.

The team will conduct investigations in a fully independent manner, in accordance with international standards, he said.

Excessive force

Zeid told the UNHRC on Tuesday that a militia linked to the government has committed a string of ethnically motivated attacks in recent months, including cutting off toddlers limbs and stabbing pregnant women.

The Congolese government has repeatedly denied that security forces systematically use excessive force and insists it is capable of conducting its own investigations.

Several government officials have said in recent days that they were pleased an EU proposal for a fully independent international investigation into the violence had been withdrawn.

READ MORE: In North Kivu, civilians bear the brunt of fresh fighting

However, diplomats said elements of that had been incorporated into the African text.

In a statement to the UNHRC, Jason Mack, a representative from the US delegation, said the United States welcomed the resolution but retained doubts about the Congolese governments commitment to a transparent investigation.

Paul Nsapu, deputy secretary-general of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), a French nongovernmental organisation, said investigators might not have sufficient authority to identify perpetrators of rights abuses.

This resolution risks not being enough to stop the massacres, he said.

Leila Matar of Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the inquiry brings hope of uncovering the truth about the horrific violence.
Election body says Alexei Navalny ineligible to run in 2018 presidential vote due to suspended five-year jail sentence.

Russias electoral body has announced that Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader, is barred from challenging President Vladimir Putin in next years elections.

In a statement released on Friday, the Central Electoral Commission said Navalny is not eligible to stand for office because he is currently serving a five-year suspended sentence for embezzlement.

The body said people convicted of such crimes cannot stand for public office until 10 years after their sentence ends.





Speaking to AFP news agency, Nikolai Lyaskin, Navalnys campaign manager, said the decision was unconstitutional.

According to the constitution, any citizen who is not in prison is eligible to stand for public office, he said.

Navalny ran in the 2013 Moscow local elections, coming second against a Kremlin-backed incumbent with a Western-style campaign and a message of snuffing out corruption.

Navalny was allowed to compete in that race as he was appealing his first 2013 conviction.

The European Court of Human Rights last year quashed the verdict, saying Navalny and his former business partner did not have a fair trial.

Navalny and his supporters condemned the trial as politically motivated.

The Russian court held a retrial this year, issuing the same sentence. A regional court later upheld the sentence.

Nomination of candidates

Putin is expected to stand for a fourth Kremlin term in the March 2018 election, but has yet to confirm this.

The nomination of candidates will begin this December.

The opposition is already opening campaign offices across the country to register supporters for its presidential bid.

OPINION: Youth vs Putin  2:0

A presidential candidate is required to obtain 300,000 signatures of support in the space of 40 days later this year in order to enter the race.

Navalnys campaign has been marked by controversy. In one incident, an attacker threw green dye at his face, causing eye damage.

The campaigns rented office in Moscow also had its electricity switched off just days after its launch.

He is currently serving a 30-day sentence in police cells as the organiser of an unauthorised protest after he called anti-corruption demonstrations on June 12 that saw more than 1,700 people detained nationwide.
The pact had fuelled widespread public criticism and street protests among Egyptians angered over national sovereignty.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has ratified a controversial 2016 maritime demarcation agreement under which Egypt cedes sovereignty over two strategic Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

The transfer of the uninhabited islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia has been the subject of a confusing legal battle, with one court annulling the treaty and another upholding it.

It also generated widespread public criticism and street protests among Egyptians angered over national sovereignty.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has ratified the maritime demarcation agreement between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the cabinet said in a statement on Saturday.

READ MORE: How Israel gains from Egypt-Saudi Red Sea islands deal

The government says Tiran and Sanafir belong to Saudi Arabia but had been leased to Egypt in the 1950s.

But opponents of the move said that a 1906 treaty signed by Britain and the Ottoman Empire, marking the border between Egypt and Ottoman-held Arabia, had put the islands in Egyptian territory.

The cabinets announcement came more than a week after Egypts parliament backed plans to hand over the two islands to Saudi Arabia.

The approval of the border treaty by the parliaments legislative and constitutional committee followed a January ruling by the High Administrative Court that upheld a lower court verdict, declaring the agreement unconstitutional and void.





On Wednesday, Egypts top constitutional court ruled to halt all verdicts on the transfer of the uninhabited Tiran and Sanafir Islands until it makes a decision on the constitutionality of the deal.

That ruling came a day after Egypts high administrative court said that previous judicial decisions in favour of transferring the two islands were invalid, according to a judicial official and a lawyer.

The territorial pact, announced in April 2016, caused public outrage among many Egyptians who said the islands belong to their country and accused Sisi of having bartered the islands for Saudi largesse.
A man claiming to be a former boss of the Venezuelan president calls for probe into killing of his son during unrest.

A man describing himself as a former boss and friend of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday urged an investigation into the killing of his son in anti-government unrest convulsing the OPEC nation for nearly three months.

David Vallenilla, 22, was shot at close range by a military police sergeant on Thursday, apparently with rubber bullets, as youths tried to pull down the fence around an air force base in Caracas and threw rocks at officials who had fired tear gas from inside.

Maduros critics said the killing was further evidence of abuse by security forces after protests since April by demonstrators demanding general elections to end 18 years of socialist rule in the South American country amid a deepening economic and political crisis.

At least 75 people have been killed in the protests so far, according to an official count on Friday.

READ MORE: Venezuela  What is happening today?

The victims include Vallenilla and another youth killed on Monday near the same base. In both incidents, soldiers were caught on camera with guns pointing at the protesters.

I want to speak to my former colleague of the Caracas Metro, Nicolas Maduro, you know that we worked together, Im Supervisor Vallenilla  I was your boss, said the slain protesters father, also named David Vallenilla, referring to the years when Maduro worked as a bus driver.





I want to make sure this is resolved Nicolas, please, he wasnt a criminal, he was a graduating student  please, friend, the elder Vallenilla told reporters outside a morgue as tears streamed down his face. You met him when he was little.

Reuters was unable to immediately confirm the link between Vallenilla and Maduro.

Maduro, who makes frequent reference to his former job as a bus driver to highlight his working-class roots, calls the protests an effort to violently remove him from office with the backing of ideological adversaries in Washington.

However, the president condemned the latest painful deaths and ordered a newly promoted general to make sure that nobody else falls.

Speaking at a Friday event where he gave new positions to several military officials, Maduro said, The use of firearms is prohibited and I ratify the prohibition.

Defence Minister Nestor Reverol had earlier offered an unusually swift condemnation of Vallenillas shooting by a military officer and state ombudsman Tarek Saab called it a vile murder.

Ongoing protests

Opposition leaders have vowed to remain in the streets to demonstrate against what many are now calling a dictatorship and to demand a solution to the economic crisis that has created chronic shortages of staple goods and left millions struggling to eat.

At Maduros insistence, Venezuela is due to elect a new popular assembly next month to rewrite the constitution. Critics say Maduro will use it to consolidate power and keep adversaries in jail.

Around Caracas on Friday, demonstrators burned tyres and blocked roads while chanting slogans that included No To Dictatorship and Murderer, Maduro to protest Vallenillas death.

OPINION: Maduro is not Chavez

We dont have weapons, the only option we have is to shut down the country, said Joselyn Almeida, who walked out of her office with colleagues to join around 100 people in blocking a main avenue in the upscale district of Las Mercedes, reported Reuters news agency.

Officials say the recent wave of street protests across Venezuela, often resulting in vandalism, have arbitrarily restricted free transit and commerce and even prevented ambulances from reaching hospitals.

A group of demonstrators on Friday returned to the spot where Vallenilla was killed. They set three trucks on fire and pushed one of them against the fence of the airbase, which they later partially tore down.

Opposition leaders said the demonstrators were not part of the broader protest and insisted the incident was staged by the government to tarnish the protest movement.

Opposition leaders called for a big march on Saturday in various cities, including one near the Carlota airbase where Vallenilla was killed.
As new protests flare, a war of words breaks out between Caracas and the head of the Organization of American States.

Thousands of Venezuelans marched on Saturday in a new flare-up of months-long protests against embattled President Nicolas Maduro, as the head of the Organization of American States dug in his heels in a war of words with Caracas, brusquely rejecting its demand that he resign.

Protesters in the Venezuelan capital and other cities marched on military installations, where they demanded an end to brutal repression and called for Maduros resignation and new elections.

Lets send a message to the armed forces: Are you going to continue killing Venezuelans or respect the constitution? opposition deputy Jose Manuel Olivares said in Caracas, as protesters prepared to march on the La Carlota airbase.

David Vallenilla  a 22-year-old protester  died outside the base on Thursday, three days after a 17-year-old was killed when national guardsmen opened fire. The death toll in three months of protests now stands at 75.

Young protesters broke down a metal fence guarding the airbase in Caracas before being repelled by security forces firing tear gas.

READ MORE: Venezuela  A country divided

The opposition coalition, known as MUD, called on the military on Saturday to lower its weapons. The government and opposition blame each other for the violence.

Al Jazeeras Teresa Bo, reporting from the anti-government protests in Caracas, said demonstrators had told her they believe a proposed constitutional change by Maduro is an excuse by the government to hold onto power. A vote on the changes is set to take place on July 30.

People here say that their fight here is gong to get much more intense until that time comes, she said.

They are calling for civil disobedience and theyre saying that they will remain on the streets for as long as it takes.

War of words: OAS and Caracas

Earlier on Saturday, the head of the Organization of American States (OAS) flatly rejected a suggestion by Maduro that he resign in exchange for the countrys continued membership in the regional body.





Luis Almagro, the OAS secretary-general, has been at the centre of an angry tiff between the organisation and the Maduro government, which in April initiated the two-year process of withdrawing from the group.

Venezuela has grown increasingly irritated by Almagros pointed criticisms. He has accused the government of violating human rights, interfering in elections and detaining political prisoners.

A grave political and economic crisis in the oil-producing country has driven the often violent demonstrations of recent months.

Brushing aside Maduros suggestion that he step aside, Almagro said in a video, We will never give up until we have the freedom of Venezuela in our hands.

He said he would resign only when free and transparent national elections are held  (and) when all political prisoners are released and exiles are given amnesty.

He set a further condition: the prosecution of the murderers of each of the protesters, as well as of their chain of command.

Torture claim

Despite Almagros efforts, the OAS General Assembly, meeting this week in the Mexican resort of Cancun, was unable to reach agreement on a plan to deal with the instability in Venezuela.

Maduro called the OASs failure to advance a plan a diplomatic and political victory for Venezuela, and said his country would never return to the grouping.

At a press conference with foreign reporters, he said that Almagro should step down and allow OAS member countries to rebuild and reorganise the institution  the only way, he said, that I would think of returning.

OPINION: The art of surviving a Venezuela on the brink

Meanwhile, Maduros critics were angered anew on Saturday after the release of a video on which an opposition leaders voice is allegedly heard crying out from a prison window that he is being tortured.

Lilian, they are torturing me! Report them! Report them! the voice of Leopoldo Lopez is said to be heard on a video made by his wife, Lilian Tintori, outside the Ramo Verde military prison near Caracas.

Tintori said her husband, a leader of the Popular Will party, is being held incommunicado.

Lopez is serving a sentence of nearly 14 years after being convicted of inciting violence during anti-Maduro protests in 2014 that left 43 people dead. Human rights groups have called the charges politically motivated.
Prime Minister sets up panel to probe alleged abuse and forced disappearances by UAE and its allied Yemeni forces.

Yemens government has opened an investigation into alleged torture and forced disappearances by the United Arab Emirates and its allied Yemeni forces in the countrys south.

Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr on Saturday ordered a six-member committee, chaired by Justice Minister Mohamed Omar, to focus its probe on areas recaptured from Houthi fighters and their allies.

The panel has 15 days to conclude its investigations and report back to Dhagr.

The reports of abuses were revealed on Thursday in two separate investigations conducted by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) group and the Associated Press (AP) news agency.

HRW and AP said the UAE financed, armed and trained Yemeni forces that have arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared, tortured and abused dozens of people during security operations in the southern governorates of Aden and Hadramawt.





The UAE and the forces it created  the Security Belt force in Aden and the Hadrami Elite in Hadramawt  were accused of operating a clandestine network of prisons where hundreds are detained in inhumane conditions.

The revelations have prompted concern in Washington about alleged US complicity.

The UAE has denied the allegations.

US complicit?

In Washington, multiple senators called for an investigation after AP reported that US military interrogators had worked with the forces accused of torture.

The UAE is part of a Saudi-led coalition formed to help President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadis government fight the Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

According to a July 2016 HRW report, the United States has been helping the coalition with intelligence support and intelligence sharing, targeting assistance, advisory support, and logistical support, to include aerial refuelling with up to two tanker sorties a day.

The coalition is also helping the US target al-Qaeda and ISIL fighters in Yemen.

A member of the Hadrami Elite speaking anonymously to the AP said US forces were at times only metres away when torture occurred at the Riyan airport complex in the city of Mukalla.

READ MORE: Amnesty urges probe into report of UAE torture in Yemen

The US defence department has denied any participation in or knowledge of human rights abuses.

Defence officials, however, confirmed to AP that US forces have interrogated some detainees in Yemen, and said that the US provided questions to UAE and received transcripts of their interrogations.

On Friday, John McCain, Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the ranking Democrat, Jack Reed, called the reports deeply disturbing and urged Defense Secretary James Mattis to launch an immediate review.

Even the suggestion that the United States tolerates torture by our foreign partners compromises our national security mission by undermining the moral principle that distinguishes us from our enemies  our belief that all people possess basic human rights, the senators wrote in a letter to Mattis.

We are confident that you find these allegations as extremely troubling as we do.

Amnesty International said on Friday the US could be complicit in crimes under international law if it took part in interrogations of Yemeni prisoners or received information that may have been obtained through torture.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for US records related to the interrogations.

Political game

Drawing on accounts from former detainees, families of people held in Yemen prisons, lawyers and Yemeni officials, HRW and AP said torture was rife in the informal prisons set up by the UAE and its allied forces, and included heavy beatings and sexual assault.

Former inmates told AP that blindfolded detainees were crammed into shipping containers at the Riyan airport detention complex. One man said he was tied to a horizontal pole and spun around inside a circle of flame, a torture method called the grill.

According to HRW and AP, Yemeni officials and others have accused the UAE of moving some detainees out of Yemen to a remote Emirati base in Eritrea.

READ MORE: Who is Ali Abdullah Saleh?

UAEs Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the allegations completely untrue and a political game by Yemeni groups to discredit the Saudi-led coalition.

In a statement on Friday, the UAE said it does not run or oversee any prisons in Yemen, and that any such facilities are under the jurisdiction of the legitimate Yemeni authorities.

The war in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than three million and ruined much of the countrys infrastructure.

In March, the UN World Food Programme said that nearly half of Yemens 22 provinces were on the verge of famine.

More than 1,300 people have died of cholera since late April, in the second outbreak of the infection in less than a year.
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries imposing a blockade on Qatar are demanding the closure of the Doha-based network.

Qatar has called the 13 demands issued by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and their allies, in exchange for the lifting of a regional blockade, unreasonable, unbalanced and not actionable.

The list of demands includes the closing down of Al Jazeera English network.

It is often said that journalists should avoid becoming part of the story. But the story of this regional crisis is now putting journalism at the centre of it.

Al Jazeera says the ultimatum  which must be met within 10 days  would not affect daily business.

Fellow journalists and industry representatives are voicing their angry reactions. They see it as an attempt to silence freedom of expression and using the news organisation as a bargaining chip in political differences.

Presenter: Hazem Sika

Guests:

Marwan Kabalan  Associate analyst at the Doha Institute, Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies

Philippe Leruth  President of the International Federation of Journalists

Rami Khouri  Professor of journalism, American University of Beirut
Distrust in Britains media grows following the blaze at Grenfell Tower. Plus, the persecution of Vietnams bloggers.

On The Listening Post this week: Distrust in Britains media grows following the fatal blaze at Grenfell Tower. Plus: the persecution  and resistance  of Vietnams bloggers.

Covering the Grenfell fire: UK media in the spotlight

A tower block fire in London that left dozens dead has channelled rage over class, race, economic and social divisions not only at Prime Minister Theresa May but also at the British media.

When reporters arrived to cover the blaze, local residents expressed anger that the media had not heeded warnings about safety or engaged more closely with issues affecting their communities during years of government austerity. Voices from a neighbourhood in grief demanded to know if only the spectacle of tragedy could make their lives newsworthy.

Contributors:

Akwugo Emejulu, professor of Sociology at University of Warwick

Dawn Foster, contributing editor for The Guardian on housing

Anna Minton, author, Big Capital: Who Is London For?

Maya Goodfellow, independent writer and researcher

On our radar:

Nearly a year after the failed military coup in Turkey, dozens of prominent journalists go on trial accused of conspiring against the state.

Venezuela accuses Twitter of suspending 180 accounts linked to the government.

Reporters in Myanmar face defamation charges under the countrys controversial anti-press laws.

The persecution and resistance of Vietnams bloggers

Since unification in 1975, Vietnam has been governed by a communist party that maintains tight control over the airwaves. However, bloggers pose a challenge to state-sanctioned narratives for one of the largest online audiences in Southeast Asia. Mainstream outlets are often forced to follow up on stories where bloggers have led the way, sometimes on issues usually declared off limits by government media managers.

The Listening Posts Meenakshi Ravi reports on the supine state of Vietnams mainstream media and the governments attempts to silence the countrys bloggers.

Contributors:

Tran Le Thuy, director, Centre for Media Education and Consultancy

Shawn Crispin, senior Southeast Asia representative, Committee to Protect Journalists

Nguyen Van Hai, exiled Vietnamese blogger
News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

A ZIMBABWEAN couple from Bulawayo's Nkulumane suburb was gunned down at their home in South Africa's Johannesburg but the killers spared their one-year-old child.Mbusi Mhlanga (41) and his wife whose name was not established were shot dead in South Africa on Wednesday and their bodies were discovered on Thursday morning.The couple is said to have been gunned down as they were coming out of their home.Family sources said South African police used the contact list in Mbusi's phone to locate his siblings who are also based in the neighbouring country.The Chronicle caught up with Mbusi's father who identified himself only as Mr Mhlanga at his home in Nkulumane suburb.He broke down while narrating how he learnt about the death of his son and daughter-in-law.He said the family was groping for answers and wondering why Mbusi and his family were targeted for the brutal killing."My other children in South Africa called me saying they had been phoned by police informing them to come to the station as there was an emergency," said Mr Mhlanga, battling emotion."The police informed them that there was a man and a woman who were shot dead at their place of residence. They said the police said after scrolling down on the man's cellphone contact list they came across their numbers. So the police wanted them to assist in the identification of the bodies," he said.Mr Mhlanga said the phone call disturbed him as he could not make head or tail about what his son was talking about. He said his son left him in suspense by hanging up the phone before providing further details."At about 9:30AM I received another call informing me that the bodies had been identified as his son and daughter- in-law," added Mr Mhlanga who was struggling to hold back tears.He paused momentarily before saying: "I asked, what are you talking about? Whose bodies? He started crying saying his brother and my daughter-in-law had been shot dead."Mr Mhlanga said details of what transpired leading to the couple's shooting were still unknown.He said the killers spared the couple's one-year-old child.He could not explain where the child had been during more than 12 hours before its parents' bodies were discovered.The interview was, however, cut short by one of Mr Mhlanga's sons who said it will not aid the family's case to provide information to this publication.He ordered the news crew to leave his father's house.
The case against Assange is as political as it is legal; where does it go from here? Plus, Kenyas election influencers.
Mohammed Lamine Janneh, also known as L-Boy, discusses this lucrative trade.

According to the United Nations, 26,000 unaccompanied minors crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in 2016, most of those who came from sub-Saharan Africa were Gambians.

Since 2013, at least 15,000 people have lost their lives trying to reach European shores.

Undeterred, young men and women continue to take this route in what the UN describes as the biggest humanitarian catastrophe of our times.

The UN estimates the illegal trade of people smuggling to be worth more than $35bn, and it is booming.

Despite joint efforts by police forces from Europe and Africa, few smugglers have been arrested or prosecuted.

Mohammed Lamine Janneh, also known as L-Boy, is one such smuggler. For some, he is a hero: families save up for years and take loans in order to send one of their children on this journey.



But who profits from this? Do those making the journey understand the risks they are taking? How much do they pay for this journey?

L-Boy, guides us through the business of human trafficking, and explains why travelling to Europe through Libya or the backway as it is known here is an open secret.

Below an adapted transcript of the episode, that has been edited for clarity purposes.

Crossing Europe

Al Jazeera: How many people did you help to cross to Europe?

L-Boy: Around 1,000 migrants, from 2011 up to 2016.

Al Jazeera: Why are there so many people who want to go to Europe?

L-Boy: I think people normally try to go to Europe  because they are hopeless in their country. The unemployment rate is too high.

I cannot call it the illegal route. You know, when the other way is not possible, you use the other way by L-Boy, human trafficker

You normally go to school, have your qualifications and you cannot have any job and normally those who should come here to create more employment for us were denied by the ex-president.

So thats why people find it very difficult to survive here, so normally they use the backway to go to Europe to find a better life.

I call them economic migrants.



Al Jazeera: When you say backway, you mean the illegal route to Europe?

L-Boy: I cannot call it the illegal route. You know, when the other way is not possible, you use the other way.

Al Jazeera: You say when the legal way is not possible?

L-Boy: I dont say the legal way, but the normal way.

Initially, we had a shortage of embassies in Gambia, so to have the visa before was very difficult, because the former president was not cooperating very well with the Europeans.

So by then, the easiest way to access Europe, was to go through the other way, that is by land, but I cannot call it is an illegal way, because I dont see it as illegal.



Mediator between them and the agents

Al Jazeera: Tell me how did you help these people who want to go to Europe. What exactly did you do?

L-Boy: My role in the process was to be the mediator between them and the agents on the way. Like the agents at Mali, from Mali, you go to Niger.

From Niger, at the border there, Agadez. From Agadez to Saba and from Saba to Libya. So I got my own agents, on all those points, and all the money was paid to me.

We have experience, for me specifically, none of my people have died or get lost. by L-Boy

I gave them my own receipt or my card with my telephone number, indicating that they have paid me.

So when they reached those points  they just needed to present my card, my card contained my number, and also my signature, so the agents  knew that these people came from me, so directly they would call me to confirm.

Al Jazeera: Did you help them to cross the Mediterranean?

L-Boy: Obviously, I did that also, because I got an agent that lives in Libya.

So when they reached there, that agent was working under me, so I just needed to contact the agent, and said, that the boy has already paid me, so the agent would give them a ticket so they can cross the Mediterranean.



Al Jazeera: When they made it across, if they made it across, did you help them on the European side?

L-Boy: Obviously, because normally, when they reached there, they still contacted me, to seek advice and also because I have been helping many people, who are already there, they are more experienced, so normally I used to link them with the people that went earlier.

Most of them when they reach Italy, they dont stay there, they find their way to other destinations like Germany, Finland, Sweden, Austria and other places.

Al Jazeera: But what if they dont make it alive through the Mediterranean. What if they die on the route?

L-Boy: We have experience, for me specifically, none of my people died or got lost.

Normally, what I did experience is that they were at times kidnapped by the Arab people.

Kidnapped by Libyans

Al Jazeera: So you say that once they are in Libya, they are kidnapped by Libyans?

L-Boy: Yeah, some are kidnapped, you know, normally, those Arabs  they raid their camps.

So when they raid the camp, they kidnap some of them, and take them to prison, or normally at their own local prison, so they used to be kidnapped at times.

They dont need anything from them, the only thing they need from them is the money.

So they contacted me, and when they contacted me, I would also contact the parents or their sponsors  and we saw how best to take them out from those prisons or other detentions.

Al Jazeera: This year alone International Organisations repatriated 800 Gambians that were detained in Libya.

Many are still being held in various detention centres across the country.

For those that have come back to Gambia, it is an uneasy return home, ashamed to have come back to their families empty handed.

How much would I have to pay you?

Al Jazeera: If I wanted to go to Europe, to Italy and Germany, how much would I have to pay you?

L-Boy: $2,000

Al Jazeera: So it costs $2,000 to get from Banjul to the coast, shores of Europe?

L-Boy: Yeah, from Banjul up to Italy.

Nicolas: Who were the people that came to you asking to go to Europe?

L-Boy: Normally they were students, and some were unemployed youths, both boys and girls, to be specific most of them were teenagers.

Al Jazeera: Why do teenagers come to you to go to Europe?

L-Boy: Its expectations, because they think once they are in Europe, they will have everything. The expectation is high, that when you are in Europe, youll have a better life, better living conditions, better education, better food to eat, and all the things.

A dangerous trip

Al Jazeera: Which part of the journey is the most dangerous?

L-Boy: From Saba to Tripoli became the most difficult one.

Al Jazeera: Why?

L-Boy: Because it is the desert. Initially, around 2012 to 2011, it only took them four days to move from Saba to Tripoli, but later in 2016, it took them about 3 weeks to enter Tripoli.

Al Jazeera: How much money have you made doing this?

L-Boy: 1,000,000 Gambian dalasi ($21,800)

Al Jazeera: Do you sometimes feel guilty for what you do?



I was helping the hopeless to enter Europe ... even their parents used to call me to thank me always by L-Boy

L-Boy: To feel guilty? I dont feel guilty. Instead of feeling guilty, I feel proud.

Al Jazeera: Why do you feel proud?

L-Boy: Because I was helping the hopeless to enter Europe, so when they are in Europe, they become more hopeful, and even [depended on] by their families here.

Even their parents used to call me to thank me always. Even still now, whenever they see me, they respect me, they honour me. They thank me.

Al Jazeera: So this has really built your reputation in the community that youve helped at least some people to cross to Europe?

L-Boy: Yes, I can say it has increased my profile, but ever since I was a student, my profile was always high  but I can say it has increased my reputation in the society.


The United Nations Development Programme and Ministry of Environment and Forestry are organizing a conference on Climate Change, Food Insecurity, and Resilient Livelihoods to be held at Juba Grand Hotel from 28  29 June 2017. The conference launch will take place at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, 28 June. The First Vice President H.E. Taban []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders welcomes the adoption by the Human Rights Council, on June 23 2017, of a resolution on the human rights situation in Kasai, and the creation of a mission of inquiry by the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations. In particular, he welcomes []Source : http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...










English News Fear of Hindu-rashtra overestimated, as Hinduism incapable of centralized & extended rule

Alwihda Info | Par Hem Raj Jain - 24 Juin 2017





Bengaluru, India Sub:- (i)- India was made India by Britishers (ii)- Secularism, socialism and rule-of-law is the only solution for India (iii)- Without coming-of-age of Jainism (which presently seems unlikely), Hindu-rashtra impossible



------After Modi of Hindutva forces came to power in 2014 and especially after huge victory of BJP in 2017 U.P elections and after expected sure victory of BJP candidate in coming presidential election the opposition political parties and commentators have started expressing fear that India may give-up secularism and may constitutionally usher into Hindu-rashtra. But this fear is unfounded and overestimated as explained below:-



(1)- If history is any indication then Hinduism is simply incapable of centralized rule. [(i)- First in ~ 300  400 B.C. almost all India level rule by Moryas (Chandragupt to Ashoka the Great) could not hold and gave way to Gupta and then to other dynasties (ii)- Alauddin Khilji in 1301 attacked Ranthambor and won in my native State Rajasthan but no Hindu King came to his rescue with the result in 1303 Khilji attacked neighboring Chittor and won in a famous battle involving Rani Padmini (iii)- After Moghul rule established by Babur disintegrated by defeat of Humayun at the hands of Shershah Suri, Baburs grandson Akbar the Great could consolidate Moghul rule practically in all of India but Rana Pratap after defeat in 1527 of his grandfather Rana Sangha could not consolidate Hindu rule in India (iii)- In third battle of Panipat in 1761 the Marathas were promised support by Hindus (Rajputs, Jats, Sikhs etc) but was not given due to history of Marathas (where they had been indulging in plunder / Chauth-vasuli in these Hindu kingdoms) whereas invader Ahmad Shah Durrani was supported by Muslim rulers of Delhi, Avadh and Rohilkhand which resulted in crushing defeat of Marathas (iii)- Even in Karnataka where presently I live one soldier Haider Ali (and his son Tipu Sultan) could rise in ranks and could establish his rule in Mysore / Karnataka and all the Hindu rulers could be subdued by Haider Ali / Tipu. The Wadiyar king got Mysore back in charity only when Britishers defeated and killed Tipu in 1799]. Some people say that it is due to Brahmanism of Hinduism where Kshatriyas consider themselves inferior to Brahmins (hence spirituality of rulers not that exalted) therefore incapable of ruling in a centralized rule of vast territory. But I am not sure whether this theory is valid.



(2)- Throughout history of mankind the civilizations have been shaped mainly by saints and warriors. There is only one religion in India rather in whole of the world (which is nowadays called part of Hinduism) which is Jainism that had saint and warrior in one (its founder Teerthankar Rishabhdev / Adinath). This religion (as per info available at internet) had kings like Kharvela (of Odisha) who in ~ 3 century B.C ruled / conquered two third of India and even Chandragupt Morya in his last days came to Shravanbelgola (famous pilgrim centre of Digamber Jains) in Hasan district of Karnataka and became Jain monk and even Ashoka the great became Jain before adopting Buddhism. The Jainism certainly could have paved the way for Hindu-rashtra but presently it is in hopeless condition. Due to misguided religious leaders (the Muni Maharaj) of Jainism its followers are now less than 1 % of Indian population and these Munis preach such absurdities (even absurd food and life style) to Jains that it should not be a matter of surprise that Jainism has reduced itself to a level of mostly urban middle class religion (mostly traders, shopkeepers etc without having followers in tough professions like military, laboring class etc)



(3)- Hence remembering that (i)- Before advent of Britishers India was facing danger of massive bloodshed and disintegration. Undivided India (including Pakistan and Bangladesh) was made India by Britishers who ruled such vast territory by rule-of-law like IPC, CrPC, CPC, Evidence Act etc which are still administering India and keeping it intact and (ii)- Hinduism is simply incapable of centralized rule - The fear of Hindu-rashtra is unfounded and overestimated because the day India becomes Hidu-rashtra it will start disintegrating.



(4)- At the same time the politicians and commentators who are raising the bogey of imminent danger of Hindu-rashtra are dishonest people because they do not acknowledge that this situation has arrived for the simple reason that India has not taken seriously the secularism, socialism and rule-of-law. This is evident from some examples as given below:-



(i)- Restoration not done of legally expected Status-quo-ante of Babri Masjid which was demolished in 1992 in the presence of Supreme Court Observer (ii)- Muslim Bangladesh was not assimilated in Hindu majority India though two nation theory (the foundation of Indias partition) failed in 1971 (iii)- Muslim PoK has not been retrieved by Hindu India and instead military (under protection of AFSPA, SPA etc) is training guns at civilians of Muslim Kashmiris (iv)- No prosecution done against Hindu guilty found by Sri Krishna Commission about 1992-93 communal riots in Mumbai / Maharashtra (while rightly asking for deportation / action against Dawood Ibrahim etc, the Muslim guilty of serial blasts which were direct fallout of said riots) (v)- Identification, tracking and deportation of illegal immigrants, mainly from Bangladesh have not been done (vi)- Discriminatory (especially against Muslims) Reservation Policy has not been quashed (vii)- No legal action has been taken against military officers about Gujarat 2002 riots regarding violation of section 130 & 131 Cr.P.C. (viii)- Unconstitutional cow-slaughter-ban laws have not been quashed (ix)- Constitutional obligation not discharged about public debt under Article 292 & 293 which has been taken more than constitutionally permitted by taking refuge under unconstitutional FRBM (x)- Rs ~ 1,000 Trillion tax out of black money not recovered (as mentioned at http://www.alwihdainfo.com/Now-India-bound-to-get-Rs--1000-Trillion-income-tax-as-Delhi-Police-steps-in_a31456.html ) though, when recovered, will solve most of the problems being faced by India especially arising due to economic hardship.



(5)- The Hinduism is also incapable of extended rule. Presently due to political turmoil the entire Muslim world is in problem where tens of millions of Muslims are bleeding and weeping profusely. India can easily, in the interest of providing succor to these unfortunate tens of millions of Muslims, can partly rule over Muslim world by taking a proactive role in UN as mentioned at http://www.alwihdainfo.com/India-should-clarify-with-USA-SaAr-about-ISIS-involvement-in-terrorist-attack-in-Iran_a55046.html but Hinduism is simply incapable of extended rule rather any rule (Muslims from Magnolia to NAME region came to India and could rule Hindus for ~ 1,000 years but Hindus cannot rule these Muslims, even partly through UN).



Therefore if these breast-beating politicians (mainly opposition) and commentators (who are unnecessarily lamenting about so-called imminent danger of otherwise politically nonviable Hindu-rashtra) are really serious about well-being of India then they instead should try to restore secularism, socialism and rule-of-law in India (as mentioned above) and which will restore their political fortunes also.



Regards



Hem Raj Jain



(Author of Betrayal of Americanism)



Bengaluru, India



Dans la meme rubrique : < > China, Germany should keep to overall direction of bilateral ties from strategic height: Xi CIIE turns more exhibitors into investors China is ready to work with all countries to practice true multilateralism, build more consensus for openness Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)
Minister Plenipotentiary Cassimjee accompanied by the Foreign Economic Representative Mr Jacob Moatshe undertook a business trip to Frankfurt this week. On the busy agenda was the attendance of the Award Ceremony of the Hessian Export Prize 2017 hosted by the Hessian Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Hessian Ministry for Economy, Energy, Transport and []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...
News / National

by Staff reporter

FOUR large pythons measuring between three and six metres are giving Rukweza villagers and pupils sleepless nights as they are seen roaming the area in broad daylight and feeding on leftover sadza and bones.The four reptiles which are reported to be seen in a single file whenever they emerge from their habitat at an anthill have never threatened to attack anyone and have become a spectacle as people always jostle to catch their glimpse as they slither towards Rukweza Primary and High School in search of food.The macabre real life drama has been unfolding in the past one and half months and different theories of their existence are being given. Some believe it is witchcraft at play, while traditionalists believe that there was a breach of cultural rites in the area and an appeasement ceremony has to be done as a matter or urgency.A villager, Knowledge Kundidzora (19), who stays near the anthill where the pythons have found habitat, said the four reptiles usually emerge from the anthill at around 9am, 10am, 1pm or 4pm. "I stay about 100 metres from the anthill. What is surprising is that they emerge from their habitats at the same time. People are coming from all over to catch a glimpse of the pythons. They roam the area freely and they usually frequent the teachers' houses in search of leftover food and bones," he said.The villagers said at times the pythons cross Mutorahuku River and slither to Rukweza High School in search of food. "The pythons usually frequent Mrs Agnes Mukombiwa's homestead which is used as lodging by pupils attending school at Rukweza High School. They are attracted by the leftovers left by the pupils. At times they fight over food and it will be so scaring," said a man who requested anonymity.Mrs Mukombiwa also confirmed the frequent the pythons 'visits'. "I was in Harare and when I came back that is when I was informed of the presence of these pythons in this area. I saw them feeding on leftover sadza and was shocked. I have never heard of snakes feeding on sadza, this is witchcraft at play," she said.Unconfirmed reports indicate that one of the pythons once swallowed a goat. Mr Amon Putseni said he believed that the pythons were a ritual which had gone terribly wrong with the owners failing to tame them.Another villager, Mr Murasira Tangayi (48), said they had informed officials from the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management as well as Environment Management Agency.He said the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management demanded $100 for them to come and capture the pythons. Mr Nisson Munhondo (22) called for a traditional solution to the python problem.Some claimed that a spirit medium in the area, Mbuya Mapiya visited the traditional leader in the area, Mr John Rukweza recently and told him that an appeasement ceremony needs to be done as a matter of urgency.
United Arab Emirates-based developer and terminal operator Abu Dhabi Ports has signed an agreement to take over operations and infrastructure development at the Port of Fujairah, allowing for berth deepening and crane installment starting in 2018.



Abu Dhabi Ports has signed a 35-year concession agreement to develop, manage and operate the Port of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates.

The agreement grants the port terminal developer and operator exclusive rights to develop port infrastructure and undertake operations for containers, general cargo, roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) and cruise ships.

The agreement also includes deepening the berths to 16.5 meters to enable the port to cater to larger vessels, and building a 300,000-square-meter storage space and a one-kilometer quay.

Abu Dhabi Ports will also supply Fujairah Port with new STS post-Panama quay cranes, rubber tired gantries (RTGs) and IT systems. Maqta Gateway, a wholly owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Ports, will be utilized to develop a Port Community System that links port communities with various departments, facilities and operations, said the port operator.

Signing with the Port of Fujairah marks a major milestone for Abu Dhabi Ports. This significant investment will see Abu Dhabi Ports share best practices with Fujairah Ports, which is one of the most important economic and commercial ports operating in the UAE, to further complement services offered at both Khalifa Port and Zayed Port, Capt. Mohammed Jumaa Al Shamsi said of the agreement.

This agreement will offer clients on the east coast more options, it will also allow the re-export of goods that arrive at Khalifa Port to India, Pakistan and East Africa in addition to receiving general cargo for clients in the northern emirates, he added.

Abu Dhabi Ports will utilize all its capabilities and expertise to enable Fujairah Ports to achieve its objectives, based on best practices. In particular we plan to leverage the geography of this strategic port to contribute to the development of the UAEs commercial and tourism sector, said Dr. Sultan Ahmad Al Jaber, cabinet member, minister of state and chairman of Abu Dhabi Ports.

Abu Dhabi Ports will commence with the development of berths and yards in 2018, but will remain operational during this time, said the port. Furthermore, additional capacity and new quay cranes will begin operations in 2021.
Congress is talking about an advertising tax again, and official Washington has returned to familiar battle stations.

The anti-taxers oppose it because it is a tax, and we clearly have enough taxes. The comprehensive-reform crowd sees it as a reasonable revenue-raiser that conveniently seems to come exclusively from the pockets of the 1 percent.

Indeed, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and the man charged with writing the pro-growth tax plan, got a head start on generating economic activity last month when he said he was still considering the revenue-sweeteners in the plan his predecessor, Rep. David Camp (R-Mich.), submitted in 2014.

Among them was a proposal to allow businesses to deduct 50 percent of ad costs in the first year, then the other 50 percent over the next ten. Since 1913, when the income tax was created, all ad expenses have been deductible in the first year because they are rightly viewed as business expenses  the same as rent, equipment, and salaries.

This set off a beehive of activity on K Street, as lawyers and lobbyists rushed out to make their clients' views known again about an idea that has been proposed  and strenuously opposed  three times now in the last five years.

Brady also engendered some of that always elusive true bipartisanship with his announcement when 124 of his colleagues, led by Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kansas) on the right and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) on the left, signed on to a letter in opposition that read, "The potential for strengthening our economy through tax reform would be jeopardized by any proposal that imposes an advertising tax on our nation's manufacturing, retail and service industries."

Engel's heartfelt conversion to pro-growth tax policy is encouraging even if it has more to do with the fact that ad agencies are disproportionately located in New York than any epiphanies on free-market economics.

But this is not a pro-growth issue. This is not about sticking it to the 1-percent business owners who count on the additional income to buy their fourth yacht and seventh mansion. And it's not about where advertisers are located  ads are created, sold, and placed everywhere in America.

More and more, the country is divided into The People Who Know What's Best for Others and The People Who Think They Know What's Best for Themselves. This would be an enormous victory for the first group at the direct and severe expense of the second. And if you think government won't take advantage in such a situation, ask any Tea Party group about its tax status and ability to gather donations.

Advertising was taxed once, and only once, in American history. An ad tax was enacted during the Civil War, when because of the dire situation of being virtually surrounded by his enemies, President Lincoln took unprecedented and never repeated liberties with the First Amendment.

Similar taxes, such as a levy on sales of ink and paper in Minnesota, have been struck down by the courts.

If such a tax were to become law, how long, in today's charged political environment, until it would be doubled for disfavored products, such as tobacco or ammunition? How long until companies owned by people who publicly favor one side are rewarded for their loyalty and those who run afoul of the powers that be see their tax bills go to unattainable heights?

Don't think it couldn't happen. Numerous bills forbidding or taxing ads on alcohol, tobacco, and other societally controversial products have been introduced, as have some clearly self-interested bills, such as one to outlaw direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat congresswoman from Connecticut, introduced legislation in 2013 that would have removed the deduction entirely for advertising "unhealthful food products" to children. Then-rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced a similar measure in 2010.

Giving government the power to determine what is an advertisement; whether an ad advocates disfavored behaviors; and how much tax should be paid on ads that, for instance, criticize the government would effectively eviscerate the First Amendment.

Ads are information. They provide signals that are essential to a free market and help consumers find the products they want at the prices they can pay. The Supreme Court is clear that they are covered by the First Amendment's "freedom of the press" provision. The power to tax information is the power to control a message.

"Prohibiting full business deductions for advertising expenses would be indistinguishable from a government fee on the exercise of the First Amendment right to speak in a public park," wrote Bruce Fein, constitutional scholar, at the Huffington Post. "Such government conditions placed on the enjoyment of constitutional rights would be presumptively unconstitutional."

The Joint Committee on Taxation said the Camp proposal would raise $169 billion from 2014 to 2023. That's decent coin, but there is no way it is worth it  especially when considering that advertising spending generates 16% of the nation's economic activity.
Should the Senate Republican health care reform legislation pass, it will usher in another house of horrors just like Obama's patently not affordable health care law.

In 2008, Drs. Mark Albanese, George Mejicano, and Larry Gruppen, concerned about "a looming shortage of physicians" wrote about the "four horsemen of the medical education apocalypse" which include

teaching patient shortages, teacher shortages, conflicting systems, and financial problems. Rapidly expanding class sizes and new medical schools are coming online as medical student access to teaching patients is becoming increasingly difficult because of the decreasing length and increasing intensity of hospital stays, concerns about patient safety, patients who are stressed for time, teaching physician shortages and needs for increasing productivity from those who remain [.] Further, medical education is facing reductions in funding from all sources, just as it is mounting its first major expansion in 40 years. The authors contend that medical education is on the verge of crisis and that little outside assistance is forthcoming.

Indeed, the GOP bill will bring us even closer to another crisis.

Should the Senate GOP "repeal" bill pass, it will result in as Matthew Vadum illustrates "tinkering around the edges of the Obamacare system but leav[ing] the fundamentals of the failing program in place."

With only four courageous conservatives who have come out "against the language in the new draft bill" the American people must, yet again, rise up and demand a true repeal and replace bill. Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin are the only ones holding back the onslaught of what will eventually be a single-payer system in this country.

If Jonathan Gruber said that the Senate document is "no longer an Obamacare repeal bill [and] that's good" that should be more than sufficient evidence that this bill is not going to help Americans. Gruber, dubbed the "Obamacare architect was caught on tape admitting that Obamacare doesnt provide subsidies for federally-run insurance exchanges [.]" In another video "Gruber said that 'the stupidity of the American voter' made it important for him and Democrats to hide Obamacares true costs from the public. 'That was really, really critical for the thing to pass,' said Gruber. 'But Id rather have this law than not.' In other words, the ends -- imposing Obamacare upon the public -- justified the means."

Most Americans now understand that "Obamacare really is a huge redistribution of wealth from the young and healthy to the old and unhealthy" and Daniel Horowitz at Conservative Review explains that "everything [in the Senate bill] is working within the confines of the most extreme socialist baseline from the Obama era." Horowitz gets to the nub of the problem when he writes that to "avoid the endless semantics, lies, and perfidious distortions from GOP leadership on how they are 'repealing' Obamacare, lets briefly describe the law."

Obamacare comprises five core elements related to health insurance (putting aside the burdens on health care itself): actuarially insolvent regulations; open-ended, means-tested subsidies; Medicaid expansion; the employer and individual mandates; and the tax increases. Regulations: The foundation of Obamacare are the two dozen or so actuarially insolvent regulations designed to 'cover everyone' but that in turn have tripled premiums and are now destroying the entire individual market. Subsidies: Because the regulations make insurance unaffordable, anyone below a certain income level is subsidized to purchase medical insurance. This, in turn, inflates the cost of insurance even more. Medicaid expansion: In addition to subsidizing non-Medicaid patients to purchase unaffordable medical insurance (thanks to the regs), Obamacare dramatically expanded both the eligibility and the federal subsidy rate to the states for the program. The cost of covering an individual in the subpar Medicaid program was $3,247 per individual in 2011 before Obamacare was enacted. In 2015, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services, the cost of enrolling an individual in Medicaid doubled, to $6,366 per individual. And that is only for the second year of implementation. The funding mechanism of tax increases: In an attempt to make the government spending and the regulated private sector solvent, Obamacare levied over $1 trillion in tax hikes (over 10 years). Also, in order to ensure that younger individuals dont game out the system by not purchasing insurance but then taking advantage of the new regulations forcing insurers to provide for those who already got sick, Obamacare enacted the individual mandate to force everyone to purchase insurance up front. It also forced all employers of large businesses to provide insurance plans so that more money would flow into the system. However, the regulations have been so insolvent that these mandates proved insufficient to fund the Ponzi scheme.

Horowitz asserts that the "Senate bill is essentially a more liberal version of the House bill, which, in itself, was a more insolvent version of Obamacare [.]" Thus, the market is not healed, "competition is not restored, and prices don't come down." Ergo, "nobody will be able to afford insurance, and everyone will need subsidies or Medicaid." In essence, "the GOP bill replaces Obamacare subsidies... with more subsidies."

In 2013 Sally Pipes wrote that "thanks to Obamacare a 20,000 doctor shortage is set to quintuple."

America is suffering from a doctor shortage. An influx of millions of new patients into the healthcare system will only exacerbate that shortage -- driving up the demand for care without doing anything about its supply. Those who get their coverage through Medicaid or the exchanges may feel the effects of the shortage even more acutely, as many providers are opting not to accept their insurance. Right now, the United States is short some 20,000 doctors, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The shortage could quintuple over the next decade, thanks to the aging of the American population -- and the aging and consequent retirement of many physicians. Nearly half of the 800,000-plus doctors in the United States are over the age of 50. Obamacare is further thinning the doctor corps. A Physicians Foundation survey of 13,000 doctors found that 60 percent of doctors would retire today if they could, up from 45 percent before the law passed. Doctors are also becoming choosier about whom theyll see. Theyve long limited the number of Medicaid patients theyll treat, thanks to the programs low reimbursement rates. According to a study published in Health Affairs, only 69 percent of doctors accepted new Medicaid patients in 2011. In Florida, just 59 percent do so. And a survey by the Texas Medical Association of doctors in the Lone Star State found that 68 percent either limit or refuse to take new Medicaid patients. Medicaid pays about 60 percent as much as private insurance. For many doctors, the costs of treating someone on Medicaid are higher than what the government will pay them.

As Pipes asserts, "[t]he first step in addressing Americas shortage of doctors is full repeal of Obamacare. And the second is the installation of market-based reforms in its place. Thats the best way to ensure that Americans can actually get care when they need it."

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse generally refer to the tribulations that will befall mankind. How wonderful it would be if the four congressmen who see through the myth-making of the GOP "repeal" plan would actually be victorious, for then the American people will reap the rewards and the devastating government overreach will be diminished. If the subsidies remain, that will "further distort the market and... in fact, after 2020 the subsidies are made even worse and go into the middle class."

Thus, the system will be completely insolvent and this time "the Republicans will actually own it."

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com
President Trump, if he has not figured it out yet, needs to grasp that those who oppose him cannot be won over with negotiation and are not interested in finding the sort of "win-win" solutions Trump was accustomed to finding in the business community. His enemies on the left are warlords whose whole reason for living is to channel wretched levies into battle against imagined enemies.

Not only are these leftist warlords indifferent to policies that would improve the lot of these levies, but because their power rests entirely on the misery and anger of their embittered masses of followers, these warlords would actively oppose anything that lifts people into prosperity and hope.

So the left has long opposed sensible reforms to raise inner-city blacks to become productive and functioning members of society, because their only purpose to these leftist moguls is political: votes and deranged agitators. So leftists have long opposed thoughtful environmental regulation that balances economic and environmental concerns, because destroying the economy and artificially creating poverty are part of their goal.

Negotiation never works with enemies whose purpose in life is totalitarian control and crushing utterly all opposition. Winning this war requires a complete shift in thinking for a president who has built his career in the business world, where finding common ground and reaching mutually beneficial compromises are the order of the day.

The left, in this regard, is even worse  indeed, much worse  than the Mafia. Don Corleone, after all, was willing to divide territory with the other families, and his principal purpose was to make money. The Mob sought to move into "legitimate businesses" and disliked moves that were "bad for business." It was anything but totalitarian, even if it was also immoral and vicious.

The left, in contrast, is utterly totalitarian. Everyone with any position in the left must be pro-abortion, anti-global warming, pro-federalized education, anti-gun, pro-Islamist, anti-men, etc. It does not matter that the catechism of leftists has no consistency. The Inner Party in 1984 had no consistency, either.

What this means is that President Trump needs to come up with a battle plan rather than a business plan, and that battle plan needs to be the complete political and social defeat of leftism. Practically every good thing he wants for America will follow inexorably after that victory, and practically every good thing he wins without victory over leftism will be dismantled and discredited by the relentlessness of totalitarian leftism as it works day and night, year after year, for the defeat of rational and benevolent policies that end the need for leftism.

There is an analogous situation with radical Islam, which cannot be bribed and cannot be bought. Its goal is quite simply our destruction or our subjugation at whatever cost, not only in our blood, but in the blood of the "martyr" murderers of radical Islam itself. Our foe has declared a fight until one side has total victory like the total victory over Imperial Japan or Nazi Germany, and no negotiation or deals or understandings will work.

It is vital for President Trump to understand that our relationships with China and Russia, which are essentially rational, if not benign, actors are fundamentally different from our relationship with radical Islam. We can reach deals with nations that are not particularly good but seek the best deal they can get with us. We cannot reach deals with nations or movements that seek not good deals, but just our death or enslavement.

What all this means is that President Trump needs people around him who are utterly committed to total victory over leftism and its Siamese twin, radical Islam. Although victory over the former must be by nonviolent means and the other by any means, the goal of non-negotiable and total victory for both must be the same.

President Trump might want to consider one of the most famous political speeches of the twentieth century, in which Winston Church declared when things looked worst: "You ask what is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory  victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival." Amen.
Constitutional conservative-minded Americans must stop the recently accelerated movement to remove Confederate monuments, because it is a tool used by the racists of the regressive Democratic (Communist) Party and the Black Caucus to gain more power and destroy our constitutional republic. Their campaign uses "white supremacy" as an excuse to attack the Western and Judeo-Christian principles that built America, and in their zeal to create a sanitized fantasy world, where nothing bad ever happened in America's history, they are destroying American and black history and eliminating anyone, and anything, they deem "racist" from the public square and the annals of history.

States like Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee already have laws protecting their historical monuments, while the monuments along Richmond's Monument Avenue rest in a protected historical park. Alabama recently extended such protection to its monuments on May 24, 2017 through the Alabama Monument Preservation Act.

Now, as reported by Luke Broadwater, Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh and former mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who allowed Baltimore to be torn apart by riots, are leading the movement to remove the Roger B. Taney Monument, on Mt. Vernon Place, and the Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson Monuments in the Wymann Park Dell. The approximate $600,000 price tag is the only thing that has stopped them so far, but they are considering auctioning the monuments off.

In St. Louis, Joe Millitzer and Michelle Madaras reported that Mayor Lyda Krewson and city treasurer Tishuara Jones are leading the charge to remove a 32-foot-tall monument in Forest Park, dedicated in 1914, that depicts a Confederate soldier leaving his family for the Civil War. An angel hovers above them, and the inscription reads, "In memory of the soldiers and sailors of the Confederate States By the United Daughters of the Confederacy of St. Louis."

Those people willing to eradicate the Confederacy from America's consciousness seem to forget many things. They forget that Jefferson Davis, although an advocate for slavery, was a hero of the Mexican-American War and a former U.S. senator and secretary of war for the United States. They forget that many Confederate veterans fought with distinction in the Spanish-American War, and they are American veterans, who received pensions and benefits by an act of Congress.

As Senator Gerald Allen of Alabama recently noted, "history itself ... it may be good, bad, or ugly  you can't whitewash it[.] ... When you start removing monuments and statues ... in a sense you lose history."

By and large, most Southerners really do wish to simply preserve the history of these Confederate heroes and their Southern heritage. They have long set aside their racial prejudice, on the whole, even if it was a struggle getting there.

America could destroy every Confederate monument, and that would still not satisfy the left, especially the Black Caucus and some black and Hispanic communities across America. They would continue this cultural cleansing aimed at white society. Behind their remorseless drive against white culture is an egalitarian extremism rooted in hate and envy.

Democrat Rep. Reginald of Arizona fumes over "six [Confederate] monuments ... using taxpayer dollars to actually prop up ... terrorism of its day." He has yet to denounce the radicals and the leftist terrorism that is surging and becoming increasingly more violent.

Last month, hundreds of illegal aliens tried to ban U.S. citizens from a city council meeting in Cudahy, Calif. Shouts of "white supremacists back to Europe" were fired across the halls and outside.

In an August 2013, Samir Shabbaz of the New Black Panthers said, "You're going to have to kill some of these babies, just born three seconds ago ... go into the g------ nursery ... and just kill everything white in sight[.]" His hate-filled rant called for bombing white churches and "[burning] up some cracker white supremacy" if blacks want to be free.

In January 2017, a Black Lives Matter activist in Seattle, a preschool teacher, calling for reparations and the confiscation of white property, said, "We need to start killing people[.] ... F--- white supremacy, f--- the U.S. empire." And then, on Flag Day, we were horrified to witness a Bernie Sanders leftist gun down Representative Steve Scalise (R) and Matt Mitka, both in critical condition at this writing, along with Capitol Police officer Crystal Griner.

I wonder if these leftist and Democrats have forgotten that free black men owned slaves prior to the Civil War, too.

Some free black men owned family members to protect them, but there were plenty like William Ellis, one of South Carolina's largest land owners, who were in the slave-breeding business for profit. Ellis even sold one of his own daughters into slavery.

There were approximately 488,000 free black men in America  ten percent of the black population  according to federal census reports from June 1, 1860. Of these free black men, there were approximately 262,000 living in the South, with 10,700 or so living in New Orleans. And according to Duke University professor John Franklin, over three thousand free black men in New Orleans owned slaves, or about twenty-eight percent of freed blacks in New Orleans.

Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice told Fox News on May 8, 2017 (27 min., 50 sec.), "I am a firm believer in 'keep your history before you[.]' ... Confederate heroes should be viewed in the context of their time instead of through the prism of modern values."

Where does this end? Are we now expected to dynamite half of Mount Rushmore and topple the Washington Monument? Are we expected to rename Washington, D.C and other cities across America like Jefferson City, Missouri? The left and the Democratic Party would tell us that yes, we expect you to deconstruct America.

The dead stones of the Confederate monuments honoring noble men on the wrong side of history are cut from the virtues of their day and harmless, even if some say they symbolize the evil done by the real monsters from the Confederate and Jim Crow eras. Those monsters are a long time dead, long passed. The monsters of the regressive Democratic Party, those Communists, Black Lives Matter and the New Black Panther Party and La Raza, are here today, in the here and now, with us.

Some of these leftists and Democrats are just as evil, if not more so, as the most evil slave traders in American history. They claim to be fighting "white supremacy" and the racism it perpetrated, but in return, they offer black and brown supremacy, intolerance, racism, and hate directed at white people in general. They embrace an anti-American ideology that leads to the abuses and slavery they claim to despise  the "re-education camps" and the gulags  as they foist their fractured fairy tales upon all America. They are the very monsters they claim to fight.

The long road to freedom is being deconstructed. The road to civil war is being paved.
Our involvement in Afghanistan is untenable because the country is untenable. No matter what is done, Afghanistan will fail because of its galloping population growth.

When the U.S. became involved in 2001, the country had a population of 20.5 million. Now it is 34.4 million, up nearly 70 percent. In the intervening 16 years, the U.S. spent about one trillion dollars and 2,000 lives in stabilizing Afghanistan. All the stability and free food provided just created a perfect breeding environment for the natives.

The population growth rate has settled at 3.0 percent per annum. At that rate, in another 16 years, there will be 55.2 million Afghans, most of whom will need imported grain to keep body and soul together. The Afghani proclivity to breed will only be curbed by starvation. That will happen at some stage because, even if we wanted to underwrite that population expansion, getting the necessary quantity of food into the country will become more and more difficult. Perhaps that situation is beginning now. The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization has reported that 8.4 million Afghans are in an acute food insecurity crisis.

The Afghan government budget is $8 to $10 billion per annum, of which it raises about $2 billion. The balance is mostly provided by the U.S. taxpayer. That is also untenable in the long term.

To put all this into context, let's revisit the recent history of Afghanistan, back to 2008. In the presidential campaign of that year, Barack Obama characterized Iraq as the "bad war" and Afghanistan as the "good war." It was easy to predict that President Obama would not direct a withdrawal because of what he had said in the 2008 campaign. And that meant that the can was kicked down the road for another eight years.

The withdrawal from Afghanistan will be physically difficult, because everyone knows that the place will collapse as soon as the U.S. leaves, and security for the last servicemen out will be problematic. In fact, it may have to be a fighting retreat. There is another major complication looming in that our next major war is likely to be with China, which will initiate proceedings with the maximum disruption and stress on the U.S. command structure. The airbase at Bagram is only 400 miles from the Chinese border. It and other bases with U.S. troops are likely to be bombed at the outset of a war. Not only are our outposts in Afghanistan a waste, but they will make us more vulnerable in a war we need to win.

Afghanistan will go back to being a hellhole run by the Taliban, who will go back to plotting attacks on us. But that is easily dealt with by the Trump policy of banning types of unpleasant people from entering the country. At least that is something that the president has tried to do so far. It will become imperative.

David Archibald is the author of American Gripen: The Solution to the F-35 Nightmare.
News / National

by Ndou Paul

Watch video below:

A Tajamuka youth has said the current Zimbabwe education system is only producing academic dissidents.A student explained why he intended to join #Tajamuka 's #WeekOfPeacefulAction campaign from June 20.The video was shared on Twitter by Zimbabwean Human rights lawyer Doug Coltart on the 19th of June.In the video the young man is encouraging other young Zimbabweans and parents to join the campaign and fight for development and freedom from Mugabe regime.
The crisis in the Gulf over Qatar's ties to terrorism and Iran took an even more serious turn as Arab states issued an ultimatum to Doha demanding that it close the propaganda media outlet Al Jazeera, cut ties with Iran, remove a Turkish military base, and pay reparations.

Qatar is not expected to comply with any of these demands.

Reuters:

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have sent a 13-point list of demands apparently aimed at dismantling their tiny but wealthy neighbor's two-decade-old interventionist foreign policy which has incensed them. Kuwait is helping mediate the dispute. A Qatari government spokesman said Doha was reviewing the list of demands and that a formal response would be made by the foreign ministry and delivered to Kuwait, but added that the demands were not reasonable or actionable. "This list of demands confirms what Qatar has said from the beginning  the illegal blockade has nothing to do with combating terrorism, it is about limiting Qatar's sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy," Sheikh Saif al-Thani director of Qatar's government communications office, said in a statement. A Qatar semi-government human rights body said the demands were a violation of human rights conventions and should not be accepted by Qatar. Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani had said on Monday that Qatar would not negotiate with the four states until economic, diplomatic and travel ties cut this month were restored. The countries that imposed the sanctions accuse Qatar of funding terrorism, fomenting regional unrest and drawing too close to their enemy Iran. Qatar rejects those accusations and says it is being punished for straying from its neighbors' backing for authoritarian hereditary and military rulers. The uncompromising demands leave little prospect for a quick end to the biggest diplomatic crisis for years between Sunni Arab Gulf states, regional analysts said. "The demands are so aggressive that it makes it close to impossible to currently see a resolution of that conflict," said Olivier Jakob, a strategist at Switzerland-based oil consultancy Petromatrix. Ibrahim Fraihat, Conflict Resolution Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, forecast a prolonged stand-off. Qatar will reject the demands as a "non-starter", he said, and its neighbors had already escalated as far as they were likely to go. "Military action remains unlikely at the moment so the outcome after the deadline would be a political stalemate[.]"

The four Sunni Arab states have boycotted Qatari products and the country's government-run airline.

This is a dispute that has been simmering for years, according to the UAE ambassador.

Fox News:

Al Otaiba: This is a consistent pattern of behavior [by Qatar]. Let me start by telling you what it is not-- what it's not is an overreaction; it's not a hasty decision. It's not something that we came to in a rush. Al Otaiba: So to point out some context, three years ago, we had a meeting in Riyadh under the leadership of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. In that meeting we had a confrontation essentially and the leadership of Qatar, Emir Tamim [bin Hamad Al Thani], signed a document that pledged that he will stop and refrain from doing all the things that we've been complaining about. Al Otaiba: The document has been released to the member countries. I don't think it's ever been released to the public, but the same things that we have said he has violated, are the same things that we are complaining about now, which are support for terrorist and extremist, meddling in our internal affairs, and using their media to attack us and incite. ... James Rosen: Is it possible that it derives from philosophical wellspring or theological wellspring? Al Otaiba: It's one of two things: it's either an ideological proximity to extremism, to terrorism, political Islam, groups like Hamas, groups like the Muslim Brotherhood who live opening in Qatar or it's hedging. It's opportunism. It's perhaps seeking to play a larger role in a region where Qatar is not allowed to play a larger role because of their size.

President Trump has taken credit for the crackdown on Qatar by Arab states. The ambassador confirmed that:

Al Otaiba: I think the excitement we see in President Trump is really because he addresses our two core problems in a very straight forward way. Our two problems in the region are two threats: are Iran and extremism, and on both of those situations President Trump has indicated that he wants to tackle those head on. You can look at the Cabinet around President Trump and you would feel very relieved. I think for any president of the United States, this foreign policy team could be considered the dream team. I mean [Defense] Secretary Maddis, Secretary [of State] Tillerson and [CIA] Director Pompeo, [National Security Adviser] General McMasterThese are very, very serious people.

Military action by the Sunni Arab states against Qatar is not likely, but a protracted political crisis in the region is not in the interest of the United States. Qatar seems determined to continue funding terrorism and cozying up to Iran. Until it can be persuaded otherwise, the crisis will only get worse.
The left is really scraping bottom in its serial attacks on Dr. Sebastian Gorka.

Gorka, if you have not seen him on Fox News or at other outlets, is President Trump's counterterrorism adviser. He's an effective spokesman for the administration and has an interesting role: he's kind of the Sean Spicer for nerds and intelligent members of the public, not the person who issues sound bites and takes "gotcha" questions from a hostile press pool.

It's his very effectiveness that makes him subject to a kitchen sink of personal and professional attacks, most of which have the fingerprints of an embittered Obama administration spinmeister, Ben Rhodes.

This time, they're really calling in the D team. The point man for the latest scurrilous attack is a 35-year-old porn-obsessed hipster JournoLister, who writes for the Daily Beast as its "senior national security correspondent," named Spencer Ackerman.

It's the worst "reporting" I've ever seen. Seriously, he doesn't know anything about national security, and his "narrative" is a series of distortions and made-up facts intermeshed with heaping doses of sloppiness.

Ackerman claims in his headline that Dr. Gorka was "fired" from the Federal Bureau of Investigation "for anti-Muslim diatribes."

Let's just start with that. Was Gorka ever an FBI employee? Our money says no. If he wasn't, he couldn't have been fired. The subhed says he was "taking money from the FBI" as if he were an informant. But he wasn't that, either; it was just fun to get "taking money from the FBI" into the subhed to pile the whisper-factor on. Ackerman then writes that Gorka was a "paid consultant." So we've got three different work classifications for Gorka from Ackerman and haven't even gotten past the lede. Only someone who knows nothing about the differences among employees, informants, and contractors would make that sort of mistake  unless, of course, he wanted a flashier, more innuendo-filled headline, which seems to be the aim.

It gets worse.

Ackerman claims that Gorka was fired. Was he really fired? You can't be fired from a place if you don't have a boss there. Or was his contract not renewed, as is likely what happened? Way down farther in the fill, you find that Gorka's contract was "ended," and further still, it occurred after four years' work. That's quite a run for someone Ackerman claims was thrown out for his "diatribes"  quite a lot of time to listen to him.

This doesn't sound like "fired."

The likely backstory is that the FBI leadership under the Obama administration was in the throes of political correctness and didn't like the blunt truths about the nature of the enemy. The Obama administration, remember, refused to call terrorism "terrorism" and was in complete denial about Islamism as a cause of the problem. To them, it was simply "extremism." It also had many Muslim Brotherhood-linked officials in the White House and at various agencies. Obviously, there could have been some policy difference, given Gorka's straightforward assessment of the ongoing threat. "Fired" might have meant that the man's contract was not renewed, but it would have been over a policy difference, not a personnel matter, as Ackerman would have you believe. How long was the contract? Was it years? And then Ackerman says it "ended just months" before Gorka joined Team Trump? That is weird sequencing  why would Obama keep Gorka on that long and then get rid of him near the end of his term? A far more likely occurrence is that Gorka finished his contract or perhaps got out of it early to join Team Trump.

We're not even done with the headline yet. Now let's go to "diatribes."

Did Ackerman provide any supporting evidence that Gorka engaged in diatribes? (The kind Ackerman, noted to be "excitable" by none other than Media Matters, likes to engage in?) There sure isn't any evidence of it based on Gorka's smooth, controlled Fox News appearances. Frankly, I cannot imagine Gorka engaging in diatribes, at least not the way I can with Pajama Boy Ackerman. Ackerman, as you may expect, is unable to support the "diatribes" claim in his piece. Naturally, Ackerman brings up an old false Nazi accusation as he offers his meager claims on 'diatribe.'

Law-enforcement officials attending an August 2016 lecture from Gorka, whose academic credentials and affiliation with a pro-Nazi group have recently come under fire, were disturbed to hear a diatribe against Muslims passed off as instruction on the fundamentals of counterterrorism.

"Diatribe against Muslims"? Gorka, remember, has been criticized for making distinctions on different kinds of Islam and not just throwing them all in one terrorist bin as some on the right (and for that matter, the left) do. He has used correct terms such as "Islamist extremism" and "Islamism" and noted that most Muslims do not advocate terrorism. He has been a scholar of how advocates of Islamism use the religion to foment terrorism. This is far from any sort of "anti-Muslim diatribe" claimed by Spencer. "Passed off as instruction"? Note the unsupported innuendo again. We're deep into scurrilous-ville and barely into the meat of the article.

Here's more Ackerman dreck:

Gorka told attendees at the Joint Terrorism Operations Course, an introductory-level class for participants in the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, that all Muslims adhere to Sharia law, which he said is in conflict with the U.S. Constitution and American democratic values.

"Adhere to Sharia law," full stop. To be a Muslim, yes, you do. Ackerman apparently doesn't know this. Islam does permit individual interpretations of the law, which is why devout Muslims aren't out slaughtering people. But apparently, it's a lot more fun to spread ignorance than enlighten, as Dr. Gorka has done.

Then there's this:

Officials familiar with his lecture said Gorka taught law-enforcement officials there is no such thing as mainstream Muslims  only those radicalized and those soon to be radicalized.

File under "not believable." When has Gorka ever spoken like that in any of his public, and many of them televised, appearances? Shouldn't this be a signal to Ackerman that he's got a problem with his sourcing? This kind of garbage from bad sources is what brought Rolling Stone's credulous reporter down and landed it with gigantic lawsuit bills.

How about this?

The following month, a senior FBI official assured outraged and embarrassed colleagues that the bureau would no longer use Gorka for any subsequent lectures or instructions, according to documents reviewed by The Daily Beast.

OK  publish them, then. Every other news outlet publishes these things. Why is Ackerman withholding them? His big bombshell scoop, and he withholds the documents. Something is fishy right there.

Ackerman then tries to delve into Gorka's discourse on the philosophy behind terrorist leaders such as Osama bin Laden, but he doesn't get much traction because there isn't much to argue about. He just wants to show that he's been Googling.

He goes back off the rails when he gets back into the contractor relationship Gorka must have had with the FBI, something he still doesn't understand:

By then, Gorka was already doing work for the bureau. According to The Wall Street Journal, Gorka's company received $103,000 from the FBI for training materials between 2012 and 2016. While he was still lecturing for the FBI, the Trump campaign paid him $8,000 for consultations in 2015.

Someone who works for a contact consulting firm having more than one client? He still doesn't understand what contractors do.

Here's another idiocy:

The FBI has long had a problem with fringe and Islamophobic pseudo-scholars making their way into the bureau's training on counterterrorism. Gorka's presentation occurred five years after instructions from Barack Obama's White House to get rid of the bigoted presentations.

Ackerman writes that as if there's no such thing as a hiring agency and a contracting agency, and these "pseudo-scholars" just somehow fling themselves at the agency like seagulls upon the hapless bureau. Did he do any digging as to why someone like Gorka got his four-year contract? Of course not.

Ackerman blathers on about "holy war" and Nazis and other rubbish he claims Gorka said or thought, or didn't say. Don't bother reading it unless you like being bored or savor lies  Ackerman's credibility is shot with his opening claims, and it's nothing but wading in swamp water to dissect every other scurrilous JournoList-inspired Ben Rhodes talking point he claims.

Maybe the most interesting thing is that the leftist "narrative" against Gorka has shifted now from Gorka somehow being anti-Jewish to Gorka now being anti-Muslim. For the Rhodes circle attacking Gorka, when you fail at one smear, you move on to the next. Gorka himself has no such biases  and not one of his attackers has ever been able to produce any. But the Obama Slime Machine wants a haze of innuendo to keep repeating in its "reporting" as the "B-roll" to appear at the bottom of each piece out there. Disgracefully, the Washington Examiner, an otherwise nobody's fool paper, has already bit the bait and allowed itself to be played like Ben Rhodes's banjo, reporting the smear as straight news and covering itself by putting "report" in the headline.

It's disgusting to see this happen. But it's very interesting that the regulars of the Rhodes cavalcade of reporters apparently isn't interested in attacking Gorka lately. All of their attacks have failed. Now they're sending in the clowns.
A Superior Court judge in California has dismissed 14 of 15 charges against pro-life activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt for violating the state's privacy laws regarding recording people without their consent.

As The Weekly Standard's Charlotte Allen notes, the state's attorney general, former congressman Xavier Becerra, conducted what seemed to her "more persecution than prosecution." The activists secretly recorded Planned Parenthood officials discussing the trafficking of human body parts and joking about how rich they were going to get.

The judge cited several problems with the charges:

California law forbids the recording of conversations without the consent of all parties involved, so Becerra, a former Democratic congressman from Los Angeles, assigned a separate criminal count to each of 14 secretly recorded conversations that Deleiden [sic] and Merritt, posing as tissue-procurers themselves, had had with high-level Planned Parenthood employees at restaurants, abortion conventions, and other venues during 2013 and 2014, and also with the CEO of StemExpress, a Placerville, California, tissue supply firm, that had partnered at the time with some of Planned Parenthood's Northern California clinics to retrieve fetal body parts onsite. For the statute in question, California Penal Code Section 632, prosecutorial discretion allows charges to be brought as either felonies or misdemeanors. Becerra went the felony route. His aim seemed to be to put Daleiden and Merritt behind bars for as long as legally possible; each separate felony conviction for violating Section 632 could entail a year in state prison plus a hefty fine. There were always legal issues that could have stood in the way of automatic Section 632 convictions for the pair: How much expectation of privacy  an essential element of a violation of the anti-recording law  did the alleged victims really have in the public places where the conversations occurred, for example. But what really killed the greater part of Becerra's case, at least for now, was his office's insistence on keeping secret such key information as the names of the alleged Planned Parenthood victims. Superior Court Judge Christopher Hite ruled that those 14 charges were simply legally insufficient. "The complaint did not provide Merritt with the minimum notice required by the Constitution and California law as to what she supposedly did wrong, so that she can mount a proper and vigorous defense," her lawyer, Mat Staver of LibertyCounsel said. "The complaint was also vague and full of inconsistencies." Hite gave Becerra's office until mid-July to file a revised and more detailed complaint, and it will be interesting to see whether the attorney general's obvious solicitude for the delicate feelings of Planned Parenthood officials will outweigh his obvious desire to throw the book at Daleiden and Merritt. There is also that 15th count: a conspiracy charge against the pair stemming from their use of a former StemExpress employee's password to log into StemExpress's email account so as to learn the ins and out of fetal organ procurement.

The bottom line is that the activists didn't do anything other undercover journalists haven't done. Allen cites the actions of animal rights activists who create fake IDs and sneak on to farms and into circuses to report on suspected abuses of animals.

The prosecution of the activists is so blatantly political that you have to wonder if Becerra isn't conducting a witch hunt to intimidate other activists from conducting undercover investigations into Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups. He wouldn't prosecute reporters and producers for 60 Minutes for going undercover to expose corruption. So why pro-life activists?

Certainly, Planned Parenthood is demonstrating its political clout in egging on the A.G. in his prosecution. But nobody can erase what is on those recordings. The sick feeling decent people get  whether pro- or anti-abortion  in watching those videos and the gleeful conversations about ripping up babies for body parts from Planned Parenthood officials is ample reason to deny the organization federal funds.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has opened a formal investigation into the actions of former attorney general Loretta Lynch, trying to answer the question of whether she tried to interfere in the FBI probe of Hillary Clinton's emails.

A story in the New York Times revealed the existence of a Russian intelligence memo  intercepted by the FBI  that said Lynch told a member of the Clinton campaign that the investigation into the candidate's emails wouldn't go too far.

Politico:

The existence of the Russian intelligence memo was first disclosed in April by The New York Times, which said it played a role in Comey's decision last year to bypass the normal chain of command and make a public announcement that the FBI was not recommending criminal charges against Clinton. He reportedly was worried that the Justice Department's credibility could be called into question if the announcement came from Lynch, and Russia later leaked the document. New details about the intelligence memo came to light in a Washington Post story last month that said U.S. intelligence officials believe it might be unreliable or even a fake. Renteria and others involved in the issue told the Post they did not know each other and had never gotten such an assurance from Lynch. Robert Raben, a spokesman for Lynch, said Friday that the former attorney general would "cooperate fully with this inquiry and respond directly to the Senate Judiciary Committee." "Ms. Lynch is a committed public servant who has dedicated much of her career to the Department of Justice and led the Department as Attorney General in the fair and impartial administration of justice," Raben said in a statement. The letters announced Friday seek information from Lynch, Renteria and others about whether they were ever in contact with the FBI or each other about the issue. Grassley previously requested a copy of all FBI documents that reference the Russian intelligence document, but has not gotten it.

If the memo is fake, why did Comey deliberately bypass the former attorney general when making the announcement that DoJ would not seek to prosecute Clinton? He testified he was worried about the "credibility" of DoJ, given Lynch's desire to limit the email investigation.

In fact, the memo could be fake but be based on what actually happened. It is encouraging that there appears to be a bipartisan effort to get to the bottom of this issue, although how far the Democrats will go in implicating Lynch in an obstruction scheme remains to be seen.
By any objective measurements, President Obama hurt the Democrats quite a bit. There were a lot more Ds than Rs when President Obama started his presidency.

The Democrats are down over 1,000 seats from Washington to the Great Plains from 2009, as we saw in this article in Politico:

The Democrats' desolation is staggering. But part of the problem is that it's easy to point to signs that maybe things aren't so bad. After all, Clinton did beat Trump by 2.8 million votes, Obama's approval rating is nearly 60 percent, polls show Democrats way ahead of the GOP on many issues and demographics suggest that gap will only grow. But they are stuck in the minority in Congress with no end in sight, have only 16 governors left and face 32 state legislatures fully under GOP control. Their top leaders in the House are all over 70. Their top leaders in the Senate are all over 60. Under Obama, Democrats have lost 1,034 seats at the state and federal levelthere's no bench, no bench for a bench, virtually no one able to speak for the party as a whole.

By the way, this article was posted before Georgia, or what we were told was a "referendum on President Trump."

So what do you do when you keep losing? Do you bring back the author of the party's collapse?

I guess so, as we hear that President Obama wants to get back in the political arena:

Former president Barack Obama is making his first campaign foray of 2017, agreeing to stump for Democrat Ralph Northam in his bid to be Virginia's next governor.

To be fair, it will be a very limited role. We don't know for sure just what President Obama will say or how active he will be. Nevertheless, this is a huge mistake for a party that needs to rebuild its "farm system" and prepare for a future without Obama and Clinton.

Perhaps the plan is to target certain communities to excite Democrats. However, how did that work in 2016? In other words, Mr. Trump carried Pennsylvania and Michigan despite a visible president and Mrs. Obama reminding black voters to vote for Mrs. Clinton and preserve his legacy.

The Democrats may want to see how the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs started winning. They did it by scrapping the old and starting anew  i.e., no Clinton, no Obama, and no anyone who had anything to do with the party's demise.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) (YouTube) and follow me on Twitter.
As Obama once suggested: At some point, how much before you've had enough?

Well he's showing for us, that for Obamaville, there's nothing that's ever enough.

Taking what must be something like his tenth post-presidential vacation (while Valerie Jarrett mans the Deep State fort back in Kalorama), because Palm Springs, the Bahamas, Hawaii, Tahiti, Italy, Germany, (and probably some others) just weren't enough, he, Michelle and the kids blew into the leafy green center of Bali, the highland town of Ubud, home of all the lush pretty tropical cultural stuff the island is known for. He can see glittery dancing at the ancient temples on a lark, or plunk down for umbrella-topped mixed drinks around a water-lily-encircled bar bumping into Sukarno's widow (or at least I did), go to the art galleries with their tropical offerings intended to appeal to well-heeled tourists, or else luxuriate in massages and dine on some of the most magnificent cuisine in the region,feasting around reflecting pools that plunge down green jungle cliffs and overlook glittering rice paddies and volcanos.

Lush, lush, lush.

It's not the hardscrabble life many Balinese live with hawker stalls, unpaved roads, rickshaws, flea markets and petty bureaucrats with their hands out, nor the illegals the Balinese are disgusted to have to put up with from other islands, with their pushy un-Balinese ways and desperate scrounging. Obama is not exactly going the place to 'help' any of those people, actually. No, since he relaxed so hard earlier, he needs to take a break and ... relax again.

It stands in stark contrast to his spin upon leaving office - that he would focus on mentoring the inner city black youth and tend to the high school education of his daughter Sasha (who at least was allowed on the trip this time.) And it's quite a change from his claim that "at some point, you've had enough.' We guess he hasn't.

In reality, he's doing to the max what many retired politicians and other operatives do - getting the whole trip paid for and the tax deductions in place by claiming the visit is a business trip - based on giving a token speech - in his case, in nearby Jakarta to the Indonesian diaspora (a group he has never cared about until now), taking a fat payout, and then writing the whole thing off. Oftentimes, such visits are disguised bribes for some favor rendered, but in this case, Obama never did jack for Indonesia nor did he show any interest in the place while he was in office.

All we are seeing now is the sybarite in him, the lazy, money and luxury loving leader who claims to be a Democrat with interests in the Little Guy. Turns out the only Little Guy he's really interested in is himself.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

A Zimbabwean woman convicted of burglary, collapsed during mitigation, her latest breakdown in a case involving crimes committed two years ago.Praxedes Maphosa began making gurgling noises and collapsed before magistrate Gofaone Mosweu. A prison warden helped her with an inhaler similar to those used by asthmatics, stabilising her before the matter continued.Mosweu said the incident was worrisome. "This always happen when the accused is appearing before this court and I never get an explanation of her condition. "So is this what is going to happen every time when the case is supposed to continue? "I don't know. Lo tla nkgolega," said the visibly shocked magistrate.Maphosa and other four Zimbabweans, Shepherd Chibura, Bryton Dube, Charles Matasa and Tanaka Magweregwede, are charged with four counts involving house breaking, burglary and stealing from a dwelling place.During mitigation prior to her collapse, Maphosa said her health had been deteriorating since her incarceration in 2015 and her heart was diagnosed as swollen.She pleaded with the court to have mercy on her in sentencingso that she could access better medical care. "I ask this court to be lenient with me when passing the sentence."I was forced to come here from Zimbabwe as a breast-feeding mother to come and look for the father of my two children for financial support. "I then got implicated in the matter before this court unknowingly.I therefore pray for this court to be lenient with me when passing sentence because I am a mother to two small children who still need my care and love," she said.Maphosa and her co-accused were found to have broken into two separate houses in Extension Two here in July 2015 and stolen property worth a collective P41,000. Chibura and Dube are alleged to be serial housebreakers, who have been convicted of similar offences and have been in and out of prison since 2006. The matter was adjourned for sentencing.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Zimbabwe is facing a serious shortage of birth control pills and government is seized with the matter to ensure the situation does not get out of hand.In short supply, particularly in the rural areas, is the Marvelon tablet - a type of hormonal oral contraceptive, commonly known as a "birth control pill or combined oral contraceptives".The drug is taken by mouth like the control pill tablet with the objective of preventing pregnancy.This was revealed in Parliament by Bulawayo MDC senator Siphiwe Ncube, who inquired from Health and Child Care minister David Parirenyatwa what government was doing to address the shortages at clinics."We hear there is a shortage of the birth control pill that is called Marvelon. What plans do you have (to make it readily available) because a lot of women are going to the clinics and that pill is not found?" Ncube asked.Parirenyatwa admitted that there was shortage of such pill and said the government was working to improve the situation."It is true that some contraceptive tablets, from time to time, we have shortages and that worries us because women get used to a particular type of tablet and it is good that continuity is there."In this particular case, we are in the process of making sure that the particular pill that she is talking about is made available as soon as possible because it is important that all the rural areas get the same type of tablet that is received there because a lot of our drugs come as donations and we are very careful that we have some continuity so that a woman does not jump from one tablet to another. That is why sometimes you get some of these shortages."Recently, government tasked the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) to investigate alleged smuggling of contraceptives to South Africa.According to reports, there is a thriving market for the Marvelon family planning pills in the neighbouring country, where multitudes of Zimbabweans have migrated to.Reports say dealers sell the pills to women who do not want contraceptives dispensed by South African health authorities.North of the Limpopo River, the Oralcon pill, which is disbursed for free, is available, but most women, particularly Zimbabwean migrants, prefer the Marvelon.The pills are smuggled out of local hospitals allegedly by staff and sold to traders at around $0,50. They are then resold for between R20 and R30 compared to the around R130 charged by South African pharmacies.The contraceptives are also smuggled to Botswana and Namibia, according to media reports.Parirenyatwa recently said ZNFPC - a parastatal mandated to coordinate, provide and monitor family planning in the country - was expected to give a full report on the issue, which will guide both South Africa and Zimbabwe on how to address the matter.ZNFPC, which is battling the increased selling of family planning pills on the streets, distributes Marvelon - supplied by the United Nations Children's Fund - to hospitals, clinics and pharmacies.
After Finsbury Park the police attack free speech

The tally of people arrested after a man drove a van into a group of Muslim worshippers outside Finsbury Park Mosque is two. Darren Osborne has been arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of terrorism, attempted murder and murder. The second man is Richard Evans, aka the self-styled Richard Gear Evans, who when not making bad puns is allegedly posting vile messages on Facebook. Evans, reportedly the owners son of the hire firm whose vehicle was used in the attack, has been pinched for writing things.

Glad Im not running the van hire, he allegedly wrote on Facebook. The police wouldnt like what my answer would be. Its my dads company I dont get involved its a shame they dont hire out steam rollers or tanks could have done a tidy job then.

Idiotic? Yes. Horrible? Yes. Illegal? Surely not. But it might well be because Evans has been arrested on suspicion of displaying threatening, abusive, insulting written material with intent that is likely to stir up racial hatred. Did you read that and think: I never thought about it before but now it makes perfect sense. Evans writes so persuasively and with such rare eloquence. Im in. Im going to hire a tank and murder innocent people. I think Ill go and do it.

The police think you might have read it and become radicalised. Theyre not taking any chances.

Trouble is that the kind of person who doesnt like Muslims will feel that their views have been martyred. They are unlikely to reconsider their monocular view when its outlawed. They will most likely feel repressed, right and aggrieved. Which makes us wonder what the point of nicking him is?

The case has echoes of the treatment dished out to Samina Malik, from Southall, west London. She was found guilty at the Old Bailey of owning terrorist manuals  or reading, as we like to call it (The Mujaheddin Poisoners Handbook, Encyclopaedia Jihad, How To Win In Hand To Hand Combat, and How To Make Bombsand Sniper Manual) . She called herself the Lyrical Terrorist because it sounded cool. In her work The Living Martyrs she wrote: Let us make Jihad/ Move to the front line/ To chop chop head of kuffar swine. A second poem was called How to Behead. Its not as messy or as hard as some may think/ Its all about the flow of the wrist, she rapped. For that Malik was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for 18 months. She appealed and won.

And it all leads to a key point about what it is to be human and be able to speak your mind, which vitally includes saying what you hate. Hate is active, angry and makes you do things. Most often it makes things better. If you hate Nazis, you fight them. If you hate the sound of nails down a blackboard, you invent projectors and marker pens. If you hate living in a poor country infested by corruption, you work hard to live in a better one and expose the rotten core.

Am I hateful for sticking up for hate? You hate that that I am, dont you. You dont? Oh, I see, you just want a quiet life of conformity and agreeing with whatever the latest law decrees. You dont want to cause offence. Well, thats fine so long as you never want to prove anything, challenge the status quo and win.

Richard Evans allegedly says hideous things. But whats much worse that hate is to cut out tongues and let the nastiness fester unchallenged by reason.

Anorak

Posted: 24th, June 2017 | In: News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
News / National

by Staff reporter

Women legislators across the political divide are demanding that the male-dominated Parliament approve a bill giving women a stronger political voice in this patriarchal country.The women are pushing for amendments to the Electoral Act so that it provides for half of the seats in National Assembly and Senate to be reserved for women.If the amendments sail through, it has the potential to become one of the most empowering laws for women in Zimbabwe, female legislators said."This Parliament must ensure that before the next election, we change the Electoral Act to ensure that in delimitation, 105 seats are demarcated to women," MDC MP for Harare West Jessie Majome said."We must move with speed and ensure that we effect necessary electoral reforms that make sure that for the 210 seats that are in this august House, at least 105 of them are occupied by women and at least 105 are occupied by men, because that is what the Constitution says.The new Constitution, overwhelmingly approved in a 2013 referendum, provides for women's equal representation in decision-making at all levels.Majome said there should be more women, "that is 105 seats plus the 60 seats for women but right now, we are only at 34 percent"."What can be done in the Electoral Act is when the Delimitating Commission starts, it actually delimits, and we make provisions in the Electoral Act to indicate that there are certain seats we demarcate and delimit 105 seats to say these are for women."Women constitute 52 percent of the population but they only constitute 22 percent in politics.Majome said for women to make a difference, they must be able to access decision-making in sufficient numbers to have an impact, and be able to participate effectively.Zanu-PF MP for Goromonzi West Beatrice Nyamupinga called for the election of "women chiefs in the next elections and even in the Chief's Council, we want to see women there"."Even here in Parliament, if we look at the proportional representation, we thought it was proper for us to have 60 women but we shot ourselves in the foot because now the 50/50 representation is not being recognised," Nyamupinga said."Come 2018 elections, we want the 105 constituencies plus the 60 so that in 2023, we will have achieved equal representation."We do not want a scenario where when the 60 facility comes to an end, we see ourselves having only 16 women in this house."Let us not be hoodwinked by this 60 as it does not add up to 50/50, which only comes out with 105 constituencies. We should get into the constituencies and rule in there."We want to get into constituencies without asking for permission from anyone. I want to get into my own constituency as a woman and engage in various programmes freely," she said, adding that they could consider "approaching the Constitutional Court if we are not given the 105 constituencies".Female politicians called on the government to stop seeing women as just housewives and recognise them as leaders.MDC legislator for Bulawayo East Tabitha Khumalo rubbished the notion that women cannot participate in politics because they are not economically empowered."So ladies, 2018 is our year and come 2018, every single woman from Zanu-PF, MDC, Ndonga, et cetera, our problems is the same. Our goal is 105 seats," she declared.While male MPs supported the idea, Shamva South Zanu-PF MP Joseph Mapiki said women in the legislature through the quota system do not add value to Parliament."We are saying all people are important but when it comes to this quota issue, we should not look at just adding numbers when those people are not adding any value," Mapiki said."When we say women should come to Parliament, we should look at their contribution, because if we put 400 women here - they should not spend the whole year here without tabling any motions."They just come here to warm the benches, not different from the women we have left in our rural areas."
If youre considering a subscription to the Disney Plus streaming service, you may be wondering how much it costs. The service is available on both
BarcelonaA message from Catalan communities abroad is putting pressure on the government. Yesterday a number of the ANCs foreign chapters (1) (Brussels, Luxembourg and the US), plus a group called Catalans al Mon (Catalans in the World), Quebecs Catalan Club and the International Federation of Catalan Societies wrote a joint letter to the government which this newspaper has read demanding an end to the ambiguity about the vote by expats and urging the Catalan authorities to shed light on how residents abroad will get to cast their ballot in the independence referendum of October 1.

In their letter, which was sent to the Catalan ministries of Foreign Affairs and Administration, these groups urge the government to make a public announcement, without delay, confirming that the Catalan governments expat census will indeed be used for the independence vote and warning that online voting will not be feasible because the electronic voting law is still being drafted in parliament and the online platform that would make it possible has not been commissioned.

In their note, the Catalan associations insist that there can be no doubt that online voting wont be an option because the bare minimum security and auditability standards would not be met. Furthermore, these Catalan societies explicitly request that, since some expats are already making travel arrangements, the government clarifies that not all Catalans who decide to travel home for the referendum will be allowed to cast their ballot in Catalonia. They point out that none of the 220,000 Catalan expats on Spains CERA (the Spanish electoral roll of residents abroad) are registered in the electoral roll at home anymore and, therefore, they will not be allowed to vote in Catalonia on October 1. Only those who never registered with the CERA and still feature as a local resident at home will be allowed to cast their ballot in the referendum on independence. The expat associations demand a solution.

Nuria Valls has been living in Germany for three years, but she chose to stay on the electoral roll back home so as to avoid problems when voting: As I did in the non-binding independence referendum of November 9 and in other recent elections, I intend to travel to Catalonia in order to vote. I never registered as a resident in Germany so as to keep this option open. Ricard Rius, an expat living in England, has done the exact same thing and will be taking two days off work to vote: I moved to the UK two and a half years ago, when the independence process was already underway, and I deliberately chose not to register with the CERA because I knew that it would prevent me from voting in my hometown, back in Catalonia, and that the Spanish embassy in London would never allow me to vote there. Vicenc Giralt is living in Mexico and he will also be flying back to Catalonia so as to vote in the referendum on independence.

None of the three expats have registered with the Catalan governments census of residents abroad and, paradoxically, they could be among the lucky few who will get to vote on October 1. Being registered with Spains CERA is a prerequisite for joining Catalonias own expat census and the Catalan authorities are uncertain as to how they will guarantee that all Catalan foreign residents on the CERA actually get to vote. Alexis Vizcaino regrets having registered with the Catalan census believing that it would allow me to vote on October 1. He hopes that expats wont be let down for the umpteenth time.

A 200 km journey

Gemma Tarres is the ANCs Dublin coordinator and she registered for the non-binding referendum of November 9, 2014. She insists that expats should have the same right to vote as Catalans at home. Together we would make up the second largest city in Catalonia, she remarks. Xavi Sans has been living in Luxembourg for over five years and he also registered for November 9. Now he is hoping that he wont meet quite as many hurdles to vote on October 1. Back in 2014 I had to travel 200 km to the Catalan governments office in Brussels. I guess Ill have to do it again, if theres no way around it. Still, he would prefer to vote by post, as the Spanish embassy is not an option in a unilateral referendum on independence.

Washington resident Imma Caboti suggests that the Catalan authorities should send electronic ballots to those on the electoral roll and devise a way for them to send their vote to the Catalan governments offices abroad or to a newly-created oversight body. This way online voting would be redundant, provided that an alternative courier system allowed for the postal service to be bypassed. From Miami, local resident Xavi Cortadellas says that the historic frustration of being unable to cast a postal ballot is further compounded by the confusion regarding online voting on October 1.

____________

Translators notes:

(1) The Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC) is one of the main pro-independence grassroots groups in Catalonia.
BarcelonaThe referendum law on the one hand and the legal transitoriness law on the other. According to various sources, JxSi and the CUP are in agreement that the disconnection with Spain will be accomplished via two distinct laws, thus abandoning the idea of having one single legal transitoriness law, as initially planned. Nevertheless, the agreement is not yet complete since there are discrepancies regarding the timetable concerning when the bills ought to be passed. In particular, doubts remain as to when the legal transitoriness bill ought to come into law before or after 1 October although the bulk of the law which, in theory, is intended to guarantee the transition from the Spanish legal system to the Catalan would only come into effect after the referendum and only if the Yes vote were to win.

Numerous meetings have been held this week, with more scheduled for the next few days, with an eye to the deadline of 4 July, when the Catalan government is due to roll out the two bills at a public event though they will not go before parliament until September, to avoid legal challenges by the Spanish government. On this date they will also release details regarding the preparations for the referendum. Yesterday, Vice President Oriol Junqueras declared that "On 4 July, representatives of the government and MPs who have participated in the drafting of the laws will clarify all remaining doubts as to the referendum, the guarantees it will have, its legally binding nature and release details of the two bills".

According to Catalan radio RAC1, the event will be held in Barcelona and in the coming weeks a publicity tour will be organised to inform the public of the details of the 1-O [1 of October, the planned date of the referendum] in 200 Catalan towns and cities. The government will also launch a website where people will find key information relating to the referendum: www.garanties.cat. The choice of the name is no accident, considering that one of the governments main objectives is to seek Catalunya En Comus support for the referendum and they are adamant that the vote on independence must have full legal guarantees. On Monday, the leader of Catalunya En Comu, Xavier Domenech, voiced his doubts as to the validity of the referendum. After meeting with President Puigdemont and Vice President Junqueras, he warned that he thought it likely that the vote will end up becoming another 9-N [the non-binding referendum held on 9 November 2014].

On Tuesday, PDECat and ERCs leadership met with the president and vice president to try to resolve the differences of opinion within Junts pel Si [or JxSi, the ruling coalition of different parties and organisations with the common goal of independence]. Although it was not entirely successful, yesterday Junqueras and JxSis leaders in parliament, Jordi Turull and Marta Rovira, attempted to silence those that claim that there is a split within the coalition. Instead, they highlighted the unity within the pro-independence majority.

In recent days Junts pel Si has addressed the referendums legal foundation. However, doubts remain as to the timetable concerning when the legal transitoriness law is to be passed. ERC sources and certain members of the PDECat argue that both laws should be passed during the same parliamentary session, at the end of August or the beginning of September. If this were to happen, the legal transitoriness law would make it clear that the legal framework has changed, while the referendum law (which is required to regulate the 1-O vote) would operate within the new legal framework. The other position, which is defended by other members of the PDECat, is to first pass the referendum law, only passing the legal transitoriness law if the Yes vote wins on 1 October. The thinking behind the second option is that the transition to independence cannot begin before the voters have had their say, even if the disconnection is temporary, in order to hold the referendum. Nevertheless, everyone involved concurs that details of the two bills need to be disclosed in order to outline how the transition from the Spanish legal system to the Catalan will take place in the event of a Yes win.

Making the timetable public

For its part, the CUP which yesterday began its campaign for the Yes vote in Barcelona welcomed the fact that the government has finally announced the event on 4 July, and insisted on the need to have a specific law covering the referendum. Speaking before a crowd of 200, CUP MP Eulalia Reguant stated that "we need to pass a referendum law in order to provide a legal framework for it to take place, and the legal transitoriness law must be ready for the day after the yes vote has won". Reguant went on to call on the government not to be afraid of disobeying the Spanish authorities. She underlined that the only way to carry out the referendum is with a law that has been "mediated, amended and challenged; the only way forward will be with warnings and complaints".

Whatever eventually happens, a two-step disconnection is still the procedure to follow. Even if the legal transitoriness law were to be passed on the same day as that of the referendum law, the only articles which would come into force would be those which allowed the 1-O referendum to be framed in the new legality. A Yes win would prompt the rest of the law to come into force, initiating a situation of no return to the autonomic model.
Opinion / Columnist

SOUTH African opposition parties yesterday celebrated after Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng ruled that Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete could conduct a vote-of-no-confidence motion in President Jacob Zuma through a secret ballot.The court outlined conditions the Speaker must consider in her decision, but for now it is still up to her to choose what to do.In a unanimous judgment, Mogoeng set aside Mbete's decision that she had no power to arrange a secret ballot and said the motion against Zuma must be rescheduled. The constitution gives the Speaker the discretion on whether to hold a secret vote or not, but Mbete must take into account specific factors to advance the National Assembly's role to ensure executive accountability and representing the best interests of South Africans, Mogoeng said. "The Speaker's decision was invalid and must be set aside," he said.Mogoeng said the decision on whether votes are held by secret ballot or not must be rational, enhance accountability to allow MPs to vote according to their constitutional commitments rather than just a party line.The Speaker must ensure the vote "is not a fear or money-inspired sham", he said. Her power "must not be exercised arbitrarily or whimsically" and cannot be used to benefit her position or a political party.Although Zuma said in parliament yesterday he was not worried because the opposition had failed seven times before to remove him and was now trying to concoct a majority it does not have, the truth is deep down he is troubled. Not so much because he will be voted out, but mainly because he is on the ropes.The ANC has said it will not assist the opposition to remove Zuma as that could trigger turmoil and fuel internal strife, while precipitating its own demise, so Zuma might have a false sense of security or indeed feel secure.However, in politics you never know. People speak with forked tongues, can act with Machiavellian deception and be ruthless.So it would be presumptuous and even delusional for Zuma or anyone to assume he is safe.Given that a successful no-confidence motion will need support from at least 50 ANC MPs to cross the 50% plus one threshold, it is not unrealistic for 50 MPs in a deeply divided party where opportunism and money are at play to cross the floor and vote Zuma out.Yet given the party list electoral system, hardened loyalties and ANC's fears of losing control of its own destiny, it is also unlikely the party will commit political hara-kiri.Zuma has been under pressure due to his scandal-ridden tenure. South Africans have been battling him in ANC structures, government, the courts and the streets, mainly because of scandals engulfing him, the Nkandlagate, Guptagate, succession infighting and leadership failures. Although these efforts have so far failed, he is battling for his political life. His project to help his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to be the next ANC leader and South African president largely to protect himself after power and for self-interest, is being fiercely resisted.Compare that with Zimbabwe. President Robert Mugabe has mismanaged the economy for nearly 40 years and destroyed the country through scandalous misrule.His regime's record is appalling: mismanagement, corruption, incompetence, theft and economic ruin. This has left the country broke and reduced to massive rubble amid a wave of company closures, de-industrailisation and job losses.Poverty and suffering are ubiquitous in a natural resource-rich country which used to be the jewel in Africa's crown.Mugabe is not seriously challenged at all, except through a few ineffective protests here and there, and flawed elections. Although environments in South Africa and Zimbabwe are different, citizens must hold their leaders to account whichever way.Mugabe has been allowed to get away with murder - sometimes literally - for far too long.
Opinion / Columnist

A Guruve magistrate Shingirai Mutiro acquitted a Guruve man Thomas Mambo (37) of illegal mining after the state failed to give sufficient evidence of the case in court.Mambo through his famous lawyer Nancy Mabhoyi pleaded not guilty to the allegations levelled against him.It emerged in court that on the 9th day of May 2017, detectives from CID Minerals Unit Guruve received a tip off to the effect that the accused person was prospecting for gold at Muroyiwa Village, Chief Chipuriro Guruve.Acting upon the tip off Detective constable Madhlauta and Detective Constable Gatsi proceeded to Muroyiwa village where they found the accused person crushing gold ores using a hummer putting it in a 20 litre yellow plastic bucket.Detectives from (CID) Minerals Unit Guruve identified themselves as police officers and requested the accused person to produce any document authorising him to prospect for gold but he had none leading to his arrest.However, in court the two Detectives gave contradicting statements as to why they managed to arrest one suspect and the rest fleeing yet they were working on a tip off.In Mambo's defence through his lawyer he argued that he was doing a part time job as he was hired by illegal miners to crush the gold ore hence when he saw the police he did not run away as what was done by illegal miners.In the close of the case Guruve magistrate acquitted Mambo saying," The state has failed to prove a case beyond reasonable doubt and accused is found not guilty," ruled Mutiro.
Infosys, in its 36th Annual General Meeting said that more than 11,000 jobs have been released due to automation.

Mumbai: IT giant Infosys today held its 36th annual general meeting today amid alleged board room clashes and rumours of layoffs.

Here are a few minutes from the meeting:

Retirement of company chairman: Infosys executive chairman R Seshasayee announced his retirement, which is due in May 2018. Seshasayee said it will be his last AGM before he retires next year in May and plans a smooth transition to his successor.

The effect of automation: Infosys said more than 11,000 jobs have been released due to automation. The revenue per full-tie employee (FTE) increased by 1.2 per cent as a result of automation.It is a clear demonstration of how software is going to play a crucial role in our business model, it said.

Compensation gap: The IT major claimed it had recognized the fact that there exists a major compensation gap between the top management and the employees. To address the same, a company spokesperson said the company has restructures its compensation framework to stock-based rewards.

Rising protectionism: Infosys CEO Vishak Sikka addressed all shareholders in a letter saying that Infosys has been battling rising protectionism, commoditization, increasing client expectations and accelerated competition. Internally, we had challenges to bring stability to our consulting business and growth to our Finacle and BPO businesses. But amidst all of this, it behoves us to stay focused on our longer-term mission to drive rapid growth in software-led offerings, to capture demand in newer service lines and to renew our core services  a mission to deliver consistent, profitable growth for the benefit of all our stakeholders, Sikka said.

The effect of automation: Infosys said more than 11,000 jobs have been released due to automation. The revenue per full-tie employee (FTE) increased by 1.2 per cent as a result of automation.It is a clear demonstration of how software is going to play a crucial role in our business model, it said.

No differences with promoters: The company claimed that the alleged clash between the companys board and its founders is purely a creation of the media.

Cash balance: Infosys claimed it currently holds on Rs 12,222 crore in cash and cash equivalent as of March 31, 2017. This is in comparison to Rs 24,276 crore of cash it was sitting on at the end of last year. It claimed its deposits stood at Rs 6,931 crore as of March 31, compared with Rs 4,900 crore in FY 16.

Investor corner: The Infosys board has identified Rs 13,000 crore or USD 2 billion to be paid out to shareholders during FY18 through dividend and/or buybacks which would be decided later.

Dividend declaration: The IT company declared a final dividend of Rs 14.75 per share for FY17. It estimates a cash outflow of approximately Rs 4,061 crore  excluding dividend paid on treasury shares and inclusive of corporate dividend tax.
Centre had conditionally agreed to BP Incs demand.

New Delhi: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and its British partner BP plc have withdrawn a legal challenge they had mounted three years back against the government over delay in gas price revision.

The withdrawal of the arbitration will now entitle the two firms to marketing and pricing freedom on the natural gas they produce from newer fields in the deepsea at an investment of Rs 40,000 crore by 2022.

Sources said the two firms moved to withdraw the international arbitration before Mr Ambani and BP CEO Bob Dudley met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 15 morning. They completed the process within days.

That day, Mr Ambani and Mr Dudley, in a rare press appearance, announced restarting the investment cycle in their Krishna Godavari basin KG-D6 block after eight years hiatus by taking up of three sets of deepsea discoveries for development at a cost of Rs 40,000 crore.

Mr Dudley had in his previous meeting with Mr Modi in January 2015 made a fervent pitch for extending the gas price premium to existing undeveloped gas fields in difficult areas like deepsea instead of restricting them to future finds as had been announced in an October 18, 2014 decision.

Centre agreed to his suggestion but made it conditional upon firms withdrawing any legal proceedings or arbitration challenging government's gas pricing policy.

While RIL was non-committal, BP made its intentions clear within days of the March 10, 2016 decision.

BP India spokesperson had on March 12 stated that the decision by the government on marketing including pricing freedom for new production from deep, ultra-deep water and high-pressure, high-temperature areas provides clarity to end the pending gas pricing dispute.

On Friday, the spokesperson confirmed that the legal challenge has indeed been withdrawn. Yes, the 'gas price' arbitration has already been withdrawn, the spokesperson said. An email sent to RIL remained unanswered.

RIL and BP had in May 2014 filed an international arbitration after the Election Commission forced deferment of implementation of a new pricing formula the previous UPA government had approved for pricing of RIL-BP's eastern offshore KG-D6 and other gas.

The Election Commission wanted the new government to take a view and when the new NDA government came to power it rejected the formula. The formula would have lead to doubling of the gas price to $8.4 per million British thermal unit in 2014 but the rate would have been at almost the same level of $5.56 per mmBtu decided under the March 2016 formula for difficult fields.

Sources said another arbitration automatically fell last year after Reliance Industries failed to name arbitrators within stipulated time for the challenge it had mounted against the oil ministrys decision to take away five of its

KG-D6 block discoveries.

BP had not participated in the February 2015 arbitration notice challenging the ministry's decision to take away 814 sq km of its KG-D6 area that contained five gas discoveries for failure to develop them within stipulated time period.
He now wishes to seriously change his image, and has therefore hired Reshma.

The former bad boy of Bollywood, Sanjay Dutt is reportedly hiring Salman Khans former manager to get his professional life in order.

However, its interesting to note that Salman had suggested his good friend Sanju hire the services of Reshma Shetty when the latter was making a comeback to Bollywood. So what changed?

Sanju now wishes to work in a professional manner. Hed shown a lack of discipline through most of his career and needs someone to help him set it in place. He now wishes to seriously change his image, and has therefore decided to hire Reshma to handle his work, so he can try and make a serious comeback into showbiz.

As for Salman, Reshma and the actor fell through when the actor realised his family was not getting enough time from him for professional discussions. Bhai severed all ties with the company, and Salmans inner circle now gets to handle his work.

Heres wishing both Sanju and Reshma good luck for their new innings.

 Sanskriti Media
With a Hindi release, the makers of the Tamil movie are trying to cash in on the stars popularity up North.

The makers of Kajol and Dhanush starrer VIP 2 have decided to dub the film in Hindi, considering the hold both the actors have over the North. The dubbed version of the movie also has a new title, VIP 2 (Lalkar).

The makers have also ensured that the title is registered pan-India, especially in the North belt, considered to be a major revenue earning territory.

Director Soundarya Rajinikanth says, It was a strategic move to make sure the film reaches across all states. With Kajol and Dhanush coming together in a movie for the first time, the title has to connect with the masses. Both actors have a huge fan base in the North. We thought of leveraging it, thereby keeping a relatable and easy name for the audience.

Kajol is hitting the big screen after 2015s Dilwale, and Dhanushs last release, Shamitabh, was also released that year, and this is the first time the two will appear onscreen for the first time.

The trailer of the film will be unveiled in Mumbai on Sunday evening, and superstar Rajinikanth may attend the event too, given hes shooting in Mumbai for his next film. Aanand L. Rai and R. Balki too are supposed to be part of the event.
Meng Meng, 5, a female panda, plays at the Chengdu Panda Research Base on May 3, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

On Saturday morning, a pair of giant pandas will leave Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, to make a 12-hour journey across the globe.

The destination: Berlin, Germany, where they will reside at Zoo Berlin for 15 years, a time that will include joint scientific research between the zoo and the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, according to Chen Cheng, an information officer with the base.

Jiao Qing, 7, a male panda, and Meng Meng, 5, a female, will depart from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at 8:40 am on Saturday.

During their flight, they will be accompanied by two keepers from the Chengdu base and Andreas Ochs, a senior veterinarian from Zoo Berlin.

The flight's "meal service" will include ample bamboo and water, Ochs said, adding that he and the two Chinese keepers will keep close tabs on the two pandas during the flight.

A send-off ceremony for the pandas was held at the Chengdu base on Friday afternoon. In attendance were Ochs and representatives of the China Wildlife Conservation Association and the Sichuan provincial forestry department.

The pandas' trip was made possible by a cooperation agreement on panda conservation signed on April 28 between the conservation association and Zoo Berlin, marking the beginning of a 15-year relationship.

China's fourth panda census showed 1,864 wild pandas and 375 captive pandas worldwide as of the end of 2013, according to results released in 2015. Most of the pandas are in Sichuan.
Opinion / Columnist

The following is a hypothetical synopsis of ZANU PF rigging mission for the 2018 elections written in the first person.'You are well aware that any election is a threat to the rule of our ZANU PF government, political positions of our comrades, quality of life of our families and security of our personal wealth that we worked so hard to accumulate over years. Our popularity is dwindling and losing the 2018 elections is a strong possibility. I sometimes wish there were no elections at all and we would rule forever. A defeat in these elections is not a choice we want to take. Political power sharing is not in our DNA too. Power sharing constrains our decision making powers by being subjected to unnecessary scrutiny for transparency, responsibility and accountability. The power sharing approach is not how we do our business in ZANU PF government. It is for this reason that we will continue to use our 2013 election rigging template again in 2018 elections to attain another resounding victory. Let's us put aside the succession fights that are going round at the moment within our party and work together to win the next elections. The succession battles will be resolved once we are back in power. We will use our laid down due processes in line with our ZANU PF constitution to choose our leaders.We have at our disposal government resources, trusted cadres in the judiciary, security services, intelligence services, police, Zimbabwe electoral commission, and the registry of the deaths and births. Our youth militias are on standby waiting for our instructions. Remember these youths are like vicious dogs that have been given mustard. We have given the poor traditional leaders up and down the country a few dollars, bicycles, some of them have been given cars and they seem to be responding well to our whims. We have our secret ballot paper printing machines from 2013 that are still intact and functioning very well. Our trusted friends in the army are taking care of them in a secret location. Our Nikuv friends thought us the rigging tricks after paying them millions of dollars. Some of our good comrades were assigned to understudy our Nikuv good instructors. We now have the personnel with the right knowledge and skills to carry out our rigging mission to a resounding success. We have the money from the diamonds mines; our ZANU PF Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamonds Company is making billions of dollars for us. We have our good friends around the world that are happy to sponsor us return power. If we do not get money for our project anywhere else we can print more bond notes for ourselves. We can also simply force these external companies operating in our country at our holy messy to fund our mission or they will have their businesses repossessed by this government of the people by the people.My friends and comrades, you are either with me or you are not with me. If you do not have the spine, if you are ethical or controlled by your good morals then you do not belong to ZANU PF. We need to forget about this monster called rule of law. We are above the law. We are in fact the law itself, so on that score you do not need to worry because your activities are covered for anything we do on behalf of ZANU PF and the President. We have our people in the judiciary to take care of any legal challenges by our desperate opposition parties. If you cannot perpetrate violence, maim or torture misguided elements bent on attempting to topple our president I will request you to go and get a few lessons from comrade Chiwenga who is happy to show you how it's done. Comrades, violence pays. We subdued ZAPU to extinction in the eighties killing 20000 of its followers and thereafter our power nourished. We defeated MDC with a violent campaign in the presidential rerun in 2008. What happened? Morgan went into hiding in some embassy and we won with no opposition at all. We cannot afford to leave anything to chance, this is a do or die scenario. Our aim is to win these elections at all cost. Anything that stands in our way will be met with the resistance it deserves. I must seriously remind you comrades that you are all signatories to the ZANU PF code of secrecy, the confidentiality of sharing of information and a duty of loyalty to our president, the only centre of power. The consequences of any breach of our oath in the service of ZANU PF and the President are well known to every one of you. There is no need to give any further details on this requirement.Our election rigging strategic objectives of 2013 remain unchanged. Our objectives as you know are to manipulate the voter registration process, disenfranchise voters in the opposition strong holds, create ghost voters on the voters roll, impersonate people in the diaspora and the dead to vote on their behalf, reduce polling stations in the opposition strong hold and increase them in our own strong holds, create secret provincial centres for staffing of ballot papers, disrupt opposition parties rallies and even arrest them on any charge we may think of, intensify political ganagsterism using our youth brigades and militias, create a sense of insecurity and fear to drive away potential voters in the opposition strong holds, create overnight settlements at strategic constituencies and abandon them after the elections, delay the delivery of ballot boxes to opposition strong holds and if possible deliver them with ballot papers mixed up or wrong ones to delay the start of voting but keep the voting closing time unchanged, create unorthodox methods of transferring ballot boxes to locations to allow staffed ballot boxes to be loaded on the way and always ignore cries electoral foul play. It's now the right time to start distributing food aid in the name of ZANU PF in exchange of votes and ensure that the recipients of food aid have ZANU PF cards. Our campaign is to make promises of 2 million jobs under the ZimAsset programme. Give figures pointing to the success of the programme. Promise the youths several housing stands and conduct ground breaking ceremonies showing a few youths receiving stands. The strategy will motivate more youths to join and vote for us in the hope of getting housing stands too.Our secret election rigging organisational structure worked well in the 2013 elections rigging mission. We will therefore maintain the same structure. We have at the top, the national executive rigging elections committee, and below it are the provincial rigging command centres; constituency rigging coordinating teams and polling stations rigging teams. All of them will be staffed with our trusted and no nonsense members of our security forces. Our security forces will be given overriding powers and authority of implementing our rigging action plans. They will report directly to the national executive committee and to the president. The Zimbabwe electoral commission is under our command. We instruct them on what to do. ZEC is only there as a window dresser to the world but our rigging committee welds the power and it is in charge of operations behind the scenes. We have instructed the Zimbabwe electoral commission to engage the opposition parties at a superficial level to create a perception of transparency so as to reduce complains about the credibility of our win. Let them spend all their time forming NERA and CODE and conducting protests against us. It is good for us as this reduces scrutiny on our rigging activities.I must reiterate that there will be a few changes in the composition of the secret national rigging executive committee. Unfortunately Nicolas Goche was purged. He served us well in the last rigging committee. We are not sure about the position of Saviour Kasukuwere being included in the rigging committee. There are signs that he is becoming a prodigal son. We really do not know what to do with Emmerson Mnangagwa whether to include or exclude him this time. His association with team lacoste leaves us hesitant to trust him anymore. Jonathan is a clever destructive lad. We are also reluctant to include him in the rigging committee as we are concerned that he might let the cat out as he is an addict of tweeter and he has this appetite for being mouthy. I have warned my wife to tone down her wild speeches and rants; so do not be surprised that she is less vocal of late but I must however add that she is ready to be the next president of our Zimbabwe if she is chosen by the people to lead them. We will keep all the members of the top security forces that were in the previous rigging committee, without them we could not have succeeded in winning the 2013 elections.Comrades, if we win you will be rewarded handsomely.
Johnny Depp had kicked up a storm with remarks suggesting that US President Donald Trump be assassinated by an actor.

Mumbai: Hollywood star Johnny Depp had kicked up a storm with remarks suggesting that US President Donald Trump be assassinated by an actor.

In what could be a reference to Abraham Lincoln's murder by actor John Wilkes Booth in 1865, Depp said, "When was the last time an actor assassinated a President?"

"I want to qualify, I am not an actor. I lie for a living. However, it has been a while and maybe it is time," the actor added.

Depp, 54, was at the Glastonbury music festival when he made the remarks.

He attended the festival to introduce his 2004 film 'The Libertine' along with director Julian Temple but began talking about the 45th US President, reported The Guardian.

"Can you bring Trump here?" Depp asked the crowd as he told them that the President needed help and "there are a lot of wonderful dark, dark places he could go."

The actor was aware that his remarks would cause controversy as he said, "It is just a question I'm not insinuating anything. By the way, this is going to be in the press. It will be horrible."

Depp's comments have met with criticism with some on social media suggesting a boycott of his movies.

"I would call for a boycott of Johnny Depp's movies, but it appears people have been avoiding them for the last 20 years anyway," a user wrote.

Trump's son Donald Trump Jr mocked the actor by posting a link to a story about Heard's abuse allegations.

"Ha, Depp wants to make social commentary: Johnny Depp's team knew of alleged abuse of Amber Heard," he wrote with the links to the story.

Fans, however, defended the actor saying the remarks were made in jest.

"Johnny Depp was joking people... that means it is not serious, stop being such snowflakes. It shouldn't even be a story," a Twitter user wrote.

However, after a huge backlash and being condemned by the White House, Depp has apologised through a statement.

According to an international news website, the statement read, I apologise for the bad joke I attempted last night in poor taste about President Trump, said Depp in a statement. It did not come out as intended, and I intended no malice. I was only trying to amuse, not to harm anyone.

Whereas, in an official statement, the White House said, President Trump has condemned violence in all forms and it's sad that others like Johnny Depp have not followed his lead. I hope that some of Mr. Depps colleagues will speak out against this type of rhetoric as strongly as they would if his comments were directed to a Democrat elected official.

On the work front, 'The 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star has been in news recently for his divorce from Heard and reports about his financial trouble as he fights a court case against his former management company.
Sulabh, a non-governmental organisation, provides affordable sanitation and toilets to the masses to end the practice of manual scavenging.

People walk past a poster of the US President Donald Trump at Maroda Village which was renamed as "Trump Village" in Nuh district of Haryana ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to Washington. (Photo: PTI)

Gurgaon/New Delhi: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to the US, a village in Mewat region of Haryana was on Thursday dedicated to President Donald Trump.

From now on, the village will be known as 'Trump Sulabh Village'.

In a symbolic gesture to promote the Indo-US relations, Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak formally launched various projects for the all-round development of Marora panchayat under Mewat region in Haryana, a release said.

The Sulabh Sanitation and Reform Movement leader Pathak, during a programme in Washington a few days ago, had announced to name an Indian village after Trump, as part of his efforts to strengthen relation between the countries, it said.

Sulabh, a non-governmental organisation, provides affordable sanitation and toilets to the masses to end the practice of manual scavenging.

It also works across the country to support the 'Swachh Bharat' mission besides other urban development initiatives, the release said.

Sulabh, which engages over 50,000 people, claims that so far it has constructed nearly 10.5 million household toilets and 8,500 public toilets used by nearly 15 million people daily across the country.
The hard-hitting statement came a day after Lalu Yadav warned him of making a historical blunder by extending support to the Bihar Governor.

Patna: The Iftar meeting between Lalu and Nitish Kumar on Friday ended with JD(U) staying firm on its previous stand of supporting NDAs presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind.

We have taken a decision of supporting Mr Kovind and we are firm on our stand, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said after the iftar meeting on Friday.

Justifying his decision to back the NDA presidential candidate, Mr. Kumar said, I have a lot of respect for Meira Kumar but Bihar ki Beti has been made the nominee only to lose.

The hard-hitting statement came a day after Lalu Yadav warned him of making a historical blunder by extending support to the Bihar Governor. It also hinted that tension between Mr Yadav and Mr Kumar was increasing. The RJD chief earlier said the JD(U)s decision to support Mr Kovind would not affect the grand secular alliance government in Bihar but the chief Ms statement on Friday widened the rift between the partners.
The civil aviation minister said that Noida International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years.

The proposed airport will come up at Jewar near the 165-km Yamuna Expressway. (Photo: Deccan Chronicle/Representational)

New Delhi: The Centre has granted approval for a Greenfield International Airport at Jewar in Greater Noida.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju on Saturday said, "We have granted approval for the Greenfield International Airport at Jewar, Greater Noida, to cater to growing flying requirements of NCR".

He added that Noida International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years.

The proposed airport will come up at Jewar near the 165-km Yamuna Expressway.

Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh thanked the Narendra Modi government for giving approval for Jewar airport.

"The Jewar airport will be the cargo hub of the country apart from catering to domestic and international traffic," Singh said.

The proposal for the airport was first given by then UP chief minister and now Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in 2001, but did not yield results as successive state governments failed to show interest.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had promised to develop airport at Jewar in its election manifesto. After Yogi Adityanath took the reins of Uttar Pradesh, he ordered the work on the project to be expedited.

As a result, RITES Limited, the consulting arm of Indian Railways, has conducted an Obstacle Limitation Survey (OLS) in May.
Financial Action Task Force says Pak not acting against terror groups.

New Delhi: Pakistan seems to be high on the radar of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global inter-governmental body to combat terror financing.

It is understood that during the FATFs third plenary meeting under the presidency of Spain in Valencia recently, Pakistans record once again came under close scrutiny. The FATF report is understood to have virtually slammed the continued complicity of Pakistan in financing terrorist entities. The report is believed to have highlighted that there continues to be certain UNSCR 1267 designated entities (terror entities) in Pakistan that receive and disperse funds without controls being applied by the competent authorities. The FATFs International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) has, therefore, requested the Asia Pacific Group (APG) to provide the revised follow-up report on Pakistan to the ICRG. UNSCR-1267 refers to the UN Security Council Resolution 1267, which had established a sanctions regime against terror entities and terrorists. Observers point out that it is open knowledge that terrorist organisations like the LeT and the JeM operate from Pakistan with impunity.

In February 2017, the ICRG requested the APG to provide its analysis report on Pakistan. Given the concerns raised in this report that highlighted that there continue to be certain UNSCR 1267 designated entities that receive and disperse funds without controls being applied by the competent authorities, the ICRG recommends further reporting to the ICRG be provided either by the APG or, failing that, directly from Pakistan. The ICRG requested the APG to provide the revised follow-up report on the Pakistan to ICRG following the discussion of the report at the APG Annual Meeting in July 2017. Should the APG Plenary decide not to provide this report, the ICRG granted permission to the ICRG co-Chairs to request in August for Pakistan to comprehensively report directly to the ICRG in September on updates regarding Pakistans implementation of UNSCR 1267 with respect to designated entities of concern. An FATF Secretariat analysis of one of these reports will serve as the basis for discussion at the October 2017 Plenary, the FATF report is understood to have said.

In February 2015, when Pakistan was removed from ICRG monitoring, the FATF encouraged Pakistan to continue working with the FATE and APG to improve and effective implement its AML/CFT systems, in particular with respect to implementing UNSCR 1267. When Pakistan reported back on this matter, some ICRG members expressed a concern that these issues still had not been resolved.

Consequently, the ICRG had referred the issue of Pakistans implementation of UNSCR 1267 with respect to designated entities of concern to the APG for ongoing monitoring, the report further said.

The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 by the ministers of its member jurisdictions and its objectives are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. The FATF has developed a series of recommendations that are recognised as the international standard for combating of money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

It monitors the progress of its members in implementing necessary measures, reviews money laundering and terrorist financing techniques and counter-measures, and promotes the adoption and implementation of appropriate measures globally. In collaboration with other international stakeholders, the FATF also works to identify national-level vulnerabilities with the aim of protecting the international financial system from misuse. The FATFs decision making body, the FATF Plenary, meets thrice a year.
The minister's comment comes in the backdrop of apprehensions being expressed by the people over the usage of Hindi language.

Ahmedabad (Gujarat): In the event of anti-Hindi backlash being witnessed across the country, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said Hindi is the national language of India and it is impossible to progress without the language.

"Hindi is our national language and it is impossible for India to progress without Hindi. It is unfortunate that everyone is after English medium; I am against Britishers but not their language. We should learn all language, but by learning English our mindset is also changing, this is wrong , this is against the interest of the nation ," Naidu said.

He further said that it was necessary for people to learn their mother languages as the dominance of English medium have shadowed their cultural heritage.

"Since majority of the population speaks Hindi, it is necessity to learn Hindi, but before that we need to learn our mother language," he said.

"It is unfortunate that everyone is bent upon learning English because it guarantees employment. Hence I want the nation to discuss, promote and learn our mother languages more and at the same time learn Hindi as well," he added.

The minister's comment comes in the backdrop of apprehensions being expressed by the people, especially in the southern states over the usage of Hindi language.

Parties like Karnataka's Janata Dal (Secular) and Tamil Nadu's Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (DMK) have criticised the Centre for 'imposing' Hindi language in their states.

DMK acting president M K, Stalin threatened to begin an anti-Hindi agitation after milestones marked in Hindi were seen on Tamil Nadu highways.

In Bengaluru, protests were taking place over Hindi being used as a language in the Metro train sign boards.

Earlier this year, the Centre notified a recommendation of the parliamentary panel after President Pranab Mukherjee gave his nod to the suggestion

The parliamentary panel had recommended the use of Hindi by parliamentarians and ministers. The recommendation had been sent to the President in June, 2011.
Kovind is likely to meet MPs and MLAs of the BJP, its allies and also leaders of other political parties over dinner, sources said.

Lucknow: The NDA's presidential nominee RamNath Kovind will be in the Uttar Pradesh capital tomorrow to seek support from elected representatives while preparation in the Assembly is on for smooth conduct of voting, slated for July 17.

A senior Congress leader said the Opposition's presidential pick Meira Kumar might also pay a visit to Lucknow to seek votes from the electoral college as the party "will not leave any stone unturned" for the election.

"She, in all probability, will be accompanied by AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad and is likely to meet all elected representative, cutting across party affiliations," he

said.

The state, which has the maximum population in the country, has the highest value of each vote in the presidential election.

The electoral college includes elected members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, states, union territories and the NCT region of Delhi.

"The NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will be in the state capital tomorrow and will be going to Uttarakhand the next day," national general secretary of the BJP Bhupendra Yadav said.

He is likely to meet MPs and MLAs of the BJP, its allies and also leaders of other political parties over dinner, sources said.

On its part, the state Assembly secretariat has started preparations and had also held meeting with a high-level delegation of the Election Commission on Friday.

"All necessary steps are being initiated to make foolproof arrangements before the presidential election," a senior official of the Assembly said.

For the first time, a special pen and ink would be brought to Lucknow from Delhi to be used by voters to mark their preference of candidates. For presidential elections, votes are marked in a preferential order which is then counted to declare the winner.

Since the NDA's presidential pick hails from Kanpur Dehat district of the state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said it is an honour that the son of Uttar Pradesh would be

occupying the presidential office.

Kovind had been active in the Uttar Pradesh unit of BJP and was even appointed the general secretary when Laxmikant Bajpai was the party's state chief. But, he chose to switch to the party's central unit.

After the Narendra Modi government came to power, he was appointed the Bihar Governor, from where he resigned after being named the NDA's presidential nominee.
Named after Maratha warrior king Shivaji Maharaj, the programme will benefit 89 lakh farmers and make 40 lakh agriculturists debt-free.

Mumbai: The BJP-led Maharashtra government on Saturday announced a major farm loan waiver scheme that will see debt of up to Rs 1.5 lakh per farmer being written off.

The scheme, announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at a press meet in Mumbai, involves Rs 34,000 crore of relief.

Named after Maratha warrior king Shivaji Maharaj, the programme will benefit 89 lakh farmers and make 40 lakh agriculturists debt-free, Fadnavis said.

Farmers in many parts of Maharashtra were on a warpath earlier in June, which disrupted supply of vegetables and other essentials to cities, including Mumbai.

Read: MLAs, ministers will give up 1 month's salary for loan waiver: Fadnavis

They were demanding a loan waiver, which was backed by all political parties. The stir was called off after the government gave them a firm assurance on bringing in a comprehensive scheme to help the debt-pressed cultivators.

Earlier, the Maharashtra government had declared a loan waiver for all farmers with certain parameters on June 11 in order to bring about an end to the farmers agitation in the state.

It also formed a high-power ministerial committee to study and finalise the details of the waiver.

Mr Patil led this committee and it had met political leaders like Mr Pawar, Mr Chavan and Mr Thackeray in last 15 days.

Again on Friday, the government tried to convince the political leadership about the criteria for the waiver that it had decided on. According to Mr Patil, the government was ready to waive off the loans of farmers who failed to repay them by June 30, 2016.

At the same time, the waived-off amount would be up to Rs 1 lakh and not any more.

However, other political parties including alliance partner Shiv Sena was not ready to accept this. Other party leaders were calling for a complete loan waiver of farmers till June 30, 2017.
The attack left two Indian soldiers dead while one BAT member was killed in retaliatory action by Indian troops.

Earlier, there have been several BAT attacks in which Indian jawans have been beheaded or their bodies mutilated. (Photo: Representational/PTI)

Jammu: The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) made up of special forces men and terrorists were armed with 'special daggers' and 'headband cameras' to mutilate and record the attack on the Indian Army patrol party after entering 600 meters across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.

The attack left two Indian soldiers dead while one BAT member was killed in retaliatory action by Indian troops.

Army troops during search and sanitation operations, recovered the body of a member of the BAT team along LoC in Gulpur sector of Poonch district on Thursday.

"The body of the intruder killed in the BAT attempt on 22 June has been retrieved and handed over to the local police," a senior army officer said.

"Arms, ammunition and other war-like stores including a special dagger and a headband with a camera, knife, one AK rifle, 3 magazines, 2 grenades besides dresses and bags was recovered which reflects the barbaric mindset of the Pakistan Army," he said.

"The resolute action of our soldiers didn't let the nefarious plan (of mutilating bodies and recording it on camera) succeed," officer said.

Giving details, the officer said that a special class of dagger and a knife was meant to engineer quick mutilation and beheading of jawans killed in the firing exchanges and it has been foiled by the quick action by Indian soldiers.

The BAT member was wearing headband with camera on his head to record the action and possible mutilation of jawans, which was prevented by other troops who shot dead one of them and injured another, he said.

The officer said it is matter of investigation whether the camera was live connected with Pakistan Army establishments across the border.

"The data and details of the camera will be analysed," he said.

"We are confident that another BAT member has also been killed but his body was taken back by the other members of the BAT," he said.

In the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces on Thursday sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Border Action Team (BAT), which generally comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan Army and some terrorists, carried out the attack at around 2 pm on Thursday under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops from their posts, he said.

"A Border Action Team of five to seven heavily-armed men, under the cover of Pakistani firing, entered 600 meters inside the LoC in Gulpur forward area in Poonch sector around 2 PM yesterday and launched a fierce attack on Indian Army patrol party with several types of weapons," the official said.

The Pakistani attackers came up to 200 meters near the Indian posts.

During the attack, the Pakistani troops resorted to firing in Gulpur-Karmara-Chakan-Da-Bagh area along the LoC.

The armed intruders targeted an area domination patrol of the Indian Army, triggering a gunfight, the official said.

The Indian troops killed one of the attackers and injured another whose extrication was facilitated by the cover fire by the Pakistani troops from their posts.

In the firefight, two Indian soldiers were killed. They were 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad, Maharashtra and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

The Pakistani firing continued till 3.30 pm on Thursday even as the Indian posts retaliated strongly.

In a similar BAT attack on May 1, two Indian soldiers were beheaded in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district. That attack too was carried out under the cover of shelling by the Pakistani troops.

Prior to that, a BAT attack was carried out in February but there were no casualties.

Earlier, there have been several BAT attacks in which Indian jawans have been beheaded or their bodies mutilated.

On October 28 last year, militants attacked a post and killed an Indian Army soldier and mutilated his body close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Machil sector.

In January 2013, Lance Naik Hemraj was killed and his body mutilated by a BAT. It had also beheaded Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh.
The violation comes just days after an attack by a Pakistani special forces team that sneaked across the LoC into Poonch.

Jammu: Pakistani forces violated ceasefire by firing from automatic weapons and shelling mortars along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Saturday.

The violation comes just days after an attack by a Pakistani special forces team that sneaked across the LoC into Poonch under heavy fire-cover and killed two jawans while losing one of their men.

The Pakistan army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 11:30 am on Indian Army posts along the LoC in Poonch sector, a defence spokesman said.

The Indian troops returned the fire strongly and effectively, he said adding that the firing stopped at 2:10 pm.

Earlier on Thursday, in the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces sneaked 600 metres across the LoC into the Poonch sector and killed two Indian jawans and lost one Border Action Team (BAT) member in retaliatory action.

The BAT comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan army and terrorists.

It had carried out the attack at around 2 pm on an army patrol party in the Gulpur belt of Poonch on 22 June under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops.

In the firefight, two Indian soldiers - 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur - were martyred.

The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) members were armed with 'special daggers' and 'headband cameras' to mutilate and record the attack on the Indian Army patrol.

Earlier, on June 16, Pakistan violated the ceasefire by firing on forward posts along the LoC in Naushera sector of Rajouri district of J&K, killing an Indian Army jawan.
She also directed the passport division of the External Affairs Ministry to resolve difficulties being faced by a person with disability.

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday asked the Indian envoy in Saudi Arabia to help a nurse from Karnataka who has reportedly been pushed into slavery in the Gulf country.

"Javed : Pls help rescue this lady. @IndianEmbRiyadh," Swaraj tweeted, asking India's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ahmad Javed to help Jacintha Mendonca, the Indian nurse.

As per media reports, a kafil in Saudi Arabia has demanded 24,000 Saudi Riyals (USD 6,398) to free her.

Replying to a separate query on twitter, Swaraj said every PIO (person of Indian-origin) cards has to be converted to OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) cards, saying it is mandatory.

Every PIO Card has to be converted to OCI Card. This is mandatory. https://t.co/wZFSmtz9Oh  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) June 23, 2017

She also directed the passport division of the External Affairs Ministry to resolve difficulties being faced by a person with disability.

Her response came after one Luv Kher requested to renew a passport of his disabled son.

"@SushmaSwaraj @MEAIndia Kindly approve passport renewal of my divyang son (J9503328), can't visit biometrics. Appl. pending @ RPO GZB Thanks (sic)," Kher said.

Responding to the issue Swaraj tweeted, "I have asked @CPVIndia to resolve this".
Mishra had been disqualified from contesting for three years from today. His election from Datia Assembly constituency also stands void.

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Madhya Pradesh Minister Narottam Mishra, who was disqualified by the Election Commission for filing wrong accounts of his election-related expenditure, on Saturday said he will challenge the order in the high court.

"Whether I will remain a member or not, that probably has not been mentioned. I also haven't got the order yet. I will go to the high court," Mishra said.

Mishra had been disqualified from contesting for three years from today. His election from the Datia Assembly constituency also stands void.

The EC took the decision after he did not file certain details in his election expenditure in the 2008 polls.

The decision is based on a complaint by former Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti in April 2009 alleging Mishra hadn't filed certain details in his election expenditure during the 2008 assembly elections.

Mishra has challenged the notice in the high court bench at Gwalior and managed to get a stay in light of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's case proceeding in the top court. The court, however, vacated the stay order after considering the facts submitted by complainant's counsel.

Mishra approached the Supreme Court to stall the EC proceedings but the top court did not grant him any relief.

Last year, the poll panel questioned Mishra in Delhi about the allegations. It found that he hadn't revealed his expenditure on paid news.

The EC has the power to disqualify a candidate if he fails to submit the account of expenses within time. In this case, the money spent on paid news wasn't shown in the account.
Mishras election from Datia Assembly constituency in 2008 stands void and he has been barred from contesting elections for a period of three years.

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Cabinet minister Narottam Mishra has been disqualified by the Election Commission for alleged corrupt practices and paid news during the 2008 Assembly polls.

Considered close to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the state minister for public relations, water resources and legislative affairs, is known in political circles as the CMs trouble shooter.

Mr Mishras election from Datia Assembly constituency in 2008 stands void and he has been barred from contesting elections for a period of three years.

Mr Mishra said he will challenge ECs order in the high court and insisted that he never paid to the media there is no evidence.

If he doesnt get relief from the high court, he wont be able to contest the 2018 Assembly polls in the state, and probably the next Lok Sabha elections.

Mr Mishra was elected to the current Assembly from Datia in 2013, and that election stands.

This means that while he can continue being minister and MLA, but cant contest any election for three years.

In its 69-page order issued on Friday, the EC pointed that Mr Mishra not only knowingly submitted a false account of expenses, but also attempted to circumvent the legally prescribed limit on expenditure. It added that such attempts need to be curbed with strong measures and visited with exemplary sanctions and restore the balance in the electoral playing field.

Congress leader Rajendra Bharati, who had lost the Assembly election against Mr Mishra from Datia in 2008, had moved the EC seeking the BJP leaders disqualification for submitting wrong accounts on election expenditures.

The EC verdict has dealt a blow to unscrupulous politicians who want to win the elections by adopting corrupt practices, he said on Saturday.

Congress legislature party leader Ajey Singh has demanded Mr Mishras resignation.

Citing views of legal experts, Mr Mishra described the ECs disqualification order as infractuous and said, I have won the peoples mandate in 2013 MP Assembly polls and there was no comment on my current mandate by the commission... My lawyer has told me that the case related to paid news. But neither has the complainant provided documents to corroborate the paid news charges against me nor is there any mention of it in ECs order.

In its order the EC said that the paid news phenomenon, a manifestation of the pernicious effect of money in elections, has been growing increasingly vicious and spreading like cancer, in recent times.

Calling it a grave electoral malpractice which circumvents election expenditure limits, the EC said, it disturbs the level playing field and militates against the voters right to accurate information to enable him to make informed choice.

The EC noted that the common man gives more credence to news in newspapers than to advertisements of political parties and hence the publication of advertisements in the garb of news by way of paid news amounts to deceiving the electorate.

His petitions before the high court and then the Supreme Court challenging the show cause notice issued by EC on the issue earlier had already been dismissed... The EC gave its verdict after hearing both the parties and scrutinsing the documents submitted in the case, Mr Bharati told this newspaper.

A full bench of the Election Commission, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and election commissioners A.K. Joti and O.P. Rawat, in its order indicting Mr Mishra unseated him under various sections of the Representation of the People Act (RPA).

BJP state president Nand Kumar Singh Chouhan, who reportedly discussed the matter with chief minister Mr Chouhan, said, Party will back Mr Mishra fully on the issue. We will move the court.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission team took stock of the preparations and held a meeting with Vidhan Sabha officials on the poll arrangements.

Lucknow: The BJP in Uttar Pradesh is preparing to muster additional support for its presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind. The BJP and its allies have 325 members in the 403-member UP Assembly but leaders are now eyeing additional support from the SP, the BSP and the Congress.

The NDA presidential candidate, Mr Kovind, will be in Lucknow on Sunday to launch his election campaign. He will be accompanied by one Union minister and will meet BJP MPs and MLAs. He is unlikely to meet any MLA from the Opposition now. However, he may call on some Opposition leaders to seek their support.

We have sufficient numbers to ensure the victory of Mr Kovind but we want to send a strong message to the Opposition by making a dent in their own parties, said a BJP leader. The easiest target for the BJP is the Samajwadi Party.

While SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has announced his support to Opposition candidate Meira Kumar, father Mulayam Singh Yadav has decided to support the NDA candidate.

Shivpal Yadav, whose differences with Akhilesh are well known, said on Saturday,

My leader is Mulayam Singh Yadav and I will do what he tells me to do, Shivpal said.

According to sources in the SP, there could be about half a dozen other party MLAs who vote against the party line.

The BSP is also a soft target and four of its 19 MLAs have been contacted by BJP leaders. These MLAs have assured their support to Mr Kovind.

The lone NISHAD party MLA and three independents are likely to go with BJPs choice in the presidential elections.

There is no use wasting our vote for one who is not winning, said one MLA.

Mr Kovind, 71, was born in Paraunkh village in Kanpur Dehat in Uttar Pradesh and belongs to the Dalit community, which has sizeable presence in the state. It is because of his connection with UP that Mr Kovind is launching his campaign there.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission team took stock of the preparations and held a meeting with Vidhan Sabha officials on the poll arrangements.

For the first time, a special pen and ink would be brought to Lucknow from Delhi to be used by voters to mark their preference of candidates. For presidential elections, votes are marked in a preferential order which is then counted to declare the winner.
May add to Indias concerns over extending influence in neighbourhood.

The JF-17 fighter jet with the Myanmar Air Force (MAF) logo emblazoned on its tail parked at a China airfield in Chengdu, where it has been conducting taxiing and flight tests since at least April 24. 2017.

New Delhi: Recent photographs of a JF-17/FC-1 Fierce Dragon fighter aircraft with the insignia of the Myanmar Air Force (MAF) on its tail conducting test flights in a Chinese airfield in Chengdu has lent strong credence to reports that the aircraft may be in the final stages of being supplied to Myanmar, possibly by the year-end.

Among other things, it also gives wings to Pakistans dreams of being a military hardware exporter. The development has the potential of substantially adding to its earnings from the export of defence equipment, which is about to touch $1 billion.

Pakistans media had reported on Wednesday that Khwaja Suhail Mansoor, chairman of Pakistans standing committee on defence production, had told the countrys Senate that in the current fiscal year that ends next on Friday, the value of defence exports was $98.3 million, a 55% jump from a decade back.

While the JF-17 is supposed to be a major joint collaborative effort to manufacture and sell combat planes by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and the state-owned Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (PAC/CAC), it is reported to have been mainly developed by China by improvising its CAC FC-1 Xiaolong air fighter.

Myanmar may be the first country to buy these planes to replace its fleet that includes 24 aging J-7 fighters and 16 A-5IIK ground attack aircraft. MAF has a fleet of 112 fighters, about 80 trainer aircraft, 25 transport aircraft, and around 140 helicopters.

In July 2015, Myanmar had signed a deal for 16 JF-17 Block II aircraft at a unit cost of $16 million, the Janes Defence Weekly, quoting diplomatic sources, has claimed. There are also reports that Myanmar may also be considering to buy an additional unspecified number of JF-17s, which may add to Indias diplomatic concerns over extending areas of influence in its immediate neighbourhood. India and Myanmar share a 1,640-km-long border across Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland. Myanmars support is seen as vital to combat armed insurgents from Assam, Nagaland and Manipur, who operate from training camps in Myanmar.

While the JF-17 Block II variant of the light multi-role and combat fighter is an improved version of the Block I fighter and includes mid-air refuelling as one of the main improvements, in reality, in a world where the skies are ruled by ultra-modern fighters with stealth capabilities that are specifically designed to attain air superiority, the role of the JF-17 will be, at best, to provide close air support or for defensive operations.

Nigeria is also expected to place some orders for the JF-17 soon while Sri Lanka has also shown some interest. With Chinas active help, the Pakistan Air Force is also pursuing an ongoing effort to build and induct about 150 JF-17 fighters.
A youth was stabbed to death and his two brothers were injured by a group of people who also allegedly passed slurs against them.

Ballabgarh: The suspect apprehended on Friday for lynching of a 17-year old boy by a mob inside a train compartment in Haryana admitted that he was instigated by his friends to attack the Muslim boys since they consumed beef.

"My friends said this," the accused told NDTV when asked by reporters if he attacked the Muslim boys because they ate beef. Identifying himself as Ramesh, he also admitted to being drunk.

The accused was also sent to a three-day police remand on Saturday.

A youth was stabbed to death and his two brothers were injured by a group of people who also allegedly passed slurs against them after a dispute over a train seat near Ballabhgarh in Haryana, following which one person has been arrested.

"One person has been arrested in this connection," Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Faridabad Government Railway Police (GRP), Mohinder Singh had said.

He refused to divulge details of the person arrested saying "first the GRP will present him in court tomorrow."

The killed has been identified as Junaid (17) while his brothers Hasim (21) and Sakir (23) were injured, Singh said.

Singh said the incident happened Friday night onboard the Delhi-Mathura passenger train between Ballabgarh and Mathura stations.

"An altercation took place between the three brothers and some 10 passengers over a seat. The passengers allegedly passed some remarks on the three brothers, who are Muslims, and residents of Khandawali village in Faridabad," he said.

He added, a passenger used a knife to stab one of the brothers to death.

"The passengers thrashed the three brothers badly and attacked them with a knife," he said.
Bala Murugan Pillai, a real estate agent, waiting outside the cargo complex to receive gold was apprehended by the DRI on Saturday.

The price of the gold recovered is Rs 1.39 crore and the dark metallic powder, suspected to be Iridium, is worth Rs 30 lakh. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)

Mumbai: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Saturday arrested a person and recovered five kilograms of gold and 1.5 kilograms of dark metallic powder, worth Rs 1.7 crore, from the air cargo complex in Mumbai.

The price of the gold is Rs 1.39 crore and the dark metallic powder, suspected to be Iridium, is worth Rs 30 lakh.

A person named Bala Murugan Pillai, who is a real estate agent, waiting outside cargo complex to receive the gold was apprehended by the DRI.

The cargo consignment landed in the air cargo complex in Mumbai from Hong Kong via Colombo by flight UL141 and was declared as "Machine Parts and Crankshaft".

After the DRI intercepted the consignment, it was found that three cylindrical pistons where hollow from inside and contained Gold.

The arrested accused admitted that he had made large amount of clearances in the past.
Probe reveals LeT chief routed money through hawala networks operating in different countries since July 2016.

New Delhi: Investigations into a case of terror funding in the Kashmir Valley being carried out by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has revealed that the founder of Jamaatud-Dawa, Hafiz Saeed, pumped in almost Rs 50 crore for subversive activities in the region following the killing of top Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July 2016.

The FIR lodged by the NIA in connection with the case also names Saeed, who is probably the most wanted terrorist in India and mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, as one of the main accused for financing terror activities in the Valley. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which also lodged a case on Friday to investigate the money laundering angle in terror financing, too has named Hafiz.

The NIA, along with central intelligence agencies, has launched a massive probe into money being pumped into the Valley through the hawala channels and cross border trade across the Line of Control. This money is being used not just for terror operations but also being paid to separatists for stepping up violent activities like stone pelting in the Valley.

Initial investigations have confirmed that Hafiz Saeed routed at least Rs 50 crore over a period of almost a year since last July during which time the Valley witnessed unprecedented violence. This is a conservative estimate and the figure could be much higher. Most of the money came through a well organised hawala network through Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and UAE. We are trying to piece together the entire chain to establish clearly who were the end receivers of this money, a senior intelligence official said.

These details have emerged during the course of elaborate investigations carried out by NIA and intelligence agencies across several cities including Delhi, Gurgaon, Sonepat, Jammu and Srinagar. The investigating agencies have managed to get some details of the money that came in through the hawala network. Sources claimed that most hawala operators who were raided by the agencies had destroyed most records related to the money being sent to separatists.

But the NIA managed to recover some of the incriminating documents, foreign currency of UAE and Saudi Arabia, details of some bank accounts and lockers as well as some computer hard disks and pen drives, which helped them calculate the quantum of money that might have come into the Valley.

The NIA is also planning to tighten the noose around some separatists who have already been questioned in connection with the case. Prominent among these include Altaf Ahmed Shah, who happens to be the son-in-law of senior hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Altaf Shah, also known as Altaf Fantoosh, was questioned about the functioning of a particular outfit, Tehrek-e-Hurriyat, which is headed by Mr Geelani.

It is suspected that Altaf Shah plays an important role in raising funds for the Tehrek-e-Hurriyat. The NIA has also searched his premises in Srinagar and some businessmen linked to him in Jammu. Among other separatist leaders who have either been questioned or raided by the NIA include Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Nayeem Khan and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate.

Apart from Hafiz Saeed, the FIR lodged by NIA also names Hizbul Mujhaideen and Dukhtaran-e-Milat along with Mr Geelani and senior Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Farooq.
A senior police officer posted in Bastar told this newspaper that dreaded Maoist Hidma who commanded the battallion was also camping in the forest.

A jawan is being taken to a hospital after maoist attack in Sukma, Chhattisgarh on Saturday. At least two security personnel were killed and three injured. (Photo: PTI)

Bhopal: Two jawans were killed and five others injured on Saturday when Maoists ambushed a joint search party of security personnel in Tondamarka forest under Chintagufa police station in Chhattisgarhs south Bastar district of Sukma.

Sources said a massive counterinsurgency operation, Operation Prahar, involving commandos of special task force (STF), DRG, CRPF and CoBRA (commando battalion for resolute action) was launched following a tip-off on the presence of the Maoists first battalion in the region. A senior police officer posted in Bastar told this newspaper that dreaded Maoist Hidma who commanded the battallion was also camping in the forest.

Maoists ambushed the search party in the Tondamarka forest leading to a fierce gun battle between that began around 10am and continued till the last reports came. This was the first time the operation of such massive scale against Naxals was launched in the region where the first battalion of the Maoists was said to have been deployed. Five jawans of STF were injured in the incident. They have been evacuated from the encounter site and airlifted to Raipur for treatment. We have information that 15-20 Naxals have either been killed or injured in the incident, director general of police (Naxal operation), of Chhattisgarh, D.M. Awasthi said.

The police said the body of a Naxal was recovered at the encounter site along with a self-loaded rifle. Two jawans of DRG were killed when they were attacked by Maoists while retreating, the Bastar Police said. Meanwhile, one Naxal was killed in an encounter with security forces in south Bastar district of Bijapur.
The statement said that the coming polls was a fight of ideology.

New Delhi: The presidential candidate of the 17-party Opposition conglomerate, Meira Kumar, on Friday said the coming polls for the highest constitutional office of the country was a fight between different ideologies and appealed to all political parties to vote on the basis of cherished values of social justice and inclusiveness.

In a statement, Ms Kumar appealed to the electorate, which comprises of parliamentarians and state legislators, to cast their vote in the best interests of the country. The statement said that the coming polls was a fight of ideology.

I would appeal to the collegium to take their decision on the best interest of the country, based on the cherished values and principles and ideologies. These are social justice, inclusiveness and values of composite Indian heritage which we hold so sacred.

Many Opposition parties also said that they would contest on the basis of ideology and appealed to all secular forces to support its nominee Meira Kumar.

This is a fight of ideologies and there is no midway. People with secular ideology should stand with Meira Kumar, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

On Thursday, 17 Opposition parties chose Ms Kumar as their candidate against NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind. The presidential polls would be held on July 17.

CPI national secretary D. Raja said that the Opposition would fight the contest seriously despite less numbers as it was a battle of ideologies.

It is true that the numbers are not in favour of the Opposition at this point of time. But it is a contest and must be fought seriously. It is not a token fight, but what is tokenism in a democracy? It is a battle of ideologies, Mr Raja said.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad said that Mr Kovind was a hardcore RSS man and even if the Congress had asked us to support him, I would have gone against it.
Court of Appeals of Nebraska. IMAD K. MOHAMMED, APPELLEE, CLAUDIA D. ROJAS, v. APPELLEE, AND STATE OF NEBRASKA, INTERVENOR-APPELLANT. No. A-16-295 Decided: June 20, 2017

PIRTLE, BISHOP, and ARTERBURN, Judges. Joe Kelly, Lancaster County Attorney, and Jessica A. Murphy for intervenor-appellant. Mark T. Bestul, of Legal Aid of Nebraska, for appellee Imad K. Mohammed.

INTRODUCTION

The State of Nebraska, on behalf of the State of California. appeals from an order of the district court for Lancaster County, Nebraska, which found that no material change in circumstances had occurred to warrant a modification of Imad K. Mohammed's child support obligation for his and Claudia D. Rojas' two minor children. Based on the reasons that follow, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

Mohammed and Rojas were married in February 2001, and two children were born of the marriageone in October 2002 and one in April 2004. In August 2011, a decree was entered in Maricopa County, Arizona, dissolving their marriage, granting Rojas sole custody of the children, and entering a child support order. The Arizona court approved a downward deviation in child support from the guidelines' amount of $92.13 to $0, based upon an agreement of Mohammed and Rojas. The parties agreed to deviate because of [Mohammed's] economic circumstances and state of health, and because the guide-line amount is relatively small. At the time of the decree, Mohammed had income of $1,274 per month and Rojas had income of $1,560 per month.

In December 2012, Rojas and the children moved to California, and sometime thereafter, they began receiving public assistance. In July 2014, the State of California noti-fied Nebraska that the children were receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and requested that Nebraska register the Arizona decree and file a complaint to modify child support.

After the decree was registered in Nebraska, the State filed a complaint to modify child support. The complaint alleged that there has been a material change in circumstances that has lasted three months and can reasonably be expected to last for an additional six months. The matter was heard by the district court referee for Lancaster County. During the trial. the State offered the general testimony of Rojas, which was an affidavit form filled out by Rojas. Rojas indicated that her gross monthly income was $607 in family assistance and $648 in food stamps. She failed to fill out the section of the form which asked for the first and last month and year that she received TANF. She indicated only that the total amount of TANF she received was $607 as of March 2015. Rojas reported no income other than the public assistance received from the State of California.

When asked by the referee what material change in circumstances had occurred, the State specified, [T]he material change in circumstances is that [Rojas] and [the children] moved from Arizona to California and began seeking public assistance.

Mohammed testified that he lives in Nebraska with his current wife and her five children, three of whom are his bio-logical children. He also testified that he was working 26 to 27 hours per week, making $9 an hour.

The referee found that there had been a material change in circumstances since the entry of the original order in that the State of California was providing public assistance to the children and was seeking an order of support for reimbursement of a portion of that public assistance. The referee recommended that child support be set using Mohammed's actual income at the time of the hearing, resulting in an order of $89 per month.

Mohammed filed an exception to the referee's recommendations, and a hearing was held before the district court. The district court found that the State had failed to produce evidence to show that Rojas was not receiving public assistance at the time of the original decree and failed to produce evidence that public assistance was not in the contemplation of the parties at the time of the decree. Accordingly, the district court determined that a material change in circumstances did not exist to warrant a modification of child support and it dismissed the State's complaint to modify.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

The State assigns that the district court erred in (1) failing to find a material change in circumstances had occurred when the State of California began providing Rojas public assistance for the benefit of the minor children and (2) failing to order child support as recommended by the referee.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[1,2] Modification of child support payments is entrusted to the trial court's discretion, and although, on appeal, the issue is reviewed de novo on the record, the decision of the trial court will be affirmed absent an abuse of discretion. Pearson v. Pearson, 285 Neb. 686, 828 N.W.2d 760 (2013). An abuse of discretion occurs when the trial court's decision is based upon reasons that are untenable or unreasonable or if its action is clearly against justice or conscience, reason, and evidence. Kibler v. Kibler, 287 Neb. 1027, 845 N.W.2d 585 (2014).

ANALYSIS

[3] Although the State's first assignment of error is specific to the public assistance being a material change in circumstances, the State argues that there was a material change in that Rojas' income had decreased and the State of California was providing public assistance for the minor children. The State did not argue to the referee or to the district court that her decrease in income was a change in circumstances, and therefore, it cannot argue it now. See Pearce v. Mutual of Omaha Ins. Co., 293 Neb. 277, 876 N.W.2d 899 (2016) (appellate court will not consider issue on appeal that trial court has not decided). The only material change argued was that Rojas began seeking public assistance in California.

[4] A party seeking to modify a child support order must show a material change in circumstances which (1) occurred subsequent to the entry of the original decree or previous modification and (2) was not contemplated when the decree was entered. Sellers v. Sellers, 23 Neb. App. 219, 869 N.W.2d 703 (2015). The referee found, and the dissent agrees, that a material change in circumstances occurred when the State of California became an interested party and sought an order of support for reimbursement of a portion of the public assistance it provided Rojas. The district court concluded that a material change in circumstances did not exist because the State failed to produce evidence to show that Rojas was not receiving public assistance at the time of the original decree and failed to produce evidence that public assistance was not in the contemplation of the parties at the time of the decree. The record does not indicate if Rojas was receiving public assistance in Arizona at the time the decree was entered. The Arizona court determined Rojas' monthly income at that time was $1,560, but we do not know if that money was from employment or state aid. The Arizona proceedings are not in the record before us.

[5] Assuming without deciding that Rojas' receiving public assistance was a material change in circumstances, as the referee found and the dissent concludes, the State failed to meet its burden because it did not prove that the change existed at the time of the modification trial. In Collins v. Collins, 19 Neb. App. 529, 808 N.W.2d 905 (2012), we held that the change in circumstances must exist at the time of the modification trial. We based our holding on two reasons. First, because the court's decision to modify child support must be based upon the evidence presented in support of the complaint to modify. Second, because the change in circumstances cannot be temporary. At the hearing before the referee, held in May and June 2015, the evidence showed that the total amount of TANF Rojas had received was $607 as of March 2015. Rojas' general testimony, which was filed on or about March 31, 2015, showed that her monthly income at that time included $607 in family assistance and $648 in food stamps. There is no information in the record as to when the assistance began or how long the assistance reasonably would be expected to last. Most important, there was no evidence that she was still receiving public assistance at the time of the modification trial.

The dissent notes that the district court did not address the rebuttable presumption set forth in Neb. Ct. R.  4-217, which supports a conclusion that a material change in circumstances occurred. Section 4-217 provides that any 10-percent variation in the present child support obligation due to financial circumstances, which have lasted 3 months and can reasonably be expected to last for an additional 6 months, establishes a rebuttable presumption of a material change of circumstances. In concluding that a 10-percent variation exists, the dissent states: [T]here is no dispute that Mohammed was paying no child support at all due to his agreement with Rojas in the Arizona consent decree. However, an analysis of the 10-percent variation provision under  4-217 is not required where, as here, the evidence produced at trial fails to dem-onstrate that the purportedly changed financial circumstances existed at the time of trial and can be expected to continue for an additional 6 months.

The dissent also acknowledges that a district court may accept or reject all or any part of the [child support referee's] report and enter judgment based on the court's own determination, pursuant to Neb. Rev. Stat.  43-1613 (Reissue 2016). However, the dissent fails to acknowledge that Rules of Dist. Ct. of Third Jud. Dist. 3-11(G) (rev. 2014) provides: [T]he hearing before the court on the exception shall be de novo on the record before the referee. The court may ratify or modify the recommendations of the referee and enter judgment based thereon. Therefore, the district court had broad latitude in reviewing the referee's recommendation.

[6,7] The party seeking the modification has the burden to produce sufficient proof that a material change of circumstances has occurred that warrants a modification. Collins v. Collins, supra. The State failed to meet its burden. It did not present evidence to prove that a material change of circumstances existed at the time of trial or to show that the change was not temporary. Therefore, albeit for a different reason than that which the district court found, the district court did not err in failing to find that a material change in circumstances had occurred to warrant a modification of Mohammed's child support obligation. See Semler v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 268 Neb. 857, 689 N.W.2d 327 (2004) (where record demonstrates decision of trial court is correct, although such correctness is based on ground or reason different from that assigned by trial court, appellate court will affirm). The State's assignments of error are without merit.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that the district court did not err in determining that a material change in circumstances did not exist to warrant a modification of Mohammed's child support obligation. Accordingly, the district court's order dismissing the State's complaint to modify is affirmed.

AFFIRMED.

Modification of a registered child support order under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), Neb. Rev. Stat.  2-701 et seq. (Reissue 2016), is subject to the same requirements, procedures, and defenses that apply to the modification of an order issued by a tribunal of this state and the order may be enforced and satisfied in the same man-ner,  42-746(b). I am unable to join the majority opinion because I agree with the child support referee's determination that a material change in circumstances occurred when the State of California (California) became an interested party and sought assistance from the State of Nebraska (the State) to modify child support under UIFSA. The child support referee concluded:

The difference in circumstances today from the Order in 2011 [Arizona decree] is that the State  has inter-vened in this action to seek an order of support. That intervention occurred after  California requested the assistance of [the State] in securing a support order. The UIFSA transmittal from California, which forms the basis for the State's complaint, indicates that the children of this case are receiving TANF funds (f/k/a ADC). Whether these funds were received at the time of the initial hearing is unknown from the hearing and from the record of the case. In any event, California is providing public assistance to the children and now seeks an order of support for reimbursement of a portion of the public assistance. That is a material change in circumstances in and of itself.

The record and the law support the referee's conclusion, as will be discussed below. And although the district court agreed that [a]n application for public assistance may indeed constitute a material change in circumstances, the district court further concluded that the State failed to produce evidence that [Rojas] was not receiving public assistance at the time of the original order. Further, the district court stated that there was no evidence offered by the State that public assistance was not in the contemplation of the parties at the time of the previous order. However, whether either party was on public assistance at the time of the Arizona consent decree, or whether they contemplated going on assistance at a later time, is irrelevant to the fact that Rojas is now living in California and receiving public assistance in that state. As noted by the State in its argument to the referee, California was never a party to the original Arizona agreement between Rojas and Mohammed, and Rojas' receipt of public assistance in California constitutes a material change, because California is now a party with an interest in child support being paid.

Since modifications of a registered child support order under UIFSA are subject to the same requirements, procedures, and defenses that apply to the modification of an order issued by a tribunal of this state, we should consider the law applicable in Nebraska when a party applies for services under title IV-D of the federal Social Security Act. Upon an application by a party for such services, child support orders in such cases shall be reviewed by the Department of Health and Human Services to determine whether to refer such orders to the county attorney or authorized attorney for filing of an application for modification. Neb. Rev. Stat.  43-512.12(1) (Reissue 2016). The application shall be referred when the verifiable financial information indicates the present child support obligation varies from the Nebraska Child Support Guidelines by more than the percentage, amount, or other criteria established by Supreme Court rule. and the variation is due to financial circumstances which have lasted at least three months and can reasonably be expected to last for an additional six months.  43-512.12(1)(a). The percentage set forth in the guidelines is 10 percent. See Neb. Ct. R.  4-217. Additionally, any 10-percent variation in the present child support obligation due to financial circumstances which have lasted 3 months and can reasonably be expected to last for an additional 6 months, establishes a rebuttable presumption of a material change of circumstances. Id. Notably, nothing in the statute or the Supreme Court rule requires proof of whether the parties may have been on title IV-D assistance somewhere else or what the parties may have previously contemplated with regard to public assistance. Rather, the rebuttable presumption of a material change in circumstances arises upon the variation in child support and the reasonable expectation as to the duration of the changed financial circumstances.

It is true that upon receipt of the findings, recommendations, and exceptions, a district court may accept or reject all or any part of the [child support referee's] report and enter judgment based on the court's own determination. Neb. Rev. Stat.  43-1613 (Reissue 2016). However, the reasons sup-plied by the district court in its conclusion that there was no material change in circumstances in this case does not address UIFSA or the rebuttable presumption set forth in  4-217 of the child support guidelines. Accordingly, the district court abused its discretion when concluding that the State has failed to meet its burden of proof that there has been a material and substantial change of circumstances subsequent to entry of the original decree which was not contemplated when the prior order was entered. As noted, modification of child support does not always require proof of what the parties contemplated at the time of entry of an original decree; rather, a 10-percent variation in the present child support obligation due to financial circumstances which have lasted 3 months and can reasonably be expected to last for an additional 6 months, by itself, establishes a rebuttable presumption of a material change of circumstances.

Applied here, there is no dispute that Mohammed was paying no child support at all due to his agreement with Rojas in the Arizona consent decree. Mohammed did produce evidence of a limited income and a large family here in Nebraska that he needs to support. Therefore, the referee appropriately applied the rule for minimum child support set forth in the Nebraska Child Support Guidelines, which rule states:

It is recommended that even in very low income cases, a minimum support of $50, or 10 percent of the obligor's net income, whichever is greater, per month be set. This will help to maintain information on such obligor, such as his or her address, employment, etc., and, hopefully, encourage such person to understand the necessity, duty, and importance of supporting his or her children.

Neb. Ct. R.  4-209. The purpose of  4-209 is to provide some support even in cases of very low income in order to reinforce the duties and obligations of being a parent. Garza v. Garza, 288 Neb. 213, 846 N.W.2d 626 (2014). Further, when another state is seeking this state's assistance to establish or modify child support under UIFSA, the procedures are designed to help facilitate interstate cooperation and consistency.

The general purpose of UIFSA is to unify state laws relat-ing to the establishment, enforcement, and modification of child support orders. Hamilton v. Foster, 260 Neb. 887, 620 N.W.2d 103 (2000). The goal of UIFSA is to streamline and expedite interstate enforcement of support decrees and to eliminate the problems arising from multiple or conflicting support orders from various states by providing for one tribunal to have continuing and exclusive jurisdiction to establish or modify a child support order. Id. UIFSA provides a system where only one child support order may be in effect at any one time. Id. UIFSA allows, under certain circumstances, a Nebraska court to enforce or modify a support order issued in another state. Id.

As it is allowed to do under UIFSA, California, as the initiating tribunal in this case, filed a Child Support Enforcement Transmittal #1 - Initial Request document (California petition) seeking to register the Arizona dissolution decree, modify it, and establish income withholding. The California petition has boxes checked for the following attachments: Uniform Support Petition, General Testimony/Affidavit, and Support Order(s). It lists Rojas as the petitioner and Mohammed as the respondent. The California petition was sent from the Merced County Department of Child Support Services to the Clerk of the Court - Lancaster County. The California petition contains an Initiating Tribunal Number, contains an Initiating IV-D Case Number, and is marked as a TANF type of IV-D Case. It shows Mohammed and Rojas' children as dependent children who had been living in California for 13 to 14 months. The California petition was sworn to and signed before a notary public on July 17, 2014; accordingly, this process was commenced 11 months prior to the final hearing (June 17, 2015) before the child support referee. Nothing in the record indicates that California ever sought to terminate the proceedings it commenced as the initiating tribunal in July 2014.

UIFSA permits a child support enforcement agency to file a petition or comparable pleading directly in a tribunal of another state which has or can obtain personal jurisdiction over the respondent. See  42-714(b). Upon receipt of such petition or comparable pleading from an initiating tribunal (California), the responding tribunal (the State), shall cause the petition or pleading to be filed and notify the petitioner where and when it was filed.  42-718(a). The California petition was filed on September 12, 2014, in the district court for Lancaster County. The State, as Intervenor, filed a Complaint to Modify on January 2, 2015, alleging that a registered Foreign Support Order was confirmed by the district court for Lancaster County on November 25, 2014. The State also alleged that the registered order provided for no child support for the minor children and that there had been a material change in circumstances that has lasted three months and can reasonably be expected to last for an additional six months.

In the initial hearing before the referee on May 6, 2015, the referee immediately noted that this is actually an interstate matter and that California has asked us to modify the order that we have registered in Nebraska. The State offered Rojas' general testimony/affidavit under UIFSA, along with other documents to which there were no objections. Section 42-729 provides for special rules of evidence and procedure under UIFSA, and subsection (b) specifically provides that

[a]n affidavit, a document substantially complying with federally mandated forms, or a document incorporated by reference in any of them, which would not be excluded under the hearsay rule if given in person, is admissible in evidence if given under penalty of perjury by a party or witness residing outside this state.

Thus, the general testimony/affidavit signed by Rojas on March 27 was properly received in lieu of her attendance and testimony at the hearing.

The State called Mohammed to testify; however, after some difficulty in communication during the initial questions and answers, the referee continued the hearing to June 17, 2015, so that an interpreter could be present. At the June 17 hearing, Mohammed testified that he and Rojas both went to the court and we agreed that I don't pay child support at that time. And although Mohammed testified that he was on public assistance in Nebraska (housing, food stamps, and Medicaid), he did not say anything about receiving public assistance in Arizona.

The State argued that California was never a party to the original agreement between Mohammed and Rojas and that Rojas' receipt of public assistance in California constitutes a material change, because California is now a party with an interest in child support being paid. Further, [N]ow there is a third party, the State [on behalf of] California, seeking child support to reimburse TANF funds, public assistance being received for the children. The State noted that the Arizona decree did not mention public assistance being received by the children, and the State also pointed out that the State of Arizona was not a party to the marriage dissolution action.

The referee stated during the hearing that the first concern was determining whether or not the fact that the State is now a party is a material change in circumstances. Mohammed's counsel argued there were no cases where an obligee began receiving benefits constituted a change in circumstances. Additionally, Mohammed's counsel argued that even if it is a material change in circumstances, there was no evidence that the change was permanent, since it's called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. There's no evidence of the duration that's been presented to you today. The State countered that argument by noting that

the title of the public assistance should not mean that it is not going to reach the requirement of lasting for six months. This case was sent to us months ago. The mother is still on public assistance. There is nothing to indicate that that public assistance is going to stop in the next month or two.

As previously noted, California initiated this proceeding in July 2014. By the time it went to final hearing in June 2015, 11 months had passed. Approximately 3 months had passed since Rojas signed her general testimony/affidavit indicat-ing her unemployment. Whether she continued to remain unemployed over the next 6 months is not relevant, because more than 6 months had passed since California initiated the action in July 2014. Additionally, the possible change in Rojas' future earnings in this case is not particularly relevant, since any income she might receive would not change Mohammed's obligation to pay minimal child support. The child support determined by the referee was not dependent on Rojas' earnings; rather, it was calculated based solely on Mohammed's net income. The referee's report cites to  4-209, the minimum support rule discussed previously. Ten percent of Mohammed's net income results in a minimum child support obligation of $89 per month, which is precisely what the referee recommended. The referee also recommended that the child support should not be made retroactive to the date of filing due to [Mohammed's] minimal earnings and the absence of a request for retroactive modification from the initiating State of California.

I conclude that the child support referee correctly determined that there had been a material change in circumstances warranting a modification in child support from zero support to minimal support. The determination of minimal child support was consistent with the record, the law, and the Nebraska Child Support Guidelines. The district court had the authority to reject the referee's report; however, based on the record and the law applicable to this case, it was an abuse of discretion to deny the State's request, on behalf of California, to modify child support in the amount recommended by the referee. Therefore, I would have reversed the district court's order with directions to enter an order denying Mohammed's exceptions and putting into effect the referee's findings and recommendations.

PIRTLE, Judge.
PM Modi will reach Washington on the night of June 24.

New Delhi: Ahead of his visit to the United States, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said he looks forward to building a forward-looking vision for our partnership with the new administration in the United States under President Donald Trump, adding that Indias partnership with the United States is multi-layered and diverse, supported by not just Governments but all the stakeholders on both sides.

He also said he looks forward to this opportunity to have an in depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide ranging partnership between India and the United States.

In a statement, PM Modi said, I will be visiting Washington, D.C. on 24-26 June at the invitation of President Donald J. Trump. President Trump and I have spoken on telephone prior to this. Our conversations have touched upon our common intent to take forward our productive all round engagement for the mutual benefit of our people. I look forward to this opportunity to have an in depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide ranging partnership between India and the United States.

He added, Indias partnership with the United States is multi-layered and diverse, supported by not just Governments but all the stakeholders on both sides. I look forward to building a forward looking vision for our partnership with the new Administration in the United States under President Trump. Apart from official meetings with President Trump and his cabinet colleagues, I will be meeting some prominent American CEOs. As in the past, I look forward to interacting with the Indian diaspora in the United States as well.

Just on Thursday, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) had said rather candidly that there are certain areas on which we (India and the US) need to understand each other better.

The H-1B visa issue, the menace of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, US military aid to Pakistan, Indo-US strategic cooperation including defence ties, Indias NSG membership bid, increased Chinese assertiveness in Asia and the Paris climate deal are expected to be among the issues on the table when the two leaders will meet each other on June 26.

PM Modi will reach Washington on the night of June 24. The next day, on June 25, he will have a meeting with US CEOs and senior representatives of the business community there. There will also be a community event in the afternoon of June 25, the MEA had indicated. On the forenoon of June 26, senior officials of the US Administration will call on PM Modi. In the afternoon of June 26, we have the official engagements with President Trump. There will be official level talks, the MEA had said.
Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh will go to polls by the end of this year, whereas Assembly elections in Karnataka are scheduled early next year.

The hill state is currently under Congress rule, which has already launched its Mission Repeat under the leadership of chief minister Virbhadra Singh. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: BJP central leadership, which has declared its chief ministerial candidates for the coming elections in Gujarat and Karnataka, is in a dilemma about whether or not to project a face for the Himachal Pradesh elections.

Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh will go to polls by the end of this year, whereas Assembly elections in Karnataka are scheduled early next year.

Though the Central leadership has indicated that it will hold a meeting soon to take a final call on the issue, sources said a majority of the saffron cadre are against projecting any chief ministerial candidate in Himachal Pradesh as the partys state unit is marred by factionalism.

The hill state is currently under Congress rule, which has already launched its Mission Repeat under the leadership of chief minister Virbhadra Singh. There are 68 Assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh and the BJP is confident that it will come back to power. The BJPs main poll plank is going to be anti-corruption, development and good governance.

Names of former chief minister P.K. Dhumal, Union minister J.P. Nadda, senior leaders Jairam Thakur and Satpal Singh Satti and RSS leader Ajay Jamwal are doing the rounds for the top post in the state.

Those in favour of projecting a face in the coming Assembly elections are of the view that it would also help the saffron outfit for the 2019 general elections as the state unit will have a strong leader to lead them in the Lok Sabha elections. However, feedback, including from the RSS, suggests that the BJP should go without a chief ministerial candidate as favouring one camp would only dent the partys poll prospects.

The state core group is expected to meet soon to finalise its election strategy and to initiate the process of candidate selection.
Congress MLAs threaten to quit if PCC chief Prasad Harichandan not replaced.

Bhubaneswar: As Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who calls himself Sipahi or solider of the Odia people, in Delhi chooses to turn a blind eye to the growing dissent in the partys Odisha unit, scores of party leaders are leaving the state unit and joining the BJP or the BJD to secure their political future.

The Congress is facing a threat in the coming days from all of its 19 MLAs who say they will take a decisive decision unless Mr Gandhi replaces the incumbent Pradesh Congress Committee chief Prasad Harichandan by a suitable and capable face.

Sources in the party said if Mr Gandhi did not effect the change of guard in the PCC, most of the Congress MLAs would quit the party and form a new regional party to fight with the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD and give competition to the BJP.

In the last fortnight, as many as six senior leaders, including three of the 30 district presidents, have switched over to the BJP and the BJD.

Besides, partys spokesperson Sulochana Das, former MLAs Dologobinda Nayak and Dushmanta Naik, youth leaders  Biswa Ranjan Mallick and Babita Mallick  have quit the party.

The exodus of Congress leaders is expected to gather further momentum as Mr Gandhi, despite the party MLAs repeatedly briefing him about the sorry state of affairs in the state unit, does little to address the situation.

Frustrated with Mr Gandhis lackadaisical attitude, the MLAs have chosen to keep themselves away from all political activities of the PCC. Not a single MLA is turning up at Congress Bhawan, the partys state headquarters in Bhubaneswar, during visits by national leaders for party meetings, press conferences or any other event.

When journalists recently drew the attention of former PCC president Niranjan Patnaik to the chaotic situation in the PCC, he replied sarcastically: The All India Congress Committee leaders have never given Odisha due importance in the past. Nor is it serious at present about addressing the issues plaguing the organisation. Maybe they will give greater attention to the state in the future.

Apparently to woo the Odishas tribals and dalits protesting grant of Niyamgiri bauxite mines to multi-national company Vedanta Limited, Mr Gandhi in August 2010 portrayed himself as the Sipahi of Odias in Delhi and assured that their land would not be transferred to any companies for building plants or other industrial purposes.

Ever since, he has not returned much, except on a few occasions on the eve of 2014 general elections, to Odisha even as the party marches towards its virtual grave, making way for the BJP to assert itself as the main contender of the ruling BJD in the state.
Recent study sees scientists testing anti-epileptic drug for its impact on brain activity of patients with mild Alzheimer

Washington DC: According to a recent study, the scientists have tested an anti-epileptic drug for its potential impact on the brain activity of patients with mild Alzheimer's disease.

The team led by Daniel Z. Press, MD, of the Berenson-Allen Center for Non-invasive Brain Stimulation at BIDMC, documented changes in patients' EEGs that suggest the drug could have a beneficial effect.

"In the field of Alzheimer's disease research, there has been a major search for drugs to slow its progression. If this abnormal electrical activity is leading to more damage, then suppressing it could potentially slow the progression of the disease," said Press, an Instructor of Neurology in the Cognitive Neurology Unit at BIDMC and an Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School.

In the study, a small group of patients with mild Alzheimer's disease visited BIDMC three times. At each visit, patients were given a baseline (EEG) to measure the electrical activity in the brain.

Next, patients were given injections containing either inactive placebo or the anti-seizure drug levetiracetam, at either a low dose (2.5 mg/kg) or a higher dose (7.5 mg/kg).

Neither patients nor medical professionals knew which injections patients were receiving, but each patient eventually got one of each type, in a random order.

After receiving the injection, patients underwent another EEG, then magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) -- which measures blood flow in the brain, another way to quantify brain activity and determine where in the brain it is taking place.

Finally, patients took a standardized cognitive test, designed to measure memory, executive functioning, naming, visuospatial ability and semantic function - capabilities all affected by Alzheimer's disease.

In the seven patients who were able to complete the study protocol successfully, Press and colleagues analyzed changes in their EEGs.

Overall, higher doses of the anti-seizure drug appeared to normalize abnormalities seen in the patients' EEG profiles. That is, researchers saw overall increases in brain wave frequencies that had been abnormally low in Alzheimer's disease patients prior to receiving the higher dose of levetiracetam, and, likewise, saw decreases in those that had been abnormally high.

"It's worth noting, we did not demonstrate any improvement in cognitive function after a single dose of medication in this study. It's too early to use the drug widely, but we're preparing for a larger, longer study," noted Press.

The risk of developing Alzheimer's disease increases sharply with age. Today, it affects more than 5 million Americans, a figure that is projected to reach 16 million by 2050 as the population ages.

In recent years, researchers have focused on developing techniques to clear the brain of amyloid and tau protein plaques that build up and wreak havoc in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Press concluded by saying, "These strategies have not led to new therapies to date. There have been a lot of disappointments. So our findings represent an interesting new avenue."

The research was published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
Activities like going for a walk or listening to music can lower blood pressure for elderly caregivers

Washington DC: In a recent study, leisure activities like going for a walk outside, reading, listening to music and other fun activities can reduce blood pressure for elderly caregivers of spouses with Alzheimer's disease.

According to Brent T. Mausbach, PhD, of University of California San Diego, "Greater engagement in pleasant leisure activities was associated with lowered caregivers' blood pressure over time. Participation in pleasant leisure activities may have cardiovascular benefits for Alzheimer's caregivers.

The study included 126 caregivers enrolled in the UCSD Alzheimer's Caregiver Study, a follow-up study evaluating associations between stress, coping, and cardiovascular risk in Alzheimer's caregivers.

The caregivers were 89 women and 37 men, average age 74 years, providing in-home care for a spouse with Alzheimer's disease.

As part of annual interviews over five years, the caregivers provided information on how often they engaged in various pleasant leisure activities.

These ratings were analyzed for association with blood pressure over time, with adjustment for demographic and health factors.

The caregivers reported high levels of enjoyable activities -- most said they spent time outdoors, laughing, watching TV, listening to music, and reading or listening to stories.

About half of caregivers said they exercised frequently.

Caregivers who more frequently engaged in pleasant leisure activities had lower mean arterial blood pressure.

In follow-up analyses, these activities were associated with a significant reduction in diastolic pressure, although not in systolic pressure.

Caregivers who exercised more frequently had lower blood pressure. However, other types of "more sedentary, reflective" activities also led to reduced blood pressure. These included reading, listening to music, shopping, and recalling past events.

Blood pressure also decreased after nursing home placement or death of the person with Alzheimer's disease. That was consistent with previous studies showing that caregivers' health improves after their caregiving duties end.

Being a caregiver for a disabled loved one is a highly stressful experience, associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death. The new results suggest that leisure activities are a behavioral factor that can prevent the development of high blood pressure in Alzheimer's caregivers.

Dr. Mausbach believes that the study assessed both the frequency and enjoyment of activities. The premise is that rather than recommending certain activities to everyone, it's important for caregivers to enjoy the activities they do to receive benefit.

"We believe three to four enjoyed activities each week could have a modest impact on an individual's blood pressure. From there, the more an individual can do, the better the impact," noted Dr. Mausbach.

The researchers have been conducting a clinical trial to examine the effect of a therapy to increase pleasant leisure activities.

Dr Mausbach concluded by saying, "We recognize caregivers may have a difficult time engaging in pleasant leisure activities because they are busy with their caregiving duties. So we work with caregivers to find activities they can more confidently engage in even when their spouse is present. We also help them monitor their use of time so they know the times during the day when they are most capable of doing activities. Further, if caregivers use respite services, they are in a perfect position to use some of their respite time to engage in these activities."

The study was published in Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine.
Video footage shows the huge sea-mammal rising out of waves right beside a small boat

For everyone who has read Herman Melvilles Moby Dick, the prospect of a whale wrecking havoc on you while you are at sea makes for a scary read. Well it turns out that Melviles writing was not all that fictitious after all. For hundreds of years man has been writing about monstrous sea creatures capsizing their boats or killing their crew.

Well on Thursday, fishermen sailing off the coast of New Jersey received an unexpected guest - a humpback whale that almost ended up inside their boat.

A video captured by Paul Ziolkowski shows a humpback whale breaching right next to their boat. Mr Ziolkowski, who goes by the name Pauly Walnuts on Facebook, writes, "That humpback was chasing bunker all the way up to the side jumped out of the water and tapped the Hull of my boat knocking bunker into the boat."

Check out below
Some of the patients are admitted at Rockland Hospital in Vasant Kunj and the rest at its another hospital in Manesar, Gurgaon, the official said.

The injured Yemenis and their escorts left for India to continue their medical treatment under a special programme sponsored by the UAE humanitarian aid authority Emirates Red Crescent Authority (ERC), according to a statement released by the UAEs official news agency Wam. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: A group of 90 Yemeni nationals, injured in the ongoing conflict in that country have arrived here for medical treatment, with two of them being admitted to an intensive care unit of a hospital.

The injured persons, mostly men, arrived in Delhi on Friday and were accompanied by staff from the UAE Embassy here and officials of the VPS Healthcare group.

Most of them are doing fine and recuperating. Only two of them have been admitted to the ICU, an official of the Rockland Hospital in Vasant Kunj, told PTI.

The injured persons include all adults and no children, he said.

Some of the patients are admitted at Rockland Hospital in Vasant Kunj and the rest at its another hospital in Manesar, Gurgaon, the official said.

The injured Yemenis and their escorts left for India to continue their medical treatment under a special programme sponsored by the UAE humanitarian aid authority Emirates Red Crescent Authority (ERC), according to a statement released by the UAEs official news agency Wam.

The ERC had announced last week that it will also bear the cost of medical escorts who will travel along with the injured to ensure that their health and psychological conditions are cared for.

The move also comes in the context of the continuous support provided by the UAE to Yemenis to alleviate their suffering and stand by them in these difficult times.

The Rockland Hospital is part of the VPS Healthcare group, an international network of 19 hospitals in the United Arab Emirates and Oman. In India, it runs a chain of multi-specialty hospitals in the national capital region  Vasant Kunj, Dwarka and Gurgaon.

Since the conflict broke out in Yemen in 2015, injured people from the war-torn country have been coming to India, seeking medical treatment.
Baijal inspects Rani Jhansi flyover project, asks officials to complete work by October.

New Delhi: Lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal has asked the principal secretary of the vigilance department to act as per law in a plea seeking prosecution sanction against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the alleged PWD scam.

L-Gs special secretary R.N. Sharma, in a written communication to principal secretary (vigilance) Ashwani Kumar, said a representation from Rahul Sharma, founder of RACO, Ghonda in Delhi has been sent for necessary action as per rules.

Last month, the Anti-Corruption Branch had lodged three separate FIRs on the basis of a complaint filed by founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO) Rahul Sharma alleging irregularities in grant of contracts for roads and sewer lines in Delhi in 2015-16.

Meanwhile, Mr Baijal also inspected the under-construction Rani Jhansi Grade Separator, an ambitious flyover project in North Delhi, and directed officials to complete the project work by October.

The 1.6-km-long flyover from near St Stephens Hospital to Filmistaan Cinema, was originally scheduled to be completed by 2010, but has missed several deadlines.

Mr Baijal also directed all stakeholders to take action in a time-bound manner and work within strict timelines.

The lieutenant-governor will again visit the site after a month to review the progress of the project and ensure that this much-needed project for decongestion of traffic in the area is completed by October-end, the Raj Niwas said in a statement.

He chaired an onsite meeting with all stakeholders at DCM Chowk and enquired about various bottlenecks which are delaying the project.

North Delhi Municipal Corporation commissioner P.K. Gupta told the L-G that despite various hindrances coming in the alignment, most of the work has been completed.
A pall of gloom has descended upon the homes of the duo as their families struggle to come to terms with their loss.

Mumbai: Sandeep Jadhav and Shravan Mane, the two army jawans from Maharashtra who were killed in an attack by the Pakistani special forces in Jammu & Kashmir on Thursday, will be brought back to their homes in Aurangabad and Kolhapur respectively, where they will be cremated on Saturday. A pall of gloom has descended upon the homes of the duo as their families struggle to come to terms with their loss.

Offices of the collectors of Aurangabad and Kolhapur confirmed that the bodies would be arriving late on Friday evening or early Saturday morning and their last rites would be concluded on Saturday morning itself.

On Thursday, a team of Pakistani special forces had sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir and killed the two soldiers who belonged to the 15 Maratha Light Infantry. The 34-year-old Jadhav was a native of Kalegao village in Sillod tehsil of Aurangabad district, while Mane, a 24-year-old sepoy, was from Gogave village in Shahuwadi tehsil of Kolhapur district.

On receiving the news, Jadhavs father Sarjerao decided not to break the news to his family as they were preparing for the birthday of Jadhavs two-year-old son Shivam. One of the villagers said, Sandeep had promised his family that he would be home for Shivams birthday.

Since birthday preparations were in full swing on Thursday, Sarjerao decided not to switch on the news at home after he learnt of his sons death. But by Friday afternoon, the news had been broken to the family and preparations were on for final rites.
Government likely to finalise parameters of loan waiver for farmers.

A government resolution in this regards was issued two days ago.

Mumbai: Maharashtra government has convened an urgent Cabinet meeting on Saturday morning and it is likely to announce loan waiver for farmers today.

The state has almost finalised its parameters on who is eligible for the loan waiver. A government resolution in this regards was issued two days ago.

Sources in the chief ministers office confirmed that CM Devendra Fadnavis has convened the meeting. Usually, the Cabinet meeting is conducted every Tuesday

and this weeks meeting has already been held.

The state has made a few changes in the parameters after the farmers leaders and other political party leaders suggested the government. It is likely to be declared tomorrow. The chief minister has promised loan waiver to be given before October 31 and he will keep the promise, an official from the CMO said.

In the Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, the state government had revised the parameters for loan waiver, excluding a few from availing the waiver.

Farmers in government jobs drawing salaries exceeding Rs 20,000, those serving as president and vice-president of cooperative committees, as well as those owning a vehicle costing more than Rs 10 lakh, will not come under the purview of the waiver.

Others who will not be eligible include ministers, former ministers, MPs, MLA, MLCs and former MPs, MLAs, and MLCs; members of zilla parishads and municipal corporations; officials working in government and semi-government bodies and teachers having an income of more than Rs 4 lakh per annum.

The loan waiver was announced after farmers went on strike on June 1 across the state. Agriculture produce, vegetables and fruits did not reach markets in the city for a few days.

The Maharashtra government had to take cognisance of the matter, as the farmers protest intensified in various parts of the state.

The parameters for loan waiver were decided after holding discussions with farmer leaders.

However, farmers were not happy with the conditions imposed and demanded a complete loan waiver.

Parameters for waiver
Supreme Court of Texas. DELIA PAGAYON, MICHELLE FULTON, ALFREDO G. PAGAYON, MICHAEL G. PAGAYON, AND THE ESTATE OF ALFREDO M. PAGAYON, PETITIONERS, v. EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION, RESPONDENT NO. 15-0642 Decided: June 23, 2017

CHIEF JUSTICE HECHT delivered the opinion of the Court, in which JUSTICE GREEN, JUSTICE JOHNSON, JUSTICE WILLETT, JUSTICE GUZMAN, JUSTICE DEVINE, and JUSTICE BROWN joined.

JUSTICE LEHRMANN did not participate in the decision.

Following personal disagreements and harsh words, one convenience store employee picked a fistfight with another employee and that employee's father on store premises. Tragically, the father later died, and his family sued the employer, alleging that its negligent supervision of its employees caused the decedent's death. Though one does not ordinarily have a duty to control others, we have held that employers sometimes have a duty to control their employees. We have never defined the contours of any general duty, and we do not do so today. We conclude only that an employer in the circumstances presented here has no such duty. We reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and render judgment for the employer.

I

Alfredo Pagayon, Jr. (J.R.), 22, and Carlos Cabulang, 54, worked as cashiers at a Houston convenience store owned by Exxon Mobil Corporation (Exxon). Vong Vu and Jovita Leslie also worked there, and Roce Asfaw managed the store. J.R.'s father (Alfredo), 58, worked as a toll booth attendant for the Harris County Toll Road Authority but had once worked for Exxon. He and Roce were friends, and it was at his request that Roce had hired J.R. Carlos had also worked for the Authority, and he and Alfredo knew each other. J.R. did not have a car, so Alfredo drove him back and forth to work. When he did, Alfredo would usually go into the store, and he and Carlos would chat. It cannot be said that they were friends, but there certainly was no hostility between them.

Generally, J.R. thought the store had a family atmosphere and everyone got along very well. But Carlos had once asked him if he was having a sexual affair with Vong, who had given him a ride home, and though the exchange was lightheartedJ.R.'s wordJ.R. felt like Carlos was harassing him. J.R. complained to Roce, who told him to just ignore Carlos. Roce never discussed the matter with Carlos.

One Thursday night while J.R. was working by himself, two customers complained that the men's restroom door had an out of order sign on it. Carlos had worked the prior shift, and he and a co-worker, Mark, had left as J.R. arrived. Neither had said anything to J.R. about the restroom being out of order, and when J.R. checked, he found it was not. Concerned that the customers would complain to his manager, J.R. felt Carlos was harassing him again, and though he did not know who put the sign on the door, whether Carlos or Mark, or whether it was simply a mistake, he later complained to Roce. Roce again told J.R. to just stay away from Carlos and ignore him. She did not discuss the matter with Carlos. Carlos did not know J.R. was angry and thus never harassed or threatened to retaliate against J.R. for complaining to Roce.

Early Friday morning, on the way home, J.R. was still upset and complained to his father about Carlos. When they arrived, Alfredo called Carlos on his cell phone and told him to stop harassing J.R. The two had a heated conversation, but after it was over, J.R. thought that everything was worked out and Carlos would leave him alone.

The following Monday morning, Alfredo took J.R. to work and went into the store to talk with Roce. Neither Alfredo nor J.R. told Roce about Alfredo and Carlos's phone call three days earlier or suggested to her that there was any reason to fear violence from Carlos. Roce left the store mid-afternoon, 12 minutes before Carlos arrived for his shift.

J.R.'s and Carlos's shifts were scheduled to overlap by 30 minutes. When Carlos entered the store at 3:34 p.m., he immediately began screaming, cursing, and threatening J.R. and Alfredo (who was not yet there) repeatedly. J.R. was scared and told Jovita, who had not heard any of it. Jovita told Carlos to stop, but he refused, and J.R. asked Jovita to call Roce, which she did. Jovita told Roce that Carlos was threatening to beat J.R. up and asking him to go outside and fight. After she and Roce talked, Jovita told J.R. to stay away from Carlos. Roce did not speak with J.R. or Carlos herself or tell Jovita to have either or both of them leave the store since she knew J.R.'s shift was over at 4:00 p.m. J.R. did not call other higher-up managers or ask Jovita to do so.

Things calmed down, and J.R. continued working past the end of his shift, side by side with Carlos, until 4:36 p.m., then waited around a few more minutes for his father to pick him up. When Alfredo entered the store at 4:48 p.m., Carlos immediately left his cash register, where two customers were waiting, and walked over to Alfredo, cursing him. Face to face, Carlos shoved Alfredo, and Alfredo shoved back. Carlos then punched Alfredo, and the two began to fight. Carlos also punched J.R., who entered the fray, punching Carlos several times. After Carlos knocked Alfredo down, J.R. put Carlos in a headlock and pushed him to the floor. When Carlos begged J.R. not to hit him again, J.R. desisted. The fight was over in a few seconds, less than a minute after Alfredo entered the store.

Alfredo was complaining that he could not breathe, so J.R. called 9-1-1. Paramedics carried Alfredo from the store on a stretcher and took him immediately to a hospital, where his chest was x-rayed. The emergency room physician, Dr. Hung Hoang Dang, misread a dark space on the x-ray as an indication that Alfredo's left lung had filled with fluid and tried several times to insert a chest tube to drain it. In fact, Alfredo had been born without a left lung, which accounted for the dark space on the x-ray. From then on, Alfredo's condition deteriorated, and he died 23 days later from cardiac arrhythmia, respiratory failure, and renal failure. Sepsis, possibly resulting from the failed attempts to drain Alfredo's lung, most likely caused the organ failure.

J.R. and his mother, brother, and sister (the Pagayons) sued Exxon for wrongful death and, on behalf of Alfredo's estate, for survival damages. Exxon moved to designate Dang as a responsible third party, arguing that his negligent care was the true cause of Alfredo's death. The trial court refused to allow the designation, concluding that as an emergency physician, Dang could not be liable for simple negligence but only for wilful and wanton negligence, of which Exxon had produced no evidence. The trial court also refused to allow Exxon to put on evidence at trial about Alfredo's hospital care.

The Pagayons asserted both that Exxon was responsible for Carlos's actions and that it was itself negligent in supervising Carlos and failing to take steps to prevent the fight from occurring. Roce testified that harassment and threats of violence should never be tolerated in the workplace; that a manager, alerted to a threat of violence, should do something about it; and that she believed she could have prevented the fight just by speaking to Carlos. She could also have sent J.R. home when Jovita called, as his shift had ended, or she could have sent Carlos home. But she explained that the harassment J.R. had complained of twice before had not been physical, and she thought nothing more was required. Carlos had no history of violent conduct, and Exxon's background check before hiring him revealed no criminal record.

The jury failed to find that Carlos was acting in the scope of his employment during the fight, thus precluding Exxon from being vicariously liable. But the jury found that Exxon's negligent supervision of its employees, together with J.R.'s and Alfredo's negligence, caused Alfredo's death. The jury apportioned responsibility 75% to Exxon, 15% to J.R., and 10% to Alfredo. The Pagayons did not sue Carlos, Exxon did not move to name him as a responsible third party, and the jury was not asked to apportion responsibility to him. The jury awarded the Pagayons nearly $2 million in damages. The trial court rendered judgment on the verdict.

Exxon appealed. It argued that it could not be liable because it had no duty to control Carlos, or if it did, there was no evidence it breached the dutythat is, no evidence that it negligently supervised Carlosor that any negligent supervision caused Alfredo's death. Exxon also argued that the trial court erred in refusing to allow Dang to be designated as a responsible third party. The court of appeals rejected Exxon's no-liability arguments. But on the designation issue, the court stated that a hospital emergency room physician is held to the same standard of care as any other physician, and responsibility for injury should be apportioned to him as to any other wrongdoer, although a claimant must prove wilful or wanton negligence to recover damages. The panel split on whether Exxon had produced evidence that Dang was negligent, a majority holding that it had. The court thus concluded that Exxon was entitled to designate Dang a responsible third party and include him in the jury's apportionment of responsibility for Alfredo's death. Accordingly, the court remanded the case for a new trial.

We granted the Pagayons' and Exxon's petitions for review. The Pagayons argue that the trial court's judgment should have been affirmed. Exxon argues that it is entitled to rendition of judgment in its favor. We agree with Exxon and thus do not reach the Pagayons' arguments regarding the designation of Dang as a responsible third party.

II

We have been quite clear: The threshold inquiry in a negligence case is duty.  [T]he existence of duty is a question of law for the court to decide from the facts surrounding the occurrence in question. When a duty has not been recognized in particular circumstances, the question is whether one should be. In Humble Sand & Gravel, Inc. v. Gomez, we explained how the existence of a duty is to be determined:

The considerations include social, economic, and political questions and their application to the facts at hand. We have weighed the risk, foreseeability, and likelihood of injury against the social utility of the actor's conduct, the magnitude of the burden of guarding against the injury, and the consequences of placing the burden on the defendant. Also among the considerations are whether one party would generally have superior knowledge of the risk or a right to control the actor who caused the harm.15

We recognized that some of these factorsrisk and foreseeability are obvious examplesmay turn on facts that cannot be determined as a matter of law and must instead be resolved by the factfinder, but we noted that such cases are unusual. One reason is that the factual situation presented must be evaluated in the broader context of similarly situated actors. The question is whether a duty should be imposed in a defined class of cases, not whether the facts of the case at hand show a breach. Another reason is that the material facts are either undisputed or can be viewed in the light required by the procedural posture of the case. In the present case, the facts material to the duty inquirythe events leading up to Alfredo's injuryare essentially undisputed, and we view them in light of the verdict. The policy components of the factorsincluding the nature of the covered risks and general foreseeabilityare policy issues for the court to consider as a matter of law. The factors determine how the class of cases in which the duty applies is to be defined and how that definition shapes the contours of the duty.

No general duty to control others exists, but a special relationship may sometimes give rise to a duty to aid or protect others. Employment is such a relationship. We have acknowledged limited instances where an employer has a duty to control its employee and is directly liable when it fails to do so. For example, a night club that requires exotic dancers to consume alcohol with customers to the point of intoxication has a duty to take reasonable care to prevent them from driving home after work. More broadly, an employer that exercises control over an employee because he has become intoxicated at work, even on the sly, without his employer's permission, has a duty to exercise reasonable care to ensure that he is not a risk to himself or others driving home.

In contrast to these narrow exceptions to the general rule, Section 317 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts describes a broad duty:

A master is under a duty to exercise reasonable care so to control his servant while acting outside the scope of his employment as to prevent him from intentionally harming others or from so conducting himself as to create an unreasonable risk of bodily harm to them, if

(a) the servant

(i) is upon the premises in possession of the master or upon which the servant is privileged to enter only as his servant, or

(ii) is using a chattel of the master, and

(b) the master

(i) knows or has reason to know that he has the ability to control his servant, and

(ii) knows or should know of the necessity and opportunity for exercising such control.

We have never recognized this duty in Texas, contrary to the court of appeals' statement that we have adopted Section 317. The court over-read our cases. We have cited the section four times. The first was in a 1971 case, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic v. Maclay. There, a physician persuaded his patient to leave her husband, and the husband sued the physician and the Clinic that employed him for alienation of affection. We observed that the Clinic should owe some duty to its patients to protect them from injury on its premises, and citing Section 317, some duty to prevent an employee from improperly using his position to tortiously interfere with family relations. But, we concluded, the meager summary judgment did not necessarily indicate that the Clinic was under a duty to act or that it could have done anything, even though it also did not affirmatively and clearly appear that the Clinic could or should have done nothing. Ultimately, we held that the Clinic was not entitled to summary judgment, and our reasoning regarding possible liability was dicta. Our other three references to Section 317 were merely citations. We have never endorsed nor applied Section 317.

Most recently, in Waffle House, Inc. v. Williams, we stated: We have not ruled definitively on the existence, elements, and scope of [torts such as negligent retention and supervision of an employee by an employer] and related torts such as negligent training and hiring. Granted, the courts of appeals have often held employers to very general duties, but they have not weighed the factors that determine whether a duty exists, and what it is. They have not analyzed the risk, foreseeability, and likelihood of injury in requiring employers to control employees, versus the burdens on and consequences to employers, and the social utility and realities of the workplace. These, it must be emphasized, are matters of law to be weighed and determined by the court before a duty is applied. It is not enough simply to require employers, or others, to exercise ordinary care in all circumstances. Texas law requires the court to be more specific, to balance the relevant factors in determining the existence, scope, and elements of legal duties.

Section 317 is not a product of this balance. Under Section 317, an employer's duty to control an employee acting outside the scope of employment to prevent harm to others has three elements. The first is that the employee's conduct occur on or with the employer's property. This limitation is not necessitated by the basis of liability, employer control. It confines duty as a matter of policy. The second element, that the employer knows or should know it can control the employee, adds almost nothing. An employer certainly should not be liable for an employee it cannot control, and any employer would almost always know whether it can or cannot. The third element of the duty described in Section 317 is that the employer knows or should know of the necessity and opportunity for exercising such control. This element is necessary for the existence of a duty. Certainly, an employer should have no duty to control an employee when it neither knows nor should know of the need and opportunity to do so. But the third element of Section 317 is not sufficient for the existence of a duty. Whether a duty to control employees should be imposed when employers know or should know of the necessity and opportunity for exercising control can be determined only after weighing the burden on the employer, the consequences of liability, and the social utility of shifting responsibility to employers. These factors do not support the broad duty of reasonable care in all situations that Section 317 would impose.

This is a case in point. J.R.'s two complaints of harassment by Carlos prior to the fateful Monday afternoon cannot even arguably have given Exxon reason to think employee friction might injure store patrons. Carlos's lighthearted question to J.R. about his relationship with Vong was not harassment in any real sense of the word, and J.R. never knew whether Carlos had anything to do with putting the out of order sign on the door. J.R.'s complaints in each instance do not evidence a history of Carlos's harassment; rather, they show that J.R. was not always to be taken seriously. Carlos's harassment of J.R. began one afternoon at 3:34 p.m. as a result of a phone conversation he'd had with Alfredo more than three days earlier, and ended one hour and fourteen minutes later in a fistfight in which Alfredo and J.R. participated. The first Roce knew there was a problem was minutes before J.R.'s shift ended at 4:00 p.m., when he should have left the store. The likelihood that a personal grudge over a phone call would lead to a fistfight and death was surely slight. The temptation to view the situation in hindsight is too great. Perhaps, as Roce believed, she could have prevented the fight by talking to Carlos herself, but the fight would also not have occurred had Alfredo stayed away from Carlos after their phone conversation. If Section 317 correctly stated an employer's duty in these circumstances, one might argue that Roce knew or should have known of the need to control J.R. and Carlos, and that her failure to do so was a failure to exercise reasonable care. But Section 317 does not correctly state an employer's duty. To require every employer to intervene in all such circumstances and hold it liable for any result, however unlikely, would impose too great a burden on the employment relationship.

The Restatement (Second) of Torts takes a no, but approach to the duty for failing to control others: the general rule is no liability, but there are exceptions, like Section 317. The Restatement (Third) of Torts: Physical and Emotional Harm takes a yes, but approach. Section 41(a) provides that [a]n actor in a special relationship with another owes a duty of reasonable care to third parties with regard to risks posed by the other that arise within the scope of the relationship. One such relationship is that of an employer with employees when the employment facilitates the employee's causing harm to third parties. Thus, Section 41(a) describes a duty that is more general than the duty under Section 317, and perhaps broader. But comment b adds this caveat: Even though an affirmative duty might exist pursuant to this Section, a court may decide, based on special problems of principle or policy, that no duty or a duty other than reasonable care exists. Among those principles and policies are the factors that must be weighed under Texas law in defining legal duties.

What duty should be imposed on employers to prevent employees from harming third persons is difficult to state generally. When we have recognized a duty before, we have narrowly described the situations affected: an employee required to consume alcohol as part of her job, or allowed to consume alcohol on the job. The correct balance of the factors that must be considered in creating duties is very hard to strike for all such situations because of the myriad circumstances that can arise. We have not attempted this effort in the past, and we need not do so here. Nor do we need to create another exception to the general rule that one does not have a duty to control others. Whatever duty an employer may have to control its employees, the factors that must shape it cannot extend it to the situation here.

The risk of an occurrence such as this is small. We are not presented with a situation in which repeated, serious threats or actions could well pose a threat to patrons. Rather, the issue is whether an employer should be required to respond to employee discord by monitoring them constantly and reacting to every complaint, however slight. Whatever duty an employer may have, it cannot extend to minor situations.

The foreseeability of injury is small, and the likelihood of injury is remote. The disagreements among Carlos, J.R., and Alfredo had been matters of words until the fistfight suddenly broke out. While it may have been foreseeable that those disagreements would linger or even fester, nothing suggests that they were likely to lead to serious injury. Any duty an employer has to control its employers should not make it an absolute insurer of their safety and the safety of patrons.

The burden on the employer, while not heavy, is significant. In hindsight, at least, better supervision of store employees might have prevented the fight, as Roce herself admitted. But to discharge a duty to prevent an occurrence such as this, an employer would be required to investigate almost every employee complaint and monitor every situation. This would significantly burden the employment relationship.

The consequences can be extreme. While we assume the fistfight led to Alfredo's death, that result was bizarre, given the brevity of the altercation, the absence of any weapons, and the slightness of the provocation. To extend liability to an employer in such a situation would render the employer liable for the most extreme consequences of simple employee friction.

The social utility is small. While Exxon might have been able to prevent Carlos, J.R., and Alfredo from injuring each other, the public was never in danger. Any social utility to requiring an employer to be as vigilant as Exxon would have to have been to prevent a fistfight involving employees is minimal.

Applying the factors that determine duty, we conclude that an employer in a situation like the one presented here owes no duty to supervise its employees. As a matter of law, Exxon was not liable to the Pagayons.

Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and render judgment for Exxon.

So ordered.

FOOTNOTES

. 467 S.W.3d 36 (Tex. App.Houston [14th Dist.] 2015).

. We, of course, review the record in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict. Ingram v. Deere, 288 S.W.3d 886, 893 (Tex. 2009). Almost all of our summary of the facts is taken from J.R.'s testimony.

. Security surveillance cameras recorded time-stamped photos of the events every two seconds.

. See TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE  33.011(6) ( Responsible third party means any person who is alleged to have caused or contributed to causing in any way the harm for which recovery of damages is sought, whether by negligent act or omission, by any defective or unreasonably dangerous product, by other conduct or activity that violates an applicable legal standard, or by any combination of these.).

. See id.  74.153 (In a suit involving a health care liability claim against a physician or health care provider for injury to or death of a patient arising out of the provision of emergency medical care in a hospital emergency department or obstetrical unit or in a surgical suite immediately following the evaluation or treatment of a patient in a hospital emergency department, the claimant bringing the suit may prove that the treatment or lack of treatment by the physician or health care provider departed from accepted standards of medical care or health care only if the claimant shows by a preponderance of the evidence that the physician or health care provider, with wilful and wanton negligence, deviated from the degree of care and skill that is reasonably expected of an ordinarily prudent physician or health care provider in the same or similar circumstances.).

. 467 S.W.3d 36, 41 (Tex. App.Houston [14th Dist.] 2015).

. Id.

. Id. at 4448.

. Id. at 4950.

. Id. at 5153.

. Id. at 57.

. 59 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 15931594 (Sept. 2, 2016).

. Greater Houston Transp. Co. v. Phillips, 801 S.W.2d 523, 525 (Tex. 1990), citing El Chico Corp. v. Poole, 732 S.W.2d 306, 311 (Tex. 1987); Otis Eng'g Corp. v. Clark, 668 S.W.2d 307, 312 (Tex. 1983).

. 146 S.W.3d 170 (Tex. 2004).

. Id. at 182.

. Id.

. See, e.g., Nabors Drilling, U.S.A., Inc. v. Escoto, 288 S.W.3d 401, 404405 (Tex. 2009); Trammell Crow Cent. Tex. Ltd. v. Gutierrez, 267 S.W.3d 9, 12 (Tex. 2008); Providence Health Ctr. v. Dowell, 262 S.W.3d 324 (Tex. 2008); Loram Maint. ofWay, Inc. v. Ianni, 210 S.W.3d 593, 596 (Tex. 2006); Greater Houston Transp. Co., 801 S.W.2d at 525; Otis Eng'g Corp., 668 S.W.2d at 309 (As a general rule, one person is under no duty to control the conduct of another, even if he has the practical ability to exercise such control. (internal citation omitted)). See also RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF TORTS  314 (1965) (The fact that the actor realizes or should realize that action on his part is necessary for another's aid or protection does not of itself impose upon him a duty to take such action.); W. PAGE KEETON, PROSSER AND KEETON ON TORTS  56 (5th ed. 1984).

. See, e.g., Nabors, 288 S.W.3d at 405; Loram, 210 S.W.3d at 596.

. D. Houston, Inc. v. Love, 92 S.W.3d 450, 452 (Tex. 2002).

. Otis Eng'g Corp., 668 S.W.2d at 311.

. 467 S.W.3d 36, 43 (Tex. App.Houston [14th Dist.] 2015).

. 466 S.W.2d 716, 720 (Tex. 1971), superseded by statute on other grounds as stated in Helena Labs. Corp. v. Snyder, 886 S.W.2d 767, 768 (Tex. 1994) (per curiam).

. Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, 466 S.W.2d at 717.

. Id. at 719720.

. Id. at 720.

. Id.

. Otis Eng'g Corp. v. Clark, 668 S.W.2d 307, 309 (Tex. 1983) (including this section among other Restatement provisions imposing certain duties); Loram Maint. of Way, Inc. v. Ianni, 210 S.W.3d 593, 596 n.3 (Tex. 2006); Nabors Drilling, U.S.A., Inc. v. Escoto, 288 S.W.3d 401, 404405 (Tex. 2009).

. 313 S.W.3d 796, 804 n.27 (Tex. 2010).

. See, e.g., Davis-Lynch, Inc. v. Asgard Techs., LLC, 472 S.W.3d 50, 63 (Tex. App.Houston [14th Dist.] 2015, no pet.); Clark v. PFPP Ltd. P'ship, 455 S.W.3d 283, 287 (Tex. App.Dallas 2015, no pet.); Ramirez v. Colonial Freight Warehouse Co., 434 S.W.3d 244, 253254 (Tex. App.Houston [1st Dist.] 2014, pet. denied); Wrenn v. G.A.T.X. Logistics, Inc., 73 S.W.3d 489, 495496 (Tex. App.Fort Worth 2002, no pet.); Garcia v. Allen, 28 S.W.3d 587, 592 (Tex. App.Corpus Christi 2000, pet. denied); Houser v. Smith, 968 S.W.2d 542, 544 (Tex. App.Austin 1998, no pet.); Mackey v. U.P. Enters., Inc., 935 S.W.2d 446, 459 (Tex. App.Tyler 1996, no writ).

. RESTATEMENT (THIRD) OF TORTS: LIABILITY FOR PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL HARM  41(a) (2012).

. Id.  41(b)(3).

. Id.  41 cmt. b.

. The concurring opinion criticizes this as both a Potter Stewart-esque we-know-duty-when-we-see-it approach and a Solomon-like solution[ ]. Post at ___. We confess to the latter charge but reject the former. Judicial recognition and application of legal duties must be an objective exercisenot subjective, differing widely from one judge to another. Stating duty in terms of particular, objective standards serves that end, assuring more consistent results and providing surer guidance for complying with the law. That was the point of the two dissents the concurring opinion cites stating a duty too broadly and indefinitely leads to judicially subjective applications. See State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. v. Simmons, 963 S.W.2d 42, 50 (Tex. 1998) (Hecht, J., dissenting) (arguing that deficient investigation is not an adequate standard for the tort of insurance bad faith); Twyman v. Twyman, 855 S.W.2d 619, 629 (Tex. 1993) (Hecht, J., dissenting) (arguing that outrageousness is an insufficiently objective and particular standard for imposing damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress). That is our point here. Rule 317 rests liability almost entirely on what an employer knows or should know of the necessity and opportunity for controlling its employees without differentiating, even categorically, among the myriad circumstances that can arise or weighing the burdens and utility of imposing such liability, considering that as a general rule, one has no duty to control another. Significant liabilityin this case, more than $2 milliondepends on how broadly or narrowly a very general rule is judicially applied. The recognition of an appropriate rule must await the incremental and reasoned development of precedent that is the foundation of the common law system. Rogers v. Tennessee, 532 U.S. 451, 461 (2001). Fundamentally, the concurring opinion prefers a prescriptive approach in recognizing legal duties to that of the common law.

Nathan L. Hecht Chief Justice

JUSTICE BOYD filed an opinion concurring only in the judgment.
Mahadeshwar has found support from the Congress, which has backed him on the issue.

Mumbai: An audio clip of Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar allegedly threatening an official for taking action against illegal constructions has created an uproar in the city.

To protest against the mayors statements, civic activists have offered their support to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for taking action against unauthorised structures.

However, Mr Mahadeshwar has found support from the Congress, which has backed him on the issue.

The civic body on Thursday had demolished 17 licensed stalls on Linking Road for violating licence terms and conditions.

Following this, an audio clip went viral in which the mayor was heard allegedly threatening a civic official with suspension for taking action against stallholder.

Civic activists have expressed deep anguish over the incident, saying that the statements are unbecoming of a higher authority such as a mayor. Senior civic activist Nikhil Desai from AGNI on Friday met the municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta and demanded that the BMC should not give in to such threats.

Mr Desai said, The BMC should take a serious note of open threats given by the mayor to civic officials. We are highly disappointed by such threats coming from a mayor.

Action against illegal hawkers on Linking Road should continue. We offer full support of citizens of H/West ward in this action. Though decisions are needed to be taken to make a difference, he added.

However, Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam has supported mayors stand on the issue.

Its a fact that civic officials take action against poor hawkers, but they are hand in glove with developers while protecting illegal constructions in the city. Instead of just threatening these officials, the mayor should take action against them, he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pounced on the opportunity to target the Shiv Sena on the issue. BMC party group leader Manoj Kotak alleged, The mayors statement has created fear among civic officials. Being the first citizen of the city, it is his first duty to make open footpaths available to Mumbaikars. Instead, he is protecting illegal stall holders. He is also trying to create a religious rift among communities.
Police trying to identify guilty on basis of photos, clips.

Mumbai: Two days after the brutal attack on police personnel at Nevale village near Kalyan, the Thane police registered a molestation case after two women constables lodged complaints about being targeted by the mob of villagers on Thursday.

According to the complaints, a group of attackers surrounded the women constables and wilfully targeted them physically and fled from the spot. The female constables also sustained minor injuries in the incident, added police sources.

A case has been registered at the Hill Line police station and the statements of the victims have also been recorded.

The police have a basic description of the attackers based on the statement. The photos and video clips of the attack are being scanned to help establish their identities, said a Thane City police officer.

The police have also learnt that the village committees and the sarpanch were part of the meeting that were held to chalk out the plan to target the police. The intention of the protesters was to create a law and order situation to attract the attention of the state administration.

The police also conducted a massive combing operation in the Bhal, Khoni, Nevale, Rawal Pada villages and neighbouring areas and made first arrests, late on Friday. The police arrested four persons from the neighbouring Badlapur and Ambernath MIDC areas. The investigators have, however, held back their identities as more accomplices are being looked for based on information given by the arrested accused.

These persons were identified with the help of photographs that were captured during the attack. At least four police teams have been formed to track down the guilty who have fled from their villages following the incident.

Most of the accused who are currently absconding have been identified and a list of their names have been prepared. Searches are underway, said Pratap Dighavkar, additional commissioner of police, Thane city.
A major farmers stir started in Madhya Pradesh that soon spread to other states, including Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Cabinet on Saturday approved farm loan waiver of Rs 34,022 crore, which is expected to completely wipe out the debt of about 36 lakh farmers while providing partial relief to 33 lakh others in the state.

Loan amounts of up to Rs 1.5 lakh, taken before June 30, 2016, will be waived off completely, benefiting 36 lakh farmers who failed to repay their loans since 2012-13. Partial waiver will be given to about eight lakh farmers whose loan amounts are more than Rs 1.5 lakh.

About 35 lakh farmers, who have repaid their loans on time, will either receive a subsidy or 25 per cent of their loan, amounting to not more than Rs 1.5 lakh, will be waived off. In all, about 89 lakh farmers will benefit from the loan waiver.

This is a historic decision. No other state has taken such huge decision in favour of farmers. This decision endorses our commitment to the welfare of farmers, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, flanked by his entire Cabinet, said while making the announcement. The state government has tried to strike an emotional cord by naming the scheme Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krushi Sanman Yojana.

Earlier this month, Mr Fadnavis had agreed to write off loans if farmers ended their 11-day strike that had led to a sharp spike in the prices of vegetables and produce across the state.

Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka governments have also waived off farmer loans this year after a country-wide agrarian crisis, stemming from low prices for produce, led to farmers suicides and massive protests across the country.

A major farmers stir started in Madhya Pradesh that soon spread to other states, including Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana.

With the waiver, Maharashtras public debt is set to cross Rs 4 lakh crore by March next year and the government will be spending more than Rs 31,000 crore just to pay interest on its debt.

We are aware that the burden will fall on us. We will cut our expenses. All the ministers and MLAs will give their one month salary to support the farm loan waiver, the chief minister said.

When asked how he would ensure that relief reached the intended farmers, Mr Fadnavis said, We have taken precaution already. We will instruct banks to strictly follow the rules. CAG had exposed corruption in last waiver. But that will not happen this time.

On June 11, Mr Fadnavis had formed a high-power ministerial group, headed by eevenue minister Chandrakant Patil, to finalise the parameters of the waiver. Mr Patil met political leaders of all parties and representatives of farmers. On Friday, Mr Fadnavis also met NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Delhi to discuss details of the loan waiver.

Its after these deliberations that the government finalised the loan waiver package at an urgent Cabinet meeting in Mumbai on Saturday.
It would be a complete lie to say that people are unhappy with the three years of Modi government at the Centre.

The recent farmers agitation in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and other states is only an indication of growing discontent of farmers against the state government as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi. People had high hopes from Mr Modi, but crisis in the agricultural sector has made farmers unhappy. Many are also deeply unhappy with the MP government and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. At the moment, Opposition parties are in disarray. There is crisis of leadership amongst Opposition parties, but one cant rule out the possibility of one issue turning into a game changer.

The Emergency resulted in the defeat of Indira Gandhi and Bofors ended the rule of the most popular government (in terms of voteshare and seats) the country has ever had with Rajiv Gandhi as the Prime Minister. The farmers agitation may not have the potential of overthrowing the government as they do not work as a votebank. Studies conducted by the CSDS clearly indicate that amongst farmers, 40 per cent voted for the BJP and only 24 per cent voted for the UPA during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Amongst the big land owing farmers, 49 per cent voted for Mr Modi. But such growing discontent amongst farmers  roughly 60 per cent of Indians depend on agriculture for their livelihood  can put the government in a tight spot.

The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, which looked so popular till a month ago, was suddenly pushed on the back foot by farmers. But does that mean that the Modi government is in serious crisis? Has the government turned unpopular?

It would be a complete lie to say that people are unhappy with the three years of Modi government at the Centre. People generally seem happy about how the government has performed during the last three years. A recent study conducted by the CSDS indicates 60 per cent people are happy with the performance of the Modi government, while only 27 per cent are unhappy. This popularity is much higher compared to many previous governments which managed to win their next election. But to say that farmers in various states of India are also happy with what the Modi government has done for farmers would be a complete misrepresentation of the situation. The Modi government did initiate various schemes, namely Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, introduction of neem-coated urea, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, etc., for the welfare of farmers, but farmers do not seem to believe that these schemes have benefited them. Overall there is a shared belief amongst farmers that the Modi government has done nothing good for them during the last three years.

The CSDS study clearly indicates that 46 per cent farmers believe that the Modi government has done bad work for them during the last three years, while 39 per cent believe the government has done good work. The view is shared amongst farmers of various states. This negative view is expressed by farmers in most of the states barring a few like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and, to some extent, Rajasthan where more farmers feel satisfied with the work done by the Modi government for farmers.

In MP, 58 per cent farmers expressed their unhappiness while only 35 per cent felt satisfied with the work done by the Modi government for farmers. The number of farmers who seemed unhappy with the Modi government was 60 per cent in Maharashtra, 62 per cent in Punjab, 86 per cent in Tamil Nadu, 60 per cent in Telangana, 62 per cent in Kerala, 55 per cent in Jharkhand, 51 per cent in Haryana, 48 per cent in Andhra Pradesh and 45 per cent in Assam. There are much smaller number of farmers who felt satisfied with the Modi government on farmers issue. Those farmers who seemed satisfied with the Modi government were mainly small and marginal farmers, as the anger against the government is much more amongst big farmers, owing large land holdings. Probably, the loss suffered by bigger farmers is much more compared to the financial loss incurred by the small and marginal farmers.

As MP elections are still more than a year away, the growing discontent amongst farmers against the Chouhan-led BJP government could upset the electoral calculations of the BJP in the state. A recent visit to some villages in MP also confirmed this sentiment of farmers. Landless labourers too seemed unhappy with the work done by the Modi government for farmers during the last three years to the extent of yelling loudly, when they heard that I was from Delhi: Agar Modi mile to keh dena, agle baar vote nahi denge. In most places people confirmed that they voted for Mr Modi enthusiastically during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but might change their decision in the next election, and by next election they meant the next Assembly election and also the Lok Sabha election.

Besides MP there are few other BJP-ruled states like Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Gujarat where elections are due in a year or little more than that. Increasing the support price for onions and some other farm product could only be a short-term strategy. Visiting families of the deceased farmers by chief minister and other senior officials could only be a short-term strategy and may not help in solving the larger issues of farmers and the agricultural sector. It could help in appeasing farmers in the short run, may even help in defusing the immediate crisis. But there is a need for careful thinking on the part of the government  a long-term strategy to protect the interests of farmers and boost agriculture. The task may not be easy but the government needs to think of a long-term strategy rather than just sitting on a fast and showing willingness to speak to farmers personally.
Scientists have solved the mystery behind an unusual glow that appears in the sky after dark.

Airglow comes from emissions of different colors of light from chemical reactions in the upper reaches of the atmosphere. (representational image)

Scientists have solved a centuries-old mystery of "bright nights" - an unusual glow that appears in the sky after dark and lets observers see distant mountains, read a newspaper or check their watch.

Researchers suggest that when waves in the upper atmosphere converge over specific locations on Earth, it amplifies naturally occurring airglow, a faint light in the night sky that often appears green due to the activities of atoms of oxygen in the high atmosphere.

Normally, people do not notice airglow, but on bright nights it can become visible to the naked eye, producing the unexplained glow detailed in historical observations.

Historical accounts of bright nights go back centuries. European newspapers and the scientific literature also carried observations of these events in 1783, 1908 and 1916.

"Bright nights do exist, and they're part of the variability of airglow that can be observed with satellite instruments," said Gordon Shepherd, an aeronomer at York University in Toronto in Canada.

"The historical record is so coherent, going back over centuries, the descriptions are very similar," said Shepherd, lead author of the study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Modern observations of bright nights from Earth are practically nonexistent light pollution. Even devoted airglow researchers have never seen a true bright night.

However, even before the advent of artificial lighting, bright nights were rare and highly localised.

Researchers could see bright night events reflected in airglow data from the Wind Imaging Interferometer (WINDII), an instrument once carried by NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (1991-2005).

They searched for mechanisms that would cause airglow to increase to visible levels at specific locations.

Airglow comes from emissions of different colors of light from chemical reactions in the upper reaches of the atmosphere. The green portion of airglow occurs when light from the sun splits apart molecular oxygen into individual oxygen atoms.

When the atoms recombine, they give off the excess energy as photons in the green part of the visible light spectrum, giving the sky a greenish tinge.

To find factors that would cause peaks in airglow and create bright nights, researchers searched two years of WINDII data for unusual airglow profiles.

They identified 11 events where WINDII detected a spike in airglow levels that would be visible to the human eye, two of which they describe in detail in the study.

Finally, the researchers matched up the events with the ups and downs of zonal waves, large waves in the upper atmosphere that circle the globe and are impacted by weather.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump will meet face-to-face for the first time at the White House today.

At the invitation of Trump, the Prime Minister would spend several hours with the US President at the White House on Monday afternoon, which would end with a dinner later that night. (Photo: AP)

Washington: On the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit, the Trump administration has dismissed reports that it has been ignoring India, saying President Trump realises that the country has been a "force for good" in the world and ties with it were important.

"I think that it would be wrong to say that this administration has been ignoring or not focused on India," a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the two-day Modi visit from June 25.

The Prime Minister would meet President Donald Trump face-to-face for the first time at the White House on Monday.

"I think that the US really appreciates India, and I think that President Trump realises that India has been a force for good in the world and that it's a relationship that's important. And I think that will come through in the visit on Monday," the official said.

The senior administration official made the remarks while responding to questions on whether the US-India relationship has drifted under the new government, in part, because of President Trump and the administration's support to China.

"I think it's a bit unfair. I mean, we're only six months into the administration. But there have been two very good phone calls between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi that you can point to as showing both countries' interest in the relationship," the White House official argued.

"Yes, this will be the first opportunity for them to sit down and have a conversation, but I think that this is still fairly early on in the administration," the official said.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said President Trump and Prime Minister Modi would have a very robust discussion when they meet at the White House.

"During the meeting, the President and the Prime Minister will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism, defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement, and energy," Spicer said in response to a question.

Senator Mark Warner, Co-Chair of the Senate India Caucus hoped that Trump, in his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, shows enthusiastic support for deepening the US-India relationship, which enjoys strong bipartisan support.

"The relationship is ripe for additional cooperation in areas such as the development of aircraft carrier technology, space surveillance, unmanned aerial vehicles, cyber and increased defence manufacturing," Warner said.

"As we venture further into the Asian Century, there is little doubt of the increasing significance of India on the world stage. Our cooperation helps increase global security and advance economic opportunity in both countries," Warner said in response to a question.

On whether the contentious H-1B visa issue would come up for discussion during the meeting, a senior administration official said it was unlikely to be raised from the US side but if raised by the Indian side, the Americans were ready for it.

Ahead of the visit, Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna said the first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump will give them an opportunity to look at the entire gamut of Indo-US engagement and to exchange views on issues of global interest.

At the invitation of Trump, the Prime Minister would spend several hours with the US President at the White House on Monday afternoon, which would end with a dinner later that night.

This would be the first working dinner being hosted by Trump for a foreign leader at the White House.

"I think that just shows the amount of care that has gone in on the part of the White House to welcome our Prime Minister and the kind of planning that has gone into make this a very special visit," Sarna said.

"This (dinner) is a special gesture and it is appreciated," he said.

On the agenda of the meeting, a senior administration official told reporters that the civil nuclear deal would be part of the discussions between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump.

The White House also emphasised that the US was looking forward to its nuclear reactors contributing to India's energy security.

It said the US is interested in providing India with the kind of defence technology it normally reserves for its closest allies, signalling the Trump administration's resolve to strengthen the bilateral defence relationship.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar here and told him that Prime Minister Modi's Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth.

The two agreed that the two countries have a deep and growing strategic partnership and hope to work more closely on regional and global issues.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department.

Ahead of his visit, Modi yesterday said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

In a statement posted on the Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.

"President Trump and I have spoken on telephone prior to this. Our conversations have touched upon our common intent to take forward our productive all round engagement for the mutual benefit of our people," he said.

"I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide ranging partnership between India and the United States," the prime minister said.
Chinas repeated stonewalling of Indias membership bid in the NSG has become a major stumbling block in bilateral relations.

Beijing: China on Friday said it would oppose Indias membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group during the ongoing meeting in Bern as Beijing reaffirmed that there was no change in its stance on the admission of non-NPT states into the 48-member elite club.

As for non-NPT countries being admitted to the group, I can tell you there is no change in Chinas position, foreign ministry spokes-man Geng Shuang told a media briefing.

He was replying to a question on whether there was any change in Chinas stand at the plenary meeting currently taking place in the Swiss capital, Bern.

I want to point out that the NSG has clear rules on admission of new members and the Seoul plenary made clear mandates on how to deal with this issue. With these rules and mandates, we need to act as they dictate, he said.

As for the criteria regarding admitting new members, as far as I know this plenary meeting in Switzerland will follow mandate of the Seoul plenary and uphold principle of decision upon consensus and continue to discuss various dimensions of non-NPT countries admission in the group, he said. Chinas repeated stonewalling of Indias membership bid in the NSG has become a major stumbling block in bilateral relations.

After Indias application for entry into the elite group which controls the nuclear trade, Pakistan, the all-weather ally of China, too applied with the tacit backing of Beijing.

While India, which is backed by the US and a number of western countries has garnered the support of a majority of the groups members, China has stuck to its stand that new members should sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), making Indias entry difficult as the group is guided by the consensus principle. India is not a signatory to the NPT.

After a series of meetings, China has backed a two-step approach which stipulates that the NSG members first need to arrive at a set of principles for the admission of non-NPT states into the NSG and then move forward with discussions of specific cases.

The Bern meeting is being regarded significant as it is taking place after Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly took up the issue of Indias accession to NSG with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during their recent meeting at Astana on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

Asked about the cooperation between India and the US on the Indo-Pacific region, including the disputed South China Sea which was expected to figure during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to US, Mr Geng said the situation in the South China Sea was cooling down.

With the concerted efforts of China and ASEAN countries the situation there is cooling down. We hope other countries especially non-regional countries can respect efforts by the regional countries to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea and can play constructive role in this regard, he said.
The meeting also discussed technical, legal and political aspects of the participation of non-NPT States in the NSG.

The two-day meeting, however, discussed NSG's relationship with India and considered aspects of the implementation of the 2008 Statement on Civil Nuclear Cooperation with India. (Photo: PTI/File)

Bern: Thanks to China, India's wait for Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership continues as the 27th plenary meeting of the body ended in Bern, Switzerland without handing out any good news for New Delhi.

Beijing has been objecting to New Delhi's entry into the NSG on grounds that it has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on nuclear weapons.

The NPT, opened for signature in 1968 and entered into force in 1970, defines nuclear-weapon states as those that have built and tested a nuclear explosive device before 1 January 1967. These are the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China.

India has not signed the NPT as its traditional position has always been either 'The Five' should denuclearise or everyone has the same rights to have nuclear weapons. However, to send a message of responsible nuclear nation India has a stated policy of "no first use". Despite being a non-signatory of the NPT, India adheres to the NSG's norms.

The two-day meeting, however, discussed NSG's relationship with India and considered aspects of the implementation of the 2008 Statement on Civil Nuclear Cooperation with India.

The NSG meeting was chaired by Ambassador Benno Laggner of Switzerland and it also took stock of developments since the last meeting in Seoul in 2016.

The NSG, a group of 48 nuclear supplier countries, seeks to contribute to the NPT through the implementation of two sets of Guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear-related exports.

The meeting also discussed technical, legal and political aspects of the participation of non-NPT States in the NSG.

The NSG member countries strongly condemned nuclear tests by North Korea and noted that the supply of all NSG controlled items to the country is prohibited according to United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Participating Governments reiterated their firm support for the full, complete and effective implementation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on nuclear weapons as the cornerstone of the international non-proliferation regime.

Within the framework of the NSG's mandate, the Group exchanged information on and expressed its concerns regarding continued global proliferation activities and reaffirmed its determination to continue to cooperate closely in order to deter, hinder and prevent the transfer of controlled items or technology that could contribute to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.
Departing from protocol, Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva received Narendra Modi at the airport earlier in the day.

Before leaving for Lisbon, Modi had said during his meeting with Costa, the two leaders will build on their recent discussions and review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions. (Photo: AP)

Lisbon: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on held talks with his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa and discussed ways to further intensify bilateral relations.

Modi, who arrived here on the first leg of his three- nation tour, said his brief visit will further strengthen relations between India and Portugal.

"Advancing bilateral engagements. PM @narendramodi & PM @antoniocostapm discuss ways to further intensify bilateral relations," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted along with some photographs.

Advancing bilateral engagements. PM @narendramodi & PM @antoniocostapm discuss ways to further intensify bilateral relations pic.twitter.com/zGaBkYNUq8  Gopal Baglay (@MEAIndia) June 24, 2017

The two sides are expected to sign some agreements.

Departing from protocol, Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva received Prime Minister Modi at the airport earlier in the day.

Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Portugal on a bilateral trip, Baglay said.

Before leaving for Lisbon, Modi had said during his meeting with Costa, the two leaders will build on their recent discussions and review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions.

Portuguese Prime Minister Costa tweeted this is an excellent opportunity to review the implementation of the accords agreed during his India visit and sign new agreements.

Costa had visited India in January this year.

The highlight of Modi's four-day three-nation visit will be the US leg as Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

From the US, he will travel to the Netherlands.
The US Central Intelligence Agency said the attacks bore the hallmarks of ISIS. Since 2014 Saudi Arabia has faced attacks claimed by ISIS.

The blast partially collapsed the building where he had taken refuge, injuring the 6 pilgrims, Ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki said. (Photo: AP/Representational)

Mecca (Saudi Arabia): Six foreign pilgrims were hurt on Friday in Saudi Arabia when a suicide bomber targeting Islam's holiest site of Mecca blew himself up, the Interior Ministry said.

The incident happened around the Grand Mosque, where hundreds of thousands of worshippers gathered for early afternoon prayers on the last Friday of this year's Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month.

Ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki told Saudi television that police "foiled the terrorist plan that targeted the security of the Grand Mosque, pilgrims and worshippers."

Read: Mecca Masjid blast: Aseemanand granted bail by Hyderabad court

In dawn raids on Mecca and the Red Sea city of Jeddah officers arrested five suspects, including a woman, before surrounding the bomber's location around the Grand Mosque.

"Unfortunately he started shooting towards security personnel once he noticed their presence in the area, which led to an exchange of fire before he blew himself up," Turki said.

The blast partially collapsed the building where he had taken refuge, injuring the six pilgrims, Turki said.

He added that four had already been released from hospital, and five security men were also slightly hurt.

Since late 2014 Saudi Arabia has faced periodic bombings and shootings claimed by ISIS.

Purported images from the scene that circulated on social media showed an alley filled with bricks and other debris apparently from a blast.

Video showed what appeared to be a bearded man's head lying among rubble from a collapsed structure.

Near the end of Ramadan last year in the Saudi city of Medina four security officers died in an explosion close to Islam's second holiest site, the Prophet's Mosque.

It was one of three suicide blasts around the kingdom on the same day, in which a total of seven people were believed killed. The others occurred in Jeddah and in the Gulf city of Qatif.

The US Central Intelligence Agency said those attacks bore the hallmarks of ISIS.

Most of the targets in Saudi Arabia have been the Shiite minority and security forces, killing dozens of people.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks against the kingdom, a member of the US-led coalition battling the group in Syria and Iraq.

Since July last year police have arrested around 40 people, including Saudis and Pakistanis, for alleged extremist links.

Saudi Arabia's counter-terrorism capabilities -- which for years were led by Prince Mohammed bin Nayef -- are well-regarded internationally.

On Wednesday Prince Mohammed was ousted from his posts of crown prince and interior minister, replaced as heir to the throne by King Salman's son Mohammed bin Salman.

Friday's counter-terrorist operation was the first to take place under the new interior minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef, who is in his early 30s.

Prince Abdulaziz is the nephew of the deposed minister.
United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit. SAMUEL M. BECKER, Petitioner - Appellant, v. SAM CLINE, Warden; ATTORNEY GENERAL OF KANSAS, Respondents - Appellees. No. 16-3262 Decided: June 22, 2017

Before TYMKOVICH, Chief Judge, McKAY and LUCERO, Circuit Judges.

ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY *

Samuel Becker, a state prisoner, requests a certificate of appealability (COA) to appeal the district court's denial of his 28 U.S.C.  2254 petition. We deny a COA and dismiss the appeal.

I

A jury found Becker guilty of first degree felony murder, aggravated burglary, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated battery, four counts of kidnapping, and attempted kidnapping. A recitation of the underlying facts can be found in the decision affirming Becker's convictions. See State v. Becker, 235 P.3d 424, 427-29 (Kan. 2010) (Becker I). After being sentenced to a life term in prison plus 68 months, Becker unsuccessfully sought state post-conviction relief, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. See Becker v. State, No. 108,776, 2014 WL 1707435, at *9 (Kan. Ct. App. Apr. 25, 2014) (per curiam) (unpublished table decision) (Becker II). He subsequently filed a  2254 petition in the district court. The court denied the petition and declined to issue a COA. Becker now seeks a COA from this court.

II

A petitioner may not appeal a district court order denying federal habeas relief without a COA.  2253(c)(1). We will grant a COA only if the applicant has made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right.  2253(c)(2). To meet this standard, Becker must demonstrate that reasonable jurists would find the district court's assessment of the constitutional claims debatable or wrong. Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000). Because Becker's claims were adjudicated on the merits in state court, habeas relief is appropriate only if the state court decision was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law or was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts.  2254(d).

A

Becker argues that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by: (1) failing to prepare Becker to testify, inadequately advising him of his right to testify, failing to recommend that he testify, and denying him the right to testify; (2) failing to investigate and pursue a defense that Becker did not have the requisite mental state to commit the charged crimes; and (3) failing to investigate and pursue a defense based on proximate cause.

To prevail on his ineffective assistance claims, Becker must show both that counsel's performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness and that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687-88 (1984). To be deficient, [counsel's] performance must be outside the wide range of professionally competent assistance. In other words, it must have been completely unreasonable, not merely wrong. Byrd v. Workman, 645 F.3d 1159, 1168 (10th Cir. 2011) (quotation omitted). On federal habeas review, our application of the Strickland standard becomes doubly deferential: [T]he question is not whether counsel's actions were reasonable, but whether there is any reasonable argument that counsel satisfied Strickland's deferential standard. Harrington v. Richter, 562 U.S. 86, 105 (2011) (quotation omitted).

1

Becker first contends that counsel provided inadequate representation by effectively denying him the right to testify at trial. Becker and his attorney initially agreed that Becker would not take the stand. Three days before the trial's start date, however, the prosecution informed defense counsel that one of its witnesses was now claiming Becker had confessed to shooting the felony-murder victim. See Becker II, 2014 WL 1707435, at *4. Becker suggests that this new evidence gave rise to a possible self-defense claim, which only his testimony could have supported. Nevertheless, defense counsel persisted in his recommendation that Becker not testify and failed to prepare Becker to take the stand in his own defense.

As the KCOA noted, however, Becker admitted at the state post-conviction hearing that trial counsel informed him of his right to testify. Becker II, 2014 WL 1707435, at *4. Becker also repeatedly acknowledged that he knew it was his right to testify and admitted that it [had been] his choice not to. Id. These facts, together with Becker's concession that he relied on his attorney's advice in deciding not to testify, support the conclusion that he understood the ultimate decision was his own.

Becker's assertion that his attorney's advice not to testify was strategically flawed is also unavailing. An attorney's strategic choices made after thorough investigation of law and facts relevant to plausible options are virtually unchallengeable; and strategic choices made after less than complete investigation are reasonable precisely to the extent that reasonable professional judgments support the limitations on investigation. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 690-91. Although Becker argues that his testimony was necessary to support a self-defense theory, the KCOA determined that his refusal to waive his speedy trial rights prevented his attorney from investigating and pursuing that defense. Becker II, 2014 WL 1707435, at *4-5, *9. Accordingly, there is a reasonable argument that counsel's performance was not deficient. See Harrington, 562 U.S. at 105.

2

Becker also claims that his attorney was ineffective for failing to investigate and pursue a defense that he did not have the requisite mental state to commit the crimes charged. Specifically, Becker contends that counsel should have conducted further research into the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with which Becker was diagnosed approximately four years prior to the events underlying his convictions. See Becker II, 2014 WL 1707435, at *7. Becker's attorney received a report about the diagnosis before trial but did not request an independent evaluation or discuss with Becker the possibility of pursuing a defense based on his mental health. See id.

As noted above, we are reluctant to second-guess strategic decisions made after an attorney's reasonable investigation of the law and facts. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 690-91. In this case, [t]he evidence at the [post-conviction evidentiary hearing] was undisputed that Becker was not amenable to presenting his mental state as a defense. Becker II, 2014 WL 1707435, at *7. Moreover, counsel testified that nothing in his interactions with Becker indicated that his client was experiencing symptoms of PTSD or was unable to distinguish right from wrong, such that his mental health would constitute a viable defense. See id. The KCOA determined that counsel's decision not to pursue a PTSD defense was a strategic one, arrived at after sufficient investigation. Id. In light of the evidence presented, we conclude that the KCOA's determination was not unreasonable.

3

In his final ineffective assistance claim, Becker contends that his attorney was deficient for failing to pursue a defense based on proximate causation. According to Becker, a lack of timely medical interventionand not the shootingwas the immediate cause of the victim's death. But counsel testified that he declined to pursue this defense only after speaking with the coroner and conducting independent legal research. Id. at *6; see also Strickland, 466 U.S. at 690-91 (requiring deference to an attorney's strategic decisions made after investigation of the law and facts). Although Becker continues to assert that a proximate cause defense was plausible, he does not present any authority to support this argument. He has therefore failed to demonstrate entitlement to relief on this claim.

B

In addition to asserting that his counsel was ineffective, Becker contends that the trial court violated his due process rights by failing to give a specific unanimity instruction and appropriate verdict form to the jury. Alternatively, he argues there was insufficient evidence that the killing occurred during the commission of the kidnappings or attempted kidnapping.

Becker's felony-murder charge was based on three different underlying felonies (the kidnappings of three different individuals). Becker did not request a unanimity instruction, and neither the felony-murder instruction nor the verdict form required the jury to specify which offense or offenses constituted the predicate felony for his murder conviction.

On direct appeal, the Kansas Supreme Court (KSC) concluded that the trial court did not err in failing to give a specific unanimity instruction because the three underlying felonies constituted alternative means of committing the single offense of felony murder. Becker I, 235 P.3d at 434. According to the KSC, the jury did not have to agree as to the particular means by which the crime was committed, so long as substantial evidence support[ed] each alternative means. Id. The district court concluded that the KSC's rejection of Becker's unanimity argument was consistent with the Supreme Court's decision in Schad v. Arizona, 501 U.S. 624 (1991). There, the Court upheld a first degree murder conviction under jury instructions that did not require the jury to agree on the particular theory or meanspremeditated murder or felony murderof committing the offense charged. Id. at 645. Although Becker asserts that the three kidnappings in this case constitute multiple acts rather than alternative means of committing the single offense of felony murder, he has not shown that reasonable jurists could debate whether the KSC's opposite determination was contrary to or an unreasonable application of federal law.

Becker argues that even if this is an alternative means case, there was insufficient evidence that the predicate kidnappings/attempted kidnapping were ongoing at the time of the murder. But the KSC rejected this argument, finding that [t]he kidnappings and the murder were closely related and that the attempted kidnapping was ongoing when the murder occurred. Id. at 435. It further reasoned that the felony-murder instruction required the jury to determine whether the killing occurred while in the commission of the underlying offenses, and that nothing in the record indicated that the jury disregarded this directive. Id.; see also United States v. Chanthadara, 230 F.3d 1237, 1251 (10th Cir. 2000) (Generally, we assume that jurors follow the judge's instructions.). Again, Becker has not shown that jurists could debate the reasonableness of the KSC's determination.

III

For the foregoing reasons, we DENY Becker's application for a COA and DISMISS the appeal. We decline to revisit this court's prior order provisionally granting Becker's unopposed motion to file Volume X of the Appellant's Appendix under seal.

Entered for the Court

FOOTNOTES

. This order is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.

. A state court's determination of the facts is presumed to be correct unless rebutted by clear and convincing evidence.  2254(e)(1). Because Becker has failed to put forth such evidence, we rely, throughout this order, on facts recited in the decision of the Kansas Court of Appeals (KCOA) affirming the denial of state post-conviction relief.

. The jury ultimately convicted Becker of kidnapping with respect to the first two victims and attempted kidnapping with respect to the felony-murder victim.

. Becker also appears to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the predicate kidnapping convictions. The KSC affirmed these convictions on direct appeal, holding that there was ample evidence  showing that Becker acted as both a principle and as an aider and abettor of the various kidnappings of which he was convicted. Becker I, 235 P.3d at 432. Becker has not shown that this determination was unreasonable.

Carlos F. Lucero Circuit Judge
Qatar is also reportedly preparing an official document responding to the list of demands put forth by the 4 Arab nations.

Doha: Responding to the list of demands handed over to Qatar by Saudi Arabia as the price for lifting a blockade on trade and diplomacy, Qatar's Ambassador to the United States Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani has asserted that it was an attempt to 'infringe' upon the state's sovereignty.

Taking to twitter, Ambassador Thani while criticising the list said Qatar is being punished for its independence.

The list of demands circulated in media clearly indicates that this dispute is not about our neighbors false terrorism allegations 1/2  Meshal Hamad AlThani (@Amb_AlThani) June 23, 2017

The list is an attempt to suppress free media & freedom of speech. And infringe upon our sovereignty & punish Qatar for its independence.2/2  Meshal Hamad AlThani (@Amb_AlThani) June 23, 2017

On Friday, Qatar dismissed the list of 13 demands submitted by four Arab countries as 'neither reasonable nor actionable', as reported by Al-Jazeera.

"This list of demands confirms what Qatar has said from the beginning - the illegal blockade has nothing to do with combating terrorism, it is about limiting Qatar's sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy," Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al Thani, director of the Qatari government's communications office, said in a statement on Friday.

Read: UAE warns Qatar to take demands 'seriously' or ready to face divorce

Qatar is also reportedly preparing an official document responding to the aforementioned list of demands put forth by the four Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia.

On Friday, Qatar confirmed receipt of the list, which includes cutting back ties with Iran and closure of the Qatar-funded broadcaster Al-Jazeera, the most widely watched broadcaster in the Arab world, which the Saudi-led alliance claimed was a propaganda tool for Islamists that also undermines support for their governments

The list, according to media reports, also features reducing ties with Iran and closing a Turkish military base.

The list was handed to Qatar by Kuwait, which is mediating in the crisis. Qatar has been given 10 days to comply, reports the Guardian.

Read: Qatar's neighbours issue steep list of 13 demands to end crisis

Following are the demands of the list:

1. To only have trade ties with Iran that complies with US and international sanctions will be permitted. Curb all diplomatic ties and close its diplomatic missions in Iran. Expel members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and cut off any joint military cooperation.

2. Sever all ties to "terrorist organisations", specifically the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State, al-Qaeda and Lebanon's Hezbollah. Formally declare those entities as terrorist groups.

3. Shut down Al-Jazeera and its affiliate stations.

4. Shut down news outlets that Qatar funds, directly and indirectly, including Arabi21, Rassd, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and Middle East Eye .

5. Immediately terminate the Turkish military presence in Qatar and end any joint military cooperation with Turkey inside Qatar.

6. Stop all means of funding for individuals, groups or organisations that have been designated as terrorists.

7. Hand over "terrorist figures" and wanted individuals from Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Egypt and Bahrain to their countries of origin. Freeze their assets, and provide any desired information about their residency, movements and finances.

8. End interference in sovereign countries' internal affairs. Stop granting citizenship to wanted nationals from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain. Revoke Qatari citizenship for existing nationals where such citizenship violates those countries' laws.

9. Stop all contacts with the political opposition in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain. Hand over all files detailing Qatar's prior contacts with and support for those opposition groups.

10. Pay reparations and compensation for loss of life and other, financial losses caused by Qatar's policies in recent years.

11. Consent to monthly audits for the first year after agreeing to the demands, then once per quarter during the second year. For the following 10 years, Qatar would be monitored annually for compliance.

12. Align itself with the other Gulf and Arab countries militarily, politically, socially and economically, as well as on economic matters, in line with an agreement reached with Saudi Arabia in 2014.

13. Agree to all the demands within 10 days of it being submitted to Qatar, or the list becomes invalid.
The Interior Ministry said an attack on the mosque was being planned by three terrorist groups, two based in Mecca and a third in Jeddah.

Pilgrims circle the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, during the minor pilgrimage, known as Umrah, during Laylat al-Qadr, Night of Decree, on the 27th day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, in the Muslim holy city of Mecca. (Photo: AP)

Riyadh: Saudi security forces foiled a terror plot targeting the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, exchanging gunfire with one of the suspects who blew himself up inside a home Friday, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said.

Five people, including a woman, were arrested Friday in security operations in Mecca, the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news website said, citing the security spokesman of the Saudi Interior Ministry, Mansour al-Turki.

The Interior Ministry said an attack on the mosque was being planned by three terrorist groups, two based in Mecca and a third in Jeddah.

Al-Arabiya said a suicide bomber hiding in a house in the Ajyad al-Masafi neighborhood of Mecca opened fire on security forces and later blew himself up. Five security force members and six other people were injured, the report said.

The Grand Mosque houses Islam's holiest site, the cube-shaped Kaaba that Islam's followers pray toward five times a day.
by Mathias Hariyadi

In Jakarta, car parks for the cathedral and mosque are used by both communities. Early morning moves to "leave room" for the celebrations of the Islamic feast. Message from the Archbishop of Jakarta.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - In a sign of respect for Muslim fellow citizens, some Indonesian churches will "reschedule" masses to facilitate the celebration of the Islamic Eid festival (Idul Fitri or Lebaran in Indonesian), which will be held tomorrow, June 25th. The reason for this decision is to avoid traffic chaos and as a sign of solidarity with Muslim "brothers".

In Jakarta the cathedral and the large Istiqlal mosque are located in the same area. For years now, the two religious communities use the facilities of both structures for their religious celebrations: Catholics use the car parks on the weekend, while Muslims do the same for Friday's prayer.

However, this year the Idul Fitri celebrations, which take place on Sunday, may cause confusion. For this reason the parish administration of the Catholic cathedral has decided to "omit" two Sunday morning mases. A diocesan leaflet explains the reasons: "To show respect and tolerance to our Muslim brothers and to meet their need to have more room to pray during Idul Fitri's celebration, our weekly morning masses will be scheduled for 10 am and 12 ". In the cathedral, masses are usually held at 6, 7:30, 9 and 11.

Such a decision was made by Tanjungkarang Cathedral in Lampung Province, Sumatera. The pastor Fr. Sujanto says that instead of morning mass at 6:30 and 8:30, it will be celebrated only at 9:30.

In Pamekasan, in the eastern Java Madura Island, Fr. Damian Fadjar Tedjo Soekarno of the parish of Our Lasy Queen of the Apostles told AsiaNews that Sunday's masses will not be celebrated, but "we will have one on Saturday evening." In Madura, Christians and Catholics are a minority.

Another initiative is a video message by Msgr. Ignatius Suharyo, Archbishop of Jakarta, and President of the Indonesian Bishops' Conference, expressing his wishes to all Indonesian Muslims in view of the annual celebration of Idul Fitri. Msgr. Vincentius Sutikno Wisaksono Pr, bishop of Surabaya, also extended greetings to all Muslim fellow citizens.

In Indonesia, Idul Fitri's feast is not "exclusive" to Muslims, but is celebrated by all citizens. Over the past few days, at least eight million residents of Jakarta have returned to their hometowns for the occasion. This mass movement could be a problem for some well off Indonesian families, whose domestic life rely on housekeepers.

The days from June 23 to 29 2017 are national holidays.
The attacker detonated a device, collapsing the building where he was in hiding. No victim, but 11 people were injured. On the same day two other terrorist cells were stopped. Millions of Muslims at Mecca for the end of Ramadan. Some observers have doubts.

Riyadh (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Saudi security forces have foiled an attempted attack on the Great Mosque of Mecca, the most important city for Muslims. The Interior Ministry reported the news, adding that two other terrorist cells were planning to target faithful and police.

Yesterday, the suicide bomber was surrounded in an apartment in central Mecca, Ajyad al-Masafi. After a shootout, he detonated a devise, bringing the three-story building V and wounding six foreigners who were practicing the umra (minor pilgrimage) and five policemen. Two of the wounded are still in hospital, while others have already been discharged.

On the same day, a man sought after because believed to be a militant Islamist was killed by security forces; he had been hiding in the city's al-Aseelha district. A third cell was stopped in the city of Jeddah. No information has been given about this, apart from the arrest of five militant suspects, including a woman.

It is not yet clear who is behind these attacks. However, Isis had already hit the Saudi kingdom in the past. In May last year, the Saudi security forces had fired and killed two alleged Islamic fighters outside Mecca, while two others had blown themselves up. In July of that same year, four security agents had been killed by a suicide attack near the Prophet Mosque in Medina.

Some observers have doubts about this attack and believe it may have been fabricated to increase the tension between Arabia and Qatar and Iran.

Millions of Muslims from around the world gather in Mecca at the end of Ramadan. Yesterday, a large number of faithful were gathered in the Great Mosque for the last Friday of Ramadan.
Photo of 2018 Sonata courtesy of Hyundai.

Hyundai will offer fleet incentives for 11 of its 2018 model-year vehicles, including initial incentives for its electrified Ioniq compact sedans.

The Ionic Hybrid and Ionic Electric will carry $2,000 incentives as they enter their second year of production.

For its SUVs, Hyundai will offer $1,500 for the Tucson, $2,000 for the Santa Fe, and $2,000 for the Santa Fe Sport.

For its sedans, Hyundai will offer $1,000 for the Accent, $2,000 for the Elantra, $2,000 for the Elantra GT, $2,000 for the Sonata, $3,000 for the Sonata Hybrid, and $3,000 for the Sonata Plug-In Hybrid.

Hyundai hasn't announced an incentive for its 2018 Kona subcompact SUV and will not offer incentives for its Genesis luxury sedans at this time.
After decades of lobbying, victims and activists hailed a triumph in the struggle to clear the names of gay men who lived with a criminal record under article (Paragraph) 175 of the German penal code.

Germanys article 175 outlawed sexual acts contrary to nature  be it between people of the male gender or between people and animals. Sex between women was not explicitly illegal.

Although it dated from 1871, it was rarely enforced until the Nazis came to power, and in 1935 they toughened the law to carry a sentence of 10 years of forced labour.

More than 42,000 men were convicted during the Third Reich and sent to prison or concentration camps where countless numbers died or were killed.

The article was finally dropped from the penal code in East Germany in 1968. In West Germany, it reverted to the pre-Nazi era version in 1969 and was only fully repealed in 1994.

More than two decades after article 175 was finally wiped from the books, this stain on democratic Germanys legal history has been removed, Sebastian Bickerich, of the governments anti-discrimination office, said in a statement.

The sinister Paragraph 175 was in effect until 1969. Even after the concentration camps were liberated gay prisoners would be sent to sent to regular prisons to finish out the terms of their sentences.

Learn more about paragraph 175 and watch the award winning documentary of the same name by clicking HERE

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A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. High 61F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph..

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Partly cloudy skies. Low 41F. Winds light and variable.
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. TONY ANTHONY GOODMAN, Defendant-Appellant. No. 16-16276 Decided: June 22, 2017

Before MARCUS, WILSON, and ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judges.

Tony Anthony Goodman appeals his convictions for aiding and abetting individuals dealing firearms without a license, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  922(a)(1)(A), (a)(2); multiple counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, pursuant to 18 U.S.C.  922(g)(1), 924(a)(2), and 924(e); multiple counts of possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun, pursuant to 26 U.S.C.  5841, 5845(a)(2), 5861(d), and 5871; distribution of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), in violation of 21 U.S.C.  841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C); and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C.  841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C). He argues that the district court abused its discretion by refusing to allow him to present testimony at his trial regarding whether he is paralyzed.

Goodman's defense was that the person identified by witnesses and shown in the undercover videos committing the drug and firearm offenses was not him because he could not walk, when the person in the videos could. Given this defense, the government moved for a physical examination of Goodman by an expert witness and its motion was granted. However, Goodman refused to submit to the medical examination to determine medical paralysis. The government therefore filed a motion in limine to prevent Goodman from calling witnesses to testify about his alleged paralysiswitnesses who had neither been qualified as medical experts nor had the opportunity to examine Goodman. The government argued that because Goodman had refused the medical examination he should be precluded from putting forth any expert testimony that he is paralyzed. Goodman responded that he did not wish to offer any expert testimony as his intended witnesses were caregivers, including doctors, that would testify that they had never observed anything about his behavior inconsistent with his paralysis claim. The district court ruled that it would permit expert testimony on the paralysis issue only from a qualified physician, and it prevented Goodman from calling his witnesses.

We review a district court's ruling on a motion in limine for abuse of discretion. United States v. Kendrick, 682 F.3d 974, 981 (11th Cir. 2012). Abuse-of-discretion review recognizes the range of possible conclusions the trial judge may reach, and we must affirm unless we determine that the district court made a clear error of judgment or applied an incorrect legal standard  Id. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).

The Sixth Amendment guarantees a defendant the right to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor. U.S. Const. Amend. VI. Implicit in this right[,] as well as in the basic notion of due process of law in general, is the idea that criminal defendants must be afforded the opportunity to present evidence in their favor. See United States v. Hurn, 368 F.3d 1359, 1362 (11th Cir. 2004) (citation omitted).

In analyzing a defendant's claims under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to call witnesses in h[is] defense, we engage in a two-step analysis. See id. At step one, we first examine whether this right was actually violated, then turn to whether this error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt  Id. at 136263.

[A] defendant must generally be permitted to introduce evidence directly pertaining to an affirmative defense. Id. at 1363. However, [a] defendant's refusal to submit to an evaluation by a state expert, based on his own choice , may provide a compelling reason to exclude the defendant's expert testimony, even when the testimony is material. See Lynd v. Terry, 470 F.3d 1308, 1314 (11th Cir. 2006) (per curiam).

Furthermore, [a] witness who is qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education may testify in the form of an opinion under certain circumstances. See Fed. R. Evid. 702. But, [i]f a witness is not testifying as an expert, testimony in the form of an opinion is limited to one that is: (a) rationally based on the witness's perception; (b) helpful to clearly understanding the witness's testimony or to determining a fact in issue; and (c) not based on scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge within the scope of Rule 702. Fed. R. Evid. 701.

At step two, we examine whether the record contains sufficient independent evidence of guilt, [so that] any error is harmless. See Hurn, 368 F.3d at 1363; United States v. Eckhardt, 466 F.3d 938, 947 (11th Cir. 2006).

The district court did not abuse its discretion by refusing to allow Goodman to present his proposed testimony regarding whether he is paralyzed. Goodman's refusal to submit to a court-ordered physical exam by an expert provided a compelling reason to exclude Goodman's desired testimony. See Lynd, 470 F.3d at 1314. The district court did not abuse its discretion when it held that the issue of paralysis was a question for an expert witness and precluded Goodman from presenting testimony from lay witnesses that constituted expert testimony regarding his paralysis.

Additionally, any error was harmless because the record contains sufficient independent evidence of guilt, based on eye-witnesses' identification and video recordings of the offenses. Accordingly, we affirm.

AFFIRMED.

PER CURIAM:
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. ALEX NARCISSE, a.k.a. Alex L. Narcisse, a.k.a. Alex Lamarque Narcisse, Petitioner, v. U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. No. 16-13445 Decided: June 22, 2017

Before WILLIAM PRYOR, JORDAN and ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judges.

Alex Narcisse, a native and citizen of Haiti, petitions for review of the final order of removal of the Board of Immigration Appeals. The Board ruled that Narcisse was not entitled to withdraw his concession of removability because of the alleged ineffectiveness of his counsel and that Narcisse was ineligible for cancellation of removal, 8 U.S.C.  1182(a)(2). We deny Narcisse's petition.

I. BACKGROUND

In January 1980, Narcisse became a lawful permanent resident of the United States. In March 1985, he was convicted in a New York court of attempted robbery in the second degree and sentenced to five years of probation. See N.Y. Penal Law  110-160.10. In 2014, Narcisse entered in a Florida court a plea of nolo contendere to possession of cocaine, and the court withheld adjudication pending Narcisse's completion of two days of imprisonment and one year of probation. See Fla. Stat.  893.13(6)(a).

Narcisse traveled abroad and, in May 2015, when he returned to the United States by way of Miami International Airport, the Department of Homeland Security classified him as an alien seeking admission, see 8 U.S.C.  1101(a)(13)(C)(v), who was inadmissible because of his prior convictions for a crime of moral turpitude and for an offense relating to a controlled substance, see id.  1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(I), (a)(2)(A)(i)(II). During a hearing, counsel conceded that Narcisse was an arriving alien who was inadmissible, and an immigration judge admitted into evidence copies of Narcisse's prior convictions. Later, the immigration judge denied Narcisse's applications for asylum and withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act and the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, id.  1158(b), 1231(b)(3), and ordered Narcisse removed from the United States.

On appeal to the Board, Narcisse sought to withdraw his concession of removability and to cancel the order of removal. Narcisse argued that his counsel was ineffective for conceding he was an arriving alien under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 because it did not apply retroactively to his 1985 conviction to deprive him of lawful resident status. See Vartelas v. Holder, 566 U.S. 257 (2012). Counsel also was ineffective, Narcisse argued, for conceding he was inadmissible because his drug conviction did not qualify categorically as an offense relating to a controlled substance, see 8 U.S.C.  1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(II). Narcisse also argued for cancellation of removal based on his continuous residence in the United States. See id.  1229b(a).

The Board denied Narcisse's appeal. The Board ruled that counsel's decision to concede that Narcisse was removable based on his prior drug conviction was not the result of unreasonable professional judgment or  so unfair that [it]  produced an unjust result in [his] case. The Board concluded that Narcisse [had] not demonstrated that his 2014 conviction  for Possession of Cocaine  is not a controlled substance violation under  the Act because he [had] not specifically identified in his appellate brief any controlled substances included on the Florida schedule that are not included on the Federal schedule  And even if the Florida statute had been broader than the Federal schedule, the Board concluded, Narcisse [had] not demonstrated a realistic probability, not a theoretical possibility, that the statute is in fact applied  to punish possession of controlled substances not included on the Federal schedules. In addition, the Board stated, Narcisse [had] not clearly established that the statute under which he was convicted is not divisible within the meaning of Descamps v. United States, 133 S.Ct. 2276 (2013), given that the Standard Florida Jury Instruction applicable to  893.13(6)(a) clearly requires the prosecution to allege, and the jury to find, that the accused possessed a specific substance not just any scheduled substance. The Board also ruled that Narcisse was ineligible for cancellation of removal because his 1985 conviction for Attempted Robbery ended his accrual of continuous residence in the United States following his admission as a lawful permanent resident in 1980.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

One standard governs our review of Narcisse's petition. We review de novo the interpretation of a state statute in immigration proceedings, Ramos v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 709 F.3d 1066, 1069 (11th Cir. 2013); whether an alien has been denied due process, see Lapaix v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 605 F.3d 1138, 1143 (11th Cir. 2010); and whether a prior conviction makes an alien ineligible for cancellation of removal, see Donawa v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 735 F.3d 1275, 1279 (11th Cir. 2013).

III. DISCUSSION

Narcisse challenges the denial of relief by the Board. Narcisse argues that competent counsel would have contested the charges of removability and that the Board erred as a matter of law by relying on his prior convictions to find that he was an arriving alien who was inadmissible. Narcisse also argues that he satisfied the continuous residence requirement to qualify for cancellation of removal. Narcisse fails to establish that the Board erred.

Narcisse was not entitled to withdraw his concession of removability based on the alleged ineffectiveness of his counsel. Narcisse could not prove that he was prejudiced because he was removable based on his prior conviction for possession of cocaine. See Dakane v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 399 F.3d 1269, 1274 (11th Cir. 2004). Narcisse, a lawful permanent resident, had to be regarded as seeking an admission into the United States in 2015 because, one year earlier, he had committed an offense, 8 U.S.C.  1101(a)(13)(C)(v), involving a violation of  a[ ] law  of a State  relating to a controlled substance that made him inadmissible, id.  1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(II). See Poveda v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 692 F.3d 1168, 117879 (11th Cir. 2012). The offense of possession of a controlled substance under Florida law is divisible and requires proof of a specific substance as an element of the offense. See Descamps, 133 S. Ct. at 2285; Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 599, 602 (1990). Narcisse argues that the statute is not divisible, but he fails to challenge the conclusion of the Board that the statute is divisible because, under the pattern jury instruction given in cases involving the possession of a controlled substance, see Fla. Standard Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases 25.7 (2014), a jury would have been required to find that Narcisse possessed cocaine, as opposed to another substance, to convict. And Narcisse's conviction involves cocaine, a substance in the federal drug schedule, 21 U.S.C.  802(6), and would qualify as a controlled substance offense in violation of federal law, id.  844. Narcisse's prior conviction for an offense related to a controlled substance made him removable, see 8 U.S.C.  1101(a)(13)(C)(v), 1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(II), so his counsel was not ineffective for conceding removability.

Narcisse also was ineligible for cancellation of removal. To qualify for cancellation of removal, Narcisse had to have resided in the United States continuously for 7 years after having been admitted. See id.  1229b(a)(2). But Narcisse's continuous residence terminated in 1985, five years after his admission, when [ ]he  committed an offense referred to in section 1182(a)(2) that made him inadmissible. See id.  1229b(d)(1). Narcisse argues that his conviction for attempted robbery cannot be used for [his] removal as an arriving alien  under section 1101, yet in so doing, he has abandoned any argument that he could have made challenging the finding of the Board that his conviction for attempted robbery is a crime of moral turpitude that cease [d] his accrual of continuous residence under section 1229b. See Sepulveda v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 401 F.3d 1226, 1228 n.2 (11th Cir. 2005). The Board could base its ruling on Narcisse's 1985 conviction because the period of continuous residence shall be deemed to end  when the alien has committed an offense that renders him inadmissible, 8 U.S.C.  1229b(d)(1)(B), not just the offense that makes him removable. Narcisse was ineligible for cancellation of removal because he failed to accrue seven years of continuous residence in the United States. See id.  1229b(a)(2).

We DENY Narcisse's petition for review.

PER CURIAM:
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United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit. ROSSEMARI MARROQUIN-RIVERA, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III,*United States Attorney General, Respondent. No. 16-1732 Decided: June 23, 2017

Before Torruella, Kayatta, Barron, Circuit Judges. Mariana Baron, with whom Kevin MacMurray and MacMurray &Associates were on brief, for petitioner. Jamie M. Dowd, Senior Litigation Counsel, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, with whom Benjamin C. Mizer, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, and Jessica A. Dawgert, Senior Litigation Counsel, Office of Immigration Litigation, were on brief, for respondent.

Rossemari Marroquin-Rivera, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals' (BIA) decision affirming the Immigration Judge's (IJ) denial of her application for withholding of removal under 8 U.S.C.  1231(b)(3)(A). After reviewing the record, we deny her petition.

I.

Marroquin unlawfully entered the United States in August 2010. Removal proceedings against Marroquin began shortly after she entered the country, when the Department of Homeland Security filed a notice to appear that charged her with removability, under 8 U.S.C  1182(a)(6)(A)(i), due to its determination that she had entered without being admitted or paroled by an immigration officer. Marroquin, through counsel, conceded removability, but then applied for withholding of removal pursuant to 8 U.S.C.  1231(b)(3)(A), and for protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). A hearing was then held before an immigration judge on Marroquin's request for withholding of removal and protection under the CAT.

To be eligible for withholding of removal under  1231(b)(3)(A), an alien must show by a clear probability, Lopez Perez v. Holder, 587 F.3d 456, 463 (1st Cir. 2009), that her life or freedom would be threatened in [the country to which she would be removed] because of the alien's race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. 8 U.S.C.  1231(b)(3)(A).

The IJ ruled that Marroquin failed to make that showing. The IJ concluded that Marroquin was a credible witness but that she did not suffer any past persecution in Guatemala. The IJ explained that Marroquin had testified that her boyfriend (the father of Marroquin's daughter) was a police officer in Guatemala who was killed by unknown assailants after Marroquin left Guatemala. Marroquin also testified that her boyfriend had been threatened and had told her that he wanted to get her out of the country for her safety.

The IJ found, however, that Marroquin herself was never harmed, arrested, or jailed while in Guatemala. And because the IJ found that Marroquin had not shown that she had suffered past persecution, the IJ concluded that in order for Marroquin to succeed in establishing eligibility for withholding of removal, she had to show that it was more likely than not that she would be persecuted if she returned to Guatemala. See 8 C.F.R.  1208.16(b)(2). But, the IJ found, Marroquin was merely speculat[ing] as to the likelihood that the individuals whom she could not identify who killed her boyfriend will target her and her daughter.

The IJ also found that if the respondent could avoid a future threat to her life or freedom by relocating to another part of Guatemala, and under all the circumstances, it would be reasonable to expect the respondent to do so, the withholding application must be denied. And, the IJ proceeded to rule, I find that the respondent could avoid a future threat by relocating within Guatemala, and it would be reasonable to expect her to do so rather than come to the United States.

With respect to Marroquin's request for protection under the CAT, the IJ also ruled against Marroquin. The IJ explained that she ha[d] not established it is more likely than not the Guatemalan authorities would consent, acquiesce or turn a blind eye to any torture the respondent fears at the hands of private actors.

Marroquin appealed the IJ's decision to the BIA, and the BIA affirmed. The BIA explained that Marroquin did not establish that she will likely be harmed by criminal gangs in Guatemala based upon an enumerated ground. In setting forth that conclusion, the BIA found that Marroquin has not established that her fear of harm arising from her relationship with her now deceased boyfriend has an objective basis following his death. And, the BIA noted, she did not establish that she was persecuted in the past on the basis of the relationship, particularly where the threats were directed at her boyfriend in an attempt to get him to cease his investigation, without any indication that her membership in a particular social group or political opinion were motivating factors for the threats. Moreover, the BIA ruled that she did not provide any objective evidence that gang members in Guatemala are presently motivated to harm her because of her past relationship with an individual who is now deceased.

With respect to Marroquin's CAT claim, the BIA ruled that Marroquin has not established through objectively reliable evidence that anyone in Guatemala is presently motivated to torture her for any reason such that her torture would be likely if she returned. The BIA also found that Marroquin has not established that a public official of the Guatemalan government, having awareness that the respondent was about to be tortured, would breach his or her legal responsibility to intervene to prevent her torture by criminal gangs.

II.

In petitioning for review of the BIA's decision, Marroquin contests only the BIA's ruling affirming the denial of her request for withholding of removal. We review the agency's findings of fact under the substantial evidence standard to determine if those findings are supported by reasonable, substantial, and probative evidence on the record considered as a whole. Ordonez-Quino v. Holder, 760 F.3d 80, 87 (1st Cir. 2014) (quoting Larios v. Holder, 608 F.3d 105, 107 (1st Cir. 2010)). We review the agency's interpretation of law de novo, 'subject to the appropriate principles of administrative deference.' Id. (quoting Larios, 608 F.3d at 107). We usually review decisions of the BIA, not the IJ. But where, as here, the BIA both adopts the findings of the IJ and discusses some of the bases for the IJ's decision, we have authority to review the decisions of both the IJ and the BIA. Id. (citation omitted).

Marroquin first contends that the BIA erred by not making any findings with respect to whether she suffered past persecution. But, the BIA's decision incorporated the reasoning of the IJ, which expressly found that Marroquin did not suffer past persecution in Guatemala. Moreover, the BIA stated that Marroquin had not suffered past persecution based on her relationship to her boyfriend, even though Marroquin traces her claim of past persecution only to that relationship.

Marroquin also contends that there is no basis for finding that she did not suffer past persecution. In doing so, Marroquin relies on what she contends was her testimony that she received threats against her and the child she was expecting at the time from gangs that targeted her because she was dating a member of the Guatemalan police. But, the BIA found, after reviewing Marroquin's testimony, that the threats were directed at her boyfriend in an attempt to get him to cease his investigation, without any indication that [Marroquin's] membership in a particular social group or political opinion were motivating factors for the threats. And, the record provides substantial evidence to support that finding.

The petition for review is denied.

FOOTNOTES

. Marroquin was pregnant when she entered this country, and, in November 2010, while here, she gave birth to a daughter, who is a United States citizen. At oral argument, the panel inquired about whether consideration had been given with respect to the exercise of enforcement discretion in this case, in light of Marroquin's contention that her daughter has a number of medical conditions for which she could not receive adequate care in Guatemala. Counsel for the government responded that Marroquin had earlier sought prosecutorial discretion in this case, but was denied, and did not seek it again. Counsel for the government added that from the state of prosecutorial discretion right now, I don't believe that there would be any relief available at this point.

BARRON, Circuit Judge.
The Billionaire and flamboyant lawyer Donald Kipkorir has dumped the President Uhuru Kenyatta camp and joined Raila Odinga NASA camp. The lawyer who has been so vocal in the Jubilee dumped the camp for a "Democratic Camp" as he described it."I was in the Jubilee camp, but I saw something not add up because the leaders were so selfish and planning things that will undermine the country. I had not other option than decamp to "BABA". I moved out with my friends and now we are joining the Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto to make sure RiftValley is a NASA zone." Said Kipkorir."The Jubilants are liars and Kenya must understand that by giving them another term, they will corrupt the country. I have been in their camp and I know whatever they are planning. People should wake up and vote up that government." he added."I will be with the NASA senior councils led by the Siaya Senator James Orengo and my friend Abdullahi Ahmednasir Maalim in fighting for the Kenyan people from the rogue hands." he said.The Most of Rift Valley tycoons have decamped the jubilee party and will rally behind Raila Odinga's' bid in the coming elections. The majority of people apart from Nandi and UasinGishu counties have decamped to NASA.
The controversial Weston Hotel is on another negative criticism following the cholera outbreak in the hotel. Doctors have confirmed the outbreak and some posted the results on social media cautioning people to avoid the area.The rapid diagnostic test, which is more sensitive, shows I have cholera. Several other doctors have also received positive results," said a medic."I am pregnant so I have been admitted to an isolation ward. Who will pay all these bills? Weston Hotel should just own up." said a customer.Dr Jackson Kioko, Director of Medical Services, said 24 rapid diagnostic tests had returned negative results for cholera.We collected samples from all those who were feeling bad yesterday (Thursday). For the whole night, we prepared the samples tests for febrile cholera turned out negative. Now we only need to do confirmatory tests because those were rapid diagnostic tests, he said.The physician doctors from Nairobi, who should be leading the fight against cholera, are admitted in hospitals and being treated for cholera, said gynaecologist Dr Simon Kigondu.Officials of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union accused the government of the cover-up.So we decided not to report the cholera incident at Weston Hotel and try to cover it up with food poisoning. Iko cholera (There is cholera). Period, said Thuranira Kaugiria, secretary general of Nairobi chapter.They also said a cholera outbreak points to a broken health system.Unethical leaders are those that keep quiet or shut the systems when there is a cholera outbreak, especially at a time when any spread would mean several thousands of deaths given nurses have been on strike for 3 weeks and counting, said KMPDU secretary general Ouma Oluga.The Government has been silent on the Weston Hotel cholera outbreak as the lean towards Lang'ata primary. The Doctors have allegedly the government for undercover as the hotel is close to a public school which keeping the children under risk.
People across the world wished Muslim brothers happy Eid-al-Fitr as they are coming to an end of the holy month. The majority of well able people went to Saudi Arabia to pray for Allah to bless the world and in their respective countries.Eid-al-Fitr is the last day of the holy month of Ramadan, marking an end to a month-long observance of fast from dawn to dusk. In Islam, there are two Eids  Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. On Eid al-Adha, or commonly known as Bakr-Eid or sacrifice feast, sheep or goat is sacrificed and later, their meat is distributed in three parts, among family, friends and the poor.On the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, Muslims break the fast they had been observing for a month in order to feel closer to their god. The day is hugely anticipated by Muslims all across the world and celebrated with a lot of gusto. Friends and family meet and greet each other on this auspicious day, and several delicacies are prepared. The celebrations generally go on for about three days."Throughout the holy month of fasting, the evening meal is usually very rich and meat dominated, once the Ramzan is closed, the following day is celebrated as Eid by eating something sweet the first thing in the morning. It also signifies starting your routine on a sweet note after a month of abstinence and praying," shared Chef Osama Jalali, Masala Trail."One of my fondest memories is associated with cooking Sheer overnight. I used to patiently grate coconut into the preparation. A Lot of people have modified and tweaked the recipe these days, but in my opinion, one must not do away with the dried dates (chuhara) and coconut in the Sheer," concluded Chef Osama.Kenya Chief Kadhi Sheikh Sharif Ahmed Muhdhar said Eid Ul Fitr is expected to be celebrated this Monday, 26th June and might also shift to Tuesday, 27th June depending on the Moon sighting on Sunday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is ready to help Kenyan Opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga win the General Election. The Russian president said that the country will be at risk if the government failed to pay the debts.Putin contrasted Kenya with Malawi saying that Malawi gave all infrastructural contracts to South Africa and later the country's' economy declined as the South African government collected its debts.Putin is unhappy because the Kenya government has allowed China to monopolise huge international infrastructural contracts. Instead of helping Kenya stabilise its poor economy, Uhuru is giving China all government projects on loans, which is worsening the countrys economy, said Putin in Moscow.Putin accepted the request by the Kenyan Opposition leader for assistance to win the next general election to be conducted in August."I will give the opposition leader in Kenya high surveillance equipment and will consult the US president Donald Trump to do the same so that we end election rigging and victimisation. Kenya is a very strategic country in Africa and was to be at the same level with Malaysia, Singapore and Wales. Only bad leadership has deteriorated the country." Added Putin.Putin said Odinga approached him late last year to help him with finances and logistics to win the election.Odinga said that Russia is more advanced technology wise and it will be good and safer for NASA to have their back up in Russia. We all remember the role Russia played in the last US General election and that is the same role I would like them to play in the Kenyan election, Raila told reporters today.Raila Odinga sent a representative in Tanzania where they are making the backup tallying centre in conjunction with NASA space technologists and other highly technically skilled personnel who will embark on moving with high surveillance systems in what they called "Adopt a Polling station" exercise that will be taken care of NASA agents.
President Uhuru Kenyatta was heckled in Meru after he introduced the Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi to the audience. People rejected the senator alleged to be in the forefront frustrating Governor Peter Munya in developing Meru.People rejected Kiraitu Murungi in front of the President in his visit to Meru just some weeks after the NASA brigade visited the area. The Meru residents said that the Jubilee government has sidelined them in development while the government developed their colleagues in central Kenya despite voting for them in 2013.Youths along the Nkubu-Meru road protested the President Uhuru Kenyatta visit in Meru saying the President has sidelined them and has visited Meru only twice since he became the president in 2013. The Youths burnt tyres across the Meru highway saying the president is coming to Meru at the election time after four years of political hardship.The People of Meru have vowed to support Peter Munya despite the President mission to have six pieces in the area. The people told the President Openly that they will not vote for Kithure Kindiki and Kiraitu Murungi in the coming elections because they have frustrated the developments in the area.
A 2011 St. Petersburg murder is now getting national attention.

2011 St. Pete murder to be featured on national crime show

New series "Murder Calls" to air episode of Landy Martinez's murder

Episode to air @ 9 p.m. on June 26 on "Investigation Discovery"

The shooting of Landy Martinez will be on a national crime show that airs on Investigation Discovery on Monday.

An entire episode of the networks new series, Murder Calls, will focus on the December 2011 homicide.

Back then, police had very little to go on when a 21-year-old called 911 pleading for help.

Landys body was later found, shot execution style.

Two members of the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office who worked the case appear in the episode airing Monday.

We dont have a specific address, all we can do at that point is get to the area, start knocking on doors, start checking houses to see if we can hear anybody arguing or fighting.  Whats going on? We received a 911 call, someone in crisis in the area, have you heard anything? Sergeant Rob snipes recalled about that day.

Sergeant Snipes is retired now, but said parts of that case are hard to forget, especially the 911 call.

I think the thing that really sticks out the most is just when you hear 911 calls like that, you know they just stick with you. Its one thing to hear one where someone calls and say I heard something, but when you have a victim thats actually calling in and knows that hes probably about to meet his end, Snipes said.

The producer of the show said this case was chosen because the victim was a positive young man, struck by senseless violence. She also said she wanted to shine a spotlight on the great detective work of the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office in bringing Landys killer, his ex-boyfriend, to justice.

Murder Calls airs at 9 p.m. on Monday, June 26, on Investigation Discovery.
A little over a year ago, Hillsborough County Deputy John Kotfila was killed by a wrong-way driver on the Selmon Expressway. Today, his memory will live on with the grand opening and dedication of the Deputy Kotifla Memorial Dog Park in Tampa.

Tampa dog park named in honor of deputy killed in line of duty

Deputy John Kotfila killed in 2016 by a wrong-way driver

New park named 'Deputy Kotifla Memorial Dog Park'

BAY NEWS 9+ APPS UPGRADED: The new releases have a block-style layout that makes it easier to navigate, as well as an added section for Attractions Insider. A new weather section includes hour-by-hour forecasts and marine buoy data. Update your app today!

Just over a year after his life was taken, the family said their wounds have yet to heal but said the community support has been a big help.

"It's just meant so much it's really meant so much just all the different things that have been done, John Kotfila Sr. said.

The dog park was built to honor Kotfilas strong bond he had with his German Shepard, Dexter.

Kotfila's family said the two did everything together. Dexter now lives with the family in Massachusetts where he serves as a daily reminder to Deputy Kotfila's mother.

"I had sent him a text on the day we were coming down to Florida. I knew he wasn't going to get it, but I told him I'm coming, I'm coming John Robert, and I'll get Dexter, take care of him, and love him as if he were my own son," Terry Kotfila said.

The park is right under the expressway, the same road where Deputy Kotfila was killed in the line of duty last year.

The Kotfila family unveils the monument in front of the Dep. John Kotfila Jr. Memorial Dog Park @BN9 pic.twitter.com/Jimj9xJLtW  Katie Jones (@KJones821) June 24, 2017

Officials said Kotfila drove his cruiser into the path of a wrong-way driver to protect another driver from being hit.

Deputy Kotfila and the wrong-way driver both died in the crash and reports said the driver had been drinking.

Family, friends, and fellow law enforcement remember Deputy Kotfila as a loving and caring guy who always put others before himself.

You can take all the superlatives you want, he was just a great person," John Kotfila Sr. said.

A ceremony was held Saturday to dedicate the park and celebrate the life of Deputy Kotfila. The family was surrounded by the love of fellow Hillsborough County law enforcement that Deputy Kotfila's sister, Katelyn, will soon be part of.

"It was his dream to become a police officer so it's my dream now to keep his dream alive and do it in his honor," Katelyn Kotfila said.

The Deputy John R. Kotfila Memorial Dog Park was built by the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority. The City of Tampa will now maintain it.

Tyler Ellis and Melissa Wroble sent us a picture of their dog, Luna, at the grand opening for the Deputy John Kotfila Memorial Dog Park today.
Ive never liked Mayfields Brown Cows very much. The chocolate coating cracks in all the wrong places, and then the ice cream melts too fast. But Im re-thinking Brown Cows after our most recent Wyoming experience.

I happened to notice a cow in our neighbors pasture, forlornly mooing, and dragging what seemed to be a bucket behind her. I told Andy, and he and Ella trekked out to figure out what was going on. Cullen followed, a bit later.



I watched, while they walked and walked, then I pulled out the binoculars, to follow the situation more closely. The bucket was successfully disengaged, and then they disappeared behind a hill.



Cullen eventually came home, reporting he had been told to go to our other neighbors house (a mile away, driving), to see if they were missing a cow. In the meantime, Andy and Ella started walking, probably half a mile toward that house. The walk is over hills, dodging rabbit holes, and the cow was not always cooperative.

We headed over in the Jeep. We met the whole family for the first time, because they just moved in a couple months ago. They were very nice people, but alas, they were not missing a cow.



By this time, Andy and Ella had walked toward us, with the cow in tow. The only thing to do at that point was to take her back to our house.



While they figured out how to get her out of the pasture (with no gates), we ran back home to get our truck, and Cullen hopped on the four-wheeler. After breaking through the fence, then repairing it again, Andy tied the sweet cow to the bumper of the truck with a steel cable she had been dragging, and walked with her the whole mile home, holding her halter, calming her when she got a little jittery, and coaxing her when she just stopped walking. Meanwhile, I drove very slowly. Let me just say, its very hard to keep a F150 at 2-3 mph. I heard, "slow down" and "speed up" more times than I can recall. The twins followed on the four-wheeler, to provide light.



We pulled into our upper pasture around 10 p.m., and filled a watering tub. But then the question was how we were going to keep her contained, because it was obvious she would easily get through our fences, which are only designed for horse containment.



The solution was to get our old truck, and tether her to the rear bumper.



Shes got plenty of water and grass, until the sheriffs office comes out to figure out who she belongs to. She doesnt have a brand or ear tag, and she has a halter, which makes us think shes someones 4H or FFA project.



Meanwhile, in a phone call with the Branding Inspectors office, I was told that the officer would be here soon, but that he was currently experiencing cell phone difficulties, partially because he was on horseback, on another case.

I thought of Mayfield way too much, through the whole process. As I was driving so slowly, all I could think about was some cottage cheese, ice cream sandwiches, and just regular ice cream. And maybe even a Brown Cow.

----

emmegab@gmail.com


PYONGYANG -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has urged the Republic of Korea (ROK) to start dialogue without making Pyongyang stopping its nuclear and missile programs as a precondition.

The Consultative Council for National Reconciliation made the appeal on Friday, the Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday.

"Are you ready to come out for a dialogue with the DPRK, without raising 'the north's nuclear issue?'" said the DPRK official organ in charge of dealing with inter-Korean relations.

"ROK authorities do not hesitate to reveal their scheme for sanctions against and pressure on the DPRK, finding fault with its legitimate step for bolstering the nuclear force for self-defense," it said.

Other demands for working on national reconciliation include stopping military exercises with the United States, ending collaborations with foreign countries on inter-Korean issues, rejecting UN sanctions and releasing a dozen DPRK women allegedly kidnapped by the ROK intelligence services, said the council.

ROK President Moon Jae-in has said that he would start dialogue with Pyongyang if the latter stops its nuclear and missile programs.
Benjamin Hardin, a land surveyor who came up with a helpful construction fix during the current work on the Chickamauga Lock, is the Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District employee of the month.

Mr. Hardin was recognized for his initiative, ingenuity and hard work in support of the Nashville District.



According to Lt. Col. Stephen F. Murphy, commander, Nashville District, Mr. Hardin is the lone surveyor for the Nashville District. He used his surveyor skill sets and executed a topographic scan survey of the Chickamauga Lock Cofferdam.



I was doing my job and I really love what I do, said Mr. Hardin.



He said 3D modeling and Laser scanning is a relatively new technology and it has quickly become the new industry standard as a way to make very accurate measurements in complicated environments.



With only a days notice, Mr. Hardin produced a full 3D model of the Chickamauga Lock Cofferdam structure which allowed an evaluation that quelled location concerns from a discrepancy with a previous contract.



These models were used to create 3D civil or architectural drawings, 3D computer models, and final survey documents, he said.



Mr. Hardin said the civil engineering industry routinely changes and involves the design and construction of the facilities that shape the world we live in and future. The Corps is involved in every type of engineering from lock and dams, roads, bridges, and railways to waterways and power plants. This is all considered engineering.



Joanne Traicoff, chief, Engineering Services Branch, said Mr. Hardins surveying skill sets are a valuable asset to the Nashville District team.



He (Hardin) quickly learned procedures to use new survey equipment and then overcame several software restrictions so that the new survey results could be viewed in the software program alongside the original Chickamauga Lock cofferdam views previously taken, said Traicoff.



Mr. Traicoff said Mr. Hardin is the lone surveyor for the district and credits his attention to detail and professional competence with saving the district money and preventing significant lost time.



Hes a problem solver and the type of guy that everyone can count on to get the job done right with no discrepancies, said Mr. Traicoff.



Frank Mills, a civil engineer and co-worker in the Engineering-Construction Division, said Mr. Hardin is always cool under pressure, finds solutions, a self-starter and always looks to help others by providing the tools they need to complete their tasks.



He is humble, resourceful, routinely applies ingenuity in solving difficult tasks and well deserving of the award, said Mills.



As for being selected employee of the month, Hardin said the announcement surprised him and he is humbled.



In his off time, Mr. Hardin enjoys spending time visiting parks and new places. He enjoys outdoor activities and specifically fishing. A couple of his favorite places to visit are; the mountains of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina.



He is a native of Maury, North Carolina, and lived at various locations around the county.



Mr. Hardin said he has worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 17 years. Working diligently over the years under the strictest of schedules, he has become proficient at eliminating the logistical hurdles and acquiring the project data. He reminisced about running into several bears while surveying projects, and being approached rapidly by a landowner with an automatic rifle.



I enjoy going to work every day because I experience and see things through my eyes that others dont have the opportunity, said Mr. Hardin.



He said he likes seeing project begin with nothing and watching them evolve.



Civil Engineering Surveyors are involved in every stage of the project from initial concept through design and construction, to monitoring the condition and performance of the completed structure.



While working on the Chickamauga Lock Cofferdam project, Mr. Hardin found a problem, and contacted the software subject matter experts from the manufacturer and also reached out to USACE employees from the Sacramento District. Through his research, he found the solution and resolved the problem.



His efforts allowed the District to move forward with a much greater degree of confidence on the next multi-million dollar phase of the Chickamauga Lock megaproject planned later this year.

Hardin is one of those guys who gets it done. Whose can do attitude is an example for others to emulate, Mr. Murphy said. He is being recognized for doing what the Corps does best  Solutioneering and finding Solutions.



My job is never boring, said Mr. Hardin. The district has some great minds and these people that love what they do, which makes my job whole lot easier. I just want to continue to provide them with the tools they need to get their jobs done.



Mr. Hardins initiative and commitment to the Nashville District mission make him an outstanding employee, according to Lt. Col. Stephen Murphy, Nashville District commander.
Miss Chattanooga Sarah Harris twirled her way to a Talent Award at

Friday's

final round of Miss Tennessee Pageant preliminaries in Jackson.

The former featured twirler for the University of Oklahoma's Pride of Oklahoma marching band electrified the Carl Perkins Civic Center audience with her energetic baton and gymnastics routine to "When Love Takes Over" when she twirled three batons simultaneously and ended with an empathic split on the runway. The 2016 OU graduate with a degree in advertising works at her family owned Knoxville Wholesale Furniture. Ms.

Miss Tennessee 2017 will be crowned late Saturday

night

after the top 16 of the 36 local representatives compete in the finals. The winner will receive a $13,000 scholarship, serve as the Governor's spokesperson for Character Education and as the state's Goodwill Ambassador for Children's Miracle Network. She will also be the state's representative at September's Miss America Pageant. The finals will be web streamed at

starting at

9 p.m

.

Miss Chattanooga representatives have finished in the top five six of the last seven years at the state level. The

Friday

swimsuit preliminary winner was Miss Lexington Caty Davis who as Miss Chattanooga 2016 was the first runner-up to the outgoing Miss Tennessee Grace Burgess.
Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston on June 23 launched a new security campaign to prevent trespassing through its facilities.

New staff training videos target "piggybacking" or "tailgating," which occurs when an employee holds a door open to a secure area for an unauthorized individual, or doesn't realize that someone is following them into the area.

The videos are meant to raise awareness of the dangers to staff, patients, visitors and property that can occur when employees are not aware of others who may follow them into restricted areas.

"It is vitally important for all employees to be aware of everyone in our environment and to ensure that no one accesses our restricted areas without permission," Dave Corbin, director of Security & Parking at BWH, said in a news release.

Two dramatic videos depict worst-case-scenarios that could occur if an unauthorized visitor gains access to a restricted area of the hospital.

"We intended for the videos to be provocative, to invoke a strong reaction, so that they would be memorable," said Erin McDonough, chief communication officer and senior vice president of Communication & Public Affairs at BWH. "In hospitals and healthcare organizations, we work in a culture where our first instinct is to help others. Closing a door to someone feels uncomfortable and impolite, and it contradicts what many of us have been taught from a young age. We need our staff to know the potentially dangerous consequences of enabling people who do not have permission to access restricted areas  whether consciously or unconsciously  and give them tools that empower them to take action."

In addition to the videos, signs will be installed on the hospital's 1,200 card readers and locked doors inside the hospital and at exterior entrances to prompt people to be aware. BWH is also implementing two policies that detail specific actions employees must take if someone follows them into a restricted area.
The following hospital and health system rating and outlook changes and affirmations took place in the last week, beginning with the most recent.

1. Moody's assigns 'A3' to Vanderbilt University Medical Center's bonds

Moody's Investors Service assigned its "A3" rating to Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center's upcoming series 2017A tax-exempt and taxable revenue bonds totaling $117.5 million, which will be fixed rate and mature in 2048 and 2037, respectively.

2. S&P revises North Colorado Medical Center's outlook to negative

S&P Global Ratings affirmed the "A+" rating on Greeley-based North Colorado Medical Center's revenue bonds issued by Colorado Health Facilities Authority.

3.Fitch downgrades East Texas Medical Center Regional Health System's rating to 'B+'

Fitch Ratings downgraded Tyler-based East Texas Medical Center Regional Health System's series 2011 and series 2007A revenue bonds to "B+" from "BBB-," affecting a total of $280 million of debt.

4. Moody's affirms BJC Health's bond ratings

Moody's Investors Service affirmed "Aa2" and "Aa2/VMIG 1" ratings on St. Louis- based BJC Health System's fixed rate revenue bonds and variable rate demand bonds, backed by the system's liquidity.

5. Moody's revises Jackson Hospital and Clinic's outlook to negative

Moody's Investors Service affirmed the "Baa2" rating on Montgomery, Ala.-based Jackson Hospital and Clinic's revenue bonds issued through the Medical Clinic Board of the City of Montgomery, affecting $84 million of outstanding debt.

6. Moody's assigns 'A2' rating to WellStar's bonds

Moody's Investors Service assigned its "A2" rating to Marietta, Ga.-based WellStar Health System's four upcoming series 2017 revenue anticipation certificates and hospital revenue bonds totaling $546.7 million. The certificates and bonds will be at a fixed rate and mature in 2047.

7. Moody's affirms South Lake County Hospital District's 'Baa1' rating

Moody's Investors Service affirmed a "Baa1" rating on Clermont, Fla.-based South Lake County Hospital District, affecting $49.9 million of outstanding debt.

8. Moodys assigns 'VMIG 1' rating to Partners' series 2007 G-6 bonds

Moody's Investors Service assigned a "VMIG 1" short-term rating to Boston-based Partners HealthCare series 2007 G-6 bonds, issued through the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency.

9. Moody's affirms 'A2' rating on Orlando Health

Moody's Investors Service affirmed the "A2" rating on Orlando (Fla.) Health, affecting $769 million of debt issued through Orange Country Health Facilities Authority.

10. Moodys assigns 'Aa3' to Sutter Health's proposed bonds

Moody's Investors Service assigned its "Aa3" rating to Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health's proposed $440 million series 2017A refunding revenue bonds to be issued by California Health Facilities Financing Authority.

11. Moody's affirms 'A2' rating on Baystate Medical Center

Moody's Investors Service affirmed the "A2" rating on Springfield, Mass.-based Baystate Medical Center's $240 million of debt issued through the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency.

12. Moody's affirms 'Ba2' rating on Genesis HealthCare System

Moody's Investors Service affirmed the "Ba2" rating on Zanesville, Ohio-based Genesis HealthCare System's debt issued through the County of Muskingum, Ohio, affecting $292 million of outstanding debt.

13. Moody's affirms 'A1' rating on Valley Health System's bonds

Moody's Investors Service affirmed the "A1" rating on Winchester, Va.-based Valley Health System's revenue bonds issued through the West Virginia Hospital Finance Authority, the Economic Development Authority of the City of Winchester and the Winchester Industrial Development Authority, affecting $179 million of debt.

14. Moody's affirms 'Aa1' rating on Indiana University Health's LOC-backed bonds

Moody's Investors Service affirmed the "Aa1" rating on Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health's revenue bonds backed by Northern Trust Company, TD Bank, Bank of America and BMO Harris Bank.

15. S&P assigns 'AA-' rating to Sutter Health refunding revenue bonds

S&P Global Ratings assigned its "AA-" rating to California Health Facilities Financing Authority's 2017A refunding revenue bonds issued for Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health, affecting $440.9 million in debt.
Google added "confidential, personal medical records of private people" to its removal policy, signaling the company's first step to eliminating sensitive health information from its search results.

The tech giant updated the list of content it reserves the right to remove from search results June 22, according to Bloomberg. Under the revision, private medical records will be considered "sensitive personal information," which also includes information like individuals' Social Security, bank account and credit card numbers.

Prior to June 22, Google's most recent change to its removal policy took place in 2015, when it added a category related to "nude or sexually explicit images that were uploaded or shared without ... consent," according to The Guardian.

The decision follows several information security incidents that demonstrated how medical records may be posted online. A pathology lab in India unintentionally uploaded more than 43,000 patient records in December, according to Bloomberg, which were indexed in Google's search results.

The removal policy targets personal information that "creates significant risks of identity theft, financial fraud or other specific harms," according to Google. The search engine applies its right to remove content on a case-by-case basis, in part by reviewing individual requests submitted online.

Click here to view Google's removal policy.
Stay in the know with Becker's Hospital Review's weekly roundup of the nation's biggest healthcare news. Here's what you need to know this week.

1. S&P 500 healthcare sector hits record high on Senate healthcare bill

Hospital and insurer stocks recorded sharp gains on Thursday after Senate Republicans released the discussion draft of their long-awaited healthcare bill, according to Reuters.

2. Senate GOP reveals healthcare bill: 8 things to know

Senate Republicans revealed the discussion draft Thursday morning of their long-awaited healthcare bill, dubbed the "Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017." Click here to read 10 reactions on the bill from various healthcare organizations.

3. Healthcare stocks rally before Senate GOP releases bill

Fueled by biotechnology shares, the S&P 500 healthcare sector surpassed all other major groups this month, and positive gains in the sector are expected to continue, according to Reuters.

4. 4 things to know about Trump's executive order on drug pricing

A draft of President Donald Trump's executive order on drug prices lists several proposals to roll back regulatory hurdles for the pharmaceutical industry, reports The New York Times.

5. 9 notes on the 2018 proposed rule for MACRA's Quality Payment Program

CMS issued the proposed rule June 20 for the 2018 performance year of the Quality Payment Program under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act. In the second year of the QPP, the agency hopes to further streamline reporting requirements, while maintaining Medicare quality and continuing to push providers toward value-based care.

6. Anthem vacates 2018 ACA exchanges in Indiana, Wisconsin

Indianapolis-based Anthem said it will pull out of the ACA exchanges in Indiana and Wisconsin for 2018, according to Bloomberg.

7. Iowa's only statewide ACA exchange insurer requests 43% premium hike

Minnetonka, Minn.-based Medica, the only payer offering ACA exchange plans statewide in Iowa for 2018, seeks an average 43.5 percent rate increase for individual plans next year, Live Well Nebraska reports.

8. Change of plan: Adventist to close Washington hospital, medical group

Roseville, Calif.-based Adventist Health called off plans to transfer ownership of its 72-bed Walla Walla (Wash.) General Hospital to Renton, Wash.-based Providence Health & Services and is instead closing the facility  along with its affiliated home health division and medical group  July 24.

9. Kansas passes exemption of conceal and carry law for hospitals

The University of Kansas Health System, state psychiatric hospitals and nursing homes will not be required to uphold the state's concealed carry gun law after a bill was passed June 15 without Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's signature, the Kansas City Business Journal reported.

10. Patient takes state trooper's gun, shoots nurse at Florida hospital

A patient at West Marion Community Hospital in Ocala, Fla., was arrested June 18 after authorities say he took a state trooper's gun and shot a nurse, according to WFTV.
From a Georgia hospital suing an insurer to a paramedic filing a lawsuit against a New York City hospital over its dress code, here are the latest healthcare industry lawsuits and settlements making headlines.

1. Georgia hospital says it risks closure due to underpayments by BCBS

Cornerstone Medical Center in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., sued Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, alleging reduced and delayed payments from the insurer could put the hospital out of business.

2. Missouri AG sues drugmakers for fraudulent opioid advertising

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state against Purdue Pharma, Endo Health Solutions and Janssen Pharmaceuticals for allegedly engaging in fraudulent opioid advertising.

3. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong faces lawsuit over pharmaceutical company acquisition

Los Angeles billionaire and biotech entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, was sued by two Washington, D.C., lawyers over the acquisition of Altor Bioscience Corp., a Miramar, Fla.-based pharmaceutical and immunotherapy company.

4. Theranos agrees to pay Walgreens less than $30M to settle breach of contract lawsuit

Palo Alto, Calif.-based blood testing startup Theranos told investors it has reached an agreement in principle to pay less than $30 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens.

5. SCOTUS decision reduces drugmakers' product liability

The U.S. Supreme Court sided with Bristol-Myers Squibb in a case that could make it more difficult for patients to sue major corporations in state courts over injuries caused by the companies' products.

6. Genesis HealthCare to pay $53.6M to settle 6 false billing cases

Kennett Square, Pa.-based Genesis HealthCare agreed to pay the federal government $53.6 million to settle six lawsuits alleging some of its facilities violated the False Claims Act.

7. Paramedic sues NYC hospital over dress code

An orthodox Jewish paramedic is suing NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, claiming the academic medical center will not allow her to wear skirts while on the job.

8. Patient takes state trooper's gun, shoots nurse at Florida hospital

A patient at West Marion Community Hospital in Ocala, Fla., was arrested June 18 after authorities say he took a state trooper's gun and shot a nurse.

More articles on legal and regulatory issues:

6 latest lawsuits involving hospitals

Georgia pharmacy, pharmacist to pay $2.2M to settle false billing case

Lawsuit claims Houston Methodist secretly taped patient calls
The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a record $120 million fine against a Miami man who the FCC says violated telecommunications laws by making more than 96 million falsified robocalls.

The FCC claims Adrian Ambramovich, through his companies, used a tactic known as "neighbor spoofing," which tricks people into answering phone calls by falsifying caller ID information to make it appear calls are from local numbers, according to the report.

The FCC said Spok, a healthcare communications solutions provider that serves hospitals, emergency rooms and physicians, complained to the commission in 2016 about robocalls that were disrupting its network. The FCC used the information provided by Spok to trace the calls back to Mr. Ambramovich.

Neighbor spoofing is only illegal if used to defraud or cause harm to others, which is what the FCC contends Mr. Ambramovich did.

Mr. Ambramovich is accused of using the spoofing technique to offer consumers vacation deals from well-known companies such as Marriott International and Expedia. The consumers were ultimately connected to foreign call centers where salespeople pushed travel deals that were not affiliated with the well-known brands mentioned on the pre-recorded message at the start of the call.

Mr. Ambramovich has 30 days to respond to the FCC's proposal. Any fine will be issued after the commission considers his response.

More articles on legal and regulatory issues:

6 latest lawsuits involving hospitals

Genesis HealthCare to pay $53.6M to settle 6 false billing cases

Patient takes state trooper's gun, shoots nurse at Florida hospital
Here are 19 key notes on orthopedic and spine device companies from the past week.

Mazor Robotics strengthened its leadership team with new appointments and expanded responsibilities:

 Oren Zarchin, PhD, will lead the company's new Product Development Group as vice president of product development, effective Aug. 1.

 Eli Zehavi will head the Advanced Technology Group as executive vice president of advanced technologies, effective Aug. 1.

 Joshua Belkar will serve in the newly created position of vice president of operations and service, effective July 16.

 Christopher Prentice, CEO of Mazor Inc. (U.S. Subsidiary), will take on the additional role of chief commercial officer, effective immediately.

 CFO Sharon Levita will take on the additional role of vice president of business operations, effective immediately.

Mazor Robotics is facing a class action litigation suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Stryker purchased NOVADAQ Technologies for $701 million.

In a report from Glassdoor, Stryker CEO Kevin Lobo was ranked No. 57 on Glassdoor's highest rated CEOs 2017 Employees' Choice list.

Stryker donated specialized drill sets, valued at $375,000, to Cincinnati-based Mayfield Education & Research Foundation.

Jon Stryker, an heir to the Kalamazoo, Mich.-based medical device giant Stryker, is the top philanthropist in the state of Michigan since 2000.

In 2016, Medtronic led the U.S. surgical navigation systems market, which is slated to reach $132.7 million by 2023.

Implanet received FDA clearance from U.S. and European regulatory authorities to market its updated JAZZ braid.

The FDA cleared Meditech Spine's Talos Lumbar (HA) Peek IBF.

K2M unveiled its SAHARA AL Expandable Stabilization System.

Pittsburgh-based Allegheny General Hospital joined InVivo Therapeutics' INSPIRE study.

SpineGuard announced its exclusive distribution agreement with XinRong Medical Group for PediGuard in China, Hong Kong and Macau.

DePuy Synthes launched its Distal Radius Sterile Kit, a pre-sterilized, single-use kit of instruments and implants to treat wrist fractures.

The FDA granted approval for ConforMIS' iTotal Hip system.

Zyga Technologies obtained a patent updating the company's SImmetry Decorticator.

Nuvectra filed a regulatory submission with the FDA for full-body MRI-conditional approval for its Algovita SCS system.

Camber Spine Technologies named Grant Newsom and Doug Wyciskalla new area sales directors.

The Medicrea Group earned FDA clearance for its UNiD HUB.

The Medicrea Group showcased its UNiD ASI technology for Adaptive Spine Intelligence at the State of Spine Surgery Think Tank in Los Cabos, Mexico, from June 15 to June 17.
The global neurosurgery market is expected to grow through 2021, according to a Persistence Market Research analysis.

Here are six takeaways:

1. North America and Europe lead the market due to:

 More patients with neurological disorders

 Greater availability of advanced neurosurgery technology

 More research and development

 Enhanced healthcare infrastructure

2. The Asia neurosurgery market will register the highest growth rate through 2021, because of a spike in R&D activities and more government funding support. Additionally, more awareness about neurological disorders and accessibility to treatments will boost the market.

3. Specifically, India, China and Japan will dominate the Asian neurosurgery market.

4. The costliness of neurosurgery equipment, strict regulations and unfavorable reimbursements will hinder market growth, though.

5. Key neurosurgery market trends include adoption of neurostimulation devices; boost in the number of mergers and acquisitions; quick product launches; and more partnerships.
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The Trump Administration Just Wiped Out Funds For A Chicago Group That Fights Neo-Nazism

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jun 24, 2017 5:01AM



Christian Picciolini

The Trump administration announced on Friday that it had eliminated a federal grant for a Chicago-based organization that works to counteract white extremism and neo-Nazism.

Life After Hate was supposed to receive a $400,000 grant as part of the Countering Violent Extremism initiative. The Department of Homeland Security issued the initial grant announcement in January. But that was under the Obama administrations tenure; and the funds never materialized after the presidential transition. On Friday, DHS announced a new list of grant recipients, and Life After Hate was nowhere to be found.

Life After Hate, which was founded in Chicago in 2011, works to educate and de-radicalize people away from far-right, white supremacist groups around the country. The organization was founded by Christian Picciolini, a reformed neo-Nazi skinhead from Blue Island and current West Loop resident.

This sends a message loud and clear by the new administration that they do not support or believe the idea that white extremism is a domestic threat, when the facts clearly prove otherwise," Picciolini told Chicagoist via email. "Eliminating the only group that has a proven track record of disengaging white extremists, especially during a massive spike in violent hate crime activity across the nation is a slippery slope.

As Picciolini stressed in an interview with Chicagoist in November, white nationalists are responsible for more deaths in America since 9/11 than any foreign or domestic group combined.

Reuters reported in February that the Trump administration was seeking to redesign the Countering Violent Extremism program to shift its focus squarely against Islamist extremism. Representatives from DHS did not immediately return a request for comment from Chicagoist. But in speaking with Mother Jones, a spokesperson denied that the department had turned its attention squarely on Islamic radicalization with Fridays announcement.

This most recent list of recipients does not include any groups that expressly target far-right hate groups. The latest awardees in the CVEs Managing Interventions categoryunder which Life After Hate was previously selectedincludes the Alameda County Sheriffs Office, the City of Los Angeles Mayors Office of Public Safety, and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

DHS reportedly said that factors such as whether a group was viable to continue after the award period and whether an organization had a demonstrated history of fighting violent extremism were weighed in how grants were distributed.

But according to Picciolini, the grant criteria were "completely revised without any notice" and not communicated to Life After Hate.

I would like to know what the new criteria is and how we were scored, he said. It appears that Life After Hate was the only original awardee (aside from those that refused the grant) that was dropped. I was also told [Friday] morning that because we only focused on helping people disengage from one type of violent extremism -- white supremacist extremism -- our focus was considered not broad enough. This, after years of the CVE program only focusing on what the new administration is now calling "radical islamic terror," is a bit of a farce actually.

In a bitter irony, Life After Hate had actually intended to use its grant award in part to combat IS-inspired extremism as well, by setting up an online intervention program that directed half its efforts to that focus, according to Picciolini.

Picciolini said he doesn't imagine that the grant loss will be an existential threat for the organization, but it will diminish its reach during a critical moment. "This only impedes our ability to scale at a time when we are inundated with requests to help," he said. "My hope is that our inability to scale on schedule will not force us to miss an opportunity to off-ramp the next Dylann Roof."

The number of requests received by Life After Hate from people looking to de-radicalizeor get help for others in need of reformationhas shot up 20-fold since Donald Trumps election.

Update:

DHS spokesperson Lucia Martinez told Chicagoist in an email:



"After the initial announcement of Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Grant Program awardees, DHS utilized its discretion to consider other factors and information when reviewing each applicant. The Department considered whether applicants for CVE awards would partner with law enforcement, had a strong basis of prior experience in countering violent extremism, had a history of prior efforts to implement prevention programs targeting violent extremism, and were viable to continue after the end of the award period. These additional priorities were applied to the existing pool of applicants. Top scoring applications that were consistent with these priorities remained as awardees, while others did not."
Raja Ranguski is written and directed by Burma fame Dharanidharan and is produced by Vasan production in association with Burma talkies. The film stars Metro Shirish and Chandini in the lead roles.



Raja Ranguski is in the post-production stage, and music composer Yuvan Shankar Raja who had seen the movie for the process of re-recording has apparently told the team that it is the best movie he has watched recently. Raja Ranguski team is cloud nine after hearing Yuvans compliment.
Queen Elizabeth II wearing the Imperial State Crown and the Duke of Edinburgh in uniform of Admiral of the Fleet as they wave from the balcony to the onlooking crowds around the gates of Buckingham Palace after the Coronation

(Left to right) Earl Spencer, Prince William, Prince Harry and The Prince of Wales at the funeral of Diana

In a startling disclosure, Prince Harry this week said he didnt think any member of the Royal family wanted to be King or Queen. So, what if the top job was up for grabs? We asked two writers, Tony Macaulay and Una Brankin, to consider the qualities needed to be a popular and successful monarch  and how they saw themselves in the role if they received the summons.

At the court of King Tony

I believe Prince Harry when he says he doesn't think anyone in the Royal family wants to be King or Queen. I think he's a genuine guy. His openness about the loss of his mother and his willingness to talk publicly about his own mental health suggests to me that Harry is a courageous and compassionate man. These are good qualities for a King or a Queen. I believe the prince is sincere when he adds that his family will do their duty for the good of the people.

The same prince who was once dismissed by many as a spoiled, privileged and irresponsible young man is now widely regarded as brave, honest and a good role model. His commitment to breaking the stigma of men talking openly about our feelings is inspiring and will ultimately save many lives.

It's interesting how we assume people with great wealth can have anything they want. This is not true. I think the young royals want to be ordinary.

They don't want their behaviour restricted. They want to have a private life. But they cannot have that which they desire most.

It's remarkable how the Royal family has changed in my lifetime. I remember when I was growing up at the top of the Shankill Road in Belfast thinking unutterable, disloyal thoughts about the Royal family. It seemed to me that the Queen Mother couldn't possibly love us as much as we loved her.

By the end of the 20th century, as society became more informal and less deferential, the Windsors appeared to be increasingly cold, stuffy and remote. The week of Princess Diana's death was a turning point, when people began asking 'Where is our Queen?' and the public mood moved from grief to anger. The Queen listened and changed just enough to restore and then increase the affection of her people and maintain the stability and tradition of the monarchy.

In recent weeks, it was fascinating to see the contrasting images of the Queen and Prime Minister visiting the scene of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. The Queen appeared closer to the people than the PM. Prince William was there too, talking to traumatised families, away from the cameras just like his late mother.

The Queen appears to be allowing the young royals to redefine the monarchy for the era of King William and I think it's working. We are seeing a new model of monarchy emerging that earns, rather than demands respect, and which attracts, rather than commands, followers.

I'm certain that the next generation of the Royal family will do their duty.

However, if there is a vacancy, and no one else is willing to come forward, I'm prepared to offer my humble service as King Tony. As the first monarch from up the Shankill I promise that I would be a fair but kindly king.

I would be more Yul Brynner than Henry VIII. During my reign, there would be less formality and I would remain close to my subjects.

I would build on the work of the Duke of Edinburgh Award by creating a King Tony Award, compulsory for all 18-year-olds. I would do my duty. However, I confess that with such great power I would indulge some of my own personal whims.

My royal image would have a full head of hair on all coins and stamps and there would be wi-fi in the royal carriages. Buckingham Palace would become a hostel for homeless people and I would relocate to a renovated Floral Hall at Bellevue, even with the risk of my corgis running amok in Belfast Zoo.

Instead of summers stalking deer at the Royal Castle in Balmoral I would spend my summers sipping beer on the Royal Yacht in Portrush. All remaining red telephone boxes would be repainted Tardis blue. I would command Abba to reform for the Royal Variety Performance to sing Dancing Queen one last time for Queen Lesley in the Grand Opera House in Belfast.

My first Birthday Honours List would include Sir Julian Simmons and Dame May McFettridge. And, of course, as the first former Belfast paperboy to be King I would permit a royal seal of approval on the front page of every Belfast Telegraph saying Delivered By Royal Appointment, So It Is.

Little House On The Peace Line: Living On the Other Side by Tony Macaulay, is available from Amazon, priced 9.99

At the court of Queen Una

Theres a fine line between openness and over-sharing ones feelings, particularly when it sounds like baseless moaning.

Prince Harry has fallen into the trap and is getting a bashing for whinging and soul baring the exact tendencies which landed both his parents in hot water over the course of their privileged lifetimes.

The young prince was too young to learn the art of media manipulation from his mother, an expert, by all accounts. But no-one with any compassion, who watched the wretched little 12-year-old having to follow Dianas coffin in a lengthy and very public funeral procession 20 years ago, could wholly condemn Harry for his recent comments in an American magazine, in which he doubted that any one of the Royal family wants to be king or queen.

If hed qualified the remark with for the time being, given the great jobs grannys doing  which he probably meant  he could have avoided the furore.

Prince William is already doing a junior kings job, and from what I hear from people who have met both princes, they appear to be genuinely engaged in their royal duties and interested in the stories of the great unwashed they meet at the endless events and award ceremonies theyre obliged to attend.

Other people Ive interviewed recently have expressed their indebtedness to Harry for his candour on his grief over his mothers death and the belated counselling he received for the vast, silent expanse that comes after.

Quite poetic for someone whos been described as not the brightest, like his mother before him, who famously admitted she was as thick as two short planks. Under the circumstances, he seems to be trying to do his best with his royal role.

Obviously, the palaces PR team know that mental health is a hot topic, and one most pertinent in regard to the mercurial Diana.

They recognise that William and Harry make the perfect poster boys for mental health awareness, young men making the aloof Windsors more human  modernising the monarchy, to quote Harry.

Williams dad-dancing and Harrys nude partying have played their part, too, in making them more relatable to their sniggering subjects, and its commendable that they arent constantly excoriating the media for invading their personal privacy.

Harry had to draw the line when it comes to his girlfriend, actress Meghan Markle, but thats fair enough. Whatever he does in his public role, hes entitled to a private life away from scrutiny. And the poor fellow has had enough to put up with all those spurious rumours about Major James Hewitt being his father  a chronological impossibility.

Now, Ive been told by a psychic that I was Mary, Queen of Scots, in a previous life, and Ive been accused in the past of being a bit of a princess, not in the most complimentary way (I cant help it if I have medieval royal blood ...).

As a modern monarch, I wouldnt like paparazzi in my face constantly, especially when Ive no make-up on. They wouldnt have any fun chasing me, anyway, as I rarely go out at night, dont drink and dont have affairs.

Id hate a job that entailed winning peoples hearts, but Id feel so guilty about having all that taxpayers loot that Id go about giving most of it away to hard luck cases and deserving family and friends.

Id keep enough for all the luxuries that I currently lack: five-star holidays, a decent car, designer clothes, Sky Movies and maybe even a swimming pool.

But as Im not extravagant, I could forgo the huge royal allowance and command that it be put to better use, such as more money for carers, nurses and teachers.

Id pass a royal decree that would make forgiveness compulsory in everyones New Years resolutions, and Id suggest that obnoxious urban 4x4s and selfies (unless theyre of groups of people) are outlawed.

Id campaign for positive-thinking classes in primary and secondary schools and Id try to banish old-age loneliness by suggesting the blocking of inheritances for negligent family members and fair-weather friends.

Yes, Id be a right laughing stock. But apart from my fellow over-privileged, I think Id be popular.
A swindler who scammed more than 4,500 from a Northern Ireland woman and her family to pay for flights to their wedding in the US has been jailed.

Matt Jaeger was sentenced to 12 months after appearing at Londonderry Magistrates' Court yesterday.

The 50-year-old told his victim, who is from Londonderry and to whom he was engaged following a whirlwind romance, that he owned a ranch at Fort Worth in Texas where their wedding would take place.

However, his fiancee's brother became suspicious when no plane tickets arrived for the trip to Dallas.

Jaeger, from Albany Street Lane in Edinburgh, was later arrested and eventually pleaded guilty to taking money from two of his fiancee's credit card accounts and defrauding her and her family of 4,560.

A prosecution solicitor told District Judge Barney McElholm that Jaeger went to ground after committing the offences between July 31, 2010, and November 11, 2011. She said Jaeger was eventually traced and arrested following an extensive PSNI investigation, assisted by Interpol.

The prosecutor said that when he committed the offences, Jaeger worked with a company in Scotland and the victim's son had applied for a job with the firm.

"As part of the application process, the defendant travelled to the injured party's home to interview her son in her presence," she said. "The interview was on February 24, 2010. The following day, the defendant arrived at the injured party's work place and took her for a coffee."

A relationship started and he left Northern Ireland the next day to return to Scotland. The relationship developed through "phone calls and emails".

The prosecutor said Jaeger told his victim he couldn't return to Northern Ireland because his father was dying and he himself had been injured in a road traffic accident.

"In July 2010, the defendant came to Northern Ireland on a ferry, with his dog, as a foot passenger," she added.

"He told the injured party he wanted to stay with her in her home. On July 17, 2010, the defendant and the injured party were at a function and at the function the defendant proposed to her and she accepted."

Jaeger told his now fiancee that his passport, wallet and credit cards had been stolen, and she financed him.

The wedding was arranged for November 19, 2010, at the ranch he said he owned in Fort Worth, Texas. "In preparation for the wedding in Texas the defendant told the injured party that he had a friend called Martin who owned a company which purchased corporate flight tickets at reduced prices," the prosecutor added. "He said he could obtain cheap flights to Texas but that they would have to be paid for in cash."

The injured party and seven members of her family gave Jaeger 4,560 for the flights but, as the wedding day neared, the victim's brother became suspicious because no tickets had arrived. Jaeger said there had been a mix-up and that the tickets would be issued soon.

On November 2, 2010, Jaeger said he was going for a job interview in Austria.

On November 10, just nine days before the wedding, he told his fiancee that his friend Martin's business had gone under. Jaeger did not return to Northern Ireland but continued to email his fiancee, once telling her he was in hospital being treated for cancer.

The prosecutor said Jaeger's offending was uncovered by a combination of the suspicions of his fiancee's brother and because of letters from two of the victim's credit card companies stating her accounts were overdrawn.

Most of the unapproved transactions were carried out outside Northern Ireland.

The solicitor said the PSNI and Interpol believed Jaeger had committed similar offences in Scotland, England and possibly in the US, but his victims had not made complaints against him because of their shame and embarrassment.

The injured party had scraped together money to fully repay her family members who had been duped by Jaeger, and her credit card companies, Marks and Spencer and Capital One, had reimbursed her and absorbed the losses.

The prosecutor said when Jaeger was eventually tracked down on August 23 last year he originally denied the offences before latterly pleading guilty.

Defence barrister Stephen Mooney said when he read the evidence in the case against Jaeger he was taken aback by the bizarre and astonishing criminality perpetrated by him. He said the evidence against Jaeger was colossal.

"His guilty pleas are unequivocal pleas," Mr Mooney said.

The barrister said there were no psychiatric issues in the case, nor was Jaeger a Walter Mitty character. "Quite simply, the case is what it is," he said.

Mr Mooney said in mitigation that Jaeger had pleaded guilty and had come before the court with a clear record.

He said the offences were not of a sexual nor of a violent nature.

Jailing Jaeger for the maximum of 12 months, Judge McElholm said his offences were absolutely despicable.

"He wormed his way into this family and then he preyed upon them," he stated.

"He then has the gall to stand before me and ask me not to send him to prison, but he has not produced one penny piece in compensation for his victims.

"This is a man who has had since 2010 to compensate the people he defrauded and swindled. He has shown himself to be nothing but a dishonest rogue."

Mr McElholm also ordered Jaeger to pay compensation of 4,560 to his victims and to pay 300 to Capital One and 556 to Marks and Spencer credit card companies, and gave Jaeger six months to pay.

The judge refused to release Jaeger on bail pending an appeal which will not take place until September at the earliest.
The family of a schoolgirl shot dead by the Army in Londonderry has lodged an application for a new inquest more than 40 years after her death.

Fresh evidence has emerged linked to the death of Annette McGavigan (14) in September 1971.

It includes previously unseen film footage of the aftermath of the shooting at Abbey Street, and a recent pathologist's report that suggested she died from a direct shot to her head.

This contradicts evidence presented to the jury at the previous inquest, which concluded the bullet that killed the schoolgirl had "deflected or ricocheted".

Annette, who was a pupil at St Cecilia's, was wearing her school uniform when she was fatally injured.

She was the first child to die as a result of the Troubles and is featured on one of the Bogside Murals, entitled 'The Death of Innocence'.

A solicitor acting on behalf of the family lodged the application for a fresh inquest with the Attorney General John Larkin in court yesterday.

Annette's sister May Nicholls commented: "We continue to seek justice for our sister Annette.

"The full content of the MoD (Ministry of Defence) files has still not been disclosed, even 45 years after her killing.

"Our last resort is to apply to the Attorney General for Northern Ireland for a fresh inquest to examine in detail the available evidence and the full circumstances of Annette's killing."

The family claim the jury at the original inquest was presented with "inaccurate and incomplete information", which included a pathology report that concluded the cause of death was a deflected or ricocheted bullet.

Patricia Coyle of Harte Coyle Collins Solicitors & Solicitor Advocates said enough new evidence had been discovered to warrant a fresh inquest.

Ms Coyle explained: "We have submitted this application for a fresh inquest on the basis of four strands of new evidence. These include modern pathology evidence and analysis in relation to the gunshot wound to the head sustained by Annette; previously unseen military witness statements which were not submitted to the 1972 inquest; previously unseen film footage which records the direct aftermath of the shooting, and confirmation from a recent court hearing that the MoD hold an intelligence report in relation to that shooting which remains undisclosed."

Ms Coyle added: "There is a significant amount of evidence which was not before the 1972 inquest.

"This evidence, and the circumstances of Annette's death, merit proper judicial consideration by our courts.

"We remain concerned, however, that - even if the Attorney General grants a fresh inquest in this case - the infrastructure to support the family in their pursuit of information and justice remains effectively 'locked down' and obstructed because of the current political situation."
The family of a young man who was hospitalised after collapsing at the Belsonic music festival in Belfast have released dramatic photographs of him, urging other young people not to take drugs.

Jamie Lindsay's family hope these harrowing images of their son lying unconscious in a hospital bed will shock Northern Ireland's youth into staying away from excessive drinking and illegal substances.

Jamie was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital from Belsonic at Belfast's Ormeau Park on Monday night.

Because the Co Down man had been using a fake ID at the festival, the wrong parents were told their son was on life support, as revealed by the Belfast Telegraph earlier this week.

Jamie's father posted the images on Facebook, with a lengthy appeal to other young people to be cautious.

The graphic images included one of Jamie on a ventilator, and another of him vomiting into a kidney dish.

Writing in the online post that has been shared more than 6,000 times, Simon Lindsay said his boy had made "the worst mistake he has ever made and almost paid for it with his life".

He went on to issue a "don't do drugs" message to other young people.

Mr Lindsay wrote: "On Monday night we received the most scary news ever about our son Jamie. Jamie went to Belsonic with his friends - but he made the worst mistake he has ever made and almost paid for it with his life. Jamie had been drinking and made a drunken decision that he now regrets. We are so angry with Jamie for what he done. We will not lie for him or condone what he did."

The distraught father said Jamie's friends called to say his son was "in trouble". As he was driving to Belsonic, a doctor from the RVH rang from Jamie's mobile phone to say he was on life support.

Because of the ID mix-up, Mr Lindsay and his partner had to wait until hospital staff verified they were his parents before they were allowed to see their boy.

"Jamie had used another boy's ID and we regret that the other boy's family received that awful, devastating news and we apologise to his parents for this. Jamie got this ID off a friend who bought it from the owner last year," Mr Lindsay claimed.

"When we got to the Royal Victoria Hospital, initially we couldn't get to see Jamie until it was proven he was Jamie and we were in fact his parents. We thought at the time that this delay was because we had lost Jamie.

"When we did get to his bedside we were shocked at the sight. Jamie was transferred to the City Hospital ICU on life support. Jamie miraculously recovered and has had the luckiest escape ever. Others have not been as lucky. We cannot thank enough the medical staff at both hospitals and the medics who attended to him at the concert."

Jamie has since come off life support and is now back at home with his family.

Mr Lindsay added: "Jamie is now recovering at home. He has a second chance at life and I hope he takes it with both hands. He will now face whatever consequences or punishments that may come his way."

The distraught father also hit out at a practice of selling IDs, which he claimed is rife across Northern Ireland.

"I know young kids are buying these IDs or 'renting' these for weekends. This has to stop. Next time it might not turn out so lucky as Jamie fortunately was. Make sure your kids are not carrying these IDs please, and also make sure your 18-year-olds are not 'losing' or 'renting' them out."

The concerned dad added: "1 - Don't take drugs - Simple - they kill you. One pill can kill. 2 - Don't drink to excess - you are in danger of making yourself ill and will also lead to bad decision-making. 3 - Stop carrying these IDs belonging to others. The implications of this are now so clear to us and the other family of the boy it belonged too."

He continued: "Don't think my kids won't do this - I thought that. It can happen to anyone at any time, unfortunately."

It is not known what age Jamie is, and his father did not respond to attempts to contact him yesterday.

A PSNI spokesman said of the incident that officers were first contacted at 8.15pm on Monday by a hospital worker following the admission of a male who had collapsed at the Belsonic music festival.

Police added that, earlier this week, they had arrested six youths aged between 14 and 19 at Belsonic for drugs, indecency and public order offences.

Chief Inspector Kirkpatrick commented: "That number should be viewed in the context of the 15,000 people who were there to enjoy the music."

Belsonic runs until June 30 and has been drawing crowds all week. It was headlined by Arcade Fire who opened the festival last Tuesday. The series of open-air gigs has also featured concerts by The 1975, Jess Glynne, Cream Classical and Martin Garrix.
The army officer who ordered his men to open fire the night a pregnant teenager was killed in a west Belfast shooting 45 years ago, has been accused by a lawyer of manufacturing a story about the presence of three terrorist gunmen.

Marian Brown was 17 when she was shot dead in Roden Street in June 1972. She had just kissed her boyfriend Thomas Corrigan goodnight shortly before 1am when she was shot in the neck.

It has never been proven who killed her, and it remains disputed whether soldiers or terrorist gunmen in a passing car fired the shots that night.

A new inquest was ordered after questions emerged over the velocity of the bullets used.

Yesterday, the commanding officer on Roden Street that night was questioned in court.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, he was referred to only as Soldier E, and insisted that three gunmen were there that evening - the first firing a machine gun from a moving car - and that he had ordered the soldiers to return fire to protect civilians and themselves.

He added that he was unaware a civilian was killed until his debriefing later that night.

This was challenged by a barrister for the Brown family, Fiona Doherty, who said Soldier E's story was contradicted by the testimony of seven civilian witnesses who were on Roden Street that night.

In addition, three other soldiers - named B, C and D - had said they had not seen a car or other gunmen. Only one other witness, Soldier A, has asserted the car and other gunmen were there. On Thursday, Soldier A was accused in court by Ms Doherty of "taking part in a cover-up".

On the night Marian Brown was killed, Soldier E was in charge of a vehicle checkpoint on Roden Street.

He said all his men had SLR rifles which fired a single shot at a time, and that he became suspicious when five civilians walked on to Roden Street.

Soldier E added that, moments later, a car began "creeping round the corner" with machine gun shots aimed at the civilians coming from the back seat.

He said he shouted at civilians to get down and ordered his men to return fire.

Soldier E said he fired three rounds at the car and a further two at a third gunman firing a pistol from outside 26 Roden Street.

Ms Doherty questioned why he had not mentioned shouting at civilians to get down in his original statements.

He insisted: "That's what I would have done."

At this point Marian Brown's brother, Richard Brown, who was facing the soldier, began shaking his head. Addressing him, Soldier E said: "Don't shake your head, please don't do that to me."

Ms Doherty called his order to return fire "reckless in the extreme," however Soldier E said not returning fire "would have left civilians in a dangerous position".

Questioning differences with his original testimony, Ms Doherty asserted there had been no gunman at 26 Roden Street, meaning Soldier E had two shots unaccounted for.

"I've no reason to deviate," he said.

"I know what perjury is. I'm not going to lie as a witness. My statement is what I saw on that night."

Ms Doherty concluded by asking: "I suggest you knew there were civilian casualties. You manufactured the story and thought you could get away with, and would never be charged."

Soldier E responded: "No ma'am."

The inquest continues.
Aaron Harbinson (centre), son of John Harbinson, a victim of Gary Haggarty leaves court in tears following killers guilty pleas

A former 'brigadier' of the south east Antrim UVF turned supergrass has been jailed for life after he pleaded guilty to 200 terrorist-related charges, including five counts of murder.

Gary Haggarty admitted all 200 charges following an eight-year police investigation.

There was a heavy PSNI presence both inside and outside the court for the arraignment proceedings yesterday, and the public gallery was packed with relatives of Haggarty's victims.

Haggarty (45), formerly of Rush Park on the northern outskirts of Belfast but now with an address as c/o PSNI Knocknagoney in east Belfast, stood in the dock of Belfast Crown Court flanked by two officers from the Tactical Support Group as the lengthy list of charges spanning a 16-year period from 1991 until 2007 was read out. The father-of-three pleaded guilty to:

The murder of John Harbinson, who was beaten to death with iron bars in Mount Vernon on dates between May 16 and May 19, 1997.

The murder of father-of-four Sean McParland, who was shot dead at a house in north Belfast while babysitting his grandchildren on February 24, 1994.

The murder of Gary Convie and Eamon Fox at a building site at North Queen Street on May 17, 1994.

The murder of Sean McDermott, who was found shot dead in a car in Antrim on August 28, 1994.

Haggarty admitted a further 195 charges which included:

Five counts of attempted murder.

23 counts of conspiracy to murder.

Four counts of kidnap.

Six counts of false imprisonment.

Five counts of hijacking.

47 counts of possession of firearms and ammunition with intent contrary to the 1981 Firearms (Northern Ireland) Order 1981.

19 counts of possession of firearms and ammunition with intent contrary to the 2004 Firearms (NI) Order.

Judge Mr Justice Treacy told Haggarty: "In respect of the pleas of guilty to murder, the only sentence that can be passed by this court is one of life imprisonment."

He added that the tariff will be set at a later date.

Prosecution counsel Ciaran Murphy QC told the court that a further count of assault and possession of an offensive weapon would be added to the indictment and would be dealt with by way of a 'voluntary bill' on September 8.

The court heard that on that date "an accepted factual summary" drafted by the prosecution and defence would be prepared for the court dealing with the factual basis of each of the 200 charges.

Mr Murphy said it would take two days to go through the charges and related matters, and the Public Prosecution Service would also provide a "written document setting out precisely where they are" in relation to Haggary's status as an assisting offender.

Mr Justice Treacy was told that Haggarty had agreed to become an assisting offender to both the police and prosecution.

This relates to the terrorist-related activities of other UVF members.

Defence counsel Martin O'Rourke told the court that there would be no need for a pre-sentence report as the papers in the case were "so voluminous".

Mr Justice Treacy said the sentencing hearing would take place on September 25 and September 26 this year.

Addressing the police in the dock, the judge said: "Take him down to the cells then."

Haggarty was escorted from the court by four police officers and two prison officers, but was not placed in handcuffs.
The use of proxy votes in some Sinn Fein-dominated areas of Londonderry was more than 17 times the UK average at the general election.

Some of the largest Sinn Fein-represented wards had a proxy vote use more than 10 times the national average.

SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan met the PSNI this week to make a formal complaint about proxy vote abuse after the party lost its Foyle Westminster seat to Sinn Fein by just 169 votes.

Eamonn McCann, the former People Before Profit MLA, also made a complaint to the Electoral Office about proxy vote use in Foyle.

An analysis, using previously undisclosed proxy voting figures, shows the Brandywell area had a proxy voting record at this election of approximately 5.57%, 17.5 times the UK average of 0.32%.

Westland, also with a strong Sinn Fein majority, had a proxy vote record of 4.91%, 15.3 times the UK average.

Creggan South, one of the largest republican-leaning wards, had a proxy vote use 10.3 times the UK average.

This contrasts with the low use of proxy votes in unionist-dominated parts of the city, with a proxy rate of 0.33 in the Caw ward, approximately the same at the rest of the UK.

The Belfast Telegraph analysis comes from combining Election Office of Northern Ireland (EONI) proxy vote figures with UK averages held by the UK Election Commission.

According to Mr Durkan, the PSNI told the SDLP that it must provide evidence before it can act, as it does not want to be seen to be engaged in "political policing" against Sinn Fein. His uncle Mark Durkan lost his seat to Sinn Fein's Elisha McCallion in one of the closest results of the June 8 election.

The SDLP is now conducting a ward-by-ward analysis of the use of proxy votes. It said there was a disproportionate number of proxy votes among single and working mothers who agreed to give their vote to someone else, likely because of childcare duties.

One SDLP official involved in analysing the election result said he believed Sinn Fein registered its southern supporters Derry based on houses where there was an incongruous name in a one-family house. Many of these outside names then signed over their vote to a proxy, the SDLP claims.

"Certain names just spring out at you because they don't seem to belong in that house and then you look them up on Facebook and you find out who they really are," Mark H Durkan said.

Proxy votes are used in the UK when a voter nominates someone else to cast their ballot. It can be used for a variety of reasons, such as if the person is away, if they are working, if they are disabled or living overseas, according to the Election Commission.

All registered voters can be nominated as proxy voters for someone else and can be given multiple votes if the people they are replacing are close relatives.

Sinn Fein in Derry yesterday strongly denied any wrongdoing and said achieving an enfranchised voting system in the city had been a difficult struggle.

"Sinn Fein encourages people to exercise their right to vote, which was hard won in the north of Ireland," it said. "All political parties in the north encourage the electorate to utilise postal and proxy votes, where required, to ensure maximum participation in the democratic process." It repeated that proxy votes are a useful way for voters to be enfranchised. It said people should contact police if they know of voter fraud.

One Sinn Fein councillor in Derry suggested contacting the Sinn Fein press office when asked for a comment. Six other Sinn Fein city councillors were invited to comment. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of any of the party's councillors, but there have been allegations of localised discrepancies in the use of proxy votes.

It emerged earlier this week that the number of proxy votes used in Northern Ireland has more than doubled in two years, predominantly in constituencies where Sinn Fein is strongest.

Sinn Fein won Westminster seats in seven of the eight constituencies where proxy votes had their highest use in Northern Ireland. The eighth constituency, North Belfast, saw a close run campaign between Sinn Fein and the DUP.

The overall use of proxy votes dropped in England and Wales between 2005 and 2010, said the Election Commission, but rose in Northern Ireland and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland.
Participants of a 2015 Pride Week event in Istanbul chant slogans after police used a water canon to disperse them

Turkish authorities say they will not allow the Istanbul Pride march to take place on Sunday - the third year in a row the celebration has been banned.

The move prompted criticism from rights groups and fears of possible violence, as Pride organisers said they would defy the ban.

For more than a decade, Istanbul Pride has attracted tens of thousands of participants, making it one of largest gatherings celebrating gay, lesbian and transgender rights and diversity in the Muslim world.

Unlike other Muslim countries, homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey.

However, lesbian, gay and transgender activists say they lack legal protections and face widespread social stigma in a nation heavily influenced by conservative and religious values.

The Istanbul governor's office said the Pride march would be banned to keep public order and for the safety of participants and tourists.

It said the area around central Taksim Square, where the march begins, was not designated for demonstrations.

The volunteer Pride committee said the ban violates domestic and international law limiting the right to peaceful assembly.

It asked the governor's office to reconsider and fulfill its obligations by providing security precautions.

The city government also said "very serious reactions by different segments of society" were raised against the march.

This week, like last year, ultra-nationalist and conservative groups said they would not allow the Pride march to take place even if the authorities allowed it.

LGBTI activists said the ban legitimises threats and hate speech under the guise of protecting the public's "sensitivities".

Amnesty International expressed "deep worry" following the ban and said Turkish authorities violated freedom of expression and assembly in a "routine and arbitrary way".

"Turkey should protect rather than ban Pride marches," Amnesty said, adding that it would document developments on Sunday.

Up to 100,000 people took part in 2014's Pride march, making it one of the largest LGBTI Pride events in a predominantly Muslim nation.

The following year, authorities banned the march in a surprise move citing public order and dispersed the crowds.

In 2016, the march was again banned amid a spate of deadly attacks blamed on the Islamic State group or on outlawed Kurdish militants.

LGBTI activists still attempted to converge on Taksim Square, leading to skirmishes with police.

A state of emergency declared after last summer's failed coup has further limited public gatherings.

Organizers believe the celebrations in 2015 and 2016 were banned because they coincided with Islam's holy month of Ramadan.

They say authorities are using security as an excuse to ban the parades instead of taking measures to deal with the threats against those participating.

Sunday's planned march coincides with the Eid holiday, marking the end of a month of fasting for Ramadan.

"(The bans are) a reflection of the increasingly conservative and majoritarian policies of the government," said Murat Koylu, of the Ankara-based Kaos GL, a group promoting LGBTI rights.

"The fact that the existing political power is not making the necessary changes in the constitution, and the fact that they have discourse against us might encourage people who are already (trans) phobic," said Seyhan Arman, a 37-year-old transgender woman and performer.

The Turkish government insists there is no discrimination against individuals based on their sexual orientation, and that laws barring discrimination on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity or religion protect all citizens.

It also insists that perpetrators of hate crimes are prosecuted.

"The violence against us has existed since the day we were born. It starts in the family, it continues at the university, in the working life," said Deniz Sapka, a 27-year-old transgender woman originally from Hakkari, who goes by that surname to avoid recognition by family members.

"We are people who have always experienced a state of emergency. We experience it from our birth."

AP
France's interior minister has ruled out creating a help centre for migrants in the increasingly tense port city of Calais, and said that the death of a truck driver blamed on migrants is also a humanitarian issue.

Gerard Collomb said he feared a help centre would lure migrants back to Calais. Thousands of migrants were forced out of a makeshift camp there last October.

Mr Collomb added that he will present a new asylum plan within two weeks to President Emmanuel Macron. The minister's visit to Calais came days after the death of a Polish truck driver whose small vehicle crashed into one of three large lorries stopped by a blockade of tree trunks and branches.
Two Dutch journalists have been freed in Colombia

A Dutch journalist has told of his "very hard" experience after he and a colleague were freed unharmed following almost a week held captive by leftist rebels in Colombia .

Derk Bolt said he and Eugenio Follender were treated "almost like friends" but told of difficult conditions in the jungle during long marches.

Mr Bolt said the two men were treated well, suffering only a few scratches from 14-hour marches to evade security forces who mounted a massive search.

He told Colombia's Caracol radio that when they were first stopped the reporters thought it was a robbery, as their captors demanded they turn over cameras.

Then they were shuttled from safe house to safe house before eventually taking refuge in the jungle.

"It was very hard, but the people who took us captive were very warm and treated us with lots of respect, almost like friends," Mr Bolt said.

"They always told us our lives weren't in danger."

Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders said the pair "are doing relatively well under the circumstances."

He said he spoke by phone to the journalists shortly after their release.

He said: "Bolt was ... very relieved. They have a long journey through the jungle ahead of them. We are doing all we can to bring them back to the Netherlands as soon as possible."

Mr Bolt and Mr Follender were seized almost a week ago by members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) while reporting in the volatile Catatumbo region, near the border with Venezuela.

Mr Bolt is host of a Dutch television show called Spoorloos (Without a Trace) and Mr Follender is a cameraman for the show, which attempts to help people find their long-lost relatives.

"We are incredibly happy and relieved," the show said in a Facebook post. "We are grateful to the ministry of foreign affairs. They have done everything, in The Hague and Bogota, to get Derk and Eugenio home safely."

The ELN, Colombia's last major guerrilla army with about 1,500 troops, said the journalists were detained preventively because they had entered a conflict zone where Colombia's military often operates covertly.

"Our first duty is to preserve the life of the communities and people that enter these territories, not exposing them" to danger, members of the group negotiating a peace deal with the government said.

AP
Photo taken on March 29, 2017 shows a general view of a meeting between UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura (2nd R) and Syrian government delegation during Syria peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, March 29, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

In the latest proof that the theory of deterrence is working, Australia suspended its bombing campaign after a threat by Russia stating that all Western fighters will be considered potential targets and will be tracked whenever they cross the West of the Euphrates River. Australia, with its small but significant contingent of fighters, were taking part in the Allied bombing campaign against ISIS, although Australian planes mostly focused on Iraq and didn't cross much into Syria.

This comes one day after two significant and potentially destabilizing developments happened in Syria. The first was the incident in which for the third time ever, a U.S. navy fighter shot down, in direct air-to-air combat, a Syrian air force fighter plane. U.S. Central Command stated that a Syrian air force SU-22 was dropping its payload on the Syrian Democratic Forces, who are being supported by the U.S.-led coalition as they advance on the ISIS capital Raqqa, when they were told to stop bombing by coalition forces. After the plane carried on, the coalition engaged the Syrian aircraft and shot it down.

"In accordance with the rules of engagement and in the collective self-defense of Coalition partnered forces, it was immediately shot down by a U.S. F/A-18E Super Hornet," the statement read, while adding, that it is not the U.S. intention to engage any forces of Russia or any other great powers. However, the U.S. will take every step to make sure that coalition forces are safe, in "collective defense."

It is hard to overstate how big a deal this is, as this is only the third time in recent history an F/18 shot down another plane in direct combat, the last time that happened was in 1991, during the Gulf war, when two Iraqi Mig 21s were shot down. Similarly, this is the first time in the Middle East that a plane was shot down in combat by another plane since the French fighters shot down one of Gaddafi's birds.

The second incident, which happened within minutes, was Iran firing ballistic missiles and dramatically escalating its role in the conflict. Iran is heavily invested in Syria including with troops and support, but this marks an uncharted escalation where Iran used a show of deterrence. The military utility of using a ballistic missile is debatable. There is nothing that Russian planes or Iranian troops present in Syria couldn't do, that Iranian ballistic missiles did, other than proving the fact that Iran has ballistic missiles which are fully functional and capable.

The target of this message is not ISIS, even though the IRGC is framing it as retaliation for the Tehran attacks. Had it been so, the slow rate of counterattack would actually raise questions about Iranian prowess. This, on the other hand, is a deterrence message to the Saudi hegemony, as well as to the U.S., or anyone planning for a war with Iran. Iran will possibly lose in any such conflict, but has the potential to raise the cost to unbearable levels for the U.S. and its allies. The timing chosen by Iran couldn't be more symbolic, with a dreadful war going on in Yemen, the Saudi blockade of Qatar and Chinese warships visiting Iran for a naval exercise.

Forget for a moment that there's literally no legal justification of any Western forces being in Syria. It is illegal as per international law, as Syria is still a sovereign state and at no point of time did it invite any power other than Russia, nor are they UN authorized missions. It's a plain old simple game of great power politics. Its legality within the U.S. itself is stretched, as it is a continuation of the AUMF 2001, without any special approval or authorization from Congress to the President.

Unfortunately, the quick succession of these two events mean, we are essentially one miscalculation or mishap away from a full on great power war in Syria. Regardless how one can spin it, the legality of a U.S. strike of a Syrian plane in Syria, in support of U.S. proxies, is dubious. Not to mention the double standard of expecting other great powers to follow international law and the rule of law and institutions.

Nor is the fact that there is zero discernible interest in Syria for the West, and the existential threat is much higher for the Axis powers like Iran and Assad and even Russia which stands to lose its only Middle Eastern base, compared to the U.S. and its allies. Naturally in the ladder of escalation, the axis will always be prepared to tone it up a notch.

The Syrian regime might take this strike as a start of a bigger offensive of regime change. In the fog of war, the perception of the enemy blurs. No one is of any opinion that Syria will ever be unified or have a government or a state like it used to have. That will never happen. The best that other powers could do at this stage is to call for dialogue and divide Syria into zones, with the primary intention of stopping the war immediately. Unfortunately, and I certainly hope I am proved wrong, but this latest salvo from both sides look like the first stage of an escalatory spiral.

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.
The empty council site from which thousands of pallets were stolen

If only I'd known a while back when we were moving house and needed to put some furniture into (expensive) storage that Belfast City Council apparently can keep the stuff for you for free.

I believe the only catch is that you have to assure them that when you get it back you're going to set fire to it. Occasionally there are stories from this part of the world that take the breath from you. Where even the description "lunacy" does not do justice.

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Pallet-gate is currently right at the top of the heap. The story so far - as most local taxpayers, their mouths agape in disbelief will be aware - goes like this...

Belfast City Council, concerned about the vast number of pallets awaiting Eleventh Night incineration, removed around 2,500 of them from the Bloomfield Walkway site near Chobham Street. Several hundred more were liberated from the bonfire site beside the Holiday Inn in Hope Street.

In a statement, the council explained the wooden pallets had been removed "by agreement with the local community" (we all know what that means) and that the council was working with "communities and statutory agencies to minimise the negative impact of bonfires".

You'd assume this means that the pallets would then be destroyed.

Or, this being Belfast City Council with its obsession re: land refill targets, recycled. Isn't there a big market for wood stove pellets these days?

But, no.

Expand Close Hundreds of pallets at Sandy Row bonfire site yesterday. Photo: Stephen Hamilton/Presseye / Facebook

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Whatsapp Hundreds of pallets at Sandy Row bonfire site yesterday. Photo: Stephen Hamilton/Presseye

The pallets were to be given back to the respective bonfire builders after having been put into storage at (I love this phrase) "a secret location."

The Gransha Road, as it turns out.

Needless to say, they've since been nicked. All 3,000-plus of them.

Now, I know the Gransha Road well (I have an alibi, inspector) but it's hard to think where in that area you could secrete a lorry-load of wooden pallets far from prying eyes.

Somebody spotted them, though. Somebody took them. And if that somebody had been aiming merely to frustrate the bonfire builders by preventing them from getting their pallets back then they would simply have put a match to the things.

I think it's fair to assume then, inspector, that the nicked kindling will eventually show up on some local pyre - whether loyalist or republican, at this point we know not.

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Ballycraigy estate, Antrim - Bobby Sands, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness 11th July Bonfires. Lower Shankill 11-07-2015 11th July Bonfires. Isis flag Ballysillan North Belfast. Pictures of Gerry Kelly, Alban Maginness 11th July Bonfires. Isis flag Ballysillan North Belfast. Pictures of Gerry Kelly, Alban Maginness 11-07-2015 11th July Bonfires. Ballycraigy estate, Antrim 11-07-2015 11th July Bonfires. Ballycraigy estate, Antrim - Bbby Sands, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness on the bonefire 11th July Bonfires. Ballycraigy estate, Antrim 11-07-2015 New Mossley 11-07-2015 Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast - Northern Ireland - Saturday 11th July 2015 - 12th Night Bonfires Pictured is Fire Fighters at the Sandy Row bonfire in South Belfast as the intense heat begins to melt objects and forces the crowds back as 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland to mark the victory of King William over King James Picture by Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye The huge bonfire on Lanark Way July 2014 Election posters of Alliance MLA Anna Lo and Sinn Fein's MEP Martina Anderson were placed on a bonfire in the Bloomfield estate in Bangor Preparations get underway at the Bonfire in Lanark Way in Belfast, ahead of the 12th of July annual Orange celebrations Pacemaker Press 7/7/2014 Ballyduff bonfire in Newtownabbey July 2014 Election posters of Alliance member Anna Lo on the Bonfire in Carrickfergus ahead of the 12th of July annual Orange celebrations Pacemaker Press 7/7/2014 Mount Vernon North Belfast Young loyalists scale the huge face of the bonfire on Lanark Way, off the Shankill Preparations get underway at the Bonfire in Lanark Way in Belfast, ahead of the 12th of July annual Orange celebrations Pic Pacemaker Sandy Row South Belfast A statue of our the Virgin Mary placed on a loyalist bonfire at Lanark Way PACEMAKER Bonfire on Shankill Road 2012 Bonfire on Shankill Road 2012 Pacemaker press 11/07/2013: The Bonfire on Sandy Row in Belfast the 12th of July celebrations began at midnight across the province. Picture By: Arthur Allison. PACEMAKER BELFAST 11/07/2013 Young men pictured enjoying the Bonfire in King George Playing Fields Upper Newtownards Road Belfast. Picture By: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press 12.07.13. PICTURE BY DAVID FITZGERALD The 12th night bonfire celebrations get underway in Erinvale Estate in Finaghy Road South last night. The bonfire fell over close to people watching. A man runs as the bonfire starts to fall Pacemaker press 11/07/2013: The Bonfire on Sandy Row in Belfast the 12th of July celebrations began at midnight across the province. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker press 11/07/2013: The Bonfire on Sandy Row in Belfast the 12th of July celebrations began at midnight across the province. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Press Eye - Belfast - Thursday 11th July 2013 General view of at the bonfire in the loyalist Highfield Estate in west Belfast. In Northern Ireland, the Eleventh Night or 11th Night refers to the night before the Twelfth of July, an annual Protestant commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne. Picture by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye. Pacemaker press Young men from the Shankill area of Belfast put the finishing touch on their bonfire's on the 11th of july. picture mark marlow Pacemaker press Young men from the Shankill area of Belfast put the finishing touch on their bonfire's on the 11th of july. picture mark marlow Pacemaker press 11/07/2013: The Bonfire at Belvoir, South Belfast the 12th of July celebrations began at midnight across the province. Picture By: Arthur Allison. PACEMAKER BELFAST 11/07/2013 Katie-Leigh Bain,Curtis Johnston and Cherene Grundmann pictured enjoying the Bonfire in King George Playing Fields Upper Newtownards Road Belfast. Picture By: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press Pacemaker press 11/07/2013: The Bonfire on Sandy Row in Belfast the 12th of July celebrations began at midnight across the province. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker press 11/7/13 The Bonfire in Ballyduff on the outskirt's of Belfast on the 11th of july. picture mark marlow Pacemaker press Young men from the Shankill area of Belfast put the finishing touch on their bonfire's on the 11th of july. picture mark marlow Pacemaker press 11/07/2013: The Bonfire on Sandy Row in Belfast the 12th of July celebrations began at midnight across the province. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker press 11/07/2013: The Bonfire on Sandy Row in Belfast the 12th of July celebrations began at midnight across the province. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker press 11/07/2013: The Bonfire at Belvoir, South Belfast the 12th of July celebrations began at midnight across the province. Picture By: Arthur Allison. General view of the bonfire on Lanark Way off the Shankill Road in west Belfast. Presseye Northern Ireland - 10th July 2013 Mandatory Credit - Photo-William Cherry/Presseye Youths tend the bonfire at the Ballymacash, Lisburn ahead of the Twelfth of July celebrations. ?William Cherry/Presseye Presseye Northern Ireland - 10th July 2013 Mandatory Credit - Photo-William Cherry/Presseye Youths tend the bonfire at the Ballymacash, Lisburn ahead of the Twelfth of July celebrations. ?William Cherry/Presseye Presseye Northern Ireland - 10th July 2013 Mandatory Credit - Photo-William Cherry/Presseye Youths tend the bonfire at the Ballymacash, Lisburn ahead of the Twelfth of July celebrations. ?William Cherry/Presseye Presseye Northern Ireland - 10th July 2013 Mandatory Credit - Photo-William Cherry/Presseye Youths tend the bonfire at the Ballymacash, Lisburn ahead of the Twelfth of July celebrations. ?William Cherry/Presseye Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast - Northern Ireland - Saturday 11th July 2015 - 12th Night Bonfires Pictured is Fire Fighters at the Sandy Row bonfire in South Belfast as the intense heat begins to melt objects and forces the crowds back as 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland to mark the victory of King William over King James Picture by Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast - Northern Ireland - Saturday 11th July 2015 - 12th Night Bonfires Pictured is Fire Fighters at the Sandy Row bonfire in South Belfast as the intense heat begins to melt objects and forces the crowds back as 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland to mark the victory of King William over King James Picture by Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast - Northern Ireland - Saturday 11th July 2015 - 12th Night Bonfires Pictured is the Sandy Row bonfire in South Belfast, as 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland to mark the victory of King William over King James Picture by Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast - Northern Ireland - Saturday 11th July 2015 - 12th Night Bonfires Pictured is firefighters using a jet hose on a building at the Sandy Row bonfire in South Belfast, as 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland to mark the victory of King William over King James Picture by Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast - Northern Ireland - Saturday 11th July 2015 - 12th Night Bonfires Pictured is firefighters using a jet hose on a building at the Sandy Row bonfire in South Belfast, as 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland to mark the victory of King William over King James Picture by Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast - Northern Ireland - Saturday 11th July 2015 - 12th Night Bonfires Pictured is firefighters using a jet hose on a building at the Sandy Row bonfire in South Belfast, as 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland to mark the victory of King William over King James Picture by Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast - Northern Ireland - Saturday 11th July 2015 - 12th Night Bonfires Pictured is the Sandy Row bonfire in South Belfast, as 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland to mark the victory of King William over King James Picture by Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast - Northern Ireland - Saturday 11th July 2015 - 12th Night Bonfires Pictured is the Sandy Row bonfire in South Belfast, as 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland to mark the victory of King William over King James Picture by Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast - Northern Ireland - Saturday 11th July 2015 - 12th Night Bonfires Pictured is the Sandy Row bonfire in South Belfast, as 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland to mark the victory of King William over King James Picture by Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast - Northern Ireland - Saturday 11th July 2015 - 12th Night Bonfires Pictured is the Sandy Row bonfire in South Belfast, as 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland to mark the victory of King William over King James Picture by Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast - Northern Ireland - Saturday 11th July 2015 - 12th Night Bonfires Pictured is the Sandy Row bonfire in South Belfast, as 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland to mark the victory of King William over King James Picture by Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Picture - Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast - Northern Ireland - Saturday 11th July 2015 - 12th Night Bonfires Pictured is the Donegall Road bonfire in South Belfast, as seen from the King Billy mural in sandy row as the 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland to mark the victory of King William over King James Picture by Kevin Scott / Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye 11th July 2015 ?William Cherry/Presseye A man playing the flute as the Ballymacash bonfire burns in Lisburn for the 11th of July Celebrations when the bonfires are lit in many Protestant, unionist and loyalist areas of Northern Ireland. ?William Cherry / Presseye The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye 11th July 2015 ?William Cherry/Presseye A group of women take a selfie as the Ballymacash bonfire burns in Lisburn for the 11th of July Celebrations when the bonfires are lit in many Protestant, unionist and loyalist areas of Northern Ireland. ?William Cherry / Presseye The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Bonfire builders get to work lighting the Ballymacash bonfire in Lisburn. William Cherry/Presseye. ?William Cherry / Presseye The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye The Shankill bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye The Shankill bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Bonfire builders get to work lighting the Ballymacash bonfire in Lisburn. William Cherry/Presseye. ?William Cherry / Presseye Bonfire builders get to work lighting the Ballymacash bonfire in Lisburn. William Cherry/Presseye. ?William Cherry / Presseye A man playing the flute as the Ballymacash bonfire burns in Lisburn. William Cherry/Presseye. ?William Cherry / Presseye A young man celebrates as the Ballymacash bonfire burns in Lisburn. Pic: William Cherry/Presseye. ?William Cherry / Presseye The controversial Chobham Street Bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye The controversial Chobham Street Bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters hose down the houses in the area after smoke begins to rise from the roof of a property next to the Chobham Street bonfire. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye A group of women take a selfie as the Ballymacash bonfire burns in Lisburn. Pic: William Cherry/Presseye. ?William Cherry / Presseye The Shankill bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Police water canon on stand by at the Grosevnor Road police station in Belfast, Northern Ireland as 12th of July celebrations get under way across Northern Ireland. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. Pictured are Kayie Curry with Ryan Morgan Maddox Glass and Kai McNurnan. The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. A group of women take a selfie as the Ballymacash bonfire burns in Lisburn. William Cherry/Presseye. ?William Cherry / Presseye Locals from the Village area of south Belfast enjoy watching their local bonfire as working class Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Hundreds of people watch on as the 11th night bonfire collapses at the New Mossley housing estate on July 12, 2015 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Hundreds of people gather for the 11th night bonfire as it is set alight at the New Mossley housing estate on July 12, 2015 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. New Mossley is widely recognised as the largest bonfire in the province. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Hundreds of people gather for the 11th night bonfire as it is set alight at the New Mossley housing estate on July 12, 2015 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. New Mossley is widely recognised as the largest bonfire in the province. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images A Loyalist youth carrying the Union Jack flag walks past the 11th night bonfire at the New Mossley housing estate on July 12, 2015 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. New Mossley is widely recognised as the largest bonfire in the province. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. Locals from the Village area of south Belfast enjoy watching their local bonfire as working class Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. Pictured are Matthew Dixon with Ryan and Gary Ashwood in south Belfast. Pic: Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. Pictured is Jaxon Washington-Powell. Pic: Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. Pictured are Matthew Dixon with Ryan and Gary Ashwood in south Belfast. Pic: Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. A couple walk past the 11th night bonfire at the New Mossley housing estate on July 12, 2015 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. New Mossley is widely recognised as the largest bonfire in the province. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images A Loyalist youth carrying the Union Jack flag walks past the 11th night bonfire at the New Mossley housing estate on July 12, 2015 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. New Mossley is widely recognised as the largest bonfire in the province. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Iain McFarland, an Orange bandsman, plays his flute during the 11th night bonfire at the New Mossley housing estate on July 12, 2015 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. One of the huge bonfires that towers over the houses and looks over the city of Belfast in preparation for the 11th of July celebrations when the bonfires are lit in many Protestant, unionist and loyalist areas of Northern Ireland. Photo: William Cherry / Presseye ?William Cherry / Presseye Iain McFarland, an Orange bandsman, plays his flute during the 11th night bonfire at the New Mossley housing estate on July 12, 2015 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Hundreds of people gather for the Eleventh Night bonfire at the New Mossley housing estate near Belfast. New Mossley is widely recognised as the largest bonfire in the province. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Firefighters hose down the houses after smoke begins to rise from the roof of a property near the Chobham Street bonfire. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye A man lights the controversial Chobham Street Bonfire on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye The controversial Chobham Street bonfire being lit on the Eleventh Night in Belfast. Kevin Scott/Presseye. Kevin Scott / Presseye Bonfire builders take a rest in the New Mosley area of Belfast. Niall Carson/PA Wire. PA Preparations begin around Belfast ahead of this year's annual Eleventh Night bonfire night celebrations. Jonathan Porter/Press Eye. Haidee de Sesto and Linda Ritele pictured as they wait for the Ballymacash bonfire in Lisburn to be lit for the 11th of July celebration. William Cherry/Presseye. ?William Cherry / Presseye Haidee de Sesto and Linda Ritele pictured as they wait for the Ballymacash bonfire in Lisburn to be lit for the 11th of July celebration. William Cherry/Presseye. ?William Cherry / Presseye Haidee de Sesto and Linda Ritele pictured as they wait for the Ballymacash bonfire in Lisburn to be lit for the 11th of July celebration. William Cherry/Presseye. ?William Cherry / Presseye Haidee de Sesto and Linda Ritele pictured as they wait for the Ballymacash bonfire in Lisburn to be lit for the 11th of July celebration. William Cherry/Presseye. ?William Cherry / Presseye Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. Loyalist area's across Northern Ireland get ready to kick off the 12th of July celebrations with the traditional bonfires. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. A young boy gazes in awe at a bonfire in the Roden Street area of south Belfast. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker Press. A bonfire builder at work in the New Mosley area of Belfast. Niall Carson/PA Wire. PA Youths climb a bonfire in the New Mosley area of Belfast. Niall Carson/PA Wire. PA Houses are evacuated and protected at Chobham Street in east Belfast. AFP PHOTO/PAUL FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images. AFP/Getty Images A man stands on top of the bonfire as houses are evacuated and protected at Chobham Street in east Belfast. AFP PHOTO/PAUL FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images. AFP/Getty Images Houses are evacuated and protected at Chobham Street in east Belfast, Northern Ireland, as one of the biggest bonfires in east Belfast grows in size, ahead of the traditional 11th night bonfires. AFP PHOTO / PAUL FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images A youth stands on top of a bonfire on the Newtownards Road in east Belfast. AFP PHOTO/PAUL FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images. AFP/Getty Images A youth fixes a flag onto a bonfire on the lower Shankill area of Belfas. AFP PHOTO/PAUL FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images. AFP/Getty Images A youth fixes a flag onto a bonfire on the lower Shankill area of Belfast. AFP PHOTO/PAUL FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images. AFP/Getty Images A man sits on a bonfire on the lower Shankill area of Belfast. AFP PHOTO / PAUL FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images. AFP/Getty Images A resident of Chobham street boards up his windows to protect his home from the bonfire built nearby as people make final preparations for the Eleventh Night bonfire. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Local youths burn palets next to the New Mossley bonfire, one of the largest in the province is seen on the outskirts of Belfast. AFP PHOTO / PAUL FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images. AFP/Getty Images The New Mossley bonfire, one of the largest in the province is seen on the outskirts of Belfast. AFP PHOTO / PAUL FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images. AFP/Getty Images Bonfire builders at Mount Vernon in north Belfast. Photo: Matt Mackey/Presseye ?Matt Mackey - Presseye.com Photographer ?Matt Mackey - Presseye.com 10th July 2015 Bonfire builders at Mount Vernon in North Belfast. ?Matt Mackey - Presseye.com Photographer ?Matt Mackey - Presseye.com 10th July 2015 Bonfire builders at Mount Vernon in North Belfast. ?Matt Mackey - Presseye.com Photographer ?Matt Mackey - Presseye.com 10th July 2015 The scene in East Belfast's Chobham Street where more than 50 homes have been boarded up to protect them from a 11 July bonfire. ?Matt Mackey - Presseye.com Matthew Dixon and Gary Ashwood in south Belfast. Pic: Mark Marlow/Pacemaker press Elliott Ross and Ryan Ashwood with Matthew Dixon and Gary Ashwood. Mark Marlow/Pacemaker press Ryan Ashwood from south Belfast. Pictures: Mark Marlow/Pacemaker press Photographer ?Matt Mackey - Presseye.com 10th July 2015 Bonfire builders at Mount Vernon in North Belfast. ?Matt Mackey - Presseye.com / Facebook

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Whatsapp 11th July Bonfires. Ballycraigy estate, Antrim - Bobby Sands, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness

The fallout from the entire farce is that the bonfire builders, miffed that their "boneys" will now be several layers short of Dante's inferno, are now said to be talking in terms of recompense. According to a City Hall insider, they are likely to "go ballistic".

"They will say that they let the council take away their pallets in good faith and it's the council's responsibility to replace everything that has been stolen." The aggrieved bonfire builders are portrayed here a bit like a granny who thought her pearls were in safe keeping in the bank's safety deposit, only to find there's been a break-in.

It goes without saying that many concerned citizens will be fuming at the very notion of compensation for bonfire pallets.

Where do all these pallets come from in the first place?

In recent years they have become the main building block in the construction of the ever-bigger, often unstable-looking minarets that are fired in many parts of Belfast on the Eleventh. Bonfires weren't always this big. Some still aren't.

In many areas, towns and villages where it's part of the local culture to build a fire to commemorate the landing of William of Orange in our midst, the bonfire is of more restrained design. It's about families getting together, a tradition shared. And traditionally it's the kids who build the boney. Not somebody with a contact in pallet importation - and an eye to compensation for theft of the same.

Belfast City Council has walked itself into a right mess over this fiasco. Fingers. Burnt. Yes, obviously.

But it's all just another pointer about how something needs to be done to curtail the excesses of the Eleventh. To let people enjoy themselves, yes. But to stop bonfires getting out of hand, becoming a danger and making life hellish for those who live close to the sites.

As for that smouldering issue of compensation for those whose pallets were scooped in the Gransha Road heist... I think we can all agree on our response to that one.

Unpalatable.
Soldiers are treated at Sungai Kolok Hospital for injuries suffered in a roadside bomb attack, June 23, 2017.

A 2-year-old girl, her father and 12 soldiers were injured Friday when a roadside bomb exploded just days before Eid al-Fitr celebrations in Thailands Deep South, officials said.

The attack in Sungai Kolok district of Narathiwat province brought the toll of violence in the predominantly Muslim region to at least 40 people injured and 25 killed since the holy month of Ramadan began on May 27, according to the military statistics.

Insurgents hid the bomb along the roadside and detonated it as soldiers passed by on a military transport truck, said Police Capt. Supichai Soynak, deputy investigator for Sungai Kolok station.

The insurgents attacked the soldiers, I strongly believe, to cause havoc. The attack resulted in a dozen soldiers injured and a father and a daughter nearby, he said.

An investigator at the scene who asked to not be identified said the soldiers were on their way to a shift change at Narathiwat Task Force 30 in Ban Lubo Sama village.

The improvised explosive device was packed in a gas tank, weighed about 30 kilos (66 pounds), and was remotely triggered, causing the truck to veer off for some 50 meters, he told BenarNews.

The father and daughter were identified as Abdullayi and Patanan Haji-Salaemae. The girl suffered a major cut on her right thigh, according to police.

The Friday attack followed a similar ambush on Monday that killed six soldiers in Pattani, another province in Thailands restive Deep South.

Since 2014, Thailands military-led government and MARA Patani, an umbrella group representing southern rebel groups, have held occasional meetings aimed at restarting official peace talks.

In February, MARA Patani and a government delegation agreed to set up a safety zone  or limited cease-fire  before the end of this year in a district where insurgents are known to operate. But attempts to restart peace talks have since stalled.

Meanwhile, civil society organizations in the Deep South have called for a ceasefire in public places such as schools, religious establishments and hospitals to spare women and children.

Wichianchoke Petchpakdi, an official with the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center, told BenarNews that at least 87 children had been killed and 554 hurt, including 23 who suffered serious injuries, since 2004.

During that time, about 7,000 people have been killed in violence associated with the conflict in the Malay-speaking, majority Muslim region.
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At the invitation of the Republic of Serbia, Ji Bingxuan, special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, attended the inauguration ceremony of the newly-elected Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Friday.

Ji, also vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, China's top legislature, conveyed President Xi's congratulation and good wishes to Vucic, saying China and Serbia are good friends able to share weal and woe, and the ties between the two countries are at their highest point.

China is willing to boost mutual political trust along with Serbia and deepen pragmatic cooperation taking the Belt and Road Initiative as an opportunity, said the envoy.

He noted that the two sides should well implement the projects in the fields such as infrastructure and energy to promote progress of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

Vucic thanked President Xi for sending an envoy to attend his inauguration and asked Ji to convey his greetings to President Xi.

The Serbian president said Serbia and China enjoyed a deep and long friendship, and achieved a lot in cooperation.

Serbia will continue to give priority to developing the relationship with China and will play an active role in the Belt and Road Initiative so that the cooperation between the two sides can be further enhanced in all fields and bilateral ties can be lifted to a higher level.

Vucic, former prime minister of Serbia, won the April 2 presidential election and assumed office on May 31.

Ji also met the speaker of the Serbian parliament Maja Gojkovic.
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Lebanon's President Michel Aoun (1st R) meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (2nd L) in Beirut, capital of Lebanon, on June 23, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

China advocates more actions to curb the deterioration of a refugee crisis in the Middle East and find a solution as soon as possible, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday.

Wang made the remarks at a press conference after meeting with his Lebanese counterpart Gebran Bassil in Beirut during an one-day visit to Lebanon.

He noted that refugees are not migrants, and the international community should strive to create appropriate conditions, through seeking a more swift solution to hot-button issues, for the refugees to return to their homes.

Bassil said Lebanon is under huge pressure in hosting refugees, mostly from Syria, adding that the world should understand and support Lebanon's legal requests on the refugee problem.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Lebanon is currently hosting 1.03 million Syrian refugees who fled their war-torn country since the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad started in March 2011.

Earlier in the day, the Chinese top diplomat held a meeting with Lebanon's President Michel Aoun, during which both expressed willingness to expand the bilateral cooperation.

Aoun praised the Belt and Road Initiative by China, adding that Lebanon expects to see the revival of the ancient Silk Road. He said Lebanon is ready to actively participate in the initiative in a bid to boost economic and cultural exchanges.

The president also hailed what China has done for the stability of Lebanon and the Middle East, and welcomed China, Lebanon's largest trade partner, to invest more in the region.

Wang said he believed all parties and religions in Lebanon would continue dialogue and negotiations to keep national unity and maintain security and stability, thus providing useful experiences in how different civilizations could coexist peacefully.

Wang said, in light of the good momentum in Sino-Lebanese economic and trade relations, China is willing to enhance the bilateral cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

In a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Wang mentioned that Lebanon is an important hub of the Chinese initiative, as it owns unique advantages which China appreciates. He said China is willing to establish more programs with Lebanon to realize mutual benefits.

Hariri thanked China for supporting Lebanon in hosting Syrian refugees and conducting peacekeeping operations in southern Lebanon, while calling for increased cooperation with China on financing infrastructure projects such as highways and railways.

Wang also met with Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who praised China's support to Lebanon and the Arab world, which he said has contributed to achieving regional peace.

Berri also expressed gratitude to China for its deployment of a peacekeeping operation force in southern Lebanon.

Since 2006, China has maintained a peacekeeping operation force in southern Lebanon, tasked with missions such as mine-sweeping, project construction and humanitarian assistance.
PR Newswire

NEW YORK, June 24, 2017

NEW YORK, June 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- We Are One+Together launches the Mr. Gay Syria initiative to secure asylum for the Mr. Gay Syria contestants, including financing legal aid, generating political and public support. These brave individuals chose to host a competition to illuminate urgent issues facing LGBTQ+ individuals in the Middle East.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/527172/BFA_20143_2531596.jpg

We Are One+Together hope to inspire our community to take a stand with the Mr. Gay Syria contestants by signing our petition urging the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services to take swift action and accelerate the process of granting the five courageous contestants asylum. The petition can be accessed at https://www.change.org/p/grant-mr-gay-syria-contestants-asylum-wearemrgaysyria.

To announce the initiative We Are One+Together present the short film, War Within (04.10 min), directed by Palestinian, American director Zaher Saleh as part of the We Are One+Together film series. The film tells a very personal story of a gay Muslim man's struggle to reconcile his sexuality with his faith, his longing for acceptance from his family and the journey to self love and acceptance.

This announcement of the non profit's social initiatives: the Baytee One+Together Center (a center providing social services and health referral targeted towards LGBTQ Middle-Eastern Muslim and Arab teenagers and young adults and the Mr. Gay Syria Campaign comes as part of the celebrations of Pride Month and NYC Pride.

About Zaher Saleh: Zaher Saleh was born in Lebanon to Palestinian refugees and raised in Canfield, Ohio where he spent his summers as a teen with relatives, eventually attending high school and college there. Although he rose to fame in the Middle East, Saleh's ascent into pop stardom began in Ohio. While attending Youngstown State University on a whim he sent an audition tape for the Arab language version of hugely popular pop music talent contest "Star Academy", in Beirut. Saleh placed in the top five and, unlike many reality TV contestants, he went on to even greater success releasing both English and Arab language hits in the Middle East. Saleh is now poised to bring his talents as a musician and a director to American audiences. As a director, Zaher has been honing his craft working on various directorial projects, and the film War Within, produced by Derek Anderson, certainly exemplifies his undoubted devotion to creating that crosses boundaries, and unites people.

About We Are One+Together: We Are One+Together is a non-profit movement focused on bringing people together by celebrating our differences. Together we can inspire positive change with authentic action, collaborative celebration, and unconditional unity. That's exactly our commitment: We celebrate you. We celebrate us. We celebrate One+Together. From massive world-wide celebrations to small-scale private acts of kindness, our strategic focus centers around bringing people together. Think about it. If we as individuals focused on claiming our own brand of unique, we can inspire others to do exactly the same. Together we can advance society, accelerate global cause impact, and We're a non-profit movement with boundless appreciation and acknowledgment of every single person. WeAreOneTogether.org was born from the steadfast commitment of Zirkova One+Together vodka.

War Within Film Link:https://vimeo.com/222315815

#Weare One+Together#WeAreMrGaySyria
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A 28-year-old Brandon man was arrested after police were called to the Brandon hospital for a disturbance on Wednesday evening.

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Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 23/06/2017 (1967 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CFB Shilos own Capt. Megan Couto will be the first woman ever to command the Queens Guard in London, England, next week.

A graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada, Couto has been posted to the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry in Shilo for almost three years.

To be the captain of the Queens Guard is an exceptional honour for any officer, but to be the first female officer to ever do it is tremendous and historic, said past battalion commanding officer Lt.-Col. Wayne Niven. Were  honoured that the Queen requested the Patricias to mount her guard this summer, and its quite fitting, being Canadas 150th.

Corporal Jay Ekin Capt. Megan Couto from 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry at CFB Shilo, has been selected to command the Queens Guard on Monday, June 26, the first Canadian female officer to receive this honour  and the first woman ever. Cuoto is seen here, left, practising for her public duties at Hounslow Barracks Parade Square on June 16.

On Sunday, 80 troops from the 2PPCLI and 35 members of the Royal Canadian Artillery Band will assume ceremonial duties as the Queens Guard.

Couto has been selected to command the Queens Guard on Monday and the mounting of the Queens Guard will continue until July 3.

The Queens Guard are soldiers charged with guarding the official royal residences in the United Kingdom, including Buckingham Palace, St. Jamess Palace, Windsor Castle and the Tower of London.

 edebooy@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @erindebooy
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/06/2017 (1966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The story about Cuba I remember the most is the one told by my dad at many of our family breakfasts on Sunday, when he delighted us with history lessons.

In this particular story he told us that during the first half of the 20th century Cubans attempted several times to recover their country from Americans. At the time, U.S. companies and landowners had turned the island into their backyard. Cubans were their enslaved workers, prostitutes and entertainers, but not owners of their own land, and more importantly, not owners of their own destiny.

My dad told us that a group of barbudos (long-bearded men) were brave enough to endure the exile, jail time, training and rebellion failures, to finally overthrow the thug that U.S. had put in Cuba: Fulgencio Batista. Fidel Castro and a bunch of brave men finally showed Latin America they could be free from the oppression and the exploitation that the U.S. had continuously exercised in the region.

The story from my father continued like this: U.S. interests in Cuba, mainly in the form of companies, industries and extensive land properties, were nationalized, which pushed the U.S. government into an offensive know as the Bay of Pigs invasion, which was heroically repelled by Cubans in 1960. It also brought the now infamous embargo that has been maintained over Cuba for more than 50 years.

Not happy, the U.S. government pushed all other Latin American countries and many of its world allies to stop dealing with Cuba  to stop buying Cuban goods and selling anything into the country. The idea was to strangle the Cuban government, economy and people to the point that the new revolutionary government would eventually fall.

That is the story, told in the simple words used by my father and many from his generation who remember the Cuban revolution as a heroic deed  and it was. The Cuban revolution gave new air to economic and political independence aspirations in Latin America, and to revolutionary acts across the continent.

The rest of the story, however, is very recent; and we should all still remember it. Fidel Castro, the Cuban leader who managed to stay in power for more than 50 years with pseudo democratic elections and a single-party system, died in 2016.

Then, on June 16, 2017, speaking from the heart of the Cuban exile community in Little Havana, President Donald Trump declared that he would be cancelling plans to continue to open relations with Cuba, a historic policy initiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama, in 2014 to end decades of hostilities between the two countries.

Trumps change in policy toward Cuba is not exactly clear, and, for the most part, doesnt make sense. Not a surprise based on the short life of this U.S. administration.

What really makes sense, however, is that he announced it flamboyantly in Miami because he is a Republican. One thing Republicans do is keep their Cuban-American voters happy. Trumps rollback will have some negative effects though. The president has eliminated the ability of Americans to travel to Cuba independently. American tour operators, cruise ships and airlines will still technically be able to operate into Cuba, and U.S. citizens can still purchase and bring home Cuban products like rum and cigars, but the new policies put in two important restrictions. First, it makes it illegal for Americans to patronize facilities related to the Cuban military, and second it makes individual travel to Cuba far more difficult for Americans.

Rolling back Obamas policy is a huge mistake. The embargo has been a huge mistake. It has failed tremendously, as Trump likes to say. Tremendously.

The embargo has not achieved either of its two primary objectives  regime change and foreign investment deterrence.

The first failed objective is clear as the Castros remain in power and the Cuban government continues to pursue its form of communism.

The second failed objective is almost as obvious, according to a running tally by the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, approximately 4,500 companies from more than 100 countries import to, export from, provide services to, or have investments within Cuba. If the goal of U.S. policy toward Cuba has been to help its people achieve freedom and a better life, the economic embargo has completely failed. Its economic effect is to make the people of Cuba worse off by depriving them of lower-cost food and other goods that could be bought from the U.S. and other countries It means less independence for Cuban workers and entrepreneurs, who could be earning dollars from American tourists and fuelling private-sector growth.

But those have never been the real reasons behind the embargo. Privileged Cubans and Cuban-Americans who lost their power, properties and wealth during the revolution fled to Miami. They joined other Americans who were really angry at the new government for ending their little kingdom in Havana. And they will never forgive that.

 Jaime Chinchilla is part of Brandons Latin American community and a member of the popular Son Latino Band. His column appears monthly.
A former loyalist paramilitary commander turned supergrass has pleaded guilty to 200 terrorist offences, including five murders.

Relatives of Gary Haggarty's victims watched on as the ex-chief of the Ulster Volunteer Force's notorious north Belfast Mount Vernon unit repeatedly answered guilty to the litany of charges put to him in Belfast Crown Court.

The pleas marked a significant stage of the long-time police informer's agreement to give state's evidence against fellow terrorists.

As well as the five murders, the 45-year-old, who is currently in protective custody, admitted five attempted murders, including against police officers; 23 counts of conspiracy to murder; directing terrorism; and membership of a proscribed organisation.

He also admitted assisting offenders involved in a murder bid on fellow UVF terror chief and police informer Mark Haddock.

On top of the 200 guilty pleas, Haggarty acknowledged responsibility for 304 other more minor offences. Those were not listed as formal charges on the bill of indictment but will be taken into account by the judge when he is sentenced.

Haggarty was interviewed more than 1,000 times by detectives in one of the biggest and most complex cases ever undertaken in Northern Ireland.

The catalogue of offences stretch over a 16-year period from 1991 to 2007 and include the loyalist murders of John Harbinson, Sean McParland, Gary Convie, Eamon Fox and Sean McDermott.

Haggarty is expected to receive a heavily reduced sentence in exchange for his cooperation with the authorities.

Outside court, Mr Fox's son Ciaran broke down as he described his feelings.

"It's just hard sitting in a courtroom watching a guy admitting to murdering your father," he said.

Mr Fox said the fact Haggarty was an informer when the offences were committed raised serious questions for the authorities.

"The police knew what was going to happen and took no action to stop it," he claimed.

"Basically he was just a hitman - he killed at will."

He added: "Police knew my father and Gary Convie were both going to be murdered and they sat back and let it happen and that's hard to swallow.

"I don't care about the UVF, they'll meet their maker some day - the police, the people who were in authority to protect and serve, they didn't protect my family."

It is understood Haggarty has made allegations against 14 fellow loyalists, for crimes including four murders.

He has also given evidence in relation to alleged criminality by two former Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch handlers who worked with him when he was an informer.

His own lengthy charge sheet also includes aiding and abetting murder, kidnap, possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives as well as hijacking, false imprisonment, arson, intimidation and conspiracy to riot.

But he could walk free after his sentence hearing in September, given he has already served three years in custody - the equivalent of a six-year sentence.

In the interim, prosecutors will decide how to proceed with the evidence he has provided.

The content of his interviews amounts to 23,000 pages of transcribed evidence.

There was a significant police presence in and around the court for the high-profile arraignment hearing.

Haggarty, who is believed to be living at a secret location outside Northern Ireland, was escorted into court through a side door by two specialist police officers.

He was initially arrested in 2009 and charged with the murder of Mr Harbinson.

He then indicated his willingness to turn state's witness and subsequently signed an agreement to become an assisting offender under the terms of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (Socpa).

The terror boss, whose address was formally recorded on the indictment sheet as care of a Belfast police station, stood in the dock dressed in a grey suit during the hearing before judge Mr Justice Treacy.

Mr Fox expressed doubt Haggarty would ever end up in the witness box, alleging vested interests would thwart it.

"This goes right to the top, there are too many people going to get their hands burnt," he said.

"He's done wrong, his hands are deep in blood along with people he's going to expose and because of who he's going to expose I think it's not going to finish."

Mr Fox said it was hard to take that Haggarty would get a reduced sentence.

"He was bold as brass answering them (the charges), it was water off a duck's back. That's the hard part, just knowing he is going to walk a free man.

"The charges he is charged with, in an ideal world that man shouldn't see daylight."

After the hearing, Detective Superintendent Richard Campbell, from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Serious Crime Branch, said the guilty pleas marked a "milestone" for the victims and their families.

"It has been a very long, arduous and painful process for these families and I hope today's proceedings have made a significant contribution to the process of ultimately bringing closure to all the families of the victims of Mount Vernon UVF during that time," he said.

"The PSNI remains committed to moving forward and working with the PPS (Public Prosecution Service) in relation to the next stages of the investigation into Mount Vernon UVF and others who were involved with committing these offences.

"My detectives have worked hard over the last seven years to bring justice. I understand the frustrations of the families over the length of time this has taken but I have always said that it was important to take the time to get it right."
The Taoiseach says it is time for Ireland to extend our diplomatic footprint.

Leo Varadkar has outlined plans for the country to be given a seat on the UN Security Council.
Today's Pride parade in the capital finishes up in Smithfield Square in the heart of Dublin 7, which boasts a brand new festival kicking off this weekend.

The Stoneybatter festival features offerings from tours of historic buildings like the Criminal Courts, free yoga classes, "Woofstock" best-dressed doggie competition, and the Great Batter Bake-Off with none other than Mrs Doyle pouring the tea.
Irish motor insurance is in the dock today.

Age Action Ireland, the Union of Students of Ireland and the Irish Rural Link are among civil and political groups meeting in Dublin in protest at what they claim is a motor insurance 'rip off'.

People Before Profit TD, Richard Boyd Barrett, says they are angry at increasingly unaffordable premiums and discrimination against particular categories of drivers.

"We've seen absolutely extortionate increases in motor insurance which are really hitting people with low incomes, older people, young drivers, taxi drivers and people in rural areas.

"So this is an attempt to pull people together to demand more radical action from the Government to ensure affordable insurance premiums and an end to discrimination against a whole range of driver categories," he said.
Late broadcaster Terry Wogan is being honoured in Limerick today.

A bronze sculpture by Rory Breslin will be unveiled as part of a number of memorial events.

The renowned broadcaster from Limerick enjoyed around 50 years of success on the airwaves in Britain.

Dr Matthew Potter, Curator of the Limerick Museum, hopes fans will bring memorabilia to today's events.

"The whole purpose of a pop-up museum really is to promote conversations, get a discussion going, and to bring people together - a celebration of Terry Wogan's life and in particular his connections with Limerick.

"He was born in Limerick city in 1938 and he lived there until he was 15 years of age," he said.
Two giant pandas have received a celebrity welcome in Berlin from the mayor and Chinese ambassador after they weathered a long flight from China.

Meng Meng and Jiao Qing flew the animal equivalent of first class on their 12-hour flight from Chengdu in south-west China to the German capital.

Their entourage included a Berlin vet, two Chinese zookeepers and a group of journalists.

"They slept a bit, munched on their bamboo and nibbled on some cookies," vet Andreas Ochs said at Berlin's Schoenefeld airport.

Medication for motion sickness was not needed. "They did just fine," he said.

The German capital is going wild over the impossibly cute bears, who will be presented to the public at Berlin Zoo on July 6.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese president Xi Jinping are also expected to visit the new animal stars ahead of the G20 summit in Germany in early July.

"It was my personal wish to come and welcome our new residents," Mayor Michael Mueller said. "We are delighted that Berlin has gained another fantastic attraction with these bears."

Jiao Qing, which means "darling", is a seven-year-old male and weighs 108kg. Female Meng Meng, which translates as "sweet dream", is three years old and weighs 77kg.

The pandas were taken from the airport to the zoo with police protection so they did not have to stop at any red lights.

They also brought their own food on the plane - one metric ton of bamboo from China. Once they have chewed up all of that, the zoo will start importing special bamboo from the Netherlands.

The furry couple will move into a ritzy new 9m compound, complete with Chinese-style pavilions, red lanterns, a climbing area and a mountain landscape.

They will be the only pandas in the country, the German news agency dpa reported.

Expectations are high the two will reproduce soon, though Mr Ochs warned that Meng Meng is not mature enough yet.

The arrival of the black-and-white bears was preceded by years of bilateral negotiations, since giant pandas are unique to China and sent abroad as diplomatic envoys.

"In China, pandas are regarded as a national treasure," Chinese ambassador Shi Mingde said. "Therefore the breeding and conservation of these animals is a top priority for us."

The pandas will be on loan from China for 15 years - a deal for which it is charging 1m each year, dpa reported.

Berlin's last panda, Bao Bao, was sent in 1980 as a gift from then-Chinese leader Hua Guofeng to West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

Bao Bao died in 2012. Berlin's most famous zoo animal, the polar bear Knut, died of a sudden illness in 2011.

AP
Jeremy Corbyn has been greeted by crowds of revellers chanting his name at Glastonbury Festival.

Mr Corbyn appeared at the Pyramid Stage where he pledged his support to refugees, young people and the environment and took a swipe at US president Donald Trump.

He vowed to cheering crowds that his politics would be "put back in a box"

Jeremy Corbyn sends a message to Donald Trump from #Glastonbury2017: "Build bridges not walls!" pic.twitter.com/EFeA1sPGZF  Jacobin (@jacobin) June 24, 2017

Mr Corbyn said: "Look, on the wall that surrounds this festival and there is a message on that wall for president Donald Trump... build bridges, not walls.

"What was fascinating about the last seven weeks of election campaigning around Britain is that the commentariat got it wrong, the elites got it wrong.

"Politics is about the lives of all of us and the wonderful campaign that I was proud to lead brought a lot of people back into politics because they believed there was something on offer for them.

"What was even more inspiring was the number of young people who got involved for the very first time because they were fed up with being told they don't matter and that their generation was going to pay more to get less in education, housing, health, pensions and everything else.

"Well, it didn't quite work out like that and that politics that got out of the box, is not going back in any box because we are there demanding an achievement of something very different in our society."

The Labour leader arrived at the 900-acre musical extravaganza in Pilton, Somerset and met festival staff as well as organiser Michael Eavis, 81.

He was driven to the Greenpeace area of the site, where he posed for pictures in the Greenpeace Cafe and was met by cheering crowds.

Festival-goers surrounded his Land Rover Discovery and chanted "Oh, Jeremy Corbyn" to the tune of the White Stripes' Seven Nation Army as Mr Corbyn left the area.

Mr Corbyn tweeted a picture of himself with festival staff, adding: "Just arrived at #Glastonbury. Met with staff who help make this brilliant festival happen. Looking forward to speaking on Pyramid Stage @ 4".

At the Solstice Bar at #Glastonbury. Looking forward to my 4pm speech at the Pyramid Stage. pic.twitter.com/DPnvPvLYrp  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) June 24, 2017

Chants of "Corbyn, Corbyn" began as the festival gates opened at Worthy Farm at 7am on Wednesday and have continued ever since.

Festival-goers have been shouting the Islington North MP's name, as well as "Oh, Jeremy Corbyn".

There are flags bearing Mr Corbyn's name, T-shirts featuring his face and even a sand sculpture depicting him dressed in fox hunting garb, riding a fox through fields of wheat towards Prime Minister Theresa May.

During Friday's headline slot, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke recited Mrs May's "strong and stable" election slogan, with crowds chanting "Oh, Jeremy Corbyn".

The singer later muttered: "See you later, Theresa. Shut the door on the way out."
A Canberra man who had his vehicle stolen was able to tell police exactly where it was after tracking his mobile phone, which was still in the car.

The man had left his car keys in a jumper inside the gym about 8.30pm on Friday night. It was noted in police documents he recalled a "heavy set male" enter the gym directly behind him.

Later that evening when he went to return to his car, it was gone. However, he was able to track its location by pinging his mobile phone.

Court documents revealed David Michael Evans, 31, of Palmerston, allegedly followed the man into the gym at Anytime Fitness in Dickson about 8.30pm on Friday night.

Evans is charged with vehicle theft and stealing and possessing stolen goods.
Follow the footy action on Saturday with live stats in our match centre.

There are two games down and two to go on Saturday. Here, you can find stats from the clash between the Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium.

Easton Wood of the Bulldogs.

The match centre and statistics for the game at Domain Stadium between West Coast and Melbourne can be found here.

Click here for all the stats from Greater Western Sydney's 60-point win over the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba on Saturday.
Crown Resorts' apparent dismantling of its Asian office network threatens to choke the flow of overseas visitors to the company's Australian casinos and a planned $US1.5 billion ($2 billion) flagship resort in Sydney.

Crown's offices in eight Asian countries from Macau to Indonesia which helped attract gamblers in the region to its resorts in Australia appear to have closed. Staff who were detained in China in October are due to appear next week in a Shanghai court on charges related to promoting gambling, and billionaire James Packer's company now lists Hong Kong as its sole international outpost.

Crown has already suspended marketing in China and the company has sold out of a Macau venture to focus on Australia. But with consumer spending at home under pressure and contributions to Crown from overseas visitors in focus, the apparent closure of its Asian premises has confounded some industry observers.

"It doesn't make sense," said Ben Lee, Macau-based managing partner at Asian gaming consultancy IGamiX. "They've shut their Southeast Asian offices, which were never at risk, and they've kept only one office open, which happens to be China-facing."
It's sad to know that the majority of the world's harassed Christians are living in Christian countries. The unwillingness to accept Christians of other sections and the growing separation of the church and state could be the reason behind the increasing Christian harassment around the world.

According to a study of religious persecutions in 2015 by Pew Research Center, it revealed that Christian persecution has continued to increase across 128 nations, which are more than any other religion.

The research findings are determined by the fact that Christians are considered that most widely spread religious group in the world. Opposite to what people believed, it has been proven that Christians are not only killed in Middle Eastern countries but also in Christian countries around the world. Even countries like Russia where Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the dominant faith, there's still a significant intolerance of beliefs that they still do not officially recognize. An example of these religions includes Christian groups like Jehovah's Witnesses. In addition, Russian High Court recently banned the Jehovah's Witnesses in the country and identified them as "extremist."

Meanwhile, the government of Nicaragua is also said to be placing a lot of stress and burden on the Catholic Church. Catholic Churches has their emails and phone calls tapped by the government to trace them. However, the government didn't hinder them from using Catholic symbols and traditions in their political propaganda and campaigns, which threatens the religious authority of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua.

Furthermore, there are also reports cited in the study that Christians in the US are also complaining about the growing harassment received from the government officials. Thousands of American Christians are now hoping for a significant change under Trump's administration. Declaring his commitment to stop Christian harassment, President Trump also guaranteed to make sure that religious liberty will never get compromised in the country. The fulfillment of this promise remains uncertain at press time.
Back when homosexuality was still listed in psychiatry manuals as a mental disorder, Karen Hooker decided to study the mental differences between homosexuals and heterosexuals. She recruited straight and gay people, and gave them a series of psychological tests that showed no differences between the two groups. Based on her research, in 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, and announced that homosexuality was not a mental illness.

It was an enormous victory for gay rights, and has fundamentally changed the way we talk about sexual orientation. Early libertarian arguments emphasised the right of sexual minorities to choose: "What business is it of society's what people do in their bedrooms, as long as there's consent?" In 2003, that privacy argument persuaded the Supreme Court to protect "homosexual persons," saying, "The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime."

In recent years, however, gay rights has come to be seen in parallel with the movement for racial equality: Gay people should be protected not because they have a right to privacy, but because their sexual orientation is an inborn trait like race.

This view has been strengthened by studies that showed that identical twins were much more likely to both be gay than fraternal twins, indicating a genetic component to homosexuality. (There may also be an environmental influence in the womb, which would be no more amenable to intervention than genetics are.) Regardless of the exact source of sexual orientation, there's good evidence that in many cases, it is indeed fixed, so it's unreasonable to think a straight person could choose to become gay, or vice versa.
When Sally Castle woke up on her 40th birthday, she felt a little blue about being single and having no children. But not for long. She soon realised that her solo status gave her the freedom to live life differently.

Now instead of full-time work, she takes on fixed-term contracts and project-based work via her business Shore Strategic Consulting and is aiming to spend three months of the year sailing the high seas.

Connie Munoz of Maroubra works for a PR agency for seven months, saves all her money, and then takes unpaid leave and goes travelling. Credit:Sarah Keayes

"I was thinking I could work until I'm 65 and buy a yacht and sail the world when I'm older and not necessarily as fit," she says. But she also knows life can be short. "My mother passed away when she was 64 and it just got me thinking in a different way."

The 41-year-old Sydneysider recently spent seven weeks sailing from the Caribbean islands across the Panama Canal to the Galapagos Islands. To help make it happen she rents out her home while she's away and has a well-established pattern of dividing her pay into five "buckets" including a "rainy day" fund and an "adventure" fund to ensure all her regular expenses and contingencies are covered.
A Brisbane comic artist has recreated the popular, long-running character The Phantom in a way never seen before.

Paul Mason illustrated The Phantom, a costumed crime fighter who relies solely on his strength, as a young boy for a new comic book called Kid Phantom.

Paul Mason has illustrated the new comic Kid Phantom. Credit:Paul Mason

Kid Phantom will chronicle the adventures of the current Phantom when he was a young boy.



This is the first makeover the character has had in its 81-year-history.

Dr Mason said while Australia's younger generation might be able to say their mother, father or grandparents loved The Phantom it was time to expose the character to a new generation.
Five people have died, two were fighting for life in hospital and three others suffered serious injuries after a tragic weekend on Queensland roads.

In the latest incident, a teenager was hit by a car while lying in a Bundaberg South street in the early hours of Sunday morning.

In less than 12 hours, four separate crashes claimed 10 victims across the state. Credit:Luis Ascui

The 19-year-old man was struck about 12.15am in Maryborough Street and was taken to Bundaberg Base Hospital with serious injuries.

At a similar time, a car crashed at Mount Nebo, leaving two men fighting for their lives in the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.
The Pacific Motorway and Riverside Expressway have cleared, after causing major headaches for southbound commuters coming out of the city on Saturday.

The M1 returned to normal about 3.30pm and the only other issue in the area was a broken-down vehicle on the Riverside Expressway, which caused minor congestion.

A series of crashes saw the Riverside Expressway and Pacific Motorway clogged heading south. Credit:Paul Rovere

EARLIER

The Riverside Expressway has been clogged on Saturday morning after several crashes in quick succession.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has refused to intervene in the case of Iranian refugee Mojgan Shamsalipoor.

Last week, the minister rejected Ms Shamsalipoor's appeal to apply for a partner visa and told the refugee that she has six months to settle her affairs and make plans to return to Iran.

Mojgan Shamsalipoor and her husband, Milad Jafari, at the World Refugee Day protest. Credit:Glenn Hunt

On Saturday afternoon, more than a hundred supporters gathered in the heart of Brisbane to protest against the decision as part of World Refugee Day and demand "Mojgan must stay".

Ms Shamsalipoor briefly addressed the crowd in Brisbane Square, thanking them for their support.
The death of a 35-year-old woman who was found dead in the bedroom of her Ipswich home is has been classified as an "accidental death" and is likely to be treated as non-suspicious once the final autopsy results are back.

The body of the woman was found in a Macrae Street, Coalfalls, home just before 4pm on Friday.

Police will provide more details regarding the Ipswich death later on Saturday morning. Credit:Nine News Queensland - Twitter

On Saturday evening a Queensland Police spokeswoman said police had not launched a homicide investigation and were awaiting the final autopsy results to make the final "non-suspicious" ruling.

On Saturday morning Detective Acting Inspector Heath McQueen said Queensland Ambulance first attended the house on Friday after receiving a call from a male resident.
Uber passengers will be slugged with a $1 fee for every trip as part of landmark reforms regulating ride-share services in Victoria.

The reforms passed the upper house on Friday following a last-minute amendment introduced by Sex Party MP Fiona Patten to slash the per trip levy from $2.

The levy will apply to all taxi, Uber and other commercial passenger vehicles. Credit:Ryan Stuart

The levy will apply to all taxi, Uber and other commercial passenger vehicles, with the money to be used for an industry transition fund.

The government also agreed to remove a $50 million cap for the fund.
A Perth woman is devastated after her cat was hit and killed by a car, only for the local council to dispose of him in landfill before she had found out what had happened.

Bicton resident Siobhan Taylor said she had let her pet, Bailey, outside. But when she tried to call him back he did not come.

Siobhan Taylor's beloved pet Bailey. Credit:Siobhan Taylor

"I knew instantly that something was wrong," she said.

"I was up until 4:30am looking for him and calling."
Children stand outside as they are evacuated with their families from the Chalcots Estate, in Camden, north London. Credit:AP Officials confirmed on Friday that the Grenfell blaze began with a faulty refrigerator, and that it was not started intentionally. But the high death toll at the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in West London has prompted the authorities to consider charges of manslaughter, along with other criminal offences, said Detective Superintendent Fiona McCormack, who is overseeing the investigation. A firefighter puts looks floral tributes before a minute's silence near to Grenfell Tower on Monday. Credit:PA She did not indicate who might face manslaughter charges, and a police spokeswoman declined to provide any additional details, as investigators sought to learn more about how and why the fire spread so quickly.

Much of the early focus has been on the cladding and insulation that are thought to have allowed the blaze to race up the sides of the building after it broke out, leaving many people with no way to escape. Burnham residential tower on the Chalcots Estate showing the bottom brick section of the building after cladding was removed due to safety concerns. Credit:AP "Preliminary tests on the insulation samples from Grenfell Tower show that they combusted soon after the test started," McCormack said in a televised statement. Cladding tiles had also failed initial tests, she said. A view of an apartment in the Grenfell Tower after fire engulfed the 24-storey building, in London. Credit:Met/AP

The Department for Communities and Local Government said on Saturday that 27 developments across England, from London in the south-east to Manchester in the north and Plymouth on the south-west coast, had failed fire tests on the cladding used in the buildings. Work has already begun to remove it and, in the meantime, councils have begun 24-hour fire patrols. The burnt-out shell of the Grenfell Tower apartment building in London, following a fire that left more than 80 people dead. Credit:AP Councils are working on a list of 600 high-rise buildings fitted with some form of cladding, testing about 100 blocks a day. On Friday, the Premier Inn hotel chain said it was "extremely concerned" about the cladding used on three of its newer hotels, the Evening Standard reported. This included two in London that have have cladding that may not meet government fire regulations, and it was "seeking to address this with the developers". Despite the concerns, a fire safety expert had declared the buildings safe in a review this week, and "robust" safety measures included fire detectors and smoke alarms in every room, a company spokesman said.

After the police statement on Friday, Tony Rice, a shareholder of Omnis Exteriors, which manufactured materials for Grenfell's cladding system, stepped down from the board of trustees of Shelter London, a charity that has been providing advice and support to the victims of the fire. Derek Myers, who was the chief executive of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) in 2013, when Grenfell Tower underwent renovation, also resigned from the board. Local activists in North Kensington, who for years had warned the authorities of fire risks at Grenfell Tower, reacted with outrage to the initial details emerging from the investigation. "It's obvious that the contractors took it upon themselves to use cheaper cladding and material, and I'm sure that's the case in hundreds of other towers," said Tony Glockner, a local activist and resident who lives in public housing owned by the RBKC. "None of this surprises me at all," he added. "Social housing residents in North Kensington have been crying out about fire hazards and poor housing conditions for years, but they have been ignored."

The appliance that started the fire was a Hotpoint FF175BP refrigerator and freezer, McCormack added. She said that the model had never been subject to a recall, and that tests were being carried out to determine if it now should be. In a statement posted online, Hotpoint said it was aware of a "possible incident" involving one of its products, and it asked its customers to check if they had bought models FF175BP or FF175BG made from March 2006 to July 2009. Consumers who had were asked to contact the company. Nine victims of the fire have now been formally identified, authorities said, but the number of presumed dead remains at 79. The police said that every complete body had been recovered from the building, but that the authorities were still working to identify remains. "Such is that devastation down at the scene, this may take at least until the end of the year," McCormack said, adding: "There is the terrible reality that we may not find or identify all those that died during the fire." More than 600 calls were made to emergency services on the night of the fire, with some lasting more than an hour, which McCormack described as "harrowing".
All who are distraught at the state of U.S. politics should pay attention to the rise of French President Emanuel Macron.

The recently elected Macron, who had never before run for office, is set to win a parliamentary majority Sunday with a brand new centrist party. Its candidates are mostly political novices who have no ties to the two traditional French parties of the left and right.

Its as if a younger, more charismatic Michael Bloomberg had taken on both Democrats and the GOP and been handed victory by voters fed up with ugly partisan warfare. And as if he fielded a third-party slate of newbies for Congress that was then swept into power.

A fantasy? No doubt. And Macrons feats are rooted in aspects of the French system that differ from ours.

Yet this 39-year-old Frenchman has upended political mantras we now accept too easily  that the political center is passe, that populist movements will inevitably grow, and that conventional parties must gravitate to the extremes to win. So, despite the differences in our systems, its important to look at why and how Macron did what he did.

First a little history. As economics minister in the last socialist government, Macron sought to loosen restrictive labor laws that foster high unemployment, including a 20 percent rate for those under 25. Frustrated by rigid unions and an inept socialist president, he quit and founded a brand new party, En Marche (Forward). No one took him seriously at first.

But Macron was on to something important, says Pierre Vimont, former French ambassador to Washington and now a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe. He understood that people were looking for a new way of doing politics. He stepped outside both parties.

The two traditional French parties, the Socialists and the Republicans, were considered center-left and center-right, but were increasingly beholden to their militant wings.

Macron was trying something different, the idea that what we need is a government of national accord, to bring in people from both sides who put the good of the country ahead of (partisan) interests, said Vimont, The French are tired of politicians fighting each other all the time.

Sound familiar?

But why did the French trust Macron? After all, politicians calling for change are not a new invention, and populists have adopted that slogan. And, Ill admit, when I heard Macron in the first TV debate of the campaign, I thought he sounded too wonky.

Part of the answer, said Vimont, involved timing. This was possible in France because of the state of the country, he said. People had given up on economic reform  four previous presidents having failed to produce it  and the country was gloomy.

Then comes Macron, young, eager for change, saying France is still able to do great things, Vimont said. Macron radiated optimism, in contrast with the fear-mongering of the populist Marine Le Pen.

His youth helped, and the French were fascinated by his personal story: a long marriage to his former high school drama teacher who is 24 years his senior. But most important, his economic message crossed party lines: Loosen labor laws that discourage hiring and lower taxes on small and medium businesses, but keep a social safety net; open France to trade but also to immigration. Reform the European Union (in tandem with Germany), rather than reject it.

Of course, Macron was also lucky. The early favorite, Republican candidate Francois Fillon, tanked due to a corruption scandal and Le Pen proved unexpectedly inept.

But the novice pol took advantage of every opening. Many assumed his presidency would be hobbled by his new partys inability to gain many seats in the National Assembly. But he found candidates for every constituency  half of them women, many young, many minorities (a rarity in French politics). His new party already has more members than traditional parties; the average age of En Marche candidates is 43, compared with the 60- to 70-year-olds that dominate the outgoing assembly.

The En Marche slate of nonpoliticians includes an economist who arrived in France as a 4-year-old refugee from the Rwandan genocide, a renowned mathematician, a famous female ex-bullfighter, a fighter pilot, and lots of owners of small- and medium-size businesses, according to the New York Times.

Of course, Macrons victory doesnt solve the problem of Frances rust belt, where Le Pen voters are still wary. And its far too early to know, whether he can change labor laws given the French history of union strikes and violent street riots that forced previous presidents to back off.

However, theres much that U.S. politicians can learn from the French presidents achievements so far.

First, the political center is not dead. Macron proved that elections can be won by a smart centrist who appeals to voters across partisan lines. True, U.S. election rules make it much harder to create a viable third party than in France. More attention needs to be focused on how to change these rules.

But bottom line, a centrist candidate who can rise above party divisions can woo disheartened voters and trump a populists appeal.

Second, Macrons successful recruitment of fresh faces for every available district should be taken to heart by Democrats if they want to make gains in 2018. Attractive, local candidates, not ideological purity, won him parliamentary control.

And last, a system that seems frozen and bitter  as Frances did, as Americas does now  can be changed if the right leadership emerges. If the French leader can follow through on his promises he may start a new trend among Western democracies. That is something Americans should ponder as they root for Macron to succeed.
Springfield quarry plan still unresolved as residents wait, worry

Conditional Use Hearing on a proposed quarry along Rt. 309 in Springfield may be nearing an end after two years. Here's what residents have to say.
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Coram Group UKs Central Estimating Office has announced the recruitment of an additional administrative coordinator to work alongside the team based at the Shropshire factory site.

Rebekah Edwards has been recruited to the Estimating Team at its Bridgnorth head office, to the meet the rising demand in enquiries for contract pricing across the Groups businesses including: Coram Showers, Coram ShowerPods, Impey Wetrooms and Geesa Bathroom Accessories.

Phil Cox, Group Business Development Manager said: We are pleased to welcome Rebekah to the company. She is already proving herself to be prompt and efficient when responding to customer enquiries and we are sure that her input will help to increase yield and success within our Estimating Team.
Covers Timber and Builders Merchants has donated 25 high visibility vests to Court Lane Junior School in Portsmouth.

The children will wear the vests during school trips and educational outings to help enhance safety. Covers Home Ideas depot manager Richard Murrell presented it to the Head of School, Mrs Sam Cantini, with the vests.

Richard Murrell, added: At Covers we always strive to work with the local community in any way we can. We hope our donation will help ensure that school trips can continue to be enjoyable and safe for all.

Headteacher Mrs Cantini said: We have a diverse range of trips and outings planned for the children throughout the year and ensuring our children remain safe is our top priority. The provision of high-visibility vests will really help to make our outings even better. We would like to thank Covers for their kind and generous donation.
The BMF has confirmed that a record sum of 71,531 was raised for charity during the Gala Dinner that concluded its All-Industry Conference in Budapest last weekend.

The total was even higher than the estimate given on the night. The money will be divided equally between Variety, the Childrens Charity, the charity of the Crystal Clear Group, and the Teenage Cancer Trust, the BMFs charity of the year.

Conference delegates showed their generosity in many different ways throughout the evening. The highlight was a special auction where the star lot, a Fiat Abarth 595 Tourismo donated by the Crystal Clear Group, sold for 19,000.

Comedian and impressionist Jon Culshaw, who has strong links with Variety, joined Conference host, Gethin Jones on stage to encourage every member of the audience to get involved. A silent auction of lots ranging from holidays to sporting memorabilia raised well over 30,000 and, after Paddy Ashdowns speech earlier in the day, there was no surprise when someone bid 3,000 to lunch with him.

John Newcomb, managing director of the BMF, said: We hoped to raise an exceptional sum for two very deserving charities and I am unbelievably proud of the industry for achieving even more than we ever imagined. Im told that this is the highest sum our industry has raised for charity in a single night and I would like to thank everyone who contributed. I must also thank Martin Randall and the Crystal Clear Group whose donation of a limited edition car caught everyones imagination and made such a significant contribution to the evenings overall fundraising.

Martin Randall. Crystal Clear Group Chairman and Variety patron, said: I can only echo Johns appreciation of our colleagues in the industry. Their amazing generosity has raised a huge amount of money and these valuable funds will help both charities continue to make a difference to the lives of the people they support.

The BMF All-Industry Conference was attended by 430 people.
Teen visits South Jersey in 50-state Flowers and Flags tribute to vets

Preston Sharp of Calif. visits veterans graves in Cinnaminson cemetery in South Jersey on 50-state Flowers and Flags tribute to their sacrifices
Future Group, which runs retail stores across the country under various formats, wishes to grow its fashion business to Rs 12,000 crore in the current financial year.

"Revenue from the fashion business is targeted to touch Rs 12,000 crore in the current financial year. Out of which Rs 3500 crore will come from the revenues of Central, a lifestyle departmental store owned by the group", Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kishore Biyani told reporters in Kolkata on Saturday.

Opening its first Central departmental store in the metropolis, Biyani said another 15 such outlets will be opened across the country by the end of this financial year, thus taking the total to 50.

was also planning a second Central store at the famous Metro cinema building, now closed, located in the heart of the city at Esplanade.

Since the building had been accorded the heritage status, the facade would remain unchanged, he said.

The group had also collaborated with the West Bengal government to open 'Biswa Bangla' outlets at all Central stores across the country.

An outlet of Biswa Bangla had already been opened in the first Central store in Kolkata.

The group also operates fashion stores across formats like FBB and Brand Factory.
At a day-long meeting at a city hotel in Delhi, dealers of US multinational car giant (the world's third largest) General Motors have decided to drag the car maker to court over compensation related issues.
Infosys Chairman will retire from the board of Indias second largest software exporter in May 2018 when he turns 70. He announced this at the companys annual general meeting (AGM) on Saturday.
The Securities and Exchanges Board of India (Sebi) is soon expected to take action against the statutory auditors of scam-hit Satyam Computer Services for their role in the Rs 7,000-crore accounting fraud committed by the promoters between 1999 and 2009.
A 33-year-old Keralite priest who was missing from last four days was found dead on a beach in Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, according to information received by Church sources here today.

A message about the death of Martin Xavier Vazhachira, belonging to the CMI Congregation, was received by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate provincial here from the Archbishop of St Andrews in Edinburgh this morning.

The message said the priest, hailing from Pulinkunnu in Alappuzha district, was found dead by Edinburgh police.

Details would be available only after Tuesday, a CMI official told PTI.

The priest served at St John the Baptist Church, Corstorphine in Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader in State Assembly Ramesh Chennithala asked External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to take immediate steps to bring the priest's body to India.

In a letter to Swaraj, Chennithala said the body was found under mysterious circumstances on a beach and sought a comprehensive probe into his death.
WASHINGTON  In 1983, President Ronald Reagan delivered his Evil Empire speech, which immediately offended Soviet leaders and the foreign policy establishment. (Reagan must have been equally pleased by both.) I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written, he said. I believe this because the source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual. And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those who would enslave their fellow man.

In a Siberian jail, Russian dissident Natan Sharansky read the speech and secretly spread the news to his fellow prisoners. According to Sharansky, The dissidents were ecstatic. Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth  a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us.

That was a long time ago  Reagans speech was about as close to World War II as we are to Reagans speech  and it sounds strangely quaint to modern ears. But this was more than rhetorical fluff. The speech embodied a strategic insight  that the hope of oppressed people for lives and dignity and freedom is eventually favorable to the community of free nations. It was hard power  tanks and missiles  that kept the Cold War from being lost. It was soft power  the superiority of a spiritual ideal of freedom to a materialistic vision of historical forces  that allowed the Cold War to be won.

Is the world now fundamentally different? Is the spiritual ideal now outdated or overmatched by distorted but powerful appeals of nationalism and religious fundamentalism?

It is the theory of America First foreign policy that this ideal is outdated. The urgency of defeating terrorism, in this view, requires the active cooperation of Middle Eastern leaders, and it matters little or nothing how oppressive they are at home. We are not here to lecture, President Trump said in Saudi Arabia. We are not here to tell other people how to live. Trump has extended this approach, in various forms, to President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt (doing a fantastic job), to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, and to President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines (doing an unbelievable job).

Some of this warmth for strongmen is surely due to Trumps personal fascination with authoritarianism. But this is also proposed as a strategy  as a way to maximize American interests in a dangerous world. And here it is less realistic than simplistic.

The main problem is not moral but temporal. This foreign policy approach assumes that the current order in oppressive countries can be indefinitely preserved  as long it is not destabilized by meddling outsiders. In reality, the instability of oppressive governments emerges from within. They prevent the diffusion of choice and power, which is the source of economic and social success in the modern world. Monopolizing power encourages cronyism, corruption, resentment and discontent. Strongmen can succeed for a time by feeding hatred of enemies, real and imagined. But this is the path of arrogance, mediocrity and insurrection.

In such societies, a few eyes and mouths open  often resulting in imprisonment or house arrest. These are the dissidents that Trump seems intent on betraying and discouraging. The message is thereby sent that America values the good opinion of strongmen more than the dignity and liberty of the people they rule. This is resented, and remembered.

The Middle East is no exception to this rule. In Egypt, for example, decades of military rule resulted in a mismanaged, dysfunctional economy while weakening all forms of political authority and organization outside the radical mosque. When the revolution came, democratic institutions and attitudes were too weak to consolidate a new, more democratic order. America did not determine the timing of Egypts revolution, and will not control the timing of the next one. The question a realist must ask: What is America doing now to encourage the reforms, ideals and institutions that will make Egypts transition successful rather than abortive? Our levers, of course, are limited. But it is those who think that Sissi-ism is permanent who are living in a dream world.

A more sophisticated version of foreign policy realism requires living with a tension. America must find common interests on a daily basis with governments that it finds oppressive and unjust. But it is also in our national interest to hold up an ideal that speaks to current dissidents and future leaders  who are often one in the same.
The (DU) colleges announced their cut-offs on Friday with most of them concentrating around the 97 per cent tab for commerce courses, set earlier in the day by the Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC).

Hindu, Lady Shri Ram (LSR), and Kirorimal College set their cut-offs for Economics (Honors) at 97.5 per cent.

Releasing its cut-off earlier than the rest, SRCC had pegged it just a little higher at 97.75 per cent, for the Economics (Honors) and B.Com (Honors).

Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Khalsa College threw a little surprise with a 98.25 per cent cut-off for Economics (Honors).

It left behind others when it came to sciences with the highest 99.66 per cent cut-off for B.Sc. (Electronics). For B.A. (Honors) English, it set an enviable cut-off of 98.75 per cent, higher than the rest.

Just like sciences, SGTB Khalsa raised the bar highest for arts as well with a 99 per cent cut-off for its B.A. (Political Science) course.

LSR set its B.Com (Honors) cut-off on par with SRCC at 97.75 per cent.

The coveted Miranda House came at an asking rate of 97 per cent for B. Sc. (Zoology) and 96.67 per cent for Maths and Physics.

Hansraj College pegged its sciences cut-off at 97.33 and 97.75 per cent for Chemistry and Computer Science, its highest this year.

Among colleges offering journalism course, LSR set the highest cut-off of 98 per cent, followed by Delhi College of Arts and Commerce (DCAC) with 97 per cent.

Off campus colleges like Bharti College and Institute of Home Economics set their journalism cut-off at 96 per cent, followed by Maharaja Agrasen College, located in Mayur Vihar in east Delhi, at 95 per cent.

Cut-offs for courses in Hindi and Sanskrit (Honors) hovered within an achievable 60-70 per cent for most colleges.
A teenager was killed and three of his friends injured in an attack by a group of persons in a train in Haryana, the Government Railway Police said on Friday. The deceased was identified as Junaid, 16, of Khandabali village in Haryana's Ballabhgarh. His friends too are said to hail from the same village. The GRP said the crime occurred on Thursday night when Junaid, Hasib, Shakir, and Mohsin were returning to their village on a Mathura-bound passenger train after shopping at Sadar Bazaar in Delhi.
Prime Minister on Saturday embarked on a three-nation tour of Portugal, the US and the Netherlands during which he will hold talks with the top leadership of those countries to boost bilateral ties.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Ahead of his US visit, Modi said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he had tweeted.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.

Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.

In the first leg of the tour, Modi will visit Portugal where he will have talks with Prime Minister Antonio Costa.

"Building on our recent discussions, we will review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions," he said about his upcoming meeting with Costa.

After the US visit, Modi will travel to the Netherlands on June 27 where he will have a meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and call on King Willem-Alexander and meet Queen Maxima.

This year, the two countries are celebrating 70 years of the establishment of Indo-Dutch diplomatic relations.

"I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Rutte and reviewing our bilateral relations. I would be exchanging views with PM Rutte on important global issues including counter- terrorism and climate change," Modi said ahead of the visit.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa on Saturday sprang a surprise for when he hosted a special Gujarati vegetarian lunch for him that included dishes like 'Aakhu Saak' and 'Mango Shrikhand'.

Aakhu literally means 'whole' and shaak simply means 'curry'. It is a dish in which vegetable stuffing is heavily spiced and is wonderful for big get-togethers.

The other items on the menu included 'Saag Kofta', 'Rajma aur Makai', 'Tarkha Daal', 'Kesar Rice', 'Parantha', 'Rotli', 'Papad', and 'Gulab Jamun' and other sweets.

Modi is the first Indian prime minister in for a bilateral visit. He has said his one-day visit to the country will further strengthen relations between India and .

Earlier on Saturday, Modi and Costa took a stroll around the Palacio das Necessidades, a historic building in the Largo do Rilvas, a public square in Lisbon.

Costa had visited India in January when he went to see his family members at his ancestral house in Goa.
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The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has cleared the First Pour of Concrete (FPC) to the third and fourth units of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP), indicating its permission to start construction work on these two units. The excavation of the main plant area of KKNPP 3 and 4 has been completed and is ready for construction activities. Those against the project claim that the clearance is illegal by AERB's own guidelines.

The AERB said in an announcement that it had granted FPC clearance to Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), at a meeting held on June 19. In general terms, the FPC clearance implies commencement of first pour of structural concrete and continuation of construction works of the safety related structures.
Cloth merchants plan to go on a three-day nationwide strike beginning June 27 in protest of 5 per cent (Goods and Services Tax) levied on the services (job work) rendered by them for the textile industry.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Maharashtra government on Saturday announced a major farm loan waiver scheme that will see debt of up to Rs 1.5 lakh per farmer being written off, costing the exchequer Rs 34,000 crore.

The Rs 34,000-crore relief scheme was announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at a press meet in Mumbai.

Named after Maratha warrior king Shivaji Maharaj, the programme will benefit 89 lakh farmers and make 40 lakh agriculturists debt-free, Fadnavis said.





"Maharashtra Government has decided loan waiver of Rs 34,000 crores. We are waiving loans up to Rs 1.5 lakhs completely. Aware that the burden will fall on us, will cut our expenses. All ministers and MLAs will give one month salary to support loan waiver," Fadnavis informed.

Chief Minister also asserted that those farmers, who have paid their loans regularly, will get 25 per cent loan return benefit.

"We have discussed with several stakeholders in this matter," Fadnavis said.

However, Chief Minister also made it clear that farmers having an income of over 10 lakh per annum will not be benefitted in this loan waiving scheme.

Farmers in many parts of Maharashtra were on a warpath early this month, which disrupted the supply of vegetables and other essentials to cities, including Mumbai.

They were demanding a loan waiver, which was backed by all political parties. The stir was called off after the government gave them a firm assurance bringing in a comprehensive scheme to help the debt-pressed cultivators.

This comes on the back of recent loan waiver announcements by states such as Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka worth Rs 36,359 crore, Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 8,165 crore, respectively. Earlier, soon after 2014 assembly elections, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh had announced loan waivers amounting to around Rs 17,000 crore and Rs 22,000 crore.



ALSO READ: Loan waivers to farmers will worsen fiscal deficit of state govts: Icra



A few days ago, credit rating agency Icra's report has warned of a negative impact on financial conditions of states that are announcing loan waivers. The report said that funding of crop loan waivers would likely worsen the fiscal deficit and leverage levels of state governments. There is a significant risk that productive capital spending may end up being used to fund a portion of the loan waivers, impacting the growth of overall investment activity in the country, the report suggested.

Even without factoring in the amount needed to fund the crop loan waivers that some states have announced, Icra estimated the gross state development loans issued by the state governments to rise from Rs 3.8 lakh crore in FY17 to Rs 4.5 lakh crore in FY18.
Prime Minister on Saturday held talks with his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa and discussed ways to further intensify bilateral relations.

Modi, who arrived here on the first leg of his three- nation tour, said his brief visit will further strengthen relations between India and .

"Advancing bilateral engagements. PM @narendramodi & PM @antoniocostapm discuss ways to further intensify bilateral relations," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted along with some photographs.

Advancing bilateral engagements. PM @narendramodi & PM @antoniocostapm discuss ways to further intensify bilateral relations pic.twitter.com/zGaBkYNUq8  Gopal Baglay (@MEAIndia) June 24, 2017

The two sides are expected to sign some agreements.

Departing from protocol, Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva received Prime Minister Modi at the airport earlier in the day.

Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit on a bilateral trip, Baglay said.

Before leaving for Lisbon, Modi had said during his meeting with Costa, the two leaders will build on their recent discussions and review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions.

Portuguese Prime Minister Costa said in a tweet that this was an excellent opportunity to review the implementation of the accords agreed during his India visit and sign new agreements. Costa had visited India in January this year.

The highlight of Modi's four-day three-nation visit will be the US leg as Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

From the US, he will travel to the Netherlands.
The National Capital Region (NCR) will get its second airport at Jewar in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh  about 100 km from its current Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.
With 90 per cent of the roughly 60 million Indians suffering from mental illness currently not receiving treatment, the new measures are welcome



In December 2014, the international advocacy group Human Rights Watch released a report documenting wide-ranging and intense human-rights abuses involving women in 24 institutions across India that house those perceived to be mentally ill. Most striking amid the blocks of text describing the abuse were the stark images of women and girls forcibly deposited in these institutions. Deepali, a 46-year-old with a perceived mental illness, was pictured on the first page of the document, alongside a quote: I woke up one night and I couldnt move; my body was in intense physical pain. A nurse came and jabbed an injection into my body, without even taking off my clothes. You are treated worse than animals.



Though Deepali described the institution as an alternate reality, her situation should not have been reality at all. All institutionalisations for those considered to be mentally ill were, at the time of the reports release, governed by the Mental Health Act (1987). It offered patients a few basic rights  for instance, it technically allowed people such as Deepali to sue for release within 60 days of their involuntary institutionalisation. Yet, the report said, in none of the 52 cases  documented  was the woman or girl informed of her right to appeal or provided the opportunity or assistance to do so. In the realm of mental healthcare, realities on the ground bear little relation to legal frameworks  a rupture that has been central to understanding and evaluating Indias mental-healthcare policy.
Centre Grants Approval for Airport at Jewar in Greater Noida Delhi-NCR to get its Second International Airport

The Government has granted in-principle approval for a greenfield airport at Jewar in Greater Noida in view of the rapidly growing flying requirements of the NCR region . Announcing this at a press conference in New Delhi today the Minister for Civil Aviation Shri P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju said that the air traffic in the NCR region is growing very fast. From the current level of 62 million passengers per annum, it is expected to reach upto 91 MPPA by 2020 and 109 MPPA by 2024, which would be the saturation point for the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. So Delhi will require a second airport in the next 7-10 years. The minister said that the Government of Uttar Pradesh had submitted a proposal for construction of a new Greenfield International Airport at Jewar in Greater Noida, and the Ministry of Civil Aviation has accorded in principle approval for the project based on the recommendations of the Steering Committee on Greenfield Airports, headed by the Secretary (CA).The Noida International Airport will be located 72Kms from IGI Airport and 65 Kms from Hindon Air Force station Ghaziabad. Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) is the implementing authority of the project. An area of 3000 hectares has been notified for the airport which will be developed in phases. An area of 1000 hectares will be developed in the first phase at an estimated cost of Rs 10,000 crores. There will be one runway in the first phase. Three more runways will be developed in subsequent phases.

The total cost of development of all phases is expected to be around Rs 15-20,000 crores. The airport is expected to cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10 to 15 years.. Government of UP along with YEIDA will bear the cost of land procurement. The project will be implemented in the PPP mode for which concessionaire is to be identified based on open market competitive bidding process. Also speaking on the occasion MoS Civil Aviation Shri Jayant Sinha said that the airport is not only important for the NCR region but also for Western Uttar Pradesh. He said cities in this part of Uttar Pradesh have a lot of potential in terms of air traffic and the Noida airport will help in providing seamless domestic and international connectivity to the region. He further said that the project will give a big boost to economic development in the region. Greater Noida and Western Uttar Pradesh have many industries that will benefit from this improved connectivity. It will also encourage more industrialization, thus pushing economic growth. Secretary Civil Aviation Shri R. N. Choubey informed that metro connectivity was being extended to Jewar, and so the airport would have multi modal connectivity by road and rail. He further said that UP Government and YEIDA will be preparing the Techno- Economic Feasibility Report for the project. He said this airport is expected to be operational within the next 4-5 years.
Every couple of days, Sinclair Browne fights through traffic in Times Square, squeezes his delivery truck into a parking spot, walks up four flights of stairs and delivers groceries to a guy whose order he knows by heart.
Pakistan was in a state of shock after weeks of relative peace as terrorists struck at three cities, killing 62 people and wounding over 100, prompting the army to launch a countrywide crackdown on militants.

A suicide bomber on Friday blew up his explosives-laden car near Inspector General of Police Ehsan Mehboob's office in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, killing at least 13 people, including seven policemen, and wounding 21 .

The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Hours later, twin blasts tore through a market crowded with the people shopping for Eid in the Shia-dominated Parachinar city in the Kurram tribal region on Friday, killing at least 45 people, mostly Shias, and injuring 75 .

Banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Sunni militant group linked with the Taliban took responsibility for the attack.

The first blast occurred during rush hour in Turi Market, where a bus terminal is also located. The second blast took place as rescuers and bystanders rushed to aid those who had been hurt in the first explosion.

At least 45 people have been killed and 80 injured in Parachinar, an official from the local administration said.

Officials said the blasts on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramazan targeted people shopping in the area and those heading out of the city ahead of Eid.

Separately in the evening, three militants riding on two motorbikes killed four policemen in a restaurant in Karachi.

Police said that a banned group was involved in killing of cops in Karachi but did not identify the attackers.

However, pamphlets found from the spot of attack in Karachi showed that previously little-known outfit Ansar al- Sharia Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack. It also warned to launch an operation against security forces.

It appears to be in retaliation for Radd-ul Fassad operation launched by security forces earlier this year to eliminate the facilitators of militants.

The Pakistan Army launched a countrywide intelligence-led military operation against militants.

Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said that security has been tightened across the country.

"Special Intelligence-Based Operation (IBOs) and search operations (were) launched in coordination with intelligence and other Law Enforcement Agencies," he said.

Ghafoor also said that Afghan soil was used to launch the attacks. "Recent terrorist incidents linked to sanctuaries across (the Pak-Afghan border)," he said.

Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa said, "enemy (was) trying to mar festive mood of nation through such coward acts."



He also said that the enemy would "fail against resilience of Pakistan."



The word "enemy" is reserved for India but sometimes it is also used for those using Afghanistan for anti-Pakistan activities.

The attacks were condemned by all parties.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks, saying that terrorists involved in the attacks will be taken to task and all out efforts will be taken to eliminate terrorism.

On March 31, a car bomb blast near an Imambargah of Shia Muslims killed 23 people and injured 70 others in Parachinar.

In January, 25 people were killed and 87 others when a bomb tore through a crowded vegetable market in the same city.
Consumer-goods giant said it would shift marketing spending to platforms that do the best job of reporting how ads are performing, a challenge to dominant players such as Alphabets Google and Facebook.
While antitrust experts expect Amazon.com Inc's bid for Whole Foods Market Inc to win regulatory approval, some critics argue the deal should be blocked because it gives the online retailer a nearly unstoppable head start towards domination of online grocery delivery.

They argue the Whole Foods acquisition will give Amazon an unfair advantage over traditional grocers and new players that might emerge in the market, potentially grounds for the deal to be blocked for antitrust reasons.

"As a matter of policy, should this be blocked? ...There should be a challenge to this because there should be a strong presumption against growth by acquisition and in fact there is supposed to be such a presumption in our law. It's what Congress intended," said Chris Sagers, a professor of antitrust law at Cleveland State University.

Amazon declined to comment. Sagers and other critics urge regulators to prevent dominant firms from buying a major foothold in an adjacent industry.

Founded as a bookseller in 1994 and now the world's biggest online retailer that sells everything from paper towels to designer clothing, Amazon sent grocery stocks into a tailspin Friday when it announced it planned to buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.

Critics believe Amazon's strengths in logistics, its scale and leverage with suppliers could enable it to dominate groceries as it did with bookselling.

Antitrust experts who represent deals being reviewed by the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission said the transaction will be approved because Amazon sells few groceries and Whole Foods is a minnow in the grocery market with 444 US stores compared with 4,692 for Wal-Mart .

US antitrust enforcement has generally looked favourably on deals that reduce consumer prices, and Amazon supporters contend the deal will be good for consumers.

The drop in grocer share prices the day the deal was announced - No. 1 US. grocer Kroger fell more than 9 percent - demonstrates the threat investors feel Amazon poses to traditional grocery chains.

"Competitors can be expected not to like a merger that puts more pressure on them. If their share price goes down, it's a sign they'll be under more competitive pressure," said Alden Abbott, antitrust expert at the Heritage Foundation.

Amazon was accused of crippling book retailers like Borders in part through price cutting. At $480 billion, Amazon's market value equals 90 percent of all the stocks in the S&P 1500 food and staples index, which includes Walmart.

Sagers argues, however, that it would be legal for Amazon to independently develop its grocery sales rather than leapfrog ahead through acquisition.

A Republican former antitrust enforcer, who asked not to be named to protect business relationships, agreed.

"The notion of leveraging your power in market A to enter into market B has a been around for a long time as a basis for enforcement," the ex-enforcer said.

Precedents In Microsoft, Comcast

When the Justice Department sued Microsoft Corp in 1998 the lawsuit was aimed at stopping it from using its dominance of the operating system market to also dominate browser software.

Similarly, when the government allowed Comcast Corp to buy NBC Universal Inc in 2011, it tried to ensure Comcast would not interfere with the development of cable's online competitors.

Some deal experts warn the proposed transaction could hurt that supply a combined Amazon and Whole Foods with organic flour, milk and other goods.

Excessive "buyer power" worried Darren Bush, a veteran of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division who teaches at the University of Houston's Law Center.

Bush said Amazon's success in offering a massive array of products at low prices masks a business model that succeeds by pushing producer prices down.

Food producers could soon face the sort of pressure that booksellers faced from Amazon, which for example removed the "buy" button in 2010 from books sold by a publisher it was embroiled in a dispute with.

Historically, changes in the economy - say from horse and buggies to cars - has always led to anxiety as corporate giants fall into decline to be replaced by dynamic upstarts, said Herb Hovenkamp, who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.

"I always take the long view of these things. Over time, we have always had these big firms that somebody said, 'We have to do something about these guys,'" said Hovenkamp. "Businesses cycle in and cycle out. There's no question in my mind that this will happen to Amazon."
Fourteen employees of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) have reportedly been arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) on charges of drug smuggling through PIA aircraft.

Nine of the 14 were arrested in Karachi, while five others were arrested in Rawalpindi and Lahore, reports the Dawn.

ANF Director General Major General Musarrat Nawaz Malik was quoted by the Dawn, as saying that among those arrested were Syed Gulam Yazdani, vice president of the Peoples Unity of PIA Employees' Karachi chapter, a senior technician, and Syed Anwar Shah, who worked at the PIA Information Technology department.

Malik was further quoted, as saying that at least two former employees of the Airport Security Force (ASF) were also involved in drug smuggling but he did not give out their names or any other detail.

He confirmed that over 100 staff members have been interrogated or interviewed over drug smuggling through PIA planes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Scores of Afghans took part in a protest march in Central London against Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism and creating instability in their country.

Many of protesters shouted slogans asking Islamabad to stop intervening in the internal affairs of Kabul.

"The neighbouring countries are trying to interrupt policies within Afghanistan to create a cultural gap in order to get to their objectives. My message through this to Islamabad is that Afghanistan has witnessed continuous war for the last 40 years and most of the times it is being said that intentions of Pakistan is to intervene in the internal affairs of Afghanistan," Hamid Sahil, political and educational activist and President of UEL Afghan Society, said.

"By destruction or insecurity in Afghanistan nobody will benefit. If we struggle or suffer, they have been times that the same war makes a u-turn towards Islamabad and its surrounding states," Sahil added.

Gharghasht, president of the Afghan Voice Radio, said there must be a comprehensive and practical support from the community to help strengthen Afghanistan establishments.

"Basically, a threat is dealt sooner the better. We need practical and comprehensive support from the community to tackle this otherwise, it will not leave Afghanistan for decades to come. My thoughts are that if Afghanistan is in peace then world is in peace, so we want to sympathise and cooperate with the world," Gharghasht said.

Among the prominent people who supported the march were Noor Ahmad Sapand, political activist, Gulwali Pasarlay, political activist and Author of Lightless Sky, Pritpal Singh, Afghan Sikh community leader and activist, Hamid Jan Kakar, political economical and educational activist, Ramzy Noor, President, Afghan Diaspora, and Bashir Gharwal, President of Coventry Afghan Society.
According to a recent study, the scientists have tested an anti-epileptic drug for its potential impact on the brain activity of patients with mild Alzheimer's disease.

The team led by Daniel Z. Press, MD, of the Berenson-Allen Center for Non-invasive Brain Stimulation at BIDMC, documented changes in patients' EEGs that suggest the drug could have a beneficial effect.

"In the field of Alzheimer's disease research, there has been a major search for drugs to slow its progression. If this abnormal electrical activity is leading to more damage, then suppressing it could potentially slow the progression of the disease," said Press, an Instructor of Neurology in the Cognitive Neurology Unit at BIDMC and an Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School.

In the study, a small group of patients with mild Alzheimer's disease visited BIDMC three times. At each visit, patients were given a baseline (EEG) to measure the electrical activity in the brain.

Next, patients were given injections containing either inactive placebo or the anti-seizure drug levetiracetam, at either a low dose (2.5 mg/kg) or a higher dose (7.5 mg/kg).

Neither patients nor medical professionals knew which injections patients were receiving, but each patient eventually got one of each type, in a random order.

After receiving the injection, patients underwent another EEG, then magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) -- which measures blood flow in the brain, another way to quantify brain activity and determine where in the brain it is taking place.

Finally, patients took a standardized cognitive test, designed to measure memory, executive functioning, naming, visuospatial ability and semantic function - capabilities all affected by Alzheimer's disease.

In the seven patients who were able to complete the study protocol successfully, Press and colleagues analyzed changes in their EEGs.

Overall, higher doses of the anti-seizure drug appeared to normalize abnormalities seen in the patients' EEG profiles. That is, researchers saw overall increases in brain wave frequencies that had been abnormally low in Alzheimer's disease patients prior to receiving the higher dose of levetiracetam, and, likewise, saw decreases in those that had been abnormally high.

"It's worth noting, we did not demonstrate any improvement in cognitive function after a single dose of medication in this study. It's too early to use the drug widely, but we're preparing for a larger, longer study," noted Press.

The risk of developing Alzheimer's disease increases sharply with age. Today, it affects more than 5 million Americans, a figure that is projected to reach 16 million by 2050 as the population ages.

In recent years, researchers have focused on developing techniques to clear the brain of amyloid and tau protein plaques that build up and wreak havoc in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Press concluded by saying, "These strategies have not led to new therapies to date. There have been a lot of disappointments. So our findings represent an interesting new avenue."

The research was published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

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Itanagar [Arunachal Pradesh], June 24 (ANI): Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) took a dig at the ruling Bharaitya Janata Party (BJP) state government for its contradictory policy and demanded the immediate reintroduction of the Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister's Universal Health Insurance Scheme (APCMUHIS).

APCC president Takam Sanjoy told ANI that instead of working for the greater welfare of the people of the state, the Chief Minister Pema Khandu-led government has been adopting anti-people policies.

He cited the example of the APCMUHIS, introduced by former Congress Chief Minister Nabam Tuki in 2014 to provide free medical treatment, including surgeries in the empanelled government and private hospitals.

Considering health ailments as common problem, Tuki had introduced the innovative scheme to cover all sections of people, including media persons and people from rest of India working in any capacity in the state to win the hearts of the masses.

Regrettably, the present state government has discontinued most of the beneficial schemes.

While the government then considered the benefits for the masses and had increased insurance per family per year treatment limit from Rs two to three lakh under the scheme. the present government was nullifying this scheme, Takam said.

He said that under the scheme, 2 07,386 families had been covered till February 2015, and the then state government had directed service provider Insurance Company Ltd to make appropriate modifications, re-issue of existing damaged APCMUHIS card through district hospital kiosk.

Sanjoy said that the sooner the state government revives the unique cashless scheme of APCMUHIS, the better it would be for the people of this hilly region.

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With United States approving the sale of 22 Guardian drones to India ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington, the defence experts on Saturday dubbed the development as a 'valuable signal' from President Donald Trump administration that they are keen to retain the continuity in the two countries' bilateral policy.

Defence expert Uday Bhaskar opined that the visit is important, primarily for Prime Minister Modi to get assurance that President Trump will continue the bilateral relationship along the track that had been identified by earlier presidents George Bush and Barack Obama.

"In this, the defence and security relationship is an important component and Make in India. So, to that extent, the executive decision taken by Washington to supply India 22 drones is a valuable signal that Trump administration would like to retain the continuity in U.S.-India bilateral policy," Bhaskar told ANI.

Another defence expert Qamar Agha also echoed the same, saying that the development will further strengthen India-America ties.

"It's a positive step. These (drones) are very sophisticated guardian drones. They can be used at the border. This indicates that the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Donald Trump is further going to strengthen our ties with America. It again shows that how Americans are keen to have Prime Minister Modi in Washington," Agha told ANI.

At the invitation of the Trump, Prime Minister Modi will visit Washington DC on June 25-26.

Days before the Prime Minister meets Trump for the first time in Washington, the State Department yesterday said that United States is looking forward to strengthen its ties with India.

"We're looking forward to strengthening ties between the United States and India. We have a lot of areas of mutual cooperation, fighting terrorism, we have a lot of people-to-people ties, strong people-to-people ties; so we're looking forward to that visit. We have a lot of visas that get granted - are granted to Indian citizens," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

Giving an indication of the 'friendly' ties, the U.S. has cleared the sale of 22 unmanned Guardian drones to India.

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A top commander of United Peoples Liberation Front (UPLF), Garang Gajao, has been apprehended by a joint team of troops of Red Horns Division under Gajraj Corps of the Indian Army and the police.

The operation launched in the wee hours of June 21 also led to the recovery of one 0.22 mm pistol (Made in Chile) and six live rounds from Lahorijan area of East Karbi Anglong.

Reportedly, the activities of the UPLF had started increasing in the border areas of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao districts with the tacit support of other militant groups.

Garang Gajao, a Myanmar trained cadre, has been involved in mobilising cadres and raising funds for strengthening UPLF. He has also reportedly been involved in many subversive activities in the region.

"The apprehension of Garang Gajao has dealt a severe blow to nefarious designs of militant groups to disturb the peace and harmony in the Hill districts of karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao," read an official defence press statement Pro (Defence) Guwahati/Shillong.

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As China continues to obstruct India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the defence experts on Saturday were of the view that Beijing has set its condition that if New Delhi becomes a member of the body, so should Pakistan.

Defence expert Uday Bhaskar said he was not surprised by China's stance, saying, "The Chinese position on NSG should not come as a surprise to India because Beijing has made it very clear that they are not going to review their position."

"They have set out what they think of their principles, which really means that if India gets into NSG, so should Pakistan," he added,

Even defence expert Qamar Agha iterated the same, saying that China wants Pakistan to become a member of the NSG.

"China has been doing this for quite some time for two reasons. They do want India to play a greater role in the body (NSG) which controls nuclear trade. Secondly, they want Pakistan also to become a member of the NSG, for which the international community is not very prepared," Agha told ANI.

Commenting on India as a nuclear power, he said its record in nuclear non-proliferation is clear.

"India's nuclear weapon is controlled by the elected government whereas Pakistan's nuclear weapon is controlled by its military establishment. India has never been involved in any nuclear proliferation besides this. India has also declared that it will not use nuclear weapon against those countries which do not have nuclear weapons. So, by action, deeds, India has proved its credibility," he said.

However, Agha expressed confidence over India becoming a member of the NSG soon because other members of the Security Council are now looking for other means to let New Delhi become a member of it.

China, once again yesterday, said there is no change in its stance on India's admission into the NSG.

The comment on the same was made by Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang in the NSG plenary taking place in Bern, Switzerland.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting U.S. on June 25-26 and his discussions with President Donald Trump are likely to find a common approach on matters related to South Asia, particularly the rise in infiltration from the neighbouring Pakistan, terrorism and India's case for a seat at the NSG.

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The first harvest wind power project constructed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework in Pakistan has started commercial operation.

According to the Express Tribune, the 49.5 megawatt facility has been developed by Sachal Energy Development Private Limited and is spread over 680 acres in the Jhimpir Wind Corridor in the country's Sindh province.

This project has been wholly financed by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The construction of the wind power project is being touted as a major success of the CPEC and the larger One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, reports the Global Times.

Sachal Energy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arif Habib Corporation Limited, one of the largest private sector conglomerates in Pakistan.

The company will supply electricity to the national grid through the National Transmission and Dispatch Company for 20 years under an energy purchase agreement.

The project comprises 33 wind turbine generators manufactured by Goldwind of China whereas HydroChina is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) as well as operation and maintenance (O&M) contractor of the project.

Pakistan and China have signed USD 57-billion worth of energy and infrastructure projects under the CPEC framework.

The bulk of the investment is going to the energy projects, including renewable and clean energy to bridge the energy shortfall.

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Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh on Saturday termed death of Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammed Ayub Pandith a 'cold-blooded' murder.

Pandith was lynched to death by a mob in Nowhatta on Friday night near Jamia Masjid after he allegedly opened fire at a group of people who caught him clicking pictures near a mosque.

Singh visited family of Pandith on Saturday and expressed his condolences.

Talking to ANI, the Deputy Chief Minister said, "It's a cold blooded murder. People responsible will be punished as strict action is being taken."

He termed the deceased DSP as a brave and honest officer "whose children are unmarried and family is in a state of shock".

"We can't bring him back but the government will not make the family feel the loss and that they are alone," Singh said.

The Deputy Chief Minister also held Pakistan responsible for the unrest in Kashmir Valley and said that "Islamabad has been waging a proxy war against India".

He wished that during this Ramadan peace returns to Kashmir valley and the State.

The police on Saturday arrested three more persons in connection with the lynching of Pandith, leading to a total of five arrests.

Additionally in order to enhance the investigation procedure, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to look into the case.

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Director of India initiative at Hudson Institute Dr. Aparna Pande has said that H1B visa is a part of United States President Donald Trump's desire to overhaul the entire immigration system of the country.

"H1B is a part of Trump's desire to overhaul the entire immigration system and it will not only affect India but countries from where people come to U.S," Pande told ANI.

Speaking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the U.S., She said that it is very important for India as PM Modi will meet U.S. President Donald Trump one on one and not in a summit meeting like G-20 or UN Security Council.

Pande noted that Trump is meeting PM Modi within six months of taking charge as president.

She said that symbolically the meeting will be very important as it will also help build relationship between the two leaders.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had a very good relationship with former President Obama and PM Modi too had a very good relationship with him. So, this trip will help both sides see if they can build that kind of relationship," she said.

Pande further said that H1B is important and every Indian Prime Minister going back to Manmohan Singh and before him discussed H-B issue.

She added that H1-B is more important also because of the certain rise of nationalism in U.S. and racist attacks.

Pande said the two sides will talk about this issue and then let official discuss it in detail.

"However, at the end of the day it will be an American decisions and Congress will pass a resolution on it. We can convey are concerns but we can't do more than that," she said.

Speaking about the defense deals that are likely to happen, she said Lockheed Martin would like to manufacture F16 planes in India and this will give an big boost to Make in India.

Pande added that this will also help the U.S. as Lockheed Martin was no longer going to manufacture F-16 and they had to shut down their plants and so they can now provide some jobs in the US and jobs in India.

"India gets technogy, India gets jobs and it gets to manufacture and export plane like F-16," she said.

She further said that drone technology is important as it is something that India needs for its own defense.

Pande said there would be discussions on terrorism also as both countries believe that fight against terrorism is important, President Trump has spoken about it and his primarily been middle east.

"The U.S. believes that India is a partner for helping it in Afghanistan and Pakistan and India believe that having a U.S. a s partner it will help the problem India has been facing due to Pakistan based terrorists," she added.

A senior journalist Seema Sirohi said the meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump will be an important meeting as it's the first time they will meet since the new US administration has taken charge.

"It's very important that President Trump validates the relationship as it exists and we continue to strengthen it," Sirohi told ANI.

Asserting that the United States is a very important partner of India in terms of defence cooperation, she said the Obama administration declared India as their major defence partner and the Trump administration yesterday only approved the sale of 22 drones to India.

"So, it's a very important step forward because it will give India the ability to monitor the Indian Ocean, much more exhaustively than before," she added.

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Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to United States on June 25-26, a report published on the Brookings website has said that New Delhi must attempt to convince Washington that India's rise is in American interest.

The report titled "India and the United States in the Trump era: Re-evaluating bilateral and global relations", identifies four areas in which Trump's election affects Indian interests i.e. bilateral relations (encompassing trade, investment, immigration, and technological cooperation), the Asian balance of power, counter-terrorism, and global governance.

According to the report, India must continue to engage with the Trump administration and other stakeholders in the United States.

The report noted that it will be more difficult to sustain engagements between the two sides given the United States' new political realities and impulses.

"While in many instances U.S. power cannot be fully replaced or replicated, India will have little choice but to invest in relationships with other countries to achieve its desired outcomes, while more forcefully projecting its own influence and leadership," the report says.

This would led to deepening bilateral economic, social, and technological relations with the likes of Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, China, and Russia, as well as smaller powers such as Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Canada, and Australia, especially in areas where they boast comparative advantages.

The report said that India must double down on its "Act East" policy in order to preserve a favorable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region.

It further said that India will have to convince the United States to adopt policies that compel Pakistan to stop its support and tolerance of and for terrorist groups and also consider the possibility of contributing more in military terms to support the government in Kabul.

The report emphasizes that India must continue its efforts to advance its entry into apex institutions of global governance, in order to position itself to play the role of a leading power.

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Ron Howard, who has been given a task of directing possibly the biggest franchise in the history of Hollywood, 'Star Wars,' feels that he is pleased to lend his voice to this franchise now.

While talking at Cannes Lions, the 63-year-old director discussed the opportunity to contribute to the 'Star Wars' universe.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, he said, "It's gratifying to lend my voice to the Star Wars universe now."

During the interview, the 'In the Heart of the Sea' helmer called the 'Han Solo' movie "a little opportunity that came my way."

The Oscar-winning director replaced 'The Lego Movie' directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who parted ways with the studio Tuesday citing "creative differences."

Howard also told the audience that he has been a fan of 'Star Wars' like "forever."

Adding, "I've been around the 'Star Wars' universe from the beginning," and explained when George Lucas first told him the idea, he said he thought it sounded "crazy."

He also noted that he waited in line with his wife for two hours to see 'Star Wars' and liked it so much that he and his wife "waited for another 90 minutes to watch the movie twice the same day."

Howard also discussed the Trump presidency and how it will one day portrayed on the screen, joking, "I'm looking forward to the day that.this presidency is dramatized years from now, that it's a hysterical musical comedy on Broadway called Trumped."

Helmed by Ron Howard, 'Han Solo' spin-off stars Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson and Donald Glover.

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Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar has met US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit.

The two secretaries' meeting is supposed to finalise the meeting between PM Modi and President Donald Trump on Monday at White House.

Jaishankar is also scheduled to meet Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday morning left for Portugal, the first-leg of his three-nation tour.

Prime Minister Modi will be visiting Portugal today, the U.S. on June 25 and 26, and the Netherlands on June 27.

The Prime Minister on Friday said that he intends to strengthen ties with all the three nations.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations and the ."

State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert has also said that US is looking forward to strengthening ties with India".

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Amid the agitation by the Jat community over a demand for Other Backward Class (OBC) reservation benefits, the Nizamuddin-Kota Express Train and the Kota-Patna Express were cancelled on Saturday, while two other trains were diverted.

Jat leader Vishvendra Singh told ANI, "If the government is really willing to provide reservation to Jats in OBC, it should come to Bharatpur and give it in writing as to when it will be implemented," adding, "Jats in Bharatpur and Dholpur have been demanding reservation since August 2015, but this has not been fulfilled as yet."

Earlier, train services along the Alwar-Mathura route in Rajasthan's Bharatpur district were affected after Jat protestors blocked railway tracks over a demand for OBC quota reservation for the community residing in Dholpur and Bharatpur districts. The Agra-Bandikui rail route was also hit by the agitation.

Protestors blocked portions of the highways connecting Bharatpur to Mathura, Agra and Jaipur. They also blocked state highways at Kanjoli Line, Kumher, Deeg, Bedham, Pasta, Rarah and Delhi road in Kaman.

The convener of the Bharatpur- Dholpur Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, Nem Singh, who is leading the blockade of railway tracks at Bahaj, said, "The government should give the timeline for issuing a notification of the OBC quota. Only then will we hold discussions with Panch Patels on the lifting of the blockade."

On Thursday, the OBC Commission had submitted its report to Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. The district administration is trying to convince the protestors to lift the blockade.

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Captain (Retired) Mohammad Safdar, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's son-in-law, was interrogated by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that is looking into the Panamagate case on Saturday.

The interrogation took place at the Federal Judicial Academy here, reports the Express Tribune.

Safdar is the fifth member of the Sharif family to be interrogated by the JIT, the other four being Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his brother and Punjab province Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and Nawaz Sharif's two sons, Hassan and Hussain Nawaz.

Pakistan's Supreme Court had constituted the JIT on April 20 and empowered it to summon the prime minister, his sons and any other person linked to the ongoing investigation into the Panamagate case.

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In wake of the ongoing political conflict between Bihar Chief Minister (CM) Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav over the upcoming presidential polls, Member of Parliament (MP) Shatrugan Sinha urged both leaders to resolve their conflict for the benefit of Bihar.

"Both of them are the products of Jayaprakash Narayan, and they have their respective arguments. It would be good for Bihar if the differences between the two are resolved", Sinha told ANI.

Sinha suggested them to forget the argument and not indulge in a political dispute.

Sinha said that the conflict was an internal matter and it would be inappropriate if he commented deeply on it.

Commenting upon the opposition's presidential candidiate Meira Kumar, Sinha said that she is not just the daughter of the great Jagjivan Ram, but also has her own individuality.

Lauding her political achievements he said, "She has fared well in Delhi, Bihar and the foreign services. She has her own individuality. She is truly the 'daughter' of Bihar from all the aspects."

Earlier on Friday, Bihar CM said 'Bihar ki beti' Meira Kumar has been nominated as the Presidential candidate by the opposition only to lose.

"I have a lot of respect for Meira Kumar, but 'Bihar ki beti' has been nominated only to lose," Nitish told the media.

Commenting on Nitish's statement, the RJD chief said, "I don't know why Nitish Kumar took this decision. I will tell him that he has made a mistake and would appeal him to rethink on his decision to support Kovind."

Reacting to Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu's statement on the nation losing the sense of its language, Sinha said that Naidu is right to a certain extent.

"It's his opinion. In a democracy, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I don't fully agree to his statement. However, he is right to a certain extent", Sinha said.

Asserting that the Indian mindsets have been greatly influenced by the English culture, Sinha said, "Our mindsets have indeed been affected by the English culture, but English is imperative. A great man once said that regional language is for values, language is for relations, and English language is for business."

The Patna MP said that Bhojpuri has not been given the recognition it deserves.

"Crores of people speak in Bhojpuri, yet it has not been accepted", Sinha said.

Earlier in the day, Naidu said Hindi is the language of India and it is impossible to progress without the language.

"Hindi is our national language and it is impossible for India to progress without Hindi. It is unfortunate that everyone is after English medium; I am against Britishers but not their language. We should learn all language, but by learning English our mindset is also changing, this is wrong , this is against the interest of the nation ," Naidu said.

Shatrugan Sinha expressed deep grief over the lynching of police official in Kashmir and appealed for a resolution to the present disturbance in Kashmir.

"Our citizens are being tortured. Our officials are being killed. It's high time that a resolution to this conflict is carried out", Sinha said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The list of potential 2020 Presidential nominees just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

After Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson, it is 'Late Night' talk show host Stephen Colbert now, who is considering a run for the White House in 2020.

While appearing on a Russian late-night show 'Evening Urgant', Colbert announced that he wants to run for President of the U.S. in 2020 and thought that it would be better to tell the Russians himself, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

After taking a few shots of Vodka, Colbert said, "OK. I am here to announce that I am considering a run for president in 2020, and I thought it would be better to cut out the middle man and just tell the Russians myself."

The 53-year-old host also asked the audience if anyone would like to work for his campaign in an unofficial capacity.

He concluded by saying, "A strong America, a strong Russia," while taking one last shot of vodka.

Colbert took a break from 'The Late Show' to travel to Russia, but will return with a new episode on Monday.

This is not the first time the late-night host has announced a run for president. In October 2007, Colbert announced his candidacy following public pressure.

He paid the 2,500 USD fee necessary to be included on the Democratic ballot in South Carolina, but his request was denied. Colbert ultimately dropped his bid on November 5, 2007.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that he has important issues to discuss with his 'true friend' Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Ahead of Modi reaching Washington D.C. for a state visit, the President tweeted, "Look forward to welcoming India's PM Modi to @WhiteHouse on Monday. Important strategic issues to discuss with a true friend!"

Meanwhile United States Senator Kamala Harris also welcomed Modi in a tweet.

"I welcome Indian PM @NarendraModi to the United States and reaffirm the unbreakable bonds between our two nations," she tweeted.

Modi who would be reaching Washington D.C. in a few hours, would be the first leader to have a working dinner with Trump at the White House on Monday.

Speaking ahead of the visit, India's Ambassador to the U.S., Navtej Sarna, said that Prime Minister Modi and President Trump would discuss crucial issues such as counter-terrorism, security and cyber security.

The upcoming meeting, which is deemed to be one that can significantly strengthen bilateral relations between the two democracies, will also include an interactive session with the Indian-American community as well as 20-odd top CEOs in Washington.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that he is expecting a very robust discussion to take place between the two leaders.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Barcelona star Lionel Messi could avoid his 21-month prison sentence for tax fraud for a fine.

On Friday, the Barcelona state prosecutor said it was not opposed to substituting the prison sentence for a fine handed down to Messi, as long as the fine was the maximum allowed under law.

The maximum fine would be 255,000 euros, on top of a nearly 2m euro fine paid by the Argentine as part of last year's sentence, reports the Independent.

The decision means that the 21-month prison sentence could be swapped for a fine worth less than Messi's weekly wage.

The 29-year-old and his father Jorge Horacio Messi were handed the jail term last July after they were charged with three counts of tax fraud, which amounted to 4.1 million euros.

Besides the prison sentence, the court had also ordered the Barcelona talisman and his father to pay a fine of around 2 million euros and 1.5 million euros respectively.

Messi and his father were found guilty of using companies in Belize, Britain, Switzerland and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on 4.16 million Euros of Messi's income earned from his image rights from 2007-09.

The income related to Messi's image rights that was hidden includes endorsement deals with Danone, Adidas, Pepsi-Cola, Procter and Gamble and the Kuwait Food Company.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India's Ambassador to the United States Navtej Sarna on Saturday expressed hope that the upcoming three-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United States -- his first during the tenure of President Donald Trump -- will help both leaders to exchange views on subjects of interest to both countries, and thus result in a further strengthening of the bilateral relationship.

Sarna, in an exclusive conversation with ANI, said, "This is a very important visit by the Prime Minister of India. This is his first meeting with President Trump. They have been in touch over the telephone. They have had at least three very good telephonic conversations."

"We are looking forward to a very good visit. A very good programme has been lined up by the White House. We expect that it will provide sufficient time to the two leaders to get to know each other as well as to exchange views on a wide variety of subjects which are of part of the India-US bilateral strategic partnership," he added.

The two leaders will first meet for one-on-one talks at around 3.30 p.m. on Monday (Tuesday 1a.m. IST), and after a brief photo-op with the media, they will head for delegation-level talks, followed by a cocktail reception.

The day will culminate with a White House dinner, the first by the Trump administration for a visiting foreign leader.

Prime Minister Modi is expected to hold talks with Trump on the regional security situation as also on ways to enhance cooperation in bilateral areas of strategic importance.

In the U.S., he will have a community event as well as a meeting with business leaders.

Talking about Prime Minister Modi's engagements with the community as well as CEOs in Washington, Ambassador Sarna said, "As I said, community is a very important plank of the bilateral relationship. It's a three million strong and very successful community, economically and professionally."

"They are today politically active. So, they are very important part of our engagements with the United States and they play a very important role. So, I think it's a great occasion for them to meet the Prime Minister," he added.

Talking about the business meet, the Indian envoy said that the round-table discussion with 20-odd top CEOs from America will provide an opportunity to them to tell us what their plans are, how they are looking at India as a market, India as a destination, India as somebody they can work with, perhaps a two-way investment.

"The event will provide an opportunity for Prime Minister Modi to have this exchange of views, to listen to the plans, to listen and examine any problem that they may be facing," he said.

When asked about the change in relationship since the Trump administration has taken charge in the United States, Sarna said, "Certainly, it's a new administration. There's a change of personnel."

"There will be a change of nuance. We have to see what new changes and the new things the new President and his administration brings in, but I am very confident that with the new administration, the India-US engagement will grow stronger and stronger," he insisted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Madhya Pradesh Minister Narottam Mishra, who was disqualified by the Election Commission for filing wrong accounts of his election-related expenditure, on Saturday said he will challenge the order in the high court.

"Whether I will remain a member or not, that probably has not been mentioned. I also haven't got the order yet. I will go to the high court," Mishra told ANI

Mishra had been disqualified from contesting for three years from today. His election from the Datia Assembly constituency also stands void.

The EC took the decision after he did not file certain details in his election expenditure in the 2008 polls.

The decision is based on a complaint by former Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti in April 2009 alleging Mishra hadn't filed certain details in his election expenditure during the 2008 assembly elections.

Mishra has challenged the notice in the high court bench at Gwalior and managed to get a stay in light of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's case proceeding in the top court. The court, however, vacated the stay order after considering the facts submitted by complainant's counsel.

Mishra approached the Supreme Court to stall the EC proceedings but the top court did not grant him any relief.

Last year, the poll panel questioned Mishra in Delhi about the allegations. It found that he hadn't revealed his expenditure on paid news.

The EC has the power to disqualify a candidate if he fails to submit the account of expenses within time. In this case, the money spent on paid news wasn't shown in the account.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Bhai Virendra on Saturday described Bihar Chief Minister as a cheat who has made a "big mistake" by extending his support to NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind over former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar for the forthcoming presidential election.

Bhai Virendra told ANI, "Nitishi ji is one of such people who has cheated every single person. He is the one who has always tried to fool people. (Nitishji aise hain, koi saga nahi jisko thaga nahi, hamesha logon ko murkh banaane ka koshish karte hain)."

"People of Bihar will never forgive . Now a daughter of Bihar has been named as the presidential candidate. Nitish should have waited and thought about it. He has done a big mistake and will pay a price for that," he added.

on Friday said 'Bihar ki beti' Meira Kumar has been nominated as the presidential candidate by the opposition only to lose.

"I have a lot of respect for Meira Kumar, but 'Bihar ki beti' has been nominated only to lose," Nitish told media.

Despite conflict of opinion over presidential nominee, Janata Dal (United) chief today attended an iftaar party organised by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Patna. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was also present at the party with grand alliance partner.

Remaining firm on its stand of supporting Democratic Alliance's (NDA) Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, Nitish said his party took the decision after a detailed discussion with all party leaders.

"We took the decision after discussing all the leaders of our party and will not reconsider our decision to back Kovind," he added.

He further said the presidential candidature should not be made a subject of political confrontation.

Earlier, Lalu said that Nitish was doing a 'mistake' by supporting Kovind, adding that he would try to convince him to rethink on the same.

"I don't know why Nitish Kumar took this decision. I will tell him that he has made a mistake and would appeal him to rethink on his decision to support Kovind," Lalu told ANI.

The opposition on Thursday fielded former Lok Sabha speaker Meira as Presidential candidate against NDA's nominee Kovind.

The election for the next President of India is to be held on July 17 as President Pranab Mukherjee will demit the office on July 24.

The counting of the votes will be done on July 20.
The police on Saturday arrested one person in connection with a case wherein a youth was murdered after a scuffle broke out in a train over a seat here.

However, the accused, who was arrested earlier, claimed that he did not stab the victim, but confessed to have been intoxicated during the incident.

"It was another person who stabbed the man, not me. Yes, I agree I had consumed alcohol, but did not attack the man or taunt him on eating beef as claimed," the accused said.

Earlier on Friday, the victim, identified as Junaid, a native of Khandawali village in Ballabhgarh had gone to Delhi to do shopping along with his two brothers.

When they were returning by the Mathura passenger train, they had a heated argument with a group of men over seating. One of the men of the group attacked Junaid with knife, and he subsequently succumbed to his injuries.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mohinder Singh told ANI that three teams have been formed to nab the culprits and that they hoped the attackers would soon be arrested.

Mohd. Hashim, victim's brother, told ANI that the attackers also passed comments on their religion and eating habits. However, the DSP said that no context regarding beef has risen so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Lisbon, Portugal on the first leg of his three-nation tour on Saturday.

Later in the day he will lead delegation-level talks with his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa before signing of agreements and launch of the India-Portugal start-up hub. Prime Minister Costa, who is partially of Indian origin, visited New Delhi in January.

Prime Minister Modi is the second Indian Prime Minister to visit Portugal. Earlier, former Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee attended a European Union meeting in Lisbon in the year 2000.

Relations between India and Portugal began amicably in 1947 after India's independence and diplomatic relations were established in 1949. Bilateral relations, however, went into decline after 1950 over Portugal's refusal to surrender its enclaves of Goa, Daman Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli on India's west coast.

By 1955, the two nations had cut off diplomatic relations, triggering a crisis which precipitated the liberation of Goa by Indian military forces, ending Portuguese rule over Indian enclaves in 1961. It brought to an end, 451 years of Portuguese overseas provincial governance in Goa. With the signing of a treaty in New Delhi on December 31, 1974, the two embassies were re-established and amicable bilateral relations were restored.

Trade between the two countries has been growing steadily over the last few years but remains modest at USD 692 million in 2015-16. Portuguese investments into India amount to USD 36.4 million and Portugal ranks 56th in terms of the overall foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into India.

Prime Minister Modi will definitely be eyeing ways to attract the FDI from Portugal when he interacts with the Indian-Portuguese community.

Portugal has a large Indian origin diaspora with the Indian community in Portugal estimated at 65,000.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday morning left for Portugal, the first-leg of his three-nation tour.

Prime Minister Modi will be visiting Portugal today, the U.S. on June 25 and 26, and the Netherlands on June 27.

The Prime Minister yesterday said that he intends to strengthen ties with all the three nations.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world."

"My visit to Netherlands seeks to boost bilateral ties & deepen economic cooperation," he added.

He is expected to hold talks with his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa.

"We are working on several documents to strengthen India-Portugal economic, scientific and cultural engagements and we expect to finalise and sign these documents essentially which are in the nature of memorandum of understanding," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said yesterday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Indian-American community here is enthusiastically awaiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit and is hopeful that his first official meeting with President Donald Trump on Sunday will go a long way in ironing out existing bilateral concerns between the two nations.

A majority of them were excited and anxious about the expected meeting between the leaders of the world's oldest and largest democracies.

Among the issues likely to be addressed during the visit of Prime Minister Modi are recent hate crimes against Indians, the H1-B visas issue and terrorism etc.

Washington-based community leader Prasad Addapa said the Trump Administration here is helping the Indian-American community and addressing their concerns.

"In the month of March, I led the protest in front of the White House and presented a memorandum to Trump's representative. They were sympathetic to our cause, including the Congress," Addapa told ANI.

Addapa, however, expressed the view that he would like to see Prime Minister Modi discuss most of the concerns of the Indian-American community with President Trump.

"There are three important issues that concern the Indian-American community today. First is the H1B visa situation because Trump is for America first, and with that, there will be cuts in jobs. By the same time, it is also a little oxymoron. What I learnt is nobody from India is stopped for a job visa. They are stopping student visas, but not the job visas.Secondly, Prime Minister Modi will also talk about the recent hate crimes against Indians. So, we will get to know the measures which the administration will take," he said.

Another Washington D.C. community leader Atma Singh said when the two great leaders will meet they will put humanity and the on top.

"Trump says 'America first', Prime Minister Modi says 'India first', so, when two such leaders will meet, then it will 'humanity first, world first', because, both countries have become very close to each other," Singh told ANI.

Singh further said that both countries are affected by terrorism and will have to work to combat it together.

"The main issue is of terrorism, as both the countries are affected by it. Both countries will have to work on it," he said.

These views in Washington were expressed as Prime Minister Narendra Modi left from New Delhi for his three-nation tour this morning.

Prime Minister Modi will be visiting Portugal before arriving in the United States on a three-day visit. He will thereafter head for The Netherlands for a one day visit before returning home on June 27/28.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On the occasion of International Yoga Day on June 21 st, Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd. launched a pioneering initiative, the Ruchi 'Saral Yoga' Abhiyaan to integrate yoga in the corporate routine through daily yoga sessions for all employees.

Ruchi 'Saral Yoga' Abhiyaan was rolled out in 20 locations including plants and offices covering around 4000 employees across the country. Under this initiative, employees will be trained and encouraged to practice 'saral' or simple yoga techniques, thereby playing a positive role in their health, fitness and overall well-being.

The initiative kicked off from the Corporate Office in Mumbai with around 200 employees taking part in a special yoga session, along with Dinesh Shahra, Founder and Managing Director, Ruchi Soya Industries Limited and Yogacharya Mahavir Sainik, the mentor and guide for this programme.

In a message to employees about the Ruchi 'Saral Yoga' Abhiyaan endeavor, Dinesh Shahra elaborated, "The Ministry of AYUSH has been asking corporates to introduce a yoga programme for employees to combat work-related stress and resulting ailments. I have been practicing yoga for 25 years and it has helped me immensely. I have always wanted to share this with my extended Ruchi Soya family. Today, we are glad to be the first corporate to undertake the Ruchi 'Saral Yoga' Abhiyaan as part of our endeavor to ensure a mentally, spiritually and physically healthy workforce. The ancient science of yoga is practiced worldwide in a variety of settings and helps in maintaining overall health. It is beneficial in reducing fatigue, depression, anxiety and mental tension. This will help the employees perform better and benefit both the individual as well as the organization. With Ruchi Soya's products focusing on health and wellness, this effort will help imbibe the essence of our products into our employees' daily lives."

Mentor and guide for this yoga initiative, Yogacharya Mahavir Sainik has been teaching Yoga since 1973 after initiation into the practice at the Yoga Institute in Santa Cruz, Mumbai, one of the oldest yoga institutions in the country.

The author of two books 'Yoga Amrut' and 'Saral Yog Prayog', his prime objective has always been to help people channelize the power of yoga for better decision making, reducing stress and promoting a disciplined routine and lifestyle. Yogacharya said, "Yoga in the workplace has multiple benefits. Besides contributing to the overall health of the employees, practicing yoga together acts as a bond helping employees work better together. It helps employees cope with pressure at work and improves their on-job performance. The yoga sessions will be designed for the workplace and in tune with the age, fitness and health profiles of the employees."

All the offices where the Ruchi 'Saral Yoga' Abhiyaan is being implemented have been equipped with dedicated yoga rooms with yoga mats and other amenities to enable the employees to practice yoga. In-house yoga experts have been and are being identified and trained in various aspects of traditional yoga including basic asanas, pranayama, concentration, and meditation techniques. Periodic yoga workshops are also planned to guide employees on specific yoga techniques for conditions like high blood pressure, rheumatism, backache, etc. Going forward, the Ruchi 'Saral Yoga' Abhiyaan will be extended to benefit families of the employees.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Responding to the list of demands handed over to Qatar by Saudi Arabia as the price for lifting a blockade on trade and diplomacy, Qatar's Ambassador to the United States Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani has asserted that it was an attempt to 'infringe' upon the state's sovereignty.

Taking to twitter, Ambassador Thani while criticising the list said Qatar is being punished for its independence.

On Friday, Qatar dismissed the list of 13 demands submitted by four Arab countries as 'neither reasonable nor actionable', as reported by Al-Jazeera.

"This list of demands confirms what Qatar has said from the beginning - the illegal blockade has nothing to do with combating terrorism, it is about limiting Qatar's sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy," Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al Thani, director of the Qatari government's communications office, said in a statement on Friday.

Qatar is also reportedly preparing an official document responding to the aforementioned list of demands put forth by the four Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia.

On Friday, Qatar confirmed receipt of the list, which includes cutting back ties with Iran and closure of the Qatar-funded broadcaster Al-Jazeera, the most widely watched broadcaster in the Arab world, which the Saudi-led alliance claimed was a propaganda tool for Islamists that also undermines support for their governments

The list, according to media reports, also features reducing ties with Iran and closing a Turkish military base.

The list was handed to Qatar by Kuwait, which is mediating in the crisis. Qatar has been given 10 days to comply, reports the Guardian.

Following are the demands of the list:

1. To only have trade ties with Iran that complies with US and international sanctions will be permitted. Curb all diplomatic ties and close its diplomatic missions in Iran. Expel members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and cut off any joint military cooperation.

2. Sever all ties to "terrorist organisations", specifically the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State, al-Qaida and Lebanon's Hezbollah. Formally declare those entities as terrorist groups.

3. Shut down al-Jazeera and its affiliate stations.

4. Shut down news outlets that Qatar funds, directly and indirectly, including Arabi21, Rassd, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and Middle East Eye.

5. Immediately terminate the Turkish military presence in Qatar and end any joint military cooperation with Turkey inside Qatar.

6. Stop all means of funding for individuals, groups or organisations that have been designated as terrorists.

7. Hand over "terrorist figures" and wanted individuals from Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Egypt and Bahrain to their countries of origin. Freeze their assets, and provide any desired information about their residency, movements and finances.

8. End interference in sovereign countries' internal affairs. Stop granting citizenship to wanted nationals from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain. Revoke Qatari citizenship for existing nationals where such citizenship violates those countries' laws.

9. Stop all contacts with the political opposition in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain. Hand over all files detailing Qatar's prior contacts with and support for those opposition groups.

10. Pay reparations and compensation for loss of life and other, financial losses caused by Qatar's policies in recent years.

11. Consent to monthly audits for the first year after agreeing to the demands, then once per quarter during the second year. For the following 10 years, Qatar would be monitored annually for compliance.

12. Align itself with the other Gulf and Arab countries militarily, politically, socially and economically, as well as on economic matters, in line with an agreement reached with Saudi Arabia in 2014.

13. Agree to all the demands within 10 days of it being submitted to Qatar, or the list becomes invalid.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Srinagar Police on Saturday placed Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik under house arrest ahead of Eid.

Malik was placed under arrest at his Maisuma area residence.

Police is maintaining law and order in the valley, after one of their senior officers was lynched outside the Jamia Masjid a couple of days ago.

Malik along with Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq have been spearheading the separatist resistance in the Kashmir Valley for years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Seven Naxals of Jan Militia were arrested in a joint operation of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Police in Dantewada's Kuakonda on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a Naxal was killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district.

Earlier in the day, three paramilitary personnel were critically injured during an encounter with Maoists in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh. Till the last reports came, total five jawans were injured who were evacuated and shifted to hospital.

Before this encounter, two women Naxals were gunned down on June 21 in an encounter with the joint team of the Special Task Force ( STF) and District Reserve Guard ( DRG) in Abujmarh area of Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Terrorist sanctuaries in Afghanistan are squarely to be blamed for the recent bombings in Quetta and Parachinar, claimed the Inter-Services Public Relations wing of the Pakistan armed forces on Saturday.

In a tweet, ISPR Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor said, "Recent terrorist incidents linked to sanctuaries across."

Major General Ghafoor was quoted by The Nation, as further saying that surveillance along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan has been beefed up and warned that illegal border crossers would be dealt with firmly.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have been trading charges on the issue of backing of terrorists in their respective territories for years. Neither side is willing to accept blame for the attacks or the loss of lives.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a fresh salvo directed towards Barack Obama, incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed that the former president was aware of Russian meddling in the November 8 presidential elections, but did nothing about it.

Taking to twitter, President Trump said, "Just out: The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?"

Just out: The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 24, 2017

According to a report published earlier by the Washington Post, Obama was reportedly informed by the CIA in August 2016 that Russian President Vladimir Putin had instructed his operatives to tarnish the Democratic nominee's campaign ahead of the elections.

The White House had said earlier that removing FBI director James Comey from his post might fasten up the agency's investigation into Russian meddling.

Deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders said, "We want this to come to its conclusion, we want it to come to its conclusion with integrity," while referring to the FBI's probe into Moscow's interference in last year's presidential polls, CNN reports.

"And we think that we've actually, by removing Director Comey, taken steps to make that happen."

President Donald Trump would "love nothing more for this investigation to continue to its completion," she added.

On June 11, Comey had accused Trump of firing him to try to undermine the FBI's investigation of possible collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russia in alleged efforts to influence last year's presidential election.

Comey told the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee that the Trump administration had lied and defamed him and the FBI after the President dismissed him on May 9.

The more than two hour-long-testimony saw Comey further informing that Trump had directed him to drop an FBI probe against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Comey said it should be special counsel Robert Mueller's task to determine whether Trump had obstructed justice, and therefore, had opened himself up to possible impeachment proceedings, keeping the allegations on Russia in mind.

He, however, said that whatever Trump did was "a very disturbing thing, very concerning."

Comey painted a picture of an overbearing president he did not trust and who pressured him to stop the FBI probe of Flynn.

Russia has denied interfering in last year's presidential elections, as has the White House.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police in Peshawar have confirmed the elimination of two suspected terrorists in the Chamkani area of the city this morning.

Police were quoted by the Dawn, as saying that five security personnel were also injured in the intelligence-based operation.

The terrorists reportedly attacked a police party that was conducting an intelligence-based operation on an abandoned building in Chamkani. The building was previously used as a floor mill, police officials said.

The operation lasted for about three hours, they added.

Weapons, explosive material, detonators, footage and documents were recovered from the building during a search operation, and it is expected that the building's owner will also be interrogated.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The United States has condemned the attacks in Quetta and Parachinar, in which more than 30 people lost their lives and several others injured.

"We offer our deepest condolences to the victims and their families. We will continue to work with the Government of Pakistan and our partners across the region to combat the threat of terrorism. We stand with the people of Pakistan and the broader South Asia region in their fight against terrorism," U.S. Department of State spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

The death toll in two subsequent explosions at a densely populated area of Kurram Agency's Parachinar city has risen to 34.

Earlier on Friday morning, at least 13 people including seven policemen were killed in a suicide blast at Shuhada Chowk in Quetta's Gulistan Road area.

The twin blasts in Parachinar were reported to have occurred in Turi Market near Tal Adda, where a bus terminal is also located while the second explosion targeted rescuers and bystanders who rushed to aid those who had been hurt in the first blast, according to the Dawn News.

The explosions targeted people shopping in the area and those heading out of the city ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, local political administration officials said.

Kurram is the only Shia Muslim region in a predominantly Sunni country. Sunni hardliners, currently operating through different Taliban factions including the Islamic State group, consider them heretics and have often targeted them.

In a deadly bombing in March this year, a blast outside an imambargah located in a busy Parachinar market claimed the lives of 24 people and left 90 others injured.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Laurel Miller, United States acting Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has resigned to return to a position at the Rand Corporation.

The U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has not yet decided what to do with post.

The office was created when American officials decided that conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan are inextricably linked and ought to be dealt with together, the Dawn reports.

Miller's responsibilities will now fall under the department's South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau, which has a much bigger footprint that includes India.

This bureau is also leaderless, with no assistant secretary appointed to lead it and no one nominated by the new administration for Senate approval.

State Department officials are of the view that the decision not to have a special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan is part of a broader policy review, and the belief that matters related to these two countries can be handled at the regional level.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Twenty seven high-rise residential towers in 15 council areas in England have failed fire cladding safety tests, the government said on Saturday.

Details were released by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) less than 24 hours after Camden Council in London decided on the immediate evacuation of hundreds of residents from four of its tower blocks on the Chalcots Estate in north London, Efe news reported.

Some 700 apartments were vacated in north London as buildings were declared unsafe due to the cladding they were covered in, which was also used on the Grenfell Tower block in west London that went up in flames on June 14, leaving at least 79 people dead.

By Saturday morning, 83 people had refused to leave their homes.

The 27 blocks found with Grenfell-type of cladding are in Camden, Manchester, Plymouth, Hounslow, Portsmouth and Brent.

Over 100 people were evacuated late on Friday from buildings in Camden. They spent the night in a temporary accommodation as the local Council geared up to change the cladding on blocks, a process expected to last some three to four weeks.

Prime Minister Theresa May said "necessary" steps will be taken to find people accommodation, a BBC report said.

Camden Council's Labour leader, Georgia Gould, said the council had acted "as swiftly as we possibly can" to ensure people's safety.

Gould said the fire service "told us they could not guarantee our residents' safety in those blocks".

"I know it's difficult, but Grenfell changes everything and I just don't believe we can take any risk with our residents' safety and I have to put them first.

"I offered to pay for fire stations to be stationed outside all of those blocks so we could have a couple of days to get the work done but the message there was absolutely nothing I could do to make those blocks safe that night."

She said that if people still choose not to leave their homes then it would "become a matter for the fire services".

The Prime Minister said: "We are making sure that the authority has the ability to do what is necessary to ensure people have somewhere to stay and that the work is done so that those tower blocks will become safe for them to return to in future."

Other high-rise buildings, such as some used by the NHS, were also being tested.

Many residents complained that they only found out about the evacuation through television and were not properly informed.

--IANS

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A consignment of drug ephedrine, weighing 475 kg and valued at Rs 24 crore, was seized at the city international airport's air cargo complex by the Customs' central intelligence unit, said an official on Saturday.

"The drug was found in two of the 81 bags declared to contain ammonium chloride in a consignment meant for export," said Additional Commissioner of Customs D. Anil in a statement here.

A controlled substance, ephedrine is used in medicinal preparations. It is a regulated drug under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 with 10 year jail and penalty for its illicit use, said Anil.

The drug was found in the export consignment, which was intercepted and checked on specific intelligence.

"The consignment was to be smuggled out of the country in the guise of ammonium chloride to Malaysia," added Anil.

Customs officials are making efforts to nab the offenders with the help of local police.

--IANS

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Acclaimed Buddhist leader and head of the Drukpa Lineage, the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, has been bestowed with an Honorary Fellowship by the Wolfson College of Oxford for preservation of culture in the Himalayas, his office said on Saturday.

"It has been a privilege to work with the college over the past five years as it has led the way in promoting all the diverse cultures of the Himalayas and its history," an official statement quoted the leader as saying.

The Honorary Fellowship award ceremony was held in the University of Oxford on Friday evening.

The Gyalwang Drukpa's office based in Gurugram said the Buddhist leader visited the Tibetan and Himalayan Studies Centre at Wolfson College for an interaction with the scholars.

The spiritual head of the 1,000-year-old Drukpa Order based in the Himalayas also heads the 17th century famed Hemis monastery in Ladakh the largest of its kind in the Himalayas. He first visited the Tibetan and Himalayan Studies Centre in Wolfson in 2012.

In 2015, Wolfson College created 'The Gyalwang Drukpa Scholarship' in his honour. Bhutan honours the Drukpa Lineage as its state .

--IANS

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One of actor Charlie Sheen's former girlfriends has reportedly filed a lawsuit accusing him of exposing her to HIV, and then dissuading her from taking antiretroviral drugs. This is the second time he has been accused of the same.

Although neither Sheen nor his former girlfriend have been named in the suit which was filed on Thursday here, the defendant referred to as "confidential male defendant" is said to have learned he was HIV positive in 2011 and gave national TV interviews about his HIV status on November 17, 2015, and June 21, 2016, reports variety.com.

Sheen learnt he was HIV positive in 2011, and he publicly revealed it on "The Today Show" on November 17, 2015. He gave an update on the programme on June 21, 2016.

The plaintiff is identified as Jane Doe, and is described as a "Russian emigre".

This is the second time Sheen has been sued for allegedly exposing a former girlfriend to the virus.

Scottine Ross, his former fiance, filed a similar suit in December 2015, alleging physical and emotional abuse in addition to HIV exposure.

--IANS

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Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala on Saturday wrote to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj asking for a probe into the death of a Kerala priest in Scotland.

Catholic priest Martin Xavier's family was told a few days back that he was missing.

"But then the news came today (Saturday) that his body was found on an Edinburgh seashore," the Leader of Opposition said.

He asked Sushma Sawraj to take up the case of "the mysterious death of the young priest" with the Scottish authorities.

Chennithala has requested the Minister to help bring Xavier's body to his hometown near here. He said steps must be taken to ascertain the cause of death of the priest, who was earlier reported missing from his room and church.

Xavier belonged to the CMI congregation of the Catholic Church and ordained a priest in 2013. Since July 2016, he was in Scotland to pursue his PhD.

Xavier was the parish priest of the St Francis Xavier's Church in Scotland, and was also pursuing his studies simultaneously.

According to his relatives, since Thursday there has been no contact with Xavier as his mobile was not available.

--IANS

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Qatar's Foreign Minister on Saturday rejected a list of 13 conditions set by four Arab countries for lifting sanctions, saying it is neither reasonable nor actionable.

Qatar is under strict sanctions from Saudi Arabia and its allies, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain over its support to terror organisations, BBC reported.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, quoted by Al-Jazeera, said: "The US Secretary of State recently called upon the blockading nations to produce a list of grievances that was 'reasonable and actionable'."

"The British Foreign Secretary asked that the demands be 'measured and realistic.' This list does not satisfy that criteria."

He said the demands were proof that the sanctions had "nothing to do with combating terrorism... (but) limiting Qatar's sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy".

The country has been under unprecedented diplomatic and economic sanctions for more than two weeks, with Iran and Turkey increasingly supplying it with food and other goods. Qatar denies accusations that it is funding terrorism and fostering regional instability.

Among the 13 demands, the four Arab countries have demanded the closure of Al Jazeera TV, which is funded by the Qatari government.

They also want Qatar to reduce its ties with Iran, kick members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard out of Doha and cease any joint military cooperation with the country. The nations asked Qatar to close a Turkish military base, setting a deadline on Friday of 10 days.

The list also demanded that Doha severe all ties with "terrorist organisations", including the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State group, Al Qaeda and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Additionally, the nations also demanded that Qatar hand over all individuals who are wanted for terrorism and stop funding any extremist entities that are designated as terrorist groups.

Al Jazeera accused them of trying to silence freedom of expression, adding: "We assert our right to practise our journalism professionally without bowing to pressure from any government or authority."

The UAE's Foreign Minister Anwar Mohammad Gargash said there would be a "parting of ways" with Qatar if it failed to meet the demands.

"The alternative is not escalation," he said. "The alternative is parting of ways. It's very difficult for us to maintain a collective grouping with one of the partners... actively promoting what is an extremist and terrorist agenda."

He described Qatar as a "Trojan horse" within the group of Arab monarchies.

--IANS

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The Election Commission has disqualified Madhya Pradesh Water and Irrigation Minister Narottam Mishra for not disclosing the expenditure he had incurred on the paid news that was carried in local during State assembly elections in 2008.

The Commission, which on Friday also said that Mishra would remain disqualified from contesting election for three years, said it was concerned about the "menace of paid news" which has been assuming "alarming proportions" in the electoral landscape.

This phenomenon, a manifestation of the "pernicious effect of money in elections", has been growing increasingly vicious and "spreading like cancer", in recent time, it said.

The Commission noted that Mishra had "not only knowingly submitted a false account of expenses, but also attempted to circumvent the legally prescribed limit on expenditure".

Disqualifying Mishra for three years, it said: "Such attempts need to be curbed with strong measures and visited with exemplary sanctions and restore the balance in the electoral playing field.

"Therefore, the commission is of the considered view and hold that Mishra should be disqualified under Section 10(A) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951."

Accordingly, the Election Commission hereby declares that Mishra stands disqualified, for three years from the date of this order, under section 10(A) read with section 77 and 78 of the Act "for failure to lodge his account of election expenses in the manner required by the law and for having no good reason or justification for such failure", the order said.

The order means Mishra will have to skip the 2018 state assembly polls.

The complaint was filed in 2009 by Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti, who contested against Mishra from Datia constituency, alleging that the minister had not included expenses incurred by him on "paid news" while filing his expenditure statement before Commission after the 2008 election.

Mishra has constantly denied the allegation against him for incurring or authorising the expenditure on publication on the alleged news item.

Section 10(A) empowers Commission to disqualify a candidate if he fails to submit account of his poll expenses in time and in the manner required by the Act and Mishra allegedly did not comply with its provisions.

Holding that such attempt to conceal information on election expenditure should be curbed, the Commission in its order said: "It is a grave electoral malpractice which circumvents expenditure limits, disturbs the level playing field and militates against the voters' right to accurate information to enable him to make informed choice.

"The paid news is of such a character that it would either deter or tend to deter voters from supporting that candidate whom they would have supported from free exercise of their electoral right but for their being affected or attempted to be affected by the maker or publisher of the paid news."

It added that the public, in general, lends more credence to news than advertisements of parties and candidates and publication of such advertisements in the garb of news by way of paid news amounts to "deceiving the electorate".

Noting that while it has attempted to address this "menace" by constituting mechanisms at the state and district level to investigate and report instances. the desired objective does not seem to have been fully achieved as is evident from the facts of present case.

The Commission held that it was clear from an examination of this matter that Mishra was complicit in the publication of the impugned paid news as news items and has derived benefits from it without acknowledging it.

--IANS

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At least eight civilians were killed in bombing by US-led international coalition forces against the Islamic State terror group in Syria's al-Raqqa province, a UK-based war monitor reported on Saturday.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the victims included two minors, reports Efe news.

According to data released by the NGO on Friday, at least 250 civilians had been killed in al-Raqqa by coalition bombings in the last month.

The SOHR added that over the same time period, a total of 472 civilians had been killed by the coalition in different parts of Syria.

The number of deaths in Syria due to coalition bombings since they started in September 23, 2014 has risen to 8,798.

--IANS

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At least 400 devotees from different countries, including Russia and China, would offer traditional vegetarian dishes from their countries to Lord Jagannath during the 46th edition of the Rath Yatra festival organised by the ISCKON here.

The annual journey of Lord Jagannath along with his siblings - Baladev and Subhadra - out of the temple during the month of 'Asad' is known as Rath Yatra.

"There would be nearly 400 devotees from different countries who would offer traditional vegetarian dishes from their respective countries this year," Radharaman Das, the General Manager of ISCKON Kolkata, told IANS.

"They would also participate in bhajan (devotional singing) and chant the mahanatra, playing traditional Indian instruments every day at the Brigade Parade Ground where the week-long chariot festival would be held," he added.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISCKON) is organising this year's Rath Yatra festival in the city with a South Indian touch as they celebrate the 1,000th birth anniversary of philosopher-saint Ramanuj Acharya, the founder of Sri Sampradaya (sect).

Several hundred South Indian devotees are set to attend the festival on June 25 and draw rangoli on the streets of Kolkata at the start of the journey.

Expecting a turnout of more than one lakh people on the occasion, the ISCKON headquarters at Mayapur in West Bengal's Nadia district has constructed a magnificent Gundicha temple at Prabhupada Ghat along the Ganga.

The deities will be kept there till 'ulta rath' on July 3.

Jagadhartia Das, Public Relations Coordinator of Iskcon Mayapur, said: "Another attraction this year will be "Tulavarnam", wherein the devotees and guests will offer to (Lord) Jagannath items like ghee, fruits, jaggery and other items equal to their own body weight."

According to the organisers, the entry gate of the festival at Brigade Parade Ground would also have South Indian touches.

Besides cultural events and photography contests, the organising committee is also arranging the first ever videography contest during the festival this year that will continue till July 2.

--IANS

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With the battle lines for presidency now clearly drawn between the ruling NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind and the opposition parties' Meira Kumar, it remains to be seen which way the Samajwadi Party will swing.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who was present at the meeting where Meira Kumar's name was approved, may have signalled his preference, but will he able to convince his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, whom he supplanted as party chief.

Mulayam has already termed Kovind a "dear friend" and a "wonderful candidate" for president.

Mulayam Singh was also the only opposition leader to have gone to the official dinner hosted by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow in honour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and has been cosying up to the BJP leadership of late.

Also, he did not campaign for SP candidates in the assembly elections and ending up confusing the voters. That, political observers say, helped the BJP.

His younger son Prateek and daughter-in-law Aparna have made no bones about their admiration for Modi and the BJP in the past. Though they have called their meetings with Adityanath or selfies with Modi a "personal matter", these moves have created a suspicion in the SP.

But how much weightage does Mulayam Singh have in the party and how many lawmakers are with him? That's not immediately clear.

Political observers feel that based on past experience, Akhilesh Yadav would side with Meira Kumar for more than two reasons. First, he would like to reiterate that he has the final say in the party despite the debacle in the assembly polls this year and, secondly, to express solidarity with the Congress, with which he jointly contested the polls.

On more than three occasions after the poll drubbing, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister has reiterated his desire not to leave the alliance with the Congress and has called it a "friendship for long".

Pushed to the sidelines of in the state for now, he is, say insiders, frantically looking for some "room" to salvage his lost pride. He is also learnt to be not averse to sharing the dais with arch rival Mayawati as the two are set to share the stage at RJD chief Lalu Prasad's mega rally in Patna in August.

Lalu Prasad has been trying to bring the two warring leaders together for a grand alliance before the 2019 general election to stop the BJP juggernaut. Akhilesh Yadav's decision to side with the Congress candidate for president, though unlikely to make much difference on Kovind's chances, is likely to consolidate SP's position in the opposition camp as a "dependable ally".

With the BJP comfortably ensconced in UP with a brute majority, aides say Akhilesh Yadav is also eyeing a national role if it comes his way. The will be his first testing point.
An Indian-origin doctor has been arrested by the police in East Midlands region of England for the circumcision of a three-month-old baby boy without his mother's approval.

Dr Balvinder Mehat, 61, is accused of circumcising the tot without his mother's consent for religious reasons in July 2013, the Mirror reported on Friday.

The operation took place when the baby, whose parents are separated, was taken to visit his paternal grandparents. The doctor is alleged to have carried out the procedure before the tot was returned to his mother later the same day.

The 26-year-old mother complained to Nottinghamshire police but they deemed it not to be a criminal matter and the case was referred to the General Medical Council.

But the case was reopened after the mother got help from an anti-circumcision group and a human rights lawyer.

Dr Mehat, from the Bakersfield Medical Centre in Nottingham, was arrested and questioned on suspicion of committing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Apart from him, a 44-year-old man and a woman, 47, were also arrested on "suspicion of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm".

They are believed to be the boy's paternal grandparents, police said.

All three people, who denied any wrongdoing, were released pending further investigation, the report said.

The boy's mother said circumcision amounts to male genital mutilation and said her son, now aged four, has suffered recurring physical problems, including inflammation and water infections post the act.

--IANS

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Global software major Infosys Ltd has embarked on a three-pronged transformation journey for a sustainable and secure future, said its Board Chairman R. Seshasayee on Saturday at the company's 36th Annual General Meeting (AGM) here.

"We are undertaking three transformations simultaneously for a sustainable and secure future for your company. The first is business transformation from a traditional IT services to an innovation-led software-plus services company, which is formidable enough; second the cultural transformation that comes along when you induct global leadership talent; and third, the abrupt transition from the promoter-led Board to an independent Board," he told about 1,000 shareholders at the AGM.

Admitting that none of the transformations were easy, Seshasayee said other industry players might have one or the other, but not all the three and underlaid the board and the management's commitment to accelerated efforts to navigate the company through these daunting changes and deliver performance.

Noting that Infosys was at a defining moment, he said it was at the cusp of the fourth industrial revolution, with all prospects for human advancement and new business opportunities.

"The rapid digitisation of everything around us is disrupting entire industries in an irreversible and profound way. As this revolution accelerates, the opportunity for us is two-fold.

"First, to bring automation and software-led efficiencies to the core of our traditional services, whilst rapidly learning to imbibe new technologies and innovation. Second, to do the same for our clients as we partner with them through their digital transformation."

Seshasayee said the twin-approach would bring technology-enabled efficiencies to the clients problem-solving and freeing them to find new opportunities to create greater value.

"Our endeavour is to deliver our traditional services through a people plus software model so that our engineers can focus on higher-value work and on innovating for our clients," he said.

Asserting that the progress in the fiscal under review was encouraging, he said navigating through the year was not without challenges posed by the external environment due to "growing commoditisation of our traditional business, rapidly spreading protectionism and escalating demand from clients for more value for their technology investments".

"Our strategy had to quickly evolve to respond to changing dynamics in the marketplace and our execution had to be elevated to a higher level of efficiency," he said.

The company has set up a Committee of Directors to monitor execution and enhance alignment between the board and the management in strategic responses to the changing market situations.

The chairman also referred to the challenges the company faced during the last 18 months, including intense criticism of the board and management's "governance lapses".

"Executive leadership compensation was an issue that dominated the narrative on governance. The Board has, in the spirit of further transparency, released a document, explaining in detail the policy on executive compensation, the key performance indicators for variable pay and related matters on the company's website and in the annual report," added Seshasayee.

--IANS

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Infosys' boardroom battles and the "open war" played out in the media between the board members and its founders since February came to the fore at the firm's 36th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Saturday.

Several retail investors blasted the board for the "infighting" that damaged the company's reputation and its brand equity the world over, especially in the stock market, where its shares are trading at a three-year low.

"Your infighting with the founders has caused a lot of damage to the company and its image has taken a beating. It (infighting) became the talk of the town," city-based investor Sadanadna Shastry told the board members present on the dais.

With the main five founders keeping away from the meeting for the first time in many years, Board Chairman R. Seshasayee and Chief Executive Vishal Sikka came under attack from the investors, with one of them terming the AGM's fiscal 2016-17 as a "year of episodes".

"The infighting has disturbed us (shareholders). Whatever differences you (board) had with them (founders) should have been sorted out amicably across the table as in a family than trying to settle it out (in media)," said another investor Sushil Akshar.

Without mincing words, Vinay, a charted accountant and a shareholder, told the board that the company's communications and public relations department was a "disaster" as it had totally failed to contain the damage caused to the company in the media.

"The PR department has miserably failed to do its job and mishandled the issue (infighting) in the media," he said.

Accusing the board of ignoring minority shareholders at the cost of large and institutional investors, shareholder Ponnu Hosur said the absence of founders, especially N.R. Narayana Murthy was conspicuously felt and has caused a void.

"The founders had built the company from scratch. They were humble and simple. They did not have VIP culture. I was shocked to see some of the board members coming to the AGM in a convoy, with scores of security men around," he said.

Responding to the concerns expressed by the agitated investors, Seshasayee said it was a matter of pain that the image of the company had taken a beating in the recent past due to "bad press".

"We have a bad press, which exaggerate things and blow them out of proportion," the Chairman said.

Allaying fears of layoffs and reduction in hiring, Sikka told investors that the company was not laying off any employee.

"No layoffs in our company. On the contrary we are hiring this year (2017-18) too," he asserted.

Clarifying that hiring about 10,000 people in the US over the next three years would not be at the cost of recruitment in India, Sikka said for every job created in the US, an additional job will be available here.

--IANS

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Jammu and Police on Saturday formed a special investigation team (SIT) to expedite the probe into the lynching of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Muhammad Ayub Pandit, even as a senior police officer has been shunted out.

Authorities issued marching orders for Sajad Bhat, Superintendent of Police incharge of Srinagar north where Pandit was lynched by a mob late on Thursday.

A wireless message flashed by Director General of Police S P Vaid ordered attachment of Bhat, SP North (Srinagar) at the police headquarters, while Additional SP (Traffic) Sajad Shah was ordered to look after Srinagar north as well.

Pandit was lynched by an unruly mob outside the Jamia Masjid while he was on duty.

Meanwhile, three more persons have been arrested in the case, taking the total number of arrests to five, an official said.

Vaid told reporters that seven other persons have been identified and would be arrested soon.
Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez, an investor in Indian cold pressed juice brand RAW Pressery -- has taken the first steps towards going global by stepping into the Dubai market.

Anuj Rakyan started RAW Pressery in Mumbai in June 2013. It now has a presence in Indian cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Jacqueline, from Sri Lanka, who found fame in Bollywood with films like "Kick" and "Housefull 2", came on board as an investor aka 'Green Warrior' in April, by investing Rs 3.5 crore in the brand.

"Jacqueline is someone who celebrates fitness, eating clean and living natural. Jacqueline finds the association with Raw Pressery an opportunity to impact people's well being," Rakyan told IANS.

He said the company was planning to expand availability to the Middle East. "We've seen a lot of interest from the Middle East and are in the process of streamlining our supply chain to better serve the region. The brand sees great potential in the market and forecasts an expansion to other emirates as well as GCC countries by the end of FY17," he added.

The brand has partnered with Lulu Hypermarkets in Dubai, and will be air-freighting the products and retailing through the mall. They started the expansion last month.

Talking about his decision to get to the foreign shores, Rakyan said: "Dubai along with Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Al Fujairah have shaped up as interesting geographies in our first foray.".

The aim is to "be the first clean label beverage brand from India to have presence across Asia". He said the fact that they are a "clean label" -- not adding any sugar to the juices -- adds value to customers in India and abroad.

Asked about his plans for Indian market, Rakyan stressed "India will remain the primary market for the brand".

(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)

--IANS

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As the Indian companies leverage the potential of digital printing, Japanese printing technology major Konica Minolta is set to help businesses switch to digital industrial printing for superior output, a top company executive has emphasised.

In 2016-17, Konica Minolta sold over 18,000 units in the black and white segment and around 2,000 units in the coloured segment.

"We target to increase these numbers in coming years to eye the top market share. We achieved over Rs 500 crore revenue in 2016-17 and our target is to increase the company revenue at the pace of double digit growth (year-on-year)," Kuldeep Malhotra, Vice President (Sales, Sales Planning and Communication), Konica Minolta Business Solution India, told IANS in an interview.

"The company's overall plan is to expand its footprint in diverse markets in the country and help printing businesses switch to digital industrial printing to enhance the business output," Malhotra told IANS.

India has emerged as a growth engine in the global economy thanks to an unprecedented growth in pivotal sectors including IT, Retail, SMBs and government.

"This is creating tremendous opportunities for us. India is also witnessing a rapid shift to digitisation, owing to government efforts coupled with a young tech-savvy population. We are dedicated to catalyse this transition with our industry leading digital printing solutions tailored for varied industry verticals," Malhotra noted.

Konica Minolta has continued to witness a double digit growth in India for the last six years and maintained its leadership in production printing market.

"The colour printing segment is witnessing a rapid growth in the country as the difference in costs between monochromes vs colour output is steadily decreasing. The new age offices and start-ups are also preferring colour outputs as compared to traditional prints," the top executive added.

When it comes to industrial printing, businesses are increasingly eyeing to deploy new digital printing solutions as the demand for high-quality outputs in minimal time is at an all time high.

"The printing businesses in India are also witnessing the demand for a host of different printing jobs with stringent deadlines. This is further fueling the growth of the new cutting-edge industrial printing solutions to cater to the customer demands as well as offer maximum operational efficiency at the same time," Malhotra told IANS.

Last month, Konica Minolta launched its new "Accurio Press" series printers in India.

"Our new series is a complete modular line-up of industrial digital printing solutions to help printing businesses achieve efficiency, productivity and reduce labour-related expenses," said Daisuke Mori, Managing Director of Konica Minolta India.

While demonstrating the company's high-end printing and web solutions at an exhibition in Greater Noida earlier this year, Yuji Nakata, Managing Director of Konica Minolta India, told IANS that the company has got the strongest infrastructure in India with nearly 200 engineers working on development of the products.

"India is the highest growing market for the company," Nakata added.

While the printing industry in the country is witnessing a major growth, the demand for varied jobs and rigorous deadlines of customers is proving to be a major challenge for printing businesses.

"We are committed to address this challenge with new industry leading digital printing solutions incorporated with our proprietary cutting-edge technology. We are also aggressively raising our footprint in the country via strategic partnerships to spread awareness to businesses regarding the new challenges and trends encircling this segment," Malhotra said.

At present, the company is focused on principal verticals including industrial printing, Information Technology along with Small and Medium Businesses.

"In terms of technological innovation, we will continue to invest significantly in our R&D division to come up with trend setting printing solutions for both enterprises and homes to bolster the digital revolution in the country," Malhotra told IANS, adding that the company is ready with a new line-up in colour printers catered to meet the needs of Indian enterprises.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Saturday on the first leg of his three-nation tour that will also take him to the US and the Netherlands.

Modi's visit follows his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa, who traces his origin to Goa, to India in January this year.

"I will pay a working visit to Portugal on 24 June 2017," Modi said in a pre-departure statement.

"Our close historical and friendly ties have picked up momentum after Prime Minister Antonio Costa's visit to India in January 2017," he said, adding that building on the recent discussions, both sides would review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions.

"We will also discuss ways to further enhance the bilateral engagement, especially in the areas of economic cooperation, science and technology, space collaboration and people-to-people ties.

"We will deliberate on means to intensify our cooperation in counter-terrorism and on other international issues of mutual interest. I also see significant potential for deepening bilateral trade and investment ties," he added.

The Prime Minister also said that he was looking forward to interacting with the Indian diaspora there.

Later on Saturday, Modi will lead delegation-level talks with Costa before the signing of agreements and launch of the India-Portugal Start-up Hub.

In October 2005, Portugal extradited terror accused Abu Salem and Monica Bedi to India - in the first extradition from any European nation to India.

In October 2015, Portugal became the first European and Western country, and only the fourth outside the East Asia Summit, to sign an MoU on the establishment of the Nalanda University in India.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Portugese counterpart Antonio Costa on Saturday launched the India-Portugal International StartUp Hub (IPISH) here to help in mutual capacity building, and enable connections between start-ups, investors, and incubators from relevant sectors.

According to an External Affairs Ministry statement, this is a platform initiated by Startup India and supported by Commerce and Industry Ministry and Startup Portugal to create a mutually supportive entrepreneurial partnership.

"IPISH is expected to help in mutual capacity building, and enable connections between start-ups, investors, and incubators from relevant sectors. It is also expected to establish a network of honorary ambassadors based in India and Portugal to guide start-ups from both countries," it said.

The ministry also said that IPISH hosts a range of tools and will provide information on the start-up hotspots of Bengaluru, Delhi and Lisbon; and on associated subjects, such as policy, taxation, and visa options. It will develop a Go-To-Market Guide to support start-ups.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left for Portugal, the first-leg of his three-nation tour that will also take him to the US and Netherlands.

"PM @narendramodi emplaned for Portugal, after which he shall visit USA and Netherlands for important bilateral visits," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) wrote on Twitter.

Modi will visit Portugal on Saturday before his trip to the US on June 26 and is expected to be on a whirlwind tour to the Netherlands on June 27.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay had said Modi's visit to the US has "its own significance because it will be the first visit of the Prime Minister to engage with the new leader, with the new President (Donald Trump) after the elections last year" in the United States.

Modi would also hold talks with Antonio Costa, the Portugal Prime Minister of Indian origin, in Lisbon before flying to the US where he would meet President Donald Trump.

On his way back, Modi would visit The Netherlands for talks with Prime Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague, besides calling on the King of The Netherlands Willem Alexander.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left on a three-nation tour that will take him to the US for his first meeting with US President Donald Trump. He will also visit Portugal and the Netherlands.

Modi will visit Portugal on Saturday before his trip to the US on June 26 and is expected to be on a whirlwind tour to the Netherlands on June 27.

"PM @narendramodi emplaned for Portugal, after which he shall visit USA and Netherlands for important bilateral visits," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) wrote on Twitter.

Ahead of his visit, Prime Minister Modi on Friday said he will hold in-depth discussions with President Trump during his visit to Washington and hoped to build a forward-looking vision for partnership with the new administration.

The Prime Minister said the visits were aimed at enhancing bilateral engagement in various areas.

He said India's partnership with the United States is multi-layered and diverse, supported by not just governments but all the stakeholders on both sides.

"I look forward to building a forward-looking vision for our partnership with the new administration in the United States under President Trump," Modi said.

"I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide-ranging partnership between India and the United States," he said.

It will be the first meeting between the two leaders since Trump became US President earlier this year.

The Prime Minister said that apart from his official meetings with Trump and his Cabinet colleagues, he will meet some prominent American CEOs and the large Indian diaspora.

Referring to his visit to Portugal, Modi said he was looking forward to his meeting with Prime Minister Antonio Costa and there was significant potential for deepening bilateral trade and investment ties.

The Prime Minister said the historical and friendly ties between the two countries have picked up momentum after Costa's visit to India in January 2017.

Modi said the two countries will review the progress of various joint initiatives and discuss ways to further enhance bilateral engagement, specially in areas such as economic cooperation, science and technology, and space collaboration.

"We will deliberate on means to intensify our cooperation in counter-terrorism and on other international issues of mutual interest," Modi said, adding that he was keen to interact with the Indian community in Portugal.

Referring to his visit to the Netherlands on June 27, Modi said he will have an official meeting with Prime Minister Mark Rutte and exchange views on important global issues, including counter-terrorism and climate change.

"I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Rutte and reviewing our bilateral relations," Modi said.

Modi will also call on King Willem-Alexander and meet Queen Maxima.

Modi said the Netherlands is India's sixth largest trading partner in the European Union and fifth largest investment partner globally.

He said the Dutch expertise in areas like water and waste management, agriculture, food processing, renewable energy, and ports and shipping, matches with India's development needs.

"India-Dutch economic engagement is a win-win proposition. I will discuss with PM Rutte as to how the two sides should work to further harness the synergies," Modi said.

The Prime Minister said he will meet CEOs of major Dutch companies and will encourage them to join the Indian growth story.

Modi said there were strong people-to-people relations between India and the Netherlands due to the presence of the second largest Indian diaspora in Europe in that country.

--IANS

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Talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump in what would be their first face-to-face meeting would focus on ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism and defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, besides trade and law enforcement, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has said.

Spicer said that talks between the two on Monday would be "robust".

"... The President and the Prime Minister will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counterterrorism, defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement, and energy. I think it's going to be a very robust discussion," he said at his regular briefing on Friday.

Modi left New Delhi on Saturday on a three-nation tour that will take him to the US, Portugal and the Netherlands. He reached Portugal on Saturday ahead of his visit to the US on June 26 and will visit the Netherlands on June 27 on the way back home.

Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar flew into Washington ahead of Modi's visit to meet senior officials in the Trump administration and to lay the groundwork for the Modi-Trump meeting.

On Friday, Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and both sides focused on areas of convergence.

Indian envoy to the US Navtej Sarna has termed Modi's visit a "great opportunity for the two leaders to know each other". He said Modi will meet the top 20 CEOs of the US during the visit.

Sarna also expressed the hope that the visit will provide sufficient time for Modi and Trump to get to know each other.

He said that India is major defence partner of the US and both countries have a robust defence and security relationship.

In a pre-departure statement, Modi on Friday said he will hold in-depth discussions with Trump during his visit and hoped to build a forward-looking vision for partnership with the new administration.

The Prime Minister said that apart from his official meetings with Trump and his Cabinet colleagues, he will meet some prominent American CEOs and the large Indian diaspora.

Former President Barack Obama had called India-US ties the "most defining partnership" of the 21st century. Both leaders had struck a warm personal equation and worked to ease any bilateral irritants.

The Obama administration had accorded India the status of a 'major defence partner'.

According to reports, the US has cleared the sale of 22 American-made Guardian surveillance drones for India ahead of Modi's visit. The deal is estimated to be worth $2-3 billion.

Both sides will also discuss the sale of US fighter jets during the Modi's visit.

Earlier this week, US defence giant Lockheed Martin and India's Tata group signed an agreement to jointly build the F-16 Block 70 fighter in India, in a boost to Prime Minister Modi's 'Make in India' programme.

Under the deal, Lockheed will shift its Fort Worth, Texas plant to India without directly affecting American jobs.

The deal was announced during the Paris Airshow between Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) and Lockheed Martin.

The navies of India, US and Japan also participate in the Malabar exercise.

--IANS

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The National Capital Region (NCR) will get a new international airport in the next five years at Jewar, located in the Gautam Budh Nagar district, adjoining the national capital city of New Delhi.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi announced that the project -- Noida International Airport -- has received an "in-principle approval" and is expected to be developed in phases with the initial stage sporting one runway and a terminal building.

The new facility, expected to be spread across 3,000 hectares of land, will be the second international airport to serve the catchment areas of the NCR after the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).

Distance-wise, the new airport will be located more than 77 km away from Connaught Circus, 72 km away from IGIA and 65 km from Hindon Air Force station in Ghaziabad. It will be connected to Delhi and Noida via metro rail and improved road network.

According to Raju, the approval or site clearance has been given for the first phase of the airport which is envisaged to be completed in 5-6 years.

"Noida International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years," Raju said at a press briefing held at the Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan here which is the headquarters of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The first phase of the project would require around 1,000 hectares of land and it is expected to ease the infrastructure pressure on the IGIA, the minister said.

The IGIA's passenger handling capacity will reach up to 91 MPPA (million passengers per annum) by 2020 and 109 MPPA by 2024 from the current level of 62 million.

Elaborating on the project, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said the first phase of the new airport project is expected to cost Rs 10,000 crore.

"Noida airport will be major growth driver for NCR and Western UP - will boost manufacturing, tourism, educational, and export sectors," Sinha said.

Sinha pointed out at the press briefing that industries such as electronics and pharma manufacturing will especially get a boost from the new airport.

As per the development plan, the Uttar Pradesh government will implement the project through the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA).

The YEIDA is expected to complete land acquisition and conduct a techno-economic feasibility study for the project within one year.

In April, Sinha had said that the new state government in Uttar Pradesh has asked for a fresh technical evaluation for setting up a green field airport at Jewar.

In 2001, the then UP chief minister Rajnath Singh proposed the idea of an airport located in Greater Noida. Later, governments including those of Mayawati, proposed that the project be set up in Jewar, near Greater Noida.

The last UP government scrapped the project, citing a clause that bars development of a second airport within a 150-km radius of an existing one. The IGIA is being developed and managed by a consortium led by GMR.

However, Raju said that the project which is expected to be developed on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, will provide the GMR-led consortium with the "First Right of Refusal" at the time of the bidding.

Aviation sector experts said that the move will benefit passengers.

"It (step) will probably prevent Delhi from going through the same hardship that Mumbai is going through due to the saturation of its existing airport," said Kuljit Singh, Head of Infrastructure at EY LLP India.

"However, this airport may also (just like Navi Mumbai Airport) have difficulty in generating sufficient bidder interest due to the pre-emption right available to the incumbent developer and in case government does not undertake key pre-development activities prior to putting the project to bid."

Amrit Pandurangi, independent aviation expert told IANS: "From users' perspective its always good to have another airport. But for that to happen under the current agreement the government has to either convince GMR to take it up under the first right of refusal or have an airport with limited operations."

"Unlike Mumbai, Delhi airport still has plenty of land for expansion."

--IANS

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Union Minister Giriraj Singh has called for a population control law without which "communal harmony would be disrupted" while blaming "appeasement politics" for the declining Hindu population.

The minister, known for making controversial remarks, said appeasement has led to the Hindu population "declining from 90 per cent in 1947 to below 72 per cent at present".

"If population control law is not introduced in India, communal harmony would be disrupted. Wherever Hindu population has decreased in the country, communal harmony has been affected," he told a regional Zee Group channel in an interview to be aired on Saturday.

However, according to 2011 census, Hindus comprise 79.8 per cent of the total population compared to 84.1 per cent as per 1951 census.

The Minister added that there was also a need to "revisit the definition" of minorities. "I can do anything for this. I am a Hindu first and then a BJP man," he said.

The Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, who was also a minister in Nitish Kumar's cabinet in Bihar, alleged that the Janata Dal-United leader was not concerned about the development of the state anymore but "was running after power now".

Attacking Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad, he termed him a "brand ambassador of Jungle Raj".

Giriraj Singh also said he wanted yoga to be made compulsory in schools across the nation as it was "good for health".

--IANS

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One person has been arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of a teenager in a train in Haryana, police said on Saturday.

Accused Ramesh, 35, was arrested from his native place Plawal in Haryana late Friday night on the charge of involvement in the murder of 16-year-old Junaid, a senior police officer told IANS.

Ramesh was later sent in three-day police custody by a local court.

"He is claiming he didn't stab Junaid, and also not telling who all were with him during the crime on Thursday night."

The officer said three police teams have been formed to identify and arrest the remaining attackers who were part of the mob that attacked the four youths.

On Thursday night, Junaid and his friends Hasib, Shakir, and Mohsin were returning to their village on a Mathura-bound passenger train after shopping at Sadar Bazaar in Delhi.

In his police complaint, Hasib said at least 15-20 persons boarded the train at Okhla railway station and asked them to vacate seats for them.

All four were thrashed all the way from Tughlakabad to the Ballabhgarh railway station and were attacked with sharp-edged weapons and later thrown out of the train at Asaoti railway station in Palwal district.

Media reports earlier said the murderous attack followed rumours about beef eating by the four youths.

Junaid succumbed to his injuries on Thursday night in a hospital. His three friends were injured, two of them critically, and are under treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Trauma Centre in Delhi.

--IANS

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Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Crimea on Saturday after the US imposed new sanctions on Moscow earlier this week over its alleged actions in Ukraine.

Accompanied by the head of the Crimean Republic Sergei Aksyonov and other senior officials, Putin inspected the reconstruction of the Artek International Children's Center on the peninsula, according to a Kremlin statement, Xinhua news agency reported.

During his trip, Putin asked Aksyonov to speed up the reconstruction of the Great Mithridates Staircase, a landmark cultural relic in Crimea.

Putin's visit came after the US Treasury Department on Tuesday blacklisted 38 individuals and entities and two Russian government officials for their alleged roles in the Ukrainian crisis.

Crimea separated from Ukraine and rejoined Russia in March 2014 following a local referendum, with almost 97 per cent of the residents voting for the reunification.

However, Western countries insisted that the peninsula was illegally annexed and they have imposed several rounds of economic sanctions against Russia since 2014.

--IANS

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Security forces in Saudi Arabia thwarted a terror attack on the Mecca Grand Mosque and worshippers there, the country's Interior Ministry has said.

The attack on Friday had been planned by a group stationed at three locations, Khaleej Times reported citing Arab News which quoted the Interior Ministry's statement.

A security spokesperson said that one of the sites was in the province of Jeddah, and the two others were in Mecca.

The first was in the neighbourhood of Asilah, and the second in Ajyad Al Masafi, located within the perimeter of the central area of the Grand Mosque, the spokesman said.

One site was a three-story house where the suicide bomber tasked with the crime was stationed. He blew himself up when surrounded by security forces.

The United Arab Emirates has strongly condemned the terror crime.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in a statement, condemned the crime in the strongest words, and said the heinous crime shows the level to which the brutality of these terrorists has reached.

"No sane person can give any justification or explanation for such a crime," the statement said.

--IANS

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Sri Lankan doctors on Saturday called off an island-wide strike following three days of successful talks with President Maithripala Sirisena.

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) said the doctors decided to suspend their strike after its executive committee held talks with Sirisena, reports Xinhua news agency.

During the discussions, Sirisena had assured to address the grievances of the doctors and bring in new laws to enhance standards of medical education in the country.

The GMOA began the countrywide strike on Thursday, protesting against the violent clashes which erupted between police and students on Wednesday.

According to the GMOA, the strike was launched to strongly protest the violence allegedly unleashed by the police on the medical students when they held a protest in front of the Health Ministry, calling for the closure of the country's only private medical faculty.

The clashes erupted close to the Colombo National Hospital, and left at least 85 students and nine policemen injured.

Following the strike, thousands of patients were left stranded when they sought medical treatment in state hospitals due to the wards being deserted with lack of staff.

Hospital emergency units, dengue control units and hospitals in the disaster-affected areas continued to function normally despite the strike.

--IANS

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Suspected militants gunned down a student leader here in Manipur and the police, fearing a students agitation, have launched a massive manhunt to nab the killers, an official said on Saturday.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

President of the Haokip Students' Organisation Letkholal Haokip was shot dead outside his home at Langol near here on Friday night.

The 40-year-old leader had just got out of his jeep when he was attacked from close range. Haokip sustained fatal bullet injuries, the police said.

His neighbours rushed him to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences here but he could not be saved.

The gunmen who came in a car managed to escape, said the police, who have registered a case. Officials said there were indications that the students might resort to an agitation.

In another incident in Tengnoupal district, a tribal farmer, T. Angshan, who was abducted on Thursday morning by two masked men, was found dead.

The kidnappers had said they wanted to speak to the 36-year-old farmer but his bullet-ridden body was recovered on Friday.

Activists said the farmer could not have offended any underground organisation and demanded the killers' arrest. Police have registered a case but no arrest has been made so far.

--IANS

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Members of the Information Technology Employees' Union (ITEU) on Saturday sought the intervention of Karnataka's IT Minister Priyank Kharge to prevent illegal layoffs by software firms in the state.

"We urge Kharge to intervene and prevent arbitrary and illegal retrenchment of thousands of employees by software companies in the state," ITEU President A.C. Kumara Swamy told reporters here.

Swamy alleged that software major Wipro Ltd was set to sack about 6,000 employees by June 30 and many more IT firms were planning to do the same in the near future.

"The state government should soon convene a meeting with IT firms to stop such illegal layoffs," reiterated Swamy.

Though the union members met Kharge on June 5 with the same demand, the minister was yet to initiate talks with the IT companies on feared retrenchments.

"We expect the IT minister to come to our rescue," said Swamy.

The union also alleged that many IT firms were putting work pressure on junior employees through their middle level managers to meet targets without concern for their health and welfare.

"Many employees are compelled to resign due to work pressure and long-working hours," said ITEU Secretary M. Chandramouli.

The union secretary also urged the state Labour Minister and Labour Commissioner to intervene in the interest of about one million employees in the state's IT industry.

"We want IT firms to give at least two-month notice to their employees before retrenching them. They should also be given severance package with one-year salary and medical insurance cover for next 12 months," added Chandramouli.

--IANS

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Ten US Air Force planes, including two E-4B "doomsday" aircraft, were damaged when a tornado hit the Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, the media reported.

Nicknamed the Air Force's "doomsday" plane, the Boeing-made E-4B serves as an aerial command centre in case of national emergency or destruction of ground bases, an Air Force officer told CNN on Friday.

It provides a "highly survivable command, control and communications centre to direct US forces, execute emergency war orders and coordinate actions by civil authorities", according to the Air Force.

"The E-4B serves as the National Airborne Operations Centre and is a key component of the National Military Command System for the President, the Secretary of Defence and the Joint Chiefs of Staff," Air Force spokesperson Col. Patrick Ryder told CNN.

The aircraft is also protected against the effects of electromagnetic pulse and has an electrical system designed to support advanced electronics and a wide variety of communications equipment, according to the Air Force's fact sheet.

The Air Force has four E-4Bs in active service, and the primary aircraft was off-station during the tornado on June 16, according to Ryder.

"There is no impact to the E-4B's primary mission, so it remains capable of completing its National Airborne Operations Centre," he said.

In addition to the two E-4B planes, eight RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft were also damaged in the storm that took out some trees and damaged buildings on the base.

Six of these eight aircraft have now been returned to mission-capable status, Ryder added.

--IANS

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When Narendra Modi comes calling on Donald Trump Monday, one can say "with a high degree of confidence" in spook lingo that the POTUS would face at least one question about Russia.

That seems to be the standard drill for the Trump baiting main stream media (MSM) whether a White House visitor is from Romania or India. So is the case at the daily press briefings that have now gone largely off camera.

And pundits are sure to talk their heads off around what the President said or didn't say about Russia as they did after White House spokesman Sean Spicer came to face the much complaining scribes after eight days.

"Does President Trump believe that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 elections?" asked one intrepid reporter demanding "just very plainly, a yes or no answer."

Spicer's response that he and Trump haven't talked about it lately was quickly translated as "Spicer won't say if Trump believes overwhelming evidence of Russian election interference."

For MSM there is no 'masala' in India and it's the Russian vodka that wins them the eyeballs - millions of them.

Evidence: Former FBI chief James Comey's 150 minute tell-all tale about his firing was so riveting that even some avid porn addicts tuned in to the June 8 Senate hearing.

PornHub's analytic team has reported an over ten percent decrease in their online traffic in the Washington region starting with a dip at 10 am when Comey's testimony began.

But the prophets of doom on the left still reeling under Trump's incredible victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton have met more than their match in the former reality TV star who has mastered the art of changing the conversation.

After teasing the media for 41 days, the POTUS who had "warned," as MSM would have it, Comey "better hope there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!" cleared the mystery in a tweet.

Trump "admitted" that he "did not make, and do not have" recordings "of my conversations with James Comey," but he also dangled the tantalizing prospect of his own spooks eavesdropping on him.

"With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea whether there are 'tapes' or recordings of my conversations," he fired.

Even as critics went hoarse crying "witness intimidation," Trump told Fox News he "bluffed" about having tapes to keep Comey honest.

With a possibility of tapes, "I think his story may have changed," said the President suggesting his "not very stupid" move may have forced Comey to admit publicly what he had told Trump thrice privately that he personally was not under investigation.

There was "no collusion" with Moscow, Trump asserted again asking, "if Russia was working so hard" to meddle in the 2016 election during the Obama administration "Why didn't they stop them?"

Amidst the never ending Russia circus, a noted legal scholar Alan M. Dershowitz declared "Trump's bluff: perfectly legal." As a lawyer, even "honest Abe" Abraham Lincoln had resorted to bluff to get at the truth.

Calling it "the most absurd of the many absurd charges levelled against Trump by those out to get him without regard to the law," he asked how a move to induce someone "to tell the truth be witness intimidation?"

And even if the Trump campaign did coordinate or "collude" politically with Russia, it would be no crime under law as it stood today.

He also offered some sane advice to "those out to get President Trump" to stop concocting "'crimes' out of the most innocent behaviour."

"Remember that today's use of the criminal law against a president you don't like may become a precedent to using a criminal law against a president you do like," cautioned Dershowitz, who is no Trump supporter.

Trump on his part gladly escaped from the "Washington swamp" to hold a campaign style rally in Iowa rally to regale his die-hard base about his crusade against "Crooked Hillary" and the "fake media."

Meanwhile, with activists gunning for Trump at the drop of a hat - or without - a group called DC Local Ambassadors that helped organise "March for Truth" is offering help to plan more protests in the capital. But can truth prevail in a fractured America?

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

--IANS

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the terrorist attacks in Pakistan and called for bringing the perpetrators to justice.

"The Secretary-General extends his condolences to the families of the victims and wishes the injured a speedy recovery," said a statement released by his spokesperson on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

On Friday, twin bombings ripped through a market place in Parachinar, the capital city of Pakistan's northwest tribal region of Kurram, killing at least 25 people and injuring over 100 others.

Also, on Friday, an explosive-laden vehicle rammed into a check post near a police chief's office in Pakistan's Quetta city, reportedly killing at least 12 people and wounding over a dozen others.

"He (the UN chief) expresses his solidarity with the people and Government of Pakistan and its efforts to fight and violent extremism," the statement added.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

--IANS

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Conveying his greetings to the people of West Bengal on the occasion of Rath Yatra, Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Saturday said this is an occasion for joy and festivity which transcends the barriers of caste, creed, faith and community.

Tripathi observed that the Rath Yatra is an age-old tradition of Bengal.

"My best wishes for the well-being of the people of the state on this occasion," he said.

The Rath Yatra takes place on the day when Lord Jagannath is carried on a chariot by devotees from his temple abode of Puri.

--IANS

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A woman partly chopped off her boyfriend's penis after he allegedly refused to have sex with her, police said on Friday.

The 23-year-old woman is absconding and her 34-year-old boyfriend has undergone a surgery and is recuperating, said a police officer privy to the investigation.

The incident happened in Mangolpuri area of west Delhi at around 3 a.m. on Thursday.

According to police, the duo was in a relationship for the past three-four years and on Wednesday night, the girl's sister-in-law called him over to their house.

When he returned, he refused to have sex with his girlfriend "and the accused got angry about this and partly chopped off his penis with a knife", the police officer told IANS.

The officer said that police got a call at around 5 a.m. on Thursday from the hospital authorities informing about the incident. "We're searching for the woman and we don't think she has left Delhi," the officer added.

--IANS

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Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi wrote to the central government, turning down an extension of his term as the highest law officer of the country. Rohatgi has informed the government that he would like to go back to private practice.
Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday slammed the Opposition for terming the presidential election as a fight of ideology, saying the President should have only one ideology  the Constitution of India.

Seventeen non- Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties have chosen former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar for President against the NDA's candidate Ram Nath Kovind.

Both Kovind, who hails from Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur, and Kumar, a resident of Bihar, belong to the Dalit community.

The Congress-led opposition on Friday said it would contest the presidential election on the basis of ideology and appealed to all secular forces to support Kumar.

"The President will have and should have only one ideology  the Constitution of India ... Maintain the dignity of the institution, follow the Constitution. That's all. Where is the question of an ideological fight?" Naidu replied to a question from reporters in Ahmedabad.

The information and broadcasting minister said apart from the NDA parties, Kovind has the support of other non-NDA parties like JD(U), BJD, AIADMK (both factions), and YSRCP.

He hoped more parties will support the NDA candidate.

The minister said the NDA parties are united in their support for Kovind, while the Opposition is divided.

"We are united. They are divided ... We are confident. They are diffident ... We are marching forward. They are looking backward. That is why their situation is awkward," he said.
Adhering to his stand on supporting the NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday said the JD(U) took the decision after considering all aspects and the election for the top office should not be a matter of confrontation.
The first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump will give them an opportunity to look at the entire gamut of Indo-US engagement and to exchange views on issues of global interest, India's envoy here has said.

At the invitation of Trump, the Prime Minister would spend several hours with the US President at the White House on Monday afternoon, which would end with a dinner later that night.

This would be the first working dinner being hosted by Trump for a foreign leader at the White House.

"I think that just shows the amount of care that has gone in on the part of the White House to welcome our Prime Minister and the kind of planning that has gone into make this a very special visit," Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna told PTI on the eve of Prime Minister Modi's visit.

"This (dinner) is a special gesture and it is appreciated," he said.

"I think the first face-to-face meeting will allow the two leaders an opportunity to look at the entire India-US engagement and also to exchange views on issues of global interest," Sarna said.

Responding to a question on the the agenda of the two leaders, Sarna said he would not like to guess what they would be discussing.

"But when they sit across the table and they have a one- on-one discussion or they have an extended delegation that will talk, I would presume that they would cover the wide gamut of relations between India and the US, which is a very strong, strategic partnership, issues between the engagement of two largest democracies, the engagement of two very vibrant economies with tremendous potential for engagement for mutual growths" in the military, security and science and technology sectors, he said.

Any of these and issues of global interests, the challenges that the world is facing today, could come up for discussion, he said.

"But as I said, it would be very much up to the leaders to decide what to talk about," the Indian envoy said.

Sarna said it was a very significant trip because this will be the first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump.

"They have, of course, spoken three times on the telephone. They've had very good, constructive and warm conversations," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As many as 25 Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested by Sri Lankan Navy in two separate incidents on charges of fishing in the territorial waters of the island nation today, drawing angry reaction from the state government.

In the first incident, eight fishermen from Nagapattinam were arrested while fishing near Paruthithurai, Fisheries Department sources said.

They were held on charges of crossing International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and fishing in a zone exclusively meant for Sri Lankan fishermen, they said.

They have been taken to Kangesanthurai port there, Joint Director of Fisheries Department, Nagapattinam district, Amala Xavier said, adding that their mechanised fishing boat was also impounded.

In the second incident, 17 fishermen from here and Jagadapattinam were arrested on charges of crossing the IMBL, Rameswaram Fisheries Department Deputy Director Issac Jayakumar said.

Their two mechanised boats were also taken into custody.

While 10 of them were taken to Thalimannar, the others were taken to Kanagesanthurai in the island nation, he said.

Two days ago, four fishermen from Pudukottai district and 17 from Karaikal region in Puducherry were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on charges of fishing near Neduntheevu in the island nation.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami termed the arrest of the eight fishermen from Nagapattinam as an "abduction" and took up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
West Bengal CID chased a truck and rescued 70 tortoises at Barasat, the North 24 Parganas district heaquarters in West Bengal today and three persons, including the driver were arrested in connection with it.

Police said the tortoises are valued at Rs two lakh and were being brought from Odisha.

The tortoises were being smuggled to Bangladesh and the CID rescued them after specific information, the police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A group of 90 Yemeni nationals, injured in the ongoing conflict in that country have arrived here for medical treatment, with two of them being admitted to an intensive care unit of a hospital.

"The injured persons, mostly men, arrived in Delhi yesterday and were accompanied by staff from the UAE Embassy here and officials of the VPS Healthcare group.

"Most of them are doing fine and recuperating. Only two of them have been admitted to the ICU," an official of the Rockland Hospital in Vasant Kunj, told PTI.

The injured persons include all adults and no children, he said.

"Some of the patients are admitted at Rockland Hospital in Vasant Kunj and the rest at its another hospital in Manesar, Gurgaon," the official said.

The injured Yemenis and their escorts left for India to continue their medical treatment under a special programme sponsored by the UAE humanitarian aid authority Emirates Red Crescent Authority (ERC), according to a statement released by the UAE's official agency Wam.

The ERC had announced last week that it will also bear the cost of medical escorts who will travel along with the injured to ensure that their health and psychological conditions are cared for.

The move also comes in the context of the continuous support provided by the UAE to Yemenis to alleviate their suffering and stand by them in these difficult times.

The Rockland Hospital is part of the VPS Healthcare group, an international network of 19 hospitals in the United Arab Emirates and Oman. In India, it runs a chain of multi- specialty hospitals in the national capital region -- Vasant Kunj, Dwarka and Gurgaon.

Since the conflict broke out in Yemen in 2015, injured people from the war-torn country have been coming to India, seeking medical treatment.

Besides, Rockland Hospital, Yemenis in the past two years have also sought treatment at hospitals run by the Fortis group.

"Yemeni nationals have been coming to Fortis hospitals in the last two years. Over 20 of them have sought treatment in the past two years, and currently six of them are recuperating at Fortis Hospital at Vasant Kunj," a source said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand today claimed that Lal Krishna Advani had recused himself from being the presidential candidate of the ruling NDA.

"Former deputy PM Lal Krishna Advani had recused himself from being the presidential candidate of the ruling NDA, since he has been named as an accused by the CBI in the ongoing Babri Masjid demolition case," he said here.

"It is absolutely wrong to presume that Advani was ignored as a probable presidential candidate by the NDA," said Chinmayanad, who served as the Union Minister of State for Home in Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government.

On queries about the elections for the post of the Vice President, he said the NDA was yet to decide its candidate.

On resolution of the Ayodhya issue, Chinmayanand said the construction of Ram temple was "very important" and the Supreme Court has already suggested that the issue should be resolved through talks.

"But, the other side is not ready for talks," he claimed.

He suggested that the Centre could pass a legislation to make sure that the temple is built.

"The Centre had earlier got Somnath temple reconstructed after passing a law. Now with the BJP in power both in UP and at the Centre, laws should be passed, so that a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya can be reconstructed. This is one of the alternative solutions," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Trump administration has said that if the Indian side raises the contentious H-1B visa issue during President Donald Trump's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Americans were ready to respond.

"On the (H-1B) visas issue, there's no plans for that to come up specifically," a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the Modi-Trump meeting at the White House on Monday.

But if raised by the Indian side, the Americans are ready for it, the official said.

"But if it's raised, I would just note that the administration has signed some executive orders related to work and immigration, and President Trump's executive order on H1-B visas of course directs the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Homeland Security to propose potential reforms to the H1B visa program," the official said.

However, there have been no immediate changes to visa application or issuance procedures, so the administration was not in a position to kind of prejudge what the outcome of the review might be, the official said.

"So there's really been no changes as such at this point, and no specific changes that target any specific country or sector as of yet," said the senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

His remarks come amid growing concerns in India over the crackdown on H-1B visas, the most sought-after by Indian IT professionals.

Trump signed an executive order in April for tightening the rules of the H-1B visa programme to stop "visa abuses".

Trump said his administration is going to enforce 'Hire American' rules that are designed to protect jobs and wages of workers in the US.

The executive order also called upon the Departments of Labour, Justice, Homeland Security, and the state to take action against fraud and abuse of the US' visa programmes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT), which attacked an Indian Army patrol after crossing the LoC, was made up of special forces' men and terrorists who were armed with 'special daggers' and headband cameras for recording the strike in Poonch district.

The attack on June 22 left two Indian soldiers dead while one BAT member was killed in retaliatory action by Indian troops.

Army troops during search and sanitation operations, recovered the body of a member of the BAT team along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on June 22.

"The body of the intruder killed in the BAT attempt has been retrieved and handed over to the local police," a senior army officer told PTI yesterday.

"Arms, ammunition and other war-like stores including a special dagger and a headband with a camera, knife, one AK rifle, 3 magazines, 2 grenades besides dresses and bags was recovered which reflects the barbaric mindset of the Pakistani Army," he said.

Giving details, the officer said that a special class of dagger and a knife was meant to engineer quick mutilation and beheading of jawans killed in the firing exchanges and it has been foiled by the quick action by Indian soldiers.

The BAT member was wearing headband with camera on his head to record the action and possible mutilation of jawans, which was prevented by other troops who shot dead one of them and injured another, he said.

The officer said it is matter of investigation whether the camera was live connected with Pakistani Army establishments across the border.

"The data and details of the camera will be analysed," he said.

"We are confident that another BAT member has also been killed but his body was taken back by the other members of the BAT," he said.

"The resolute action of our soldiers didn't let the nefarious plan (of mutilating bodies and recording it on camera) succeed," officer said.

In the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector.

The Border Action Team (BAT), which generally comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistani Army and some terrorists, carried out the attack at around 2 pm under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops from their posts, he said.

"A Border Action Team of five to seven heavily-armed men, under the cover of Pakistani firing, entered 600 meters inside the LoC in Gulpur forward area in Poonch sector," the official said.

The Pakistani attackers came up to 200 meters near the Indian posts.

During the attack, the Pakistani troops resorted to firing in Gulpur-Karmara-Chakan-Da-Bagh area along the LoC.

The armed intruders targeted an area domination patrol of the Indian Army, triggering a gunfight, the official said.

The Indian troops killed one of the attackers and injured another whose extrication was facilitated by the cover fire by the Pakistani troops from their posts.

In the firefight, two Indian soldiers were killed. They were 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad, Maharashtra and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

The Pakistani firing continued till 3.30 pm yesterday even as the Indian posts retaliated strongly.

In a similar BAT attack on May 1, two Indian soldiers were beheaded in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district. That attack too was carried out under the cover of shelling by the Pakistani troops.

Prior to that, a BAT attack was carried out in February but there were no casualties.

Earlier, there have been several BAT attacks in which Indian jawans have been beheaded or their bodies mutilated.

On October 28 last year, militants attacked a post and killed an Indian Army soldier and mutilated his body close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Machil sector.

In January 2013, Lance Naik Hemraj was killed and his body mutilated by a BAT. It had also beheaded Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi today claimed that Bihar, being the consumer state, will be the biggest beneficiary of the new indirect tax regime of Goods and Services Tax (GST), which will come into effect from July 1 this year.

"The consumer states will be benefited in the new indirect tax regime of GST as tax would be levied on consumption. Bihar is one of the biggest consumer states and hence the poor and backward states like Bihar will be benefited the most with the introduction of new GST regime," Sushil Modi, a former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and Finance minister said.

Modi was addressing a debate-cum-workshop on "GST" organised by BJP's Vanijya Manch here at Bihar Industries Association (BIA) premises.

Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai, senior party leaders Nand Kishore Yadav, Mangal Pandey, BIA president and industrialist Ram Lall Khaitan, former BIA president and industrialists K P S Keshri besides a host of industrialists traders, businessmen and others participated in the function.

Bihar is expected to witness a minimum growth of 14 per cent in its tax collections, Sushil Modi said while exuding confidence that the state's tax growth could go upto around 25 per cent.

The Central government would compensate states for the losses for next five years, he said.

Exhorting traders and businessmen to adopt the new regime and said that there will be some teething problems for few months but it will be easier to do business under new indirect tax regime which is fully computerised.

The computerisation will bring transparency into the system which will lessen human interface and in turn it will also help in taming corruption and tax evasion, said Sushil Modi who was held charge of Finance department for seven and half years during NDA regime in Bihar.

He, however, said that it will be a bit difficult for those businessmen/traders who have been doing business through traditional mode instead of adopting technology.

BJP leader asked the businessmen to use computer in their business dealings as it would make their work easier.

Stating that there are only four slabs of tax rate of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent in GST, the former Bihar Finance minister said that prices of a number of items are expected to decline after the implementation of GST which would make the product competitive globally.

He also cautioned the traders and businessmen not to indulge in profiteering and appealed to them to pass on the benefits to the ultimate consumers if the tax rate of commodities/goods is reduced under GST.

If the traders/businessmen do not pass on the benefits to the consumers then cases may be lodged against them besides imposing a heavy penalty under "anti-profiteering" clause of the new tax system.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress in Uttarakhand today accused the Trivendra Singh Rawat government of backing out of its pre-poll promises to farmers within its "extremely disappointing" first 100 days in office.

The party said it had been forced to take up cudgels on behalf of debt-ridden peasants and raise issues related to them, from the streets to the state legislature.

"When BJP got a massive mandate in Uttarakhand we had decided to keep quiet and let it perform for the next six months. But the way it has backed out of the pre-poll promises made to farmers in the first 100 days in office has forced us to break our silence and raise our voice against the injustices they are being subjected to," Pradesh Congress President Pritam Singh said at a press conference here.

Charging the ruling party with being indifferent to the plight of farmers after capturing power, he said it had forgot all about its promises of a loan waiver to farmers, providing them interest-free loans or paying sugarcane growers of the state their dues.

Singh also said the budget passed by the state government recently was "anti-farmer", as it had "substantially curtailed" the allocations made for the agriculture sector.

The Congress had staged demonstrations in Dehradun against the state and central governments when a debt-ridden farmer had allegedly committed suicide in Berinag block of Pithiragarh district.

The party had also raised farmer-related issues in the state assembly after the Mandsaur firing incident forcing several adjournments of the proceedings in the House.

Singh said the previous Congress government had been providing wheat at Rs 4 per kg and rice at Rs 9 per kg to the poor under the state food scheme (Rajya Khadya Yojana) but the BJP government led by Trivendra had increased the prices to Rs 8.60 and Rs 15 per kg respectively.

"We were providing sugar at the rate of just Rs 13.60 per kg to the poor but the Centre put an end to the subsidy on sugar and the poor are now forced to buy it for Rs 45-47 a kg," he alleged.

Alleging that the BJP's much vaunted Lokayukta and Transfer acts though tabled in the state assembly along with the report of the standing committee were yet to see the light of day, he said they had still not been passed by the House despite being the state government's "so-called" priorities.

He also alleged that the Lokayukta as envisioned by the state government had no independent powers.

"The Lokayukta as envisioned by the state government cannot investigate a case it deems fit. It has to go by what majority of its members want it to do. My question is why can't the Lokayukta probe a case even if a single member wants it," he said.

"A toothless Lokayukta is not going to serve any puprose," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bus and car services between Siliguri, considered the gateway to the north east, and Gangtok were affected today as drivers of West Bengal registered vehicles stopped plying to Sikkim, inconveniencing a large number of tourists.

Several Sikkim registered cars were damaged by anti-Gorkhaland protesters and the services of Sikkim Nationalised Transport (SNT) from Siliguri was stopped.

SNT additional general manager (operations) H L Lamichaney said its buses were not plying today out of fear.

"Local drivers have threatened us that they will torch our vehicles if we carry on with our services. We will resume our service if West Bengal government provides security to our buses," Lamichaney said.

Sikkim-bound tourists were stranded at the SNT bus stand at Siliguri.

Hundreds of tourists were seen standing in long queues at the SNT bus depot in Gangtok waiting to purchase tickets to Siliguri.

An indefinite bandh is being observed in Darjeeling hills by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) spearheading an agitation demanding separate Gorkhaland state.

The unrest in Darjeeling in peak tourist season has come as a boon for Sikkim, a landlocked state, with tourists thronging the neighbouring hill state instead of Darjeeling.

But problem was created after Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling extended support for a separate Gorkhaland state on June 22.

Drivers of tourist vehicles in Siliguri alleged that GJM activists were not allowing them to ply cars along NH-31A, the lone highway connecting Gangtok and Siliguri, but bandh supporters were not objecting to Sikkim registered cars.

"GJM is not stopping cars from Sikkim. Their chief minister has supported Gorkhaland. And our livelihood is at stake," a driver said.

They stopped a Sikkim-bound bus in the morning and later small cars from going to the neighbouring hill state. Two cars were damaged by a mob at Champasari as the drivers were not ready get down.

None was injured in the incident and police intervened and removed the two cars from the road.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two giant pandas in China were today sent to Germany for a 15-year research mission from their home in southwest Sichuan Province.

Meng Meng and Jiao Qing took a Lufthansa cargo flight from their home in Chengdu, for a 12-hour flight to Berlin this morning.

The plane took off at 9:35 am (local time), taking the pandas and 1,000 kilogrammes of bamboo, apple and a large number of biscuits.

They were accompanied with two keepers from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and a senior vet from Berlin Zoo.

Four-year-old female panda Meng Meng and seven-year-old male panda Jiao Qing were in good health before the flight. Meng Meng is not yet adult panda. She is expected to be mated with Jiao Qing, after she turns six years old, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Germany. The pandas were sent as envoys of China-Germany friendship. They will live in Berlin Zoo for the next 15 years.

China has gifted three pandas to Germany since the early 1980s. Bao Bao and Tian Tian were the first panda couple in Berlin Zoo, though Tian Tian died in 1982.

Bao Bao remained alone until Yan Yan was loaned to the zoo in 1995 to breed. However, breeding attempts were unsuccessful despite trying artificial insemination seven times.

Thirty-four-year-old Bao Bao died in Berlin in 2012, as the oldest male panda in the world.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Haryana Minister Rao Narbir Singh today alleged that the previous Congress government only gave licenses and collected Internal Development Charges (IDC) and External Development Charges (EDC) from private builders but did not make provision for a path for the construction of multi-storey buildings.

"Taking care of the interest of those home buyers who have spent their hard earned money of their entire life to fulfill the dream of having a home in Gurugram, the present BJP government had to pay very high compensation of Rs 11 crore per acre for providing path to them; otherwise a complex situation would have arisen," he said.

Singh, who is minister for Public Works Department (Building & Roads), was addressing people as he visited six villages of Badshahpur Assembly segment and laid foundation stones of various development works there.

He said Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has a clear vision and he wants to do "something worthwhile" for the Ahirwal region, where the BJP won all the assembly seats in the 2014 election, right from Dundahera in district Gurgaon to Nangal Chaudhry in district Mahendergarh.

Attacking Congress, Singh claimed that the party only made "tall promises but did not fulfill any of them".

"Chief Minister Khattar is a man of words and he makes announcement only after checking the feasibility of the demand," he said.

The minister also talked about how he "convinced" the Chief Minister to approve the award of the land for path to high-rise buildings built during the previous Congress regime.

"The Chief Minister had initially refused the award of Rs 11 crore per acre in village Shikohpur but agreed when I told him that the procedure for next award will take another two years and till then the flat buyers in these buildings will have to suffer, because they won't have path or road for going into those buildings," he said according to an official release.

Talking about the efforts of the government to streamline traffic in Gurgoan, Singh said works of nearly Rs 5,000 crore would be initiated in the city during the current year.

Some works have started, some more would be started soon, he said.

He also said that the KMP Expressway will be completed by December.

Singh also added that an elevated highway from Subhash Chowk on Gurgoan-Alwar road up to Badshahpur village would be constructed at a cost of nearly Rs 1,897 crore.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari would lay its foundation stone sometime in July, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress today demanded the resignation of Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra in the wake of the Election Commission (EC) order disqualifying him for three years.

"In view of the EC order, he should immediately resign from the Cabinet," the leader of opposition, Ajay Singh, told PTI.

The Election Commission disqualified Mishra from contesting polls for filing wrong accounts of election expenditure in the 2008 assembly polls. His election from the Datia Assembly constituency also stands void.

"It has been proved how the BJP ministers are winning the polls," Singh said.

Mishra is Water Resources and Legislative Affairs minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.

Yadav, who is the state Congress president, claimed that the case against Mishra was related to paid .

"MP Minister Narottam Mishra disqualified for three years by poll panel for paid in elections. Big setback for BJP in MP," All India Congress Committee (AICC) legal, human rights and RTI cell chairman and senior advocate Vivek Tankha said in a tweet.

The Aam Aadmi Party's MP unit also demanded the resignation of the minister.

However, BJP chief spokesman Deepak Vijaywargiya said the party is studying the EC order and will comment only after that on the matter.

An officer close to the minister said that he is exploring legal options against the EC order.

Considered as number two in the state cabinet, headed by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Mishra is also holding charge of Public Relations Department.

Mishra was first elected as MLA in 1990.

He was elected to assembly again in 1998 and 2003, and inducted as minister for the first time in the then chief minister Babulal Gaur's cabinet in 2005. He continued during Chouhan's tenure.

The complaint against Mishra was filed by former MLA Rajendra Bharti in 2009 for allegedly adopting corrupt practices in 2008 assembly elections.

Bharti in his complaint said that Mishra had not shown in his poll expenses details of amount spent on election- related advertisements which comes under the category of paid .

He had contested the assembly polls against Mishra from Datia assembly seat in 2008 and also in 2013.

Bharti lost the polls on both the occasions and filed a complaint of alleged corrupt practices adopted by Mishra under The Representation of the People Act, 1951.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Notorious criminal Anandpal singh, carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head, was tonight killed in an exchange of fire with police in Rajasthan's Churu district.

Two policemen were also injured in the encounter.

Anandpal, who had managed to escape from custody of police while being taken back to high security prison in Ajmer from a court in Nagaur in September 2015, had taken a shelter in a house.

"He was alone in the house in Churu district and opened fire at police from rooftop when the police surrounded the house and challenged him.

"In the exchange of fire, he was killed," DGP Manoj Bhatt told PTI.

"On a pin pointed information, teams of the special operation group (SOG), the emergency response team and local police surrounded the house near Sardarshahar and asked him to surrender but he opened fire at the police," ADG ATS and SOG Umesh Mishra said.

Before the encounter, the state police made a major breakthrough earlier in the day by catching Anandpal's brother Rupendra Pal singh and his aide Devendra alias Gattu from Sirsa in Haryana.

Each of them carried a reward of Rs one lakh on their head.

They shared the details of Anandpal's whereabouts following which the house was surrounded in Churu.

A dreaded criminal, Anandpal, was involved in over two dozen cases in Didwana, Jaipur, Sikar, Sujangarh, Churu, Sanganer among others and was also main accused in high profile murder cases like Jivan Ram Godara murder case of Didwana (Nagaur) and Gopal Fogawat murder case of Sikar district.

Close to 100 aides of Anandpal were arrested from different places after his escape in 2015 but the gangster remained the major challenge for the state police.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Authorities are racing against time to save a 14-month-old girl who accidentally fell into a 40-feet deep open borewell in adjoining Vikarabad district two days ago.

Even 36 hours after the incident, no progress has been reported in locating the child whose father is a farm labourer, and the rescue operation has also been hampered by rains, a police official said today.

The toddler slipped into the borewell, located in an agricultural field in Ekkareddyguda village, at around 7:15 pm on Thursday while playing with her elder sister.

Sub-inspector of Chevella police station N Sridhar Reddy said the rescue operation was hampered by rains last night.

The child is suspected to have slipped further deep inside the borewell due to the vibrations caused by the digging work of a parallel trench along the borewell hole, he said.

"A team of experts from ONGC has also arrived at the spot. The digging work is still on. There was not much progress as far as locating the child is concerned. We are not able to send cameras into the borewell beyond a certain point. But we are making all efforts to save her," Reddy told PTI.

Cameras of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), which can go to a depth of 90-feet, were deployed at the spot to locate the girl.

Oxygen is continuously being supplied into the borewell, the official said, adding that ambulances with a team of doctors have been kept on standby.

Earlier, Telangana Transport Minister P Mahendar Reddy, who has been supervising the rescue work, said authorities from different departments were making all efforts to rescue the child.

According to a revenue department official, the land owner had apparently kept the borewell open to fix a motor.

In October 2014, a four-year-old girl died after accidentally falling into a 300 feet-deep borewell at Manchal village in Ranga Reddy district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 65-year-old farmer, facing financial problems, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Rajasthan's Jhalawar district.

Bagdi Lal Teli was found hanging from the tree in Sunail area last evening.

His son, Vishnu Teli, rushed him to hospital where he was declared dead, SHO Sunail Police Station Bhanwar Singh said.

"His son informed that the family has been facing financial crunch for some time and his father had also taken a loan," he said.

The body has been handed over to family members after post-mortem.

Meanwhile, PCC President Sachin Pilot condoled the incident and held the state government responsible for deaths of farmers.

"Three debt-ridden farmers in the state have committed suicides in one week. Farmers are agitating for their justified demands but the government is ignorant towards their issues," Pilot claimed in a statement.

He said that the government should help farmers financially.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following are the top stories from the Eastern Region at 1700 hours



CAL1 WB-GJM-SITUATION



Darjeeling (WB): Protesters march through the streets in several places today as the indefinite shutdown in the Darjeeling hills enters its tenth day with GJM chief Bimal Gurung threatening to intensify the agitation for a separate state.

CES1 MN-SHOT



Imphal: President of Haokip Students' Organisation (HSO), Letkholal Haokip (37) shot dead by unidentified miscreants in Imphal West district, police said today.

CCM9 BIZ-FUTURE



Kolkata: Future Group, which runs retail stores across the country under various formats, wishes to grow its fashion business to Rs 12,000 crore in the current fiscal.

ERG1 BH-QUACK



Nawada: A quack shot dead by an unidentified motorcyclist in Bihar's Nawada district, police said today.

ERG2 OD-RAPE



Balasore: Two tribal women allegedly raped by a tractor driver in a forest and dumped on a roadside in Soro area of Odisha's Balasore district.

ERG4 MZ-HEROIN



Aizawl: Mizoram Excise and Narcotics department officials seize 212 grams of heroin worth around Rs 10.60 lakh from the Mizoram-Myanmar border in Champhai district, a department spokesman today said.

ERG7 AR-BEAR



Itanagar: A Himalayan black bear cub rescued in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh and handed over to forest authorities for rehabilitation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following are the top stories from the Eastern Region at 2100 hours



CAL2 PREZ-PASWAN-NITISH



Patna : Union minister Ramvilas Paswan lauds Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for sticking to his stand on supporting NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind and urges him to join to the BJP-led alliance. CAL3 WB-POL BJP GORKHALAND



Kolkata : West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh says the party has never talked about Gorkhaland nor was it in favour of formation of states on the basis of any linguistic group or community.

CAL4 WB-KARNAN HOSPITAL



Kolkata : Former Calcutta High Court judge C S Karnan, arrested for committing contempt of the Supreme Court, continues to be in hospital for the third day today though doctors treating him said his condition had improved a bit.

CAL6 WB-GJM-FOOD CRISIS



Ranaghat (WB) : As the indefinite shutdown in Darjeeling entered its 10th day today, West Bengal Food and Supplies Minister Jyotipriyo Mallick said there is a "food crisis" as the GJM activists are not allowing trucks carrying food and vegetables to enter the hills. CES4 WB-POL ATTACK BAKER



Kalna(WB) : BJP MP George Baker and four other party workers were injured today in an alleged attack by TMC workers at Kalna town in Bengal's Burdwan district. CES5 OD-WEATHER



Bhubaneswar : Rains lash parts of Odisha's coastal region due to a cyclonic circulation over the north Bay of Bengal which is likely to turn into a low pressure in the next 48 hours and heavy rainfall in coastal region and small amount of downpour in interior parts of the state is forecast in the state in the next 24 hours.

CES6 WB-GJM-TRANSPORT



Siliguri/Gangtok : Bus and car services between Siliguri, considered the gateway to the north east, and Gangtok were affected today as drivers of West Bengal registered vehicles stopped plying to Sikkim, inconveniencing a large number of tourists.

CES8 WB-JAIN MAHOTSAV



Kolkata : The year long celebration of the 50th year of 'Diksha' of renowned Digambar Jain saint Guru Acharyashri Vidyasagarji Maharaj will be celebrated throughout the world as 'Swarnim Diksha Mahotsav' from June 28 and the city is geared up to join the celebration with much fanfare. CES10 AR-GJM-RALLY



Itanagar : Gorkhas in Arunachal Pradesh brings out a rally this evening in support of the ongoing movement in Darjeeling hills for a separate Gorkhaland state. CES11 TORTOISES



Barasat : West Bengal CID chase a truck and rescue 70 tortoises at Barasat, the North 24 Parganas district heaquarters in West Bengal today and three persons, including the driver are arrested in connection with it.

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Force India put up a strong showing in the qualifying of the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where their drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon set the sixth and seventh fastest time here today.

The team goes into the race high on confidence after today's performance.

The Baku Street Circuit has been a happy hunting ground for Force India, who finished on the podium last year when Perez secured third place.

Force India are a comfortable fourth in the team standings with 71 points, ahead of Toro Rosso (29) and Williams (22).

Red Bull are third on 112 points.

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Dealers of General Motors in India have decided to explore the possibilities of filing class action suits against the American automaker in the US over inadequate compensation being offered to them.

GM has decided to stop selling vehicles in India by the year-end and focus just on exports from here, offering compensation to its dealers.

In a meeting held today, which was also attended by the entire senior leadership of Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), around 40 dealers of the company decided to take up the issue of measly compensation being offered to them with various ministries as well.

"We have asked our legal counsel to speak with senior attorneys in the US to look at the possibility of filing class action suit against the company. If it can be done we will do it," FADA President John Paul Kuttukaran told PTI.

The decision whether dealers would file the cases directly or under the aegis of FADA would be finalised soon, Kuttukaran added.

"We are considering all options, whether arbitration, or filing cases in the US. The fact of the matter is that these people who have put in large investments are feeling cheated. We will do everything in our power to help them," Kuttukaran said.

A majority of General Motors 96 dealers, which operate around 140 showrooms across India, are unhappy with the company's offer of just around 12 per cent of total investments they have made as compensation.

When asked for other decisions taken at the meeting, Kuttukaran said that the dealers and FADA would be writing to PMO and various ministries to put pressure on the company to give dealers adequate compensation.

"Around 15,000 people are going to lose their jobs. How can the government let it happen? We will also be demonstrating at Jantar Mantar to highlight our grievances," Kuttukaran added.

The company kept the dealers in dark about shutting domestic operations and now they are using various tactics to force them accept inadequate compensation, Kuttukaran said.

As per the conditions set by General Motors, a dealer who does not accept its offer by July 15, would only get 50 per cent of the compensation amount being offered.

In case a dealer does not accept the offer by September 15, he won't get any of the compensation at all.

In 2015, the company had announced to invest USD 1 billion in India to enhance manufacturing operations and roll out 10 locally produced models in the country over the next five years.

In January this year, the American firm put on hold its investments on new models for the country as it undertook a full review of its future product portfolio in the country.

On May 18, General Motors suddenly decided to stop selling its vehicles in India as there was no turnaround in its fortunes here after struggling for over two decades to make a mark.

The company will now focus on exporting vehicles from its manufacturing plant at Talegaon in Maharashtra after it stopped production at its first plant at Halol in Gujarat last month.

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Goans thronged wells, ponds and other water bodies to celebrate festival Sao Joao today.

Finding its origin in the erstwhile Portuguese rule, the festival is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, who baptised Lord Jesus in the river of Jordan.

Celebrations began across Goa since morning with youngsters wearing headgears made up of flowers and leaves, jumping into the wells and screaming 'Viva Sao Joao'.

The festival is celebrated annually on June 24 at the onset of monsoon by people cutting across religious lines, while tourists also join revellers with great zeal.

Traditionally, a group of youth travel all over a place to take a plunge inside wells, ponds, streams, and then claim a reward of seasonal jack fruit, pineapple from relatives and friends.

Dominick Gonsalves, a resident of St Cruz locality near Panaji, said things have changed over the time but the spirit for the festival remains intact.

"Now the wells are contaminated and unsafe but the enthusiasm remains the same," said Gonsalves.

Another Sao Joao enthusiast, Minguel Afonso, a sexagenarian, said, "Sao Joao brings back memories of my childhood, how we used to feast on the locally made sweets. There used to be some traditional games that we played. All that is now past."



As a part of the festival, a procession of colourfully decorated boats is taken out in Siolim village in north Goa, which is also a major tourist attraction.

The state tourism department has also launched special packages for travellers to visit Goa for Sao Joao.

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Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today hailed the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) as a good initiative to reform the Indian economy, which would lead to shrinking of red-tapism, and facilitate consumers and traders by reducing costs.

Khattar, who was interacting with mediapersons after inaugurating and laying the foundation stones of several development projects in Kaithal, said that several goods had been made tax-free and taxes on some other goods had been reduced under GST.

A GST of 28 per cent would be levied on items such as TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and furniture, which are presently taxed at 33 per cent. Such reduction in costs would boost competitiveness among traders, which would further benefit consumers, he added.

Reiterating that the Haryana government was sensitive towards the interests of the farmers, he said that compensation to the tune of Rs 2,400 crore had so far been disbursed to the farmers.

This included compensation of Rs 268.74 crore announced but not disbursed by the previous government.

He said that 50 per cent of the announcements made by him during the last 32 months regarding development works to be undertaken throughout the state had been implemented while the remaining would soon be completed.

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Traders' body CAIT will organise 100 GST Clinics across the country to acquaint traders about the new indirect tax regime to be in place from July 1.

The Confederation of All India Traders said it is working with HDFC Bank, Tally Solutions and Mastercard for the endeavour, which will attempt to reach out to six crore traders.

"The first phase of the nationwide awareness campaign will begin on July 1 and will help the trading community transition smoothly from the current tax regime to Goods and Services Tax," CAIT said in a statement.

The clinics will inform traders about the fundamentals of GST, the designated role of technology for its compliance, requisite information about mandatory compliance obligations, linkage of digital payments with GST and the changes required to make business compatible with its provisions.

CAIT National President B C Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said because large number of traders are unaware of core issues including compliance which has led to a situation of utter confusion and unnecessary panic, the GST Clinic will ease the situation.

The GST Clinics will be held in offices of trade associations, HDFC Bank branches or markets easily accessible to traders.

However, CAIT raised concerns of traders on GST pertaining to lower tax slabs for various items capped under higher rate, levy of tax on branded food grain & pulses, seeking deferment of E Way Bill provision and applicability of HSN Code for at least six months and declaration of first nine months from July 1 as interim period.

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President of Haokip Students' Organisation (HSO), Letkholal Haokip (37) was shot dead by unidentified miscreants in Imphal West district, police said today.

The student leader was shot near the gate of his residence by the armed miscreants last night. He was rushed to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, the police said.

Haokip originally hailed from Khoken village in Kangpokpi district.

Police registered a case at Lamphel police station and are investigating the matter, the sources added.

In another incident, a self styled 'lieutenant' of the banned outfit United National Liberation Front (UNLF) was apprehended by police commandos on Thursday night.

In a press statement issued by the police, the apprehended cadre has been identified as Narungbam Prameshwar Singh.

The 42-year-old was apprehended from Yaiskul Police Lane in Imphal during frisking, following a tip off.

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A 33-year-old Keralite priest who was missing from last four days was found dead on a beach in Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, according to information received by Church sources here today.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tonight condoled the priest's death and asked the Consulate General of India in Edinburgh to provide help.

"I am sorry Father Martin Xavier has been found dead on the Dunbar beach. My heartfelt condolences. @IndiaInScotland will provide all help," she said in a tweet.

A message about the death of Martin Xavier Vazhachira, belonging to the CMI Congregation, was received by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate provincial here from the Archbishop of St Andrews in Edinburgh this morning.

The message said the priest, hailing from Pulinkunnu in Alappuzha district, was found dead by Edinburgh police.

Details would be available only after Tuesday, a CMI official told PTI.

The priest served at St John the Baptist Church, Corstorphine in Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader in State Assembly Ramesh Chennithala asked External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to take immediate steps to bring the priest's body to India.

In a letter to Swaraj, Chennithala said the body was found under mysterious circumstances on a beach and sought a comprehensive probe into his death.

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Police today said that investigations were under progress and they were hopeful to nab other accused after a Muslim youth was stabbed to death by a group of people when an altercation over a train seat turned communal near Ballabhgarh in Haryana.

"One accused has already been arrested. He is being quizzed. Further investigations in the case are under progress," a Government Railway Police official in Faridabad said over phone.

He said some facts have come to light, on the basis of which, further investigations are going on.

"The investigations have revealed that there was a dispute over a train seat. The complainant party has said the accused used some words which hurt their religious sentiments after which the issue flared up resulting in the incident," the official said.

Junaid (17) was stabbed to death while his two brothers - Hasim (21) and and Sakir (23) - were injured by a mob who also allegedly passed slurs against them after the dispute over the seat on board the Delhi-Mathura passenger train between Ballabgarh and Mathura stations on Thursday night.

The arrested accused, before being remanded to police custody by a court in Faridabad district today, told reporters that he was in an inebriated state at the time of the incident.

The complainant in the case, Hasib, said the police have assured them that all the culprits will be nabbed and justice will be done to them.

"They told us that if we could identify the accused if they are paraded before them. We told the police that we can identify every single person. They have assured that action as per law will be taken in the case and we are hopeful that we will get justice," he told reporters in Ballabgarh.

Junaid's father Jamaluddin said they were cooperating with the investigators in the case.

"They asked us about the sequence of events, like from where the victims had boarded the train. We told them that they had gone to Sadar Bazaar in Delhi for Eid shopping and boarded the train from there and were returning home when they were attacked," he said.

Earlier, a CPI(M) delegation today paid a visit to the family of the victims.

The delegation, which asked the police to ascertain the political affiliation of those involved in the "horrific mob lynching", said the accused would not dare target the victim sans "political patronage" in the BJP-ruled state.

CPI(M) politburo members Brinda Karat and Mohammed Salim reprimanded the Centre over the attack and rued that no government representative issued a statement on the incident or met the youths' family.

The injured youths in the incident told reporters in Khaddawli, a small village in Haryana's Faridabad district, that the attackers taunted and repeatedly called them "anti- nationals" and "beef eaters".

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Hollywood star Johnny Depp has apologised for joking about assassinating US President Donald Trump, saying his remarks were in "poor taste."



The 54-year-old actor said his comments did not "come out as intended" and was only meant to amuse, reported People magazine.

"I apologise for the bad joke I attempted last night in poor taste about President Trump. It did not come out as intended, and I intended no malice. I was only trying to amuse, not to harm anyone," Depp said in a statement.

The actor's joke, what could be a reference to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth in 1865, was made during an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival.

"When was the last time an actor assassinated a president? I want to qualify, I am not an actor. I lie for a living. However, it has been a while and maybe it is time," Depp had said.

Shortly after broke of Depp's comments, the White House issued a statement strongly condemning the joke and calling on others in Hollywood to speak out.

"President Trump has condemned violence in all forms and it's sad that others like Johnny Depp have not followed his lead. I hope that some of Mr Depp's colleagues will speak out against this type of rhetoric as strongly as they would if his comments were directed to a Democrat elected official," the statement read.

Depp is only the latest celebrity to find himself in hot water over violent commentary aimed at Trump. Late last month, Kathy Griffin posed for a photo shoot in which she held up a bloody prop head that resembled Trump. The comedian has also apologised.

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Former Calcutta High Court judge C S Karnan, arrested for committing contempt of the Supreme Court, continued to be in hospital for the third day today though doctors treating him said his condition had improved a bit.

According to a senior doctor at the state-run SSKM hospital, the 62-year-old former judge's condition was "stable" and needed to be under observation for a few more days before being released from the hospital.

"He is bit stable but needs to be under the observation of the doctors," the officer told PTI.

Doctors at the hospital conducted a few medical tests on the former judge during the day and the results were being awaited.

Karnan was admitted to state-run SSKM hospital on Thursday evening after he complained of uneasiness and chest pain.

Karnan, who had been evading arrest since May 9 after the Supreme Court awarded him a six-month jail term, was arrested on the night of June 20 by a team of West Bengal CID from a private resort at Malumichampatti, about six kilometres from Coimbatore, where he was hiding for a few days.

He was brought from Chennai to Kolkata on Wednesday afternoon and was taken to the Presidency correctional home.

Karnan, who has earned the dubious distinction of being the first sitting high court judge to be awarded a jail-term by the apex court, retired from service on June 12 as a fugitive.

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A group of law aspirants and AISA activists today staged a protest at Delhi University's North Campus here against the seat cuts in its LLB course.

The protesters alleged that the varsity was planning to hold the entrance test for 1,440 seats against 2,310 seats last year.

"The notice makes it clear that the admission test for getting into DU's Bachelor of Laws (LLB) will be held for 1,440 seats this year which earlier used to be 2,310," said a release issued by AISA.

DU AISA president Kawalpreet Kaur said, "Last year also we saw the same tussle between the Bar Council of India (BCI) and DU Law, which resulted in two-month delay in admission."



The Delhi University had an entire year to improve its infrastructure and faculty members. Why do the students have to suffer in the tussle between the BCI and DU, she asked.

The Delhi High Court had earlier this month asked the Bar Council of India (BCI) to consider the Delhi University's (DU) representation for increasing seats in its LLB course and to take a decision shortly.

"We cannot see the DU LLB seat cuts in isolation as there is a similar trend throughout the country, ranging from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to making National Eligibility Test (NET) an annual affair," Kaur said.

We demand the DU VC to immediately step into the matter and allow the admission to all 2,310 seats, she added.

Aditya Vaibhav Srivastwa, a law aspirant, said, "I have been preparing for the DU LLB exam from past six months. The of reduction of seats has added to the pressure. I believe the government should increase seats rather than reducing them in such big numbers.

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Popular Malayalam actor Dileep has lodged a police complaint alleging blackmail by a man, who claimed to be a friend of the prime accused in the case of abduction and assault of a South Indian actress.

Dileep told Malayalam channels that he filed the complaint with the Director General of Police on April 20 along with evidences of blackmailing allegedly with the knowledge of prime accused Pulsar Suni.

"Truth should come out. No one in the filed of cinema should face such a situation," he said.

Dileep's friend and film director Nadirshah said a man named Vishnu from Edappally in Ernakulam, claiming to be the friend of Suni, had telephoned him seeking a huge amount from the actor.

Nadirshah said Vishnu, claimed to have shared a cell with Suni in jail, told him that some people in the Malayalam film world have offered to give money to Suni if he says Dileep's was a conspirator in the case during interrogation.

Nadirshah claimed Vishnu has also offered to give him money for helping to trap Dileep in the case.

The revelation came in the wake of media reports that police is planning to reopoen the abduction and assault case. Police, however, remained tight lipped on the issue.

Meanwhile, local media published a copy of a letter said to be written by Suni to Dileep.

The purported letter, having a seal of the jail where Suni is lodged, is written hinting that the abduction and harassment were done with the knowledge of Dileep.

PTI could not independently verify the veracity of the letter.

Earlier, Dileep slammed a section of the media for "targeting" him in connection with the alleged abduction and harassment of the actress by a gang of men on February 17.

Dileep, who recently got married to Malayalam actress Kavya Madhavan,had said he did not have any contact, directly or indirectly, with any of the accused involved in the "heinous crime."



Meanwhile, Congress MLA P T Thomas demanded a CBI probe into the actress assault case.

He said he has written to Chief Minister seeking CBI probe into the incident.

Six persons, including 'Pulsar' Suni, Martin and Vigeesh were arrested by police in connection with the incident.

The actress, who has worked in Tamil and Telugu films, was abducted and allegedly molested inside her car for two hours by the accused, who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17 and later escaped in a busy area in Kochi.

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Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra today said he will move the high court against the Election Commission order disqualifying him for three years for filing wrong accounts of election expenditure.

"I am going to move the Madhya Pradesh High Court against the Election Commission's order," Mishra told reporters here.

He was disqualified by the Election Commission for three years for filing wrong accounts of election expenditure during the 2008 assembly polls. His election from the Datia Assembly constituency also stands void.

Mishra who is Water Resources and Legislative Affairs minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government said that according to legal experts the disqualification order was "infructuous".

To press his point, he said that the EC delivered its judgement based on the case relating to his win in 2008 MP assembly polls from Datia seat.

"After that I have won the people's mandate in 2013 MP assembly polls," he said.

"My advocate has told me that the case (his disqualification) was related to paid . Neither the petitioner has provided a document to corroborate paid charge against me, nor there is a mention of it in the Election Commission's order," he claimed.

Dismissing the Congress' demand for his resignation, Mishra said that if people start putting in their papers according to the rival party's wish, Madhya Pradesh will witness elections daily.

Rajendra Bharti of the Congress, who lost the 2008 MP assembly polls from Datia constituency to Mishra, a close aide of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, had filed a complaint against the minister with the EC under the Representation of the People Act, 1951 on April 4, 2009.

Thereafter, the EC had served notice to Mishra on January 15, 2013, Bharti told PTI today.

Mishra had moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court against the EC notice, but did not get any relief, he added.

The EC held the final hearing of the case on March 17 this year and passed its order today.

The EC verdict has sent a strong signal to the politicians who employ corrupt practice to win polls, he said.

"Truth has finally triumphed," Bharti said.

The leader of opposition in MP assembly, Ajay Singh, said, "In view of the EC order, Mishra should immediately resign from the Cabinet."



State Congress chief Arun Yadav too sought Mishra's resignation.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) burnt the effigy of Mishra this evening near Board officer square in Bhopal, seeking his resignation.

"We burnt his effigy. We want him to resign immediately," state AAP join secretary and spokesman Dushyant Dangi said.

Mishra, who is also holding charge of Public Relations Department, was first elected as MLA in 1990.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the city on June 29, where he would be attending several programmes including one to distribute kits to physically challenged persons.

Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel told reporters here that Modi would visit Rajkot on June 29 and the state government as well local authority have organised several programmes.

"Modi had announced SAUNI (Saurashtra Narmada Avataran Irrigation) project to fill up dams and reservoirs of Saurashtra region with Narmada water. Under the SAUNI project, river Aji in Rajkot has started receiving water from Narmada," Patel said.

"The prime minister would take part in a road show," Patel said adding Modi will hand over kits to over 18,000 physically challenged persons.

The prime minister will go straight to river Aji to welcome the Narmada water, he added.

According to a civic official, river Aji has started receiving Narmada water since last couple of days and it is expected that the dam would be full with water on June 29.

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An international airport with a capacity to handle 30-50 million passengers per year will come up at Jewar in Greater Noida in the next five to six years to ease the load on the Delhi airport, the government announced today.

"In-principle clearance has been granted" for the greenfield airport at Jewar, civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said at a press briefing in New Delhi.

The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority has notified 3,000 hectares of land in Jewar for a "world- class" international airport, Raju added.

Of the total land, 1,000 hectares will be acquired under the first phase of airport development, which will cost Rs 2,000 crore.

The government expects the entire project to cost Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore.

The metro service in Noida is also likely to be extended up to Jewar in order to improve connectivity to the airport. The state government, which has been pushing for this project, has also been told by the Centre to improve road conditions and provide multi-modal transport facilities, said Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, R N Choubey.

The announcement of a second airport in the national capital region comes at a time when the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi grapples with an ever- increasing number of passengers.

The IGI Airport currently handles nearly 62 million passengers every year. As per its updated master plan, the passenger handling capacity will be increased to 109.33 million passengers per year in a phased manner.

However, the airport is likely to reach that figure in the next seven years, necessitating a second airport in the vicinity of the national capital, according to the government.

"Within seven years Delhi airport will see 109 million trips a year, which will saturate its capacity. For the sake of NCR and NCR's connectivity having a second airport is vitally important and that is what Noida international airport will accomplish," Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said.

Senior minister Raju said that the government will honour the Operation Management and Development Agreement (OMDA) with GMR, which operates the Delhi Airport jointly with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for Delhi airport. As per this agreement GMR will have the first right of refusal in case an airport is built within 150 kilometres of the existing one.

The capacity to handle 30-50 million passengers per year will put the Jewar airport on par with the Mumbai airport, which sees 45 million passengers per year.

Sinha added that the new airport will also provide seamless domestic and international connectivity to western UP with Noida, Agra, Mathura, Meerut, Vrindavan, Meerut, Moradabad and Bulandshahr likely to serve as the the catchment area for the new aerodrome.

"Noida International Airport will become like an aerotropolis with an airport at the centre and a whole host of economic activities around it," said Sinha.

The first phase will be a reality in five to six years, which includes procurement of land, bidding it out for construction and then providing connectivity, Civil Aviation Secretary Choubey said.

He added that the representatives of the Uttar Pradesh government have assured the Centre that farmers are willing to provide the land for airport development on negotiated settlement basis.

In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Civil Aviation Minister Nand Gopal Nandi and health minister Siddhartnath Singh told newspersons that the upcoming airport is expected to enable Noida to become a major global electronics manufacturing cluster, with significant investments in the sector already coming in from major global players like Samsung.

Tourism to destinations such as Mathura, Vrindavan and Agra will also see a major boost, they said, adding that it is also likely to serve as major logistics hub for various manufacturing and export centers in the western part of the state.

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Realtors today hailed the government's decision to set up an international airport at Jewar in Greater Noida, saying it will lead to increased economic activity in the area and benefit property market.

An international airport with a capacity to handle 30-50 million passengers per year will come up at Jewar in Greater Noida in the next 5-6 years to ease the load on Delhi's IGI airport, the government announced today.

"We welcome this decision. It was much awaited. A new airport in Jewar will increase economic activity in this area. There will be huge job generation," CREDAI Chairman Getamber Anand told PTI.

He said warehousing sector will get a major boost.

Anand said the decision will improve the sentiments of property markets of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway.

The real estate market, especially Delhi-NCR, is facing a multi-year slowdown leading to a huge delay in project completion. In Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway, flats are available at an average rate of Rs 3,000-5,500/sqft.

"There should also be an elevated road connecting the Jewar airport to the national capital," he said.

Realtors' body NAREDCO President Parveen Jain the new airport at Jewar will boost real estate market in Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway. "There will be an overall development in this area and people will invest in real estate".

Supertech Chairman R K Arora said it is a good for the real estate sector.

"It will generate demand in real estate sector in Yamuna Expressway and Greater Noida area prominently," he added.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju announced that "in-principle clearance has been granted" for the greenfield airport at Jewar.

The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority has notified 3,000 hectares of land in Jewar for a "world- class" international airport, Raju added.

The government expects the entire project to cost Rs 15,000-20,000 crore.

The metro service in Noida is also likely to be extended up to Jewar in order to improve connectivity to the airport.

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Pakistani security forces have arrested more than 60 terrorists they suspect were plotting to launch attacks in the run up to Eid in the country's relatively peaceful Punjab province.

The arrests were made over the past few days as part of Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad (elimination of discord) launched on February 22 as a response to the continuing wave of terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

Twenty nine suspects were arrested in Faisalabad and Gujranwala. "Most of them are terrorists' facilitators. Fifty weapons and explosives have been recovered from them. These were to be used for terrorist activities on Eid-ul-Fitr," the Counter Terrorism Department of the police said.

In another raid, the CTD claimed to have arrested three members of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LeJ) from Gujranwala.

The CTD said it has seized more than 11 kg of explosives, one pipe bomb, improvised explosive devices, one suicide jacket, one cooler bomb, two remote controls for detonation of jackets, three detonators and other materials from them.

In Gujrat district, some 250 kilometres from Lahore, 23 members of Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Jammatur Ahrar were arrested and illegal weapons and ammunition seized from them.

They were involved in facilitating terrorists, it said.

Three TTP members were arrested from Bahawalpur who were allegedly plotting an attack in the city on Eid.

In another raid, five alleged facilitators of militants were arrested in Mandi Bahauddin, some 350kms from Lahore.

The Pakistan Rangers (Punjab), Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) reported to have taken part in the operation ahead of Eid in different parts of Punjab.

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Pakistani forces violated ceasefire by firing from automatic weapons and shelling mortars along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district today.

The violation comes just days after an attack by a Pakistani special forces team that sneaked across the LoC into Poonch under heavy fire-cover and killed two jawans while losing one of their men.

The Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from small arms, automatic weapons and mortarsfrom 1130 hours on Indian Army posts along the LoC in Poonch sector,a Defence spokesman said.

The Indian troops returned the fire strongly and effectively, hesaid adding that the firing stopped at 1410 hours.

Earlier on Thursday, in the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces sneaked 600 metres across the LoC into the Poonch sector and killed two Indian jawans and lost one Border Action Team (BAT) member in retaliatory action.

The BAT comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan army and terrorists.

It had carried out the attack at around 2 PM on an Army patrol party in the Gulpur belt of Poonch on 22 June under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops.

In the firefight, two Indian soldiers - 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad and24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur - were martyred.

The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) members were armed with 'special daggers' and 'headband cameras' to mutilate and record the attack on the Indian Army patrol.

Earlier, on June 16, Pakistan violated the ceasefire by firing onforward posts along the LoC in Naushera sector of Rajouri district ofJ&K, killing an Indian Army jawan.

There have been 19 ceasefire violations along the LoC and the international border in Jammu region in June in which one civilian was killed and seven others injured.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who has his origin in Goa, today sprang a surprise for Narendra Modi when he hosted a special Gujarati vegetarian lunch for him that included dishes like 'Aakhu Saak' and 'Mango Shrikhand'.

Aakhu literally means 'whole' and saak simply means 'curry'. It is a dish in which vegetable stuffing is heavily spiced and is ideal for big get-togethers.

The other items on the menu included 'Saag Kofta', 'Rajma aur Makai', 'Tarkha Daal', 'Kesar Rice', 'Parantha', 'Rotli', 'Papad', and Gulab Jamun and other sweets.

Modi is the first Indian prime minister in Portugal for a bilateral visit. He has said his one-day visit to the country will further strengthen relations between India and Portugal.

Earlier today, Modi and Costa took a stroll around the Palacio das Necessidades, a historic building in the Largo do Rilvas, a public square in Lisbon.

Costa, who is partially of Indian origin, had visited India in January, when he went to see his family members at his ancestral house in Goa.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Trade and investment patterns between India and the United Kingdom (UK) can be much better than current levels as the UK takes a fresh approach to globalisation post-Brexit, Indian High Commissioner to the UK Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha said.

Delivering the keynote address at a joint conference by the All India Management Association (AIMA) and Imperial College London titled 'To Build Walls or Bridges: The Path to a New Economic Nirvana' in London on Friday, the Indian envoy also called on the UK to Make in India for the world.

"The trade and investment between India and UK can be a lot better than what it has been lately. India is now open to the world and the UK is globalising afresh. It is a good opportunity for both countries to grow their economy faster by increasing movement of goods and people. I am sure that this opportunity will not be missed," Sinha said.

"The outcome of the snap elections in the UK has only confirmed that nations are ambivalent about globalisation... India is looking for more trade and investment because it wants to grow even faster. It is inviting everyone to make in India for the world. The UK, for its part, has chosen to reconfigure its relationship with the world," he noted.

There was a consensus among the business and political leaders at the conference, held to coincide with the one-year mark of the referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union (EU) on June 23 last year, that protectionism, and anti-globalisation will not hold back UK-India ties.

"Some believe that for a country to compete and for its citizens to prosper, we should retreat from globalisation. But as many of us see every day, this is wrong. International collaboration, global competition and inclusive growth are not mutually exclusive... Imperial's global, collaborative environment, and our wider impact, is [a] testament to that," said Professor Alice Gast, President of Imperial College London.

"At Imperial we build bridges. More than half of our research papers involve an international co-author. India is at the heart of that. In the last five years, Imperial researchers have published more than 1,200 joint papers with collaborators in India," she said.

Britain's Universities and Science Minister, Jo Johnson, used the event to "send a message to prospective Indian students that they have the warmest welcome" waiting for them in the UK.

The conference was held to mark 60 years of AIMA, India's umbrella body for management professionals, and Imperial's collaborations with the network.

"There is huge potential for cooperation between the two countries in higher education, scientific and industrial research, innovation and intellectual property," said AIMA President Sunil Munjal.

Imperial College London claims to be among the India- friendly educational institutions in the UK, with the college's Indian student numbers rising above 300 last year. A project between Imperial College and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has received funding through the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) to establish the first and largest collection of DNA in Indian stroke victims.
Asserting that the US' ties with India and Pakistan were not a 'zero-sum game', the has said that the Trump administration's priorities and the nature of relationship with the two countries were different.

"We seek to have an effective partnership with each country. With India, we're building that strategic partnership. We see India's role and influence growing. We like to encourage that trend. So, we're looking for ways to cooperate on our mutual interests," a senior administration official told reporters at a news conference here.

"With Pakistan, we seek to have a productive partnership working together. But frankly, the priorities are different, and the nature of the relationships are different. So, I think that we would like to move forward with both countries.

"We realise that the pace and scope of that relationship is going to be different in each case," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity said in response to a question on concerns in Pakistan with regard to increasing ties with India.

Relationship with India and Pakistan is not a zero-sum game, he said.

"I want to make the point here that US relationships with India and Pakistan really stand on their own merits and terms. We don't see a zero-sum relationship when it comes to the US relationship with Pakistan and the US relationship with India.

"We're certainly eager to deepen the strategic partnership with India," he said.

"We are also interested in continuing our cooperation with Pakistan," the official said adding that the US is concerned about tensions between India and Pakistan.

He said the US would like to see the normalisation of relations between the two countries.

"We believe it's in both countries' interests. It's in the interests of the region, and even the globe, given that they're both nuclear-weapon powers," the official said.

"But we very much encourage India and Pakistan to engage in a direct bilateral dialogue aimed at reducing those tensions," the official said while denying reports that sale of high-tech defence items to India would have any adverse impact on Pakistan.

"The US also has a defence partnership with Pakistan. We do cooperate with Pakistan on some security and defence and counter terrorism issues. So again, we don't see this as a zero-sum game," the official said.

"We see this as the US and India have mutual security interests that they want to advance, and we believe that the defence sales that are being discussed will help advance those. It is not about Pakistan.

"The defence deals -- we do take into account the regional situation. We very much want to avoid a situation that escalates tensions between the two," he said.

"So these issues are taken into account. But some of the defence systems that we're talking about we don't believe impact Pakistan. They may be different systems than we are transferring to Pakistan, but we don't believe they represent a threat to Pakistan," said the official.

Meanwhile, a senior Trump official yesterday said that India and the US have a common objective in Afghanistan, and the two countries could increase their cooperation to enhance the Afghan economy.

"India has played a positive role in Afghanistan, the US believes. They have pledged over USD 3 billion in assistance to Afghanistan. The Afghans appreciate the kind of support and assistance that the Indians have provided--I'm not just talking about the government, I'm talking about the population," the official told reporters.

"When they've done polling, there's a very positive feeling toward India and the kind of assistance -- they've assisted in the education sector, the health sector. They built the parliament building. They support democracy, democratic development there," he said, listing out the developmental activities by India in the war-torn country.

"So I think this administration's opinion is that India has played a helpful role in Afghanistan in helping to stabilise that country, helping to strengthen the government in its fight against the Taliban insurgency.

"That's the kind of role that the US would like to encourage and perhaps maybe even cooperate in terms of development projects," the official said on condition of anonymity.

As such, "this is an area that the two can increase their coordination and their consultation," the official said.

"Of course, the US has major assistance programs to Afghanistan as well. So I think this is an area where I think they can expand that dialogue on what they can do to help the economy, help Afghanistan become more self-sufficiently financially.

"Ultimately, that's the ultimate goal," the official said.

"We have that mutual goal, and you'll see more consultations on that moving forward," he added.

The Trump Administration is currently doing a review of its Afghan policy.
Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani today said the management was doing everything to revive the national carrier and talks of privatisation do not have any impact on its expansion plans.

"We are doing all that is needed to financially revive Air India. We are going to launch new domestic and international flights and for this recruitment is on," Lohani said speaking to reporters here.

"But we have inherited a heavy burden of debt (Rs 50,000 crore)... . Besides, there are issues related to amalgamation of Air India and Indian Airlines," he added.

He refused to comment on possibility of privatisation of the national carrier and Tata group buying a stake.

"I won't comment on the issue of Air India's disinvestment. It is government's domain, not mine," he said.

Lohani, however, denied that privatisation talk had dealt a setback to the airline's expansion plans.

"Our expansion plans are unhindered. Twenty-five big and small aircraft will be inducted in the next couple of months. Our situation is improving with every passing year. Negative coverage (in media) is on decline," he said.

Lohani said Air India was going to launch flights from Delhi to Washington, Stockholm and Copenhagen in coming months.

"Besides, we want to introduce flights to Los Angeles, African countries and some other cities," he added.

Flight delays had decreased drastically, he claimed, adding that the airline was working on a plan to hire 300 to 400 pilots and 600-700 cabin crew.

Ten small 72-seater aircraft manufactured by the French firm ATR will join the Air India's fleet shortly which will give a boost to the domestic air service to smaller cities, he said.

The public carrier also had plans to connect Indore with Ahmedabad and Jaipur from August-September, Lohani said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) today said it was a "moment of pride" after Palbinder Kaur Shergill, an Indian-origin Sikh woman human rights activist, was appointed a judge of the Canadian Supreme Court of British Columbia in New Westminster.

Shergill is also the first turbaned Sikh to be appointed to the judiciary of Canada.

"It is a moment of pride and immense joy for all of us. Not only is her feat something to feel proud about, but it is a matter of great pride that today we have the first turbaned Sikh appointed to the judiciary in Canada," SGPC president, Prof Kirpal Singh Badungar said.

The head of SGPC, apex religious body of the Sikhs, said the Canadian government has recognised the contribution of the Sikhs in the country's economy and culture.

"The Canadian government has been giving a lot of honour to the Sikh community settled there. We should also feel proud of the fact that Harjit Singh Sajjan, a Sikh, has been given a sensitive department like Defence to handle by a foreign nation. There are many more ministers of Punjabi origin in the Justin Trudeau government," Badungar told PTI over phone.

He said the Sikh body will request Shergill to plan an early visit to Punjab.

"We will want her to visit the Darbar Sahib in Amritsar. We will give her a rousing welcome," he said.

Notably, Harjit Singh Sajjan had visited Punjab earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the SGPC chief also expressed concern over the hate crimes against Sikhs in some foreign nations.

"Sikhs are a peace loving, hard working community, who are known to make valuable contribution to the progress of any nation where they have decided to settle. Therefore, there is no reason why they should be made a target," he said.

"It is also hard to believe that people in developed countries like the United States and elsewhere would not know who the Sikhs are and would attack them mistaking them for someone else.

"For ten years, India had a Prime Minister in Manmohan Singh, who belonged to the Sikh community and he visited so many nations. People would know Sikhs by their appearance," he said.

Badungar said SGPC has urged the Central government in the past to use diplomatic channels to find out about the "forces behind such incidents of attacks on Sikhs in foreign countries".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
: Top stories from the Southern



region at 1700 hrs today:



MDS1 TN-LANKA-FISHERMEN



Nagapattinam (TN): Eight Tamil Nadu fishermen arrested by Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in the territorial waters of the island nation early today: police



MDS2 TN-NEET-QUOTA



Chennai: Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar announces in the Assembly that 85 per cent of seats in medicine under state quota will be earmarked for students who had pursued higher secondary education under the state board and the admission will be based on NEET marks.

MES2 TN-BILL



Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Assembly adopts bill to extend the term of special officers appointed to local bodies, amid the DMK-led Opposition boycotting a voice vote held for the purpose.

MDS3 KL-PRIEST



Thiruvananthapuram: A 33-year-old Keralite priest, missing for the last four days, is found dead on a beach in Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, according to information received by Church sources here.

MES1 TN-BOMB



Dindigul(TN): Unidentified persons hurl petrol bomb at the house of a former AIADMK councillor in Dindigul early today:police



BOM1 TL-GIRL-BOREWELL



Hyderabad: Authorities are racing against time to save a 14-month-old girl who accidentally fell into a 40-feet deep open borewell in adjoining Vikarabad district two days ago.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
: Top stories from the Southern region at 2100 hrs today:



MDS4 KL-CLEANLINESS DRIVE-SCHOOLS



Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan reaches out to school heads to ensure participation of teachers and students in the government's massive cleanliness drive to check the spread of diseases in the state.

MDS5 TN-STALIN-RAJIV-PAROLE



Chennai: Leader of Opposition and DMK Working President M K Stalin asks why the Tamil Nadu government was hesitant to allow Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict A G Perarivalan to be released on parole.

MDS7 LANKA-2ND LD FISHERMEN



Rameswaram: As many as 25 Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested by Sri Lankan Navy in two separate incidents on charges of fishing in the territorial waters of the island nation today, drawing angry reaction from state government.

MDS8 KL-FARMER-PROBE



Thiruvananthapuram: Three days after a farmer allegedly ended his life due to "harassment" by village officials in Kozhikode, Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue) P H Kurien visits the Village Administrative Office, where his body was found, and collected evidence.

MES7 AP-TEMPLE-CJI



Tirupati: Chief Justice of India Justice Jagadish Singh Khehar offeres prayers at the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala near here.

BOM14 TL-PREZ-DATTATREYA



Hyderabad: Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya seeks to know why the Congress did not make Babu Jagjivan Ram Prime Minister and his daughter Meira Kumar president when the party was in power.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Top US lawmakers have urged President Donald Trump to prioritise the elimination of trade and investment "barriers" by India during his upcoming meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying they "significantly harm" American businesses and workers.

The four lawmakers also claimed that India has imposed several new significant barriers that have harmed US producers across all sectors of the American economy, including services, manufacturing, and agriculture.

"We write to you ahead of the upcoming visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to urge you to prioritise the elimination of Indian trade and investment barriers that significantly harm American businesses and workers," the lawmakers said.

The four lawmakers are - Senator Orrin Hatch, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and Senator Ron Wyden, Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, Congressman Kevin Brady, Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means and Congressman Richard Neal, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Ways and Means.

"While Indian businesses continue to benefit from open US markets, India has failed to eliminate, or even address concretely, multiple trade and investment barriers that have been the focus of recent bilateral and multilateral fora," the letter said.

"At the same time, India has imposed several new significant barriers that have harmed US producers across all sectors of our economy, including services, manufacturing, and agriculture. Prime Minister Modi's visit provides an opportunity once again to press India for results," the lawmakers said in the letter dated June 23.

According to the copy of the letter provided to PTI, the lawmakers said that in recent years the US and India have sought to strengthen economic engagement through the bilateral Strategic and Commercial Dialogue and the Trade Policy Forum (TPF).

"Yet these high-level discussions have not resulted in the elimination of major trade and investment barriers or even deterred India from imposing new barriers. Many sectors of the Indian economy remain highly and unjustifiably protected, and India continues to be a difficult place for American companies to do business," they wrote.

This reality is buttressed by the results of the 2017 edition of the World Bank's Doing Business report, which ranks India 130 out of 190 countries, the lowest ranking for any G- 20 country -for ease of doing business, they noted.

Noting that India remains an important bilateral trade and investment partner for the US, the lawmakers said the two countries are now have the largest bilateral trade and investment flows ever recorded in their relationship.

"Nevertheless, as a result of India's persistent failure to enact market-based reforms and resolve significant and discriminatory impediments to trade and investment, the US- India economic relationship severely underperforms. Bilateral trade and investment is small considering the size of the countries' economies and the scale of the potential relationship -India accounts for less than two per cent of total US exports of goods and services and less than one percent of the stock of US overseas investment," they said.

The letter says that the US International Trade Commission determined in a 2014 report that "(i) tariff and investment restrictions were fully eliminated [by India] and standards of IP protection were made comparable to US and Western European levels, US exports to India would rise by two-thirds, and US investment in India would roughly double".

Consumers, businesses, and workers in both the US and India could gain enormously from enhanced bilateral trade and investment.

But achieving the full potential of this relationship requires the actual removal of India's economic barriers, they said.

"These barriers are prevalent in multiple sectors and include high tariffs, inadequate protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), inconsistent and nontransparent licensing and regulatory practices, and various other restrictions," the lawmakers said.

Regarding IPR protection, the four Congressmen said they continue to have concerns about India's system for providing protection for patents, trademarks, and copyrights.

"India's weak standards and insufficient enforcement remain an area of concern for US right holders, including with respect to pharmaceutical patents and in the area of copyright protection, where we understand that India has not enacted meaningful laws to prevent cam cording in cinemas, which has led to rampant infringement," they wrote.

With regard to India's licensing and regulatory practices, discriminatory determinations and inconsistent and nontransparent approval processes have hampered US trade and investment, they alleged.

For example, India maintains a variety of forced localisation measures on solar and information technology products and enforces duplicative in-country security testing requirements for telecommunications equipment, the letter noted.

Other regulatory barriers include unnecessarily slow and opaque approval processes for biotechnology products; sanitary and phytosanitary standards that appear to be non-science based; burdensome import and customs procedures; significant limitations on foreign participation in professional services; and restrictive foreign equity caps for financial, retail, and other major services sectors.

In a statement, Patrick Kilbride, Vice President of International Intellectual Property, Global Intellectual Property Center said from the halls of the Congress to the Trump administration, US leaders have placed an emphasis on ensuring American innovation is respected abroad.

"In India, that includes strengthening IP standards to address issues with patentability, computer-related inventions, and copyright infringement. Prime Minister Modi's visit presents an opportunity to revisit these issues and renew India's commitment to policies that will benefit both American and Indian innovators,"Kilbride said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump sent "warm greetings" to Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan, after his administration broke with the tradition of hosting a White House event to recognize the holy month.

"On behalf of the American people, Melania and I send our warm greetings to Muslims as they celebrate Eid al-Fitr," Trump yesterday said in a statement. "During this holiday, we are reminded of the importance of mercy, compassion, and goodwill."



"With Muslims around the world, the United States renews our commitment to honor these values."



Since the Bill Clinton administration, the White House has each year hosted either an event to mark the Eid al-Fitr feast -- which ends the fasting month of Ramadan -- or a meal breaking the dawn-til-dusk fast, known as an iftar.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly rejected a request by his department's office of religion and global affairs to hold an event for the holiday.

Trump has come under fire for his history of anti-Muslim rhetoric on the campaign trail, that included calls for surveillance of US mosques and an outright ban on Muslims entering the country in the name of national security.

A week after becoming president he issued a ban on travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries, which has been frozen by the US courts after sparking global chaos and outrage.

Yet during a visit to Saudi Arabia last month, Trump softened his tone on Islam, rejecting the idea of a battle between religions in an address before dozens of leaders of Muslim countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Turkish police have detained five suspected would-be suicide bombers including three Syrian nationals in southern Hatay province near the border with Syria, local authorities said today.

Two of the suspects had been wearing suicide vests ready to explode, the local governor's office said in a statement, adding that they were arrested before reaching the city centre.

Authorities declined to say which group the five detained individuals claimed to belong to.

Long accused of turning a blind eye to jihadist activity along its southern border, Turkey has joined the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria and beefed up its border security.

Turkey has been hit by a number of attacks in recent years blamed on IS and Kurdish militants.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today launched a series of initiatives taken up under Southern Railway.

Prabhu launched, among others, the seven km Ennore-Tiruvottiyur fourth line, a 10 KW solar plant at Moore Market complex here and a food plaza at Tiruchirappalli, through video conferencing.

Various passenger amenities and LED lighting facilities at different railway stations under Chennai division were also inaugurated by the Minister.

Speaking at the event, he proposed a coastal railway route connecting Chennai and Kanniyakumari and sought the state government's cooperation in its implementation.

Earlier, he addressed a seminar on GST, organised by the Southern India Regional Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

He said efforts were on to ensure that operationalisation of the GST regime is smooth and assured it would benefit people.

"GST is a landmark legislation in which everything will change for the better," he said about the new tax regime, due for roll out from July 1, 2017.

The GST will benefit every Indian citizen in the long run, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A French-Vietnamese dissident blogger has been detained in Vietnam for deportation, his wife said today, just weeks after the former political prisoner was stripped of his citizenship in a rare move by authorities.

While the communist country routinely jails critics of its regime, 62-year-old Pham Minh Hoang is the first Vietnam- based dissident to have his citizenship revoked in recent history.

Hoang's wife, Le Thi Kieu Oanh, told AFP police came to their house in Ho Chi Minh city on Friday and took her husband away.

The officers told Oanh he would be deported on Saturday, she said.

"I am very sad... Because (authorities) announced to me the Vietnamese government will deport my husband," she told AFP.

Hoang moved to France in 1973 and lived there for 27 years before returning to Vietnam to work as a a mathematics lecturer at the Polytechnic University of Ho Chi Minh City.

He was convicted in 2011 of "attempted subversion" for penning a series of articles that Vietnamese prosecutors said were aimed at overthrowing the government.

He was released from jail after 17 months to serve a three-year term under house arrest and has continued to post criticism of the government on social media.

Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs defended the move to revoke Hoang's citizenship last week, saying he had "violated the laws many times and seriously violated the national security", without elaborating.

A French diplomatic source said consular officials were in contact with authorities to try and access Hoang, while the French embassy in Hanoi called on Vietnam to respect freedom of expression.

Hoang told AFP this month that his French passport had expired and that he needed to stay in Vietnam to care for his disabled brother and elderly mother-in-law.

His wife said today she would remain in the country to care for the relatives.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will build a second international airport near its capital city in the next four to five years, costing an estimated 200 billion rupees ($3.10 billion), the government announced on Saturday, to meet explosive growth in passenger traffic.

The Noida International Airport near New Delhi will be built from scratch in phases and is expected to cater to 30-50 million passengers per year (MPPA) over the next 10-15 years, the civil aviation ministry said in a statement.

Air travel in India, one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets, has boomed in the last decade as it opened up to competition, ticket prices were slashed and the number of people wealthy enough to travel swelled.

Air traffic in New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport is expected to reach up to 91 MPPA in next three years and touch its peak handling capacity of 109 MPPA by 2024, the statement said, highlighting the need for a second airport near the capital city.

"We have granted in-principle approval for a greenfield airport at Jewar (Greater Noida) to cater to the growing flying requirements of NCR," Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said in a tweet.

NCR, or the National Capital Region, encompasses Delhi and several surrounding districts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan states.

The new airport in Greater Noida, will be 72 kms (about 45 miles) away from the Indira Gandhi International Airport. The 3,000 hectare (7,400 acre) airport will have one runway in its initial phase, adding three more in subsequent phases.

The state government along with Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority will bear the land procurement cost. Contracts for this public-private partnership project will be awarded after competitive bidding, the statement said.

Most of India's 40 largest airports will exceed their design capacity within a decade based on projected growth rates, consultancy CAPA estimates, with Mumbai and Chennai fast approaching saturation.

The government plans to open 50 disused airports by 2020, and has given approval for 18 greenfield airports.

Delays in acquiring land, as well as the inability of debt-laden domestic airport operators such as GMR Group and GVK to invest, have stymied expansion proposals.

For the full statement, please click: http://bit.ly/2tFE1CG

($1 = 64.4800 rupees)

(Reporting by Malini Menon; Editing by Ros Russell)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian online retailer Snapdeal has filed a police complaint against a local logistics company, in which it owns a stake, of defrauding it of 3.57 billion rupees ($55.37 million), a police report showed.

The company, which is backed by Japan's Softbank, accused Quickdel of misappropriation, cheating and misleading it, in the police first information report filed in New Delhi on Friday.

has a copy of the police report.

Vineet Rai, the administrative officer at the Gurgaon headquarters of Quickdel, said the company could not immediately comment.

A spokeswoman for Snapdeal was not reachable by phone.

Snapdeal said it had bought a 49.99 percent stake in Quickdel in 2014 and early 2015, after the logistics company said it would help the two to grow the business. Snapdeal said in the police complaint that it realised later the logistics firm had misrepresented facts.

Snapdeal has been at the center of takeover speculation, with its largest backer Softbank seen as keen to sell the company to its larger rival, Tiger Global-backed Flipkart.

In May, television channel ET Now reported that the founders of Snapdeal and one of its early investors, Nexus, have reached an agreement with SoftBank Group that would allow the Japanese firm to move ahead with its plan to sell Snapdeal to Flipkart.

Sources told last month that SoftBank was working to engineer a sale of Snapdeal to Flipkart, as it seeks to play consolidator and take a more active role at a trio of leading start-ups in India.

($1 = 64.4800 rupees)

(Reporting by Malini Menon; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Ros Russell)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A documentary film telling the stories of the five waves of settlement of the Jewish people in New Mexico.

Challah Rising in the Desert is a feature length documentary film telling the stories of the five waves of settlement of the Jews in New Mexico .

Challah Rising in the Desert is a feature length documentary film, with special community showings scheduled June 24 and 25 in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The five strand braided Challah (traditional Jewish bread) represents five waves of settlement of New Mexico's Jewish community including Conversos escaping the Spanish Inquisition 400 years ago, German Jewish pioneers of the Santa Fe Trail in the 1800s, scientists of the 1940s at Los Alamos and the Counterculture of the 1960s.



Challah rising is a moving tapestry of the Jewish experience woven in to New Mexico's unique

history and landscape.. All tickets are $25. Tickets at the Door beginning at 6:30 PM, if any tickets remain. You are encouraged to purchase advance tickets. Tickets sold for the initial Community showings will go toward funding a permanent archive to preserve these and similar materials. The vital work of searching, identifying and securing family as well as historical photos and film footage continues with both regional archives and family collections. Funding received from the Jewish Federation of New Mexico has assisted with digital preparation and permanent archiving of these materials for future use.
The United States government has approved the sale of a naval variant of the Predator drone made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc to India, the U.S.-based company said on Friday.

Reuters reported earlier on Friday that the U.S. government was expected to authorise the sale of drones ahead of a visit next week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India has been looking to buy 22 of the unarmed surveillance aircraft, MQ-9B Guardian, worth more than $2 billion to keep watch over the Indian Ocean.

"We are pleased that the U.S. Government has cleared the way for the sale of the MQ-9B Guardian to the Indian Government," General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Chief Executive Linden Blue said in a statement.

The Indian embassy and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Securing agreement on the purchase of the drones is seen in New Delhi as a key test of defence ties that flourished under former President Barack Obama but have drifted under Trump, who has courted Asian rival China as he seeks Beijing's help to contain North Korea's nuclear programme.

The deal would be the first such purchase by a country that is not a member of the NATO alliance.

Such a sale of sensitive military hardware must be authorized by the State Department before being sent to Congress for review.

A congressional source said on Thursday that no notification of a planned sale has yet been sent to Congress, but this could come next week.

The State Department declined comment on Thursday ahead of any notification.


Member of Parliament for Bafut-Tubah Constituency in Mezam North, North West region, Hon Fusi Namukong has rubbished Cameroons Economic and Social Commission saying that Members have been feeding fat on state budget.

He made the statements shortly after he was refused from speaking at the National Assembly last Wednesday by House Speaker Cavaye Yeguie Djibriel.

The SDF Member of Parliament said the remaining six members from over 150 who have all died, are given a yearly budget of FCFA 2 billion with no accounts on how the money has been spent.

Hon. Namukong said it will be better for the commission headed by Ayang Luc to make a balance sheet of its activities before the restructuring.

He was reacting after the tabling of a bill at the ongoing session to restructure the social and economic commission for the first time in over 30 years.

The Honorable MP said the commission has done nothing significant in Cameroon yet it is considered as the brain behind restructuring of the economy, concluding that it exists only on paper.
| BY Lynchy |

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity tonight presented Aussie expat David Droga, founder & creative chairman of Droga5, with the Lion of St. Mark award, arguably the highest honour in world creative advertising.

New York-based Aussie expat Droga is one of the most awarded creatives at Cannes Lions, and is the youngest recipient ~ by far ~ of the Lion of St. Mark award. He won his first Lion aged 19 at Sydney hotshop OMON and has achieved more than 70 Gold and 15 Grand Prix / Titanium Lions in his career to date.

The Lion of St. Mark recognises an individual who has made a significant and outstanding contribution to creativity in our industry, said Jose Papa, managing director of Cannes Lions. His drive, passion and unbounded creative skill has led him to deliver continual award-winning results. Hes set the global standard.

Says Droga: I have worked with more talented people and had more opportunities than one creative person deserves. The Lion of St. Mark honour is beyond my wildest ambitions. Its incredible to be recognised with this, when you still feel you have so much more to do and prove. But I will soak it up with pride and humility.

At 22, David Droga became a partner and executive creative director of OMON Sydney (which won Campaign Brief Agency of the Year in 1989 and 1993). In 1996 he moved to Singapore to become executive creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore and regional creative director of Saatchi Asia. At age 29, Droga was promoted to executive creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi London, and under his charge, they were awarded, for the first time, Agency of the Year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2002.

In 2003 Droga became the first-ever worldwide chief creative officer of the Publicis Network in New York. In less than two years, Publicis enjoyed a very public creative and new business renaissance around the world. Restless to launch his own agency, David founded Droga5 in New York City in 2006. In just over ten years, Droga5 has seen unprecedented success and become one of the most revered and influential agencies on the planet, including back-to-back accolades as Cannes Lions Independent Agency of the Year in 2015 and 2016.

Previous Lion of St. Mark Winners:

2016: Marcello Serpa, former Partner, AlmapBBDO

2015: Bob Greenberg, Founder, Chairman and CEO, R/GA

2014: Joe Pytka, Director, PYTKA

2013: Lee Clow, Chairman, TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Director of Media Arts, TBWA\Worldwide

2012: Dan Wieden, Co-Founder and Global Executive Creative Director, Wieden+Kennedy
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The report released by the Department of Finance this week on the expenditure of both current and former MPs revealed $732,327 was spent by ACT politicians in the second half of last year, an increase of almost $80,000 compared to the previous six months.
Canberrans will be able to surrender unwanted or unregistered firearms to the police, with no questions asked, in an effort to cut the amount of illegal guns on the streets.
"This motion hasn't come up through me, but through grassroots activism. You've got a 100 per cent unionised workforce out at the track. It's Labor policy in every jurisdiction for a well-regulated greyhound industry with animal welfare front and centre and I know there are Labor-voting members being thrown out of jobs against their will [because of the ban]."
"Greyhounds deserve to be loved - as do all dogs - instead of discarded when they fail to run fast enough or die trying to do so," associate director of campaigns Ashley Fruno said.
"It's about starting with a great product. Our pork's from our producer out at Temora, Bundawarrah Pork. So we've just had our tenth anniversary with them at the beginning of this month so it was really nice to be able to ring them up and give them the news," said Mr Odell.
Police allege they saw the man driving a blue Honda Civic in Tuggeranong on Thursday, which they identified as having been stolen during a burglary in Campbell. Police lost sight of the vehicle, which was later found burnt out at Tharwa.
"At these difficult times of illegal bans on flights out of my country by big bullies, this is an award not to me, not to my airline, but to my country," Mr Al Baker said.
"There will be some [conflicts], like in the Philippines for example, where Australia will either lead or play a very significant role, or Mali, where the French took the lead, but you will still even there see very significant contributions from the United States," he said.
"It's a little ironic that this audit report takes aim at APVMA for not properly considering the risk of wholesale staff departures in the wake of the relocation, because it's blindingly obvious that minister Barnaby Joyce didn't consider those risks either, or didn't care about the damage his decision would cause to Australian agriculture," he said.
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 ...
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.
Three to four years of college can be pretty intense. There are examinations, lectures, fests, events, societies, competitions and lot more for the students to prepare for. In addition to this, there is the factor of attendance, for which colleges have strict regulations.

On the whole, there are many things that students have to focus on and everything seems to pass by very fast. You don't have enough time or information, to plan out what you want to do with your future. Though some students would have already done this.

Professional courses like Engineering and Medicine, have a definite plan ahead even though there are many choices to make. Courses in liberal arts and pure sciences have a lot of potential. But the scarcity of awareness and knowledge as to what can be done after graduation might make the students anxious about their future.

'I feel overwhelmed. Please don't make me work at some food joint.' laughingly says Tanya Jacob, a graduate of Kristu Jayanti College, Bangalore when asked about what she feels about the new life.

Top Universities in India in Arts, Science and Commerce Streams

Students can have hundreds of doubts, among thousands of opportunities that are available to them. The right decision to be taken should be thought out properly, with the help of family and friends.

But some may not find this support. So here we are providing some assurance to all the fresh graduates out there.

Take a Deep Breath

The first thing you ought to do is relax. You have done your best in the past few years. You studied when you had to, jotted down notes during your lectures and studied in groups right before the exams started. Now it's time for you to relax a bit. Here's what you can do:

Take a vacation.

Go for some certificate course which you have been wanting to do since forever.

Meet your friends from school.

Volunteer at Non-Governmental Organizations

Take a few weeks off for yourself.

Also Read: How to make the best use of summer vacation?

Apply. Apply. Apply.

After a quick rest, you have to get back to building up your career.

If you know what course you want to take up after your undergraduate course, then things will become very easy for you. Find out the best institution that's providing the course you want to pursue. Keep these pointers while looking out for the institution:

Compare the institution on various surveys

Check whether the institution provides placements

Find out the opinion of the current students of each institution, through reviews.

Check whether additional short courses are available.

Compare the fees with other institutions.

Also Read: Check the latest updates for Jobs

Earning already?

Srushti K, a graduate from Mount Carmel College says "I guess just gaining work experience is what I'm going to do to make my plans work; So that I can get the job that I want."

Many students believe in experience than collecting degrees after degrees

If you want to get a job after your undergraduate course, the best way to start would be to build up your CV.

Here's how you do it:

Mention your achievements, each and every one of them.

Jot down all your skills.

Any experience you had before should be mentioned.

Mention the languages that you are proficient at.

Keep things simple, to the point and avoid jargons.

Once your CV is prepared, you should start applying. There are many websites that can help you apply for jobs that you want. Based on the filter search that you conduct, opportunities will be available to you.

You must be ready to start at the bottom, as this will be your first job. Do not hurry. Take your time and grow as time goes.

Build your Resume

Many students find the idea of getting a job, just after their undergraduate degree, as a too much. At the same time, they may not be very sure about what subject to choose for their higher studies. People who are looking for experience but don't want things to get too serious can take up internships.

Internships can last from 2 to 6 months.

Students can learn a great deal from these opportunities and can work with big companies of their choice.

Internships will expose the students to the actual field of work, and they can decide if they want to continue.

Some are paid internships, while most of them are unpaid. Check all of them, and choose accordingly.

Flying Away?

Many students aspire to continue their studies in a foreign country. For those, you should know that there are many opportunities waiting for you in a different land.

Scholarships are provided by many foreign universities for Indian students.

The student needs to prepare for International Entrance exams and Language qualifying exams, which are mandatory for many countries.

Elina Benedict, another graduate from Kristu Jayanti College says, "I'm doing what any student would do to study abroad. Study, study and study to achieve the perfect GRE score and get into the best University."

Many countries like Germany, require students to know their language to get an education in that country.

They need to send in answer scripts and essays to the university for admissions, based on which the student is accepted.

Advantages of studying abroad

Something Unconventional?

Jobs and studies are something that students generally take up. In the past few years, various other pathways are coming up providing vivid opportunities for students.

Fellowships - These are short term opportunities that range from a time period of 6 months to a year. the students to take up certain tasks and a stipend will be provided for them. These are usually based on socially relevant issues, like education for the underprivileged, helping people from low socio-economic community etc.

Research - Many students are taking up research as their main motive after their undergraduate program. Students who want to follow this path can take up positions as research assistants. They can learn the proper way of conducting research, acquire more knowledge and build up their employability and credibility when it comes to their own research later in future.

Follow your Passion.

Although considered unconventional, every generation of graduates will have a few people who take up their hobbies and interests as their livelihood. Singing for a record, performing for concerts, authoring a book, making music, drawing graphics, making short films, writing dialogues, all of this can come under this section. Though there are courses for these careers, many decide to learn from the industry and attain raw knowledge from veterans. Though there are many struggles in this area, with the right amount of hard work and networking, one can succeed.

5 Interesting Reasons About Being A Wedding Photographer

There! You have almost all the things you can do as a fresh graduate.

Now it's your turn to decide and leave a mark. Don't forget, you can try multiple things, and if one doesn't work, there's always another window open for you.

Also Read: Check out the latest updates about Post-Graduate courses
Just as Toyota Motor Philippines updated the specs of the Hilux pickup truck , theyve done the same for the Fortuner as well.
COLUMBUS  The citys search for a full-time fire chief took a step backward last week.

Because of a clerical error, the Civil Service Commission will conduct a second set of interviews with seven candidates for the position instead of moving forward with the three finalists selected earlier this month.

According to the city attorneys office, Columbus Human Resources Director Mike Oglevie sent a memo containing 13 of the 17 interview questions to six of the seven candidates prior to the June 6 interviews with the Civil Service Commission, leaving one candidate off the list of recipients.

Through inadvertence and mistake, the Secretary/Liaison did not send the memo of questions to one of the seven candidates, Thursdays memo from the city attorneys office states. The candidate in question is aware that the other candidates received the interview questions and he did not.

The city attorneys office notes that this misstep may violate state statute as well as the simple concepts of fundamental fairness.

Interviews scheduled for last Friday with the finalists were cancelled at the request of the city attorneys office and a second Civil Service Commission meeting will be held to re-interview all seven candidates  or at least those willing to take a second crack at it.

A date for that meeting has not been set, according to Mayor Jim Bulkley, who plans to fill a vacant Civil Service Commission seat before its held.

Fred Bellum recently left the five-person board and Bulkley has appointed Jack Gutierrez to replace him. The city council is expected to vote on that appointment during the July 3 meeting.

Oglevie, who left Wednesday for a family reunion in Kansas, before the issue came to light, has not contacted the candidates to see if theyre all interested in re-interviewing. That will happen after he returns to Columbus on Tuesday.

Well give them a shot at it, Oglevie said Saturday morning in a phone interview.

About 20 people applied for the fire chief position with that list narrowed by testing before the initial Civil Service Commission interviews in early June.

The three finalists previously selected are:

 Daniel Miller of Yutan, who is a battalion chief with the Omaha Fire Department and runs his own business, Training Under Fire, which teaches firefighting, technical rescue, command and leadership skills.

 Aaron Anderson of Ralston, who is a captain with the Papillion Fire Department and adjunct firefighter and hazardous materials instructor at Southeast Community College.

 Joseph Grainger of Fredericksburg, Virginia, who is the assistant fire and EMS chief and chief of operations with the Stafford County Fire and Rescue Department in Virginia.

The finalists who emerge from the second Civil Service Commission meeting will be interviewed by Bulkley and City Administrator Tara Vasicek, with city council members and representatives from the police and fire departments invited to sit in, before the mayor submits his selection for council approval.

City council members voted in April to create the full-time fire chief position to oversee the department of 15 career firefighters and rescue personnel and 55 volunteers.

Dean Hefti, who has been with the local fire department for 45 years, including 25 as the volunteer fire chief, plans to retire in January.
Being in production since 2009, the Dacia Duster is getting ready to be replaced by an entirely new generation.



And when it finally debuts under the spotlight at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, this September, the affordable SUV could look pretty much like this rendering, designed by Stelian Ratoi.

The first thing you notice is the new front end, dominated by the brands signature grille, which is flanked by a pair of modern headlights with integrated LED DRLs similar to the ones used on the latest Logan. Bulky fenders that span across the doors, a feature that wont be seen on the final production version of the car, a muscular hood, large roof racks and plastic cladding, along with the new wheels, complete its exterior design.

Enlarging the Romanian automakers customer base will be a longer version of the new-gen Duster, which will ride on an elongated wheelbase that makes room for up to 7 occupants in three rows of seats.

Although theres no confirmation so far from the Renault-NissanAlliance, previous reports indicate that the upcoming Dacia Duster could use the groups modular CMF architecture, unlike the current model that shares its underpinnings with the rest of the brands vehicles, including the Logan and Sandero.

PHOTO GALLERY
When Toyota boss Akio Toyoda told everyone that his company will no longer build boring cars, not many people imagined that the next-generation Camry would become one of the most engaging sedans in its segment.



And yet, according to AutoGuide editor Craig Cole, thats exactly what the all-new 2018 Camry is. Even if youre not blown away by its appearance, you can still argue that it looks better than its predecessor.

Not only that, but the interior is now much improved  and as for performance, Cole says youll no longer be bored behind the wheel of a Camry.

Its entry-level 2.5-liter 4-cylinder unit packs 206 HP and 186 lb-ft (252 Nm) of torque and is mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission. While it may not be as fast as the 3.5-liter V6 model, the four-pot should still sell better.

If most 2018 Camry reviews will be close to or just as positive as this one, it should help Toyotas mid-size sedan improve its image and retain its best-seller rank. It should also be interesting to see how it fares against the brand new Accord, recently teased by Honda and set to make its debut next month.

VIDEO
Photo: CTV

A huge fire erupted among scrap cars on a barge in Victoria, Friday afternoon.

The fire started about 2 p.m. in the Gorge Waterway, sending dark, acrid smoke billowing above the city. Firefighters were fighting the blaze from the shore as well as from a fire boat.

The barge is owned by recycler Schnitzer Steel.

Smoke was first visible as the barge was being loaded.

The company said no one was hurt in the incident, but some debris did fall into the water. Booms were put up as a precaution.

The fire was said to be under control by 4:30 p.m.

 with files from CTV Vancouver Island
Photo: The Canadian Press Seats glow in sunlight at Dodger Stadium, Tuesday, in Los Angeles.

The main burn centre in Phoenix has seen its emergency department visits double during the heat wave that is scorching the Southwest U.S., including people burning their bare feet on the scalding pavement.

Dr. Kevin Foster, director of the Arizona Burn Center, said this June is the worst the centre has seen in 18 years. Most patients arrive with contact burns from touching hot car interiors or walking outside without shoes.

Foster said one child received contact burns after crawling through a doggy door onto the hot pavement.

"Getting up to 120 really makes a difference," Foster said.

The burns are among several hazards resulting from a heat wave that has plagued Arizona, Nevada and California, including deaths, increased wildfire risks and a water shortage in one community.

The heat wave brought a high of 119 F in Phoenix on Tuesday. Las Vegas topped out at 117, and California has been broiling in triple-digit temps.
Photo: Twitter

Five people were electrocuted Friday at a water park in northwest Turkey, including two teenagers and a 12-year-old, Turkish media reports said.

The three youngsters were caught up in an electrical current in the pool in the town of Akyazi in Sakarya province, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The park's 58-year-old manager and his 30-year-old son were killed when they jumped into the pool to try to save the flailing children, according to the private Dogan news agency.

Employees at the water park later cut power at the resort.

All five were rushed to a hospital in Akyazi but could not be saved. Two other people were hurt after touching metal railings near the pool, the reports said. The children who died were aged 12, 15 and 17.

Police officers were conducting an investigation into what caused the electrocutions, Dogan reported. It added, however, that the park lacked a residual current breaker that shuts down power to prevent electrical shocks.
Somewhere in France, there are three guys riding downhill on homemade karts. With tire-shoe brakes at 50 MPH. This definitely falls under the "don't try this at home category", so we'll just have to be happy living vicariously from our much-safer office.
Photo: Contributed

Gwen Barlee, a defender of wild animals and advocate for enhanced endangered species legislation in British Columbia, has died.

The Wilderness Committee, where Barlee worked, said she died Thursday. She was 54.

Barlee was national policy director at the Wilderness Committee since 2001 and the organization said in a statement she was an invaluable member of the leadership team, guiding many environmental campaigns.

Joe Foy, Wilderness Committee national campaign director, said her colleagues were aware Barlee was fighting cancer, but her death still came as a shock.

"It's like a gut punch," said Foy from the Wilderness Committee's Vancouver office, where Barlee was based. "Those of us who knew she was sick, we did not expect this."

He said Barlee was instrumental in convincing the B.C. government to protect forest lands to preserve the habitat of the northern spotted owl, one of Canada's most endangered species.

Barlee lobbied for greater amounts of protected forest habitat, not just for the spotted owl but for other species at risk including B.C.'s southern mountain caribou, marbled murrelet and goshawk, said Foy.
Photo: Contributed A wildfire is burning southeast of Lac La Hache in the Cariboo region.

The BC Wildfire Service is currently battling a blaze it has characterized as being "out of control."

The fire is currently burning about 40 kilometres southwest of Lac La Hache.

The wildfire service says the fire is about eight hectares in size, but does not currently pose a threat to homes or public safety, however, it is burning near power transmission lines.

This fire is also approximately five kilometres away from Esketemc First Nation Territory, and members of the Esketemc First Nation have been engaged.

Airtankers, 25 firefighters and two helicopters are on site. Heavy equipment is en route. The cause of this fire is unknown at this time.

Members of the public are being asked to stay out of the area for the safety of firefighting crews and the public.

The fire was discovered Friday. A cause has not yet been determined.
Photo: Peoples Daily

More than 120 people were buried by a landslide that caused huge rocks and a mass of earth to come crashing into their homes in a mountain village in southwestern China early Saturday, officials said.

The landslide, which came from a mountain, engulfed a cluster of 62 homes and a hotel in the village of Xinmo in Mao County at about 6 a.m., the Sichuan provincial government said. Officials said 1.6 kilometres of road were buried in the disaster.

"It's the biggest landslide to hit this area since the Wenchuan earthquake," Wang Yongbo, an official leading one of the rescue efforts, told state broadcaster China Central Television. Wang was referring to China's deadliest earthquake this century, a magnitude 7.9 temblor that struck Sichuan province in May 2008, killing nearly 90,000 people.

The provincial government said more than 120 people were buried by the landslide. CCTV cited a rescuer as saying five bodies had been found.

The landslide blocked a 2-kilometre section of a river. The provincial government said on its website that an estimated 8 million cubic metres of earth and rock had slid down the mountain.

Experts told CCTV that the landslide was likely triggered by rain.
It's time to own it, Republicans: You've had seven years to come up with a credible alternative to Obamacare. And when your clutch moment came, you choked.

Again.

The House's first crack at a repeal-and-replace bill was so bad that Speaker Paul Ryan had to yank it or risk a humiliating defeat. The second was slightly less awful, but still sufficiently offensive as to be declared dead-on-arrival in the Senate.

Now, after days of closed-door meetings where the very sharpest minds in Washington met to hammer out an alternative, we get a legless version of the mean-spirited Obamacare repeal bill the House passed.

How bad is it? So bad that liberals and conservatives each found reasons not to like it.

In a statement, the left-leaning advocacy group Families USA called the Senate bill "more harmful and equally heartless" than the House-passed bill.

Meanwhile, four conservative Republicans announced they found it so unpalatable that they couldn't vote for it either.

The Senate bill rolls back the Medicaid expansion that's extended coverage to millions of low-income Americans. It makes health insurance more expensive, offering inferior plans with higher deductibles, and spikes Obamacare's individual mandate. It hands a tax break to the wealthiest Americans, and, just for good measure, it eliminates federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

The bill was so bad, in fact, that even President Donald Trump apparently felt like he needed to change the subject to something less politically radioactive: former FBI Director James Comey and the Russia scandal.

On Wednesday, Trump tweeted that "Democrats would do much better as a party if they got together with Republicans on Healthcare,Tax Cuts,Security. Obstruction doesn't work!"

By Thursday, any reference at all to healthcare evaporated, and Trump pulled a classic "Don't look here, look there," tweeting, among other things, that "I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings," of any meeting with Comey.

Nonetheless, the White House, which is still in search of its first, major legislative victory, says it's open to negotiation.

"The president is pleased to see the process moving forward swiftly in Congress, and he looks forward to seeing a finalized bill on his desk," White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, according to The Washington Post."I don't think we're as focused on the timeline as we are on the final product."

Which may be good news, because McConnell has his work cut out for him.

Thanks to some procedural arcana, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell needed 50 votes to send the bill back to the House. The Post reported Thursday that McConnell wants to do that before Congress' July 4 recess, regardless of whether he has the votes or not.

At this writing, it doesn't look like he does. And, as expected, there are zero Democratic votes.

McConnell's fellow Kentuckyian, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul; Ted Cruz of Texas; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah, have all said they can't vote for the bill in its current form.

"Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor. There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current health care system, but it does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs," the four lawmakers said in a joint statement.

Yet Republicans continue to plug away, even as a growing number of Americans, finally realizing that they'll miss Obamcare if and and when it's gone, say they oppose the House-authored alternative.

Forty-eight percent of respondents to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Thursday said the House-passed repeal bill was a bad idea. They were more narrowly split in their affection for Obamacare, saying 41-38 percent that it was a good idea.

But Republicans, struggling to make good on a more than half-decade old pledge to dismantle Obama's signature piece of public policy, are plunging forward nonetheless.

They might pass finally pass a repeal bill and maybe even send it to Trump. But it will be a terrible replacement.

And it will be all theirs.
Photo: Natalie Oxford

UPDATED 1:24 p.m.

Britain's fire-safety crisis expanded substantially Saturday as authorities said 34 high-rise apartment blocks across the country had cladding that failed fire safety tests. London officials scrambled to evacuate four public housing towers after experts found them "not safe for people to sleep in overnight."

Hundreds of residents hastily packed their bags and sought emergency shelter, with many angry and confused about the chaotic situation. Some refused to leave their high-rise apartments. Scores of evacuees slept on inflatable beds in a gym while officials sought better accommodations for them.

Camden Council leader Georgia Gould said it decided to evacuate four blocks in north London's Chalcots Estate late Friday after fire inspectors uncovered problems with "gas insulation and door stops," which, combined with the presence of flammable cladding encasing the buildings, meant residents had to leave immediately.

The scope of Britain's fire-safety crisis broadened Saturday as London officials scrambled to evacuate four public housing towers due to concerns about external cladding, fire doors and insulation around gas pipes.

Hundreds of residents hastily packed their bags and sought emergency shelter, with many angry and confused about the chaotic situation. Some refused to leave.

Camden Council said it decided to evacuate the buildings on the Chalcots Estate late Friday after fire inspectors reported that the blocks were "not safe for people to sleep in overnight." Inspectors uncovered problems with "gas insulation and door stops," which combined with the presence of flammable cladding meant residents had to leave immediately, council leader Georgia Gould said in a tweet.

The evacuation comes amid widening worries about the safety of high-rise apartment blocks across Britain following the inferno that engulfed Grenfell Tower in west London on June 14, killing at least 79 people. Public attention has focused on the external cladding material blamed for the rapid spread of that blaze  but now it appeared that multiple other fire risks have been identified in some blocks.

Britain's government said Saturday that cladding samples from 27 high-rise apartment blocks in cities including London, Manchester, Plymouth and Portsmouth have failed fire safety tests.

So far, Camden Council has been the only local authority known to have asked residents to leave as a precaution. It said about 650 apartments were evacuated, though initial reports had said that as many as 800 were affected.

"I know some residents are angry and upset, but I want to be very clear that Camden Council acted to protect them," Gould said in a statement. "Grenfell changed everything, and when told our blocks were unsafe to remain in, we acted."
Photo: The Canadian Press Pakistani nursing staff attend an injured girl at a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan, Friday, June 23, 2017. A powerful bomb went off near the office of the provincial police chief in southwest Pakistan on Friday, causing casualties, police said.

UPDATED 11:12 p.m.

The death toll from twin blasts in the northwestern town of Parachinar climbed to 67 Saturday, bringing the overall death toll from three separate attacks in Pakistan to 85, with several others in critical condition, officials said.

At least 40 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded Friday in four separate bomb and gun attacks in three major Pakistani cities, officials said.

A suicide bomber was involved in the first car bombing near the office of the provincial police chief in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed at least 12 people and wounded 20. There were conflicting claims of responsibility for this attack from different extremist groups.

Hours later twin bombings, minutes apart, hit a crowded market in a Shiite-dominated city in Parachinar, the main city in the Kurram tribal region and killed 24 people, mostly minority Shiite Muslims, according to government administrator Zahid Hussain.

Friday evening, gunmen in the port city of Karachi attacked police officers at a roadside restaurant and killed four of them before fleeing, senior police officer Asif Ahmed said.

Security forces raided a militant hideout in the northwestern city of Peshawar before dawn Saturday, triggering a shootout in which three Pakistani Talban were killed, senior police official Sajjad Khan said. He said two police officers were wounded in the gunbattle.

Khan said the identity of the slain militants was not immediately known.

The bomb and gun attacks come a few days before the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, which ends the holy month of Ramadan. TV footage showed panicked people rushing to safety following the Parachinar market bombings.

Mohammad Amir, an official at a government-run hospital in Parachinar, said they had received 24 dead bodies and more than 20 of the wounded were listed in critical condition.

Hussain said a severed head of a man was found near the scene of blasts, indicating the second attack in Parachinar might have been carried out by a suicide bomber but officers are still investigating to determine the exact nature of bombings.

Parachinar is located about 300 kilometres (180 miles) southwest of Peshawar.

According to Pakistan's military, it was using two helicopters to transport wounded people to other cities. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks, saying terrorists were attacking soft targets.

Friday's car bombing in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, was powerful enough that it was heard across the city, shattering windows on nearby buildings, said police spokesman Shahzada Farhat.

Wasim Beg, a spokesman at a government hospital, said the death toll from the bombing had risen to 12 throughout the morning and some of the wounded remained in critical condition.

TV footage showed several badly damaged cars and a road littered with broken glass
Photo: Contributed A news crew had their vehicle stolen while covering a story about crime.

While a television news crew was gathering footage for a story about crime in the Albuquerque downtown area, a thief drove off in the station's SUV.

The Albuquerque Journal reported the story Friday about the KOB-TV truck.

KOB News Director Michelle Donaldson says the vehicle was recovered within a half hour without police assistance by following the GPS tracking device that was on board.

She says the thief had fled the scene and the SUV was locked with the keys missing.

The crew was in the area reporting on recent concerns about crime and safety.

Donaldson says it's ironic that KOB became victims of a crime in exactly the area they were reporting about.

She says that violates the rule of never being the lead story of your own newscast.
Photo: Contributed Angel Magnussen is officially the nicest person in Canada.

Angel Magnussen is officially the nicest person in Canada.

The Port Alberni woman who has made it her life's work to sew blankets for sick children has been named Canada's Nicest Person.

Magnussen created Hugginz By Angel, a registered charity that provides blankets and other items for kids with serious illnesses or other medical conditions.

Magnussen, who has Down's syndrome, has sewn hundreds of blankets for hospitalized children around the world in countries like Australia, New Zealand and Scotland and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity.

To celebrate Canada's 150th birthday, Roots Canada launched a search for the nicest Canadian and they found Magnussen.

People could nominate someone who they felt made a positive impact on the nation and Magnussen topped the list.

I am so happy to be named Canadas Nicest Person, she said in a statement. $10,000 will help me to sew more blankets. I want to wrap sick kids in a warm hug to help them heal. Thank you for helping me to help sick kids.

Along with the title, a $10,000 donation will be made to the charity of her choice, and she will receive a $500 Roots gift card and a custom jacket.

- with files from CTV Vancouver Island
Photo: The Canadian Press A San Francisco UPS driver who killed three colleagues in a shooting rampage was armed with two stolen guns.

A San Francisco UPS driver who killed three colleagues in a shooting rampage at a company warehouse was armed with two stolen guns and appeared to target his victims, police said Friday.

Police Commander Greg McEachern told a news conference that investigators have not yet determined Jimmy Lam's motive, but "the shooting appeared purposeful and targeted."

Lam, 38, shot and killed three fellow drivers and wounded two others before killing himself in front of police in the June 14 shooting. An 18-year veteran of UPS, Lam opened fire at a morning meeting of UPS drivers before the drivers went out on deliveries.

Lam began by shooting Benson Louie, 50, in the meeting before turning the gun on Wayne Chan, 56, McEachern said. He then walked outside and confronted Mike Lefiti, 46, and fatally shot him multiple times.

Lam then walked back inside the warehouse, where police found him after a two-minute search. Lam walked by several other employees he could have shot but didn't, McEachern said.

When police confronted Lam, he had the gun pointed to his head and police ordered him to drop the weapon. Instead, he shot himself, McEachern said.

Lam didn't say anything during the rampage, McEachern said.

Lam was armed with two stolen weapons. One was an assault pistol that is illegal in California and was stolen in Utah, which he used in the killings, McEachern said. Lam also had a semi-automatic handgun stolen from Napa County, California.

It was not known who stole the weapons, McEachern said.

A San Francisco Police Department official told The Associated Press last week that Lam appears to have felt disrespected by co-workers, but it's not clear what role that feeling played in the shooting.

"We are going to work painstakingly to try to get a motive," McEachern said.

Friends and colleagues have said that Lam struggled with personal issues and was depressed a few years ago. Lam had shown improvement, but he started to look troubled a few weeks ago, they said. That was around the time Lam filed a grievance in March claiming he was working excessive overtime.

Investigators seized multiple phones, computers and a journal that forensic experts are attempting to gain access to and read, McEachern said.

Lam shot his victims with a MAC 10 made by MasterPiece Arms, an automatic pistol that is illegal in California. The pistol was also equipped with a special magazine that held 30 bullets instead of 10, gun gear that is also illegal in California, McEachern said.

Lam fired a total of 20 shots and didn't use the other gun recovered at the scene. Police found a box of bullets in Lam's backpack.

Investigators have interviewed more than 100 people and are re-interviewing key witnesses, McEachern said.
Photo: The Canadian Press Turkish authorities announced Saturday they will not allow the Istanbul Pride march to take place on Sunday.

Turkish authorities announced Saturday they will not allow the Istanbul Pride march to take place on Sunday  the third year in a row the celebration has been banned. The move prompted criticism from rights groups and fears of possible violence, as Pride organizers said they would defy the ban.

For more than a decade, the Istanbul Pride has attracted tens of thousands of participants, making it one of largest gatherings celebrating gay, lesbian and transgender rights and diversity in the Muslim world.

Unlike other Muslim countries, homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey. However, lesbian, gay and transgender activists say they lack legal protections and face widespread social stigma in the nation that is heavily influenced by conservative and religious values.

The Istanbul governor's office said the Pride march would be banned to keep public order and for the safety of participants and tourists. It said the area around central Taksim Square, where the march begins, was not designated for demonstrations.

The volunteer-organized Pride committee said the ban violates domestic and international law limiting the right to peaceful assembly. It asked the governor's office to reconsider and fulfil its obligations by providing security precautions.

The city government also said "very serious reactions by different segments of society" were raised against the march.

This week, like last year, ultra-nationalist and conservative groups said they would not allow the Pride march to take place even if the authorities allowed it. LGBTI activists said the ban legitimizes threats and hate speech under the guise of protecting the public's "sensitivities."

Amnesty International expressed "deep worry" following the ban and said Turkish authorities violated freedom of expression and assembly in a "routine and arbitrary way."

"Turkey should protect rather than ban Pride marches," Amnesty said, adding it would make sure to document developments on Sunday.
Photo: File photo At least eight people have died and five are missing after an underground explosion at a coal mine in central Colombia.

At least eight people have died and five are missing after an underground explosion at a coal mine in central Colombia.

Rescuers are attempting to locate possibly trapped survivors, but as the search drags on, the chances of finding anyone alive seem slim.

It's unclear whether the mine has a license. President Juan Manuel Santos has expressed his condolences to families affected by the tragedy.

Authorities say they believe Friday's explosion was triggered by an accumulation of methane gas. An explosion at a mine in the same town of Cucunuba caused eight deaths in 2008.

Mining accidents are frequent in Colombia, where many facilities operate illegally with poor safety protocols. Through May, 23 miners have died this year compared with 124 in all of 2016.
Photo: File photo The world-famous Snowbirds will be in Revelstoke next month.

One of the most iconic symbols of Canada will be soaring over Revelstoke next month.

The Canadian Forces Snowbirds will at the community July 25-26, and while they will not be performing their famous routines, people will have a chance to get up close and personal with the pilots.

Planned events include a meet and greet with the Snowbirds at the Revelstoke Airport July 25 from 3:30-5 p.m. and a dinner with the Snowbirds at Revelstoke Mountain Resort, July 25 from 6:30-9 p.m.

A non-aerobatic air display will be held on July 26 with all 11 planes flying over Revelstoke in formation. The City will be hosting a community event at Centennial Park with activities for families including live commentary by the Snowbirds, live music, kids' games and food.

Both the meet and greet at the airport and the public viewing event at Centennial Park are free.

After seeing the scenic mountains and meeting the great airshow organizing team last week in Revelstoke, the Snowbird team can't wait to perform on the 26th of July. We loved the town, and the roller coaster, we can't wait to be back, said Snowbirds Cpt. Paul Faulkner.

Director of Community Economic Development, Nicole Fricot said it is particularly great that youth will have the opportunity to meet and interact with a couple of the CF Snowbirds at the meet and greet at the airport. When the Snowbirds came for their site visit a few weeks ago, it became clear that inspiring young people to consider different opportunities is a big part of their mandate.
Photo: The Canadian Press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be returning to one of Canada's largest Pride celebrations this weekend.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be returning to one of Canada's largest Pride celebrations this weekend.

Pride Toronto, organizers of the city's festival celebrating the LGBTQ community, says Trudeau will be marching in Sunday's parade again this year.

He made history last year when he became the first sitting Prime Minister to take part in a Pride parade.

Trudeau marched in Vancouver's Pride festival later that summer.

This year, he will be joined by other dignitaries including Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Assembly of First Nations Chief Perry Bellegarde, making his first appearance at the Toronto Pride event.
Photo: The Canadian Press Shirley Zindler, of Sebastopol, Calif., reacts after her dog Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, won the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair.

Martha is big, ugly, lazy and gassy. And a world champion.

In a competition annually dominated by the old, the tiny, and the hairless, the three-year-old, 125-pound Neapolitan Mastiff used her lollygagging youth to win the 29th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest.

She was a favourite of the Northern California crowd from the start, often plopping down on her side on stage with her droopy face spread across the ground when she was supposed to be showing off. The judges didn't even need to hear her signature snore to give her the award.

"Do you know you just won the World's Ugliest Dog Contest?" asked Kerry Sanders of NBC News, one of three judges who gave Martha the crown. Her handler Shirley Zindler answered for her: "I'd gloat, but I need a nap."

Martha lumbered away with $1,500, a flashy trophy and a trip to New York for media appearances, all things she could hardly care less about.

The dog, from nearby Sebastopol, was rescued when she was nearly blind from neglect by the Dogwood Animal Rescue Project in Sonoma County, where the contest was held. After several surgeries, she can now see again, Zindler said.

The only animal in this year's contest too big to be held by her handler, Martha beat out 13 other dogs, most of them the kind of older, smaller dogs who win here.

Moe, a 16-year-old Brussels Griffon-pug mix from Santa Rosa, California, who was the oldest in the competition, came in second. He had lost his hearing and sight but his sense of smell is strong and he was enjoying all the smells at the Sonoma-Marin Fair where the contest is held, including funnel cakes and other fried goodies.

Chase, a 14-year-old Chinese Crested-Harke mix, came all the way from Neath, United Kingdom to take third place.

The contestants were judged on first impressions, unusual attributes, personality and audience reaction.

Many of the contestants were adopted. Monkey, a 6-year-old Brussels Griffon, and Icky, an 8-year-old unknown breed, were both rescued from the homes of hoarders.

These dogs  some with acne, others with tongues permanently sticking out  are used to getting called ugly. But for their owners, it was love at first sight.

"He's my sexy boy," Vicky Adler, of Davis, California, said of her 8-year-old Chinese Crested named Zoomer.
Photo: The Canadian Press CIA Director Mike Pompeo thinks the disclosure of America's secret intelligence is on the rise, fuelled partly by the "worship" of leakers like Edward Snowden.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo says he thinks disclosure of America's secret intelligence is on the rise, fuelled partly by the "worship" of leakers like Edward Snowden.

"In some ways, I do think it's accelerated," Pompeo told MSNBC in an interview that aired Saturday. "I think there is a phenomenon, the worship of Edward Snowden, and those who steal American secrets for the purpose of self-aggrandizement or money or for whatever their motivation may be, does seem to be on the increase."

Pompeo said the United States needs to redouble its efforts to stem leaks of classified information.

"It's tough. You now have not only nation states trying to steal our stuff, but non-state, hostile intelligence services, well-funded -- folks like WikiLeaks, out there trying to steal American secrets for the sole purpose of undermining the United States and democracy," Pompeo said.

Besides Snowden, who leaked documents revealing extensive U.S. government surveillance, WikiLeaks recently released nearly 8,000 documents that it says reveal secrets about the CIA's cyberespionage tools for breaking into computers. WikiLeaks previously published 250,000 State Department cables and embarrassed the U.S. military with hundreds of thousands of logs from Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are several other recent cases, including Chelsea Manning, the Army private formerly known as Bradley Manning. She was convicted in a 2013 court-martial of leaking more than 700,000 secret military and State Department documents to WikiLeaks while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. Manning said she leaked the documents to raise awareness about the war's impact on innocent civilians.

Last year, former NSA contractor Harold Thomas Martin III, 51, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, was accused of removing highly classified information, storing it in an unlocked shed and in his car and home. Court documents say investigators seized, conservatively, 50 terabytes of information, or enough to fill roughly 200 laptop computers.
Photo: Contributed B.C. environmentalist Gwen Barlee has died at 54.

UPDATE: 2:55 p.m.

Gwen Barlee grew up in Penticton, and was the daughter of the late Bill Barlee, former NDP cabinet minister and MLA for the Okanagan-Boundary riding from 1988 to 1996.

ORIGINAL: 1:30 p.m.

A defender of wild animals and advocate for better endangered species legislation in British Columbia has died.

The Wilderness Committee says Gwen Barlee, their former national policy director, died yesterday at the age of 54.

The committee said in a statement that Barlee's research and commitment to enhancing government accountability set her apart as an advocate for the environment.

National campaign director Joe Foy says Barlee was instrumental in convincing the B.C. government to protect forest lands to preserve the habitat of the northern spotted owl, one of Canada's most endangered species.

Barlee lobbied tirelessly for the establishment of more provincial and national parks, and once they were created, she ensured they were protected from industrial and private resort activities.

Foy says while colleagues were aware Barlee was fighting cancer, news of her death came as a shock.
Photo: CTV Officers are seen heading to New York City from Toronto to attend the Pride March on Saturday.

If they can't march with Pride in Toronto, they will do it in New York City.

A group of Toronto police officers who are barred from marching in the citys Pride Parade in uniform this weekend are heading to the U.S. where they will march beside their American counterparts.

Some 100 people that include officers from Toronto and other parts of Ontario along with civilian police department employees are headed to the Big Apple to participate in pride festivities there.

The trip was organized after a New York gay advocacy group, Gay Officers Action League, invited the snubbed officers to attend the NYC parade.

And it is not the Toronto Police Service or a government edict that is banning the officers from marching in uniform.

In January, the membership of Pride Toronto voted to ban uniformed officers from this years parade in the wake of a protest from members of Black Lives Matter - Toronto that briefly halted the event last year.

We are delighted and overwhelmed by the support in New York City and that New York was able to get it right, Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack said, as he got ready to board a flight to New York. Our wish and our hope is that Toronto organizers get it right next year.

Police Chief Mark Saunders has said that it is important that the TPS takes a step back from its formal participation in the Pride Parade this year in order to allow important conversations to take place.

McCormack, however, said on Saturday the decision to ban officers from wearing their uniform in the parade is an insult to his members.

It is an insult to the people here who have been working so hard to say that there has been no inroads and that this relationship is fractured, he said

For her part, the executive director of Pride Toronto has previously said that the ban on uniformed police at this years pride parade is not necessarily a permanent one.

"We are utterly welcoming to LGBTQ+ members of the police service and their allies. But what we are asking this year is that they not wear their uniform, that they not bring all the aspects of their uniform until we are able to have conversations with those parts of our community that feel that this is not appropriate to what they would like to celebrate in a parade, Olivia Nuamah said in May.

- with files from CTV News


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Walmart Foundation is helping fight hunger in Tennessee and celebrating a Day of Giving Friday, awarding 14 nonprofits a total of $519,000 in grants. The day featured check presentations in nine locations across the state to organizations providing hunger relief for Tennesseans in need, including $70,000 to the Chattanooga Food Bank.

With one in eight Americans struggling with hunger, Walmart is dedicated to ensuring every family has

access to affordable, healthier and sustainably grown food, said officials. Hunger relief is one of Walmart and the Walmart Foundations core areas of giving, and this commitment includes a goal of providing four billion meals to those struggling with hunger in the U.S. by 2020.

At Walmart we consider it our responsibility to make a positive impact on the communities we serve, and we are proud to support these Tennessee organizations that share our same passion to help people live better, said Sean Riley, Walmart regional general manager. We look forward to seeing each of these organizations use their grant to address the needs of Tennesseans in the communities they serve.

Walmart grants celebrated with Fridays Day of Giving include:

West Tennessee

Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association, Memphis  $50,000 for the Meals on Wheels program providing hot, nutritious lunches for homebound elderly and seniors

Mid-South Food Bank, Memphis  $50,000 for the Hunger's Hope Food Distribution program distributing food and other groceries through a network of partner agencies

Reelfoot Rural Ministries, Inc., Obion  $30,000 for grocery assistance and the school backpack meal

program for those in need

Regional Inter Faith Association, Jackson  $35,000 for the Snack Backpack program providing food to school children who have little or no food over the weekends Middle Tennessee

Bethlehem Centers of Nashville, Nashville  $25,000 for the Meals on Wheels North Nashville program serving daily hot, nutritious meals to eligible individuals and senior citizens

Community Care Fellowship, Nashville  $31,000 for providing hot meals to the homeless

Manna Cafe Ministries, Clarksville  $35,000 for the Pickin Up Manna: School Edition program rescuing surplus food from local stores and restaurants

Mid-Cumberland Human Resource Agency, Nashville  $25,000 for serving nutritious food to seniors

with limited mobility

Rutherford County Emergency Food Bank, Murfreesboro  $35,000 for the organizations Emergency

Food Bank Truck

The Society of Saint Andrew Inc., Nashville  $25,000 for the Tennessee Gleaning Network salvaging

crops that would otherwise be left in the fields

East Tennessee

Blount County Community Action Agency Inc., Maryville  $31,000 for the Smoky Mountain Pre-Meals

on Wheels program providing a nutritious meal to seniors confined to their homes and unable to prepare meals

Chattanooga Area Food Bank Inc., Chattanooga  $70,000 for the Tennessee Produce Empowerment

Program providing just-in-time fresh produce deliveries to 11 southeast Tennessee counties

Morristown Hamblen Central Services, Inc., Morristown  $37,000 for the emergency food pantry

Sevier County Food Ministries, Sevierville  $40,000 for the food pantry serving as an emergency food resource for those experiencing a food shortage

As the nations largest grocer, Walmart is uniquely positioned to support organizations that are on the front lines in the fight against hunger. In addition to donating more than 19 million pounds of food to local Tennessee food banks  equivalent to more than 16 million meals  Walmart and the Walmart Foundation donated more than $50 million toward hunger relief in FY2017, including $234,250 for after school and breakfast in the classroom programs in Tennessee. Working with long-standing grant partners that included the National Recreation and Park Association, Share Our Strength and the Y-USA, grants to these organizations helped provide meal programs and nutrition education for youth and families, as well as increase access to healthy food, like fruits and vegetables.
Corey Ryan Forrester, from left, Trae Crowder (aka the Liberal Redneck) and Drew Morgan of the WellRed Comedy Tour are touring nationally in support of their book, Liberal Redneck Manifesto: Draggin Dixie Outta the Dark. They performed at Thalia Hall on June 23, 2017. (Nicol Bisek photo)

"Ya'll been to the internet lately?"

As drawled Friday night to a sold-out Thalia Hall audience by comedian and Facebook/YouTube sensation Trae Crowder  better known to many as "The Liberal Redneck"  this simple question was enough to ellicit resounding cheers.

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"Turns out not everybody is on board with me," he said, before detailing how both regressive conservatives and uppity "ultra-liberal Portland baristas" think he's a phony, a gimmicky internet comedian playing a part for the glory of likes, shares and money.

"Growing up where and how I did, I never thought in a million years I would have to defend being a redneck to anyone," he declared with a mixture of comic amazement and frustration.

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Crowder, who grew up poor in a small town in rural Tennessee, shot to stardom a little over a year ago in the most modern of ways: a viral video. In the video, a shirtless Crowder, standing on his back porch, goes on an expletive-laden rant about "this transgender bathroom mess."

The reaction to the video was immediate and impressive.

What was even more impressive, especially by internet fame standards, was how Crowder took his newfound celebrity and ran with it. Not only did he consistently put out videos that kept his fan base fed and growing, he locked down a sitcom deal with Fox TV and joined forces with his comedy partners Corey Ryan Forrester and Drew Morgan to launch a stand-up tour (the WellRED Comedy Tour) and pen a book ("The Liberal Redneck Manifesto: Draggin' Dixie Outta the Dark").

This guy may have jokes about his pill-poppin' momma, but he ain't just a flash in the meth pan.

"Clearly I'm a different type of redneck," he said at one point, highlighting the juxtaposition that has intrigued Northerners and excited like-minded Southerners: Here's a man with a thick Southern twang fiercely espousing progressive ideas. But in interview after interview, he's made it clear that he's not unique.

And on the WellRED Comedy Tour, Crowder's got proof in Forrester and Morgan, two comedians who share his combination of liberalism and redneckedness. Though Crowder performed last  and is by far the biggest name on the bill  each of the three men performed for roughly the same amount of time (around 30 minutes each).

Forrester opened strong, pacing the stage energetically and punctuating his set with occasional ranting outbursts or "tangents," as he called them ("Also, I just learned the word 'tangent,'" he said, forcefully playing into stereotype). Forrester is the most intense of the three, serving as an ideal opener who knows how to fire up a crowd.

Morgan  clad all in black, down to his boots  has more of a swaggering McConaughey "alright, alright, alright" style. The son of a preacher and a Sunday school teacher, he led with religious jokes. "I think Jesus was probably (a jerk)," he said. "You guys ever hang out with the boss' kid?"

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Crowder closed out the night with a tight 35 minutes, seeming genuinely amazed by the crowd's reaction to him taking the stage. In jeans, a dress shirt and boots, he looked every bit the Southern everyman, or, as he called people from his hometown, "bath salt of the Earth-type people."

After Crowder's set, the trio conducted a 20-minute Q&A with the audience ("the town hall meeting portion of the show," joked Forrester), something I've only seen one other time  after Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy's set in Rosemont back in January (maybe it's a Southern hospitality thing?).

But this Q&A made it clear how stark the divide is between the North and South. While Southern transplants mostly took the chance to thank the comedians for challenging redneck stereotypes, most Chicagoans asked pointed questions that implied the show was almost anthropological for them. A chance to speak to and hear from a real, live ruralite!

"Clearly Chicago gets it, but how do you take this message to your hometowns?" asked one woman, prompting Morgan to translate sarcastically, "Obviously Chicago's good. No problems here. How you gonna fix all those (dummies) where you're from?"

Later someone asked what liberals can do to understand why people voted for Trump. "Listen," said Forrester seriously, adding that really trying to understand doesn't mean calling people dumb or walking away when you disagree. "If we did that more as liberals, we probably wouldn't have alienated half the country!"

And here's the key to this trio's appeal, their biggest asset for a successful long-term run as a comedy collective and not just as a brief anti-Trumpian backlash oddity held up by Northern progressives as a representative of what Southerners should be, by gosh: their willingness to tackle both sides with equal vehemence, defending the honor of their fellow rednecks (even as they disagree with them) and mocking urban liberals (even as they share most of their political ideals).

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Political correctness is not their forte. "I'm a liberal, but I'm also a comedian," said Forrester early on in his set. "I don't know what I can say to us anymore!"

Morgan expressed a similar sentiment, remarking on how now that he lives in New York City, he misses being the contrarian liberal in the South, adding that hanging out with liberals can be equally frustrating: "Turns out when you get a lot of us together, we are ... insufferable."

Crowder, after a story about how pets are treated in his hometown received a few shocked sounds, defensively and succinctly summed up his act: "I'm just reporting, I'm not condoning."

America needs more reporters like these three.

Zach Freeman is a freelance writer.

ctc-arts@chicagotribune.com

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Twitter @ZachRunsChicago
Chicago  Days after Pilsen residents were shocked to find Casa Aztlan's classic murals painted grey, the new developer, Andrew Ahitow of City Pads LLC, promised to reserve an exterior wall for a fresh mural designed by local residents, he said in an interview with HOY on Friday.



The destroyed artwork dated back to the Chicano Movement in the Midwest in the 1970s, and its erasure was a blow to long-standing residents of Mexican descent who are now struggling to keep their homes in Pilsen despite the rising cost of living, as they manifested during a vigil in front of "Casa Aztlan" this week at 1831 S. Racine.



Although the community center was lost to mismanagement in 2013 under the director, Carlos Arango, the added value of the property and developers ready to buy--both symptoms of gentrification--made the center more difficult to save, they said.



Still, its aesthetic was a monument to the Mexican and activist heritage in Chicago, now lost, they mourned.



The property will be turned into 10 market-rate rental apartments.



"We are in communication with the alderman's office and having conversations with Pilsen Alliance," Ahitow said. "We are looking to engage either the original artist or another local one."



Alderman Solis said his office will set up a meeting with the developer next week to discuss the next steps.



"The Casa Aztlan mural was a reminder of where we come from, our culture and our traditions. I'm heartened to hear the owners are interested in working on a new mural with local artists," Solis said.



Ray Patlan painted the first murals 47 years ago, and they were gradually redone and maintained by a host of muralists and youth, including distinguished artists Marcos Raya, Salvador Vega and Robert Valadez.



Patlan told the Tribune from his home in Oakland that he would be happy to lead a community effort to recreate the mural, if asked.

He recently lost another mural to development, "Reforma y Libertad" (1972), which he painted with teens from Casa Aztlan and which stood next to Juarez Academy in Pilsen since before the school was built; in January it was demolished to make way for Alulu brewery, 2011 S. Laflin.



The founding president of the National Museum of Mexican Art, Carlos Tortolero, lamented the destruction of the Casa Aztlan murals and said that painting over the building was like "whitewashing it with color," he told the Chicago Tribune earlier.

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Tortolero added that he would prefer for the original design of the mural to be kept.

Ahitow assured that the community will have the last word on the design of the new mural.
Chicago Police officers stand near an ambulance at the scene of a shooting in the 600 block of North Cicero Avenue on June 24, 2017, in the South Austin neighborhood of Chicago. A 38-year-old man sustained a graze wound to the chest. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

At least 19 people were wounded, one fatally, in separate shootings during a span of 10 hours from Friday afternoon to early Saturday, according to police.

The attacks happened in nearly every part of the city. The youngest victims were two 15-year-old boys who were wounded in separate attacks on the South Side.

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The fatal shooting happened in the West Garfield Park neighborhood about 6:35 p.m. Friday in the 4700 block of W. West End Avenue, police said.

A 21-year-old man was on the porch of a home when two men got out of a yellow car, walked up to him and opened fire, police said. The 21-year-old man was shot in the head.

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He had been taken in critical condition to Stroger Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

A 15-year-old boy was shot about 2:55 a.m. Saturday in the Gage Park neighborhood, police said. He was inside a car near 54th Street and Campbell Avenue when someone shot him in the arm. His condition was stabilized at Mount Sinai Hospital.

Another 15-year-old boy was shot about 6 p.m. Friday in the 900 block of East Pershing Road. He was standing outside when a vehicle approached and an occupant fired shots, striking him in the hand, according to police. He was taken in good condition to Comer Children's Hospital, police said.

The scene of a shooting in the 8000 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue on June 24, 2017, in the Chatham neighborhood. A 56-year-old woman was walking on the sidewalk when she heard gunshots and felt pain on the side of her head. She was transported to Jackson Park Hospital in good condition, and she was treated and released. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Other shootings:

About 2:35 a.m., a 52-year-old man was shot in the leg while he was standing in the 7500 block of South Wentworth Avenue in the West Chatham neighborhood. The shooter got out of a car and opened fire. His condition was stabilized at St. Bernard Hospital.

In North Austin, an 18-year-old man was shot in the finger when someone fired shots into a car that he was sitting in, according to police. The shooting happened about 2:05 a.m. in the 1300 block of North Lavergne Avenue while he was in the backseat of the car. He took himself to West Suburban Medical Center, where he was listed in good condition.

Just before 1:55 a.m., two people were wounded while they were standing in the 1400 block of North Kildare Avenue in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood. The shooter was inside a dark van that approached and opened fire, striking a 23-year-old man in the ankle. A 22-year-old man was grazed in the cheek, but he declined medical attention. The older man was in good condition at Norwegian American Hospital.

About 1:40 a.m., a 56-year-old woman was shot on the side of her head while she was walking in the 8000 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue in the Chatham neighborhood, police said. She was taken in good condition to Jackson Park Hospital, where she was later released.

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In Gresham, a 26-year-old man was shot in the arm about 1:15 a.m. while he was sitting on the porch of a home in the 8800 block of South Ada Street. He was listed in good condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center.

On the North Side, a 49-year-old man was shot in the leg about 12:45 a.m. while he was riding his bicycle in the 1200 block of North Clybourn Avenue, police said. He notified officers about what happened after he felt pain. His condition was stabilized at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

A 17-year-old girl was shot in the right leg after people inside two vehicles began arguing at a red light about 12:30 a.m. Saturday in the 7600 block of South Stony Island in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. The teen was in a car when men inside a gray sedan pulled up and began arguing with people inside the car that the teen girl was in, police said. Someone inside the gray car then began shooting at the car, wounding the 17-year-old girl. She was taken in good condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

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About 11:55 p.m. Friday, officers responded to a call of shots fired in the 5800 block of West Ohio Street in South Austin and found a 28-year-old man who had been shot in the head, police said. He was taken in critical condition to Stroger Hospital.

Chicago police officers investigate a shooting in the 5800 block of West Ohio Street on June 24, 2017, in the South Austin neighborhood. A 28-year-old man was shot in the head and taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune) (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

About 11:10 p.m., a man in his 20s walked into Stroger Hospital with a gunshot wound to his right side. He left the hospital before doctors and nurses were able to treat his injury. The man did not want to cooperate with investigators. Police do not know where the shooting happened or the man's identity.

In the Cragin neighborhood, a 38-year-old man was shot in the head while he was in an alley in the 4900 block of West Wolfram Street, police said. Four men inside a black vehicle drove up to the man, got out of the car and began shooting at the man. He was taken in serious condition to Stroger Hospital.

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A 24-year-old man and a 29-year-old man were shot while they were in a car about 7:25 p.m. in the 6700 block of South Stony Island Avenue in the Grand Crossing neighborhood, police said. The younger man was shot in the arm and leg while the older man was shot in the arm. They were both taken to Advocate Trinity Hospital, where their conditions had stabilized, police said.

A 17-year-old boy was shot in the abdomen also about 7:25 p.m. in the 4900 block of West Rice Street in the city's South Austin neighborhood. The boy told police a dark-colored car pulled up and someone inside fired shots, hitting him. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in serious condition, police said.

An 18-year-old man was shot about 6:45 p.m. in the 4000 block of West Roosevelt Road in the Lawndale neighborhood, police said. He was walking when a black vehicle pulled up and someone inside fired a shot, hitting him in the hip, police said. The victim fled to a home in the 4000 block of West Grenshaw Street, where paramedics responded and took him to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition.

About 5 p.m., a 32-year-old man was shot in the wrist in the 600 block of North Lawndale Avenue in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, police said. The man, who was not cooperating with investigators, was taken in good condition to Norwegian American Hospital, police said.
A grant announcement by the Department of Homeland Security eliminated funding for the Chicago-based Life After Hate, which was initially awarded the money in January during the closing days of the Obama administration.

Life After Hate, run by a former skinhead, is among a handful of domestic programs dedicated to helping people leave white power groups including neo-Nazi organizations and the Ku Klux Klan, and it was the only one of the original grant recipients dedicated solely to combatting white extremism.

The co-founder of Life After Hate, Christian Picciolini, said in an emailed statement, "While it's disappointing that DHS broke its promise to us by changing the rules to the grant after we'd already won it, it is more alarming that the current administration is refusing to acknowledge that white nationalist extremists are a major domestic terrorist threat."

Picciolini has publicly criticized the Trump administration for ties to white extremists. He pledged to continue serving those in need.

In all, Homeland Security awarded $10 million to 26 police and community organizations, none of which has a specific mission to counter groups in the so-called "alt-right," a hodge-podge of white supremacists, white populists and white nationalists, many of whom supported Trump for president.

The agency said the grants, awarded under the Combatting Violent Extremism program, will target "all forms of violent extremism, including the rising threat from Islamist terrorism." Spokesman David Lapan this week denied the program is now concentrating only on Islamic extremism.

Grant applications were re-evaluated based on factors including whether an organization had a track record of combatting violent extremism, the department said, and groups that didn't were eliminated.

Ten other Obama-approved grants also were cut, including $867,000 for the University of North Carolina to produce anti-jihadist videos and $393,800 for the Muslim Public Affairs Council Foundation, which was critical of the move to cut funding for Life After Hate.

"The Trump administration's mishandling of the grant process underscores two fundamental flaws in its (Combatting Violent Extremism) policy: It focuses on criminal investigations in a non-criminal space, and it turns a blind eye to white supremacist violence," the group said in a statement.

The Claremont School of Theology in Los Angeles, which has a division for Islamic studies that had been awarded $800,000 by the Obama administration, opted out of the program under Trump.

Jihad Turk, president of the Bayan Claremont Islamic Graduate School, said questions existed about the government's approach under Obama, and they got worse under Trump.

"When Trump took over we waited to see which way he would go," Turk said in a telephone interview. "Everyone sees the direction he is going, and the rhetoric has only escalated."

New grant recipients include the Tennessee-based Nashville International Center for Empowerment, which works with refugees and immigrants and received $445,110; four police agencies; and the National Governor's Association, which received $500,000.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said the agency is "stepping up efforts to counter terrorist recruitment and radicalization," and he sought a thorough review of the grant program after taking office. That review led to the new list.

"We will closely monitor these efforts to identify and amplify promising approaches to prevent terrorism," Kelly said in a statement.
Shootings in Chicago neighborhoods occurred in South Austin, Chatham, Little Village, Lawndale, Humboldt Park, near Montrose Dog Beach and other areas June 21-25, 2017. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune) (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

Two men were killed and 14 other people, including a 15-year-old boy, were injured in shootings from Saturday to early Sunday on the West and South sides.

In the most recent fatal shooting, a 44-year-old man was shot dead about 2:40 a.m. in the 7900 block of South Brandon Avenue in the South Chicago area.

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He was heading north in a car on Brandon Avenue when he crashed into a parked car. When paramedics arrived, they realized the man had been shot in the left shoulder and head.

The 44-year-old man was taken to South Shore Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

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A man was fatally shot about 5 p.m. in the 1200 block of North Laramie Avenue in the city's North Austin neighborhood. The man was on foot when a vehicle drove past him and someone inside fired shots and hit him in the chest, police said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:53 p.m.

He was identified as Maurice Purnell, of the 4900 block of West Kamerling Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Court records indicate Purnell was 28 years old, though police reported him being 29 years old.

Three men were wounded within an hour early Sunday in the Little Village neighborhood, according to officials.

About 4:10 a.m., a 25-year-old man was shot in the left leg while he was driving in the 3200 block of West Cermak Road in Little Village, police said. He took himself to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.

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About 10 minutes earlier, another man was wounded in Little Village. About 4 a.m., someone shot a 24-year-old man in the right leg as he was coming out of his home in the 2200 block of South Christiana Avenue, police said. His condition was stabilized at Mount Sinai Hospital.

About 3:10 a.m., a 30-year-old man was seriously wounded in a shooting in the 2200 block of South Hamlin Avenue in Little Village. He was standing outside when someone in a beige-colored Mercedes pulled up and the passenger opened fire, striking him in the leg and buttocks. He was listed in serious condition at Mount Sinai Hospital.

The 15-year-old boy was shot about 4:10 p.m. Saturday in the 8600 block of South Kingston Avenue in the South Chicago neighborhood. He suffered a wound to the hip and was taken to Comer Children's Hospital, where he was listed in good condition, police said.

In other shootings:

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A 38-year-old man was seriously injured about 3:10 a.m. Sunday while he was in the 2700 block of West Madison Street in the Near West Side neighborhood. Officers were responding to a call of a person shot and found the 38-year-old man in a parking lot. He had been shot in the upper body, and he was taken in serious condition to Stroger Hospital.

About 12:50 a.m. Sunday, a 28-year-old woman was shot in the right shoulder while she was in a car with someone else in the 5400 block of West Thomas Street in Austin. The shooter approached the car and opened fire, striking the woman. She was taken to West Suburban Medical Center, where she was listed in good condition.

About 10:50 p.m. Saturday, a 38-year-old man was grazed in the chest while he was inside a trailer in a vacant lot in the 600 block of North Cicero Avenue in Austin. He told police he heard a gunshot and realized he had been wounded. He was in good condition at Mount Sinai Hospital.

In Humboldt Park about 9:25 p.m. Saturday, a 23-year-old man was shot in the right leg during a drive-by shooting, police said. He was in the 3600 block of West Division Street when someone inside a black Charger shot at him. His condition was stabilized at Norwegian American Hospital.

A 26-year-old man was shot in the face while he was seated in a car in the 7900 block of South Ridgeland Avenue in the South Chicago neighborhood, police said. About 8:20 p.m., the shooter approached and opened fire. He was in critical condition at Jackson Park Hospital.

About 6:30 p.m., 26-year-old man who may have been using a wheelchair was shot in the chest in the 6100 block of South King Drive in the Washington Park neighborhood, police said. As he was getting out of a van, someone fired shots, striking him in the chest. Someone drove the victim to the University of Chicago Medical Center for treatment, police said.

About 5:30 p.m., a 22-year-old man was shot in the 3800 block of West Lexington Street in the Lawndale neighborhood. He was traveling in a vehicle when he heard shots and felt pain and realized he was shot in the right eye and right thigh, police said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was in serious condition.

Earlier Saturday within about three hours, three men were wounded in shootings in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the West Side.

About 9:55 a.m. in the 3800 block of West Chicago Avenue, someone on foot approached a 23-year-old man and opened fire, striking him in the abdomen, police said. The man was taken in serious condition to Mount Sinai Hospital.

About 8:55 a.m., a 31-year-old man was shot in the 1200 block of North Harding Avenue. The victim suffered a wound to the left shoulder and was taken to Norwegian American Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, according to preliminary reports, police said.

Earlier, a 19-year-old man was seriously wounded and was the first person shot Saturday in the Humboldt Park area. About 6:45 a.m., the man walked into Norwegian American Hospital and said he had been shot in the 1300 block of North Pulaski Road. The man, who suffered a gunshot wound to the left shoulder, was listed in serious condition and later was transferred to Stroger Hospital, police said.

No one was in custody for any of the Saturday attacks, and police were investigating.

Check back for updates.
A Logan Square man accused of home invasion and sexual abuse after two separate "peeping Tom'' incidents was ordered held without bail Saturday.

Francisco Chavez, 39, of the 2600 block of West North Avenue in Logan Square, was charged with home invasion, attempted aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual abuse, residential burglary and criminal trespassing when someone is home, according to a statement from Chicago police.

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The most recent attack happened Friday at the home of a witness who was visiting Chicago and staying at another witness' apartment in the 1400 block of North Wood Street.

The visiting witness met the victim, a 29-year-old woman, at a bar, and they took a ride-sharing service back to the Wood Street apartment.

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While waiting to be buzzed in, Chavez allegedly rode his bicycle near the 29-year-old woman and tried to grab her. She screamed, "No!", and she and the witness were buzzed in at the apartment and later went to sleep.

About 5:15 a.m. though, the victim felt someone kissing her buttocks, touching her thigh and pulling off her clothing, prosecutors said. When she opened her eyes, she saw Chavez and screamed, but he punched her in the face several times, prosecutors said.

She continued to scream and struggle with the intruder as one of the witnesses ran out of his bedroom and turned on the kitchen light, saw her being attacked, grabbed a sword he had hanging on a wall and chased Chavez out the back door and down the porch steps, prosecutors said.

The victim called 911, and while waiting for police, they found a hat and Chavez's wallet, which contained his Mexican consulate ID. Responding officers also spotted a long-sleeved blue T-shirt on the back stairs, and the victim said it was the shirt he was wearing during the attack, prosecutors said.

Chavez then went to the police station to report he had been robbed, but police ran his name and learned he was wanted for an earlier attack, on June 17, prosecutors said.

In that incident, a 27-year-old woman reportedly saw him urinating outside in the 1400 block of Blackhawk Street about 12:30 p.m. He began following her, and when she realized it, she crossed the street and went home.

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When the woman's dog walker arrived to walk her neighbor's dog, he saw Chavez pacing in front of her apartment, pretending to be on the phone. He asked Chavez what he was doing and he said: "I'm just waiting for that white b---- next door,'' prosecutors said.

Another witness who was working with the dog walker arrived, and they took the dogs for a walk. But about 1:20 p.m., the victim saw Chavez "peeping" into her window and she ran out the back door, according to prosecutors.

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Contractors working on a house next door saw her screaming and chased him away, prosecutors said, but when the dog walkers got back at 2 p.m., they saw Chavez climbing through the victim's window. She heard a noise from her bedroom, opened her bedroom door, saw the window open and then saw Chavez standing in her closet, prosecutors said.

She screamed again and ran out of the house. He fled, but the contractors gave chase and he ran down the alley, prosecutors said.

He is also being investigated for two additional similar incidents, but charges have not been filed on those.

Chavez was denied bail during a hearing Saturday before Judge Peggy Chiampas at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

Chicago Tribune's William Lee contributed.
A motorcade escorting Vice President Mike Pence crosses Michigan Avenue on June 24, 2017, in Chicago. Pence was in town to speak during the Republican National Committee summer retreat at the Four Seasons Hotel. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Vice President Mike Pence stopped in Chicago on Saturday, rallying top Republican officials to support the party's health care plan amid deep concerns among some rank-and-file senators over a plan poised for a vote soon.

"This is our moment. Now is the time. Every moment Obamacare survives is another day America suffers," Pence posted on his personal Twitter account about his remarks to a gathering of the Republican National Committee at a downtown hotel.

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"Before summer's out, we'll repeal/replace Obamacare w(ith)/system based on personal responsibility, free market competition & state-based reform," the former Indiana governor tweeted. His posts often accompanied by photos of his appearance in a hotel ballroom.

Pence added, "That's the Republican way. That's the American way. And that's the way we're going to reform health care in the 21st Century."

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Pence's visit comes as Senate Republicans review a new health care plan and weigh the political benefits and liabilities of moving forward. The proposal differs in some aspects from a House measure approved earlier this year. It includes provisions that would affect those lower-income or disabled individuals who gained health coverage through an expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, as well as premium spikes for older Americans not yet eligible for Medicare.

The issue is acute for many states that expanded healthcare eligibility under the joint federal-state Medicaid program. The Senate GOP plan would give states three years to adjust to a sizable loss of federal reimbursement for Medicaid expansion.

But some GOP senators representing states that rapidly expanded Medicaid health care coverage have said the time frame is too short to adjust budgets. Currently, the federal government pays 95 percent of the costs of the expanded enrollment. At least five Republican senators have said they can't vote for the latest version in its present form. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell can't lose more than two and still pass the plan.

In Illinois, about 650,000 residents could lose Medicaid coverage under the Senate bill, and subsequent effects of state law, in 2021.

Some Republican governors who agreed to the Medicaid expansion have voiced concerns to the Senate and President Donald Trump's administration, such as Ohio Gov. John Kasich. In Illinois, which is undergoing a deep budget crisis, Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration has only said it has "concerns" as it reviews the plan, a response eliciting scorn from Democrats including prospective challengers next year.

The vice president also noted recent special election congressional victories by Republican candidates, including last week's victory by Karen Handel in suburban Atlanta over a strong challenge mounted by Democrat John Ossoff.

"I've got Georgia on my mind & it's driving nat'l media crazy," Pence tweeted. In a follow up post, he added, "The President promised we'd get tired of winning & a lot of people in the media are getting tired, but they better get used to it."

Pence left Chicago on Air Force Two in the afternoon to join Trump at the wedding of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Illinois State Police said his motorcade may have caused a temporary traffic holdup but that the roads were clear as of 2:30 p.m.

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Chicago Tribune's Marwa Eltagouri contributed.

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Illinois U.S. senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, seen here in 2016, have set up a screening committee of legal experts to vet the top candidate for the next U.S. attorney in Chicago. (Anthony Souffle / Chicago Tribune)

The search for a U.S. attorney in Chicago has narrowed as the Trump administration has sent the name of its top candidate to Illinois' two Democratic senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth , for consideration.

The finalist, who has not been publicly identified, is believed to be one of three men who catapulted to a short list from an original field of about 20.

The three are Michael Scudder, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; Andrew Porter, a partner at Drinker, Biddle & Reath LLP; and John Lausch, a partner in Kirkland and Ellis LLP's Chicago office. They are well-respected attorneys whose experience and integrity make them prime candidates, sources told the Tribune.

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The U.S. attorney in the Chicago-based Northern District of Illinois will replace Zachary Fardon , who resigned.

Emily Hampsten, a spokeswoman for Durbin, divulged that the White House has selected one prospective nominee. That person now is undergoing a standard background check, a source told the Tribune. More vetting is ahead, since Durbin and Duckworth have set up a screening committee of legal experts in the Northern District.

One committee member is Laurie Mikva, a clinical assistant professor at Northwestern University School of Law and the daughter of the late Abner Mikva, a Democrat who served in Congress and on the federal bench.

The screening committee members have spoken by phone, but have not yet scheduled a meeting, Laurie Mikva said Friday. She and others would not divulge the name of the finalist.

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The Tribune has also learned the names of four finalists for U.S. Attorney in the Springfield-based Central District of Illinois: Timothy Bass, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District who now is prosecuting former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill.; Joe Hartzler, a special counsel in Gov. Bruce Rauner's office and a former assistant U.S. attorney in the district; Judge Thomas Keith, a state judge and former federal prosecutor; and John Milhiser, the Sangamon County state's attorney.

The finalists emerged after interviews with House Republicans from Illinois and White House and Justice Department officials. By tradition, a nominee will not be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee unless both home-state senators approve.

kskiba@chicagotribune.com

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While landing at a rain-soaked airport in Dayton, Ohio, on Friday, an Air Force fighter jet skidded off the runway and flipped upside down, trapping two men inside for more than an hour.

A pilot took the F-16D Fighting Falcon out from Dayton International Airport in the morning to prepare for an air show this weekend, the commander of the Air Force Thunderbirds told reporters. The airport got a record-breaking amount of rain that day, according to the Dayton Daily News, but the Air Force said the weather had been deemed safe to fly in.

And sure enough, nothing happened to the F-16 while it was in the air. Even the landing - shortly after noon in wind and rain - looked smooth to one witness.

Until, that is, the jet rolled straight off the runway.

"I looked up and I said, 'Man, he's going really fast,'" the man told WHIO 7. "He was almost hydroplaning."

He saw the jet swerve left, then right, then briefly go airborne, flip and land on its canopy.

Lt. Col. Jason Heard, who leads the Air Force's aerial acrobatics team, said the jet skidded about 300 feet off the end of the runway, and that he could not recall another incident quite like it in the Thunderbirds' 64-year history.

The pilot, Capt. Erik Gonsalves, had more than 1,600 flight hours, as well as combat experience, Heard said. He had been taking Tech. Sgt. Kenneth Cordova out for a sort of practice flight before Saturday's show.

Though they weren't badly hurt, an airport official said both men were stuck inside the overturned jet for "an inordinate amount of time."

"It was complicated," Dayton aviation director Terry Slaybaugh told reporters, describing how emergency crews and airport officials took about two hours to extract the men from a military jet "we're not familiar with."

Heard said both men were conscious the whole time, and they even helped direct emergency crews in the rescue. The captain was hospitalized with cuts and a leg injury, while the tech sergeant had no apparent injuries, and both men are expected to be fine.

While it has not offered any explanation for how Gonsalves crashed, the Air Force plans to eventually release a report on its investigation.

"We have a very, very good safety record," Heard said, though he acknowledged this was not the first crash in Thunderbirds history.

It was just over a year ago, in fact, that a Thunderbirds F-16 crashed after flying over an Air Force Academy graduation ceremony with President Barack Obama in attendance - on the same day that a Navy Blue Angels pilot was killed in yet another air show incident in another state.

Air show pilots, as Thomas Gibbons-Neff wrote for The Washington Post, are typically among the best in the military.

And fatal accidents are rare, according to an analysis by the Chicago Tribune in 2015 - after an Army skydiver was killed in a performance. Excepting a catastrophic plane vs. crowd incident in Reno, Nev., that killed 11 people in 2011, the newspaper reported, most years see between one and three deaths.

Gonsalves was in his first season with the Thunderbirds, according to the Dayton Daily News, and was an advance pilot and narrator for the show. He would not have actually flown in Saturday's performance in Dayton - which, due to the crash, will now take place without the Thunderbirds' climactic flyover.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia  A suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque at Mecca as police disrupted a plot to target the holiest site in Islam just as the fasting month of Ramadan ends, Saudi security forces said Saturday.

The Interior Ministry said it launched a raid around Jiddah, as well as two areas in Mecca itself, including the Ajyad Al-Masafi neighborhood, located near the Grand Mosque.

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There, police said they engaged in a shootout at a three-story house a suicide bomber, who blew himself up and led to the building's collapse. He was killed while the blast wounded six foreigners and five members of security forces, according to the Interior Ministry's statement. Five others were arrested, including a woman, it said.

Saudi state television aired footage after the raid Friday near the Grand Mosque, showing police and rescue personnel running through the neighborhood's narrow streets. The blast demolished the building, its walls crushing a parked car as what appeared to be shrapnel and bullet holes peppered nearby structures.

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The Interior Ministry "confirms that this terrorist network, whose terrorist plan was thwarted, violated, in what they would have perpetrated, all sanctities by targeting the security of the Grand Mosque, the holiest place on Earth."

"They obeyed their evil and corrupt self-serving schemes managed from abroad whose aim is to destabilize the security and stability of this blessed country," the statement said.

The ministry did not name the group involved in the attack. The ultraconservative Sunni kingdom battled an al-Qaida insurgency for years and more recently has faced attacks from a local branch of the Islamic State group. Neither group immediately claimed those arrested, though Islamic State sympathizers online have urged more attacks as an offensive in Iraq slowly squeezes the extremists out of Mosul and their de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria comes under daily bombing from a U.S.-led coalition.

The disrupted attack comes at a sensitive time in Saudi Arabia as King Salman earlier this week short-circuited the kingdom's succession by making his son, Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman, first in line to the throne. The newly appointed crown prince, 31 years old, is the architect of Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen against Shiite rebels, now stalemated. He has also offered aggressive comments about the kingdom confronting Shiite power Iran.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have cut diplomatic ties to neighboring Qatar and are trying to isolate the energy-rich tiny country over its alleged support of militants and ties to Iran. Qatar long has denied those allegations.

As the Interior Ministry announced the raid, over 1 million Muslim faithful prayed at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina to mark the end of Ramadan. In July 2016, a suicide bombing there killed four members of Saudi Arabia's security forces. Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque, the burial site of the Prophet Muhammad, every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca. The same day in July, separate suicide bomb attacks targeted a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia and near the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah.

The Grand Mosque has been the target of militants before, in part as it represents a symbol of the ruling Al Saud family's clout in the Islamic world. King Salman is known as the "custodian of the two holy mosques," a title used by the monarchs before him as well.

In 1979, some 250 militants seized the mosque and held it for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne. When Saudi troops stormed the mosque, the official death toll was 229, including extremists and soldiers.

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
A deserted cell in the public section of Aden Central Prison is shown in this May 9, 2017 photo in Aden, Yemen. A separate, closed wing is run by Yemeni allies of the United Arab Emirates, part of a network of secret prisons in southern Yemen into which hundreds of people have disappeared after being detained in the hunt for al-Qaida militants over the past year. (Maad El Zikry / AP)

WASHINGTON  Pressure mounted on the U.S. Defense Department Friday after multiple U.S. senators called for investigations into reports that U.S. military interrogators worked with forces from the United Arab Emirates who are accused of torturing detainees in Yemen.

John McCain, Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the ranking Democrat, Jack Reed, called the reports "deeply disturbing."

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The reports were revealed in an investigation by The Associated Press published Thursday.

That same day, McCain and Reed wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis asking him to conduct an immediate review of the reported abuse and what U.S. forces knew.

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"Even the suggestion that the United States tolerates torture by our foreign partners compromises our national security mission by undermining the moral principle that distinguishes us from our enemies our belief that all people possess basic human rights," the senators wrote Mattis . "We are confident that you find these allegations as extremely troubling as we do."

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, also called for an investigation and noted that support for the UAE forces could violate a law he wrote that forbids funding to known human rights violators.

"Reports of acts of torture by agents of a government that is supported by the United States, and the possibility that U.S. military personnel may have been aware of it, should ring alarm bells at the Department of Defense," Leahy said in a statement to the AP.

The AP's report detailed a network of secret prisons across southern Yemen where hundreds are detained in the hunt for al-Qaida militants and held without charges. American defense officials confirmed to the AP that U.S. forces have interrogated some detainees in Yemen but denied any participation in, or knowledge of, human rights abuses.

Defense officials told the AP that the department had looked into reports of torture and concluded that its personnel were not involved or aware of any abuse. The American officials confirmed that the U.S. provides questions to the Emiratis and receives transcripts of their interrogations. The officials said the U.S. also provides information to the UAE on suspected al-Qaida militants that the U.S. believes should be picked up or questioned.

Yemeni Brig. Gen. Farag Salem al-Bahsani, commander of the Mukalla-based 2nd Military District, told the AP that many of those men were later arrested.

"I'm troubled by the Pentagon's legalistic responses to these reports that U.S. officials worked in facilities where torture was widespread," Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said in a statement. "U.S. allies have an obligation not to torture and the bar for the U.S. is higher than 'torture is OK if we don't see it.'"

The American Civil Liberties Union also said Friday that it had filed a Freedom of Information Act request for U.S. records related to the interrogations.

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The 18 lock-ups are run by the UAE and by Yemeni forces it created, according to accounts from former detainees, families of prisoners, civil rights lawyers and Yemeni military officials. At the Riyan airport in the southern Yemeni city of Mukalla, former inmates described shipping containers smeared with feces and crammed with blindfolded detainees. They said they were beaten, roasted alive on a spit and sexually assaulted, among other abuse. One witness, who is a member of a Yemeni security force, said American forces were at times only yards (meters) away.

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Friday that the allegations are "completely untrue" and a "political game" by Yemeni militias to discredit a Saudi-led coalition that includes the UAE. It says it does not run or oversee any prisons in Yemen, and that any such facilities are under "the jurisdiction of the Yemeni legitimate authorities."

Most of the clandestine sites are run by either the Hadramawt Elite or Security Belt, Yemeni forces that were created, trained and financed by the UAE. Officially, they are under the authority of Yemen's internationally recognized government, but multiple Yemeni government officials told the AP they have no control over them and they answer to the Emiratis.

At least three of the prisons, however, are directly run by the Emirates, along with a fourth prison housing Yemenis at an Emirati base in Eritrea, according to four senior Yemeni government and military officials, former detainees and families of prisoners.

At Riyan Airport prison in the southern Yemeni city of Mukalla, six former detainees described hundreds of prisoners held in shipping containers and gave extensive accounts of abuses, saying the officers in charge and those conducting interrogations were Emiratis. Families held frequent protests outside Riyan seeking news about loved ones imprisoned there. Several relatives of prisoners told the AP that they spoke repeatedly with the Emirati officer in charge of the site, who identified himself only by a pseudonym, Abu Ahmed, trying to secure their relatives' release.

The former detainees and the relatives of prisoners spoke on condition of anonymity fearing retaliation against themselves or their loved ones.

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"We request that you direct an immediate review of the facts and circumstances related to these alleged abuses, including U.S. support to the Emirati and Yemeni partner forces that were purportedly involved," the lawmakers wrote.

McCain, a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War, was captured after his plane was shot down in 1967. He was imprisoned for more than five and half years and tortured repeatedly before he was released in 1973. In the Senate, McCain has criticized harsh treatment of terror suspects by the CIA at "black site" prisons and was a key sponsor of the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act prohibiting inhumane treatment of prisoners.

Michael reported from Cairo. Stephen Braun contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump listens during a demonstration at the American Leadership in Emerging Technology event in the East Room of the White House on June 22, 2017. (Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post)

President Donald Trump has a new morning ritual. Around 6:30 a.m. on many days - before all the network news shows have come on the air - he gets on the phone with a member of his outside legal team to chew over all things Russia.

The calls - detailed by three senior White House officials - are part strategy consultation and part presidential venting session, during which Trump's lawyers and public-relations gurus take turns reviewing the latest headlines with him. They also devise their plan for battling his avowed enemies: the special counsel leading the Russia investigation; the "fake news" media chronicling it; and, in some instances, the president's own Justice Department overseeing the probe.

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His advisers have encouraged the calls - which the early-to-rise Trump takes from his private quarters in the White House residence - in the hope that he can compartmentalize the widening Russia investigation. By the time the president arrives for work in the Oval Office, the thinking goes, he will no longer be consumed by the Russia probe that he complains hangs over his presidency like a darkening cloud.

It rarely works, however. Asked whether the tactic was effective, one top White House adviser paused for several seconds and then just laughed.

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Trump's grievances and moods often bleed into one another. Frustration with the investigation stews inside him until it bubbles up in the form of rants to aides about unfair cable television commentary or as slights aimed at Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein.

And, of course, it emerges in fiery tweets about the "WITCH HUNT" - or, as he wrote Thursday morning, shortly before an event promoting leadership in technology, "a big Dem HOAX!"

The morning calls reflect another way that Trump's tumultuous administration is adapting to an unremitting season of investigations and to the president's seemingly uncontrollable reactions to them. Interviews with 22 senior administration officials, outside advisers, and Trump confidants and allies reveal a White House still trying, after five months of halting progress, to establish a steady rhythm of governance while also indulging and managing Trump's combative and sometimes self-destructive impulses.

The White House is laboring to prevent the Russia matter from overtaking its broader agenda, diligently rolling out a series of theme weeks, focusing on topics including infrastructure and workforce development. West Wing aides are working to keep the president on schedule, trotting him around the country in front of the supportive crowds that energize him. And Trump is planning several big announcements on trade in the coming weeks, before jetting off to Poland and Germany in early July.

"This is not astrophysics," chief strategist Stephen Bannon said. "You solidify your base and you grow your base by getting things done. That's what people want to see."

Senior officials have also been devising an overhaul of the White House communications operation to better meet the offensive and defensive demands of the president they serve, as well as the 24-hour cycle of tweet-size news.

"As his detractors suffer from this never-ending 'Russian concussion,' the president has been tending to business as usual - bilateral meetings, progress on health care, tax and infrastructure reform, and job creation," said Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president. "Conjecture about the mood and momentum of the West Wing is inaccurate and overwrought. The pace is breakneck, the trajectory upward."

Inside and outside the White House, advisers and friends are also engaging in quiet, informal conversations about when it makes sense for embattled Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to step aside - and who his replacement should be. Some of Priebus' most senior colleagues speak ill of his leadership abilities, with one tagging him "the most imperiled person here," although others insist Priebus is in solid standing with the president.

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Some in the White House fret over what they view as the president's fits of rage, and Trump's longtime friends say his mood has been more sour than at any point since they have known him.

They privately worry about his health, noting that he appears to have gained weight in recent months and that the darkness around his eyes reveals his stress.

But others who interact with Trump each day have a more positive interpretation of his behavior, saying his mood is far sunnier than news reports would suggest. Hope Hicks, Trump's director of strategic communications, who sits at a desk just outside the Oval Office, said the president is optimistic and expressing the fighting spirit that appeals to voters.

Citing his 1987 book, "The Art of the Deal," Hicks said, "Perhaps President Trump said it best many years ago when he wrote, 'My general attitude all my life, has been to fight back very hard. . . . [A]s far as I'm concerned, if they had any real ability they wouldn't be fighting me, they'd be doing something constructive themselves.' The president promised the American people they elected a fighter, and he embodies that with his instincts, spirit and energy."

Many Republicans observing from the outside, however, voice dismay about the president's behavior.

"What's playing out is a psychological drama, not just a political drama or a legal drama," said Peter Wehner, who was an aide in George W. Bush's White House and has frequently been critical of Trump. "The president's psychology is what's driving so much of this, and it's alarming because it shows a lack of self-control, a tremendous tropism. . . . He seems to draw psychic energy from creating chaos and disorder."

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After Trump fired James Comey as FBI director in May and scrutiny over Russia by investigators and journalists intensified, the president and his inner circle settled on a combative strategy to discredit critics, undermine the probe itself and galvanize his most loyal supporters.

The approach also put Bannon on firmer ground after a rocky patch just weeks earlier, resulting in part from feuds with Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser. Trump views Bannon as his wartime consigliere - the sort of political street fighter he wants as his presidency is threatened.

"This is a train that's coming," said Roger Stone, a former Trump adviser and longtime confidant, referring to the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller III. "These guys are going to move on him despite the fact that they don't have a case. The question on the table is, what is he going to do about it, and that is a legal and political question."

Trump and his top aides have tried to partition the Russia matter away from official White House business. Although the president's personal lawyers and communications strategists have counseled him and manage inquiries from outside the White House, they nonetheless visit the West Wing for meetings and coordinate some matters with administration officials.

There is disagreement within the Trump circle about how large the outside legal team should be. It is led by Marc Kasowitz, a New York-based lawyer who has worked with Trump off and on for several decades. Jay Sekulow, a Washington lawyer with deep ties to the Christian conservative movement, is the public face of the team. Some White House officials said they felt Sekulow got roughed up in a series of television interviews last Sunday but noted that Trump admires Sekulow's aggression and polished appearance.

"Having worked for both of them, the president and Jay have a lot of similarities - media savants, quick on their feet, fighters, and I think the president would, of course, appreciate Jay's many connections and past experiences in D.C.," said Sam Nunberg, a former Trump adviser.

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Two other lawyers - Michael Bowe of Kasowitz's firm and John Dowd, a veteran of District of Columbia legal circles - as well as communications strategist Mark Corallo are part of the outside team.

White House Counsel Donald McGahn - who has been trying to separate himself and his office from the Russia probe so that they can concentrate on official business - has advocated for the outside team to retain additional lawyers, according to officials inside and outside the White House. But Kasowitz maintains that at this point he has the appropriate legal strategy and sees no need to enlist additional help, the officials said.

Trump is most bothered by what he views as the one-sided portrayal and overall unfairness of the Russia investigation, senior White House officials said. He thinks media reports automatically treat Comey's version of events as superior to his own and have not focused enough on Mueller's hiring of some investigators who have donated to Democratic candidates.

He is angry that Comey's reputation has not been tarnished by his admission that he asked a friend to leak a private memo of his interactions with Trump to the news media. And he is irritated that - as he tweeted - Rosenstein penned a memo outlining possible justifications to fire Comey and then appointed Mueller to investigate Trump, in part, for doing just that.

The president has also seemed at times to regret his decision to fire his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, after Flynn misled Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with the Russians.

Shortly after dismissing Flynn, the president mused privately that maybe he could bring him back - despite understanding, said a senior White House official, that Flynn faced other challenges within the administration and realistically could not rejoin the team.

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Still, the president continues to privately praise Flynn, calling him a "nice guy" who "served the country well" and accusing the news media of bringing him down.

"The president just has to get it out of his mind, stop tweeting and focus on running the government, and let the investigation go on, because without that, he'll always have this problem," former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg told CNN this week.

The president's senior aides, including Priebus, who have tried for months to wean Trump from his Twitter habit, have resigned themselves to managing - rather than curtailing - his nearly daily missives.

But inside and outside the White House, patience is running thin with Priebus, whom many perceive as looking out only for himself and as having failed to bring order and discipline to a White House that often appears to lack both.

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on June 1, 2017. (Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post)

Priebus allies say they think the chief of staff's tenure will last at least a year. Indeed, news reports about Priebus' imminent demise often only heighten the president's sense of loyalty toward his chief of staff, whom he views as hard-working.

Those frustrated with Priebus stir rumors of an earlier departure, possibly as soon as the congressional recess in August. If a health-care bill passes the Senate, they say, and tax reform is up next on the docket, Priebus can plausibly save face by leaving as the White House appears on the way to notching a few legislative achievements.

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"For somebody who was rumored to be on his way out week one, if he lasts six or seven months, it is a success," one senior White House official said.

Several White House aides and Trump confidants say that, for his next chief of staff, they expect the president to choose someone whom he views as more of a peer or someone with more governing experience.

Two names being floated are Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y.

Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman, said Priebus is committed solely to helping Trump succeed.

"Reince's only priority is moving the president's agenda forward, and he works day and night toward that goal," Walters said. "He is keeping the entire administration, from the White House to the agencies, focused on the president's top policy objectives: repealing and replacing Obamacare, significant tax reform and rebuilding our nation's infrastructure."

Last month, White House communications director Mike Dubke resigned from his post, and White House press secretary Sean Spicer - who has taken on many of Dubke's responsibilities as officials try to recruit a replacement - is expected to transition into a more behind-the-scenes strategic messaging role.

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The White House is also considering a communications "brain trust" - basically, a media team equipped to handle incoming and outgoing issues, as well as facets including surrogate response and regional and national media. Conway has been asked to play a larger role on the communications team, where she could possibly oversee surrogacy and other areas.

Trump is hungry to see his spokesmen and spokeswomen more aggressively defend him and take the fight directly to his critics, people familiar with his thinking said.

"I don't care if it's Mickey Mouse, Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon or Donald J. Trump, you have to have a communications strategy to defend the president," said one friend of the president's, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment candidly.

Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser, said he understands why the president seems "horribly frustrated."

"He's being called a traitor, and he knows none of it is true," Bennett said, "and no one seems able to stop the stories."
The Chicago Police Departments long history is scarred by bad cops who have acted aggressively, brutally, and well beyond their authority, which has put the lives of other officers and the residents in the communities they serve in jeopardy. As the DOJ report acknowledges, the trust between the Police Department and the people it serves has been broken by systems that have allowed CPD officers who violate the law to escape accountability. The report further advised that it has never been more important to rebuild trust for the police within Chicagos neighborhoods most challenged by violence, poverty, and unemployment and to do so, Chicago must undergo broad, fundamental reform. Fundamental reform does not happen overnight, and will not be easy, which is even more reason to remove the process as much as possible from the influence of politics and special interests by authorizing a federal court to control it.

Emanuel has a responsibility to fully explain why he now believes it is in the best interest of the city and its residents to forgo federal oversight of police reforms. The Tribune reported earlier this month that Emanuels office trickled out the news that the mayor no longer was considering the consent decree. Since that time, Emanuel has failed to explain this change in course. The citys track record on police reform is quite poor. Emanuels track record on transparency and his standing among many of the citys residents, particularly the African-American and Latino residents who have historically borne the brunt of police misconduct, is not much better. Thus, it is imperative that the mayor step up, be a leader, and explain himself.

 Joshua Boggioni, Chicago
Every year, Illinois authorities seize tens of millions of dollars of property from state residents under civil asset forfeiture, which originated as a tool for law enforcement to target those responsible for major criminal activities and deprive them of the tools to victimize more people.

In theory, seized property should be coming from gang leaders, drug traffickers and others who threaten our communities. In practice, it disproportionately comes from residents of poor and minority communities. We must address this injustice.

Many states across the country agree and have enacted laws to reform civil asset forfeiture. Illinois should follow their lead.

Illinois House Bill 303, sponsored by state Sen. Don Harmon and state Rep. Will Guzzardi, will make the legal standards and procedures in forfeiture cases fairer to property owners and provide more transparency for the public around forfeiture and its use.

Under the current system, a government can make a seizure and the property owner has to petition to prove their innocence to get their property back. Under this legislation, the burden of proving the validity of the seizure will rest where it should  the government. It will be incumbent on the government to establish the property owners culpability, and thus the basis for the seizure. In addition, the governments burden of proof in forfeiture cases will be raised.

The legislation creates a new process for property owners to receive an expedited innocent owner hearing, and if successful, the law enforcement agency would need to return their property within a week.

Increased transparency will come from the creation of a searchable public database established and maintained by the Illinois State Police that will include information about property seized and forfeited.

As states attorney, I am committed to taking violent criminals off the streets and pursuing innovative ways to do so. But I also understand  and fiercely defend  the presumption of innocence. Our justice system was built on that idea, and public trust in our system depends on it.

We deserve a data-informed justice system and smart policies that truly protect our communities, and we need our governor to help us deliver.

 Kimberly Foxx, states attorney, Cook County
Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios held a press conference Monday June 12, 2017 at the Cook County Building to refute stories from the Tribune about inequities in property tax assessments. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

The inspector general for Cook County is investigating issues raised by a Tribune series that documented widespread errors and unfairness in property valuations produced by Assessor Joseph Berrios, the Tribune has learned.

The new inquiry into the Tribune findings is part of a broader investigation by an inspector general's office that has sparred with Berrios about his authority over the two-term assessor's operations.

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This development comes at a time when Berrios, the Cook County Democratic Party chairman, is under increasing pressure on a number of fronts in the aftermath of the Tribune investigative series, "The Tax Divide." An extensive Tribune analysis found that problematic assessments placed a financial burden on poorer residents while benefiting wealthier ones.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said this week that she and Berrios have agreed to an evaluation of the current property tax system by an outside party.

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County commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia and some of his colleagues have already called for Berrios to answer questions about his office's assessment process at a public hearing. Joining Garcia were commissioners John Daley, Peter Silvestri and Larry Suffredin.

Berrios has agreed to appear at such a hearing.

And state Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, a candidate for governor, is pushing for an overhaul of the property tax system  a process that could result in legislative hearings focusing on Cook County.

On Friday, Inspector General Patrick Blanchard confirmed the existence of an investigation into assessment flaws the Tribune outlined but said it would be inappropriate to discuss the scope of the overall probe.

Berrios' office, meanwhile, released a statement that Blanchard's office "has not notified us of anything regarding this, nor has it asked for information or records related to it."

Berrios has said he would never do anything that would cause minorities to be treated unfairly, pointing out he is of Puerto Rican descent.

"President Preckwinkle and I agree that an independent third party will look at and evaluate the county's current assessment models," Berrios said in a statement released Friday. "The third party will also evaluate new, developing or proposed models which others may be working on."

The Tribune series showed that Berrios did not fully implement a system that he previously touted as an improved model for assessments. Berrios now argues that the newer system  a model backed by a MacArthur Foundation grant  was inaccurate.

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The new model was created under the direction of Christopher Berry, a University of Chicago public policy professor.

"Bringing in a third party to fix the system is a great idea," Berry said Friday. "But bringing in a third party to study yet again whether the system is unfair would be a waste of time. We have a study showing clearly that it's unfair. ... The assessor hasn't provided one shred of evidence to challenge that conclusion."

Preckwinkle told WTTW-Ch. 11's "Chicago Tonight" that she and Berrios "agreed that we will look for a third party to look at our entire property tax system and try to figure out how we can improve it."

Responding to those comments, Garcia said any third-party review must be "impeccable" and questioned why Berrios moved away from the MacArthur model.

"As of today, I continue to find the reports that the Tribune published credible and disturbing," Garcia said.

"Why did you not follow the model developed by the experts ... especially after it was announced with a good amount of enthusiasm?"

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RLong@chicagotribune.com

JGrotto@chicagotribune.com

HDardick@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @RayLong

Twitter @jasongrotto

Twitter @ReporterHal
Tony Galvez, grand marshal of Aurora's Fourth of July parade and founder of the nonprofit SAN Antonio Foundation, talks about how he refuses to let his disability prevent him from helping others. His foundation will hold another fundraiser July 8 featuring live bands and tacos at his home, 215 Union Street in Aurora (Denise Crosby / The Beacon-News )

There was really no reason for me to do another interview with Tony Galvez.

Reporter Steve Lord already had written a story about the 29-year-old man being named the grand marshal for Aurora's 2017 Fourth of July Parade; an excellent choice as no one in the Fox Valley represents the spirit of independence more than Galvez.

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Diagnosed at age six with Duchenne, a fatal form of muscular dystrophy, he's been in a wheelchair and on a respirator for most of his life; unable to walk or breath on his own and in almost constant pain. And yet through all of these challenges, this young man has not only persevered, a few years ago he formed the nonprofit SAN Antonio Foundation that so far has raised over $70,000 for St. Jude's Hospital, The Muscular Dystrophy Foundation and local families of those with disabilities.

Still, despite this latest story, and the fact I'd already written a couple of columns about him and his foundation, I immediately contacted Tony and scheduled a sit-down interview.

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My reason for doing so was purely selfish. I'd had one of those so-called "challenging" weeks, capped off, but not exclusive of, the fact I was functioning without a cell phone after mine decided inexplicably to stop working eight days ago. And I was tired of listening to myself whine about all my problems and perils that deep down inside I knew didn't amount to a hill of beans.

I knew just five minutes with this young man would straighten my sorry self out.

"So yeah," I sheepishly admit as I sit across from Tony in his wheelchair, oxygen tubes feeding life into his lungs, "I even complained that working without a cell phone is like having both hands tied behind my back. Pretty pathetic, huh?"

He laughs, his brown eyes twinkle. We all tend to take things for granted, he shrugs, then tells me what he's been battling lately. Kidney stones. A cruel byproduct of his disease that landed him in the hospital five times in the last two months.

Morphine is the only medication that brings any relief, Tony says matter-of-factly. But pain is nothing new to him. And he's learned that by not giving in to it, it only makes him stronger.

"If I let pain overtake me," he continues, "then I'd be letting down my foundation and the people involved in it and those who benefit from it. And that is not an option."

We have a good discussion, sitting under that beautiful gazebo, surrounded by sunshine and flowers, in the backyard of his parent's home on North Union Street. But the conversation wasn't just about the honor of being named grand marshal or the fun he'll have riding in the parade or attending the upcoming reception for him at the Paramount Theatre.

We got into some of the deeper stuff ... about life and after life and depression and hope. About the past and the future. About what we allow ourselves to think about and what we don't. About what it's like to have cheated death so many times and what it takes to wake up each morning with so much uncertainty but still be able to fight through the bad in order to get to the good.

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And right then, at that moment in that backyard with a slight breeze cutting through the summer humidity, all was good.

Those always-present kidney stones, for now, are quiet. Tony is pumped about an interview with a Spanish-speaking radio station in Chicago that is coming up. And he and his organization are holding yet another fundraiser from 1-6 p.m. July 8 at his house, 215 Union Street, where live bands and delicious tacos will be served at this "Taco Palooza" with the goal of matching the almost $4,000 raised at a similar event last year

And, of course, he's thrilled the city he loves has chosen to honor him.

It's not surprising Tony Galvez wants to use his moment in the spotlight to bolster his platform: to raise awareness about his foundation; about muscular dystrophy and about all of those struggling with disabilities who may not have the strength and support he has.

"God gave me this disease for a reason. I am still alive for a reason," he says. "I want people to see that my disability has not stopped me and it doesn't have to stop others ..."

Despite his diagnosis, despite his prognosis and despite the pain that accompanies both, Tony tells me he's not so sure he'd change one thing because, had life been different, his impact in this world would surely have been less significant.

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Knowing you are helping others, he says, can bring more emotional and spiritual freedom than functioning in a physical body with so many limitations.

"Had I not been diagnosed with this," he continues, "I would not have found this voice" to be an advocate.

And certainly, he realizes, he'd never have become grand marshal of Aurora's 2017 Fourth of July Parade.

"Muscular dystrophy can weaken me physically. But emotionally and spiritually it has made me strong," he says, his brown eyes growing more serious, even as a smile breaks across his face. "I am a happy person."

And just like that, so am I.

DCrosby@tribpub.com

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Twitter @dencrosby
Valerie Bell, who lives near the Blackberry Farm ponies, expressed concern to the Fox Valley Park District that the lean-to in their corral does not provide adequate protection from hash weather. (Denise Crosby/The Beacon-News )

Valerie Bell admits she's a "critter person." The Aurora woman spends about $100 a month on seed alone that goes into the many bird feeders scattered about her beautiful backyard on Barnes Road.

And while she also buys food for the squirrels, she stops short of calling herself one of those "animal advocates."

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Still, Bell was concerned enough about a group of ponies that live near her, she's contacted the owners, Fox Valley Park District, to inquire about their well-being.

There are seven animals in all that share a corral and lean-to near the FVPD maintenance barn  six ponies and a donkey that provide children circle-rides at Blackberry Farm just up the road from her home and where the animals are kept.

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Two of the ponies were in the corral when we stopped on Thursday afternoon so Bell could show me why she's raised these concerns. It's not so bad in this kind of weather, she said, although certainly 90-degree summer days can get intense. But she's mostly worried about the animals making it through some of our tough winters with only a lean-to for protection.

"We also have packs of coyotes out there constantly," she added. "And these animals have absolutely no protection."

Of course, Bell is saying all this to someone raised on a farm, where, despite the big red barn that was the focal point of my childhood, much of our livestock, including the horses and cattle, survived out in the open  in corrals and pastures  which I still believe is pretty much what you will find the further west you travel.

Back in those good old days, I loved my horses and German Shepherd, Tip, a whole lot more than my dolls. But long ago I stopped comparing my suburban life today to growing up barefoot in rural Kansas, where most animals either worked for a living or would eventually become our dinner.

Times are much different, and I had no idea if the conditions these ponies lived in was good, bad or somewhere in between. So I took Bell's issues to the park district, where several officials assured me that, while her concerns were appreciated, they were not necessarily legitimate.

Yes, there has been talk of re-doing the barn at Blackberry Farm in order to house all the animals, said Operations Director John Kramer. Right now there are chickens, a couple of turkeys and pigs using the barn, and there's really no room for the ponies or donkey.

"But it is a discussion," he said.

Valerie Bell, who lives on Barnes Road in Aurora, likes to visit the Blackberry Farm ponies that live in a corral close to her property, and worries that the lean-to in the corral does not provide adequate protection from severe weather for the animals. (Denise Crosby/The Beacon-News )

In the meantime, the ponies' current living quarters that features a good-size lean-to  or stable  gives them protection and makes it easier to clean than individual paddocks would be, he said.

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And, while people, especially those living in suburbia, may be under the notion that hoofed creatures need to be housed in barns, Kramer says the current FVPD set-up is "over adequate." And he makes that assessment as someone who, before joining the park district in early 2016, was vice president of plant and facilities management at Brookfield Zoo where, among other things, he oversaw the revamping of the petting zoo.

"While I'm no expert in animal husbandry," Kramer said, "I have built a fair amount of these" animal structures." And this set-up off Barnes Road, he added, is similar to what the reindeer, llama and alpaca have at Brookfield.

And, he added, while Blackberry Farm isn't big enough to house a veterinarian on site, he promised that, as far as everyday care goes, the park district staff "is very vigilant in taking care of" all the animals, including the ponies and donkey.

According to the figures from Blackberry Farm's financial office, in the past 20 months, the total amount spent for veterinarian, supplies and feed was $43,362.07; with the vet bill for the ponies alone coming in at $15,639.52.

Bell, a grandmother and retiree of the Federal Aviation Administration, seemed relieved with the response that came from the park district; and appreciated their efforts in addressing her questions. Whether or not FVPD  or its taxpayers  will ever pony up for a bigger barn remains to be seen. And she's still going to be concerned when that sub-zero weather hits.

In the meantime, Bell will continue to keep an eye on those adorable four-legged creatures as she takes her strolls around the neighborhood. And if ever the park district is looking for volunteers to help with their care, she says, "I'm ready to sign up."

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DCrosby@tribpub.com

Twitter @dencrosby
District 204 decision divides disabled

We are parents from the District 204 STEPS program. We received an email from Dr. Karen Sullivan on June 8 stating that she would be dividing our adult students with disabilities into the three local high schools for the 2017-2018 school year. These high schools, including Waubonsie, Metea and Neuqua, are already at capacity or overcrowded. We have been given no direction about how an adult transition program will fit in a high school environment.

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We are concerned because this decision divides students who work every day to be included and accepted. It divides teachers who support each other. It divides friendships that often only grow in this inclusive environment. It divides the award-winning Special Olympics alumni team.

We are concerned because parents, teachers, administrators and community members were not involved in the decision to separate the STEPS community.

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We are concerned about the state budget crisis and that this decision will actually cost the district more money. Cost-effective solutions were presented to keep the program intact, and these solutions were not considered.

We are concerned because this is being presented as only a one-year solution. There is no plan for a population in our community that is most vulnerable. We are asking for a long-term, comprehensive plan for these adults.

We can and should do better.

Marianne Leahy, Bolingbrook

Nancy Sieboldt, Naperville

Janine McDonough, Aurora

Deb Gronowski, Naperville

School funding reform 'a victory'

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School funding reform in Senate Bill 1 is a victory for Aurora students and students throughout DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will counties. As president of the Quad County Urban League, I care about justice and fairness for all kids  most especially for our most vulnerable African-American and Latino children living in poverty in our four counties.

For years, we have partnered with superintendents, educators and other civil rights advocates to fix the broken school funding formula that has devastated our schools and communities. We have spent countless hours discussing possible solutions to finally give our students an adequate and fair funding system. And this year, school funding reform that values students of color and poor students passed both the House and Senate.

Senate Bill 1 is good policy and a tremendous victory for children throughout the state. According to the numbers released by the Illinois State Board of Education, every single district in Illinois will gain funding under SB1. But the work doesn't end with the bill. It must be signed by the governor, and both parties must work together on a budget with revenue.

We urge the governor to sign Senate Bill 1, and we also urge action on a budget, with revenue streams, that works to fully fund our K-12 schools and other essential social services.

Theodia Gillespie, president, Quad County Urban League, Aurora

ALS volunteers, donors thanked

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Every 90 minutes someone in the United States is diagnosed with ALS, and every 90 minutes someone in the U.S. dies from ALS.

At the Les Turner ALS Foundation, we're committed to changing that.

In May, in honor of National ALS Awareness Month, hundreds of volunteers lined the streets from Barrington to Flossmoor and from Elgin to Lake Forest collecting donations and distributing education material as part of our annual Tag Days drives.

Nearly $34,000 was raised and will help support research and clinical care at the Les Turner ALS Research and Patient Center at Northwestern Medicine.

ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive, neuromuscular disease that gradually robs a person of his or her ability to walk, speak, eat and breathe, yet generally keeping the mind intact. While some symptoms are treatable, there is no prevention or cure.

But in May, a new ALS gene discovery was announced from the lab of Drs. Teepu Siddique and Han-Xiang Deng at the Les Turner ALS Research and Patient Center at Northwestern Medicine, and the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug for ALS in 22 years, Radicava.

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To those who supported Tag Days, thank you.

Andrea Pauls Backman, executive director, Les Turner ALS Foundation, Skokie

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Submit letters to the editor via email to suburbanletters@tribpub.com. Please include your name and town of residence for publication. Please include phone number and email address for confirmation. Letters should be no more than 250 words.
John Connor, right, shakes hands with Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow Saturday after learning he was chosen to serve the remainder of state Rep. Emily McAsey's term. Connor is a 14-year veteran of the state's attorney's office. (Frank Vaisvilas / Daily Southtown)

Democratic Party leaders chose a Will County assistant state's attorney Saturday to fill the year and a half remaining to state Rep. Emily McAsey's term representing the 85th District.

John Connor, 47, a Will County prosecutor for 14 years, has been involved in such high-profile cases as the murder trials for Drew Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police officer convicted of killing his second wife, and Christopher Vaughn, an Oswego man who's serving a life term for killing his wife and three children in Channahon.

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Connor, a Lockport resident, said he's excited for the opportunity and knows he'll have to hit the ground running when he heads to Springfield Monday for the special session at which legislators could approve a state budget before a June 30 deadline.

"There's no doubt that it's daunting," he said. "I'll roll my sleeves up and I'll have to dive in."

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If lawmakers can't agree on a state budget by Friday, the state will face several financial problems, including a work stoppage by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Connor said he believes his prosecution experience should help him as a lawmaker.

"I've argued a lot trying to persuade people in court," he said. "This will obviously involve a different set of skills."

Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow, who attended Saturday's meeting at White Oak Library in Lockport, said his office will miss Connor but said the state is "on the edge of a cliff" and "needs people like John."

Connor also led the county's crimes against children unit and helped bring 150 cases against people producing or distributing child pornography.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Scott Pyles, chairman of the Will County Democratic Party, and Robert Pieckert, DuPage County Democratic chairman, chose Connor over two other candidates, Lockport Township Trustee Dean Morelli and Lockport Township Collector-elect Karen Johnson. A fourth applicant, Jared Taylor, was disqualified because he never voted in a Democratic primary.

"At the end of the day, it was a very close call between the three candidates," Pyles said.

The 85th District is located in both Will and DuPage counties and includes includes portions of Lockport, Romeoville and Bolingbrook.

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The fact Connor's father is a former Republican circuit judge could help him cross the aisle in negotiating a budget, he said. "I think he'll bring that bipartisan spirit," Pyles said.

Pyles added that he was most impressed by Connor's ability to discuss the details of current legislative issues being tackled in Springfield, such as pension reform.

McAsey, who was first elected in 2008, resigned June 1 to move to the East Coast, where her physician husband has taken a new job.

Frank Vaisvilas is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
The entrance to Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood is shown on May 26, 2017. (Ted Slowik / Daily Southtown)

A monument dedicated to LGBT veterans was vandalized earlier this month at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, officials said.

The granite monument was defaced with a black, tar-like substance, cemetery officials said.

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The markings were discovered June 16 by visitors at the cemetery's Memorial Walkway, the site of the monument, said Sean Baumgartner, director of the national cemetery.

Elwood Mayor Todd Matichak said Friday he was not aware of any suspects in custody, and did not want to comment further on the case.

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"To purposely have that in your mind to do is just horrible," said Baumgartner about the incident. "The circumstances, it looked like a deliberate thing, obviously."

Cemetery crews started working immediately to remove the tar, he said.

"There's some slight discoloration, and we're going to fix that," he added.

Baumgartner said Gast Memorial will apply new lithochrome lettering.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Although he has not received an estimate yet, Bamgartner said he believes the cost for repairs will be between $100-$500, which the cemetery will pay.

Originally, the monument cost $18,000, according to James Darby, president of the Chicago Chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights.

The monument had been dedicated by the veteran group in May 2015, featuring symbols from all six branches of military service, as well as an upside down triangle  a universal symbol for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

The monument contains the message, "Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have served honorably and admirably in America's armed forces."

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"That took a lot of fundraising from a lot of people to raise the money," Darby said.

Baumgartner said: "You need to leave your prejudices or whatever at the door. This isn't the place for that."

Erin Gallagher is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
The words of a 21-year-old Indiana woman alone would be enough to convict her of first degree murder for allegedly acting as the driver in a botched Palos Park home invasion where one assailant was killed by the homeowner, prosecutors said.

But Sarah Risner was invited into the home of the homeowner in his 60s with whom she and another woman had allegedly made arrangements to trade sex for money, and "no evidence" was presented at the trial to prove what prosecutors claimed, her defense argued.

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The two-day trial for Risner, who prosecutors said drove defendants from her hometown of Crown Point to Palos Park, concluded Friday inside the Bridgeview courthouse.

Cook County Judge Stephen Connolly is scheduled Thursday to have a ruling in the case.

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Risner is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the July 5, 2016, death of Anthony Dalton, who was shot by the startled homeowner in the 11900 block of West 118th Street. Three other people also are charged with murder and several other counts in connection with the incident.

Prosecutors were trying to prove she committed a "forcible felony" involving home invasion, residential burglary and attempted armed robbery.

All defendants in the case face first-degree murder, which can be charged when a death occurs in the commission of a forcible felony.

"In her own words, she is convicted," said Assistant State's Attorney Nick D'Angelo, referring to a recorded interview with police.

Risner told Cook County investigators that she and Brandy Marshall, 20, had made a deal with the homeowner to have sex in exchange for $350, according to a recorded interrogation played during trial.

Risner also was involved in multiple incidents in the case, prosecutors alleged.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Risner drove other defendants to the home, allegedly told by Dalton that he had a knife that could be used in the robbery and watched as one of the men bought a mask at a discount store, prosecutors said.

Risner also let inside the home Dalton, Tyler Gulli, 24, and Brandy Marshall's 21-year-old sister Paige Marshall, prosecutors said. But the homeowner spotted a figure hiding outside his door and ran to retrieve a gun. Dalton and Gulli were shot by the .38-caliber handgun, prosecutors said.

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Risner drove Gulli to a nearby hospital for treatment of the gunshot wound to his leg, prosecutors said. She was arrested later while trying to drive back to Indiana.

Risner's defense argued no state's witnesses talked about the events inside the home that night.

"There is no evidence, really, of what happened, except if you take what (Risner) said," attorney John Paul Carroll argued Friday.

Her defense also argued Risner only intended to take money from the man and flee from the home.

Neither Risner nor the homeowner testified during trial.
The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board recently approved Silver Cross Hospital's plan to build a 100-bed psychiatric hospital in New Lenox, to address what medical officials called a substance abuse crisis in Will and Grundy counties.

Construction of the new two-story, 68,000-square-foot facility, known as Silver Oaks Hospital, will begin this fall on land Silver Cross owns across the street on the southwest corner of Route 6 and Silver Cross Boulevard, where it is constructing an outpatient surgical center. It is expected to be completed in December 2018.

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The $24.3 million project is a joint effort with Silver Cross Hospital and US HealthVest, which operates Chicago Behavioral Hospital, a 138-bed psychiatric hospital in Des Plaines along with two facilities in Atlanta and another near Seattle, according to a news release.

"While Silver Cross Hospital has had a 20-bed adult mental health unit for many years, we recognize that it is too small and because of that we cannot provide specialized services by patient condition," Paul Pawlak, president and CEO of Silver Cross Hospital, said in a news release.

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Once the new facility is open, those 20 beds will be converted to medical and surgical beds, according to its application to the state board.

In the new 100-bed hospital, 85 beds will be dedicated to adult patients and 15 to children and adolescents. All patients will be treated, regardless of their ability to pay, the hospital stated in its application.

"By partnering with US HealthVest to build and operate this new hospital, we will be able to offer a full spectrum of inpatient and outpatient mental health and substance abuse services for youth, adults, and seniors so they can stay close to home for expert care," Pawlak said.

In justifying the need for a new mental health facility, hospital officials cited "tremendous growth" in the number of patients who need inpatient and outpatient services, and the 2012 closing of the Tinley Park Mental Health Center, which had 75 beds and treated 2,000 behavioral health patients per year.

That closing created a shortage of beds, forcing more than 60 percent of mental health and chemically dependent patients to leave the area for care, and many have gone without treatment, leading to the increase in addictions to opiates, heroin and alcohol in the community, hospital officials stated in the release.

According to the Will County coroner's office, heroin claimed the lives of 78 people in the county in 2016 and 28 so far in 2017.

The outpouring of community support for this project has been overwhelming," said Dr. Richard Kresch, psychiatrist and president and CEO of US HealthVest.

It was noted in its application that Silver Cross received 102 letters of support from elected officials, physicians, judges, police, the Will County Health Department and emergency services personnel, as well as other hospitals. There were no letters of opposition.

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According to its application, in 2014, Silver Cross had 14 beds in its acute mental illness unit and served 730 patients. That number jumped to 907 in 2015, and the hospital increased its beds to 20. In 2016, it served 974 patients in that unit, and it projected it would be at 102 percent capacity in 2019 if it did not expand.

In its first year of operation in 2019, officials projected, the new hospital would serve more than 2,800 patients.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

The new hospital also will allow the hospital to offer "more robust services" than it currently offers, it stated in its application.

In Will and Grundy counties, there are no inpatient units for patients with chemical dependencies or veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, officials said.

"Not only will Silver Oaks Hospital expand mental health and substance abuse services in our community, but will also greatly improve the quality of life for our patients," Pawlak stated in the news release.

As alternatives to building a separate facility, hospital officials stated in the application they also considered expanding the current mental health unit, but that would not address the need for specialized services for women, children, veterans or patients with chemical dependencies.

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Converting the Specialty Care Pavilion at its former hospital site in Joliet was cost-prohibitive and could create confusion for emergency dispatchers and ambulance drivers, officials said.

slafferty@tribpub.com

Twitter @SusanLaff
School funding reform 'a victory'

School funding reform in Senate Bill 1 is a victory for Aurora students and students throughout DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will counties. As president of the Quad County Urban League, I care about justice and fairness for all kids  most especially for our most vulnerable African-American and Latino children living in poverty in our four counties.

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For years, we have partnered with superintendents, educators and other civil rights advocates to fix the broken school funding formula that has devastated our schools and communities. We have spent countless hours discussing possible solutions to finally give our students an adequate and fair funding system. And this year, school funding reform that values students of color and poor students passed both the House and Senate.

Senate Bill 1 is good policy and a tremendous victory for children throughout the state. According to the numbers released by the Illinois State Board of Education, every single district in Illinois will gain funding under SB1. But the work doesn't end with the bill. It must be signed by the governor, and both parties must work together on a budget with revenue.

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We urge the governor to sign Senate Bill 1, and we also urge action on a budget, with revenue streams, that works to fully fund our K-12 schools and other essential social services.

Theodia Gillespie, president, Quad County Urban League, Aurora

ALS volunteers, donors thanked

Every 90 minutes someone in the United States is diagnosed with ALS, and every 90 minutes someone in the U.S. dies from ALS.

At the Les Turner ALS Foundation, we're committed to changing that.

In May, in honor of National ALS Awareness Month, hundreds of volunteers lined the streets from Barrington to Flossmoor and from Elgin to Lake Forest collecting donations and distributing education material as part of our annual Tag Days drives.

Nearly $34,000 was raised and will help support research and clinical care at the Les Turner ALS Research and Patient Center at Northwestern Medicine.

ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive, neuromuscular disease that gradually robs a person of his or her ability to walk, speak, eat and breathe, yet generally keeping the mind intact. While some symptoms are treatable, there is no prevention or cure.

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But in May, a new ALS gene discovery was announced from the lab of Drs. Teepu Siddique and Han-Xiang Deng at the Les Turner ALS Research and Patient Center at Northwestern Medicine, and the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug for ALS in 22 years, Radicava.

To those who supported Tag Days, thank you.

Andrea Pauls Backman, executive director, Les Turner ALS Foundation, Skokie

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Saying he was puzzled by a convicted murderer's behavior patterns, a Lake County judge on Friday sentenced the man to 40 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a 19-year-old former Lake Villa resident.

A jury convicted Kevin Curtis, 29, of first-degree murder in February for the stabbing death of Jacob Blum, a co-worker, in a Waukegan motel room on the evening of July 16, 2013.

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He had faced between 20 to 60 years in prison.

"If I have ever seen a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of defendant, Kevin Curtis is (one), without question," Judge George Strickland said at the end of a lengthy sentencing hearing Friday afternoon.

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While defense attorneys and family members called Curtis a peaceful man who "is not a murderer," prosecutors described him as a man whose pre-sentencing evaluation included a doctor's notation that Curtis "may explode into uncontrolled rages."

"I agree with both sides and disagree with both sides," Strickland said. "Mr. Curtis is a peaceful man and Mr. Curtis is a violent man. There was a statement made that Mr. Curtis is not a murderer. No, Mr, Curtis is a murderer."

Assistant state's attorneys Daniel Kleinhubert and Scott Turk asserted during the trial that evidence and witness testimony showed that Curtis purposefully and without provocation stabbed Blum that night. They also called a Gurnee resident to the stand who testified that Curtis had punched him in the face with no provocation earlier that same day during a sales transaction.

The prosecutors argued Friday for the maximum 60-year sentence.

Defense attorneys Eric Rinehart and Kevin Malia argued that the stabbing was accidental.

Curtis, who took the stand during the trial, testified that the stabbing accidentally occurred after Blum "plowed" into him on a motel bed while Curtis was using the knife to clean his fingernails.

He said the two had wrestled and engaged in horseplay in the past. During a short statement at Friday's hearing, he said he would do "almost anything" to bring Jacob back for the Blum family, but maintained the incident was an accident "from start to finish."

Rinehart requested the minimum sentence for Curtis.

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Family members said during the sentencing hearing that Curtis was playful growing up in Waukegan, but also greatly involved with the family's church, goal-oriented and not violent.

Rinehart noted that he had attended college and, at the time of the incident, was working a legitimate job.

"He was out there trying," Rinehart said.

But Turk noted that Curtis, who received letters of support from local school officials and church leaders, had a record of numerous disciplinary problems in high school and college, was eventually expelled from college and convicted of aggravated assault in Iowa for threatening a woman with a knife.

He had been out of prison for less than a year when Blum was killed.

Strickland said he believed mental issues probably played a role in Curtis' actions, and that he did not believe the murder was premeditated.

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But the judge also said he felt physical evidence proved the stabbing was not accidental, and he was very concerned that his violence could be repeated. He said a major prison sentence was necessary to protect the public and deter other potential violent offenders.

Kleinhubert and Turk said that Curtis had been told the day of the killing that he could no longer stay overnight at the motel with Blum, his brother and his father, who all worked for Windy City Meats in Gurnee.

He was, however, allowed into the Blums' motel room that evening before the stabbing occurred to make some calls and attempt to find a place to stay, according to testimony.

Prosecutors said Jacob Blum was lying in a bed in the room watching a movie when Curtis attacked him, stabbing him once in the chest with a switchblade.

Jacob Blum's father, Jeffrey Blum, testified during the trial that he, Jacob and another son, Kevin, were staying at the Red Roof Inn in Waukegan following a day of working as mobile salesmen for Windy City Meats.

Jeffrey Blum said that he returned to his motel room at about 10:30 p.m. to find Jacob lying on one bed watching a movie and Curtis sitting on the other bed "cleaning his nails with a knife."

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Blum said he went into the bathroom to shave, leaving the door open, when he heard Jacob scream, "What the (expletive), Kevin!"

"I heard Jacob screaming," Blum said, stating that he immediately left the bathroom to find Jacob rushing toward him, "with blood gushing out of his chest."

Blum said he told Jacob to get to the motel lobby because he was bleeding badly, and then saw Curtis coming toward him with a bloody knife.

Blum testified he then grabbed Curtis by the wrist, removed the knife from his hand and dragged him down to the floor, holding him by the arm so that he couldn't leave.

Authorities said Jacob Blum, after losing a lot of blood and suffering a collapsed lung from the stab wound, went into cardiac arrest in an ambulance transporting him from the scene and was pronounced dead at Vista West Medical Center in Waukegan.

In a victim impact statement Friday, Jeffrey Blum said Curtis should not be released, "to harm or kill someone again."

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Blum said his youngest son, Jacob, "had a heart of gold, and was known as a gentle giant."

He said his death has devastated all of Jacob's family and friends.

"I'm going to miss the glow of his smile," Blum said. "His life was stripped from him. I will never lose the memory of my son telling me he would not survive. I will not forget this."

Curtis has been held in Lake County Jail on $5 million bail since his arrest, and will be given credit toward his sentence for his almost four years in Lake County Jail. The remainder of his 40-year sentence must be served at 100 percent with no opportunity for good-time credit, under Illinois law.

Rinehart said the case will be appealed.

jrnewton@tribpub.com

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A new science building nearing completion on the College of Lake County's Grayslake Campus is among the state-funded projects that could be affected if a stop-work order is issued at the end of June by the Illinois Capital Development Board. (Lake County News-Sun )

The College of Lake County is preparing for the possibility of a stop-work order from the state on several of its ongoing capital projects, college officials said.

An administrator told the CLC Board of Trustees at a retreat Tuesday that the order would be the result of the ongoing state budget impasse and would take effect June 30, the end of the state's fiscal year.

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College spokeswoman Anne O'Connell said in an email Thursday that the college had not received an official notice from the Capital Development Board (CDB) and suggested the agency might be able to provide more information.

Attempts to get clarification from the CDB were unsuccessful.

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The Capital Development Board is the state agency that awarded the funding that is helping CLC pay for a new science building at the Grayslake Campus, an upgrade of its data center, planned interior renovations related to the science building and an expansion of the college's Lakeshore Campus in Waukegan, according to the Tuesday presentation.

College staff will be presenting trustees with options on what they could do if the stop work order does take place, including the potential to fund the completion of the science building with college funds, O'Connell said.

The board of trustees is set to consider an intergovernmental agreement Tuesday that would authorize the college to spend an additional $2 million to complete the science building, according to a memo provided to the board ahead of the upcoming Tuesday board meeting.

The Capital Development Board suggested the move and "fully expects" the state to approve the funding for the upcoming year, according to the memo. If that doesn't happen, the college can stop other projects or use some of its reserves.

By fronting the money, the college would prevent the contractor and subcontractor from stopping work on the project and moving onto other things, according to the memo. If that happened, the cost to finish up the work could rise.

The science building  funded with $17.6 million in state dollars and a $12.4 million contribution from CLC  is nearly complete with just a few items remaining on its check-list, according to the presentation.

Those include installation of an exhaust fan, startup of all equipment and completion of punch list items like carpeting, painting and ceiling work, according to a board memo.

The Lakeshore project, on the other hand, had been on hold since the budget crisis started more than two years ago but was restarted by the board of trustees when the college hired Legat Architects earlier this year to prepare schematic designs for $47.7 million in improvements.

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The architecture firm is set to present options for the facade of a new six-story building at the board's Tuesday meeting after some trustees expressed reservations with the rendering that had been presented.

Legat Architects lead designer Ted Haug shows the College of Lake County Board of Trustees material samples during a Tuesday discussion of the proposed new building at the Lakeshore Campus in Waukegan. (Emily K. Coleman/News-Sun)

The exterior had been designed with Waukegan's other public buildings and the rest of the campus in mind, most of which are constructed with limestone and simple glass and with a "clean, simple, modern aesthetic," said Ted Haug, the firm's lead designer.

Board Chairman Richard Anderson said he wasn't a fan of the inconsistent windows or the panels that would create a visual connection between the new building and the former Globe department store that is now part of the Waukegan campus.

Board Vice Chairwoman Catherine Finger said she would prefer to take the best of the other old buildings that dot downtown Waukegan and modernize them.

Too many questions remain about money and the campus's needs as enrollment continues to decline, board Secretary Barbara Oilschlager said.

The Lakeshore campus has seen its enrollment fall 37 percent over the last five years to just over 1,000 students, according to College of Lake County enrollment data.

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More conversations need to take place before decisions about improvements at the Lakeshore campus can be made, she said.

Some of those conversations can occur when a space-utilization study that looks at how the college is using its existing space is presented to the board in August, interim college president Rich Haney said. The college will also have a better idea of what's happening with funding then.

Either way, the board will need to decide on an aesthetic for the campus regardless of whether it moves forward with the expansion or if it just sticks with a refurbishment, Finger said.

emcoleman@tribpub.com

Twitter @mekcoleman
In 2007, after years of disheartening construction delays and cost overruns, Naperville at last completed the 14-story Moser Tower housing the 72-bell Millennium Carillon.

It was the rarest of community projects in this vibrant city  the one that almost failed.

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But after the price tag ballooned to $6 million from an estimated $2.5 million and the city took over the project from the indebted private group that had started the work, the tower was finished and the city was sighing with relief. Former Mayor George Pradel, ever the optimist, said the community now had an amenity that would last for generations.

"In about 10 years, we're going to say, 'Why didn't we do that sooner?'" he told a Chicago Tribune reporter at the time.

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Instead, a decade later, many of us are wondering why we did it at all.

The tower is rapidly deteriorating, mostly because of an early decision to save money by not encasing it in glass to protect the structural steel and precast concrete from the elements.

Riverwalk commissioners found out last week that it could cost as much as $3.8 million to repair the tower and protect it from future damage. Even decommissioning and tearing down the tower would cost $660,000.

The city also could pay $1.6 million to make the tower operational and safe for now but not protect it from future damage, delaying deconstruction for a few years but likely making it inevitable.

Naperville Sun Twice-weekly News updates from the Naperville area delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

With all its faults, we still can find things to admire about the tower. Its two observation decks offer beautiful views of the carillon bells and our lovely community. Its picturesque setting at the base of Rotary Hill along the Naperville Riverwalk has hosted weddings and other celebrations. Carillonneurs come from all over the world to play concerts on its magnificent instrument, the fourth-largest carillon in North America.

But quite a few people still resent that the city had to kick in $4.8 million in tax dollars to finish a project that was to have been funded with private donations. They are upset that now Naperville is on the hook for potentially millions in repairs (again, taxpayer dollars). Some even say the tower is an eyesore and the music from its bells cacophonous.

Adding insult to injury, a recent survey about the city's lovely Riverwalk indicated that Naperville residents do not consider tower and carillon maintenance a high priority and that they don't feel the structure is an integral piece of the Riverwalk. Residents said the Riverwalk's covered bridges, walkway, dandelion fountain, Centennial Beach and other features are more important to them than the tower, and they list their Riverwalk funding priorities as improving a park at 430 S. Washington St., expanding the walk itself and constructing a ramp connecting the lower and upper walks west of the Eagle Street bridge.

It seems clear that citizens want their money spent on amenities that are on a more human scale: parks they can sit in, covered bridges they can use as background for family portraits, a beach fashioned from an old quarry that the whole family can enjoy.

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That's why we're intrigued by the idea of repurposing the carillon's bells in a proposed Harmony Park, which would have large interactive instruments set up along the Riverwalk. Visitors could try to sound the bells, and the names of donors inscribed on them would be visible to the public in perpetuity, right in the heart of the community. It's one way of honoring the citizens who contributed to the project.

But spending millions of dollars in an attempt to repair a tower that was unpopular even before it was built, at the cost of other improvements Naperville residents actually want, seems foolish. The city that has rallied behind preserving its 120-year-old original library building just does not seem to have the same feeling about the newish-but-already-disintegrating bell tower.

We urge the Riverwalk Commission to carefully consider the tower's worth to the city's pocketbook  and its failure to win citizens' hearts  when recommending a course of action to the City Council. We shouldn't be afraid to admit we made a mistake and find the most responsible way to rectify it.
Road work at Naperville's 95th Street and Plainfield-Naperville Road intersection began in May. The project, which includes new left and right turn lanes, is one of five projects in Naperville that could be brought to a halt if a new state budget is not approved by June 30. (Naperville Sun file photo)

Seven road construction projects in Naperville are among the hundreds that could be suspended or terminated in Illinois if lawmakers do not approve a new state budget by July 1.

"Due to the General Assembly's refusal to pass a budget, (the Illinois Department of Transportation) loses its ability to pay contractors starting July 1," IDOT spokesman Guy Tridgell said via email.

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"While we are hopeful the situation is resolved before then, the department is notifying contractors that all construction work is to shut down on June 30."

The action would affect about 700 projects throughout the state with a collective value of $2.3 billion, Tridgell said. An estimated 20,000 workers will be pulled off of jobs, he said.

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Five of the jobs in Naperville that could be halted are already under way, Deputy Naperville City Engineer Bob Kozurek said in a memo to city officials this week.

They include the intersection improvements being made at 75th Street and Book Road and at 95th Street and Plainfield-Naperville Road; culvert repairs over Cress Creek along Ogden Avenue; resurfacing work on Route 59 near McCoy Drive; and implementation of the city's Centralized Traffic Management System.

Also affected are resurfacing projects that were to have begun soon on Ogden Avenue and 87th Street, Kozurek said.

"City street maintenance projects and DuPage County's planned resurfacing work on Raymond Drive and Ferry Road will not be affected by the (potential) IDOT shutdown," Kozurek said.

Bill Novack, director of the city's Transportation, Engineering and Development department, said the city has "run into similar situations in the past" and he expects the impact on the public will be minimal.

"This will not cause large problems in town," Novack said. "The great thing is we've had plenty of advance notice and the contractors have had notice, so they are getting their (project sites) cleaned up and in a safe and mobile position."

Mayor Steve Chirico, however, branded IDOT's announcement yet another budget impasse-related aggravation for taxpayers.

"I think that, to date, the disruptions and the impact on people (because of the stalemate) has been significant, especially in social services," Chirico said. "It's exasperating for the general public, with traffic delays and other disruptions in people's lives, and that's very unfortunate."

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The Ogden Avenue and 75th Street and Book Road projects, in particular, were "something we've been looking forward to, to getting upgraded and modernized."

"It's frustrating, it's very frustrating," Chirico said. "We wait a long time to have these improvements made. It requires a lot of coordination and a lot of planning (with public utilities and other agencies), and then they throw us a curve ball.

"We're going to have to deal with the consequences of the state's actions. Now we have areas that don't look good, and that's going to remain for, how long? Until they get a budget?"

The intersection of 95th Street and Plainfield-Naperville Road is to be rebuilt, and will include a rehabilitated bridge over Spring Brook, according to information provided by Tridgell. The total cost is estimated at $6.3 million, with $395,000 spent to date.

Two other major projects in the DuPage County-Will County area also could be affected by the IDOT edict: the $10.3 million pavement reconstruction and widening of Eola Road between 83rd and 87th streets in Aurora and the $47 million reconstruction and expansion of the Interstate 55-Weber Road interchange in the Bolingbrook-Romeoville area, scheduled for next year.

Tridgell added IDOT has "an additional $2.2 billion programmed for Fiscal Year 2018 that would be impacted as well" by the ongoing budget crisis.

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wbird@tribpub.com
More than 150 people attended an event at Schmaltz Jewish Deli Thursday night. The gathering initially was to be a rally in support of the business after it was targeted with anti-Semitic graffiti but became a party hosted by deli owner Howard Bender. (David Sharos / Naperville Sun)

When Schmaltz Jewish Deli in Naperville was targeted in what police are classifying as a hate crime last weekend, owner Howard Bender had many options in how he could respond.

What he chose was to throw a party for his loyal customers and friends, who have given him their support after his 1512 N. Naper Blvd. business was damaged by anti-Semitic graffiti on June 18.

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More than 150 people stopped by Thursday night. Bender suspended regular customer service and put out a spread that included trays of sandwiches, plates of kosher pickles, 20 pounds of cookies and endless soft drinks.

"I think having this party is a sweet, touching gesture," said Joel Greenberg, of Westmont.

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The event originally started as a social media movement encouraging the community to come to the deli Thursday night to show support for the business. Bender decided he wanted to turn the event into something positive, he said.

"We found the words, 'Free Gaza,' on the sidewalk in front of our store, and I see this as an attack on an American-Jewish business," he said.

"It's a hate crime, but this is no way reflects Naperville or the people that live here. I think at the end of the day I felt it was ethically right to support the incredible community here and we are using this as a way to say thank you and also as a benefit for UCARE, who are not religiously or politically connected and teach cultural awareness."

Naperville police say the message a vandal left outside Schmaltz Jewish Deli in Naperville constitutes a hate crime. June 19, 2017. (CBS Chicago)

Naperville resident Marium Khan Stevens, a member of the Naperville Progressives, confirmed her group posted news of the graffiti incident and asked residents to rally behind the popular deli.

Stevens said she was surprised by the surge of people who came through the doors when the party began at 5:30 p.m.

"When we first posted this and were getting responses, there were maybe 20 people who had RSVP'd, but I think in the end this has touched a nerve," she said. "We're all behind Howard and his family and their employees. They have great food here and there have been a lot of good memories."

Bender told visitors he was "putting a good spin on a bad situation."

Tim Haeussler, an Aurora resident who used to live across the street from the deli, said he was stunned when he saw a Facebook post about the hate crime.

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"I was shocked something like this happened in Naperville and the fact that it was Father's Day makes it sort of eerie," he said. "My friends and I already came down for dinner here earlier so this isn't about getting something for free. It's all about offering support."

Aurora's Roy Rumaner said he and Bender have been friends for 12 years and he has been frequenting the restaurant and store "since the day it opened."

"I feel like Howard is a brother from another mother, and I'm disgusted about what's happened. It was important for me to be here," Rumaner said.

"Today's political climate makes people feel they can come out of the woodwork and express themselves, but for Howard to react in this way and try to give back, I'd expect nothing less."

Sarah Thompson, of Naperville, said she moved here two years ago from Ohio and discovered the Schmaltz Deli when she was "in search of good bagels."

"I found out what happened through a neighborhood social media site, and I'm surprised by what happened but also comforted by the support I see here," Thompson said. "This is a time where folks feel emboldened, but the support that has followed is even greater."

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Awad Sifri, who was born in what is now Palestine and has lived in Naperville for 40 years, said Thursday's event "brought everybody from both sides together."

"Hate is something we always condemn and reject all over the U.S. and does not bring us closer," he said. "We need to build bridges, not walls."

Mayor Steve Chirico, who could not attend because of a previous commitment, spoke before the event and offered his perspective on the incident.

"What happened is regrettable and is not a reflection of our community," Chirico said. "Clearly Mr. Bender is a stand-up guy and is turning a negative into a positive. People have rallied around him as they should, which is something I'm proud of."

David Sharos is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
River Forest police praised an Uber driver for his efforts as a "good Samaritan" in helping a woman during an incident that led to criminal sexual assault charges against a 32-year-old River Forest man.

Police said Santos C. Berrones, 32, of River Forest, was charged with criminal sexual assault and was expected to appear in bond court Saturday in connection with the Thursday morning incident, according to a news release.

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According to the release, River Forest police responded to a call of a sexual assault that had occurred at a home in the 400 block of Franklin Avenue around 3:20 a.m. Police said Berrones and the woman left a Chicago restaurant and drove to the River Forest residence, where the sexual assault allegedly occurred.

According to police, the woman was able to get away from the attacker and was able to flag down an Uber driver in the street. The woman told the Uber driver what happened, and the driver drove her to the River Forest Police Department, police said.

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The Uber driver reported to police he saw a man attempting to drag the woman back into a residence in the 400 block of Franklin Avenue, police said. Police said they then visited the residence where the incident allegedly occurred and noticed an open front door. Police said they then saw Berrones and took him into custody without incident.

"We are thankful that the victim was able to get away from her assailant and not sustain additional serious injuries," River Forest Deputy Police Chief James O'Shea said. "We applaud the Uber driver for being a good Samaritan and a great witness during those early morning hours."

sschering@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @steveschering
A 25-year-old Gary man died Friday night after being shot in East Chicago in an incident classified as a homicide by the Lake County Coroner's Office.

Ashanti Walden, 25, of the 2100 block of Ellsworth Place, was pronounced dead at 11:45 p.m. after being found with a gunshot wound at 4806 Alexander in East Chicago at about 11 p.m., the coroner's office said.

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The East Chicago Police Department and Lake County Crime Lab also responded to the scene. East Chicago Police could not immediately be reached for more information.
Amy Oppelt didn't intend to react with such unfiltered honesty when she first saw the smokestack skyline along our Lake Michigan shoreline.

"Oh my!" she gasped before politely commenting on our Great Lake.

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She viewed an aerial glimpse of steel mills, oil refineries and belching pollution while staring out from a window of a private jet.

Oppelt, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., didn't expect to see such an industrial landscape as we prepared for landing at the Gary/Chicago International Airport in May. Her reaction came from her gut, not her head. I couldn't help but notice.

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"Welcome to Da Region," I joked, trying to put a better spin on the situation.

This wasn't the first time I've had to defend or joke about the unsightly underbelly of Northwest Indiana, especially along most of the lakefront. I've done it too many times over the past 40 years or so, since my teenage years when I first started noticing outsiders' initial reactions to our corner of the state.

My first question to first-time visitors remains the same: "So, what do you think of this region? And please be honest."

Because I was born and raised here, I've never known what it's like to visit our so-called casual coast with fresh eyes and honest objectivity.

Earlier this year, when a group of travel agency reps from the United Kingdom visited Northwest Indiana, I asked: What did you enjoy most? What did you expect to see? And what lasting impressions did you have?

"I didn't expect to see such wonderful beaches and such great diversity in the landscape to such close proximity to Chicago," replied Cathie O'Dea, of Travel Counsellors Notting Hill in London. "I also didn't expect such a strong sense of community and a small-town feel."

"What impressed me most was the warmth and friendliness of the people, how much they welcomed us and their interest in us and our views," she told me.

When her clients from the U.K. imagine the United States, they typically think of New York, Florida and California, she said.

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"With all your stunning lakeside beaches, it is possible to have a beach holiday flying into Chicago (rather than) flying to Florida or California from the U.K.," O'Dea said. "Indiana isn't just a small forgotten state. It is a place I will always remember with great fondness for its beautiful beaches, lovely scenery and friendly welcome. I will definitely promote this region to my clients."

Really?

I'm also intrigued by Northwest Indiana transplants who choose to live here. Last month, I met Bill Swisshelm, who lives in the Miller section of Gary after living for many years in other parts of the country, as well as in South Korea.

Bill Swisshelm, a transplant to Northwest Indiana, is proposing a fundraising drive along U.S. 12, from Gary to Detroit. (Jerry Davich / Post-Tribune)

Swisshelm mentioned to me his idea of highlighting the fact that Gary and Detroit are linked via U.S. 12, which is designated in parts as the Iron Brigade Memorial Highway or Dunes Highway. He's looking for support to host an annual "Steel City-Motor City Route 12 Roll," inviting motorists and motorcyclists to drive the 254-mile, six-hour route from Gary to Detroit.

"Most people don't know that U.S. 12, which goes through Gary, actually begins or ends in downtown Detroit," Swisshelm said. "These two iconic American industrial cities have gone through similar challenges and both, I believe, share a bright future.

"My idea hopefully can help spur this revival by bringing visitors to an annual event, possibly in the last weekend of September," he said. "The goal, in addition to highlighting the revival of the two cities, is to raise money for local charities."

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What do you think? Possible? Plausible? Would anyone sign up or show up?

In all my years here, I've never heard anything like it. For that alone, I like it, despite its obvious challenges. If you're a longtime area resident, you may be shaking your head. I understand. Part of me thinks the same thing.

Still, I like its novel approach to help, or at least highlight, these two beleaguered cities.

"It really is a gorgeous ride," Swisshelm said.

"I have already been in touch with the folks who run the U.S. 12 Heritage Trail, which extends from New Buffalo, Mich., to Detroit," he said. "They are eager to provide participants with information on sites along the route, and we would add information on the Northwest Indiana stretch of U.S. 12."

"I really believe in this idea, and I think over the years it could evolve into quite an important annual event starting in downtown Gary," he said.

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Such an idea would likely never come from a native like me, sorry to say. Again, this is the built-in downside to being born or raised here. We easily forget about this area's potential.

A proposed fundraising drive along U.S. 12, from Gary to Detroit, is an idea from a transplanted Northwest Indiana resident Bill Swisshelm. (Jerry Davich/Post-Tribune )

I asked transplanted readers their thoughts on moving to this area.

Several of them said their most immediate realization was how fast everyone here talks. Others complained about the immense flatness of our region. A few couldn't believe the striking dichotomy between farmlands and industry.

Post Tribune Twice-weekly News updates from Northwest Indiana delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

"The biggest change was how far apart everything is," said Jeff Lyons, who moved here from the Detroit area. "This area is based around farms, so everything is much farther apart than what I was used to."

"My first reaction was how laid back and casual everyone was," Kelly Umbs said. "And many more cigarette smokers here."

"The first thing I noticed was everyone seemed to always be in a hurry," said Susanne McConnell.

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"I was shocked by the rampant sexism, racism and every other -ism, even by people who consider themselves progressive and open-minded," said Dorothy Warner. "I still don't feel welcome and doubt I ever will."

All I can tell her is what I told Amy Oppelt: "Welcome to Da Region!"

jdavich@post-trib.com

Twitter@jdavich
Getting a library card or joining a PTA shouldn't be intimidating experiences. They are, however, for residents living in the country illegally and who often live in the shadows of society.

A nationwide immigration rights initiative called "Welcoming Cities" is picking up steam in Northwest Indiana as concerns grow among our immigrant population of uncertain futures and possible broken families.

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Largely from Mexico and Central America, people without legal permission to live here have long sought refuge and better lives for their families. They often work menial, labor-intensive jobs many Hoosiers shun. They fuel economic engines for big companies and small businesses, while getting little in return.

Enforcing immigration laws has become a prickly political position for Democrats and Republicans. President Barack Obama, in particular, was uncharacteristically tough on illegal immigration. During Obama's two terms, records show more than 3 million immigrants were deported  most back to Mexico. Obama later relaxed his view, focusing on those convicted of felonies.

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Meanwhile, President Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign as a staunch law and order candidate. He insulted Mexicans and vowed to build a southern border wall at Mexico's expense.

After taking office in January, he pledged to immediately deport 2 or 3 million immigrants who committed crimes and are living illegally in the U.S. He's come nowhere close. A recent Newsweek article compared the initial four months of 2017 to 2016 and found deportations were down 1.3 percent under Trump, compared to Obama.

Post Tribune Twice-weekly News updates from Northwest Indiana delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Still, Trump's talk has sent shock waves into immigrant communities. He wants to expand detention facilities and halt the practice of allowing an immigrant without legal permission to live here to go before a judge before deportation. Trump plans to increase Immigration Customs Enforcement personnel, and he wants local police to enforce federal immigration laws.

In response, many cities and school districts across the country are extending a welcome mat of sorts to immigrants. Called "welcoming" ordinances, they offer some measure of protection with inclusive policies for all residents.

Merrillville attorney and immigration rights advocate Alfredo Estrada has been at the forefront of the local movement. He's addressed city leaders and encouraged them to pass ordinances at local council meetings.

According to Estrada, crime rates have declined in cities that have passed welcoming ordinances. Such ordinances also recognize that cities won't be part of a database to track residents who are living here without legal permission.

Gary was the first Northwest Indiana city to adopt a welcoming ordinance. Both East Chicago and Lake Station city councils have passed initial versions of the ordinance and will soon vote on final passage.

Leaders in East Chicago and Lake Station wisely said they wanted to pause and meet with law enforcement officials to review legal ramifications of the legislation before weighing final passage. Understanding the responsibility of local police will add certainty to their ordinances.

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Welcoming city ordinances help uphold the basic tenets of our democracy. We hope more cities give them consideration.
Man charged in connection to fatal shooting in rural Pueblo County

The Pueblo County Sheriffs Office has arrested a man on suspicion of murder in connection to the fatal shooting of a 73-year-old woman in rural Pueblo County.
A total of 45,362 Chinese apps were booted from Apple's App Store from June 13 to June 22, according to data analysis platform ASO 100, Beijing Business Today reported.

More than 15,500, or 34.34 percent, of them were gaming applications, it said.

The report said the cleanup probably target apps using hot patching, a solution that can enable developers to bypass the time consuming vetting process to deploy patches to users' devices immediately.

To ensure all apps in the App Store meet Apple's standards for security and integrity and maintain a healthy and clean app ecosystem, Apple has developed a thorough vetting process that scrutinizes all submitted applications.

However, once the original app is approved after Apple Store's vetting process, hot patching may be used by hackers to embed malicious code into users' smartphone.

Early this month, Apple had warned iOS developers by emails that any code, frameworks, or Software Development Kits that can change the app's behavior or functionality after App Store Review approval had to be removed.

Chinese apps were not the direct targets. More than 27,000 apps in the United States were also pulled from App Store in June, the report said.

In addition, Apple does not ban all hot patching technologies. According to section 3.3.2 of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement, only hot patching with capability to change app's native code, such as OC, rollout.io and JSPatch, are prohibited.

Many gaming applications in China are using Java Script, which is not banned by Apple, the report said.

Besides apps using banned hot patching, copycat apps, apps that have not been downloaded for years or host pirated music, and apps unable to support App Store's IPv6-only networks are also facing cleanup, according to a report by tech.sina.com.cn

Apple announced in June that its App Store had paid out $70 billion to developers since 2008, of which 30 percent was made last year, according to Xinhua.
Environment ministers and senior officials of BRICS countries Friday gathered in north China's Tianjin for discussions, pledging more efforts on sustainable development and pollution prevention.

Senior environment officials from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa discussed major challenges and opportunities towards achieving sustainable development in three dimensions: economic, social and environmental at country, regional and global levels, according to a statement released Friday.

"We underscore the need for means of implementing Paris Agreement, including transfer of technology from developed to developing countries as one of the most critical enabler for climate actions," it said.

"We appreciate that the conservation and sustainable use of the rich biodiversity of BRICS countries is of special significance for the global environment and to achieve the internationally agreed targets and goals," it added.

They reiterated their intention to promote cooperation within BRICS in the area of pollution prevention.
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Chinese police have arrested 16 employees or former employees of an Apple contractor for selling the personal information of iPhone users.

In January, police in Cangnan county of eastern China's Zhejiang Province suspected several employees or former employees of an Apple distributor and a contractor of stealing user data, the county procuratorate said in a statement Friday.

In May, police caught 22 people, 20 of whom worked for the two companies, from Guangdong, Jiangsu and Fujian provinces.

So far, sixteen have been arrested and four remain under investigation.

Fifteen of those arrested work for Guangzhou Telecom Yingke Company, a contractor which provides consulting and after-sales service for Apple.

Prosecutors said that starting from August 2013, the chief suspects Yang, Li and Gan, used their internal system to illegally check personal information of iPhone users.

They illegally obtained names, telephone numbers, email accounts and addresses of Apple customers.

In July, 2014, they were fired by the company, but continued to collude with company staff to steal information until August 2016

Each item of information was sold at 10 to 180 yuan (US$26.24).

Preliminary investigation showed that they made about 50 million yuan (about US$7.35 million) of illegal profit.
Photo taken on May 3, 2017 shows giant panda "Meng Meng" at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province. Giant pandas "Meng Meng" and "Jiao Qing" took a chartered flight on June 24 from Chengdu to settle in their new home at the Berlin Zoo in Berlin, Germany, on a 15-year research mission. "Meng Meng", a female, is four years old, and "Jiao Qing" is a seven-year-old male. (Xinhua)

Giant pandas Meng Meng and Jiao Qing will take a chartered flight from Chengdu Saturday to settle in their new home in Berlin Zoo, Germany, on a 15-year research mission.

The furry ambassadors will be accompanied by two Chinese keepers, Berlin Zoo's senior vet, 1,000 kilograms of bamboo and a large number of biscuits.

Meng Meng, a female, is four years old, and loves being on camera and sleeping, while Jiao Qing is a seven-year-old male, who is very active and loves physical activity.

They were both born at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Berlin Zoo has been preparing for their arrival since October.

"We have built new enclosures in an area of 5,500 square meters, neighboring the oldest enclosures, built for antelopes and giraffes in 1871," said Andreas Ochs, a senior veterinarian at the zoo.

Berlin weather is more agreeable than in Chengdu, so the pandas can stay outside for the whole year, according to Ochs.

The zoo has planned a 1,000 square-meter outside enclosure for each panda and a 250 square-meter inside area, as well as room for treatment, storing bamboo and quarantine.

To better host the bears, the zoo has sent a team to China to learn specific skills to care for them.

"We have learned to design enclosures for keeping the bears and how to go into the cage and remove the baby bear for nursing and to return it to the mother again once the couple give birth," Ochs said.

China has gifted three pandas to Germany since the early 1980s. Bao Bao and Tian Tian were the first panda couple in Berlin Zoo, though Tian Tian died in 1982.

Bao Bao remained alone until Yan Yan was loaned to the zoo in 1995 to breed. However, breeding attempts were unsuccessful despite trying artificial insemination seven times.

Thirty-four-year-old Bao Bao died in Berlin in 2012, as the oldest male panda in the world.

"Jiao Qing is grown-up now and Meng Meng will be ready to mate in two years. We expect to see their baby born in Berlin," said Yin Hong, Meng Meng's keeper in Chengdu.

China Wildlife Conservation Association and Berlin Zoo signed a 15-year contract in April. The research team at Chengdu Base singled the panda pair out based on their health, age and hereditary genes, said Yin.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Germany.

"They are envoys for China-Germany friendship. All the people in Berlin are looking forward to seeing this pair of pandas soon," Ochs said.
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China and the United States reaffirm their commitment to achieving the goal of "complete, verifiable, and irreversible" denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, according to a statement released on Friday.

"The two sides are ready to continue their efforts to this end, including by fully and strictly implementing relevant UNSC resolutions, and by promoting relevant dialogue and negotiation," said the statement released after the First Round of China-U.S. Diplomatic and Security Dialogue.

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi co-chaired the dialogue with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

China and the United States also reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, according to the statement.

In addition, the two sides decided to maintain communication and cooperation regarding the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

Fang Fenghui, a member of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the CMC Joint Staff Department, also participated in the dialogue.
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A fire that started in a household refrigerator was blamed on Friday for starting the blaze that raged through Grenfell Tower, a high rise tower block in London, which killed at least 79 people.

The fire at Grenfell Tower has also sent shock waves across the country after it was confirmed that cladding and insulation material used in a multi-million dollar facelift had failed safety tests.

Towns and cities across Britain with projects using similar cladding materials had eagerly awaited the provisional test results, knowing the findings would have major implications.

One media report Friday said the implications of the Grenfell Tower fire could lead to the biggest ever peacetime evacuation of civilians if families had to be moved out of buildings with cladding panels at risk of combustion.

Some city hall and town hall officials have already ordered cladding materials to be removed from buildings in their towns and cities, as residents in some high rise blocks saying they were now living in fear.

London's Metropolitan Police said Friday over 250 specialist investigators are now working on the Grenfell Tower fire investigation, one of the biggest ever crime cases every handled by the Met.

Detective Superintendent Fiona McCormack, who is heading the investigation, said every organization involved in refurbishment of the 24-level tower block is being investigated.

"If I find out that individuals or organizations have committed offences then I must be in a position to prosecute without prejudice to any proceedings.

"We are looking at every criminal offence from manslaughter onwards. We are looking at every health and safety and fire safety offences and we are reviewing every company at the moment involved in the building and refurbishment of Grenfell Tower," she said.

The government's Department for Business has ordered technical experts to carry out a detailed examination of the Hotpoint fridge freezer involved in the fire.

Greg Clark, Secretary of State for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said: "The safety of consumers is paramount. The device is being subject to immediate and rigorous testing to establish the cause of the fire. I have made clear to the company that I will expect them to replace any item without delay if it is established that there is a risk in using them."

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported Friday that around 30,000 buildings across Britain are likely to be examined to check cladding materials used.

As well as residential apartment blocks, the list will include student accommodation, hotels, office buildings and hospitals.

The hotel chain Premier Inn said Friday it was concerned about material used on three of its properties -- in the London areas of Brentford and Tottenham, as well as one in Maidenhead.

The buildings were investigated during a "detailed assessment" of its estate, the hotel chain said.

Buildings clad with material similar to that used in Grenfell Tower have already been identified near Manchester, Plymouth, Portsmouth as well as London.

The Telegraph said Theresa May has said residents will not be forced to stay in "unsafe homes" but with local councils facing what could be one of Britain's biggest peacetime evacuations, residents have yet to hear whether they will be re-housed.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for an amnesty for illegal immigrants who had been living in Grenfell Tower. The government and the Met have both said the legal status of people affected by the fire will not be checked.
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The man arrested after a van ploughed into worshippers close to the Finsbury Park Mosque here on Monday was charged Friday with terrorism-related murder and attempted murder.

London Metropolitan Police said Darren John Osborne, 47, from Cardiff, was charged after an investigation by the Met's Counter Terrorism Command following the terrorist attack in Seven Sisters Road, London shortly after midnight.

One man died and nine others were taken to hospital after the attack. The victim was named as 51-year-old Makram Ali, from Haringey, who had come to Britain from Bangladesh when he was ten.

Osborne was being held in police custody until his appearance Friday before Westminster Magistrates' Court in London.
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U.S. President Donald Trump (R) meets with Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi in Washington D.C. June 22, 2017. Yang Jiechi was in Washington D.C. to attend the first round of China-U.S. diplomatic and security dialogue. [Photo/Xinhua]

President Xi Jinping looks forward to meeting again with US President Donald Trump during the G20 Summit in Germany in July and welcomes Trump to make a state visit to China this year, State Councilor Yang Jiechi told Trump.

China hopes to work with the United States to make sure these high-level exchanges gain fruitful results, Yang said while meeting with Trump at the White House on Thursday.

Yang also said China hopes to expand mutually beneficial cooperation with the US and continue promoting the healthy and steady development of bilateral ties.

Conveying Xis greetings to Trump, Yang said bilateral ties have achieved new and important progress under the guidance of the important consensus that the two heads of state reached during their meeting at Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in April.

Such progress, including reaching agreement on the early harvest from the 100-Day Plan  a plan the two presidents agreed to at Mar-a-Lago to bolster bilateral economic ties  has brought tangible benefits to the people of both countries, Yang said.

China is willing to work with the US to maintain high-level exchanges as well as exchanges at other levels and to properly manage differences on the basis of mutual respect, Yang said.

The state councilor was in Washington attending the first round of the China-US Diplomatic and Security Dialogue, which opened on Wednesday.

The dialogue is one of four that the two countries agreed to establish during the Mar-a-Lago meeting.

Yang said this round of the dialogue was an important step to implement the consensus between Xi and Trump.

Yang also said China highly appreciates the fact that Trump sent delegates from the US government to attend the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, held in Beijing in May.

Trump asked Yang to convey his greetings to Xi, and said he was pleased with the progress that bilateral cooperation has achieved since the Mar-a-Lago meeting.

Trump also said the US hopes to cooperate with China in projects related to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Speaking of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, Trump said the US looks forward to strengthening cooperation with China to achieve the peninsulas denuclearization at an early date.

Yang reiterated Chinas position on the issue and said China hopes to continue to maintain communication and collaboration with all parties involved, including the US, to make joint efforts to ease tension on the peninsula and to solve the issue properly.

Su Xiaohui, a researcher of Chinas foreign policy at the China Institute of International Studies, said China-US relations have remained stable since the Mar-a-Lago meeting, which was very successful in setting the tone for bilateral ties.

Fan Jishe, a researcher of China-US ties at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China and the US have maintained close cooperation on major issues, and they need timely communication to solve or narrow their differences.

Meetings between the heads of state of the two countries help guide bilateral ties to develop in a healthy way, Fan said.
Ruan Haonan

(Photo: ChinaAid)

ChinaAid

(Jiangmen, GuangdongJune 24, 2017) In a sequel to the criminal detention of a Christian who hosted church events in his house, officials in Chinas southern Guangdong province raided the home of the churchs pastor and took him into custody last week.

Armed with a search warrant, a joint force of officials from the local religious affairs bureau, police station, and national security bureau arrived at the Jiangmen, Guangdong, branch of Fengle Church and intercepted its pastor, Li Wanhua, on June 14. After ransacking the churchs possessions, they took him away and charged him with participating in a cult and using superstition to sabotage law enforcement. The next day, he was criminally detained.

The authorities also said that the rooms where church members held service were too much like a church and ordered them returned to their original state. In addition, they ransacked through items in his house.

According to his wife, they made her record an oral statement.

On June 12, officials seized Ruan Haonan, a Fengle Church attendee who hosts Christian gatherings in his home, which is known as Mengai House. At the police station, government personnel interrogated Ruan, forced him to sign a transcribed account of the questioning.

His wife, Luo Caiyan, was also brought to the police station, and the officers tried to coerce them both into confessing they had participated in an evil cult, saying they could not be released otherwise. They both refused, and Ruan was criminally detained while Luo, who is currently pregnant, was released.

Since Ruans detention, Luo has not received any official notifications, even though officials said they had been sent in the mail.

ChinaAid reports abuses, such as those suffered by Ruan Haonan, Li Wanhua, and their families, in order to stand in solidarity with persecuted Christians and promote religious freedom, human rights, and rule of law.

Inventory list of the detained objects

Serial number Name Number Characteristic Notes 01 Psalm 48 copies Green rubber cover 02 Bible 12 copies Green rubber cover 03

Voice of the Spirit 21 copies Paperback 04 Zhibing poetry 5 copies Paperback 05 Stream of Praise 6 copies Paperback 06

Eternal Life Leaflets of Having Faith in Jesus will GrantEternal Life 506 copies 30 cm x 13 cm 07 Leaflets of For God so Loved the World 510 copies 30 cm x 13 cm 08 Fabric with cross on it 60 cm x 80 cm 09 Offering box Wooden, with a cross sign 10 Lesson materials for the Fengle Church Baptism 1 shipment Stapled A4 paper 11 Answer Sheet of questions regarding Genesis 1 shipment Stapled A4 paper 12 Colored Christian stickers 1 shipment 50 cm x 30 cm

Person in charge of evidence: Chen Jianying (fingerprint)

June 14, 2017

Witness: Yu (undistinguishable)
BEIJING - Chinese couriers' global networks are growing, helping overseas buyers receive products from China faster.

SF Express recently announced it was teaming up with UPS. Each firm has committed to investing $5 million in the joint venture.



Lin Zheying, SF Holding vice president, said the company's international business is booming, with revenue nearing 2 billion yuan ($294 million) last year.



The company's own delivery network includes 51 countries and regions. The new partnership means it can now reach almost every country in the world.



The surge of businesses concerning Belt and Road countries is most prominent, Lin said. It handles about 200,000 parcels a day to Russia, about 20 times the volume in 2014.



Khisamutdinov Maxim, who works for SF Express international department, said deliveries to Russia had been reduced to seven days from 30.



YTO Express, backed by Alibaba, also recently announced a global parcel alliance featuring couriers in 25 countries and regions.



This came after the company spent over 1 billion HK dollars on a majority stake in Hong Kong-listed On Time Logistics, which does air freight forwarding business in Asia, Europe and North America.



YTO Express says it aims to become a world leading logistic service provider in a market dominated by DHL, UPS, and FedEx.

YTO Express chairman Yu Weijiao said Chinese couriers are thriving and the world needs Chinese services.



Over the past decade, courier companies have benefited from the e-commerce. But the market remains largely domestic. Cross-border operation accounts for merely 2 percent in terms of handling volume.



However, changes came fast. In the first quarter this year, Chinese mainland couriers handled 170 million pieces of parcel across the border, up 29 percent from a year earlier, State Post Bureau figures show.



The revenue of overseas delivery grew by 19.8 percent to hit 11.1 billion yuan.



All top five Chinese couriers, also including ZTO Express, Yunda Express and STO Express, plan aggressive overseas expansion.



Overseas expansion has been encouraged by the government as the five-year plan (2016-2020) calls for setting up a batch of overseas logistics centers.



Cainiao Network Technology, Alibaba's courier aggregator, has set up such centers in Southeast Asia, cutting cost by 44 percent while shortening delivery time by a quarter, said the company's spokesperson Guan Xiaodong.



Zeng Junshan, an industry observer, saw overseas operation a key structural change for Chinese couriers as the domestic market saturated.



Major Chinese online retailers have expanded overseas. In June, both Alibaba and JD.com announced plans to launch end-to-end retail shopping websites for overseas clients.



Wang Yonggang, a marketing manager for Chinese smart-phone Vivo, said online shopping is becoming a global phenomenon.

He said the company on average receives 1,000 overseas orders via online retailers.



"We are seeing a new trend in global trade," said Wang Jian, a professor with University of International Business and Economics. "It is not just corporations and big traders involved. Individual consumers, micro enterprises are playing an increasingly important role."
HANGZHOU - Chinese police have arrested 16 employees or former employees of an Apple contractor for selling the personal information of iPhone users.



In January, police in Cangnan county of eastern China's Zhejiang province suspected several employees or former employees of an Apple distributor and a contractor of stealing user data, the county procuratorate said in a statement Friday.



In May, police caught 22 people, 20 of whom worked for the two companies, from Guangdong, Jiangsu and Fujian provinces.

So far, sixteen have been arrested and four remain under investigation.



Fifteen of those arrested work for Guangzhou Telecom Yingke Company, a contractor which provides consulting and after-sales service for Apple.



Prosecutors said that starting from August 2013, the chief suspects Yang, Li and Gan, used their internal system to illegally check personal information of iPhone users.



They illegally obtained names, telephone numbers, email accounts and addresses of Apple customers.



In July, 2014, they were fired by the company, but continued to collude with company staff to steal information until August 2016



Each item of information was sold at 10 to 180 yuan ($26.24).



Preliminary investigation showed that they made about 50 million yuan (about $7.35 million) of illegal profit.
A Tesla electric charger is displayed next to a Telsa model S car during an auto show in Paris, France. [Photo provided to CHINA DAILY]

Electric carmaker says it is in talks with Shanghai, but no clarity yet on deal

Elon Musk's Tesla Incthe highest valued car producer in the United States with a market capitalization of over $60 billionnever fails to surprise people, and this time it is the electric carmaker's localization plans for China.

A Tesla China senior spokeswoman said late Thursday night that events were moving into high gear.

"We expect to more clearly define our plans for production in China by the end of the year," she said.

Before that, Tesla had been silent for days about media reports that it would sign a deal on Thursday to build a plant in Shanghai's Lingang development zone.

Tesla China's senior public relations manager Duan Zhengzheng said the company was working with the Shanghai municipal government to explore the possibility of establishing a manufacturing facility, but did not comment on whether a deal had been signed.

Tesla's comments came after Shanghai Lingang Holdings Co Ltd, in the wake of a surge in its share price over the last few days, denied any negotiations of a possible partnership with the US electric carmaker after the stock market closed on Thursday.

Shanghai Electric Group Co Ltd, another rumored partner, also denied negotiations over a possible partnership with Tesla on Friday. Lingang's shares plummeted to their daily limit on Friday and Shanghai Electric shares halted trading.

The 21st Century Business Herald newspaper reported on Thursday, without providing details, that Tesla has been in talks with the Shanghai authorities for two years, but Tesla has been demanding too much.

John Zeng, managing director of LMC Automotive Consulting Shanghai, said the extended talks might have something to do with Tesla's intentions to partner with a non-auto company to protect its car-building technologies.

If Tesla wants to produce cars in China, it would need to set up a joint venture with at least one local partner, under existing rules.

Yale Zhang, managing director of Automotive Foresight, said the government may not give its approval if Tesla insists on a joint venture with a partner that is not a carmaker.

"Electric cars are not rocket science and there is no need for the government to make an exception," he said.

Zeng said Tesla may win approval with the help of local authorities, but added there was no need for them to give too much away in the negotiations.

"The fact is that Tesla needs China, not China needs Tesla," Zeng added.

Tesla sold 10,399 cars in China in 2016, up 181.7 percent year-on-year, LMC statistics show.

Zheng said, however, that BMW Brilliance's Zinoro and Daimler and BYD's Denza were not inferior to Tesla models in terms of quality and driving ranges.

He said localized Tesla models would not have a big impact on China's new energy vehicle sector.

LMC statistics show that 95 percent of new energy cars sold in China are priced under 100,000 yuan ($14,624), while a Tesla S sedan is priced at more than 700,000 yuan.
By TAN YINGZI in Chongqing and LI FUSHENG in Beijing | China Daily | Updated: 2017-06-24 09:06

SF Motors, an auto company in southwestern China's Chongqing, has signed an agreement with US heavy vehicle and contract automotive manufacturer AM General to buy the latter's commercial assembly plant, or CAP, for $110 million.

Based in South Bend, Indiana, AMG is best known for the Hummer, its civilian vehicle, and the Humvee, the military heavyweight.

Under the agreement, SF Motors, a subsidiary of Chongqing Sokon Industry Group, will acquire the land, plant and certain auto manufacturing equipment of the CAP.

The deal does not impact AMG's separate military vehicle assembly plant or its core military vehicle business.

Sokon started as a mechanical springs factory in 1986 in Banan District, Chongqing. It is now one of China's leading manufacturers of engines and new energy cars.

It focuses on sport utility vehicles and mini passenger vans.

Its subsidiary SF Motors is headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, and specializes in the design and production of US-based clean electric vehicles.

"Once the purchase is completed, it will help us enhance our advanced manufacturing and management systems as well as increase our manufacturing experience in developing the US-based clean energy car project," Sokon said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

"It will also help upgrade our current manufacturing business, improve the quality of our products and then boost our sales."

SF Motors expects to retain all of the CAP's 340 jobs which "would have otherwise been lost when the CAP's sole remaining customer contract expires later this year and would have resulted in a line shutdown", according to news release of AMG on Thursday.

"We are confident that SF Motors is the right long-term owner to support the CAP, as well as the South Bend community and the state of Indiana," said Andy Hove, AMG's president and CEO, in the news release.

The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of US and Chinese regulatory approvals.

"This purchase will help Sokon to speed up its production of electric cars in the United States," said Bill Peng, a partner of Strategy&, a US consulting firm.

"Sokon will probably become the first Chinese company to produce vehicles in the US and the deal has shown the fighting spirit of Chinese private companies."

In 2009, Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co Ltd tried to buy the Hummer from General Motors. But, the next year, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce rejected Tengzhong's bid.
JINANChina is developing a third prototype exascale computing machine, also known as a super supercomputer, and plans to launch it by June 2018, according to the developers.

The Sunway exascale computer prototype is being developed by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology and the National Supercomputing Center in Jinan, Shandong province.

The NRCPC led the team that developed the Sunway TaihuLight, crowned the world's fastest computer two years in a rowat the International Supercomputing Conference in 2016 and 2017 in Frankfurt, Germany.

An exascale computer is able to execute a quintillion calculations per second, about eight times faster than the Sunway TaihuLight. The increase in computational speed will advance research in such areas as climate change, space science, medicine and oceanology.

China and the United States are currently leading exascale computer development. In China, prototypes are being developed by three teams led by the NRCPC, the Dawning Information Industry Co (also known as Sugon) and the National University of Defense Technology.

The three have spearheaded China's supercomputer efforts with their respective brandsSunway, Sugon and Tianhe.

The National University of Defense Technology, partnering with the National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin, announced in January that their prototype will be ready by the end of the year.

Sugon said it had begun developing its prototype late last year.

After the prototypes have been developed, exascale supercomputers are expected to hit the market by 2020.

The Sunway supercomputer's developers said they are eyeing applications in fields such as high performance numerical simulation in marine environments, to be used by the State Oceanic Administration's First Institute of Oceanography in Qingdao. The city is at the forefront of China's marine scientific research and is the base for the deep-sea manned submersible Jiaolong.

Xinhua
Chinese President Xi Jinping sends envoy to attend inauguration of Serbian president

Xinhua | Updated: 2017-06-24 06:48

BELGRADE - At the invitation of the Republic of Serbia, Ji Bingxuan, special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, attended the inauguration ceremony of the newly-elected Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic here on Friday.



Ji, also vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, China's top legislature, conveyed President Xi's congratulation and good wishes to Vucic, saying China and Serbia are good friends able to share weal and woe, and the ties between the two countries are at their highest point.



China is willing to boost mutual political trust along with Serbia and deepen pragmatic cooperation taking the Belt and Road Initiative as an opportunity, said the envoy.



He noted that the two sides should well implement the projects in the fields such as infrastructure and energy to promote progress of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.



Vucic thanked President Xi for sending an envoy to attend his inauguration and asked Ji to convey his greetings to President Xi.



The Serbian president said Serbia and China enjoyed a deep and long friendship, and achieved a lot in cooperation.



Serbia will continue to give priority to developing the relationship with China and will play an active role in the Belt and Road Initiative so that the cooperation between the two sides can be further enhanced in all fields and bilateral ties can be lifted to a higher level.



Vucic, former prime minister of Serbia, won the April 2 presidential election and assumed office on May 31.



Ji also met the speaker of the Serbian parliament Maja Gojkovic.
China is capable of paying pensioners on time, despite deficits in the endowment insurance funds in some provinces and the pressure brought by a quickly aging population, social security authorities said.

From January to May this year, the endowment insurance funds for enterprise employees received 1.58 trillion yuan ($231 billion), up by 23.9 percent year-on-year, while the expenditure stood at 1.35 trillion yuan, an increase of 23.2 percent, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security late on Thursday.

The surplus of the funds had reached 4.08 trillion yuan by May.

Payments from enterprises to the funds have been on the rise as the Chinese economy recovers, the statement said. From January to May, the growth rate of payments from enterprises to the fund stood at 10.4 percent.

"Based on the current situation, the endowment insurance funds will have larger receipt than expenditure all the year through, making the surplus increase continue," the statement said.

However, the ministry conceded that the funds are unevenly distributed in the country due to unbalanced economic development.

"While the surplus in the eastern part of the country is big, that in the middle and western parts is small. Northeast China, which is an old industrial base with a large number of pensioners but a limited number of insurance payers, sometimes sees its fund expenditure larger than the receipts."

The ministry said it will regulate the surplus and deficit of endowment insurance funds in more regions to make supply and demand more balanced.

As of the end of last year, 379 million people were covered by endowment insurance for enterprise employees - 25.69 million more than at the end of 2015.

In China, there is also endowment insurance for rural residents. In total, 508 million people were covered by the endowment insurance program by the end of May, and 159 million were receiving pension payments.

The government, while increasing its investment and transferring some State-owned capital into the endowment insurance fund, will also promote the marketization of the fund by putting it into investment to preserve and increase its value, the statement said.

According to the ministry, the central government has invested 2.57 trillion yuan in the endowment insurance fund since 1998.

The statement also said the public endowment insurance system will be supplemented by occupational and corporate pensions, personal savings and commercial endowment insurance.

Financial safety will be made the top priority as China strengthens efforts to develop commercial endowment insurance, Huang Hong, vice-chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, told a news briefing organized by the State Council Information Office on Friday.

"Endowment insurance is what people rely on for their old age and in illness. Therefore, it's important for the endowment fund to have a steady financial return, and must not be put in areas with high financial risk," Huang said.

He said his commission will issue rules and regulations for supervising commercial endowment insurance funds, while risk control and financial capability qualifications for commercial insurance groups will be raised.
GUANGZHOU - Metro officials said that starting on Wednesday, the city will provide women-only subway cars.

There will be one such subway car for every train on Line 1, and it will be reserved for women during the rush hour, from 7:30 am to 9:30 am and from 5 pm to 7 pm on workdays, the subway operator said on Friday. During nonpeak times, men can also ride in those subway cars.

"We want to raise awareness about caring for and respecting women," Metro officials said in a statement. The company will seek public opinion after the trial period begins and make improvements as needed.

The women-only restriction is, however, not legally binding, the statement acknowledges, since there is no legal basis for differential treatment on the public transit system.

"Couples, friends and families may want to stay together, so in those cases, it is not suitable to force male passengers out of the carriages," an official with Guangzhou Metro said.

The city's subway operator made the decision following suggestions from political advisers. One of the advisers, Su Zhongyang, pointed out that many women complain about rush-hour traffic and say that women's generally smaller stature makes it all the more uncomfortable.

"Also, we want to stop any chance of women falling victim to harassment while riding the subway," Su said.

According to Guangzhou police, 74 sexual harassment cases have been filed involving the Guangzhou Metro since 2015.

"I support having a women-only car. At least there won't be any uncomfortable stares when I wear shorts," said a woman who gave her name as Liang.

Guangzhou has around 14 million people.

Xinhua
Money designated to improve people's livelihoods are common graft targets

Social sectors that are closely related with people's livelihoods have become a major target of this year's annual audit report as the country is progressing toward a moderately prosperous society by 2020.

The central government invested a total of 60 billion yuan ($8.78 billion) in special funds for poverty relief in 2016. The National Audit Office had visited 16,600 poverty-stricken families from 158 counties and audited the use of about 33.6 billion yuan of the funds, said Hu Zejun, auditor general of the National Audit Office.

While most of the funds were used efficiently and 12.4 million people were pulled out of poverty last year, auditors have also found some problems, he said.

"The information of 113,400 registered poverty-stricken people was found to be inaccurate or not updated. Some who have bought high-end vehicles or apartments were still registered as poverty-stricken," Hu said.

He said that auditors had found 141 million yuan of poverty relief funds were improperly spent, as some projects were used for other purposes after completion or abandoned, and 1.95 billion yuan of funds in 84 counties were idle.

Hu made the remarks while delivering an annual audit report to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. The legislature is holding its bimonthly session, which will last until Tuesday.

The report also revealed that 474 medical institutes had sold medicine or medical materials worth of 537 million yuan at inflated prices.

More than 1 billion yuan in special funds for affordable housing projects were embezzled for commercial real estate development or office expenditures, the report found, while 54,900 families that were not qualified for affordable houses passed local government verification.

"The corruption of low-level officials is a problem in areas closely related to people's livelihoods," said Hu, adding that auditors had found 450 corrupt grassroots officials involved in more than 300 cases connected with poverty relief, social security and ecology protection in the past year.

The National Audit Office has transferred evidence to judicial departments on more than 600 disciplinary or legal violations, involving about 1,100 officials, in the past year, Hu said.

Jiang Jianghua, director of the audit science research institute under the National Audit Office, said that the shift of attention in this year's "audit storm", which put more importance on people's livelihoods, would bring the public practical benefits.

Wang Dehua, director of the audit research office at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the audit work is consistent with the emphasis of the central leadership.

"As China is strengthening efforts in building a moderately prosperous society, the government has attached more attention to people's livelihoods. Stricter scrutiny over such areas can help the government better achieve the target," he said.

Wang also said that the central government not only audits the use of the funds but also pays attention to the qualification of those who benefit, which is also key to ensuring the funds are used properly.

Highlights

The National Audit Office audited the debt of 16 provincial governments, 16 prefecture-level city governments and 14 county governments and found that the debt these governments had promised to repay with their fiscal revenues at the end of March 2017 had increased 87 percent from the end of June 2013.

Under the promise to repay in such manner, a total of 53.7 billion yuan ($7.9 billion) was borrowed from banks and trust financing by some of those governments, which is deemed to have violated relative rules.

The audit of 842 domestic projects of 20 enterprises found 60.6 billion yuan at risk due to bad decisions or poor management in major investments, share acquisitions and project construction; 61 of these companies' 155 overseas projects were also found to be at risk.

Three of the 20 central State-owned companies that were audited failed to weed out outdated capacity as required by the central government. Three of the 18 provinces that were audited were found to have 67 coal mines with total capacity of 12.6 million metric tons that should have been closed or were given production permits not in accordance with regulations. These governments were also found to be violating the regulations and gave permits to iron mills with output capacity of 1.33 million tons.
Environmental ministers and officials from BRICS nations called for more cooperation on air pollution and climate change to tackle pollution during rapid economic growth, according to a statement on Friday.

The ministers from China, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa met in Tianjin for a two-day conference that ended on Friday. BRICS leaders will meet in Xiamen, Fujian province, in September.

"We reiterate our intention to promote cooperation within BRICS in the area of pollution prevention, in particular air pollution," said the statement.

It also demonstrated the member countries' promise to implement the Paris Agreement and urged developed countries to transfer the needed technology to developing countries, which is "one of the most critical enablers for climate action."

Climate change, ecological deterioration and frequent major natural disasters have become global environmental challenges, and countries must take joint action to tackle the issues, said Li Ganjie, Party chief of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The BRICS countries - all emerging economies - account for 23 percent of world GDP, and can play a large role in improving global environmental management, he added.

It was the first time that China chaired the meeting of BRICS environment ministers.

The inaugural BRICS environment ministers' meeting was held in Moscow, Russia, in April 2015, while the second was in Goa, India, in September 2016.

During the two-day meeting in Tianjin, the environment ministers and senior officials also approved the BRICS Partnership for Urban Environmental Sustainability Initiative, which identified "water and air pollution prevention, waste management, spatial planning and mobility as priority areas for cooperation."

The initiative will promote a series of activities such as holding policy dialogues, conducting joint research and setting up websites, aiming to facilitate the best practices for urban sustainability.

"The BRICS countries have been confronted with similar environmental issues like pollution and waste management during their rapid economic growth, which makes cooperation necessary," Zhang Jieqing, a senior expert at the BRICS working group, said on Friday.
Irregularities in the use of antibiotics in poultry and livestock in China will be strictly monitored to reduce drug resistance, according to a national plan released by the Ministry of Agriculture on Friday.

Authorities will push for a reduction in the use of antibiotics for poultry and livestock by 2020. Antibiotics for both human and animal use, and antibiotics that can easily cause cross-drug resistance will be gradually banned in China, according to the plan on controlling animal-sourced drug resistance.

Authorities will also take measures to research, develop and promote more than 100 kinds of new drugs for animal use that are safe and highly effective, and more than 100 kinds of high-risk drugs for animal use will be banned, the plan said.

By 2020, more than 97 percent of poultry, livestock and aquatic products in the domestic markets are expected to pass tests for antibiotics residue, the plan said.

Authorities will intensify supervision in the inspection and approval of new antibiotics for animal use, and further regulate drug application by veterinarians. Authorities will also establish eight national labs across China to improve the monitoring of drug resistance caused by the use of animal antibiotics, the plan said.

Agricultural authorities will also intensify communications and cooperation with international organizations such as the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to control the spread of drug-resistant bacteria among countries, it said.

China is a major producer and user of antibiotics for animals. Bacteria drug-resistance is becoming increasingly serious in China, forcing the use of more drugs in the poultry and livestock industry, which brings serious threats to public health, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
With Chinese travelers proving they have some of the deepest pockets in the world, luxury hotels have been pulling out all the stops to cater to their needs and preferences

Naoya Sato's recent marketing pitch about the soon-to-be-opened Hotel de Crillon in Paris summed up just how serious luxury hotels are about attracting Chinese travelers.

The senior sales manager of the iconic French hotel was speaking at the 11th International Luxury Travel Market Asia in Shanghai in June. Hotel de Crillon has been undergoing renovations for the past four years and is scheduled to reopen in July.

Apart from the many bells and whistles such as the rich history of the building and the two suites that were designed by fashion mogul Karl Lagerfeld, the hotel will also feature not one, but five Mandarin-speaking Chinese butlers.

From top: The Alba Restaurant of the St. Regis Maldives. The lobby of Fairmont Central Plaza in Los Angeles. Easter Island in Chile is one of the most popular destinations for high-end consumers, according to a report by luxury travel agency HHtravel. Photos Provided to China Daily

Rosewood's attempt to attract Chinese guests is hardly surprising, seeing how these individuals are the biggest spenders in the world.

Due to China's rapid economic growth in the past and the ever-rising disposable incomes of the burgeoning middle class, tourism expenditures by Chinese have experienced double-digit growth every year since 2004.

The latest figures from the United Nations World Tourism Organization showed that Chinese outbound tourists spent a whopping $261 billion in 2016, twice the amount spent by travelers from the US. Statistics from the China National Tourism Administration showed that the number of outbound Chinese travelers also rose 4.3 percent to 122 million in 2016, cementing China's position as the top source market in the world since 2012.

Held at the Shanghai Exhibition Center from June 5 to 8, ILTM Asia attracted upwards of 600 luxury travel service suppliers from around the world and another 600 buyers from 26 Asian markets, both increasing roughly 20 percent year-on-year.

A joint report released by ILTM Asia and China wealth watcher Rupert Hoogewerf pinned down the spending habits of the country's high-net-worth crowd by interviewing 334 Chinese who spent an average of 380,000 yuan ($55,650) on their travels in 2016.

More than 30 percent of the interviewees said they spent over 5,000 yuan per night on hotel rooms, an amount Hoogewerf has said is unprecedented. On average, however, these individuals spent about 3,800 yuan per night on accommodation. Most of them also favored niche boutique hotels over renowned chains.

In line with their preferences for bespoke luxury products, personalized services instead of brand recognition and discounts were cited as the top priority for these travelers, added Hoogewerf.

Amrita Banda, managing director of Agility Research & Strategy, the partner consultancy of ILTM Asia, pointed out that the desire to travel among the Chinese has not been dampened despite the current security situation in the world, especially in Europe where a spate of terror attacks have taken place in France and the United Kingdom this year.

She added that the question she is most frequently asked these days is: "What does a Chinese luxury traveler like?"

Oddly enough, as much as Chinese travelers love spending on premium goods, they also cannot do without the humble snack of cup noodles.

As such, the InterContinental Hotel Group has ensured that their Chinese guests are provided with eletric kettles so that they can prepare their noodles and make tea. Bedroom slippers have also been identified as a must-have for these guests. The hotel has even gone to the extent of partnering with advertising agency Ogilvy to create a video campaign to communicate these offerings.

"We used to have more than a third of the Chinese tourists complaining about the lack of an electric kettle in the room," said Emily Chang, chief commercial officer of the group.

Meanwhile, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts will on Aug 1 launch a new initiative that is specially tailored for their Chinese guests across its properties at 35 destinations. Dubbed "xiangju", which means "reunion" in Chinese, the program will include the use of WeChat, China's most popular social media tool, for payment and communication between guests and hotel staff, information guides in Mandarin as well as Chinese tea and cuisines.

Over at Marriott, the world's largest hotel group, efforts to lure Chinese guests include introducing well-loved food and snacks to their breakfast selection. Since late 2016, Marriott has been serving soy milk, fried dough and steamed buns for breakfast across its hotels in the most popular destinations for Chinese travelers like Paris, London and Bangkok.

The Hoogewerf report revealed that 22 percent of the Chinese travelers polled said that food is a key element when choosing hotels.

Fifty-six percent of the travelers said they were eager to try a country's local cuisine at the hotels in which they stay, while 30 percent indicated a preference for Cantonese and Japanese cuisines. Italian food fared the worst in the survey, ranking the lowest among the 10 choices, after Southeast Asian cuisine and a buffet spread.

To capitalize on this love for food, Mandarin Oriental has partnered with high-end dining group Hakkasan to open its first Chinese fine dining restaurant outside Asia at its Marrakech property in Morocco.

Called Ling Ling, a colloquial Chinese name for girls, the restaurant not only stands out as the most premium fine dining destination for China's Cantonese cuisine, but also as one of the few Chinese restaurants opened by a luxury hotel group outside China.

xujunqian@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/24/2017 page10)
Old port reborn along Belt and Road 2017-06-23 10:03:35 Xinhua Despite Ramadan, saleswoman Guliman has seen many customers at the fur apparel store where she works in Horgos, a port bordering Kazakhstan in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

HORGOS, Xinjiang -- Despite Ramadan, saleswoman Guliman has seen many customers at the fur apparel store where she works in Horgos, a port bordering Kazakhstan in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The store has been short-staffed lately and is recruiting shopping guides who speak Kazakh or Russian.

"We have had more customers from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Russia recently. They like fur a lot," said the 28-year-old, who is from a nearby county and is ethnically Kazakh.

Guliman makes around 5,000 yuan (730 U.S. dollars) a month depending on her sales performance. It is much higher than she could make at her old job, sitting at an office at a local housing institution.

The marten coats, produced in northern China's Tianjin City, cost 8,000 to 10,000 yuan each at the store. Monthly sales revenue can reach 800,000 yuan.

The store, Aliu International, is located at the China-Kazakhstan International Border Cooperation Center, the world's only duty-free shopping center spanning two countries, which opened in 2012.

People from both countries are welcome to shop at the 5.28-square-km center without a visa.

As a port, Horgos, which means "a place where caravans pass" in Mongolian, dates back more than 130 years.

While Horgos lost its shine as caravans faded into history, the Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by China in 2013, has revitalized the old port.

Daily Crossings

On a June afternoon in a parking lot on the Chinese side, foreign buyers swarmed out of shopping buildings, loaded their purchases into cars and headed home across the border. Guldan, 46, was among them.

Guldan is from Zharkent, a town in Kazakhstan some 40 km away from Horgos. She visits the center every day, along with her two siblings, and their driver, buying children's goods worth approximately 5,000 yuan each time.

At the center, each person is allowed to purchase up to 8,000 yuan in duty-free goods each day.

"My husband runs a baby store at home, so we come here every day to refill our stock. China-made products are very popular for both price and quality," said Guldan, while packing strollers, bicycles and beds for children into cars.

Seric, 34, also from Zharkent, sells small goods at a duty-free building at the center. Working at Horgos, he is able to go home every day. When he worked in the Kazakh capital Astana, 1,600 km away, he only returned home once a year.

"Although I'm in Horgos, I just feel like I'm working at home," he said. "My neighbors are jealous and often ask me when the companies here will offer more jobs."

According to the border control station in Horgos, more than 5 million Chinese and foreigners crossed the border last year via the Horgos cooperation center, accounting for 70 percent of total entries and exits in Xinjiang.

Cargo trains from the Chinese cities of Chongqing and Zhengzhou pass through the port on their way to Europe. Earlier this month, a new passenger train route was launched via Horgos, which reduces travel time by eight hours between Urumqi, Xinjiang's regional capital, and Almaty in Kazakhstan, compared to the old route via the Alataw Pass.

Wang Gang, Party chief of Horgos, said the number of service cashier windows at the industrial and commercial registration center has risen from five in 2014 to 20 now.

Thirty new businesses are registered every day on average in Horgos, which was inaugurated as a city in 2014. They are attracted by preferential policies, a simpler registration process and a five-year exemption on business taxes.

"These businesses will bring tens of thousands of jobs as well as consumption," he said.

The economy of the city expanded 40 percent to 2.68 billion yuan, and the revenue budget rocketed up 278 percent year on year to 1.32 billion yuan in 2016.

Boshihao Group, a Shenzhen-registered firm that develops and produces robots, smartphones and tablet computers, opened a factory in Horgos in May.

The factory will meet demand from the Russian and Central Asian markets, according to its general manager, Min Jianbo.

"A shorter delivery time to these countries and preferential tax policies are major reasons that we have chosen to locate our factory here," he said.

Saleswoman Guliman studied software engineering in Beijing after graduating from university in 2012. She is confident that her academic achievements will be put to use somehow in Horgos as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

"I'm sure I'll find a job here related to my major someday, maybe when the high-tech companies decide to localize their technical personnel," she said.
Safety tips for studying abroad 2017-06-24 09:02:45 chinadaily.com.cn

Editor's note: The disappearance of Yingying Zhang, a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois, has struck a chord with many people. As the number of Chinese students in the US has grown dramatically in recent years, safety has become one of their greatest concerns. Forum readers share some safety tips to help stay safe while studying abroad.

craig32935 (US)

Learn to defend yourselves and each other. So long as you remain a non-resistant target, you will forever be a target. Also never walk alone on or off campus at night regardless of if you are a guy or girl. Carry some kind of defense item - a knife, can of pepper spray or a stun gun.

Oh and very, very important. Be aware of your surroundings at all times. Put the phone away and keep your focus on your environment. There is nothing that important on your phone that cannot wait until you get where you are going.

stevenmon (US)

Never, never, NEVER--and this applies to everyone--go out walking alone at 12:45 am--it is not safe. I think foreign students really need to understand that when they come to America.

fatdragon (UK)

The issue of safety is a long way down the list of priorities for Chinese parents trying to get their children into the USA.

I have walked in the streets of cities, such as Beijing, at all hours of the day and night and never had any problems, something that expats in China comment on frequently when in China.

Yes, some (not all or even a majority) US universities are arguably academically superior to the rest of the world including China but that doesn't make US campuses as safe as or safer than Chinese ones where there are no guns available to the general public.

RonJaDa (Canada)

I believe the feeling of safety is in our minds but true safety comes from due diligence. Applying common sense to minimize the amount of risk you expose yourself to while bravely and boldly living your life and applying yourself. Is it worth the risk to me? The answer is YES. That is why I travel to USA, China, Philippines and other foreign countries. I believe I make a difference not at the national level by myself but together with the outreach of all the other individuals. It combines to make this world a better place, one positive action at a time.

StevenSu (China)

As a parent of a student who is interested in going abroad, I think we need to be more careful in choosing the destination for study abroad, the value for the field of study and the recent news. I'd rather send my child to study in Sweden, UK, Canada that are much safer to study and she can get a quality education.
Editor's note: The disappearance of Yingying Zhang, a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois, has struck a chord with many people. As the number of Chinese students in the US has grown dramatically in recent years, safety has become one of their greatest concerns. Forum readers share some safety tips to help stay safe while studying abroad.

craig32935 (US)

Learn to defend yourselves and each other. So long as you remain a non-resistant target, you will forever be a target. Also never walk alone on or off campus at night regardless of if you are a guy or girl. Carry some kind of defense item - a knife, can of pepper spray or a stun gun.

Oh and very, very important. Be aware of your surroundings at all times. Put the phone away and keep your focus on your environment. There is nothing that important on your phone that cannot wait until you get where you are going.
Modern Britain, particularly London, has always prided itself on multiculturalism, something that was never more evident when people of all faiths, backgrounds and cultures came together to stand united in the face of four bloody attacks, three by Islamic extremists and the last one, just last week, by a troubled white man.

But that unity risks being shattered by the aftermath of a massive fire that tore through a 24-floor apartment block in wealthy Notting Hill in West London and left 79 people missing and presumed dead.

First off Prime Minister Theresa May, under pressure over a spate of terror attacks as well as her party's divided stance over the terms of the deal being negotiated for Britain's exit from the European Union, made a series of blunders over the fire. Add to that the fragility of her position after she called an unnecessary general election, which saw her party losing majority in parliament, and you have the makings of chaos.

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, much derided in previous months by the Conservatives for his extreme left-wing views, gained huge points in the court of public opinion by heading for the scene and hugging distraught survivors and listening patiently to relatives seeking news of the dead and missing.

Sadiq Khan, the Labour Party's mayor of London, was also quickly on the scene, facing down a barrage of questions over the behavior of local authority officials.

May, by contrast, couldn't put a foot right as far as public opinion is concerned. Although she was quickly on the scene, she restricted her visit to talking to senior firefighters, London Ambulance Service medics and police chiefs, apparently avoiding any face-to-face meeting with the survivors and residents thronging the area. She did later invite a group to Downing Street, but for many commentators, it was too late.

That immediately opened up a gap between what is perceived as her government, which seemed slow to respond, and the Grenfell Tower residents, worried about their future and where they would live. Grenfell was used to house a mix of immigrant families, low-income residents, and asylum seekers, and their plight was immediately seized by outside organizations such as the Socialist Workers' Party, an extreme left-wing group that has every reason to want to bring down May and her government.

The message in the demonstrations I saw, which appeared to be organized by the SWP, was that there is a huge class divide in the country, which is actually a society of the haves and the have-nots. Add to that the activities of a few Islamic extremists with attacks on innocent civilians, and the noises being made by ultra-right wing nationalists such as the English Defence League, and the fires of xenophobia are in danger of flaring up out of hand.

Thankfully, the majority of people in Britain don't think that way, and it is heartening to see public appearances by leaders of all faiths - Anglicans, Catholics, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Jews - regularly making joint declarations of togetherness and unity.

After all, peace, unity and stability are what many immigrants to Britain seek.

Back in the 1950s, when Britain needed to rebuild itself after the pounding it received in World War II, the call went out for West Indians to come and work on the nation's buses and in the hospitals. They eventually integrated well, bringing their own tastes and cultures to the patchwork quilt that British society was becoming.

That was also true of the East African Asians, ejected from Idi Amin's Uganda, who came here, settled in and have rarely troubled anyone. That wave of immigration gave birth to many of Britain's professional classes today.

Perhaps May, her advisers and others in the Westminster Bubble should think of that.

The author is managing editor for China Daily, Europe.

chris@mail.chinadailyuk.com

(China Daily 06/24/2017 page5)
Scientists watching a major rift in the Antarctica, which has grown in the past few years, say it will soon cause a section of the ice shelf to break off and "collapse" into the ocean. The ice sheet that could break off from the West Antarctica, known as Larsen C, is the size of the US state of Delaware, or about 5,000 square kilometers.

Project Midas, which provides frequent updates on the Larsen C shelf, says in its latest report that when the ice sheet breaks off, the Larsen C shelf will lose more than 10 percent of its area to leave the ice front "at its most retreated position ever recorded". This event will fundamentally change the landscape of the Antarctic Peninsula. Project Midas has previously shown that the new configuration will be less stable than it was prior to the rift, and that Larsen C may eventually follow the example of its neighbor Larsen B, which disintegrated in 2002 after a similar rift-induced calving event.

This may not appear catastrophic to the world at large, which seems busy celebrating the opening of new shipping lanes in the Arctic, the other "ice land" which many scientists believe has entered a vicious circle of summer and melting. More icebreakers to explore and exploit the oil and gas reserves, and manpower and equipment to tap the wide variety of minerals and forest resources in the Arctic appear to be the order of the day.

Oceans and their resources - and the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets are fundamental resources that sustain life on Earth - we believe are there to be exploited. It is because of this misplaced belief that we have also been using the oceans as garbage dumps - dumping more than 165 million tons of plastic.

Still, we are not bothered that by 2050, plastic in the oceans will outweigh fish, if the forecast by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation proves accurate.

All this matters, not least because the melting of the entire Larsen ice shelf, which is about 50,000 sq km, could raise the sea level by 10 centimeters. That in itself may not be a major threat to coastlines across the world, but shows the future path other ice shelves could take: the unpinning of the ice sitting on land which can activate the ice that rests on bedrocks and make it unstable, and eventually force it to float and melt because of the continuously warming oceans.

This scenario appears more likely after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris climate change agreement, meaning, instead of controlling emissions, the United States will now release more toxic gases into the atmosphere and thus accelerate climate change.

In terms of plastic, some countries, including China, have introduced legislation forbidding supermarkets and groceries from providing plastic carrier bags to customers for free to reduce the use of plastic bags. Sadly, such legislation has not succeeded in reducing the use of plastic bags, simply because they are cheap.

Perhaps the time has come to include the environmental costs and raise the price of plastic bags in order to curb their use and reduce the dumping of plastic into the oceans.

China and some other countries and regions are now at the forefront of the fight against climate change. Sadly, though, their efforts may not be enough if the world continues on the current trajectory of economic development, which rests on continuous increase in profits.

That we can still prevent the world from this spiraling out of control because of increasing exploitation of natural resources and dumping of waste into landfills and water bodies is something we already know.

It's an irony that we know what the solutions for most of our problems are, yet we continue doing just the opposite. We have to curb climate change to slow down, if not stop, the melting of ice sheets and stop dumping plastic in the oceans. Or else, more plastic than fish in our oceans will add to the problem of rising water levels and fast-receding coastlines.

The author is a senior editor with China Daily.

oprana@hotmail.com

(China Daily 06/24/2017 page5)
US index provider MSCI's decision on Tuesday to include the Chinese mainland's stocks in its widely tracked MSCI Emerging Markets Index and All Country World Index in June 2018 could create a windfall of tens of billions of US dollars from asset managers, pension funds and insurers for the mainland's equity markets over the next decade, according to analysts. The MSCI's decision will also help China open up its capital market, though the road to the internationalization of China's A-share market is still not as smooth.

"This decision has broad support from international institutional investors with whom MSCI consulted, primarily as a result of the positive impact on the accessibility of China's A-share market of both the Stock Connect program and the loosening by the local Chinese stock exchanges of pre-approval requirements that can restrict the creation of index-linked investment vehicles globally," the MSCI said in a statement.

The inclusion of Chinese shares in the MSCI index is not simply an addition of numbers; it will have "multiple effects" on the global market.

The global stock market is dominated by the US, European and Asia-Pacific markets, but now emerging economies' markets have also become an important component of it. Yet free flow of capital remains the most vibrant element of the global stock market.

The globalization of capital is based on interconnectivity of global stock markets and their full opening-up, which calls for the establishment of a global index system as reference for investors. And the MSCI happens to be such an index, for it is widely used by professional investors, including portfolio managers, stock traders and bourses across the world. Of the 100 largest global asset managers, 97 are MSCI clients.

US, European, Asia-Pacific stock markets, along with the stock markets of a majority of emerging economies, have been included in the MSCI index, helping the US index provider to form a stake-holding relationship with the global stock market. Because of this close connection, fluctuations in major global economies usually cause repercussions and chain reactions in the global stock markets.

As the world's second-largest economy, China is now a major locomotive of the global economy and thus its A-share market should play a bigger role in the global capital market.

The continued exclusion of China, one of the world's most vibrant emerging stock markets, from the global capital market will compromise the status of the benchmark global stock market index. As a result, it cannot meet global investors' demands in the long run.

So the inclusion of China's A-share market in the MSCI index would be a win-win result for all - the Chinese stock market, the MSCI as well as global investors.

Most analysts believe the inclusion will bring in funds from more global institutional investors. According to estimates, the MSCI now has about $10.5 trillion worth of assets benchmarked against it, with $2.8 trillion tracking the All Country World Index, $1.5 trillion tracking Emerging Markets Index and $200 billion tracking the Asian market index. The weightages held by China's A shares in the three indexes are 0.1 percent, 0.5 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

That means after China's inclusion in the MSCI index, the domestic stock market could attract at least $10 billion in funds, thereby considerably raising the percentage of foreign investors in mainland stocks.

However, considering the daily trading of $70 billion in the A-share market, the inflow of foreign capital is not expected to substantially affect its development trend.

Instead, many say, the inclusion will create more reform pressure on China's stock market.

Current reforms are mainly confined to policy regulation aimed at eradicating known problems and malpractices. As such, longer-term institutional reforms and the experiences of mature markets overseas should also be introduced to China's stock market.

It is hoped the MSCI's decision will help Chinese retail investors to shift from blind and hearsay-based investment to reasonable and sensible investment.

The author is an economics analyst. The article was first published in Beijing Youth Daily.

(China Daily 06/24/2017 page5)
As the United Kingdom marked the first anniversary of the electorate's decision to quit the European Union on Friday, voters on both sides of the debate are still none the wiser about the shape of their post-Brexit future.

Talks in Brussels, which opened on Monday, were aimed at producing an amicable divorce settlement between the UK and its 27 EU partners by March 2019. But with an almost total lack of clarity about the likely outcome, domestic opinion remains almost as divided as it was a year ago.

A bloc of ardent "remainers" believe their country has embarked on an exercise in collective suicide that even at this late stage can be reversed, while hardliners in the "leave" camp cannot wait to break the perceived shackles of an overweening "Euro-state". Between them is a bemused majority that just wants to get the whole thing resolved with as little pain as possible.

After a year in which Prime Minister Theresa May was insisting that "Brexit means Brexit", her senior colleagues are now proclaiming that there is no such thing as a "hard" Brexit or a "soft" Brexit. That is basically two ways of saying the same thing and neither formulation is particularly enlightening.

Domestic commentators have been earnestly explaining that the country is embarking on its most challenging negotiations since World War II, knowing full well that their readers' attention is focused more on the fourth terror attack in as many months and on the aftermath of last week's devastating London tower block fire.

Skeptics might suggest the current confusion only illustrates the pitfalls of parliamentary democracy, at least in the predominantly two-party system that has historically prevailed in the UK.

The indecisive and unnecessary June 8 general election, which denied May's Conservatives an overall parliamentary majority, has given politicians of all stripes endless possibilities to interpret the will of the electorate. Did the ruling party's loss of seats reflect a revolt of the young against the old? Was it a backlash against austerity? Above all, was it a rejection of May's pledge to crash out of the EU without a deal rather than accept unsatisfactory terms from the UK's European partners?

The virtue of parliamentary democracy is that it allows voters to change their minds. In 2015, they gave May's predecessor David Cameron a narrow mandate for a platform that included a pledge to hold a referendum on EU membership. Post-Brexit, May gambled that majority on her perception that voters backed her tough stance toward the EU.

It can now be argued a majority of voters have rejected that strategy. What voters cannot change their minds about, apparently, is last year's narrow decision to leave the EU as a result of a "yes-no" referendum, a recent novelty in British constitutional procedure.

The 52-48 percent vote is now treated almost as holy writ by hardline Brexiters, who regard it as the unalienable "will of the British people", which is in itself a somewhat un-British concept. With the Conservatives and opposition Labour Party both now supporting some version of Brexit, the opposing sides appear to have interpreted the June 8 result as meaning that most voters want a divorce that will do least damage to future relations with the EU.

May's shaky position in the new parliament means she might have to proceed with a "soft" Brexit, even as her colleagues are denying any such thing exists. That might include an agreement that would allow Britain to retain some benefits of membership of the EU Single Market and of the Customs Union, which means a tariff-free movement of goods. The opposition Labour Party, however, is ambiguous about where it stands on either issue.

While Britain's international partners, both inside and outside the EU, can only look on in wonderment at the mess the country's politicians have landed it in, British voters are invited to put their blind faith in the promise of those same politicians to deliver them "the best possible deal".

The author is a senior media consultant for China Daily, Europe. harvey.morris@gmail.com

(China Daily 06/24/2017 page5)
Phoenix Tower is in the center of Shenyang Imperial Palace in Shenyang, Liaoning province.Zhao Xu / China Daily

Museum offers a glimpse into Manchu rulers and their early taste of imperial grandeur

When it comes to size, Shenyang Palace Museum is a mere fragment of its counterpart known as the Forbidden City in Beijing. But the two have blood ties: the palace in Shenyang was the abode of founders of the Qing Dynasty, China's last feudal rulers, before their successors conquered the entire country and moved further inland to Beijing, and into its grand royal palace in 1644.

Between 1644 and 1911, successive Qing emperors took immense pride in living in the Forbidden City, built by rulers of the Ming Empire (1368-1644), which they had destroyed. At the same time, they returned repeatedly to Shenyang, in present-day Liaoning province, and to its humble palace.

The Manchus are one of only two ethnic minority groups that have ruled China, and they - particularly their elite - were always acutely aware of how important it was to embrace the dominating culture of the Han majority.

On the other hand, it has been argued that the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), created by the other minority that ruled, the Mongols, fell disastrously partly because mentally and culturally their rulers never really walked out of their tents.

However, the works of calligraphy the Manchus left behind suggest that successive rulers after Emperor Shunzhi made rapid progress. (Shunzhi was the first Qing emperor to move to Beijing and was thus the first one who in effect ruled over the entire country.)

Whereas a certain level of rawness is evident from the inky strokes of Emperor Shunzhi, his son Emperor Kangxi demonstrated full confidence in his brushmanship. Both pale in comparison with Emperor Yongzheng, Kangxi's son. With an easy virtuosity befitting a true master, he made calligraphy his own thing, as opposed to a borrowed art form from a people his ancestors had brought to heel.

Indeed the royal family's cultural immersion was so complete that another few generations on the ruling elite began to worry that they were losing their heritage as a horseback people.
Chinese Aviation Museum in Changping district, Beijing is Asia's largest museum showing aircrafts relics. [Photo by Zhang Quanyao/For China Daily]

For the last 14 years, a Beijing company has been offering a ticket package that allows people to visit 110 museums in Beijing for free or with a 50 percent discount. Yang Yang reports.

China has more than 4,500 museums, State-owned and private ones. And visiting exhibitions there is common for many Chinese. But 50-year-old Cao Wei says that many do not have fun during their visits.

Recalling a scene at the Geological Museum in Beijing he tells of a couple and their son, aged 7 or 8. He says that there were many beautiful displays there, but the son, after taking a hasty look at some ran away.

The mother wanted to teach the child about the exhibits, so she started reading the material on displays to him after bringing him back. But the boy fled again.

"The museum is not a place for you to merely learn and accumulate knowledge. It is a place where you can explore the world from different perspectives," he says.

For the last 14 years, Cao, the founder of the Borui Zhongtian Culture Development Co, has been offering a ticket package that allows people to visit 110 museums in Beijing for free or with a 50 percent discount.

Very few people can visit all 110 museums in Beijing, but the more important thing for Cao is for them to really enjoy their visits.
Tong Bingxue, an old photo collector and researcher. [Photo by Tong Bingxue/For China Daily]

A photo collector offers a glimpse into the life of man through a collection of portraits that also shed light on the history of photography in China

Taking selfies may be considered a phenomenon of the new millennium, but a Chinese man named Ye Jinglyu (1881 to 1968) had actually been doing something similar since more than a century ago.

Ye had his first portrait shot in 1901 when he was in London working as a diplomatic staff of the Qing government. Since 1907, he started to take portrait every year. After his death, his family sold his portraits to a book collector. In 2007, 40 years after Ye died, they changed hands again when Tong Bingxue, an old photo collector and researcher, acquired them and uncovered their real value.

Tong decided to showcase 62 portraits of Ye, taken at various photo studios around the world, in an exhibition titled "Insight to Self", which is currently running at Shanghai Library.

"I named the exhibition 'Insight to Self' because these photos of Ye, just like a mirror, remind me to take a break and reflect, something that most people don't have time for in modern society. This portrait series is just a small part of my collection, but it has given me a lot to think about my own life," said Tong.

"My contact with Ye's grandson also found that Ye had kept a diary since his teenage years and it recorded his daily expenditure and bits of information about him and his wife. However, his family burned the diary during the 'cultural revolution (1966-76)'."

The collection has also been hailed by many in the photographic scene as a marvel to behold.

"Not many people in China are known to have done such a thing, to document his life through photos, and it is a miracle that these images are still so well-preserved after so many years. I think it is amazing. The album will leave a valuable mark in the history of Chinese photography," said Xu Haifeng, a senior photographer and visual department director of The Paper, a major news media in China.
Chinese artist Li Hongbo hopes his paper sculptures of weapons - from AK-47 assault rifles to bullets and pistols - will inspire people to think about peace.

"I produced this artwork (because) after all, there is still military competition, war and fear in this world," Li said ahead of the opening of his latest exhibit.

"I wonder if (my work) could make people ... pursue a kind of true peace, a truly beautiful world for mankind without any disputes," he said.

"Ocean of Flowers", which opened at the Eight One Art Museum in Beijing on Sunday, comprises nearly 2,000 brightly colored paper sculptures that can be folded up into weapons.

"A weapon that is used to kill people becomes a toy, a flower. It is an extreme contrast," said 56-year-old Wang Duanting.

Li, who grew up in a farming family, said he always loved the flexibility of paper, which was invented in ancient China.

Similar to the way traditional Chinese honeycomb paper lanterns are made, Li pastes narrow strips of paper together, which he then cuts and chisels to achieve a shape.

The paper objects can expand and contract like an accordion.

"It's very creative and these bullets are a lot of fun. It looks like there's elasticity in it," said seven-year-old Hao Jiabei.

The Ocean of Flowers exhibit was first shown in Sydney in 2012. The Beijing edition, which runs to July 20, is the largest showcase of Li's work in his native country.

Reuters
US President Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump walk toward Air Force One as they depart Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, US, June 13, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner have accepted an invitation to visit China later this year, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer confirmed at a press briefing on Friday afternoon.

"They have (accepted the invitation)," he said when asked to confirm the report a few days ago. The report says the two will visit China ahead of President Trump's state visit to China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
home World Church of England colluded and concealed sexual abuse on youth by former bishop, says new report

The Church of England had "colluded" with a former bishop to conceal the sexual abuse he committed on young boys and men over a period of twenty years, according to an independent report.

The report, titled "Abuse of Faith," asserted that the Church had failed to respond accordingly regarding the allegations of sexual abuse of children committed by Bishop Peter Ball, who was jailed for 32 months in October 2015 after admitting a series of sexual offenses against 18 teenagers and young men.

Dame Moira Gibb, the author of the report, stated in the foreword that the Church had colluded with Ball rather than helping the former bishop's victims.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who commissioned the report following Ball's conviction, issued an apology to the victims who spoke out and helped bring the former bishop to justice.

"Abuse of Faith makes harrowing reading: the Church colluded and concealed rather than seeking to help those who were brave enough to come forward," the archbishop said.

"This is inexcusable and shocking behaviour and although Dame Moira notes that most of the events took place many years ago, and does not think that the Church now would conduct itself in the ways described we can never be complacent, we must learn lessons," he added.

The report has alleged that George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, had ignored a series of complaints about Ball from abused young men and other advisers. The former archbishop had apparently allowed Ball to continue officiating even after he resigned as the Bishop of Gloucester in 1993 following a police report of an act of gross indecency with a 19-year-old man.

"Lord Carey set the tone for the Church's response to Ball's crimes and gave the steer which allowed Ball's assertions that he was innocent to gain credence," the report stated, according to Christian Today.

Ball, who was released from jail in February after serving 16 months, had continued to conduct ministry in 17 private schools and retain links to a private school after his resignation until at least 2007.

Carey also issued an apology for his actions and stated that the report is deeply uncomfortable to read. "I welcome the recommendations of the report and I accept the criticisms made of me," he said.

The report acknowledged that Carey's successor, Rowan Williams, had overseen some changes regarding the case. However, it noted that the changes seemed to be implemented at a "lamentably slow" pace.

Williams admitted that he did not pay enough attention to the issue, adding that he recognized that the Church's delayed response likely increased the pressure and distress felt by the victims. He apologized and stated that he is grateful for those who came out to share their stories and continued to seek justice against the former bishop.

The report issued eleven recommendations for the Church focusing on a range of issues, including getting the right support for survivors, the leadership roles of bishops, strengthening guidance, and the effectiveness of disciplinary measures with regards to safeguarding related cases.
Former President George. H.W. Bush on Friday mourned the death of Rocky Carroll, the legendary Houston bootmaker whose elaborate footwear has been worn by presidents, movie stars and at least one pope.

"Barbara and I join Rocky's family and many friends in mourning his passing. He was not only the best boot maker in the world - Rocky was also a great friend and a good man," Bush said in a statement. "That rare combination of talent and character is why people all over the world wanted to wear his boots, which so many of us proudly do. We miss him already."
Monday

How to Apply for Federal Contracting Opportunities: Webinar hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration. 10-11 a.m.

Cost: Free.

Registration: https://www.sba.gov/tx/houston.

Tuesday

How to Do Business with the State of Texas: 9-11:30 a.m., UH Bauer College SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200. Cost: $19. Information: www.sbdc.uh.edu.

Wednesday

Women-Owned Small Business and Economically Disadvantaged Set-Aside Program: Webinar hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration. 10-11 a.m.

Cost: Free.

Registration: https://www.sba.gov/tx/houston.

How the SBA Helps Start and Grow Small Businesses: Webinar hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration. 2-3 p.m.

Cost: Free.

Registration: www.sba.gov/tx/houston.

QuickBooks Online: 9 a.m.-1 p.m., UH Bauer College SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200. Cost: $79. Information: www.sbdc.uh.edu.

Best Hiring Practices for 2017 and Beyond: 9:30 a.m.-noon, UH Bauer College SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200.

Cost: $29.

Information: www.sbdc.uh.edu.

Doing Business with the City of Houston: 10 a.m.-noon, UH Bauer College SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200.

Cost: Free.

Information: www.sbdc.uh.edu.

Thursday

Introduction to GSA Federal Supply Schedules: 9:30 a.m.-noon, UH Bauer College SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200. Cost: $19.

Information: www.sbdc.uh.edu.

How to Make Traditional and Digital Marketing Work for You: Conducted in Spanish. 10 a.m.-noon, UH Bauer College SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200. Cost: $39.

Information: www.sbdc.uh.edu.

Friday

Women's Leadership Conference and Business Expo: 8 a.m.-1 p.m., Royal Sonesta Hotel, 2222 West Loop South. Meet specialists with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Cost: Free.

Information: www.houstonhispanicchamber.com.
The inspired nuttiness of "GLOW," the new Netflix comedy series about female wrestlers, makes the show entertaining.

The focus on women learning to take control of their own lives provides the real grounding for the series, whose 10-episode first season is available on Friday.

The show was created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, and produced by Jenji Kohan ("Orange Is the New Black"). It's easy to see why Kohan was attracted to the project: Its themes echo those of both "OITNB" and Kohan's previous hit, "Weeds."

The series follows the development of the 1980s women's wrestling team known as the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. The real GLOW was created by Jayne Mansfield's ex-husband and still exists today, although, appropriately enough, owned by a woman.

More Information 'GLOW' Streaming: on Netflix, starting Friday xxxx See More Collapse

The fictionalized GLOW is the brainchild of a spoiled rich kid named Bash Howard (Chris Lowell) who recruits a struggling grindhouse movie director named Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron) to create a women's league whose matches will be broadcast on TV. Naturally, they set up shop in the San Gabriel Valley, whose bargain-basement-Babylon look provides the perfect backdrop for the fledgling league.

Sam recruits a decidedly oddball mix of women for his team. Ruth (Alison Brie) fancies herself a serious actress but her career is going nowhere because she's not very good. She just lost her former best friend Debbie (Betty Gilpin) because she got wasted and slept with her husband, just as Debbie quit her long-running soap opera gig to have a baby.

Sam creates absurd and hilariously offensive back stories for the characters each of the women will play in the choreographed bouts. African American Tamee (Kia Stevens) will be Welfare Queen, pulling food stamps out of her cleavage. Jenny (Ellen Wong), although of Cambodian heritage, will be the Chinese wrestler Fortune Cookie. Indian-American Arthie (Sunita Mani) will be a Middle Eastern terrorist known as Beirut.

Carmen Wade (Britney Young) comes from a family of well-known wrestlers who would not want their daughter or sister going into the family business. Nonetheless, she wants to do what her dad and brothers do, so she is cast as Andean powerhouse Machu Picchu.

The plot framework, of course, is whether Sam's ragtag misfits can perfect the fake body slams and harmless headlocks to become convincing in the ring, and whether the wrestling show can make it to TV before Bash's icy mother (Elizabeth Perkins) turns off the money spigot.

But really, it's about the women finding their own strength and identity through the cheesy fakery of GLOW.

The performances are superb, especially those of Maron, Young, Brie and Gilpin, all of whom do justice to mostly exceptional scripts.

That said, the show doesn't really find its footing until the third episode. It also falls back on a number of threadbare cliches to wrap things up in the last episode.

The most important thing about that last episode, though, is that it leaves the door wide open for the second season. After Betty and Ruth finish faking it in the ring, Ruth asks if her former friend wants to grab a drink.

"We're not there yet," Betty says, but they're not far away either. You can bet we'll be ringside to see how this plays out next season.
A man was shot and killed Friday afternoon in southwest Houston after a dispute with another man led to gunfire, according to the Houston Police Department.

Police officers responded to the scene around 1:50 p.m. in the 7900 block of Creekbend Drive, according to HPD spokesman John Cannon.
Police are investigating a possible drive-by shooting in northeast Houston.

According to initial reports, a gunman shot two people about 5:30 p.m. Friday along the 2800 block of Aldine Bender near Aldine Westfield.

The conditions of the two people were not immediately available.

The gunman fled the scene. Police did not have any information about the suspect and the motive remains under investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
A middle school math teacher accused of illegally sending explicit videos of his former fiance and her boyfriend has been cleared of wrongdoing, his attorney said Friday.

"He's always maintained his innocence," attorney Joe Mathew said of his client, Saul Eisenberg. "At the end, justice prevailed and the DA and grand jury did the right thing. He's been cleared and has gotten his life back."

Eisenberg, 29, was part of a complicated case that began in family court and ended up in criminal court last year after allegations of blackmail over homemade sex tapes surfaced. The case made national headlines after revelations the two couples knew each other through church.

The first couple - Leslie Amanda Hippensteel, 32, and John Ousley, 33 - divorced last year after four years of marriage.

The second couple - Eisenberg and his 25-year-old former fiancee were going through custody proceedings over their 6-year-old child.

Both couples attended Grand Lakes Presbyterian Church in Katy. Court records show Ousley had been having an affair with Eisenberg's fiancee and the two made consensual videos of two sexual encounters.

Hippensteel apparently found the tapes and emailed them to Eisenberg, who then allegedly texted them to his mother and step-father. The videos also ended up on the pornography website. Publishing intimate videos without permission, especially of a former lover, is sometimes called "revenge porn"

Hippensteel and Eisenberg were each facing a misdemeanor charge of unlawful disclosure of intimate visual material. If convicted, both could have been sentenced to a year in jail.

Eisenberg's attorney said Friday that a Harris County grand jury had declined to indict the teacher, effectively clearing him of wrongdoing.

In April, Hippensteel accepted an offer of pre-trial intervention, a form of probation. If she stays out of trouble for a year, the case will be dismissed. She could then have it expunged from her criminal history.

The case exploded across social media in November when Hippensteel was arrested for allegedly blackmailing Ousley with the sex tapes.

Ousley called the police after Hippensteel allegedly told him during their divorce proceedings that she would send the recordings to his employer, Houston Christian High School, if he did not pay her.

Ousley said he gave her $7,812.21. Hippensteel allegedly sent the sex tape to her ex-husband's employer and Eisenberg after being paid.

Eisenberg was accused of forwarding the recordings to his mother and step-father.

Ousley said last year that he resigned from his job after he was confronted about the recordings.
Some Texans mapping out their summer outdoor excursions are leaving Canyon Lake out of the plans after seeing a photo of an enormous catfish in the water.

"I'm never going there again," one of nearly 700 Facebook comments attached to a viral post reads, followed by another saying, "that thing could swallow me whole."
Sheriff's deputies have identified a woman they are calling a "person of interest" in a shooting at a northwest Harris County home late Thursday that killed one man and wounded a second.

Homicide detectives said Ambrea Lee Evans, 21, fled the scene of the shooting about 11 p.m. in the 13300 block of Bexhill Drive along with an unidentified man. They were in a white Dodge Charger.
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If Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo has anything to say about it, his officers will shine at the head of the city's Pride Parade.

The department's new "Pride Car" is ready to go. It's gassed up. Rainbow decals gleam from every side, saluting Houston's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Acevedo plans to be front and center Saturday and he's strongly encouraged his top leadership to join him in the march.

"By actually participating ... we send a very powerful message that we're an inclusive department," he said, "where every segment of society is welcome, is respected, and will be protected by the Houston Police Department."

But not everyone is ready to join the parade. The prospect of marching in the free-spirited gay-rights celebration has some members of his leadership crying foul, and pictures of the festive cruiser sparked contentious debate on social media from nonplussed naysayers.

"Our duty is to protect and serve, not participate in an event that completely goes against our religious beliefs," said one commander, who asked not to be identified.

The behind-the-scenes brouhaha comes as Acevedo  who just celebrated six months as the city's top cop  continues his efforts to remake the department and bring it in line with his ethos for "relational policing."

He's made it clear he expects his command staff to maintain a visible presence at major community events.

More Information Houston Pride Parade

The annual gay rights parade begins at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of Lamar and Smith streets in downtown Houston. The parade will head northeast, then turn onto Walker Street and again onto Milam, continuing nine blocks south before it ends at move nine blocks south before ending at Jefferson Street.



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When asked about the complaints Friday, Acevedo said he hadn't received any pushback from subordinates, only a call from the union asking if attendance was mandatory.

"If people are available, like any other community event, I expect them to be there," he said. "If they're not available, and they have a conflict, they just have to let me know."

Union officials, meanwhile, attributed the confusion to miscommunication.

"We're supportive of the pride parade and all our members who are LGBTQ," said Houston Police Officers Union Vice President Joseph Gamaldi. "From my understanding, it was suggested captains attend the pride parade, but it was not mandatory."

Gamaldi's co-vice president, Doug Griffith, said the union had contacted Acevedo after receiving concerns from some members.

"We're requesting the chief not order [people to march], but ask for volunteers," he said. "Like you wouldn't force someone to do something against their religious beliefs, I don't think it's fair to ask them to do that."

He said their hesitance to participate does not signal an unwillingness to protect and serve the community.

"Just because they don't want to march in the parade doesn't mean they're not going to give the same quality of service to people, regardless of race or sexual orientation," he said. "Being as it's the second largest parade in Houston, I would expect some of our command staff to be there anyway."

'A symbol of unity and service'

Acevedo first rolled out a pride car last year while police chief in Austin, after seeing the New York Police Department unveil a similar car during New York's pride parade.

He said he wanted to support Austin's LGBT community, still reeling from the hate-fueled massacre on June 12, 2016 of 49 revelers at Pulse, a popular gay nightclub in Orlando.

"That car served as a symbol of unity and service above all else," he said, recalling seeing Austin parade-goers in tears when they saw the rainbow-splashed cruiser roll by. "The reaction of that community ... made me realize once I got to Houston, I wanted to recreate that here."

The department declined to allow the Chronicle to photograph the vehicle or say how much it cost to trick it out for the parade, but photos have long-since leaked online.

The parade  set to begin at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of Lamar and Smith Streets  is expected to draw 500,000 revelers.

Over the decades, law enforcement and gay and lesbian communities across the country have had a fraught relationship. Advocates across the nation traditionally march in June to mark the anniversary of the birth of the gay-rights movement, the Stonewall Uprising of June 28, 1969, when NYPD officers raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar and nightclub.

The subsequent riots and activism are credited with sparking the gay civil rights movement.

In Houston, the department has long participated or provided security for the city's pride parades, said Jodi Silva, an HPD spokeswoman.

Officers march in other multicultural parades when invited, she said, including events celebrating Juneteenth, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Cinco de Mayo and Independence Day.

Diverse communities

After photos of HPD's Pride Car were posted online, social media users launched into a lively debate. Some questioned why the department was "taking sides" on a "political and social agenda."

"Our police should remain neutral in these issues," one user wrote. "I think a police car should remain painted neutrally like a police car."

Numerous others, however, cheered the department's decision to support the city's LGBT population.

"People have got to chill," wrote one HPD sergeant, who identified herself as a lesbian. "There are vehicles and memorials honoring other groups of people, there's associations, there's laws to protect them too...you know what we don't have? Someone representing the GLBT Community, someone to support us, someone to open up with and feel comfortable."

She continued, "I am proudly serving this city and I will proudly take a shot for any of you! Regardless of what you think of me or my community!!! If that makes you uncomfortable too bad. ... I'll drive it! I will represent with pride!!!!"

Acevedo, meanwhile, said the community comes first.

"We have one of the most diverse communities  THE most diverse community  in the country," he said. "Community policing is about all communities. Community policing is about reaching out to every segment of society."
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The Fallen Warriors Memorial in Champions is installing a new addition to its memorial - this time to honor thousands of military service dogs and search and rescue dogs.

Life-size bronze statues of two service dogs will be installed, representing all of the dogs that serve.

"Military dogs have saved thousands of thousands of lives," said Cheryl Whitfield, of the National Memorial Ladies, a volunteer service formed at the Houston National Cemetery. "We're honoring these search and rescue and military dogs for the work they've done not only in the wars, but also for what they do for us here."

The sculpture of the dogs is complete and they are now being bronzed at a foundry in Bastrop, Texas. The statues will be complete in September and hopefully installed by the end of the year.

The Fallen Warriors Memorial is continuing to fundraise for the statues.

One of the dogs represented in the statue is Bretagne, a Golden Retriever who was a search and rescue dog with the Texas Task Force One and Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department.

Bretagne was deployed to Ground Zero in New York after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. She died last June.

The other dog represented in the other statue is Eli, a black Labrador that was on deployment in Afghanistan with his handler U.S. Marine Lance corporal Colton Rusk from Orange Grove, Texas. Eli was with Rusk when Rusk was killed in 2010.

In the statue, Eli will be lying down and have his head turned to look over at one of the walls at the monument where his handler is memorialized.

"It's like he's looking back toward his handler," Whitfield said.

Eli lives in Orange Grove with his Rusk's family.

Architect Michael Murr is designing a wall to be built behind the dog statues to provide information about service dogs and search and rescue dogs and details about Eli and Bretagne.

There are about 2,500 military dogs currently in service, including about 700 of them serving overseas, Whitfield said.

"These war dogs can detect bombs, drugs, they can tell them if the enemy is close by," Whitfield said. "They're kind of equivalent of Navy Seals."

There was a war dog with the Navy Seals when they came upon Osama bin Laden, she said.

Northwest Houston residents can pay their respects to those who have served or for those who are currently serving in the military at the Fallen Warriors Memorial.

The Fallen Warriors Memorial is located at 14500 Cutten Road, between FM 1960 and Texas 249, off Cypresswood Drive.

The monument is located at the end of the Cy-champ Park nature path and consists of four large granite walls engraved with the names of 634 fallen soldiers. The memorial was complete in 2012.

The names are listed in chronological order with date, rank and branch of service. National Memorial Ladies member Lynn Ruoff, who researched the soldiers to be added to the wall, said the names are listed from the soldiers who were killed first to the most recent.

To donate or to learn more about the new bronze dog statues, visit http://fallenwarriorstexas.org, or call Cheryl Whitfield at 832-868-9810.
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U.S. immigration authorities have granted Juan Rodriguez a reprieve from deportation while he pursues his case for asylum.

Rodriguez, who was due to report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement on June 29, will have 60 additional days from that date.

The extension was announced in federal court in Houston Friday by assistant U.S. attorney Rick Bennett.

Lawyers representing Rodriguez's wife, Celia, and three daughters  all American citizens  had gone to court for an injunction to stay the deportation.

ICE said the case had no standing, because Rodriguez will have an opportunity to argue for asylum.

Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal dismissed the case brought by Rodriguez's family "without prejudice," so it could be refiled at a later date, if necessary.

OUT OF TIME: Crackdown shatters Houston family's good life

"This is a great victory for the Rodriguez family," said David Medina, one of the family lawyers. "This gives us time to work on his case."

Rodriguez, a native of El Salvador who entered the U.S. illegally about 15 years ago, had been checking in with immigration officials for years and was allowed to stay in the country under prosecutorial discretion.

But in February, he was informed that the rules had changed under President Donald Trump and that he would be deported at the end of June.

His story has been the subject of an ongoing series in the Houston Chronicle.

Rodriguez will have to present himself before the ICE headquarters on Monday for instruction on the conditions of the 60 days extension.

A community protest planned for June 29, the date Rodriguez was going to be deported, has been delayed pending the outcome of the current legal proceedings, according to FIEL Houston, an immigrants organization.

olivia.tallet@chron.com

Twitter: @oliviaptallet
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.
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Movie Name: Tubelight

Cast: Salman Khan, Zhu Zhu, Sohail khan, Om Puri, Matin Rey Tangu

Director: Kabhir Khan

Produced By: Salman Khan

Banner: Salman Khan Films, Kabhir Khan Films

Release Date: 23 Jun, 2017

Duration: 136 minutes

Rating:3/5



Salman Khans latest sensational movie Tubelight released today. As per the reviews from movie critics, Tubeligh shines but with low voltage. Salman Khan has dedicated this movie to soldiers and their families. The story line is truly dedicated to soldiers. The film is an adaptation of the 2015 released American war film "Little Boy" . Salman khan did not play a heroic role. He was shown as week person. Sohail played his younger brother Bharath role. Set in Jagatpur in Kumaon district and in the backdrop of the 1962 India and China War, the film is the tale of a dim-witted boy Laxman whose brother, the only surviving member of his family, joins the Indian Army. How he survives during the interim period without his brother, forms the crux of the tale.

In "Tubelight", Salman Khan does not play the dynamic hero that he used to portray with gusto. As Laxman, he fails to exude energy onscreen and hence, disappoints his fans. His mannerisms and body language are strongly reminiscent of Hrithik Roshan's in "Koi... Mil Gaya". His character is endearing but his physical demeanour is not. Initially jarring, but by the last act you are one with the character and the actor. Salman definitely grows on you.

Sohail Khan, has nothing much to offer, except being an emotional anchor for his elder brother, and he performs his part rather perfunctorily.

The only person who steals the show in the film is Matin Rey Tangu as the young Guo, who Laxman befriends. He is charming with his oriental looks and impish demeanour. The Chinese actress Zhu Zhu plays his mother Liling with flair.

Shah Rukh Khan in a cameo with his tattooed visage and ears studded with earrings, as a magician is dead pan and flat. He does not help to uplift the narrative or add emotionally to the film. Om Puri as Banne Chacha - the guardian of an ashram, Isha Talwar as his daughter Maya, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub as Narayan with his "knock knees and Yashpal Sharma as Major Tokras -- all brilliant actors have their moments of onscreen glory.
A man from the crew of superstar Rajinikanth's movie 'Kaala ' died on the sets of the film in Chennai. It is reported that the man died after being e electrocuted.

The close sources says that , the technician passed away after stepping on a live wire at Poonamalle area in Chennai, Tamilnadu.

The man is identified as technician Michael. He died after getting electrocuted on the huge Rs-5 crore set in EVP Studios in for shoot. His co-workers states that they rushed him to the hospital, but unfortunately he couldn't be saved. Doctor confirmed his death. The Chennai police are currently investigating the case. Further investigation will be processed to find what exactly happened. Police department also stated that action will be taken if the reason for Michaels death is act of negligence. However, Rajinikanth shows condolence for Michaels family.
PEPPER PIKE, Ohio -- Drunk driving, having weapons under disability, improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle, open container, car impounded; Chagrin Boulevard: Police stopped a Cleveland man, 28, around 1:45 a.m. on June 12 in a car matching the description of one earlier driving the wrong way on I-271.

Police said the car was now speeding and weaving near Eton Park and the Pepper Pike Health Center, and the driver was found to be "appreciably impaired."

On the center console, they found a loaded Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun -- prohibited due to prior convictions -- along with an open bottle of Hennessy cognac. The car was towed and he was booked into the Beachwood Jail.

Suspicion, Pinetree Road: Police responded June 20 to a report of a potential stalking that had occurred the previous day at Knuth's Boutique. Police later spoke with the suspect.

Runaways, Chagrin Boulevard: Police were called to the New Directions drug treatment facility around 7 p.m. on June 19 for a report of two juvenile boys from Akron and Ashtabula who had run away and later returned.

Fraud, illegal use of a credit card, North Pointe Drive: A resident filed a credit card fraud report on June 16 involving a Best Buy account that was taken out in her name.

Warrant served, I-271, Transportation Boulevard: While investigating an evening rush-hour crash on June 16 that sent a Mayfield Heights man, 63, to Hillcrest Hospital for possible injuries, police determined that the Cleveland man, 38, who rear-ended him had an arrest warrant with Parma police, to whom he was transferred a short time later.

Assist rescue squad; Chagrin Boulevard: A South Euclid woman reported around 4:30 p.m. on June 14 that her son had left the New Directions drug treatment facility, where he was a client.



License, prohibited acts; Lander Circle: A traffic stop on a Chagrin Falls boy, 17, for a stop sign violation on the evening of June 14 revealed that he had a fake Ohio driver's license in his possession, for which he was cited and released on the scene.

Speeding, marijuana possession, drug paraphernalia, willful and wanton disregard of safety; Fairmount Boulevard: Shortly after 9 a.m. on June 15, police stopped a car near SOM Center Road for speeding and cited one of the two boys, both 16, for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, including a "stink sack" plastic bag containing an unknown capsule, a plastic SIM card box with a white pill, and a glass pipe with suspected marijuana residue.

The driver was cited for speeding, then followed to his residence and released to his father. The passenger was taken into custody, brought back to the police station, then turned over to his mother.



Animal noises, neighbor trouble; Hunting Hollow Drive: A resident called police on the evening of June 15 about their neighbor's dogs barking, an ongoing problem that resulted in a citation being issued.

Credit card fraud, Shaker Boulevard: A resident reported that back on June 7, a handyman used his credit card without his consent after he had been terminated to buy a $200 drill.

The handyman was scheduled to tell his side of the story to police on June 23 but never showed up at the station.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.
Aggravated robbery, Mayfield Road: At 2:50 a.m. June 16, police responded to the area of Mayfield and Coventry roads, where a man, 26, stated he was robbed of his Chevrolet Camaro.

The man said he was driving with a male passenger when he recognized a woman, who he met earlier that night, walking. The man pulled into a lot and parked his car and met briefly with the woman.

When he returned to his car, two males wearing hooded sweatshirts were standing by the auto. They inquired about the man's car, then each produced a gun and said they would be taking his car.

The man's passenger had also exited the vehicle, but saw the suspects and said he recognized them as fellow Euclid High School students.

Shortly after, the Camaro was used in a gas station robbery at East 260th Street in Euclid.

The robbers led Euclid police on a chase that reached 120 miles per hour. EPD officers gave up the chase on East 82nd Street in Cleveland due to safety concerns.

The 2012 car was later found abandoned, with extensive front-end and passenger seat damage. The suspects were not apprehended, but police and the car passenger will go over the Euclid High School yearbook to try to identify them.

Aggravated burglary, Eddington Road: At 11 a.m. June 18, police were called to a residence on a report of a woman having been assaulted.

When police arrived, the woman was already in an ambulance. The woman's family members told police that the father of her child entered her home through an unlocked bedroom window and assaulted her. It was found that the man, 30, also punched a hole in a wall.

At the hospital, the woman was found to have an abrasion and cut above her left eye, which was swollen. The woman spoke in a raspy voice, she said, because the man had choked her. She also had an abrasion on her left knee.

The woman explained that she broke up with the man in April. He appeared at her window at 3 a.m. June 18 and found her with another man. After breaking in, the suspect argued with the woman as the other man left.

The suspect punched the woman in the eye and told her, while choking her, "I don't care if you die." The suspect left the home at 4 a.m. The woman said she didn't immediately call police because was scared.

A warrant was issued for the suspect's arrest.

Domestic violence, Caledonia Road: On the afternoon of June 15, police were called to a home where a woman told officers she had been beaten that morning by the man with whom she has lived since March.

The woman told police about prior violent incidents, including the man breaking her thumb on Easter, throwing her from a car, and punching her in the mouth. Police had been called to the home in the past, but the woman did not cooperate with officers out of fear. Her boyfriend is on parole after having recently been released from prison.

Assault, Mayfield Road: At 9:20 a.m. June 15, a woman reported that her boyfriend had punched her in the face while the two were in her car. The boyfriend then got out of her car and walked away.

Police located the man on the street and he ran. After a chase involving several officers, the man was apprehended. He was uncooperative and irate and attempted to kick out a police cruiser window.

At the Cleveland Heights jail, the man paced about and several times punched a window in the detoxification cell, breaking his hand. He was taken to the hospital where he was charged with obstruction and criminal mischief.

The woman did not wish to pursue an assault charge, stating fear as the man is a heroin dealer.

It was also found that the man was wanted on a Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office warrant for possession of dangerous drugs.

Protection order violation, Caledonia Avenue:

At 2:05 a.m. June 15, a woman reported that her estranged husband had been at her home the previous evening, although there is a protection order against him being near her.

The woman said her husband called and asked if he could come over and see their children. The woman allowed him to do so, then fell asleep while her husband was at the house.

When she awoke, she found that the husband had left in her car. In the car was her check cashing debit card, which the man used to withdraw $200 from her account.

Police told the woman that, because they are still married, they continue to share property. The woman then signed a complaint for violation of the protection order.

Disorderly conduct, Quilliams Road: At 8:45 p.m. June 17, police were asked to check on a woman, later found to be 74, seen crying while standing on a sidewalk.

The woman was found leaning against a telephone pole and barefoot.

She told police, "I'm drunk." The woman went on to state that she had argued with her husband at their home, was tired of arguing and wanted to be "locked up."

Police noted that the woman looked weak and were told they she had a seizure in the fall of 2016 and a recent MRI. The woman was taken to the hospital where she was issued a citation for voluntary intoxication.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.
ELYRIA, Ohio -- A petition is circling online to name the next unguided missile destroyer after the Elyria sailor who lost his life in the crash of the U.S.S. Fitzgerald to save others.

The petition, which has garnered more than 12,000 supporters on change.org, says Gary Rehm Jr. "epitomized the guiding principle of Ship, Shipmate, Self by making the ultimate sacrifice in order to save 20 shipmates and attempting to save 6 more."

The Fitzgerald, collided with a merchant vessel about 2:30 a.m. June 17 off the coast of Japan. Rehm, a 37-year-old Fire Controlman First Class, went into a flooded compartment to save sailors who were trapped, WKYC reports.

Rehm's uncle, Stanley Rehm, told the news station that from what he understands they closed the hatch because the ship was taking on water.

CNN reports the ships collided on Fitzgerald's starboard side, next to the berthing area where sailors sleep.

The berthing compartment collapsed inward, making it difficult for survivors to get out, it reports.

More than 100 crew members were asleep when water poured into two berthing rooms, the New York Times reports. The radio room was damaged and communications gear was destroyed or left without power.

Stanley told the Daily Beast that Rehm called his shipmates his kids. He "leapt into action" to save his kids, Rehm's uncle said.

Adm. Brian Fort, veteran warship commander, is leading the Navy's investigation of the collision, the New York Times reported. The U.S. Coast Guard, the Japanese coast guard and the insurer of the shipping vessel that collided with the Fitzgerald have also launched investigations, according to the Times.

Rehm lived in Virginia with his wife, Erin.

He grew up in Elyria and graduated from Oberlin High School. He enlisted in the Navy in 1998.

Rehm was eligible to retire in three months, according to family members.
BROOK PARK, Ohio -- It all started about two and a half years ago when I began working for a local animal shelter. January 2015, I met Pee Wee, a Retriever mix, at the time 6 years old. She came into the shelter because her owner was moving and couldn't bring her along. I loved her from the moment I met her; the whole team did. She was a shelter favorite; everyone who cared for her for the whole four months she was in our care did. I would have taken her then, but I had already adopted one cat (followed by a second) and previously owned two other dogs.

My parents were not on board with bringing another dog home and I respected that, but if I had it my way, she would have been mine much sooner. Pee Wee was adopted that April; it was bittersweet. And what was thought to be a happy ending took a turn. Pee Wee slipped her collar and ran away. She is a timid, slow-to-trust dog, so this did not surprise me, but I was upset and worried about her.

I shared her picture on numerous lost pet pages on Facebook, caught a few leads on her whereabouts, but then there was radio silence. I heard nothing more on her. I always had her in the back of my mind when looking at those Facebook pages. I would see the title "deceased black and white dog found," and my heart would drop each time.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve 2015: I was at work, busy cleaning dog kennels when I got the call from an unknown number. I'm glad I answered it this time. It was a woman on the other end, who runs Lost Dogs Ohio Facebook page, one of the pages I posted to. She sent me an email with a picture attached. A gentleman all the way in Northfield posted a found dog ad on Craigslist. I opened the email with her on the phone and I could not believe my eyes: it was Pee Wee! Without a doubt in my mind, that was she.

I got in contact with the couple that knew of her whereabouts; she was not caught yet, but living in a small patch of woods near their back yard. They attempted numerous times to catch her and she was just too smart, evading their every attempt.

The day after Christmas, I drove to the couple's home with a humane trap. If you remember, that year was fairly mild in the beginning of the winter, so we were lucky at first. But the weather was about to turn and we didn't have much time. We were hopeful that Pee Wee would be safe and warm the next day. And she would have been. She fell for the bait in the trap that night, but the trap malfunctioned and she outsmarted it.

The couple attempted bribing her with McDonald's cheeseburgers to see if she would even get close enough. Pee Wee was just far too suspicious. That's when I knew we were going to have to bring in the big guns: the ladies from JJ's Ruff Roads and Remi's Pet Recovery.

I owe these women everything because they are the true heroes in this story. They set up trail cameras and a new type of trap. For two weeks, we conditioned Pee Wee to get comfortable with this trap that remained unset until we were sure she was going in it.

I was at my nephew's birthday party on Jan. 16 when I got a text letting me know that the trap was being set. It was time. Not even 20 minutes later, I got a call. At last, Pee Wee was finally safe. She was brought to my house, which was meant to be temporary, but we all know how this story ends, otherwise, I wouldn't be telling this story.

Pee Wee survived more than 260 days on her own, through the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter. She underwent heartworm treatment last summer and is doing well. A year later, I still cannot believe it, but she's finally home.

I learned something valuable after all this and that is to never, ever give up. Never stop searching for your lost pet. Do all you can and keep searching. They are out there somewhere. Never stop looking. If I gave up, Pee Wee would still be out there, or much worse. I've never had this close of a connection to a dog before and if you knew me, you'd know that is a lot to say. If you saw Pee Wee, you would also know that she feels this connection too.

Stephanie Ilavsky

Brook Park

Have you rescued a companion animal that is now part of your family? We'd like to hear from you. Tell us something about your pet - all species are welcome - and send along a photo of the two of you. Be sure to tell us which community you live in. Send everything to Linda Kinsey at lkinsey@cleveland.com.
CHARDON, Ohio -- Police have received several reports of people seeing a small bear in the city Friday night.

Chardon police wrote on its Facebook page stating they are monitoring the siuation and there is no immediate danger. Police notified the state game warden.

"Bear sightings are happening more frequently in Geauga County," the post says. "Please keep in mind Black bears are usually scared of people, making attacks a rare occurrence."

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources offers tips for anyone who encounters a black bear:

-Act calm and do not run

-Warn the bear that you are near; talk in a firm, calm voice.

-Allow space between you and the bear. Step aside and back slowly away. Do not make the bear feel trapped or threatened.

-Raise your hands above your head to appear larger if the bear approaches. Clap your hands or shout to scare the bear away.

-Exit the area.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Saturday's crime and courts comments section.
30. St. Lucia

Chad Ehlers | Getty Image

The St. Lucia Jazz & Arts festival is an attraction for some visitors, as are the Chassin region's rain forest and the island's beaches.

29. Jackson Hole

Putt Sakdhnagool | Getty Image

This Wyoming city has mountain views and ski resorts, with the added benefit of proximity to Grand Teton National Park.

28. Banff

Edwin Chang Photography | Getty Image

This national park in the Canadian Rockies has more than 80 hiking trails accessible during the summer, which convert to ski slopes in the winter.

27. Machu Picchu

The history of the Incas is everywhere at this Peruvian vacation destination, and the four-day hike along the Inca Trail provides a way to experience it all.

26. Great Barrier Reef

Whether you are diving, snorkeling, or swimming, the world's largest coral reef system has plenty of underwater sights to offer. Check out spots along Queensland, Australia's coast or head to nearby Hamilton Island.

25. Park City

This Utah city is home to many ski resorts, luxury hotels and spas. Visitors can experience the annual Sundance Film Festival or hit the slopes.

24. British Virgin Islands

Lightvision, LLC | Getty Image

The territory's largest island, Tortola, has popular beaches like Smuggler's Cove, Brewers Bay and more.

23. Costa Rica

Vacationers can find exotic wildlife among volcanic mountains and sprawling rain forests.

22. Yosemite

Yosemite National Park is home to landmarks like Glacier Point and the Half Dome. Visitors can hike past waterfalls and ancient Sequoia trees.

21. Tahiti

On this island in French Polynesia, visitors can stay in over-water bungalows and experience surrounding views of the ocean and beaches.

20. San Sebastian

Though not one of the best known cities in Spain, San Sebastian is home to La Concha beach and cuisine like "pintxos," the Basque take on Spain's tapas.

19. Phuket

Visit this island in southern Thailand to see limestone cliffs in Phang Nga Bar or beaches on the Phi Phi Islands. To experience Thai culture, check out historical sites like the Wat Chalong Temple and Old Phuket Town.

18. Breckenridge

Breckenridge, Colorado darekm101 | Getty Image

Skiers and snowboarders alike can find a mountain to explore near this Colorado town. During the spring and summer, the city offers hiking. There's also a craft beer scene.

17. Vancouver

With both urban and outdoor experiences to offer, vacationers in this Canadian city can hike Grouse Mountain by day and enjoy the nightlife in Yaletown.

16. Serengeti National Park

This national park in Tanzania is best known for the Great Migration  the annual migration of animals across the plains. Lucky travelers can see lions, elephants and zebras in the wild.

15. Bali

Ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the number one place to visit in Asia, vacationers can explore everything from volcanoes to historic temples on this Indonesian island.

14. Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon stretches an estimated 277 miles across Arizona and provides vacationers with space to hike trails like the Bright Angel or Rim, or whitewater raft the Colorado River.

13. Honolulu - Oahu

Hawaii's capital city is home to both beach views and downtown city attractions. In addition to historical monuments like the USS Arizona Memorial, visitors can see cultural landmarks like 'Iolani Palace.

12. Santorini

JTB Photo | Getty Image

Black and red sands mark the beaches of this Greek island, which also offers historical destinations like Ancient Akrotiri or the ancient city of Manolas on satellite island Thirassia.

11. Amalfi Coast

This stretch of Italian coastline has 13 seaside towns sitting among the cliffs, which offer authentic Italian cuisine and spectacular views.

10. Dubai

Skyscrapers, one of the world's largest shopping centers and an indoor ski slope can all be found in Dubai. U.S. & World Report has also ranked this city as the best place to visit in Africa and the Middle East.

9. Barcelona

This Spanish city is home to beaches and a thriving nightlife, as well as historic churches and cathedrals. Explore both Las Ramblas and the Barri Gotic.

8. Prague

For vacationers interested in scenery and history, Prague has a multitude of sites to see, like the Old Town Square and the Prague Astronomical Clock.

7. Florence

Located in the Tuscany region, Florence is known for its food and wine. Renaissance art, historical architecture and shops also attract visitors to this Italian city.

6. New York City

Rooftop pool at a hotel in New York, the U.S. city with the greatest number of AAA Best of Housekeeping awards. Getty Images

Whether it is a walk through Central Park, seeing a show on Broadway, or shopping on Fifth Avenue, New York City offers an activity for every traveler.

5. Paris

Vacationers flock to sights like the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Cafes, museums and shopping districts provide endless options to explore.

4. London

Landmarks like the historic Tower of London and Buckingham Palace represent London's past, while many of the city's restaurants, nightlife and metropolitan neighborhoods offer a more modern experience.

3. Porto

Vacationers in Porto can experience the coastal city's namesake port wine, as well as beaches and architecture. According to U.S. & World report, this Portuguese destination can be cheaper than European trips.

2. Sydney

In addition to the iconic Sydney Opera House, a trip to this Australian city can include a visit to the Sydney Harbor and local beaches like Coogee and Bondi.

1. Rome
Yet running a charity that spends the vast majority of its resources on "fundraising," as Reynolds did, is not in itself illegal. That is because the Supreme Court has recognized charitable fundraising as a form of free speech.

"Less than 3 percent actually went to cancer patients and victims," New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas told "American Greed." "That's appalling. This would offend even organized criminals and mobsters."

Instead, patients received boxes of random items, many of which were useless to cancer patients  like candy, makeup and DVDs. Meanwhile, Reynolds and his family got rich.

Consider the case of Jim Reynolds, profiled on the latest episode of CNBC's "American Greed." Through a network of supposed charities including the Cancer Fund of America, Reynolds and his family raised $187 million that he claimed would go toward patients with advanced cancer, funding things like hospice care and medical supplies.

The National Center for Charitable Statistics reports there are roughly 1.6 million nonprofit organizations registered with the IRS , up 24 percent in the past 10 years. Deciding which ones deserve your generosity can be tricky business.

The pleas are almost impossible to avoid. From the dinnertime phone calls, to the letters and postcards in the mail, and the emails flooding your inbox, charities are pulling out all the stops to gain your confidence and your donations.

"Charities are free to spend as much money as they choose on fundraising," said Art Taylor of the Better Business Bureau. "What they can't do is lie. If they lie, then they can be prosecuted for fraud."

Reynolds, who did not respond to multiple interview requests but has maintained his innocence, has never faced criminal prosecution. Last year, without admitting wrongdoing, he agreed to a permanent bar from running a charity as part of a settlement with all 50 state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission. But the damage  to both donors and recipients  was already done.

How can you be sure the charity you are donating to will use the money for its programs? The first step is painfully obvious: just ask. But most donors do not.

"You want to ask the organization for a copy of their Form 990," said Sandra Miniutti, vice president of marketing at watchdog group Charity Navigator. Form 990 is the return that every tax-exempt organization must file annually with the IRS, and it is a public document.

"By law, they're required to provide their last three filings to anybody who makes a request," Miniutti said.

You can also look up the forms on sites like Charity Navigator and Guidestar. Those organizations, as well as the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, also offer evaluation reports for thousands of charities.

Especially for larger organizations, the 990 can be lengthy. But here are a few basic things to look for.

Revenue vs. expenses: Beware of outsized compensation paid to the CEO or other employees, all disclosed on the first page of the form. Check out how much the organization spent on fundraising. If these amounts make up a large percentage of the organization's revenue, also disclosed up top, that could be a red flag.

Beware of outsized compensation paid to the CEO or other employees, all disclosed on the first page of the form. Check out how much the organization spent on fundraising. If these amounts make up a large percentage of the organization's revenue, also disclosed up top, that could be a red flag. Conflicts of interest: Later on in the return, the organization will list its leadership, including its board members and top executives. Are any of them related to one another? Are there enough independent outsiders on the board to keep the management honest? Look for any signs of cronyism.

Later on in the return, the organization will list its leadership, including its board members and top executives. Are any of them related to one another? Are there enough independent outsiders on the board to keep the management honest? Look for any signs of cronyism. Accomplishments: A reputable charity should be able to describe what it is doing with its money. Vague or incomplete statements on the form could be tips about the charity's effectiveness  or lack of it.

Even if the Form 990 checks out, your work is not done. Before donating, check out the organization's privacy policy. Otherwise, you could find yourself on a list.

"Many charities will sell or trade your contact information with other organizations, and that's how you wind up with a mailbox full of appeals from charities you've never heard of before," Miniutti said.

"So if you don't want that to happen, be sure to ask the charity if they have an opt-out policy, or if they have a flat policy where they'll keep your information confidential," she added.

Of course, most charities try to get you to skip past all of this research. That is why they call you on the phone and appeal to your emotions. Reynolds was particularly adept at using telemarketers to raise funds for his charities, but even the most legitimate organizations solicit donations this way.

"You should never feel pressured to give over the phone. In fact, we recommend just politely hanging up," Miniutti said. "You don't know if it's a legitimate request  it could be just somebody trying to steal your personal information and your finances, or it could be a legitimate charity that's just simply not worth your investment because it's not living up to its charitable mission."

Similarly, beware of appeals online, or through emails or social media. There is simply no substitute for doing your homework, and for taking your emotions out of the equation.

"Many times we've seen that when there are issues that really tug at your heartstrings, as it is with people afflicted with cancer, donors are less likely to ask questions," Miniutti said.

That is the kind of gullibility that James Reynolds counted on, allowing his charities to stay in business for years before the authorities caught on  too late for patients and their families who were truly in need.

See how James Reynolds used savvy marketing to line his own pockets, on an all-new episode of "American Greed" on Monday, June 26 at 10p ET/PT on CNBC.
Following crude oil's fifth straight week of losses and the energy sector's worst week in nine months, 55 Institutional market strategist Max Wolff breaks down three key market themes he is watching for next week.

1. Crude oil

Crude oil on Friday posted its fifth straight week of losses; that's its longest losing streak since August 2015. The commodity has now sunk nearly 20 percent this year, and Wolff is predicting next week oil could see "a little rally off the bottom here."

"Everybody seems to think it's going to go lower. We think oil's self-correcting. It's at the low end of the range. We think it comes back into where it spent most of its time above $44 or $45 [per barrel]," Wolff said Friday on CNBC's "Trading Nation."

2. Health-care reform

Wolff is keeping an eye on the Senate health-care bill.

"We tend to think it will get bogged down, and that will be pretty negative news for health insurers," he said Friday.

However, he doesn't think it will be negative for pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers. He sees them benefitting from "that logjam in the Senate."

The S&P health-care sector just turned in its best week of the year.

3. The World Economic Forum in China

Next week the World Economic Forum is set to convene in Dalian, China. Wolff is watching for the results of the meeting, which is sometimes called "Summer Davos."

"We expect China to come out in a leadership mode and announce all kinds of plans to be a global leader and to work closely with Europe, kind of putting the shade on the U.S. right now," he said.
This week, America witnessed the successful hunting down and bagging of a major company's CEO. Too many of us seem to be just fine with it. But we shouldn't be.

That leader was Uber's chief, Travis Kalanick, who announced on Tuesday that he was stepping down from the company he founded.

Let's get something out of the way to start: Kalanick is not a saint, and he did indeed bring much of his personal problems on himself. He will also likely live out the rest of his life as a very wealthy man, so we needn't cry (literally or figuratively) over his fate. And Uber certainly is not the perfect company with a spotless ethical record.

Still, what happened to Kalanick, and by extension Uber, this week should bother every freedom and innovation-loving person in America and the entire world.

Don't be fooled by all of Kalanick's personal missteps and Uber's ethical issues. They absolutely aren't excusable, but they're also not all that different from what dozens of other companies and CEOs face every day.

The real reason Kalanick was taken down and Uber remains in so much trouble is because it has enemies. And those enemies have power.

Most of us are familiar with who those enemies were and how they responded. Taxi companies across the world have long been one of the most politically controlled and regulated industries ever since they were just horse-drawn livery firms.

In return for undergoing often extensive licensing requirements and fees, local governments protect those taxi companies. It's a deal made in crony capitalist Heavenexcept that it often leaves people who needed rides, reliable service, and affordable fares in a commuter's purgatory.

In many ways, the licensed taxi industry is essentially a public-private partnership wherever you go. So when you come for the cabs, you come for the government too.

When Uber came on the scene, and skirted these licensing rules by officially branding itself a "ride-sharing" business as opposed to a taxi company, those companies and taxi driver unions protested and lobbied their government friends to restrict and even ban Uber from their localities. That effort yielded mixed results, but the constant political and regulatory harassment was and is a reality for the company.

And the news media played a big role in this harassment too. At first, the media provided Uber with billions of dollars in virtual free advertising, with regular reports explaining and publicizing the startup. Then, newspapers, TV networks, and websites eventually started to report frequently on every Uber misstep, criminal incident involving an Uber driver, and almost any complaint coming from or on behalf of its employees.

Uber and Kalanick soldiered on and, thanks to it becoming the most well-funded tech startup in history, it was able to fight back with an aggressive political and media strategy that included a well-documented P.R. and policy war room.

Then, the targeted response to Uber changed. As every truly astute political observer in America knows, attacking a person is always a more effective way of economic harassment than targeting a company or an industry as a whole. In a tactic right out Saul Alinsky's 13th rule in his book "Rules for Radicals," Uber opponents moved to "pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."

So the most effective attack on Uber finally gained steam when Kalanick himself became the target. That attack hit hardest by the release of a video he did not know was being taken that showed him arguing with an Uber driver, and coming off as mean and elitist.

Considering the nature of the video, some experts believe Kalanick was set up by that driver and goaded into an argument that would make him look bad on tape. Set up or not, the video had a punishing effect on Kalanick that finally began the process of his personal undoing at the company. He became too much of a liability for the company and its investors, and they finally ousted him. In the end, it took less than six months from the day the video went public for Kalanick to lose the top job of a company he founded and had run for eight years.

Again, tears need not be shed for Kalanick and his personal situation now. And while Uber may never become something similar to its investors' grandest imagined dreams, Internet-based ride hailing technology certainly seems here to stay. However, everyone who wants to see innovation in improvements in government-protected industries from health care to infrastructure should at least be a bit worried.

After seeing what happened to Kalanick, who could blame the next innovator in highly government protected industries like mass transit, medical care, or energy from shying away from making a big splash? Is it any wonder that so many of our greatest innovations in America over the past 20 years have come in the relatively non-government protected areas like consumer electronics?

One could argue that one such intrepid innovator is Elon Musk, who is indeed starting to push the envelope in areas like mass transit and energy. But the key word here is "starting." Not even Musk's super-popular car company Tesla has made a significant dent in the entrenched auto industry's sales. His SolarCity business is an even smaller blip. And his efforts to actually tunnel under the highly regulated streets of Los Angeles are bold and exciting, but haven't really started yet.

If and when any of those factors change, it's a good bet Musk may get something similar to Kalanick's treatment.

That's the real shame here. Also somewhat shameful is the way too many of Kalanick's peers in the tech world are silent about the forces he faced, which ultimately defeated him. Perhaps his former colleagues will just quietly learn from his story and avoid his mistakes.

However, the rest of us should at least be a little more aware of why this particular innovator became such a hated target. And if that awareness grows, maybe those entrenched powers in business and government will find it harder to stop the next disruptor who comes down the line.

Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
Charles Chuck Johnson Photo by Peter Duke 2017 used with kind permission

When supporters of Andrew Anglin, editor of neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, wanted to raise funds to help him in a legal battle against the Southern Poverty Law Center, they turned to the only site that would allow them to host this type of campaign: WeSearchr. In less than two months, the Daily Stormer vs. SPLC Legal Defense Fund campaign raised more than $155,000. The money will allow Anglin to fight a lawsuit brought against him by Tanya Gersh and the SPLC. The plaintiffs allege Anglin motivated his followers to threaten Gersh after Anglin believed she harassed the mother of "alt-right" figure Richard Spencer. Many people turn crowdfunding sites to tap into the generosity of the public for social causes. However, most crowdfunding companies like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe have a strict policy against campaigns they consider racist, sexist, or encouraging harassment. WeSearchr welcomes them alland takes a steep 15 percent cut, about three times what its competitors charge. "They don't do controversial bounties or controversial crowdfunds," said WeSearchr co-founder Charles "Chuck" C. Johnson. "They'll just throw them off. We're willing to take pretty much anyone, so long as the cut is larger." WeSearchr was never meant to be a platform just for the "alt-right," Johnson insists, although he's the founder of a news site called Gotnews.com that is clearly to the right of mainstream news outlets. But he believes left-leaning publications and websites have created a hole for people with these ideological values, he said. That's where WeSearchr steps in. "We're basically the monopoly for people on the right," he said. "There's literally nowhere else for them to go."

"The market created an opportunity"

Johnson, born in 1988, got his start as a right-wing journalist and provocateur. At Claremont McKenna college, he created a blog called the Claremont Conservative and often engaged in public spats with campus figures, according to a profile in Mother Jones. After graduation, he gained notoriety for provocations like trying to identify "Jackie," the anonymous source who told Rolling Stone about being gang-raped at the University of Virginia; the magazine retracted the story after further investigations found no evidence the event ever happened.

Johnson founded Wesearchr in 2015 with Pax Dickinson, an engineer who left Business Insider in 2013 after other publications called attention to offensive remarks he had made on Twitter. (Dickinson cut ties with Johnson and the site earlier this year.) Johnson says the idea came after he heard of the story of a Oregon couple who was trying to raise legal funds after they were sued for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. The couple was kicked off GoFundMe, which changed its policy to ban "campaigns in defense of formal charges or claims of heinous crimes, violent, hateful, sexual or discriminatory acts." Although Johnson supports gay marriage, he also feels strongly that everyone should have the right to defend themselves regardless of view. "I think the market created an opportunity," Johnson said. As the world grows more fragmentedespecially when it comes to political thoughtpeople are looking for new ways to share their opinions, agrees Matt Britton, the CEO of marketing firm Crowdtap. "People are voting with their money," Britton said. "If they want to invest in something, they feel like they should have the right to." The idea that crowdfunding can be politicized isn't exactly newin some senses, political campaigns have been doing it forever. "You can treat political campaigns as the original source of crowdfunding," said Christophe Jammet a director at DDG, a firm that helps businesses figure out their digital strategies. "In that sense, crowdfunding has been happening for a long time."

"I intend to build a very profitable business"

WeSearchr works by letting a usercalled an "asker"post a request for information on a certain subject. They can also ask community members to donate money to motivate people to find the answer. After fundraising reaches a certain threshold, the asker and the WeSearchr staff review submitted answers. If both agree information provided addresses the original prompt, the evidence is released to the asker. The asker has the option to publish the information or ask WeSearchr to help find an outlet. If the information is not discredited within 30 days, 75 percent of the funds go to the person who provided the answer, 10 percent goes to the asker, and WeSearchr keeps 15 percent. We Searcher's cut is higher than other crowdfunding platforms, Johnson says, to offset mounting costs from things such as fending off online attacks and arguments with payment processing companies, Johnson said. Other crowdfunding sites show that these kinds of microdonations can add up. Kickstarter has raised over $3.1 billion for projects since it launched in 2009, with funds from more than 13 million people. Indiegogo said it raised more than $800 million has for creative, entrepreneurial and cause-related projects through 2015. "I intend to build a very profitable business to get a return for my investors, and I intend to build it up in a more serious way so it is as well known as the other crowdfunding sites," Johnson said. The platform's open policy has turned it into a destination for personal fundraising causes. For instance, there's a legal defense fund for Laura Loomer, a woman who was arrested for protesting a performance of "Julius Caesar" in New York where a President Donald Trump-inspired Caesar is murdered on stage. People are also raising money for Republican Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte who allegedly "body slammed" a reporter during an interview. It's also raised more than $87,000 in legal support for Kyle "Based Stick Man" Chapman, who became an alt-right hero after a clip of him breaking a wooden sign on the head of an anti-Trump protester went viral. One of its new popular campaigns is for Katie McHugh, a Breitbart editor who was fired after tweeting "There would be no deadly terror attacks in the U.K. if Muslims didn't live there. #LondonBridge" on June 3. You may not agree with McHugh's sentiments, but you can still support her need for healthcare and to give her the opportunity to seek other employment, Johnson said. "There's a lot of different contentions people have when they donate money, and I think that's what a lot of people miss out on," Johnson said.

Charles Chuck Johnson Photo by Peter Duke 2017 used with kind permission

Next steps: Bitcoin mining, and a "crowdfunded TMZ"
watch now

The Senate's Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) eases some of the cuts of the House's Obamacare repeal bill, but it doesn't change much of the equation when it comes to winners and losers. Like the House plan, the BCRA repeals individual and employer taxes, which funded expansion of insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). That benefits those with higher incomes. While the Senate bill leaves many of the ACA's provisions in place, it does so with less generous funding. President Donald Trump may have summed it up best, when he said in a Fox News interview: "It's a very complicated situation, from the standpoint, you do something that's good for one group but bad for another. It's a very, very narrow path." Here is a look at the winners and losers of the Senate GOP's health-care proposal:

The losers

The biggest losers in the Senate plans are many of those who gained the most from Obamacare: Adults covered under Medicaid expansion : The Senate bill would maintain funding through 2020, but then make states pick up more of the tab, before cutting subsidies for the Obamacare expansion of the safety net program completely.

: The Senate bill would maintain funding through 2020, but then make states pick up more of the tab, before cutting subsidies for the Obamacare expansion of the safety net program completely. Middle-income Obamacare enrollees : The Senate plans would cap tax credits for earnings making above 350 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $41,000 for an individual this year. After 2020, those middle-income earners would no longer get help with their premiums.

: The Senate plans would cap tax credits for earnings making above 350 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $41,000 for an individual this year. After 2020, those middle-income earners would no longer get help with their premiums. Older adults: The Senate plan would roll back many of the advantages for older, sicker enrollees under Obamacare. Insurers would be allowed to charge older adults up to five times more than younger people. Under the ACA, rates were capped at three times more. The insurance industry has fought for the wider age band rating as a way to improve the risk pool and bring down premiums for market, overall. "We think that's important for encouraging younger and more healthy people into the risk pool. So, as you start to balance it out it will bring the cost down for everyone," said Kristine Grow, spokeswoman for America's Health Insurance Plans. But even if premiums were to come down, the Senate bill could still shift more of the cost to enrollees. The plan would raise the limits on how much older people have to chip in for premiums before tax credits kick in, from 9.5 percent of their annual income to as much as 16 percent. And for all enrollees the tax credits would likely be lower, because they'd be indexed to the lowest-tiered bronze plans, rather than more generous mid-tiered silver plans under the ACA.

The winners

The Senate plan rolls back some of the gains higher-income people would see through tax credits under the House plan, while preserving one of the ACA's key protections: People with pre-existing conditions : The Senate plan takes out the House provision that would impose a premium surcharge on those who lapse in coverage.

: The Senate plan takes out the House provision that would impose a premium surcharge on those who lapse in coverage. The working poor: The Senate plan fills in the gap left by Obamacare, extending tack credits for people earning less than federal poverty level ($11,700 this year) who have been shut out of the exchange market. "Right now there are 2.6 million uninsured poor adults in states that haven't expanded Medicaid. They get nothing under the ACA," said Larry Levitt, of the Kaiser Health Foundation. Access would start in 2020, and presumably, adults who lose Medicaid expansion coverage could also get tax credits on health plans. The question is whether they can afford to make premium payments. Young adults: The Senate plan, like the House bill, would give insurers greater flexibility to charge younger enrollees much lower premiums and to offer skinnier plans in states that opt out of ACA's essential health benefit requirements. HSA savers: The Senate bill boosts the tax break for people in high-deductible plans in both the individual market and employer plans, by allowing them to put enough into their health savings accounts to cover much more of their out-of-pocket costs. "A lot of employers (now) have plans that are actually priced above the maximum HSA contribution," so people end up paying for out-of-pocket expenses with after-tax funds, said Eric Dowley, a senior vice president with Fidelity's HSA business. "This would allow them to be able to pay for those benefits on a tax-advantaged basis." The Senate plan raises the contribution limits $100 more than the House bill. For individuals, the limit would rise to $6,650 from $3,400 currently. For families, the limit goes to $13,300 from $6,750. The GOP plan would restore the ability to use HSA funds to pay for non-prescription health costs such as over-the-counter drugs. But some employers had hoped the Senate would have made changes when it came to drugs that treat chronic diseases. "Preventive care is excluded from the deductible. ... Employers would love to see drugs associated with chronic conditions, like meds for diabetes or high blood pressure, excluded," said Tracy Watts, a senior partner at benefits firm Mercer. "They're not real expensive drugs, but it's the kind of thing that you don't want the cost of them to be a barrier," for lower income workers, she said.

Will it stabilize the market?
Mark Zuckerberg had a choice to make this week.

The CEO could either go to Washington to meet with President Donald Trump, along with nearly every other marquee CEO from the tech industry, or skip it and prepare for a Chicago rally for people who'd created social-support groups on Facebook.

Zuckerberg, who loudly criticized Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords in early June, chose the latter. Facebook was alone among the five most-valuable U.S. tech firms in not sending a top executive to the White House meeting.

At that same meeting, a top official from Facebook's chief rival Chairman Eric Schmidt  sat at the table with Trump and praised the President's pro-business agenda, saying it would create "big opportunities" for U.S. firms.

The contrast between the two companies, which together dominate digital advertising, is stark when it comes to U.S. government relations.

Both companies are on the defensive in Europe, where their business and legal practices are under attack, accused of not doing enough to stop the spread of terrorism or protect the privacy of EU citizens.

Google also faces a fine that could top 1 billion after the EU said it used its search monopoly to favor its own shopping services in search results.

While Google's Schmidt softened up Trump with praise, Zuckerberg's snub could make it harder to enlist the administration's help as the pressure gets turned up in European capitals.

In a sign of how seriously Facebook is taking the current political climate in Europe, COO Sheryl Sandberg met Friday with the U.K. Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, and highlighted the company's efforts "to keep terrorists off Facebook."

"We had a constructive meeting with the Home Secretary," Sandberg said in a statement provided to CNBC, in response to a request for comment on the meeting.

Sandberg's trip comes one week after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron said they would consider new laws to punish companies that refuse to remove content filled with all forms of hate speech, including terrorism.

Zuckerberg's choice surely played well with the Facebook rank and file and with users who oppose Trump politically.

Whether it was good for Facebook shareholdersor risks relegating the company to a position behind Google in a line for the President's earis less certain.






As the row over EU nationals dominates the opening of the Brexit negotiations, Theresa May is once again coming under attack for her refusal to offer them a unilateral guarantee that they be allowed to stay.

George Osborne has just alleged, via his newspaper, that the then-Home Secretary single-handedly stopped David Cameron from doing so in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote.

With the EUs negotiators taking a dim view of what the Government considers to be a big and generous offer, the idea seems to be developing that the Prime Minister could have avoided the whole row by taking the high and generous path in the first place.

Yet this is not the case. In fact, by exposing the depth and complexity of the issues at involved the current dispute actually suggests three important countervailing points: that a broad-strokes guarantee would not have avoided the present showdown; that the EU made working out a detailed guarantee before now basically impossible; and that such concessions would have been an extremely ineffective, even counter-productive, negotiating tactic.

The Governments primary reason for not making the big headline concession is that they expected full reciprocity from Brussels and had not received it to their satisfaction. One may contest the details of that claim but it seems bizarre to dispute the principle, unless the Government is expected to defend the rights of British nationals in Europe less vigorously than those of EU nationals in the UK.

But the problem is actually broader than that. Offering EU nationals genuine peace of mind about their future in the UK means not just promising that they wont have to leave  although that is important  but spelling out the details of the terms of their future residency.

The Prime Ministers outline offer goes some way towards doing this, intending as it does to treat EU nationals as Britons for the purposes of work, healthcare and welfare. Yet many other important details are currently the subject of fierce debate.

For example, the UK wants people to have been resident for five years (prior to Brexit in 2019) to qualify for this protected status, whilst the EU wants people who moved to Britain in good faith in May 2016 to qualify.

Then theres the question of spouses. Currently EU nationals actually have an easier time bringing them into the country than British citizens, as the latter have to meet an income threshold. Naturally Brussels wants this artefact of freedom of movement to continue post-Brexit, but London is deeply resistant for fear of turning EU nationals into a privileged group within the UK.

And whilst the Government proposes to treat EU nationals as Britons for welfare purposes, that still opens up disputes  for example, over whether they will still be able to send child benefit to children outside the UK. Brussels says yes, London no.

This is before we even get to the constitutional dispute at the centre of the current row: the future role of the European Court of Justice.

Politico reports that the reason Britain and Europe are on a collision course over the rights of EU citizens, despite the UK offering to treat them as British for the purposes of work, healthcare and welfare, is that Brussels insists on the ongoing rights of EU nationals being guaranteed by the ECJ, rather than the British justice system.

Preventing this is a red line for London, which insists that any disputes arising over EU nationals in Britain post-Brexit should be worked out bilaterally with Brussels. This is eminently sensible, and not just because ending the jurisdiction of the ECJ over British courts is a foundation stone of Brexit.

Maintaining the jurisdiction of an EU institution over a state outside the EU resembles the liberal order the Union is supposed to embody much less than the straightforwardly imperial style of ages past. Dont take our word for it, either. In this eye-opening piece Franklin Dehousse, a Belgian former ECJ judge, sets it out:

In principle, it is hard to justify that EU migrants, through the maintaining of many European regulations, will become some sort of a super-privileged caste in the future UK (as will the UK migrants in the EU Member States). The country will thus become some kind of new 1930 Shanghai, where the EU citizens will benefit from multiple privileges (the more so if the European Court of Justice keeps a full jurisdiction).

Beyond the narrow issue of EU nationals, the very principle of the future role of the ECJ in UK-EU relations proposed by Brussels is even more problematic:

The UK would then become the only third state submitted to the full and direct jurisdiction of the ECJ. Furthermore, one wonders how this is considered acceptable for a sovereign state. Such a state would thus be bound by decisions taken by a judicial authority where it is not represented and whose judges would be appointed by its potential opponents! This time, the solution looks a lot like the leonine treaties imposed by England to China in the 19th Century.

Put all this vital context in place and its clear that a broad-strokes concession about EU nationals rights would not have avoided this fight. The disputes above are all on important matters of implementation detail and would have arisen even if the UK had guaranteed ongoing residency in principle.

Its also obvious that a detailed guarantee was impossible to deliver without talking to Brussels unless we wanted to simply announce fixed positions on all the above disputes, which would have been a very aggressive way to proceed.

As the EU refused to talk to the Government, even unofficially, until the formal negotiations started on Monday  Angela Merkel rebuffed Mays offer to find a solution in November last year  an early deal on the details was thus impossible.

Finally, the aggressive strategy we see Brussels pursuing  De Housse calls their demands manifestly excessive  in the above disputes gives us no reason to think theyd have done anything with such a concession from London but bank it  and then use the fate of British nationals in Europe as leverage on all these issues and more besides.
Powerful And Portable

The era of having to choose between portability and horsepower in a PC is officially over. Apple and its rivals in the Windows universe now offer plenty of choices for laptops that are both fast and lightweight. One of the leading notebooks to fit this description is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which is now in its fifth generation. Apple, meanwhile, released an update this month to the MacBook Pro (which was just overhauled this past fall) which adds the latest Intel processors. Which of the two portable-yet-powerful laptops is the better fit for you? In the following slides, we compare the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon vs. the Apple MacBook Pro on specs and price.
India and Portugal Sign 11 Pacts

Published: June 25, 2017

India and Portugal have signed 11 pacts after in-depth talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa in areas like counter-terrorism, space and climate studies. This is the first-ever bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Portugal.

India thanked Portugal for its support for Indias permanent membership of UNSC, and of Multilateral Export Control Regime.

Agreements

India and Portugal have agreed to set up a joint Science and Technology fund of four million euros. The two countries also signed MoUs for the creation of an India Portugal Space Alliance for advancing collaborative research. This agreement is expected to promote Indias science and technology partnership with Portugal and to set up Atlantic International Research Centre on the Azores Archipelago. This Centre will act as a research, innovation and knowledge hub for tratrans-Atlantic and north-south cooperation. The objective behind the Centre is to provide a shared environment for supporting new climate, earth, space and marine research.

Other Agreements

The other agreements cover cooperation in outer space, double taxation avoidance, nano technology, improving cultural ties, youth and sports, higher education and scientific research, and Portugal-India business hub and Indian Chamber of Commerce. They are:

Protocol amending the Double Taxation Aviodance Agreement

MoU on Nano Technology

MoU on Public Administration & Governance Reforms

MoU on Cultural Cooperation

MoU on Youth & Sports

MoU between Portugal India Business Hub & Indian Chamber of Commerce

MoU on Cooperation in the fields of Higher Education and Scientific Research

MoU on Biotechnology

MoU on Collaborative Research

MoU between Portugal India Business Hub & AICEP

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2017

Topics: Bilateral Relations  Current Affairs - 2017  India-International Relations  India-Portugal  International

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A popular fitness blogger and Instagram model in France died after a pressurized canister used for dispensing whipped cream exploded, hitting her in the chest.

Rebecca Burger's death from the June 17 incident was announced on social media Wednesday by her family, who warned of the potential risks of defective whip cream dispensers.

The post published on Burger's Instagram page to her more than 150,000 followers read:

---

... an example of the cartridge/siphon from Chantilly that exploded and struck Rebecca's chest, killing her. Take note: the cartridge that caused her death was sealed. Do not use this type of device in your home! Tens of thousands of these appliances are still in circulation.

---

Authorities in Eastern France told the French newspaper 20 Minutes, that the victim suffered cardiac arrest in her home in Galfingue on Saturday and firefighters were able to revive her heartbeat. But Burger was unconscious when she arrived to the hospital and died the following day.

Whipped cream dispensers use nitrous oxide canisters, which, when pierced by a pin, release the gas and pressurize the cream container.

According to the consumer magazine, 60 Millions, two people were gravely injured in 2014 by whipped cream canister dispensers in France.

A 2014 news release by the French economy ministry advised people to be cautious when using cream dispensers: "Since 2010, several models of kitchen syphons, also called cream syphons, have turned out to be dangerous and led to home accidents."

Ard'Time, the company of the whip cream dispenser Burger reportedly used has been recalled because of reports that the plastic head could explode and fly off, according to their website.

In addition to posting fitness pictures on Instagram, Burger ran the lifestyle blog Rebecca Likes where she would document her travels and outfits. She uploaded her first YouTube video on June 10 showing her on a trip in Bali.

In an Instagram post, Women's Best, an online health store which Burger promoted online, paid tribute to the blogger:

We are sorry to announce the sad news of losing this beautiful soul. Our french athlete Rebecca Burger (@RebeccaBlikes) passed away. Rebecca was not only a great fitness figure but a generous and kind person to work with. Please pray for her soul to rest in peace and for her family to stay strong. We will always be proud of you Rebecca  A post shared by WOMEN'S BEST (@womensbest) on Jun 19, 2017 at 11:48am PDT

We are sorry to announce the sad news of losing this beautiful soul. Our french athlete Rebecca Burger (@RebeccaBlikes) passed away. Rebecca was not only a great fitness figure but a generous and kind person to work with. Please pray for her soul to rest in peace and for her family to stay strong. We will always be proud of you Rebecca

---

The BBC reported that in 2013, one victim of an exploding cream dispenser told RTL radio: "I had six broken ribs, and my sternum was broken. At the hospital, I was told that if the shock and blast had been facing the heart, I would be dead now."

In 2014, a consumer watchdog group in France issued a warning about dispensers with "defective parts . . .. When a user screws a new gas cartridge into the head of one of the defective canisters the resulting pressure causes the spray nozzle to break free and fire off like a rubber bullet," it reported, according to The Local.

Officials have opened an investigation into Burger's death.
UNESCO: Paris Agreement Only Way to Save Coral Reefs

Published: June 24, 2017

A report by UNESCO has concluded that cutting down emissions and delivering the Paris Climate agreement to be the only ways out to save coral reefs the world over.

Salient Highlights

This is the first global assessment of the impact of climate change on world heritage listed coral reefs. The assessment studies the impact of climate change on 29 world Heritage-listed coral reefs.

The assessment has found that local responses are no longer sufficient. The report has found that global warming caused by an increase in frequency, intensity, and duration of heat-stress events has massive consequences for the 29 world heritage sites.

The report has warned that worlds coral reefs will die out completely by mid-century unless carbon emissions are reduced. The consequences could also be severe for millions of people worldwide. It is estimated that at least 25 coral reefs are set to experience twice-per-decade severe bleaching events by 2040.

As per the report in the last three years, 25 out of 29 coral reefs which comprise three-fourths of the worlds reef systems has experienced severe bleaching events which are labelled as the worst-ever sequence of bleachings to date.

According to the report, by 2100 most of the coral reef system would die unless carbon emissions are reduced.

Coral Reefs

Coral Reefs are often referred as the rainforests of the oceans. They occupy less than 1% of the ocean floor but provides habitat for a million species. The deposits of Coral Reefs are mostly made up of Calcium Carbonate. Conditions required for their growth: Warm tropical oceans located between 30 degree north and 25 degree south latitudes where a minimum temperature of 20 degree is found and this temperature favours the growth of coral organisms; Oceanic water free of sedimentation; Transparent parts of ocean bodies; Relatively low salinity ocean bodies.

Bleaching of Coral occurs when the sea becomes too warm. Warm seas cause Corals to expel living algae and calcify turning into white. Scientists are concerned that climate change is killing the barrier reef. Rising temperatures by global warming increase the damage to the coral reefs harming the sensitive underwater ecosystem.

The Great Barrier Reef is the biggest coral reef in the world. It was recorded as a World Heritage site in 1981.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2017

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Despite offering some inspirational stories, the Grenfell Tower tragedy also highlighted divisions in our society, says Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (pictured)

The image will not go away. The tower, black and smoking, the odd glow of flame, a stream of water directed at it. Below, surrounded by London's bustling summer streets, I saw fire officers slumped in exhausted sleep, grimy in their yellow protective clothing. Air bottles from the breathing equipment lay heaped in piles, witness to dedication and barely imaginable courage.

We watched a drone whirr into the air to inspect the charred hulk for safety. Groups of those with the unspeakable duty of sifting through the ruined homes for bodies stood waiting and talking.

I was there with the Bishop of Kensington, Graham Tomlin. He had been on the scene for hours already and would stay for the next few days, alongside local clergy of all faiths. Plenty of the fire and police officers stopped to talk. Some asked for prayers.

Nearby, a local church was awash with noise and activity  Muslims, Christians and none-of-the-above all lending a hand. Diverse, buzzing, brilliant, this was London in active compassion.

Why am I starting with what I saw that day? Because Grenfell Tower and the terrorist attacks of the past few weeks comprise a storm of events that have tested our deepest values with an almost unrelenting ferocity  and brought out the best of communities in crisis.

The response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy from the emergency services and civic society  including churches and other faith groups  has been remarkable. It is matched by courage from those caught up in Manchester, Westminster, London Bridge.

Community spirit: 'Why am I starting with what I saw that day? Because Grenfell Tower and the terrorist attacks of the past few weeks have tested our deepest values with an almost unrelenting ferocity  and brought out the best of communities in crisis' (file pic)

Communities have staggered, stumbled and pulled themselves up. I am so proud and grateful to be part of a country where people at Westminster rush to treat a man who has just tried to kill them, where an imam ensures the would-be killer whose van is still resting on one of his congregation is protected.

I was moved to tears by those who risked their lives during the attacks; by the police, unarmed, sprinting towards the danger at London Bridge; by the Ariana Grande fundraising concert and the courage of Manchester.

However, the Grenfell Tower tragedy has also served to highlight divisions in our society. Many, including the Prime Minister herself, have recognised that support from the state has been inadequate in North Kensington. We have been severely tested in how we handle diversity, integration, social mobility and inequality. Failure in these areas is ultimately a failure of values.

In the terrorist attacks we have seen diversity integrated in community and decorated with courage. We know what we can be, both for good and ill, and we are at a moment where that difference sets our future. We have seen courage and generosity and all that makes for a good and flourishing society.

Let's draw the poison from Brexit: 'We have been severely tested in how we handle diversity, integration, social mobility and inequality. Failure in these areas is ultimately a failure of values' (file photo of Justin Welby with Her Majesty the Queen in 2015)

We have also seen failures of government and a sort of tragic unwillingness to face the realities of divisions and people being left behind. We need to choose between the selflessness of the former and the inward looking 'me-first' attitudes of the latter.

Because this is, after all, a significant moment in our history, as the United Kingdom begins Brexit negotiations. For only the third time in two centuries, we find ourselves needing to redefine the place of our country in the world. Our approach to global issues will be defined by the values we practise here.

The subjects dominating the Brexit negotiations  trade, commerce, financial transactions  are important, but they are not enough on their own. Trading agreements are useless unless they serve individuals, communities and society.

Our values must be shaped by a recognition of the dignity of every human being, regardless of wealth, status or influence. They must be values lived at home so that when we play what I believe can and should be a leading role, it is a role for the good of the poorest of the world. People around the world will need to see that we are consistent, self-critical, showing in our own society the flourishing that we desire for every society.

Move forward together: 'We have also seen failures of government and a sort of tragic unwillingness to face the realities of divisions and people being left behind.' Pictured: A protester outside Westminster in a bid to find out why the Grenfell Tower fire happened

Proverbs 29:18 says: 'Where there is no vision, the people perish.' But while high-flown words or soaring ambitions and vision may be an essential foundation, they must also be turned into policies, based in deep values of respect for all.

And policies must be joined to resources and actions so that they become realities. As we reimagine our future post-Brexit, not only do we need clear vision from politicians, we need delivery.

In numerous ways, we are already doing this  such as through spending a generous amount of national income on aid, our leadership in responding to ebola in West Africa and sending highly trained taskforces to places of vulnerability and conflict like South Sudan.

But recent events have highlighted the urgent need for a process of internal reconciliation, between regions, social groups, faiths and generations.

The future of this country is not a zero-sum, winner take all, calculation but must rest on the reconciled common good arrived at through good debate and disagreement.

Brexit continues to divide us. Exit negotiations will be fierce and the differences on what we should aim for, and how, are very deep. They divide our politicians and our society. With a hung Parliament, there is an understandable temptation for every difference to become a vote of confidence, a seeking of momentary advantage ahead of the next election.

It won't be easy: 'Politics is rightly hard and tough. We must not pretend otherwise. But for Brexit, we need the politicians to find a way of neutralising the temptation to take minor advantage domestically from these great events'

For that to happen would be a disaster if our negotiators, faced with the united determination of the EU, go into the room without confidence in their backing in the UK. It might turn us inwards and forfeit the opportunity to be a country the world admires and blesses for our generosity and vision.

Politics is rightly hard and tough. We must not pretend otherwise. But for Brexit, we need the politicians to find a way of neutralising the temptation to take minor advantage domestically from these great events.

We must develop a forum or commission or some political tool which can hold the ring for the differences to be fought out, so that a commonly agreed negotiating aim is achieved. Obviously it would be under the authority of Parliament, especially the Commons. It would need to be cross-party and chaired by a senior politician, on Privy Council terms. It could not bind Parliament, but well-structured it could draw much of the poison from the debate.

A country united after Brexit is essential if we want a country that is resilient under the threats we face, capable of ensuring that the victims of Grenfell Tower are cared for and its lessons learned, and courageous in making our way in the post-Brexit world. The decisions we make over the next two years will have an impact for generations to come.

Let us do everything we can to ensure the right values are at their heart.
It's no secret that a lick of paint can do wonders for sprucing up a tired abode, but according to research the colour of your walls could do more than just make your home easier on the eyes.

According to estate agent, Zillow, homes that use different shades of the same colour sell for far more than those with pristine white walls.

The US-based agents analysed more than 32,000 photos from houses that had sold to see how 'certain paint colours impacted their sale price on average, when compared to similar homes with white walls'.

And the results might surprise you.

 Slide me  Homes that use different shades of the same colour sell for far more than those with pristine white walls, according to research (pictured is a home before and after a makeover by Australian renovation expert Cherie Barber)

Renovation expert Cherie Barber (pictured) said that on a small budget there was no doubt that paint is the 'number one transformer'

Top performing listings had walls painted in other cool, natural tones like pale grey or oatmeal, according to the research

Homes with blue bathrooms, in powder blue or light periwinkle for example, sold for US$5,440 more than expected, the highest sales premium of all colours analysed.

Walls painted in other cool, natural tones like pale gray or oatmeal were also present in top-performing listings.

'Colour can be a powerful tool for attracting buyers to a home, especially in listing photos and videos,' Svenja Gudell, Zillow chief economist at Zillow said.

'Painting walls in fresh, natural-looking colours, particularly in shades of blue and pale grey not only make a home feel larger, but also are neutral enough to help future buyers envision themselves living in the space.

'Incorporating light blue in kitchens and bathrooms may pay off especially well as the color complements white countertops and cabinets, a growing trend in both rooms.'

Homes with blue bathrooms, in powder blue or light periwinkle for example, sold for US $5,440 more than expected, the highest sales premium of all colours analysed, according to the research (pictured is a bathroom makeover by Cherie Barber)

Cherie told FEMAIL that colours do 'drift in and out of fashion' but greens and blues are popular at the moment

A home's exterior was also found to have an impact on sale price.

Homes painted in 'greige', a mix of light gray and beige, sold for US$3,496 more than similar homes painted in a medium brown or with tan stucco.

Homes with darker, more style-specific walls like terracotta dining rooms sold for US$2,031 less than expected.

However, the research found a lack of colour may have the biggest negative impact as homes with white bathrooms sold for an average of US$4,035 below similar homes.

Australian renovation expert Cherie Barber, who performs home makeovers on the Channel Ten show The Living Room told FEMAIL that colours 'drift in and out of fashion' but at the moment greens and blues are popular - with 'dark, inky blues' particularly popular for exteriors and kitchens.

Painting walls in fresh, natural-looking colors, particularly in shades of blue and pale gray not only make a home feel larger, but also are neutral enough to help future buyers envision themselves living in the space,' Svenja Gudell, Zillow chief economist at Zillow said

Cherie, who also blogs at Renovating For Profit, used a deep indigo to add value to her own home in NSW.

'Ive used a palette of warm neutrals but added some impact with a deep indigo in the master bedroom and with wallpaper in the entrance. Its a risk going for a bold colour like this but a well calculated one,' she said.

'Nothing on its own was particularly expensive, but together, all the features add up to an interior with real zing. Prior to my makeover, house was worth AU$550K and after it was AU$690K.'

Cherie said that on a small budget there was no doubt that paint is the 'number one transformer'.

 Slide me  The research found that colour can be a powerful tool for attracting buyers to a home, with cool colours like oatmeal and grey popular

'If youre thinking of putting your property on the market, never underestimate the power of paint to deliver a massive uplift in value for very little outlay,' Cherie said

'It eradicates years of wear and tear in a few masterstrokes, and provides the opportunity to give drab properties a sparkling new personality, at very little expense,' she said.

'And dont just think standard wall paint. There are specialist paints for everything from tiles, to laminate cupboards, benchtops and old concrete driveways or pavers.

'Theres speciality paints that can go straight over the top of bricks and even fibro houses, so they come up looking like modern masterpieces.

'So if youre thinking of putting your property on the market, never underestimate the power of paint to deliver a massive uplift in value for very little outlay.'
Potential housemates are losing their minds over a 26-year-old med school grad from Pakistan who also happens to be a male model.

Rehan Munir told the Huffington Post that he hopes to do rotations in various hospitals across the United States to gain experience.

The model - who has been featured in a TV commercial for Hush Puppies Pakistan - is currently looking for housing in New York City, a search he's called 'quite a ride'.

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People are losing their minds over a 26-year-old med school grad named Rehan Munir from Pakistan who also happens to be a male model

Munir's friends in the Big Apple recommended that the hunky soon-to-be doctor post an ad on Gypsy Housing - a closed Facebook group for people looking for housing accommodations and roommates - earlier this month which he did on June 15

'I'm Rehan and I'm looking to rent a furnished room on the Upper East Side, Upper West Side or Midtown Manhattan,' he said in the post. 'I'm professional, friendly and easy to live with. Most of all, cleanliness is of utmost priority to me. Please let me know if you have any leads'

Munir's friends in the Big Apple recommended that the hunky soon-to-be doctor post an ad on Gypsy Housing - a closed Facebook group for people looking for housing accommodations and roommates - earlier this month which he did on June 15.

'I'm Rehan and I'm looking to rent a furnished room on the Upper East Side, Upper West Side or Midtown Manhattan,' he said in the post.

'I'm professional, friendly and easy to live with. Most of all, cleanliness is of utmost priority to me. Please let me know if you have any leads.'

In addition to the details about himself, the doctor added that he would be rotating at Mount Sinai Heart Hospital and was looking for a place to move in the price range of about $800.

In addition to the details about himself, the doctor added that he would be rotating at Mount Sinai Heart Hospital and was looking for a place to move in the price range of about $800

The doctor has yet to find housing and yes, he is currently single but for good reason. 'I'm single but trying to focus on my career at the moment,' he said

But instead of potential living arrangements, Munir's post garnered a lot more support from soon to be fans.

'You can totally find a room for $800! Just will have more than a few roomies, so be warned. Also, and I apologize if this is inappropriate, but umm ... boyyyy you fine!' said Paige Kendrick on Facebook.

Adina Flyswatter offered a sweet deal after being smitten by his looks and said: 'U can live with me FOR FREE.'

The feeling of despair was evident in many comments as people wish they had rooms to offer the doctor.

'You can totally find a room for $800! Just will have more than a few roomies, so be warned. Also, and I apologize if this is inappropriate, but umm ... boyyyy you fine!' said Paige Kendrick on Facebook

Adina Flyswatter offered a sweet deal after being smitten by his looks and said: 'U can live with me FOR FREE.'

'He's soooo HOT !!! Damn i wish i had a room to rent to him... lol,' said Nadlie Chino

Les Vrtiak was straight to the point and said: 'Yeah you cute'

Juni Odaglas let out a simple 'Omg' in their comment

'He's soooo HOT !!! D*** i wish i had a room to rent to him... lol,' said Nadlie Chino.

Les Vrtiak was straight to the point and said: 'Yeah you cute.'

Juni Odaglas let out a simple 'Omg' in their comment.

Some users, however couldn't help but be critical of all the attention that the hottie doctor received.

Linwood Young made reference to popular dating app Tinder and said: 'When did this become a dating app? I feel like half of y'all saw his photo and started swiping right based on habit, haha.'

Another user, Rich Gilberto, pointed out a double standard in the posting reactions and said: 'Damn, y'all, you would be going crazy right now if this was a bunch of men talking this way about an attractive woman. Dude just wants an apartment.'

Linwood Young made reference to popular dating app Tinder and said: 'When did this become a dating app? I feel like half of y'all saw his photo and started swiping right based on habit, haha'

Another user, Rich Gilberto, pointed out a double standard in the posting reactions and said: 'Damn, y'all, you would be going crazy right now if this was a bunch of men talking this way about an attractive woman. Dude just wants an apartment'

The post currently has 371 reactions and over 40 shares with plenty of additional attention.

Munir was surprised by the 'enthusiastic' response he got when he wrote the listing.

He said: 'It was pretty overwhelming. I wrote it and the next day I wake up and I see my post has been inundated with messages and it's reached a number of blogs locally and internationally. I found it hilarious! The Internet is really an unpredictable place.'

The doctor has yet to find housing and yes, he is currently single but for good reason.

'I'm single but trying to focus on my career at the moment,' he said.
The successful separation of two year old conjoined twins at Kenyatta National Hospital marked a medical milestone in Kenya.

Other than South Africa, very few successful separations have been performed in sub-Saharan Africa.

In Kenya a multi-disciplinary team of medical experts operated on the twins for 23 uninterrupted hours.

The Conversation Africas health and medicine editor Joy Wanja Muraya spoke to Dr Joseph Wanjeri about the surgery and post recovery of the twins who are home.

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Separating twins that are conjoined at the lower back (sacropagus), like the Kenya twins were, has fewer complications and deaths. Pictured are the twins when they were first admitted at Kenyatta National Hospital on September 5, 2014

Can you explain conjoined twins, and its prevalence?

Conjoined twins are two babies born physically connected to each other.

The extent and site of their union varies from sharing a band of skin and underlying tissues to more complex varieties sharing vital organs.

Research shows that cases of conjoined twins are found in one of every 50,000 live births globally.

Kenya does not have a central repository for such cases.

Pictured are Blessing and Favour, formerly conjoined at the back, after a successful surgery at Kenyatta National Hospital. A multi-disciplinary medical team made up of 50 experts drawn from various medical fields did a dry run a week before the actual operation

Conjoined twins are the result of the embryo cells that have not completely separated.

Embryo cells develop when the egg (ovum) is fertilised by sperm.

They multiply and differentiate to form different body organs and tissues.

TYPES OF CONJOINED TWINS Conjoined twins are classified based on the place they are joined. The most common types of conjoined twins are: Craniopagus  fusion of the head

Thoracopagus  fusion of chest

Omphalopagus Parapagus  lateral fusion

Ischiopagus and Sacropagus  fusion at the lower back or sacrum Advertisement

An alternative theory is that two separate embryos fuse together in the early development of the twins.

The exact cause of conjoined twins is unknown but its thought that genetic factors interacting with environmental ones may contribute.

Another possibility is the medicines taken by the mother during pregnancy.

Conjoined twins are classified based on the place they are joined.

Separating conjoined twins can be difficult and can result in death.

Complex cases can be inoperable and others may call for emergency surgery soon after birth if the life of the twins is threatened.

Separating twins that are conjoined at the lower back (sacropagus) has fewer complications and deaths.

The Kenyan twins were conjoined in this way.

Expertise, careful preparation and team work is the perfect recipe for a successful outcome of the surgery.

How is diagnosis done?

Diagnosis can be done before birth using an ultrasound scan or through physical examination at birth.

Advanced tests like the Computerised Tomography (CT) scans and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) give greater details.

In the case of the Kenyan twins, a set of female conjoined twins was referred to the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi in September 2014 from an upcountry health facility soon after their delivery.

The twins shared a spinal cord, rectum, anus, some muscles, subcutaneous tissues and skin.

A University of Nairobi plastic surgery resident created a 3D model of the twins pelvis (pictured) to map the surgery beforehand

Paediatric, neuro and plastic surgeons agreed that separation was feasible but it should wait until the twins were bigger to withstand the complex surgery.

Paediatricians, nurses and nutritionists took care of the twins until they were one year old when the planning for the separation began.

The plastic surgery team recommended tissue expansion, a procedure to help with closure of the huge soft tissue defects anticipated after separation.

But the mother refused to give her consent, and the procedure had to be stopped.

She clearly adored the twins but was overwhelmed by the decisions that needed to be taken.

The matter was referred to court and the judge ruled that separation was in the best interests of the children.

Their mother gave consent and the preparations for surgery were resumed.

A University of Nairobi plastic surgery resident created a 3D model of the twins pelvis to map the surgery.

Can you explain the details of the planning and actual surgery.

A multi-disciplinary medical team made up of 50 experts drawn from various medical fields did a dry run a week before the actual operation.

When the time came for the operation in November 2016 two sets of the anaesthetic teams took about three hours to anaesthetise and stabilise the twins.

HOW THEY DID THE SURGERY A University of Nairobi plastic surgery resident created a 3D model of the twins pelvis to map the surgery beforehand. A multi-disciplinary medical team made up of 50 experts drawn from various medical fields did a dry run a week before the actual operation. When the time came for the operation in November 2016 two sets of the anaesthetic teams took about three hours to anaesthetise and stabilise the twins. The paediatric surgeons began the separation of the various soft tissues on one side up to the spine. The neurosurgeons took over and split the spine, opened the shared dura,which is the tough outermost membrane enveloping the brain and spinal cord. They later separated the nerves before repairing the dura. The paediatric surgeons completed their separation of the soft tissue and successfully placed the pair on separate beds for the first time. But one was left without an anus and rectum. This condition would be repaired in the recovery phase. Advertisement

The paediatric surgeons began the separation of the various soft tissues on one side up to the spine.

The neurosurgeons took over and split the spine, opened the shared dura,which is the tough outermost membrane enveloping the brain and spinal cord.

They later separated the nerves before repairing the dura.

The paediatric surgeons completed their separation of the soft tissue and successfully placed the pair on separate beds for the first time.

But one was left without an anus and rectum.

This condition would be repaired in the recovery phase.

The closure of the huge soft tissue defects and wounds was done on each of the girls by plastic surgeons.

Local flaps and skin grafts covered the wounds after which an opening from the large intestine  a colostomy  was done.

They were transferred to the intensive care unit for specialised monitoring for two weeks before transfer to the paediatric surgical ward.

The wounds took about three months to heal.

One of the twins developed impaired movement of one of her ankle joints.

But after occupational therapy she was able to walk with only a slight limp.

The twins growth and development will be monitored in the coming months and further reconstructive surgeries scheduled at the appropriate time.

Blessing and Favour were discharged from hospital on June 15, 2017.

Twins Blessing and Favour facing each other for the first time since birth. The wounds took about three months to heal. One of the twins developed impaired movement of one of her ankle joints. But after occupational therapy she was able to walk with only a slight limp

What does this success mean for sub-Saharan Africa and what lessons can be learnt?

First, it shows that medical experts in sub-Saharan Africa are qualified and capable of performing complex surgeries in spite of the poor resources at their disposal.

But it also shows that a referral centre with a multidisciplinary team is best suited for this kind of complex surgery.

And as far as the children are concerned, it shows that intense nursing care, nutritional support, advanced wound care techniques and close monitoring by paediatric specialists has been critical to their remarkable recovery.
A 'game changing' cancer treatment is far kinder to victims than chemotherapy, according to research published last night.

Patients treated with immunotherapy enjoyed a vastly improved quality of life, suffering fewer side effects such as pain and loss of appetite.

But the drugs, hailed as a new era in the fight against cancer, were rejected for NHS funding in April.

Immunotherapy has already proven hugely effective against some deadly cancers, extending the lives of terminal patients by up to five years. It works by reawakening the body's immune system so it is able to specifically attack cancer cells.

A 'game changing' cancer treatment is far kinder to victims than chemotherapy, according to research published last night (file photo)

By contrast, chemotherapy targets all fast-growing cells, including healthy ones, which can cause debilitating side effects.

The study, by the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London, involved 129 patients with head and neck cancers, which are particularly difficult to treat.

Some were given chemotherapy while others received nivolumab, a type of immunotherapy administered in a drip every two weeks.

Both groups were assessed at nine and 15 weeks into treatment and those on nivolumab were in significantly less pain and did not suffer as much from fatigue, nausea and weight loss.

With many of these patients terminally ill and determined to enjoy their final months as much as possible, the findings  published in the Lancet Oncology journal  represent a major breakthrough.

In January, the same research team found this form of immunotherapy doubled the survival rate for head and neck cancer patients.Around 36 per cent were still alive a year after starting treatment, compared to 16 per cent of those on chemotherapy.

Despite this success, drugs watchdog Nice has ruled the 5,300-a-month treatment is not cost effective. The body will make a final decision later this year and campaigners hope the NHS will be able to negotiate a cheaper price with the US manufacturers Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Patients treated with immunotherapy enjoyed a vastly improved quality of life, suffering fewer side effects such as pain and loss of appetite

Professor Kevin Harrington, lead researcher from the ICR and the Royal Marsden Hospital in London said: 'Our research has found nivolumab really is a game-changing treatment for patients with head and neck cancer.

'Not only does it extend survival  we have now shown that patients feel much better in the extra time that the drug grants them.

'When immunotherapies first hit the clinic, there were concerns over side effects and the fact that they didn't work for everyone. But in only two or three years we have become very good at managing the side effects they cause, and we are better able to select patients in whom these treatments are most likely to be effective.'

ICR chief executive Professor Paul Workman said: 'Creating cancer treatments that can not only extend life but also minimise the impact of the disease on patients' lives is a major aim of researchers.

'So it's great news that this trial has found that, as nivolumab greatly extends life among these patients, it also gives marked improvements in quality of life compared with current treatment options.

'I hope that this drug will be now approved very soon for use on the NHS.' Immunotherapy is a relatively new treatment which doctors only started using six or seven years ago. It has already shown huge promise for forms of cancer that are difficult to treat.

Some skin cancer patients who were told they had only a few months left have since returned to work and resumed normal lives after tumours shrunk.

Sunday Times journalist AA Gill, who died of lung cancer last December, wrote that he might have lived longer had he received nivolumab  which he called the weapon of choice for 'every oncologist in the first world'.
With tears in her eyes, Mrs Reid pleaded: Please dont kill him.

Im really sorry, I replied, hardly able to look at her. A nurse held her hand and tried to comfort her.

Hes been my entire world for 14 years. I dont know what Ill do without him, she sobbed.

She wasnt talking about a person. She was talking about Toby, her King Charles spaniel.

Recently published research found that each year thousands of dogs are destroyed because their owners go into care homes. More than 100,000 have to be rehomed

Mrs Reid had come into hospital after a fall. She had Parkinsons and her mobility was deteriorating  it was the second time shed fallen in just a few weeks, and this time she had broken her hip.

She was too frail to go home and the social workers had arranged for her to go into residential care.

A neighbour had been looking after Toby but, with the prospect of Mrs Reid not going home and no family who could take him, it seemed he would have to be put down.

Mrs Reid was pleading with me to allow her home, but it was simply too dangerous, although for her this was preferable to no longer having her beloved Toby.

Recently published research found that each year thousands of dogs are destroyed because their owners go into care homes. More than 100,000 have to be rehomed.

Thankfully, I spoke to a kindly social worker who eventually found a home for Mrs Reid that would allow her to take Toby.

But such places are few and far between and this all seems so profoundly wrong.

We have a remarkable capacity to draw comfort from animals. And there are a fair few of us, I suspect, who actually prefer our pets to a good number of our fellow humans.

For older people such as Mrs Reid, pets are often the primary source of companionship and about a quarter of all pensioners have a pet. Yet when they go into hospital or a care home, they are denied this vital relationship.

This week the Royal College of Nursing said it thought pets should be able to visit their owners in hospital, on the basis that they help patients recover quicker and it encourages them to be active.

Im all for this. I have worked on several wards where PAT (Pets As Therapy) dogs visited, and seen the change they can bring.

Its remarkable how patients suddenly come out of themselves, smile and laugh when a dog nuzzles them. Its more effective than any antidepressant and encourages people out of their seats better than any physiotherapist. Imagine the benefits, after a lengthy hospital stay, if it were your own dog that visited.

Im not suggesting hospital wards should be full of mutts running amok, nor that dogs should be allowed in intensive care. But its quite reasonable, especially on rehab and long-stay wards, to let visitors bring patients pets in, if those pets are well behaved.

Yes, I know: health and safety. But this argument is the refuge of the terminally unimaginative. And trust me, on a ward there are more things that pose a risk to your health than a dog  the MRSA on a nurses hands, for example.

There is not a scrap of evidence that a dog would be an infection risk, and plenty of evidence of health benefits.

A review of all the research, conducted by Queens University Belfast, found that pet owners tended to be healthier, including having lower blood pressure. Dog owners, in particular, were found to have fewer minor ailments and serious medical problems.

The researchers found that pets are often vital to elderly peoples quality of life and having to move to accommodation without their pet was highly traumatic.

One has to ask how healthy and safe it is to put residents through that. We would never consider denying people human visits, so why ban canine ones?

The U.S., France, Norway and Switzerland have laws forcing housing providers to accept elderly residents pets; in the UK 70 per cent of care homes ban them. Humanity, not misguided health and safety, should prevail.

IS THIS THE REASON THE LEFT'S SO VILE ABOUT THERESA MAY?

I feel sorry for Theresa May. Thats all I said. Yet when I innocently tweeted this last week, I was aghast at the level of vitriol it drew, with people calling her the most vile names.

There is no doubt Theresa May has made mistakes. And there are plenty who dont like her, her party or its policies. Thats their right. But the utter unpleasantness was extraordinary.

The Prime Minister had a tough few weeks and it had been reported that, in private, she had cried. Who wouldnt feel sympathy for another human being in distress like that?

In fact, I made my comment about her in response to another journalist who posted something similar and received so much abuse she had to make her account private.

The people hurling abuse were Corbynistas. So much for the Lefts call for a kinder politics.

Not only did they reveal themselves to be profoundly illiberal and hypocritical, shouting down anyone who doesnt follow their narrow world view, but the vile words used revealed a rank misogyny: I doubt anyone would use them for a man.

But how could otherwise nice, normal people  as Im sure many of those posting the messages are in real life  be so consumed with sudden hatred?

Its an example of what is known in psychiatry as Festingers deindividuation theory: where people can act in an uncharacteristically aggressive way by being part of a group, as this allows them to lose their sense of individuality and self-awareness. This phenomenon is to blame for mob violence.

Studies have shown that those of average to above-average intelligence are most at risk because they use their intelligence as evidence to themselves that they must be justified in their hateful behaviour. To me it speaks of the darkest aspect of the human psyche.

THE BLOOD DONOR BAN THAT PUTS US AT RISK

We need 6,000 blood donations every day to meet demand, yet in the past ten years there has been a 40 per cent drop in the number of new donors.

Despite this, gay men are excluded from giving blood unless they abstain from sex for 12 months, because of the apparent risk of HIV.

All blood is screened for blood-borne viruses, but there is a brief window when testing cannot detect infection. It represents a minuscule risk, but even one infection must clearly be avoided at all costs.

But the ban on gay men is based on a stereotype and, far from protecting the public, it actually puts us at risk. This is because, while it unfairly assumes all gay men are promiscuous, it assumes straight men are not, so the latter can have unprotected sex with as many women as they want and still give blood.

Lets be clear: this is not about gay rights. Donating blood is a civil duty, not a human right. The blood services responsibility lies first and foremost with those who receive blood products, and safety is paramount.

Yet France, Italy, Spain, Poland, South Africa, Russia and Australia have all lifted such a ban on gay people and seen no change in contamination rates.

In Italy, which differentiates between donors on the basis of risk activity, rather than sweeping categories such as sexuality, the number of HIV infections through blood transfusion was cut by two thirds.

Seen in this way, it is the UK blood service that is being reckless and irresponsible.
Women who face breast reconstruction after cancer surgery are being offered a boost by a mesh implant that acts like an internal bra.

The material, commonly used in hernia-repair operations, is shaped into an internal cup around the breast where it acts as a scaffold for new soft tissue to grow on, effectively encouraging the body to build its own supportive tissue.

The body absorbs the mesh over time, but the new tissue grown around it ends up three to five times stronger than tissue that the body would have produced on its own.

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Women who face breast reconstruction after cancer surgery are being offered a boost by a mesh implant that acts like an internal bra'

The implant is used to help cancer survivors who have had to have either partial or full mastectomies during reconstructive surgery, as well as in aesthetic augmentations and breast lifts.

GalaFlex is made from lab-grown fibres knitted into a lattice mesh, and moulded into a cup-shape.

The mesh is implanted by a surgeon either as part of a post-cancer reconstruction or cosmetic surgery, essentially creating a bra under the skin.

The mesh is broken down, absorbed and excreted by the body over 18 to 24 months.

The first UK patients are now being treated with the mesh.

Donna James, 50, from New Jersey in the US, is delighted with the results after several breast-reduction operations.

She said: For my 40th birthday I treated myself to a reduction and lift, but due to hormones, my breasts kept growing back.

I had another reduction seven years ago, then four years ago, and then about one year ago my surgeon, Dr Caroline Glicksman, told me about GalaFlex.

Donna, a mother-of-two, added; After that procedure I was able to wear strapless tops for the first time in my life, all summer. It is easier to buy dresses, formal wear and bathing suits. My breasts are perfect now.

Dr Glicksman, of Glicksman Plastic Surgery in Sea Girt, New Jersey, said: We have been counting on patients skin only to support the breast, but the problem we see is that for some patients, like Donna, it holds beautifully  for a while.

GalaFlex supports the breast on the inside, and over time it breaks down and is replaced with the tissue. What patients say is that they cant feel the difference: it feels like normal breast tissue.

It gives support, stays soft, and  what is really important to me  it doesnt show up on mammograms and imaging.

The body absorbs the mesh over time, but the new tissue grown around it ends up three to five times stronger than tissue that the body would have produced on its own

Mr Patrick Mallucci, a member of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), was the first surgeon to use the GalaFlex outside the US, and has since used it in dozens of breast-augmentation operations at his clinic in Chelsea.

He said: It essentially creates an internal bra, or a hammock, and I use this in two cases, either when pregnancy or significant weight loss has left the patient with thin or non-elastic tissue which has poor ability to hold its own weight, or for patients who have had multiple breast surgeries already who suffer similar issues.

The other comparable mesh products available are made from pig or cow skin. These have been around for a while, but they are very expensive.

The GalaFlex does the same job, for a much lower cost. Also, it is completely absorbed and replaced with the patients own collagen, whereas other products simply integrate with the tissue.
Job creation in India will be a key agenda when Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets top American CEOs of global giants like Walmart, Apple and Caterpillar this Sunday during his visit to the US.

The discussions between the Prime Minister and nearly 20 top American CEOs in Washington would focus significantly on the employment front, said an industry leader who will be among those present for these meetings.

Besides, the impact of new visa restrictions on the IT industry is expected to come up for discussion during talks with the technology CEOs.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) meeting with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

The government is expected to focus a lot on the employment front going forward, while expectations are that 30-40 per cent of the 12 million annual job creation can be addressed by the retail sector alone.

New facilities to be set up by the American corporations are also expected to give a boost to job creation.

Modi is slated to visit the US on June 25-26.

American CEOs expected to meet Modi on Sunday include Apple's Tim Cook, Walmart's Doug McMillon, Caterpillar's Jim Umpleby, Google's Sundar Pichai and Microsoft's Satya Nadella.

Among others are Mariott International chief Arne Sorenson, Johnson & Johnson's Alex Gorsky, Mastercad's Ajay Banga, Warburg Pincus's Charles Kaye and Carlyle Group's David Rubenstein.

The discussions will also include efficiency in the logistics arena, the post-demonetisation macroeconomic scenario and the potential gains through the Goods and Services Tax rollout from next month, an official said.

Modi will meet US President Donald Trump on June 26 for the first time, during which he is expected to raise a range of issues, including terrorism and India's concerns over possible changes in H-1B visa rules.

India has time and again raised the issue of H-1B with the US author ities and asked them to liberalise the visa regime as Indian companies contribute significantly to the American economy.

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialised fields.

Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year. In May, the US had accused top Indian IT firms TCS and Infosys of unfairly cornering the lion's share of H-1B visas by putting extra tickets in the lottery system, which the Trump administration wants to replace with a more merit-based immigration policy.

Infosys Chief Executive Vishal Sikka

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank governor Urjit Patel on Thursday said he is not overly pessimistic about employment scenario in the IT sector, pointing out that mushrooming startups can compensate for job losses.

'While there could be pressure on employment in some of the IT sectors, it is not necessarily in terms of literally job destruction, but may be the growth rate is affected by what is happening.

'The number of startups in that same space is almost compensating for most of this,' he said. In the past few months a number of IT majors such as Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, IBM and Tech Mahindra have either announced or are believed to be considering job cuts.
The American president has recently had a scaly-headed moth named after him, but how about an entire Indian village?

Residents in a small community in the northern state of Haryana are apparently embracing their village's new name, 'Trump Village', with hopes the unusual connection will soon have them flushed with success in improving sanitation.

The rebranding is part of a campaign by a toilet charity, as part of a promotional push to raise cash and support for better sanitation through the publicity the group's stunt will generate.

Children and a woman walk past a poster of the US President Donald Trump at Marora Village which was renamed as 'Trump Village' in the Nuh district of Haryana on Friday in an unusual gesture to the American president ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to Washington.

Canadian biologist Vazrick Nazari has named a newly-discovered micro moth DonaldTrumpi

Aid group Sulabh International, which says it has built 1.5 million toilets across the country, has set up 'Trump Village' signs around the small community, each bearing a grinning portrait of the president.

Earlier this year a new species of moth, dubbed Neopalpa donaldtrumpi, found in California and Mexico, was named after the president because the scales on its head are similar to Trump's hairstyle.

Although he now has a village named in his honour, the charity admitted that neither the White House, nor the Trump family's commercial empire, had given permission for the rebranding of the site, still better known locally as Marora.

Children are seen near the entrance gate of "Trump Village"

But founder Bindeshwar Pathak said he hoped the gesture would win enough publicity and goodwill to at least raise awareness of a major social problem.

'Such a step might spur rich people, companies and other donors to come forward and donate money,' he said.

'Once basic infrastructure is built here, the popularity of this village will grow and it will act as a motivational factor.'

A photograph of US President Donald Trump, smiling at visitors and residents

The change is purely symbolic - the name Marora will continue to appear on maps and signs.

However locals said they were prepared to embrace the new title, Trump Sulabh Village in its full form, and any good things it might bring with it.

'All our problems such as electricity and water will be addressed by renaming,' said resident Mohammed Joharuddin.

A toilet charity is leading an effort to rename a tiny, north Indian village after President Donald Trump, saying the gesture is meant to honor relations with the US and draw support for better sanitation in India

Village head Shaukat Ali also played along, saying he was grateful for the charity's work.

'A toilet is being constructed, a road is being built and community hall will also be built in the village,' he said.

The event was organised as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares to fly this weekend for his first meeting with Trump in Washington.

Trump is popular in India as many believe he will be tough on Islamic terror

Activists of right-wing Hindu Sena or Hindu Army conduct Hindu rituals to ensure a win for US presidential candidate Donald Trump in New Delhi, India

The U.S. embassy in New Delhi said it was aware of 'Trump Village' but referred further inquiries to Washington.

Less than one-third of India's 1.3 billion people have access to sanitation.

The United Nations estimates that half the population defecates outside - putting people at risk of cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A and typhoid.
Financial relief is in store for farmers in India's Maharashtra state, left reeling from huge losses in the wake of poor weather.

The state, ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has decided to write off debts up to Rs 150,000 ($2,326) for 8.9 million farmers.

Home to the country's financial capital Mumbai, the state will waive $5.27 billion of farm loans - the latest area to offer relief to struggling farmers elsewhere.

Farmers have been struggling to produce crops because of bad weather

Earlier this month, the state had announced that it would write off all farmers' loans after striking farmers cut milk and vegetable supplies to cities like Mumbai

The state, ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has decided to write off debts up to 150,000 rupees ($2,326) for 8.9 million farmers

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the decision to reporters after a cabinet meeting on Saturday.

The state will settle farmers' loans with banks, making 90 per cent of farmers eligible for fresh borrowing, Fadnavis said.

Earlier this month, the state had announced that it would write off all farmers' loans after striking farmers cut milk and vegetable supplies to cities like Mumbai.

India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh in April decided to waive $5.6 billion of farm loans

Modi, who had promised to double farmers' incomes over five years, remains a popular leader three years into his term. But unrest has flared in states ruled by his party, catching regional leaders flat-footed.

In the central state of Madhya Pradesh, five farmers were shot dead during protests earlier this month.

India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh in April decided to waive $5.6 billion of farm loans, while northern state of Punjab earlier this week decided to write off $1.5 billion of loans to farmers.

The debt relief will allow farmers to borrow money

Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel has warned that such loan waivers - forecast by BofA Merrill Lynch to reach $40 billion - would weaken already-strained state finances.

Economists at Merrill Lynch estimate that states will end up writing off debts equivalent to 2 percent of GDP - the bulk of all outstanding loans to farmers. ($1 = 64.4800 Indian rupees)
Mytrah has 15 wind farms across eight states in India

What is it? Headquartered in London, Mytrah Energy is an India-focused renewable energy developer and producer.

The company has 15 wind farms across eight states in India and mainly sells power to government-owned grids.

It is the only independent power producer in India that has more than 200 wind masts across the country.

What's the latest?

Earlier this month, the firm reported that revenues had jumped 385 per cent year-on-year in 2016 to 286million, while profits rose 121 per cent to 101.2million.

This was driven by the completion of a number of new projects and turbines ahead of the firms production targets.

It also moved its new solar business into its construction phase after securing close to 790million of financing throughout the year.

Who backs it? Mytrah's executive chairman and founder Ravi Kailas owns a 57.9 per cent share in the company through his Jersey-based Raksha Trust.

Kailas, 51, has 20 years of experience in telecoms, software and real estate. He founded Zip Global Network, a telecom services company which was sold to Tata Teleservices, part of the Tata Group, a huge Indian conglomerate.

Big UK asset management names such as Henderson, Premier Asset Management, and AXA Investment Managers also own significant stakes.

Why you should invest Mytrah's share price barely made a peep after its strong results despite analysts at Investec slapping the firm with a 100p price target against a market price of around 25p per share.

With the chairman's statement in its results offering plenty to look forward to, and India setting itself ambitious targets as part of the Paris Climate Agreement, it could be worth chucking a few quid Mytrah's way.

And why you shouldn't Energy companies are particularly difficult to properly understand, so this will not be for everyone.

Likewise, Mytrah's focus on India may be a tad too far-flung for investors who prefer to put their money in more local assets.
Fancy a flutter: Some gambling websites have been accused of withholding winnings

Britain's competition watchdog has launched a crackdown on gambling websites that 'load the dice' against their users.

Five companies  which were not named  were yesterday warned they faced heavy fines or losing their licences if they did not make changes immediately.

They are accused of misleading customers with sign-up promotions then preventing them from walking away with winnings.

The allegations came after some 800 complaints and an investigation into the 4.5billion industry by the Competition And Markets Authority.

Senior director Nisha Arora said: 'We know online gambling is always going to be risky, but firms must also play fair.

'People should get the deal they're expecting if they sign up to a promotion, and be able to walk away with their money when they want to.'
House of Fraser's owner has failed to invest in the business

The future of House of Fraser has been thrown into doubt after the department store's owner pulled funding for a small British bank.

Chinese billionaire Yuan Yafei's business Sanpower bought the 167-year-old retailer for 480million in 2014, and he has repeatedly pledged to invest 75million to revitalise its fortunes.

But the money has not been forthcoming and the chain has lost a string of senior bosses in the past few years.

Now, City watchers fear the cash may never arrive after Yafei junked a commitment to back start-up lender Tandem.

The so-called challenger bank, which has been seeking to take on established High Street giants, was expecting a 29million investment from House of Fraser.

But this funding was unexpectedly pulled in March because China was seeking to stem a flood of money out of its borders which it was feared might put the economy at risk.

The retailer cancelled the investment because of uncertainty about whether the deal would be approved by Chinese authorities, and Tandem lost its banking licence.

There are concerns that attempts to pump cash into the department chain could now face the same problem.

A House of Fraser spokesman denied 75million: of funding had ever been promised by Sanpower  despite the fact the pledge has been widely reported since 2014.

Chairman Frank Slevin claimed in December it was a misunderstanding.
Uber acknowledged hiring a former Google engineer - now accused of stealing self-driving car technology - despite having received warnings that he was still carrying around some of his former employer's property.

The admission, contained in a Thursday San Francisco court filing, is the latest twist in a high-profile legal fight between the ride-hailing company and a Google spin-off, Waymo.

Both companies are battling to build self-driving cars that could reshape the way people travel.

Waymo alleges that Anthony Levandowski, the former Google engineer at the crux of the case, ripped off its trade secrets before departing in January 2016 to found a robotic vehicle startup that Uber acquired seven months later.

Waymo alleges that Anthony Levandowski (right with ousted CEO Travis Kalanick, left), the former Google engineer at the crux of the intellectual property theft case, ripped off its trade secrets before departing in January 2016 to found a robotic vehicle startup that Uber acquired seven months later

The lawsuit maintains that Uber then transplanted the intellectual property allegedly stolen by Levandowski from Waymo (above) into its own fleet of self-driving vehicles - a charge that Uber has adamantly denied

Uber is accused of stealing Google's trade secrets for its own fleet of self driving cars (above)

The lawsuit maintains that Uber then transplanted the intellectual property allegedly stolen by Levandowski into its own fleet of self-driving vehicles - a charge that Uber has adamantly denied since Waymo filed its complaint in federal court four months ago.

In May, US District Judge William Alsup ordered Uber to return the stolen files, writing that evidence indicated the company 'knew or should have known that he possessed over 14,000 confidential Waymo files.'

Now, Uber has for the first time has acknowledged that Levandowski informed its now-departed CEO, Travis Kalanick, that he had five disks filled with Google's information five months before joining Uber.

The disclosure, made in March 2016, lends credence to Waymo's allegation that Levandowski downloaded 14,000 documents on to a computer before leaving Google.

Uber claims that former CEO Kalanick told Levandowski not to bring any of the Google trade secrets with him to the company

Uber, though, says Kalanick told Levandowski not to bring any of the Google information with him to Uber. At that time, a deal had been reached for Uber to buy Levandowski's startup, Otto, for $680million, though the acquisition wasn't completed until August 2016.

The filing asserts that Levandowski destroyed the disks containing Google's material not long after Kalanick told him that Uber didn't want the information on them.

Levandowski's lawyers didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. They have been advising Levandowski to assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination since Waymo filed its lawsuit.

Based on the evidence he has seen so far, Alsup has already referred the case to the Justice Department for a potential criminal investigation.

The scenario sketched by Uber comes a few weeks after the company fired Levandowski for refusing to relinquish his Fifth Amendment rights and cooperate with its efforts to defend itself against Waymo's suit.

Kalanick resigned as Uber's CEO Tuesday week after investors demanded he step down.

The investors who have financed Uber's growth had concluded Kalanick had to go following revelations of sexual harassment in the company's office, a federal investigation into company tactics used to thwart regulators, and the threat of even more trouble posed by the Waymo lawsuit.
It was a calm and overcast day when, after 15 months, the high-profile insider trader finally emerged from the prison gates.

A few journalists and cameraman were waiting when Sydney businessman John Hartman stepped out from Silverwater jail the morning of March 1, 2012.

There was little of the pandemonium the nation saw outside Cooma prison this week - when Hartman's former best friend Oliver Curtis, the husband of PR maven Roxy Jacenko, also walked free.

Curtis, 31, was only in prison because Hartman, the son of a celebrity obstetrician, had turned on his former best friend in a bid to get a shorter sentence.

But, while the Riverview College-educated pair are no longer on speaking terms, there is much Curtis could learn from Hartman's life after imprisonment.

John Hartman, pictured, married his long-term partner Alice and moved to the other side of the country to work for billionaire philanthropist and businessman Twiggy Forrest

Hartman is pictured upon his release from Silverwater prison on March 1, 2012. His release did attract media attention - but not to the extent of his former mate this week

Oliver Curtis strutted out of the minimum security Cooma jail in ripped jeans and a hoodie on Friday morning

Since his release former Mosman resident Hartman has put the criminal life behind him, associates have said. Sydney is also in the rear-vision mirror.

In the past few years, John has married his long-time partner, Alice. He is now the father of two little boys. The family live an apparently happy life on the other side of the country, in sunny Perth.

Meantime, billionaire mining magnate and philanthropist Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest has taken him under his wing.

Hartman's LinkedIn profile says he works as the director of West Australian abattoir Harvey Beef, a business interest of Mr Forrest. He is also the director of agriculture business for Mr Forrest's investment office, Minderoo.

Memories: The Riverview College yearbook entry from Oliver Curtis' graduating year

Hartman's entry remembered him for getting teachers into trouble and for his leadership skills

Hartman has moved life to the other side of the country. It's not clear what Curtis and his wife, Roxy Jacenko, will do next

Hartman is pictured appearing at the NSW Supreme Court to testify against Curtis in May 2016

The only time Hartman has been dragged into the spotlight since his release was when he flew back to Sydney last May to testify in court against Curtis.

Hartman refused to look at his former mate as he gave evidence about how the pair made it rain money and did a deal to split the profits 50-50.

He told the court his mate had a 'big mouth' and revealed the pair discussed how they would 'be in a lot of s***' if authorities found out.

A jury found Curtis guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit insider trading, and he was sentenced to a minimum one year's imprisonment.

While Curtis and Hartman no longer have anything to do with each other, the ties that bind their families are complicated.

John's older brother, Alexander, is close friends with Roxy Jacenko's estranged sister, Ruby Davis, and the friendship continues to this day.

Mr Curtis is pictured hugging his two children while boarding his private plane on Friday

Curtis's two children, Pixie and Hunter, were delighted to see him - screaming 'dada!'

The same cannot be said for Curtis and Hartman. But both now have something in common - they're free.

About 9am on Friday, Curtis emerged from low security prison about 9am, dressed in a hoodie and ripped jeans.

He was greeted by a swarm of media, and later, was reunited with his two children, Pixie and Hunter, and he boarded a private jet home.

They were heard crying: 'Dada! Dada!'




Horrific footage of a coward punch on the streets of Perth has been released.

It shows a man in a white cap, and another man approach a teenager on St Quentin Avenue about 12.30am on June 5.

They chat briefly, before the man in the white cap punches the 17-year-old in the face.

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Horrific footage of a coward punch on the streets of Perth has been released

The heavy blow knocks the teenager back and he falls to the ground.

The man in the white cap and his friend run off after the incident.

Miraculously the teenager spaced with minor injuries. He was however treated by a doctor for concussion and facial soreness.

Cottesloe police believe the attack was unprovoked and are hunting for the assailant.

'It's a punch or an elbow to the left cheek without provocation or warning,' Sergeant Paul Gelmi told PerthNow.

It shows a man in a white cap, and another man approach a teenager on St Quentin Avenue about 12.30am on June 5

Cottesloe police believe the attack was unprovoked and are hunting for the assailant

'There was no lead-up, they're unknown to each other it looks like a random attack. 'It's pretty shocking.'

The attacker is believed to be aged about 25, with tanned with short black hair and of average build.

He was wearing black jeans, a black shirt and a white cap.
First Lady Melania Trump has appointed the director of rooms at the Trump Organization's Washington hotel to be the new White House chief usher.

Timothy Harleth was selected on Friday to oversee more than 90 White House staff members.

'I am so pleased that Timothy will be joining our team,' the first lady said in a press release.

'He was selected because of his impressive work history and management skills. My husband and I know he will be successful in this vital role within the White House.'

First Lady Melania Trump has appointed the director of rooms at the Trump Organization's Washington hotel to be the new White House chief usher

The appointment comes shortly after it was announced that the president will host a major fundraiser at the Trump International Hotel, where Harleth has worked.

'I am so honored at the opportunity to serve the First Family in their new home,' Harleth said.

'I look forward to applying my experience with hospitality, leadership, and political protocol in order to ensure the First Family's needs are met, while also protecting and preserving the rich history of the White House.

'I am excited to work alongside the accomplished and professional staff who are already in place,' Harleth said.

Harleth will oversee butlers, florists, maids, cooks and doormen, among others in his new role.

According to the press release, Harleth has more than a decade of hospitality and leadership experience.

In his current role as the director of rooms at Trump International Hotel in DC, Harleth oversees more than 110 employees.

Prior to that, he served in management positions at the Mandarin Oriental in DC and New York.

According to the press release, Harleth has more than a decade of hospitality and leadership experience. Harleth will begin his appointment at the White House on Monday, July 3. The first lady and the president are pictured during the Congressional Picnic on Thursday

Harleth will begin his appointment at the White House on Monday, July 3.

It's the latest example of the remarkable co-mingling between President Donald Trump's White House and his business world.

Trump has placed his businesses into a trust, but ethics experts have questioned whether it is a strong enough firewall to prevent conflicts of interest.

The White House chief usher position turns over infrequently. There have only been nine chief ushers who have served in the White House in the 20th century, including Angella Reid, who was fired from the position in May.

Reid was the first woman and second African-American to hold the position of White House chief usher.
Two Tennessee families have been given $10,000 each as a reward for helping to catch two violent Georgia inmates, authorities say.

A total reward of $130,000 was offered to find Ricky Dubose and Donnie Russell Rowe, accused of killing two state prison guards in Putnam County.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation offered $20,000 toward the total reward, according to spokeswoman Nelly Miles, who says the recipients' names are being withheld at their request.

Two Tennessee families have been given $10,000 each as a reward for helping to catch violent Georgia inmates Ricky Dubose (right) and Donnie Rowe (left), authorities say

Dubose (left), 43, and Rowe (right), 24, will face the death penalty after a cross-state crime spree that saw them killing two prison guards and taking hostages

'This is the initial stage of the total reward being dispensed and all stakeholders involved continue discussions to determine how the remaining sum will be dispersed,' Miles said in a statement.

'There are a multitude of contributors from government and private entities.'

Dubose and Rowe are accused of shooting and killing Sergeant Curtis Billue, 58, and Sergeant Christopher Monica, 42, along Highway 16.

After spending three days on the run last week, the pair surrendered in the driveway of homeowner Patrick Hale in Christiana, Tennessee.

'My vehicle looks very much like a police cruiser,' he later explained.

'I realized I had two ex-cons wanted for murder who had just shot at law enforcement who had nothing to lose and for some reason they surrendered and laid down on the concrete in my driveway.'

Police have previously said the two escapees held an elderly Tennessee couple at gunpoint before stealing their SUV. The couple was able to call police, who pursued the stolen Jeep Cherokee.

The pair were caught on Thursday (pictured) after they ran into the Tennessee driveway of a man they seemingly assumed was a cop

Prior to escaping, Dubose (left) had been serving life without parole since 2002, and Rowe (right) began a 20-year sentence in 2015

Outside of Murfreesboro, the fugitives crashed the Jeep and ended up in a neighborhood, where neighbors watches as the two surrendered, according to police.

In Putnam County Court on Wednesday, the prosecutor told the judge he hadn't yet filed the paperwork, but intended to pursue the maximum sentence for murder in the state: the death penalty.

Prior to escaping, Rowe had been serving life without parole since 2002, and Dubose began a 20-year sentence in 2015.
The NSW Fire Brigade has warned it does not have the man power to inspect buildings with flammable cladding which could go up in flames just as quickly as London's ill-fated Grenfell Tower.

Despite a blaze over 10 years ago in a Sydney factory caused by composite panels and the 2014 Melbourne apartment fire triggered by cladding, the fire service does not have the jurisdiction to for such inspections, The Weekend Australian reports.

It comes hours after residents in another tower block in London were forced to be evacuated following warnings from firefighters they 'could not guarantee' their safety.

NSW firefighters (pictured) do not have the man power or jurisdiction to inspect the flammable cladding on buildings similar to Grenfell Tower

Dozens of high-rise towers across Sydney (pictured) and Melbourne are said to contain similar cladding to the ill-fated Grenfell Tower

The NSW fire service can investigate internal building systems such as sprinklers, fire exits and water pressure but their 'hands are tied' when it comes to inspecting how the external of a tower block can spark flames.

Former NSW Fire Brigade chief safety engineer Ben Hughes-Brown told the publication 'that without immediate action, Australian tower blocks with combustible cladding risk following the same tragic footsteps as Grenfell Tower.

'Many of the products on the market just go through the small-scale series of tests and that is proven to be not good enough,' Mr Hughes-Brown warns.

I really don't think the code does go far enough.'

The NSW fire service can investigate internal building systems such as sprinklers, fire exits and water pressure but their 'hands are tied' when it comes to inspecting how the external of a tower block can spark flames

Former NSW Fire Brigade chief safety engineer Ben Hughes-Brown told the publication 'that without immediate action, Australian tower blocks with combustible cladding risk following the same tragic footsteps as Grenfell Tower (pictured)

Grenfell Tower (pictured) was found to contain combustible cladding that went up in flames 'like a matchstick' after a fire was started from a fridge

Experts have claimed many high-rise residential buildings in Sydney and Melbourne could be fire traps waiting to happen, after revelations many are filled with cladding similar to that used in the London building.

It was revealed a similar type of cladding is commonplace around the world, including in Melbourne where a 20-storey apartment block caught alight in late-2014 - producing eerily similar scenes to those from London.

Firefighters in London have started to crack down on at-risk buildings with fears a replication of Grenfell Tower could be imminent.

Some 4,000 people were evacuated from the Chalcots Estate in Camden overnight and placed in temporary accommodation, hotels or with family in the area.

Experts have claimed many high-rise residential buildings in Sydney and Melbourne could be fire traps waiting to happen, after revelations many are filled with cladding similar to that used in the London building

The NSW Fire Brigade does not inspect the fire safety of the external structure of buildings

Shocked residents claimed they were only told at 8.30pm that they would have to leave their homes for up to three weeks while 'urgent fire safety works' were carried out.

Five blocks on the estate have similar exterior plastic panels to those fitted to the 24-storey Grenfell Tower.

The final death toll from the Grenfell blaze is yet to be determined, but 79 residents have been confirmed dead as firefighters continued to sift through the building's charred remains.
The controversial move could overturn Britains proud tradition of routine unarmed policing

Police chiefs are to consider arming beat bobbies with pistols to tackle terrorists on the streets.

The controversial move could overturn Britains proud tradition of routine unarmed policing.

The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) will meet next month to discuss a range of ideas to combat a marauding terror attack, including arming patrol officers in key locations.

The idea is that officers who are not part of Britains firearms squads could react quickly to shoot a terrorist such as the Westminster or London Bridge attackers if they were first on the scene.

Yesterday West Midlands Chief Constable Dave Thompson called on the Government to think very carefully about the need for enhanced protection for officers who run towards terrorists.

But critics yesterday dismissed the notion of giving a sidearm to ordinary officers on the beat as hysterical.

They said the move would overturn Britains 188-year-old history of policing by consent and would position the UK closer to our continental neighbours whose police are routinely armed.

In a paper being drawn up by Deputy Chief Constable Simon Chesterman, the national police lead on firearms, a number of measures have been proposed for discussion to boost Britains armed response to terror attacks.

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Currently only highly trained firearms officers carry guns. They have to go through a rigorous selection process with a high failure rate

One idea is to give pistols to constables who routinely patrol sensitive locations and key landmarks considered at risk of a terror attack, such as Government buildings and major tourist attractions, so they could respond before firearms officers arrived.

Currently only highly trained firearms officers carry guns. They have to go through a rigorous selection process with a high failure rate.

They must pass several selection tests before completing a nine-week training course, and officers in counter-terrorism face additional training of at least three months.

The discussion paper suggests that beat officers who are currently unarmed would get only about two weeks of training in how to handle a handgun. They would then get a day of refresher training and reaccreditation twice a year.

The NPCC stressed that any decision regarding arming patrol officers would be subject to extensive assessments and approval by chief constables to ensure it was justified by the nature of the threat.

But no change in the law would be required for police chiefs to increase the number of officers who carry guns.

Hero police officer PC Keith Palmer was murdered by ISIS inspired terrorist Khalid Masood (pictured)

In the wake of PC Keith Palmers murder at Westminster in March, former Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers suggested it was time for all police who patrol areas known to be of interest to terrorists to be armed. The heroic officer, who was stabbed to death by terrorist Khalid Masood while guarding the Houses of Parliament, was not carrying a firearm.

Two armed close protection officers shot dead his attacker within a few seconds of the stabbing, ending Masoods bloody rampage, which claimed five lives.But investigators have said that even if PC Palmer had been armed it is unlikely he would have been able to defend himself in time.

However, others point to the fact that in the 2013 terrorist murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby, in Woolwich, South London, police could not intervene until armed colleagues arrived on the scene.

There are also concerns about how some areas outside London would cope with a marauding terrorist attack.

Any move towards arming ordinary officers is likely to be unpopular with the rank and file.

Some 80 per cent of officers recently voted against carrying guns. Security expert Dai Davies, a former head of royalty protection at Scotland Yard, said: I am appalled that anyone is thinking of putting lethal force into the hands of untrained officers who have not gone through the rigorous training and selection of firearms officers.

We have armed response units which should be deployed in sufficient numbers in high risk areas to protect the public. Someone needs to put a stop to this hysterical outcry for guns in the hands of all officers. The fact is it does not stop terrorism, what it can only do is contain the situation.

Arming officers across Britain will not prevent terrorism, if anything it could increase alienation. This is an over-reaction.
Donald Trump has hit out at Barack Obama following claims the former President had knowledge of Russia trying to hack the US election but allegedly failed to do anything about it.

The Washington Post reported on Friday that the CIA had top-level intelligence last August that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered an operation to help Trump win the US presidential race.

Trump has now spoken out about the claims and questioned why Obama refused to act in an interview that is set to air Sunday on Fox & Friends Weekend.

'Well I just heard today for the first time that Obama knew about Russia a long time before the election, and he did nothing about it,' he told FOX News contributor Pete Hegseth.

Donald Trump has hit out at Barack Obama following claims the former President had knowledge of Russia trying to hack the US election but allegedly failed to do anything about it

'But nobody wants to talk about that. The CIA gave him information on Russia a long time before the election.

'And I hardly see it. It's an amazing thing. To me, in other words, the question is, if he had the information, why didn't he do something about it? He should have done something about it. But you don't read that. It's quite sad.'

Trump appeared to be referring to the Post story about the Obama administration's attempts to address Russia's influence attempts.

Obama ordered a review of Russia's actions and imposed new sanctions after the election.

Trump has acknowledged that Russia likely tried to interfere in the election, but has denounced investigations into possible Russian collusion with his campaign as a 'witch hunt.'

Leakers have claimed Obama knew that Putin had ordered election hacks, but he failed to act because he thought Hillary Clinton would win anyway.

The intelligence shocked the White House and put US security chiefs on a top secret crisis footing to figure out how to react, according to the Post.

But amid confidence that Clinton still had the election in the bag and worries over Obama himself being seen as manipulating the election, the administration delivered warnings to Moscow but left countermeasures until after the vote.

Leakers have claimed Obama knew that Putin had ordered election hacks, but he failed to act because he thought Hillary Clinton would win anyway

One official told the newspaper that Obama's failure to respond to Putin amounted to 'choking'.

The ex-Obama administration official told the paper: 'It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend. I feel like we sort of choked.'

After Trump's shock victory, there were strong regrets among administration officials that they had shied from tough action.

'From national security people there was a sense of immediate introspection, of, 'Wow, did we mishandle this,' a former administration official told the newspaper.

The Post said that as soon as the intelligence on Putin came in, the White House viewed it as a deep national security threat. A secret intelligence task force was created to firm up the information and come up with possible responses.

They couldn't do anything about embarrassing WikiLeaks revelations from hacked Clinton emails. The focus turned to whether Moscow could disrupt the November 8 vote itself by hacking voter registration lists or voting machines, undermining confidence in the vote tally itself.

Worried about making the situation worse, the administration put off retaliating, and instead delivered stiff warnings directly to the Russians not to go farther.

The CIA knew in August that Vladimir Putin had ordered a operation to help Trump win the presidency, a new report in the Washington Post claims

At least four direct warnings - Obama to Putin, spy chief to spy chief, and via top diplomatic channels - appeared to have an impact, officials told the Post. They believe that Moscow pulled back on any possible plans to sabotage U.S. voting operations.

'We made the judgment that we had ample time after the election, regardless of outcome, for punitive measures,' a senior administration official told the Post.

Options to retaliate were on the table early: more crippling sanctions on the Russian economy, leaking information that would embarrass Putin diplomatically, and launching cyber attacks on Russian infrastructure were high on the list.

But Trump's shock victory dampened the response.

Obama took modest measures at the end of December, expelling 35 Russians and adding to existing sanctions. He also, according to the Post, authorized a plan to place cyberattack implants in the systems of critical Russian infrastructure. But it remains unclear, the Post said, whether Trump has followed through with that.
Two of the Pentagon's four specially reinforced 'Doomsday' planes, designed to withstand the heat from a nuclear blast, have been grounded after being damaged by a tornado.

The Air Force said Friday that two E4-B Boeing 747s were damaged when a tornado whipped through Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base with little advance warning on June 16.

Built in the 1970s during the Cold War, the planes are essentially flying command centers that can refuel in the sky and are designed to remain airborne for days on end in times of crisis.

The two damaged 'Doomsday' planes were reportedly parked in hangars during the storm, but their tails were exposed to strong winds.

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The Air Force said Friday that two E4-B Boeing 747s were damaged when a tornado whipped through Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base earlier this month (file photo)

Defense Secretary James Mattis briefs reporters aboard a E4-B in April. The 'Doomsday' planes transport the defense secretary and serve as flying command posts

The EF1 tornado that whipped through Offutt Air Force Base on June 16 came with little warning. Damage to facilities on the base is seen

Trees were ripped from their roots and buildings were damaged in the powerful tornado

Downed tree limbs from the tornado on Offutt Air Force Base are seen. The tornado also damaged two EF-Bs on the ground at the base

Built in the 1970s during the Cold War, the planes are essentially flying command centers that can refuel in the sky and are designed to remain airborne for days on end in times of crisis

The Air Force has four E4-Bs, which also shuttle the secretary of defense around the world.

'Two E-4B National Airborne Operations Center aircraft stationed at Offutt AFB received storm damage,' Air Force spokesman Colonel Pat Ryder said.

Not including the damage to aircraft, the tornado caused an estimated $7million to $10million in damage to the base facilities, 55th Wing spokesman Drew Nystrom told the Omaha World Herald.

Additionally, seven RC-135 reconnaissance planes suffered minor damage in the tornado and another needed an inspection.

The E-4B is a 747 that has been reinforced to protect against the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear blast and is shielded from a thermal blast.

The planes, also called 'National Airborne Operation Centers' when they are in-flight, have special equipment and have the capability to communicate with anyone from anywhere in the world and support analysts and strategists on the flight.

Defense Secretary James Mattis (left on stairs) exits his E4-B in April. Two of the Pentagon's fleet of four E4-Bs were damaged by a tornado earlier this month

The planes have special equipment and have the capability to communicate with anyone from anywhere in the world and support analysts and strategists on the flight

The plane's conference room is seen. The Doomsday planes can operate with the largest crew of any aircraft in the US Air Force at 112 people, both flight and mission personnel

Communications gear inside a E4-B is seen. The jets can unspool miles of low-frequency antenna to maintain contact with nuclear subs and other assets in times of crisis

The blue-and-white jets can also unspool miles of low-frequency antenna to maintain contact with nuclear subs and other assets in times of crisis.

One of the planes is typically kept running at all times, with the engine running 24 hours a day at the Offutt base when the president is in the US. In the event of an emergency, the plane is ready to take off almost immediately.

It is unknown how the damage to the two planes at Offutt impacted that contingency planning, information which is tightly held for national security reasons.

However, other aircraft in the fleet are capable of fulfilling the role of airborne command centers in times of emergencies, according to experts.

The cost and timeline for repairing the two damaged E4-Bs is unknown.
Another lawsuit has been filed by one of Charlie Sheen's ex-girlfriend's alleging that he exposed her to HIV

Another lawsuit has been filed by one of Charlie Sheen's ex-girlfriend's alleging that he exposed her to HIV and discouraged her from taking antiretroviral drugs.

The suit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, but neither Sheen nor the ex-girlfriend are named in it, according to Variety.

But the defendant is referred to as 'confidential male defendant' who has said he learned he was HIV positive in 2011.

The suit says that the defendant also gave national TV interviews about his HIV status on November 17, 2015, and June 21, 2016, according to Variety.

Sheen found out that he was HIV positive in 2011 and he revealed it to the public in an interview on the The Today Show on November 17, 2015.

He also gave an update on his health on the program on June 21, 2016.

The plaintiff is identified only as Jane Doe, and is described as a 'Russian emigre,' according to Variety.

Sheen and the plaintiff met in September 2015, two months before he revealed his HIV status.

The plaintiff alleges in the lawsuit that the pair immediately began a sexual relationship, but not before she asked him whether he had any sexually transmitted diseases.

But he assured her that he was 'fine,' the suit claims.

The suit says the defendant also gave national TV interviews about his HIV status on November 17, 2015, and June 21, 2016. Sheen found out that he was HIV positive in 2011 and he revealed it to the public in an interview on the The Today Show on November 17, 2015 (pictured)

He also gave an update on his health on the program on June 21, 2016 (pictured)

A month before Sheen revealed his status to the public, the plaintiff claims the pair had unprotected intercourse for the first time in October 2015.

He later admitted to her that he was HIV positive and gave her two pills to prevent transmission, according to Variety.

The plaintiff then sought out medical treatment and was told that she would ned to take antiretroviral medication for several weeks.

According to the suit, Sheen blamed her for the exposure and told her he was 'noble' for telling her about his HIV status.

He allegedly told the woman that the drugs she had been prescribed were unnecessary, and not to believe 'the convenient rumors of the medical community'.

'This is more about  not if, but when you do come down with this [HIV], that were together and at least we have each other,' the suit quotes him as saying.

Sheen was also sued by his ex-fiancee, Scottine Ross (left with Sheen in 2014, and right in 2017), who filed a similar lawsuit a month after it was revealed that he had the virus. Ross alleged Sheen exposed her to HIV and claimed she was physically and emotionally abused

In January, Sheen opened up about his life in the year since he publicly announced he was HIV-positive on Good Morning America

The lawsuit explains the defendant is not named because the plaintiff signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Sheen was also sued by his ex-fiancee, Scottine Ross, who filed a similar lawsuit a month after it was revealed that he had the virus.

Ross alleged that Sheen exposed her to HIV. She also claimed that she was physically and emotionally abused.

Her suit, which was filed in December 2015, was later referred to arbitration.

Earlier this month, Sheen introduced his new girlfriend Jools in Santa Monica.

The former Two-and-a-half men actor, 51, posed with his date outside Giorgio Baldi restaurant, where they were celebrating his daughter Lola's 12th birthday.

He talked about his new outlook on life, how he now values his family above all else and explained what he believes caused his very public meltdown that began back in 2011

In a video clip taken outside the restaurant, he said: 'It's my daughter's birthday. She's 12. This is my girlfriend, that's Jools. No one's got a photo of us yet.'

It's unknown how old Jools is or how long the pair have been dating.

Charlie has in the past dated Bree Olson and Georgia Jones.

He married first wife Donna Peele in 1995, but the couple divorced the next year.

In January, Sheen opened up about his life in the year since he publicly announced he was HIV-positive in an interview on Good Morning America.

'I feel really good. I am so grateful,' Sheen told host Michael Strahan.

He talked about his new outlook on life, how he now values his family above all else and explained what he believes caused his very public meltdown that began back in 2011.

He also said of his very public battle with HIV: 'I feel like I'm carrying the torch for a lot of folks out there that are suffering from the same thing.'

Sheen also said in that interview that he believed he had taken more drugs than anyone else in the world would be able to survive at times.

When asked how he was able to ingest such large quantities of narcotics, Sheen said: 'Because I'm me. I'm different. I just have a different constitution, a different brain, a different heart, I've got tiger blood man.'

In his interview with GMA, Sheen finally revealed what he now believes gave him that tiger blood - testosterone cream.

'Dude, what the hell was that,' said Sheen, thinking back on that period of his life.

'Way too much testosterone cream, trying to keep the old libido up. It metabolizes into steroids. That whole odyssey was an accidental "roid rage."'
Aramazd Andressian Sr has been arrested on suspicion of his five-year-old son's murder

The father of a Southern California five-year-old who has been missing for two months was arrested Friday afternoon in Las Vegas on suspicion of his son's murder.

A Los Angeles County sheriff's statement said Aramazd Andressian Sr., 35, was arrested in coordination with authorities in Las Vegas and was being held there on $10million bail.

Sheriff's investigators presented evidence to LA County prosecutors, who deemed it sufficient to arrest Andressian, said authorities.

But the department would give no further details on what that evidence was, or what Andressian was doing in Nevada.

Nicole Nishida, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's department, declined to say what evidence led to Andressian's arrest. A news conference is scheduled for Monday.

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Homicide detectives arrest Aramazd Andressian Sr. on suspicion of his son's murder in Las Vegas on Friday. Authorities would not say what directly led to his arrest and will be giving a press conference on Monday

Aramazd Andressian Jr, 5, was last seen with his father in Disney Land on April 20; his father was found unconscious in a park in South Pasadena on April 22

A message left seeking comment from Andressian's attorney was not immediately returned.

Investigators have been searching for five-year-old Aramazd Andressian Jr. since his father was found passed out in a large park in South Pasadena on April 22. Sheriff's officials say the father had taken prescription pills and was found in a car doused in gasoline.

The father was initially arrested on suspicion of child endangerment, but he was later released.

The boy was last seen by his mother who had a video chat with him on April 18 as he visited with his father.

Los Angeles County Sheriff and South Pasadena Police departments searched a drain in the Arroyo Seco wash in South Pasadena, Calif., looking for five-year-old Aramazd Andressian, Jr. in May

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau Capt. Christopher Bergner, center, stands by a poster of Aramazd Andressian Jr.

Then authorities said the boy was last seen April 20 with his father, leaving Disneyland in Anaheim.

The boy's mother was scheduled to have a video chat with her son on April 20, but that never happened, said South Pasadena Police Chief Art Miller.

The parents are divorcing and share custody of the boy.

Police began investigating after Andressian failed to drop the boy off with his mother that weekend.

After finding the father unconscious in the park, he was vague about answering police questions about where the boy was, giving 'convoluted and not consistent' answers, said authorities.

Investigators said at the time that they didn't know why the father was unconscious but that there was no evidence of an attack.

A day earlier, his car had been spotted at Cachuma Lake - 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles - but surveillance footage subsequently showed he went there alone.

The Sheriff's Department has been mostly silent on the case since serving a search warrant at the home of Andressian Sr.'s mother nearly a month ago.

They have combed Arroyo Seco Park in South Pasadena where the father was found several times in the past few months, using dogs and drones to help in the search.

The boy's mother has publicly pleaded for his safe return.

'To my son, this message is for you my love: be brave, honey,' Ana Estevez said through tears on May 18. 'I am counting the days until I see you honey and I will never stop looking for you.'
The Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) recently released the results of its annual statewide school bus inspections with several area school districts earning perfect scores.

Colonel Sandra K. Karsten, superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, announced the results of the Motor Vehicle Inspection Division's (MVID) 2017 inspection program after a total of 12,047 school buses across the state were inspected by MSHP personnel between Feb. 2 and May 5. Of all buses inspected, 90.24 percent were approved by inspection personnel with no defective items noted during inspection.

During the annual inspections, buses found to have no defective items are rated as "approved. Buses having one or more defective items that do not constitute an immediate danger to the safety of students are rated as "defective. Buses with any defective items that could pose an immediate danger are rated as "out-of-service.

Districts awarded Total Fleet Excellence must earn an approval rating of 90 percent or higher on all buses in their fleet and no buses can be placed in out-of-service status during the annual inspection process. Buses with one or more major defective items deemed to be unsafe for the transport of students are removed from an active fleet and must be repaired and re-inspected before being placed back in service.

A total of 276 Missouri school districts earned the patrols Total Fleet Excellence Award. During the 2017-2018 school year, 6,181 buses in these award-winning fleets are eligible to display the Total Fleet Excellence sticker in the lower corner of the first window on the passenger-entry side of the bus.

School districts in and around the Parkland that earned perfect scores  and were awarded the distinction of Total Fleet Excellence include Belleview, Bismarck, Central, Farmington, North County, Potosi and Ste. Genevieve. Although the Fredericktown School District did not earn a perfect score for its buses, its 93.5 percent score still earned the district a Total Fleet Excellence Award.

The front-to-back inspections carried out by the MVID are rigorous. Something as seemingly insignificant as a small cut in a seat or the wrong sized lettering on the outside of a bus will count against the overall score for a bus being inspected.

Buses rated as "defective" may continue to be operated for the purpose of transporting students until required repairs are made. School districts are given just 10 days following the initial inspection to repair all identified defects before being re-inspected by the patrols inspection personnel.

Buses rated as "out-of-service" must be repaired, re-inspected and approved for being placed back into service by MVID inspection personnel prior to being used to transport students. Buses not presented for re-inspection within the required 10-day period are reported to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Numerous area school districts have earned the fleet excellence award several years in a row, including Central School District, which has received the award every year since the 1999-2000 school year.

With receiving a perfect 100 percent score this year, said Assistant Superintendent Troy Bollinger, that makes 18 consecutive years of receiving state recognition for having an outstanding and safe bus fleet. Dennis Skaggs has been our bus supervisor and mechanic all of those years. Dennis will be the first to tell you that he can only be as good as the staff members that he has as they are the ones to keep him informed of any daily issues.

In addition, Dennis has set up a regular maintenance schedule for all buses that includes anything and everything, from the basic nuts and bolts of the bus to the video equipment. Each bus is also reviewed daily, of course, through the required pre-trip inspections that occur each morning before the bus ever leaves the lot. It truly is a team effort that Dennis and his staff consistently undertake to make our fleet safe for our students.

Dr. Desi Mayberry, Centrals superintendent, gives credit for the districts exemplary safety record to Bollinger as well, who oversees general operations for the districts transportation department, in addition to Skaggs and his crew.

Troy, Dennis and all of our transportation people do a great job of making sure our buses are in perfect condition, he said. Any issues are reported to Dennis and he takes care of them immediately.

Mayberry also recognizes the important role played by the Central Board of Education in ensuring that students are safely transported to and from school and for extracurricular activities.

I also believe the school board deserves some credit for allowing us to purchase new buses and keep our fleet modern, he said.

North County School District has also won the Total Fleet Excellence Award numerous times.

I think its our fourth year in a row, said Assistant Superintendent Chadd Starkey, so were pretty excited about that.

Like other school districts, North County has a dedicated team that closely monitors their buses for any signs of wear and tear.

Weve got three guys at the bus garage that play a big role in that, Starkey said. Larry Patterson is the transportation supervisor, and then we have Rob Miller, who is a mechanic and Dave Rhives, also a mechanic. They inspect them regularly and fix them whenever something (arises) and also get them ready for the (MSHP) inspection. So, hats off to those guys.

With nearly 40 buses in the North County fleet, a perfect inspection score reflects the hard work and dedication of these three men.

We had 36 buses inspected this year, said Starkey. We have 29 routes that we run daily and weve got a few extra buses in case one of them goes down and for (school-related) trips, etc.

The Bismarck School District has received the Total Fleet Excellence Award every year since taking over its bus transportation system from a contracted company  Monticello Bus Service.

Transportation Director Melanie Wright said this year was the third year in a row that the district earned the patrols top honors for keeping its buses in tip-top shape, although Monticello also won the award numerous times for keeping the buses used to transport Bismarcks students safe and reliable.

Wright gave kudos to Cotton Williams, mechanic at Bismarck, and staff from the Midwest Transit company in Illinois, from which the district leases its buses, for keeping Bismarck buses in superior condition.

"The annual school bus inspection program is one of the ways the Missouri State Highway Patrol serves and protects our children, said Karsten. Ensuring they have safe transportation to and from school and related events is a priority for the patrol. I appreciate the positive working relationship shared by the patrol, school districts, and private transportation companies. This professional relationship is directly responsible for the success of the 2017 annual school bus inspection program."

School bus inspection results are a matter of public record and are available on the MVIDs webpage at www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/ They can also be requested from the MVID by calling 573-526-6132 or via email at mvimail@mshp.dps.mo.gov.
Saudi security forces have foiled a terror plot targeting the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca after a suspect blew himself up after a gunfight.

Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said security forces exchanged gunfire with one of the suspects, who blew himself up inside a home he was hiding in yesterday.

Five people, including a woman, were arrested in security operations in Mecca, Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said.

The Interior Ministry added that the attack on the mosque was being planned by three terrorist groups, two based in Mecca and a third in Jeddah.

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Saudi security forces foiled a terror plot targeting the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, exchanging gunfire with suspects

Pictured: Saudi security forces on the ground after the shootout

Pictured: A still from a video broadcast on Saudi state television showing the evacuation of the wounded

The Interior Ministry said an attack on the mosque was being planned by three terrorist groups, two based in Mecca and a third in Jeddah

One suspect blew himself up and a further five have been arrested, Saudi intelligence chiefs revealed

Al-Arabiya said a suicide bomber hiding in a house in the Ajyad al-Masafi neighborhood of Mecca opened fire on security forces and later blew himself up on the eve of Ramadan.

Five security forces members and six other people - the latter all foreigners - were injured in the attack.

The Grand Mosque houses Islam's holiest site, the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray towards five times a day. The holy month of Ramadan ends this evening.

Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran has condemned a plot to target the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

The Grand Mosque houses Islam's holiest site, the cube-shaped Kaaba that Islam's followers pray toward five times a day

Iran's Foreign Ministry issued a statement Saturday quoting spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as saying 'terrorism is rampant and growing now across the whole world.'

He called on all nations to 'be cautious' and said that Iran is ready to help other countries in confronting militants.

Saudi state television has aired footage after the raid near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, showing police and rescue personnel running through the neighborhood's narrow streets where security forces confronted a suicide bomber.

TERRORISTS INCREASINGLY TARGETING MUSLIMS MARKING THE END OF RAMADAN Muslims from around the world flock to Mecca annually for the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Terrorist attacks targeting the thousands of Muslims who congregate in Saudi Arabia have intensified since 2014, including blasts at holy sites such as the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. A similar attack in July last year occurred when four security officers were killed and five others wounded in a suicide bombing outside the Prophet's Mosque. It was the third attack to hit that day - including blasts in Jeddah and Qatif. The blast targeted Muslims as they knelt in prayer - an attack which the US Central Intelligence Agency said was typical of ISIS. ISIS claimed responsibility for another attack at a mosque in the city of Abha in August 2015 where fifteen people were killed But attacks during Ramadan and targeting mosques are not exclusive to the Middle East. Muslim worshippers were attacked while leaving Finsbury Park Mosque in London, leaving one man dead and several injured. Advertisement

The footage shows the blast demolished the building, its walls crushing a parked car.

What appeared to be shrapnel and bullet holes peppered nearby structures.

It is not yet clear who was behind the terror plot, but the Islamic State group has previously carried out similar mosque attacks in the kingdom.

The US Central Intelligence Agency said previous recent attacks bore the hallmarks of ISIS.

Most of the targets in Saudi Arabia have been the Shiite minority and security forces, killing dozens of people.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks against the kingdom, a member of the US-led coalition battling the group in Syria and Iraq.
As a pup of uncertain origins, Lucy the rescue dog probably feels safer having some ID on her every time she goes walkies.

But not for her a mere collar tag or microchip. Instead, Lucy has a perfect self portrait on her left ear.

The markings on the black and white puppy's ear show two floppy ears, eyes, a nose and a mouth.

Lucy the rescue dog has a perfect self portrait on her left ear

The markings on the black and white puppy's ear show two floppy ears, eyes, a nose and a mouth

Lucy, who is now eight months old, was part of a litter delivered at a US rescue centre called Lollypop Farm.

She was adopted by New York students Cassidy Troy, 19, and her boyfriend, Zach Johnson, 20.

Mr Johnson said: 'Everyone thinks she is so cute and then when they spot her ear they usually say, 'Oh my gosh that is super cool'.'

Miss Troy added: 'When we tell people about her ear they don't tend to believe us until we actually show them.

'I have yet to meet a person that doesn't fall in love with her after meeting her.'

Seeing double: Lucy shows off her remarkable ear markings
France has rejected pleas from charities for a new welcome centre for up to 600 UK-bound migrants in Calais.

During an emergency visit to the French port, interior minister Gerard Collomb said the only solution to the growing build-up of asylum seekers was better security.

Eleven charity and human rights groups appeared before the Administrative Court of Appeal in Lille on Wednesday, and called for the construction of a new centre.

Interior minister Gerard Collomb said the only solution to the growing build-up of asylum seekers was better security. Pictured: The now-torn down Calais jungle camp

Aid agencies say about 400 to 600 migrants are gathered and sleeping rough on the streets.

But the minister said he is suspicious of centres that take people 'for a few days', then become permanent.

He added: 'If we create a centre here, it will quickly be overwhelmed and we will not be able to cope with this situation.

'The precedents of Sangatte and Jungle camp show what happens.'

He was referring to the Red Cross centre in Sangatte, which became a magnet for migrants before being closed in 2002, and the 'Jungle' refugee camp, which was razed last October.
High Court ruled Abdi Yusuf was eligible for damages for being detained unlawfully

A Somalian thug has made a mockery of deportation procedures by winning a compensation battle  and then continuing his one-man crimewave.

Weeks after the High Court ruled Abdi Yusuf was eligible for damages for being detained unlawfully pending deportation, the 41-year-old created more trouble.

He was convicted of assaulting a defenceless woman in the street and has been jailed for six months. Yusuf had been detained after completing a previous jail term because he was considered at high risk of absconding and offending again.

But after securing his release from an immigration removal centre and launching a court bid for compensation, he went on to commit a further violent offence. His latest jail term is likely to hold up his deportation until at least next year.

The case raises further questions about the system for kicking out foreign criminals.

At huge expense to the taxpayer, Yusuf has been fighting to stay in the UK since completing a four-year jail sentence for assault in 2012. Sources believe the state is facing a six-figure bill for compensation, court, legal and detention costs.

Yusuf came to London legally in 1989 sponsored by an aunt, Maryan Hassan. In 1992, when he was 17, he was granted indefinite leave to remain in Britain.

But he embarked on a criminal path, amassing ten convictions for 20 offences and has served prison sentences for actual and grievous bodily harm.

The jail terms served as an automatic trigger for him to be deported back to Somaliland, an independent state in Somalia.

Yusuf had been detained after completing a previous jail term because he was considered at high risk of absconding and offending again. Pictured: The flats where Yusuf lives

At the High Court last month, a judge ruled that much of the time he was in custody awaiting deportation was justified. However, he held that due to a legal technicality the final six months he spent in detention were unlawful.

The compensation ruling came a few weeks before Yusuf was due before Stratford Magistrates in east London to stand trial for assault by beating a woman. He failed to attend the hearing and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

The trial went ahead without him and the court heard how Yusuf and his co-accused, Cali Bashir, 48, of Clapton in east London, had subjected the victim to an appalling ordeal.

On a 999 recording, a female university student pleaded with the call handler: Two men are hitting her. She said they had started undressing her and pushed her against the railings.

She added: She has got blood on her and one of the men is saying he is going to knock her out. They are saying they are going to kill her. In his absence, Yusuf was found guilty of one count of assault by beating. By chance he was arrested over a separate matter a few days later and hauled before court.

The judge described the recording as the most distressing 999 call I have heard in some time.

Scotland Yard said Yusuf was sentenced to six months in prison on June 12. His younger brother, who asked not to be named, told the Mail that Yusuf was an alcoholic who was the nicest person you could meet when sober.

Speaking at his home in north London, he added: My brother is not an economic migrant. He came here because people were being murdered because of ethnic cleansing in Somalia.

Before he became ill through alcoholism, he was a chef and he is a big Arsenal fan.

Yusufs co-accused  from Somalia  admitted two counts of assault. He was bailed to reappear for sentencing on June 29.

Asked about the case last night, a Home Office spokesman said: Foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes in the UK should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them. We have removed more than 37,000 foreign offenders since 2010.
The Australian Federal Police has charged two Melbourne men with slavery and possession of child exploitation material offences.

The charges come after the AFP had issued a search warrant and raided a Melbourne home on June 19.

Following the raid, a 33-year-old man and a 31-year-old man were both charged with possession of child exploitation material.

Two Melbourne men have been charged with slavery and child exploitation material on Friday

Both had appeared in court on Friday.

While at court, the 33-year-old offender was further charged with facilitating the entry of another person into Australia and deceiving that person with regard to their exploitation in Australia.

Both men are now out on bail.

They will appear next at Melbourne Magistrates Court on October 12.
A meth trafficker paid a corrupt prison guard $3,000 to smuggle several items including a mobile phone into a high-security Perth prison from his visiting drug-dealing girlfriend.

Todd Marshall was serving a 10-year jail sentence at Casuarina Prison when in January 2016 he convinced guard Scott Berridge to sneak a Blackberry mobile phone, a phone charger and a bottle of vodka into the facility following a visit from Marshall's girlfriend, Alicia Robertson.

Robertson had been told to bring the items during her visit to the prison early last year and was to wear a red top so Berridge would recognise her, Perth Magistrates Court was told.

Alicia Robertson (left) helped partner Todd Marshall (right) managed to convince a corrupt prison guardto smuggle several items into a high-risk Perth prison in January last year

Berridge (pictured) was manipulated in a 'grooming' situation that led to a cash-for-contraband agreement that lasted over a year with some of the prison's most notorious inmates including senior gang members and drug lords

Berridge, 32, had been waiting for Robertson at the prison and took the items as well as the $3,000 agreed bribe, The West Australian reports.

Robertson, 31, had also been under police surveillance with suspected drug dealing from her home prior to the incident.

The court was told that several prisoners, including Marshall had 'targeted' Berridge over several months and it was the meth dealer who managed to convince the guard to illegally transport the goods into the maximum-security unit.

The undercover deal was exposed by authorities and Robertson was subsequently arrested and charged while Berridge was monitored under surveillance before eventually being arrested.

Berridge quit his role at the prison following the exposed deal and pleaded guilty to charges of corruption and is due to be sentenced in September.

Robertson was jailed for an additional four months this week for her involvment, adding to her four and a half year sentence she received last week for dealing a range of drugs including ice.

Police have claimed that Berridge was manipulated in a 'grooming' situation that led to a cash-for-contraband arrangement that lasted over a year with some of the prison's most notorious inmates, including drug lords and senior gang members.

In the lastest revelations, Marshall has been confirmed as one of those prisoners who negotiated withe guard, who was serving a previous sentence for a plan to sell large quantities of MDMA in Karratha.

The three offenders managed to organise the smuggle into maximum security facility, Casuarina Prison in Perth yet were later foiled by authorities
North Korean guides looking after Otto Warmbier's tour group freaked out when a British tourist went missing after getting separated on New Year's Eve - and everyone else was too drunk to realize the seriousness of the situation.

The claims were made by an American traveling with the group who spoke out about the ordeal in an interview with Politico following the shocking death of 22-year-old Otto earlier this week.

The person, who hasn't been identified, said the group was celebrating New Year's Eve in Kim Il-sung Square when British tourist Danny Gratton got separated from the rest of them.

Gratton was waving a balloon around in the square when a 'bunch of North Koreans start following him'. The American tourist said he joined Gratton as they walked around the area for 30 minutes engaging with the locals.

North Korean guides looking after Otto Warmbier's (pictured center in blue shirt) tour group freaked out when a British tourist went missing after getting separated on New Year's Eve. Members of the tour group are pictured above with Otto

Otto was unceremoniously arrested at Pyongyang Airport in January 2016. He was sentenced to 15 years hard labour in March 2016 (above)

The American said he opted to return to the rest of the tour group, but Gratton kept walking and ultimately got lost in a dark street.

'The North Korean guides were panicked. They were so scared, asking us, "Have you seen him, have you seen him?" and we, including the Western guides, were too drunk to realize the seriousness of the situation,' one tour group member told Politico.

The tour group waited in the square for several hours before being allowed to return to their hotel. Gratton eventually made it back in the early hours after taking a number of taxis and the American says he saw him walk back in.

The British man's brief disappearance occurred around the same time Otto supposedly stole the propaganda poster from the hotel where they were staying.

Gratton, who is in his mid-40s, was Otto's roommate at the hotel and was with him when he was unceremoniously arrested at Pyongyang Airport in January 2016.

He told The Washington Post on Monday that two guards tapped him on the shoulder and marched him away without explanation.

'No words were spoken. Two guards just come over and simply tapped Otto on the shoulder and led him away. I just said kind of quite nervously, 'Well, that's the last we'll see of you.' There's a great irony in those words,' he said.

Otto is pictured here with members of his tour group in North Korea in the days before he was detained in January 2016

Otto threw snowballs with his fellow tour group members during their trip, which was organized by Young Pioneer Tours

Otto returned to Cincinnati in a coma last week on a private medical plane. He died at a hospital on Monday after suffering severe brain damage

Otto was sentenced to 15 years hard labour in North Korea for allegedly stealing the poster. North Korean officials claim the day after he was sentenced in March 2016, Otto contracted botulism - a form of food poisoning - and that this is what caused his medical decline.

The University of Virginia student was held for more than 17 months before he was medically evacuated back to the US last week in a coma.

Otto died at a hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio on Monday after suffering severe brain damage.

Young Pioneer Tours, the tour group which organized Otto's trip, faced a barrage of criticism after the young man was detained in North Korea. It suddenly announced it would stop taking Americans to the country after Otto's death on Monday.

Otto's father said the tour group had 'lured' him there with a fantasy description of a boozy but safe holiday.

'He was trying to leave the country and he was taken hostage. They advertise it as the safest tour ever. But they provide fodder for the North Koreans. They took him hostage. And the outcome is self-evident,' Fred Warmbier said.

The group, which was founded by British expatriate Gareth Johnson, said it was denied any opportunity to meet with Otto after his detention, and that the way it was handled was 'appalling.'

'There has still been almost no information disclosed about his period in detention,' the company said in its Facebook statement this week.

'Considering these facts and this tragic outcome we will no longer be organizing tours for US citizens to North Korea.'

Young Pioneer Tours, which was founded by British expatriate Gareth Johnson (above in one of his many Instagram photos), faced a barrage of criticism after Otto was detained

The casket of Otto Warmbier is carried to the hearse followed by his family and friends after his funeral service on Thursday in Ohio

Otto was sentenced to 15 years hard labour in North Korea for allegedly stealing the poster

Johnson, who appears to be a hard-partying adventurer according to his Instagram posts, told Reuters last year that he stayed behind to try and help Otto after he was detained.

But Instagram posts from around that time show Johnson smiling with a North Korean guard and cradling a clear bottle of liquor.

One customer who traveled to North Korea in 2013 with the tour company said Johnson was so drunk on the trip that he almost got his entire group detained as they were returning to China via train.

'Gareth was pretty much blind drunk the whole time we were in the country,' Adam Pitt told Consumer Affairs.

North Korea has since denied torturing Otto in the first official reaction since the US student died after returning home in a coma.

The hermit state broke its silence after South Korea said the North bore responsibility for Warmbier's fate and President Donald Trump slammed his detention and death as 'a total disgrace'.

Its official news agency, KCNA, quoted a government source as saying: 'Our relevant agencies treat all criminals in accordance with domestic laws and international standards and Warmbier was not an exception.'

It blamed accusations of mistreatment on an American 'smear campaign' and accused South Korean of seeking to exploit Warmbier's death to press its own demand for the release of six detainees.
Teaching transgender lifestyles confuses primary school pupils, an education expert has said.

Joanna Williams said the small number of transgender children in schools did not justify the time, effort and money spent creating teaching materials on the issue.

She also warned that while schools should support pupils who are transgender, some teachers are going much further in encouraging all pupils to question whether they are a boy or girl. This may create confusion for a child who may not have previously considered the issue.

Joanna Williams said the small number of transgender children in schools did not justify the time, effort and money spent creating teaching materials on the issue

In some cases transgender education has become a political goal which seeks to override parents views, she believes.

Dr Williams delivered a lecture on transgender issues in schools at the Festival of Education at Wellington College in Berkshire yesterday. It comes ahead of her forthcoming book, Women Versus Feminism, examining problems within gender politics.

In her lecture, she pointed out that research suggests only 1 per cent of the population experience gender issues, but despite this the topic has received huge attention in schools.

She said: We are increasingly reminded that schools are struggling financially. Yet the time, effort and money that goes into producing and monitoring transgender policies is out of all proportion to the tiny number of trans children currently in British schools. Earlier this year it was revealed more than 120 schools have adopted a gender-neutral uniform policy, meaning both boys and girls can wear skirts or trousers.

In April, the National Union of Teachers voted in favour of teaching children aged two to four about transgender lifestyles in nursery to reduce hate crime.

Schools have a duty to protect children who may be trans, but some schools are going further by raising awareness with special sessions.

Charities run workshops for primary schools on trans awareness and other gender and sexuality issues.

Dr Williams said: Children might start school knowing the difference between boys and girls  but they are quickly encouraged to unlearn this knowledge. She pointed to one childrens book on transgender issues recommended for teachers to read with very young pupils, called Dogs Dont Do Ballet.

Suggested questions to put to pupils are: What does Dad mean when he says that dogs dont do ballet? Why does he think that?

For example, could it just be that he hasnt met a ballet-dancing dog before  or perhaps because he has some stereotypical ideas about what dogs do  and what they dont?

Dr Williams said: When we cut through the metaphors, the challenge not just to stereotypical gender roles but to the attitudes of parents is clear. However politically well intentioned teachers may be, criticising the views and values of home vastly alters the remit of the school away from education and towards the promotion of a distinct political outlook. The role of the teacher becomes policing the values, thoughts and language of children to bring them in line with one particular ideological position.
A white NYPD sergeant claims he faces constant scrutiny for not going along with the harassment of a fellow black officer, who was called a 'troublemaker' by other cops.

In a lawsuit filed in December, Sgt Valentin Khazin, 32, claimed that he was subjected to 'unfair discipline and unfavorable assignments' after he refused to discriminate against Officer Dana Harge, who is black.

Khazin also alleged that he was given 'less training, overtime and specific guidelines not imposed on other officers'.

He says his overtime has been slashed, but during holidays he was given extra work to keep him away from his family.

White NYPD Sgt Valentin Khazin (left), 32, claims he faces constant scrutiny for not going along with the harassment of fellow black Officer Dana Harge (right), who was called a 'troublemaker' by other cops

The lawsuit says in June 2016, Khazin was transferred from Highway Patrol to the 9th Precinct as part of the retaliation.

'I didn't do anything wrong,' Khazin, told the New York Daily News.

Khazin, who is a nine-year veteran of the NYPD, said Harge was doing his job, but when the sergeant let it be known that he felt superiors had it out for Harge because of his discrimination complaints, Khazin said he 'signed my own death warrant'.

Harge also has his own pending Manhattan federal suit alleging racial discrimination in the Highway Patrol unit.

According to the Daily News, Khazin was kept on duty for nearly 24 hours because there allegedly weren't others to help out.

Eric Sanders, Khazin's lawyer, told the newspaper that what happened to his client is an example of what happens to people who don't go along to get along.

Khazin (pictured) joined the Highway Patrol in 2015. He said as soon as he got there, his superiors told him to keep an eye on Harge, who was called a 'troublemaker' who 'sexually harasses women'

Khazin says Highway Patrol superiors imposed 'performance goals or quotas' of 70 summonses per officer for two platoons and 50 summonses per officer in another platoon.

According to the suit, Khazin was ordered in January to lower the performance rating of another black officer because she filed a discrimination complaint against a sergeant.

Khazin joined the Highway Patrol in 2015. He told the Daily News that as soon as he got there, his superiors told him to keep an eye on Harge, who was called a 'troublemaker' who 'sexually harasses women'.

But Khazin said Harge did his job 'as well as anyone else'.

The harsh treatment toward Khazin reportedly started when he approved a day off for Harge to be at his child's first Little League game.

'They started really coming down on me,' Khazin said.

A spokesman for the Law Department said they are investigating the allegations.
A young woman is speaking quietly on camera. Its hard to tell what she looks like because we never see the whole of her face, just fragments: her lips, her eyes, her fingers as they hold a cigarette.

The lens zooms in close, so close you can see the pores on her skin, the flecks of mascara on her eyelashes, the tiny red veins in her eyes. Its unsettling, both uncomfortably intimate yet at one remove from the viewer.

Her voice has a soft Pennines burr, the sort that brings to mind wet hillsides and steaming cups of strong brown tea.

She is describing something that happened to her when she was 14, the same age as my own daughter now.

I was with these men, she says, there was a lock on the door. I was drunk and vomiting over the side of the bed. They were laughing. One of them had a razor blade. He kept coming up to me, holding it up to my throat, telling me he was going to slit my throat.

Weve seen the story of Rochdale told very recently in the three-part drama Three Girls, pictured. This is a far more raw affair, featuring the real Rowbotham and Oliver as well as others

Her eyes flicker from side to side, emotion pooling at the corners. She describes what happened next. One of them pulled my trousers down. I was in the middle of being sick.

She pauses. He inserted himself while the guy with the razor has the blade up to my throat. The other guy said to the guy with the razor blade Just hold it there, and he kept trying to put himself in my mouth. The whole time the guy at the bottom of the bed was raping me. I thought I was going to get my throat slit.

This shocking testimony is just one of many unbearable moments in a documentary almost too painful to watch.

The Betrayed Girls, which goes out on BBC One on July 3, offers not only a truly stark account of the level of abuse suffered by under-age girls at the hands of ruthless gangs of older men; it also faces down the most complex and politically sensitive factor in the case: the fact the girls were all white and the men all Asian, all but one from Pakistan.

The above was just one of the testimonies that helped secure the 2012 convictions of Shabir Ahmed (known as Daddy) and eight accomplices, many of them taxi drivers, for the systematic sexual abuse of vulnerable underage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

Between them, they received a total of 77 years in prison  although only Ahmed, 64, who was sentenced to 22 years, and Mohammed Sajid, 40, who was jailed for 12, remain behind bars. Incredibly, four of them are engaged in taxpayer-funded attempts to resist repatriation to Pakistan.

But that, scandalous as it may seem, is not the story here. Because what this documentary exposes, in unflinching detail, are the levels of cultural division that exist in Rochdale and similar towns  and how ingrained prejudices and attitudes combined with the systematic failure of social services, the police and prosecutors have led to the destruction of young girls lives.

Of course, weve seen their story told very recently, in the three-part drama Three Girls, in which Maxine Peake played sexual health councillor Sara Rowbotham and Lesley Sharp was DC Maggie Oliver, both of whom were instrumental in putting together the case against the men. A standout drama though it was, it was still a fictionalised account.

This is a far more raw affair, featuring the real Rowbotham and Oliver as well as others  including journalist Andrew Norfolk, former Labour MP Ann Cryer, the father of one of the girls and Nazir Afzal, Chief Prosecutor for the North-West of England between 2011-15.

Without their bravery in standing up to both a liberal-minded media desperate to portray all members of immigrant communities as incapable of doing wrong and a fiercely protective Pakistani culture, these men would never have been exposed.

What I hadnt realised until I watched this documentary is that the existence of Asian grooming gangs targeting white girls, many  not all  from vulnerable backgrounds, had long been known about by the authorities in Greater Manchester, as far back as 1989.

But the first concrete evidence appears to have emerged more than a decade later, in 2003, following the death from a drugs overdose of a 15-year-old called Victoria Agoglia.

What this documentary exposes, in unflinching detail, are the levels of cultural division that exist in Rochdale, pictured, and similar towns (stock photo)

Victoria, described as troubled but funny, bright and engaging, had left behind a letter, written when she was just 13, confessing to having been abused by so many older men she couldnt even remember how many she had slept with. All were Asian.

DC Oliver was asked to look into the issue. But with community relations high on the agenda and a sense that drawing attention to the cultural nature of the abuse would be unnecessarily inflammatory, it was nigh on impossible for her findings to gain any traction.

What is abundantly clear is that when it came to addressing the reality versus the fantasy of multicultural Britain, too many were both too naive and too politically correct.

Its a notion Andrew Norfolk, the journalist who led The Times investigation into the affair and who confesses to having had serious misgivings about exposing the abuse, articulates very clearly. When he heard the stories about what was going on, he initially took the decision not to investigate, fearing the racial aspects would be incendiary.

I allowed my liberal fear about giving succour to the BNP to act as a brake on doing my job, he says.

In 2010, when a separate prosecution of Asian men targeting under-age girls came to light, he had no qualms about re-opening his investigation. His piece ran on the front page of The Times and instigated two public inquiries.

There are three key questions here. The first is why these men, trusted members of otherwise law-abiding communities, targeted white girls.

The second, why the girls were such easy pickings? And the third is why the authorities were so reluctant to bring prosecutions, despite the weight of evidence against them?

It is imperative to say that Ahmed and his associates were sexual predators. Such individuals exist in all societies.

Their behaviour is no reflection on the behaviour of the wider Asian community in Britain; indeed, it was a British Muslim, Nazir Afzal, who so assiduously pursued these men through the courts.

But the fact that they originated from rural Pakistan  a place where the Taliban have long held sway and where the treatment of women is often medieval and where notions of sexual equality are rare  cannot be discounted.

In 2012, Shabir Ahmed (known as Daddy) and eight accomplices, many of them taxi drivers, were convicted for the systematic sexual abuse of vulnerable underage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester

Nor, sadly, can the mens religion, Islam, which suffers not only from wilful misinterpretation by those who see themselves as duty bound to carry out a bloody jihad against all non-believers, but is also frequently misconstrued in its approach to women and, in particular, Western women.

The foul notion that non-Muslim women are impure, promiscuous and therefore unworthy of respect, finds its expression all too often in the behaviour of Islamist terrorist organisations such as ISIS and Boko Haram.

The idea that they somehow deserve to be punished seems to be a recurring theme wherever Islamist terrorism is involved.

Just remember the words of Jawad Akbar, who trained with ISIS in Pakistan and who, in 2007, was convicted of conspiring to blow up a London nightclub.

In secret recordings made by MI5, he was heard telling his friends no one could turn round and say oh they were innocent, those slags dancing around.

There was something also about that attitude in the recent attack on the Manchester Arena, where thousands of girls the same age as the ones who were so cruelly abused in Rochdale had gathered for an Ariana Grande concert.

Killed for daring to express themselves, for failing to demonstrate sufficient levels of piousness, humility and subservience.

During the Rochdale trial the gangs leader, Ahmed, claimed the girls were prostitutes, and accused the whole trial of being white lies. The notion of white girls as easy meat, as Jack Straw put it so controversially, runs all the way through this case.

But while all these are difficult questions the British Pakistanis and the wider British Muslim community at large must face, it would be wrong if other questions were not asked, too.

Tough questions, such as why are vulnerable 12 and 13-year-olds allowed out on the streets at night? Why is there such an open culture of under-age drinking and drug-taking among such girls? Why are they allowed to run wild when they dont have the maturity even to begin to comprehend the dangers to which they are exposing themselves?

The answer is also, in part, the answer to my third question, of why it took the authorities so long to wake up to what was going on in front of their very noses.

Political correctness. The kind of political correctness that does not question a 13-year-old when she asks for an abortion; that does not address the wider causes of drug-taking and drinking for fear of pushing the victims away; that takes such a non-judgmental, non-interventionist approach to the work of social workers that they may as well not bother.

If we as a society dont have the moral courage to address these issues, if we dont offer our young people the guidance and protection they need as minors, is it any wonder that uneducated men from more socially archaic parts of the world think its acceptable to abuse them?

That is not to justify what these men did, or to excuse it in any way. It is simply to say that this is a problem that does not have its origins only in the villages of rural Pakistan, but in decades of progressive liberalism  espoused and promoted right here in Britain  that has slowly but surely undermined our own core moral values.

A liberalism that silences all dissent by smearing critics as racists and bigots and pursues its politically correct agenda relentlessly through our schools and other public institutions.

Britain is not, on the whole, a racist country. For most people, particularly my generation who grew up in the Seventies and Eighties, there is almost no greater crime than discriminating against someone for their colour or culture.

As young people, we were every bit as passionate about civil rights then as todays students are now.

We drank at university bars named after the heroes of the civil rights movement  South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, Jamaican-born black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey  and danced to The Specials Free Nelson Mandela.

From our privileged perspective as educated, white, middle-class kids, we embraced the idea of a rainbow nation. But having never experienced racial discrimination ourselves we did not, perhaps, fully understand the complex reality we faced.

We assumed that all we had to do was open our hearts and homes to other cultures, to understand different traditions, to extend the hand of generosity to other nations  and all would be well.

A multicultural Utopia would emerge that would erase the oppression of the past, wipe out the sins of slavery and lead us into the light.

It was a genuine sentiment, but it was a naive one. Because in our haste to signal such virtuous intentions, we overlooked one fundamental thing: there is bad in all societies, regardless of culture, religion or ethnicity.

Evil doesnt distinguish between black and white. It can exist in the most outwardly well-intentioned of settings, from Catholic care homes to BBC TV studios, which played host to Jimmy Savile.

And while immigrant communities have every right to be made welcome here, every right to live as equals, to enjoy all the opportunities this country has to offer, they do not have the right to do wrong. Just being a minority does not make you inherently good.

There have been at least 14 major trials involving abuse by Asian men of young white girls: in Rotherham, Oxford, Derby, Leeds, Aylesbury, Telford, Banbury, Middlesbrough, Dewsbury, Carlisle, Burnley and Blackpool. And there are many more ongoing.

Up and down the country, similar prosecutions are being pursued. Between 2013 and 2016 the number of child sexual exploitation offences in Greater Manchester increased fivefold. Some 1,732 youngsters are currently identified as victims of exploitation or at risk of grooming  almost treble the 2015 figure.

An ongoing inquiry in Rotherham  which is expected to run until 2018  has already identified 300 predominantly Asian suspects.

Years ago, after the killing of Stephen Lawrence and the subsequent botched investigation into his death, the Metropolitan Police  following a courageous campaign by this newspaper  was forced finally to admit a charge of institutionalised racism.

Not all Met officers were bad, of course, but enough were, and something had to be done about it. There is a similar case for self-examination to be made among some Asian Pakistani communities in Britain, for as the philosopher Edmund Burke said: All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Inspirational leaders, such as chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal and Mohammed Shafiq of the Manchester-based Ramadhan Foundation  which aims to help young Muslims and foster inter-faith dialogue  who also appears in this documentary, must encourage the vast majority who are good, law-abiding people to work together to put an end to the depravity of a small minority.

They must encourage those in their communities who cling to outdated cultural notions to fundamentally alter their attitudes to British society and our long-held and cherished liberal values.

Only then can we call ourselves a truly multicultural society. Only then can the prejudice  and suffering  end.
Not long ago I wrote that the danger President Trump faces from the various investigations into the Trump-Russia matter had changed dramatically in recent weeks. Now, in just the last few days, the situation has changed even more. In five ways:

1. The Mueller office: Investigative arm of the House

The Washington Post reported recently that special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the president for possible obstruction of justice. The possibility of Trump facing legal jeopardy raises the question that has been part of every big Washington scandal involving the White House: Can a sitting president be indicted? The generally agreed-upon answer is no; impeachment is the constitutional remedy when presidential misconduct rises above a certain level. That is what would happen with Trump, if it came to that.

So what is Mueller doing, as far as the president himself is concerned? The special counsel is known to be investigating a number of figures around Trump for possible charges not related to the 2016 election. Those figures could certainly be indicted if the evidence warrants. But as far as the investigation into alleged Trump obstruction is concerned, Mueller's work will end up not in an indictment, but in the House of Representatives. The House is constitutionally charged with originating articles of impeachment. But it does not have the investigative powers of the Justice Department and, if impeachment is on the table, will rely on the evidence Mueller gathers. Which makes Mueller's office, for the purposes of Donald Trump specifically, not a prosecutor's office but the investigative arm of the House.

2. Mueller's team of killers vs. Trump's amateurs?

Recently a Republican lawyer who supports the president and has experience in government emailed an article he had read about the team of prosecutors Mueller is assembling. "This ain't good," he headlined the email, which went on to discuss the legal stars Mueller has hired.

Contrast that, he said in a later conversation, to the Trump team, led by Trump personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz and including partner Michael Bowe and Washington legal veteran Jay Sekulow. "I look at this team and think this is a joke!" the lawyer said.

The reaction is not unusual. As far as experience in criminal prosecutions is concerned -- the kind of experience that specifically relates to the issues in the Trump-Russia case -- the Mueller team has a huge advantage over the Trump team. In that sense, the coming legal fight could be asymmetrical warfare.

3. Clinton-style attacks on the prosecutor?

Some Trump supporters, most notably Newt Gingrich, have begun to attack Mueller. Still, at this early date it's clear that, when it comes to attacking prosecutors, TrumpWorld has much to learn from the last president who found himself in deep legal and political trouble, Bill Clinton.

Clinton and his supporters made an art out of attacking federal prosecutors. The president's surrogates accused independent counsel Kenneth Starr and the prosecutors who worked for him of misconduct, of leaking, of bias, of all sorts of unprofessional behavior. Clinton's lead defense attorney, David Kendall -- the kind of deeply experienced Washington fighter Trump could use now -- took Starr to court over leaks, while the president's other surrogates slammed the prosecutors every day on television.

In other words, when things got serious, Clinton and his team went to the mattresses against federal law enforcement. And it worked. It is in no way clear that Trump could pull off the same thing -- Clinton had a much more favorable media environment, with some in the press happy to join in the attacks on Starr -- but a war on the prosecutor may be his only option.

4. An ever-expanding investigation

Just what Trump-related subjects is Mueller investigating? A better question right now might be what Mueller is not investigating. There has been talk of looking at allegations of money laundering in the Trump circle. And looking at the president's conversations with a wide variety of people -- not just members of his administration, but friends and whoever Trump might have talked to in his nighttime call sessions. And looking at Michael Flynn's business arrangements with Turkey, Russia and other places. And Paul Manafort's business and finances. And perhaps even the Holy Grail of NeverTrumpism: the president's tax returns. And, oh, the allegation that used to be at the core of the case, that Trump or his associates colluded with Russians to try to influence the 2016 election. The point is, Mueller can determine the scope of the investigation, and if Washington history is any guide, investigations tend to expand, not contract.

5. The Comey 'what if'

A key lesson emerged from the recent testimony of Attorney General Jeff Sessions before the Senate Intelligence Committee: Without the president's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, the Trump-Russia investigation would be on a downward trajectory. The collusion charge would be fading for lack of evidence. Investigators would be going down side roads involving Flynn and Manafort in which the public would have little interest. And congressional investigators might even devote most of their attention to the Russian interference itself, which is the serious issue at the bottom of this whole thing. The political radioactivity of the issue would be ticking down, not up.

But not after Comey. At the Sessions hearing, Democrats had nothing new on collusion. They barely seemed interested. Instead, they focused to a great extent on trying to get Sessions to reveal what the president did or did not say in private discussions -- about Comey. On the Democratic side of the hearing -- and much of the Republican side, as well -- the issue was Comey, Comey, Comey. In the end, it could be that the president's impatience to get rid of Comey in order to shorten an investigation that he believed to be going nowhere resulted in a new investigation that could last the rest of Trump's time in office.
Using solar power to compact rubbish as it is deposited and wi-fi to contact councils when they are full, smart bins are springing up all over the country.

But angry residents have condemned them as vile and unhygenic, and criticised local authorities for splashing out a total of more than 3.5million to install them.

First trialled in the UK six years ago, the BigBelly bins have solar panels on their lids, powering a compactor inside that crushes rubbish to an eighth of its size.

When they are ready for emptying, they send text and email alerts to councils  reducing the number of collections they have to do and saving money in the long term.

Using solar power to compact rubbish as it is deposited and wi-fi to contact councils when they are full, smart bins are springing up all over the country

But residents say the bins are not emptied often enough and are frequently overflowing.

There have also been complaints about the mechanism used to open the bins, with many saying the handles are usually too dirty to touch so they end up putting rubbish on top rather than inside.

Dozens of photos have been posted on social media showing the bins filled to overflowing.

After a Freedom of Information request, councils across the country revealed they have spent a total of 2.6million buying the BigBelly bins and at least 1.1million leasing them.

The US-built bins cost up to 5,500 each to buy, depending on individual deals.

Nottingham council is the biggest spender, paying 627,000 to lease 170 bins over five years, while Croydon in south London bought 80 for around 440,000.

Other big-spending councils include Brighton and Hove, which bought 105 bins for an estimated 577,500, Rugby, which bought 25 for 127,000, and York (28 for 126,000).

The US-built bins cost up to 5,500 each to buy, depending on individual deals

Cheshire West and Chester council, which has an annual leasing bill of 68,000 for the bins, has faced a savaging from angry residents.

One, Holly Sinclair, said: Having to touch the handle is vile and such an unnecessary thing when it could easily just be an opening.

Sam Jones added: Most of the time I have to just leave my rubbish on the top of the bin to avoid touching the handle.

Council official Maria Byrne said the bins had been in place since June 2015 and slashed the number of waste collections from 209,160 to 12,801 a year.

She added that the bins are inspected every day and cleaned regularly, both inside and out.

Nottingham City Council said bins are now emptied only once a day compared with six times with older models.

Councillor Sally Longford added: We dont have problems with over-filling. Touching the handles is no more of a hygiene issue than touching door handles or handling money.
Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi made the deadly device that killed 22 people using YouTube videos and instructions from the dark web, it has been revealed.

The 22-year-old university student is understood to have built the bomb himself before detonating it at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena last month.

Police originally believed that the sophisticated device had been made by a bombmaker connected with Abedi.

Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi made the deadly device that killed 22 people using YouTube videos and instructions from the dark web, it has been claimed

A source told The Times: 'There were initially concerns that a bombmaker was on the loose but he seems to have made it himself.

'He was a very disturbed young man. He went online and carried out a lot of research.'

According to the newspaper, similar tutorials on making bombs can still be watched on YouTube.

Abedi is also believed to have accessed material on the dark web as he taught himself how to construct the device.

The improvised explosive device was contained in a rucksack that Abedi carried on his back and was packed with a massive number of small metal objects.

Police originally believed that the sophisticated device had been made by a bombmaker connected with Abedi

When detonated they flew through the air at high velocity in all directions and appeared designed to kill and maim indiscriminately.

Abedis brother Hashim and father Ramadan have been detained in Libya.

Hashim reportedly told Libyan counter-terror forces he knew his brother was planning something and that his brother was radicalised while living in the UK two years before his deadly attack.

The bomber left the UK for Libya on April 15 and returned on May 18.

Police previously said they believed Abedi assembled the device by himself in the days before the attack but have said it is unclear whether he acted alone in obtaining materials for the bomb which officers believed were stored in a white Nissan Micra found parked in Rusholme.

It is believed that Abedi started building the detonator in a workshop at his familys address in Fallowfield in south Manchester.

He is understood to have finished off the device in a second flat.
Members of a Brooklyn-based punk band were rocking out during their show on the Lower East Side when two NYPD officers broke up their performance and 'tackled them to the ground'.

The band, Beechwood, posted the violent video to their Facebook page.

'We are bruised, teeth are chipped, instruments smashed, and facing serious charges. The cops had no reason to use such excessive force - bottom line is WE HAVE GUITARS, AND THEY HAVE GUNS,' the post read.

The rockers were performing at The Cast's Annual Downtown Showdown Festival and had proper permits for the performance.

Members of Brooklyn-based band, Beechwood, were rocking out during their punk rock show when two NYPD officers broke up their performance and 'tackled them to the ground'. One of the members, who was put in a police car, was dragged out by one of the officers (right)

The band member is believed to be Dorian Tineo, 24, who is the group's drummer. Tineo also goes by the name of Isa Flowers

According to the group, 'the cops showed up during our performance, immediately rushed the stage and brutally beat and arrested members of our band'.

Police told the New York Post that someone in the crowd tossed 'a full can' of beer at the cop car, endangering the officers.

Shortly after, a scuffle broke out, and one cop was seen in the video slamming the band's drummer, Dorian Tineo, 24, to the ground after pullling him out the window of their squad car. Tineo also goes by the name Isa Flowers.

A crowd of people were screaming that the officers were using 'excessive violence' as the cops yelled at them to 'back up!' Several people were quick to pull out their phones to record the incident.

Another officer could also be seen holding up a taser in the video as he detained another member of the band, 21-year-old Sidney Simons.

According to the band, Simons' teeth were chipped due to the 'excessive force'.

A crowd of people were screaming that the officers were using 'excessive violence' as the cops yelled at them to 'back up!' Several people were quick to pull out their phones to record the incident

Both men spent a night in central booking and were released following arraignments on Thursday, according to the group's 23-year-old guitarist Gordon Lawrence (left). Pictured are band members, Sidney Simons (right) and Dorian Tineo (center)

Both men spent a night in central booking and were released following arraignments on Thursday, the group's 23-year-old guitarist Gordon Lawrence told Gothamist.

In the furious Facebook post, the band identified the arresting officers as 'Officer Kearney and Officer Patti of the 7th Precinct'.

They also called on their followers and fans to 'file civilian complaints against these two officers for use of excessive force and police brutality'.

Members of the band, Beechwood, told the Bowery Boogie blog that their drummer was 'beaten and dragged through the crowd, handcuffed and placed into the police car'.

Cast owner Chuck Guarino told the blog: 'We had the proper permits. Taped to all the amps like we always do. In the years past, the cops would roll up to check to see if we have our permits, we show them, they say ok keep it cool, and they go on their way. It was an insane act of excessive force to say the least.'

But authorities said Tineo, who was arrested for reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, was tackled because he resisted arrest.

Simons was also charged with resisting arrest, obstructing government administration and disorderly conduct, police said.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has praised the work of intelligence agencies and police after revealing their efforts to prevent 12 terrorist attacks since 2014.

The Australian prime minister claimed the nation had the best security measures in the world thanks to 12 potential terrorist attacks foiled since September 2014.

Mr Turnbull went on to mention one significant attack planned in Melbourne over Christmas that never occurred because of the incredible intelligence and measures employed by the Federal Police.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the Australian authorities have foiled 12 terrorist attacks since September 2014

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said we have the best security agencies in the world

'We have the best law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies in the world. Since September 2014, they have disrupted 12 planned terrorist attacks,' Mr Turnbull said on Saturday during a Liberal party press conference.

'There is one that we should reflect upon.

'There was an attack that was being planned to let off an explosive device and take other murderous actions in the precinct of Federations Square and St Paul's Cathedral in the heart of Melbourne, just before Christmas.

'That would have been a mass casualty attack.'

The PM said Australian anti-terror police have foiled 12 potential terrorist attacks since September 2014

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the Australian police have stopped 12 potential terrorist attacks since September 2014
David Jones will soon open a string of small high-end convenience stores across the wealthier suburbs of Australia where many of their customers live.

In an $100 million investment across three years the 300 to 5000 square metre small-format shops will sell exclusive brands that aren't sold at regular supermarkets.

David Jones food group executive Pieter de Wet said the shops would be a first for the Australian market.

David Jones unveils plans to open string of classy convenience stores with 'exclusive, premium brands' in affluent suburbs to target its wealthy customers

The small-format shops will open across the wealthier suburbs of Australia starting with their first store in Bondi Junction

'We are targeting exactly the same customer who shops at David Jones for their clothes: the top end of the market,' Mr de Wet told News.com.au.

'The stand-alone stores will have a very small footprint in suburban locations and be dominated by fresh. That's what our customers want  and if we want to offer them fresh food, we can't expect them to go into the CBD every time. We need to be a bit more convenient.'

Eventually 70% of product in the food halls will be the 'David Jones Food' brand.

The chain will sell the premium food brand which derives from the philosophies of quality, freshness, flavour and innovation.

Launching in Bondi Junction Westfield on August 3 followed by a food market in the Wollongong store before the Bourke Street Mall store opening in Melbourne.

Upgrades have been made to the Marrket Street store, Sydney which include a new and enlarged food hall that is a part of the $200 million refurbishment of the David Jones Elizabeth Street flagship store which will be completed in 2019.

Launching in Bondi Junction Westfield on August 3 followed by a food market in the Wollongong store before the Bourke Street Mall store opening in Melbourne

Store chief executive John Dixon (pictured left with Chef Neil Perry) told the Sydney Morning Herald introducing the food is one of the biggest challenges the business has faced

The food leadership team with over 100 years of international food experience will be helped by a team of more than 50 food buyers, developers and technologists.

David Jones is currently assessing further locations for David Jones Food in existing stores and for stand alone food stores.

Store chief executive John Dixon told the Sydney Morning Herald introducing the food is one of the biggest challenges the business has faced.

'Customers want an experience when they shop and food plays a very important function in driving shoppers to the store,' Mr Dixon said.

'We will be offering more private label David Jones products, as well as sourcing the best quality Australian food.'

David Jones has taken on renowned chef Neil Perry to collaborate on the menu, which will include beef from Tasmania and wine from Canberra.
A college student may have been driven to suicide after she was turned on by police when she accused a powerful man of rape.

University of Alabama honors student Megan Rondini, 20, reported in July 2015 that she was sexually assaulted after a night of drinking.

The man whom she only knew as 'Sweet T' turned out to be business man TJ Bunn, 34, the son of an influential Tuscaloosa family.

In an explosive account published by Buzzfeed News, Megan's family reveals how she never imagined she'd been viewed as a criminal and that investigators would find Bunn to be the true victim.

Megan Rondini, 20 (pictured), may have been driven to commit suicide after she accused TJ Bunn, 34, the son of a wealthy Tuscaloosa family, of rape in July 2015. She hanged herself on February 26, 2016

Megan (pictured) told investigators that on July 1 she went to Innisfree Irish Pub for trivia night with a group of sorority sisters. She blacked out and woke up in Bunn's Mercedes. Megan said she was so intimidated by Bunn that she didn't try to stop him as he drove toward his house

Under Alabama's rape law, victims must prove they 'earnestly' resisted their attackers, and the investigator who interviewed Megan, Adam Jones, decided that she hadn't done so against Bunn (Pictured, ST Bunn Construction Company offices)

Megan told investigators that on July 1 she went to Innisfree Irish Pub for trivia night with a group of sorority sisters. She saw Bunn there and had seen him before but they only had spoken once.

She blacked out and came to in Bunn's Mercedes.

Megan said she was so intimidated by Bunn that she didn't try to stop him as he drove toward his house.

She then said Bunn told her to go to his room and she complied, sitting on a couch near the door, as far as possible from his bed and - when he came in - he told her he wanted to have sex.

That's when Megan said she had to leave, while 'trying to be really nice to him' because 'I know he's an influential person in Tuscaloosa'.

'I said, I really need to go, I have friends that are waiting,' she told police when they first interviewed her at the hospital. 'He didn't really take that.'

Eventually, Megan said, she 'felt like just letting him have sex with me was the only way he would let me go'.

According to investigators, Megan was able to escape his mansion by climbing out of the second story window.

When she realized she couldn't find her keys, she checked Bunns Mercedes, where she found his wallet and a pistol, which she took for protection despite not knowing how to fire it.

Under Alabama's rape law, victims must prove they 'earnestly' resisted their attackers, and the investigator who interviewed Megan, Adam Jones, decided that she hadn't done so against Bunn.

According to him, she hadn't 'kicked him or hit him,' so the investigator would conclude that no rape occurred.

When she told him about going into Bunn's car, video shows Jones entering and exiting the room, asking Megan questions that were about her behavior the previous night instead of her rape allegations.

When Bunn was interviewed, he called Megan 'a very willing participant.'

When his interviewer left the room for a moment, Bunn told his lawyer in a whisper that he'd drop the charges against Megan if she dropped hers.

'I won't pursue her if she doesn't pursue me, but I will play hardball if she does,' he's seen saying on video.

Under Alabama's rape law, victims must prove they 'earnestly' resisted their attackers, and the investigator who interviewed Megan (pictured in August 2014) decided that she hadn't done so against Bunn

Ultimately, Megan and her family decided it was no longer safe for her to stay in Tuscaloosa. She withdrew from the Univeristy of Alabama (pictured) before the end of fall semester. 'She did everything that she could to protect herself and to get help,' Megan's father, Mike Rondini, told Buzzfeed News

Megan ended up transferring to Southern Methodist University in Texas. While there, she filled out an intake form for SMU's mental health center and, for one question, which asked if there had been major losses, changes, or crises in her life, Megan wrote: 'Raped, bullied by police, changed university' (Pictured, the Bunn family home)

Later, when Megan tried to file a civil suit, she learned the only way to escape possible prosecution for those crimes was to drop her case.

The district attorney's office eventually decided to present it to a grand jury - but the grand jury would also rule on felony charges against Megan for breaking into Bunn's car and stealing his gun.

When Megan went to the University of Alabama for counseling, a staff therapist told her that she had to recuse herself from the case because she knew the Bunn family.

Ultimately, Megan and her family decided it was no longer safe for her to stay in Tuscaloosa and she withdrew from the university before the end of fall semester.

'She did everything that she could to protect herself and to get help,' Megan's father, Mike Rondini, told Buzzfeed News. 'She should have gotten that help, and she didn't. That is a failure on everybody's part.'

Megan left Tuscaloosa newly-diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and her depression seemed to only worsen.

On February 2016, Megan sent a text to a friend that read: 'When all is said and done, I wonder what I could've accomplished if one man didn't completely rip everything away from me.'

Megan ended up transferring to Southern Methodist University in Texas, a school she hated because she missed her old friends, her sorority, her old life.

She filled out an intake form for SMU's mental health center, in which she wrote that she thought she would be 'better off dead' more than half the time.

One question asked if there had been major losses, changes, or crises in her life. Megan wrote: 'Raped, bullied by police, changed university.'

She never turned it in and hanged herself on February 26.

Megan never wrote a suicide note, but the intake forms were found next to her bed.
Rescuers scoured through rocks on Saturday in a frantic search for more than 140 people feared buried after a landslide smashed through a mountain village in southwestern China.

A couple and a baby were rescued and taken to hospital after more than 40 homes in the village of Xinmo, in Maoxian County of China's Sichuan Province, were swallowed by huge boulders when the side of a mountain collapsed.

At least 141 people and 46 homes were buried, according to Chinese media.

The landslide blocked a 1.24 mile section of a river.

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Rescuers scoured through rocks on Saturday in a frantic search for more than 140 people feared buried after a landslide smashed through a mountain village in southwestern China

More than 400 rescuers used ropes to move a massive rock while dozens of others searched the rubble for survivors, according to videos posted by the Maoxian government on its Weibo social media account.

Bulldozers and heavy diggers were also deployed to remove boulders, the images showed. Medics were seen treating a woman on a road.

More than 40 homes in the village of Xinmo, in Maoxian County of China's Sichuan Province, were swallowed by huge boulders when the side of a mountain collapsed

Wang Yongbo, one of the local officials in charge of rescue efforts, said the vital signs one of the survivors 'are weak'.

'It's the biggest landslide in this area since the Wenchuan earthquake,' he said, referring to the disaster that killed 87,000 people in 2008 in a town in Sichuan.

Local police captain Chen Tiebo said the heavy rains that hit the region in recent days had triggered the landslide.

More than 100 people have been buried alive by a landslide that crashed into 40 homes in southwestern China on Saturday morning

Medics were seen treating a woman on a road. Bulldozers and heavy diggers were deployed to remove boulders

'There are several tonnes of rock,' he told the state broadcaster CCTV.

'It's a seismic area here. There's not a lot of vegetation,' Chen said.

Trees can help absorb excess rain and prevent landslides.

Homes in the village of Xinmo, in Maoxian County of China's Sichuan Province, were crushed when part of a mountain fell at about 6am on Saturday

An emergency response 'to the first class catastrophic geological disaster' is under way, the local government's statement said, adding that the full extent of the landslide was at yet unclear.

A report from the state news agency Xinhua said that the landslide came from a high part of a mountain in the Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba had collapsed.

The landslide struck the village at around 0600 am local time (2200 GMT).

President Xi Jinping called for rescuers to 'spare no effort' in their search for survivors, according to CCTV.

More than 400 rescuers, including police, are involved in the search and rescue efforts
Three people have died while two foreigners have been taken to the hospital following after a horror crash at Bruce Highway on Saturday morning.

The fatal crash was caused by a head-on collision between a semi-trailer and minibus travelling at El Arish, 125 kilometres south of Cairns, at 2.30 am.

The minibus driver and two of the passengers died at the scene while the truck driver escaped without any injuries.

Three people lost their lives in a horror crash at Bruce Highway in the wee hours of Saturday

The two foreign nationals aged 24 and 35-years-old were taken to Innisfail Hospital and are currently being treated for serious neck and back injuries, reports Brisbane Times.

Queensland police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that they would not be releasing the names of the deceased as they were still trying to contact their next of kin.

Following the crash, Bruce Highway was close for five hours with a section of the reopening just after 7.30 am.
Council workers in dump trucks backed by police officers have evicted dozens of homeless people from their illegal Martin Place encampment this morning.

A representative of the City of Sydney handed out a letter during the eviction, informing the inhabitants of the street shelter that it was a 'public nuisance.'

The camp, which included a 24-hour soup kitchen, was dismantled, causing most of the homeless to take their belongings to a makeshift camp under the Reserve Bank.

Police and council workers moved in to clear the homeless encampment on Saturday morning

The site was called The 24-7 Street Kitchen and Safe Space and up to 60 people slept there

The letter, distributed prior to the eviction, was written by David Riordan, Director of City Operations, reported ABC News.

'The accumulation of items in Martin Place, including a barbecue, gas bottles, tents, food and other items has been determined to be a public nuisance as it materially affects the reasonable comfort and convenience of other users of Martin Place.'

In a press statement, City of Sydney council drew attentions to the safety risks posed by the illegal site.

In a letter handed out prior to the eviction, City of Sydney called the camp a 'public nuisance'

'The 60 Martin Place hoarding is not a safe or sustainable housing option for people sleeping rough. Alternative accommodation has been offered to all people in the area. Some people have accepted the offer, while others have declined assistance.'

'The city has repeatedly advised that the barbecue and cooking facilities, and obstruction of a public thoroughfare with large and unauthorised items, presents a significant fire and safety risk.'

The council warned that the camp was unsafe and unauthorised, posing a fire and safety risk

Following the eviction homeless people could be seen moving their belongings away in wheelbarrows as council workers removed rubbish and debris from the site.

Greens Senator for New South Wales Lee Rhiannon spoke out in support of the camp on her Facebook page.

'I'm with #247StreetKitchenSafeSpace fighting mass eviction. Sydney City Council "cleansing" big end of town so rich people, bankers, politicians are not embarrassed by growing homeless numbers,' she wrote.
Schapelle Corby's carefree return to Australia has taken an unfortunate turn, with the convicted drug smuggler being admitted to hospital with an apparent leg injury.

The 39-year-old was snapped hopping around the Gold Coast on crutches with an injured foot.

Walking alongside her mother Rosleigh Rose, Corby wore a grey knit scarf around her head in an apparent attempt to shield herself from the media and a printed flowing skirt.

The convicted drug smuggler (pictured) was seen hobbling with a pair of crutches on the Gold Coast

Corby's mother Rosleigh Rose (left) was close behind her as she walked on crutches

Corby wore a grey knit scarf to cover her head and a printed ensemble as she struggled with her injury

Walking alongside her mother Rosleigh Rose, Corby wore a grey knit scarf around her head in an apparent attempt to shield herself from the media and a printed flowing skirt

It is unclear how Corby injured her leg only weeks after her much-waited return to Australia following a nine-year prison stint in Bali.

She made the news public on Instagram on Thursday, accompanied by the tags #brokenleg, #brokenankle, #brokenknee.

In the posted photo from her hospital bed, there is no cast on her right leg, while her left is covered by the bedding.

Corby, who has been a prolific user of Instagram and has accrued 197,000 followers, did not say which hospital she was in, the detail of the injury, or how it was sustained.

'Hi guys. This is why you haven't seen me in a while..... #sickbay #brokenleg #brokenankle #brokenknee,' the caption read.

It is unclear how Corby injured her leg only weeks after her much-waited return to Australia following a nine-year prison stint in Bali

She was seen getting into a black car as she hobbled along with the crutches

'Hi guys. This is why you havent seen me in a while..... #sickbay #brokenleg #brokenankle #brokenknee,' the caption read

Her followers have rallied in support, sharing messages to work out how she sustained such a painful injury.

'No good after all you've been through you deserve better you silly little bugger,' one commenter wrote.

'Just what you need....not! Hope you make a speedy recovery,' another added.

The Queensland local had been spending time exploring the north of NSW and previously posted pictures enjoying time at the beach and purchasing fruit from a market stall.

Her followers have rallied in support, sharing messages to work out how she sustained such a painful injury

Corby struggled with her crutches as she got into a waiting car

Her mother was close behind as the 39-year-old hopped along with her leg injury
A 16-month-old baby girl succumbed to her horrific injuries after she was allegedly beaten by her father during a Father's Day visit.

Little Nylah Lewis lost her five-day fight for her life on Friday after she was found unconscious and unresponsive at her father's Coney Island apartment on Sunday.

Shaquan Taylor, 18, was arrested for allegedly beating his daughter until she slipped into a coma.

Nylah suffered two skull fractures, a brain bleed and bruising on her legs and other parts of her body.

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Sixteen-month-old Nylah Lewis (pictured) succumbed to her horrific injuries on Friday, days after her dad allegedly beat her

Nylah Lewis (left with her mom Tammy Lewis) lost her five-day fight for her life on Friday after she was found unconscious and unresponsive at her dad's Coney Island apartment. Shaquan Taylor (right), 18, was arrested for allegedly beating the girl until she slipped into a coma

She also appeared to have suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen from being choked or by some other means, according to NBC.

Taylor, 18, allegedly injured the toddler after her mom, Tammy Lewis - who was formerly in a relationship with Taylor - dropped her off at his home, so they could spend time together for Father's Day.

Lewis left the pair alone and came back to find her daughter covered in bruises and gasping for air, police said.

Nylah suffered two skull fractures, a brain bleed and bruising on her legs and other parts of her body

'He said that about a year ago he was going to hit the baby if she brought [her] around,' Christine Munford, Nylaha's aunt, told the New York Daily News.

'And [Sunday] he threatened her and said he was going to punch her in the face when she got there. And then obviously that happened.'

During that tragic afternoon, Taylor messaged Lewis on Facebook to tell her she needed to come to the apartment to take their daughter.

Lewis immediately picked up her daughter and ran out of the apartment upon seeing her face up on the couch struggling to breathe.

But Taylor ran after her, and allegedly knocked her to the ground, leaving the defenseless mother in the apartment lobby unconscious.

The disgraced father then picked the baby up and gave it to a friend who called the ambulance, which then rushed her to Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn.

When authorities questioned Taylor, he claimed the baby was injured because she had fallen off the bed, but doctors confirmed that Nylaha's bruises did not come from a fall.

According to a series of Facebook posts, Taylor told Lewis that he wanted her to get an abortion when she was pregnant.

'Feel mad disrespected,' Taylor wrote in a Facebook post in February 2016 around the time his daughter Nylah Lewis was born.

'Told that lil b***h to get abortion (and) she tells me she is but still keep it. Exactly why I hate that lil b***h.'

Taylor often ranted about the girl's mother.

'I didn't even want to have a baby by her (and) it's sad to say, but f*** it, s*** happens,' he wrote in February 2016.

'Please don't ask who Nylah's moms is nor do I still f*** with her cause NO,' he wrote. 'Just f***ed (that) hotty a**, that's it.'

During that tragic afternoon, Taylor messaged Lewis on Facebook to tell her she needed to come to the apartment to take their daughter. Lewis immediately picked up the little girl and ran out of the apartment upon seeing her face up on the couch struggling to breathe

Taylor took to Facebook saying he told the baby's mother he wanted her to get an abortion in 2016

He ranted on social media about his frustrations over the mother of his baby, Tammy Lewis

He shared this disturbing message on the day of his baby daughter's vicious beating

Taylor was charged on Monday with felony assault for beating both Lewis and her child.

The Brooklyn district attorney's office says it will look to upgrade charges against Taylor.

Taylor was charged with sexual misconduct in 2015 because he was in a relationship with Lewis, who was only 14 at the time. A year later, he was arrested again for harassing Lewis.
Russian diplomats expelled from compounds in New York and Maryland in December left behind damaged materials that could have been used in intelligence gathering, officials have said.

As punishment for what was said to be interference in the 2016 election, then-President Obama ousted 35 Russian diplomats from compounds that had long been used as retreats by the diplomats. They were given 24 hours to get off the premises, but left even earlier, which was seen as suspicious, reported CBS News.

At least some of the 35 diplomats were suspected to be gathering intelligence and having a role in the election interference, reported the outlet.

An official said a cache of damaged materials that could have been used to gather intelligence was left behind in Russian compounds (above, the one in Maryland)

Left behind was antennas, electronics, computers, file cabinets and other gear, said an official (above, the compound in Long Island)

Left behind in the compounds, one in Long Island and a 45-acre one at the Pioneer Point Peninsula in Maryland, were antennas, electronics, computers, file cabinets and other gear, according to a former official.

The findings raise the question as to whether the diplomats and compounds in question were involved in the election interference, said the outlet.

In December, Obama said the compounds were 'used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes.'

A convoy of diplomatic vehicles leave a Russian owned compound in December

Last week, the Senate voted 98-2 to impose stricter restrictions on Russia in retaliation for the interference.

While the Trump administration had been mulling returning the compounds to the Russians, who had purchased them decades ago as resorts for Russians living in the US. The United States had received property in Moscow in return, according to the Washington Post.

The vote included a provision requiring congressional approval before the properties can be returned
Italian authorities have arrested a man with strong links to the notorious mafia branch 'Ndrangheta after he was wanted for his role in an international cocaine deal thanks to a tip off from Western Australia police.

Bruno Crisafi had flown out of Perth Airport destined for Rome on June 21 but when his plane landed, Italian police were waiting to arrest him.

The Italian national is said to be connected to the powerful mafia group 'Ndrangheta and a warrant for his arrest had been issued after his involvement in an international cocaine deal but he managed to flee to Australia before his arrest.

It is alleged that he found solace through family in Australia who protected his identity, ABC News reports.

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Bruno Crisafi was arrested aboard the Qatar Airways flight as it touched down in Rome after Western Australia tipped off Italian authorities regarding his movements

He was escorted across the tarmac in Rome as it has been revealed that Australian and Italian authorities have been working hand in hand to tackle international

During his absence an Italian court found him guilty and sentenced him to 20 years in jail as an Interpol Red Notice was issued in an attempt to find him.

On discovering that Crisafi was due to fly back to Italy, Western Australia Police alongside the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission alerted international authorities which led to his arrest at Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport.

'The 'Ndrangheta is known as one of the most powerful criminal organisations in the world, adept at money-laundering, extortion and drug trafficking,' ACIC CEO Chris Dawson revealed in a statement.

'Given the transnational nature of serious and organised crime, our relationships with national and international partners are more important than ever before, and this arrest is a testament to the value of these relationships.'

The notorious 'Ndrangheta division operate throughout Europe, supplying over half of its cocaine through its sources in South America and Mexico.

Italian authorities suggest their net worth is billions of dollars, with members spread across the world.

Bruno Crisafi had found refuge in Australia but came to the attention of Australian authorities who informed Italian police of his impending return to Europe

It is believed they launder their dirty cash globally, including in Australia.

It's not the first time an Italian has been arrested after returning from Australia with links to drug trafficking as Antonio Vottari was detained on arrival in the European country last year.

He had managed to evade arrest after residing in Australia for five years, and had managed to authorities after Italy had only issued a European warrant with Australian authorities allegedly oblivious to his crimes.

The National Antimafia and Counter-Terrorism Directorate in Italy recently revealed its annual report which highlighted Crisafi's case.

It also referred to stronger relations with Australian authorities in a joint effort to tackle the 'Ndrangheta threat, which has involved a number of trip to Italy by Australian police officials within the last year.
The front window of a Melbourne luxury car hire business was shattered by gunfire last night, leaving the pavement strewn with spent cartridges.

Multiple shots were fired in the suspected drive-by shooting, which left a cluster of at least nine bullet holes in the plate glass.

No injuries were reported as a result of the shooting, and staff at the business shrugged off the brazen attack and expressed faith in the police.

Dream Drives Melbourne was targeted by a cowardly drive-by shooting at 11:30pm Saturday

At least nine bullets were fired at the luxury car-hire business, and police are investigating

Victoria Police say the shooting took place at around 11:30pm on Friday night, and the bullet holes were first seen by a passerby at 8:30am on Saturday morning, the Herald Sun reported.

A neighbour, who wished to be identified only by his first name Darren, heard gunfire while watching TV.

'All of a sudden I heard a couple of bangs go off, I thought what the hell was that.'

Staff at the business are hoping the police can catch the shooter, but seemed unbothered by the attack

'I heard six to eight extremely loud bangs. It sounded so close.'

Staff at the business, which rents out luxury cars, were undisturbed by incident, telling reporters, 'There's nothing much to say, there's nothing to say. It doesn't matter.'

Daily Mail Australia contacted the business on Saturday afternoon and spoke to a staff member named Stephen.

'We are leaving it up to the police to investigate,' he said, 'We have faith in the Victoria Police.'

'We want the guy who did it to get caught.'
Ghodratollah Barani, a convicted killer who fled the UK and has ended up in France

A convicted killer who vanished from a care home in May and managed to leave the country is now in France.

Police have released CCTV footage of Ghodratollah Barani after he went on the run on May 11, leaving the Evergreen Lodge care home in Croydon, south London.

The 31-year-old pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after he strangled a rough sleeper in Marble Arch, north London, in 2013.

He was handed an indefinite hospital order after the court was told that he strangled the man after 'hearing voices telling him to kill someone so he could be king'.

He was being treated for mental health issues at the Croydon care home after he was placed there in November 2015.

Police said this week that they have used fingerprint recognition to track the killer to France.

His fingerprints were flagged up when he made an asylum claim in France. He is originally from Afghanistan.

Detective Sergeant Paul Smith said: 'We have no idea how he got over there, it would be likely he left the country clandestine.

'We believed he planned or managed to sneak out in some way.'

The officer said that Barani had managed to avoid border checks and that there was 'no trace of him leaving the UK'.

He added: 'At the moment we do not know exactly where he is - he would claim asylum (in France) and then be asked to return several days later.

'I have asked to have regular updates on that and if he does come back to the UK it will be dealt with properly.'

Police released CCTV footage, above, of Ghodratollah Barani in May this year after went on the run from the Evergreen Lodge care home in Croydon

British and French immigration services are now working together to decide on whether Barani will be returned to the UK when he is tracked down.

In an appeal put out by the Met Police in May this year after Barani went missing from the care home where he was being treated it urged people not to approach him over 'concerns for his mental welfare'.

It stated: 'Ghodratollah Barani was last seen at his care home in Croydon at around 6pm on Thursday, 11 May.

'Officers have released an image taken at 10.07pm that night as Ghodratollah travelled on a bus towards Norbury and would like to speak with anyone who saw him after this time.

'Ghodratollah has been a resident at the care home since November 2015, receiving treatment for a psychotic disorder.

'He has not been seen or heard from since and this is out of character. Police are extremely concerned for his welfare and he could act in an unpredictable manner.

'Ghodratollah requires regular medication and he has not taken this with him. Without this medication Ghodratollah's mental health is expected to deteriorate.'

Detective Chief Inspector Richard McDonagh, from Croydon CID, said in May: 'It is important that Ghodratollah is found as we need to ensure his safety.

'Those caring for him have suggested that with the care and treatment he has been receiving over the years, he is not currently in the same place as he was when he committed the offence, but we cannot be complacent.'

The Home Office is investigating.
An 18-year-old man has been taken to hospital after his car left the road and rolled in a suspected illegal street race.

Police are investigating whether the race caused the accident in Melbourne on Friday.

It's believed a white sedan was travelling south on High Street through Epping about 9pm when it left the road.

An 18-year-old man has been taken to hospital after his car left the road and rolled in a suspected illegal street race in Melbourne (stock image)

Police said a white sedan was travelling south on High Street through Epping (pictured) about 9pm when it left the road and rolled. A second vehicle left the scene before emergency services arrived

Police are looking for a second vehicle that left the scene before emergency services arrived.

The driver of the car was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Anyone who was travelling on High Street about 9pm and may have witnessed a white sedan and another car racing is urged to contact police.

Police are appealing for witnesses, or anyone driving in the area around that time, to come forward and contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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Furious residents demanded answers from the leader of Camden Council after thousands of people were forced out of their flats at 8.30pm on Friday night amid safety concerns about the cladding on the tower blocks.

Georgia Gould, the council leader, said firefighters told them they could not guarantee the safety of the residents on the Chalcots estate at 5pm so acted quickly to move around 4,000 people out of the flats, but most were put up overnight in the Swiss Cottage leisure centre on inflatable mattresses.

Eighty-three people refused to leave their homes on the north London estate.

As Ms Gould spoke with residents on Saturday morning at the leisure centre, she faced anger from those who couldn't understand why the council had not sought enough hotel rooms to accommodate people overnight.

Shirley Phillips, 72, said she had been sat in the lobby of the building since 9pm, when residents were told to leave the blocks in Camden, north London.

Ms Gould said: 'The issue is where some of the gas piping goes into the block, they found that it hadn't had the proper stop gaps installed.

'The risk was that the smoke would go through the vents and fill the whole building, and they said that risk was untenable with the external cladding they had identified.'

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Taplow Tower resident Steve Pirolli, 49, an HGV driver, is one of the occupants refusing to leave his home this weekend after the evacuation

Camden council leader Georgia Gould is questioned by Shirley Phillips outside the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre after Ms Phillips had to leave her home last night

Taplow resident Shirley Phillips' (C) daughter (R) voices her concerns to Camden Council leader Georgia Gould (L)

Angry Shirley responded: 'I'm listening to what you're saying, but they told me there were no issues.

'I asked out on the landing. They showed me the thing on the roof to open the windows if there's smoke.

'And also, why did you not inform us? I never found out from a letter from you - my friend was looking at Sky TV, phoned me up and I put it on immediately.

'When I popped back to my flat this morning to get my medication, I found a letter from Camden Council. Why was it put through my door and not knocked on my door to tell me we were being evacuated?'

But Ms Gould, one of the youngest council leaders in the country, said that because the situation had developed so quickly, the council felt they had no option but to evacuate.

She said: 'As you know, we've been trying to keep you updated. We sent out letters, we had a public meeting on Thursday to hear from everyone.

Pictured: Camden council leader Georgia Gould is questioned by Shirley Phillips outside the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre. Shirley Phillips was evacuated from her flat last night

'What happened on Friday was just so quick. They told us that information that it wasn't safe to stay and we just had to act so quickly.

'We started immediately getting people out of the blocks, we were knocking doors so I don't know what happened in your case.

'If we'd had more time, we would've convened a meeting and decided what to do together, because that's how we always want to do things - we just had to act quickly.'

Ms Gould said it could take between two and four weeks to make safe the four buildings - Taplow, Burnham, Bray and Dorney - while residents of a fifth tower block, Blashford, were told they could return to their homes.

The tower blocks are clad in a similar combustible material to Grenfell and firefighters said they 'could not guarantee resident safety'.

A vicar carries luggage as he helps residents evacuate the Dorney Tower residential block on the Chalcots Estate in north London on June 24

Residents are evacuated from the Dorney Tower residential block as a precautionary measure following concerns over the type of cladding used on the outside of the building on the Chalcots Estate

A fire safety expert branded the evacuation an 'ungodly mess' as some 4,000 people left the Chalcots Estate in Camden on Friday night and were placed in temporary accommodation, hotels or with family.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said the Government is making sure Camden Council can do 'what is necessary' to ensure people evacuated from blocks of flats have somewhere to stay, and work is done to make the buildings safe.

Families with newborn babies and a Second World War veteran were among those ordered out of their homes after fire officers said they could not guarantee the safety of the buildings, with more than 100 staying in the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre overnight and others sleeping in hotels.

A man carrying shirts leaves Taplow Tower residential block on the Chalcots Estate. A fire safety expert branded the evacuation an 'ungodly mess'

4,000 people left the Chalcots Estate in Camden on Friday night and were placed in temporary accommodation, hotels or with family

Residents were seen looking out of windows in the Dorney Tower residential block

But 83 people, including HGV driver Steve Pirolli, 49, refused to leave.

Ms Gould said if residents had not left their properties after being visited again by officials on Saturday, 'it will become a matter for the fire service'.

In its latest statement, Camden Council said it has already spent 500,000 on hotel rooms for residents and has offered to reimburse those who have paid for their own temporary accommodation.

But Ms Gould urged them to stay with family and friends if possible and encouraged remaining residents to vacate their blocks.

She said: 'There are various legal routes that Camden Council could explore to require people to leave their homes - however, we really don't want to do this.'

Mr Pirolli said he was just interested in watching the Lions play and refused to leave his block last night and at 3am today

Left, the letter sent to residents on June 23, which some appear to have received after they were evacuated. Right, the fire safety advice inside the Camden block

Mr Perolli remained resolutely in his fourth floor flat despite the council warning him that it was not safe.

The HGV driver who also coaches juniors rugby at Hampstead Rugby Club, lives with his partner Kerry and his two grown-up stepdaughters.

He said: 'When they finished the building work, they said 'it's all lovely, it's all fine, and you need to be grateful for what you've got'.

'What happened in Grenfell Tower is horrendous and now people are crapping themselves, they're frightened.

Mr Pirolli claimed the move was just to 'make the council look good' and thought the work could be done without them leaving

'They wrote us off, and now all of a sudden it's not fine. Should it take a tragedy?

'Surely the day that it was signed off, somebody should've looked at it and said 'hang on a minute, that's not right'.

'They've suddenly put up these fire safety notices in the last 48 hours - they were there yesterday afternoon when I popped home, and there was just a blank wall before.

'I don't understand the fire regulations, nobody understands what the regulations are in this building.

'Suddenly, 9pm last night, everybody's got to go.'

He added: 'There were people literally running out, for what?

'It was fine 72 hours ago, it was fine two weeks ago, it was fine when they finished the cladding - it was all fine.

'Somebody signed something to say it was fine, but obviously, it wasn't, and all of a sudden they're backtracking and they're scared - people with better pay grades than me.

'Somebody has signed this off, possibly off a photo on a laptop, and it's all lovely and great, it's sparkly and shiny, it must be fine.

'But now, because of Grenfell, it's not fine, and we have to get out at 9pm on a Friday.

'Three o'clock this morning, someone's knocking on my door saying you have to go now, but I was asleep and it's the middle of the night.

'All I'm interested in is watching the Lions play, why do we have to go now?

'It's not been unsafe since Camden said it's safe for you to live here. Why would I not feel safe?'

Fuming Mr Pirolli said many of his neighbours were also staying put, and one said they were seeking legal advice.

In a tour of the block, he pointed out the one fire escape, glass 'fire doors', and smoke alarms 'every ten feet'.

He said: 'These doors say fire door, but they're just glass, they're not double panelled.

'I don't really know about fire regulations but surely they've got to keep the fire out, and this door would explode.

'Why do we have to move out, why can't they let the builders come in and work around us?

'This is where I live, and right next to it, these are the exposed gas valves, I don't know what is behind there, but somebody has looked at it in the past and said that's fine - it didn't concern me that it was right by my front door until yesterday, when someone told me there was a problem there.

People leave Taplow Tower in north London after returning for extra possessions. The council has put a fund of 100,000 aside to help those who need funds during the next few days

A man carries his pet cat as he and a woman leave the Taplow building on Saturday afternoon. Thousands of people will have to move out of four buildings for around two to four weeks

A woman carries bags out of the tower block after the sudden announcement last night. The council leader explained that they had to act quickly when the firefighters warning came

Despite the warning from the firefighters, some 83 people have decided to stay in their homes and are resolute in their determination not to go

'All of a sudden, this is a problem, but why? We've got smoke alarms all over the place, every ten feet - at a slice of burning toast the one in our hallway goes off.

'Why is this a massive panic that everyone's got to move?

'Moving out is pointless, it's just making Camden Council look good and it's making people who worked for Camden and said it had been made good then, they've checked everything and when it was finished, it was perfect.

'It's just people covering their backs, it can't be anything else, they're covering mistakes and that cost 50 plus lives last week.

'All of a sudden, everyone who lived at Grenfell and everyone who lives here is in danger, but it's not just going to burst into flames.

'There are other things they can do, but no, let's panic families and get them out because we can.'

Roger Evans, 51, who said he found out that his building was being cleared after a friend saw it on the news and alerted him by text, said: 'As far as I am concerned, nothing in that building has changed in the last few days, weeks, months or years.

'It was perfectly safe before, despite what they are saying now - I believe I am safe in there.'

Iola McCarogher, 27, said: 'I am not leaving, it is my home. Until someone comes and puts a court order in front of my face, I am not leaving.

'I have a disabled mother, I have animals in my property - they are not doing anything and no-one is telling us anything - it is ridiculous.'

They were hastily put up in the leisure centre after safety checks were carried out all day and the decision was made late in the evening

Rows and rows of inflatable single mattresses were lined up on the floor of the leisure centre where thousands of residents were placed for the night

The Council has reiterated 'in the strongest terms' the need for all residents in Taplow, Bray, Dorney and Burnham towers to evacuate their homes.

Councillor Georgia Gould, Leader of Camden Council, said: 'We're committed to looking after all our evacuated residents.

'This afternoon I've made money available to pay for residents' food, drinks and any necessary items they require over the weekend.

'We're encouraging evacuated residents to stay with family and friends if at all possible.

'If that's not possible, we want to fill up all the hotels rooms we've secured for tonight.

'I want to reiterate that both the Council and the London Fire Brigade advise in the strongest possible terms that any remaining residents in Taplow, Bray, Dorney and Burnham should evacuate their blocks and take up one of our temporary accommodation options, as this is the safest place for you to be.

'Keeping our residents safe is our number one priority.

'There are various legal routes that Camden Council could explore to require people to leave their homes  however, we really don't want to do this.

'We want to work with residents who are yet to evacuate and strongly encourage them to leave their homes and fix up temporary accommodation.

'We need to get the buildings empty so we can work with our partners to start the work to make these tower blocks safe, so that everyone can return to their normal lives as soon as possible.'

Left Tallow Tower on Saturday morning, after the residents were told to leave as quickly as possible, and right, one of the narrow mattresses at the centre with an Ambulance Pack on top

Speaking while attending Armed Forces Day in Liverpool on Saturday, Mrs May said: 'For those Camden blocks, it wasn't just a question of the cladding; there were a number of issues that came together that meant that the fire service were concerned about those blocks and the action was taken by the local authority.'

She added: 'We are making sure that the authority has the ability to do what is necessary to ensure people have somewhere to stay and that the work is done so that those tower blocks will become safe for them to return to in future.'

She said: 'The Government is working with those local authorities affected by this issue to ensure that they're able to do what is necessary on the ground to reassure people about the safety of their blocks, if necessary to evacuate people, and take action to make those tower blocks safe.

'The Government is supporting local authorities to do that and together we are making sure that the resources are there to ensure that what is needed to keep people safe is done.'

She said local authorities were being urged to send in samples of cladding and material to be tested and 'immediate action' would be taken if the materials were found not to be up to fire safety standards.

Mrs May said the Government was working with those in the Kensington and Chelsea area to ensure people who lost their homes following the blaze at Grenfell Tower were rehoused within three weeks and provided with financial support.

Ms Gould said the council is looking at accommodation including student halls and opening up newly built social housing, with hopes that by Monday 50% of tenants will be accommodated in the borough.

She said the cost to the council will be 'really expensive' when taking into account the internal and external work on the blocks, and the temporary accommodation, adding: 'But we are not thinking about counting the purse strings right now.'

A tweet from the local authority announced that Ms Gould had committed 100,000 of council funds to pay for food and essential items displaced residents may need.

Tired residents had reached the end of their tether by this morning, with many families having had sleepless nights on inflatable mattresses.

Many did not understand why the Labour-led council had not organised hotel rooms before the mass evacuation.

Shirley added: 'I'm not having a pop at you, but I am so stressed - why were hotels not looked at before we were evacuated?

'I've sat in a chair over there since nine o'clock last night, I'm 72 years old, suffer with emphysema, and they can't rehouse me because I've got a dog.

'What do people want me to do? Where do you want me to sleep?'

The council has since said that anyone who organised their own accommodation can invoice the council and be repaid, while those unsure where they can stay tonight can email to secure a hotel room.

Stephen Mackenzie, director of Mackenzie Risk Management, is calling for the government to urgently take charge of the 'national crisis' and call a COBRA meeting.

The independent expert, who has worked with local fire authorities and building regulators, says it has 'turned into a mess' and that 'the eyes of the world are on us' to take action.

Mr Mackenzie said: 'We need central government to step in and take control of the contingencies for this disaster.

'We've got one section of the London Fire Brigade saying that advice that residents should stay behind their doors in the event of a fire is still current, then we've got the fire authority advising the local authority to evacuate five tower blocks.

'A very important question that's going to come out of last night's announcement and today's events is that did the fire authority serve the council with an enforcement or prohibition notice under the regulatory fire safety order?

'What needs to happen is we need to understand the mechanics of the Grenfell Tower fire, what has been installed elsewhere, and what we need to fundamentally revisit.

'Do we need to start with a clean slate of building regulations and fire safety legislation and who regulates, who checks the checker?

Fire risk management consultant Stephen Mackenzie branded the evacuation an 'ungodly mess'

'In London we're very lucky that we've got a fire authority which reports to central government, but elsewhere that's not the case.

'Then we've got the issues with building control - it's turned into a mess now.

'Fundamental fire safety premises are being questioned and the eyes of the world are on us.'

The emergency planning guru is pushing for a change in legislation following last week's disaster, and says Theresa May must do more to help.

Stephen has questioned the government's response to last night events and says 'this isn't good for anyone'.

He added: 'Where is the Prime Minister? Where is the Home Office independent fire advisor?

'Where is the Department for Communities and Local Government independent building standards advisor, and where is the emergency committee of independent experts to resolve this problem?

'There are a number of concerns, and Theresa May should be watching this and perhaps call a meeting of COBRA, where all the emergency services and relevant government departments can make a contribution.

'We should potentially look towards the European Union to appoint a judge under the workplace directives and look at us and our performance in this national crisis.

'The warning signs are there from Grenfell, from the Lakanal House fire in 2009, and from the 2013 report on that, which said the regulations needed to be reviewed.

'There were statements from the government at the time which said social housing stock would be independently inspected by the fire authority - how did five tower blocks get through that net? That's a fundamental question.

'The fire service did a sterling job on the operational intervention with this tragedy at Grenfell, but what's happened with these inspections?'

Stephen believes the council ignored key lessons learnt from the Garnock Hall fire in Scotland in 1999, after which a report entitled 'The fire risk of external fire spread through cladding systems' was published.

He wants to know why the government ignored both that report, and the report published after the Lakanal House fire in 2007, which killed six people.

He said: 'We had that lesson in 2000. 17 years later, and four years after the Lakanal House report, where did that go?

'This is not good. This needs a COBRA meeting.

'Let's not have kneejerk reactions as we've seen for the past couple of days, let's not be decanting unless absolutely necessary.

'We need Prime Minister and Parliament intervention. We've gone from building safety to fire safety to now gas safety - what's next?

'The council called in the fire authority, they've got that right, and they've made the very difficult decision to go public, but they need central government support.

'They need to come in now, take a hold of it, look at the local authority actions, support the fire authorities and give the residents assurance.

'This is an ungodly mess now.'

Police officers arrive at Burnham Tower residential block on the Chalcots Estate after last night's evacuation

Firefighters are pictured outside Burnham Tower residential block on the Chalcots Estate in north London on June 24

Residents (R) with belongings leave Burnham Tower residential block on the Chalcots Estate on Saturday having returned for more possessions after the evacuation

A resident (L) is helped by a council official as she leaves Burnham Tower residential block with some of her things in a carrier bag

Two residents pick up more from their homes after being told they will be out for around two to four weeks for the fire safety work to be carried out. Some wore as many of their things as they could

Shocked residents claimed they were only told at 8.30pm that they would have to leave their homes for up to three weeks while 'urgent fire safety works' were carried out.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, leader of the council Georgia Gould said: 'We've had a huge effort overnight to evacuate people. We have had 650 households who have moved out of the tower blocks.

'We've had everyone - council staff, volunteers, different councillors - all coming together with the fire service to move people safely out of their accommodation.'

Ms Gould told the programme that people were very distressed during the move, and in usual circumstances, the procedure would have been to hold public meetings and discuss all the issues with the residents.

But they were told at 5pm that the blocks were not safe and she said they had to act quickly to ensure safety.

She also indicated they had done what they could to prevent the blocks having to be evacuated.

Ms Gould said: 'I offered to pay for fire stations to be stationed outside all of those blocks so we could have a couple of days to get the work done but the message was there was absolutely nothing I could do to make those blocks safe that night.'

Insulation underneath the cladding on a tower block is exposed after the cladding, now believed to be dangerous, was removed

The leader of the council explained there was nothing they could do to guarantee the safety of the residents that night except ask them to leave

Residents complained they were given little notice about the evacuation and some were sent to a 'rescue centre' full of airbeds

Residents who had not yet been evacuated from other blocks on the Chalcots estate said they did not feel safe in their homes.

Brian De Villa, 30, lives in the Burnham tower, but said the council were planning on moving them out too.

Railway worker Brian, who lives with wife Christina, 27, and their two sons in the block, said he thought the council were 'overwhelmed' by the situation.

Brian, who lives on the 20th floor, said: 'We haven't been moved, but they're going to evacuate us later apparently.

'I'm calm because the security are there, it's safe right now, but after Grenfell we're not safe there.

'We're staying there for now because we have nowhere to go, we don't know where we'll be sent, so why move into this leisure centre to be packed in with so many people?

'We have a few friends who live in Taplow who've been sleeping here, they couldn't even go back into their house.

'They're not letting anyone back in, but people need to get things from their house.

'I think the council are overwhelmed, but they're doing something.'

Georgia Gould, answers local peoples questions outside the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre. Angry residents said they returned to their flats to find a letter after the evacuation

Ms Gould at the leisure centre this morning where people said they had been sitting on chairs all night and couldn't understand why hotel rooms hadn't been organised

Christina added: 'It's horrible conditions in there.

'Our friends were evacuated last night and she tried to reenter the house at three o'clock in the morning but the security guards said they couldn't go inside.

'At least they are doing something, but it's happened in such a short space of time that they've evacuated everyone and haven't thought about where they're going to stay.

'Are they going to cramp five tower blocks into this one room? It's chaotic and it's not really reasonable.'

Five blocks on the estate have similar exterior plastic panels to those fitted to the 24-storey Grenfell Tower.

The cheap cladding on Grenfell Tower was blamed for the fire spreading from one fourth floor flat and engulfing the entire building in the early hours of June 14.

Camden is the first London borough to evacuate buildings in the wake of the tragedy. However, residents complained they were given little notice about the evacuation and some were sent to a 'rescue centre' full of airbeds.

Speaking to journalists in north London council leader Ms Gould said: At the end of today [the fire brigade] told us that they could not guarantee resident safety in those blocks so I have made the difficult decision to move the people living there into temporary accommodation while we do the urgent works to guarantee safety.

'I know it is difficult but Grenfell changes everything and I just don't believe we can take any risks with our residents safety and I have to put them first.'

Camden Council leaders yesterday met angry residents who raised a number of fire safety concerns.

Tallow Tower on Saturday morning after the residents were evacuated and moved to the leisure as temporary accommodation. 83 people have stayed

Residents packed all they may need for the next three weeks while the works are being carried out as they rushed out overnight

A woman scooped up her pet cat in a box as she was hurried out. Residents only had about two hours notice, they claim, before they had to leave the estate

People were given just a few hours to pack up their things and leave their homes on the Chalcots Estate in Camden

Camden is the first London borough to evacuate buildings in the wake of the tragedy. However, residents complained they were given little notice about the evacuation and some were sent to a 'rescue centre' full of airbeds

Residents trooped out of their homes with huge suitcases and bags as they prepared to leave their flats behind for three weeks

Camden Council's leader said they made the decision because they could not take any risks after the Grenfell tragedy

Residents in Taplow tower were told to leave their homes on Friday night. Some claim they were told the work would take between two to four weeks

Above, residents used small trolleys to get their possessions out quickly. Elderly resident Shirley Phillipos, who lives in the Taplow block, said those living in the towers had been told to get out tonight with 'no notice'

One resident asked: 'I had a fire safety check done today, why have they left it til half past eight at night to start getting residents out?'

A woman clutches a blanket to her chest as she leads another group of residents out of the block, clad in a similar material to the Grenfell tower

After London Fire Brigade inspected the building it was decided that residents would be 'temporarily decanted' while 'urgent' fire safety works were done.

Some 4,000 people were given just a couple of hours notice that they would be moving out of their homes on Friday night.

Elderly resident Shirley Phillips, who lives in the Taplow block, said those living in the towers had been told to get out tonight with 'no notice'.

She told Sky News: 'This is ridiculous. The only time I was told something was when I brought myself down the stairs.

'I've been told it's to do with the gas pipes on the landings. That's all they said.

'We've been told we'll be out for two to four weeks.

'I'm going over to the leisure centre and they've told me they'll find me somewhere to go.

'I've been told to get a little bag together. I've got some underwear, some dog food, a night gown - I haven't got anything else.

The woman, who lives on the second floor, continued: 'I think it's absolutely disgusting. We've had fire brigade here all day, Camden Council, police.

'I had a fire safety check done today, why have they left it til half past eight at night to start getting residents out?

'Where do they think we're all going? This is a massive tower block. They've started evacuating. Where are we all going?'

Many people said they did not know what was going on and had not had clear instructions from the council.

Police, Camden Council staff and fire officers were seen milling around the foot of the Taplow and Burnham blocks.

Edward Strange, 47, who lives on the 11th floor of the Taplow block was one of the first to be evacuated.

He going visit his sister in Salisbury with daughter Emily, nine, when he heard the flats were being evacuated.

A family collects their possessions as quickly as possible before leaving their home. But on Saturday, it was revealed that 83 people had opted to stay

Witnesses at the Swiss Cottage leisure centre where residents were sent said the scenes were 'chaotic'

Residents started to arrive at the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre in Camden in the early hours of the morning after the flats were evacuated

Swiss Cottage leisure centre was quickly set up as a temporary accommodation and information centre

Camden is the first London borough to evacuate buildings in the wake of the tragedy and gave residents just a couple of hours notice that they would have to leave their homes

Some 4,000 people are being evacuated from the Chalcots Estate tonight and placed in temporary accommodation, hotels or with family in the area, the council leader said

Mr Strange, who has owned his flat since 2007, said he was told to go and register at the community centre but does not know where he will be staying tonight.

He said: 'We weren't told anything - I heard it on the news when I was driving, I was going to my sister's for the weekend but we came back when we heard we were being evacuated. I've gone into the building now and they've told us to go to the community centre where we'll be allocated accommodation, so I'm a bit anxious about that.

'What is the accommodation going to be? I have absolutely no idea. I also don't know about the amount of time we're going to be there.

'They have told us we can get back in to collect our belongings which is reassuring to some extent but the whole thing is a bit of a nightmare really. I don't know if it's just this block or all of them, I don't know, I've only just heard it on the news.

'They sent us a letter this afternoon telling us that the cladding hadn't passed the safety standards but we're not worried because we've had two fires in here and they didn't spread, so we feel completely safe and I think it's a complete overreaction. The two fires were since the cladding has been on, and they were contained.'

Police, Camden Council staff and fire officers were seen milling around the foot of the Taplow and Burnham blocks

Fuming residents shouted at council officers amid the confusion, with one irate woman telling a high-vis wearing member of staff to 'f**k off'

Fuming residents shouted at council officers amid the confusion, with one irate woman telling a high-vis wearing member of staff to 'f*** off'.

Colin Cookson, 69, lives on the second floor of the Dorney block, and is hoping to stay with friends whilst the emergency works take place.

He has lived in the block for 54 years, and says he wants to give families with children or pets first pick of the hotel rooms.

Camden Council have committed 100,000 of council funds to pay for evacuated residents' food and essential items they may need, on top of the 500,000 they have already spent on hotel rooms.

Colin said: 'I've registered for accommodation but I'm just checking on access to retrieve my belongings, I need my work computer but I can't do that until Tuesday.

'I just wanted to check that the building was secure, because I'm away until then, but I'm fairly confident.

Fire safety expert Arnold Tarling said that it will be 'very distressing' for the people that are being evacuated but added that he 'put my hands up and said well done to Camden'

Some residents said that they had been told all the blocks were being evacuated by a member of the press, but it had not been confirmed by the council

'I'm hoping I've got somewhere to go, it's all uncertain, they haven't offered me a hotel but there are so many people with children who need it.

'I've got friends around here, I've lived here for 54 years so I'm a local and I know people I can probably stay with for a few days until it's sorted out.

'A lot of people with children and animals might not be that lucky but the council are sorting the out.

'The council have been brilliant actually, it's a tricky situation but you wouldn't want to imagine what it's like.

'Having said that, someone has signed it off and given the go-ahead - how did it pass the safety checks? It's rather strange.

'I was told to leave at about 1:30 last night, but I didn't, I thought I'd be safe and I wasn't worried.

'If it's not going to catch alight now then it's fine, but Grenfell was horrible, you can't measure that and you don't want to see it again.'

Council leader Georgia Gould said she was told that the fire brigade could not guarantee resident safety in those blocks and made the decision to evacuate

Christopher Lenga, 18, lives next door in the Burnham tower with his parents, two sisters and two brothers.

He was told all the blocks were being evacuated by a member of the press, but no one from the council had confirmed it.

He said: 'I haven't been told anything by the council. I got home and saw on the news that 800 households were being evacuated, which is all the tower blocks, so I came down here to get more information.

'I was told by someone that all the flats were being evacuated. Now I've heard that they're getting cabs for people but there's lots of people here who are unsure about what is going on and what they're going to do - there is a lot of panic.

Nine Manchester blocks to have cladding removed Cladding will be removed from nine tower blocks in Salford after the fire. High-rise buildings in Pendleton have cladding containing aluminium composite material. Similar cladding was used in Grenfell Tower. The nine blocks are run by Pendleton Together on behalf of Salford Council and were refurbished as part of 650m Private Finance Initiative to refurbish 1,250 homes in the area. Yesterday, City Mayor Paul Dennett was announcing that cladding would be stripped from all of them. The nine blocks are Whitebeam Court, Malus Court, Beech Court, Salix Court, Spruce Court, Holm Court, Hornbeam Court, Thorn Court and Plane Court. A council source said: 'The cladding is coming off all nine as a precaution. It is a shame because the blocks are looking the best they have done for years but we cannot take chances.' In a statement, Pendleton Together earlier said: 'The cladding used in Pendleton is Aluminium Composite Material (ACM). This was fitted correctly to the manufacturer's specification and certified by an independent expert. We can confirm that all Fire Risk Assessments for the Pendleton blocks are up to date and to reassure our residents on Friday of last week we announced an independent review. This review will examine the refurbishment work and our ongoing safety practices and will be undertaken by independent safety experts. 'These experts will remain on site at Pendleton for the coming weeks in order to carry out their work.' Advertisement

'I haven't been worried, but now it's a case of is it all going to get sorted tonight? The decision was made in a short amount of time so a lot of people aren't prepared and need to get ready.'

One man, who gave his name as Arian, was seen carrying his three young children as they slept into a waiting taxi to take them to temporary accommodation in Aldgate.

He said: 'Obviously it's a troubled time for everyone, especially with families with young children. We are struggling to come to terms with what has happened, without any notice.

'I came from work around eight o'clock and found out. We were kind of caught unguarded and without any kind of preparation.

'It is extraordinary, absolutely difficult.'

He has lived in Taplow, the first block to be evacuated, for three years.

He said: '(My family) are sleeping, they will find out their fate tomorrow morning when they wake up. School is here, we are housed in the Aldgate area. It will be very difficult for us.

'It's outrageous, isn't it, the way the council handles all these contracts and how they deal with the residents and with the social housing? It is absolutely chaotic. I hope they just do the job as quickly as possible. People need to come back.'

Alice Clochet, 25, arrived home after work to find the evacuation in mid-flow, and was only allowed back inside to pack a suitcase.

The French national, who has lived in the tower for one year, says the council must now 'step up to help families.

She said: 'I came home after a day of work, after dinner and drinks, ready to have a chill night. I was approached by someone asking what was going on because they had heard the building was being evacuated.

'That's the first time I heard about anything, and then I went inside and someone from the council told me that the London Fire Brigade had recommended that residents evacuated the building tonight. They said they weren't forcing us to leave and that we only needed to take our essentials and go to the gym centre.

'Throughout the night it became clearer that it wasn't so much a recommendation as a requirement - they went to every flat asking people to leave and told us we'd have to go for two to four weeks.

'Apparently the safety procedures were out of date, so they have to do all this work and that's why it will take so long.'

Ms Clochet said she is lucky that a nearby friend has somewhere for her to stay this evening, and she believes another friend can house her for the rest of the time.

But she added angry residents, particularly those with children, need assuring that they have somewhere to stay for the next month while emergency works take place.

'I've got somewhere to stay, so I'm one of the lucky ones - I don't have any kids, I don't have a family,' she said.

The Grenfell, in which at least 79 people are believed to have died, has raised questions about cheap, flammable cladding. The plastic panels that were fitted to the outside of the 24-storey tower block were blamed for the fire spreading

The Chalcots Estate (pictured) in Camden will has similar plastic panels on the outside that were fitted to the outside of the 24-storey Grenfell Tower

'I have a plan B, but some people don't, and that's where the council need to step in and provide accommodation because they've kicked us out on a Friday evening.

'At first a lot of people were saying 'I'm not leaving tonight, it's my flat, why would I leave', but as it became clearer that they were actually evacuating us, then they became really annoyed and did what the council told them.

'I've not been worried about living here since the fire because I didn't want to think about it, but I had a little doubt at the back of my mind that it wasn't safe. I'd rather they did evacuate us even in these conditions rather than waking up in the middle of a fire.'

Fire safety expert Arnold Tarling told Sky News that it would be 'very distressing' for the people that are being evacuated but added that he 'put my hands up and said well done to Camden'.

'They're actually taking the situation seriously and they've decided not to play Russian roulette with the lives of their tenants,' said Mr Tarling.

'It's taken over a week for them to do this. Quite when they knew that there were problems with the cladding to the extent that they required to evacuate I don't know, but they should have been doing it immediately or at least putting plans in place.

'I'm sure it would be a lot of work for Camden council to do, but I'm sure there are ways to do these things without causing such confusion to people.

People were seen leaving the 24-storey building with bin bags and suitcases full of clothes

Residents were given just a couple of hours notice that they would be moving out of their homes on Friday night

Fire safety expert Arnold Tarling told Sky News that it will be 'very distressing' for the people that are being evacuated but added that he 'put my hands up and said well done to Camden'

'At last people are starting to listen and getting people out of a potential towering inferno. Hopefully the other people follow suit and don't let Camden be the only lead one with no other followers.

'It's a political decision by the council - are you willing to leave your tenants at risk not knowing if there's going to be a fire in a washing machine, a tumble dryer or somebody knocking over a candle.

'At the end of the day, people's lives matter far more than platitudes and comments that 'oh you'll be safe, oh we've put some people in to act as fire wardens' - fire wardens do not stop fires from spreading, they can't.

'By putting fire wardens into these blocks they're putting their lives at risk as well. We saw how fast the fire spread over at Grenfell tower - it's horrendous.'

The Prime Minister's official Twitter account said Theresa May was being regularly updated on the situation by Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Sajid Javid.

The tweets from Mrs May read: 'My thoughts are with residents being evacuated in Camden while their homes are made safe tonight.

'We will work with and support the emergency services and relevant authorities to safeguard the public.

'Have asked @sajidjavid to keep me regularly updated & ensure we are offering every support we can to residents & those working onsite.'

After London Fire Brigade inspected the building it was decided that residents would be 'temporarily decanted' while 'urgent' fire safety works were done. Council leader Georgia Gould is pictured speaking to residents yesterday

Some residents claimed they weren't told until 8.30pm that they would be moving out of their homes for up to three weeks

Several other tower blocks in London, as well as building in Manchester and Plymouth were found to contain flammable cladding, the Department for Communities and Local Government confirmed.

Workmen have already started to strip cladding from tower blocks around the country today as investigators revealed tiles and insulation on Grenfell House have not passed safety tests.

At least 79 people are believed to have died in the fire that ripped through the west London tower block in the early hours of June 14.

Workmen have already started to strip similiar cladding from tower blocks around the country today. Pictured: Cladding being removed from tower blocks in Barnet

Cllr Gould added: 'We anticipate that these works will be completed within three to four weeks.

'We realise that this is hugely distressing for everyone affected and we will be doing all we can, alongside the London Fire Brigade and other authorities, to support our residents at this difficult time.

'The Grenfell fire changes everything  we need to do everything we can to keep residents safe.

'You will appreciate that this is an emerging situation and we will be providing regular updates.'

Yesterday, London Fire Brigade Borough Commander Simon Tuhill said inspectors would check the fire safety of every building on the estate and make sure firefighting facilities were in place.

He added: 'The Brigade will also programme more in-depth inspections as part of an on-going process.'

Councils across Britain race to test their tower cladding Burnham residential tower on the Chalcots Estate, Camden, where cladding is being removed CONFIRMED CAMDEN The cladding was tested this week and, although different to that used in Grenfell, was found to be made up of 'aluminium panels with a polyethylene core'. The council has since said it will seek legal advice and accused contractors of fitting flammable materials below the commissioned standard. It also pledged round-the-clock fire safety patrols on the estate's corridors. DEVON Three high-rise tower blocks in Devon have been found to be clad in the same combustible material to the Grenfell Tower in London. Occupants of the 16-storey Lynher, Tamar and Tavy buildings in Plymouth were told of the potential fire risk to their buildings yesterday (Wed). Fire precautions at the buildings were checked urgently and the towers will now be monitored round the clock by security teams. MANCHESTER Wythenshawe Community Housing Group said 78 panels were being removed from a small area of the Village 135 development. Wythenshawe Community Housing Group (WCHG) said: 'We can confirm following early fire safety actions taken we have been able to detect that our Village 135 scheme has been identified as having 78 feature panels which are located in a small area of the overall development, works to remove these panels will commence today.' ISLINGTON Islington Council said cladding was to be removed from Braithwaite House, one of eight blocks tested, after it was found to have aluminium composite material. Test results from the other blocks, Harvist Estate and Brunswick Estate, are yet to be returned, a spokesman said. Councillor Diarmaid Ward said: 'Last night we received results of tests on cladding on the side of Braithwaite House, and they have confirmed the presence of Aluminium Composite Material (ACM). 'We're arranging to have the cladding, which is only on the sides of the building, removed as soon as we possibly can by a specialist contractor. BEING TESTED BARNET Barnet Homes, the council-owned company which runs 24 high-rise blocks in the borough, is reviewing safety in 10 blocks. Three blocks - Granville Point, Harpenmead Point and Templemead point - were reclad in 2012 and have similar panels to Grenfell Tower. They were inspected on Monday and the insulation materials were found to be non-combustible. The other seven blocks have different cladding to Grenfell but are being inspected as a 'precautionary' measure, the council said. NEWHAM Three of the borough's 88 tall buildings have so-called ACM cladding which could be a fire risk. The cladding on these three buildings is now being tested. A spokesman for the council said: 'Once the results are known, we will take whatever action is necessary to ensure our residents are safe. Rivers Apartments in Tottenham, north London, where a review is being carried out of the cladding 'We have already written to tenants and leaseholders in the three blocks explaining what is going on and will keep them informed of all developments.' HARINGEY The London Borough of Haringey owns 54 blocks over six storeys high. None of our blocks have the Reynobond aluminium cladding system that was used on Grenfell Tower. Rivers Apartments, a 22-storey block owned by a Housing Association, is being tested over fears it has the same cladding as Grenfell Tower. HOUNSLOW Only one of the borough's 35 high-rise buildings has the cladding of the type being tested. It is called Clements Court. A council spokesman said: 'We have now taken a sample of this cladding and submitted it to the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and the DCLG as part of its national inspection exercise, which will examine the detail composition of the outer ACM aluminium cladding. Behind the cladding, however, the system is insulated with a 'rockwool' material which is a non-combustable product, and the installation of the system is solely external and did not interfere with the interior of the building. SUTTON The council has eight blocks in its borough - the highest of which is 16 storeys - and has pledged to undergo a 'comprehensive review of fire safety'. Two blocks have cladding but using different materials than what was used in Grenfell. WESTMINSTER Harley Facades, who refurbished Grenfell Tower, supplied the over-cladding at six tower blocks on the Little Venice estate, but the type of cladding used is different, with non-flammable insulation. As a precaution, urgent checks are being carried out on the cladding system and the way it was installed. The local authority has visited all 41 of its tower blocks to review their fire evacuation plans. HAVERING The council has no tower blocks which are higher than 14 storeys. Inspections are being carried out on the other blocks they have in the borough. SALFORD The council says nine of its tower blocks have cladding that is similar to the material used on Grenfell Tower. Tests are being carried out to check whether it is combustible. BELIEVED TO BE SAFE BARKING AND DAGENHAM There are four blocks in the borough which have cladding, but the council said it is not the same type as used on Grenfell Tower. CROYDON 16 cladded blocks have been found not to have been clad with the same materials as Grenfell Tower. However, they are being tested as a precaution. GREENWICH The council said that none of the 105 high-rise buildings in Greenwich are clad in the same way as Grenfell Tower. Grenfell's fire has led to councils across the UK testing if their cladding is dangerous HAMMERSMITH AND FULHAM The council owns three tower blocks which have cladding, but the materials used are different to Grenfell Tower. RICHMOND The council has two 15-storey blocks which have both been recently over-clad with fire resistant cladding. WANDSWORTH There are three blocks in the borough with cladding. The council is carrying out tests but officers are confident they are safe. DONCASTER Cladding different but 'capping' under windowsills is the same, so they are being checked and tests urgently taken. Statement from St Leger Homes: 'The cladding system we have used in Doncaster is an External Wall Insulation (EWI) Render System which is not the same as was used at Grenfell Tower. The core cladding system we have used is different to that used in Grenfell Tower. 'However, we are aware that a small capping detail under the windows of Silverwood House is similar to that used on Grenfell Tower. Whilst this minor capping work (not the window frames or external cladding) is a different make and supplier to that used in London, we are seeking expert advice and ensuring that extensive further testing is urgently undertaken.' NEWCASTLE Your Homes Newcastle, which manages 38 high rise blocks on behalf of the Newcastle City Council, has reassured tenants that the type of cladding used on the Grenfell Tower has not been used on any of its buildings. The council said it is still reviewing building regulation records for existing high rise residential buildings over 18m in height. They said the priority was 'to identify buildings which have been retrofitted with external cladding and to check if the cladding specified is 'aluminium composite material'.' LEEDS The council said there are 22 blocks with cladding but none are made from flammable material NOTTINGHAM They have 13 blocks, none of which use aluminium cladding LIVERPOOL Council said it is still investigating whether privately owned properties have the cladding  the council does not have any housing stock itself ROTHERHAM There is only one block, but it has no external cladding HARTLEPOOL There is only one council block, owned by social housing provide 13. Investigations are taking place to see what the situation is with the cladding WAKEFIELD None of the 2 high rise blocks  managed by company WDH - are clad with the aluminium panels. Statement said: 'Only five have had external wall insulation, which is not a cosmetic treatment and is fixed directly to the super structure, rendered with no air gap, is non-combustible and we have the relevant manufacturer's guarantees confirming the safety of all products used.' Advertisement

Hotpoint urged to recall fridge freezer that started Grenfell Tower inferno amid fears thousands of terrified families still have the machines

By Richard Spillettand Martin Robinsonand James Tapsfield For Mailonline

Thousands of people who own a model of fridge-freezer which started the Grenfell Tower blaze are being urged to contact manufacturers Hotpoint amid safety fears.

The government ordered an urgent investigation into Hotpoint's FF175BP after police revealed it was the model which started the blaze which killed at least 79 people in west London.

Hotpoint's FF175BP model had not been subject to any product recall, but will now be examined by safety experts as part of a government-ordered review.

Consumer group Which? says all of the machines - of which 64,000 were made - should be recalled if found to be faulty, to tackle the concerns of the hundreds of terrified families who still have one.

Meanwhile workmen moved in to strip cladding from tower blocks around the country today as investigators revealed tiles and insulation on Grenfell House have not passed safety tests.

Scotland Yard said today it will consider 'every criminal offence from manslaughter onwards' and have seized documents and materials from a 'number of organisations'.

A Hotpoint FF175BP (like that pictured) started the blaze. Cladding from the outside of the building has failed safety tests

Hotpoint has issued this warning on its website, after the FF175BP was identified as the model behind the disaster

The Grenfell Tower blaze which killed at least 79 people was started by a faulty Hotpoint freezer, police have revealed today

Commenting on the investigation into the blaze, Met Police's DSI Fiona McCormack said today: 'What we are being told at the moment by the Building Research Establishment is that the cladding and insulation failed all safety tests.'

Although the official number of people missing believed dead still stands at 79, police fear more were trapped inside the building and say they may never know the true death toll.

The fridge freezer was announced as the source of the blaze as:

At least 11 buildings across eight local authority areas in England have been found to have flammable cladding and at least 25 are believed to have aluminium composite cladding, like that which was fixed to Grenfell. Hundreds more are being tested.

Hotel chain Premier Inn said it has 'concerns' that cladding used on some of its buildings may not meet safety regulations, particularly hotels in Maidenhead, Brentford and Tottenham.

The Charity Commission announced an initial 20,000 will be given to the families of each person who has died or is declared missing presumed dead, from the money raised from numerous appeals.

It was confirmed a total of 151 homes were destroyed in the blaze, including 129 in the tower itself and 22 from nearby Grenfell Walk.

363 households have been placed in hotel accommodation in or as near to the Royal Borough as possible, 213 of which are from the cordon area which surrounds the tower.

Describing how the investigation was proceeding, DSI McCormack said today: 'We have been in Grenfell Tower, from top to bottom, last week.

'Next week we will be installing a lift to the outside of the building to assist. But our forensic search may not be complete until the end of the year.'

Have YOU got one the Hotpoint freezers? Hotpoint said 64,000 units of the same model as that which started the blaze were made between 2006 and 2009. However, the number in circulation would be lower given the time period involved. Anyone who believes they have one of the fridge-freezers is being urged to call the company's freephone hotline on 0800 316 3826 or visit hotpointservice.co.uk/fridgefreezer. Advertisement

As part of the investigation, teams listened to some 600 distressed 999 calls with 'terribly harrowing content'.

DSI McCormack added: 'Every complete body has been removed from the building. What we are dealing with now, as you can imagine in the intense heat, is a very distressing scene.

'What we haven't got is a picture of how many people might have been in there. That's the number in really worried about, that there might have been other innocent people in there.'

Repeating concerns from police commander Stuart Cundy about the scale of the task in identifying the victims, DSI McCormack added: 'There is a terrible reality that we may not find or identify everyone who died due to the intense heat.'

Hotpoint's FF175BP models were manufactured by Indesit between March 2006 and July 2009 and were sold for around 330 at the time. The models were discontinued in 2009 but thousands are thought to still be in use.

Alex Neill, from consumer group Which?, said: 'If it turns out that faults in this fridge-freezer caused the fire to start at Grenfell Tower, this raises serious questions about the safety of these products.

'If this model is found to be faulty, a full product recall must be implemented swiftly by the manufacturer so that any at risk products are removed from people's homes.'

Anyone who believes they have one of the fridge-freezers is being urged to call the company's freephone hotline on 0800 316 3826 or visit hotpointservice.co.uk/fridgefreezer.

Investigators have been piecing through the wrecked building since the disaster. So far, 79 people are said to have died

Photos take after the blaze showed the devastation caused inside the building, where temperatures reached 1000C

Scotland Yard said that tests carried out as part of the investigation show that tiles and insulation 'don't pass any safety tests'

The fire is understood to have started in a fourth floor flat. A resident of the flat, Behailu Kebede, raised the alarm and warned neighbours. His friends later told The Sun he felt terrible that people had died, although there is no suggestion he knew the fridge was faulty as no previous recall had been ordered.

The BBC reported that the fridge fire was extinguished by fire crews before they realised the flames had spread outside.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said today: 'The device is being subject to immediate and rigorous testing to establish the cause of the fire. I have made clear to the company that I will expect them to replace any item without delay if it is established that there is a risk in using them.'

Behailu Kebede raised the alarm and woke neighbours, potentially saving their lives, after the blaze started in his flat. There is no suggestion he knew the fridge freezer was faulty as it had never been the subject of a recall

The department advised consumers not overload plugs, ensure sockets are not damaged and to check cables and leads are in good condition.

According to the London Fire Brigade (LFB), nearly one fire a day in the capital involves white goods. Its 'Total Recalls' campaign has called on the Government, manufacturers and retailers to make changes to improve safety.

One proposed measure calls for manufacturers to use metal rather than plastic to make the backs of fridges in order to protect flammable polyurethane insulation, which is used in most refrigeration, from components that could cause a blaze.

LFB has also called for a central register of product recalls, better publicity of faults and recalls, and greater regulation of secondhand appliances as part of its campaign.

Hotpoint have issued a statement saying they are working with the authorities but were 'unable to speculate on further details at this time'.

A Hotpoint spokesman said: 'We are addressing this as a matter of utmost urgency and assisting the authorities in any way we can. We will provide additional updates as our investigations progress.'

The Hotpoint spokesman added: 'Words cannot express our sorrow at this terrible tragedy. We offer our most profound condolences to the victims, those who have lost loved-ones, homes, and possessions, and to their friends and families.

'Our thoughts and prayers are with all those involved, including the emergency services who risked their lives to extinguish the blaze and rescue those in the building.'

Meanwhile, cladding from hundreds of high-rise buildings around the country are being tested by the government to see if they pose a fire threat.

Work is being carried out to strip material from a residential block in the Village 135 development in Wythenshawe, Manchester after concerns were raised about the cladding

Hotel chain Premier Inn has 'concerns' that cladding used on some of its buildings. Hotels in Maidenhead (pictured), Brentford and Tottenham have been investigated during an assessment

Islington Council today said cladding was to be removed from its Braithwaite House, one of eight blocks tested, after it was found to have aluminium composite material.

Test results from the other blocks, Harvist Estate and Brunswick Estate, are yet to be returned, a spokesman said.

Councillor Diarmaid Ward said: 'Last night we received results of tests on cladding on the side of Braithwaite House, and they have confirmed the presence of Aluminium Composite Material (ACM).

Hotpoint's tumble dryers were at centre of house blaze scandal Hotpoint was previously at the centre over a fire scandal over its tumble dryers. In November 2015, a national safety recall was announced covering millions of tumble dryers sold under the Indesit, Hotpoint and Creda brands. The manufacturer admitted that there had been at least 750 fires associated with the machines, some of which caused serious damage. The problem was caused by fluff accumulating in the filter, which is very close to the heating element on these models. Advertisement

'We're arranging to have the cladding, which is only on the sides of the building, removed as soon as we possibly can by a specialist contractor.'

Work is also being carried out to strip material from a residential block in the Village 135 development in Wythenshawe, Manchester after concerns were raised about the cladding.

Wythenshawe Community Housing Group (WCHG), which runs the block, said it was taking no chances and work to remove the material began yesterday afternoon.

In a statement WCHG said: 'Following the tragic events from the Grenfell Fire, Wythenshawe Community Housing Group, working with the Greater Manchester Fire service, has conducted a comprehensive review of all ten tower blocks within Wythenshawe.

'We can confirm following early fire safety actions taken we have been able to detect that our Village 135 scheme has been identified as having 78 feature panels which are located in a small area of the overall development, works to remove these panels will commence today.'

Towers in Camden, Manchester and Plymouth are among the at-risk buildings, Communities and Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid said in a letter to MPs.

Camden Council has already begun removing cladding from five towers of up to 23-storeys on its giant Chalcot Estate over fears they are potentially dangerous.

But residents in the 721 flats will not be moved and fire wardens will be put there 24 hours a day to reassure locals and help in the event of a blaze.

The north London council looks set to sue contractor Rydon, who also carried out the Grenfell work, claiming 'the panels that were fitted were not to the standard that we had commissioned'.

Work has stated to remove cladding on the Burnham Tower in Camden today (pictured, with missing panels bottom right) - one of five on the Chalcot estate needing emergency work

Scaffolders started to remove cladding at the Chalcot estate in North London as emergency work began today

Three high-rise tower blocks in Plymouth, Devon, have also been found to be clad in the same combustible material to the Grenfell Tower in London.

Occupants of the 16-storey Lynher, Tamar and Tavy buildings in Devonport, Plymouth were told of the potential fire risk to their buildings. The towers will now be monitored round the clock by security teams.

Families will be given 20,000 for every person who died in fire An initial 20,000 will be given to the families of each person who has died or is declared missing presumed dead, The Charity Commission has announced today. Up to 10,000 will also be available for immediate distribution to each person seriously injured and requiring hospital treatment. Another 10,000 will also be given to every family from Grenfell as a 'fresh start' grant as they move into new permanent accommodation. Three of the major funds raising cash for those affected, the British Red Cross, K&C Foundation and the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund in collaboration with The London Community Foundation, have now come together with the London Emergencies Trust. It now holds 11.1million in donations. It has been agreed to consolidate some of the cash raised for the victims by the charities, with support and advice from the Charity Commission, to coordinate financial help for those affected. David Holdsworth, chief operating officer at the Charity Commission, said the British public have 'now donated millions to help the victims' of the fire. 'This collaboration, along with the first immediate distribution of funds from public donations, will help ensure clear, easy access to the help and support that those affected by this devastating tragedy so urgently need,' he said. Advertisement

Other councils across the UK have been ordered to provide samples of the cladding used on high-rises by Monday and these will be tested at a rate of 100 per day.

Barnet Council has warned that inspectors have found that three of its blocks have similar metal panels as the ill-fated Grenfell Tower, but say they are not combustible.

Residents at the 22-storey River Apartments in Tottenham, north London, have been sent an email saying the building has the same cladding as Grenfell Tower, it has emerged. The building is now being tested.

Meanwhile, Salford City Council has confirmed that nine of its tower blocks have cladding that is similar to the material used on Grenfell Tower.

Aluminium composite material is used on the recently refurbished buildings in Pendleton, with tests currently being carried out to check whether it is combustible.

The council said there will be extended patrols around the affected blocks, adding that 'all fire risk assessments' for the buildings are up to date.

The Scottish government has confirmed that no council-owned tower blocks north of the border are affected by the Grenfell Tower cladding, after local authorities across the country conducted checks on their properties.

Birmingham City Council said none of its 213 blocks used the cladding on Grenfell Tower, but announced that it will be installing sprinkler systems and other fire suppression measures in the wake of the tragedy.

Plymouth MP Luke Pollard was alerted to the worries over three blocks in the city last test results during a debate in the House of Commons on the Grenfell Towers disaster and left immediately.

He said: 'What residents will want to know is that the city council, Plymouth Community Homes and the Fire Brigade are working together to get the answers they need.

'What we need now is to make sure they conduct updated fire checks and provide information to residents and people who live nearby on what this means.

'After the terrible tragedy of Grenfell Tower, the residents are right to demand answers and that's what I and local councillors are asking for.

'It's reassuring that Plymouth Community Homes has acted so swiftly.'

The blocks in Camden, north London were refurbished with the cladding at a cost of 16 million. But in the aftermath of Grenfell warning posters have been put up in communal areas telling residents that the cladding is believed to be the same.

Today their worst fears were realised and tenants told MailOnline they cannot sleep at night due to concerns about the safety of their homes.

Cladding being removed from high rise tower blocks in Barnet, London, which has the same outer panels as the Glenfell tower

These three high-rise tower blocks in Plymouth, Devon, have also been found to be clad in the same combustible material to the Grenfell Tower in London - and have had security teams installed

Julia Mummolo, 24, a shop worker, said: 'Of course I am worried. I have been able to sleep since the fire at Grenfell. I'm trying to find somewhere else to live i can't stay here.

'I live on the 16th floor. I don't know how I would be able to get out if there were a fire.'

Abdulazuz Farah, 56, a community worker said: 'I am really worried for the safety of my family. This is the same cladding and itvwas put in by the same company.

'I live on the 17th floor. I don't know how we would get out. We are all really worried but we don't have anywhere else to live.'

Louise, 25, said: 'Everyone is worried but where else can we go? There is now here else for us to go.'

Another long term resident who asked not to be named added: 'My parents moved in here in 1969. There are no fire alarms, no fire extinguishers and no evacuation plan.

'Like lots of people I haven't been able to sleep at night after what happened at Grenfell. And to find out we have the same cladding well it's a scandal.'

Restaurant worker Muban Miah, 44, has lived in one of the five towers with his wife and son for the last eight years.

He said: 'People who live on the upper floors are very worried because they don't know what is going to happen.

'There are so many people living in their, young, old and families and who knows what is going to happen if there's a fire.

'We've been told it would take half an hour for a fire to spread from one flat to another. But after last week it is very worrying.'

Minicab driver Mohamed Nur, 42, who lives on the 16th floor with his wife and five children.

'Yesterday they came down to take a panel for testing and today we were told it was safe but they are going to change it.

'To be honest I never thought the cladding was safe because of the foam underneath. With what happened last week I am worried. Anything could happen if a fire starts.

'It is not the fire that kills you it is the smoke. After last week I've made sure I know all the exits. I always make sure my children know what to do if something happens. I worry about what will happen to my children.

'Whenever I hear a siren outside I always go to the window to check and see what is happening.'

Bob O'Toole, who lives at the Burnham tower block on the Chalcots Estate in Camdem, is among those who have been told the building failed a fire safety test

Mandy Ryan is a resident of Dorney House on the Chalcot Estate, Chalk Farm, north London, where work is being carried out

Camden Council has revealed its own independent tests show cladding on five up to 23-storey towers on its giant Chalcots Estate (pictured) is potentially dangerous and will be removed

Occupants of the 16-storey Lynher, Tamar and Tavy buildings in Devonport Plymouth were told of the potential fire risk to their buildings. The towers will now be monitored round the clock by security teams

Bob O'Toole, 62, has lived in one of the blocks for 15 years and is chairman of the residents association.

He said: 'After the fire last week. I was 99.9 per cent sure that our towers were safe. However we were told this morning that the cladding had failed the fire safety test.

'A lot of people were worried about it because there are a lot of families with young children living here, as well as elderly people and vulnerable people.

'The council has been up front with everyone about it and they have given people a lot of reassurance.

'The key is the council is going to do something about it and the important thing is to get the message out there to everyone.'

Blocks in Barnet, left, and Rivers Apartments in Tottenham, right, are believed to have similar or the same panels as Grenfell and some will be removed and tested

Camden Council will rip off the cladding from its Bray, Burnham, Taplow, Dorney and Blashford towers (pictured top left to bottom right) immediately and claim it was not to the specification they demanded

Engineer David Heaton, 56, was visiting his elderly mother who lives on the eighth floor, but did not want to be photographed.

He said: 'My mum's lived here for 42 years. She got dementia and I have to say it's very worrying to hear about the cladding.

'When Grenfell happened last week I was worried about what would happen if there was a fire.

'This is exactly the same sort of building but the next day my mum got letters from the council and her MP giving us assurances.

'It's good they are going to replace the cladding because it's better to be sure it's safe.'

Councils were told to provide the Government with details of the cladding used on high-rises by Monday and three samples were found to be combustible after tests on a 'small number' of specimens.

Flammable panelling on the outside of Grenfell Tower is suspected to have aided the rapid spread of last week's blaze, trapping dozens inside.

The Department for Communities and Local Government is coordinating the process and facilities allow for 100 samples a day to be tested. The fire service will also carry out checks at high risk buildings.
China and the United States have agreed efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula should be 'complete, verifiable and irreversible,' Chinese state media said on Saturday.

'Both sides reaffirm that they will strive for the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,' a consensus document released by the official Xinhua news agency said, reporting the results of high level talks in Washington this week.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had said on Thursday that the United States pressed China to ramp up economic and political pressure on North Korea, during his meeting with top Chinese diplomats and defense chiefs.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the test of a new-type anti-aircraft guided weapon system organised by the Academy of National Defense Science in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on May 28

The ruler watches the test of a new type of anti-aircraft guided weapon system -the US had China have reportedly agreed that 'complete, verifiable and irreversible' denuclearization should be the end goal with North Korea

China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi and General Fang Fenghui met Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis during the talks.

Yang later met with US President Donald Trump in the White House, where they also discussed North Korea, Xinhua reported.

The consensus document also highlighted the need to fully and strictly hold to U.N. Security Council resolutions and push for dialogue and negotiation, which has long been China's position on the issue.

The talks between US and China last week sprung out of Trump's meeting with President Xi Jiping in Florida in April (above)

Military-to-military exchanges should also be upgraded and mechanisms of notification established in order to cut the risks of 'judgement errors' between the Chinese and U.S. militaries, the statement also said.

Chinese state media described the talks, the first of their kind with the Trump administration, as an upgrade in dialogue mechanisms between China and the United States, following on from President Xi Jiping's meeting with Trump in Florida in April.

Xi and Trump are next expected to meet again in Hamburg during the G20 Summit next month.

The US's policy toward North Korea has been up in the air since Trump made it clear that China hadn't gotten anywhere with the hermit kingdom

Trump said last week that China's efforts to use its leverage with North Korea had failed, raising fresh doubts about his administrations strategy for countering the threat from North Korea.

The death of American university student Otto Warmbier earlier this week, after his release from 17 months of imprisonment in Pyongyang, further complicated Trump's approach to North Korea.

China, North Koreas main trading partner, has been accused of not fully enforcing existing U.N. sanctions on its neighbour, and has resisted some tougher measures.

Washington has considered further 'secondary sanctions' against Chinese banks and other firms doing business with North Korea, which China opposes.
A man convicted of sending 20,000 a year to an Islamist group linked to the Manchester Arena bombing is working at the Libyan embassy in London.

Ismail Kamoka was jailed for three years and nine months in 2007 for sending cash to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) as well as giving out false passports.

Salman Abedi, the 22-year-old terrorist who murdered 22 people in a suicide bombing at Manchester Arena last month, has been linked to the LIFG.

Kamoka, 51, moved to the UK in 1994 before claiming political asylum.

Pictured: Ismail Kamoka, who was convicted of sending 20,000 a year to an Islamist group, now works for the Libyan embassy in London

According to The Times, he now lives in a housing association property in Burnt Oak, London.

He is understood to work at the consular and cultural affairs arm of Libya's embassy in Kensington.

In 1984 PC Yvonne Fletcher was killed by a bullet fired from the embassy's nearby headquarters.

Kamoka was described in court as being the UK leader of a terror group linked to al-Qaeda. A judge said he was a risk to national security.

The Libyan government based in Tripoli, which is backed by Western powers and the UN, is supported by militias that fought in the 2011 war to oust Muammar Gaddafi.

Pictured: Salman Abedi, who murdered 22 people last month during the Manchester Arena terror attack

There has been concern that it has links to Islamist groups.

Susanne Dodd, the daughter of a policeman who died when the IRA bombed Harrods in 1983 with explosives provided by Libya, said the appointment of Kamoka 'sends the wrong message to terrorists'.

In 2011, documents showed that MI6 thought Kamoka had been to Iran to provide fake papers for al-Qaeda as well as funding extremists around the globe.

The LIFG - some of whose members fought with bin Laden in Afghanistan - was labelled a terrorist organisation in 2001, but some of its alleged backers were allowed to stay as refugees.

It was proscribed in Britain in 2005 but fought against Gaddafi in 2011.

The UN accused members of the LIFG of being connected to bombings in Morocco and also the 2004 Madrid train attack.

Komoka, however, is suing the government and intelligence agencies because he claims he was falsely imprisoned in an attempted deportation.

He also said evidence used in the case against him was acquired through torture in Libya.
Shocking footage shows a lawyer being knocked unconscious by a single punch during a heated exchange with a group of women.

The video, believed to have been filmed in Argentina, does not show what sparked the dispute that erupted outside a nightclub.

The man wearing a white shirt is seen fiercely bickering with the group of women.

At on point he exclaims: 'Report me if you want, I'm a lawyer!

The video, believed to have been filmed in Argentina, does not show what sparked the dispute that erupted outside a nightclub

Shortly afterwards a man in a stripy T-shirt, who had not previously appeared on screen, knocks the lawyer out cold with a surprise punch.

The lawyer falls flat on his back on the pavement, out cold.

His attacker puts so much force into the blow that he stumbles and almost falls over after delivering it.

The women with whom the lawyer had been arguing then turn on his attacker, shouting and screaming at him and calling him an idiot.

Shortly afterwards a man in a stripy T-shirt, who had not previously appeared on screen, knocks the lawyer out cold with a surprise punch.

The lawyer falls flat on his back on the pavement, out cold. The women with whom the lawyer had been arguing then turn on his attacker, shouting and screaming at him and calling him an idiot.

Video of the incident circulated widely, with the hashtag PinaAlAbogado trending.

It means PineappleToLawyer, as pineapple also means punch in Spanish.

Some witty netizens created Simpsons-themed memes of the punch, as it is similar to one in the popular cartoon.

It was not clear what injuries the lawyer suffered or what treatment if any he received.

No one involved was named in reports.
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Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young claimed over $2400 in taxpayer expenses to travel to Byron Bay on the weekend of last year's Splendour in the Grass festival.

The senator claimed a $65.50 Comcar to the Adelaide airport, a $646 flight from Adelaide Coolangatta on July 21, car costs of $135, and a $545 flight from Coolangatta to Sydney on July 25.

A total of $1032 in 'electorate business' travel allowance from July 21-24 was revealed in a new Finance Department report on entitlements claimed over the period from July to December 2016.

Senator Hanson-Young was booked for a debate inside the festival with Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, but the event was cancelled last minute, according to TheMusic.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young claimed over $2400 in taxpayer expenses to travel to Byron Bay on the weekend of last year's Splendour in the Grass festival

Comment has been sought from Senator Hanson-Young, who did not immediately respond.

However a check of the senator's Twitter feed showed she spoke at a forum about the film Chasing Asylum alongside the film's director Eva Orner.

She also took part in an ABC Q&A program which was webcast.

Neither Labor MP Terri Butler nor Liberal MP Andrew Laming who were also on the program, but hail from Queensland, claimed expenses.

But Ms Butler said it was not uncommon for MPs to claim Q&A attendance as 'electorate business'.

Under the rules, members of parliament can legitimately claim taxpayer-funded allowances - up to a maximum of 10 overnight stays - for travel outside their electorates on 'electorate business' such as meetings and conferences.

The senator claimed thousands in flights and cars relkated to the trip

Senator Hanson-Young was booked for a debate inside the festival with Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce hosted by Tony Jones, but the event was cancelled last minute

Senator Hanson-Young also claimed 'electorate business' travel allowance for visits to Sydney and Perth, totalling $1593.

A review of entitlements, which led to a new system being put in place, questioned the inconsistency of the term 'electorate business'.

'There is no consistent eligibility test (or terminology within those tests) applying to all work expenses,' the report concluded, recommending a new system of 'work expenses' and an independent body to monitor it.
Police in Norway revoked a special speed licence issued to Top Gear after one of its supercars was clocked doing 151mph in a 50mph tunnel.

Sensors alerted police to the vehicle as it zoomed through the three and-a-half mile Atlantic Ocean Tunnel while Top Gear were filming.

The BBC have insisted that Matt LeBlanc, 49, and Chris Harris, 42, were not in the area at the time the reading was recorded.

But officers are demanding to know who was behind the wheel of the speeding car.

The BBC have insisted that Matt LeBlanc, 49 (right), and Chris Harris (centre), 42, were not in the area at the time the reading was recorded. They are pictured with co-presenter Rory Reid

The Atlantic Ocean Tunnel was closed off for filming so the BBC2 show could take a Ferrari GTC4 Lusso and a Porsche Panamera Sport

'We are fully co-operating with the police', a BBC spokesman told The Sun.

The special permit issued by police in Norway allowed the cars to travel at speeds of up to 87mph.

The tunnel was closed off for filming so the BBC2 show could take a Ferrari GTC4 Lusso and a Porsche Panamera Sport.

But they scrapped it after one of the vehicles exceeded that limit by more than three times.

Filming carried on yesterday but both supercars were limited to travelling at no more than 50mph.

Police chief Anne Berit Lian said: 'At present, one cannot determine who was behind the speed violations. The investigation is aimed at uncovering this.

Crews shipped a Ferrari GTC4 Lusso and a Porsche Panamera Sport (example pictured) to drive through the tunnel

'Permits to exceed the speed limit have been revoked.'

It comes after the show's failed attempt to lift a 50 mph speed limit for filming at Romsdal, Norway, in 2016 when Chris Evans was host.

The 250,000 shoot was cancelled because police refused to up the speed limit - even after cars were shipped over, roads closed and helicopters organised.
At least 5,000 children in Queensland are on a waiting list for a tuberculosis vaccination, despite the government introducing a 'no jab, no play' policy in 2016.

After a global shortage of the Bacille Calmette Guerin vaccine, health authorities are reportedly finding it difficult to clear the backlog of children needing the vaccine, reported Newscorp.

Tuberculosis is a serious infectious bacterial disease that mainly affects the lungs.

At least 5,000 children in Queensland are on a waiting list for a tuberculosis vaccination, despite the government introducing a 'no jab, no play' policy in 2016 (stock image)

A Queensland Health spokesperson told Newscorp that the authoritisation process had added to the time required to address the waitlists.

'Tuberculosis Control Units are currently working through waitlists to administer the vaccine to eligible children in order of priority,' the spokesperson said.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander newborn babies are reportedly at the top of the priority list for vaccinations.

They are followed by children under five who have lived or will live in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities for three months or more.

After a global shortage of the Bacille Calmette Guerin vaccine, health authorities are reportedly finding it difficult to clear the backlog of children needing the vaccine

Children who are also travelling for more than three months to one of 22 countries listed by the World Health Organisation as being 'high risk' for TB are also being given priority to receive the vaccine.

According to statistics from Queensland Health, tuberculosis rates in Australia are low by global standards, with just 3.8 cases per 100,000 people.

In May, 2016, Queensland Health issued an urgent public health alert warning to health professionals that the vaccine had not been available in Australia for nearly six months, due to the shortage.

The vaccine is sent to countries where the disease is most prevalent, before the remainder is sent to other countries.
All members of the Greens federal parliamentary party, including leader Richard Di Natale, have reportedly signed a formal complaint against NSW senator Lee Rhiannon.

Fairfax Media says the nine have sent the letter to the Greens national council, accusing Senator Rhiannon of attempting to derail them over the Gonski schools funding negotiations after she distributed a leaflet against the deal.

'This is unprecedented. Lee has breached the faith of the party and the party room,' A Greens source told Fairfax.

The Greens party signed a formal complaint against NSW senator Lee Rhiannon (pictured)

All members of the Greens federal parliamentary party, including leader Richard Di Natale (pictured) , have reportedly signed a formal complaint against NSW senator Lee Rhiannon

The material was dropped in letterboxes in Sydney's inner-west this week as the Turnbull government finalised its negotiations on the overhaul of school funding.

'We were astounded that Senator Rhiannon was engaged with its production and distribution without informing (the) Party Room at a time when we were under enormous pressure from all sides as we considered our position on the (school funding) bill,' Fairfax quoted the letter as saying.

The senators said the material clearly had the potential to damage negotiations about securing 'billions of dollars of additional funding for underfunded public schools'.

A spokesman for Senator Di Natale told AAP the party room would meet 'shortly' to discuss the matter.

'We're extremely disappointed that the letter was made public,' he said.

The leaflet, a copy of which was posted on Twitter, urged residents to call senators and demand they 'take a stand for public education'.

It broke down 'proposed funding cuts' to local public schools and stated that the party remained committed to the full, original Gonski plan.

The leaflet, a copy of which was posted on Twitter, urged residents to call senators and demand they 'take a stand for public education'

The leaflet broke down 'proposed funding cuts' to local public schools and stated that the party remained committed to the full, original Gonski plan.

The government threw an extra $5 billion into the plan to win over the crossbench, taking the package to $23.5 billion over the next decade.

Labor and the Greens voted against the package, but the government secured the 10 crucial crossbench votes needed to get its funding shake-up over the line.

The Gonski 2.0 package will ensure underfunded schools reach funding targets in six years instead of 10 - an amendment Labor and the Greens supported on Thursday night.
There are plans for a new crackdown on drones after one came within a metre of hitting a passenger jet as it came to land at Liverpool Airport.

The Airbus A319 was three miles north of the runway at 5.33pm on April 22 when a drone passed its wingtip in what is thought to be the closest near-miss on record.

A report from the UK Airprox Board said the fact a collision at 2,500feet was avoided was purely 'down to luck' as it was too late for the pilot to avoid the object.

The Airbus A319 was approaching the runway at 5.33pm on April 22 when a drone passed its wingtip in what is thought to be the closest near-miss on record. File picture

The near-miss happened five nautical miles north of the runway at Liverpool Airport

The organisation, which promotes air safety, said the object was initially thought to be a 'bird' but it soon became clear it was a 'blue drone with flashing lights'.

The report stated: 'The first officer noticed something flying towards the aircraft. It was initially presumed to be a bird.

'However, as it got closer the FO realised it was a blue drone with flashing lights. It passed at the same level within a metre of the wing-tip.

'Had the aircraft been in manual control the FO would have taken avoiding action, the only reason there was not a collision was down to luck.'

A report from the UK Airprox Board said the fact a collision at 2,500feet was avoided was purely 'down to luck' as it was too late for the pilot to avoid the object. File pic

The government new rules to regulate drones, including compulsory registration for owners and beacons to make them recognisable to air traffic control.

Operating drones in 'no fly zones' near airports will be made a new criminal offence with fines far higher than the current 2,500 limit, The Times reported.

Following a consultation on drone regulation in December, a government source said it expects concrete proposals out just after parliament's summer recess.

There were 69 near-misses involving drones and aircraft in 2016, and there have been a significant number of incidents already this year.

Perhaps the most high-profile incident was in March this year, when Prince William's air ambulance came within half a second of hitting a drone.

Medics on board reacted with horror when they spotted the device within feet of potentially downing their helicopter.

An official report, seen by The Mail on Sunday, said that a collision had only been narrowly avoided and disaster was averted by pure chance.

The organisation, which promotes air safety, said the object was initially thought to be a 'bird' but it soon became clear it was a 'blue drone with flashing lights'

A report reveals that the terrifying near-miss happened at 1,900ft when the helicopter, with three medical staff and two pilots on board, was flying almost directly over a McDonalds restaurant filled with families.

It was flying at 138mph, covering 200ft a second, and the drone was less than 100ft away  making it half a second from impact.

The Duke of Cambridge regularly pilots the helicopter, codenamed Anglia Two, but it was only by fluke that he was not on board at the time. He was at the controls of the aircraft just days later.
This is the gut-wrenching moment a beefy woman breaks her arm live on TV as she tries to beat a rival into submission in a competition called 'Iron Lady'.

The well-built pair agreed to test their strength on a popular Argentinian programme which was broadcast yesterday.

But seconds into their arm-wrestling competition, viewers heard a snapping sound and one of the women immediately put her hand under her suffering rival's elbow as she realised something had gone horribly wrong.

Medics rushed onto the set to take away the patient, named only as Pamela, who was remarkably calm and expressionless.

Original video from TN

Pictured: As Pamela (left) suffers a devastating arm break, the other contestant is shocked at what she has done

Pictured: The other contestant holds onto Pamela's arm after the horrific snap echoes through the studio

Dismay: The presenters and other contestant are shocked by events

It was confirmed after the show she had broken her arm, rather than just dislocating her elbow as initially feared, and would need an operation.

Host Chino Leunis, who tried to calm the nerves of the other woman taking part in the competition before urging her to leave the stage and go and comfort her arm-wrestling rival, said on Twitter after the show: 'Unfortunately Pamela broke her arm. She's been put in plaster and tomorrow she's going to be operated on. It's a terrible shame and we will be attentive and help her.

'It was a great shock for everyone involved, I can assure you.

'Live TV is a daily learning experience.'

Host Chino Leunis (pictured centre with waistcoat) said: 'Live TV is a daily learning experience' in reaction to the break

It all started so well: The contestants are shown above just before the terrible break

Four participants have to take part in physical and intellectual tests as part of the programme where the incident occurred, called 'En Que Mano Esta?' in Spanish, which translates into English as 'What Hand Is it In?'

As well as a cash prize, competitors also have the chance of winning a new car.

Last September a stunning Portuguese TV presenter fainted as she took a call from a viewer.

Beautiful Erica Cardoso complained of feeling hot and asked her production team for a glass of water before she slipped off her chair and disappeared out of view.

Pictured: The beginning of the 'Iron Lady' arm-wrestle, with host presenter Chino Leunis smiling on

The incident happened seconds after she had greeted the male caller to her quiz show Super Quiz, leaving him replying 'Hello, Hello' but getting no response.

The programme on leading Portuguese channel TVI went to an unscheduled ad break so Erica could recover.

Hours before blacking out the pretty brunette, who also models, had asked on her Instagram account: 'How do you cure a cold?.'

In May last year a topless model fainted and nearly crashed through a screen as a TV doctor talked to viewers about breast cancer on a Chilean morning TV programme.

Worried presenters helped her cover up and took her to a dressing room to rest after she lost her balance during a practical demonstration.
Guantanamo Bay prisoner Riduan Isamuddin is accused of masterminding the devastating 2002 Bali bombings

The alleged mastermind of the devastating Bali bombings has finally been charged, more than a decade after 202 people were killed including 88 Australians.

Guantanamo Bay prisoner Riduan Isamuddin was accused in a U.S. war court on Friday of orchestrating the 2002 Bali bombings and a 2003 attack on a hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people.

Hambali was captured in Bangkok, Thailand in 2003 and has been held in Guantanamo Bay without charge since 2006.

He is accused of plotting three explosions on October 12, 2002, which hit a bar, nightclub and the U.S. Consulate on the Indonesian resort island.

An Islamist suicide bomber blew himself up inside a nightclub jammed with tourists at a popular beach, killing many instantly and forcing others to run outside.

Another suicide bomber detonated a massive bomb loaded in a car parked on the street in front of two clubs.

In the second bombing in 2003, the J.W. Marriott Hotel was targeted because the building was conducive to the type of bomb that was being constructed.

For Australia, which suffered the most casualties, the Bali bombs were the worst peacetime attack on its citizens, many of whom regard a holiday on sun-drenched Bali as a rite of passage.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has welcomed the charges, saying they are the first step to closure for the victims of the deadly attacks.

'I hope that should this prosecution succeed, it will bring closure to those devastated by the loss of loved ones, family and friends,' Ms Bishop told reporters

An aerial view of the devasting bomb blast scene where suicide bombers targeted a popular nightclub

People visit the site of the 12 October bombing as two Australian flags sit amongst flowers in Kuta

'It has been a scar on the hearts of all Australians since these attacks occurred in 2002.'

Last fall, a U.S. government review board rejected the release of Hambali, saying he continues to be a 'significant threat to the security of the United States.'

Dubbed the 'Osama bin Laden of Southeast Asia,' Hambali was seen as the main link between Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) and Al-Qaeda.

According to rules of the U.S. military commission, a military court will later decide whether a trial will be held for the raft of charges he faces.

Hambali has been charged with murder and attempted murder in violation of the law of war, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, terrorism, attacking civilians; and related charges.
Kevin Adams, 52, was found guilty of the manslaughter of Kim Dohoom after the pair had sex using bonding restraints and took drugs

A man who killed his sexual partner in a drugged-up bondage game gone wrong was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence today.

Kevin Adams, aged 54, was arrested at his home following the sudden death of Korean-born Kim Dohoon, with whom he had a sexual relationship at the time, police said.

The pair had taken a cocktail of drugs earlier that evening before having sex using bonding restraints, which ended up partially strangling the 34-year-old victim and contributing to his death.

A post mortem examination later revealed that Dohoon died as a result of a partially obstructed airway and mixed drug intoxication, a spokesman for the police said.

Following this report, Adams, of Exmouth Street in Swindon, Wiltshire was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence, as police believed that he had a responsibility to look after Dohoon's welfare on the night of the incident.

He was convicted on Friday by a jury sitting at Bristol Crown Court of causing Dohoon's death on June 13 2015. He had previously admitted a further three counts of possession of class A, B and C drugs.

Kevin Adams, of Exmouth Street in Swindon, Wiltshire was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence. He is pictured arriving at court today

Originally from South Korea, Dohoon lived in Slough, Berks. at the time of his death, and was described by work colleagues as "an industrious and ambitious person who clearly had a bright future ahead of him", a spokesman Wiltshire police said.

Detective Chief Inspector Jeremy Carter, of the Brunel Major Crime Investigation Team, said: "Kim had spent the evening at Adams' home address in Swindon where the pair had taken a cocktail of drugs before engaging in sexual activity involving restraint and bondage activity.

"Adams had a responsibility to look after Kim's welfare and he failed to do so with tragic consequences. The restrains which had been placed on Kim, together with the mixture of drugs both men had taken that evening, proved fatal.

"It was Adams' failure and his care towards Kim which ultimately led to his untimely death. Today the court has recognised this failure and he will now be sentenced having been found guilty of manslaughter with gross negligence.

"I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Kim."

Adams will be sentenced for the four charges at Bristol Crown Court on Monday (June 26).
Health authorities have issued a warning after a Legionnaires' disease outbreak, which may be linked to a spa at a Melbourne gym.

Two people were hospitalised after using the spa at the Core24 gym in Frankston, in the city's southeast, the Department of Health and Human Services said on Saturday.

DHHS confirmed it has shut down and disinfected the spa at the gym and it is now under investigation, the Herald Sun reported.

Health authorities have issued a warning after a Legionnaires' disease outbreak, which may be linked to a spa at a Melbourne gym (pictured)

DHHS confirmed it has shut down and disinfected the spa (pictured) at the gym and it is now under investigation

Investigations are also focusing on cooling towers at a shopping centre in nearby Cranbourne, 7 News reported.

A total of four people aged between 45 and 78 have contracted the condition.

People who may have used the spa or have been near the shopping the centre have been told to be on the lookout for possible symptoms.

Symptoms include headache, fever, chills and muscle aches and pains followed by respiratory problems and pneumonia.

'People who have been exposed to the potential source could still develop symptoms over the next ten days,' deputy chief health officer Dr Brett Sutton said in a statement.

There are between 70 to 80 cases of Legionnaires' disease in Victoria each year.

Two people were hospitalised after using the spa at the Core24 gym in Frankston (pictured)
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Jeremy Corbyn slammed Donald Trump as he addressed crowds from Glastonbury's legendary Pyramid Stage today, before being mobbed by fans as he took a tour around the Somerset site.

Addressing tens of thousands of festival-goers, the Labour leader pointed out a slogan that read 'build bridges, not walls', saying 'there's a message' for the US president.

He was later seen posing for photographs with fans as he walked around Worthy Farm - and was even seen pouring a drink at the festival's Solstice bar.

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured with Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis) slammed Donald Trump as he addressed crowds from Glastonbury's legendary Pyramid Stage today, before being mobbed by fans as he took a tour around the Somerset site

He was later seen posing for photographs with fans as he took a tour around the sprawling Somerset site

Corbyn was even spotted pouring a pint at the Solstice Bar earlier today, as he mingled with festival-goers

Despite the rain showers today, revellers continued to show off their flamboyant ensembles. Two friends opted to go for sequin leotards, while covering themselves with glitter and jewels

The Labour leader was greeted by a sea of adoring fans when he made his appearance at the festival

Jeremy Corbyn addresses the crowd at the Glastonbury Festival, as shown on the Sky News channel

During the short speech, Corbyn said: 'If you can see that far look on that wall that surround this wonderful festival there's a message on that wall for President Trump. You know what it says? Build bridges not walls.'

He then spoke about the recent general election campaign, saying what was 'inspiring was the number of young people who got involved for the very first time'.

The Islington North MP said: 'What was fascinating about the last seven weeks of election campaigning around Britain was that the commentariat got it wrong. The elites got it wrong.

'But what was even more inspiring was the number of young people who got involved for the very first time.

'Because they were fed up with being denigrated, fed up with being told they dont matter, fed up with being told they never participate and utterly fed up with being told that their generation would pay more to get less in education and less in housing.'

Calling for peace around the world, he continued: 'When people across the world think the same, cooperate the same, maybe in different languages, different faiths, peace is possible and must be achieved.

BBC removes 'biased' Jeremy Corbyn tweet The BBC has removed a tweet showing support for Jeremy Corbyn following his appearance at Glastonbury. A tweet posted at 17.05 from the BBC Radio 1 Twitter account showed the Labour leader holding up a microphone on stage with the caption 'When you ace the chorus #Glastonbury2017.' The post sparked anger from several tweeters, including former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who wrote on the social network: 'Why should we pay the BBC licence fee just so we can promote Jeremy Corbyn? Outrageous.' The tweet, which was retweeted 59 times and received 219 likes, was removed soon afterwards, but continued to be circulated on social media. In a statement, a BBC spokesman said: 'A tweet from a freelancer was posted in error and subsequently removed.' The broadcaster has also faced critcism for showing the politician's speech on its news channel. BBC Radio 6 reporter Gemma Cairney also reportedly told the Today Programme on Radio 4 that she expected Jeremy Corbyn's appearance to be 'brilliant', adding that she hoped he might even 'whop out a few rap lyrics'. Advertisement

Corbyn began by thanking Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis as he addressed tens of thousands of festival-goers

He also hit out at President Donald Trump during the short speech, saying he should build bridges, not walls

The Islington North MP also spoke about the recent general election campaign, saying what was 'inspiring was the number of young people who got involved for the very first time'

Corbynmania swept through the festival site, with some fans holding up cardboard cut-outs of the Labour leader

One festival-goer wore a Jeremy Corbyn T-shirt as crowds gathered to hear the Labour leader speak. Chants of 'Oh Jeremy Corbyn had been ringing out across the site prior to his speech

Festival-goers held up their Corbyn banners as an eager fans gathered in front of the Pyramid Stage earlier this afternoon

'Lets stop the denigration of refugees, people looking for a place of safety in a cruel and dangerous world. They are all human beings just like us here today.'

Corbyn also referred to the recent Grenfell Tower tragedy in his speech, saying: 'Theres a number of things, theyre very simple, very basic questions that we should ask ourselves.

'Is it right that so many people in our country have no home to live in and only a street to sleep on? Is it right that so many people are frightened of where they live at the moment having seen the horrors of what happened at Grenfell Tower?

'Is it right that so many people live in such poverty in a society surrounded by such riches? No it obviously is not.'

It comes as a host of stars, including Liam Gallagher, paid tribute to the victims of the devastating Grenfell Tower blaze during their performances at Glastonbury.

Grime artist Stormzy took a quiet moment during his set to remember those who were killed, before performing the rap he wrote for Simon Cowell's charity version of Bridge Over Troubled Water.

He also unzipped his tracksuit top to reveal a T-shirt emblazoned with a heart-shaped logo reading 'Grenfell'.

The rapper then led the crowd in a chant of 'Oh, Jeremy Corbyn', which appears to have become an unofficial Glastonbury anthem this year.

Corbyn was accompanied by an entourage of protection officers as he walked around Worthy Farm in Somerset

The Labour leader looked relaxed as he was mobbed by supporters while taking a tour around the festival site

Corbyn, who was dressed in a casual blue shirt and white chinos, looked to be in his element as he met his supporters

Chants of 'Oh, Jeremy Corbyn, sung to the tune of White Stripes song Seven Nation Army, have been ringing out across the Somerset campsite

Speaking ahead of Corbyn's appearance, Mr Eavis said: 'We were so thrilled with the result that he had in the election'

Praising the Labour leader, the Glastonbury founder said: 'Millions of young people - Glastonbury people - voted for him'

Speaking about the election result, Corbyn said: 'What was fascinating about the last seven weeks of election campaigning around Britain was that the commentariat got it wrong'

He later looked in good spirits as he addressed the crowd from the Left Field stage, after his speech on the main stage

A number of banners in support of Corbyn were on display across the Somerset site as the Labour leader arrived

The politician spoke about the Grenfell Tower disaster in his speech, with Stormzy (pictured) also paying tribute to victims of the tragedy during his set

The Corbyn chant - sang to the tune of White Stripes' hit Seven Nation Army - first emerged and spread through the crowd at 4am on Wednesday as thousands of ticketholders queued to get into the festival.

A chorus of 'Jeremy Corbyn also started at the event's silent disco - with a sand statue also spotted showing the Labour leader riding a fox while chasing Theresa May through fields of wheat.

The festival has been gripped by Corbynmania this year, with Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis describing the Islington North MP as the 'hero of the hour' in an interview with The Guardian.

Speaking ahead of Corbyn's appearance, Mr Eavis had told the Glastonbury Free Press: 'We were so thrilled with the result that he had in the election.

'Millions of young people - Glastonbury people - voted for him. I think he has a fundamental sense of justice, of real political change, of being anti-war and anti-nuclear.

Corbyn was cheered by festival-goers as he visited the Green Fields at Glastonbury, arriving in a convoy of SUVs

The Labour leader's appearance at the festival had been hotly-anticipated, with thousands gathering at the Pyramid Stage

Crowds were seen trying to catch a glimpse of Corbyn as he arrived at Worthy Farm in a Land Rover earlier today

'That's what we've spent our lives campaigning for too. Since Emily was two, we've been going to London to march for all those things that Jeremy represents.'

Although Wednesday was the hottest ever day in Glastonbury's history, rain showers hit the 900-acre site in Somerset this morning as cooler temperatures returned.

But revellers remained undeterred by the weather, continuing to show off their flamboyant ensembles on the fourth day of the famous music event.

They turned out in large numbers for Corbyn, with the Labour leader getting an extremely warm reception as he arrived at the festival site.

Festival-goers were seen also seen holding up banners in support of the politician as well as cardboard cut-outs as they waited for him to take to the stage.

After the festival started on the hottest June in 40 years, Glastonbury's traditional mud and rain returned over Friday night

Glastonbury is infamous for its mud, however, so its unlikely to dampen the young festival-goers Corbynmania too much

A BBC presenter described the appearance of Corbyn on Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage as 'brilliant'

He will first appear on the main stage to introduce US hip-hop group Run The Jewels, known for their left-wing politics

As the rain pelted down a reveler clutches the two most important Glastonbury essentials - a drink and a poncho

A whole range of fancy costumes, from the provocative to the bizarre, was available for festival-goers to see

The two drug-sniffing dogs roamed around the festival grounds at Glastonbury

A caricature of Donald Trump lines up to sell their souvenirs. Gemma Cairney, 32, a reporter covering the festival for BBC Radio 6 Music, said the Labour leaders visit was generating a lot of excitement.

Despite the rain plenty were still in full fancy dress, including these mustachoied acrobats (left) and a wigged woman

These two revelers looked like they'd stepped straight out of an alternative dimension, but were determined to enjoy the day

Two revelers with especially elaborate designs entertain younger festival-goers

Plastic ponchos were needed throughout Friday for both young and old, including one especially adorable baby

Speaking about the Corbynmania in action at Glastonbury, reveller Heather Cuss, 33, from south London, told The Guardian: 'We've seen musicians playing with Corbyn necklaces and everywhere you walk you hear people break out into Jeremy Corbyn chants.'

The prospect of his appearance on the main stage of Britains biggest music festival, attended by 200,000 each year, was yesterday described as brilliant by a BBC presenter.

Gemma Cairney, 32, a reporter covering the festival for BBC Radio 6 Music, said the Labour leaders visit was generating a lot of excitement.

She told Radio 4s Today: I think its going to be brilliant  He might stay on and maybe whop out a few rap lyrics.

This years festival has seen an invasion of Labour top brass as the party looks to capitalise on Mr Corbyns popularity with young voters.

A festival-goer in a poncho and wellies (an essential in the rain) trudges through the 900-acre-festival in Somerset

The festival opened with a minute's silence to honour those killed in the recent tragedies in London and Manchester

The moment of silence was led by New Order's Peter Hook, whose daughter was at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester

The festival features all sorts of revelers, from the young to the most sought-after celebrities in the world

Twins Benjamin and Richard, 4, both take a moment from their wagon riding to pose for the camera

The weather is expected to stay cloudy up until the end of the festival tomorrow

The weather brought out some more eccentric poncho designs (left). Right, some acrobats put on a display

One festival-goer adds a flower-theme sparkle to her poncho

Some of the biggest names in music were performing at Glastonbury, including Lorde, Radiohead and the Foo Fighters

For some, it was there first chance to experience a festival - even if a few needed ear protection

Former shadow chancellor Ed Balls and wife Yvette Cooper looked less than happy as they queued for the showers yesterday morning  and deputy leader Tom Watson was seen striding through the crowds in a cap and baggy denim trousers.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell will address the festival tomorrow, in a discussion titled Is Democracy Broken?

Critics accused the BBC, which airs live coverage of the festival, of doing everything they can to get their hero Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street. Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: The BBC is riddled with Left-wing bias from the Today programme downwards.

They will seize any opportunity to get Theresa May out. Jeremy Corbyn at Glastonbury is a typical example of their behaviour  the BBC is out of control.

Festival-goers relaxed and recharged in the tents in between musical sets

A group of 'bumblebees' enjoy a break from the music in the sea of tents

One reveler looks a bit underwhelmed by the rain

Festival fashion! Another concert-goer makes sure she looks her absolute best before heading out

A reveler shelters from the rain in the early hours. Glastonbury has long been associated with left wing activism

The festival in Somerset has had links to Greenpeace and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

James Heappey, Tory MP for the area, said Corbyn was politicking on the Pyramid Stage ahead of his responsibilities'

A shinning city: Lights illuminate the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Somerset

Glastonbury at night offered the chance to watch some fantastic pyrotechnics. Here crowds gather to watch the Arcadia landing show

The partying went on late into the night, including at the Block9 area of the Glastonbury festival

Glastonbury has long been associated with Left-wing activism, with links to Greenpeace and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Andrew Bridgen, another Tory MP, added: The BBC will do everything they can to get their hero Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street. Now with things like this years Glastonbury, its becoming ever more blatant.

They are at the stage where if the BBC give it one more push, we will end up with a Marxist in No 10.

James Heappey, Tory MP for Wells which includes the festival site, criticised Mr Corbyn for missing an armed forces day parade in Liverpool, saying he was politicking on the Pyramid Stage ahead of his responsibilities as head of Her Majestys Opposition.

He accused him of breaching parliamentary protocol, which states MPs should write to other MPs if they are due to undertake official events in their constituencies.

No excuses: A festival-goer takes a morning jog through the Glastonbury campsite

Plenty of other Labour big wigs turned up as well, including Ed Balls (pictured left) and a dressed down Tom Watson (pictured right)

Yvette Cooper and her husband Ed Balls queue up to use the showers
A glamorous former WAG has opened up about life dating a top-flight AFL player.

Cassie Lane revealed how she felt she was living in her partner's shadow in the 'glorified role' which left her felling inadequate and body conscious because of external pressures.

Ms Lane, who dated Collingwood Magpies star Alan Didak for 16 months, from 2004 to 2006, also told how she believes the AFL still has a 'sexist' culture, in an interview with the Herald Sun.

Cassie Lane (pictured) has opened up about life as an AFL WAG when she dated Collingwood Magpies star Alan Didak

The glamorous former WAG revealed how she felt she was living in her partner's shadow in the 'glorified role' which left her felling inadequate and body conscious

Ms Lane is pictured with her then-partner Alan Didak at AFL's Brownlow Medal awards in 2006, where she was deemed to be 'one of the worst dressed'

'I think the AFL culture is still very sexist, women are not represented well, they are under-represented even though they make up half of the supporter base,' Ms Lane said.

'It is this glorified role, every Melbourne girl wants to be a WAG because we are taught it is this amazing, celebrated, venerated role, but actually when you get there you are celebrated not because of who you are, you are celebrated because of your partner's achievements and there is a hierarchy.'

Ms Lane started modelling when she was 16 and went on to grace the catwalks of Milan and Los Angeles but in 2006 when she accompanied her then partner to the Brownlow medal awards her attire led to her being named one of the worst dressed.

'I think the AFL culture is still very sexist, women are not represented well,' she said

Ms Lane said she was 'told to be grateful' for the opportunities being a WAG afforded her

She described life as a WAG as 'like a cult' and spoke of how she felt inadequate due to the expectations placed on her simply because she was dating an AFL player.

Ms Lane added she was at times told 'to be grateful' for her opportunity in the limelight and had passers-by on the street make comments which left her in 'shock'.

She has now written a book about her life, How to Dress a Dummy, which will be published in July.

Living the high life: The international model partied with celebrities (pictured with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) after gracing the catwalks of Milan and Los Angeles

Ms Lane has penned a book 'How to Dress a Dummy' about her life which will be available from July

It details her life 'from international model to worst dressed at the Brownlow. How I learned to love imprefection'.

'How to Dress a Dummy casts an unwavering eye at the myriad ways in which women are taught that they're not enough. Smart, frank and very, very funny, Cassie's is a bold new feminist voice,' a publicity spiel from publisher Affirm Press says.

Ms Lane posted a photo of herself holding a copy of the book to Instagram in recent days where she said 'I'm so very excited to announce that, after a year of hard work, this baby is about to be delivered into the world'.
A California man who days ago attended his homeless sons funeral was shocked to receive a phone call from his dead son whom coroners mistakenly pronounced as deceased, it was reported on Saturday.

On May 12, Frank J. Kerrigan, 82, watched as the coffin that contained the body of a man widely assumed to be that of his son, Frank M. Kerrigan, was interred at the Cemetery of the Holy Sepulchre in Orange County.

Moments earlier, the family and its friends gathered for a memorial service at Holy Family Catholic Cathedral, according to The Orange County Register.

On May 23, however, the phone rang in Kerrigans home.

Bill Shinker, a longtime family friend who served as pallbearer at the $20,000 funeral, was on the line.

Your son is alive, he told his friend.

On May 12, Frank J. Kerrigan (above), 82, watched as the coffin that contained the body of a man widely assumed to be that of his son, Frank M. Kerrigan (whose photo is being held by his father), was interred at the Cemetery of the Holy Sepulchre in Orange County

Bill put my son on the phone, Kerrigan said.

He said Hi Dad.

It was a miraculous turn of events for the grief-stricken family, though now the question was how could such a mishap occur and who was the individual buried at the Orange County cemetery.

On May 6, the senior Kerrigan was notified by the Riverside County Sheriffs Department that he needed to get in touch with the Orange County Coroner.

Kerrigan called the coroner and was told that his 57-year-old son, who is homeless and suffers from mental illness, was found dead behind a Verizon store in Fountain Valley.

When he asked if he should identify the body, the coroners office told him that wasnt necessary since his sons identity was already confirmed by fingerprints.

On May 23, however, the phone rang in Kerrigans home. Bill Shinker, a longtime family friend who served as pallbearer at the $20,000 funeral, was on the line. Your son is alive, he told his friend. Frank J. Kerrigan is seen above in an undated photo

It was only after the ordeal that Kerrigan learned the coroner was mistaken.

'When somebody tells me my son is dead, when they have fingerprints, I believe them,' he said.

'If he wasnt identified by fingerprints I would been there in heartbeat.'

Kerrigans daughter, Carole Meikle, 56, was also informed that her brother had died.

She went to the Verizon store to see for herself.

When she got there, she noticed a spot near the bushes where the body was reportedly found.

It was a messy scene  bloodied blankets and dirt everywhere.

But Meikle was struck by the fact that what she was looking at contrasted with what the coroners office had told her  that her brother had died peacefully.

At the funeral, Kerrigan opened the casket to take one last look at his son.

But apparently he was so overcome by grief that he didnt notice the man in the casket wasnt his son.

'I took a little look and touched his hair,' Kerrigan recalled. 'I didnt know what my dead son was going to look like.'

Franks brother, John Kerrigan, gave the eulogy, and about 50 people came from as far as Las Vegas and Washington State.

Kerrigan also said it was odd that when the family received the dead mans belongings, it didnt contain items they were expecting, like a wallet with his identification or a prized watch.

Kerrigans daughter, Carole Meikle (seen above in an undated photo), 56, was also informed that her brother had died

After the younger Frank called his father to assure him he was alive, the family hired a lawyer to investigate.

It turns out that the coroners office never conducted a fingerprint identification.

The authorities apparently determined it was Frank M. Kerrigan because the dead man bore an outer resemblance to him.

When the fingerprints of the dead man were put into the computer, they did not match those of Frank M. Kerrigan.

The family has begun to take steps toward legal action against the coroners office.

The three siblings - John Kerrigan (far left), Meikle, and Frank M. Kerrigan - are seen in the above undated family photo

The lawsuit will claim that the Kerrigans civil rights were violated because the coroners office failed to made adequate efforts to determine if the body was indeed that of Frank M. Kerrigan.

The family's lawyers say that they know the identity of the man buried in Frank M. Kerrigans final resting place, according to KABC-TV.

The identity of the unnamed victim has yet to be released because it is not known if the person's family has been notified.

The Orange County Coroner's Office referred DailyMail.com to the Sheriff's Office for comment.

A spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office said that due to an ongoing internal investigation, it is unable to release any details at this time.

'We thought we were burying our brother,' said Meikle.

'Someone else had a beautiful send off. Its horrific.'

The family is currently in the process of re-applying for Social Security benefits that were cut off once the federal government was informed that Kerrigan was dead.

Frank M. Kerrigan has returned to living on the street, according to the family. He has declined to be placed in a shelter.

His mental state is such that he does not understand the magnitude of what his family has just experienced, according to his sister.

Still, the family is relieved, though it is recovering from the trauma.

We lived through our worst fear, Meikle said. 'He was dead on the sidewalk. We buried him. Those feelings dont go away.'
Two senior managers at nuclear plants operated by EDF Energy had their passwords listed on Russian hacking sites.

The passwords - 'Nuclear1' and 'Radiat10n' - are thought to have been used on the business site LinkedIn.

They were being traded by hackers who had easily guessed the letters and numbers.

EDF, which operates Britain's 15 nuclear reactors, did not comment about the breach.

The two senior EDF workers had used 'Nuclear1' and 'Radiat10n' as passwords for online accounts. Pictured: Torness Nuclear Power Station, which is operated by EDF Energy

But the French-owned firm did say, according to The Times, that it is 'continually reviewing its defences and preparedness in this area'.

The lists on which the passwords appeared were traded privately before being made public.

It comes as around 1,000 British MPs and parliamentary staff, 7,000 police employees and more than 1,000 Foreign Office officials were all understood to have had confidential information traded online without their knowledge.

It comes as around 1,000 British MPs and parliamentary staff were all understood to have had confidential information traded online without their knowledge

Even some of the prime ministers closest government ministers, including education secretary, Justine Greening, and business secretary, Greg Clark, are thought to have been affected by the hack.

The huge database was being sold for just 2, with the low price justified by the fact it had already spent months being passed around. Its original price is likely to have been much higher.

Hackers can easily guess many passwords, especially those which are merely a word associated with a certain person but with '3' instead of 'E' or '1' instead of 'I'.

There have been warnings that the hacked passwords could be used to blackmail workers in sensitive jobs, or even to break into government servers.
A crime syndicate may have helped four prisoners who staged an 'extraordinary' escape from Kerobokan prison before two were caught in East Timor, a Bali police chief says.

Bulgarian Dimitar Nikolov Iliev and Indian Sayed Mohammed Said arrived back in Bali on Saturday after they broke out of the notorious jail on Monday through a hole under the walls.

The men were caught at luxury resort Novo Turismo in Dili East Timor on Thursday, 2,000km from the prison.

Indonesian police officers escort two inmates (pictured in orange), Dimitar Nikolov Iliev, left, and Indian Sayed Mohammed Said, right, upon their arrival at Bali international airport

Indonesian police officers escort Indian inmate Sayed Mohammed Said, who escaped from prison last week

Two foreign prisoners (in orange), who escaped from the Kerokoban Prison in Bali, Indonesia, have their faces covered

Davidson, 33, (pictured) and Malaysian national Tee Kok King remain at large

The escape route, which was also used by Perth man Shaun Davidson, connected to a water tunnel and out to a main street.

The 'hole' was around 50cm by 75cm wide and 12 metres long, travelling underneath the prison wall and emerging at a road running along Kerobokan.

'The tunnel is about 12 metres long and we suspect it took more than a week to build,' the head of Kerobokan prison Tony Nainggolan said.

Bali's police chief, Inspector General Petrus Golose, said an investigation was continuing into who helped the group escape and how they managed to get to another country.

'We want to know whether there's (a syndicate) to take people out of Bali,' he said.

'This escape is extraordinary that they fled abroad.

The escape route, which was also used by Perth man Shaun Davidson, (pictured) connected to a water tunnel and out to a main street

A crime syndicate may have helped four prisoners who staged an 'extraordinary' escape from Kerobokan prison before two were caught in East Timor

One of two foreign prisoners (in orange), who escaped from the Kerokoban Prison in Bali, Indonesia

Bulgarian inmate Dimitar Nikolov Iliev is escorted by an Indonesian police officer upon arrival at Bali international airport

'We will dig more.'

Insp Gen Golose said Bali respected the sovereignty of its neighbour and a bilateral meeting 'accelerated' the legal process.

'There has been good cooperation between our police with Timor Leste,' he said.

Davidson, 33, and Malaysian national Tee Kok King remain at large.

Davidson claims he has managed to get very far away from home in the space of a few days.

Bulgarian Dimitar Nikolov Iliev and Indian Sayed Mohammed Said arrived back in Bali on Saturday after they broke out of the notorious jail on Monday through a hole under the walls (pictured)

An Indonesian worker drains a tunnel, which was reportedly used by four foreign prisoners to escape from Bali's Kerokoban Prison

He posted a series of updates to Facebook late this week, his first post claiming he was 'living the dream' in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

His second post featured a group photograph of several men and women wearing singlets at the Club Air nightclub.

'Closing time where's all the ladies at', Davidson then wrote.

Police in the Netherlands have declared they are ready to join the hunt for an Australian criminal who escaped from a Bali prison.

Fled to Amsterdam? Shaun Davidson (pictured) is wanted in Perth, charged with four offences including possessing methamphetamine and cannabis for sale or supply

The Australian's photograph, along with his three fellow escapees, have been circulated around Bali as police attempt to find the men

Police in Amsterdam say they already work to track down fugitives from the UK and would be willing to search for the Australian, news.com.au reported.

'If we only have slight information about fugitives we are always willing and able to trace somebody down,' a police spokesman told the publication.

The two recaptured men were found near a port in East Timor's capital, Dili, on Thursday.

Police seized $US7,000 in cash in their hotel room.

Iliev is serving a seven-year sentence for money laundering and Said is serving 14 years for drug offences.

Davidson, who was sentenced for immigration offences last year after using another man's passport, had just two months and 15 days left to serve.

He was going to be deported to Australia where he is facing a number of drug charges in Perth.

That's not near Kerobokan? Shaun Davidson checked into Amsterdam late this week - days after he disappeared from his Bali jail
London Fire Brigade's first woman commissioner believes people will view firefighters differently after the Grenfell tragedy

The commissioner of London Fire Brigade has spoken of the pride she felt when her firefighters braved the Grenfell Tower inferno.

Dany Cotton, who was asleep in her Kent home when she received the call, didn't see the burning tower until she was nearly underneath it.

Despite the horror unfolding before her Ms Cotton, 48, sent her crews into the inferno - but they wanted to go.

'It's a very specific role. While everyone else is leaving the scene, you are going towards it trying to make people's lives better,' Ms Cotton told The Times.

As finger-pointing continues over the cause of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, firefighters are receiving praise for their exceptional heroism in tackling the blaze.

Ms Cotton added: '[People] see it on TV but it's very different in The Towering Inferno. People keep asking why we didn't use helicopters but it was impossible. In a film you don't have smoke, we did.'

'We are not robots by any stretch of the imagination but we had been trained to know what to do: make a plan, remain calm and professional'.

Prime Minister Theresa May met with London Fire Brigade commissioner Danny Cotton in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster

As finger-pointing continues over the cause of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, firefighters are receiving praise for their exceptional heroism in tackling the blaze. Pictured are emotional firefighters joining bereaved family members at a tribute wall near Grenfell Tower

Ms Cotton said: 'I hope people will look at firefighters and think that is a fantastic job - I think it's the best job in the world.' Pictured is a fireman embracing a man at the Latymer Community Centre

More than 400 people were in the building when a fridge fire spread up the 24 storeys in just 30 minutes, killing at least 79 men, women and children

Speaking to The Mail On Sunday, firefighter Jon Wharnsby recalled the agony of choosing between a terrified mother and daughter screaming on a tenth-floor stairway  or pushing on to a 14th-floor flat where residents also faced death.

He said: 'We were tasked to reach a flat on the 14th floor. We all wanted to make a difference. But I never got to the people in that flat. Now those numbers are locked in my head.

It was organised chaos. Everyone wanted to get to the front, to go up and help. I have never seen people push themselves like that  it was incredible.

Of course you want to sprint up the steps. But you only have so much air, so much time. We were heading for the 14th floor. We had to make sure we could get back.

Continuing their harrowing work, firefighters are still monitoring the building and working their way through the burnt-out flats

The heroic servicemen were also hampered by the strict use of self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBA), which hold about 30 to 45 minutes of air, depending on the size of the tank and the rate of consumption due to strenuous activities

There were no numbers on the stairwells so everyone was told in no uncertain terms, Count your floors. Its not as easy as it sounds in those conditions.

We had TICs [thermal imaging cameras] but above the sixth floor they were all but useless. The smoke was so thick I could barely see into the eyepiece. At that level you could feel the heat rising. Thats some feat because our protective gear is pretty good.

On the way up wed pass flats and hear shouts of, Casualty  crew coming out. They were taking down survivors and had priority. We stood back.

More than 400 people were in the building when a fridge fire spread up the 24 storeys in just 30 minutes, killing at least 79 men, women and children.

On the way up wed pass flats and hear shouts of, Casualty  crew coming out. They were taking down survivors and had priority. We stood back', firefighter Jon Wharnsby told The Mail On Sunday

'This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale', said Ms Cotton

Emergency workers are working their way through the burnt-out flats at Grenfell Tower.

Speaking to reporters last Wednesday, Ms Cotton said: 'This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale.

'The severity and the heat of the fire would mean it is an absolute miracle for anyone to be left alive.'

Firefighters view tributes after observing a minute's silence at Latymer Community Centre, near to Grenfell Tower. The tragedy came after London Fire Brigade helped deal with the terrorist attacks on Westminster Bridge and Borough Market

The tragedy came shortly after London Fire Brigade helped deal with the terrorist attacks on Westminster Bridge and Borough Market.

Ms Cotton said: 'The world has changed. In the past we've had lots of negative images about firefighters sitting around drinking tea doing nothing. In a horrible way people now realise the importance of the role of the firefighter.'

Now, in the wake of the disaster, the commissioner's job is to reassure those living in tower blocks.

She said families should create an escape plan should a fire take place in their flat

Ms Cotton advised that that people can make their homes safe by not running cables underneath rugs, avoiding drying clothes near fires and she said she is 'not a fan' of deep fat drying.
A report about former Vice President Joe Biden shutting down hedge fund manager Bill Ackman during a private Las Vegas dinner in May for disrespecting the memory of his dead son apparently is not true.

It was first reported by Fox Business Network (FBN) that Biden and Ackman had the confrontation after the politician began answering a question posed by former Governor Jeb Bush about why he chose not to run for president.

However, Ackman and four other people who were present at the off-the-record event held on May 18 during the annual SkyBridge Alternatives (SALT) claim the version of events reported by FBN were not true.

The four attendees said that Biden was speaking about President Donald Trump and not his deceased son Beau Biden when he and Ackman actually shared a joke.

'Bill's Ackman's comment was not directed at the vice president's son. The discussion was about Trump,' Robert Wolf, a Democratic Party financier and friend of Biden's who was in attendance told New York Magazine.

Ackman also confirmed to the publication that FBN got the story wrong and that he has 'enormous respect' for Biden.

A report about former Vice President Joe Biden (left) shutting down hedge fund manager Bill Ackman (right) during a private Las Vegas dinner in May for disrespecting the memory of his dead son apparently is not true

SkyBridge also called FBN's story 'extremely inaccurate' and an 'overwhelming misrepresentation of facts' in a statement to NY Magazine.

FBN reported that the former vice president called Ackman a 'wiseass' and an 'a**hole' when he teased Biden about his garrulousness when he fell silent after speaking about the loss of his son.

'Never disrespect my dead son,' Biden is quoted as saying by FBN.

However, several sources claim to NY Magazine that Biden never said that comment.

The four individuals present at the exclusive dinner said that Ackman, who is worth $1.4billion, was sitting next to Biden when he began speaking about Trump.

'The president has to be able to keep his word,' Biden reportedly said while stating that Trump has not done so thus far into his presidency.

CBS' 60 Minutes reporter Lara Logan was seated across the table from Biden when she reportedly challenged him.

It was first reported by Fox Business Network that Biden and Ackman had a heated confrontation after the politician began answering a question about why he chose not to run for president citing his deceased son Beau (pictured above during the 2008 DNC Convention)

'The same could be said of the Obama administration,' Logan reportedly countered.

Several people in attendance claim that she used the red line in Syria as an example.

'You did nothing,' Logan said, according to those present at the dinner.

'Biden was irritated,' one person who was at the table told NY Magazine.

That person claimed the exchange happened within five minutes of the beginning of the dinner, and that it set a tense tone.

Ackman said he has 'enormous respect' for Biden and slammed the 'totally false press report' about the dinner

Another attendee told NY Magazine: 'It was very hostile, very in-his-face. It clearly unsettled him.'

The 74-year-old then started discussing Syria and directed the conversation back at Trump.

'At this point, I'm not going to say anything more,' Biden reportedly said.

Then Ackman said to Biden, 'Why start doing that now?'  which was a reference to Biden's well-known loquaciousness.

Another source told NY Magazine that it was Ackman's attempt to try and change the mood at the table.

'Who's this wiseass?' Biden then reportedly said before turning to Ackman and adding, 'Do you want to take this outside?'

Ackman confirmed to NY Magazine that he thought Biden was kidding, and others in attendance had the same impression.

Apparently later in the evening someone did ask Biden about why he did not run for president, and the former vice president did mention his son's death.

All four of the attendees who spoke to NY Magazine said it was a separate portion of conversation from the exchange earlier in the evening.

'I have enormous respect for Vice President Biden,' Ackman told NY Magazine.

'It is unfortunate that a totally false press report would suggest otherwise.'

The dinner was hosted by SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci as a part of the fund-of-funds' annual Sky Bridge Alternatives conference.

Just after he won his first senate seat in 1972, Biden's wife Neilia and one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in a car accident while Christmas shopping in a small Delaware town. His two sons, Beau (pictured left with his father) and Hunter, were also in the car, but managed to survive the crash with just minor injuries

Biden nearly resigned from his position after the tragedy. In 1977 he remarried Dr Jill Biden (pictured second right) and continued his political career

Biden was, in fact, seriously considering running for president in 2016, but ended up deciding not to, citing his recent loss as a reason for staying out of office.

And the 2015 loss was not the first tragedy the former Vice President experienced. In 1972 he lost his first wife and youngest daughter in a car crash.

Just weeks after he won his first senate seat, Biden's wife Neilia and one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in a car accident while Christmas shopping in a small Delaware town.

His two sons, Beau and Hunter, were also in the car, but managed to survive the crash with a few broken bones.

The incident nearly caused Biden to resign from his position, but he was convinced not to by the Senate Majority Leader at the time, Mike Mansfield.
The number of refugees accepted in the United States has dropped by almost a half in President Trump's first three months, compared to Barack Obama's last three.

While 25,000 refugees entered the country in the last three months of Obama's presidency, 13,000 were approved in the early months of Trump's administration, according to statistics released by the Department of Homeland Security.

The only common denominator between both administrations is the refugees' countries of origin. Under Trump and Obama many of them hailed from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Myanmar.

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The number of refugees admitted into the country has dropped by almost a half in President Trump's first three months, compared to the last three of Barack Obama's presidency

The executive travel ban Trump issued in January may account for the significant dip because it barred those coming from Muslim-majority countries including Syria, Somalia, Iran, Libya Sudan and Yemen.

Barack Obama's quota in 2016 may also explain the gap. The former president wanted to fulfill his target of admitting 110,000 refugees - a significantly small number compared to Germany, which accepts about a million each year - so significantly increased the number allowed in the country during his last three months.

Pew Research shows about 116,000 refugees were accepted in 2016 - the largest number in more than a decade.

Twenty five thousand refugees were accepted between October and January 20 and 13,000 have been approved in the early months of Trump's administration. Pictured are Syrian refugee Baraa Haj Khala, left, and her husband Abulmajeed, right. They were greeting Khala's mother after their trip to the United States was suspended because of Trump's travel ban

The significant gap in the number of refugees entering the country could be because of the travel ban which barred Muslims from seven nations including Somalia and Syria

Trump has drastically reduced the country's quota to 50,000 for 2017, although it's not set in stone because courts may later challenge.

What has also remained unchanged are the months of review, screenings and applications the refugees have to go through before they are accepted.

Both under Obama and Trump, most refugees need to be referred by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees - or must already have a relative in the USA before they can apply.

Officers from the Department of Homeland Securitys U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services then review all the information on refugees' applications before they are accepted in the United States.

This process, according to the Department of State, can take up to 24 months.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday that despite policy differences,President Donald Trump listens to opposing viewpoints.

Trudeau praised Trump as someone with whom he can work  this despite the obvious differences of opinion on issues related to free trade, immigration, and the environment.

What Ive found from this president is he will listen to arguments made, the Canadian premier told a forum in Toronto which was staged by The New York Times.

He will look at the ensemble of facts and proposals of impacts you put together, and he will be open to shifting his position.

When the audience began laughing, Trudeau defended the US president.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (seen above with New York Times journalists Peter Baker on the right and Catherine Porter on the left) said on Thursday that President Donald Trumps decision to keep the United States in NAFTA proves he listens to opposing viewpoints

No, I can understand the laughter but there's a lot of politicians who have a deep, vested interest in being right all the time and therefore close themselves off sometimes to facts or evidence or differing opinions, the prime minister said.

I have always found that whenever he has made an engagement to me or a commitment to me on the phone or in person, he followed through on that, and that is someone you can work with, Trudeau said.

The Canadian leader said that despite Trumps pledge to pull the US out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, he is encouraged that the deal will endure and continue to benefit both economies.

I can guarantee you we will be in plenty of trade deals, and NAFTA will remain a hugely important and successful trade deal for both of our countries, Trudeau said.

Trudeau praised Trump (seen above at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Wednesday) as someone with whom he can work  this despite the obvious differences of opinion on issues related to free trade, immigration, and the environment

I can understand the politics around saying we need to improve it, it's terrible.

The facts don't necessarily bear that out. It's created massive numbers of jobs in our economies, it's created tremendous advantages.'

When asked if Canada has a contingency plan in the event that the NAFTA renegotiation with Washington breaks down, Trudeau said it was not necessary.

'There's no need for a Plan B,' the premier said. 'We'll continue to engage in a constructive, thoughtful way.

'NAFTA has been improved a dozen times over the years, and we will do it again to update it to what the challenges we're facing now are.'

During Trumps election campaign, he called NAFTA one of the worst deals ever and said he was all set to terminate the deal in late April.

But he was reportedly talked out of the move by senior cabinet ministers, including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, according to The Washington Post.

It was later reported that Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law, phoned Trudeau to ask him to convince the president not to pull out of the deal.

The White House, however, insisted that it was the Canadian government which called Kushner first and asked him to talk his father-in-law out of exiting NAFTA.

Trudeau acknowledged that another area of disagreement between him and Trump is on climate change.

Earlier this month, Trump announced the US would exit the Paris Accord on climate change.

Trudeau says that the US departure could present Canadians with an opportunity.

If the United States slows down on its moving towards the future on climate change, that could be an opportunity for Canada to step up, to be innovating, to draw in investors and partners from the US and from around the world that do understand that this is the way the world is going and Canadian leadership, Canadian innovation, Canadian values give us tremendous opportunity, he said.

Trudeau fielded questions from New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker and the newspapers Toronto bureau chief, Catherine Porter.
Footy Show host Rebecca Maddern has said she is happier than ever in the workplace despite being told she looked like 'Shrek' by her male co-hosts live on-air.

Comedian Dave Hughes and other co-hosts revealed a banner on the show last month that told Maddern: 'Without makeup, u (sic) look like Shrek!'

The comment was widely slammed as being 'disgraceful', 'shameful' and an example of 'workplace bullying'.

But Maddern has insisted she doesn't feel like a victim on the show and doesn't want people to portray her as one.

Footy Show host Rebecca Maddern (pictured) has said she is happier than ever in the workplace despite being told she looked like 'Shrek' live on-air

Comedian Dave Hughes and other co-hosts revealed a banner on the show last month that told Maddern: 'Without makeup, u (sic) look like Shrek!'

The comment aimed at Maddern was slammed as being 'disgraceful', 'shameful' and an example of 'workplace bullying'

'I thank everybody for their concern, and there are so many people who are concerned about me, but I'm really fine,' Maddern told Stellar.

'I'm more than fine. In fact, I've never been so happy in the workplace  People reading this will probably fall off their chairs.'

Maddern said she wished more women were like men by more readily saying yes to opportunities that present themselves.

'Men just say yes and then work out how they will actually do it later on. Women try to work out how they will do it before they will say yes,' Maddern said.

Maddern also praised controversial co-host Sam Newman, saying he is a caring person who has liberated her by teaching her not to worry about what people think.

She said Newman has changed her 'whole concept' on how she thinks about social media and taught her to take both praise and criticism 'with a grain of salt'.

Maddern also praised controversial co-host Sam Newman (right), saying he is a caring person who has liberated her by teaching her not to worry about what people think

Newman has frequently been condemned in the past for 'homophobic' and 'sexist' comments on the program, including telling Maddern to 'get on your knees'

Maddern (pictured) said she wished more women were like men by more readily saying yes to opportunities that present themselves

Newman has frequently been condemned in the past for 'homophobic' and 'sexist' comments on the program, including telling Maddern to 'get on your knees'.

He also once asked Maddern on-air if she has ever 'kissed a woman' and told her to take her skirt off.

Most recently, Newman earned the ire of viewers on Wednesday night for referring to transgender Caitlyn Jenner as 'it'.

Sam Newman told Daily Mail Australia in a statement he regretted the comments.

'I regret the comments I made about Caitlyn Jenner. What I said was not appropriate and I'm sorry to anyone offended,' he said.
One cold November afternoon in 1969, a 17-year-old schoolgirl called Jean Wehner was driven to a remote rubbish dump on the outskirts of the American city of Baltimore. There, she was led to the rotting corpse of her murdered teacher, Sister Cathy Cesnik.

This is what happens when you say bad things, the terrified teenager was warned.

The chilling scene from the new Netflix series, The Keepers, may seem like the plot of a Scandi-inspired thriller, but the hit show keeping millions of viewers on the edge of their seats is not a voguish noir fiction, but a cold-case documentary.

Pictured is Father Joseph Maskell, a paedophile Catholic priest, who is a prime suspect over the death of nun Sister Cathy in a new Netflix series

Sister Cathy Cesnik (left) was bludgeoned to death with a hammer  apparently because she was threatening to expose widespread child sex abuse at the girls school in which she worked

Already one of Netflixs most successful series ever, the gripping seven-part show follows the real-life unsolved murder of Sister Cathy, who was bludgeoned to death with a hammer  apparently because she was threatening to expose widespread child sex abuse at the girls school in which she worked.

The murder of a nun is only matched by the revulsion viewers feel when the prime suspect is revealed to be Father Joseph Maskell, a paedophile Catholic priest who died in 2001 without ever being brought to justice.

The series reveals stunning new evidence in the case and brings to light disturbing allegations from victims who claim powerful figures in the Church and police  Maskells brother was a Baltimore police officer  colluded to shield him from justice. Already it has forced detectives to look again at the case, and has sparked an inquiry 3,000 miles away in Co. Wexford, Ireland, a country where the Church has been forced to apologise for a series of abuse scandals perpetrated by Catholic clerics and nuns.

Many are asking why Maskell, despite being barred from working as a priest in the US, was allowed to move to Ireland to work as a child psychologist for the local health service and in private practice.

There, he also continued to say Mass  even after the Church was warned he was a serial rapist and possible killer.

To date, the Baltimore diocese has paid out almost half a million dollars in settlements to 16 former pupils the priest abused. Official inquiries are now under way in both Ireland and America.

Baltimore lawyer Joanne Suder, who represents several of Maskells US victims, says it is horrendous that he was allowed to seek sanctuary in Ireland. It is particularly troubling to consider that some of Maskells patients had themselves been abused  vulnerable youngsters who were the victims of paedophile priests in the Ferns diocese of the same county, Wexford.

Its horrifying, Suder adds. The Catholic Church should be ashamed of itself.

Teresa Lancaster, a lawyer who was abused by Maskell as a child, has told The Mail on Sunday that at least two more of his Irish victims have come forward in recent days.

I am certain more will follow, she says. There could be as many as 100 of his victims in both Ireland and America.

The Keepers has already reached its broadcast conclusion; yet the real-life case behind it shows no sign of disappearing from public view.

St Margaret's in Curracloe, County Wexford, Ireland, where Maskell is said to have held Mass after fleeing the US

THE SOUND OF MUSIC VICTIM

Sister Cathy Cesnik, 26, was a much-loved English teacher at the all-girls Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore.

She went missing on November 7, 1969, after going shopping to buy a wedding gift for her sister. Her mutilated body, the skull bashed in with a hammer and with strangulation marks around her neck, was found on a rubbish dump outside Baltimore in January 1970.

Cesnik adored the film The Sound Of Music and was described as a real-life version of Julie Andrewss character Maria. She played guitar, sang and was full of life, recalls one pupil.

Several girls had told the nun about the sexual abuse taking place, and it seems she was about to go public when she was killed. A woman, who appears on The Keepers on condition of anonymity, says she was at Cesniks flat the night before she disappeared when Maskell, the school chaplain, stormed in.

He glared at me. He knew why I was there, she says. She told me about the abuse. The next day, he threatened me with a gun and said he would kill my family if I ever spoke up about what she said.

The detective who investigated Cesniks murder, Nick Giangrasso, tells the series he was made to hand over the case to a rival police department with close ties to Maskell: The Catholic Church had a lot of power with the Baltimore police department. I think the murderer was in her social network, the priests and the religious order.

Giangrasso says he tried multiple times to interview prime suspect Maskell but I never got a chance. The case was abandoned a year later. No charges were ever brought.

Already one of Netflixs most successful series ever, the gripping seven-part show follows the real-life unsolved murder of Sister Cathy

TESTIMONY OF THE ACCUSERS

For two decades, the murder remained forgotten.

But in 1994, Jean Wehner and Teresa Lancaster filed a 30 million lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Baltimore, claiming Maskell had sexually abused them.

Lancaster had been sent to see Maskell after her parents found a joint of cannabis in her bag. He forced her to sit naked on his lap while he molested her in what he told her was a Godly manner.

He said: Im not supposed to do this, but I find that I can really help people when I have physical contact, Lancaster says. I was in total shock. He abused me for over two years. For the first year, it was probably three times a week.

After raping Wehner, Maskell used his semen to draw the sign of the cross on her forehead, saying it would cleanse her of her sins.

Maskell threatened his victims with expulsion, reform school and even death if they exposed his depravity. He let me know that either I went along with whatever he wanted to do, or it was going to be worse than I could ever imagine, Lancaster says.

When victim Donna Von Den Bosch, now 60, threatened to report Maskell, he put a gun in her mouth, saying: Youre a troublemaker. Youre trash. Nobody would believe you.

People close to the nun believe that Sister Cathy had 'confronted' Maskell 'and she lost her life for it'

His depravity spread beyond Archbishop Keough. He also supplied schoolgirls for a sex ring at the nearby St Clement Church, where Lancaster claims she was abused by men who used the pseudonyms Brother Bob, Brother Ted and Brother Ed and paid Maskell for his work.

He was prostituting us, says Wehner, today aged 63. Together with Lancaster and Von Den Bosch, she recalls uniformed policemen joining in the abuse.

Wehner and Lancasters lawsuit was dismissed when the judge ruled the statute of limitations had expired.

But rather than pursue Maskell to Ireland with the evidence they already had, the American police simply dropped the investigation.

I believe that Cathy Cesnik was murdered by someone she knew, Wehner says in The Keepers.

Cathy was killed because she was going to talk about what went on and I believe there was more than one person who was afraid she was going to out them. They used her death to keep me quiet.

Today, Lancaster believes there are other victims. Maskell was a psychopath, and possibly a serial killer, she says.

At least four other girls went missing around that time, or were found murdered. Im just glad he didnt kill me.

Cathy's Ford Maverick, which she had recently purchased, was found not far from her apartment  parked illegally in a no parking area and unlocked

Maskell threatened his victims with expulsion, reform school and even death if they exposed his depravity

THE ARMCHAIR DETECTIVES

Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schaub both attended the school at the time of Sister Cathys murder. Although they were not abused, both have been troubled for years by the disappearance of their popular English teacher.

In 2013, they began interviewing scores of former pupils and chased down dozens of leads.

They also started a Justice for Cathy Cesnik Facebook page.

Netflix filmmaker Ryan White (whose aunt had been a pupil of Cesniks) heard about their investigation and has made them central figures in The Keepers.

THE MAIN SUSPECT

Blue-eyed, broad-shouldered and charismatic, Father Joseph Maskell had a graduate degree in psychology from the prestigious Johns Hopkins University and worked as a psychological and spiritual counsellor at Archbishop Keough High School.

He is described by his victims as a sadistic rapist who carried a gun, drank beer and socialised with friends of his police officer brother, Tommy.

More than 30 women would eventually accuse the priest of molestation.

He returned to the US in 1998 when the Irish Church authorities discovered the allegations against him. Maskell died in Towson, Maryland, in 2001, still denying all the abuse claims.

Father Maskell had a graduate degree in psychology from the prestigious Johns Hopkins University

THE OTHER SUSPECTS

Maskells body was recently exhumed and his DNA compared against a discarded cigarette end found near Sister Cathys body. The DNA did not match.

The show points the finger of suspicion at several other men, including a mysterious figure called Father Bob (an unidentified priest who one victim says had confessed to the killing) and several serving Baltimore police officers who allegedly took part in the sex abuse ring.

Cathys former boyfriend, Jesuit priest Gerry Koob, had begged her to quit the Church and marry him.

He had an alibi but former Baltimore murder cop Harry Bannon says: Im sure Koob knew more than he was telling.

Sister Cathys gay neighbour Billy Schmidt confessed to family members that he was involved, then committed suicide.

Another neighbour, Edgar Davidson, returned home in a blood-stained shirt and told his wife: By the time they find her body, its going to be winter time. Shes going to be buried in snow.

He tells filmmakers he made up the story to attract attention.

THE DEEP THROAT

An anonymous former detective called Deep Throat appears off-camera on The Keepers, his voice distorted.

He claims that in 1994 investigators received a tip-off saying Maskell had ordered a cemetery grounds keeper to dig a hole where he buried boxes of files.

Deep Throat claims that police found scores of nude photographs of young girls. The files subsequently disappeared.

THE SILENT CHURCH

Filmmaker Ryan White, who was brought up as a Catholic, says the Church refused multiple requests to unseal evidence in the case.

An autopsy revealed Cathy Cesnik had been struck on the back of her head, there was a hole the size of a quarter in her skull, and there were strangulation marks on her neck

For the series, White interviews a man who claims that he was assaulted by Maskell at a boys school in Baltimore. Maskell was transferred to Keough High School after his mother complained.

When White tells him that the Catholic Church claims not to have known that Maskell was a paedophile, the man sits in stunned silence, before adding: If they had done something when my mother complained, then there wouldnt have been any murder.

A SAFE HAVEN FOR ABUSE

Maskell, whose father was from Limerick, remained in Ireland for four years until 1998, conducting Mass in churches around the village of Castlebridge.

The Catholic diocese of Ferns says it received no complaints of abuse by Maskell during his time there and launched its own enquiries when he was seen in full clerical garb in public, says diocese spokesman Rev. John Carroll.

When the diocese learned Maskell had been defrocked, they say they asked him to stop ministering in public. But the diocese refuses to release its files on Maskell, citing a policy that allows inspection only by statutory and church governing bodies.

All of this should be public information, says victims lawyer Suder. If there are victims of Maskells sex abuse in Ireland, they have the right to know.
Vladimir Putin has admitted for the first time to working in 'illegal intelligence' for the KGB, meaning he was involved in dangerous spying operations without diplomatic cover.

He made his revelation in a TV interview marking the 95th anniversary of the Soviet intelligence directorate dealing with unofficial spies.

It is believed Putin did not personally work as an 'illegal agent' but 'led' such operations.

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It is believed Putin did not personally work as an 'illegal agent' but 'led' such operations

The revelation was seen in Moscow as disclosing a significant secret about his past espionage career

The revelation was seen in Moscow as disclosing a significant secret about his past espionage career.

It is not known if his 'illegal work' was during his known Cold War posting under diplomatic cover to East Germany from 1985-90 - or at some other point in his spying career.

'All my work in the USSR foreign intelligence agencies was connected not just with the Foreign Intelligence Service [SVR], but specifically with illegal intelligence,' he said, giving no further details.

It is not known if his 'illegal work' was during his known Cold War posting under diplomatic cover to East Germany from 1985-90 - or at some other point in his spying career

Russia's most famous modern-day illegal spy is glamorous Anna Chapman, who was thrown out of America by the FBI, and stripped of her British passport, after being unmasked.

Moscow is assumed to deploy an army of such agents against major Western countries, people living under false identities passing secrets back to Russia.

Putin said such agents under non-official cover were people of special qualities.

'Not everyone can give up their life, give up their loved ones, leave their families for many, many years, not everyone can devote their lives to serving their home country,' he said.

'Only a chosen one can do this. I say this without any exaggeration. Employees of the illegal intelligence live with such an approach to the cause, to the country, to the people. They are unique people.

'I wish them happiness, prosperity, I am sure they will hear my words.'

Moscow is assumed to deploy an army of such agents against major Western countries, people living under false identities passing secrets back to Russia

TV presenter Sergey Brilyov said the Russian leader has made a startling admission.

'Putin's reply surprised me so much, nobody ever knew such facts about him,' he said, saying that the Kremlin leader had 'led' such spying operations rather than served as an illegal agent.

Flame-haired Anna Chapman - now 35 - plus nine other 'illegals' were detained in 2011 after several years under surveillance by the FBI.

They were later swapped for four men imprisoned in Russia who had allegedly spied for MI6 and the CIA.

An 11th agent was arrested in Cyprus before skipping bail and vanishing. Putin welcomed home the 'illegals', and sang patriotic songs with the group, including Chapman.

Foreign intelligence colonel Alexander Poteyev, who fled to the US, was blamed for compromising the group who mainly worked in ordinary jobs in the US using false identities.

Poteyev was convicted in absentia to 25 years in jail for high treason.
People across the country are calling for a part-time professor to be fired after she wrote on Facebook that she thinks Otto Warmbier 'got exactly what he deserved.'

Katherine Dettwyler, who teaches anthropology at the University of Delaware, wrote on her personal Facebook Tuesday, one day after Warmbier's death, that he had the 'typical mindset of a lot of young, rich, clueless males who come into my classes.'

The post, which was deleted just after being captured by the News Journal, accused the deceased University of Virginia student of 'growing up thinking he could get away with anything'.

People across the country are calling for a part-time professor to be fired after she wrote on Facebook that she thinks Otto Warmbier 'got exactly what he deserved'

Katherine Dettwyler, who teaches anthropology at the University of Delaware, wrote on her personal Facebook Tuesday, one day after Warmbier's death, that he had the 'typical mindset of a lot of young, rich, clueless males who come into my classes'

Otto Warmbier died on Monday, less than a week after he was returned from North Korea in a coma. He was imprisoned there for 17 months while on a school trip in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

While Warmbier's family was dealing with the grief of never speaking to their son again, the professor eviscerated his memory online.

'These are the same kids who cry about their grades because they didn't think they'd really have to read and study the material to get a good grade. His parents ultimately are to blame for his growing up thinking he could get away with whatever he wanted,' the post read.

Dettwyler, who is pictured on her Amazon account, accused the 22-year-old University of Virginia student of being a 'young, white, rich, clueless male'

The post quickly sparked anger on social media, with many people sharing it with the school and calling for the University to fire her. On Friday, the University of Delaware released a statement in response to the adjunct-professor's remarks

'Maybe in the US, where young, white, rich, clueless white males routinely get away with raping women. Not so much in North Korea. And of course, it's Otto's parents who will pay the price for the rest of their lives,' she continued.

Otto Warmbier died on Monday, less than a week after he was returned from North Korea in a coma. He was imprisoned there for 17 months while on a school trip in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor

The post quickly sparked anger on social media, with many people sharing it with the school and calling for the University to fire her.

On Friday, the University of Delaware released a statement in response to the adjunct-professor's remarks, which reads: 'We condemn any and all messages that endorse hate and convey insensitivity toward a tragic event such as the one that Otto Warmbier and his family suffered.

'The University of Delaware values respect and civility and we are committed to global education and study abroad; therefore we find these comments particularly distressing and inconsistent with our values. Our sympathies are with the Warmbier family.'

The University also replied to a tweet by Ann Coulter and Paul Joseph Watson of the conservative news site 'Prison Planet' who asked if it condemned the professor's comments.

The tweet was shared by thousands, many of whom said Dettwyler should either resign or be fired. Some people even said they would not send their children to the University of Delaware following the remarks.

The University's student government also issued a statement Friday, according to the New York Daily News, which says: 'While we are supporters of free speech, we believe that the comments made by Dettwyler are assumptive and offensive.

A funeral for the 22-year-old was held in his hometown of Wyoming, Ohio, on Thursday, and is pictured above

'It is not our duty to make assumptions on the case of Otto Warmbier without all the facts necessary, but we believe that stating he deserved death is highly inappropriate and lacks both professionalism and empathy.'

A funeral for the 22-year-old was held in his hometown of Wyoming, Ohio, on Thursday.

The University has not yet said if any action will be taken against Dettwyler.
In an extraordinary interview, Prince Harry, pictured, has given an astonishing insight into how he once felt directionless, and sought an escape from the pomp and pageantry surrounding him

Prince Harry has admitted that he once wanted out of the Royal Family and considered turning his back on the privilege he was born into to live an ordinary life.

In an extraordinarily candid interview, the 32-year-old Prince opens up about his troubled 20s and says how, after leaving the Army, he didnt want to grow up and struggled to find a meaningful role for himself.

Speaking to journalist Angela Levin  who revealed last week that Harry believes no one in the Royal Family wants to be King or Queen  the Prince gave an astonishing insight into how he once felt directionless, and sought an escape from the pomp and pageantry surrounding him.

I spent many years kicking my heels and I didnt want to grow up, he admitted.

Several years of partying, drinking and heavy smoking followed  which he has previously described as total chaos  and Harry admitted coming very close to a breakdown several times.

And when he finally decided to be more constructive, he even questioned whether remaining a junior Royal would allow him to use his talents effectively  and considered life as a commoner instead.

I felt I wanted out but then decided to stay in and work out a role for myself, he said, making it clear he was primarily motivated by his loyalty to the Queen.

It was obvious his life in the goldfish bowl had left its mark. He added: We dont want to be just a bunch of celebrities but instead use our role for good.

Harry, who was just 12 when his mother Princess Diana died, admitted feeling most at home during his years in the Army.

Prince Harry, pictured right, at one point questioned whether remaining a junior Royal would allow him to use his talents effectively  but chose to stay because of his loyalty to his grandmother the Queen, pictured left. The pair are pictured in May 2015 at the Chelsea Flower Show in London

Prince Harry, pictured right with the Queen in a video clip to promote the 2016 Invictus Games, has admitted that he once wanted out of the Royal Family

Prince Harry pictured with some of the Royal Family in 2013. Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, holds her son Prince George seated next to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William. Back row from left, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, and the Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry - as well as Kate's family Pippa Middleton, James Middleton, Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton.

He was devastated in 2007 when, after ten weeks in Afghanistans Helmand province, his position was leaked by a magazine and he had to be hastily withdrawn for security reasons.

I felt very resentful, he said. Being in the Army was the best escape Ive ever had. I felt as though I was really achieving something.

'I have a deep understanding of all sorts of people from different backgrounds and felt I was part of a team.

Tellingly, he added that while in the Army, I wasnt a Prince, I was just Harry.

But with professional help, recommended by his brother William, Harry found a way to reinvent himself and carve out a role which has won public respect and affection: promoting the cause of injured servicemen and women, and tackling mental health issues, among other things.

Prince Harry admitted feeling most at home during his years in the Army. He is seen patrolling in a town in southern Afghanistan in January 2008

He said that he and William were incredibly passionate with our charities and they have been chosen because they are on the path shown to me by our mother.

But when asked whether his girlfriend Meghan Markle had in any way advised him on mental health issues, he replied: Absolutely she did not.

In a sure sign of his maturity, Harry showed he had given serious thought to the future of The Firm in the 21st Century.

We want to make sure the Monarchy lasts and are passionate about what it stands for, he said. But it cant go on as it has done under the Queen. There will be changes and pressure to get them right.

Perhaps surprisingly, he also claimed to be an avid viewer  along with millions of commoners  of The Crown, the hugely popular Netflix drama about his grandmother and the House of Windsor.

Its great but I wish theyd stopped at the end of the first series, Harry said. They absolutely must not move on to the younger generation.

Writer who spent hours with Prince Harry and revealed his desire to quit The Firm says 'he's not a whinger - he's a wounded warrior'

By Angela Levin for The Mail on Sunday

There is a moment in the controversial stage play, King Charles III, when Prince Harry renounces his Royal life to become a commoner.

It proves to be a brief departure, and the fictional Harry soon resumes his proper role. Yet there is more than a grain of truth in the drama, which was adapted for TV this year.

Because Harrys search for a role has been long and fraught, and there was indeed a period, however brief, when the young Prince did consider trying to make his mark outside the Royal Family or The Firm  as he told me frankly when we met: There was a time when I wanted out.

Prince Harry, pictured speaking in May 2016, is guilty of no more than thoughtfulness and honesty  about an emotional past that binds the younger Royals together

Over the last three years Prince Harry has faced his demons, worked hard to overcome them and grown into an extraordinary young man who has kept some Royal magic. Left, Harry is pictured attending the wedding of close friend Jamies Murray Wells at Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire. Right, the Prince is pictured on a visit to South Africa in 2015

Harrys battle for a role was at the heart of my Newsweek interview with the Prince last week, when he made the seemingly unguarded suggestion that no one in the Royal Family would wish to accept the crown, given free choice.

Criticism rained down as he was accused of being a whinger, of failing to give due respect to the institution which has brought him so much privilege.

But I believe he was guilty of no more than thoughtfulness and honesty  about an emotional past that binds the younger Royals together.

After two meetings at Kensington Palace, and having accompanied the Prince to a series of engagements, I know that the true measure of Prince Harry lies in something else he told me. I suspect it goes to the heart of his brother William, too.

Harry disliked the formality of Eton and said that during his time there he had only wanted to be a bad boy. This official portrait taken by Mario Testino was released in 2005 to mark the Prince's 21st birthday on September 15th

Halfway through our first meeting, Harry stopped, looked me in the eyes and, out of the blue, said: William and I were 14 and 12 when our mother died and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television.

'I dont think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. It certainly wouldnt happen today.

It was a burst of openness and maturity that belies his reputation of the past. For I believe him to be not a clown Prince or a moaner, but a wounded Prince.

And who would not be scarred to lose a mother at such a young age?

Harry was in his element during his decade-long stint in the Army and was devastated when in 2007, after ten weeks working in Afghanistan, guiding fighters to suspected Taliban targets, his position was leaked and he was withdrawn for security reasons. He is pictured laying a wreath at the Armistice Day Service in November 2016

Harry is both compassionate and jokey, confessing that he missed the black humour and camaraderie of Army life. He is seen running to an Apache helicopter in Afghanistan's Camp Bastion in January 2013

Harry, 32, has reached an age where he understands this too. Indeed, it is this empathy for those in trouble which makes him such an inspiring figure  finally giving him the role he longs for.

In our time together, he was full of self-recognition: laughing at his impatience and admitting how difficult the past had been. At Eton, he said, he just wanted to be a bad boy.

And most tellingly, he summed up those lost years when his beloved career in the Army was taken from him. I spent many years kicking my heels, he said. And I didnt want to grow up.

We first met earlier this year in a smart sitting room in Kensington Palace, home not just to Harry but to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Harry says that he was motivated to do something to help his grandmother, the Queen, and charity work came to his rescue - for example with Heads Together

Wearing an open-necked, immaculately pressed ice-blue shirt and brown chinos, he leapt out of one of the pale peach armchairs and strode towards me, smiling and with a hand outstretched.

Ive seen you following me about, he said, and wondered if youd like to ask me any questions. But first have you seen The Crown? [the Netflix drama about the House of Windsor].

'Its great but I wish theyd stopped at the end of the first series. They absolutely must not move on to the younger generation.

There would be plenty to go on if they did  as would become clear in the course of our interview.

Harry was just 12 when his mother Princess Diana died. The pair are pictured together in May 1995

The loss of his mother has gnawed at Prince Harry, who is pictured with her in August 1995, and it is little wonder it has taken so long for him to deal with it

Prince William, pictured left, and Prince Harry are seen bowing their heads as their mother's coffin is taken out of Westminster Abbey following her funeral service in September 1997

Certainly, he was happy to acknowledge his own weaknesses.

I can do most things with my hands. My next challenge is to learn to play the guitar. But I get very agitated if I am stuck in front of a computer for long.

The passion in me, I can give some of that to other people well, anyone I am with  but I can sometimes get too impatient.

I love to see people excel and succeed. If you give care and consideration to younger people they will flourish. Anyone can do anything if you put your mind to it. You just need passion and belief.

'If you want to be a success you have to be a team player. No one can do anything by themselves. I was taught that in the Army.

He had loved his military career and felt its loss keenly. Harry found himself directionless. I spent many years kicking my heels and I didnt want to grow up, he admits.

But that was to change. He sought counselling. And determined to be more constructive, he began to think more widely.

It is empathy for those in trouble which makes Prince Harry such an inspiring figure  finally giving him the role he longs for. He is seen speaking to veterans Clive Smith, left, and Jack Cummings, right at a service in St Paul's Cathedral in October 2015

Harry even questioned whether life as a junior Royal would allow him to use his talents effectively, perhaps with a civilian role.

There was a time I felt I wanted out, he says. But then I decided to stay in [The Firm] and work out a role for myself. More than anything else, he says, that he was motivated to do something to help his grandmother, the Queen, and charity work came to his rescue.

We are incredibly passionate with our charities and they have been chosen because they are on the path shown to me by our mother, he says. I love charity stuff and meeting people.

Harry particularly dislikes feeling I live in a goldfish bowl, saying: I am determined to have a relatively normal life and if I am lucky enough to have children they can have one too. We dont want to be just a bunch of celebrities but instead use our role for good.

Much attention has been drawn to his comment: Is there any one of the Royal Family who wants to be King or Queen? I dont think so but we will carry out our duties at the right time.

Yet the truth is that Harry is surprisingly thoughtful about the future of the Monarchy, saying that he and William would like to pull it into the 21st Century.

We want to make sure the Monarchy lasts and are passionate about what it stands for, he explains. We feel that the British public and the whole world needs institutions like this  but it cant go on as it has done under the Queen.

Harry readily admits he is not academic, but instead is exceptionally good at connecting with people of all types and ages. Here he is meeting British soldiers competing in the warrior games in May 2013

Harry particularly dislikes feeling I live in a goldfish bowl, saying: I am determined to have a relatively normal life and if I am lucky enough to have children they can have one too.' Pictured, Prince Harry plays cricket during a youth sports festival at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua, during his November 2016 tour of the Caribbean

There will be changes and pressure to get them right. Things are moving so fast, especially because of social media, so we are involved in modernising the Monarchy.

We are not doing this for ourselves but for the greater good of the people and the Monarchy we represent. There is so much negative in the world  we as a family try to bring something positive.

Does he mind dropping from third to fifth in line to the throne after William and Kates children, George and Charlotte?

The reason I am now fifth is because of my nephew and niece and I could never wish them away, he says. They are the most amazing things ever.

In addition to these formal interviews, I spent about a year accompanying Harry on engagements around the country. He is a remarkable operator.

There were a few techniques he used. One was to leap from the official car, rush towards whoever is in charge and firmly shake their hand.

It gives the genuine impression that he couldnt wait to get there and is delighted to see them.

Another is to completely focus on the individual he talks to  them and only them. He doesnt look around, or over their shoulder, and instead engages them totally, and listens carefully to what they say.

Harry, pictured, is surprisingly thoughtful about the future of the Monarchy, saying that he and William would like to pull it into the 21st Century

Harry, pictured at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London in May 2016, is reassuring, encouraging and knows what to say, how to say it and when. He has a knack of making people feel good about themselves in both significant and small ways

Harry readily admits he is not academic, but instead is exceptionally good at connecting with people of all types and ages.

He is reassuring, encouraging and knows what to say, how to say it and when. He has a knack of making people feel good about themselves in both significant and small ways.

He particularly excels with former soldiers who have been affected by injuries sustained in battle. It was obvious that by helping others he was also helping himself.

I see a lot of myself in these guys, he said. They want an opportunity to prove themselves and be someone, he said.

We went to the Help For Heroes recovery centre at Tedworth House, Wiltshire, where ex-soldiers who had been seriously wounded in battle and suffer psychological wounds come for help with depression, stress, anger, anxiety and problems with alcohol.

Harry was both compassionate and jokey, confessing that he missed the black humour and camaraderie of Army life.

The effect was extraordinary, almost as if he had given them an injection of hope and confidence.

Jokes and slaps on the back are essential part of his repertoire. He asks direct questions without seeming intrusive.

Does Harry mind dropping from third to fifth in line to the throne after William and Kates children, George and Charlotte? The reason I am now fifth is because of my nephew and niece and I could never wish them away, he says. They are the most amazing things ever. Pictured, Prince Harry watches a performance of a play in Nottingham in October 2016

Harry had loved his military career and felt its loss keenly. Harry found himself directionless. I spent many years kicking my heels and I didnt want to grow up, he admits. This photograph was released for his 21st birthday in 2005

For example, his first question to Mike Doris Day, 34, formerly a sniper section commander in the 4 Rifles, who was hit by a grenade in Afghanistan in 2009 and whose injuries included a broken back and shrapnel in his head and body, went right to the core: So what has been the biggest effect on you? he asked. Day thought for just a moment. I am no longer me, he replied quietly.

Harry nodded sympathetically. One of your biggest struggles must be living rather than just existing, he continued.

Certainly, he would be happy talking to veterans all day. There was less interest in formal meetings. He would sit politely, but occasionally one of his legs would tap up and down and a shadow would pass across his face.

Harry similarly disliked the formality of Eton and told me that during his time there he had only wanted to be a bad boy.

Instead, he was in his element during his decade-long stint in the Army and was devastated when in 2007, after ten weeks working in Afghanistan, guiding fighters to suspected Taliban targets, his position was leaked and he was withdrawn for security reasons.

I felt very resentful, he told me. Being in the Army was the best escape Ive ever had. I felt I was really achieving something.

I have a deep understanding for all sorts of people from different backgrounds and felt I was part of a team I also wasnt a Prince, I was just Harry.

Yet this brings me back to 1997, and that image he evoked of a young boy walking in the glare of millions, part of his mothers cortege.

Prince Harry during his visit to Southern African Wildlife College, a flagship centre close to Kruger National Park, in December 2015

Prince Harry is pictured with a Ranger Tracker dog as he visits the South African Wildlife College on December 2, 2015 in Hoedspruit, South Africa

The loss has gnawed at him and it is little wonder it has taken so long for him to deal with it.

My search began when I was in my mid-20s, Harry said. I needed to fix the mistakes I was making and what was going on with me.

In April he revealed that bottling up his grief had affected every area of his life, bringing him close to a breakdown several times.

For years he seemed lost. He partied with a dubious set of rich friends, and drank and smoked heavily.

But it didnt help him drown his feelings. Instead of dealing with it I buried my head in the sand and let everything around me tear me to pieces, he said.

Eventually, when he was 28, on Williams advice, he sought professional help.

Has his relationship with Meghan Markle helped him? It is a subject he does not wish to discuss, feeling she already has too much unfair scrutiny.

But asked whether she advised him on mental health issues, as some have suggested, there was an answer, sharp and clear: Absolutely she did not. The decision has been his, showing a different sort of strength to the courage required in Afghanistan.

Over the last three years he has faced his demons, worked hard to overcome them and grown into an extraordinary young man who has kept some Royal magic, is charming, energetic, sincere and longs to help those who are damaged by war, by accident  or by dysfunctional families.

There is still some way for him to go, but by helping them, this wounded warrior is helping himself  in the best way possible.
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At least eight people were killed and five remain missing after an explosion at an illegal coal mine in Colombia.

A methane explosion is thought to have triggered the tragedy, and rescue crews are working round the clock to search for the missing.

The country's President, Juan Manuel Santos, has expressed his solidarity with the victims as loved ones wait anxiously for news of those caught up in the explosion.

Rescue teams are working around the clock to try and trace the five miners still missing after yesterday's blast

At least eight people have been killed, and relatives face an anxious wait for news about the missing

Miners wait for news at the scene of the explosion, where more than 40 rescuers are working round the clock to find the five who have been missing

Colombia's National Mining Agency said a rescue crew of 35 miners and seven engineers has been working 'around-the-clock' in a frantic search for the missing

Yesterday's tragedy happened in the town of Cucunuba in Cundinamarca state, which is around 55 miles north of Bogota.

One person was injured in the blast, which happened at around 9.30pm local time.

Colombia's National Mining Agency said a rescue crew of 35 miners and seven engineers has been working 'around-the-clock' in a frantic search for the missing.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who was wrapping up a visit to France, used Twitter to express his 'solidarity with the victims'

Yesterday's tragedy happened in the town of Cucunuba in Cundinamarca state, which is around 55 miles north of Bogota

A total of 28 mining emergencies were reported in Colombia in the first five months of this year, leaving 23 dead and 33 injured, according to an NMA report

'We are going to dig by hand throughout the night to try to rescue (the missing workers)' said Wilson Garcia, director of the emergency response unit in Cundinamarca.

Officials said they do not know what caused the explosion, although El Universal reports that methane was to blame. The country has seen an increase in illegal mining in recent years.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who was wrapping up a visit to France, used Twitter to express his 'solidarity with the victims'.

Relatives of miners are waiting anxiously for news of those who have been missing since last night's tragedy

A methane explosion is thought to have triggered the tragedy, and rescue crews are working round the clock to search for the missing

A total of 28 mining emergencies were reported in Colombia in the first five months of this year, leaving 23 dead and 33 injured, according to an NMA report. Sixty per cent of the accidents occurred in coal mines.

There were 114 mining emergencies last year, causing 124 deaths, the report said.

Colombian coal production hit a record 90 million tons last year, according to the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

Colombia, a major world supplier, provided more than 70 percent of US coal imports.

Dozens of rescue workers are involved in the search for the five miners who have been missing since the blast
The rocketing cost of medical negligence lawsuits is bringing Britain's GP service to the brink of collapse, according to a shock new survey.

With some doctors facing increases in their personal insurance premiums of up to 50 per cent, the poll reveals that a third are seriously considering leaving medicine or taking early retirement because they cannot afford to stay.

The Government says it needs to recruit 5,000 new GPs by 2020 to cope with fast-rising workloads. But this year, the number of family doctors has been falling by about 100 a month.

Unlike hospital doctors, GPs are legally required to pay their own premiums, and some say they are spending a fifth of their pre-tax income on negligence insurance.

The rocketing cost of medical negligence lawsuits is bringing Britain's GP service to the brink of collapse, according to a shock new survey

According to the British Medical Association, GP pay has fallen by 11 per cent in real terms since 2008. At the same time, the annual rise of premiums has averaged ten per cent. While a third of GPs are ready to quit now, that figure increases to more than 40 per cent if premiums continue to go up at their current rate.

The figures come from a poll of nearly 900 GPs, to be published by the Medical Defence Union (MDU) tomorrow  and are borne out by anecdotal evidence.

Preeti Shukla, a single mother who works as a GP at a surgery in Blackburn, said: 'We are approaching breaking point. If premiums continue to rise at this pace, we will see an overnight collapse.'

She said she had been warned that when her insurance comes up for renewal in August, the premium will rise by 50 per cent  from 3,500 to up to 5,250.

Meanwhile her income is just 36,000  it was frozen last year and this year rose by only one per cent.

'I've never been sued,' she said. 'I love my work, but it's getting to the point where I might be better off stacking shelves in Tesco.'

Dr Shukla, who currently works four sessions a week, added that she would love to take on extra work by helping to provide the after-hours service the Government wants  but the insurance cost was prohibitive.

With some doctors facing increases in their personal insurance premiums of up to 50 per cent, the poll reveals that a third are seriously considering leaving medicine

Bristol GP Shaba Nabi said rising premiums had forced her to cut the number of sessions she worked with patients. Instead, she took on work such as training young doctors, which does not require insurance. 'I've been a GP for 17 years, and I wanted to do more work, not less,' she said.

'I work at a practice in a deprived area, with very vulnerable patients. Last year I was paying a premium of 5,400 for four sessions a week. Now I'm going to be paying 5,800 for only three. I'm having to do less clinical work and more management in order to provide for my kids. This is a huge national crisis.'

GPs are twice as likely to be sued than they were ten years ago, and the NHS forecasts that lawsuits  already costing 1.5 billion a year  are set to soar to 2.6 billion by 2022.

The NHS has said it will need to find a total of 56 billion, spread over several years, to cover the cost of lawsuits from incidents arising up to mid-2016. The figure is equivalent to almost half the NHS England annual budget.

In many smaller lawsuits, costs paid to ambulance-chasing law firms outstrip the damages.

The Medical Protection Society, which, like the MDU, is campaigning for reforms to cap these costs, said that in one case, a patient who experienced botched cosmetic surgery was paid 32,000 compensation, but her lawyers got 38,000 in costs.

In another case, where the failure to diagnose a mouth condition meant a patient had to undergo surgery, costs came to 64,000 compared with damages of 50,000.

And in a case of faulty dental work, the patient was awarded just 1,550 but the lawyers claimed 39,621  later reduced to 15,000 after this was challenged.

MDU chief executive Dr Christine Tomkins, said last night: 'Primary care services are struggling to cope with an overwhelming workload, a shortage of GPs and limited funding.

'The spiralling cost of indemnity is the final straw for some GPs. Our survey reveals that many of them  not just those of retiring age  are considering quitting.

'Even newly qualified doctors say that they are thinking of a career change.

'If a third of the GP workforce leaves the profession, it will be devastating for patients and the NHS.'
The suspect in a murder stemming from a threesome gone wrong in Brooklyn has spoken out in a jailhouse interview.

Christopher Membreno, 24, was charged Monday with murdering Manos Ikonomidi, 20, hours after the victim had a threesome with Membreno's girlfriend and 21-year-old Jack Doherty, who has not been charged.

Police believe that the girlfriend became upset after one of the men tried filming the threesome without her permission, and she then falsely told Membreno that she'd been raped by Ikonomidi, throwing her boyfriend into a murderous rage.

'I threw my life away for a f***ing lie? My life is over because of a f***ing lie,' an astonished Membreno said when a reporter from the Daily News told him that cops believed the girlfriend had lied to him about being raped.

Victim: Manos Ikonomidis, 20, was beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed to death after participating in a threesome with his male friend and a woman in Brooklyn Monday

Grisly crime scene: The 20-year-old man was bleeding on 16th Street in Park Slope (pictured)

'Did she set me up? I deserve to know the truth,' Membreno said, pleading for answers before accepting reality.

'I still love her even though she set me up,' Membreno told the News. 'I don't know why I still love her.'

Investigators say murder victim Ikonomidis and his friend Jack Doherty, 21, had a consensual sexual encounter with Membreno's girlfriend inside Doherty's apartment on 16th Street early Monday morning.

The group sex session reportedly ended on a sour note after one of the men started filming the menage a trois, which made the female participant upset.

Doherty then drove the woman home to Staten Island, leaving Ikonomidis alone, reported the New York Post. Doherty is not facing any charges.

The woman later called her boyfriend, Membreno, claiming she had been raped.

Membreno says she sounded 'distraught' and 'scared' on the phone. He rounded up some friends and went looking for Ikonomidis.

Ikonomidis (left and right) collapsed in the first-floor hallway of the building after being chased by three suspects. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital 30 minutes later

Membreno claims he was high at the time and his memories of the slaying are hazy.

Surveillance video from the area of the murder captured two white men and a black men running after Ikonomidis as he tried to escape from the building.

'I just wanted some f---ing justice. I wanted to hold him until the police got there,' he told the News.

'He was fighting me. I had to defend myself. I had to fight back,' he went on.

Mortally wounded, Ikonomidis knocked on neighbor Joy Liguori's door begging for help, with blood gushing from his wounds. A relative of Liguori's told the News that Ikonomidis apologized profusely before falling to the floor.

Ikonomidis was discovered unresponsive and bleeding in the lobby of a building in the 300 block of 16th Street in Park Slope after sustaining at least five stab wounds to his chest and back.

The victim was rushed to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.

'I just want some answers,' Membreno said in the jailhouse interview, as he began to piece together the circumstances that led up to the shocking crime.

'This is my life now,' he said, gripping his beige jumpsuit in his fist. 'I cant do it anymore. I really dont know what I have to live for.'
There is a moment in the controversial stage play, King Charles III, when Prince Harry renounces his Royal life to become a commoner.

It proves to be a brief departure, and the fictional Harry soon resumes his proper role. Yet there is more than a grain of truth in the drama, which was adapted for TV this year.

Because Harrys search for a role has been long and fraught, and there was indeed a period, however brief, when the young Prince did consider trying to make his mark outside the Royal Family or The Firm  as he told me frankly when we met: There was a time when I wanted out.

Prince Harry, pictured speaking in May 2016, is guilty of no more than thoughtfulness and honesty  about an emotional past that binds the younger Royals together

Over the last three years Prince Harry has faced his demons, worked hard to overcome them and grown into an extraordinary young man who has kept some Royal magic. Left, Harry is pictured attending the wedding of close friend Jamies Murray Wells at Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire. Right, the Prince is pictured on a visit to South Africa in 2015

Harrys battle for a role was at the heart of my Newsweek interview with the Prince last week, when he made the seemingly unguarded suggestion that no one in the Royal Family would wish to accept the crown, given free choice.

Criticism rained down as he was accused of being a whinger, of failing to give due respect to the institution which has brought him so much privilege.

But I believe he was guilty of no more than thoughtfulness and honesty  about an emotional past that binds the younger Royals together.

After two meetings at Kensington Palace, and having accompanied the Prince to a series of engagements, I know that the true measure of Prince Harry lies in something else he told me. I suspect it goes to the heart of his brother William, too.

Harry disliked the formality of Eton and said that during his time there he had only wanted to be a bad boy. This official portrait taken by Mario Testino was released in 2005 to mark the Prince's 21st birthday on September 15th

Prince Harry, pictured right, at one point questioned whether remaining a junior Royal would allow him to use his talents effectively  but chose to stay because of his loyalty to his grandmother the Queen, pictured left. The pair are pictured in May 2015 at the Chelsea Flower Show in London

Prince Harry, pictured right with the Queen in a video clip to promote the 2016 Invictus Games, has admitted that he once wanted out of the Royal Family

Halfway through our first meeting, Harry stopped, looked me in the eyes and, out of the blue, said: William and I were 14 and 12 when our mother died and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television.

'I dont think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. It certainly wouldnt happen today.

It was a burst of openness and maturity that belies his reputation of the past. For I believe him to be not a clown Prince or a moaner, but a wounded Prince.

And who would not be scarred to lose a mother at such a young age?

Harry was in his element during his decade-long stint in the Army and was devastated when in 2007, after ten weeks working in Afghanistan, guiding fighters to suspected Taliban targets, his position was leaked and he was withdrawn for security reasons. He is pictured laying a wreath at the Armistice Day Service in November 2016

Harry is both compassionate and jokey, confessing that he missed the black humour and camaraderie of Army life. He is seen running to an Apache helicopter in Afghanistan's CAmp Bastion in January 2013

Prince Harry admitted feeling most at home during his years in the Army. He is seen patrolling in a town in southern Afghanistan in January 2008

Harry, 32, has reached an age where he understands this too. Indeed, it is this empathy for those in trouble which makes him such an inspiring figure  finally giving him the role he longs for.

In our time together, he was full of self-recognition: laughing at his impatience and admitting how difficult the past had been. At Eton, he said, he just wanted to be a bad boy.

And most tellingly, he summed up those lost years when his beloved career in the Army was taken from him. I spent many years kicking my heels, he said. And I didnt want to grow up.

We first met earlier this year in a smart sitting room in Kensington Palace, home not just to Harry but to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Harry says that he was motivated to do something to help his grandmother, the Queen, and charity work came to his rescue - for example with Heads Together

Prince Harry pictured with some of the Royal Family in 2013. Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, holds her son Prince George seated next to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William. Back row from left, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, and the Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry - as well as Kate's family Pippa Middleton, James Middleton, Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton.

Wearing an open-necked, immaculately pressed ice-blue shirt and brown chinos, he leapt out of one of the pale peach armchairs and strode towards me, smiling and with a hand outstretched.

Ive seen you following me about, he said, and wondered if youd like to ask me any questions. But first have you seen The Crown? [the Netflix drama about the House of Windsor].

'Its great but I wish theyd stopped at the end of the first series. They absolutely must not move on to the younger generation.

There would be plenty to go on if they did  as would become clear in the course of our interview.

Harry was just 12 when his mother Princess Diana died. The pair are pictured together in May 1995

The loss of his mother has gnawed at Prince Harry, who is pictured with her in August 1995, and it is little wonder it has taken so long for him to deal with it

Prince William, pictured left, and Prince Harry are seen bowing their heads as their mother's coffin is taken out of Westminster Abbey following her funeral service in September 1997

Certainly, he was happy to acknowledge his own weaknesses.

I can do most things with my hands. My next challenge is to learn to play the guitar. But I get very agitated if I am stuck in front of a computer for long.

The passion in me, I can give some of that to other people well, anyone I am with  but I can sometimes get too impatient.

I love to see people excel and succeed. If you give care and consideration to younger people they will flourish. Anyone can do anything if you put your mind to it. You just need passion and belief.

'If you want to be a success you have to be a team player. No one can do anything by themselves. I was taught that in the Army.

He had loved his military career and felt its loss keenly. Harry found himself directionless. I spent many years kicking my heels and I didnt want to grow up, he admits.

But that was to change. He sought counselling. And determined to be more constructive, he began to think more widely.

It is empathy for those in trouble which makes Prince Harry such an inspiring figure  finally giving him the role he longs for. He is seen speaking to veterans Clive Smith, left, and Jack Cummings, right at a service in St Paul's Cathedral in October 2015

Harry even questioned whether life as a junior Royal would allow him to use his talents effectively, perhaps with a civilian role.

There was a time I felt I wanted out, he says. But then I decided to stay in [The Firm] and work out a role for myself. More than anything else, he says, that he was motivated to do something to help his grandmother, the Queen, and charity work came to his rescue.

We are incredibly passionate with our charities and they have been chosen because they are on the path shown to me by our mother, he says. I love charity stuff and meeting people.

Harry particularly dislikes feeling I live in a goldfish bowl, saying: I am determined to have a relatively normal life and if I am lucky enough to have children they can have one too. We dont want to be just a bunch of celebrities but instead use our role for good.

Much attention has been drawn to his comment: Is there any one of the Royal Family who wants to be King or Queen? I dont think so but we will carry out our duties at the right time.

Yet the truth is that Harry is surprisingly thoughtful about the future of the Monarchy, saying that he and William would like to pull it into the 21st Century.

We want to make sure the Monarchy lasts and are passionate about what it stands for, he explains. We feel that the British public and the whole world needs institutions like this  but it cant go on as it has done under the Queen.

Harry readily admits he is not academic, but instead is exceptionally good at connecting with people of all types and ages. Here he is meeting British soldiers competing in the warrior games in May 2013

Harry particularly dislikes feeling I live in a goldfish bowl, saying: I am determined to have a relatively normal life and if I am lucky enough to have children they can have one too.' Pictured, Prince Harry plays cricket during a youth sports festival at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua, during his November 2016 tour of the Caribbean

There will be changes and pressure to get them right. Things are moving so fast, especially because of social media, so we are involved in modernising the Monarchy.

We are not doing this for ourselves but for the greater good of the people and the Monarchy we represent. There is so much negative in the world  we as a family try to bring something positive.

Does he mind dropping from third to fifth in line to the throne after William and Kates children, George and Charlotte?

The reason I am now fifth is because of my nephew and niece and I could never wish them away, he says. They are the most amazing things ever.

In addition to these formal interviews, I spent about a year accompanying Harry on engagements around the country. He is a remarkable operator.

There were a few techniques he used. One was to leap from the official car, rush towards whoever is in charge and firmly shake their hand.

It gives the genuine impression that he couldnt wait to get there and is delighted to see them.

Another is to completely focus on the individual he talks to  them and only them. He doesnt look around, or over their shoulder, and instead engages them totally, and listens carefully to what they say.

Harry, pictured, is surprisingly thoughtful about the future of the Monarchy, saying that he and William would like to pull it into the 21st Century

Harry, pictured at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London in May 2016, is reassuring, encouraging and knows what to say, how to say it and when. He has a knack of making people feel good about themselves in both significant and small ways

Harry readily admits he is not academic, but instead is exceptionally good at connecting with people of all types and ages.

He is reassuring, encouraging and knows what to say, how to say it and when. He has a knack of making people feel good about themselves in both significant and small ways.

He particularly excels with former soldiers who have been affected by injuries sustained in battle. It was obvious that by helping others he was also helping himself.

I see a lot of myself in these guys, he said. They want an opportunity to prove themselves and be someone, he said.

We went to the Help For Heroes recovery centre at Tedworth House, Wiltshire, where ex-soldiers who had been seriously wounded in battle and suffer psychological wounds come for help with depression, stress, anger, anxiety and problems with alcohol.

Harry was both compassionate and jokey, confessing that he missed the black humour and camaraderie of Army life.

The effect was extraordinary, almost as if he had given them an injection of hope and confidence.

Jokes and slaps on the back are essential part of his repertoire. He asks direct questions without seeming intrusive.

Does Harry mind dropping from third to fifth in line to the throne after William and Kates children, George and Charlotte? The reason I am now fifth is because of my nephew and niece and I could never wish them away, he says. They are the most amazing things ever. Pictured, Prince Harry watches a performance of a play in Nottingham in October 2016

Harry had loved his military career and felt its loss keenly. Harry found himself directionless. I spent many years kicking my heels and I didnt want to grow up, he admits. This photograph was released for his 21st birthday in 2005

For example, his first question to Mike Doris Day, 34, formerly a sniper section commander in the 4 Rifles, who was hit by a grenade in Afghanistan in 2009 and whose injuries included a broken back and shrapnel in his head and body, went right to the core: So what has been the biggest effect on you? he asked. Day thought for just a moment. I am no longer me, he replied quietly.

Harry nodded sympathetically. One of your biggest struggles must be living rather than just existing, he continued.

Certainly, he would be happy talking to veterans all day. There was less interest in formal meetings. He would sit politely, but occasionally one of his legs would tap up and down and a shadow would pass across his face.

Harry similarly disliked the formality of Eton and told me that during his time there he had only wanted to be a bad boy.

Instead, he was in his element during his decade-long stint in the Army and was devastated when in 2007, after ten weeks working in Afghanistan, guiding fighters to suspected Taliban targets, his position was leaked and he was withdrawn for security reasons.

I felt very resentful, he told me. Being in the Army was the best escape Ive ever had. I felt I was really achieving something.

I have a deep understanding for all sorts of people from different backgrounds and felt I was part of a team I also wasnt a Prince, I was just Harry.

Yet this brings me back to 1997, and that image he evoked of a young boy walking in the glare of millions, part of his mothers cortege.

Prince Harry during his visit to Southern African Wildlife College, a flagship centre close to Kruger National Park, in December 2015

Prince Harry is pictured with a Ranger Tracker dog as he visits the South African Wildlife College on December 2, 2015 in Hoedspruit, South Africa

The loss has gnawed at him and it is little wonder it has taken so long for him to deal with it.

My search began when I was in my mid-20s, Harry said. I needed to fix the mistakes I was making and what was going on with me.

In April he revealed that bottling up his grief had affected every area of his life, bringing him close to a breakdown several times.

For years he seemed lost. He partied with a dubious set of rich friends, and drank and smoked heavily.

But it didnt help him drown his feelings. Instead of dealing with it I buried my head in the sand and let everything around me tear me to pieces, he said.

Eventually, when he was 28, on Williams advice, he sought professional help.

Has his relationship with Meghan Markle helped him? It is a subject he does not wish to discuss, feeling she already has too much unfair scrutiny.

But asked whether she advised him on mental health issues, as some have suggested, there was an answer, sharp and clear: Absolutely she did not. The decision has been his, showing a different sort of strength to the courage required in Afghanistan.

Over the last three years he has faced his demons, worked hard to overcome them and grown into an extraordinary young man who has kept some Royal magic, is charming, energetic, sincere and longs to help those who are damaged by war, by accident  or by dysfunctional families.

There is still some way for him to go, but by helping them, this wounded warrior is helping himself  in the best way possible.
Up to 20,000 people across the country are facing evacuation from their homes after tower blocks failed fire safety tests.

So far, 34 high-rise buildings in cities including London, Manchester, Portsmouth and Plymouth have been identified as potential deathtraps requiring urgent action.

But that figure is expected to rise as tests continue following the Grenfell Tower disaster, which left at least 79 dead.

Theresa May is under pressure to call a civil emergency as the scale of the safety nightmare becomes clear.

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Up to 14,000 people across the country are facing evacuation from their homes after tower blocks failed fire safety tests

Already, 4,000 residents in Camden, North London, have been forced to abandon their homes without warning

A cleric helped a family move from their home in the Dorney Tower residential block

Workers yesterday began removing the cladding from Burnham Tower on the Chalcot Estate

The government has also been accused of a ludicrous failure after admitting it had failed to order compulsory testing of insulation materials, The Telegraph reports.

Already, 4,000 residents in Camden, North London, have been forced to abandon their homes without warning. Some 650 households were evacuated from the Chalcots Estate with less than an hour's notice on Friday following a meeting between council officials and the London Fire Brigade.

Many families were forced to spend the night at the nearby Swiss Cottage leisure centre on airbeds amid what displaced resident described as 'chaotic' scenes.

And with other tower blocks now found to have been refurbished with the same combustible cladding as Grenfell, similar evacuations are expected elsewhere.

With Theresa May facing demands to declare a civil emergency last night, it was estimated the nationwide cost of housing residents while council-owned towers are made safe will hit tens of millions. Camden Council spent 500,000 on hotel rooms for just a single night, and another 100,000 on food and drink.

Government cost-cutting plans to ease fire safety standards in new schools have been dropped, according to The Observer.

It reported there has been a rethink at the Department of Education (DoE) which had started a consultation on new draft guidance last year.

A suggestion that 'school buildings do not need to be sprinkler protected to achieve a reasonable standard of safety' is to be stripped out of the revised draft guidance, according to The Observer.

A DoE spokesman said: 'There will be no change to the fire safety laws for schools or our determination to protect children's safety.

'It has always been the case, and remains the case, that where the risk assessment required for any new building recommends sprinklers are installed to keep children safe, they must be fitted.

'Alongside the rest of Government, we will take forward any findings from the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire. '

A man was seen carrying a mattress to his car as residents were evacuated from the Bray block on the Chalcots Estate

Steve Pirolli, 49, is a lorry driver who lives on the fourth floor of Taplow Tower with his partner and her two daughters

As safety fears widened on a day of chaos and confusion:

Birmingham's council leader urged the Government to intervene with emergency funds, warning that people 'up and down the country are going to bed afraid';

Camden residents refusing to evacuate were threatened with removal by police;

Others were promised temporary flats in a development workmen said was 'still a building site';

It emerged Grenfell could have been prevented had fire safety rules in England been as tough as in Scotland;

One of the nation's leading businessmen, who is behind a Grenfell fundraising initiative, said the 'chaotic' response to the disaster had led to a 'breakdown of trust' between politicians and people.

A vicar carries luggage as he helps residents evacuate the Dorney Tower residential block on the Chalcots Estate in north London on June 24

Residents were evacuated from the Dorney Tower residential block as a precautionary measure following concerns over the type of cladding used on the outside of the building

A man carrying shirts leaves Taplow Tower residential block on the Chalcots Estate. A fire safety expert branded the evacuation an 'ungodly mess'

4,000 people left the Chalcots Estate in Camden on Friday night and were placed in temporary accommodation, hotels or with family

AFTER 39 YEARS, WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED! France Chan, 85, who is partially sighted and deaf, is staying put with his wife Amparo Amper in their first-storey flat in Dorney Tower They are among Camden residents still refusing to leave their high-rise homes. France Chan, 85, who is partially sighted and deaf, is staying put with his wife Amparo Amper, a 79-year-old retired nurse who has owned their first-storey flat in Dorney Tower since 1978. She said: 'The thought of having to leave everything behind is terrible. I don't know how we'd cope if we had to go.' Advertisement

Birmingham council leader John Clancy said 'we have to do what it takes' to ensure the safety of the city's 213 tower blocks.

'This is a national emergency,' he said. 'The Government needs to accept it's a national emergency and it needs to focus on this. As each day has gone by since this crisis started, there has been less clarity.'

Not all blocks found to have dangerous cladding similar to that used on Grenfell will need to be evacuated. The Prime Minister said it was possible for some councils to take 'mitigating action' enabling residents to stay put. But speaking in Liverpool yesterday, Mrs May said the Government would ensure councils take 'immediate action' over the failed tests, adding: 'Absolutely our first priority is people's safety.'

Camden Council said people from 83 households refused to leave on Friday night  and yesterday, despite the threat of legal action, 50 were still vowing to stay in their homes.

Steve Pirolli, 49, a lorry driver who lives on the fourth floor of Taplow Tower with his partner and her two daughters, said: 'They put up the cladding around us so surely they can take it down around us?'

Camden council leader Georgia Gould is questioned by resident Shirley Phillips outside the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre after Ms Phillips had to leave her home last night

Taplow resident Shirley Phillips' (C) daughter (R) voices her concerns to Camden Council leader Georgia Gould (L)

Some residents described being awoken by council staff in the early hours and warned that police would remove them if they didn't leave.

Lauren Mitchell, 30, who has lived in one of the towers since she was two weeks old, said: 'There was a knock at the door at 2am. It was a council official in an orange jacket.

'He said if you don't come out, the police will come and remove you.'

COUNCIL LEADER IS THE LEFT'S GOULD-EN GIRL Camden council leader Georgia Gould The woman at the centre of the Camden crisis, council leader Georgia Gould, above, boasts impeccable Blairite credentials. The Oxford-educated 31-year-old is the daughter of the late Philip Gould, Tony Blair's polling guru, and Labour peer Gail Rebuck. One Labour insider said they would be 'amazed' if she didn't make it to the Commons benches. Advertisement

Along with her mother and stepfather, she spent the night in a nearby leisure centre.

Camden Council leader Georgia Gould said: 'There are various legal routes that Camden Council could explore to require people to leave their homes  however, we really don't want to do this.'

Panels of cladding were removed from the five towers on the Chalcots Estate on Wednesday and sent off for lab tests. Camden hired the same firm that refurbished Grenfell Tower and the results revealed the cladding was highly combustible.

Ms Gould said: 'Originally our plan was to remove the cladding and that residents could stay in their homes while this was done. We had lined up a contractor to do the work.

'But the fire service was not happy with the insulation around the gas pipes in the buildings and how the pipes are joined. They also said there were issues with some of the fire doors being made out of unsatisfactory material.'

Miss Gould said the council was attempting to rehouse all its displaced residents, with many spending Friday night in hotels.

'We think the work will take four to six weeks. We have also been looking at student halls accommodation and we want to get people into 100 new flats by Monday.'

Asked about the 'new flats', an aide said they were in a new development two miles away.

Residents were seen looking out of windows in the Dorney Tower residential block

Left, the letter sent to residents on June 23, which some appear to have received after they were evacuated. Right, the fire safety advice inside the Camden block

But a Mail on Sunday reporter who visited the site was told by a builder: 'It doesn't seem likely to me that they will be in by Monday  the place is still a building site. These aren't due to be ready until later this year.'

Meanwhile, the council faced criticism for failing to publish the contents of a fire risk assessments carried out on the towers in the Chalcots Estate 18 months ago. Sian Berry, an opposition councillor and Green Party member, said: 'Issues inside the building should already have been dealt with by Camden.'

Last night, experts suggested the Grenfell Tower tragedy could have been prevented had fire safety rules in England been as tough as in Scotland.

Current building regulations for England, Wales and Northern Ireland are said to be 'ambiguous' when it comes to cladding facades and insulation on the walls of high-rises.

People leave Taplow Tower in north London after returning for extra possessions. The council has put a fund of 100,000 aside to help those who need funds during the next few days

A man carries his pet cat as he and a woman leave the Taplow building on Saturday afternoon. Thousands of people will have to move out of four buildings for around two to four weeks

A woman carries bags out of the tower block after the sudden announcement last night. The council leader explained that they had to act quickly when the firefighters warning came

Despite the warning from the firefighters, some 83 people have decided to stay in their homes and are resolute in their determination not to go

A resident (L) is helped by a council official as she leaves Burnham Tower residential block with some of her things in a carrier bag

Two residents pick up more from their homes after being told they will be out for around two to four weeks for the fire safety work to be carried out

But rules north of the border are far simpler and state clearly that all external wall cladding on high-rise domestic buildings should be 'constructed of non-combustible material' .

Meanwhile the chairman of recruitment giant Reed, who is spearheading a campaign to raise millions of pounds for victims, said the lack of quick and decisive action following Grenfell had led to a 'breakdown of trust' between politicians and local people.

James Reed, 54, who has lived in the Kensington area with his family for years and can see the Tower from his house, said people like him had stepped into the breach to ensure that victims got the help they needed.

'I think they will remain angry and suspicious of officialdom for some time to come,' he said.

Additional reporting: Michael Powell, Padraic Flanagan, Charlotte Wace and Sanchez Manning

They were hastily put up in the leisure centre after safety checks were carried out all day and the decision was made late in the evening

Rows and rows of inflatable single mattresses were lined up on the floor of the leisure centre where thousands of residents were placed for the night

Left Tallow Tower on Saturday morning, after the residents were told to leave as quickly as possible, and right, one of the narrow mattresses at the centre with an Ambulance Pack on top

Residents complained they were given little notice about the evacuation and some were sent to a 'rescue centre' full of airbeds

Tallow Tower on Saturday morning after the residents were evacuated and moved to the leisure as temporary accommodation. 83 people have stayed

The Grenfell, in which at least 79 people are believed to have died, has raised questions about cheap, flammable cladding. The plastic panels that were fitted to the outside of the 24-storey tower block were blamed for the fire spreading

Councils across Britain race to test their tower cladding Burnham residential tower on the Chalcots Estate, Camden, where cladding is being removed CONFIRMED CAMDEN The cladding was tested this week and, although different to that used in Grenfell, was found to be made up of 'aluminium panels with a polyethylene core'. The council has since said it will seek legal advice and accused contractors of fitting flammable materials below the commissioned standard. It also pledged round-the-clock fire safety patrols on the estate's corridors. DEVON Three high-rise tower blocks in Devon have been found to be clad in the same combustible material to the Grenfell Tower in London. Occupants of the 16-storey Lynher, Tamar and Tavy buildings in Plymouth were told of the potential fire risk to their buildings yesterday (Wed). Fire precautions at the buildings were checked urgently and the towers will now be monitored round the clock by security teams. MANCHESTER Wythenshawe Community Housing Group said 78 panels were being removed from a small area of the Village 135 development. Wythenshawe Community Housing Group (WCHG) said: 'We can confirm following early fire safety actions taken we have been able to detect that our Village 135 scheme has been identified as having 78 feature panels which are located in a small area of the overall development, works to remove these panels will commence today.' ISLINGTON Islington Council said cladding was to be removed from Braithwaite House, one of eight blocks tested, after it was found to have aluminium composite material. Test results from the other blocks, Harvist Estate and Brunswick Estate, are yet to be returned, a spokesman said. Councillor Diarmaid Ward said: 'Last night we received results of tests on cladding on the side of Braithwaite House, and they have confirmed the presence of Aluminium Composite Material (ACM). 'We're arranging to have the cladding, which is only on the sides of the building, removed as soon as we possibly can by a specialist contractor. BEING TESTED BARNET Barnet Homes, the council-owned company which runs 24 high-rise blocks in the borough, is reviewing safety in 10 blocks. Three blocks - Granville Point, Harpenmead Point and Templemead point - were reclad in 2012 and have similar panels to Grenfell Tower. They were inspected on Monday and the insulation materials were found to be non-combustible. The other seven blocks have different cladding to Grenfell but are being inspected as a 'precautionary' measure, the council said. NEWHAM Three of the borough's 88 tall buildings have so-called ACM cladding which could be a fire risk. The cladding on these three buildings is now being tested. A spokesman for the council said: 'Once the results are known, we will take whatever action is necessary to ensure our residents are safe. Rivers Apartments in Tottenham, north London, where a review is being carried out of the cladding 'We have already written to tenants and leaseholders in the three blocks explaining what is going on and will keep them informed of all developments.' HARINGEY The London Borough of Haringey owns 54 blocks over six storeys high. None of our blocks have the Reynobond aluminium cladding system that was used on Grenfell Tower. Rivers Apartments, a 22-storey block owned by a Housing Association, is being tested over fears it has the same cladding as Grenfell Tower. HOUNSLOW Only one of the borough's 35 high-rise buildings has the cladding of the type being tested. It is called Clements Court. A council spokesman said: 'We have now taken a sample of this cladding and submitted it to the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and the DCLG as part of its national inspection exercise, which will examine the detail composition of the outer ACM aluminium cladding. Behind the cladding, however, the system is insulated with a 'rockwool' material which is a non-combustable product, and the installation of the system is solely external and did not interfere with the interior of the building. SUTTON The council has eight blocks in its borough - the highest of which is 16 storeys - and has pledged to undergo a 'comprehensive review of fire safety'. Two blocks have cladding but using different materials than what was used in Grenfell. WESTMINSTER Harley Facades, who refurbished Grenfell Tower, supplied the over-cladding at six tower blocks on the Little Venice estate, but the type of cladding used is different, with non-flammable insulation. As a precaution, urgent checks are being carried out on the cladding system and the way it was installed. The local authority has visited all 41 of its tower blocks to review their fire evacuation plans. HAVERING The council has no tower blocks which are higher than 14 storeys. Inspections are being carried out on the other blocks they have in the borough. SALFORD The council says nine of its tower blocks have cladding that is similar to the material used on Grenfell Tower. Tests are being carried out to check whether it is combustible. BELIEVED TO BE SAFE BARKING AND DAGENHAM There are four blocks in the borough which have cladding, but the council said it is not the same type as used on Grenfell Tower. CROYDON 16 cladded blocks have been found not to have been clad with the same materials as Grenfell Tower. However, they are being tested as a precaution. GREENWICH The council said that none of the 105 high-rise buildings in Greenwich are clad in the same way as Grenfell Tower. Grenfell's fire has led to councils across the UK testing if their cladding is dangerous HAMMERSMITH AND FULHAM The council owns three tower blocks which have cladding, but the materials used are different to Grenfell Tower. RICHMOND The council has two 15-storey blocks which have both been recently over-clad with fire resistant cladding. WANDSWORTH There are three blocks in the borough with cladding. The council is carrying out tests but officers are confident they are safe. DONCASTER Cladding different but 'capping' under windowsills is the same, so they are being checked and tests urgently taken. Statement from St Leger Homes: 'The cladding system we have used in Doncaster is an External Wall Insulation (EWI) Render System which is not the same as was used at Grenfell Tower. The core cladding system we have used is different to that used in Grenfell Tower. 'However, we are aware that a small capping detail under the windows of Silverwood House is similar to that used on Grenfell Tower. Whilst this minor capping work (not the window frames or external cladding) is a different make and supplier to that used in London, we are seeking expert advice and ensuring that extensive further testing is urgently undertaken.' NEWCASTLE Your Homes Newcastle, which manages 38 high rise blocks on behalf of the Newcastle City Council, has reassured tenants that the type of cladding used on the Grenfell Tower has not been used on any of its buildings. The council said it is still reviewing building regulation records for existing high rise residential buildings over 18m in height. They said the priority was 'to identify buildings which have been retrofitted with external cladding and to check if the cladding specified is 'aluminium composite material'.' LEEDS The council said there are 22 blocks with cladding but none are made from flammable material NOTTINGHAM They have 13 blocks, none of which use aluminium cladding LIVERPOOL Council said it is still investigating whether privately owned properties have the cladding  the council does not have any housing stock itself ROTHERHAM There is only one block, but it has no external cladding HARTLEPOOL There is only one council block, owned by social housing provide 13. Investigations are taking place to see what the situation is with the cladding WAKEFIELD None of the 2 high rise blocks  managed by company WDH - are clad with the aluminium panels. Statement said: 'Only five have had external wall insulation, which is not a cosmetic treatment and is fixed directly to the super structure, rendered with no air gap, is non-combustible and we have the relevant manufacturer's guarantees confirming the safety of all products used.' Advertisement




Bernie Sanders and his wife have hired lawyers after the feds opened an investigation into loan applications she made to help save a Vermont college, according to reports.

A probe is being launched into whether Jane Sanders falsified information on loan documents in order to expand the campus of Burlington College while she served as president.

Jane ran the of the liberal arts school from 2004 to 2011. During that time the college fell $10million in debt.

Bernie Sanders and his wife, Jane Sanders (pictured together in Chicago on June 10), have hired lawyers amidst a federal investigation, according to reports

A probe is being launched into whether Jane Sanders falsified information on loan documents in order to expand the campus of the now-defunct Burlington College (pictured) while she served as president of the liberal arts school from 2004 to 2011

According to Politico Magazine, Brady Toensing, an attorney who chaired Trump's Vermont campaign, looked at the school's loan documents.

He allegedly saw that Jane Sanders had convinced a bank that the college - which had an annual budget of $4million - could repay the sum.

She also claimed the college could count on $2.6million in donations to pay for the 33 lakeside acres meant for the campus, according to a 2010 loan application.

But Jane only raised one quarter of that amount, raking in $676,000 in donations over the next four years.

VTDigger, a local Vermont online publication, says the numbers that donors say they pledged differ from what Jane documented.

The school ended up closing its doors last May after filing for bankruptcy.

Burlington attorney and Sanders supporter Rich Cassidy has reportedly been hired to represent the Vermont Senator. Meanwhile, high-profile Washington attorney Larry Robbins is working for Jane Sanders.

Senator Sanders indicated that he believe the investigation stemmed from politics.

Jane (pictured with Senator Sanders in Chicago on June 10) allegedly claimed the college could count on $2.6million in donations to pay for the 33 lakeside acres meant for the campus, according to a 2010 loan application. But she only raised one quarter of that amount, raking in $676,000 in donations over the next four years

Burlington attorney and Sanders supporter Rich Cassidy has reportedly been hired to represent the Vermont Senator (right, pictured on the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center on July 26. Meanwhile, high-profile Washington attorney Larry Robbins is working for Jane Sanders (left)

'This implication came from Donald Trump's Vermont campaign manager,' he said in May.

'Let me leave it at that because at this point it would be improper for me to say any more.'

'The investigation was started more than a year ago under President Obama, his Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and his United States Attorney, all of whom are Democrats,' Toensing told CBS News.
One of the three Moroccan terrorists arrested in Madrid on Wednesday celebrated the Manchester Arena bombing by claiming the children victims 'got what they deserved', it emerged today.

Suspect Rachid El Omari's sick comments came to light as a Spanish judge sent him to prison following a court quiz.

Ismael Moreno, in his committal order, said the investigation that led to his arrest during a dawn raid 'pointed towards him being in the process of planning a terrorist attack in Madrid'.

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Police in Madrid arrested three Moroccans including an 'extremely dangerous ISIS member' just days before two million people arrive in the city for the Gay Pride festival

More than 200 suspected jihadists have been arrested in Spain since the start of 2015

Rachid El Omari shared a flat with near to Madrid's Atocha train station with two other suspects, one aged 38 and the other aged 33, were also held in dawn raids on Wednesday

He added in the jail remand ruling, released on Friday, in which Rachid was accused of recruiting new members for terror group ISIS: 'His identification with the ideology of the terrorist organisation Daesh led him to justify the terrorist attacks in December in France.

'He claimed they got what they deserved and those who had pledged allegiance to the Caliphate like him had the job of defending Islam and converting everyone, as the Koran says those who don't want to convert to Islam are infidels and have to die.

'He said the same things after the terrorist attack in Manchester on May 22 when it didn't seem to worry him that children were killed because "it's what they deserve and nobody complains about the children of Syria."

A spokesman for Spain's National Police, referring to ISIS by its acronym DAESH, said on Wednesday: 'Officers have arrested a 32-year-old Moroccan man living in Madrid who belonged to the terrorist organisation DAESH and was in an advanced state of radicalisation'

The spokesman added: 'The suspect had carried out an exhaustive study and search for official DAESH training material'

'He went on to say, "Here something worse is going to happen." He also showed his interest in weapons, asking, "Would you known how to make a bomb?"'

It was not made immediately clear how investigators knew about the comments, although they are believed to have been obtained from phone taps and surveillance of his Internet conversations.

The stomach-churning comments were highlighted as part of the reason the Spanish judge decided to remand El Omari, 32, in prison pending an ongoing investigation following his appearance at Madrid's Audiencia Nacional court.

Two other suspects he is accused of brainwashing and recruiting to ISIS, his 32-year-old cousin and a 37-year-old friend born in Tangiers, were also arrested with him at a flat near Madrid's Atocha train station.

The judge said in his 14-page ruling explaining why he was keeping El Omari in custody that undercover police had seen him and another of the two suspects visiting emblematic places in Madrid on June 11.

He said the pair had kept watch on the undisclosed locations and resorted to 'security measures' during their itinerary.

El Omari made the sick remarks about the Manchester Arena bombing in the build up to his arrest on Wednesday

He added: 'On June 14 they were seen in the early hours of the morning gathering up a poster with photos of women which the other suspect stamped on inside a doorway, while Rachid El Omari looked on.

'On June 13 Rachid El Omari left a note on paper with classic Arabic typeface in his workplace, after his contract ended.

'The note had a marked apocalyptic tone and could be translated as: 'Jihad Dominion today returns to Paradise.'

Video footage released by Spanish police during the week showed two of the three terror suspects being arrested in crash helmets outside their flat.

Twenty two people were killed in the terror attack in Manchester on May 23, when the suicide bomber targeted crowds at an Ariana Grande show

Officers said at the time they had seized material including a manual for suicide bombers belonging to the main suspect.

They said of El Omari, although he was not named at the time: 'He had an extremely dangerous profile, coinciding with those of the terrorists recently involved in attacks in the United Kingdom and France, and was considered an obvious threat to national security.'

Twenty-three adults and children were killed including Salman Abedi when he detonated his rucksack nail bomb in the foyer of the Manchester Arena after a concert by Ariana Grande.

Another 119 people were injured, 23 critically. The youngest fatality was Saffie Roussos, who was just eight years old.

Chris Upton, headteacher at Tarleton Community primary school near Preston, Lancashire where she was a pupil, described her as 'simply a beautiful little girl in every aspect of the word'.

He added in a tribute after she was named as one of the victims: 'She was loved by everyone and her warmth and kindness will be remembered fondly.'
Looking at Yahoo this morning and ran across that the St. Louis Cardinals are going to have a "Pride Night" with rainbow logos on the hats, probably a giany rainbow flag on the field, and a transgender singing the National Anthem.Why is this? Why do companies and sports teams fall in line with this? Why is sexuality a "pride" thing? I just want to watch a baseball game. Really, go in, eat some expensive junk food, my $6 beer and watch a bunch of millionaires play a child's game. To be fair, I do not like all the nation worship in games also and find the National Anthem grating no matter who sings it. Just play the f'ing game, this is what I paid for, not homosexuals, crippled soldiers, sick kids or breast cancer awareness.I would like to start a Facebook whatever that everyone coming to the game bring a CD of homosexual music, stuff from Judy Garland to Boy George and throw it out in the field, with an impromptu singing of "YMCA"!But really, can't we just watch our sports without a purpose?
The Royal Bank of Scotland is secretly scrapping nearly 450 British jobs as it switches key roles arranging loans for small businesses to India.

Make-or-break analysis on lending to small British firms will now be carried out 4,500 miles away in Mumbai.

The taxpayer-owned bank dropped the bombshell news to staff last week in an internal message seen by The Mail on Sunday  but no public announcement was made.

Unions and MPs are incensed that the bank bailed out by taxpayers is now exporting jobs to India and laying off staff in the UK.

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RBS was given a 45.5 billion Government bailout in 2008, meaning that taxpayers owned 80 per cent of the bank

Labour MP John Mann, a member of the Treasury Select Committee in the last Parliament, said: 'It's outrageous that a Government-controlled bank is letting hundreds of British jobs go abroad, especially considering all the money British taxpayers put in to save it.'

Rob MacGregor, the Unite union's national officer for finance, said: 'We understand the need for financial institutions to rationalise costs, but the jobs still need to be done.

'They get them done on the cheap and the British taxpayer and workers get shafted.'

Lee Morse, head of portfolio management at RBS, told staff in an email: 'There will be a significant impact on the size of our UK presence and we will reduce our UK team by 443 roles. Today's announcement has been difficult and unsettling.'

In total, 418 roles will be transferred to India, but the bank stressed that 'all roles which require customer contact will remain in the UK'.

RBS was given a 45.5 billion Government bailout in 2008, meaning that taxpayers owned 80 per cent of the bank.

Make-or-break analysis on lending to small British firms will now be carried out 4,500 miles away in Mumbai, pictured

Small business leaders also expressed concern about the move. Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: 'Many small business customers with RBS will be extremely concerned at the idea of local expert staff being sent packing and their roles outsourced to call centres halfway around the world.'

An RBS insider told The Mail on Sunday: 'The bailout was done to help save the British economy so we find it unbelievable that taxpayers' money will be used to make British workers redundant. How does that help our economy?'

An RBS spokesman said: 'As we become a simpler, smaller bank, we are making some changes to the way we serve customers.

'These changes will result in the net reduction of 443 roles in the UK. We will do everything we can to support those affected.'
A British businessman responsible for the North Korean tour that ended with the jailing and death of US student Otto Warmbier hosted sleazy holidays in Southeast Asia while the American lay in a coma.

Gareth Johnson, whose company Young Pioneer Tours has been criticised for failing to protect the 22-year-old, also runs GN (Gross Negligence) Tours, which arranges tours and stag parties in the Philippines, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Weeks after Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour, Johnson left his wife and five-year-old daughter at their home in China and flew to the Philippines.

At his parties there, held in red light districts, Westerners pay impoverished women to join them for the evening as dancers and guests.

Weeks after Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour, Johnson left his wife and five-year-old daughter at their home in China and flew to the Philippines. Pictures on his social media page show him drinking from the bottle

While frantic diplomatic efforts were made in the US for Warmbier's release, sources say Johnson appeared indifferent to his plight as he enjoyed a hedonistic, heavy-drinking life in the grubby Philippines sex resort of Angeles City.

However, Johnson insisted that his business partners in China followed the case closely and it had 'weighed heavily on my mind'.

Warmbier was arrested at Pyongyang airport in January 2016 for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster from the hotel in which he was staying.

He was sentenced in March last year but fell into a coma in prison shortly afterwards.

The student was flown back to the US on June 14 and died in hospital five days later without regaining consciousness. North Korean officials claim he contracted botulism the day after he was sentenced.

While frantic diplomatic efforts were made in the US for Warmbier's release, sources say Johnson appeared indifferent to his plight as he enjoyed a hedonistic, heavy-drinking life in the grubby Philippines sex resort of Angeles City. He shows off his hammer and sickle tattoo in a picture taken before the trip

Warmbier was arrested at Pyongyang airport in January 2016 for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster from a hotel. The student was flown back to the US on June 14 and died in hospital five days later

At a press conference held before his son's death, Fred Warmbier criticised Young Pioneer Tours, saying: 'This Chinese company has slick ads on the internet, claiming no American ever gets detained.

'Otto is a young adventure-seeking kid. They lure Americans. And that's what happened to my son.

'They advertise it as the safest tour ever. But they provide fodder for the North Koreans. They took him hostage. And the outcome is self-evident.'

Johnson, 36, whose parents live in Rochester, Kent, has courted controversy over his visits with Young Pioneer Tours, which he set up with his Chinese wife in Xi'an, China, in 2008.

Despite claiming to have offices in Xi'an and Beijing, Young Pioneer Tours operates largely out of a North Korean-themed bar called DMZ in Yangshuo, southwest China

Johnson, 36, whose parents live in Rochester, Kent, has courted controversy over his visits with Young Pioneer Tours, which he set up with his Chinese wife in Xi'an, China, in 2008. He is seen posing with a guard in North Korea

Johnson posted a picture of a group of people on a tour having a drink at a venue in Pyongyang

Johnson (above) confirmed to The Mail on Sunday that he left Pyongyang a few days after Warmbier's arrest and has not returned to North Korea since

Adam Pitt, a customer on a 2013 trip to North Korea, claimed that Johnson (above in Pyongyang) almost got a tour party detained when he drunkenly stuffed money into the hand of an official checking tourists' cameras for unauthorised images on a train

In an interview, he boasted of nearly losing his foot after stepping off a moving train in North Korea while drunk on soju, a potent Korean liquor.

Adam Pitt, a customer on a 2013 trip to North Korea, claimed that Johnson almost got a tour party detained when he drunkenly stuffed money into the hand of an official checking tourists' cameras for unauthorised images on a train out of the hermit state.

'Gareth was pretty much blind drunk the whole time we were in the country,' said Pitt in an interview. Young Pioneer Tours later denied his claims.

Johnson confirmed to The Mail on Sunday yesterday that he left Pyongyang a few days after Warmbier's arrest and has not returned to North Korea since.

His second company, GN Tours, promises its all-male customers 'what goes on tour stays on tour' and has a website full of images of bikini-clad Filipinas, offering 'beaches, babes, bullets and booze (all cheap)'.

Weeks after Warmbier (pictured) was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour, Johnson left his wife and daughter at their home in China and flew to the Philippines

Customers can book private pool parties with the website boasting: 'Anything goes at these events... Make your experience extra fun with high quality entertainers available to party with you for US$110 (86).'

An expat acquaintance of Johnson in the Philippines said: 'Gareth is a typical loud, drunken Brit who doesn't seem to take anything seriously. He was over in the Philippines soon after the US student was jailed and the impression I got was that he didn't give a damn.

'His actions in the aftermath of the arrest tell you all you need to know. There's only one person that Gareth Johnson gives a damn about, and that's Gareth Johnson. His businesses exist for his lifestyle, not the other way around.'

Another source said: 'His company takes guests to VIP rooms of hotels with groups of girls. But he's treading a fine line because if you advertise those sorts of services, it is illegal under Philippine law.'

Despite claiming to have offices in Xi'an and Beijing, Young Pioneer Tours operates largely out of a North Korean-themed bar called DMZ in Yangshuo, southwest China, where Johnson lives.

In an email yesterday, Johnson said: '[GN Tours] occasionally provides dancers and hostesses/waitresses for bachelor parties and events [but] does not sell or offer any services of a sexual nature.'

He said that while he was in North Korea at the time of Warmbier's arrest, he was with a separate tour group.

He added: 'I do not believe my presence had anything to do with his detention nor that my behaviour during the tour was reckless or irresponsible.'
Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle is being cruelly taunted, intimdated and attacked by a gang of youths, it was reported last night.

Witnesses have claimed singing sensation Boyle, who suffers from Asperger Syndrome, is being 'hounded' by a group of 15 young people who live near her in West Lothian, Scotland.

The gang of mainly boys is said to have thrown a flaming piece of paper at her in one attack and pelted the buses she was riding on with stones in another.

Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle is being cruelly taunted, intimdated and attacked by a gang of youths

The gang, which is also behind a string of attacks on locals, called her an 'old ugly b****' at the Mill Centre shopping mall in West Lothian

The abuse is getting so bad that the 56-year-old's representatives are said to be considering calling the police to ensure her safety.

The gang, which is also behind a string of attacks on locals, called her an 'old ugly b****' at the Mill Centre shopping mall in West Lothian, a witness told the Mirror.

They told the paper how they even attacked the bus she was riding on, saying: 'They were throwing stones, screaming and shouting things.

'Another time 10 to 15 of them were surrounding and throwing stuff. They lit a piece of paper and threw it at her face.'

Neighbours are said to have told the police that the gang of boys, aged 16 to 18, have been intimidating other locals too.

One woman, who says the gang are known to the community, said they racially abused her and threw a bottle which almost struck her on the head.

Neighbours are said to have told the police that the gang of boys, aged 16 to 18, have been intimidating other locals as well as Susan (pictured)

Witnesses told the Mirror how they attacked the bus Boyle was riding on, saying: 'They were throwing stones, screaming and shouting things'

The abuse is getting so bad that the 56-year-old's representatives are said to be considering calling the police to ensure her safety

She went on: 'While I was waiting at the bus they lobbed a glass bottle at my head. Luckily, it missed  it would have been painful if it had hit me.

'They pick on the most vulnerable people. If there is more than one person they won't do it  because they are too scared.

After appearing on Britain's Got Talent in 2009, Boyle became an international star and has amassed a fortune said to be around 22 million.

That same year, she paid 65,000 to buy this three-bedroom former council house in Blackburn, West Lothian, where she grew up.

The following year, she bought a five-bedroom 300,000 new-build detached villa at the other end of the small town which she calls The Posh House. She later gifted it to her niece.

Susan's neighbours in Blackburn say she has been hassled constantly since becoming famous - and are doing everything they can to help her.

After appearing on Britain's Got Talent in 2009, Boyle became an international star and has amassed a fortune said to be around 22 million

'Since finding fame she has been getting hassle off the youngsters,' one told the Mirror.

Boyle has sold millions of records, sang for the Pope and the Queen and performed a duet with her heroine, Elaine Paige.

In 2013, family members claimed that her brother Gerard persuaded her to give him 50,000 by threatening to commit suicide.
When following a friend in a car, people may make unsafe driving manoeuvres to keep sight of the car ahead, research has found.

The researchers conducted a driving simulation test to observe driving behavior.

They found that it can lead the follower to drive faster, make more erratic turns and follow the car too closely.

The driving simulator used for the study (pictured) was comprised of a 300-degree wraparound screen display, a full-width automobile front (a Ford Focus) and a motion platform which provided inertia force cues for the onset of acceleration and deceleration

The study provides scientific evidence that people who follow another car to a destination are more likely to drive dangerously.

'We have found that when someone is asked to follow another vehicle, it can lead to them engaging in risky driving behavior, such as driving faster, making more erratic turns and following too close to the car in front,' said Dr Robert Gray, a professor of Human Systems Engineering at Arizona State University and the lead author of the study.

'This is most likely caused by a fear of getting lost.

'This study was actually inspired by an accident analysis I was doing for a court case, where a driver was seriously injured in a "following a friend" scenario.

'Although most people have an intuition it can be dangerous, we couldn't find any research to back this up.'

Dr Gray and his team tested this idea by recruiting sixteen undergraduate students with a valid driver's license to take part in a driving simulation study.

The simulator was comprised of a 300-degree wraparound screen display, a full-width automobile front (a Ford Focus) and a motion platform which provided inertia force cues for the onset of acceleration and deceleration.

At first, the participants were asked to drive in a simulated city so that the researchers could analyze their basic driving behavior.

HOW THEY DID IT To find out how following a car can affect driving performance, researchers based at Arizona Stratve University recruited sixteen undergraduate students with a valid driver's license to take part in a driving simulation study. The simulator was comprised of a 300-degree wraparound screen display, a full-width automobile front (a Ford Focus) and a motion platform which provided inertia force cues for the onset of acceleration and deceleration. At first, the participants were asked to drive in a simulated city so that the researchers could analyze their basic driving behavior. Then, they were asked to follow a navigation system, and in a third trial they were asked to follow a friend in the car in front. The researchers compared the students' driving behavior in these three trials, assessing their speed, distance to the car in front and the time it took to move lanes. The researchers also presented hazards in the simulation to see if the driver's behavior changed under the different driving scenarios. Advertisement

Then, they were asked to follow a navigation system, and in a third trial they were asked to follow a friend in the car in front.

The researchers compared the students' driving behavior in these three trials, assessing their speed, distance to the car in front and the time it took to move lanes.

The researchers also presented hazards in the simulation to see if the driver's behavior changed under the different driving scenarios.

'We observed changes in behaviour that increased the likelihood of being involved in an accident,' said Dr Gray.

The researchers found that when drivers were 'following a friend,' they drove faster and more eratically, closer to the car in front and made quicker lane changes, compared to how they drove under normal conditions or when following a navigation system.

The researchers also found that when confronted by a hazard, the drivers in the 'follow a friend' simulation were more likely to cut in front of pedestrians crossing a road and speed through traffic lights that were turning red.

'It is important to note that in our simulation, the leader and other vehicles around them did not break any laws, so the follower was not just copying the risky driving behavior they saw from someone else,' said Dr Gray.

The researchers say that by using a driving simulation instead of a real-life driving study, they eliminated the contagious effect - when a driver's behavior can be influenced by the traffic around them.

Drivers can often feel social pressure to keep pace with other traffic and run traffic lights when other drivers do the same.

But if you are confronted with this situation - for example, a friend offers to show you the way, there are ways to drive more safely.

'If you are faced with this situation, get the address from the lead driver and use a map or navigation device so you know how to get there yourself,' said Dr Gray.

'In the future, we plan to investigate whether some knowledge about the location of the destination can get rid of these dangerous effects.'
The Marine Corps has been forced to ground its F-35B Joint Strike Fighters in Arizona after flaws were found in the controversial jet's computer system.

The problems relate to the Autonomic Logistics Information System, or ALIS, that transmits details about a jet's mechanical condition to the ground-based computer system.

This allows the computers to automatically scheduling maintenance for the aircraft.

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Dozens of F-35 stealth fighters that were grounded for 11 days due to an oxygen-supply problem aboard the expensive warplanes will resume flying on Wednesday, the US Air Force said.

F-35 FACT SHEET Role: Stealth multirole fighter First flight: December 15, 2006 Unit cost (not including engine): F-35A - $98million F-35B - $104million F-35C - $116million Number built: 115 (as of November 2014) Length: 15.67m Wingspan: 10.7m Height: 4.33m Max speed (F-35A): 1,930kph Advertisement

Maj. Gen. Mark Wise, commander of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing based at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, made the call to suspend flights for Squadron 211 due to 'some anomalies' with the latest ALIS 2.0.2 software upgrade, according to a statement given to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

'There is nothing wrong with the performance or safety of the aircraft itself, but it is imperative that we ensure the ground-based ALIS system is working properly before operations continue,' the statement said.

The Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211 is stationed in Yuma and the problems do not affect other F-35 units, according to the Corps.

It comes just days after it was revealed dozens of F-35 stealth fighters that were grounded for 11 days due to an oxygen-supply problem aboard the expensive warplanes will resume flying.

Investigators were unable to identify a root cause of the issue, which had prompted the 56th Fighter Wing of Luke Air Force Base, Arizona to ground its F-35s.

'However, specific concerns were eliminated as possible causes including maintenance and aircrew flight equipment procedures,' base spokeswoman Major Rebecca Heyse said in a statement.

The Lockheed Martin planes were grounded on June 9 due to five incidents since May 2 in which pilots experienced symptoms of hypoxia, of lack of oxygen.

The ALIS gives F-35 Lightning II operators the ability to plan ahead, to maintain, to plan and sustain its systems over the life of the air vehicle, according to maker Lockheed Martin

Currently, the 56th Fighter Wing has 55 F-35A planes that are used to train pilots from the US and other air forces that are buying the jet.

Heyse said experts are continuing to probe the issue and several precautionary steps are being taken, including increasing the minimum levels for backup oxygen systems for each flight.

'Our active duty, reserve, and international team has worked tirelessly to better understand the physiological events,' said Brig. Gen. Brook Leonard, the 56th Fighter Wing commander.

The system transmits details about a jet's mechanical condition to the ground-based computer system. This allows the computers to automatically scheduling maintenance for the aircraft

'This is a complex challenge that necessitates multidimensional solutions across a series of steps to get back to a full operating capability.

'We are confident that this initial step with the criteria our team developed will allow us to return to flying F-35s safely and to continue building the future of airpower.'

The U.S. Air Force has also begun experimenting with a handful of new sensors made by a British company that could offer clues about what caused recent cases of hypoxia reported by F-35 pilots, according to Defence News.

An F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing aircraft flies behind a tanker on a mission over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in September 2013. Currently, the 56th Fighter Wing has 55 F-35A planes that are used to train pilots from the US and other air forces that are buying the jet.

The idea behind the sensors is to determine what is prompting pilots to feel unwell while plugged into the on-board oxygen system during flight.

With a current development and acquisition price tag already at $379 billion for a total of 2,443 F-35 aircraft - most destined for the US Air Force - the F-35 is the most expensive plane in history, and costs are set to rise further still.

Once servicing and maintenance costs for the F-35 are factored in over the aircraft's lifespan through 2070, overall program costs are expected to rise to $1.5 trillion.

Proponents tout the F-35's radar-dodging stealth technology, supersonic speeds, close air support capabilities, airborne agility and a massive array of sensors giving pilots unparalleled access to information.

But the program has faced numerous delays, cost overruns and setbacks, including a mysterious engine fire in 2014 that led commanders to temporarily ground the planes.

Other problems include software bugs, technical glitches and even a faulty eject system that risked killing pilots who weighed less than 136 pounds (62 kilograms).
I have to admit I was having second thoughts.

As I clambered down the boats ladder, I felt more than a little apprehensive. After all, submerging myself in the Arctic Ocean with only a thin layer of neoprene between me and the icy water seemed like a crazy idea.

But it turned out to be a very relaxing experience. With the temperature only just above freezing, I drifted downstream along the edge of the fjord. I resembled a giant red lobster, but to my amazement I felt warm and snug inside my survival suit.

Dressed in a neoprene survival suit, Wendy drifted along the edge of a fjord somewhat resembling a giant lobster

It may have been the middle of May but spring had yet to arrive on Senja, the second-largest island in Norway, more than 100 miles inside the Arctic Circle.

I had flown to Tromso on a self-drive holiday, and having picked up my car, I followed narrow roads banked with snow. They were deserted except for the occasional reindeer or Arctic hare which leapt out in front of me.

Look at a map of Senja and you will see slivers of land branching out into the ocean like moose antlers. Every bend in the road opened up panoramic vistas of frozen lakes, cobalt-blue inlets and barren crags.

At Ersfjord, I stopped the car to walk along the crumbling jetty opposite tiny wooden cabins huddled beneath towering cliffs. Their black jagged pinnacles resembled witches hats.

Further on at Bergsbotn, a platform is built out high above the water, from where you get spectacular views of the fjord.

Few tourists have discovered this remote island and there are limited places to stay. In the main resort, Hamn, there are a series of two-storey cabins overlooking a sheltered harbour where there was once a thriving fishing industry.

Wendy, pictured hiking in Senja, found the terrain tough in places - but the views were worth it

My spacious suite with floor-to-ceiling windows came with a sitting room and fully fitted kitchen, but I preferred to eat in the restaurant where delicious freshly caught fish was served every evening.

Afterwards I would make my way to the lighthouse out on the point to watch the midnight sun hover over the horizon as the shimmering snow-crusted peaks turned pearly pink.

I was intending to hike to Husfjellet and Segla Mountain from the coastal village of Skaland on my first morning, but with the footpaths still smothered in snow, I decided to join the locals in celebrating Norway Day instead.

We gathered for a church service before following a brass band in a long procession along the seashore, waving our flags.

Everyone wore national costume: women in embroidered waistcoats and skirts, and men in velvet-collared jackets and breeches with silver buttons.

Afterwards I was invited to a feast in the village hall, tucking into lapskaus  a Norwegian dish of pork, potatoes and carrots, with gooey cream cakes to follow.

Determined to attempt a gentle hike, I set off to the Utsikten viewing point above our hotel. Within minutes I found myself trudging through deep snowdrifts and tramping past meltwater cascading down the hillside. After a tough climb I found myself on a ridge looking out over hundreds of rocky skerries far below.

Few tourists have discovered this remote island. In the main resort, Hamn (pictured), there are a series of two-storey cabins overlooking a sheltered harbour

Lasse, my hunky guide, took me kayaking among this maze of islands where the sea was as smooth as glass. Landing on one of the white-sand beaches, Lasse scooped up handfuls of crushed coral as I gazed across a turquoise sea. I could almost imagine I was on a tropical island but for the bitter wind buffeting us from all sides.

Paddling back to shore, we passed seals popping their heads above the surface, while eider ducks skimmed the waves. Cormorants jostled for space on narrow ledges and magnificent white-tailed sea eagles circled overhead, their ragged wingtips resembling fangs.

Birdwatchers should head for Andenes on the northerly tip of the island of Andoy, less than two hours by ferry from Senja. It was the next stop of my tour and I checked into the Gronnbuene Rorbu Hotel on the waterfront before joining Captain Rolf aboard his fishing vessel to visit Bleiksoya, one of Norways most famous bird cliffs.

Wendy spotted sea eagles (pictured) on a visit to Bleiksoya

A cone of rock rose from the ocean, its sides dotted with the nests of 200,000 puffins. The birds were so numerous that the sea was speckled black and they flew around us like a swarm of mosquitoes.

Wheeling above the summit were no fewer than a dozen sea eagles, swooping down to snatch fish that Rolf threw into the water.

Others saved their energy and perched on the grassy hummocks waiting to gobble up the puffins when they returned to their burrows. Sperm whales are year-round residents here, so I spent an afternoon searching for them with Whale Safari.

Our ship was equipped with two hydrophones attached to the hull so I knew we stood a good chance. Before long I heard a rhythmic tapping sound over the loudspeakers on deck. Underwater, these clicks are louder than a jet engine at take-off.

Be patient, urged our guide Sara. Once it goes silent the whale will surface. Within minutes, it emerged just a few yards in front of the ship.

It stayed with us for about ten minutes until the captain warned us it was about to dive. With cameras poised, we all captured the moment its fluke disappeared beneath the waves.

On my last evening I wallowed in the hot tub on my balcony dreaming of my next visit. Maybe Ill come back in the depths of winter to see the Northern Lights and get to swim among the icebergs.
They became parents for the first time just five months ago.

And now, Phoebe and Sam Burgess have taken their baby daughter, Poppy, on her first family holiday.

On Friday, the NRL star and his glamorous wife both took to Instagram to document the tropical getaway to Port Douglas..

Tropical getaway! Rabbitohs star Sam Burgess and his stunning wife, Phoebe, have taken their five-month-old daughter Poppy on a holiday to Port Douglas, Queensland

In one adorable photo, uploaded by Phoebe, the young family spend time together in a resort swimming pool.

Five-month-old Poppy is clad in a pale pink swimming top and matching cap as she's held up in the water by her famous father.

'Our baby girl's first swimming lesson,' 27-year-old Phoebe captioned the photo, which showed her looking on lovingly

Bulging biceps: Sam showed off his fit physique as he tenderly placed his hands around his baby daughter

The picture also revealed the beautiful blonde's perfect post-baby body as she posed in a stylish black one-piece.

While Sam's fit physique was submerged in the water, it was on display in a number of other uploads, including one that showed him playing with Poppy on a beach towel.

The 28-year-old Rabbitohs player flexed his bulging biceps as he tenderly placed his hands around his baby daughter.

Perfect post-baby body: Phoebe looked flawless in a black one-piece

And Sam and Phoebe were lucky enough to squeeze in some couple time, with another snap showing the loved-up pair sharing a sun lounger.

'While Poppy slept', Phoebe captioned the photo, accompanied by an emoji of a palm tree.

However one eagle-eyed fan noticed that the five-month-old wasn't too far from her parents' side.

Family of three: Sam and Phoebe keenly document their family life on social media

'Hahaha Poppy in the pram in the back?' the follower commented beneath the snap.

The Bondi-based couple welcomed their baby girl in January and have keenly documented their family life on social media.

Baby Poppy became a cousin in April, after Sam's brother and fellow Rabbitohs star George Burgess welcomed a son named Boston.
She's the small-town girl who shot to fame after appearing on last year's season of The Bachelor.

But reality star runner-up Nikki Gogan has now hinted that she may be leaving her hometown behind.

On Friday, the blonde beauty took to Instagram to upload a quote that described the 'magic of new beginnings' as she alluded to major life changes, just a week after celebrating her 30th birthday.

'The end of an era': Bachelor star Nikki Gogan hinted that she has quit her job and is moving away from her hometown in an Instagram post shared on Friday

'And suddenly you know it's time to start something new and trust the magic of new beginnings' read the cryptic quote that Nikki shared with her 109,000 followers.

She wrote an accompany caption that seemed to outline that she had left her job as a real estate agent and was moving away from the town of Northam, Western Australia, where she has lived her entire life.

'The end of an era. 30 years in Northam and 11.5 years as a proud team member of Hollett & Lawrance [real estate]. It's been an absolute pleasure,' the star wrote.

'To the next chapter': Nikki shared this cryptic quote with her 109,000 followers

Thirty, flirty and thriving! Perhaps Nikki was spurred to make life changes after celebrating her 30th birthday last week

Seeming upbeat about the future, she added: 'To the next chapter #magic'

Nikki did not reveal what her future plans were, or to where she might be relocating, despite a number of fans posting queries to her page.

Perhaps Nikki was spurred to make the changes after celebrating her 30th birthday last week with friends at Perth's Crown Towers.

Heartbreak: Nikki reportedly turned down the role of Australia's next Bachelorette, after being left heartbroken by Richie Strahan last year

It comes after Nikki reportedly turned down the role of Australia's next Bachelorette, after being left heartbroken by Richie Strahan last year.

Filming for the third season of The Bachelorette has already begun with media personality Sophie Monk the unlikely new star.

First pictures of Sophie filming the show were revealed on Friday.
A defamation lawsuit filed by Dr. Luke against Kesha's mother has been dismissed.

Music producer Luke - whose real name is Lukasz Gottwald - was suing Rosemary Patricia 'Pebe' Sebert for defamation and tortious interference in Tennessee, United States, after he alleged she worked with her daughter to tarnish his name and reputation after they disagreed about a part of a contract.

Pebe countersued with claims of 'intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, misrepresentations and fraudulent inducement' against the producer, which she previously claimed arose as a direct result from his alleged sexual assault on her daughter.

Dropped: A defamation lawsuit filed by Dr. Luke against Kesha's mother Pebe' Sebert (R) has been dismissed

However, she dropped her counterclaim last year and now she and Luke have released a joint statement after his suit was dismissed.

The statement read: 'Dr. Luke vigorously disputes and denies that he ever raped Kesha Sebert, and he is asserting claims of defamation in a New York court against Kesha Sebert for making statements to the contrary, which statements Dr. Luke adamantly maintains are false.

'Pebe admits she has no firsthand personal knowledge of the events occurring on the night of the alleged rape. Pebe was not present that night. At that time, Pebe was in Nashville, and Kesha was in Los Angeles. The dispute between Kesha and Dr. Luke about the events of that night is the subject of the New York case, and will be decided in that case. Accordingly, all parties believe it is appropriate to dismiss this Tennessee case and focus their attention on the New York case.'

Kesha has accused Dr. Luke of sexual assault and that case is set to go ahead in New York.

Lawsuit: Kesha's mom agreed in joint statement with the pruducer to have no first-hand knowledge of her daughter's alleged rape

In October 2014 Kesha came forward to accuse Dr Luke of once giving her a date-rape drug and then taking advantage of her in a hotel room.

She alleged that he exerted 'suffocating control' over her life and career for a decade, and that he consistently insulted her looks and denied her some of the profits from her music.

Gottwald later counter-sued Kesha, claiming that she defamed him, and that her attempt to extradite herself from the record and publishing contracts was extortion.

Both accounts were very public, and a 'Free Kesha' campaign swept social media, raising the profile of her claims.

A New York judge rejected Kesha's attempt at an injunction, which would have allowed her to work away from Gottwald. He also threw out her 'hate crime' counterclaims and denied her second attempt at counterclaims based on a breach of contract.

Accused: In October 2014 Kesha came forward to accuse Dr Luke (R) of once giving her a date-rape drug and then taking advantage of her in a hotel room

In April, Kesha filed a notice of appeal on an overturned bid to impose California's seven-year limit on personal service contracts - according to Hollywood Reporter.

This was the third pending appeal in the Kesha-Luke dispute before a New York appeals court.

That month Sony cut ties with Dr Luke, almost three years after the accusation came to light.

The producer had a long relationship with the company, generating dozens of hits for stars such as Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne and Miley Cyrus.

Additionally, court papers show that Gottwald is no longer CEO of Kemosabe Records, and the company says that he no longer has authority to act on its behalf, according to Hollywood Reporter.

The page devoted to Dr Luke on Sony Music's website has also been taken down.

While the split might, in some respects, be a victory for Kesha, it also poses potential problems.

In her court papers, she cited that Sony had previously served as a go-between, suggesting that when that relationship ends things could become worse for her.
They both have lots of money, hate weddings, and spent a lot of time in dungeons recently.

Jamie Dorman was spotted grabbing lunch with Peter Dinklage in North London on Friday.

The Fifty Shades Of Grey star and his Game Of Thrones compatriot grabbed a bite to eat on what was a sunny day in Primrose Hill.

Greym of Thrones! Jamie Dornan and Peter Dinklage grabbed lunch together in London on Friday ahead of their new HBO film

Dornan, who plays sex fiend Christian Grey in the steamy trilogy, looked cool in Nike trainers and jeans, a white crew neck t-shirt and a short black jacket.

Dinklage, who plays sex fiend Tyrion Lannister in the HBO epic series, wore heavy boots and green combat pants with a grey crew neck tee.

Both men rocked shades after the unexpected appearance of the sun in the sky.

The duo were joined by director Sacha Gervasi, who is at the helm of their upcoming HBO movie together, My Dinner With Herve.

Chat: The Fifty Shades Of Grey star and his Game Of Thrones compatriot grabbed a bite to eat on what was a sunny day in Primrose Hill

Boss: The duo were joined by director Sacha Gervasi, who is at the helm of their upcoming HBO movie together, My Dinner With Herve

Ze plane! In the film, Dinklage plays Herve Villechaize, the actor who famously played Bond henchman Nick Nack, and Ricardo Montalban assistant Tattoo, on Fantasy Island

In the film, Dinklage plays Herve Villechaize, the actor who famously played Bond henchman Nick Nack, and Ricardo Montalban assistant Tattoo, on Fantasy Island.

Dornan meanwhile will play journalist Danny Tate; the first image of the two in character was also released on Friday.

According to Deadline, the film centers on 'an unlikely friendship that evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Herve Villechaize, the worlds most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.'

Fifty Shades: Dornan, who plays sex fiend Christian Grey in the steamy trilogy, looked cool in Nike trainers and jeans, a white crew neck t-shirt and a short black jacket

Westeros finest: Dinklage, who plays sex fiend Tyrion Lannister in the HBO epic series, wore heavy boots and green combat pants with a grey crew neck tee

Coming soon: According to Deadline, the film centers on 'an unlikely friendship that evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Herve Villechaize, the worlds most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.'

Villechaize shot and killed himself in 1993, aged 50.

In a March 2012 New York Times interview, Peter Dinklage revealed that he had spent several years writing a script about Villechaize with Gervasi, who had conducted a lengthy interview with Villechaize just prior to his suicide.

According to Dinklage, 'after he killed himself, Sacha realized Herve's interview was a suicide note.'

In character: Dornan meanwhile will play journalist Danny Tate; the first image of the two in character was also released on Friday
Between motherhood and five films between this year and next, she rarely has a break.

But on Friday, Charlize Theron was seen running errands in Beverly Hills.

The 41-year-old was casually dressed in a classic, summer ensemble for her day out.

Keeping busy: On Friday, Charlize Theron, 41, was seen running errands in Beverly Hills

The South African beauty looked lovely in a chic, spaghetti strap blouse with ruffles at the end.

The pretty blonde added a pair of dark jeans and strappy sandals. Charlize carried a denim jacket over her shoulders as she walked.

Her look was complete with simple stud earrings, a jacket and a pair of shades.

Classic taste: The South African beauty looked lovely in a chic, spaghetti strap blouse with ruffles at the end

Between 2017 and 18, the Mad Max: Fury Road star will have appeared in five films.

Earlier this year, Charlize starred as villain Cipher in The Fate of the Furious.

Next month, the mother-of-two will be seen in Atomic Blonde, a film about an MI6 agent who is sent to Europe after another agent is murdered.

Busy lady! Between 2017 and 18, the Mad Max: Fury Road star will have appeared in five films. She is seen in West Hollywood earlier this month

In the coming year, Charlize will star in Tully, Gringo and Flarsky.

Tully, a light-hearted look at motherhood, will hit theaters in April 2018. The star is currently filming Gringo, an action-drama about a businessman who experiences a life-altering incident in Mexico. It will debut next March.

She along with Seth Rogen, will headline Flarsky, a movie about 'a political journalist tries to hook up with his old babysitter, who now holds an important government position,' according to IMDB.
He won Georgia Love's heart on last season's Bachelorette Australia.

And on Thursday, Lee Elliott posted a throwback photo to mark their one year anniversary since they first met.

Sharing a picture on Instagram for his 88,100 Instagram followers to enjoy, the 36-year-old referred to his lady as the 'love of his life'.

True love: On Thursday, Lee Elliott posted a throwback photo to mark his one year anniversary since meeting Georgia Love

'One year ago today whilst out walking my donkey I randomly met not only my best friend but the love of my life,' he captioned.

'I can't believe it's only been a year, I feel like I've known you my whole life @georgialove.'

The photo was taken from the first time the pair met when Lee walked up to Georgia with a donkey and asked her: 'does my a** look big in that?'

Starting with a joke: The photo was taken from the first time the pair met when Lee walked up to Georgia with a donkey and asked her: 'does my ass look big in that?'

Real love: Speaking to the Today Show on Thursday morning, the journalist revealed that she wasn't going to be seeing her boyfriend on their anniversary as she was 'too busy'

Speaking to the Today Show on Thursday morning, the journalist revealed that she wasn't going to be seeing her boyfriend on their anniversary as she was 'too busy'.

However, the brunette beauty did still dedicate a post to her man on Instagram.

'A year since he first made me laugh, gave me his jacket and looked at me with the most mesmerising eyes I've ever looked into,' she wrote.

Love at first sight: 'I began to fall for him that very moment and I haven't stopped since,' she continued

'I began to fall for him that very moment and I haven't stopped since,' she continued.

'I'll never forget that first night for so many reasons but the most unforgettable is that it was the night my one and only walked into my life. To love!'

Although the pair weren't able to celebrate their anniversary during the week due to work commitments, they marked the special occasion on Friday night with a romantic getaway to South Melbourne's Jackalope Hotel.
She was partying the night away alongside self-confessed sex addict Scott Disick.

And not to be outdone by the infamous womanizer, Bella Thorne shared images of herself posing seductively with a pretty blonde pal.

Tongue out, and pointed towards the cleavage exposed by her friend's plunging neckline, Bella looked like she was having fun.

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Keeping up with Scott! Bella Thorne poses seductively with pretty blonde pal while partying with sex addict Disick on Thursday evening

Taking a bite: The two got up close and personal as they shared the same hunk of meat

The two also got up close and personal as they shared a snack, both taking bites of the same glistening hunk of meat.

Bella's night out on Thursday was certainly a wild one - she and her pal joined Scott Disick at Lana Del rey's birthday bash at the 1 OAK nightclub in West Hollywood.

Father-of-three Scott, who has previously spent time in rehab, could be seen chugging a beer before they even hit the club.

Bella's big night: The teen didn't hold back as she shared her evening on Snapchat

'Happy birthday L' Nelly performed at Lana Del Rey's star-studded birthday bash

Later he squeezed into the back of a car with Bella and her blonde pal, the trio all looking somewhat tired from their big evening out.

Bella came out as bisexual earlier this year, but the former Disney star has been linked romantically to Scott in recent months, after joining him in Cannes.

She left France abruptly after the two were seen getting cosy at a pool - however it seems the pair have remained in touch.

Racy display: Bella was clad in metallic leggings and a white bralet that left her taut abs on display, while her pal showed off her assets in a plunging lacy leotard

Big night: Both Bella and her pal squeezed into a car with Scott Disick and a friend

Hand-in-hand: The teen and Scott had put on a cosy display as they left the nightclub together

The 19-year-old was seen arm-in-arm with Scott, 34, as they headed home together after spending the night partying.

This comes not long after Bella insisted that she was no longer seeing Scott - who has children Mason, seven, Penelope, four, and Reign, two, with Kourtney - because she couldn't handle his drinking.

She said: 'Scott is really nice, sweet, charming. I don't drink, and he really drinks a lot. And it just ended up... I just wasn't down. I was like, 'I gotta leave.'

Incognitio: Bella had second thoughts about their reunion going public as she attempted to hide once the gang crammed into the same car

Nothing to see here: As Scott turned his head, Bella was seen bowing hers

Making the most of their night: The duo had left the West Hollywood hotspot to move onto a house party in Beverly Hills

'We were [at Cannes] a day and a half before I was like I'm booking my flight and leaving. I love to go out and have fun, I love to dance, but I just don't party hardcore like that and it was way too much for me. I was like, "Woah, this is not the way I live my life, bruh."'

Ironically, it was partying that first brought them together, as Bella revealed Scott came along to one of her infamous rave-themed bashes at her LA home.

She said: 'I throw a lot of house parties, and that's how I meet these people. They come to my house party and they're like, "Yo, I heard you're having a party," and I'm just like, "Okay, French Montana. Hi, French."

'That's how I met Scotthe came to a house party of mine [with French] and I was like "hi".'

Cheers to me: Scott sipped on his beer, meanwhile Bella is too young to legally drink in the US

Wild ways: The reality star has previously spent time in rehab; he was having a drink before they hit the club
Elle Fanning gazed adoringly at her 'perfect pup' Lewellen while waiting outside Joans on Third in Studio City on Friday.

The 19-year-old SAG Award nominee - who relies on stylist Samantha McMillen - looked lovely in her summery white Elizabeth and James belted frock, black purse, and red ballet flats.

The Georgia-born blonde fastened her updo with a blue gingham headband and she wore dark cat-eye shades over her alabaster complexion.

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Puppy love! Elle Fanning gazed adoringly at her 'perfect pup' Lewellen while waiting outside Joans on Third in Studio City on Friday

Elle (born Mary) also sported a cute temporary tattoo of cherries on her left shoulder, which perfectly coordinated with the rest of her breezy ensemble.

Later that same day, Fanning shared a silly behind-the-scenes corset and sweatpants snap taken by her castmate Kirsten Dunst from the Louisiana set of her movie The Beguiled.

The Live by Night actress - who boasts 1.3M followers - captioned her Instagram: 'This better be you going to see "The Beguiled" this weekend #outnow #bts #fbf lunchtime attire!'

The Miu Miu muse reteamed with her Somewhere director Sofia Coppola for the Civil War drama, which hits limited US theaters Friday before a wider release on June 30 (and UK theaters July 14).

Fresh: The 19-year-old SAG Award nominee - who relies on stylist Samantha McMillen - looked lovely in her summery white belted frock, black purse, and red ballet flats

Southern belle: The Georgia-born blonde fastened her updo with a blue gingham headband and she wore dark cat-eye shades over her alabaster complexion

Fruity flourish: Elle (born Mary) also sported a cute temporary tattoo of cherries on her left shoulder, which perfectly coordinated with the rest of her breezy ensemble

Elle admitted she and the 46-year-old Cannes-winning director 'blushed' while filming the scene where her rebellious student Alicia awakens Colin Farrell's Union soldier with a sneaky kiss.

'It's good!' Fanning told ET on Tuesday of locking lips with the 41-year-old Irishman.

'Colin was totally comfortable and nothing weird at all. He was super cool about it and made you feel fine. It wasn't too weird, but also you are like, "Oh God, I am kissing Colin Farrell!"'

The Beguiled - also starring Nicole Kidman - is not a remake of the 1971 Clint Eastwood flick, but rather an adaptation of Thomas P. Cullinan's 1966 Southern Gothic novel.

'Lunchtime attire!' Later, Fanning shared a silly behind-the-scenes corset and sweatpants snap taken by her castmate Kirsten Dunst from the Louisiana set of her movie The Beguiled

Boarding school: The Live by Night actress reteamed with her Somewhere director Sofia Coppola for the Civil War drama, which hits US theaters June 30 and UK theaters July 14

It currently holds a 74 percent critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 77 percent approval rating on MetaCritic, and a 7.1/10 on IMDb.

The nepotistically-privileged teenager said she's closer than ever with big sister Dakota, whom she hopes to finally work with onscreen someday.

'She is 23 and I am 19 now. We are sisters still but we are also friends,' Elle said.

'It's good!' Elle admitted she and the Cannes-winning director 'blushed' while filming the scene where her rebellious student Alicia awakens Colin Farrell's Union soldier with a kiss

Fanning said of locking lips with the 41-year-old Irishman: 'Colin was totally comfortable and nothing weird at all. He was super cool about it and made you feel fine. It wasn't too weird, but also you are like, "Oh God, I am kissing Colin Farrell!"'

We have been looking, like, we definitely want to [co-star in a project]. It would have to be something perfect though.'

The Fanning siblings have shared roles (older and younger versions) in the 2001 movie I Am Sam and Sci-Fi Channel's 2002 miniseries Taken, but they've never acted together.

And on August 30, US audiences can catch the 20th Century Women starlet voicing orphan ballerina Felicie Milliner in the CG-animated flick Leap! alongside Maddie Ziegler, Mel Brooks, Kate McKinnon, and Carly Rae Jepsen.

'It would have to be something perfect though': The nepotistically-privileged teen said she's closer than ever with sister Dakota, whom she hopes to finally work with onscreen someday

Elle explained: 'She is 23 and I am 19 now. We are sisters still but we are also friends'
On Thursday evening she was at Alice + Olivia's launch party for its summer capsule collection at Hotel Indigo's Mr Purple roof-top bar in New York.

And on Friday Vanessa Hudgens spent the day with her handsome boyfriend, Austin Butler.

The young couple appeared to be returning to The Bowery Hotel in the city's East Village when they stopped to chat to an older female fan who spotted them going in.

Time for their fans: Vanessa Hudgens and her beau Austin Butler chatted to an older woman who stopped them as they returned to The Bowery Hotel in New York's East Village on Friday

Vanessa popped a cute newsboy cap on her raven, precision-cut bobbed tresses as she stayed close to her 25-year-old beau.

The 28-year-old flashed her slender legs in a pair of Daisy Dukes that she teamed with a red and blue striped T-shirt with the words Hola Lover! on the front.

Austin was dressed in a grey mac that he wore over a white T-shirt with a graphic image, skinny jeans and white Converse sneakers.

He returned to the US in late May after months away in New Zealand shooting the second season of his series, The Shannara Chronicles, which is moving from MTV to Spike.

Getting her message out: The 28-year-old actress wore a blue and red striped T-shirt with the words Hola Lover! on the front as she stood next to her 25-year-old actor beau

Lovely legs: She showed off her pretty pins in a pair of barely there Daisy Dukes as Austin smiled at the silver-haired woman

So the couple are still basking in the pleasure of being together again

They were first spotted getting romantic back in 2011 and have been an item ever since - despite the often huge distances between them.

But they may not get much time together this summer as Vanessa is a judge on Fox's So You Think You Can Dance this season.

Long-distance lover: Austin returned to the US in late May after months away in New Zealand shooting the second season of his series, The Shannara Chronicles

Making their entrance: The young couple have been an item since 2011

The Grease: Live star joined the panel alongside show creator Nigel Lythgoe, 67, and returning judge and former ballroom dance champion Mary Murphy, 59.

Season 14 of the dance competition premiered June 12 on Fox.

Meanwhile, Austin's comedy, Dude, is in post-production and has yet to set a release date.
They're preparing to move into their newly-renovated, multi-million dollar waterfront mansion in Sydney.

And it seems Jennifer Hawkins and her husband Jake Wall are more smitten than ever, with the former Miss Universe swooning while getting a call from her man on Friday.

Taking to her Instagram story on Friday, the 33-year-old shared a screenshot of her mobile phone screen as she received a call from her long-time beau, who's caller ID photo was a cute picture of the couple together.

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Smitten: Jennifer Hawkins still swooned over getting a call from her husband, sharing a screenshot to her Instagram story on Friday

The stunning blonde was clearly excited by the incoming call, writing 'when that face pops up,' over the top of the screenshot.

It was easy to see why the model was reminded of her love for her partner, with the picture attached to his name showing them in a close embrace.

The couple appear extremely comfortable with each other, with Jennifer's arm slung around Jake's neck and his face nuzzled into the side of her head.

Loved up: The couple were celebrated their four-year wedding anniversary earlier this month

The pair sport stern expressions as they stare down at the camera, with Jennifer's face barely visibly behind her hair.

The post comes a day after the model hinted at baby plans, appearing on Today Extra on Friday, saying her new home has 'a room that could be' a nursery.

She admitted the genetically-blessed couple's lavish abode will have plenty of space should they decide to start a family.

Nearing completion: Their multi-million dollar home is almost ready for the couple to move in after they spent the past few years re-modelling and renovating

Baby on the way? Jennifer Hawkins has hinted she could start a family with husband Jake Wall 'one day' during an appearance on Today Extra on Friday

Jen's comments came after host Sonia Kruger asked 'Is there a nursery?' while discussing the model's new home in Pittwater.

The blonde bombshell also added that she will become a mother 'one day'.

Speaking of her building project, the former Miss Universe Australia admitted she 'can't wait to move in' to the house, which has taken over three years to complete.

Maybe baby: The 33-year-old model admitted there is 'a room that could be' a nursery in her newly-built home in Pittwater, Sydney

'It has taken a long time. It's a big build,' the Myer ambassador stated on Friday.

'But it's exciting and it's going to be our home,' she added.

Earlier this week, the couple took to Instagram to share sneak peeks of their sprawling pad.

Exciting times: The blonde bombshell is making final preparations to move into her new lavish pad with beau Jake

How the other half live: Earlier this week, the couple shared photos of what their new home will look like once the renovations are complete

Stunning: The property was purchased by the couple for $4million in 2014 and has been re-imagined into their dream home

Uninterrupted views: The waterfront property boasts a pool, a four-car garage with lift, a home theatre as well as a gym

Posting images from Jake's construction company J Group Projects' account, the pair showed the progress made on the multi-storey property.

The spacious home boasts a four-car garage with lift, a home theatre as well as a gym.

Another impressive feature is the wet-edge pool with a sandstone border, which will provide the homeowners with an unbroken view of a glistening harbour littered with boats.

'It has taken a long time. It's a big build,' said Jen, adding that she 'can't wait' to move in

The couple purchased the property in the affluent Sydney suburb for $4million in 2014.

They married in June 2013 in front of a reported 50 guests in Bali at Uluwatu's luxury Semara resort.

The gorgeous couple first met prior to Jennifer being crowned Miss Universe in 2004 and dated for eight years before saying 'I do'.

Jake, who runs his property development company with his model wife, proposed during a romantic holiday to New Zealand in December 2010.
They starred together in comic adaptation Suicide Squad.

And Cara Delevingne looked happy to be reunited with close pal Margot Robbie as they partied at Glastonbury festival in Somerset, England, on Friday.

The British model, 24, and the Australian Wolf Of Wall Street actress, 26, put on a chic display for the occasion.

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BFFs: Cara Delevingne looked happy to be reunited with close pal Margot Robbie as they partied at Glastonbury festival in Somerset, England, on Friday

Cara continued to rock her buzz cut, which she shaved for her latest flick, rocking a pair of quirky tinted shades from Polaroid.

Despite the warm weather the model opted for a cherry embellished sweater and black tracksuit bottoms.

Continuing her tomboy look, she rocked a pair of Dr Martens as she giggled with Margot.

Unique: The British model, 24, and the Australian Wolf Of Wall Street actress, 26, put on a chic display for the occasion

Meanwhile Margot, perhaps having been warned about the British climate, played it safe in wellies and a fluorescent raincoat.

Her yellow trench revealed a glimpse of the actress' star-embellished sweater and toned legs.

Leaving her hair loose, she covered her pretty face with shades as she ambled through the festival.

Not hot? Despite the warm weather the model opted for a cherry embellished sweater and black tracksuit bottoms

Casual: Continuing her tomboy look, she rocked a pair of Dr Martens and tinted Polaroid shades as she giggled with Margot

Cara and Margot struck up a friendship after starring in hit Suicide Squad.

The English model played Enchantress in the DC Comics adaptation, while the Australian actress starred starred as sexy supervillain Harley Quinn.

And the duo have been spotted partying regularly since the film's release.

Discussing their friendship previously, Margot shared: 'We just talk about regular girl stuff. She is like 'I've had sex on a plane' and I'll be like 'yeah, but I've had it on a jet ski'.

'And she will then blow me out of the water and tell me she 'drunk texts' Prince Harry. So I'm just like 'okay, you win'.'

Standing out: Margot, perhaps having been warned about the British climate, played it safe in wellies and a fluorescent raincoat

Girls' time: Continuing her tomboy look, Cara rocked a pair of Dr Martens as she giggled with Margot

Getting chauffered around: Leaving her hair loose,Margot covered her pretty face with shades as she ambled through the festival

Hit it off: Cara and Margot struck up a friendship after starring in hit Suicide Squad

While Cara broke up with songstress St Vincent at the beginning of the year, Margot married her longtime love British Tom Ackerley last December in Australia.

According to Woman's Day, Margot the pair wed in a secret location on the Gold Coast, Queensland, where The Wolf Of Wall Street actress grew up.

The magazine claimed that Tom wished to get married in his native UK, but gave up his dream for his ladylove, who has always wanted to say 'I do' Down Under.

'The Gold Coast was somewhere she always wanted to get married, given it's where she was raised as a kid on her grandparents' farm,' a 'friend' allegedly told the publication.

'They decided to get married around Christmas so they could spend time with both their families afterwards, which they've never done before,' an insider added.

The magazine claimed that the pair wrote their own vows for the ceremony, and that Margot would likely wear an Oscar de la Renta dress for the ceremony.

Edgy: Cara continued to rock her buzz cut, which she shaved for her latest flick, rocking a pair of quirky tinted shades

Sister act: Poppy teamed an oversized hoodie with a black skirt and leather jacket

Back at the festival the duo were joined by Cara's model sister Poppy, 31, and her husband James Cook.

Poppy teamed an oversized hoodie with a black skirt and leather jacket.

Wearing her blonde locks tied back, she rocked black statement sunglasses.

Poppy and James became engaged in October 2012, when he popped the question with a bespoke Anya Hindmarch memories box embossed with the words 'Will you marry me?' and filled with pictures of them together.

The pair then tied the knot in a lavish but stylish ceremony at St Pauls Church in Knightsbridge two years later.

While they are not seen at public events together often, Poppy and James have been putting on a very united front recently as they hop between promotional events for the model's new film, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.

Her husband has supported the star, who plays Arthur's mother Igraine in the movie, at both the LA and London premieres for the Guy Ritchie flick - starring Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law and Eric Bana.

Long term loves: Back at the festival the duo were joined by Cara's model sister Poppy, 31, and her husband James Cook

Understated: Poppy teamed an oversized hoodie with a black skirt and leather jacket
Robin Hood is adding to his brood.

Sean Maguire is expecting his second child with wife Tanya, according to People magazine.

The 41-year-old actor, who played the heroic outlaw on the show Once Upon a Time, will be welcoming a son this December with his wife.

Sean Maguire is expecting their second child with wife Tanya, according to People magazine.

The English actor and his wife, a former police detective, are parents to son Flynn Patrick, who turns two on July 14.

Sean and Tanya married on October 19, 2012.

They announced the baby news by sending out a flyer to friends and family with Flynn pictured on it, adding the caption: 'This one's just heard he's getting a baby brother for Christmas...,' reports People.

Handsome guy: The 41-year-old actor and his wife will be welcoming a son in December; pictured in February 2016 in Vancouver at the 100 episode celebration of Once Upon A Time

In character: Sean starred as Robin Hood on Once Upon A Time for 56 episodes

On Friday, Tanya tweeted a picture of the announcement.

Sean starred as Robin Hood on the TV series Once Upon A Time for 56 episodes.

The actor made his debut as the popular character in 2013; he played him on the hit ABC show for four years.

So sweet: On Friday, Tanya tweeted a picture of the announcement

Sean began his film career at the age of five in the movie A Voyage Round My Father.

In addition to acting, he's also a singer; Sean has previously released three albums - in 1994, 1996 and 1998.

Last September, Sean and Tanya attended the BBC America BAFTA TV Tea Party in West Hollywood.

Fancy: Last September, Sean and Tanya attended the BBC America BAFTA TV Tea Party in West Hollywood; pictured at The London Hotel for the event
Tory MP Zac Goldsmith and brother Ben have ten children between them  and an 11th on the way. But that hasn't stopped Ben whingeing about Britain becoming too crowded.

The financier and environmentalist, 36, got on his social media soapbox this week to call the UK's population boom, driven by migration, 'madness'.

'The population of the UK increased by 538,000 last year,' Ben wrote on Twitter. 'Extrapolate that growth rate over your lifetime. This is madness. Pure madness.'

Tory MP Zac Goldsmith and brother Ben (pictured) have ten children between them  and an 11th on the way. But that hasn't stopped Ben whingeing about Britain becoming too crowded

The financier and environmentalist, 36, got on social media this week to call the UK's population boom, driven by migration, 'madness'. But his sister pulled him up on his words

Socialite Jemima Goldsmith, Ben's older sister, has repeatedly scolded her younger brother for his 'ignorant' and 'offensive' posts on social media  so she gave his hypocritical remarks short shrift. 'Stop breeding then!' Jemima wrote in response. 'You're about to have your fifth child and Zac just had his sixth.'

Ben's migration moan comes weeks after he waded into the debate following the terrorist attack on London Bridge.

He claimed that Enoch Powell, who was sacked as Shadow Defence Secretary for his inflammatory 1968 'Rivers of Blood' speech, 'had a point on the dangers of mass immigration'.

Socialite Jemima Goldsmith (pictured), Ben's older sister, gave his hypocritical remarks short shrift

At the time, Jemima, 43, had a dig at her brother by pointing out that he is the grandson of German Jewish immigrant Franck Goldschmidt, who anglicised his name to Frank Goldsmith when he moved his family to Britain in 1895.

Zac has three children with first wife Sheherazade, plus two daughters and a son with second wife Alice.

Ben has three children with heiress Kate Rothschild, whom he divorced after her affair with hip hop artiste Jay Electronica.

His current wife, lingerie model-turned-caterer Jemima Jones, is expecting their second child in September.

Despite the baby boom, there's no danger of overcrowding in the Goldsmith households.

Thanks to the billions the Goldsmiths amassed after Frank emigrated to Britain, both brothers own spacious London townhouses.

Zac Goldsmith has three children with his first wife and two daughters and a son with second wife Alice. Pictured from left: Zac, Jemima Khan, Lady Annabel Goldsmith and Ben Goldsmith

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Tottering Kate, 43, hits clubs at 1.30am

Steady on, Kate! The hard-partying supermodel made a wobbly entrance at Sohos louche The Box nightclub at 1.30am this week, clutching the car door for support.

Showing no signs of slowing down aged 43, Moss had already propped up the bar at a Calvin Klein perfume launch on the same night, looking glamorous in black stilettos and a pink batwing minidress.

Mosss Cotswolds local, the Five Alls near her farmhouse in Filkins, recently received more than 205,000 from mystery investors and village gossip suggests Kate picked up the lions share of the tab. Cheers!

The hard-partying supermodel made a wobbly entrance at Sohos louche The Box nightclub at 1.30am this week, clutching the car door for support

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Former Vogue editor Alex Shulman marked the end of her 25 years at the helm of the magazine with a suitably glamorous party in West London this week.

She was joined by David Cameron  very tanned from his hols in Spain  and wife Samantha, whose sister Emily Sheffield is deputy at the mag.

While fashion designer Samantha kept it simple in a long burgundy gown, and Dave favoured his usual blue off-duty look, Alex livened things up with her 1,095 Erdem parrot dress and stilettos.

And as a leaving present, she was given a pair of personalised 50 pink Superga trainers.

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Prince Charles appointed former Barclays boss John Varley to help run his charity based on the bankers appropriate expertise and experience.

Now Varleys heading for the dock over questionable dealmaking at Barclays while he was in charge, it seems that he no longer fits the royal bill.

On the day Varley learned he could serve up to 22 years in jail for his role in Barclays 2008 bailout by Qatari investors, he quit as a trustee of the Prince of Waless Charitable Foundation. Coincidence, Im sure.
She consistently tops the best-dressed lists for Glastonbury Festival-goers.

And Alexa Chung looked set to make the cut yet again as she looked effortlessly chic figure at the event on Friday.

Clad in an oversized plaid jacket, the 33-year-old model ensured she'd stand out in the crowds as she made her way into the arena.

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Chic: She consistently tops the best-dressed lists for Glastonbury Festival-goers. And Alexa Chung looked set to make the cut yet again as she looked effortlessly chic figure on Friday

Highlighting her enviably lean pins, the fashion guru teamed the garment with super-skinny black jeans and layered up with a navy T-shirt.

Adding to the glamour, Alexa also donned a large black cowboy hat over her glossy chestnut locks and bore a chunky choker.

She finished off the look with a pair of short wellington boots and a small backpack.

Check her out! Clad in an oversized plaid jacket, the 33-year-old model ensured she'd stand out in the crowds as she made her way into the arena

Legs eleven! Highlighting her enviably lean pins, the fashion guru teamed the garment with super-skinny black jeans and layered up with a navy T-shirt

Alexa is known for her style prowess and has been named Style Icon at the British Fashion Awards for three years running.

The star also been Contributing Editor to British Vogue interviewing stars including Christopher Kane and Emma Stone, as well as providing her own original features.

In 2013 she released her first book, IT, offering readers an insight into her fashion influences and became the fastest selling fashion book of 2013, and 2014.

Yee-hawt! Adding to the glamour, Alexa also donned a large black cowboy hat over her glossy chestnut locks and bore a chunky choker

Rounding off: She finished off the look with a pair of short wellington boots and a small backpack

She recently worked as executive producer and host of the widelyacclaimed British Vogue fashion documentary series, The Future of Fashion with Alexa Chung, which has so far earned two Webby Awards.

Named Harper Bazaar UKs Best Dressed of Britain, American Vogues Most Stylish Women of the Year and Footwear News Style Influencer of the Year in 2015, Chung has long been a fashion icon and style muse.

Mulberry's Alexa bag was named and styled after her, and attracted a waiting list of 9,000 as well as helping the company achieve record profits.
She caused a stir when she sunbathed topless during a recent idyllic getaway in the Dominican Republic.

And Jemma Lucy was back to her old tricks when she returned to the UK, as she clutched her ample assets during a night out at Neighbourhood in Manchester.

The 29-year-old MTV bad girl grinned as she showed off her lithe figure in a skintight grey ribbed dress and towering heels on Friday night.

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Turning heads: Jemma Lucy grinned as she showed off her lithe figure in a skintight grey ribbed dress and towering heels on Friday night

The raven-haired beauty showed off her slim frame in the midi dress, which featured delicate straps that barely contained her cleavage.

Showing off her myriad of tattoos, the Ex On The Beach star added height with a pair of nude lace-up courts.

Keeping accessories to a minimum, the ex of Stephen Bear and Gary Beadle toted a simple nude studded clutch.

She wore her dark hair in tousled waves and plumped her famous pout with nude lipstick.

Saucy: The 29-year-old reality star clutched her ample assets during a night out at Neighbourhood in Manchester

Looking good: The raven-haired beauty showed off her slim frame in the midi dress, which featured delicate straps that barely contained her cleavage

Her racy appearance comes after she went under the knife to get a Brazilian Butt Lift in Turkey in May.

The star admitted she was set to go under the knife in a bid for a more pert posterior and was subsequently pictured after her Brazilian butt lift surgery sporting a pair of skintight compression shorts.

Although seemingly delighted with the results of the latest in her string of surgeries, the reality TV star showed heavy bruising under her armpits as she carefully positioned her pillows on the bed.

Killer footwear: Showing off her myriad of tattoos, the Ex On The Beach star added height with a pair of nude lace-up courts

Keeping accessories to a minimum: The ex of Stephen Bear and Gary Beadle toted a simple nude studded clutch

Aside from her butt lift, Jemma also got small amount of fat removed from her chin while under anesthetic and sported a bandage under her chin as she left the hospital.

Jemma revealed in a Snapchat video her distress at a friend who spilled that she was flying to Turkey to undergo the bottom procedure.

She branded the insider who sold her story a 'c***', and disclosed that she had only spoke of her intentions to four people.

'When you tell about four people a secret and it gets in the press. You can't trust f**king anybody, but to be honest it wasn't going to be a secret because everyone would've found out anyway: I'm getting my ass done,' she told her Snapchat followers.

Glam: She wore her dark hair in tousled waves and plumped her famous pout with nude lipstick
Suzi Taylor, a former contestant on The Block, sported a large bruise on her eye and forehead while out in Brisbane this week.

The 45-year-old, who was out for an afternoon drink with a group of friends, was unable to hide the facial injury beneath a pair of large sunglasses.

Elsewhere, the former Penthouse model was seen with her arm around a male friend, and later had a private conversation with the man while her other friends were inside.

Everything okay? Suzi Taylor, a former contestant on The Block, sported a large bruise on her eye and forehead while out in Brisbane this week

She sat at an outdoor table for the conversation, wearing a blue and white varsity jacket and ripped denim jeans.

The reality star's large facial bruise filled the area underneath her left eye and extended to her forehead.

Suzi sipped from a glass of white wine, while her male friend stood near her, enjoying his beer.

Her other friend's later returned to the table, with the group looking in high-spirits as they enjoyed wine and conversation.

Trying to cover up: The 45-year-old, who was out for an afternoon drink with a group of friends, was unable to hide the facial injury beneath a pair of large sunglasses

Injury: The reality star's large facial bruise filled the area underneath her left eye and extended to her forehead

The 45-year-old was also also seen excusing herself for a private phone conversation during the outing.

The group reportedly spent several hours at the venue, with Suzi keeping her glasses on, she left with her friends shortly after sunset.

In December last year, Suzi's love-life made headlines, after Australian medical entrepreneur Geoffrey Edelsten, 73, reportedly 'confirmed' the pair were dating.

Elsewhere, the former Penthouse model was seen with her arm around a male friend (L) and later had a private conversation with the man while her other friends were inside (R)

Night out! Her other friend's later returned to the table, with the group looking in high-spirits as they enjoyed wine and conversation

'I am enjoying her company and the relationship very much indeed,' he told the Herald Sun at the time.

But speaking to Sophie Monk and Matty Acton on KIIS FM's Summer Fling show, The Block contestant denied the claims.

'Give me a little more credit than that....I have met him once in my life and had a photograph taken with him,' she said.

Phone call: The 45-year-old was also also seen excusing herself for a private phone conversation during the outing

Fashion! The reality star was wearing a blue and white varsity jacket and ripped denim jeans

High spirits! The group reportedly spent several hours at the venue, with Suzi keeping her glasses on when she left with her friends

Of his assertion, Suzi added: 'Maybe he had a few too many drinks - I dont know. I dont understand it, its crazy... honestly, its ludicrous.'

In early April, she was spotted cuddling up to a bearded mystery man in Brisbane.

Later that month, the personality was seen locking-lips with a different man at a bar.

While she rose to popularity on The Block, she gained even more media attention when she was posed completely topless on a boat after Oak's Day in Docklands, Melbourne.

Paying attention! While she rose to popularity on The Block, she gained even more media attention when she was posed completely topless on a boat after Oak's Day in Docklands, Melbourne in 2015

Denial: In December last year, Suzi's love-life made headlines, after Australian medical entrepreneur Geoffrey Edelsten, 73, reportedly 'confirmed' the pair were dating - a claim Suzi has denied




She's the Sydney socialite who is never afraid to let her raunchy side shine on social media.

And after a whirlwind trip to the UK, Imogen Anthony flaunted her pert derriere on the social media platform on Saturday, while giving fans a dose of culture, quoting Shakespeare and Zadie Smith.

The photo showed Imogen posing seductively on a staircase at London's Queens Gate Hotel.

Beauty bard: Imogen Anthony flaunted her pert derriere on the social media platform on Saturday, while giving fans a dose of culture, quoting Shakespeare

Posing with her back to camera and looking over her shoulder, Imogen wore a lacy G-string leotard that flaunted her peachy behind while also offering a hint of sideboob.

Imogen also wore a pair of black knee-high boots and finished the steamy ensemble by draping a black and red cape lazily over her body.

Adding an element of the theatrical to the post, Imogen drew inspiration from William Shakespeare, using a line from his Richard III to caption the posterior-heavy photo.

Can't get enough! She also shared a similar photo of herself posing in the thigh-baring outfit on Saturday

Adding an element of the theatrical to the post, Imogen drew inspiration from William Shakespeare, using a line from his Richard III - 'Dispute not with he. She is lunatic' - to caption the post

'Dispute not with her,' Imogen wrote. 'She is lunatic.'

A second photo, showing Imogen sitting font-on on the staircase was captioned with an equally literary quote from UK author Zadie Smith.

'She wore her sexuality with an older woman's ease, and not like an awkward purse, never knowing how to hold it, where to hang it, or when to just put it down,' Imogen wrote.'

On Friday, the 26-year-old took to Instagram to share a snap of herself (since removed) wearing the same lacy leotard.

'Good to be home!' Imogen Anthony has set hearts racing with a snap of herself wearing a high cut, red lace leotard

In the photo, she posed with her hands running through her peroxide blonde locks, wearing an elegant black robe, paired with knee high boots.

The Maxim cover girl captioned her post: 'You were good 2me #London.

'Good to be home with my animal children,' she added, likely referring to her multitude of pets including dogs, cats and bunnies.

Raunchy! She shared plenty of racy snaps of herself during her trip to the UK's capital, including on of herself in nothing but a black G-string

The glamour model was in the UK capital for the past few weeks for business meetings, photo shoots and catching up with friends.

Her 132,000 followers complimented her on the saucy post, one wrote: 'Brilliance has become you.'

While another said: 'I would usually say "oh just stop it" because you're killing me in the greatest way possible.'

Keeping it saucy: Her legions of fans complimented her on the saucy post, one wrote: 'Brilliance has become you'

This comes after Imogen shared a skin-baring selfie, posing in front of a mirror.

Wearing nothing but black G-string and a studded bracelet, she appeared to be running her hand seductively through her blonde hair.

Meanwhile she barely covered her assets by holding her arms strategically across her chest.

Flaunt it: Wearing nothing but black G-string and a studded bracelet, Imogen barely covered her assets by holding her arms strategically across her chest

Standing with her legs astride, the girlfriend of Kyle Sandilands, 46, taut and slender pins were on full display, while her enviable torso also took centre stage in the photo.

Imogen's legion of fans were quick to gush at the steamy post with many congratulating her shock-jock boyfriend.

'God Kyle is a lucky man, he deserves it but,' one fan offered while another could only manage a 'Ooohhhhhweeeeee,' in response to the steamy selfie.

Hot bod: Standing with her legs astride, the girlfriend of Kyle Sandilands, 46, taut and slender pins were on full display, while her enviable torso also took centre stage in the photo

It seems that Imogen's track record of daring social media photos is encouraged by beau Kyle.

Speaking on his KIIS FM breakfast show recently, Kyle revealed that Imogen would not take kindly to being told to cover up.

'I have my opinion and I voice it strongly, but she doesn't care what I think,' Kyle admitted.
She's the US actress who has been living it up in Australia as part of the travelling Supanova Comic Con and Gaming Expo

And Terri Hatcher, 52, looked chic as she touched down in Perth on Friday to continue the festivities.

The Supergirl actress rugged up for her trip, wearing a thick, navy blue coat and a pair of three-quarter length jeans.

Super style: US actress Terri Hatcher, 52, looked chic as she touched down in Perth on Friday to continue her Supanova roadshow

She accessorised with a pair of tinted, cats-eye style sunglasses, a dark blue striped scarf and a pair of black suede boots.

With her shoulder-length brunette hair flowing freely in the wintry Perth breeze, Terri also carried a large leather handbag in the crook of her arm.

Teri also ferried a grey suitcase through the airport, on which she had perched a blue traveller's pillow.

Keeping warm: The Supergirl actress rugged up for her trip, wearing a thick, navy blue coat and a pair of three-quarter length jeans

Teri sported a stern expression as she left the airport, possibly preparing herself for the legion of fans waiting on her arrival at Supanova.

Teri and fellow actor Dean Cain, who one shared the shared the small screen in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, reunited on the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Tuesday.

While Dean isn't able to 'leap tall buildings at a single bound' like his one-time superhero namesake, he managed to don a safety harness and take his former co-star up the iconic landmark.

Up, up and away: Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher, who one shared the shared the small screen in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, reunited on the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Tuesday

Teri, taking to Instagram, shared a photo of the reunion that showed the pair clearly chuffed to be back in each other's company.

Smiling broadly, Teri had her arms wrapped around Dean's neck as her raven locks blew in the high-altitude Sydney breeze.

Dean meanwhile kept a more stoic facial expression as her held his fist aloft, just as Superman would have done.

Super power: Teri, taking to Instagram, shared a photo of the reunion that showed the pair clearly chuffed to be back in each other's company

'Soaring together again. So fun to reunite,' Teri captioned the picturesque post that was met with a flurry of fans gushing about the reunion.

'Just like old times!! All Dean needs is a cape,' one fan offered while another commented with a similar: 'Omg! Yor show used to be my favourite show when I was small.'

Some, however took the post to mean that a potential reunion on the small screen could be in the works, while others seemed more interested in linking the dynamic duo romantically.

Happy together: 'Soaring together again. So fun to reunite,' Teri captioned the picturesque post that was met with a flurry of fans gushing about the reunion

'Trying to contain my excitement but obviously I can't!!! This is sooo sooo nice!!! So you're flying with him again, huh???' one follower exclaimed.

Another opined: 'Have to say this...and I know majority of others say the same...why are you and Dean not together for real!!?...you look so great and happy together!. Have fun you two xxx'

Lois and Clark, which ran over four seasons from 1993 to 1997 made household names of both Dean and Teri.

While Dean hung up the cape after the series wrapped, Teri has kept the superhero theme going after taking on the recurring villainous role of Queen Rhea of Daxam in the TV series Supergirl.
She became the youngest ever Dolly editor at the ripe young age of 21 and recently celebrated her 10th anniversary on the Today Show.

But despite her ongoing professional success, Lisa Wilkinson revealed there have been times she has questioned it.

Speaking to Honey this week, the 57-year-old revealed that she suffers from Imposter Syndrome, a condition where one feels they don't really deserve the success that they've achieved.

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Not a hard worker after all? On Saturday, Lisa Wilkinson revealed that she often questions her own success as she suffers from Imposter Syndrome

'It keeps me honest, I don't take anything that has come to me for granted,' she told the publication.

'You never just relax and think I've got this one covered, so you keep striving.'

Last year the breakfast TV host also opened up about her fears of getting fired.

Always worried: 'I come in every day thinking any day now someone is going to pat me on the shoulder and say, "Okay, you've had enough fun now, time to pass the baton to the next one"'

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Lisa's confession came at the time when the Today Show was celebrating their highest ratings in ten years.

'I come in every day thinking any day now someone is going to pat me on the shoulder and say, "Okay, you've had enough fun now, time to pass the baton to the next one",' she said.

'Fortunately, it hasn't happened and for as long as [this job] lasts, I'm going to make the most of it. There is no better job in television.'

She's loved: On her tenth anniversary last month, co-host Sylvia Jeffreys gushed over the mother-of-three saying that she showed 'excellence' in everything she did

On her tenth anniversary last month, co-host Sylvia Jeffreys gushed over the mother-of-three saying that she showed 'excellence' in everything she did.

'It's remarkable the way you continue to strive, not just every day, every interview, every segment, every single thing you do, you strive for excellence,' she said.

'And you never stop. And you set such a wonderful example, for every woman in the industry. Which is such an incredible thing.'
They celebrated their one year anniversary on Thursday.

But it seems the punny internet exchanges between former Bachelorette Georgia Love, 28, and her beau Lee Elliott, 35, won't be slowing down any time soon.

If anything, the couple appear to have ramped-up their pun game, if Georgia's latest Instagram post is anything to go by.

Messy kitchen: Georgia Love and Lee Elliott celebrated their one-year anniversary by taking an Italian cooking class

The loved-up duo celebrated their anniversary in style on Saturday, venturing to a winery in Victoria's Main Ridge.

Georgia shared a photo of the pair in a candid embrace during an Italian cooking class at Green Olive at Red Hill.

They appeared as smitten as ever as they glared lovingly into each other's eyes while sporting matching aprons.

Weekend away: The couple, who met on last year's Bachelorette, got out of the city to celebrate their anniversary

The couple looked to have been making a whole lot of mess, and their faces were no exception with them both covered in flour.

Georgia declared her love for Lee in the caption using a fitting pasta-themed pun in: 'I'm tortellini in love with you,' she said.

And the journalist proved there was plenty more where that came from, following it up with the hashtags: '#pastalavistababy, penneforyourthoughts #checkouthisrigatoni.'

One year on! Their shared love of puns sparked was a common ground for the couple when they first met

She wore a camel-coloured jumper beneath her apron and styled her shoulder-length locks in loose curls.

Lee rested his hand on a rolling pin as he sported a denim shirt worn over the top of a plain white shirt.

He echoed Georgia's post on Saturday, sharing a picture of them standing alongside a giant-sized rabbit at Jackalope Mornington Peninsula.

'Um babe I'm over hare!' the hunky plumber captioned the picture, following it with '#theresnobunnyelselikeyou.'
Poppy Delevingne and her husband James Cook slotted right into the edgy ethos of Glastonbury festival as they lived it up on Friday.

Sporting an all-black ensemble, Poppy, 31, opted for comfort in a slogan hoodie as the temperature took a chilly turn at the Somerset festival.

She slipped a pair of large cat-eye Polaroid shades over her eyes, and appeared to go make-up free, while scraping her ice blonde locks back into a chic low ponytail.

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Rockstar couple: Poppy Delevingne and her husband James Cook looked every inch the rockstar couple as they partied at Glastonbury festival in Somerset, England on Friday

While most people would look worse-for-wear following the raucous festival's antics, Poppy sported a fresh-faced glow as she strolled arm-in-arm with James.

Layering a black Anine Bing biker jacket over her hoodie, the Chanel ambassador toughened up her outfit, which consisted of a black midi-skirt and Converse trainers.

James looked handsome in a quirky Aztec print green hooded sweatshirt and slate grey straight leg jeans.

Natural beauty: Poppy slipped a pair of large cat-eye Polaroid shades over her eyes, and appeared to go make-up free, while scraping her ice blonde locks back into a chic low ponytail

Too cool: Layering a black Anine Bing biker jacket over her hoodie, the Chanel ambassador toughened up her outfit, which consisted of a black midi skirt and Converse trainers

Handsome: James looked handsome in a quirky Aztec print green hooded sweatshirt and slate grey straight leg jeans

He slipped a pair of tan desert boots over his feet, and allowed his sandy blonde hair to be tousled by the day's festivities.

Poppy and James became engaged in October 2012, when he popped the question with a bespoke Anya Hindmarch memories box embossed with the words 'Will you marry me?' and filled with pictures of them together.

The pair then tied the knot in a lavish but stylish ceremony at St Pauls Church in Knightsbridge two years later.

Fresh-faced: While most people would look worse for wear following the raucous festival's antics, Poppy sported a fresh-faced glow as she strolled arm in arm with James

Messy hair, don't care: James slipped a pair of tan desert boots over his feet, and allowed his sandy blonde hair to be tousled by the day's festivities

Happy couple: Poppy and James became engaged in October 2012, and wed in 2014

While they are not seen at public events together often, Poppy and James have been putting on a very united front recently as they hop between promotional events for the model's new film, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.

Her husband has supported the star, who plays Arthur's mother Igraine in the movie, at both the LA and London premieres for the Guy Ritchie flick - starring Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law and Eric Bana.

Meanwhile, Poppy's sister Cara looked happy to be reunited with close pal Margot Robbie as they partied at the festival.

The British model, 24, and the Australian Wolf Of Wall Street actress, 26, put on a chic display for the occasion.

BFFs: Cara Delevingne looked happy to be reunited with close pal Margot Robbie as they partied at Glastonbury

Cara continued to rock her buzz cut, which she shaved for her latest flick, rocking a pair of quirky tinted shades.

Despite the warm weather the model opted for a cherry embellished sweater and black tracksuit bottoms.

Continuing her tomboy look, she rocked a pair of Dr Martens as she giggled with Margot.

Unique: The British model, 24, and the Australian Wolf Of Wall Street actress, 26, put on a chic display for the occasion

Meanwhile Margot, perhaps having been warned about the British climate, played it safe in wellies and a fluorescent raincoat.

Her yellow trench revealed a glimpse of the actress' star-embellished sweater and toned legs.

Leaving her hair loose, she covered her pretty face with shades as she ambled through the festival.

Not hot? Despite the warm weather the model opted for a cherry embellished sweater and black tracksuit bottoms

Casual: Continuing her tomboy look, she rocked a pair of Dr Martens as she giggled with Margot

Cara and Margot struck up a friendship after starring in hit Suicide Squad.

The English model played Enchantress in the DC Comics adaptation, while the Australian actress starred starred as sexy supervillain Harley Quinn.

And the duo have been spotted partying regularly since the film's release.

Discussing their friendship previously, Margot shared: 'We just talk about regular girl stuff. She is like 'I've had sex on a plane' and I'll be like 'yeah, but I've had it on a jet ski'.

'And she will then blow me out of the water and tell me she 'drunk texts' Prince Harry. So I'm just like 'okay, you win'.'

Standing out: Margot, perhaps having been warned about the British climate, played it safe in wellies and a fluorescent raincoat

Girls' time: Continuing her tomboy look, Cara rocked a pair of Dr Martens as she giggled with Margot

Getting chauffered around: Leaving her hair loose,Margot covered her pretty face with shades as she ambled through the festival

Hit it off: Cara and Margot struck up a friendship after starring in hit Suicide Squad

While Cara broke up with songstress St Vincent at the beginning of the year, Margot married her longtime love British Tom Ackerley last December in Australia.

According to Woman's Day, Margot the pair wed in a secret location on the Gold Coast, Queensland, where The Wolf Of Wall Street actress grew up.

The magazine claimed that Tom wished to get married in his native UK, but gave up his dream for his ladylove, who has always wanted to say 'I do' Down Under.

'The Gold Coast was somewhere she always wanted to get married, given it's where she was raised as a kid on her grandparents' farm,' a 'friend' allegedly told the publication.

'They decided to get married around Christmas so they could spend time with both their families afterwards, which they've never done before,' an insider added.

The magazine claimed that the pair wrote their own vows for the ceremony, and that Margot would likely wear an Oscar de la Renta dress for the ceremony.
It seems even the characters are becoming disillusioned with EastEnders.

You know it doesnt mean anything right? Steven Beale droned after snogging Abi Branning, his girlfriends younger sister.

Yeah I know, Abi shrugged flatly. I dont care.

Viewers knew the feeling.

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The worst 21st birthday ever! Abis party became even worse (for us) when Steven Beale had a Poldark moment, taking his shirt off and snogging his girlfriends little sister in EastEnders

It was a bizarre way to deflate the most dramatic development of the week (the climax), as Steven had his Poldark moment by stripping his shirt off for what Bianca used to call a wing ding'.

If they thought it was meaningless and didnt care, why should we?

This has to be the worst 21st birthday ever! had sulked Abi, slumped, drunk, on the floor of the restaurant kitchen.

Well she said it. We had seen our fair share over the years. But none as bad, or mad, as this.

Her Nan (Cora) was there and was no longer a tramp but Abis mum (Tanya) hadnt made it to her daughters 21st. (She was busy  being the head teacher of Ackley Bridge).

Saucy: It was a bizarre way to deflate the most dramatic development of the week (the climax), as Steven had his Poldark moment by stripping his shirt off

Flirty: Josh kissing her was just creepy and even they felt copping off with Steven was Just Wrong

Josh kissing her was just creepy and even they felt copping off with Steven was Just wrong.

In truth the whole week had been strange. Or strangely humdrum

Ian was eating too much lasagne; a new sign at the local undertakers was unveiled; and Louise found out she hadnt been raped, wasnt pregnant, or caught Chlamydia from Keegan.

After several episodes of teenage angst it transpired it was all just a joke  played on Louise and us.

If you can't stand the heat...: The kitchen became the setting for the sexy tryst

Other mundane sub-plots went a bit Pete Tong, or Twin Peaks.

Eight-year-old Amy got chewing gum in her gum, which prompted a demonstration from a hot Norwegian blonde on how to get it out (damn, these Scandinavians really have got everything sussed).

Michelle Fowler went on a Singles Night with her creepy stalker and claimed her favourite film was The Shawshank Redemption. When we all know it was really one of those movies set in an American College about an unorthodox teacher inspiring a student to Seize The Day. No not Dead Poets Society. One that wasnt legal.

Then there was the dog in the park that ended up standing in the pond: this was Bronson, the charge of Keegan Taylor, which having gone perilously close to baby Pearls pushchair, had a tug of war with Denise (over her handbag) and lost.

Tops off: Things got racier as Steven's shirt was whipped off

It's complicated: Lauren has, as Steven indicated, been flirting with Josh and neglecting her son Louis

According to the scriptwriters warped worldview this prompted Denise not just facing jail but in prison (she was on discharge, which certainly sounded uncomfortable but was hardly likely to be activated by this).

Other ramifications included the possibility that Kush would lose his access to his baby (Arfur) and Social Services might question Staceys capabilities as a muvver.

Crime in Walford used to involve middle-aged geezers with shooters and crowbars in holdalls. Now two police officers went door-to-door without investigating the obvious offence: the dangerous dog.

After all those episodes about Kush and Denise splitting up they got back together.

Equally the more Steven Beale sniped at Abis interfering and plotting against Lauren the more we knew they would eventually kiss (Steven and Abi that is, not Abi and Lauren).

Is this the bit where I lose it? he carped refusing to rise to her revelation that Lauren had aborted his baby.

Fatherly love: Coming after Tuesdays finale (when Max lost it) it meant two episodes in a row had the same ending

Drama: Lauren has, as Steven indicated, been flirting with Josh and neglecting her son Louis

It sounded like an ironic putd own of the perennial soap cliche (the character sweeping everything off the table) - until he lost it anyway and did it himself.

Coming after Tuesdays finale (when Max lost it) it meant two episodes in a row had the same ending. Weird. Especially as one of the perpetrators had mocked it

Who were meant to sympathise with in this storyline is anyones guess? No-one probably.

Lauren has, as Steven indicated, been flirting with Josh and neglecting her son Louis.

Josh himself is charmless at the best of times and his kissing Abi (even to make Lauren jealous) creepy.

This has to be the worst 21st birthday ever!' Abi sulked, slumped, drunk, on the floor of the restaurant kitchen

Abi has gone from being the brains of the series, and a vet in the making, to a little cow whose jealousy about her sister is just adolescent.

And Steven is a bore who never leaves the Square and has no friends there let alone anywhere else

The idea that Lauren has got herself lumbered with Steven, Josh, and Peter Beale is rather an insult to Jacqueline Jossa.

You let Lauren get away with aborting your baby! Abi scoffed to Steven. And now youre just going to ignore the fact shes cheating on you too. You are pathetic! she laughed in his face. No wonder Lauren doesnt want you!

Fuming: The idea that Lauren has got herself lumbered with Steven, Josh, and Peter Beale is rather an insult to Jacqueline Jossa

It was another example of the characters pointing out the flaws with the script or storylines.

Steven took it as his cue to join in, following Josh, Michelles date, and Max Branning as a man who was losing It, by shoving Abi against the wall and hissing: I didnt go after them because I know what Im capable of.

To be honest, based on the evidence wed seen over the months, this seemed to us likenothing.

Tiff: The sisters' spat played out in the kitchen

He kissed Abi, who was only five years younger (21) but looked and acted more like a teenager.

Whipping off his shirt made him less appealing not more.

You know it doesnt mean anything right? he sneered.

Yeah I know. I dont care! Abi insisted, willing him on to spite Lauren rather than out of anything that had any old-fashioned outrage - like genuine, illicit, desire.

They didnt really want to do it and we didnt want to see it. The whole thing was something we could all have done without.
Alice Eve looked gorgeous as she took her pet dog for a walk in Los Angeles, California on Friday.

Going make-up free, the 35-year-old actress showed off her natural beauty as she worked up a sweat while wearing a quirky cropped Beyonce T-shirt.

Flashing her flat stomach with her ensemble, Alice wore grey workout leggings and kept refreshed with a bottle of water.

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Flawless: Alice Eve, 35, looked gorgeous as she went make-up free and took her pet dog for a walk in a quirky cropped Beyonce T-shirt in Los Angeles, California on Friday

She scraped her strawberry blonde locks off her face in a ponytail, and looked happy and relaxed as she strolled along the road with her adorable pooch.

Alice showcased her slender pins in the skintight leggings, while her quirky T-shirt seemed to be a nod to the music maven.

Alice is the daughter of acting heavyweights Waking The Dead star Trevor Eve and Holby City actress Sharon Maughan.

Natural beauty: She scraped her strawberry blonde locks off her face in a ponytail, and looked happy and relaxed as she strolled along the road with her adorable pooch

The British born actress relocated to Los Angeles in 2010, when she landed the role of Irish nanny Erin in Sex and The City 2.

She has since been seen in high profile films Men In Black 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness.

In 2014, Alice married financier Alex Cowper-Smith, her high school sweetheart whom she met while attending Westminster School in London.

Starstruck: Alice starred in the 2013 film Star Trek: Into The Darkness

High flier: Alice married financier Alex Cowper-Smith in 2014. The pair met at school but rekindled their flame as a couple in 2014

The couple met at school but rekindled their flame as a couple in 2014, before finally tying the knot in a small ceremony on New Year's Eve in 2014.

The blonde was previously in a long-term relationship with poet Adam O'Riordan, who she met while reading English at Oxford University.

She will next be seen in thriller Untogether, alongside 50 Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan and When Harry Met Sally's Billy Crystal.
The Real Housewives of Sydney will reportedly undergo a cast mate shake-up for its second season.

But Victoria Rees may be staying on the show, if her telling new Instagram post is anything to go by.

On Saturday, the controversial reality star uploaded a post claiming that she is 'Looking forward to... series 2.'

Hinting at her return: On Saturday, Real Housewives of Sydney star Victoria Rees alluded that she will return for a second season of show, amidst rumours of a cast mate shake-up.

The Instagram image shows Victoria rolling her eyes during the recent taping of show's reunion special.

'Missing the eye roll,' the 52-year-old Wrinkles Schminkles founder wrote. 'My eyes have had absolutely no exercise since we stopped filming.'

'Missing the eye roll': Victoria's return signals that her rivals Athena X and Lisa Oldfield may not make a comeback

Not coming back for season 2? Victoria's post seems to hint that

She then hinted at her small-screen return, stating: 'They are looking forward to a workout in series 2'.

The upload has prompted speculation that Victoria's arch-nemesis, Athena X Levendi, will not return, after the pair were embroiled in a dramatic showdown at the reunion.

Last moth, The Daily Telegraph reported that 40-year-old Athena had to be physically restrained after threatening to 'f**king smash' Victoria during an off-camera incident.

RHOS brawl? The Daily Telegraph reported Athena had to be physically restrained after threatening to 'f**king smash' Victoria at the reunion

Victoria's post comes less than two weeks after she hinted to NW that her other rival co-star, Lisa Oldfield, may have been fired from the franchise.

'I don't know if she's coming back,' Victoria told the magazine.

Athena X and Lisa formed an alliance against Victoria during the show, working together to sabotage the Wrinkle Schminkle founder's product launch.

Alliance: Athena X and Lisa formed an alliance against Victoria during the show

Meanwhile, the show seems far from Athena X's mind as she holidays in Greece.

The outspoken artist and wife of jeweler Panos Levendi has been sharing snaps from her extravagant holiday to Instagram.

As for a second season of the show, she recently told News Corp: 'Id have to go into a very deep meditation, go into another dimension and hopefully meet my guides and ask them'.
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.

A right delayed is a right denied.Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.

Martin Luther King Jr.

No one is born hating another person People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

Nelson Mandela

We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist

James Baldwin

There is a fine line between free speech and hate speech. Free speech encourages debate whereas hate speech incites violence.

Newton Lee

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.

Albert Einstein
Her father, Oliver Curtis, was released from the Cooma Correctional Centre this week after serving a one year sentence for conspiracy to commit insider trading.

And Pixie Curtis was bursting with excitement on Friday as she celebrated his return to the family's Sydney home.

A snap shared to Instagram on Saturday showed the five-year-old beaming and holding huge balloons to welcome her dad after his release from jail.

'Welcome Home Dad!' Pixie Curtis, who is barely seen in the dispay, has celebrated her father, Oliver's return home with an extravagant balloon display

Pixie is barely seen as she's surrounded by an inflatable champagne bottle, blue star, orange moon crescent and colourful candy swirls.

In addition to the eye-catching display are two balloons with messages from the Curtis kids.

One reads: 'Welcome Home Dad, Love Pix' and had Pixie's trademark bow, while the other from her three-year-old brother Hunter said: 'Welcome Home Daddy, Love Hunty'.

Daddy's home! Along with her three-year-old brother Hunter, the two were reunited with their father after serving a one year sentence for conspiracy to commit insider trading

Very happy: The two were beaming with excitement as they saw their father walking toward the private jet, booked by Roxy, ready to head back home to Sydney's affluent eastern suburbs

Her mother and PR maven Roxy Jacenko, who manages Pixie's social media captioned the post: 'And she wonders why I need an iPhone and my own email address?!'

'I mean how an earth would I have orchestrated these beauties with my friends at @pinkmixparties otherwise?!' she continued.

Fans of the adorable hair accessory entrepreneur shared their excitement for her and her family.

Junior entrepreneur: Roxy posted a photo to Instagram of daughter Pixie standing proudly in front of a retail stand featuring her line of hair accessories - Pixie's Bows

One commented: 'That's so sweet! You must be so happy to have your daddy home.'

While another said: 'So lovely to see your family back together.'

On Saturday, Roxy posted a photo and short video showing her children's entrepreneurial spirit.

She shared a photo of daughter Pixie standing proudly in front of a retail stand featuring her line of hair accessories - Pixie's Bows.

Big business: 'The CEO arrives to inspect her #pixiesbows retail stands,' Roxy captioned the post that was met with a flurry of well-wishes from followers.

Wearing one of her bows in her red hair and a pair of distressed blue jeans, a white jumper and white sneakers, Pixie gestured proudly to the colourful display.

'The CEO arrives to inspect her #pixiesbows retail stands,' Roxy captioned the post that was met with a flurry of well-wishes from followers.

Roxy followed that post with a short video that showed Pixie and brother Hunter sitting at a dining table.

Notice of motion: In keeping with the business theme, Roxy captioned the cute video: 'When the financial controller, @huntercurtis14 calls an urgent board meeting'

Cherubic Hunter slaps the table and yells something unintelligible to his sister who is sitting opposite.

Roxy, meanwhile was trying to decipher Hunter's words, asking her son: 'what did you just say?'

In keeping with the business theme, Roxy captioned the cute video: 'When the financial controller, @huntercurtis14 calls an urgent board meeting.'

On Friday, Pixie and Hunter were reunited with their father at Cooma Airport where Roxy had booked a private jet to take Oliver home.
His friends and family are said to be very concerned about him, after an evening out on Wednesday in London ended with him being escorted out of a club and sleeping on a park bench.

And troubled Jeremy McConnell certainly looked to be keeping a low profile as he stepped out from the St Pancras Hotel in London's Kings Cross on Friday.

Looking sombre, the Irish model, 27, kept his head down as he walked along on his mobile phone, engaged in what seemed like a serious conversation.

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Unwell: Jeremy McConnell emerges from London hotel days after sleeping on a park bench following boozy night out... as friends claim star is in 'self-destruct mode'

Looking casual, he wore a light grey T-shirt and white shorts, finished off with white hot-dog themed socks and converse trainers.

He carried his backpack on his shoulders and strolled along sadly through the London street.

Those close to him have asked the star to seek help and return to rehab amid concerns he is in 'self-destruct' mode, following the Wednesday night/Thursday morning park bench incident.

Sources told MailOnline on Thursday, after the photo showing him asleep on the bench was released, that the Celebrity Big Brother star's outing to the Sixty6 Magazine Summer launch party at Dstrkt nightclub on Wednesday evening saw him escorted out by his representative yet returned an hour later.

A representative of Jeremy's told MailOnline - 'there is no comment at this stage'.

Troubled: Looking sombre, the Irish model, 27, kept his head down as he walked along on his mobile phone, engaged in what seemed like a serious conversation

A sorry state of affairs: Those close to him have asked the star to seek help and return to rehab amid concerns he is in 'self-destruct' mode, following the Wednesday night/Thursday morning park bench incident

The reality star was seen in the same clothes in the early hours of Thursday morning while sitting on a park bench, as friends of the Irish model revealed they are urging him to seek help amid fears he is 'in self-destruct mode'.

Days before the party, Jeremy spoke to The Sun in which he revealed he was 'surprised' he was still alive after his partying left him addicted to booze.

After a stint in rehab, he appeared to be in recovery mode after he was spotted with his ex-girlfriend Stephanie Davis, with whom he shares six-month-old son Caben-Albi, on Father's Day as their on-off relationship rumbles on.

Things appeared to take another turn on Wednesday as he was seen out in London before the shock sighting the following morning on a park bench.

Looking casual: He wore a light grey T-shirt and white shorts, finished off with white hot-dog themed socks and converse trainers

Back on the scene: Sources tell MailOnline that the Celebrity Big Brother star's outing to the Sixty6 Magazine Summer launch party at Dstrkt nightclub on Wednesday evening saw him escorted out by his representative yet returned an hour later

Sources told the MailOnline: 'Jeremy's friends are begging him to seek help and return to rehab. We are so scared he's gone into self destruct mode again.'

Of the evening on the town, sources revealed Jeremy's publicist tried his best to help the star yet he soon returned to the party alone.

Insiders said: 'Jeremys publicist Ed Hopkins turned up at the event and removed him from the party, but he returned on his own one hour later'.

Jeremy's spokesperson told MailOnline: 'We will not be commenting on Jeremy's illness. His well-being is our main concern. We are working with the relevant professionals to provide him all the support he needs.'

Family: Jeremy and Stephanie, 24, who met on 2016's Celebrity Big Brother, share son Caben-Albi, six months

Representatives for Stephanie were unavailable for comment.

On Monday, Jeremy spoke to The Sun about his stint in rehab in March and his devastating relapse two weeks ago.

He said: 'I felt massively terrible about my relapse. Its the last time I ever lift a drink again. I was two-and-a-half months sober, which for me was a massive achievement in my sobriety. That wont happen again, I will never forget the first time I saw my son and Stephanie after our time apart.'

Stephanie's convoluted romance with Jeremy has grown increasingly difficult to track as time goes on as the duo have frequently made up and broken up, yet their latest status saw an acrimonious split in which the police have become involved.

As he awaits trial on an assault charge against the star, last week, Jeremy was allegedly facing another police probe.

First Father's Day: Jeremy, whose dad passed away in March, penned in his Instagram tribute: 'Happy Father's Day , and to my dad I'll make you proud , slowly learning and growing as a person each day'

The pair, who met on 2016's Celebrity Big Brother, were snapped appearing to smooch outside a hotel on Father's Day, appearing to confirm their latest reunion.

Sources claim the duo spent two days and nights in the hotel, with the reunion coming hot on the heels of a fresh police probe, although they seem to have resolved their woes.

While both parties gave a nod to one another on Father's Day, Caben was nowhere to be seen as they held their chats - just hours before Stephanie appeared to return to Liverpool and Jeremy headed to the Transformers: The Last Knight Global Premiere.

Hours later, Jeremy made a rare red carpet appearance at the premiere having dismissed their woes by posting a family shot with a gushing caption, in which he also referenced his late father.

Rekindled: Stephanie and Jeremy have certainly been through a lot together in their 18 month on-off romance

The reality star, whose dad passed away in March, penned: 'Happy Father's Day , and to my dad I'll make you proud , slowly learning and growing as a person each day'.

Stephanie also paid reference to Jeremy in a Father's Day post she shared on Twitter sent to her beau from their son.

It read: 'Happy Father's Day daddy... Fall down 7 times, stand up EIGHT! U can do this. I have faith. Love Caben-Albi.'

For confidential help and support call The Samaritans on 116 123
She is expecting to give birth to her fourth child in August.

And pregnant Danielle Lloyd showed off her growing baby bump as she counts down the final weeks until her due date.

The former glamour model, 33, posted the cute Instagram snap after she was pictured getting her nails done.

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'What a difference a top makes': Danielle Lloyd showed off her growing baby bump in a cute Instagram snap, just weeks away from her due date

She wrote, 'What a difference a top makes', showing how her black top largely hides her burgeoning bump.

The initimate post received more than 3,000 likes as her fans praised her for sharing the adorable snap.

One fan commented: 'WOW getting a big bump now'

Another wrote: 'What a lush little bump you have.'

Baring all: The initimate post received more than 3,000 likes as her fans praised her for sharing the adorable snap

An Instagram user commented: 'Looking good, how long now until he make his entrance? Imagine what your gorgeous boys will be like.'

Earlier in June Danielle spoke out after being cruelly bodyshamed by trolls, who claimed the stars bump made her look like a washed up whale.

She exclusively told MailOnline: Its bad enough when youre not pregnant, women being brought down because of their weight. Megan McKennas been told shes too skinny this week, people get told theyre too fat.

Fighting the trolls: Earlier in June Danielle spoke out after being cruelly bodyshamed by trolls, who claimed her bump made her look like a washed up whale

When can somebody win, what is perfection? Im happy the way I am, why do people feel the need to try and troll me and make me feel bad about myself? I had to stand up for myself and for other people as well, especially for pregnant women.

The trolls must not be happy with their own lives, so they feel the need to bring other people down. Im not taking no more rubbish off them!

The mother-of-three, who raises children Archie, six, Harry, five and George, three with ex-husband Jamie O'Hara, also opened up about her health troubles during her pregnancy, revealing that she was feeling much better.

Big family: The mother-of-three raises children Archie, six, Harry, five and George, three with ex-husband Jamie O'Hara and got engaged to electrician Michael O'Neill last year

The former glamour model said: Ive been on a course of antibiotics, theyve kicked in now, and Im resting as much as possible.

She sparked concerns when she was forced to use to a wheelchair on her family trip to Dubai as she struggled to cope with the pain of her SPD  Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction.

I literally couldnt walk, I was going to a theme park and I thought, I cant let them down. Michael was like, well just get a wheelchair and Ill push you around. Not only has he got to look after the children, but hes got to look after me!, she said.
On June 6, she gave birth to her first child, a little girl.

And despite being seen making the move from hospital to home with the hours-old tot two weeks ago, Binky Felstead has spent her first days a new mother nesting at home with her daughter.

But On Saturday, the Made In Chelsea starlet, 27, was seen for the first time taking her baby for a stroll, close to her family home in Eastbourne, alongside her mum, the baby's grandma, Jane.

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Pride and joy: Leggy Binky Felstead is the picture of health as she steps out for the first time with baby daughter and mum Jane... and beams with pride at the adorable newborn

The ladies looked full of pride as they pushed the new addition to the family in her pram, both seem smiling adoringly at the two and a half week old tot.

Binky looked the picture of health in a plaid yellow and blue shirt and a frilly black skirt, showing off her toned pins.

The fitness enthusiast demonstrated how pregnancy suited her well, as she carried her daughter with effortless style for nine months; but on her afternoon walk, she seemed to be embracing being back to herself again in the summery ensemble.

She wore her chestnut locks in loose waves around her face and slung a black baby bag across her chest, finishing off the look with a pair of flip-flops.

Three generations of Felsteads: The ladies looked full of pride as they pushed the new addition to the family in her pram, both seem smiling adoringly at the two and a half week old tot

Girls' day out: Binky looked the picture of health in a plaid yellow and blue shirt and a frilly black skirt, showing off her toned pins

Domestic bliss: The fitness enthusiast demonstrated how pregnancy suited her well, as she carried her daughter with effortless style for nine months; but on her afternoon walk, she seemed to be embracing being back to herself again in the summery ensemble

Mother Jane - who also stars in Made In Chelsea - looked ever fabulous as she too sported a summer vibe.

She showcased her own set of famous Felstead legs in a pair of white shorts, and wore a black blouse and denim shirt on top as she accompanied her daughter on the walk.

Having recently refurbished her home in London, Binky has taken time settling her and boyfriend Josh 'JP' Patterson's yet-to-be-named baby into her surroundings.

But it seemed an escape to the country was the tonic the young family needed on Saturday as they enjoyed the Sussex air, strolling along a cobbled path through the trees.

Glowing: She wore her chestnut locks in loose waves around her face and slung a black baby bag across her chest, finishing off the look with a pair of flip-flops

Granny Felstead: Mother Jane - who also stars in Made In Chelsea - looked ever fabulous as she too sported a summer vibe

Hands on mum: Binky looked like a natural as she arrived back to her car after the walk, getting straight on with the task of getting her daughter into the 4X4 in her carrier

Binky looked like a natural as she arrived back to her car after the walk, getting straight on with the task of getting her daughter into the 4X4 in her carrier.

The baby's dad JP had clearly been given some 'off duty time' as he was absent from the walk, allowing the three generations of Felstead girls to bond alone.

He was snapped at a local gym, taking on a vigorous workout.

The rugby enthusiast is, like Binky, a fitness advocate and was potentially taking the opportunity to get his first intense work out in since the arrival of their first child.

She's a natural: The baby's dad JP had clearly been given some 'off duty time' as he was absent from the walk, allowing the three generations of Felstead girls to bond alone

This is also the first grandchild for Jane, who has two other children, both older than Binky.

Binky's sister, Anna Louise, is also pregnant, and will give birth later in the summer, meaning the Felstead clan will have two new additions at once.

Warm wishes have flooded in for the family from the other Made In Chelsea castmates, with the likes of Lucy and Tiff Watson visiting Binky while she was still in hospital and Binky's ex Alex Mytton revealing he has FaceTimed with JP and the baby.

One co-star and close pal Ollie Locke is yet to meet his Goddaughter, however, due to having other commitments in America, where he is launching his gay dating app Chappy.

Wearing motherhood well: Binky's sister, Anna Louise, is also pregnant, and will give birth later in the summer, meaning the Felstead clan will have two new additions at once

Strap in: Warm wishes have flooded in for the family from the other Made In Chelsea castmates, with the likes of Lucy and Tiff Watson visiting Binky while she was still in hospital and Binky's ex Alex Mytton revealing he has FaceTimed with JP and the baby

On the coast: It's likely Binky has introduced the newborn to her friend Cheska Hull, who starred for several seasons on MIC and now lives in Brighton

Due back in early July, the reunion is bound to be an emotional one.

It's likely Binky has introduced the newborn to her other best friend Cheska Hull, who starred for several seasons on MIC with her and Ollie too, before moving down to the coast close to where Binky is currently weekending.

In the last episode of season 13, Cheska made a shock reappearance, and dropped the news that she too is expecting her first baby.

Back to the gym: JP was snapped at a local gym, taking on a vigorous workout

Dad bod? No way! The rugby enthusiast is, like Binky, a fitness advocate and was potentially taking the opportunity to get his first intense work out in since the arrival of their first child

Staying at home: Made In Chelsea returns this summer with a new season, set in Ibiza, that Binky and JP are sitting out of

Made In Chelsea returns this summer with a new season, set in Ibiza, that Binky, JP and Ollie are sitting out of.

They're set to reappear in future Chelsea-based seasons, but in a much lesser capacity, now that they have a new priority in life.

They do have a two-part series coming out imminently, called Born In Chelsea, which catalogues the weeks leading up to and after the birth of their baby girl, which will air on E4 in the coming few weeks.

A new role in life: JP and Binky are set to reappear in future Chelsea-based seasons of MIC, but in a much lesser capacity, now that they have a new priority in life
She's been vocal about the need for equality and racial harmony in Australia.

And days after calling for more national recognition of the Indigenous community, Jesinta Franklin (nee Campbell) showcased her support for other minority groups.

The 25-year-old AFL WAG attended the Aurora Ball alongside her Sydney Swans star husband Buddy, 30, in Sydney on Friday to support the LGBTI community.

Having a ball! AFL WAG Jesinta Franklin attended the Aurora Ball alongside her Sydney Swans star husband Buddy in Sydney on Friday.

The event is designed to raise funds to assist with housing, counselling and support for the LGBTI community.

In a snap shared to Instagram, Jesinta cut a glamorous figure in a little black dress paired with a chic peach-coloured faux-fur coat.

Meanwhile footy star Buddy looked dapper in a black and white tux complete with a bow tie.

The glamorous couple, who wed in December last year, posed in a group snap with friends as they mingled with guests at the annual event.

: 'Our country doesn't recognise Indigenous people enough': Jesinta recently called for equality during a passionate speech at InStyle event

'Supporting Aurora Ball tonight with my wife and some other blokes,' Buddy captioned the snap.

The outing comes days after David Jones ambassador Jesinta told InStyle Magazine, that Australia 'doesn't recognise Indigenous people enough.'

The magazine reports that the model made the passionate plea for equality while presenting at the InStyle Women of Style Awards, last month.

'Our country does not recognise Indigenous people enough, especially Indigenous women,' she said.

She added that she was thrilled that the awards honoured 'incredibly ambitious, talented, driven, smart, stylish and intelligent Indigenous women.'

Jesinta's mother-in-law Ursula is Indigenous Australian.

Her man: Jesinta is married to AFL star Buddy Franklin, 30, whose mother Ursula is Indigenous Australian

In late 2015, Jesinta said her future children with her man will be taught to appreciate all cultures.

'The reality is my children are going to be indigenous and we need to bring them up to have an appreciation of all cultures and the history and where it is that they come from and the adversity their culture has been through,' she said during an interview with the Today show.

'It's about raising awareness and being inclusive and paying respect to the past but also making sure that we focus on a positive future so we can move forward and live as a happy nation. I think it should be important for all Australians regardless of whether you're indigenous or not.'

She also promoted understanding between cultures while speaking about Australia Day.

'It's about raising awareness': In late 2015, Jesinta said her future children with her man will be taught to appreciate all cultures

'It's very sad for some people': She also promoted understanding between cultures when she spoke about Australia Day

Earlier this year, the model said Australia Day, which is celebrated annually on January 26, won't be 'real' until there are indigenous flags hung around the country.

She said of the national holiday: 'As a woman I have independence, I have rights, and I have freedom of speech.

'But I also think you can't go past the fact that Australia Day is also a very sad day for some people,' she added.

'You know, for some people it's called Invasion Day for indigenous people, so I would like to see moving forward Aboriginal flags or the indigenous flags around studios and that, to me, would be a sign of really moving forward and the real Australia Day.'

Earlier this year, Buddy took to Instagram to declare: '#ChangeTheDate.'
They announced their engagement in January this year after meeting on the set of Fantastic Four in 2014.

And Kate Mara, 34, and her fiance Jamie Bell, 31, looked more loved up than ever as they couldn't keep their hands off each other at the Dior Homme Menswear Spring/Summer 2018 show at Paris Fashion Week on Saturday.

The pair made quite the glamorous couple as they strolled hand in hand at the beautiful location of the Grand Palais.

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Happy: Kate Mara, 34, and her fiance Jamie Bell, 31, looked more loved up than ever as they couldn't keep their hands off each other at the Dior Homme Menswear Spring/Summer 2018 show on Saturday

Cuddling up: The pair made quite the glamorous couple as they strolled hand in hand at the beautiful location of the Grand Palais

Kate looked chic in a simple white dress, which nipped her in at her tiny waist and flared out prettily over her hips.

A sophisticated lace collar added a ladylike touch, while she flashed her slender pins with the short length of the skirt.

Kate slipped a pair of black pointed courts on her feet, which featured quirky bows, and sported a golden glow.

Chic: Kate looked chic in a simple white dress, which nipped her in at her tiny waist and flared out prettily over her hips

Gorgeous: A sophisticated lace collar added a ladylike touch, while she flashed her slender pins with the short length of the skirt

Cute kicks: Kate slipped a pair of black pointed courts on her feet, which featured quirky bows

She styled her auburn tresses into a messy, backcombed updo, and smudged smokey eye make-up around her eyes.

She carried her belongings in a black clutch, and wore earrings with an exposed back.

Jamie looked handsome in his sharply tailored suit, and layered a crisp white shirt underneath.

In an interview with People, Kate shared her tips for a successful relationship.

Vampy: She styled her auburn tresses into a messy, backcombed updo, and smudged smokey eye make-up around her eyes

Ladylike: She carried her belongings in a black clutch, and wore earrings with an exposed back

'You constantly have to shift things, and communicate. Like asking, "What's your deal with that show or with this movie," to make sure that you actually can see each other.'

Despite a wedding to plan, Kate has been busy filming four upcoming projects, which are set to hit theatres this year.

Later this month, she'll star in star in the based-on-a-true story drama, Megan Leavey.

She'll also appear in Mercy, Chappaquiddick and The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards.

Smartened up: Jamie looked handsome in his sharply tailored suit, and layered a crisp white shirt underneath

Happier than ever: In an interview with People, Kate shared her tips for a successful relationship

The key: 'You constantly have to shift things, and communicate. Like asking, "What's your deal with that show or with this movie," to make sure that you actually can see each other'

Grunge chic: Noomi Rapace was also in attendance, and looked edgy with pink hair and a long netted skirt with a biker jacket

Looking sharp: Rami Malek sported a tailored suit with white stitching
Karl Stefanovic and girlfriend Jasmine Yarbrough joined James Packer on his lavish yacht off the coast of Bora Bora last week.

And while all eyes were on the recently-divorced Channel Nine star, pictures showed billionaire James, 49, chatting with a mystery brunette also on board the vessel.

The Sunday Telegraph named the woman as Rose Ashton, a model signed to the same agency as Jasmine, and reported that she was 'invited' aboard by Karl himself.

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Identity revealed! The Sunday Telegraph claims the mystery brunette spotted with James Packer on board his luxury yacht last week is model, artist and actress Rose Ashton

The report claims that sources had 'said Ashton joined the party courtesy of an invitation via Today host Stefanovic'.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out for comment.

Rose and Jasmine are both on the books of Paddington model agency Scoop.

And it appears that the two stunners are familiar with one another, seen laughing as they rode jet-skis together as Karl looked on.

Did Karl invite Rose? It is claimed Karl Stefanovic (left) invited Rose on the holiday. Karl's girlfriend Jasmine Yarbrough (right) is signed to the same modelling agency as Rose

In addition to her work in front of the camera, Rose is a talented artist and her Instagram account shows many of her canvas creations. News Corp also reports that the beauty is 'a popular nude artist's model'.

Meanwhile, Daily Mail Australia can reveal Rose has tried her hand at acting with a role in the 2005 horror film Feed.

In fact, her performance in Feed - a film exploring the sexual fetish of 'feederism' - may raise eyebrows among James' elite social circles.

In the Australian B-movie, directed by Brett Leonard of The Lawnmower Man fame, she performs an explicit sex scene with a male co-star.

Sex scene: Rose's performance in 2005 horror film Feed (pictured) may raise eyebrows among James Packer's elite social circles

Racy: In the Australian B-movie, directed by Brett Leonard of The Lawnmower Man fame, she performs an explicit sex scene with a male co-star

FEED - ROSE'S RACY HORROR FILM Rose's performance in Feed - a 2005 horror film exploring the sexual fetish of 'feederism' - may raise eyebrows among James' elite social circles In the Australian B-movie, directed by Brett Leonard of The Lawnmower Man fame, she performs an explicit sex scene with a male co-star. In the scene, her temptress character Abbey straddles the actor's face on a sofa before throwing him to the ground and jumping on top of him. She later appears fully nude as the characters shower together afterwards. In another scene, which touches upon the theme of sexual 'feeding', Rose and her co-star share a passionate, albeit messy, kiss while eating ice cream. Feed currently has a 5.4 out of 10 rating on IMDB, and 40 per cent on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. Despite being a legitimate film, some of Feed's more explicit scenes have been hosted on adult websites. Advertisement

Talented: Rose plays the temptress Abbey in 2005 horror film Feed. Pictured on-set in 2004

Talent: Rose is a talented artist and her Instagram account shows many of her canvas creations

Last week, James and Rose were pictured sitting in close proximity as they relaxed on board the yacht.

Clad in a light blue shirt, James could be seen sitting and soaking up the idyllic views with Rose right beside him, looking pretty in a white shirt worn over a black bikini.

The casino magnate seems to have an interest in brunette models - having previously been married to two of them.

Stunner: Rose is pictured in the 2005 film, Feed

His marriage to Jodhi Meares lasted from 1999 until 2002, while his six-year union to Erica Baxter ended in 2013.

James split from pop diva fiancee Mariah Carey last September, after a whirlwind romance.

The billionaire son of Kerry Packer is close friends with Karl, who stayed at his Bondi apartment following his split from wife Cassandra Thorburn last year.
Blac Chyna was involved in a car accident in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles County on Saturday morning.

The mother to Rob Kardashian's daughter Dream was seen in the back of an ambulance after the incident.

According to witnesses on the scene, the Rob & Chyna star was driving her white Rolls-Royce at 2:30 am on Laurel Canyon Boulevard when she was rear-ended by a suspected drunk driver in a black vehicle which sustained substantial damage.

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Getting help: Blac Chyna was involved in a car accident in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles County on Saturday morning

Aid: The mother to Rob Kardashian's daughter Dream was seen in the back of an ambulance after the incident

Serious crash: According to witnesses on the scene, the Rob & Chyna star was driving her white Rolls-Royce at 2:30 am when she was rear-ended by a suspected drunk driver

The 29-year-old star could be seen with her short blonde hair in the back of an ambulance. She appeared to have a male friend with braids with her at the time.

The ex of rapper Tyga did not appear to be hurt and because she was not laying down on a stretcher, her injuries appeared to not be life threatening.

Paramedics looked at her for 45 minutes, it was claimed. The Keeping Up With The Kardashians guest star was released by the paramedics and was taken away in another vehicle.

Spotted: The star could be seen with her short blonde hair in the back of an ambulance. She appeared to have a male friend with braids with her at the time

Full alert: Here the fire department and police are looking at the cars which were at a light

Recovering from the scary incident: The pinup is seen here frowning and looking at her phone

Safety first: Paramedics took 45 minutes to look over the mother to Dream

The driver of the other vehicle was detained by the Los Angeles Police Department, a witness said. It is believed the driver was given a DUI test.

Chyna's white Rolls-Royce seemed to be not that impacted by the crash with little damage to the rear end.

The vehicle was seen stopped at a traffic light and was halfway in the crosswalk.

A pal: Her friend seemed to be waiting for her outside the ambulance

Lots of questions: The LAPD took the other driver away and was investigating the scene

More women: Two blonde ladies were seen at the scene looking into the ambulance

Behind her car was a black car that appeared to be a four-seater SUV. The model could have been a Nissan Cube.

The vehicle was severely damaged with its front end smashed up to the driver's front window.

It also looked like it may have had a flat tire.

Sobbing: A fireman looked at this woman on the sidewalk; it is not known which car she was in or if she was merely a bystander

The images: Behind Chyna's car was a black car that appeared to be a four-seater SUV. The model could have been a Nissan Cube

Not a party area: The crash took place in a residential area where there were no clubs

Is the car wrecked? While it appeared that Chyna's Rolls-Royce could have been driven home, the other car was most likely not in driving condition

While it appeared that Chyna's Rolls-Royce could have been driven home, the other car was most likely not in driving condition.

Chyna peeked out the back of the ambulance through a rectangular window.

She looked to be wearing a halter top as if she had just gone out for the evening. Her hair was still nicely styled.

She can't quit him: Rob was not seen at the scene of the crash on Saturday morning. The two have been on and off for over a year, but seem to be back together as they were spotted with their daughter Dream - born in November - at Disneyland last week

Their little girl: Together Rob and Chyna share daughter Dream; Chyna also has son Cairo with ex Tyga, who used to date Rob's sister Kylie Jenner

Her home in Calabasas is at least 30 minutes away from the crash site.

Chyna has several cars in addition to her Rolls. The star was often seen on Rob & Chyna in her Range Rover. She also bought a red Ferrari, which she has shown off on Instagram.

Chyna is not stranger to crashes.

In 2015 Chyna's friends got into an accident with her BMW and fled the scene. Chyna was at first accused of driving the car, but she insisted she had just lent the vehicle to some pals.

Later Paige Addison from the show Boss Nails told the LAPD she was the driver.

Party on: Chyna was seen with pal Star Divine earlier this week on Snapchat as they enjoyed a party; they were in Chyna's Rolls-Royce when they took this photo

Rob was not seen at the scene of the crash on Saturday morning.

The two have been on and off for over a year, but seem to be back together as they were spotted with their daughter Dream - born in November - at Disneyland earlier this week.

The two are believed to be filming season two of their hit series Rob & Chyna.

During season one they were seen bickering about jealousy and paternity as she was pregnant with their first child, Dream.

Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian are co-producers on the hit show.
The flamboyant judge is X Factor's longest standing matriarch and the perfect foil to Simon Cowell's dour nature.

But Sharon Osbourne needed to put a little pep in her step, after being spotted arriving at the Manchester auditions with her pillow on Saturday.

The talent show judge, 64, was spotted before and after the wardrobe department cast their spell over her, leaving a tired Mrs O looking a bit more Oh-mazing after.

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Pillow talk: Sharon Osbourne, 64, was spotted before and after the makeup department brightened up her look on Saturday, for the Manchester leg of the X Factor auditions

Leaving Manchester's Lowry Hotel - named after the Salford artist - Sharon clutched her pillow to her chest battling the early morning fatigue.

Dressed in loose fitting navy trousers and a loose fitting white blouse, Sharon's trademark electric red tresses were on full display as she hopped into a cab to whisk her to work.

Sharon was spotted again after the makeup department had worked their magic, perking up the already radiant judge with a touch of showbiz artistry.

Warpaint: Sharon looked ready to go in a fitted black power suit with wide lapels over a white shirt

Now dressed in a fitted black power suit with wide lapels over a white shirt, Sharon looked ready for business as she readied herself for a days auditions.

Adding black suit trousers with chunky black heels Sharon pushed her hair back with oversized Hollywood shades.

With matching elaborate silver butterfly rings adorning her fingers, Sharon contrasted her light pink lipstick against her eye catching flame locks.

Trouble maker: Sharon recently revealed how she ruined her niece's hen do when she hired an over-zealous stripper

The look comes days after cheeky Sharon revealed she ruined her niece's hen do with her brash antics.

The returning X Factor judge, told The Sun that she recruited a male stripper who took things a little too far with the bride-to-be, getting too close for comfort.

Her niece - who is the daughter of her previously estranged brother David Arden - was left traumatised by the whole scenario, she explained.

'[The stripper] stripped off totally naked. [Her niece] was sat at the table and he went behind her and put his penis on top of her head  she had long hair and he got her hair and he was wrapping it around his penis,' she recalled.

'Then he stopped that and stood right at the side of her and he said "Can you tell me what time it is?" But he had wrapped his penis around her wrist.

Happy couple: Sharon, pictured alongside her husband rock legend Ozzy Osbourne, admitted her niece was left in tears after coming into too close contact with the strippers 'pole'

Cheeky puff: Simon took a break from auditions to nip away for a cigarette

Hard graft: The stresses of judging meant the X Factor supremo needed a nicotine hit

'She started to cry so bad, she was sobbing and shaking, and I had to take her outside. I felt so bad. She is a nice girl  not like me. I felt terrible I ruined her whole party.'

Sharon - who is a mother of three, including daughters Aimee and Kelly - was announced to be returning to the X Factor judging panel earlier this week, alongside precisely the same co-judges as last year.

She was seen with Nicole Scherzinger, Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell as the quartet arrived at the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool for the first round of the judges auditions alongside last Tuesday.

Menthol? Simon took a break from smoking to star at his cigarette and have a chat with show runners

Smiles: Simon seemed in jollier spirits after his tobacco hit and went back to judging

The A Team: Sharon is returning to X Factor alongside judges Nicole Scherzinger, Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell

Jeans & Sheux: Simon went for the bootcut option and added a pair of pointed Cuban heels

Relaxed: Simon seemed relaxed after a long days worth of filming - he even slipped into his comfy jeans post-auditions

On his way: Simon jumped into his car and was chauffeured away




She's a fashion favorite on the red carpet.

But on Saturday, Charlize Theron, 41, was decidedly low-key in a hoodie and sunglasses as she jetted out of LAX with her daughter August.

The Academy Award winner couldn't hide her glee during her arrival at the airport, possibly a result of her rumored new romance with model and ex of Halle Berry Gabriel Aubry.

Flying under the radar: Charlize Theron was no fuss while flying out of LAX with her daughter August on Saturday where the South African beauty kept simple in a hoodie and sunglasses

The frequent flyer looked ready to go as she passed through the TSA Pre checkpoint clad in a grey Ragdoll LA hoodie and easy black pants with her documents in hand.

Even indoors, the South African stunner tried to stay incognito by wearing a pair of dark aviator sunglasses.

She carried an ecru purse with her which looked large enough to carry any in-flight essentials.

Happy camper! Before entering the airport and going undercover, the Aeon Flux actress appeared glowing with glee as she hopped from her dark SUV

Frequent flyer! The Mad Max: Fury Road star looked ready to go as she passed through the TSA Pre checkpoint with her documents in hand

Before entering the airport and going undercover, the Aeon Flux actress appeared glowing with glee as she hopped from her dark SUV.

The mother-of-two's bright mood might be because the star has a new love in her life.

It's been rumored the Atomic Blonde is dating model Gabriel Aubry, 40, who she was seen lunching besides their kids in Santa Monica a little over a week ago.

New flame? The Academy Award winner was seen lunching with Halle Berry's ex Gabriel Aubry (above 2015) a little over a week ago. It's rumored that the French-Canadian model and Theron are 'dating' with a source telling OK! Magazine the relationship is 'still [in] the early days'

According to OK! Magazine, the ex of Halle Berry and Mad Max: Fury Road actress are 'still the early days so they want to keep things discreet, but they have a genuine connection and obviously a huge attraction.'

The pair reportedly met and became friends by crossing paths at their children's school in LA.

Gabriel and Halle began dating in 2005 after meeting each other on the set of a Versace photo shoot.

Bad breakup: Gabriel and Halle began dating in 2005 after meeting each other on the set of a Versace photo shoot and later endured a bitter custody battle over daughter Nahla. Above the duo are seen in 2009

After their split in 2010 the pair faced off in a bitter custody battle over daughter Nahla, eventually reaching an agreement in late 2012.

Charlize has had several high-profile romances as well. She dated Trapped costar Stewart Townsend from 2002 to 2010 and was briefly with long time friend Sean Penn in 2014 and 2015.

The Prometheus actress has two children, a boy and a girl, who she adopted in March 2012 and July 2015 respectively.
She always appears to be the picture of confidence with her straight-talking no-nonsense style.

But Charlotte Crosby discussed how she suffers from body insecurities and won't wear low-cut outfits after she was targeted by trolls who made her feel 'ugly', according to The Sun.

The reality star, 27, claimed she was 'body shamed' online because of her 'uniboob', where her breasts are merged at the centre as a result of a rare condition symmastia.

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Body confidence: Charlotte Crosby (pictured at The Style Summer Party in May 2017) no longer wears low-cut dresses after she was targeted online by trolls because of her uniboob

Recalling the incident in her new autobiography Brand New Me - as obtained by the newspaper - she wrote: 'It didn't bother me until I tweeted a picture of me in a low-cut dress and loads of people started saying, "Ewww, what has she done to her boobs? They are weird."

'So I got a bit of a complex and now I can't even wear V-necks.'

Despite her knock to her body confidence, she is very loved-up with Ex On The Beach hunk Stephen Bear, also 27.

Loved up: Despite her lacy of body confidence, she is madly in love with her beau Stephen Bear

Stephen was spotted out in Manchester on Saturday night sporting a camouflage bomber and a red neck tie.

The reality star stepped out in a black T-shirt with a line of roses around the bottom, which he teamed with a pair of ripped blue jeans.

Stephen's bomber featured an embroidered butterfly and a bright orange lining.

The Ex on the Beach star completed his look with a pair of leopard print trainers.

Edgy: Stephen Bear stepped out in a camouflage bomber jacket and a red necktie as he partied in Manchester on Saturday night

Working guy: The reality star stepped out in a black T-shirt with a line of roses around the bottom, which he teamed with a pair of ripped blue jeans

Rawr: The Ex on the Beach star completed his look with a pair of leopard print trainers

The couple - who fell madly in love on the set of their reality show Just Tattoo Of Us - are now planning to take their relationship up a notch and move in together.

They went public with their romance in February and have been dating for five blissful months.

The Geordie Shore star confessed she knew he was Mr Right when they were enjoying a sun-soaked holiday abroad in Barcelona.

The big reveal: The Just The Tattoo Of Us starlet made her beau wait more than a week for sex despite really hitting it off with him when she first met him

Cute couple: The pair have been all over each other in recent times

And although Charlotte was instantly head-over-heels for the Celebrity Big Brother winner from the moment she met him, the star revealed she made him wait more than a week before inviting him into the bedroom.

Completely smitten with each other, they are already planning on getting engaged and starting a family together.

But the star revealed she was terrified she may not be able to have kids after she suffered from a ectopic pregnancy, where a fertilised egg implants outside the womb, last April.

Completely smitten! The lovebirds are planning to have a family together and get engaged, taking their first step to move in together soon

Charlotte, at the time in a relationship with her former flame and Geordie Shore co-star Gary Beadle, was rushed to hospital in severe pain.

While she survived, the doctor told her she could have died as a result of the pregnancy complication.

Describing the traumatic moment, she wrote: 'The doctor told me I could have died, which I still can't get my head around, and I was scared I might not be able to have kids.'
Madonna's usually not one to have a hair out of place.

But the 58-year-old starlet appeared atypically frazzled on Saturday when a piece of her platinum blonde tresses decided to go rogue and keep separate from the rest of the pack.

The Rebel Heart talent's hairdressing faux pas happened as she was leaving The Kabbalah Centre in New York with her daughter.

One of those days! Madonna looked uncharacteristically frazzled while spotted leaving New York's Kabbalah Centre with her daughter Saturday

Forgetting some Blonde Ambition? Not usually one to have a strand out of place, part of the 58-year-old artist's blonde locks appeared to have a mind of its own as the staw carried her daughter in her arms

Madonna oozed Blonde Ambition as she left the spiritual center with one of her adopted twin daughters Esther and Stella.

While her platinum tresses looked sharp, an awkward strand of too-long hair seemed to hang down her back while the pop star carried her little girl in her arms.

It was unclear if the lone strand was a rouge extension or simply the result of a messy mop.

Ciconne classic! The rest of the Rebel Heart songstress's look was timeless, seen donning a denim jacket and boat leg trousers with white Adidas kicks

Madonna - full name Madonna Louise Ciccone - didn't seem to notice her asymmetrical tresses though.

The rest of the Vogue songstress's look was timeless, seen donning a denim jacket and boat leg trousers with white Adidas kicks.

Her daughter was dressed for the summer sun, looking sweet as can be in a black and white dress with stripes.

Hair's to you! The typically polished singer - full name Madonna Louise Ciccone - didn't seem to notice her asymmetrical tresses. Above the star shows off a more luxe coif on stage in 2008

While the Dick Tracy actress spent time in her native New York, it's reported the seven-time Grammy winner is looking to snag a 5million mansion in Lisbon, Portugal.

Her interest across the Atlantic could stem from the fact the Like A Virgin songstress is rumored to be dating 32-year-old Portuguese model Kevin Sampaio.

The pair - who have a 27 year age difference - were seen together in the Portuguese capital Lisbon last month and she is said to have enrolled son David Banda in a local youth club while also looking at schools for newly adopted twins Stella and Esther.
Guzman lawyer Jose Refugio Rodriguez, pictured in October 2016, says that the Netflix and Univision TV series "El Chapo" is defamatory to Guzman's image, as it presents him as a criminal

Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman plans to sue Netflix and Univision for allegedly defaming him with a TV series about his life, one of his lawyers said Thursday.

The series, "El Chapo" -- which premiered in April -- presents Guzman as a "heartless criminal," damaging his image just as he faces trial in US federal court next year, said lawyer Jose Refugio Rodriguez.

"Things are happening (in the series) that do not correspond to reality, despite the fact that there is no conviction confirming those events. That represents a grave violation of (Guzman's) right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty," he told Mexican radio network Formula.

It is not the first time Guzman, who is accused of running one of the world's biggest drug empires, has threatened to sue over the series.

Last year, another of his lawyers threatened to sue Netflix and Univision because the American streaming giant and Spanish-language broadcaster had not paid for the rights to his story.

The series, which stars Mexican actor Marco de la O, went ahead anyway.

Refugio said he had not yet discussed the matter with Guzman because his client is being kept "incommunicado" in a New York jail.

The lawyer said he had not decided whether to file the lawsuit in the United States or Mexico.

Guzman, 60, is being represented by two public defenders in the US court, which has not authorized his Mexican legal team to defend him.

"El Chapo," the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, is being held in solitary confinement after twice escaping from prison in Mexico.

Ironically, it was Guzman's desire to see his life story on screen that led to his recapture, according to Mexican authorities.

He was rearrested in January 2016 after a high-profile manhunt that ended with Hollywood star Sean Penn and US-Mexican actress Kate del Castillo inadvertently leading the authorities to his hideout.

Del Castillo said the drug boss agreed to the meeting because he wanted to discuss making a film about his life.
Montreal Police guard the front of the four storey building in Montreal on June 21, 2017, where Amor Ftouhi, who is suspected of stabbing a Michigan airport police officer, lived before traveling to the US earlier this month

The man arrested for stabbing a police officer in the neck at a Michigan airport -- in what has been classified as a terror incident -- had tried but failed to buy a gun, officials said Thursday.

Amor Ftouhi, 49, the Canadian man accused in Wednesday's attack, was charged with one count of committing an act of violence at an airport. He was to remain in jail pending a bond hearing next week.

Investigators are probing the incident at the Bishop International Airport in Flint as an act of terrorism, coming amid a wave of jihadist-inspired attacks in Europe.

In tracing Ftouhi's steps, investigators discovered that he bought the knife he used in the attack after crossing into the US on June 16, and had also attempted to buy a firearm, FBI Special Agent David Gelios told a news conference.

"We have information that Ftouhi attempted to buy a gun, and was unsuccessful in that attempt in the United States," said Gelios, refusing to elaborate further due to the ongoing investigation.

Ftouhi yelled "Allahu Akbar" -- "God is greatest" in Arabic -- before stabbing a police officer in the neck, and then exclaimed "Allah" several more times, according to court documents.

"He further exclaimed something similar to, 'You have killed people in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are all going to die,'" FBI Special Agent Thomas Sondgeroth said in an affidavit.

At a federal court hearing in Flint on Wednesday night, the government described Ftouhi as a Canadian and Tunisian citizen who has lived in Canada for 10 years. A married father of three children, he worked intermittently as a truck driver.

The injured officer, Lieutenant Jeff Neville, was in stable condition and improving, authorities said.

Ftouhi could face additional charges as the investigation proceeds.
North Korea has broken its silence over the death of US student Otto Warmbier, denying he was tortured while in Pyongyang's custody, and lashing out at an American "smear campaign"

North Korea on Friday accused the US of waging a "smear campaign" over the death of a student who was sent back home in a coma, denying he was tortured or abused.

President Donald Trump has slammed the treatment of 22-year-old American Otto Warmbier, who spent more than a year in detention in the secretive state, as "a total disgrace".

"The smear campaign against (North Korea) staged in the US compels us to make firm determination that... we should further sharpen the blade of law", the foreign ministry spokesman said according to state media.

"The US should ponder over the consequences to be entailed from its reckless and rash act," he said in an apparent warning over the fate of three other US citizens currently being held in the country.

The spokesman said that Warmbier was provided with proper medical treatment, and questioned why he died so soon after returning to the US.

Anger has grown in the US over the death of Warmbier, who passed away days after being medically evacuated to the US

"The fact that Warmbier died suddenly in less than a week just after his return to the US in his normal state of health indicators is a mystery to us as well," he said.

Warmbier had been on a tourist trip to North Korea when he was detained and sentenced to hard labour early last year for allegedly stealing a political poster from a North Korean hotel.

Doctors said the University of Virginia student had suffered severe brain damage while in North Korean detention. He died on Monday at a Cincinnati hospital and was buried on Thursday. His family declined an autopsy.

- 'Heart nearly stopped'

The foreign ministry official denied that Warmbier was abused while in custody, condemning "groundless public opinion now circulating in the US that he died of torture and beating during his reform through labour."

Friends, family and neighbours turned out for Otto Warmbier's funeral in his hometown this week

He said that North Korean medics had "brought him back alive" after his "heart was nearly stopped" but did not give any further details as to why he fell ill.

The US doctors had also said that Warmbier's severe brain injury was most likely -- given his young age -- to have been caused by cardiopulmonary arrest cutting the blood supply to the brain.

In the first official reaction to his death, a spokesman for the National Reconciliation Council earlier Friday said that Warmbier was treated according to "international standards".

"Those who have absolutely no idea about how well we treated Warmbier under humanitarian conditions dare to utter 'mistreatment' and 'torture'," he said according to the official KCNA news agency.

Warmbier's fate has sparked strong condemnation in Washington, and inflamed already high tensions stoked by Pyongyang's atomic tests and missile launches.

On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said that US patience with Pyongyang was running out.

"To see a young man go over there healthy and, (after) a minor act of mischief, come home dead basically... this goes beyond any kind of understanding of law and order, of humanity, of responsibility toward any human being," he said.

The regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un insisted that it had looked after Warmbier according to "international standards"

The North's foreign ministry spokesman put the blame for Warmbier's death on the previous US administration of Barack Obama which it said had "not even once" made an official request for his release.

"Warmbier is a victim of policy of 'strategic patience' of Obama who was engrossed in utmost hostility" against North Korea and refused to hold any dialogue, he said.

The spokesman said that Warmbier was released on humanitarian grounds after repeated requests from the current administration but that it had been repaid with criticism that represented a "frontal challenge."
The US-led coalition insists it takes every measure to avoid hitting civilians in Syria, including by aborting missile strikes at the last moment if a civilian unexpectedly wanders into the target zone

US-led coalition air strikes on two Syrian provinces targeting jihadists have killed 472 civilians over the past month, a monitor said Friday, more than double a previous 30-day toll.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the period between May 23 and June 23 saw the highest civilian death toll in coalition raids for a single month since they began on September 23, 2014.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said 222 civilians, including 84 children, were killed in the largely Islamic State group-held province of Deir Ezzor.

Another 250 civilians, including 53 children, were killed in Raqa province, where US-backed forces are trying to oust IS jihadists from their bastion Raqa city.

He told AFP that the new deaths brought the overall civilian toll from the coalition's campaign to 1,953, including 456 children and 333 women.

The previous deadliest 30-day period was between April 23 and May 23 this year that cost 225 civilian lives.

The coalition insists it takes every measure to avoid hitting civilians, including by aborting missile strikes at the last moment if a civilian unexpectedly wanders into the target zone.

A statement emailed to AFP by the international alliance said its forces "work diligently and deliberately to be precise" in their air strikes.

"Our goal is always for zero civilian casualties," the statement said.

In its most recent report on civilian casualties, released June 2, the coalition said it had "unintentionally killed" 484 civilians in both Iraq and Syria.

But observers say the number is much higher.

Last month, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said President Donald Trump had instructed the Pentagon to "annihilate" IS in Syria in a bid to prevent foreign fighters from returning home.

Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to quickly defeat IS, signed an executive order soon after taking office giving his generals 30 days to come up with a revised plan to wipe the jihadists out.

The review resulted in the new "annihilation campaign" and saw commanders gain greater autonomy to make battlefield decisions.

A total of more than 320,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict erupted in 2011 with anti-government protests, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
An Indian village has been unofficially renamed 'Trump Village' ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to Washington

A rural Indian settlement with little electricity or running water renamed itself "Trump Village" on Friday in an unusual gesture to the American president ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to Washington.

A huge billboard declaring "Welcome to Trump Village" in Hindi and English, accompanied with a beaming portrait of the US president, was unveiled in the tiny hamlet officially known as Marora, in the largely agriculture northern state of Haryana.

Large posters of Trump adorned with marigold flowers were placed throughout the village of mainly mud-brick houses for a renaming ceremony, which was presided over by village heads and an Indian charity.

But despite the bold lettering greeting visitors at the arched village gateway, the name change is not official or sanctioned by the government.

The symbolic gesture comes just days before Modi's first meeting with Trump this weekend at the White House.

The water and sanitation group Sulabh, which has been installing toilets in the impoverished settlement, suggested the name change to the local council.

Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak said the idea sprang to mind during a recent visit to the US.

"I was speaking there and I thought why not in the name of Trump?" Pathak told AFP, adding other villages in the region had also been renamed in recent years.

Aziz Ahmed, a villager, said he was sure the new name would stick even without official approval.

"They will only call it Trump Village. Everyone in the village is very happy about it," he told AFP.

Children at the village waved placards of Modi and Trump and a huge banner of the US president describing his Indian counterpart as "very energetic".

The leaders of the world's two-largest democracies exchanged pleasantries in a phone call in January when Trump invited Modi to the White House.

Residents pass through the gate of an Indian village unofficially renamed 'Trump Village' in an unusual gesture to the US president

Ties between New Delhi and Washington warmed during the Obama years as India sought greater foreign investment and trade deals with Western nations.

During his election campaign, Trump courted Indian-American voters and even released a campaign advertisement in Hindi.

There have been other at times bizarre overtures from India toward Trump and the US.

A small Hindu group marked the occasion of Trump's 71st birthday last week by feeding a giant poster of the president slices of cake in the heart of New Delhi.
About 1.3 million people have fled their homes to escape the deadly violence in the DR Congo's central Kasai region, according to UN figures

The UN Human Rights Council on Friday decided to send a group of experts to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help investigate an explosion of deadly violence in the Kasai region.

A council resolution called on the UN rights office to dispatch a team of international experts to help Kinshasa investigate gross rights violations in the region, including extrajudicial killings, torture, rape and the use of child soldiers.

More than 3,300 people have been killed in eight months of spiralling unrest in the central Kasai region, the papal envoy to the country said earlier this week.

About 1.3 million people have fled their homes, according to UN figures.

The resolution adopted by the 47-member council fell short of a call from the UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein for a fully-fledged "independent, international investigation" following "horrific attacks" in the region.

The European Union, supported by the United States and others, had initially presented a draft resolution urging such an international probe.

But faced with harsh opposition from Kinshasa the western countries opted for a compromise, withdrawing their resolution and joining one presented by Tunisia on behalf of a group of African countries.

That text calls for the team of international experts, including ones from the region, "to collect and preserve information to determine the facts and circumstances... in cooperation with the (DRC) government".

- Crucial compromise -

The violence in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo erupted in September

The experts must forward their conclusions to the DRC authorities, the resolution says, stressing that "the perpetrators of deplorable crimes are all accountable to the judicial authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo".

It calls on Zeid to present a comprehensive report on the team's findings in the council's main annual session in March next year.

Tunisian representative Walid Doudech told the council the final text had been subject to "intense negotiations" and thanked the EU for enabling the "crucial compromise".

A Western diplomat close to the negotiations said the EU had preferred finding a compromise to pushing through an investigation sure to be boycotted by Kinshasa.

The negotiations "were not easy. But it was better to find a balanced solution with the participation of the country," the diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A camp has been set up in the Democratic Republic of Congo for people fleeing conflict in the central Kasai region

DRC ambassador Zenon Mukongo Ngay told the council his government would "accommodate the investigative team on its soil," but stressed the experts would only provide "technical and logistic support" and that "the Congolese judiciary will maintain the leadership in the investigation".

The violence in the Kasai provinces erupted in September when security forces moved in against followers of a tribal chieftain Kamwina Nsapu -- who had been killed a month earlier -- rebelling against the increasing authority of the central government.

Earlier this week, Zeid accused Congolese authorities of creating and arming a militia that has carried out "horrific attacks" on civilians, including mutilating babies and toddlers and slicing open pregnant women.

He also accused the Kamwina Nsapu rebels of committing serious abuses, including targeted killings and using child soldiers as young as seven.
Pakistani medic volunteers move the body of a victim at the site of a powerful explosion that targeted a police vehicle in Quetta

At least 11 people were killed and 24 wounded on Friday when twin blasts tore through a market crowded with shoppers preparing for the Eid holidays in a mainly Shiite area of Pakistan's tribal belt.

The first blast came during rush hour in the market in Parachinar, capital of Kurram tribal district, local official Nasrullah Khan told AFP.

"When people rushed to the site... to rescue the wounded, a second blast took place," he said. A second official confirmed the explosions and toll.

"We fear that the death toll will increase," Khan said, adding that no further details were available yet.

The twin attacks followed a bombing earlier in the day outside the office of the police chief in southwestern Quetta, capital of the insurgency-wracked Balochistan province, that killed at least 13 people.

That attack was claimed by both the Islamic State and an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban.

The blasts in Parachinar came on the final Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan, just days ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, one of Islam's holiest festivals.

The third major attack to rock Parachinar this year, the blasts struck hours before iftar, when the streets are often crowded with people shopping for food to break their fast with the evening Ramadan meal.

Kurram is one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal districts which are governed according to local laws and customs.

The district is known for sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shiites, who make up roughly 20 percent of Pakistan's population of 200 million.
Ahmad al-Lahham (C) says tales of courage and conquest have become more popular since the Syria war broke out in 2011

With a slender sword in one hand and an antique storybook in the other, Ahmad al-Lahham captivates a packed Damascus coffeehouse with tales of ancient kingdoms and brave conquerers.

Every evening, the 58-year-old heads to the cosy Nawfara cafe in the Old City of Syria's war-torn capital to perform as a traditional Arabic storyteller or "hakawati".

He sheds his furniture maker's outfit and dons a bright red Ottoman-style cap, or tarboosh, reading out handwritten stories from the curling, yellowing pages of an old book.

"This occupation is steadily going extinct. I am the only hakawati left in the Old City," he says. "If I stop, there will be no storytellers left."

Lahham, who also goes by the stage name "Abu Sami", settles into an ornately-carved wooden chair on a raised platform overlooking the cafe, where young men sip tea and smoke on bubbling water pipes.

Clearing his throat, he opens with a well-known tale of 13th-century ruler Baibars before moving on to the heroic antics of Antarah Ibn Shaddad, a pre-Islamic knight.

Many listeners in the cafe stay until the early hours before fasting resumes at dawn

He says such tales of courage and conquest have become much more popular, at the expense of traditional poems or romantic stories, since Syria's war erupted in 2011.

"We went through a period where we wouldn't come out much, but the owner of this coffee shop insisted that hakawatis continue to tell stories -- even if he and I were the only ones left," Lahham says.

"But today, as you can see, the situation is much better, and dozens of people wait for me every night."

- 'We come to forget' -

The storytelling nights usually happen once a week but during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends this weekend, the show is daily.

Listeners pack the cafe in the shadow of the famed Ummayad mosque late in the evening after breaking their fast.

Many stay until the early hours of the morning to enjoy some sustenance before the fast resumes at dawn.

People at the Nawfara cafe say the storytelling nights help them escape the war

Damascus residents have grown accustomed to regular rocket and mortar fire from rebel-held districts on the edges of the capital, with occasional rounds even reaching the Old City.

But those fronts have calmed since a May deal that saw opposition fighters withdraw from several neighbourhoods, along with a separate agreement on "de-escalation" zones -- including one in a rebel stronghold just outside the capital.

Even so, the war is never far away, and listeners at Nawfara say the hakawati nights help them escape it, even if just for a few hours.

"We're living every little part of the crisis everywhere we go. Every media outlet broadcasts tragedies. So we come to the coffee shops to forget -- the hakawati's tales help us do that," 49-year-old Mohammad Duyub says.

A regular at Nawfara for over 20 years, he occupies a prime seat in the corner of the cafe, a ribbon of smoke curling up from his water pipe as he watches the storyteller.

"His performance takes us back to the past to escape the reality we're living," he says. "The hakawati gives us space to breathe."

- 'Preserving the tradition' -

Mohammad Jaafar, 57, closes his eyes and focuses on Abu Sami's booming voice.

"Since Ramadan started, I've made sure to follow the story of Sultan Baibars because it's exciting and beautiful. It reminds us of the powerful history that we're proud of -- compared to our current situation," he says.

Nawfara's wood-panelled walls and ceiling are decorated with Damascene mosaics which, its owner says, date back to the 17th century.

One wall features rows of framed photographs of historical figures who feature in Abu Sami's tales -- as well as a simple portrait of an elderly man in a red tarboosh and white robe.

The Arabic caption reads: "Abdelhamid al-Hawari, the first hakawati of Damascus, born 1885."

But the art of public storytelling is on the decline, says Wassim Abdalhay.

The 32-year-old was once a full-time hakawati but financial woes forced him to take a day job at a local power station.

During Ramadan, he performs each evening at a luxurious downtown restaurant under the stage name Abu Shadi, sporting loose black pants, a white cap and his own thick storybook.

"Before the crisis, there was a huge group of us who would travel to Gulf countries and perform Damascene folklore. But because of the situation, we weren't able to travel -- so we focused on preserving the tradition here," Abdalhay tells AFP.

"We're currently suffering a hakawati shortage. I could count those that are left in the country on one hand."
The excitement at the welcome press conference gave the pandas a taste of what might be to come in their new home

Germany had its first taste of panda mania on Saturday as two furry ambassadors arrived from China to begin a new life as stars of Berlin's premier zoo.

The pair, named Meng Meng and Jiao Qing, jetted in on a special Lufthansa cargo plane, accompanied by two Chinese panda specialists, the Berlin Zoo's chief vet and a tonne of bamboo.

A crowd of journalists and officials on hand to welcome the VIPs let out an "ooooh" as Meng Meng raised a paw after flight LH8415 made an especially gentle touchdown at Schoenefeld airport.

The black and white pair, clearly groggy after the 12 hour 20 minute flight from Chengdu in southern China, lay resting in their travelling crates during the welcome ceremony in a hangar.

Until, that is, the Chinese ambassador to Berlin got a little too close, prompting Jiao Ling, the male, to stand up, roar and beat his paws against the plexiglass sides of the crate.

"From this evening, their German and Chinese handlers will stay with them... we'll do everything to help them calm down so they have a good night, eat well and rehydrate themselves," Berlin Zoo director Andreas Knieriem told AFP.

After just over a week's acclimatisation, the pair will be unveiled to the public by no less than Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping, most likely two days before the G20 summit of world leaders hosted by Germany.

The pandas were flown in on a special cargo flight from China

Famed for its "panda diplomacy", China has dispatched its national treasure to only about a dozen countries as a symbol of close relations.

Export giants Germany and China have nurtured increasingly close economic ties, and over the last year the have also taken on the leading role in championing free trade as Donald Trump shifts the US away from market liberalisation with his "America First" push.

"The Chinese see the pandas as Chinese brand ambassadors. China obviously has an image problem in Europe and giving pandas is a very smart and easy way to win hearts," said Bernhard Bartsch from the Bertelsmann Foundation think tank in Berlin.

The "pandas will lend a very positive spin in German media to the visit by Xi Jinping in July," he added.

- Bamboo snacks, absorbent mats -

The excitement over the two bears was clear as the zoo published a daily update on its blog in the run-up to their arrival.

The flight to Germany was carefully prepared, with "bamboo snacks" to keep the pandas happy and absorbent mats to ensure the transport box stayed dry and odourless.

The Berlin Zoo built a special enclosure for the two pandas it is receiving from China just a few days before a G20 summit in Germany

And their new home at Berlin's zoo will measure about 5,500 square metres (59,000 square feet) and comes fitted with a wooded climbing area and an artificial stream.

Meng Meng means "dream" in Chinese, while Jiao Qing translates as "darling", though the Chinese characters are a composite of "tender" and "festive" or "celebration".

But the honour of hosting them does not come cheap.

The zoo will pay $15 million (13.4 million euros) for a 15-year contract to host them, with most of the money going towards a conservation and breeding research programme in China.

And the pandas' main dish -- bamboo -- will cost tens of thousands of euros each year.

The zoo will probably look to offset part of its outlays through panda-themed merchandising.

Ultimately, it hopes that the pair will produce babies, even if experts have warned that panda reproduction is a fine art.

Panda expert Jerome Pouille said that "the female is only receptive to a male for about 24 to 48 hours a year", adding that there was little chance of a cub within the first three years.

China has previously given three pandas to Germany, but the last one, 34-year-old Bao Bao, died in Berlin in 2012, having become the oldest male panda in the world.

About 1,864 pandas remain in the wild in China, up from around 1,000 in the late 1970s, according to the environmental group WWF.

Just over 400 pandas live in zoos around the world, in conservation projects set up with Beijing.
Some 40 homes in the village of Xinmo were swallowed by huge boulders after the side of a mountain collapsed, blocking a two kilometre (one mile) stretch of river

Chinese authorities launched a frantic search for around 100 people feared buried after a landslide smashed through a mountain village in southwest Sichuan province on Saturday, local authorities said.

Some 40 homes in the village of Xinmo were swallowed by huge boulders after the side of a mountain collapsed, blocking a two kilometre (one mile) stretch of river, according to a statement and images released by the Maoxian government.

Rescuers used ropes to move a massive rock while dozens of others scoured the mountain for survivors.

Bulldozers and heavy diggers were also deployed to remove boulders, the images showed. Medics were seen treating a woman on a road.

"There are several tonnes of rock," local police captain Chen Tiebo told the state broadcaster CCTV.

Chen said the heavy rains that hit the region in recent days had triggered the landslide.

"It's a seismic area here. There's not a lot of vegetation," Chen said.

Trees can help absorb excess rain and prevent landslides.

Some 500 people were taking part in rescue efforts, according to CCTV.

An emergency response "to the first class catastrophic geological disaster" is under way, the local government's statement said, adding that the full extent of the landslide was at yet unclear.

A report from the state news agency Xinhua said that the landslide came from a high part of a mountain in the Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba had collapsed.

The landslide struck the village at around 0600 am local time (2200 GMT).

Landslides are a frequent danger in rural and mountainous parts of China, particularly at times of heavy rains.

At least 12 people were killed in January when a landslide crushed a hotel in central Hubei province.

In October landslides battered eastern China in the wake of torrential rains brought by Typhoon Megi, causing widespread damage and killing at least eight.

More than 70 were killed by a landslide in the southern commercial hub of Shenzhen in December 2015, caused by the improper storage of waste.
Thailand's new king, 64-year-old Maha Vajiralongkorn, took the throne late last year but has yet to achieve the same popularity as his father

Thai authorities on Saturday detained an activist attempting to mark the 1932 revolution that ended absolute monarchy, police said, a historical event that has become increasingly taboo under an ultra-royalist junta.

The bloodless revolution on June 24, 1932 launched parliamentary democracy in Thailand, but the decades since have been punctuated by frequent military coups, including the putsch that ushered in the current army-led government.

In recent years small groups of democracy activists have gathered each anniversary to lay flowers on a small bronze plaque marking the spot where revolutionaries proclaimed the end of absolute monarchy in a fiery speech lambasting the king.

But the 30-inch plaque was mysteriously removed from Bangkok's Royal Plaza this April and replaced with a new marker bearing a royalist message.

Authorities have not offered an explanation for the incident and earlier this month police banned people from gathering around the memorial on the revolution's anniversary.

On Saturday an activist, Ekachai Hongkangwan, was taken to a Bangkok military base for "attitude adjustment" after he tried to lay a replica of the original plaque on top of the new one, said Phanurat Lukboon, deputy Metropolitan Police commissioner.

"He is now being held at the 11th army circle," the officer told AFP, referring to an army barracks.

The drama around the democracy plaque comes as royalist voices are ascendant in Thailand, which is under the grip of a junta that grabbed power in 2014.

Use of the draconian royal defamation law has surged under their rule, with offenders handed decades-long jail sentences for criticism often posted on social media.

Earlier this month a Thai man was sentenced to 35 years in prison for Facebook posts deemed insulting to the royal family.

It is also a tense time for Thailand's monarchy, which underwent its first succession in 70 years after the passing of beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej last October.

His son, 64-year-old Maha Vajiralongkorn, took the throne late last year but has yet to achieve the same popularity as his father.

All Thailand-based media must heavily self-censor when reporting on the monarchy to avoid violating the lese majeste law.
Over the decades since Korean peninsula was divided, dozens of North Korean soldiers have fled to the South through the Demilitarised Zone, which extends for two kilometers either side of the actual border

A North Korean soldier defected to the South after crossing the heavily fortified border, a defence ministry spokesman said on Saturday, the second soldier to defect this month.

"A North Korean soldier defected to one of our Guard Posts at around 9:30 p.m. on Friday at the middle section of the border," the spokesman said, according to a report by the Yonhap news agency.

"He has been taken into custody for questioning," he added

There was no exchange of fire between the two sides when the North Korean soldier, a private, smuggled himself across the border to the south, the Yonhap report said.

His defection came after another North Korean soldier walked across the tense border on June 13.

On June 18, a North Korean civilian swam across a river to defect to the South, with styrofoam pieces strapped to both shoulders to stay afloat.

More than 30,000 North Korean civilians have fled their homeland with most of them crossing the porous frontier with neighbouring China

Early this month, two of four crew members of a North Korean fishing boat which drifted to the South refused to return home. They were allowed resettle.

Over the decades since the peninsula was divided, dozens of North Korean soldiers have fled to the South through the Demilitarised Zone, which extends for two kilometers either side of the actual border.

A North Korean soldier defected to the South in September last year, and a teenage North Korean soldier defected in June 2015.

In 2012 a North Korean soldier walked unchecked through rows of electrified fencing and surveillance cameras, prompting Seoul to sack three field commanders for a security lapse.

More than 30,000 North Korean civilians have fled their homeland but it is very rare for them to cross the closely guarded inter-Korean border, which is fortified with minefields and barbed wire.

Most flee across the porous frontier with neighbouring China.
Soldiers gather for security prepartions in Denpasar on Indonesia's resort island of Bali, on June 23, 2017, ahead of a visit by former US president Barack Obama

Barack Obama kicked off a 10-day family holiday in Indonesia that will take in Bali and Jakarta, the city where he spent part of his childhood, officials said on Saturday.

The casually dressed former president arrived in the resort island of Bali with his wife Michelle and their two daughters, a local military commander said.

"They arrived late last night and went straight to the hotel in Ubud," a local military commander, I Gede Widiyana, told AFP.

Obama woke up early and did some exercise in the lush green riverside resort, Widiyana said, but it was not known how the family would spend their time in the quiet and artsy Ubud area.

Next week, the family is slated to depart for Yogyakarta, where they are expected to visit ancient Borobudur temple. They will spend two days there before flying to Jakarta.

Obama spent four years until 1970 as a boy in the then sleepy capital of Indonesia after his divorced mother married an Indonesian.

Many Indonesians felt a strong bond with Obama because of his exposure to Indonesia and its culture, even making him a two-metre (six-foot) bronze statue that was placed in his former school.

The statue of "Little Barry" -- as Obama was known to his Indonesian school friends -- depicts the boy Obama dressed in shorts and a T-shirt with a butterfly perched on his hand.

Indonesia's foreign ministry said Obama's visit to holiday in Indonesia came after several invitations from President Joko Widodo.

While in the capital, Obama will meet Widodo on June 30 and give a speech at an Indonesian diaspora convention the next day.
A Muslim teenager has been stabbed to death by an angry mob, who suspected he was carrying beef - an offence in many parts of the Hindu-majority country.

Indian police on Saturday said they arrested a person after the stabbing.

Junaid Khan, 15, was travelling from New Delhi on Friday with three of his brothers when a fight erupted over seats.

Cows are revered by Hindus and slaughtering them as well as possession or consumption of beef is banned in most Indian states, with some imposing life sentences for breaking the law

Between 15 and 20 men pulled out knives and set upon the brothers while making anti-Muslim comments and insisting one of the packets they were carrying contained beef.

While Khan was stabbed to death, his brother Shakir sustained injuries to his throat, chest and hands, police said.

'The fight started over seats. We are looking into the matter and we have arrested one of the accused who is a 35-year-old old man from (northern state of) Haryana,' Ajay Kumar, a government railway police official told AFP.

At animal markets across India you can no longer buy or sell cattle, including cows, for slaughter

Khan's brother Hassem told reporters the mob ignored their repeated pleas that they were not carrying any beef.

'They were pointing at a packet which had food and saying we should not be allowed to sit since we were carrying beef,' Haseem said.

The incident is the latest such attack by Hindu vigilantes in India, where there have been a spate of assaults against Muslims and low-caste Dalits.

Pehlu Khan was beaten to death last week after allegedly being suspected of transporting cattle for slaughter

In the last two years, nearly a dozen Muslim men have been killed across the country on suspicion of eating beef or smuggling cows.

Critics say vigilantes have been emboldened by the election in 2014 of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party.

Last year Modi criticised the cow protection vigilantes and urged a crackdown against groups using religion as a cover for committing crimes.

Cows are revered by Hindus and slaughtering them as well as possession or consumption of beef is banned in most Indian states, with some imposing life sentences for breaking the law.
Then Fuji Television host Mao Kobayashi (R) interviews American golfer Michelle Wie, in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2006

The death of a former newsreader who won acclaim for blogging about her breast cancer fight hit the headlines Saturday in Japan, with the media and officials praising her courage.

Mao Kobayashi died Thursday aged 34, her husband and popular kabuki actor, Ebizo Ichikawa, said Friday at a nationally televised news conference attended by about 400 reporters.

Kobayashi shocked the country in September with her blog titled "Kokoro" - or heart -- after concealing her illness from the public for about two years.

Her blog racked up millions of registered readers on one of Japan's biggest blog platforms as she chronicled her painful battle, posting pictures of her with tubes on the face and a wig for hair loss because of anti-cancer treatment.

She was later named in the 2016 edition of the BBC's 100 Women list of inspirational and influential female figures.

"I decided to say goodbye to myself who hid behind (cancer)," Kobayashi, a mother of two, wrote in her first post.

The Mainichi Shimbun said on its front page that her blog, which attracted media attention with every update, became a social phenomenon.

The Nikkei business daily, quoting the head of a breast cancer patient support group, called her blog "courageous" because a number of cancer sufferers concealed their illness in Japan.

Japan's top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said: "It's so regrettable (but) I'm sure that her fighting stance against the disease encouraged a lot of patients."

A tearful Ichikawa told the news conference: "She passed away just saying,'I love you.'"
Screengrab taken from video released by the Philippine Army on June 18, 2017 shows Isnilon Hapilon (2nd L), leader of hardline group Abu Sayyaf, and Abdullah Maute (R) discussing an improvised map of Marawi at an undisclosed location on Mindanao

One of America's most wanted terrorists may have escaped a five-week battle with Islamist militants in a southern Philippine city, which began with a raid to capture him, the military said Saturday.

Isnilon Hapilon, a veteran Filipino militant said to be the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group in Southeast Asia, has not been seen in the battle zone in Marawi City, said Lieutenant General Carlito Galvez, head of the military's Western Mindanao Command.

An attempt by government troops to arrest Hapilon in Marawi on May 23 triggered a rampage by Islamist militants flying black IS flags and backed by some foreign fighters who seized parts of the mainly Muslim city.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Marawi and the entire southern region of Mindanao, unleashing an offensive to crush what he said was an attempt by the jihadist group to establish a province in the area.

"He (Hapilon) has not been seen in the area. We have some reports that he was already able to slip somewhere but as of now we are still confirming the reports," Galvez said in an interview with DZBB radio station.

War-torn Philippine city of Marawi

Asked if Hapilon was on the run, he said: "Yes, yes because reportedly he suffered a lot of casualties. Majority of his group, more than half, were casualties."

- 'Fight to the end' -

Hapilon was indicted in Washington for his involvement in the 2001 kidnapping of three Americans in the Philippines, and has a $5-million bounty on his head from the US government, which has his name on its "most wanted" terror list.

He leads a faction of the Philippine militant group Abu Sayyaf that has pledged allegiance to IS.

Security analysts say he has been recognised by IS as its "amir", or leader, in Southeast Asia, a region where the group wants to establish a caliphate.

The military says Hapilon's group had joined forces with another armed militancy, the Maute Group, to launch the Marawi siege, now in its second month.

On Saturday, security forces continued intense air raids and artillery fire on pockets of Marawi still occupied by the militants, while troops fought house-to-house gunbattles.

"We have gained substantial ground," said Galvez, the military commander.

But military spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla said he expects the fighting to continue for a while.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has declared martial law in Marawi and the entire southern region of Mindanao

"These people are suicidal. Our assessment is that they will really fight to the end," Padilla said, also on DZBB.

He said the militants are seeking shelter in bunkers and tunnels built by Marawi residents to protect themselves against possible clan wars and unrest related to a Muslim insurgency in Mindanao.

Nearly 300 militants and 67 government troops have been killed in the fighting, according to official figures.

Galvez said there are "strong indications" that two or three of the Maute brothers -- among the key players in the siege -- had been killed, including Omarkhayam Maute, believed to be the group's top leader.

- Foreign fighters -

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said in Manila the military is "validating an intelligence report" that Malaysian Mahmud bin Ahmad, who helped lead and finance the Marawi siege, was killed.

When asked about Mahmud's reported death, Malaysia's Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar told AFP in a text message in Kuala Lumpur: "Not true. He is still alive."

Fighting between government troops and militants started on May 23

Abella said authorities were also verifying another intelligence report that 89 foreign fighters are in Mindanao, entering the region through the Philippines' porous maritime borders with Malaysia and Indonesia.

Galvez said troops on Friday recovered two decomposing corpses that bore features of people from the Middle East.

Eight other militants, including those from Chechnya, Indonesia and Malaysia, had been killed earlier in the fighting, officials have said.

Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines on June 19 launched joint patrols on their maritime borders to block the movement of the militants.

Australia said Friday it will send two high-tech spy planes to help Filipino troops fight the militants, joining the US which has also provided similar help.

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Sri Lanka's Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), the island's biggest trade union of doctors, stopped work on Thursday to demand the government close down a private medical college

Sri Lankan doctors ended a three-day strike following talks with the government, their professional association said Saturday, ending a crisis that had reportedly left tens of thousands of patients at state-run hospitals stranded.

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), the island's biggest trade union of doctors, had stopped work on Thursday to demand the government close down a private medical college established in 2008, protesting its allegedly poor standards of education.

The shutdown left tens of thousands of mostly poor people who seek free medical care at state-run hospitals unable to access treatment until the GMOA called off the strike on Saturday afternoon following talks with President Maithripala Sirisena.

"The President agreed to take positive steps to improve medical education and the medical service," GMOA spokesman Samantha Ananda told reporters in Colombo, without offering further details.

Although private health facilities remained open during the strike, many patients could not afford them, the National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection said.

Local media reports said the affected hospitals had turned away patients requiring emergency medical attention in some cases.

"We will gather outside your homes and seek the help of gods to curse you and force you to return to work," the consumer rights group had said in an open letter to the striking doctors issued earlier.

The group's chief Ranjith Vithanage told AFP that striking doctors should face criminal prosecutions over any deaths resulting from the action.

Hundreds of students from state-run universities stormed the health ministry on Wednesday and smashed cars and furniture in a bid to pressure the government into closing the private medical college.

The government has insisted that it will not interfere with people's freedom to choose private higher education.

A GMOA official said doctors had opposed the establishment of the college in 2008, but could not protest at the time because they feared reprisals from the previous regime of president Mahinda Rajapakse.
A couple and a baby were rescued and taken to hospital after 46 homes in the Chinese village of Xinmo were swallowed when the side of a mountain collapsed

Rescuers pulled 15 bodies from an avalanche of rocks that buried a mountain village in southwest China on Saturday as an increasingly bleak search for some 100 people carried into the night.

Only three survivors -- a couple and their one-month-old baby -- have been found so far after 62 homes in Xinmo village vanished under a mass of mud and rocks in Sichuan province.

Heavy rain caused the side of the mountain to collapse onto the riverside village in the early morning, according to authorities.

Qiao Dashi, the baby's father, said he had woken up after 5:00 am to change his crying son's diaper when he "heard a big noise coming from the back".

"The house shook," he told state broadcaster CCTV from his hospital bed. "Rocks were in the living room. My wife and I climbed over, took the baby, and got out."

"I have superficial injuries. Overall, I'm okay. But psychologically, it's hard. The entire village, with dozens of families, was flattened," he said, with a bandage around his head.

The rescue operation's headquarters reported that 15 people had been found dead by the late evening, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The Maoxian, or Mao county, government said earlier that six people died and 112 people were missing. Xinhua had reported that more than 120 were buried.

The landslide blocked a two-kilometre (one-mile) stretch of river and 1.6 kilometre of road, according to state media.

As night fell, authorities shined lamps onto the rubble while rescuers wore lights on their helmets as they sifted through the rocks, aided by sniffer dogs, according to photos from the official Xinhua news agency.

During the day, rescuers and local residents used ropes to move a boulder while others lifted rocks with their bare hands, according to videos broadcast by the Maoxian government and CCTV.

Nearly 2,000 police, soldiers and civilians were taking part in the rescue.

Bulldozers and excavators that were used earlier in the day stopped their work due to bad lighting as night fell, according to CCTV.

No sign of the village could be seen in aerial footage, which showed a grim and grey rock-strewn landscape covering the area where it once existed by a river.

"It's the biggest landslide in this area since the Wenchuan earthquake," said Wang Yongbo, one of the officials in charge of rescue efforts, referring to the disaster that killed 87,000 people in 2008 in a town in Sichuan.

- More rain forecast -

A report from the state news agency Xinhua said that the landslide occurred when the high part of a mountain in the Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba collapsed

Local police captain Chen Tiebo said the heavy rains that hit the region in recent days had triggered the landslide.

"There are several tonnes of rock" over the village, he told CCTV.

"It's a seismic area here. There's not a lot of vegetation," Chen said.

Trees can help absorb excess rain and prevent landslides.

Tao Jian, director of the local weather service, told CCTV that the 2008 earthquake had "weakened the mountain" and that even a small amount of rain could provoke a geological catastrophe.

President Xi Jinping called for rescuers to "spare no effort" in their search for survivors and prevent more disasters, state media said.

China's national weather observatory said more heavy rain was expected in parts of Sichuan and other southwestern provinces.

More than 100 people living close to the landslide were being evacuated on Saturday night, Xinhua reported.

- Past disasters -

Landslides are a frequent danger in rural and mountainous parts of China, particularly at times of heavy rains.

At least 12 people were killed in January when a landslide crushed a hotel in central Hubei province.

More than 70 were killed by a landslide in the southern commercial hub of Shenzhen in December 2015, caused by the improper storage of waste.

One of the deadliest landslides took place in 1991, when 216 were killed in southwestern Yunnan province.
Hundreds of devotees walked to a muddy field at dawn and covered themselves from head to toe with mud and dried banana leaves, with some residents saying their appearance was meant to evoke the attire of John the Baptist in Biblical times

Filipino devotees muddied their faces and covered themselves with dried banana leaves on Saturday to celebrate a religious festival which also has roots in Japan's occupation of the country during World War II.

The annual "Taong Putik" or "Mud People" festival, held in the town of Aliaga, 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Manila, honours John the Baptist.

Hundreds of men, women and children walked to a muddy field at dawn and covered themselves from head to toe with mud and dried banana leaves, with some residents saying their appearance was meant to evoke the attire of John the Baptist in Biblical times.

According to the Bible, the prophet John donned clothes made of camel's hair and ate locusts and wild honey as he announced the coming of Jesus Christ.

The prophet, also honoured as a saint, is revered in largely Roman Catholic Philippines.

A devotee, with her face covered with mud and wearing a costume made of banana leaves, attends mass during a celebration honouring John the Baptist

But the celebration, which concludes with a mass at Aliaga's Saint John the Baptist church, can also be traced back to Japan's wartime occupation of the former US colony in the 1940s.

Residents say Japanese soldiers ordered all the men from one of the villages in Aliaga to be executed outside a church.

As women and children prayed to John the Baptist, there was a heavy downpour that forced the troops to scamper, and prompted the grateful villagers to roll happily in the mud.
Muslim worshippers pray at the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca on June 23, 2017, during the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan

Both Iran and Qatar on Saturday voiced support for Saudi Arabia over a suicide bombing near Islam's holiest site in Mecca despite their severed ties.

"Iran... as always expresses its readiness to assist and cooperate with other countries to confront these criminals, who deal death and ignorantly spread hate," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said.

The Qatari foreign ministry expressed "solidarity with the brotherly kingdom of Saudi Arabia".

Six foreign pilgrims were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, where hundreds of thousands of worshippers had gathered for prayers on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The Saudi interior ministry said a wider plot had been foiled with the arrest of five suspects earlier in the day.

An aerial view shows the Clock Tower and the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia's holy Muslim city of Mecca on September 13, 2016

Since late 2014, the kingdom has faced periodic bombings and shootings claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are locked in a bitter battle for regional influence and have had no diplomatic relations since January last year.

Saudi Arabia and its allies severed all ties with Qatar earlier this month accusing it of supporting "terrorist groups" in the region, a charge Doha denies.
Around 4,000 people participated in the demonstration, the largest since South Korea and the United States agreed to deploy the system, known as Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD)

Thousands of protesters marched near the US embassy in Seoul on Saturday, accusing President Donald Trump of "forcing" South Korea to deploy a controversial American missile defence system opposed by China.

The protest came as South Korea's new president Moon Jae-In heads to Washington next week for his first summit with Trump amid soaring tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

Around 4,000 people participated in the demonstration, the largest since South Korea and the United States agreed to deploy the system, known as Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD).

Protesters carried placards that read: "Trump stop forcing (South Korea) to deploy THAAD" and "No THAAD, No Trump".

The crowd included residents from the southeastern county of Seongju where the system is being deployed who say it poses health and environmental hazards and argue that its presence could make them a priority target for North Korea.

THAAD was approved by Moon's ousted predecessor, conservative president Park Geun-Hye, who then steamrollered the project through a hasty environmental review during her last months in office as she became ensnared in a massive corruption scandal.

The deployment has also been opposed by Beijing, which fears it could undermine its own nuclear deterrent and has reacted with fury, imposing a series of measures seen as economic retaliation on the South.

Though parts of system are already in place, Moon this month suspended further deployment.

Officially, the delay is to allow for a new, comprehensive environmental impact assessment, but analysts say the move is a strategic delay by Moon to handle the tricky diplomatic situation he inherited.
French-Vietnamese blogger and lecturer Pham Minh Hoang (C) was convicted in 2011 of "attempted subversion"

A French-Vietnamese dissident blogger has been detained in Vietnam for deportation, his wife told AFP Saturday, just weeks after the former political prisoner was stripped of his citizenship in a rare move by authorities.

While the communist country routinely jails critics of its regime, 62-year-old Pham Minh Hoang is the first Vietnam-based dissident to have his citizenship revoked in recent history.

Hoang's wife, Le Thi Kieu Oanh, told AFP police came to their house in Ho Chi Minh city on Friday and took her husband away.

The officers told Oanh he would be deported on Saturday, she said.

"I am very sad... because (authorities) announced to me the Vietnamese government will deport my husband," she told AFP.

Hoang moved to France in 1973 and lived there for 27 years before returning to Vietnam to work as a a mathematics lecturer at the Polytechnic University of Ho Chi Minh City.

He was convicted in 2011 of "attempted subversion" for penning a series of articles that Vietnamese prosecutors said were aimed at overthrowing the government.

He was released from jail after 17 months to serve a three-year term under house arrest and has continued to post criticism of the government on social media.

Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs defended the move to revoke Hoang's citizenship last week, saying he had "violated the laws many times and seriously violated the national security", without elaborating.

A French diplomatic source said consular officials were in contact with authorities to try and access Hoang, while the French embassy in Hanoi called on Vietnam to respect freedom of expression.

Hoang told AFP this month that his French passport had expired and that he needed to stay in Vietnam to care for his disabled brother and elderly mother-in-law.

His wife said Saturday she would remain in the country to care for the relatives.
Models present clothes by Kurdish label Namacheko, created by brother and sister Dilan and Lezan Lurr, during the Men's Fashion Week in Paris on June 23, 2017

Dilan Lurr and his sister Lezan often ask themselves where would they be now if their parents had not left Iraq when they were children.

Would they be fighting against Islamic State like their cousins back in Kirkuk?

What is almost certain they would not be showing their first collection at Paris fashion week sandwiched in Friday's schedule between storied brands such as Berluti and Commes des Garcons.

But the brother and sister who were brought up in Sweden have far from forgotten the historically Kurdish city they left behind at age nine and four.

They started their Namacheko menswear label in 2015 "as a way of expressing our thoughts about our background," said 28-year-old Dilan.

"We grew up in a very free space in Sweden, where we could study and dream. Our parents are religious but they have always been very liberal with us."

But imagine "how horrible is it if even in your dreams you cannot be free," he told AFP.

"You always think where would I be right now if we had stayed in Kirkuk," he said of the city which was only saved from falling into IS hands by the swift intervention of Kurdish peshmerga fighters.

More than mere fashion, the Lurrs' first collection is a subtle meditation on their lives between Sweden and Kirkuk, whose mixed population is about to vote on whether it will join Iraq's increasingly independent Kurdish autonomous region.

- Cousin on frontline -

Dilan (L) and Lezan Lurr remain in touch with Kurdish cousins back in Iraq, one fighting IS on the frontline

"We talk a lot with our cousins there and they think it is mind-blowing how we live," said Dilan, who like his sister studied engineering before coming to fashion through art.

"We travelled between Sweden, Belgium and Paris to work on the collection and they cannot believe how we go from one country to another as if we were just taking a bus."

Their cousin Heresh, who modelled for them in a video Dilan shot in the flaming oilfields that surround Kirkuk, is now fighting IS on the frontline.

"We feel our great freedom when we speak with our cousins," Dilan said.

"When we went to the frontline we were amazed to see so many older men from their 50s onwards with their bellies and everything were fighting. But these guys do not run when ISIS comes. They know the drill. Some of them have been fighting since the 1970s.

"You imagine these super fit, highly-trained peshmergas but in reality there are a lot of fathers and grandfathers who are out there for three days and then home for a week."

Cleverly disguised peshmerga jackets -- white rather than regulation olive green -- popped up in the Lurrs' Paris show -- itself a labour of love.

"We begged and borrowed to put this show on. No one has been paid," said Dilan after the showing.

- 'Exposing the suffering inside' -

Kurdish designers Dilan and Lezan Lurr say their creations are an expression of their personal journey from Iraq to Sweden

The Lurrs are at pains to point out that Namacheko's cashmere and silk creations are more an expression of their own personal journey as they "adapted to Sweden and it adapted to us".

Lezan told of how when she arrived in Sweden she was sent to a church kindergarten rather than a state one by her pious parents where "my favourite storybook became the Bible".

"I was the only Muslim there yet I loved its stories. My parents were very happy about it and even read it to me. They were very open and liberal with us, within limits."

Despite their preoccupations with exile and belonging, Dilan said there are few overtly Kurdish influences on their clothes, although there are touches for those with the eyes to see.

"I don't want the collection to be Middle Eastern but we added small touches and references. Some people see it, others don't."

But the Kurdish experience is clearly there in the Lucio Fontana slashes in the backs of some coats "exposing the suffering and melancholy inside", Dilan said.

Nevertheless, the siblings refuse to be called refugees, saying their parents chose to move to Sweden in 1997 for a better life.

The Kurds were then being ruthlessly persecuted by the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

In fact, their father, a goldsmith, had to bribe officials to remain in Kirkuk as many other Kurds were forced out in the 1990s so Saddam could tighten his grip on its oilfields.

"We were not running for our lives. But yes, it definitely wasn't a great time to be Kurdish," Dilan said.
A general view of the road near the Qatari side of the Abu Samrah border crossing with Saudi Arabia which has cut ties with Doha

Qatar said Saturday that a 13-point list of demands made by Saudi Arabia and its allies impinged on its sovereignty and failed to meet US expectations they be "reasonable".

The four Arab governments delivered the demands to Qatar through Kuwait on Thursday, more than two weeks after severing all ties with the emirate and imposing an embargo.

The document has not been published but has been widely leaked and the demands are sweeping in their scope.

They require Doha to join Riyadh and its allies in outlawing the Muslim Brotherhood, which it has long supported.

They also require it to close Iran's embassy and a base on its territory operated by its ally Turkey, as well as to shut Al-Jazeera television.

Qatar is also required to end all contacts with opposition groups in the four countries -- Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In Qatar's first response to the demands, government communications director Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al-Thani said on Saturday that they went far beyond the four governments' stated aim of combating terrorism.

"This blockade is not aimed at fighting terrorism but at impinging on Qatar's sovereignty and interfering in its foreign policy," Sheikh Saif said.

He recalled that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had said on Wednesday that Washington wanted a clear list of grievances that was "reasonable and actionable".

This list "does not meet those standards," he said.

Saudi Arabia and its allies have put enormous pressure on Qatar to meet their demands.

The UAE state minister for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, warned on Friday that Qatar should "deal seriously" with the 13 points or face "divorce" from its neighbours.

The rift between the US Gulf allies has been awkward for Washington.

Tillerson has sought to mediate but the White House has been more hands-off, describing the diplomatic crisis as a "family issue" on Friday.
Journalist Veronique Robert pictured in Dubai on November 13, 2007

Journalist Veronique Robert, wounded in the same landmine blast that killed two colleagues in the Iraqi city of Mosul earlier this week, has died, employers France Televisions announced Saturday.

Robert had been operated on in Baghdad and then flown back for treatment in France overnight Thursday to Friday, but died of her wounds, the public broadcaster said in a statement.

French colleague Stephan Villeneuve and Iraqi Kurdish reporter Bakhtiyar Addad were also killed in Monday's blast.

All three were working for production company #5 Bis Productions on a programme for the French news programme Envoye Special, aired on public television channel France 2.

A fourth journalist with them, Samuel Forey, suffered light injuries.

Robert, 54, was an experienced war correspondent specialising in coverage of the Middle East, Iraq in particular, said the statement from France Televisions.

They were accompanying Iraqi special forces during the battle for the city, where jihadists from the Islamic State group entrenched in the narrow streets of the old town have set numerous booby traps.

France Televisions and #5 Bis Productions paid tribute to Robert's work and offered their condolences to her family in the statement.

Her producer Nicolas Jaillard wrote in a Facebook post that they had been hoping for better news. "The word sadness is not enough to describe how we feel," he added.

Reporters without Borders (RSF), the Paris-based media rights watchdog, also saluted her.

In comments on his Twitter account RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire lamented the fact that too many foreign correspondents were being killed on the front line.

According to RSF's own tally, her death brings to 29 the number of journalists killed in Iraq since 2014.

On Tuesday, the French president's office announced that Villeneuve would be posthumously awarded the knight of the Legion of Honour, one of France's highest honours.
US envoy to Sudan Steven Koutsis (L) disembarks from a UN helicopter after landing in the war-torn town of Golo in the Jebel Marra region of central Darfur on June 19, 2017

Sudan has made "positive" steps towards meeting Washington's conditions for permanently lifting 20-year-old sanctions on the African country, the US envoy to Khartoum told AFP in an interview.

Then-president Barack Obama eased the sanctions in January, but made their permanent lifting dependent on Khartoum's progress in five areas of concern during a six-month review period that ends on July 12.

These conditions -- known as the "five tracks" -- include improved access for aid groups, an end to support for rebels in neighbouring South Sudan, an end to hostilities in the conflict zones of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan, and counterterrorism cooperation with US intelligence agencies.

"I can say without much hesitation that, with the few exceptions, the advances on the five tracks have been positive," US charge d'affaires in Khartoum, Steven Koutsis, said.

"The few exceptions being... the implementation of humanitarian access is uneven... and that we want to see that the government begins to act more on moving towards a more permanent agreement with the opposition" on ending hostilities.

Koutsis was speaking after touring Darfur, which has been gripped by conflict since 2003 when ethnic minority rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.

Koutsis travelled across vast stretches of the western region, which is as large as France, to make a first-hand assessment of security ahead of President Donald Trump's decision on the trade embargo next month.

While Khartoum has allowed more access to many parts of Darfur, there are some where restrictions remain, aid workers say.

Washington first imposed the sanctions in 1997 over Khartoum's alleged support for Islamist militant groups. Now slain Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was based in the Sudanese capital from 1992 to 1996.

- 'Extreme restraint' -

Washington has kept the sanctions in place largely in response to the scorched-earth tactics that President Omar al-Bashir's regime has used against the rebels in Darfur.

At least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in the region, the United Nations says.

Sudanese women and children stand next to a donkey in the war-torn town of Golo in the Jebel Marra region of central Darfur on June 19, 2017

Koutsis said it was highly unlikely that a permanent agreement to end hostilities would be signed before July 12, but said Khartoum had shown "extreme restraint" in responding to rebel attacks over the past year.

"The fundamental issue that we asked for in return for sanctions relief was to stop any offensive," Koutsis said in El Daien, the East Darfur state capital.

"We considered aerial bombardments as offensives, as an offensive act, not a defensive act in any way."

Previously, government forces would launch a "large offensive" against pro-rebel communities if the rebels looted a village or stole cattle, he said.

"We have not seen that this time, in the last one year," said Koutsis, whose assessment of Darfur is expected to guide Washington's decision on sanctions.

"We have seen that when the army does attack, they act with restraint... they stop when they achieve their objective, they do not continue.

"We have seen that the government has shown extreme restraint even in circumstances where they could have responded under the genus of self-defence."

- Concerns over UN drawdown -

However, an expected drawdown of the 17,000-strong United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur threatens to unravel the fragile gains achieved so far, Koutsis said.

A Sudanese boy rides a donkey past an armoured vehicle of the UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur in the war-torn town of Golo on June 19, 2017

"The biggest concern I have is the pace that UNAMID will draw down requires that the government of Sudan step up and fill those gaps in issues of security and development assistance," he said.

"As we have seen it is not clear that the government is fully able at this point to do that."

Some think tanks have urged Washington to maintain the sanctions, accusing Khartoum of curbing freedom of speech, violating human rights and repressing Christians and other minority groups.

Koutsis said Washington was not blind to these issues and had "big differences" with Khartoum over them, although the two currently enjoyed a level of confidence that hadn't existed for 25 years.

But the purpose of the sanctions was to end Sudanese support for extremist groups and bring peace to Darfur, he said.

"None of these other issues were the point of sanctions, and none of these other issues, therefore, should be linked to the lifting of sanctions."

Koutsis said that overall the sanctions had worked.

"Yes, I can say with absolute certainty that Darfur today is more peaceful than it was a year ago," he said.

"That is not to say that the causes of Darfur have been fully addressed, not by a long shot."
Pakistan has seen a dramatic improvement in security in the last two years, but some groups and extremist outfits still retain the ability to carry out attacks

The death toll from multiple attacks in Pakistan rose to 57, officials said Saturday, a day after the bomb and gun assaults in three cities shook the country as it prepared to mark the end of Ramadan, Islam's holiest month.

Officials in Quetta said the number of dead had risen by one to 14 after a blast in the southwestern city which targeted police. Ten policemen were among those killed.

The attack was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, according to the SITE monitoring group, though there was no immediate explanation for the dual claims.

Later Friday twin blasts in the northwestern city of Parachinar then ripped through crowds in a market before sunset. Officials confirmed Saturday that the attack had killed 39 people and injured more than 200.

Parachinar is the capital of Kurram, one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal districts, which has a history of sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shiites.

Officials in Kurram said dozens of people were still undergoing treatment in hospital.

"A total of 216 people were injured in the twin blasts. Some 106 are still under treatment in a local hospital," Nasrullah Khan, an administration official in Kurram told AFP.

"62 other seriously wounded people have been shifted to Peshawar," he added.

Basir Khan Wazir, the top government official in Parachinar, later told AFP that both blasts were carried out by suicide bombers.

A spokesman from a Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Alami sent a message to AFP on Saturday claiming responsibility for the Parachinar attack.

The group is believed to be linked to sectarian outfit Lashkar-e-Janghvi (LeJ), responsible for many attacks across Pakistan.

Also on Friday, gunmen riding motorcycles shot dead four policemen, spraying bullets at them while they were eating dinner at a roadside restaurant in the port megacity of Karachi.

Pakistan has seen a dramatic improvement in security in the last two years, but groups such as the umbrella Pakistani Taliban, LeJ and other extremist outfits still retain the ability to carry out attacks.

Parachinar was the location of the first major militant attack in Pakistan in 2017, a bomb in a market which killed 24 people and was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.
Foreign correspondent Veronique Robert became the third victim of the mine blast in Mosul that killed two of her colleauges on Monday

Journalist Veronique Robert, wounded in the same landmine blast that killed two colleagues in the Iraqi city of Mosul earlier this week, has died, employers France Televisions announced Saturday.

Robert, 54, who held Swiss nationality, had been operated on in Iraq and then flown back for treatment in France overnight Thursday to Friday, but died of her wounds, the public broadcaster said in a statement.

French colleague Stephan Villeneuve, 48, and Iraqi Kurdish reporter Bakhtiyar Addad, 41, were also killed in Monday's blast.

All three were working for production company #5 Bis Productions on a programme for the French news show Envoye Special, aired on public television channel France 2.

A fourth journalist with them, Samuel Forey, suffered light injuries.

French Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen paid tribute to a "great war correspondent", in a post on the ministerial Twitter account.

Robert was an experienced war correspondent specialising in coverage of the Middle East, Iraq in particular, said the statement from France Televisions.

She worked for several news outlets in France and Switzerland, including Le Figaro newspaper and Paris Match magazine. Robert has two adult sons.

The journalists were accompanying Iraqi special forces during the battle for Mosul, where jihadists from the Islamic State group entrenched in the narrow streets of the Old City have set numerous booby traps.

France Televisions and #5 Bis Productions paid tribute to Robert's work and offered their condolences to her family in the statement.

Emilie Raffoul, a producer at #5 Bis Productions, told AFP: "She was someone who was very determined."

On Tuesday, the day after the landmine blast, Raffoul flew to Iraq to take care of Robert, along with colleagues from France Televisions.

The US doctors who had treated her at a military hospital said that even in a coma, Robert seemed mentally very strong, she added.

- 'Extremely rigorous' -

"She was used to combat zones, she was a professional war (correspondent) who had covered several conflicts, a specialist in the Middle East," said Raffoul, who worked with Robert for around 15 years.

"She was extremely rigorous in the preparation of her reports," she added.

Robert's producer Nicolas Jaillard wrote in a Facebook post that they had been hoping for better news.

"The word sadness is not enough to describe how we feel," he added.

Reporters without Borders (RSF), the Paris-based media rights watchdog, also saluted her.

In comments on his Twitter account RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire lamented too many foreign correspondents killed on the frontline.

According to RSF's own tally, Robert's death brings to 29 the number of journalists killed in Iraq since 2014.

On Tuesday, the French president's office announced that Villeneuve would be posthumously awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honour, one of France's highest honours.
Spain has now rescued more than 600 people from the Mediterranean in less than a week

Spanish coastguards rescued more than 200 migrants on Saturday as they attempted to make the perilous sea crossing from north Africa to Europe.

A spokesman for Spain's state maritime rescue service told AFP that 224 people had been rescued from five vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea, which separate Spain from Morocco.

The first rescues occurred in the early hours, the spokesman said, with dozens rescued south of Gibraltar from three boats.

Another 72 were rescued later after being spotted by a plane belonging to Europe's border agency, Frontex.

Spain's sea rescue service said Thursday that it had saved more than 400 migrants this week alone.

The relatively short sea crossing from Morocco to Spain is a popular route taken by migrants from sub-Saharan and north Africa in their quest to reach Europe.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, 3,314 people attempted this crossing between January 1 and April 30 this year. They recorded 59 deaths over the same period in this part of the Mediterranean.
Afghanistan has suffered the deadliest Ramadan since the US-led invasion in 2001 with over 200 killed and hundreds wounded, according to an AFP count

Afghanistan has suffered its deadliest Ramadan since the US-led invasion in 2001 with over 200 killed and hundreds wounded, according to an AFP count based on official figures.

The streets of Kabul were quiet on Saturday ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr festival, which marks the end of Islam's holiest month, amid fears of further attacks.

Militants believe they will go to paradise if they die during Ramandan or on Eid, a day when millions of Muslims break their fasts and visit mosques for prayers and celebrations.

"It was the deadliest month for pious Afghans who were all fasting," political analyst, General Abdul Wahid Taqat told AFP.

"They killed them everywhere they could, inside the mosques, on the streets... as they believe the more they kill, the more rewards they will earn," he said.

As Ramadan began on May 27, a Taliban car bomber targeting a CIA-funded Afghan militia group left 13 people dead and injured six in eastern Khost province.

A sewage tanker filled with explosives detonated just days later in the city's fortified diplomatic quarter, killing more than 150 and wounding hundreds -- marking the deadliest attack in Kabul in recent years.

The carnage left the Afghan capital shaken and hundreds of protesters took to the streets following the bombing, calling for officials to resign.

Clashes between protestors and authorities left at least six people dead while at least seven more were killed when suicide bombers tore through a row of mourners at a funeral for one of the protesters.

On Thursday as Ramadan was drawing to a close, a Taliban car bomb struck a bank in Lashkar Gah, capital of the volatile Helmand province. Around 34 people queuing to withdraw their salaries died.

Washington is soon expected to announce an increase in the US military deployment to bolster Afghan forces, who are struggling to contain the insurgency. American military commanders in Afghanistan have requested thousands of extra boots on the ground.

US troops in Afghanistan now number about 8,400, and there are another 5,000 from NATO allies, a far cry from the US presence of more than 100,000 six years ago. They mainly serve as trainers and advisers.

"Taliban, Daesh, Al Qaeda, all are planning to make 2017 the deadliest year as a warning for the US who plans to send more troops in Afghanistan," said Taqat.

On Friday, Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada in an Eid message vowed to continue fighting until the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
Iraqis fleeing the Old City of Mosul arrive in the industrial district of the city on June 23, 2017

They all say they are back from "hell". Quivering and emaciated, the civilians emerging from Mosul's Old City have survived famine but often lost relatives and sometimes their sanity.

They come in small groups, dropped off by the armoured vehicles of the Iraqi security forces on dusty, deserted streets where emergency field clinics are set up.

A few hundred metres away, fighting rages in the alleyways of old Mosul, where die-hard Islamic State group jihadists are mounting a desperate defence of their last redoubt in the city.

Elite Iraqi fighters backed by jets and special forces from a US-led anti-IS coalition massively outnumber and outgun the jihadists, who at this stage in the battle owe their survival to an estimated 100,000 civilians they are using as human shields.

With every home they retake, the security forces free families they often find holed up in their basements to shelter from the deluge of munitions that has been falling on the area since a push into the Old City was launched on June 18.

Adding to the constant threat of their homes collapsing over their heads from bombs, missiles or shells, IS has not hesitated to shoot down civilians to prevent them from fleeing.

Iraqis fleeing the Old City of Mosul are seen on June 23, 2017

Once their identity has been checked, rescued families are moved to a field clinic, where children devour the biscuits soldiers give them.

The adults, some of them with protruding bones and sunken eyes that speak of the famine they left behind, look shellshocked.

One woman wrapped in black lets out a hysterical, lonely howl of despair: "Too many innocents have been killed."

"We're back from the dead," says Amir, a 32-year-old man with a sickly grey complexion, shaking like a leaf between his sons Qusay and Hassan, aged two and four.

He shows a few crumbs in the bottom of a tin cup that he kept like it was a priceless treasure: "This is what we've been eating for weeks."

Umm Nashwan, a frail woman in her sixties, explains how she fed her family by mixing flour with water and baking the resulting dough.

She says she had only one obsession recently: "I just wanted to forget hunger".

- 'Take all my blood' -

Iraqis fleeing the Old City of Mosul are seen in the industrial district of the city on June 23, 2017

"They live hidden in their basements and are almost starving to death," says one officer with the federal Iraqi forces. "Some of them resort to eating grass, others even eat dogs."

"Most IDPs (internally displaced persons) suffer from malnutrition and dehydration, kids above all," says Ahmed Diran, one of several volunteers at the emergency clinic.

"Adults often come in hysterical condition, crying and shouting, because nearly all of them have lost three to four family members," he says.

"It's getting worse and worse. And it may get very much worse because all civilians are now trapped with jihadists in a limited number of buildings, so more vulnerable," Diran explains.

The reception that rescued civilians get however is sometimes tainted by suspicion, with large sections of the Iraqi public arguing that whoever did not flee IS's brutal "caliphate" in three years was agreeable to it.

A suicide bomb attack by a jihadist who blended in with fleeing civilians on Friday and killed at least 12 people has only added to the tension.

An umpteenth humvee comes screeching to a halt to offload a young couple carrying a small inert body covered in blood.

Iraqis fleeing the Old City of Mosul arrive in the industrial district of the city on June 23, 2017

The woman in a black abaya and pink veil collapses on a chair and shouts at the soldiers: "We've been waiting for you for months, what took you so long?"

The blood of her child, who was aged around six and killed by a stray bullet or a sniper a few blocks away, drips heavily down her arms.

"It's my only child, save him, I beg you. Take all my blood if you have to," she screams, banging her head against a wall.

The couple say they decided to risk being shot by IS to flee the Old City after two of their close relatives were killed by shelling.

The distressed mother recalls how happy her son was at the prospect. "He was hungry, he said: 'I want to say hello to the soldiers and get biscuits from them'."
(FILES) This file photo taken on January 14, 2014, through the window of an airplane shows the Red Sea's Tiran (foreground) and the Sanafir (background) islands in the Strait of Tiran between Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ratified a treaty that hands over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia in a deal that had sparked protests and a police crackdown, the cabinet said Saturday.

Sisi ratified the maritime border treaty days after parliament approved the deal, which has been the subject of a confusing legal battle with one court annulling the treaty and another upholding it.

The treaty, first announced in April 2016, had fuelled rare protests and police have arrested dozens of activists over the past week after calls for more demonstrations.

It had also been challenged in courts, but the country's highest tribunal had suspended the contradictory rulings this week until a final decision determined which court has jurisdiction.

Parliament's vote on June 14 came after days of heated debate in with opponents even interrupting one committee session with chanting.

The accord had sparked rare protests in Egypt, with Sisi accused of having traded the islands of Tiran and Sanafir for Saudi largesse.

The government has said the islands were Saudi to begin with, but were leased to Egypt in the 1950s.

Opponents of the agreement insist that Tiran and Sanafir are Egyptian.
Martha shakes water off her head after taking the title of World's Ugliest Dog

A lumbering canine with deep-set wrinkles and a gas problem, Martha the Mastiff is no beauty queen -- but as the newly crowned World's Ugliest Dog, she is still a winner.

While images of cute dogs regularly make the social media rounds, this weekend pooches with more unusual features got their moment to shine at the World's Ugliest Dog Competition in Petaluma, California.

With an air of languid confidence Martha pawed her way past her 13 competitors, with judges saying they were impressed by what appeared to be "300 pounds of skin" hanging off her big-boned, 125-pound (57 kilogram) body.

As she was awarded her first-place prize -- $1500, a trophy and a trip to New York for media appearances -- Martha appeared unmoved, rolling over to let the voluminous folds of her droopy jowls flop onto the stage.

"She knocks over every water bucket no matter how securely attached to the fence," said owner Shirley Dawn Zindler of her homely hound. "She bosses the other dogs around and makes sure all guests are suitably slimed on arrival."

Zindler is fostering the three-year-old Neapolitan Mastiff, a breed known for its excess loose skin and a tendency to drool.

Martha the Mastiff faced tough competition including from Precious the Chihuahua in the World's Ugliest Dog Competition

The competition was stiff: Moe, a lackadaisical, scraggly-haired mutt whose tongue generally hangs out the side of his mouth nabbed second place. Precious, a rat-like, wide-eyed Chihuahua claimed the spirit award.

The small coastal city of Petaluma has been hosting an annual ugly dog contest for more than 50 years, organizers said.

This year's event included a red carpet walk and a "fashion faux paw show" -- complete with ugly sweaters -- allowing the less esthetically pleasing canines of the world the chance to strut their stuff.

"We celebrate the spirit and imperfections that make these dogs lovable," said event marketing director Karen Spencer.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Sanford Health is on the very of absorbing another health care provider in the Dakotas, though the move is being contested in federal court.

Sanford has signed a merger agreement with Mid Dakota Clinic, which has nearly 100 physicians who serve patients in the Bismarck-Mandan area. There were no layoffs planned due to the merger.

The integration of the two health care systems will be ongoing through the next year, if approved by regulators.

However, the Federal Trade Commission and North Dakota Attorney General are trying to block the merger, filing a joint complaint Thursday in U.S. District Court alleging the deal would violate antitrust law by significantly reducing competition in Bismarck-Mandan.

The regulators are seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop the deal until the matter can go to trial.

The two providers told The Bismarck Tribune that the actions are "extremely frustrating" and that they used national, legal and economic experts to evaluate the partnership.

Officials said there will be no interruptions to patient care, and clinic patients can continue seeing their current doctors and going to the hospital of their choice.

"Both of our organizations recognized by working together we could not only navigate the enormous challenges in the health care landscape, but we could increase access to existing services while offering new services to our patients," said Shelly Seifert, chairwoman of the clinic's board.

The merger should speed construction projects in several treatment areas including women's health and children's cancer, said Sanford Bismarck Executive Vice President Craig Lambrecht. It also will allow the combined provider to recruit a number of subspecialists, such as pediatric gastroenterology, so patients will no longer have to travel outside the community for care, officials said.

Sanford Health was formed in 2009 when Sanford in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, merged with Meritcare in Fargo, North Dakota. Three years later, the new Sanford Health bought Medcenter One in Bismarck. Sanford now bills itself as one of the largest health systems in the nation, with 45 hospitals and nearly 300 clinics in nine states and four countries.

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Information from: Bismarck Tribune, http://www.bismarcktribune.com
DALLAS (AP) - A Texas police officer charged with murder in May in the fatal shooting of a black teenager may be facing two aggravated assault charges in an unrelated incident.

Court records appeared in the Dallas County online court system Thursday listing charges of aggravated assault by a public servant against former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver, but it was unclear from those records whether a grand jury has considered them.

A spokeswoman for the Dallas County district attorney says the office is not allowed to discuss ongoing investigations.

Oliver was off duty when he drew his gun and pointed it at the ground after his car was struck in April. Dallas police did not file charges.

In the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards who was leaving a party, Oliver was fired and charged with murder.

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This story corrects the status of the potential charges. It is not clear from court documents if a grand jury has considered them.
FLINT, Mich. (AP) - A Canadian man has been charged in the stabbing of a Michigan airport police officer, and authorities are investigating the attack as a possible terrorist act.

The timeline below is based on statements by David Gelios, head of the FBI in Detroit, and the federal complaint charging Amor M. Ftouhi, 49, of Quebec, in the stabbing of Lt. Jeff Neville on Wednesday at Bishop International Airport in Flint, Michigan.

- June 16: Ftouhi legally enters the U.S. through Champlain, New York, and starts heading to Michigan.

This March 11, 2005 photo shows Jeff Neville in Goodrich, Mich. Michigan State Police Lt. Mike Shaw said the officer stabbed Wednesday, June 21, 2017 is Lt. Jeff Neville with the Bishop International Airport police. Officials on Wednesday evacuated an airport in Flint, Michigan, where a witness said he saw an officer bleeding from his neck and a knife nearby on the ground. Officials on Wednesday evacuated the airport, where a witness said he saw an officer bleeding from his neck and a knife nearby on the ground. (Steve Jessmore/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP)

- June 18: Ftouhi is in Michigan, although the FBI can't rule out that he arrived earlier.

- Wednesday at 8:52 a.m.: Ftouhi enters the first level of Bishop International Airport carrying two bags - a red duffle and a dark satchel.

- 9:10 a.m.: Ftouhi goes up an escalator to the second level of the airport where he turns left to go to a restaurant.

- 9:37 a.m.: Ftouhi leaves the restaurant carrying both bags, enters a second-floor restroom and leaves the bags behind.

- 9:38 a.m.: Ftouhi stabs Neville with a large knife and yells "Allahu akbar," the Arabic phrase for "God is great." Ftouhi also says something similar to "you have killed people in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and we are all going to die."

- Soon after: Neville, despite his wounds, subdues Ftouhi with help from other officers, and Ftouhi is taken into custody.
ATLANTA (AP) - A 39-year-old man accused of shooting a woman on an Atlanta street in broad daylight has been indicted.

The Fulton County District Attorney's Office says a grand jury handed up the indictment Wednesday against Raylon Browning. He faces charges of murder, felony murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the April 3 shooting death of Atlanta attorney Trinh Hong Huynh.

Browning was also indicted on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and other charges in the stabbing of two construction workers. The men survived the attack.

Police have not determined whether Browning and Huynh knew each other but said he was acquainted with the stabbing victims.
DETROIT (AP) - Authorities say a Canadian man from Tunisia crossed legally into the U.S. days before stabbing a police officer in the neck at a Michigan airport. The attack raises questions about security along the northern border, including what the process is for travelers and how many people are detained or denied entry. A look at some common questions and answers.

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Q: HOW MANY PEOPLE CROSS FROM CANADA INTO U.S. EACH DAY?

A traveler walks her bags up the roadway as a police officer guides traffic flow after Bishop International Airport reopens in Flint, Mich., Wednesday, June 21, 2017, after a police officer was stabbed at the airport. A Canadian man shouted in Arabic before stabbing a police officer in the neck at the airport on Wednesday, and referenced people being killed overseas during the attack that's now being investigated as an act of terrorism, federal officials said. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP)

A: U.S. Customs and Border Protection says about 216,000 people come into the U.S. from Canada on a typical day. That's out of an average of 1.2 million people processed daily at all points of entry into the U.S. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the busiest port in terms of non-commercial traffic is Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York. Detroit came in second, and Champlain-Rouses Point, New York, was fifth. Federal authorities say the suspect, Amor Ftouhi, entered at Champlain.

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Q: HOW MANY DIFFERENT PLACES ARE THERE TO CROSS?

A: Border officials say there are 328 ports of entry, including land crossings and international airports, across the U.S. Of those, about 100 are along the Canada border.

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Q: WHAT'S THE PROCESS FOR GETTING ACROSS THE BORDER?

A: Travelers need a valid passport, enhanced driver's licenses offered in some states or another official expedited entry card, such as Nexus. Such documentation became required in 2009 for U.S. and Canadian citizens who enter the U.S. at land and sea ports of entry from within the Western Hemisphere. The change was among many implemented after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Before that, a verbal claim of citizenship and identity were typically sufficient.

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Q: HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE DETAINED AT THE BORDER OR REFUSED ENTRY?

A: Customs and Border Protection officials say they deny entry to about 750 individuals a day, which could be due to invalid travel documents, an expired visa or a criminal record in another country. About 1,140 people who are not lawfully in the U.S are apprehended daily. For fiscal year 2016, the agency reported nearly 416,000 apprehensions of what it describes as "illegal aliens," about 2,300 of whom were detained on the U.S.-Canada border.

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Q: ARE THERE EXAMPLES OF BORDER AUTHORITIES STOPPING POTENTIAL ATTACKS AT THE CANADIAN BORDER?

A: Border officials say officers and agents identify nearly 900 individuals on a daily basis who raise national security concerns. Spokesman David Long said the "primary mission" of his agency is preventing entry of attackers or weapons in to the country.

The 1999 arrest of Ahmed Ressam as he arrived at Port Angeles, Washington, by ferry from Canada with explosives in his rental car raised concerns about attackers living and operating north of the border due to lax immigration and refugee laws. Ressam was convicted in 2001 of planning to bomb Los Angeles International Airport during millennium celebrations. The Algerian who had trained at Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan was sentenced to 37 years in prison.

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Q: WHAT ARE THE STAFFING LEVELS OF BORDER PATROL AGENTS?

A: The number of border agents has increased nearly fivefold since the early 1990s, from about 4,000 in fiscal year 1992 to 19,828 in fiscal year 2016. It reached a high of roughly 21,500 in 2011, the first of three years in which the level remained above 21,000. The overwhelming majority of those agents work along the Mexican border.

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Associated Press writers Rob Gillies in Toronto and Alicia Caldwell in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) - Mongolians will vote for a new president on Monday in a race pitting a horse salesman against a former judo star and a nationalist wanting to get more from the vast landlocked country's mineral wealth.

The three candidates are seeking to succeed Tsakhia Elbegdorj of the Democratic Party who has served the maximum of two four-year terms. While the nation of 3 million had been an oasis of democratic stability since the end of communist rule nearly three decades ago, its politics have grown increasingly fractious amid an economic crisis and accusations of corruption among the ruling class.

Speaker of the parliament and horse dealer Miyegombo Enkhbold is representing the Mongolian People's Party, which won a landslide victory in legislative elections last year. He faces off against judo champion and business tycoon Khaltmaa Batulgaa of the Democratic Party, with Sainkhuu Ganbaatar of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party rounding out the field.

In this July 11, 2016 photo, a marching band performs in front of a giant display of the Mongolian flag during the Naadam Festival in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Mongolians vote for a new president on Monday, June 26, 2017 in a race pitting a horse salesman against a former judo star and a nationalist wanting to preserve the vast landlocked country's mineral wealth. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

It's unclear whether Ganbaatar will be eligible to run after a video surfaced of him accepting a campaign donation from a South Korean citizen.

Sandwiched between Russia and China, resource-rich Mongolia has been roiled by financial upheaval and the increasing draw of China's economic and political influence that competes with its ties with the democratic West, especially the United States.

"This election looks orchestrated from the very beginning, with nomination of candidates in a very strange way," said Sumati Luvsandendev, director of the liberal-leaning Mongolian think tank the Sant Maral Foundation. "I have never seen an election like it."

Enkhbold, campaigning under the slogan of "National unity; Mongolian pride," is widely seen as representing stability at a time when Mongolia is showing tentative signs of recovery from its economic crisis brought about by a dramatic drop in global commodity prices.

He has been tainted by allegations of corruption, however. Last month, an audio tape was leaked to the public purportedly of a 90-minute conversation in 2014 between Enkhbold and two of his party's officials discussing a $25 million bribe to reshuffle government positions.

Batulgaa has campaigned on a "Mongolia First" policy, borrowing the language of U.S. President Donald Trump. His manifesto promises "a patriotic president" seeking "equal cooperation" with neighbors like China, which he has criticized in the past.

His company, "Genco," is one of Mongolia's largest, with businesses including hotels, media, banking, alcohol, horsemeat and a Genghis Khan-themed complex. He was also minister of agriculture between 2012 and 2014 and a former member of parliament, as well as president of the Mongolian Judo Association.

However, he too has been tarnished following an investigation last year by the Independent Authority Against Corruption into an alleged misappropriation of funds for a new railway during his time as minister of transport. Batulgaa is also reported to have various offshore accounts, an increasingly sensitive topic.

Ganbaatar, who like Batulgaa failed to keep his seat in 2016, has been a vocal critic of mining giant Rio Tinto, earning him past popularity. The self-described feng shui master and "Robin Hood" has often claimed the country should get a better deal with the company over its copper and gold mine, Oyu Tolgoi. The mine, 66 percent held by Rio subsidiary Turquoise Hill Resources, will account for one third of Mongolia's gross national product by 2020, according to estimates.

Foreign investment in Mongolia has slumped in recent years following weaker commodity prices and high-profile disputes between the government and large investors including Rio Tinto. Mongolia's economy grew just 1 percent last year, down from 17.5 percent in 2011 when it was the world's fastest growing. It now has $23 billion in debt, more than double the size of its economy. Unemployment is roughly 9 percent, with about one in five Mongolians living in poverty.

"Business is difficult," said Erdenechimeg Gunhabaatar, a 26-year-old fruit vendor and father of two. "I really think my government is in a difficult situation, especially with the economic crisis."

"I really hope with the new president, things will get better," Gunhabaatar said.

The country recently secured a $5.5 billion International Monetary Fund-led bailout to stem its financial crisis, with a $500 million bond repayment due in January 2018. Enkhbold's party pledges to continue the IMF's program, including higher taxes and spending cuts, while Ganbaatar has criticized the IMF.

That bailout will likely limit any Mongolian government's room for maneuver over the next several years, said Julian Dierkes, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia.

"The IMF plays a huge role; it locks in certain budgets and raises taxes," Dierkes said.

While a Sant Maral poll earlier this year suggested a strong lead for Enkhbold of the MPP, Luvsandendev says the likelihood of low voter turnout makes the result now "impossible to predict."

At least 50 percent of eligible voters must cast ballots for the election to be valid.

"The youth don't see themselves in the candidates," said Lkhagva Erdene, executive producer of news at independent broadcaster MongolTV. "We and many others feel the only road ahead is the one we pave ourselves."

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Saruul Enkhbold contributed to this report.

In this July 17, 2016 photo, Mongolia's President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj inspects an honor guard before a welcome ceremony for South Korea's President Park Geun-hye in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Mongolians will vote for a new president on Monday, June 26, 2017 in a race pitting a horse salesman against a former judo star and a nationalist wanting to preserve the vast landlocked country's mineral wealth. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

FILE - In this July 12, 2016, file photo, a boy holds a Mongolian flag as he stands on the sidelines before a horse racing competition during the second day of the Naadam Festival in Khui Doloon Khudag on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Mongolians vote for a new president on Monday, June 26, 2017 in a race pitting a horse salesman against a former judo star and a nationalist wanting more gains from the vast, landlocked country's mineral wealth. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

In this July 16, 2016, photo, the sun rises over the city in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Mongolians will vote for a new president on Monday, June 26, 2017 in a race pitting a horse salesman against a former judo star and a nationalist wanting to preserve the vast landlocked country's mineral wealth. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

In this July 10, 2016, photo, Mongolian people walk across Chinggis Square during the National Costume Festival in Ulaanbaatar. Mongolians will vote for a new president on Monday, June 26, 2017 in a race pitting a horse salesman against a former judo star and a nationalist wanting to preserve the vast landlocked country's mineral wealth. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
BERLIN (AP) - A Syrian man accused of seeking 180,000 euros ($200,000) from someone he thought was a member of the Islamic State group to finance attacks in Europe has gone on trial in Germany.

News agency dpa reported that the 38-year-old's trial opened Friday at the state court in Saarbruecken. He is charged with attempted participation in murder.

The defendant's lawyer has said that he never intended to carry out an attack and only pretended that he did to get money for himself. He is accused of contacting a man via Facebook at the end of 2016 who he believed belonged to IS and could provide money to carry out attacks.

Authorities have accused the defendant of planning a bomb attack or attacks in Germany and neighboring countries.
LONDON (AP) - The Irish government has sold 25 percent of Allied Irish Banks' shares, eight years after nationalizing the firm amid the financial crisis.

The ministry of finance raised a total of 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) Friday after selling the shares for 4.40 euros each. That values AIB as a whole at 12 billion euros.

The ministry could sell another 400 million euros in shares, leaving it with a stake of at least 71 percent in AIB.

About 90 percent of the shares were sold to institutional investors like big banks while 10 percent was allocated to smaller investors.

Trading in the shares began Friday on the Dublin and London stock exchanges.

AIB received a taxpayer-funded bailout of 21 billion euros, one of the largest in Ireland, when it was nationalized.
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - With glue gun in hand, Turkish Cypriot anthropologist Sinem Hossoz meticulously pieces together tiny fragments - the pulverized skull of a child, one of the youngest victims of conflict on ethnically divided Cyprus.

Paul-Henri Arni, the U.N.-appointed member to the Committee on Missing Persons, says such things must be done.

"It's for the dignity of the dead," he says, but also to spare relatives the shock of seeing a smashed skull when the remains are returned to them.

In this Wednesday, May 31, 2017 photo, skulls of the missing persons are seen in the anthropologist laboratory of Cyprus Missing Persons (CMP) inside the U.N buffer zone in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus. Over 11 years of work, Cyprus' Committee on Missing Persons has worked diligently to help heal a gaping wound from this tiny east Mediterranean island's tumultuous past. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

"The skull in all cultures, including here, is the center of the human person, it's the soul," Arni said at the CMP laboratory on the grounds of the disused Nicosia airport straddling a U.N. controlled buffer zone where skeletal remains are assembled for identification.

With international donations, the CMP has worked diligently for 11 years to help heal a gaping wound from this east Mediterranean island's tortured past and foster its future reconciliation. It has unearthed and identified more than a third of the 2,001 Greek and Turkish Cypriots who vanished during fighting between the two sides in the 1960s and during the summer of 1974. That's when a coup aiming at union with Greece triggered a Turkish invasion that split the island into a breakaway, Turkish Cypriot north and an internationally recognized south.

Time is working against the committee. Potential eyewitnesses who could help pinpoint graves are dying out, while unceasing construction sometimes makes such burial sites forever inaccessible.

To expedite its work, Arni says the CMP is now sifting through archival information it has for the first time gained access to from the U.N., the International Committee of the Red Cross and some six countries that had dispatched peacekeeping troops to Cyprus at the time of the fighting.

It's also investing in new technologies like the Geographic Information System, or GIS, that links all information gathered from archives, investigators and eyewitnesses to give a more exact estimate of possible burial sites.

Gulden Plumer Kucuk, the CMP's Turkish Cypriot member, says she expects the new approach will begin to produce results within a year. She estimates the archival search will boost the inflow of information by up to 20 percent.

"The important thing is that we do everything in our capacity ... so when we turn our faces to the families, we should be able to say that we did everything for them," she said.

The decades-long agony of the relatives of the disappeared is what drives Romanos Liritsas, a Greek Cypriot researcher with the committee.

It's "the humanitarian aspect that edges us to speed up, because the relatives have been waiting much too long to find their beloved ones," says Liritsas, standing in a field in the northern, Turkish Cypriot half of the island where colleagues, acting on an tip, are searching for a missing soldier's remains.

Greek Cypriot Eleni Kyriakou lived long enough to bury her son. The 88-year-old sat in a wheelchair at the head of the grave into which the small, wooden flag-draped coffin carrying the remains of her son Epiphanios was lowered - a burial with full military honors at Makedonitissa military cemetery.

The remains of Epiphanios, a 20-year-old second-lieutenant, were found along with those of five other comrades in a makeshift grave after vanishing on Aug. 15, 1974, during a retreat from of advancing Turkish troops.

A Turkish Cypriot man who recently recalled seeing the soldiers' unburied bodies in a gully shortly after fighting ceased, said Sevgul Uludag, a Turkish Cypriot journalist who for years has been gathering information on the whereabouts of the missing. The Turkish Cypriot man was 7 years old at the time, riding atop a donkey led by his grandfather, who had buried the soldiers.

Epiphanios' older brother Kyriakos said the back of his brother's skull bore a small hole.

"After 43 years, you can imagine the emotional pressure," said Kyriakou. "When I saw the bones of my brother, I felt relief from this pressure."

The CMP still encounters a strong unwillingness from some witnesses or even perpetrators to talk, despite promised immunity from prosecution.

"We're 100 percent sure that there are people that are still alive who are keeping information," says Kucuk's Greek Cypriot counterpart, Nestoras Nestoros. "We want them to understand that it is very, very useful for us and for the families that are still waiting and still looking for their loved ones."

A public appeal for information has been made by the island's Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, who will meet in late June in Geneva for a summit in continuing pursuit of a breakthrough deal reunifying the island. A similar appeal has been made by the island's Christian and Muslim leaders.

Not all remains of the missing will be found, says Kucuk. In some instances, only partial skeletal remains will be returned to families.

Some of the dead were left exposed on hilltops or buried in riverbeds, so their bones were scattered. Others may be buried under apartment buildings where the remains are inaccessible, although the CMP did dig up a private pool to get to the remains of two missing persons. In other instances, remains could have been dug up and reburied elsewhere, reinforcing the silence of perpetrators.

Nestoros says even a single bone from a missing person can offer some consolation to families.

"It shows that this person has died," he says. "This is an answer for the relatives."

Turkish Cypriot Raif Toluk is hopeful his family will soon find answers about his missing father. Working at the state telecommunications authority CyTA, Mehmet Raif vanished on Dec. 22, 1963. Toluk says his brothers were told their father was shot as he rode his bicycle home.

For 40 years, the family had heard nothing. Now Uludag's investigative work has indicated that Mehmet Raif may be among a number of Turkish Cypriots buried in a mass grave.

Toluk says an excavation at the site late last year unearthed the remains of seven people and that DNA results are pending.

"My mother died waiting, 'He will come, he will come,'" says Toluk. "When you say 'This is your father' and we bury, I think we will relax. At least we will know that he's there."

In this Wednesday, May 31, 2017 photo, a bulldozer and workers of Cyprus Missing Persons of the two communities work together during an excavation in a field for missing persons in the Turkish breakaway northern part of divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus. Over 11 years of work, Cyprus' Committee on Missing Persons has worked diligently to help heal a gaping wound from this tiny east Mediterranean island's tumultuous past. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

In this Saturday, June 10, 2017 photo, Eleni Kyriakou, 88, right, mother of 20-year-old Epiphanios Kyriakou who went missing in 1974 during the Turkish invasion, seen in portrait, left, mourns during his funeral at a military cemetery at Makedonitissa in divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus. Over 11 years of work, Cyprus' Committee on Missing Persons has worked diligently to help heal a gaping wound from this tiny east Mediterranean island's tumultuous past. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

In this Wednesday, May 31, 2017 photo, a bulldozer and workers of Cyprus Missing Persons of the two communities work together during an excavation in a field for missing persons in the Turkish breakaway northern part of divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus. Over 11 years of work, Cyprus' Committee on Missing Persons has worked diligently to help heal a gaping wound from this tiny east Mediterranean island's tumultuous past. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

In this Wednesday, May 31, 2017 photo, an anthropologist works on the remains of a missing person at the anthropologist laboratory of Cyprus Missing Persons (CMP) inside the U.N buffer zone in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus. Over 11 years of work, Cyprus' Committee on Missing Persons has worked diligently to help heal a gaping wound from this tiny east Mediterranean island's tumultuous past. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

In this Wednesday, May 31, 2017 photo, an anthropologist classifications the remains of missing persons at the anthropologist laboratory of Cyprus Missing Persons (CMP) inside the U.N buffer zone in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus. Over 11 years of work, Cyprus' Committee on Missing Persons has worked diligently to help heal a gaping wound from this tiny east Mediterranean island's tumultuous past. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

In this Saturday, June 10, 2017 photo, mother of 20-year-old Epiphanios Kyriakou who went missing in 1974 during the Turkish invasion, Eleni Kyriakou, 88, left, and his sister Maria, mourn during his funeral at a Christians Orthodox church at Makedonitissa in divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus. Over 11 years of work, Cyprus' Committee on Missing Persons has worked diligently to help heal a gaping wound from this tiny east Mediterranean island's tumultuous past. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
URBANA, Ill. (AP) - The FBI says the search for a visiting Chinese scholar missing from the University of Illinois is a national priority for the agency.

Jon Holloway, assistant special agent in charge of criminal investigation at the Springfield FBI office, discussed the FBI's efforts Thursday night at a campus meeting about 26-year-old Yingying Zhang's disappearance.

Holloway says updates are being regularly sent to the office of the FBI's acting director and U.S. field offices.

Ronggao Zhang, center, father of missing Yingying Zhang, listens as he joins, from left, Yingying's best friend, Yige Yang, aunt Liqin Ye and boyfriend, Xiaolin Hou, far right, for an interview at The News-Gazette in Champaign, Ill., on Thursday, June 22, 2017. The Thursday evening gathering at Altgeld Hall in Urbana comes two weeks after Yingying Zhang, 26, disappeared. (Heather Coit/The News-Gazette via AP)

Zhang was last seen on a surveillance video getting into a black Saturn Astra in Urbana on the afternoon of June 9. Police have labeled the case a kidnapping but haven't ruled out other scenarios.

Earlier Thursday, her father Ronggao Zhang made an emotional appeal for his daughter's safe return in an interview with The (Champaign) News-Gazette.
WESTERVILLE, Ohio (AP) - Police say a former doctor and Ohio University trustee who pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion and running a pill mill in Columbus has been shot in an apparent home invasion.

The Franklin County Sheriff's Office says 51-year-old Kevin Lake was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

Maj. Steve Tucker says Lake's son called 911 Thursday morning and reported hearing gunshots after someone tried to break into the home. The officer says the family had recently received a written threat.

Lake pleaded guilty in January to evading $3.5 million in taxes and serving hundreds of patients daily at Columbus Southern Medical Center for prescriptions of oxycodone, hydrocodone and Xanax.

Lake resigned as a university trustee Jan. 21.

The shooting is under investigation.
HOBOKEN, N.J. (AP) - The mother of "Cake Boss" reality star Buddy Valastro has died. Mary Valastro was 69 years old.

He announced on Instagram on Thursday that his mother's "battle with ALS has ended." He wrote that she is no longer suffering and he hopes that "she's dancing to 'I Will Survive' with my dad."

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS and Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurological disorder that affects the nerves controlling voluntary muscle movement.

Mary Valastro was born in Italy in 1948 and immigrated to the U.S. with her family when she was 6, settling in Hoboken, New Jersey. She married Bartolo Valastro in 1965, shortly after buying Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken. They had five children.

Buddy Valastro took over the bakery in 1994. It will be closed Tuesday.
BERLIN (AP) - The German government on Friday strongly rejected criticism from a religious authority overseen by the Turkish government of a new liberal mosque in Berlin where all Muslims can pray together.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said officials were "very surprised" by statements from Turkey's Diyanet, or Presidency of Religious Affairs, and others about the mosque where men and women can pray together that opened a week ago in the capital.

Diyanet said Tuesday the project was "aimed at disrupting Islam's basic sources of information, principles of worship and methodology."

In this Wednesday, June 14, 2017 photo Seyran Ates, founder of the Ibn-Rushd-Goethe-Mosque walks in front the St. Johannis church prior to an interview with the Associated Press in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

"We have no doubt that our faithful brothers will act with wisdom and stay away from all kinds of provocations," it added.

Schaefer emphasized that, as Germany understands it, the state has no place in saying how, when and where people worship, but rather has "the obligation to protect the freedom of religion along with freedom of opinion and the press."

"I would like to clearly reject statements that obviously aim to deny the right of people in Germany to the free exercise of their religion and limit their right to freedom of expression of opinion," he said.

Relations between Turkey and Germany have been frayed by a range of issues over recent months including Turkey's jailing of two German journalists and German local authorities' banning of campaign rallies by Turkish ministers earlier this year.

Seyran Ates, a well-known women's right activist and lawyer who helped establish the mosque, told German daily Die Welt Friday that the criticism shows there is still a "power struggle" between different schools and interpretations of Islam.

Ates, the 54-year-old daughter of Turkish guest workers in Germany, fought for eight years to establish a place of prayer where progressive Muslims in Germany can leave religious conflicts behind and focus on their shared Islamic values.

She said when she opened the mosque a week ago that she sees it as a place of liberalism where everyone - women and men, Sunni and Shiite, straight and gay - is welcome and equal. Since then, she told Die Welt, she has received many death threats.

"Someone sent me a photo of a pistol captioned 'soon,'" she said. "The message is clear: These haters want to kill me because I'm doing something they're uncomfortable with."

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David Rising contributed to this story.

In this Wednesday, June 14, 2017 photo Seyran Ates, founder of the Ibn-Rushd-Goethe-Mosque gestures during an interview with the Associated Press in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Authorities say they have dismissed their case against a 43-year-old Maryland man accused of paying people to draw their blood and storing it in large quantities in an abandoned warehouse in Washington.

The Washington Post reports that local prosecutors dismissed, without prejudice, the charge of practicing registered nursing without a license against Khoa Hoang Nguyen on Thursday. That means prosecutors could refile the charge of additional charges could be filed later.

Nguyen was arrested in May after a Metropolitan police officer saw people congregating in front of a Washington apartment building. An affidavit said the officer investigated after overhearing people discussing people paid for giving blood.

Court documents said Nguyen told police he was certified and working for a biomedical company.

Nguyen's attorney and prosecutors have not commented further.

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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com

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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com
NEW YORK (AP) - Gabe Pressman, an intrepid, Emmy-winning journalist who still relished going to work at the age of 93, died in his sleep early Friday at a Manhattan hospital.

"This is an incredibly sad day for the WNBC family," said Eric Lerner, president and general manager of the station where Pressman worked for more than 50 years. "He was truly one of a kind and represented the very best in television news reporting."

Pressman launched his six-decade broadcast career after stints at New Jersey's Newark Evening News and the New York World Telegram And Sun. He covered the 1956 sinking of the Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria, riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the Woodstock festival in 1969 and the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

FILE--This photo from Nov. 8, 1977 shows reporter Gabe Pressman, center, hosting a televised New York mayoral debate with candidates Edward Koch, far left, Barry Farber, second from left, Mario Cuomo, second from right, and Roy Goodman. Pressman, an intrepid, Emmy-winning journalist who still relished going to work at the age of 93, died early Friday, June 23, 2017 at a Manhattan hospital. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm, File)

He interviewed every New York City mayor since Robert Wagner in the 1950s and every U.S. president from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton. Other notables interviewed by Pressman included Fidel Castro, Martin Luther King Jr., Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Malcolm X.

Although he was primarily a broadcast journalist, he "never stopped loving writing," said his daughter Liz Pressman, who called him "an inspiration." He wrote on Facebook every few days and enjoyed "a large audience there," she said.

Pressman starred for years - including April of this year - at Inner Circle, a charity show that pokes fun at politics.

Embracing self-deprecating humor about his age and experience, Pressman closed the show "playing 'Gabe Madison,' lecturing Sean Spicer, Kellyanne Conway and President Trump on the First Amendment," said Inner Circle President Terry Sheridan. "As always, his just appearing on stage would bring down the house."

Amid the laughter, "there was no greater defender of the First Amendment than Gabe Pressman," said Steve Scott, president of the New York Press Club, who also praised Pressman as a mentor, "moral compass" and a "tenacious seeker of the truth."

Pressman graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism. The New York State Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame inductee started working at WRCA radio in 1954. He went to WRCA's television side, now WNBC, in 1956.

In 1972, Pressman moved to WNEW-TV. He rejoined WNBC in 1980.

And ever since then, "Gabe was still coming to work and thinking about the next story," Lerner said. On March 17, he covered the city's St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Survivors include his wife, Vera, four children, eight grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

Funeral services were pending.

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This story has been corrected to show that Lerner is president and general manager of the station, not the network.

FILE--This photo from Thursday, Sept. 9, 1999 shows WNBC television reporter Gabe Pressman as he questions First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, during her visit to Queens borough of New York. Pressman, an intrepid, Emmy-winning journalist who still relished going to work at the age of 93, died early Friday, June 23, 2017 at a Manhattan hospital. (AP Photo/Ed Bailey, File)




Thats an old Blue America radio spot we ran against Paul Ryan at some point in the distant past. As you may know, Randy Bryce isnt the first Democrat to go up against Ryan. In 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 Ryan's Democratic challenger was Jeffrey Thomas, a retired orthopedic surgeon from Ryan's hometown of Janesville. The Ryan-friendly Thomas' only issue for his first three runs was healthcare and he never quite cracked a third of the vote, but in 2006 he ran against Ryan's shady relationship with Republican corruptionists Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay and went all the way to 37%. In 2006 Ryan raised over $1.6 million and Thomas, who always refused to raise money for campaigns, spent $5,000 of his own. He was the ideal candidate for a DCCC uninterested in offering Ryan any kind of a challenge.





In 2008 Obama won Ryans district, 51-48%. Predictably (albeit irrationally), the DCCC had refused to back the Democratic candidate that year, Margaret Krupp, and she was only able to spend $134,042 against the $2,251,389 Ryan spent. He took 64.0% of the vote to her 34.7%. The following cycle, there was a lot of excitement about building on Obamas win and finding a strong candidate to the on Ryan. The DCCC, in no uncertain terms, told Wisconsin politicians that they shouldnt waste their time. A progressive activist, Paulette Garin, a member of the National Single Payer Alliance and the Wisconsin state Coordinator for both Progressive Democrats of America and the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, stood up anyway. Paulette spent almost all of her time campaigning for healthcare reform rather than for Congress but in August, 2009, she faced off against Ryan in the only contest he agreed to participate in-- a goat-milking event at the Racine County Fair. Paulette beat him.













Maybe that made the DCCC nervous, because they smacked her down like a ton of bricks falling on her head. How dare she! She had only raised $3,549 in the primary. The DCCC found their own candidate to run against her, someone they were quite certain would offer no threat to Ryan, and put up John Heckenlively, a hugely oversized unemployed man who lived in his parents basement. After the DCCC worked to sabotage Garin and deliver the nomination to Heckenlively, they promptly abandoned the district and their candidate, who went on to raise just $12,066 and accrue just 30% of the vote (two years after Obama had won the district with 51%). That's the DCCC. They've been protecting Ryan's reelection bids every 2 years since 2000. I'm sure there must be a great reason and maybe Pelosi will tell us in her memoir someday.





When we set out to recruit a candidate for the 2018 cycle, we were fully aware that the DCCC would, once again, do whatever they had to do to keep Ryan in his seat. And so were all the local elected officials. Each one of them passed on the race. Finally, progressive state Senator Chris Larson and former candidate Rob Zerban each suggested I call union activist and progressive stalwart Randy Bryce. So I did. He told me he was leaning towards running and that the Wisconsin Working Families Party was urging him to as well. I started to get to know him and I could see immediately that Randy was not going to be another childish, wishy-washy moderate in the Ossoff mold. This was a fully-mature, independent-minded working class family man with a life of experience that has shaped his political perspectives. No one was ever going to have to persuade him that a living wage is better than a minimum wage or that single payer health care is the way to go. Bryce had long ago come to those conclusions and hes been doing the persuading for years. In 2016, he had been a Bernie activist and a Bernie surrogate-- and after Hillary won the primary, he was a Wisconsin state elector for Hillary.





You probably know by now that he declared his candidacy last Monday. On Monday morning he had 7,200 twitter followers. His introductory video caught fire-- hundreds of thousands of views in the first few days-- and his twitter following rocketed past 85,000. Requests for local and national press started flooding in. The first member of Congress to endorse him was Ro Khanna, an economic populist, who said "We need leaders connected to the community who can speak with authenticity about the need for universal healthcare, better wages, and good jobs. Randy has a bold vision that is rooted in his life experience. It's heartening to see people like Randy step up to serve. That is what our founders envisioned."





New Republic made a mockery of all their lies. But the DCCC wasnt buying any of it. They immediately started looking around for their own candidate to set up as a shill to force Randy to spend his funds in a primary. Now theres some stolen valor guy from somewhere-- Ohio or Florida-- thats not WI-01 or even Wisconsin running and EMILYs List quickly dug up one of their identity politics offerings-- a woman version of Heckenlively. Suddenly a battalion of silly Hillary dead-enders was swarming all over twitter spreading their poison. No one paid much attention and an interview with Randy by Sarah Jones in themade a mockery of all their lies.

Sarah: Tell me why you decided to challenge Paul Ryan.



Randy: Im a lifelong resident of Southeastern Wisconsin. I graduated from public schools, went into the Army after that. When I came back, I was diagnosed with cancer and I didnt have insurance, and now its considered a preexisting condition. I worked sometimes two full-time jobs to make ends meet. Finally, I joined the union, the Ironworkers Union, which had an apprenticeship. I got my journeymans card and Ive been doing that for 20 years now. As I drive through the district I can look and see, I worked on that, I built that. So literally I spent the last 20 years of my life building the district. Looking over at Paul Ryan, Im wondering what hes been doing.



Things have been taken away from us. Autoworkers used to have a lot of great-paying jobs building cars. Right now theyre tearing down the UAW plant-- the General Motors plant-- in Kenosha, theres a huge abandoned facility in Janesville, and some of the best-paying jobs in Waukesha County are going up to Canada.



People are working harder these days and having less to show as a result for it. Paul Ryan hasnt been in the district for a town hall in over 600 days and its time to make a change. If I cant perform my job I get fired at work. And its time to get someone who can do the job Paul Ryan was hired to do.



Sarah: How will your experience with the union influence your campaign?



Randy: I see this as an opportunity to create stewardship, to look out for the rest of the people in the community. Just like Ive done as a member of the unions executive board. Its about taking care of people, and making sure that theyre heard, and that people are treated fairly. Nobodys been heard, and thats the biggest complaint right now.



Donald Trump won an area in Kenosha that had traditionally been Democratic, but people are waking up and theyre seeing that it was all talk. They have buyers remorse now. Im a working person, I dont play one in a video. Thats my life, and Ive always stood with working people. Thats where Im coming from. The majority of the people in this district are working people. Theyre not corporate donors, and thats who Paul Ryans been spending most of his time with.



Sarah: Do you support the Fight for 15 campaign?



Randy: I do, and Ive been at numerous actions on behalf of providing people a livable wage. I feel strongly that anyone who works a full-time job deserves the freedom to be able to stand on their own two feet.



Sarah: Your first ad focused prominently on health care. Do you support single-payer health care?



Randy: I do. I am convinced we need to move towards single-payer. It works every place else. There are improvements that need to be done with Obamacare, but to completely remove it and the protections that are in place, I see that as the wrong way to go.



Sarah: Can you tell me a little bit about how you decided that your first ad would be about health care and that you would feature your mother?



Randy: Well, its one of the issues thats intergenerational. The Ironworkers are self-insured, so its based on hours worked. So especially during the winter months, when theres not a lot of work, it makes me, as a dad, concerned I might lose health insurance, which would affect my son. Do I make him stay inside in his room and wear knee pads and a helmet to eat dinner? Or can I let him be a kid? Parents shouldnt have to worry about that. It also affects me personally being a cancer survivor. Luckily Ive been in remission, but what if it comes back? How is it going to affect me? And with medical bills being the leading cause of bankruptcy I dont want to be in that position. I dont want to have to choose between paying my rent or seeing my doctor.



And it affects my parents: My mom, who is in the video, has multiple sclerosis. Luckily she has insurance that can get her the medication she needs, but there are too many people that dont. If one person cant get the medication they need, thats wrong. My fathers in assisted living because he has Alzheimers, so that affects my mom too. Thankfully, she is able to have her independence due to the medication she takes, so she can go see my dad. Health care is a universal issue that affects all ages and all races-- everybody, regardless of economic status.



Sarah: Whats your position on abortion rights?



Randy: I am firmly committed that it is a womans choice to make decisions about what happens to her body.



Sarah: And you support LGBT rights as well?



Randy: Absolutely.



Sarah: For people who arent from your district: What do you want them to understand about it?



Randy: Its a broad section of Wisconsin. Theres large urban areas, cities like Racine and Kenosha, which is now the third-largest city, and more to the west its all farmland. Its a big cross-section of working people. You could pick up the first district in Wisconsin and put it pretty much any place on the map and it would blend in anywhere across the United States. Its a lot of people, and its made up of different ethnicities, and its a melting pot of what America should be. We take care of our neighbors.



Sarah: How are you going to address the urban-rural divide in your campaign?



Randy: Its easier to hit the urban areas as far as reaching more people, but theres going to be emphasis placed on going to the harder-to-reach places. We need to pay attention to everybody in the district. Its easier for me, living where I do, to reach out to the urban people, but there are concerns too for farmers-- like making sure that rural roads are taken care of, that they have access to things like broadband service.



Ive always had such a healthy respect for farmers. I know the hours I put in are hard hours, but we have eight-hour days. Farmers work from sunup to sundown; they dont get days off and they have to worry about their retirement. Maybe its getting them access to some kind of pension system, so that after donating the best years of their life to raising the farm they have some restful years to enjoy what they earned.



Sarah: Paul Ryan often appeals to his roots. But you seem to have a very different vision about what it means to be from a state like Wisconsin.



Randy: Its obvious who Paul Ryan is making his decisions for when he has time to go to 50 fundraisers throughout the country and not have one town hall in his own district. If I dont show up for my job, Ill get fired and theyll get somebody else to take my spot. I cant imagine asking somebody for $10,000 to have their picture taken with me. Thats unimaginable. It shows where his priorities are and they arent the people in this district. When he shows up there are breaking news alerts: Paul Ryan has been seen in the First Congressional District at such and such a place. Its so wrong.

Theres no doubt the Pelosi and her DCCC will divert energy and resources from winning congressional races to, once again, throw whatever they can in to protect Ryan, this time against Randy Bryce and his already popular grassroots campaign. But Randy's put together an intrepid and experienced campaign committee that knows how to respond to establishment sabotage and wont shy away from a fight, not even with all the powers that be inside the Democratic establishment. And... they need our help-- which is why Ive included the Blue America congressional ActBlue thermometer on the right. Remember, there's no such thing as a contribution too small-- not when you're talking about a grassroots campaign. Please consider giving what you can. Its a real shame about Mark Pocan though. I had such high hopes for him. We saw him as such a promising guy






BEACON, N.Y. (AP) - The Sloop Clearwater has had to cancel its scheduled voyage to Washington, D.C., to lobby on environmental matters because of rough conditions on the Atlantic Ocean.

The Hudson River sloop set sail Monday from Croton-on-Hudson for the nation's capital to deliver petitions and municipal resolutions urging Congress to protect New York's rivers and other American waterways.

But severe weather along the East Coast forced Clearwater senior captain Nick Rogers to call off the trip. The sloop is a replica of vessels that hauled cargo on the Hudson and isn't designed for ocean-going voyages in severe conditions.

Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a group inspired by folk legend Pete Seeger, says the information it collected will be delivered to Capitol Hill for a June 29 forum on clean water.
NEVADA, Mo. (AP) - Authorities say a western Missouri deputy has shot and killed a driver after a pursuit ended with a physical altercation.

The Joplin Globe (http://bit.ly/2sydaKc ) reports that 33-year-old Brandon Lukenbill, of Nevada, was killed early Wednesday east of Nevada. Vernon County Sheriff Jason Mosher said the chase started after a 911 call about a stolen vehicle. Mosher has asked the Missouri State Highway Patrol to investigate.

Patrol Sgt. Shawn Griggs declined to discuss details of the struggle between the deputy and Lukenbill, including if the suspect was armed, because the investigation is ongoing. Griggs says an autopsy is scheduled for Friday.

Lukenbill had been in and out of prison in recent years on an array of convictions for burglaries, theft, drug possession and assault of a law enforcement officer.

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Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, http://www.joplinglobe.com
PETALUMA, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on The World's Ugliest Dog Contest in Petaluma, California (all times local):

8:45 p.m.

A 125-pound gentle giant named Martha has been crowned the winner of the World's Ugliest Dog Contest.

Shirley Zindler, of Sebastopol, Calif., sits with her dog Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, who won the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 23, 2017.(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

The gassy Neapolitan Mastiff was a favorite of the Northern California crowd from the start at the Friday night contest, often plopping down on her side on stage.

She was rescued when she was nearly blind, but after several surgeries can see again, according to her handler Shirley Zindler.

She waddles away with $1,500, a flashy trophy and a trip to New York for media appearances, all things she could hardly care less about.

She beat out 13 other dogs, most of them much older and much smaller.

Moe, a 16-year-old Brussels Griffon-pug mix, came in second.

Chase, a 14-year-old Chinese Crested-Harke mix, came in third.

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5:20 p.m.

Dog lovers are celebrating the imperfections of man's best friend in Petaluma, California, in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest.

The homely hounds and their humans arrived hours before the show to socialize and size up the competition.

The pooches will face off in a red carpet walk and "Faux Paw Fashion Show" Friday evening. It's intended to show that all dogs, regardless of physical appearance, can be lovable additions to any family.

The contestants include Monkey, a 6-year-old Brussels Griffon, and Icky, an 8-year-old unknown breed, both of whom were rescued from hoarding.

A blind Chihuahua-Chinese Crested mix named Sweepee Rambo bested 16 other homely hounds in last year's competition, winning $1,500.

The winner of the 29th annual contest held at Sonoma-Marin Fair will be decided Friday evening.

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12:20 a.m.

The World's Ugliest Dog Contest is celebrating man's best friend's imperfections in California.

Organizers say the pooches will face off in a red carpet walk and "Faux Paw Fashion Show" during Friday's events in Petaluma. It's intended to show that all dogs, regardless of physical appearance, can be lovable additions to any family.

A blind Chihuahua-Chinese Crested mix named Sweepee Rambo bested 16 other homely hounds in last year's competition and waddled away with $1,500.

Contest rules prevent owners from intentionally altering their animals to enhance appearance for the purpose of the contest. These pooches are celebrated for their natural ugliness.

Organizers say the contest has been held in Petaluma for more than 50 years and is in its 29th year at the Sonoma-Marin Fair.

Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, stands on stage after winning the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. Martha is owned by Shirley Zinder, of Sebastopol, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, walks down the red carpet during the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. Martha, of Sebastopol, Calif., was the winner of the event. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Shirley Zindler, of Sebastopol, Calif, lifts up the jowls of Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, during the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. Martha was the winner of the event. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, competes while being escorted by Shirley Zindler in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. Martha was named the winner of the contest. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Shirley Zindler, of Sebastopol, Calif., reacts after her dog Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, won the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. At right is judge Kerry Sanders. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Rascal, left, a Chinese Crest, held by Dane Andrew of Sunnyvale, Calif., meets Chase, right, a Chinese Crested Harke, held by Storm Shayler, right, of Britain, before the start of the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Martha, a Neapolitan Mastiff, from Sebastopol, Calif., waits for the start of the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Moe, a Brussel griffon pug, from Santa Rosa, Calif., waits to compete in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Icky, left, an unknown hairless, and Zoomer, right, a Chinese crested, both from Davis, Calif., wait to compete in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Dane Andrew of Sunnyvale, Calif., holds up his dog, Rascal, a Chinese crested, before the start of the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Dane Andrew of Sunnyvale, Calif., kisses his dog, Rascal, a Chinese crested, before the start of the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - While a television news crew was gathering footage for a story about crime in the Albuquerque downtown area, a thief drove off in the station's SUV.

The Albuquerque Journal (http://bit.ly/2rMiw1n ) reported the story Friday about the KOB-TV truck.

KOB News Director Michelle Donaldson says the vehicle was recovered within a half hour without police assistance by following the GPS tracking device that was on board.

She says the thief had fled the scene and the SUV was locked with the keys missing.

The crew was in the area reporting on recent concerns about crime and safety.

Donaldson says it's ironic that KOB became victims of a crime in exactly the area they were reporting about.

She says that violates the rule of never being the lead story of your own newscast.

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Information from: KOB-TV, http://www.kob.com
NEWTON, Iowa (AP) - John Hunter Nemechek raced to his second straight NASCAR Camping World Truck victory, taking the lead with his six laps left Friday night at Iowa Speedway.

Nemechek took four new tires during the final caution. The gamble paid off, as he passed leader Johnny Sauter soon after a restart.

The 20-year-old Nemechek raced to his fifth career victory, driving the No. 8 Chevrolet for his father, former NASCAR Cup driver Joe Nemechek. He won last week at Gateway in Madison, Illinois.

John Hunter Nemechek celebrates with his father, Joe Nemechek, right, in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Truck Series auto race, Friday, June 23, 2017, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

"We knew that we were going to have a good truck here," Nemechek said. "The truck wasn't the greatest from the start of the race. The track kept changing a lot...somehow it all worked out in the end."

Sauter, the series leader, led 72 laps. But his team's choice to stay out on old tires at the end of the race cost him dearly.

Brandon Jones was third, followed by Grant Enfinger and Christopher Bell.

Bell led a race-high 99 laps, but he dropped to 12th after pitting under caution for new tires just before the final stage.

Though Sauter and Bell had the two most dominant trucks of the race, Nemechek and his team mastered the late-race strategy that is typically crucial on Iowa's short oval - which has gotten rougher and bumpier over the years.

"That was the only call to make," Nemechek's crew chief, Gere Kennon, said about the decision to take four tires. "It was the thing to do. It just suited our style this week

Chase Briscoe, who had finished second in back-to-back races, passed Sauter with 18 laps left and seemed assured of his first career win if the race stayed caution free.

It didn't, because Matt Crafton got clipped and sent into the wall just a few laps later.

The drivers on the lead lap were then faced with a choice. Sauter's team chose to stay on the track and hope that his tires had enough left to hold off the field.

"In hindsight, we should have put tires on but we didn't," Sauter said. "Not a whole lot of deliberating."

Briscoe also fell back on the final restart. He finished seventh.

Noah Gragson, who was sixth, won the pole for the second time this season and led for just 16 laps before Bell slipped past him. Bell went on to claim his fourth stage win of the season.

Bell continued to dominate in the second stage, maintaining a strong lead over Briscoe. But the race's first flag came just before the end of the second stage when Mike Senica spun off the track.

Sauter, with the fresh tires he could've used at the end of the race, pushed Bell hard on the restart and eventually overtook him.

Ben Rhodes and Kaz Grala then got collected in a multi-car wreck that knocked out Grala - who was eighth in points entering Iowa - for the rest of the race. Sauter hung on to win the stage.

Despite the loss, Sauter increased his points lead over Bell to 42.

John Hunter Nemechek celebrates in Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR Truck Series auto race, Friday, June 23, 2017, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

John Hunter Nemechek celebrates after winning a NASCAR Truck Series auto race, Friday, June 23, 2017, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

John Hunter Nemechek drives his car during a NASCAR Truck Series auto race, Friday, June 23, 2017, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

John Hunter Nemechek celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Truck Series auto race, Friday, June 23, 2017, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

John Hunter Nemechek celebrates on the track after winning a NASCAR Truck Series auto race, Friday, June 23, 2017, at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
15 bodies found after landslide buries scores in China

MAO COUNTY, China (AP) - Crews searching through the night in the rubble left by a landslide that buried a mountain village under tons of soil and rocks in southwestern China found 15 bodies, but more than 100 more people remained missing.

About 3,000 rescuers were using detection devices and dogs to look for signs of life in an area that once held 62 homes and a hotel, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

"We won't give up as long as there is a slim of chance," the agency quoted an unidentified searcher as saying.

The provincial government of Sichuan on Sunday released the names of the 118 missing people. It's unclear if the 15 bodies have been identified.

Relatives were sobbing as they awaited news of their loved ones. A woman in a nearby village told The Associated Press that she had no information on her relatives in Xinmo, the mountain village that was buried. She said she had only heard that body parts were found.

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Koch chief says health care bill insufficiently conservative

COLORADO SPRING, Colo. (AP) - Chief lieutenants in the Koch brothers' political network lashed out at the Senate Republican health care bill on Saturday as not conservative enough, becoming a powerful outside critic as GOP leaders try to rally support for their plan among rank-and-file Republicans.

Tim Phillips, who leads Americans For Prosperity, the Koch network's political arm, called the Senate's plans for Medicaid "a slight nip and tuck" of President Barack Obama's health care law, a modest change he described as "immoral."

"This Senate bill needs to get better," Phillips said. "It has to get better."

Some Republican senators have raised concern about cuts to Medicaid, which provides health care coverage to millions of poor and middle-income Americans. Several more conservative senators have voiced opposition because they feel it does not go far enough in dismantling what they call "Obamacare."

The comments came on the first day of a three-day private donor retreat at a luxury resort in the Rocky Mountains. Invitations were extended only to donors who promise to give at least $100,000 each year to the various groups backed by the Koch brothers' Freedom Partners - a network of education, policy and political entities that aim to promote small government.

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UK finds 34 high-rise apartment buildings with unsafe siding

LONDON (AP) - Britain's fire-safety crisis expanded substantially Saturday as authorities said 34 high-rise apartment blocks across the country had cladding that failed fire safety tests. London officials scrambled to evacuate four public housing towers after experts found them "not safe for people to sleep in overnight."

Hundreds of residents hastily packed their bags and sought emergency shelter, with many angry and confused about the chaotic situation. Some refused to leave their high-rise apartments. Scores of evacuees slept on inflatable beds in a gym while officials sought better accommodations for them.

Camden Council leader Georgia Gould said it decided to evacuate four blocks in north London's Chalcots Estate late Friday after fire inspectors uncovered problems with "gas insulation and door stops," which, combined with the presence of flammable cladding encasing the buildings, meant residents had to leave immediately.

The evacuation comes amid widening worries about the safety of high-rise apartment blocks across the country following the inferno that engulfed Grenfell Tower in west London on June 14, killing at least 79 people. Attention has focused on the 24-story tower's external cladding material, which has been blamed for the rapid spread of that blaze, but multiple other fire risks have now been identified in some housing blocks.

The government said Saturday that the cladding samples that failed fire safety tests came from 34 apartment towers in cities including London, Manchester, Plymouth and Portsmouth. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said further testing "is running around the clock."

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Concert in Utah park honors man killed in London attack

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The life of a Utah man who ran a recording studio at his home before he was killed in a high-profile London attack that also injured his wife was celebrated Saturday with the local music he loved.

Among the attendees was Keith Malda, a police officer in London who was one of the first responders to the scene at London's Westminster Bridge. He saw Melissa Cochran bloody and silent on the bridge on March 22 and helped treat her before ambulances arrived.

The two stayed in touch, and Malda said he traveled to Utah after being inspired by her focus on love over hate after the attack. "I had to come," he said.

Melissa Cochran said Malda stayed with her and told her everything was going to be OK. "I owe my life to him," she said.

Melissa Cochran, 46, said she was looking at her camera and didn't see the sport utility vehicle coming before it plowed into a crowd of pedestrians. She and her husband had been grabbing each other's hands just before the attack, kissing and saying how much fun they were having with each other.

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Venezuelan protesters, security forces clash at air base

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Young protesters broke down a metal fence guarding an air base in Caracas on Saturday before being repelled by security forces firing tear gas in another day of anti-government protests in Venezuela's capital.

Demonstrators threw stones, and some protesters were injured.

The clashes took place after a peaceful mass demonstration next to La Carlota base where a 22-year-old protester was killed this week when a national guardsman shot him in the chest at close range with rubber bullets.

Protesters also fought with security forces outside the base Friday, and activists burned some vehicles during the confrontation.

President Nicolas Maduro said in an address to troops Saturday that he had managed to break up a U.S.-backed plot to oust him. Like his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, Maduro frequently accuses the U.S. of trying to topple Venezuela's socialist administration.

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Lawyer: Race a factor in St. Louis cop being mistakenly shot

An off-duty black St. Louis police officer's race factored into him being mistakenly shot by a white officer who didn't recognize him after a shootout with black suspects this week, the wounded officer's lawyer contends.

The 38-year-old black officer was off duty when he heard a commotion near his home and ran toward it with his service weapon to try to help his fellow officers, police said.

St. Louis' interim police chief, Lawrence O'Toole, said the incident began when officers with an anti-crime task force followed a stolen car and were twice fired upon by its occupants. One suspect was shot in an ankle and was arrested, along with another teenager who tried to run from police, O'Toole said. A third suspect is being sought.

When the off-duty officer who lived nearby heard the commotion and arrived at the scene Wednesday night to help, two on-duty officers ordered him to the ground but then recognized him and told him to stand up and walk toward them. As he was doing so, another officer arrived and shot the off-duty officer "apparently not recognizing" him, police said.

The police department as of Saturday hadn't disclosed the names of the officers, who have been placed on routine administrative leave as the matter is investigated. Police described the black officer as an 11-year department veteran and said he was treated at a hospital and released. The officer who shot him is 36 and has been with the department more than eight years.

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CIA chief: Intel leaks on the rise, cites leaker 'worship'

WASHINGTON (AP) - CIA Director Mike Pompeo says he thinks disclosure of America's secret intelligence is on the rise, fueled partly by the "worship" of leakers like Edward Snowden.

"In some ways, I do think it's accelerated," Pompeo told MSNBC in an interview that aired Saturday. "I think there is a phenomenon, the worship of Edward Snowden, and those who steal American secrets for the purpose of self-aggrandizement or money or for whatever their motivation may be, does seem to be on the increase."

Pompeo said the United States needs to redouble its efforts to stem leaks of classified information.

"It's tough. You now have not only nation states trying to steal our stuff, but non-state, hostile intelligence services, well-funded -- folks like WikiLeaks, out there trying to steal American secrets for the sole purpose of undermining the United States and democracy," Pompeo said.

Besides Snowden, who leaked documents revealing extensive U.S. government surveillance, WikiLeaks recently released nearly 8,000 documents that it says reveal secrets about the CIA's cyberespionage tools for breaking into computers. WikiLeaks previously published 250,000 State Department cables and embarrassed the U.S. military with hundreds of thousands of logs from Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Clue to Gorsuch's ideology seen in pairings with Thomas

WASHINGTON (AP) - To see where Justice Neil Gorsuch might fit on the Supreme Court, watch the company he keeps.

Gorsuch has already paired up four times with Justice Clarence Thomas - the court's most conservative member - in separate opinions that dissent from or take issue with the court's majority rulings.

While the sample size is small, the results show Gorsuch's commitment to follow the strict text of the law and a willingness to join Thomas in pushing the envelope further than the court's other conservatives.

Gorsuch was picked by President Donald Trump to be a reliable conservative in the mold of the late Antonin Scalia. But the question after his confirmation hearings was how far to the right he would be.

The early trend of Gorsuch and Thomas acting together has pleased those who hoped Gorsuch would continue Scalia's legacy and be another intellectual beacon for conservatives.

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Now in Washington, Melania Trump still no social butterfly

WASHINGTON (AP) - Two weeks into her new life as a full-time Washingtonian, Melania Trump is staying true to her reputation as more homebody than social butterfly.

Not that she hasn't been busy fulfilling her duties as first lady and first mom.

Her top priority has been settling in 11-year-old son Barron - the first boy in the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr. more than 50 years ago.

Even the smallest details of every recent Barron sighting have drawn interest: his T-shirt reading "The Expert," his grasp on a popular fidget spinner toy as he exited Air Force One, his pivot to take a picture of the Marine One helicopter as the family returned from a Father's Day weekend retreat at Camp David.

Mrs. Trump told "Fox and Friends" this week that she's enjoying White House life so much that she doesn't really miss New York. Barron is "all settled" and "loves it here," she said.

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Al Capone song, pocket watch fetch over $100K at auction

BOSTON (AP) - Artifacts connected to some of the nation's most notorious gangsters sold for more than $100,000 at auction Saturday.

A diamond pocket watch that belonged to Al Capone and was produced in Chicago in the 1920s, along with a handwritten musical composition he wrote in Alcatraz in the 1930s, were among the items that sold at the "Gangsters, Outlaws and Lawmen" auction. The watch fetched the most - $84,375 - according to Boston-based RR Auction.

The winning bidder of the watch was not identified. The buyer is a collector who has an eye for interesting American artifacts, said RR Auction Executive Vice President Bobby Livingston. He was among about 30 internet, telephone and in-person bidders.

Capone's musical piece entitled "Humoresque" sold for $18,750. The piece shows Capone's softer side. It contains the lines: "You thrill and fill this heart of mine, with gladness like a soothing symphony, over the air, you gently float, and in my soul, you strike a note."

Livingston told The Associated Press he wasn't surprised that lyrics written by a man better known for organized crime than his musical talents sold at the auction because of the way Capone "resonates in the American imagination."
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump and his associates are trying to draw attention to the relationship between special counsel Robert Mueller and former FBI Director James Comey. It appears that Trump's description of the two as "very, very good friends" isn't rooted in reality.

Mueller and Comey served together in the Justice Department during the George W. Bush administration. They're not known to be especially close friends. A former federal prosecutor, David Kelley, says Mueller and Comey haven't visited each other's homes and rarely shared a meal together.

Legal experts say whatever connection they do have doesn't come close to meriting Mueller's removal as special counsel.

FILE - In this Sept. 4, 2013, file photo, then-incoming FBI Director James Comey talks with outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller before Comey was officially sworn in at the Justice Department in Washington. Mueller, the somber-faced and demanding FBI director who led the bureau through the Sept. 11 attacks, and Comey, his more approachable and outwardly affable successor, may be poles apart stylistically but both command a wealth of respect in the law enforcement and legal community. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Mueller is in charge of the Russia investigation that has expanded to include Trump's firing of Comey. Trump has called the Russia probe a "witch hunt."
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Two Dutch journalists have been freed unharmed after being held captive for almost a week by leftist rebels in Colombia.

Derk Bolt and Eugenio Follender were released before dawn Saturday near where they were apprehended by guerrillas belonging to the National Liberation Army. Bolt said the two are doing well and anxious to be back with their families in Europe.

In an interview with Colombia's Caracol radio, Bolt said the two men were treated well by their captors, suffering only a few scratches from 14-hour marches to evade security forces who had mounted a massive search.

In this photo released by Colombia's Ombudsman Press Office, rebels of Colombia's National Liberation Army, ELN, release Dutch journalists Derk Bolt, second from left, and Eugenio Follender, second from right, north of Santander, Colombia, Saturday, June 24, 2017. The two Dutch journalists, who were held captive for almost a week by the leftist rebels in Colombia, were released unharmed, Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Bert Koenders said early Saturday. (Colombia's Ombudsman Press Office via AP)

He said the reporters at first thought they were being robbed because their captors demanded they turn over their cameras. Then they were shuttled from safe house to safe house before eventually taking refuge in the jungle.

"It was very hard, but the people who took us captive were very warm and treated us with lots of respect, almost like friends," Bolt told Caracol. "They always told us our lives weren't in danger."

The volatile Catatumbo region in northeast Colombia where the journalists were held is one of the country's most lawless areas, a major transit zone for drug trafficking to neighboring Venezuela and historically one of the ELN's strongholds.

Last year, the ELN held three journalists in the same region for almost a week.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said he spoke by phone to the journalists shortly after their release.

"Bolt was ... very relieved. They have a long journey through the jungle ahead of them. We are doing all we can to bring them back to the Netherlands as soon as possible," he said in a statement.

Bolt is host of a Dutch television show called "Spoorloos" (Without a Trace) and Follender is a cameraman for the show, which attempts to help people find their long-lost relatives.

"We are incredibly happy and relieved," the show said in a Facebook post. "We are grateful to the ministry of foreign affairs. They have done everything, in The Hague and Bogota, to get Derk and Eugenio home safely."

The ELN is Colombia's last major guerrilla army, with about 1,500 troops. This year, it joined the government for peace talks in Ecuador, bringing closer than ever the possibility of an end to a half century of political violence after the much-larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia reached a deal of its own last year to lay down its weapons.

Unlike the FARC, which has a cohesive, centralized command structure, leaders of the more ideological, Cuban revolution-inspired ELN have had trouble keeping tabs on their troops. Peace talks with the government were delayed by almost a year over the refusal of some guerrilla units to free several civilians and a politician they had been holding captive.

The ELN in a statement said the journalists were detained preventively because they had entered a conflict zone where Colombia's military often operates covertly.

"Our first duty is the preserve the life of the communities and people that enter these territories, not exposing them" to danger, members of the group said.
PRAGUE (AP) - The Czech foreign minister says his country is not ready to change its resistance to taking in refugees, a thorny issue in the European Union.

The European Commission has launched legal proceedings against the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland for failing to take in refugees under the EU's legally binding sharing plan.

French President Emmanuel Macron backed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel accused the nations of betraying European values by refusing the program.

After meeting his German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel, Lubomir Zaoralek said Saturday his country's position is unchanged.

Gabriel said it was important for him to get better understanding of the Czech stance. He added that a key question is what the EU is to do to effectively stop waves of refugees who are heading for Europe from Africa.
BIDI BIDI, Uganda (AP) - The cemetery for South Sudanese refugees lies between two streams that flood when the rains come, leaving debris scattered across the otherwise unmarked graves.

That bothers James Malish, whose mother and sister recently died days apart. They were laid to rest here, along with about two dozen others on the edge of the world's largest refugee settlement - and achingly far from home.

"Where we come from, we do not bury our dead people in the bush," Malish said. "We bury our people in the compound, just in the front of the house."

In this photo taken Monday, June 5, 2017, South Sudanese refugee James Malish, whose mother and sister recently died days apart, visits their graves and stands by that of his sister Lucia Tokosa, on an isolated patch of land designated by Ugandan officials on the edge of Bidi Bidi, the world's largest refugee settlement, in northern Uganda. Refugees sheltering here are having to learn new ways of life and death, and when they die their families face a dilemma: bury them without the traditional customs, or carry them home and face war again. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

But the nearly one million refugees sheltering here in northern Uganda have to learn new ways of life, and death.

Malish, a father of six, witnessed killings in South Sudan's civil war before fleeing last year. His brother was shot dead in the capital, Juba, allegedly by government soldiers, which sent shock waves through family members already living in Uganda.

His sister collapsed and died in Bidi Bidi in late April. A month later, his 78-year-old mother died after an accident that weakened her health.

Now the two lie next to each other in the isolated patch of land designated by Ugandan officials for graves. Malish has decided he can at least buy cement to make markers that won't wash away.

The Bidi Bidi settlement has filled with people telling stories of violence and despair. Many hope to start afresh here. But some reach safety only to fall victim to meningitis, malaria and other tropical diseases.

When they die, their families face a dilemma: bury them without the traditional customs, or carry them home and face war again.

And now Bidi Bidi is running out of accessible land. Uganda's government has received global praise for the way it welcomes refugees, even giving them plots for cultivation. But officials say they are overwhelmed as South Sudan's refugees pour in.

Over 950,000 refugees now shelter in northern Uganda, most of them in Bidi Bidi, with more than 1,000 arriving daily.

A total of 100 refugees died in two of Bidi Bidi's five zonal areas between December and May, according to the aid group International Rescue Committee. It was not possible to get a death toll for the entire refugee settlement since August, when it opened.

Most of the land here is customarily held, fiercely protected by clan leaders who know the boundaries and can apprehend trespassers.

Musa Ecweru, a Ugandan government minister in charge of refugees, said the government has been able to resettle refugees so far with the backing of locals who believe they eventually will return home.

The government also is working with local leaders to designate appropriate areas as cemeteries, Ecweru said.

Yet it comes too late for refugees like Tito Modi, who wished to bury his grandchild not far from the family's new homestead but was refused by the authorities.

Instead the two-month-old baby, who died this month of meningitis, was buried in the same area that holds Malish's mother and sister.

"In our culture, small children like that cannot be buried in a cemetery. It is a pain, but there is nothing we can do," Modi said. "That place they gave us, really it cannot be a place for burying people."

As the fighting continues in South Sudan with little promise of peace, Uganda's government and the United Nations are appealing for $8 billion to deal with what has been called the world's fastest-growing refugee crisis.

Modi said he hopes South Sudan's warring leaders can find a way to end the years of violence, "so that we go to our land and live the normal way."

In this photo taken Monday, June 5, 2017, a wooden cross marks the grave of South Sudanese refugee James Malish's mother Joyce Doru, on an isolated patch of land designated by Ugandan officials on the edge of Bidi Bidi, the world's largest refugee settlement, in northern Uganda. Refugees sheltering here are having to learn new ways of life and death, and when they die their families face a dilemma: bury them without the traditional customs, or carry them home and face war again. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Monday, June 5, 2017, South Sudanese refugee James Malish, whose mother and sister recently died days apart, visits their graves on an isolated patch of land designated by Ugandan officials on the edge of Bidi Bidi, the world's largest refugee settlement, in northern Uganda. Refugees sheltering here are having to learn new ways of life and death, and when they die their families face a dilemma: bury them without the traditional customs, or carry them home and face war again. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Monday, June 5, 2017, South Sudanese refugee James Malish, whose mother and sister recently died days apart, visits their graves and stands by that of his mother Joyce Doru, on an isolated patch of land designated by Ugandan officials on the edge of Bidi Bidi, the world's largest refugee settlement, in northern Uganda. Refugees sheltering here are having to learn new ways of life and death, and when they die their families face a dilemma: bury them without the traditional customs, or carry them home and face war again. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Monday, June 5, 2017, South Sudanese refugee Tito Modi who wished to bury his two-month-old baby grandchild, who died this month of meningitis, not far from the family's new homestead but was refused by the authorities who insisted on a cemetery burial, tells his story in Bidi Bidi, the world's largest refugee settlement, in northern Uganda. Refugees sheltering here are having to learn new ways of life and death, and when they die their families face a dilemma: bury them without the traditional customs, or carry them home and face war again. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Monday, June 5, 2017, South Sudanese refugee James Malish, whose mother and sister recently died days apart, visits their graves and stands by that of his mother Joyce Doru, on an isolated patch of land designated by Ugandan officials on the edge of Bidi Bidi, the world's largest refugee settlement, in northern Uganda. Refugees sheltering here are having to learn new ways of life and death, and when they die their families face a dilemma: bury them without the traditional customs, or carry them home and face war again. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - On the menu, the flavor profiles seemed incongruous: Chinese dumplings, Italian-style roast pork and a Mexican chicken dish featuring an edible weed.

But when dinner was served, the guests seated and plates bearing foods of three different cultures shared, it all made sense.

The meal was part of "Breaking Bread; Breaking Barriers," a yearlong program that brings people of different backgrounds together for a meal featuring their cultural favorites, bridging differences one plate at a time.

In this photo provided by Alex Styer, Cristina Martinez, left, co-owner of the Mexican restaurant El Compadre in Philadelphia, teaches Carol Wong, center, and Wei Chen, right, how to press tortillas during a June 5, 2017, dinner at Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. People of different backgrounds are sharing meals from their cultures as part of a yearlong program titled "Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers," which organizers say uses good food to help connect groups that might have divisions. (Alex Styer/Bellevue Communications Group via AP)

"People cooking and eating together happens every day, but it doesn't often happen across our social boundaries," said Anuj Gupta, general manager of Reading Terminal Market, the historic and sprawling indoor market and home to the program. "It's an incredibly powerful tool to cut through whatever social barriers you want to erect."

Jews and Muslims have shared Jewish apple cake and baklava as part of the program. Members of the African-American and Korean communities have come together to compare fried chicken recipes.

During the most recent gathering, residents of the city's Chinese and Mexican communities enjoyed dinner with members of the Philadelphia Mummers Association, a 10,000-strong civic association behind the city's annual New Year's Day parade.

For much of their history, Mummers groups included only white men. Women weren't allowed in the parade until a few decades ago. The tradition is also a family legacy, with many clubs based in southern Philadelphia.

While the 2017 parade was controversy-free, past parades were tainted by performances dubbed racist or culturally insensitive. The Mummers have tried to diversity, creating a division in 2015 specifically for ethnic groups.

The dinner consisted of Chinese dumplings with pork or kale; verdolagas con pollo (verdolagas is an herb also known as purslane that's largely considered a weed by Americans); and roasted pork rolled with spinach, roasted peppers and provolone cheese, the Mummer contribution in a nod to a popular Italian-American dish served on New Year's Day.

Before the meal, Chef Alice Ye taught Mummer Jay Polakoff how to make Chinese dumplings as the other diners watched. Someone noted that Polakoff's seemed a little, well, misshapen.

"It's actually a hamentashen," Polakoff said, referring to the tri-cornered confection associated with the Jewish holiday of Purim.

Gathered at tables, the 40 community members shared details about the cultural backgrounds and favorite foods. In one grouping, the diners - of Irish, German, Polish, Mexican, Cambodian and Italian descents - talked about a dumpling being a universal food, with multiple cultures having a version: pierogi, ravioli, empanadas, kreplach. The conversation flowed thanks to a facilitator from the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations.

In discussing the shared meal, Oscar Galvan, a mechanic who is native of Mexico, said he was tempted to put hot sauce on his Italian pork dish.

They also reflected on how food related to friends and family.

"One of the neatest ways to promote friendship is to share your ethnic food, something you're so proud of," said Carol Wong, an educator of Chinese descent.

Everyone agreed.

"In Mexico, it's all about food," said Ivette Compean, who moved to the U.S. from Mexico six months ago. "They're always feeding you. It's how they tell us they love us."

"Breaking Bread; Breaking Barriers" was created with an $85,000 grant from the nonprofit John S. and James L Knight Foundation. Gupta said he was inspired to seek the funding after reading sociologist Elijah Anderson's "The Cosmopolitan Canopy/Race and Civility in Everyday Life."

Anderson, who lives in Philadelphia and taught at the University of Pennsylvania, found there are certain places in cities where people of different cultures and backgrounds unite without conflict. Reading Terminal Market - a bustling home to butchers and fishmongers, sandwich stalls and Amish farmers - was one of them.

"It's a place of refuge and convergence, old and young, black and white, coming together and feeling good around issues of food," Anderson said. "It's a place where people get along even though we know there are fault lines. It's a beautiful thing. It's inspiring."

The program hosted one of its most emotional dinners in January, Gupta said. It brought together Syrian refugees and residents deeply rooted in their northeastern Philadelphia neighborhood. The Syrian contributions included falafel and hummus. The American offerings were blackened catfish and collard greens.

During the meal, held a few days after the announcement of President Donald Trump's original travel ban that included Syrian refugees, the refugees shared stories of their lost homes and changed lives.

At evening's end, Gupta said, one of the refugees - a woman in her 50s who had been quiet during the meal - stood up and shared her thoughts with the help of an interpreter.

"I thought this evening was just going to be about food," she said. "It turns out it was about unity."

In this photo provided by Alex Styer, Oscar Galvan, second from right, layers roasted red peppers into a pork pinwheel dish as his wife Christina Galvan, right, stands at his side during a June 5, 2017, dinner at Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. People of different backgrounds are sharing meals from their cultures as part of a yearlong program titled "Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers," which organizers say uses good food to help connect groups that might have divisions. (Alex Styer/Bellevue Communications Group via AP)

In this photo provided by Alex Styer, participants in a yearlong "Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers" program share a meal on June 5, 2017, at Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. People of different backgrounds are sharing meals from their cultures as part of a yearlong program titled "Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers," which organizers say uses good food to help connect groups that might have divisions. (Alex Styer/Bellevue Communications Group via AP)

In this photo provided by Alex Styer, Alice Ye, left, demonstrates her technique for folding dumplings to Jay Polakoff, center, and Elliott Maser, right, during a June 5, 2017, dinner at Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. People of different backgrounds are sharing meals from their cultures as part of a yearlong program titled "Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers," which organizers say uses good food to help connect groups that might have divisions. (Alex Styer/Bellevue Communications Group via AP)
As an investigation into Russian meddling in last year's presidential election engulfs President Donald Trump's administration, a New Jersey town is marking the 50th anniversary of when leaders of the world's two superpowers gathered at a small liberal arts college to talk through similarly turbulent times.

Soviet Premier Alexi Kosygin sent a message to President Lyndon Johnson as the Six-Day War between Israel and Arab states raged in 1967, in hopes of ensuring the conflict did not escalate into world war. The leaders decided to meet, but the Cold War atmosphere required negotiations for picking the site.

They looked for a spot nearly equal distance between New York and Washington, selecting what was then Glassboro State College to host the hastily arranged summit 50 years ago this weekend in the college president's mansion called Hollybush.

FILE - In this June 23, 1967 file photo, Soviet Premier Alexi Kosygin takes a bite of shrimp cocktail as State Department Interpreter, Bill Kramer, center, relays the words of President Lyndon Johnson, right, during a luncheon meeting of the leaders on the Glassboro State College campus in Glassboro, N.J. Fifty years ago during the Cold War, Johnson and Kosygin decided to talk as the Six-Day War raged in the Mideast. They settled on a place halfway between New York and Washington and selected the school to host the hastily arranged summit in the college president's mansion. (AP Photo/Jerry Mosey, File)

"It was one of the most quickly arranged summits," said Professor Jeremi Suri, of the University of Texas' LBJ School of Public Affairs. "The majority of the planning was aimed at controlling events from spinning out of control."

The talks from June 23-25, 1967, were the first meeting between the two leaders and the first between U.S. and Soviet leaders since President John F. Kennedy met with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1961.

While it didn't lead to any important agreements on the Mideast conflict, nuclear arms control or the Vietnam war, historians believe the "Spirit of Glassboro" offered lessons for future summits.

"When nations have deeply different positions, as we do on these issues, they do not come to agreement merely by improving their understanding of each other's views," Johnson told the nation in a televised address after the summit. "But such improvement helps."

Retired ambassador and arms negotiator William Courtney sees parallels between the summit at Glassboro and current relations between Washington and Moscow, pointing out there's not the slightest hint the Russians are ready to adjust their positions on Ukraine or Syria.

"There is a new, untested U.S. president and both sides are dug into their positions. It's hard to find any progress for success," added Courtney, who is also an adjunct senior fellow with nonprofit think tank, the Rand Corporation.

Courtney said it's vital for Trump and his administration to be as prepared as possible before he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the G-20 Hamburg summit next month.

Glassboro State College is now known as Rowan University, and the community on Saturday will remember the summit with tours, memorabilia displays and a dinner with food inspired by the summit's menu.

"The word that comes to mind is 'astonished,'" said university vice president emeritus Thomas Gallia, a graduate student at the time.

The school was transformed overnight, including the installation of 16 air conditioners in school president Thomas Robinson's home, Gallia said. Media also descended, including an Associated Press reporter who convinced the owner of a home across from the mansion to let the news service use it as an office.

The home belonged to the parents of Nick Petroni, who was 18 years old at the time and had just returned home from the University of Notre Dame. His father allowed some 20 reporters, photographers and technicians to set up shop for no charge.

"They put all kinds of phone lines in our home and set up a darkroom in our basement. I got enlisted as a film carrier," Petroni said.

His mother fed the team and Petroni received a $100 savings bond for his help.

After the summit ended, the college president returned to find that the chairs used by Johnson and Kosygin, and which belonged to his wife, were missing.

Gallia said Johnson soon told Robinson that he had White House carpenters make replicas, which were shipped to Hollybush, while the originals were sent to the LBJ Library.

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Follow Shawn Marsh on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/smarshAP

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Marsh reported from Trenton, New Jersey.

FILE - In this June 23, 1967 file photo provided by the White House, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin, left, and President Lyndon Johnson meet with each other during their hastily arranged U.S./USSR summit at Glassboro State College in Glassboro, N.J. Now called Rowan University, the school on Saturday June 24, 2017, is commemorating the 50th anniversary of when they hosted the Glassboro summit during the Cold War and at the height of the Six-Day War between Israel and Arab states. (White House photo via AP, File)

This 2008 photo provided by Rowan University shows Hollybush mansion on the school's campus in Glassboro, N.J. Fifty years ago during the Cold War, President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin, decided to talk as the Six-Day War raged in the Mideast. They settled on a place halfway between New York and Washington and selected Glassboro State College, now Rowan University, to host the hastily arranged summit in Hollybush, the college president's mansion. (Craig Terry/Rowan University via AP)

FILE - In this June 23, 1967 file photo, President Lyndon Johnson speaks at the podium as Soviet Premier Alexi Kosygin listens in front of the Hollybush mansion, on the campus of Glassboro State College, in Glassboro, N.J. They were there for a hastily arranged U.S./USSR summit that included the installation of of 16 air conditioners in the mansion, and brought the leaders together during the Cold War and at the height of the Six-Day War 50 years ago. Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Dobrynin is at the left of Kosygin. New Jersey Gov. Richard Hughes and his wife Elizabeth, with purse, at right, stand next to a NJ State Trooper. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this June 25, 1967 file photo, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin, left, and President Johnson, right, wave from behind a barrier at the top of the embankment above the crowd gathered outside Hollybush house on the Glassboro State College campus in Glassboro, N.J. They responded to a chant by the crowd after concluding two days of talks that brought the leaders together 50 years ago during the Cold War and at the height of the Six-Day War between Israel and Arab states. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this June 23, 1967 file photo, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin, left, speaks from behind the seal of the President of the United States after meeting with President Johnson, right, at Glassboro State College, in Glassboro, N.J. They were there for a hastily arranged U.S./USSR summit that brought the leaders together during the Cold War and at the height of the Six-Day War 50 years ago. Glassboro became Rowan University and historians say one legacy of "the Spirit of Glassboro" 50 years ago is that world leaders should frequently meet. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this June 23, 1967 file photo, Soviet Premier Alexi Kosygin, center, shake hands with U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara at Glassboro State College in Glassboro, N.J., as President Lyndon Johnson, right, looks on and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, faces the camera, over the handshake. The leaders then entered Hollyhbush mansion for a hastily arranged U.S./USSR summit that brought the leaders together during the Cold War and at the height of the Six-Day War. Glassboro became Rowan University and historians say one legacy of "the Spirit of Glassboro" 50 years ago is that world leaders should frequently meet. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this June 23, 1967 file photo provided by the White House, President Lyndon Johnson, center, listens to Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin's interpreter, right, as Kosygin, left, listens during their hastily arranged U.S./USSR summit inside Hollybush mansion, the college president's residence, at Glassboro State College in Glassboro, N.J. Now called Rowan University, the school on Saturday June 24, 2017, is commemorating the 50th anniversary of when they hosted the Glassboro summit during the Cold War and at the height of the Six-Day War between Israel and Arab states. (White House photo via AP, File)

FILE - In this June 25, 1967 file photo, President Lyndon Johnson, center right in profile, and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin, center left, pose together with members of their families outside Hollybush house before beginning their second meeting 50 years ago at a hastily arranged U.S./USSR summit on the Glassboro State College campus in Glassboro, N.J. From left are Lady Bird Johnson; Kosygin's daughter Ludmila Gvishiani; Kosygin; Johnson; Lynda Bird Johnson; and Elizabeth Hughes, wife of the New Jersey governor. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this June 23, 1967 file photo, President Lyndon Johnson speaks at the podium as Soviet Premier Alexi Kosygin listens in front of the Hollybush mansion, on the campus of Glassboro State College, in Glassboro, N.J. They were at Hollyhbush for a hastily arranged U.S./USSR summit that brought the leaders together during the Cold War and at the height of the Six-Day War 50 years ago. Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Dobrynin is at the left of Kosygin. New Jersey Gov. Richard Hughes and his wife Elizabeth, with purse, at right, stand next to a NJ State Trooper. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this June 23, 1967 file photo, President Lyndon Johnson, center right, and Soviet Premier Alexi Kosygin, center left, face photographers as they meet in front of the Hollybush mansion, on the campus of Glassboro State College, in Glassboro, N.J. The two discussed the Mideast conflict, arms control and the Vietnam War. Saturday, June 24, 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the meeting at Glassboro State College, now Rowan University. (AP Photo, File)
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) - With the Trump administration's withdrawal from the Paris climate accords, national policy on climate change will emerge from U.S. cities working to reduce emissions and become more resilient to rising sea levels, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said at the annual U.S. Conferences of Mayors meeting in Miami Beach.

The conference supported the Paris agreement, and according to preliminary results released Saturday morning from an ongoing nationwide survey, the vast majority of U.S. mayors want to work together and with the private sector to respond to climate change.

"There's near unanimity in this conference that climate change is real and that humans contribute to it. There may be a little bit of a disagreement about how actually to deal with it," said Landrieu, who will replace Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett as conference president this weekend.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, right, and Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, left, talk during a tour where the city has raised streets and installed pumps to combat rising tides, Friday, June 23, 2017, in Miami Beach, Fla. The U.S. Conference of Mayors opens its annual meeting Friday in Miami Beach. Mayors of cities with populations of 30,000 or more will discuss plans to reduce the nation's carbon footprint and protect immigrant families. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

"If the federal government refuses to act or is just paralyzed, the cities themselves, through their mayors, are going to create a new national policy by the accumulation of our individual efforts," he said.

A May survey of local sustainability efforts, conducted by the conference and the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, initially only included 80 mayors who hold leadership positions within the conference. It was extended to all conference members and the mayors of about 1,400 cities with populations of 30,000 or more after President Donald Trump pulled the country out of the Paris agreement.

Cities still have months to respond to the questionnaire on low-carbon transportation options, renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, but the data received so far from 66 cities in 30 states showed 90 percent were interested in forming partnerships with other local governments to create climate plans, implement transportation programs or procure equipment such as electric vehicles.

The responses have come from cities ranging in size from 21,000 people in Pleasantville, New Jersey, to New York City's 8.5 million. According to the survey, the majority of those cities want to buy or already bought green vehicles, and most also have energy efficiency policies for new and existing municipal buildings.

"I think most mayors in America don't think we have to wait for president," whose beliefs on climate change are disconnected from science, Landrieu said.

Former President Bill Clinton jabbed at Trump for retreating from the Paris agreement on Saturday at the mayors' event.

"You can get out any minute, but water is going to keep rising," he said. "Politics has almost no influence on science."

Clinton said mayors should step up to the plate and be ready to show results. "You got to seal and deliver. Every one of you has different budgetary constraints, every one of you has different options," he said. "You have to find a way to do it."

Traditional energy sources still dominate, but the survey noted that more cities could use renewable electricity if their states passed legislation. Forty-seven cities spent nearly $1.2 billion annually on electricity for city operations, and "with this level of purchasing power, coordinated efforts or shifts in demand from U.S. cities will be of interest to energy utilities and provides," the survey said.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that U.S. cities too often find themselves alone when trying to address the local effects of climate change.

De Blasio joined Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine on a tour of a South Beach neighborhood where the city raised streets and installed pumps to send up to 120,000 gallons of water a minute flowing back into Biscayne Bay. The project - aimed at keeping the island city dry amid rising seas - has received national attention, but Levine noted that not all communities can afford to fight climate change without state or federal funding.

"But if we don't do it, who's going to do it, right?" de Blasio said. "Cities and states around the country are now doing the kinds of things the national government should do. It's just that we can't depend on our national government anymore."

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Associated Press writer Adriana Gomez Licon contributed to this report from Miami Beach, Florida.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, right, points to a photo as Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, left, looks on during a tour showing where the city has raised streets and installed pumps to combat rising tides, Friday, June 23, 2017, in Miami Beach, Fla. The U.S. Conference of Mayors opens its annual meeting Friday in Miami Beach. Mayors of cities with populations of 30,000 or more will discuss plans to reduce the nation's carbon footprint and protect immigrant families. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, left, talks to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, right, as they tour where the city has raised streets and installed pumps to combat rising tides, Thursday, June 23, 2017, in Miami Beach, Fla. The U.S. Conference of Mayors opens its annual meeting Friday in Miami Beach. Mayors of cities with populations of 30,000 or more will discuss plans to reduce the nation's carbon footprint and protect immigrant families. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli aircraft struck various positions in Syria Saturday, destroying two tanks, in response to more than 10 projectiles that landed in its territory, the military said.

The flare-up marked a rare case of Israeli involvement in the bloody fighting next door. Israel has steadfastly stayed on the sidelines of Syria's civil war, now in its seventh year, refraining from taking sides or getting drawn into hostilities. It has responded in the past with limited strikes when fire has spilled into Israel and holds the Syrian government responsible for any such incidents. It's also reportedly hit advanced weapons shipments from Syria to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

On Saturday, the Israeli military said fighting between Syrian troops and rebels had spilled over again, with projectiles landing on the Israeli side of the frontier. It said no injuries or damage was caused but with Israelis flocking to the Golan Heights in the summer for hikes and fruit picking, the military took the precautionary step of asking civilians to avoid gathering near the border. Later, it announced that it had targeted the source of the fire and hit two tanks belonging to the Syrian military.

Syrian state media said a number of people were killed.

"We have no intention of allowing the breech of our sovereignty and harming of our security to go unpassed," said Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. "As far as we are concerned, the Assad regime is responsible for what is happening in its territory and it will continue to bear the consequences if such events repeat themselves."

The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said Syrian troops and their allies repelled an attack by insurgents on the outskirts of the southern city of Baath on the edge of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The SCMM accused an Israeli helicopter of assisting insurgents in their attack on military outposts.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on his Arabic-language Facebook page that about 10 shells hit the Israeli-occupied area nearby, adding that Israel's air force struck Syrian army targets in the area.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said that Israeli warplanes attacked a Syrian army position in Quneitra while Syria's state-run news agency SANA said "an army position was targeted in Quneitra."

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war.
HUDDERSFIELD, England (AP) - Newly promoted Premier League team Huddersfield broke its transfer record to make its first signing of the offseason, bringing in Belgium striker Laurent Depoitre from Porto.

The northern club said Depoitre joined for an undisclosed fee on a two-year contract, with the option of another 12 months. Local media reported the fee was 3.5 million pounds ($4.45 million), almost double the previous record.

Huddersfield manager David Wagner called Depoitre a hard-working striker with a good attitude, making him "fit the Terriers' identity very well."

The 28-year-old Depoitre was not first choice last season for Portuguese team Porto, which he joined from Belgian side Gent in 2016.
WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) - Lauren Hutton is going to be this year's honoree at the 20th annual Maine International Film Festival.

The 73-year-old actress, model and producer will be awarded the Mid-Life Achievement Award next month in Waterville, Maine.

Festival programmer Ken Eisen told the Morning Sentinel (http://bit.ly/2u03TZ6) that Hutton was part of what he described as a golden age of American filmmaking in the 1970s and that she broke the rules for aging by modeling nude at age 61.

FILE - In this April 13, 2016 file photo, Lauren Hutton attends the Tribeca Film Festival opening night world premiere of "The First Monday in May" at John Zuccotti Theater at BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York. Hutton is going to be this year's honoree at the 20th annual Maine International Film Festival. The 73-year-old actress, model and producer will be awarded the Mid-Life Achievement Award in July 2017 in Waterville, Maine. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

She'll receive the award July 20 at the Waterville Opera House where her movie "American Gigolo," also starring Richard Gere, will be shown.

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Information from: Morning Sentinel, http://www.onlinesentinel.com/
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - Several dozen Serbian gays, lesbians and transgender people marched on Saturday in Belgrade, hailing the expected election of a first openly gay prime minister as historic for the Balkan country.

Activists gathered at a pride event in the city center under heavy police protection. They carried banners reading "we want life worthy of humans" or "support matters."

Serbia's gays have faced pressure and violence from extremist groups in the staunchly conservative nation. Activists demanded on Saturday that the authorities do more to curb anti-gay sentiments following recent incidents against transgender people.

People dance during the gay pride parade in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Serbia's first openly gay and female prime minister Ana Brnabic is set to take office in the staunchly conservative country next week after the ruling populists mustered majority support for her in parliament. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Meanwhile, Serbian lawmakers convened to launch proceedings needed for the election of Ana Brnabic as the new premier. If confirmed, the 41-year-old Brnabic will become Serbia's first female and openly gay prime minister.

"That is something historical for Serbia and groundbreaking," said gay activist Predrag Azdejkovic. "We expect to have a meeting with the prime minister and to tell her what we want from her government."

He added that "we want more, better and quicker (response) especially from the police but also from the jurisdiction and courts."

The march in Serbia coincided with the weekend's celebration of WorldPride in Madrid.

Brnabic is expected to take office next week after a parliamentary vote. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic proposed the U.S. and U.K.-educated business and marketing expert Brnabic after he switched from premier to president in April.

Analysts say Brnabic's nomination is Vucic's tactic to please the West after his recent apparent shift toward Russia. He has formally proclaimed European Union membership a "strategic goal."

A ruling official Aleksandar Martinovic said in parliament on Saturday he expected Brnabic's government to continue Vucic's policies of EU integration, while also deepening ties with Russia and China.

FILE - In this Friday, June 16, 2017 file photo, Ana Brnabic, nominated as the prime minister-designate arrives at the municipality building and waves to her supporters in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia. Serbia's first openly gay and female prime minister is set to take office in the staunchly conservative country next week after the ruling populists mustered majority support for her in parliament. Officials said on Friday, June 23, 2017 that the assembly will convene on Saturday to start the proceedings for the election of Ana Brnabic and her government. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)

People dance and wave peace flags at a gay pride march in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Serbia's first openly gay and female prime minister Ana Brnabic is set to take office in the staunchly conservative country next week after the ruling populists mustered majority support for her in parliament. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Serbian riot police guard Serbia's gay pride march in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Serbia's first openly gay and female prime minister Ana Brnabic is set to take office in the staunchly conservative country next week after the ruling populists mustered majority support for her in parliament. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

People marching during the gay pride parade in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Serbia's first openly gay and female prime minister Ana Brnabic is set to take office in the staunchly conservative country next week after the ruling populists mustered majority support for her in parliament. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Serbian riot police guard Serbia's gay pride march in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Serbia's first openly gay and female prime minister Ana Brnabic is set to take office in the staunchly conservative country next week after the ruling populists mustered majority support for her in parliament. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - The owner of a gay bar in Vermont is changing the name after months of controversy.

Craig McGaughan announced in March he was naming his bar "Mister Sister." McGaughan saw the term as inclusive but some said it was a slur used to disparage transgender women.

The new name for his Winooski bar is "The Bridge Club."

The Burlington Free Press reports that McGaughan posted on Facebook that he hopes people see humor in the new name and a nod to the historic Winooski Bridge. He also wrote that the name recognizes "the camaraderie and necessity in building bridges."

Among the critics of the "Mister Sister" moniker was the Pride Center of Vermont, which serves the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippine military on Sunday began observing an eight-hour halt in its air and ground offensive against Islamic militants in southern Marawi city to allow residents, most of them displaced by the monthlong fighting, to celebrate the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said the "humanitarian pause" in military assaults took effect at 6 a.m. Sunday in predominantly Muslim Marawi but will be lifted immediately if the militants open fire or threaten troops and civilians.

"If the enemy starts firing ... anyone can exercise their right to self-defense," Padilla said in a statement.

Displaced residents rest at an evacuation center in Saguiaran township, Lanao Del Sur province in southern Philippines Friday, June 23, 2017. Tens of thousands of residents are now housed in different evacuation centers as Government troops fight with Muslim militants who laid siege to Marawi city a month ago. (AP Photo/Linus Guardian Escandor II)

It's the first planned respite in the massive offensive after a month of daily street battles and military airstrikes that have left at least 280 militants, 69 soldiers and police, and 26 civilians dead. The intense fighting has turned large swaths of the mosque-dotted city, a bastion of Islamic faith in the south of the largely Roman Catholic nation, into a smoldering war zone.

About 500 gunmen aligned with the Islamic State group, including several foreigners, stormed the lakeside city of 200,000 people, occupied buildings, burned schools and hoisted IS-style black flags on May 23.

Faced by his worst crisis, President Rodrigo Duterte responded by declaring martial law in the south and ordering a massive offensive.

Padilla said the cease-fire will be observed by the military "as a gesture of our strong commitment and respect to the Muslim world," particularly to Marawi's Muslim residents.

The fighting has forced more than 300,000 people to abandon their homes in Marawi and outlying towns and flee to evacuation centers, which rapidly became overcrowded, making it difficult for them to celebrate the Eid el-Fitr holiday.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - The Syrian government released Saturday hundreds of detainees including some who backed the insurgency against President Bashar Assad on the eve of a major Muslim holiday.

Hours after the release, a car bomb exploded in a rebel-held northern town near the border with Turkey killing and wounding dozens of people, according to the opposition Civil Defense in Idlib, also known as the White Helmets, and the Britain-based opposition monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The explosion at a market in Dana, killed at least 10 people, including children, and wounded 30, according to the Observatory. The blast came hours after an explosion in the town killed two people and wounded others.

Explosions in rebel-held parts of northern Syria are not uncommon and similar blasts have killed scores over the past months.

Justice Minister Hisham al-Shaar told reporters that the 672 people released on Saturday included 91 women. He said of those released, 588 were freed in the capital Damascus, Assad's seat of power.

Al-Shaar added that the release came in a bid to "sustain national reconciliations efforts and the homeland's unity."

The release comes on the eve of Eid el-Fitr, the feast that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Syrian authorities usually release detainees on major holidays.

Tens of thousands of people have been detained since Syria's crisis began in March 2011. The conflict has killed some 400,000 people and displaced half the country's population.

Syrian government forces have been gaining ground around the country under the cover of Russian airstrikes and now control the five largest cities. The push has led to so-called reconciliations in areas around Syria in which opposition fighters either surrendered in exchange for amnesty or moved to rebel-held areas in northern Syria.

Among those released in Damascus was 45-year-old Abdul-al-Rahman Ali who used to finance opposition fighters.

"I was wrong and every person makes mistakes. I have repented and returned to embrace my homeland," he said.

A woman who identified herself as Um Akram wiped away her tears as she waited for her son who had been jailed for more than three years. "I am glad for the release of my son," she said as she stood with her husband outside the headquarters of Assad's ruling Baath party in Damascus where part of the release occurred.

The woman's husband stressed that his son is ready to join the military service.

Ibrahim Barakeh, 64, from al-Ghouta in the countryside of Damascus, said he has been in jail for 16 months on a change of funding terrorists. "Thank God for being released. I was wrong. I will try to return to al-Ghouta to join my wife and son," he added referring to a suburb of Damascus.

In northern Syria, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces released some 200 IS members in Raqqa province at the request of tribal leaders in the region, according to the Observatory.

The Observatory said all those released in the town of Tabqa and the city of Raqqa and its suburbs had no blood on their hands and had jobs with IS such as preachers or employees in the extremist group civilian institutions.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been marching inside Raqqa since June 6, under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, with the aim of liberating the Islamic State's de facto capital of the extremists.
MUNICH (AP) - Sergio Garcia carded a 5-under 67 to join Richard Bland in a share of the lead in the third round of the BMW International Open on Saturday.

Garcia, playing his first event in Europe since his Masters win, and Bland of England settled at 13 under overall going into Sunday's final round on Munich's Eichenried course.

Bland hit water on the 11th hole but recovered for his fourth birdie, and he followed up with an eagle on the 13th to move ahead.

Sergio Garcia of Spain tees off during the third round of the German Open golf tournament in Eichenried near Munich, Germany, Saturday, June 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

"I hit some really good shots out there and I hit a couple of scrappy ones coming in but my short game saved me," Bland said. "Got my feet wet and holed a second shot into 13. So yeah, kind of ran pretty much into everything."

Garcia stumbled with his second bogey on the 14th, but the Spaniard bounced back with birdies on the 15th and 17th holes, his sixth and seventh, to go level.

"A good, solid day," said Garcia, who is going for his third title of the season.

One stroke behind them was former joint leader Joakim Lagergren (69), who had four birdies after a bogey on the second hole.

Thomas Detry, his co-leader from Friday, had a 70 with two bogeys to join Andres Romero (68) for a share of fourth place at 10 under.

American David Lipsky carded a 67 to join Hennie Otto, Renato Paratore and Scott Henry in joint sixth at 9 under.

Defending champion Henrik Stenson (72) was among six players including 2007 champion Niclas Fasth at 8 under.

Sergio Garcia of Spain tees off during the third round of the German Open golf tournament in Eichenried near Munich, Germany, Saturday, June 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

CORRECTS NAME AND NATIONALITY - Hennie Otto from Saouth Africa hits from the rough during the third round of the German Open golf tournament in Eichenried near Munich, Germany, Saturday, June 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

CORRECTS NAME - Hennie Otto from South Africa tees off during the third round of the German Open golf tournament in Eichenried near Munich, Germany, Saturday, June 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Joakim Lagergren of Sweden tees off during the third round of the German Open golf tournament in Eichenried near Munich, Germany, Saturday, June 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
LISBON, Portugal (AP) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started a foreign tour that will include his first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Modi met with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa on Saturday during a six-hour stop in Lisbon. Modi will then continue on to Washington where he will meet with Trump on Monday.

Modi and Costa announced the launching of the India-Portugal Start-Up Hub to encourage business ventures by entrepreneurs in the two countries, along with several other bilateral agreements on science, sport and taxation.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves while walking with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, right, during a visit to the Radha Krishna Temple in Lisbon, Portugal, Saturday June 24, 2017. Modi is on a one day visit to Portugal. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

India's key concerns include Trump's decisions to pull out of the Paris climate accord and to review the H1B visa program, under which thousands of skilled Indian workers go to the United States.

Modi will make his last stop in the Netherlands on Tuesday.

Children sit by the statues of Mahatma Gandhi and his wife Kasturba at the Radha Krishna Temple before the visit by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lisbon, Portugal, Saturday June 24, 2017. Modi is on a one day visit to Portugal. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

A police officer stands by a welcome poster for India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Radha Krishna Temple before his visit in Lisbon, Portugal, Saturday June 24, 2017. Modi is on a one day visit to Portugal. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
JOHANNESBURG (AP) - South Africa clinched a 3-0 series whitewash over France with a 35-12 win in the final test on Saturday, giving the Springboks a base to work off after the debacle of last season.

The Springboks shut out France four tries to none in the series-ender, shrugging off the late withdrawal of captain Warren Whiteley because of injury to keep their winning run going.

The Boks went over early in the first half and again early in the second half for the crucial scores, with center Jesse Kriel and stand-in captain Eben Etzebeth scoring those tries.

South Africa's captain Eben Etzebeth' center, celebrates with teammates after scoring a try during the international rugby union test match between South Africa and France, at Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, Saturday, June 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Hooker Malcolm Marx and replacement scrumhalf Rudy Paige scored in the last 20, sealing victory even if South Africa was scrappy in stages at Ellis Park - especially in the first half - without the leadership of No. 8 Whiteley at his home ground.

"Test match rugby is always about winning, whether it's pretty or not pretty," South Africa coach Allister Coetzee said. "So, it's a massive step in the right direction."

France's points came from four penalties by flyhalf Jules Plisson but, despite chances, the weary French couldn't breach South Africa's last line for the first time in the series and ended their season on a low.

Kriel scored his try inside the first 10 minutes after France wing Virimi Vakatawa was caught in possession by South Africa's forwards deep inside his 22 and had the ball ripped from him. Kriel was free on the right wing to squeeze in at the corner.

That early try raised hopes among 55,000 fans in Johannesburg that the Springboks would meet pre-match expectations of a heavy victory.

That didn't materialize, although South Africa still won comfortably in the end to secure its first win over France in five tests at Ellis Park.

At halftime, though, France was just a converted try behind at 16-9 after making life difficult for South Africa by disrupting its lineouts, matching the Boks in the scrum, and competing well at the breakdown.

France's progress in those areas forced the Springboks to reassess and revert to using its big ball carriers to wear down the French in the second half.

"After a bad start and 10 points scored against us, we kept going, so that's a positive thing for us," France coach Guy Noves said.

Etzebeth rumbled over early in the second to settle South Africa after the Boks tricked the French forwards by throwing the ball to center Jan Serfontein at a lineout five meters out. Etzebeth peeled off him to crash over and give the home team breathing space at 21-9, adding a try to what he said was already the best day of his life after being appointed as the captain.

Marx and Paige made sure South Africa's win was ultimately comfortable, restoring confidence among the Springboks after they entered this series on a four-match losing streak and off the back of the worst season in the team's history.

"The goal was to set the record straight and say we're flippin' good players," Coetzee said.

South Africa's Jesse Kriel' left, is tackled by France's Damian Penaud during the international rugby union test match between South Africa and France, at Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, Saturday, June 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

South Africa's Elton Jantjies' right, kicks the ball as France's Kevin Gourdon, center, defends during the international rugby union test match between South Africa and France, at Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, Saturday, June 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

France's Kevin Gourdon, front, is tackled behind by South Africa's Jan Serfontein during the international rugby union test match between South Africa and France, at Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, Saturday, June 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
BEIJING (AP) - The Latest on a landslide in southwestern China (all times local):

7:20 a.m.

The Xinhua news agency says the identities of the 118 missing people in a landslide in southwest China will soon be made public.

In this image taken from video run by China's CCTV via AP Video, Qiao Dashuai, left, is attended to by nurses at a hospital after surviving a landslide in Xinmo village in Maoxian County in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, June 24, 2017. More than 100 people have been buried by a landslide that unleashed huge rocks and a mass of earth that crashed into their homes in a mountain village in southwestern China early Saturday, a provincial government said. Qiao told CCTV his baby saved their family because he was woken up by the baby's crying when he heard a strange noise that alerted him to the landslide. (CCTV via AP Video)

Xu Zhiwen, executive deputy governor of the Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, the region where the landslide struck, also tells Xinhua that all 142 tourists who were visiting a site in the mountain village of Xinmo have been found alive.

Xinhua reports that about 3,000 rescuers were combing the area with life detectors and dogs but no new signs of life have been found.

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2:30 a.m.

The Xinhua news agency reports that 15 people are confirmed dead in a landslide in southwestern China.

Officials leading the rescue effort tell Xinhua that workers retrieved the 15 bodies from the debris by 10 p.m. Saturday.

The news agency says that no new signs of life have been found. About 1,000 workers with life-detection instruments are searching for survivors.

At 6 a.m. Saturday, more than 120 people were buried by a landslide that caused huge rocks and a mass of earth to come crashing into their homes in the mountain village of Xinmo in Mao County.

The Sichuan provincial government says the landslide, which came from a mountain, engulfed a cluster of 62 homes and a hotel. Officials said 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) of road were buried in the disaster.

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1:30 a.m.

Officials say more than 120 people were buried by a landslide that caused huge rocks and a mass of earth to come crashing into their homes in a mountain village in southwestern China.

The Sichuan provincial government says the landslide, which came from a mountain, engulfed a cluster of 62 homes and a hotel in the village of Xinmo in Mao County at about 6 a.m. Saturday. Officials say 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) of road were buried in the disaster.

The provincial government says more than 120 people were buried by the landslide. State broadcaster China Central Television cited a rescuer as saying five bodies had been found.

The official Sichuan Daily newspaper said on its microblog that rescuers pulled out three people, two of whom had survived.

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1:30 p.m.

Around 100 people are feared buried by a landslide that crashed into their homes in southwestern China early Saturday, a county government said.

The landslide from a mountain fell onto the village of Xinmo at about 6 a.m., burying some 40 homes, the government of Mao county in Sichuan province said. The landslide blocked a 2 kilometer (1.24 mile)-section of a river.

Search and rescue efforts were underway. State broadcaster CCTV said more than 400 rescuers, including police, are involved.

Photos posted on the site showed piles of rubble and large rocks while emergency responders helped a woman by the road.

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Online:

http://www.maoxian.gov.cn/xwzx/zwyw/201706/t20170624_1250208.html

Emergency personnel and earthmoving equipment work at the site of a massive landslide in Xinmo village in Maoxian County in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Dozens of people are feared buried by a landslide that unleashed huge rocks and a mass of earth that crashed into their homes in southwestern China early Saturday, a county government said. (Chinatopix via AP)

Emergency personnel and local people work at the site of a landslide in Xinmo village in Maoxian County in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Dozens of people are feared buried by a landslide that unleashed huge rocks and a mass of earth that crashed into their homes in southwestern China early Saturday, a county government said.(Chinatopix via AP)

Emergency personnel work at the site of a massive landslide in Xinmo village in Maoxian County in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Dozens of people are feared buried by a landslide that unleashed huge rocks and a mass of earth that crashed into their homes in southwestern China early Saturday, a county government said.(Chinatopix via AP)

Emergency personnel and locals work at the site of a landslide in Xinmo village in Maoxian County in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Dozens of people are feared buried by a landslide that unleashed huge rocks and a mass of earth that crashed into their homes in southwestern China early Saturday, a county government said. (Chinatopix via AP)

Emergency personnel and locals work at the site of a landslide in Xinmo village in Maoxian County in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Dozens of people are feared buried by a landslide that unleashed huge rocks and a mass of earth that crashed into their homes in southwestern China early Saturday, a county government said. (Chinatopix via AP)

Emergency personnel and locals work at the site of a landslide in Xinmo village in Maoxian County in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Dozens of people are feared buried by a landslide that unleashed huge rocks and a mass of earth that crashed into their homes in southwestern China early Saturday, a county government said. (Chinatopix via AP)

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, emergency personnel work at the site of a landslide in Xinmo village in Maoxian County in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Around 100 people are feared buried by a landslide that unleashed huge rocks and a mass of earth that crashed into their homes Saturday, a county government said. (He Qinghai/Xinhua via AP)

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, vehicles and people line a road leading to the site of a landslide in Xinmo village in Maoxian County in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Dozens of people are feared buried by a landslide that unleashed huge rocks and a mass of earth that crashed into their homes in southwestern China early Saturday, a county government said. (He Qinghai/Xinhua via AP)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Young protesters broke down a metal fence guarding an air base in Caracas on Saturday before being repelled by security forces firing tear gas in another day of anti-government protests in Venezuela's capital.

Demonstrators threw stones, and some protesters were injured.

The clashes took place after a peaceful mass demonstration next to La Carlota base where a 22-year-old protester was killed this week when a national guardsman shot him in the chest at close range with rubber bullets.

Demonstrators clash with authorities on the fence of La Carlota Air Base in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Demonstrators took to the streets asking restraint from security forces after more than 70 people have been killed during almost 90 days of protests seeking President Nicolas Maduro's removal. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Protesters also fought with security forces outside the base Friday, and activists burned some vehicles during the confrontation.

President Nicolas Maduro said in an address to troops Saturday that he had managed to break up a U.S.-backed plot to oust him. Like his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, Maduro frequently accuses the U.S. of trying to topple Venezuela's socialist administration.

Maduro praised Venezuela's military for standing by the government and he warned that attempts are underway to try to sow further dissent.

More than 70 people have been killed and hundreds injured in almost three months of demonstrations.

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This story has been corrected to show that protesters burned vehicles on Friday.

Demonstrators beat on the fence of La Carlota Air Base, where a demonstrator was killed this week during a protest on the Francisco Fajardo highway, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Demonstrators took to the streets asking restraint from security forces after more than 70 people have been killed during almost 90 days of protests seeking President Nicolas Maduro's removal. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

A demonstrator is carried away by others after being injured during protests in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Demonstrators took to the streets asking restraint from security forces after more than 70 people have been killed during almost 90 days of protests seeking President Nicolas Maduro's removal. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

A demonstrator with "No More Deaths" written in Spanish on her hands joins a protest against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Demonstrators took to the streets asking restraint from security forces after more than 70 people have been killed during almost 90 days of protests seeking President Nicolas Maduro's removal. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Demonstrators run as government security forces launch tear gas at them during a protest in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Demonstrators took to the streets asking restraint from security forces after more than 70 people have been killed during almost 90 days of protests seeking President Nicolas Maduro's removal. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Demonstrators break up rocks as they prepare to confront security forces in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Demonstrators took to the streets asking restraint from security forces after more than 70 people have been killed during almost 90 days of protests seeking President Nicolas Maduro's removal. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Demonstrators fly a Venezuelan national flag from the fence of La Carlota Air Base during a protest on the Francisco Fajardo highway, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Demonstrators took to the streets asking restraint from security forces after more than 70 people have been killed during almost 90 days of protests seeking President Nicolas Maduro's removal. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Demonstrators take cover next to the fence of La Carlota Air Base in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Demonstrators took to the streets asking restraint from security forces after more than 70 people have been killed during almost 90 days of protests seeking President Nicolas Maduro's removal. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Flanked by his generals and his wife Cilia Florez, left, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro wipes his brow during Army Day celebrations at Fuerte Tiuna, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Maduro joined the army celebrations as thousands marched in the streets of the capital to demand restraint from government security forces after more than 70 people have been killed during almost 90 days of protests seeking his removal. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Police Chief Charlie Beck told graduating cadets on Saturday to "be strong. Be ethically correct. Do the right thing" after a scandal in the youth program involving allegations of stolen police cars and underage sex.

During a ceremony at the University of Southern California, Beck told more than 2,000 teenagers and young adults that the day was joyous but also somber because some cadets had acted inappropriately and an LAPD officer "acted criminally."

On Thursday, Beck personally arrested Officer Robert Cain. The 10-year veteran is suspected of having unlawful sex with a 15-year-old cadet.

A search of Cain's Rancho Cucamonga home turned up a cache of weapons that were being examined to determine whether they were legal under California law, a Police Department statement said.

More than 100 weapons were seized, including modified assault rifles and a non-functioning grenade launcher and grenades, the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/2t0lXFx) reported Friday. The paper cited three law enforcement sources who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

Cain is free on bail, but it was unclear whether he had an attorney. No one could be reached Saturday at the phone number for a Robert Cain in Rancho Cucamonga.

Cain's alleged underage lover is among seven cadets arrested in recent days on suspicion of unlawfully using stun guns, radios and police cars to joyride and even pose as officers.

Six of the cadets, including the girl, were assigned to the 77th Street Division where Cain worked in the equipment room. He wasn't involved in the cadet program.

On Friday, City Councilman Mitchell Englander called for an audit of all LAPD youth programs.

"This was an officer that was in a station, in a kit room, and somehow developed a relationship with these kids?" Englander said. "That means there's definitely flaws in the system as far as supervision and oversight."

Beck has ordered a full review of the program.

On Saturday, the chief pledged to parents: "We will take care of your kids like they're our own. We're committed to the safety of these young people and to the development of their futures."

"I will make sure that should someone again abuse one of your cadets, step outside the parameters of the program, cause the program to be questioned, that I will take strict and decisive action," Beck said.

He told youth service officers to commit to protecting the cadets "from predators on the outside and predators on the inside."
A former loyalist paramilitary commander turned supergrass has pleaded guilty to 200 terrorist offences, including five murders.

Gary Haggarty, the ex-chief of the Ulster Volunteer Forces notorious north Belfast unit, admitted the litany of crimes as part of his deal with the State to give evidence against fellow terrorists.

As well as the five murders, the 45-year-old, who is currently in protective custody, admitted five attempted murders, including against police officers; 23 counts of conspiracy to murder; directing terrorism; and membership of a proscribed organisation, when he appeared before a judge at Belfast Crown Court.

Loyalist supergrass Gary Haggarty has plead guilty to 200 terror offences, including five murders, as part of deal to give State's evidence  David Young (@DavidYoungPA) June 23, 2017

Haggarty, who worked as a police informant during the Troubles, was interviewed more than 1,000 times by detectives in one of the biggest and most complex cases ever undertaken in Northern Ireland.

The catalogue of offences stretch over a 16-year period from 1991 to 2007 and include the loyalist murders of John Harbinson, Sean McParland, Gary Convie, Eamon Fox and Sean McDermott.

The lengthy charge sheet also includes aiding and abetting murder, kidnap, possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives as well as hijacking, false imprisonment, arson, intimidation and conspiracy to riot.

Haggarty is expected to receive a heavily reduced sentence in exchange for his cooperation with the authorities.

Haggarty has given evidence against 14 fellow loyalists in connection with 4 murders and has also accused 2 ex-police handlers of collusion  David Young (@DavidYoungPA) June 23, 2017

He could well walk free, given he has already served three years in custody  the equivalent of a six-year sentence. Sentence is expected to be passed later in the year.

In the interim prosecutors will decide how to proceed with the evidence he has provided. It is understood Haggarty has made allegations against 14 fellow loyalists, for crimes including four murders.

He has also given evidence in relation to alleged criminality by two former Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch handlers who worked with him when he was an informer. The content of his interviews amounts to 23,000 pages of transcribed evidence.

There was a significant police presence in and around the court for the high-profile arraignment hearing.

General view of Belfast Crown Court

Haggarty, who is believed to be living at a secret location outside Northern Ireland, was escorted into court through a side door by two specialist police officers.

He was initially arrested in 2009 and charged with the murder of Mr Harbinson.

He then indicated his willingness to turn states witness and subsequently signed an agreement to become an assisting offender under the terms of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (Socpa).

The terror boss, whose address was formally recorded on the indictment sheet as care of a Belfast police station, stood in the dock dressed in a grey suit during the hearing before judge Mr Justice Treacy.

He said guilty as each charge was put to him, the majority in short form summary. Relatives of some of his victims watched on from the public gallery of the court.
It is disgraceful it has taken a year for the UK Government to offer reassurance to European Union nationals about their status after Brexit, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

Scotlands First Minister said she welcomed in principle the proposals for EU citizens in the UK set out by Theresa May, but cautioned the devil will be in the detail.

The Prime Minister said the plans outlined to a European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday will ensure no-one living lawfully in the UK will have to leave and EU nationals will not face the prospect of their families being split up by Brexit.

Nicola Sturgeon visits the 177th Royal Highland Show

Ms Sturgeon told BBC Scotland: I think we really need to see the detail of what shes proposing because the devil will be in the detail.

Its not just about the right of people here to stay, but the real question is over what the cut-off point will be, what the situation will be for family members of EU nationals, and of course how their rights are to be protected in future.

As a general principle I welcome it so far as it goes. I dont understand why its taken a year for the UK Government to give the commitment that she appeared to give last night but I think we will need to see the detail before there can be a considered view of whether or not it goes far enough.

Its taken a year to get to this point and I think thats disgraceful because the uncertainty that thats caused for EU nationals has been considerable and I think we will already have seen some choose to leave because of that uncertainty.

Ms Sturgeon marked the first anniversary of the EU referendum with a speech at the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston, Edinburgh.

Addressing an audience of representatives from the agricultural industry, Ms Sturgeon urged the UK Government to adopt a more inclusive approach to the Brexit negotiations, and repeated calls for powers over agriculture policy to return to the Scottish Parliament when repatriated from the EU.

She said: The immediate priority for action is to work with anyone and everyone  including the UK Government and other political parties  to ensure that the UK as a whole adopts the least damaging approach possible.

Nicola Sturgeon visits the 177th Royal Highland Show

And of course in doing that, we know that there are particular issues and complexities relating to farming.

That includes proposals to see all powers repatriated from Brussels go to the UK Government rather than to the devolved administrations, including those in currently devolved areas like agriculture and fishing.

Those plans would fundamentally undermine the basis of the existing devolution settlement, which has seen farming and fisheries devolved to Holyrood from day one.

Those powers, as well as others in devolved policy areas, must be returned to the Scottish Parliament, not to Westminster.
Jeremy Corbyn has suggested that Labours 10 an hour living wage pledge would also apply to 16-year-old workers, signalling a major rise on the current rates.

The Labour leader said the policy should apply to all workers when challenged on Labours General Election manifesto policy to raise the hourly rate for all adult workers.

Currently under-18s only have to be paid 4.05 an hour, while other younger age groups are not required to be paid the national 7.50 rate.

Jeremy Corbyn addresses supporters outside the Unison annual conference

Here is the moment Corbyn was asked about the living wage for those aged 16 pic.twitter.com/hzXBFLmvMt  Thomas Hornall (@Thomashornall) June 23, 2017

Speaking at a Unison conference in Brighton, Mr Corbyn was asked by one delegate whether 16-year-olds should also be paid Labours living wage.

In response, Mr Corbyn said: Youre absolutely right. Yes, the 10 an hour living wage, real living wage, is correct and also should apply to all workers, because I dont think young people eat less than old people - thats my experience anyway.

Other groups as well as under-18s do not have to be paid the current living wage. For 18 to 20-year-olds the rate is 5.60 an hour, while for 21 to 24-year-olds it is 7.05. Apprentices only have to be paid 3.50 an hour.

Labours 10 an hour pledge was criticised by business groups during the General Election, who said it would hike their wage bills.

Standing ovation for Jeremy Corbyn as he arrives in the Unison conference hall pic.twitter.com/wOfoTupAn2  Jon Vale (@JonValePA) June 23, 2017

Mr Corbyn also linked the Grenfell Tower disaster to the policies of austerity, warning that the Government cut public services at your peril.

A tower block in flames due to poor building quality, a heroic response by the fire and rescue service who are dangerously overstretched and overstaffed, and a Government and a local government response that has left victims sleeping out for a few days under bridges as they had nowhere else to go, Mr Corbyn said.

Make no mistake about it - this is the brutal reality of austerity economics that has failed in its own terms, and leading to falling living standards, rising inequality and disasters.

Weve always known that austerity was a choice - a choice made by those at the top, which has harmed the lives of many to maintain the privileges of a few, but has had absolutely devastating and frankly inhumane consequences for those at the very bottom of our society.

As the hall waited for Mr Corbyn, a delegate treated the crowd to a rendition of (Jeremy's Standing) So Strong pic.twitter.com/ihAhxTPq1L  Thomas Hornall (@Thomashornall) June 23, 2017

He added: This wholly preventable tragedy at Grenfell Tower surely has got to be a warning lesson to all of us - you cut at your peril, you ignore safety at your peril.

Were there to hold this Government to account, but above all were there to be the government that will be willingly held to account to make sure we do achieve everything we set out in our manifesto.

The Labour leader also said that no seat was unwinnable for Labour, as he insisted his party was now a government in waiting.

He added: We are ready for another election at any time, to finish the job of beating the failed, clapped-out Tories and form a government that works for all.

At Unison conference, where Jeremy Corbyn is soon due to speak, and the crowd breaks into the 'Oooh Jeremy Corbyn' chant pic.twitter.com/f26yAJdK29  Jon Vale (@JonValePA) June 23, 2017

Mr Corbyn also told delegates at the trade unions conference that Labour would invest in public services and end the public sector pay gap, calling it a disgrace that nurses pay had fallen by 14% in real terms.

He added: In Britain, in 2017, we have nurses and other public sector workers being forced to go to food banks, along with one million other people whose chances have been crushed in the name of austerity.

When this was put to the Prime Minister she said that there are complex reasons for people having to use foodbanks.

Well, I hope the Prime Minister is listening today when I say that there are not complex reasons for people having to use foodbanks  the only reason is that this Government refuses to ensure people have enough income to feed themselves.
US President Donald Trump has suggested he was just trying to keep fired FBI director James Comey honest with his cryptic tweet implying there might be recordings of their private conversations.

Mr Trump ended a month-long guessing game on Thursday by tweeting that he never made and does not have recordings of his private conversations with Mr Comey.

In an interview that aired on Friday on Fox & Friends, Mr Trump said: When he found out that I, you know, that there may be tapes out there, whether its governmental tapes or anything else, and who knows, I think his story may have changed.

Asked if he was trying to keep Mr Comey honest, Mr Trump added: It wasnt very stupid, I can tell you that. He was  he did admit that what I said was right.

The tapes saga began in May, just days after Mr Trump fired Mr Comey, who was then leading an investigation into Trump associates ties to Russian officials.

Mr Trump has disputed Mr Comeys version of a January dinner during which, according to Mr Comey, the president asked for a pledge of loyalty. Mr Trump responded at that time, via Twitter, that Mr Comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!

Mr Trump, in the Fox News Channel interview, did not say exactly what he thought had changed about Mr Comeys story.

Donald Trump

The former FBI director has only offered his story publicly once, in testimony before the Senate intelligence committee, although his associates provided some details to the news media before that.

Mr Comey testified that he had told the president in multiple conversations he was not personally under federal investigation and said the president implored him to make that public. Mr Trump has seized on that statement as vindication, though the investigation continues, as do congressional inquiries.

Mr Comey also said that Mr Trump asked him for loyalty  which Mr Trump emphatically denies.

Mr Trumps initial Twitter missive about the possibility of tapes triggered a series of consequences, each weightier than the last.

Donald Trump has criticised the former FBI director on Twitter (J David Ake/AP)

Mr Comey has suggested that the tweet prompted him to ask an associate to release damaging information to The New York Times.

The resulting news reports built pressure on a top justice department official to appoint an independent prosecutor to oversee the Russia investigation. That special counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller, is now reportedly investigating Mr Trumps own actions in a probe that could dog his presidency for the foreseeable future.

Mr Trump showed concern about that situation as well, telling Fox that Mr Mueller is very, very good friends with Comey which is bothersome.
Scotlands mission to finish their summer tour unbeaten failed as they lost 27-22 to Fiji in Suva.

The Scots won the try count by three to two but their discipline was poor and they were ripped apart by the brilliant handling of Leone Nakarawa and five penalties from fly-half Ben Volavola.

Scotlands handling in the steady drizzle let them down until home lock Tevita Cavubati was sent to the sin bin for pulling his counterpart Jonny Gray down in the line-out.

Ben Volavola pitched in with five penalties (Andrew Matthews/PA)

A catalogue of errors from the Scots as they tried to run clear gave Fiji an attacking platform.

Volavola had missed a long-range penalty but made no mistake with his second shot from straight in front.

While Scotland were having problems with their handling, Fiji continued to struggle with their discipline, so when they also lost prop Peni Ravai for collapsing a maul, Scotland took full advantage.

Ross Ford

They set up a line-out maul and Ross Ford, on the day he broke the Scottish caps record by winning his 110th, claimed his third try of the summer tour.

The Scots know all about former Glasgow player Nakarawa and should not have been surprised that he was running around producing outrageous offloads.

The islanders ramped up the pressure, with Nakarawa flicking the ball clear from a maul on the Scots 22. Volavolas cross kick was perfectly placed for Patrick Osborne to claim the ball on the wing and he found flanker Peceli Yano in support to take the scoring pass.

Leone Nakarawa

Volavola could not land the conversion but it still meant Scotland were trailing at the break with plenty to do if they were to salvage the result and prolong their winning run.

They were not helped by yet another turnover near the halfway line that allowed Fiji to zoom the ball across the field, where Osborne banged the ball downfield. Greig Tonks, on at the break for Duncan Taylor, made a mess of clearing up the loose ball, handing the home side a scrum.

They had shots at scoring a try but eventually settled for a penalty, with Volavola doing the honours to give his side a seven-point lead.

Ruaridh Jackson scored his first Test try (Joe Giddens/PA)

Ruaridh Jackson, now up at fly half, later had an easy run-in for his first Test try. His conversion levelled the scores, for a few minutes at least, until Volavola put Fiji back in front with a penalty.

Fijian joy was soon doubled when a piece of individual brilliance from Nakarawa saw him break through and offload to replacement scrum-half Henry Seniloli for a brilliant try that pushed the lead out to 10 points after Volavolas conversion.

Scotland did fight back with Fraser Brown grounding at the back of a driving maul, but their mistakes cost them.

We did not play as well as we have done on tour but credit to Fiji, they played some outstanding rugby, particularly in the second half and were tough to handle. For us to win Test matches we have to play really well, as we showed last week [against Australia], but we missed too many tackles and Fiji came alive when they broke those tackles.

We have made a lot of progress as a team in the time we have been together but we have two big games ahead of us [World Cup qualifying matches] against Tonga and Samoa. We will enjoy the victory but then start focusing on those.
The death toll from twin blasts in Parachinar has climbed to 67, bringing the overall death toll from three separate attacks in Pakistan to 85.

Several other victims are in a critical condition, officials said.

Shahid Khan, a government official in Parachinar, confirmed the toll, saying residents who had been preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan and Eid feast were now in mourning.

Pakistani army soldiers stand guard at the main gate of alleged militant hideout (Muhammad Sajjad/AP)

He said during the day another 12 critically wounded people died at different hospitals.

Lashkar e Jhangvi, a Sunni extremist group, claimed responsibility for the twin bombings on Friday at a crowded market in the Shiite-dominated town, linking them to sectarian fighting in Syria.

Dr Sabir Hussain, an official at a government-run hospital in Parachinar, said it had received 261 victims of the twin blasts, with 62 listed as in critical condition.

Pakistani investigators collect evidence from the site of a shooting incident in Karachi (Shakil Adil/AP)

Another 14 people were killed Friday in a suicide car bombing near the office of the provincial police chief in the southwestern city of Quetta, police spokesman Shahzada Farhat said.

That attack was claimed by a breakaway Taliban faction and the Islamic State group.

Gunmen in the port city of Karachi attacked police officers at a roadside restaurant, killing four of them before fleeing, senior police officer Asif Ahmed said.

Major General Asif Ghafoor, a military spokesman, linked the attacks to alleged militant sanctuaries in neighbouring Afghanistan and promised greater border security.

The two countries often accuse each other of turning a blind eye to militants.

Security forces raided a militant hideout in the northwestern city of Peshawar before dawn on Saturday, triggering a shootout in which three Pakistani Taliban were killed and two police officers and a soldier were wounded, senior police official Sajjad Khan said.

Pakistani troops

He said the militants were making bombs that likely would have been used to target holiday festivities.

Mr Khan said the identity of the dead militants was not immediately known.

But intelligence officials said one of the men has been identified as a wanted militant commander linked to IS.
The CIAs director held a secret negotiation with Syrias intelligence chief this year as part of efforts to free a US journalist taken hostage in the Arab country five years ago, according to reports.

The phone conversation between CIA boss Mike Pompeo and Syrias Ali Mamlouk occurred in February, the New York Times reported, citing unidentified US officials.

The subject was Austin Tice, a former marine who has reported for the Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, CBS and other outlets.

The CIA emblem

While further communications followed, the New York Times reported that the diplomatic effort collapsed after the US accused President Bashar Assads government of killing dozens of civilians in a sarin gas attack in April and President Donald Trump responded by launching 60 cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.

The Pompeo-Mamlouk call would represent the highest-level communication between the two governments in years. It is also surprising given widespread allegations of Mr Mamlouks culpability in human rights atrocities in Syrias civil war. He has been subject to US sanctions since 2011.

The CIA declined to comment.

Otto Warmbier

Mr Tice disappeared in 2002 while working near Damascus, shortly after his 31st birthday. A month after his kidnapping, a video was released showing him blindfolded, being held by armed men and saying, Oh, Jesus. He has not been heard from since, although the US believed Syrias government might be holding him.

No nation or group has come forward saying it has Mr Tice. Syrias deputy foreign minister told the Associated Press last year that Mr Tice is not in the hands of Syrian authorities.

The report of the secret talks came after US officials confirmed a separate set of unpublicised negotiations with North Korea to free another American in captivity, Otto Warmbier. The 22-year-old University of Virginia student, who fell into a coma during his captivity, died on Monday after he returned to the US last week.
Prime Minister Theresa May praised the tremendous work of the military as she visited Liverpool to mark Armed Forces Day.

The Prime Minister poses for a selfie as she meets people at Armed Forces Day pic.twitter.com/gf6fZ0A3LB  Eleanor Barlow (@EleanorBarlow) June 24, 2017

Mrs May joined the Earl of Wessex, representing the Queen, and Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon for the national event on the citys waterfront.

She said: It is wonderful that we mark the tremendous job that our armed forces do for us here at home and across the world, helping to keep us safe.

Prime Minister Theresa May attends Armed Forces Day in Liverpool pic.twitter.com/jQIVuCE5Y8  Eleanor Barlow (@EleanorBarlow) June 24, 2017

Of course recently, after the terrible terrorist attack in Manchester, we saw our armed forces on the streets helping to reassure people of their safety and security, and its great that we recognise the work that all our armed forces do, as I say, both here and across the world.

They do a fantastic job for us and we should be grateful to them all.

Sir Michael also praised the reaction of the Army following the Manchester Arena bombing, in which 22 people were killed.

Prime Minster Theresa May pays tribute to the work of the armed forces at home and abroad on #ArmedForcesDay pic.twitter.com/P9mV9zxrFe  Rich McCarthy (@VJRichMcCarthy) June 24, 2017

He said: The armed forces are always ready now to deploy in aid of the police, as back-up for the armed police and in aid of local authorities.

The operation after Manchester has been well-rehearsed. They were ready to deploy. We deployed nearly 1,000 armed troops within 12 hours on the streets, which freed up armed police to do more patrolling.

He paid tribute to the work done by service personnel across the world.

He said: There are some 10,000 servicemen and women who are working for us around the globe on operations or in our bases.

(Peter Byrne/PA)

They have been helping to deal with Daesh terrorism, they have been helping to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean, they have been on Nato deployments, they have been peacekeeping in South Sudan.

All of that keeps us safer here at home.

Mrs May, who attended the event with husband Philip, toured some of the displays at the event with Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson.

Prime Minister Theresa May attends the ninth annual Armed Forces Day in Liverpool (Peter Byrne/PA)

She stopped to pose for pictures with some of the hundreds who attended the celebration on Liverpools Pier Head and was cheered by many in the crowd, although some booing was also heard.

Military personnel, their families and veterans gathered in the city for the ninth annual Armed Forces Day.

The event began with a gun salute and parade and also included receptions, displays, a visit from Royal Navy ship HMS Iron Duke and flypasts by the Red Arrows and Typhoon.

More than 300 other events will take place around the world as part of the celebrations.
Essex bowler Jamie Porter helped guide England Lions to an emphatic 257-run victory over South Africa A at Canterbury.

The tourists resumed on 29 for four, with Somerset fast bowler Jamie Overton having claimed three for 22 late on day three, as they chased a formidable victory target of 412.

It took only 36 overs for Keaton Jennings side to finish off their opponents, who were bowled out for 154.

Jamie Porter

A brilliant performance by England Lions to beat South Africa A. https://t.co/KCeUUiR5dU pic.twitter.com/lzPgBvPyOi  England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 24, 2017

Temba Bavuma and Heinrich Klaasen had returned to the crease looking to stave off the home attack.

However, after some resistance Bavuma was removed lbw by new bowler Sam Curran for 33 and with him went any realistic hope of South Africa A, five down for 92, seeing out the day.

Despite a couple of rain delays which meant an early lunch, the Lions pushed through the lower order as Porter bowled Willem Mulder for one and Klaasen was then trapped lbw for 43 by the Essex man two balls later.

Beuran Hendricks added 12 and Dane Piedt a defiant 31 before victory was confirmed just before 3pm when Duanne Olivier was out lbw to Dan Lawrence for eight.

Porter finished the day with three for 47, giving him six wickets overall, while Overton had three for 36 to complete his five-for match haul.
Watford have announced the signing of England Under-21 midfielder Will Hughes.

The 22-year-old, currently in Poland with the Young Lions, will leave Derby for an undisclosed fee and has signed a five-year deal at Vicarage Road.

The move to Marco Silvas side completes a journey that has been long in the making for Hughes.

Will Hughes has joined Watford (Barrington Coombs/EMPICS)

OFFICIAL: #watfordfc is delighted to confirm the signing of England Under-21 midfielder Will Hughes from Derby County on a five-year deal. pic.twitter.com/KmGrqsOxjE  Watford Football Club (@WatfordFC) June 24, 2017

He has been spoken of as a Premier League prospect ever since making his Derby breakthrough in 2011 as a 16-year-old.

One-hundred-and-eight-seven appearances for the Rams later, Watford have decided now is the time to give Hughes his chance.

Watford say Hughes will complete the move when he returns from Poland, with England Under-21s waiting to find out their semi-final opponents at Euro 2017.
Richard Bland and Sergio Garcia were tied at the top of the leaderboard ahead of the final round of the BMW International Open after posting rounds of 67 on Saturday.

Englishman Bland, who is searching for his first European Tour title, made a brilliant birdie from the water at the 11th before holing his approach shot from the 13th fairway for an eagle to jump to the top of the pile.

A contender for up and down of the season. 



Brilliant from @blandy73. pic.twitter.com/QobL0HnyBy  DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) June 24, 2017

And after carding five birdies and two bogeys in his first 14 holes, Masters champion Garcia picked up further shots at the 15th and 17th to join Bland at the summit on 13 under par.

Richard Bland

Swede Joakim Lagergren was a single shot behind the co-leaders in third, with Thomas Detry and Andres Romero another two strokes back on 10 under.

Bland, who began the day a single shot behind halfway leaders Joel Stalter and Lagergren, bounced back from a bogey at the second with three straight gains from the fourth to reach the turn in 34.

And after hitting his third shot out of shallow water at the 11th, the 44-year-old rolled in his 20-foot birdie putt to get to 11 under.

Bland, playing in his 410th European Tour event, then made an eagle at the 13th before safely parring his final five holes to sign for a 67.

I hit some really good shots out there and I hit a couple of scrappy ones coming in but my short game saved me, Bland told europeantour.com.

Got my feet wet and holed a second shot into 13. So yeah, kind of ran pretty much into everything.

Garcia said: Its nice but it doesnt mean that its finished. Still we have a long day tomorrow. Weve got to go out there, play well again and see if we can pull it off.
A Commons bid to keep Britain in the single market should be backed by like minded Tory and Labour MPs, the Liberal Democrats have said.

Lib Dem chief whip Alistair Carmichael is in talks with MPs from across the Commons urging them to support an amendment to the Queens Speech intended to force the Government to modify its Brexit plans.

Mr Carmichael said: This is a historic chance to defeat the Government and force Theresa May to rethink her approach to Brexit.

Alistair Carmichael

Many people, including those who voted Leave, are increasingly worried about what Brexit will mean for our economy and living standards.

It is our responsibility as MPs to listen to these concerns and work together to get the best possible deal.

Were now staring over the precipice at the economic reality of an extreme Brexit. Future generations wont forgive us if we fail to act.

The amendment expresses regret the Queens Speech contained no proposals to keep Britain in the single market and the customs union.

Prime Minister Theresa Mays minority Government is eight seats shy of a Commons majority as talks to cut a deal with the 10 strong block of Democratic Unionist Party MPs continue.
PARIS, June 23 (Reuters) - New French economy minister Bruno Le Maire has called for swift convergence with Germany on corporate tax, and said his government will implement "difficult" measures this summer to ensure France honours its European pledge on public spending.

In an interview with the French daily Le Figaro made available on Friday, Le Maire said his teams would draft proposals on taxes ahead of a Franco-German meeting scheduled for July 13.

"Our ambition is to achieve quick convergence of corporate tax. We want to move very fast," he said, adding that a reinforcement of the euro zone would also help make the bloc more competitive with China and the United States.

Le Maire also said the French government would take "difficult" domestic measures in the coming weeks to help France keep its word on public deficits, but did not elaborate.

He added that an existing tax break could be converted to a cut in employer contributions.

France, the euro zone's second largest economy, foresees a reduction in its deficit to 2.8 percent of gross domestic product this year, which would be the first time since 2007 that it has met an EU-imposed limit of 3 percent.

(Reporting by Matthias Blamont; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Health insurers says Senate bill's Medicaid cuts to hurt states

Health insurers are concerned about the U.S. Senate's plans to cut the Medicaid program for the poor and the impact such a move would have on state governments, the industry's largest lobbyist said on Friday. Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Thursday unveiled a draft bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. The bill would replace its individual insurance coverage with new subsidies and requirements and cut federal funding for Medicaid.

High hopes ride on marijuana painkillers amid opioid crisis

A handful of drugmakers are taking their first steps toward developing marijuana-based painkillers, alternatives to opioids that have led to widespread abuse and caused the U.S. health regulator to ask for a withdrawal of a popular drug this month. The cannabis plant has been used for decades to manage pain and there are increasingly sophisticated marijuana products available across 29 U.S. states, as well as in the District of Columbia, where medical marijuana is legal.

Trump reaches out to lawmakers on healthcare as another says 'no'

President Donald Trump made calls to fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Friday to mobilize support for their party's healthcare overhaul while acknowledging the legislation is on a "very, very narrow path" to passage. Five Republican senators have announced they will not support the bill, which is designed to repeal and replace Obamacare, in its current form.

Novartis breast cancer drug Kisqali wins European panel backing

A European Medicines Agency (EMA) panel recommended on Friday approving Novartis's Kisqali drug, bolstering the Swiss drugmaker's bid to challenge rival Pfizer's Ibrance against tough-to-treat breast cancer. The EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) backed Kisqali in combination with hormone therapy as a first-line treatment for hormone receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

USDA finds abscesses, unidentified material in raw Brazil beef: USDA

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has found repeated import violations in raw Brazilian beef, including abscesses and unidentified foreign material, a top agency official said, explaining reasons for a U.S. ban on imports of fresh Brazilian beef. Violations at a number of Brazilian meat plants indicate a system-wide problem in the sector, Carmen Rottenberg, a deputy USDA administrator, said in a letter to Brazil's agriculture ministry on Thursday that was obtained by Reuters.

United Nations stresses for support for Haiti cholera fight

The United Nations stressed on Thursday its support for eradicating cholera in Haiti, an epidemic it accidentally started, although the government said residents would be better served if aid funding was channeled through it. The U.N. secretary-general on Tuesday appointed a new special envoy for Haiti tasked with leading fundraising efforts for the plan to beat cholera, introduced in 2010 when peacekeepers dumped infected sewage into a river.

Hitting cardiovascular health targets can help elderly live longer

Meeting some or all of the American Heart Associations seven ideal cardiovascular health goals is associated with longer life and fewer heart attacks and strokes, no matter your age. In fact, in a recent group of elderly patients, "the benefit of an ideal cardiovascular health in reducing mortality and vascular events was comparable to what is observed in younger populations," Dr. Bamba Gaye from University Paris Descartes in France told Reuters Health by email. "This is a very good news, which suggests that it is never too late to prevent the development of risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD)."

Saudi crown prince donates $66 million to fight Yemen cholera epidemic

Saudi Arabia's crown prince has donated $66.7 million to combat a cholera epidemic in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting in a war blamed for causing a humanitarian disaster. The donation by Prince Mohammed bin Salman went to the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Health Organization (WHO), as requested by the organizations, a statement by the Saudi ministry of culture and information said.

Novo Nordisk says obesity drug helps up to 13.8 percent weight loss in phase 2 trial

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk said on Friday a phase 2 trial for its big hope in tackling obesity, an improved GLP-1 drug called semaglutide, showed a weight loss of up to 13.8 percent in people with severe conditions. The clinical trial, which lasted a year and included 957 people, resulted in a weight loss up to 17.8 kg after 52 weeks of treatment with semaglutide from a mean baseline weight of around 111 kg and a body mass index of around 39, Novo said.

Portola shares soar after FDA approves clot preventing drug

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a new oral blood-thinner made by Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc to prevent deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolisms in acutely ill patients who are not undergoing surgery. The news sent Portola's shares up as much as 51 percent to $57.90.
MOSCOW, June 24 (Reuters) - Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev has not conducted negotiations on sending peacekeeping troops to Syria during his visit to Moscow, Interfax news agency quoted Atambayev as saying on Saturday.

Last week, the head of the defence committee in the lower house of Russia's parliament said that proposals were being drafted for troops from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to join a Russian-led peacekeeping operation in Syria. Kazakhstan later denied it was in these talks.

"This question was not raised at all, neither during narrow-format meetings - we had a dinner with (Russia's President) Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) for two and a half hours - the question was not raised at all," Atambayev told reporters.

Atambayev added that such a move, if it ever comes to discussion, would require a United Nations resolution among other approvals. (Reporting by Polina Devitt; editing by)
By David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - Leading U.S. congressmen have called on President Donald Trump to press Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remove barriers to U.S. trade and investment when they meet for the first time on Monday.

The lawmakers, from the Republican and Democratic parties, said in a letter to Trump that high-level engagement with India had failed to eliminate major trade and investment barriers and had not deterred India from imposing new ones.

"Many sectors of the Indian economy remain highly and unjustifiably protected, and India continues to be a difficult place for American companies to do business," they wrote, noting that a 2017 World Bank report ranked India 130th out of 190 countries for ease of doing business.

The lawmakers - Republican House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady and Ranking Member Richard Neal, and Republican Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and Ranking Member Ron Wyden - said the bilateral economic relationship "severely underperforms" as a result of India's failure to enact market-based reforms.

They said the barriers covered multiple sectors and included high tariffs, inadequate protection of intellectual property rights, and inconsistent and non-transparent licensing and regulatory practices.

Among U.S. goods affected were solar and information technology products, telecommunications equipment and biotechnology products, they said.

The lawmakers also pointed to limitations on foreign participation in professional services, restrictive foreign equity caps for financial, retail, and other major services sectors and barriers to digital trade and Internet services.

"The list is long and growing," they said.

Modi is due to meet with about 20 leading U.S. CEOs in Washington on Sunday before his first meeting with Trump on Monday at the White House, when he will seek to revitalize ties that have appeared to drift, in spite of the priority they were afforded under former President Barack Obama.

While progress is expected in defense trade and cooperation , Trump, who campaigned on an "America First" platform has been irritated by the growing U.S. trade deficit with India and has called for reform of the H1B visa system that has benefited Indian tech firms.

Other signs of friction have included Trump accusing New Delhi of negotiating unscrupulously at the Paris climate talks to walk away with billions in aid.

Indian officials reject suggestions that Modi's "Make in India" platform is protectionist and complain about the U.S. regulatory process for generic pharmaceuticals and rules on fruit exports to the United States.

They stress the future importance of the huge Indian market to U.S. firms and major growth in areas such as aviation which will offer significant opportunities for U.S. manufacturers.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
Cabinet will make several important decisions on the management of SAITM medical college when it meets on Tuesday, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne told Parliament yesterday.

Minister Senaratne who was speaking during an adjournment debate in the House said he would submit a paper on the private medical college in Malabe on Tuesday.

The government will not allow a single party to own the SAITM Medical School. In addition a management mechanism will be introduced to the institution under which it will be run by experts in various fields such as marketing specialists, business management specialists and specialists in the field of medicine, Dr. Senaratne said.

The biggest issue with regard to the medical profession in Sri Lanka today is there is no specific standard to it. I have already embarked on introducing a standard for it and legislation is being prepared by the Legal Draftsman, he added.

The Minister said several foreign universities including the Monash University and Manipal University might start up medical colleges in Sri Lanka in the future.

One must move along with the changing world just like the socialist countries which had allowed private sector medical colleges. Come up with realistic criticism against the government instead just uttering things, he told the members of the opposition benches.

Joint Opposition Parliamentary Group Leader Dinesh Gunawardene said the government should not turn the other way at a time the SAITM had become a major issue. Nearly 8000 university students are carrying out a continuous Sathyagraha asking the government to nationalize SAITM. Even late President J R Jayewardene who is one of the most autocratic leaders in the country became flexible and nationalized the Ragama Private Medical College after realizing his mistake. Why cant the present government do the same? he questioned.

Responding to an allegation made by the MPs in the government benches that it was him who presented the gazette notification to set up SAITM in 2009, Mr Gunawardene said the gazette has been signed by S B Dissanayake who was the Minister of Higher Education at that time. SAITM is a brainchild of your minister he told the members of the government side who was heckling him at that time". (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)
The body of a 26-year-old woman, who was hacked to death in her bedroom in a three storey house on Thursday, was recovered last morning, police said.

They said the deceased Tharindi Aloka was the eldest daughter of a billionaire businessman in Kottawa.

A senior police officer in the Nugegoda Division said the victim had been killed between 9 a.m. and 11a.m. on Thursday when she was alone in the house.

Police said a young businessman in the Southern Province who often visited her had wooed her but she had not consented. They suspect the businessman for the killing.

Investigations revealed that the parents of the victim had been in their business establishment adjacent to the house at the time of the incident. The parents said Tharindi planned of going abroad after completing a beautician course.

Meanwhile, the sister of the deceased said she found her elder sister lying in a pool of blood in her room when she returned home from school.

Police personnel from Mirihana and Kottawa are conducting investigations on the instructions of ASP Krishantha Jayawardene and SP Prasad Ranasinghe. (Buddhika Kumarasiri)
The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) has called off their trade union action with immediate effect following a discussion held with President Maithripala Sirisena, GMOA said.

GMOA Secretary Dr. Naveen De Soysa said President Sirisena had agreed to provide the Governments stance on the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) to the Supreme Court through the Attorney General.

He said the President had requested the striking doctors to conclude the strike considering the prevailing dengue outbreak in the country.

He said the GMOA had called off its trade union action following the Presidents assurance of a permanent solution to the SAITM controversy.

President promised us to halt enrolling students to the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) and to suspend its degree awarding. He also pledged he would not let any changes to take place in the Sri Lanka Medical Council or its president, he said.

One of the GOMAs demands was over the Chairmanship of the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC).

Dr. De Soysa said the GMOA had stressed the importance of concluding the SAITM controversy via proposals made by the medical faculty.

Meanwhile, he said President Sirisena had also agreed make an announcement through the Presidential Secretariat regarding his stance on the matter. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)
Provincial Councils and Local Government Minister Faiszer Musthapha has assured to hold the local government (LG) elections by September this year, Joint Opposition Convener and MP Prasanna Ranatunga said yesterday.

A group of JO MPs, LG members and provincial councilors led by MP Ranatunga met Minister Musthapha at his Ministry in Colombo yesterday.

The JO group along with supporters staged a protest outside the Ministry prior to the meeting with the Minister.

MP Ranatunga said the Minister seemed interested in holding the election but it was the government which is postponing the election.

If the government fails to hold the election by September as assured by the Minister, we will bring in people in large numbers to Colombo and urge the government to hold the elections. The government is afraid that Mahinda Rajapaksa will win the election. Thats why it keeps postponing polls, he told journalists outside the ministry.

He also said lack of peoples representatives at LG bodies had made an impact on services of them such as garbage collecting, eradicating dengue and providing other facilities. (Lahiru Pothmulla)

Pics by Nisal Baduge
In preparation for a Ku Klux Klan rally planned for July 8 in Justice Park, Charlottesville police have contacted local left- and right-wing activists in anticipation of a possible confrontation between the two groups.

The inquiries have angered left-wing activists, who feel singled out by a department unsympathetic to their cause. Police say they are contacting activist groups from across the political spectrum  including far-right organizations such as Vanguard America and the League of the South  so they can prepare for the rally and keep order.

Police acknowledged on Friday that they have been in contact with members of numerous activist organizations  including local groups such as Showing Up for Racial Justice Charlottesville, or SURJ, and Equality and Progress in Charlottesville, or EPIC  in anticipation of the rally.

On Friday, attorney Pamela Starsia, who represents some of these activists, said police have been showing up at members homes and places of employment unannounced and asking questions. Police contacted one of her clients, Veronica Fitzhugh, despite warnings from Starsia that she did not want to talk to officers, Starsia said.

Fiztzhugh was arrested on June 1 in connection with an incident in which she and other activists accosted right-wing blogger Jason Kessler while he was eating at a restaurant and chanted slogans at him. She is facing a misdemeanor assault charge.

Several more activists were targeted for information gathering, the attorney said, based on comments they made on social media. Starsia called the investigation an intimidation tactic used by the department, which has clashed with activists in the past.

We think its disingenuous for CPD to pretend that these inquiries arent arising in the context of CPD aggression and disparate treatment of leftists and anti-racist activists in recent months, Starsia said in a press conference in front of police headquarters on Friday afternoon.

After the conference, Starsia delivered a four-page letter  addressed to Chief Al Thomas  listing activists grievances with the department. In addition to the inquiries, the groups are upset with several recent arrests of left-wing activists at public protests. Many of the incidents  including the June 2 arrest of Charlottesville commonwealths attorney candidate Jeff Fogel, and the arrests of two left-wing protesters at a May 14 counter-demonstration  were spurred on by anger at far-right activists who have rallied around Confederate monuments in downtown Charlottesville.

The letter complains about the nature of the charges  which Starsia referred to as questionable and trumped-up  and accuses officers of handling arrestees roughly.

Police later released their own statement saying that they have contacted members of numerous groups, both left and right, to offer assistance and gather information related to the scheduled KKK rally.

Hosted by a North Carolina chapter, the rally is expected to draw more than 100 people who will protest the city council's vote to sell the city's statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, and rename Lee Park and Jackson Park.

The overall goal of keeping this community and its citizens safe remains our number one priority, read the statement. To accomplish this goal, the Police Department will gather as much information as possible in order to coordinate an appropriate public safety response.

The statement includes a list of activist groups who have been contacted, including right-wing organizations such as the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights, (also known as the Proud Boys), Identity Evropa and the Ku Klux Klan. The list also includes such left-wing organizations as Black Lives Matter, Cville Pride and Antifascist Action, or Antifa.

We encourage any group that plans to attend the aforementioned rally to please contact the Charlottesville Police Department, reads the statement.

Starsia said her clients remain unconvinced, and they believe police are giving favorable treatment to right-wing activists such as Kessler.

There is a long history of police looking to preserve white supremacy and the current systems of power, and targeting those who seek to make change to the system, she said. I think what youre seeing is just a continuation of that pattern.

Police are asking anyone who plans to attend the rally to call (434) 970-3280.
Armed with a degree in mechanical engineering, recent University of Virginia graduate Sam Ezersky is ready to go out in the world  and write crossword puzzles.

Ezersky, 23, is not dumping a valid occupation in favor of a whimsical life of riddles. Its just that he has the chance to do something he truly loves while hes young enough to go for it.

And hes going to do it big, too. Hell be working for The New York Times and the newspapers puzzle editor, Will Shortz, the puzzle worlds equivalent of starting with LeBron James.

I was set and ready to work for Northrop Grumman after graduation and I knew I would enjoy the work, but then I had the chance to work with Will Shortz, Ezersky said. I think its just something I have to do. I would regret not doing it.

Giving up engineering to make puzzles doesnt mean hes throwing his education away.

Its not like the past four years have been spent for naught. I learned new skills and expanded my knowledge base, he said. When I took an economics class, I fell in love with it. I took another and decided I would try and double-major in mechanical engineering and economics.

Ezersky took his education seriously.

I didnt go to UVa to check a box and graduate. Engineering is a passion of mine. Who knows how long this [crossword thing] will last? I had no idea this was really a possibility, he said. Puzzles arent the only thing I do in my life and theyre not my only hobby. But this is the one thing Im most passionate about and I have a chance to make a living doing it.

It makes sense. One of Ezerskys earliest memories is his mother walking about the neighborhood pulling a red Radio Flyer wagon with young Sam inside, working on a puzzle book.

My head would be focused on those puzzle while Mom was trying to get me interested in things around me, he laughed. Im a math nerd, I guess. Im very left-brained. I wouldnt have it any other way.

Ezersky, who has contributed weekly crossword puzzles to The Cavalier Daily, the independent student newspaper at UVa, was about 6 when the puzzle bug bit.

I recall sitting in a barber shop waiting for the rest of my family to get their haircuts and seeing this open magazine with a half-completed fill-it-in puzzle, he said. It had an alphabetical word list next to it rather than clues, but I was fascinated. It was love at first sight.

His puzzle love escalated, sparked by grids, clues and the way the whole thing was constructed. He started building his own grids, creating his own answers and the clues to fill them in.

What interested me most was the concept of interlocking word patterns and the letter structures of the grids, he recalled. I would draw up little grids. I guess I always had a constructing mindset.

His new career started when he was in a bookstore with his father and his dad handed him a copy of Will Shortzs Favorite Crossword Puzzles.

They were eye-popping, not just from a solving perspective, but from my constructing perspective, Ezersky said. I opened the book and it was magical. It was a whole different level from a construction viewpoint. I was in awe. I really started to take these puzzles seriously.

Ezersky reached out to an online community of puzzlers and received mentoring help with creating successful submissions.

There are a lot of people out there creating puzzles, freelancing them, he said. You create puzzles and you send them out and see if they get accepted. The top of the puzzle world, though, is The New York Times.

He has been successful at the crossword puzzle game. He sold his first crossword to the Los Angeles Times at age 16. He sold his first to The New York Times a year later. He has now sold the paper a total of 13 puzzles.

Ezerskys efforts at puzzling won him an internship during winter break with Shortz and assistant puzzle editor Joel Fagliano. He received a job offer in April.

I had planned to make my career in mechanical engineering, and I think thats something that is still there, something I can go to, he said. But when this job came about, I thought I would be doing what I love. Thats important to me, as long as Im actively able to support myself. Ive been doing some number crunching, and I should be able to do that.

The chance to professionally puzzle with the best of them was too big of a dream to pass up, Ezersky said.

I have to see what I can do. I have to try this, he said. I will never regret this decision, no matter what happens.
Telcos have taken up various issues with telecom ministry.

New Delhi: In a day of meetings, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha discussed policy issues with TRAI Chairman R S Sharma, even as the inter-ministerial group began brainstorming separately to look for remedies at the whopping

Rs 4.6 lakh crore debt that is ailing telcos.

Sinha and Sharma held discussions in the presence of new Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan and Telecom Commission Member (Finance), and Universal Services Obligation Fund Administrator.

According to sources, the high-level meeting was held to discuss regulatory and policy issues in the sector and expedite the Bharat Net project. A separate meeting was also held among the members of the inter-ministerial group (IMG) whcih has been constituted to look into the telecom industry's financial woes.

The IMG, last week, held extensive dialogue with all telecom companies as well as large banks to discuss the industry's financial stress and look for measures that can be taken to address the situation.

The telecom industry is reeling under Rs 4.6 lakh crore debt and even large operators are complaining that competition, intensified by agressive newcomer Reliance Jio, has put a severe pressure on their revenues, profitability and

other key financial metrics.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular as well as other telcos are making an aggressive pitch for reduction in levies and taxes, and are also seeking an extension in the deferred payment liability for spectrum.

"The IMG members met today and dicussed the demands placed by the industry...their demands were reviewed and another meeting may be held in the coming week," a person familar with the matter told PTI.

On Thursday, the minister had assured industry bigwigs Sunil Mittal and Anil Ambani as well as other telecom players that "corrective steps" will be taken to ensure orderly growth of the beleaguered sector.

After a two-hour meeting with telecom honchos yesterday, the Minister had said that the IMG will give its report "soon". Apart from Bharti Airtel Chairman Mittal and Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Ambani, Thursday's meeting was

attended by Idea Cellular Managing Director Himanshu Kapania, Tata Sons Director Ishaat Hussain and Reliance Jio Infocomm Board Member Mahendra Nahata.

Jio has been ascribing the financial stress in the telecom sector to existing operators like Airtel and Idea running businesses on debt and investing heavily in unrelated sectors. Jio has alleged that the incumbent operators had been reluctant in infusing equity and hence the financial stress is their own creation.

The incumbent operators have outrightly rejected these charges and, in turn, accused Jio of predatory pricing. They have also demanded that operators should be paid more for calls terminating on their networks.

The large operators have also spoken in one voice on reduction of levies like licence fee, spectrum usage charges and GST. They sought an extension on deferred spectrum liabilities - meaning that the amount they bid for radiowaves

should be payable over a longer period.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) too had met the telecom companies last week, where Idea Cellular suggested imposition of a minimum floor price for voice and data services.
Mumbai: India's Essar Oil and Russia's Rosneft on Friday revealed that Rs 80,000 crore buyout was complete now. Under the purchase deal, Roseft will get Essar oil refinery in Gujarat which is second largest facility in India.

A report on ET Now says that due to some security fears the deal has hit a hurdle of India's security agencies. Home Ministry and Intelligence Bureau have raised certain objections over inclusion of Vadinar port being part of the sellout.

The $13 billion or Rs 80,000 crore deal has been touted as largest foreign direct investment or FDI into India. The deal was signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin during latter's visit to Goa for BRICS summit last year.

Agencies raise these concerns as Vadinar port lies in close proximity to Pakistan. Apart from that some three or four defence installations are there in the vicinity of Vadinar port.

"All requisite approvals from the Govt of India for the Essar Oil transaction to proceed are available.Your query pertaining to seeking ministry of home approval for the port has nothing to do with the present Essar-Roseneft-Trafigura-UCP deal.Hope this clarifies the matter adequately," an Essar spokesperson told ET Now.

Besides Rosneft, Russian bank UCP and a Swiss commodity trading firm Trafigura are paying $13 billion to buy a 98 per cent stake in Essar Oil. The deal also includes India's second largest refinery at Vadinar and nearly 3,000 fuel retail outlets, the report added.
Bengaluru: Infosys chairman R.Seshasayee on Saturday said it will be his last AGM before he retires next year in May and plans a smooth transition to his successor.

Finally, as this will be my last AGM, before I retire upon reaching the age of 70 in May 2018... During the remaining part of my tenure, I would be committed to further enhancing governance standards, improving shareholder value and planning a smooth transition to my successor, he said in his speech at the 36th AGM of Infosys here in Bengaluru today.

Seshasayee said the management and the board commit to its shareholders further acceleration of efforts to navigate the company through the daunting changes and deliver performance worthy of its proud heritage.

He also thanked founders, his colleagues on the board and shareholders for giving him an opportunity to serve the company at an extremely critical point during its transformation journey.

I have had unstinted support from my colleagues on the board and the management, and I am truly grateful to them for imposing confidence in my leadership in these challenging times, he added.

Seshasayee spoke of the company undertaking three transformations, including the cultural one to secure a sustainable and secure future.

I have earlier said we are undertaking three transformations simultaneously in the company to secure a sustainable and secure future; one, business transformation from a traditional transformation company to an innovation led, software plus services company, which is formidable enough, he said.

Second, the cultural transformation that comes along when you induct global leadership talent and third, the rather abrupt transition from the promoter-led board and management to an independent board. None of these is easy. Other players in the industry might have one or the other, but not all three, the chairman stressed.
Lucknow: The ED today attached assets worth over Rs 55 crore in connection with its probe in the alleged Rs 3,700 crore ponzi scam perpetrated by a Noida-based firm which had promised money in lieu of 'likes' on social media

to lakhs of gullible investors.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had in March attached assets worth Rs 599 crore. With this attachment, the total value of seized assets in the case has gone up to over Rs 654 crore.

A provisional attachment order issued by the central probe agency's Joint Director Rajeshwar Singh (Lucknow zonal unit) said an amount of Rs 40 crore lying in a Yes bank account, Rs 5.09 crore funds kept in an escrow account of

ICICI bank, fix deposit receipts of Rs 3.61 crore and a commercial property in Greater Noida worth over Rs 6 crore has been attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The value of assets attached under today's order is over Rs 55.43 crore, a senior official said. The case involves a firm named Ablaze Info Solution

Private Limited and it is owned by the alleged kingpin of this alleged Ponzi scam case -- Anubhav Mittal.

Mittal has already been arrested. Mittal, the agency had said, had collected "several thousand crore of rupees from the customers of his company by

false inducements and later siphoned off the same by means of generating false or bogus bills/invoices with the assistance of various persons who are under scrutiny."

The ED had on January 5 registered a criminal case under the PMLA based on an FIR of the Uttar Pradesh Police's Special Task Force (STF) which had first unearthed the alleged illegal ponzi or multi-level marketing scam.

"The modus operandi of the accused according to their business scheme as alleged were that through their web portal they promoted a scheme where by liking the webpage, which were fictitiously shown associated to international social media groups like Google and Facebook, the users will earn money.

"The accused persons propagated a false story that the promotional web pages linked on these international social media portals pay Rs 6 per likes out of which they pay Rs 5 to the investment/user," the agency had said.

The probe agency had said the fraudsters allegedly cheated about 6.5 lakh gullible investors of an estimated Rs 3,700 crore, a fraud bigger in value than the infamous Saradha chit fund scam of West Bengal and Assam which is pegged at Rs 2,500 crore.
Chennai: Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today launched a series of initiatives taken up under Southern Railway. Prabhu launched, among others, the seven km Ennore-Tiruvottiyur fourth line, a 10 KW solar plant at Moore Market complex here and a food plaza at Tiruchirappalli, through video conferencing.

Various passenger amenities and LED lighting facilities at different railway stations under Chennai division were also inaugurated by the Minister.

Speaking at the event, he proposed a coastal railway route connecting Chennai and Kanniyakumari and sought the state governments cooperation in its implementation.

Earlier, he addressed a seminar on GST, organised by the Southern India Regional Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He said efforts were on to ensure that operationalisation of the GST regime is smooth and assured it would benefit people. GST is a landmark legislation in which everything will change for the better, he said about the new tax regime, due for roll out from July 1, 2017. The GST will benefit every Indian citizen in the long run, he added.
Mumbai: IT giant Infosys today held its 36th annual general meeting today amid alleged board room clashes and rumours of layoffs.

Here are a few minutes from the meeting:

Retirement of company chairman: Infosys executive chairman R Seshasayee announced his retirement, which is due in May 2018. Seshasayee said it will be his last AGM before he retires next year in May and plans a smooth transition to his successor.

The effect of automation: Infosys said more than 11,000 jobs have been released due to automation. The revenue per full-tie employee (FTE) increased by 1.2 per cent as a result of automation.It is a clear demonstration of how software is going to play a crucial role in our business model, it said.

Compensation gap: The IT major claimed it had recognized the fact that there exists a major compensation gap between the top management and the employees. To address the same, a company spokesperson said the company has restructures its compensation framework to stock-based rewards.

Rising protectionism: Infosys CEO Vishak Sikka addressed all shareholders in a letter saying that Infosys has been battling rising protectionism, commoditization, increasing client expectations and accelerated competition. Internally, we had challenges to bring stability to our consulting business and growth to our Finacle and BPO businesses. But amidst all of this, it behoves us to stay focused on our longer-term mission to drive rapid growth in software-led offerings, to capture demand in newer service lines and to renew our core services  a mission to deliver consistent, profitable growth for the benefit of all our stakeholders, Sikka said.

The effect of automation: Infosys said more than 11,000 jobs have been released due to automation. The revenue per full-tie employee (FTE) increased by 1.2 per cent as a result of automation.It is a clear demonstration of how software is going to play a crucial role in our business model, it said.

No differences with promoters: The company claimed that the alleged clash between the companys board and its founders is purely a creation of the media.

Cash balance: Infosys claimed it currently holds on Rs 12,222 crore in cash and cash equivalent as of March 31, 2017. This is in comparison to Rs 24,276 crore of cash it was sitting on at the end of last year. It claimed its deposits stood at Rs 6,931 crore as of March 31, compared with Rs 4,900 crore in FY 16.

Investor corner: The Infosys board has identified Rs 13,000 crore or USD 2 billion to be paid out to shareholders during FY18 through dividend and/or buybacks which would be decided later.

Dividend declaration: The IT company declared a final dividend of Rs 14.75 per share for FY17. It estimates a cash outflow of approximately Rs 4,061 crore  excluding dividend paid on treasury shares and inclusive of corporate dividend tax.
New Delhi: The government is likely to bring in an ordinance by next week to amend the SEZ Act to bring it in line with the Goods and Services Tax (GST), due on July 1. The commerce ministry is working on the same, a source

said.

Certain provisions in the special economic zone (SEZ) Act, 2005, are not consistent with the GST regime and need to be made compatible before the July 1 rollout date.

For instance, the duty drawback norms, under which an exporter is compensated for duties during the course of production of goods, are required to be in sync with the new indirect tax structure.

Under the current rules, units in an SEZ get service tax exemption and the developers are exempted from Customs or excise duty for development of zones for authorised operations.

Additionally, the Section 26 of the SEZ Act dealing in exemptions, drawbacks and concessions to developers and entrepreneurs has to be amended.

SEZs are export hubs that contribute about 16 per cent to the country's total out-bound shipments.

GST unifies 16 different levies like excise, service tax, and VAT, among others.
Indore: Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani today said the management was doing everything to revive the national carrier and talks of privatisation do not have any impact on its expansion plans.

"We are doing all that is needed to financially revive Air India. We are going to launch new domestic and international flights and for this recruitment is on," Lohani said speaking to reporters here.

"But we have inherited a heavy burden of debt (Rs 50,000 crore). Besides, there are issues related to amalgamation of Air India and Indian Airlines," he added.

He refused to comment on possibility of privatisation of the national carrier and Tata group buying a stake. "I won't comment on the issue of Air India's disinvestment. It is government's domain, not mine," he said.

Lohani, however, denied that privatisation talk had dealt a setback to the airline's expansion plans. "Our expansion plans are unhindered. Twenty-five big and small aircraft will be inducted in the next couple of months. Our situation is improving with every passing year. Negative coverage (in media) is on decline," he said.

Lohani said Air India was going to launch flights from Delhi to Washington, Stockholm and Copenhagen in coming months. "Besides, we want to introduce flights to Los Angeles, African countries and some other cities," he added.

Flight delays had decreased drastically, he claimed, adding that the airline was working on a plan to hire 300 to 400 pilots and 600-700 cabin crew.

Ten small 72-seater aircraft manufactured by the French firm ATR will join the Air India's fleet shortly which will give a boost to the domestic air service to smaller cities, he said.

The public carrier also had plans to connect Indore with Ahmedabad and Jaipur from August-September, Lohani said.
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank today the extended the scope of Banking Ombudsman Scheme under which banks could be penalised for mis-selling third-party products like insurance and mutual funds via mobile or electronic banking.

The pecuniary jurisdiction of the Banking Ombudsman to pass an award has been doubled to Rs 20 lakh. "Under the amended scheme, a customer would also be able to lodge a complaint against the bank for its non-adherence to

RBI instructions with regard to mobile banking/ electronic banking services in India," the central bank said.

The RBI had widened the scope of its Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006, to include, inter alia, deficiencies arising out of sale of insurance, mutual fund, and other third-party investment products by banks.

Further, "the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Banking Ombudsman to pass an Award has been increased from existing rupees one million to rupees two million", it said.

Compensation not exceeding Rs 1 lakh can also be awarded by the Ombudsman to the complainant for loss of time, expenses incurred as also, harassment and mental anguish suffered by the complainant.

Banking Ombudsman is a quasi judicial authority functioning under the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006. The authority was created to enable resolution of complaints of customers of banks relating to services rendered by the lenders.
Mumbai: Alia Bhatt has an immense fan following in reality as well as in her virtual world.

She keeps treating her fans with beautiful pictures of hers, by sharing them on Instagram.

On Friday evening, the 24-year-old actress posted a classical dancing still of hers on the image-sharing app.

She captioned the pic, "Dance away on a rainy day."

Dance away on a rainy day  A post shared by Alia  (@aliaabhatt) on Jun 23, 2017 at 7:37am PDT

With minimal make-up and dressed in an ethnic red kurti, she looked serene.

Alia, who was on a break, post the success of her film 'Badrinath Ki Dulhania,' is all set to work on Meghna Gulzar's 'Raazi' with Vicky Kaushal.

She will be seen playing a Kashmiri woman working for the Indian intelligence, spying on her husband, a Pak army man, played by Vicky.
Mumbai: The Competition Commission has dismissed allegations of unfair business practices against the producers of Vidya Balan-starrer 'Kahaani 2' movie, which was released last year.

K Sera Sera Digital Cinema had moved the regulator after the film's producers - Pen India and Boundscript Motion Pictures - refused to provide the movie to it for exhibition.

Among others, it was alleged that the movie was given only to UFO Moviez India and Real Image Media Technologies.

As per the complaint, Pen India, Boundscript, UFO Moviez and Real Image Media had entered into an anti-competitive agreement with a view to limit or control the release of the film.

In its order dated June 21, Competition Commission of India (CCI) said there is no substance in K Sera Sera's allegation that the producers refused to provide the movie due to an anti-competitive pact with UFO Moviez and Real Image Media.

The regulator has concluded that there was no violation of Section 3 of the Competition Act that pertains to anti- competitive agreements.

Pen India had also submitted to the CCI copies of a news article about a complaint filed by producer Viacom18 against K Sera Sera in relation to online piracy of the movie 'Force-2' that was released in November 2016.

"... it was reported that the investigations conducted by Viacom18 revealed that pirated copies had originated from the copy that was sent to the informant (K Sera Sera) for digital integration," CCI said in its order citing contents of the news article.

In the 9-page order, the regulator said K Sera Sera has neither refuted the allegations reported in the news article during the oral hearing nor adduced any documents to rebut the same in their written submissions after the oral hearing.

"The Commission observes that the complete silence on the part of the informant (K Sera Sera) on the issue of online piracy as raised in the...news article indicates that the allegation of OP 1 (Pen India) is not baseless and has some substance in it.

"Thus, an objective business rationale to protect the commercial interest of OP 1 and OP 2 (Boundscript Motion) cannot be overlooked in a proceeding under the (Competition) Act unless the same is shown to have exclusionary effects or is tainted with an anti-competitive objective," the order noted.

Further, the fair trade regulator said the decision of Pen India and Boundscript to refuse to exhibit their movie to through the K Sera Sera's digital service, with whom other producers have had "issues of piracy" earlier, appear to be taken as a precautionary step to prevent any loss due to piracy.

"The Commission is of the view that the alleged conduct of OP 1 and OP 2 in refusing to provide the content of the movie Kahaani 2 to the informant does not appear to be unreasonable and anti-competitive," CCI said.

While passing the order, the regulator observed that the very objective of competition law is to protect the interest of consumers and the process of competition. "It is not concerned with the harm to the competitors unless that also leads to harm to the consumers," CCI added.

Besides, the regulator dismissed allegations of abuse of dominance against the opposite parties saying there is no prima-facie evidence of such violation.
Mumbai: When the most celebrated host of the nation is on the other side of the table and being asked questions, what sets in, is a fun, entertaining and inquisitive ambience.

The newly turned father of two, Karan Johar appeared on a famous chat show as the guest. The episode will also showcase the fatherly and extremely loving side of the House of Talent, Karan Johar.

The director-producer opened up about how he prepared for his fatherhood, and how the thought of having children daunted upon him.

The director said, "A day after my 40th birthday, I just felt I need to be a father. I knew I needed to be emotionally ready. So I went into therapy sessions and psychology discussions about what it is to be a father, what it is to raise a child without a mother and also at a certain age in your life. I was asked if the children are my backup plan for not having a love relationship in your life. I really had to go into my internal self to ask if that's true and the answer was no."

An emotional Karan further said, "When I held them for the first time, I don't think I can describe the feeling. I cannot explain what I felt. I just sat in the chair and held my daughter first, as she is a little more vulnerable medically. I didn't even realize there were tears rolling down my face. That feeling cannot be replaced by any other emotion."
Mumbai: Hollywood star Johnny Depp has apologised for joking about assassinating US President Donald Trump, saying his remarks were in "poor taste."

The 54-year-old actor said his comments did not "come out as intended" and was only meant to amuse, reported People magazine.

"I apologise for the bad joke I attempted last night in poor taste about President Trump. It did not come out as intended, and I intended no malice. I was only trying to amuse, not to harm anyone," Depp said in a statement.

The actor's joke, what could be a reference to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth in 1865, was made during an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival.

"When was the last time an actor assassinated a president? I want to qualify, I am not an actor. I lie for a living. However, it has been a while and maybe it is time," Depp had said.

Shortly after news broke of Depp's comments, the White House issued a statement strongly condemning the joke and calling on others in Hollywood to speak out.

"President Trump has condemned violence in all forms and it's sad that others like Johnny Depp have not followed his lead. I hope that some of Mr Depp's colleagues will speak out against this type of rhetoric as strongly as they would if his comments were directed to a Democrat elected official," the statement read.

Depp is only the latest celebrity to find themselves in hot water over violent commentary aimed at Trump. Late last month, Kathy Griffin posed for a photo shoot in which she held up a bloody prop head that resembled Trump. The comedian has also apologised.
KANNUR: Yoga has become a boon for cancer survivors who face many problems due to the side effects of prolonged treatment. Yoga is the best way to overcome the difficulties, according to the Kannur-based NGO, Malabar Cancer Care Society (MCCS), which is working among cancer patients. We started the programme in 2006 with the support of FORCE (Friends for cancer care), the forum of the cancer survivors. As many as 76 persons took yoga classes and remarkable changes occurred in their lives, said D. Krishnanadha Pai, president of MCCS.

The yoga lessons are imparted by Kannur University Yoga coordinator Dr T.V. Padmanaban and guided by oncologists, including from the Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram. Those who have undergone oral radiation later experience jaw problems. Jaw muscles become rigid and cannot be opened. Similarly, saliva used to flow out of their mouth and a bystander has to accompany them to wipe off the saliva. These problems were successfully treated by the yoga training, said Dr Pai.

Initially, classes are given for a day in a week for the cancer survivors. They have to follow it daily at home and it must be monitored. A monthly review of the training and follow-up is also done. The majority of the yoga students at MCCS consist of aged people. I provide yoga training as well as psychological counselling to the survivors, says Dr Padmanaban. RCC medical superintendent Dr K. Ramdas is closely associated with the programme.
Shirley Zindler, of Sebastopol, Calif, lifts up the jowls of Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, during the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. Martha was the winner of the event. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Calif: Martha is big, ugly, lazy and gassy. And a world champion.

In a competition annually dominated by the old, the tiny, and the hairless, the 3-year-old, 125-pound Neapolitan Mastiff used her lollygagging youth to win the 29th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest.

She was a favorite of the Northern California crowd from the start, often plopping down on her side on stage with her droopy face spread across the ground when she was supposed to be showing off. The judges didn't even need to hear her signature snore to give her the award.

Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, competes while being escorted by Shirley Zindler in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. Martha was named the winner of the contest. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

"Do you know you just won the World's Ugliest Dog Contest?" asked Kerry Sanders of NBC News, one of three judges who gave Martha the crown. Her handler Shirley Zindler answered for her: "I'd gloat, but I need a nap."

Martha lumbered away with $1,500, a flashy trophy and a trip to New York for media appearances, all things she could hardly care less about.

The dog, from nearby Sebastopol, was rescued when she was nearly blind from neglect by the Dogwood Animal Rescue Project in Sonoma County, where the contest was held. After several surgeries, she can now see again, Zindler said.

Shirley Zindler, of Sebastopol, Calif., reacts after her dog Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, won the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. At right is judge Kerry Sanders. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

The only animal in this year's contest too big to be held by her handler, Martha beat out 13 other dogs, most of them the kind of older, smaller dogs who win here.

Moe, a 16-year-old Brussels Griffon-pug mix from Santa Rosa, California, who was the oldest in the competition, came in second. He had lost his hearing and sight but his sense of smell is strong and he was enjoying all the smells at the Sonoma-Marin Fair where the contest is held, including funnel cakes and other fried goodies.

Chase, a 14-year-old Chinese Crested-Harke mix, came all the way from Neath, United Kingdom to take third place.

The contestants were judged on first impressions, unusual attributes, personality and audience reaction.

Shirley Zindler, of Sebastopol, Calif., sits with her dog Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, who won the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 23, 2017.(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Many of the contestants were adopted. Monkey, a 6-year-old Brussels Griffon, and Icky, an 8-year-old unknown breed, were both rescued from the homes of hoarders.

These dogs - some with acne, others with tongues permanently sticking out - are used to getting called ugly. But for their owners, it was love at first sight.

"He's my sexy boy," Vicky Adler, of Davis, California, said of her 8-year-old Chinese Crested named Zoomer.

Check out pictures of Martha and her friends below

Icky, left, an unknown hairless, and Zoomer, right, a Chinese crested, both from Davis, Calif., wait to compete in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, competes while being escorted by Shirley Zindler in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. Martha was named the winner of the contest. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Rascal, left, a Chinese Crest, held by Dane Andrew of Sunnyvale, Calif., meets Chase, right, a Chinese Crested Harke, held by Storm Shayler, right, of Britain, before the start of the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Dane Andrew of Sunnyvale, Calif., holds up his dog, Rascal, a Chinese crested, before the start of the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Moe, a Brussel griffon pug, from Santa Rosa, Calif., waits to compete in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Martha, a Neapolitan mastiff, stands on stage after winning the World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 23, 2017, in Petaluma, Calif. Martha is owned by Shirley Zinder, of Sebastopol, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
One of the victim at the platform, surrounded by onlookers. (Photo: Screenshot)

Chandigarh: A youth was stabbed to death and his two brothers were injured by a group of people who also allegedly passed slurs against them after a dispute over a train seat near Ballabhgarh in Haryana, following which one person has been arrested.

"One person has been arrested in this connection," Deputy Suprintendent of Police (DSP), Faridabad Government Railway Police (GRP), Mohinder Singh said.

He refused to divulge details of the person arrested saying "first the GRP will present him in court tomorrow."

The deceased has been identified as Junaid (17) while his brothers Hasim (21) and Sakir (23) were injured, Singh said.

"Sakir is serious," the DSP said, adding that the GRP has registered a case of murder.

Singh said the incident happened last night on board the Delhi-Mathura passenger train between Ballabgarh and Mathura stations.

"An altercation took place between the three brothers and some 10 passengers over a seat. The passengers allegedly passed some remarks on the three brothers, who are Muslims, and residents of Khandawali village in Faridabad," he said.

He said a passenger used a knife to stab one of the brothers to death.

"The passengers thrashed the three brothers badly and attacked them with a knife," he said.

No arrests have been made so far, the officer said.
Jammu: An Army jawan was slain when the Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing at the Indian forward positions in Nowshera sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmirs Rajouri district on Friday.

A defence spokesman in Jammu said that the Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively to the Pakistani firing. It is not yet known if the Pakistanis have suffered any casualties in Indian retaliation.

Lt. Col. Manish Mehta, the Nagrota (Jammu)-based defence spokesman, told reporters that the Pakistani troops once again violated the November 2003 ceasefire agreement by resorting to unprovoked firing at the Indian positions in Nowshera at about 5:15 am, causing grievous injuries to Naik Bakhtawar Singh.

His colleagues tried to rush him the nearest medical facility but he succumbed to the injuries on way, the spokesman said.

He said, He was grievously injured and succumbed while being taken to the military hospital.

Singh, 34, belonged to Hajipur village in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district, Lt. Col. Mehta informed and added that he is survived by his wife and three children aged 11 years, 9 years and a 10-month-old baby.

The wreath-laying ceremony will be held in Rajouri on Saturday, the Army said.

On Thursday, the Army had said that two Pakistani soldiers were killed after it retaliated to the unprovoked ceasefire violation by Pakistan army along the LoC in two sectors of Rajouri and Poonch.
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday said two people have been arrested and a third person has been identified in the incident where Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mohammed Ayub Pandith was lynched by a mob.

"Two people have been arrested so far in the incident and third one has been identified. The rest culprits will also have to face the law. According to the reports, when he was coming out of the mosque, people started raising slogans and started hitting him resulting in his death," Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police S P Vaid told media here.

He added that the DSP was posted outside the mosque for the security of the people so that they could offer prayers without any hindrance.

"A few people who were standing outside the mosque lynched him. This is very unfortunate. There seems to be a sheer difference between humanity and cruelty. People need to understand what is wrong. Further investigation is underway," Vaid said.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday condemned the killing of Deputy SP Mohammed Ayub Pandith and warned the mob saying that police were exercising maximum restraint and that the people must understand.

The Chief Minister also said that the Jammu and Kashmir police was one of the best police forces in the country and that the people should respect them.

Mufti further stressed that the police were deployed to protect the lives of the locals, but if they 'continued behaving like this', then it's possible that the past may return in which security forces use maximum force on people.

Last night, Pandith was lynched to death by a violent mob in downtown Srinagar.

The deceased DSP was allegedly on surveillance and was clicking picture of people emerging from the Jamia Masjid mosque, when a mob attacked him. There were also reports that the officer was allegedly trying to film stone pelting in the area.

After the situation became out of control, the cop in his own defence opened fire through his service pistol on the mob, in which three people got injured.

The angry mob then proceeded to attack him more severely and ended up taking his life.

The police have recovered the body of deceased and are investigating the matter.
Earlier, there have been several BAT attacks in which Indian jawans have been beheaded or their bodies mutilated. (Representational Image)

Jammu: The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) made up of special forces men and terrorists were armed with 'special daggers' and 'headband cameras' to mutilate and record the attack on the Indian Army patrol party after entering 600 meters across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.

The attack left two Indian soldiers dead while one BAT member was killed in retaliatory action by Indian troops.

Army troops during search and sanitation operations, recovered the body of a member of the BAT team along LoC in Gulpur sector of Poonch district on Thursday.

"The body of the intruder killed in the BAT attempt on 22 June has been retrieved and handed over to the local police," a senior army officer said.

"Arms, ammunition and other war-like stores including a special dagger and a headband with a camera, knife, one AK rifle, 3 magazines, 2 grenades besides dresses and bags was recovered which reflects the barbaric mindset of the Pakistan Army," he said.

"The resolute action of our soldiers didn't let the nefarious plan (of mutilating bodies and recording it on camera) succeed," officer said.

Giving details, the officer said that a special class of dagger and a knife was meant to engineer quick mutilation and beheading of jawans killed in the firing exchanges and it has been foiled by the quick action by Indian soldiers.

The BAT member was wearing headband with camera on his head to record the action and possible mutilation of jawans, which was prevented by other troops who shot dead one of them and injured another, he said.

The officer said it is matter of investigation whether the camera was live connected with Pakistan Army establishments across the border.

"The data and details of the camera will be analysed," he said.

"We are confident that another BAT member has also been killed but his body was taken back by the other members of the BAT," he said.

In the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces on Thursday sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Border Action Team (BAT), which generally comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan Army and some terrorists, carried out the attack at around 2 pm on Thursday under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops from their posts, he said.

"A Border Action Team of five to seven heavily-armed men, under the cover of Pakistani firing, entered 600 meters inside the LoC in Gulpur forward area in Poonch sector around 2 PM yesterday and launched a fierce attack on Indian Army patrol party with several types of weapons," the official said.

The Pakistani attackers came up to 200 meters near the Indian posts.

During the attack, the Pakistani troops resorted to firing in Gulpur-Karmara-Chakan-Da-Bagh area along the LoC.

The armed intruders targeted an area domination patrol of the Indian Army, triggering a gunfight, the official said.

The Indian troops killed one of the attackers and injured another whose extrication was facilitated by the cover fire by the Pakistani troops from their posts.

In the firefight, two Indian soldiers were killed. They were 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad, Maharashtra and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

The Pakistani firing continued till 3.30 pm on Thursday even as the Indian posts retaliated strongly.

In a similar BAT attack on May 1, two Indian soldiers were beheaded in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district. That attack too was carried out under the cover of shelling by the Pakistani troops.

Prior to that, a BAT attack was carried out in February but there were no casualties.

Earlier, there have been several BAT attacks in which Indian jawans have been beheaded or their bodies mutilated.

On October 28 last year, militants attacked a post and killed an Indian Army soldier and mutilated his body close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Machil sector.

In January 2013, Lance Naik Hemraj was killed and his body mutilated by a BAT. It had also beheaded Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh.
Srinagar: A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan was killed, two others and a civilian pedestrian were injured when militants ambushed the vehicle they were travelling in at Pantha Choak along he Srinagar-Jammu highway and about 6 kilometres from the city centre Lal Chowk.

The assailants have been trapped inside a nearby school which has been encircled by the security forces to start operation to flush them out, the officials said. Later a J&K policeman and a CRPF jawan were injured when the former accidentally fired his weapon in the area, reports said.

The police and witnesses said that the militants fired their AK-47 assault rifles to target the vehicle carrying men from the CRPFs 29 Battalion. A CRPF spokesman said, Three of our jawans were injured in the terrorist attack. One of them succumbed to his injuries soon after the incident.

The militants after the attack ran into the nearby campus of Delhi Public School.

Two gunmen are inside. An appeal has been made to them to surrender, a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity told this correspondent. Vijay Kumar Dhar, the Pro Vice Chairman of the school, confirmed it.

He, however, added all the school staff and students were safe as they have already left the campus. The DPS (Srinagar) campus is located at a stones throw from the place of occurrence and its management had earlier flashed messages to parents on their mobile phones saying All students and staff are safe.

However, on hearing about the incident many panicky parents had already headed for the school.

The traffic along the Srinagar-Pampore stretch of the highway has been suspended and the police, CRPF and Army reinforcements have laid siege to Pantha Choak and its neighbourhood to start searches.

Witnesses said that the shooting incident led to a chaotic situation at the busy intersection and nearby marketplaces with people running towards what they considered were safer locations. The shop owners brought their shutters down and the people on board vehicles abandoned them and took shelter in sidelanes.

Later a CRPF jawan and a J&K policeman were injured after the latter accidentally fired his weapon in the area. The incident happened when SSP Srinagar was talking to reporters on the spot.
Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday announced that the state government has decided to waive off Rs 34,000 crore in loans and added all ministers and MLAs will give up a month's salary to support the loan waiver.

"Maharashtra Government has decided loan waiver of Rs 34,000 crore. We are waiving loans up to Rs 1.5 lakh completely. Aware that the burden will fall on us, will cut our expenses. All ministers and MLAs will give up one month salary to support loan waiver," Chief Minister Fadnavis said during a press conference.

Chief Minister asserted that those farmers, who have paid their loans regularly, will get 25 percent loan return benefit.

"Those farmers who have paid back their loans regularly, we will give 25 percent loan return benefit to them. We have discussed this with several stakeholders in this matter," Fadnavis said.

He also assured that this step will waive off 90 percent farmers loans completely.

However, the Chief Minister also made it clear that those who have an income of more than 10 lakhs per annum will not be benefitted from this loan waiving scheme.

Several incidents of violence were reported from Maharashtra after annoyed farmers took to streets to protest against Chief Minister Fadnavis. Their demands included a complete loan waiver.

Earlier, Rs 30,000 crore of farm loans were waived off in Maharashtra amidst large-scale protests.
SRINAGAR: In a horrific incident that left the Kashmir Valley and the whole of India aghast, a deputy superintendent of the J&K police was stripped naked and lynched to death by a mob outside the historic Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.

The lynching of Mohammad Ayub Pandith drew all-round condemnation, including from J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Farooq.

Ms Mufti, calling the incident shameful, wondered how long the police would show restraint as she warned that there could be a backlash if the force loses patience.

The gory attack outside Srinagars Grand Mosque on Thursday night ironically took place during Lailat-ul-Qadr or Shab-e-Qadr, the night which as per Islamic belief is when the first verses of the Quran were revealed to its Prophet Muhammad.

Police said two people involved in the murder were arrested and that a third accused has been identified and he too would be arrested soon.

Slain cop was taking photos outside mosque

All involved will face the law, J&K director-general of police Shesh Paul Vaid said.

DSP Muhammad Ayub Pandith was among the three police officials on surveillance and anti-sabotage duty and was taking pictures of those coming out of the Jamia Masjid with his mobile phone when the mob attacked him.

Reports said a group of youth chanting pro-azadi slogans confronted the police. While two officers fled, Pandith argued with the mob. As he failed to explain his presence, they caught him and the arguments turned into blows. The police officer then pulled his service revolver from his holster and fired at the mob, injuring three local youth. He was brutally beaten to death.

The police officials said he may have opened fire as a last resort in self-defence. They also said the youth who were injured were all shot in the leg, that showed that even under attack the officer was careful not to shoot to kill. The officers service weapon is missing.

The police chief said Pandith was posted outside the mosque for the security of the people so they could offer prayers without hindrance. A few people who were standing outside the mosque lynched him. This is very unfortunate. People need to understand what is wrong. Further investigations are on, Mr Vaid added.

The police had said on Thursday night that none of its officers or men were missing and that effort were on to ascertain the identity of the person lynched by the mob. Rumours had spread in Srinagar that the person lynched at Nowhatta outside the Grand Mosque was not a local or Muslim as he was not circumcised.

Many people also presumed him to be from one of the Central intelligence agencies. As the officer was not in uniform, he was identified hours later when his family called his cellphone.
Lucknow: The NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will be in the Uttar Pradesh capital on Sunday to seek support from elected representatives while preparation in the Assembly is on for smooth conduct of voting, slated for

July 17.

A senior Congress leader said the Opposition's presidential pick Meira Kumar might also pay a visit to Lucknow to seek votes from the electoral college as the party "will not leave any stone unturned" for the election.

"She, in all probability, will be accompanied by AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad and is likely to meet all elected representative, cutting across party affiliations," he said.

The state, which has the maximum population in the country, has the highest value of each vote in the presidential election.

The electoral college includes elected members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, states, union territories and the NCT region of Delhi.

"The NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will be in the state capital tomorrow and will be going to Uttarakhand the next day," national general secretary of the BJP Bhupendra Yadav said.

He is likely to meet MPs and MLAs of the BJP, its allies and also leaders of other political parties over dinner, sources said.

On its part, the state Assembly secretariat has started preparations and had also held meeting with a high-level delegation of the Election Commission on Saturday. "All necessary steps are being initiated to make foolproof arrangements before the presidential election," a senior official of the Assembly said.

For the first time, a special pen and ink would be brought to Lucknow from Delhi to be used by voters to mark their preference of candidates.

For presidential elections, votes are marked in a preferential order which is then counted to declare the winner.

Since the NDA's presidential pick hails from Kanpur Dehat district of the state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said it is an honour that the son of Uttar Pradesh would be occupying the presidential office.

Kovind had been active in the Uttar Pradesh unit of BJP and was even appointed the general secretary when Laxmikant Bajpai was the party's state chief. But, he chose to switch to the party's central unit.

After the Narendra Modi government came to power, he was appointed the Bihar Governor, from where he resigned after being named the NDA's presidential nominee.
A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) man was killed and two others injured on Saturday after militants attacked their vehicle in Pantha Chowk area of Srinagar (Photo: DC/ H U Naqash)

Srinagar: Militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force in which a sub-inspector was killed, two others and a civilian pedestrian were injured at Pantha Chowk along the Srinagar-Jammu highway, about 6 kilometres from the City centre Lal Chowk on Saturday.

A civilian pedestrian was also injured in the shooting, officials said.

In a statement to local news agency KNS, LeT spokesman Dr. Abdullah Ghaznavi said, Mujahideen of Lashkar e-Taiba attacked the CRPF party at Pantha Chowk on Srinagar-Jammu highway."

Militants had opened fire at a stationary vehicle. After the attack, they ran into nearby Delhi Public School campus, which was encircled by the security forces to start operation to flush them out, the officials said.

While the security forces were readying for the operation, a policeman accidentally fired his weapon injuring a J&K policeman and a CRPF jawan, reports said.

The search operation is going on, the CRPF spokesman Rajesh Yadav said. The police sources here, however, said that the militants may have escaped as it took the security forces 30-35 minutes to lay dragnet around the campus.

The police and witnesses said that the militants fired their AK 47 assault rifles to target the vehicle carrying men from the CRPFs 29 Battalion. After the attack, the militants ran into the nearby school campus. Two gunmen are inside the main school building. An appeal has been made to them to surrender, a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity told this correspondent.

Vijay Kumar Dhar, the Pro Vice Chairman of the school, confirmed presence of two gunmen inside the school building. He, however, added all the school staff and students were safe as they had already left the campus.

The DPS (Srinagar) campus is located at a stones throw from the place where the attack took place and its management had earlier flashed messages to parents on their mobile phones saying All students and staff are safe.

However, on hearing about the incident many panicky parents had already headed for the school.

The traffic along the Srinagar-Pampore stretch of the highway was suspended and the police, CRPF and Army reinforcements laid siege to Pantha Chowk and its neighbourhood to start searches. The operation is underway, the CRPF spokesman said.

Witnesses said that the shooting incident led to a chaotic situation at the busy intersection and nearby marketplaces with people running towards what they considered were safer locations. The shop owners brought their shutters down and the people on board vehicles abandoned them and took shelter in side lanes.
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday asked the Indian envoy in Saudi Arabia to help a nurse from Karnataka who has reportedly been pushed into slavery in the Gulf country.

"Javed : Pls help rescue this lady. @IndianEmbRiyadh," Swaraj tweeted, asking India's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ahmad Javed to help Jacintha Mendonca, the Indian nurse.

As per media reports, a kafil in Saudi Arabia has demanded 24,000 Saudi Riyals (USD 6,398) to free her.

Replying to a separate query on twitter, Swaraj said every PIO (person of Indian-origin) cards has to be converted to OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) cards, saying it is mandatory.

Every PIO Card has to be converted to OCI Card. This is mandatory. https://t.co/wZFSmtz9Oh  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) June 23, 2017

She also directed the passport division of the External Affairs Ministry to resolve difficulties being faced by a person with disability.

Her response came after one Luv Kher requested to renew a passport of his disabled son.

"@SushmaSwaraj @MEAIndia Kindly approve passport renewal of my divyang son (J9503328), can't visit biometrics. Appl. pending @ RPO GZB Thanks (sic)," Kher said.

Responding to the issue Swaraj tweeted, "I have asked @CPVIndia to resolve this".
Chennai: Leader of Opposition and DMK Working President M K Stalin on Saturday asked why the Tamil Nadu government was hesitant to allow Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict A G Perarivalan to be released on parole.

Raising the issue in the state assembly, he said the plea for parole by Perarivalan had been rejected by the Tamil Nadu government.

He recalled the AIADMK government's decision (in 2014) to release all the seven convicts in the case which was followed up with letters to the Union home secretary by the Tamil Nadu government.

When such a decision was taken to release them, he asked, "Why the government is hesitant to release convicts on parole?"

Citing the release of actor Sanjay Dutt on parole by the Maharashtra government, he said, Perarivalan's case could be similarly considered.

U Thaniyarasu (of Tamil Nadu Kongu Ilaignar Peravai), an ally of ruling AIADMK (Amma) too raised the issue.

The development came a day after three allies of the ruling AIADMK sought the DMK's support in raising the parole plea of Perarivalan in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

On Friday, Thaniyarasu, S Karunas (of Mukkulathor Pulipadai) and M Thamimum Ansari (of Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi) walked up to Leader of Opposition M K Stalin in the House and held a brief discussion with him on the parole plea of Perarivalan.

Thaniyarasu had told reporters outside the House yesterday that they had requested the DMK's support in raising the matter in the House.
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra on Saturday said he will move the Madhya Pradesh High Court against the Election Commission order disqualifying him for three years for filing wrong accounts of election expenditure.

"I am going to move the Madhya Pradesh High Court against the Election Commission's order," Mishra told reporters here.

He was disqualified by the Election Commission for three years for filing wrong accounts of election expenditure during the 2008 assembly polls. His election from the Datia Assembly constituency also stood void.

Mishra who is Water Resources and Legislative Affairs minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government said that according to legal experts the disqualification order was "infructuous".

To press his point, he said that the EC delivered its judgement based on the case relating to his win in 2008 MP assembly polls from Datia seat.

"After that I have won the people's mandate in 2013 MP assembly polls," he said.

"My advocate has told me that the case (his disqualification) was related to paid news. Neither the petitioner has provided a document to corroborate paid news charge against me, nor there is a mention of it in the Election Commission's order," he claimed.

Dismissing the Congress' demand for his resignation, Mishra said that if people start putting in their papers according to the rival party's wish, Madhya Pradesh will witness elections daily.

Rajendra Bharti of the Congress, who lost the 2008 MP assembly polls from Datia constituency to Mishra, a close aide of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, had filed a complaint against the minister with the EC under the Representation of the People Act, 1951 on April 4, 2009.

Thereafter, the EC had served notice to Mishra on January 15, 2013, Bharti told on Saturday.

Mishra had moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court against the EC notice, but did not get any relief, he added.

The EC held the final hearing of the case on March 17 this year and passed its order on Saturday.

The EC verdict has sent a strong signal to the politicians who employ corrupt practice to win polls, he said.

"Truth has finally triumphed," Bharti said.

The leader of opposition in MP assembly, Ajay Singh, said, "In view of the EC order, Mishra should immediately resign from the Cabinet." State Congress chief Arun Yadav too sought Mishra's resignation.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) burnt the effigy of Mishra this evening near Board officer square in Bhopal, seeking his resignation.

"We burnt his effigy. We want him to resign immediately," state AAP join secretary and spokesman Dushyant Dangi said.

Mishra, who is also holding charge of Public Relations Department, was first elected as MLA in 1990.
While TS employees sought division of the building and land, the APNGOs Association opposed it on the ground that it was a private property owned by APNGOs and cannot be bifurcated. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: The issue of ownership of APNGOs Bhavan located in Nampally has sparked a fresh tussle between TS and AP employees.

While TS employees sought division of the building and land, the APNGOs Association opposed it on the ground that it was a private property owned by APNGOs and cannot be bifurcated.

Hyderabad collector Rahul Bojja has issued notices to APNGOs Association on sharing the building with TS employees.

Angered at this, the AP staff have decided to take up the issue with the TS government and said that they would move court against the collectors orders if the TS government failed to respond.

APNGOs president P. Ashok Babu said, We strongly condemn the notices issues by Hyderabad collector in this regard. This property was purchased in the 1970s with Rs 1 contribution from each employee from all the districts in undivided AP. This land was not allotted by government for free. This is a private property owned by

APNGOs and TS government has no right to bifurcate it. We will meet TS government officials soon and request them to withdraw notices issued by the collector. If not, we will move court.

However, TNGOs president Karem Ravinder Reddy said, The argument being made by APNGOs is baseless. There was AP Revenue Services Association building in city in undivided AP. That building was bifurcated between TS and AP staff recently after bifurcation of state. When this was done, why there should be any objection to bifurcation of APNGOs building, in which Bhagyanagar NGOs Association, is a part since long.

He said the TS staff wanted accommodation in the building to conduct meetings.
An Indian paramilitary soldier takes position outside a school building near the site of a shootout on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir. (Photo: AP)

Srinagar: A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) sub-inspector was killed and another jawan was injured when militants opened fire at a stationary vehicle they were sitting inside at Pantha Choak along the Srinagar-Jammu highway on Saturday.

The police said that the militants fired their AK 47 assault rifles to target the vehicle carrying men from the CRPFs 29 Battalion.

Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba has claimed responsibility for the attack. A civilian pedestrian was also injured in the shooting, officials said.

A CRPF spokesman said, SI Sahab Singh and constable driver Nissar Ahmed were injured in the terrorist attack. The former succumbed to his injuries whereas the latter has been admitted to Srinagar-s 92-Base Army Hospital.

The assailants after the attack ran into nearby Delhi Public School campus which was encircled by the security forces to start operation to flush them out, the officials said.

While the security forces were readying for the operation, a policeman accidentally fired his weapon injuring a J&K policeman and a CRPF jawan, reports said.

The search operation is going on, the CRPF spokesman Rajesh Yadav said.

The police sources here, however, said that the militants may have escaped as it took the security forces 30-35 minutes to lay dragnet around the campus.
Hyderabad: A two-year-old boy playing in his fathers parked car died of suffocation after he got locked inside. The parents of the boy, Mohammed Sajid, did not lodge a complaint with the police and hurriedly performed his final rites on Saturday. He was first rushed to Shadan Hospital on Thursday night, from where he was shifted to Rainbow Hospital for better treatment where the boy died late on Friday night. Narsingi sub-inspector V Sudheer Kumar said the parents had not come to the police yet.
Hyderabad: A two-year-old boy playing in his fathers parked car died of suffocation after he got locked inside. The parents of the boy, Mohammed Sajid, did not lodge a complaint with the police and hurriedly performed his final rites on Saturday.

Sajids father Mohammed Ameen Miya, is a ward member of the Peerancheruvu gram panchayat in Rajendranagar mandal under Narsingi police station.

Sources in the village said that Ameen parked the car in front of the house and went out. While his wife was busy elsewhere, Sajid opened the car door and went inside to play.

A couple of hours, when his mother could not find him, she searched him all over and found him lying inside the car.
Naming the village after US President Donald Trump is a symboli gesture to promote Indo-US relations. (Photo: AP)

Gurgaon/New Delhi: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to the US, a village in Mewat region of Haryana was on Thursday dedicated to President Donald Trump.

From now on, the village will be known as 'Trump Sulabh Village'.

In a symbolic gesture to promote the Indo-US relations, Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak formally launched various projects for the all-round development of Marora panchayat under Mewat region in Haryana, a release said.

The Sulabh Sanitation and Reform Movement leader Pathak, during a programme in Washington a few days ago, had announced to name an Indian village after Trump, as part of his efforts to strengthen relation between the countries, it said.

Sulabh, a non-governmental organisation, provides affordable sanitation and toilets to the masses to end the practice of manual scavenging.

It also works across the country to support the 'Swachh Bharat' mission besides other urban development initiatives, the release said.

Sulabh, which engages over 50,000 people, claims that so far it has constructed nearly 10.5 million household toilets and 8,500 public toilets used by nearly 15 million people daily across the country.
Who will rid me of this turbulent priest? Henry IIs exclamation was understood by his courtiers to be a command, and Thomas Becket was murdered. A similarly veiled command by a head of state lies at the heart of the incipient moves for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. When he summoned the then FBI director, James Comey, to the Oval Office on February 14, Trump told him, I hope you can let Flynn go. He was alluding to national security adviser Michael Flynn whom he had sacked. In his testimony to the US Senate intelligence committee on June 8, Comey said, I took it as a direction. Trump took care to ask all others, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, to leave the room before broaching the subject with Comey. At a news conference on May 18, Trump was asked, Did you, at any time, urge (Comey) to close the investigation into Michael Flynn? The answer was revealing in its abruptness. No, no. Next question. All this supports Comeys assertion that he was dismissed because he was investigating charges that the Russians interfered in our elections against Hillary. That web of the Russian connection is for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, to unearth.

On June 14, the Washington Post reported that Mueller was investigating the President for obstruction of justice. The articles of impeachment framed against Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton cited, among the charges, obstruction of justice as well as telling lies. However, both Nixon and Clinton faced a Senate in which each had majority support. Trumps Republican Party commands a majority in both the House of Representatives, which files the charges, and the Senate, which tries the President. At the Senate intelligence committees proceedings on June 8, the split along party lines was very evident. Article 11, Section 4 of the US Constitution provides, The President, vice-president and all officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other crimes. It is now firmly established that obstruction of justice constitutes a misdemeanour; especially if it is compounded with lies. The process begins with an investigation by the judiciary committee, which may recommend impeachment to the house. If a majority of the house ratifies the impeachment, the case against the President proceeds to a trial by the Senate, presided over by the Chief Justice of the SC. The Senate has the power to convict and remove the President by a two-thirds vote.

When the house judiciary committee voted on impeachment against Nixon, it asserted that grave transgressions can crack party loyalty; six of the committees 17 Republicans joined all 21 Democrats in backing two of the three articles that the committee endorsed. Faced with a vote in favour of impeachment, Nixon resigned. For years, impeachment has been a thoroughly discredited process. In 1967, a report of the UK House of Commons select committee on parliamentary privileges recommended that the right to impeach be abandoned. When, in 1990, there was a rash of cases of judicial corruption, the then Indian CJ Sabyasachi Mukherji characterised impeachment as practically impossible. A judge of the Indian SC, Justice V. Ramaswami, was found guilty of grave charges by a committee. On May 11, 1993, the Lok Sabha rejected a motion for his impeachment by 196 votes for it, none against  but 205 abstentions, which robbed it of the 273 votes needed for its adoption. The abstentions were ordered by Prime Minister P.V. Narsimha Rao. Impeachment is discredited, yet it is not pronounced dead. It only helps to protect corrupt judges.

By arrangement with Dawn
Kashmir society has been hardening. In the quarter century, between the last carefully organised militancy by Pakistan in the Valley, which shook the Indian state, and the present burst which originated last July, young Kashmiris have been sucked into ideological brainwashing and military training and some of them have even turned into psychological monsters peddling death. The proof was the lynching of police official Mohammed Ayub Pandith outside the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar around midnight on Thursday. It is a sordid tale that will live as a reminder of the extent of mental and ideological training of terrorists. The killing was done expertly, crudely and openly on Shab-e-Qadr, one of Islams holiest nights during Ramzan.

Radicalised violence of the Al Qaeda and Islamic State variety is a far cry from Kashmirs traditional, tolerant Islam. Violent distortions have not yet overwhelmed Kashmirs culture. But after the humiliation heaped on Pandiths person following his brutal murder by a few in front of a baying mob, it is hard to dismiss the fact that brutality of the worst kind has made deep inroads into Kashmiri society. In the name of their religion the criminal gang killed the police officer, who was on duty, by piercing his body with a rod and then tossing the corpse into a ditch. It is shocking that separatist leaders have maintained a studied silence, except for Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is also chairman of the Hurriyat Conference. Mirwaiz noted that state violence had brutalised Kashmiri society. This can only be partly right.

By far the bigger problem in the Valley has been penetration of extremist ideology exported from Pakistan. This is accompanied by the most cynical and systematic use of violence against fellow Kashmiri Muslims as part of a larger Pakistani design of incorporating Kashmir through a so-called popular uprising, carried out less and less in the name of Kashmiri nationalism and more and more in the name of Islam (through local outfits such as Hizbul Mujahideen). The Indian state has played right into the Pakistani gameplan by rejecting any meeting ground with the local population, by repudiating the prospect of any political discussion on their wide-ranging grievances concerning autonomy and economy, and seeking to bring them to heel through force. This uncaring attitude is unworthy of a democracy but the Narendra Modi government, the BJP and the proponents of the RSS ideology, give no evidence of having even the most rudimentary grasp of the fragile reality in Kashmir and its impact on the country as a whole.
In the week that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is travelling to the US, The Economist has carried a negative cover story that will not please him. The magazines view is important because it is a conservative, business-friendly publication seen by world leaders as being authoritative on the subject of economy. It is also seen as not being quick to judgment, and that makes its view on Mr Modi particularly damaging. I think the cover was a little unfair and too tough on Mr Modi and on India, but perhaps mine is the view of someone who comes from a culture where symbolism is important. The cover features him riding a tiger made of paper and is headlined Modis India: The illusion of reform. The accusations in it are many.

The most devastating is that the magazine is convinced that Mr Modi does not have the capacity to be a reformer. It feels the record shows that Mr Modi is not so good at working systematically to sort out the underlying problems holding the economy back. Instead, his reputation as a friend to business rests on his vigorous efforts to help firms out of fixes  finding land for a particular factory, say, or expediting the construction of a power station. As evidence, it says that the ideas that he is currently working with in the fourth year of his administration, such as the Goods and Services Tax, are mostly the product of previous administrations and not his own. The magazine concedes that Mr Modi is energetic, but occupied by launching glitzy initiatives on everything from manufacturing to toilet construction. He is bold but directionless. Demonetisation was brave but not a sound policy and a lack of planning and unclear objectives mean the exercise has damaged the economy. The magazine fears more erratic decision-making as the government aims to prove it is doing something.

The lack of concentrated focus and strategy has meant that Indias economy is currently growing at a slower pace than it was three years ago. The advantages that India has of low oil prices and a young population are being lost as Modi, in short, is squandering a golden opportunity. Going over the record, there are not many linings of silver in the dark cloud. The Economist has decided it has found an answer to the question of whether Mr Modi is a Hindu zealot disguised as an economic reformer, or the other way around. It believes that he is more a chauvinist than an economist. As evidence, it writes that the government has created havoc in the booming beef-export business. The language used after this is particularly strong and will upset many in government and its supporters. Under Modi, The Economist writes, debate about public policy, and specially communal relations, has atrophied. Hindu nationalist thugs intimidate those who chide the government for straying from Indias secular tradition, or who advocate a less repressive approach to protests in Kashmir.

This has happened in an atmosphere where Mr Modi himself has become the object of a sycophantic personality cult. There are other judgments on intolerance that readers who have followed the recent controversies will not find surprising. The magazines report will delight those who oppose Mr Modi and this government, and they will see their views vindicated by a neutral and informed observer. However, The Economists judgment should concern all Indians, whether or not they support Mr Modi. If it is true that we are in moment in time when the few economic advantages that we hold are being lost, our focus must be on that rather than on finger-pointing. And it would be helpful if the government were to acknowledge its shortcomings, if not its failures, on some of these issues. Unfortunately, I do not see that happening as we enter the last two years of Mr Modis first term in office.

Tailpiece: I had written a couple of weeks ago in this column of the Congress as being the source of most of the problems we face today on the side of intolerance. I had said that P. Chidambaram was saying things today about AFSPA that he could have corrected when in power. He sent me a message expressing his disappointment at what I had written. He said: I had pleaded for repeal of AFSPA when I was HM or at least amending the offensive clauses. The matter was discussed in the Cabinet Committee on Security. Draft amendments were prepared by national security adviser and myself. The PM was supportive, but I failed to convince the defence minister. I have spoken and written about the subject. The proposal to lift AFSPA from several areas of Kashmir was discussed many times by Omar Abdullah and me with the Army. The defence forces and the defence ministry refused to budge. Omar has spoken and written about our joint efforts. All this is in the public domain and seems to have escaped your attention.
With the forthcoming presidential elections and the ongoing farmers agitation in various parts of the country dominating public dialogue, Congress senior leader and partys chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia, spoke with Ashhar Khan on the two issues.

After much deliberation, the Opposition parties have finally suggested a presidential candidate. Do you think the choice was forced upon them to make it a dalit vs dalit election?

Well, I think every political party has a right to put forward its candidate for the election to the highest post in the country, which is of the President of India. Hence, 17 parties came forward and proposed the name of Meira Kumar as she holds an exemplary track record and has distinguished herself in multiple fields, whether as a former foreign service professional or a member of Parliament or a Union minister in successive governments or a Speaker of Lok Sabha. She hails from a family that has always been at the forefront of our countrys service. She is a formidable candidate for the post of President. Now that the combined Opposition has put forward a candidate, and that too a formidable one, I hope all parties will support her.



There seems to be a perception that the Opposition unity was dented after both the BJP and the NDA announced its presidential nominee, more so because the Congress had been working on strengthening Opposition unity for a while now...

No, not at all! The Opposition stands united, as it has always been, and now we must wait for the election process to play itself out. We have always stood together, which was evident in the last couple of sessions of Parliament. I am sure you all have seen this for yourself, both inside and outside Parliament.



But Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his party the Janata Dal (United) has taken a contrary stand to that of the entire Opposition on this issue. Your views?

Well, as I look at it, this is for the JDU and Mr Kumar to decide. We have been in conversation with him and we certainly hope that he will support a candidate who hails not only from his state but also has impeccable credentials to take over the highest position in the country.



On the issue of the plight of farming community in the country, you staged a dharna also. In your assessment, what are the core issues being faced by the farmers?

You have to understand a few things. Fact No. 1 is that from 2004 to 2013, the MSP prices have risen between 150 per cent and 300 per cent, and in the last three years of this government, the prices have not even risen by 12-15 per cent. Fact No. 2 is that in the last three years of the UPA government, the agricultural growth rate was 4 per cent compounded. In the first three years of this government, the rate is 1.7 per cent compounded. The facts are before you. This countrys agrarian sector runs on two engines  one is based on production, revenue and facts; the other is based on emotion, trust and on the fulfilment of promises. Both these engines today have been completely dismantled by the BJP government and that is why farmers are angry.

What initiatives does the Congress want the Madhya Pradesh government to take, particularly in the wake of the violence and police firing in Mandsaur in which a few farmers were also killed?

Well, we have articulated a set of demands that the Shivraj Chouhan government should immediately fulfil. We have demanded that all officers involved in the firing incident should have an FIR registered against them and immediate punishment should be given. Also, the government should outline the reasons due to which the firing took place. There are almost 300 farmers languishing in the jails of MP, they should be released immediately. Incidentally, the state has the highest amount of VAT on petrol and diesel in the country and it should be at par with other states. The farmers should be paid in the mandi itself. Needless to add, all farm loans should be waived off and the Swaminathan Committee report should be implemented. These are our demands.



The BJP has labelled attempts by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to visit Mandsaur post the killing of farmers as political tourism. Your thoughts?

The Congress and its leadership has always stood by people who have suffered, so that is why Mr Gandhi was going to Mandsaur. Even when I was going to Mandsaur, the state government arrested me. The MP government was busy trying to buy out farmers by raising the amount of compensation. Such is the mindset of the BJP when it comes to farmers. Instead of applying balm on the wounds of farmers, Mr Chouhan is using them for his political motives.



With the Congress governments in both Punjab and Karnataka announcing loan waivers for farmers, dont you think its about time the BJP governments come up with a similar announcement in all states rather than doing it selectively in a few of them?

We have done that because we care for the farmers. Apart from that the Congress governments have taken concrete steps with regard to farmers, but what is extremely worrying is that the Central government has completely bypassed its responsibility and it, in fact, made a statement that they will not assist in any farm loan waiver. The MSP is set by the Central government. Farm loan waiver should normally be done by it. If Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh  both BJP-ruled states  can offer a farm loan waiver scheme, why cant MP do that? Is that not the right reaction to farmers demand? Why is the Centre being a mute spectator when there are 12,000 suicides across the country every year?



How would the Congress have handled the farmers crisis?

It was the Congress government in 2008 that waived off Rs 7,200 crore worth of farm loans in the country without looking at elections or political advantage. If you compare that to the BJP government the farmers from Tamil Nadu came and protested at Jantar Mantar and outside Parliament but there was not a single person from the Central government who met them. The apathy of this government towards farmers and the farming community that is responsible for 17 per cent of the GDP and is responsible for 53 per cent of employment is extremely worrying. Why is that when, in 2008-09, the world went through a financial crisis, India still posted a GDP growth of 8.5 per cent-9 per cent that fiscal year? The reason was the surplus agrarian income in rural parts of the country. And the reason behind the surplus agrarian income that fuelled the economy, which fuelled demand, which fuelled purchases, which increased disposable income, was the constant rise in the MSP prices during the Congress regime.
WhatsApp is reportedly in talks with State Bank of India, National Payment Corporation of India to integrate mobile payment system on its platform.

Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp is in talks with State Bank of India (SBI), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and other institutions to integrate peer-to-peer payment system in the app, reported Economic Times.

The system will reportedly function on Unified Payments Interface (UPI), run by NPCI. Introduced by former governor of Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan in 2016, UPI allows settle funds between two bank accounts on a mobile platform.

In order to do so, banks require merging their systems with WhatsApp. The move will then allow WhatsApp to identify the recipient and funds to get settled between two parties within the app. According to the report, banks are at the proof of concept stage to integrate the system on the platform. However, if WhatsApp gets successful in integrating UPI on its platform, it wont be the messaging app to do so in India.

Other messaging app, Hike has already launched its own mobile payment service Hike Wallet, allowing instant money transfer among its clients and fund transfer to banks using the government-backed United Payments Interface (UPI) system.

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The roll-out was first spotted by WABetainfo and claims that the support has arrived in contries like India, Sri Lanka, Japan and Kuwait for some users.

WhatsApp has been the go-to app for users to send photos, videos or even Word files. There are several workarounds for files that dont support WhatsApp. Users can upload the files on cloud and then sharing the download link on WhatsApp, or use third-party apps to send the unsupported files. Seems WhatsApp doesnt want its users to opt for third-party apps.

WhatsApp is allegedly testing support for all types of files for Android, iOS and Windows Phone. The roll-out was first spotted by WABetainfo and claims that the support has arrived in contries like India, Sri Lanka, Japan and Kuwait for some users. The company is expected to release the update for all users in the coming months. The report also suggests that the file sharing limit for iOS is 128MB, while Android users will get 100MB limit. Users can only share 64MB on the Web version of the app.

The upcoming update will let users share a wide variety of formats including MP3 files and even APK files. The reports also suggest that the app will now allows users to share uncompressed pictures and videos.

Earlier there were also reports about a recall feature for WhatsApp that allows users to undo a sent message and a new status feature for WhatsAppWeb.

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Tech giant Samsung is preparing to launch its most expensive phone ever. According to a report by Venture Beat, Samsung has delayed the launch of Galaxy Note 8 to second half of September, and could cost it around EUR 1,000 (approx. Rs 72,000).

An earlier report by Reuters suggested that Samsung will launch the Galaxy Note 8 smartphone in the second half of August. A source told Reuters that the Galaxy Note 8 will sport a curved screen, marginally larger than the 6.2-inch version of the Galaxy S8 smartphone and feature two rear cameras.

Recent report suggests Galaxy Note 8 will feature a 6.3-inch with edge-to-edge 18:5:9 aspect ratio AMOLED display, powered by Exynos 8895/Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC, run on 3000mAh battery, include DeX capability and be available in black, blue and gold colours.

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Washington: A US war court has charged an Indonesian detainee at Guantanamo Bay in connection with the 2002 bombing in Bali that marked Indonesia's deadliest terror strike, according to court documents obtained Friday.

The detainee known as Hambali also was charged in connection with an attack on the J.W. Marriott in Jakarta in 2003. According to rules of the US military commission, a military court will later decide whether a trial will be held.

The Oct. 12, 2002, Bali resort island attacks, which occurred near the US consulate, killed 202 people, including 88 Australians and seven Americans. A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a nightclub jammed with tourists at a popular beach, killing many instantly and forcing others to run outside. Another suicide bomber detonated a massive bomb loaded in a car parked on the street in front of two clubs.

In the second bombing in 2003, the J.W. Marriott Hotel was targeted because the building was conducive to the type of bomb that was being constructed.

The perpetrators believed there would be a large American presence at the hotel and they "believed it would have the biggest overall impact," the charging documents said. The Aug. 5, 2003, car bomb in front of the hotel in Jakarta killed 12 people and wounded 150.

Last fall, a US government review board rejected the release of Hambali, saying he continues to be a "significant threat to the security of the United States." Hambali, whose real name is Encep Nurjaman, appeared before the board in August by video link, seeking his release after being held 10 years at the base without charge.

The Pentagon described him in a profile released ahead of the hearing as a leader of a Southeast Asia-based extremist group known as Jemaah Islamiyah. Hambali also is alleged to have had links to al-Qaida.

Hambali has been charged with murder and attempted murder in violation of the law of war; intentionally causing serious bodily injury; terrorism; attacking civilians; and related charges.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted theinitiative taken by the Portuguese PM. (Photo: ANI)

Lisbon: A gesture exuding personal warmth and attention, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa organised a special Gujarati meal at the lunch organised for visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Gujarati menu is as follows: Aakhu shakh, saag kofta, rajma aur makai, tarkha dal, kesar rice, paratha, roti, papad, mango shrikhand, Gulab jamun, egg less apple strudel, Vanilla ice cream and Sobremesa Indiana variada.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted the warm initiative taken by the Portuguese Prime Minister for his counterpart.

Earlier in the day Prime Minister Modi reached Lisbon, Portugal on the first leg of his three-nation tour on Saturday.

Modi in second-leg of his visit will later on Saturday depart for the United States of America.

Modi is the second Indian Prime Minister to visit Portugal. Earlier, former Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee attended a European Union meeting in Lisbon in the year 2000.
The US-based company that makes the drones, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc, said on Friday that the US government had approved the sale of a naval variant of the Predator drone to India. (Photo: AP)

Washington: With the United States expected to authorise India's purchase of naval drones, a senior White House official cautioned on Friday that any US military transfer to India would not represent a threat to its neighbour Pakistan.

The official spoke to reporters in advance of US President Donald Trump's first meeting with PM Narendra Modi tomorrow, a White House visit that will include one-on-one talks and a working dinner.

Securing agreement on the purchase of 22 unarmed drones, worth more than $2 billion, is seen in New Delhi as a key test of defence ties that flourished under former President Barack Obama but have drifted under US President Trump, who has courted Asian rival China as he seeks Beijing's help to contain North Korea's nuclear programme.

The US-based company that makes the drones, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc, said on Friday that the US government had approved the sale of a naval variant of the Predator drone to India.

The senior White House official said any arms transfer would take into account the regional situation.

"We want to avoid a situation that escalates the tension" between India and Pakistan, the official said. India and Pakistan should engage in direct talks and seek a normalization of ties, the official said.

"Some of the defence systems we're talking about we don't believe impact Pakistan," the official added.

The Indian navy wants the surveillance drones, variants of the Predator drones, to keep watch over the Indian Ocean. The deal would be the first such purchase by a country that is not a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

India, a big buyer of US arms that was recently named by Washington as a major defence ally, wants to protect its 7,500- km (4,700-mile) coastline as Beijing expands its maritime trade routes and Chinese submarines increasingly lurk in regional waters.

But sources tracking the discussions say the US State Department has been concerned about the potential destabilising impact of introducing high-tech drones into South Asia, where tensions are simmering between India and Pakistan, particularly over Kashmir.

Such a sale of sensitive military hardware must be authorized by the State Department before being sent to Congress for review. The drone deal would still require approval by Congress. The State Department declined comment ahead of any notification.

Defence cooperation, the US trade deficit with India, counter-terrorism efforts and regional tensions are expected to be discussed between the two leaders.

PM Modi's two-day visit to Washington begins tomorrow. US President Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in April and has also had face time with the leaders of nations including Japan, Britain and Vietnam since taking office in January, prompting anxiety in New Delhi that India is no longer a priority in Washington.

Other strains have emerged in US-India relations, with the United States vexed by a growing bilateral trade deficit and US President Trump accusing New Delhi of negotiating unscrupulously at the Paris climate talks to walk away with billions in aid.

US officials expect a relatively low-key visit by PM Modi, without the fanfare of some of his previous trips to the United States, and one geared to giving the Indian leader the chance to get to know US President Trump personally and to show that he is doing so.

India and the United States will also discuss the sale of US fighter jets during PM Modi's trip, in what could be the biggest deal since they began deepening defence ties more than a decade ago.
White House press spokesman Sean Spicer made the comments during an off-camera briefing to journalists in Washington, the BBC reported. (Photo: AP)

The US has said that the growing crisis between Qatar and its Gulf neighbours is a family issue. White House press spokesman Sean Spicer made the comments during an off-camera briefing to journalists in Washington, the BBC reported.

On June 5 Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and others broke ties with Qatar accusing it of backing extremism. Doha has denied the claim.

The four countries that are part of that  we believe its a family issue and that they should work it out, said Mr Spicer. If we can help facilitate those discussions then so be it. They want to, and should work out for themselves.

On Friday, Qatar was sent a list of 13 demands, including shutting down Al Jazeera and cutting ties with Iran, that it must meet in 10 days. Qatar has denounced the list as unreasonable and an impingement on the emirates sovereignty.
Environment ministers and senior officials of BRICS countries who met in China's Tianjin city for discussions. (Photo: File/AP)

Beijing: BRICS countries' environment ministers have reaffirmed their commitment to the implementation of the Paris Climate deal despite the withdrawal of the US from the accord.

Environment ministers and senior officials of BRICS countries who met in China's Tianjin city for discussions, pledged more efforts for sustainable development and pollution prevention.

Senior environment officials from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa discussed major challenges and opportunities towards achieving sustainable development in three dimensions economic, social and environmental at country, regional and global levels, a statement was quoted by the state-run Xinhua news agency as saying.

"We underscore the need for means of implementing Paris Agreement, including transfer of technology from developed to developing countries as one of the most critical enabler for climate actions," the statement said.

"We appreciate that the conservation and sustainable use of the rich biodiversity of BRICS countries is of special significance for the global environment and to achieve the internationally agreed targets and goals," it said.

The officials reiterated their intention to promote cooperation within BRICS in the area of pollution prevention, it added.
The two-day meeting, however, discussed NSG's relationship with India and considered aspects of the implementation of the 2008 Statement on Civil Nuclear Cooperation with India. (Photo: AP/File)

Bern: Thanks to China, India's wait for Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership continues as the 27th plenary meeting of the body ended in Bern, Switzerland without handing out any good news for New Delhi.

Beijing has been objecting to New Delhi's entry into the NSG on grounds that it has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on nuclear weapons.

The NPT, opened for signature in 1968 and entered into force in 1970, defines nuclear-weapon states as those that have built and tested a nuclear explosive device before 1 January 1967. These are the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China.

India has not signed the NPT as its traditional position has always been either 'The Five' should denuclearise or everyone has the same rights to have nuclear weapons. However, to send a message of responsible nuclear nation India has a stated policy of "no first use". Despite being a non-signatory of the NPT, India adheres to the NSG's norms.

The two-day meeting, however, discussed NSG's relationship with India and considered aspects of the implementation of the 2008 Statement on Civil Nuclear Cooperation with India.

The NSG meeting was chaired by Ambassador Benno Laggner of Switzerland and it also took stock of developments since the last meeting in Seoul in 2016.

The NSG, a group of 48 nuclear supplier countries, seeks to contribute to the NPT through the implementation of two sets of Guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear-related exports.

The meeting also discussed technical, legal and political aspects of the participation of non-NPT States in the NSG.

The NSG member countries strongly condemned nuclear tests by North Korea and noted that the supply of all NSG controlled items to the country is prohibited according to United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Participating governments reiterated their firm support for the full, complete and effective implementation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on nuclear weapons as the cornerstone of the international non-proliferation regime.

Within the framework of the NSG's mandate, the Group exchanged information on and expressed its concerns regarding continued global proliferation activities and reaffirmed its determination to continue to cooperate closely in order to deter, hinder and prevent the transfer of controlled items or technology that could contribute to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.
The blast partially collapsed the building where he had taken refuge, injuring the 6 pilgrims, Ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki said. (Photo: AP)

Mecca (Saudi Arabia): Six foreign pilgrims were hurt on Friday in Saudi Arabia when a suicide bomber targeting Islam's holiest site of Mecca blew himself up, the Interior Ministry said.

The incident happened around the Grand Mosque, where hundreds of thousands of worshippers gathered for early afternoon prayers on the last Friday of this year's Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month.

Ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki told Saudi television that police "foiled the terrorist plan that targeted the security of the Grand Mosque, pilgrims and worshippers."

In dawn raids on Mecca and the Red Sea city of Jeddah officers arrested five suspects, including a woman, before surrounding the bomber's location around the Grand Mosque.

"Unfortunately he started shooting towards security personnel once he noticed their presence in the area, which led to an exchange of fire before he blew himself up," Turki said.

The blast partially collapsed the building where he had taken refuge, injuring the six pilgrims, Turki said.

He added that four had already been released from hospital, and five security men were also slightly hurt.

Since late 2014 Saudi Arabia has faced periodic bombings and shootings claimed by ISIS.

Purported images from the scene that circulated on social media showed an alley filled with bricks and other debris apparently from a blast.

Video showed what appeared to be a bearded man's head lying among rubble from a collapsed structure.

Near the end of Ramadan last year in the Saudi city of Medina four security officers died in an explosion close to Islam's second holiest site, the Prophet's Mosque.

It was one of three suicide blasts around the kingdom on the same day, in which a total of seven people were believed killed. The others occurred in Jeddah and in the Gulf city of Qatif.

The US Central Intelligence Agency said those attacks bore the hallmarks of ISIS.

Most of the targets in Saudi Arabia have been the Shiite minority and security forces, killing dozens of people.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks against the kingdom, a member of the US-led coalition battling the group in Syria and Iraq.

Since July last year police have arrested around 40 people, including Saudis and Pakistanis, for alleged extremist links.

Saudi Arabia's counter-terrorism capabilities -- which for years were led by Prince Mohammed bin Nayef -- are well-regarded internationally.

On Wednesday Prince Mohammed was ousted from his posts of crown prince and interior minister, replaced as heir to the throne by King Salman's son Mohammed bin Salman.

Friday's counter-terrorist operation was the first to take place under the new interior minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef, who is in his early 30s.

Prince Abdulaziz is the nephew of the deposed minister.
Pilgrims at the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. (Photo: AP)

A suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca as police disrupted a plot to target the holiest site in Islam just as the fasting month of Ramzan ends, Saudi security forces said on Saturday.

The interior ministry said it launched a raid around Jiddah, as well as two areas in Mecca itself, including the Ajyad Al-Masafi neighborhood, located near the Grand Mosque.

There, police said they engaged in a shootout at a three-storey house with a suicide bomber, who blew himself up and caused the building to collapse. He was killed, while the blast wounded six foreigners and five members of security forces, according to the ministrys statement. Five others were arrested, including a woman, it said.

Saudi state television aired footage after the raid on Friday near the Grand Mosque, showing police and rescue personnel running through the neighbourhoods narrow streets. The blast demolished the building, its walls crushing a parked car. Nearby structures appeared to be peppered with shrapnel and bullet holes.

The interior ministry said the thwarted terrorist plan would have violated all sanctities by targeting the security of the Grand Mosque, the holiest place on Earth.

They obeyed their evil and corrupt self-serving schemes managed from abroad whose aim is to destabilise the security and stability of this blessed country, it said.

The ministry did not name the group involved in the attack. The ultraconservative Sunni kingdom battled an al-Qaida insurgency for years and more recently has faced attacks from a local branch of ISIS.

Neither group immediately claimed involvement, though ISIS sympathisers online have urged more attacks as an offensive in Iraq slowly squeezes the extremists out of Mosul and their de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria comes under daily bombing from a US-led coalition.

The disrupted attack comes at a sensitive time in Saudi Arabia. King Salman earlier this week short-circuited the kingdoms succession by making his son, defence minister Mohammed bin Salman, first in line to the throne.

The newly-appointed crown prince is the architect of Saudi Arabias stalemated war in Yemen against Shiite rebels. He has also offered aggressive comments about the kingdom confronting Shiite power Iran.

Irans foreign ministry condemned the Mecca plot and said it is willing to work with other nations to confront terrorism. The Grand Mosque, or the Masjid al-Haram, is the largest mosque in the world and surrounds Islams holiest site, the Kaaba.

Foiled attack
At least 30 people have been killed and 100 others injured in Parachinar, Dawn news reported. (Photo: AFP)

Peshawar: Twin blasts tore through a market crowded with Eid shoppers in a mainly Shia town, a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car and militants opened fire on police in separate attacks in Pakistan's three major cities on Friday, killing 47 people and wounding 121 others.

The suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car near Inspector General of Police Ehsan Mehboob's office in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, killing at least 13 people, including seven policemen, and wounding 21 others.

The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Thirteen people, including seven policemen, died in the suicide car bombing, officials said.

Hours later, two back-to-back blasts tore through a market crowded with the people shopping for Eid in the Shia- dominated Parachinar city in the Kurram tribal region, killing at least 30 people, mostly Shias, and injuring 100 others.

The first blast occurred during rush hour in Turi Market, where a bus terminal is also located. The second blast took place as rescuers and bystanders rushed to aid those who had been hurt in the first explosion.

At least 30 people have been killed and 100 others injured in Parachinar, Dawn news reported.

Earlier, Medical Superintendent of the District General Hospital, Parachinar, Sabir Hussain, confirmed the death of at least 25 people and injuries to over 100 in the blasts. More than 20 of the injured were in critical condition.

No group claimed responsibility for the blasts. However, Sunni militant groups have claimed responsibility for several attacks in the area in the past.

In the evening, two armed men on a motorcycle, with their faces covered with helmets, opened fire on police officers at a roadside restaurant in Karachi and killed four of them.

An assistant sub-inspector was among those killed in the attack, said Superintendent of Police Asif Ahmad.

In Parachinar, officials said the blasts on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramazan targeted people shopping in the area and those heading out of the city ahead of Eid.

The emergency and rescue services shifted injured to Agency Headquarters hospital Parachinar. The security forces cordoned off the entire area and started search operation.

Pakistan Army contingents and FC personnel reached the site of the attack to aid in rescue efforts.

"Two Army aviation helicopters have taken off from Peshawar to Parachinar for the speedy evacuation of the injured to Peshawar," the army said in a statement.

"Rescue operation in progress," it added.

Pakistan army, meanwhile, launched a countrywide intelligence-led military operation against militants.

Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said that security has been tightened across the country.

"Special Intelligence-Based Operation (IBOs) and search operations (were) launched in coordination with intelligence and other Law Enforcement Agencies," he said.

On March 31, a car bomb blast near an Imambargah of Shia Muslims killed 23 people and injured 70 others in Parachinar.

In January, 25 people were killed and 87 others when a bomb tore through a crowded vegetable market in the same city.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks, saying that terrorists involved in the attacks will be taken to task and all out efforts will be taken to eliminate terrorism.

President Mamnoon Hussain, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Governor Balochistan Muhammad Khan Achakzai and former president Asif Ali Zardari, among others, also condemned the attack.

Balochistan government spokesperson Anwarul Haq Kakar told Geo News that the suspected Quetta bomber tried to break a security perimetre to target the police offices but blew up after policemen standing guard attempted to stop him.

Of the injured, nine are said to be policemen.

Kakar blamed India for the Quetta blast.

DIG Quetta Abdul Razzaq Cheema, addressing the media, said they are examining CCTV footage to determine the details of the incident.

Officials said body parts of the suspected bomber, strewn across the site of the blast, were being collected along with other evidence for forensic examination.

An initial investigation report by Civil Defence Director Aslam Tareen revealed that 75 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the Quetta blast.

Footage of the incident showed two vehicles badly damaged in the explosion, while debris lay scattered on the street.

Officials said the explosion was loud enough to be heard from a distance and shattered windows of nearby buildings.

Earlier this year, on February 13, a blast took place near the Saryab Bridge in Quetta killing two personnel of the bomb disposal squad and leaving 11 injured.

Later in March, an explosion targeting a security forces convoy occurred on Saryab Road. Four people were injured including three Frontier Corps personnel and a passer-by.

In August, last year, a suicide bomber targeted the emergency services ward at Civil Hospital, following the death of the president of the Balochistan High Court Bar Association, killing at least 70 people and leaving many wounded.
A 16-year-old Muslim boy was killed and his three cousins injured after an argument over vacating seats on board a moving train in Haryana turned communal and violent on Friday.



Reports stated that while fellow passengers did not come to their rescue, the Government Railway Police (GRP) were missing from the scene.



Jalalludin, the father of the victim, said his son Junaid and the three boys were returning home after shopping for Eid in Delhi. They boarded the train at Sadar Bazaar.



At Okhla railway station, around 15 men  all non-Muslims  entered the train and asked the boys to vacate their seats, which they declined. This is when the trouble started. The men apparently began abusing the boys, calling them anti-nationals, beef eaters and traitors.



Junaid then called his friends from his mobile and asked them to reach Ballabhgarh railway station. The situation got out of hand and the mob began to thrash the boys.



Junaid and his cousins pulled the brake chain to stop the train, but it proved useless as they were not allowed to get off. The suspects then pulled out knives and one of them stabbed Junaid at Asavati railway station in Haryana.



Boys thrown out



The boys were then thrown off the train while it left for Mathura. Junaid bled to death.



A case of murder has been registered against unknown persons, but no arrests were made till the time of filing this report.



Surat Pal, SHO of GRP, said the fight was over vacating a seat, while conceding that the suspects used communal slurs to incite the youth. Junaids cousins  Mohsin, Moeen and Hashim  have been admitted to a hospital.


The armed intruders targeted an area domination patrol of the Indian Army, triggering a gunfight, the official said.



The Indian troops killed one of the attackers and injured another whose extrication was facilitated by the cover fire by the Pakistani troops from their posts.



In the firefight, two Indian soldiers were killed. They were 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad, Maharashtra and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur, Maharashtra.



The Pakistani firing continued till 3.30 PM yesterday even as the Indian posts retaliated strongly. In a similar BAT attack on May 1, two Indian soldiers were beheaded in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district. That attack too was carried out under the cover of shelling by the Pakistani troops.



Prior to that, a BAT attack was carried out in February but there were no casualties. Earlier, there have been several BAT attacks in which Indian jawans have been beheaded or their bodies mutilated.



On October 28 last year, militants attacked a post and killed an Indian Army soldier and mutilated his body close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Machil sector.



In January 2013, Lance Naik Hemraj was killed and his body mutilated by a BAT. It had also beheaded Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh.

The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) made up of special forces men and terrorists were armed with 'special daggers' and 'headband cameras' to mutilate and record the attack on the Indian Army patrol party after entering 600 meters across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.The attack left two Indian soldiers dead while one BAT member was killed in retaliatory action by Indian troops. Army troops during search and sanitation operations, recovered the body of a member of the BAT team along LoC in Gulpur sector of Poonch district yesterday."The body of the intruder killed in the BAT attempt on 22 June has been retrieved and handed over to the local police," a senior Army officer told PTI."Arms, ammunition and other warlike stores including a special dagger and a headband with a camera, knife, one AK rifle, 3 magazines, 2 grenades besides dresses and bags was recovered which reflects the barbaric mindset of the Pakistan Army," he said."The resolute action of our soldiers didn't let the nefarious plan (of mutilating bodies and recording it on camera) succeed," the officer said.Giving details, the officer said that a special class of dagger and a knife was meant to engineer quick mutilation and beheading of jawans killed in the firing exchanges and it has been foiled by the quick action by Indian soldiers.The BAT member was wearing a headband with a camera on his head to record the action and possible mutilation of jawans, which was prevented by other troops who shot dead one of them and injured another, he said.The officer said it is a matter of investigation whether the camera was live connected with Pakistan Army establishments across the border."The data and details of the camera will be analysed," he said. "We are confident that another BAT member has also been killed but his body was taken back by the other members of the BAT," he said.In the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces yesterday sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir.The Border Action Team (BAT), which generally comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan Army and some terrorists, carried out the attack at around 2 pm yesterday under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops from their posts, he said."A Border Action Team of five to seven heavily-armed men, under the cover of Pakistani firing, entered 600 meters inside the LoC in Gulpur forward area in Poonch sector around 2 PM yesterday and launched a fierce attack on Indian Army patrol party with several types of weapons," the official said.The Pakistani attackers came up to 200 meters near the Indian posts. During the attack, the Pakistani troops resorted to firing in Gulpur-Karmara-Chakan-Da-Bagh area along the LoC.
Asserting that the US' ties with India and Pakistan were not a 'zero-sum game', the White House has said that the Trump administration's priorities and the nature of relationship with the two countries were different.



"We seek to have an effective partnership with each country. With India, we're building that strategic partnership. We see India's role and influence growing. We like to encourage that trend. So, we're looking for ways to cooperate on our mutual interests," a senior administration official told reporters at a news conference here.



"With Pakistan, we seek to have a productive partnership working together. But frankly, the priorities are different, and the nature of the relationships are different. So, I think that we would like to move forward with both countries.



"We realise that the pace and scope of that relationship is going to be different in each case," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity said in response to a question on concerns in Pakistan with regard to increasing ties with India.



Relationship with India and Pakistan is not a zero-sum game, he said.



"I want to make the point here that US relationships with India and Pakistan really stand on their own merits and terms. We don't see a zero-sum relationship when it comes to the US relationship with Pakistan and the US relationship with India.



"We're certainly eager to deepen the strategic partnership with India," he said.



"We are also interested in continuing our cooperation with Pakistan," the official said adding that the US is concerned about tensions between India and Pakistan.



He said the US would like to see the normalisation of relations between the two countries. "We believe it's in both countries' interests. It's in the interests of the region, and even the globe, given that they're both nuclear-weapon powers," the official said.



"But we very much encourage India and Pakistan to engage in a direct bilateral dialogue aimed at reducing those tensions," the official said while denying reports that sale of high-tech defence items to India would have any adverse impact on Pakistan.



"The US also has a defence partnership with Pakistan. We do cooperate with Pakistan on some security and defence and counter terrorism issues. So again, we don't see this as a zero-sum game," the official said.



"We see this as the US and India have mutual security interests that they want to advance, and we believe that the defence sales that are being discussed will help advance those. It is not about Pakistan.



"The defence deals -- we do take into account the regional situation. We very much want to avoid a situation that escalates tensions between the two," he said.



"So these issues are taken into account. But some of the defence systems that we're talking about we don't believe impact Pakistan. They may be different systems than we are transferring to Pakistan, but we don't believe they represent a threat to Pakistan," said the White House official. Meanwhile, a senior Trump official yesterday said that India and the US have a common objective in Afghanistan, and the two countries could increase their cooperation to enhance the Afghan economy.



"India has played a positive role in Afghanistan, the US believes. They have pledged over USD 3 billion in assistance to Afghanistan. The Afghans appreciate the kind of support and assistance that the Indians have provided--I'm not just talking about the government, I'm talking about the population," the official told reporters.



"When they've done polling, there's a very positive feeling toward India and the kind of assistance -- they've assisted in the education sector, the health sector. They built the parliament building. They support democracy, democratic development there," he said, listing out the developmental activities by India in the war-torn country.



"So I think this administration's opinion is that India has played a helpful role in Afghanistan in helping to stabilise that country, helping to strengthen the government in its fight against the Taliban insurgency.



"That's the kind of role that the US would like to encourage and perhaps maybe even cooperate in terms of development projects," the official said on condition of anonymity.



As such, "this is an area that the two can increase their coordination and their consultation," the official said.



"Of course, the US has major assistance programs to Afghanistan as well. So I think this is an area where I think they can expand that dialogue on what they can do to help the economy, help Afghanistan become more self-sufficiently financially.



"Ultimately, that's the ultimate goal," the White House official said. "We have that mutual goal, and you'll see more consultations on that moving forward," he added.



The Trump Administration is currently doing a review of its Afghan policy.
Jammu and Kashmir police on Saturday set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the lynching of Deputy Superintendent of Police (Dy SP) in Srinagar, on Thursday night as three more suspects were arrested in the case.



Sources told Deccan Herald that the SIT will probe and nab all the culprits, who are involved in the lynching of DSP (security) Mohammad Ayoub Pandith near historic Jamia Masjid in old city area of Nowhatta.



Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Muneer Khan confirmed that the SIT, headed by Deputy Inspector General (DIG) central Kashmir Ghulam Hassan Bhat will investigate the barbaric act on fast track basis



He said three more persons were arrested by the police on Saturday in connection with the case. On Friday two suspects had been arrested by the police taking the total number to five. The lynching of the police officer triggered outrage across Kashmir and drawing all-round condemnation.



As police vowed to track down all the accused in the case, the family of one of the arrested youth, Danish Mir, protested in Srinagar, demanding his immediate release. They claimed Mir was hit by a bullet in his leg before the police officer was lynched.



Mir's mother while pleading for his innocence said, How can an injured person lynch anyone? Danish was almost dead and was shifted to the hospital when the incident took place."



"Police arrived at the hospital and said that they will take Danish under preventive custody but after we tried to enquire about his health condition, we were not allowed to meet him and were asked to leave, she said.



Meanwhile, authorities shunted out Superintendent Police North Srinagar, Sajad Khalid Bhat, who was asked to report to the Police Headquarter till further orders. Nowhatta, where the lynching took place on Thursday night, falls under the jurisdiction of the North Srinagar SP.



According to an order issued by the police headquarter, Sajad Shah, the additional SP (Traffic City), Srinagar, will look after the duties of the SP North Srinagar till further orders.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Central Investigation Unit sleuths during the past 24 hours have found that Engineering-In-Chief of Public Health and Municipal Engineering Department Pamu Panduranga Rao has amassed an ill-gotten wealth of Rs 800 cr. The raids that began on Friday are still continuing in several places of AP and Telangana simultaneously as the officer is not cooperating with the ACB team.



The ACB team expressed shock over the quantum of wealth that they have unearthed which include gold, silver and other valuable metals, properties in half of the districts, a hospital under construction and investments in several companies. Rao whose take home salary is just Rs 45,000 per month has purchased over 40 tangible assets on his and relatives names starting from 1993 at the rate one property every six months.



During the raid on Friday the ACB sleuths have recovered cash of Rs 10 lakh, Rs 1.95 lakh worth US dollars, Rs 25 lakh in a bank, household equipment of Rs 15 lakh, 1.1 kilos of gold, and 9 kilos of silver. The ACB also found a big cache of dry fruits worth lakhs from his Visakhapatnam residence. Pandu Ranga Rao who has joined government service 30 years ago as Deputy Executive Engineer in Municipal Engineering Department rose to high levels after his stint as Executive Engineer in Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation.



Sources in ACB say that they are confident of presenting Rao before the court for remand on Saturday if cooperates with the investigators. The search operations are still going on.




Five special task force (STF) personnel were today injured in a fierce gunbattle with Maoists in the dense forests of Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, the police said. The encounter is still going on, they added.



The exchange of fire is underway between a joint team of security forces and ultras in the interior forests of Chintagufa police station area, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Dantewada range) Sundarraj P told PTI.



"As per the preliminary information, five STF jawans have sustained injuries in the encounter," he said. The joint team, comprising personnel from STF, District Reserve Guard (DRG) and CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), was carrying out anti-Naxal operation in Chintagufa area, around 500 km from here, he said.



The team members were cordoning off a forest patch in southern part of Chintagufa when they came under fire from a group of Naxals, the IPS officer said. The security forces retaliated, triggering an exchange of fire, he said.



The DIG said on getting information about the gunbattle, reinforcement was rushed to the spot and efforts were on to evacuate the injured jawans. Further details were awaited, he added.



On April 24, 25 CRPF personnel were killed in a Naxal ambush in Burkapal area under Chintagufa police station of limits of Sukma, the worst Maoist-affected district in the state.
Trade and investment patterns between India and the UK can be much better than current levels as the UK takes a fresh approach to globalisation post-Brexit, Indian High Commissioner to the UK Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha said.



Delivering the keynote address at a joint conference by the All India Management Association (AIMA) and Imperial College London titled 'To Build Walls or Bridges: The Path to a New Economic Nirvana' in London yesterday, the Indian envoy also called on the UK to Make in India for the world.



"The trade and investment between India and UK can be a lot better than what it has been lately. India is now open to the world and the UK is globalising afresh. It is a good opportunity for both countries to grow their economy faster by increasing movement of goods and people. I am sure that this opportunity will not be missed," Sinha said.



"The outcome of the snap elections in the UK has only confirmed that nations are ambivalent about globalisation... India is looking for more trade and investment because it wants to grow even faster. It is inviting everyone to make in India for the world. The UK, for its part, has chosen to reconfigure its relationship with the world," he noted.



There was consensus among the business and political leaders at the conference, held to coincide with the one-year mark of the referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union (EU) on June 23 last year, that protectionism, Brexit and anti-globalisation will not hold back UK-India ties.



"Some believe that for a country to compete and for its citizens to prosper, we should retreat from globalisation. But as many of us see every day, this is wrong. International collaboration, global competition and inclusive growth are not mutually exclusive... Imperial's global, collaborative environment, and our wider impact, is testament to that," said Prof. Alice Gast, President of Imperial College London.



"At Imperial we build bridges. More than half of our research papers involve an international co-author. India is at the heart of that. In the last five years, Imperial researchers have published more than 1,200 joint papers with collaborators in India," she said.



Britain's Universities and Science Minister, Jo Johnson, used the event to "send a message to prospective Indian students that they have the warmest welcome" waiting for them in the UK.

The conference was held to mark 60 years of AIMA, India's umbrella body for management professionals, and Imperial's collaborations with the network.



"There is huge potential for cooperation between the two countries in higher education, scientific and industrial research, innovation and intellectual property," said AIMA President Sunil Munjal.



Imperial College London claims to be among the India- friendly educational institutions in the UK, with the college's Indian student numbers rising above 300 last year. A project between Imperial College and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has received funding through the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) to establish the first and largest collection of DNA in Indian stroke victims.
Infosys Chairman R Seshasayee on Saturday said it will be his last annual general meeting (AGM) and he will retire in May next year.



Addressing the 36th AGM, Seshasayee said he plans a smooth transition to his successor.



"Finally, as this will be my last AGM, before I retire upon reaching the age of 70 in May 2018 ... During the remaining part of my tenure, I would be committed to further enhancing governance standards, improve shareholder value and planning a smooth transition to my successor," he said.



Seshasayee joined Infosys in 2015 after stepping down from his position as the non-executive vice-chairman of Ashok Leyland, the Hinduja group flagship company, where he served for 44 years. He replaced K V Kamath when the latter stepped down as chairman of the board.



Seshasayee said the management and the board commit to its shareholders further acceleration of its efforts to navigate the company through the daunting changes, and deliver performance, worthy of its proud heritage.



Even though he had his differences with founder promoters, Seshasayee thanked founders, his colleagues on the board and shareholders for giving him the great privilege of serving the company at an extremely critical time during its transformation journey.



"I have had unstinted support from my colleagues on the board and management and I am truly grateful to them for imposing confidence in my leadership in these challenging times," he said.



During the first half of this year, founders of Infosys-led by N R Narayana Murthy expressed unhappiness with non-executive chairman R Seshasayee over some decisions taken by the companys board in the past two years and asked him to consider stepping down.



But Seshasayee was very much adamant and clinging to the support of institutional investors.



Seshasayee said the company is undertaking three transformations, including the cultural transformation to secure a sustainable and secure future.



"I have said earlier, we are undertaking three transformations simultaneously in your company to secure a sustainable and secure future; one, the business transformation from a traditional transformation company to an innovation led, software plus services company, which is formidable enough," he said.



"Secondly, the cultural transformation that comes along when you induct global leadership talent; and third, the rather abrupt transition from the promoter-led board and management to an independent board. None of these is easy. Other players in the industry might have one or the other but not all three," he added.



Only five of the seven original co-founders, Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, Shibulal, Gopalakrishnan and K. Dinesh, who are categorised as promoters of the firm, together hold a 12.75% stake in Infosys.



Ravi Venkatesan, who was an independent director and got appointed as co-chairman on April 13, will be the most likely front runner for the chairman post.



Venkatesan was appointed actually to douse the growing differences between the shareholder promoters and the management.


The 47 pilgrims, who were stopped by the Chinese officials at the border from proceeding further, have now returned to their respective states, official sources said here today.



The pilgrims were scheduled to cross over to the Chinese side on June 19 but had failed to do so due to inclement weather. They had waited at the base camp and tried to cross again yesterday but were denied permission by the Chinese officials.



External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay had yesterday said some difficulties were being experienced in the movement of pilgrims through Nathu La and that India is taking up the matter with China.



The development has cast a shadow of uncertainty on the annual yatra as Chinese officials maintained that it would take some time to repair the roads and the Indians would not be able to make the pilgrimage any time soon.



"The pilgrims and the liaison officer were told that because of incessant rainfall the roads in the Chinese side had been washed away in major landslides. So they cannot proceed any further," a source said here.



The Chinese officials said they were concerned about the safety of the Indian pilgrims which is why they were stopped from proceeding further.



The Chinese officials also informed the yatris that as and when the weather would improve and the road conditions in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), China would be restored they would be allowed to enter into China, the sources said here.



The first batch of 47 yatris had arrived in Sikkim on June 15. The Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation is the nodal authority for conducting the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through Nathu La.



"Yes, there are some difficulties being experienced in movement of KMY (Kailash Mansarovar Yatra) Yatris via Nathu La. Matter is being discussed with Chinese side," Baglay had said yesterday to a query on the development which came amid tensions in bilateral ties over a host of issues including the CPEC and India's NSG bid.



Hundreds of Indian pilgrims undertake Kailash Mansarovar yatra in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China every year negotiating the mountainous terrain.



This year, a total of 350 yatris had registered for the yatra via Nathu La route and they were to travel in seven batches.



Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Kazakh capital Astana.



In the meeting, Modi had said the two sides should tap their potential in cooperation, strengthen communication and coordination in international affairs, respect each other's core concerns and appropriately handle their disputes.



China has refused entry to the first batch of around 50 Indian pilgrims who were scheduled to travel to Kailash Mansarovar through the Nathu La pass in Sikkim, citing damage to roads due to rains and landslides in the Tibet region.
Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said that it is impossible for India to progress without Hindi, our national language.



It is unfortunate that everyone is after English medium; I am against Britishers but not their language. We should learn all languages but by learning English our mindset is changing and this is wrong. This is against the interest of the nation, Naidu said.



"Hindi as Rashtra bhasha (national language) is very important and we cannot do without it. The majority of the population in the country speaks in Hindi and so it is important to learn Hindi. However, before that, we should be fluent in our mother tongue.



Naidu was speaking at an event in Sabarmati Ashram, where he presented 100 volumes of collected works of Mahatma Gandhi in English to the Ashram. The minister for housing and urban poverty alleviation and information and broadcasting in Modi government, meanwhile, delivered his lecture at the event using both, English and Hindi.



Interestingly, Gujarat High Court in 2010 had reported to observed that though a majority of people in India have accepted Hindi as a national language, there was nothing on record to suggest that any provision has been made or order issued declaring Hindi as a national language of the country. Hindi has been declared as an official language in the Constitution and not as the national language.



The minister's comments also come in the backdrop of opposition by certain political parties in the South against the imposition of Hindi language. Parties as Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka and DMK in Tamil Nadu have in the past criticised Centre's move to impose Hindi on them. DMKs M K Stalin had even threatened to begin an anti-Hindi agitation after milestones marked in Hindi sprung up on several highways in the state of Tamil Nadu. Bengaluru too is said to have witnessed protests from some quarters after Namma Metro sign boards had instructions in Hindi.



I want the nation to discuss, promote and learn our mother languages more and at the same time learn Hindi as well, Naidu added.


Modi is the first Indian prime minister in Portugal for a bilateral visit. He has said his one-day visit to the country will further strengthen relations between India and Portugal.



Earlier today, Modi and Costa took a stroll around the Palacio das Necessidades, a historic building in the Largo do Rilvas, a public square in Lisbon.



Costa had visited India in January, when he went to see his family members at his ancestral house in Goa.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa today sprang a surprise for Narendra Modi when he hosted a special Gujarati vegetarian lunch for him that included dishes like 'Aakhu Saak' and 'Mango Shrikhand'.Aakhu literally means 'whole' and shaak simply means 'curry'. It is a dish in which vegetable stuffing is heavily spiced and is wonderful for big get-togethers.The other items on the menu included 'Saag Kofta', 'Rajma aur Makai', 'Tarkha Daal', 'Kesar Rice', 'Parantha', 'Rotli', 'Papad', and Gulab Jamun and other sweets.
Union minister Ramvilas Paswan today lauded Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for sticking to his stand on supporting the NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind and urged him to join to the BJP-led alliance.



Kumar not only ruled out any change in his stand yesterday but also attacked the Congress for propping up 'Bihar kibeti' Meira Kumar as the opposition's candidate for a "lost cause".



"Nitish ji spoke rightly that opposition parties have deliberately made Meira Kumar their candidate for presidential poll for a definite defeat," the Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution minister told reporters here.



"When power was in their (Congress) hands during the 10 years of UPA rule, in which Lalu Prasad was a part, why did they not remember the 'Bihar ki Beti' (Meira Kumar) then," Paswan, the LJP president and a prominent dalit leader, said.



He said it was only after Kovind's name came up as the NDA nominee that the opposition forwarded Meira Kumar's name.



Paswan, who is in Patna to host an Iftar Party on behalf of his Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), an NDA ally, welcomed Nitish Kumar's decision to support Kovind and invited him in the NDA fold.



"We urge him (Kumar) not to put his legs on two boats. He should come to the NDA at the earliest (and) we would welcome him," he said.



"With him joining the NDA, the alliance would gain strength and it would be good for Bihar too," Paswan, who is MP from Hajipur, said.
The administration in Gujarat is all geared to host countrys second biggest Rath Yatra, next only to Puri Jagannath Rath Yatra, in Ahmedabad.



The 140th Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad would be taken out across the city on Sunday. The state has deployed over 20,000 policemen, five joint commissioners of police, 42 deputy commissioners of police, 101 assistant CPs, 298 police inspectors, paramilitary personnel from CRPF, BSF and Rapid Action Force, as well as NSG commandos would be stationed throughout the route of the yatra.



The NSG commandos would keep an eye on the yatra attended by lakhs of devotees for the first time ever in its 140-year history. Nearly 10,000 cops from the Ahmedabad city will be on standby during the annual procession, AK Singh, commissioner of police, Ahmedabad, said.



The entire route of Rath Yatra will also be under surveillance, with more than 300 CCTV cameras keeping a close watch on movements. UAVs or drones would also be deployed for aerial surveillance, even as camera fitted to police vehicles, would move along with the procession.



The security is the key aspect during the yatra as in the distant past, minor incidents have led to a communal conflagration in the city. Once, there was even firing at the idols of Lord Jagannath and his kin.



I am satisfied with the security arrangements and hope to ensure peaceful Rath Yatra this year, Pradeepsinh Jadeja, Minister of State for Home, Gujarat, said.



The Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad stretches for over a kilometer and moves along the 15-km route through the old walled city from early morning to late in the evening. The main feature, like in Puri, includes procession of chariots of Lord Jagannath, his brother Balbhadra and sister Shubhadhra. The procession is generally taken out every year on Asadhi Bij, the second day of the month of Ashadh as per the Hindu calendar.



This year, the procession would also be joined by 18 elephants, 101 trucks, seven cars, members of 30`akhadas' and 18 bhajan mandlis (Bhajan groups).



Other than main Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad, similar yatras would be taken out across the state by several other organisations.


A paramilitary CRPF officer was killed and two others were injured in an attack by militants on a vehicle they were travelling in at Pantha Chowk, close to Armys 15-Corps headquarters in Srinagar on Saturday.



Eyewitnesses told DH that two to three militants armed with AK series assault rifles fired on a vehicle carrying men from the Central Reserve Police Forcess (CRPF) 29 Battalion at Pantha Chowk on Srinagar-Jammu national highway at around 5.50 pm. The place is barely a km away from Armys 15-Corps headquarters and six km from city centre Lal Chowk.



A CRPF spokesman said, Three of our men including Sub Inspector Sahab Shukla were injured in the attack. Shukla succumbed to his injuries soon after."



Reports said later a J&K policeman and a CRPF personnel were injured when the former accidentally fired his weapon. The militants after the attack, sources said, ran into the nearby Delhi Public School complex, which has four huge buildings in the compound.



Vijay Kumar Dhar, the pro-vice chairman of the prestigious school, confirmed to media that some gunmen have entered inside the school premises. However, he said, school staff and students were safe as they had already left the campus.



A police official said the school premises has been cordoned off by the security forces and an operation to flush them out has been launched. "Reinforcements have been sent to the spot to nab the attackers. Two to three militants are hiding in one of the four concrete buildings of the school operation is underway to nab them," he said.



The area is barely one km away from the strategic 15-Corps headquarters. Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) spokesman Abdullah Ghazanavi in a statement to local news gathering agency GNS claimed responsibility for the attack. The national highway was closed after the attack, reports said.



There has been a spurt in attacks on security forces by militants in Kashmir since the month of Ramzan began as 44 people - soldiers, policemen, civilians and militants - have been killed since May 28. The most brutal of the deaths was the lynching of Dy SP Ayoub Pandith outside the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar on Thursday night.



Today's attack was not an isolated incident on the national highway, but only a reminder of deadly attacks of past inflicting many casualties on security forces. In the past year, militants have targeted forces on more than nine occasions on the highway, resulting in nearly 21 casualties to security forces.



In the wake of rising militants attacks on security forces' convoys on the highway, the security agencies had last year decided to install CCTV cameras and deploy additional forces on the highway to prevent the attacks.



However, a senior police officer told DH that despite rising attacks since December 2015, there has been little increase in deployment of forces on the highway that connects Valley with rest of the country and is used to carry supplies to the Srinagar-based 15 Corps.


Senior Gujarat Congress leader and former chief minister Shankarsinh Vaghela on Saturday lashed out at his own party and its high command, hinting at a possibility of a split in the Gujarat Congress in the year state is set to host Assembly polls.



Just because we are tied to you does it mean that we have to agree with everything. Even if you are wrong, do we have to keep quiet? My anger with Delhi High Command is also that. I can clearly see that party can win in Gandhinagar but you neither want to prepare nor let anyone prepare...It appears that you have taken supari from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Vaghela said in his speech to his 1500-odd supporters who had gathered in large numbers in Gandhinagar at his invite.



Vaghela rued the fact that Congress was yet to do homework and select candidates for the forthcoming polls in the state. He said that despite him insisting on this for over a year, no one in the party appears to be prepared to listen. If Congress has decided to commit suicide then I am not prepared to fall in the ditch with them, Vaghela told his supporters.



He went on to say that he would now take a decision on staying in

the party as per the advice from his supporters. In 2002 I had promised Congress President Sonia Gandhi that I would always be loyal to the party but now that promise has ended. I have informed Sonia ji about this a few days ago, he said.



He also rued the fact that many in Congress were trying to shove him out of the party. I conveyed the feelings that there are some who want to push me out of the party (Congress) to Rahul Gandhi and he agreed (that this is true), he said.



Throughout his speech, he continued to maintain that Congress had a great chance of coming back to power due to resentment amongst many communities in the state, including Patels. You were demoralized after Uttar Pradesh. We were demoralized...Parties can lose elections. If you do not have sportsman spirit then you should not be in electoral politics. You have to get up and fight, he added.



Vaghela also said that this would be his last political battle before he hangs his boots. This election is my last politics, he said.



Though no senior Congress leaders were available to comment on the verbal lashing by Vaghela, party spokesperson Manish Doshi said that what Vaghela spoke were his suggestions on how to improve partys standing in the state. He gave guidance on ways to highlight wrongdoings of BJP in the state and ways to strengthen Congress in the state, Doshi said.



On future course of action, Vaghela said that he would visit Delhi in the first week of July to meet Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi to convey the feelings of Congressmen gathered here. We will take a call after that, he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa today launched the India-Portugal International Startup Hub, a platform developed to strengthen and foster the connection between the startup ecosystem of the two countries.



"Start-up sphere is an interesting space for cooperation. It is a great means to generate value and wealth for society," Modi said.



The India-Portugal International StartUp Hub (IPISH) is a platform for all stakeholders of the startup ecosystem in India, including startups, investors, mentors, incubators, accelerators, aspiring entrepreneurs, service providers and government bodies, the hub's official website said.



It not only provides an opportunity to connect with other members of the ecosystem but also gives access to important resources such as its learning and development programme, information about relevant government schemes, a forum to brainstorm and discuss, news and blogs among others, it said.



The platform has been initiated by Startup India and supported by the Commerce & Industry Ministry and Startup Portugal to create a mutually supportive entrepreneurial partnership.



IPISH hosts a range of tools and will provide information on the start-up hotspots of Bangalore, Delhi and Lisbon; and on associated subjects, such as policy, taxation, and visa options. It will develop a Go-To-Market Guide to support start-ups.



IPISH is expected to help in mutual capacity building, and enable connections between start-ups, investors, and incubators from relevant sectors. It is also expected to establish a network of honorary ambassadors based in India and Portugal to guide start-ups from both countries.



There are strong complementarities between India and Portugal in the start-up sector. Portugal has one of the highest rates of business creation in Europe and has emerged as one of the most vibrant European eco-systems for entrepreneurship.



Modi is the first Indian prime minister in Portugal for a bilateral visit. He has said his one-day visit to the country will further strengthen relations between India and Portugal.

Earlier, Modi held bilateral talks with Portugal's Prime Minister Costa who is partially of Indian-origin.
India and Portugal today announced a four million euros joint fund to bolster research in science and technology as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held in-depth talks with his Portuguese counterpart on cooperation in areas like counter-terrorism, space and climate studies.



In a joint address to the media after the signing of 11 bilateral agreements, Modi and his counterpart Antonio Costa said the two countries have made substantial progress in their relations in the past six months.



The agreements signed included cooperation in outer space, double taxation avoidance, nano technology, improving cultural ties, youth and sports, higher education and scientific research, and Portugal-India business hub and Indian Chamber of Commerce.



"We held wide-ranging discussions today. The Portuguese economic rebound and strong Indian growth offer excellent opportunities for us to grow together," Modi, the first India prime minister in Portugal on a bilateral visit, said.



Speaking on bilateral collaboration in cutting-edge technology, Modi also announced the setting up of a joint science and technology fund of four million euros.



"Our economic ties continue to follow an upward trajectory, and we can do more for the flow of goods, services, capital and human resources," he said.



"We are also determined to deepen our cooperation against terrorism and violent extremism," he said and thanked Lisbon for its "consistent support" for India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council and multilateral export control regimes.
The police on Saturday arrested one person in connection with the lynching of a 16-year old Muslim boy on board a moving train in Haryana, who today confessed he was in an inebriated state and was instigated by his friends to beat up the Muslim youth.



The accused, identified as Ramesh, however said he did not stab the victim Junaid that led to his death. Instead, he said his fellow friends instigated him saying the youth were carrying beef. The police are on the look out for the other accused in the case.



The accused said he was not the one who made the beef slur at the Muslim youth. Instead, he said, his friends did. Ramesh was remanded to three days in police custody on Saturday. The accused admitted to have thrashed the youth. The suspects manifesting beef bigotry accused the Muslim youth of eating beef and more, the family of the deceased boy Junaid alleged on Friday. The Haryana police today said the accused will be brought to justice.



Victim Junaid was accompanied by three of his cousins- Mohsin, Moeen and Hashim- who were injured in the attack by the mob on board the train over an altercation to vacate the seat. None of the passengers came forward to help the victims. After being badly thrashed by the mob for hours, Junaid was stabbed with a knife at Asavati railway station in Haryana.



The attack was by a mob of about 15 men. Jallaludin, the father of victim, said his son and three others were returning home after shopping for Eid festival. As the youth declined to vacate the seat, the mob unleashed a barrage of communal slurs.



As they mob started to thrash the Muslim boys, they were abused of being anti-nationals, beef-eaters and traitors. CPI (M) leaders visited the house of the victim today and demanded immediate arrest of all the accused, besides compensation for the family.


Any visitor to Philippines cannot miss the embroidered formal shirts the Filipino men wear. Called Barong Tagalog, these shirts are worn with pride by the locals on all formal occasions. It is even considered the national dress of this island nation. As with every other country, the national dress of Philippines is the result of the various cultural influences it has come under, predominantly that of the US, Spain and Japan, as also the lifestyle of its countrymen and the climatic conditions prevalent there.



Designed out of thin, translucent fabric with heavy embroidery in traditional patterns, this long-sleeved garment looks like a shirt but is worn untucked over a regular shirt, generally a Chinese collarless shirt known as Camisa de Chino. While a Barong Tagalog, also known as Baro, can be designed out of various fabrics, the preferred ones are natural, mostly banana silk, also known as jusi fabric, banana fabric, and pina fabric, which is hand-woven from pineapple leaf fibres.

One distinctive feature of Barong Tagalog is that it can be worn by both men and women. While men pair it with trousers, women sport it with wrap-around skirts. According to locals, Barong Tagalog gained immense popularity when former president Ramon Magsaysay wore it for his swearing-in, as also to all the functions he attended. Even former president Cory Aquino, the first Filipino woman to hold that office, sported it on special occasions.

Today, not only is it worn on all special occasions, including weddings, but also as a formal wear in offices and educational institutions. This outfit owes its origin to the natives of Ma-I (as this island nation was known before the Spaniards rediscovered it), and to the Tagalogs who lived in the island of Luzon. Hence the name Barong Tagalog, which in Tagalog dialect only means a Tagalog outfit, or simply an outfit worn by people in the Tagalog region during the Spanish era.

In fact, the style of this outfit, and the accessories worn with it even indicated the social status of the person wearing it. Like, the well-to-do people wore it with leather shoes and bowler hats, while the rest wore it with ordinary shoes or slippers and hats. Over time, Barong Tagalog has undergone many changes in its style and design. Today, it is available in both long-sleeved and short-sleeved versions, while the designs of its embroidery range from geometric to floral to folk patterns. When it comes to embroidery too, several different versions are available.

The national costume of Filipino women is equally interesting. Known as Barot Saya, it is a nice combination of a long skirt and blouse, where the blouse is bell-sleeved, lacy, with rich embroidery. Tracing its history back to the Spanish era, this costume is worn by Filipino women for all special occasions.
Five persons were arrested and a senior official shunted after a mob lynched a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of the Jammu and Kashmir police outside the historic Jamia Masjid in Srinagar's Nowhatta area on Thursday night.



Top police officials expressed resolve that the guilty would not spared for the brutal killing of DSP Mohammad Ayub Pandith and said that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) had been formed to probe the case.



Five of the 12 persons identified in connection with the crime had been arrested, state Director General of Police (DGP) S P Vaid said.



In an order issued late last night, Vaid also transferred the Superintendent of Police (SP), North Srinagar, Sajad Khaliq Bhat. Nowhatta, where the lynching took place, falls under the jurisdiction of the SP, North Srinagar.



Sajad Ahmad Shah, the additional SP (Traffic City), Srinagar, was asked to look after the duties of the SP (North Srinagar) while Bhat has been asked to report to the headquarters.



"An SIT headed by an SP rank officer has been formed for speedy investigation into the lynching incident in which Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammad Ayub Pandith was killed on the night of June 22," a police official said.



Pandith was stripped and lynched by a mob outside the historic Jamia Masjid in Srinagar's Nowhatta area Thursday night triggering outrage across Kashmir and drawing all-round condemnation.



"We have identified 12 persons in connection with the case and five of them have been arrested so far," Director General of Police S P Vaid told PTI.



While two persons were arrested yesterday, three more have been picked up since. "Two of the arrested persons are those who were injured in the firing at the time of lynching," Vaid added.



He said police has resolved not to spare the people behind the act.

"It is the resolve of Jammu and Kashmir Police that we are not going to spare these rascals," he said, adding that investigation into the case was underway and everything would be clear once the report comes.



"Let the investigation be completed. Only then can we say what happened," he said.

Asked whether moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was present in the Jamia Masjid when the incident took place, Vaid said, "It is a matter of investigation."



Meanwhile, chief minister Mehbooba Mufti called on Governor N N Vohra at the Raj Bhavan and discussed continued attacks on police personnel in the valley, following the lynching of the police officer.



The governor and the chief minister discussed issues relating to the continuing attacks on police personnel, including the most gruesome killing of Pandith, an official spokesman said.



He said Mehbooba and Vohra discussed the measures to be taken to support the families of those personnel who lay down their lives in the line of duty.



The spokesman said based on his earlier discussion with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the governor also discussed with the chief minister the urgent steps required to be taken to provide bullet-proof vests and vehicles and other protective gear to the police officers working in the field.



The incident also drew condemnation from the BJP, which is a part of the ruling alliance. Party chief Sat Sharma demanded the setting up of a fast-track court to punish those involved in the lynching of the officer.



"We demand setting up of fast-track special court to punish the culprits involved in the heinous crime," he said.
The Congress today criticised Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu for his remarks on the importance of learning Hindi and asked him not to give sermons and befool the country with his party's parochial views.



"Surprisingly and ironically, Venkaiah Naidu is giving us sermons on importance of Hindi in English which he is deprecating.



"We would advise the BJP leader to sop befooling the country with his parochial views and understand that no one can undermine the importance of our national language Hindi," AICC chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.



He said India's strength lies in its diversity of cultures, languages and spirit, as also the capacity to encompass all of it.



"Will BJP now prohibit use of Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Odiya, Marathi, Bengali, Urdu, Gujarati and other languages. Will Venkaiah Naidu ji promise to never use Telugu here and after," he said.



Naidu had said it is important to learn the "Rashtra Bhasha" (national language) Hindi as most people in the country speak this language.



He also stressed on the promotion of "Matrbhasha" (mother tongue) and lamented that too much importance was attached to English in the country.



The minister was speaking at an event in Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad where he presented 100 volumes of collected works of Mahatma Gandhi in English to the Ashram.



"Hindi as Rashtra Bhasha (national language) is very important, we cannot do without it...Most people in our country speak Hindi, so learning Hindi is also important... but we should be fluent in our mother language like Gujarati, Marathi, Bhojpuri...," Naidu said.



"We should bring them (these volumes) in all Indian languages. I do not call them regional languages because they are mother languages and national languages. Because English came subsequently. Hindi became Rashtra Bhasha subsequently," Naidu said.
People wearing the traditional Gorkha attire marched through the streets of Darjeeling today in support of Gorkhaland as the indefinite shutdown in the hills entered its 10th day.



Internet services remained suspended and local cable channels remained blocked in certain parts of the hills.



Meanwhile, the family members of a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) activist, who was allegedly killed in police firing on June 17, lodged a complaint against the police.



The police had earlier denied the allegation of opening fire at the GJM activists. The GJM has decided to burn the copies of the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) Accord, signed in 2011 between the Union home ministry, the West Bengal government and the outfit, on June 26 and 27.



The elected members of the GTA, belonging to the GJM, which is leading the stir, resigned en masse yesterday.



GJM chief Bimal Gurung, who had surfaced in public yesterday, addressed the media at the party's stronghold at Patlebas and threatened to "fight till the end" for their one-point agenda of a separate Gorkhaland.



Meanwhile, Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh denied that the saffron party had ever talked about Gorkhaland.



"We had never talked about Gorkhaland. Didi (West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) had signed the GTA accord. We are not in favour of creation of states on the basis of any linguistic group or community. We had said this earlier too.



"If states are to be created on the basis of a linguistic group or community, we would have to support all such demands such as those of the Kamtapuris, Rajbanshis etc. We were never in support of this," he told reporters in Alipurduar.



The GJM is an ally of the BJP in the NDA. Gurung had said that talks were on with the Centre and that he was hopeful of "positive results".



Students stranded at several boarding schools were evacuated yesterday after the GJM offered them a 12-hour "window" till 6 pm to leave the hills safely.



A case of murder, arson, assault on police personnel and conspiracy to incite violence was filed against Gurung and his wife Asha on June 17.



The Calcutta High Court has directed that notice be served on Gurung by all means possible in view of a PIL, challenging the indefinite bandh called by the GJM in Darjeeling.

The West Bengal government yesterday offered a dialogue to the GJM leadership in a bid to defuse the crisis with Home Secretary Malay De saying that the doors were "open for talks to restore normalcy in the hills".



The government also sent a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh protesting Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling's support to the GJM's Gorkhaland demand terming it as "unconstitutional".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today left for the US for his first meeting with President Donald Trump after concluding his brief visit to Portugal during which the two nations signed 11 agreements.



Modi, who arrived here today, held wide ranging talks with his counterpart Antonio Costa.



He also addressed the Indian community and presented the Overseas Citizen of India card to Costa.



Deviating from protocol, Costa came to see off Modi. "Concluding a historic visit to Portugal. Deviating from Protocol, PM @antoniocostapm see off PM @narendramodi, a warm goodbye," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted.



"PM @narendramodi visit takes #IndiaPortugal bilateral relations to new heights," Baglay said.



In the US, Modi will attend a community reception tomorrow and hold talks with Trump on Monday.



Ahead of his US visit, Modi said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.



"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he had tweeted.



In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington was at the invitation of Trump.



Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.
A 33-year-old Keralite priest who was missing from last four days was found dead on a beach in Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, according to information received by Church sources here today.



External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tonight condoled the priest's death and asked the Consulate General of India in Edinburgh to provide help.



"I am sorry Father Martin Xavier has been found dead on the Dunbar beach. My heartfelt condolences. @IndiaInScotland will provide all help," she said in a tweet.



A message about the death of Martin Xavier Vazhachira, belonging to the CMI Congregation, was received by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate provincial here from the Archbishop of St Andrews in Edinburgh this morning.



The message said the priest, hailing from Pulinkunnu in Alappuzha district, was found dead by Edinburgh police.



Details would be available only after Tuesday, a CMI official told PTI.

The priest served at St John the Baptist Church, Corstorphine in Edinburgh.



Meanwhile, Opposition Leader in State Assembly Ramesh Chennithala asked External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to take immediate steps to bring the priest's body to India.



In a letter to Swaraj, Chennithala said the body was found under mysterious circumstances on a beach and sought a comprehensive probe into his death.
The district police and Mangaluru CCB sleuths have succeeded in cracking the sensational murder of autorickshaw driver and SDPI activist Mohammed Ashraf by arresting five suspects at Padubidri in Udupi district on Saturday.



Ashraf, a resident of Kalai, was murdered near Benjanapadavu on June 21.

The police have seized four two-wheelers, a chopper and a knife from the suspects Pavan Kumar alias Punda (24) of Pudu village in Bantwal taluk, Santhosh alias Santhu (23), Shivaprasad alias Shivu (24), both residents of Thumbe, Ranjith (28) of Pudu and Abhin Rai alias Abhi (23) of Thenkabellur in Bantwal taluk, IGP (Western Range) P Harishekaran told newsmen here.



He said the incident had created tension in Bantwal taluk, which was already under boil following to some untoward incidents in the recent past. The suspects tried to disturb peace in Bantwal through their act.



Harishekaran said two persons - Bharath Kumdelu and Divyaraj Shetty - hatched a conspiracy to murder Ashraf. The motive behind the murder is yet to be ascertained. Barring Santhosh, all other suspects have criminal background, he added.



Abhin Rai was involved in a clash during Tipu Jayanti programme in 2015. Shivaprasad was part of a clash reported from Thumbe two years ago and two other cases are pending against him. Ranjith was also involved in two criminal cases while Pavan was part of a team which desecrated a mosque at Bantwal and he is also facing five assault cases as well, he explained.



Under the guidance of Bharath and Divyaraj, the suspects were hatching a conspiracy to murder Ashraf for the last one month. On June 21, the gang followed Ashraf and murdered him using lethal weapons. The weapons used for murder were left at the spot. The suspects fled the spot after committing the crime, he said.



The IGP said the investigation teams had been to Kerala border, Udupi, Mangaluru, Chikkamagaluru and Bengaluru to collect vital details in connection with the murder.



Shivaprasad, Ranjith, Pavan and Santhosh had attempted to assault one Unaid at Thumbe on June 20. All the suspects were produced before the court and were remanded in police custody for five days, he stated.



The IGP said the police are investigating about the organisations to which the suspects belong along with those who provided money and technical inputs to commit the crime.

It is said that the suspects are Bajrang Dal members. The police, however, have not confirmed this.



Goonda Act



To a query on invoking Karnataka Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug Offenders, Gamblers, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Slum Grabbers and Video or Audio Pirates Act (Goonda Act) against the suspects in connection with SDPI activist Mohammed Ashraf Kali, IGP (Western Range) P Harishekaran said the police department is considering invoking Goonda Act against them as well. The department has initiated a process to invoke Goonda Act against 20 persons involved in series of criminal activities in Bantwal. A special team has been formed to initiate the process of invoking Goonda Act, he added.



COCA against Vicky Shetty



IGP (Western Range) P Harishekaran said that the police will invoke Control of Organised Crime Act against underworld don Vicky Shetty whose role is clear in the murder of Karopady Gram Panchayat vice president member Jaleel Karopady.



Jaleel Karopady was hacked to death by assailants, who came on a motor bike, at the Gram Panchayat building on April 20. Though the police had arrested 11 persons in connection with the murder, the kingpin is still at large.


Art galleries could be mystery to many. To others it may be boring. To some it may be mecca of emotions and connecting within through creation of artists. And if it happens to be in the city of business and traders, housing an art gallery may be a challenging proposition.



Aditi Agarwal, the young artist and countrys only prodigy to have enrolled in a United Kingdom school to study scenic art, is now seeking to change this in the city of Ahmedabad.



Born in Nepal and schooled in Mussoorie International School, Aditi took up art very early in life and started pursuing it professionally from the age of 14. But it was only years later that the passion manifested within her and the urge in her and love for art made her to move ahead. She began her professional art education in school and from thereon went to Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, to improve her skills in 2007.



However, there was a slight twist in the tale  upon her return from Singapore, she decided to give up art completely and pursue something far away from her paintings. She enrolled for an event management course in Mumbai in 2011. It is here that she fell in love with the idea of organising happy events for people. And yes. There was always art that continued to beckon her. I left my art, but my art was always there within me, making me to go back and pursue it,she said.



As a child, Aditi said, she was always inclined towards painting on big surface areas. Even as a kid, when I used to draw or paint, Id first paste four A4-sized sheets together to make a larger surface area and then start painting on them. I did this without knowing what it was called, she said. After little research, she learnt that the kind of art she does is nothing but scenic art, where an artist paints scenic backgrounds which are larger than life. And her decision was made and she decided to go to the UK to learn scenic painting techniques, layout, paint application skills, colour mixing and techniques as marbling, ragging, wood graining and texturing.



She joined Old Vic Theater School, Bristol, UK, in 2013, to pick up nuances of scenic art and worked on a few paintings for theatres there. Larger-than-life canvases, tight budgets and short deadlines, a briefing from the production designer and incredible palette mixing  that was what encompassed her life in the UK. In fact, Aditi was one of the chosen few to be picked to an experience at The Royal Opera, London, for a little while.



She also had an opportunity to do an exhibition in House of Lords for British parliamentarians. It was the best time in my professional career as an artist. I could finally see the meaning of my art, it was almost like I was born and destined to do this, she added.





However, her brush with non-artistic environ was still to continue. She got married in to a business family of Ahmedabad. Though her new family was deft at art of making money, they had little to dabble in business of art. Despite the fact that they did have a past wherein they had been host to biggest of world-renowned maestros, be it Pandit Jasraj, Pandit Hari Prasad Churasia, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Ustad Zakir Hussain and many more, who performed at a venue offered to the city by their grandfather. The family was very supportive but it was definitely a challenge to push non-artists towards art. My father-in-law who brought me to this bungalow to hand it over and ask me to express my art, she said.



Aditi believes that there is an artist in every individual and that everyone can paint. When one is a child, the first things parents give you in your hand is a paint brush and crayons for you to express. Today most children get gadgets in their hands. It is time for them to experience and explore that there is more feel to life than just technology. We will help you reconnect with your childhood innocence, she said.



To do this she has set up Art Socio and she feels the city is welcoming and willing to accept new things. It is a combination of art and socialising. You can come in alone or bring along your loved ones to put your imagination on the canvas. And unlike any other art school, you are your own teacher with little professional help. It is also unlike paint parties which you have to organise. Here you just walk in and we will take care of all your needs, paints, brushes and canvas, Aditi adds.



You would have two paint rooms and teachers or artists hanging around to help you give shape to your paintings and add colours to your imagination. To make you feel good and satiate the hunger pangs, there is music in the background and snacks to tickle your taste buds. This is definitely very important for the city that loves its food and regales in music. Art Socio is like a movement abroad, be it New York or Europe.



We hope to make people in the city part of this unique opportunity, Aditi added.

However, if you are an artist, the gallery is more than willing to showcase your work. For now, it showcases the work by Aditi, which she claimed is inspired by Japanese way of life  Wabi-Sabi. Wabi-Sabi is a concept in traditional Japanese aesthetics constituting a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection.



Its characteristics include asymmetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes.



In India, if any building becomes old or looks weary, we simply paint them white. Wabi Sabi is an art of enjoying life full of imperfections. My collection here reflects this fluidity of paintings. Art pieces are about earth, nature and human emotions. The painting of colourful tree outside the gallery is a 30 feet writing of emotions. Even inside the gallery, we have tried to retain glimpses of family living in the house earlier. If there is a tap on the wall, we have kept it too because this place is not about commercialising the space but about taste.



No wonder, her invite to Art Socio calls one and all to explore and experience the vibrancy of art through the colourful route of paint-sip-dip. You paint on a canvas, sip soothing beverages from us and dip into artistic aura for creating your own masterpiece which you get to take back with you.






Infosys on Saturday faced some uncomfortable questions from the shareholders over the controversies engulfing them and the fall in the share prices at its 36th AGM.



While most of the share holders were concerned about the steep fall in the stock prices of the Bengaluru-headquartered IT company, there were questions about recent spat between the management and promoters as well.



The companys share price has dropped 14.5% to Rs 943.35 per share on Friday from Rs 1,103.15 at the beginning of 2016. Gone are the days when the company used to say we are not concerned with the share prices. Right now the times have changed. The company should see about its perception in the market, said one of its shareholders.



Yet another shareholder called for the stock split to enhance the liquidity in the stocks. Though there were certain shareholders who justified the pay scale of the companys CEO Vishal Sikka, yet many came down heavily on the companys management for not being austere.



The shareholders also advised the company to enhance their communication and sort out the issue in the board rooms, rather than a public controversy.



The shareholders also seemed concerned about the recent issues engulfing the employees of the companies. There was a divided opinion over the issue at the meeting. While some shareholders asked the company to be more employee-friendly, others were concerned about financialdiscipline, and were critical of revenue spent on the reskilling purposes.



The company has put off close to 11,000 employees from its projects, in order to go through reskilling. The company also plans to hire more than 20,500 employees this year  20,000 in India and 500 in US. According to sources, the company has already started hiring for its Indiana hub, that will be operational by August 2017.



The company has been seeking feedback from its employees every fortnight, which was sought once a year earlier, according to the company COO Pravin Rao.
Homegrown lifestyle brand, known for its colour cosmetics, Nykaa is looking at expanding its offline presence, which currently contributes to only 5% of the companys revenues.



Alongside NykaaLuxe, which is its current mulit-brand store format across stores in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru, the company plans to launch NykaaOnTrend  a format that seeks to cater to the young and aspiring customer base.



Adwaita Nayar, Head  Retail at Nykaa told DH, The market for cosmetics is nascent in India, however, there is an upward trend in terms of spending, awareness and enthusiasm to indulge, adding, With NykaaOnTrend, we will introduce a unique merchandising methodology, which will have cosmetics displayed category-wise with only the top brands in each category.



While NykaaLuxe is a luxury multi-brand outlet, which focuses on luxury brands, NykaaOnTrend will be about trending brands and products. Both formats intend to leverage technology more efficiently with effective videos and tutorials showcased at stores. We are also doing cross walls, wherein each store will have a display wall of the other format, she added.



With over 650 brands, including the likes of Estee Lauder, M.A.C, Clinique, and Bobbi Brown, Nykaa now markets around 60,000 SKUs.





Launching the latest NykaaLuxe in Bengaluru on Thursday, Nykaa Founder and CEO Falguni Nayar said, We are essentially an online brand. That is how we started off. We get about 15 million visitors per month online, and it contributes to as much as 95% of our revenues. But offline becomes important to reach out to the aspiring customer and we are able to use our online learnings here. The company is set to launch NykaaOnTrend in Bengaluru by the end of the year, and plans to have 30 stores across the country by 2020. Currently, each of its stores in Mumbai and Delhi are witnessing 15,000 footfalls every month.



The company's in-house brand Nykaa is one of the top five brands, and contributes to 8-10% of the revenues. "Nykaa is doing very well in nail and lips categories. In fact, it is outselling the top competitor by 10 times in the nail category," she said.



Started in 2012, the company has raised Rs 185 crore across three rounds of funding from HNIs, she said. Further it is also set to become EBITDA positive by September this year, she added. Last financial year, the company recorded revenues of Rs 214 crore, and hopes to touch Rs 775 crore this year.




Sensodyne, the dental care brand of GSK Consumer Healthcare, is looking to expand its export base for its toothpaste range from India, as it plans to sell its low-cost access packs in Southeast Asia.



Keeping in mind the needs of the price-sensitive Indian market, Sensodyne has already rolled out the smaller-sized access pack costing Rs 25.



Sharing export plans of Sensodyne with DH, GSK Consumer Healthcare Area Marketing Director (Oral Health) Anurita Chopra said, As part of our journey in India  which began six years ago  we set up manufacturing capabilities in the country that helped us price our products right, in turn enabling us to develop the market.



The brands toothpastes are manufactured in Goa, while it makes toothbrushes at Silvassa. It already exports toothbrushes to Southeast Asia. Currently, GSK Consumer Healthcare exports Sensodynes products to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka which are part of the ISC (Indian Sub-continent) market.



Explaining future plans, Anurita said, The low-value access pack as an SKU has been manufactured especially for India, and there is potential to export these packs to other Southeast Asian countries that have similar needs as that of India (which could include Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia), within this year.



At the moment, Sensodyne sells its products in around eight countries in Asia, tapping the dental sensitivity space.



The toothpaste market in India is to the tune of around Rs 8,000 crore, with the sensitivity segment holding 12%. We are market leaders in that segment, she claimed.



Sensodynes toothpaste portfolio in India comprises Whitening, Fresh Gel, Fresh Mint, Repair and Protect, and Rapid Relief as SKUs, to which, it added Deep Clean  a toothpaste engineered to provide sensitivity relief, advanced cleaning, and lasting freshness  on Wednesday.
The Centre on Saturday gave in-principle approval for a greenfield airport in Uttar Pradeshs Greater Noida, the second one in the National Capital Region (NCR).



The proposed Noida International Airport, which will come up in the next four-five years, is aimed at easing pressure on the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here.



To be built in Greater Noidas Jewar, which is 72 km from the IGI Airport and 65 km from the Hindon Air Force station, the airport will be able to handle 30-50 million passengers per year.



The area notified for the Noida airport is 3,000 hectares. The first phase will be developed for 1,000 hectares. We expect Rs 15,000 crore-20,000 crore of investment, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju told reporters.



The first phase, with a runway, will be developed at a cost of around Rs 10,000 crore, while three more runaways will come up in the later phases.



Raju said the air traffic in the NCR region is growing very fast. From the current level of 62 million passengers per annum, it is expected to reach upto 91 million by 2020 and 109 million by 2024, which would be the saturation point for the IGI airport. So, Delhi will require a second airport in the next 7-10 years, he said.



The project will be implemented in PPP mode for which concessionaire is to be identified based on open market competitive bidding process. The Uttar Pradesh government, which has been pushing for the airport in Jewar, along with Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority, will bear the cost of land procurement.



Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said the airport is not only important for the NCR region, but also for Western Uttar Pradesh.



He said cities in this part of Uttar Pradesh like Agra, Mathura, Meerut, Vrindavan, Moradabad and Bulandshahr have a lot of potential in terms of air traffic.



The project will give a big boost to economic development in the region. Greater Noida and Western Uttar Pradesh have many industries that will benefit from this improved connectivity. It will also encourage more industrialisation, thus pushing economic growth, he said.



Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said that metro connectivity was being extended to Jewar, and so the airport would have multi-modal connectivity by road and rail.
In Chennai, where people, including political outfits, have been known to stage anti-Hindi protests ever since Dravidian parties assumed power in the early 50s, any move to implement a new three-language policy, especially in Metro railway stations, would have triggered protests.



In fact, all major political parties had recently protested across the state against the

Centre's move to include Hindi on milestones along the highways. Metro rail services in Chennai started only in 2015 with the signage at entry/exit points, ticket counters, toilets and escalators in Tamil and English only. We do not have plans to add Hindi in the signage information as most people from the north who come to Chennai know English, a senior spokesperson of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) said.



"Though CMRL is a joint venture of the government of India and government of Tamil Nadu with equal equity holding, the Central government or the company will not make any move to insert Hindi signage at stations as it would be against the state's interest," the CMRL official said. Tamizhar Munnetra Padai (TMP), a pro-Tamil outfit said if CMRL inserts Hindi signage, it will lead to adverse effects. We will be the first to protest if that happens, Ravikumar, district leader of TMP said.
The Centre has made it clear to Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy that the union territory's Lt Governor Kiran Bedi enjoys powers to call for all files and papers and reverse his government's decisions if required.



In response to clarification sought by Narayanasamy as well as Bedi, the Union Home Ministry cited the judgement of the Delhi High Court, which made it clear that the Lt Governor of a union territory would have executive powers wider than the discretion exercised by Governor of a state.



In a replay of the stand-off between Delhi's former Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, New Delhi said the Lt Governor can take action as "deemed" necessary "without seeking the "aid and advice" of the Council of Ministers.



The Centre said, while the day-to-day business of each department is to be carried on by the Minister and the Secretary concerned, it would be open for the Lt Governor to call upon the secretary of a department to present before her papers relating to a case and take action as envisaged in the Rules of Business.



It, however, clarified that the Rules of Business did not envisage the Lt Governor summoning the CM or any other minister, she could, "as a measure of courtesy request the CM and any minister to update her on any doubt or query.



The Centre's communication comes after the Puducherry Assembly adopted a resolution on June 17 urging New Delhi to curb the powers of Bedi.



Narayanasamy crossed swords with Bedi after she intervened into the admission into post-graduate medical courses in Puducherry following reports of irregularities. Bedi had conducted a surprise inspection of the counselling process by the Centralised Admission Committee in Puducherry and directed officials to ensure that 50 percent of seats available under government quota were filled and not given to private colleges or under all-India quota.



The CM had alleged that Bedi was criticising ministers and officials on social media and that she should stop making "derogatory remarks."



Bedi asked whether Narayanasamy wanted a rubber stamp or a responsible administrator for the post of lieutenant-governor whereas the chief minister accused Bedi of paralysing the administration.



Narayanasamy said the reason of dispute is that she called for video conferencing without his knowledge. "She wants a review meeting of the departments without the minister of department knowing it. She cannot act independently," he added.



Bedi had last month met Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi and apprised him of the "constraints" she faced in serving the union territory. Last year, Bedi had threatened to quit and leave the union territory if there was no improvement in the situation.



Bedi has held that "As far as I am concerned, what is the power of law now? I am duty bound for that. If it changes, I have no choice. At the moment too, I don't have any choice, but to carry on what is on record - my legal responsibilities."



Narayanswamy had countered by saying that "some clarity is required, therefore, we passed a resolution in the assembly(against the Lt Governor). The members of the Legislative Assembly wanted a resolution to be brought that the elected government should be centered. We have not passed any resolution against any individual."
Two security personnel were killed and five others injured, three of them critically, in two separate encounters with Maoists in Chhattisgarhs insurgency-hit Sukma district, the police said.



One Maoist was also gunned down during the operation.While two district reserve guard jawans were killed, five special task force personnel were injured in two gunbattles between a joint team of security forces and ultras under the Chintagufa police station limits in the district, Special DGP (anti-Maoist operations) D M Awasthi said.
The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT), which attacked an Indian Army patrol after crossing the LoC, was made up of special forces personnel and terrorists who were armed with special daggers and headband cameras for recording the strike in Poonch district.



The attack on June 22 left two Indian soldiers dead, while one BAT member was killed in retaliatory action by Indian troops.



During search and sanitation operations, army troops recovered the body of the member of the BAT team.



The body of the intruder has been retrieved and handed over to the local police, a senior army officer told PTI on Friday.



Huge cache of arms



Arms, ammunition and other war-like stores, including a special dagger, a headband with a camera, knife, one AK rifle, three magazines and two grenades, besides dresses and bags, were recovered... this reflects the barbaric mindset of the Pakistani Army, he said.



Giving details, the officer said that a special class of dagger and a knife were meant to engineer quick mutilation and beheading of soldiers killed in the firing exchanges.



The BAT member was wearing a headband with a camera on his head to record the action and possible mutilation of soldiers, which was prevented by the troops who shot dead one of them and injured another, he said.



The officer said it is matter of investigation whether the camera was live connected with Pakistani army establishments across the border.



We are confident that another BAT member has also been killed, but his body was taken back by the other members of his team.



The resolute action of our soldiers didnt let their nefarious plan (of mutilating bodies and recording it on camera) succeed, officer said.



3rd attack this year



In the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces sneaked 600 m across the LoC into the Poonch sector.



BAT, which generally comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistani army and some terrorists, carried out the attack at 2 pm under heavy fire cover by Pakistani troops from their posts.



The Pakistani attackers came up to 200 m within the Indian posts.






Press Club of Bengaluru on Saturday urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to reconsider the decision to sentence two journalists to one-year imprisonment for breach of privilege.



In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister, the Press Club said: We are not questioning the decision of the Speaker (Legislative Assembly) in this regard. But we are only urging you to protect journalists by reconsidering the decision.



We have high respect for the legislature. We respect the Speakers decision in this regard. But this development may spoil the cordial relationship between the legislature and journalists, the Press Club stated.



The Legislative Assembly recently adopted recommendations made by the privileges committee of the House, sentencing Ravi Belagere of Hai Bangalore and Anil Raj of Yelahanka Voice to one-year imprisonment with a fine of Rs 10,000 for breach of privilege.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said the state government is contemplating cloud seeding next month to induce rain as the southwest monsoon is getting weaker.



Speaking to mediapersons, near his house in T K Layout in the city on Saturday, he said, I hope it will rain this week. However, tenders have been already invited for cloud seeding as a precautionary measure.



Asked about expanding his Cabinet, he said the Cabinet would be expanded soon but when and how is yet to be decided.



To a question on former chief minister H D Kumaraswamys comments about grooming his son Dr Yatheendra for the next election, Siddaramaiah said, Everybody in the state knows which is the father-sons party. I have been in politics for 40 years. Is anybody in my family an MLA? But how many people in former prime minister H D Deve Gowdas family are MLAs? he questioned.



He assured the former residents of Aralikattehundi village in Nanjangud taluk of rehabilitation if they returned. Representatives of the village met him and sought construction of 109 houses and steps to rejuvenate two lakes in the village. A section of the media had recently reported the mass exodus from the village.



Siddaramaiah said, Who told you that the villagers migrated recently? They migrated some 30 years ago. If they are willing to return to their native village, all facilities will be provided.






A circular issued by the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) has brought to a halt the operations of MyPetrolPump, which recently started home delivery of fuel in Bengaluru.



While the start-up has not received any official communication, the circular, dated June 22, has notified oil companies that door-to-door delivery of fuel is not approved by the government.



MyPetrolPump founder Ashish Gupta told DH, We have had to shut operations as the circular bars petrol pumps from supplying fuel to us. However, according to our understanding and research, there are no guidelines specified for home delivery of fuel.

He said his company was working in accordance with the Petroleum Act of 1934, which allows the transport and storage of fuel as long as it is less than 2,500 litres.



The circular states, The door-to-door delivery of petroleum products is not approved by the Government of India, Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation or Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. The vehicle is not approved by Chief Controller of Explosives for fuel transportation and dispensing.



The Petroleum Act says no licence is necessary for the transport and storage of certain classes of fuel if the total quantity in possession at any one place does not exceed 2,500 litres and and it is contained in a receptacle not exceeding 1,000 litres in capacity.



Gupta, who has worked with multinational oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell for about nine years, explained, When we approached the ministry for approval, we were told there is no provision. In the absence of guidelines, it is very discouraging for us, as well as customers, for our services to be termed illegal.



The circular from PESO says, In the absence of any guidelines pertaining to safety/procedures, the act of supply of petroleum products at customers site is illegal and fraught with danger to public and property.



Claiming domain expertise, Gupta said, Our tankers are extremely safe, in that they are structured similar to fuel supply tankers. Similarly, our meters also follow the Department of Legal Metrologys guidelines.



He urged the government to define safety and notify guidelines so that we can follow them.



Terming our service unsafe in the absence of relevant guidelines leaves the contention void, he said.



Gupta says the government and oil companies have otherwise been encouraging.

In all our meetings with PESO and ministry officials, we got great response for our idea. Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan even appreciated the idea saying it resonated with the Smart City mission, he asserted.



Gupta added that the company wanted clarity and was keen to abide by the governmets rules.




Casa de Amistad dedicated a night June 1 to celebrate the achievements and successes of its own graduating seniors. Casa de Amistad, a nonprofit tutoring and mentoring program, is committed to serving underserved families in North Coastal San Diego. Casa de Amistad serves over 240 students in preschool through 12th grade on a weekly basis. On June 1, however, 12 of Casa de Amistads high school seniors were the nights main focus.

These 12 seniors were invited, along with their families and mentors, for a dinner aptly named Casa de Amistads Future Leaders Scholarship Dinner. In 2016, a generous gift from an anonymous donor led to the creation of Casa de Amistads first scholarship fund from which the dinner received its name: the Future Leaders Scholarship Fund.

The Future Leaders Scholarship Fund, is directed by a committee of Casa de Amistad volunteers. The purpose of the fund is to offer financial assistance to graduating seniors who will be headed to a community college or four year university. This year, Casa de Amistad awarded $60,000 in scholarships.

At this years Future Leaders Scholarship Dinner, students planning to attend community college (Mira Costa College across the board) received $500 scholarships, while students attending four-year universities representing schools such as CSU San Marcos, CSU Dominguez Hills, and UC Riverside received $6,000 scholarships. The difference in awards is due to the new campaign offered by MiraCosta Community College, called the Mira Costa Promise. Under the Promise, the first year at the school would be covered financially, in addition to receiving resources and funding towards books and other supplies.

In addition to monetary awards, students received brand new Apple MacBook Air computers. Students arrived to the Future Leaders Scholarship Dinner knowing they received scholarships, but they were not aware of the amount of their awards, nor did they know what kind of laptop they would be receiving.

Students and their families were amazed when these awards were revealed. La Costa Canyon Senior Juan Duran described receiving these gifts as have a great impact on his financial situation, citing how these gifts lifted stress and uncertainty off of his shoulders: I am very grateful to have received the scholarship. Juan will be attending CSU Chico in the fall and intends to study construction management and concrete industrial management.

The evening was spent celebrating the students, with kind and encouraging words shared by mentors who have worked with these students over months, and even years. Moving on to universities all over California to study a wide variety of topics, these students are on their ways to becoming future leaders. Visit www.casadeamistad.org.
On Saturday, June 10, Encinitas American Legion Post 416 held its installation for the new team of officers.

Post Commander Steve Lewandowski turned over the reins of Commander to former First Vice George Barlow. In the past three years the post has seen a remarkable resurgence. The post was in danger of closing its doors because many of the WWII and Korea-era veterans were passing away at an alarming rate -- within a years time the post would have run out of money.

So a new team of officers came in with a Can Do spirit and they stopped the slide and built things back up. The post has recruited over 500 members to the American Legion family in just the last three years.

It also won the Boots On The Ground trophy for having the most new members out of the 29 American Legion Posts in San Diego County. The post also received the National Commanders Award of Post Excellence given to fewer than 1 percent of the American Legion Posts in the country. Post 416 was ranked number 1 in the state of California out of 462 American Legion Posts. Most importantly, members of the post have performed more than 20,000 hours of community service for veterans and their families in San Diego County within the past year.

Outgoing Commander Steve Lewandowski was awarded Legionnaire of the Year for Post 417 as well as Encinitas Elks Distinguished Citizenship Award. Additionally, County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar recognized Lewandowski with a proclamation from the county supervisors as Steve Lewandowski Day for Saturday, June 10. He was also presented with a proclamation from Encinitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear, presented by Deputy Mayor Tony Kranz, and a proclamation from Assemblyman Rocky Chavez.
Trailer Of Tigmanshu Dhulias 'Raagdesh Will Release In Parliament
Facebook-owned WhatsApp is introducing new file sharing feature where users can share any type of file. As per reports, the maximum size of the files allowed to be shared is 128MB for iOS, 100MB for Android, and 64MB via the web

WhatsApp will soon allow users to share any type of file on its social messaging platform. According to WABetaInfo, the messaging service is reportedly rolling out a new feature for its apps on iOS, Android and Windows Phone that allows users to share all types of files. However, the file sharing comes with restriction in terms of the maximum size of the files allowed to be shared. The report notes that file size limitation would be 128MB for iOS, 100MB for Android, and 64MB on the web. But the report notes that this might change in the future.

In other WhatsApp related news, it was reported today that the service is in talks with the State Bank of India (SBI) and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) as well as other institutions to launch a peer-to-peer payments system. This system will reportedly be powered by the Indian government's Unified Payments Interface (UPI). As per reports, WhatsApp will be used to identify the recipient, while UPI will allow the funds to be settled between the two parties. However, if the messaging service does integrate UPI, it wont be the first to do so. A few days ago, Hike launched its own mobile payments system called Hike Wallet. The service is also integrated with UPI and allows users to transfer money to a recipient's bank account.
Probe gives Infosys clean chit in Panaya, Skava acquisition cases

Two internal investigations by Infosys into alleged improprieties related to two acquisitions by the IT services company found no evidence of wrongdoing, it said on Friday.

The findings, released in a statement a day before the company's annual shareholder meeting, may quell some of the investor disquiet that has buffeted Infosys in recent months.

Infosys commissioned law firm Gibson Dunn and Crutcher and consultancy firm Control Risks to look into allegations that a whistleblower made against the company in February.

The accusations included improprieties in the acquisitions of Panaya, a New Jersey-based automation technology provider, and Silicon Valley start-up Skava, as well as inappropriate compensation paid to Infosys Chief Executive Vishal Sikka.

The letter had alleged that Infosys overpaid to buy Panaya and Skava in 2015 in return for kickbacks with finger-pointing at the top management. Panaya was acquired for $200 million and Skava for $120 million.

The whistleblower also accused Sikka of requesting that improper deals be made with customers, and that the company's mergers and acquisitions team acted without proper approvals.

A letter from Gibson Dunn to the Infosys audit committee - published along with the company statement -- said that the investigation found "no evidence whatsoever" of wrongdoing by Infosys, its directors or its employees.

Besides the whistleblower allegations, Infosys has also been rocked by accusations by some of its founders of lapses in corporate governance.

In early February TV channels reported that the company's founder promoters, led by its first chairman N R Narayana Murthy, wrote to the board to express concerns about executive pay rises and severance deals given to two former executives.

Murthy didn't answer a call from Reuters seeking comment on the Gibson Dunn report that also said it "found no evidence that the CEO received excessive variable compensation or incurred unreasonable expenses".

The internal inquiry also reviewed the results of an earlier investigation by Indian law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) on the departure of its CFO and on the veracity of its findings.

"We also concluded that CAM's two previous investigations were thorough and that their findings and conclusions were reasonable and credible based on the evidence," the Gibson Dunn letter said.
Infosys reaches $1-mn settlement with New York in visa case

Indian information technology firm Infosys has reached a settlement for $1 million with the state of New York in a visa-related case, even though the company maintained it committed no wrongdoing and the probe was centred on alleged paperwork errors.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Infosys had agreed to pay $1 million to settle an investigation into its visa violations in the state.

The settlement relates to whistleblower claims that Infosys, in the course of providing outsourcing services, routinely brought foreign IT personnel into New York to perform work in violation of the terms of their visas.

The attorney general added that Infosys employed foreign workers in New York without paying the prevailing wages or the taxes owed.

''We will not permit companies to violate our laws in order to undercut New York workers. My office is committed to ensuring that our state's labour marketplace is fair, competitive and transparent for all,'' Schneiderman said in his statement.

The Bengaluru-based company in its statement said, "Infosys' agreement concludes the State of New York's investigation relating to the amount of taxes the company paid in 2010-2011 without any criminal or civil charges being filed.

"While this investigation centred on alleged paperwork errors, the company committed no wrongdoing and denies all allegations made in this regard."

The software services firm said this settlement relates to legal issues already resolved under the 2013 settlement with the US Department of Justice and was reached by both parties to avoid protracted litigation.

The investigation by the attorney general found that "in addition to securing employment of foreign workers at a much lower wage than applicable prevailing wage requirements, Infosys also avoided paying applicable payroll taxes".

The announcement has come a day before Infosys' annual general meeting.
Qatar today said it has dismissed a list of demands received from Saudi Arabia-led bock as neither reasonable or actionable, but said it is reviewing the document and preparing 'an appropriate response'. "This list of demands confirms what Qatar has said from the beginning  the illegal blockade has nothing to do with combatting terrorism, it is about limiting Qatar's sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy," Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al Thani, director of the Qatari government's communications office, said in a statement on Friday. "The US Secretary of State recently called upon the blockading nations to produce a list of grievances that was 'reasonable and actionable'. The British Foreign Secretary asked that the demands be 'measured and realistic.' This list does not satisfy that criteria," added the statement. Qatar, however, said it is preparing an official response to the document containing the demands of several Arab countries that have cut ties with it and imposed a blockade against it earlier this month. State-run Qatar News Agency said Qatar's ministry of foreign affairs received the list on Friday. "The state of Qatar is currently studying this paper, the demands contained therein and the foundations on which they were based, in order to prepare an appropriate response to it and hand it over to the state of Kuwait," QNA said, citing a statement by the ministry of foreign affairs. Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar's ambassador to the US, criticised the list of demands. ''The list of demands circulated in media clearly indicates that this dispute is not about our neighbors false terrorism allegations, AlThani tweeted early in the morning. ''The list is an attempt to suppress free media and freedom of speech. And infringe upon our sovereignty and punish Qatar for its independence,'' he added. Kuwait has been acting as a mediator to defuse the crisis that erupted on June 5 when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt announced they were severing relations with Qatar, accusing it of supporting "terrorism". Saudi Arabia and some other Arab countries that have cut ties with Qatar over what they claimed Qatar's meddling in their internal affairs have reportedly issued a list of demands, including the shutting down of Al Jazeera network and ending Qatar's ties with Iran, before they decide to end the blockade. The 13-point demand also include Qatar severing its alleged links with the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups, including Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and ISIS groups, news agencies Associated Press and Reuters reported citing unnamed officials from one of the countries. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain cut ties with Qatar this month alleging that the country funds terrorism an accusation that Qatar denies. The countries want Qatar to shut down Al Jazeera and all its affiliates and other news outlets that Qatar funds, including Arabi21, Rassd, Al Araby Al Jadeed and Middle East Eye. They demand that Qatar refuse to naturalise citizens from the four countries and "revoke Qatari citizenship for existing nationals where such citizenship violates those countries' laws". Besides, Qatar must shut down diplomatic posts in Iran, expel any members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, and only conduct trade and commerce with Iran that complies with US sanctions.








Prime Minister Narendra Modi has embarked on a tri-nation visit covering Portugal, USA and the Netherlands, as part of a continuing engagement aimed at enhancing bilateral ties in various areas. The prime minister on Friday said he will be holding in-depth discussions with US President Donald Trump during his visit to the United States and hoped to build a forward-looking vision for partnership with the new administration. "I will pay a working visit to Portugal on 24 June 2017. Our close historical and friendly ties have picked up momentum after Prime Minister Antonio Costa's visit to India in January 2017, Modi told the media ahead of his planned departure. The prime minister said the two countries will review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions. ''We will also discuss ways to further enhance the bilateral engagement, especially in the areas of economic cooperation, science and technology, space collaboration and people to people ties,'' the PM added. We will deliberate on means to intensify our cooperation in counter-terrorism and on other international issues of mutual interest. I also see significant potential for deepening bilateral trade and investment ties. The prime minister will be visiting Washington on 24-26 June, at the invitation of President Donald Trump. ''I look forward to this opportunity to have an in depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide ranging partnership between India and the United States,'' he said. ''India's partnership with the United States is multi-layered and diverse, supported by not just governments but all the stakeholders on both sides. I look forward to building a forward looking vision for our partnership with the new Administration in the United States under President Trump.'' The prime minister will also be meeting some prominent American CEOs and interact with the Indian diaspora in the United States as well. The PM will also visit the Netherlands on 27 June 2017. "I will be visiting the Netherlands on 27 June 2017. We are celebrating 70 years of the establishment of Indo-Dutch diplomatic relations this year. During the visit, I will have an official meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. I will also call on King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and meet Queen Maxima. I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Rutte and reviewing our bilateral relations. I would be exchanging views with PM Rutte on important global issues including counter-terrorism and climate change. ''Economic relations form the core of our bilateral relations. The Netherlands is our sixth largest trading partner in the EU and fifth largest investment partner globally. The Dutch expertise in areas such as water and waste management, agriculture and food processing, renewable energy and ports and shipping, matches with our development needs. Indo-Dutch economic engagement is a win-win proposition. I will discuss with PM Rutte as to how the two sides should work to further harness the synergies. I will also be meeting with CEOs of major Dutch companies and will encourage them to join the Indian growth story'', he said.








Sinn Fein Deputy, Pearse Doherty, has said that he was surprised and worried that the new Taoiseach made reference to the romantic comedy 'Love Actually' whilst on his first visit to Downing Street this week.

At the beginning of his joint press conference with British Prime Minister, Theresa May, on Monday afternoon, the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, made reference to the 2003 rom-com classic, which starred Hugh Grant as a newly-elected Prime Minister prone to dancing around No 10 to the Pointer Sisters' 'Jump' after a good day at the office.

Speaking to journalist, Aodh Mairtin O'Fearraigh, on Raidio na Gaeltachta, Deputy Pearse Doherty, said that he hoped that more serious discussions in relation to Brexit, the peace process and keeping the six counties in the European Union took place behind closed doors.

The Gaoth Dobhair-based politician said that the Taoiseach was similar to a wee boy who got out for the day to visit the prince or the king.

Deputy Doherty said that it frightened him to think that this was the leader of our country, especially at a time when we need strong leadership.

He welcomed the interest that the Fine Gael party has in relation to a united Ireland.

Deputy Doherty said that during the leadership battle, the issue of a united Ireland was central to both the Taoiseach and Deputy Simon Coveney's campaigns.

I welcome what they both said on the issue, especially what Deputy Simon Coveney said about establishing a committee to discuss the issue of a united Ireland, he said.

He said that Sinn Fein cannot bring about a united Ireland by themselves and welcomed their opinions.
It's only June 2017 but already some people are thinking about March 2018!

Well March 17th 2018 to be precise and what it might be like to be in New York - particularly if you are from Dungloe and want to see your local band - Dungloe Senior band - marching in the most famous St Patrick's Day parade in the world.

The word from the Rosses this week is that Dungloe Senior Band have been invited to take part in the St Patrick's Day Parade in New York in March 2018. If you would like to be part of this great trip and represent your town and county on the Streets of New York in 2018 contact any of the following - Frances Boyle 087 9031633- Yvonne Gillespie (086 6006909), Mary F Doherty (087 7705572), Martina Reilly (087 2931798). An all inclusive package has been put together from March 15th to 21st and it sounds like the trip of a life time for the band.

In the coming months the band will be organising a few fund raising events and they look forward to the continued support of the community.
Home Four wheelers Jeep Compass Bookings In 3 Days Is Quite Impressive oi-Kennedy Paul

Jeep began bookings for the Compass SUV earlier this week with a token amount of Rs 50,000 through its website. And the response is quite impressive.

The company has received above 1000 bookings for the Compass just three days after it announced it had started bookings for the SUV. Bookings are being accepted via company's website as well as Jeep dealerships.

The Compass seems to have captured the imaginations of many, and the number of bookings underscores its popularity in the Indian market.

Jeep unveiled the Compass SUV in India a couple of months ago and will be manufactured in the company's Ranjangaon plant near Pune. The Jeep Compass is the first Jeep to be manufactured in India and will be exported to right-hand-drive (RHD) markets such as Japan, UK and South Africa.

The Compass SUV boasts of up to 80 percent localisation, this will help Jeep position the Compass at a competitive price range. There are reports that the Compass' entry petrol model could be offered at Rs 15 lakh ex-showroom emphasising its popularity.

Powering the Jeep Compass are two powertrains: a 1.4-litre 4-cylinder turbocharged petrol and a 2-litre 4-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine. The petrol unit churns out 160bhp and 260Nm of torque, while the diesel mill produces 170bhp and 350Nm of torque. Gearbox duties will be carried out by either a 6-speed manual or 7-speed automatic gearbox.

The Compass will also get a four-wheel-drive system, which will receive Jeep's terrain response system. Driving modes such as Snow, Sand and Rock options, responsible for changing the characteristics of the power delivery and driving dynamics.

DriveSpark Thinks!

The Jeep Compass will bring about a war among premium SUVs with its pricing, ultimately benefitting buyers who are yet to make a choice between the Toyota Fortuner, Ford Endeavour and the Jeep Compass.
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Minister backs ferry ID checks during increased terror threat level

The Home Affairs Minister says police in Heysham were right to bring in ID checks for ferry passengers when the UK's terrorism threat level was increased to critical last month.

Passengers travelling to the Island through the Lancashire port were asked for identification before being allowed to board the Ben-my-Chree.

When asked about the move at this month's sitting of Tynwald, Bill Malarkey said officers were quite right to increase security.

He also revealed the Manx police expressed concern over potential delays during TT fortnight as a result of the extra checks.

Mr Malarkey said he wasn't aware of anyone being refused transport as a result of the increased checks.
Tenable Network Security is a company that has its roots in the Nessus vulnerability scanner, but the companys product portfolio in 2017 is far more robust than just that single product or feature.

Sitting at the helm of Tenables efforts is CEO Amit Yoran, who joined the company in January 2017. Yoran is a well-known and regarded figure in the security industry and had previously been the President of RSA Security. Yoran was also the founding director of the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) program in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In a video interview with eSecurityPlanet, Yoran reveals his vision for Tenable and why the company is positioned for growth in 2017.

Watch the full video interview with Tenable CEO Amit Yoran below:

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Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eSecurityPlanet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
Hi,



My wife recently passed her driving license in DC and we are confused by the expiration date of her license.

I have an E2 Visa and she is my dependent, with an E2 visa as well.

The expiration date of our visas is 07/01/2021



When we first entered in the US with this visa on 01/26/2016, we received an I94 with an expiration date is 01/25/2018



Now, on the Driving License she received, the expiration date is set to 01/25/2018.

On my driving license, my expiration date is different, 01/07/2021.



They did not want to change her driving license expiration date to the visas date.



So now, Im confused on which one is correct?

Also, what is the implication of the I94 expiration date? Will my E2 be still valid after this date?



Thanks for the help.
After completing San Antonio Faces of Art, a series of portraits of San Antonio-based artists, Iranian-born photographer Ramin Samandari was looking for his next project.

Then the 2016 presidential election happened. With anti-immigrant rhetoric in the air, Samandari said, the thought occurred to me, being where Im from, to do a series to show the diversity of the American public, being from a variety of places (and) descendents of immigrants.

Like his previous series, Huddled Masses, Who We Are consists of black-and-white portraits made against a simple black backdrop. For these images, however, Samandari provided his subjects with a small dry erase board to allow them to reveal  if they wished to  where they, or their families, came from or how they identify ethnically and culturally.

Ive always thought of San Antonio as either youre Mexican-Spanish descendents or maybe German, possibly Irish, and thats it, said Samandari, 57. And Ive been really, really surprised with the variety of backgrounds that Ive encountered.

Samandari began the project in December. So far, he has made 204 portraits. An exhibit of the photographs is tentatively planned as part of HemisFairs 50th anniversary celebration next year. Since 2018 is also the citys Tricentennial, Samandari has set a goal of 300, but he anticipates surpassing it with ease.

The title of the project is a reference to the famous line from the sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus that was engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted on a wall of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ...

When Samandari started working on the project, he put the word out on social media. He contacted some of his subjects personally. Others he found when they wandered into his studio at the Blue Star Arts Complex during First Friday, the monthly gallery crawl.

Of the latter, some initially demurred, saying Well, Im not an immigrant, Samandari said. And I say, Well thats OK. Where did your parents come from? They would say, Well, my parents are from here. And then I would go, Well, where did your grandparents come from? And they would go one step or two more steps back and something would click and they would say Oh, yeah. My great-grandparents or my great-great-grandparents came from here or there. And thats where we would start the conversation.

Among the people he has photographed for the project, one of the most most well-known is newly elected Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who listed Russia, Malaysia, India and the Philippines among the many countries where his family has roots.

Suhail Arastu, director of development and marketing at Musical Bridges Around the World, was familiar with Samandaris work through the photographers San Antonio Faces of Art series, which was displayed last year at the citys Culture Commons Gallery at Plaza de Armas. Arastus parents are from India, but he was born in Omaha and grew up in San Antonio.

I talked to him about the project, and he told me he wanted to include both immigrants and children of immigrants, Arastu said. Basically everybody in this country comes from somewhere, and so to tell that story through his lens, which is the camera, and allow that to showcase really the strength of our city comes from the diversity of the people who make it up in all sectors of the society.

Shahrzad Dowlatshahi, chief of protocol with the citys international relations office, was likewise familiar with Samandaris work. Born in Iran, she has lived in six countries, including Mexico, where the father of her children is from. Last year she became an American citizen.

As I was scrolling on his Facebook page where he posted a whole bunch of photographs, and I was scrolling through photos of some people I know, and some I dont. I thought, Thats exactly it. Thats the face of America at the end of the day, Dowlatshahi said. Its the face of many countries today because travel has made it such that people have moved around. And I thought it was just very heartwarming to see the photographs and all these different people, all these different stories.

Samandari has shared his own story with some of his subjects. He came to the United States when he was 17, when a short window opened up during the Iranian Revolution that lead to the overthrow of the shah. He moved in with distant relatives in Odessa and, shortly after arriving, enrolled at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

I came here on a doctor plan and I was supposed to go back an MD, he said. So its like all the people in Iran are supposed to do. Youre either a doctor or an engineer. And Im very interested in that, but I just couldnt finish it.

Instead, Samandari graduated with a degree in business. While living in West Texas, he landed a job with a convenience store chain and quickly moved his way up to middle management. He moved to San Antonio in 1988 after the oil market crashed, but a back injury stalled his career. After a long recovery, he decided to go back to school, this time to pursue his dream of being a photographer.

A history buff, Samandari said he has found it endlessly fascinating to listen to his subjects talk about their family histories. He has also noticed a marked difference between this project and San Antonio Faces of Art. Of the 270 artists he photographed, most of them had very serious expressions, he said.

This one is just the opposite, Samandari said. Just a handful who are very serious. The rest are (smiling). I like that because the idea is to show a sense of joy in being who we are, and I think the faces overall really represent that.

lsilva@express-news.net
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Its the music that floats along the River Walk, is crooned in Mexican restaurants, and echoes in public school band halls. San Antonians love mariachi because of the culture and the history, parents said Friday, savoring their kids performance at Brackenridge High School at the end of a weeklong band camp.

School is out, marching bands wont reassemble until August, but some 141 middle and high school students had practiced all day, every day, in San Antonio Independent School Districts biggest such camp since it began three years ago.

The culmination came as they took their turns playing ballet folklorico and traditional tunes like Cielito Lindo, to which the full auditorium sang along.

We grew up listening to mariachi, one mom in the audience, Veronica Mata, said. I think that's why (my daughter) is interested in it, because it's the music her grandma listens to. We listen to a lot of Spanish music.

The students had worked with guitars, violins, trumpets, guitarrons and vihuelas to improve their skills.

Cirilo Campos and John Nieto, the camps high school and middle school coordinators, respectively, agreed that the weeks experience was about more than technical skills.

We get to see a lot of students grow, not only musically, but personally as well, Nieto said. They are having fun interacting with each other. Its not just repetition. We are building the total musician.

When they broke for lunch, students from different schools and grades sat together and talked like they had known each other since their elementary years.

We get closer in mariachi, said Cati Renteria, 12, who is going into eighth grade and is in her second year at the camp playing her violin. I consider everyone from here family.

Guitarist Anastasia Hernandez, 14, in her first year at the camp and readying for her freshman year at Edison High School, said she joined mariachi not just for the friends and community.

You see all these people dedicated to music and mariachi and they all have different reasons for joining it; some for other people, some for themselves, Anastasia said. I joined for personal reasons and to remind my grandfather, who has Alzheimers, of his past.

Zack Vara, 17, has been at the camp all three years and is going into his senior year at Brackenridge High School. He plays violin and came to mariachi involuntarily  he was already in band and needed another elective.

At first, I really didnt like it, Zach said. Over time, it got close to me. Now Ive been doing it for several years. It changed me. It gave me a better understanding of my culture, of my family, and of the city.

Nieto and Campos hope to see the summer camp continue through district funding even as individual schools cut back their support.

It has been getting bigger, Nieto said. If it gets bigger, thats fine with us. I think we are having as much fun as the kids.

jpolcyn@express-news.net
By Jen Fifield | Stateline.org

WASHINGTON  All hogs in Massachusetts will be able to stretch their legs and turn around in their crates and all hens will be able to spread their wings under a law recently passed by voters in the state.

Laws like this one, which strictly regulate how farm animals are confined, are becoming more common across the U.S., as large-scale farming replaces family farms and consumers learn more about what happens behind barn doors.

Massachusetts is the 12th state to ban the use of some livestock- and poultry-raising cages or crates, such as gestation crates for sows, veal crates for calves or battery cages for chickens, which critics say abusively restrict the animals movement.

Making progress

The restrictive laws have taken hold so far in states that have relatively small agriculture industries for animals and animal products and fewer large-scale farming operations.

But producers in big farming states see the writing on the wall. Backed by state farm bureaus, large-scale industrial farmers are pushing for changes that would make it harder for states to further regulate the way they do business.

North Dakota and Missouri adopted amendments in the last few years that enshrined into their constitutions the right of farmers and ranchers to use current practices and technology.

Legislatures in many states, including Indiana, Mississippi, Nebraska and West Virginia, considered proposed amendments this year. And Oklahoma voters this month rejected a similar amendment sent to them by the legislature.

Knowledge level

Farmers acknowledge that some people who do not spend much time on farms may object to some of their practices. But they say that they do not abuse animals and that their practices are the most efficient and safest way to keep up with demand for food.

And, they say, complying with restrictions on raising poultry and livestock like those approved in Massachusetts are costly for them and for consumers. They point to an 18 percent increase in the price of eggs  about 49 cents a dozen  in California last year that was attributed to a law that created strict space requirements for hens.

The law applies not just to producers in the state but to producers in other states that sell eggs there.

Our nations ability to protect its food supply can be threatened by unnecessary regulations driven by activist agendas, often by people whove never set foot on farmland or have no idea what it takes to produce a crop, said Paul Schlegel, director of environment and energy policy for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Right to farm

Right-to-farm laws were put in place by all 50 states starting in the 1970s, as suburban development sprawled to rural areas. The laws were intended to protect farm owners from lawsuits brought by new neighbors who claimed the farms  with their smells, sounds and chemicals  were a nuisance.

The newly proposed amendments would extend the protections by locking in farmers ability to use modern technology and practices.

Harming animals

Animal welfare advocates, such as Daisy Freund, director of farm animal welfare for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, say the modern practices are not humane and call the right-to-farm amendments right to harm laws.

The amendments would not only prevent states from passing new animal treatment laws, but would make it harder for anyone to win a lawsuit against an agriculture business, even if the operation was affecting nearby quality of life, or air or water quality, Freund said.

Matthew Dominguez, a former lobbyist at the Humane Society of the United States who now works a national advocacy organization called the Nonhuman Rights Project, said the legislators who are proposing the amendments  including some who have received hefty donations from the industry  are trying to find any way they can to continue agriculture as usual.

Consumer demand

But consumer expectations already are forcing producers to change how they operate, said Josh Balk, vice president of farm animal protection at the Humane Society of the U.S.

Demand for free-range eggs and grass-fed beef is growing, pushing large companies to change their standards. Wal-Mart and McDonalds recently committed to using only suppliers that raise cage-free hens by 2025.

Market demands will force producers to change their practices or be left behind, Balk said. The USDA projects to meet demand, the industry will have to convert more than half its egg production to cage-free systems by 2025, up from the current rate of 10 percent.

Negative image

Consumer expectations have shifted as animal welfare groups, such as the Humane Society, have used undercover investigations to expose industry practices.

Videos and images published on the advocacy groups websites, on YouTube and in documentaries depict windowless warehouses with hundreds of sows confined in gestation crates, where they spend most of their lives.

Hens are shown in cages as wide and long as a letter-sized piece of paper, and barely tall enough for them to stand in. Many of these methods are accepted by industry groups such as the United Egg Producers and the National Pork Producers Council.

Farmers say keeping animals in cages is the most sanitary and safest way to care for large groups of farm animals. And farming groups say the practices encouraged by animal welfare groups might not make life for farm animals any better.

Caged

The National Association of Egg Farmers said that while Massachusetts voters will pay more for eggs, the lives of chickens will not improve.

Caging chickens, the association said, reduces the likelihood they will become diseased. It also improves the quality of eggs, the group said, by reducing the chance that the eggs touch manure.

Balanced approach

Farmers and ranchers arent opposed to regulation that protects the environment, that protects the food supply and that protects our families, said Tom Buchanan, president of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau.

We buy our food from the same shelves you do, he said.

But Buchanan and others, such as Harry Kaiser, a professor at Cornell University, say consumers should have the option of buying meat and eggs without paying a premium for special animal treatment.

Kaiser led the study, funded by the National Pork Producers Association, that showed an 18 percent increase in the price of eggs in California. The price increased even more than that because of a bird flu crisis, but that additional increase was filtered out of the studys results.

Kaiser said the results didnt surprise him. If businesses arent able to use the most efficient methods for producing eggs, he said, their costs will go up. Not everyone can afford to pay premium prices, he said, and others dont want to.

Rodolfo Nayga, professor in the department of agricultural economics and agribusiness at the University of Arkansas, has found that while a segment of the population is willing to pay higher prices for organic food, or food produced using higher standards for animal treatment, not everyone is.

Industry response

When animal welfare groups started about a decade ago to pay their employees to take jobs on farms to expose practices, the industry responded by pushing for what animal welfare advocates call ag-gag laws.

Some of the laws made it a crime to take photos or videos of private farm property without the owners permission, while others made it a crime for an employee of an animal welfare organization to lie about where they worked when they applied for a job on a farm.

About 26 states considered ag-gag laws from 2010 to 2015, but only nine  Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming  passed them.

The Humane Society is not aware of any ag-gag bills proposed this year. Interest in these laws faded after they faced opposition from animal welfare groups, as well as groups advocating for food safety, freedom of speech and workers rights, said Dominguez, who fought these laws for the Humane Society.

Lawmakers also may be hesitant to propose the laws when so many are being challenged in court, he said.

Six states  Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma  filed suit against California for its anti-confinement egg law, which was approved by voters in 2008 and took effect last year.

Larger producers

Updates to right-to-farm laws have seen some success, but not everyone thinks they are the way to go.

In Oklahoma, small farmers worried that the proposed constitutional amendment would prevent them from suing larger producers whose practices damage their business. It took years for the Oklahoma Farm Bureau to get the measure on the states ballot, only to see it overwhelmingly defeated.

Stateline.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news service of the Pew Center on the States that reports and analyzes trends in state policy. You can contact Jen Fifield at jfifield@pewtrusts.org.
Jeff Leal, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, released the following statement after meeting with government and agri-food business leaders in Springfield, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri:

"Ontario has strong trade relationships with Illinois and Missouri; agri-food trade drives economic prosperity and creates thousands of good jobs on both sides of the border. In fact, agri-food trade between Ontario and both Illinois and Missouri totalled nearly $3.2 billion in 2016.

Ontario's strong partnership with Illinois was evident this week in the warm welcome I received during my discussions with Raymond Poe, Director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Our discussion focused on topics like the benefits of two-way trade between our jurisdictions, and the importance of further strengthening agri-food trade, ensuring our economies both continue to grow.

While in Missouri, I met with local agri-food business leaders, including Dot Foods, Gilster-Mary Lee and Nestle Purina companies, who operate in or have supply chain relationships with both Missouri and Ontario. As I have heard throughout my trips to other Great Lakes states, these businesses rely on an open border for access to food ingredients, packaging and customers.

During my visits to Illinois and Missouri, I was accompanied by leaders from Ontario's agri-food sector. I would like to thank them for their continued guidance, support and expertise throughout the course of our mission.

With the upcoming renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) set to begin later this year, our government will continue to emphasize the benefits of two-way trade to keep our economies and communities vibrant, both now and in the future.

These visits to Missouri and Illinois marked the end of my agri-food trade mission to the U.S., but my work to continue to build and strengthen trade relations with our southern neighbours does not stop here.

In the coming weeks, I will be meeting with my Advisory Committee on Agri-Food Trade to plan our next steps, including further advocating for the best interests of Ontario's agri-food industry and continuing to foster the relationships I have built with my U.S. counterparts and agri-food businesses over the course of this mission."

Source: Ontario.Ca
If the cattle industry wished to raise funds to assist in the management programs of wild dogs we need to get an endorsement from the industry to see how much the industry is willing to contribute, what programs it would like to generate or support and then as a consequence we would put to the minister (or Agriculture and Food) for an increase in the levy to fund those programs.
At the weekly wool auctions it is her father or another buyer Phil Roberts sitting a row or two in front bidding on lots for Swan Wool and passing the paperwork back to her for processing.
E-commerce giant, JD, China's largest retailer, and Farfetch, the leading global e-commerce platform for the fashion industry, have entered into a strategic partnership to create the premier platform for luxury e-commerce across China, opening a gateway to an $80 billion market. JD will help drive brand awareness, traffic and sales for Farfetch.The strategic partnership between JD and Farfetch leverages JD's unparalleled logistics, internet finance and technology capabilities and social media resources, including its WeChat partnership, with Farfetch's leadership in global luxury, to create a frictionless and seamless brand experience. Farfetch has well-established operations in China and is already the partner of choice for 200 luxury brands and more than 500 multi-brand retailers. JD will help drive further brand awareness, traffic and sales for Farfetch in the market.

E-commerce giant, JD, China's largest retailer, and Farfetch, the leading global e-commerce platform for the fashion industry, have entered into a strategic partnership to create the premier platform for luxury e-commerce across China, opening a gateway to an $80 billion market. JD will help drive brand awareness, traffic and sales for Farfetch. #

As part of this partnership, JD will become one of the largest shareholders of Farfetch, investing $397 million, and Richard Liu, JD's founder and CEO, will join the Farfetch board. JD and Farfetch will partner on marketing, logistics and technology solutions to build the brand in China, while Farfetch will continue to be the customer-facing brand.The combined strength of the Farfetch-JD partnership will benefit all 700 brands and boutiques that are part of the Farfetch community, enabling them to take advantage of the vast resources of this new gateway to China's luxury market.Leveraging JD Luxury Express, JD's recently launched white glove service, Farfetch will be able to offer customers a premium level of service befitting the world-class brands sold on the site. For Chinese consumers, this combination of Farfetch's luxury know-how, and JD's blazing same-day delivery speeds and highly professional service, will provide an unparalleled luxury proposition.Farfetch partner brands with a local retail presence, will also have access to world-class omni-channel capabilities, including click & collect and in-store returns, connecting the brands' physical retail stores in China to consumers.The joint efforts between the two companies will also include leveraging BlackDragon, a digital marketing technology platform powering entities across retail, e-commerce, tech, finance, travel, education and auto. BlackDragon will enable Farfetch to activate the vast resources of JD's treasure trove of big data and help it market and build automated marketing pipelines to spur Farfetch's name recognition and market position in China.In addition, through the partnership, Farfetch users in China will gain access to a variety of services from JD Finance. These will include JD Pay, which will be a preferred payments partner, and Baitiao, JD Finance's popular consumer microcredit channel.The announcement comes as JD is placing a greater focus on high-end luxury and fashion to match the huge demand among its upwardly mobile customers. Over the last two years, JD has hosted fashion shows in New York, Milan, London, Beijing and Shanghai. Since the beginning of the year, the company has hired Winston Cheng as president of International to lead its international business development with global partners and overseas investments, and separated JD Fashion into a new business unit under the e-commerce business and named Xia Ding as the president, giving the vertical greater priority."As part of our major luxury push, we could not have found a stronger online partner than Farfetch. We have always believed that the long-term trend of Chinese e-commerce is towards quality over price and this partnership with Farfetch further extends our lead in the battle for the future of China's upwardly mobile consumers. We look forward to deepening our relationships with Farfetch and luxury brands in the months and years ahead," said Richard Liu, chairman and CEO of JD.Jose Neves, founder, co-chairman and CEO of Farfetch, said, "China is the world's second largest luxury market, and we are delighted to have such a respected partner, known for its strict protection of IP, with whom to address Chinese luxury consumers. This partnership addresses the market's challenges by combining the Farfetch brand and curation with the scale and influence of the foremost Chinese e-commerce giant. This strategic partnership will provide brands a seamless, immediate access to the luxury consumer and Chinese luxury shoppers with access to the greatest selection of luxury in the omni-channel way of life they have already fully embraced." (SV)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has extended support for the revival of Pakistan textile industry. The federation has also appealed for government support for the development of textile industry. More than 60 per cent of the exports constitute of items from textiles, which contribute majorly in revenue generation.

FPCCI also raised concerns over the protests held by the textile trade bodies. Opposition through protest will affect the working of the industry and will also affect economy of the country, said FPCCI in a statement.

"The textile industry contributes around 8 per cent to the GDP, employs about 40 per cent of industrial labour force of Pakistan. A strike will only worsen the situation," Aamer Ata Bajwa, acting president FPCCI, said.

For efficient functioning of the Pakistan textile industry, FPCCI asked the government to release the pending finances. The export incentive package announced by the prime minister in January this year should be implemented at the earliest, said Bajwa.

"We appeal to the government to withdraw the levy of Rs 3.63 per kWh surcharge in electricity bill and reduce textile related imports from China and India to salvage the textile industry from its total collapse," added Bajwa. (RR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 23, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation ("Booz Allen" or the "Company") (NYSE: BAH and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Booz Allen's securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Booz Allen securities between May 19, 2016 and June 15, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until August 18, 2017 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Booz Allen is an American management consulting firm. The Company purports to provide management and technology consulting, engineering, analytics, digital, mission operations, and cyber solutions to governments, corporations, and not-for-profit organizations in the United States and internationally. At all relevant times, Booz Allen has derived substantially all of its revenues from services provided to the U.S. government.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Booz Allen engaged in improper accounting practices in its contracts with the U.S. government; (ii) consequently, the Company's revenues derived from services provided to the U.S. government were inflated and unsustainable; (iii) discovery of the foregoing conduct would subject the Company to heightened regulatory scrutiny, potential criminal sanctions, and jeopardize its business relationship with the U.S. government; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, Booz Allen's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On June 15, 2017, post-market, Booz Allen disclosed that on June 7, 2017, the Company's subsidiary Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. "was informed that the U.S. Department of Justice is conducting a civil and criminal investigation relating to certain elements of [its] cost accounting and indirect cost charging practices with the U.S. government."

On this news, Booz Allen's share price fell $7.43, or 18.89%, to close at $31.90 on June 16, 2017.

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

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
The global quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) marketis expected to grow at a CAGR of around 8% 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/20170623005697/en/

Technavio has published a new report on the global qPCR market from 2017-2021. (Graphic: Business Wire)

In this report, Technavio covers the market outlook and growth prospects of the global qPCR market for 2017-2021. The market is segmented based on application, which includes drug discovery and development, clinical diagnostics, and research laboratories.

PCR is a technique of molecular genetics, used for precise, specific, and accurate amplification and analysis of nucleic acid sequences. It is also used in a wide range of applications in research and diagnosis, such as genetic engineering, cloning, gene expression, sequencing, diagnosis, and genotyping. The two widely accepted technologies of PCR in the areas of research and diagnosis are quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR).

Technavio's research analysts categorize the global quantitative polymerase chain reaction market into the following segments by regions:

Americas

EMEA

APAC

Americas: largest qPCR market

"Factors such as the increase in public and private funding and increasing financial support from prominent funding agencies and federal institutions for the R&D of innovative qPCR are driving the market growth in North America. Thus, the major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are preferring to use advanced qPCR technologies and products, as they provide highly accurate, specific, and productive results," says Amber Chourasia, a lead analyst at Technavio for research on lab equipment

The qPCR market in the Americas is growing moderately due to the developed healthcare infrastructure and the presence of many pharmaceutical companies in the countries such as the US. The presence of a high number of pharmaceutical companies has led to the increased number of tests using various qPCR techniques related to new drug development and disease diagnosis, thus increasing the demand for qPCR in the region.

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qPCR market in EMEA

"The outbreak of various diseases and scope of research in this region have led to the development of research laboratories and pharmacogenomics. This growth will lead to a rise in the demand for the qPCR market," says Amber.

Europe leads the qPCR market in EMEA. Countries such as the UK, France, Italy, and Germany contribute the highest revenue in Europe. Many global and regional vendors are actively investing in the form of funding projects and research grants to develop PCR-based solutions related to various fields including agriculture and disease diagnosis. These are contributing toward the growth of the PCR technologies like qPCR.

qPCR market in APAC

The qPCR market in APAC is growing rapidly due to the increased investment in research by the governments in this region and the increased outsourcing activities by the vendors to the CRO industry to meet the increased demand. The CROs generally prefer to use the qPCR technology for rapid and accurate results to meet the high demand from the end-users. Moreover, the CRO industry is expanding its business in APAC, as the vendors are trying to reduce the cost of ownership by getting the tests and diagnostics done by the CROs.

The migration of R&D facilities to APAC by major vendors to penetrate the market with the solutions based on the requirements of APAC end-users at affordable prices will also be a driving factor for the growth of the market during the forecast period.

The top vendors in the global qPCR market highlighted in the report are:

Agilent Technologies

Bio-Rad Laboratories

QIAGEN

Thermo Fisher Scientific

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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/20170623005697/en/

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Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 630 333 9501

UK: +44 208 123 1770

www.technavio.com
NEW YORK, June 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- We Are One+Togetherlaunches the Mr. Gay Syria initiative to secure asylum for the Mr. Gay Syria contestants, including financing legal aid, generating political and public support. These brave individuals chose to host a competition to illuminate urgent issues facing LGBTQ+ individuals in the Middle East.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/527172/BFA_20143_2531596.jpg

We Are One+Together hope to inspire our community to take a stand with the Mr. Gay Syria contestants by signing our petition urging the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services to take swift action and accelerate the process of granting the five courageous contestants asylum.The petition can be accessed athttps://www.change.org/p/grant-mr-gay-syria-contestants-asylum-wearemrgaysyria.

To announce the initiative We Are One+Togetherpresent the short film,War Within (04.10 min),directed by Palestinian, American director Zaher Saleh as part of the We Are One+Together film series.The film tells a very personal story of a gay Muslim man's struggle to reconcile his sexuality with his faith, his longing for acceptance from his family and the journey to self love and acceptance.

This announcement of the non profit's social initiatives: the Baytee One+Together Center (a center providing social services and health referral targeted towards LGBTQ Middle-Eastern Muslim and Arab teenagers and young adults and the Mr. Gay Syria Campaign comes as part of the celebrations of Pride Month and NYC Pride.

About Zaher Saleh:

Zaher Saleh was born in Lebanon to Palestinian refugees and raised in Canfield, Ohio where he spent his summers as a teen with relatives, eventually attending high school and college there. Although he rose to fame in the Middle East, Saleh's ascent into pop stardom began in Ohio. While attending Youngstown State University on a whim he sent an audition tape for the Arab language version of hugely popular pop music talent contest "Star Academy", in Beirut. Saleh placed in the top five and, unlike many reality TV contestants, he went on to even greater success releasing both English and Arab language hits in the Middle East. Saleh is now poised to bring his talents as a musician and a director to American audiences. As a director, Zaher has been honing his craft working on various directorial projects, and the film War Within, produced by Derek Anderson, certainly exemplifies his undoubted devotion to creating that crosses boundaries, and unites people.

About We Are One+Together:

We Are One+Together is a non-profit movement focused on bringing people together by celebrating our differences. Together we can inspire positive change with authentic action, collaborative celebration, and unconditional unity. That's exactly our commitment: We celebrate you. We celebrate us. We celebrate One+Together.From massive world-wide celebrations to small-scale private acts of kindness, our strategic focus centers around bringing people together. Think about it. If we as individuals focused on claiming our own brand of unique, we can inspire others to do exactly the same. Together we can advance society, accelerate global cause impact, andWe're a non-profit movement with boundless appreciation and acknowledgment of every single person. WeAreOneTogether.orgwas born from the steadfast commitment of Zirkova One+Together vodka.

War Within Film Link:

https://vimeo.com/222315815



Weare One+Together

WeAreMrGaySyria


NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 23, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Celadon Group, Inc. ("Celadon" or the "Company") (NYSE: CGI) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under 17-cv-03806, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Celadon securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Celadon securities between January 27, 2016 and May 1, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until June 19, 2017 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Celadon, through its subsidiaries, provides long-haul, full-truckload freight service across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Company also provides supply chain management solutions such as warehousing and dedicated fleet services, as well as freight brokerage services.

Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Celadon's equity contribution to its joint venture with Element Financial Corp. was $68.2 million, rather than the $100 million contribution the Company reported in its public filings; (ii) the Company is being actively investigated by the SEC; (iii) Celadon had errors in previously reported consolidated financial statements related to its accounting of transactions involving dispositions and acquisitions of revenue equipment; (iv) in turn, the Company lacked effective internal controls over financial reporting; and (v) as a result of the foregoing, Celadon's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On April 5, 2017, the market research website Seeking Alpha published a detailed report authored by a Prescience Point Research Group, entitled "Celadon Group: A Story That Ends At Chapter 11," which, among other things, alleged that "CGI has used . manipulative accounting practices to hide its insolvent condition from investors and creditors."

On this news, Celadon's share price fell $0.85, or 13.6%, to close at $5.40 on April 5, 2017.

On April 19, 2017, the same prominent market research group published another report entitled "FOIA Requests Reveal CGI as the Subject of an Active SEC Investigation," which reported that the research group was denied information about Celadon sought under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") due to an ongoing SEC investigation.

On this news, Celadon's share price fell $0.20 or 4.55%, to close at $4.20 on April 19, 2017.

On May 1, 2017, post-market, Celadon issued a Current Report filed on Form 8-K in the SEC, stating that "the Company's financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016 and quarters ended September 30 and December 31, 2016, and related reports of [Celadon's auditor], should not be relied upon."

On this news, Celadon's share price fell $2.20, or 55%, to close at $1.80 on May 2, 2017.

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

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - June 23, 2017) - Arizona Mining Inc. (TSX: AZ) ("Arizona Mining" or the "Company") is pleased to report the results from its 2017 annual general and special meeting of shareholders held today. Shareholders voted in favour of all items put forward by the Board of Directors and management.

Each of the nominees listed in Arizona Mining's Management Information Circular dated May 12, 2017 was elected as a director. A summary of the results is as follows:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Votes Name of Nominee Votes For % Withheld/ % Abstained James Gowans 149,349,755 90.93 14,903,671 9.07 Poonam Puri 163,051,087 99.27 1,202,339 0.73 Donald R. Siemens 159,216,761 96.93 5,036,665 3.07 Donald Taylor 149,350,005 90.93 14,903,421 9.07 Robert P. Wares 156,650,246 95.37 7,603,180 4.63 Richard W. Warke 149,235,057 90.86 15,018,369 9.14 William Mulrow 164,253,426 100.00 Nil - John Boehner 164,253,426 100.00 Nil - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shareholders also voted in favour of a resolution re-appointing PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Accountants, as auditors of the Company for the ensuing year.

About Arizona Mining

Arizona Mining Inc. (an augustagroup company) is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the exploration and development of its 100%-owned Hermosa Project located in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The Taylor Deposit, a zinc-lead-silver carbonate replacement deposit, has a resource of 8.6 million tons in the Measured Mineral Resource category grading 4.2% zinc, 4.0% lead and 1.6 opt silver, or 9.7% ZnEq, plus 63.8 million tons in the Indicated Mineral Resource category grading 4.5% zinc, 4.4% lead and 1.9 opt silver, or 10.6% ZnEq, and 38.6 million tons of Inferred Mineral Resources grading 4.4% zinc, 4.2% lead and 3.1 opt silver or 11.6% ZnEq, all reported in accordance with NI 43-101 guidelines utilizing a 4% ZnEq cutoff grade. A preliminary economic assessment was completed in April, 2017 which showed a 42% IRR, a US$1.26 billion NPV 8% and a 1.7 year payback based on long term metal price assumptions of $1.10/lb zinc, $1.00/lb lead and $20/oz silver. The Taylor Deposit remains open to the north, west and south over land controlled by the Company and will be aggressively drilled to test the limits of the resource. The Company's other project on the Hermosa property is the Central Deposit, a silver-manganese manto oxide project.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain information contained in this press release constitutes forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward looking statements including statements with respect to the Company's intentions for its Hermosa Project in Arizona, including, without limitation, performing additional drilling, a resource update, permitting and a feasibility study on the Taylor Deposit. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as may, will, seek, anticipate, believe, plan, estimate, budget, schedule, forecast, project, expect, intend, or similar expressions.

The forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions which, while considered reasonable by Arizona Mining, are subject to risks and uncertainties. In addition to the assumptions herein, these assumptions include the assumptions described in Arizona Mining's management's discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2016 ("MD&A"). Arizona Mining cautions readers that forward-looking statements involve and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements and forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results, performance or achievement. These risks, uncertainties and factors include general business, economic, competitive, political, regulatory and social uncertainties; actual results of exploration activities and economic evaluations; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; changes in project parameters; changes in costs, including labour, infrastructure, operating and production costs; future prices of zinc, lead, silver and other minerals; variations of mineral grade or recovery rates; operating or technical difficulties in connection with exploration, development or mining activities, including the failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; delays in completion of exploration, development or construction activities; changes in government legislation and regulation; the ability to maintain and renew existing licenses and permits or obtain required licenses and permits in a timely manner; the ability to obtain financing on acceptable terms in a timely manner; contests over title to properties; employee relations and shortages of skilled personnel and contractors; the speculative nature of, and the risks involved in, the exploration, development and mining business; and the factors discussed in the section entitled "Risks and Uncertainties" in the MD&A.

Although Arizona Mining has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual performance, achievements, actions, events, results or conditions to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking information, there may be other risks, uncertainties and other factors that cause performance, achievements, actions, events, results or conditions to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Unless otherwise indicated, forward-looking statements contained herein are as of the date hereof and Arizona Mining disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

For additional information please contact:

Susan Muir

Vice-President, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications

Telephone: 416-366-5678 ext. 202

Email: smuir@arizonamining.com
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 23, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Snap, Inc. ("Snap" or the "Company") (NYSE: SNAP) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Central District of California, and docketed under 17-cv-03679, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Snap securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Snap securities or otherwise acquired Snap securities: (1) pursuant and/or traceable to Snap's false and misleading Registration Statement and Prospectus, issued in connection with the Company's initial public offering on or about March 2, 2017 (the "IPO" or the "Offering"); and/or (2) on the open market between March 2, 2017 and May 15, 2017, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), you have until July 17, 2017 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Snap Inc. is a camera company that provides technology and social media services. The Company develops mobile camera application products and services that allow users to send and receive photos, drawings, text, and videos. Snap serves customers worldwide.

On or about March 3, 2017, the Company completed its IPO, issuing 200,000,000 shares and raising net proceeds of approximately $3.91 billion.

Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Snap's reported user growth was materially false and misleading; and (ii) as a result, Snap's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On May 10, 2017, post-market, Snap issued its first quarterly report as a public company, disclosing disappointing user growth at the Company's Snapchat messaging platform. For the quarter, Snap reported 166 million daily users, only 8 million more than in the previous period and only 44 million more than the same period in the prior year-Snapchat's slowest year-to-year growth rate in at least two years.

On this news, Snap's share price fell $4.93, or 21.45%, to close at $18.05 on May 11, 2017.

On May 16, 2017, Bloomberg reported that a former Snap employee, Anthony Pompliano, had filed a lawsuit against Snap, "claim[ing] he was fired after three weeks on the job for raising questions about allegedly false growth metrics [and] seeking whistleblower protection against retaliation by [the] company."

On this news, Snap's share price fell $0.02, or 0.1%, to close at $20.72 on May 16, 2017.

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

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 23, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Eco Science Solutions, Inc. ("Eco Science" or the "Company") (OTC PINK: ESSI) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, District of New Jersey, and docketed under 17-cv-03760, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Eco Science securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Eco Science securities between May 1, 2017 and May 19, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until July 24, 2017 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Eco Science Solutions, Inc. is a technology-focused company that provides solutions for the health and wellness industry. The Company provides enterprise software solutions and services including consumer apps, localized communication platforms between consumers and businesses, educational content, e-commerce platforms, and social networking services.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) the Company's plan for strategic acquisitions lacked veracity; and (ii) as a result, Defendants' statements about the Company's business, operations and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable bases at all relevant times.

On May 19, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued an order of suspension of trading, halting trading of the Company's securities. To date, trading the Company's securities remains halted, rending the Company's securities illiquid and virtually worthless, thereby damaging investors.

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

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 23, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against United States Steel Corporation ("U.S. Steel" or the "Company") (NYSE: X) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired U.S. Steel securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased U.S. Steel securities between November 1, 2016 and April 25, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until July 3, 2017 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

U.S. Steel is an integrated steel producer of flat-rolled and tubular products with major production operations in North America and Europe.

Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) while the Company was implementing its Carnegie Way program, it was focused on cutting costs and was not making investments necessary to position U.S. Steel so that it could respond to improved market conditions; (ii) Defendants' failure to invest in improving capital assets during the industry downturn, in order to report apparent financial improvements, meant that U.S. Steel had higher production costs than its competitors, even in the face of improved pricing, which would negatively impact its financial results; and (iii) Defendants were forestalling expensive capital equipment upgrades in order to boost the Company's short-term financial results at the expense of long-term financial performance, leaving U.S. Steel in need of accelerated, costly equipment upgrades that would leave the Company years away from generating improved financial performance; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, U.S. Steel's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

During the Class Period, steel market conditions improved substantially. Indeed, in the first quarter of 2017, the average price of U.S. hot-rolled steel coil, a benchmark product used in a variety of products ranging from bridges to microwaves, rose 55% from a year earlier, helped by successful U.S. trade cases against foreign imports. By all accounts, U.S. Steel appeared primed to pounce on the domestic steel market turnaround.

After the market closed on April 25, 2017, however, the Company reported what analysts labeled "hard-to-fathom" and "abysmal" financial results, as U.S. Steel revealed shortcomings that, according to Bloomberg, "choked earnings even as prices of the metal surged." Specifically, the Company reported a net loss of $180 million, or negative $1.03 per diluted share, and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization ("EBITDA") of $74 million. The Company's earnings release revealed negative operating cash flow of $135 million, a significant decline in the Company's Flat-Rolled segment, and a reduced 2017 outlook that widely missed analyst expectations, including a 35% reduction to 2017 EBITDA guidance. 2017 guidance was worse at the earnings level, where guidance was cut 50% from $3.08 per share to $1.50. The $1.50 earnings per share ("EPS"), however, included the benefit of an accounting change that cut $175 million from operating costs. Factoring that positive accounting change out of the mix, the Company's adjusted EPS guidance was closer to $0.85, a cut of approximately 72%. The Company also eliminated language about being "cash positive" for the year.

The Company's earnings release quoted Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") Mario Longhi ("Longhi") as stating, in part, that "operating challenges at our Flat-Rolled facilities prevented us from benefiting fully from improved market conditions." Longhi also added that U.S. Steel would "not let favorable near-term business conditions distract us from taking the outages we need to revitalize our assets in order to achieve more reliable and consistent operations, improve quality and cost performance, and generate more consistent financial results." He also added that U.S. Steel "made the strategic decision to accelerate [its] efforts to resolve the issues that challenge our ability to achieve sustainable long-term profitability." During a conference call before the market opened on April 26, 2017, Longhi stated that in 2017 the Company would "be taking more downtime at our facilities, which will limit our steel production volumes."

On this news, U.S. Steel's share price fell $8.33, or 26.78%, to close at $22.78 on April 26, 2017.

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

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
NEW ORLEANS, LA--(Marketwired - June 23, 2017) - Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, the former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until August 18, 2017 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Aaron's, Inc. (NYSE: AAN), if they purchased the Company's shares between February 6, 2015 and October 29, 2015, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

What You May Do

If you purchased shares of Aaron's and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com). If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by August 18, 2017.

About the Lawsuit

Aaron's and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On October 30, 2015, Aaron's revealed that a software glitch affecting the credit qualification algorithm utilized by its subsidiary, Progressive Finance Holding, LLC, had resulted in the loss of critical data as well as the Company's ability to make lease qualification determinations and collect payments. Aaron's further announced that the problems had first been discovered in February, nine months prior to the revelation.

On this news, the price of Aaron's shares plummeted.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn

Managing Partner

lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com

1-877-515-1850

206 Covington St.

Madisonville, LA 70447
Den Haag, Niederlande (ots/PRNewswire) -HemaSphere, die neue Open-Access-Zeitschrift der European Hematology Association (EHA), ist am 20. Dezember erschienen.(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/524821/EHA_Logo.jpg )HemaSphere ist eine von der European Hematology Association herausgegebene Open-Access-Zeitschrift, die Patientenversorgung, Forschung und Ausbildung auf dem Gebiet der Hamatologie weltweit unterstutzen soll.HemaSphere soll als hochqualitative Informationsquelle zum Thema Hamatologie dienen; die Zeitschrift kombiniert wissenschaftliche Beitrage mit aktuellen Informationen zur EHA und interessanten Diskussionen zu allen Aspekten der Hamatologie. Die Zeitschrift akzeptiert Kommentare zu jungsten Publikationen, Berichte uber neue Therapien, Beitrage zu Politik und Richtlinien aus Perspektive der EU sowie aktuelle Neuigkeiten aus der Welt der Hamatologie. Zur Auswahl der hochqualitativsten Manuskripte wird ein innovativer und zugiger Peer-Review-Prozess angewendet.Die erste Ausgabe von HemaSphere finden Sie auf http://www.hemaspherejournal.com. Die nachste Ausgabe kommt im Februar 2018 heraus.Informationen zur European Hematology AssociationDie European Hematology Association (EHA) setzt sich fur hochqualitative Patientenversorgung, Forschung und Ausbildung auf dem Gebiet der Hamatologie ein.Die Vision der EHA ist eine Welt ohne Blutkrankheiten. Dazu sollen Hamatologen auf der ganzen Welt vernetzt und in ihrer fachlichen Entwicklung und Forschung unterstutzt, die Ausbildung in der Hamatologie harmonisiert und die Interessen von Hamatologen und der Hamatologie in Europa verteidigt werden.Mit mehr als 4.000 Mitgliedern aus uber 100 Landern ist die EHA die grote europaische Organisation, die sowohl Kliniker als auch Wissenschaftler rund um den Globus bei ihrer Arbeit zur Heilung von Blutkrankheiten unterstutzt.Weitere Informationen zu unserer Organisation, unseren Aktivitaten und unserer Uberzeugungsarbeit finden Sie unter http://www.ehaweb.org . Folgen Sie uns auf Facebook (EuropeanHematologyAssociation), LinkedIn (EHA) und Twitter (@EHA_hematology).OTS: European Hematology Association (EHA) newsroom: http://www.presseportal.de/nr/62626 newsroom via RSS: http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_62626.rss2Pressekontakt: EHA-Zentrale Ineke van der Beek E-Mail: communication@ehaweb.org Mobiltelefon: +31(0)6 2011 1055
PONTE VEDRA, FL -- (Marketwired) -- 06/24/17 -- Today, Relevnt launched as a real-time publishing platform for a mobile-first web. By re-architecting the mobile web, Relevnt offers publishers, brands and news organizations a unique end-to-end platform to publish, distribute, and monetize web content in mobile. By transforming websites into real-time newsfeeds that users can follow via the Relevnt media browser, anyone can discover and follow the content, live events and trends they find most interesting in one easy-to-use place.

"Our goal with Relevnt is to restore the concept of ownership and control for publishers and content creators in mobile at a very low cost," said Winder Hughes, founder and CEO. "With consumers spending less than 10 percent of their time on the mobile web, Relevnt's new architecture now provides a more efficient distribution and consumption experience that gives publishers, content creators and news organizations that ability to drive content, community and monetization, all in a new one-stop, mobile-first destination."

With Relevnt, people no longer need to navigate to a multitude of single-purpose apps or websites on a daily basis. Now integrated into one interface, Relevnt puts the power back in the hands of the people -- giving them full control over what they see, how and when, so they're the first to know about the topics they care about. Relevnt allows anyone to discover new interests, choose trends and publications to follow from an array of options, share meaningful reactions to posts and find communities that share similar passions from the brands they know and love, all in real-time.

Relevnt offers publishers, media brands and content creators a way to reach 100 percent of their audience, 100 percent of the time by creating unique mobile domains that are mapped directly to their website. These domains provide full transparency over where their content is going and to which audiences, and allow for full ownership of advertising revenue. Within these domains, creators can publish myriad forms of media including RSS, video, photos, text, web links, GIFs and live streaming. With a Relevnt domain, publishers and brands gain an outlet for sharing their content that is on brand, easily created and controlled and instantly shareable with their audience and throughout the service.

Similar to a web domain and cheaper than building an app, Relevnt's mobile domains are quick to create, map to any website, and are up and running in just a few minutes. These mobile domains are searchable and discoverable on the worldwide web and are available today at a special introductory price of $4.99. Additional business services are in development and will be available by subscription.

Relevnt has raised $3 million in funding to date and is available and free to install from the App Store here. For more information, visit https://www.relevntinc.com.

About Relevnt

Relevnt is a real-time media publishing platform and mobile domain registrar for a mobile-first web. Relevnt allows publishers, brands and content creators to own and monetize one or multiple mobile domains -- while giving consumers a place to discover and enjoy relevant content from a variety of sources and topics in one place, all in real-time. Relevnt was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Florida. To get relevant today, download the Relevnt app on Apple App Store and visit us at www.relevntinc.com.

Contact:

Inner Circle Labs for Relevnt

Brittany Votto

T: (415) 684-9406

E: Email Contact




TLcom Capital, a London, UK and Nairobi, Kenya-based venture capital firm, raised $40m in the first close of its newest Africa fund.Investors in TIDE Africa Fund, which has a target of $100m, include African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank and FBN Capital. Other investors are currently working with a view to join the final close of the Fund scheduled in June 2018.

As the first international venture capital fund focused exclusively on technology enabled solutions and innovation serving Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), the vehicle will provide capital and business building support to African entrepreneurs developing technology driven solutions to the continents biggest problems.

The fund will make investments between $500k and $10m per each tech startup in such areas of focus as financial services, commerce, energy, health and education.

Started in London two decades ago and led by Nairobi-based Managing Partner Maurizio Caio, and also led by Ido Sum, Omobola Johnson, Andreata Muforo and Mauro Pretolani, TLcom Capital has over $300m under management with tech investments spanning Europe, Israel and the US.

FinSMEs

24/06/2017
IT major Infosys has reached a settlement for $1 million with the state of New York in a visa-related case, even though the company maintained it committed no wrongdoings and the probe was centred on alleged paperwork errors.

In a statement, New York Attorney General Eric T Schneiderman on Friday said a $1 million settlement with the Indian IT firm has been reached to conclude the investigation.

While, the Bengaluru-based company in its statement said, "Infosys agreement concludes the State of New York's investigation relating to the amount of taxes the company paid in 2010-2011 without any criminal or civil charges being filed.

"While this investigation centred on alleged paperwork errors, the company committed no wrongdoing and denies all allegations made in this regard."

The software services giant said this settlement relates to legal issues already resolved under the 2013 settlement with the US Department of Justice and was reached by both parties to avoid protracted litigation.

Schneiderman on Friday "announced USD 1 million settlement with Infosys Corporation...that failed to properly compensate hundreds of workers and to pay applicable taxes, by systematically abusing the US visa rules in placing foreign workers at client sites in New York State."

The settlement resolves whistleblower claims that "Infosys Corporation, in the course of providing outsourcing services, routinely brought foreign IT personnel into New York to perform work in violation of the terms of their visas," the New York Attorney General said.

He further said, "We will not permit companies to violate our laws in order to undercut New York workers. My office is committed to ensuring that our states labor marketplace is fair, competitive and transparent for all."

The investigation of attorney general also found that "in addition to securing employment of foreign workers at a much lower wage than applicable prevailing wage requirements, Infosys also avoided paying applicable payroll taxes".

The announcement has come a day before Infosys Annual General Meeting.
Bengaluru: Members of the Information Technology Employees' Union (ITEU) on Saturday sought the intervention of Karnataka's IT Minister Priyank Kharge to prevent illegal layoffs by software firms in the state.

"We urge Kharge to intervene and prevent arbitrary and illegal retrenchment of thousands of employees by software companies in the state," ITEU President A.C. Kumara Swamy told reporters in Bengaluru.

Swamy alleged that software major Wipro Ltd was set to sack about 6,000 employees by 30 June and many more IT firms were planning to do the same in the near future.

"The state government should soon convene a meeting with IT firms to stop such illegal layoffs," reiterated Swamy.

Though the union members met Kharge on 5 June with the same demand, the minister was yet to initiate talks with the IT companies on feared retrenchments.

"We expect the IT minister to come to our rescue," said Swamy.

The union also alleged that many IT firms were putting work pressure on junior employees through their middle level managers to meet targets without concern for their health and welfare.

"Many employees are compelled to resign due to work pressure and long-working hours," said ITEU Secretary M. Chandramouli.

The union secretary also urged the state labour minister and labour commissioner to intervene in the interest of about one million employees in the state's IT industry.

"We want IT firms to give at least two-month notice to their employees before retrenching them. They should also be given severance package with one-year salary and medical insurance cover for next 12 months," added Chandramouli.
Straight off the bat Silambarasans highly hyped Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangadhavan (AAA) is hugely disappointing and a crashing bore. The film tests your patience with a confusing screenplay and disjointed narration.

AAA is structured and packaged like some of the mass hero Tamil films of the 1980s and 90s, with a larger than life hero dominating the screen in every frame.

The film is basically a dialogue between the star and his fans with large doses of stars image and his viewpoint on women, romance, love failure, friendship (sample - I will willingly let go of the girl I love but not my best friend), politics (ode to Jallikattu and a character who keeps munching mixture without saying anything, a reference to TNs former Chief Minister O Paneerselvam) and machinations of rivals (read Dhanush and Vishal).

The entire film is built on either the hero boasting about himself or other characters praising him to the skies. The film has the longest star opening scene seen in recent times. There are two hero introduction scenes  one has Simbu escaping from a prison by using other prisoners as a human wall and climbing over them and in another he cuts the overhead electric wires around the prison, jumps from a height into a waiting lorry and escapes stylishly saying - sirappu (awesome).

The film opens with Kasturi, a secret agent looking for the most powerful mysterious don in Dubai, known as Madurai Michael. More details about this Madurai Michael is revealed through the next two hours. MM is a lovable rowdy from Madurai who falls in love with a simple girl Selvi (Shreya Saran) and due to certain circumstances is forced to flee the city.

Michael takes a decision to go to Dubai, and no further explanations are given except a cop claiming hes a dreaded don. Post interval he suddenly becomes Ashwin Thatta, a 58 year old man and a skirt chaser who falls for the beautiful 20 something Ramya (Tamannaah Bhatia). He thinks she is in love with him and when he is about to propose to her, she springs a surprise by saying she is in love with Siva (another Simbu), who is an NRI.

The old man feels cheated and vows to take revenge in part 2.

There is woman-bashing and sexist remarks galore in the film, including a line Aambala (Boys) always crying, pombala (Girls) always cheating.

Should I say anything more?
New Delhi: The Competition Commission has dismissed allegations of unfair business practices against the producers of Vidya Balan-starrer Kahaani 2 movie, which was released last year.

K Sera Sera Digital Cinema had moved the regulator after the film's producers  Pen India and Boundscript Motion Pictures  refused to provide the movie to it for exhibition.

Among others, it was alleged that the movie was given only to UFO Moviez India and Real Image Media Technologies.

As per the complaint, Pen India, Boundscript, UFO Moviez and Real Image Media had entered into an anti-competitive agreement with a view to limit or control the release of the film.

In its order dated 21 June, Competition Commission of India (CCI) said there is no substance in K Sera Sera's allegation that the producers refused to provide the movie due to anti-competitive pact with UFO Moviez and Real Image Media.

The regulator has concluded that there was no violation of Section 3 of the Competition Act that pertains to anti- competitive agreements.

Pen India had also submitted to the CCI copies of a news article about a complaint filed by producer Viacom18 against K Sera Sera in relation to online piracy of the movie Force-2 that was released in November 2016.

"... it was reported that the investigations conducted by Viacom18 revealed that pirated copies had originated from the copy that was sent to the informant (K Sera Sera) for digital integration," CCI said in its order citing contents of the news article.

In the 9-page order, the regulator said K Sera Sera has neither refuted the allegations reported in the news article during the oral hearing nor adduced any documents to rebut the same in their written submissions after the oral hearing.

"The Commission observes that the complete silence on the part of the informant (K Sera Sera) on the issue of online piracy as raised in the...news article indicates that the allegation of OP 1 (Pen India) is not baseless and have some substance in it.

"Thus, an objective business rationale to protect the commercial interest of OP 1 and OP 2 (Boundscript Motion) cannot be overlooked in a proceeding under the (Competition) Act unless the same is shown to have exclusionary effects or is tainted with an anti-competitive objective," the order noted.

Further, the fair trade regulator said the decision of Pen India and Boundscript to refuse to exhibit their movie to through the K Sera Sera's digital service, with whom other producers have had "issues of piracy" earlier, appear to be taken as a precautionary step to prevent any loss due to piracy.

"The Commission is of the view that the alleged conduct of OP 1 and OP 2 in refusing to provide the content of the movie Kahaani 2 to the informant does not appear to be unreasonable and anti-competitive," CCI said.

While passing the order, the regulator observed that the very objective of competition law is to protect the interest of consumers and the process of competition. "It is not concerned with the harm to the competitors unless that also leads to harm to the consumers," CCI added.

Besides, the regulator dismissed allegations of abuse of dominance against the opposite parties saying there is no prima-facie evidence of such violation.
While SNL and The Late Night Show With Stephen Colbert is getting away with ridiculing the president of their country in a yuuge way, the same system seems to let businessmen attack those same programs.

As John Oliver talked about the problems surrounding the coal industry in the last segment of HBOs Last Week Tonight, 77-year-old coal baron Robert Murrayalong with Murray Energy and other associated coal companies  decided to sue the company for defamation, The Hollywood Reporter announced.

The suit alleges that Murray's reputation was harmed when Oliver claimed there was no evidence that an earthquake caused a 2007 mine collapse, with the implication that Murray had lied about the circumstance surrounding the deadly incident. The complaint further takes issue with Oliver's implications that Murray Energy sacrifices safety and employee health for monetary gain.

But it looks like the makers of the show, HBO and Time Warner are fully backing Oliver.

HBO put out a statement saying that it didn't think the Last Week Tonight violated Murray Energy's rights. The statement said, "We have confidence in the staff of Last Week Tonight and do not believe anything in the show this week violated Mr. Murrays or Murray Energys rights."

John Oliver had himself said on air, "Bob Murray, I didnt really plan for so much of this piece to be about you, but you kind of forced my hand on that one. And I know youre probably going to sue me over this. But, you know what? I stand by everything I said."

Here's the segment that John Oliver got sued over:
Chennai: Actor Junior NTR has not been roped in to play a pivotal role in upcoming multilingual biopic Mahanati, a film on the life of late legendary southern actress Savitri.

"NTR is not part of the project. Whatever you're reading about him playing a crucial role is nothing but plain rumour," a source close to the actor told IANS.

Actress Keerthy Suresh plays Savitri in the film, being directed by Nag Ashwin. The film will be made in Tamil and Telugu, and will also feature Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Dulquer Salmaan and Vijay Deverakonda in crucial roles.

Asked why a biopic on Savitri was being made and not on any other popular actress, Ashwin had told IANS: "There have been countless actresses over the last 80 years in Telugu cinema but none have earned the title of Mahanati. And even today it has solely been reserved for Savitri."

The film went on floors earlier this month. It will be a magnum opus set in the golden era and will feature extensive art work.
Before there was Google, before there was social media and its dizzying chaos of misinformation and alternative facts, before twerking and other quasi-millenial proclivities, before kids in prams and their parents who dont give a damn were slaves to 5-inch screens, five clairvoyant men from Abingdon, Oxfordshire calling themselves Radiohead" came together in the 90s to compose a prophetic album.

And never has a dystopian nightmare sounded more delightful than OK Computer.

Its release on 21 May 1997 was a watershed moment for snobbish music lovers, audiophiles and vinyl junkies of the millennial era.

And on 23 June 2017 before their headline gig at Glastonbury Festival, Radiohead gave its fans 23 new reasons to continue expounding and following the bands teachings in an aggressively evangelical way.

To commemorate the album's 20th anniversary, the band released the digital version of OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017 (for short OKNOTOK), a remastered reissue of the original 12 tracks plus three unreleased tracks and eight B-sides.

(In addition to the CD and vinyl, a boxed edition will be made available in July that will include artwork, lyrics and Thom Yorkes notes that is bound to give the Radiohead cult wet dreams and Nirvana)

The band used social media and mysterious posters to create buzz about a potential OK Computer reissue, including a video with a glitchy background and a girl's voice reading alternate lyrics from 'Climbing Up The Walls'.

A clearly enhanced version of the original analogue tapes, the sound is much crisper, the vocals more natural and the themes more relevant than ever.

OK Computer's eclectic array of influences included everything from Miles Davis and Krautrock to Douglas Adams and Noam Chomsky and in between.

The social commentary evident in the albums futuristic-cautionary vision is as legitimate as George Orwells 1984 or Charlie Brookers various technological nightmares.

In a world rife with the epidemic of overconsumption and commodification, Radioheads music provided a retreat. To those suffering from feelings of emptiness in an urban metropolis, their discerning lyrics offered hope.

And it continues to do so.

Forever cynical of the political elite, Radiohead saw through the faux-optimistic tone of Tony Blair and the New Labour Party when they recorded the album in the lead-up to the 1997 general election and now, their album continues to offer solace to a generation reeling under Brexit and the Theresa May-led Tories.

Radiohead couldnt have timed the re-issue of their seminal album any better as its dystopian representation veritably reflects our contemporary society in these troubling times.

In its remastered new avatar, the songs bleed into each other seamlessly making the listening experience rewarding as ever.

In what was their third album at the time, Radiohead deliberately moved away from a conventional 90s sound to experiment with more progressive musical techniques and forms in OK Computer.

And they proved that they were no more ingenuous sophomores with their very first song, 'Airbag'. Inspired by Thom Yorkes survival from a car crash thanks to a mere passive safety restraint, the track is a sort of cautionary tale of technologys divine authority to giveth and taketh away.

Sandwiched between 'Airbag' and the whimsical 'Subterranean Homesick Alien', lies a condemnation of capitalism and commercialism in the disorienting 'Paranoid Android'. There is calmness between Jonny Greenwood's sonic decadence and there is hope despite the resentment towards the alienating effects of technology.

Kicking squealing Gucci little piggy is more than a trendy online catchphrase and the song remains a lasting scrutiny of the human condition despite the panic and the vomit.

'Let Down' is the single biggest cause of Stendhal Syndrome (or colloquially known as art attack) amongst Radiohead fans and makes for a better bittersweet symphony than the offering of a certain Wigan-based band.

'Karma Police' is perhaps best described by Pitchfork's Stuart Berman who compares the experience to sitting through a Sean Spicer press conference.

From the manifest political malaise in 'Electioneering' and the unsettling internal conflict in 'Climbing Up The Walls' to the utter futility of the so-called American Dream in 'No Surprises' and a flicker of optimism in 'Lucky', the album concludes perfectly in an epilogue-cum-prologue in 'The Tourist'.

The three new tracks 'I Promise', 'Man Of War', and 'Lift' are timely inclusions to Radiohead's timeless canon of work. But you could see why these relatively upbeat and straightforward tracks did not belong in 1997s OK Computer.

The acoustic guitar and a marching drum beat in 'I Promise' make for a pretty conventional melody and for a while, you are reminded of a certain Cameron Crowe film where John Cusack holds a boombox over his head, until Thom Yorke's towering lonely falsetto takes over.

'Man of War' sounds like it was written for a Sean Connery movie where two British secret agents team up to stop a mad scientist bent on destroying the world with a weather-changing machine. Funnily enough, it was.

The fabled 'Lift' was shelved in the archives for 20 years due to Radioheads fear of commercial success. Its a sentimental track that again doesn't seem to fit in with their reputation as purveyors of elegiac ballads. Radiohead could have been just another band from the 90s who composed hollow anthems for the empty-minded but by taking the road less travelled by, they have made all the difference.

Theres plenty of good music in the B-sides too to keep the overzealous archivists happy. 'A Reminder' stirs all kinds of feelings based on your emotional susceptibility and ties in with the bands musical exploration of transportation and urban alienation. The lyrical themes from 'Palo Alto' to 'Pearly' all mirror the content on the A-sides making it the ideal spiritual analgesic for your mental anguish and whetstone to sharpen your grey matter.

The pristine OKNOTOK illuminates OK Computers universally pertinent themes and the album is a testament to the true magnitude of Radioheads vision 20 years ago. The album perfectly defined the mood from the 90s to the 21st century and will do so for generations to come.

Millennial historians will forever use it as a focal point in the evolution of music.

Music for us will forever be before OKC and after OKC.
America already has a contender for the 2020 presidential elections if late-nights shows are to be believed.

Stephen Colbert host of the The Late Night Show, while in Russia, announced that he may run for president in 2020.

It was revealed in a clip posted to the website of a late-night show on Russian TV, hosted by Ivan Urgant, Deadline reported.

While speaking to Urgant and taking shots of vodka, Colbert asked if he could make an announcement.

"OK. I am here to announce that I am considering a run for president in 2020, and I thought it would be better to cut out the middle man and just tell the Russians myself," Colbert said.

The comment is a reference to the U.S. intelligence community's belief that Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 election, which has spawned a federal and a number of congressional investigations.

"If anyone would like to work on my campaign, in an unofficial capacity, please just let me know," he continued.

Urgant got in the last word, graciously telling his guest, "It's a pleasure to drink with the future U.S. President. To you, Stephen. I wish you luck. We will do everything we can so you become president."

In 2007, his Colbert Report alter ego 'Stephen Colbert' announced his own presidential campaign, but was denied a place on either the Republican or Democratic primary ballots in his home state of South Carolina. Four years later, he tried again and ended up tied with Herman Cain in fifth place in a poll of that states voters.
Whenever Salman Khan trends on social media, you can be sure to find two sorts of tweets doing the rounds. One that will have more heart emojis and 'bhai love u' than Salman has abs, and another tweet that will use a blackbuck or a footpath pun (rather badly).

Salman Khan has a large number of fans but he also has a large number of haters, and somehow the latter never gets mentioned. He's always had critics  those who've never liked his stiff performances, and bratty behaviour. But over the years, as his popularity has risen, so have his haters on social media.

However, despite not being a Salman Khan fan or hater, I ended up liking Tubelight more than Kabir Khan's earlier film, Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

When a film decides it wants to hammer home its message, and be blatantly over the top about its "noble cause", it tends to alienate me. And so, save for Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bajrangi Bhaijaan ended up being a tad too preachy and forceful.

So how does Tubelight rank a notch higher than Bajrangi Bhaijaani? The political messaging in the film is very low-key and Salman's performance becomes a scapegoat for those on whom the sub-texts are lost.

This is the most un-Salman like the actor's ever been, and it could be the reason why the response to the film on its release day was so polarised.

A quick glance through Twitter and you could tell that even some of the most loyal Salman fans didn't like Tubelight. The most obvious question to ask here is how Bajrangi Bhaijaan was appreciated by most on day one, but Tubelight wasn't? The answer lies in positioning.

In Bajrangi, Salman was still playing a saviour and hero of sorts  a pious man who bravely took a Pakistani girl back to her home. There was also a romantic track involving Kareena Kapoor. These tropes are enough for any regular Salman Khan fan.

But in Tubelight  a film that, similar to Bajrangi Bhaijaan, has a strong message wrapped up in a commercial package  Salman is no hero. He plays a simpleton yet again, but there's no romance and no action to satisfy a hardcore fan. Infact there are several scenes in the film where Salman's character Laxman gets beaten up by some bullies, and he doesn't retaliate. The audience around me in the theatre was squirming. How could bhai not hit back?

Tubelight is a platform for Salman Khan to show that he can act.

And act, he does. There are scenes in the film where he just stares straight into the camera and takes his time to cry. His facial expressions move from glow-in-the-dark happy, to melancholic, to playful, in a matter of seconds.

Take a moment to remember the Salman from Chal Mere Bhai, or Veer. His performance in Tubelight is massive leaps and bounds ahead of the days when he thought just turning up on set was doing half his job. There's a proper arc to his character, even when the story remains stagnant. When he says "Kya tumhe yakeen hai"  you can see his yakeen dripping from his face.

There are times when he overdoes the simpleton act, and, like this review states, he goes into the Koi Mil Gaya zone, but I kept reminding myself that this is Salman Khan we're talking about.

Just for sheer effort, dedication and the fact that he could cry so easily and sincerely in the film, Tubelight is Salman Khan's best performance to date. A large part of the credit for this, goes to Kabir Khan.

Kabir probably sees something in Salman that a lot of us miss. He was able to bring out a charming chemistry between him and Matin Rey Tangu  some of the best scenes in Tubelight involve the two, and not a lot of those are playful in nature.

But with the absence of a gripping plot  Tubelight became one-dimension and over-stretched very soon  the good things about the film seem be fading into darkness. For example, it takes great direction and attention to detail to make a Chinese actress speaking in Hindi look so effortless.

It is safe then to say that in Tubelight, the performances of the actors are let down by the script and the film. By the second half, you get tired of Salman doing the same things to emote. You get tired of seeing him upset over his brother being at war. You want more.

But credit where it's due. Kabir Khan seems clear about his story and it's this clarity that shows in the performances. You know that Sohail and Salman are real life brothers too, but it takes keen observations to be able to translate that on screen so effortlessly. Tubelight is also shot beautifully; a lot of the visuals of the hills could easily be screen-savers.

It also takes a lot to keep the viewers engaged in a film where your protagonist is doing nothing that he is known for. It's a big gamble, and we'll only know post-Eid whether it paid off or not, but full marks for effort, to Kabir Khan and Salman Khan.
By Sanjeev Miglani and David Brunnstrom

| NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON

NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON With the United States expected to authorise India's purchase of naval drones, a senior White House official cautioned on Friday that any U.S. military transfer to India would not represent a threat to its rival neighbour Pakistan.The official spoke to reporters in advance of U.S. President Donald Trump's first meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, a White House visit that will include one-on-one talks and a working dinner.Securing agreement on the purchase of 22 unarmed drones, worth more than $2 billion, is seen in New Delhi as a key test of defence ties that flourished under former President Barack Obama but have drifted under Trump, who has courted Asian rival China as he seeks Beijing's help to contain North Korea's nuclear programme. The U.S.-based company that makes the drones, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc, said on Friday that the U.S. government had approved the sale of a naval variant of the Predator drone to India.The senior White House official said any arms transfer would take into account the regional situation. "We want to avoid a situation that escalates the tension" between India and Pakistan, the official said. India and Pakistan should engage in direct talks and seek a normalization of ties, the official said.

"Some of the defence systems we're talking about we don't believe impact Pakistan," the official added.The Indian navy wants the surveillance drones, variants of the Predator drones, to keep watch over the Indian Ocean. The deal would be the first such purchase by a country that is not a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization.India, a big buyer of U.S. arms that was recently named by Washington as a major defence ally, wants to protect its 7,500- km (4,700-mile) coastline as Beijing expands its maritime trade routes and Chinese submarines increasingly lurk in regional waters.

But sources tracking the discussions say the U.S. State Department has been concerned about the potential destabilising impact of introducing high-tech drones into South Asia, where tensions are simmering between India and Pakistan, particularly over Kashmir, which is divided between them.Such a sale of sensitive military hardware must be authorized by the State Department before being sent to Congress for review. The drone deal would still require approval by Congress. The State Department declined comment ahead of any notification.Defense cooperation, the U.S. trade deficit with India, counter-terrorism efforts and regional tensions are expected to be discussed between the two leaders.

Modi's two-day visit to Washington begins on Sunday. Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in April and has also had face time with the leaders of nations including Japan, Britain and Vietnam since taking office in January, prompting anxiety in New Delhi that India is no longer a priority in Washington.Other strains have emerged in U.S.-India relations, with the United States vexed by a growing bilateral trade deficit and Trump accusing New Delhi of negotiating unscrupulously at the Paris climate talks to walk away with billions in aid.U.S. officials expect a relatively low-key visit by Modi, without the fanfare of some of his previous trips to the United States, and one geared to giving the Indian leader the chance to get to know Trump personally and to show that he is doing so.India and the United States will also discuss the sale of U.S. fighter jets during Modi's trip, in what could be the biggest deal since they began deepening defence ties more than a decade ago. (Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Mike Stone, Patricia Zengerle, Douglas Busvine and Manoj Kumar; Editing by Peter Cooney and Cynthia Osterman)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
NEW DELHI Indian online retailer Snapdeal has filed a police complaint against a local logistics company, in which it owns a stake, of defrauding it of 3.57 billion rupees ($55.37 million), a police report showed.The company, which is backed by Japan's Softbank, accused Quickdel of misappropriation, cheating and misleading it, in the police first information report filed in New Delhi on Friday.Reuters has a copy of the police report.

Vineet Rai, the administrative officer at the Gurgaon headquarters of Quickdel, said the company could not immediately comment.A spokeswoman for Snapdeal was not reachable by phone.

Snapdeal said it had bought a 49.99 percent stake in Quickdel in 2014 and early 2015, after the logistics company said it would help the two to grow the business. Snapdeal said in the police complaint that it realised later the logistics firm had misrepresented facts.Snapdeal has been at the center of takeover speculation, with its largest backer Softbank seen as keen to sell the company to its larger rival, Tiger Global-backed Flipkart.

In May, television channel ET Now reported that the founders of Snapdeal and one of its early investors, Nexus, have reached an agreement with SoftBank Group that would allow the Japanese firm to move ahead with its plan to sell Snapdeal to Flipkart.Sources told Reuters last month that SoftBank was working to engineer a sale of Snapdeal to Flipkart, as it seeks to play consolidator and take a more active role at a trio of leading start-ups in India.($1 = 64.4800 rupees) (Reporting by Malini Menon; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Ros Russell)

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The United States government has approved the sale of a naval variant of the Predator drone made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc to India, the U.S.-based company said on Friday.Reuters reported earlier on Friday that the U.S. government was expected to authorise the sale of drones ahead of a visit next week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India has been looking to buy 22 of the unarmed surveillance aircraft, MQ-9B Guardian, worth more than $2 billion to keep watch over the Indian Ocean.

"We are pleased that the U.S. Government has cleared the way for the sale of the MQ-9B Guardian to the Indian Government," General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Chief Executive Linden Blue said in a statement. The Indian embassy and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Securing agreement on the purchase of the drones is seen in New Delhi as a key test of defence ties that flourished under former President Barack Obama but have drifted under Trump, who has courted Asian rival China as he seeks Beijing's help to contain North Korea's nuclear programme.The deal would be the first such purchase by a country that is not a member of the NATO alliance.

Such a sale of sensitive military hardware must be authorized by the State Department before being sent to Congress for review. A congressional source said on Thursday that no notification of a planned sale has yet been sent to Congress, but this could come next week. The State Department declined comment on Thursday ahead of any notification. (Reporting by Mike Stone and David R. Brunnstrom in Washington, Arunima Banerjee and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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Washington: On the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit, the Trump administration has dismissed reports that it has been ignoring India, saying President Trump realises that the country has been a "force for good" in the world and ties with it were important.

"I think that it would be wrong to say that this administration has been ignoring or not focused on India," a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the two-day Modi visit from 25 June.

The prime minister would meet President Donald Trump face-to-face for the first time at the White House on Monday.

"I think that the US really appreciates India, and I think that President Trump realises that India has been a force for good in the world and that it's a relationship that's important. And I think that will come through in the visit on Monday," the official said.

The senior administration official made the remarks while responding to questions on whether the US-India relationship has drifted under the new government, in part, because of President Trump and the administration's support to China.

"I think it's a bit unfair. I mean, we're only six months into the administration. But there have been two very good phone calls between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi that you can point to as showing both countries' interest in the relationship," the White House official argued.

"Yes, this will be the first opportunity for them to sit down and have a conversation, but I think that this is still fairly early on in the administration," the official said.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said President Trump and Prime Minister Modi would have a very robust discussion when they meet at the White House.

"During the meeting, the President and the Prime Minister will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism, defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement, and energy," Spicer said in response to a question.

Senator Mark Warner, Co-Chair of the Senate India Caucus hoped that Trump, in his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, shows enthusiastic support for deepening the US-India relationship, which enjoys strong bipartisan support.

"The relationship is ripe for additional cooperation in areas such as the development of aircraft carrier technology, space surveillance, unmanned aerial vehicles, cyber and increased defense manufacturing," Warner said.

"As we venture further into the Asian Century, there is little doubt of the increasing significance of India on the world stage. Our cooperation helps increase global security and advance economic opportunity in both countries," Warner said in response to a question.

On whether the contentious H-1B visa issue would come up for discussion during the meeting, a senior administration official said it was unlikely to be raised from the US side but if raised by the Indian side, the Americans were ready for it.

Ahead of the visit, Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna said the first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump will give them an opportunity to look at the entire gamut of Indo-US engagement and to exchange views on issues of global interest.

At the invitation of Trump, the Prime Minister would spend several hours with the US President at the White House on Monday afternoon, which would end with a dinner later that night.

This would be the first working dinner being hosted by Trump for a foreign leader at the White House.

"I think that just shows the amount of care that has gone in on the part of the White House to welcome our Prime Minister and the kind of planning that has gone into make this a very special visit," Sarna said.

"This (dinner) is a special gesture and it is appreciated," he said.

On the agenda of the meeting, a senior administration official told reporters that the civil nuclear deal would be part of the discussions between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump.

The White House also emphasised that the US was looking forward to its nuclear reactors contributing to India's energy security.

It said the US is interested in providing India with the kind of defence technology it normally reserves for its closest allies, signalling the Trump administration's resolve to strengthen the bilateral defence relationship.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in Washington and told him that Prime Minister Modi's Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth.

The two agreed that the two countries have a deep and growing strategic partnership and hope to work more closely on regional and global issues.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department.

Ahead of his visit, Modi on Friday said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he tweeted.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from 25 June was at the invitation of Trump.

"President Trump and I have spoken on telephone prior to this. Our conversations have touched upon our common intent to take forward our productive all round engagement for the mutual benefit of our people," he said.

"I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide ranging partnership between India and the United States," the prime minister said.
Washington: Asserting that the US' ties with India and Pakistan were not a 'zero-sum game', the White House has said that the Trump administration's priorities and the nature of relationship with the two countries were different.

"We seek to have an effective partnership with each country. With India, we're building that strategic partnership. We see India's role and influence growing. We like to encourage that trend. So, we're looking for ways to cooperate on our mutual interests," a senior administration official told reporters at a news conference in Washington.

"With Pakistan, we seek to have a productive partnership working together. But frankly, the priorities are different, and the nature of the relationships are different. So, I think that we would like to move forward with both countries.

"We realise that the pace and scope of that relationship is going to be different in each case," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity said in response to a question on concerns in Pakistan with regard to increasing ties with India.

Relationship with India and Pakistan is not a zero-sum game, he said.

"I want to make the point here that US relationships with India and Pakistan really stand on their own merits and terms. We don't see a zero-sum relationship when it comes to the US relationship with Pakistan and the US relationship with India."

"We're certainly eager to deepen the strategic partnership with India," he said.

"We are also interested in continuing our cooperation with Pakistan," the official said, adding that the US is concerned about tensions between India and Pakistan.

He said the US would like to see the normalisation of relations between the two countries.

"We believe it's in both countries' interests. It's in the interests of the region, and even the globe, given that they're both nuclear-weapon powers," the official said.

"But we very much encourage India and Pakistan to engage in a direct bilateral dialogue aimed at reducing those tensions," the official said while denying reports that sale of high-tech defence items to India would have any adverse impact on Pakistan.

"The US also has a defence partnership with Pakistan. We do cooperate with Pakistan on some security and defence and counter terrorism issues. So again, we don't see this as a zero-sum game," the official said.

"We see this as the US and India have mutual security interests that they want to advance, and we believe that the defence sales that are being discussed will help advance those. It is not about Pakistan."

"The defence deals  we do take into account the regional situation. We very much want to avoid a situation that escalates tensions between the two," he said.

"So these issues are taken into account. But some of the defence systems that we're talking about we don't believe impact Pakistan. They may be different systems than we are transferring to Pakistan, but we don't believe they represent a threat to Pakistan," said the White House official.

Meanwhile, a senior Trump official yesterday said that India and the US have a common objective in Afghanistan, and the two countries could increase their cooperation to enhance the Afghan economy.

"India has played a positive role in Afghanistan, the US believes. They have pledged over USD 3 billion in assistance to Afghanistan. The Afghans appreciate the kind of support and assistance that the Indians have provided  I'm not just talking about the government, I'm talking about the population," the official told reporters.

"When they've done polling, there's a very positive feeling toward India and the kind of assistance  they've assisted in the education sector, the health sector. They built the parliament building. They support democracy, democratic development there," he said, listing out the developmental activities by India in the war-torn country.

"So I think this administration's opinion is that India has played a helpful role in Afghanistan in helping to stabilise that country, helping to strengthen the government in its fight against the Taliban insurgency.

"That's the kind of role that the US would like to encourage and perhaps maybe even cooperate in terms of development projects," the official said on condition of anonymity.

As such, "this is an area that the two can increase their coordination and their consultation," the official said.

"Of course, the US has major assistance programs to Afghanistan as well. So I think this is an area where I think they can expand that dialogue on what they can do to help the economy, help Afghanistan become more self-sufficiently financially.

"Ultimately, that's the ultimate goal," the White House official said.

"We have that mutual goal, and you'll see more consultations on that moving forward," he added.

The Trump Administration is currently doing a review of its Afghan policy.
Itanagar: Gorkhas in Arunachal Pradesh brought out a rally on Saturday evening in support of the ongoing movement in Darjeeling hills for the creation of a separate Gorkhaland state. Gorkha men, women and children took part in the rally amidst heavy rains carrying pro-Gorkhaland placards and shouting slogans against the West Bengal government.

The rally, which started off from IG Park, culminated at the Itanagar monastery where the protesters lit candles in memory of three persons who were allegedly killed in clashes with police in Darjeeling on 17 June.

"We, the people of Arunachal Pradesh are not supporting the Gorkhaland movement because we want a land in Darjeeling or Kalimpong. We are doing it for our identity," said All Arunachal Pradesh Gorkha Youth Welfare (AAPGYWA) president Shyam Ghatani. AAPGYWA chairman Chanbir Sonar said that it was high time that Prime Minister Narendra Modi fulfil his promise made to the Gorkha community.

BJP's manifesto before the 2014 Lok Sabha election had said that the party will "sympathetically examine" the demand for Gorkhaland. The rally was also supported by various unions and organisations including 'All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union and All Nyishi Students Union'. Arunachal Pradesh has been a home to the Gorkha community for many decades. The Gorkha population in the state is said to be more than 1 lakh.
The government has cleared a proposal for setting up a greenfield airport in Jewar in Greater Noida, which is likely to be operational in the next five to six years.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said at a press briefing on Saturday that in-principle clearance has been granted for the first phase of Jewar airport in western Uttar Pradesh.

The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority has notified 3,000 hectares of land for a world-class international airport, Raju said, adding that the Noida International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years.

NOIDA International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years  Ashok Gajapathi Raju (@Ashok_Gajapathi) June 24, 2017

The airport will help reduce congestion at the Delhi international airport. "In Delhi, we are expecting 91 million passengers by 2020 and 109 million passengers by 2024," Raju told reporters.

According to the Civil Aviation Ministry, site clearance for the first phase of the airport at Jewar in Greater Noida is envisaged to be completed in five years.

Elaborating on the project, minister of State for civil aviation Jayant Sinha said the first phase of the airport is expected to cost Rs 10,000 crore.

With inputs from agencies
Islamabad: Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi held talks with Pakistan prime minister's adviser on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz on a range of bilateral issues as well as the situation in Afghanistan.

Wang, who arrived on a two-day visit, is also expected to hold talks with army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. Soon after his arrival, the Chinese minister went into delegation level talks with Pakistani side led by Aziz.

"All issues of bilateral and regional interest are on the table," sources said.

Earlier, foreign office spokesman Nafees Zakaria during his weekly briefing on Thursday said that the Chinese foreign minister will discuss "all issues of mutual interest including the regional situation."

From Pakistan, Wang is expected to visit Afghanistan, in an effort to defuse tensions between the two neighbours.

The visit is aimed at defusing tensions between the two neighbours, media reports had earlier said.

Citing sources in the foreign ministry, Dunya TV had said that all bilateral efforts to normalise relations in the past have yielded no output and interference of third party seems mandatory to fill the void.

Pakistan-Afghanistan rift has deepened further after the Afghan government put blame of the recent attack in Kabuls diplomatic area on Islamabad.
Alappuzha (Kerala): Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala on Saturday wrote to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj asking for a probe into the death of a Kerala priest in Scotland.

Catholic priest Martin Xavier's family was informed a few days ago that he was missing.

"But then the news came today (Saturday) that his body was found on an Edinburgh seashore," the leader of Opposition said.

He asked Sushma Sawraj to take up the case of "the mysterious death of the young priest" with the Scottish authorities.

Chennithala has requested the Minister to help bring Xavier's body to his hometown near Alappuzha. He said steps must be taken to ascertain the cause of death of the priest, who was earlier reported missing from his room and church.

Xavier belonged to the CMI congregation of the Catholic Church and ordained a priest in 2013. Since July 2016, he was in Scotland to pursue his PhD.

Xavier was the parish priest of the St Francis Xavier's Church in Scotland, and was also pursuing his studies simultaneously.

According to his relatives, there has been no contact with Xavier since Thursday as his mobile was not available.
The ongoing agitation in Darjeeling for the creation of a separate state called Gorkhaland and, what is more important, its open support by chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling of the adjoining state of Sikkim need to be seen in a different perspective than the ones associated with similar demands, both in the past and at present, for statehood in other parts of the country. In Darjeeling Hills, the core issue behind the demand to break away from West Bengal is identity, not development.

Of course, most of the new states that have been carved out of the bigger states in recent years have not conclusively settled the debate as to what the ideal criteria on the basis of which a state should be formed are. Presently, India has 29 states and seven union territories. Independent India in 1947 had 16 states and some 10 union territories. The number of states has increased over time due to the splitting of some big states and the conversion of some union territories into states. The last time cartographers were sent scurrying to redraw India's boundaries was in 2014, when Telengana was created out of Andhra Pradesh.

It may be noted that states such as undivided Andhra Pradesh, part of the original Madras state; Haryana, part of the original Punjab state; and Maharashtra and Gujarat, originally of the undivided Bombay province, were the creations of protests and hunger strikes by important national leaders. But many of the new states were formed on the basis of recommendations by the States Reorganisation Commission set up in 1955. Formed in the wake of agitation for the creation of a Telugu language-speaking Andhra Pradesh by breaking up Madras province  where Tamil was the other major language  the commission devised in 1956 the highly dubious criterion of linguistic commonality as the basis for new states.

It may be mentioned here that the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was not exactly happy with the recommendations of the Commission, which essentially favoured the creation of new states on the basis of the language spoken by its people. Importantly, BR Ambedkar, who played a vital role in drafting the Indian Constitution, also was not in tune with the commissions recommendations. Ambedkar pointed out, The commission evidently thinks that the size of a state is a matter of no consequence and that the equality in the size of the status constituting a federation is a matter of no moment. This is the first and the most terrible error cost which the commission has committed. If not rectified in time, it will indeed be a great deal.

Ambedkar realised that the disparity in population sizes was a fantastic result, bound to create huge costs for the nation. His opposition to the commissions recommendations stemmed from the imbalance of political power in the country  the large states in the north and balkanisation of the south would pit the two regions of the country against each other. The solution he offered used the size of the state and administrative effectiveness for making smaller states in the north: Dividing the three large states  Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh and using the rule that a population of approximately two crore which should be regarded as the standard size of population for a state to administer effectively.

As Ambedkar clarified, One language one state should be the rule, but people with the same language can divide themselves into many statesthis promotes more uniform balance of power within the country, satisfies social needs and most importantly, creates units that can be administered with ease, leading to better growth performance for the nation. While he used this rule to call for the division of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, he went into greater detail analysing his home state Maharashtra with 3.3 crore Marathi-speaking population and an area spanning 1.74 lakh square miles  it is a vast area and it is impossible to have efficient administration by a single state. According to his analysis, economic, industrial, educational and social inequalities in the regions of Maharashtra make for a clear division of the state into four parts  Bombay, Western (Konkan), Central (Marathwada) and Eastern (Vidarbha).

As subsequent events proved, Ambedkar was perhaps right. New states have been created over the last five decades periodically. In the mid-60s, Haryana was formed out of Punjab and some districts of Punjab formed todays Himachal Pradesh. In 1971, Arunachal, Meghalaya and Mizoram were carved out of Assam and then, in 2000, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh were formed out of UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. And more importantly, economists say these creations contributed towards economic development of the country.

Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have done very well economically. After the division of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in 2000, except for Madhya Pradesh, all the others  UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh  performed much better in the seven-year period post-reorganisation than the seven preceding years. In the case of Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh, the annualised growth rates increased by about 6 percentage points in the post-reorganisation years. In Jharkhand as well, there was an improvement, about 4 percentage points  the smaller Bihar also found its growth rising by 3.7 percentage points.

Even from the point of view of governance, small states are supposed to be better. The arguments cited in this regard are as follows: By dividing the problem in small parts and concentrating on the problems region wise, there are more chances of better growth. We need governance at a small level so that we can manage and regulate life more appropriately. Reorganising India into smaller states on the basis of problems such as poverty and illiteracy can give a chance to the government to resolve those problems in a much better way.

But there is also a counter-view. In a diverse and pluralistic country like India, too much decentralisation is not seen as a good thing. In fact, Indias first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was not in favour of small states, as he believed they could accentuate the divisiveness in the country. Some of the small states being demanded may not even have enough resources to stand on their own. Also, a smaller state does not always mean a smaller government. In fact, at least in the short and medium term, the cost of administration will increase, for one would be duplicating a lot of the existing systems and resources in the new state. Thus, instead of administrative convenience, what one should be looking at is administrative necessity. Increasingly, it is also being argued that smaller states are less likely to be able to deal with the ever-present threat of militancy. The examples of Punjab, Assam and the north-east, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh provide some evidence supporting this argument.

However, all these arguments, both in favour of and against the creation of smaller states, do not apply in the case of the proposed state of Gorkhaland, comprising the Darjeeling district and Dooars region of West Bengal. Here, the main issue is identity, not development. If the latter was the issue, the creation of semi-autonomous administrative body called the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) for the Darjeeling and Kalimpong hills would have settled the issue by now. But that has not been the case.

It may be noted that the Nepalese and Lepchas living in Darjeeling and the adjoining areas have a more distinct culture and history than the Bengalis in rest of the state. Historically, they have been sharing cultural and societal values with Sikkim and Nepal since hundreds of years when there were no nation-states the way we interpret at present and no closed boundaries. In fact, Darjeeling was a part of Sikkim until around 1780, when the Gorkhas of modern day Nepal invaded the latter and captured most parts of it, including Darjeeling and Siliguri. Later in 1816, following the British-Nepal war, Nepal ceded these territories back to Sikkim as per the treaty of Segoulee. But given its strategic location, Darjeeling was taken back by the British from Sikkim in 1835. Since then, it has been administered by the authorities in Kolkata, the colonial capital, the capital of undivided Bengal and the capital of West Bengal.

But that does not mean that the people of Darjeeling and the adjoining areas have considered themselves as part of Bengal; they have fiercely protected their Nepali language and culture (in broad sense of the term). This is clearly evident from their representations for full autonomy to the Morley-Minto reforms panel in 1907, Simon Commission in 1929 and their demand for statehood through popular agitations in 1980s under the leadership of Gurkha National Liberation Front.

The Darjeeling agitation reminds one of the so-called annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014. Crimea has been a part of Russia since 1783 and is overwhelmingly constituted by the Russian-speaking people. In 1954, when the then Soviet Union (USSR) was at its mightiest glory and Ukraine a constituent of it, Moscow, for administrative convenience, transferred Crimea from the Russian Soviet Federation of Socialist Republics (RSFSR) to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (UkrSSR). But after the dissolution of the USSR and subsequent emergence of Ukraine as a sovereign country, Crimeans wanted to remain Russians, not to be Ukrainians.

The point thus is that a ruler undertakes territorial adjustments within his overall territory as long as he is powerful and in total command of the situation. But things change after he departs. In a way, the same is the case with Jammu and Ladakh in the present state of Jammu and Kashmir. Historically, Jammu, Kashmir valley and Ladakh have been three distinct regions with separate value systems. It was made one state by the Dogra ruler Gulab Singh in 1846 after the First Anglo-Sikh War as per the Treaty of Amritsar. The East India Company annexed the Kashmir Valley, Jammu, Ladakh, and Gilgit-Baltistan from the Sikhs, and then transferred it to Gulab Singh in return for an indemnity payment of 7,500,000 Nanakshahee Rupees. Obviously, the three regions have their separate needs and aspirations, which are not being fulfilled under the present system that has been totally dominated by the Kashmiri elites after the state acceded to India. The ongoing problem is Jammu and Kashmir cannot be resolved fully as long these basic contradictions remain.

Viewed thus, the Gorkhaland movement is essentially a case for identity. The cause is legitimate and it cannot be subject to a veto by Kolkata. If the central government, then led by the Congress, could create Telengana without the consent of the Assembly and the government of then undivided Andhra Pradesh, there is no reason why a BJP-led central government can create a separate state of Gorkhaland without the approval of the West Bengal government and Assembly. The Indian constitution fully empowers the central government to undertake such a step. Unlike the United States of America, which is an indestructible union of indestructible states, India is only an indestructible union.
New Delhi: The Delhi University (DU) colleges announced their cut-offs on Friday with most of them concentrating around the 97 percent tab for commerce courses, set earlier in the day by the Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC).

Hindu, Lady Shri Ram (LSR), and Kirorimal College set their cut-offs for Economics (Honours) at 97.5 percent.

Releasing its cut-off earlier than the rest, SRCC had pegged it just a little higher at 97.75 percent, for the Economics (Honours) and B.Com. (Honours).

Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Khalsa College threw a little surprise with a 98.25 percent cut-off for Economics (Honours).

It left behind others when it came to sciences with the highest 99.66 percent cut-off for B.Sc. (Electronics). For B.A. (Honours) English, it set an enviable cut-off of 98.75 percent, higher than the rest.

Just like sciences, SGTB Khalsa raised the bar highest for arts as well with a 99 percent cut-off for its B.A. (Political Science) course.

LSR set its B.Com. (Honours) cut-off on par with SRCC at 97.75 percent.

The coveted Miranda House came at an asking rate of 97 percent for B.Sc. (Zoology) and 96.67 percent for Maths and Physics.

Hansraj College pegged its sciences cut-off at 97.33 and 97.75 percent for Chemistry and Computer Science, its highest in 2017.

Among colleges offering journalism course, LSR set the highest cut-off of 98 percent, followed by Delhi College of Arts and Commerce (DCAC) with 97 percent.

Off campus colleges like Bharti College and Institute of Home Economics set their journalism cut-off at 96 percent, followed by Maharaja Agrasen College, located in Mayur Vihar in east Delhi, at 95 percent.

Cut-offs for courses in Hindi and Sanskrit (Honours) hovered within an achievable 60-70 percent for most colleges.
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Friday came down heavily on the practice of elected representatives issuing letters recommending bail for prisoners, saying it amounts to an attempt to influence the judiciary.

This has become a common practice and reflects "direct nexus" between the elected persons and the prisoners, it said.

"It constitutes a direct interference in judicial functions of the court. The court does not need recommendations from any elected personality to perform its judicial functions," said a division bench of Justices Abhilasha Kumari and AJ Shastri in its order.

The bench was hearing a bail plea filed by Sandip Chauhan, a rape convict. With his plea seeking 30-day temporary bail to 'help the family financially,' Chauhan had attached a letter by Bharuch municipality councillor Babubhai Vasava, who `recommended' to the court that Chauhan be granted bail.

Taking a strong exception, the high court summoned Vasava, who appeared before the court and tendered apology for issuing the letter.

"The issuance of such a certificate is a thoroughly unauthorised act on the part of the councillor. Not only is this act beyond the scope of the duties to be performed by a councillor, it constitutes a direct interference in the judicial functions of the court," the court said in its order.

"Unauthorised use of official letterheads and seals by councillors such as Babubhai Vasava is being noticed by us in several applications," the judges said.

The bench turned down the bail application, saying that grounds mentioned in it were "vague and unconvincing." The court also directed the state urban development department to come up with guidelines "to curb this malpractice" (of issuing recommendation letters).

The bench, in another case, made similar observations while hearing a bail plea of a murder convict who had attached recommendation letter from a sarpanch. The court slammed the woman sarpanch (who was not present) for issuing the letter.
The police detained Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik from his residence in Maisuma in Srinagar on Saturday morning, PTI reported.

A police official said the JKLF chief has been taken into preventive custody ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, and has been shifted to Central Jail in Srinagar.

The arrest comes just 10 days after Malik was last arrested on 13 June, to prevent him from taking part in a meeting called by separatists in the Valley, moments after Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and his secretary Shahid-ul-Islam were put under house arrest to restrain them from attending the same meeting.

That arrest had come hours after Malik was released on bail after a week-long detention in a case related to the 1987 elections, and was picked up by police from his Maisuma residence and lodged at Kothibagh police station.

Earlier in June, separatist groups had launched an awareness campaign against the setting up of separate townships for Kashmiri Pandits and constructing Sainik colonies in the Valley.

The PDP-BJP government in the state had categorically said there would be no separate townships for Kashmiri Pandits, but transit accommodation will be provided to them till the security situation improves in the region allowing them to return to their native places. It has also ruled out setting up any Sainik colony in Kashmir in view of "scarcity of land".

Yasin Malik was also detained earlier on 11 June in south Kashmir's Shopian district due to apprehension of breach of peace, according to police.
Kolkata: Former Calcutta High Court judge CS Karnan, arrested for committing contempt of the Supreme Court, continued to be in hospital for the third day on Saturday though doctors treating him said his condition had improved a bit.

According to a senior doctor at the state-run SSKM hospital, the 62-year-old former judge's condition was "stable" and needed to be under observation for a few more days before being released from the hospital.

"He is bit stable but needs to be under the observation of the doctors," the officer told PTI.

Doctors at the hospital conducted a few medical tests on the former judge during the day and the results were being awaited.

Karnan was admitted to state-run SSKM hospital on Thursday evening after he complained of uneasiness and chest pain.

Karnan, who had been evading arrest since 9 May after the Supreme Court awarded him a six-month jail term, was arrested on the night of 20 June by a team of West Bengal CID from a private resort at Malumichampatti, about six kilometres from Coimbatore, where he was hiding for a few days.

He was brought from Chennai to Kolkata on Wednesday afternoon and was taken to the Presidency correctional home.

Karnan, who has earned the dubious distinction of being the first sitting high court judge to be awarded a jail-term by the apex court, retired from service on 12 June as a fugitive.
Jammu: Pakistani forces violated ceasefire by firing from automatic weapons and shelling mortars along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Saturday. The violation comes just days after an attack by a Pakistani special forces team that sneaked across the LoC into Poonch under heavy fire-cover and killed two jawans while losing one of their men.

The Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from small arms, automatic weapons and mortars on Indian Army posts along the LoC in Poonch sector, a Defence spokesman said. The Indian troops returned the fire strongly and effectively, he said. Earlier on Thursday, in the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces sneaked 600 metres across the LoC into the Poonch sector and killed two Indian jawans and lost one Border Action Team (BAT) member in retaliatory action.

The BAT comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan Army and terrorists. It had carried out the attack on an army patrol party in the Gulpur belt of Poonch on 22 June under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops. In the firefight, two Indian soldiers  34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur  were martyred.

The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) members were armed with 'special daggers' and 'headband cameras' to mutilate and record the attack on the Indian Army patrol. Earlier, on 16 June, Pakistan violated the ceasefire by firing on forward posts along the LoC in Naushera sector of Rajouri district of J&K, killing an Indian Army jawan. There have been 19 ceasefire violations along the LoC and the international border in Jammu region in June in which one civilian was killed and seven others injured.
In Kashmir, there seems to be no end to violence and depravity. The lynching of deputy superintendent of police Mohammed Ayub Pandith is yet another chapter in this saga of endless violence.

Terrorists and their patrons seem to be engaged in a grotesque competition to outdo one another.

According to reports, the senior police officer was stripped and stoned to death by an irate mob outside Jamia Masjid in the heart of Srinagar.

Pandith did nothing to provoke them  other than his duty of frisking worshippers to ensure that no weapons or terrorists could enter the mosque and create trouble  perhaps the bigger provocation in the mind of his attackers was the fact that he was working for India and "the infidels", according to the slogans regularly emanating from Kashmir's mosques.

The presence of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq at the mosque, either at the time of lynching or immediately after, as he claims, affirms what is a secret only for the pretentious: The conflict in Kashmir is jihad hiding behind the veil of secessionism.

Other than vituperative sermons and instigation, what other reason can there be for these miscreants leaving a religious gathering and lynching an officer on duty? Though Mirwaiz might profess his innocence from the rooftops, can he, even for the sake of argument refute that it is the hate mongering individuals of the Hurriyat whose venal interests have helped jihad replace Kashmiriyat in the Valley?

Can Mirwaiz justify his own claim that he reached the mosque after the lynching and proceeded with his sermons unperturbed as Pandiths still warm body lay outside? Is this the Hurriyat's politics? Can these leaders deny their involvement with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Pakistan Armys strategy of bleeding India through a thousand cuts?

Pandith's murder most foul is merely the next episode of a series of macabre violence where Kashmiris serving with the Indian security forces or the Jammu and Kashmir Police are targeted. The sequence began with the kidnapping, torture and murder of Lt Ummer Fayyaz in Shopian in May, followed by the murder and mutilation of six policemen in Anantnag on 16 May.

Assassinations of political leaders and murder of security forces is an established strategy of guerrilla warfare. The idea behind assassinations is to demoralise the common folk who perceive politicians and security forces as representatives of the State. The forces operating in conflict zones factor in such attempts while calibrating their counter strategy.

What has, however, made these murders even more appalling is that the victims are tortured. It is evident that the terrorists have decided to forego their basic sense of humanity and decency  if they ever had any  in their attempt to terrify locals and intimidate politicians in Srinagar and New Delhi. The idea, apparently, is to show Kashmiris that any local siding with India would meet a similar brutal end.

Evidently, the Pakistan Army and ISI have been able to inculcate in their proxies the brutality which they have mastered. The torture of captain Saurabh Kalia and his team in 1999 and the beheading of Indian soldiers by Pakistan Border Action Team are recent examples of their depravity.

These mutilations and murders bears an uncanny similarity to the murder of Afghanistan president Mohammad Najibullah in Kabul by the Taliban and the atrocities committed by the Islamic State.

Despite their geographic location, a common ideology seems to bind the perpetrators of these ghastly acts: Of terrifying opponents into submission.

The only silver lining amidst the doom and gloom is that notwithstanding the effort by Pakistan and its proxies to spread jihadi fervour in Kashmir, the Jammu and Kashmir Police has, by and large, remained steadfast in its commitment towards duty.

The Indian Army has always been the employer of choice for the Kashmiri youth  thousands brave threats by terror outfits and line up for recruitment  but witnessing the Jammu and Kashmir Police bravely resisting the terrorists and being targeted for their efforts makes me think that all is not lost for Kashmir.

Being a policeman in a conflict zone is not an easy task. While the army and paramilitary personnel belong to other states and are regularly moved around to avoid attrition, policemen have no such luxury. It must be suffocating to live in an environment where they are constantly portrayed as "collaborators".

Some people, influenced by terror propagandists, develop an antipathy for these officers and view them as quislings. General Syed Ata Hasnain elaborately detailed how after the killing of terrorist Burhan Wani strategic effort was made to lay the Jammu and Kashmir Police low through social targeting."

Around the world, the police is, invariably, the back bone of terror operations. The police provides local intelligence  which other security forces would find extremely tough to gather  is aware of the area's social mores and are, most importantly, familiar with the region.

In guerrilla warfare, where the forces from outside the conflict zone would take time to adjust, the police is invaluable in helping develop counter-terror strategies which are based on their accurate and detailed intelligence on terrorist networks and activities. The terrorists want to dry up these this intelligence inputs and deprive the security forces of their operational edge.

The targeting of Kashmiris, especially those serving in Jammu and Kashmir Police, becomes important in this context. The army, in collaboration with other security outfits, has been able to neutralise 68 terrorists in 39 days.

The role of the police in these operations, though unsung, has been vital. For the first time since the Burhan Wani killing, terrorist groups are on the back foot. In psychological warfare, which is an integral part of this war of attrition, the loss of significant number of foot soldiers is unnerving for terror groups.

Despite the "allure" of jihad, it is nigh impossible to recruit volunteers willing to die for a losing cause. Combined with the National Investigation Agency crackdown on Hurriyat associates for their complicity in Hawala transactions for terrorism, terrorists and their patrons are feeling strangulated.

The political and security establishment need to seize upon the killing of the Kashmiri officers and use it to their advantage. The killings bear a striking similarity to the situation in Kashmir and Punjab in the late 1980s.

KPS Gill in Endgame in Punjab 1988-1993, detailed how terrorists fighting for a separate Khalistan targeted the Punjab Police in an effort to demoralise them. Between May 1987 and April 1988, terrorists killed 109 policemen in Punjab.

The situation had deteriorated to a point where mid-level police officers would refuse to interrogate captured terrorists and home guards surrendered their weapons before terrorists. The appointment of Julio Riberio as Punjab's director general of police followed by KPS Gill turned the tide. Lessons need to be learnt from the Punjab success story.

It is time that the politicians, the army and police leadership formulate a comprehensive plan to combat the scourge of terrorism as they did in Punjab. In a democracy, the job of the security forces is to bring down the level of violence where the terrorists and their political fronts either abandon the struggle to save their lives or come to the negotiating table without pre-conditions.

The leadership in the Jammu and Kashmir Police needs to assert itself and stop looking over its shoulder. It must not restrain itself. Any political resolution under the present situation, notwithstanding the platitudes being sung in front of TV channels is a chimera.

Police leadership needs to emulate military leadership, hit the ground running and lead the forces from the front. The absence of any collateral damage of police leadership, though pleasing for rhetorical purposes, epitomises the fact that the forces on the ground are represented by mid-level officers such as Pandith and Feroze Ahmed Dar.

The continuing loss of local Kashmiri officers, if allowed to go uncontested, will have the effect of demoralising the police which is exactly what the Pakistani establishment wants. We need to realise that the job of winning a local conflict will increase manifold in magnitude in the absence of support from Jammu and Kashmir Police.

It is time that the senior officers radically alter their defensive mindset and stop operating from their secure offices. As KPS Gill aptly showed in Punjab, crisis requires leadership. From the front lines.

The terrorists are desperate. They realise that their game is slipping away. Thus in the coming days, violence is bound to increase as they attempt to target high-profile politicians, journalists and officers. For terrorists, publicity is the oxygen which allows them to attract criminal elements and impressionable youth.

But this desperation will also ensure that they will try to infiltrate Kashmir from Pakistan in large numbers and move out of their safe houses in an attempt to wreak havoc. And here lies the opportunity for our security forces to nuetralise them.

In adversity, lies opportunity. It's time to take the gloves off.

The author is the writer of the book Wolf's Lair. He tweets @MayankNSingh
Lynching deputy superintendent of police Mohammed Ayub Pandith, close on the heels of the killing of Lt Ummer Fayaz, plus killing of six policemen of Jammu and Kashmir Police  including the SHO of the police station and mutilation of the dead bodies  should leave no doubt that Islamic radicalisation has taken root in Kashmir. Not that the signs are new but they were being brushed under the table for petty vote-bank politicking, and probably will continue to happen without us realising the adverse effect on rest of India. That the lives of security personnel are perhaps cheapest in India matters little to the bureaucratised polity is quite well known.

There is not much of a difference between Pakistan and Islamist terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir aligning with the Islamic State call to undertake more violent acts during the holy month of Ramadan. While there is acknowledgment in some quarters now that Kashmiriyat is dead, political parties have been abetting the same mostly by design while Wahabism took route in the Kashmir Valley. The number of mosques controlled by Wahabis, including the Ahle Hadith, went up over the last decade plus from around 1,000 mosques to around 2,000 with most of the youth opting for them than the traditional Kashmiri Sufi shrines. The influence of the Wahabis has also changed the nature of the insurgency in Kashmir as from seeking freedom for Kashmir, the narrative has changed with terrorists fighting for the cause of Islam.

Neither the Centre nor the Jammu and Kashmir government has any cogent plan to deal with radicalisation beyond blocking the internet, mobiles and the like. Odd government functionaries discuss and air views about perception management albeit a cohesive policy is yet to emerge, leave aside effective execution. But there are two glaring voids in this discussion. The most important is the role of the clergy in the Valley, especially in the mosques controlled by Wahabis including the Ahle Hadith. It is here that the youths are being incited consistently, especially during Friday prayers. That is where you find most violence, waving of Pakistani and IS flags and sloganeering in the name of jihad. This is where a separatist like Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who delivers sermons during Friday prayers in Jamia mosque, has the opportunity to fan the fires. The likes of Farooq and the clergy need the Mutt and Jeff line of treatment.

While five suspects involved in the lynching of DSP Mohammed Ayub Pandith have been arrested, Jammu and Kashmir, Director General of Police SP Vaid, has already stated that Farooq's men were allegedly involved in the killing of the DSP. Interrogation of the killing is very much warranted, crocodile tears being shed by Farooq notwithstanding.

The second issue is that of education. What the Centre is unaware of, and the state government is implicit in, is that schools (not madrassas) in the Valley are teaching children to hate non-Muslims. This needs to be addressed beyond Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who does little beyond trumpeting periodically about the need to resume dialogue. Her condition is not different from Qamar Bajwa, about whom Pakistani scholar Ayesha Siddiqa wrote that he has little space to manoeuvre beyond siding with the terrorists who don't attack Pakistan.

Is Jammu and Kashmir slipping? Definitely not, because the cancer of Islamic radicalisation is presently restricted to four-five districts of the Kashmir Valley, while Jammu and Kashmir is a huge state.

But the issue here is that it can spread in other parts of the state, as well as other parts of India, if there is inaction and we continue to portray the soft image of not dealing with Wahabism with a firm hand.

Agha H Amin, defence analyst and former Pakistan Army officer, had stated in 2012 that the "Pakistan-sponsored Taliban regard all Shias, Ismailis, non-Pashtuns, moderate Pashtuns as infidels who deserve to be massacred". That is the extent to which Pakistan has managed to radicalise at least parts of, if not whole of, Kashmir Valley. AQIS (Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent) chief Asim Umar has been giving calls to Muslims in India to undertake lone wolf attacks. Then, you have issues like some 4,000 Rohingya Muslims colonising the Jammu region despite Article 370 during the UPA 2 regime on personal behest of the then home minister P Chidambaran under the pretext of UNHCR. But surely, UN did not specify the Jammu region for accommodating these illegal immigrants. Riddled with rampant corruption, the state administration does not function much anyway. You just have to look at the state of the government schools to assess the lack of administration.

Two things can be taken for certain. First off, given the fertile ground of instability, Pakistan will continue to destabilise the Kashmir Valley, fully backed by China. Pakistan Armys bible is the book The Quranic Concept of War published in 1979, authored by Brigadier SK Malik of Pakistan Army. The preface of the book is written by Allah Bukhsh K Brohi, the former Pakistani ambassador to India, and Zia-ul-Haq, former Pakistan president and chief of army staff, opens the book by focusing on the concept of jihad, justifying terrorism and explaining jihad is not simply the domain of the military but of every Muslim.

Pakistan has managed to export this ideology to the Kashmir Valley with the likes of Umar Farooq, Hurriyat separatists and the clergy. Secondly, the state government has failed to deliver, to reach out to the public and create jobs even as it continues to remain cocooned within its secure confines enjoying the spoils of the enormous funds being released by the Centre. It is now for the Modi government to make the move. A prolonged spell of President's Rule will be good for the state with the radicals and anti-nationals purged. Jammu and Kashmir needs a firm hand and a well-defined policy.

The author is a retired lieutenant-general of the Indian Army
Two weeks after a loan waiver was announced, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday launched another scheme to provide Rs 34,020 crore debt relief to the financially distressed farmers in the state. The newly announced scheme by the BJP-led government will see debt of up to Rs 1.5 lakh per farmer being written off.

Named as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Sanman Yojana, Fadnavis said the scheme will benefit 89 lakh farmers, making 40 lakh debt-free and providing relief to the other 49 lakh farmers.

Maharashtra Govt. decided loan waiver of Rs. 34,000 Crores. We are waiving loans upto Rs.1.5 lakhs completely: Maha CM Devendra Fadnavis pic.twitter.com/FXcrVgSNBg

Fadnavis also announced a return benefit, according to an ANI tweet:

Those farmers who have paid back their loans regularly, we will give 25% loan return benefit to them: Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra CM pic.twitter.com/Y9UORYSDmO  ANI (@ANI_news) June 24, 2017

The chief minister said that all ministers and MLAs would contribute a month's salary to support the loan waiver, as reported by DNA. Firstpost carried an article where even the Shiv Sena had stated that its representatives would share their salary to contribute towards farm loan waiver. Fadnavis says that he is aware of the financial burden this scheme will cause. "We are aware that a decision of this scale will have a bearing on the fiscal health of the state. To counter this, some tough decisions will have to be taken," PTI reports him saying.

Fadnavis, who had been under pressure to bring in a major agrarian relief programme to help farmers hit by falling prices of produce and recurring drought, said the state cabinet approved the decision on Saturday. "There has been a demand for loan waiver for farmers, who have been severely affected due to continuous drought since 2012. They were not able to get new loans for their crops until the previous debt was paid. We have time and again assured that we will help the distressed farmers," Fadnavis said, according to PTI. "In the last 2-3 days, we have held dialogues with various stakeholders, leaders of political parties, farmers groups, and finally decided to grant the biggest loan waiver given by any state in the country," he added.

Fadnavis made it a point to mention that although agriculture loans per household in Maharashtra was almost half as compared to other states, the state government still decided to announce the biggest loan waiver scheme.

He went on to explain the technicalities of the scheme, "The 7/12 land extracts of farmers having loans up to Rs 1.5 lakh will be cleared, thereby making around 40 lakh cultivators debt-free. Farmers, whose crop loan has been restructured from 2012 to 2016 and who are still defaulters as on 30 June 2016, will get incentives up to 25 percent of the crop loan or Rs 25,000, whichever is less." He added that for 6 percent farmers, the government will bring in a one-time settlement scheme, under which those who have debts of Rs 1.5 lakh, will get 25 percent of the outstanding amount or Rs 1.5 lakh, whichever is less. PTI states that the Maharashtra government had also promised Rs 10,000 initial loan assistance at the start of Kharif season.

He further said that all ministers, members of the state Legislature, Class-I officers, government employees, traders who are eligible to pay Value Added Tax (VAT), those people who are liable to file I-T returns from sources other than agriculture, have been exempted from the loan waiver decision. Fadnavis may have made this move keeping in mind his statement about the debt write-offs in 2008.

Farmers in many parts of Maharashtra were on a warpath early this month, which disrupted the supply of vegetables and other essentials to cities, including Mumbai.

They were demanding a loan waiver, which was backed by all political parties. The stir was called off after the government gave them a firm assurance on bringing in a comprehensive scheme to help the debt-pressed cultivators.

The farmers' agitation was called off in Maharashtra on 12 June after the government announced loan waiver to farmers with less than five acres of land. This decision was reportedly taken at a four-hour meeting at Sahyadri Guest House in Malabar Hill, Mumbai. The meeting was attended by ministers and farmer leaders.

Initially, Fadnavis had stated that the government will release a loan waiver by October-end. The loan distress of the farmers had fast burgeoned into a political bottleneck for the state government with the chief minister alleging that the political rivals are milking political mileage out of the farm crisis.

"The modalities are being worked out and I can say with conviction that this will be the biggest loan waiver in Maharashtra's history," Fadnavis had then told reporters after a meeting with Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu.

Raju Shetti, leader of Swabhimani Paksha, had told Firstpost that the farmers' community will begin another set of protests if the required promises are not fulfilled by 25 July.

Other than Maharashtra, different state governments have also announced large and small loan waivers for farmers. The Yogi Adityanath government in April had announced a Rs 36,000 crore farm loan waiver in Uttar Pradesh. This particular waiver was promised in the run-up to the state elections early this year.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also announced that the Karnataka government would undertake a crop loan waiver of up to Rs. 50,000 per farmer, that will cost Rs. 8,165 crore to the state exchequer. The waiver will apparently help 22,27,506 farmers who had obtained loans from cooperative banks, Siddaramaiah said in the Karnataka Assembly.

Punjab also announced a similar venture. Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh announced during his speech in the Punjab Assembly that there will be a total waiver of entire crop loans for small and marginal farmers.

With inputs from agencies.
Imphal: President of Haokip Students' Organisation (HSO), Letkholal Haokip, 37, was shot dead by unidentified miscreants in Imphal West district, police said on Saturday.

The student leader was shot near the gate of his residence by the armed miscreants on Friday night. He was rushed to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, the police said.

Haokip originally hailed from Khoken village in Kangpokpi district.

Police registered a case at Lamphel police station and are investigating the matter, the sources added.

In another incident, a self styled 'lieutenant' of the banned outfit United National Liberation Front (UNLF) was apprehended by police commandos on Thursday night.

In a press statement issued by the police, the apprehended cadre has been identified as Narungbam Prameshwar Singh.

The 42-year-old was apprehended from Yaiskul Police Lane in Imphal during frisking, following a tip off.
A CRPF sub-inspector lost his life and two were injured after Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants opened fire at a CRPF patrol vehicle near Srinagar's Pantha Chowk area on Saturday in Jammu and Kashmir, according to media reports.

The deceased has been identified as sub inspector Sahib Shukla and the injured as constable-driver Nissar Ahmed, officials said.

#FLASH: Terrorists attack a CRPF vehicle near Srinagar's Pantha Chowk; more details awaited. pic.twitter.com/SBqDchfNDY  ANI (@ANI_news) June 24, 2017

CNN-News18 reported that the terrorists opened fire and ran towards a school in Srinagar, killing one CRPF jawan while injuring another jawan and a civilian. The police said two to three attackers are on the run and a search operation is currently underway to nab them.

The attack took place around 5.50 pm, causing bullet injuries to a jawan and the driver of the vehicle, officials said. CRPF personnel retaliated but there was no immediate report of any casualty on the militant side. In the melee, a constable of Jammu and Kashmir was injured in the foot when his rifle went off accidentally, officials said.

The CRPF personnel, part of road opening deployment, were sitting inside their vehicle at Pantha chowk bypass along the Srinagar-Jammu national highway when the attack took place.

Reinforcements have been rushed to the area, an official said. The injured CRPF jawan was rushed to a hospital.

Shortly after the attack, LeT claimed responsibility for the attack, reported CNN-News18.

According to the Times of India, the militants were armed with AK-47 rifles and fired indiscriminately at the 29 battalion CRPF patrol vehicle. The Srinagar-Jammu highway has been closed in the wake of the attack.

The incident happened near a Delhi Public School and it is feared that the militants might be hiding in the school complex which has four huge buildings in the compound. 20 staffers from the school have been evacuated, reported CNN-News18. The army has been called in along with personnel from the CRPF and Jammu and Kashmir Police to nab the terrorists.

With inputs from PTI
Despite the image of disruption, incoherence and ad-hocism defining the early days of the Donald Trump presidency, the broad contours of the new US President's foreign policy is not all that different from his predecessors. Perhaps the realities of leadership in a complex world with different variables ultimately snuff out the options for adventurism. Be that as it may, it is increasingly clear that for all his vows to "drain the swamp" and iconoclastic image, Trump is neither a radical nor a revolutionary.

This is all the more evident as Narendra Modi's fifth US visit is upon us. Analysts would be hard-pressed to find dissimilarities between the Trump regime or Barack Obama era in the way Washington is gearing up to host the Indian prime minister. Media reaction, too, offer an eerie similarity. Talking heads in India have always appeared more excited than their American counterparts over India-US schmoozing. This is quite natural, given the power imbalance between two nations. Be in Obama or Trump era, this hasn't changed. Indian media is far more enthusiastic right now about the visit than US media, for whom the visit is little more than an incidental item to be carried at best in inside pages.

Obama had famously called India-US ties the "most defining partnership" of the 21st century. Along with Modi, both leaders had taken significant strides in translating much of the rhetoric into deliverables. There was a persistent fear in Indian strategic and policy-making circles  taking into account Trump's transactional approach to foreign policy, callousness in letting crucial desks in US State Department remain horribly understaffed and prolonged domestic woes  that he may either suffer from a lack of interest in Modi's visit or hold India-US ties hostage to rapid progress in trade relations.

After all, despite being among the fastest-growing large economies, the pace of growth and reforms in India even under a supposedly reform-minded prime minister remains sluggish. To the US, New Delhi is an important strategic partner in south Asia, a promising counterbalance to China and a fellow democratic enforcer of a rules-based world order. Yet, the reality is that it is still struggling to fill even the shoes of a middle-power. The apprehension was, for a president whose foreign policy is rooted into 'what's in it for me' realism, India might not hold enough promise.

If early signs are anything to go by, these doubts seem to be unfounded. Reports indicate that Washington is lining up a red carpet welcome for Modi. The Indian prime minister will be the first head of state to be accorded the honour of a White House dinner hosted by Trump.

PTI quotes a senior Trump administration official as saying: "The White House is very interested in making this a special visit. Were really seeking to roll out the red carpet. In fact, the two (leaders) will have dinner, a working dinner at the White House. This will be the first dinner for a foreign dignitary at the White House under this administration. So, we think thats very significant.

There is also a concerted effort being made behind the scenes to ensure that both leaders strike a smooth relationship which may set the paradigm for closer ties in the near future. Interestingly, India's foreign secretary S Jaishankar flew to Washington just ahead of Modi's visit to meet key figures in the Trump administration and set the tone for the prime minister's engagement with the US president. This is a break from protocol. It suggests that both sides wanted to leave absolutely nothing to chance to make the maiden Modi-Trump meeting a success. Once again, this is indicative of the importance India holds for Trump-led US.

On Friday, Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, one of the key sobering influences on Trump, and the outcome of that meeting lays out clearly the areas of convergence that both sides are stressing on.

According to a US State Department spokesman, Tillerson noted the Prime Ministers visit will strengthen ties between the United States and India and advance our common interest in fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth and prosperity, and expanding security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

In a way, this represents continuity, and that is never a bad thing when it comes to bilateral ties.

Continuity is the manifestation of stability and it is clear from the signals emanating out of Washington that the India-US relationship is on an even keel and unlikely to be derailed, despite a demagogue adorning the White House.

Part of the reason is that India-US relationship is insured by a number of strategic, structural bulwarks. The Obama administration had accorded India the status of a 'major defence partner'. Four 'foundational agreements' define such a role. India has entered into two such agreements with the US so far: Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA)  signed in October last year and the General Security Of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA)  inked in 2002. The other two are up for grabs. For a fiercely non-aligned country such as India, the signing of these agreements signal the extent to which India has joined the US sphere of influence. Yet the bilateral tie is not dependent on military-strategic considerations alone. It goes deeper.

In areas of trade and commerce, people-to-people links, defense cooperation, soft power and mutual strategic interests, India-US relationship has enjoyed natural progression and this is unlikely to be reversed. The hot debate over visa programme makes for alarmist headlines but the reality is that in imposing restrictions over a liberal visa regime and clamping down on immigration, Trump has merely stayed true to the backlash in the western world against free movement of trade and people. It will be unwise on India's part to make this the fulcrum of Modi's meeting with Trump and there is every indication that both sides are trying desperately to play down this thorny problem.

The White House has already announced that discussions on civil nuclear deal will be on agenda when Modi meets Trump  a pact that has fallen prey to mutual apathy  and there are no plans to raise H1B visa programme. Besides, the US recently cleared the selling of 22 unarmed reconnaissance drones to India and is reportedly positive about letting Lockheed Martin build F16s in India in a partnership with Tata Advanced Systems.

The Economic Times notes that officials "are working overtime to complete negotiations on moving the assembly line for the F-16 fighter jet to India to enable Modi and Trump to jointly make an announcement on the deal."

Besides, in the appointment of Kenneth Juster as US Ambassador to India  which has interpreted as a good move for bilateral ties  Trump has signaled he values the partnership. The devil in the end lies always in the finer details though.
Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in Washington.

Secretary Tillerson met with Foreign Secretary Jaishankar on Friday to discuss the US-India relationship and the agenda or Prime Minister Modi's meetings at the White House on 26 June, a State Department spokesman said told PTI.

"The Secretary noted the Prime Minister's visit will strengthen ties between the United States and India and advance our common interest in fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth and prosperity, and expanding security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region," the spokesperson said.

The two agreed that the two countries have a deep and growing strategic partnership and hope to work more closely on regional and global issues, the official said in response to a question.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department. Jaishankar, a former Indian ambassador to the US, has been playing a leading role in shaping the India-US relationship under the Modi government.

Modi's US visit would begin on 25 June. Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

Ahead of his visit, Modi on Friday said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he tweeted.

In a statement posted on the Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.

"President Trump and I have spoken on telephone prior to this. Our conversations have touched upon our common intent to take forward our productive all round engagement for the mutual benefit of our people," he said.

"I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide ranging partnership between India and the United States," the prime minister said.

He noted that India's partnership with the US is multi-layered and diverse, supported by not just governments but all the stakeholders on both sides.

"I look forward to building a forward-looking vision for our partnership with the new Administration in the United States under President Trump," he added.

Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.

Like in the past, he will also be interacting with the Indian diaspora.
A Muslim teenager was allegedly stabbed to death and several others were severely injured on a local train in Haryana on Thursday night, after a mob accused them of carrying beef in a bag, news reports have said.

The incident took place as a family of five was returning home after Eid shopping in Delhi when an altercation over seats turned communal and triggered the attack, Hindustan Times reported.

The report said that the deceased was identified as Hafiz Junaid. The police arrested one person on Friday in connection with this incident, and the accused has confessed to his crime.

According to the police, it was a group of 15-20 people boarded a Mathura-bound train. As the argument turned communal, they reportedly called the Muslim family "anti-nationals" and "beef eaters", before throwing their skull caps on the floor, grabbing their beards, and taunting them with abuses.

One of the accused in the incident told the media on Saturday that he regretted what transpired and that he was under the influence of alcohol on Thursday night.

Regret it,was drunk,but I dint make the beef taunts or attack the victim,my friends did: One of the accused in Palwal lynching case #Haryana pic.twitter.com/438DiY2Br3  ANI (@ANI_news) June 24, 2017

Haryana director general of police BS Sandhu, however, denied that the incident happened over an argument regarding beef. "This was a clash between two groups which resulted in the death of one person. We have already arrested one of the accused. Police teams are investigating and others too will be arrested," The Times of India quoted Sandhu as saying.

However, another of the victims, 18-year-old Mohsin, said everything was happening in plain sight of Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel at Haryana's Ballabgarh railway station, but they refused to help. "To save ourselves, we called the police and the emergency response number but there was no response," he said.

The SHO of GRP at Ballabgarh police station, Surat Pal, admitted that they couldn't rescue the four youth due to the crowd at the station, The Times of India reported.

"One of them, Mohsin, called an ambulance when his brother was stabbed. Such things happen. Whenever there is a riot or fight, such things happen and people say some communal things, but we can't do anything," the report quoted Pal as saying.

Junaid was a student of Islamic studies in Surat, Gujarat, along with his brother Hashim, 20. The other injured are Mohsin, 16, Moin, 18, and Junaid's elder brother Sakir, who also allegedly stabbed and is admitted to AIIMS, according to Hindustan Times.

Junaids last rites were performed on Friday.

The Times of India report also quoted Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who condemned the incident. "No one should take the law into their own hands. Even if there was a rumour, no one has the right to do this. The agencies should look into it and see who are behind this," he said.
New Delhi: A CPM delegation on Saturday met the family of a Muslim youth, who was stabbed to death by a group of people after an altercation over a train seat turned communal near Ballabhgarh in Haryana, and demanded immediate arrest of the attackers.

The delegation asked the police to ascertain political affiliation of those involved in the "horrific mob lynching", saying the accused would not dare target the victim sans "political patronage" in the BJP-ruled state.

CPM politburo members Brinda Karat and Mohammed Salim, who visited the victim's Hafiz Junaid's family, targeted the Centre over the attack and rued that no government representative issued a statement on the incident or met the youth's relatives.

The leaders also condemned the lynching of a police officer in Srinagar thought they stressed that their party is not equating the incident with the Ballabhgarh episode. "We condemn the horrific lynching of the youth and attack on his brothers," Karat told reporters after meeting the family in Khandavli village.

She urged the government to ensure the victim's family gets compensation and the security is bolstered on all local trains plying on the route, on which Muslims are allegedly harassed by some groups.

Karat said the killing was not a one-off incident and suggested that the episode is the result of a "toxic" campaign of the Sangh Parivar.

Therefore, the former Rajya Sabha member said, there is a need to ascertain the political connections of the accused. Replying to a question, Karat said the lynching of a Jammu and Kashmir deputy superintendent of police was "barbaric".

She said the "complete failure of the PDP-BJP government on all fronts is leading to a situation where such barbaric acts are taking place".

Junaid (17) was stabbed to death and his two brothers, Hasim (21) and Sakir (23), were injured by a group of people who also allegedly passed slurs against them after a dispute over a train seat near Ballabhgarh in Haryana on 22 June.

One person has been arrested in connection with the incident, the police said.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday embarked on a three-nation tour of Portugal, the US and the Netherlands during which he will hold talks with the top leadership of those countries to boost bilateral ties.

The highlight of his four-day visit will be the US leg as Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on 26 June in Washington.

Ahead of his US visit, Modi said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views. "My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he had tweeted.

My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world. https://t.co/UaF6lbo1ga  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 23, 2017

In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from 25 June was at the invitation of Trump. Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.

In the first leg of the tour, Modi will visit Portugal where he will have talks with Prime Minister Antonio Costa. "Building on our recent discussions, we will review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions," he said about his upcoming meeting with Costa.

Will hold talks with Mr. @antoniocostapm & interact with the Indian community during my Portugal visit tomorrow. https://t.co/5CtVYKPE5K  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 23, 2017

After the US visit, Modi will travel to the Netherlands on 27 June where he will have a meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and call on King Willem-Alexander and meet Queen Maxima.

This year, the two countries are celebrating 70 years of the establishment of Indo-Dutch diplomatic relations.

"I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Rutte and reviewing our bilateral relations. I would be exchanging views with PM Rutte on important global issues including counter-terrorism and climate change," Modi said ahead of the visit.
Jammu: The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT), which attacked an Indian Army patrol after crossing the LoC, was made up of special forces' men and terrorists who were armed with 'special daggers' and headband cameras for recording the strike in Poonch district.

The attack on 22 June left two Indian soldiers dead while one BAT member was killed in retaliatory action by Indian troops.

Army troops during search and sanitation operations, recovered the body of a member of the BAT team along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on 22 June.

"The body of the intruder killed in the BAT attempt has been retrieved and handed over to the local police," a senior army officer told PTI on Friday. "Arms, ammunition and other war-like stores including a special dagger and a headband with a camera, knife, one AK rifle, 3 magazines, 2 grenades besides dresses and bags was recovered which reflects the barbaric mindset of the Pakistani Army," he said.

Giving details, the officer said that a special class of dagger and a knife was meant to engineer quick mutilation and beheading of jawans killed in the firing exchanges and it has been foiled by the quick action by Indian soldiers.

The BAT member was wearing a headband with a camera on it to record the action and possible mutilation of jawans, which was prevented by other troops who shot dead one of them and injured another, he said.

The officer said it is matter of investigation whether the camera was live connected with Pakistani Army establishments across the border. "The data and details of the camera will be analysed," he said.

"We are confident that another BAT member has also been killed but his body was taken back by the other members of the BAT," he said. "The resolute action of our soldiers didn't let the nefarious plan (of mutilating bodies and recording it on camera) succeed," the officer said.

In the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector.

The Border Action Team (BAT), which generally comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistani Army and some terrorists, carried out the attack at around 2 pm under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops from their posts, he said.

"A Border Action Team of five to seven heavily-armed men, under the cover of Pakistani firing, entered 600 meters inside the LoC in Gulpur forward area in Poonch sector," the official said.

The Pakistani attackers came up to 200 meters near the Indian posts.

During the attack, the Pakistani troops resorted to firing in Gulpur-Karmara-Chakan-Da-Bagh area along the LoC. The armed intruders targeted an area domination patrol of the Indian Army, triggering a gunfight, the official said.

The Indian troops killed one of the attackers and injured another whose extrication was facilitated by the cover fire by the Pakistani troops from their posts.

In the firefight, two Indian soldiers were killed. They were 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad, Maharashtra, and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

The Pakistani firing continued till 3.30 pm on Friday even as the Indian posts retaliated strongly.

In a similar BAT attack on 1 May, two Indian soldiers were beheaded in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district. That attack too was carried out under the cover of shelling by the Pakistani troops.

Prior to that, a BAT attack was carried out in February but there were no casualties. Earlier, there have been several BAT attacks in which Indian jawans have been beheaded or their bodies mutilated.

On 28 October last year, militants attacked a post and killed an Indian Army soldier and mutilated his body close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Machil sector. In January 2013, Lance Naik Hemraj was killed and his body mutilated by a BAT. Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh was also beheaded.
Pune: What should have been a day of celebration turned out to be one of profound grief for the family of Naik Sandip Jadhav.

Jadhav, one of the two soldiers killed in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, was cremated today on his son's first birthday.

But there were no smiles on Shivam's landmark day, only eyes misting over with tears as his father's mortal remains were consigned to flames with full military honours at Kelgaon in central Maharashtra's Sillod taluka, about 230 kilometers from here,

The 34-year-old jawan, who belonged to the 15 Maratha Light Infantry, was killed in an attack by a team of Pakistani Special Forces, which had sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch sector two days ago.

Shravan Mane, a 24-year-old sepoy from Kolhapur, was also killed in the attack.

Thousands of people from all walks of life took part in Jadhav's final journey and bid him a tearful adieu.

People converged at his home in large numbers to mourn the loss of the braveheart and chanted slogans as his body was taken out of the house for the last time.

A pall of gloom descended over Sillod as news of Jadhav's death broke.

Jadhav had promised his family that he would be home for Shivam's first birthday celebrations, but he returned in a coffin, sending his family and friends into shock.

Besides one-year-old Shivam, Jadhav is survived by his wife, a three-year-old daughter, parents and a brother.

Congress MLA from Sillod, Abdul Sattar, Maharashtra assembly speaker Haribhau Bagade and officials of the district administration were present at the cremation site.
Barely two days after Sri Lankan Navy arrested 21 Indian fishermen for allegedly fishing in their territorial waters, four more were arrested on Friday night. All the four hailed from Tamil Nadu's Nagapattinam.

The navy also seized one boat used by the fishermen near Paruthithurai at the Bay of Bengal, as reported by ANI.

On Thursday, four fishermen from Pudukottai district and 17 fishermen from Karaikal region in Puducherry were arrested by Sri Lankan navy near Neduntheevu on Thursday, the police said.

The fishermen were then taken to Kangesanthurai port in the island nation along with their boats, Rameswaram Fishermen Association president P Sesuraja said.

Following multiple arrest, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu K Palaniswamy wrote to Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention to secure the release of fishermen arrested by Sri Lanka along with their boats.

Palaniswamy urged Modi to direct the external affairs ministry to urgently take up the issue with the highest authorities in Sri Lanka.

"Long periods of impoundments of fishing boats would render them unworthy of sailing and it would push the life and livelihood propositions of Indian fishermen into misery", Palaniswamy said in the letter.

The arrest came amid Sri Lanka's announcement last week that some 142 Indian fishing boats would be released in phases.

With inputs from agencies
Mau (Uttar Pradesh): Tension mounted in Nasirpur village in Uttar Pradesh as the 70-year-old man, who was shot by two motorcycle-borne men outside a mosque, succumbed to injuries.

Mohammed Yunus succumbed to injuries and his body was laid to rest on Friday night in the presence of senior police officers, Circle Officer Pankaj Singh said.

The incident took place on Friday night when the motorcycle-borne miscreants threw meat which looked like pork outside the village mosque and opened fire at Yunus, who was coming out after offering prayers, SP Abhishek Yadav said.

The elderly man was admitted to a hospital where he later died.

The locals have demanded immediate arrest of the culprits and compensation to the kin of the deceased.

Detailing the incident, the Maulvi of the mosque, Mohammed Jabbar said he was alone with Yunus in the mosque after the prayers and had rushed out on hearing something being thrown at the mosque.

"But, as the youths whipped out firearms, I rushed back. I later heard the shots," he said.

SDM Sadar, Rajesh Kumar said the family of the deceased have been given Rs 5 lakh from the chief minister's discretionary fund and Rs 5 lakh under 'Krishak Durghatna' fund.

Meanwhile, a large contingent of police force continued to be deployed in the village as a precautionary measure, even as some sections announced to offer prayers with black bands as a protest against the incident.

The locals also said they will not celebrate Eid.
Ahmedabad: A 'Freedom March' would be taken out on 12 July from Mehsana town to commemorate the first anniversary of the Una Dalit flogging incident, Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani said on Friday.

A day before the march, Dalit activists as well as the victims of atrocities from across India, including the Una incident victims, will gather in Ahmedabad to participate in a conclave where they would highlight their demands.

The Dalit leader warned the ruling BJP that it would face "consequences" during this year's assembly election if the state government did not accept their demands.

According to Mevani, the march, named as 'Azadi Kooch,' would commence from Mehsana town and will end at a village in Banaskantha district of north Gujarat or at Rapar village of Kutch district after seven days.

"During the July 11 gathering (in Ahmedabad), we will ask the government to keep their cows and give us jobs, land, houses, employment and education. Victims of cow politics as well as Dalit scholars from across the country will take part in this conclave. Una victims will also remain present," Mevani, who has been leading the Dalit agitation in Gujarat following the Una Dalit flogging incident, said in a press conference here.

He alleged that despite promises made to Dalits by the Gujarat government as well as the Centre, nothing has changed on the ground even after one year of the Una incident.

"On the contrary, attacks on Dalits and Muslims have gone up after BJP's push for cow protection. Gau-rakshaks are enjoying protection from the government. Therefore, on July 11, we will tell the government to keep the cows and give us what we have been promised," Mevani, who is the convener of Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, said.

According to Mevani, the key agenda of this march is to mount pressure on the Gujarat government to allocate agricultural land to Dalits, so that they can start a new life with dignity.

"Dalits want freedom from cleaning gutters as well as from the ancestral work of disposing animal carcasses. We want the government to start the allocation of 1.63 lakh acres of land to Dalits and landless farmers as per the law. We will seek support of OBCs, farmers and other communities for our movement," said Mevani.

The Dalit leader also said that the ruling BJP would have to face consequences in this year's assembly elections if the state government did not accept their demands.

"If Dalits, OBCs and other eligible communities will not be given this agricultural land, we will give a call to vote against the BJP in this year's polls," he added.

On 11 July last year, seven Dalits of Mota Samadhiyala village of Una taluka in Gir-Somnath district were allegedly thrashed by cow vigilantes when they were skinning a dead cow.

Later, four of these Dalit youths were taken to Una town, where they were tied up with a vehicle and allegedly thrashed by the gau-rakshaks. The matter came to light after a video of the incident, allegedly made by the vigilantes, went viral on social media platforms and created a huge uproar among people.
Washington: The US is interested in providing India with the kind of defence technology it normally reserves for its closest allies, the White House has said, signalling the Trump administration's resolve to strengthen the bilateral defence relationship.

However, a senior administration official refrained from confirming reports that the State Department has approved the sale of 22 Guardian drones to India. "We can't really talk about a potential or pending arms sale before they are actually notified to Congress," the official said.

"But I will simply note that the defence relationship is extremely important. The US is interested in leaning forward in providing high technology, the kind of technology it provides to its closest allies and partners," the senior administration official said.

Defence is expected to be a major agenda item when Donald Trump hosts Narendra Modi at the White House next week.

"We're looking at a very productive visit. These kinds of sales that we're talking about are important for the strategic partnership, for cooperating in areas like the Indian Ocean region, increasing that cooperation, serving the interests of both countries," the official said.

"They create jobs,  these kind of defence deals create a lot of jobs here in the US. So they're right in line with this administration's priorities.

"And of course, the United States is the world's technological leader in the kind of systems that you have mentioned," the official said in response to a question.

"As other nations begin to deploy these systems, that the US knows it has a responsibility to ensure these sales are consistent with US national security and foreign policy interests, our economic security, international standards, and US values," the official said.

Noting that defence relationship is extremely important to both countries, the official said they have to identify any defence transfers on a case-by-case basis. "Of course, we do this in accordance with the Arms Export Control Act and other policies and legislation. And so all these things are taken into account when we move forward with particular sales," the official said in response to a question.

He said in this particular case, the US evaluates that this is an important way for America and India to cooperate on specific areas of mutual concern, and that both sides benefit from transferring the kind of high technology, the Trump administration has been talking about.

"This is very much an example of the US wanting to treat India as a major defence partner, sort of demonstrating that, in concrete terms, that we consider India a close defence partner on par with our closest allies and partners," he added.
For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that is desperately trying to break new ground in Kerala, getting the vernacular media on its side is a task of paramount importance to the partys political one-upmanship in the state.

But the media in Kerala most of which historically had been at ideological loggerheads with the Sangh Parivar continues to maintain status quo.

A week ago this coldness was once again strengthened when Mathrubhumi, a leading vernacular daily that also runs a news channel drew a cartoon of the BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan that was nothing short of what many would say an outright racial abuse."

That Rajasekharan had become an element of ridicule over the social media after being wrongly depicted as a gate crasher at the maiden metro ride taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the company of the chief minister and the state governor on the occasion of the inauguration of the Kochi Metro, is understandable.

But this was perhaps the first time that a Malayalam daily that has publications across the country drew a cartoon with racial overtones. The fairly dark complexioned BJP state president was drawn alongside Modi with the remark when translated reads  "In the Metro, Kummanamji becomes Modijis black cat" after depicting Rajasekharan in thick black colour.

Following the protest by the state leadership of the BJP, the daily did take off the cartoon from its web page. But not a single journalist individually or the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) that makes statements at the drop of a hat, came forward to condemn what many scribes now feel as shameful journalism.

But then perhaps the journalistic fraternity was giving back to the BJP in the same coin in which the partys so-called intelligentsia had been attacking and insulting journalists who refuse toe the partys ideological line over the social media.

Certainly, the mainstream media and the social media had never drawn swords to such an extent with the BJP and its sympathisers at the crux of it. But senior BJP leaders in the state say its a worrying time.

"This is the biggest crisis that the party is facing at the moment in Kerala to which we are yet to find a solution. There is no use hiding this. See it is understandable when the CPMs mouthpiece does stories against us. But what about the rest of the media which can actually sway the minds of the people with such concocted reports. The partys growth in Kerala has worried some and in every media house there is someone at some level who wants to portray us in a bad way," BJP state spokesperson MS Kumar told Firstpost.

The BJP cites two instances from the recent past to show that the mainstream media in Kerala is certainly working against it.

The first case was the notification of ban on sale of cattle for slaughter issue by the Union government. Even when most of the nation got over the issue in a few days, the vernacular press in Kerala continued to not only report on the matter but raised the most farcical and non-existent question of how a government could interfere with eating habits of people even as the notification had nothing to do with beef-eating.

Even the visit of Amit Shah to the state was projected as an attempt to placate the minority community while neither the party nor Shah made even a comment about the notification during his visit.

The media knows very well that the Christian community is warming up to the BJP in the last couple of years and no way can the BJP advance in Kerala without their help. We strongly feel that twisting the cattle slaughter notification to look like a ban on beef eating was an attempt to spoil this bonhomie that the party was enjoying with the Christians," said a senior BJP leader in the state.

Secondly, the attack on CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury in Delhi was not only blown out of proportions but also fixed upon the RSS with no proof to show.

Even when the attackers at the AKG Bhavan shouted that they were from a little-known fringe organisation called The Hindu Sena much of Keralas media led by Deshabhimani the mouthpiece of the CPM cried in one voice that the RSS had attacked the CPM general secretary.

BJP feels that in spite of many eyewitness accounts which clearly rubbished any physical attack on Yechury most of the journalists scripted the story to damage the partys image.

Also, the fact that Kerala was plunged into violence on the streets soon after the attack on Yechury goes on to show the impact television reporting and discussions have on the society at large.

KVS Haridas is a veteran journalist who had been closely working with the Sangh Parivar to gauge what the media makes of them. He says the BJPs record with the media in Kerala is still a dismal one because the party has still not understood how to do an image makeover in Kerala.

The BJP needs to understand that the situation in Kerala is entirely opposite to the rest of the country. If a pro-BJP or pro-Hindutva line is taken for any news hour discussion in any channel here, no one will watch it. At the same time, if its an anti-BJP line, the TRPs will shoot up. This is still the reality among viewers in Kerala which every journalist understands very well. So unless the party takes steps the status quo will never change," says Haridas.

Many journalists like Haridas also say that the inability of the state leadership of the BJP to reach out to the mainstream journalists in a much more accommodative way is also a primary reason for this suspicion and mistrust still sticking around.

Post the 1980s during the tenure of KG Marar as party president, he used to reach out to even those journalists who reported against the partys interests. Slowly things had become better for the party. This personal rapport is an essential for any political party. But this leadership has failed in it," said Haridas.

The other side of the coin

Even when the BJP thinks the traditional media is against them what is perhaps costing the party dear is the vicious and dirty campaign unleashed upon journalists by a section who call themselves as the sympathisers of the party through the social media.

Noted anchors of television channels have been at the receiving end merely because they had the gumption to discuss matters and create the ground for guests to express opinions that do not fall in line with the Hindutva agenda.

The latest being the case of Manorama TVs Shani Prabhakaran. Her continuous barrage of questions during prime time discussion had put two state BJP leaders in a spot and for that she had to pay a heavy price over the social media.

From abusing posts to outright sexual taunts, Prabhakaran was put through tremendous stress by a cyber group called Kavi Pada, translated as Saffron Army.

Last year in March, Sindhu Sooryakumar who is now the deputy executive editor at Asianet News, the states number one news channel in terms of viewership, had to pass through a more vicious campaign against her where she received close to 2,500 threat calls over a week. All this because she has discussed the then HRD minister Smriti Iranis Parliament comments on Mahishasura.

Though there was police action resulting in the arrest of a few alleged Sangh Parivar workers, the case is yet to reach anywhere.

Even when the BJP claims it has had no role to play in such cases, it hardly expresses anguish publicly over such developments. In Sooryakumars case, her attackers were garlanded by Sangh Parivar workers outside the police station.

See I had told the BJP president then also that if it was not your party that was involved in this, why dont u disown and condemn it in strong terms. You can also check whether I did anything wrong in that discussion. But no one responded to it. Thats how pathetic things are, Sindhu Sooryakumar told Firstpost.

But the top leadership of the BJP now says the party is indeed worried about the image wreck that it is suffering at the hands of those who are using the social media to attack journalists in their name. But it is a claim which many veteran journalists are not ready to buy into.

"This is the same agenda of polarisation which the BJP used over social platform across India when they brought Modi to power. Surely they are hoping such social media blitzkrieg would work in Kerala too. But actually it is proving to be counterproductive which will hurt them in the long run," veteran journalist BRP Bhaskar told Firstpost.

The BJP, after all, cannot wash off its hands entirely. Early this month, Mathrubhumi TVs chief reporter in Thiruvananthapuram was in trouble over a comment he made against the RSS, minutes after the attack on Yechury.

The reporter had commented on a WhatsApp group of journalists based in the capital city that it should be reported that it was RSS who attacked Yechury and not anyone else.

The merits of his comments are debatable but what followed against him was a tirade by a little-known organisation of lawyers based in Kochi who filed a police complaint about inciting all the violence that shook Kerala post the Yechury attack, angering even those who had argued in the BJPs favour all the while.

It was later revealed that those behind the attack were indeed not the usual social media suspects but a highly organised intelligentsia of the Sangh Parivar headed by one of its senior ideologues in the state who even uses mainstream media to run such campaigns.

The who's who of the Thiruvananthapuram media fraternity flocked to the BJP state president to register protest and convey the message that the party was indeed distancing itself from the media with such actions. But the BJP once again conveniently distanced itself from the whole incident as it had always been doing.

See there are elements which are doing this and causing a huge headache for the party. They have no mandate from the part. So there isnt anything we can do, the state president is said to have told the scribes.

But the top brass in Delhi can hardly be in denial mode and sources say that a message has been sent across to the state leadership.

At the national level, the party might have been taking extra efforts to keep the media in good spirits. But the state unit has only been successful in antagonising majority of the journalists for whom the BJP is still a party from the north of the Vindhiyas.

Also the mouthpieces of the party in the state both at the print and television levels are hardly professional enough to raise the bar and get acceptance for it across the masses.

Unless the party turns a new leaf in its relation with the very powerful vernacular media in Kerala, it would never be easy for the party to make a space for itself among the people of the state.
The BJP juggernaut rolls on in the North East. The party, which has been gathering momentum after its thumping election win in Assam and a less spectacular victory in Manipur, is now looking to repeat its performance in Meghalaya, the hill state where elections are due next year.

But the BJP's victory march may encounter a roadblock because of the partys relentless pursuit of its Hindutva agenda.

The Centres obsession with protecting the cow, the strict norms laid down for the sale and purchase of cows and buffaloes has frightened the Christian states of the North East, where beef is a staple and the only protein available in rural homes.

The three main tribes living in Meghalaya  Khasis, Jaintias and Garos  are mainly Christians and eat beef.

Since Independence, the tribal states of the region have not been asked to implement the provisions of the "beef ban" bill, which the majority of other states had implemented through state legislatures. Nothing has changed in the region.

Beef is still readily available, but in politics perception is reality. The fear that the BJP at the Centre may bring in beef restrictions through the back door is very real across the North East, particularly Meghalaya.

"Naturally, there is a lot of concern about the government's obsession with protecting the cow. As beef is a staple in Meghalaya, people are afraid that the day may come when their food habits are restricted, said RG Lyngdoh, vice-chancellor, Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong. He said that the local population would have been more agitated if the state wasn't currently in election mode.

"Now the entire issue is getting muddied because of election rhetoric. The BJP is blaming the Congress for spreading rumours and trying to take advantage of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals bill to spread fear among the people, he added.

The Meghalaya Assembly recently passed a unanimous resolution against the new bill. The state has been under Congress rule for over a decade. People want change and the BJP has been gathering its strength ever since it swept Assam. The BJP has been working assiduously in Meghalaya, with party functionaries flying down from Delhi nearly every month to talk to groups of citizens or having small town hall meetings.

Despite peoples initial concerns about the BJP promoting Hindutva, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a big push to development in his 2014 election campaign, the mood in Meghalaya changed dramatically. Many of their former apprehensions were quelled and citizens began looking to the BJP to provide both development and good governance.

However, stories of cow vigilante groups rampaging across north India have frightened people. The Centres introduction of the new rule for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulations of livestock markets) Rules 2017, have brought back the original apprehensions about the BJP being a Hindu majority party, which could dent the BJPs growing support base in Meghalaya.

Though every BJP leader who visits the state has been reassuring the people that the cattle sale restriction bill would not be introduced in Meghalaya, there are few takers. The old suspicion that the BJP is anti-Christian and anti-Northeastern tribal groups and is bent on stopping the consumption of beef, is gaining ground.

The beef consumed in Meghalaya comes from other states. The beef is brought up to Guwahati by train and then taken "on hooves" through the three hour trip to Shillong. Recently, when a government-owned farm in Meghalaya ordered some milch cows for breeding from Tamil Nadu, the train carrying the cows was stopped in Orissa. Those escorting the animals were attacked by an irate mob. Thankfully, nobody was killed.

"These kind of incidents add to our anxiety, said James Warjiri, a retired government employee. "We realise that though the new order may have no bearing in Meghalaya, the impact will certainly be felt in states from where we source the animals for slaughter. We fear that in days to come, the strict conditions under which cattle and buffaloes are bought and sold will impact the markets. Once this happens, transporting cows or buffaloes for slaughter to Meghalaya may become increasingly difficult. Prices will go up and what is now the poor mans meat will become much more expensive.

In rural areas smoked beef is plentifully consumed. Beef is the cheapest of meats, and rural folk dry the beef on their fireplaces and eat it with rice. Pork is the most popular meat in these areas but is expensive. So is mutton, though chicken is relatively cheap. Beef is simple, nourishing and inexpensive. Smoked beef can be stored for months.

Despite apprehensions about the "beef ban", there have been no major resignations from the party in the Khasi areas. However in the Garo hills, there have been a spate of resignations from the BJP, including that of Bernard Marak, district president of the West Garo hills.

Despite the worries about the new rules brought in by the Centre, it is far too early to write off the BJP in Meghalaya.

Much will depend on whether the party can convince the people that the new laws will never be implemented in the North East.
Panaji: Goa Congress chief Luizinho Faleiro has tendered his resignation from the post, claiming that some MLAs feel that his continuation was "creating hindrance" to the formation of party's government in Goa.

"In fact, a couple of senior leaders within the party had publicly stated that Congress would not get more than two seats in the 2017 Assembly election," Faleiro has said in his resignation letter sent to party president Sonia Gandhi.

"On the contrary, the Congress emerged as the single largest party with 17 seats. Now these same leaders are claiming that they can form the government in the present scenario," the former chief minister said.

"We hope we can accomplish this claim. However, as some of the MLAs feel that my continuation (in the post) creates a hindrance to the formation of the government, I would request you to relieve me of my responsibilities," said Faleiro, who successfully fought recent assembly polls from Navelim assembly constituency.

Faleiro has recalled that during his previous correspondence and discussions on 5 June, 2017, he had pleaded to be relieved of the post of president of Goa Pradesh Congress Committee.

The former All India Congress Committee secretary in-charge of North East, Faleiro was sent to Goa in 2014. "You will be happy to see that not only we rebuild the party organisation from a scratch but also rebuilt every Congress block, districts, pradesh committee, frontal organisations and other departments," Faleiro said in his resignation letter.
Here comes a twist in the tail from Darjeeling: Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling has lent his support to those demanding statehood for Gorkhaland. In an official communique sent to the Centre, Chamling said, "The fulfillment of the constitutional demand of the people of Darjeeling hills will provide long awaited justice to their patriotism."

The Sikkimese twist to the Darjeeling narrative is extremely important from a historical perspective: It was the Raja of Sikkim who had "gifted" Darjeeling to the East India Company way back in 1835. And can you imagine what the Raja received in return? One double barreled gun, one rifle, one piece of red-broad cloth measuring 20 yards, two pairs of shawl (one of superior quality and the other of inferior quality)! What a magnanimous gift parcel from the then governor general!

The Raja wasn't happy. He approached the governor general for better reimbursement. In 1841, the government granted the Raja an allowance of Rs 3,000 per annum as compensation. This amount was raised to Rs 6,000 in 1846. The Raja accepted it grudgingly. For he needed to be on the good books of the British for strategic reasons.

The Official Deed that was agreed upon by the two parties makes an even more interesting reading: "The governor general, having expressed his desire for possession of the hill of Darjeeling on account of its cool climate, for the purpose of enabling the servants of his government, suffering from sickness, to avail themselves of its advantages, the Sikkim puttee Raja, out of friendship for the said governor general, hereby presents Darjeeling to the East India Co. that is, all the land south of the great Rangeet River, east of the Balason, Kahail and Little Rangeet rivers, and west of the Rungno and Mahanadi rivers."

But forget all these. That is history. The British Raj and the Raja of Sikkim are all gone. And the clock can't be turned back.

What matters more is that, at present, a headstrong woman, Mamata Banerjee, sits on the saddle in Kolkata, rekindling the flame of Bengali pride and might. It's obvious that she views history from a different angle; the powers that be haven't been fair to Bengal down the ages. The state has had to face painful splits and partitions time and again. The first time it happened was in 1905, when the then viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, ordered division of the state into two parts  Muslim majority eastern region, and Hindu majority western areas.

Following huge protests by masses who described the move as "an attempt to strangle Bengali nationalism", Bengal was reunited in 1911. But under the new arrangement, a division on linguistic  and not religious  grounds took place. As a result, states of Orissa, Bihar and Assam were carved out. And a few years later, India's capital was shifted from Calcutta to New Delhi.

Now you know why Mamata Banerjee is so angry. Like any other Bengali Bhodrolok, she just can't bear yet another division of Bengal, whatever be the reasons.

Mark the words she uttered extempore at a function held to honour journalists in Kolkata earlier this week: "Bangla ke bhaag hote debo na (I will not let Bengal be divided, come what may). Can't you see that in Darjeeling, reporters are being kidnapped? The so called agitators possess sophisticated arms and ammunition. They want to terrorise me with guns. I want to tell them that I'll snatch away their guns. These arms are not collected in a day; they have connections with north eastern insurgents. There are some other countries involved but I shall not reveal everything here. I'll only say that I will give my life if need be, but I will not let them break Bengal. The court has held that the bandh is illegal. But they listen to none  not even courts. I appeal to my brothers and sisters in the Hills not to support the terrorists."

She was determination personified.

Clearly, she knew that she was a much bigger mass leader in Bengal today compared to what she was in the pre-Darjeeling agitation. The Opposition, which includes BJP, Congress and the Left parties, has been caught wrong-footed completely. They all are faced with a dilemma: If they support creation of Gorkhaland, the Bengali masses would turn against them. And if they don't, Mamata would get stronger.

The latest news from north Bengal is that the 'Queen of Hills' continues to be on the boil. A case of murder, arson, assault on police personnel and conspiracy to incite violence on 17 June has been filed against Bimal Gurung and his wife Asha. Internet services remain suspended. And cable television channels have also gone off the air.

And the epic clash of histories continues to be played out in West Bengal. Unendingly.
Kolkata: West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Saturday claimed that the ruling Trinamool Congress is not willing to resolve the Darjeeling unrest to gain political benefit in the region by trying to create a divide between Nepali and Bengali communities.

Ghosh, who earlier advocated a tripartite meeting between the Central and state governments and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leaders to resolve the unrest, alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government is trying to fuel "anti-Nepali sentiment" among the Bengalis living in north Bengal.

"The state government is not willing to discuss the Darjeeling unrest because they do not want to solve it. The issue gives them political benefit," Ghosh told IANS.

"They are trying to create a divide between the Nepali community and the Bengalis living in the hills. North Bengal is not a stronghold of Trinamool. That's why they are trying to strengthen their base by fuelling anti-Nepali sentiment," he said.

Taking a swipe at Chief Minister Banerjee, the BJP leader said that "it's funny she had to depend on the army, which she once termed as extortionists, to save her face in Darjeeling".

"The state police have no role in the hills now. They have been driven away to the plains. The army has been called in to maintain law and order," Ghosh said.

The picturesque Darjeeling district in the northern West Bengal is on the boil for more than two weeks over demands for a separate state of Gorkhaland. It has been facing an indefinite shutdown for the last 10 days.

While GJM, which is spearheading the movement for Gorkhaland, has repeatedly rejected any possibility of talks with the state government accusing it of "oppression and high handedness", the state government maintains that it is ready for a discussion after the situation in the area becomes normal.
Bhopal: Congress on Saturday demanded the resignation of Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra in the wake of the Election Commission (EC) order disqualifying him for three years. "In view of the EC order, he should immediately resign from the Cabinet," the leader of Opposition, Ajay Singh, told PTI.

The Election Commission disqualified Mishra from contesting polls for filing wrong accounts of election expenditure in the 2008 assembly polls. His election from the Datia Assembly constituency also stands void. "It has been proved how the BJP ministers are winning the polls," Singh said. Mishra is Water Resources and Legislative Affairs minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.

Arun Yadav, who is the state Congress president, claimed that the case against Mishra was related to paid news. "MP Minister Narottam Mishra disqualified for three years by poll panel for paid news in elections. Big setback for BJP in MP," All India Congress Committee (AICC) legal, human rights and RTI cell chairman and senior advocate Vivek Tankha said in a tweet.

MP Minister Narottam Mishra disqualified for 3 years by poll panel for paid news in elections. Big set back for BJP in MP.  Vivek Tankha (@VTankha) June 24, 2017

The Aam Aadmi Party's Madhya Pradesh unit also demanded the resignation of the minister. However, BJP chief spokesman Deepak Vijaywargiya said the party is studying the EC order and will comment only after that on the matter. An officer close to the minister said that he is exploring legal options against the EC order. Considered as number two in the state cabinet, headed by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Mishra also holds the charge of Public Relations Department.

Mishra was first elected as MLA in 1990. He was elected to Assembly again in 1998 and 2003, and inducted as minister for the first time in the then chief minister Babulal Gaur's cabinet in 2005. He continued during Chouhan's tenure. The complaint against Mishra was filed by former MLA Rajendra Bharti in 2009 for allegedly adopting corrupt practices in 2008 Assembly elections.

Bharti in his complaint said that Mishra had not shown in his poll expenses details of amount spent on election-related advertisements which comes under the category of paid news. He had contested the Assembly polls against Mishra from Datia Assembly seat in 2008 and also in 2013. Bharti lost the polls on both the occasions and filed a complaint of alleged corrupt practices adopted by Mishra under The Representation of the People Act, 1951.
New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party leader (AAP) Kumar Vishwas did not attend an Iftar party organised by the Delhi government on Friday.

Vishwas told reporters that he was not invited to the Iftar organised by the Delhi Government and Urdu Academy, Delhi.

Urdu Academy's Vice Chairman Majid Deobandi said an invitation was sent to Vishwas via speed post.

Vishwas had attended the Iftar organised by the Delhi government in 2015 and 2016.

Deobandi said he had also invited former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, BJP leader Manoj Tiwari, former lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung and present LG Anil Baijal, BJP legislators as well as Vice President Hamid Ansari.

Ansari did not come due to the presidential election, Deobandi said, adding that he did not know about others why they did not attend the event.

AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh also did not attend the gathering.

As per party sources, they were busy with some personal work.
New Delhi: The monsoon session of Parliament will commence on 17 July the day when voting for the presidential election will take place.

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) has recommended holding the session from 17 July to 11 August, according to sources in the committee.

The CCPA meeting, that was chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, was held on Friday evening after National Democratic Alliance (NDA) presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind filed his nomination papers.

Although the House might not function on the first day of the session on account of death of two sitting Members of Parliament  Lok Sabha member Vinod Khanna and Rajya Sabha member Pallavi Reddy.

Police firing on protesting farmers in Mandsaur, demands for farm loan waivers and ban on cattle slaughter at animal markers could be among the issues Opposition parties would raise in the House
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Mumbai: The Shiv Sena skipped the filing of nomination papers by the NDA's candidate Ram Nath Kovind for presidential poll on Friday as it didn't want the BJP to take its regional ally for granted on the issue, said a highly-placed source in the Uddhav Thackeray-led party.

Interestingly, the source of the Sena, which had in 2007 and 2012 backed the then UPA nominees during the presidential polls, suggested the party has extended support to Kovind reluctantly and it would still have preferred nomination of either RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat or veteran agriculturist MS Swaminathan, whose names it had suggested earlier.

Officially, Sena has stated there was no specific reason behind not attending the event.

Speaking to PTI, Sena spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut said, "I and Anand Adsul (party MP) have been in Delhi for the two days. We signed as proposers on the nomination form (of Kovind) and returned to Mumbai only yesterday. There was no specific reason why we did not attend Kovind's filing of nomination papers today. We just didn't go."

For his part, Adsul, who was among proposers, blamed "miscommunication" regarding the timing of the event as the reason for not attending it.

When Kovind's candidature was announced by the BJP, Thackeray had initially said his party was against backing him if his nomination was aimed at garnering Dalit votes. However, a day later, Thackeray changed his tack and extended support to the NDA's pick for the top office.

Sena, a key constituent of the NDA, shares an uneasy relationship with the BJP as it couldn't reconcile to the reality of the BJP's spectacular ascent to power at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

Raut said Sena still sticks to the names of Bhagwat and Swaminathan.

"...The BJP chose somebody else (instead of Bhagwat or Swaminathan) which is OK. Once he (Kovind) is nominated as the presidential candidate, he is above all party politics," Raut said.

In a bid to needle the BJP, Sena had proposed the name of Bhagwat on Hindutva line as the likely nominee for the presidential poll. However, as the RSS chief didn't show any inclination, the party proposed the name of Swaminathan who too didn't show any interest.

According to the source, who is believed to have Thackeray's ears, another reason for the party not attending the nomination filing event was that it wanted to send a message to the BJP that the latter is dependent on Sena's support in the matters of the national importance.

"We have already announced our support for Kovind and even signed as proposers. However, the BJP had to be given a message that however powerful it may be, it would still need our support in the matters of the national importance," he said.

Kovind on Friday filed his nomination papers before the Lok Sabha secretary general in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 15 chief ministers, many Union ministers, besides a galaxy of the BJP leaders.
Lucknow: The NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will visit Uttar Pradesh on Sunday to seek support from members of both the Houses of the state where preparation is on for smooth conduct of voting, slated for 17 July.

Kovind's visit to Uttar Pradesh, which has the highest value of each vote in the presidential election, is part of his nation-wide tour during which he will talk to members of the electoral college that votes for the new president.

The electoral college includes elected members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, states, union territories and the NCT region of Delhi.

"All necessary steps are being taken to make foolproof arrangement before the presidential election", a senior official of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly said.

An Election Commission team also took stock of the preparations and held meeting with Vidhan Sabha officials in Delhi on Friday evening, the official said.

It would be the first time, a special pen and ink would be brought to Lucknow from Delhi to be used by voters to mark their preference of candidates.

For presidential elections, votes are marked in a preferential order which is then counted to declare the winner.

Kovind's programmes in the state on Sunday is yet to be finalised, sources said, adding he would be meeting MPs , MLAs of the BJP, its allies as also leaders of other political parties.

He is likely to go to Uttarakhand from here, they said.

Since the NDA's presidential pick hails from Kanpur Dehat district of the state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said it is an honour that the son of Uttar Pradesh would be occupying the presidential office.

Kovind had been active in the Uttar Pradesh unit of BJP and was even appointed the general secretary when Laxmikant Bajpai was the party's state chief. But, he chose to switch to the party's central unit.

After the Narendra Modi government came to power, he was appointed the Bihar Governor, from where he resigned after being named the NDA's presidential nominee.
Patna: Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday lauded Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for sticking to his stand on supporting the NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind and urged him to join the BJP-led alliance.

Kumar not only ruled out any change in his stand on Friday but also attacked the Congress for propping up 'Bihar ki beti' Meira Kumar as the opposition's candidate for a "lost cause".

"Nitish ji spoke rightly that opposition parties have deliberately made Meira Kumar their candidate for presidential poll for a definite defeat," the Union Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution minister told reporters in Patna.

"When power was in their (Congress) hands during the 10 years of UPA rule, in which Lalu Prasad was a part, why did they not remember the 'Bihar ki Beti' (Meira Kumar) then," Paswan, the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president and a prominent dalit leader, said.

He said it was only after Kovind's name came up as the NDA nominee that the opposition forwarded Meira Kumar's name.

Paswan, who is in Patna to host an iftar party on behalf of LJP, an NDA ally, welcomed Nitish Kumar's decision to support Kovind and invited him in the NDA fold.

"We urge him (Kumar) not to put his legs on two boats. He should come to the NDA at the earliest (and) we would welcome him," he said.

"With him joining the NDA, the alliance would gain strength and it would be good for Bihar too," Paswan, who is MP from Hajipur, said.
Ahmedabad: Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday slammed the Opposition for terming the presidential election as a fight of ideology, saying the President should have only one ideology  the Constitution of India.

Seventeen non-NDA parties have chosen former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar for President against the NDA's candidate Ram Nath Kovind.

Both Kovind, who hails from Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur, and Kumar, a resident of Bihar, belong to the Dalit community.

The Congress-led opposition on Friday said it would contest the presidential election on the basis of ideology and appealed to all secular forces to support Kumar.

"The President will have and should have only one ideology  the Constitution of India ... Maintain the dignity of the institution, follow the Constitution. That's all. Where is the question of an ideological fight?" Naidu replied to a question from reporters in Ahmedabad.

The information and broadcasting minister said apart from the NDA parties, Kovind has the support of other non-NDA parties like JD(U), BJD, AIADMK (both factions), and YSRCP.

He hoped more parties will support the NDA candidate.

The minister said the NDA parties are united in their support for Kovind, while the Opposition is divided.

"We are united. They are divided ... We are confident. They are diffident ... We are marching forward. They are looking backward. That is why their situation is awkward," he said.
Chandigarh: Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar on Saturday alleged that the Akalis and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had played a "fixed match" in the run up to the Assembly polls and doing the same thing in the Assembly.

Members of the opposition SAD-BJP and the AAP walked out of the Punjab Assembly on Friday to protest the "denigration of Sikh principles" the day before when some MLAs were forcibly evicted from the house.

"Both the parties had reduced the Assembly to a battleground due to their inter and intra-party power tussle",Jakhar said at a conference here.

He lashed out at the opposition for "making a mockery" of the Assembly and demanded an unconditional apology from them for "undermining the sanctity" of the House and the Speaker.

Jakhar asked since the nexus between the SAD and the AAP has been exposed, will Sukhbir Singh Badal withdraw the defamation case against Arvind Kejriwal, who had accused ex-minister Bikram Singh Majithia of drug smuggling.

He asked will the former chief minister apologise for making derogatory statement against the Speaker and will he come to the Vidhan Sabha to take charge of the Opposition.

Asked why the Congress government had did not arrest Majithia, Jakhar said the government could not act merely by perception, adding it has to follow the due process of law.

The Congress government is systematically initiating inquiries and action against mafias who had mushroomed during the Akali rule, he said, adding the government will not be vindictive but no mafia would be spared.

On the ruckus during the budget session of the Assembly which ended on Friday, Jakhar said Parkash Singh Badal had not been coming to the House and the AAP was suffering because of its internal power tussle.

The power struggle in the SAD would intensify in the coming days as SGPC chief Kirpal Singh Badungar is trying to establish a foothold in the political arena. The Badals have failed to give the SAD the much-needed leadership, he said.

The Congress leader said he would urge the Speaker and the Chief Minister to create an "honorary Opposition leader position" in the Assembly, as Badal was finding it difficult to attend the proceedings due to an identity crisis after being relegated to the third place in the House.

He also requested the Speaker to be lenient towards the AAP members as most of them are first-timers in the Assembly.

Asserting that the language used by Sukhbir Singh Badal against the Speaker as "most unfortunate", Jakhar said the former deputy chief minister had exploited the inexperience of AAP MLAs to his advantage and was crying over something that was of his own making.

Jakhar also accused Majithia of trying to communalise the turban issue and urged the Akalis not to indulge in such acts.

On Thursday, when the speaker had ordered that AAP MLAs be taken out of the Assembly by marshals, turbans of some of the members had come off in the melee.

The entire incident was unfortunate, but the fact was that during the Akali rule, Congress MLAs were stopped by the speaker from entering the Assembly premises, Jakhar alleged.

"Nobody wanted forcible eviction and, in fact, the Speaker showed remarkable restraint, the step was taken only after all his pleas fell on deaf ears", he said.

Jakhar further said Sukhbir crossed the House floor thrice during the Assembly session and could have be debarred on technical grounds, but neither the Speaker nor the ruling party made an issue of it.

The state congress chief alleged, "The entire drama was enacted during the budget session to prevent the government from making important announcements".

However, both the government and the Congress have sent out a strong message that all the poll promises would be kept, he said.

Jakhar said the manner in which the chief minister has fulfilled the farm loan waiver promise, despite the state finances being in in a pitiful state, was commendable and should be appreciated even by the Badals.
Abuja: Nigeria's intelligence service on Saturday said it had thwarted a plan to target Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan after fears that Boko Haram was planning a major attack.

The Department of State Services (DSS) said two men were arrested in a dawn raid on Friday on suspicion of plotting an attack on the northern city of Kano.

A third man, described as an "explosive expert", was arrested in Kano state on Tuesday, DSS spokesman Tony Oyuipo said in an emailed statement.

"Their plan, together with others now at large, was to assemble the explosives and use them on select targets during the Eid al-Fitr celebrations," he added.

Among the items recovered were eight AK-47 assault rifles, 27 hand grenades, nearly 800 rounds of live ammunition, a gas cylinder, vehicles, laptop and a mobile phone. The arrests had "nipped in the bud" potential end-of-Ramadan attacks in Kano, Sokoto, the northern city of Kaduna and Maiduguri, in the northeast, said Oyuipo.

"Terrorist elements" had been plotting "a series of coordinated attacks using explosives on different cities", he added.

Markets, public parks, processions, mosques and Muslim prayer grounds were said to be targets.

Boko Haram was not named in the statement but it has repeatedly attacked similar "soft targets" packed with civilians in the past.

Nigeria's military has said the group, whose insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead and more than 2.6 million homeless since 2009, is on the verge of defeat. But Boko Haram has continued to mount sporadic raids and suicide bombings, including on 19 June, when at least 16 people were killed near a camp for the displaced just outside Maiduguri.

Earlier this month, security sources told AFP the group was planning a surprise attack in Kano on Eid al-Fitr, which is known in Nigeria as Sallah.

In July 2014, Eid festivities were cancelled in Kano after two deadly bomb attacks in the city blamed on Boko Haram.

In Maiduguri on Saturday, Borno state police spokesman Victor Isuku said security would be tightened over the weekend, banning the movement of all vehicles in the city. "This restriction, though regrettable, is necessary in view of recent security concerns," he added.
Washington: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had top-level intelligence in August 2016 that Russian president Vladimir Putin personally ordered an operation to help Donald Trump win the United States presidential race, the Washington Post has reported.

The intelligence shocked the White House and put United States security chiefs on a top-secret crisis footing to figure out how to react.

But amid confidence that Democrat Hillary Clinton still had the election in the bag and worries over president Barack Obama himself being seen as manipulating the election, the administration delivered warnings to Moscow but left countermeasures until after the vote, the Post reported on Friday.

After Trump's shock victory, there were strong regrets among administration officials that they had shied from tough action.

"From national security people there was a sense of immediate introspection, of, 'Wow, did we mishandle this,'" a former administration official told the newspaper.

The Post said that as soon as the intelligence on Putin came in, the White House viewed it as a deep national security threat. A secret intelligence task force was created to firm up the information and come up with possible responses.

They couldn't do anything about embarrassing WikiLeaks revelations from hacked Clinton emails. The focus turned to whether Moscow could disrupt the 8 November vote itself by hacking voter registration lists or voting machines, undermining confidence in the vote tally itself.

Worried about making the situation worse, the administration put off retaliating, and instead delivered stiff warnings directly to the Russians not to go farther.

At least four direct warnings  Obama to Putin, spy chief to spy chief, and via top diplomatic channels  appeared to have an impact, officials told the Post. They believe that Moscow pulled back on any possible plans to sabotage United States voting operations.

"We made the judgment that we had ample time after the election, regardless of outcome, for punitive measures," a senior administration official told the Post.

Options to retaliate were on the table early: more crippling sanctions on the Russian economy, leaking information that would embarrass Putin diplomatically, and launching cyberattacks on Russian infrastructure were high on the list.

But Trump's shock victory dampened the response.

Obama took modest measures at the end of December, expelling 35 Russians and adding to existing sanctions. He also, according to the Post, authorised a plan to place cyberattack implants in the systems of critical Russian infrastructure.

But it remains unclear, the Post said, whether Trump has followed through with that.

Trump on Friday questioned Obama's response to the Russian hacking crisis.

"Just out: The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?" he posted on Twitter.

In an interview with Fox News program "Fox and Friends" that will air on Sunday, Trump groused that Obama's response did not get more media coverage.

"The CIA gave him information on Russia a long time before they even  before the election. And I hardly see it. It's an amazing thing," Trump said in an excerpt released by the program on Friday evening.

"If he had the information, why didn't he do something about it? He should have done something about it. But you don't read that. It's quite sad."
CAIRO Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pardoned 502 prisoners before the Eid al-Fitr holiday including prominent businessman Hesham Talaat Moustafa, according to a presidential decree issued on Friday.The prisoners to be released include 25 women and "a large number of youth jailed in cases involving protesting and gathering," state news agency MENA reported, without specifying how many.

Since seizing power in mid-2013 from the Muslim Brotherhood, Sisi has presided over a crackdown on Islamist opponents that has seen hundreds killed and many thousands jailed. Activists and liberal opponents have also been imprisoned.A law requiring permission from the Interior Ministry for any public gathering of more than 10 people is strictly enforced and has largely succeeded in ending the kind of mass demonstrations that helped unseat two presidents in three years.

Among those pardoned was Hesham Talaat Moustafa, the former chairman of one of Egypt's largest real estate developers, Talaat Mostafa Group (TMGH.CA).

Moustafa had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for hiring a hitman to kill Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim in 2008. He was pardoned on health concerns, security sources told Reuters.Sisi ordered the interior ministry to implement the decision before the start of the holiday, which immediately follows the holy month of Ramadan that ends this Saturday. (Reporting by Omar Fahmy and Ahmed Mohamed Hassan; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Qatar is reviewing a list of demands presented by four Arab states imposing a boycott on the wealthy Gulf country, but said on Saturday the list was not reasonable or actionable. A Qatari government spokesperson said a formal response would be made by the foreign ministry and delivered to Kuwait.

"We are reviewing these demands out of respect for... regional security and there will be an official response from our ministry of foreign affairs," Sheikh Saif al-Thani, the director of Qatar's government communications office, said in a statement to Reuters.

"This list of demands confirms what Qatar has said from the beginning  the illegal blockade has nothing to do with combatting terrorism, it is about limiting Qatars sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy," Sheikh Saif al-Thani director of Qatar's government communications office

A Qatar semi-government human rights body said the demands were a violation of human rights conventions and should not be accepted by Qatar.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, which imposed a boycott on Qatar, issued an ultimatum to Doha to close Al Jazeera, curb ties with Iran, shut a Turkish military base and pay reparations among other demands.

The statement said US secretary of state Rex Tillerson had recently called upon Saudi Arabia and the other countries to produce a list of grievances that was "reasonable and actionable."

"This list does not satisfy that criteria," it said.

A senior UAE official said on Saturday that if Qatar did not accept the ultimatum, "the alternative is not escalation but parting ways". UAE minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash told reporters that diplomacy, however, was still a priority.
Beijing: "Dialogue between India and China on critical issues has not kept pace with developments leading to gaps filled by innuendo," a top Indian diplomat said as think-tanks of the two countries deliberated on Saturday to stem growing differences on a host of issues straining bilateral ties.

"While we are neighbours and friends, dialogue among us has not quite kept pace with the fast-paced developments of the last half-century," Indian Ambassador to China Vijay Gokhale said at the 2nd India-China think tank meeting in Beijing.

"As the two nations grow rapidly and become the pillars of Asian, if not global, growth and stability, the need for better understanding each other's motivations, concerns and strategic priorities grows even stronger," he said.

A sustained dialogue is a pre-requisite to the "deeply enmeshed relationship", he said.

"We have seen that gaps in understanding due to lack of dialogue are quickly filled by innuendo. Yet, we have also seen in this very relationship that both sides have the wisdom and maturity to confront and solve problems whenever we have engaged each other in honest dialogue," Gokhale said.

A delegation led by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) Director-General Ambassador Nalin Surie on Saturday held the 2nd India-China Think-Tanks Forum organised by the ICWA and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

The delegation, which included former Indian Ambassador to China Ashok Kantha, consisted of Indian scholars and experts on regional, economic, and strategic issues from 11 institutions in India.

They deliberated on strategic communication, bilateral trade and investment cooperation, science and technology and people-to-people exchanges.

After the talks in Beijing, the delegation will proceed to southern Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen for additional exchanges with think-tanks there and site-visits.

The Forum is a bilateral platform established by an MOU during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China in 2015. The first meeting was held in New Delhi last year.

Speaking at the Forum, Surie, who was also former Indian Ambassador to China, said, "we have variety of reasons that requires us to cooperate and collaborate other than enter into needless competition and rivalry".

"We have differences. However, it is necessary to ensure that they do not become disputes but instead converted into opportunities for even greater cooperation," he said.

Referring to a recent meeting between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Surie said, "our leaders are of the opinion that we need to address each others concerns very seriously. We need to take heed of this in our think tank community also."

For its part, China has fielded its top think-tanks to deliberate with their Indian counterparts to look for a way out of growing differences between the two countries, especially on the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), China blocking India's membership bid in the Nuclear Suppliers Group as well as UN ban on Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader Masood Azhar.

Those from the Chinese side who took part in the deliberations included Kong Xuanyou, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Professor Wang Weiguang, President of CASS and Professor Hu Shisheng, the director of the Institute of South and South-east Asian and Oceania Studies of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR).
London: An Indian-origin doctor from the East Midlands region of England has been arrested for allegedly circumcising a baby boy without the mother's consent.

Dr Balvinder Mehat is accused of carrying out a non-therapeutic circumcision or a procedure for religious rather than medical reasons on the three-month old baby believed to belong to the Muslim faith in July 2013.

Nottinghamshire Police had initially turned down the case for insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges. However, earlier this week, the force agreed to re-investigate the case and made two further arrests besides 61-year-old Mehat on Wednesday.

"A 61-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm with intent. A 44-year-old man and a 47-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. They have all been released pending further investigation. Our enquiries are ongoing," Nottinghamshire Police said.

"Where a victim or member of the public feel a decision made by us to discontinue an investigation should be reviewed, we will always welcome an appeal," it added.

It is unclear whether the general practitioner, who is based at Bakersfield Medical Centre in the city of Nottingham, had been told that the boy's parents had consented.

The couple are separated and the procedure is believed to have taken place when the boy was with his fathers family. The police inquiry was reopened this week after protests by campaign group Men Do Complain, which fights against circumcision, and Saimo Chahal, a human rights lawyer.

"The mother did not consent to her son undergoing the circumcision procedure, which could constitute a criminal offence. While some people with religious beliefs see circumcision as normal, there are others who see it as an unnecessary assault which can be physically and psychologically harmful," Chahal said.

The baby boy is now aged four and suffers from a number of recurrent problems, including inflammation and infections, as a result of the circumcision, according to his mother, who is also considering legal proceedings against the general practitioner.

"He was screaming and crying, but trying to comfort him just disturbed the wound and made it worse. I could not believe what they had done to him. He has been mutilated and suffered permanent damage," the 26-year-old unnamed mother said.

"Circumcision is a barbaric, torturous ritual that takes place on innocent boys without their consent," she added.

The mother has also complained to the UK doctors watchdog, the General Medical Council (GMC), which is carrying out an investigation.

Guidelines from the British Medical Association state that both parents should give consent for the non-therapeutic or "ritual" circumcision of children.

If parents disagree, a doctor may only proceed with permission from a UK court. Children old enough to express their opinion should be consulted, and their wishes must be taken into account.

Circumcision is widely practised in both the Jewish and Muslim faiths around the world.

Dr Mehat is yet to make a comment, saying that it would not be appropriate while investigations are ongoing.
Iraq: Suicide bombers attacked a shopping district of east Mosul that was retaken from the Islamic State fighters months ago, killing at least three people, medical and security officials said Saturday.

The attack struck the Muthanna neighbourhood late on Friday as residents shopped ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

"The first suicide bomber blew himself up as he was being stopped by a policeman, who died on the spot," a senior police officer said.

A second bomber managed to enter a shopping arcade and blew himself up among civilians, killing at least two and wounding nine, according to the same officer and a medic at Al-Khansaa hospital.

A third suicide bomber was killed by police before he could detonate his vest, the sources said.

The attack was not the first but among the bloodiest since Iraqi forces retook the eastern side of Mosul in January as part of a massive offensive to wrest back the country's second city from Islamic State.

Residents in areas retaken from the Islamic State fighters have warned that sleeper cells remain a threat and that cursory screening has allowed many Islamic State supporters to return to civilian life without facing justice.

There had been growing calls in east Mosul before Friday night's attack for the families of Islamic State members to be banished for ten years, among other measures.
Tehran: Iran on Saturday condemned a suicide bombing near Islam's holiest site in Mecca and offered Saudi Arabia its assistance in tackling terrorism despite their severed ties.

"Iran as always expresses its readiness to assist and cooperate with other countries to confront these criminals, who deal death and ignorantly spread hate," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said.

Six foreign pilgrims were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, where hundreds of thousands of worshippers had gathered for prayers on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

In dawn raids on Mecca and the Red Sea city of Jeddah officers arrested five suspects, including a woman, before surrounding the bomber's location around the Grand Mosque.

The Saudi interior ministry said a wider plot had been foiled with the arrest of five suspects earlier in the day. Since late 2014, the Kingdom has faced periodic bombings and shootings claimed by the Islamic State group.

Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are locked in a bitter battle for regional influence and have had no diplomatic relations since January last year.

Counter-terrorism capabilities

Near the end of Ramadan last year in the Saudi city of Medina, four security officers died in an explosion close to Islam's second holiest site, the Prophet's Mosque.

It was one of three suicide blasts around the kingdom on the same day, in which a total of seven people were believed killed. The others occurred in Jeddah and in the Gulf city of Qatif.

The United States Central Intelligence Agency said those attacks bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State. Most of the targets in Saudi Arabia have been the Shiite minority and security forces, killing dozens of people.

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks against the kingdom, a member of the United States-led coalition battling the group in Syria and Iraq.

Since July last year police has arrested around 40 people, including Saudis and Pakistanis, for alleged extremist links. Saudi Arabia's counter-terrorism capabilities  which for years were led by Prince Mohammed bin Nayef  are well-regarded internationally.

On Wednesday Prince Mohammed was ousted from his posts of crown prince and interior minister, replaced as heir to the throne by King Salman's son Mohammed bin Salman.

Friday's counter-terrorist operation was the first to take place under the new interior minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef, who is in his early 30s.

Prince Abdulaziz is the nephew of the deposed minister.
Tehran: Both Iran and Qatar on Saturday voiced support for Saudi Arabia over a suicide bombing near Islam's holiest site in Mecca despite their severed ties.

"Iran... as always expresses its readiness to assist and cooperate with other countries to confront these criminals, who deal death and ignorantly spread hate," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said.

The Qatari foreign ministry expressed "solidarity with the brotherly kingdom of Saudi Arabia".

Six foreign pilgrims were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, where hundreds of thousands of worshippers had gathered for prayers on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The Saudi interior ministry said a wider plot had been foiled with the arrest of five suspects earlier on Saturday.

Since late 2014, the kingdom has faced periodic bombings and shootings claimed by the Islamic State group.

Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are locked in a bitter battle for regional influence and have had no diplomatic relations since January 2016.

Saudi Arabia and its allies severed all ties with Qatar earlier in June accusing it of supporting "terrorist groups" in the region, a charge Doha denies.
Dubai: Saudi security forces on Friday foiled a suicide attack on the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, cornering the would-be attacker in an apartment, where he blew himself up, the Interior Ministry said.

In a statement read on state television, the ministry said that three cells had planned the attack on worshippers and security forces at the mosque as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan nears its climax.

The trapped would-be suicide bomber exchanged fire with the security forces, then set off explosives when he was surrounded in a house in the central Mecca neighbourhood of Ajyad al-Masafi near the mosque that had been used as the base for the attack, the ministry said.

The building collapsed, injuring six foreigners and five members of the security forces. Earlier in the day, security forces had shot dead a wanted man at another suspected Islamist militant hideout in Mecca's al-Aseelah neighbourhood. The ministry also said a third cell had been broken up in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, but gave no further details.

Five suspected militants including a woman were arrested, it said. The month of fasting ends with the Eid-al-Fitr holiday, expected to be on Sunday. Saudi monarchs usually spend the last 10 days of Ramadan in Mecca.

Al Arabiya broadcast live footage of Muslim worshippers praying in the mosque, with no interruption. It was not immediately clear who was behind the plot to attack the mosque, but the Islamic State group, which wants to establish a theocratic caliphate ruled according to strict Islamic law, had in the past carried out attacks in the kingdom. In May last year, Saudi security forces shot dead two alleged Islamic State fighters outside Mecca, and two others blew themselves up outside Mecca.
Lisbon: India and Portugal on Saturday announced a 4 million euro joint fund to bolster research in science and technology as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held in-depth talks with his Portuguese counterpart on cooperation in areas like counter-terrorism, space, climate studies and start-ups.

In a joint address to the media after signing 11 bilateral agreements, Modi and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who traces his origin to Goa, said the two countries have made substantial progress since Costa visited India in January.

The agreements signed on Saturday include cooperation in outer space, double taxation avoidance, nanotechnology, improving cultural ties, youth and sports, higher education, scientific research, and setting up of a Portugal-India Business Hub and an Indian Chamber of Commerce in Lisbon.

"The Portuguese economic rebound and strong Indian growth offer excellent opportunities for us to grow together," Modi, the first Indian prime minister in Portugal on a bilateral visit, said.

"We are also determined to deepen our cooperation against terrorism and violent extremism," he said and thanked Lisbon for its "consistent support" for India's bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council and multilateral export control regimes.

Speaking on collaboration in cutting-edge technology, Modi announced the setting up of a joint science and technology fund of 4 million euros.

"Our economic ties continue to follow an upward trajectory, and we can do more for the flow of goods, services, capital and human resources," he said, adding that bilateral trade has grown 17 percent in the past one year.

"We look forward to engaging with Portugal in the Atlantic International Research Centre, both in the Space and Ocean Science fields," Modi said.

These pacts are expected to promote India's ties with Portugal towards the establishment of a unique centre on the Azores Archipelago - the Atlantic International Research Centre, which will act as an innovation hub for transatlantic and north-south cooperation. The goal of the Centre is to provide a shared environment to foster new climate, earth, space and marine research.

With respect to space, cooperation is expected to include development and cooperation of next generation nano and micro satellites. On marine sciences, the project would enable India to study the atmospheric and ocean behaviour of the Atlantic and its linkages with weather patterns including the monsoon.

Modi also announced that India will set up of a Chair for Indian Studies at the University of Lisbon and developing a Hindi-Portuguese dictionary.

"I thank Portugal for sharing a digital version of 12,000 documents comprising exchange of letters between Goa and Portugal in the 17th Century.

"Portugal has emerged as one of the most vibrant ecosystems for entrepreneurship... Start-up sphere here is an interesting space for cooperation. It is a great means to generate value and wealth for society," he said.

Modi said Portuguese Prime Minister Costa represents the best of the Indian diaspora across the world. Portugal has a large Indian-origin diaspora with the Indian community in Portugal estimated at 65,000.

He also praised Indian films having a presence in the country. "Indian films are being subtitled in Portuguese and a Hindi-Portuguese dictionary is being developed for our mutual benefit," Modi said.

Costa said India and Portugal "will make a great deal of progress in digital partnerships."

"A lot of work has been done in six months since I visited India. Great strides have been made in partnerships in economy, science and technology," he said.

Relations between India and Portugal began amicably in 1947 after India's independence and diplomatic relations were established in 1949. Bilateral ties however went into decline after 1950 over Portugal's refusal to surrender its enclaves of Goa, Daman Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli on India's west coast.

But with the signing of a treaty in New Delhi in December 1974, bilateral relations were restored.
Make no mistake about it. Pakistan's statement that Kulbhushan Jadhav has yet again, admitted that he is guilty of espionage by requesting army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa for clemency is the first step towards the gallows.

We always knew Pakistan would milk Jadhav for all they were worth. And they are.

The next rung on that ladder will be an appeal to the Pakistan president. After that it's open season. Anything can happen now that we know Pakistan has no intention of honouring the ruling of the International Court of Justice beyond offering camouflage and some lip service.

Even as India moves on to other issues and the plight of the former naval officer fails to get traction either with the media or the masses, there is one way out to save Jadhav: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the White House.

If Modi can push US president Donald Trump to pressure Pakistan into letting Jadhav go  by getting something that allows them to save face and lets all parties receive plaudits  it could be the prime minister's greatest win.

Modi has a trump card: India's shopping list for military hardware. With a $54 billion budget and $8 billion marked for blue water firepower, Indias movement away from the clutches of second-rate Russian equipment these past sixty years could well jump start Americas military hardware industry. Trump will do more than backslapping and hugging if he feels his Indian guest is not just browsing.

With the Tatas locking in a deal to manufacture America's F-16 Fighting Falcon Block 60s (the oldest active fighter upgrades ever) with Lockheed Martin and the approval of the sale of 22 Guardian drones to India just before Modi touches down, the US has clearly indicated that their store is open for business.

Between missile systems, gunships, stealth frigates, nuclear powered submarines and across the board equipment that gives India enhanced capability for for engaging in urban battles and adds to its swiftness in taking pre-emptive action, the Americans would throw Pakistan and its faux-righteousness under the bus without a second thought and pressure them into letting Jadhav off the hook while showering themselves with praise for their generosity and mercy.

The timing is perfect. This is the end of the holy month and the spirit of Eid affords Pakistan the perfect window to exercise clemency, mercy or grace.

By doing so, Pakistan not only raises its own image on the global stage, but also saves a life and comes out looking reasonable. All the others in this play will go along. Everyone wins. This is what diplomacy is all about.

For Pakistan to not grasp this opportunity to look good as it piously lets Jadhav go and makes India grateful (at least in pretense) would be self-indulgent and shortsighted.

Everything else Modi does is mere fluff. If he can use these two days to get Trump to make that call to Pakistan, this trip would be a triumph.

Make Jadhav your mission, prime minister. Bring our boy home.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares to leave for his first meeting with US president Donald Trump, one of the key topics that is likely to come up for discussion is the stability of Afghanistan, and India's role in this objective. Trump's Afghanistan strategy is yet to be formally declared, but the recent release of three reports  one by the Department of Defence, the second from the United Nations, and the third by the Congressional Research Service  provides some insights into the future of US' policy and India's assistance to Kabul.

All three reports deal with issues vital to determining Indian interests in Afghanistan. The Defence Department report details US missions and threat assessment, as well as areas where American training and funding for the Afghan security forces and institutions have made a difference and where it has not. The Congressional Report lists the issues that US Congress should and would most likely to take up on Afghan policy, while the UN Mission deals with some aspects of interest with regards to political and security developments. Of the various points raised in these three documents, there are some that are of direct interest to New Delhi.

The first is the extent of additional US troop commitments to Afghanistan. Media in Washington has been hinting at an increase of about 3,000-5,000, though this would likely include troop contributions from allies as well. These reports are backed by testimony from General Nicholson, commander of US troops in Afghanistan, at the Senate Armed Forces Committee, that the Pentagon would need a a "few thousand" more troops for at least one part of this mission.

Essentially, US troops in Afghanistan have two missions. Of these, the first is the counter-terrorism (CT) role aimed at degrading the capabilities of the Al-Qaeda and groups "associated" with it. The second is part of the 39 nation effort aimed at stabilising Afghanistan through what is called the "Resolute Support" mission by assisting in the development of the Afghan National Security Forces and specific departments. This, the 'Train, Advise and Assist' role, replaced the combat role of the NATO contingent in 2014.

The CT mission appears to involve about 1,500 troops, which Nicholson said is adequate for its role. This in itself is surprising, since at the height of US involvement, its forces numbered 100,000 in total and were still unable to defeat the Taliban. Moreover, the counter-terrorism mission has been shifting and changing since 2001, with the latest addition to the list of targeted groups being the so-called Islamic State of Khorasan. The original mandate  or the Authorisation to Use Force  came from the US Congress through Public Law 107-40 post the 9/11 attacks. This order does not mention the Taliban, the Islamic State or anyone else. Al-Qaeda was tacked on later as part of a mission statement that pinpointed the group as being responsible for 9/11.

Presidential authority went on to use this law to embrace even US action against Syria, on the basis of the argument that Islamic State was once part of Al-Qaeda and that was therefore an "associated" group. Under the US Constitution (Article II), the President of the United States, as Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces, has certain foreign affairs powers. It has been a matter of serious debate as to to what extent this authorises the president to unilaterally use military force, especially given Congress' Article I war powers, including the power to declare war.

In the Trump presidency, there have been continuing demands for a new authorisation of force by Congress, particularly in the light of the use of the MOAB (Mother of All Bombs) in Afghanistan and air strikes against Syria. The issue is likely to be on the list of subjects on priority for Congress, if there is agreement that its legislative branch should work though recess in August. While Trump and his generals may justly favour a stronger presence in Afghanistan, a partisan Congress may have other ideas. As the CRS report notes, Congress should know the break up of troop allocation, and to what objective the Pentagon intends to use them. It will expect a clear formulation of strategy from the president, and one that will not involve an indefinite stay of US troops in a war that has already been tagged the country's longest.

The US forces' second mission in Afghanistan, which it carries out in conjunction with NATO ( North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) and other supporting countries, appears to have had some significant successes. The DoD report provides a glowing reference to the growth of the Afghan special forces, and to an extent the Afghan Army and Air Force as well. That the latter has little by way of air assets is glossed over, though the report makes it plain that there will not be any more Russian aircraft induction. It puts paid to any tangential security role India might have considered in terms of additional Mi-35s or other Russian equipment. Meanwhile, the report is all praise for the generous development aid that India has provided.

Experts however hint that India  unlike at the beginning of the war 16 years ago  has deeper pockets. New Delhi will have to reach into them to satisfy a US president convinced that freebies are no longer in US interests. Ideally, Indian assistance could be to beef up Afghan intelligence directorate, including the directorate of police intelligence and NASRAT , the National Threat Intelligence Centre. But the US is unlikely to look favourably at such involvement. A via media could be that India could offer to train young officers in collection of technical intelligence. In addition, India could also consider a fund for Afghan enabled and controlled groups, like the National Uprising Forces who perform some security duties on the ground. The fund could build in some clauses on respect for justice and individual liberty.

Meanwhile, China, also in a via media policy, has offered $85 million for a Mountain Brigade in Badakshan. The DoD report notes that this unit in unlikely to be operationalised this year due to political, logistical and other reasons. China's interest in keeping a eye on Badakshan, which controls the only land entry into its Xinjiang province is clear enough. India has the option of offering to fund an army unit or even an entire division in areas of interest. A division operating in Helmand  where narcotic traffickers, Taliban, and Pakistani interests intersect  could be one. This is also one way of dodging any demand for Indian troops on the ground.

All of this  troop commitments or assistance, as well as financial aid from India, revolves around the question of how the US intends to deal with Pakistan. The defence department reports uses typical 'Pentagonese' in allusions to Pakistan. Nicholson is quoted as saying that the biggest external threat to the mission is the "exploitation of ungoverned sanctuaries" outside Afghanistan by terrorists and insurgents. In layman's language, the Pentagon, though accepting that terrorists are sojourning in Pakistan, is also buying into the Pakistan argument (also pushed by the UK) that these areas are outside Pakistan's active control. The CRS report is even more diplomatic. It mentions Pakistan once, and then simply to underline that scholars feel that there is a need to "deal" with it, who is "generally believed to conduct activities that undermines US and Afghan advances". The UN report merely chronicles Pakistan-Afghan bilateral relations. In the face of this exaggerated care, one may be pardoned for assuming that Pakistan is a popular tourist spot for the Taliban, instead of being the single most venomous source for the killers of the Afghan people.

Indian security assistance will also depend on just who is going to be the boss in Kabul in the coming years. The UN report outlines that what little political stability that exists is already on the wane due to approaching elections in early 2019. The Jamaat-e-Islami is factitious and threatening to undercut its own ministers in government. Vice-president Abdul Dostum has been shunted out to Turkey, but his party remains a contender with this son Batur in charge, and the party baying for more posts. The redoubtable Hekmatyar who shed copious tears after the bombing of Kabul, is negotiating with his over-ground faction, the Hezb-e-Islami (Arghandiwal). A successful union could lead to the Hezb becoming the largest political party in Afghanistan. Clearly, more bloodletting is in sight.

Meanwhile the United Nations is not so sanguine as the Department of Defence in assessing the security situation. It unambiguously states that 5,687 incidents of violence were recorded between January and March 2017, the highest ever for that period. The DoD report, however, points out that high profile attacks have gone down by 20 percent in Kabul and 11 percent elsewhere. However, it does note that while Afghan security forces have been able to hold their own, the Taliban remains an "externally enabled and resilient insurgency". It also adds that Afghanistan remains home to some 20 terrorist groups of various persuasions, which add to the complexity of any attempt at forcing the Taliban to the negotiating table. Hopefully, the US will not buy into the specious (and underlying) argument that a Taliban in power will give short shrift to the rest of the terrorist groups and stabilise the country. Nothing could be further than the reality.

The key of course  as the CRS report points out  is the final objective of an increased US force. The reigning expert opinion is that the US needs to coerce the Taliban to the negotiating table, and in tandem, negotiate with Pakistan to ensure that this happens. This strategy has been tried earlier using a far greater number of troops without success. The elephant in the room is that despite acknowledging the "externally enabled" aspect of Taliban resilience, no attempt has been made to seriously coerce Islamabad to change its policies of Taliban sustenance. Americans would do well to draw upon their own recent history.

It was an unambiguous threat from president Bush that forced General Pervez Musharraf to end Pakistan's support to the Taliban, and simultaneously take action against other terrorist groups in 2002. Chinese interests are not misaligned with the US in reining in the Taliban and any other terrorist groups, while recent Russian support to the Taliban is born out of its resurgent foreign policy rather than any perception of the Taliban as a strategic asset. A Taliban that is denied sanctuaries is one that will want to come on board on American and Afghan terms.

These three reports bring out critical points for Indian consideration regarding not only US policy but also issues that will impact Indian action in Afghanistan. It is worth pointing out that India's primary objective in Afghanistan is the establishment of a reasonably friendly government, one that will ensure that Afghanistan does not again become a base for terrorists to attack India. That is precisely the same objective of the US as well. Common ground may not always yield similar strategies. At most, it provides an entry point for India to back a Trump strategy in Afghanistan that ends external meddling. At the least, it ensures a cup of tea and crumpets, and a pretty joint Statement at the end of it.
At 1 pm on a warm Friday afternoon June 23, exactly 600 people in the USA got a lunchtime ping on their phones - a personalised email from India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi which went out mostly to folks in the tristate area of Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland or on their way here for Modi's Sunday afternoon June 25 speech to Indians in America.

This is what it says:

I would be coming to Washington DC for a visit starting 24th June.

During my visit I would be holding talks with President Trump on ways to boost India-USA ties.

On 25th I would be addressing a community programme in Washington DC, where I look forward to interacting with you.

Before we meet in Washington DC, I want to hear from you. Share your ideas and inputs with me on the Narendra Modi Mobile App. I would refer to them during my speech at the community programme on 25th.

You can share your ideas on the specially created Open Forum on the Narendra Modi Mobile App.

Yours,

Narendra Modi

This Sunday, in Trumps backyard, when Modi speaks to an invitation-only gaggle of Indian diaspora in the ultra chic McLean location in Virginia, well see many of those responses on the NM App woven into Modis speech.

Not everyone may respond, not everyone has downloaded the app yet, some have posted it on their social pages for eyeballs and so on but the effort from the PMO side is not just qualitative, its also to simultaneously streamline outside-in content into one bucket rather than multiple sub handles on Facebook and Twitter which has already spun out of control.

Link: Summit of worlds 2 social media champs

Modi's 40 million fans on Facebook (and 30 million follows on Twitter) are force multipliers to the NaMo app.

Even in India, Modi is known to make changes to speeches right until the last minutes before he takes the lectern. What the Indian PM is seeking to do at the diaspora speech takes not just his social media outreach to a new place, it drives home a crucial message on the nature of content itself - 2017 is the year of the user. Find a way to let your user reach you and reward them with social recognition - thats a first baby step to not just talking at communities but reaching them.

User generated content (UGC) in practice is what well see Modi demonstrate from a power pulpit in the USA this weekened.

Well see the coming together of two most followed leaders on social media a top White House official said and slipped in the angle of how Trumps follows are slightly higher.

Modis social media methods in Trumps backyard will not just prove that follow metrics in isolation are barely relevant anymore ( just as egg accounts don't count for much ), it will showcase that those with the power to gather data can put it to great use in modern day politics (or anywhere else) only if they know how much to scrub, what to use, when to make it personal and reach the audience where they are at the time theyre most likely to see your message in a tidal wave of information that comes at us in a hyper-connected age of 4G and 5G mobile connectivity.

This is certainly not the first time Indias PM has used social media for inputs - his Mann ki Baat radio address has been doing that for many months now. In recent times, Modi has asked his followers on the NM app for responses on issues that range from how to reduce food wastage to how we can promote Indian art and crafts.

Link: All about Mann ki Baat, Modi's monthly radio address

In various formats ranging from the big bang Madison Square address to more intimate settings like the USIBC huddle, Modi has always addressed the Indian diaspora on his US trips but this is the first time that itll be UGC-led.

It doesnt stop there.

Modis energetic social media team has stitched together a multi course offering - Modis radio address Mann Ki Baat will also feature this weekend so thats the India point of view playing on loop in multiple formats - audio, video and text during both the morning and evening hours of the Sunday before Modi meets Trump.

Mann Ki Baat first airs at 11 am IST on June 26 IST and Modis Indian diaspora address will be at 11:30 pm IST.

So who came up with the UGC idea? PM did. He said he wants to know what Indians in America are thinking, he wanted to hear directly from them. Its not so much about Indo-UShe just wants to know how they feel about our country, a source told Firstpost.
Lisbon: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived on the first leg of his three-nation tour during which he held talks with his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa to boost bilateral ties.

"Ola Portugal. PM @narendramodi arrives in Lisbon, departing from protocol foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva receives the prime minister," external affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted along with some photographs.

Ola Portugal. PM @narendramodi arrives in Lisbon, departing from Protocol Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva receives the Prime Minister pic.twitter.com/sXYXZHVJ4W  Gopal Baglay (@MEAIndia) June 24, 2017

Advancing bilateral engagements. PM @narendramodi & PM @antoniocostapm discuss ways to further intensify bilateral relations pic.twitter.com/zGaBkYNUq8  Gopal Baglay (@MEAIndia) June 24, 2017

Before leaving for Lisbon, Modi had said during his meeting with Costa, the two leaders will build on their recent discussions and review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions.

Portuguese prime minister Costa tweeted this is an excellent opportunity to review the implementation of the accords agreed during his India visit and sign new agreements.

The highlight of Modi's four-day three-nation visit will be the US leg as Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on 26 June in Washington.

Ahead of his US visit, Modi said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he had tweeted.

My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world. https://t.co/UaF6lbo1ga  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 23, 2017

In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from 25 June was at the invitation of Trump.

Apart from official meetings with Trump and his Cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.

After the US visit, Modi will travel to the Netherlands on 27 June where he will have a meeting with the Dutch prime Minister Mark Rutte and call on King Willem-Alexander and meet Queen Maxima.

This year, the two countries are celebrating 70 years of the establishment of India-Dutch diplomatic relations.

"I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Rutte and reviewing our bilateral relations. I would be exchanging views with PM Rutte on important global issues including counter- terrorism and climate change," Modi said ahead of the visit.
Peshawar/Karachi: Twin blasts tore through a market crowded with Eid shoppers in a mainly Shia town, a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car and militants opened fire on police in separate attacks in Pakistan's three major cities on Friday, killing 73 people and wounding nearly 100.

The suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car near Inspector General of Police Ehsan Mehboob's office in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, killing at least 13 people, including seven policemen, and wounding 21 others.

The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Thirteen people, including seven policemen, died in the suicide car bombing, officials said.

Hours later, two back-to-back blasts tore through a market crowded with the people shopping for Eid in the Shia-dominated Parachinar city in the Kurram tribal region, killing at least 45 people, mostly Shias, and injuring 75 others.

The first blast occurred during rush hour in Turi Market, where a bus terminal is also located. The second blast took place as rescuers and bystanders rushed to aid those who had been hurt in the first explosion.

At least 45 people have been killed and 75 others injured in Parachinar, an official from the Parachinar administration told PTI.

Earlier, Medical Superintendent of the District General Hospital, Parachinar, Sabir Hussain, confirmed the death of at least 25 people and injuries to over 100 in the blasts. More than 20 of the injured were in critical condition.

No group claimed responsibility for the blasts. However, Sunni militant groups have claimed responsibility for several attacks in the area in the past.

On Friday evening two armed men on a motorcycle, with their faces covered with helmets, opened fire on police officers at a roadside restaurant in Karachi and killed four of them.

An assistant sub-inspector was among those killed in the attack, said Superintendent of Police Asif Ahmad.

In Parachinar, officials said the blasts on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramazan targeted people shopping in the area and those heading out of the city ahead of Eid.

The emergency and rescue services shifted injured to Agency Headquarters hospital Parachinar. The security forces cordoned off the entire area and started search operation.

Pakistan Army contingents and FC personnel reached the site of the attack to aid in rescue efforts.

"Two Army aviation helicopters have taken off from Peshawar to Parachinar for the speedy evacuation of the injured to Peshawar", the army said in a statement.

"Rescue operation in progress," it added.

Pakistan Army, meanwhile, launched a countrywide intelligence-led military operation against militants.

Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said that security has been tightened across the country.

"Special Intelligence-Based Operation (IBOs) and search operations (were) launched in coordination with intelligence and other Law Enforcement Agencies", he said.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks, saying that terrorists involved in the attacks will be taken to task and all out efforts will be taken to eliminate terrorism.

President Mamnoon Hussain, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Governor of Balochistan Muhammad Khan Achakzai and former president Asif Ali Zardari, among others, also condemned the attack.

Balochistan government spokesperson Anwarul Haq Kakar told Geo News that the suspected Quetta bomber tried to break a security perimetre to target the police offices but blew up after policemen standing guard attempted to stop him.

Kakar blamed India for the Quetta blast.

An initial investigation report by Civil Defence Director Aslam Tareen revealed that 75 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the Quetta blast.

DIG Quetta Abdul Razzaq Cheema, addressing the media, said they are examining CCTV footage to determine the details of the incident.
Peshawar: Pakistan was in a state of shock after weeks of relative peace as terrorists struck at three cities, killing 62 people and wounding over 100, prompting the army to launch a countrywide crackdown on militants. A suicide bomber on Friday blew up his explosives-laden car near Inspector General of Police Ehsan Mehboob's office in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, killing at least 13 people, including seven policemen, and wounding 21 others. The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Hours later, twin blasts tore through a market crowded with the people shopping for Eid in the Shia-dominated Parachinar city in the Kurram tribal region on Friday, killing at least 45 people, mostly Shias, and injuring 75 others.

Banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Sunni militant group linked with the Taliban took responsibility for the attack. The first blast occurred during rush hour in Turi Market, where a bus terminal is also located. The second blast took place as rescuers and bystanders rushed to aid those who had been hurt in the first explosion. At least 45 people have been killed and 80 others injured in Parachinar, an official from the local administration said.

Officials said the blasts on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramazan targeted people shopping in the area and those heading out of the city ahead of Eid. Separately in the evening, three militants riding on two motorbikes killed four policemen in a restaurant in Karachi. Police said that a banned group was involved in killing of cops in Karachi but did not identify the attackers.

However, pamphlets found from the spot of attack in Karachi showed that previously little known outfit Ansar al-Sharia Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack. It also warned to launch an operation against security forces. It appears to be in retaliation for Radd-ul Fassad operation launched by security forces earlier this year to eliminate the facilitators of militants.

The Pakistan Army launched a countrywide intelligence-led military operation against militants. Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said that security has been tightened across the country. "Special Intelligence-Based Operation (IBOs) and search operations (were) launched in coordination with intelligence and other law enforcement agencies," he said. Ghafoor also said that Afghan soil was used to launch the attacks. "Recent terrorist incidents linked to sanctuaries across (the Pak-Afghan border)," he said.

Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa said, "Enemy (was) trying to mar festive mood of the nation through such cowardly acts." He also said that the enemy would "fail against resilience of Pakistan." The word "enemy" is reserved for India but sometimes it is also used for those using Afghanistan for anti-Pakistan activities. The attacks were condemned by all parties.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks, saying that terrorists involved in the attacks will be taken to task and all out efforts will be taken to eliminate terrorism. On 31 March, a car bomb blast near an Imambargah of Shia Muslims killed 23 people and injured 70 others in Parachinar. In January, 25 people were killed and 87 others when a bomb tore through a crowded vegetable market in the same city.
New York: The United Nations on Friday offered to step in to help resolve a deepening crisis in the Gulf after Qatar was confronted with a list of demands from its neighbors, including the closure of Al-Jazeera television.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier this week had been adamant that Kuwait was best placed to lead efforts to defuse the crisis.

Tensions escalated, however, after Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates presented a list of demands to Qatar overnight.

These included the closure of Al-Jazeera, a downgrading of diplomatic ties with Iran and the shutdown of a Turkish military base in the emirate, according to the list that was leaked.

"We hope that the countries involved resolve the situation through dialogue", said UN spokeswoman Eri Kaneko.

"We are ready to assist if requested by the parties."

The list of demands has not been officially confirmed.

"We continue to follow the situation with deep concern. We are aware of reports of a list of demands on Qatar. We are not able to comment in detail on, or confirm such a list", added Kaneko.

Anwar Gargash, the UAE's state minister for foreign affairs, warned that Qatar should take the demands seriously or face "divorce" from its Gulf neighbors.

Qatar is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

On 5 June, Saudi Arabia and the UAE led a severing of all links with Qatar for allegedly supporting groups, including some backed by Iran.

Other allies, including Bahrain and Egypt, followed.

Saudi Arabia regularly accuses Iran, its regional rival, of interference throughout the Middle East.
By Silene Ramirez and Andreina Aponte

| CARACAS

CARACAS A man describing himself as a former boss and friend of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday urged an investigation into the killing of his son in anti-government unrest convulsing the OPEC nation for nearly three months.David Vallenilla, 22, was shot at close range by a military police sergeant on Thursday, apparently with rubber bullets, as youths tried to pull down the fence around an air force base in Caracas and threw rocks at officials who had fired tear gas from inside.Maduro's critics said the killing was further evidence of abuse by security forces after protests since April by demonstrators demanding general elections to end 18 years of socialist rule in the South American country amid a deepening economic and political crisis.At least 76 people have been killed in the protests so far."I want to speak to my former colleague of the Caracas Metro, Nicolas Maduro, you know that we worked together, I'm Supervisor Vallenilla ... I was your boss," said the slain protester's father, also named David Vallenilla, referring to the years when Maduro worked as a bus driver."I want to make sure this is resolved Nicolas, please, he wasn't a criminal, he was a graduating student ... please friend," the elder Vallenilla told reporters outside a morgue as tears streamed down his face. "You met him when he was little."

Reuters was unable to immediately confirm the link between Vallenilla and Maduro.Maduro, who makes frequent reference to his former job as a bus driver to highlight his working-class roots, calls the protests an effort to violently remove him from office with the backing of ideological adversaries in Washington.Defense Minister Nestor Reverol offered an unusually swift condemnation of Vallenilla's shooting by a military officer, and state ombudsman Tarek Saab called it a "vile murder."BARRICADES

Opposition leaders have vowed to remain in the streets to demonstrate against what many are now calling a dictatorship and to demand a solution to economic crisis that has created chronic shortages of staple goods and left millions struggling to eat.The crisis has brought strong words from world leaders and diplomatic efforts to build dialogue between Maduro and his critics.At Maduro's insistence, Venezuela is due to elect a new popular assembly next month to rewrite the constitution. Critics say Maduro will use it to consolidate power and keep adversaries in jail.

Around Caracas on Friday, demonstrators burned tires and blocked roads while chanting slogans that included "No To Dictatorship" and "Murderer, Maduro" to protest Vallenilla's death."We don't have weapons, the only option we have is to shut down the country," said Joselyn Almeida who walked out of her office with colleagues to join around 100 people in blocking a main avenue in the upscale district of Las Mercedes.Officials say the recent wave of street protests across Venezuela, often resulting in vandalism, have arbitrarily restricted free transit and commerce and even prevented ambulances from reaching hospitals.A group of demonstrators on Friday returned to the spot where Vallenilla was killed. They set three trucks on fire and pushed one of them against the fence of the air base, which they later partially tore down.Opposition leaders said the demonstrators were not part of the broader protest and insisted the incident was staged by the government to tarnish the protest movement. (Additional reporting by Andreina Aponte; Writing by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Tom Brown)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Colombo: Sri Lankan doctors on Saturday called off an island-wide strike following three days of successful talks with President Maithripala Sirisena.

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) said the doctors decided to suspend their strike after its executive committee held talks with Sirisena, reports Xinhua news agency.

During the discussions, Sirisena had assured to address the grievances of the doctors and bring in new laws to enhance standards of medical education in the country.

The GMOA began the countrywide strike on Thursday, protesting against the violent clashes which erupted between police and students on Wednesday.

According to the GMOA, the strike was launched to strongly protest the violence allegedly unleashed by the police on the medical students when they held a protest in front of the health ministry, calling for the closure of the country's only private medical faculty.

The clashes erupted close to the Colombo National Hospital, and left at least 85 students and nine policemen injured.

Following the strike, thousands of patients were left stranded when they sought medical treatment in state hospitals due to the wards being deserted with lack of staff.

Hospital emergency units, dengue control units and hospitals in the disaster-affected areas continued to function normally despite the strike.
Damascus: At least eight civilians were killed in bombing by US-led international coalition forces against the Islamic State terror group in Syria's al-Raqqa province, a UK-based war monitor reported on Saturday.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the victims included two minors, reports Efe news.

According to data released by the NGO on Friday, at least 250 civilians had been killed in al-Raqqa by coalition bombings in the last month.

The SOHR added that over the same time period, a total of 472 civilians had been killed by the coalition in different parts of Syria.

The number of deaths in Syria due to coalition bombings since they started in 23 September, 2014 has risen to 8,798.
The Taliban warned the US against sending more Western troops to Afghanistan on Friday, while pledging that it sought only independence under Islamic rule and rejecting concerns it would harbour foreign militants.

In a statement marking Eid al-Fitr, the festival at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada combined defiant calls for the US to get out of Afghanistan with more conciliatory messages.

"The occupation is the main obstacle in the way of peace," he said, in comments which echoed similar messages the movement has sent in the past.

While not explicitly acknowledging the recent debate in Washington over US' policy in Afghanistan, the message appeared to address several arguments made for maintaining or even boosting support for the Western-backed government in Kabul.

In particular, it rejected concerns that Afghanistan could again become a haven for foreign militants seeking to attack the US and its allies as al-Qaeda did when it struck the twin towers on 11 September, 2001.

Calling for "complete independence of the country and establishment of an Islamic system", he warned against plans under consideration to increase the number of US troops in Afghanistan by up to 3,000-5,000.

"The more they insist on maintaining the presence of their forces here or want a surge of their forces, the more regional sensitivity against them will intensify," he said.

However, he also promised "constructive and good relations with you and the world" once "your illegitimate occupation of Afghanistan comes to an end".

He dismissed widespread accusations that the Taliban benefited from aid from other countries including Pakistan and, more recently, Russia, saying it would "not allow anyone else to intervene in Afghanistan".

"Likewise, we don't permit others to use the soil of Afghanistan against anyone," he said.

He urged the United States to accept the "legitimate demands of the Afghan people" and seek peace through diplomatic means but appeared to offer no concession on the Taliban's central demand that foreign forces must leave before peace talks begin.

"The solution of the Afghan issue through peaceful means is part and parcel of the policy of the Islamic Emirate, should the occupation come to an end," he said.

The statement had harsh words for the government of President Ashraf Ghani, which it dismissed as a "stooge" of America and blamed for rising ethnic and factional tensions in Kabul and elsewhere.

It also urged Taliban fighters to avoid civilian casualties, a call likely to be dismissed by the government and its allies following Thursday's attack on a bank in Helmand that killed at least 34 people and last month's deadly truck bomb in Kabul that killed at least 150 civilians.

Although the Taliban have denied responsibility for the Kabul attack, Afghanistan's main intelligence agency said it was planned and carried out by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network.
The United States is rolling out the red carpet for Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, who will meet US president Donald Trump at the White House on Monday. The two leaders are expected to cap their meeting with a working dinner  Trump's first evening meal with a visiting head of State in the White House since he took office in January 2017.

Modi and Trump will meet for the first time on Monday afternoon, and the entire evening after that is different formats of the Indo-US engagement.

'Defence, defence, defence'  that's what will get top billing during the one-on-one between Modi and Trump as well as the bilateral delegation level talks on the same day.

Details of the Modi-Trump meeting have been nearly two months in the making, and clearly, senior White House staff who have a deep understanding of India's and Trump's priorities have worked hard to line up the ducks. Sample this statement at the White House background briefing: "Defence trade has supported thousands of American jobs. Since 2008 in fact, India has signed over $15 billion in defence contracts with the US."

This highlights the value of an India willing to buy military equipment for the Trump administration. As Dhruva Jaishankar told us in an in-depth interview ahead of this briefing, deals like these are offer clarity, they are short gestation, give quick results and don't get trapped in complex bureaucratic engagements with low visibility.

Although India is not a formal ally of the US  which means India is not a signatory to any military treaties with the US  the background briefing underlined that Washington treats India "on par with our allies".

Daniel Twining of the German Marshall Fund spoke with Firstpost over two weeks ago, and said meetings with Asian leaders have gone well and Modi is likely to be added to this list.

A senior White House official (who holds a key position in Trump's innermost circle and who specifically asked not to be named) held a 40-minute background briefing on Friday evening in a media room packed to capacity with reporters from major Indian and American news networks tossing questions on all the hot buttons, including H1B visas, tensions with Pakistan, Chinese reaction to the official bonhomie with Modi, and potentially thorny negotiation on tariffs and trade.

"The US is very much interested in facilitating India's defence modernisation, and is helping enhance its role in the Asia Pacific. We believe that a strong India is good for the US. Now of course we've seen rapid progress in defence and security partnership over the last few years and president Trump very much wants to build on that momentum. Last year's designation of India as a major defence partner was extremely important and we'll see a concrete expression of this important designation during this visit," said a White House official, who has worked extremely closely on India and South Asia for years.

Important excerpts from the off-camera White House background briefing, lightly edited for brevity:

The 26 June meeting:

"This visit is an opportunity to strengthen the US-India strategic partnership, which the president very much views as critical in promoting security and stability in the Asia Pacific region and globally. We anticipate that the discussions will be broad ranging, hitting on a variety of regional and global issues that would seek to advance our common priorities."

Defence deals in the spotlight:

Indo-US defence trade has supported thousands of American jobs. Since 2008 in fact, India has signed over $15 billion in defence contracts with the US. Another major area of discussion will be counter-terrorism. The US and India are both committed to combating all forms of terrorism and in strengthening cooperation in areas like terrorist screening, intelligence sharing and terrorists' use of internet. We can expect to see some new initiatives on counter-terrorism.

On the US-Pakistan relationship in the context of arms deal with India:

I want to make a point here that US' relationships with India and Pakistan stand on their own merits. We don't see a zero-sum relationship when it comes to US' relationships with Pakistan and with India. We are certainly eager to deepen the strategic partnership with India but we are also interested in continuing our cooperation with Pakistan. We are concerned about tensions between India and Pakistan, we would like to see the normalisation of relations between the two countries, but we very much encourage India and Pakistan to engage in direct dialogue. We seek to have an effective partnership with each country. We see India's role and influence growing. We like to encourage that. With Pakistan, too, we seek to work together but frankly the priorities are very different. The nature of the relationships are different. We would like to move forward in both cases, but we understand that the pace and scope in both cases is going to be very different.

On how US views India's role in Afghanistan:

India has committed more than $3 billion in development aid for Afghanistan, so the American view is that India's role in Afghanistan is very positive towards stabilising that country. India has a very good standing in Afghanistan, especially among the people, not just the leaders.

On India adopting sanctions against North Korea:

India has adopted UN sanctions against North Korea in April, so it joins the US in sending a very strong message. This visit will provide both countries an opportunity to restate common principles in the Indo-Pacific with respect to navigation and over-flight.

On Indo-US trade:

Now in the trade and investment area. Right now, two-way trade in goods and services totals over $114 billion. Both sides are looking to increase their market access. The US is looking to focus much more on intellectual property protection, reduction of tariffs.

On energy business:

Energy partnership will be highlighted during this visit. Indian energy companies signed over $32 billion in long term contracts for the export of US produced liquified natural gas from Louisiana and Maryland. It's a good time to highlight what we're doing with India.

On Indians in America:

It's also a time to demonstrate our strong people-to-people ties. Today, four million Indians live in the US. More than 166,000 Indian students are contributing more than $5 billion in economic activity and supporting an estimated 64,000 US jobs.

On Modi and Trump's social media prowess:

These two leaders have a lot in common, they are the most followed leaders on social media. I think president Trump is slightly ahead of Modi (smiles), but this shows the kind of leaders they are  they are innovators, businessman (Trump), they are committed to bringing prosperity to their people and finding innovative ways to do that.

Schedule for June 26 evening:

They'll start with a one-on-one meeting and then move on to the bilaterals. Then they'll each give a press statement  it won't be a press conference  they'll each do a statement. They'll move from that to a cocktail reception and that will be followed by a working dinner. It's a long interaction, lots of time for the two leaders to get to know each other.

On H1B visas:

On the visa issue, there is no plan for it to come up specifically. But you know, if it's raised, I would know that the administration has signed some executive orders related to work visas and immigration which directs the secretary of State, the attorney general, the secretary of labour and secretary of homeland security to propose potential reforms to the H1B programme. Right now, nothing has changed with respect to application or issuance procedures. We're not in a position to pre-judge what the outcome of that review might be. There's really been no changes at this point. Theres no changes that target any specific sector yet.

On sale of 22 drones to India:

We can't really talk about potential or pending arms sales before they are ratified by Congress. But I will say that the defence relationship is extremely important. The US is interested in leaning forward and providing the technology that India needs (where the US leads the world ) and these kind of sales we are talking about are encouraging our strategic partnership, creating jobs here in the US so they are right in line with this administration's priorities.
United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the twin bombings at a marketplace in Pakistan's northwest tribal region and the suicide attack in Balochistan, calling for the perpetrators of the attacks to be brought to justice.

The secretary-general "condemns" the twin bombing in Parachinar and the suicide attack at a checkpoint in Quetta, a statement issued by his spokesperson said.

"He hopes those responsible for these crimes will be swiftly brought to justice," the statement said.

Dozens of people were killed and more than 100 were injured in the two separate attacks.

Early on Friday, a bomb attack took place in Quetta in Pakistan's southwest while in the afternoon, deadly blasts hit a market in Parachinar.

Guterres extended his condolences to the families of the victims and wished the injured a speedy recovery.

He also expressed his solidarity with the people and government of Pakistan and its efforts in fighting terrorism and violent extremism.
WASHINGTON A White House spokesman did not rule out a meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin when he was asked about reports the two leaders may hold talks on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting in Germany next month.

"To the extent that we can work with Russia to solve some problems and to cooperate, if we can find that willingness then we'd like to do it," spokesman Sean Spicer said at a news briefing.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by the Washington Newsroom; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
This week OnePlus launched its much anticipated flagship OnePlus 5 in India. Samsung lunched the Tab S3, Xiaomi launched 10000mAh and 20000mAh Mi Power Bank 2, LG announced the G6+ with 128GB storage and more. Lets take a detailed look at all the announcements and launches that took place this week.

OnePlus launched its flagship OnePlus 5 smartphone in India. It was introduced at an online event earlier this week and packs a 5.5-inch 1080p Optic AMOLED display with DCI-P3 color coverage and has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 835 Mobile Platform and runs on Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) based Oxygen OS.

It has a 16-megapixel primary rear camera with wide-angle lens, large f/1.7 aperture along with a 20-megapixel secondary camera to capture depth information for depth-of-field (bokeh) effect that blurs backdrops in portrait mode and offers 2x zoom. It also has a 16-megapixel front-facing camera.

The OnePlus 5 Slate Gray 6GB RAM with 64GB storage version is priced at Rs. 32,999 and the top-end Midnight Black 8GB RAM with 128GB version costs Rs. 37,999. It will be available exclusively from Amazon.in

Samsung launched the Galaxy Tab S3, successor of last years Galaxy Tab S2 in India. It has a 9.7-inch Super AMOLED QXGA screen, is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 820 SoC and runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat). It has quad-stereo speakers tuned by AKG by HARMAN and comes with an an enhanced S Pen. It has Samsung Flow that uses biometric authentication to log-in and can wirelessly tether compatible devices to transfer documents from a mobile device to a tablet.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 comes in Black and Silver colors, is priced at Rs. 47,990.

Xiaomi launched 10000mAh and 20000mAh Mi Power Bank 2 in India.It has support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, features same ABS plastic body for a better grip and these have two-way fast charging. The 10000mAh Mi Powerbank 2 is just 14.1mm thick and has a unibody metal design. It has 5.0V-2.0A / 9V-12A, 18W input so it can be charged fully in 4.2 hours. The new 20000mAh Mi Power Bank 2 is 23.9mm. The Xiaomi 10000mAh Mi Power Bank 2 is priced at Rs. 1,199 and the 20000mAh Mi Power Bank 2 costs Rs. 2,199.

Ultimate Ears, a brand of Logitech has launched Wonderboom portable Bluetooth Waterproof speaker in India. It has completely waterproof design with IP67 ratings, promises 10-hours of battery life and offers 360-degree sound. The Ultimate Ears Wonderboom comes in Subzero Blue, Stone Grey, Phantom Black, Lilac, Fireball Red and Cashmere Pink, is priced at Rs. 7995 and is available exclusively from Amazon.in.

Gionee launched the Virats Signature Edition Gionee A1 smartphone. It packs 16-megapixel front camera with f/2.0 aperture, 1/3.06 sensor, selfie flash and face beauty features. It packs a 5.5-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass display, is powered by an Octa-Core MediaTek Helio P10 processor and has 4GB of RAM. The Gionee A1 Virat Kohli Signature edition is priced at Rs. 19,999 and is now available for pre-order exclusively on Amazon.in and all pre-bookings get a free Sennheiser headphones for free. It will go on sale at 12 PM on 27th June.

Xiaomi launched Mi Bluetooth Speaker Mini and Mi Wi-Fi Repeater 2 in India. The Mi speaker has a full metal body, measures just 52  52  25mm and weighs just 58 grams. It has CSR Bluetooth 4.0 chip and also has a microphone for taking calls. The company also launched Mi Wi-Fi Repeater 2 that has dual PCB antennas for strong signal strength and offers speeds up to 300Mbps.

The Xiaomi Mi Portable Bluetooth speaker comes in Grey and Gold colors and is priced at Rs. 1299. It will be available through Mi.com and Mi Home at from June 21st. The Mi Wi-Fi Repeater 2 is priced at Rs. 999 and will be available through Mi.com and Mi Home from June 20th.

Karbon launched Aura Note 2 that has a 5.5-inch HD display, is powered by a 1.25GHz Quad-Core processor and runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat). It has a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It doesnt have a fingerprint sensor that was present in the predecessor. The Karbonn Aura Note 2 comes in Coffee-Champagne, Black-Champagne and Champagne colors and is priced at Rs. 6490.

Intex launched Aqua A3 4G smartphone with VoLTE support. It packs a a 5-inch HD screen, is powered by a quad-core Spreadtrum processor, runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat), has a 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera that also has LED flash for taking better selfies in low lighting conditions. The Intex Aqua S3 comes in Champagne color and is priced at Rs. 5777.

LG has announced new LG G6+ smartphone with 128GB storage and support for Qi wireless charging (in some countries) along with the LG G6 32GB version in Korea. The LG G6 comes in Astro Black, Ice Platinum and Mystic White colors, but the new LG G6+ comes in Optical Astro Black, Optical Terra Gold and Optical Marine Blue colors.

ZTE announced Small Fresh 5 that has a 5-inch HD screen, is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 425 SoC and runs on Android 7.1 (Nougat) with MiFavor UI and has a 13-megapixel rear camera along with a 2-megapixel secondary camera to capture depth information. This lets you adjust aperture from f/1.0 to f/8.0. There is a 5-megapixel camera on the front. The ZTE Small Fresh 5 comes in Dark Night Gray, Elegant Gold, Glacier Blue and Green colors and is priced at 999 yuan (US$ 146 / Rs. 9430 approx.)

Nokia has finally completed re-branding of Withings, the health tech company it acquired last year. It announced new Nokia Body, a BMI Wi-Fi connected scale, and Nokia BPM+, a compact blood pressure monitor with a flexible cuff. The company also introduced BPM+ that offers blood pressure monitoring. BPM+ measures systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate.

ZTEs nubia brand has introduced nubia M2 Play that packs a 5.5-inch HD 2.5D curved glass display, is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 435 Mobile Platform, runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat) with nubia UI 5.0, has a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, Sony sensor, 0.1s Hybrid Focus that uses both PDAF and CAF and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

The nubia M2 Play comes in Black wit Gold color. No word on the pricing or availability yet.
Western technology companies, including Cisco, IBM and SAP , are acceding to demands by Moscow for access to closely guarded product security secrets, at a time when Russia has been accused of a growing number of cyber attacks on the West, a Reuters investigation has found.

Russian authorities are asking Western tech companies to allow them to review source code for security products such as firewalls, anti-virus applications and software containing encryption before permitting the products to be imported and sold in the country. The requests, which have increased since 2014, are ostensibly done to ensure foreign spy agencies have not hidden any "backdoors" that would allow them to burrow into Russian systems.

But those inspections also provide the Russians an opportunity to find vulnerabilities in the products' source code - instructions that control the basic operations of computer equipment - current and former U.S. officials and security experts said.

While a number of U.S. firms say they are playing ball to preserve their entree to Russia's huge tech market, at least one U.S. firm, Symantec, told Reuters it has stopped cooperating with the source code reviews over security concerns. That halt has not been previously reported.

Symantec said one of the labs inspecting its products was not independent enough from the Russian government.

U.S. officials say they have warned firms about the risks of allowing the Russians to review their products' source code, because of fears it could be used in cyber attacks. But they say they have no legal authority to stop the practice unless the technology has restricted military applications or violates U.S. sanctions.

From their side, companies say they are under pressure to acquiesce to the demands from Russian regulators or risk being shut out of a lucrative market. The companies say they only allow Russia to review their source code in secure facilities that prevent code from being copied or altered. (Graphic on source code review process: http://tmsnrt.rs/2sZudWT)

The demands are being made by Russias Federal Security Service (FSB), which the U.S. government says took part in the cyber attacks on Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign and the 2014 hack of 500 million Yahoo email accounts. The FSB, which has denied involvement in both the election and Yahoo hacks, doubles as a regulator charged with approving the sale of sophisticated technology products in Russia.

The reviews are also conducted by the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control (FSTEC), a Russian defense agency tasked with countering cyber espionage and protecting state secrets. Records published by FSTEC and reviewed by Reuters show that from 1996 to 2013, it conducted source code reviews as part of approvals for 13 technology products from Western companies. In the past three years alone it carried out 28 reviews.

A Kremlin spokesman referred all questions to the FSB. The FSB did not respond to requests for comment. FSTEC said in a statement that its reviews were in line with international practice. The U.S. State Department declined to comment.

Moscow's source code requests have mushroomed in scope since U.S.-Russia relations went into a tailspin following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, according to eight current and former U.S. officials, four company executives, three U.S. trade attorneys and Russian regulatory documents. In addition to IBM, Cisco and Germany's SAP, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co and McAfee have also allowed Russia to conduct source code reviews of their products, according to people familiar with the companies' interactions with Moscow and Russian regulatory records.

Until now, little has been known about that regulatory review process outside of the industry. The FSTEC documents and interviews with those involved in the reviews provide a rare window into the tense push-and-pull between technology companies and governments in an era of mounting alarm about hacking.

Roszel Thomsen, an attorney who helps U.S. tech companies navigate Russia import laws, said the firms must balance the dangers of revealing source code to Russian security services against possible lost sales.

"Some companies do refuse," he said. "Others look at the potential market and take the risk."

"WE HAVE A REAL CONCERN"

If tech firms do decline the FSB's source code requests, then approval for their products can be indefinitely delayed or denied outright, U.S. trade attorneys and U.S. officials said. The Russian information technology market is expected to be worth $18.4 billion this year, according to market researcher International Data Corporation (IDC).

Six current and former U.S. officials who have dealt with companies on the issue said they are suspicious about Russia's motives for the expanded reviews.

"Its something we have a real concern about," said a former senior Commerce Department official who had direct knowledge of the interaction between U.S. companies and Russian officials until he left office this year. "You have to ask yourself what it is they are trying to do, and clearly they are trying to look for information they can use to their advantage to exploit, and thats obviously a real problem."

However, none of the officials who spoke to Reuters could point to specific examples of hacks or cyber espionage that were made possible by the review process.

Source code requests are not unique to Russia. In the United States, tech companies allow the government to audit source code in limited instances as part of defense contracts and other sensitive government work. China sometimes also requires source code reviews as a condition to import commercial software, U.S. trade attorneys say.

"CLEAN ROOMS"

The reviews often takes place in secure facilities known as "clean rooms." Several of the Russian companies that conduct the testing for Western tech companies on behalf of Russian regulators have current or previous links to the Russian military, according to their websites.

Echelon, a Moscow-based technology testing company, is one of several independent FSB-accredited testing centers that Western companies can hire to help obtain FSB approval for their products.

Echelon CEO Alexey Markov told Reuters his engineers review source code in special laboratories, controlled by the companies, where no software data can be altered or transferred.

Markov said Echelon is a private and independent company but does have a business relationship with Russias military and law enforcement authorities.

Echelons website touts medals it was awarded in 2013 by Russias Ministry of Defense for "protection of state secrets." The companys website also sometimes refers to Markov as the "Head of Attestation Center of the Ministry of Defense."

In an email, Markov said that title is only intended to convey Echelons role as a certified outside tester of military technology testing. The medals were generic and insignificant, he said.

But for Symantec, the lab "didn't meet our bar" for independence, said spokeswoman Kristen Batch.

In the case of Russia, we decided the protection of our customer base through the deployment of uncompromised security products was more important than pursuing an increase in market share in Russia, said Batch, who added that the company did not believe Russia had tried to hack into its products.

In 2016, the company decided it would no longer use third parties, including Echelon, that have ties to a foreign state or get most of their revenue from government-mandated security testing.

"It poses a risk to the integrity of our products that we are not willing to accept," she said.

Without the source code approval, Symantec can no longer get approval to sell some of its business-oriented security products in Russia. "As a result, we do minimal business there," she said.

Markov declined to comment on Symantecs decision, citing a non-disclosure agreement with the company.

TRUSTED LABS

Over the past year, HP has used Echelon to allow FSTEC to review source code, according to the agency's records. A company spokesman declined to comment.

An IBM spokesman confirmed the company allows Russia to review its source code in secure, company-controlled facilities "where strict procedures are followed."

FSTEC certification records showed the Information Security Center, an independent testing company based outside Moscow, has reviewed IBMs source code on behalf of the agency. The company was founded more than 20 years ago under the auspices of an institute within Russias Ministry of Defense, according to its website. The company did not respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, McAfee said the Russia code reviews were conducted at "certified testing labs" at company-owned premises in the United States.

SAP allows Russia to review and test source code in a secure SAP facility in Germany, according to a person familiar with the process. In a company statement, SAP said the review process assures Russian customers their SAP software investments are safe and secure.

Cisco has recently allowed Russia to review source code, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A Cisco spokeswoman declined to comment on the company's interactions with Russian authorities but said the firm does sometimes allow regulators to inspect small parts of its code in "trusted" independent labs and that the reviews do not compromise the security of its products.

Before allowing the reviews, Cisco scrutinizes the code to ensure they are not exposing vulnerabilities that could be used to hack the products, she said.

A White House official said the administration is generally opposed to broad source code requirements because they impede free trade, but whether or not to comply is "a private business decision."

(Reporting by Joel Schectman and Dustin Volz in Washington and Jack Stubbs in Moscow; Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Ross Colvin)
There are plenty of ways for an entrepreneur to make money - and as long as it's legal I've always been a strong advocate of holding back judgment, because who am I to judge how one person earns his or her livelihood, right? But sometimes, even my efforts not to judge are challenged. Take for example, the vendors, buyers, sellers and restauranteurs who are profiting from this week's Dog Meat Festival, which opened Wednesday in the southern Chinese city of Yulin.

"You shouldn't force people to make choices they don't want to make, the way you wouldn't force someone to be a Christian or a Buddhist or a Muslim," said one dog meat lover in this Channel NewsAsia report, who stressed that "dog meat is the same as any other meat."

A walk through the festival would not be advised for any dog-lover. Carcasses are on display at many open stalls with "stiff pointy tails, leathery yellow skin, eyes shut and bared teeth as if in a final growl." Dog parts, including livers, are sold alongside with non-canine delicacies like cow tongues and pork hocks. Apparently, its common knowledge that small dogs or dogs that are too fat dont taste good.

Despite a growing number of activists bent on banning the festival, the tradition - which dates back to the Ming Dynasty - continues to be popular. Ten to twenty million dogs are killed for food annually in China, according to the Humane Society International. Some believe that the meat gives them strength. Regardless, attendance and sales appear to be trending lower as the controversy has grown.

But the festival's many business owners continue to rack up sales by stewing dog meat from steaming woks and serving it up to their customers in plastic bags. The protests have had some impact. For example, some vendors have changed their "dog meat" signs to "tasty meat" while others are covering up dog images and signs altogether. A number of sellers are operating out of their homes or other locations to keep away from scrutiny. Still, the controversy hasn't stopped some business owners from profiting.

"Business during the festival goes up about ninefold," according to one restaurant owner who told Channel NewsAsia that he sells six dogs a day. "But don't worry, we always manage to have enough dogs."

Not judging. Not judging. Not judging....
According to RICPs 2017 Retirement Literacy Survey, 70 percent of people age 65 and older will need long-term care (LTC) at some point in their lives. And the 82 percent of respondents that feel they will not need LTC may not understand the devastating impact a critical illness can have on both their financial future and their family.

"It is extremely hard to put a good retirement plan in place when consumers are not literate about the risks they face, and the misunderstandings about long-term care shown in the survey indicate that people don't understand the huge burden a long-term care event will have both on their finances and family," said Jamie Hopkins, retirement income program co-director at the American College of Financial Services.

Hopkins discussed with Fox Business what you need to know regarding long-term care coverage and why this benefit should be included in your retirement planning.

Boomer: What does a typical LTC policy cover that my Medicare/Medicaid does not?

Hopkins: Far too many people do not have a long-term care plan in place and a number of misconceptions are driving this lack of planning. One common misconception for many Americans is the role of Medicare in covering long-term care costs. Medicare is designed to cover health care costs and is not designed to cover long-term care expenditures. Instead, that charge belongs to Medicaid. But, in order to be eligible for Medicaid, an individual must have effectively spent down his or her own assets first before becoming eligible for the program. This is where long-term care insurance can step in to protect a persons savings while still providing for long-term care. Medicaid also only covers the barebones of care and does not cover all types of home or institutional care that a long-term care insurance policy might cover. A long-term care insurance policy can help protect ones savings, provide peace of mind, and help the individual maintain control of his or her care.

Boomer: When is the best time to buy a LTC policy?

Hopkins: The best time to buy a long-term care insurance policy is while you are younger and in good health. This means looking into a policy in your 40s or early 50s. Once people reach age 60, a much higher percentage of long-term care insurance applicants are denied coverage due to underwriting concerns.

Boomer: Why dont more people buy LTC?

Hopkins: A well-developed long-term care plan can help you get the care you want, provide proper funding, and help ease the burden on your family. While long-term care insurance can provide a valuable benefit to retirees, it remains underutilized due to a variety of factors. A mix of cost, the safety net of Medicaid, misconceptions, and denial all inhibit further use of long-term care insurance.

First, long-term care insurance costs money and is not cheap. The premiums, which can be thousands of dollars a year, often do not feel affordable for many Americans, especially when Medicaid provides a safety net for those that run out of money.

Furthermore, many Americans do not understand the differences between Medicare, Medicaid, and long-term care insurance which could be hindering proper long-term care planning. In the 2017 RICP Retirement Income Literacy Quiz conducted by The American College of Financial Services, roughly 40% of respondents were unable to answer more than 1 out of 5 questions on long-term care funding correctly. Additionally, many Americans are in denial about the fact that they are likely to need long-term care at some point in retirement. This is the superman complex; while Americans realize the prevalence and severity of long-term care costs, individuals still often deny that they will need care themselves.

Boomer: What are the drawbacks to buying LTC?

Hopkins: Long-term care insurance can be helpful in the right situation but, it is not for everyone. For many, long-term care insurance premiums are not affordable. Additionally, most long-term care insurance policies require ongoing premiums and these premiums have seen steep annual increases over the past few years. The uncertainty surrounding premium hikes can be a significant drawback for a retiree living off of a fixed income. Another issue many Americans have with long-term care insurance is the use-it or lose-it aspect of insurance. Many people feel hesitant buying insurance that they might never receive a payment from if they end up not needing long-term care or if their policy lapses. However, it is a good thing if you make it all the way through retirement and end up not needing long-term care!

Boomer: Will a long-term care policy pay family members who take care of their loved ones?

Hopkins: The reality is that most long-term care is provided informally and in an unpaid fashion by family members at home. But, unfortunately, not all long-term care insurance policies reimburse family members for providing long-term care. While there are still companies offering policies that cover family member provided care, these have become less widely available over the past few years. As such, it could be difficult to find a policy today that is both viewed as affordable and still covers family member provided care giving in the home.

Boomer: Are there any other options available?

Hopkins: In recent years hybrid long-term care policies have become more popular than traditional long-term care insurance policies. Hybrid policies mix together life insurance or an annuity payment with a long-term care insurance feature. These policies can sometimes require less underwriting, have fixed premium payments, and provide a death benefit or lifetime income stream even if long-term care services are not required. Hybrid policies help provide a layer of long-term care funding while alleviating the use-it or lose-it concern many individuals have towards long-term care insurance.
3D printing stocks are having a strong year in 2017 after several years in which most of them took a pounding. This has caused an uptick in interest in the group among investors.

If you're considering investing in 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD), these seven charts should help get you up to speed on the company and its stock.

Stock performance: A roller-coaster ride

Like most of the 3D printing stocks, 3D Systems' stock has been on a roller-coaster ride for several years. The stock is performing powerfully in 2017, through June 21, as the following chart shows. (For context, included are Stratasys, the industry's second-largest player by market cap, and the S&P 500.)

3D Systems stock also had a very good 2016, gaining nearly 53%. Since Jan. 1, 2016, the stock is up 148% through June 21, an almost 18-month period.

However, the narrative for 2014 and 2015 was ugly, as the chart below shows. The stock fell just as quickly as it had soared in the preceding two years, as investors' stampede into 3D-printing stocks resulted in sky-high valuations that weren't justified by the company's financial performance. The industry has enormous promise, but expectations got too high, too fast.

Business breakdown

Here's a snapshot of 3D Systems' business broken out by its two reporting segments:

When it reports earnings, 3D Systems also typically provides year-over-year revenue growth for several categories that either span both products and services or fall within one of its two segments.

3D Systems' healthcare business has generally been a bright spot over the last few challenging years.

Revenue story: Fast growth came to a halt in 2015

Since 2015, 3D Systems has struggled to grow revenue, as has Stratasys and most other 3D printing companies. One reason for the slowdown in demand for its products likely is that overcapacity in the field resulted from the robust sales of 3D printers in the few years preceding the downturn. Additionally, some companies probably put off buying decisions to see which 3D printers would be offered by expected new market entrants such as HP Inc. and well-funded start-up Carbon, both of which entered the market last year.

There's another significant reason for revenue growth coming to a halt: 3D Systems is no longer acquiring companies like gangbusters, which it did in the stock's heady years. This is a good thing, as this incessant acquisition activity probably resulted in top management not paying enough attention to growing its existing business through innovations.

Earnings story: Follows in suit with the revenue story

3D Systems' revenue contraction over the last couple of years has naturally negatively impacted its earnings. Earnings were also hurt by the company taking charges for discontinuing its consumer-facing businesses. While earnings per share (EPS) based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) remains negative, the company has made solid progress in improving EPS. Moreover, while EPS remained negative in Q1, management has guided for positive EPS for full-year 2017.

Much of the recent improvement in earnings stems from cost-cutting. Increasing efficiency is a great thing, but it can only take a company so far. 3D Systems will need to grow revenue if it wants to increase earnings over the long term.

Stock valuation

3D Systems isn't profitable on a GAAP basis, so it currently doesn't have a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio based on trailing-12-month earnings. You can see in the preceding chart that back in 2015, investors drove the P/E up to levels over 200! So it's not surprising that the stock dropped like a rock when the torrid earnings growth that investors were betting on never arrived.

The stock has a forward P/E because Wall Street is projecting that the company will post positive EPS for full-year 2017. The forward P/E of 41.8 is high, especially for a company that is still in a turnaround state.

3D Systems is currently generating positive free cash flow (FCF) despite posting negative GAAP earnings, which is a big positive. That said, a P/FCF ratio of 61.3 is very high.

Wrapping it up

3D Systems is making some solid progress in its turnaround efforts, and it's a significant positive that the company expects to return to GAAP profitability for full-year 2017. While there's reason for cautious optimism, investors should not throw caution to the wind. The stock's valuation based on both forward earnings and FCF is high.

10 stocks we like better than 3D SystemsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and 3D Systems wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

Click here to learn about these picks!

*Stock Advisor returns as of June 5, 2017

Beth McKenna has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends 3D Systems and Stratasys. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Back in the mid-2000s, the bottled-water industry took a blow when the truth was revealed that many brands, such as Coca-Cola's (NYSE: KO) Dasani, were merely purifying tap water. The companies had to deal with consumer backlash, but it turns out there was no reason for investors to panic.

Here's what we can learn from this episode from Coca-Cola's past.

Evaluating if the business is still sound

When scandal strikes, the first item on the agenda for investors is to evaluate the damage -- specifically, whether the core of the business operations are intact or if the revelation has done some permanent damage.

In Coca-Cola's case, bottled water was and still is a side endeavor. When it was revealed that Dasani was not sourced from some special location, the subsidiary beverage business was still new. Coca-Cola had launched the brand in 1999.

In response to public outcry, Dasani and other bottled-water brands that source from a municipal water supply started to publish where they were getting their water and how it was treated.

It was a potentially catastrophic blow for the fledgling bottled-water industry, and share prices fell at the time. However, because Dasani was merely riding sidecar to Coca-Cola's main carbonated-drink engine, the overall business continued to grow.

The first lesson learned is this: When a business you own suffers a PR mishap, consider how detrimental it will be to overall revenue and profitability. Has something fundamentally changed with how the company conducts business? If the answer is no, proceed to Step 2. Such was the case with Coca-Cola.

Betting on a recovery

Coca-Cola shareholders who panicked and sold during the Dasani debacle probably regretted the decision. The incident eventually blew over, and shares rebounded. The fact that Dasani was nothing more than fancy tap water turned out to be just a bump in the road.

Today, Coca-Cola stock isn't lighting the world on fire with above-average returns, but it is near the same total return (which accounts for reinvested dividends) as the S&P 500 ever since the incident. There's a reason this company has been a longtime mainstay of Warren Buffett's portfolio.

And that leads to the second and more valuable lesson: When disaster seems to loom over a business you own, if the business remains strong, it could be a good time to buy more shares. Looking at the preceding chart but instead beginning in 2005 -- when Coke stock was beaten up following the Dasani brouhaha that started when it had to pull the water from shelves in the U.K. following the tap-water revelation -- illustrates the impressive difference that buying on the dip can make.

It's also important to remember that public opinion can be quite fickle. What was once an issue is long forgotten, as Coke's bottled-water business has continued to grow into a big moneymaker over the years. The company's still-beverage segment, which includes water brands such as Dasani, speaks for itself:

When a company you own is getting raked over the coals, it's important to do some digging before making a decision to sell. If business operations remain intact, a rebound could be around the corner. Coke's Dasani tap-water scandal and the stock's ensuing performance is a perfect example.

10 stocks we like better than Coca-ColaWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Coca-Cola wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

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*Stock Advisor returns as of June 5, 2017

Nicholas Rossolillo has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Sometimes the best opportunity to buy a stock is when the market has trashed it, sold it off, and left it for dead. But that can also work out to be the absolute worst time to invest, too. What's the difference? In short, it's whether the market is right or not about the prospects of the underlying company.

With this in mind, we asked three of our top energy and materials contributors to write about a stock that's had Mr. Market take it behind the woodshed recently -- and to discuss whether they're worth buying at this point or best left alone. They came up with gold producer Barrick Gold Corp (USA) (NYSE: ABX), uranium miner Cameco Corp. (USA) (NYSE: CCJ), and offshore driller Seadrill Ltd. (NYSE: SDRL).

Keep reading to learn whether these stocks, which have all fallen between 33% and 99% from their highs, are steals at recent prices, or more likely to steal from you.

This gold stock is cheap

Neha Chamaria (Barrick Gold Corp.): Barrick Gold was gleaming until an unexpectedly disappointing set of first-quarter numbers in mid-April cut short the gold stock's strong rally that lasted several months. Barrick is now down almost 19% since, leaving investors wondering where the stock's headed. I believe the gold titan has a good chance of bouncing back from here.

I don't blame investors for becoming wary after Barrick reported higher all-in sustaining costs (AISC) for its first quarter and downgraded its full-year production guidance. However, scratch the surface and you'll realize that things really aren't that bad. The production downgrade came largely because Barrick sold off a 50% stake in its Veladero mine to China-based Shandong Gold Group for roughly $960 million. Furthermore, Barrick reiterated its full-year AISC guidance of $720 to $770 an ounce despite lower production. At those levels, Barrick would still be the most cost-efficient gold producer among the publicly traded gold companies.

There's no denying that Barrick has had its fair share of challenges that have spooked investors, including the three cyanide spills at Veladero that attracted regulatory action and halted production at the mine. However, regulators reportedly just lifted production restrictions on Veladaro, and I believe Barrick management will do its best to avoid further missteps. Meanwhile, Barrick continues to deleverage and target free-cash-flow breakeven at gold prices of $1,000 an ounce, which should help it generate strong margin. At less than 7 times price to cash flow, Barrick is a great deal at current prices.

10-year lows

Reuben Gregg Brewer (Cameco Corp.): Looking for a fire sale? How about a stock that's down more than 80% over the past decade and still sitting around its 10-year low? That would be uranium miner Cameco. To be fair, there's a good reason for the steep price decline: The price of uranium hit a 12-year low in 2016, and there doesn't appear to be a near-term catalyst for a rebound.

Despite the long downturn, however, Cameco remains in fairly solid shape. For example, long-term debt makes up only around 20% of the capital structure, and it has a current ratio of more than 5. That's after a 12-year slide in the price of the commodity it mines, and it speaks to the company's conservative nature. Or, to put it another way, Cameco looks as if it can handle whatever this downturn dishes out.

Truly bouncing back, though, will require a uranium upturn. And the news there is positive, but it might take a little bit for an upturn to play out. For example, global energy demand is expected to increase by over 50% between 2014 and 2035, according to the International Energy Agency. More than 50 nuclear power plants are under construction right now to help meet that demand and boost the global demand for uranium. And major miners such as Cameco and Kazatomprom are starting to trim production to help alleviate the current oversupply situation. Those positives aren't going to make a big difference in the next year, but they should improve things over the long term.

Cameco could burn you if you expect a turnaround in the next few months. But if you're willing to wait and collect the roughly 3% yield while you do, this industry survivor has a good chance of bouncing back when uranium prices do.

When a fire sale becomes a garbage fire

Jason Hall (Seadrill Ltd.): There's no other way to describe what Seadrill has become. Once a high-flying, fat-dividend-paying leader in the offshore-drilling industry, Seadrill is on the cusp of bankruptcy, or some other arrangement that will almost assuredly wipe out all -- or at least a very significant portion -- of the equity common investors hold today. That's why you can buy shares for less than $0.50 each at recent prices.

Yes, there is a very slight sliver of hope that management and the board of directors can somehow achieve an 11th-hour deal to rework its debt that doesn't wipe out common shareholders. But as they say, the chances are between slim and none, and slim went home already.

This situation leaves current investors with a hard decision to either scrape up whatever leavings remain after the stock has fallen 99% from its peak, or hold on to them on the outside chance they're still worth something in a few months. The decision lies in how much money you're dealing with, and whether it's worth recouping the remaining cash.

What about buyers? Frankly, I can't think of a single good reason to buy Seadrill right now. After all, there are other dirt-cheap energy stocks far less likely to go belly-up, and with a far better chance of delivering big returns for investors.

10 stocks we like better than SeadrillWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Seadrill wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

Click here to learn about these picks!

*Stock Advisor returns as of June 5, 2017

Jason Hall owns shares of Seadrill. Jason Hall has the following options: long July 2017 $3 calls on Seadrill. Neha Chamaria has no position in any stocks mentioned. Reuben Brewer has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The Trump administration has authorized the sale of unarmed surveillance drones to India, the manufacturer said Friday, as the two nations' leaders prepare for their first face-to-face meeting.

India initiated its request to buy 22 Guardian MQ-9B unmanned aircraft for maritime surveillance last year. The deal is estimated to be worth about $2 billion. The offer is still subject to congressional approval.

The green light from the administration marks a further deepening in defense ties as India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.

Modi's two-day visit to Washington, which starts Sunday, takes place amid uncertainty over the relationship because of differences on trade and other issues.

So far in his presidency, Trump has focused on outreach to China, India's strategic rival, as he looks to Beijing to rein in North Korea. But Washington and New Delhi share concerns about China's rise as a military power.

India reportedly wants the drones for surveillance of the Indian Ocean  waters that China's navy increasingly traverses after establishing its first overseas base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti. India's archrival Pakistan would also likely be opposed to the drone sale.

"We are pleased that the U.S. government has cleared the way for the sale of the MQ-9B Guardian to the Indian government," Linden Blue, CEO of the manufacturer, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, said in a statement. Blue added that it would "significantly enhance India's sovereign maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific."

A congressional staffer familiar with the matter confirmed the administration has approved the sale. The staffer was not authorized to discuss the potential deal and requested anonymity.

David McKeeby, spokesman for the State Department bureau of political-military affairs, said it does not comment on proposed defense sales before Congress is formally notified.

A senior White House official said Friday that the U.S. is interested in providing India the kind of high technology it provides to its closest allies and defense partners. That is important to the strategic partnership and for cooperation in areas like the Indian Ocean, and also creates U.S. jobs, said the official, who requested anonymity to brief reporters on the preparations for Modi's visit.

India does not have a formal alliance with the U.S., but defense ties have intensified in recent years with joint drills between the two militaries and defense sales. The South Asian nation, which has traditionally bought most of its defense equipment from Russia, is looking to upgrade its capabilities.

Since 2008, India has signed more than $15 billion in U.S. defense contracts, including for C-130J and C-17 transport aircraft, P-8I maritime patrol aircraft, Harpoon missiles and Apache and Chinook helicopters.

Ashley Tellis, an expert on South Asia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the U.S. decision to offer the Guardian aircraft to India is significant as the U.S. has a standing policy of declining export of such advanced drones other than to allies involved in combined operations with U.S. forces.

"Much bureaucratic china within the U.S. government had to be broken to get to this decision," he said.

There could still be pushback from Congress. While there is bipartisan support for closer U.S.-India security ties, some lawmakers remain wary of the export of U.S. drone technology to non-allies.

Modi, a Hindu nationalist, will be making his fourth visit to the U.S. since he took office in 2014. He forged a strong relationship with President Barack Obama, and on his last visit in June 2016, he addressed Congress and described the U.S. as an "indispensable partner."

The visit is likely to be lower key and aimed at building a personal bond between the two leaders, who have spoken twice by phone since Trump took office. Modi will be the first foreign dignitary to be hosted for dinner at the White House during Trump's presidency.

They share a populist streak and a knack for using social media, and are likely to find common ground on combating Islamic extremism. Modi will be urging a tougher stance on Pakistan over militants that India blames for attacks on its territory.

But there could be increased strains on trade issues.

India is among nations singled out by the Trump administration for their trade surpluses with the U.S., which in India's case totaled $30.8 billion in 2016. New Delhi is also closely watching the administration's review of the H1B visa program, under which thousands of skilled Indian workers come to the U.S.

New Delhi was irked by Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord. In making the announcement, the U.S. president said New Delhi had made its participation "contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid." India denies that and says it will continue to be part of the accord, regardless of U.S. participation.

____

Associated Press writer Vivian Salama contributed to this report.
Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina on Friday said she agrees with President Trumps goal to modernize the governments digital infrastructure, but believes the problem might be more complicated than just upgrading the technology.

The government procurement processes are so complex, many of them legislatively required, they are so complex, they are so byzantine. If you look at a chart, Ive done this, if you look at a chart of the procurement practices for example in the Department of Defense, it looks like a bowl of spaghetti, said Fiorina during an interview on the Fox Business Network.

President Trump has voiced his concerns over the countrys lack of cybersecurity and the governments outdated computer systems. On Monday, he hosted a roundtable with some of the top tech CEOs to discuss overhauling the governments tech infrastructure.

However, Fiorina noted unless the procurement process is revamped, she doesnt believe Trump will be able to accomplish his goal of improving the technology systems within the government; something she adds is clearly necessary in order to better serve the citizens of the United States.

As far as Fiorinas own goals, the former Hewlett Packard CEO is unclear if she will ever make a bid for president again, but says that her true passion lies in leadership.

You know life is full of opportunities and choices, but the thing that has been a lifelong passion of mine is leadership, said Fiorina. How to lift it up, how to train it, how to develop it, and make sure at the end of the day we have more leaders everywhere not fewer.
Leading U.S. congressmen have called on President Donald Trump to press Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remove barriers to U.S. trade and investment when they meet for the first time on Monday.

The lawmakers, from the Republican and Democratic parties, said in a letter to Trump that high-level engagement with India had failed to eliminate major trade and investment barriers and had not deterred India from imposing new ones.

"Many sectors of the Indian economy remain highly and unjustifiably protected, and India continues to be a difficult place for American companies to do business," they wrote, noting that a 2017 World Bank report ranked India 130th out of 190 countries for ease of doing business.

The lawmakers - Republican House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady and Ranking Member Richard Neal, and Republican Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and Ranking Member Ron Wyden - said the bilateral economic relationship "severely underperforms" as a result of India's failure to enact market-based reforms.

They said the barriers covered multiple sectors and included high tariffs, inadequate protection of intellectual property rights, and inconsistent and non-transparent licensing and regulatory practices.

Among U.S. goods affected were solar and information technology products, telecommunications equipment and biotechnology products, they said.

The lawmakers also pointed to limitations on foreign participation in professional services, restrictive foreign equity caps for financial, retail, and other major services sectors and barriers to digital trade and Internet services.

"The list is long and growing," they said.

Modi is due to meet with about 20 leading U.S. CEOs in Washington on Sunday before his first meeting with Trump on Monday at the White House, when he will seek to revitalize ties that have appeared to drift, in spite of the priority they were afforded under former President Barack Obama.

While progress is expected in defense trade and cooperation , Trump, who campaigned on an "America First" platform has been irritated by the growing U.S. trade deficit with India and has called for reform of the H1B visa system that has benefited Indian tech firms.

Other signs of friction have included Trump accusing New Delhi of negotiating unscrupulously at the Paris climate talks to walk away with billions in aid.

Indian officials reject suggestions that Modi's "Make in India" platform is protectionist and complain about the U.S. regulatory process for generic pharmaceuticals and rules on fruit exports to the United States.

They stress the future importance of the huge Indian market to U.S. firms and major growth in areas such as aviation which will offer significant opportunities for U.S. manufacturers.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
The placement of a Putin operative, Russian senior diplomat Vladimir Voronkov, to run the United Nations Counter-Terrorism offices is being touted as the first major reform of the United Nations Organization by its new Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The only reform is that Russia changed its mind against insisting on its Washington Ambassador Sergey Kislyak for this new command, probably due to his controversial meddling in DC, including the Michael Flynn matter. Nonetheless, Putins choice looks to be one of the UNs most damaging setbacks in years.

Recently the General Assembly finalized the creation of a new, expensive Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism post tailored for a Russian incumbent. It was the UN spoils system at work. Voronkov had laid in wait in Vienna as head of UN offices there for several years where he helped puppeteer the Iran Deal Obama bought. After the Soviet meltdown and Russias twenty-five years of slow, geopolitical rehabilitation, Moscows new senior insider can now approach the gates of Oz, UN Headquarters in New York. He will settle in like a low-grade headache and eventually show Secretary-General Guterres that the UN isnt big enough for the both.

So, this is not a real reform, as heralded by Guterres. It is a game of musical chairs in reverse, where one adds a chair when the music stops. Further, it includes taking a big chunk of bureaucratic birthday cake from the senior-most American in the UN Secretariat and giving it to its new senior-most Russian. It reminds of the Obamas uranium gift to Moscow - twenty percent of the US stockpile.

The UN General Assembly last week finalized creation of the Under-Secretary-General post for Counter-Terrorism specifically tailored for a Russian incumbent. It was the old UN spoils system at work, involving a retrograde, Cold War invader who will undo what remains of UN relevance today. Moscows Khrushchev look-alike Kislyak should show Secretary-General Guterres that the UN isnt big enough for the both of them.

How did things come to this?

The Obama Administration colluded with Russia to select Guterres for Secretary-General in late 2016. It was part of a trade-off intended to keep Obamas operative, Jeffrey Feltman, at the top of the UN Secretariats powerful Department of Political Affairs no matter the US election. Likewise, France, Britain and China wanted to keep their senior-most operatives positioned in a Guterres administration.

Keeping Russias hands off their senior posts required creating a new senior post for Russia which had outgrown it patience exiled in secondary UN posts. So, the General Assembly decided to greenlight a customized senior post for Secretary-General Guterres to fill as he wished, in exchange for a Russian promise not to veto Guterres bid for Secretary-General.

Putins Voronkov will oversee nothing less than the UNs Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy programming and all its pertaining optics and authorities. In fact, Moscow engineered the offices creation for a Russian operative to regrow Moscows brand throughout UN Headquarters.

For the rest of the world, this merely adds an expensive chair to the U.N. table without regard for the UNs hodgepodge counter-terrorism mandates, which have never amounted to much anyway.

If money speaks, then the UNs Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy is barely a whisper. To date, approximately 95% of its funding has come from only one source, Saudi Arabia ($110 million).

Russia, by the way, has never given a dime to the program it now plans to command. But its new Under-Secretary General for Counter-Terrorism will do fine personally. The General Assembly has authorized a $300,000-plus compensation package for the job from the UNs fixed budget. (The U.S. pays 22 per cent of that budget.)

Voronkov leaves his ambassadorial nestings in Vienna and Geneva after years of inflating and promoting Russias capacities and significance on today's geopolitical stage. The Russian appointment marks a return to that countrys Soviet-era influence within UN Headquarters after decades of service in exile. Moreover, it will include offices purloined from the Department of Political Affairs.

Meantime, Feltman will keep his Political Affairs post for at least another year or so, long enough to qualify for a second pension. More importantly, it will keep him, an Obama appointee, at the ear of the Secretary-General well into the Trump Administration.

There is a parallel universe counter-terrorism bureaucracy untouched by this reform, and it exists in the Security Council. That Counter-Terrorism Committee, supported by an Executive Directorate, was created after 9/11 to bolster the ability of countries to prevent terrorist acts both within their borders and across regions.

As recently as April the Councils committee began work on a comprehensive international framework to counter terrorist narratives. This is a doppelganger to the new czars Global Counter Terrorism Strategy and its existence proves that there is no reform at hand to rationalize UN counter-terrorism resources.

Meantime, be assured that Vladimir Putins version of counter-terrorism strategyfrom the man abetting Bashar al-Assads atrocities in Syria, will get a thorough and respectful airing at the United Nations Organization.
Half a world apart, in a theocratic monarchy and a democracy, a king and a president are relying on their thirtysomething son and son-in-law to help consolidate power and push their policies.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman this week elevated his son Mohammed bin Salman to crown prince, setting him on course to become the next Saudi king. President Donald Trump relies heavily on son-in-law Jared Kushner to advance his agenda, the closest thing to a royal assist that the U.S. can muster.

Kushner was in the Mideast this week meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an attempt to restart dormant peace talks. For that effort to succeed, Kushner will need the backing, or at least the quiet support, of Saudi Arabia -- now under the reins of the crown prince, also known as MBS.

In this tale of two princes, Trump's son-in-law and Saudi Arabia's new heir to the throne have skyrocketed to power and been entrusted with a wealth of responsibilities and wide-ranging duties, even though neither had the experience that comes with years of government service. The two have been presented to the public as outsiders who bring youthful energy and fresh ideas to sluggish bureaucracies with aging infrastructures.

For Trump, 71, and Salman, 81, the stakes couldn't be higher. Both have promised to deliver dramatic reforms to an antsy public.

Kushner and MBS have built a relationship of increasingly profound importance since Trump took office. Kushner, 36, and MBS, 31, talk on the phone and dined together for several hours during Trump's trip to Riyadh in May, administration officials said. The officials spoke anonymously to discuss the private working relationship.

While in Washington in March, MBS lunched with Trump and Kushner in the State Dining Room. That visit helped ingratiate the young royal to Trump, and Saudi Arabia to the new administration in Washington.

It also laid the groundwork for Trump's maiden voyage overseas as president last month, when Trump became the first U.S. president to make his first official trip to a Muslim nation with a visit to Saudi Arabia.

Trump and Salman also witnessed the signing of a nearly $110 billion defense deal, which administration officials say Kushner helped negotiate. The Obama administration had previously stalled on the deal because of concerns over Saudi aggression in Yemen.

Kushner emerged as a top adviser to Trump in the bruising 2016 presidential race. He spearheaded the campaign's data operation, had a hand in some policy speeches, and was often the last person Trump spoke to before making major decisions. Prior to assuming his role as Trump's adviser, Kushner ran his family's real estate and construction business.

Within hours of King Salman's ascension to the throne in January 2015, the monarch named MBS as defense minister, which helped catapult the young prince into power and sidelined more experienced and older princes. Two months later, MBS led Saudi forces into war in Yemen, becoming the face of a conflict framed in the Saudi media as a battle against Shiite-led Iran's ambitions for regional dominance. The war whipped up nationalist fervor around the new king and his son.

The Saudis paint the Yemen conflict as a fight against terrorism and border security -- something that resonates with the new U.S. administration. Trump takes a bullish approach to defeating "radical Islamic terrorism," as he frequently refers to it, and is advocating for a border wall along America's southern border.

In Saudi Arabia last month, Trump conceded that he would only succeed in his goal of fighting terrorism with the partnership of Saudi Arabia and all other Muslim nations.

That's where Kushner and MBS come in.

Kushner's growing duties as White House adviser have seen him serve as a point person for a range of contacts with countries from China to Mexico, develop ideas for infrastructure and criminal justice reform, oversee a new Office of American Innovation and, this week, try to broker Middle East peace -- a goal that relies heavily on Saudi support.

MBS' portfolio includes oversight of defense and security, and transforming the kingdom's economy to become less reliant on oil exports for revenue.

His rise to power was accelerated after he visited Washington in March and met Trump. The visit helped reset bilateral relations after years of strained ties under President Barack Obama over the nuclear accord with Iran, which Saudi Arabia strongly criticized.

Kushner and MBS are expected to collaborate on a more bullish policy on Iran, which both the U.S. administration and the Saudi monarchy view as a threat to regional stability.

Eric Pelofsky, a former Obama administration official now at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, said that a number of domestic interests, "coupled with a robust visit and a very warm and direct relationship with the Trump White House," contributed to MBS' rise.

"Neither one by itself would have probably been enough, but it appears that together it was enough to move MBS up," he said.

While close family ties are not unusual in U.S. politics, Trump has maintained a tightly knit inner circle that has been influenced significantly by Kushner and his wife, Trump's daughter Ivanka.

The Middle East is no stranger to nepotism, with much of the Arab Gulf boasting hereditary rule, and monarchies still ruling over Jordan and Morocco. Syria's President Bashar Assad is also part of a perceived "dynasty."


A Nebraska Democratic Party official was removed from his post on Thursday after an audio recording surfaced of him saying he's glad House Majority Whip Steve Scalise got shot last week.

Phil Montag, now-former co-chair of the state partys technology committee, was recorded saying he wishes Scalise, R-La., were dead.

His whole job is to get people, convince Republicans to [expletive] kick people off [expletive] health care. Im glad he got shot, Montag said in the audio recording. I wish he was [expletive] dead.

The audio was posted on YouTube. Nebraska Democratic Chairwoman Jane Kleeb confirmed to FOX 42 that the voice on the audio recording was, in fact, Montags.

We obviously condemn any kind of violence whether its comments on Facebook or comments in a meeting, Kleeb said. Our country is better than the political rhetoric that is out there from both the far right and the far left.

Montag, in an interview with the Omaha World-Herald, said his words were taken out of context and he was "horrified" by the shooting.

I did not call for the congressmans death, Montag reportedly said.

Kleeb removed Montag from his post just one week after Nebraska Democratic Black Caucus Chairwoman Chelsey Gentry-Tipton was asked to resign over a Facebook post about Scalise and the attack on Republicans. She did not.

Gentry-Tipton had posted in a thread about the shooting: 'Watching the congressman crying on live tv abt the trauma they experienced. Y is this so funny tho?,' the Omaha World-Herald reported.

Later, in the same thread, she reportedly stated, The very people that push pro NRA legislation in efforts to pad their pockets with complete disregard for human life. Yeah, having a hard time feeling bad for them.
The number of refugees who entered the U.S. during President Trumps first three months compared to the last months of President Obamas term was cut nearly in half, according to statistics released Friday by the Department of Homeland Security.

According to the statistics, a total of 13,000 refugees were admitted to the U.S. in the past three months, compared to 25,000 under Obama, The Los Angeles Times reported. The most popular countries of origins remained the same: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Myanmar.

Obama set the ceiling of 110,000 refugee arrivals across the U.S. President Trump cut that number to 50,000 this year. Congress has approved a budget for only 75,000 for this fiscal year. A U.S. State Department spokesman said the country is now resettling 900 refugee arrivals weekly, to remain within that budget.

Trump was praised by many supporters and criticized by others. Erol Kekic, executive director of the Immigration and Refugee Program for Church World Service, said at the time, This program simply cant be turned on and off like a faucet.

Federal court rulings have blocked Trump's executive orders suspending arrivals from certain majority Muslim nations. But the lower U.S. admissions numbers have disrupted a finely tuned, federally funded process that begins with exhaustive 18-month security screenings abroad.

Trump is moving to significantly reduce the number of refugees allowed to enter the United States, even as his bid to temporarily suspend admissions is stalled in the courts.

The statistics show that the Obama administration made an effort to increase the number of refugees before Trump by 86 percent.

There are more than 63 million refugees worldwide, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
An organization run by former Trump and Pence campaign staffers is launching a $1 million digital ad campaign against Sen. Dean Heller, the Nevada Republican who came out Friday afternoon against the Senate GOP health care bill, Fox News confirms.

America First Policies, which promotes President Trumps agenda, planned to launch the seven-figure ad campaign against Heller on Friday night, according to staffers from the organization, and will be ramped up next week.

Heller is up for re-election in 2018 and is considered one of the most vulnerable GOP senators.

"Obamacare is collapsing. This is a crisis for the American people. There is no excuse for any Republican or Democrat to oppose the Senate health care bill outright," Brian Walsh, president of the group, said in a statement. "Senator Heller ... appears to be heading down a path with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and the radical left."

On Friday, Heller joined Republican Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; Mike Lee, R-Utah; and Rand Paul, R-Ky., who all announced opposition to the Senate health plan unveiled by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday.

My point is this bill currently in front of the United States Senate is not the answerits simply not the answer, Heller said at a press conference in Nevada on Friday. I am announcing today that in this form, I will not support it.

SENATE HEALTH CARE BILL: 5TH SENATOR COMES OUT AGAINST GOP PLAN

When asked why the group is only launching such a campaign against Heller, a staffer said the other four senators seem willing to negotiate.

I have been clear from day one that I want to get to yes, Cruz said on Thursday after announcing his concern with the draft discussion of the plan. Nobody has fought harder against ObamaCare in the Senate than I have, but we have to actually have legislation that fixes the underlying problem.

The political group behind the ad includes former Trump campaign digital director Brad Parscale, onetime deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, and two campaign advisers to Vice President Mike Pence, Nick Ayers and Marty Obst. Trump campaign officials David Bossie and Katrina Pierson also are involved in the group.
The Justice Department is looking into new legal theories in an attempt to challenge "sanctuary cities" in court, according to a new Wall Street Journal report. Potential legal moves would be geared toward forcing municipalities to assist President Donald Trumps aggressive deportation efforts.

If successful, the new legal efforts would force local authorities to assist federal immigrations officers whether they want to or not.

The DOJ is developing legal strategies that would invalidate sanctuary city policies throughout the U.S., the report said. The goal would be to win court rulings clarifying local jurisdictions requirements under federal law. That would force them to eliminate policies in which they refused to work with federal officials, the paper said.

On Monday, the Justice Department filed papers supporting Texas defense in federal court of its anti-illegal immigration law.

'SANCTUARY CITIES' PROTESTS INTERRUPT TEXAS HOUSE SESSION

That law, set to go into effect in September, bans cities and police departments in the state from limiting their cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Under the law, local law-enforcement officials can face criminal penalties if they dont comply with requests from federal authorities to detain suspected illegal immigrants until they can be sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

Some Texas cities and counties have adopted policies in which they refuse to honor the requests, known as detainers.

Previous statements from the Justice Department could prove to be troublesome, however, including when the DOJ labeled detainers as requests of local authorities, not requirements.

Discussion of the new move comes as Republicans work toward related legislation. The House has planned a vote for next week denying specific federal grants from jurisdictions that refuse to honor detainers.
Utah GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of House oversight committee, said Saturday that the Justice Departments inspector generals office, in addition to a Senate panel, is looking into whether former Attorney General Loretta Lynch tried to squash the FBIs Hillary Clinton email investigation.

This is really a pivotal moment, said Chaffetz on Fox News Fox & Friends," amid three probes into whether President Trumps presidential team colluded with Russia during the 2016 White House race that have slowed Washington Republicans legislative agenda.

Chaffetz said agency Inspector General Michael Horowitz has been diving into this and is expected to release a comprehensive report on Lynch and her oversight on the now-closed FBI email investigations in the first part of next year.

Horowitz could not be reached Saturday for comment.

The FBI opened and closed two investigations amid the 2016 presidential campaigns on whether Clinton, the Democratic nominee, gave away classified information or broke laws as secretary of State by sending or receiving emails on an unsecured server.

In June 2016, in the heat of the presidential campaign, Clintons husband, former President Bill Clinton, talked privately to Lynch while their planes were on the tarmac in a Phoenix airport, sparking questions about whether Clinton appealed to her for help.

The issue essentially died when Trump defeated Clinton but resurfaced a few weeks ago when former FBI Director James Comey testified on Capitol Hill that he was uncomfortable with the tarmac meeting.

He said Lynch directed me not to call it an investigation and call it a matter -- which confused me."

Chaffetz, who is officially resigning next week from Congress, said Saturday the remark evidently sparked a series of events for Comey.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, in a bipartisan announcement, formally asked Lynch and others Friday to respond to allegations of political interference in the FBI email probe.

They have until July 6 to comply with the request.

The Senate inquiry was also prompted by news reports that raised questions about whether Lynch tried to stifle the investigation.

Among them is a New York Times story in April that is based in part on a hacked and unconfirmed electronic documents obtained by the FBI in which a Democratic operative expressed confidence Lynch would keep the Clinton probe from going too far.
A motorcycle officer was involved in a crash Saturday as he was escorting Vice President Pence to the airport in Colorado.

The officer crashed on Highway 24 in Colorado Springs around 7:45 a.m. and was seriously injured, according to reports.

The officer was part of the motorcade taking Pence to the airport.

Investigators are treating the crash as an accident.

Pence was enroute to the airport for a trip to Chicago.

He arrived in Colorado Springs Friday to deliver a speech at Focus on the Family's 40th Anniversary celebration, KKTV reported.

He also met with Air Force members at Schriever Air Force Base, visited the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station and attended a reception for Sen. Cory Gardner on Friday night, Fox 31 Denver reported.
Well all know when its time for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to go.

Thats because shell tell us.

Nobody counts votes better than Pelosi -- whether its ginning up support for ObamaCare or marshaling votes for her own leadership contest.

Some Democrats turned on her when Democrats failed to get within striking distance of reclaiming the House last fall. Those same Pelosi critics returned to the cutlery drawer this week when Democrats wore the collar, going 0 for 4 this year, in a series of special House elections.

Well know if and when Pelosi decides to step down from her leadership post or retire from Congress -- because shell know, too. Pelosi will know if she has the support of House Democrats to continue.

Following last falls elections, Pelosi faced an internal challenge from Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, for the top House Democratic leadership position.

One evening, Ed OKeefe of the Washington Post and I staked out the route that leads from Pelosis office, through the Capitols Rayburn Room, to the House Democratic Cloakroom and on to the House floor.

Sure enough, Pelosi came by a few moments later. We asked if she commanded enough support from her colleagues to survive Ryans insurrection. What was her vote prediction? The hall was crowded and it was hard to hear above the din. As she went into the cloakroom, I thought Pelosi replied that she had three-fourths of her caucus.

Three-fourths? I asked to clarify as the leader disappeared into the cloakroom.

Without missing a beat, Pelosi stuck her head back around the door of the cloakroom and into the hall.

Two-thirds, Chad, she corrected. Two-thirds.

Democrats cast their ballots for minority leader in a closed-door meeting a few days later. Pelosi vanquished Ryan.

She garnered precisely 67 percent of the vote.

Democrats did well to even compete in this years special elections. All of the vacant seats tilted heavily toward Republicans. But all the losing streak did was embolden Pelosis critics and provide them a forum in which to air their grievances.

If we are to regain the majority in 2018 in the House, we have to have new leadership, said Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas.

Republicans turned to a familiar playbook in this weeks special House election in Georgia, the Democrats fourth loss. They linked Democrat Jon Ossoff to Pelosi to help Republican Karen Handel keep the seat for the GOP.

Pelosis name recognition is high. Her negatives are high. Shes unpopular in the south and rural Midwest where Democrats need to capture House seats to reclaim the majority. That baggage hamstrings Pelosi from traveling to those venues to campaign for Democratic candidates. It forces Democrats to erect firewalls between themselves and their leader.

Thats why some Democrats believe its time to bounce Pelosi. Shes served as the top Democrat in the House since early 2003.

Its a problem, one Midwestern House Democrat told Fox News.

Some Democrats close to Pelosi indicate she may have to make a choice over the next year. Should she stick around with the wing-and-a-prayer hope that Democrats win back the House, capitalizing on President Trumps chaos?

That would triumphantly return Pelosi to the House Speakers suite at the Capitol for the first time since January 2011.

Or could Pelosi decide to leave early and rob Republicans of a foil? Would that move give Democrats the chance to capture the House?

Some House Democrats concede privately that such a personal sacrifice could be the salve the party needs. However, the gambit runs against Pelosis DNA. She always stays and fights. The latter move far from guarantees success. And lets make things clear. At this stage, Nancy Pelosi isnt going anywhere.

I love the arena. I thrive on competition, Pelosi said Friday on Capitol Hill, daring those who want her gone to do their best. When it comes to personal ambition and having fun on TV, have your fun.

Pelosi characterized herself as a master legislator. She declared she was worth the trouble. And finally, Pelosi fired off this munition to her detractors: (The) decision about how long I stay is not up to them.

Thats the chutzpah that drives some House Democrats crazy.

A senior House Democratic member who asked they not be identified told Fox News that Pelosi did herself no favors with those lines. The lawmaker added that the remarks revealed her hubris and that she was blind to her impact.

A longtime Democratic source close to Pelosi tells Fox News that she routinely evaluates her standing with Democrats. The source said Pelosi would never do something to hurt the caucus. The Pelosi ally dismissed calls for her to disappear as normal in politics, noting that one side always views the opposition leader with supernatural evil.

Consider how Democrats framed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

The Pelosi ally questioned whether GOP efforts to link Democratic candidates to Pelosi in fact worked.

Is it turning votes or reaffirming votes? asked the source, who added that voters who despise Pelosi couldnt name three other members of Congress.

That said, some Democrats are revved up.

Its as real as it gets, said one House Democrat about concern over Pelosi. Ive never seen people this torqued. Shed be out if there was a clear plan in place for secession. The question is, where does this end?

The problem is that the fate of Pelosi is tied inextricably to her long-time rival, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

There is also a connection to Assistant Minority Leader Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.

The troika represents different wings of the Democratic Caucus. Prying one loose doesnt necessarily propel one of the other two to the top spot. Moreover, a Pelosi departure creates a void not necessarily filled by either Hoyer and Clyburn.

Thats why some Democrats ask why only Pelosi should be on the ropes. What about the other two?

The problem is that you cant replace somebody with nobody, said one senior Democrat close to Pelosi.

Republicans struggled with the same issue in the fall of 2015 when the conservative House Freedom Caucus wanted to remove then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Those who wanted to replace Boehner didnt have an immediate successor in mind. Republicans quickly burned through House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in less than a week. Then there was a dalliance with Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. -- perhaps running on a ticket alongside an embattled McCarthy.

Republicans finally settled on House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Keep in mind that Ryan said for years, let alone days before taking the speakers gavel, that he didnt want the job.

This is why leadership elections are not partisan politics, but particle politics. The events that influence who climbs the leadership ladder are decided at the sub-atomic political level.

If Pelosi were to depart, could her successor be the natural number two in Hoyer? Or could there be another trio on the horizon? Try House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley, D-N.Y.; Vice Caucus Chairwoman Linda Sanchez, D-Calif.; and Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond, D-La.

In Crowley, Sanchez and Richmond, Democrats score political, geographic and ethnic diversity, hitting all constituencies of their caucus. That threesome could be the next generation of Democratic leaders. But the sub-atomic quarks and leptons havent yet aligned yet.

Every leader should have the courage of knowing when to step down, said Rep. Kathleen Rice, D.N.Y., one of Pelosis most-vocal critics. Were not going to do something in secret away from the caucus.

Rice says she and others wont try to stage a coup. That nearly happened to Gingrich when a rump group of Republicans nearly overthrew the him in the summer of 1998. But from that point forward, Gingrichs days were numbered. He left the speakership after the 1998 midterm election.

Is this episode for Pelosi similar to Gingrichs reckoning? Unclear. Many Democrats dont think shes going anywhere.

Shes like Trump, said one senior House Democrat whos had his differences with Pelosi. She could shoot somebody in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue and nothing would happen.
The Supreme Courts term ends next week with growing speculation that Justice Anthony Kennedy--the panels most pivotal member--may retire at age 80 after 29 years on the court.

Action is expected on President Trumps travel ban before the courts long summer break but the biggest news of all would be if Kennedy were to use the courts last public session on Monday to announce his retirement, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

Kennedy has played an important role as the courts swing vote on many important rulings. His departure would allow conservatives to wrest near total control of the bench for the foreseeable future.

The justice has sided with his liberal colleagues on gay rights and abortion rights, as well as some cases involving race, the death penalty and the rights of people detained without charges at the Guantanamo Bay naval base. He has written all the court's major gay-rights decisions, including the 2015 ruling that declared same-sex marriage is a constitutional right nationwide

Several of his former law clerks have said they think he is contemplating stepping down in the next year or so.

Kennedy and his clerks were gathering over the weekend for a reunion that was pushed up a year and helped spark talk he might be leaving the court.

"Soon we'll know if rumors of Kennedy's retirement are accurate," one former Kennedy clerk, George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr, said on Twitter Friday.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters in April, "I would expect a resignation this summer."

Kennedy's departure would allow Trump to fill a second Supreme Court vacancy in just a short period of time.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump's first nominee, joined the court in April, overriding efforts by the Democratic minority to block the nomination.

The vote came after Senate Republicans voted to change parliamentary rules to require only 51 votes to confirm Supreme Court nominees.

The other two older justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 84, and Stephen Breyer, 78, are Democratic appointees.

Neither appear to be ready to step down with Trump in the White Houseif they can help it.

"I love my job," Ginsburg told a Georgetown University audience last month.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday said that--contrary to public perception-- President Trump does in fact listen to opposing views.

Once the crowd in Toronto stopped laughing, Trudeau continued, "No, I can understand the laughter but there's a lot of politicians who have a deep, vested interest in being right all the time and therefore close themselves off sometimes to facts or evidence or differing opinions."

He continued, What Ive found from this president is he will listen to arguments made. He will look at the ensemble of facts and proposals of impacts you put together, and he will be open to shifting his position.

Perhaps being labeled a politician who "shifts positions" falls short of praise in the U.S., Trudeau appears to show a willingness to engage in meaningful dialog with his southern neighbor.

Trudeau, 45, and former President Obama, 55, got along famously. There was speculation early on in Trump's presidency that he and Trudeau would clash. To be sure, if there is a major international topic, they disagree: trade, immigration and climate.

Trudeau is a liberal who champions free trade and has welcomed 40,000 Syrian refugees. He calls himself a feminist and women make up half his Cabinet.

He made the comments in Toronto at an event co-sponsored by The New York Times.

Perhaps the most important issue facing the two countries are Trump's plans for the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Trump has called the deal "the worst" trade deal in history and threatened to back out. Trump has since agreed to renegotiate.

Trudeau told the audience that he is 100 percent certain that NAFTA will be in place by 2018.

NAFTA will remain a hugely important and successful trade deal for both our countries, Trudeau said.

Brian Mulroney, the former Canadian prime minister, said in an interview in February that he believes that Trump and Trudeau will have a fine relationship.

I know both of them. I know their skills and some of their attributes and their talents, Mulroney said. I think they are going to find a lot to be happy about.
The Trump administration has reportedly authorized the sale of 22 unarmed drones to India, ahead of the leaders of the two nations meeting Monday in Washington.

The estimated $2 billion deal was announced Friday by American manufacturer General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.

"We are pleased that the U.S. government has cleared the way for the sale of the MQ-9B Guardian to the Indian government," CEO Linden Blue said in a statement.

The announcement was made at the same time as the Paris International Air Shows drone conference. The company could not be reached Saturday for comment.

The sale of the unmanned aircraft still must have congressional approval. If approved, India would reportedly be the first non-NATO country to make such a purchase.

NATO is a coalition of 29 countries that tries to achieve international security and peace through political and military means.

The deal also marks a further deepening in defense ties between President Trump and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi's two-day visit to Washington, which starts Sunday, takes place amid uncertainty over the relationship because of differences on trade and other issues.

So far in his presidency, Trump has focused on outreach to China, India's strategic rival, as he looks to Beijing to rein in North Korea. But Washington and New Delhi share concerns about China's rise as a military power.

India reportedly wants the drones for surveillance of the Indian Ocean -- waters that China's navy increasingly traverses after establishing its first overseas base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti. India's archrival Pakistan would also likely be opposed to the drone sale.

A senior White House official said Friday that the U.S. is interested in providing India the kind of high technology it provides to its closest allies and defense partners. That is important to the strategic partnership and for cooperation in areas like the Indian Ocean, and also creates U.S. jobs, said the official, who requested anonymity to brief reporters on the preparations for Modi's visit.

Though India does not have a formal alliance with the United States, defense ties have intensified in recent years with joint drills between the two militaries and defense sales. The South Asian nation, which has traditionally bought most of its defense equipment from Russia, is looking to upgrade its capabilities.

Since 2008, India has signed more than $15 billion in U.S. defense contracts, including for C-130J and C-17 transport aircraft, P-8I maritime patrol aircraft, Harpoon missiles and Apache and Chinook helicopters.

Ashley Tellis, an expert on South Asia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the U.S. decision to offer the Guardian aircraft to India is significant as the U.S. has a standing policy of declining export of such advanced drones other than to allies involved in combined operations with U.S. forces.

There could still be pushback from Congress. While there is bipartisan support for closer U.S.-India security ties, some lawmakers remain wary of the export of U.S. drone technology to non-allies.

Modi, a Hindu nationalist, will be making his fourth visit to the U.S. since he took office in 2014. He forged a strong relationship with President Barack Obama, and on his last visit in June 2016, he addressed Congress and described the U.S. as an "indispensable partner."

The visit is likely to be lower key and aimed at building a personal bond between the two leaders, who have spoken twice by phone since Trump took office. Modi will be the first foreign dignitary to be hosted for dinner at the White House during Trump's presidency.

They share a populist streak and a knack for using social media, and are likely to find common ground on combating Islamic extremism. Modi will be urging a tougher stance on Pakistan over militants that India blames for attacks on its territory.

But there could be increased strains on trade issues.

India is among nations singled out by the Trump administration for their trade surpluses with the U.S., which in India's case totaled $30.8 billion in 2016. New Delhi is also closely watching the administration's review of the H1B visa program, under which thousands of skilled Indian workers come to the U.S.

New Delhi was irked by Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord. In making the announcement, the U.S. president said New Delhi had made its participation "contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid." India denies that and says it will continue to be part of the accord, regardless of U.S. participation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A federal judge in Denver on Friday ordered the release of a man who has been detained for 5 years after being accused of providing material support to an Uzbek terror organization active in Afghanistan.

Under Judge John Kane's order, Jamshid Muhtorov will remain detained in suburban Denver until a hearing to determine the conditions of his release. His trial is expected to begin early next year.

The order came a day after Muhtorov filed court documents accusing the detention center's warden of violating his right to a speedy trial, The Denver Post reported.

Muhtorov is accused of supporting the Islamic Jihad Union and communicating with the group's website administrator.

"His professed desire to join a movement that justifies the murder and maiming of all who dare to think differently than he does on matters of faith and religion deeply offend our values of religious liberty, the sanctity of life, tolerance, justice, and the rule of law," Kane wrote in his order. "Mr. Muhtorov, however, has already spent more than five years in detention before even being found guilty of acting, in any way, on his alleged terrorist beliefs."

Kane also argued that Muhtorov is not a flight risk, citing the suspect's family and community ties.

The judge noted that Muhtorov's wife has lived and worked in the community for a decade, and Muhtorov himself lived in suburban Denver for five years without incident before his arrest.

The couple also have three children together.

Jeffrey Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver, decline to comment, citing a gag order in the case. A request for comment from the Federal Public Defender's office, which is representing Muhtorov, was not immediately granted Friday afternoon.

Muhtorov was arrested Jan. 21, 2012, in Chicago with about $2,800 in cash, two shrink-wrapped iPhones and an iPad, as well as a GPS device. He denied the allegations and said he had been headed to the Uzbekistan region to visit family when he was arrested.

In 2014, Muhtorov challenged the constitutionality of a National Security Agency warrantless surveillance program and requested that prosecutors disclose how surveillance law was used in his case.

The challenge came after the U.S. Justice Department said it intended to use information gleaned from one of the NSA's warrantless surveillance programs against Muhtorov. It was the first time the department had made such a disclosure.

Kane ruled in 2015 that the NSA's programs had a potential for abuse, but they did not violate Muhtorov's constitutional rights in this case. Warrantless wiretaps were used appropriately in the case, he said.

Muhtorov fled Uzbekistan in 2007 and settled in the Denver suburb of Aurora as a political refugee. He became a legal permanent U.S. resident.

Muhtorov argued he was targeted by the Uzbek government because of his work with human rights groups in his homeland.

___

Associated Press writer James Anderson contributed to this report.
A recent arrest has led to a major beak in an unsolved Texas cold case that is nearly three decades old, according to reports.

San Angelo residents Sally McNally, 18, and Shane Stewart, 17, were reported missing in July 1988 and found shot to death five months later.

The break in the case came nearly 29 years later on June 11 when 47-year-old John Gilbreath was arrested after deputies said they found marijuana and a gun in his car, Fox San Angelo reports.

The station reported that deputies went to Gilbreaths home in San Angelo and executed a search warrant for evidence related to drug trafficking.

During the search evidence tied to Sally and Shane's murders was seized, authorities said.

The evidence included three audio tapes with SS written on them, handwritten notes and ledgers mentioning the teens and a lock of hair and a fingernail, the station reported citing a court affidavit.

The San Angelo Standard-Times quoted the affidavit as saying Gilbreath was in possession of biological substances including but not limited to hair; blood; fingernails and other biological substances that constitute potential evidence of a double homicide, which occurred in Tom Green County, Texas, on or about July 4, 1988.

Gilbreath has not been charged with the murders, the paper and Fox San Angelo reported.

The FBI's Behaviorial Analysis Unit is assisting in the cold case investigation. Their assistance was announced three days after Gilbreath's arrest.

Gilbreath has been charged with criminal possession of marijuana and illegal possession of a gun by a felon. He was released on bail.

Sally and her boyfriend were last seen July 4 at a fireworks show.

Shanes abandoned Camaro was found several miles away the next day.

Authorities say hunters stumbled on the remains of the two teens in a pasture 20 miles from where the vehicle was found.

"Somebody looked these kids in the eyes and killed them, basically an execution, Lt.Tom Lowe, a Tom Green County Sheriffs Office investigator, told Fox San Angelo in 2016.
Federal authorities say a leader with the violent street gang MS-13 in Boston has pleaded guilty to racketeering, drugs and weapons charges.

The U.S. Attorney's office says Santos Portillo Andrade pleaded guilty Friday in Boston federal court. Authorities say he admitted to assaulting an individual he believed was a rival gang member.

Authorities say the 33-year-old Revere man is the leader of MS-13's East Boston Loco Salvatrucha clique. He was among more than 50 alleged MS-13 members who were indicted on federal racketeering charges last year.

A judge deferred accepting the plea agreement until Portillo Andrade is sentenced in September. If the agreement is accepted, he will be sentenced to 10 years behind bars.

Authorities say MS-13 is a violent transnational criminal organization with "cliques" that operate throughout the country.
The mother of two children who died after being left in a hot car in May was arrested Friday afternoon.

Parker County Sheriff's investigators arrested Cynthia Marie Randolph, 25, in connection with the death of her two children, a 16-month-old boy and a 2-year-old girl.

Police say she admitted she left her kids in the car to teach them a lesson.

CALIFORNIA BANS TRAVEL TO TEXAS OVER LGBT LAWS

Police were called to her home near Lake Weatherford on May 26 where Randolph told police she found her two kids unresponsive after being locked inside a vehicle. The incident was reported shortly after 4 p.m. when it was about 96 degrees.

Randolph initially said she was inside her home folding laundry and watching TV while her kids played in an enclosed back porch that was visible from the living room. She said about 20 to 30 minutes had passed when she realized her kids were gone."

Randolph told police she sent more than half an hour looking for her kids and later found them locked inside her car. She said the kids got in the car on their own and locked themselves in. Both kids were pronounced dead shortly after 4:30 p.m. She told police her kids were not in the car for more than an hour.

Throughout multiple interviews, police say Randolph changed her story several times about what lead to the death of her children.

Read more at Fox 4 News.
Among other topics, the ambassador laid out the position of nations from the Gulf Cooperation Council and their decision to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on GCC member Qatar, following a list of long-simmering grievances. The group of nations that includes the UAE and Saudi Arabia has sent it a list of 13 demands Qatar is required to must meet before the boycott is liftedincluding that the Gulf nation shut down its Al Jazeera news network and reduce ties to Iran.

Here are some highlights of the interview conducted by Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen, who also anchored tonights show.

Al Otaiba: This is a consistent pattern of behavior [by Qatar]. Let me start by telling you what it is not-- what it's not is an overreaction; it's not a hasty decision. It's not something that we came to in a rush.

Al Otaiba: So to point out some context, three years ago, we had a meeting in Riyadh under the leadership of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. In that meeting we had a confrontation essentially and the leadership of Qatar, Emir Tamim [bin Hamad Al Thani], signed a document that pledged that he will stop and refrain from doing all the things that we've been complaining about.

Al Otaiba: The document has been released to the member countries. I don't think it's ever been released to the public, but the same things that we have said he has violated, are the same things that we are complaining about now, which are support for terrorist and extremist, meddling in our internal affairs, and using their media to attack us and incite.

James Rosen: What do you think is the motivation for Qatar in pursuing those activities. In their own minds, what is their motivation?

Al Otaiba: James if you could answer that question, you'll solve all our problems for us.

James Rosen: Is it possible that it derives from philosophical wellspring or theological wellspring?

Al Otaiba: It's one of two things: it's either an ideological proximity to extremism, to terrorism, political Islam, groups like Hamas, groups like the Muslim Brotherhood who live opening in Qatar or its hedging. Its opportunism. It's perhaps seeking to play a larger role in a region where Qatar is not allowed to play a larger role because of their size.

Al Otaiba: I think the excitement we see in President Trump is really because he addresses our two core problems in a very straight forward way. Our two problems in the region are two threats: are Iran and extremism, and on both of those situations President Trump has indicated that he wants to tackle those head on. You can look at the Cabinet around President Trump and you would feel very relieved. I think for any president of the United States, this foreign policy team could be considered the dream team. I mean [Defense] Secretary Maddis, Secretary [of State] Tillerson and [CIA] Director Pompeo, [National Security Adviser] General McMasterThese are very, very serious people.

Meshal Al-Thani, Qatar's Ambassador to the U.S., provided the following statement to Fox News in response to the UAE Ambassadors allegations:

Ambassador Al Otaibas personal attempts to drive a wedge between Qatar and the United States will not work. What Americans need to know is that the fight against ISIS continues from the Al-Udeid military base in Qatar with 11,000 American forces, regardless of what the members of the UAE government do. As for the UAEs list it designates as terrorists  some have never lived in Qatar and some are journalists or dissidents some in the UAE wants to muzzle.

Qatar does not, has not, and never will support terrorism. On the other hand, The UK Telegraph reported this week that Ambassador Al Otaiba warned US officials that the UAE would consider ending intelligence cooperation over 9/11 victims' claims. The motives are clear: to limit the movement of Gulf citizens, muzzle regional and international media, limit Qatars sovereignty, and dictate our foreign policy. All of which should be rejected by the international community, as they are by us.
The CIA's director held a secret negotiation with Syria's intelligence chief earlier this year as part of an effort to free an American journalist taken hostage in the Arab country five years ago, The New York Times reported Friday.

The phone conversation between CIA boss Mike Pompeo and Syria's Ali Mamlouk occurred in February, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified American officials. The subject was Austin Tice, a former Marine who has reported for The Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, CBS and other outlets.

While further communications followed, the Times reported that the diplomatic effort collapsed after the U.S. accused Syrian President Bashar Assad's government of killing dozens of civilians in a sarin gas attack in April and President Donald Trump responded by launching some 60 cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.

The Pompeo-Mamlouk call would represent the highest-level communication between the two governments in years. It also is surprising given the widespread allegations of Mamlouk's culpability in human rights atrocities in Syria's civil war. Mamlouk has been subject to U.S. sanctions since 2011.

The CIA declined to comment.

Tice disappeared in 2002 while working near Damascus, shortly after his 31st birthday. A month after his kidnapping, a video was released showing him blindfolded, being held by armed men and saying "Oh, Jesus." He has not been heard from since, though the U.S. has believed Syria's government might be holding him.

No nation or group has come forward saying it has Tice. Syria's deputy foreign minister told The Associated Press last year that Tice "is not in the hands of Syrian authorities."

The report of the secret talks came after U.S. officials confirmed a separate set of unpublicized negotiations with North Korea to free another American in captivity, Otto Warmbier. The 22-year-old University of Virginia student, who fell into a coma during his captivity, died Monday after he returned to the U.S. last week.

The two "back channel" efforts show the Trump administration's willingness to engage in secret diplomacy with some of America's most intractable foes. Trump has threatened North Korea with the possibility of pre-emptive attack as it nears the capacity to strike the U.S. mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile. The U.S. considers Assad's government in Syria a state sponsor of terrorism that provides critical help to anti-U.S. and anti-Israel groups such as Hezbollah.
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Over a million people have visited the relics of Saint Nicholas, one of the Russian Orthodox Church's most revered figures, since they were brought to Moscow last month.

A total of 1,021,500 people have paid their respects to the holy remains, according to data published Saturday on an official website for the relics.

The queue to see the fragments of the saint's bones on display has regularly extended several kilometers from Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior since the May 23 beginning of public viewings.

The huge turnout underlines the important of the Orthodox Church and the defining role religion plays for many Russians a quarter-century after the collapse of the officially atheist Soviet Union.

The relics, on loan from Italy, will be moved to St. Petersburg later this month.
A Swiss journalist died Saturday from wounds sustained in a Mosul mine blast earlier this week while reporting on the fight against the Islamic State group.

Veronique Robert died in a Paris hospital Saturday, Sophie Pommier, a French Embassy spokeswoman, told The Associated Press. State-owned France Television said Robert had covered numerous conflicts and expressed its "sincere condolences."

Iraqi Kurdish journalist Bakhtiyar Haddad and French journalist Stephen Villeneuve, who were working with Robert, were also killed in the explosion. Haddad died moments after the blast and Villeneuve died hours later from his wounds.

The fight to retake Iraq's second largest city was launched more than eight months ago, and while Iraqi forces experienced periods of swift gains, fighting inside the city has been slow and deadly for both Iraqi security forces and civilians.

In February, Iraqi Kurdish journalist Shifa Gerdi was killed by a roadside bomb just south of Mosul, which also wounded her colleague, Younis Mustafa. In October, Iraqi television journalist Ali Raysan was killed while covering a battle to retake a small village south of Mosul.

This week, Iraqi forces began to push into Mosul's Old City, where they expect to encounter the toughest fighting yet. Streets shrink to the width of foot paths in the densely populated district, where the United Nations estimates IS fighters are holding some 100,000 civilians as human shields.
Turkish authorities announced Saturday they will not allow the Istanbul Pride march to take place on Sunday  the third year in a row the celebration has been banned. The move prompted criticism from rights groups and fears of possible violence, as Pride organizers said they would defy the ban.

For more than a decade, the Istanbul Pride has attracted tens of thousands of participants, making it one of largest gatherings celebrating gay, lesbian and transgender rights and diversity in the Muslim world.

Unlike other Muslim countries, homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey. However, lesbian, gay and transgender activists say they lack legal protections and face widespread social stigma in the nation that is heavily influenced by conservative and religious values.

The Istanbul governor's office said the Pride march would be banned to keep public order and for the safety of participants and tourists. It said the area around central Taksim Square, where the march begins, was not designated for demonstrations.

The volunteer-organized Pride committee said the ban violates domestic and international law limiting the right to peaceful assembly. It asked the governor's office to reconsider and fulfill its obligations by providing security precautions.

The city government also said "very serious reactions by different segments of society" were raised against the march.

This week, like last year, ultra-nationalist and conservative groups said they would not allow the Pride march to take place even if the authorities allowed it. LGBTI activists said the ban legitimizes threats and hate speech under the guise of protecting the public's "sensitivities."

Amnesty International expressed "deep worry" following the ban and said Turkish authorities violated freedom of expression and assembly in a "routine and arbitrary way."

"Turkey should protect rather than ban Pride marches," Amnesty said, adding it would make sure to document developments on Sunday.

Up to 100,000 people took part in 2014's Pride march, making it one of the largest LGBTI Pride events in a predominantly Muslim nation. The following year, authorities banned the march in a surprise move citing public order and dispersed the crowds.

In 2016, the march was again banned amid a spate of deadly attacks blamed on the Islamic State group or on outlawed Kurdish militants. LGBTI activists still attempted to converge on Taksim Square, leading to skirmishes with police. A state of emergency declared after last summer's failed coup has further limited public gatherings.

Organizers believe the celebrations in 2015 and 2016 were banned because they coincided with Islam's holy month of Ramadan and say authorities are using security as an excuse to ban the parades instead of taking measures to deal with the threats against those participating.

Sunday's planned march coincides with the Eid holiday, marking the end of a month of fasting for Ramadan.

"(The bans are) a reflection of the increasingly conservative and majoritarian policies of the government," said Murat Koylu, of the Ankara-based Kaos GL, a group promoting LGBTI rights.

The Pride Week events and parade, held in Istanbul since 2003, allowed the LGBTI community to try and break the stigma and assert their rights, including demands for explicit bans on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

"The fact that the existing political power is not making the necessary changes in the constitution, and the fact that they have discourse against us might encourage people who are already (trans) phobic," said Seyhan Arman, a 37-year-old transgender woman and performer.

The Turkish government insists there is no discrimination against individuals based on their sexual orientation, and that laws barring discrimination on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity or religion protect all citizens. It also insists that perpetrators of hate crimes are prosecuted.

"The violence against us has existed since the day we were born. It starts in the family, it continues at the university, in the working life," said Deniz Sapka, a 27-year-old transgender woman originally from the southeastern province of Hakkari, who goes by that surname to avoid recognition by family members. "We are people who have always experienced a state of emergency. We experience it from our birth."
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The cemetery for South Sudanese refugees lies between two streams that flood when the rains come, leaving debris scattered across the otherwise unmarked graves.

That bothers James Malish, whose mother and sister recently died days apart. They were laid to rest here, along with about two dozen others on the edge of the world's largest refugee settlement  and achingly far from home.

"Where we come from, we do not bury our dead people in the bush," Malish said. "We bury our people in the compound, just in the front of the house."

But the nearly one million refugees sheltering here in northern Uganda have to learn new ways of life, and death.

Malish, a father of six, witnessed killings in South Sudan's civil war before fleeing last year. His brother was shot dead in the capital, Juba, allegedly by government soldiers, which sent shock waves through family members already living in Uganda.

His sister collapsed and died in Bidi Bidi in late April. A month later, his 78-year-old mother died after an accident that weakened her health.

Now the two lie next to each other in the isolated patch of land designated by Ugandan officials for graves. Malish has decided he can at least buy cement to make markers that won't wash away.

The Bidi Bidi settlement has filled with people telling stories of violence and despair. Many hope to start afresh here. But some reach safety only to fall victim to meningitis, malaria and other tropical diseases.

When they die, their families face a dilemma: bury them without the traditional customs, or carry them home and face war again.

And now Bidi Bidi is running out of accessible land. Uganda's government has received global praise for the way it welcomes refugees, even giving them plots for cultivation. But officials say they are overwhelmed as South Sudan's refugees pour in.

Over 950,000 refugees now shelter in northern Uganda, most of them in Bidi Bidi, with more than 1,000 arriving daily.

A total of 100 refugees died in two of Bidi Bidi's five zonal areas between December and May, according to the aid group International Rescue Committee. It was not possible to get a death toll for the entire refugee settlement since August, when it opened.

Most of the land here is customarily held, fiercely protected by clan leaders who know the boundaries and can apprehend trespassers.

Musa Ecweru, a Ugandan government minister in charge of refugees, said the government has been able to resettle refugees so far with the backing of locals who believe they eventually will return home.

The government also is working with local leaders to designate appropriate areas as cemeteries, Ecweru said.

Yet it comes too late for refugees like Tito Modi, who wished to bury his grandchild not far from the family's new homestead but was refused by the authorities.

Instead the two-month-old baby, who died this month of meningitis, was buried in the same area that holds Malish's mother and sister.

"In our culture, small children like that cannot be buried in a cemetery. It is a pain, but there is nothing we can do," Modi said. "That place they gave us, really it cannot be a place for burying people."

As the fighting continues in South Sudan with little promise of peace, Uganda's government and the United Nations are appealing for $8 billion to deal with what has been called the world's fastest-growing refugee crisis.

Modi said he hopes South Sudan's warring leaders can find a way to end the years of violence, "so that we go to our land and live the normal way."
The Syrian government released Saturday hundreds of detainees including some who backed the insurgency against President Bashar Assad on the eve of a major Muslim holiday.

Hours after the release, a car bomb exploded in a rebel-held northern town near the border with Turkey killing and wounding dozens of people, according to the opposition Civil Defense in Idlib, also known as the White Helmets, and the Britain-based opposition monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The explosion at a market in Dana, killed at least 10 people, including children, and wounded 30, according to the Observatory. The blast came hours after an explosion in the town killed two people and wounded others.

Explosions in rebel-held parts of northern Syria are not uncommon and similar blasts have killed scores over the past months.

Justice Minister Hisham al-Shaar told reporters that the 672 people released on Saturday included 91 women. He said of those released, 588 were freed in the capital Damascus, Assad's seat of power.

Al-Shaar added that the release came in a bid to "sustain national reconciliations efforts and the homeland's unity."

The release comes on the eve of Eid el-Fitr, the feast that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Syrian authorities usually release detainees on major holidays.

Tens of thousands of people have been detained since Syria's crisis began in March 2011. The conflict has killed some 400,000 people and displaced half the country's population.

Syrian government forces have been gaining ground around the country under the cover of Russian airstrikes and now control the five largest cities. The push has led to so-called reconciliations in areas around Syria in which opposition fighters either surrendered in exchange for amnesty or moved to rebel-held areas in northern Syria.

Among those released in Damascus was 45-year-old Abdul-al-Rahman Ali who used to finance opposition fighters.

"I was wrong and every person makes mistakes. I have repented and returned to embrace my homeland," he said.

A woman who identified herself as Um Akram wiped away her tears as she waited for her son who had been jailed for more than three years. "I am glad for the release of my son," she said as she stood with her husband outside the headquarters of Assad's ruling Baath party in Damascus where part of the release occurred.

The woman's husband stressed that his son is ready to join the military service.

Ibrahim Barakeh, 64, from al-Ghouta in the countryside of Damascus, said he has been in jail for 16 months on a change of funding terrorists. "Thank God for being released. I was wrong. I will try to return to al-Ghouta to join my wife and son," he added referring to a suburb of Damascus.

In northern Syria, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces released some 200 IS members in Raqqa province at the request of tribal leaders in the region, according to the Observatory.

The Observatory said all those released in the town of Tabqa and the city of Raqqa and its suburbs had no blood on their hands and had jobs with IS such as preachers or employees in the extremist group civilian institutions.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been marching inside Raqqa since June 6, under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, with the aim of liberating the Islamic State's de facto capital of the extremists.
They knew a plaque wouldnt do.

Or a gift basket.

Or another dinner.

So, when Ann Jones and Bobby Hebert tried to figure out ways to honor those who have given so much to Rappahannock United Way causes, they decided the best approach would be to do even more good deeds.

Thats why the two, who raise funds for the United Way, spent time on Thursday and Friday doing random acts of kindness. As they filled up the tank for unsuspecting customers at a local gas station or paid for produce purchases at a farmers market, the two explained they were paying it forward to honor those whod already given a lot.

Those on the receiving end of the random acts were surprised and pleased.

Awesome, cool, said Sam Poole, a Germanna Community College student, when he learned he was about to get a free tank of gas. Looks like its my lucky day.

The lunch room on the second floor of the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board headquarters was filled with donuts for the staff. Then more boxes were brought in for clients as they came to the facility for various services.

Thank you so much, said Jane Yaun, the agencys executive director as of July 1. You made some people very happy.

Outside the headquarters of Micah Ecumenical Ministries in downtown Fredericksburg, Jones and Hebert offered ChickfilA nuggets and Gatorade, packs of crackers and bottles of ice cold water. Those who received the offerings repeatedly thanked them for the goodies, and the good vibes.

A lot of people are against the homeless around here, and its good to meet somebody with a positive attitude, said Mike Diehm.

Hebert and Jones stressed that they were not using United Way donations to pay for the random acts. They found community sponsors who gave about $500, some in cash and the rest in items such as donuts and coffee.

The two started their jobs in Marchshes the director of resource development and hes the corporate relationship managerand they discussed ways to honor individual donors whod given at least $10,000.

The United Way refers to them as members of the Tocqueville Society, named after a Frenchman who visited the United States in 1831 and remarked on the way Americans make a great deal of real sacrifices to the public welfare.

As Herbert and Jones brainstormed ideas, it was clear the donors would rather have the focus on community programs, not themselves. So, the two came up with acts that were near and dear to the hearts of their donors and also aligned with the United Ways three strategies to battle poverty: education, income and health.

The names of their Tocqueville Society donors arent being listed because United Way officials are honoring their wish to focus attention on the community, not themselves.

The acts of kindness also included giving coloring books for adults to freshmen at the University of Mary Washington, who were at the college this week for orientation. Jo Orgi, who lives near Virginia Tech, brought her daughter to UMW and was glad to see examples of kindness.

Its nice letting kids know about reaching out to the community and also to college students, she said. A lot of times, people need that example.
What kid wouldnt want to go to school in the summerif the schedule included reading in the morning and an afternoon filled with visits to a farm or art gallery, the pool or a water park?

While the enrichment exercises definitely have their appeal, those who work with students in the Rappahannock Area YMCA program know theres a lot more to it than just having a good time.

The Summer Learning Loss Prevention Program is designed to bring childrens reading skills up to grade level before they fall behindand possibly stay that way their school career, and beyond. Some of the fun activities reinforce the literacy skills stressed earlier in the day as well as keeping the kids coming back for more.

Theres nothing not to like, said Kelly Andrus, a King George County teacher whos worked with the program for three years. I think they all enjoy being here.

But theres also a serious undercurrent running through the program. Studies show how wellor poorlystudents read in third grade correlates to how they do on future achievement tests, to graduate rates and even how many will end up in jail, said Elizabeth Taylor, senior vice president of the area YMCA. Thats why she proposed the summer program to boost childrens skills at such a critical juncture.

Students from low-income families lose two to three months in reading skills each summer while their higher-income peers make slight gains, according to the National Summer Learning Association.

Those losses can add up. By fifth grade, summer learning loss can leave low-income students up to three years behind their peers.

What were talking about is closing the gap, she said, adding the YMCA classes differ from other school-related ones held this time of year.

Summer school is looked at as punitive, she said. The Ys summer program is about learning and doing all kinds of fun things. This is all positive, and these kids are being set up for success.

YMCA FOOTS THE BILL

The summer program costs $1,500 per child, and the YMCA raises all the money. Its gotten grants from the Rappahannock United Way and donations from Waste Management, Dr. Wendy Moore, King George Rotary Club and Cottrell Associates and private donors.

This summer, the YMCA raised $120,000 to provide the summer program for 80 students in four counties. King George and Stafford counties debuted the program in 2015, followed by Caroline County last year. Spotsylvania County starts its inaugural program July 10.

There are 20 students selected in each county. Teachers invite prospective students for the five-week program, stressing how important it is for students to be there daily.

We like to see the most gains possible, so to do that, they need to be here as much as possible, said Wendy Payne, a YMCA employee who administers the program.

The first two years, the program targeted rising third-graders, but expanded this year to include rising second-graders. Youngsters learn to read in kindergarten and finesse the skill in first grade. By grades two and three, the focus has switched from learning to read to reading to learn all types of academic subjects, said Sallie JohnakinPutnam, principal at Falmouth Elementary School.

Those are developmental milestone, she added.

Students tracked the first two years did at least 6 percent better on overall achievement scores, and their reading skills improved as much as 24 percent, Taylor said.

Students are well-equipped to ease back into the school year because theyve had that summer program, the Falmouth principal said. Falmouth is so blessed to have this program.

I LOVE READING

During a recent morning at King George Elementary School, a group of rising third-graders read and reread four paragraphs about the changing seasons. There were nine students in the class with one teacher and one assistant. Volunteers also bring down the studentteacher ratio to as low as 1 to 6.

Juanita Francis asked questions beyond the text to reinforce what the students had just read.

What is your favorite season?

Even though its already been awfully hot, what season are we in now?

Tell me some animals that go south for the winter.

The youngsters dealt with heady vocabulary words such as hibernating and migrating, dormant and equinox. In the midst of the discussions, Austin ONeill looked at the teacher and declared: I love reading.

Im glad you do, hon, she replied.

BRAIN BREAKS

Andrus and her group of rising second-graders did similar exercises after reading books about matter and the different properties of solids, liquids and gases. The morning schedule also included two brain breaks, when the students gathered in a circle and sang songs to give it more of a camp feel, Andrus said.

The literacy portion of the program runs from 8:30 a.m. to noon and is led by teachers hired by the YMCA. Then, YMCA workers take over during the afternoon, when students swim at the local pool or enjoy activities ranging from a trip to a local farm or a visit by a parachutist.

If there isnt an outing planned, they build robots and program them or hear about topics ranging from character development to nutrition.

Some of the children would never be exposed to cultural events or amusement parks, Taylor said. One principal told her that for some families on limited funds, the most they can afford is a trip to McDonalds.

Students said how much they liked the afternoon activities, but Nicole Norris also recognized that hours spent on reading, writing and spelling can help me be a better student, a better learner.

Its helping me read more, and I can focus, the 8-year-old said.

Austin, who already proclaimed his love for reading, said the program was preparing him.

When you get to third grade, it gives you help with all your stuff, he said as he squinched up his face as if he had something else really important to say. Then he relaxed and added: Thats all I got.
THE TYRANNY of the dynasty thats governed North Korea since 1945 has never been so obvious as this year while Kim Jong-un, grandson of dynasty founder Kim Il-sung, orders tests of missiles that will someday be capable of carrying warheads to distant targets.

How many of us, however, know about the suffering of the millions who have died in a gulag system that dates to the earliest days of the dynasty, was expanded under Kim Jong-uns father, Kim Jong-iland today remains the final repository for more than 100,000 people accused of anti-state crimes? And who knows about the thousands of South Koreans held for years in North Korea after falling into the clutches of North Koreans for no fault of their own?

The arrest, imprisonment and death of University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier should cast a spotlight on North Korean crimes against humanity largely unknown or forgotten by the general public. Rights groups may protest whats going on, but its difficult to comprehend the extent of the suffering inflicted on those guilty of just about anything that offends the ruler and those around him.

The fate of North Koreans suspected of opposing the ruling establishment is draconian. The basic rule is the punishment should fit the crime. The few who have escaped tell of unspeakable acts of torture, of long hours of slave labor, of confinement to tiny cells and, finally, starvation and disease. Executions, in public or in prison, are commonplace.

Nor are those accused of crimes the only victims. Among those held against their will in North Korea are hundreds of South Korean fishermen whose boats were captured in or near North Korean waters.

Fishermen have wound up not in prison but working in coal mines.

Foreigners arrested in North Korea suffer varying degrees of punishment. Until Warmbier was arrested for stealing a propaganda banner as he was about to go to the airport after a tourist visit, probably the worst case was that of Robert Park.

A Christian pastor from the United States, Park had crossed the Tumen River from China on Christmas Eve 2009 with a message of love and forgiveness urging Kim Jong-il to stop the genocide. Expelled 43 days later, he told of abuse by screaming women who injured him in ways he would not discuss when I met him a few years ago and later talked to him by telephone. Park is thought to have been administered drugs that later led him to threaten suicide.

And then, earlier this year, North Korean experts concocted the deadly VX nerve agent that two massage girls were talked into smearing over the face of Kim Jong-uns half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, in Kuala Lumpur International Airport. They are still on trial in Malaysia, telling how they were told they were carrying out a prank for reality TV.

The death of Warmbier provides a different tale of torture perpetrated by one of the worlds most repressive regimes.

Surely nothing as simple as the crime of stealing a propaganda banner would warrant his sentence of 15 years hard labor. Initially, after he was seen crying, acknowledging the worst mistake of my life, at a staged news conference in Pyongyang a month after his arrest, the assumption was some famous American would bring him home as two former presidents, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, and the national intelligence director, James Clapper, had done for other imprisoned Americans. His offense, however, was presumably far more serious than leaving a Bible around or entering illegally across the Tumen River.

Doctors examining Warmbier after he arrived in his native Cincinnati, comatose but breathing, knew the North Koreans were lying when they said hed been in a coma after taking a sleeping pill while ill with botulism. Judging from the damage done his brain, he had experienced something more sinister. The thinking now is that he not only tore down the banner but defaced it, besmirching the image of leaders before whose statues foreign visitors bow respectfully on the first stop of a typical tour.

North Korean experts, skilled in fabricating biological and chemical warfare weapons, evidently were charged with wiping out his memory. Never would he go home talking about what he had done to defile leaders viewed not merely as temporal rulers but as God-like figures. If any good is to come of this tragedy of one young student, it will be to raise the level of awareness of how far this regime will go to enforce its rule.

Donald Kirk has been a columnist for Korea Times, South China Morning Post and other publications. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
Bashing of Trump disrespects presidency

We are aware of different opinions, but they shouldnt be hateful or said with contempt.

Doesnt the daily bashing of Donald Trump disrespect the office of the president of the United States? Doesnt it tell voters that their exercising their right to vote for Trumps campaign changes cannot be honored because those opposing arent in favor? And that the opponents voice is more powerful than the voice of the people?

Voters are confused about what is happening and want to know:

Is no news better than distorted or fake news?

Is it better to exert global strength to stop disrespect and meager support for the U.S. from others?

Is it better to pull out of the climate accord for which the U.S. was to pay billions of dollars? People ignored that the Trump administration offered to return to the pact when it is fairly handled.

Why send our forces to protect other countries and give safe sanctuary in ours to their citizens when they should join our forces to free their countries?

Why keep our borders open, burdening us by not regulating and requiring everyone coming into our country to know and respect our Constitution?

Why the sudden, numerous special meetings by our government that end in unclear results? Is it to keep Congress from working on legislation for the good of the country that safeguards our roads and bridges, creates jobs, aids the needy and improves our economy?

Perhaps if effective people such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, etc.who are dedicated to contributing to the goodwould help bring back respect for and unity in our country, there could be a chance that cooperation will return.

But if no influential group puts forth a concerted effort to end the daily criticism, then we all need to fasten our seat belts because its going to be a long, bumpy ride.

Marion Steinbronn

Spotsylvania
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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, JUNE 22

FORGERY: Police arrested Brianna Obrien Mccant, 19, for identity theft, forgery, possession of a forged instrument and theft. Police had received a report June 12 from a woman who said she believed she had a fraud claim for a $1,000 check she did not remember writing. Mccant was booked into the Benton County Jail and later released.

Benton County Sheriffs Office

TUESDAY, JUNE 13

MISSING FUNDS: 9:31 a.m., 23300 block of Highway 34, Philomath. The secretary for Alsea Cemetery reported to police he believes there is money missing from the cemeterys account. Police are investigating.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21

SCAM: 9:45 a.m., 4100 block of Northwest Glen Eden Drive, Corvallis. A man reported he had received a phone call from someone who claimed to be his grandson and said he needed $2,697 to get out of jail. The man sent the money and later realized his grandson was not in any trouble. No suspects have been identified.

Oregon State Police

THURSDAY, JUNE 15

CRIMINAL MISCHIEF: 5:38 p.m., 1200 block of Southwest Jefferson Way, Corvallis. University dispatch received a report that a man threw a bicycle lock at a window in the McNary Dining Center cafeteria, shattering it. Police arrested Oregon State University student Junepei Hunt, 19, of Portland, for second-degree criminal mischief.

FRIDAY, JUNE 16

VEHICLE THEFT: 6:36 a.m., Southwest 26th Street and Southwest Ralph Miller Lane, Corvallis. Police responded to an Oregon State University parking structure to a report of a mans car being broken into overnight. Several items were stolen from the car. No suspects have been identified.

VEHICLE THEFT: 7:51 a.m., Southwest 26th Street and Southwest Washington Way, Corvallis. Police responded to an Oregon State University parking structure to a report of a persons car being broken into. The owner of the car said several items were stolen, including military uniforms. No suspects have been identified.

CAR/BICYCLE CRASH: 9:15 a.m., Southwest 30th Street and Southwest Jefferson Way, Corvallis. Police responded to a report of a crash between a car and a bicyclist. The bicyclist was injured in the crash and was transported to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. Investigators determined the bicyclist was at fault in the crash for failing to stop at a stop sign.

THURSDAY, JUNE 22

DUII: 11:33 p.m., Northwest 25th Street and Northwest Harrison Boulevard, Corvallis. An officer stopped a driver after seeing him drive through a red light. The driver, Samuel Elliot Kenyon, 32, of Corvallis, appeared to be intoxicated and consented to field sobriety tests, on which he performed poorly. The officer arrested Kenyon for driving under the influence of intoxicants. A breathalyzer test indicated Kenyon had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.18 percent.
Austrian World Summit in Vienna : Bonns lord mayor Sridharan meets Schwarzenegger

Bonn/Vienna Bonns lord mayor, Ashok Sridharan, met the Austrian federal president Alexander Van der Bellen and the former Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger during the Austrian World Summit in Vienna during the week.

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Bonns lord mayor, Ashok Sridharan, met the Austrian federal president Alexander Van der Bellen and the former Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger during the Austrian World Summit in Vienna during the week. The Austrian World Summit took place in the Hofburg in Vienna, initiated by Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of the R20 Regions of Climate Action.

The group brings politicians, scientist, businesses and regional networks together to improve climate and climate protection by working out solutions together. The R20 initiative was founded in 2010 and works closely together with the United Nations, international finance institutes and regional networks.

According to the initiative its main plan is to offer a communication platform to connect the different parties and and present best practice projects to instigate new projects. During the debates and information events of the summit, there were talks about financing possibilities for climate projects, about strategies and examples for successful projects and and why the environment is also important for businesses. Beside the international prominent guests, a Bonn politican attended.

Lord Mayor Ashok Sridharan posted a picture on his Facebook page, showing him sitting beside Californias former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He took part in a panel discussion about sustainability in cities. As the city council announced, the federal ministry for education and research suggested for the lord mayor to take part in the conference.

The lord mayor also met the Austrian chancellor Christian Kern, and the patron of the conference, Alexander Van der Bellen. Local and regional initiatives to develop the sustainability goals of the United Nations and the climate targets of the Paris agreement were focused on during the meeting. Bonns lord mayor contributed by presenting the role of local and regional players in global agendas and brought a few examples from Bonn.

He explained how the measures to support renewable energy and climate projects, which Bonn runs with its twin cities La Paz in Bolivia and Cape Coast in Ghana, boost sustainability. Sridharan also presented the strategic research and innovation agenda Zukunftsstadt (Future City), founded by the federal ministry for education and research and implemented by the city of Bonn amongst others. He also invited the attendees to the climate summit in Bonn in November.
Woman neglects obligatory supervision : Pool supervisor gets mother and child removed from public pool

EUSKIRCHEN A mother has not watched her child in a swimming pool, and refused to do so even after being informed of her duty of supervision. A pool supervisor had her and the child removed from the premises.

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A mother has not watched her child in a swimming pool, and refused to do so even after being informed of her duty of supervision. A pool supervisor had her and the child removed from the premises, a public open air pool in Euskirchen.

Members of the Euskirchen police force reacted on Wednesday afternoon after being called by the pool supervisor Thomas Wierum and removed a mother with her child from the Waldfreibad at the Steinbachtalsperre.

The mother had refused to follow instructions to comply with her obligatory supervision. Wierum, as pool manager, described the incident to the General-Anzeiger. He had watched the child being unsupervised for an extended length of time, in the non-swimmer area of the pool.

The child kept paddling like a dog, trying to reach the edge of the pool, which isnt easy due to the current caused by the slide. Indeed, the child had an inflatable swimming aid, remembers Wierum, but if that gets punched, one drowns so much quicker than imaginable.

When the pool supervisor found the mother, he informed her of her duty of supervision: But she replied I should do my job and refrain from interfering with the education of her child, and send her child back into the water. It did not occur to her to also enter the water. The woman said I would only send her into the water so I could see her in a bikini.

He added: Of course she doesnt have to go with her child, but then she should at least take her child to the paddling pool area, where the child would be able to stand in the water. Incidents like this dont always end in a harmless way. Quite exactly two years ago, there was a dramatic incident in the Melbbad in Euskirchen.

Only thanks to the vigilance of the pool supervisor a six-year-old boy could be saved. The pool manager had noticed the lifeless body in the non-swimmer area and had taken life-saving measures immediately. But pool supervisors sometimes cant prevent the worst happening. According to a recent Forsa survey, every second primary school child is not able to swim.

The German Life Saving Association (DLRG) says, it is an illusion to believe that a child with the first of the swimming badges (Seepferdchen) is capable to swim safely. Michael Oberbeckmann, head of the DLRG Oberpleis, warns of letting ten-year-olds to the public open air pools by themselves and relying on the pool managers to watch over them: With such large attendance thats practically impossible.

The house and bathing rules generally regulates the duty of supervision, also in Bonn. But the federal city has established a few further rules. If visitors do not comply, they can be asked to leave the pool grounds. The pool management can issue a long-term order to be barred.

Children who have not yet turned eight, are only allowed to attend a pool in the company of an adult, who is obliged to permanently watch the child and has the responsibility for the safety of the child, states the city council. Generally speaking: Who is not (yet) a good swimmer, wont be able to rescue him- or herself. The strength of untrained swimmers fades much quicker and they more easily panic.
Lafee 3310, a Nokia 3310 clone is priced at just Rs. 600 News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu Heres another Nokia 3310 look alike.

Nokia 3310 (2017) that was unveiled at the MWC 2017 in February went on sale in different markets over the past few months.

This Nokia feature phone was released in India last month at Rs. 3,310 and is available via the retail stores across the country. This price point might set you back from buying the Nokia 3310. But there is no need to worry as there are a handful of Nokia 3310 clones in the market at a much cheaper price point.

Recently, we saw Nokia 3310 look alikes such as Darago 3310 and Micromax X1i that are pretty inexpensive. Even the VKWorld Z3310 is Nokia 3310 clone that is awaiting its release. Now, there is yet another device that has joined the bandwagon. Well, the talk is about the Lafee 3310, which has been spotted on the AWOK website.

A Nokia 3310 look alike The Lafee 3310 resembles the Nokia 3310 (2017) in terms of looks and that's why it is said to be the clone to the newly launched feature phone. Similar to the HMD offering, this one also comes in four color options - Yellow, Orange, Light Grey and Blue. Not much difference in terms of specs On the specifications front, the Lafee 3310 boasts a 1.77-inch TFT display. It also features a VGA camera at its rear accompanied with LED flash. It is a dual-SIM smartphone that supports expandable storage up to 16GB with the help of a microSD card. From the listing spotted online, this feature seems to support FM Radio and Bluetooth as well. Lafee 3310 costs just Rs. 600 The Lafee 3310 is listed on this retailer's website at 35 AED (approx. Rs. 600). If course, this device is yet to go on sale in India, but if you have plans to to buy the Nokia 3310, you can get similar devices at a much cheaper cost.

Best Mobiles in India

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Overall, dont let the bhoot mislead you, nothing bhootiya about this story. Had the makers tried to push the envelope, the idea could have been outstanding for a bhootiya comedy.
U.S., NATO wrap up Saber Strike 17

By Senior Airman Tryphena Mayhugh, U.S. Air Forces in Europe Public Affairs / Published June 23, 2017

ADAZI MILITARY BASE, Latvia (AFNS) -- Saber Strike 17, a month-long exercise including 11,000 U.S. and NATO military members from 20 countries, wraps up June 24.The exercise took place in various regions in the Baltics and Poland beginning May 28.

Saber Strike 17 is this year's iteration of a long-standing Joint Chiefs of Staff-directed, U.S. European Command-scheduled, U.S. Army Europe-led cooperative training exercise.

Participating nations included Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom.

This year's key training objective was to exercise with NATO's enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroups as part of a multinational division, while conducting an integrated, synchronized, deterrence-oriented field training exercise designed to improve the interoperability and readiness of participating nations' armed forces.

"Less than one year ago, our alliance said we were going to transition from assurance to deterrence," said Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the U.S. Army Europe commanding general. "One of the manifestations of that transition was the creation of the eFP Battlegroups. In less than one year, these battlegroups are exercising already in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. That is an amazing accomplishment for our great alliance.

"Deterrence means you have to have the capability to compel or defeat a potential adversary," he continued. "You have to demonstrate that capability and the will to use it, and these exercises are that demonstration."

Key training events of the exercise included a convoy by Battlegroup Poland from Orysz, Poland, to southern Lithuania; a maritime prepositioned offload of pre-staged supplies and equipment in Latvia; a Marine amphibious assault in Latvia; two combined arms live-fire exercises, one each in Poland and Lithuania; an air assault by the British Royal Marines at the Polish and Lithuanian border; and a river crossing in the same area.

"If you would like to have skilled soldiers, you have to train every day," said Maj. Gen. Leonids Kalnins, the Latvian army chief of defense. "If you would like to be safe as a state, you have to find allies; but if you would like to be the winner and create a great future for all countries, for all society, you have to participate in such exercises as this one."

The Saber Strike program facilitates cooperation between the U.S, allied, and partner nations to improve joint operational capability in a variety of missions and prepare participating nations and units for future operations while enhancing the NATO Alliance.

During the exercise, U.S. and NATO distinguished visitors attended a demonstration of the joint and combined capabilities of the U.S. and NATO at Adazi Military Base, Latvia.

One of the visitors was Nancy Bikoff Pettit, the U.S. ambassador to Latvia, who spoke about the importance of the exercise.

"I think exercises like this send a very strong message," Bikoff Pettit said. "It's not only the U.S. who is interested in security and defense here in the Baltic region, it's all of our NATO allies working together.

"This exercise demonstrates what happens when many NATO allies come together to cooperate and demonstrate the interoperability that we have," she continued. "We are really pleased with the quality of the exercises."

Saber Strike 17 promotes regional stability and security, while strengthening partner capabilities and fostering trust. The combined training opportunities that it provided greatly improve interoperability among participating NATO Allies and key regional partners.

"The U.S. is here," Hodges said. "We're going to continue to participate in exercises; American soldiers love serving with Latvian soldiers. This is a great place to train and we're excited about doing that for as [long] as I can see."

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Coalition Strikes Target ISIS Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, June 23, 2017  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 32 strikes consisting of 103 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 28 strikes consisting of 49 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, seven strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed nine ISIS oil stills, four dump trucks, three cement mixers, three vehicles, three tactical vehicles, two cranes, a weapons cache, a pumpjack and a manifold.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed six ISIS oil stills.

-- Near Palmyra, a strike destroyed four ISIS tunnel entrances.

-- Near Raqqa, 19 strikes engaged 14 ISIS tactical units; destroyed 12 fighting positions, two vehicles and an improvised explosive device cache; and damaged an ISIS supply route.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted four strikes consisting of 54 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Beiji, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed six tactical vehicles and four ISIS staging areas.

-- Near Mosul, three strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units and a sniper; destroyed 16 fighting positions, eight medium machine guns, three mortar systems, an artillery system, an ISIS-held building and a rocket-propelled grenade system; damaged a fighting position; and suppressed two mortar teams and an ISIS tactical unit.

June 21 Strikes

Additionally, three strikes were conducted in Syria and Iraq on June 21 that closed within the last 24 hours.

-- Near Mosul, Iraq, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.

For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

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Overview of the conference (Photo: VNA)



Addressing a conference themed APEC Vietnam 2017: Meet Mexico held in Mexico City recently, the ambassador said that APEC 2017 is a good chance for leaders of member economies, including those from Vietnam and Mexico, to discuss bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms for the growth of each country and the whole region.

The diplomat highlighted the sound friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Mexico since the two countries set up their diplomatic ties on September 19th, 1975, as well as the collaboration potential between the two sides, especially in manufacturing, auto industry, agriculture and tourism.

Mexico is currently the third largest trade partner of Vietnam in the Latin American region, with two-way trade rising about 30 percent per year and hitting USD5 billion in 2016, noted Lan.

Meanwhile, Mexican Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade Juan Carlos Baker lauded Vietnams efforts in preparations for APEC 2017.

He underlined similarities between the two countries in culture, history, and geography, adding that the two economies are both open ones and can supplement each other. This is a good condition for the two sides to tap their trade cooperation potential.

At the conference, many Mexican officials also underscored the significance of APEC 2017 to the promotion of trade facilitation and global integration amidst the changing world with signs of protectionism.

Participants also expressed belief at the growth of the Vietnam-Mexico partnership in all fields, especially economy, trade and investment./.
Coalition Forces Kill ISIS Financial Facilitator

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, June 23, 2017  Coalition forces killed a key Islamic State of Iraq and Syria financial facilitator with an airstrike in Abu Kamal, Syria, June 16, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials announced today.

Fawaz Muhammad Jubayr al-Rawi, a Syrian native and an experienced terrorist financial facilitator, moved millions of dollars for the terror organization's attack and logistics network. He owned the Hanifa Currency Exchange in Abu-Kamal, which he used along with a network of global financial contacts to move money into and out of ISIS-controlled territory and across borders on behalf of the group.

The Treasury Department, pursuant to U.S. Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism, imposed sanctions on al-Rawi and his company, Hanifa Currency Exchange's branch in Abu Kamal, Dec. 13, 2016. This was the first U.S. action specifically targeting ISIS-affiliated money-services businesses.

The Treasury Department designated al-Rawi for providing financial and material support to ISIS. Al-Rawi pledged loyalty to ISIS in 2014 and used his network of global financial contacts to help ISIS conduct weapons and ammunition deals at a time when the terrorist group was seizing land and committing atrocities across Syria and Iraq. In 2015, he facilitated ISIS financial transactions and money storage, including payments to ISIS foreign terrorist fighters; his property was also used by senior ISIS leaders for weekly meetings. As of May 2016, he was considered an ISIS finance emir, whose money exchange business was used for ISIS-related transactions.

Financial Network Disrupted

The coalition's efforts to disrupt and attack ISIS's financial networks have restricted the terror group's ability to move resources and export terrorism. Several of al-Rawi's close terrorist associates have also been targeted and killed by the coalition:

-- Samir Idris, a key ISIS financial facilitator for external terror attacks and an international money launderer, was killed June 7, 2017, near Mayadin, Syria. He was trusted by senior ISIS leadership to move funds across borders to pay for external terror attacks.

-- Abdurakhmon Uzbeki, a foreign fighter and external terror attack facilitator, was killed April 6, 2017, near Mayadin, Syria. He was a close associate of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and helped facilitate the high profile attack that murdered 39 people on New Year's Eve at the Reina night club in Istanbul. U.S. Central Command announced his death on April 21, 2017.

-- Abd al-Basit al-Iraqi, a senior external terror attack facilitator, was killed Nov. 12, 2016, in Raqqa, Syria. He was responsible for attacks across the Middle East, including against American, Turkish, and other European targets of interest, and was also involved in assassination plots, hostage situations and convoy reconnaissance and helped arm, fund and move terrorist fighters. U.S. Central Command announced his death Jan. 6, 2017.

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ISIS Holdouts Cut Off in Western Mosul, OIR Spokesman Says

By Terri Moon Cronk DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2017  Iraqi forces have made significant progress in the past two days in its fight to liberate western Mosul, Iraq, from Islamic State of Iraq and Syria control, said Army Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve.

Speaking to Pentagon reporters from Baghdad via teleconference, the spokesman said the Iraqis have pushed their way into the old city sector and isolated Al-Jamhara Hospital, which severed the two remaining ISIS-held areas of western Mosul.

But, emblematic of its own impending destruction, Dillon said, on June 21 ISIS destroyed the historic Great Mosque of al-Nuri from which ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the caliphate in July 2014.

The nearly 800-year-old mosque and the famous leaning al-Hadba minaret stood as a symbol of faith and unity for the people of Mosul, he said, noting that ISIS attempted to undermine this by using "the mosque to publicly justify its criminal campaign of genocide, mass rape, slavery and murder."

Mosque Destruction 'Despicable'

"On Wednesday night, as Iraqi counterterrorism service members moved within 50 meters [nearly 55 yards] of the mosque, ISIS detonated it with explosives," Dillon said. "Their destruction of the mosque  is another despicable act, another crime that is consistent with the hundreds of other ancient and historic artifacts ISIS has destroyed in their wake."

But the time is near when Iraq will celebrate its long-fought victory over ISIS in Mosul, the spokesman said, adding, "There's no question about that."

And significant effort that will be required to stabilize western Mosul, Dillon said. "However, if there was any doubt in Iraqi resolve, in their ability to quickly rebound from adversity, all you need is to go to [eastern] Mosul," he noted.

Eastern Mosul Flourishing

Since the Iraqis liberated eastern Mosul at the beginning of the year, 191,000 Moslawis have come back to their homes; 350,000 children have returned to school, where 320 out of 400 schools have reopened; and four of nine water treatment plants are providing water to nearly 1 million people with more than 3.5 million liters trucked in every day.

"The greater coalition will do all we can in working with Iraqi authorities to make sure that these trends continue, while mindful of the extraordinary, difficult nature of this battle and what lies ahead," he said of western Mosul.

SDF Prevails Against Resistance

In Syria, Dillon said Syrian Democratic Forces are making progress in its offensive operations to liberate Raqqa from ISIS control.

The SDF have retaken 45 square kilometers of ground -- about 17 square miles -- from ISIS in and around Raqqa in the past week while fighting along three axes toward the city's center despite strong ISIS resistance, he said.

The spokesman also noted that a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet shot down a regime SU-22 jet on June 18 in defense of coalition-partnered forces that were operating within an agreed-upon regime SDF de-confliction area.

And in southern Syria, a U.S. F-15 shot down an Iranian-made Shahed 129 armed drone as it approached our forces near al-Tanf, he said. The regime drone, advancing in a manner that was similar to a June 8 attack, was shot down as it approached its weapons employment zone.

"The coalition has made it clear to all parties, publicly and through [the] de-confliction line with Russia forces, that the demonstrated hostile intent and actions of pro-regime forces toward coalition and partnered forces will not be tolerated," Dillon said. "The coalition re-emphasizes that we do not seek to fight Syrian regime or pro-regime forces. Partnered with them, our mission is to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria."

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Seven nations, four branches, one mission

By Sgt. William Boecker, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry DivisionJune 23, 2017

PABRADE, Lithuania -- As the sun began to set on the Lithuanian countryside on June 17, the final touches were placed on the camouflage netting designed to conceal the position of the Tactical Action Center, or TAC, of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division. As part of the multinational exercise Saber Strike 17, the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division provided support to the Air Assault Task Force Commander, Col. Charles Kemper.

As the first ever combined air and ground assault in the annual Saber Strike exercise, this particular training has set a milestone in testing the compatibility of the seven nations and various military branches involved.

"We want to reassure all of our NATO Allies that we are in this together," said Kemper. "We're part of the team and we can demonstrate capability."

Kemper also stated that the U.S. presence in the European theater is a measure of deterrence, in addition to assurance. The goal of the U.S. military's continued involvement in the alliance is to deter any power that poses a threat to NATO allies, and demonstrates the U.S.'s capability to stand ready with its partners.

"This exercise is designed to build and increase the interoperability of all NATO contributing countries, allowing us to boost our capability to react quickly to any world threat that occurs," said Capt. Josip Jurjevich, a Croatian air force helicopter pilot attached to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division aviation element.

Throughout the planning process, American Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen worked side-by-side with service members from the United Kingdom, Poland, Croatia, Lithuania and Portugal, testing their ability to work together as one cohesive international unit by forming a NATO-enhanced Forward Presence, or eFP, Battle Group.

Jurjevich mentioned that one challenge of the exercise was the necessity to overcome cultural barriers that affect the way each participating country's military operates. Saber Strike provides a great opportunity for all partner nations and units to gauge their progress in working as a cohesive unit.

In one example of successful cooperation between partner countries, the U.S. aviation planner implemented input from the two Croatian pilots attached to the TAC to plan helicopter air corridors from the pickup zone to the landing zone.

"Even if something is better than our process, that is great, we've learned something, or if it's not, then we can bring something forward for them to learn," said Jurjevich.

With all seven nations converging at the Kazlu Ruda airstrip, the newly-formed Task Force Red Bull conducted an air mission brief and a combined arms rehearsal. These two briefings were held to work out the final details of the air and ground force to ensure that all nations and their assets were operating in sync.

In addition to working on joint tactical training, another primary goal of the exercise is to improve overall coordination and professional relationships with partner militaries, as a strong foundation of trust is crucial to the working success of the NATO alliance.

Tight living quarters shorten the period of time it takes to become comfortable with one another, said 1st Lt. Josip Perich, another Croatian air force helicopter pilot attached to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division. "With 18 of us crammed into only two trucks working together on the mission, we are able to develop trust and confidence in one another very quickly."

A pre-established relationship between nations through exercises like Saber Strike is meant to lay footwork for a long-lasting rapport with all of the U.S.'s NATO allies.

"We were like a family in two small trucks, working together, sweating together for the same collective mission," said Perich.

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Deputy Secretary General stresses value of NATO-Serbia partnership in visit to Belgrade

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

23 Jun. 2017

Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller underlined that NATO remains committed to the Western Balkans and to building a strong partnership with Serbia during a visit to Belgrade on Friday (23 June 2017). Ms. Gottemoeller is visiting Serbia for the inauguration ceremony of President Aleksander Vucic.

Meeting with President Vucic, the Deputy Secretary General highlighted that Serbia is key for regional stability in the Western Balkans. The two leaders also discussed cooperation between the Alliance and Serbia, as well as the security challenges facing the Western Balkans. The Deputy Secretary General welcomed Serbia's offer to host NATO's Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) exercise in 2018. She stressed that Serbia is making important contributions to regional and international security.

The Deputy Secretary General will also meet with the Prime Minister-designate, Ana Brnabic, and Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivica Dacic.

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Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group to Return from Western Pacific Deployment

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS170623-03

Release Date: 6/23/2017 9:06:00 AM

From U.S. 3rd Fleet Public Affairs

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain (CG 57), guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108), along with embarked Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 1, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2 and Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 1 are scheduled to arrive at Naval Air Station North Island and Naval Base San Diego June 23, following a five-and-a-half-month deployment to the Western Pacific.

Carl Vinson, Lake Champlain, Wayne E. Meyer and embarked air wing and staffs departed San Diego for a regularly-scheduled deployment with the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group as part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet-led initiative to extend the command and control functions of U.S. 3rd Fleet into the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, Jan. 5.

USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112), also part of the strike group, departed from its homeport of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Jan. 13, and returned, June 13.

Embarked aviation squadrons of CVW-2 include the "Black Knights" of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 4, the "Blue Hawks" of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM 78), the "Bounty Hunters" of Strike Fighter Squadrons (VFA) 2, the "Blue Blasters" of VFA-34, the "Kestrels" of VFA-137, the "Golden Dragons" of VFA-192, the "Black Eagles" of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 113, the "Gauntlets" of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 136 and the "Providers" of Fleet Logistic Support Squadron (VRC) 30.

During the deployment, the strike group conducted operations with the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force consisting of visit, board, search and seizure drills, tactical maneuvering, flag hoisting drills and air, surface and anti-submarine warfare training.

The strike group also participated in the maritime portion of Exercise Foal Eagle, a series of annual defense-oriented training events designed to increase readiness to defend the ROK, protect the region and maintain stability on the Korean Peninsula. The exercise was conducted by ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command and United States component commands in Korea, to include ground, air, naval and special operations.

Additionally, Michael Murphy conducted an 18-day joint mission with the U.S. Coast Guard in the Central and South Pacific under the Oceania Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI) to combat transnational crimes, enforce fisheries laws and enhance regional security.

Over the five-and-a-half month span, the strike group conducted port visits in Fiji, Guam, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Saipan, Singapore and Solomon Islands. While visiting each port, Sailors participated in numerous community service events, including volunteer service at schools, community centers, animal shelters and food banks.

U.S. 3rd Fleet leads naval forces in the Pacific and provides the realistic, relevant training necessary for an effective global Navy. Third Fleet constantly coordinates with U.S. 7th Fleet to plan and execute missions based on their complementary strengths to promote ongoing peace, security and stability throughout the entire Pacific theater of operations.

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UAE warns Qatar of divorce as Persian Gulf tensions simmer

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 23, 2017 4:17PM

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has asked Qatar to pay serious attention to the list of demands from Saudi Arabia and its allies, including the closure of al-Jazeera television news network and downgrade of relations with Iran, as the Persian Gulf diplomatic crisis aggravates.

The Emirati State Minister for Foreign Affairs Anwar Mohammed Gargash, in a post published on Twitter social network on Friday, accused Qatar of leaking a document containing the demands by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain.

Qatar strongly denies such charges. Associated Press and Reuters news agencies reported that they obtained the list from unnamed officials from one of the countries involved in the diplomatic rift with Qatar. Those countries have now given Qatar 10 days to comply with all of the demands.

"The leak is an attempt to abort the mediation in a childish act that we have grown accustomed to from our brother," Gargash wrote on Twitter.

He added, "It would be wiser that (Qatar) deal seriously with the demands and concerns of the neighbors or a divorce will take place.

The demands confirm that "the crisis is profound." Qatar faces a choice of either stability and prosperity or isolation. "Perhaps the solution is in parting ways," Gargash commented.

The 13-point list also asks Qatar to sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement.

The gas-rich Persian Gulf kingdom must shut down all affiliates and other news outlets that it allegedly funds, including Arabi21, Rassd, al-Araby al-Jadeed and Middle East Eye, as well.

Moreover, Qatar has to pay an unspecified sum in compensation for the four Arab countries claimed to be "loss of life and other financial losses caused by Doha's policies."

According to the list, the Doha government must immediately shut down the Turkish military base, which is currently under construction there, and halt military cooperation with Turkey inside Qatar.

Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik said on Friday that Ankara does not intend to shut down its military base in Qatar, stressing that the site aims to train Qatari soldiers and increase the tiny Persian Gulf nation's security.

Isik stated that "no one should be disturbed by" the Turkish military presence in Qatar.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain all cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5, after officially accusing it of "sponsoring terrorism."

The administration of Saudi-backed and resigned Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Libya, the Maldives, Djibouti, Senegal and the Comoros later joined the camp in ending diplomatic ties. Jordan downgraded its diplomatic ties as well.

Qatar's Foreign Ministry announced that the decisions to cut diplomatic ties were unjustified and based on false claims and assumptions.

"Qatar has been the target of a systematic incitement campaign that promoted outright lies, which indicates that there was a prior intent to harm the state," the statement said.

On June 9, Qatar strongly dismissed allegations of supporting terrorism after the Saudi regime and its allies blacklisted dozens of individuals and entities purportedly associated with Doha.

"The recent joint statement issued by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE regarding a 'terror finance watch list' once again reinforces baseless allegations that hold no foundation in fact," the Qatari government said in a statement.

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Yemen cholera cases could surpass 300k by September: UN

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 23, 2017 2:11PM

The number of Yemenis infected with cholera is expected to rise to more than 300,000 by the end of August, the United Nations children's agency says.

"Probably at the end of August we will reach 300,000" cases up from nearly 193,000 cases today, UNICEF spokeswoman Meritxell Relano told reporters in Geneva on a conference call on Friday.

She added that an estimated 1,265 people had lost their lives since the outbreak was declared in April.

"The number of cases continue to increase," the spokeswoman said, adding that the epidemic had affected all of Yemen's 21 governorates.

Relano said children were the most affected by the outbreak as they accounted for half of the registered cases so far. She said only a quarter of the people who had died until then were children.

Cholera, which causes severe diarrhea and dehydration, is transmitted through contaminated drinking water and could prove fatal in up to 15 percent of untreated cases.

The ongoing Saudi campaign against Yemen has destroyed the country's health sector, making it difficult to deal with the epidemic.

Over two years of war and conflict have reduced Yemen's public healthcare capabilities by 55 percent. All operating hospitals and clinics are now over-burdened by the epidemic for lack of medicine, equipment and staff.

Nearly 3.3 million Yemeni people, including 2.1 million children, are currently suffering from acute malnutrition.

International organizations, including the United Nations and the Red Cross, say the Saudi war and an embargo may be responsible for the cholera epidemic.

The UN's World Food Program has described the situation in Yemen as "the largest humanitarian crisis happening in the world at the moment."

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Qatar given list of demands from Saudi, allies to end crisis

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 23, 2017 4:42AM

Kuwait has reportedly given Doha a steep list of demands from Saudi Arabia and its allies boycotting Qatar in an attempt to end the unprecedented diplomatic crisis unfolding in the Persian Gulf region.

News agencies said Friday they had obtained a copy of the 13-point list from one of the countries involved in the row. The list was given to Doha on Thursday by Kuwait, which has been mediating between the two sides of the dispute.

According to the list, the Saudi-led bloc of countries wants Qatar to shut down the Doha-based Al Jazeera broadcaster, cut back diplomatic ties to Iran, close down a Turkish military base in Qatar and pay an unspecified sum in compensation.

Doha is also urged to align itself politically, economically and otherwise with the Saudi-led [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council.

The Saudi regime and its allies also require Qatar to cut all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups, including al-Qaeda and Daesh.

Qatar is given 10 days to look into the demands and comply with them.

Officials in Doha have not yet made any comments on the report.

On June 5 Saudi Arabia, along with a number of its allies, severed diplomatic ties with Qatar. Riyadh and its partners, including Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE, also cut all land, sea and air contacts with Qatar, which they accuse of supporting terrorism and destabilizing the region, allegations vehemently denied by Doha.

Doha has welcomed mediation to de-escalate tensions, but struck a defiant tone in the face of pressure, saying it will not allow its neighbors to dictate its sovereign affairs.

Qatar has said it will not negotiate until Arab nations lift their blockade against their neighbor.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said recently that his country would rely on other countries if the blockade continues.

The punitive measures against Qatar have been met with condemnations from rights groups, including Amnesty International, which said the diplomatic dispute has affected thousands of lives.

Iran and Turkey are now providing Qatar's required food supplies.

Ankara has also deployed troops to a Turkish military base in Qatar.

The tensions broke out last month when the Qatar News Agency (QNA) released comments attributed to Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, describing Iran as an "Islamic power," praising the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and criticizing US President Donald Trump.

Qatar later said hackers had broken into the QNA website and published the fake news, but the denial did not convince the Riyadh regime and its Persian Gulf Arab allies.

Doha announced Wednesday that it has evidence that the hacking incident originated in "neighboring countries."

Turkey rejects 'meddling' in ties

Reacting to the reported list, Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik said Friday that Ankara has no plans to review its military base in Qatar, adding that the country views any demand for the closure of the facility as interference in bilateral relations with Doha.

"The base in Qatar is both a Turkish base and one that will preserve the security of Qatar and the region," Isik said in an interview with broadcaster NTV.

Ankara deployed troops to Qatar in a show of support for its ally following the outbreak of the diplomatic crisis.

Back in 2014, Turkey and Qatar signed an agreement, which allowed the construction of a Turkish base in Qatar. Officials say up to 3,000 Turkish troops could be deployed in Qatar as part of Ankara's program to increase its military cooperation with Doha.

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Tajikistan's Civil War: A Nightmare The Government Won't Let Its People Forget

Bruce Pannier June 23, 2017

Tajikistan is marking the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Tajik peace accord on June 27.

Today Tajikistan has become practically a family-run business.

President Emomali Rahmon has been leader of the country since the early days of the 1992-97 civil war.

In the years since the war ended, Rahmon has gradually rid the government and the country of political opponents and his now-adult children are increasingly taking prominent state posts.

Independent media has been battered and is now barely surviving.

Corruption is rampant, the country remains poor, and hundreds of thousands of Tajikistan's citizens work as migrant laborers in Russia due to the lack of employment at home.

Some believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and many observers ask how Tajikistan's people can tolerate the excesses of the elite and remain relatively silent.

The answer is the civil war.

A generation has grown up since the war ended. They know only stories, but the people who lived through it remember it so well that most would endure anything their government does if it would mean Tajikistan would not fall again into civil war.

So let's remember, for a moment, how bad Tajikistan's civil war was.

Knowledgeable authors have written about how the war started as a result of rival demonstrations in Dushanbe in spring 1992; of how an unlikely coalition of democratic, Islamic, and local ethnic groups formed the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), the government's battlefield enemy; and of the chaotic first months of the war that saw the boss of a state-run farm, Rahmon, propelled into a position of leadership with the support of pro-government, paramilitary chiefs.

Battles were fought in places few had ever heard of before -- villages and towns such as Komsomolabad, Garm, and Tavil-Dara in the mountains east of Dushanbe were the scenes of almost constant fighting.

Casualties were appalling for a country that at the time had a population of less than 6 million people. It wasn't uncommon for hundreds of fighters, mainly government troops, to be killed within just a week or two of outbreaks of fighting.

Cease-fires were continually reached by representatives far from the battlefield but rarely were observed for even 24 hours by the combatants. Only agreements to exchange the bodies of the dead stopped the fighting for any significant amount of time, and even then only in one or two places.

And this went on, over and over, for five years.

Somewhere between 10 to 20 percent of the population was displaced at any given time during the war.

Western neighbor Uzbekistan closed its border to Tajikistan's refugees, and northern neighbor Kyrgyzstan agreed only to allow refugees to transit its territory. Tens of thousands of Tajikistan's citizens, and many armed UTO fighters, chose to flee across the border into Afghanistan, where there was also a civil war.

Pro-government forces were bolstered by the presence of Russian border guards and the Russian 201st Division that remained in Tajikistan after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in late 1991.

Russian border guards were often involved in firefights with UTO forces trying to reenter Tajikistan from Afghanistan. Moscow continually denied that the troops from the 201st were involved in fighting in Tajikistan -- but air strikes on UTO positions, in particular, could not have been carried out by anyone else but Russian forces.

Uzbekistan sent troops and later Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan sent units also. Along with elements of Russian forces already there, they became the CIS Peacekeeping Force.

The UTO made no distinction between them and Tajik government forces. Not only did UTO forces attack these peacekeeping units (17 Kazakh troops were killed in one battle near the Afghan border) but the UTO also launched a campaign of terrorism against them, shooting them at bazaars away from the battlefield or blowing up their vehicles in towns and cities, including Dushanbe.

Pro-government forces were no better, especially the paramilitary forces known as the Popular Front. Their leaders behaved like warlords.

The city of Tursunzade, west of Dushanbe, where the largest aluminum plant in Central Asia is located, was the scene of numerous turf wars until eventually the young commander of the Tajik Army's 1st Brigade, Colonel Mahmud Khudaiberdiev, took control there.

Khudaiberdiev's unit was the best-armed and trained in Tajikistan's military and, far from bringing Tursunzade under government control, Khudaiberdiev used the city twice as a staging area to advance on Dushanbe while making demands for changes in the government.

The government's position was so weak that Rahmon had little choice but to concede to these demands, and eventually make Khudaiberdiev commander of the Presidential Guard.

Other units of the Tajik Army were equally undisciplined at times. In December 1996, two teams of UN military observers traveling to Garm were stopped at a government checkpoint. Troops there physically and verbally abused them, marched them into a field, formed them in a line, and staged a mock execution in which they fired above the UN observers' heads.

There were other groups such as the Sadirov brothers' gang. To secure safe passage for his brother and other members of the bandit group from Afghanistan to Tajikistan in February 1997, Bahrom Sadirov took UN and Red Cross workers, Russian journalists, and later Security Minister Saidimir Zuhurov hostage.

Again, the government could little but comply, though in the end the hostages were freed and, amazingly, government and UTO forces combined to attack the Sadirov band.

Noncombatants were targeted regularly. Chief Mufti Fatkhullo Sharifzoda and his family were shot dead in January 1996; the rector of Dushanbe's medical school, 65-year-old Yusuf Ishaki, was gunned down in May 1996; more than 40 journalists were killed during the civil war, many by assassins' bullets.

The people also suffered from the problems that accompany conflicts.

There were food shortages. In the northern Sughd region, Tajikistan's section of the Ferghana Valley, there was relative calm compared to the rest of the country, but lack of sufficient food led to demonstrations in Ura-Tyube and Khujand in May 1996. During rioting that erupted in Ura-Tyube, government troops opened fire on a crowd killing several people.

At the end of July that year, another riot broke out hundreds of kilometers away in Khorog, where refugees from fighting in central Tajikistan had taxed the supplies of basic goods. Three people were killed in a riot there.

There were typhoid outbreaks, made all the worse due to the near collapse of the country's medical system.

Even after the signing of the peace accord there were incidents of violence, but gradually things settled down and they became the exception rather than the norm.

The majority of Tajikistan's people remember this and much more. The conflict drained the nation and its scars are still visible 20 years later in many forms.

And if anyone has forgotten, the government makes sure to remind them by frequently referring to the horrors of the civil war, especially prior to elections, and asking if the people want the government they have now or want to risk returning to civil war.

Author's note: This is the first report on Tajikistan's civil war in Qishloq Ovozi. Another article on the peace negotiations during the civil war is coming soon and this week's Majlis Podcast will also look at Tajikistan since the civil war.

Salimjon Aioub (@Aioubzod) of RFE/RL's Centralasian.org contributed to this report. The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/qishloq-ovozi- tajikistan-civil-war/28575338.html

Copyright (c) 2017. 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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Vucic To Be Inaugurated As Serbia's President

RFE/RL's Balkan Service June 23, 2017

Serbia's new president, Aleksandar Vucic, is set to be inaugurated in a ceremony attended by many foreign leaders and dignitaries amid scheduled protests against what his critics describe as his increasingly tight grip on power in the Balkan country.

The 46-year-old Vucic was sworn in on May 31, succeeding Tomislav Nikolic, at a ceremony in parliament that was marred by protests in Belgrade supported by the majority of opposition parties and leaders.

Once an ultranationalist who served as information minister in the administration of strongman Slobodan Milosevic, Vucic has solidified his grip on power by reinventing himself as a reformer committed to Serbia's drive toward European Union membership.

Vucic's first-round presidential election victory on April 2 came nearly a year after his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won parliamentary elections, giving the party control over the entire legislative and governing process.

Some critics have warned that such a concentration of power could push the Balkan country back into the autocracy Milosevic symbolized during his decade in power.

Vucic's inauguration ceremony is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) at Belgrade's Palace of Serbia, the seat of government of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, with some 5,000 guests in attendance, including high-level envoys from the United States and Russia.

The U.S. delegation is headed by Hoyt Brian Yee, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, while Russia will be represented by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.

The presidents of five neighboring countries -- Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina -- are also expected to attend, while Germany is to be represented by former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Beijing has sent the vice president of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, Ji Bingxuan, as its representative.

They will be joined by senior officials from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, Greece, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Austria.

However, many Serbian opposition politicians will boycott the ceremony and hold a protest in the Belgrade city center instead.

While Vucic pledges to prepare the nation of 7.3 million people for EU accession by 2019, he also opposes joining NATO and pushes for deeper economic and diplomatic ties with longtime ally Moscow.

Meeting with Rogozin ahead of the inauguration, Vucic pledged that Serbia will not join Western sanctions imposed on Russia for its actions in Ukraine, despite EU suggestions that Belgrade must align its foreign policies if it wants to join the bloc.

Earlier this month, Vucic won praise for naming the minister of public administration and local government, Ana Brnabic, as the next prime minister.

The move made Brnabic the first openly gay prime minister in the Balkan region and the first Serbian woman in the government's top job.

Her appointment for the government last year was hailed by rights groups as historic for the Balkan country, whose gay community often faces discrimination, harassment, and violence.

Vucic has promised to boost gay rights as part of efforts to move closer to EU membership.

With reporting by AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/serbia-vucic -president-inauguration/28575218.html

Copyright (c) 2017. 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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Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (R) welcomes Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni during the latter's visit to Vietnam in 2012 (Photo: VNA)



Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Tran Dai Quang sent congratulatory letters to Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc sent a letter of congratulations to his Cambodian counterpart Samdech Techo Hun Sen. Meanwhile, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan extended congratulations to Senate President Samdech Say Chhum and National Assembly President Samdech Heng Samrin of Cambodia.

The Vietnamese leaders expressed their delight at the continually sound development of Vietnam-Cambodia relations over the past five decades. They affirmed that despite difficulties and challenges, the people of the two nations have always been united together, stood side by side and given each other disinterested and pure support and assistance during their struggles for national liberation in the past as well as the process of national construction and development at present.

This is an invaluable and sacred asset of the two nations that needs to be further maintained and consolidated, they said, expressing their belief that the good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation and long-term sustainability between Vietnam and Cambodia will continue to be solidified and developed for the sake of their people, as well as for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

Meanwhile, King Norodom Sihamoni also extended letters of congratulations to Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Tran Dai Quang. Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen sent a congratulatory letter to his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Senate President Samdech Say Chhum and National Assembly President Samdech Heng Samrin sent congratulatory letters to National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

The Cambodia leaders underlined the centuries-old relationship between the two countries, noting that the Cambodian and Vietnamese have together experienced numerous difficulties and hardships. The strong historical relations, basing on friendship and mutual respect, have created a solid foundation for the current close bilateral cooperation under the motto good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation, and long-term sustainability.

In their letters, the Cambodian leaders expressed their admiration for the great achievements that the Vietnamese people have obtained under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

They wished the Vietnamese people will successfully accomplish the industrialisation and modernisation process and affirmed that Cambodia will forever keep in mind the Vietnamese peoples assistance and sacrifice in the liberation of the Cambodian people from the genocidal disaster.

On this occasion, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Cambodias Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn also exchanged congratulatory letters./.
Chinese Sub-Hunting Aircraft, Drones Now Patrolling South China Sea

Sputnik News

22:14 23.06.2017(updated 23:23 23.06.2017)

Satellite imagery acquired by Defense News indicates unmanned aircraft and China's newest Y-8X maritime patrol aircraft  equipped with a seven-meter long Magnetic Anamoly Detector to detect magnetic signatures of submarine hulls  have been deployed to Hainan Island, on the fringes of the South China Sea.

Photos snapped by commercial firm DigitalGlobe on May 10 and May 20 show four sub-hunters, three Harbin BZK-005 recon unmanned aerial vehicles and two KJ-500 early warning jets parked at Lingshui Air Base on Hainan Island. The Y-8X aircraft were put into service in 2015 but haven't been documented at Lingshui until now. DigitalGlobe has active partnerships with Facebook, Uber, Esri and Mapbox, according to the company's website.

The sub-hunter is the first combat-ready maritime patrol plane to be commissioned by the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLA-N), Defense News notes. The Y-98Q may also have the ability to carry anti-surface ship munitions, but the news outlet cannot independently verify this.

The planes may be permanently stationed on Hainan as PLA-N bolsters the South Sea Fleet's "domain-awareness and sea-control capabilities," Defense News added.

Lingshui Air Base gained notoriety in 2001 when a US Navy EP-3 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft crashed with a Chinese J-8 high-speed, high-altitude aircraft in midair, killing the Chinese pilot involved. The US Navy aircraft was forced to send out a "mayday" signal, according to GlobalSecurity.org, and make an emergency landing at the Linshui Air Base.

 Sputnik

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Defenseless: Afghan MP Blames Washington for Weakening Country's Forces

Sputnik News

18:55 23.06.2017(updated 19:58 23.06.2017)

The United States has weakened the capabilities of the Afghan armed forces, a local lawmaker told Sputnik.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The United States made a lot of mistakes in Afghanistan and instead of training the Afghan forces Washington only weakened them, Afghan parliament member Baktash Siavash told Sputnik on Friday.

"For more than 10 years the United States made a lot of mistakes causing devastation and teaching nothing to the Afghan forces. On the contrary, they weakened the combat capability of armed forces. Therefore, if US troops decide and leave in a moment the territory of Afghanistan, then security forces will not be able to counter enemy even for several hours," Siavash said.

The United States and its allies launched a military operation in Afghanistan in 2001 following 9/11 terror attacks. The mission in Afghanistan ended on December 28, 2014. On January 1, 2015, NATO announced its new mission in the country, called Resolute Support, to train and assist the Afghan security forces.

Afghanistan has been experiencing significant political, social and security-related instability for decades, as terrorist organizations, including Daesh and the Taliban, continue to stage attacks against civilian and military targets.

 Sputnik

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Lavrov: NATO Unveils Facilities Near Russia Behind Far-Fetched Pretexts

Sputnik News

15:37 23.06.2017(updated 15:38 23.06.2017)

NATO is trying to justify its military buildup near Russia's border by means of far-fetched pretexts, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) cloaks the deployment of its infrastructure near Russian borders behind far-fetched pretexts, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Belarusian media Friday.

"All these preparations that are now being implemented in practice, when NATO infrastructure approaches our common borders, when new units are sent there we understand perfectly well that the pretexts used to justify such actions, they are far-fetched," Lavrov said.

Relations between NATO and Russia have deteriorated since 2014 against the background of the Ukrainian crisis and Crimea's reunification with Russia. During this time, NATO decided to suspend projects of practical civilian and military cooperation with Moscow, but maintained channels of political dialogue. Since the beginning of Ukrainian crisis, the organization has also been boosting its military presence in Eastern Europe. During July 2016 NATO summit in Warsaw, allies agreed to deploy four multinational battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

"I still have a high opinion of the quality of military thinking, military training in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries of the North Atlantic alliance. I cannot assume that they have even the slightest assumption that Russia will attack NATO," Lavrov said.

Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations of involvement in Ukraine, as they are not supported by factual evidence. Russia has also warned that amassing troops and military equipment on its borders is a provocation, violates past NATO pledges, and can lead to regional and global destabilization.

 Sputnik

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Civilian casualties continue to rise in Yemen, warns UN human rights office

23 June 2017  The United Nations Human Rights Office in Yemen continues to document reports of civilian casualties in the conflict and had verified 49 civilian deaths over the past month, a UN spokesperson said today.

"All incidents resulting in civilian casualties [] must be thoroughly investigated to ensure accountability when breaches of international law have been found to have taken place," Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, told a news briefing in Geneva.

She said 19 civilians were killed in Taiz between 21 May and 6 June. According to witnesses interviewed by the High Commissioner's Office (OHCHR), the victims were hit by shelling attacks by a group affiliated with the Houthis rebels.

Seven civilians were killed reportedly as a result of mortar attacks from areas controlled by fighters affiliated with forces loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

She went on to say that at least 23 civilians were killed on 17 June by an airstrike, helicopter attack and shelling on a house and nearby market area located just a few hundred metres from the Yemeni-Saudi border in Shada District in Sa'ada Governorate.

Since March 2015, OHCHR has recorded a total of 13,504 civilian casualties, including 4,971 killed and 8,533 injured.

"We recall that indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, or attacks targeting civilian objects such as markets, are prohibited under international humanitarian law," Ms. Shamdasani said, reminding all parties to the conflict of their obligation to ensure full respect for international human rights and humanitarian laws.

On cholera, she said the outbreak of disease has affected eight prisons and detention centres in six governorates. Some 50 prisoners have contracted cholera and there are 72 other suspected cases. "In the best of circumstances, prisoners are among the most vulnerable members of society," she said.

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UN opens international probe into alleged abuses in DR Congo's Kasai provinces

23 June 2017  The United Nations today opened an international investigation into alleged killings, mutilations and destruction of entire villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) restive Kasai provinces.

The UN Human Rights Council, comprised of 47 countries, adopted the resolution by consensus during a meeting earlier today in Geneva.

"The victims  those who have been killed, maimed, subjected to terrible violence and forced from their homes  deserve justice," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, who has been called on to appoint a team of international experts to carry out the investigation.

In a statement, Mr. Zeid, who has repeatedly called for a probe, said the creation of the investigation is "a step forward in identifying the perpetrators of gross violations and bringing them to justice."

His office said it expects and counts on "the full cooperation of the authorities" including "unfettered access to all sites, files, people and places."

He added that the team will conduct investigations "in a fully independent manner, in accordance with international standards."

Addressing the Council on Tuesday, Mr. Zeid recounted chilling details of apparent ethnic violence that included mutilated babies and fetuses.

Violence flared up in the DRC's Kasai regions in August 2016, when a customary chief was killed by Forces armees de la Republique democratique du Congo (FARDC), as DRC's armed forces are known. The Kamuina Nsapu militia (named after the chief) then set about avenging the killing, committing widespread atrocities as well as recruiting children into its ranks.

The gravity of the situation was further underscored by the discovery in April of forty-two mass graves by Mr. Zeid's office (OHCHR) and the UN mission in the country, known by its French acronym, MONUSCO.

Since the start of the violence, more than 1.3 million people have since been displaced within the country as well as thousands forced to flee across its borders.

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More than $350 million pledged for refugees in Uganda; 'A good start, we cannot stop,' says UN chief

23 June 2017  A 'Solidarity Summit' for refugees hosted by Uganda has raised some $358 million in pledges, the United Nations announced today.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, that it was a "good starting point" although the international conference was looking to raise $2 billion.

In just the past year, the overall refugee population in Uganda has more than doubled, largely due to an influx of desperate people fleeing violence and instability in South Sudan  from 500,000 to more than 1.25 million  making the East African country host to the world's fastest growing refugee emergency.

Convened by President Yoweri Museveni and the UN Secretary-General, the Summit sought to rally international support for refugees and host communities in the form of donations, investments and relevant programmes, over the next four years.

Mr. Guterres noted that the World Bank and the African Development Bank had promised "innovative funding" for projects involving both refugees and the local communities.

"We cannot stop," he underscored, recalling that several of the countries agreed to put forward their pledges in the weeks to come.

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Taliban Chief: US Troop Surge a 'Mistake'

By Ayaz Gul June 23, 2017

The leader of Afghanistan's Taliban says the United States will be "making a mistake" by increasing its troop numbers to combat the insurgents, who have vowed to fight until the end of the "illegitimate [foreign] occupation" of the country.

Maulavi Haibatullah Akhunzadah made the remarks Friday in a message ahead of the annual Muslim festival of Eid ul Fitr that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

"If you think that you may break our determination with your military presence and surge of troops, you are making a mistake! This is not the solution of the issue to continue your occupation on the request of the inept administration of Kabul," said the fugitive insurgent chief, who also warned that the U.S. troop surge would further destabilize the country.

He went on to blame foreign forces for being "the main obstacle in the way of peace in Afghanistan." The Taliban wants NATO forces to leave the country before it engages in any peace talks.

President Donald Trump recently authorized his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, to add several thousand more U.S. troops to the 8,400 currently deployed to Afghanistan, primarily tasked to train and advise Afghan forces, which are struggling to halt Taliban battlefield advances.

The U.S. military estimates that the government in Kabul controls only 60 percent of Afghanistan.

Suicide blast kills dozens

Akhunzadah's message came a day after a Taliban suicide car bomber killed at least 34 people and wounded dozens of others in the southern province of Helmand.

The expected U.S. troop surge and the Taliban's determination to continue its violent campaign, analysts say, are bound to escalate Afghan hostilities in the coming weeks and months.

The chief Afghan government peace negotiator Friday called on all sides to find a solution to the war through peaceful means and urged the international community to assist those efforts.

"I have said it in the past and say it again that war is not the option for any side to resolve the conflict; neither for the Afghan government nor for the armed opposition. The only way to achieve peace is to promote the peace process," said Karim Khalili while addressing a gathering in Kabul.

Khalili is the head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, which is tasked with engaging insurgents in a political reconciliation process.

While the Taliban has long maintained it has been waging the insurgency to free Afghanistan of U.S.-led NATO forces, Friday's statement by its top leader indicates the Taliban expects to regain power to re-impose its brand of harsh Islamic rule in the country.

"Whenever your illegitimate occupation of Afghanistan comes to an end, the Islamic Emirate [the Taliban] has a comprehensive policy to maintain constructive and good relations with you and the world including the neighbors as per the principles," said the insurgent leader.

In an apparent reference to growing contacts that Russia, Iran and China lately have established with his group, Akhunzadah said, "The mainstream entities of the world admit its [Taliban's] effectiveness, legitimacy and success."

Moscow, Tehran and Beijing have expressed concern that deteriorating security is creating "ungoverned areas" in Afghanistan, where loyalists of Islamic State could set up bases to threaten their regional and national security interests.

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Nigerian Refugees Trapped by Uptick in Boko Haram Violence

By Moki Edwin Kindzeka June 23, 2017

Thousands of Nigerian refugees fleeing Boko Haram atrocities are trapped in difficult humanitarian and security conditions near Cameroon's northern border. They are crammed in a makeshift camp not far from another camp hosting 2,000 internally displaced Cameroonians.

Among the new arrivals at the camp on the outskirts of Kolofata is 51-year-old Nigerian cattle rancher Ibrahima Daouda. He fled his Gamboru-Ngala village in Borno state after a recent Boko Haram attack.

"We are afraid of Boko Haram," he said. "We are afraid that is why we ran and came here. They kill our people, cutting their necks, [burning] them. I used to load a trailer of cow and take it to Lagos, everywhere. But see how I am sitting without any thing to do. We are not having enough of food."

Daouda says they also lack medical care.

Some 1,200 Nigerians recently settled in the camp. In the last two weeks, 20 suicide bomb attacks have targeted the camp and surrounding villages.

Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the far north region of Cameroon, said it will be better for all of the Nigerians to relocate.

He said Cameroon has made it abundantly clear that because the site is not secured and can be easily attacked by the insurgents, the refugees should go back to safer localities before the start of operations to return refugees who wish to go back to Nigeria.

The governments of Cameroon and Nigeria signed in a tripartite agreement with UNHCR in March stipulating that refugees who choose not to return to Nigeria should not be forced to go back.

Some of the refugees are asking to be taken to the nearby Minawao refugee camp.

Rene Emmanuel Sadi, Cameroon's minister of territorial administration and decentralization, says the camp, which was created to host 25,000 refugees, is now home to 75,000. The number had diminished to 60,000 last month when some refugees decided to return.

But with the increase in raids by the Nigerian army on Boko Haram's remaining strong holds in the Sambissa forest, and the multi-national joint task force fighting the insurgents, the population at Minawao swelled.

"We cannot continue to send people there and with the agreement of the Nigerian authorities of the border, we organize their return to their country in localities where they can live safely," Sadi said.

Roseline Okoro, assistant UNHCR representative in charge of refugee protection, says forced returns constitute a serious violation of the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1969 OAU Convention, both of which Cameroon has ratified.

She says it's possible for CameroUptickon to protect both the refugees, its citizens, and its territory, and that is what the UNHCR has been requesting the government of Cameroon to do.

Besides the refugees, Cameroon says the number of internally displaced persons has also increased from barely 9,000 to 19,000 at the Kolofata camp within a month.

Earlier this month, the United Nations cautioned people against traveling to the Far North region of Cameroon, saying that the arrest of the Boko Haram commander in charge of the town of Kousseri had triggered a surge of violence. The government has not confirmed that arrest.

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Trump: Friendship Between Leader of Russia Probe, Fired FBI Director 'Very Bothersome'

By VOA News June 23, 2017

In his first televised face-to-face interview in six weeks, President Donald Trump said it is "very bothersome" that the man leading the probe into possible ties between his campaign and Russia is friends with former FBI Director James Comey.

Trump told Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" that special counsel Robert Mueller is "very, very good friends with Comey, which is very bothersome."

The president also suggested Mueller may have to step down at some point, saying "we'll have to see" three times when asked if Mueller should recuse himself from the probe. Trump said he was concerned that Mueller had retained lawyers who had previously contributed to Democrats.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters later Friday while the president "retains the authority" to fire Mueller, "he has no intention of doing that."

Mueller was appointed special counsel by the Justice Department to lead the investigation after Trump fired Comey, who was leading the Russia investigation at the time he was ousted. Mueller and several congressional committees are investigating Russian meddling in last year's election aimed at helping Trump win, and whether he obstructed justice.

For months, the president has dismissed the probes into Russian interference in the election, calling them a "witch hunt" and saying they are an excuse by Democrats to explain Clinton's defeat.

One day after saying he does not have tapes of private conversations with Comey, the president told Fox he always told a "straight story."

The president has disputed Comey's claim that Trump asked the FBI director for a vow of loyalty during a private meeting. When Comey's account was publicized, Trump tweeted that Comey "better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press."

Trump also expressed hope that House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi remains in her leadership position because it is beneficial to Republicans.

"I hope she doesn't step down," he said. "It would be a very sad day for Republicans if she steps down."

Trump cited this week's Republican victory in a special congressional election in the southeastern state of Georgia. Republican-funded campaign advertisements linked Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff with Pelosi, who often is criticized by Republicans for representing what they consider extremely liberal points of view.

Pelosi has been facing questions about her leadership since Democrats lost the hard-fought race.

The interview, conducted Thursday at the White House and aired Friday morning, comes as Trump considers reducing the number of media briefings to once per week and requiring reporters to submit written questions in advance.

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Turkey Stands by Qatar in Ongoing Crisis

By Dorian Jones June 23, 2017

Turkey is continuing to be drawn into the crisis between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States over Doha's alleged support of radical Islamic groups in the region. Ankara is strongly backing Qatar and has ruled out ending it's recently established military ties.

On Thursday, five Turkish armored vehicles and 23 military personnel arrived in Doha as part of an agreement to establish a military base with more than 5,000 soldiers. But the base's closure is one of the 13 demands Riyadh is making on Qatar, to end the crisis.

Friday, the Turkish defense minister, Fikri Isik, in a televised interview, shot back.

"Re-evaluating the base agreement with Qatar is not on our agenda," Isik stressed, adding the deployment is not aimed at any other country and should be seen as contributing to regional stability. Commenting on the reported demands for the base's closure, he said, "If there is such a demand, it will mean interference in bilateral ties."

The agreement to establish the Turkish military base dates back to 2014 and is part of Ankara's wider strategic goal of extending its influence.

"It [the military base] was significant because its gives Turkey a foothold in the region," notes political columnist Semih Idiz of the Al Monitor website. "But after the Qatar crisis, the way Ankara rushed through legislation allowing the deployment, it's a very clear and open overt sign of support for the emir of Qatar, what ever the Turkish defense minister says."

In the forefront

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been in the forefront of backing Doha, calling the Saudi-led embargo against Qatar a "death penalty." Along with deploying soldiers, Ankara has been leading efforts to break the embargo, sending thousands of tons of supplies.

"Since June 5 exports to Qatar have amounted to $32.5 million. Of this $12.5 million is food. This figure is three times the normal level," announced Turkish Customs and Trade Minister Bulent Tufenkci Thursday. The breaking of the embargo has seen Ankara even forsake regional rivalries with Iran to coordinate their efforts.

"This is an artificial crisis, when it comes to accusations of financing or supporting fanatical Islamic groups, this is not a monopoly of one country in the region. You can't let one country dictate to another how it should behave. We've seen this so many times in history," points out Mithat Rende, the retired Turkish ambassador to Qatar, robustly defending Ankara's stance.

But Rende, acknowledges such a stance marks a break with the past.

"Traditionally the Turkish establishment's policy towards the Arab world and Gulf was to stay outside of inter-Arab conflicts and stay out of sectarian conflicts. But things have changed."

Ankara's siding with Qatar has seen some former Turkish ambassadors warn that it undercuts any role Turkey could play in mediating in the crisis. Despite such concerns, few expect any change in policy.

Future rewards

"We know President Erdogan is impulsive in these situations and there are now no checks to his decisions, and we now have another example of this. This is the president's decision and he is famed for not listening to his diplomats," observes columnist Idiz. "Taking a back step would not only amount to lose a face, it would leave Turkey looking as an unreliable partner having gone out on limb for Qatar."

While such loyalty to Qatar may reap some rewards in the future, the shifting sands of the region could ultimately see Ankara also paying a heavy price. Experts point out that Arab counties invariably do resolve their disputes and successfully move on, but tend not to be so forgiving to any outside party that chooses to involve themselves in such disputes.

"If a third party, be it Turkey, United States, you name it, try to be part of the dispute, then they may end up feeling isolated. This is a risk," acknowledges retired Turkish ambassador Rende. "But Turkey cannot, should not remain indifferent. It's our geography, our neighbors. You cannot deny basic rights and freedoms to these people."

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Tourists visit Chua mot cot (One-pillar pagoda) in Hanoi (Source: VNA)



The number of foreigners visiting Hanoi in the period reached 2.3 million, up 14 percent against the same period last year, the municipal Department of Tourism reported.

According to Nguyen Van Nhung, Director of Xuan Son Travel Co., Ltd, many visitors to the capital were impressed by pedestrian areas surrounding Hoan Kiem Lake at the weekends, where they can enjoy art performances.

Hanoi is among the top 10 destinations in the 2017 Summer Travel Trends selected by Airbnb, a US-based accommodation sharing application.

Airbnb said Hanoi is attractive to holiday-makers as its boasts historical relic sites and special cuisine.

The positive results are attributed to effective measures taken by municipal authorities to develop tourism.

The citys decision to open more walking areas surrounding Hoan Kiem Lake in September last year helped improve the capitals tourism sector.

Recently, a cuisine culture exchange was held in the city, featuring various kinds of foods in 50 booths. The event also offered food from Italy, France, Japan, China, Laos, Indonesia and Thailand.

In the future, IT use in tourism management will be increased.

Apart from pedestrian areas, visitors will be able to use free wifi in other tourism sites in the city. The move is part of building a smart tourism city.

Attention will also be paid to branching out new tourism products and popularising the citys images to domestic and international friends via the Cable News Network (CNN), which is broadcast across Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South Asia.

Hanoi tourism officials will also attend international tourism fairs in key and new markets, and welcome delegations from the UK, Japan, France, Thailand, the US, China and Germany.

This year, the city aims to welcome 23.61 million travellers, a year-on-year increase of 8 percent./.
Egyptian President Ratifies Red Sea Islands Transfer to Saudi Arabia

Sputnik News

19:28 24.06.2017(updated 20:16 24.06.2017)

Egyptian President has ratified the maritime border demarcation agreement with Saudi Arabia, the state-controlled MENA agency reported Saturday, citing a government statement.

CAIRO (Sputnik)  Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi has ratified the maritime border demarcation agreement with Saudi Arabia which envisages the transfer of two Red Sea islands to the latter, the state-controlled MENA agency reported Saturday, citing a government statement.

In April 2016, Sisi signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia on the demarcation of maritime borders, handing control over the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir under Riyadh's jurisdiction. The decision fueled public opposition, causing numerous lawsuits in national courts to dispute its validity. Earlier in June, the agreement received official approval from the Egyptian parliament.

Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court later temporarily suspended the execution of all previous judicial rulings regarding the transfer the islands.

Forty-seven percent of Egyptians consider the islands located in the strategic part of the Red Sea bordered by Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as Egyptian, the poll of the independent Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research cited by the same news outlet showed Tuesday. According to the survey data, only 11 percent believe that the islands are Saudi.

 Sputnik

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India launches 31 satellites in single space mission

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 14:03, June 23, 2017

NEW DELHI, June 23 -- India Friday launched 31 satellites, including an earth observation satellite, in a single space mission from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota.

State-owned Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) most trusted rocket, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), lifted off with the Cartosat-2 earth observation satellite and 30 other satellites at 09:29 a.m. local time (0359 GMT).

The 712 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite, called India's eye in the sky, will be providing regular remote sensing services using its panchromatic and multispectral cameras.

The imagery sent by the satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps and for geographical information system applications.

The other satellites comprise 29 nano satellites from 14 countries such as Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Britain, and the Unite States.

India had earlier this month successfully launched its heaviest rocket GSLV-MKIII.

In February this year, India created history by successfully launching 104 satellites at one go, overtaking the previous record of 37 satellites launched by Russia in 2014.

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DPRK says death of U.S. student Warmbier "mystery"

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 20:08, June 23, 2017

PYONGYANG, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Friday the death of American student Otto Warmbier days after his release was a "mystery," as his health indicators and examination results were all normal when he left DPRK.

A spokesman the country's foreign ministry said the DPRK gave Warmbier all available medical treatment and care on a humanitarian basis until his return to the United States, and that Warmbier was not mistreated or tortured during his 18-month detention in DPRK.

"Although we had no reason at all to show mercy to such a criminal of the enemy state, we provided him with medical treatment and care with all sincerity on a humanitarian basis until his return to the U.S.," the Korean Central News Agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

Warmbier, 22, was released on June 13 and died on June 19 after arriving home in a coma, according to earlier foreign media reports.

He was sentenced by DPRK court to 15 years of hard labor in March last year for anti-DPRK activities at the order of an American religious group and the Central Intelligence Agency during stay in Pyongyang. Warmbier claimed to be a tourist.

"As for groundless public opinion now circulating in the U.S. that he died of torture and beating during his reform through labor, the American doctors who came to the DPRK for repatriation of Warmbier will have something to say about it," said the DPRK spokesman.

The U.S. doctors "examined Warmbier and exchanged medical observations about him with" DPRK doctors, and "recognized that his health indicators like his pulse, temperature, respiration and the examination results of the heart and lung were all normal," said the spokesman.

"We provided him with medical treatment and brought him back to life when his heart nearly stopped" beating, the spokesman added.

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North Korea censures US for 'smear campaign' over student's death

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 23, 2017 1:46PM

Pyongyang has criticized Washington for its handling of the death of a student who was returned to the United States after falling ill in custody, saying accusations that Otto Warmbier was tortured in North Korea are a pure "smear campaign."

In a statement on Friday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman rejected Washington's claims that Warmbier had been provided with proper medical treatment, saying North Korea was also puzzled why the student died right after arriving in the United States.

"The fact that Warmbier died suddenly in less than a week just after his return to the US in his normal state of health indicators is a mystery to us as well," the North Korean official said of the death of the 22-year-old student, which took place on Monday at a Cincinnati hospital.

The official said the US administration was using the death to pile more pressure on North Korea. It warned that such actions would force North Korea to become even stricter in its way of dealing with other US nationals held in the country.

"The smear campaign against (North Korea) staged in the US compels us to make firm determination that... we should further sharpen the blade of law," said the spokesman, adding, "The US should ponder over the consequences to be entailed from its reckless and rash act."

Warmbier was detained and sentenced to hard labor early last year while he was in a hotel on a tourist trip. US media claimed he had stolen a political poster from the facility he was staying in.

The foreign ministry spokesman denied accusations that Warmbier was abused while in his "reform through labor" and condemned them as "groundless public opinion" circulating in the United States.

The death of Warmbier has inflamed already high tensions between the US and North Korea. Washington has repeatedly criticized Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile tests. The administration of President Donald Trump has even warned Pyongyang of military action, saying rounds of international sanctions on the country seems not to be enough.

Trump has slammed treatment of Warmbier as "a total disgrace" while other officials, such as Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, have warned after the death of Warmbier that Washington's patience with Pyongyang is running out.

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North Korea Denies Responsibility in Warmbier's Death, Slams Washington

Sputnik News

22:25 23.06.2017(updated 22:32 23.06.2017)

North Korea has denied that it put deceased American student Otto Warmbier through cruel or torturous treatment during his 17-month detention in the country. Instead, the Hermit Kingdom is arguing that the US has orchestrated a "smear campaign" against them.

"The smear campaign against [North Korea] staged in the US compels us to make firm determination that  we should further sharpen the blade of law," said a spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry in a statement.

"Although we had no reason at all to show mercy to such a criminal of the enemy state, we provided him with medical treatment and care with all sincerity on a humanitarian basis until his return to the US, considering that his health got worse."

The spokesman said Warmbier was provided proper medical treatment during his stay. "The fact that Warmbier died suddenly in less than a week just after his return to the US in his normal state of health indicators is a mystery to us as well," he said.

Previously, the DPRK said that Warmbier contracted botulism during his stay. Botulism is an infectious disease that is usually caused by the consumption of tainted food or getting dirt and filth into open wounds.

American doctors who treated Warmbier claimed to find no evidence of botulism. Instead, they believed his condition was caused by a severe neurological injury brought on by oxygen deprivation. The family has requested that no autopsy be performed.

Otto's relatives claimed that he had been in a coma since shortly after March 2016, when he was sentenced to 15 years hard labor after being accused of trying to steal a propaganda banner.

The Foreign Ministry statement also criticized South Korea, which had called on the North to release its other detainees including six South Koreans. "Our related institutions are treating criminals who committed crimes against [our] republic strictly based on domestic law and international standards, and Warmbier was no different."

Seoul's demands were "slanderous talk about cruel treatment and torture" with no basis in reality, according to the DPRK.

"The US should ponder over the consequences to be entailed from its reckless and rash act," he added, possibly an allusion to the three Korean-Americans currently imprisoned by North Korean authorities.

Warmbier's death has caused furor among the American political establishment, including with US President Donald Trump. "It's a total disgrace what happened to Otto. That should never ever be allowed to happen," he said Tuesday. "Otto's fate deepens my administration's determination to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency."

 Sputnik

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Insults in Print: North Korean Newspaper Calls Trump 'Reckless War Machine'

Sputnik News

22:07 23.06.2017(updated 23:23 23.06.2017)

On Thursday a North Korean state newspaper called US President Donald Trump a "reckless war machine" and a "lunatic." The report, published in Rodong Sinmun, suggested that Trump could try to distract from political issues in his own country by launching a preemptive strike against Pyongyang.

"No one can predict what a reckless action Trump will take, as he is in the grip of the worst ruling crisis," the report read, according to International Business TImes. "Due to the hysterical action of Trump, a rough and reckless war maniac, the same extremely dangerous situation as the one in April last when the US was rumored to mount a 'preemptive strike at the north' is being created on the Korean peninsula."

The newspaper suggested that Trump's behavior is common for US presidents, who try to divert attention from stateside political crises by ratcheting up tensions with other countries. "It is the trite method of the successive US rulers to find a way out in unleashing a war of aggression whenever the ruling crisis was aggravated," Rodung Sinmun said.

During the US presidential election, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) took a very different stance on Trump, with a propaganda website calling him a "wise politician" and a "a prescient presidential candidate," while blasting his chief rival Hillary Clinton as "thick headed."

This was before Trump took a hard stance against Pyongyang, as his plans for the Asia-Pacific region remained unclear when he first entered office.

In the last few months, however, the US president has become increasingly hostile to the communist nation as North Korea continues to test ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. Pyongyang is reportedly working to develop a nuclear-armed projectile that could reach the US mainland, and US experts fear it is no longer a question of if, but when, they'll achieve that goal.

Washington riled Pyongyang when it sent what Trump described as an "armada" near the Korean Peninsula to take part in trilateral military drills with South Korea, one of Washington's major regional allies, and Japan. A US Navy carrier strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson and later joined by the USS Michigan, a nuclear-powered submarine equipped with Tomahawk missiles, represented the US in the drills.

The Rodong Sinmun article sent a warning to Seoul saying that they "had better understand that if they persist in the war drills against the North, pursuant to lunatic Trump, they would be plunged into the worst disaster."

The report comes not long after the death of Otto Warmbier, a US student who was detained in North Korea after allegedly attempting to steal a propaganda poster from the hotel where he staying. He was sentenced to 15 years hard labor for the offense.

Warmbier entered a coma soon after sentencing under circumstances still not clear, and died on Monday after he was returned to his family in the US.

Trump blamed North Korea and leader Kim Jong-un and called Warmbier's death "a total disgrace," though the US has mounted no formal response.

 Sputnik

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Beijing Opposes Pyongyang's Actions in Violation of UNSC Resolutions

Sputnik News

15:40 23.06.2017

China is against any provocations of North Korea involving the use of ballistic missile technology, which violates the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the country's Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Friday.

BEIJING (Sputnik)  The announcement came on the heels of reports made by the US media earlier in the week that, citing officials, Pyongyang produced a test of an engine that has the potential to be used to assist intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM.)

"The relevant resolutions, adopted by the UNSC, have specific clauses on North Korea's use of the ballistic missile technology and carrying out of the launches. China opposes all the actions violating these resolutions," Geng said.

The spokesman noted that the situation on the Korean Peninsula was still very sensitive and complex, adding that China hoped that all involved parties would maintain restraint in order to avoid any escalation in the region.

In early June, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that extended the sanctions, the travel bans, as well as asset freezing against North Korea. The decision was made in response to the country's repeated unsanctioned missile tests.

Tensions surrounding North Korea's nuclear and missile programs have escalated significantly since the beginning of the year, due to the increased frequency of Pyongyang's missile and nuclear testing.

The most recent launch took place on June 8, when North Korea carried out a launch of short-range anti-ship missiles, reportedly flying some 124 miles before dropping into the Sea of Japan.

 Sputnik

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Indian Navy Readies To Select Firms Specializing In Warships, Submarines

Sputnik News

08:37 23.06.2017

In a bid to strengthen domestic naval manufacturing capabilities, the Indian Navy has come up with a maritime plan which differentiates between the work for private and state-owned firms.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  The Indian Navy is examining the capabilities of Indian companies whether they have the capacity to build submarines, fighter jets, helicopters and armored vehicles. "We are looking at Indian partners. We will identify the Indian partners as they have to pass through technical and financial gates. So, we are looking at top of the line people," Vice-Admiral DM Deshpande, Controller of Warship Production and Acquisition, said.

The Navy will soon float a tender worth more than $30 billion for submarines and warships. Before selecting companies for such critical projects, the Indian Navy wants to reaffirm their capability to deliver the project within the scheduled time. "We have earmarked which are the ships that need to be built by state-owned firms. What we are looking at is private shipyards play a role and they can ease the load of state-owned units. So that we can have a load share between state-owned firms and private shipyards," Deshpande said.

Indian Navy wants faster process of P75 (I) submarine project worth $9 billion under the strategic partnership model. "First we should be able to get a request for information for P75 (I) project. We are in the process of activating the methodologies so that we have the tenders out soon," Deshpande detailed about the much-needed advanced submarine project. It is expected that P-75I submarines will be more modern and advanced and all of them will be equipped with air independent propulsion modules. The ongoing Scorpene class submarine project which is underway at MDL facilities with the technological co-operation of French shipbuilders DCNS has been running four years behind schedule. It is considered that the lack of absorption capability of MDL delayed the project initially.

 Sputnik

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JCPOA will survive if West adheres to commitments: Iran nuclear chief

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 23, 2017 2:22PM

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi says the survival of the 2015 landmark nuclear agreement between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 group of countries depends on the resolve of the West.

"A panoramic view of the unfortunate global situation, and particularly our violence- and crisis-ridden region, tells us that we all need to foster a culture of adherence to commitments," Salehi wrote in the Guardian daily published on Friday.

"In the absence of effective global governance, relying on this kind of culture would provide a workable basis for genuine engagement," he added.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council  the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China  plus Germany signed the mammoth agreement, known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- in July 2015 and started implementing it in January 2016.

Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

US President Donald Trump has called the nuclear agreement "the worst deal ever negotiated" and vowed to "dismantle" the "disastrous" deal. However, he has not so far taken any concrete steps to scrap it.

The Iranian nuclear chief warned of "chaotic behavior by various actors and further tension and conflict" and said, "Disregard for Iran's genuine security concerns, either through deliberate changing of the military-security balance in the region, or by stoking Iranophobia in the region and beyond, would jeopardize engagement."

Salehi cautioned that all sides would "end up back at square one" and expressed regret that "as things stand at the moment in the region, reaching a new state of equilibrium may simply be beyond reach for the foreseeable future."

He pointed to "a number of solid steps" taken by Iran toward a "constructive engagement aiming at common goals and objectives" and emphasized that such measures could be developed further by "genuine reciprocal gestures and actions."

It has been a "mixed experience" for Iran to work to negotiate agreements with the West, particularly the US, he said, adding, "Often following hard-won engagement, some Western nations, whether distracted by short-sighted political motivations or the lucrative inducements of regional actors, walk away and allow the whole situation to return to the status quo ante."

Salehi, who is also a vice-president, believed that concentrating on certain "guiding principles" would allow all actors to stay the course.

He referred to "security dilemma" as the first serious stumbling block to engagement between Iran and the West and said, "Pursuing military power beyond what is called for by actual security needs raises suspicions among others and risks destabilization."

He said "lavish arms purchases" by some regional actors  a reference to the Saudi Arabia's purchase of $110bn of US arms during President Trump's recent visit to Riyadh  are "provocative."

"This is especially the case if the national defense efforts of Iran  which are partly induced by this process  are simultaneously opposed and undermined. It would be unrealistic to expect Iran to remain indifferent to the destabilizing impact of such conduct," Salehi pointed out.

He cited ideas such as the "clash of civilizations", "Sunni-Shia conflict", "Persian-Arab enmity" and the "Arab-Israeli axis against Iran" as examples of alternative realities fabricated for ulterior purposes.

The AEOI head further expressed confidence that in case of a serious commitment to the mentioned guiding principles, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries would see the expansion, deepening and institutionalization of mutually beneficial engagement.

"This would help promote the cause of regional and international peace and security," he reiterated.

Salehi also urged all Iran's interlocutors to "appreciate" and "act accordingly" to the message Iranians sent following the result of last month's presidential election in the country.

He concluded, "Engagement is not a one-way street and we cannot go it alone."

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IRGC disbands terror outfit in western Iran

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 23, 2017 5:0AM

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has disbanded a terrorist group in the western Iranian province of Kurdistan.

Reporting on Friday, the IRGC's Sepah News outlet said forces with the Hamzeh Seyyed al-Shohadah Base of the Corps' Ground Forces had engaged the terrorists earlier in the day.

Three terrorists were killed in the operation and one was arrested. Some weapons and ammunition were also confiscated.

The IRGC said the terrorists "had intended to conduct terrorist activities and create instability" in Iran.

On June 7, terrorists attacked Iran's Parliament and the Mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, killing 17 people. The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

According to the IRGC, the perpetrators had infiltrated the country via Kurdistan and Kermanshah, another western Iranian province.

After the attacks, the IRGC traced the assaults back to its planning and command centers in the northeastern Syrian province of Dayr al-Zawr within 11 days. It then staged a missile attack against positions where Daesh commanders and members were meeting in Dayr al-Zawr, killing dozens of the terrorists in retaliation for the Tehran attacks.

Iranian security officials have pledged to give further responses to the terrorists if they attempt to take action against Iran.

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Iran Holds Annual Anti-Israel Rallies, Chant Against Saudi Leaders

RFE/RL June 23, 2017

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities to take part in state-sponsored anti-Israeli rallies marking the annual Quds Day, state media report.

Some protesters set Israeli and U.S. flags on fire, reports said on June 23, while others chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

Iran doesn't recognize Israel and backs militant groups such as Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon's Shi'ite Hizballah militia. Both Hamas and Hizballah have been designated terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department.

The United States and its ally Israel accuse Iran of supporting terrorism and of fomenting unrest across the Middle East.

The demonstrators also chanted against the Saudi royal family and the extremist group Islamic State (IS).

Quds Day, referring to a historic Arabic name for Jerusalem, was established by the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to show support for Palestinians and opposition against Israel.

This year's commemoration follows deadly attacks in Tehran that were claimed by the IS group.

It also comes amid an intensifying battle for influence in the region between Shi'ite Iran and its Sunni-ruled rival, Saudi Arabia.

Marchers in Tehran converged from various points of the city onto the Friday Prayer ceremony at Tehran University.

Similar demonstrations were being held in cities across Iran, according to state media.

Addressing the crowd in the capital, parliament speaker Ali Larijani called Israel the "mother of terrorism," saying it had displaced "millions of Muslims."

President Hassan Rohani, who joined the march through Tehran, told state TV that this year's rally "shows people want our region to be cleaned up from terrorists, backed by the Zionist regime," which is how Iranian officials label the Israeli government.

Rohani also hit out at an Iran sanctions bill approved by the U.S. Senate earlier this month.

"With the anti-Iranian bills presented in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the Iranian nation wants to tell America through this rally that the government will respond with determination and will continue the path it has chosen," he said.

On June 15, the Senate overwhelmingly supported further sanctions against Iran for its alleged "continued support of terrorism." Congressional committees are currently working to resolve a procedural issue blocking the bill at the House of Representatives.

Friday Prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said the bill violated the July 2015 deal between Iran and world powers, under which international sanctions against the country were lifted last year in return for curbs on the country's nuclear activities.

Iran's ballistic-missile program has been the subject of constant concern in the United States and Israel and the target of U.S. sanctions.

Also on June 23, authorities in Tehran displayed three surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, including the Zolfaghar missile that Iran said it used this week against IS targets in Syria.

Iran, a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has been heavily involved in the war against the IS group in both Iraq and Syria where it is backing Shi'ite militias in their fight against the Sunni extremists.

On June 18, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it launched six Zolfaghar missiles from western Iran into the Deir al-Zour region of eastern Syria, killing a "large number" of "terrorists."

The move came after 17 people were reported killed and more than 40 wounded in attacks on the Iranian parliament and the shrine of Khomeini on June 7 -- the first major attacks in Iran for which the IS group has claimed responsibility.

Iranian officials have since repeated accusations that Saudi Arabia funds Islamic militants, including IS.

The Saudi monarchy, an ally of the United States, denies involvement in the attacks.

With reporting by Fars, Tasnim, and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-quds-day-anti- israel-rallies/28574963.html

Copyright (c) 2017. 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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Bomb blast kills 8 civilians, soldier in restive western Iraq

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 23, 2017 1:44PM

At least eight civilians and a soldier have lost their lives when a group of bombers infiltrated into a city in Iraq's troubled western province of Anbar, and one of them blew himself up among security personnel and ordinary people.

A police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said four bombers had managed to sneak into Khan al-Baghdadi, situated about 180 kilometers (110 miles) northwest of the capital, Baghdad, through the northwestern desert, Arabic-language Basnews news agency reported.

The source added that government forces could corner the quartet inside a house in the al-Shuhada area of the city, killing three of them and destroying their explosives-laden belts.

The fourth terrorist, who was hiding himself, then jumped out and detonated himself among a crowd of police forces and civilians.

Sharhabeel al-Obeidi, the mayor of al-Baghdadi, said there were five children among the slain civilians, noting that 11 people sustained injuries in the act of terror as well.

According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), a total of 354 Iraqi civilians lost their lives last month, and 470 others were injured as a result of acts of terrorism and violence across Iraq in May.

The UN mission, however, did not mention the number of Iraqi police forces, who were killed or sustained injuries in the violence.

A large number of the fatalities were recorded in the troubled northern province of Nineveh, where 160 civilians were killed and 52 others wounded.

The capital province of Baghdad saw 86 people killed and another 226 injured.

The figures were released by the UN as government forces are engaged in street battles with Takfiri Daesh terrorists to expel them out of their last urban stronghold in Mosul.

Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known by their Arabic name, Hashd al-Sha'abi, have made sweeping gains against Daesh since launching the Mosul operation on October 17, 2016.

The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19.

An estimated 862,000 people have been displaced from Mosul ever since the battle to retake the city began nine months ago. A total of 195,000 civilians have also returned, mainly to the liberated areas of eastern Mosul.

Daesh militants kill comrades in central Iraq

Meanwhile, the Takfiri Daesh militant group has reportedly executed four of its own members in Iraq's central province of Salahuddin on charges of negligence and fleeing the battlefield.

A local source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Daesh terrorists killed members of the terrorist outfit by firing squad in the Mutaibaja district on Friday.

The source told Arabic-language al-Sumaria television network that the slain militants were accused of inattention and escaping clashes with Iraqi government forces.

Daesh has reportedly failed in five attempts to launch attacks from Mutaibaja district against security areas in Salahuddin and neighboring Diyala provinces.

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Nearly One-Third of Iraqis Displaced by Daesh Fear Reprisal Upon Returning - UN

Sputnik News

23:18 23.06.2017

Nearly a third of those Iraqis who fled their homes because of Daesh terror group (banned in Russia) are frightened to come back of fear to face retribution from Islamists, according to a study by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) that was reported in a press release by the United Nations on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Some 30 percent of 3 million Iraqis who were forced from their homes by Daesh are reluctant to return due to fears of retribution by Islamist militants or local security forces.

"Security in the areas of origin topped all other factors in influencing the decision to return home or remain displaced, with proximity to the frontline  and perceived instability in the place of origin  remaining the most relevant obstacle for return," the release stated.

Data collected in IOM surveys carried out in eight sub-districts that were recently retaken from Daesh indicated that 30 percent of internally displaced persons still living in refugee camps fear reprisal back home, the release explained.

But of internal refugees who have already returned home, just 10 percent expressed fear of retribution, the release noted.

Security is the "number one concern," IOM spokesman Joel Millman told reporters in Geneva. "If they feel fighting is still going on or that the people who had destroyed their homes are still at large in the community  that is a major deterrent."

The IOM also reported that nearly a quarter of those interviewed, who had decided to return, had been prevented from doing so by delays in processing documentation or by being stopped at checkpoints on their way home.

 Sputnik

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Security 'number one concern' of displaced Iraqis seeking to return home - UN study

23 June 2017  With three million Iraqis remaining internally displaced across the country, the United Nations migration agency today published findings of a study showing that the decision to return or remain displaced depends largely on how close their home is to the frontline of conflict.

The study, titled Obstacles to Return in Retaken Areas of Iraq, commissioned by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), has surveyed more than 1.7 million Iraqis who opted to return, posing questions as to the factors that motivate, or inhibit, Iraqis from returning to their areas of origin.

The qualitative and quantitative data collection was carried out in eight sub-districts the Government has recently retaken from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh).

Security in the areas of origin topped all other factors in influencing the decision to return home or remain displaced, with proximity to the frontline  and perceived instability in the place of origin  remaining the most relevant obstacle for return, according to the study.

Speaking to reporters at the regular bi-weekly news briefing in Geneva, IOM spokesperson Joel Millman said security is the "number one concern. If they feel fighting is still going on or that the people who had destroyed their homes are still at large in the community  that is a major deterrent."

Feelings of trust towards the security actors in control of the areas of origin promotes a higher number of returns, while fear of security actors in the place origin is a strong drawback and reinforces the perceived advantage of staying in displacement, the study finds.

Fear of reprisal back home is a concern for more than 30 per cent of all internally displaced persons (IDPs) interviewed. However, that perception is much lower among interviewed returnees, at 10 per cent.

The data suggest that damage to housing does not constitute an obstacle to return, although the presence of actors whom IDPs hold responsible for the damage inflicted in a given location is, noted IOM.

Livelihood options and previous or current employment status also play an important role in influencing the decision to return. IDPs who have jobs in the location of displacement are less inclined to return home. By contrast, those who are unemployed appear to be more likely to return to seek new opportunities.

The study shows that almost a quarter of interviewed IDPs who decided to return were prevented from doing so, mostly by delays in processing their documentation, or by being stopped at checkpoints on the way back to their place of origin.

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Blasts, shootings claim 44 lives across Pakistan

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 23, 2017 6:7PM

Separate bomb blasts and shootings in the west, east and south of Pakistan have killed a total of 44 people as militants step up attacks on police and security forces in an apparent response to government offensives to push them out from key bastions.

At least 27 people were killed in two separate blasts on Friday that targeted shoppers in a busy market in the northeastern city of Parachinar.

Some 120 people were also wounded in the attacks, which took place three minutes from each other. Most of those killed were Muslims buying food for iftar, the meal that marks the end of their daily fasting in the holy month of Ramadan.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attacks in Parachinar, a city which lies just near the border with Afghanistan.

That was not the only incident targeting Muslims in Pakistan on Friday as four police officers were shot dead while observing iftar in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and financial capital.

Also on Friday, 13 people were killed in a car bomb blast in the southwestern city of Quetta, a key city in Balochistan province. Seven police officers were killed in the attack after they stopped the explosive-laden vehicle to search it at a checkpoint.

Wasim Baig, a spokesman for the Civil Hospital in Quetta, said 19 people were also wounded in the attack. Other officials said nine security officials were among the wounded.

The Daesh Takfiri terrorists and Jamaat ur Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed the attack in Quetta in messages sent to the media. The two terror groups have a history of jointly claiming such attacks.

Iran condemns attacks in Pakistan

Condemnations were pouring in as governments offered condolences to Islamabad on the loss of civilians and security forces in the attacks.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi issued a message later on Friday, expressing sympathy with the families of the victims and the nation and government of Pakistan.

The Iranian official condemned the attacks, especially those targeting Muslims in Parachinar, saying carrying out terrorist acts on the last Friday of Ramadan, a day when Muslims hold demonstrations to protest Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian territories, was in fact a Zionist ploy.

"... terrorists brutalized the fasting Pakistanis in line with the interests of the Zionist regime to display the link between terrorism and Zionism," said Qassemi.

Pakistan is in the middle of a widening military operation to oust militants from key areas. Attacks such as those that took place on Friday have increased in response to the Pakistani military's crackdown, which officials say has killed thousands of people over the past two years.

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Blasts in Pakistan Kill At Least 35, Wound More Than 100

RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal June 23, 2017

Pakistani officials say three blasts in two major cities killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 100 on June 23 -- the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.

Authorities say a suicide car bomber killed at least 11 people -- including at least five police officers -- and wounded 20 people in an attack near the provincial police chief's office in the southwestern city of Quetta, the capital of the Balochistan Province.

There were competing claims of responsibility for the Quetta attack from a Pakistani Taliban breakaway faction calling itself Jamat-ul-Ahrar and the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.

IS militants claimed that one of its followers with a suicide belt targeted the police post. IS also released a photograph of the alleged attacker, identifying him as Abu Othman al-Khorasani.

Hours after the Quetta attack, twin bombings that were minutes apart killed at least 24 people and wounded more than 80 at a crowded market in the northwestern Shi'a-dominated city of Parachinar.

Government administrator Zahid Hussain said most of the victims were from Pakistan's Shi'ite minority.

Parachinar is the main city in Pakistan's Kummar tribal region, located along Afghanistan's border.

Officials said the first explosion at Parachinar's Tori market occurred as people were buying food for iftar, the evening meal when Muslims break the fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

The second blast occurred minutes later as rescuers were trying to aid those wounded by the first explosion.

Mohammad Amir, an official at a government-run hospital in Parachinar, said more than 20 of the wounded victims were listed in critical condition.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the Parachinar attacks, but Sunni militant groups have claimed responsibility for numerous similar attacks against Pakistan's Shi'ite minority in the past.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and Dawn

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/pakistan-quetta- police-target-blast/28574638.html

Copyright (c) 2017. 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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S. Korean ex-president's confidante gets 3-year prison term over corruption scandal

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 11:22, June 23, 2017

SEOUL, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Choi Soon-sil, a close confidante of impeached South Korean President Park Geun-hye, on Friday got a three-year prison term for one of her corruption charges involving her daughter.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Choi, 61, to three years' imprisonment for soliciting illicit favors for her daughter to enter a prestigious college and earn effortless grades.

It was the first conviction among several legal cases embroiling Choi and the ousted president Park. Other cases are still under trial.

Three more college officials, including the former head of the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, were sentenced to a suspended sentence, one and a half years in prison and two years' imprisonment.

Choi was at the center of the corruption scandal that led to the impeachment of Park. Prosecutors identified Choi and Park as criminal accomplice.

The decades-long friend of the former conservative president was suspected of extorting tens of millions of U.S. dollars from large conglomerates in return for business favors and the assistance to management transfer.

Choi was also charged with intervening in government affairs behind the scenes, triggering enraged South Koreans taking to the streets for months-long candlelit rallies to demand Park's ouster.

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Russian Commission Rules Navalny Can't Run For President

RFE/RL June 23, 2017

Russian election officials have barred opposition leader Aleksei Navalny from participating in the March 2018 presidential election, citing a criminal conviction that Navalny has said was politically motivated to block him from running.

In a statement issued on June 23, the Central Election Commission said that "Navalny does not have passive suffrage," making him ineligible to run for public office.

In 2013, Navalny was given a five-year suspended sentence on a large-scale embezzlement charge in a case he says was engineered by the Kremlin to prevent him from challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin for the presidency.

The Supreme Court threw out the initial conviction last year, but Navalny was convicted again in a retrial and lost an appeal against that verdict last month.

On June 14, Russia's top election commission chief Ella Pamfilova said Navalny was almost certain to be barred from the presidential election, citing the criminal conviction.

In an interview on Russian channel Dozhd TV, Pamfilova said Navalny "has no chance of being registered for the election due to his conviction."

She said it was possible "a miracle might happen and [Navalny] might file an appeal," but she said he has "practically no chance of being registered."

The Central Election Commission's ruling appears unlikely to stop Navalny from campaigning ahead of the vote, in which Putin is widely expected to seek and secure a fourth term in office.

Navalny is an anticorruption crusader and political opponent of Putin who has organized nationwide street protests twice since March. He has been campaigning for the presidency despite statements by officials who have said his conviction on the financial-crimes charge means he cannot seek office.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-election-commission -navalny-cant-run-prez/28575549.html

Copyright (c) 2017. 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.S. House Speaker Wants To Move Quickly On Russian Sanctions Bill

RFE/RL June 23, 2017

The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan has said he wants to move quickly on a Senate bill imposing new sanctions on Russia and Iran even as congressional committees worked to resolve a procedural issue blocking the bill.

"We just want to get moving on it," the Wisconsin Republican told reporters on June 22. "I support sanctions."

Representative Ed Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, "has indicated he wants to get moving on this quickly, and we want to honor that," Ryan added.

The bill passed the Senate 98-2 last week, but encountered a roadblock in the House this week when the parliamentarian found it violated a requirement in the U.S. Constitution that any bill raising government revenues must originate in the House.

Congressional aides said sanctions or fines against other countries like those in the bill could be interpreted as affecting U.S. government revenues.

Ryan said that procedural issue must be resolved before the House can take action on the bill.

Kevin Brady, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters he sent the Senate a suggested change in the legislation that would resolve the procedural problem.

He said the proposed change would allow the Senate to start a "very simple process to take the bill back, make the change, and then move it forward."

The leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said the change did not appear to substantively alter the legislation and their staff was reviewing it to determine how to move ahead.

Some lawmakers said the White House was concerned about a provision of the Senate bill that would require Trump to obtain congressional approval before easing any sanctions on Russia.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged Congress last week to ensure that the sanctions package gave Trump flexibility to adjust sanctions if Russia's behavior in Ukraine, Syria, or other areas targeted by sanctions improved.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the White House was seeking to work with Congress on some parts of the bill.

But Democrats warned against weakening the bill, which was intended to punish Moscow for allegedly meddling in the U.S. election campaign last year as well as for its aggression in Ukraine and arming of Syria.

"House Republicans' effort to obstruct and weaken the Senate's bipartisan Russian sanctions bill is not only irresponsible; it endangers our national security and threatens our democracy," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said.

Ryan said he did not yet know if the House would send the bill through committee markup and amendment, a process that could take months but which is the House's prerogative if legislators wish to fashion their own bill.

Besides imposing new sanctions on Russia over its alleged meddling in the presidential election, Ukraine, and Syria, the Senate bill would cement existing sanctions on Russia into law.

The bill would also impose mandatory sanctions on people involved in Iran's ballistic-missile program and apply terrorism sanctions to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-house-speaker- wants-move-quickly-russian-iran-sanctions-bill- senate-procedural-problem/28574492.html

Copyright (c) 2017. 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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Analysts: Russia's Military Threats Mainly Bluster, but Conflict Risk Rising

By Daniel Schearf June 23, 2017

A series of close encounters this month over the Baltic Sea and U.S. shoot-downs of Russian allies' aircraft in Syria have triggered concerns among defense analysts that any direct incident between Russia and the United States, even if accidental, could quickly spiral out of control.

Reports say a Russian fighter jet and a U.S. spy plane on Monday came within two meters of each other, a situation deemed "unsafe" by the U.S. military.

The Russian SU-27 flew at a high rate of closure speed and the pilot exercised poor control, said a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Risk of accidents

Russia's Defense Ministry said the U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance plane made a provocative move toward the other jet.

Another close encounter came Wednesday. Moscow said a NATO fighter jet buzzed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's plane as he headed to the Russian military enclave of Kaliningrad, nestled between NATO members Poland and Lithuania. Russian state media reported a Russian SU-27 fighter jet "chased away" the Polish F-16 and published video of the incident.

There's a danger when a plane flies within meters of another, according to defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.

"But in the Baltics, that's a kind of pure case of creating tension out of nowhere ... by both sides," he said. "So, it's a bit of a dangerous game. But, in reality, no one wants to fight anyone."

New 'Cold War'

Russian probing of NATO member airspace has increased exponentially since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and ongoing military support for pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.

"It's no doubt, at least for me, that Russia and the West are in the situation of [a] new Cold War," said defense analyst Alexander Golts, deputy editor of Yezhednevny Zhurnal [Weekly Journal] in Moscow. "[The] Cold War is a situation when you have a problem that cannot be solved ... [not] diplomatically [or] militarily. This problem is Ukraine."

Golts said the issue is that Russia, from its point of view, cannot pull back from its "secret war" in Ukraine, yet until it does so, NATO cannot restore cooperation. Meanwhile, saber-rattling on both sides risks escalation of military conflict.

The United States this week issued new sanctions against Russian entities over their involvement in Ukraine, while the EU agreed to extend its own sanctions against Moscow.

The added sanctions came as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visited President Donald Trump at the White House. Poroshenko later said the U.S. soon would sign some defense deals with Kyiv, but he gave no details. The U.S. so far has provided only training and nonlethal military equipment to Kyiv in an effort to stay out of any direct military conflict with Russia.

Military buildup?

Shoigu said Russia would build up its military forces on its western borders, citing a worsening security situation due to what he called NATO's "anti-Russia course." The Russian defense chief said its military would form 20 new units on its western front this year in response to NATO drills in the Baltic states and Poland.

The formerly occupied and Soviet states raised concerns about Russian aggression after Moscow's actions in Ukraine. NATO responded with stepped-up deployment of rotational defense forces. Meanwhile, in September, Russia and Belarus are holding large-scale military exercises that simulate a NATO invasion.

The NATO defense alliance deployment is modest compared with Russia's response, said Golts. "And, what is real now  there is no gray zone between these forces. They stand up against each other. And, again, it means any accident can be continued with [a] big war."

Thoughts have turned from potential U.S.-Russia cooperation back to reducing risks of new confrontation, Golts said.

"I think everybody has to forget, for [a] very, very long period of time, the possibility of some kind of cooperation with Russia," he said. "It's more or less clear [that] because of all this scandal with Russian interference in [the] American election, Trump will never approach Mr. Putin," Golts said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Syria bluster

Meanwhile, a proxy war in Syria intensifies as Russia and Iran support their ally in Damascus against U.S.-backed Syrian rebels. All sides claim to be fighting Islamic State terrorists.

The U.S.-led coalition in Syria shot down a Syrian warplane this month, as well as two Iranian-made drones that were nearing American-backed troops. Russia condemned the action and said it would treat any plane or drone from the U.S.-led coalition flying west of the Euphrates River as a target.

Moscow also suspended, again, a memorandum aimed at avoiding accidents in the skies over Syria. The first such announced suspension occurred after a U.S. missile strike in April on a Syrian air base that Washington said Damascus used to launch chemical weapons attacks that had killed more than 80 civilians. Russia condemned the U.S. attack and blamed the chemical weapons on Syrian militants.

While many of Russia's implied threats against the U.S.-led coalition in Syria appear to be bluster, the risk of direct conflict between the two sides is increasing, Golts said. "If you just repeat your complaints and your threats, sooner or later, nobody will pay attention. So, it's a problem how to make statements tougher and don't move at the same time closer to [a] condition of war."

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US strikes killed 500 civilians in Syria last month: Monitor

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 23, 2017 10:1AM

A London-based monitor says US airstrikes on two Syrian provinces killed 472 civilians last month, more than double a previous 30-day toll.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday the period between May 23 and June 23 saw the highest civilian death toll in US airstrikes since they began in September 2014.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said 222 civilians, including 84 children, were killed in the Dayr al-Zawr. Another 250 civilians, including 53 children, were killed in Raqqah province, he added.

The new deaths brought the overall civilian toll from the US-led aerial attacks to 1,953, including 456 children and 333 women, the French news agency quoted him as saying.

The previous deadliest 30-day period was between April 23 and May 23 this year that claimed 225 civilian lives.

The increase has led human rights groups to question whether changes in procedure are responsible after US President Donald Trump shifted more authority over military operations to the Pentagon.

Several former American security officials warned Pentagon chief Jim Mattis recently that civilian casualties "can cause significant strategic setbacks" by reducing local cooperation and providing fuel for Takfiri militants.

American-backed Kurdish militants in Syria have been advancing toward Raqqah with heavy support from US airstrikes since November.

Turkey's defense minister on Friday warned that Ankara would retaliate against any threatening moves by the YPG militia in Syria after US pledge to take back weapons from the group after the defeat of Daesh.

Fikri Isik told broadcaster NTV that a letter sent to him by Mattis regarding the weapons given to the YPG was a "positive step" but "implementation is essential".

Ankara has said supplies to the YPG have in the past ended up in the hands of PKK, which has fought an insurgency in southeast Turkey since the mid-1980s.

The London-based observatory said on Wednesday Turkey had sent reinforcements, including troops, vehicles and equipment into Syria, towards areas south of Azaz town, which is held by Turkish-backed militants.

Turkey sent tanks and warplanes across the border into northern Syria in August last year, carving out a big portion of the area.

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Russia fires cruise missiles at Daesh in Syria, doesn't inform US

Iran Press TV

Fri Jun 23, 2017 7:34AM

Russian vessels deployed to the Mediterranean have fired cruise missiles at Daesh targets inside Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry says.

The missiles were fired from two Russian warships and a submarine at targets inside the western Syrian province of Hama on Friday, it said.

"As a result of the surprise mass missile strike, command points were destroyed and also large stores of weapons and ammunition of the IS (Daesh) terrorists in the area of Aqirbat in the Hama Province," the ministry said.

It added that Russian planes then carried out aerial strikes that "destroyed the remainder of the IS fighters and their facilities."

Russia has also been conducting an aerial bombardment campaign against terrorist positions in Syria on a request by Damascus.

Russia has been conducting cruise missile strikes and aerial attacks against terrorist positions in Syria on a request from the Syrian government.

Russia 'nearly 100 percent certain Baghdadi has been killed'

Meanwhile on Friday, Viktor Ozerov, the head of the defense committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, said Russia was almost 100 percent sure that the leader of Daesh, Ibrahim al-Samarrai aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been killed in an airstrike carried out by the Russian Air Force in Syria last month.

"I think this information is close to 100 percent [in certainty]," Interfax quoted Ozerov as saying. "The fact that Islamic State [Daesh] has still not shown him anywhere also adds to our confidence that al-Baghdadi has been killed."

On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry had said it was "highly likely" that Baghdadi, had been killed. Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov told Sputnik news agency that the information about Baghdadi's likely death was now being verified through "various channels."

The Friday statement by the Russian Defense Ministry said that Turkish and Israeli militaries "were informed in a timely manner of the missile launches through communication channels" but made no mention of the United States.

Russia has suspended communications with the US, which used to be carried out via a hotline set up to prevent accidental military confrontations over Syrian airspace. The US is present in Syria as part of a coalition that purports to be fighting Daesh but that has not received permission from Damascus.

The suspension of the military contact came after a US warplane hit a Syrian Su-22 aircraft with a missile last Sunday. The US claimed that it had targeted the plane "in collective self-defense of coalition-partnered forces" in the city of Taqba in northern Syria.

Moscow says Washington had failed to inform it about the hit. A day later, the Russian Ministry threatened to treat aircraft with the coalition "as air targets" if they flew in areas west of the Euphrates River.

The Pentagon responded by saying it would "defend" itself and "our partners if threatened."

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Kazakhstan Denies Talks On Sending Troops To Syria

RFE/RL June 23, 2017

Kazakhstan has refuted reports of talks with Russia on the possibility of its troops taking part in a mechanism to monitor the so-called "de-escalation" agreement in Syria.

"Kazakhstan is not holding any talks with anyone on sending its troops to Syria," the Foreign Ministry said in a June 23 statement.

The statement comes a day after Vladimir Shamanov, head of the Russian State Duma's Defense Committee, was quoted as saying that Russia had asked Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to send troops to help monitor the de-escalation zones as part of attempts to end six years of civil war in Syria.

Turkish media quoted a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as also saying that Russia had asked the two Central Asian countries about sending troops to Syria.

A spokesman of the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said on June 22 that it had no information on the possibility of its troops to take part in military operations in Syria, Interfax reported.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-denies- syria-peacekeeper-role/28574783.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Daesh Transferring Militants to Hama Province Via Various Routes - MoD

Sputnik News

10:56 23.06.2017(updated 11:17 23.06.2017)

Russian troops in Syria are closely monitoring jihadists' movements in the area with the use of all means of intelligence.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Daesh terrorist group, outlawed in Russia, is deploying its militants to the Syrian Hama province using different routes and plans to organize operational headquarters and ammunition warehouses there, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

"At night, taking advantage of a difficult terrain, terrorists deploy militants to the Hama province via various routes, where they plan to set up command posts in large buildings, as well as weapons and ammunition depots," the ministry said.

According to the statement, the Russian troops in Syria are closely monitoring jihadists' movements in the area with the use of all means of intelligence.

The Daesh has overrun a number of large territories during recent years as part of their declaration of a caliphate, especially in Syrian cities, such as Raqqa, and in Iraqi cities such as Mosul. The group is infamous for numerous violent actions, including terrorist attacks and widespread destruction of cultural heritage on the occupied territories.

In recent months, Syrian government army partially backed by some local militia groups has liberated dozens of settlements across the country.

Russian representatives in the Russian-Turkish commission on the Syrian truce have registered a total of 13 violations of the ceasefire regime in Syria over the past 24 hours, while Turkey informed about 12 cases, however, the situation in de-escalation zones remains stable, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

"Situation in the de-escalation zones is assessed as stable. Within last 24 hours, the Russian party of the Russia-Turkey Commission on violations of the Joint Agreement has registered 13 cases of firing in the provinces of Aleppo (2), Hama (1), Damascus (5) and Latakia (5). The Turkish party has registered 12 cases of ceasefire violations in the provinces of Daraa (4), Hama (1), Homs (1) and Damascus (6)," the ministry's Center for Syrian reconciliation said in a daily bulletin.

Most violations cases have been registered in the areas controlled by militants of the Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist groups, both banned in Russia, according to the bulletin.

The reconciliation center carried out seven humanitarian operations in Syria over last 24 hours, including one in the Homs province and seven in the city of Aleppo, providing local residents with 1.98 and 1.8 tonnes of foodstuffs respectively. A total of 1,188 people received humanitarian aid.

"In course of the humanitarian action, Russian military physicians provided medical assistance to 237 people. The United Nations held 1 humanitarian action: Aircraft of the Abakan Air aviation company delivered 20 tons of humanitarian aid (food products) to the Deir ez-Zor area using parachute platforms," the bulletin said.

The bulletin specified that no new ceasefire agreements have been signed with representatives of settlements in Syria. The total number settlements that joined the ceasefire remained 1,828.

The civil war in Syria between the government and various opposition and terror groups has been raging since 2011. Russia, alongside Iran and Turkey, is a guarantor of the ceasefire regime in Syria. At the latest Astana talks on Syria that took place on May 3-4, the three ceasefire guarantor states signed a memorandum on the establishment of four safe zones in Syria. The document came into force on May 6.

 Sputnik

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Kazakhstan Foreign Minister Denies Talks Underway to Send Troops to Syria

Sputnik News

07:41 23.06.2017(updated 07:49 23.06.2017)

Astana is not negotiating with any political power over sending Kazakh troops to Syria, the country's foreign minister said on Friday.

ASTANA (Sputnik)  Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov denied reports on Friday that the country was discussing sending troops to Syria.

"Kazakhstan is not negotiating with anyone about sending its service personnel to Syria," the minister told reporters in Astana.

On Thursday, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Russia had proposed that Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan send military personnel to monitor safe zones in Syria.

Vladimir Shamanov, a senior Russian lawmaker in charge of defense affairs, later confirmed to Sputnik that Moscow was holding talks with the two Central Asian nations on their possible military deployment to the conflict zone.

 Sputnik

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Air Force reports another missile glitch

ROC Central News Agency

2017/06/23 17:06:38

Taipei, June 23 (CNA) The Air Force confirmed another missile glitch during a military drill in Pingtung County on Friday, one day after two MIM-23 Hawk missiles veered off course after launch, as part of the same annual military exercise to test precision weapons at a military base in the southern county.

The days-long exercise was concluded at 11:20 a.m. Friday at the Jioupeng Military Base, the Air Force said in a statement. "The Air Force will conduct a thorough review, as soon as possible, on all problems identified during the drill," it said.

The Air Force statement came in response to a report by the Chinese-language Apply Daily earlier in the day that an IDF fighter jet launched a Tien Chien (Sky Sword) II missile, but the missile failed to ignite and fell directly into sea. The reason behind the incident is under investigation, the report said.

The missile fell off the coast of southeastern Taiwan, according to a military source.

Friday's incident came after two MIM-23 Hawk missiles veered off course in southern Taiwan a day earlier, though there were no reported casualties.

The two missiles were fired as part of an annual precision weapons firing drill conducted jointly by the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Due to fuel combustion problems, the missiles veered off course shortly after being launched and exploded within the restricted area, the Air Force has said.

After the incidents, the Air Force pledged on Friday to undertake a comprehensive review of procedures and make improvements.

(By Elaine Hou and Claudia Liu)

ENDITEM/AW

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Tainan mayor reaffirms pro-independence stance

ROC Central News Agency

2017/06/23 19:28:39

Los Angeles, June 22 (CNA) Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te (), who recently described himself as being "pro-China," said Thursday that his pro-Taiwan independence stance remains unchanged.

Earlier this month, the pro-independence mayor surprised the public when he said he is "pro-China as much as he loves Taiwan."

The matter aroused great interest among the Taiwanese expatriate community in the United States during Lai's current visit there.

Asked about the matter by a member of the audience after giving a speech in Los Angeles on Thursday, Lai said "pro-China, love Taiwan" means reaching out the hand of friendship to China, with Taiwan as the center, in the hope of enhancing mutual understanding and reconciliation and facilitating the peaceful development of cross-Taiwan Strait relations.

He said this is a gesture of friendship and also an attitude.

It is similar to Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je's () opinion that Taiwan should be "friendly to China," Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu's () view that Taiwan should "know China," and Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsang's () belief that Taiwan should "reconcile with China," according to Lai.

He said "pro-China" can also be equated with "getting close to the Chinese people."

Stressing that there is no change to his pro-independence stance, Lai said an advocate of Taiwan independence can also reach out the hand of friendship to China without any contradiction.

However, he expressed disagreement with the idea of Taiwan signing a peace pact with China, saying that such an agreement would not be helpful to peace, as evident in the example of Israel.

Lai recalled that during a visit he made last year to Jerusalem to attend the International Conference of Mayors, he was told by the event's organizer that peace is not achieved by an agreement signed behind closed doors by a minority of people, and will only arrive after a long period of exchanges that lead to cooperation and mutual trust.

(By Tsao Yu-fan and Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/J

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A Danville judge this week denied a motion by defense counsel to declare a capital murder case unconstitutional.

The Danville Commonwealths Attorney Office filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Pierre Antoine Dixon, 30, in December 2016.

Dixon, of Danville, is charged with capital murder in the November 2013 shooting death of Lynchburg resident Antwan Lamontah George Rucker. Police have said Rucker was believed to have been led to the Innkeeper hotel on Piney Forest Road to be robbed.

Danville Chief Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Petra Haskins said in an email Friday afternoon the state is seeking the death penalty in the case for numerous reasons.

Rucker was lured to the Innkeeper by [Sharika] Murphy who was in cahoots with Dixon to rob Antwan Rucker, Haskins said in the email.

A homicide in the course of a robbery is potentially a capital crime, Haskins continued.

The death penalty is sought in this case due to the aggravating factors of both future dangerousness and vileness, according to a motion filed by Steve Milani with the Roanoke Capital Defense Unit.

Milani filed the motion to declare one part of Virginia's capital murder sentencing scheme unconstitutional, the so-called future dangerousness aggravator, Milani said in an email Friday morning.

Danville Circuit Court Judge Joseph W. Milam Jr. denied the motion.

In a separate development this week related to the case, Milam granted a $50,000 secured bond to Sharika Mershay Murphy, 25, who pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to homicide and robbery in November 2016 in connection to the case.

Murphys defense attorney, Mark Williams, said in court Friday afternoon that his client would live in Danville with family.

Murphy has no prior record to this incident and is a mother of two children, Williams added in his closing argument.

She wants to be here in Danville as opposed to being in the Martinsville City Jail, where she had been assigned, Williams said.

Murphys sentencing date has not been set, and she is expected to testify in Dixons case in December. Thats a long time to leave her in limbo, Williams argued.

Murphy also has family in Newport News she wanted to stay with until sentencing.

If the court were to grant a bond, Danville Commonwealths Attorney Michael Newman argued in his closing argument that Murphy stay in Danville, as Newport News was too far.

Milam agreed to a $50,000 secured bond, requiring Murphy to stay drug and alcohol free and only stay with family in Danville and no other location.

Murphys sentencing is due to be set next week.
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - June 23, 2017) - North Arrow Minerals Inc. (TSX VENTURE: NAR) announces that, pursuant to North Arrow's Stock Option Plan, the Company has granted a total of 2,230,000 incentive stock options to Directors, Officers, Employees and consultants to the Company. The stock options are exercisable to acquire one common share of North Arrow at $0.27 per share and can be exercised until June 23, 2022.

About North Arrow Minerals

North Arrow is a Canadian based exploration company focused on the identification and evaluation of diamond exploration opportunities in Canada. North Arrow's management, board of directors and advisors have significant successful experience in the Canadian diamond industry. North Arrow is currently evaluating a number of projects including the Naujaat (formerly Qilalugaq) (NU), Mel (NU), Pikoo (SK), LDG (NT), and Loki (NT) Diamond Projects. North Arrow also maintains a 100% interest in the Hope Bay Oro Gold Project (NU), located approximately 3km north of TMAC Resources' new Doris Gold Mine. North Arrow's exploration programs are conducted under the direction of Kenneth Armstrong, P.Geo. (ON), President and CEO of North Arrow and a Qualified Person under NI 43-101. Mr. Armstrong has reviewed the contents of this press release.

North Arrow Minerals Inc.

/s/ "Kenneth A. Armstrong"

Kenneth Armstrong

President and CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" including but not limited to statements with respect to North Arrow's plans, the estimation of a mineral resource and the success of exploration activities. Forward-looking statements, while based on management's best estimates and assumptions, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: risks related to the successful integration of acquisitions; risks related to general economic and market conditions; closing of financing; the timing and content of upcoming work programs; actual results of proposed exploration activities; possible variations in mineral resources or grade; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes, title disputes, claims and limitations on insurance coverage and other risks of the mining industry; changes in national and local government regulation of mining operations, tax rules and regulations. Although North Arrow has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. North Arrow undertakes no obligation or responsibility to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
(TNS) -- In states looking to legalize pot, police and politicians often grapple with the same hard question: How will that affect road safety?The topic has dominated discussions in legislative committee rooms from California to Massachusetts and also on front porches across the country, as activists gathering petition signatures have gone door-to-door trying to sway potential voters in legalization efforts. Now new data may bolster arguments against legalization.A study released Thursday by a leading insurance research group showed an uptick in collision claims in states that have legalized marijuana.In the years since recreational pot sales became legal in Colorado, Washington and Oregon, those states saw a 2.7 percent increase in collision claims, according to the study from the Highway Loss Data Institute. The group used data from insurance claims and not law enforcement records. Legal sales took effect in Colorado in January 2014, followed by Washington that July and Oregon in October 2015.Its tricky to say what the exact magnitude of legal marijuana is on this increase, said Matt Moore, senior vice president of the Virginia-based nonprofit. But its safe to say that since retail sales have begun, crashes have increased in these states.The group used neighboring states  Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming to name a few  as controls with the states that legalized pot and did before-and-after comparisons. After retail marijuana sales began in Colorado, the increase in collision-claim frequency was 14 percent higher than in nearby Utah and Wyoming, according to the report. Washingtons estimated increase in claim frequency was 6 percent higher than in Montana and Idaho.Trying to gauge how high is too high behind the wheel has long perplexed states. Unlike for alcohol, there is no on-scene breathalyzer for marijuana thats widely used, so confirming pot use requires officers take drivers to police stations to administer a blood test. And theres another question: Whats a reasonable cutoff?Some states, such as Colorado and Washington, have established 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood as a clear legal standard for judging whether someone is driving under the influence. THC is a chemical compound in cannabis responsible for its psychological effects.The study released Thursday already has its critics.Mason Tvert, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, a group dedicated to ending marijuana prohibitions, said the report shows some correlation but not causation.In other words, it found a slightly increased risk of collisions in states that have made marijuana legal for adults, but it did not actually look at the causes of collisions and does not show marijuana is to blame for that increase, Tvert said, adding that the group takes seriously the issue of combating driving while high.It is important that governments and businesses continue to educate the public about the danger of impaired driving  whether it is by cannabis, alcohol or other substances  as well as the laws that prohibit it, he said.In recent years, some states that legalized pot, such as Colorado, have launched extensive advertising campaigns warning of the dangers marijuana poses to kids and teenagers, and also the risks of driving while high.Moore said the study is an important step toward equipping states with all the facts as they consider legalizing pot.This is a concern and its a concern worth monitoring and looking at over time, Moore said.Since 2012, eight states have passed voter-approved ballot measures legalizing the purchase and possession of marijuana for anyone 21 and older. This year several states seeking to rake in tax revenue from pot sales tried to legalize marijuana through legislative action. All the efforts have faltered.In Rhode Island, state Sen. Josh Miller has led an unsuccessful effort to legalize pot for the last four years. This year, his legalization bill remains stalled in a committee as the session comes to a close later this month. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin was among those opposed to legalization, citing, among other things, the need for more research around legalization efforts.Asked about the study, Miller said he remains undeterred in his efforts.The details, he said, are always more important than the headlines with such studies.
(TNS) - Sometimes better flood protection comes from giving a river some space to roam. Hamilton City, 85 miles north of Sacramento, learned that lesson from a new levee project that both protects against flooding and restores wildlife habitat.The levee will be set back from the Sacramento River for most of its 7 miles, allowing the river to spill over its banks and creating 1,400 acres of riparian forest and grassland. A model for flood-threatened areas nationwide, this project was the first designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to benefit both people and the environment.The setback levee replaces one from 1906 mostly built right up against the river, where it was prone to erosion and water seepage. Since the 1980s, Hamilton City has been evacuated six times due to threats of inundation.With the heavy rains of the past winter, the community nearly faced another evacuation.This year we had to make that decision, and it came down to minutes, said Lee Ann Grigsby-Puente, a Hamilton City resident and president of Reclamation District 2140, the local project sponsor.The first half of the setback levee is almost complete and the second half is scheduled to be finished by 2020, providing peace of mind for the 2,000-person community of Hamilton City and a refuge for birds, fish and mammals.The setback levee allows the river to spill over its banks and nourish the restored floodplain. In some places, the levee will sit more than a mile away from the river. The area between the two will be planted with cottonwood, oak and sycamore trees and water-loving undergrowth.With similar restoration projects, scientists have watched agricultural land successfully return to a nearly native wetland state within 10 years.In the big picture, it's going to look like one of these great, big, glorious, riparian gallery forests with big cottonwood trees and nesting habitat for a lot of endangered birds and riparian birds in general, said Jerry Dion, chief financial officer of River Partners, the contractor carrying out the ecological restoration.Once an orchard, the areas species diversity will increase drastically. Riparian forests are one of Californias most diverse habitat types. Such forests along the Sacramento River provide food and shelter for 250 species including deer, foxes, coyotes and rabbits that make their home there and hundreds of bird species that migrate through.There's all these perfect conditions for growing this amazing habitat, and when you have that, you're going to attract all these critters, said Ryan Luster, a project director at the Nature Conservancy, which purchased and donated the land for the project. That's why the Sacramento River is still one of the most diverse and amazing rivers even though it's been highly altered.Engineers didnt foresee other ecological benefits 16 years ago when planning for the project began, Luster said. For one, water ponds in the floodplain and seeps into the ground to recharge the groundwater and ease the pain of droughts.Reconnecting the river to the floodplain also allows Chinook salmon to spend their youth fattening up before they journey to the sea. Bugs and zooplankton that provide a feast for the young salmon feed on abundant algae there. A recent study by UC Davis researchers showed that salmon on fields flooded by the Yolo bypass grew much bigger than those in a fast-moving stream.Once the restoration is finished the land will be turned over to a state or local agency for public use. Grigsby-Puente said she hopes the restored area will provide opportunities for bird watching, fishing and hunting that the community never had access to before.For Hamilton City, replacing the levee has been a long haul. Between 2000 and 2008, the Army Corps of Engineers scoped out the project, studied its feasibility and finished the planning. Then the economy tanked. Federal funds, accounting for 65 percent of the construction cost, werent approved until 2014.Hamilton City remained committed to the project. It levied taxes to create Reclamation District 2140 to manage the completed levee and raised a 35 percent cost share from state grants. Their efforts over the past 35 years show how agricultural communities and environmentalists can come together to find solutions for flooding, said Grigsby-Puente.Carolyn Wilke: 916-321-1086, @CarolynMWilke2017 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.)Visit The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.) at www.sacbee.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS) - Effective July 1, the wireless enhanced 911 fee will increase from $3 to $3.34 per month per subscriber.According to the Public Service Commission of West Virginia, a portion of this fee funds the 911 emergency services for each county in West Virginia.To operate their enhanced emergency telephone systems, county commissioners derive revenue from two different sources  enhanced 911 fees from customers of local exchange service and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service, as well as wireless enhanced 911 fees.The Public Service Commission retains none of the fees and distributes the monies received according to specific instructions contained in state law.The PSC said $1 million is placed in a fund each year to subsidize the construction of wireless towers, and 10 cents of the amount collected per subscriber is distributed to the West Virginia State Police to be used for equipment upgrades for improving and integrating their communications efforts with those of the enhanced 911 systems.The PSC said 5 percent of the wireless enhanced fees received are deposited in a special fund established by the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management to be used solely for the construction, maintenance and upgrade of the West Virginia Interoperable Radio Project.The remainder of the money is distributed to the counties according to the formula set forth in West Virginia Code.According to state law, the PSC is required to conduct an audit of the wireless enhanced 911 fee every other year. If the weighted average of the enhanced 911 fees exceeds the $3 per month wireless E-911 fee, the wireless E-911 fee must be increased to the weighted average of the enhanced 911 fees, but never increased more than 25 percent of the wireless E-911 fee.Commission rules provide that if it is necessary for the Commission to recalculate the wireless fee, the new fee would take effect July 1 of the respecification year.More information is available on the PSC website, psc.state.wv.us, by referencing General Order 187.50. Email: wholdren@register-herald.com and follow on Twitter @WendyHoldren2017 The Register-Herald (Beckley, W.Va.)Visit The Register-Herald (Beckley, W.Va.) at www.register-herald.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS) -- SARASOTA  The city of Sarasota must subsidize a quarter of its parking department's $1.2 million budget in the coming year, and that number could be higher in 2019 if the city abandons another attempt to install paid meters downtown, the city's parking director warned Thursday night.Without any funding from the proposed parking meter pilot program, the department expects to be $300,000 short of its expenses in 2018, Parking Director Mark Lyons told the City Commission during its third and final budget workshop this week.That's a much smaller subsidy than the $600,000-plus the department received from the city's general fund this year, largely supplied by property taxes, due in large part to increased collection of outstanding fines, Lyons said.But that help is likely to level off in the coming year, and ratcheting up enforcement to collect more fines would be an unpopular and still likely unsuccessful way of trying to close that gap, he added."Heavy enforcement is just not the way to go," Lyons said. "Publicly, that just doesn't work for anyone."The key for us is trying to identify additional revenues ... This subsidy could increase by next year if we don't follow through with some of our programs."Lyons has argued that the only way to eventually balance the budget on the city's parking expenses is another attempt to install paid meters in the heart of downtown.This time, though, Lyons has proposed a relatively small pilot program that would include the installation of meters on 468 parking spaces on Main Street, Palm Avenue and part of Ringling Boulevard  only a fraction of on-street parking in the area and an even smaller percentage of the thousands of publicly available spaces throughout downtown. The department has not projected how much revenue that could raise but has instead argued it could be used as a case study with rate, usage and revenue data, Lyons has said.City officials are reviewing requests for proposals about what types of meter system would be used this summer, per the commission's direction. They plan to seek public feedback on potential options and eventually pitch a formal plan with a formal cost estimate to the City Commission for approval this fall, Lyons said."Within the next 120 days or so, the evaluation committee will come back with some recommendations, and we'll have a full discussion about how that would operate," he said. "But the concept and approach would be very simplistic: Start small."The plan is destined for intense controversy, though, no matter the final proposal.The city has had an on-again, off-again relationship with parking meters since 1942, and perennial opponents of the meters still happily recall wearing paper bags over their heads in the successful 2012 push to remove the most recent round of meters. They and many downtown businesses have pledged to oppose Lyons' new plan, too, which was a frequent sticking point in this spring's City Commission election.New Commissioner Hagen Brody subtly reiterated his promised opposition to the meters Thursday night."Obviously that's a huge issue in the community everyone's aware of, so I look forward to that conversation," he said.Though one of the most controversial plans for the next year, the parking department is far from the largest budgetary issue facing the commission in the coming months.The city is projecting at least a $950,000 budget shortfall this year, and the commission must decide early next month whether to endorse a potential property tax increase, cut expenses or spend from its savings to close the gap. The commission will debate the proposed property tax increase  which would add about $11.61 on the tax bill of a $200,000 home, for example  at a special meeting July 10.
(TNS) -- SAN FRANCISCO  The majority of Ubers investors may have wanted its co-founder and chief executive Travis Kalanick out, but some employees of the ride-hailing company are already calling for his return.In a petition that began circulating within Uber on Wednesday, employees called for Ubers board of directors to reinstate Kalanick, who resigned Tuesday evening following pressure from investors and months of scandals.Yes, Travis is flawed, as we all are, the petition reads. But his passion, vision, and dedication to Uber are simply unmatched. We would not be here today without him, and believe he can evolve into the leader we need. He is critical to our future success.The petition calls for Kalanicks return in an operational role.News site Axios reported Thursday that some 1,000 employees had signed the petition. Uber has around 12,000 non-driver employees.Uber declined to comment on the petition, but a person familiar with the matter confirmed that it started circulating Wednesday, and that the companys management has not yet addressed it.Kalanick was a polarizing chief executive, seen as both a brilliant visionary who led the company to dominance and the source of a toxic culture outlined in two independent investigations into the company.His departure was orchestrated by investors who did not believe he had the chops to turn the company around after a relentless spate of controversies.The companys internal troubles had also spilled out into the public, and a recent survey of Uber passengers conducted by media and technology company Morning Consult found that of around 1,700 surveyed participants, 57 percent were aware of claims of bullying, sexism and sexism harassment at the company.Such awareness of a companys internal problems is pretty high, especially for service used by 20 percent to 30 percent of the U.S. population, according to Jeff Cartwright, a spokesman for Morning Consult. By comparison, a nationwide topic, such as the Affordable Care Act, records around 70 percent awareness.Of those surveyed, 13 percent said they had stopped using the Uber app altogether because of the scandals. Among customers who had stopped using the app, 28 percent said firing the CEO would bring them back.Travis wasnt very well known before this, said Cartwright, who noted that aside from a few exceptions, such as Mark Zuckerberg or Sheryl Sandberg, most tech CEOs arent household names.But he became front and center of Uber in the past few months. A few months ago people didnt know who he was. Now, hes identified as the problem, Cartwright said.Still, Kalanick continues to have supporters both inside and outside of Uber.Bradley Tusk, co-founder of Tusk Ventures and an early investor in Uber, said Wednesday he worried that the board of directors may have solved one problem but created another in pressuring Kalanick to resign.Tusk believes Kalanick is a visionary and that, instead of getting rid of him, the board should have hired others to help with his shortcomings.Whether its autonomous vehicles, trucking, flying cars, thats the stuff that I think you really need Travis for, Tusk said.In addressing Kalanicks departure, the companys top leaders  14 of whom now share duties running the place  said they understood that emotions were high and that Kalanick did not make his decision lightly.Travis gave more to this company than anyone, they said in a statement sent to employees. He had a deep and meaningful impact on countless numbers of people at Uber and around the world, and for that, we will forever be grateful.A copy of the petition, obtained by Axios and independently verified, can be viewed below.
When employees at Chesterfield County, Va.'s Department of Revenue go into work on Monday and boot up their computers, they'll face a new IT system for carrying out their jobs. It's been in development for over a year, but the agency realized only last month that there were no plans to make sure the people tasked with using the new system actually know how.It was poor planning, but the department was under the impression that the vendor was going to supply the training, says Kevin Bruny, director of Chesterfield Countys Learning and Performance Center, which rushed to help the department create a training program.This is far from an uncommon situation.A 2015 survey by Deloitte Consulting found that only a third of public-sector leaders around the world think their organizations provide employees with sufficient resources and opportunities to develop the technology skills they need.From many of our surveys, the No. 1 barrier to success with technology is organizational-workforce resistance to change, says Doug Robinson, executive director of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO).Without proper training, that resistance to change is likely to persist, and any organization looking to upgrade its tech is setting itself up to fail -- or at least struggle.Resistance to change isnt the exception. Resistance to change is the norm, says Tim Maniccia, a New York-based consultant whose company, Policy Innovation, Inc., often deals with managing change in government organizations.With the clock ticking until the new system goes live, Chesterfield County officials stepped into action -- and quickly. The Learning and Performance Center tapped experts from the revenue department who knew how employees interacted with the old systems, and the department used that knowledge as the basis for an online training program.Of course, online training doesnt work for everyone. Its also critical to offer extra help for employees who need it.To say you must use technology to learn to use the new technology isnt going to work for people who are not as tech-savvy, says Bruny.Bruny knows the training process would have been much easier had it started long before, as Chesterfield County has done with other award-winning projects. For example, its countywide shift in 2016 to the 365 version of Microsoft Office was eased by early meetings that The Learning and Performance Center had with all 45 departments. This was particularly important since some employees were using software that was more than a decade old. The county was also in constant communication with employees about what was coming, how it would impact their work and when.Ohio has also taken an employee-oriented approach when upgrading its IT -- one that made it a finalist for NASCIO's 2015 State IT Recognition Award.When the state began to implement a new benefits eligibility system, it tapped employee input at the earliest stage of development. Readiness managers were established in every county totrain caseworkers, help troubleshoot and act as a liasonbetween the states central IT office and caseworkers.We learned from past mistakes and from watching other projects struggle through the process," says Stu Davis, Ohio's chief information officer. "One of the key things we were trying to get across is that this wasnt being done to them but with them and for them."John McCaffrey, the CIO of Westchester County in New York, echoes that sentiment. He says the county executive has sent a strong message to employees that their ideas for innovation and technological improvement are welcome and will be listened to. For example, when the county shifted its contracts from a paper-based system to an electronic one, employees missed being able to lay out multiple versions of contracts on their desks at the same time.The county heard their complaints and started providing dual monitors.It was a simple fix, says McCaffrey, but one that drastically reduced employees' resistance to the new system. The biggest mistake that IT makes is not getting in the trenches with the people who are doing the job.
A session of the General Assembly of the Intra-European Organization of Tax Administrations (IOTA), uniting tax departments of European countries, will discuss in Kyiv on June 29-30 changes in tax policy in connection with the growing digitalization of the 21st century economy.

Ukraine will chair the General Assembly of this organization for the first time in 20 years, Interfax-Ukraine learnt at the press service of the State Fiscal Service on Friday.

According to the State Fiscal Service, 45 delegations of all members of the organization are expected to attend the event, entitled "Disruptive Trends and New Business Models: Challenges and Implications for the 21st Century Tax Administration."

Roman Bychevy, head of the reforms office under the State Fiscal Service, said that the development of technologies and globalization led to emergence of new, hybrid or virtual business models, formation of start-ups in the "P2P" format on equal informal contractual terms and platforms for direct communication between buyers and sellers.

"Obviously, they also have to deal with many types of taxes, but the traditional taxation system is becoming inefficient under the new conditions, and tax administrations need to review their compliance strategies to ensure an equitable tax regime and the same conditions for both traditional and new businesses models," Bychevy said.

In addition, on June 28, Kyiv will also host a meeting of the executive board of IOTA, according to the organization's website.

The Intra-European Organisation of Tax Administrations (IOTA) is a non-profit intergovernmental organisation, which provides forum to assist its members to improve tax administration.

As reported, the head of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, Roman Nasirov, who was dismissed from his post in connection with the investigation of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine against him, was elected the IOTA president for a year in June 2016 at its previous general assembly in Bucharest.
How many times have you gotten an email from a Nigerian prince promising that if you wire him a little cash, hell give you millions of dollars in return? These schemes, known as advance fee fraud, have grown only more ambitious in the years since scammers have taken to the Internet.But Paradigm Initiative is a Nigerian company training those cybercriminals to use their smart, tech-savvy minds to instead create online businesses. In a 10-week course, students ages 12 to 28 learn skills like coding, Web design and finance management to help use their powers for good.If you can hack a website in the name of committing a crime, Paradigm Initiatives founder and executive director, Gbenga Sesan, told Fast Company , then you can design a real website and get paid for it."More than half of young Nigerians are unemployed or underemployed. Paradigm Initiative wants to help them join the digital economy and build careers, and students have gone on to work in top internships with partners like the U.S. Embassy and DHL.
Phishing and spear-phishing  two simplistic examples of cyberattacks well-known in the public sector  may remain popular indefinitely, but state cybersecurity personnel are battling the bad actors with strategies aimed at the same soft target: the human mind.Neither form of email attack  the more generic phishing, which seeks personal financial information, or spearphishing, which is more targeted and frequently carries attached malware  is new.But this spring, authors of the Symantec 2017 Internet Security Threat Report found email attacks increased 68 percent in 2016, while phishing attacks climbed nearly 41 percent.Officials in Missouri and Washington state acknowledged the sustained threat that each of the attacks presents to the tens of thousands of state employees who may be vulnerable Washington Chief Information Security Officer Agnes Kirk pointed out that following the success of the May 12 WannaCry ransomware attack, dark Web entrepreneurs launched a subscription service offering would-be hackers access to a virus or hacking tool of the month.I think as long as you have that kind of business model on the dark Web I dont see anything declining, Kirk said.At Missouri Digital Government Summit earlier this month, state CISO Michael Roling said so-called fast thinking continues to expose his states roughly 40,000 vulnerable government employees to phishing attacks.Phishing is really no different than any other classic swindle. Theyre trying to misguide the user into doing something they wouldnt normally do, Roling said at the event. Its that knee-jerk reaction, its that gut instinct when we see something. A lot of times they use fear to evoke that thinking.But both CISOs said their agencies continue to warn staffers of the dangers of fast thinking with education, humor and assessments modeled after classic phishing expeditions to test staff members resolve.In Missouri, Roling said the Cybersecurity Awareness Program features multiple activities and subprograms, but two key elements are monthly awareness lessons of 10 to 15 minutes each, and ongoing participation charts ranking agencies on which has the most educated employees.Staffers earn points for completing lessons  and they earn more points for finishing them soon after their monthly release  and contribute to their agencys overall ranking. The Information Technology Services Division is currently barely edging out the second-place agency, Roling joked, in a friendly rivalry that has seen the two agencies exchange rankings before.Agencies with lower scores are sent detailed information, the CISO said, about which employees havent completed lessons.But perhaps ITSDs signature cybersecurity training activity is its end-user awareness assessments, which happen every four to six weeks  and during which security folk have phished employees with emails designed to be just as irresistible as the genuine article.In place for about a year, this component of the program generated strong reactions among those who clicked, ranging from feeling ashamed to being angry, Roling said, emphasizing ITSDs goal was only to boost awareness of what actual attacks look like.One real-world strategy Missouri ITSD hasnt employed yet is phishing via telephone call  occasionally a precursor to an online hacking campaign.But about a year ago, in an assessment with genuine parallels to successful hacks, the agency left several pocket-size USB sticks outside its primary building in Jefferson City, labeled to suggest they might contain interesting or sensitive data.Whats amazing about it was when we did, every single USB storage device came right back to us. We were very impressed, Roling said.In Washington, Kirk said her agency spearheaded a similar assessment around USB drives left in random places, but around 95 percent of employees who were phished simply returned the devices to Information Technology.Her agency emails daily tips on how to avoid being compromised or hacked, distributes informational cybersecurity awareness reports and holds face-to-face sessions featuring anonymized, real-life examples to remind staffers they need to practice safe Internet use at home and at work.Anecdotes are what people remember, Kirk said, indicating that if employees are safer at home, theyll be safer at work. It isnt all or nothing.For Cyberawareness Month in October, the CISO said the state gamified an awareness program in which employees who answered questions testing their security best practices were entered into a weekly prize pool. Feedback from staffers indicated they enjoyed comparing answers and the event may be repeated.The state has mandatory end-user security awareness training, but arguably a more dramatic educational component is its use of phishing telephone calls, a strategy used to test employees at one of the states smaller but more public-facing agencies, Kirk said.The calls, a targeted event, came at the suggestion of people within the agency who requested cybersecurity officials conduct the test following a security assessment.I think we dont have the bandwidth to do a significant amount of it, but training a few key people that are first in line to get the calls can be really critical. These people can train others, Kirk said. That will be something well look at again.Kirk, whose state pioneered SecureAccess Washington , a single sign-on public gateway to secured applications in 2004, said phishing trends up and down, with the state somewhat insulated by its ability to track and block questionable emails.She and Roling agreed change and humans innate curiosity are among the only constants on the cybersecurity landscape, and emphasized that top-down buy-in and manageability are key to implementing a successful awareness program.I would say dont try to boil the ocean. Start with a small campaign," Kirk said. "When you demonstrate value it makes it way easier to get others on-board."During the first year of Missouris program, Roling said officials did get some pushback, but because of that top-down buy-in, which is so critical for any awareness program, they all understood the value of the mission we were trying to carry out.That, he added, was absolutely vital.
Romain Grosjean has played down reports suggesting the Haas team is using 'spotters' in Baku.

In American oval-based racing, 'spotters' are positioned around the layout to let drivers know what is happening around them.

And heading into the weekend in Azerbaijan, whose street layout features a 2km straight, reports suggested the American team Haas will use spotters in Baku.

"I would not exaggerate that," team driver Grosjean said.

"Yes, we are trying to do our work more precisely in qualifying, in order to avoid problems with traffic. But I think other teams also use this method."

The 'method' he is referring to is a team member dedicated to monitoring traffic on track, but with the use of GPS technology.

(GMM)
McLaren is not ruling out a move to the British team for Carlos Sainz in 2018.

The impressive Spaniard has often been linked with a departure from Toro Rosso, but until now Red Bull has insisted he honour his contract until 2019.

But when asked about the 22-year-old, McLaren boss Eric Boullier said in Baku: "I know him and I like him.

"Everyone in this paddock is an option," he told Spain's AS newspaper.

Stoffel Vandoorne is under contract at McLaren for 2018, but speculation is rife that Fernando Alonso will depart.

Boullier admitted Sainz's existing contract could be an issue.

"You have to look at the contracts and if he is free, but I like Carlos and he's an option, yes," said the Frenchman.

"Saying that, we want to keep Fernando and we hope he continues with us, to be the champion we want, and we also believe in Stoffel," he added. "Those are our real options."

(GMM)
Former Renault team boss Frederic Vasseur has emerged as the most likely candidate to run Sauber.

The Swiss team suddenly split with Monisha Kaltenborn following a disagreement with new owners, and it had been rumoured Colin Kolles was on pole to replace her.

Acting boss Beat Zehnder said in Baku: "We are talking to some candidates and I hope we can announce it sooner rather than later."

But the long-time Sauber team manager said he is not in the running.

"No. I cannot run a company of 350 people, and I would not burden my wife with that either," he smiled to Blick newspaper.

Graeme Lowdon was mentioned as another potential candidate, but Le Matin newspaper said Frenchman Vasseur is actually the frontrunner.

Indeed, Sauber owner Pascal Picci told the Swiss newspaper: "We are in discussions with Vasseur, but nothing is official. There are other candidates."

However, Blick newspaper said Picci and Vasseur met at Sauber's Hinwil headquarters on Thursday.

(GMM)
McLaren has "contracts to negotiate", according to team boss Eric Boullier.

In Baku, the Frenchman was speaking to Belgian broadcaster RTBF, amid swirling rumours that McLaren has decided to split with Honda.

"There is no actual deadline but there are decisions to be made, procedures to be followed and contracts to negotiate, so it's impossible to define a date," Boullier said.

"I did not say we are going to part with Honda. It simply means that no matter what the solution, it must include a new contract and new ambitions," he added.

Honda has brought an engine upgrade to Baku, but the rhetoric from its British partner is still downbeat.

"Yes, we still trust Honda because they have the resources and the will to do it," Boullier told AS newspaper.

"What I'm not sure about is the time it will take. That is the key."

As for whether there have been talks with Mercedes about a customer engine deal for 2018 and beyond, Boullier said: "I am not going to answer these questions because it's fuelling the controversy.

"I understand it's your job, but it's also my freedom to not answer."

(GMM)
The United States takes seriously its responsibility to support the Ukrainian people, who are working to develop their own democratic and prosperous society, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch has said.

Speaking at the opening of the forum of small businesses on Sofiyska Square in Kyiv on Saturday, the ambassador said the joint project of USAID and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has helped many people to find shelter and social support, as well as learn skills necessary to start work and start their own business.

The USAID program provided comprehensive support in reintegration for more than 1,300 people, they also helped hundreds to start their own businesses, Yovanovitch said.

She said the U.S. takes very seriously its duty to support the Ukrainian people who are working to develop their own democratic and prosperous society.

According to International Organization for Migration Mission in Ukraine (IOM) Chief Manfred Profazi, some 5,500 people benefited from a program to strengthen the economic potential of migrants and people who require support over ten years. These people, including internally displaced persons, established small enterprises or became self-employed in agriculture, production, construction, and services, he said.

A fair of small enterprises dubbed 'BizFair' is taking place on Sofiyska square on Saturday, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported.

Over a hundred representatives of small enterprises of various business sectors presented their own goods and services  furniture, ironwork and wooden products, sportswear and casual wear, bags and accessories, jewelry, games for children, as well as beverages and other food products.
Editor-in-chief of the Strana.ua news portal Ihor Huzhva has been notified of suspicion of extortion, the press secretary of the Kyiv prosecutor's office Nadia Maksymets reported.

"Editor-in-chief of the Strana.ua Internet publication has been handed a suspicion [of committing a crime] under Part 3 of Article 189 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine," she wrote on Facebook on Friday evening.

Maksymets added that the prosecutor's office will apply to court on Saturday, June 24, with a petition to select a preventive measure for Huzhva.

As earlier reported, Huzhva was arrested in Kyiv on Thursday, June 22, 2017. According to Ukraine's Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, Huzhva demanded $10,000 in exchange for not publishing compromising material on a politician. According to the PGO, photographic and video evidence backs up charges of impropriety.

Dmytro Linko, a Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Radical Party faction, confirmed on Friday morning that Huzhva had demanded money from him.

The same day, the Kyiv city prosecutor's office reported that Huzhva and his mediator had been detained on suspicion of large-scale extortion.
The Ukrainian bill on the reintegration of Donbas into the country envisages extending the status of the 'occupied territories' to the certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Oleksiy Makeyev, director of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry policy department told reporters in Kyiv.

"The new bill actually contains a clause on the extension of the occupied territories status to the certain areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," Makeyev told reporters on Friday.

The Ukrainian side is also informing international partners about its legislative initiatives and intentions in this area, he added. "Our partners understand. Partners are expressing their thoughts, as is appropriate for partners," Makeyev said.
GREENSBORO  When dusky purple hues fall over a dappled 19th-century London set at Triad Stage, know that youre in for a shadowy, lurid and chilling show that could paradoxically be one of the most sublime theatre experiences of your life.

From the 1979 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street In Concert is produced by North Carolina Summer Rep, the brainchild of UNCGs Justin Cowan.

Summer Rep is a program to provide our students and alums an opportunity to work together, says Cowan, currently a UNCG conducting doctoral student.

If its inaugural season is any indication, North Carolina Summer Rep will be a stunning showcase that will bring in audiences from miles around. Cowan is artistic director and conductor of a 26-piece orchestra that sits onstage throughout the play. J. Scott Lapp directs UNCG students and seasoned pros such as Greensboro native (now New York actor) Aaron Phillips.

Sweeney Todd has become something of a classic of American modern opera, thanks to Steven Sondheim, but this dark tale dates back to Victorian England, possibly even to Charles Dickens.

Sweeney, the murderous barber who exacts revenge on anyone who crosses him (and eventually that is pretty much everyone), is played by Phillips, who graduated from UNCGs School of Music in 2005. Phillips is the perfect Sweeney, whose descent into madness can be measured by increasingly darker circles under his eyes. Or perhaps they just seem to grow darker, as do those of the rest of the cast  leaving one wondering, How can something so macabre be so fantastic?

Sweeneys partner-in-pie-making, the treacherous Mrs. Lovett, is Farah Alvin, who soars in a part played in the past by such luminaries as Angela Lansbury, Patti LuPone and Christine Baranski. Julianne Olson, a UNCG doctoral student, is the Beggar Woman whose incredible voice leaves no doubt that she is headed for the big time. And theres UNCG student Jake Hemminger who falls in love with Johanna (Sweeney Todds daughter) played convincingly and sung beautifully by Alex May.

UNCG student Adrian Thornburg as Tobias Ragg provides one of the more touching moments in the play, singing a loving Not While Im Around to Mrs. Lovett, his adopted mother. Shall we say, that emotion is not exactly reciprocal.

Even in full view, the orchestra magically disappears into this production. This disappearing act might be the highest compliment one can pay to a large orchestra accompanying a performance, for sometimes live music, especially when musicians are visible to the audience, overpowers the acting and can be distracting.

This cast of 20-plus that sings some 35 songs is deft, impeccably donned in striking 19th-century garb and an indisputable indication of the immense talent that UNCG has produced and continues to train, an accomplishment that gleams as brightly as the glint off a silver razor poised above a madmans head.
Updated at 4:25 p.m.

GREENSBORO  Three men were shot after an argument Saturday afternoon.

It's unknown what the argument was about, said Capt. Nathaniel Davis, commander of the police criminal investigations division.

"We're trying to run down leads," Davis said.

Davis said there was more than one shooter and police are trying to figure just how many there were.

About 1:50 p.m., police were called to 1208 Randolph Ave. for a shooting. Police found a victim suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken to an area hospital by Guilford County EMS. Two other victims drove to the hospital.

Davis said two of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000.

Posted 2:55 p.m.

GREENSBORO  Police are investigating a shooting that sent three people to the hospital, two with life-threatening injuries.

About 1:50 p.m., police were called to 1208 Randolph Ave. for a shooting, according to a Greensboro police news release.

A victim was taken by ambulance to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police said two other victims, another with life-threatening injuries, drove to the hospital.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (336) 373-1000.
Please fake news media, liberal Democrats, and all others committed to the destruction of the Trump administration, produce just even a tiny bit of hard evidence (not conjecture, not suspicion, not wishful thinking) that the president and/or his handlers conspired with the Russians to effect the outcome of the 2016 election.

And that their media-created supposed effort did in fact contribute to Hillarys defeat (actually in some way changed votes).

Obamas head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, recently reminded us that Trump had predicted the election was going to be rigged in some way.

Seriously folks, if Trump (and the Russians) were doing the rigging, do you really think he would warn us on national TV numerous times that this was happening?

The public is growing weary of the continuing media barrage of totally unsubstantiated allegations of meddling, of the threat, of efforts to hack, of the severity the threat appears to be, etc.

How much longer are we going to beat this dead horse, at a cost of multi-millions to the taxpayers?

Also, how objective can Mueller and his team be?

Check out the political affiliation and donations of this group of lawyers. ...

Clyde Hunt

Greensboro
The Ukrainian troops deployed in Donbas are ready for the ceasefire starting from midnight June 24, but they also stress their readiness to open fire should their lives be put at risk, Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzianyk told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.

"We are ready for the ceasefire. We will honor it. However, our response to hostile actions will be adequate," Motuzianyk said.

Ukraine "implements the Minsk agreements at all times," in particular, the Ukrainian troops strictly observed every ceasefire arrangement in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone, the spokesman said.

We only open fire in the event of a real life threat to our troops in Donbas," the spokesman said.

For her part, Iryna Gerashchenko, who represents Ukraine in the TCG's humanitarian subgroup and is first deputy speaker in Ukraine's parliament, stressed the importance of resolving ecological problems and repairing the Donbas infrastructure, if the ceasefire starting on June 24 holds.

"For ecological problems to be solved security is very important! The TCG in Minsk agreed on a ceasefire from June 24. Where it will be quiet, we shall see after midnight. If the truce holds, there will be a chance to do repair work at the DFS [Donetsk filter station], the Avdiyivka coke and chemical plant, and at other enterprises close to the conflict line," Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook after a trip to Donbas on Friday.

On June 21 the Trilateral Contact Group, which mediates the Donbas conflict, backed a proposed ceasefire for the duration of the harvesting period starting from June 24. The so-called "bread truce" should last from the midnight of June 24 through August 31.
There are no red and blue lawn signs. No wordy letters to the editor extolling the unparalleled virtues and accomplishments of a particular candidate. No League of Women Voters pseudo-debates yet scheduled. But there is no mistaking the 2017 municipal election is at its most critical phase.

The Republican and Democratic town committees hold their nominating conventions in mid-July. More often than not, nomination is tantamount to election, particularly for the boards of education and estimate and taxation. This year, it seems likely the Board of Selectmen election will be a rubber-stamp affair as well, with the Democrats having a hard time finding someone to run against five-term Republican incumbent Peter Tesei.

However, Board of

Education nominations in both parties could prove interesting this year.

Each party elects two school board candidates, and each party can nominate up to four candidates for those two spots.

The two Democratic incumbents, Laura Erickson and Debbie Applebaum, opted not to run. Both had come under fire for their wavering over support of the start time change at Greenwich High School. The party announced earlier this week that they had two newcomers, Kathleen Stowe and Meghan Olsson, who want to represent the party on the school board. However, Democratic Town Chairman Jeffrey Ramer is afraid that by only nominating two candidates for two seats, his party will play into the Republican criticism that the current election process does not give voters choice. He is encouraging other candidates to come forward. Democrats have approached Valerie Erde, a Riverside resident who led the campaign that changed the daily starting time of Greenwich High School. Erde, however, has said repeatedly that she is not interested. So the search continues.

On the Republican side, two-term incumbent and current board chairman Peter Sherr, of North Mianus, expected to seek re-election, though he has not officially announced his candidacy. Four years ago, the local GOP leadership refused to re-nominate Sherr in retribution for his support of a Democrat for board chairman. Sherr, however, embarrassed party leaders by quickly gathering more than 1,500 petition signatures to get on the ballot, and then by winning more votes than any other school board candidate in the general election.

The Board of Selectmen earlier this year named Sherr school board chairman after the eight-member Board of Education could not agree on a suitable chairman. Since then, he has received high marks from GOP leaders for keeping open lines of communication between the school board and other elected officials. He is expected to win re-nomination.

Republican Peter Bernstein, who has been openly critical of Sherr at school board meetings, is seeking re-election. Though the party has not released the name of any candidates yet, three other Republicans have been mentioned as running for the nomination. Former school board member Peter von Braun is said to be looking to return to the board. Jason Auerbach, a Riverside resident, and Kimberly Fiorello, a town committee member from central Greenwich, are said to be interested in the school board as well. Auerbach has been a vocal critic of how the school board allocates resources among neighborhood schools. Fiorello does not have much of a public profile outside of the RTC.

It looks like Republican Peter Tesei will run unopposed. No Democrat has stepped forward to wage a campaign, and incumbent Democratic Selectman Drew Marzullo has no desire to run for first selectman. As a four-term veteran of the BOS, Marzullo is best positioned to lead his party, but he will not step up to the challenge.

The most humorous incident of the desperate Democratic search for a first selectman candidate happened last Wednesday night in Town Hall. Several Democrats approached state harbormaster for Greenwich Ian Macmillan about carrying the partys mantle against Tesei this year. The harbormaster had been in Town Hall for another meeting when he walked into the Democratic Partys meeting.

I was elected president of the student body at Rye High School, Macmillan said. But I hope they were joking. Can you imagine me in Town Hall? he asked with a laugh.

Macmillan doesnt have a political bone in his body. He is of, by, and about the sea and wants nothing to do with a landlocked job. But because of his knowledge of harbor issues and state waterfront laws and regulations, he is often a thorn in the side of Tesei and his Harbor Management Commission. For eight years, Tesei has promised a Harbor Management Plan. And for eight years, he has failed to deliver on that promise.

I, for one, would pay to watch a Tesei vs. Macmillan debate. The Republican has never had a sufficiently thick epidermis to rise above the personal in political debate, and Macmillan takes abuse better than anyone in town and does not get rattled. It would be great fun, but it will never happen.
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Downtown

Old Greenwich will be the home to the towns annual Fourth of July fireworks show July 1, but for a patriotic display on Americas birthday, Town Hall will be the place to be.

The annual Independence Day Association of Greenwich event will begin at 9 a.m. July 4 at Town Hall rain or shine. A colonial American flag will be raised, the Greenwich Boy Scouts will hold the traditional parade of flags for the original 13 colonies and there will be refreshments, complete with a birthday cake.

Bea Crumbine, the towns ambassador-at-large, and Janet Giusti will again oversee the celebration. Highlights include honoring the Greenwich citizens who are descendants of the towns founding families and presentation of Good Citizen awards to students in the towns public and private schools.

The event, which is free and open to the community, has become a beloved town tradition. Representative Town Meeting member Ed Dadakis, who provides the American flags for the event, urged everyone to attend.

If you have never gone to the July 4 flag raising, you really should because it is a wonderful way to start Americas birthday, Dadakis said.

Riverside

The annual St. Catherines Carnival of Fun will kick off on July 11 and run through July 15. Each night will feature live music, food, rides, carnival games and games of chance.

The carnival will run from 6 to 11 p.m. each night at the church, 4 Riverside Ave.

Its our number-one fundraiser for the churchs general operations, said Fred Durante, who began as a volunteer in 1973 and has been carnival committee chairman for more than 20 years. This brings in people from everywhere to our church. And this is for everyone, not just our parishoners, We have people coming from all over Fairfield County and even Westchester. Its one of the last big events like this.

First prize for the raffle is a 2017 BMW X1. Second prize is a getaway for up to six to St. Thomas including eight days and seven nights at a private condo. Third prize is a $500 gift card to Aux Delices and fourth prize is a getaway for two at Mohegan Sun casino. A Giant Revel mountain bike is fifth prize.

Admission is free each night. Parking is available at Eastern Middle School with transportation to the fairgrounds via a shuttle bus.

More information is online at www.stcath.org, including a sign-up for volunteers and raffle tickets purchase.

Greenwich

The Greenwich United Way has honored 450 students who participated in the agencys Reading Champions program during the 2016-17 school year.

Each of the students completed the literacy program, which is in its ninth year, at one of the 14 sites throughout town. Each one of the sites held its own ceremony to honor the kids who participated.

All of the kids have been presented with certificates of achievement along with a medal and a book for them to enjoy during the summer.

"Our end-of-the-year ceremonies are special, Greenwich United Way Reading Champions Program Coordinator Marie Wardell said. Each child develops a positive connection to reading with their tutor through this program, which is why it is so successful. Students are proud of themselves and tutors feel the tremendous impact they've made in the community. These celebrations are a great way to kick off summer and build excitement for summer reading.

The program matches students with 137 trained tutors at the districts 10 public elementary schools and four after-school programs. Each of the sites has a liaison who coordinates with literacy specialists and site directors. Wardell herself oversees the work at Cos Cob School and the Greenwich YWCA.

The United Way recently held a special tea to celebrate the academic achievement at the Womans Club on Maple Avenue. The tea honored the volunteers and featured a keynote speech from Diane Garrett of Dianes Books, who said her store allowed her to share her joy of reading and create meaningful connections with all who entered the shop.

It's so wonderful because I just read to them [children] and then they know me, Garrett said.

People in town can volunteer to be a tutor at the Greenwich United Ways website at www.greenwichunitedway.org and can find more information there about the program.

Old Greenwich

The annual Safety Town was back in session at the Eastern Greenwich Civic Center with about 330 youngsters participating during the two one-week sessions held from June 5 through 16. According to the Red Cross, the goal of Safety Town is to provide a comprehensive safety education program for children who are about to enter kindergarten in the fall.

Safety Town is put together by the American Red Cross Metro New York North chapter in Cos Cob. Abigail Adams, communications officer for the chapter, said Safety Town is part of the organizations commitment to the community by focusing on Greenwichs youngest and most vulnerable residents.

The Red Cross is all about preparedness and making resilient communities, Adams said. It starts the kids young and teaches them the right behaviors so they can form safe habits they will carry forward.

Participants receive lessons from classroom teachers, Greenwich police officers, community volunteers, firefighters and members of Greenwich Emergency Medical Services. Kids learn about safely crossing the street, traffic signals and personal safety.

After receiving a bike safety helmet, the kids ride pedal cars or walk around Safety Town  a miniature town with buildings, sidewalks, crosswalks and street markings. They practice safely crossing streets as pedestrians and how to keep their attention focused on other children while riding the cars.

Participants also got a chance to tour a town fire engine, a GEMS ambulance and a school bus.
Two servicemen wounded in Donbas in 48 shellings by militants

Militants shelled Ukrainian army positions 48 times on Friday, including 14 times using artillery, the press center of the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) headquarters wrote on its page on Saturday morning.

"Two ATO soldiers were wounded in shelling by the enemy," the report reads.
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Four-time Grammy Award-nominated and six-time Dove Award-winning family group Karen Peck & New River are excited to announce the release of their latest recording - Hope For All Nations. The title cut "Hope For All Nations" has a deeper meaning to the group following their recent trips to Honduras and an upcoming Israel tour. Hope For All Nations is the latest in a string of award-winning records for the popular family band. Produced by Wayne Haun, Hope For All Nations features the group's familiar progressive Southern Gospel sound.

The reigning Absolutely Gospel Music Award Songwriter of the Year (Artist) and group namesake Karen Peck, took her songwriting talents to a new level on Hope For All Nations, contributing to nine of the album's 12 tracks. The recording also features a bevy of the industry's top writers such as Jeff Bumgardner, Joel Lindsey, Lee Black, Benji Cowart, Jason Cox, Kenna West, Wayne Haun, Michael Farren, Joseph Habedank, Tim Lovelace, Rodney Griffin, Dave Clark, Gerald Crabb, and more.

The debut single and title track, "Hope For All Nations," was written by Karen along with Lee Black and Benji Cowart and features the Wilmington Celebration Choir. The song is currently impacting Southern Gospel radio. The song was #1 DJ Pick Hit for the upcoming August 2017 issue of the Singing News Top 80 Chart as well as this week's Greatest Gainer on the Absolutely Gospel Top 40 Weekly Chart, jumping from #35 to #21 in only it's second week.

Karen Peck gives her thoughts on the new project, "I am extremely grateful to the Lord for the opportunity to sing. We worked very hard on this album. We put a lot of time and prayer in choosing the songs that fit where we are in this new season, which is a season of hope and victory. We feel that Hope For All Nations is very timely especially with the way things are happening in this Nation and the world. Jesus is our only hope. Producer Wayne Haun and our Daywind family were with us every step of the planning process and we are incredibly blessed to be a part of their team. We have many special moments on the album that includes a song with our Southern Gospel artist friends (I'm Gonna Love My Neighbor). Also Joey Gore and The Wilmington Celebration Choir sang three songs with us including the title cut Hope For All Nations. Every song has a powerful message and we pray that Hope For All Nations with encourage everyone to keep pressing on for the Lord."

"I am excited about our new CD Hope for All Nations. We pray the songs will be inspiring, uplifting and let everyone know that Jesus is our Hope", Susan Peck Jackson commented.

Group member Ricky Braddy stated, "I am driving back from North Carolina today listening to the new CD and realizing the impact that these songs are going to have on those that listen to them will be incredible. I truly believe that this album is one of the most important and meaningful that I have ever been a part of."

Daywind President Ed Leonard said "Karen Peck and New River has taken their music to a new level with Hope For All Nations. Each song was carefully written to speak to people where they are today and to let them know that God is there for them always. This is the foundation of hope. It is an album about unity, encouragement and peace, a gift to people thirsting for this. Don't just get one for yourself. Give one to a friend who needs encouragement."

"Working with New River is always a treat for me. It's like a family reunion. But they also come to work. Their commitment to excellence is constant and their passion for the message is unparalleled", says Producer Wayne Haun.

Hope For All Nations is the follow-up to the Grammy-nominated and Dove Award-winning Pray Now which produced four #1 hits including "Pray Now," "I Am Blessed," "Calling," and "I Choose Christ."

To purchase Hope For All Nations click any of these links or go to : https://www.karenpeckandnewriver.com/product/hope-for-all-nations/

iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon , Daywind

To connect with Karen Peck and New River just follow them on social media.

FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube

Tags : karen peck Karen Peck and New River Daywind Records hope for all nations karen peck and new river hope for all nations album review
By Lily Lee | Published on 2017/06/23 | Source

Lately there have been many fresh faces that caught my attention while I watch K-dramas. As if to laugh at my current (overflowing) collection of my favorite actors, Korean showbiz keeps on finding great, handsome actors and pushing them my way. Well, what can I do? I'll always have enough room in my heart and my phone gallery storage for these good looking actors. ;)

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Below 6 have been especially fascinating to me since I share the same birth year with them (You know, typical fan girl trying to find as many common points as I can with the stars. Even if they are trivial matters lol). Also, just in case these guys are too fresh in your eyes and you don't recognize them, I included some keywords you might remember them by!

An Woo-yeon

|"Five Children" | Glasses | Hip Teacher |"Circle" |"Age of Youth2" | Do Bong-soon | 5:5 Hair-do | Seoul Institute of the Arts |

He has a keen eye for choosing the right role and right shows that will hit big. OR, maybe it is because of him, the show gets an extra boost in popularity! He's been keeping himself busy with tons of work and building his career.

Dong Ha

| Psychopath |"Beautiful Mind" | Wannabe Villain | "Chief Kim" | Swahili | "Suspicious Partner" | Fennec fox | Monolid

Many people have mentioned that Dong Ha reminds them of actor Park Hae-il's younger years. His acting is already being loved by many and especially from older generation for some reason!

Yang Se-jong

| "Duel" | Onew look-alike | "Saimdang: Light's Diary" | "Dr. Romantic" | Go Kyung-pyo look-alike | Korea National University of Arts

Yang Se-jong possesses all, from the outstanding beauty to superb acting skill! There's no doubt that he put his name on the list of new rising stars.

Go On

| "Kill Me, Heal Me" | Bad guy | "Andante" | Full lips | Lee Min-ho look-alike | "Solomon's Perjury" | Model proportion |

He has been putting a lot of work in being a villain, and we are now ready to see him in a sweet romance!

Woo Do-hwan

| Sharp eyes | Sexy | "The Man In My House" | Gangster role expert | "Master" | "Save Me" | Sexy muscle |

His cold face combined with the sharp gaze is everything. It doesn't matter if you are a girl or a guy, because Woo Do-hwan is everyone's type.

Jang Dong-yoon

| "School 2017" | "Solomon's Perjury" | Lee Je-hoon look-alike | Robber | News Interview | Hanyang University |

He got famous for his appearance in the news after he caught a robber. When his interview was aired, everyone was freaking out about what a good looking guy this brave man was and now that he debuted as an actor, he is ready to take all the screens!

By. Lily Lee
Published on 2017/06/24 | Source

Added episode 8 captures for the Korean drama "Queen for 7 Days" (2017)

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Directed by Lee Jung-seob

Written by Choi Jin-yeong

Network : KBS

With Park Min-young, Yeon Woo-jin, Lee Dong-gun, Jang Hyun-sung, Kang Shin-il, Son Eun-seo,...

20 episodes - Wed, Thu 22:00

Synopsis

A period drama about Queen Dangyeong who was on the throne for 7 days before she was disposed.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2017/05/31

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A Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the OSCE has witnessed explosions and small-arms fire in the vicinity of the town of Zolote, Luhansk region, near the disengagement line.

"On June 23, an SMM patrol comprising two armored vehicles and six members was stationary in a residential area in government-controlled Zolote-4, approximately 300m north of the Zolote disengagement area (60km north-west of Luhansk). All patrol members were outside the vehicles. At 10:38, in less than a minute, the patrol heard high-intensity outgoing small-arms fire (approximately 50 to 100 shots), two explosions assessed as outgoing mortar (82mm) fire, and three outgoing shots of automatic grenade launcher (AGS-type), all approximately 100m south-east," the OSCE SMM said in a report posted on its website.

In a few minutes, the SMM heard three to four bursts of heavy-machine-gun fire, followed by uncountable small-arms shots 150-200m south-east. "At least one shot, assessed as fired from south-east, made a distinct whistle sound while flying overhead, so low that SMM patrol members bent down.

The SMM patrol members then headed to their vehicles and left the area, driving west towards a government checkpoint 300m north of the Zolote disengagement area. "Along the road, the SMM noted the Ukrainian Armed Forces pointing their weapons south, towards the Zolote disengagement area, and two Ukrainian Armed Forces vehicles (green sport utility vehicles) driving at a high speed east towards Zolote-4," the mission said.

Soon, the SMM patrol reached the top of a hill 1km north of the checkpoint, from where it saw white smoke rising 3km south-east assessed to be inside the Zolote disengagement area.

The patrol returned safely to its base in Severodonetsk. The SMM informed the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) about the incident.
Published on 2017/06/24 | Source

Added episodes 27 and 28 captures for the Korean drama "Suspicious Partner" (2017)

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Directed by Park Seon-ho-I

Written by Kwon Ki-yeong

Network : SBS

With Ji Chang-wook, Nam Ji-hyun, Choi Tae-joon, Kwon Nara, Lee Deok-hwa, Nam Gi-ae,...

Formerly known as "Watch out for this Woman" (  , i yeo-ja-leul jo-sim-ha-se-yo)

40 episodes - Wed, Thu 22:00

Synopsis

"Suspicious Partner" will be a romantic comedy in a judicial setting with a killer thrown into the mix. A Taekwondo practitioner turned judicial trainee turned murder suspect.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2017/05/10

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By Lily Lee | Published on 2017/06/23

What will you do if actor Yeo Jin-goo or actor Lee Jung-jae is sitting right next to you in the movie theater as you look to the side?

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The fan service provided by these two handsome actors have created such jealousy among ladies' community as everyone regretted not attending the premier of the movie, "Warriors of the Dawn". Ending of last month, to celebrate the airing of the movie, the two main actors have put together such a cute surprise for the fans!

As the premier event was about to open, actor Yeo Jin-goo and Lee Jung-jae shared laughter and prepared for the event in the waiting room.

The premier event was full of Q&A session, questions regarding the movie, regarding the actor, and sometimes even silly requests and jokes.

To the fans gathered in the movie theater, actor Lee Jung-jae shared his feelings.

"Thank you so much for so kindly gathering here. I am grateful for everyone who's in this theater, and those who weren't able to make it but still participated in the premiere screening via SNS Live and in the other theaters".

Yeo Jin-goo continued with his remark,

"I don't think I can sleep tonight! This is my first time having a fan meeting at the theater before the movie is officially released, and it's making me so nervous! I'm really grateful for your time and support".

The fans were in heaven as the two actors interacted with them, and out of all the fans, two particular fans were especially lucky to receive the surprise gift!

As the randomly picked fan exchanged the seat with Yeo Jin-goo, the two fans got to experience Yeo Jin-goo and Lee Jung-jae right by their sides!

At the end, the two main actors and the director took a group selfie with everyone and ended the event in a cute note.

The movie "Warriors of the Dawn" was released this month and it's a movie worth your time, so check it out! (:

By. Lily Lee
These are worrisome times as we contemplate the disconnect between the urgency of dealing with climate change and the Trump administrations attempts to roll back Obama-era efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions may have been dashed by the Trump administrations reversing course on the Paris accord. Nevertheless, across America the fight goes on at regional and corporate levels.

This came to a head with the recently announced decision to pull out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Understandably, people across the world are asking whether these reversals will sink the Paris accord as a result of the United States essentially reversing course on addressing climate change.

We think the picture is mixed. Many of the Trump threats will be rendered ineffective or at least very difficult to achieve, blocked by a combination of the checks and balances built into the U.S. system of government and by momentum at the state, local government and private sector levels.

President Donald Trumps rejection of the Paris agreement and his explanation  at odds with both the economic or international political reality  were deeply disturbing in their ignorance.

But we see positive trends and unexpected bright spots.

Renewables continue to drop in cost, and are now at a tipping point below the equivalent energy costs of coal and oil. Deeply Republican Georgia, for example, boasts that it is now in the top tier of U.S. states in new solar installations, attracting more than $300 million of new private investment to date. States and major cities believe lowering carbon is both good policy and sound economics, and are grappling intelligently with the consequences of a changing climate. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto says his city stands with the world and will follow the Paris agreement. California Governor Brown will represent subnational U.S. jurisdictions that remain committed to climate action at the 2017 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Louisiana has developed a scientifically rigorous coastal adaptation plan.

But this is nothing new.

State level commitment to work around intractable administrations has a long history. In 2004, Californias Air Resources Board adopted the first greenhouse gas rule in the United States. In 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a plan to shrink the citys carbon footprint 30 percent by 2030.

Former President Barak Obama had to work around an obstinate Republican-controlled Congress to find non-legislative tools for climate action. The result was a significant series of rulemakings, executive orders and policies intended to wring as much greenhouse gas out of the economy as could be done without Congressional support  many of the same actions that Trump seeks to overturn.

It is these actions that are now at risk. But it should be noted that in the U.S. system of government, rules that have survived notice, comment, and legal review require a considerable amount of effort and time to undo; success is not guaranteed.

This is not to minimize the damage of attempts to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency and other parts of the federal government working on energy efficiency  and the very negative signals to the rest of the world. By diverting political energy into rolling-back environmental protection, this administration is delaying work on new threats, leading to further environmental degradation and diminished climate protection.

One big game changer has been the economical extraction of natural gas from fracking, thanks to U.S. government support starting in the late 1970s. With cheaper gas driving out coal and the coincidental growing economies of solar, wind and other renewables, the United States has been able to decouple GDP growth from emissions.

To be sure, Trumps policies will result in damage and lost opportunities. The implementation of greenhouse gas reductions in developing countries will be slowed if the United States drops further funding for the Green Climate Fund; the Obama Administration had pledged $3 billion and paid-in $1 billion.

What is clear is that a variety of interests and sometimes strange bedfellows drive U.S. efforts toward improved energy efficiency and that progress is not entirely dependent on any particular president or administration in the complex fabric that makes up the United States. The progress will be slowed but it wont be stopped.

Ruth Greenspan Bell is Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and associated with Columbia Universitys Center for Decision Sciences and the Environmental Law Institute. Her longstanding focus is on the governance issues inherent in managing greenhouse gas emissions, domestically and internationally. D. James Baker is currently a consultant for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization for the Global Forest Observations Initiative. He is a former Senior Strategic Advisor and Director of the Global Forest and Land-Use Program at the Clinton Foundation. From 1993 to 2001 he was the longest serving Administrator of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He was a scientific advisor to former Vice President Al Gore on the Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth.
Leader of Samopomich faction in Ukrainian parliament Oleh Bereziuk has said that he and a fellow member of his faction Taras Pastukh are stopping their hunger strike and are going to Lviv, where the Viche (people's assembly) will take place tomorrow.

"Today, Taras [Pastukh] and I are finishing this difficult path, we are starting the path from power to our homes," Bereziuk told reporters in Kyiv on Saturday.

According to him, now they are more needed in Lviv, where the Viche will be held on Sunday.

"I call on Lviv residents not to stay at home, to go out on the streets, go to the viche to express their protest, and we must protect the place that is saving our home country of Ukraine, where we all want to live," Bereziuk said.

Regarding his participation in tomorrow's meeting, the faction leader noted that this will depend on the decision of Lviv doctors, who will examine him.

According to Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy, the viche will start at 2 pm on Sunday at city's central Market Square.

As reported, earlier this week Bereziuk, Pastukh and Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Oksana Syroyid declared a hunger strike in protest against the government's inactivity in removing household waste from Lviv. In the morning on Saturday, Syroyid was hospitalized.
A pigeon racing enthusiast allegedly shot dead by a man in drag drove a friend's car to the scene because his pal was banned from driving, a jury has heard.

Keith Walker took his friend Jason O'Connor's pigeons to Blanchardstown Racing Pigeon Club in Clonsilla because the birds were taking part in a race the next day.

Mr Walker was hit by 18 bullets in the club's car park and would have suffered a "rapid death" after he was hit by two bullets to the head, a pathologist said.

Christopher McDonald (34) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Walker outside the club on June 12, 2015.

Disguised

It is the State's case that Mr McDonald, from the East Wall area of Dublin 1, disguised himself as a woman and fatally shot Mr Walker with a submachine gun.

Mr O'Connor's statement to gardai was read into evidence by prosecution lawyer Denis Vaughan Buckley.

He said he had known Mr Walker for two years. They became friends after he loaned Mr Walker a female pigeon, or hen, and he had successfully bred off that bird.

Mr O'Connor said there was a pigeon race on the weekend in question, and Mr Walker had come over to help him with his birds.

The witness told gardai that Mr Walker had helped to load the birds into Mr O'Connor's partner's car.

Mr Walker then drove the car, a black Toyota Avensis, over to the pigeon club.

Mr O'Connor said he couldn't drive because he was the subject of a 10-year ban at the time.

He didn't go to the pigeon club with Mr Walker because he was "b*****ks tired".

He said he had got no sleep the previous night because he had been "fighting with my 'mott'", who was on holiday in Spain.

Mr O'Connor said he rang Mr Walker and then sent him a text message to tell him which birds to enter into the competition.

However, there was no response from him and, when he heard an ambulance, he started to get worried.

He rang another friend, who told him Mr Walker was dead.

Mr O'Connor described Mr Walker as "a decent fella", saying his only interest was in his pigeons.

He told gardai he was "still in shock" and "totally devastated".

State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy said the cause of Mr Walker's death was multiple gunshot wounds to his head and upper body.

Prof Cassidy said Mr Walker was struck by 18 bullets, mostly on the left side of his body.

She said two of the bullets struck the left side of his head, around the left ear, penetrated the brain and exited through the forehead. The head wounds would have resulted in his "rapid death", the jury heard.

Prof Cassidy also said the bullet wounds were consistent with a "rapid burst of gunfire".

Detective Garda Jean McDonnell said she and Garda David Howard were the first on the scene, at 6.07pm. It was "chaotic" and there was "in excess of 50 people" there.

Magazine

She was aware that people wanted to move their cars, because they had pigeons in them, but she was not aware of any cars being moved.

Under cross-examination, she said she was aware someone had gone into the pigeon club to feed and water the birds.

In his evidence, Detective Garda David O'Leary, from the Ballistics Section, said he removed a submachine gun that had six live rounds in the magazine from a laneway off Sheepmor Crescent four days after the shooting.

Gda O'Leary said he compared the cartridge casings found at the pigeon club with cartridges he test fired from the gun found at Sheepmor Crescent and it was his opinion they were "all discharged from the same firearm".

The trial continues.
Head of the Subcommittee for the Security of State Information Systems of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense Iryna Friz (the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction) supports the initiative to deepen the interaction of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with the Romanian counterparts and intends to raise this issue during the autumn session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

"With the development of military infrastructure in the region [in the south of Ukraine] and the enlargement of the armed forces grouping there, we will develop and deepen cooperation with Romania as a member of the North Atlantic Alliance to achieve greater effectiveness in carrying out security tasks in the Black Sea Region. As chairman of the permanent Ukrainian delegation to the NATO PA, I fully support such an initiative and in the fall of this year the issues of deepening regional cooperation will be raised at the next session of the NATO PA in Bucharest," she wrote on her Facebook page on Friday, commenting on the decision of the Defense Ministry's leadership to strengthen the army group in Odesa region.

She also noted the importance of such a decision at this stage. "Military activity on the territory of the unrecognized Transdniestria, the nature of the military exercises of an operational group of Russian troops, as well as the statements of the Transdniestrian puppet leadership regarding the probability of applying to the Russian Federation for help through establishing transparent control over the movement of goods at the checkpoints located in the Transdniestrian sections of the Ukrainian-Moldovan border mean that the strengthening of Ukrainian armed forces' presense in the region is a necessity," the lawmaker said.

As reported, the Ukrainian leadership is planning to increase the Ukrainian Armed Forces' grouping with simultaneous creation of necessary technical and logistical facilities in Odesa region.

"The previous military and political leadership made decisions as a result of which there are almost no military units in this region. Our plans include strengthening the grouping, creating the infrastructure and necessary technical and logistical facilities. We already have a military unit in Bolhrad presently, military units were established in Sarat, and a commandant's office will be deployed to Artsyz," , Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said during a working visit to the Odesa garrison on Friday.
The trial of a 33-year-old man accused of murder with a shotgun has heard that he tried to urinate on his hands before gardai tested them for firearms residue.

Gda Aaron Hoey was giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court in the trial of Sean Ducque, who is charged with murdering Kieran Farrelly (33) in Dublin.

The father-of-one, of no fixed abode, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Farrelly on October 26, 2014, at Killarney Court, Killarney Street.

However, he has admitted through his barrister that he "fired two shots from a shotgun, later found on Mabbot Lane, which killed Kieran Farrelly".

Gda Hoey told Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, that authorisation was given to take forensic samples from the accused during his detention the following day.

"I believe there were bags placed on his hands," he said, adding that this was to preserve any firearms residue, which can be removed by friction, including hand washing.

"I was informed that Sean Ducque had tried to urinate on his hands, remove the bags and remove the residue from his hands," he said.

Spat

He said he decided that the quicker the samples could be taken, the better.

"Mr Ducque was very unco-operative at the time. Four members had to restrain him while I carried it out," Gda Hoey said.

"He kicked, spat, physically broke a table in the interview room."

However, the officer managed to obtain the samples.

He agreed with Hugh O'Keeffe, defending, that this was during a period of time when his client had been deemed medically unfit for interview.

He also agreed that the accused was co-operative when he took other samples from him a number of hours later.

Forensic scientist Dr John O'Shaughnessy examined the jacket Mr Ducque was wearing when arrested that morning.

"I found firearms residue," he said.

He added that it was similar to the residue from the discharged shotgun cartridge found at the scene.

"The jacket provides strong support for the view that Sean Ducque discharged the shotgun in this instance," he said.

The prosecution has now closed its case and the trial will continue on Monday before Mr Justice Paul Butler and a jury of six men and six women.
A business and tourism student told gardai to "f**k off" and then said his name was John Smith when they asked him who he was.

Sieusiso Sijaji (21) was being a bit smart and foolish towards gardai and he "never thought it would all come to this", a court heard.

Judge Conal Gibbons ordered Sijaji to donate 300 to Temple Street Children's Hospital.

If the donation was made, said the judge, he would apply the Probation Act and leave Sijaji without a conviction.

The defendant, of Ballisk Court, Donabate, admitted threatening and abusive behaviour and giving a false name to gardai when he appeared before Swords District.

The incident took place at Balheary Road, Swords, shortly after 9am last April 6.

Gda Tal Elliott said he was on patrol in a car when a young man lunged out on to the road and began shouting.

Apologised

Gda Elliott said Sijaji shouted "f**king gardai" and when they called him back to speak to him he told them his name was John Smith, which the officer believed to be false.

Gardai subsequently discovered his real identity.

Gda Elliott said Sijaji was very aggressive and abusive towards officers and told him to "f**k off".

The court heard that Gda Elliott had since met Sijaji, who had apologised to him for his behaviour.

The defendant had never been in trouble before.

Defence lawyer Patrick Jackson said Sijaji reacted badly when gardai spoke to him.

Mr Jackson said Sijaji was born in South Africa but came to Ireland with his mother when he was five-years-old.

He said the defendant's mother knew about his court appearance and was "very angry and very embarrassed".

Mr Jackson said Sijaji's behaviour was foolish and he never thought he would end up in court over it.

He added that the defendant has been studying business and tourism in college.

Mr Jackson asked the judge to leave Sijaji without a con- viction as he was a young man with a bright future ahead of him.
The High Court has ordered that a Dublin property described as a potential fire safety risk is to be vacated by July 9.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan made the orders in relation to 24 Mountjoy Square, which has been subject of a fire safety notice since August of last year.

The order was made after he heard objections from a Polish family of 12, who wanted to remain and did not want to end up in B&B accommodation.

The judge said that, while he sympathised with the family, who were "innocent parties", the court "could not sit idly by" in regards to a fire safety issue.

The judge said the family, and up to a dozen students who had been living in a windowless basement, had to vacate the premises.

Last March, Anne O'Dwyer was appointed receiver over the property, which is owned by Christopher Singh, of Lisnacree, Castleknock Road, Castleknock, and is used by his company, TWI Textile Machinery and Fabric.

She brought proceedings aimed at securing vacant possession of the property, on grounds including that the fire safety notice had not been complied with and the property poses a fire safety risk.

Humanitarian

The matter had been before the court on a number of occasions.

Yesterday, Nevan Powell said the receiver was prepared on a humanitarian basis to make money available to aid the family in securing alternative accommodation.

Karen Denning, for the city council, said that, following a recent inspection by a fire safety officer, her client's position remains that the building is not suitable for use as accommodation.

Counsel also confirmed the family living at the premises were not tenants of the council, but were on its housing list.

Gerard Murphy, representing the Piela family who lived in an apartment on the third floor, said the family had been living there for a number of years.

Mr Murphy said the family was concerned about the disruption any move would have on them, especially as they have two children in local schools and are settled in the area. Vincent Martin, for Mr Singh, said substantial works had been carried out on the property by a fire safety expert hired by his client.

The judge said that, in light of the fire safety notice remaining in place, the building had to be vacated and could not be used as accommodation.

He was placing a stay on the order requiring the residents to vacate the property until July 9.

The businesses could continue to operate from the building until the matter returns before the court, he added.
BleeperBike held a launch but has not started operating, despite the appearance of a bike in Dublin 8

Rival firms in the race to win the Dublin bike-share market are locked in a war of words.

BleeperBike was accused of being "reckless" by competitor Gobee.Bike after the city council warned it was illegal to roll out its scheme as planned.

BleeperBike boss Hugh Cooney - whose company plans to operate via mobile apps showing bike locations - is due to see council chiefs on Monday after the roll-out was halted last week and a planned meeting put back.

Hong Kong rival Gobee.Bike has tried to muscle in, and has hit out at its rival's tactics in a letter seen by the Herald.

Competition from other bike rental companies is a major reason for Mr Cooney's attempt to launch his own scheme as soon as possible.

He told the Herald that he wanted to ensure that his company was at the forefront because those who were first would claim the trust of the market.

However, last week's anticipated launch was barred by Dublin City Council because the necessary new bylaws had not been fully prepared.

Remove

In a number of statements, the council threatened to remove any BleeperBikes from the streets if they were there without permission.

Photos obtained by the Herald show a BleeperBike parked on Thomas Street, Dublin 8.

However, a spokeswoman for the company has insisted that Mr Cooney personally ensured all bikes had now been removed from the streets until further notice.

The head of European Operations at GoBee.Bike, Malone Gampel, has written to the council, saying: "We are fully aware of the recent events that occurred with BleeperBike, who attempted to recklessly launch its service in your city.

"We would be honoured to introduce ourselves to your department in the best possible way and discuss how we can fully cooperate together, as we are doing with local government bodies in Hong Kong."

BleeperBike was contacted about the comments in the letter.

However, the company had not responded at the time of going to press.

Mr Gampel emphasised that his company worked closely with the government in the autonomous Chinese territory.

"GoBee.Bike was launched two months ago in Hong Kong and has proven to be successful in the management of its operation," he said.

"This success is the result of one, the full co-operation and regular contact with Hong Kong government representatives and two, the creation of a community of bike users that helps us improve our operations day after day."

The bylaws, which have so far put a brake on the bike rental schemes, are due to be considered at the next city council transportation committee meeting.

The council expects to have a report in place with a draft of the bylaws ready to be circulated to councillors by Tuesday.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his partner Matt Barrett arriving to the Ireland funds gala dinner at Powerscourt Hotel

There was plenty of glamour and a dash of royalty as Prince Albert of Monaco attended the Ireland Funds Conference.

The prince spoke at the black tie event, which was held at the Powerscourt Hotel in Co Wicklow.

His mother, Hollywood actress Grace Kelly, was a big fan of Ireland and frequently visited our shores.

In fact, both she and her husband, Prince Rainier, were guests of honour at the Petits Lits Blancs charity ball at Powerscourt in 1965.

Prestigious

Last night, newly-elected Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Independent News & Media's editor-in-chief Stephen Rae were among the guests at the prestigious event.

Mr Varadkar arrived with his partner Dr Matt Barrett and made a speech in which he spoke about the importance of Ireland expanding its "diplomatic footprint".

"I would like Ireland to secure a seat on the UN Security Council so that we can play an even greater role in international affairs and in achieving 'a world of laws'," he said.

"In a time of global uncertainty, rising terrorism and threats to peace, it is right that we expand our diplomatic footprint overseas.

"It is precisely because our forces threaten no one that, in the words of President Kennedy, we can 'help create a world in which no nation is threatened'."

Guests enjoyed a drinks reception in the hotel before sitting down for a meal.

The Ireland Funds is a global philanthropic network established in 1976 to promote and support peace, culture, education and community development throughout the island of Ireland and Irish-related causes around the world.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) proposes creating "security zones" around a number of water supply infrastructure facilities in Donbas, but the lack of trust between the parties to the conflict in eastern Ukraine hampers the implementation of this initiative.

The only way to avoid an environmental disaster in Donbas is to ensure the safe functioning of pumping stations and the integrity of pipelines, Head of the ICRC Delegation in Ukraine Alain Aeschlimann said in an interview with the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia. Ukrain (ZN.UA) newspaper.

"After all, in Donetsk and Verkhniokalmiuska filtration stations there are huge reserves of chloride used for water purification. They are stored in special tanks. In case of direct hit during shelling, these tanks can explode, the chloride will get into the air and form a toxic cloud which may then fall in the form of precipitation anywhere, depending on the direction of the wind. And since all this occurs in a densely populated area, hundreds of thousands of people may suffer," Aeschlimann said.

According to him, the security zones are a tool that would prevent the possibility of such disasters.

"We propose to create security zones around Donetsk and Verkhniokalmiuska filtration stations, as well as the water pipeline from it. Then in the areas of Zolote-Pervomaisk, the 3rd pumping station and the water pipeline from it to Horlivka filtration stations Nos. 1 and 2, and in the vicinity of Petrovsky water intake," the head of the ICRC delegation said.

The representative of the ICRC noted that the concept of security zones involves the withdrawal of military personnel and equipment from certain sites and sites around them. At the same time, it is very important that the rules should be observed by both parties: this zone should not be targeted by shellings, should not be used to deploy military units or to plan military operations.

"The problem we are currently facing is that some of these facilities are located directly on the contact line. Each of the parties to the conflict attaches strategically importance to these sites, and there is no trust between the parties. The Ukrainian authorities representatives declare that the idea of creating security zones in principle is good, and we get the exact same answer from the other side. But when we start talking about a specific facility, each side does not believe that the other will follow the rules," Aeschlimann said.

According to him, it is necessary to use a mechanism that will convince both sides that the security zones will be respected.
Blountville, Tenn.  Tri-Cities Airport was alerted at about 5:16 p.m. that Delta Air Lines flight 1534 flying to Atlanta from Indianapolis reported smoke in the cockpit and would be diverting to TRI., Tri-Cities Regional Airport Director of Marketing Kristi Haulsee said in a written statement.

According to the statement the plane landed safely at TRI at around 5:36 p.m, the alert was lifted and the call for mutual aid was cancelled. No injuries were reported and passengers have deplaned.

______________________________________________

According to Tri-Cities Regional Airport Director of Marketing Kristi Haulsee the alert has been cancelled for the Delta Airlines flight that reported to have smoke in the cockpit.

"At this point I believe all the passengers are off the flight and the emergency has been cancelled," Haulsee said.

______________________________________________

The Fire Department is on stand by at the Tri-Cities Regional Airport for incoming Delta Airlines plane that reported smoke in cockpit.

Airport spokesperson Kristi Haulsee said the plane has landed safely but at this time there is no further information.
Melissa Lynn Hartwell, a 41-year-old physician assistant in Abingdon, Virginia, was convicted recently on 42 drug-related charges. Twenty of these charges involved letting other people write prescriptions for a drug for patients she never saw, much less examined or diagnosed.

But after only three years of probation and a $4,500 fine, she can go right back to writing prescriptions.

Though probation is a typical sentence for a first drug-related offense, this was not an isolated instance. Hartwells actions constitute a pattern of abuse, making probation and a fine seem like a paltry punishment.

Hartwells blatant disregard for the wellbeing of the people that came through MTRxs clinic doors  or, in some cases, didnt come in at all  ignores the areas prevalent drug problem and reveals an unacceptable amount of risk-taking.

The drug in question is phentermine, a prescription weight loss drug pharmacologically similar to amphetamine. Though phentermine operates at a lower magnitude than amphetamine, its similarities pose a threat to a community already struggling with drug usage.

While its schedule IV classification (which also includes Valium and Xanax) indicates a relatively negligible risk of addiction, phentermine, like any drug, is not risk-free. Both phentermine and amphetamine stimulate the central nervous system, elevate blood pressure and heart rate and suppress the appetite. While stimulants like these increase alertness, energy and attention, they also strain the central nervous, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal systems.

Hartwells insensitivity to this shows a disconnect with the population shes supposed to help. The side effects of phentermine might have exacerbated the effects of present opiate use, or perhaps phentermines chemical structure could have triggered some unfavorable response in someone predisposed from a prior drug history. Hartwell made no attempt to consider these or other, more grave consequences.

Moreover, there are reasons why certain drugs are controlled  why you cant simply walk into the corner drugstore and buy them off the shelf. Under the law, a medical professional must see a patient to evaluate the overall health and medical history before pen ever gets put to prescription pad. Without this process, a patient may be at risk of experiencing adverse effects or worse, even succumbing to addiction.

How could Hartwell have judged whether phentermine was right for a patient without having seen or spoken with him or her? Hartwell  and the unlicensed people who wrote the prescriptions  rolled the dice in assuming none of the risk factors would be a problem. Hartwell took advantage of this prescribing ease and, at the same time, demonstrated a lax approach to her profession and a low bar for patient safety that exemplifies the kind of behavior we shouldnt tolerate in our community.

Its this sort of irresponsibility that has, in part, contributed to our opioid epidemic. The over-prescription of opiates for pain involved a recklessness on the prescribers behalf that too closely resembles Hartwells casual and unfortunate practices. We dont need another medical professional thats part of the problem  or, because phentermine isnt an opiate, even creating a new one.

The U.S. District Attorneys Office issued a press release after Hartwell was found guilty in February. It included that Hartwell faced a statutory maximum sentence, per count, of imprisonment for a term of five years and a fine of $250,000. Five years per count  42 total counts  equals a maximum prison sentence of 210 years.

That may be too harsh, but why then did the court decide on such a lenient sentence? Her probation will only prevent her from being irresponsible for three years, That message implies an embarrassing quality of medical care we seem willing to accept.

Who can say that she wont go right back to abusing her power once her probation is over?
Nearly 80 PA people have been charged for Jan. 6 riot. Three are dead.

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Another farmer has allegedly committed suicide in Madhya Pradeshs Chattarpur district, taking the total number of farmer suicides to 22 in the state since the June 6 violent protests in Mandasur.

Raghuvir Yadav (28), Pali village in the arid Bundelkhand region, consumed sulphas tablets in his field on Thursday. He was rushed to Chhatarpur district hospital, from where he was referred to the hospital in Gwalior, but succumbed on the way.

His father, Deshpat Yadav said he had over Rs 10 lakh loan on him but authorities claimed that he committed suicide due to a dispute in the family.

Raghuvir was a contract farmer and had been suffering losses in farming for many years due to which he kept on taking loans, local sources said.

Sub-divisional officer of police, BIjawar, S C Dhohre said Raghuvir did not commit suicide because of his debts, but due to a dispute in the family.

He said a day earlier, his father Deshpat had filed a complaint that his sons Raghuvir and Munshi Yadav were fighting with him over property, and had threatened to throw him out of the house. Police has started investigating the matter, he said.

The spate of farmer suicides continues in the state since the violent protests erupted in Mandsaur. So far, 22 farmers have ended their lives in the state since June 6 when five farmers died in police firing during demonstrations to demand loan waiver and better prices for their produce.
The Election Commission banned on Saturday senior Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra from contesting elections for three years for allegedly using paid news to fan his assembly election campaign in 2008.

As per law, Mishra stands disqualified from the date of issuance of order and debarred further for three years from contesting elections, an Election Commission official said.

The EC decision came on a complaint by Rajendra Bharti, who had fought the 2008 elections as a BSP candidate, but is now with the Congress.

Mishra is considered number two in the state government and the decision is being seen as a big blow to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who is battling a string of farmer suicides and crop protests.

Mishra said he would challenge the EC move in the high court. I have said that I have not given any money to the media and media has said it has not taken any money from me. But despite this, if EC has taken a decision based on possibilities and imagination, we will move the court on this. And we hope we will get justice, he said

Bharti had moved the EC saying that his opponent Mishra paid for coverage in the local media during assembly elections in 2008 from Datia. Bharti, a Congress leader, was the MLA from Datia in 1985 and 1998 but lost the election against the minister in 2008 and 2013.

Mishra had moved the state high court urging the court to quash the investigation against him by the EC by declaring the Section 10 of representation of people act outside the powers of ECI. But court rejected his plea.

Mishra , who is the public relations minister, is also the chief spokesperson of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. The Congress has demanded his resignation.

BJP state president Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan said it was an unfortunate development , terming the EC move dooshit (polluted). He too said the party will appeal before the high court.

(with agency inputs)

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Bhopal: In a bid to stop a tractor-trolley laden with illegal sand, a police sub-inspector was seriously injured in Morena district on Saturday.

Suresh Kushwaha , sub-inspector and in-charge of Mata Basaiya police station was returning from his duty at Shanichara Temple on Saturday afternoon when he saw a tractor-trolley laden with illegal sand. Kushwaha, who was alone, tried to stop the tractor-trolley but the driver didnt stop.

Some villagers saw Kushwaha and started pelting stones on him. Kushwaha was seriously injured. Later, a police force reached the spot and took Kushawaha to the district hospital where doctors referred him to Gwalior.

His condition is stated to be critical.

Morena, superintendent of police, Vineet Khanna told HT, Police have registered a case under section 307of IPC (attempt to murder) against seven unknown people. Police are trying to identify and nab the accused. Police are gathering details of the mined sand and the owner of the tractor-trolley.

Despite several efforts by government to stop illegal sand mining in Chambal river in Morena district , it continues to be rampant.

After chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhans announcement regarding banning mechanised sand mining from rivers in the state, attacks and threats on police officers and field staff continue. A few days ago, SDM Chhatarpur was threatened of dire consequences by sand mining mafi

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With a flourishing career in the West, an equally illustrious career in Bollywood, a Padmashree and a National Award in her kitty, there is no stopping Priyanka Chopra. The 34-year-old actor is currently shooting in New York for her second Hollywood film, A kid like Jake, that also stars Big Bang theory actor, Jim Parsons, and would go on to shoot the third season of her US TV series Quantico after that.

What keeps her going, we ask? Being an achiever. I dont want to ever not be an achiever. I have never had a plan. I have never had a trajectory of plans in my life and I dont sit and make flow charts about my career. I have never had set-targets. They say man proposes, God disposes, so I swear by that. Destiny has been so serendipitous to me. I dont want to mess up a good thing by making my own plans. I just make choices that I feel are right for me. Sometimes theyre right and sometimes, theyre wrong. I guess what works for me is that I am very driven by nature. If I am given a task, I like to ace it. Even if I have to make the bed, the corners will be perfect. I am that person, she says.

Happy birthday Ma. You are my absolute Rock.Thank u for teaching me your integrity nd values.owe u all that I am..love u mostest @chopramm5 pic.twitter.com/m3xFBkffN4  PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) June 16, 2017

While a lot of Bollywood actors chose films to make that big splash, she chose to make her debut in the West with an American television show. But, she says its not like she has done anything conventionally in India too.

I have just enjoyed being able to make my journey in my career. My career hasnt been a replica of someone elses. Every step I have tried to take has been different including the choices that I have made with my films. I have always been a little different.

Being one of the boys! It's very hard with this lot! @therock @zacefron @thejonbass @davidhasselhoff #baywatchinberlin A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on May 30, 2017 at 1:22pm PDT

The actor goes on to emphasise that she has been a pioneer in a manner, where choosing roles and characters is concerned.

I want to do things first. I dont like doing things that are done before. But its not like I am thinking that now all this has been ticked off my list. I instinctively react to content. If I like a character, I do it. Even if that means I have just eight scenes, like I did in Kaminey (2009). I dont need to be a title part or do lead roles. I feel that being a part of a great film is very important. I choose characters more than the medium, Priyanka explains.

A perfect New York afternoon with these lovely ladies @nicolekidman @katemara @kendalljenner #kerirussell A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on Jun 3, 2017 at 12:05pm PDT

What about working in television in India? Has she been offered interesting parts? Unfortunately, I have not been offered Indian TV. Only reality television and frankly, I dont enjoy that very much, the Bajirao Mastani actor says.

There are rumours that she has signed her next Bollywood film, a biopic on Indian American astronaut, Kalpana Chawla. She disagrees, I have met a lot of amazing filmmakers and I have read some incredible scripts. In fact, I have short-listed a few as well that I would like to be a part of. But I am yet to decide about my next project, the actor whose last project was Baywatch says.

This was so much fun @voguemagazine #73questions http://video.vogue.com/watch/73-questions-priyanka-chopra (Link in bio) A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on May 24, 2017 at 7:21am PDT

It also looks like an exciting year for her production house as she has a lot of plans in store. I have produced a web series and I will produce some more. But we have very exciting and small plans because we are still a small production house. We are making three childrens film this year and a SikKimese film and a Bengali film with a new film-maker, she concludes.

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The crime branch of Thane police, which is investigating an international ephedrine supply racket, has issued a notice of `declared proclaimed offender to former Bollywood actor Mamta Kulkarni and her partner and drug lord Vicky Goswami.

Mamta was last seen in the 2002 dud Kabhie Tum Kabhie Hum.

A team of crime branch officials went to Kulkarnis house at Sky Enclave in Versova, suburban Mumbai, and pasted a notice on the door as the actress whereabouts are not known. Similar notice was pasted at Goswamis residence in Ahmedabad, said assistant police commissioner Bharat Shelke, the chief investigating officer.

If both the accused fail to remain present before Thane police within the given period, we will start the process of seizing their properties with courts permission, Shelke said.

A special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court recently declared Kulkarni and Goswami as proclaimed offenders and ordered attachment of their properties. Crime branch of Thane police had raided Avon Lifesciences in Solapur in western Maharashtra last year and seized around 18.5 tonne of ephedrine worth Rs 2,000 crore.

According to the police, the ephedrine was being diverted to a Kenya-based drug cartel headed by Goswami where it was used to make the party-drug methamphetamine.

Police have arrested over a dozen people in the case so far. According to the police, Mamtas whereabouts are not known, whereas Goswami was taken into custody by the US law enforcement agencies some months ago.

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Ailing thespian Dilip Kumar says his health has been better during the holy month of Ramadan.

A post from the official Twitter handle of the 94-year-old actor read on Friday: Still get so many invitations to accept awards and honours. My health makes it difficult to travel and be there personally, but thank you.

Still get so many invitations to accept awards and honors. My health makes it difficult to travel and be there personally, but thank you!  Dilip Kumar (@TheDilipKumar) June 23, 2017

I've been away from this medium for sometime; my heart has been with all of you. Your greetings, dua's and wishes have touched me immensely  Dilip Kumar (@TheDilipKumar) June 23, 2017

Saira asked me to try this new shirt and pant. Comfortable. pic.twitter.com/hBlLVQm2Qa  Dilip Kumar (@TheDilipKumar) June 23, 2017

Allah's mercy has been upon us, my health has been much better this Ramazan. Could not fast due to regular medication and irregular sleep.  Dilip Kumar (@TheDilipKumar) June 23, 2017

And this was clicked in the afternoon after lunch. Green tea ka mazaa. pic.twitter.com/hIdhfWLbdt  Dilip Kumar (@TheDilipKumar) June 23, 2017

Allahs infinite mercy has been upon Saira (wife Saira Banu) and I. Your love and adulation for us can never be thanked enough. Allahs mercy has been upon us, my health has been much better this Ramazan. Could not fast due to regular medication and irregular sleep.

Dilip Kumar was born as Muhammad Yusuf Khan in Peshawar.

Just last week, there was news that his century-old ancestral house in Peshawar has collapsed. It was declared a national heritage in 2014 by the archaeology department in Pakistan.

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Reincarnation is an interesting concept. But the reincarnation of an entire brand is even more divisive. Especially when its still one of the most recognised names in the entire world. The reincarnated Nokia is back now, but will it succeed?

Nokia finally launched its smartphone portfolio in India and Ive spent the entire week being bombarded with questions, listening to peoples opinions, getting an earful from extremely confident tech pundits, reading in-depth analysis from tech experts. And that has made one thing very clear  there seems to be very little knowledge and information out there. This is my effort to set aside some of the horrible misinformation being doled out and make a few predictions of my own.

The Nokia 5 is a hidden gem with good specs and is aggressively priced

Is this the real Nokia thats come back?

Well, yes and no. This is HMD with a licence from Nokia. But what sets it apart is that almost everyone who works here is originally from Nokia. When you talk to anyone from within the company, you get that same old feeling. Real passion, almost ridiculous levels of energy and a determination to succeed that overpowers all else.

Was the 3310 feature phone a good way to start for Nokia?

Absolutely. It was perfection. The original 3310 was one of the most iconic phones ever, setting a record in sales by clocking in 126 million units sold and truly exemplified Nokia. The new 3310 is a play on nostalgia, legacy, brand loyalty and also fun. The fact that its sold out worldwide is a testament to that. Nokia is back.

The new Nokia 3310 is a play on nostalgia and legacy, besides being fun

Are the three new smartphones any good?

Yes. Its a good start. The Nokia 6 is great looking, crafted out of a single slab of aluminium, with excellent specs, Corning Gorilla Glass, fingerprint sensor, solidly built, great camera, aggressively-priced at about 14K and is available only on Amazon. The Nokia 5 is a hidden gem, once again nicely built, Gorilla Glass screen, fingerprint sensor, nicely specced out, nice optics and an aggressive price offline of about 12K. The Nokia 3 isnt upto the same standards though. Its got all the goodies, has the specs, all thats needed, but nothing special for the 9K price it demands.

But arent these just Android phones and arent there a thousand other Android phones?

There are. And this is the biggest question Nokia faces. How are they different? They base it on three pillars of differentiation. The pure Android experience where they have stock Android, no bloatware and each update immediately comes on your phone. The second is craftsmanship and design with all metal, good looks and solid build. The third is how these phones behave in real life, where they deliver on each promise by exceeding just specs and hardware.

The Nokia 3 will sell mainly to Nokia loyalists

But can they take on the aggressive competition?

The Nokia that went away and the Nokia thats come back, its returned to a dramatically different world. The market, the retailers, the customers, the features, the online sales model, the technology, how a phone is sold, how its bought  it doesnt get more different than this. Its all very well for Nokia to play on brand loyalty and nostalgia, but eventually its the products that have to stand on their own and also take the competition head-on.

So which phones compare?

The Nokia 6 is online only and thus competes against many excellent phones like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4. Bundled with some of the offers like  1,000 off for Amazon Prime members and free data from Vodafone, it easily stands out as a great buy. The Nokia 5 is an offline retail-shop-only model and will take on Moto G5 and the Samsung J7. The retail store business doesnt have too much in this price point once you use all the bundled offers. The Nokia 3 will sell mainly to Nokia loyalists and those who walk into a store and want a brand they identify with.

The Moto G5 will offer direct competition to the Nokia 5.

There it is. The first chapter of Nokias comeback. Im predicting a great start and huge sales, but thats just the beginning. How this story reads after that is anybodys guess. This is a reincarnation tale, it can be a horror story or have a very happy ending!

Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3

From HT Brunch, June 25, 2017

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The Deccan Queen, one of the oldest trains in India, defines Pune as a large town. Its quite correct. Because, even though Kayani Bakerys Shrewsbury biscuits and Maratha strongman Sharad Pawars home turf are the national bookmarks of this city, it has been the cornerstone of quite a few changes in time. What you signify as change globally, becomes an uprising in Pune!

Infosys was born here whilst Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murthy were still employed with Tata Motors (then Telco). Mercedes Benz landed here for its production set-up in India. The Southern Command of the Indian Army is headquartered here as well.

Then again, there is a series of blips. The East India Companys first ever takeover of an established Indian throne started here, with the defeat of Peshwas in 1818, much before they crushed the Indian Mutiny in 1857. And the Indian School of Business gave up its plans to set up here in favour of Hyderabad, because the sons of the soil wanted 20 per cent of the seats reserved for them.

Paradise found

And that brings us to what we call the ethos of the city. As we said, what is a simple vibe anywhere, for Pune is its ethos! In Europe its very easy to define a citizen of a metropolis i.e. Londoner, Roman, Berliner, Parisian etc. But in India, the suffix is the spirit. Delhiwala, Mumbaikar and Banglorean have their own essence of being idiosyncratic, quintessential and imperialistic, respectively. For Pune, it is Puneri. There are not many places to visit in Pune, but there are quite a few places where you can be yourself. Young Snapchatters would agree. Pune is never cold, its quite cool. Its never hot, its just very warm! So expect an angry uncle to order you into vacating his PG accommodation, only because you are a lady wearing micro shorts. He might also submit a written application to your place of study to that effect. However, it doesnt matter how many eyebrows would be strained reaching for the sky, and how many mouths are left gaping, you wont be teased. Leave alone molested! In fact, in the second case, somebody might form yet another committee to champion your rights to micro apparel freedom.

Till around 25 years ago, Pune was an odd-sized quadrilateral with four points  Deccan, City, Station and Camp. And all these still locations run demographically deep. The bourgeois, the proletariat, the workforce and the immigrants is what these areas were meant to be. Much has changed since then, as much as it hasnt. In fact, the first two have always been Pune, while the latter two truly, madly, deeply wish that they were still Poona. Over a sabudana khichri in Wadeshwar (served only on Thursdays and Saturdays) or a chutney sandwich in Marz-O-Rin, you might hear a lament that it is not the same Pune where everybody knew everybody (is that even possible?), even as the dishes are being Instagrammed.

In India, the suffix (of the city) is the spirit. Delhiwala, Mumbaikar and Banglorean have their own essence For Pune, it is Puneri.

Like any other small town in India (sorry, I meant, emerging metropolis), this city too has begun to grow ameobically. Pune now has its own satellite electronic city called Hinjewadi at its Mumbai end that bought into focus the Lohegaon airport, which is shared with the IAF. Then came the satellite industrial areas of Chakan and Shirwal, which are now pulling out Pune to the North and South in a gingerly manner. That does get in a huge share of outsiders to the city, and Pune finds its own joy in grumbling about it. And then, finally, loving it secretly. Because thats what brought in the fresh wave of the food culture, the fashion outlets and the fancy townships to the erstwhile retirement paradise.

Meet and eat

Just as Mumbai is the city that never sleeps, Pune is the city that ever chews. Once the bakery capital of India, in Pune there is light food, heavy food, cart food, mart food, plate food, late food, good food, mood food and everything else. And all of it is cheap and cheerful, that makes you happy for a hundred bucks, max. It cannot exactly be classified as the street food culture, but it is meet food culture, where people meet to eat and vice versa. Preferably, out in the open! Yes, the city comes with its fair share of premium diners that are inherent to the subculture and not a franchised extension. I cant resist, and so Darios, Le Plaisir, Syrakko, Malaka Spice and Shakahari@JW, would be my top five picks, in case you were to visit.

Since, like everything in Pune, I have to bring this piece to its logical conclusion, we shall just say that here is a city that celebrates the ordinary in the delight of its every day. And that comes with a rider that youve got to be real. You can be an outcaste for owning a fancy car, and reprimanded for a bratty child. Nerd is the sexy here, while chic is almost slutty. Friends are not always family. Success is not always great. And Mumbai is never the goal. And if ever you were to say that the city is slow or boring, you clearly have no taste for life. If you do not know the medical benefits and the social upsides of the afternoon siesta, public transport is what you deserve. Why do you think it does not exist in Pune?

So here I am at the end of my piece, and I havent referred to the Oxford of the East and Detroit of India (not for the crime, but for the cars) monikers. That glory we shall leave to Google and Ganpati.

From HT Brunch, June 25, 2017

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For the first time in many years, Infosys co-founders, including N.R. Narayana Murthy kept away from its Annual General Meeting as the 36th AGM for 2016-17 was held here on Saturday.

None of the founders or promoters was seen at the AGM, even a hour after it began at 3 p.m. We have no idea why they did not turn up, a company spokesman told IANS.

About 1,000 retail investors in individual capacity or with families, however, packed the air-conditioned auditorium of Christ College, about 20 km from the IT majors campus in the Electronics City, to attend the stormy meeting and participate in the proceedings, including voting on the four ordinary resolutions by show of hands.

Besides Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, S. Gopalakrishnan, S.D. Shibulal, K. Dinesh, N.S. Raghavan and Ashok Arora are the co-founders of Indias second-largest software export firm.

Though Murthy attended the last AGM with son Rohan Murthy, his conspicuous absence along with other co-founders surprised many investors.

It is surprising not to see Murthy at the AGM as he used to sit in the front row after demitting office for the second time in 2014. Former directors T.V Mohandas Pai and V. Balakrishnan, who were regular at the AGMs over the years, are also not to be seen, said old-time investor Ramana Reddy from the city.

Board Chairman S. Seshasayee, Co-Chairman Ravi Venkatesan, CEO and Managing Director Vishal Sikka, Chief Operating Officer U.B. Pravin Rao and Independent Directors Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, D.N. Prahlad, Roopa Kudva, Punit Kumar-Sinha and John W. Etchemendy presided over the meeting from the dais.

Independent Director, Jefferey S. Lehman from the US could not make it to the meeting due to unforseen circumstances, said the spokesman.

Aftr Seshasyaee delivered his speech as Chairman and briefed the shareholders about the proceedings of the meeting, Chief Financial Officer M.D Ranganath presented the companys financial performance for the fiscal under review.
To be honest my suspicions are easily aroused. I rarely take things at face value. In fact, I would add this is a trait common to most journalists. Whilst commenting on a statement we always ask I wonder why he made it?

So on Monday when the prime minister tweeted his birthday greetings to Rahul Gandhi adding I pray for his long and healthy life I instinctively sensed there was more to this than immediately meets the eye. The longer Rahul Gandhi lives the longer he will be the head of the Congress and, therefore, the longer Mr Modi will easily defeat the Opposition. In the circumstances, Im surprised the PM didnt wish him immortality!

Now, am I being mischievous? Of course I am. But the joy of tongue-in-cheek comments is not unknown to politicians and the best of them are usually masters of it. Mr Modi indubitably fits into that category.

This is clearly not the first time a politicians good wishes have had hidden double meanings. Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillards comments about Tony Abbott, then Leader of the Opposition, made in an interview to me in 2012, is a memorable example.

At the time her blistering parliamentary attack on Abbott for his alleged sexism and misogyny had gone viral. She literally savaged him and all he could do was helplessly sit and smile. I told her I couldnt take my eyes off the stunned and squirming Mr Abbott. Do you like the man? I asked.

Gillards response was immediate: Thats a very hard question. Day to day I dont spend much time thinking about the Leader of the Opposition. But I bear him no personal ill-will and I hope he is Leader of the Opposition for the rest of his life!

If ever there was a fork-tongued double entendre this was it. On the surface she wished him a long spell as leader of the Opposition but hidden within that was the sting in the tail that he should never be PM! The Australian media loved it.

However, wishing your opponent a long life can sometimes boomerang as Theresa May has just discovered. In the days before the June snap elections it was commonplace for Tories to wish Jeremy Corbyn a long stint as Leader of the Opposition because, they believed, the longer he led the Labour Party the longer the Conservatives would stay in office. Its even said some Tories actually joined the Labour party to vote for Corbyn and ensure his survival!

The June result turned that logic on its head, leaving Corbyn with the last laugh. His performance ensured he will continue as Leader of the Opposition whilst firmly uniting his party behind him. Now hes become the single biggest threat facing the Conservatives.

If earlier Corbyns alleged ineptness gave the Tories confidence, today his supposed popular appeal is the only reason the Conservatives have allowed May to continue. Hes become her lifeline!

So far theres no danger of Modis birthday greetings boomeranging in the way Conservative taunts of Corbyn have returned to haunt May. For that to happen, the country would have to take a shine to Rahul Gandhi. Frankly, I cant see that happening anytime soon. Nor can most Congressmen!

But then the joy of politics is you never know when things will go topsy-turvy and when they do it usually happens in a jiffy. Alas, thats the best hope for Mr Gandhi!

The views expressed are personal

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Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has asked the principal secretary (vigilance) to take necessary action as per rules in a plea seeking prosecution sanction against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in an alleged PWD scam.

The development comes in wake of an application filed at the L-Gs office on June 7 by Rahul Sharma, seeking prosecution sanction against Kejriwal and the executive engineer (PWD) under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the alleged PWD scam pertaining to three FIRs.

A representation dated June 7, 2017 from Rahul Sharma, (Founder), RACO, Ghonda, Delhi, has been sent for necessary action as per rules, the L-Gs special secretary R N Sharma said in a written communication to principal secretary (vigilance) Ashwani Kumar.

Last month, the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) had filed three separate FIRs on a complaint filed by Sharma, founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), alleging irregularities in the grant of contracts for roads and sewer lines in Delhi in 2015-16.

One of the FIRs was registered against the company of Kejriwals late brother-in-law Surender Kumar Bansal. The Delhi CM has not been named in any of the FIRs.

Being a serving chief minister, the prosecuting agencies need to get prior sanction of the Lieutenant Governor before it could formally begin a probe against Kejriwal, officials said.

Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashutosh condemned the direction, saying L-G was allegedly acting on the behest of the BJP. The AAP leader argued that no evidence has been provided by Sharma against the chief minister in his complaint.

Rahul Sharma files frivolous complaints against AAP on a regular basis. Now he has sought prosecution sanction against the chief minister though he has no connection with the case whatsoever, Ashutosh said.
More than a thousand buses have been seized by the Delhi government this month in what it claims to be the biggest crackdown on private buses plying illegally on city roads.

From just 212 buses in May, the state transport department has impounded 1,048 illegal buses in June alone. Junes crackdown has been the biggest so far. In April, 367 buses were seized, which is the second highest. Till now, we have impounded a total of 1,872 buses this year, a transport official said.

The action comes after Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, in a recent meeting, raised concerns over buses causing traffic bottlenecks around vital transport hubs.

Besides, the department is also looking forward to taking action against online bus booking operators, who issue tickets for such buses.

We are going to issue a notice to a few companies that are running this online bus-booking business. This year, 897 buses with UP registration, 642 with Rajasthans, 121 with that of Delhis and 212 of other states have been seized so far, the official added.

As per the law, buses that carry multiple passengers should have stage carriage permits. However, the impounded buses had contract carriage permits that allow drivers to run only chartered bus services. Some were even found to be running without any permit.

These buses used to pick passengers from places like Majnu Ka Tila, Mori Gate, Red Fort, Anand Vihar and Sarai Kale Khan. Passengers are not able to differentiate between a legal and an illegal bus, which often becomes a safety concern, especially for women, said KK Dahiya, special commissioner (transport).

Apart from being a security concern, these buses are a threat to environment as they run on diesel.

With the onset of the crackdown, enforcement officers claimed that the bus operators are now changing their modus operandi.

These drivers used to pick up passengers from near a petrol pump opposite Anand Vihar Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT). After the crackdown, they have shifted base to UP border. Similarly, instead of Majnu Ka Tila, they are now boarding passengers from other spots nearby, Dahiya said.

While the department has posted an enforcement inspector at each ISBT for challaning such buses, it is also going to write to the neighbouring states to cancel permits of the seized buses, in order to prevent commuters from taking such buses.
The first day of admissions at most Delhi University colleges, under the first cut-off list, was a slow affair with many colleges recording only a handful of admissions.

The process was also plagued with issues of payment, as the portal was not working earlier in the day. Some applicants, despite meeting the required cut-off, could not confirm their seats as they could not get the printout of the college form on time.

One such applicant was Bindu Patnana from Chhattisgarh, who waited the entire morning for her DU college form, but in vain. I will now have to extend my stay in Delhi for two more days to get admission on Tuesday, said Bindu, who wishes to pursue BA (Hon) History from Sri Venkateswara College.

According to Venkat Kumar, admission convener from the college, the applications were pending for approval as the online link through which the principal had to grant them were not working. There were problems in the portal till evening, due to which students had to face problems, said Kumar.

The college staff said it may be one reason why the number of admissions on the first day was not huge. Principal of a north campus college, who did not wish to be named, said, The university portal, through which the student is expected to pay the admission fees online, opened a little later in the day, by around 1.45 pm. This also slowed down the admission process a little.

Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College principal Gyantosh Jha said, During the day, there were problems with the portal, due to which fee payment was not happening. 

However, a DU offical said that the university opened the portal for fee payment after 4pm and that it was a planned decision. We had decided to open the portal after 4pm and informed the same to colleges as well, an official said.

Despite the lowered cut-offs, many colleges saw fewer students visiting on the first day of admissions to secure a seat. Miranda House admitted 86 students on the first day, with 15 of them opting for the BA Programme. BSc (Hon) in Botany had the fewest takers, with just one person getting admitted to the course.

At Shri Ram College of Commerce, around 100 out of the 624 seats were full by the end of the day. At Kirori Mal College, only about 147 admissions were done against the 1,350 seats.

The number of students seeking admission picks up on the third day of the admission, which is the last day to get admission under the first list. But it looks like we will announce a second cut-off for most courses, said Dinesh Khattar, acting principal of KMC.

Some DU colleges claimed that this was a normal phenomenon on the first day of admissions. Students usually indulge in admission tourism on the first days, where they go visit multiple campuses and window shop. They then start clamouring for seats on the last day, said the vice principal of a north campus college.

Students and officials were also plagued with concerns over not being able to access the college portal.

The students, who did make it to the colleges, expressed their surprise and joy at the reduced cut-offs at many of the DU colleges.The cut-offs in many colleges are lower than last year, which is a good thing. It gives many more students opportunities to pursue degrees at DU colleges, said Shambhavi Ojha, who is hoping for a seat in Political Science (Hon) at Daulat Ram College.

There were many who were also surprised at the dip. I was expecting it to increase this year. I had read that the number of students in India who had scored more than 95% (in the CBSE Class 12 exams) had increased. I thought this would also increase the cut-offs at DU, said Shanna Jain, who secured a seat at Kirori Mal College for English (Hon).
Two cases of minor patients being sexually abused by male nursing staff have been reported from Sucheta Kriplani Hospital located inside the Lady Hardinge Medical College campus in the last one month, raising serious questions over the security of patients in the government-run health hub.

In the first case, a 12-year-old girl, who was admitted for a scheduled surgery, was allegedly sedated and molested by a 28-year-old male nursing staff at the hospital. In the other case, a 10-year-old was dragged to a store room of the hospital and sexually abused.

In both incidents, cases were registered at Mandir Marg police station and two hospital staff members arrested.

In the first case, that was reported on May 31, a 12-year-old girl was admitted for ear surgery. The accused, Hari Ram, allegedly came to the ward and gave her an injection around 10pm. He told her that it was a prerequisite for the surgery. Four hours later when everyone was asleep, he entered the ward again around and molested the girl, a senior police officer said.

Police said the girl, who was in a semi-conscious state, could not react. But a woman, who was sleeping next to her, woke up.

The male nurse saw the woman and fled. The woman then raised an alarm. Later, she gave a statement saying she saw the man forcing himself on the girl who was not in her senses. The matter was then brought forth to the authorities and the girls parents approached us, following which a case was registered and the accused nabbed, a senior police officer said.

Jagdish Chandra, director, Lady Hardinge Medical College, confirmed the twin incidents in the hospital and said that female nurses have now been asked to keep a strict watch in the wards. Both these men were contractual employees. The security at the hospital has been tightened and we have asked the female nurses not to leave any male staff in the wards alone at night. They have been asked to be extra vigilant, he said.

In the second case, reported on June 22, a 10-year-old girl, who was sleeping next to her grandmother undergoing treatment in the orthopedics ward, was allegedly taken to a store room and sexually abused.

The male nurse in that case, who was later identified as Kartar Singh, allegedly approached the girl around 3am and asked her to accompany him. He allegedly lured her on the pretext of giving her goodies and molested her. When the child started crying, Singh allegedly tried to gag her and choke her.

The girl started crying out loud, seeing which the accused panicked and fled. The girl then raised an alarm but since everyone was asleep, no one heard her. The next morning when her father came to the hospital, she narrated the episode to him, following which he approached the head of the department at the hospital and even called the police, a police officer said.

Singh was arrested from the hospital, when he came for his shift that evening.

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Gear up to grab a seat at their dream college as Delhi University (DU) released its first cutoff list on Friday evening.

The admission process for the first cutoff list will be on from June 24 to June 28, following which the university will release its second list on July 1.

HT spoke to a few DU students who shared their experience of struggling to find the way to offices in colleges, losing their original certificates to hiring e-rickshaw drivers as guardians to get rooms in hostels.

Many students recounted the first day of admission to be full of struggle. The first day of admissions was such a blur. I kept getting lost in the college campus and had to try really hard to find my way back to the admin office each time, said Divya Ahuja from Shri Ram College of Commerce.

Akshay Mehta from Hans Raj College said that many out-station students, who did not go through the dates and guidelines, faced many issues. I am from Kolkata and I didnt know that the day the cutoff list is out, it is also the first day of admissions. So, one day Im sitting at home and the next, Im boarding a flight to Delhi because I am already a day late for admissions, he said.

On a lighter note, an outstation student further said, I have friends who have had to hire e-rickshaw drivers as local guardians to get admission into the hostel as that is a requirement.

The best four calculations can leave the best of applicants stumped, so you may want to pay close attention to the norms to avoid mistakes.

After confirming my admission in a college after the first cutoff by four teachers in the panel, getting my documents attested for BSc (H) Statistics, waiting for four hours and completing the whole procedure, the last teacher in the panel says Sorry, you are 0.25% short, said Anjali Sharma, a student of College of Vocational Studies.

Many students also reported losing original documents during the admission process.

Nikita Gupta from Lady Shri Ram Collegeg said, When the second list of cut offs was released, I had gone to a DU college to withdraw my admission so that I could migrate to LSR. It turned out that the college had lost my original documents and I had to search for them all by myself.

Unfortunately, Gupta is not alone; students like Vaishnavi Gosain from Atma Ram Sanatan Dharam College have also had similar experiences.

I cried for an hour in front of the administration staff of the college because after standing in a queue for three hours to get myself admitted, I found out that they had misplaced my original certificates. They found them later but till then I had made up my mind to not to take admission in this college, she said.

There were some who faced issues as they had uploaded incorrect documents, while others had to prove that they were aspirants and not parents to enter the college.

In my DU form I uploaded my original birth certificate as proof of birth and completed the process, only to realise a day before the deadline that it was the Class 10 marksheet which was required as date of birth proof. I had to redo the form all over again, he said.

Sanket Aggarwal from CVS was stopped at the gate just because of his appearance. I have a very tall and muscular build and I like to keep a well groomed beard. So, when I went to Maharaja Agrasen College, the guard stopped me and asked Aapka bacha kahan hai? Parents are not allowed inside. I was stunned and had to show him all my documents to prove that I was a student, said Aggarwal.

Documents needed for admissions Class 10 board examination certificate Class 10 marksheet Class 12 marksheet Class 12 provisional/original certificate Recent character certificate SC/ST/PwD/CW/KM Certificate (in the name of the applicant) issued by the competent authority, if applying for a seat in any of these categories OBC (non-creamy layer) certificate (in the name of the applicant) as in central list, if applying for a seat in the OBC category Transfer Certificate from school/college as well as migration certificate from Board/University are required from those students who have passed senior secondary exam from outside Delhi At least two passport size self-attested photographs Source: DU Bulletin of Information (2017-18) Admission to Undergraduate programmes (Merit based)
It was on Wednesday evening that Junaid and Hashim attained the title of a Hafiz after investing over three years to memorize the Quran by heart and got Rs 1500 as a reward from their mother.

It was their first Eid after becoming a Hafiz and they wanted to look their best. To celebrate and shop, they planned a visit to Delhis Jama Masjid and promised to return before sundown. One of the two could not.

Junaid was allegedly stabbed to death and four others were injured on board a Mathura-bound train when an argument over a seat turned into religious slurs and triggered a mob attack on family members returning home from Eid shopping.

The incident took place on Thursday evening between Okhla and Asoti in Haryana, a distance of about 60 km. The four injured told Hindustan Times at Khaddawli, a small village in Haryanas Faridabad district, the attackers repeatedly called them anti-nationals and beef eaters, threw their skull caps on the floor, caught their beards and taunted them with terms such as mulla.

Junaids brother, Hashim , and father, Jalaluddin, are in a state of shock. (Ravi Choudhary/HT PHOTO)

Junaid was so happy that he will be formally felicitated for their achievement on Eid. Since Ramzan started, he and Hashim had been reciting the Quran everyday at the mosque. They wanted to look good, so they specially went to purchase a new set of clothes to Jama Masjid. Their mother asked them to fetch the best sewaiyan and sweets to be served on the festival. He promised to reach home early, but what reached home was his dead body. How could those men be so cruel to have pierced my sons body like that, Jallaluddin, Junaids father, said.

He was a child. He was just 16. How could they hate us so much to have killed him so brutally? When I reached the spot, my son Hashim was sitting on the station with Junaids body soaked in blood in his lap, he added, even as he was being consoled intermittently by fellow villagers in Khadwali, Haryana.

Jallaluddin had reached Ballabgarh station to pick up his sons so that they could go to open the fast together, but when he reached the train had already left.

Family members lament Junaids death. (Ravi Choudhary/HT PHOTO)

Sakir (Junaids elder brother who boarded the train at Ballabgarh after being informed about the attack) called me saying that he was going to the station to pick up the boys. He asked me to come to the station as well. He never told me that there was a problem. When I reached the station, the train had already left. When I could not locate the boys I called Sakir, he also did not take the call. Junaid and Hashim too did not pick. I thought the boys must have left. What did I know that they were fighting for their life, he said.

Saira, Junaids mother, was oblivious to the news of her sons death. Till Friday morning she was not informed about it. When the women from the village started visiting her to console her, she wondered why they were there.

Women kept coming and asking me about Junaid. I wondered why they were referring to him in the past tense. No one ever told me that he was no more. How could they hide it from me, she said, fighting back her tears.

I got to know only when his body returned home this morning. When he did not reach home last night, I kept asking his father about his whereabouts but no one answered me, she said.

Saira said she will never be able to celebrate the festival of Eid. This time it was special. My sons became the Hafiz. The preservers. And a day later I lost him. How can this be justified. How am I to cope up with this loss?

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A prostitution racket, which was being run under the garb of a salon and spa in Delhis Rohini was busted on Thursday by the Delhi Police.

Two men, who ran the flesh trade and 10 female sex workers were arrested by a team from Rohini North police station after a raid conducted at Grace Unisex Thai Salon and Spa in Sector 7, Rohini.

The arrested operators of the racket were identified as Manjeet Singh and Sandeep. The 10 arrested sex workers were aged between 21 and 26 years. One of them was a trained beautician and her job was to trick customers, who visited the salon for hair cut or spa, into using their other services that included sexual pleasures, said police.

According to Rishipal, deputy commissioner of police (Rohini), the trade was being run from a commercial space for which the racketeers paid Rs 44,000 a month, almost double the standard rent amount in the area.

The DCP said Rohini North police received a tip-off about flesh trade being run under the garb of the salon. We sent our constable along with the informer to the salon as decoys. The female manager lured them and asked to per Rs 2,000 per person for sexual pleasures, Rishipal said.

After the deal was finalised and the payment was made, the decoys alerted the raiding team waiting outside the salon in plain clothes. The arrests followed.

During interrogation, the two men revealed that they were running the sex racket from the premises for the last two months, said the DCP.

The two also revealed that of the Rs 2,000 they used to charge from each customer, Rs 1,000 was given to the sex worker as her commission. The arrested women told police that they were willingly involved in the prostitution racket for quick money, said a police officer.
New Delhi: Of the eight transgenders who took the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) this year, five have made the cut. NEET is an all-India examination for admission to medical and dental colleges.

The results of the exam conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) were declared on Friday, June 24.

A senior CBSE official said eight transgenders had applied for NEET and five of them cleared it.

As many as 11,38,890 students had appeared for NEET, out of which 6,11,539 passed the medical entrance examination which was held on May 7.

Of these, 2,66,221 were male aspirants and 3,45,313 were females.

Last year, nine candidates from the transgender category had appeared for the exam and three of them had cleared it.

In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court had in 2014 created the third gender status for transgenders.

CBSE, which conducts the examination, announced the results on Friday morning, ending weeks of suspense that saw the Madras high court withholding the outcome before the Supreme Court cleared it.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has released the results of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2017(undergraduate course). Aspiring doctors now have the chance to apply for a seat in a medical/ dental college for an MBBS or bachelors of dental surgery (BDS) course.

The process for admissions to medical college will begin now, so this is what candidates should know:

Counselling for students who have cleared NEET will start from July 3, with counselling done by the Medical Counselling Committee. For details of dates etc, please check the MCC website, http://www.mcc.nic.in. Or click here.

Registration and choice filling of subjects will be done from July 3 to 11, with registrations open up to 5 pm on July 11. After that, choice filling and locking will be done on July 12, up to 5 pm on the last day.

Seat allotments will be done over two days, from July 13 to 14, and results of counselling, round one, will be out on July 15.

Students will then be required to report at their medical/dental colleges over seven days from July 16 to July 22, up to 5 pm on the last day.

Round two of counselling (exercising of choices and locking and new registrations) will be done from August 1 to August 4, with registration remaining open till 5 pm on the last date. Seat allotments for round two will be done from August 5 to 7, 2017.Results of round two will be published on August 8. Candidates will be required to report at the allotted medical and dental college for round two from August 9 to August 16, 2017

Vacant seats will then be transferred to state quota.

NEET was conducted as per regulations framed under the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 (amended in 2016) and the Dentists Act 1948 (amended in 2016).

Admissions in 100% seats of MBBS/BDS will be done on the basis of the results in medical/dental colleges run with the approval of Medical Council of India/Dental Council of India under the ministry of health and family welfare.

The all-India rank list for the candidates in percentile rank released by CBSE will be given to the Directorate General of Health Services, New Delhi, for counselling of 15% all-India quota seats and providing the result to the state counselling authorities and admitting institutions.

Candidates must be 17 years old at the time of admission. The upper age limit for NEET is 25 years as on the date of examination for general category candidates.

The Department of Health and Family Welfare, government of India, and Medical Council of India have clarified that attempts made by candidates for AIPMT/NEET prior to 2017 will not be counted. NEET 2017 will be counted as the first attempt for all candidates, irrespective of their previous attempts in AIPMT/NEET, an official statement from CBSE has said.

Domicile students of different states who have done their schooling from another state are eligible for admission in state medical colleges if they are ranked in the all-India merit list.

The counselling for admission in seats under the control of other states/universities/institutions will be conducted as per the notifications issued separately by the authorities concerned. Candidates applying to state government colleges will be admitted subject to rules and regulations framed by the respective state governments.

It is necessary for a candidate to obtain minimum of marks at 50th percentile in NEET for 2017-18. The percentile will be determined on the basis of highest marks secured in the all-India common merit list. A percentile rank is the percentage of score that falls below a given score in a group.
Concerned over the quality of teachers in UP, the government has asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to set up a teachers training institute in Gorakhpur.

There is only one such institute in UP in Congress president Sonia Gandhis constituency Rae Bareli. Officials claim the facility has been under-utilised due to its location.

The new institute for which land will be allocated by the UP government will cater to teachers in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

We informed the chief minister that the state needs an institute so that teachers can undergo training by experts. CBSE had tried to get land in Lucknow earlier for this purpose but it was not allocated. We are glad that it will finally materialise now, said a senior official. We need to impart good training to teachers so that they can make classroom teaching interesting. The institute will also emphasise on pedagogy for effective use of information communication technology for teachers, he said.
Three weeks after Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College in Karnal received the Medical Council of Indias (MCI) approval for 100 MBBS seats from this academic session, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday inaugurated the Adesh Medical College and Private Hospital at Mohri village in Kurukshetra district.

The college on National Highway 1 in Shahabad tehsil will admit 150 students in August for the 2017-18 academic session.

With this, the total number of MBBS seats in Haryana will reach 1,400.

After the inauguration, Khattar said, Twentyeight medical colleges will be opened in the state in two years. Haryana needs more than 27,000 doctors, while it has 10,000 doctors at present. The new colleges will help tide over this shortage.

He said the government will soon launch a health insurance scheme for the poor and the premium for it will be borne by the government.

He said private institutions will be invited to open colleges in all branches of medicine, including ayurveda and homoeopathy. More specialised branches are being started at PGIMS, Rohtak, while the medical college in Mewat is being upgraded.

He said Rs 3,900 crore has been provided in the budget for health services this year, which is 15.5% more than the amount allocated last year.

MCI NOD FOR COLLEGE

Adesh medical college and hospital chairman Dr Harpreet Singh said that the MCI has approved 150 MBBS seats for the college and admission will start in August. The approval will be renewed on a yearly basis till the first batch passes out.

The college is affiliated to Pandit BD Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak.

The Adesh Welfare Society acquired 29 acres for the medical college and 300-bed hospital.

The state government has approved the Miri-Piri Medical College that will be run by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in Shahbad.

Haryana health minister Anil Vij said the state government is inviting private players and trusts to set up more medical colleges to improve health services. Four cath labs will also be set up.

BREAKUP OF MEDICAL SEATS IN HARYANA

List of government colleges with seats

 Pt BD Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak : 200

 BPS Government Medical College for Women, Sonepat: 100

 Employees State Insurance Corporation Medical College, Faridabad: 100

 Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College, Karnal: 100

 Shaheed Hasan Khan Mewati Government Medical College, Nalhar: 100

List of private colleges with seats

 Adesh Medical College and Hospital, Shahabad, Kurukshetra: 150

 Maharaja Agrasen Medical College, Agroha: 100

 MM Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Mullana, Ambala: 100

 NC Medical College and Hospital, Panipat: 150

 Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary Medical College, Gurgaon: 150

 World College of Medical Sciences and Research, Jhajjar, Haryana: 150

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Universities offering programmes through distance mode will now be regulated under the University Grants Commission (UGC) (Open and Distance Learning) Regulations, 2017, notified by the commission on Friday.

The commission, through the regulations, has laid down the minimum standards of instruction for the grant of degree at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels through open and distance learning mode.

According to officials, under the new regulations, students will also be allowed to take up to 20% of the total courses being offered in a particular programme in a semester through the online learning courses/massive open online courses as per UGCs (Credit Framework for Online Learning Courses through SWAYAM) Regulations, 2016.

Under this mode, students will be able to opt for online courses offered by various universities and institutions across the country and the credit will be transferred to them, said a senior UGC official.

All higher educational institutions offering a programme in open and distance learning mode will now have to seek fresh approval from the commission to operate.

Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Kurukshetra University among others will be impacted by the move.

The regulations will apply to universities offering distance learning mode for all degree programmes at the undergraduate and post-graduate level, other than programmes in engineering, medicine, dental, pharmacy, nursing, architecture, physiotherapy and programmes not permitted to be offered in distance mode by any other regulatory body.

All examinations for programmes of the open and distance mode will be conducted within the institution where the study centres or learner support centres are located.
To highlight the importance of hygiene and waste segregation under Swaach Bharat Abhiyan, the Swwachta Samrasta Sandesh Yatra reached Gurgaon on Saturday. Joint commissioners of Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon, Anu Shyokand and Alka Chaudhary received volunteers participating in the yatra at the government womens college in Sector 14.

Before reaching Gurgaon, the yatra covered 16 districts. The effort was undertaken by 65 volunteers, including members from the state coordination committee.

Subhash Chander, executive vice chairman, Swwach Bharat Mission, Haryana, who is leading the yatra, said the objective of the campaign is to connect and make people of 22 cities Haryana aware about of the Swwach Bharat Abhiyan, the Centres ambitious cleanliness initiative. He added that the message about cleanliness and its importance is being spread through art, street plays and documentaries. The state has played host to campaigns such as beti bachao beti padao, which is aimed at the welfare of girl child, but this is the first campaign in the state to spread the word about cleanliness.

Sanitation should not only be a word, but an extension of our conduct and lifestyle. The dream of a Clean India cannot be realised until all the citizens work towards this goal and take up cleanliness, Chandra said.

He added that the campaign, which was flagged off by Prime Minister Narender Modi, has already made a strong impact in Haryana. The government wants to make Haryana a clean, green and open defecation-free state and is working towards an efficient waste collection and disposal system.

Joint commissioner Shyokand said that the sanitation wing of the MCG is working towards making Gurgaon a clean and green city. Not just the residents, but members of residents welfare associatios and NGOs, too, are contributing to the cause. She informed that the MCG is working on the segregation of dry and wet waste and the formation of a compost pit for good manure.

Read I Nationwide cleanliness drive kicks off in Gurgaon

MCG officials said that corporation has also chalked out a plant to ensure that both Gurgaon district and the city becomes open defecation-free. Hoarding boards , street plays and media are also helping to spread the word on the cause.
Taking advantage of the fact that the jammers in Bhondsi jail can only stop signals of 2G and 3G phones, inmates owing allegiance to dreaded gangs have started using 4G handsets to plan crimes, order hits, and revive their network, sources in Gurgaon police said.

The Gurgaon police on Saturday carried out a day-long search on the jail premises and recovered 21 mobile phones, 10 sim cards, two chargers and a pen drive from inmates. The search began at 9.30 am and continued till 4pm .

The Gurgaon police said till the entire jail is covered by hi-tech jammers, the physical searches will continue.



According to police, the four jammers at Bhondsi jail can stop signals on only 2G and 3G bands. The 4G SIMS have made these jammers redundant and hence, the search for over six hours was carried out on Saturday. There have been intelligence inputs that mobile phones were being used from inside the jail by gangsters and their aides. Some complaints also came to us and this made us form a team and conduct searches, said Sumit Kuhar, DCP, Crime, who led the search operation.

Kuhar said the jammers installed at the jail have a range of 30 meters and many more are cover the entire jail.

The Haryana government has also taken a decision that soon 4G jammers will be installed in all jails, but till that happens, police will conduct physical searches, he said.

Thirteen persons were booked and cases will be registered against them at Bhondsi police station. When the inspection began, eight mobile phones were allegedly thrown over the boundary walls by inmates and these too were recovered, police said. The owners of these phones will be identified after checking the IMEI numbers and call detail records, police said.

Read I Gurgaon: Four Bhondsi jail inmates make it to Limca Book of Records

There were complaints and information from sources that inmates belonging to Manjeet Mahal gang, Ashok Rathi gang and those owing allegiance to Vijay Bhardwaj gang were interacting with members outside. The phones were being used sparingly to revive their network, claimed Sumit Kuhar, DCP crime, who lead the search operation.

The Bhondsi jail in Sohna currently houses over 20 dreaded gangs which were once active in Delhi and NCR. They include members of Sandep Gadoli gang, Binder Gujjar gang, Manjeet Mahal gang, Ashok Rathi gang, Nandu Sangwan gang and several others, police said.

Several hits in the recent past have been planned from inside the jail by these gangsters, who are at war with each other to control their turf, police claimed.

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A man allegedly duped a Gurgaon contractor of his earthmover by taking it on hire and then selling it off for a handsome profit.

A FIR was registered based on the complaint of Mehar Singh, the owner, in Gurgaon on Friday.

According to the police, Vaibhav Jain, a contractor who lives in Sector 40, Gurgaon, took Singhs earthmover on rent for three years in May. Within three days, he allegedly sold it off to another contractor for Rs 17, 50,000 and also took Rs 5 lakh in advance.

Singh, who hails from Rewali village in Sonepat, has since then been doing the rounds of police stations  first in Sonepat and then in Gurgaon  to get his machine back but in vain. An FIR was registered at Sector 40 police station in Gurgaon on Friday.

Rakesh, a relative of Jains, came to me in the first week of May and told me that Jain was looking to lease an earthmover. I have been dealing with Rakesh for a long time. After I was satisfied that the request was genuine, I entered into an agreement with Jain on May 10, 58-year-old Mehar Singh said.

He said he handed over the earthmover to Jain in Gurgaon on May 12, and, on May 15, Jian allegedly sold it off to one Dharamvir, in Palwal, police said.

Singh came to know about the fraud only on May 29 when he had gone to Palwal for some work.

I saw my earthmover there and, on enquiring, I found out that Dharamvir had procured it from Gurgaon. He told me that he bought it for Rs 17,50,000 and paid an advance of Rs 5 lakh, Singh said.

The 58-year-old immediately phoned Jain, but he allegedly didnt pick the call. Singh went to the Jains house in Gurgaon, but he refused to meet Singh, the complainant told police.

He approached the police in Sonepat to register an FIR of fraud, but he was allegedly turned away.

The Sonepat police asked me to file a complaint in Gurgaon, which I did, on June 3 at Sector 40 police station. An FIR on my complaint was registered on Friday, June 23. Till now, no action has been taken on my complaint, Singh said.

Read I Gurgaon: Cops from northeast to tackle rising crimes against people from the region

Explaining the delay in registering the FIR, police said in such cases, an FIR can only be registered after verifying all facts.

In cases of section 420 (cheating), police have to verify all facts, as told by the complainant. After that, a report is prepared and sent to the ACP and the DCP. Only after we get the approval, can we register an FIR, assistant sub-inspector Mangal of Sector 40 police station, the investigating officer, said.

An FIR under Sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code was registered on Friday.

This isnt the first time that I have rented out an earthmover. I have three earthmovers and I have leased them to nine different contractors till date. This is first time I have been cheated like this, Singh claimed.
Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday launched a scheme to stop female foeticide and to improve states skewed sex ratio.

Under the scheme, titled Mukhbir Yojana, the government will provide an incentive of up to Rs 2 lakh to anyone who would alert the state authorities about involvement of any doctor or a medical staff in sex determination and female foeticide.

Speaking at the launch of the scheme chief minister Yogi Adityanath expressed concern over the cases of female foeticide which is reducing the female population in the state.

Girls outnumbered boys by a huge margin in the board examinations and also dominated in the merit list but the count of the girl child is going down in the state, he said.

The state has a sex ratio of 908 females per thousand males as per 2011 census. Its worse than the national sex ratio of 943 females per thousand males.

The initiative involves taking help of informers and setting up traps using decoy couples against individuals, institutions and organisations involved in aiding and abetting illegal practice of sex determination tests and female foeticide.

District and state-level committees will monitor the progress of the scheme on a regular basis and at least once in three months through formal meetings, said government sources.

Yogi, however, cautioned against misuse of the scheme. We have to be cautious and ensure that unscrupulous elements do not misuse this scheme, he said.

The scheme has been launched under the Pre-Conception Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (PCPNDT) Act.

Uttar Pradesh has become the second state after Rajasthan to launch such a scheme to check female foeticide.

Among 75 districts in the state, child sex ratio is lowest in Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Jalaun and Banda.

The chief minister also launched 181 women helpline and flagged off 64 rescue vans in as many districts under a central government scheme.

Earlier the scheme was functional in 11 districts of the state.

The toll free number (181 mahila helpline) will be functional round-the-clock to provide help to women in distress or in need of medical help.

To make the scheme effective, the six-seater call centre in Lucknow has been made 30-seater. Every van has a trained female paramedic and a female police officer.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has sought to emphasise that Pune is on the top of his governments agenda and has being accorded high priority in policy making.

Fadnavis sought to underscore this in a special interview to Hindustan Times by pointing out that in the last two-and-a-half years, his government had granted approval to the pending Development Plan (DP), set the Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (PMRDA) in motion and initiated major steps on projects such as an international airport for Pune and Ring Road to ease traffic congestion. Pune was also being given high priority as one of the designated Smart Cities. Along with this, the concerns of Pimpri-Chinchwad were being addressed, he said.

The chief minister laid a majority of Punes inadequacies, from lack of 24x7 drinking water to solid waste management, at the door of his political opponents.

They could not draft a development plan for the city for 15 years; we managed to do it within six months of winning power in the municipal corporation. Similarly, infighting in the Congress-NCP government had delayed setting up of the planning authority PMRDA. Things are moving fast now, said the chief minister, adding that this authority will implement and oversee projects like the outer ring road, three metro lines for the city and Pimpri Chinchwad and fast pace them.

Infotech City

We are working on strengthening the infrastructure to develop Pune as an Infotech city in the truest sense. The work on laying fibre optic cable is already in progress and we plan to provide all smart service to the citizens with the help of technology. Citizens will be able to pay their bills and get all the necessary information online. They will also get instant traffic updates on various routes on their mobiles. We intent to provide all services and information with the help of Internet, Fadnavis said.

Smart Traffic Management

One of the major initiatives under the Smart City project would be the installation of smart signal synchronisation system for the smooth and efficient flow of traffic.

Presently, the traffic management system is aimed at controlling static traffic. The management of dynamic traffic is not in the picture in the current system. We are aiming at managing dynamic traffic with minimum human interference. This can be achieved with technology. The new system will analyse the flow of long distance traffic movement and work according to the needs. Pune will have an adaptive traffic management system, which will reduce traffic congestion, he said. The chief minister stressed that work on Punes new traffic system was moving at a fast pace and the tendering process for the work had already begun.

We expect to complete the tender process in the next 30 days and the actual work will start very soon, he said, adding that this would be the first-of-its-kind traffic management project in the country. He was confident that the funds needed for the Smart City project wont be an issue. We have received an overwhelming response for the municipal bond programme for Pune 24X7 water supply project. It has been oversubscribed by five times. This is a new approach to raise funds from the open market. It is going to be a game changer for developing infrastructure, he said.

Land Acquisition for City Projects

Replying to a question on land acquisition for various projects in Pune, the chief minister said that a policy decision had been taken to hand over government lands that would be needed for public projects. We have decided that the Government will hand over all the land necessary for the metro project, including the land needed for the Shivajinagar-Hinjewadi metro line, he said.

At the same time, a formula was being worked out for acquisition of private lands needed for the ring road and the international airport project, he said. The chief minister admitted that land acquisition for the Purandar international airport was posing a challenge, but not one that was unsurmountable.

We faced a similar problem in the case of Navi Mumbai airport but more than 95% land owners accepted our formula, he said.

He pointed out that the land identified for the Purandar International Airport was ideally suited as it had a suitable terrain and was ideally suited for the construction of an airport. It is the only plain land available near Pune and is ideal for an airport. There is very little habitation on this land. It is ideally suited for the project, he said.

With a view to create capacity to meet the existing needs of growing air traffic, Fadnavis said that the government had already acquired land from the Defence Ministry for the expansion of the current Lohegaon airport.

Better Garbage Management

Given the grim situation on the garbage management front and the uproar from villagers around the existing Uruli-Devachi garbage dump, the chief minister said that the government had already identified land for the creation of a new garbage dump near Pimpri Sandas. But our larger goal and intention is not to dump garbage and create landfills but to reclaim garbage. We are working out a plan for garbage disposal which will become operational in two years, he said.

Clean River Project

The Chief Minister said that with the help of the Rs 1,100 crore Japanese assistance for the Mula-Mutha river project, the issue of river pollution would be addressed. Once the project is completed, only treated water will be released in the river, he said.

Speaking on other issues relating to the city, Fadnavis said that Pune continued to be an attractive destination for foreign investments in the IT and auto sectors. In the last two years Pune has got extensive investment in the automobiles sector building on its existing status as auto hub. Our big problem is making land available to investors . I dont envisage competition to Pune IT hub or its automobile hub status but our focus now will be to build the city as an innovations capital. In the next two years we hope to have a startup eco-system better than Bangalore, he said.

Commissionerate for Pimpri Chinchwad

The Chief Minister, who also heads the Home Department, said the government was serious about establishing a separate police commissionerate for Pimpri-Chinchwad to reduce the pressure on the existing set-up and ensure better policing. It will take some time, but we are working on this proposal. Pimpri-Chinchwad will have a separate police commissionerate in the future, he said. He said the swift installation of CCTVs at various spots in the city had helped crime detection.

Peace with Sena

Devendra Fadnavis said that a meeting with BJP president Amit Shah had broken the ice between BJP and Shiv Sena. Our meeting went off very well and on that day itself we knew this decision. Some of this is public posturing. I think we are sorted now, he said.
Shop owners in many parts of the country have resumed charging unlawfully a premium from customers who pay with cards, undermining the governments efforts to promote digital payments.

The agreement retailers sign with banks for card-swipe devices  technically called point-of-sale (POS) terminals  contains a clause forbidding them from charging customers for the facility.

But the malpractice is growing, especially in smaller towns and among a section of smaller stores in big cities, say trader body officials.

There is no official data but trade bodies back anecdotal evidence of the malpractice spreading. Transaction charges are one of the major deterrents in adoption of digital payments in the country and we are aware of this... Neither the traders nor the consumers should be made to bear the charges, said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT).

The charges, called Merchant Discount Rate, are divided between the banks involved in the transaction, the firm that installed the POS devices and payment gateway companies such as Visa and MasterCard. The Reserve Bank of India capped the MDR on debit card use at 0.5% for transactions of up to Rs 1,000, 0.75 % for those up to Rs 2,000 and 1% for those more than Rs 2,000. There is no cap on MDR in credit card transactions but banks usually charge up to 2%.

MDR was suspended shortly after the November decision by the government to scrap 500-and 1,000-rupee notes, a move that led to a severe cash crunch after 86% of the currency was taken out of circulation.

The demonetisation exercise was targeted at weeding out fake currency and black money  cash hoarded illegally to evade taxes. The government subsequently announced a push for digital payments, which leave a trail and make it harder for people to hide dodgy cash.

When I refused to pay the additional charge, the shopkeeper refused to accept my debit card and asked me to pay in cash... I did not have cash and so I agreed to pay the additional fee, said Nitin Sharma, a resident of Gurgaons DLF Phase V, who was out buying ceiling fans from a store at Sikanderpur market.

Traders defend the practice, saying the charges eat into their profits.

Say, a shopkeeper keeps a margin of 5%. If he or she has to pay 2%, it is a dent on the income. Therefore, the government needs to frame a scheme to ensure that the banks do not charge this money, Khandelwal said. He also called for a policy of incentives such as tax breaks for businesses that switch to digital payments.

A senior executive of a private sector bank said they can do little about it.

It is not a problem of the bank... it is a matter between a shopkeeper and a customer... We are not involved... the issue has come to our notice but there is little that the banks can do about this, the executive said.

Bejon Misra, consumer policy expert and founder of Consumer Online Foundation said the issue must be addressed quickly.

The problem is due to ambiguity from the government... there must be a clear guideline from the government outlining the penal action that can be taken against retailers who indulge in this kind of unfair trade practices, Misra said.

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This years Ramzan has been the bloodiest in the recent past with 43 people --- soldiers, policemen, civilians and militants --- killed since May 28, the day the Muslim holy month began.

The most brutal of the deaths was the lynching of deputy superintendent of police MA Pandith outside the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar where he was stripped and beaten to death on what was the most auspicious night of the holy month.

The spike in violence, people in the Valley say, underscores the period of unrest in Kashmir that began last year and has claimed at least a 100 civilian lives  a toll that goes climbs significantly if soldiers, policemen and alleged militants are counted in.

In the early 1990s, there was a time in Kashmir when militants would escalate attacks on security forces specifically during Ramzan, said Sheikh Mushtaq, senior journalist and former Kashmir bureau chief of Reuters.

But in the recent past, that has not been the case. This year there has been a spike in violence, but that has been going on (since) before Ramzan began. The violence -- due to an accumulation of many factors -- just passed into Ramzan. Its coincidence.

Last years Ramzan saw 32 deaths in Kashmir. It was a few days after the holy months end that Hizbul Mujahadeen militant Burhan Wani was killed on July 8, 2016, triggering one of the Valleys the current period of turmoil.

Ramzan holds a spiritual significance for Muslims around the world, packed with a tight schedule of rituals. Historically, violence in Kashmir has taken a back seat during this period.

It is one of the bloodiest in Ramzans in Kashmirs recent history in terms of number of deaths and the gruesomeness of the incidents, a local political observer said, wishing to not be identified.

The conflict, he said, has remained largely unabated due to a lack of effort to ease the tension between security forces and civilians.

The increase in infiltration attempts from across the border only adds to the tension, he said.

Since Ramzan began on May 28, three army soldiers, five civilians, nine cops and 25 militants and one CRPF jawan have been killed. A day before the holy month began, Sabzar Bhat a Hizbul commander who held an appeal similar to Wani  was killed by security forces, fanning tensions afresh.

Of the 32 people killed during last years Ramzan from June 7 to July 5, there were two soldiers, 22 militants, eight CRPF jawans, and no civilians.

Khurram Parvez, program coordinator at the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) notes that the increase is in civilian killings this time. It seems the wish of the army chief and sections of electronic media is being fulfilled, said Parvez, alluding to a statement by army chief General Bipin Rawat who said protesters in Kashmir will be dealt with sternly.

With the news of Bhats death fresh, Ramzan began with spontaneous protests. The first three days were marked by calls for shutdown, curfew and restrictions. Clashes between forces and civilians claimed at least one civilian life in the initial days.

A little less than three weeks later, militants carried out one of the deadliest attacks on security personnel in recent times when they killed six policemen, including station house officer (SHO) Feroz Ahmad Dar.

Data from JKCCS shows the state witnessed an increase in the overall number of killings compared to the corresponding period last year. One hundred and thirty people (35 security personnel, 78 militant, 17 civilians) were killed in Jammu and Kashmir in January-June last year and this year that number rose to 196 (52 armed forces, 88 militants, 55 civilians), their analysis shows.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed on Saturday the contributions of the more than 65,000 Indians in Portugal, saying they were Indias real ambassadors and have enriched the culture of the country they have made their home.

Indians have carried their cultural heritage with them and have always been proud of them, Modi said, addressing diaspora Indians in Lisbon.

The prime minister cited the diversity of language and taste in India to point out that Indians can adapt to the culture of the country they live in. You have effortlessly gelled with the culture of the country you have been, he said and added that they were the real ambassadors of India in Portugal.

On relations between India and Portugal, Modi said the country is tied with India in many ways, including through sports. Who has not heard of Cristiano Ronaldo. His name fills every sportsperson in India with energy.

He said Portugal has historical ties with India, but a special one with Gujarat, and went on to narrate the story of Kutch sailor Kanji Malam, who helped the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discover the sea route from Europe to India in 1497.

Kanji Malam had navigated the Portuguese commander to Calicut from Malindi on east African coast.

He also highlighted the role Portugal played in furthering the message of Yoga, an ancient Indian spiritual discipline. Modi thanked Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Costa for promoting a wellness movement in Portugal through yoga.

Modi talked about his recent meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who also the former Prime Minister of Portugal, in Astana and how they bonded to discuss yoga.

During his address, Modi briefly talked about his governments economic programmes and Indias space triumphs, including the launch of 30 satellites at one go on Friday.

With Costa, the first prime minister of Indian origin in Europe, Modi visited the Radha Krishna Temple in Lisbon.

The temple is the symbol of social conscience in Portugal. People here do not discriminate, and that is the identity of Indians, the diversity of India, Modi said.

Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit Portugal for a bilateral trip, though Atal Bihari Vajpayee had visited the country but it was for a European Union conference in 2000.
A pregnant womans craving for something sour is not a Bollywood cliche but Gods way of telling the would-be mother to consume more vitamin C to maintain her haemoglobin levels, a Madhya Pradesh minister has said.

God is a scientist, and He knows what the pregnant woman needs to eat to maintain her haemoglobin levels.... As she should have more vitamin C through citric fruits, God puts in her the urge to eat sour things, Madhya Pradesh women and child development minister Archana Chitnis said at an event in Shillong on Friday.

Chitnis was speaking at a seminar on nutrition-sensitive agriculture, jointly organised by her ministry and the Deen Dayal Research Institute in coordination with the ministry of culture.

The seminar was organised with the intention of encouraging people to fulfil their nutritional needs by consuming local produce. Chitnis dipped into mythology to explain the changes in nutrition and eating patterns.

Chitnis also said farmers should consume the food they produce and sell only whats left.

The minister cited an instance from Hindu mythology to drive her point home.

Lord Krishna fought with Kansa because he objected to the demon kings demand that all the milk produced in Braj should go to Mathura (the capital of the kingdom). Lord Krishna said the residents of Braj will first consume all the milk they want, and only send what remains, she said.

Expressing regret over forest-dwellers suffering from malnourishment in this age, she asked: If forests were devoid of nutrition, how did Lord Ram and his wife, Sita, remain healthy for years (during their years of exile)?

Blaming modern agricultural practices for malnutrition, the minister called on farmers to focus more on nutrition then food production. She cited the example of MP to illustrate how many of its residents suffer from malnutrition despite being the second-largest milk producing state in India. In two districts, we found people suffering from malnutrition because they were moving away from the tradition of cultivating and eating millets, she said.

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Two security personnel were killed and four others were injured in encounters at various places between Maoists and security forces in Chhattisgarhs South Sukma on Saturday.

IG Bastar, Vivekanand confirmed that the two jawans of district reserve guards (DRG) were killed in an encounter near Bheji area of South Sukma.

The injured were rushed to Raipur. The condition of three jawans is said to be serious, police sources said.

The encounter continues to rage.

A massive encounter is going on since Friday in that area of South Sukma. A joint force of security forces is in the jungles of South Sukma and they are fighting with the battalion of Maoists, special director general of naxal operations, D M Awasthi told Hindustan Times.

Awasthi also said that around 20 Maoists are also killed in the encounter. But security forces could find only one body of a Maoist so far.

The joint team, comprising personnel from STF, District Reserve Guard (DRG) and CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), was carrying out anti-Naxal operation in Chintagufa area, around 500 km from the Chhattisgarh capital Raipur.

Chintagufa is said to be the capital of Maoists in Bastar.

The team is still cordoning off a forest patch in southern part of Sukma and positive results will come in next few hours, said a senior police officer.

Police said that the Anti Naxal Task Force (ANTF) of the Indian Air Force had been also involved in large scale troop transportation for this operation which was named Operation Prahar by the Chhattisgarh police.

In the last couple of months Maoists had launched two major attacks on security forces in the same area.

On April 24, 25 CRPF troopers were killed in a Naxal ambush in Burkapal area under Chintagufa police station while 14 were killed on Bhejji on March 12.
Mohammad Shahin has been exporting leather for 35 years but has never faced a crisis like this. The businessman is a community leader in West Bengals South 24 Parganas district, owing largely to the 60 people he employs at his factory, one of 400-odd units in Kolkatas Leather Complex.

But now, a government crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses coupled with a central rule that makes it virtually impossible to procure cattle for culling has dealt him a body blow. Orders have fallen by half, crimped both by a supply crunch and fears that harder times are on their way. In the middle of this crisis, Shahin is battling a dilemma: How to sack his all-Muslim staff.

At a Kolkata leather unit. (HT Photo )

It is the holy month of Ramzan and these workers have been here for decades. The lords wrath would singe us if I remove them, he rues, sitting in his sparse ground floor office. Jab se yeh sarkar aayi hai, hamare industry ka baarah baj gaya.

On the floor above him, stacks of leather sheets touch the high ceiling, but there are few workers around the giant whirring machines treating and drying leather. Shahin says hes had to cut back on monthly pay, from an average of Rs 8-10,000 to just around Rs 4,000 now.

Shahin is one of tens of thousands of people dependent on bovine hide on the southern fringes of Kolkata. Most of the workers in the complex are backward Muslims and scheduled castes, who live in ramshackle quarters or cheek-by-jowl hutments.

But life is increasingly difficult. The rates of leather sheets have fallen from Rs 50 a feet in 2014 to Rs 22 a feet now. Orders are down 60%, hurt also by a collapsing market in Europe and China.

The message has gone out in the international market that the Indian political climate is not favourable for the leather industry. We used to get most of our material from Uttar Pradesh. The cattle market ban has made it difficult, says Tauheed Alam. He thinks the Uttar Pradesh elections, where the BJP cruised to an emphatic victory, was a big factor.

Such tales abound in the complex, one of Asias largest that is still one of the best hopes for the industry  after all leather and allied industries employs about a million people in the state and account for 25% of Indias leather exports.

Last month, representatives of tanneries in Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur met Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra, asking to be allotted land near Kolkata. Local workers are also buoyed by chief minister Mamata Banerjees fierce opposition to the cattle market order. We hope for the best from the state governmentwe know the Centre cannot do this, says Mohammad Ishaque, who runs his own factory.

Small-scale distress

The crisis has hurt a host of ancillary small-scale industries  many of them micro units that make handbags, belts, small purses and wallets in hundreds of shops and makeshift warehouses that dot the outer fringes of Kolkata. These make their way to the many footpath stalls in Esplanade, Padmapukur and other more genteel neighbourhoods, and often end up as the blink-and-you-miss Gucci fakes.

Getting hold of raw materials is slowly becoming more difficult. We had 55 workers making moneybags. Now there are 30, says Rafikul Islam, who runs a unit near the leather complex.

The leather industry zoomed over the past decade on the back of cheap raw materials, making India the worlds second-largest producer and putting cash in the hands of the countrys poorest communities, who mostly cured hides in small home units.

But now, in BJP-run Uttar Pradesh, successive state government decrees since Yogi Adityanaths ascent to power have left behind a trail of distress. In the bustling back alleys of Agra that houses a centuries-old footwear industry, Dalits and Muslims are the worst hit by the diktat.

An Indian labourer carries buffalo hides that are laid out to dry in the sun, as part of the leather production process, on the banks of the river Ganges in Kanpur in 2016 (AFP)

The notification is fatal for the industry, says Puran Dawar, who runs his own footwear company and is the president of the local leather manufacturers and exporters association. It is against Make in India, in which leather is a focus sector. Dawar is referring to the ban on buying cattle for slaughter.

The city has at least 150 big units and more than 10,000 micro units, each of whom employs five or six people who make shoes from their homes. Most shoes use cow hide, the coarser buffalo skin is used for cheaper makes, and goat skin is in vogue for boots and high fashion. All these come under the ambit of the notification.

Dawar says hes against illegal slaughter but doesnt understand why the logic behind the governments directives. An animal is slaughtered only when it is old and cannot be used for tilling fields, labour or milk. No farmer sells a healthy animal.

All-round misery

Trouble has been mounting for the states two million beef traders since 2015, when the BJP government banned cattle slaughter. Now, traders say, vague cattle market rules are a death knell for the $4 billion meat export industry that accounts for a fifth of the global output.

How will I or any other trader come to know which farmer wants to sell his cattle? They (the government) say that the notification is to streamline the cattle trade, but it is merely done with religion in mind, said Abdul Jameel Qureshi of the Beef Traders Association.

What the Centre has now done is a backdoor move to help or force state governments put a ban on beef trade or livestock markets, said Mohammed Qureshi, president of Mumbai Suburban Beef Dealers Association.

Before the ban, 600-700 bull and bullocks would get slaughtered at Maharashtras largest abattoir in Deonar. Now the numbers are just 60 to 70 buffaloes per day, he said.

Anand has never seen any such slaughter but he is just as affected by the rules. Since he can remember, the 50-year-old has glazed leather for Kolhapuri chappals, the famous handcrafted footwear that derives its name from the eastern Maharashtra town. For two years now, workers have been laid off in droves  from 6,000 in 2015 to just 500 today -- as the supply of leather hide dried up. Artisans such as Anand are paid for every 100 pieces they craft, so dwindling raw material means less pay.

Leather processing on at the government workshop in Subhashnagar, Kolhapur in Maharashtra. (Kunal Patil/ HT Photo)

I have no other skills, how will I feed my family of five if I lose my job, frets Anand, an employee of the industrial cluster created for Kolhapuri chappals.

Traders say procuring leather from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka pushed up their costs by a third and that exports of the famous chappals has almost stopped. I dont know what we will do. From a turnover of Rs 1800 crore in 2014, we didnt even make Rs 800 crore in 2016-17, says Ashok Shankar Gaikwad, president of Kolhapur Charmodyog Samuh.

No more music?

Feeling the heat of the government notification are not just organised industries but a small group of tribal artisans whose musical instruments are known across the world.

For a century and half, around 90 families in Peruvamba, a small leafy village in Keralas Palakkad district have lovingly crafted chenda, mridangam and maddalams out of smelly chunks of hide in their homes. But now, they fear the music may soon fall silent.

If the situation continued like this we will be forced to stop our work. It seems the new restriction will kill our vocation, said M Velayudthan, a master craftsman.

The irony: The government recently applied for a Geographical Indication tag for the world-famous Palakkad maddalam. Going by the current crisis, Velayudthan fears there might be no new maddalam to tag.

(with inputs from Swapnil Rawal in Mumbai and Ramesh Babu in Thiruvananthapuram)
Himachal Pradesh government has issued a circular barring its officials from participating in any activity related to tobacco industry.

All the heads of departments in Himachal Pradesh are instructed not to participate in any event organised by tobacco industry and also not to accept any kind of direct or indirect sponsorship or funding from corporate engaged in tobacco business, the circular read.

The circular has been issued recently in view of the fact that different government departments end up taking sponsorship from tobacco industries, knowingly or unknowingly.

Sponsorship from tobacco companies will weaken our tirade against tobacco, in which, Himachal is doing really well, director health safety and regulation department Raman Kumar Sharma said.

Sharma said there are some events organised by tobacco companies where doctors are invited as technical experts. Head of departments should refrain from participating in such events. It is equal to endorsing their products, he added.

The directions have been issued in view of the implementation of The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply, and Distribution) or COTPA Act, 2003.

Under the act, the direct and indirect advertisement of tobacco product is prohibited. But some tobacco giants sponsor government programme, which is a kind of endorsement of their activities, health activist Ramesh Badrel said.

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A 19-year-old woman died Saturday morning after she was thrown out of a shared taxi for allegedly resisting a rape attempt on her, in Madiaon area of Lucknow on Friday night, police said.

Kajal Gupta alias Pooja, a first year graduation student, boarded a tempo (shared taxi) from Dubagga intersection for her home in Amrapalli Yojana on IIM Road at around 9 pm.

She was returning from Rajajipuram where she had started working in a firm as a salesgirl a fortnight ago to support her family.

His father Premi Lal Gupta, who is a cart-puller, earns a meagre Rs 200 daily. She was the second among four siblings  three sisters and a brother.

Her mother Soni Gupta used to accompany her from a turn towards their colony on IIM Road but on Friday night, the tempo did not stop there and she could only hear her daughters screams.

When she raised an alarm, a van driver Raju chased the taxi for about 3 km when the miscreants pushed her out of the vehicle and fled.

With the help of some passers-by, Raju took the girl to a private hospital from where she was shifted to trauma centre of the King George Medical University. She, however, died during treatment early Saturday morning.

SSP Deepak Kumar said the tempo driver has been identified.

The vehicle turned turtle after passing over a pit. However, the driver fled and other miscreants managed to escape. A probe revealed that the tempo was registered in the name of one Raju (not the van driver mentioned above). After Rajus death, his daughter Kranti was managing its operation, Kumar said.

Read more: Seven-year-old among two gang-raped in Uttar Pradesh on single day

Kranti said at the time of the incident, the vehicle was being driven by Sonu. The police raided Sonus residence in Saraiya village of Bakshi-ka-Talab but could not find him.

The SSP said Sonus brother was taken into custody and police teams were carrying out raids to nab him. The identity of other miscreants will be ascertained after Sonus arrest, he added.

The police have lodged an FIR under Sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 354 (physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures), and 304 (unintentional murder) of the IPC.
Bengalurus much-awaited Metro rail project, the first phase of which was inaugurated on Saturday by President Pranab Mukherjee, has already run into trouble.

Signboards at stations that use three languages: Kannada, English and Hindi, have drawn criticism, with this being viewed as another instance of the imposition of Hindi.

The chairperson of the Kannada Development Authority (KDA), which is a governmental body, has written to the managing director of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL) asking him to explain under what rules the signboards have used Hindi.

Chairman of KDA, S G Siddaramaiah told HT that under the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, Kannada was to be given importance over the other languages.

I have written to the MD of BMRCL asking him under what rules Hindi has been added on the signboards, he said.

It is only central government entities that are required to follow the three-language formula whereas all other establishments should have Kannada and another language, with Kannada in larger font, he said.

Siddaramaiah said an incorrect view was being promoted that Hindi was the national language.

It is an official language like all others. If they want Hindi in signboards here, they must include our languages in signboards in places where Hindi is the predominant language, he said.

Pradeep Singh Kharola, MD of Bangalore Metro, refused to comment on the issue.

I have received a letter about the matter and it is an issue concerning BMRCL and the KDA. So, I cannot comment on this, he said.

Siddaramaiahs letter has raised the question about who owns BMRCL, a joint venture between the central and state government.

Pro-Kannada activist Vatal Nagaraj saw the hand of the Centre in the move to include Hindi in signboards.

Ever since the Narendra Modi government has come to power, they have tried to force Hindi on to us. This is not the first instance, he said and recounted how the governor Vajubhai Vala, a former minister in the Gujarat government under Modi, addressed a joint session of the state legislature in Hindi.

Before him, governors, who were not from Karnataka, spoke in English, he said.

Nagaraj said Kannada had to be promoted in the state and there could be no compromise on this. People coming from other states are welcome here, but they must also make an effort to learn the local language, he asserted.

A protest campaign is running online, with the hashtag #NammaMetroHindiBeda on Twitter.

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India and Russia have decided to conclude negotiations for different military platforms soon as they agreed on a roadmap for ramping up bilateral defence cooperation.

Both the sides on Friday signed a protocol for the roadmap to step-up defence engagement during the annual meeting of the Indian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC).

The meeting was co-chaired by defence minister Arun Jaitley and his Russian counterpart General Sergey Shoigu.

The roadmap includes specific activities to be concluded by both the sides, and aims to enhance cooperation in the field of political and military dialogue, besides exercises between the armed forces of the two countries.

In the meeting, Jaitley conveyed to the Russian side about the importance of having a robust and reliable after- sales support mechanism with regards to serviceability of Russian-origin equipment, Indian government officials said.

Russia has been one of Indias key major suppliers of arms and ammunition. However, it has been a long-standing grievance of armed forces that supply of critical spares and equipment from Russia takes a long time affecting maintenance of military systems procured from that country.

Jaitley also talked about the new opportunities for participation of Russian companies in the Indian defence manufacturing sector as pert of the Make in India programme under the new strategic partnership policy for defence production.

The Indian government last month unveiled a strategic partnership model under which select private firms will be engaged along with foreign entities to build military platforms like fighter jets, submarines and battle tanks.

Both the sides also agreed to conclude various ongoing negotiations for different platforms as well as restructure the inter-governmental commission to enhance military to military cooperation, the officials said.

During the meeting, both the sides expressed satisfaction at the concrete progress that has been made on areas of cooperation since the last meeting of the commission in October 2016.

The discussions were productive and held in an atmosphere of warmth and friendship, the officials said.

Indias military technical cooperation with Russia is one of the key pillars of our relationship, they said.

We are determined to go ahead with building up cooperation in order to enhance the combat readiness of both countries armed forces and to exchange experience in various defence-related matters, Gen. Shoigu said at the meeting.

It was the 17th meeting of the IRIGC-MTC.

The meeting took place nearly three weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to upgrade and intensify defence ties through joint manufacture and co-production of key military hardware, during their annual summit talks at St Petersburg.

Addressing a leading forum for technological development showcasing Indias path-breaking initiatives for defence production, Jaitley, who is in Russia on a three-day visit, on Wednesday invited Russian firms to set up joint ventures with Indian firms and manufacture advanced military platforms through technology transfer. PTI MPB/AKJ CPS ZH
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said Islamophobia was being spread in the country, resulting in incident of lynching of Muslims.

Condemning the lynching of a 17-year-old youth on a train in Haryana, Owaisi said a hate atmosphere was being created.

I called this atmosphere Islamophobia. Those creating Islamophobia are responsible for lynching of Muslims in the name of cow, religion or beard, he told reporters here.

The Hyderabad MP was reacting to Fridays incident in Haryana in which four Muslim boys were attacked by a group of people after an altercation and one of the victims, Junaid, died. The were returning to their village in Haryana from Delhi after Eid shopping.

Owaisi also condemned the lynching of a police officer by a mob outside Srinagars Jamia Masjid. I condemn the lynching of DYSP Ayub and that too on the holy night and near Jamia Masjid, he said adding that there is no difference between those who lynched Ayub and those who are lynching Muslims in the name of cow or religion.

There is no difference whatsoever. They cant be called human beings and need to be condemned, he said.

The MP said the incident shows the misgoveranance by BJP and PDP which were in power in Jammu and Kashmir. He said they were clueless on what was happening on ground. He said the two parties had made tall promises and assurances but nothing happened.

Owaisi said BJPs choice of Ram Nath Kovind as its candidate for the post of President showed that it wants to convert India into a Hindu rashtra.

President of Indias post is a Constitutional post. If a person aspiring to become the President of India holds the view that minorities which includes Muslims and Christians are alien to this nation, what kind of confidence this candidate or his party is creating in the Constitution. What kind of message they are sending to minorities? he asked.

Owaisi said Kovind was repeating ideology of Sarvarkar, Golwalkar and RSS. On BJPs criticism that he is doing communal politics over the issue, he said the party should clarify whether Kovind made this statement or not.
A sub-inspector was killed and a CRPF soldier injured in an attack claimed by militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba in Srinagar on Saturday.

Militants ambushed a party of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) near the Delhi Public School close to the Pantha chowk bypass at around 5:50pm.

The SI and several other CRPF personnel, part of road opening deployment, were sitting inside the vehicle when they came under fire. A jawan and the driver suffered bullet injuries, while the SI  identified as Sahib Shukla  was killed. The driver was identified as constable Nissar Ahmed, officials said.

CRPF spokesperson Rajesh Yadav confirmed the casualties, while inspector general of the paramilitary force, Ravideep Sahi, told ANI, Firing was on our vehicle... We have cordoned the area.

After the firing, the militants escaped towards the school, where they are believed to be holed up.

In a statement to KNS news agency, LeT spokesman Dr Abdullah Ghaznavi claimed it had killed three people.

Mujahideen of Lashkar e-Taiba attacked the CRPF party at Pantha Chowk on Srinagar-Jammu highway. Three CRPF men were killed in the attack and several others were injured, he said.

Reinforcements were rushed to the spot and a search operation was launched to secure the area.

In the melee, two other security personnel were injured after a policeman accidentally fired his rifle.

The incident comes a day after a senior police officer was stripped and beaten to death in the heart of the city.

(With PTI inputs)
A 33-year-old Keralite priest who was missing from last four days was found dead on a beach in Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, according to information received by Church sources on Saturday.

A message about the death of Martin Xavier Vazhachira, belonging to the CMI Congregation, was received by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate provincial from the Archbishop of St Andrews in Edinburgh on Saturday morning.

The message said the priest, hailing from Pulinkunnu in Alappuzha district, was found dead by Edinburgh police.

Details would be available only after Tuesday, a CMI official told PTI.

The priest served at St John the Baptist Church, Corstorphine in Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader in State Assembly Ramesh Chennithala asked External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to take immediate steps to bring the priests body to India.

In a letter to Swaraj, Chennithala said the body was found under mysterious circumstances on a beach and sought a comprehensive probe into his death.
Prime Minister Narendra Modis Washington visit would strengthen the India-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth, secretary of state Rex Tillerson has told foreign secretary S Jaishankar.

Tillerson met Jaishankar on Friday in Washington to discuss the US-India relationship and the agenda for Prime Minister Modis meetings at the White House on June 26, a State Department spokesman told PTI.

The secretary noted the Prime Ministers visit will strengthen ties between the United States and India and advance our common interest in fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth and prosperity, and expanding security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, the spokesperson said.

The two agreed that the two countries have a deep and growing strategic partnership and hope to work more closely on regional and global issues, the official said in response to a question.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department.

Jaishankar, a former Indian ambassador to the US, has been playing a leading role in shaping the India-US relationship under the Modi government.

Modis US visit would begin on June 25. He will meet President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

Ahead of his visit, Modi on Friday said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world, he tweeted.

My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world. https://t.co/UaF6lbo1ga  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) 23 June 2017

In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.

President Trump and I have spoken on telephone prior to this. Our conversations have touched upon our common intent to take forward our productive all round engagement for the mutual benefit of our people, he said.

I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide ranging partnership between India and the United States, the Prime Minister said.

He noted that Indias partnership with the US was multi-layered and diverse, supported by not just governments but all the stakeholders on both sides.

I look forward to building a forward-looking vision for our partnership with the new administration in the United States under President Trump, he added.

Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.

Like in the past, he will also be interacting with the Indian diaspora.
I was drunk. They told me to attack the boys because they are cow eaters.

This is what Palwal resident Ramesh told police after his arrest for allegedly stabbing to death a 16-year-old Muslim boy and injuring his three brothers on a Mathura-bound train on Thursday.

Ramesh, who uses only one name, was part of a mob that attacked the four brothers who were on their way back home to Haryanas Ballabhgarh after Eid shopping at Sadar Bazar on Thursday evening.

Police said on Saturday Ramesh told them that he boarded the train from Ballabhgarh and saw some men fighting over seats. This quickly turned communal as the mob repeatedly called the brothers anti-nationals and beef eaters, threw their skull caps on the floor and taunted them with terms such as mulla.

Since he was drunk, he joined in, police quoted Ramesh as saying.

He said he heard the boys shouting for help and others calling them names. He said the men had cornered the boys and were instigating the people to thrash them as they were cow eaters, a police officer told Hindustan Times on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to journalists.

He said he got swayed and started hitting them.

The murder was the latest in a string of similar mob attacks that have triggered outrage across India. In April, a Muslim dairy farmer was lynched in Rajasthan by alleged cow vigilantes. A month later, a frenzied tribal mob killed seven people in 24 hours in Jharkhand over child abduction rumours.

The dead boy was identified as Hafiz Junaid. His three brothers  Hashim, Moin and Sakir  who joined the victim in Ballabhgarh, were hospitalised with stab wounds.

Ramesh was arrested on Friday. Four others have been detained for questioning.

Primarily four men launched the attack. From the accused we have recovered a few things that indicate his presence on the train and his involvement in the attack, Government Railway Police superintendent Kamaleeep Goyal said.

The victims brothers have identified two attackers among the people detained. The police are yet to formally name anyone in the stabbing of the brothers but added the charge of hurting religious sentiments to the FIR. The weapon too is yet to be recovered.

To identify witnesses to the crime, a police team took the same train from Okhla to Ballabhgarh along with Hashim and Moin on Saturday.

The police have asked us to identify even the onlookers and the men who were encouraging the attackers to beat us and kill us, Hashim said.

We were shocked at the apathy of fellow passengers. No one has come forward to register a statement on the attack. That day we kept shouting for help but they all looked away. They saw the men slashing my brothers body, stabbing me and my other brother but did nothing.

There was blood spattered all over the floor and the passengers just moved away as they dragged Junaid on the floor.

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The White House is rolling out the red carpet for Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his first meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday. The two leaders will discuss the deepening of defence and security ties, launch new initiatives on counter-terrorism and thrash out trade issues of mutual concern.

They are also expected to discuss climate change, an uncomfortable issue after Trump took an ill-informed shot at India (and China) in remarks announcing US exit from the Paris Accord, and freedom of navigation and overflight in the Indo-Pacific region, in other words China, in the context of the South China Sea dispute.

There were no plans for discussing the issue of H-1B visas, a senior White House official previewing the visit for reporters said, adding if its raised, the US will note that while Trump has ordered a review, there have been no immediate changes in visa applications and issuance procedures.

At the end of hours of one-on-one and delegation-level bilateral meetings attended by members of Trumps cabinet, the two sides will break for a cocktail reception and then proceed to a working dinner, which will be a milestone: Modi will be the first foreign dignitary invited to dinner at the Trump White House.

The White House is very interested in making this a special visit, the official said, adding: We are really seeking to roll out the carpet.

Expect a concrete expression of US designating India a major defence partner --- by the Barack Obama administration in 2016, the official said, refusing to confirm or deny reports the US had cleared the sale of 22 high-tech unarmed drones to India. The designation allows America to extend India the same benefits as it would to its closest allies and partners in matters of defence trade.

Trump wants to build on the momentum of increasing defence trade between the two countries in recent years  up to $15 billion in contracts since 2008, the official said, adding the US wants to facilitate Indias defence modernisation and help it enhance its role as a leader in Asia-Pacific.

Also high on the agenda for the two leaders would be counter-terrorism. Apart from the usual discussions about terrorist screening, information sharing, terrorists use of the internet and terrorist designation, the official said, we can expect to see some new initiatives on counter-terrorism.

Discussions will include global cooperation and burden sharing. The official referred to Indias ongoing efforts in Afghanistan where it has spent $3 billion on development projects and areas to help grow its democratic institutions.

Modi and Trump will also discuss trade and investment, areas of mutual interest to both leaders and disagreement between their bureaucracies. The White House appears prepared to raise all its concerns and listen to those aired by India. Both sides are looking to increase market access, the official said, adding, the US expects stronger Intellectual Property Rights and tariff reduction.

These trade issues were raised with unrelenting persistence also by the Obama administration, which was close to marking India for punitive measures, but held off because of Modis election and then subsequent efforts by him to address those issues, including formulating a new intellectual property policy, which, however, does not go as far as the US and other western nations wanted, especially on pharmaceuticals.

Also on the agenda will be China. Though the official did name it, the reference could not have been clearer in the assertion that the two sides will re-state their commitment to common principles in a strategically vital and important region, the Indo-Pacific, and this includes the freedom of navigation and overflight, an unmistakable nod to Chinas increasing aggression in the disputed South China Sea.

Though it wasnt clear if Pakistan will figure in the talks, the official said, in response to questions from reporters, the United States views its relations with India and Pakistan mutually exclusive of each other  its not a zero sum game.

The official went on to address a view being pushed  recycled, actually  lately seeking US role in resolving India-Pakistan dispute. We very much encourage India and Pakistan to engage in direct dialogue wth each other, a a bilateral dialogue to reduce tensions in the region, the official said.
The ruling BJP might be pursuing the goal of a Congress-mukt Bharat as a solution to the countrys problems, but a government report prepared by the NITI Aayog  its think tank  feels otherwise.

The report credits economic reforms initiated by the Narasimha Rao government in 1991 and the UPAs rural employment guarantee scheme with improving Indias development indices.

The Voluntary National Review Report, which maps the progress India has made on sustainable development goals (SDGs), will be discussed at the UNs High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York next month.

There is compelling evidence that the rapid growth India has achieved following the economic reforms initiated in 1991 has led to significant reduction in poverty. Poverty has fallen across all economic, social and religious groups nationally and in all states in the post-reform era.

Sustained growth (6.2% from 1993-94 to 2003-04 and 8.3% from 2004-05 to 2011-12) has created gainful employment and helped raise wages, the report, authored by Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya says.

The report also praises a number of initiatives of the current government, ranging from the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, the Clean India campaign to providing soil health cards to farmers. Over 130 million people have accessed life and accident insurance under the programmes. Efforts are underway to universalise access to basic services. In order to achieve the goal of housing for all by 2022, direct financial assistance is being extended to poor households, it says.

In February 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mocked the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA) programme, dubbing it a living monument of the UPAs failures.

After 60 years, you are still making people dig holes, he had said. But in the last budget, the government announced plans to improve the existing scheme and allocate more funds for it.

Several large-scale anti-poverty programmes have been implemented. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, for instance, has generated over two billion person-days of employment during 2016-17 alone, largely for the disadvantaged sections of society, the report now says. It goes on to list a number of initiatives for poverty eradication. Initiatives like the Make in India campaign accelerated Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows and helped the country sustain an average growth of 7.5 percent during the last three financial years (2014-15 to 2016-17), the report points out.

Apart from notable progress over the last decade, the statistics in the report also point to the problem areas. For instance, stunted growth among children remains an issue, though it is down from nearly 50% in 2005-06 to 38.4% a decade later. Similarly, less than half of Indian households (43.8%) have access to clean fuel.

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In Ilyas Khans eyes shine the pride of a grand past that give way to the clouds of an uncertain future. Two decades ago, the Thursday cattle market he runs in western Uttar Pradeshs Banat saw traders troop in from faraway Delhi and Bihar. Today, the facility is on its last legs, he says, and struggles to even attract people from nearby Shamli.

First, demonetisation wiped out cash from the farmers and traders hands. Then, as banknotes slowly returned to circulation, a crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses in the state wrecked the local market for cattle. Now, a central government notification on cattle markets  bazarbandi in local parlance  threatens to lurch the Banat facility towards closure.

The number of cattle we sell is down to 10%. Earlier the place would buzz from 7am to 5pm. Now all trade is over in two hours, says Ilyas, sitting inside a makeshift tent on one corner of a massive field. Tabaahi ho gayi hai.

The dead market stirs alive every now and then by the roar and gusts of dust kicked up by an occasional truck. A handful of buffaloes amble about in the middle  a sign of slowing local demand that was the mainstay of Banat. Opposite the market, the lone legal slaughterhouse in the district is shuttered.

Only factories are running. Local butchers are finished. People are scared of police, Yogi (chief minister Adityanath) and his yuva vahini, says Nyasuddin, one of the oldest traders in the market. He says trade has fallen from Rs 1.5 lakh to just Rs 40,000 a day, and the number of labourers employed from 80 to 10.

The sale of cows has stopped and buffaloes and bulls sell for between Rs 15,000 and Rs 75,000, depending on strength and age. But overhead costs are many  traders privately say police are cashing in on the atmosphere of fear amnd ask for bribes to let trucks pass. A case of cow slaughter in nearby Garhi Pukhta has spooked locals further. Imagine if local vegetables are banned and are sold only in the city, Ilyas complains.

District animal husbandry department chief Bhupendra Singh blames the slowing trade on a refusal to adhere to rules  each market has two doctors who ensure trades can only carry a certain number of animals in a truck. But privately, district officials concur that the cattle market business is finished.

Such tales of distress abound on the other side of the chain. In Uttarakhands Rajaji National Park, for example, officials are battling a scourge of farmers leaving old cattle to be eaten by leopards because locals are scared the animals will die on their watch. Most states hand out harsh punishments for cattle slaughter but havent ramped up the capacity of shelters to take in old and infirm animals.

This is hurting the dairy industry. I am concerned about aging cows. Earlier I handed them to sheds but they are packed, says Dharmendra Chauhan, who runs a dairy in Dehradun.

In the capital Delhi, shelters have refused to take in any new animals for months, and lack of quality care has contributed to the deaths of 150 cows in one of Indias richest cowsheds in Kanpur.

Experts say a climate of fear has jammed earlier systems of disposal of old and unproductive cattle that take upwards of Rs 10,000 a month to maintain. A crippling farm crisis sweeping Indias food bowl states and a perennial shortage of fodder  India has just 40% of the fodder required for 500 million farm animals  has worsened the crisis.

Livestock used to be the ATM of farmers who could sell them to fund education or medical expenses. But now theyre forced to maintain infirm cattle. If he doesnt have anything to eat, how will he feed the cow, asks Fauzan Alavi of the All India Meat & Livestock Exporters Association.

He thinks the governments aim of doubling farm incomes by 2022 is a pipe dream under the current slaughter rules. 20 years down, farmers will still be asking for loan waiversthis emotion over economics is hurting farmers.

Scientists agree, pointing to the fact that yields of local breeds of cattle are far lower than sustainable levels  just five of the 35 prevalent breeds of cattle are milch  and the solution is long-term policy change to drive fodder generation and cross-breeding, not forcing farmers to keep unproductive animals.

Farmer should have the choice to get rid of animals. The government should procure all animals and feed themif they cant, how can they expect poor farmers to? asks Dr Narayan Hegde of the BAIF Research Foundation in Pune.

He gives the example of Maharashtra, where the government banned slaughter in 2015 and a drought scorched the state soon after. Farmers couldnt sell their animals and had to keep with them, watch them dying of fodder and water shortage. It was a helpless and pathetic situation.

Others warn that the rules are ill thought out and would cause the cattle population to explode over the next decade. Animal husbandry may even become unpopular and limited to cattle lovers, says Hegde.

(with inputs from Anupam Trivedi in Dehradun)

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The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) made up of special forces men and militants were armed with special daggers and headband cameras to mutilate and record the attack on the Indian Army patrol party after entering 600 meters across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district. Indian soldiers, however, foiled their plan.

The attack left two Indian soldiers dead while one BAT member was killed in retaliatory action by Indian troops.

Army troops during search and sanitation operations, recovered the body of a member of the BAT team along LoC in Gulpur sector of Poonch district on.

The body of the intruder killed in the BAT attempt on 22 June has been retrieved and handed over to the local police, a senior army officer told PTI.

Arms, ammunition and other war-like stores including a special dagger and a headband with a camera, knife, one AK rifle, 3 magazines, 2 grenades besides dresses and bags was recovered which reflects the barbaric mindset of the Pakistan Army, he said.

The resolute action of our soldiers didnt let the nefarious plan (of mutilating bodies and recording it on camera) succeed, officer said.

Giving details, the officer said that a special class of dagger and a knife was meant to engineer quick mutilation and beheading of jawans killed in the firing exchanges and it has been foiled by the quick action by Indian soldiers.

The BAT member was wearing headband with camera on his head to record the action and possible mutilation of jawans, which was prevented by other troops who shot dead one of them and injured another, he said.

The officer said it is matter of investigation whether the camera was live connected with Pakistan Army establishments across the border.

The data and details of the camera will be analysed, he said.

We are confident that another BAT member has also been killed but his body was taken back by the other members of the BAT, he said.

In the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces on Thursday sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Border Action Team (BAT), which generally comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan Army and some terrorists, carried out the attack at around 2 pm on Thursday under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops from their posts, he said.

A Border Action Team of five to seven heavily-armed men, under the cover of Pakistani firing, entered 600 meters inside the LoC in Gulpur forward area in Poonch sector around 2 PM yesterday and launched a fierce attack on Indian Army patrol party with several types of weapons, the official said.

The Pakistani attackers came up to 200 meters near the Indian posts.

During the attack, the Pakistani troops resorted to firing in Gulpur-Karmara-Chakan-Da-Bagh area along the LoC.

The armed intruders targeted an area domination patrol of the Indian Army, triggering a gunfight, the official said.

The Indian troops killed one of the attackers and injured another whose extrication was facilitated by the cover fire by the Pakistani troops from their posts.

In the firefight, two Indian soldiers were killed. They were 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad, Maharashtra and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

The Pakistani firing continued till 3.30 PM on Friday even as the Indian posts retaliated strongly.

In a similar BAT attack on May 1, two Indian soldiers were beheaded in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district. That attack too was carried out under the cover of shelling by the Pakistani troops.

Prior to that, a BAT attack was carried out in February but there were no casualties.

Earlier, there have been several BAT attacks in which Indian jawans have been beheaded or their bodies mutilated.

On October 28 last year, militants attacked a post and killed an Indian Army soldier and mutilated his body close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Machil sector.

In January 2013, Lance Naik Hemraj was killed and his body mutilated by a BAT. It had also beheaded Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh.
Aruna Roy, a civil servant-turned-rights activist who spearheaded the movements that led to RTI and right to work legislations, has accused the Narendra Modi government of muzzling dissent, pandering to multinational companies, sidelining the minorities and trying to defang the countrys transparency law.

Excerpts from her interview:

There are reports of RTI applications to government offices being turned down, information commissioner positions lying vacant for prolonged periods, and RTI activists such as Nikhil Dey being targeted. How do you view these incidents?

We want a working information commission that is staffed. We want a commission that works for the Act and not the government; for transparency and not secrecy; and does not function under political pressure. All governments have delayed appointment of commissioners. In addition, the kind of commissioners being appointed is also questionable. They get people from departments like intelligence bureau and police, who are used to seeing people as enemies of the state. We need people with an open mindset.

Your views on this government?

There were a lot of platforms created in the last 20 years for people-government interactions. We cant make do with just tweets. You can tweet about one issue, with one opinion, but when you are talking to people, you need to have platforms where you can sit as equals and talk about legislation and policies. Look at UID or demonetisation. The government did not even consult its own ministries, its own Parliament, its own cabinet. What does that tell us? That its afraid of debate and dissent. We now have propaganda, jargon, tweets and Mann Ki Baat. But Mann Ki Baat is one person telling us his mann ki baat. There are 1.2 billion mann ki baats in India. They need to be heard.

Do you see any semblance between these times and the Emergency years?

There are two kinds of emergencies. The first one was a constitutional emergency, so everybody knew there was an emergency and people were jailed. Today, we have another kind of emergency in which constitutional rights are being suspended. What are the indications of an emergency? People are afraid to express themselves, which is the same today. They are scared of doing anything because they are beaten up... The inequality prevalent today is, in one sense, as bad as the Emergency.

Do you see the same discontent among the people today?

Its rising. When you have a blatant imposition of something, its apparent to the people. But when its insidious, it takes longer. I think the poor have understood that this government is not theirs. At many places, I now hear people say that this is contractor raj or company raj, but not our raj. They also understand that all this mob justice and vigilantism is a failure of governance. Minorities now have their backs to the wall.

As someone who has seen nearly a dozen prime ministers, how do you rate Narendra Modi?

Popularity cant be gauged by the number of votes you get, and ethics cant be gauged by the growth you bring in. Ethics is a much larger issue, and I dont think anybody can stake claim to being another Gandhi, or another Nehru, or another Maulana Azad. I think one has to view the performance of a Prime Minister from a certain perspective, and for that I would quote Mahatma Gandhis famous words about the last man in the country being happy. A person is a good ruler if the last person in the country  and that should mean the minorities  is happy. Today, both the minorities and the poor are unhappy. Besides, there are agitations by a plethora of people.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Portugal on Saturday on the first leg of his three-nation tour during which he will hold talks with his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa to boost bilateral ties.

Ola Portugal. PM @narendramodi arrives in Lisbon, departing from protocol Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva receives the Prime Minister, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted along with some photographs.

Before leaving for Lisbon, Modi had said during his meeting with Costa, the two leaders will build on their recent discussions and review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions.

Portuguese Prime Minister Costa tweeted this is an excellent opportunity to review the implementation of the accords agreed during his India visit and sign new agreements.

#WATCH: Prime Minister Narendra Modi received by Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa at Necessidades Palace in Portugal's Lisbon. pic.twitter.com/Mj9aN5wVOM  ANI (@ANI_news) June 24, 2017

The highlight of Modis four-day three-nation visit will be the US leg as Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

Ahead of his US visit, Modi said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world, he had tweeted.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.

Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.

After the US visit, Modi will travel to the Netherlands on June 27 where he will have a meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and call on King Willem-Alexander and meet Queen Maxima.

This year, the two countries are celebrating 70 years of the establishment of Indo-Dutch diplomatic relations.

I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Rutte and reviewing our bilateral relations. I would be exchanging views with PM Rutte on important global issues including counter- terrorism and climate change, Modi said ahead of the visit.
The civil nuclear deal would be part of the discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump, the White House has said, emphasising that the US was looking forward to its nuclear reactors contributing to Indias energy security.

In terms of the actual deals, the US is still looking forward to US-built nuclear reactors contributing to Indias energy security. We think that this civil nuclear partnership will bolster Indias energy security, create jobs and trade opportunities for the American people.

So were still very much interested in seeing this deal move forward, a senior administration official told reporters ahead of PM Modis visit to the US next week.

I think Westinghouse stands behind the viability of the project, and it presented it in its technical commercial offer to India.

So we very much support continued negotiations between Westinghouse and its Indian partners, recognising that deals on this scale can take time, the official said, acknowledging that this is a very complicated issue.

This will be part of the discussion. Its the White House Energy Week, so civil nuclear energy cooperation is bound to come up, the official said in response to a question and dismissed reports that it has been suspended.

I wouldnt characterise the civil nuclear deal that was completed now nine years ago as being suspended or its done. That waiver was provided for India. The Nuclear Suppliers Group agreed to a waiver for India to receive civil nuclear technology and fuel. So thats completed, said the official.

Meanwhile, a senior White House official preparing for PM Modis maiden meeting with Trump, said that the US president is well aware of Indias economy and strategic potential.

He said that Trump has already visited Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, in his capacity as a real estate tycoon.

He has visited India. I think Mumbai, hes been to Mumbai, he said.

As you know, during the campaign he was very much in touch with the Indian-American community. He expressed a very positive feeling toward India.

I think he said that if he were to be elected, India would find a true friend in the White House, said the official.

He (Trump) is not new to India. He has understood their contribution to the US economy, everything thats happening in Silicon Valley, for example. Indian Americans have really embraced the innovation and entrepreneurship. So theres a lot of synergies and linkages between the US and India in this particular realm, the official said.

Noting that Indian-Americans have founded 15% of Silicon Valley startups alone, the official said that as a businessman, India is not new for him (Trump).

He has been acquainted with India. This will offer an opportunity to really deepen the strategic partnership and his strategic understanding of India, he said.

According to the official, the preparations for Modis trip started long ago.

Theres been a lot of preparatory work done. There has been a great deal of preparation to make this a really memorable visit, the official said adding that both sides recognise the importance of the US-India partnership.

There are a lot of things that the two countries need to do together in terms of promoting security and stability. Theres a lot they have to do that is in their mutual interests, the official said adding that the administration has been working with inter-agency when it comes to the US-India partnership.

There have been a tremendous amount of preparation, and were looking forward to a really good visit, he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left for Portugal, on the first leg of his three-nation tour that will also take him to the US and the Netherlands.

PM @narendramodi emplaned for Portugal, after which he shall visit USA and Netherlands for important bilateral visits, the Prime Ministers Office posted on Twitter.

PM @narendramodi emplaned for Portugal, after which he shall visit USA and Netherlands for important bilateral visits. pic.twitter.com/RfIfzVtIAa  PMO India (@PMOIndia) 24 June 2017

Modi will visit Portugal on Saturday before his trip to the US till June 26 and is expected to be in the Netherlands on June 27.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said Modis visit to the US has its own significance because it will be the first visit of the Prime Minister to engage with the new leader, with the new President (Donald Trump) after the elections last year in the US.

Modi would also hold talks with Antonio Costa, Portugals Prime Minister of Indian origin, in Lisbon before flying to the US where he would meet President Donald Trump.

PM @narendramodi to @realDonaldTrump "I look forward to building a forward looking vision for our partnership"  pic.twitter.com/bAhyJUjbUL  India in USA (@IndianEmbassyUS) 23 June 2017

On his way back, Modi would visit the Netherlands for talks with Prime Minister Mark Rutte at The Hague, besides calling on King Willem Alexander.

Seeking to roll out a red- carpet welcome to Modi, Trump would host a working dinner at the White House on Monday, the first of its kind under this administration.

The White House is very interested in making this a special visit. Were really seeking to roll out the red carpet. In fact, the two (leaders) will have dinner, a working dinner at the White House.

This will be the first dinner for a foreign dignitary at the White House under this administration. So, we think thats very significant, a senior administration official told reporters at the White House on the eve of Modis arrival.

Modi arrives in the US Capitol on Saturday night.

Beginning Monday afternoon, the two leaders would spend several hours together in various settings including a one-on-one, delegation level, a reception and conclude with a working dinner.

Theyll start off with a one-on-one meeting. Theyll go from the one-on-one meeting to the bilateral meetings. That will last for about an hour. Then they will each give press statements, the official said, clarifying that it would not be a press conference.

Theyll move from the press statements to a cocktail reception. And that will be followed by the working dinner. So its a long interaction, lots of time for the two leaders to get to know each other, to interact on the critical issues that face our two countries, the official said.

During the meetings, the US side will be represented by top leaders including vice president Mike Pence, National Security Adviser Lt Gen HR McMaster, secretary of state Rex Tillerson, defense secretary James Mattis, commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The Modi trip, the official said, is an opportunity to strengthen the US-India strategic partnership, which Trump very much views as a critical partnership in promoting stability and security in the Asia Pacific region and globally.

We anticipate that their discussions will be broad- ranging, hitting on a variety of regional and global issues that would seek to advance our common priorities, including fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth and prosperity, the official added.

Noting that the US is very much interested in facilitating Indias defence modernisation, and helping to enhance its role as a leader in the Asia Pacific, the official said the Trump Administration believes that a strong India is good for the US.

Now, of course, weve seen rapid growth in the defence and security partnership over the last few years, and President Trump very much wants to build on that momentum.

And last years designation of India as a major defence partner was extremely important, and I think well see a concrete expression of this important designation during this visit, said the senior White House official.

The Trump administration, the official said, believes that defence trade strengthens both the countries security, it reinforces the strategic partnership, and it allows their armed forces to cooperate more closely and improve their interaction with one another.

Observing that this defence trade has supported thousands of American jobs, the official said since 2008, India has signed over $15 billion in defence contracts with the US.

Counter-terrorism would be another major area of discussion.

The US and India are both committed to combating all forms of terrorism and strengthening their cooperation in areas like terrorist screening, intelligence and information sharing, terrorists use of the Internet, and, of course, terrorist designations, the official said.

I think we can expect to see some new initiatives on counter terrorism cooperation, the official said.

Among other things, Modi and Trump will also be discussing global cooperation and things like burden-sharing.

Mentioning that India has committed more than $3 billion in development aid to Afghanistan, the official said the US views Indias role in Afghanistan as very positive in helping to stabilise the country and promote democracy there.

Noting that India has also adopted UN sanctions against North Korea in April, the official said India joins the US in sending a very strong message to the North Korean regime.

This visit will provide an opportunity for both countries to restate their commitment to common principles in the strategically vital important region of the Indo-Pacific. This includes freedom of navigation and overflight, the official asserted.

In the trade and investment area, India and the US are committed to expanding and balancing their trade relationship, the official said.

Right now, two-way trade in goods and services totals over $114 billion.

Now, there are challenges in the trading sphere, and both sides look to increase their market access, the official added.

Observing that the US is looking for things like stronger intellectual property protections, reductions in tariffs, the official said this visit offers an opportunity to advance that trade dialogue and look for opportunities that will enhance prosperity and create jobs for both countries.

Energy partnership is one aspect of the economic relationship that has not been highlighted as much in the past, the official said, adding that this would be an important part of the trip.

Indian energy companies have signed over $32 billion in long-term contracts for the export of US-produced liquefied natural gas, including from Louisiana and Maryland, he said.

The visit will also demonstrate the strong people-to- people ties, the White House official said.

Today, nearly four million Indian Americans are in the United States, and more than 166,000 Indian students are studying in the US, contributing $5 billion in economic activity and supporting an estimated 64,000 American jobs, the official said.

Modis visit to the US  the first under the Trump Administration -- offers an opportunity for relationship- building, the official said.

I think these two leaders have a lot in common. For one, they are the worlds two most followed political leaders on social media.

I think President Trump is slightly ahead of Modi, but I think this shows the kind of leaders they are. Theyre both innovators, theyre both businessmen, theyre committed to bringing greater prosperity to their people and thinking about innovative ways to do that, the official noted.

I think theyre going to find a lot of common ground in their discussions, both personally and in terms of the strategic partnership, said the senior administration official.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday arrested a senior state government official for allegedly amassing illegally assets worth over Rs 500 crore.

The arrest was made after ACB teams conducted raids on the properties of Pamu Panduranga Rao, who is working as engineer-in-chief, public health in the states municipal administration department, and his relatives for the last two days.

The raids in 14 places in Visakhapatnam, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Hyderabad led to unearthing of huge assets disproportionate to Raos known sources of income, ACB chief R P Thakur Rao said.

The assets include a number of plots, agricultural land, gold and silver ornaments, flats and independent houses, Rs 10 lakh in cash, US dollars worth 1.95 lakh in Indian currency and bank balance of Rs. 25 lakh.

Among several properties, Rao owned 2,242 square yards of plots in prime localities of Madhuravada in Visakhapatnam, Alwal in Hyderabad and Keesara in Rangareddy district, 6.77 acres of agricultural land in Krishna district and three houses in Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Kocherla in Krishna district, together admeasuring 7,453 sq feet.

In the name of his wife Rajya Lakshmi, Rao had registered 31 plots in various places of Visakhapatnam, West Godavari, Guntur and Hyderabad, admeasuring 15,243 square yards, besides agricultural lands of 27.11 acres in Ranga Reddy, Medak, Krishna and West Godavari districts, two houses in Hyderabad and a four- storeyed hospital building in Visakhapatnam.

He also reportedly floated three shell companies in the name of his son Sunil and wife Rajya Lakshmi and made massive investments in other firms.

He established Righten Soft Technologies and Services Private Limited in the name of his son Sunil, HM Technocrats India Private Limited in the name of his wife and Ashwin Hospitals Pvt Limited in the name of his wife and son. Besides, he also invested Rs 33 lakh each in two companies  Sudhir Solar Power and Sunil Enterprises in the name of his children.

Rao was remanded to 14 days judicial custody by a special court for ACB cases in Vijayawada. The ACB authorities also recommended to the government to suspend him from the services.

During preliminary investigations, it was revealed that Rao had bought most of the ill-gotten properties in the name of his in-laws and then got them registered in the name of his wife and son as gift deeds.

According to ACB authorities, Rao had allegedly collected huge amounts as bribes while allotting engineering works undertaken by Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam corporations during his tenure as engineering chief.

There were also allegations that he had siphoned off huge amounts of money from the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM) and also from recently introduced AMRUT scheme.

He was arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act for possessing assets disproportionate to his income. Investigation is going on into alleged irregularities done by Rao, an ACB official said.

The registered value of the disproportionate assets was over Rs 12 crore, but the market value has been estimated to be more than Rs 500 crore, ACB sources said.

A native of Kotcherla in Kalidindi mandal of Krishna district, Rao joined the government service in 1987 as deputy executive engineer and worked in various positions such as chief engineer of Greater Visakha Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

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On June 15, 2017, Congress member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor claimed that 23 of the BJP-led governments new programmes were merely renamed versions of schemes launched by the previous governments led by his party.

Another Twitter user made the same claim on June 11, 2017.

We found that 19 of the 23 programmes were indeed renamed versions of older schemes, as Tharoor claimed.

Why we in @INCIndia insist this is a name-changing government, not a game-changing one! pic.twitter.com/Opdj3n2xaV  Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) 15 June 2017

Heres our analysis:

Claim 1: Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana=Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account

Fact: True

Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account (BSBDA) was a no-minimum-balance service with all facilities of a normal banking account except that withdrawals were limited to four a month, according to this Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular dated August 17, 2012. The accounts came with an automated teller machine (ATM)-cum-debit card too.

The BSBDA accounts were also meant for beneficiaries of government programmes, according to this answer in the Rajya Sabha (upper house of Parliament) on December 13, 2012.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), launched on August 28, 2014, an accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh, overdraft facility up to Rs 5,000 after six months and a life insurance of Rs 30,000 were added to BSBDA accounts.

Unlike BSBDA, PMJDY accounts had a credit limit of Rs 1 lakh because of which pension reimbursements were getting rejected, The Financial Express reported on September 8, 2016.

While BSBDA covered only villages with above 2,000 population, PMJDY has been extended to all areasrural as well as urban.

They are more or less the same. All accounts opened prior to August 28, 2014, were BSBDA. Since then, they have all become PMJDY accounts. Its only a change of nomenclature, Prem Singh Azad, deputy general manager, Allahabad Bank, who is involved in the banks financial inclusion programme, told IndiaSpend.

Claim 2: Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana=National Girl Child Day programmes

Fact: True

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-I declared January 24 as the National Girl Day in 2008-09 and several objectives associated with previous continuing programmes were adopted as targets.

Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana (BBBPY), launched in January 2015 under the ministries of women and child development, health and family welfare and human resource development, was a consolidation of old programmes scattered across schemes and ministries under the UPA government.

For instance, the girl child education programme of BBBPY was a repackaging of older education schemes such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, according to this February 2016 report by the Centre for Development and Human Rights, a research and advocacy organisation in New Delhi.

Similarly, BBBPYs objectives of improving the child sex ratio and reducing school dropout rates among girls were already present in the UPAs Dhanalakshmi and Sabla schemes, respectively. Dhanalakshmi was later discontinued as states already had better schemes in place.

Claim 3: Swachh Bharat Abhiyan=Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan

Fact: True

In September 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government approved a proposal that Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan scheme be restructured into Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, according to this government release.

Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan was the new name adopted for the Total Sanitation Campaign on April 1, 2012 under UPA-II, according to the Abhiyans guidelines.

Total Sanitation Campaign was the new name given to the Central Rural Sanitation Programmelaunched by the Congress in 1986in 1999, according to the drinking water and sanitation ministrys website.

Claim 4: Sardar Patel National Urban Housing Mission=Rajiv Awaas Yojana

Fact: True

The government is shortly going to launch a comprehensive programme named Sardar Patel National Housing Mission by merging and improving existing urban housing schemes, The Pioneer reported on October 10, 2014, quoting Housing and Poverty Alleviation Minister Venkaiah Naidu.

A parliamentary committee, headed by Biju Janata Dal member Pinaki Mishra, had even asked the government in December 2014 how merely changing the name could accelerate implementation, The Telegraph reported on December 30, 2014.

Claim 5: Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin)=Indira Awaas Yojana

Fact: True

A parliamentary standing committee reportsubmitted on August 31, 2016pointed out that Congresss Indira Awaas Yojana was rechristen[ed] Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin).

The Guidelines, Scheme Allocation and FAQs on the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Gramin) website still open Indira Awaas Yojana documents.

Claim 6: Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana=Rajiv Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana

Fact: True

The UPAs Rajiv Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana was subsumed under Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana, according to this government release on July 23, 2015.

Claim 7: Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation=Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission

Fact: True

NDAs urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu had said on assuming office that they would replace Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) with their own urban renewal schemes, The Hindu reported on May 29, 2014.

Subsequently, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), smart cities Mission and Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Urban) were launched on June 25, 2015.

JNNURM was launched on December 3, 2005, for an initial period of seven years and then extended for two years up to March 2014, according to this Rajya Sabha answer on December 6, 2012.

A comparison of some key objectives of the two programmes shows that under the NDA government, the targets of UPAs umbrella programme have been spread over several schemes.

The sectors covered under JNNURM and [AMRUT and other urban development programmes] overlap significantly, according this March 2016 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, a global consultancy .

[V]arious urban sector components [that] were earlier addressed through a single mission (JNNURM)  have now been split across missions [such as AMRUT, Smart Cities Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission], the report said.

Comparison of Urban Development Programmes - Sources: Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation,Town and Country Planning Organisation, AMRUT, Smart Cities Mission, PM Awaas Yojana-Urban

Claim 8: Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana=Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme

Fact: Unclear

Three older programmes Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme of the water resources ministry, Integrated Watershed Management Programme of the land resources ministry and the On Farm Water Management of agriculture and cooperation departmentwere merged to create the NDAs Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, according to Yojanas website.

As government websites (click here, here, here, here and here) do not reveal when exactly the programme was launched in 1996, it is difficult to check this claim, as three prime ministersCongresss P.V. Narasimha Rao (till May 16), BJPs Atal Bihari Vajpayee (May 16-June 1) and Janata Dal (Secular)s H.D. Deve Gowda (June 1 onwards)governed India during 1996.

The watershed management programme goes back to the late 1980s when the country was mostly under Congresss rule.

Claim 9: BJPs neem-coated urea=Congresss neem-coated urea

Fact: True

Neem-coated urea was included in the Fertiliser (Control) Order of 1985 in 2004, according to government-owned National Fertilizers website, and was notified on June 2, 2008, according to this government communication.

It was finally included in the 1985 Order through an amendment on February 6, 2017.

Claim 10: Soil Health Card scheme=National Project on Management of Soil Health and Fertility

Fact: True

A soil health card was added to the National Project on Management of Soil Health and Fertility, according to the Outcome Budget 2015-16 of the agriculture and cooperation department.

The centre would earlier provide support to states for issuing soil health cards under the central scheme, according to Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) answers (click here and here).

Under the UPA government, soil health cards were also issued under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, one of its several organic-farming programmes, according to the Outcome Budget 2015-16. This scheme was also merged with NDAs renamed Soil Health Card programme.

Claim 11: Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana=Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and other programmes

Fact: True

Some existing components  have been clubbed together as a cluster based programme and named Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, according to the Outcome Budget 2015-16 of the agriculture and cooperation department, FactChecker reported on July 22, 2015.

Claim 12: Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana=Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana

Fact: Unclear

The ministry of women and child developments website does not use the new namePradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojanafor the maternity benefit programme (see the latest release dated May 19, 2017) but archives releases under the Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana under the same head.

A senior ministry official was quoted as saying the name had been changed, Hindustan Times reported on May 25, 2017.

Claim 13: Atal Pension Yojana=Swavalamban Yojana

Fact: True

Even as the Modi government folded Congresss Swavalamban Yojanaa pension scheme for unorganised sector workers launched on September 29, 2010under its Atal Pension Yojana, the features of the two schemes remain the same, according to this comparison by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute For Contemporary Studies, a think tank in New Delhi.

Claim 14: Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana=Jan Aushadhi scheme

Fact: True

The decision to launch the Jan Aushadhi scheme, a programme to supply unbranded medicines at lower prices, was taken on April 23, 2008. The first store under the scheme was opened on November 25, 2008, according to the Bureau of Pharma PSU in India, established under the department of pharmaceuticals on December 1, 2008, to coordinate the scheme through government-owned companies.

The scheme is now called Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana, according to this Lok Sabha answer on March 14, 2017.

Claim 15: Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana=Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme

Fact: False

The 1985 Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme concluded in 1999, according to this report of the agriculture and cooperation department.

Claim 16: Make In India=National Manufacturing Policy

Fact: True

The Make In India website not only summarises the scheme as Congresss National Manufacturing Policy but even the broken download link unsuccessfully directs you to a 2011 document of the older policy.

The features of the National Manufacturing Policy and Make in India remain the same, shows a comparison on Twitter on February 13, 2016, by Amitabh Dubey, a political analyst at Trusted Sources, which provides investment research on emerging markets.

So that's why Modi's #MakeInIndia agenda is so familiar; it's a cut-and-paste of the UPA's manufacturing policy. pic.twitter.com/0qIcZOuPf2  Amitabh Dubey (@dubeyamitabh) 13 February 2016

Claim 17: Digital India=National eGovernance Plan

Fact: True

The National eGovernance Plan is now subsumed under Digital India, according to this government release on November 30, 2016.

Both the Congress (click here and here) and the BJP schemes talk about building infrastructure for delivering government services electronically.

Claim 18: Skill India=National Skill Development Programme

Fact: True

Previous skill development programmes were relaunched as Skill India with new branding, according to this government release on July 15, 2015.

The older programmesNational Skill Development Corporation and National Skill Development Fund (launched in 2009), and National Skill Development Agency (launched in 2013)were brought under a new department of skill development and entrepreneurship on July 31, 2014, according to this government release. The department became a ministry on November 9, 2014.

Claim 19: Mission Indradhanush=Universal Immunisation Programme

Fact: True

Mission Indradhanush is the new name for special immunisation weeks, which were being conducted in areas of low immunisation under the Universal Immunisation Programme, FactChecker reported on July 23, 2015.

Claim 20: Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana=National Rural Livelihood Mission

Fact: True

The Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana  is a part of the National Rural Livelihood Mission, according to the programme website.

Claim 21: PAHAL=Direct Benefits Transfer for LPG

Fact: True

Launched on June 1, 2013, the Direct Benefit transfer of LPG scheme PAHAL (Pratyaksh Hanstantrit Labh) [was] re-launched in 54 districts on November 15 ,2014 in the 1st phase and will be launched in the rest of the 622 districts of the country on 1.1.2015, according to this government release on December 31, 2014.

Claim 22: BharatNet=National Optic Fibre Network

Fact: True

The National Optic Fibre Network, approved on October 25, 2011, aims to provide Broadband connectivity to Panchayats.

BharatNet merely repeats the claim: to digitally connect all the Gram Panchayats (GPs) and Villages of India, according to this September 2016 Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay report on the second phase of the programme.

Claim 23: Sagarmala=National Maritime Development Programme

Fact: False

The programme was originally announced by former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on August 15, 2003, during the BJP-led NDAs first stint in power, Frontline reported in March-April 2004.

When the Congress-led UPA came to power, it launched its own National Maritime Development Programme even as Sagarmala lapsed, according to this Lok Sabha answer on August 3, 2009.

The NDA revived the original programme on March 25, 2015.

(FactChecker.in is fact-checking initiative, scrutinising for veracity and context statements made by individuals and organisations in public life.)
Suspected militants gunned down a student leader in Manipurs Imphal. The police, fearing a students agitation, have launched a massive manhunt to nab the killers, an official said on Saturday.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

President of the Haokip Students Organisation Letkholal Haokip was shot dead outside his home at Langol near here on Friday night.

The 40-year-old leader had just got out of his jeep when he was attacked from close range. Haokip sustained fatal bullet injuries, the police said.

His neighbours rushed him to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences here but he could not be saved.

The gunmen who came in a car managed to escape, said the police, who have registered a case. Officials said there were indications that the students might resort to an agitation.

In another incident in Tengnoupal district, a tribal farmer, T Angshan, who was abducted on Thursday morning by two masked men, was found dead.

The kidnappers had said they wanted to speak to the 36-year-old farmer but his bullet-ridden body was recovered on Friday.

Activists said the farmer could not have offended any underground organisation and demanded the killers arrest. Police have registered a case but no arrest has been made so far.
Trouble in the Himalayan state of Sikkim is set to rise after its chief minister Pawan Chamling extended support to the struggle for a separate state of Gorkhaland.

On Friday, Trinamool Congress supporters and a section of car drivers and owners protested in Siliguri and stopped vehicles from going to Sikkim. They were protesting against Chamlings letter to Union home minister Rajnath Singh, requesting him to form Gorkhaland.

Sikkim is dependent on Siliguri for supply of essential commodities and fuel, which are carried along National Highway 10 that passes through Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts. The hills are observing an indefinite bandh since June 15.

There were minor problems till Thursday. But from Friday, the troubles increased, said DT Lepcha, minister of Sikkim Nationalised Transport (SNT) that runs trucks and buses. Senior officials of Sikkim are in touch with their Bengal counterparts to sort out the issues, he told HT.

On Friday, the Mamata Banerjee administration shot off a letter to the Union home minister, describing Chamlings move as interference in Bengals affairs.

In the evening, some Sikkim-bound vehicles were vandalised at Champasari More. On Saturday, the SNT terminus remained closed, increasing the troubles of hundreds of tourists and local passengers. Because of the road connections through Bengal, Sikkim suffers whenever there is a bandh in Darjeeling.

Though the Chamling administration has started bracing up for the interruption in supply of vital goods, the states official support to the cause has added to the troubles.

Sikkim and its people always suffer. If we do not support Gorkhaland demand, those involved in the movement dont allow the vehicles to ply along NH10. If we support it, those in the plains of Siliguri dont allow the vehicles to move towards Sikkim, said an information department officer.

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The BJP government in Uttarakhand has moved the Supreme Court to relieve it of the duty of being the legal guardian of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers.

Challenging a three-month-old verdict of the Uttarakhand High Court declaring the Ganga and Yamuna living entities, bestowing on them same legal rights as a person, the state government contended that the verdict as unsustainable in the law and had various legal repercussions.

The plea asked that in case of human casualties in a flood, can the affected people file suit for damages against the Chief Secretary of the State and as to whether State Government would be liable to bear such financial burden.

The March 20 landmark judgment of the high court had allowed the director general of Namami Gange project, Uttarakhand chief secretary and advocate general the right to represent the Ganga in a view to help in efforts to clean the polluted rivers.

The Namami Gange is the Narendra Modis governments ambitious plan that brings together various efforts for cleaning and conserving the river.

The petition also pointed out that high court erred in not considering that Ganga and Yamuna are inter-state rivers and these rivers flows in other different states.

The state government asked what would be the role of its chief secretary, who has been declared by the high court as loco parentis (local guardian) to the rivers, if there arises any dispute in respect any kind of different illegalities being committed in other states.

As per the provisions under item no. 56 of the union list of the 7th Schedule (Article 246) of the Constitution, it is the sole constituent right of the Union Government to frame out the rule for efficacious management of all the inter-state rivers, the petition said.

Terming the verdict as unsustainable in the law, the Uttarakhand government contended that the high court went beyond its jurisdiction in passing the verdict, as no pleadings or prayer was made before the court to declare the rivers as living entities.

It argued that the issue before the high court was only with regard to removal of encroachments from the Shakti Canal on the Yamuna in Dehradun district.

There is no dispute that river Ganga and Yamuna and other tributaries in India are having social impacts, and they support and assist both the life and natural resources and health and well being of the entire community, the Uttarakhand government petition said adding, Thus only to protect the faith of the society river Ganga and Yamuna cannot be declared as legal person.

The Ganga is the holiest Hindu river and also among the dirtiest in the world. The Yamuna is its largest tributary and originates from Yamunotri in Uttarakhand.

The high court order ended the reign of New Zealands Whanganui River as the only one in the world to be granted living entity status.

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Horrific, shameful: Political parties condemn police officers lynching in Kashmir

The lynching of a police officer outside the Jamia Masjid in downtown Srinagar on Friday triggered widespread condemnation from political parties with National Conference leader Omar Abdullah saying those behind the travesty should burn in hell. In a strong reaction, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti termed the killing of deputy superintendent of police Mohammad Ayub Pandith as shameful and warned people of severe backlash if the police loses its patience. The Congress expressed serious concern over the worsening situation in Kashmir; party vice president Rahul Gandhi termed the lynching as horrific, saying the incident marked a new low in the state.

Read the story here.

Is this the azadi we are fighting for? Anger, disbelief among kin of J-K cop lynched by mob

Anger and disbelief was high among the near and dear of Mohammed Ayub Pandith, the Jammu and Kashmir police officer who was lynched by a mob in Srinagar on Thursday, as they tried to make sense of his killing. What state we have reached that we kill a person outside a mosque on an auspicious night without any reason? Is this what the religion has taught us? asked a close relative of Pandith at their home in old city Nowpora. Is this the azadi (freedom) we are fighting for that we have started lynching people? What shall we do with such Azadi? she asked.

Read the story here.

Muslim boy stabbed to death on train after argument turns into religious slurs

One minor Muslim boy was allegedly stabbed to death and four others were injured on board a Mathura-bound train, police said on Friday, when an argument over a seat turned into religious slurs and triggered a mob attack on family members returning home from Eid shopping. The incident took place on Thursday evening between Okhla and Asoti in Haryana, a distance of about 60 km. Police said one person was arrested on Friday and he has confessed to his involvement in the killing of Hafiz Junaid (16), which came amid several incidents of assaults on Muslims across the country over beef and cow slaughter.

Read the story here.

Has Bihar ki beti been chosen to lose, asks Nitish on Oppns presidential pick

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar faced fresh calls from ally and RJD chief Lalu Prasad and opposition parties to reconsider the JD(U)s support to NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind but he stood his ground. But Kumar stuck to his stand, saying the presidential election should not become an issue of confrontation. It is an election for President. It should not become an issue of confrontation, he told reporters after visiting Prasads residence. There is no doubt about the result. We have lot of respect for Bihar Ki Beti (Meira Kumar). But the question is has Bihar Ki Beti been chosen to lose?

Read the story here.

Will build forward-looking vision with Trump: Modi ahead of US visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will visit the US on Saturday, has said he is looking forward to an in depth exchange of views with President Donald Trump and his cabinet colleagues and forging a forward looking vision for our partnership. I look forward to this opportunity to have an in depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide-ranging partnership between India and the United States the PM said in a Facebook post. Modi meets Trump and his cabinet colleagues only on Monday. He is expected to first meet Trump in a one-on-one, followed by a meeting with their respective delegations. However, neither side has officially announced the schedule yet.

Read the story here.

Mansarovar pilgrims stranded as China denies entry, MEA in talks with Beijing

India has initiated discussions with China after a group of pilgrims headed to Manasarovar was denied permission by the neighbouring country to cross over the international border. Some difficulties are being experienced in the movement of Kailash-Mansarovar yatris via Nathu La. The matter is being discussed with the Chinese side, the ministry of external affairs said. Earlier, the 47 pilgrims who had been stranded on the Indian side of the border since June 20 after being denied access to cross over the international border, returned to Sikkims capital Gangtok on Friday evening.

Read the story here.

Russian opposition leader Navalny formally barred from presidential elections

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has declared his intention to run in next years presidential elections , is ineligible to be a candidate, the countrys central electoral commission said on Friday. Currently Alexei Navalny is not eligible to stand for office, the commission said in a statement, citing the fact that he is serving a five-year suspended sentence for embezzlement. Navalny and his erstwhile business partner were convicted in 2013. The European Court of Human Rights quashed the verdict last year, saying the men did not have a fair trial.

Read the story here.

Close to 100% certain Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead: Russian MP

The likelihood that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed is close to 100%, Interfax news agency quoted the head of the defence committee in Russias upper parliamentary house as saying on Friday. Russias defence ministry said a week ago it believed it may have killed Baghdadi when one of its air strikes hit a gathering of senior Islamic State commanders on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa. But armed groups fighting in the region and US officials say they have no evidence that Baghdadi was killed, and many regional officials have said they are sceptical about the information from Moscow.

Read the story here.

India-West Indies ODI abandoned due to rain

Rain played spoilsport on Friday as the first ODI between India and West Indies was abandoned with India batting for only 39.5 overs. They made 199/3 in that period. India had got off to a strong start and with the openers putting on 132 in 25 overs and setting a platform. Shikhar Dhawan made 87 while Ajinkya Rahane scored 62 on his return to the team. But just as Virat Kohli (32 no) and MS Dhoni (9 no) were beginning to show urgency, rain forced a break with India 189/3 in 38 overs.

Read the story here.
A 66-year-old farmer, facing financial problems, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Rajasthans Jhalawar district.

Police said that Bagadilal Rathore, from Sunel region, was found hanging from a tree on Friday evening.

Bagadilals son, Vishnu Rathore, who is also a farmer, in his FIR said that his father had gone to the agricultural field after having tea at home and later committed suicide.

The family got to know about the suicide when the son went to the field in the evening to bring back the cattle.

An autopsy was conducted on Saturday and later his last rites were performed.

In the FIR, his son has written that financial crisis is the reason behind the suicide. Vishnu said that his father was worried about a 3 lakh debt.

The police are investigating the causes of the suicide.

Meanwhile, Sunel sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) RK Meena said that they had enquired about the suicide and a family dispute appears to be the reason behind the suicide and not debts.

He had 11 bighas of agricultural land and a flour mill so his financial condition was not bad, he said.
Jat leaders in Bharatpur called off their agitation on Saturday after the state government gave a written assurance to implement the reservation process. The talks were held at the inspector general of police (IG) office in Bharatpur.

Governing secretary of social justice and empowerment department B L Jatavat held talks with Jat leaders and also submitted a letter on behalf of the government.

Convenor of Bharatpur Dholpur Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, Nem Singh, and other members visited different spots to ensure that the rail and road blockades were lifted in the district.

After consent over quota demand, both sides held a press conference to declare that the agitation was over. They urged the protestors to open all blocked rail and road routes after the government accepted their demands.

We are satisfied with the response of the state government. The agitation has been called off after the government assured us that it would take up the OBC commissions report in the next cabinet meeting, Singh said.

Congress leader from Kumher-Deeg Vishvendra Singh said, We dont believe in any ministers assurance over quota, but we believe the senior officials, who have given us a timeline to implement quota process.

We have got a written statement from the state government that they will discuss the report of the Commission that was set up by the state government to survey the socio-economic status of the Jat community in Bharatpur and Dholpur districts in the first of the Cabinet meetings, Singh, who is a prominent Jat leader and former ruler of Bharatpur, said.

BL Jatavat, governing secretary of the social justice and empowerment department said that the department has received a 600-page survey report of OBC commission on June 22, which will be studied and put up in the upcoming cabinet meeting for implementation.

Divisional commissioner of Bharatpur Subir Kumar, district collector Narendra Kumar Gupta, former chairman of Secondary Education Board of Rajasthan Subhash Garg and Congress MLA from Weir, Bhajanlal Jatav also participated in the talks.

However, it was not immediately clear when the North Western Railway, which had announced the cancellation of 13 trains on Saturday morning, will be able to resume normal services. Bharatpur railway station superintendent B K Singhal said all rail routes were being examined before the trains could be permitted to run. The railway traffic will be started by evening after railways team inspects the track.

On Friday, the protesters had resorted to road and train blockades in some places, mainly between Bharatpur to Mathura, Jaipur and Agra and roads connecting various towns in the district.

Many trains in Jaipur, Agra and Mathura sectors were cancelled while train traffic between the important Delhi-Mumbai sector was affected. Roads from Bharatpur to Delhi, Deeg, Alwar, Agra and Mathura were also blocked.

The Jat members held a mahapanchayat and began the stir on Thursday evening by blocking railway tracks demanding reservation for the community members of Dholpur and Bharatpur districts.

Jats in Rajasthan are classified as Other Backward Classes (OBC), except for the Jats of Bharatpur and Dholpur districts, who now are demanding similar status. The Commission set up in 2016 submitted its report on Thursday.

With inputs from agencies
Retired Calcutta high court judge C S Karnan, who arrived at Kolkatas Presidency jail on Wednesday afternoon, was given special treatment including a tour of the cells where Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Sri Aurobindo were lodged.

According to jail sources, Karnan who reached the gate of the prison at 3:15 pm was visibly distraught, and also reportedly broke down in tears. To lift his spirits, the jail authorities took him on a tour of the compound, showing him the jails association with Indias struggle for freedom.

Read: Once a judge, Karnan to share roof with 2000 inmates at Presidency jail

He was taken to the solitary cell - traditionally called The Six Decrees - where revolutionary Aurobindo Ghosh attained divine enlightenment and wrote his celebrated book The Life Divine during 1908-1909. He stood in front of the cell for quite a few minutes, a source told HT.

Subhas Chandra Bose and Sri Aurobindo were the most high-profile prisoners in Presidency Jail. (HT Photo)

Later he was also taken to the Subhas cell where Netaji launched a hunger strike in 1940.

Sources claimed that the 62-year-old retired judge has been allotted one of the 32 solitary cells in the jail. However, he is yet to spend a single night there.

Immediately after arriving in the jail, he was taken to the superintendents room, before being taken for the tour of the prison. Everyone treated him with respect and he returned the gesture, the source added.

Karnan was taken to SSKM hospital on Wednesday night after he complained of chest pain. He was released after primary check up and spent the night at Presidency jail hospital.

Read: Police knew about Karnans hiding place for 3 days before arresting him

On Thursday morning, he spent another couple of hours at the jail supers room but complained of chest pain again in the noon, and was rushed to SSKM hospital, where doctors decided to admit him. He was at the ICCU till last reports came on Saturday evening. According to reports, the retired justice wanted to have south Indian food in the hospital that his doctors didnt agree to.

C S Karnan was shifted from Presidency Jail to SSKM Hospital on Thursday. He has been admitted in the ICCU. (HT Photo)

The former judge suffers from various ailments, including high blood pressure, COPD and diabetes.

Karnan is being treated as division 1 prisoner and will be getting a chair, a table and a lamp in his cell. He will also get better food than other prisoners and may also be allowed home cooked food. Hell also get newspapers and books.

During his stay in the jail so far, Karnan only had tea, biscuits and some fruits.

Jail sources said that special security arrangements were made inside the prison to ensure inmates stay away from Karnan.

There is great deal of interest among prisoners over the retired judge. Many are keen on meeting him. While he behaved gently with everyone, and even called jail officials as sir, he may not like inmates to throng his cell, an official said.

Besides, there could be prisoners holding grudges against judges, though not particularly against him. We have to stay cautious, the source added.

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Retired justice C S Karnan who is lodged in Presidency jail since June 21 has filed an appeal to the West Bengal governor for release on parole, his lawyer Mathews J Nedumpara told HT. The same application will also be forwarded to chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the state home secretary Malay De.

The appeal was sent by e-mail to the office of governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Saturday. The hard copy will be submitted by Tuesday.

Read: Jailed justice Karnan taken to cells where Netaji and Sri Aurobindo were lodged

The 14-page document prays, ... it is most respectfully prayed that Your Excellency, the Governor of West Bengal, be pleased to exercise the jurisdiction invested in Your Excellency and enlarge the prisoner, Shri Justice C S Karnan on bail/parole in the interest of justice and equity.

The appeal has summarised the developments leading to the arrest of Karnan on June 20 in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.

Nedumpara met Karnan at SSKM Hospital on Saturday evening. After the meeting, he told HT that they are hopeful of a positive response from the governor.

Read: Once a judge, Karnan to share roof with 2000 inmates at Presidency jail

A team of West Bengal police arrested the former judge of Calcutta high court on the orders of the supreme court of India. On May 9, a seven member bench of the supreme court sentenced him to six months in prison.

Karnan evaded arrest since that order. He was born on June 12, 1955.

Nedumpara told HT that Karnan who is admitted in an ICCU at SSKM Hospital since Thursday is now feeling better. He was shifted to the hospital with complaints of chest pain and uneasiness.

He also said that prison officials treated the former judge with utmost respect.

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A city private hospital was on Friday asked to cough up Rs 30 lakh as compensation by the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) for alleged negligence in treatment of an infant leading to her death.

The city hospital, however, would appeal to the appropriate authorities against the commissions verdict.

The commission awards a compensation of Rs 30 lakh to be paid by Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals. Of the said Rs 30 lakh, an amount of Rs 10 lakh to be paid to the complainant parents, on providing the name for receiving such compensation, within a week and the balance Rs 20 lakh in the next three weeks, the order said.

The commission also mentioned that failure to give compensation in due time by the hospital would make it liable to pay an interest of nine per cent per annum till the payment was fully made.

We respect the commission. However, with humility we find the verdict is unacceptable and we will appeal against it to the appropriate authorities. Over scrutiny into such complicated decisions taken by doctors trying to save lives at all costs will dampen the true spirit of medical profession, the hospitals CEO Rana Dasgupta said.

In April, four-month-old Kuheli Chakraborty, who was admitted to the citys Apollo Gleneagles Hospital for a colonoscopy, allegedly died of anaesthetic overdose, the patients kin said.

According to the kids father, the baby was left unattended for a whole day when she was admitted and was not given any food for more than 12 hours before conducting the test.

Following the childs death, a mob had vandalised the hospital premises.
The Rs 36,000-crore farm loan the Uttar Pradesh government is planning to waive amidst much caution by financial experts is less than the money it provided to banks two years ago to write off debts of its non-performing power distribution companies.

And this was not a one-time affair. The state government has written off discoms debts not once but at least on four occasions since their inception 15 years ago.

Read more: India now faces $49.1 bn farm-loan waivers, 16 times 2017 budget for rural roads

Between 2012 and 2015, the state had taken over discoms debts to the tune of a whopping Rs 72,000 crore, an amount that is double the money that the Yogi Adityanath government will be providing to banks to waive farmers loan with many a rider.

Unlike in farmers loan waiver case that has caused so much hue and cry all over with banks and many experts terming it (loan waiver) as a bad practice, the discoms debt waiver went unnoticed on all the occasions. Interestingly, The dicoms efficiency only took a hit after each waiver.

UP was the first state to grab the Ujjwala Discoms Assurance Yojana (UDAY), a Central governments scheme aimed at bringing financial turnaround of debt-ridden discoms, in 2015.

Read more: Farm loan waivers will set the economy on an even more slippery slope

As a part of agreement, the then Akhilesh Yadav government took over 75% of the discoms debts, that is Rs 39,000 crore out of the total Rs 53,211 crore debt pending at that time, besides restructuring Rs 10,700 crore loan.

But as the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) pointed out to the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) in a recent report, the overall net loss of the discoms in UP increaded to Rs 7932 crore during 2017 from Rs 7,791 crore in 2016.

Prior to this, the UPA government had come up with a similar scheme for the discoms in October 2012. The state government agreed to take over 50%, that is Rs 33,000 crore, short-term outstanding loan liabilities of discoms while giving its nod to furnish guarantee to banks for restructuring of the remaining debt amount. The Centre too provided additional financial support to discoms in the form of interest subsidy etc.

Earlier also, the state government gave bailout packages to the power sector in 2000 and 2002.

The state government has taken over the ailing power sectors debt liabilities on four occasions since its unbundling in 2000, a senior official in the finance department said adding, Writing off discoms debts again and again is even a worse practice than waiving farmers loan once in a while.

According to AK Singh, ex-director, Giri Institute of Development Studies, governments write off huge debts of big corporations and private companies at one stroke while they exercise extreme caution when it comes to farmers. This is largely because farmers as a community are not organized, he said.

Read more| Loan waiver has become a fashion now: Venkaiah Naidu

It is interesting that while farmers are forced to sell their hard-earned crops even below the minimum support price (MSP) in the state due to various factors, the same discoms that have become even more inefficient. Despite all the government assistance and 50% increase in electricity tariff in just two-three years, they have now demanded as much as 16% return of equity or an assured profit from consumers.

This is shocking that corruption and inefficiency-ridden discoms that have received 3-4 heavy financial bailout packages during last 15 years and also enjoy the governments regular budgetary supports have in their recent annual revenue requirement proposal to the regulator demanded 16 % profit on their investment, UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad president Avadhesh Kumar Verma said.

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The 179-year-old Chhota Imambara is gradually falling into decay with each passing day, but the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Hussainabad and Allied Trust (HAT), responsible for its upkeep, are sunk in sanguine slumber.

Moreover, the agencies pass the buck on each other, as HAT officials blame ASI for not maintaining the centrally protected structure, while the ASI officials accuse HAT of causing irreversible damage to the structure by carrying out restoration work using cement instead of permissible material like surkhi, mortar and lime.

Amidst this blame game, the side affects of cement plaster on the edifices exteriors have started becoming visible on its interiors, which were the finest compared to other Imambaras. Now, the paint and plaster are falling off, revealing the red lakhauri bricks. Damp in the walls is eating away the beautiful stucco work and floral designs, the USP that makes the structure distinct from others.

If experts of IIT-Kanpurs civil engineering department are to be believed, the dampness is due to the cement plaster that is preserving moisture in excess. They expect things to go worse in the rainy season. Original plaster of lime and surkhi has many qualities. Of the many, one is its airy nature that enables the structure to breathe or in other words retain or release excessive moisture. But this silent feature lacks in the cement plaster, said an expert.

Nasir Naqvi, officer on special duty (OSD) HAT said, As per the courts order, ASI has to ensure restoration of Chhota Imambara, but it is yet to be followed.

The courts order came in 2015, after a heritage activist S Mohammed Haider moved an application in a pending PIL of 2013, for restraining the use of cement that was then being used in the restoration work (being carried out by HAT) in Chhota Imambara.

On finding the petitioners apprehension genuine, the court had blamed HAT for causing irreversible damage to the structure and ordered immediate closure of the work. It had also directed ASIs Lucknow Circle to assess the damage to the monument and carry out proper restoration.

The lack of co-ordination among the ASI and HAT are adding to the damage. The deplorable state of Chhota Imambara is purely due to ill-effects of the cement plaster that HAT carried out on the outer portion of the structure that caused irreparable damage, said S Mohammed Haider.

HAT officials said the ASI surveyed the structure but did not take up restoration. The structures restoration that was the part of courts order, is yet to be carried out by ASI, said Nasir Naqvi, OSD, HAT.

However, the ASI says that the damage to the structure is irreparable.

The crumbling Chhota Imambara has also moved the direct descendants of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, who are more than willing to come down to Lucknow to meet the UP chief minister, requesting his intervention in saving the heritage structure.

My heart bleeds every time I hear something bad about the crumbling monuments in the state capital, , said Asif Ali Mirza, direct descendant of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, the last king of Awadh.

Mirza lives in Metiaburz, Kolkata, the place where Wajid Ali Shah spent his life after he was exiled on February 7, 1856.
A city youth has developed intelligent robots that monitor port activities. Milind Raj, 28, has worked on robots that can swim and plunge below water to monitor a ships base and other machines.

PortBOTS - these robots - can monitor temperature and detect the slightest cracks or any damage under the ships standing at port, Milind told HT. He gave a demonstration at a port in Sri Lanka, early this week.

I have tested this robot in India and Sri Lanka. The results are good. Sri Lankans have expressed their intent to adopt our indigenous technology, he said.

Milinds robots are weather-proof and amphibious - they can run on land too.

Announcing his achievement, Raj wrote on facebook: Glad to share that my company is the world's first to present cutting-edge innovation and technology solutions for seaports and ships, worldwide. These innovations will affect every industry related to power generation, railways, mass export / import, fuel generation, and more.

One the machines employed at seaports is the huge Port Hopper -- used to unload containers from ships and load coal / limestone / iron-ore, etc on to trucks and railway wagons.

The robots will monitor machines, such as, hoppers, funnels, and loaders -- using on-board customised intelligent scanning -- and analyse systems to look for cracks, damages, disorientation of components, and temperature rise.

An alumnus of La Martiniere College, Milind has filed a patent for his innovation. This technology will tremendously cut down the cost of machine maintenance, and avoid major accidents and damages. Their intelligent automation will prevent them from colliding with other objects, he said, adding he was planning to soon launch his project in the market.

The main reason why I invented this technology is to help out in imports and exports. Millions of tonnes of coal, edible oil, fuels and other materials are transported every day. Any delay can cause losses of energy, manpower and money. My aim is to bring down all avoidable damages and breakdowns, he said.

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A legislators son and a mining contractor have been booked for allegedly burying alive two children, including a Dalit, in Bhauri village of Bahraich district after locals resisted sand mining there.

MLA Subhash Tripathi refuted the allegation levelled against his son and termed it as a conspiracy, while district administration has constituted a three-member committee to probe the matter.

Bodies of Karan (10) and Nisar (11) were found on Thursday in a drain in the village, adjacent to a place where mining was going on, following which irate villagers damaged the vehicles of contractors involved in the mining work.

In his complaint to the police, Chetram, the father of Karan, a Dalit, said Nishank Tripathi and mining contractor Manoj Shukla were digging sand from his field instead of the area alloted to them.

According to Chetram, on facing resistance, they buried alive the two children by putting sand on them with the help of a bulldozer, police said, adding an FIR was lodged on Thursday against Nishank and Manoj on the charge of murder and under SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act.

However, the SHO of Baundi police station, where the FIR was registered, said that postmortem report says that the two died due to drowning.

The BJP MLA from Payagpur constituency of Bahraich refuted the charge against his son and said, A conspiracy is being hatched against my son. If charges are proved I will quit politics forever.

A probe into the incident is being carried out by a three-member committee constituted by the district magistrate, comprising the SDM, mining officer and the polices circle officer.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan on Friday urged the NDAs presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind to participate in the last rites of the Dalits son.

Talking to reporters in Rampur, he said the police lodged the complaint only after villagers gheraoed the police station. Khan also said the state government should clarify what happened to its claim that goonda raj has ended in the state.
Aligarh Bharatiya Janata Party workers seized a truck containing 18 buffalo calves that were in transit allegedly for illegal slaughter near PAC colony on Ramghat road here on Friday.

The BJP workers took the truck to the police station along with the driver while two others managed to escape. The animals have been handed over to animal husbandry department for treatment. Police have registered case under Animal Cruelty Act on the basis of complaint lodged by BJP leader Pawan Khandelwal.

Read more| Aligarh: Five persons thrashed for slaughtering buffalo

According to sources, local BJP leaders Pawan Khandelwal and corporator Pushpendra Jadaun were on way to Tala Nagri when they noticed a truck parked near PAC colony carrying buffalo calves. There were three people including the truck driver near the truck. On being inquired, they were told that the calves were being carried for slaughter, said sources. However, the accused failed to produce the documents of purchasing the calves.

Meanwhile, two accused escaped from the venue. The BJP workers informed the police and took driver Mohd Danish to police station and handed him over to the police. The BJP workers have launched a massive search operation to trace two other accused. Later, they started demanding stern action against the guilty.

Read more: Cattle being taken to Kerala seized in Coimbatore

After receiving information, mayor Shakuntala Bharti, BJP leaders Manav Mahajan, Manoj Sharma, Vaibhav Gautam and Dipak Sharma also came to police station and demanded senior sub inspector Sartaj Ali to take action under Animal Cruelty Act. Ali has assured the BJP workers of taking stern action against the people involved.
There was a Godfather movie poster on the wall and a DVD of Pulp Fiction in the bookshelf; a TED Talks mug on the bureau alongside a framed picture of the man of the house meeting Amitabh Bachchan; a comfy chair with a cushion reading friends make the best presents.

These are holy objects of secular culture. They are not the stereotypical decorations for a prayer room. Yet on Wednesday, they were precisely what surrounded Nazia Erum as she performed namaz during an interfaith iftar party at her home in Noida.

Nazia Erum, 30-year-old writer and clothing designer, has been hosting an interfaith iftar party at her home in Noida, ever since she realised that many of her non-muslim friends had never been to one. (Arun Sharma/HT PHOTO)

It was the last such event in a booming season of them. Earlier this Ramzan, Erum, a 30-year-old writer and clothing designer, had posted on Facebook asking if any of her friends had ever attended an iftar. She heard back from over ten times the number of people she expected.

Banding together with 11 other Muslim women, each of whom contributed food or funds, Erum organized an iftar party for 70 people. Many guests had no familiarity with the nightly Ramzan celebration. Some had never been inside a Muslim persons home. The hostesses set out to dispel increasingly common misperceptions of Islamic life.

Gunjan Hassan, one of the organisers of the iftar party, brought salad, chops and kababs as her contribution to the grand affair. (Arun Sharma/HT PHOTO)

Erum was struck by a study, released in April by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, which said that only 33% of Indian Hindus have a close friend who is Muslim. What if she could help change that? In addition to organizing four events in Delhi, one of which was composed of orphans, Erum facilitated the spread of the interfaith iftars to Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Guwahati. In each city, the hostesses attracted around 30 to 100 people to their dinners and said they were intent on holding more, similar events in the future.

Things have accelerated in the last few years, Erum told me. We need to save the world one iftar at a time.

Hana Khan, 32, another of the organisers, just finished her training to become a pilot. Khan feels such multi-faith dinners are great places to meet and dispel myths about islamaphobia. (Arun Sharma/HT PHOTO)

At her party on Wednesday, Erum was an energetic choreographer, directing the placement of numerous dishes, dabbing the wrists of each guest with a homemade attar, giving interviews to journalists from the Hindustan Times and BBC, and tending to her three-year-old daughter, Myra, who was running around in a black tutu.

As we broke fast, Rana Safvi, 60, a scholar and columnist who is among Erums 11 fellow organisers, held forth. Ramzan is about controlling all the base instincts, she said. The biggest jihad you may fight is the evil within you. During the holiday, she added, you are more ascetic, more inclined towards spirituality. Hana Khan, 32, another of the organisers, just finished her training to become a pilot. Khan said that she was hesitant to speak to the press, but had decided this could be one useful function of the dinners. Muslim women need to talk. Weve been silent too long. Weve been letting other people talk for us.

Rana Safvi, 60, a scholar and columnist who is among Erums 11 fellow organisers, explains that Ramzan is all about controlling the base instincts, at the dinner. (Arun Sharma/HT PHOTO)

All the invitees reported having never attended an iftar, or not having gone to one for many years. Deepali Sapru Maini said she had not done so since her Kashmiri Pandit family left the Valley. Why cant we have a community that is a mix of cultures? she asked. Maini said the event had inspired her to think of hosting an interfaith Diwali party.

Another guest, Debjani Mazumder, said shed thought to come after witnessing intolerance close to home. In a WhatsApp group of local women Mazumder and Erum both belong to, someone sent a message describing an incident in which an unnamed woman was threatened by a taxi driver with a conspicuously Muslim name. He supposedly drove against her will into Batla House in Jamia, and she barely managed to escape.

Saman Quraishi, a guest from old Delhi, joins in with a bowl of fruits for the breaking of the fast. (Arun Sharma/HT PHOTO)

Erum replied saying that this was obviously fake news, since cars cannot even drive into this part of the neighbourhood, and proposing to take anyone on the thread into Jamia to prove it. She didnt get any takers, but Mazumder got in touch with her afterward.

Its everywhere, said Erum of Islamaphobia. On her way home from her husbands familys Eid celebration in Moradabad last year, for the first time she can remember, Erum didnt bring her share of mutton. Dadri is not far from the road back home. You never know when your mutton will become beef, she said.
Ageing has become a major social challenge, the Bombay high court on Saturday said while ordering the eviction of two sons of an elderly couple from their bungalow in Pune as the two not only failed to look after their aged parents, but also harassed the retired couple.

This is a perfect example of the insensitivity of children towards their aged parents, said Sadhana Jadhav rejecting the appeal filed by Santosh, elder son of Surendra and Sunanda Patil.

The judge noted that both the sons were interested only in their parents property and werent bothered about their health and other needs.

It is clear that the responsibilities towards the parents have degenerated, the judge said.

Jadhav said, It is apparent that the parents are not only exposed to emotional neglect, feeling of rejection, social insecurity, but to lack of physical and financial support also.

It has become a major challenge to their very peaceful existence, the judge added.

The high court has now directed Santosh and his younger brother Sandeep to leave the bungalow, built by their parents, in two weeks, and also pay Rs2,000 to each of them as monthly maintenance.

The order came on an appeal filed by Santosh, challenging a February 2016 order passed by the sub-divisional officer (SDO) at Pune telling Santosh and Sandeep to vacate the bungalow immediately.

Sandip had approached high court after the additional collector, Pune, upheld the SDOs order, made under provisions of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, and also directed Nigadi police to execute the order.

The high court, however, noticed that though Sunanda earned Rs13,000 as a monthly pension, she and her husband, who suffers from diabetes and has also lost vision in his left eye, required more than this to pay for their medicines.

Instead of providing support to their elderly parents, the sons kept fighting for a share in the bungalow, the court said.

Besides, the high court noted that the wife of the elder son had also threatened the elderly couple with criminal complaints if they sought their eviction.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has earned Rs1,528 crore as octroi revenue between April and June 22, surpassing its targets for three months.

Senior civic officials from the assessment and collection department said that they were expecting the revenues to reach up to Rs1,800 crores, Rs 300 crores more than its estimated revenue .

This is just a few days before the Goods and Services Tax (GST) comes to effect, making five octroi nakas in the city useless.

BMC, in its 2017-18 budget targets, estimated Rs1,500 crores in the first three months of the financial year, followed by Rs5,883.75 crore from the Central and state governments as compensation for the loss incurred from the foregoing octroi.

GST will make way for uniform tax in the country. Octroi and property tax are the two biggest sources of revenue for the BMC.

Annually, octroi fills the BMC coffers with close to Rs 7,000 crores. Senior civic officials credited the increase in estimated revenue to increased surveillance across octroi nakas. The revenue will rise in the next week because crude oil bills are paid mostly in the end of the month, a civic official said.

In three months, BMC earned Rs 380 crores through the levy on crude oil.

Meanwhile, municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta has asked deputy municipal commissioners of seven zones in the city to submit their ideas on how the octroi nakas can be used. There are five such nakas in the city - three in Mulund (T ward), two in Dahisar (R North ward) and one in Mankhurd (M/East ward), which serve as entry points to many goods vehicles in a day.

BMC wants to put the available space to good use, senior civic officials said. While BMC has plans to turn these nakas into Central Business Districts (CBD) as marked in the Development Plan (DP) 2034, it is yet to make any progress. Mumbai police, meanwhile, is also planning to step up security at the nakas after there were doubts over the entry of unwanted goods in the city post octroi ban.

READ MORE

GST in, octroi out: 1,300 BMC staff to lose their jobs, may be moved to other departments

Octroi to go from July 1: Mumbai civic body to have monthly targets for 3 months

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Mumbai: The Bombay high court ordered the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) to draw up and finalise the much delayed new Draft Coastal Zone Management Plan for Thane and Sindhudurg districts by September.

The order comes amid concerns raised by environmentalists over private developers getting clearances for building structures in coastal zones based on a 1996 coastal zone management plan because of the absence of a new one.

A bench led by Justice Naresh Patil also asked the MCZMA to file a status and compliance report.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by NGO Vanashakti, highlighting the delay in finalising new coastal zone plans for Mumbai, Thane and Sindhudurg and arguing that the new maps were necessary to check unrestricted development along the coast. The NGO said that the plans must be finalised at the earliest.

While the MCZMA invited suggestions and objections on the draft plan for Mumbai city, Mumbai suburban, Raigad, and Ratnagiri, it is yet to make any progress on the plans for Thane and Sindhudurg.

The coastal zone plan defines areas where development or construction work can be allowed and also areas where it must be restricted.

Based on such maps, the MCZMA and the state authorities grant clearances to construction and development projects along the states coastline.

The last plan for coastal zones in Thane and Sindhudurg was finalised in 1996 and expired in 2015. According to the plea, in the absence of a new plan, the authorities have been extending its validity from time to time and processing applications for the development, based on the old plan.

In February 2016, the National Green Tribunal had imposed a blanket ban saying that no construction activity and regularising would be permitted in coastal districts of the state till MCZMA came up with the new maps and plan.

MCZMA however, appealed against the NGT order before the HC after it ordered the agency to finalise the plan for Mumbai city, suburban, Raigad and Ratnagiri by March 31, 2017. The Apex Court then extended the deadline to July this year.

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On Friday, all of Maharashtras political attention was focused on Kudal, a town in Konkans Sindhudurg district, where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Nitin Gadkari invited two arch-rivals, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Congress Narayan Rane to share a dais for the first time in 12 years.

While observers expected sparks to fly, with Sena rebel Rane and Thackeray having always heaped criticism on each other, the cordiality between the two leaders raised a few eyebrows. Rane, usually raucous when it comes to the Shiv Sena, welcomed Thackeray and his wife to his home district, Sindhudurg. Ranes mention of Thackeray in his speech sent feelers that he may be looking to thaw relations with the Sena with an eye on jumping on the saffron bandwagon. A senior Sena leader said, Everyone knows that Rane is looking to join the BJP. The Congress has also understood this. Despite differences, the Sena and the BJP have a functional relationship, and Rane knows that unless he warms up to the Shiv Sena his entry into the BJP will not be smooth. While Rane has rebuffed rumours of him joining the BJP, he has been evidently cozying up to the party. On Friday too, at the ground-breaking ceremony for the Mumbai-Goa highway expansion, he praised Gadkari and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for leading Maharashtra towards development.

Rane has significant influence in the Konkan belt, a region where the Shiv Sena is strong and the BJP has until now been unable to get a grasp on.

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A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Friday criticised Mumbai crime branch officials for their delay in submitting a report on the summons issued to three former Mumbai police chiefs  Ahmad Javed, Rakesh Maria and Satyapal Singh.

The court was hearing a March 2011 robbery case at B B Jewellers showroom in Pantnagar, Ghatkopar. A watchman of the showroom was shot, and he later died during treatment. The crime branch had arrested a total of five accused during the tenure of these three officers as police commissioners.

Singh was appointed as Mumbai police chief in August 2012. He tendered his resignation on January 31, 2014 to join politics. After Singh, Maria took over the post in February 2014. However, in September 2015, Maria was promoted and transferred as director general of police, Home Guards. Maria was replaced by Ahmad Javed on 8 September 2015. Javed retired in Jan 2015 and went on to become ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

The trial in the case is near completion where testimonies of these cops are left to be recorded by the court. According to procedure, the cops who were part of the investigating team in a case have to appear before the court to depose on the procedural aspect even if they have retired.

As these officers were holding the highest position, they accorded sanction for prosecution against the accused under MCOCA. The prosecution needed to examine these cops to prove that there were no procedural lapses.

On Friday, the court completed recording of the evidence of one of the investigating officers. After the hearing the court sought explanation on reports of summons served to these three former cops.

The court noted that the summons, to these cops were issued at the beginning of the trial but the police had not filed a report on its execution.

"The roznama speaks that as per the prevailing practice of the city civil court at the initial stage, the summons were given to prosecution for service, but no report has submitted till date in respect of above three witnesses. Thereafter, on June 5, fresh summons were sent for service but again report is not submitted. the court questioned the officer about when can these witnesses remain present. Replying to courts question, the officer submitted, "Javed Ahmed is at Saudi Arabia as ambassador of India and he has informed that he can remain present on July 6 or 10. While Rakesh Maria is presently at America for his personal work and would be available in August." the officer however, could not state about the presence of Singh who is now a member of Parliament.

The court hence sought for written explanation from the officer. The officer meanwhile managed to prepare the report and submitted before the court. The court accepted the report with the mark that "accused are languishing in jail since 2012. This fact is to be considered to keep the witnesses present in the court."

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After being allowed to deposit their stock of demonetised notes worth Rs2,772 crore in the Reserve Bank of India within a month, 31 district cooperative banks (DCCBs) across the state claimed that they suffered a loss of Rs 230 crore and plan to ask the government for help.

The banks said that they could have paid the amount to account holders or could have gained from the loans that they could have disbursed in seven months. The DCCBs have now planned to ask the government for recovery of the loss.

After demonetisation was announced on November 8, 2016, the DCCBs were allowed to collect or deposit the old notes of Rs500 and Rs1,000 till November 14, while other commercial and private banks were allowed time till December 30. The decision was taken on June 22, about seven months after the notes were deposited and DCCBs could not do anything about the notes for all this time. Additionally, they had to pay interest to the account holders who deposited the notes with them, leading to the burden.

This has happened just because the government looked at us suspiciously. NABARD revived our KYC protocols thrice and could find nothing suspicious about the deposits. The decision to allow the exchange has itself proved that the earlier decision was wrong. Now the government take responsibility of the losses, said the chairman of a leading bank on the condition of anonymity.

The Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank Association(MSCBA), which represents the DCCBs, has decided to write to the government for the recovery. We have figured the loss sustained by each of the banks. Barring the cash reserve ratio (CRR) of 4% for the deposits, the loss towards interest on the, and the earnings from loans comes to Rs230 crore,said Vinayak Taral, expert director of MSCBA. We will soon write to the Centre and the state government.

By reversing its decision, the Centre has admitted that the currency deposited with us was legitimate. We hope that it will accept our demand, Aman Gawande, chairman of Yavatmal DCCB said.

Stocking old notes was not easy, said officials. The notes had no protection of insurance cover as they were no more part of the tender currency. Secondly, maintaining and protecting this stock from termites was a huge challenge and led to a huge loss, said Hasan Mushrif, head of the Kolhapur DCCB and former minister.

Sources in the cooperation department of the state government, however, are doubtful about the claim. There is no doubt that the DCCBs suffered losses due to the interests accrued or potential lending, but it would be wrong to say that the entire deposit could have been given out in form of loans. The government is unlikely to accept the claim, he said.
Female-only subway cars are being introduced in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou from next week to increase the safety of female commuters.

Female-only subway carriages in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. [Photo: Weibo]

One carriage on each train on Line 1 will be made available to female passengers at peak hours in the morning and evening, according to the city's metro service.

Male passengers will be allowed to use the carriages outside those hours, to avoid the waste of public resources.

The initiative follows concerns expressed by Su Zhongyang, a Guangdong provincial political advisor, who said women are more vulnerable to sexual harassment or inappropriate situations in overcrowded trains during the rush hours.

The city of Shenzhen is also considering similar plans.

Female-only subway carriages in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. [Photo: Weibo]

An online poll, carried out by the China News Service, showed 59.7% disapproved of the idea, with some saying it goes against gender equality and is a form of sex-based discrimination.

"Public transportation resources are relatively scarce in Shenzhen. Setting up female-only cars may intensify this problem. Segregating people by gender might lead to more congestion in other carriages since male passengers can't enter them during peak hours," said Wang Xue, a member of Shenzhen's Political Consultative Conference.

She added the arrangement will greatly reduce the available carriage space, affecting the overall transport capacity of trains.

A poster of the female-only subway carriages in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. [Photo: Weibo]

Despite the criticisms, 32% of people still welcome the action, according to a survey by Wang Rong, chairman of the Guangdong provincial committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Better facilities for pregnant women and children, caring for female passengers, and avoiding sexual harassment were among the top reasons for supporting the initiative.

Guangzhou Metro has said they remain open to public opinions and suggestions. A study will be carried out to decide the future of the scheme.
A 45-year-old inmate died in Byculla jail on Friday. After her death, situation on the jail premises went out of hand as other inmates started destroying property in protest.

Some climbed on the roof of the jail.

Nagpada police have registered a case of accidental death and said they were investigating further. One jail official and five guards were suspended after the incident.

Officials said that a jailor had slapped Manjura Govind Shetye on Friday. She complained of chest pain in the evening and was taken to JJ hospital where she was declared dead.

Shetye and her mother was arrested after her sister-in-laws death. The Bhandup police had arrested and charged them for murder under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. The two were even convicted and sentenced to lifetime imprisonment.

Shetyes brother Sharad said, My sister and my mother were lodged in Yerwada jail. My mother died seven months ago. Manjura had been in Yerwada jail for the past 12 years and was shifted to Byculla prison a month-and-a-half ago.

On Saturday, around 7am, her family in Kalyan was informed about her death.

The family alleged foul play and said that Manjura was healthy and this was not a natural death.

Sharad said, The inmates of Byculla jail were not treated well. Last week, we visited her and she had even said that she had been happier at Yerwada. The officials here are harsh.

Jail officials later confirmed that an inmate and a jail staff had suffered injuries after the inmates started rioting inside the jail and threw things at the officials.

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Maoist, seven police officials killed as prison van collides with truck in Bihar

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Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the proposed farm loan waiver, estimated at a minimum of Rs 30,000 crore, could set the state back by two years and affect the fiscal health of the government.

Fadnavis told HT that the farm waiver would test the states fiscal parameters but his government was looking at innovative methods to tackle it and come out of the stress. He ruled out the option of monetising government land to raise funds.

Any loan waiver will lead to a stress on the fiscal parameters. It will be the same with this waiver. But, we will come out of the situation by adopting innovative ideas. It will take the government a couple of years to balance out the impact of the waiver, said Fadnavis.

The chief minister added that the government had received proposals to raise finances for the waiver and one of them included use of the deposits stacked away by public companies and agencies like Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) and the Mumbai civic body.

Some people have proposed that we take loans on the deposits stacked up by agencies and companies. They have also suggested that similar loans be taken on deposits of the Mumbai civic body  they have Rs50,000 crore in deposits. The suggestion is to pay them interest for the funds. But, we are still figuring out how to go about the loan waiver and there has been no formal consultation or decision on this, said Fadnavis.

Sources in the finance department said that a cut of 25% on development spending across departments was likely in light of the burden from the waiver. Development expenditure is spending on development schemes and creating assets but not wage bills, interest payments or maintenance.

The chief minister, however, ruled out the option of sale or monetising government land to raise resources for the waiver.

Land monetisation is not a quick solution and this will require a minimum of two to three years, he added.

The chief minister said that he was optimistic about the Goods and Service Tax (GST) roll out given that Maharashtra, with its 12 crore population, had the largest consumer base in services and would get a greater share of these taxes.

The BJP-led government is currently negotiating a farm loan waiver package with farmers leaders and is likely to finalise the details next week. For the past two years, Fadnavis has held back on the waiver saying that it was not a long term solution for the agrarian crisis and investment in the sector was a better option for farmers. However, with farmers protests getting more traction, the government gave in to the demand of the waiver this month.

States fiscal indicators to take a hit :

As per preliminary estimates :

The fiscal deficit estimated at 1.3 per cent of the GDP by the end of this fiscal will go up to 2.7 per cent. The state will have to curb the fiscal deficit within 3 per cent of the GDP as per parameters laid down by the 14 th Finance Commission

The states over debt stock estimated to reach Rs 4.13 lakh crore could balloon up to Rs 4.40 lakh crore.

The development spending in the state will be affected with a 25 per cent cut across the departments on cards.

Other concerns for the state :

The state has to shoulder the 7th pay commission by next year, which will cost it Rs 21,500 crore

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Two days after violent protests by farmers in Kalyan, the police on Saturday arrested four people and registered six cases against a village sarpanch and 500 unidentified men at two police stations. They said they made the arrests after questioning more than 200 residents of seven villages involved in the protest.

The four men arrested are residents of Nevali naka, Kalyan. The police said they have not revealed their identities as investigations are ongoing. The four will be produced in court soon. The police said the main suspect was Chainu Jadhav, a sarpanch who is also an active member of the Jamin Bachav Andolan Samiti.

On Thursday morning more than 6,500 villagers gathered for what was supposed to be a silent protest. However, the protest quickly turned violent and the protesters assaulted policemen, set seven police vans on fire, and locked traffic. It took the police six hours to bring the situation under control.

After the arrests, villagers said they were scared to leave their homes, claiming the police were picking up people at random and taking them to the police station. S Bhoir, 29, a farmer from Nevali naka, said, Every night we hear the police making rounds of our villages, picking up and questioning people. They questioned a relative of mine but let him off as he was not involved in the violence. Those who have been arrested are from Bhal village.

He added, After the incident there was a meeting in the village in which we were told to stay out of trouble and let the police do their work. We have been told by the sarpanch that there is meeting scheduled with the chief minister for June 29. After that, we will discuss out next steps.

Another resident of Nevali naka, who works for a private firm, said, We are scared now. It is all the fault of the police, who forced us to move out of our farms. Without them wont be able to earn a living. This has affected many farmers and some even plan to move out of the village. We have been living here for 50 years but are now being displaced.

An officer from the Thane crime branch said, We have questioned more than 200 villagers and have some few leads on suspects who are on the run. There are still 200 policemen at the spot 24 hours a day. We are also making a list of people who are missing. While many villagers claim their relatives were not involved the violence we are leaving no stone unturned.

A dozen teams, which include crime branch officers, are investigating the case. A separate team has been formed to scour photos and videos of the protest shot by policemen.

Sunil Bhardwaj, deputy commissioner of police, zone 4, said, We have identified some of the accused and their locations and have sent teams to arrest them. We are not releasing the names of the four people arrested so far as the investigation is still underway.

He added, We checked the vandalised police vans, which had guns and protection equipment, and found that we suffered a loss of Rs 1.50 crore. Seven vehicles were burned down and a few others damaged.

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Calling it a historic step and naming it after Chhatrapati Shivaji, the Maharashtra government on Saturday announced that it would spend Rs34,000 crore to write off farm loans  the waiver will help 89 lakh farmers in debt across the state.

The government has set a cap of Rs1.5 lakh a farmer  this means the loans of around 40 lakh farmers will be completely written off. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the decision on Saturday, after an unscheduled cabinet meeting. Of all farmers in debt, 6 lakh of them can avail the scheme for a one-time settlement of up to Rs 1.50 lakh. The government has also announced a special package for regular loan payers, by giving them a bonus of Rs 25,000 or 25% of the loan paid  whichever is higher.

This was a historic decision, as no other state has given such a large waiver. Andhra Pradesh waived loans up to Rs20,000 crore, Punjab gave Rs10,000 crore, Telangana announced a Rs15,000-crore waiver while Karnataka announced Rs8,000 crore, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said. He said the decision was taken after meeting between the BJP, ally Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and senior leaders of the Opposition.

Farmers, however, are not happy with the package, as they have been against the Rs1.5-lakh cap and a June 2016 deadline to be eligible for the waiver. We have been demanding a complete loan waiver without any cap. The government has backtracked on the assurance it gave to us, said Raghunath Patil of the Shetkari Sanghatana.

The waiver will add to the states financial burden, and this could affecting development projects, CM Fadnavis admitted, but said the government will tie-up with banks for a staggered loan.

We are talking to the nationalised banks on how to schedule the repayment of loans that we take . It is true the government is not in the position to bear the additional burden, but our endeavour is to keep fiscal deficit in check, he said.

While announcing the package, named Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Sanman Yojana, the state government excluded government employees, other than Class-4 employees, sitting and former legislators, income tax payers and traders with an annual turnover of more than Rs10 lakh. Loans taken by farmers until June 30, 2016 will be written off.

The announcement was made after a series of meetings with Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Congresss state chief Ashok Chavan over last two days. Though Thackeray was insistent the upper cap be raised to Rs2 lakh, the ruling party ensured it was settled at Rs1.5 lakh.

The decision was taken after widespread protests by farmers over more than a week earlier this month. The government had several rounds of discussion with a steering committee of farmers outfits.

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The Maharashtra government on Saturday announced it would spend Rs34,022 crore to write off farm loans, a decision that would help 89 lakh farmers in debt across the state.

The loan waiver, which chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said was the highest by any state in Indias history, will cover 65% of all farmers in Maharashtra. Of this, the loans of 40 lakh farmers will be completely written off. The state announced the waiver a month ahead of the July 25 deadline set by farmers outfits. The decision was made at an unscheduled cabinet meeting called by Fadnavis on Saturday.

The write-off came with conditions  a cap of Rs1.50 lakh per farmer, and only farmers who took loans before June 30, 2016, are eligible. The government said despite these conditions, 40 lakh farmers will not have to make any payments at all, while 6 lakh farmers can avail of a scheme that lets them make a one-time settlement of up to Rs1.50 lakh. The government also announced an incentive for those farmers who paid back loans regularly, giving them a bonus of Rs25,000 or 25% of the loan repaid  whichever was higher. Fadnavis said, This was a historic decision as no other state has given such a large waiver. Andhra Pradesh waived loans up to Rs20,000 crore, Punjab allotted Rs10,000 crore, Telangana announced a Rs15,000 crore, Karnataka announced an Rs8,000-crore waiver.

Farmers outfits, however, were not happy with the package, as they have been against the Rs1.50-lakh cap and the June 2016 deadline. We have been demanding a complete waiver without any conditions. The government has backtracked on the promise it made us, said Raghunath Patil of the Shetkari Sanghatana. A steering committee of farmers said they will meet today to decide what next.

Justifying the cap on the maximum amount, Fadnavis said the outstanding loans per farmer in states such as Kerala, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh were Rs 2.13 lakh, Rs 1.19 lakh and Rs 1.23 lakh, it was Rs54,700 in Maharashtra.

The specifics of the waiver were decided after hectic rounds of discussions with ruling ally Shiv Senas chief Uddhav Thackeray, key opposition leaders, including the Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, state Congress chief Ashok Chavan and Swabhimani Paksha chief Raju Shetti over the past two days.

Fadnavis said the government had succeeded in arriving at a consensus. I think the farmers will be satisfied with the package. They will not stand by disgruntled leaders, even if a call to agitate comes after this, he said.

READ: Maharashtra farm loan waiver: Bad economics or good politics?

Although Thackeray insisted the upper cap be raised to Rs2 lakh, the ruling party settled it at Rs 1.5 lakh. The government earlier wanted to cap the waiver at Rs 1 lakh per farmer, but after severe opposition by farmers outfits and opposition parties, a ministerial group under revenue minister Chandrakant Patil worked out a proposal.

Sena minister Diwakar Raote, who is also the state transport minister, said, The Sena is happy that its demand (for a waiver) has been met. The CM has taken an important decision by giving relief to 89 lakh farmers. He consulted with Sena chief Thackeray because he had made the demand. Raote added that the government will last its full term of five years.

The waiver has been named after the Maratha king  Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Sanman Yojana. The state said the package wont apply to government and semi-government employees (except Class-4 employees), sitting and former legislators, elected representatives to civic and district bodies, income-tax payers, and farmers and traders with an annual turnover of more than Rs10 lakh.

The waiver will add to the states financial burden, and this could affect development projects, CM Fadnavis admitted, but said the government will tie-up with banks for a staggered repayment of their loans. We are talking to the nationalised banks on how to schedule the repayment of loans that we take . It is true the government is not in a position to bear the additional burden, but our endeavour is to keep fiscal deficit in check, he said.

Fadnavis said the government will try ensure development projects are not affected. The state government, while giving repayment guarantee to banks, has planned to stagger the amount over the next four years. By staggering the burden over four years, the annual burden on the state exchequer will be Rs 8000 crore in first year. We have been tapping options of resource mobilisation. One of them is a state finance corporation, where fixed deposits will be parked with various government agencies and corporations such as Mhada, MMRDA and municipal corporations, said revenue minister Chandrakant Patil, who headed the high-powered group of ministers.

State Congress chief Ashok Chavan said the decision was taken only after the Congress pursued the demand of a waiver. We are not fully satisfied with the announcement. We wanted a blanket waiver without any upper cap and we stand by our demand, he said.

Widespread protests by farmers across the state earlier this month forced the government to finally decide about waiving the loans. The government had several rounds of discussion with a steering committee of farmers outfits.

According to sources, the government decided to advance the announcement to avoid further pressure on farmers after June 30. The financial cycle for repayment of agriculture loans ends on June 30 every year. By announcing the waiver a week ahead of this date, we have given an opportunity to farmers to clear the remaining loans. Also, had we delayed the decision further, the number of defaulters would have increased. It would also have become difficult to arrive at a consensus, a minister privy to the developments said. Other sources said the government did not want to wait for another sowing cycle, as this would have increased the amount of loan waiver. Further, with farmers outfits and opposition parties staging agitations, the repayment of farm loans had almost stopped, which meant few farmers would have got loans for the current sowing season. It would have further fuelled resentment among farmers, a senior minister said, requesting not to be named.

Ajit Nawale, convenor of the farmers committee, said, A large number of farmers will be out of the coverage of the package. All members of the steering committee are meeting on Sunday to deliberate. The decision whether to resume the agitation will be taken tomorrow.

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The Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PcMC) has announced a competition to design its logo. The competition is open to all Indians residing in any part of the country. The last date for submitting entries is July 1.

The creator of the winning logo will get Rs25,000. The PCMC was formed on October 1, 2016, and its first ever civic elections were held in May. PCMCs 78 corporators were elected after the elections in May. The areas under the municipal corporation have a population of 5 lakh.

Municipal commissioner Sudhakar Shinde said, Just as the logos of 15 municipal corporations in the state are aesthetically designed and convey a strong message, we want the PCMC logo to stand out and represent the city and its people.

He added that Panvel has a rich history and culture and is attuned with the modern time, and this should be reflected in its logo.

As per norms stipulated by the PCMC, a participant must be above 18 years of age. Also, a group of artists can create the logo. Those interested should register their details and send designs on panvelcorporation.com. A consolation prize of Rs5,000 each will be given to five runners-up.
Two days after the Bombay high court rapped the railways and the Thane Municipal Corporation for failing to protect the Parsik tunnel, authorities have chalked out a plan to demolish the illegal hutments on the hill.

After months of blame game and shirking responsibility, officials from the district, forest, railways and TMC have joined hands to make the tunnel free of encroachments. The officials said residents would be rehabilitated.

Sandeep Malvi, public relations officer of TMC, said, The hillock on top of Parsik tunnel comes under the jurisdiction of the railways and the forest authorities. Over the years, people have encroached the hill by building houses and shops. The sewage water of the settlements has been flowing into the track below.

This area is prone to landslides in the monsoon.

A year ago, the retaining wall on the hillock above the Parsik tunnel collapsed. The debris fell on the railway track, disrupting the train services. Fortunately, no train was passing below the tunnel and a major disaster was averted.

The tunnel cuts right through Parsik hill and is an important link for the Central Railways suburban and long distance lines.

The forest department and TMC had tried to demolish the hutments but the slum dwellers had approached the high court which stayed the eviction notice. The high court asked the Thane civic body to first work out a rehabilitation scheme for the hutment dwellers.

On Friday, civic commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal met district, forest and railway officials at the TMC headquarters to find solution to the problem.

Malvi said, The action plan will include making a list of encroachers by surveying the area and making list of residents who are eligible for rehabilitation. Immediate arrangements would be made for police protection so that the area can be cleared within 72 hours of undertaking the demolition drive.

A notice will be served to vacate the homes and a joint demolition drive will be undertaking by the TMC, forest and railway authorities against those who fail to evacuate even after the end of the notice period. A rehabilitation policy will also be drafted, said Malvi.

Deputy conservator of forest J Ramgaonkar said, The demolition is stuck owing to the stay given by the court. Our efforts are on to vacate the stay as there is a threat to the life of people living on the tunnel. The court had stated that the demolition can be done by rehabilitating the residents and we are working towards it.

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A 22-year-old UK national was robbed near Haji Ali after a fake tour guide laced his coffee with a sedative causing him to fall unconscious, the police said. The Tardeo police have arrested 27-year-old Ayaz Shaikh, who police say has several similar cases registered in police stations across the country. In this case, Shaikh , after fleeing with the victims bag containing cash amounting to Rs30,000 and valuables, went to several stores in the city and bought clothes, police said. He was caught from Delhi.

According to the police, on June 15, Joseph Walker met Shaikh near Colaba. Shaikh, a school dropout, but fluent in English, befriended Walker and said he will show him different temples in the city. Walker then went to the nearest ATM machine to withdraw cash, but while he was entering his four-digit pin number, Shaikh noted it, police said.

An officer from Tardeo police station said, Shaikh and Walker then went to the nearest coffee shop, where Shaikh offered to buy him a coffee and somehow managed to lace it with a sedative.

According to the police, the UK national lost his consciousness after drinking the coffee, following which the accused fled with his bag. The coffee shop staffers initially thought he was sleeping as he had just put his head on the table, but as he did not get up for over an hour, they tried waking him up and later admitted him in the nearby Jaslok hospital, added an officer.

The hospital authorities informed the local police about the incident following which the case was registered.

The police got a breakthrough after they managed to get the picture of the accused from a Bandra store where the accused bought clothes. The police team then circulated the picture of the accused to their informers, following which they got his phone number. On the basis of his mobile phone location, a team was then dispatched to Delhi where they arrested him.

According to the police, Shaikh has been trickng foreign nationals with the same modus operandi for the past eight years.

Shaikh has several cases of cheating registered against him at Tardeo, Worli, Colaba police stations along with police station in Delhi and Rajasthan.

Read

Polish couple robbed by two near Haji Ali

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Two sisters and a man from Navi Mumbai were arrested for abusing and assaulting two policemen in Bhiwandi on Thursday.

Their four-wheeler was hit by another car and was about to be towed away when they attacked the policemen.

Hina Singh, 24, Puja Singh, 19, and Sumit Randhavan, 23, had gone to Bhiwandi for some work and were returning through the Mumbai-Nashik highway when their car was hit by another one from behind. No one was injured.

But, an argument broke out between them and the car driver. Both cars were slightly damaged.

When we reached to the spot, they were still fighting verbally. Both the vehicles were damaged and as we were about to tow the vehicles, the four people started arguing and abusing the traffic police. They also threatened other policemen, said a police officer from Narpoli police station.

In the melee, the four fled from the spot in their cars.

We alerted the control room and that chased them. After covering around 10 kilometres, we caught them near Kharegaon bridge near Kalwa, said the police.

One car fled from the spot but the car which had three people was stopped.

Getting down from the vehicle, they started manhandling and assaulting the police. They beat up a police constable. The three were arrested, added officer.

All the three were produced in court and have been remanded in police custody.

They were arrested under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Criminal Law Amendment Act 2008. The police are looking for the other car driver.

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Five more people in Mumbai died of swine flu last week, taking the total number of deaths this year to 16. There were 92 new cases this week alone.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations (BMC) public health department has now cautioned people not to ignore the early symptoms of the infection.

Get yourself checked if symptoms such as cough, cold and fever last more than four days, said a BMC official.

A seven-month pregnant woman was declared dead on June 13, while being treated for swine flu. Doctors said she showed classic symptoms of the flu such as fever, breathlessness and cough on June 8. She was shifted to a government hospital on June 11 but died of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome two days later.

Another patient, a 45-year-old man from Mankhurd , died on June 16 after receiving treatment at a BMC hospital for six days. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis and showed symptoms indicating H1N1.

A 35-year-old woman from Malvani died of swine flu on June 18. Health officials said she was admitted to a Navi Mumbai hospital on June 12 and was treated before she was transferred to a BMC hospital on June 15, where her health deteriorated.

READ: Swine flu threat growing big in India this year, killed 525

While officials didnt share information on the other two victims, they said the areas where the five victims lived was being surveyed. The families of the five victims were not showing symptoms. .

Doctors have advised relatives of patients not to panic. If within ten days of diagnosis of a patient, any other family member develops fever, it should be reported to the nearest government hospital., said Dr Padmaja Keskar, Executive Health Officer at BMC.

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has asked 23 laboratories across the country to conduct weekly surveillance for the Zika virus among pregnant women and children born with microcephaly  a condition that causes abnormal smallness of the head and incomplete brain development.

The ICMR stepped up surveillance for Zika, after three confirmed cases were reported in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on May 15, by the World Health Organisation. No cases of Zika were officially reported in the country after that. The Zika virus is transmitted through the bite of Aedes aegypti mosquito infected by the virus. The same mosquito transmits dengue and chikungunya.

The directive was given to the laboratories at a meeting at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), said Dr Jayanthi Shastri, professor and head of microbiology, BYL Nair Hospital, Bombay Central. All laboratories have to collect at least twenty samples in a week and check it for zika virus, dengue and chikungunya through a kit which was sent to us by NIV, said Dr Shastri. In Mumbai, the samples will be tested at Kasturba Hospital, Chinchpokli.
JINANChina is developing a third prototype exascale computing machine, also known as a super supercomputer, and plans to launch it by June 2018, according to the developers.

The Sunway exascale computer prototype is being developed by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering and Technology and the National Supercomputing Center in Jinan, Shandong province.

The NRCPC led the team that developed the Sunway TaihuLight, crowned the world's fastest computer two years in a rowat the International Supercomputing Conference in 2016 and 2017 in Frankfurt, Germany.

An exascale computer is able to execute a quintillion calculations per second, about eight times faster than the Sunway TaihuLight. The increase in computational speed will advance research in such areas as climate change, space science, medicine and oceanology.

China and the United States are currently leading exascale computer development. In China, prototypes are being developed by three teams led by the NRCPC, the Dawning Information Industry Co (also known as Sugon) and the National University of Defense Technology.

The three have spearheaded China's supercomputer efforts with their respective brandsSunway, Sugon and Tianhe.

The National University of Defense Technology, partnering with the National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin, announced in January that their prototype will be ready by the end of the year.

Sugon said it had begun developing its prototype late last year.

After the prototypes have been developed, exascale supercomputers are expected to hit the market by 2020.

The Sunway supercomputer's developers said they are eyeing applications in fields such as high performance numerical simulation in marine environments, to be used by the State Oceanic Administration's First Institute of Oceanography in Qingdao. The city is at the forefront of China's marine scientific research and is the base for the deep-sea manned submersible Jiaolong.
The Kandivli police arrested two men for allegedly assaulting an 18-year-old in Kandivli (west) over a personal dispute.

One of the accused is his 22-year-old brother-in-law.

The teen, Usman Khan, lives in Bharat Seva Society in Gandhinagar area. He was at home on June 20. At 11 pm, the brother-in-law and his friend showed up in the locality. The two were creating a ruckus and yelling at Khans neighbour Shazia Bano.

Khans sister Nafisunnissa had eloped with one of the accused two months back, and his friend had helped them. Bano spilled the news to Khans family and this had given rise to a disagreement in the family. The accused held a grudge against her because of this.

Overhearing the commotion, Khan intervened and asked them to stop the ruckus. The men got angry and started abusing Khan and then assaulted him.

Khan sustained injuries on his nose. He was admitted at the Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital and the police were informed.

The Kandivli police have registered a case of assault against the two.

READ MORE

Mumbai: Two women, man assault cops after accident in Bhiwandi

Man tries to save wife from kins attack, beaten to death

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Ahead of the presidential election next month, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray courted controversy by saying that the countrys president is simply a rubber stamp post and has no use for the common person.

Thackeray said, The president is a rubber stamp. The party in power gets to have this rubber stamp.

He added that the president did not impact the life of the common man in any way. I feel bad looking at the politics surrounding a presidential election. But keeping politics aside, how does who becomes president affect our lives?Presidents are only seen on August 15 and January 26. Who knows what they do for five years other than this? he said.

Thackeray said people keep writing letters and emails to the president about issues that grip the country, but never get replies. The last issue I remember where a president was involved was in the capital punishment of 1993 blasts convict Yaqub Memon. Otherwise, in your life, in my life, how does a president make a difference? Has a president ever stated his point of view on anything? There have been so many issues right from the Maratha protests to the farmers agitation. What did the president do? the MNS chief said.

Voting for the presidential election is scheduled on July 17, while the counting takes place on July 20, four days before President Pranab Mukherjees term ends. The National Democratic Alliance picked its candidate first, former Bihar governor Ram Nath Kovind, who is a Dalit. A few opposition leaders such as Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar broke ranks to announce their support for the NDA candidate. NDA ally Shiv Sena made a veiled accusation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) indulging in vote bank politics, but later announced its support for Kovind.

A few days later, the opposition picked its presidential candidate, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, also a Dalit, prompting some leaders such as Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati to return to its fold.

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Two bitter rivals  Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Congress leader Narayan Rane  brought together on the same dais by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Union minister Nitin Gadkari, found something in common among their differences: their praise for Gadkari and his development work.

Speaking at the bhoomipujan of the Mumbai-Goa highway expansion at Kudal in Sindhudurg district, Thackeray described Gadkari, minister for road transport, highways and shipping, as the most efficient minister in the union cabinet.

Thackeray said, When our government was in power, we decided to build 55 flyovers. Most of them are complete now. We even very speedily built the Mumbai Pune expressway. Today I would like to say, the speed at which you (Gadkari) work one can say that in todays cabinet you are perhaps the minister fastest at execution.

Congress Narayan Rane, a Shiv Sena rebel, also praised Gadkari as being a vikas purush (a development-oriented person) and spoke highly of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis saying they have taken the state towards progress.

Rane was expelled from the Sena for openly questioning Thackerays ability to lead. Following his expulsion, Rane took a chunk of Sena MLAs and joined the Congress. Later, he launched a vicious campaign against the Thackerays, and Uddhav Thackeray too has been overtly critical of Rane.

Gadkari was the public works development minister in the Sena-BJP government from 1995 to 1999 and is credited for steering the Mumbai-Pune expressway project and the construction of some major flyovers in Mumbai.

Thackeray added that ministers have traditionally always presented development plans to the public, even making tall promises of moulding Konkan into California. These kind of announcements have also been made earlier, but things are different now, Thackeray said. He added the way this coalition government almost made Mumbai and Pune seem like one city with the expressway, the expansion of the Mumbai-Goa highway will bring the entire Konkan region close to the city.

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Twelve years after being expelled from the Shiv Sena, senior Congress leader Narayan Rane and the Sena chief shared a stage at a public function in Kudal, Sindhudurg. The camaraderie between Rane and BJP leaders on the occasion has also led to talk about the formers entry to the BJP.

Rane and Thackeray, who are bitter rivals, mentioned each other in their speeches at the foundation-stone laying ceremony of the Mumbai - Goa highway quadrupling project. While Thackeray referred to Rane as his former colleague, Rane welcomed Thackeray and his wife, Rashmi, to Sindhudurg. Though the leaders were cordial to each other on the stage, the supporters of Rane and Sena, were engaged in sloganeering at the function.

Rane was expelled from Sena for questioning Thackerays ability to lead. Following his expulsion, Rane took a chunk of Sena MLAs and joined the Congress. Later, he launched a vicious campaign against the Thackerays, and Uddhav Thackeray too has been overtly critical of Rane.

Meanwhile, the former Maharashtra chief minister created a flutter when he praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for taking the state towards progress. The Congress leader has been cozying up to the BJP since a few months now, and there are strong rumours that he is trying switch to BJP. Not just Modi and Fadnavis, Rane also praised Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari and called him a vikas purush.

Rane has openly expressed his discontent at the Congress and has been giving mixed signals for a few months. In an indication that he has issues with Congress and its leadership, posters of Rane welcoming Fadnavis and Gadkari were put up in Kudal. Interestingly, the Congress party symbol was conspicuously missing on these posters. Rane has denied the rumours of a switch all along.

The quadrupling of the highway is crucial to improve inter-state connectivity and to reduce the number of accidents on the existing two-lane highway. It will also improve connectivity to the Konkan district. The estimated cost of the quadrupling of the three packages is Rs3,487.58 crore.
Union civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapati Raju on Saturday gave his approval for the setting up of an international airport in Greater Noidas Jewar, a move local leaders and entrepreneurs believe will help bring more business, tourism and employment.

Raju, during a press briefing in New Delhi on Saturday, said that in-principle clearance has been granted for the airport.

The minister later took to Twitter to declare that Area notified for Noida Airport is 3000 hectares; first phase will be developed for 1000 hectares. We expect Rs 15,000-20,000 crores of investment. Noida International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years.

Expressing happiness over the approval, Member of Parliament from Gautam Budh Nagar and Union minister for tourism and culture Mahesh Sharma said that setting up of an international airport will open doors for development for rural areas.

Villages adjoining Jewar will finally see development after the airport is set up. Not only will this benefit the industries, it will also generate employment for the youth. Some foreign companies, such as Samsung and LG are going to set up plants in Greater Noida. Other are likely to follow suit. Tourism will flourish in cities such as Mathura and Agra and it will result in overall prosperity, said Sharma.

Jewar MLA Thakur Dhirendra Singh said the entire country will benefit from Jewars new airport.

The youths in my constituency will get jobs. And all this will be because of concentrated efforts of chief minister Yogi Adityanath added Singh.

Industrialists and hoteliers of Greater Noida also welcomed Saturdays announcement.

Vipin Malhan, president of Noida Entreprenuers Association said, This is a big achievement for Noida and Uttar Pradesh as an international airport will result in frequent travel of importers and exporters. Earlier, foreign clients used to stay in Gurgaon or Delhi hotels and that is why we could never create a business ecosystem. Now, things will change, he said.

Amarjeet Singh, owner of Rama Hotels and Banquets, said that an international airport will boost the hospitality sector in the district.

Greater Noida will see a flood of hotels and motels when an airport comes up, said Singh.

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The district administration officials on Saturday handed over a cheque of Rs 2.12 lakh to 30-year-old Neelam Kumari, who lost both her hands after coming in touch with an electricity cable hanging near her first-floor flat balcony.

The move comes a couple of days after district magistrate Ministhy S ordered an inquiry be conducted by Rajesh Yadav, additional district magistrate (finance & revenue), into the incident to fix culpability.

The inquiry officer directed the electricity department to arrange the compensation and the cheque was handed over to Neelam Kumari.

The cheque of Rs 2.12 lakh was handed over to her. This is the maximum compensation that can be given to her, as per norms. However, we are trying to get her more financial assistance from associations and NGOs. We will try to provide her more relief, Yadav said.

However, the family said the incident shattered their entire lives and a new set of artificial limb will cost around Rs 20 lakh.

We received a quotation for single artificial limb with which my wife would be able to write and work. This That itself costs nearly Rs 20 lakh. The compensation amount is not sufficient to meet the cost of an artificial limb. We hope the officials will extend us more financial help, said Vinay Kumar, Neelams husband.

Neelam and Vinay are from Bihar and shifted a decade ago to Delhi for better job prospects. They shifted to DLF Ankur Vihar in Loni and bought a builders flat after obtaining a bank loan.

On the morning of April 27, Neelam was drying clothes on her balcony when she suffered an electric shock from 11KV electricity cable hanging nearby. Two days later, she was to appear for her bank probationary entrance examination but she lost that opportunity to the tragic incident.

The family said they have got a lot of support from neighbours and local leaders but the cost of an artificial limb will be too difficult for them to meet.

We will meet the district magistrate and tell her about our plight and see if she will be willing to extend more help to bring Neelams life back to normal, Vinay said.
The government has cleared a proposal for setting up a greenfield airport in Jewar in Greater Noida, which is likely to be operational in the next 5-6 years.

Civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said at a press briefing in New Delhi on Saturday that in-principle clearance has been granted for the airport.

The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority has notified 3,000 hectares of land for a world-class international airport, Raju added.

The area notified for Noida Airport is 3000 ha; 1st phase will be developed for 1000 ha. We expect Rs 15-20 thousand crores of investment.  Ashok Gajapathi Raju (@Ashok_Gajapathi) June 24, 2017

Noida International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years, Raju tweeted.

NOIDA International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years  Ashok Gajapathi Raju (@Ashok_Gajapathi) June 24, 2017

The airport will help reduce congestion at the Delhi international airport.

In Delhi, we are expecting 91 million passengers by 2020 and 109 million passengers by 2024, Raju told reporters.
A mans body who appeared to be in his mid-twenties was recovered from the metro tracks near Sector 16 Metro station in Noida early Saturday, the police said.

The police said the identity of the deceased is yet to be established as they could not find any identity card or document from the body.

The body was spotted around 5.30am by a train operator, on way to New Delhi from Noida City Centre Metro station. The operator immediately informed the security agency, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

The man was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him as brought dead. A spokesperson for CISF said, We scanned the CCTV camera footage and it showed that the man got down at 10.50pm at the Sector 15 Metro station from the City Centre-bound train. For three minutes, he was on the platform and then he jumped on the tracks and started walking towards the Sector 16 Metro station.

An inquiry has been initiated into the issue to ascertain the sequence of events by which the man remained inside the station and walked on the tracks without any disturbance.

Senior superintendent of police (city), Arun Singh, told media persons that they recovered a phone from the body but it did not have a SIM card.

No one has come forward (to identify the body) and we have also failed to identify it. We will wait for 72 hours and then send the body for a post-mortem examination. We are hopeful that the phone will give us a clue about his identity, Arun Singh said.

He also said that the police stations have been alerted to check complaints of missing persons.

Sources in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said that after the man started heading towards the Sector 16 Metro station, three trains had moved from Noida to New Delhi. He is likely to have jumped in front of the last train, according to the sources.

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Character certificate issued to people who are found to have any link to the land mafia will be cancelled, said district magistrate (DM) BN Singh, who is heading the anti-land mafia task force in Gautam Budh Nagar.

A character certificate is issued by the collectors office and is required for entering into a legal contract.

One criterion for issuing a character certificate is that the person should not have any case of encroachment of a government property against him or her.

We will be cancelling the character certificates given to people who are part of the land mafia. In future, anybody who is found to have a connection with land mafia will not be able to get a character certificate, said Singh. A character certificate is valid for two years, he said.

Recently, the DM had issued letters to the Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities, revenue department and police stations to identify the top 10 land mafias in the district.

The government is also going to review arms licence of people who are found to have encroached upon government or private property.

No new licence will be issued to people who have a link with the land mafia. We will also be cancelling the licence of those found on the wrong side of the law. If we come to know of any licensed weapon being used for an illegal dealing, the licence of the person will be cancelled immediately. We will be sending show-cause notices to the offenders, Singh said.

The DM has also said that government security provided to such people will be reviewed. We want to make sure that no government machinery is used for any encroachment. We will withdraw all state facilities of people who are found to be a part of the land mafia, Singh said.

These initiatives are being taken to reduce notorious middlemen involved in encroachments and to take action against land mafia kingpins, officials said.

All police stations have been directed to identify those responsible for encroachment of government or private properties. The police will also keep a track of ongoing cases against encroachment in their jurisdiction.

The Yogi Adityanath government had promised to set up an anti-land mafia task force in Uttar Pradesh. Officials said that the task force has been constituted to stop land or property grabbing.

The task force is empowered to take action even against those who encroach public land in the name of religion. The task force will be submitting a report on all illegal encroachments and action will be initiated against the perpetrators, officials said.
After 16 long years of planning and dawdling, Greater Noida is set to get an international airport in the next five to six years as the Union civil aviation ministry gave an in-principle nod to the proposal on Saturday.

However, it took three state governments, countless proposals and shifting of localities for the ambitious project to come to fruition. Multiple political parties have tried to piggyback on the project for gaining votes and the issue also resulted in a tussle between the state and Centre in 2013, as people anxiously waited for the promise to be fulfilled.

Setting up an international airport in Greater Noida will ease traffic at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. While businessmen and hoteliers see the project as a lucrative opportunity for their business, the youth believe that an airport will bring them employment opportunities.

It all started in 2001 when then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Rajnath Singh proposed a Greenfield Taj International and aviation Hub (TIAH) at Jewar. However, the idea was soon shelved after the Bharatiya Janata Party was voted out of power at the Centre in 2004. For the next six years, the idea was not even discussed in the power corridors of Lucknow or New Delhi, often due to differences between the state and the Centre.

In 2010, chief minister Mayawati revisited the proposal and said that it was her dream to see an international airport in Jewar. But no progress was made in the next two years and the Samajwadi Party was elected to power.

In the next five years, a tussle continued between the state and the Centre. In 2012, the UPA government had also stated that an airport in Jewar would hamper the business interests of the IGI Airport.

We are extremely pleased with the approval for an international airport. This should have been done a long time ago but it repeatedly delayed due to the tussle between the Centre and state, besides other administrative reasons, said AN Dhawan, secretary general, Federation of Noida Residents Welfare Association (FONRWA).

The state government in 2013 decided to shift the project to Agra, 200km away from the IGI Airport. The SP government had even considered Saifai (SP chiefs native village) as an option.

However, no progress was made in the next year as officials continued to send proposals and letters to the state government, Union government and Greater Noida authority.

In 2014, the BJP was voted to power at the Centre and the project was again shifted from Saifai to Jewar.

Dr Mahesh Sharma, the member of parliament (MP) from Gautam Budh Nagar was chosen in Modis cabinet as the Union minister for culture and tourism. Sharma stated that he would revive the forgotten Jewar project and said that setting up a 5,000-acre project was his top priority.

Sharmas proposal was not objected to by the SP in 2015, which showed a willingness to support it. In June 2016, the Union ministry of defence cleared the project and in July, the Yamuna Expressway authority sent the site survey report to the defence ministry. In September, the state government had even asked YEIDA to conduct an Obstacle Limitation Survey of the proposed area.

As 2016 ended, there was to be another shift in power at the state level. The BJPs senior leaders, from party president Amit Shah to Home minister Rajnath Singh, promised that an airport is among their top priorities.

We will deliver what we have promised. For too long, the people of Rabupura, Jewar and adjoining villages have suffered due to the state governments apathy. The defence ministry has already cleared the proposal and we will soon create an airport when elected to power, Rajnath Singh had said in a political rally at Rabupura in February 2017.

Three months later, the newly elected BJP government put the project on high priority. With the coordinated efforts of YEIDA, local MLA Thakur Dhirendra Singh, MP Mahesh Sharma and Union civil aviation ministry, the formalities for obtaining approvals were swiftly completed.

In May 2017, RITES, a survey team of Indian Railways, started surveying the 5,000 hectares in Jewar and in a month, stated that there were little to no hindrances for the project. The report was submitted to the state civil aviation department that met with the officials of Union civil aviation ministry to finalise the deal.

Setting up an airport will create thousands of jobs for the youth. The industries will benefit and businesses will bloom. Not just Jewar or villages near the Yamuna Expressway, even cities such as Mathura and Agra will benefit when from tourism, said Mahesh Sharma on Saturday.

As the project will now enter construction stage, it is likely that in the next five to six years, Delhi-NCR will get its second international airport. However hard political parties tried to milk the issue, it was because of the lack of political will that the project was delayed 16 years.

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People of Yao ethnic group celebrate the Zhuzhu Festival in Dahua Yao Autonomous County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, June 23, 2017. The Zhuzhu Festival is the biggest traditional festival among Yao people which involves dancing, sporting events, and commerce. Every year on the 29th day of the fifth Chinese lunar month, the Yao people will get together and celebrate their own festival. (Xinhua/Huang Xiaobang)
A group of nearly 200 agitated parents gathered outside a school in Ghaziabad, on Saturday morning to protest against the expulsion of 29 students of different classes.

By Saturday evening, the police and administration officials had to intervene as protesters tried to block the school gate and refused to hold discussions.

The students were issued transfer certificates after their parents allegedly refused to pay the hiked fee as demanded by the school.

The parents blocked the main gate of the school and did not allow the staff to move out. We had to intervene and pacify them. Parents were only willing to deposit the old fee while the school was adamant that they pay the increased fee. Finally, it was decided that next week, a meeting of both sides will be held along with the administration officials to look into the issue, said Sanjay Bansal, additional city magistrate.

The issue of fee hike by private schools has led to several protests by parents and associations across Delhi-NCR. In Ghaziabad, too, parents have held multiple protests outside private schools and government offices to persuade officials to roll back the arbitrary fee hike.

We are ready to pay the fee as per old structure but school is not ready to accept that. We had told them to wait till the committee of officials brings some clarity to the issue. Now, they have issued TCs without waiting for that and put the future of students at risk, said a parent.

This is a pressure tactic by the school to pressure the parents to deposit the hiked fee. This will put the future of students at risk. It is demanded that the TCs be revoked till the state committee comes out with a decision on fee hike, said a protester.

The school said it will not revoke the 29 TCs and added that it is considering issuing another 30 more TCs. The school authorities said they have a total of 2,800 students enrolled with them and a majority has paid the hiked fee.

We put up the new fee structure in September last year on the school website. No one objected to the hiked fee then and we issued notices and gave parents time after each notice. But now they have started objecting and protesting. As per our records, nearly 4% parents have not paid the fee, said the school principal.

We are considering another batch of 30 students to whom TCs will be issued soon. Since parents are staging a protest, we called them for discussions but they are not ready for that, the principal said.

The parents said they will now approach CM Yogi Adityanath to direct officials to intervene in the matter. The state government has already constituted a nine-member committee to look into the issue.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Chandigarh Zonal Unit, seized 1.01 kg of charas concealed in speaker of a music system from a Mumbai resident on Saturday.

The accused Romeo William Sampson, of Andheri (West), Mumbai was arrested by NCB at checkpoint near Kharar bus stand, SAS Nagar. Romeo was travelling in private bus (Swagtam Holidays) from Bhunter in Himachal Pradesh to Mumbai.

A drug addict Romeo had been actively into drug smuggling for last two years, said zonal director NCB Kaustubh Sharma. The drugs were found concealed in a speaker of music system, he added.

His modus operandi was to bring drugs from Kasol of Himachal Pradesh and sell them in Mumbai.
The police have identified a network of drug peddlers active in Chandigarh who take orders on phone and employ people on daily basis to deliver drugs at the clients preferred location.

This came to fore after the arrest of one Amit Kumar, 50, from Sector 38 West, Chandigarh, on Friday. Amit hails from Nepal and was living in Kharar. He was employed by drug peddler Sonu and held with 24 buprenorphine injections and eight gram of smack.

Amit was paid Rs 1,000 per day for selling drugs. All deals were done on the phone, said Ram Rattan, station house officer of Maloya police station.

This is first such case that has come up in Chandigarh.

During the preliminary investigations, Amit reportedly told police that Sonu used to hand over 50 pouches to him carrying small quantity of smack.

Amit had started working with Sonu about 15 days back, prior to which he was in Himachal Pradesh for two months in search of a job. It is learnt that the two were in touch for the last two years as they were living in the same locality in Daddumajra. After Amit got addicted to drinking, his parents shifted to Kharar to keep him away from bad company, the police said.

Sources revealed that Sonu has hired about a dozen people to supply drugs to his clients.

During interrogation, Amit revealed that Sonu had provided him a mobile phone through which the deals were struck. After getting calls from regular customers, Amit would supply smack at a rate of Rs 500 per pouch while the injection was sold at Rs 300, police sources said.

Police have registered a case against Amit under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Kingpins wife doubles up as supplier

According to the police, Sonu also used his wife, Shakti, 27, to supply drugs to his clients. She was arrested with 15 gram heroin (chitta) on June 10 near fish market in Dadumajra.

She too was handed small pouches carrying one gram of heroin on daily basis. She charged Rs 5,000 per pouch and Rs 300 for each buprenorphine injection.

Police sources said that to cover himself, Sonu never got involved in supplying drugs. Whenever he would accompany his accomplices, Sonu would ensure that he is standing at a place covered by CCTV camera. This was to ensure that he is never caught red-handed possessing the contraband, the sources claimed.

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With the national TV channels flashed the news of Palbinder Kaur Shergill (48) becoming the first turbaned (Amritdhari) Sikh woman appointed as judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in New Westminster, local residents and newsmen started making beelines in the native house of Kaur at Jagatpur village in SBS Nagar district.

The air filled with joy with villagers visiting Kaurs house for giving congratulatory wishes to the family for making village proud.

My brother Amritpal Singh Shergill (52), Palbinders husband, called me up in the morning to share this proud moment with me. The situation is like a fair in my house since morning. As our relatives and villagers are coming to greet us after they got to know that my Bhabhi (sister-in-law) Palbinder becomes the judge in Canada, GurpreetPal Singh, brother-in-law of Shergill said.

He said that they have a joint family and the family stays in the house whenever they visit here. She had visited February last year with family.

Shergill has brought laurels to the village. I hope her elevation as Canadian judge helps to strengthen Punjabis especially Sikhs on foreign shores, Gurpreet, a farmer said.

The family has distributed sweets for her success. We will organise akhand path (chain prayers) in village Gurdwaras tomorrow to thank Waheguru for fulfilling her dream and making the family proud, said her aunt Joginder Kaur (62).

A human rights advocate, Justice Shergill was born at Rurka Kalan in Jalandhar district and married into a family from Jagatpur village in neighbouring Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawanshahr).

She immigrated to Canada with her family at the age of four and grew up in Williams Lake, BC, and received her law degree from the University of Saskatchewan.

Her husband, Amritpal Singh Shergill, is a doctor. They live Surrey and have three children one daughter Mohenaam Kaur and twin boys Meharban Singh, Kurban Singh.

She has represented the interests of the Canadian Sikh community in several cases heard by the Supreme Court of Canada, including the one dealing with the right of Sikh students to wear the kirpan (ceremonial dagger) in schools.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad on Thursday appeared in person before a Ranchi CBI court and submitted a list of 36 witnesses that he wanted to examine in his defence in one of the fodder scam cases related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 90 lakh from the Deoghar treasury.

The instant case is in the final argument stage. Barring Prasad and former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra, all stages of trial proceedings have been completed with respect to other 29 accused involved in the case.

Trial proceedings against Prasad and Mishra were closed after the Jharkhand high court discharged the two from the case in 2014. But, the Supreme Court, on May 8 this year, had quashed the high courts order reinstating the charges against Prasad and Mishra.

The special CBI court, thereafter, reopened the trial against both the accused.

Prasad appeared in person before the court of special judge Shivpal Singh on Thursday and submitted a list of 36 defence witnesses. He urged the court to allow him to examine these witnesses to prove his innocence. Examination of defence witnesses is a later stage of trial.

The CBI, the prosecuting agency, however, raised objections contending that Prasad intentionally prepared a voluminous list of defence witnesses, which was not required. This was a ploy to delay the ongoing trial, the CBI argued.

The court, however, rejected the CBIs contention and allowed Prasad to produce these witnesses in a group of five on each date of hearing. The court fixed June 29 and 30 as the next dates of hearing.

Prasad will appear in person on the next dates of hearing as well. If any exigencies come in the way, we will seek courts permission for exemption of his personal appearance, Prasads advocate Prabhat Kumar said. He added that the court, on his clients request, had issued summons to five defence witnesses who would be examined on June 29.

Meanwhile, the court recorded the statement of former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishras statement as accused under the provisions of Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the same case.

The court recorded Mishras statements in response to allegations levelled against him in the case. The CBI had alleged that Mishra, being a leader of the opposition in Bihar assembly in 1993, had recommended granting of two-year extension of service to fodder scam kingpin the late S B Sinha and thus conspired in the loot of public money. Sinha was later granted service extension during Prasads chief ministerial tenure.

Mishra said he never ignored legal parameters and had acted in accordance with law. Being a public representative, many people came to me with their problems, Mishra said, adding, I had written letters to appropriate authorities for redressal of their problems but in each letter I had specifically asked the authorities to take action in accordance with law.

The fodder scam relates to a systematic bleeding of public funds in Bihar between 1990 and 1995 when money was taken from the different treasuries for fictitious spends on fodder and other expenses for cattle.

Six cases were filed against Prasad and Mishra in the scam, with the trial in one resulting in the duos conviction in 2013 that lost Prasad his seat in Parliament.

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The Jharkhand high court on Tuesday overturned its earlier order through which the principal accountant general (PAG) was asked to audit the accounts of Jharkhand Legal Services Authority (JHALSA), Jharkhand Judicial Academy (JJA) and National University for Study and Research in Law (NUSRL).

JHALSA and JJA are judicial institutions functioning under the administrative control of the Jharkhand high court. While the former is a statutory body constituted with a view to providing free legal service and to ensure opportunity to the downtrodden class of the society for securing justice, the latter is meant to provide legal training, research and other academic facilities to judicial officers and lawyers. Both the institutions receive fund from the state government.

NUSRL, Ranchi, recognised by the University Grants Commission, was set up in 2010 after the state granted Rs 50 crore one-time fund.

A division bench of Justice S Chandrashekhar and Justice Amitav K Gupta recalled the June 7 order of the high court after hearing review petitions filed by the aforesaid three institutions.

Earlier, the high court had taken suo motu cognizance of a letter written by a citizen to the Jharkhand chief justice alleging therein about mismanagement and misutilisation of funds by these institutions.

Initiating a PIL into the matter, a division bench of then Chief Justice PK Mohanty and Justice Amitav K Gupta on June 7 had directed the PAG of Jharkhand to audit the accounts of the three institutions within four months and submit a report to the court.

The bench had also directed the comptroller and auditor general of India to monitor the auditing that would be carried out by Jharkhand PAG.

The bench had observed, Having regard to the nature of allegations and for ensuring transparency in the administration and interest of justice, it is deemed proper that the accounts be audited by the principal accountant general of state of Jharkhand.

Aggrieved by the order, the three institutions had filed separate review petitions urging the court to recall its earlier order.

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The Election Commission of India (ECI) has asked the state chief secretary to initiate criminal proceedings against additional director general (ADG) of police Anurag Gupta and Jharkhand chief ministers political advisor Ajay Kumar for allegedly adopting corrupt practices to influence 2016 Rajya Sabha biennial polls.

BJP candidates Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Mahesh Poddar bagged the two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand, election of which was held on June 11 last year. Out of total 81 MLAs, 79 cast their votes while JMM legislator Charma Linda and Congress legislator Devendra Singh failed to exercise their franchise.

Soon after the elections, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Progressive) chief Babulal Marandi brought horse trading charges against the ruling BJP alleging that some people at the helm of power adopted corrupt practices to influence the legislators to secure their votes in favour of BJP candidates. He filed a complaint with the ECI annexing with it a compact disc (CD) that contained telephonic conversations between ADG Anurag Gupta, CMs political advisor Ajay Kumar and a former Congress minister Yogendra Sao whose wife Nirmala Devi is a sitting legislator.

Finding the allegations prima facie true, the ECI issued a letter to the state chief secretary on June 13, 2017, asking her to immediately initiate departmental disciplinary action against the accused persons for misuse of official position, interference in elections, breach of conduct/service rules and other relevant offences.

The commission further clarified that the matter was also related to bribery and corruption, appropriate criminal proceedings under Sections 171 B (bribery) and 171 C (undue influence at elections) and under relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act be initiated against the accused.

The commission pointed out that it received written statements of two sitting legislators of Jharkhand assembly namely Chamra Linda and Nirmala Devi. The preliminary verification of their statements indicates that a prima facie case is made out against the accused, the commission mentioned in the letter that encloses copies of the written statements of the two legislators.

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The Jharkhand high courts order recalling its earlier order through which the principal accountant general (PAG) was asked to audit the accounts of three judicial institutions evoked a sharp criticism from practicing lawyers.

The high court on June 7 had directed the principal accountant general (PAG) of Jharkhand to audit the accounts of Jharkhand Legal Services Authority (JHALSA), Jharkhand Judicial Academy (JJA) and National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL), Ranchi, within four months and submit a report to the court.

A division bench of then Chief Justice PK Mohanty and Justice Amitav K Gupta had passed the order after a citizen had written a letter to the Jharkhand Chief Justice alleging about mismanagement and misutilisation of funds by these institutions.

Responding to review petitions filed by these institutions, another bench of Justice S Chandrashekhar and Justice Amitav K Gupta on June 20 had recalled the said order on the ground that the person who had written the letter to the Chief Justice didnt disclose his name and address.

Reacting to this, the advocates association of the Jharkhand high court has submitted a petition, signed by as many as 50 practicing lawyers, to the state bar council seeking its intervention in the matter.

The lawyers questioned the manner in which the earlier order was recalled. They argued that how could an order passed by a bench headed by chief justice be reviewed by another bench comprising junior judges.

The associations executive committee meeting was held on Wednesday in which it was decided that the members of the association would meet chairman of the state bar council, the apex lawyers body, to decide further course of action, said associations president AK Kashyap.

Members of the executive committee deprecated the high courts recall order calling it bad.

JHALSA and JJA are judicial institutions functioning under the administrative control of the Jharkhand high court. While the former is a statutory body constituted with a view to providing free legal service and to ensure opportunity to the downtrodden class of the society for securing justice, the latter is meant to provide legal training, research and other academic facilities to judicial officers and lawyers. Both the institutions receive fund from the state government.

NUSRL, Ranchi, recognised by the University Grants Commission, was set up in 2010 after the state granted Rs 50 crore one-time fund.

Earlier, the high court had taken suo moto cognizance of the letter written by a citizen and initiated a PIL. On June 7, the bench headed by then Chief Justice PK Mohanty had directed the Jharkhand PAG to audit the accounts of the three institutions. It had also directed the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to monitor the auditing that would be carried out by the PAG.

The bench had observed, Having regard to the nature of allegations and for ensuring transparency in the administration and interest of justice, it is deemed proper that the accounts be audited by the PAG of state of Jharkhand.

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Shakti Arora has been in the news recently for his split with girlfriend Neha Saxena. While there were reports that the two ended their four-year relationship, Shakti took to Instagram and put rumours to rest just by posting by a picture with his girlfriend. A real relationship will last long beyond the rumours... Putting all rumours to rest...#relationshipgoals (sic), he captioned it.

Some reports even suggested that Shakti and Neha were secretly married and they just didnt want anyone to know, not even the fellow colleagues from the industry.

A Real relationship will last long beyond the rumors..Putting All Rumours to Rest.. #relationshipgoals A post shared by Shakti Arora (@shaktiarora) on Jun 21, 2017 at 12:57am PDT

Unfazed by the constant speculation about his relationship here in India, Shakti is shooting in Indonesia for a show. There is so much being said about my personal life, but Ive decided to concentrate on my work and not pay heed to such rumours, says Shakti.

Super night with super people. Big thank you Indonesia.. love n love .@antv_official . A post shared by shashank vyas (@ishashankvyas) on Jun 21, 2017 at 1:55pm PDT

In fact, the actor has also been making new friends, and bonds with Balika Vadhu famed actor Shashank Vyas. He [Shashank] is a very genuine person. There are a very few people in this industry who are so down to earth, and he is one of them. Thats the reason why Ive been able to connect with him so well. Though we barely get to meet in person, we have immense love and respect for each other, says Shakti.

He adds, Most of the people, who you meet here [in the industry] are fake and jealous of each other unnecessarily. But Shashank is not like that. I wish that he reaches great heights in his career. We are having a ball here.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Pakistans Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has arrested 14 employees of Pakistans national flag carrier on charges of being involved in smuggling drugs through the airlines aircraft.

Of the 14, nine were arrested in Karachi, where Pakistan International Airlines has its headquarters, while five more were detained in Rawalpindi and Lahore.

ANF director general Maj Gen Musarrat Nawaz Malik told a news conference on Friday that those arrested included members of the airlines union and an IT technician who had information about where aircraft were parked and their flight schedule.

Four employees of the airport security force were also involved in the racket, which had been going on for several years.

The ANF said more than 100 staff members were interrogated or interviewed over the past month, after which the culprits were arrested. The last person to be arrested was a former baggage handler of the airline.

Giving details, Malik said the network of people that was part of this operation was very wide, including baggage handlers, cleaners, sanitary workers, baggage staff, ticketing staff and airline crew. Six members of his own organisation were involved in the racket, he said.

Over the past year, there were at least eight drug seizures from PIA aircraft, including two in the UK.
The British news medias long history of holding power to account has faced some challenge in recent years, but a top cabinet ministers advice to the media to be patriotic has sparked a backlash.

Andrea Leadsom, leader of the House of Commons and one of Prime Minister Theresa Mays challengers in last years Conservative leadership election, was questioned on BBCs Newsnight on the Brexit talks in Brussels and the less-than-enthusiastic response to Mays plans for the future of EU citizens in the UK.

responding to the tough questions from presenter Emily Maitlis, Leadsom said: It would be helpful if broadcasters were willing to be a bit patriotic. The country took a decision, this government is determined to deliver on that decision.

Maitlis asked: Are you accusing me of being unpatriotic for questioning how negotiations are going, questioning whether you have the position of strength that she (May) said she wanted?

Leadsom replied: Im not accusing you of anything, Emily. Im simply saying we all need to pull together as a country. We took a decision a year ago today to leave the European Union, we have a very strong hand and we are very well prepared for the negotiations.

Media academics criticised Leadsoms comments, saying it would have resonance in India and elsewhere, while Liberal Democrats leader Tim Farron described the remarks as sinister and stupid and asked her to apologise.

Stuart Allan, professor and head of journalism at Cardiff University, told Hindustan Times: Emily Maitlis was quick to challenge this nonsense, and rightly so. Good journalism is about holding power to account, not least when politicians claim their partys interests are one and the same as the national interest.

Savyasaachi Jain, senior lecturer in media at Swansea University, said: Asking media to be patriotic is often no more than a thinly disguised effort by politicians to get the media to fall in line and abandon its role of holding those in power to account.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon seems to have gathered pace in recent years, taking the form of labelling the media as fake news in the US or lugenpresse (lying press) in Germany, or presstitutes in India.

Farron added: This is a sinister threat to the free mediaHow dare Andrea Leadsom tell the press what they should think, this isnt a George Orwell book. She needs to apologise for these comments and realise what she said was frankly stupid.

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had his first Iftar dinner with a group of Somali refugees in Minneapolis on Thursday in what was seen as a bid to foster his companys new mission statement: to build communities and bring the world closer.

Zuckerberg shared a picture of the dinner in which he is seen interacting with hijab-clad women around a table and posted a brief message along with it on his Facebook wall about our country that values freedom.

As a refugee, you often dont get to choose which country you end up in. When I asked one man, who had spent 26 years in a refugee camp, whether America now felt like home, he gave a simple and profound answer: Home is where you are free to do what you want. Yes, this feels like home, Zuckerberg recounted.

Thanking his hosts for the dinner, the 33-year-old social media giant founder said he was impressed by the refugees strength and resilience to build a new life in an unfamiliar place. You are a powerful reminder of why this country is so great.

Over 3.17 lakh people have reacted to his post while nearly 26,000 people shared it.

Facebook had earlier, on Thursday, changed its mission statement to, To give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together, from its earlier one, To make the world more open and connected.

Explaining the reason behind the change, Zuckerberg had said, For 10 years, we focused on doing everything around connecting people with their friends and family.

Now I think that there is a whole lot of similar work to be done around communities: Meeting new people, getting exposed to new perspectives, making it so that the communities that you join online can translate to the physical world, too, he said.

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Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders Saturday confirmed that two reporters had been freed by ELN rebels in Colombia, saying it was very good news.

Reporter Derk Johannes Bolt, 62, and his cameraman Eugenio Ernest Marie Follender, 58, are doing pretty well considering the circumstances, Koenders said in a statement, thanking the Colombian government and adding that the Dutch ambassador had spoken with both men.

Colombias ombudsman office, which handles human rights issues, wrote on Twitter that the rebel group freed reporters in a rural area of Norte de Santander state.

The office posted an accompanying photos purporting to show the pair, pictured with some of the rebels, along with Colombian human rights officials.

The announcement came after rebels issued what turned out to be an erroneous announcement earlier Friday stating the two men, who were kidnapped on June 19, had been released.

Officials feared the high-profile kidnapping could disrupt peace talks between the ELN and the Colombian government.

The Dutch journalists work for Spoorloos, a program on Kro-Ncrv TV that helps Dutch people trace their biological relatives around the world.

The government of Colombias President Juan Manuel Santos and ELN opened peace talks on February 7 in Quito, Ecuador, after nearly four years of secret negotiations.

The ELN, with 1,500 fighters, is the last guerrilla group still active in Colombia.

The government is seeking a complete peace with the ELN after reaching a peace accord last year with the much larger FARC  the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

The Colombian civil conflict erupted in 1964 when the FARC and ELN took up arms for rural land rights.

The fighting, which over the years drew in various rebel and paramilitary groups and drug gangs as well as state forces, has left at least 260,000 people dead, according to authorities.
Journalist Veronique Robert, wounded in the same landmine blast that killed two colleagues in the Iraqi city of Mosul earlier this week, has died, employers France Televisions announced Saturday.

Robert had been operated on in Iraq and then flown back for treatment in France overnight Thursday to Friday, but died of her wounds, the public broadcaster said in a statement.

French colleague Stephan Villeneuve, 48, and Iraqi Kurdish reporter Bakhtiyar Addad, 41, were also killed in Mondays blast.

All three were working for production company #5 Bis Productions on a programme for the French news show Envoye Special, aired on public television channel France 2.

A fourth journalist with them, Samuel Forey, suffered light injuries.

French culture minister Francoise Nyssen paid tribute to a great war correspondent, in a post on the ministerial Twitter account.

Robert, 54, was an experienced war correspondent specialising in coverage of the Middle East, Iraq in particular, said the statement from France Televisions. She worked for several news outlets in France and Switzerland, including Le Figaro newspaper and Paris Match magazine.

The journalists were accompanying Iraqi special forces during the battle for Mosul, where jihadists from the Islamic State group entrenched in the narrow streets of the Old City have set numerous booby traps.
An Indian-origin doctor has been arrested in East Midlands of England for the circumcision of a three-month-old baby boy without his mothers approval.

Dr Balvinder Mehat, 61, is accused of circumcising the child without his mothers consent for religious reasons in July 2013, the Mirror reported.

The operation took place when the baby, whose parents are separated, was taken to visit his paternal grandparents. The doctor is alleged to have carried out the procedure before the tot was returned to his mother later the same day.

The 26-year-old mother complained to Nottinghamshire police but they deemed it not to be a criminal matter and the case was referred to the General Medical Council.

But the case was reopened after the mother got help from an anti-circumcision group and a human rights lawyer.

Mehat, from the Bakersfield Medical Centre in Nottingham, was arrested and questioned on suspicion of committing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Apart from him, a 44-year-old man and a woman, 47, were also arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.

They are believed to be the boys paternal grandparents, police said.

All three people, who denied any wrongdoing, were released pending further investigation, the report said.

The boys mother said circumcision amounts to male genital mutilation and said her son, now aged four, has suffered recurring physical problems, including inflammation and water infections post the act.
Iranian security forces have arrested members of a group linked to the Islamic State which had planned bombings and suicide attacks in religious centres across the country, state television reported on Saturday.

Intelligence ministry agents were able to arrest a group linked to Daesh (Islamic State) that intended to carry out terror operations in religious cities ...and (seized) explosive and suicide attack equipment, state television reported.

The report did not elaborate on the number of people detained, or where the arrests took place.

Authorities seized three Kalashnikov assault rifles, a machine-gun fitted with a silencer, three suicide belts, night vision goggles, explosives and bomb-making equipment, three phones for remote detonation and a large amount of bullets.

The arrests came days after Iranian Revolutionary Guards fired missiles from western Iran into eastern Syria, aiming at bases of the Islamic State which had claimed responsibility for twin attacks in Tehran that killed 18 people and wounded more than 50 on June 7.

Five attackers linked to IS stormed Irans parliament and the mausoleum of the Islamic Republics founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini this month, exacerbating regional tensions.

Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said afterwards the raids would increase hatred for Saudi Arabia, the regions main Sunni power, and America.
Iraqi forces battled their way along two streets that meet in the heart of Mosuls Old City on Friday, and said they aimed to open routes for civilians to flee Islamic States last stand there.

US-trained urban warfare units are leading the fight in the maze of narrow alleyways of the Old City, the last district in the hands of the Islamist insurgents.

Iraqi authorities are hoping to declare victory in the northern Iraqi city in the Eid holiday, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramzan , during the next few days. Military analysts say government troops advance will gather pace after Islamic State fighters blew up the 850-year-old al-Nuri mosque and its famous leaning minaret on Wednesday.

Islamic State retaliated with a triple bombing on a neighbourhood in east Mosul, the other side the Tigris River. The attack was carried out by three people who detonated explosive belts, killing and wounding an unspecified number of people, according to a military statement.

It was in the al-Nuri mosque that Islamic States leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed its caliphate over parts of Iraq and Syria three years ago. The destruction of the mosque gives troops more freedom in attack as they no longer have to worry about damaging the ancient site.

A US-led international coalition is providing air and ground support in the eight-month-old offensive to drive the militants from their de facto capital in Iraq.

The aim is to open ways for civilians to evacuate. We give them indications by lousdspeaker when its possible, an Iraqi military spokesman told Reuters by phone.

Some 7,000 civilians were brought out of the Old City this week, the Iraqi state news website said. Several street intersections were seized during the day.

More than 100,000 civilians, of whom half are children, are trapped in the crumbling old houses of the Old City, with little food, water or medical treatment.

Aid organisations say Islamic State has stopped many from leaving, using them as human shields. Hundreds of civilians fleeing the Old City have been killed in the past three weeks.

Baghdadi has left the fighting in Mosul to local commanders and has been assumed to be hiding in the Iraqi-Syrian border area. There has been no confirmation of Russian reports over the past week that he has been killed, and officials in the region are sceptical.

We dont have any concrete evidence on whether or not hes dead either, US Army Col Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the international coalition battling Islamic State, told a Pentagon briefing.

In Syria, the insurgents capital, Raqqa, is nearly encircled by a US-backed Kurdish-led coalition.

We certainly know that if he is still alive, we expect that he is not being able to influence what is currently happening in Raqqa or Mosul or overall in the ISIS (Islamic State) as they continue to lose their physical caliphate, Dillon said.

US intelligence officials say Islamic State has moved most of its leaders, along with its online propaganda operation and its limited command and control of attacks in Europe and elsewhere, to Al Mayadin in eastern Syrias Deir al Zour province.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump are both enthusiastic users of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. But who has the edge with respect to the number of followers?

Trump on Twitter and Modi on Facebook.

Trump has 32.7 million followers on Twitter to Modis 30.9 million, but he trails the Indian leader by a wide margin on Facebook  with 23.6 million followers to Modis 41.7 million.

Both leaders are enthusiastic users of social media and have used the various platforms to broadcast their plans, vision and achievements  and in Trumps case, to start or settle slugfests in front of his followers.

The American presidents Twitter lead was brought up on Friday by a senior White House official at a background briefing to preview the two leaders upcoming meeting on Monday.

They are the worlds two most followed political leaders on social media, the official said while discussing interests and traits of the two leaders, also noting that Trump was slightly ahead of Modi.

Trump has more followers on Twitter than Modi, but trails the Indian leader by a wide margin on Facebook. (AP)

If Trump and Modi were to ever get around to discussing their social media platforms  Modi and former President Barack Obama had a long discussion about their use of social media during their dinner at the White House in September 2014  it will be interesting to know what transpired.

Will this come up? Its an unequal race in one way  while Modi follows Trump on Twitter, Trump doesnt follow him. But then again, Trump doesnt follow any other world leader  the 45 people Trump follows are mostly family, family-owned businesses, aides and media personalities.

Modi follows over 1,700 people that include several world leaders such as Trump, British Prime Minister Teresa May, Turkish President Recep Erdogan, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and South African President Jacob Zuma.
Faced with a sweeping set of demands, Qatar insisted Friday it can indefinitely survive the economic and diplomatic steps its neighbours have taken to try to pressure it into compliance, even as a top Emirati official warned the tiny country to brace for a long-term economic squeeze.

Given 10 days to make a decision, Qatar said it was reviewing the specific concessions demanded of the tiny Persian Gulf nation, which include shuttering Al-Jazeera and cutting ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. But Qatari officials didnt budge from their previous insistence that they wont sit down with Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to negotiate an end to the crisis while under siege.

I can assure you that our situation today is very comfortable, Qatari Ambassador to the US Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani told The Associated Press. Qatar could continue forever like that with no problems.

Asked whether Qatar felt pressure to resolve the crisis quickly, he said: Not at all.

As the United States stepped back from any central mediating role, all sides seemed to be settling in for a potentially protracted crisis. Qatars neighbours insisted their 13-point list of demands was their bottom line, not a starting point for negotiations.

If Qatar refuses to comply by the deadline, the Arab countries signalled, theyll continue to restrict its access to land, sea and air routes indefinitely, as economic pressure mounts on Qatar.

The measures that have been taken are there to stay until there is a long-term solution to the issue, Emirati Ambassador to the US Yousef al-Otaiba said in an interview. Suggesting the penalties would only be economic and diplomatic, he said there is no military element to this whatsoever.

Having urged Qatars neighbours to come up with reasonable and actionable demands, the US sought to distance itself from the crisis the day after the Arab countries issued a list that included several provisions Qatar had already declared it could not or would not accept. But the ultimatum was quickly rejected by Qatars ally, Turkey, and blasted as an assault on free speech by Al-Jazeera, the Qatari broadcaster that the gas-rich countrys neighbours are demanding be shut down.

The demands from the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Egyptians and the Bahrainis amount to a call for a sweeping overhaul of Qatars foreign policy and natural gas-funded influence peddling in the region. Complying would force Qatar to bring its policies in line with the regional vision of Saudi Arabia, the Middle Easts biggest economy and gatekeeper of Qatars only land border.

This reflects basically an attempt from these countries to suppress free media and also undermine our sovereignty, said Al Thani, the Qatari envoy. They are trying to impose their views on how the issues need to be dealt with in the Middle East. They are bullies, he added.

The demands include shutting news outlets, including Al-Jazeera and its affiliates; curbing diplomatic relations with Iran; and severing all ties with Islamist groups including the Muslim Brotherhood. The United Arab Emirates said the list was intended to be confidential. The AP obtained a copy from one of the countries involved in the dispute.

The four countries cut ties with Qatar earlier this month over allegations that it funds terrorism  an accusation President Donald Trump has echoed. Qatar vehemently denies funding or supporting extremism but acknowledges that it allows members of some extremist groups such as Hamas to live in Qatar, arguing that fostering dialogue is key to resolving global conflicts.

The move by Qatars neighbours has left it under a de facto blockade. Although residents made a run on the supermarket in the days after the crisis erupted, the situation has since calmed as Qatar secured alternative sources of imported food from Turkey and elsewhere.

Yet resisting the demands could prove difficult.

The four states can afford to wait, but Qatar cannot, said Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics. This crisis could threaten the political stability of the ruling family in Qatar in the long term if it lasts.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has tried to mediate and earlier this week called on the Arab nations to limit themselves to reasonable and actionable demands. That call appeared to have been roundly ignored, and it was the Kuwaitis  who also offered to mediate  who delivered the list Thursday to Qatar.

This is an Arab issue that requires an Arab solution, Otaiba said. Thats why the Kuwaitis will take the lead in the negotiation.

Thats just fine, the US said. At the White House, spokesman Sean Spicer called it a family issue among Arab states and declined to say whether the newly articulated demands were legitimate. This is something that they want to and should work out for themselves, Spicer said.

Thrust into the middle of the crisis, the head of Al-Jazeeras English language service said the network remained committed to continuing its broadcasts.

Any call to close to down or curtail Al-Jazeera is nothing but an attempt to muzzle a voice of democracy in the region and suppress freedom of expression, he said by phone.

Underscoring the growing seriousness of the crisis, state-run Qatar Petroleum acknowledged Friday that some critically important employees may have been asked to postpone trips abroad for operational reasons due to the embargo. It described the move as a very limited measure that could take place in any oil and gas operating company to ensure uninterrupted supplies to customers.

Qatars neighbours are also demanding that it:

Curb diplomatic ties with Iran, and limit trade and commerce.

Stop funding other news outlets, including Arabi21, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and Middle East Eye.

Hand over terrorist figures and wanted individuals from the four countries.

Stop all means of funding for groups or people designated by foreign countries as terrorists.

Pay an unspecified sum in reparations.

Stop all contacts with the political opposition in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain.
Saudi security forces said Saturday they disrupted a plot to attack the Grand Mosque at Mecca, home to the holiest site in Islam, just as the fasting month of Ramadan concludes.

The Interior Ministry said it launched raids in Jiddah province, as well as two areas in Mecca itself, including the Ajyad Al-Masafi neighborhood, located near the Grand Mosque.

There, police said they engaged in a shootout at a three-story house a suicide bomber, who blew himself up and led to the buildings collapse. He was killed while the blast wounded six foreigners and five members of security forces, according to the Interior Ministrys statement. Five others were arrested, it said.

Saudi state television aired footage after the raid near the Grand Mosque, showing police and rescue personnel running through the neighbourhoods narrow streets. The blast demolished the building, its walls crushing a parked car as what appeared to be shrapnel and bullet holes peppered nearby structures.

The Interior Ministry confirms that this terrorist network, whose terrorist plan was thwarted, violated, in what they would have perpetrated, all sanctities by targeting the security of the Grand Mosque, the holiest place on Earth.

They obeyed their evil and corrupt self-serving schemes managed from abroad whose aim is to destabilize the security and stability of this blessed country, the statement said.

The ministry did not name the group involved in the attack. The ultraconservative Sunni kingdom battled an al-Qaida insurgency for years and more recently has faced attacks from a local branch of the Islamic State group.

The disrupted attack comes at a sensitive time in Saudi Arabia as King Salman earlier this week short-circuited the kingdoms succession by making his son, Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman, first in line to the throne. The newly appointed crown prince, 31 years old, is the architect of Saudi Arabias war in Yemen against Shiite rebels, now stalemated. He has also offered aggressive comments about the kingdom confronting Shiite power Iran.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have cut diplomatic ties to neighbouring Qatar and are trying to isolate the energy-rich tiny country over its alleged support of militants and ties to Iran. Qatar long has denied those allegations.

The Grand Mosque has been the target of militants before. In 1979, a group of militants seized the mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray toward five times a day, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne. The official toll of the assault and subsequent fighting to retake the mosque from hundreds of armed militants was over 100 people killed and 500 wounded.
Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (1st R) co-chairs a diplomatic and security dialogue with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (1st L) and Secretary of Defense James Mattis (2nd L) as Fang Fenghui (2nd R), a member of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the CMC Joint Staff Department, also participates in the dialogue in Washington D.C., the United States, on June 21, 2017. China and the United States began their first diplomatic and security dialogue on Wednesday at the U.S. State Department in Washington D.C. (Xinhua/Yin bogu)

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States reached an important consensus on the development of bilateral relations and security issues at a high-level dialogue held Wednesday in the U.S. capital of Washington D.C..

The First Round of China-U.S. Diplomatic and Security Dialogue, which was described by both sides as "constructive" and "fruitful," represents a major step in implementing the consensus reached by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump during their meeting in Florida in April.

Looking ahead, the two sides pledged to expand mutually-beneficial cooperation and manage differences on the basis of mutual respect, all in a bid to promote the steady development of China-U.S. relations in the long term.

FREQUENT DIALOGUES

Following Wednesday's dialogue, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said such talks "provide an opportunity to consider how we're going to engage and how we're going to live with one another over the next 40 years.

"The action items we have agreed upon today have set a foundation for additional areas of cooperation and we look forward to our next interaction at this level and between our two presidents," said the top U.S. diplomat.

Emphasizing the importance of high-level exchanges, China and the United States expressed their willingness to achieve a positive outcome for the Hamburg meeting between the two Presidents in July and Trump's state visit to China later this year.

Meeting with Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi at the White House on Thursday, Trump said he looked forward to meeting with Xi in Hamburg and visiting China. He also hoped that these high-level interactions will further promote the development of U.S.-China relations.

PRODUCTIVE MILITARY RELATIONSHIP

Fang Fenghui, a member of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the CMC Joint Staff Department, participated in the dialogue co-chaired by Yang, Tillerson and U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

At the dialogue, China and the United States recognized that their military-to-military relationship is an important component in the bilateral ties. The two sides agreed that the relationship between the militaries of the two powers should be "constructive, pragmatic, and effective," according to a statement released Friday.

China and the United States are committed to implementing the annual military exchange program and enhancing high-level engagements, starting with the visits between the two defense ministers and the visit of the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff to China as soon as possible.

The two sides also "reaffirm the importance of building mutual understanding, and of reducing the risk of miscalculation between our two militaries," said the statement.

MAINTAINING COORDINATION ON KOREAN PENINSULAR ISSUE

At the dialogue, China the United States agreed to work closely on the Korean Peninsula's nuclear issue.

Both countries reaffirmed their commitment to achieving the goal of "complete, verifiable and irreversible" denuclearization on the Peninsula.

"The two sides are ready to continue their efforts to this end, including by fully and strictly implementing relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, and by promoting relevant dialogue and negotiation," said the statement.

The two countries also reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining peace and stability on the Peninsula, according to the statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) meets with Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi in Washington D.C. June 22, 2017. Yang Jiechi was in Washington D.C. to attend the first round of China-U.S. diplomatic and security dialogue. (Xinhua)

U.S. President Donald Trump (3rd R), Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (3rd L), Fang Fenghui (2nd R), a member of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the CMC Joint Staff Department, U.S. national security advisor Herbert Raymond McMaster (2nd L), U.S. President Donald Trump's senior advisor Jared Kushner (1st R) and Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai (1st L) pose for a group photo in Washington D.C. June 22, 2017. Donald Trump on Thursday met with Yang Jiechi, who was in Washington D.C. to attend the first round of China-U.S. diplomatic and security dialogue. (Xinhua)
Saudi Arabias crown prince has donated $66.7 million to combat a cholera epidemic in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting in a war blamed for causing a humanitarian disaster.

The donation by Prince Mohammed bin Salman went to the United Nations childrens fund and the World Health Organisation (WHO), as requested by the organisations, a statement by the Saudi ministry of culture and information said.

It would help them respond effectively to the cholera situation in Yemen, through a combination of water, sanitation and healthcare activities, it said.

The number of suspected cases of the disease, which is caused by the contamination of water or food by faeces, reached 179,548 by June 20, with 1,205 deaths, according to the WHO.

UN humanitarian chief Stephen OBrien has described the cholera outbreak as a man-made catastrophe caused by the warring sides in Yemens civil war and their international backers.

The country has suffered an economic collapse in two years of fighting which has left 19 million people in need of humanitarian aid.

The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than 3 million and ruined much of its infrastructure.

As defence minister, Prince Mohammed is regarded by diplomats and analysts as a prime mover behind the Saudi decision to take military action in Yemen.1

The exiled Yemeni government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, is trying to roll back gains made by the Iran-aligned Houthi group which controls most of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.
Saudi security forces on Friday foiled a suicide attack on the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, cornering the would-be attacker in an apartment, where he blew himself up, the interior ministry said.

In a statement read on state television, the ministry said that three cells had planned the attack on worshippers and security forces at the mosque as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan nears its climax.

The trapped would-be suicide bomber exchanged fire with the security forces, then set off explosives when he was surrounded in a house in the central Mecca neighbourhood of Ajyad al-Masafi near the mosque that had been used as the base for the attack, the ministry said.

The building collapsed, injuring six foreigners and five members of the security forces.

Earlier in the day, security forces had shot dead a wanted man at another suspected Islamist militant hideout in Meccas al-Aseelah neighbourhood. The ministry also said a third cell had been broken up in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, but gave no further details.

Five suspected militants including a woman were arrested, it said.

The month of fasting ends with the Eid-al-Fitr holiday, expected to be on Sunday. Saudi monarchs usually spend the last 10 days of Ramadan in Mecca.

Al Arabiya broadcast live footage of Muslim worshippers praying in the mosque, with no interruption.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the plot to attack the mosque, but the Islamic State group, which wants to establish a theocratic caliphate ruled according to strict Islamic law, had in the past carried out attacks in the kingdom.

In May last year, Saudi security forces shot dead two alleged Islamic State fighters outside Mecca, and two others blew themselves up outside Mecca.
The second flight from Afghanistan under a new air corridor with India, created to help the two countries to boost trade without depending on land routes through Pakistan, took off from Kandahar with 40 tons of fruits and vegetables on Saturday.

President Ashraf Ghani inaugurated the direct air cargo link and the first flight carried 60 tons of hing (asafetida) from Kabul to New Delhi on June 19.

Subsequently, a flight from Delhi to Kabul transported 100 tons of goods, mainly pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.

The flight from Kandahar carried 10 tons of fruits and 30 tons of vegetables and medicinal plants. Indias consul general in Kandahar, NP Singh, and the governor of the Afghan province were present at the airport when the flight took off.

NP Singh, Indias consul general in Kandahar, with Afghan officials at Kandahar airport. (Twitter)

The idea of creating the air freight corridor was put forward by Ghani during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September last year. The two leaders reached an agreement on the air cargo service when they met in Amritsar in December.

The air corridor aims to enhance the annual volume of trade between the two countries, which currently stands at around $700 million.

Landlocked Afghanistan depends on neighbouring countries for all its imports and exports. Even before relations between Kabul and Islamabad became strained over accusations of harbouring militants, Pakistan has stymied Afghanistans efforts to trade with India.

After Afghanistan and Pakistan signed a transit trade agreement in 2010, Islamabad allowed Afghan trucks to carry goods up to the Indian border but barred them from ferrying any Indian goods through Pakistani territory.

The Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) said the medicinal plants carried on the first flight were valued at $11 million.

There are plans for up to five flights a week from Kabul and Kandahar to New Delhi.
A North Korean soldier defected to the South after crossing the heavily fortified border, a defence ministry spokesman said Saturday, the second soldier to defect this month.

A North Korean soldier defected to one of our Guard Posts at around 9:30 p.m. on Friday at the middle section of the border, the spokesman said, according to a report by the Yonhap news agency.

He has been taken into custody for questioning, he added

There was no exchange of fire between the two sides when the North Korean soldier, a private, smuggled himself across the border to the south, the Yonhap report said.

His defection came after another North Korean soldier walked across the tense border on June 13.

On June 18, a North Korean civilian swam across a river to defect to the South, with styrofoam pieces strapped to both shoulders to stay afloat.

Early this month, two of four crew members of a North Korean fishing boat which drifted to the South refused to return home. They were allowed resettle.

Over the decades since the peninsula was divided, dozens of North Korean soldiers have fled to the South through the Demilitarised Zone, which extends for two kilometers either side of the actual border.

A North Korean soldier defected to the South in September last year, and a teenage North Korean soldier defected in June 2015.

In 2012 a North Korean soldier walked unchecked through rows of electrified fencing and surveillance cameras, prompting Seoul to sack three field commanders for a security lapse.

More than 30,000 North Korean civilians have fled their homeland but it is very rare for them to cross the closely guarded inter-Korean border, which is fortified with minefields and barbed wire.

Most flee across the porous frontier with neighbouring China.
The Trump administration has authorised the sale of unarmed surveillance drones to India, the manufacturer said Friday, as the two nations leaders prepare for their first face-to-face meeting.

India initiated its request to buy 22 Guardian MQ-9B unmanned aircraft for maritime surveillance last year. The deal is estimated to be worth about $2 billion. The offer is still subject to congressional approval.

The green light from the administration marks a further deepening in defence ties as Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.

Modis two-day visit to Washington, which starts Sunday, takes place amid uncertainty over the relationship because of differences on trade and other issues.

So far in his presidency, Trump has focused on outreach to China, Indias strategic rival, as he looks to Beijing to rein in North Korea. But Washington and New Delhi share concerns about Chinas rise as a military power.

India reportedly wants the drones for surveillance of the Indian Ocean  waters that Chinas navy increasingly traverses after establishing its first overseas base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti. Indias arch rival Pakistan would also likely be opposed to the drone sale.

We are pleased that the US government has cleared the way for the sale of the MQ-9B Guardian to the Indian government, Linden Blue, CEO of the manufacturer, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, said in a statement. Blue added that it would significantly enhance Indias sovereign maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific.

A congressional staffer familiar with the matter confirmed the administration has approved the sale. The staffer was not authorised to discuss the potential deal and requested anonymity.

David McKeeby, spokesman for the State Department bureau of political-military affairs, said it does not comment on proposed defence sales before Congress is formally notified.

A senior White House official said Friday that the US is interested in providing India the kind of high technology it provides to its closest allies and defence partners. That is important to the strategic partnership and for cooperation in areas like the Indian Ocean, and also creates US jobs, said the official, who requested anonymity to brief reporters on the preparations for Modis visit.

India does not have a formal alliance with the US, but defence ties have intensified in recent years with joint drills between the two militaries and defence sales. The South Asian nation, which has traditionally bought most of its defense equipment from Russia, is looking to upgrade its capabilities.

Since 2008, India has signed more than $15 billion in US defence contracts, including for C-130J and C-17 transport aircraft, P-8I maritime patrol aircraft, Harpoon missiles and Apache and Chinook helicopters.

Ashley Tellis, an expert on South Asia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the US decision to offer the Guardian aircraft to India is significant as the US has a standing policy of declining export of such advanced drones other than to allies involved in combined operations with US forces.

Much bureaucratic china within the US government had to be broken to get to this decision, he said.

There could still be pushback from Congress. While there is bipartisan support for closer US-India security ties, some lawmakers remain wary of the export of US drone technology to non-allies.

Modi will be making his fourth visit to the US since he took office in 2014. He forged a strong relationship with President Barack Obama, and on his last visit in June 2016, he addressed Congress and described the US as an indispensable partner.

The visit is likely to be lower key and aimed at building a personal bond between the two leaders, who have spoken twice by phone since Trump took office. Modi will be the first foreign dignitary to be hosted for dinner at the White House during Trumps presidency.

They share a populist streak and a knack for using social media, and are likely to find common ground on combating Islamic extremism. Modi will be urging a tougher stance on Pakistan over militants that India blames for attacks on its territory.

But there could be increased strains on trade issues.

India is among nations singled out by the Trump administration for their trade surpluses with the US, which in Indias case totaled $30.8 billion in 2016. New Delhi is also closely watching the administrations review of the H1B visa program, under which thousands of skilled Indian workers come to the US.

New Delhi was irked by Trumps decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord. In making the announcement, the US president said New Delhi had made its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid. India denies that and says it will continue to be part of the accord, regardless of US participation.
The Donald Trump administration has approved the sale of 22 unarmed drones for naval surveillance to India ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis upcoming visit to the US.

The approval was announced by the manufacturer on Friday.

We are pleased that the US government has cleared the way for the sale of the MQ-9B Guardian to the Indian government, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems chief executive Linden Blue said in a statement.

The drones will cost an estimated $2 billion and India will be the first country outside Nato to acquire them.

The White House, which previewed the upcoming meeting between Modi and Trump on Friday, had refused to confirm the sale, saying they cannot discuss a pending or potential defence deal before notifying the US Congress as a matter of policy.

Congress, which had not been notified till late on Friday, will need to approve the deal within a specific period after being informed.

The sale of these drones was being watched closely to gauge the Trump administrations relations with India, especially on defence trade, compared to that under the Barack Obama administration, which had declared India a major defence partner in 2016. The move had granted India the same access to its defence equipment and technologies as to its closest allies and partners.

A senior White House official who previewed the visit for reporters indicated the Trump administration fully endorsed that designation and wanted to build on the momentum in India-US defence ties of recent years.

The state department, which needed to sign off on the sale, is understood to have had reservations about the sale of such high-tech defence equipment to India and whether it could have a destabilising effect on the region.

The White House official addressed that question without specifying the defence deal or confirming the sale: Some of the defence systems were talking about we dont believe impact Pakistan.
The European Union must become stronger in response to a weakening of democracy in the United States, Russia and Turkey, the leader of Germanys centre-left Social Democrats said in remarks published on Saturday.

Martin Schulz, who is also a former president of the European Parliament, said that US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan behaved like autocratic rulers.

It is now important to rejuvenate Europe and make it stronger. Not only through words but also through concrete policies, Schulz told the Passauer Neue Presse.

Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts leaders of the G20 leading economies at a summit in Hamburg on July 7-8, where Trumps vow to renegotiate trade agreements and make them better for the United States is expected to be one of the most divisive topics on the agenda.

Opposition to Trumps protectionist agenda is one area on which Schulz and Merkel agree. Schulz last month accused Trump of destroying Western values and undermining international cooperation.

There are some in the G20 that behave like autocratic rulers: Turkish President Erdogan, Russian President Putin and also US President Trump, Schulz said.

Schulzs SPD are 14 percentage points behind Merkels Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavaria-based Christian Social Union sister party three months before a national election on Sept. 24.

Trump wants Germany and other European allies to boost defence contributions to the NATO military alliance. He has criticized Germanys large trade surplus with the United States.

Merkel said this week that open markets and free trade were a key focus of Germanys G20 presidency.
The US is yet to decide on the future of the office of the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan following the departure of its top official, creating confusion about its diplomacy in the region at a time when Washington is conducting a key review of the Afghan war.

Laurel Miller, an analyst from Rand Corporation who was the acting special representative, left the office on Friday along with her deputy. This was followed by a string of reports in the US media that the post would be scrapped and the office merged with the state departments South and Central Asian affairs bureau.

The secretary (of state Rex Tillerson) has not made a decision about the future of the office of the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement.

Nauert said the state department will maintain the Afghanistan and Pakistan affairs offices, which currently report to the special representative, to address policy concerns and our bilateral relationship with these two key countries.

The spokesperson noted that Tillerson had expressed skepticism about the role of special representatives during recent testimony to the House Appropriations Committee on Foreign Operations.

Tillerson had said there were more than 70 specials envoys and special representatives whose work may have actually weakened attention to the issues they were meant to address. He also said the offices of such representatives stripped expertise from regional bureaus of the state department.

The office of the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan was created in January 2009 by former president Barack Obama, who named late diplomat Richard Holbrooke to hold the post.

Holbrooke upset the Indian government by seeking to include the Kashmir issue in the offices mandate. The move was rolled back after a strong protest from New Delhi. Holkbrookes efforts to engage the Taliban in peace talks also did not go down well in New Delhi.

US diplomats believed the office of the special representative was being shuttered with Millers departure. But the state departments flip flop has added to confusion at a time when the US is conducting the biggest review of its Afghanistan policy in several years, with 4,000 more troops set to join the nearly 10,000 US soldiers currently in the war-torn country.

Some US experts have expressed fears the current scenario could give the Pentagon a greater say in Afghanistan policy.

Though Obama himself had planned to wind up the office of the special representative, it was meant to be done gradually. The South and Central Asian affairs bureau too has lost many experienced diplomats  it currently doesnt even have an acting head  and the latest developments have caused anxiety in the state department.

But others, such as former deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia, Alyssa Ayres, have said winding up the special representatives office could help streamline policies. She told Foreign Policy the office had created a parallel structure and appropriated experts from the South and Central Asian affairs bureau.
Washingtons special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan stepped down on Friday, just as the United States is preparing to send thousands more troops to the region.

A senior State Department official told AFP that acting special representative Laurel Miller left the post without a replacement being named.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Miller is returning to a position at the Rand Corporation and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has not yet decided what to do with post.

The office was created when US officials decided that the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan are inextricably linked and ought to be dealt with together.

President Donald Trump came to office planning to slash diplomatic spending and Tillerson plans to cut several special envoy roles.

Millers responsibilities will now fall under the departments South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau, which has a much bigger footprint that includes India.

But this bureau is itself leaderless, with no assistant secretary appointed to lead it and no one nominated by the new administration for Senate approval.

When news site Politico broke the news that the envoy post had gone, it cited diplomats complaining of a rushed process and a dangerous leadership vacuum.

But, also speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior official told AFP the decision was part of a broader policy review.

Tillerson thinks the issue is best handled at a regional level, the official said, arguing that it made sense to consider India part of the equation.

Trump has given the Pentagon and US commanders wide latitude to decide on the future of Washingtons longest ever war -- the 16-year slog in Afghanistan.

Defence secretary Jim Mattis is reportedly planning to deploy up to 5,000 extra troops to bolster efforts to train Afghan forces to repel a resurgent Taliban insurgency.
Hong Kong police have launched a crackdown on political banners and images ahead of a visit to the city by Chinese President Xi Jinping to avoid embarrassing the countrys leaders.

Swaths of Hong Kong will be locked down this week and at least 9,000 police officers, nearly a third of the territorys force, are set to be deployed during Xis three-day visit starting on Thursday.

Police have been instructed to remove signs calling for remembrance of the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre or advocating for direct elections of the citys leader, according to local media reports . The aim of restricting the publics right to freedom of expression is to prevent leaders from being embarrassed and signs must not appear on Xis routes through the city.

The tactic is more often associated with mainland China, where there is little tolerance of dissent, than Hong Kong.

A police source confirmed the directive, adding that frontline officers were under immense pressure to ensure Xis visit went smoothly and the protesters were kept away.

Images of Xi holding a yellow umbrella, a symbol of the 2014 pro-democracy protests , would also be removed by police.

Xi will visit Hong Kong to mark the 20th anniversary of the UK handing the city back to China and to swear in the new chief executive.

Performers pose for photographers in front of the 20 feet tall bronze statue of Guan Gong, a Chinese God of War, in Hong Kong on Saturday, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the citys handover to China. Guan Gong, who is the historical figure of general Guan Yu, is widely regarded as a symbol of loyalty and integrity. (AP)

Since the handover in 1997, July 1 is typically marked by large-scale protests, and opposition parties have vowed to come out in force this year. Joshua Wong, a prominent pro-democracy activist, has called for  demonstration instead of celebration  to mark Xis visit.

But activists have complained Hong Kong authorities are attempting to curtail their ability to protest, with officials denying protesters use of the typical rallying point of Victoria Park to begin their march to the citys financial district.

Hong Kong police did not respond to requests for comment.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 23

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received deputy prime minister, minister of science and education of Georgia, Aleksandre Jejelava.

Aleksandre Jejelava underlined his visit to ADA University, saying the educational institution made a great impression on him. He said that the activity of the Baku Higher Oil School also aroused his interest.

The Georgian deputy prime minister emphasized the importance of joint efforts to elevate educational cooperation to the level of bilateral relations that the two countries enjoy in all other areas.

President Ilham Aliyev highlighted the work to establish a high level education system at ADA University, Baku Higher Oil School and other educational institutions in Azerbaijan.

The head of state emphasized the necessity of implementing joint projects in the field of education between the two countries.

The sides discussed a number of issues, including prospects for educational cooperation, as well as student and educational exchange between Azerbaijan and Georgia.
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INDIANAPOLIS - As the nation's opioid epidemic intensified, Indiana cracked down on over-prescribing doctors and "pill mills" catering to people with addictions. The state also took aim at doctor-shopping - the practice of visiting multiple physicians to score more painkillers.

The measures had an impact, but not what officials hoped for.

While making opioid prescriptions harder to get, the crackdown also helped spur a twofold increase in robberies of pharmacies that exacerbated the state's standing as No. 1 in the nation for those crimes. Between 2009 and 2016, Indiana had 651 pharmacy robberies - the most in the U.S. and more than the 597 recorded by No. 2 California, which has six times the population, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration records show.

The frequent holdups reflect a grim reality: With each regulation or law enforcement tactic, the opioid crisis quickly shape-shifts to evade new obstacles. Dealers and those struggling with addictions adapt, and the epidemic continues with little interruption.

"They're always looking for wherever they can get their foothold. And once they do, they're going to take advantage," said Tom Prevoznik, a deputy chief of pharmaceutical investigations with the DEA in Arlington, Va.

More Information A look at the top 10 states for pharmacy robberies in 2009 to 2016: Indiana: 651 California: 597 Arizona: 325 Tennessee: 281 Pennsylvania: 276 Florida: 268 Ohio: 250 Washington: 247 Maryland: 200 North Carolina: 200 Associated Press See More Collapse

Pharmacies and law enforcement agencies in Indianapolis, where most of the robberies have occurred, are fighting back. Pharmacy chains have installed time-release safes that won't open for several minutes, forcing robbers to risk arrest by waiting. Signs so far are positive. Robberies in Indianapolis numbered only eight through early June, compared with 55 for all of 2016.

But some criminals responded to those efforts by traveling from Indianapolis to small suburban towns to rob pharmacies, including one in January in Elwood, about 40 miles from Indianapolis, where two robbers herded frantic employees into a bathroom after threatening them with a handgun.

Indiana's economic makeup has made it a likely breeding ground for opioid addiction for years.

The 2008 financial crisis hit the state's manufacturing economy hard, causing waves of layoffs. And physically demanding jobs in heavy industry have long left workers prone to injuries that could lead to prescriptions for painkillers.

Four years ago, the Legislature directed the state's Medical Licensing Board to draft rules requiring patients to visit their doctors periodically to keep getting prescription refills. The changes included requiring doctors to use an online database to check patients' use of controlled substances.

But stemming easy access to opioids probably contributed to the binge of 168 robberies in 2015, more than twice the previous year's total, as more people addicted to prescription opioids robbed stores seeking painkillers and other potent drugs, said Greg Zoeller, who was Indiana's attorney general at the time.

The holdups - sometimes more than five a day in Indianapolis - flooded the black market with nearly 200,000 pills, primarily painkillers.

Lt. Craig McCartt, who oversees robbery investigations for Indianapolis police, said 85 percent of Indianapolis' pharmacy robberies in 2015 were committed by juveniles enlisted by adult dealers offering cash and gifts to rob the stores.

Amid that crime spree, Indianapolis police teamed up with the DEA, FBI and federal prosecutors for a multi-agency approach that has led to the indictments of 35 people, including six juveniles, in 62 of the robberies.
Travis Overall has joined Brookfield Property Partners to lead the company's core office business in Houston. He will manage the company's 8.1-million-square-foot local office portfolio, including the transformation of Allen Center.

Douglas W. Rommelmann has joined Bracewell as a partner in the intellectual property practice.
Wall Street appears to have lost its taste for the resurgent U.S. shale industry as oil prices tumble and energy share prices fall.

Oil companies have raised $3 million this month through selling new shares to investors, a dramatic drop in the public equity offerings that have helped fuel the return of drilling rigs across the nation this year.

It's a stark shift in investor sentiment after last month, when producers like Kosmos Energy and RSP Permian collected a combined $1 billion from stock market investors. That was before U.S. oil prices took a month-long tumble, entering a bear market as prices fell 20 percent from their recent high of about $54 a barrel in February.

Some investor groups have said "they had little to no interest in providing a second lifeline to the industry," Houston investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. said in a note to clients on Friday.

"It's like you're having a party, and it's awesome, and then the parents come home, and the party's done," said David Pursell, head of macro research at Tudor Pickering. "There's no appetite to fund further growth. Oil prices went from the mid-$50s to the low $40s. It's a big change, and it happened quickly."

Oil settled Friday in New York at $43.01 a barrel, up 27 cents. Despite the gain, crude sustained its fifth consecutive loss, down $1.73, or 4 percent, from its close the previous Friday.

The once-vibrant public equity markets had poured $8 billion into U.S. shale drillers in the three months after OPEC announced it would cut oil production, and the number of active U.S. drilling rigs boring has more than doubled since last summer.

But the in wake of the recent slump in oil prices, the oil companies that raised billions of dollars have seen their shares drop by 22 percent this year. If investors keep pulling back, the surge in drilling could slow sharply, Pursell said. And why wouldn't they? Other industries are performing much better than energy.

"The Dow's at record levels, and energy isn't working," Pursell said. "It's just maximum indifference. You have to get the oil price up for investors to care."

In the note, Tudor Pickering analysts said some oil companies "will need to change course on capital plans sooner rather than later if crude continues to drift lower."
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Monday

A&M wants data center

The Texas A&M University System said it hopes to recruit a private partner for a "state-of-the-art" data center in Bryan. The 30-acre campus would host servers and back up information from big Austin and Houston organizations.

Economic corridor born

Economic development is the focus in the Third Ward, with new street signs designating the area as an economic corridor. Officials gathered under the signs to celebrate changing Dowling Street's name to Emancipation Avenue.

Call to understand risks

Scientists, regulators and leaders of Texas' energy industry must identify and understand the environmental risks of shale oil and gas drilling before air pollution or water contamination leads to tighter restrictions that could ultimately derail the rebounding industry, the leader of a broad new study said.

Tuesday

Focus to be built in China

Ford Motor Co. said it would build its next-generation small car for U.S. consumers in China rather than Mexico, where the automaker canceled plans for a new factory this year.

In favor of a carbon tax

Exxon Mobil Corp. and other large oil companies said they are backing a carbon tax proposal put forward earlier this year by a group of former Republican leaders including James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state and a Houston attorney.

Wednesday

Brush with tropical storm

Builders and contractors tied down loose ends, and many sent workers home ahead of the possible overnight arrival of Tropical Storm Cindy. Similar scenes unfolded on some offshore oil rigs in the path of the disturbance.

Uniform uproar

American Airlines said it would change uniform suppliers after employees complained the uniforms were causing reactions from hives to wheezing. American told employees that it will not renew a contract with Twin Hill, a division of Houston-based Tailored Brands, when the deal expires in 2020.

Big bucks for tequila brand

Liquor behemoth Diageo said it would pay up to $1 billion to buy a tequila brand co-founded by movie star George Clooney Clooney said he founded the Casamigos brand four years ago with partners Rande Gerber and Mike Meldma Clooney simply because they wanted to make a better-tasting tequila.

Kia is No. 1 again

Kia claimed the top spot in a survey of new-vehicle quality for the second straight year. Genesis, a luxury brand owned by Hyundai Motor Co., was second in J.D. Power's annual initial quality survey. Porsche, Ford and Ram rounded out the top five.

Thursday

Qatar Airways' surprise

American Airlines said in a regulatory filing that a bid by Qatar Airways to buy 10 percent of the U.S. carrier was unsolicited. Qatar Airways' move would trigger a U.S. antitrust review and carry political and trade-policy implications.

Mixed health bill reviews

The U.S. Senate's health care plan garnered mixed reviews in Texas, with some applauding its sweep, others offering tepid support, and still others voicing outright disgust as they accused the bill of balancing tax cuts on the backs of the state's most vulnerable.

Friday

Rigs keep on coming

Oil and gas companies sent a net eight drilling rigs into U.S. oil patches over the past week, Baker Hughes said, extending the rig count's record run to 23 straight weeks. The gains came even as oil prices racked up their fifth consecutive weekly loss.

From staff and wire reports

MONDAY

The Commerce Department releases durable goods for May.

TUESDAY

The Conference Board releases the Consumer Confidence Index for June.

Standard & Poor's releases the S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices.

WEDNESDAY

The National Association of Realtors releases the pending home sales index for May.

THURSDAY

The Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.

The Commerce Department releases the gross domestic product.

FRIDAY

The Commerce Department releases personal income and spending for May.
Record oil stored in tankers. Market distortion by money managers. Surging production in Libya and Nigeria. A backlog of untapped oil wells in West Texas.

The oil market's bulls and bears both have a lot to chew on these days, as forecasters offer dueling narratives about what's going on with crude prices.

On one side, Ed Morse, global head of commodities research at Citigroup, believes the price has become distorted by financial flows into the oil market, and prices could rise toward $60 a barrel by year-end as OPEC's oil production cuts translate into declines in worldwide stockpiles.

He said the net length of managed money - a measure of bets that crude will rise - climbed to a record 920 million barrels in early March, up from 400 million barrels last summer. That figure has since dropped toward low levels last seen in 2011, and bets against crude have surged as a bearish tone dominates the market.

"The market remains skeptical. They remain skeptical because they want to still see whether there's going to be compliance" with OPEC's production cuts, Morse said. "They remain skeptical because Libya and Nigeria have raised output."

"But underneath that, market fundamentals are incredibly strong," he added, noting global demand growth of 1.3 million barrels a day and optimistic forecasts of worldwide economic growth.

The International Energy Agency, a Paris group that consults energy importers, forecasts that oil demand will overtake global production by 500,000 barrels a day in the second quarter, entering the largest market deficit since early 2014.

"If OPEC were to continue to maintain the same production discipline it has demonstrated so far, we can expect stock draws to accelerate as 2017 progresses," said Neil Atkinson, head of the oil markets division at the IEA. So far, though, stocks in developed countries continued to increase in April, Atkinson acknowledged.

On the other side of the debate, analysts say prices have fallen into a bear market that will push oil into the $30-a-barrel range. U.S. oil prices have plunged 20.6 percent from a February peak of $54.45 a barrel to $43.01 a barrel Friday.

One warning sign came last week when Kpler, a French company that tracks tankers, said floating oil storage climbed to a record 111.9 million barrels in June.

That was the last thing traders wanted to hear. Since floating oil storage is typically more expensive than other methods, the stocks it holds should be the last to increase and the first to shrink, said Jamie Webster, senior director at Boston Consulting Group's Center for Energy Impact in Washington.

"The nightmare in oil prices isn't over," Webster said. "OPEC hasn't cut enough to solve this problem. It's good OPEC has cut, but they're not the only game in town anymore."

U.S. shale drillers still have a backlog of untapped wells they could bring online this year, although sharply lower oil prices could slow their plans.

The number of drilled but uncompleted wells has reached record levels, at 5,946, according to the Energy Department, and drillers will likely put many of those wells into production in the second half of the year, said Eric Otto, managing director at the consultancy Rapidan Group in New York

"For 2017, the die is largely cast," he said. "The questions will be for 2018."
Honda is going public in an effort to debunk claims by lawyers that it knew about the hazards of exploding Takata air bag inflators nearly two decades ago but covered them up.

The automaker issued a statement Friday that outlines its defense against claims that Honda should compensate car owners because the use of Takata air bags caused their vehicles to lose value.

The public escalation of Honda's fight comes just three days before Takata Corp. is expected to file for bankruptcy protection in Japan and the United States. The company's inflators can explode with too much force, blowing apart a metal canister and hurling shrapnel into drivers and passengers.

The faulty inflators have killed at least 16 people worldwide and injured another 180. Many are suing Takata as well as Honda and other automakers over deaths and injuries, and for loss of value of their cars. The problem touched off the largest automotive recall in U.S. history involving 42 million vehicles and 69 million inflators.

Unlike other air bag makers, Takata uses the explosive chemical ammonium nitrate to inflate air bags, but it can deteriorate over time and burn too fast.

Honda, which for years was Takata's biggest customer, released an email from a company engineer that seems to show he knew about Takata problems and was afraid to speak up. But Honda says the email is being taken out of context by plaintiffs' lawyers.

Honda said it has asked U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno to admit Takata's criminal plea bargain as evidence. Plea documents say Takata concealed the inflator problems and agreed to pay penalties and restitution. Honda also wants to admit deposition testimony of Takata employees that "establishes that Honda was a victim of Takata's fraud, not a participant."

Attorneys say Honda and at least four other automakers knew the inflators were dangerous, yet continued to use them because they were inexpensive. Automakers have denied the allegations.
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Setting prices for the high-end Arabella high-rise seemed like an easy call: charge more for the condos with eastward-facing views toward downtown, leafy River Oaks estates and the popular Memorial Park.

Then buyers showed up with a whole other perspective.

As their customers increasingly opted for units with Uptown optics - toward the shorter but closer office and residential towers around the Galleria skyline and the attendant urban buzz - developers Randall Davis and Roberto Contreras realized that's where they should place a premium.

They adjusted, and an average unit facing west now sells for $1.7 million, about $100,000 more than a comparable pad on the other side.

"At night, this is a much better view," Contreras acknowledged. "It's much more urban."

Davis said he came to see the development around the Galleria as "right in your face ... whereas downtown is in the distance."

The experience at Arabella, a 33-story tower under construction just inside the West Loop off San Felipe, highlights the fact that, in Houston's relatively young high-rise market, developers are still learning what their buyers want. Picking a floor is easy: the higher, the better. But when it comes to view, the decision gets more complex. Urban or suburban? Treeline or airline? East sun or west sun?

"For people who have lived in high-rises, orientation is a big decision," said architect Scott Ziegler, who designed many of Houston's modern residential towers.

Overall, well-to-do Houstonians still choose to live at ground level in one of many affluent neighborhoods where custom homes sprawl across spacious lots. But buyers are increasingly warming to the idea of living in a vertical gated community of sorts.

High-rise developers have found success targeting a wealthy population of aging baby boomers by marketing a "lock-and-leave" and low-maintenance style of living for those with homes in other cities or with plans to travel after retirement.

"Most of our sales have been to local empty nesters from Memorial, Tanglewood, some from Sugar Land and The Woodlands, and River Oaks," Davis said.

Through mid-June, buyers have purchased 329 high- and mid-rise condominium units around the area at a median price of $300,000, data from the Houston Association of Realtors show. That's up almost 18 percent over the same period last year, but the median price hasn't budged.

The definition of a luxury home is considered by those in the industry to be around $750,000 and above. When Arabella is completed later this year, it will have 99 luxury condos. Units get more expensive the higher they get, with the average price in the low $600s per square foot.

Jacob Sudhoff, whose firm Sudhoff Cos. markets luxury real estate, said condo prices are constantly being adjusted based on supply and demand.

When his firm was preselling units in The River Oaks, a high-end redevelopment of an older residential building on Westheimer, the northern and eastern views overlooking River Oaks and downtown were popular.

"Now that you can see the model, everybody's loving the south view," Sudhoff said.

But buyers also seek the same sorts of things they've always sought: space. That's where Denise Daniel, her husband and their son were looking to upgrade when they purchased a unit in Arabella.

They currently live in another Galleria-area high-rise. When deciding on a unit in Arabella, Daniel said, the view was important, but the couple's primary interest was getting the right floor plan.

"We're most concerned about getting the square footage we needed, which can be tough in high-rises here," she said. They settled on a 3,500-square-foot condo on the 19th floor, with a view of downtown and Memorial Park.

The placement of building amenities like the swimming pool or fitness center can also play into a building's financial success.

The pool at the Hanover Southampton in Rice Village is on the roof and has a 360-degree view of the city.

"When you travel in Europe, every hotel, it seems, has a rooftop bar and terrace," said Ziegler, the building's architect. "That's an experience Houstonians haven't had."

In some cases, he said, developers can charge more for the units if the amenities come with a certain level of cachet. In a 56-story building Ziegler designed in Austin, the developer made the bold decision to forgo a top-floor penthouse in favor of an over-the-top resident area.

"My clients from Madrid changed my thinking about where to put the health club and fitness center. We'd normally put them down on the pool level, and you'd save your top view for penthouse buyers who pay top dollar," he said.

But they argued, "rightfully so," that residents in the 40 stories of units below would pay more per square foot to have the fitness center and pool at the very top.

"It's really a showpiece," Ziegler said. "When you go there, you're really on top of the world."
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During a patrons' dinner Wednesday at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, no one doubted the timeliness of its landmark show on Mexican art.

"Walls," said MFAH director Gary Tinterow, "are for hanging paintings."

The crowd applauded.

Amid talk of a U.S.-Mexico border wall and deportation of undocumented Mexican immigrants, the world's love affair with Mexican art is burning hotter than it has in years.

By coincidence, two landmark museum exhibitions are on view in Texas.

On Sunday, "Paint the Revolution" begins a three-month run at the MFAH. The show overlaps with the final weeks of Dallas Museum of Art's "Mexico," which has been up since March.

Both shows are drawing crowds.

More than 120,000 people saw "Paint the Revolution" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and 174,000 saw it at Mexico City's Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes. That's more than double the crowd that MFAH drew for its recent, wildly successful Degas show.

In Dallas, nearly 83,000 people so far have viewed "Mexico"; 230,000 saw it in Paris.

More Information 'Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modern Art 1910-1950' When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 12:15-7 p.m. Sundays, through Oct. 1; Mari Carmen Ramirez discusses the Houston and Dallas shows, 3 p.m. Sunday Where: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonnet Info: $13-$18, children 12 and younger free, includes general admission; lecture $5-$10; 713-639-7300, mfah.org 'Mexico 1900-1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Jose Clemente Orozco, and the Avant-Garde' When: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursdays; through July 16 Where: Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 Harwood, Dallas Info: $12-$16, children 11 and younger free, includes general admission; free on Sundays; 214-922-1200, dma.org See More Collapse

That's a coup for Agustin Arteaga, who curated "Mexico" for Paris' Grand Palais, which was to have been the show's only venue, then scrambled to bring the show to Dallas after becoming the Dallas Museum of Art's new director.

Not just timely

It's not just timeliness that makes the shows interesting. Both were assembled before the border talk exploded, for the art's sake alone.

"The only school of art in the first half of the 20th century that vies in quality, prominence and in international influence with the school of Paris is the school of Mexican art," Tinterow told the patrons Wednesday.

MFAH curator Mari Carmen Ramirez, who organized the Houston presentation of "Paint the Revolution," thinks Mexican modern art is due for an international reassessment.

She recounted the flak she heard from a famous professor at the University of Chicago 35 years ago, when she proposed her dissertation on the Mexican muralists.

"He was like, 'Why do you want to spend time on all these people who were not great artists?' " she said. "They were perceived as social realists. And social realism had a very bad reputation because of Stalinism. That was the thinking at the time."

In the U.S., Mexican art has gone in and out of fashion.

In 1941, Museum of Modern Art founder Alfred H. Barr Jr. put Mexicans at the leading tip of the "torpedo" diagram he created to imagine an ideal permanent collection.

"He thought European art was exhausted, and Mexicans were the avant-garde," Ramirez said. Barr gave MoMA's first solo show to Diego Rivera.

"But then came Abstract Expressionism and the New York School and all of that  and the Mexicans were relegated because they were seen as anachronistic," Ramirez said. For decades, the international narrative of Mexican modernism has focused mostly on the "Big Three" muralists - Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco - and cliches born in the 1970s, when North Americans found a pop-culture icon in Frida Kahlo.

In recent years, as interest in all Latin American art has surged, prices have, too. Argentine mega-collector Eduardo Costantini bought Rivera's 1929 "Dance in Tehuantepec" last year for $15 million; it's among the stellar loans in "Paint the Revolution."

The Philadelphia Museum of Art staged the first landmark traveling show of Mexican modernism in the U.S. in 1943. That's partly why its director, Timothy Rub, and Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes director Miguel Fernandez Felix conceived "Paint the Revolution."

Tinterow has wanted a big Mexican show for Houston since he assumed the reins of the MFAH five years ago. When he saw "Paint the Revolution," he had to have it.

Serendipity brought the schedules together.

Masterpieces on exhibit

Both shows are worth a trip and some serious looking time. They can't be absorbed during a quick dash through the museum.

Each presents about 200 works, filled with masterpieces that have not traveled for years, if ever. The two shows unpack a layered history involving at least 60 important artists, multiple mediums and variations on themes amplified by the revolution that roiled Mexico from 1910-20.

There began the four-decade quest to convey "Mexicanidad," a unique Mexican consciousness, through art. Front and center is the near-religious trifecta Orozco conveys with such pathos in masterpieces such as "The Barricade," (from 1931, on view in Houston) - this iconography of the Indian, the worker and the peasant. Martyr-heroes of the revolution, indigenous traditions, Surrealism and urban transformation also figure in.

And of course, there's muralism, the Mexican modern period's glorious starting point.

In 1920, as the revolution finally abated, President Alvaro Obregon's new government conceived the mural movement to spark nationalism on a grand, public scale.

The intellectual Jose Vasconcelos, the first minister of public education, dispatched artists to Mexico's far corners to gather material for the magnificent paintings that would fill the walls of Mexico City's colonial buildings - and later, buildings in the U.S.

"Portable" murals on view in both shows include beauties by Saturnino Herran, who used indigenous people as heroic subjects in impressive, Art Nouveau-style paintings. Dallas also has Rivera's gorgeous multipanel bathing scene, "Juchitan River," made from 1953-55.

Impressive digital projections of murals fill the central gallery of the Houston show. Using a large kiosk, visitors can explore details of Rivera's "Ballad of the Agrarian Revolution," which resides in Mexico. With provided iPads, they also can roam Orozco's "The Epic of American Civilization" for Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

Another jewel is not digital: A slightly reduced but color-saturated, multipaneled re-creation of Siqueiros' swirling and ridiculously complex "Portrait of the Bourgeoisie." The original consumes the walls and ceiling of a stairwell in Mexico City's modest Electricians' Union building.

"For me, it is a great masterpiece of modern art," Ramirez said.

When Siqueiros painted this piece in 1939-40, he was afraid muralism was losing its relevance to film, which had become a more potent mobilizer of the masses. He incorporated cinematographic techniques, including multifocus perspective. Viewers of the original, Ramirez said, sense that the images are moving around them.

In both shows, Siqueiros emerges as the biggest thrill. He was the great experimenter, the avant-garde artist who also layered wood on canvases to bring out figures, slashed canvases and built up layers of car paint that inspired Jackson Pollock's drip technique.

"The problem with him is that he attempted to kill (Leon) Trotsky, and that kind of put him out of the loop," Ramirez said. "His politics got in the way."

Los mujeres

Twenty percent of the Dallas show features revelatory works by women, suggesting that women may have had more equal footing in Mexico than in the U.S. during the first half of the 20th century.

When "Mexico" debuted in Paris, critics anointed the provocative Nahui Olin "the new Frida." Perhaps not for her own paintings; in spite of her psychedelic palette, her work pales next to Kahlo's. Olin, however, was a sexpot, a thrilling muse for the influential Gerardo Murillo (known as Dr. Atl) and photographer Antonio Garduno.

Painters Olga Costa and Maria Izquierdo, sculptor Alice Rahon and photographers Lola Alvarez Bravo and Tina Modotti shine for better reasons. All of this group but Costa appear in the Houston show.

Kahlo, of course, is still queen, drawing crowds so reliably, curators jokingly call her "Santa Frida."

The Dallas show boasts her greatest masterpiece, "The Two Friedas," an exceptionally large canvas for Kahlo (at 68 inches square) that depicts her mestiza/German duality. But other works in both exhibitions remind viewers why she deserves to be seen as more than a strong, tragic figure mangled by a bus accident that brought her a life of pain.

Kahlo was a more nuanced painter than her husband, Rivera. That's evident even in the three small but complex Kahlo paintings of the Houston show.

In her "Self-Portrait on the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States," she stands defiantly pretty in pink, a cigarette in one hand and a Mexican flag in the other, splitting a landscape that's ominous on both sides, but coldly industrial north of the border and bursting with nature to the south.

Frida as a border wall! Why not? No wonder the museum features this painting in its ads and posters. Some visitors will be surprised, however, to see that it is only 12 by 13 inches, likely painted when Kahlo was traveling.

Oh, well: The "Mona Lisa" is tiny, too.

Kahlo's fierce spirit also glows in two paintings from a Houston collection, her 1945 "Moses" and her 1939 "Suicide of Dorothy Hale." Both originated as commissions that exceeded their commissioners' requests.

Claire Booth Luce paid Kahlo to make a portrait of Hale, a friend who jumped to her death from a window. Kahlo depicted the act of suicide in a retablo-inspired painting whose cloudy sky spills all the way to the outer edge of its wood frame. Luce, furious because she was expecting a nice portrait, rejected it.

The Houston and Dallas shows share one fabulous and important element: Sergei Eisenstein's cult classic black-and-white film, "Que viva Mexico!," an unfinished documentary from the early 1930s. It captures - with a Surrealistic, dreamlike quality - the real-life themes the artists so colorfully convey.

Throughout the galleries of both shows, other surprises abound and highlight numerous artists who deserve more solo attention in the future - among them Izquierdo, Dr. Atl, Roberto Montenegro and Rufino Tamayo.

Then there's the whole other story of the European emigres who fled World War II in the 1940s. They infused the scene with Surrealism - finding Mexico, with its magical realism traditions, a perfect climate for their dream-inspired exploration.

Mexican modern art flourished because the government invested heavily in it, making national themes mandatory. But that patronage also limited artists' ability to explore more contemporary approaches to art, and made Tamayo a political outlier. This is why virtually none of the best-known Mexicans were abstract artists.

For the foreseeable future, the two shows' hefty catalogs will be the new textbooks of Mexican modern art. They're worthwhile investments for those anxious for an even deeper dive than the exhibitions can provide.

Go. Learn. Enjoy.

Visitors can explore Diego Rivera's 'Ballad of the Agrarian Revolution.' With provided iPads, they also can roam Jose Clemente Orozco's 'The Epic of American Civilization.'

In addition to icon Frida Kahlo, female artists include painters Nahui Olin, Olga Costa and Maria Izquierdo, sculptor Alice Rahon and photographers Lola Alvarez Bravo and Tina Modotti.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 24

Trend:

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order to provide funding for the renovation of multi-storey residential buildings in the countrys Shirvan city.

Under the presidential order, three million Azerbaijani manats are allocated from the presidents Contingency Fund for the continuation of renovation work in the city, including refurbishment of roofs and facades of 52 multi-storey residential buildings.
Houston isn't at a loss for fine, contemporary steakhouses. Nor for upscale sushi dens. But both those concepts under one gleaming roof? Now that's unique. That's Roka Akor.

The Japanese sushi and steakhouse concept opens June 26 at snazzy new digs on the ground floor of the 2929 Wesleyan Apartments tower. Flooded with natural light and warm woods, Sushi Akor looks the money, and is sure to draw the same clientele that has made Steak 48 at River Oaks District such a hit.

Roka Akor is an upscale brand within the portfolio of JNK Concepts based in Scottsdale, Ariz. Houston's branch is the fifth store behind rockin' Rokas in Scottsdale, Chicago, Skokie, Ill., and San Francisco.

The 200-seat restaurant boasts several distinct areas including the Roka Bar, a sushi bar, robata grill, and a private dining room decorated with giant jars of flavor-infused shochu, a Japanese distilled spirit.

Houston's Roka Akor has the largest steak program of any of its sister restaurants  appropriate for a meat-eating metropolis, said corporate executive chef Ce Bian. Three types of Japanese wagyu (from the Kumamoto, Miyazaki and Shiga prefectures), as well as Japanese kobe, and wagyu steaks from the esteemed Snake River Farm in Idaho. The steaks are grilled over several types of charcoal, which Bian said adds to the flavor. Some of the steaks sport flavor-packed Asian glazes.

The entrees also include seafood (salmon teriyaki, jumbo tiger prawns with yuzu chili, miso-marinated black cod, and grilled Alaskan king crab with chili lime butter), and other proteins such as Korean-spiced lamb chops, teriyaki chicken, and glazed pork ribs.

Sashimi and nigiri sushi are represented in full seafood splendor: fatty tuna, blue fin tuna, big eye tuna, sea urchin, red snapper, striped jack, amberjack, fluke, yellowtail, scallop, salmon and freshwater eel.

The appetizers  divided into cold plates and hot dishes  are so arresting, they're like putting the fireworks first. Bien said Roka Akor lavishes attention to the plating of its high-end morsels: "Our dishes are very special and there's a lot of labor involved." You can see that immediately in the composition of toro tartare, a disk of cubed fatty tuna festooned with flowers, crispy leaves of fried taro, and a dollop of ossetra caviar sitting atop a gold moon of quail egg. Pink folds of tuna tataki wear an Easter bonnet of flower petals and lotus root chips. Delicate rolls of thin, seared beef tataki are glossed with truffle jus and capped with black truffle shavings. From the hot side: crispy squid with serrano peppers; robata grilled diver sea scallops with yuzu pucker; robata grilled pork belly cut with picked radish and tarragon miso; and lobster and shrimp dumplings.

The cocktail menu features Roka signature drinks such as Gosotochiri (vodka, sake, elderflower liqueur, serrano chile and ccucumber); Roka Fashion (blended Japanese whiksy, biters, orange and lemon oils, and Okinawa black sugar); and Saketini (gin, sake, cucumber, and honey syrup). But there's also special Houston cocktails such as Dreams in Green (vodka, sake, lemon juice, Thai basil and lemongrass-infused safflower oil and foamy aquafaba); the Backroom Deal (anejo tequila, Italian sweet vermouth, brandy liqueur, toasted tobacco leaf and vanilla bitters); and Paper Tiger (gin, yuzu, lemon, and matcha syrup). And don't forget the shochu program, a wealth of Japanese whisky, and an ample wine list.

Roka Akor, 2929 Wesleyan, 713-622-1777; rokaakor.com/houston. Open for lunch Monday through Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and dinner daily from 5 to 11 p.m. Roka Bar offers happy hour daily from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
Last week, the nation cheered Crystal Griner, the courageous Capitol Police officer who, with her professional partner patrolman David Bailey, helped to save the life of Representative Steve Scalise in the horrific shooting in suburban Virginia.

Griner literally took a bullet for Scalise. According to CBS News, Griner and Bailey "rushed" the shooter" despite their own wounds.

House Speaker Paul Ryan praised Griner as a hero in a speech on the floor of the House. She is an African-American lesbian who married her wife, Tiffany Dyar, in Baltimore in 2015. Scalise, the House Majority Whip whose life she helped to save, has a lengthy record of voting against LGBT rights, opposing same sex marriage time and again.

Donald and Melania Trump graciously brought Griner flowers in the hospital to honor her heroism.

Associated Press

Though June is LGBT pride month, when the queer community celebrates our heroes and sheroes, Trump did not declare June as Gay Pride Month, as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had done. But he did issue proclamations hailing June as "Home Ownership Month," "Great Outdoors Month," and "National Ocean Month."

ANDREW EDMONSON: Attacks on LGBT Texans are everywhere. Here's what you can do.

And Griner isn't the only LGBT person to demonstrate heroism when an episode of gun violence exploded. On January 8, 2011, Daniel Hernandez, a gay Latino intern, ran towards Representative Gabby Giffords as the shots rang out in that Tucson parking lot. He held her up and stanched her bleeding in the midst of the chaos so that she would not choke on her own blood.

The 20-year-old was acutely aware that he had to keep her engaged if she were to survive the shooting. As he held her, he asked her a series of questions such as "Are you in pain?" to which she would respond by squeezing his hand or giving a thumbs up. He stayed with her in the ambulance on the ride to the hospital, holding her hand and asking her questions, as he tried to contact her husband and her parents.

Two years later, he was the target of an anti-gay smear campaign.

In the recently concluded legislative session in Austin, the Texas GOP introduced 24 anti-gay bills designed to discriminate against LGBT Texans. Two years after the historic Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges granted marriage equality, Lone Star Republicans are pursuing a case in the Texas Supreme court that they hope could eventually overturn the decision that allowed gay couples to marry.

In the coming legislative "special session," Governor Greg Abbott has prioritized the passage of House Bill 2899, which would nullify local non-discrimination ordinances protecting LGBT Texans and target the most vulnerable among us, transgender children, for discrimination.

It would be refreshing if this latest act of heroism from a courageous lesbian officer, who put her life on the line, could open the eyes of the leaders of the Republican party to the ways in which gay lives  and LGBT rights  matter.

Andrew Edmonson served as the chair of the Houston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and on the board of the American Marketing Association's Houston chapter.

Bookmark Gray Matters. It celebrates "Home Ownership Month," "Great Outdoors Month," and "National Ocean Month."


The $2 billion budget approved by the Houston ISD early Friday not only contained one of the largest budget shortfalls in recent memory, it was also one of the most rushed.

The first firm budget numbers were presented to the Board of Education in May, and district finance officials were still tinkering with their final proposal 10 minutes before the Thursday-night meeting at which board members were to approve it. Even then, board members spent much of the nine-hour meeting offering amendments to the district's spending plan.

It also included a $106 million shortfall, which budget officials plugged by taking money from the rainy-day fund they're required to keep.

District leaders and trustees said Friday that many of the issues with this year's budget boiled down to uncertainty over the legislative session, the looming bill for state recapture fees to subsidize districts that don't take in a lot from property taxes, a lack of clear direction, and a host of new trustees and district leaders.

"I think everyone was focused on too many things this year," acknowledged Glenn Reed, the district's general manager of budgeting and financial planning. "It interfered with us really being able to have those conversations up front to set the direction that the board wanted to follow. I don't think it's any one person's fault, there was just so much going on and so many unknowns."

The budget, ultimately approved on a 8-1 vote, reflects a nearly $200 million increase over the current budget year and maintains keeps the current total tax rate - about $1.21 per $100 of taxable property value. It will increase the amount the district collects for maintenance and operations but decrease the amount it collects in interest taxes.

The spending plan includes incremental pay raises for teachers, support staff and elementary school principals, though less than the 5 percent across-the-board raises that teachers and support staff wanted. An amendment that would have given 5 percent raises to all teachers and support staff was defeated 6-3, with Trustees Jolanda Jones, Rho6nda Skillern-Jones and Wanda Adams voting in favor of the bigger pay boosts. Instead, the adopted budget will see teachers with five or fewer years of experience get a 2 percent salary increase and those with 16 or more years of experience receiving a 4 percent pay raise, along with similar incremental increases for others.

District budget officials had increased the amount set aside for salary increases from $26 million presented at a June 15 workshop to about $48 million Thursday after board members groused over the size of salary increases amid competition from suburban districts.

To help pay for larger pay raises, district officials cut funding for Superintendent Richard Carranza's Achieve 180 campus turnaround plan by more than $8 million. And Board President Wanda Adams persuaded the board to adopt an amendment to cut $200,000 from a fine arts initiative to give a small raise to elementary school principals.

The board on Thursday also added $2.2 million for the district's special education department - included after Jones and Trustee Anne Sung raised questions about a lack of funding increases for a department that has faced scrutiny for failing to provide adequate services and testing to special education students. The money will pay for testing materials, nursing support, three parent liaisons, an autism program at three high schools and a senior program manager for the department.

The 2017-2018 budget is the first to be brought forward by Superintendent Richard Carranza, who came to the district in September. While many hailed Carranza at his hiring as a change-maker, the budget proposed few sweeping changes.

Carranza said he held off on some changes - particularly to how magnet programs are funded  so he could gather input on potential shake-ups. He said he would present the board with a proposal about magnet schools by January 2018.

"This is not a matter of not exhibiting leadership," Carranza said. "We're talking about monumental shifts with magnet programs and other concerns. We're starting that work, but that doesn't come to fruition in just one budget season."

Trustee Anna Eastman was the only trustee to vote against the overall budget. She said she could not vote for a budget that contained a $106 million shortfall and would cause the district to dip below the amount it is required to keep on hand for emergencies. The district must keep about $275 million in its fund balance and will have about $308 million on hand for emergencies at the end of the 2016-2017 fiscal year. But that number is projected to drop to about $246 million by the end of next year, about $29 million less than it's supposed to keep on hand. Some of those reserve funds will be spent to give district staff raises.

She said she was surprised that the first preliminary budget was presented in May rather than in February, when it typically makes its debut, and that she only received a copy of the final budget proposal a couple hours before Thursday's board meeting.

"It's not totally unusual for there to be different opinions on the board on how to spend money," Eastman said. "But what was unusual was there wasn't a strong recommendation from the leadership for us to get behind as a group. The CFO and superintendent said they thought it would be irresponsible to add more to the deficit right before we voted, but it concerns me they were willing to say it at that point but not when they brought us a budget with that large of a hole."

Reed said it was impossible to even come up with multiple worst-case scenarios earlier in the year because no one knew if the state would approve more funding for education, how much the district would have to pay in its multi-million-dollar recapture bill (now estimated at $77.5 million) or what specific direction the board wanted to move in.

On Friday, district staff and trustees made it clear that they planned to improve the budgeting process for the 2018-2019 school year. They're already planning to host budget meetings in August, about 10 months before the next budget will be adopted. Trustees pledged to take a deeper dive into the budget to find fat and floated the idea of changing how the district currently funds its schools.

Sung, who joined the board in January, said there were great conversations about priorities and necessities between the board's June 15 budget workshop and Thursday's vote, but wishes those conversations had happened months earlier.

"When we go into the budget planning cycle next year, the board will already have clear goals, constraints and visions to help the administration prioritize spending," Sung said. "I think we did the best we could this year without a fully adopted governance framework. But administration was trying to adjust for individual board members when we need to be much more coherent next year and will be."
With a $13,000 price tag, the 2016 Dodge Charger seemed like quite the steal.

It was.

The $40,000 car was stolen Jan. 2 from Alamo Rental Car in Texas and sold over the internet to an unsuspecting buyer  one of 33 vehicles worth more than $1 million taken by what federal authorities say was a sophisticated theft ring run across five states by a Houston-area street gang.

The men  all from Houston or Missouri City and believed to be members of a Bloods gang offshoot  sold the cars for cash on CraigsList or OfferUp, then bragged about their exploits on Instagram and Twitter, according to federal prosecutors.

A federal indictment unsealed this week in Nevada accuses the men of conspiracy, fraud and selling stolen goods across state lines. Of the 11 men in custody, seven were arrested in Houston, two in Atlanta and two were already in the Harris County Jail on unrelated charges. Five remain at large.

The scope of the operation reflects a "high level of sophistication" for a typical Houston street gang, said Maryanne Denner, a gang expert who formerly worked for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

"I'd love to sit down with these guys and say, 'Who schooled you?'" Denner said, surprised at the young defendants, who range in age from 18 to 28.

Prosecutors say the men operated from July 2015 to April this year, using fake IDs to rent the vehicles, driving some to other states for sale and then pocketing the cash.

The vehicles  including a $57,000 GMC Yukon XL, a $50,000 Chevrolet Tahoe and a $40,000 Ford F-150 pickup  were stolen in Texas, Nevada, California, Tennessee and Florida. Fraudulent car titles, bills of sale and vehicle inspection reports were delivered with the vehicles, according to the indictment.

Seven of the vehicles were stolen in Texas from car rental agencies, including Hertz, Budget, Alamo and Avis, and one was stolen from an individual. The Dodge Charger  valued at nearly $40,000  was sold over the internet to a customer identified only as "T.N." in court records.

The indictment accuses the men of being members or associates of the Yung Money/Yung Gunz Bloods street gang. The gang is not included among a list of well-known Houston gangs at stophoustongangs.org, but appears to be an offshoot of the notorious Bloods.

Six of the defendants have served time in Texas prisons for crimes ranging from felony possession of a weapon to aggravated robbery, according to TDCJ. Eight others have been charged or convicted of other crimes in Harris County, court records show.

The federal indictment accuses all 16 with conspiracy to possess and transport stolen motor vehicles across state lines under fraudulent pretenses. Individual charges are also filed over two out-of-state vehicles sold in Nevada, and for fraudulent online advertising of all the stolen vehicles sold in Nevada.

The indictment also seeks forfeiture of assets valued at nearly $1.05 million.

Mike Knox, a Houston City Council member and gang expert who served as a Houston Police Department Officer for 15 years, said the geographical expanse of the scheme demonstrates the strength of connections that the Bloods gang has across the country.

"If you're a Bloods gang member you can travel to any state, and after you prove your bonafides, you have access to the resources, means and capabilities of the group in that area," Knox said.

Named in the indictment are nine men from Missouri City: Channing Williams, 27; Keenan St. Hillaire, 26; Maurice Lewis, 22; Kaleb Louis, 23; Cody Williams-Jackson, 18; Keith Bell, 24; Dominique Washington, 24; Trevaughn James, 21; and Daniel Wilson, 24.

Those from Houston include: Everly James, 27; Korregan Washington, 28; Torren James, 25; Demani Dancy, 21; Trevionne Williams, 21; Casey Walters Jr., 25; and Denzel Campbell, 26.
A 7-month-old boy was found dead inside a car Friday night after apparently being left by his father when he went to work at a northwest Houston business, according to police.

The baby boy was found by Houston firefighters around 9 p.m. outside a warehouse business in the 7900 block of Northcourt Road, authorities said. The boy apparently died from the heat.

Houston police are investigating the incident, and the case will likely be referred to a Harris County grand jury.

The baby's father, 36, dropped off two of his three children at a daycare Friday morning and then arrived at his workplace on Northcourt Road around 9:30 a.m, according to police.

The baby usually gets dropped off separately to a babysitter.

When his wife called asking the whereabouts of the baby, the father went out to the vehicle around 7:30 p.m. and found the child unresponsive in the car seat.

Paramedics pronounced the baby dead, according to police.

Investigators interviewed the father, contacted the Harris County District Attorney's Office and then released him pending further investigation.

Temperatures reached the mid 90s on Friday with relatively high humidity levels in the morning hours.

Twelve children have already died this year from heatstroke inside a car, according to Kids and Cars, an organization that collects data on child fatalities inside vehicles.

Last year 39 children died from heat stroke inside a car, and 810 children have died from heat stroke inside vehicles across the country since 1994, according to Kids and Cars.

A child's body overheats three to five times faster than an adult body, and a car's temperature can reach 125 degrees in minutes.

Eighty percent of temperature increase inside a vehicle can happen within the first 10 minutes.

More than 55 percent of parents who left their child inside a car unknowingly left them, according to Kids and Cars.

The organization advises parents to always look in the backseat of their vehicle before locking it. They should also put something in the backseat they'll need such as their cell phone, employee ID or briefcase.

Two young children, a 2-year-old and a 16-month-old, were also found dead inside a car last month in Parker County in North Texas.

The 25-year-old mother found the children playing in the car and told investigators she left the kids to teach them a lesson, authorities reported.

The mom was charged Friday with two first-degree felony counts of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury.
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The New York Times is reporting that the CIA director spoke with a Syrian regime official in February about Austin Tice, a former Marine officer from Houston who became a journalist and went missing in 2012 while reporting on the civil war in Syria.

Tice's family has held out hope for nearly five years. He was abducted Aug. 14, 2012. He appeared in a video a month later but has not been heard from since. A Syrian official previously told the Associated Press the government has no knowledge of Tice's whereabouts.

His family lives in Houston's Westbury neighborhood. His parents have kept up a campaign of lobbying and letter writing to push the U.S. government to secure their son's release.

TWO YEARS IN: Austin Tice's family tries to celebrate his birthday without him, two years since his disappearance

In December, Texas' senior U.S. senator said officials are confident Tice is still alive, the Chronicle reported:

The president's special envoy for hostage affairs said the government has "high confidence" that Houston native Austin Tice remains alive, still held in Syria along with other American captives, Cornyn announced in a speech on the Senate floor.

His parents, who have not responded to a request for comment, said in December they were preparing for their fifth holiday season without Austin:

"We'll still have joyous family gatherings," Marc Tice said, "but there'll be that empty space that Austin is usually filling with his outsize personality."

'NOT JUST BLIND OPTIMISM': U.S. officials say there is reason to hope Austin Tice is still alive

Friday's news came out Friday in a story by Adam Goldman, a national security reporter for the Times:
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If Police Chief Art Acevedo has anything to say about it, his officers will shine at the head of the city's Pride parade.

A new "Pride Car" is ready to go. It's all gassed up. Rainbow decals gleam from every side, saluting Houston's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Acevedo plans to be front and center Saturday, and he's strongly encouraged his top leadership to join him in the march.

"By actually participating  we send a very powerful message that we're an inclusive department," he said, "where every segment of society is welcome, is respected, and will be protected by the Houston Police Department."

But not everyone is ready to join the parade. The prospect of marching in the free-spirited gay-rights celebration has some members of his leadership crying foul, and pictures of the festive cruiser sparked contentious debate on social media from nonplussed naysayers.

"Our duty is to protect and serve, not participate in an event that completely goes against our religious beliefs," said one commander, who asked not to be identified.

More Information Pride parade The annual gay rights parade begins at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of Lamar and Smith streets in downtown Houston. The parade will head northeast, then turn onto Walker Street and again onto Milam, continuing nine blocks south before it ends at Jefferson Street. See More Collapse

Not mandatory

The behind-the-scenes brouhaha comes as Acevedo - who just celebrated six months as the city's top cop - continues his efforts to remake the department and bring it in line with his ethos for "relational policing."

He's made it clear he expects his command staff to maintain a visible presence at major community events.

When asked about the complaints Friday, Acevedo said he hadn't received any pushback from subordinates, only a call from the union asking if attendance was mandatory.

"If people are available, like any other community event, I expect them to be there," he said. "If they're not available, and they have a conflict, they just have to let me know."

Union officials, meanwhile, attributed the confusion to miscommunication.

"We're supportive of the pride parade and all our members who are LGBTQ," said Houston Police Officers Union Vice President Joseph Gamaldi. "From my understanding, it was suggested captains attend the pride parade, but it was not mandatory."

Gamaldi's co-vice president, Doug Griffith, said the union had contacted Acevedo after receiving concerns from some members.

"We're requesting the chief not order (people to march) but ask for volunteers," he said. "Like you wouldn't force someone to do something against their religious beliefs; I don't think it's fair to ask them to do that."

He said their hesitance to participate does not signal an unwillingness to protect and serve the community.

"Just because they don't want to march in the parade doesn't mean they're not going to give the same quality of service to people, regardless of race or sexual orientation," he said. "Being as it's the second-largest parade in Houston, I would expect some of our command staff to be there anyway."

'Symbol of unity'

Acevedo first rolled out a pride car last year while police chief in Austin, after seeing the New York Police Department unveil a similar car during New York's pride parade.

He said he wanted to support Austin's LGBT community, still reeling from the hate-fueled massacre on June 12, 2016, of 49 revelers at Pulse, a popular gay nightclub in Orlando.

"That car served as a symbol of unity and service above all else," he said, recalling seeing Austin parade-goers in tears when they saw the rainbow-splashed cruiser roll by. "The reaction of that community  made me realize once I got to Houston, I wanted to recreate that here."

The department declined to allow the Chronicle to photograph the vehicle or say how much it cost to trick it out for the parade, but photos have long since leaked online.

The parade - set to begin at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of Lamar and Smith streets - is expected to draw 500,000 revelers.

Over the decades, law enforcement and gay and lesbian communities across the country have had a fraught relationship. Advocates across the nation traditionally march in June to mark the anniversary of the birth of the gay-rights movement, the Stonewall Uprising of June 28, 1969, when NYPD officers raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar and nightclub.

The subsequent riots and activism are credited with sparking the gay civil rights movement.

In Houston, the department has long participated or provided security for the city's pride parades, said Jodi Silva, an HPD spokeswoman.

Officers march in other annual multicultural parades when invited, she said, including events celebrating Juneteenth, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Cinco de Mayo and Independence Day.

'People have  to chill'

After photos of HPD's Pride Car were posted online, social media users launched into a lively debate. Some questioned why the department was "taking sides" on a "political and social agenda."

"Our police should remain neutral in these issues," one user wrote. "I think a police car should remain painted neutrally like a police car."

Others, however, cheered the department's decision to support the city's LGBT population.

"People have got to chill," wrote one HPD sergeant, who identified herself as a lesbian. "There are vehicles and memorials honoring other groups of people, there's associations, there's laws to protect them too  you know what we don't have? Someone representing the GLBT Community, someone to support us, someone to open up with and feel comfortable."

She continued, "I am proudly serving this city and I will proudly take a shot for any of you! Regardless of what you think of me or my community!!! If that makes you uncomfortable too bad.  I'll drive it! I will represent with pride!!!!"

Acevedo, meanwhile, said the community comes first.

"We have one of the most diverse communities - THE most diverse community - in the country," he said. "Community policing is about all communities. Community policing is about reaching out to every segment of society."
The Harris County Sheriff's Office said Friday it will investigate a deputy who allegedly threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a man who refused to give his citizenship status after getting into a minor car accident on his way to a public hearing this week on Houston's decision to join a lawsuit against the state's controversial "sanctuary cities law."

After the accident Tuesday, Victor Ibarra, who is in the country illegally, produced a Mexican passport and a Consular Identification Card in lieu of a driver's license, which he cannot obtain given his status. Deputies then repeatedly asked Ibarra whether he was "illegal or legal," Ibarra said at a news conference Friday at City Hall.

Ibarra told one of the deputies he was not comfortable answering questions about his immigration status without an attorney present. The officer then threatened to call ICE, Ibarra said.

Ibarra's vehicle was eventually towed, and he was allowed to return home. There is no indication that ICE was called.

Ibarra had been driving to a public hearing Tuesday about the Houston City Council's decision, made official the following day, to join Austin, San Antonio and Dallas in a lawsuit against the state of Texas in an attempt to block Senate Bill 4. The law, which goes into effect Sept. 1, requires Texas cities to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement officials.

The city will be at odds with the federal government, which sided with Texas on Friday.

"The Department of Justice fully supports Texas' effort and is participating in this lawsuit because of the strong federal interest in facilitating the state and local cooperation that is critical in enforcing our nation's immigration laws," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.

Over the last eight years, Texas and the federal government have clashed repeatedly in court on a multitude of issues. Butthe DOJ's support in the lawsuit is another example of the changing relationship between the state and the federal government under President Donald Trump.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he is grateful for the DOJ's assistance in defending SB 4 against the lawsuit. "Enforcing immigration law helps prevent dangerous criminals from being released into our communities," Paxton said. "We look forward to working with DOJ lawyers to see that Senate Bill 4 is fully honored in Texas."

But advocates said it creates a frightening climate.

"When incidents like this, a minor traffic incidence, turn into pretext for questioning people about their legal status, even after the involved party had said he can't answer in the absence of his attorney, that's a problem," said David Michael Smith, a member of the Houston Socialist Movement, which helped organize the press conference.

According to a representative from the Harris County Sheriff's Office, there is no policy on whether deputies may ask about a person's residency status, though they do prohibit racial profiling.

Houston Councilman Larry Green, who voted in favor of joining the lawsuit against SB 4, said there are major flaws with the bill, regardless of the Department of Justice position.

"Obviously our objective is to make sure cities have the right to make decisions in the best interest of cities and not be subjected to laws that don't allow that," Green said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 24

Trend:

Azerbaijan has received delivery of Russian military equipment, said Azerbaijans Defence Ministry June 24.

A planned delivery of the latest Russian military equipment to Azerbaijan has been carried out in accordance with the intergovernmental agreement and within the framework of successfully developing military-technical cooperation between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation, said the Defence Ministry.

The big cargo of modern weapons that arrived at the Baku port will be sent to the frontline zone in the near future, added the Defence Ministry.

These weapons will strengthen the combat and maneuver capabilities of the forward-based units of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan to defeat armored vehicles, engineering and fortification structures, low-speed air targets, military personnel and other military facilities of the enemy.

The delivery of Russian military equipment and weapons to Azerbaijan will continue, said the Defence Ministry.

Defence Ministry said General Director of Rosoboronexport JSC Alexander Mikheev was among the first who sent a congratulatory letter to Azerbaijans Defence Minister Colonel General Zakir Hasanov on the occasion of the Armed Forces Day of the Republic of Azerbaijan, celebrated on June 26.

The congratulatory letter said, Joint efforts will benefit our states and will contribute to strengthening of defence capability of Azerbaijan.

The letter also read that the development of military and technical cooperation will allow significantly increasing the power of the Armed Forces and their ability to ensure peace and prosperity of the Azerbaijani people.
WASHINGTON - Russia's cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system before Donald Trump's election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software systems in almost twice as many states as previously reported.

In Illinois, investigators found evidence that cyber intruders tried to delete or alter voter data. The hackers accessed software designed to be used by poll workers on Election Day, and in at least one state accessed a campaign finance database. Details of the wave of attacks, in the summer and fall of 2016, were provided by three people with direct knowledge of the U.S. investigation into the matter. In all, the Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states, one of them said.

Used the 'red phone'

The scope and sophistication so concerned Obama administration officials that they took an unprecedented step - complaining directly to Moscow over a modern-day "red phone." In October, two of the people said, the White House contacted the Kremlin on the back channel to offer detailed documents of what it said was Russia's role in election meddling and to warn that the attacks risked setting off a broader conflict.

The new details, buttressed by a classified National Security Agency document recently disclosed by the Intercept, show the scope of alleged hacking that federal investigators are scrutinizing as they look into whether Trump campaign officials may have colluded in the efforts. But they also paint a worrisome picture for future elections: The newest portrayal of potentially deep vulnerabilities in the U.S.'s patchwork of voting technologies comes less than a week after former FBI Director James Comey warned Congress that Moscow isn't done meddling.

"They're coming after America," Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the election. "They will be back."

A spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington declined to comment on the agency's probe.

Russian officials have publicly denied any role in cyber attacks connected to the U.S. elections, including a massive "spear phishing" effort that compromised Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee, among hundreds of other groups. President Vladimir Putin said in recent comments to reporters that criminals inside the country could have been involved without having been sanctioned by the Russian government.

Not enough access

One of the mysteries about the 2016 presidential election is why Russian intelligence, after gaining access to state and local systems, didn't try to disrupt the vote. One possibility is that the American warning was effective. Another former senior U.S. official, who asked for anonymity to discuss the classified U.S. probe into pre-election hacking, said a more likely explanation is that several months of hacking failed to give the attackers the access they needed to master America's disparate voting systems spread across more than 7,000 local jurisdictions.

One former senior U.S. official expressed concern that the Russians now have three years to build on their knowledge of U.S. voting systems before the next presidential election, and there is every reason to believe they will use what they have learned in future attacks.
HOUSTON Even as he tried to strike an optimistic tone, the head of the Democratic National Committee acknowledged Friday to labor leaders in Houston that both the party and unions are facing a daunting task ahead of them.

"It is undeniable that this is the most challenging stress test, perhaps ... in my lifetime and one of the most challenging stress tests in the history of our Democracy," said Tom Perez, the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The Texas Legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott are going after unions again in an upcoming special session, Democrats struck out badly in their efforts to pick up seats in Congress earlier this week, and U.S. Senate Republicans unveiled a health care plan yesterday that many see as a direct assault on former President Barack Obama's signature accomplishment.

But Perez, a former U.S. Labor Secretary, told the Texas AFL-CIO Convention at the Hilton Americas-Houston that even though the sense of urgency is heightened, he still "absolutely" believes Democrats -- with help from organized labor -- will retake the U.S. House in 2018. And he said past legal fights with Abbott show his latest "mean spirited" proposals on so-called sanctuary cities can be stopped in Texas.

Perez reminded a ballroom with hundreds of union leaders that he was an attorney in Obama's Justice Department in 2011 and was assigned to fight Texas and it's stricter voter identification laws. Abbott was the attorney general for Texas then.

"Your governor is no better, I fought with him when I was at the Justice Department," Perez said, explaining how he helped block key parts of Texas' ID laws.

Perez' comments come as Houston and other Texas cities have joined a lawsuit in opposition of the new law that would allow police to question people about their immigration status during routine stops and threatens to punish law enforcement officials who refuse federal immigration holds.

Perez said the Justice Department successfully fought similar proposed laws in Arizona and are working with Texas Democrats to help make sure the law here also gets tossed by the courts.

"I'm confident the same thing will happen here," Perez told the Houston Chronicle in an interview after his speech. "Texas is going to waste a lot of money on legal fees that they could be investing in workers and other opportunities."

Perez also did his best to downplay the results from Tuesday, when Democrats lost a special election for a U.S. House seat in Georgia. The party was hoping an upset victory would show a tide turning against President Donald Trump heading into 2018. Perez said in both that Georgia race and in South Carolina, Democrats did far better than they have in decades in those districts. Sure they didn't win either, but Perez said Tuesday showed progress.

"I know people are disappointed in the results from earlier this week," Perez said. "We didn't quite get to the finish line. But you know what folks, those are beet red districts."

Perez said there are more than 70 other districts that are more competitive for Democrats than the Georgia race and Democrats will be aggressive in all of them. One of those districts is the 7th Congressional District based in Houston and represented by Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston.

Democrats need to win 25 House seats next year that are held by Republicans now. Perez said he is absolutely confident that will happen in 2018.

The Republican National Committee says no way.

In a statement to the Chronicle, RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said the problem for Democrats in Georgia is the same as what they have going into 2018: no vision.

"Obstruction and resistance is not a vision," McDaniel said. "It's lost them these last four [special] elections, and it'll continue losing them elections going forward."

Perez also used his speech to stress that the Democratic Party is committed to fighting for organized labor. He recounted growing up in a union household in Buffalo and said history shows that the middle class has been healthiest when unions were at their strongest.

"The health of the middle class and the health of the labor movement go hand and hand," he said.

He said in politics there are a lot of twists and turns, but he said the DNC remains committed to helping labor.

"The Democratic Party will always be there with you," Perez said.

Texas AFL-CIO president John Patrick said the recently completed legislative session was the "most miserable" he's ever experience but ticked off examples where unions beat back attempts to go after their memberships.

"Unions are at the core of the mighty resistance here in Texas," Patrick said.
(Thumbs up) We wish we knew her name. All we know is that an anonymous organ donor, a 31-year-old woman who died in a traffic accident, saved the life of Lester Smith. He's the Houston philanthropist who told his emotional story to a Museum District crowd Tuesday evening. Tears streaming down his cheeks, Smith remembered laying in a hospital bed recovering from double lung transplant surgery. He asked himself how he could justify a second chance at life. The wildcat oilman decided to donate $15 million to kick-start a massive expansion of the Holocaust Museum Houston, proving that whoever saves one life can save an entire world.

(Thumbs up) Mother Nature did us a solid. She vectored blustery Tropical Storm Cindy to the east. That spared us rain, downed trees and flooding but not hyperbole from local television meteorologists who breathlessly painted apocalyptic scenarios. The good news is that thousands of new Houstonians are now aware that these storms can come up quick. If you've lived through Carla, Alicia, Allison or Ike, you know it's a good idea to stock up now on canned goods, batteries and bottled water.

(Thumbs up) Ruth Simmons could have just enjoyed the retirement life: late breakfast, long walks in the park, the all-inclusive cruise to Alaska. But in a true act of public service, she agreed this week to become the interim president of Prairie View A&M. A graduate of Wheatley before earning her Ph.D. at Harvard, Simmons went on to become the first black president of an Ivy League school at Brown. No one knows how long she'll be up 290, but there couldn't be a better role model or academic visionary for our area.

(Thumbs up) Another woman who cracked a few ceilings was Jan Coggeshall, the first female mayor in Galveston. She passed away this week at 81 but not before changing the island for the better. She was one of a cadre of women at the time who led Texas cities like Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. No one today blinks an eye when a woman is elected but that's thanks to the trail blazed by Coggeshall in Galveston.

(Thumbs down) We always knew that Gov. Goodhair wasn't the sharpest drill bit at the fracking site, but he's a homie and in a weak governor state he couldn't do catastrophic damage. But now he's Secretary of Energy and the stakes include screwing up the planet called Earth. Disregarding hundreds of peer-reviewed scientists and even geologists at the world's big oil companies, Perry this week pooh-poohed climate change. "The idea the science is somehow settled, and if you don't believe it's settled you're somehow or another a Neanderthal, that is inappropriate from my perspective." He's right about one thing, he shouldn't be called a Neanderthal. Instead, he and others who deny the impact of carbon dioxide emissions should have to attend mandatory classes in environmental science at a high school.

(Thumbs down) Speaking of Neanderthal attitudes, Houston city councilman Jack Christie challenged an editorial board member to a duel and debate because this page was critical of his anti-vaccination - and ultimately anti-children's health - positions. As pacifists, we'll pass on the duel. As for the debate, we'll yield our spot to the parent of a child with polio or to a pediatric vaccine expert like Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine. How about next week at 4747 Southwest Freeway, Jack? If you're one of Christie's supporters who slough it off with a "there goes Uncle Jack again," pardon us if we don't see it that way. Anti-vaxxers ultimately shift the debate to unsubstantiated nonsense. The losers are children and families who need protection, treatment and support but can't get it because the lies detract from the true problem. Christie's rant came moments after he was the lone council vote against a city Health Department request for funds to study drug-resistant bacteria in hospitals. He also disappeared (we won't call it being spineless) for an important vote on the city joining litigation against the onerous SB4.

(Thumbs down) These things come in threes so we need an extra Thumb this week to turn down to Harris County Democrats and Republican state Rep. Gary Elkins of Jersey Village. Elkins was one of four from our area to make Texas Monthly's annual worst legislators list. We pause 10 seconds to name four locals who make the best list: Reps. Sarah Davis, Dan Huberty and Senfronia Thompson and Sen. Joan Huffman. As TM wrote, "Gary Elkins is a walking oxymoron: he is chair of the Government Transparency and Operations Committee who spent the session killing transparency legislation." In the past, he's pushed bills making life better for payday lenders. Oh, he owns a payday lending business. The question for both Ds an Rs is: How can Elkins survive 22 years without a serious challenge? Where are their candidates who can run a real campaign?
Leave Medicare alone

Regarding "Critics in GOP put health bill at risk" (Page A1, Friday), Medicare and Medicaid are not interchangeable terms. Those of us who are over 65 paid in advance for our Medicare coverage and continue to pay to be in the program. Medicare is not an entitlement. Medicaid was designed for people with limited income and no access to other resources.

I'm all for helping the poorest among us, but our elected officials need to understand that we cannot bankrupt the country over health care, nor should we abandon the least of our citizens.

Leave Medicare alone, fix Medicaid and clean up the waste, fraud and abuse that is rampant in both programs.

Roy Nelson, League City

Endangering Texas

Regarding "Lawmakers' agenda endangers the Texas Miracle" (Page A29, June 18), this op-ed should be required reading for all Texas legislators, who seem to be in the practice of putting the views of the minority above the good of the majority. I'm shocked by two pieces of legislation that will certainly have devastating impacts on our state.

The first, Senate Bill 4, has already prompted Texas's economic powerhouses - Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin - to file a lawsuit against the state. These cities realize that this "show me your papers" legislation will have a tremendous impact on the immigrant community that is vital to our state. Texas relies on immigrants to work in restaurants, construction, manufacturing and agriculture.

In addition, the lengthy and costly deliberation of the so-called "bathroom bill" shows that there are legislators in Texas who cannot - or will not - learn from the mistakes of others. The fallout from North Carolina's bathroom bill was ruinous, and it's estimated to cost the state $3.7 billion over 12 years. It is arrogant to think that the results in Texas would be any different.

While SB4 has already been passed, it's not too late for legislators to do the right thing for Texans and strike down the "bathroom bill."

Kaitlin Barnes, Houston
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 24

Trend:

Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev has sent a letter of condolence to Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain.

We are deeply saddened by the news of heavy casualties and injuries as a result of explosions caused in your country, reads the letter. We are outraged by those heinous attacks, and consider it essential to conduct a resolute and consistent fight against terrorism in all its manifestations.

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who were killed and all the fraternal people of Pakistan, and wish those injured the soonest possible recovery, Ilham Aliyev told Mamnoon Hussain. May Allah rest the souls of the dead in peace!
getty

For some, 23 June will always be a day to celebrate, a day when we supposedly "took back control" and "got our country back".

For others like me, this date will mark a crude and painful reminder of a very damaging decision that will negatively affect the future of our country for generations to come.

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The 23 June 2016 was an act of self-harm to our economy, the day we turned our back on our strongest allies, led to the rise of hate crime in our communities and a vote that has divided our nation. It will be hard to forget the lies, illusions and empty promises like the extra 350million for the NHS that were peddled by the likes of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage.

In the last year I have been labelled a "remoaner", called a traitor and asked to shut up and get on with it. As a democrat, I accept the result of the referendum but I equally will not cave in to those who want to silence anyone who challenges the Government's 'Hard Brexit' approach.

I do not agree with the view that we should just remain silent during the negotiating process and accept any deal the Government comes up with. This issue is far too important to give the Government a blank cheque. This is like saying that after a general election we should just accept and rubber stamp all decisions until the next election, without holding the Government to account.

I believe, even more strongly than a year ago, that just as people were able to vote for departure from the EU, they should be given a vote on our destination in our future relationship with the EU.

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If the process started with a referendum, why shouldn't it end with another one?

As the compromises and realities of Brexit unfold following the negotiations and a deal is struck, the British public should be allowed to decide, in a referendum, whether it is the right deal for them, their families, their jobs and our country. Whatever the result of that vote would be, that decision would carry a much heavier mandate then one by a small clique of politicians in Westminster.

If you were a Brexit voter for example, would you settle for a deal that still meant paying into the EU budget? Wouldn't you want a chance to have a say if you disagreed with the Government's deal?

That is why the Liberal Democrats will continue to push the Government for a public vote on the deal at the end of the negotiations, so people are given the choice to vote for that deal or to remain in the EU.

It is also worth pointing out that during the referendum campaign, the Leave side did not produce a unified position on what the UK would look like outside of the EU. For example, some Brexiters like Nigel Farage called for the UK to completely cut our ties with the EU, whilst others like Boris Johnson have said that we could remain in the Single Market.

Theresa May asked the country for a mandate towards a divisive and destructive exit from the European Union. The response she got was a resounding no. Since then, a recent Survation poll showed that 61.3% of people would prefer a 'Soft' Brexit.

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If there is a positive lesson from the recent election it is to never take voters for granted. I am encouraged that since 8 June, there is growing momentum for the Government to work more closely with other parties.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a cross-party joint cabinet committee to be established to negotiate Brexit. This committee would be made up of MPs, selected by their parties and representative of the political make-up of parliament. The team would become the front line of negotiations with Brussels and ultimately have to agree to the final deal, which could then be put to the British people.

This is a moment for those in the centre to gather together, whatever our parties, and work in the national interest. I am determined that the Liberal Democrats will be a constructive opposition in this parliament and will play our part in bringing the country together, working with people of all parties and none, to fight for the best possible deal for you, your family, your neighbours and our country Britain's future relationship with Europe will be the most important issue in our country for years to come. As the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Brexit, I will continue to fight for an open, modern and inclusive Britain.
Details added (first version posted on 15:44)

Baku, Azerbaijan, June 24

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received former member of the National Assembly of the French Republic, President of the Association of Friends of Azerbaijan in France Jean-Francois Mancel.

The head of state described Jean-Francois Mancels visit to the country as a good opportunity for discussing the Azerbaijani-French ties again.

President Ilham Aliyev thanked Jean-Francois Mancel for delivering Azerbaijans realities to the French society and political circles and for his great role in the development of the Azerbaijani-French ties. The head of state stressed the importance of regular visits of French parliamentary delegations.

President Ilham Aliyev hailed the particular role of his official visit to France this year in the development of bilateral relations. The head of state noted that the visit was arranged at the highest level and was very successful, adding that very fruitful discussion of the future development of the Azerbaijani-French relations was held during the visit. President Ilham Aliyev expressed his confidence that bilateral relations will continue to successfully develop.

Former member of the National Assembly of the French Republic, President of the Association of Friends of Azerbaijan in France Jean-Francois Mancel said he was honored to visit Azerbaijan and meet with President Ilham Aliyev again.

Jean-Francois Mancel said representatives of the French Senate will spare no efforts to contribute to the development of relations between the two countries. He highlighted projects and action plans to be implemented in this regard.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 24

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

Charles Leclerc of Prema Racing F1 team, who won the first race of the FIA Formula 2 in Baku June 24, has said at a press conference in Baku that he liked the city circuit because of the combination of long straight parts and sharp turns.

He said the circuit in Baku is not as dangerous as it is spoken of. The circuit has dangerous and sharp turns, especially the turn 8, but on the whole the circuit is interesting, he noted.

In turn, Nicholas Latifi of Dams F1 team, said the circuit in Baku resembles something between the circuits in Monza and Monaco.

The Baku circuit has narrow and very dangerous turns, like in Monaco, and long straight parts, like in Monza, Latifi said.
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Lord Buckethead made a special appearance at Glastonbury Festival where he introduced Sleaford Mods to the Park Stage.

"I shall simply ask you to give two big cheers," he began. "No.1, to wish a very happy 10th birthday to The Park stage.

"And no.2, to welcome to the stage, a fantastic act from planet Earth: the unassailable, the irreplaceable, the unfathomable... Sleaford Mods!"

Glastonbury 2017 Show all 48 1 /48 Glastonbury 2017 Glastonbury 2017 Ed Sheeran woos the crowd during his Pyramid Stage performance on the final day of the festival, 25 June 2017 PA Glastonbury 2017 PC Small wearing a fairy costume sits on top of her horse Sedgemoor who is wearing garlands as she and her colleague interact with the public at Glastonbury, 25 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Barry Gibb performs on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, 25 June 2017 AFP/Getty Glastonbury 2017 Festival-goers queue to charge their mobile phones at the Glastonbury Festival, 25 June 2017 AFP/Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Rag'n'Bone Man performs on day 4 of the Glastonbury Festival, 25 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Jamie Cullum performs on the Pyramid Stage during day 4 of the Glastonbury Festival, 25 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Musician Jarvis Cocker plays a DJ set from a wooden tree structure in the Greenpeace are at Glastonbury Festival, 25 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters performs at the Glastonbury Festival, 24 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 One of the 'Lords of Lightning' harnesses high-voltage electricity in a performance during the Metamorphosis Show in the Arcadia area at the Glastonbury Festival, 24 June 2017 AFP/Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Katy Perry performs on day 3 of the Glastonbury Festival, 24 June 2017 Getty Glastonbury 2017 Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses the crowd alongside Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis on the Pyramid Stage as he makes a guest appearance at the Glastonbury Festival Site, 24 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn meets festival goers as he visits the Green Fields at the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton, 24 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Craig David performs on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, 24 June 2017 AFP/Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Gabrielle Aplin performs on the Other Stage during day 3 of the Glastonbury Festival 2017 at Worthy Farm, Pilton, 24 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Lights illuminate the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm at night in Pilton, 23 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 The Flaming Lips perform on The Park Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, 23 June 2017 AFP/Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 People gather to watch the Arcadia landing show at the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton, 23 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Lorde performs on day 2 of the Glastonbury Festival 2017 at Worthy Farm, 23 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Thom Yorke of Radiohead performs on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm near the village of Pilton in Somerset, South West England, 23 June 2017 AFP/Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim of the XX perform on day 2 of the Glastonbury Festival 2017 at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 23 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Former Labour MP Ed Balls attends Glastonbury Festival on 23 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Dua Lipa performs on the John Peel Stage on day 2 of the Glastonbury Festival 2017 at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 23, 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Revellers dance as they listen to Circa Waves perform on the Other Stage at Worthy Farm in Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival in Britain, June 23, 2017 Reuters Glastonbury 2017 Festival goers at Glastonbury Festival Site on June 21, 2017 in Glastonbury, England Getty Glastonbury 2017 Reuters Glastonbury 2017 Festivalgoers watching Blossoms on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, at Worthy Farm in Somerset PA Glastonbury 2017 EPA Glastonbury 2017 Actor Johnny Depp poses on a Cadillac before presenting his film The Libertine, at Cinemageddon at Worthy Farm in Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival Reuters Glastonbury 2017 Fans cheer as American actor Johnny Depp makes his entrance at Cinemageddon during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, near Pilton, Somerset EPA Glastonbury 2017 US actor Johnny Depp attends the Cinemageddon event as part of the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts 2017 at Worthy Farm EPA Glastonbury 2017 Cineramageddon ushers Daisy Peters (left), from Shepton Mallet, and Tamsin Walton, from Pilton, before an appearance by Johnny Depp for a screening of The Libertine, during the Glastonbury Festival PA Glastonbury 2017 Festival-goers pose at the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts 2017 at Worthy Farm on 22 June EPA Glastonbury 2017 Revellers sleep in front of a food stand at Worthy Farm in Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival on 22 June, 2017 Reuters Glastonbury 2017 An aerial view of the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset on 22 June, 2017 PA Glastonbury 2017 People gather to watch the sun set as temperatures reach record levels at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton on 21 June, 2017 Getty Glastonbury 2017 Festival goers enjoy themselves as the gates open at the Glastonbury Festival amid heightened security at Worthy Farm in Pilton Getty Glastonbury 2017 A festival goer arrives at Glastonbury Festival Site on 21 June in Glastonbury, England Getty Glastonbury 2017 A festival goer at Glastonbury Festival Site on June 21, 2017 in Glastonbury, England Getty Glastonbury 2017 Festival goers enjoy themselves as the gates open at the Glastonbury Festival amid heightened security at Worthy Farm in Pilton on June 21, 2017 near Glastonbury, England Getty Glastonbury 2017 Festival goers at Glastonbury Festival Site on June 21, 2017 in Glastonbury, England Getty Glastonbury 2017 Revellers sing and dance by the Stone Circle at Worthy Farm in Somerset Reuters Glastonbury 2017 Festival founder Michael Eavis arrives to attend a screening of film maker Julian Temple's Glastonbury documentary Getty Glastonbury 2017 People attend a screening of film maker Julian Temple's Glastonbury documentary being shown at the new night time area Cinemaggedon on June 21, 2017 Getty Glastonbury 2017 People attend a screening of film maker Julian Temple's Glastonbury documentary being shown at the new night time area Cinemaggedon on June 21, 2017 Getty Glastonbury 2017 People gather to watch the sun set as temperatures reach record levels at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton on June 21, 2017 Getty Glastonbury 2017 The sun sets at the Glastonbury Festival 2017 at Worthy Farm in Pilton on 21 June, 2017 Getty Glastonbury 2017 Fireworks illuminate the night sky at the end of the first day at the Glastonbury Festival on 21 June Getty Glastonbury 2017 A reveller smokes by the Stone Circle at Worthy Farm in Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival on June 22, 2017 Reuters

Buckethead gained 249 votes in the recent general election, which he described as a new Buckethead record.

Recommended How to watch Glastonbury Festival from home

Before the vote on June 8 he handed out 38,300 flyers which read: "Strong, not entirely stable, leadership. Vote Lord Buckethead for the most powerful protest vote in the galaxy."

Buckethead  whether the same person beneath the costume or not  also ran against Margaret Thatcher in 1987 and John Major in 1992.

Speaking to the Guardian after his appearance he gave some thoughts on how Brexit negotiations have been going.

Could I negotiate Brexit better than Theresa May and David Davis? Yes, Buckethead responded.

Could a slightly mouldy pain au chocolat negotiate Brexit better than Theresa May and David Davis? Yes. So yes I could, but whether I should is another matter.

Asked what advice he would give May and Davis for Brexit, he said: Be sophisticated, the Europeans are a smart bunch.

"There was a photograph the other day of the negotiating team from Great Britain and the negotiating team from Europe and the team from Europe looked so much smarter, they looked smarter sartorially, intellectually, and they had women, which is something British diplomats seem to have forgotten."

Make sure you keep up with the latest Glastonbury coverage here
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Radiohead were reportedly met with shouts of "free Palestine" during their headline slot at Glastonbury.

Protestors were apparently waving Palestinian flags in front of the Pyramid Stage as the band performed, while a banner read: "Israel is an apartheid state. Radiohead, dont play there," according to Jewish News.

The demonstrations would have been sparked by controversy over Radiohead's forthcoming show in Tel Aviv on 19 July.

Glastonbury 2017 Show all 48 1 /48 Glastonbury 2017 Glastonbury 2017 Ed Sheeran woos the crowd during his Pyramid Stage performance on the final day of the festival, 25 June 2017 PA Glastonbury 2017 PC Small wearing a fairy costume sits on top of her horse Sedgemoor who is wearing garlands as she and her colleague interact with the public at Glastonbury, 25 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Barry Gibb performs on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, 25 June 2017 AFP/Getty Glastonbury 2017 Festival-goers queue to charge their mobile phones at the Glastonbury Festival, 25 June 2017 AFP/Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Rag'n'Bone Man performs on day 4 of the Glastonbury Festival, 25 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Jamie Cullum performs on the Pyramid Stage during day 4 of the Glastonbury Festival, 25 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Musician Jarvis Cocker plays a DJ set from a wooden tree structure in the Greenpeace are at Glastonbury Festival, 25 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters performs at the Glastonbury Festival, 24 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 One of the 'Lords of Lightning' harnesses high-voltage electricity in a performance during the Metamorphosis Show in the Arcadia area at the Glastonbury Festival, 24 June 2017 AFP/Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Katy Perry performs on day 3 of the Glastonbury Festival, 24 June 2017 Getty Glastonbury 2017 Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses the crowd alongside Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis on the Pyramid Stage as he makes a guest appearance at the Glastonbury Festival Site, 24 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn meets festival goers as he visits the Green Fields at the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton, 24 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Craig David performs on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, 24 June 2017 AFP/Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Gabrielle Aplin performs on the Other Stage during day 3 of the Glastonbury Festival 2017 at Worthy Farm, Pilton, 24 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Lights illuminate the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm at night in Pilton, 23 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 The Flaming Lips perform on The Park Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, 23 June 2017 AFP/Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 People gather to watch the Arcadia landing show at the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton, 23 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Lorde performs on day 2 of the Glastonbury Festival 2017 at Worthy Farm, 23 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Thom Yorke of Radiohead performs on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm near the village of Pilton in Somerset, South West England, 23 June 2017 AFP/Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim of the XX perform on day 2 of the Glastonbury Festival 2017 at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 23 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Former Labour MP Ed Balls attends Glastonbury Festival on 23 June 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Dua Lipa performs on the John Peel Stage on day 2 of the Glastonbury Festival 2017 at Worthy Farm, Pilton on June 23, 2017 Getty Images Glastonbury 2017 Revellers dance as they listen to Circa Waves perform on the Other Stage at Worthy Farm in Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival in Britain, June 23, 2017 Reuters Glastonbury 2017 Festival goers at Glastonbury Festival Site on June 21, 2017 in Glastonbury, England Getty Glastonbury 2017 Reuters Glastonbury 2017 Festivalgoers watching Blossoms on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, at Worthy Farm in Somerset PA Glastonbury 2017 EPA Glastonbury 2017 Actor Johnny Depp poses on a Cadillac before presenting his film The Libertine, at Cinemageddon at Worthy Farm in Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival Reuters Glastonbury 2017 Fans cheer as American actor Johnny Depp makes his entrance at Cinemageddon during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, near Pilton, Somerset EPA Glastonbury 2017 US actor Johnny Depp attends the Cinemageddon event as part of the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts 2017 at Worthy Farm EPA Glastonbury 2017 Cineramageddon ushers Daisy Peters (left), from Shepton Mallet, and Tamsin Walton, from Pilton, before an appearance by Johnny Depp for a screening of The Libertine, during the Glastonbury Festival PA Glastonbury 2017 Festival-goers pose at the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts 2017 at Worthy Farm on 22 June EPA Glastonbury 2017 Revellers sleep in front of a food stand at Worthy Farm in Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival on 22 June, 2017 Reuters Glastonbury 2017 An aerial view of the Glastonbury Festival site at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset on 22 June, 2017 PA Glastonbury 2017 People gather to watch the sun set as temperatures reach record levels at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton on 21 June, 2017 Getty Glastonbury 2017 Festival goers enjoy themselves as the gates open at the Glastonbury Festival amid heightened security at Worthy Farm in Pilton Getty Glastonbury 2017 A festival goer arrives at Glastonbury Festival Site on 21 June in Glastonbury, England Getty Glastonbury 2017 A festival goer at Glastonbury Festival Site on June 21, 2017 in Glastonbury, England Getty Glastonbury 2017 Festival goers enjoy themselves as the gates open at the Glastonbury Festival amid heightened security at Worthy Farm in Pilton on June 21, 2017 near Glastonbury, England Getty Glastonbury 2017 Festival goers at Glastonbury Festival Site on June 21, 2017 in Glastonbury, England Getty Glastonbury 2017 Revellers sing and dance by the Stone Circle at Worthy Farm in Somerset Reuters Glastonbury 2017 Festival founder Michael Eavis arrives to attend a screening of film maker Julian Temple's Glastonbury documentary Getty Glastonbury 2017 People attend a screening of film maker Julian Temple's Glastonbury documentary being shown at the new night time area Cinemaggedon on June 21, 2017 Getty Glastonbury 2017 People attend a screening of film maker Julian Temple's Glastonbury documentary being shown at the new night time area Cinemaggedon on June 21, 2017 Getty Glastonbury 2017 People gather to watch the sun set as temperatures reach record levels at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton on June 21, 2017 Getty Glastonbury 2017 The sun sets at the Glastonbury Festival 2017 at Worthy Farm in Pilton on 21 June, 2017 Getty Glastonbury 2017 Fireworks illuminate the night sky at the end of the first day at the Glastonbury Festival on 21 June Getty Glastonbury 2017 A reveller smokes by the Stone Circle at Worthy Farm in Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival on June 22, 2017 Reuters

Critics have urged the band to cancel the show as part of a widespread music boycott until Palestinians are granted the right of return and Israel's West Bank barrier is dismantled.

High profile artists from around the world, including director Ken Loach, actors Maxine Peake and Juliet Stephenson, and Roger Waters, signed an open letter calling on the band to reconsider the show.

Addressing the criticism in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, frontman Thom Yorke said the controversy had been extremely upsetting and said he was just one of several prolific figures who did not agree with the cultural ban, alongside J.K Rowling, Noam Chomsky and others.

It's deeply disrespectful to assume that we're either being misinformed or that we're so retarded we can't make these decisions ourselves, he said.

I thought it was patronising in the extreme. It's offensive and I just can't understand why going to play a rock show or going to lecture at a university [is a problem to them].

Recommended How to watch Glastonbury Festival from home

Yorke also asked critics to consider how upsetting the controversy was for guitarist Jonny Greenwood, who has both Palestinian and Israeli friends and a wife who's an Arab Jew.

All these people to stand there at a distance throwing stuff at us, waving flags, saying: 'You don't know anything about it!' Imagine how offensive that is for Jonny," he said.

Just to throw the word 'apartheid' around and think that's enough. It's f***ing weird. It's such an extraordinary waste of energy. Energy that could be used in a more positive way."

Make sure you stay up to date with the latest Glastonbury coverage here. Read our reporter Jack Shepherd's review of Radiohead's set here
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 24

By Vugar Imanov, Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

Baku is a very beautiful city, F1 fan Jens, who arrived in Baku from Hamburg, told Trend June 24.

He noted that he has already been in Baku, and he really likes it, however he attends the F1 racing in Baku for the first time.

The event is organized very well, and everything is very interesting, he said.

The German tourist said he is not a fan of any particular F1 team, adding that the strongest one must win.

The F1 qualifying session will be held today as part of the 2017 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Earlier today, Baku hosted the first race of the FIA Formula 2, with 20 drivers from 10 teams taking part in the competition.

On June 25, Baku will host the 2017 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the second race of the FIA Formula 2.

F1 and F2 drivers compete on the 6-kilometer Baku City Circuit. The width of the widest part of the track is 13 meters, and the narrowest part is 7.6 meters between the turns 7 and 8.

The Start and Finish lanes are located at the Azadlig Square. Moreover, the Formula 1 Paddock, team garages and pit lanes are also located there.
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An ice shelf the size of Bali is days away from breaking off into the Antarctic ocean, scientists have warned.

At 5,000 square kilometres  equivalent to the US state of Delaware - the iceberg will be one of the biggest ever recorded by scientists observing the frozen subcontinent.

For months, researchers have been watching a crack spreading some 175 kilometres across the section of the Larsen C ice shelf at an alarming rate.

Just 13 kilometres of ice now remains attached to the main area, leaving it hanging like a thread.

It's keeping us all on tenterhooks, Andrew Fleming of the British Antarctic Survey told Reuters earlier this week, adding it feels like a niggling tooth of a child as it comes loose.

The Larsen C ice shelf is around 200 metres thick, with just 20 metres surfacing above the water.

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. 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Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. 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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

Once broken off, the iceberg will provide an extra hazard for ships around the Southern Ocean, scientists said.

As icebergs break off Antarctica naturally, experts said they are not linking the event to climate change directly.

The ice is on the Antarctic Peninsula, where Larsen C is located, has increased in temperature over recent years, however.

There is no other evidence of change on the ice shelf. This could simply be a single calving event which will then be followed by regrowth, Adrian Luckman, a professor at the University of Swansea in Wales, told Reuters.

His team believes the ice will break off within months or possibly days.
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A school in London has come under fire after telling 60 teenage pupils to write suicide notes during an English class assignment.

The task was given as part of the year groups studies on Shakespeares Macbeth, in which Lady Macbeth dies by self and violent hands. Children were asked to imagine Lady Macbeth's thoughts in her suicidal state.

Senior staff at Thomas Tallis School in Kidbrooke apologised for upsetting students, some of whom are said to have friends who have taken their own lives.

One mother said three of her daughters friends had killed themselves, and that her daughter was very distressed after being asked to write the note.

She said she complained to the school as soon as her daughter told her about the task.

On what universe was it ever a good idea to ask a group of teenagers to write suicide notes? she said to local newspaper News Shopper.

The most expensive schools in the world Show all 10 1 /10 The most expensive schools in the world The most expensive schools in the world La Rosey, Switzerland This prestigious Swiss boarding school is believed to be the most expensive in the world. Le Rosey hosts pupils from seven to 18 and has been co-educational since 1967. The school takes in pupils from more than 60 countries, but allows no more than 10 per cent of its students to come from any one country in order to prevent a single nationality dominating. The school has two campuses  winter is spent in Gstaad, where pupils can make use of the ski slopes after their morning lessons. Come spring, the whole school will uproot to the Chataeau du Rosey in the village of Rolle by Lake Geneva. Le Rosey also boats a 1,000 seat concert hall, equestrian centre and 38-foot yacht. Notable alumni: Shah of Iran, Prince Rainier of Monaco and King Farouk of Egypt. Sir Roger Moore and Elizabeth Taylor also send their children here, along with John Lennons son Sean and Winston Churchills grandson. Fees: approx. 86,657 pa The most expensive schools in the world Aiglon College, Switzerland With a view of Mont Blanc, this high altitude school lends itself to outdoor pursuits. The school caters for boys and girls aged nine to 18 and is modelled on the traditional British Boarding school. Unlike most schools, however, the whole school body comes together for 20 minutes of meditation on three mornings each week. Notable alumni: Actor Michel Gill, Princess Tatiana of Greece and Denmark, Sheherazade Goldsmith Fees: up to 80,810 per year (upper school boarding) The most expensive schools in the world College Alpin International Beau Soleil Founded in 1910, Beau Soleil is one of the oldest private boarding schools in Switzerland. It is positioned 1,350 metres above sea level on the Swiss Alps and hosts pupils from more than 40 different nationalities aged 11-18. The curriculum is taught in both French and English and focuses on outdoor sports, with a ski slope and ice skating rink on site. Notable alumni: Racing driver Jacques Villeneuve, Princess Marie of Denmark, Prince Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg Fees: 79,528 College Alpin International Beau Soleil The most expensive schools in the world College du Leman International School, Switzerland Taking in children from as young as one year old, College du Leman teaches a bilingual programme of French and English up to age 18. The school campus stretches out across eight hectares and offers access to both Geneva city and the mountains. Pupils from more than 100 nationalities attend. Noteable alumni: Anna Ovcharova, Swiss, Russian figure skater Fees: 68,960 pa The most expensive schools in the world Leysin American School, Switzerland Another high-profile Swiss school, popular for its exclusive ski and snowboard facilities. LAS Students are allowed to spend Tuesday and Thursday afternoons on the mountain for sports. Despite its name, around 12 per cent of students are from the US. Notable alumni: According to Bloomberg, alumni include members of Saudi Arabias royal family, the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts. Fees: Approx 66,700 per year Leysin American School The most expensive schools in the world Institut auf dem Rosenberg With just 260 boarding pupils from over 40 countries, emphasis is placed on one-on-one time at the Institut auf dem Rosenberg. The school has a staff to student ratio of 1:4 and average class sizes of 8 students. Pupils can choose fromn one of five curricula, including British A level,s German Abitur and the Swiss Matura program. Notable alumni: Countless politicians and business leaders as well as international royalty  the school operates a strict privacy policy but most studenrts come from entrepreneurial families or are heirs to large businesses. Fees: 66,160 pa The most expensive schools in the world Think Global School The worlds first travelling high school takes pupils to four different countries each year  allowing pupils to experience subjects out in the field. The school has one teacher for every three students and has a 100 per cent pass rate for the International Baccalaureate qualification. Notable alumni: The school is only seven years old, but will no doubt become a popular choice with the next generation of rock stars children. Fees: 63,980. Sliding-scale scholarships offered. The most expensive schools in the world The American school in Switzerland (TASIS) The first US boarding school to be set up in Europe, TASIS lies on the Dollina dOro in the Swiss mountains. Fine art is central to the school curriculum and TASIS hosts its own Spring Arts Festival which attracts a number of famous artists and musicians each year. Notable alumni: American mountain climber Francys Arsentiev, Performer Jeanie Cunningham and Italian-American film director Francesca Gregorini Fees: 63,561 pa The most expensive schools in the world Brillantmont, Switzerland A family-run, traditional Swiss school for 130 years, Brillantmont overlooks Lake Geneva and sits just a five-minute walk away from Lausanne. Brillantmont boasts that 100 per cent of its students continue their studies to higher education. Notable alumni: kept suspiciously on the down-low Fees: 52,010 - 59,680 pa Brillantmont, Switzerland The most expensive schools in the world Hurtwood house, Surrey Hurtwood house, surrey Several of the best UK boarding schools top their fees around this mark. Set in an Edwardian mansion with 200 acres of grounds, Hurtwood House is one of the most unique. The school hosts just 340 pupils and is known for its focus on creativity and the arts  a recent school production of Chicago cost 75,000 to stage, according to Tatler. Notable alumni: Emily Blunt, Jack Huston, Hans Zimmer Fees: 39,555 pa

At least two classes have done this assignment. My daughter is very outspoken but there are other kids not as vocal who might be suffering from depression.

Another said: Its fine for children to learn Shakespeare, but it is certainly not fine to get them to write suicide notes. Whoever came up with this needs to go back to teacher training college.

Tallis School headteacher, Carolyn Roberts, said action had been taken and that similar projects would not happen again.

A parent contacted us with concerns about a written exercise given to a class during studies of a play by Shakespeare, she said.

We appreciate that the exercise was upsetting to the family and have discussed the subject matter and approach with teaching staff.

I met with the parent last week and apologised wholeheartedly on behalf of the school.

* This article has been updated to make clear that the children were not asked to write their own suicide notes (ie as themselves) but to write a note by imagining the thoughts and feelings of Lady Macbeth in her suicidal state. 26/6/17
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Hundreds of people have been evacuated from five tower blocks in north London to allow for "urgent fire safety works", because of safety concerns over cladding in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire.

The high-rise buildings on the Chalcots estate in Camden were being emptied after firefighters said they "could not guarantee our residents' safety", council leader Georgia Gould said.

Chalcots resident Shirley Philips told Sky News she was given no notice before being told she must leave her home.

She said: "I think it's absolutely disgusting. We've had the fire brigade all day, Camden Council, police.

"I had a fire safety check done today. Why have they left it til half past eight on Friday night to start getting residents out? Where do they think we're all going?"

Others said they found out about the evacuation when they were watching the news.

Ms Gould said a rest centre had been set up and residents were being found hotels and other accommodation while council staff were on site providing information and guidance to residents.

London mayor Sadiq Khan said he was in contact with the council, emergency services and the Government about the situation.

He said: "There is a particular set of circumstances on this estate that make this necessary, which has been identified following good work between Camden Council and the London Fire Brigade.

"Fire safety checks are ongoing at other estates across the UK."

The council had already announced that it would immediately begin preparing to remove cladding from five towers on the estate discovered during checks following the fire in north Kensington, which killed at least 79 people.

Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street Show all 10 1 /10 Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street Inside a flat at 375 Kensington High Street - Located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street The 68 flats are being acquired by the City of London Corporation as part of the response to the tragedy berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street The luxury flats are located just a couple of miles from Grenfell Tower berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street The families will be offered permanent homes in the building berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street Penthouses in the block can go for up to 13m berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street A spokesman for the Berkeley Group confirmed they were finalising plans berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street The property boasts a gym, swimming pool and 24-hour concierge service harrodsestates.com Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street The families will live in the award winning 2bn development berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street Families whose lives were devastated by the fire at Grenfell Tower are to be housed in a luxury development berkeleygroup.co.uk Grenfell Tower survivors to be housed in 375 Kensington High Street 68 families are to be rehomed in the block berkeleygroup.co.uk

In a statement on Friday evening Ms Gould said firefighters and council officials carried out a joint fire inspection, after which she met with concerned residents at the Taplow Block with the council's chief executive.

It was then decided the buildings should be emptied.

Ms Gould said it was expected the work would take three or four weeks, adding: "We realise that this is hugely distressing for everyone affected and we will be doing all we can, alongside the London Fire Brigade and other authorities, to support our residents at this difficult time.

"The Grenfell fire changes everything - we need to do everything we can to keep residents safe."

Muslim residents told the Independent they were informed of the evacuation just as they were about to break their fast on the penultimate day of Ramadan.

Reacting to the news of the evacuation on Twitter, Theresa May said the government will work with and support the emergency services and authorities to safeguard the public.

She added she had asked Secretary of State for Local Government Sajid Javid to keep her regularly updated "to ensure we are offering every support we can to residents and those working onsite".

"My thoughts are with residents being evacuated in Camden while their homes are made safe tonight," she said.

Fire safety expert Stephen MacKenzie told Sky News: "I think (the council has) done the sensible thing in this case.

"I'm at a loss as to why Theresa May has not convened Cobra over this to actually get emergency arrangements, led by central government, to support the local authorities and to give the residents the necessity reassurance and address this issue."

He added a group of fire experts should be convened "urgently" over the weekend together with private and social housing to find solutions to the issue.

The evacuation came as four more victims of Grenfell Tower were formally identified, taking the known victims of the fire to nine.

Scotland Yard also revealed manslaughter charges are being considered by detectives investigating the blaze in the tower in west London, which had failed fire safety tests.
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Residents have criticised the way the evacuation from five tower blocks in Camden over fire safety fears was handled by the local council.

Wheelchair bound Abdullah Sharif, who suffers from cerebal palsy said that he had only moved into a ground floor flat six weeks ago.

He added that it had taken a long time for them to find somewhere accessible for him to live and he was upset about having to move again.

Alice Clochet said she was only told she would have to leave her home by a journalist when she came home from drinks after work.

Recommended 800 households evacuated from five tower blocks in Camden

Im furious about how disorganised the evacuation is, she told The Independent.

The 25-year-old who has lived in the tower for a year, after moving to the UK from France, added that that the council only put the dangerous cladding on the side of her building to cut costs in the first place.

Others said they were concerned about what would happen in future as the council has said it could take three or four weeks to make the buildings safe again.

Calling the evacuation a huge overreaction, Edward Strange said I would stay if I could.

He said that along with his family, he could stay with friends.

But we cant impose on them for four to six weeks, he added. Camden council has said it could take at least three or four weeks to make the building safe.

Ahmed Mohamed, 19, who lives in Taplow tower with his parents and two sisters, said they were alerted by a neighbour that they needed to leave.

He said: "It was a mess, we only had five minutes to get our stuff.

"We had the meeting yesterday which I attended and they told us nothing about this. They said they're going to make sure we're safe, that's all.

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"The officials have told us to go to the leisure centre where we might be rehoused or we might stay with friends and family. I don't think this is the right thing to do, I feel safe here and I don't think there's any threat to our building.

"When I think of the Grenfell Tower, yes, I do feel unsafe, but I don't know why they're telling us to evacuate 800 homes right now. We could've packed our stuff nicely and they would've have time to rehouse people."

Hamza Usman, 21, who lives in nearby Burnham Tower, said: "I found out that we have to evacuate through BBC News.

"I called my mum and she said she had heard nothing either. So far they've told us to pack and get ready, but it's a maybe if Burnham will be evacuated tonight. They've told us we might have to sleep in the leisure centre tonight but there's only 50 beds there."

Mother-of-three Adelina who also lives in Burnham, said: "I heard it from the news. I am in shock and I don't believe it. I think it's the right thing to do if it's health and safety. I'd rather be safe."
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Grenfell Tower victims were forced to leave their temporary accommodation in Kensington after receiving eviction notices from the council, it has been claimed.

Kensington and Chelsea council reportedly gave families staying in 30 rooms at the Holiday Inn in the area instructions to vacate the premises by 4pm on Friday.

A letter to families circulated by a social housing activism group reads: Despite efforts to extend your stayregrettably the hotel has stated that they do not have the availability to extend your booking.

The letter which Grenfell victims allegedly received instructing them to vacate the premises (Radical Housing Network/Twitter)

The letter was dated Thursday 22 June, but according to London-based Radical Housing Network, it had been slid under doors at 1.30pm on Friday, giving them less than three hours to leave. Residents were to be separated and relocated to places in Heathrow, Lambeth, Southwark and north London.

In a press release, the activist group said most of the residents have been moved together to a hotel in Westminster.

Kensington and Chelsea council did not immediately return a request for comment.

The General Manager at Holiday Inn, Jon Beecroft, told The Mirror: We have worked with the Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council to provide 30 rooms for seven nights for families displaced by the Grenfell fire.

Unfortunately, due to existing bookings, we have not been able to provide accommodation beyond that time frame and made that clear to the council upon offering the rooms. We will continue to work with the council to provide as much support to the community as possible.

Pilgrim Tucker, an organiser working with Grenfell Action Group and in contact with residents at the hotel said: Its beyond disgusting that after all these people have been through  losing their neighbours and watching their homes burn to the ground  authorities are prepared to tell them that they have hours to pick up their bags and move to some unknown destination, separated from their friends and neighbours.

"It makes you wonder if anythings been learned from the Grenfell catastrophe.

Radical Housing Network, of which Grenfell Action Group is a member, said: Today Grenfell residents staying together in a Kensington hotel were told they were going to be split up and scattered across London at a moments notice. Moving people around who have been through horror and trauma from one temporary accommodation to another is barbaric and unnecessary, and speaks of a degree of callousness by the authorities.

"Only yesterday Sajid Javid was promising that all those made homeless by the Grenfell fire would be rehoused in the borough within a matter of weeks. The government needs to move fast to make good on this commitment to rehouse all those made homeless by this catastrophe, according their wishes and needs.

Grenfell Tower is an indictment of a broken housing system  one where council housing is systematically run down and tenants are treated with contempt.
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Thousands of people could be evacuated from tower blocks across the UK as checks continue for combustible cladding and internal safety risks following the Grenfell Tower disaster.

At least 34 buildings have failed tests in 17 local authority areas, including Manchester, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Hounslow, Brent and Camden, which was the first to evacuate residents.

The Department of Communities and Local Government said the number of affected towers could rise as assessments continue.

Bernard Priest, the deputy leader of Manchester City Council said all high-rise properties with cladding were undergoing tests with results due back very soon.

He said decorative cladding had been removed from a block in Wythenshawe as a precaution, adding: We arent just looking at cladding, reviews are also looking at all the other risks we know about at the moment from Grenfell  including the issue of compartmentalisation.

Authorities in Manchester said they were not ruling out the possibility of evacuations pending the result of examinations, while Plymouth and Portsmouth councils announced plans to remove cladding found to be combustible but had not been advised to evacuate residents.

Jeremy Corbyn said the growing scale of the threat demanded coordinated national action including a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee.

 Chalcots Estate resident accosts Camden Leader Georgia Gould

Tower blocks across the country have now failed fire safety tests in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster, the Labour leader said. This is now a nationwide threat.

The Liberal Democrats called for a civil emergency to be declared and a fund to compensate those forced to leave their homes.

Baroness Brinton, who is on the All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety and Rescue Group, said: Camden Council did the right thing by promptly evacuating unsafe tower blocks.

But those affected need to be treated fairly and with dignity.

As the first evacuations started on Friday night, the Prime Minister said her thoughts were with residents being evacuated from the Chalcots estate while their homes are made safe.

The residents of around 650 flats had to flee their homes carrying belongings and pets, including a hedgehog and parrot, after the London Fire Brigade found it was unsafe for them to remain.

But more than 80 people initially refused to leave the four affected blocks, prompting warnings of legal action from the council.

Leader Georgia Gould said: There are various legal routes that Camden Council could explore to require people to leave their homes  however, we really dont want to do this.

We want to work with residents who are yet to evacuate and strongly encourage them to leave their homes and fix up temporary accommodation.

We need to get the buildings empty so we can work with our partners to start the work to make these tower blocks safe, so that everyone can return to their normal lives as soon as possible.

In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Show all 51 1 /51 In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police have released images from inside the tower where at least 58 people have died Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by polices what appears to be a stationary bicycle sitting among the ashes In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by police shows the remnants of a burnt-out bathroom In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Picture showing the lifts on an unknown floor Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency crews outside the front entrance to the tower Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Fire crews inspecting flats in the burnt out tower London Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Grenfell Tower is seen in the distance PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A drone flies near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire 'Theresa May Stay Away' message written on the messages of support at Latymer Community Church for those affected by the fire Ray Tang/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire An aerial view of the area surrounding Grenfall tower Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Donated shoes sit in the Westway Sports Centre near to the site of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of support for those affected by the massive fire in Grenfell Tower are displayed on a well near the tower in London AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A local resident stands on her balcony by the gutted Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of condolence are left at a relief centre close to the scene of the fire that broke out at Grenfell Tower, EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A police officer stands by a security cordon outside Latimer Road station Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firemen examine the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London on a huge ladder AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A search dog is led through the rubble of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn comforts a local resident (name not given) at St Clement's Church in west London where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn hugs councillor Mushtaq Lasharie as he arrives at St Clement's Church in Latimer Road, where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn meeting staff and volunteers at St Clementis Church in Latimer Road David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firefighters with a dog walk around the base of the Grenfell Tower REUTERS/Peter Nicholls In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emotions run high as people attend a candle lit vigil outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Debris hangs from the blackened exterior of Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman speaks to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman holds a missing person posters near the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Sadiq Khan speaking with a resident James Gourley/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Ken Livingstone walks near the scene of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is confronted by Kai Ramos, 7, near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks to a woman outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers distribute aid near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People gather to observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People light candles as they observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man distributes food from the back of a van near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A firefighter is cheered near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A T-shirt with a written message from the London Fire Brigade hangs from a fence near The Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A young girl on her way to lay flowers near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire The remains of residential tower block Grenfell Tower are seen from Dixon House a nearby tower block Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers prepare supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block which was destroyed in a fire REUTERS/Neil Hall In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers move a car to make space for a lorry picking up supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People distribute boxes of food near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower bloc REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman touches a missing poster for 12-year-old Jessica Urbano on a tribute wall after laying flowers on the side of Latymer Community Church next to the fire-gutted Grenfell Tower AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man looks at messages written on a wall near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Candles and messages of condolence near where the fire broke out at Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry a stretcher towards Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency services at Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry out a body from Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Rick Findler/PA Wire

Ms Gould said 100,000 of council funds had been committed to pay for evacuated residents food and supplies, on top of 500,000 already spent on hotel rooms while temporary accommodation is organised.

Dan Daly, the LFBs Assistant Commissioner for fire safety, said essential works were required in four tower blocks in the Chalcots estate.

Officers identified concerns relating to services that have been run through compartment walls leading to possible breaches in the buildings ability to stop fire spreading, he added.

There were also concerns that some fire doors in the building are not working as they should, meaning that in the event of a fire it could spread to other parts of the building.

These issues are in addition to the now widely understood concerns regarding external cladding.

Camden Council said there was particular concern over the insulation of gas pipes, while starting internal safety modifications and the removal of cladding.

The blocks were refurbished between 2006 and 2009 by the same firm, Rydon, that oversaw work completed at Grenfell Tower last year and with the same type of aluminium composite (ACM) panels.

Police said the fire that killed at least 79 people on 14 June started in a Hotpoint fridge-freezer before spreading to combustible cladding and insulation that has failed safety tests.

Investigators said the terrible reality of destruction inside the building meant it may be impossible to identify all those killed in the blaze, while shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott claimed the real toll was in the hundreds.

Investigators probing all companies involved in refurbishment works are considering criminal charges including manslaughter amid public anger over revelations warnings by residents were ignored.
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Innocent people, including human rights campaigners and a three-year-old girl, have been named on a blacklist of terrorists and criminals used by governments and major banks, it has been reported.

Greenpeace and Human Rights Watch were among the two million supposed high risk organisations and individuals on the database, which is compiled by media giant Thomson Reuters.

The watchlist, which also includes people who have been charged and cleared of terror offences, was accidentally leaked on a public internet server in 2014 and discovered by a computer security researcher last year.

 Theresa May could change human rights laws in terror fight

It has reportedly been sold to almost every major bank and is designed to help them identify individuals and groups who may be involved in money laundering.

Those named on the list could be at risk of being refused grants, contracts and financial services, according to The Times, which conducted the investigation in collaboration with media partners across Europe.

Privacy International legal officer Tomaso Falchetta told the paper: The risk of discriminating against individuals, groups, and communities is very high.

Recommended Google wants to increase government access to customer data

Analysis of the leaked database revealed that a Dutch potato farmer and a minor royals three-year-old daughter were on the list, which Thomson Reuters is said to make using public sources including media reports and claims on extremist websites.

Greenpeace was reportedly put on the list after receiving a fine for inadvertently damaging a coral reef, while two former detainees at Guantanamo Bay were included despite being released and exonerated.

A spokesperson for Human Rights Watch said the organisation was surprised and puzzled to find itself and director Jose Miguel Vivanco on the blacklist.

Britains privacy watchdog said anybody who suspects their information has been unfairly handled can raise concerns with the Information Commissioners Office.

Thomson Reuters doesnt inform people they have been added to the database, but the firm said it regularly updates it and tells subscribers to confirm the information.

Senior vice president David Crundwell said: Any individual can contact us if they believe any of the information held is inaccurate.
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Cross-party moves are afoot to ensure one of the most vocal opponents of hard Brexit is installed in a key position of influence in the House of Commons.

Labour MPs have signalled they will back former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan to be chair of the Treasury Select Committee, amid fears it could instead go to arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg.

The Independent revealed on Saturday how MPs from different parties are also threatening to join forces to defeat Theresa May's hard Brexit plans in Commons votes.

The committee chair has a high-profile role scrutinising government economic strategy, with the ability to demand ministers give evidence in public hearings.

Mr Rees-Mogg has signalled his intent to seek the post, saying that he would seek cross party consensus on key issues. But MPs opposed to hard Brexit fear his backing for Ms May's approach to leaving the EU will rob Parliament of a key avenue of scrutiny on withdrawal negotiations.

One of the Treasury Committee's members in the last parliament, Wes Streeting, threw his weight behind Ms Morgan, telling The Guardian: "She has experience as a Treasury minister and cabinet minister and I trust her to hold the Government to account in an independent-minded way, following in the footsteps of [ex-chair] Andrew Tyrie.

 Jean-Claude Juncker says he has no clear idea of what the UK wants from Brexit

"She is a waste sat on the backbenches if her talents wont be put to use in government."

Ms Morgan, who advocates a softer approach to Brexit, wrote to MPs last week asking for their support for the role, to be decided by secret ballot.

She said: "Clearly the major issue in the Parliament will be the Governments Brexit negotiations. It will be the role of all backbench MPs to hold ministers to account on behalf of our constituents ... I believe I have shown over the past few months that I am a strong advocate for parliament being heavily involved in providing the necessary scrutiny and challenge to those important decisions."

Another potential candidate for the job, which must go to a Tory MP, is the Wimbledon MP Stephen Hammond, who has also spoken out against hard Brexit.

 Nicola Sturgeon: UK Government has no clear plan for Brexit negotiations

Mr Rees-Mogg, who sat in the committee before it was dissolved for the election, has signalled that he is aware of concerns among Labour politicians. But he explained to the Financial Times: "The chairman of a select committee should balance his views against the views of the rest of the committee. Committees only work if members of it want to achieve a consensus report."

The Independent revealed that MPs from different parties in the Commons are working together to form strategies to amend future legislation  including a key immigration bill  to force ministers to listen to business groups and to show the EU that Parliament wants a softer exit.
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Jeremy Corbyn is the man of the moment and can lead the Labour party into government, Harriet Harman has said.

The former deputy Labour leader compared Mr Corbyn to Tony Blair saying they share a clear appeal to the electorate.

Despite being critical of the Labour leader in the past, Ms Harman said the recent general election was a turning point and Mr Corbyn should take the credit.

It seemed he, [Tony Blair], was the man of the moment. And Jeremy Corbyn is the man of the moment to get Labour into government, Ms Harman said, while speaking at the Kings Place Politics Festival, i News reported.

All this idea [people] were voting for him because they thought he wasnt going to win. I dont believe that actually. The mantle of electoral approval has been wrapped around him.

She also added that Theresa Mays election performance had resulted in many of her MPs showing contempt towards her.

Former deputy leader of the Labour Party, Harriet Harman (Getty Images)

The only thing keeping the Tory party together is the fear that if they topple over the edge, we will be on them like a pack of wolves," Ms Harman said, according to The Sun.

Ms Harmans praise comes as Mr Corbyn overtook Ms May for the first time as voters choice for who would make the better Prime Minister, according to a YouGov poll for The Times.

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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. 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A total of 35 per cent of people thought Mr Corbyn would make the best Prime Minister, one point higher than Ms May.
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Two Dutch journalists who were kidnapped earlier this week by leftist rebels in Colombia have been released unharmed, Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Bert Koenders said early Saturday.

Koenders said in a statement that Derk Bolt and Eugenio Follender "are doing relatively well under the circumstances."

Koenders said he spoke by phone to the journalists shortly after their release. "Bolt was ... very relieved. They have a long journey through the jungle ahead of them. We are doing all we can to bring them back to the Netherlands as soon as possible."

Colombian authorities said that Bolt and Follender were seized Monday by members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) while out reporting in the volatile Catatumbo region near the border with Venezuela.

Bolt is host of a Dutch television show called Spoorloos (Without a Trace), Follender a cameraman for the show, which attempts to help people find their long-lost blood relatives.

"We are incredibly happy and relieved," the show said in a Facebook post. "We are grateful to the ministry of foreign affairs. They have done everything, in The Hague and Bogota, to get Derk and Eugenio home safely."

Dutch national broadcaster NOS reported that Bolt told a radio station in Colombia that he and Follender were treated well by their captors.

The ELN is Colombia's last major guerrilla army with about 1,500 troops.

AP
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 24

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

The 2017 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku is organized at a very high level, F1 fan Elena, who arrived in Baku from Finland, told Trend June 24.

Elena said that she came to Baku to watch the Formula 1 racing, adding that comfortable conditions were created for the spectators at the competitions.

Holding Formula 1 in Baku is very important from the point of view of promoting Azerbaijan in the world and attracting tourists to it, she noted.

She added that the Azerbaijani people are friendly and hospitable.

The F1 qualifying session will be held today as part of the 2017 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Earlier today, Baku hosted the first race of the FIA Formula 2, with 20 drivers from 10 teams taking part in the competition.

On June 25, Baku will host the 2017 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the second race of the FIA Formula 2.

F1 and F2 drivers compete on the 6-kilometer Baku City Circuit. The width of the widest part of the track is 13 meters, and the narrowest part is 7.6 meters between the turns 7 and 8.

The Start and Finish lanes are located at the Azadlig Square. Moreover, the Formula 1 Paddock, team garages and pit lanes are also located there.
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Donald Trump has defied calls to appoint a special envoy to combat anti-Semitism across the world despite growing pressure from Jewish groups and Congress.

The two remaining staffers in the US State Department's office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism are reportedly set to be reassigned next month, which will leave the branch completely unstaffed after 1 July.

Officials are yet to comment on the reported move, but insist they remain committed to fighting discrimination against Jews.

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President Trump is legally required to appoint a Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, a position created under former president George W. Bush.

Members of Congress from the Republican and Democrat parties have urged his administration to strengthen the office's status in letters and proposed bills.

But earlier this month Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told them special envoys were not productive and said appointing one could weaken efforts to tackle anti-Semitism.

The US State Department said they had produced annual reports about human rights and religious freedom before the office was created in 2004, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).

They told the JTA: We want to ensure the Department is addressing anti-Semitism in the most effective and efficient method possible and will continue to endeavor to do so.

The Department of State condemns attacks on Jewish communities and individuals. We consistently urge governments around the world to address and condemn anti-Semitism and work with vulnerable Jewish communities to assess and provide appropriate levels of security.

The Department, our Embassies, and our Consulates support extensive bilateral, multilateral, and civil society outreach to Jewish communities.

Additionally, the State Department continues to devote resources towards programs combating anti-Semitism online and off, as well as building NGO coalitions in Europe.

"We also closely monitor global anti-Semitism and report on it in our Country Reports on Human Rights Practices and International Religious Freedom Report, which document global anti-Semitism in 199 countries.

The Anti-Defamation League has launched an online petition calling for the White House to fill the position.

The group's CEO John Greenblatt said maintaining the special envoy for anti-Semitism seems like a no-brainer in an interview with the JTA.

"The idea of having a dedicated envoy who can travel around the world to raise awareness on this issue is critical," he added.
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North Korea has called itself the biggest victim in the death of an American student who was detained for more than a year and died days after being released in a coma.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency denied that North Korea cruelly treated or tortured Otto Warmbier and accused the United States and South Korea of a smear campaign that insulted what it called its humanitarian treatment of him.

The comments published by KCNA were North Korea's first reaction to Otto Warmbier's death in a US hospital on Monday after it released him for what it called humanitarian reasons.

Doctors at the hospital said Mr Warmbier had suffered a severe neurological injury from an unknown cause. Relatives say they were told the 22-year-old University of Virginia student had been in a coma since shortly after he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour in North Korea in March 2016.

His family and others have blamed North Korea for his condition.

Mr Warmbier was accused of stealing a propaganda poster. Through statements on KCNA, North Korea said it dealt with him according to its domestic laws and international standards.

North Korea Prison Camps Show all 7 1 /7 North Korea Prison Camps North Korea Prison Camps An overview of Camp 25 Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe North Korea Prison Camps The administration area of Camp 15 Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe North Korea Prison Camps A water treatment system in Camp 25 Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe North Korea Prison Camps Crop fields and, inset, prisoners in Camp 25 Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe North Korea Prison Camps The reported crematorium in Camp 25 Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe North Korea Prison Camps A possible mine Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe North Korea Prison Camps A walled compound in Camp 15 Amnesty International/DigitalGlobe

Although we had no reason at all to show mercy to such a criminal of the enemy state, we provided him with medical treatments and care with all sincerity on humanitarian basis until his return to the US, considering that his health got worse, the agency quoted an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.

The spokesman said groundless speculation of torture and beatings could be refuted by American doctors who came to North Korea at the time of Mr Warmbier's repatriation and recognised that his health indicators like pulse, temperature, respiration and the examination result of the heart and lung were all normal. The report did not mention Mr Warmbier's neurological status.

The fact that Warmbier died suddenly in less than a week just after his return to the US in his normal state of health indicators is a mystery to us as well, the spokesman said.

To make it clear, we are the biggest victim of this incident and there would be no more foolish judgement than to think we do not know how to calculate gains and losses, he said.

The smear campaign against (North Korea) staged in the US compels us to make firm determination that humanitarianism and benevolence for the enemy are a taboo and we should further sharpen the blade of law, the spokesman added.

A separate KCNA article published hours earlier criticised South Korea for using Mr Warmbier's case to seek the release of other detainees, including six South Korean citizens. South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in an interview with CBS television earlier this week that it was clear North Korea bears a heavy responsibility for Mr Warmbier's death.

The article said South Korea was tarnishing North Korea's image with slanderous talk about cruel treatment and torture.

It demanded that South Korea return 12 restaurant workers who defected to the South last year. South Korea said the women defected on their own, while North Korea claimed they were deceived and abducted to the South.

The United States, South Korea and others often accuse North Korea of using foreign detainees to wrest diplomatic concessions. Three Americans remain in custody in the North.

Associated Press
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A mistrial has been declared in the case of a white Ohio police officer who was accused of shooting an unarmed black man.

A jury was unable to come to a consensus on whether Cincinnati officer Ray Tensing, 27, was guilty of charges of murder and voluntary manslaughter after he shot and killed Sam DuBose, 43.

It is the fourth time that courts havent convicted police officers charged with the death of black men.

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The jury, which is composed of nine white members and three black members, was reportedly about evenly split when Judge Leslie Ghiz declared the mistrial.

Body cam footage of Mr DuBoses death went viral online and sparked outrage around the country. In the video, Mr Tensing approaches Mr DuBose during a traffic stop. The motorist attempts at one point to keep his door shut when the officer tries to open the door.

Mr Dubose can be heard saying that he hadnt done anything wrong.

In the chaotic next moments, Mr DuBose appears to reach for the ignition of his car, and the officer reaches in to stop him. A gunshot can be heard during a chaotic scuffle  at this point the car is beginning to move, according to testimony  before the camera footage becomes clear again, showing Mr Tensing with his gun in his hand.

Ferguson Anniversary Protests Show all 11 1 /11 Ferguson Anniversary Protests Ferguson Anniversary Protests Ferguson Anniversary Protests Police take a mug shot of a protester who was detained in Ferguson, Missouri, August 10, 2015. Protesters regrouped in Ferguson, Missouri, on Monday evening after a state of emergency was declared, aimed at preventing a repeat of violence the night before on the anniversary of the police shooting of unarmed black man Michael Brown. Ferguson Anniversary Protests Ferguson Anniversary Protests St Louis County police officers arrest an anti-police demonstrator in Ferguson, Missouri August 11, 2015 Ferguson Anniversary Protests Ferguson Anniversary Protests Protesters march in the rain, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo. Sunday marks one year since Michael Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. Ferguson Anniversary Protests Ferguson Anniversary Protests Demonstrators, marking the one-year anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown, march along West Florrisant Street in a driving rain on August 9, 2015 in Ferguson, Missouri. There are reports that two people were shot when gun fire broke out during protests later in the evening. Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer on August 9, 2014. His death sparked months of sometimes violent protests in Ferguson and drew nationwide focus on police treatment of black offenders. Ferguson Anniversary Protests Ferguson Anniversary Protests A St. Louis County police officers respond in an MRAD vehicle after shots were fired during a protest march on August 9, 2015 on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Missouri. Over 50 shots were reportedly exchanged on the day marking the one year anniversary of the death of an unarmed black teen, Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by a white police officer, throwing America's troubled race relations into harsh relief. Ferguson Anniversary Protests Ferguson Anniversary Protests Protesters yell as police form a line across West Florissant Ave., Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015, in Ferguson, Mo., before shots were fired near the protest. The one-year anniversary of Michael Brown's death in Ferguson began with a march in his honor and ended with a protest that was interrupted by gunfire. Ferguson Anniversary Protests Ferguson Anniversary Protests Protesters fall to the ground to take cover after shots were fired in a police-officer involved shooting in Ferguson, Missouri August 9, 2015. Two people were shot in the midst of a late-night confrontation between riot police and protesters, after a day of peaceful events commemorating the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a white officer one year ago. Ferguson Anniversary Protests Ferguson Anniversary Protests A white woman holds a black woman as they pray during a rain storm at the site of last year's riots on the one year anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri August 9, 2015. Hundreds of people marched, prayed and observed a moment of silence in Ferguson, Missouri, on Sunday, a year to the day after a white police officer shot the unarmed black teenager to death, igniting months of protests and a national debate on race and justice. Ferguson Anniversary Protests Ferguson Anniversary Protests A woman reacts after shots were fired in a police-officer involved shooting in Ferguson, Missouri August 9, 2015. Two people were shot in the midst of a late-night confrontation between riot police and protesters, after a day of peaceful events commemorating the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a white officer one year ago. Ferguson Anniversary Protests Ferguson Anniversary Protests Police take cover as a barrage of gunfire erupts along West Florrisant Street during a demonstration to mark the 1-year anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown on August 9, 2015 in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer on August 9, 2014. His death sparked months of sometimes violent protests in Ferguson and drew nationwide focus on police treatment of black offenders. Ferguson Anniversary Protests Ferguson Anniversary Protests Amarion Allen, 11-years-old stands in front of a police line shortly before shots were fired in a police-officer involved shooting in Ferguson, Missouri August 9, 2015. Two people were shot in the midst of a late-night confrontation between riot police and protesters, after a day of peaceful events commemorating the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a white officer one year ago.

The car, in gear, continues forward until it crashes about a block away.

The traffic stop was conducted outside of the University of Cincinnati campus because the vehicle Mr DuBose was driving was missing a front license plate.

Mr Tensing later said that he had shot because he feared that he could be run over by the car as Mr DuBose tried to get away.

Other recent acquittals or mistrials in cases of officers killing black men include a ruling this week in which Wisconsin officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown  a black officer  was clear for shooting Sylville Smith. Last week, a jury acquitted Minnesota officer Geronimo Yanez on charges stemming from shooting Philando Castile, who had indicated he had a legal firearm in his car when he was stopped. Officer Betty Jo Shelby in Oklahoma was cleared last month in the shooting of Terence Crutcher, who was unarmed.
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The US government has narrowed the focus of a multimillion-dollar grant programme to concentrate on combatting Islamist extremism, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced.

The $10 million (7.8 million) government grant programme will now shift money to law enforcement offices and away from groups that combat domestic extremism.

Donald Trump's administration reportedly wants to revamp the programme to focus solely on Islamist extremism.

A DHS spokesperson said the criteria for the grant has now changed to consider whether applicants could partner with law enforcement, had experience implementing counter-extremism programmes and would be able to continue after the grant expired.

Top-scoring applications that were consistent with these priorities remained as awardees, while others did not," DHS spokesperson Lucy Martinez said.

Three local law enforcement offices in California, Washington state and Minnesota were among those to win grants and received a total of $1.2 million (1 million).

A spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff's Office in California said it would use the money to address extremism on all fronts, not just Islamist violence. Sergeant Ray Kelly cited violent clashes between right-wing and left-wing demonstrators that recently erupted in the city of Berkeley as an example of local extremism in the county.

Mr Kelly said the office would use the grant money to train officers to better recognize and address signs of alienation that make young people vulnerable to extremism, with the help of behavioral health counselors who are already on staff.

The revised list also omitted several original grantees who focused on domestic issues, such as Life After Hate, which tries to steer young people away from far-right extremism

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. 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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 Muslim Public Affairs Council, a nonprofit that works to improve public understanding and policies that affect American Muslims, said the Trump administration revoked its nearly $400,000 (310,000) grant because the organisation "did not meet the criteria of working with law enforcement to counter violent extremism."

Christian Picciolini, a co-founder of Life After Hate, told Reuters his group was planning to use its $400,000 grant to scale up its counselor network of former extremists to meet the highly increased requests for our services since Election Day.

The current administration's lack of focus on domestic white extremist terrorism, let alone its denial to even acknowledge it exists, is highly troubling, he said.
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CIA Director Mike Pompeo says he thinks disclosure of America's secret intelligence is on the rise, fuelled partly by the worship of leakers like Edward Snowden.

In some ways, I do think it's accelerated, Mr Pompeo told MSNBC. I think there is a phenomenon, the worship of Edward Snowden, and those who steal American secrets for the purpose of self-aggrandisement or money or for whatever their motivation may be, does seem to be on the increase.

Mr Pompeo said the United States needs to redouble its efforts to stem leaks of classified information.

Recommended Putin says Edward Snowden was wrong to leak US secrets

It's tough. You now have not only nation states trying to steal our stuff, but non-state, hostile intelligence services, well-funded - folks like WikiLeaks, out there trying to steal American secrets for the sole purpose of undermining the United States and democracy, Mr Pompeo said.

Besides Snowden, who leaked documents revealing extensive U.S. government surveillance, WikiLeaks recently released nearly 8,000 documents that it says reveal secrets about the CIA's cyberespionage tools for breaking into computers. WikiLeaks previously published 250,000 State Department cables and embarrassed the U.S. military with hundreds of thousands of logs from Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are several other recent cases, including Chelsea Manning, the Army private who was convicted in a 2013 court-martial of leaking more than 700,000 secret military and State Department documents to WikiLeaks while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. Ms Manning said she leaked the documents to raise awareness about the war's impact on innocent civilians.

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

Last year, former NSA contractor Harold Thomas Martin III, 51, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, was accused of removing highly classified information, storing it in an unlocked shed and in his car and home. Court documents say investigators seized, conservatively, 50 terabytes of information, or enough to fill roughly 200 laptop computers.

Mr Pompeo said the Trump administration is focused on stopping leaks of any kind from any agency and pursuing perpetrators.

I think we'll have some successes both on the deterrence side  that is stopping them from happening  as well as on punishing those who we catch who have done it, Mr Pompeo said.

On other issues, Mr Pompeo said that North Korea poses a very real danger to U.S. national security.

I hardly ever escape a day at the White House without the president asking me about North Korea and how it is that the United States is responding to that threat. It's very much at the top of his mind, he said.

He added the North Koreans are ever-closer to having the capacity to hold America at risk with a nuclear weapon.

Mr Pompeo also said that US national security also is threatened by Iran, which he described as the world's largest state sponsor of terror.

Today, we find it with enormous influence, influence that far outstrips where it was six or seven years ago, Mr Pompeo, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, said. Whether it's the influence they have over the government in Baghdad, whether it's the increasing strength of Hezbollah and Lebanon, their work alongside the Houthis in Iran, the Iraqi Shias that are fighting along now the border in Syria - certainly the Shia forces that are engaged in Syria. Iran is everywhere throughout the Middle East.

Associated Press
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The Senate Republicans healthcare bill will make it harder for women to access important health benefits such as birth control and maternity coverage, critics say.

As currently written, the measure, which was drafted by 13 male senators, would defund Planned Parenthood for a year as well as dramatically cut Medicaid, a healthcare programme for low-income Americans that pays for nearly half of all births in the US.

Currently, about 75% of the public dollars spent on family planning are Medicaid dollars.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, clinic-based providers such as Planned Parenthood are important sources of family planning services. A 2013 health survey found that one in three low-income women obtained birth control from a family planning clinic.

A decrease in Medicaid dollars for family planning services could lead to a rise in unexpected pregnancies among low-income women.

If this is the Senates idea of a bill with heart, then the women of America should have fear struck in theirs, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said in a statement.

Slashing Medicaid and blocking millions of women from getting preventive care at Planned Parenthood is beyond heartless. One in five women in this country rely on Planned Parenthood for care. They will not stay silent as politicians vote to take away their care and their rights.

The safety-net provider delivers a wide range of reproductive health services and cancer screenings to more than 2.5 million women, Kaiser reported.

Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade Show all 8 1 /8 Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AFP/Getty Images Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AFP/Getty Images Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP

Many Republicans have long been vehement opponents of Planned Parenthood, which also provides abortion services, and have repeatedly attempted to prevent federal funds from going to the provider. Donald Trump has also vowed to defund it.

While the Senate bill does not specifically mention Planned Parenthood, it states that groups primarily engaged in family planning services, reproductive health, and providing abortions  other than abortions that are medically necessary or responses to cases of incest or rape  and whose Medicaid receipts exceeded $350 million in fiscal year 2014  are barred from receiving federal funding through several health programmes, including Medicaid, for one year.

Planned Parenthood would be considered one of these groups. But Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are likely to take issue with the defunding of the provider.

Along with stopping the flow of federal money to Planned Parenthood, the Senate bill would also enable states to opt out of having to provide essential health benefits, such as pregnancy and maternity care, to people purchasing individual or small-group insurance plans.

With a majority of 52 senators, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can only afford to lose two yea votes on the healthcare measure. In the event of a 50-50 tie, Vice President Mike Pence would cast the deciding vote.

Four senators have already announced that they are not ready to vote for the bill, and others have expressed concerns.

There is also uncertainty over whether the defunding of Planned Parenthood in the bill would violate Senate rules.

Republicans are using a process known as budget reconciliation to try to pass their healthcare bill  so that they only need 51 votes instead of 60  meaning that the legislation must be focused on reducing the federal budget deficit.

Any provisions in the bill that are not designed for this purpose may be excluded.
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Barack Obama received an intelligence bombshell from the CIA to warn him of a hacking campaign led by Vladimir Putin to help Donald Trump win the US election, it has been reported.

The Russian president had given specific instructions on the operations objectives to defeat Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton, and help get her opponent elected, the Washington Post revealed in a special report.

Citing interviews with current and former senior US officials, the newspaper detailed how the Obama administration allegedly considered retaliating against Putin by releasing intelligence on him, and planting cyber weapons in Russias infrastructure to destroy its economy.

They chose not to go ahead, however, opting for a more modest package to punish Russia for other issues with economic sanctions.

President Trump tweeted earlier this week: By the way, if Russia was working so hard on the 2016 election, it all took place during the Obama admin. Why didnt they stop them?

The FBI opened its investigation into Russias involvement with the Trump campaign in July 2016.

According to the Washington Post, an envelope with eyes only instructions were sent from the CIA to the White House one month later.

Inside was an intelligence bombshell, a report drawn from sourcing deep inside the Russian government that detailed Russian president Vladimir Putins direct involvement in a cyber campaign to disrupt and discredit the US presidential race, the paper says.

The CIA gave instructions for the package to be returned immediately after reading, and meetings in the situation room followed the same protocols as planning sessions for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden to avoid leaks.

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

In August, the paper reported, Obama confronted Putin directly at a meeting of world leaders in China.

A senior aide told the Post that Obama said of Putin: We knew what he was doing and [he] better stop or else.

The Russian leader demanded proof, however.

Obama and his senior advisers were concerned that any pre-election response could provoke an escalation from Putin, including a cyberattack on voting systems before and on election day, the Post said.

There were also concerns that any action would be seen as politically motivated on behalf of the Democratic Party, fuelling Trumps repeated claims in the run up to the election that the voting would be rigged.

The report states that Obama approved a previously undisclosed covert measure that authorised planting cyber weapons in Russias infrastructure, the digital equivalent of bombs that could be detonated if the United States found itself in an escalating exchange with Moscow.

The project, which Obama approved in a covert-action finding, was still in its planning stages when Obama left office. It would be up to President Trump to decide whether to use the capability.

Speaking to the Guardian, Daniel Drezner, a professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Obama should have acted.

The story highlighted what was always Obamas greatest weakness as a foreign policy president, he claimed.

To his credit he was always wary [to] first do no harm, which led him to not react immediately to crises and not necessarily want to take retaliatory action, Prof Drezner said. But this is a case where he clearly moved too slowly, and I think failed to appreciate the magnitude of what was going on.

Obama declined to respond to the article, but a spokesman said in a statement: This situation was taken extremely seriously, as is evident by President Obama raising this issue directly with President Putin; 17 intelligence agencies issuing an extraordinary public statement; our homeland security officials working relentlessly to bolster the cyber defenses of voting infrastructure around the country; the President directing a comprehensive intelligence review, and ultimately issuing a robust response including shutting down two Russian compounds, sanctioning nine Russian entities and individuals, and ejecting 35 Russian diplomats from the country."
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Former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzeneggar has teamed up French President Emmanuel Macron in a new video pledging to make "the planet great again" in a swipe at US President Donald Trump.

Both Mr Macron and Mr Schwarzeneggar are known for their outspoken criticism of Mr Trump's decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate change agreement.

The historic 2015 agreement signed by 195 countries and ratified by 147 aims to reduce carbon emissions and contain global warming. But after Mr Trump withdrew US participation, it will no longer include the world's second largest polluter.

Mr Macron - who along with a number of other European leaders has decried the decision to have America withdraw from the deal - has called on US scientists to emigrate to France. He has needled Mr Trump by using the phrase "Make our planet great again" - a riff on the US President's campaign slogan of "Make America great again".

As for Mr Schwarzeneggar, he is a noted supporter of climate-friendly policies and in a video posted earlier this month he said that "one man cannot destroy our progress".

In the latest video - viewed nearly 1.5 million times - Mr Schwarzenegger said that he and Mr Macron had been talking about environmental issues and a green future together.

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

The footage was posted on Twitter with the former film star and California governor saying he was truly honoured to meet Mr Macron, adding that the pair would work together for a clean energy future.

The 10-second clip runs for the full duration with the caption: With President Macron, a great leader!

It ends with Macron bringing out his new catchphrase: We will deliver together to make the planet great again.

Mr Macron has also promised to play an active role in a campaign aimed at securing a global pact to protect the human right to a clean and healthy environment.

He made the pledge at a meeting at Sorbonne University on Saturday where politicians, legal experts and activists presented him with draft proposals for such a pact.

On the basis of this draft proposal, I pledge to act ...so that the work initiated continues, so that we reach a text, convince our partners, place these efforts under the aegis of the U.N ... and from September have the basis of a world environment pact, Mr Macron told his audience.

The pact should eventually be put to the United Nations for adoption and impose legally-binding obligations on signatory states, its drafters - comprising legal experts from several countries - have said.

Attendees at the Sorbonne included former Mr Schwarzenegger and former United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon. It was chaired by former prime minister Laurent Fabius, who chaired the 2015 conference on climate change.

Agencies contributed to this report
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US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to remove Burma and Iraq from a US list of the world's worst child soldiers offenders, Us officials said, despite ongoing concerns from experts and diplomats.

The highly unusual intervention would break with longstanding protocol at the State Department over how to identify countries and foreign militaries which use child soldiers.

And it could prompt accusations the Trump administration is prioritising security and diplomatic interests ahead of human rights.

Three US officials with knowledge of internal deliberations at the department said Mr Tillerson overruled assessments on the use of child soldiers by his own staff and rejected recommendations by senior diplomats in Asia and the Middle East.

The Secretary of State also rejected an internal proposal from the State Department to add Afghanistan to the list, the sources said.

One official claimed the decisions have been made following pressures from the Pentagon to avoid complicating assistance to the Iraqi and Afghan militaries, which are close US allies in the fight against Isis.

Foreign militaries which appear on the list can face sanctions including a prohibition on receiving US military aid, training and US-made weapons unless the White House issues a waiver.

Human rights officials expressed surprise at the delisting, which was expected to be announced on Tuesday as part of the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons report.

A State Department official said the report's content would not be disclosed until its release and the department "does not discuss details of internal deliberations".

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008, the US government must be satisfied that "no children are recruited, conscripted or otherwise compelled to serve as child soldiers" in order for a country to be removed from the list.

But Child Soldiers International, a UK-based NGO which aims to stop the recruitment and exploitation of children by armed forces and groups, said Burmas internal armed conflicts have been marked by severe human rights violations, with children widely used by both state armed forces and armed groups.

In a report in March 2016, the NGO found that four years after the UN and the Government of Burma signed a joint action plan to end the recruitment of child soldiers, children continue to be present in the ranks of the Tatmadaw Kyi (state army) as well as non-state armed groups.

Iraq, which has received more than $2bn (1.6bn) in US arms and training over the last three years, was added to the State Department's "Child Soldier Prevention Act List" in 2016.

Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? Show all 12 1 /12 Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? liberia1024x768.jpg Simon Akam Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? 5374003.jpg AFP/Getty Images Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? 5373826.jpg Simon Akam Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? 5373834.jpg Simon Akam Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? 5373812.jpg Simon Akam Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? 5373833.jpg Simon Akam Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? 5373817.jpg Simon Akam Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? 5373815.jpg Simon Akam Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? 5373816.jpg Simon Akam Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? 5373814.jpg Simon Akam Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? 5373813.jpg Simon Akam Lost boys: What became of Liberia's child soldiers? 5374542.jpg AFP/Getty Images

Last year's State Department report said some militias of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) "recruited and used child soldiers". But, the flow of US assistance continued.

Ahead of the publication of the report, the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, which researches the issue, along with its legal office and diplomatic bureaus in Asia and the Middle East concluded the evidence showed both Burma and Iraq should be kept on the list.

Human Rights Watch said removing Burma from the list would be a "completely premature and disastrous action that will effectively betray more children to continued servitude and rights abuses.

The decision also would put the Trump administration at odds with the UN, which continues to list the military in Burma, along with seven ethnic armed groups, on its list of entities using and recruiting child soldiers.

"What's particularly astonishing is this move ignores that the UN in Burma says that it is still receiving new cases of children being recruited" by the Burmese military, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Bordering both China and India, Burma is of growing strategic importance to the US at a time of increasing encroachment in the region by China, which is seeking closer relations with its neighbours.

Previously, former President Barack Obama handed out full or partial waivers regularly to Iraq, Burma, Nigeria and South Sudan.

Additional reporting by agencies
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A black off-duty police officer has been shot by a white colleague who feared for his safety in the US.

The white officer was among those chasing gunmen in a stolen car when the officer with 11 years of service came out of his home armed with his police-issue gun to help.

He was shot in the arm and was taken to hospital in St Louis, Missouri.

The St Louis Metropolitan Police Department described the shooting as a friendly fire incident but the injured officers lawyer said he had been automatically feared as a black man.

Acting police commissioner Lawrence OToole said officers were pursuing a stolen car when three suspects inside opened fire on Wednesday night.

They chased the vehicle until it crashed, with the men getting out in with guns and attempting to flee on foot.

 White House refuses to condemn murder of black man by white supremacist

Fearing for their safety, the two officers fired shots at the suspects, striking suspect one in the ankle, Mr OToole said.

The victim/police officer was off-duty and inside his nearby residence when he heard the commotion and responded outside, armed with his department-issued weapon.

Two officers challenged the off-duty officer and ordered him to the ground, to which he complied.

During the process, the two officers recognised their 38-year-old colleague and told him to stand up and walk towards them.

But a third officer, a 36-year-old white man who had been in the force for eight years, allegedly misinterpreted the scene.

At this time, a responding officer just arriving in the area observed this, and fearing for his safety  and apparently not recognising the off-duty officer  discharged a shot, striking the off-duty officer in the arm, Mr O'Toole said.

He was conveyed to a hospital, listed as stable and has since been released.

Two of the suspects, both 17-year-old black boys, were arrested at the scene and had their guns seized, while a third escaped and remains at large.

Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Show all 15 1 /15 Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Kandy Freeman participates in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower People participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Hawk Newsome, a Black Lives Matter activist, leads a protest outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Hawk Newsome (C) leads a chant during a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, US. January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower People participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower An NYPD officer speaks with a Black Lives Matter leaders during a protest in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Kandy Freeman participates in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower An NYPD officer speaks with a Black Lives Matter leaders during a protest in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Carol Garza, a Black Lives Matter supporter, protests outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower People participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. Stephanie Keith/Reuters Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower A Black Lives Matter supporter protests in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Black Lives Matter activists march in front of Trump Tower on January 14, 2017 in New York City. Kevin Hagen/Getty Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Black Lives Matter activists march in front of Trump Tower on January 14, 2017 in New York City. Kevin Hagen/Getty Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Black Lives Matter supporters protest in the snow outside Trump Tower in New York City on January 14, 2017. Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images Black Lives Matter organises march to Trump Tower Black Lives Matter Kandy Freeman marches in front of Trump Tower on January 14, 2017 in New York City. Kevin Hagen/Getty

The officer who opened fire and six others have been placed on administrative leave as a probe by the Force Investigation Unit continues.

The victims lawyer, Rufus J Tate Jr, told local media that the shooting was part of a wider problem in the US with the perception of black men.

This is the first time that we are aware that a black professional, in law enforcement, himself being shot and treated as an ordinary black guy on the street  this is a real problem, he said, according to Newsweek.

This been a national discussion for the past two years. There is this perception that a black man is automatically feared.

The shooting came days after protests swept Minnesota over the acquittal of a police officer who shot a black man dead in front of his girlfriend and daughter in an incident broadcast on Facebook Live.

Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted of manslaughter after claiming he feared for his life as Philando Castile reached for his wallet to produce his firearms licence.

His death was one of a number of fatal police shootings in recent years that have sparked some protests across the US.

Riots and unrest flared in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson in 2014 after Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot dead by a white officer.

Donald Trump said he was very troubled by the killing of an unarmed black man in Oklahoma on the campaign trail but has been criticised for failing to denounce police brutality and shootings since taking office.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 24

Trend:

UNEC students, their parents and university employees appeals were heard within the Open Door attended by UNEC Rector, Professor Adalat Muradov, Chairman of Azerbaijan Press Board Aflatun Amashov, Member of Parliament Vusal Huseynov and employee of 525th newspaper Sevinj Garayeva.

The appeals were related with the Summer Exam Session. In general 40 appeals were responded in the Open Door; the relevant structural units were charged about the operative solution of the issues.

A.Amashov shared his impressions on the Open Door: Students speak to rector about their problems; they are eager to protect their rights. It comes from the sincere atmosphere created by the university administration. Each appeal was carefully listened and recommendations were provided within the relevant guidelines. Some issues were solved on the spot. Today, I have seen the students that are knowledgeable, skilled and educated; capable of defending and protecting their rights. I was delighted to see the young people, who are our future, at this level. Many important innovations have been applied in the UNEC in recent years. All of them serve to the preparation of qualified specialists ".

Member of the Parliament Vusal Huseynov evaluated the arrangement of the Open Door days at the university as a clear example of transparency: "Open Door" days make communication between students and the university administration more accessible. At the same time, they increase the responsibility of teachers and administrative staff towards students. The meeting took place in a positive atmosphere. Each participant, including parents, students, and employees were satisfied with the meeting. At the reception, students' leisure time, the application of international experience, the increase of teachers' scientific potential and the enrichment of the material and technical base were discussed. This is an indication of the important work done at the university in those areas.

Bringing to attention that he graduated from UNEC, V. Mammadov noted he worked at the University as a teacher some time: I have also graduated from this university; at the same time, I worked here as a teacher. Gradually, I follow the novelties happen at UNEC from the Media and social networking. I observe that student initiatives are preferred at UNEC. UNEC is the major education institution in the country which plays a key role in Economy. I suppose, it is necessary to continue the innovations here to grow professionals here. The relevant measures are already implemented at the university in this direction. It is gratifying for all of us.

Note that, the Open Door days held by UNEC Rector will go on until the end of the Summer Exam Session every Saturday.
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Hong Kong police has banned political banners, protest slogans and images ahead of the Chinese Presidents visit to avoid embarrassment".

The security operation in the autonomous territory will see at least 9,000 police officers being deployed during the three-day visit by President Xi Jinping starting on Thursday with parts of the city being locked down, local media Ming Pao News reports.

President Xi will visit Hong Kong to mark the 20th anniversary of the handover of the territory to China by the UK on 1 July 1997.

Since the handover, the anniversary on 1 July has often been marked by large-scale protests and opposition parties previously said they would come out in force this year.

Police have received instructions to remove sensitive words and images from the sight of President Xi and his entourage, including signs calling for the remembrance of the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and demanding direct election and universal suffrage.

The operation, which will restrict freedom of speech during the visit, is to prevent the Chinese leaders from being embarrassed, local media reports.

Such measures are more common in mainland China, where there is very little tolerance for protests and visible discontent against the one-party rule.

Hong Kong activists preserve the past Show all 22 1 /22 Hong Kong activists preserve the past Hong Kong activists preserve the past HK URBEX members, inspect the interior of an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past HK URBEX members are seen through a hole in the fence at an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past An abandoned British army barracks is seen through thick fog in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member, stands at an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member looks through a window at an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member walks through an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member looks around an abandoned residential building in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past HK URBEX members walk towards an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member climbs a ladder at an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member inspects the interior of an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A HK URBEX member, looks at a newspaper from 1982, inside an abandoned residential building in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A tag is seen inside an abandoned British army barracks in Hong Kong, China, June 1, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past An external view of an abandoned mansion called Yu Yuen, built the 1920's colonial era, is seen in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past HK URBEX members look around an abandoned residential building in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A soft toy is seen inside an abandoned residential building in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past An interior view of an abandoned mansion called Yu Yuen, built during the colonial era of the 1920's, in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past An interior view of an abandoned mansion called Yu Yuen, built during the colonial era in the 1920's, is seen in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past People walk past the abandoned historic Central Market, which was built in the 1930's during the colonial era, in Hong Kong, China, June 10, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past HK URBEX members inspect an abandoned residential building in Hong Kong, China, June 7, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past An external view of the now closed Wing Woo Grocery Shop on Wellington Street, which was built during the colonial era in the 1870's, in Hong Kong, China, June 10, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past Colonial era buildings (front to back), St John's Cathedral, former Central Government Offices and Government House are seen in Hong Kong, China, June 3, 2017 Reuters Hong Kong activists preserve the past A man stands outside the abandoned historic Central Market, which was built in the 1930's during the colonial era in Hong Kong, China, June 10, 2017 Reuters

Police said the crackdown was more encompassing this time than in previous occasions because it included images.

Officers in Hong Kong are reported to be under great pressure to ensure the visit takes place smoothly.

Resentment in Hong Kong has grown since the pro-democracy protest in 2014 brought the city to a standstill. Thousands of residents occupied major swathes of the city demanding true universal suffrage and open election in 2017.

Images of President Xi holding a yellow umbrella became a symbol of the discontent and coined the term the umbrella revolution - they will be removed by police ahead of President Xis tour of the city.

Last November, Chinas parliament effectively barred two pro-independence politicians from taking office after they refused to swear allegiance to Beijing.

The move left Hong Kong with a legislative crisis and was seen as Beijings most direct intervention in the territory since 1997, when Britain returned the territory to Chinese control under a deal that was intended to give Hong Kong wide-ranging autonomy.
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France is to stop granting licences for oil and gas exploration as part of a transition towards environmentally-friendly energy being driven by Emmanuel Macrons government.

Nicolas Hulot, the ecological transition minister said a law would be passed in the autumn.

There will be no new exploration licences for hydrocarbons, he told BFMTV.

French Minister of Ecological and Social Transition Nicolas Hulot leaves the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, June 22, 2017. (Reuters)

The minister, previously famed in France for his environmental activism and nature documentaries, also outlined proposals to increase the taxation on diesel and to make decisions faster to curtail pollution.

Mr Macron said he was opposed to exploration for gas and favoured a ban on fracking during his election campaign, particularly in the overseas territory of French Guiana.

But Mr Hulot was among those warning that any ban would trigger lawsuits from energy companies and saying change must be imposed gradually.

Around 75 per cent of Frances electricity is currently provided by nuclear power stations, with the industry employing around 200,000 people and led by state-owned EDF.

A law was passed last year to reduce the nuclear proportion to 50 per cent by 2025, sparking controversy over potential job losses and the closure of up to 20 reactors.

Mr Macron reinstated his commitment to the law last month but has evaded concrete targets for the ultimate aim of making France run completely on renewable energy.

The President is also planning a huge renovation programme for French homes to reduce energy consumption, cut carbon dioxide emissions, reduce energy poverty and create jobs.

He and Mr Hulot discussed renewable energy schemes and global warming with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor and former Governor of California, as part of his trip to France on Friday.

Mr Schwarzenegger said he was honoured to speak to Mr Macron and ministers about how we can work together for a clean energy future and was seen posing with a T-shirt reading Make Our Planet Great Again with Mr Hulot.

The Hollywood star has publicly sparred with Donald Trump, a fellow Republican and Apprentice host over climate change and the Presidents decision to withdraw the US from the historic Paris accords.

France was among the countries heavily criticising the decision, with the government posting an annotated White House video on social media refuting the Presidents claims that the agreement was a bad deal for the US.
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Crimean authorities may have breached international laws by ordering a Jehovah's Witness to prove he has abandoned his faith before being drafted into the occupying Russian army, according to a human rights monitor.

Members of the Christian denomination, which is deeply opposed to military service, were previously allowed to sign up for alternative civilian service in Russia, where men have to complete a year's draft in the army between the ages of 18-27.

But there have been several reports of Jehovah's Witnesses being denied the right to serve as civilians after the religion was banned by the country's Supreme Court in April.

 Anti-Putin protests: Russian police arrest hundreds as thousands rally against Kremlin corruption

175,000 worshippers were criminalised when judges ruled that their religion violated an anti-extremism law, paving the way for 395 local chapters to be shut down.

Russian military officials in Crimea have since told a Jehovah's Witness to provide evidence he has changed his faith before he is allowed to join their ranks, according to Jehovah's Witnesses In Russia.

Paperwork said to have been issued by a military centre in the region said Jehovah's Witnesses could start civilian service "only on condition of renouncing their religious beliefs".

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

The order is thought to breach the Geneva Convention, which bars armies from conscripting citizens in occupied territories, stating: "The Occupying Power may not compel protected persons to serve in its armed or auxiliary forces.

"No pressure or propaganda which aims at securing voluntary enlistment is permitted.

Russia has continued to conscript soldiers from Crimea into its army, despite the United Nations recognising them as an occupying force in the region following a resolution passed in December 2016.

Crimean conscripts are deployed across Russia, which appears to violate another Geneva Convention article barring "individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power".

Vladimir Putin has faced calls to stop conscription in Crimea from Ukraine's foreign affairs ministry, according to Newsweek.

Jehovah's Witnesses have reported other human rights violations, including Russian authorities raiding peaceful meetings, following the Supreme Court ruling, which is set to be appealed in July.

A Danish member has been arrested and is reportedly facing up to 10 years in prison.
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A French journalist has died of her injuries after she was hit by a landmine blast in Mosul earlier this week, her employer France Televisions has confirmed.

Veronique Robert, 54, a Swiss national, died in a military hospital outside Paris where she had been transferred from Iraq.

Ms Robert was in Mosul covering a military operation to root out Isis extremists for Envoye Special, a news programme broadcast on France 2.

She underwent surgery in a Baghdad hospital before being evacuated to France, a statement by France Televisions said.

Two of her colleagues, French video journalist Stephane Villeneuve and their Iraqi Kurdish interpreter Bakhtiyar Haddad, were killed in the same mine explosion. Another French reporter, Samuel Forey, also suffered minor injuries.

The Elysee Palace announced on Tuesday Mr Villeneuve would posthumously receive the Legion dhonneur, the highest decoration in France.

Ms Robert was an experienced war correspondent who had covered multiple conflicts in the Middle East, most notably in Iraq, the statement said.

The network said: It is with great sadness that the direction of France Televisions has learned of the death of journalist Veronique Robert following her injuries from the mine explosion in Mosul, Iraq.

The French national broadcaster sent its condolences to her family.

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. 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Her producer Nicolas Jaillard described Ms Robert as an extraordinary woman in a post on Facebook.

He wrote: We were waiting for not such bad news this week. But it wont come. Veronique Robert has died this morning, in France, surrounded by her boys.

These pictures show an extraordinary woman. The word sadness is much too short to express our feelings.
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Anti-Israel protesters in Iran unveiled a digital countdown showing 8,411 days to what they said would be the "destruction of Israel", as part of an annual rally in support of the Palestinian Territories.

The time frame appears to stem from comments made in 2015 by Iran's supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said there would be "nothing" left of Israel by the year 2040.

Demonstrators chanted death to Israel as crowds assembled on Friday for Al-Quds day (Arabic for Jerusalem), while people touted placards condemning Israel, Saudi Arabia and the US. The Revolutionary Guard took the opportunity to display its ballistic missiles, including the type which was used in Syria where the government claimed it killed a "large number of terrorists, although agencies could not verify the report.

The display was in Tehran's Palestine Square, and state media claimed that more than one million people participated in the demonstrations.

Similar protests popped up across Iran, with protesters condemning Israelis occupation of Palestinian territories and burning the Israeli and American flags.

President Hassan Rouhani and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani were amongst the officials who attended the demonstration.

In a speech to marching people who were going to Friday prayers at the Tehran University grounds, Iranian Tasnim News Agency reports Mr Larijani said: Israel is the most malignant terrorist in history.

Iranian Protesters unveil a digital countdown showing 8411 days until Israel is destroyed (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

[Israel is the] mother of terrorism, he added.

Iran is fiercely critical of the country, consistently engaging in highly hostile rhetoric about Israel's right to exist. President Rouhani told the IRNA news agency that Israel supports terrorists in the region.

Tensions between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran have intensified as of late, in part due to theological disagreements, as well as Donald Trump's increasing support of the former, and condemnation of the latter.

Last month Saudis King Salman called Iran the spearhead of global terrorism.
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Iraqi forces have opened exit routes for hundreds of people to flee the Old City of Mosul with the United Nations voicing alarm at the rising civilian death toll and the unimaginable risks trapped residents face.

Troops are battling to retake the Old City district from Isis fighters mounting a last stand in the final major city they hold in the country.

Urban warfare units have been channelling their onslaught along two perpendicular streets that converge in the heart of the Old City, aiming to isolate the jihadist insurgents in four pockets.

The week-old battle in the Old City is turning into the deadliest of the eight-month US-backed campaign to take back the northern city, which fell to Isis in June 2014.

I saw a young girl with facial injuries walking dazed and shocked across the frontline out of heavily-populated district with a group of neighbours. All her family was killed when their house collapsed, they said.

The United Nations has said as many as 12 civilians were killed and hundreds injured in fighting on Friday.

Fighting is very intense in the Old City and civilians are at extreme, almost unimaginable risk. There are reports that thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of people are being held as human shields [by Isis], Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said in a statement. Hundreds of civilians, including children, are being shot.

In pictures: Mosul offensive Show all 40 1 /40 In pictures: Mosul offensive In pictures: Mosul offensive A doctor carries an Iraqi newborn baby at a hospital in Mosul, Iraq July 18, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi girls play at a yard of a school in Mosul, Iraq July 18, 2017alal Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A woman on crutches who is a relative of men accused of being Islamic State militants is seen at a camp in Bartella, east of Mosul, Iraq July 15, 2017. Picture taken July 15, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A displaced girl, who fled from home carries a doll at Hamam al-Alil camp south of Mosul, Iraq July 13, 2017. Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi federal police members and civilians celebrate in the Old City of Mosul on 9 July 2017 after the government's announcement of the "liberation" of the embattled city. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office said he was in "liberated" Mosul to congratulate "the heroic fighters and the Iraqi people on the achievement of the major victory" AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A picture taken on 9 July 2017, shows a general view of the destruction in Mosul's Old City. Iraq will announce imminently a final victory in the nearly nine-month offensive to retake Mosul from jihadists, a US general said Saturday, as celebrations broke out among police forces in the city. AFP In pictures: Mosul offensive Members of the Iraqi federal police raise the victory gesture as they ride on a humvee while advancing through the Old City of Mosul on 28 June 2017, as the offensive continues to retake the last district held by Islamic State (IS) group fighters. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Smoke billows as Iraqi forces advance through the Old City of Mosul on 26 June 2017, during the ongoing offensive to retake the last district held by the Islamic State (IS) group. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi man wearing the green scarf of the Shi'ite faith kisses an Iraqi Army soldier on safely reaching the Iraqi forces position as Iraqi civilians flee the Old City of west Mosul where heavy fighting continues on 23 June 2017. Iraqi forces continue to encounter stiff resistance with improvised explosive devices, car bombs, heavy mortar fire and snipers hampering their advance. Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A picture taken from the inside of an Iraqi forces armoured vehicle shows residents walking through a damaged street as troops advance towards Mosul's Old City on 18 June 2017, during the ongoing offensive to retake the last district still held by the Islamic State (IS) group. Military commanders told AFP the assault had begun at dawn after overnight air strikes by the US-led coalition backing Iraqi forces. They said the jihadists were putting up fierce resistance. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi Army soldiers advance in a destroyed street after an Iraqi forces airstrike targeted an Islamic State sniper position 17 June 2017 in al-Shifa, the last district of west Mosul under Islamic State control. IS snipers, as well as car and suicide bomb attacks continue to hinder the Iraqi forces efforts to retake the final district. A series of airstrikes by Iraqi helicopter gunships attempted to hit multiple Islamic State sniper positions in al-Shifa. Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier frisks a displaced Iraqi man at a temporary camp in the compound of the closed Nineveh International Hotel in Mosul on 16 June 2017 which was recovered by Iraqi troops from Islamic State group fighters earlier in the year. A screening centre set up in the compound's fairgrounds sees a constant stream of Iraqis fleeing the battle for Mosul, awaiting their turn to be checked by the Iraqi forces who are searching for suspected Islamic State (IS) group members. The small fairground lies at the end of a pontoon bridge across the Tigris recently opened to civilians that is the only physical link between the two banks of the river. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqis staying at the al-Khazir camp swim in a river near the camp for internally displaced people, located between Arbil and Mosul on 11 June 2017. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi government forces drive on a road leading to Tal Afar on 9 June 2017, during ongoing battles to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi policeman carries a poster bearing an image of Mosul's iconic leaning minaret, known as the "Hadba" (Hunchback), on 22 June 2017. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqis stand in line to receive food aid in western Mosul's Zanjili neighbourhood on 7 June 2017, during ongoing battles as Iraqi forces try to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. Living conditions in Mosul have again deteriorated since the start of the Iraqi government's offensive on the city in October in which they retook a large part of the west of the city. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Displaced Iraqis carry lightbulbs and sacks as they evacuate from western Mosul's Zanjili neighbourhood as government forces advance in the area during their ongoing battle against Islamic State (IS) group fighters on 13 May 2017 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) flashes the victory gesture as he patrols in western Mosul's al-Islah al-Zaraye neighbourhood on 13 May 2017 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi army soldiers from the 9th armoured division on a truck flash the sign of victory as they drive back from Mosul to the town of Qaraqosh (also known as Hamdaniya) Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Members of Iraqi forces flash the sign of victory on their vehicle as they advance towards Hammam al-Alil area south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi security forces gestures in Hammam al-Alil, south of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi children, one flashing the sign of victory, greet Iraqi army's soldiers from the 9th armoured division in the area of Ali Rash, adjacent to the eastern Al-Intissar neighbourhood of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Peshmerga forces look at a tunnel used by Islamic State militants near the town of Bashiqa, east of Mosul, during an operation to attack Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier takes a photograph with his phone as his comrade stands next to a detained man, whom the Iraqi army soldiers accused of being an Islamic State fighter, who was fleeing with his family in the Intisar disrict of eastern Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Iranian Kurdish female members of the Freedom Party of Kurdistan (PAK) hold a position in an area near the town of Bashiqa, some 25 kilometres north east of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi families, who fled their homes in Hamam al-Alil, gather on the outskirts of their town Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Displaced people walk past a checkpoint near Qayara, south of Mosul, Iraq AP In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi families who were displaced by the ongoing operation by Iraqi forces against jihadists of the Islamic State group to retake the city of Mosul, are seen gathering in an area near Qayyarah In pictures: Mosul offensive A boy who just fled Abu Jarbuah village is seen with his family at a Kurdish Peshmerga position between two front lines near Bashiqa, east of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi child eats a pomegranate upon the arrival of Iraqi forces in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive People who just fled Abu Jarbuah village sit as they eat at a Kurdish Peshmerga position between two front lines near Bashiqa, east of Mosul, Iraq Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive A couple who just fled Abu Jarbuah village are escorted by Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers Reuters In pictures: Mosul offensive Women carry a boy over a wall as civilians flee their houses in the village of Tob Zawa, Iraq AP In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier and a civilian ride a motorbike as smoke rises behind them, on the road between Qayyarah and Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi forces, wearing a skull mask, waits at a checkpoint for people fleeing the main hub city of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive An Iraqi soldier sits at a checkpoint in an area near Qayyarah Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi men prepare food portions for Iraqi forces deployed in areas south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi forces celebrate upon the arrival of vehicles bringing food to them Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive Iraqi childen smoke cigarettes upon the arrival of Iraqi forces in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty In pictures: Mosul offensive A member of Iraqi forces distributes drinks to children in the village of Umm Mahahir, south of Mosul Getty

Iraqi authorities are hoping to declare victory in the northern Iraqi city in the Muslim Eid holiday, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, during the next few days.

Helicopter gunships were assisting the ground thrust, firing at insurgent emplacements in the Old City. The government advance was carving out escape corridors for civilians marooned behind Isis lines.

There was a steady trickle of fleeing families on Saturday, some with injured and malnourished children. My baby only had bread and water for the past eight days, one mother said.

At least 100 civilians reached the safety of a government-held area west of the Old City in one 20-minute period, tired, scared and hungry. Soldiers gave them food and water.

More than 100,000 civilians, of whom half are believed to be children, remain trapped in the crumbling old houses of the Old City, with little food, water or medical treatment.

 Mosul residents on Isis blowing up Grand al-Nuri Mosque

The urban-warfare forces were leading the campaign to clear the Sunni Islamist militants from the maze of Old City alleyways, moving on foot house-to-house in locations too cramped for the use of armoured combat vehicles.

A US-led international coalition is providing ground and air support in the eight-month-old campaign to seize Mosul, the largest city Isis came to control in a shock offensive in Iraq and neighbouring Syria three years ago.

Iraqi government offensives  supported by the coalition  have wrested back several important urban centres in the countrys west and north from Isis over the past 18 months.

Military analysts said Baghdads campaign to recover Mosul gathered pace after the jihadi group blew up the 850-year-old al-Nuri mosque with its famous leaning minaret on Wednesday.

The mosques destruction, while condemned by Iraqi and UN authorities as another cultural crime by the jihadists, gave troops more freedom to press their onslaught as they no longer had to worry about damaging the ancient site.

It was from the mosque that Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced himself to the world for the first time as the caliph, or ruler of all Muslims, in July 2014. Mosuls population at the time was more than two million.

Baghdadi fled into the desert expanse extending across Iraq and Syria in the early phase of the Mosul offensive, leaving the fighting there to local Isis commanders, according to US and Iraqi officials. Recent Russian reports that he was killed have not been confirmed by the coalition or Iraqi authorities.

The Iraqi government once hoped to take Mosul by the end of 2016, but the campaign dragged on as Isis reinforced positions in inner-city neighbourhoods of the citys western half, carried out suicide car and motorbike bomb attacks, laid booby traps and kept up barrages of sniper and mortar fire.

By Saturday, the area still under Isis control was less than two square kilometres (0.77 sq miles), skirting the western bank of the Tigris River that bisects Mosul.

Isis retaliated for government advances on Friday evening with a triple bombing in a neighbourhood in eastern Mosul, which Baghdads forces recaptured in January. The attack was carried out by three people who detonated explosive belts, killing five, including three policemen, and wounding 19, according to a military statement on Saturday.

The fall of Mosul would mark the end of the Iraqi half of the so-called-Caliphate as a quasi-state structure, but Isis would still hold sizeable, mainly rural and small-town tracts of both Iraq and Syria.

In eastern Syria, The de facto Isis capital, Raqqa, is now nearly encircled by a US-backed Kurdish-led coalition.

Reuters
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Qatar has accused its Gulf neighbours of trying to bully them into accepting economic and diplomatic demands after the UAE threatened it with divorce.

The monarchy in Doha has faced calls to shut down the Al Jazeera television network, pay reparations and cut ties with Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood after Donald Trump said they had historically been funding terrorism at a very high level in June.

A coalition of Sunni Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE, have imposed a boycott on the small Persian Gulf nation and given it 10 days to respond to a 13-point ultimatum.

 Saudi Arabia cuts ties with Qatar over terror links

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has tried to mediate the crisis and earlier this week called on the Arab nations to limit themselves to reasonable and actionable demands.

But on Saturday Anwar Gargash, the UAEs state minister for foreign affairs, warned that Qatar should deal seriously with the demands and concerns of its neighbours or a divorce will take place, according to Associated Press.

Qatari officials insist they can survive steps taken to pressure them into compliance, even as a top Emirati official warned the tiny country to brace itself for a long-term economic squeeze.

Qatari Ambassador to the US Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani said they wont sit down to negotiate an end to the crisis while the siege conditions remain in place.

He said: I can assure you that our situation today is very comfortable.

Qatar could continue forever like that with no problems.

In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour Show all 39 1 /39 In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud arriving for a reception ahead of a banquet at Murabba Palace in Riyadh Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald Trump, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud being welcomed at Murabba Palace in Riyadh Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald J. Trump with King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud during a welcome ceremony with traditional sword dancers at Murabba Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud with US President Donald J. Trump and wife Melania during a welcome ceremony at Murabba Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald Trump adjusts the Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal, after it was bestowed upon him by Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud at the Royal Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud presents U.S. President Donald Trump with the Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal at the Royal Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 Palestinians print posters depicting US President Donald Trump in preparations for his planned visit, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 US President Donald Trump accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, before delivering his remarks to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 US President Donald Trump looks on as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef exchange a memorandum of understanding Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 First Lady Melania Trump shares a laugh with a child during a visit to the American International School in the Saudi capital Riyadh Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 US President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 Israeli soldiers rest during preparations ahead of President Trump's landing in Tel Aviv, Israel Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 First Lady Melania Trump makes her way to board Air Force One in Riyadh as she heads with her husband the US President to Israel Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One for Israel, the next stop in Trump's international tour, at King Khalid International Airport AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 Israeli soldiers wait for the arrival ceremony of US President Donald Trump at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive aboard Air Force One at Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod near Tel Aviv, Israel Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump disembark Air Force One on arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald J. Trump and his wife, US First Lady Melania Trump are welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, in Lod outside Tel Aviv, Israel EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sit during welcome ceremony in Tel Aviv AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US First Lady Melania Trump chats wife Sara Netanyahu as US President Donald Trump chats to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a welcoming ceremony to welcome Trump at Ben Gurion International Airport Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump delivers a speech upon his arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump gestures during a press conference with Israel's President at the President's Residence in Jerusalem Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump watches as First Lady Melania Trump signs the guest book at the President's Residence in Jerusalem Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump walks with first lady Melania Trump in Jerusalem's Old City Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump visits the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalems Old City Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump stands next to Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz at the plaza in front of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and White House senior advisor Jared Kushner leave notes at the Western Wall in Jerusalem Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US First Lady Melania Trump touches the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 Ivanka Trump, assistant and daughter of US President Donald J. Trump, touches the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 President Donald Trump visits the Western Wall AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 US President Donald J. Trump arrives in a vehicle to Saint Damaso's Court for a private audience with Pope Francis in Vatican City EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis walks past Ivanka Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on the occasion of the private audience with President Donald Trump, at the Vatican AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis exchanges gifts with US President Donald Trump during a private audience at the Vatican Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis meets US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania during a private audience at the Vatican Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis with US President Donald J. Trump EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis gets into is car after meeting with US President Donald Trump AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 President Donald Trump and his wife Melania look at the frescoed ceilings during their visit to the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican L'Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 US President Donald Trump security vehicles are seen in front of Air Force One before take off from Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump wave to reporters before boarding the Air Force One to Brussels, at the end of a 2-day visit to Italy including a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, at Rome's Fiumicino international airport AP

Asked whether Qatar felt pressure to resolve the crisis quickly, he said: Not at all.

The Gulf nations said they would continue to restrict Qatars land, sea and air routes indefinitely if they refuse to comply with their demands.

Emirati Ambassador to the US Yousef al-Otaiba insisted there was no threat of military action, but warned: The measures that have been taken are there to stay until there is a long-term solution to the issue.

The ultimatum was quickly rejected by Qatars ally, Turkey, and Al Jazeera dismissed it as an effort to silence the freedom of expression in the region and to suppress peoples right to information and the right to be heard.

The demands from the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Egyptians and the Bahrainis amount to a call for a sweeping overhaul of Qatars foreign policy and natural gas-funded push for greater influence in the region.

Complying would force Qatar to bring its policies in line with the regional vision of Saudi Arabia, the Middle Easts biggest economy and gatekeeper of Qatar's only land border.

This basically reflects an attempt from these countries to suppress free media and also undermine our sovereignty, said Al Thani, the Qatari envoy. They are trying to impose their views on how the issues need to be dealt with in the Middle East.

They are bullies, he added.

Qatar vehemently denies funding or supporting extremism, but acknowledges that it allows members of some extremist groups such as Hamas to live in Qatar, arguing that fostering dialogue is key to resolving global conflicts.

The move by Qatars neighbours has left it under a de facto blockade. Although residents made a run on the supermarket in the days after the crisis erupted, the situation has since calmed as Qatar secured alternative sources of imported food from Turkey and elsewhere.

However, resisting the demands could prove difficult.

The four states can afford to wait, but Qatar cannot, said Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics. This crisis could threaten the political stability of the ruling family in Qatar in the long term if it lasts.

Qatars neighbours are demanding that it:

 Curb diplomatic ties with Iran, and limit trade and commerce.

 Stop funding other news outlets, including Arabi21, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and Middle East Eye.

 Hand over terrorist figures and wanted individuals from the four countries.

 Stop all means of funding for groups or people designated by foreign countries as terrorists.

 Pay an unspecified sum in reparations.

 Stop all contact with the political opposition in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain.

Additional reporting by agencies
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Saudi security services thwarted a suicide bomber planning to launch a terror attack at the Grand Mosque in Mecca on the last Friday of Ramadan, according to the countrys Interior Ministry.

Eleven people were injured when a suspect blew himself up after exchanging gunfire with security forces during a tense standoff near Islams holiest site, it is claimed.

The man had refused to surrender and opened fire when officers tracked him down and found him hiding in a home in the neighbourhood of Ajyad Al Masafi, in Mecca, on Friday.

Six foreign pilgrims were hurt in Saudi Arabia when a suicide bomber targeting Islam's holiest site of Mecca blew himself up, the Interior Ministry said. (AFP)

He was part of a terrorist cell plotting to bomb worshippers gathering to pray at the worlds largest mosque, the Saudi Interior Ministry claimed.

Saudi state television aired footage after the raid, showing police and rescue personnel running through the narrow streets.

The blast demolished the building, and its walls crushing a parked car.

 Muslim pilgrims begin rituals in Mecca ahead of hajj

Nearby structures appeared to be peppered with shrapnel and bullet holes.

The Interior Ministry said the thwarted terrorist plan would have violated all sanctities by targeting the security of the Grand Mosque, the holiest place on Earth.

They obeyed their evil and corrupt self-serving schemes managed from abroad whose aim is to destabilise the security and stability of this blessed country, it said.

In pictures: Ramadan around the world Show all 27 1 /27 In pictures: Ramadan around the world In pictures: Ramadan around the world In pictures: Ramadan around the world In pictures: Ramadan around the world Russia Russian Muslims pray outside the central mosque in Moscow, during celebrations of Eid al-Fitr marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Turkey Turkish Muslims offer Eid al Fitr prayers as they mark the first day of the Eid al-Fitr at Fatih Sultan Mosque in Istanbul Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Syria A Syrian Dervish dances as part of a traditional event organised by the Syrian Ministry of Tourism under the title 'Music and Dervishes' in the old city of Damascus EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Bosnia and Herzegovina A Bosnian Muslim man, wearing a traditional Bosnian outfit, fires a canon from a vantage point overlooking Sarajevo to mark the end of daily fasting on the final day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Pakistan A general view of an illuminated Mosque as Muslims pray during the 27th night of Ramadan, in Peshawar EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Pakistan Muslim women offer prayer of the Jumat-ul-wida, the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan at a mosque in Lahore AP In pictures: Ramadan around the world India Muslims offer prayers on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in Dargah Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti Rex Features In pictures: Ramadan around the world Saudi Arabia The Prophet Mohammed Mosque in the holy city of Medina, during Ramadan EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Malaysia A Malaysian swings around fireworks to celebrate the last day of the Muslims' Holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur In pictures: Ramadan around the world Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyz Muslims pray during the Eid al-Fitr Muslim celebration marking the end of Ramadan in Bishkek EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Ivory Coast People pray during the Laylat Al Qadr prayers on the 27th day of the Islamic month of fasting, Ramadan in the front of the Aghin mosque in Abidjan AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Syria Syrians shop for traditional sweets in Kafr Batna in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area, on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, ahead of Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Israel A Palestinian woman prays on the third Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City REUTERS In pictures: Ramadan around the world Iran Iranian Shiite Muslims pray at the graves of soldiers who were killed during 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery, during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, just outside Tehran, Iran AP In pictures: Ramadan around the world Israel A Palestinian man pours water on Muslim worshippers' heads to cool off in the heat, as others pray outside the Dome of the Rock at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during the last Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Afghanistan Afghan women wait to receive food ration during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Herat EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Pakistan A Pakistani Muslim reads the holy Koran as he observes Itikaf at a Mosque, in Peshawar EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world India Kashmiri Muslim women offer prayers as the head priest (not pictured) displays a holy relic believed to be hair from the beard of the Prophet Mohammed, during special prayers to observe the Martyr Day of Hazrat Ali, cousin of Prophet Mohammed, on the 21st day of Ramadan, at the Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world India Indian Muslims sit with bowls of porridge(Nombu kanji)as they prepare to break the fast with the Iftar meal during the Islamic month of Ramadan at The Wallajah Big Mosque in Chennai AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Lebanon Spectators watch fireworks as a giant Fanous, or Ramadan lantern, is switched on four days before the start of Ramadan month in front of Mohamed al-Amine Mosque in downtown Beirut EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Lebanon Lebanese children perform during activities celebrating the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in downtown Beirut AP In pictures: Ramadan around the world Palestine Palestinian men drink tea on the promenade of Gaza beach Getty In pictures: Ramadan around the world Indonesia Members of Nahdlatul Ulama, the biggest Muslim organisation in Indonesia, hold a mass prayer session to welcome in Ramadan in Jakarta AFP/Getty In pictures: Ramadan around the world Iraq Iraqis shop for food in a preparation for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Baghdad AP In pictures: Ramadan around the world Indonesia Foods is seen during 'Unggah-unggahan' ceremony to welcome in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Pekuncen village Getty

A second attack was foiled when five suspects, including one woman, were arrested during separate security operations that day, according to Saudi-owned news website Al-Arabiya.

The attacks were allegedly planned by three terrorist groups based in Mecca and Jeddah, though it is not yet certain who was behind the plots.

Isis has previously targeted Saudi Arabia because they are a member of the US-led coalition fighting the proscribed organisation in Iraq and Syria.

They claimed responsibility for a blast at a mosque in the city of Abha, which killed 15 people in August 2015.

Another suicide bomber killed four security officers near the Prophets Mosque in Medina in July 2016.

Millions of Muslims from across the world have travelled to Mecca during the holy fasting month Ramadan.

Worshippers pray facing a cube-shaped shrine inside the Grand Mosque called the Kaaba, which is considered Islams holiest site.

The Grand Mosque has been the target of militants before, in part because it represents a symbol of the ruling Al Saud familys clout in the Islamic world.

The Saudi monarch bears the title of custodian of the two holy mosques.

In 1979, 250 militants seized the mosque and held it for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne.

When Saudi troops stormed the mosque, the official death toll was 229, including extremists and soldiers.

Additional reporting by agencies
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The western entrails of the Piccadilly line constitute one of the planets deep mysteries.

The geometry is complex enough. At Acton Town, the dark blue Tube line splits, with one fork running to Heathrow airport and the other rambling through the western suburbs, up to Sudbury Hill then down to Rayners Lane and beyond.

Recommended Heathrow baggage crisis sees passengers departing without luggage

Most travellers hoping to venture to somewhere more exotic than Uxbridge are concerned with the Heathrow bit. On this stretch, life gets more complicated still beyond Hatton Cross.

The line frays once again into a one-way loop via Terminal 4 to Terminals 2 and 3 (the station decorated with retro Concorde motives), while a two-way line runs to Terminal 5.

Goodness knows what first-time overseas visitors make of the Piccadilly line, because as a fairly regular user I am still mildly baffled  not just by the peculiar design, but the way it is run.

The sequence of destinations seems entirely random. (Properly arbitrary, that is  not random in the way that Ryanairs seat-allocation algorithm assigns only middle seats to a group of 17 passengers on the same booking.)

I imagine beside the platform in leafy Cockfosters, the northern terminus for the line, a Tube official waits with a hatful of slips of paper bearing names such as Northfields and Uxbridge on them. Before setting off, each driver makes a lucky dip.

A few of the slips say Heathrow, either Terminal 4 or 5, providing some hope among more optimistic travellers that they might be taken to Europes busiest airport. At certain times of the week, such optimism is justified because all the trains are airport-bound. In the small hours of Sunday morning, Heathrow Terminal 5 is served by a Tube train every 10 minutes, with no other options. But when loads of people want to get there, during a weekday rush-hour, the uncertainty principle applies.

I discovered this on Tuesday, at Green Park station  a place I had not planned to be. My flight was on British Airways from Heathrow Terminal 5 at 8.50pm. So exactly two hours before departure, I prepared to board the 6.50pm train from Waterloo to Feltham, the suburb just south of Heathrow. Even though the long-promised spur to the airport seems as elusive as ever, an ordinary commuter train is still a smart way to get there.

It takes only 26 minutes and costs 7.10 to reach the Heathrow airport area. From Feltham station you can hop on bus 490 to Terminal 4 and 5.

But my Plan A was thwarted. Delayed was all the Waterloo departure board would reveal.

So I hopped on the Jubilee line and headed for Green Park, to join the Piccadilly line. Here, my problems were only just beginning. Four trains were shown in the next 10 minutes. none of them going to Heathrow Terminal 5.

Should I stay or should I go? No contest. Even if train number 5 was going to the right station, there would be little scope for delay  and I shivered to recall previous stressful journeys where a Piccadilly line train stalled for five or 10 minutes one station short of the airport to regulate the service. Im sure were all in favour of regulated services, but to do so when hundreds of people are increasingly keen to reach Heathrow seems perverse in the extreme.

So Plan C it was: Jubilee line to Baker Street and a swift change to the Bakerloo line to Paddington. Here, the Heathrow Express stood ready, looking swift, shiny and pricey.

The 100-mph train celebrates its 19th anniversary this weekend. Since Tony Blair opened the Heathrow Express in June 1998, the average return fare to Nice (where I was hoping to be) has probably halved. But the one-way fare on the express train has more than doubled from the original 10.

I have no complaints about paying 25 to rescue a trip that South West Trains and the Piccadilly line had threatened to scupper. But the gulf between the 6 fare for the slow and unreliable Tube and 25 for the fast and mostly reliable train looks too wide. Sure, there is a 10.30 Heathrow Connect option from Paddington, a stopping service taking 28 minutes, but with only two every hour it lacks the frequency that rail-air passengers need.

Happily, this week the first brand-new trains entered service ahead of the opening of the Elizabeth line  the suburban express service formerly known as Crossrail. In May next year, four trains will run from Paddington to the airport, replacing the Heathrow Connect, and 12 months after that the full service should begin from the City and West End. Fares are expected to be the same as the Tube trip to the airport, with frequencies and journey times less random.

Meanwhile the Heathrow Express will keep going. Long may it continue to provide an insurance policy for late-running passengers.

By May 2019 we will have a decent set of links between western Europes biggest city and busiest airport. But if Heathrows third runway ever gets built, and with it another terminal, it will be all change once more in the rail-air version of Mornington Crescent.
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When it is said that one of the reasons for the swing against the Conservatives in the general election was that voters were tired of austerity, it may be that the state of the National Health Service was an important part of this verdict.

The NHS itself did not feature much in the campaign. All three main parties promised to increase health spending, and Labours plans were marginally more generous than those of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, according to Professor Chris Ham at the independent Kings Fund. But that difference was enough to move votes, and the Government must now recognise the depth of the crisis.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Janet Davies, the chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, today warns Theresa May that staff shortages leave the NHS on the brink of another Mid Staffs hospital scandal putting hundreds of lives at risk.

This is a crisis that has been building for some time. The Conservative Government since 2010 protected real-terms spending per patients, and Ms May has promised to continue that policy in the new Parliament. But the rate of increase in spending contrasts sharply with the boom years of the Labour Government, and has failed to keep up with the increasing demands of an ageing population.

Over the past two years, the strains on the NHS have really started to tell. Last year, Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health, managed to end the junior doctors dispute over new contracts, but the underlying problems remain. In January, the Red Cross warned of a humanitarian crisis.

Now, the RCN says that several factors have come together to hit nursing recruitment. Public sector pay restraint means nurses wages are low while job stress is high; the abolition of nursing bursaries has cut the supply of new trainees; while the Brexit vote has discouraged new arrivals from the rest of the EU.

The Independent also reveals today how the number of GPs seeking specialist help for substance abuse and mental health problems is increasing day on day. The signs of a health service entering the danger zone are unmistakeable.

One of the consequences of the election result is that the Government is going to have to accept a higher path for public spending over the next few years. Enough of the voters  Labour, Liberal Democrats and Greens together amounted to 50 per cent of the Great British electorate  were prepared to raise more in taxes to pay for it. Of course, more money alone is not enough, but without it any attempts at reform are bound to end in demoralisation and confusion.

The mandate from the people may have been muffled, but it was nevertheless unmistakable: whoever succeeds Ms May as leader of the Conservative Party knows that, in order to be competitive at the next election, they will have to put more money than was promised in the manifesto into the NHS and social care over the next few months and years.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 24

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

Revenues of Azerbaijans adjusted consolidated budget for 2017 are forecasted to stand at 22.84 billion manats that is by 2.82 billion manats or 14.1 percent more than the approved budget, the countrys Finance Ministry said in a message.

According to the message, expenditures of the consolidated budget will amount to 29.8 billion manats that is by 1.05 billion manats or 3.7 percent more than the approved figures.

Revenues of the revised state budget are expected to stand at 16.766 billion manats that is by 511 million manats or 3.1 percent more than the initial forecast for 2017. Expenditures at forecasted to be 17.941 billion manats that is by 1.041 billion manats or 6.2 percent more as compared to the initial forecasts. Deficit of the state budget will total 1.175 billion manats (an increase of 530 million manats) that will be equal to 1.8 percent of Azerbaijans GDP forecasted for 2017.

The Azerbaijani parliament plans to discuss the adjusted state and consolidated budgets of the country on June 30. Earlier, Azerbaijans Finance Minister Samir Sharifov said that the revision of Azerbaijans state budget for 2017 is caused by the need to ensure the stability of the banking and financial systems, as well as the regulation of external and internal obligations of the country.

As part of the state budgets revision, continued Sharifov, it is planned to increase the upper limit on external loan from 4 to 4.5 billion manats for the issue of Eurobonds by the International Bank of Azerbaijan.

According to the current law On the State Budget of Azerbaijan for 2017, revenues of the state budget are approved in the amount of 16.255 billion manats, expenses  in the amount of 16.9 billion manats. Budget forecasts are formed on the basis of the price of oil at $40 per barrel.

(1.7022 manats = $1 on June 24)
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Following this weeks Queens Speech, as Theresa May still seeks to make an unholy alliance with the DUP to create a slender Parliamentary majority, she must be reflecting on how badly her decision to call a general election  and the resulting Tory campaign of fear and division  backfired.

The longer the general election campaign went on, the clearer it became that despite the Tories doing everything they could to avoid scrutiny of the failures of seven years of austerity, people were losing trust in their message every day.

This pattern has continued since the election.

In total contrast to the Tories, and despite their supporters in the media and elsewhere trying to deflect discussion away from their record of failure with a relentlessly negative campaign against Labour and its leadership team, Labour can be proud of the campaign we ran and the gains we made.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every 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Our 40 per cent national share of the vote was the third best share of the vote for Labour since 1974, and represented a 9.5 per cent increase in our vote share.

Over three million votes were gained since 2015 and as young people queued up to vote in Hackney North and Stoke Newington, I realised how many people we had motivated to vote for the first time.

In contrast to the Tory campaign, Jeremy Corbyns Labour ran a strong campaign of hope, and did not let the Tories broken promises of the last seven years and empty promises of this campaign go unchallenged.

Across Britain, Labours army of members spread the word about how the public services we rely on have been starved of resources as the Tories run them down and that we simply cant afford more of the same.

Additionally, one of the reasons why Labours support grew so much throughout the general election campaign was that not only did we repeatedly expose the Tory record of disappointments but also outlined how a better Britain is possible.

Our manifesto for the many was full of real solutions to problems created by the Tories and outlined how Labours policies will transform Britain and ensure economic growth through investment.

Never before on the campaign trail have I heard so many references to the manifesto or the popular policies within it.

 Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn share exchange after Queen's Speech

Labours policies  a real living wage of 10 per hour, decent homes for all with a million new homes to rent or buy, free education and an end to university tuition fees, moving towards universal childcare by expanding free provision for two, three and four-year-olds, social care and the NHS properly funded and pensions protected  chimed with people who have had enough of the idea we cant build a fairer society.

Whilst Labour has a clear programme for government that can bring Britain together and genuinely protect jobs and communities  it is absolutely clear that a Tory-DUP lash up cannot provide this.

This is why, as Theresa May loses authority every day, polls since the election suggest support for Labour is still growing.

Far from being strong and stable, Theresa Mays government is undoubtedly weak and wobbly, and this is before it has to make difficult decisions or outline its position on Brexit negotiations in depth.

Now, figures have shown the cost of basic essentials rising by 2.9 per cent, while wages stagnate.

Recommended Jeremy Corbyn is more popular than Theresa May

Too many people are struggling to get by while Theresa May focuses on holding her unstable coalition of chaos together.

Despite some press spin to contrary, it is clear that if they can get away with it, the Tories will continue to pursue austerity, which will be bad for our economy, society and public services.

But there is another way.

The increase in Labours support in recent weeks has been fuelled by hope in a better Britain for the many not the few, whilst the Tories have nothing to offer but more of the same.

As Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said: After seven wasted years of Tory economic failure with real wages falling behind prices, and living standards being squeezed, working people in our country simply cannot afford more of the same from Theresa May and her party.

Recommended Lord Buckethead says he could negotiate Brexit better than Theresa May

The fact that Theresa Mays Queens Speech this week had to omit most of the Tory manifesto shows that they have ran out of ideas and cant offer Britain a way forward.

If all Theresa Mays Government can offer is permanent disarray, then they need to stand aside and let a Labour government build an economy that works for the majority of society.

The lesson of the general election campaign and the Queens Speech is clear. Only Labour will reverse the years of neglect of public services and real investment in our future and the country needs our policies that will create over a million new jobs, upgrading Britains economy to ensure the economy makes all of us richer rather than being run solely in the interests of the very rich.

Diane Abbott is the Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington
In this photo released by Colombia's Ombudsman Press Office, rebels of Colombia's National Liberation Army, ELN, release Dutch journalists Derk Bolt, second from left, and Eugenio Follender, second from right, north of Santander, Colombia, Saturday, June 24, 2017 (AP)

In this photo released by Colombia's Ombudsman Press Office, rebels of Colombia's National Liberation Army, ELN, release Dutch journalists Derk Bolt, second from left, and Eugenio Follender, second from right, north of Santander, Colombia, Saturday, June 24, 2017 (AP)

A Dutch journalist has told of his "very hard" experience after he and a colleague were freed unharmed following almost a week held captive by leftist rebels in Colombia.

Derk Bolt said he and Eugenio Follender were treated "almost like friends" but told of difficult conditions in the jungle during long marches.

Mr Bolt said the two men were treated well, suffering only a few scratches from 14-hour marches to evade security forces who mounted a massive search.

He told Colombia's Caracol radio that when they were first stopped the reporters thought it was a robbery, as their captors demanded they turn over cameras.

Then they were shuttled from safe house to safe house before eventually taking refuge in the jungle.

"It was very hard, but the people who took us captive were very warm and treated us with lots of respect, almost like friends," Mr Bolt said.

"They always told us our lives weren't in danger."

Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders said the pair "are doing relatively well under the circumstances."

He said he spoke by phone to the journalists shortly after their release.

He said: "Bolt was ... very relieved. They have a long journey through the jungle ahead of them. We are doing all we can to bring them back to the Netherlands as soon as possible."

Mr Bolt and Mr Follender were seized almost a week ago by members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) while reporting in the volatile Catatumbo region, near the border with Venezuela.

Mr Bolt is host of a Dutch television show called Spoorloos (Without a Trace) and Mr Follender is a cameraman for the show, which attempts to help people find their long-lost relatives.

"We are incredibly happy and relieved," the show said in a Facebook post. "We are grateful to the ministry of foreign affairs. They have done everything, in The Hague and Bogota, to get Derk and Eugenio home safely."

The ELN, Colombia's last major guerrilla army with about 1,500 troops, said the journalists were detained preventively because they had entered a conflict zone where Colombia's military often operates covertly.

"Our first duty is to preserve the life of the communities and people that enter these territories, not exposing them" to danger, members of the group negotiating a peace deal with the government said.

AP
British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the EU Summit in Brussels. Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert

British Prime Minister Theresa May's proposal to safeguard residency rights of European Union citizens living in the UK has been hit with a backlash.

Mrs May told EU leaders over dinner at a summit in Brussels on Thursday that almost all three million EU citizens in the UK will be able to continue living there after Brexit, saying she wanted to offer them as much certainty as possible about their futures.

But many expat groups in Britain criticised the proposals as being scant on detail and not promising the freedoms they currently enjoy.

For example, EU citizens living in the UK currently have more rights than British citizens when it comes to being joined by non-EU spouses and other family members.

Whether that remains the case could become a matter for negotiation. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: "It's a first step, but this step is not sufficient."

Summit chair Donald Tusk said it was "below expectations" and "risks worsening the situation of citizens".

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was also wary, saying it was a "positive gesture" but that the EU had to "see the details".

Read More

"We don't know how exactly it's going to work," he said, "and it does only form one part of a negotiation process that involves many other issues."

London mayor Sadiq Khan said Mrs May's plan "doesn't go anywhere near" giving certainty to the 3.2 million EU citizens currently living in the UK.

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach has backed special treatment for the North in a Brexit deal.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney this week told the Irish Independent Northern Ireland should be granted a special deal to keep it linked in with the customs union, and that any type of Border would be seen as a failure.

Read More

Sinn Fein is pushing for a "special status" that would keep the North in the EU, but Mr Varadkar insisted that was "not what we're talking about".

Issue

"What we're talking about in Government is a recognition of the fact that we have a unique issue and a unique difficulty with the Border, and that we will need special status, special arrangements, special measures - call it what you will - that recognise that and allow us to achieve our objective, which is that normal trade north and south should continue, that normal movement of people north and south should continue."

The issue came up during a meeting Mr Varadkar had with German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday morning and during Thursday night's summit of the 27 EU leaders.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has warned against any attempt at EU level to "bully" Ireland into accepting a proposal to standardise corporation tax after Britain leaves the bloc.

In an interview with the Irish Independent, the minister warned that a Europe dominated by two or three big countries would not last, and would risk pushing smaller states into following the UK out.

While the European Union needs to be bolder on the world stage, the minister said, the views of small countries matter.

Mr Coveney issued a strong warning to those advocating a so-called Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) across the EU, which the Government is opposed to.

This plan includes making companies pay tax in countries where sales are made rather than where businesses are controlled.

In Ireland's case it would undermine the competitiveness of the 12.5pc corporate tax rate, which has helped make the country a favourite European base for US multinationals.

Read More

"We'll have to see, but I hope that the European Union will not be as politically naive as to think that because Britain is gone it can bully Ireland into agreeing something that some large countries in the European Union want, but some small countries don't," the minister said.

But he accepted it would be harder to get Ireland's interests on the European table post Brexit.

"I think Europe without the United Kingdom is a weaker Europe. It's a Europe that will be less focused on international trade, less focused on competitiveness issues.

Bolder

"Britain was a big ally for Ireland on lots of things," he said.

He also said Britain will be worse off outside of the EU, and said a debate needs to take place in Britain about whether it's in the country's interests to leave the bloc in such a comprehensive way.

Mr Coveney added: While I agree with the fact that the European Union needs to be bolder in terms of its impact on the world and a force for good, don't assume that the European Union can be run by two or three big countries and everybody else will just have to tow the line.

"If that's the direction the European Union goes in, it won't last, because small countries will leave.

"And that would be a tragedy, for the European Union as a project, but also for many of the countries that will be caught in that squeeze. We need to keep citizens with us."

Read More

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Emmanuel Macron agreed last month to draw up a roadmap to deeper EU integration and opened the door to changing the bloc's treaties to facilitate ambitious reform.

In a joint news conference in Berlin with Mr Macron a day after his inauguration, Ms Merkel said we cannot only deal with Britain's exit, but also need to think about how to deepen the existing EU, and especially the eurozone.

Mr Coveney said that while he is a big supporter of the EU and its benefits, there is a need to ensure that further integration is in a form that people can be comfortable with.

"We need to be very careful that we don't take countries for granted. Because they're not choosing to leave the European Union, that they're fully comfortable with some people's view of what full integration looks like," Mr Coveney said.

"Small countries' views matter. We need to make sure that we don't assume because Britain is leaving, that that's the problem of euroscepticism gone. Because it's not. Europe needs to reform, modernise, change."
During the height of summer in the late 1980s, beef and tillage farmer Kevin Bryson, spent hours upon hours sitting on his tractor in the heart of Derry City towing a load of fodder behind.

It was a daily routine for the young border region farmer who simply wanted to bring silage or hay from his farm in Burt, Co Donegal, to his farm at the home-place in Eglinton, Co Derry.

Although the holdings are just 30 minutes apart, all individuals moving produce from the Republic to the North, were subjected to strict security and customs checks at Coshquin checkpoint followed by further official inspections at a post in the old walled city.

Between queues, delays and reams of paperwork, his days were regularly thrown completely out of kilter meaning less time to get work done.

Although the creation of an open market in the European Union in 1992 meant movement of goods across the border was no longer regulated through the custom system, Mr Bryson now fears a return to those "torturous days" as a result of Brexit.

"As soon as the vote was announced last June I remember thinking back to when I couldn't even bring a load of grass over the border. You had to present all these documentations and forms for every load, it was torture. If it was to go back to that stage I may as well just forget about it.

"When the borders opened it was just so easy, you had free rein for everything bar the cattle and up until now it's been fairly straight forward and that's how we want it to stay," he said.

Mr Bryson, who currently farms 300 acres - 210ac in Eglinton and 90ac in Burt - says if EU/UK negotiations result in a hard border he will be forced to separate his farms into two stand alone businesses.

"We mainly buy in store cattle in Derry and finish them in bull with some sucklers. We have 200 on average. Sometimes I border cattle in the north other times they're in the south but if a hard border comes along that door will be closed.

"I would have to run them as two separate farms with two totally separate holding systems. Anything down south would have to stay down there and anything up north would have to stay up here," he said.

"It is the only way you could do it where as at the minute they are really well intertwined between the both it's very free and easy," said Mr Bryson who deals with Foyle Meats in Derry, Martin Jennings Wholesale Meats in Mayo.

He says farmers in border counties are particularly vulnerable.

He is not swayed by talk that a Tory-DUP government in Westminster will result in a softer Brexit this side of the Irish Sea.

"There are farmers up here that think we're going to better off but the DUP voted to leave as well so there isn't going to be that much of a swing for us.

"All farmers here rely on money coming from Europe there is no way that the UK Government are going to give the same support," he said.

But border checks and paperwork are just two of a myriad of difficulties that threaten border farmers post Brexit.

Peter Lynch, a contractor and farmer based in Killea, Co Donegal, is concerned about the future of his customer base north and south where he ploughs, sows, combines, mows and bales over 500 acres of land.

He says the biggest problem ahead, depending on the exit deal, will be loss of a crucial VAT allowance agreement currently in place both sides of the border.

"There is an agreement there that if we do work in the north the customer pays zero VAT, but if they go out of the customs unions and farmers have to pay me VAT at 13.5pc that they can't claim back that is going to finish us in the north.

"They are not going to give us the work and you couldn't blame them, I wouldn't blame them, but it would spell disaster," he said.

Mr Lynch, who has about 40 contracting customers on each side of the border, says that sort revenue hit would result in job losses at his business.

Volatile sterling

He is also deeply concerned about a volatile sterling, impact on exports and that beef prices will drop in the south.

"For the meat factories it will be like a stick to beat us and we've seen that already in the weeks and months following the vote. There is just a whole pile of uncertainty at the minute and if everyone starts to jump into beef the outlook won't be great," he said.

Mr Lynch, who is also concerned about the farming opportunities that will be available to his children in the future, has decided to pause his investment in a new grain store in Donegal for the time being.

"I have a TAMS grant and planning permission for a grain store but that's all shelved at the minute. I'm looking to invest 70-80,000, but with the times that are in it I'm not prepared to spend that kind of money until we know how the deal is going to go.

"It is very frustrating, we don't have to stall but we're erring on the side of caution. Another danger too is that other countries might pull out of Europe so whether you're expanding or building or buying land right now you have to be very cautious," he said.

Meanwhile, dairy, beef and poultry farmer David Roberts, whose 200ac farm stretches from Redhill Co Cavan across the Fermanagh border, says his main worry is dairying in the south.

"I worry most about the price of our goods here in Cavan. The UK is our biggest market so if we have problems getting into that, on our doorstep, it would be a major blow.

Dairy farmers in the region mainly deal with Lakelands and LacPatrick processors.

Despite the looming threat, Brexit won't scupper his intentions to expand in the sector.

"I expanded the dairy side in recent years and probably will go further, the price of produce in a few years time may affect things but just because Brexit is coming down the road doesn't mean we will stop planning ahead," he said.

He believes a Tory-DUP deal will be beneficial to beef farmers in the north where he keeps 20 sucklers, rears them to stores and sells them at mart.

"I think a softer Brexit looks more likely now and although sterling volatility is a concern overall, for us it might actually be good that sterling is down a bit because it makes prices more competitive. England will need all the beef they can get so beef prices could actually rise in northern Ireland," he concluded.
There's a struggle to recruit and retain a more diverse workforce in the tech industry in Ireland - but just recognising the issue isn't enough.

According to Paul Wolfe, Indeed's Senior Vice President of Human Resources, employers have a responsibility to make sure there's a supportive culture thats committed to educating employees about inclusion and investing in strategies to put realistic policies in place.

Wolfe - who oversees all human resource functions, including talent acquisition, employee retention, compensation, benefits and employee development at Indeed - is in town for Dublin Pride for the very first time.

"I have not yet had the privilege of attending a Dublin Pride although Indeed have participated for the last three years. I was asked if I would be available for the festival back in January and I made sure that my travel plans tied in with this weekend," he told independent.ie.

"The Irish people have really positive energy - you guys really know how to celebrate. I'm really excited. For the first time I'll get to compare Dublin Pride with New York Pride, which I'm flying back for the next day."

With 15 years of experience as a human resources executive, having served as a Vice President and Senior Vice President at number of companies, including Match.com, Orbitz, Conde Nast and Ticketmaster, we took the opportunity to grill Wolfe on how the diversity tide is changing in the tech space.

Are tech firms introducing more appropriate measures to embrace diversity in the workplace? Or is it still very much in progress?

I think it is absolutely still a work in progress. Inclusion is a hot topic in the tech place right now but it applies for every industry. There isn't a silver bullet to solve the underrepresented issue in a company. So we're still trying to figure it out.

It's an entire culture change. We are looking at building relationships with other groups that work for us and the organisation. If you're underrepresented in a company you want to be able to see and meet someone like yourself you want to be able to talk to a person that has experienced similar things to yourself. In the recruitment process, helping people know what inclusion is is important.

At Indeed, it's important that we incorporate an inclusion policy that is in keeping with our culture and gets it into our pattern to become part of our DNA. We see signs that it's getting better, we've created the Director of Inclusion role some 15-16 months ago.

Read More

In the tech industry, gender, age and sexual orientation have - and can - cause roadblocks. What inclusion barrier do you think is the most difficult to overcome?

Inclusion is about much more than sexual orientation or ethnicity or nationality. I'm gay but I'm a white gay man. People do make assumptions based on visual identity but it's also about socio economic backgrounds, the rural homestead v growing up in a larger city. It's about what college or university I went to and how I was raised; all of those things shape how we view the world and how we interpret information.

We've started to talk to employers about why people's perspectives are different; we're all born with biases, there's nothing wrong with that but it's important that we're aware of that. We don't have to agree but understanding someone else's perspectives is the important bit.

Different perspectives make great companies - but understanding each other's viewpoint would make the world a better place.

How have you worked to create an environment that embraces diversity at Indeed itself?

Our inclusion roadmap is education, an unconscious biased training - and helping employees understand what that means. I think there's a lot of other factors at play here that we're still figuring out. We need to keep asking questions.

There are some trans gender employees at Indeed and one in particular opened up as we got to know each other. She said she gave me a lot of credit as I was actually asking her questions about her experience and how she felt; I thought I might have been being rude but she said she appreciated it because no-one asks her questions, everyone makes assumptions.

So it's about creating an environment where it's ok to ask these questions, it's part of our education process. If we're trying to increase our underrepresented population. In general, let's build relationships that are symbiotic.

So what's your opinion on filling the underrepresented quota? Do talented individuals suffer due to this focus?

If you give a hiring manager for a job a quota, they could just maintain on fulfilling that quota. I still believe that we need to hire the right person for the job. If it is a white man that gets the job in the end, we just need to be transparent about that. With the right understanding, we can both look at creating a balance between quota and the best talent. I know as a organisation we are not quite there yet; a number of leading tech firms aren't there yet either.
The figures were revealed in a written Dail reply to Social Democrat TD Catherine Murphy. Stock photo: Getty/NurPhoto

The Department of Jobs, Innovation and Enterprise is taking no chances in its staff being left behind in the online world of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Minister for Jobs, Innovation and Enterprise Frances Fitzgerald, pictured, confirmed that her department has spent over 2,100 in sending eight members of its staff to two social media conferences in 2016 and 2015.

The Department paid BMF Business Services 2,159 to attend the two conferences.

It also spent another 195 sending a staff member to a social media e-seminar being held by the Law Society and a further 405 to the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) for a one-day seminar, 'Social Media for Public Sector Organisations'.

The total spend of 2,759 on social media for its staff members was part of a 368,814 spend by the Department last year and in 2015 on third party public relations and training services.

The figures were revealed in a written Dail reply to Social Democrat TD Catherine Murphy.

They show that last year the Department spent 68,718 on PR and training - but this was sharply down on the 300,090 outlay in 2015. The largest part of the spend was a 284,524 contact secured by Atomic Advertising Ltd to provide the Department with a one year advertising campaign, utilising radio and digital, to raise awareness of a range of Government-provided enterprise supports.

Another spend related to the Department paying 6,863 Fusion Communications to provide communication services to the Workplace Relations Commission.
The top 10 investors in the AIB deal hoovered up close to a third of the available stock, the Irish Independent has learned, with bluechip fund managers like Blackrock, Fidelity and Capital Group expected to rank towards the top of the register.

In contrast as many as a third of the institutional investors that placed orders in the IPO did not receive any shares.

Hedge funds were also left out in the cold with their bids for large volumes of stock scaled back so that just 10pc of their orders were filled as the Government went out of its way to put shares in the hands of longer-term investors from top-tier institutions. In total the nine-strong banking syndicate registered 350 institutional orders for the stock. An additional class of retail investors took 10pc of the total.

Bernard Byrne, AIB's chief executive, described the successful listing as a "landmark day for the bank" and the listing does mark a milestone.

Even so, London-based sources said the strict allocation policy and preference for certain corners of the market may prove a source of friction next time AIB goes to sell shares.

The retail reception to the float was relatively muted.

Smaller investors accounted for less than the targeted 500m of shares - even though those who did submit orders were treated far better than many institutional shareholders when it came to allocation.

In contrast to the scale-backs for hedge funds, retail orders up to 50,000 were filled in full. Above that level orders were scaled back, by 50pc.

Despite the frustration among some less favoured fund managers, Irish institutional managers praised the handling of the deal. Noel O'Halloran, chief investment officer at KBI Global Investors, claimed the share sell-down was priced "fairly" and should ensure a "robust after-market for the next 72pc".

The listing ends a frenetic period of preparation by AIB management. For the past three years executives have been laying the groundwork for the float and sources said the workload ratcheted up dramatically in the past six months. One insider described it as the management's "sole focus" in the final stretch.

If true, Bernard Byrne's team might take the weekend off to recharge, but with taxpayers still down more than 10bn on their AIB investment, there's still a long way to go before we can start talking about "mission accomplished".
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, June 24

By Demir Azizov  Trend:

Uzbekistans President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has sent a message to Afghanistans President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, the Uzbek Foreign Ministrys press service said in a message.

In the message, Mirziyoyev expressed his deep condolences to Ashraf Ghani and the whole people of Afghanistan over the numerous victims as a result of the explosion in the Helmand provinces Lashkargah city, according to the message.

As it was reported previously, 34 people were killed and about 60 got injured as a result of a car bomb attack in the Lashkargah city.

Uzbekistan condemns such inhuman terrorist attacks and once again stresses the need for international cooperation against such threats, said the Uzbek president in his message.

President Mirziyoyev also conveyed the words of support to the families and friends of the victims, wished a speedy recovery to the injured people.
As Apple prepares to hand over the money for safe keeping, Ireland wants to make sure it isn't left on the hook for any drop in the value of the fund during the years of court appeals. Photo: PA

The Government is trying to find a way to indemnify itself against any losses stemming from holding about 13bn of Apple's back taxes, according to a report by Bloomberg citing people familiar with the follow-up to last year's record-breaking European Union state-aid ruling.

The Government is late collecting the funds that EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager ordered had to be charged because Ireland had undercharged the tech giant on tax for years.

The Irish Government and Apple both dispute that view, and are challenging the ruling through the European courts.

In the meantime, however, Irish officials have been left to arrange the logistics of holding an unprecedented amount of cash in escrow, potentially for as long as a decade.

Euro-area banks, including Irish lenders, currently charge to hold large corporate deposits, rather than paying interest.

As Apple prepares to hand over the money for safe keeping, Ireland wants to make sure it isn't left on the hook for any drop in the value of the fund during the years of court appeals.

That's according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations on the structure of the proposed account are ongoing.

If the appeal, which could take as long as five years, is successful, the money will be returned to Apple.

If the markets shift, and banks start paying interest again, it is not clear whether Ireland or Apple would own the profits.

A Department of Finance spokesman declined to comment on the report.

Ireland should step up its efforts to recoup about unpaid taxes from Apple or it could end up in court, the Commission said last month.

The money was due to be collected by a January 3 deadline, but arrangement to manage the fund weren't ready on time.

On Thursday, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said a tender seeking offers to manage the project was being prepared.

Ireland has used legal indemnities before to protect itself. The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland was part funded by a German state-owned development bank when the SBCI was set up in 2014. As part of that process, the Irish Government agreed to make good any losses the Germans might suffer. In turn, the Department of Finance is entitled to claim losses back from the SBCI.

It is understood the job of managing the Apple money falls with the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which already looks after the State's own cash balances. However, the Apple funds will have to be held separately. (Additional reporting Bloomberg)
A major security operation involving armed gardai will be put in place for the Dublin Pride parade today amid intense vigilance about a possible terror threat.

A backpack ban will be in place in some parts of the city, while temporary bollards are being used in crowded pedestrian areas to protect the thousands of people expected to attend.

Officers from the Armed Support Unit (ASU) will be on patrol along with other specialist Garda units to prevent any potential attack taking place in the city centre.

Garda chiefs also plan to erect temporary barriers and bollards, capable of withstanding direct impacts and preventing a terrorist vehicle from hitting its intended target, on the capital's streets today.

Senior gardai have stated there is no specific intelligence to indicate any threat to the event.

However, officers added that necessary precautions must be taken in the wake of the recent terror attacks in the UK.

Today's Dublin Pride event will be attended by the newly elected Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who will be shadowed by a security detail from the elite Special Detective Unit (SDU) as is standard protocol.

A bag ban, which has been enforced at sporting events, festivals and concerts, will be in place at certain locations.

Bags bigger than A4 size will not be permitted into St Stephen's Green or Smithfield Square. Exceptions will be made for people with medical conditions, as well as children.

A similar ban will also be enforced today at the Panti Bar, a popular gay venue on Capel Street, on the advice of gardai.

Specialist officers from the Garda Public Order Unit will also be on duty for the parade and after-party in Smithfield Square, which can hold 7,500 people.

In total 36 gardai from the unit, also referred to as the 'riot squad', will patrol the city centre in three vans.

These gardai will adopt a 'soft hat' approach rather than being equipped in full riot gear.

Armed gardai will also be on duty throughout the city centre and will patrol both on foot and in marked vehicles. The ASU was set-up in the wake of the Hutch/Kinahan gangland feud but will also be used in response to any potential terror attacks.

Eddie McGuinness, Dublin LGBT Pride manager, said that organisers were liaising with gardai and security was being increased for this year's event.

He has asked people to be vigilant and look after each other, but emphasised that it wasn't to scare people, but rather a matter of protocol.
The High Court has been asked to consider committing Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan and a number of other gardai to prison for contempt of court.

The case involves allegations gardai failed to abide by court orders directing the return of an excavator and a truck seized from a Dublin businessman who has been investigated by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).

Lawyers representing articulated truck and car trader Fran McGuinness (56) have alleged two gardai deliberately ignored district court orders made in 2013 for the return of a Kobelco excavator and a Volvo truck.

It is alleged both the excavator and the truck were sold in contravention of court orders last September as part of the enforcement of a tax demand by the CAB against Mr McGuinness's Vehicle Tech Ltd company.

Mr McGuinness's legal team has claimed Ms O'Sullivan was responsible for the actions of her subordinates and has either by act or omission permitted various court orders to be ignored.

Following an application from barrister Alan Toal, for Mr McGuinness, Mr Justice Seamus Noonan ordered that the ex-parte docket and an affidavit containing the allegations be served on the Chief State Solicitor, as the commissioner's legal representative.

The matter returns to the High Court next week.

Mr McGuinness, of Seatown Park, Swords, Co Dublin, has been engaged in a long-running row with the force over the manner in which a company bank account was frozen, a tax demand was raised against his business, and expensive cars, trucks and plant hire equipment were seized.

The businessman has alleged at least eight seizures have been made by gardai since 2008.

He has alleged his premises near Swords has been targeted on several occasions because his brother, who he says he is estranged from and has no dealings with, is a notorious criminal.

The brother, Cyril McGuinness, also known as 'Dublin Jimmy', lives in Co Fermanagh and has more than 50 convictions.

These include one in Belgium for leading a gang smuggling plant machinery into Ireland.

Mr McGuinness denies any involvement in criminal activity.

Although he was arrested in May 2009 and held for 17 hours, he was released and did not subsequently face any charges.

Earlier this year, a BMW seized in June 2008 was returned to Mr McGuinness by order of High Court judge Richard Humphreys.

Payment

The judge also ordered the payment of 33,600 in special damages to Mr McGuinness.

The order is being appealed by Mr McGuinness, who believes he should receive more damages.

Among the vehicles seized from the businessman was a top of the range Mercedes CL63 AMG, taken from his business premises three years ago.

Despite repeated requests, the whereabouts of the vehicle has not been disclosed to Mr McGuinness.

In an affidavit, Mr McGuinness's solicitor John Geary said his client had been beset, harassed and intimidated by gardai. He said road traffic and money laundering legislation had been abused to wreak havoc on Mr McGuinness's life.

The solicitor said multiple courts had been told of pending prosecutions against his client in relation to money laundering, but not a single indictable prosecution had been initiated.
A pigeon racing enthusiast allegedly shot dead by a man in drag drove a friend's partner's car to the scene because his friend was banned from driving, a jury has heard.

Keith Walker took his friend Jason O'Connor's pigeons to Blanchardstown Racing Pigeon Club in Clonsilla because the birds were taking part in a race the next day.

Mr Walker was struck by 18 bullets in the club's car park and would have suffered a "rapid death" after he was hit by two bullets to the head, a pathologist said.

Christopher McDonald (34) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Walker outside the club in Clonsilla on June 12, 2015.

It is the State's case that Mr McDonald, from the East Wall area of Dublin 1, disguised himself as a woman and fatally shot Mr Walker with a submachine gun.

Mr O'Connor's statement to gardai was read into evidence by prosecution lawyer Denis Vaughan Buckley.

He said he had known Mr Walker for two years. They became friends after he loaned Mr Walker a female pigeon, or hen, and he had successfully bred off that bird.

Mr O'Connor said there was a pigeon race on the weekend in question, and Mr Walker had come over to help him with his birds.

The witness told gardai that Mr Walker had helped to load the birds into Mr O'Connor's partner's car.

Mr Walker then drove the car, a black Toyota Avensis, over to the pigeon club.

Mr O'Connor said he couldn't drive because he was the subject of a 10-year ban at the time.

He didn't go to the pigeon club with Mr Walker because he was "tired".

Mr O'Connor said he rang Mr Walker and then sent him a text message to tell him which birds to enter into the competition.

However, there was no response from him and, when he heard an ambulance, he started to get worried.

He rang another friend, who told him Mr Walker was dead.

Mr O'Connor told gardai he was "still in shock" and "totally devastated".

State pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy said the cause of Mr Walker's death was multiple gunshot wounds to his head and upper body.

Prof Cassidy said wounds to the head would have resulted in his "rapid death".

Prof Cassidy also said the bullet wounds were consistent with a "rapid burst of gunfire".

The trial continues.
Jenna OShea split from her partner and became homeless.

A creche worker turned to heroin when her "normal life" came crashing down in "spectacular fashion," a court heard.

Mother-of-two Jenna O'Shea (31) split from her partner and became homeless in a very short space of time before she began taking the drug.

She was arrested when gardai found her buying heroin on a city street.

O'Shea, of Lakeside Crescent, Newbridge, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty to possession of the drug.

Dublin District Court heard gardai stopped the accused at St James's Walk, Dublin 8, on October 7, 2015.

She was with another person and they admitted they were in the area to buy drugs. O'Shea's bag was searched and she was arrested and taken to Kilmainham Garda Station.

She then produced a small wrap of heroin to the gardai and co-operated with them. She had no previous convictions.

O'Shea had only become an addict in recent times, her barrister told Judge Fiona Lydon.

Injecting

Before that she was in a long-term relationship and was living with her partner and two children. O'Shea had been working full-time in a creche and had trained as a hairdresser.

However, everything "fell apart" when she split from her partner and lost her house, ending up homeless.

She largely lost contact with her children.

"She had a very normal life for all intents and purposes and in quite a spectacular fashion it all came crashing down in a very short space of time," O'Shea's barrister said.

That was four years ago and she started smoking heroin, progressing to injecting the drug.

O'Shea was doing better now and was in a "very healthy relationship" with a new partner who was in court to support her.

She was involved in her children's lives again.

However, she still smoked heroin occasionally.

The court heard the accused was a "very anxious person" and not aggressive in any way.

Judge Lydon said the addiction issue needed to be addressed and the probation report should emphasise rehabilitation. She adjourned the case to a date in September.
The soldier was rushed to Limerick University Hospital shortly after 1.20pm on Thursday but was later pronounced dead. Stock picture

An investigation is underway into the sudden death of a young soldier who fell ill after a training exercise with his battalion.

Daniel Donougher (23), from Cork, had completed his new recruit training in recent weeks, and was found unconscious in his bed on Thursday afternoon by a number of colleagues.

He had been part of the well-known 12th Battalion, which is stationed at Sarsfield Barracks in Limerick city, after having completed his two-star training course.

The soldier was rushed to Limerick University Hospital shortly after 1.20pm on Thursday but was later pronounced dead.

His death is not being treated as suspicious.

It is understood that Mr Donougher went straight to his room after the earlier training exercise.

He was found unconscious in his bed a short while later, a spokeswoman for the Defence Forces confirmed.

"A serving soldier (23) sadly passed away having fallen ill while at work in Sarsfield Barracks, Limerick," the spokeswoman said.

"The soldier fell ill during the unit's organised recreational physical training and was found in an unresponsive state by his colleagues a short time later.

"The unit's medics were called on-scene and administered CPR, he was then transferred to University Hospital Limerick.

"Despite the best efforts of the Defence Forces medics and hospital staff, he passed away.

"The Defence Forces are providing a liaison officer to offer any assistance to his family during this difficult time," she added.

Mr Donougher is due to be laid to rest with full military honours.

Many of his comrades changed their profile pictures on Facebook to the crest of the Defence Forces in tribute to their colleague.

One colleague said: "You were a real hero, Daniel Donougher, we will all miss you."
While students may have found the Leaving Certificate higher level Applied Maths paper difficult, there was nothing unfair about it, said teacher Tony Magennis.

Mr Magennis, a subject representative for the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) and teacher at Errigal College, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, raised "two small things".

He said question 1, about a baggage chute, involved circular motion and that may have thrown some students.

Question 10, on differential equations, involved spacecraft, which may have required students to know a little bit more about gravitation, rather than only pure maths, which is more usual, he added.

Mr Magennis described ordinary level as "very fair" although students found question 2, on relative velocity, "difficult".

Meanwhile, the Leaving Certificate higher level technology paper was described as "demanding but without surprises" by teacher Seamus Walshe.

Mr Walshe, an ASTI subject representative, said: "There was a nice linking of questions to cutting-edge real-life technological situations."

A teacher at Presentation College, Co Carlow, he said the emphasis on sustainable/alternative energy in the paper was "not surprising". But, he added that the term 'installed capacity' with reference to wind power in section B, question 2(a) (ii) may have surprised some students.

He said the ordinary level paper was quite probing, again with a nice link to real life.
A PEDESTRIAN in his 80s has been killed in an early-morning road crash.

Gardai are appealing for witnesses following the collision on the N60 at Logatemple, Claremorris, Co.Mayo at 1am on Saturday.

The man was fatally injured following a collision with a car.

The driver and two passengers in the car were uninjured. The body of the deceased has been taken to Mayo University Hospital in Castlebar where a post mortem examination will be carried out.

The road at the scene is closed to facilitate an examination of the crash site by Garda Forensic Collision investigators. Diversions are in place between Claremorris and Balla.

Witnesses or anyone with information are asked to contact Claremorris Garda Station on 094 9372080.
Tehran, Iran, June 24

By Mehdi Sepahvand  Trend:

Iran is going to host the UN-initiated International Conference on Combating Sand and Dust Storms, to be held in Tehran on July 3-5.

The international conference will be hosted by the Department of Environment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the cooperation of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, UN Environment and the UN Development Program, in collaboration with other relevant UN entities.

Addressing a presser on the event on June 24, the conferences executive secretary and director of education and research of the Department of Environment, Yousef Rashidi said 31 countries out of 58 invitees have already confirmed their attendance.

Ministers, experts, and other figures from Azerbaijan, China, South Korea, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, the United States, Qatar, Oman, Turkey, India, Jordan, Slovakia, Serbia, Iraq, etc. will be among the attendees of the three-day event.

The conference will be inaugurated by President Hassan Rouhani on July 3. The day will include two ministerial meetings followed by a joint statement to be titled the Tehran Declaration.

A dust storm is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Fine particles are transported by saltation and suspension, a process that moves soil from one place and deposits it in another.
Service users at a home for people with intellectual disabilities have been "left stranded in their homes" after a dispute has arisen over new taxation rules for HSE vehicles.

Earlier this year, there was a change in policy by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government in regards to the motor taxation of state-owned vehicles, in particular HSE patient transport.

Under previous guidelines HSE vehicles were exempt from paying tax.

Eamonn Tierney, chairperson at St Joseph service for the intellectually disabled in Portrane, Dublin said up to 20 vehicles have been left "lying idle" as a result, making transport to and from the service difficult.

"This is bureaucracy gone mad. This is affecting some of the most vulnerable in our society and it cannot be allowed to continue, where they cannot get out of their homes."

A HSE representative said transport arrangements have been put in place for residents.

While Mr Tierney outlined that they've tried getting a taxi, but a taxi car cannot fulfill the needs of the residents.

"There would be a hundred living in Portrane and another hundred out living in the community that needs to be brought in," he explains further.

He said that staff at Portrane feel that between the local government and the HSE theyve been brought in circles with no resolution offered since they made their first complaint in early May.

We've taken this to all levels within the HSE and politically with no end in sight, he said.

The issue was brought to the Dail and addressed to Minister for Health, Simon Harris.

In a response Minister Harris said: The HSE is the responsible state body in relation to motor tax arrangements for any vehicles under its remit."

He added that "discussions are continuing between the HSE and the relevant motor tax policy division, with a view to concluding at the earliest opportunity".
Sarsfield barracks and inset many soldiers are posting an image of the defence forces logo with a black band through it.

Tributes have been paid to a soldier who died after falling ill during physical training at an Irish army barracks..

The soldier, named locally as Private Daniel Donougher (23) from Mallow, Co Cork, was found at approximately 1.20pm on Thursday in his bed at Sarsfield Barracks, Limerick.

He was taken by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick where he later died.

Independent.ie has learned that Mr Donougher had recently completed his two-star training course.

He was stationed with the 12th battalion in Limerick city.

The death is not being treated as suspicious. An investigation will be carried out for the purposes of the coroner.

In a statement, released this afternoon, the Defence Forces said:

"Yesterday afternoon, a serving soldier (23), sadly passed away having fallen ill while at work in Sarsfield Barracks, Limerick.

"The soldier fell ill during the units Organised Recreational Physical Training and was found in an unresponsive state by his colleagues a short time later.

"The units medics were called on-scene and administered CPR, he was then transferred to University Hospital Limerick. Despite the best efforts of the Defence Forces Medics and hospital staff he passed away."

The Defence Forces confirmed that they are providing a liaison officer to "offer any assistance to his family during this difficult time".

This evening tributes were paid to Pte Donougher online with many of his friends changing their profile pictures to an image of the Defence Forces logo with a black band across it.

One colleague said: You were a real hero, Daniel Donougher, we will all miss you."

A family member said they were in shock and were deeply upset by the tragedy.

"It is very hard really," she said.

A spokesman for the Health and Safety Authority said they are not aware of the case.

"We would only investigate if it was due to work activity and even then we may not. Military on active duty or manoeuvres are exempt from health and safety legislation.

He will be buried with full military honours.
Sean Curran (54) left his full time job working in construction industry to become a painter

Most people have toyed with the idea of packing it all in and pursing their passion project, but one Dublin native actually made the leap.

After 36 years in the construction industry, Sean Curran (54) hung up his work boots to pursue a new career as a painter.

Three months ago I decided to become a painter. I dont want to turn around at the age of 70 wishing I could have, he told Independent.ie.

Growing up in Rathcoole, Co Dublin, he did an apprenticeship in the construction trade which allowed him to progress in his chosen industry, however, his love of painting in the watercolour medium has always lingered since he was a young boy.

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At 25 years old, he emigrated to Canada where he became exposed to a range of North American watercolour artists that he was inspired by.

While living in Canada I actually went to a art college at night, he said.

This allowed him to work a regular day job whilst also discovering more about his passion.

After three years of study, he was invited to display his work in an exhibition in Burlington, Ontario. At the end of the exhibition, the gallery owner proposed to publish two of his paintings into limited edition print and both prints proved to be popular in Canada.

When Sean moved back to Ireland, he settled in Kildare. His focus quickly shifted to getting his family established and being a parent to his children.

Art took a back seat once again, he said.

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While he was juggling the responsibilities of being a father and a partner, he still painted in his free time but described the industry in Ireland as a very difficult space to break into.

Despite this, in 2007 he was invited to stage an exhibition in Wexford and was also invited to exhibit his work in Cork University Hospital.

Sean said that what really pushed him to take the risk and make it his full time career was his wife.

She advised him to have a go at it for 12 months.

When he was doubting his choice he thinks of a friend who once told him, no one ever regrets what they do in life, its the things they didnt do.

After such a radical change what advice does he have for people thinking about a similar move?

"Give it a go without compromising your family's welfare, belief in yourself," she said.

Finance was an issue he worried about but he's fully prepared for if it doesnt work out.

I have a teaching qualification I can always use," he said.

But for now the happiness he gets from producing a new piece, from doing what hes always wanted to do with his life, there's no substitution for that feeling he said.

On June 25 Sean one man show exhibition will be held at the gallery in Straffan Antiques and Design, Barberstown. A selection of his work can be found on Seancurranart.com.
A teenager (14) was rushed to hospital with critical head injuries after a sailing accident off the coast of Cork.

The boy was rushed to Cork University Hospital where his condition is believed to be improving.

It is understood that the accident occurred off the coast of Skibbereen in Co Cork on Saturday morning when a sailing boom hit the youngster in the head.

A coastguard operation was overseen by Valentia Coastguard at the request of the National Ambulance Service.

Rescue 117 helicopter was tasked to attend the scene from Waterford at 11.20am on Saturday morning.

Units from Schull coastguard and Toe Head coastguard were involved in the operation.

Meanwhile, in Dublin a man (53) was rushed to hospital with serious head injuries after a kite-surfing accident off the coast of Sutton.

The man was kite-surfing when he was pulled into the sea wall and the alarm was raised around 4pm on Saturday evening.

It is hoped that he will make a full recovery.

In a third separate incident a coastguard helicopter from Shannon was dispatched to Inis Mor when a female diver taking part in the red Bull Cliff Diving event suffered spinal injuries.

The helicopter brought the woman to hospital in Galway city, arriving at 12.15 on Saturday
Katie Healy and David Nolan who survived the Bataclan massacre in Paris

An Irish couple who survived the Bataclan terrorist attack have announced the birth of their first baby.

Katie Healy and David Nolan were just inches from death when gunmen stormed the Paris venue and opened fire last in November 2015.

David jumped on his partner and protected her while the terrorists walked through the venue shooting innocent victims.

The couple said their goodbyes but incredibly survived the incident.

Now Katie, from Co Louth, has revealed that she has given birth to a baby girl, named Penelope.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, the 29-year-old said: "Love got me and David through that night and Penelope is here because of that love. We will never forget what happened in Paris but Penelope stops us dwelling. Our baby helped us turn a page and has given us a new focus for the future."

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She continued: "We have to think about her and try to put dark times behind us."

Smitten father David (33) added: "Shes a beautiful, pure, happy outcome from a terrible tragedy. We said after the attack that love would win. Penelope proves love conquers all."

The couple explain that their daughter is six months old but they have decided to speak for the first time since her birth.

In a lengthy interview the couple said their joy was darkened by the recent tragedy at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester where 22 people were killed and 116 were injured.

In total 89 people were shot dead by gunmen at the Bataclan theatre during a concert by the Eagles of Death Metal. Dozens more wee injured.
A patient who was locked in a lift during a power blackout in Beaumont Hospital had to be given emergency resuscitation, the Irish Independent has learned.

The hospital's generator failed to kick in for several hours last Sunday after supply from the national grid was disrupted.

The hospital, which is a major centre for neurosurgery and cancer, was plunged into crisis for most of that morning.

It is understood the lift where the man and several staff were trapped had to be manually opened half-way between floors.

Twelve men were involved in transferring him to theatre.

A spokeswoman for the hospital yesterday confirmed that shortly after 11am on Sunday it lost electricity from the national grid.

"Emergency processes were put in place and while there was disruption to the running of the hospital, no patient or staff were compromised," she said.

It is understood ventilators which support patients' breathing had to revert to battery power.

However, these batteries only have a certain timespan and the concern was that the generator would not be activated in time.

The hospital's Emergency Department went off call for a period, but went back on call in the afternoon.

The spokeswoman for the hospital declined to comment on any patient being trapped in a lift.

Ambulances were diverted to the Mater and Connolly Hospitals.

The hospital's own generator was activated in the afternoon.

Several staff who were off duty came into the hospital to support services.

One described the back-to-basics approach as akin to returning to the era of Florence Nightingale.

Staff have yet to get a collective briefing on the incident.
A shipping company employee was killed in a tragic workplace accident when he was struck by an articulated lorry.

Father-of-four Tommy Breslin is understood to have been unfastening belts at the back of the trailer in Dublin Port when he was fatally injured.

Mr Breslin, from Loughlinstown, south Dublin, was aged in his 60s.

Condolences

The incident happened while the P&O Ferries employee - nicknamed Rambo - was helping to unload the vessel European Endeavour at about 1.30pm on Thursday.

In a statement, the British company's chief executive, Helen Deeble, expressed her condolences to Mr Breslin's family.

"We can confirm that one of our employees, Tommy Breslin, tragically died during loading of the European Endeavour at the port of Dublin on Thursday June 22. Our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones at this terrible time," she said.

"We shall of course co-operate fully with all the relevant authorities in their investigation."

A spokesperson for the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) confirmed it was investigating the accident.

"We sent inspectors to the scene where the incident happened," the spokesperson said.

Gardai from Store Street Garda Station have also launched an inquiry.

After being struck, Mr Breslin was taken to Mater Hospital, where he was declared dead.

Last night, relatives gathered at his home to comfort his wife Laura and to grieve with her.

Mr Breslin, although living in Loughlinstown, was originally from York Road in Dun Laoghaire.

Family

He previously worked for Irish Lights and Irish Ferries. A funeral notice said arrangements would follow.

"Sadly missed by his loving wife, sons, daughters, son-in-law to be Alan Keogh, sisters Catherine, Frances and Louise, brothers-in-law Joe, Stephen, Ger, Joseph, Dave and David, sisters-in-law Sandra, Colette, Marie and Anne, relatives, workmates and a very large circle of friends," it said.

"Me oul pal to all," it added.
Fianna Fail's most senior TDs have launched a stinging attack on new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as the fallout from the appointment of Maire Whelan to the Court of Appeal continues.

Several of the party's frontbench spokespeople last night said they believe Mr Varadkar tried to provoke the party into collapsing the Government and forcing an early general election.

Relations between the two main parties soured notably this week as Mr Varadkar and Micheal Martin clashed angrily over the appointment of the former attorney general.

On Thursday, Mr Varadkar moved to ease the tensions by extending an olive branch to Fianna Fail.

But last night, some of Fianna Fail's most influential TDs said they believe an early general election is now far more likely than was the case under Enda Kenny.

Fianna Fail's finance spokesperson Michael McGrath said he believed Mr Varadkar was trying to "goad us" into forcing an election.

"This is a new Taoiseach and we are in a different place now. It's important we keep cool heads as a party," Mr McGrath told the Irish Independent.

"It did feel at times during the week that the Taoiseach was goading us into causing a general election.

"Nobody would have been rewarded for causing a general election that the public do not want."

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Limerick TD and former minister Willie O'Dea said he now believes the country is close to being in an "election-type scenario" as a result of the row this week.

Swagger

"A type of swagger crept in. Leo was very provocative and it's very unhealthy for relations," Mr O'Dea said.

"Our grassroots are saying to us: 'Why don't you pull the plug?" he added.

Dublin Fingal TD Darragh O'Brien accused Mr Varadkar and Fine Gael ministers of behaving in an arrogant manner.

"The Fine Gael arrogance was dripping from every pore this week," Mr O'Brien said.

"Leo is extremely headstrong - he feels he is right even when he's wrong.

"Things will have to change. He needs to show some respect and courtesy and realise that he is a minority Government and is only in office because of Fianna Fail."

Barry Cowen, the party's housing spokesperson, said Mr Varadkar's style is completely different than his predecessor.

"It's clear he is somewhat unpredictable," the Offaly TD said.

Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, Mr Varadkar reached out to Fianna Fail and pledged to do more over the coming weeks to mend relations between the two parties.

But he insisted that Fine Gael did not have to consult with Fianna Fail about appointing judges under the Confidence and Supply Arrangement.

Neither did he apologise for the handling of Ms Whelan's appointment.

While welcoming the olive branch, Fianna Fail's Roscommon deputy Eugene Murphy said "a lot of damage has been done" as a result of the controversy.

"Respect is so important but Fianna Fail genuinely feels it hasn't been respected," Mr Murphy said.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says his Cabinet is very diverse as it features people from all across Ireland, different religions and members of the LGBT community.

The new leader of Fine Gael found himself at the centre of a fresh storm this week when it emerged he had appointed fewer female ministers than his predecessor Enda Kenny.

Criticism followed from Mary Mitchell O'Connor, who was demoted to his junior ministerial team. Ms Mitchell O'Connor said that "power and success doesn't just come in a pinstripe suit".

"I am very conscious that the Government itself is not leading by example," she told the WXN Ireland's Most Powerful Women event.

Mr Varadkar has appointed seven women out of 35 positions at the Cabinet table and in junior minister roles. This is one fewer than Mr Kenny.

But Mr Varadkar responded to the mounting criticism yesterday, saying there was more to diversity than promoting women, and insisting: "I don't think diversity, by the way, is just about gender".

Speaking in Brussels, he said that a lack of female ministers is down to a lack of female TDs in the Dail.

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He moved to highlight the wide range of different types of people holding ministerial positions in the Government.

"I would like to see a lot more women in politics. I'm somebody who believes in diversity. I don't think diversity, by the way, is just about gender," the Taoiseach said.

"I think other things matter too, and we do have a very diverse Cabinet," he said.

Backgrounds

"People from different religious backgrounds, and people from Donegal to Wexford, and, of course, people who are members of the LGBT community, and people who are from all sorts of backgrounds."

Mr Varadkar said the Government membership was always based on the Dail make-up, and numbers of women in Cabinet were always based on the numbers of women TDs supporting government.

Mr Varadkar said that a total of 58 people supported the current minority coalition - 12 are women, and of those seven are ministers, five are the Cabinet table, and one of them is the Tanaiste.

"What happens in politics is that your ministerial team generally reflects the composition of the Dail," Mr Varadkar said.

"What I need to do as party leader in particular is to make sure we have many more women in our next parliamentary party so that I can promote many more women," he said.

"I would absolutely like to see more gender diversity in my ministerial team, and also in the Dail and in politics."

Meanwhile, Mr Varadkar also spoke about being the country's first openly gay Taoiseach in a speech delivered at an LGBT event this week.

"Some people are surprised that not everyone in the LGBT community supports my policies or even celebrated my election as Taoiseach. In fact, some LGBT activists get quite annoyed when I don't agree with them on every other issue.

"But I think that is actually a good and a healthy thing because the LGBT community is not a political monolith where everyone thinks the same or believes the same," he said.

Ghetto

"If it was, it would be a political ghetto and I don't think we want to have any of that. It is, of course, a diverse community in itself, with people from all sorts of opinions, left, right and centre, secular, religious, pro-choice and not, for globalisation and also campaigning against it.

"So, I don't really ask anyone to celebrate the fact that we have a Taoiseach who is a gay man. But rather we should celebrate the fact that we live in a free country, in a democracy where we have a Taoiseach who happens to be gay but we are able to support or criticise him, due to our own beliefs and principles which to me is true freedom."
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his partner Matt Barrett arriving to the Ireland funds gala dinner at Powerscourt Hotel. Pic:Mark Condren.

Newly elected Taoiseach Leo Varadkar conveyed his desire for Ireland to secure a seat on the UN Security Council at Irelands Funds Conference 2017.

Speaking in front of over one hundred philanthropists and honoured guests from all over the world, including Prince Albert, the Taoiseach made it clear that he wants Ireland to play a greater role in international affairs.

I would like Ireland to secure a seat on the UN Security Council, so that we can play an even greater role in international affairs and to achieving a world of laws," he said.

In a time of global uncertainty, rising terrorism, and threats to peace, it is right that we expand our diplomatic footprint overseas.

It is precisely because our forces threaten no one that, in the words of President Kennedy, we can help create a world in which no nation is threatened.

The Taoiseach added that the world of today faces threats that even President Kennedy, at the height of the cold war, could never have imagined.

He also warned of a growth of populism around the world.

Where sometimes people are guided by passion rather than moral and intellectual principle, or are fired up by anger instead of idealism, we need to become better at articulating what it is we believe in, and what we think is worth defending.

The best way of responding to uncritical and seductive populist appeals is not to try and match them, or to ignore them, but to inspire people with something more truthful, more realistic, and more noble, he said.

The Ireland Funds is a global philanthropic network established in 1976 to promote and support peace, culture, education and community development throughout the island of Ireland, and Irish-related causes around the world. With chapters in 12 countries,The Ireland Funds has raised over $550 million for deserving causes in Ireland and beyond, benefiting more than 3,000 different organizations.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 24

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

Irans police seized over 1.7 tons of various drugs from smugglers in two armed clashes in the country's southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan.

The police forces also arrested four drug smugglers and dismantled two drug-trafficking bands in the operations, the province's police commander, Brigadier General Hossein Rahimi said, Tasnim news agency reported June 24.

Rahimi said the police forces identified an armed drug-trafficking band that was active in Saravan, Iranshahr, and Sib and Suran cities.

In an armed clash with the band, the police forces seized 1,248 kilograms of opium, 53 kilograms of heroin, and two AK-47 rifles, and arrested three smugglers.

In another operation, the police forces of Khash and Mehrestan cities seized 472 kilograms of opium and arrested a smuggler, Rahimi said.

Iran is situated on a major drug route between Afghanistan and Europe, as well as the Persian Gulf states. The Islamic Republic shares about 900 kilometers of common border with Afghanistan, over which 74 percent of opium is smuggled.

The fight against drug trafficking annually costs Iran about $1 billion, according to the official estimates.

According to the statistics, there are about two million drug users in Iran.
Meet Ireland's Strongest Man Patrick O'Dwyer who eats an incredible 10,000 calories each day in the weeks ahead of a competition.

The Newcastle West man (31), who weighs 23st (146kg) was crowned Ireland's Strongest Man for the second year in a row in May and has ambitions of one day becoming the top competitor in the sport.

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Along with a gruelling training regime, the athlete's hardcore daily food diary ranges between 8000 and 10,000kcals and his lunch alone packs a punch with more than a pound of mince as the main ingredient.

The Limerick man's weekly shop sets him back an eye-watering 300 to 400 - vital fuel to continue the high intensity training needed to reclaim his All-Ireland title and also have a shot at competitions across the water.

The athlete admits that he favours horse meat or venison when it comes to animal protein and he eats eight eggs, 1lb of mince, 450g of chicken and a large steak every day as part of his mammoth eight meals.

"I prefer horse meat or venison because there's a higher quality of protein and there's less saturated fat. I get it off chef who does a lot of hunting for the venison and he gets the fillet of horse from an abattoir where they deal with horses and send them to France generally. He's believes you are what you eat and I believe him. It's helped me a great deal eating all that meat."

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To increase his calorie intake Patrick awakens at 3.30am to drink the first of three mass gainer shakes, which each clock in at 1200kcals, and every day the athlete consumes more than 1.5 litres of whole milk.

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After a long day's work Patrick heads to his local -the Bodybuilding Gym in Raheen - where he trains five times a week.

"I do three weight sessions, one strongman session where I practise the things that will be coming up in the competition and one stretching, mobility and foam rolling session."

Despite his size, Patrick reckons he is on the smaller scale when it comes to his international rivals, whose muscles tip the scales at 28st on average. Although he has dreams of one day competing in Britain's Strongest Man, one of the toughest competitions in the world, Patrick can't commit his full time to the sport as he currently works between 50 and 60 hours a week as a truck driver.

"Many of the athletes excelling in this sport are training full-time, four to five days a week, because they are sponsored. Right now I'm working full-time along with the training. I drive a truck around Munster so it's particularly difficult. I would be up at six or seven in the morning and then not back until five or six in the evening. I train between 6PM until 8PM or 9PM, and when I get home I set about making food for the next day," he said.

"The goal I would look towards is Britain's Strongest Man, however, many of these athletes are able to commit to it full time because they have sponsorship. Working full-time, driving 50 or 60 hours a week, it doesn't allow me the recovery time that many competitors have, which is a vital part of their performance."

However, Patrick is keen to hold onto his title of Ireland's Strongest Man for as long as possible and is currently preparing for his next competition, the UK's Strongest Man.

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"It's something you definitely have to be passionate about because outside of the gym you don't really have a social life. I'm very lucky to have such an understanding and supportive girlfriend, because as with any sport, it takes a lot of commitment," he said.

This is Everything Ireland's Strongest Man Eats in Just One Day

Meal 1

250g of organic oats

750ml protein milk

1tbsp of honey

1tbsp cashew butter

1 protein shake with chocolate protein milk

8 raw eggs

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Meal 2

1 Mass Gainer shake (1200kcal)

Meal 3

1lb of horse meat or venison mince

Stir friend vegetables

Pasta

Meal 4

450g of chicken

Baby potatoes

Vegetables

Meal 5

3 pieces of fruit, usually a banana, apple and orange

1 protein bar

2-3 tbsp of cashew butter and coffee

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Meal 6

Mass Gainer shake and a banana (1200kcals)

Meal 7

Large steak (usually venison or horse meat)

Potatoes

Vegetables

Meal 8

Mass gainer shake at 3.30am

Throughout the day

5litres of water

1litre of cranberry juice

1 litre green shake made with wheat grass and spirlina
There's a haunted house in the Dublin Mountains... and you can reach it on a family-friendly looped walk.

Set on Montpelier Hill, overlooking the city and coast from a height of 1,275 feet, the Hell Fire Club is deeply ensconced in Dublin folklore.

First built as a hunting lodge by in 1725, the stone building later became notorious due to the behaviour of a wild young group of aristocrats who met there.

Drinking and gambling were just the beginning. Strange stories also suggest satanic rituals, murder, and even a card game joined by the devil himself.

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The Hell Fire Club was built on the site of an ancient passage tomb - another story suggests its stone was taken from a cairn on the grave, cursing the building.

Today, walkers can access the lodge via a looped walk through the Dublin Mountains - the main forest entrance is about 6.5km south of Rathfarnham on the R115.

The Hell Fire Club hit the headlines recently, with the unveiling of a proposed 19 million tourism development by South Dublin County Council and Coillte.

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The proposal includes a visitor centre, restaurant and treetop canopy walk, but a 'Save the Hellfire' campaign has been protesting the developments.

It believes tree-felling, environmental damage and traffic congestion would adversely impact the area around Massey's Wood and Montpelier.

For more info and parking directions, see dublinmountains.ie.
On Saturday night I headed for the Lillywhite Lounge in Oriel Park where the Tesco Extra Social Club were having one of their big nights out and a fair-sized crowd had turned out specially for the occasion.

I wasn't too long in the door when I met Aaron Clarke from Parnell Park who was there with his number one woman Megan Reilly from Avenue Road and they were definitely on for making it a mad one.

I then headed over for a chat with Fallon Matthews from Blackrock who was sitting enjoying the party with Sharon McGeough from Medebawn and the ladies assured me it was going to be anything but a quiet night.

While I was talking to them, along came Finbar Riordan from Bothar Na Feirme and Nick Fenlon originally from London but now living in Castleross who told me it was going to be a fantastic night.

Not too long later I then got talking to Trevor Brady from St. Nicholas Avenue and Martin Delaney from Blackrock who tried to tell me that it was going to be a quiet night, but I certainly couldn't see any signs of it.

Making my way over to another table I got a word with Terry Brennan from Ravensdale who was with Stephen Leavy originally from Mullabawn, but after moving into his new house with Eimear McCrave in Blackrock and the celebrations of the move were still going. But had he expected champagne and caviar, I wondered?

I then caught up with neighbour Mark Dollard from Parnell Park who assured me it was going to be a quiet celebration with John Smith from Muirhevnamor, no still couldn't see that lads!

After this I got talking to Gerard Watters from Ath Lethan who was with Richie and Sinead Watters from Point Road who told me it was a really great night.

Not too far away I then got a word with Patricia McNally from Woodview Park who was with Barry Matthews from Blackrock who assured me that it was going to be a wild one.

Beside them I then met up with Conor McGeough from Medebawn, Conor Murphy from Greenacres and Johnny Quinn from Belfast who were all in party mode and up for making the best of the social club night out.

I made my way over to a table where I got a quick word with Susan Dowdall from Vincent Avenue who was having a laugh with Megan Reilly from Avenue Road.

Making my way through the crowds I then got talking to the best baker in Tesco Extra, Jason Corrway from Fatima Drive who makes my life so easy, so early in the mornings. He was there with Mark 'the legend' Crawley from Chapel Street and Rebecca Connolly from Long Avenue who were getting a breath of fresh air before going back into the party.

I then headed over for a word with Josephine Carroll from Lennon Melia Court who was having a laugh with Terry Brennan and was certainly up for making the best of the night.

Finally, before I departed I got talking to Sinead Ryan from Ashbrook who was in great form and was waiting for DJ Doc Darcy to start playing a few tunes that she could dance to.
Communities through the country had street parties recently from small backyard gatherings to whole streets and the best of them all though was the Doolargy Avenue annual BBQ.

For weeks leading up to the event the Doolargy Avenue community group were kept busy with planning meetings and fund raising. The local business community gave generously by donating raffle prizes, tickets were sold to the Avenue residents with the draw being held on the day.

Thanks to Dunnes Stores (Neighbourhood), McArdle Meats, B Sharp Music, Boyds Store, MINT by Baldwins, Boyd's Pharmacy, Charlie's Barber Shop, McEvoys, Leavy's Pharmacy, McEneaney's XL, BC Electrics, Print Express and Goldstar Jewellers. Katie McBride fared best by winning three prizes. The winning tickets being pulled out by community Gardai Ian McElroy and Paul Burke who popped by for a chat and a burger.

In keeping with the BBQ theme the main serving was bun burgers and fries which went down a treat with everyone. Side dishes and desserts were brought along by many of the residents. A special thanks goes to Tony's Grill, Avenue Road, who provided the burgers for the event.

The weather didn't cooperative for outdoor activities so things proceeded indoors at Craobh Rua who hosted all meetings and the event itself. Music was provided by resident DJ Chris Durnin, Dundalk's very own Tiesto. Most popular with the children was the face painting and extra hands were roped in to cope with the queues. Sonya McAreavey went for a unique eye mask and looked so well that next year more of the adults will join in on being painted.

Also popular was the art competition to draw 'Where I Live' with the judges picking out ten budding artists who were delighted with their prizes. And for those who didn't win a prize on the day, all children going home were given a goodie bag while the adults had to make do with cleaning up.

The group had a debriefing session afterwards and already planning to make next year bigger and better. There are lots of good reasons to have a Street Feast, but it's really just a great excuse to eat great food, celebrate your local community and meet new people who live near you.
As this week draws to a close, it will be a year since the Brexit vote, a day of seismic change for the United Kingdom and Ireland which placed the border area at the centre of international negotiations.

In what was one of the most momentous events in modern history, people living along the border in Louth found themselves at the mercy of the British electorate.

Suddenly, it seemed everything had changed, and would change, our free movement across the border seemingly in jeopardy as a result.

Uncertainty reigned then, and a year later little has changed. The situation for this part of the island of Ireland still hangs in the balance.

'We've heard a lot about 'Brexit means Brexit' but it still hasn't been clarified what that will actually entail,' said Paddy Malone, Dundalk Chamber of of Commerce.

'A year on and things are still as confusing as they ever were. It seems that the British government knows less now than it did twelve months ago about what exactly Brexit is going to look like.'

The spokesman for business added the Irish government had been 'extremely pro-active' in organising a series of initiatives and seminars which attempted to have anticipate the full impact of having a European frontier on our doorstep, and in looking at possible solutions to the problems we may face.

'I do think nationally the response has been swift. Because of the Irish government, and in many ways because of the former Taoiseach Enda Kenny, the Irish border is now in the top three factors which to be considered during the Brexit negotiations with the EU.'

He praised local agencies including the Local Enterprise Office (LEO)Enterprise Ireland and the Chamber of Commerce for their own response over the last year.

'As much planning that could be done has been done here,' said Paddy, admitting that the full impact on the border area won't be known until officials negotiations are well underway.

The most immediate reaction to the Brexit vote - a devaluing of the pound - has had a profound impact on Dundalk and other border towns.

The chamber spokesman admitted that currency fluctuations have long been a challenge for towns and businesses on both sides of the border.

'The difference now is that the currency used to be a localised border issue, but now it is an internet shopping issue.'
Cross border co-operation has been vital in opening up the border region after decades of conflict, according to Louth Council's CEO Joan Martin.

In a lengthy address to a Seanad committee hearing on the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU, just ahead of the first anniversary of the shock 'Brexit vote' Ms. Martin said;

'The Border corridor suffered more than any other part of Ireland and Northern Ireland during the long political conflict which left us with a weaker economy and infrastructure, skills deficits, higher unemployment. We do not want to go back to having Border checkpoints and all of what they entailed.

The peace process and the Good Friday Agreement enabled us to address these issues. It is essential that all strands of the Agreement be maintained and protected post-Brexit.'

She highlighted how over the last 20 years, EU funding has enabled modernisation along the Border corridor, both economically and in terms of community development.

Cross-Border co-operation has never been easy. I have been involved in it since the early 1990s, ahead of the Good Friday Agreement. It was not easy then and it is still not easy.

Without the INTERREG and PEACE programmes, it is unthinkable that we could have sustained interest and engagement in this very important work.'

She highlighted some of the high profile projects which have been completed since the peace process took hold, including the new cross border M1.

'I was responsible on the Southern side for the Newry- Dundalk road project. Prior to being open ten years ago, crossing the Border from Dundalk to Newry, as I did very often, was difficult. Given the condition of the road, checkpoints and the security situation, I could have left my office an hour previously and still have been worrying about whether I would make it on time for a meeting in Newry. I can now cover the distance in ten or 15 minutes.

In a very short space of time one will be able to travel on a greenway or a canal pathway from Carlingford to Lough Neagh. This is a project which would have been unthinkable without cross-Border funding and co-operation from local authorities and communities.

She added that in terms of health care, access across the Border has become critical.

'The emergency department in Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry serves a huge part of north Louth, with the alternative being the hospital in Drogheda which would simply not be able to cope with the extra work.

She explained how the 'CAWT' project funded under the INTERREG programme which facilitates cross-Border health service links, but it is under threat.

'If these programmes are removed, the future will look very bleak,' said the council CEO.

She highlighted how a total of 708 patients from the Republic were treated in the Daisy Hill Hospital emergency department in one year between 2016 and 2017.

'In my office in Louth County Council there are staff members who live in Belfast and Dublin. Those who live in the North, of whom there are many, are very worried about travel times and reciprocal tax arrangements and what the future will hold for them post-Brexit.'

And the impact of Brexit on the tourism industry along the border was also raised at the Seanad session.

'Tourism is still very much a fledgling industry in Border areas because of our peripherality,' added Ms. Martin.

'We have been building the industry in recent years. In County Louth tourism is the industry with the greatest potential for economic development. However, freedom of movement is critical. Tourists will not be as anxious to travel to a Border area or cross the Border when they are unsure about what will happen or how long the journey will take. They are very uncertain about where exactly the Border is. Very often they do not know whether County Louth is in the Republic or Northern Ireland. We do not want to go back to the difficulty we experienced in the past.'

She highlighted fears in border communities where people 'face the threat of their whole way of life changing yet again. They have worked seamlessly across the Border for many years.

We are still recovering from many decades of political turmoil. Families and relatives live on both sides of the Border. Farms are literally divided by the Border, as are businesses. There can be a church in Northern Ireland and a graveyard in the Republic. It is an invisible Border for us. This impact will not be felt anywhere else in Ireland. The Border is part of us. It is part of who we are and is part of our lives every day.

Another impact could be the loss of PEACE funding. We depend on that to foster cross-community co-operation. It is only those of us who have lived and worked in the region over the decades who can see the impact PEACE money has had on cross-Border co-operation. I have been working in Louth for 40 years and I have spent the last 25 years of that doing a lot of cross-Border work. Only we can see the opportunities it has offered communities on both sides of the Border to come closer together, to work together, to have more social inclusion, to break down barriers and to address the negative impacts. We have seen that. We know how important it is.

'We need the political will of Dublin, Stormont, London and Brussels to make the financial commitment required to continue the work of those programmes.'

There is a lot more work to be done. Regarding the common travel area, we have touched over and over again on people travelling over the Border and back. I have also mentioned things like tourism. The free movement of people is essential to maintain the way of life for those who live in the Border region. It is essential for access to cross-Border education and health. It is particularly important for residents in my county, and the other Border counties in the Republic of Ireland, who did not vote to leave the EU, who did not have a vote on Brexit and who now face being affected by it.'
Fine Gael Councillor Colm Markey took over the helm at Louth County Council when he was elected chairman yesterday (Monday).

The position which becomes available on an annual basis, was vacated by Cllr. Paul Bell, who spoke of an 'extraordinary year'.

'I enjoyed the many challenges of being chairman,; said Cllr. Bell, adding that his first major challenge was welcoming then U.S Vice President, Joe Biden when he visited Louth with his family in June 2016.

'I also had the opportunity of meeting with many community and voluntary groups all over this county, people who are working away quietly and diligently on behalf of their fellow citizens.'

He highlighted the many challenges which the county continues to face, including the provision of housing, and the demand on medical services, along with the aim to generate more employment for the people of Louth.

He said there were 'moments of great sadness too' and reflected on the death of popular council staff member Andy Califf earlier this year, which he said 'still impacts on me greatly, and I know on so many of us here,' along with the tragic loss of Captain Mark Duffy along and his colleagues from the Irish coastguard.'

He thanked Cllr. Conor Keelan for his assistance as vice chairman, adding 'you were a wonderful colleague to work with throughout the year.

And he paid tribute to council officials and the CEO for their support throughout his time in office.

'But the greatest support I have had all year has been from councillors. It would simply not have been possible to operate this office without your backing. I am very proud to have worked with such dedicated colleagues.'

Tributes were paid to Cllr. Bell from across the chamber, particularly for his representing the council during the visit of Vice President Biden.

Councillor Colm Markey was proposed by Cllr. Oliver Tully to take the chair, while Cllr. Joanna Byrne was nominated by Cllr. Pearse McGeough.

Cllr. Markey took the chair after a roll call of votes, 16 to 9 in favour of his nomination.

Cllr. Markey accepted the chains of office, thanking all councillors for their support, adding that during his year in office: 'I would like to see all of us, as one council, working together.'

The Togher native added that Louth would face a number of challenges over the next twelve months, including the impact of Brexit 'which will hit Louth as a border county hardest.'

He said councillors needed to ensure 'that our voices are heard' during the negotiations over Brexit.

He also highlighted the work that will be done to prepare for Drogheda hosting the Fleadh in 2018, which he said is set to be 'a wonderful opportunity to showcase Drogheda and Louth.'

The election of vice chairman was also held, with two nominations for the post.

Cllr. Paul Bell nominated Cllr. Pio Smith, while Cllr. Joanne Byrne nominated Cllr. Edel Corrigan.

A roll call vote resulted in 17 votes in favour of Cllr. Smith against eight for Cllr. Corrigan.
Dundalk man Barry Matthews, who was on Sunday ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Armagh, is a qualified accountant who previously worked in finance firms in Dublin and America and whose first homily was on the theme of courage.

Fr Matthews, who is the son of Noel and Joan Matthews from the Point Road, was anointed at a ceremony at St Patrick's by Archbishop Eamon Martin and has previously worked in St Peter's Parish Drogheda and a number of other parishes in the diocese. He was surrounded by his parents, four siblings and many friends for the sun-drenched and happy event.

Fr Matthews celebrated his first Mass at the cathedral yesterday (Monday) evening and will return to St Joseph's Redemptorist Church on Sunday to celebrate 11am Mass at the church where he was once an altar server.

He started studying for the priesthood in 2011, having attended the Friary NS and Colaiste Ris before qualifying as an accountant in 2006. The 35-year-old worked in a number of local companies before taking up employment in Dublin and spent a year in Chicago as an accountant.

He said: 'Throughout all that time, I had a great sense of faith and a calling to the priesthood and in 2011 I was accepted by the Armagh Archdiocese to begin the programme in Maynooth'. Fr Matthews spent three years studying philosophy, which, after all the focus on numbers throughout his education, he admitted was a challenge.

After that, he started a second degree programme in theology and two years ago, spent 12 months in the Drogheda parish four days a week. He said: 'That gave me a really great insight into the workings of a parish'. Fr Matthews also worked in a number of other parishes North and South.

And as if that wasn't enough, he published, through Veritas, a book entitled: 'The Crisis of Addiction', which is 'a reflection of addiction in society and includes contributions from Sr Consillio and Fr Peter McVerry.

Fr Matthews was inspired to write the book after his work at the Camino Treatment Centre in Enfield and the book was launched at the Cuan Mhuire Centre in Newry with Sr Consillio.

Social issues are, Fr Matthews said, very important to him and he hopes to focus on these as much as possible throughout his ministry. His first homily, yesterday at St Patrick's, was on the theme of courage, 'and the need for us to have the courage of our convictions; the courage that it took to bring Jesus to secular society'

In addition, his devotion to Our Lady was also evident in the homily, which had a Marian theme.

It is not yet known where Fr Matthews will be sent following his ordination.
The problem of out of control dogs attacking sheep and lambs in the north Louth has escalated since the start of the year, with the IFA in Louth reporting that 66 sheep and a calf have been killed by dogs since February.

And the Argus has been told about an incident at Ravensdale Forest recently where a walker in his seventies was attacked by a dog, while its owner, it is believed, sat in a car.

There was a further incident near Carlingford earlier this month where a farmer, whose sheep were under attack, shot two dogs dead on his land.

The pain of the situation for farmers in North Louth was highlighted earlier this year by the Argus who featured Hackballscross farmer Henry McElroy, who lost more than 20 sheep and lambs in a savage attack in his fields.

Mr McElroy spoke of not only the financial cost of the attack, but also the huge frustration felt by him and many other farmers that 'no one seems to be taking responsibility' for stopping these attacks.

He said last week that the death of a woman in Galway, who was attacked and killed by dogs at a private property, 'brought home the terrible reality' of what can happen when dogs attack. He criticised Gardai, the Department of Agriculture and Louth County Council for, he claimed, failing to take the matter seriously enough.

The latest attack came on June 8 at Rooskey, Carlingford. It is understood that a neighbour of the farmer saw two dogs on the land and contacted the land owner between 8pm and 9pm.

The land owner shot the two dogs and contacted dog warden at Louth County Council. It is understood the dogs' owner had been out looking for them and has since been in touch with the farmer.

The attack at the road into Ravensdale Forest, known as the Edentubber Road, happened at around lunchtime on Sunday June 18 when the man, who often leads walking tours of the Tain Trail, was on his own carrying out a recce of the trail ahead of a planned walk.

He said: 'I had seen a fox on the trail a moment before a boxer-type dog came charging out of the wooded area towards me. There was another dog with the boxer, and luckily I had walking poles with me so I was able to keep it back with them'.

The man described how the dog attempted a number of times to attack him before he was able to lift the fallen branch of a tree and hit the animal on the jaw.

He said: 'The dogs ran off after that. There was a car at the bottom of the road with the doors open and I think the driver had let the dogs out. I have no doubt that the dog would have attacked me and I am concerned about this incident because there could easily have been children and older people around'.

The matter has been reported to Gardai in Dundalk and the owners of the forest, Coillte.

IFA Louth chairman, Gerry Melia, said farmers are frustrated that their concerns about this issue 'are not being listened to and they are not being helped'.

He said when attacks are reported to Gardai, officers contact Louth County Council's dog warden who often have too little evidence for a prosecution.

Mr Melia said: 'I'm urging people, before things get worse, to report any incident at all in as much detail as possible. Once a dog draws blood, it will come back and it will bring other dogs with it.

'I fear these attacks could escalate and when they do, when a person is badly injured or even worse, everyone will be up in arms and everyone will be asking why nothing was done.

'We have been calling for a long time for all dogs to be properly licensed and micro-chipped, and it's important that's done on a cross border basis by a single authority who carries responsibility for it.

'At the moment, it's half there, half not and this is simply not good enough. And we need dog owners to be more responsible. People are not taking care of their so-called pets.

'In addition, the legislation is currently not strong enough and this really needs to be looked at to tackle the problem in the long term'.

Mr Melia revealed that 66 sheep and a calf have been killed by marauding dogs in the last four months in the Cooley, Ravensdale and Hackballscross areas of North Louth.

In addition to the loss of the sheep and lambs, farmers also have to fork out for veterinary bills and the cost of getting the animals properly disposed of.

Mr Melia said: 'The Louth IFA plans to hold a meeting with sheep farmers in the Cooley area in July to again discuss this issue'.

Louth County Council responded to a request for a statement about the matter from the Argus: 'The council met with the local farmers and the IFA in relation to the issue and the dog wardens continue to patrol the area.

'The council will use all powers available to it to address the problem, subject to the necessary evidence being gathered'.
The White House said in a letter on Friday that a tweet by President Donald Trump on Thursday was the formal answer to a request by the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee for information about records of conversations with fired FBI Director James Comey, Reuters reported.

The letter to Republican Representative Mike Conaway, who is leading the panel's investigation into Russian interference to the 2016 election, and Representative Adam Schiff, the committee's top Democrat, said: "In response to the committee's inquiry, we refer you to President Trump's June 22, 2017, statement regarding this matter."

The House panel said on June 9 it had written to Don McGahn, the White House counsel, asking about the existence of any recordings or memos covering Comey's conversations with Trump and asked that copies of the materials be provided to the panel by June 23.

Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday, a day before the deadline, that he did not know if there were recordings of his conversations with Comey, but he did not make or have any such recordings.

Conaway told reporters Friday morning that Trump's tweet was not a sufficient response.

Schiff said in a statement on Thursday that Trump's Twitter comment stopped short of denying the White House had tapes or recordings and said the White House must respond in writing.
Crucial cross-border cooperation to protect the environment across the island of Ireland must not be 'diluted' by Brexit, a major conference in Dundalk on Friday last.

Examining the potential impacts on the Irish environment in a post-Brexit world, the event also explored opportunities for new ways of working together on cross-border issues.

The conference heard that potential weakening of legislative protection for nature was the single greatest environmental risk posed by Brexit.

The severity of this issue has been recognised at a European level, with the EU's Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, recently highlighting the risk of environmental "dumping" if there is a divergence of standards between the UK and member states. There are currently over 650 pieces of EU legislation in force to protect the environment, habitats, air quality, waste, food safety and a myriad of other areas.

However, it is still unclear how environmental standards will be upheld in the future.

Opening the conference, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Mairead McGuinness emphasised that environmental standards "must not be diluted" by the UK's exit from Europe.

'Brexit poses many challenges but the threat to environmental progress, which the EU has championed, is one of the most significant,' added the MEP for the Midlands-North-West.

'For Ireland, it is important to have the same high standards North and South of the border and a divergence of standards would be bad for citizens and for business.'

Environmental Pillar Co-ordinator, Michael Ewing, added that it was of paramount importance to avoid a hard 'environmental border' which would undermine decades of progress. He also called for the island of Ireland to be recognised as a single bio-geographic unit and for the cross-border dimension of many environmental issues such as water quality, habitat and species loss to be addressed.
Karen McArdle and Martin McLoughlin during last years building blitz in South Africa

Charity leader Karen McArdle is set to host a ten day pop up shop in the Long Walk Shopping Centre in aid of Mellon Educate.

Karen, owner of Chaplin's hair salon, is set to return, for a record fifteenth time, to South Africa to take part in the charity building project.

First founded by Irish man Niall Mellon to build homes for people living in squalor in African townships, it has in recent years been focusing on creating schools for children.

'We are thrilled to be hosting the pop up shop again in the Long Walk centres,' said Karen, who last hosted the event in December 2016 with local man Martin McLoughin.

'It's been a great success every year, both with people donating quality pre-loved designer goods, and the amount of people who have come in to buy.'

Karen and Martin are again inviting anyone who wishes to make donations to drop into the pop up shop from today (Tuesday).

The event will run from Wednesday 21st through to Saturday July 1st with a host of fashion, household and bric a brac for sale.'

'We are also looking for books this time around and any other clothing and footwear that people feel they no longer wear and would be suitable for the pop up shop.'

Karen added that all proceeds from the event are going to the Mellon Educate building week fundraiser.

She and Martin will be returning to South Africa this November to build a further three schools, and she encourages everyone to consider signing up.

'It is an incredibly life changing experience to take part in, and we are still appealing for volunteers to join the 2017 blitz,' said Karen.

To join the blitz volunteers must fundraise 4,500.

This year volunteers are back in Khayelitsha, Cape Town's largest township. A sprawling mass of shacks situated just a stone's throw from the wealthy suburbs that are home to South Africa's rich and famous.

Mellon volunteers will be working to regenerate not one, not two but THREE sites;Usasazu High School, Sosebenza Primary and Sobambisana Primary Schools.

'Education is paramount to creating sustainable development and giving children the best possible start in life,' said Karen.

'Creating a safe environment for children to learn in is the foundation for this. Usasazu High School provides an education for 1,300 learners, the majority of whom come from one of last years blitz schools, Ummangaliso, Sosebenza for 1,000 learners and Sobambisana for 1,300 learners.'

She added that none of this work would be possible without the hard work of volunteers.

'We can't wait to roll up our sleeves and get stuck in with familiar and fresh faces for another amazing week in November.'

Anyone who would like to sign up for this year's blitz should check out the details at www.melloneducate.com.
'The past is something to which we all do not want to return,' said Louth County Councillor Conor Keelan as he called for a meeting with the new Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar.

he recently addressed the Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU.

'I live on the old N1 between Dundalk and Newry. I was born in Newry and many members of my family live on both sides of the Border.

My father was a cross-Border worker.

'The current position is quite bizarre and the past is something to which we all do not want to return.'

'We come with a unified position as representatives of councils on both sides of the Border. We are in a unique position among all of the councils on the island in having a shared border and special concerns.

We want to have a meeting with the incoming Taoiseach as soon as possible to put our specific economic and social perspectives to him.

On the negotiating position and how there could be a hard border on the island, it will not be just a case of what the British Government wants but what the European Union demands. If the European Union wants to see a hard border, there will be one.'
The Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation will host a special event with academics, practitioners and artists to explore the experiences and uncertain future of border-crossing.

'Borders and Borderlands: Imaginings, Crossings, Encounters' will take place at the centre on Saturday, June 24. For 43 years, the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation has supported the peaceful resolution of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland and the creation of an inclusive society on the island of Ireland.

Glencree has worked across the borders of community, language, identity, and politics that can both unite and divide. This year, Glencree will be exploring the experiences of border-crossing and the possibility of a new politics of encounter and discovery in these uncertain times. This one-day private event will include a diverse range of speakers who will explore perceptions and experiences.

There will be focus on the implications and responses to possible changes to the Irish border in the post-Brexit context as well as how borders are experienced by migrants fleeing conflict across Europe and seeking better lives.

Setting a context for the day will be Professor Catherine Nash, a political and cultural geographer who has written extensively on the subject of the Irish border and border crossings. Playwright Frank Mc Guinness will address the theme of border crossing between Donegal and Derry in relation to his own life and through his play 'The Factory Girls', a play about women in factory work in Derry.

Author and map maker Garret Carr, whose book 'The Rule of the Land' chronicles his walk along the Border between the south and the north of Ireland, will discuss his unique experience and the implications of a Border. Kapka Kassabova journeyed through people whose lives have been and continue to be shaped by the convergence of the Bulgarian, Greek and Turkish borders. Her new book 'Border: A journey to the Edge of Europe', is a both travelogue and a meditation on the borderlines that exist between countries, between cultures, people, and within each of us.

To book or for more information, go to glencree.ie.
A J1 student from Farran is unconscious in a US hospital after an alleged attack while celebrating his 21st birthday in San Diego.

Evan White was found unconscious in an alleyway in the Pacific Beach area of San Diego in the early hours of Friday morning and was taken to Scripps La Jolla Hospital, where he remains in critical condition.

A police spokesperson said that the UCC business student had suffered a head injury and that there were no witnesses in their case. Police are treating their investigations as a suspected assault.

"The report states that Evan White was located in the south alley of 600 Law Street. He was transported to Scripps La Jola Hospital by paramedics with a head injury. He was unconscious when officers arrived to take his statement," the police spokesperson said.

"It is unknown what caused the injuries since there wasn't any witnesses and officers had not had the opportunity to speak with White. This is all the information we have at this time," the spokesperson added.

The incident has left the Farran community in shock, with friends of the victim praising Mr White.

"I immediately contacted some of our friends who are there with Evan to find out what happened. They said he is in a terrible state. He has injuries everywhere but particularly to his face," one friend said.

Michael Sheehan of Kilmurry United FC, who knew Evan from his involvement in youth teams, has spoken of his shock at learning of the incident, saying: "He was always a nice, quiet, young fella, never got into any trouble".

The 21-year-old plays GAA with his local team, Eire Og in Ovens and Pat Malone, chairman of Eire Og, also expressed shock at the incident.

"He was part and parcel of what we are. He was always there for us. He was a quiet young lad, and he comes from a quiet family," he said.

Club officials met Tuesday night to discuss what type of support they could offer the family.

"All of our thoughts and prayers are with Evan and his family at this dificult time," Mr Malone added.

The Department of Foreign Affairs are providing consular assistance.

Mr White's parents flew to San Diego at the weekend and are maintaining a vigil at the hospital, where he was placed into an induced coma.
This year's mother of the year awards sees North Cork well represented with two nominees, both of whom are mother and daughter.

The extraordinary coincidence sees both Mary Buckley from Mallow, along with her daughter, Audrey O'Sullivan, being on the three woman shortlist to win Munster's mother of the year award and advance to the national final.

Mary Buckley is a 63 year old mother of seven who was nominated for the award by her daughter and fellow nominee, Audrey.

Having overcome the death of her husband to pancreatic cancer in March 2016, Mary embarked on a mission to raise as much money as she could, raising 23,000 for the Mercy University Hospital, Suicide Aware and Bothar.

Speaking on her traumatic year, Mary said "We couldn't have done it without the support of one another, the help of one another. We keep one another going."

Meanwhile, her daughter, Audrey, has overcome her own adversities on her way to secure her nomination. Her two sons, Donncha and Conor, both have special needs and are both non verbal and have low muscle tone.

Caring for her children means that Audrey cannot work full time as a primary school teacher and instead job shares several days a week.

Both boys attend pre schools for children with special needs but while Donncha has been given five days schooling a week, Conor has been given two.

Audrey has been on a campaign to improve her children's lives and children suffering from similar conditions by contacting various TD's and media outlets.

"Any parent goes over and above for their children. You have to try and find the positive in everything, so we always say, 'It could be worse'," she said.
Egypt has condemned "in the strongest terms" the failed terrorist attack that targeted Islam's holiest site in Mecca, the Grand Mosque, calling on the international community to join forces to combat terrorism, uproot it and cut off its sources of funding.

In a statement issued by the foreign ministry late Friday, Cairo stressed that it stands with the government and the people of Saudi Arabia in confronting any attempt to target its security and stability.

The attempt to target the Holy Mosque of Mecca, Muslims Qibla  the apex in which Muslims pray  and purest parts of the earth during those blessed days of Ramadan, shows that these abhorrent terrorist groups abandoned the teachings of Islam, the ministrys statement read.

Late Friday, Saudi security forces foiled a terror plot targeting the Grand Mosque in Mecca, near the end of the month of Ramadan. Eleven were injured during the foiling of the operation after one of the suspects blew himself up.

Al-Azhar  the world's oldest Sunni institution of Islamic learning  also denounced the bombing and failed terrorist attack, stressing that it stands by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the fight against terrorism, praising the success of Saudi security forces in foiling this scheme.

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A special memorial plaque to recall the great days of the GNR and those that worked on it was unveiled by Cllr Emma Coffey at MacBride Station.

It was erected in memory of James Francis Prendergast by his son, Jim, who said he wanted his father's name and those of his colleagues, to be remembered in an ever changing world.

James, a native of Galway, came to work in the GNR in Dundalk in 1915 and then moved to Clones and finally Drogheda in 1947, retiring from CIE in 1960.

He famously gave Gerry McKeown a job at the station when he was just 15 and Gerry, now in his 90s, was there on the day to witness the unveiling.

'I have great memories of playing around the station in my young days,' Jim stated. 'The GNR men were great people and we won't see their likes again. This is a poignant and special day,

He thanked the many people who played their part in getting the plaque erected, Iarnrod Eireann and station master Conor Keane, Frank Daly, Tom Hodgins, Sean Collins and Cllr Emma Coffey

Speaking at the event, Cllr Coffey praised the pioneers of the railways and revealed that it was Thomas Brodigan of Piltown House who first mooted the idea of a Dublin - Drogheda Railway line, and he used his powers of persuasion to secure support at Government level and in May 1836 a bill was passed in the House of Commons to allow for the creation of a Dublin-Drogheda railway line.

The town recognized Brodigan's achievement and he was made was made a Freeman of Drogheda in October 1836.

The station was officially opened on a Sunday in May 1844 with the arrival of a special train from Dublin. On the day before Saturday a trial run for Sunday was organized. On board the Saturday train was Daniel O'Connell M.P., to ensure the railway system arrived in Drogheda.

The station has seen some notable visitors down the years, including, Eamon de Valera, William T.Cosgrave, Michael Davitt and of course Charles Stewart Parnell M.P. in his capacity as Member for Meath.
The St Peter's Church of Ireland Summer Fair will take place on Saturday June 24 in the grounds of St Peter's Church from 11am to 3pm.

There will be a monster raffle (at 3pm), and a selection of stalls, from cakes, crafts, books, jams, to a barbecue and games.

All welcome.

Ardee Hospice Coffee Morning/Day

A Coffee Morning/Day in aid of Ardee Hospice will be hosted by the Englishby and Dillon Families in Mattock Rangers Community Centre, Collon on Saturday 24th June from 10 am to 5 pm. Cake sale and Raffle on the day. Also on the day there will be a HB Ice Cream Funday for Down Syndrome Ireland.
The remains of the late Alan Bonner finally returned to his native Stamullen on Sunday, and the massive turnout of bikes, estimated at 650, plus a large contingent of cars travelled with the hearse on a beautiful Father's Day.

Sadly it was a day that Alan should have been celebrating with his dad Noel and his daughter Nicole, but it wasn't to be. The remains arrived from the Isle of Man and was met at Belfast dock by a contingent of bikes, but when the cortege arrived at the Carrickdale Hotel, it was met by the biking community.

The crowds lined every flyover on the M1, and when the cortege arrived at the Huntsman, the local community turned out in force to welcome its fallen son. It was a sad occasion, but yet the crowd clapped heartily as the hearse and bikers arrived.

Alan will be buried today (Tuesday) following funeral mass in Stamullen. The family have thanked everyone for their messages of sympathy. The inquest into the death of the late Alan Bonner took place in the Isle of Man and the court heard that the 33-year-old plasterer from Stamullen died from head and chest injuries after crashing during a practice session for the Senior TT.

Alan was killed in an incident at the 33rd milestone on the TT course when he crashed on the oil from a machine that had blown its engine seconds before the NW racing rider approached the ultra-fast 33rd. The Coroner of inquests John Needham opened and adjourned the hearing.
The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys T.D. will lead the official representation at a special State commemoration on Saturday, 24th June 2017, of the centenary of the death of Lance Corporal Francis Ledwidge, the poet, Irish volunteer and soldier, who died in the Battle of Passchendaele on 31st July 1917.

The event has been arranged in partnership with Meath County Council and the Francis Ledwidge Museum Committee and comprises a significant cultural element, incorporating poetry, music and readings. The ceremony will culminate in the formal State commemoration and wreath-laying ceremony, with participation by members of the Defence Forces.

This commemoration is set in the context of significant State commemorations this year to mark the events of World War One in 1917. It follows recent commemorations on the island of Ireland and in Belgium to mark the centenary of the Battle of Messines Ridge and to commemorate the men of the 16th Irish Division and 36th Ulster Division who fought side by side.

Speaking in advance of the event Minister Humphreys said: "I am very much looking forward to participating in this event, which I know is the culmination of a week of celebrations to remember the life and contribution made by the great Meath man Francis Ledwidge. Ledwidge was a poet and a patriot, and it is fitting that he is being remembered in this special commemorative ceremony in the cottage where he was born in Slane.

"Many of us will remember reading the poetry of Ledwidge as children; he wrote beautifully about the landscape of County Meath and the vivid sights and sounds of the Boyne Valley, which inspired him.

"I would like to sincerely thank Meath County Council and the Francis Ledwidge Museum Committee, who have worked with my Department, the Defence Forces and the Department of the Taoiseach, to put together next Saturday's event. It is my hope that it will be a source of great pride and enjoyment for the local community."
Friday's biodiversity conference will discuss the many aspects impacting on the world today.

A number of high profile speakers have been lined up, including Professor Brian MacCraith, President Dublin city University, Michael Maloney, Director of Quality Assurance & Origin Green, Bord Bia, Gerry Ryan, President Federation of Irish Beekeeper's Associations and Jonathan Jennings, Head of Heating and Ventilation, Glen Dimplex Ltd.

The prince is expected around 11.30am and will be met by Philip McCabe, President Apimondia, Mayor Pio Smith, Colin Hunt, Managing Director of AIB Wholesale, Institutional and Corporate Banking and Malachy McCloskey of Boyne Valley Foods.

A number of Biodiversity Projects by local National Schools will be on display and will be viewed by the prince.

Ms. Mairead McGuinness MEP- Vice President of the European Parliament - is also speaking, along with Susie Hill, Ulster Beekeeper's Associations and Marie O'Toole, President Irish Country Women's Association.

The conference will conclude in the afternoon with the prince to dine in the Boyne Valley on the day.
Residents and staff of a Balbriggan-based nursing home have enjoyed a week of fun activities and events as part of the national Nursing Home Week.

Now in its fifth, the initiative presents nursing homes throughout Ireland with the opportunity to promote the positivity of nursing home care and to demonstrate the excellent and dedicated round the clock care provided.

Along with our recent newly appointed fun loving Person in Charge Lovella Valenzuela the activity team and residents of Hamilton Park certainly put celebrating into fine practice with their event-filled week.

The exciting week began with a display of art and craft which was made by residents from Cormorant, Nightingale, Kingfisher and Starling units.

They created everything from fairy houses, knitted and crocheted blankets, dolls clothes, flower boxes, a bird table, paintings and even had a dress made solely from newspaper for one of the recycle able projects.

Patrick Donnelly, who is a resident of Kingfisher unit and is also the winner of the Nursing Homes of Ireland Resident Achievement Award for 2016, also proudly displayed his vast array of sketches of staff members and friends.

There was something for everyone and the celebration party on Wednesday did not disappoint when one of their regular musicians Liam Bridgeman brought the house down.

Many families joined us for the afternoon of fun, and were happy to join us on the dance floor.

The competitive side certainly showed in the residents with a bake off between all four units and the appreciative audience certainly were not disappointed with the display of delicious treats that were presented.

Great fun was had with the winner being Derek McCluskey who is the activity assistant in Cormorant unit.

There was a quiz held for the more serious type with questions been researched by Alan Coleman, who is a resident of Kingfisher unit and there was an ice cream party held to the delight of many residents and visiting children.

There will be more plenty celebrations throughout the summer months with the annual family day and with the tenth anniversary of the opening of Hamilton Park.

Person in Charge Lovella Valenzuela and the activity team Derek McCluskey, Crystal Hoare, Martina Cummins, Siobhain Hall, Nadia Power Lynch and Co-ordinator Margaret Corry took great pleasure in promoting this important event and would like to thank the carers and nurses and all staff for their help throughout the week.
The eight Fingal parkruns have been honoured by Fingal County Council for their contribution towards the well-being of the county.

Presentations were made to the parkruns at Ardgillan, Donabate, Hartstown, Malahide, Porterstown and River Valley as well as the two junior parkruns in Balbriggan and Rush, after the June Council meeting at the County Chamber in Swords.

Parkruns are weekly, free, 5km runs, for everyone with the junior parkruns held over 2km.

In recent weeks the Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Darragh Butler, has attended the two junior parkruns and taken part in the six other parkruns and told those present that when his term of office finished on June 16 he would be focusing on achieving on some of his parkrun targets.

The Mayor added: 'This presentation is an opportunity to pay tribute to the volunteers involved with the Fingal parkruns. I have seen at first-hand the excellent work that you do each weekend and I and my colleagues are very aware of the positive effects that parkruns have on the health and wellbeing of our community.

'On behalf of Fingal County Council, I want to thank you for your dedication and commitment and I hope that tonight's ceremony is goes some way to showing our appreciation for that voluntary contribution'.

Various members of the Council also spoke and added their tributes to the volunteers for the excellent work they are doing within the community.

Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, Paul Reid, said: 'Young people need role models within the community and that's what you do every Saturday morning because you are encouraging wellbeing and healthy activities.'

In response, representatives of each of the eight parkruns thanked the Mayor for the presentation and paid tribute to Fingal County Council and its staff for the support they have provided since the first parkrun in Ireland was held in Malahide on November 10, 2012.

Since then it has expanded across the country to 62 different locations with almost 6,500 events and 100,000 runners.

Parkrun's original beginnings were in 2004 when 13 runners got together on a blustery day in Teddington, England and today, some 13 years later, it is now an international movement of over half a million runners.
The June Bank Holiday weekend saw Malahide Cub Scouts Tonnta pack take part in the mini Jamboree at the National Campsite in Larch Hill in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains.

This year the theme was 'Holidays on the Hill' and over 20 Malahide Cub Scouts rose to the challenge.

Setting up camp on Christmas Sub Camp, the cubs settled in for a weekend of fun and adventure among almost one thousand other cubs from all around the country.

While Malahide were on Christmas Sub Camp other cubs were spread out over Easter, Halloween and Summer sub camps.

The camp was opened on Friday night when the Cub Scouts and leaders alike were treated to a monster fireworks display at the opening ceremony.

The Chief Scout himself Christy McCann then dropped into their campsite and obliged the cubs with Selfies before flying off to other mini Jamborees around the country in Athlone, Cavan and Co Cork.

Over the weekend the cubs participated in many activities with a holiday theme which involved building igloos, grass sledging, water activities, scouting skills and of many other fun events, one of the highlights were the monster campfire and disco on the Saturday night.

Scout Leader Anna Hickey said that the Malahide Cub Scouts traditionally camp every year on either the May or June Bank Holiday weekends, usually as part of a mini Jamboree. The weather is always a concern she added, but we are experienced campers and the high winds and heavy rain showers on Saturday were easily coped with as was the more substantial rain on Sunday night. It really is the old Scout motto of 'be prepared'.'

However when all is said and done the real heroes of the weekend were the Malahide Cub leaders who themselves gave up their Bank holiday Weekend to ensure that he Cubs had a wonderful time and indeed had a great deal of fun themselves.
The Upper Egyptian cities of Luxor and Aswan will both see 40-degree highs and 25-degree lows

Hot weather is expected to contnue across the country Sunday, the first day of Eid El-Fitr, with slightly lower temperatures on the northern coast and very high temperatures in the southern Upper Egypt, Egypts Meteorological Authority said Saturday.

In a statement reported by state news agency MENA, the authority said that Cairo will see a high of 37 degrees Celsius and a low of 22, while the northern coastal city of Alexandria will see a high of 30 degrees and a 23 degrees low.

Winds are expected to be moderate, mostly concentrated in South Sinai and northern Upper Egypt as well as the Red Sea and Gulf of Suez.

The Mediterranean Sea will experience light to moderate waves, reaching highs of 1-1.5 metres. The Red Sea will see moderate to high waves, reaching 2-2.5 metres.

The tourist resort city of Hurghada on the Red Sea will see a high of 39 degrees Celsius and a low of 28, while Sharm El-Sheikh in South Sinai will see a high of 38 and low of 28. Saint Catherines will see a high of 33 degrees by day and a low of 17 degrees by night.

The Upper Egyptian cities of Luxor and Aswan will both see 40 degree highs and 25 degree lows.

Eid El-Fitr, which will start Sunday and last for three days, is a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Public sector employees in ministries, governmental authorities, and other state-owned institutions will take three days off work for the holiday. Private sector employees will take the first two days off as a paid holiday, the government announced last week.

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A drug addict who robbed an elderly woman of her handbag which contained bank cards and a holy medal had attempted to rob another woman of her handbag forty minutes earlier, a court has heard.

Judge Dermot Dempsey said Damien Costello (37) committed a 'cowardly and despicable act against the two woman' and custody is the only appropriate place for him.

He sentenced him to seven months in prison for the thefts which happened at around 5pm in Balbriggan on February 10th last year.

The defendant approached one of the women, who was 53 years of age, and was on her way to work and attempted to steal her handbag. He broke the handbag strap and made off with the strap.

Around 40 minutes later he approached a 78 year old woman and 'tore the handbag' from her shoulder before running off with it.

He was found later by gardai attempting to use the woman's bank card at an ATM machine in the town.

Garda Nicholas Duane said the defendant appeared to be under the influence of drugs at the time of the offences.

The defendant, of Cois Tra, Kilbush Lane in Rush, pleaded guilty to the thefts of the handbags on Dublin Street in Balbriggan on February 10th, 2016.

The defendant, who has 19 previous convictions, including two previous for thefts, has a difficulty with drugs, defence barrister David Costello told Swords District Court.

'He doesn't have great family support and he wasn't in the right state of mind on the day,' said Mr Costello.

Mr Costello said the defendant is currently before the Drugs Court and asked Judge Dempsey to remand the defendant back to the Drugs Court to allow him to continue the programme.

However, Judge Dempsey said it was a 'cowardly, despicable act against the two woman' and said he is not prepared to send the defendant back to the Drugs Court.

'A custodial sentence is appropriate. He robbed the two women and community service is not appropriate either,' said Judge Dempsey and convicted and sentenced him to seven months in prison.
Rush Garda Station looks set to be re-opened after it emerged that Garda Commissioner is likely to recommend its reinstatement when her interim report is published at the end of the month.

The station was controversially closed in 2012 during the recession and a campaign has been waging ever since to have it reopened. Last week it emerged that the interim report carried out by the commissioner on the reopening of stations across the country.

It is expected that the report will include a recommendation to re-open the Garda station in Rush.

Deputy Alan Farrell said: A Garda interim report was presented to Cabinet. Should the recommendation be made for the reopening of a Garda station on the north side of Dublin, it is my understanding that Rush Garda station would be prioritised in this regard.

The final recommendation on the Garda stations to be reopened will be made to Cabinet at the end of this month.

'Many residents in the local community in Rush, and its surrounding areas, have been understandably concerned since the closure of Rush Garda station. I have advocated for the reopening of this station to the Minister for Justice and Equality on numerous occasions.

'I sincerely hope that the reopening of Rush Garda station will be recommended by An Garda Siochana by the end of this month, and receive the green-light from Cabinet.'

Sinn Fein TD Louise O'Reilly said: 'It doesn't take a report on the future of Garda stations to tell the people of Rush that their Garda station should be reopened. 'The decision to close it in the first place by the previous Fine Gael and Labour Government was a colossal failure and move of the greatest short sightedness.'

She added: 'The closure of Rush Garda Station has left a void in the policing of North Fingal. Rush, due to its geographical location, is distinctly disadvantaged in regards to responses to calls, with the only fully operational Garda Station in Balbriggan.

'Consequently, in recent months, serious violent crime has risen within the Fingal community and I firmly believe that the reopening of Rush Garda station would curb such crime and bring safety and security to the people of Rush and Dublin Fingal.
A US-based clinic is bringing a programme of 'hope' to parents of special needs children in counties Wexford and Cork early next month by offering courses and training lectures on how it achieves 'real, measurable results in children with brain disorders or impairments'.

Matthew Newell and his Family Hope Centre (FHC), from Philadelphia, will present the first of two training lectures and introductory programs for parents at the Riverside Park Hotel on Friday, July 7.

Progress is what every parent wishes for their child. Once they've counted all the fingers and toes, parents want their children to progress and grow. That they learn to speak, to talk, to relate to the world, to enjoy life.

But for parents with special needs children, progress, or the lack of it, can be extremely frustrating and difficult. Children with brain development difficulties such as autism, cerebral palsy and Down Syndrome often don't develop as quickly as they should, and this causes them and their parents much frustration.

Trying to access the proper services and to ensure their children are getting the most from life can also be very difficult. It leaves parents with a gap between what they can do for their child, and the services that medical and care facilities can provide.

Matthew Newell says he has been filling this gap for 30 years, travelling extensively spreading the message of the FHC, which is that parents can see improved development in their children with better parent involvement in their child's healthcare, education and training.

Catriona O'Hanlon, a Special Needs Teacher in St Patrick's School, in Eniscorthy, said she completed the Family Hope Centre's programme last year and began applying it to in her classes.

'It's woken up their brains,' she said, 'I can see a change in personality in the children for the good.'

'Slowly, there were changes, and of course the parents were involved too. I had one boy who became toilet-trained at the age of 12, another boy who was limited to his home who went on holiday, and another 12-year-old who stood unaided for the first time.' Matthew will give his three-day training programme on in early September for those who have completed the introductory lecture and want to go further. To register contact Carla at The Family Hope Center Team@FamilyHopeCenter.com
The need to highlight violence and anti-social behaviour in some County Wexford estates outweighs the need to preserve a positive image of the county.

Cllr George Lawlor made this point during a heated debate on anti-social behaviour after a national newspaper outlined how the county has the highest number of complaints from council estate residents in the country, outside of Dublin.

Cllr Malcolm Byrne brought a motion highlighting the issue. He said he doesn't believe that the council executive has adopted a strong enough stance on the matter.

Cllr Byrne said some of the disputes are neighbourly in nature or from cranks and a minority of tenants are involved.

'Our approach has been too softly, softly. Rubbish has been allowed to be built up in back yards in estates causing chaos. Two times the environment section went out and arranged for the rubbish to be taken away (from a backyard) and last weekend rubbish was still there.'

Cllr Byrne asked for the CEO's monthly report to include the number of anti-social behaviour reports and how they are being dealt with.

Cllr Lawlor said there is a non existent approach by the council to some problem tenants, adding that the more serious the matter, the more likely it is to go unchallenged.

'I have heard incidents of stabbings on streets, anti-social behaviour causing chaos in Wexford. 70-year-olds and older crying to me on the phone because they can't leave their house after 7 p.m.'

He said many of these people received no letter back from the council and yet other tenants with minor problems have been receiving letters.

Cllr Larry O'Brien took exception to Cllr Lawlor's remarks, saying: 'I am not going to see the county ran down.'

Cllr Lawlor said he has had people on the phone to him while fights were occurring outside their front door.

'I have brought this to the attention of the council on a number of occasions and a young lady who lives on her own. She is getting letters from the council, whereas people who are dealing with a stabbing don't.'

Mr Carley said: 'It's a serious issue, but it's in a minority of cases.'

He acknowledged that the number was high.

Mr Carley said council housing staff are being trained to better deal with anti-social problems in estates.

'I would point out that in the last month alone a number of tenants have received warning letters and two tenants have left their accommodation, so there is no softly, softly approach. It took a period of time to get to that stage. We had 563 cases which is a large number and we need to be doing more,' he said.

Cllr Byrne's motion was unanimously supported.
The majesty and mystery of our coastline is a major inspiration for the Rosslare-born, Belfast-based artist Esther O'Kelly who has an exhibition of new work entitled ' Amhran Na Farraige' (Song of the Sea) opening in the Pigyard Gallery in Selskar, Wexford on June 30.

The guest speaker at the official launch will be fellow artist Bernadette Doolan of the Royal Ulster and Royal Hibernian Academies. The exhibition will run until July 21.

Esther grew up in The Burrow, Rosslare and studied Visual Communications at the National College of Art and Design. After 15 years as a graphic designer, she took a career break to focus on her own creativity.

Her themes are inspired by sealife and a long family tradition of fishermen with each piece evoking a strong coastal connection. She is drawn towards the beauty and natural forms of the coastline and she creates vibrant paintings that seek to capture a memory and evoke a sense of place.

Her work is splashed with bright blues and enhanced by neon highlights which create a delicate balance between figurative and abstract elements. While she often approaches a painting with a scene in mind, she allows her instincts and imagination to take over, producing scenes that are beautiful and spontaneous.

'Through my work I try to create my home as a metaphysical space. I ground myself within this space and subsequently I've come to find home in my work. Painting is a very physical and sensual process for me. I try to keep the painting open to all possibilities, deviations and directions,' she said.'Getting things wrong is often more produc tive than getting things right.'

Esther is taken by the idea that the coastline is shaped by unseen forces of the wind. 'I feel alive and perceptive to the wild elements in ways that awaken senses in me, how it makes the waves and how it brings the language of the sea to life. I hear it in the sand dunes, on the long sandy strands. I hear it whistling around the buoys and rock and making the reeds sing. I'm inspired by the romantic windswept nature of it. I'm inspired by the rich vibrant layers of peeling paint, yellow gorse and pink sea thrift, framed against the movement of the raging sea.'

Esther's style is naive and simple with an approach driven by circumstances rather than any grand artistic plan. Her children were infants when she began painting so her time in the studio was limited and a quick drying medium was an important part of the process. An endearing uncomplicated style developed out of this necessity.

Esther credits her parents with encouraging her artistic career. 'They inspired, nurtured and approved of me doing something that was never going to be easy. They gave me the courage to take risks creatively and pursue something I had a talent for and felt passionate about,' she said.

Her mother Patricia worked most of her life for Kelly's Hotel, Rosslare, where at an early age she encouraged her daughter to walk the hotel corridors and explore its renowned collection of modern and contemporary Art.

Having access to works by David Hockney, Alexander Calder and Andy Warhol on her doorstep was a contributing factor in her career. 'I still go there now to see works by some of my favourite Irish artists such as Tony O'Malley and Diana Copperwhite.'

Esther's work is available from Rosslare Gallery, the Pigyard Gallery, Duke Street Gallery Dublin, Lavelle Gallery Clifden and In Klover Hillsborough.
Listowel's new heritage plan has the potential to transform town, bringing in more and more visitors as funding made possible by the strategy improves local attractions and helps sell the Fealeside jewel.

That's according to the man who initiated the project which led to the recent publication as Heritage Minister.

Former Minister Jimmy Deenihan included his home town as one of three in the Historic Towns Initiative, along with Westport and Youghal.

Roving the country as Minister in the last Government brought home to the Finuge man just how unique Listowel is, he told The Kerryman: "There are very few towns in Ireland as attractive as Listowel. Unlike many other areas, it's a town of very little dereliction with a streetscape and heritage that has survived so many changes largely intact.

"This is a very carefully-considered plan with achievable goals and it's a challenge to all of us to make sure that it is implemented properly," he said.

It was launched in an attraction that stands as a perfect illustration of what can be achieved with the right vision and commitment: the Lartigue Monorail.

"I'm working one day a week as a volunteer and I can tell you I'm meeting visitors from all over the world, principally Germany, the UK, American and from other parts of Ireland. They tell me they come to Listowel for this one particular attraction, which shows what can be done."

"The challenge is to hold more and more of them in town, preferably overnight and that's something the new plan can contribute towards achieving."

The funding stream coming online with the plan is crucial. there for existing heritage projects to utilise as well as for enhancing the overall heritage product of the town.

"What's going to happen is that there will be a special fund made available from the Heritage Council and through the Department of the Environment for special projects."
A US scientist has described plans by Aughinish Alumina to blast rock next its red-mud ponds in order to create a new pit as a 'reckless' threat to the health of the Shannon Estuary.

US environmental chemist Dr Paul Connett was in west Limerick this week to address a meeting of Limerick Against Pollution - ostensibly on concerns relating to Irish Cement.

But he reserved strong words for the scenes he witnessed at the Aughinish Alumina facility on the estuary, where ponds of toxic red sludge - a waste product of the industry - sit right next the Shannon. Dr Connett told media he believed the chemicals in the waste have the potential to seriously impact human and environmental health if a spill were to occur.

"Looking at this, it's only a matter of time before that waste ends up in the Shannon Estuary," the retired professor said, adding:

"I'm looking at the most fertile valley in the whole of Europe, the Golden Vale. And then you see this savage red pond here, built right next to the estuary, just a few feet from the estuary - it's sacrilege," added Dr Connett.

He has called for an independent investigation of the Aughinish site.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ratified on Saturday the Egyptian-Saudi maritime border demarcation deal that hands over the two Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia, after the parliament recent vote in favour of the agreement.

Following a series of heated parliamentary hearings earlier this month, the majority of Egyptian MPs voted in favour of the agreement by a show of hands in a general session on June 14.

Following parliaments approval, Mohamed El-Sewedi, the head of the Egyptian parliaments majority bloc Support Egypt, said that if Egypt had rejected the deal, Saudi Arabia would have resorted to international arbitration, and this could have left Saudi-Egyptian relations in a bind.

El-Sewedi said that a presidential decree issued in January 1990 stated that the two islands are part of Saudi Arabia.

However, MPs from the opposition 25/30 bloc, which opposes the deal, said that parliament's discussion and vote on the deal was "invalid," calling on El-Sisi not to ratify the deal.

Following the parliamentary approval, opponents of the deal held small protests against the deal in a number of Egyptian cities, which were quickly dispersed by police.

Some opponents of the deal were arrested in protests or from homes, with some later released on bail.

Last week, El-Sisi said in a televised speech that "every citizen has the right to express his opinion on this matter or even to reject the deal, but I assure everyone that nations are not bought or sold."

"States are run by laws and facts, not by personal interests or desires, and we want to deal with all matters according to this principle without doubting each other or making accusations of betrayal," El-Sisi said, referencing the ongoing political row between supporters and opponents of the deal.

The deal has faced a number of legal challenges by opponents and led to disputes over which courts have jurisdiction to hear such cases.

Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court has ruled last week to suspend execution of all previous court verdicts regarding the deal.

In January 2017, Egypts High Administrative Court upheld an earlier decision by an administrative court that voided the deal and affirmed Egyptian sovereignty over Tiran and Sanafir.

In April, the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters ruled that the country's High Administrative Court had no jurisdiction over the matter.

The border demarcation deal was signed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia in April 2016.

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Nano Nagle staff video the cyclists as they arrive to the school on Saturday.

Rhona, Tara, Jerry and Edwina Daly from Lixnaw enjoying the great day out at the Nano Nagle on Saturday

The Nano Nagle gang with their Askeaton Cycling Club friends as Listowel went yellow for the major fundraiser in aid of the special needs school.

Dazzling brightness was the order of the day in Listowel on Saturday as the town 'went yellow' under the intense glare of an unusually powerful sun in a fundraiser with a difference.

Businesses, homes and centres were festooned in the bright colour as the Nano Nagle special school welcomed hundreds of cyclists in for the Askeaton Touring Club's annual summer cycle.

This year the west Limerick club chose the special school as its nominated charity and the school was not found wanting in letting each cyclist know exactly how greatly their efforts were appreciated.

The riders were welcomed as heroes by the entire school community after completing a lap of a festive-looking Listowel.

Nano Nagle Principal Gabrielle Browne and her staff thanked the Askeaton group from the bottom of their hearts for help that will see vital funds secured for the cutting-edge operations of the school; as well as everyone in Listowel who went all for out for the big day.
An Inistioge postgraduate student has made history at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), having been honoured with one of the world's greatest scholarships, a Fulbright scholarship to go study in America.

Dayna Killian, a research postgraduate student at WIT is one of 38 people across Europe who has been selected for a Fulbright Award to study in America. The WIT School of Humanities researcher is WIT's first research postgraduate student to get the scholarship.

Minister Charlie Flanagan of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Mr Reece Smyth, Charge d'affaires of the US Embassy in Ireland, announced the new Fulbright Irish Awardees at Iveagh House last week. Theatre studies lecturer at WIT, Dr Una Kealy, is Dayna's supervisor and encouraged her to apply for the Fulbright scholarship.

Recipients include students, academics and professionals from 15 HEIs across Ireland and Europe. These awardees will go to top US institutions to study and collaborate with experts in their field.

A recipient of WIT's PhD Scholarship, programme Dayna is currently a PhD candidate for the 'Performing Women: Performing the Region' project at WIT. This doctorate seeks to recoup the work of women playwrights who wrote for the Abbey Theatre during the first 50 years of the 20th century and to contribute to the development of gender equality policy for the future of the Irish theatre sector, a demand highlighted most recently and vigorously by the Waking the Feminists movement.

Dayna attended the Holy Faith, New Ross and Newtown, Waterford secondary schools. She said: 'I have been extremely lucky throughout my education to have the unwavering support of many people including Dr Niamh Malone who has been a guiding light since my early teenage years through to the present day, as well as the supervisory support of Dr Una Kealy my lead supervisor in WIT. My parents Michael and Margaret, sisters Megan and Isabel and wider family including my nanny Joan Killian and aunties Olivia, Bernie, Catherine and Veronica have been of invaluable support in every way and for all the time and effort such a wide range of talented, expert and loving people have invested in me, I feel extremely grateful and humbled.'

This prestigious award will enable Dayna to travel to the US to work with Professor Susan Cannon-Harris at Notre Dame University in order to further explore the representation of women playwrights and Irish womanhood on the Abbey stage in the first half of the 20th century. 'Travelling to Notre Dame in Indiana this September as a Fulbright student offers me a life-changing opportunity which will offer me an opportunity to disseminate my current work on women playwrights and my work around gender policy development in the cultural sector in Ireland. I am very grateful to the Fulbright Commission for this opportunity and for all the encouragement I have received in both my professional and personal life.'

Before starting out as a researcher at WIT, Dayna completed her MSc at WIT in Global Financial Information Systems. Prior to this her educational achievements included a first class honours degree in Drama and Theatre studies at Liverpool Hope University.

WIT has a long history of engagement with the Fulbright initiative with four staff travelling to the US as Fulbright Scholars and welcoming three US academics to the Institute over the past four years. Dr Peter McLoughlin, Vice President for Research at WIT said that the Institute is delighted that Dayna Killian has become the institute's first research postgraduate student to receive a prestigious Fulbright scholarship. Mr McLoughlin said: 'Dayna has excelled in her research to date having reached the final of the HEA/Irish Independent Making an Impact competition last year. WIT would like to thank the Fulbright Commission for its continued support and we wish Dayna well in her studies in the US.'
New Ross Musical Society (NRMS), were confirmed as one of the best musical groups in the country at the AIMS awards held in Killarney on Saturday night, winning two awards including best director.

More than 20 members of NRMS travelled to the annual AIMS Awards weekend in Killarney. NRMS were nominated for three awards Best Director, Best Technical and Best Comedienne.

The only nomination left to be announced was the big one, Best Overall Show which the group were delighted to have been nominated for.

NRMS spokesperson Sarah Collins said: 'This was a huge honour as there are hundreds of shows produced in Ireland each year and to be acknowledged as one of the top five in the country is an outstanding.'

The group received the runner-up award in the Best Technical category and the production manager Paul Malone of NRMS represented the society for this award. Following this was Best Comedienne, which saw Caroline O' Connell take her place on the podium to await the announcement. Caroline played the dramatic and hilarious Lina Lamont in Singin in the Rain. This year marked Caroline's first time on stage with NRMS. She is no stranger to the musical and drama circuit in Wexford. She has worked with many different groups including Opera Ireland, Oyster Lane, Enniscorthy Musical Society, and Grove Theatre Group. The place erupted when Caroline was announced as the winner.

Then came the Best Director award presentation which Derek Shannon accepted. This is Derek's second year as director for NRMS, but he has been involved with the society for many years having first joined 1991 and since then has been everything from a leading man to chairperson. 'Derek has given so much to the society and there is no one who deserves this award more than him.'

Finally came Best Overall Show, NRMS were overjoyed to have been named as runner-up.

'When NRMS staged Singin in the Rain we had no idea that this would be the response to our show. To be considered one of the top five shows in the country is a huge boost to our cast, crew and production team. It is a privilege to have received this accolade and the excitement will continue into our 50th year production in 2018.'
The Council is calling on the Minister for Finance to ensure Bank of Ireland in Ballymote ups its service to a five day week.

Councillor Thomas Healy proposed the motion due to the imminent closure of the Ulster Bank branch in the town.

Bank of Ireland currently operates a three day week service in Ballymote.

Cllr Healy told the June meeting that a bank branch was a "very important infrastructure" in an area. His motion was seconded by Cllr Chris MacManus.

Cllr Seamus Kilgannon said: "I fully support the idea of giving people a financial service but I've listened to your own spokesperson today and never once did he mention Credit Unions. Three million people are members of Credit Unions - it's amazing what we could do. Please look to your Credit Union."

Ulster Bank replied to the Council on May 24th. Public Affairs Manager Robert Kelly said the decision to close the Ballymote branch was "never taken lightly."

"We undertake extensive investigation and research before we make the very difficult decision to close nay location," he wrote.

"We fully appreciate that the closure of a branch impacts on a community and have taken steps to lessen this," he said.

An ATM will remain at the Ulster Bank branch in Ballymote but Mr Kelly cast further doubt on that service by adding that "ATM locations will be assessed regularly and further changes could be made depending on customer demand and usage."

He also said six new Community Banker roles are being created to "represent Ulster Bank in the community" where branches are closing. However what services they offer was not outlined.

Cllr Margaret Gormley said there were many families that had been with Ulster Bank in Ballymote for decades. "I'm deeply upset. They say the ATMs will remain but for how long? For the business people and people running the mart I think it's outrageous," she told members.

Cllr Dara Mulvey said "the fear is that people are going to have to carry excess cash. To expect people to come into Sligo and face the security question of carrying cash around town."

"The banks are expecting customers to do everything to suit them. It's a bad day for Ballymote. We've gone from three banks to one. You could just pull up and lodge cheques," he said.
Bank of Ireland has defended its policy to adopt a 'cash free' policy at its Manorhamilton, Tubbercurry and Ballymote branches.

Customers will have to rely on self-service machines for cash transactions in the future as the new approach is adopted at 100 of its branches around the country.

A spokeswoman for Bank of Ireland told 'The Sligo Champion that when it looked at trends over time within a branch's catchment area and saw a consistent decrease in counter activity, it reconfigured the branch to support how its customers was using it.

"That means moving staff from behind the counter directly onto the floor, where they can provide advice and assistance to customers including in the use of self-service options. This change has been very successful in a growing number of our branches, where we have seen an increase in transactions happening in branch through the enhanced availability of self-service options. Our customers are rapidly changing the way they bank, just as they are changing the way they buy goods or services online and communicate with each other.

"Today, only 3% of our customers' total transactions are conducted over the counter - 97% of all transactions take place through other channels. For example, every month, we have eight million interactions with our customers on our mobile app, and over 14 million interactions per month through the mobile app, online banking, and contact centres combined.

"In addition, the use of credit and debit card and contactless banking continues to grow, with demand for cheques, foreign currency and coin services continuing to significantly reduce.

"Ballymote, Tubbercurry and Manorhamilton branches are adopting the 'Advice & Self Service' model which is already in place in some locations nationwide. Advice & Self Service branches continue to provide customers with a comprehensive range of products and services, access to online and 365 phone services, the ability to lodge and withdraw cash from easy to use self-service machines. They also enable greater availability of branch staff to provide personalised financial and banking advice.

"Foreign currency exchange and coin transaction services will no longer be available in these branches. This change has been very successful in a growing number of our branches, where we have seen an increase in transactions happening in branch through the enhanced availability of self-service options.

"We also have a dedicated 'Digi Arrows' team providing additional support for customers in the use of our digital and self-service options - last year alone, 30,000 customers attended a 'Tea and Teach' session.

"We understand that business and retail customers increasingly require access to 24/7 facilities for lodgement and withdrawal and we are investing 10 million in our branch network this year, including the introduction of 90 new eLATM's (External Lodgement and ATMs) across our network.

"Implementation of these changes will be taking place on a phased basis with a two-month period for comprehensive customer notification," she said.

However, Manorhamilton publican and councillor, Phelim Gurn said people were really upset about the bank's plans, due to be implemented on August 9th. Cllr Gurn said: "Business people can't get change and machiens won't be able to counter act that.

"It's all well and good saying online banking is the way to go but you need good broadband for that. Also, the bank is saying that the elderly are more advanced now with tecnhology but I don't agree at all with that and I can see older people struggling with changes like this.

"There has been an ongoing issue with the ban's ATM going down last year, especially at Bank Holiday week-ends, simply running out of cash. In the new situation if money is not coming through over the counter how is the bank going to fill the machine?

"Down the road in two to three years are we looking at closure? The Ulster Bank was here for up to 80 years and it's now gone. It really annoys me that the Irish taxpayer bailed out Bank of Ireland and it repays us by turning its back on rural Ireland.

"I had to move my custom from the Ulster Bank to Bank of Ireland and now I may have to switch again to the AIB in the town..There was no counter service on Wednesdays and Thursdays and now we are just getting machines. There's going to be no interaction with people.

"I think Bank of Ireland are trying to fool us. They had a big enterprise event here last week and got the town involved and then they go and pull the plug on us. I believe this is all part of a wind down of operations by the bank which will be concentrating on the bigger centres of population."
Manorhamilton mart has satisfied the regulatory authorities regarding its financial affairs and has received its licence.

The mart, the only one trading without a licence, was now fully compliant, Sligo District Court was told last Thursday.

It has spent a lot of money getting its affairs in order and financial experts hired to sort out its affairs were now engaged on a full time basis as part of the negotiations which had been ongoing with the Property Services Regulatory Authority.

Previous sittings of the court heard how Manorhamilton Livestock Sales Ltd at Station Road didn't have a licence and the Property Services Regulatory Authority had concerns over tax compliance and a deficit in the client account.

It admitted to two counts of operating without a licence.

However, Judge Kevin Kilrane was told last Thursday by Mr Keith O'Graday BL with Mr Gerard McGovern, solicitor (defending) that all matters had been regularised at significant cost to the mart.

Mark Dunne, an inspector with the authority, outlined how the mart had been turned down for a licence in 2013 and 2015 having originally applied in 2012.

Witness said the authority received five complaints regarding "bounced cheques" and this led to an investigation.

Witness first visited Manorhamilton on November 9th 2015 and saw a mart in progress. He also met with its director, Ivan Moffitt who gave his access to the client account bank statement.

Summonses were issued in December 2015 and pleas were entered on October 12th 2016 with the matters being adjourned on a number of occasions since to allow engagement take place.

On May 30th last there was a meeting between mart representatives at the authority's offices in Navan and a licence was issue last week with conditions having been met.

Mr O'Grady said costs had been agreed with the authority.

"It wasn't a cheap prosecution," he said.

Mr O'Grady said it was interesting to note that the matters had arisen on foot of anonymous complaints being made from those being followed for bad debts.

There were some damaging articles in trade magazines as a result, he added.

Mr O'Grady said the time afford by the court through various adjournments had been put to good use.

"There's been a total change now in the way my client conducts its business," pleaded Mr O'Grady.

He said the mart would continue to retain the various experts brought in to assist it and this was part of the agreement with the authority.

Judge Kilrane said everyone was aware of how important marts were to communities in rural Ireland.

He said with animals feathing 1,000 each and some 200 or 300 passing through a mart each day one could only imagine the kind of money at stake.

The Judge said the days of paying on credit were well and truly gone and animals must be paid for on the day they were bought.

In the past, he suggested, bigger buyers perhaps used their clout to get credit but he said marts now had to be run on a strict business model.

The prosecution, said the Judge, had done good in that it probably saved the mart and it was now in strict compliance.

"The mart is clearly now licensed and in compliance which cost of a lot of money," said the Judge. He marked the facts proven and said he was making no further order.
A suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca as police disrupted a plot to target the holiest site in Islam just as the fasting month of Ramadan ends, Saudi security forces said Saturday.

The Interior Ministry said it launched a raid around Jeddah, as well as two areas in Mecca itself, including the Ajyad Al-Masafi neighborhood, located near the Grand Mosque.

There, police said they engaged in a shootout at a three-story house with a suicide bomber, who blew himself up and caused the building to collapse. He was killed, while the blast wounded six foreigners and five members of security forces, according to the Interior Ministry's statement. Five others were arrested, including a woman, it said.

Saudi state television aired footage after the raid Friday near the Grand Mosque, showing police and rescue personnel running through the neighborhood's narrow streets. The blast demolished the building, its walls crushing a parked car. Nearby structures appeared to be peppered with shrapnel and bullet holes.

The Interior Ministry said the thwarted "terrorist plan" would have violated "all sanctities by targeting the security of the Grand Mosque, the holiest place on Earth."

"They obeyed their evil and corrupt self-serving schemes managed from abroad whose aim is to destabilize the security and stability of this blessed country," it said.

The ministry did not name the group involved in the attack. The ultraconservative Sunni kingdom battled an al-Qaeda insurgency for years and more recently has faced attacks from a local branch of the Islamic State group. Neither group immediately claimed involvement, though IS sympathizers online have urged more attacks as an offensive in Iraq slowly squeezes the extremists out of Mosul and their de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria comes under daily bombing from a U.S.-led coalition.

As the Interior Ministry announced the raid, over 1 million Muslim faithful prayed at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina to mark the end of Ramadan.

Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque, the burial site of the Prophet Muhammad, every year as part of their pilgrimage.

The Grand Mosque has been the target of militants before, in part because it represents a symbol of the ruling Al Saud family's clout in the Islamic world. The Saudi monarch bears the title of "custodian of the two holy mosques."

In 1979, some 250 militants seized the mosque and held it for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne. When Saudi troops stormed the mosque, the official death toll was 229, including extremists and soldiers.

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The late daughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten was fondly remembered by former friends in Mullaghmore after her death was announced last week.

Patricia Knatchbull, died on 13th of June at her home in England, in Mersham, Kent. Lady Mountbatten, as she was known, was 93.

Her death was confirmed by Paul Beresford-Hill, the director general of the Mountbatten Institute.

Her father and teenage twin son Nicholas Knatchbull were tragically killed in August 1979 when their boat, the Shadow V, was blown up by the IRA off Mullaghmore.

Lady Mountbatten was also on the boat but survived.

Although she cried every day for six months over her losses, she channelled her pain into support for child bereavement charities.

She was Godmother to Prince Charles and he was Godfather to her late son Nicholas.

They remained close after the tragedy.

While she had holidayed in Mullaghmore with her father and family every August for over 30 years, she only returned to Sligo twice after the bombing to visit friends privately.

Two sons of the Classiebawn Housekeeper, John and Pat Barry shared their memories of Lady Mountbatten yesterday.

"It's another end of an era," said Pat Barry, who worked for her in Kent and in the Mountbatten family home in Broadlands.

"It's a sad story, that on a beautiful summer's day, at the end of their holiday in Mullaghmore, their entire family was torn apart," said Pat.

"After her father was dead, she was head of the family. She was a lovely person, very kind. I knew her all the years at Classiebawn, like her father, she loved coming here," he said.

His brother John attended Lady Mountbatten's husband's memorial service in London in 2005. "I would have known her very well. She was very kind to children. She always made you feel part of the family and very welcome," he said.

"She had a great bond and affection for the people of Mullaghmore, we know that," said John.
The Council has no immediate plans in place to introduce any new disabled parking spaces in the county this year.

Councillor Jerry Lundy asked the monthly meeting of the Council last week if any funding had been provided by the Government for the upgrade or provision of disabled parking spaces here.

He also asked about their plans over the next 12 months.

"If we're lucky to live long enough, all of us will have a disability," Cllr Lundy told the meeting.

He said that in 2017 there were 100,000 Disabled Parking Permits in circulation nationwide.

Cllr Lundy also said that the Disabled Drivers Association of Ireland said illegal parking in disabled parking bays was increasing.

He was supported by Cllrs Dara Mulvey, Margaret Gormley and Chris MacManus.

Council Chief Executive Ciaran Hayes told Cllr Lundy the Council was not aware of any specific funding from the Government for more disabled spaces. He referred the issue to the recently re-established Disability Consultative Committee.
Pupils and teachers with the Green Flag

Pupils and teachers at Newtownmountkennedy celebrated receiving their Green Flag last week.

The Green Schools Committee worked hard with the entire student and staff body all year to earn the award.

The Green Schools programme is run by An Taisce.

They aim to improve the school environment and reduce litter and waste.

They learn how to reduce fuel bills and energy usage and reduce water consumption.

The Green Schools programme encourages car-free travel to school and generally aims to increase environmental awareness.

The scheme involves the local community and creates links with other schools. The boys and girls were very proud to have achieved the accolade this year.

Schools taking part aim to earn a flag each year for their work in a particular area.

Green-Schools is run by An Taisce in co-operation with Local Authorities throughout Ireland and is sponsored by Coca-Cola Bottlers Ireland Ltd. and The Wrigley Company Ltd. Green-Schools is an initiative of FEE and is referred to internationally as Eco-Schools.
A West Wicklow farm will host a major national dairy event on July 6.

The Irish Holstein Friesian Association (IHFA) launched its National Open Day at the farm of Victor Jackson, Kiltegan Co Wicklow featuring his Crossnacole herd.

This marks the 25th anniversary of the first ever staging of the Open Day, with the Jackson family hosting the inaugural event.

The Open Day has evolved considerably over the years and is a highlight event of the year for breeders and the wider dairy sector. The programme of events includes Inter Club stockjudging, Open stock judging, National Herds competition results and announcements, presentation of prizes. There will be the opportunity to view the Crossnacole herd, and a celebratory Open Day sale of the top Crossnacole cow families will take place.

There will be an all-day trade display of dairy related agribusiness for dairy farmers to get an update on current products and services.

Macra na Feirme will hold its annual stock judging competition as part of the Open Day proceedings.

Speaking at the launch IHFA C.E. Charles Gallagher said that the open day is a key flagship event for the Holstein Friesian Breed in demonstrating its genetic variation to suit all dairy farming systems.

The event is free of charge for all dairy farmers to attend.
Discount landline operator Yourtel has been fined 2,500 and ordered to pay 10,000 in legal costs for repeatedly billing a retired Co Wicklow school teacher for a service it did not provide.

Dublin District Court heard that pensioner Briain Mac Diarmada (74) was threatened with debt collectors and reported to a credit ratings agency when he took a stand against the phone company.

Following an investigation by industry watchdog Comreg, German telecom firm Yourtel went on trial on a charge under the Communications Act for charging Briain Mac Diarmada for a service or product that was requested but not supplied.

The offence can result in a fine of up to 5,000.

On Monday last, Judge John Brennan convicted the firm and accepted the offence would have caused Mac Diarmada to fret. He imposed the 2,500 fine and agreed to make an order compelling the firm to pay Comreg's costs.

The company, which has claimed to operate the lowest-priced landline calls in the country, entered the Irish market in 2013 and had pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Mr Mac Diarmada, from Newtownmountkennedy, told Judge Brennan that in 2013 he switched from Eircom to Yourtel for calls.

He said that after being cold-called 'out of the blue', he entered into a new contract with Yourtel in October 2014 but in January 2016 he noticed that he had been being billed by both Yourtel and Eircom for calls.

He was supposed to be billed by Eircom for line rental only and by Yourtel for calls, the court heard.

After realising he was paying twice, he contacted Yourtel and learned it was not providing the service. He told the court he decided to 'take a stand' and not pay the latest 23.95 bill. He said that at the end of January he received a correspondence from Yourtel demanding payment of the bill as well as late payment fee.

He agreed with prosecution counsel Ronan Kennedy that he received further correspondence from Yourtel on March 9 last year.

He said this informed him his account was being deactivated and that his data had been sent 'to a debt collection agency'. The letter went on to say his data had been filed with a credit agency. The letter ended with 'Yours Sincerely, Yourtel Legal Department,' the court heard.

Mr Mac Diarmada said he was 'deeply unimpressed', did not like his data being passed to a credit agency and he had never been threatened before.

He wrote to Yourtel explaining that he had wanted to be connected.

He agreed with Mr Kennedy that he was charged for a product which had not been provided and he then contacted Comreg and gave them documentation to support his case. He said he did not receive the service from September 2014 until January 2016.

He said that as far as he was concerned he had a contract with Yourtel and it was broken by the company. He agreed with defence counsel Oisin Clarke that in April last year his account was terminated and the bill was waived.

Eircom's head of Operations Support Systems told the court that during the period in question all calls on the line were provided by Eircom not by Yourtel.

The court heard the onus was on the telecom company gaining a new customer to organise a seamless transfer of calls from the previous provider.

Miriam Kilraine, Regulatory Operations Manager at Comreg, said Yourtel had refused to refund the customer.

Mr Clarke, defending, said that in August last year Yourtel apologised to the pensioner and had informed him that an employee had been disciplined. She disagreed that it was unfair that summons were issued while Yourtel were attempting to resolve Mr Mac Diarmada complaint.

The court heard that Yourtel does not have premises in Ireland but uses a distribution service with an address at Kill Avenue in Dun Laoghaire to forward post to their address in Germany.

Last year in a prosecution brought by the office of the Data Protection Commissioner, Yourtel was fined 5,000 for unwanted marketing calls targeting Eir customers.

The company had also been spared a court conviction in 2015 by paying 2,500 to charity after it was prosecuted by Comreg for other communications offences.
A new era of customer service is dawning for Iarnrod Eireann, according to passenger services manager John Reville.

Giving a presentation to members of Wicklow County Council last week, Mr Reville said that the company is currently conducting a review of its customer service.

He said that he was attending council meetings around the country to brief them of the changes before they were implemented.

Mr Reville said that the company had come to recognise that there is a greater needed for an on-board staff presence along routes, particularly the intercity routes. He also said that there had been a switch from the traditional purchase of tickets at stations to online sales.

Mr Reville said the plan was to have a staff member highly visible on board delivering a can-do attitude. He said 'every intercity route will have a customer representative responsible for customers' needs.

Cllr Jennifer Whitmore said while she understood the push to automated ticketing and online sales but said that some elderly people might not be able to use these services and pointed out that people with poor broadband connectivity would also struggle. She also expressed concerns that people with mobility issues had to give 24 hours notice to travel.

Cllr Tom Fortune pointed out that Kilcoole has a population of 4,000 but the train station didn't have any shelter. He also questioned the lack of stops at Kilcoole, stating that if the train were passing through the station he didn't see why it couldn't stop there too.

His request for a shelter at the station was supported by Cllr Nicola Lawless who also raised concerns about the accessibility of trains and queried the need for people with mobility issues having to give notice.

Cllr Miriam Murphy, herself a wheelchair user, said while she enjoyed using public transport she had a fear of being unable to board, and said that it was unfair that people with mobility issues had to give notice to ensure there were someone at the station to help them.

Cllr Derek Mitchell raised concerns about the planned increase in journey times and also the lack of bike parking spaces within Greystones station.

Cllr Michael O'Connor wondered if it were possible to coordinate bus and train timetables.

Cllr Sylvester Bourke wondered if it were possible to put a station in Avoca.

The disparity of fares between Greystones and Bray prompted concern from Cllr Gerry Walsh who said that the Greystones fare to Dublin was disproportionate to what was being charged from Bray. 'We should be trying to incentivise people to use public transport,' he said.

Cllr Irene Winters said that the Wicklow train was often delayed, while Cllr Grainne McLoughlin said that a ticket machine was also needed in Kilcoole as well as the shelter. Cllr Winters also asked about the emergency coastal works that were carried out in 2016 along the rail network.

She also said that while there are toilet facilities in Greystones station, they are not open.

Cllr Brendan Thornhill wondered if there were plans to introduce transport police, while Cllr Mary Kavanagh said it is 'discriminatory' that disabled travellers have to give notice.

Cllr Edward Timmins raised concerns about the car parking facilities at Sallins.

Cllr Pat Fitzgerald looked for an assurance that the Dublin-Rosslare line would not terminate in Enniscorthy.

Mr Reville said that a number of councillors had raised concerns about people with mobility issues boarding and alighting the train. He said the policy of providing 24 hours notice 'can be very, very unpopular', adding he had had several meetings with the Irish Wheelchair Association and was very conscious of the policy.

He said that between Tara, Pearse and Connolly stations the staff of Iarnrod Eireann helped 200 people with mobility issues on a daily basis, many on a walk-up basis.

'The policy of 24 hours' notice is to guarantee service - it's not mandatory. We deal with a lot of walk ups on a daily basis. We are moving this to a four hour notice period which has been received well.'

In terms of the intercity services, Mr Reville said that the trains do provide space for people in all types of wheelchairs but said he didn't see the fleet being modified in the near future. However, he said that the new customer services personnel will be very beneficial in unmanned stations.

In terms of Kilcoole, Mr Reville said that he didn't envisage a problem providing a shelter there and said he would look at the feasibility of trains passing through Kilcoole stopping there more often.

'I think we can look positively on it as long as it doesn't disrupt the timetable too much.'

Mr Reville said that he would be in favour of extra bike spaces but said that the station is quite narrow.

In respect of a station at Avoca, Mr Reville said that it wasn't on the cards at the moment, adding it wasn't included in any capital programme at the moment.

He also told Cllr Walsh that the fares are set by the National Transport Authority and Iarnrod Eireann can't regulate them.

In respect of terminating the service before Rosslare, Mr Reville said that it was a suggestion contained in the rail review.
Wicklow RNLI members came to the rescue of five people during two call-outs in the space of 24 hours last week.

Shortly before 3pm last Wednesday (June 14), the all-weather lifeboat was launched to assist the crew of a whelk fishing vessel which was in difficulty off the Wicklow coast.

The skipper of the trawler contacted Wicklow Head Coast Guard by VHF radio for assistance after a rope got caught in the propeller.

The lifeboat, under the command of Senior Deputy Second Coxswain Tom McAulay, was alongside the casualty 40 minutes after launching, in a position over 12 miles north of Wicklow port near the Codling bank.

The fishermen reported earlier that they managed to clear the rope from the propeller and were now able to get under way.

Coxswain McAulay carried out an assessment and the lifeboat escorted the trawler while it crossed the Codling bank. Once he was satisfied that the obstruction was clear and the fishing vessel with three crew was capable of resuming its passage safely back to Wicklow harbour, the lifeboat returned to station.

The crew on the call out were Coxswain Tommy McAuley, mechanic Brendan Copeland, Terry Sillery, Carol Flahive, Lisa O'Leary, Paul Sillery and Dean Mulvihill.

The following day (Thursday, June 15), the all-weather lifeboat was again called out to assist the French yacht 'Kei Ki Wei', which was in difficulties four miles east of Wicklow harbour.

Weather conditions in the area were wind westerly force five , with slight sea and good visibility. A nearby Customs vessel stood by the yacht until the lifeboat arrived. Crew member Terry Sillery was transferred onto the yacht to assist the sailors, who had encountered mechanical problems with the engine and were unable to motor into the harbour. A towline was established and the French yacht was taken back to Wicklow.

The yacht, which had two French sailors aboard and was on passage north for Dun Laoghaire, was brought safely alongside the East pier at Wicklow harbour shortly after 5.30 p.m.

Speaking afterwards, Wicklow RNLI Operations Manager Des Davitt said the crew were 'thankful for the services of the crew from the Customs cutter RCC Faire, who gave assistance and stood by the casualty until the lifeboat arrived.'

The crew on the callout were Coxswain Ciaran Doyle, Mechanic Brendan Copeland, Tommy McAulay, Terry Sillery, Kevin Rahill, Connie O Gara and Ian Thompson.
Leslie and Lynda Martin with Holly, Cathal and Ciaran after Ciaran left isolation after 57 days earlier this month. (Photo:Cogs and Kiwi)

The generosity of the people of Wicklow and further afield has helped the Martin family from Rathnew reach their fundraising target to fund their youngest son's clinical trials in Italy in a bid to stop the progress of a rare genetic illness he has been diagnosed with and help improve the quality of his life.

Within three months of setting up their appeal, Leslie and Lynda Martin posted a heartfelt thanks to the people of Wicklow and beyond, who have lent their support in this toughest of times, on their 'Cogs and Kiwi' Facebook page.

Leslie and Lynda Martin began their campaign back in March to raise 250,000 to cover all the costs involved for the clinical trials, having learned that both of their two young sons, Cathal (3) and Ciaran (1) had a rare genetic illness with no known cure.

Last December, Cathal was diagnosed with Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD) and in February the family was dealt a further blow when they found out that their youngest son Ciaran suffers from the same condition.

MLD attacks the nervous system and Cathal has gone from a fully healthy little boy to almost completely paralyzed within 18 months.

Sadly, the diagnosis came too late for Cathal and his condition is now terminal.

However, Leslie and Lynda, who are also parents to Holly, immediately sought to get Ciaran included on a clinical trial in Italy, where he has been receiving treatment since March 7.

'As a family, we want to send huge thank you to everyone who has dug so deep to help us out in our time of need,' the Martin family said in their Facebook post.

'We have now gathered our fund target and hope that it will be enough to carry us through the rest of this ordeal,' they wrote.

Ciaran has now finished the main part of his treatment and now they must wait and see how well it goes. The family will have to remain in Italy for some time yet and bring him back regularly for the next two year and then every six months for the rest of his life so that his condition can be monitored.

'All this is not a cure for the condition he has but hopefully within the coming months the treatment will stop the progress of the disease and he will have a good quality of life. Our hope is that it hasn't affected his brain yet and that he will learn to walk on his own and have the independence he needs to enjoy a full life,' the family wrote.

Sadly, the news is not so good for Cathal who 'continues to get weaker'. He is due to return to Ireland to have a peg feed installed in his stomach to, hopefully, make life a bit easier for him.

'He will be glad to escape the heat here for a while and he'll be happier around his grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins and friends,' his parents wrote.

'Again, we are truly grateful to so many of you who have backed us up in so many ways and although this story was never going to have a happy ending for us we will continue to try our best for the lads,' they said.

Lugnaquilla fundraising climb next month

Although the target has been reached, a fundraising of climb of Lugnaquilla has been organised for Saturday, July 15.

The climb will leave from the Glenmalure Lodge at 10.30am and will take approximately five to six hours. The walk will be guided by qualified mountain leaders, places are limited and booking is required. The cost is 40. Participants should log onto the Martin family idonate page, pledge their 40, then forward the receipt and details to btfennessy@hotmail.com

For more information, visit the Cogs and Kiwi Facebook page.
Plans are afoot to have Donard Garda Station reopened following a recommendation by the Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan.

The recommendation comes as part of a review of number of smaller stations which were closed in recent years.

However, it may not be quite so easy to reopen the station which closed in 2013 as it has since been put to use as a base for the Glen of Imaal Mountain Rescue and Wicklow Red Cross.

According to Wicklow Fine Gael TD Andrew Doyle it is important that both organisations are engaged with.

'I spoke to Tanaiste, Frances Fitzgerald, after this week's Cabinet meeting and she informed me that the reopening of Donard Garda station will be recommended. This is a most important measure that will be warmly welcomed by many in the locality. Given Donard's strategic location, close to the N81 and a gateway to the Wicklow mountains, the reopening of the station is most welcome. I am aware that the Garda station is now a base for Red Cross who, along with the mountain rescue team provide another vital voluntary community service, so it is important that both organisations are engaged with,' he said.

Meanwhile Sinn Fein's John Brady TD has also welcomed the recommendation for Donard Garda Station but was critical of the manner in which the approval for the reopening of Stepaside Garda Station was handled, saying it was a trade-off for support of the appointment of Maire Whelan to the Court of Appeal.

Stepaside was the only station reopening approved by Cabinet last week, and was an issue specifically raised by Minister Shane Ross.

'It is a pretty damning indictment of Irish politics when the reopening of a Garda station is gifted to a Senior Minister as a trade off for a quiet life for the Taoiseach, when it comes to the appointment of Maire Whelan to the Court of Appeal. Minister Ross has been content to spout utter outrage at political interference in judicial appointments that is, until there is something of benefit in it for him,' he said.

Deputy Brady said that the reopening of Donard Garda Station is one of just a number of measures required to make communities in Wicklow feel more secure.

'Crime right across rural areas is on the increase and we also need additional resources put into the entire county. We haven't had any new recruits in years and that is on top of those we are losing through retirements,' he said.

According to the Irish Red Cross, the current arrangement is a Licence to Occupy.

Liam O'Dwyer, Secretary General said 'To date, no contact has been received about the building in Donard. The arrangement we have with the OPW for this property is a Licence to Occupy, so we have always understood that should the need arise we would need to find an alternative property. Though we would obviously be disappointed, we are grateful to the OPW for their support of our Wicklow volunteers and charitable work in Ireland.'
An oral hearing into the Vartry Reservoir planning decision was held last week by An Bord Pleanala, with a decision due by September.

The hearing heard from Irish Water who propose the water treatment upgrade scheme, as well as those objecting to the works.

The decision has been appealed by a number of groups in the Ashford area on the basis that Irish Water were not required to undertake an Environmental Impact Statement as part of their planning permission.

Cllr Jennifer Whitmore was one of those to contribute to the oral hearing. She has a background in fisheries management and environmental law. 'The hearing was a good opportunity for us all to hear the other side and gain a better understanding of the issues.' She said that the two main issues are the building of a new treatment plant, and the operation of the new plant. 'I have no problems with the building of the new plant, and I understand that there are health, safety and supply reasons why it is necessary. My concerns about this project relate only to the operation of the new treatment plant, and the reduced volume of water that Irish Water propose to give to the Vartry River,' she said.

'In my opinion, the proposed reduction in flow to the Vartry by up to two-thirds the volume it has received over the past 10 years cannot be permitted without an environmental impact assessment. It is a very valuable river for Wicklow and we need to afford it a sufficient level of protection.' Speaking at the hearing, she said that Irish Water's consultation with the public had been inadequate.

In particular, Irish Water referred to this project as an upgrade to the existing reservoir. Cllr. Whitmore pointed out at the hearing that if a proposal went to WCC to 'add an extension onto a house, but the extension was located in an adjoining field, that the extension would be considered a new building. This is, in essence, what Irish Water are planning to do. A new plant will be built on the adjoining site, and the existing plant will be mainly decommissioned, and that this should have been considered a new development, and had to undergo a full environmental impact assessment as a result.'

She said that she believes there is a solution. Cllr Whitmore told the hearing that she would like to see permission to build the plant given. 'In the two to three years it takes to build, significant monitoring and measuring could be undertaken, including fish stocks. The information gathered during this time be used to inform any decisions on reducing flows, and to address and environmental concerns.' She also requested that a management plan for the river be put in place to ensure continued protection for the river into the future. Irish Water said that the works will ensure drinking water for 200,000 people from Roundwood, through Wicklow and up to south Dublin. 'Without the upgrade to the Vartry Water Treatment Plant, Irish Water would need to restrict or cease allowing new connections for homes and businesses, or increases in water usage for businesses in the region to protect existing customers and maintain the current level of service,' they said.
Suicide bombers attacked a shopping district of east Mosul that was retaken from the militants months ago, killing at least three people, medical and security officials said Saturday.

The attack struck the Muthanna neighbourhood late on Friday as residents shopped ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

"The first suicide bomber blew himself up as he was being stopped by a policeman, who died on the spot," a senior police officer said.

A second bomber managed to enter a shopping arcade and blew himself up among civilians, killing at least two and wounding nine, according to the same officer and a medic at Al-Khansaa hospital.

A third suicide bomber was killed by police before he could detonate his vest, the sources said.

The attack was not the first but among the bloodiest since Iraqi forces retook the eastern side of Mosul in January as part of a massive offensive to wrest back the country's second city from IS.

Residents in areas retaken from the militants have warned that sleeper cells remain a threat and that cursory screening has allowed many IS supporters to return to civilian life without facing justice.

There had been growing calls in east Mosul before Friday night's attack for the families of IS members to be banished for 10 years, among other measures.

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Princess Eugenie of York is seen in the Parade Ring as she attends Royal Ascot 2017 at Ascot Racecourse on June 22, 2017 in Ascot, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Princess Eugenie of York (L) and Princess Beatrice of York are seen in the Parade Ring as she attends Royal Ascot 2017 at Ascot Racecourse on June 22, 2017 in Ascot, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Princess Beatrice of York is seen in the Parade Ring as she attends Royal Ascot 2017 at Ascot Racecourse on June 22, 2017 in Ascot, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Princess Eugenie of York is seen in the Parade Ring as she attends Royal Ascot 2017 at Ascot Racecourse on June 22, 2017 in Ascot, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Princess Beatrice (left) and Princess Eugenie attending the V and A Summer Party held at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The definition of what's considered "racy" definitely changes when you're a royal.

For some actresses, it's a thigh high split and plunging neckline, for Kate Middleton, it's a sleeveless top. But without the pressure of strict royal codes to adhere to, Princess Beatrice has a little more wiggle room in the fashion department than her cousins.

The business consultant (28) ensured all eyes were on her as she opted for a navy blue, semi-sheer Self Portrait dress to celebrate the V&A Museum's summer party on Wednesday night.

The sheer panelling alone would likely ruffle royal feathers, but the young princess inadvertently showed off her nude shapewear under the flash of the cameras as she made her way into the museum.

Her grandmother, Britain's Queen Elizabeth is famously conscious about avoiding any unwanted displays and as their longest reigning monarch, she has picked up a trick or two along the way.

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In order to avoid a 'Marilyn moment' like Middleton has in the past, she lines the hem of her skirts with stones so as to avoid the aftermath of a gust of wind - not to mention the fact that she has a person on staff whose sole (pun intended) job is to break in her new shoes.

But she likely doesn't have anything in her rule book for showing off your high-wasted underwear under your sheer high street dress. Beatrice's younger sister Eugenie joined her for the occasion, alongside her boyfriend Jack Brooksbank and the pair have been busy socialising at the royal box at Ascot Racecourse this week, showcasing their unique style.

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As expected, the royal sisters have opted for eye-catching ensembles: Eugenie in a dramatic red midi-length dress with powder blue and red hat and Eugenie in a blue and black number.

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Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in Rome

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands arrive for a gala dinner at the Operahouse in Oslo on May 10, 2017 in celebration of the 80th bithdays of King Harald of Norway and Queen Sonja of Norway. / AFP PHOTO / NTB scanpix AND NTB Scanpix / Nesvold, Jon Olav / Norway OUTNESVOLD, JON OLAV/AFP/Getty Images

Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in Rome

Queen Maxima of Netherlands and King Willem-Alexander pose in front of Rome City Hall after a meeting with Rome's mayor Virginia Raggi on June 20, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Alberto PIZZOLIALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images

Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands arrive for a gala dinner at the Royal Palace in Oslo, Norway on May 9, 2017 to mark the 80th Birthday of the King and Queen.

Netherlands' King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima stand on the balcony of the Campidoglio Capitol hill building overlooking the Roman forum during their meeting with Mayor Virginia Raggi, Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in Rome

Pope Francis walks with King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands during a meeting at the Vatican June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Alessandra Tarantino/Pool

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands holds the commander's baton attributed to William of Orange presented him by Father Arturo Sosa Abascal, the leader of the Roman Catholic religious order of the Jesuits, during a meeting at the Vatican June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in Rome

It's not often you get a royal bargain.

As our obsession with European royals continues to grow, Queen Maxima of The Netherlands is fast becoming our new style crush after an impressive array of outfits during a state visit to Italy this week.

Before meeting Pope France at the Vatican, Maxima toured Italy with her husband King Willem-Alexander and opted for a traditional country-inspired dress in Rome, but the piece de resistance of this resplendent outfit was her on-trend red tassel earrings.

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So naturally, we tracked down a pair for a less Queen-like price. Irish jewellery company Betty and Biddy stock the Red Rope tassel earring for just 15, which provides the added bonus of supporting a homegrown company while nabbing this summer's must-have accessory.

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Investigators collect evidence from the site of a shooting in Karachi

The death toll from twin blasts in Parachinar has climbed to 67, bringing the overall death toll from three separate attacks in Pakistan to 85.

Several other victims are in a critical condition, officials said.

Shahid Khan, a government official in Parachinar, confirmed the toll, saying residents who had been preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan and Eid feast were now in mourning.

He said during the day another 12 critically wounded people died at different hospitals.

Lashkar e Jhangvi, a Sunni extremist group, claimed the twin bombings on Friday at a crowded market in the Shiite-dominated town, linking them to sectarian fighting in Syria.

Dr Sabir Hussain, an official at a government-run hospital in Parachinar, said it had received 261 victims of the twin blasts, with 62 listed as in critical condition.

Another 14 people were killed Friday in a suicide car bombing near the office of the provincial police chief in the southwestern city of Quetta, police spokesman Shahzada Farhat said.

That attack was claimed by a breakaway Taliban faction and the Islamic State group.

Gunmen in the port city of Karachi attacked police officers at a roadside restaurant, killing four of them before fleeing, senior police officer Asif Ahmed said.

Major General Asif Ghafoor, a military spokesman, linked the attacks to alleged militant sanctuaries in neighbouring Afghanistan and promised greater border security.

The two countries often accuse each other of turning a blind eye to militants.

Security forces raided a militant hideout in the northwestern city of Peshawar before dawn on Saturday, triggering a shootout in which three Pakistani Taliban were killed and two police officers and a soldier were wounded, senior police official Sajjad Khan said.

He said the militants were making bombs that likely would have been used to target holiday festivities.

Mr Khan said the identity of the dead militants was not immediately known.

But intelligence officials said one of the men has been identified as a wanted militant commander linked to IS.

Pakistan's p rime minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks, which came just days before Eid-al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Parachinar, a majority Shiite town, has been targeted by Sunni militants group several times in recent years, leaving dozens dead.

In March, a car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in Parachinar, killing 24 people, mostly Shiites.

In January, a bomb ripped through the crowded market of Parachinar, killing 22 people and wounded over 100.

In December 2015, the same market was targeted by a suicide bomber, killing 22.

Friday's car bombing in Quetta could be heard across the city, and shattered the windows of nearby buildings, said police spokesman Shahzada Farhat.

TV footage showed several badly damaged cars and a road littered with broken glass.

Hours after the attack, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility.

Later Friday, the IS group said in a competing claim that it was behind the attack, adding that one of its followers targeted the police post in Quetta, detonating his suicide belt there.

It also released a photograph of the alleged attacker, identified as Abu Othman al-Khorasani.

Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province, which has long been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists and separatists, who want a bigger share of the region's resources or outright independence. Islamic militants have also carried out several attacks in the province.

AP
Camden Council has evacuated 800 homes at the Chalcots Estate in north London after safety fears in the wake of the Grenfell Tower blaze.

Heres everything we know so far:

Urgent safety works

Camden Council leader Georgia Gould said the Taplow building in the estate would be temporarily decanted to allow urgent safety works to take place.

The council had already announced it would immediately begin preparing to remove cladding from five towers on the estate discovered in checks following the Grenfell Tower fire in north Kensington which killed at least 79 people.

Gould confirmed the decision means residents will be moved into temporary accommodation while the work is carried out.

Possible causes

The cladding used on the outside of Chalcots buildings is thought to be similar to that used in Grenfell Tower, which suffered a devastating blaze in the early hours of Wednesday June 14.

The cladding was found to have contained a flammable internal structure, and is thought to have been responsible for the rapid spread of the flames up the building.

Residents reaction

Residents said they had been given no warning before being asked to leave their homes, and some said they had learned they would be leaving by watching the news.

Michelle Urquhart, who has been living in the estates Bray tower, told the Press Association: Its a bit frightening.

They are talking about evacuating all five blocks.

At the moment they havent done it and they are saying they will knock on everyones doors when they are ready. I dont know where we are going to go.

One man in a suit said to me, you cant stay here tonight.

Im so angry because we had the meeting with the council last night and they tried to reassure us.

We have been living in these flats for the last 10 years with this cladding.

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Chalcots resident Shirley Philips told Sky she was given no notice before being told she must leave her home.

She said: I think its absolutely disgusting. Weve had the fire brigade all day, Camden Council, police.

I had a fire safety check done today. Why have they left it till half past eight on Friday night to start getting residents out? Where do they think were all going?

Grenfell Tower developer

Refurbishment of the estate in Camden was overseen by Rydon, the company involved in the refit of Grenfell Tower, according to the Rydon website.

The website said the Chalcots project was a 66 million refurbishment that lasted 191 weeks.

The work included external thermal rain screen cladding to five towers, new aluminium thermally broken windows to five towers and an overhaul of external roofs.

It added that 711 flats were modernised with new wiring, heating, kitchens and bathrooms.

Official reaction

Theresa May tweeted her support for residents and said officials were offering every support to residents.

She said: My thoughts are with residents being evacuated in Camden while their homes are made safe tonight.

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We will work with and support the emergency services and relevant authorities to safeguard the public.

Have asked Sajid Javid to keep me regularly updated & ensure we are offering every support we can to residents & those working onsite.

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Hampstead and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq said she was at the estate while residents were being evacuated.

She said: Im in regular contact with Camden and they are doing everything to keep our residents safe. As always, thats everyones top priority.
A mothers moving story about her two-year-old son with a heart condition has gone viral online, and shone a light on the issue of healthcare in the US.

Ali Chandra, 33, shared a picture on Twitter of the most recent bill for the treatment of her son Ethan  who has heterotaxy syndrome, a rare condition which invariably causes heart defects.

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The bill cost Ali and her husband $500 (391), but she said if it were not for health insurance they would have had to pay $231,115 (180,601)  and she said in reply to the Twitter thread that Ethans frequent need for healthcare blew past the million dollar mark long ago.

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Ali, from New Jersey, said reinstating lifetime caps on benefits would stop Ethan getting the healthcare he needs.

Barack Obamas administration scrapped lifetime caps on health insurance in the US, but it is rumoured new president Donald Trump could reinstate the limit.

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Alis heartfelt post has caught the imaginations of those online, with the original post being retweeted more than 19,000 times.

This has all been incredibly surprising, to be honest, Ali told the Press Association. It can often feel so lonely on this road.

To have so many thousands of people suddenly in our corner, voicing their support for Ethan and affirming the value of his life is incredibly encouraging.

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Ethan has no idea about any of this, said Ali. He turns three in a week, and hes just concerned with being a normal kid now that were getting a little break from hospital stuff.

Ali said she is starting a digital scrapbook of stories written about Ethan, to show him the impact his story had when he is older.

You can hear more about Ethans story by going to the Facebook page his mother set up for him.
Bruce Davis is serving a life sentence for the killings of musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald "Shorty" Shea (Tribune of San Luis Obispo)

The governor of California has blocked parole for Charles Manson follower and convicted killer Bruce Davis.

Jerry Brown's rejection is the fifth time Davis has been recommended for parole by a state panel only to see it blocked by a governor, and continues Mr Brown's unflinching pattern of refusing to allow anyone from Manson's "family" to be freed.

On February 1, the parole panel recommended release for 74-year-old Davis, who is serving a life sentence for the 1969 killings of musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald "Shorty" Shea.

Davis was not involved in the more notorious killings of actress Sharon Tate and six others by Manson's group.

Mr Brown in his written decision acknowledged the factors that led the board to recommend parole for Davis, including his efforts to improve himself, his academic progress and 25 years with no discipline for misconduct.

But he said these things are "outweighed by negative factors that demonstrate he remains unsuitable for parole".

"These cult murders have left an indelible mark on the public - the Manson Family is still feared to this day," Mr Brown wrote.

"Incredibly heinous and cruel offences like these constitute the 'rare circumstances' in which the crime alone can justify a denial of parole."

Mr Brown added: "His continued minimisation of his own violence and his role in the Manson Family further shows that he remains an unreasonable risk to the public."

The governor's decision came a week before the deadline.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the previous governor, also rejected Davis's parole bid before Mr Brown made a common ritual of it.

Davis is serving his time at the California Men's Colony at San Luis Obispo.

During the half-century since the killings, parole panels decided five times that he is no longer a public safety risk. Officials have cited his age and good behaviour behind bars that includes earning a doctoral degree and ministering to other inmates.

Davis testified at his 2014 hearing that he attacked Mr Shea with a knife and held a gun on Mr Hinman while Manson cut his face with a sword.

"I wanted to be Charlie's favourite guy," he said then.

On Thursday, California officials denied parole for another convicted killer and Manson follower, Patricia Krenwickel.

AP
The CIA's director held a secret negotiation with Syria's intelligence chief this year as part of efforts to free a US journalist taken hostage in the Arab country five years ago, according to reports.

The phone conversation between CIA boss Mike Pompeo and Syria's Ali Mamlouk occurred in February, the New York Times reported, citing unidentified US officials.

The subject was Austin Tice, a former marine who has reported for the Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, CBS and other outlets.

While further communications followed, the New York Times reported that the diplomatic effort collapsed after the US accused President Bashar Assad's government of killing dozens of civilians in a sarin gas attack in April and President Donald Trump responded by launching 60 cruise missiles at a Syrian air base.

The Pompeo-Mamlouk call would represent the highest-level communication between the two governments in years.

It is also surprising given widespread allegations of Mr Mamlouk's culpability in human rights atrocities in Syria's civil war. He has been subject to US sanctions since 2011.

The CIA declined to comment.

Mr Tice disappeared in 2002 while working near Damascus, shortly after his 31st birthday.

A month after his kidnapping, a video was released showing him blindfolded, being held by armed men and saying, "Oh, Jesus". He has not been heard from since, although the US believed Syria's government might be holding him.

No nation or group has come forward saying it has Mr Tice. Syria's deputy foreign minister told the Associated Press last year that Mr Tice "is not in the hands of Syrian authorities".

The report of the secret talks came after US officials confirmed a separate set of unpublicised negotiations with North Korea to free another American in captivity, Otto Warmbier.

The 22-year-old University of Virginia student, who fell into a coma during his captivity, died on Monday after he returned to the US last week.

The two "back channel" efforts show the Trump administration's willingness to engage in secret diplomacy with some of America's most intractable foes.

The president has threatened North Korea with the possibility of pre-emptive attack as it nears the capacity to strike the US mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile.

Washington considers Mr Assad's government in Syria a state sponsor of terrorism that provides critical help to anti-US and anti-Israel groups such as Hezbollah.

AP
Bank officials have been in Egypt on a five-day visit, checking progress of the government's economic reform programme

Egyptian Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Waly met with the World Bank mission Saturday in Cairo to follow up on the progress of social safety net programme Takaful and Karama.

The World Bank mission, which was on a five-day visit to Cairo ending today, made field visits in Fayoum and Beni Suef governorates, where the programme is implemented.

The mission met with local authorities and beneficiaries of the five-year $400 million project financed by the World Bank.

The Takaful and Karama programme, established by the government in early 2015, is a national social safety net programme aimed at protecting the poor through income support.

Egypt is the first Arab country to implement the conditional monetary support programme to provide social protection in line with the implementation of a package of economic reform policies, Waly said in a ministry statement.

In 2014, Egypt launched a plan to introduce fiscal reforms, including fuel subsidy cuts that raised prices by up to 78 percent, and levying new taxes to ease a growing budget deficit  currently estimated at 12.2 percent of GDP  as well as floating the Egyptian pound in November 2016.

Egypt signed a $12 billion loan with the World Bank to support the governments economic reform programme, with the funds intended for fiscal consolidation, ensuring energy supplies, and enhancing competitiveness in the private sector. Two tranches of $3 billion were delivered in September last year and in March, with the third tranche expected in December.

The World Bank finances several projects in Egypt, including projects related to energy, transport, water and wastewater, agriculture and irrigation, population and health, and social safety nets. It also supports employment projects and finances small and medium-sized enterprises.

The current portfolio of the World Bank in Egypt includes 26 projects at a total commitment of $5.92 billion, according to the banks data.

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Egypt's president on Saturday ratified a disputed 2016 agreement under which his country would transfer control of two strategic Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, following through on his assertion earlier this week that the matter was closed.

News of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's ratification of the maritime border demarcation agreement with Saudi Arabia came in a Cabinet statement, which appeared to be carefully timed to head off, or at least delay, any street protests over the surrender of the islands, which the Egyptian government insists have always been Saudi.

It was issued shortly before sunset, when most were at or heading home to eat iftar,the meal with which Muslims break their fasts during their holy month of Ramadan.

A lunar month, Ramadan ends on Saturday and the three-day Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday begins on Sunday, with many Egyptians planning to take the whole week off to recover from gruelling days of 16-hour fasts in sweltering summer heat.

"This matter has been closed and I am only bringing it up again because we have nothing to hide," Mr el-Sissi said in televised comments earlier this week.

"You have entrusted me with this nation and for this I will be held accountable not just before you but also before God."

Parliament approved the agreement on June 14 amid chaotic scenes of shouting matches by lawmakers arguing over the deal, whose announcement during an April 2016 visit by Saudi King Salman sparked the largest street protests since Mr el-Sissi took office in 2014.

Parliament's approval of the deal sparked a series of small protests earlier this month, but they were swiftly broken up by security forces.

Authorities have meanwhile arrested at least 120 people who voiced opposition or took to the streets to protest the agreement.

Most of them have since been freed.

The government maintains the Saudis placed the two islands under Egypt's protection in the 1950s amid Arab-Israeli tension.

Critics say the islands were transferred in exchange for billions of dollars of Saudi aid.

The government denies the claim, insisting it would never cede Egyptian territory to anyone.

Parliament's approval of the agreement was secured in defiance of two court rulings in June 2016 and January this year that reaffirmed Egypt's ownership of the islands.

However, the Supreme Constitutional Court on Wednesday annulled those two rulings as well as another two in support of the agreement.

It said its decision was made upon a government request and that former tribunals may have infringed upon the prerogatives of the government's legislative and executive branches.

The islands of Tiran and Sanafir are at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba.

Significantly, Tiran controls a narrow shipping lane, the so-called Strait of Tiran, that leads north to the ports of Eilat and Aqaba, in Israel and Jordan respectively.

Israel occupied the two islands in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war but returned them to Egypt under the two countries' 1979 peace treaty.

AP
Residents leave the Taplow tower block on the Chalcots Estate in Camden, London, as the building is evacuated in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire to allow "urgent fire safety works" to take place. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Residents leave the Taplow tower block on the Chalcots Estate in Camden, London, as the building is evacuated in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire to allow "urgent fire safety works" to take place. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Some 34 high-rise buildings in 17 local authorities across the country have failed fire cladding safety tests in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster, the Government has said.

The announcement came as around 3,000 residents of the Chalcots Estate in Camden, north London, face weeks in temporary accommodation after four tower blocks were evacuated.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said testing of potentially combustible cladding "is running around the clock".

"So far the cladding from 34 high-rise buildings, in 17 local authority areas, has failed the combustibility test," he added.

Manchester, Camden, Plymouth, Hounslow, Portsmouth, Barnet and Brent were named as having buildings that had failed tests by Mr Javid.

But in the statement he stressed "cladding itself is not dangerous" and that a failure in testing does not necessarily mean a building will be evacuated.

Expand Close Residents leave the Taplow tower block on the Chalcots Estate in Camden, London, as the building is evacuated in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire to allow "urgent fire safety works" to take place. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Photo Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire / Facebook

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Whatsapp Residents leave the Taplow tower block on the Chalcots Estate in Camden, London, as the building is evacuated in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire to allow "urgent fire safety works" to take place. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Photo Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

"The decision by Camden Council to evacuate four of the five towers on the Chalcots Estate was because the failed testing of the external cladding was compounded by multiple other fire safety failures which the fire inspection team found within the buildings," he said.

Mr Javid praised the "calm and stoicism" which residents showed when asked to leave their homes at short notice on Friday, in what he called a "distressing experience".

A total of 83 households refused to leave their homes after Camden residents were evacuated amid safety fears.

Approximately 4,000 people have been displaced after 650 households were told to leave the Chalcots estate after firefighters said they "could not guarantee our residents' safety", Council leader Georgia Gould said.

The council said it was booking hotels for residents but around 100 people had to spend the night on air beds in a leisure centre.

Lauren Mitchell, a resident, said people were told if they chose not to leave their homes the police would be informed.

We asked the council, 'what if we don't leave?' And they said we will have the police round to 'forcibly remove you from your flat within an hour, Ms Mitchell told the BBC.

Ms Gould, the council leader, visited the Swiss Cottage rest centre, where many residents spent the night, to listen to any concerns people had.

In the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster she said urgent fire safety work would now take place on the five high-rise buildings but residents have raised concerns about the handling of the situation.

Chalcots resident Shirley Philips who raised her concerns to Ms Gould said she was given no notice before being told she must leave her home.

I think it's absolutely disgusting. We've had the fire brigade all day, Camden Council, police. I had a fire safety check done today, she told Sky News.

Why have they left it till half past eight on Friday night to start getting residents out? Where do they think we're all going?"

Teacher Kim Price, who lives in one of the towers with her 14-year-old son, said as late as 4pm residents were told it was safe for them to stay in their homes.

"I really don't know what to do, I'm so scared right now. The news has said 'get out now' but the authorities have said 'stay put', Ms Price said.

"But why now? At 4pm today they said it would be okay and that all the checks were fine. And now all of a sudden the news is saying we should get out.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said he was in contact with the council and the emergency services about the situation.

"There is a particular set of circumstances on this estate that make this necessary, which has been identified following good work between Camden Council and the London Fire Brigade, Mr Khan said.

"Fire safety checks are ongoing at other estates across the UK."

Meanwhile, some 27 high-rise buildings in 15 local authorities across England have failed fire cladding safety tests in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has announced.

Portsmouth and Brent, along with Camden, Manchester, Plymouth and Hounslow, were named by the Government on Saturday as having buildings that had failed tests amid a nationwide safety operation launched after at least 79 people died when fire ripped through Grenfell Tower in north Kensington on June 14.
Residents leave the Taplow tower block on the Chalcots Estate in Camden, London, last night. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire.

Five tower blocks in Camden, north London, were evacuated last night at short notice to allow "urgent fire safety works" to take place.

Camden Council said 800 households were to be moved into temporary accommodation because the blocks were covered in similar cladding to the material used in the Grenfell Tower fire.

The high-rise buildings on the Chalcots estate in Swiss Cottage were being emptied last night after firefighters said they "could not guarantee our residents' safety", local council leader Georgia Gould said.

She told Sky News that a rest centre had been set up and residents were being found hotels and other accommodation.

It is the first council to evacuate a building in the wake of the tragedy.

Ms Gould said experts had been inspecting the buildings since it emerged cladding may have been behind the rapid spread of the Grenfell Tower fire.

"What we found was that the cladding was not up to the standard, it was not fire retardant," she said. "On Thursday night we had a public meeting with residents who shared a number of concerns that I had not been aware of.

"Grenfell changes everything. I don't believe we can take any risks with our residents' safety.

"We made the decision to move people into temporary accommodation. I know it's a scary time but we will make sure they are safe. We think it is about 800 households but it is an emerging picture."

Chalcots resident Shirley Philips told Sky she was given no notice before being told she must leave her home.

Disgusting

"I think it's absolutely disgusting. We've had the fire brigade all day, Camden Council, police. I had a fire safety check done today. Why have they left it until half past eight on Friday night to start getting residents out? Where do they think we're all going?"

The move came as it emerged that hospital buildings across Britain are being subjected to urgent fire safety tests over fears some may be covered in flammable cladding.

Schools, universities, offices and all other public buildings are also being checked for panels that may be a fire risk, Downing Street said yesterday.

A total of 14 high-rise buildings with cladding in nine council areas have now failed fire safety tests. Evacuations will be ordered of any others that are declared unsafe by fire brigade inspectors.

Scotland Yard said it was considering manslaughter charges after disclosing that the cladding and insulation on the outside of the fatal London tower failed fire safety tests.

It also emerged that the Grenfell Tower blaze was started when a Hotpoint fridge-freezer caught fire.

Owners of the same model, of which 64,000 were sold, have been told to contact the company as the UK government ordered tests to be carried out on similar models.

Tests on cladding samples from 600 tower blocks in England are being carried out on the orders of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The search for bodies in Grenfell Tower, in which 79 people are thought to have died, could take until the end of the year, police said, such is the difficulty involved in finding human remains among the ashes. Investigators said it is possible that some may never be recovered. ( Daily Telegraph London)
Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is greeted by French President Emmanuel Macron (L) upon his arrival at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

Former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzeneggar has teamed up French President Emmanuel Macron in a new video pledging to make "the planet great again" in a swipe at US President Donald Trump.

Both Mr Macron and Mr Schwarzeneggar are known for their outspoken criticism of Mr Trump's decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate change agreement.

The historic 2015 agreement signed by 195 countries and ratified by 147 aims to reduce carbon emissions and contain global warming. But after Mr Trump withdrew US participation, it will no longer include the world's second largest polluter.

Mr Macron - who along with a number of other European leaders has decried the decision to have America withdraw from the deal - has called on US scientists to emigrate to France. He has needled Mr Trump by using the phrase "Make our planet great again" - a riff on the US President's campaign slogan of "Make America great again".

Expand Close Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (L) speaks with Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron as he leaves the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau / Facebook

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Whatsapp Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (L) speaks with Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron as he leaves the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

As for Mr Schwarzeneggar, he is a noted supporter of climate-friendly policies and in a video posted earlier this month he said that "one man cannot destroy our progress".

In the latest video - viewed nearly 1.5 million times - Mr Schwarzenegger said that he and Mr Macron had been talking about environmental issues and a green future together.

The footage was posted on Twitter with the former film star and California governor saying he was truly honoured to meet Mr Macron, adding that the pair would work together for a clean energy future.

The 10-second clip runs for the full duration with the caption: With President Macron, a great leader!

It ends with Macron bringing out his new catchphrase: We will deliver together to make the planet great again.
New Hampshire Senate Bill 66 is one of dozens of foetal homicide laws across the country that allow foetuses to be considered people in cases of homicide or manslaughter Stock Image: PA

Women in New Hampshire were almost allowed to commit murder with impunity, when Republican legislators failed to read the fine print in their own bill.

New Hampshire Senate Bill 66 is one of dozens of foetal homicide laws across the country that allow foetuses to be considered people in cases of homicide or manslaughter.

The New Hampshire bill defines a foetus as a person in such cases after 20 weeks. Supporters say this allows those who might kill a foetus  in a car crash, or assault, for example  to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Womens rights advocates, however, say the laws can also be interpreted to ban abortion. To assuage these fears, New Hampshire legislators added an exemption for women seeking abortions and the doctors providing them.

As originally written, the act exempted any act committed by the pregnant woman or her doctor from cases of second-degree murder, manslaughter, negligent homicide, or causing or aiding suicide.

The bill as drafted allows for physician-assisted suicide and allows a pregnant woman to commit homicide without consequences, Republican Representative JR Hoell told the Concord Monitor.

Legislators, however, only caught the error after it had passed both chambers of Congress and was headed to Governor Chris Sununus desk.

Members of Congress quickly voted to change the language through a process normally used to correct spelling and grammar.

No one in this chamber voted to allow anyone to be able to murder anyone, Republican House Majority Leader Dick Hinch said. That was not the intent.

Thirty-eight other states currently have foetal homicide laws on the books. The laws have raised concerns about prosecuting mothers for miscarriages, or for smoking or drinking during pregnancy.

Democrats in New Hampshire protested that the Republican-sponsored bill is redundant, pointing out that women can already pursue felony charges in cases that result in miscarriage or stillbirth.

Senate Bill 66 puts New Hampshire on the dangerous path to recognising fetal personhood in our laws, Senator Martha Hennessey said.

The bill, however, easily passed New Hampshire's Republican legislature. Mr Sununu is expected to sign the revised measure into law.
Pilgrims at the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca

A suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca as police disrupted a plot to target the holiest site in Islam just as the fasting month of Ramadan ends, Saudi security forces said.

The Interior Ministry said it launched a raid around Jiddah, as well as two areas in Mecca itself, including the Ajyad Al-Masafi neighbourhood, located near the Grand Mosque.

There, police said they engaged in a shoot-out at a three-storey house with a suicide bomber, who blew himself up and caused the building to collapse. He was killed, while the blast wounded six foreigners and five members of security forces, according to the Interior Ministry's statement. Five other people were arrested, including a woman, it said.

Saudi state television aired footage after the raid on Friday near the Grand Mosque, showing police and rescue personnel running through the neighbourhood's narrow streets. The blast demolished the building, its walls crushing a parked car. Nearby structures appeared to be peppered with shrapnel and bullet holes.

The Interior Ministry said the thwarted "terrorist plan" would have violated "all sanctities by targeting the security of the Grand Mosque, the holiest place on Earth".

"They obeyed their evil and corrupt self-serving schemes managed from abroad whose aim is to destabilise the security and stability of this blessed country," it said.

The ministry did not name the group involved in the attack. The ultra-conservative Sunni kingdom battled an al Qaida insurgency for years and more recently has faced attacks from a local branch of the Islamic State group.

Neither group immediately claimed involvement, though IS sympathisers online have urged more attacks as an offensive in Iraq slowly squeezes the extremists out of Mosul and their de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria comes under daily bombing from a US-led coalition.

The disrupted attack comes at a sensitive time in Saudi Arabia. King Salman earlier this week short-circuited the kingdom's succession by making his son, Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman, first in line to the throne.

The newly appointed 31-year-old crown prince is the architect of Saudi Arabia's stalemated war in Yemen against Shiite rebels. He has also offered aggressive comments about the kingdom confronting Shiite power Iran.

Iran's Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the Mecca plot and said it remains willing to work with other countries in confronting terrorism.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have cut diplomatic ties to neighbouring Qatar and are trying to isolate the energy-rich country over its alleged support of militants and ties to Iran. Qatar long has denied those allegations.

As the Interior Ministry announced the raid, more than one million Muslim faithful prayed at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina to mark the end of Ramadan. In July 2016, a suicide bombing there killed four members of Saudi Arabia's security forces.

Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque, the burial site of the Prophet Muhammad, every year as part of their pilgrimage. The same day in July, separate suicide bomb attacks targeted a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia and near the US Consulate in Jiddah.

The Grand Mosque has been the target of militants before, in part because it represents a symbol of the ruling Al Saud family's clout in the Islamic world. The Saudi monarch bears the title of "custodian of the two holy mosques".

In 1979, some 250 militants seized the mosque and held it for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne. When Saudi troops stormed the mosque, the official death toll was 229, including extremists and soldiers.

AP
EgyptAir Express, which offers domestic and regional flights, is organising 253 flights to the Red Sea resorts of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada as well as Upper Egypts historical cities of Luxor and Aswan for Eid El-Fitr, which starts 24 June and ends 3 July, according to Al-Ahram Arabic news website.

Pilot Helmy Rizk, the director of EgyptAir Express, told Al-Ahram Arabic that the move, which comes as part of an effort to increase tourism, includes an increased capacity to meet any possible increase in demand.

EgyptAir has also increased the presence of its staff at Cairo International Airport in anticipation of increased traffic at the departure hall.

Eid El-Fitr is a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

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The Syrian government on Saturday released hundreds of detainees including some who backed the insurgency against President Bashar Assad on the eve of a major Muslim holiday.

Hours after the release, a car bomb exploded in a rebel-held northern town near the border with Turkey killing and wounding dozens of people, according to the opposition Civil Defense in Idlib, also known as the White Helmets, and the Britain-based opposition monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The explosion at a market in Dana, killed at least 10 people, including children, and wounded 30, according to the Observatory.

The blast came hours after an explosion in the town killed two people and wounded others.

Explosions in rebel-held parts of northern Syria are not uncommon and similar blasts have killed scores over the past months.

Justice Minister Hisham al-Shaar told reporters the 672 people released on Saturday included 91 women.

He said of those released, 588 were freed in the capital Damascus, Mr Assad's seat of power.

Mr Al-Shaar added that the release came in a bid to "sustain national reconciliations efforts and the homeland's unity".

The release comes on the eve of Eid el-Fitr, the feast that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Syrian authorities usually release detainees on major holidays.

Tens of thousands of people have been detained since Syria's crisis began in March 2011.

The conflict has killed some 400,000 people and displaced half the country's population.

Syrian government forces have been gaining ground around the country under the cover of Russian airstrikes and now control the five largest cities.

The push has led to so-called reconciliations in areas around Syria in which opposition fighters either surrendered in exchange for amnesty or moved to rebel-held areas in northern Syria.

Among those released in Damascus was 45-year-old Abdul-al-Rahman Ali who used to finance opposition fighters.

"I was wrong and every person makes mistakes. I have repented and returned to embrace my homeland," he said.

A woman who identified herself as Um Akram wiped away her tears as she waited for her son who had been jailed for more than three years.

"I am glad for the release of my son," she said as she stood with her husband outside the headquarters of Mr Assad's ruling Baath party in Damascus where part of the release occurred.

The woman's husband stressed his son is ready to join the military service.

Ibrahim Barakeh, 64, from al-Ghouta in the countryside of Damascus, said he has been in jail for 16 months on a change of funding terrorists.

"Thank God for being released. I was wrong. I will try to return to al-Ghouta to join my wife and son," he added referring to a suburb of Damascus.

In northern Syria, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces released some 200 IS members in Raqqa province at the request of tribal leaders in the region, according to the Observatory.

The Observatory said all those released in the town of Tabqa and the city of Raqqa and its suburbs had no blood on their hands and had jobs with IS such as preachers or employees in the extremist group civilian institutions.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been marching inside Raqqa since June 6, under the cover of airstrikes by the US-led coalition, with the aim of liberating the Islamic State's de facto capital of the extremists.

AP
Qatar is under pressure from its neighbours but says it can withstand the measures they have imposed

Qatar has said it is "very comfortable" and can survive the economic and diplomatic steps its neighbours have taken to pressure it "forever".

The country faces a sweeping set of demands and a top Emirati official has warned it to brace for a long-term economic squeeze.

Given 10 days to make a decision, Qatar said it was reviewing the specific concessions demanded of the tiny Persian Gulf nation, which include closing Al Jazeera and cutting ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

But Qatari officials did not budge from their previous insistence that they will not sit down with Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to negotiate while under siege.

"I can assure you that our situation today is very comfortable," Qatari Ambassador to the US Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani said. "Qatar could continue forever like that with no problems."

Asked whether Qatar felt pressure to resolve the crisis quickly, he said: "Not at all."

Qatar's neighbours insisted the 13-point list of demands was their bottom line, not a starting point for negotiations.

If Qatar refuses to comply, the Arab countries signalled they will continue to restrict its access to land, sea and air routes indefinitely, as economic pressure mounts.

"The measures that have been taken are there to stay until there is a long-term solution to the issue," Emirati Ambassador to the US Yousef al Otaiba said.

Suggesting the penalties would only be economic and diplomatic, he said "there is no military element to this whatsoever".

Having urged Qatar's neighbours to come up with "reasonable and actionable" demands, the US has sought to distance itself from the crisis.

The Arab countries issued a list of demands that included several provisions Qatar had already declared it could or would not accept.

The ultimatum was quickly rejected by Qatar's ally, Turkey, and blasted as an assault on free speech by Al Jazeera, the Qatari broadcaster.

The demands from the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Egyptians and the Bahrainis amount to a sweeping overhaul of Qatar's foreign policy and natural gas-funded influence peddling in the region.

Complying would force Qatar to bring its policies in line with the regional vision of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East's biggest economy and gatekeeper of Qatar's only land border.

"This reflects basically an attempt from these countries to suppress free media and also undermine our sovereignty," said Mr Al Thani.

"They are trying to impose their views on how the issues need to be dealt with in the Middle East."

"They are bullies," he added.

The demands include shutting news outlets, including Al-Jazeera and its affiliates; curbing diplomatic relations with Iran and severing all ties with Islamist groups including the Muslim Brotherhood.

The four countries cut ties with Qatar earlier this month over allegations that it funds terrorism - an accusation US president Donald Trump has echoed.

Qatar denies funding or supporting extremism but acknowledges that it allows members of some extremist groups such as Hamas to live in Qatar, arguing that fostering dialogue is key to resolving conflicts.

The move by Qatar's neighbours has left it under a de facto blockade.

Although residents made a run on the supermarket in the days after the crisis erupted, the situation has since calmed as Qatar secured alternative sources of imported food from Turkey and elsewhere.

The demands include:

- Curb diplomatic ties with Iran and limit trade.

- Stop funding other news outlets, including Arabi21, Al Araby Al Jadeed and Middle East Eye.

- Hand over "terrorist figures" and wanted individuals from the four countries.

- Stop all means of funding for groups or people designated by foreign countries as terrorists.

- Pay reparations.

- Stop all contact with the political opposition in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain.

AP
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan got a sense of the "spread of Hindi cinema" when a girl from Poland broke into a song and dance sequence on the Bollywood chartbuster "Kajra re" in front of him on the set of "Thugs of Hindostan" in Malta.

He narrated the incident on his blog on Thursday night.

"A young crew member from 'Thugs of Hindostan' walks up gingerly to me on set and with some hesitation she says, she wishes to sing a song to me.

"I look at her... She is young and shy and white Caucasian... and I wonder why she would want to do that, particularly because there is no indication that she would even know who I am, even though she has been told that the project she is on is an Indian film and these actors are the actors on the film.

"I am suddenly surrounded by other crew members, who, I am somewhat surprised to note, are egging her on to do so... And so with great clarity of accent and tune she starts: 'Aisi nazar kajrare kajrare, tere kaale kaale naina.'"

Big B said the girl had "great composure and confidence".

"She even does a few of the patent steps of the song... Everyone bursts into applause and I gently ask her, where she is from... From Poland."

Then another assistant walked up to him with a girl.

"She says she has been a fan from when she was young, and that her first film was 'K3G' (Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham...'). She is from Kazakhstan."

The 74-year-old veteran says his idea of sharing these incidents is not "to impress one and all with the diversity of crew working on a film from India but the spread of Hindi cinema in the lives of so many away from Indian shores and not necessarily Indian".

"May Indian cinema live multitudinous years and may the cross-section of the world society believe and show affection to talent from our Indian shores," he added.




New York, June 23 (JEN) With Uganda hosting almost one million South Sudanese refugees aas sisters and brothers and sharing with them their land and everything they have,a United Nations Secretary-General AntAnio Guterres on Thursday urged the international community to show solidarity with those that had fled their homes, as well as with the Ugandan Government and people.

In a world where so many people are selfishly closing their doors, closing their borders, not allowing refugees to come, this example deserves praise [and] admiration from the whole international community, Guterres told reporters at the Imvepi Refugee Reception Centre in the Arua district of northern Uganda.

Imvepi is the first stop for many South Sudanese refugees once they cross the border into Uganda. The camp, which opened in February this year, is already filling up; hosting some 120,000 refugees, mostly women and children, fleeing violence and instability in the neighbouring country.

In just the past year, the overall refugee population in Uganda has more than doubled  from 500,000 to more than 1.25 million  making the East African country host to the world's fastest growing refugee emergency.

The UN chief pointed out that tomorrow, the international community would have the opportunity to express its solidarity, responding to our appeal for massive financial support, both for humanitarian aid for the refugees, but also for the investments necessary for the education system, the health system, the infrastructure, the [local] environment, to be able to cope with this enormous challenge.

Guterres was referring to the 'Solidarity Summit,' which opened on Thursday in the Ugandan capital, Kamapla, and is expected to wrap up tomorrow. Co-hosted by Uganda and the UN, the event aims to rally international support for refugees and host communities in the form of donations, investments and innovative programmes.

At the same time, I cannot forget that twelve years ago I was here, in June, in this same place. I was [marking] World Refugee Day with South Sudanese refugees that were singing with joy because they were going back home soon, said Guterres, who is the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees. He said he had later accompanied many of them across the border with the hope that the their new country would live in peace.

Unfortunately, that had not been the case. South Sudan's leaders do not deserve the people of their country, said the Secretary-General, stressing that the South Sudanese people have been suffering enormously [in an] endless war.

It is time for the war to end. It is time for all the leaders of South Sudan to understand that they need to stop this war, he said, expressing gratitude for the efforts made by the Heads of State of the region, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union and by the UN to help create the conditions for peace to be re-established.

Peace in South Sudan is a must for these people to be able to have a future, said the Secretary-General.

UN Photo/Mark Garten
A day heavy in green Indian equity markets saw a day, heavy in green, today. Nifty 50 ended, up by 321.5 points. Sensex ended, up by 1181.34 points. Top Gainers today were HDFC, HDFC Bank, Infosys. Top Losers ... November 11, 2022 | 3:43 pm

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Sensex zooms over 1,100 pts; Nifty above 18,300; IT index top contributor Domestic benchmark indices in the fast lane today led by IT and Metal stocks outperforming. Both the Sensex and Nifty benchmarks were nearly 2% higher amid positive global cues. On the se... November 11, 2022 | 2:00 pm

NIBE receives order of Rs11.88 crore from Goa Shipyard; Stock slips 1% Nibe Limited stocks in focus as the company announced the receipt of purchase orders. As per the regulatory filing, it has received two purchase orders dated November 08, 2022 from G... November 11, 2022 | 12:53 pm

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Get ready to roll in splits with laughter as the popular 90s show Hum Paanch is back with a bang! Hum Paanch first aired in 1995 and ran until 1999 with actors Ashok Saraf, Priya Tendulkar, Rakhee Tandon, Bhairavi Raichura, Vandana Pathak and Vidya Balan. The show narrated the story of a family in a hilarious way. It's second season came in 2005.And now their third innings have begun too and it's called Hum Paanch Phir se.

People who loved Baaghi will love this piece of news. Tiger Shroff is coming back with a sequel of Baaghi and it's going to be bigger, better and bulkier. Yes, the actor will be seen in a brand new look sporting a very different hairstyle.

Alia has been posting pictures of her doing kathak and its inspiring all of us to take our hobbies seriously too.

Speaking to a leading news channel, Pahlaj said, "You take voting from the public and I will clear the word (intercourse) on the promo and the film also. I want 1 lakh votes and I want to see that India has changed and Indian families want their 12-year-old kids to understand the meaning of this word (intercourse)."

If the universe throws a Shiela Ki Jawaani or Munni badnaam at you, it also gives you a song like Afreen Afreen. Thats how the world conspires to compensate and ensure that music lovers arent disappointed. Its high time we appreciate the fact that Coke Studio exists because the kind of gems that have come our way are no less than musical masterpieces.
Hollywood star Johnny Depp has kicked up a storm with remarks suggesting that US President Donald Trump be assassinated -- by an actor.

In what could be a reference to Abraham Lincoln's murder by actor John Wilkes Booth in 1865, Depp said, "When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?"



"I want to qualify, I am not an actor. I lie for a living. However, it has been a while and maybe it is time," the actor added.

Twitter



Depp, 54, was at the Glastonbury music festival when he made the remarks.



He attended the festival to introduce his 2004 film The Libertine along with director Julian Temple but began talking about the 45th US president, reported The Guardian.

"Can you bring Trump here?," Depp asked the crowd as he told them that the president needed help and "there are a lot of wonderful dark, dark places he could go."



The actor was aware that his remarks would cause controversy as he said, "It is just a question I'm not insinuating anything. By the way, this is going to be in the press. It will be horrible."



Depp's comments have met with criticism with some on social media suggesting a boycott of his movies.

Send this to Johnny Depp & Kathy Griffin. pic.twitter.com/4eg4MmQEOe  Democrats for Trump (@YoungDems4Trump) June 23, 2017

Can't wait for Johnny Depp's press conference to say the Trump family is bullying him. #FireDepp https://t.co/3JAGTKzh7j  Mark Dice (@MarkDice) June 24, 2017

I have a message for Hollywood:

Your elitism, your threats, your "better than us" attitude is why Trump won. #JohnnyDepp  #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) June 23, 2017

I can't even fit, in one tweet, all of the disgusting Hollywood democrats who have threatened violence against Trump.#JohnnyDepp  #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) June 23, 2017

Dear Hollywood,

There are more Trump supporters than there are you.

We won't purchase tix to your movies.#LaughingMyOssoff #JohnnyDepp  #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) June 23, 2017

When your career is sinking faster than the Black Pearl, I guess the only way to get attention is to joke about killing Trump. #johnnydepp  Allie Stuckey (@conservmillen) June 23, 2017

Johnny Depp said he wants to kill me, which explains why he keeps trying to show me all the shitty movies he's made the past 10 years!  President Trump (@Writeintrump) June 23, 2017

Depp later apologized on Friday for his jokes, telling People magazine he meant no harm.

I apologize for the bad joke I attempted last night in poor taste about President Trump, he said. It did not come out as intended, and I intended no malice. I was only trying to amuse, not to harm anyone.
Here, they sell the birds at Sanliurfa's famed auctions to a dedicated band of pigeon keepers and breeders, a pastime that has been thriving for hundreds of years across the region and over the nearby border into war-torn Syria.

Sanliurfa, Southeastern Turkey, most of the alleyways of the city's old bazaar are emptying out, except for one.

In the early days of the conflict next door, there was a glut of birds on the market as enthusiasts from northern Syria fled into Turkey with their pigeons.

1. A pigeon, known as Siyah Kinifirli, with an approximate market value of 1000 Turkish Lira ($263), bred by 23-year-old Ismail Ozbek, is pictured in Sanliurfa, Turkey.

In a country where the minimum wage is about 1,400 Liras ($367) a month, Turkish pigeon enthusiasts regularly easily spend hundreds of dollars for one bird. "I once sold a pair of pigeons for 35,000 Turkish Lira," says auctioneer Imam Dildas. "This is a passion, a hobby you cannot quit. I've been known to sell the fridge and my wife's gold bracelets to pay for pigeons."

2. Auctioneer Kadir Sakizci (L), 28, conducts a sale at a pigeon auction in Sanliurfa.

As night-time approaches in Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkey, most of the alleyways of the city's old bazaar are emptying out, except for one. The bustle of daytime trading has died down, but on this little street, a stream of men carry cardboard boxes filled with pigeons to a cluster of three teahouses.

3. A man holds a pigeon during a pigeon auction in Sanliurfa.

Here, they sell the birds at Sanliurfa's famed auctions to a dedicated band of pigeon keepers and breeders, a pastime that has been thriving for hundreds of years across the region and over the nearby border into war-torn Syria.

4. Ismail Ozbek (R), 23, watches his flying pigeons with his friends on top of a roof in Sanliurfa.

Sanliurfa sits just 50km (30 miles) from Syria, in a southeastern region rocked by its own clashes between government troops and Kurdish insurgents. But the trade has taken the turmoil in its stride and carried on. In the early days of the conflict next door, there was a glut of birds on the market as enthusiasts from northern Syria fled into Turkey with their pigeons.

5. Ismail Ozbek, 23, poses for a photograph with one of his pigeons.

reuters

"Prices fell due to oversupply but as the conflict escalated and there were no more pigeons coming from Syria, prices rose again," says Ozbek. He keeps about 200 pigeons - together worth about 50,000 lira - in lofts fitted with alarms and closed circuit TV cameras.

6. A pigeon, known as Kara Alaca Kirk Telli, with an approximate market value of 500 Turkish Lira ($132), bred by 23-year-old Ismail Ozbek.

reuters

7. A pigeon, known as Sari Aynali, with an approximate market value of 500 Turkish Lira ($132), bred by 23-year-old Ismail Ozbek.

reuters

8. A pigeon, known as Zirhli, with an approximate market value of 1000 Turkish Lira ($263), bred by 23-year-old Ismail Ozbek.

reuters

9. A pigeon, known as Kirmizi Hollanda, with an approximate market value of 750 Turkish Lira ($198), bred by 23-year-old Ismail Ozbek.

reuters

10. Auctioneer Imam Dildas, 40, conducts a sale at a pigeon auction in Sanliurfa.

At the auction, men sip tea and smoke cigarettes as Dildas picks up a bird and shows it to the crowd. He gives a starting bid price and buyers shout out their offers.

11. Pigeons roost on a wall on top of a building in Sanliurfa. Prices vary from 30 to 3,500 Lira.

reuters

Some birds wear silver adornments on their feathers or feet to boost their value. At the end of the night, Dildas has sold around 13,000 Lira worth of birds. His commission is 10 percent.

12. Resit Guzel, 55, feeds his pigeons on top of a roof in Sanliurfa.

reuters

When they are not trading, most of the city's pigeon fanciers head to the rooftops at sunset and let their birds stretch their wings. Hundreds fill the sky - a familiar sight in the city - before following their training and heading home. "The birds are my friends. They give me peace," says Guzel.

13. Pigeons fly in the sky in Sanliurfa.

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Enthusiast Resit Guzel says he gives his 70 birds quality feed and regular vitamins. "Upkeep ... costs 5 Lira a day, which is not much. Even if it cost me more, I wouldn't mind," he says. "They have been my hobby for the last 40 years ... You can only understand if you keep pigeons."

14. Pigeons are seen in a coop in Sanliurfa.

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15. A man shows a pigeon to his friends as they look for a pigeon to buy from a shop.

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16. A man holds a pigeon during a pigeon auction.

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17. Pigeons for sale are seen in a box during a pigeon auction.

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18. Ismail Ozbek, 23, feeds his ill pigeon.

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19. Vitamins and antibiotics for pigeons are seen on a stand for sale in a tea house where pigeon auctions take place.

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20. Pigeons are seen in a cage before the start of a pigeon auction.

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21. A poster announcing the "National Most Beautiful Pigeon Contest" hangs on a wall in a tea house where pigeon auctions take place.

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22. A pigeon, known as Platin, with an approximate market value of 750 Turkish Lira ($198), bred by 23-year-old Ismail Ozbek.

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23. A pigeon, known as Ispir, with an approximate market value of 1500 Turkish Lira ($395), bred by 23-year-old Ismail Ozbek.

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24. A pigeon, known as Sari Alaca, with an approximate market value of 2500 Turkish Lira ($659), bred by 23-year-old Ismail Ozbek.

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25. A pigeon, known as Kara Alaca, with an approximate market value of 1500 Turkish Lira ($395), bred by 23-year-old Ismail Ozbek.

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26. A pigeon, known as Siyah Aynali, with an approximate market value of 1000 Turkish Lira ($263), bred by 23-year-old Ismail Ozbek.

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27. A pigeon, known as Kirmizi Akkuyruk, with an approximate market value of 1500 Turkish Lira ($395), bred by 23-year-old Ismail Ozbek.

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Indian IT giant Infosys has agreed on a settlement for $1 million with the state of New York in a visa violation case.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the company has agreed to pay the amount to resolves whistleblower claims that Infosys, in the course of providing outsourcing services, routinely brought foreign IT personnel into New York to perform work in violation of the terms of their visas.

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A statement from the AG's office said that Infosys abused existing visa rules and failed to properly compensate hundreds of workers and pay applicable taxes.

We will not permit companies to violate our laws in order to undercut New York workers. My office is committed to ensuring that our states labour marketplace is fair, competitive and transparent for all.

The Bengaluru-based company while agreeing to pay $1 million maintained that it committed no wrongdoings and the probe was centred on alleged paperwork errors.

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"While this investigation centred on alleged paperwork errors, the company committed no wrongdoing and denies all allegations made in this regard," the company said in a statement.

Infosys was accused of obtaining B-1 visas, which are temporary visitor visas, instead of the H-1B work permit for its employees. The visitor visas are much easier to get and are not subject to the 65,000 cap on H-1B visas.

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Infosys workers using B-1 visas were doing work that would otherwise have been performed by U.S. citizens or H1-B visa holders, and were paid significantly less than what comparable U.S. workers or H1-B visa holders would have been paid in the same positions, the statement said.

Consequently, New York was deprived of taxes that should have been paid on the higher wages that Infosys avoided by its misconduct, the New York Attorney General's office said.
Jammu and Kashmir police personnel will donate a day's salary for the families of the cops who were killed in the line of duty in the state this year.

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Fourteen police personnel and two special police officers (SPOs) have sacrificed their lives in various terrorism-related incidents during the year, according to a police spokesman.

Police personnel will donate one day salary for the families of the policemen who have sacrificed their precious lives in the line of duty, the spokesman said.

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"To show solidarity and their concern for the bereaved families of these martyrs, J&K police personnel will donate one day salary of the current month," he added.
Lynching has become an all too common piece of news to wake up to, hasn't it? From lynching of Jammu and Kashmir DSP, Ayub Pandith, to the killing of a teenage youth and beating three others in a train in Haryana, mob culture is taking over law and order in most parts of the country. There seems to be no stopping to it.

Where does this desire to spread law and justice by going above both their values of the Indian constitution even stem from? Some will say its because the current government is letting mobs act in lawlessness, while others will say that lawlessness stems from gaps in the social structure, where crime succeeds security.

Here are a some lynching incidents that have taken place this year:

1. May 18, 2017

Seven people were lynched near Jamshedpur as the police watched on. The mob decided to take the matter into their own hands following Whatsapp rumours of gangs organising kidnappings of children in the region. At least 30 policemen watched the mob beat four people.

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2. May 2, 2017

A mob of Right-wing activists  UP police later confirmed they were members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini  lynched a man after he eloped with a woman from a different community. This happened in UPs Bulandshahrs district.

3. April 30, 2017

Two young men in their twenties were brutally assaulted in the Nagaon district of Central Assam on suspicion of them being cow thieves. They were chased by a crowd and beaten up.

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4. April 22, 2017

Four men in Delhi, who claimed to be from the animal rights group, People for Animals, stopped a truck and beat up people inside as they suspected them of being cattle smugglers.

5. April 21, 2017

In Jammu and Kashmir, cow vigilantes physically assaulted a family of five with a nine-year-old with iron rods. The family was herding their livestock when they were attacked.

6. April 1, 2017

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A mob of about 100 cow vigilante in Rajasthans Alwar, beat up a 55-year-old Muslim man, who died two days later because of grave injuries. It was reported that the mob became violent because he was allegedly transporting cows, but it was later revealed that he was taking the cows for his dairy farm.

7. March 9, 2017

A Bangladeshi security guard was lynched to death in Tripura. It was alleged that he was a part of a group of robbers.

Mobs of cow vigilantes

Theres no hiding that the number of lynching incidents, whether related to the holy cow or not, have spiked since the BJP came to power in 2014. Though the current government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, may not be directly supporting cow vigilantes, their silence, however, is screaming of complicity. These mobs are not supported by the law, then why are they able to act in lawlessness and escape with impunity?

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"When the state starts tacitly supporting mob violence in the name of anything- be it religious sentiments or whatever- and lets the lynch mobs loose, it forgets that it also compromises on its very existential thread - of being the sole custodian of legitimate violence to curb crime, says Avinash Pandey who works at the Asian Human Rights Commission.

The government needs to realise that these violent incidents may help in bludgeoning their vote banks, but they are also casting a dark, opaque shadow on the government. In keeping mum, BJP is alienating law-abiding citizens of the country, and people who believe in the laws authority.

Other mobs

If you think about it, people want very few basic things  food, shelter, clothes and most importance, peace and happiness. Why then would ordinary people turn to violence over petty things like beating someone up for stealing cell phones?

Gail Super, a criminologist at the University of Cape Town, told Deutsche Welle that the huge economic gap between the rich and poor plays an equally huge part in forcing people to violence. He said, The problem comes in especially with rapid urbanisation and the migration of people. Vigilantism or mob justice is a traditional way of communities to deal with criminals or the high level of crime in the country.

Lynchings are more common in poor and informal settlements, where people are vulnerable to existentialist threats. Governments come to power after making a lot of promises such as creating jobs and economic prosperity, and when people, after year on year on year of living in status quo, realise that these promises were empty, they lose faith in the system. They see that when a system cant even alleviate them from their slum life to a one-bed house, then they see little hope in the system giving them justice.

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Avinash adds, Sadly, the compromise is unidirectional and irreversible - lynch mobs don't stop at the 'other', the enemy. The state might want it to be a controlled lynch mob focusing on beef, in reality it will fan out as did in the name of child theft rumours in Rajasthan, and the case in Mumbai".

Frustration manifests itself in the shape of violence and its easier to attack weaker sections of society then choke people in power. Police authorities, who are supposed to uphold the law, are looking back at their silent political masters to take action, instead of doing their job. But can we blame them when they are underpaid and underappreciated?

Lynching isnt Indias problem alone. In 2011, for the first time, the Kenyan police included lynching in its crime statistics. That year they recorded 543 victims. In 2014, 582 people died of lynching in Uganda, which equals to about 1.6 deaths a day.

The government has promises to keep, and if they dont, who knows who the next victim will be.
This Eid, Muslims of Bhilwara in Rajasthan are giving the countrymen a unique gift of celebration. They have illuminated a mosque in colours of the national flag. Habibi Mosque, situated near Bhhilwararailway station, has become a place to be visited by the locals and visitors alike.

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According to reports, Imam Mohammad Mohammad Zafar Mukhtar Asami of Station Mosque said that the tricolor is the pride of our country and our nation is a flag. Today, the question of the patriotism of Muslims arises, so this time we have decorated the mosque with lights like Tricolor colors.

This kind of decoration for the upcoming Eid on June 25 is being appreciated all over the place.

According to The Imam, this is an effort by the community to express its love for the country.
This does not come often, and whenever such decisions are made it's the Indian judiciary which makes us proud. This time, Uttarakhand high court has banned the purchase of luxury items for politicians until there are not enough chairs for students in state schools.

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According to reports, the panel which gave this order included Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Alok Singh. They said that the state government has miserably failed to provide bare minimum facilities to students in the government-run schools.

Keeping this in view the division bench restrained the state government from buying items such as luxury cars, furniture, air conditioners etc. till further orders.

The HC said that the government that cannot provide basic amenities to children has no moral right to spend money on luxuries.

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The mandatory directions were given by the high court on a plea by Deepak Rana.

Parikshit Saini, advocate for the petitioner said, "The court had earlier directed that basic amenities be provided to government schools. Provisions like sanitary healthcare for both boys and girls, one set of uniform every six months, mid day meals, adequate lighting, seating, heating arrangements, provision for blackboard etc were made mandatory in the order."

Uttarakhand was held personally responsible to comply with the directions, but even after seven months of passing of the the judgment the provisions have not been implemented.

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Dissatisfied with the excuse offered by the state government, the court implemented a ban on purchase of luxury items till further orders.

Twitter was full of praises for the brilliant move:

 excellent & they must impose Contempt of Court if not implemented with evidence submitted to Courts. Whats timeline to complete?   Girish (@adrenna9) June 22, 2017

Five cheers for the Uttarakhand High Court. It ordered government to buy desks and chairs for schools before luxuries for ministers.  Tavleen Singh (@tavleen_singh) June 23, 2017

Big round of applause for Uttarakhand HC as it orders: No cars,ACs for babus if no benches,blackboard for kids in govt schools.  Utkarsh Anand (@utkarsh_aanand) June 22, 2017
The much speculated and anticipated political entry of Tamil superstar Rajinikanth has been dominating the news for a couple of months now.

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With Rajini's political foray almost certain, now the discussions are on which side will he be taking. Rajini has been meeting various political leaders while keeping everyone guessing.

The 66-year-old superstar's intention to enter politics have been widely welcomed, from almost everyone, except senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.

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Mr. Swamy, who hails from Tamil Nadu had in May, when Rajini dropped the hint of entering politics calimed that the latter wasn't a Tamilian and larger than life superstar had no future in Tamil Politics.

"He has no future in politics. A new generation of very educated Tamilians who are assertive, who are of influence and they want now national politics to come to Tamil Nadu. He is unsuitable for becoming the chief minister of Tamil Nadu," Swami had said in May.

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While it is factually true that Rajini, who's real name is Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, was born in Karnataka, he has lived in Tamil Nadu for more than four decades.

Citing his long-standing connection with Tamil Nadu and how he was welcomed by Tamil people, Rajini had hit back at Swamy saying that he was a true Tamilian.

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After a brief lull, the two it seems like is once again on a collision course of sorts.

This after the outspoken BJP leader has once again hit out at Rajini calling him illiterate and unfit for politics.

This was the second time in as many days Mr Swamy has gone after Rajini. On Friday speaking to India Today, Swamy had claimed that Rajini was entering politics to cover up his financial irregularities.

"If he comes there will be many things that will tumble out which will be harmful to him. I would advise him not to come (to politics)," Swamy said.

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Rajini, who's larger than life onscreen characters have appeal beyond Tamil Nadu has been for sometime hinting at his political ambitions.

If that finally happens, it will undoubtedly change the political game in the southern state, which is currently in a kind of political vacuum, following the death of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) supremo Jayalalithaa.

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With Amma gone, her ruling party has been effectively split into three, headed by former chief minister O Panneerselvam, current chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami and the faction which is loyal to Jaya's former aide who 'inherited' the party, Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakaran.

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Tamil Nadu politics is no stranger to onscreen heroes transforming into politicians. In fact, some of the biggest names in Tamil politics MGR, K Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha who were chief ministers on more than one occasions have been the CM of the state have had smooth transitions from film personalities to politicians.

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There are also others like Vijayakanth, Napoleon, Sarathkumar, Kushboo who are also successful actors who made a mark in Tamil politics.
US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will spend nearly five hours getting to know each other, forging a strong personal bond, and advancing a solid bilateral relationship when they meet at the White House on Monday.

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The two leaders will first meet for one-on-one talks at around 3.30 pm on Monday (Tuesday 1 am IST), and after a brief photo-op with the media, they will head delegation-level talks, followed by a cocktail reception.

The day will culminate with a White House dinner, the first by the Trump administration for a visiting foreign leader, a Senior White House official who briefed the media on the Modi visit revealed, calling the gesture "significant" and adding that the White House is "seeking to roll out the red carpet."

"The visit provides an opportunity to strengthen the US-India strategic partnership, which the President views as being critical in Asia-Pacific and globally," the official said, previewing the engagement, and in the process revealing a broad continuity in ties.

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President Trump and Prime Minister Modi have spoken twice over telephone after the former assumed office, and this will be their first personal meeting.

Officials on both sides characterise the two leaders as being business-centric and publicly-engaged, given that they are the two most followed world leaders on social media (Trump with 32.7 million followers on Twitter and Modi with 30.9 million followers).

The 30-minute preview of the first Trump-Modi bilaterals by the Senior White House official suggested a seamless transition in US-India ties into the new administration, premised on Washington's recognition of India's growing global and regional role, its aspirations, and its security concerns.

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The talks between the two leaders would be broad-ranging and seek to advance common priorities, including counter-terrorism, facilitating India's defence modernization, and helping advance India's role in Asia-Pacific, the official said, echoing the line expressed by previous US administrations going back to Presidents Obama and Bush.

"A strong India is good for the United States. President Trump wants to build on that momentum," the White House official said.

The two leaders will make a brief statement to the media and the talks will be followed by a joint statement but they will not take questions from the media, the official said, asking that not too much should be read into it and that is what the two leaders preferred.

If there are any wrinkles in the ties, it is in the trade sphere (which was there even during the Bush and Obama years), the official acknowledged implicitly.

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While previous US administrations did not necessarily highlight trade wrangles, the emphasis by Trump on revitalizing the American economy on the promise of bringing back jobs is so great that the official referred more than once to job growth arising from engagement with India, including the 64,000 US jobs created by the $5 billion that Indian students plow into American universities to get a US-minted degree.

Asked by an American journalist about President Trump's level of familiarity with India and how he is being tutored for the meeting (given the perception that he is not detail-oriented), the White House official said the President was receiving extensive briefings. He had also visited Mumbai and "as a businessman India is not new to him."

"During the election campaign he was very much in touch with the Indian-American community and expressed positive feeling towards India," the official said. "(With this meeting) he's really going to expand the knowledge base on India and the importance of US-India relationship."
Faced with a sweeping set of demands, Qatar insisted Friday it can indefinitely survive the economic and diplomatic steps its neighbors have taken to try to pressure it into compliance, even as a top Emirati official warned the tiny country to brace for a long-term economic squeeze.

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Given 10 days to make a decision, Qatar said it was reviewing the specific concessions demanded of the tiny Persian Gulf nation, which include shuttering Al-Jazeera and cutting ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. But Qatari officials didn't budge from their previous insistence that they won't sit down with Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to negotiate an end to the crisis while under siege.

Also Read: As Saudi Arabia, UAE Cut Ties With Qatar, Iran Sends Five Planes Filled With Food Supplies

"I can assure you that our situation today is very comfortable," Qatari Ambassador to the US Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani told the Associated Press. "Qatar could continue forever like that with no problems."

Asked whether Qatar felt pressure to resolve the crisis quickly, he said: "Not at all."

As the United States stepped back from any central mediating role, all sides seemed to be settling in for a potentially protracted crisis. Qatar's neighbors insisted their 13-point list of demands was their bottom line, not a starting point for negotiations.

If Qatar refuses to comply by the deadline, the Arab countries signaled, they'll continue to restrict its access to land, sea and air routes indefinitely, as economic pressure mounts on Qatar.

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"The measures that have been taken are there to stay until there is a long-term solution to the issue," Emirati Ambassador to the US Yousef al-Otaiba said in an interview. Suggesting the penalties would only be economic and diplomatic, he said "there is no military element to this whatsoever."

Also Read: Throwing Qatari Spouses Out And Other Bizarre Decisions That Followed GCC Countries' Ban On Qatar

Having urged Qatar's neighbors to come up with "reasonable and actionable" demands, the US sought to distance itself from the crisis the day after the Arab countries issued a list that included several provisions Qatar had already declared it could not or would not accept. But the ultimatum was quickly rejected by Qatar's ally, Turkey, and blasted as an assault on free speech by Al-Jazeera, the Qatari broadcaster that the gas-rich country's neighbors are demanding be shut down.

The demands from the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Egyptians and the Bahrainis amount to a call for a sweeping overhaul of Qatar's foreign policy and natural gas-funded influence peddling in the region. Complying would force Qatar to bring its policies in line with the regional vision of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East's biggest economy and gatekeeper of Qatar's only land border.

"This reflects basically an attempt from these countries to suppress free media and also undermine our sovereignty," said Al Thani, the Qatari envoy. "They are trying to impose their views on how the issues need to be dealt with in the Middle East."

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"They are bullies," he added.

The demands include shutting news outlets, including Al-Jazeera and its affiliates; curbing diplomatic relations with Iran; and severing all ties with Islamist groups including the Muslim Brotherhood. The United Arab Emirates said the list was intended to be confidential. The AP obtained a copy from one of the countries involved in the dispute.

Also Read: Amid Allegations Of Terror Funding And Gulf Crisis, US To Sell F-15s Worth $12 Billion To Qatar

The four countries cut ties with Qatar earlier this month over allegations that it funds terrorism  an accusation President Donald Trump has echoed. Qatar vehemently denies funding or supporting extremism but acknowledges that it allows members of some extremist groups such as Hamas to live in Qatar, arguing that fostering dialogue is key to resolving global conflicts.

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The move by Qatar's neighbors has left it under a de facto blockade. Although residents made a run on the supermarket in the days after the crisis erupted, the situation has since calmed as Qatar secured alternative sources of imported food from Turkey and elsewhere.

Yet resisting the demands could prove difficult.

"The four states can afford to wait, but Qatar cannot," said Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics. "This crisis could threaten the political stability of the ruling family in Qatar in the long term if it lasts."

Also Read: Amid Raging Gulf Crisis, India Offers Help To Its Citizens To Return From Qatar If They Want

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has tried to mediate and earlier this week called on the Arab nations to limit themselves to "reasonable and actionable" demands. That call appeared to have been roundly ignored, and it was the Kuwaitis  who also offered to mediate  who delivered the list Thursday to Qatar.

"This is an Arab issue that requires an Arab solution," Otaiba said. "That's why the Kuwaitis will take the lead in the negotiation."

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That's just fine, the US said. At the White House, spokesman Sean Spicer called it a "family issue" among Arab states and declined to say whether the newly articulated demands were legitimate.

"This is something that they want to and should work out for themselves," Spicer said.

Thrust into the middle of the crisis, the head of Al-Jazeera's English language service said the network remained committed to continuing its broadcasts.

"Any call to close to down or curtail Al-Jazeera is nothing but an attempt to muzzle a voice of democracy in the region and suppress freedom of expression," he said by phone.

Underscoring the growing seriousness of the crisis, state-run Qatar Petroleum acknowledged Friday that some critically important employees "may have been asked to postpone" trips abroad "for operational reasons" due to the embargo. It described the move as "a very limited measure that could take place in any oil and gas operating company" to ensure uninterrupted supplies to customers.

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Qatar's neighbors are also demanding that it:

Curb diplomatic ties with Iran, and limit trade and commerce.

Stop funding other news outlets, including Arabi21, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and Middle East Eye.

Hand over "terrorist figures" and wanted individuals from the four countries.

Stop all means of funding for groups or people designated by foreign countries as terrorists.

Pay an unspecified sum in reparations.

Stop all contacts with the political opposition in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain.
Pakistan seems hell-bent on drawing the wrath of the Indian security forces. After biting the dust every time they try to harm the Indian Jawans they are now trying to mutilate Indian soldiers and record the dastardly act on camera.

New reports have suggested that Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) members were armed with 'special daggers' and 'headband cameras' to mutilate and record the attack on the Indian Army patrol party after entering 600 meters across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.

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The attack left two Indian soldiers dead while one BAT member was killed in retaliatory action by Indian troops.

Army troops during search and sanitation operations, recovered the body of a member of the BAT team along LoC in Gulpur sector of Poonch district on Friday.

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"The body of the intruder killed in the BAT attempt on 22 June has been retrieved and handed over to the local police," a senior Army officer said.

"Arms, ammunition and other war-like stores including a special dagger and a headband with a camera, knife, one AK rifle, 3 magazines, 2 grenades besides dresses and bags were recovered which reflects the barbaric mindset of the Pakistan army," he said.

"The resolute action of our soldiers didn't let the nefarious plan (of mutilating bodies and recording it on camera) succeed," officer said.

Giving details, the officer said that a special class of dagger and a knife was meant to engineer quick mutilation and beheading of jawans killed in the firing exchanges and it has been foiled by the quick action by Indian soldiers.

The BAT member was wearing a headband with a camera on his head to record the action and possible mutilation of jawans, which was prevented by other troops who shot dead one of them and injured another, he said.

The officer said it is matter of investigation whether the camera was live connected with Pakistan army establishments across the border.

"The data and details of the camera will be analysed," he said.

"We are confident that another BAT member has also been killed but his body was taken back by the other members of the BAT," he said.

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In the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces on Thursday sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Border Action Team (BAT), which generally comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan army and some terrorists, carried out the attack at around 2pm on Thursday under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops from their posts, he said.

"A Border Action Team of five to seven heavily-armed men, under the cover of Pakistani firing, entered 600 meters inside the LoC in Gulpur forward area in Poonch sector around 2pm yesterday and launched a fierce attack on Indian Army patrol party with several types of weapons," the official said.

The Pakistani attackers came up to 200 meters near the Indian posts.

During the attack, the Pakistani troops resorted to firing in Gulpur-Karmara-Chakan-Da-Bagh area along the LoC.

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The armed intruders targeted an area domination patrol of the Indian Army, triggering a gunfight, the official said.

The Indian troops killed one of the attackers and injured another whose extrication was facilitated by the cover fire by the Pakistani troops from their posts.

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Prior to that, a BAT attack was carried out in February but there were no casualties.
How US Armed Terrorists in Syria





Another Middle East debacle



By Gareth Porter

June 22, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Three-term Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a member of both the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, has proposed legislation that would prohibit any U.S. assistance to terrorist organizations in Syria as well as to any organization working directly with them. Equally important, it would prohibit U.S. military sales and other forms of military cooperation with other countries that provide arms or financing to those terrorists and their collaborators.

Gabbards Stop Arming Terrorists Act challenges for the first time in Congress a U.S. policy toward the conflict in the Syrian civil war that should have set off alarm bells long ago: in 2012-13 the Obama administration helped its Sunni allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar provide arms to Syrian and non-Syrian armed groups to force President Bashar al-Assad out of power. And in 2013 the administration began to provide arms to what the CIA judged to be relatively moderate anti-Assad groupsmeaning they incorporated various degrees of Islamic extremism.

That policy, ostensibly aimed at helping replace the Assad regime with a more democratic alternative, has actually helped build up al Qaedas Syrian franchise al Nusra Front into the dominant threat to Assad.

The supporters of this arms-supply policy believe it is necessary as pushback against Iranian influence in Syria. But that argument skirts the real issue raised by the policys history. The Obama administrations Syria policy effectively sold out the U.S. interest that was supposed to be the touchstone of the Global War on Terrorismthe eradication of al Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates. The United States has instead subordinated that U.S. interest in counter-terrorism to the interests of its Sunni allies. In doing so it has helped create a new terrorist threat in the heart of the Middle East.

The policy of arming military groups committed to overthrowing the government of President Bashar al-Assad began in September 2011, when President Barack Obama was pressed by his Sunni alliesTurkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatarto supply heavy weapons to a military opposition to Assad they were determined to establish. Turkey and the Gulf regimes wanted the United States to provide anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to the rebels, according to a former Obama Administration official involved in Middle East issues.

Obama refused to provide arms to the opposition, but he agreed to provide covert U.S. logistical help i n carrying out a campaign of military assistance to arm opposition groups. CIA involvement in the arming of anti-Assad forces began with arranging for the shipment of weapons from the stocks of the Gaddafi regime that had been stored in Benghazi. CIA-controlled firms shipped the weapons from the military port of Benghazi to two small ports in Syria using former U.S. military personnel to manage the logistics, as investigative reporter Sy Hersh detailed in 2014 . The funding for the program came mainly from the Saudis.

A declassified October 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency report revealed that the shipment in late August 2012 had included 500 sniper rifles, 100 RPG (rocket propelled grenade launchers) along with 300 RPG rounds and 400 howitzers. Each arms shipment encompassed as many as ten shipping containers, it reported, each of which held about 48,000 pounds of cargo. That suggests a total payload of up to 250 tons of weapons per shipment. Even if the CIA had organized only one shipment per month, the arms shipments would have totaled 2,750 tons of arms bound ultimately for Syria from October 2011 through August 2012. More likely it was a multiple of that figure.

The CIAs covert arms shipments from Libya came to an abrupt halt in September 2012 when Libyan militants attacked and burned the embassy annex in Benghazi that had been used to support the operation. By then, however, a much larger channel for arming anti-government forces was opening up. The CIA put the Saudis in touch with a senior Croatian official who had offered to sell large quantities of arms left over from the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. And the CIA helped them shop for weapons from arms dealers and governments in several other former Soviet bloc countries.

Flush with weapons acquired from both the CIA Libya program and from the Croatians, the Saudis and Qataris dramatically increased the number of flights by military cargo planes to Turkey in December 2012 and continued that intensive pace for the next two and a half months. The New York Times reported a total 160 such flights through mid-March 2013. The most common cargo plane in use in the Gulf, the Ilyushin IL-76 , can carry roughly 50 tons of cargo on a flight, which would indicate that as much as 8,000 tons of weapons poured across the Turkish border into Syria just in late 2012 and in 2013.

One U.S. official called the new level of arms deliveries to Syrian rebels a cataract of weaponry. And a year-long investigation by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed that the Saudis were intent on building up a powerful conventional army in Syria. The end-use certificate for weapons purchased from an arms company in Belgrade, Serbia, in May 2013 includes 500 Soviet-designed PG-7VR rocket launchers that can penetrate even heavily-armored tanks, along with two million rounds; 50 Konkurs anti-tank missile launchers and 500 missiles, 50 anti-aircraft guns mounted on armored vehicles, 10,000 fragmentation rounds for OG-7 rocket launchers capable of piercing heavy body armor; four truck-mounted BM-21 GRAD multiple rocket launchers, each of which fires 40 rockets at a time with a range of 12 to 19 miles, along with 20,000 GRAD rockets.

The end user document for another Saudi order from the same Serbian company listed 300 tanks, 2,000 RPG launchers, and 16,500 other rocket launchers, one million rounds for ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, and 315 million cartridges for various other guns.

Those two purchases were only a fraction of the totality of the arms obtained by the Saudis over the next few years from eight Balkan nations. Investigators found that the Saudis made their biggest arms deals with former Soviet bloc states in 2015, and that the weapons included many that had just come off factory production lines. Nearly 40 percent of the arms the Saudis purchased from those countries, moreover, still had not been delivered by early 2017. So the Saudis had already contracted for enough weaponry to keep a large-scale conventional war in Syria going for several more years.

By far the most consequential single Saudi arms purchase was not from the Balkans, however, but from the United States. It was the December 2013 U.S. sale of 15,000 TOW anti-tank missiles to the Saudis at a cost of about $1 billionthe result of Obamas decision earlier that year to reverse his ban on lethal assistance to anti-Assad armed groups. The Saudis had agreed, moreover, that those anti-tank missiles would be doled out to Syrian groups only at U.S. discretion. The TOW missiles began to arrive in Syria in 2014 and soon had a major impact on the military balance.

This flood of weapons into Syria, along with the entry of 20,000 foreign fighters into the countryprimarily through Turkeylargely defined the nature of the conflict. These armaments helped make al Qaedas Syrian franchise, al Nusra Front (now renamed Tahrir al-Sham or Levant Liberation Organization) and its close allies by far the most powerful anti-Assad forces in Syria and gave rise to the Islamic State .

By late 2012, it became clear to U.S. officials that the largest share of the arms that began flowing into Syria early in the year were going to the rapidly growing al Qaeda presence in the country. In October 2012, U.S. officials acknowledged off the record for the first time to the New York Times that most of the arms that had been shipped to armed opposition groups in Syria with U.S. logistical assistance during the previous year had gone to hardline Islamic jihadists obviously meaning al Qaedas Syrian franchise, al Nusra.

Al Nusra Front and its allies became the main recipients of the weapons because the Saudis, Turks, and Qataris wanted the arms to go to the military units that were most successful in attacking government targets. And by the summer of 2012, al Nusra Front, buttressed by the thousands of foreign jihadists pouring into the country across the Turkish border, was already taking the lead in attacks on the Syrian government in coordination with Free Syrian Army brigades.

In November and December 2012, al Nusra Front began establishing formal joint operations rooms with those calling themselves Free Syrian Army on several battlefronts, as Charles Lister chronicles in his book The Syrian Jihad . One such commander favored by Washington was Col. Abdul Jabbar al-Oqaidi, a former Syrian army officer who headed something called the Aleppo Revolutionary Military Council. Ambassador Robert Ford, who continued to hold that position even after he had been withdrawn from Syria, publicly visited Oqaidi in May 2013 to express U.S. support for him and the FSA.

But Oqaidi and his troops were junior partners in a coalition in Aleppo in which al Nusra was by far the strongest element. That reality is clearly reflected in a video in which Oqaidi describes his good relations with officials of the Islamic State and is shown joining the main jihadist commander in the Aleppo region celebrating the capture of the Syrian governments Menagh Air Base in September 2013.

By early 2013, in fact, the Free Syrian Army, which had never actually been a military organization with any troops, had ceased to have any real significance in the Syria conflict. New anti-Assad armed groups had stopped using the name even as a brand to identify themselves, as a leading specialist on the conflict observed.

So, when weapons from Turkey arrived at the various battlefronts, it was understood by all the non-jihadist groups that they would be shared with al Nusra Front and its close allies. A report by McClatchy in early 2013, on a town in north central Syria, showed how the military arrangements between al Nusra and those brigades calling themselves Free Syrian Army governed the distribution of weapons. One of those units, the Victory Brigade, had participated in a joint operations room with al Qaedas most important military ally, Ahrar al Sham, in a successful attack on a strategic town a few weeks earlier. A visiting reporter watched that brigade and Ahrar al Sham show off new sophisticated weapons that included Russian-made RPG27 shoulder-fired rocket-propelled anti-tank grenades and RG6 grenade launchers.

When asked if the Victory Brigade had shared its new weapons with Ahrar al Sham, the latters spokesman responded, Of course they share their weapons with us. We fight together.

Turkey and Qatar consciously chose al Qaeda and its closest ally, Ahrar al Sham, as the recipients of weapons systems. In late 2013 and early 2014, several truckloads of arms bound for the province of Hatay, just south of the Turkish border, were intercepted by Turkish police. They had Turkish intelligence personnel on board, according to later Turkish police court testimony . The province was controlled by Ahrar al Sham. In fact Turkey soon began to treat Ahrar al Sham as its primary client in Syria, according to Faysal Itani , a senior fellow at the Atlantic Councils Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.

A Qatari intelligence operative who had been involved in shipping arms to extremist groups in Libya was a key figure in directing the flow of arms from Turkey into Syria. An Arab intelligence source familiar with the discussions among the external suppliers near the Syrian border in Turkey during those years told the Washington Posts David Ignatius that when one of the participants warned that the outside powers were building up the jihadists while the non-Islamist groups were withering away, the Qatari operative responded, I will send weapons to al Qaeda if it will help.

The Qataris did funnel arms to both al Nusra Front and Ahrar al Sham, according to a Middle Eastern diplomatic source. The Obama administrations National Security Council staff proposed in 2013 that the United States signal U.S. displeasure with Qatar over its arming of extremists in both Syria and Libya by withdrawing a squadron of fighter planes from the U.S. airbase at al-Udeid, Qatar. The Pentagon vetoed that mild form of pressure, however, to protect its access to its base in Qatar.

President Obama himself confronted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan over his governments support for the jihadists at a private White House dinner in May 2013, as recounted by Hersh. We know what youre doing with the radicals in Syria, he quotes Obama as saying to Erdogan.

The administration addressed Turkeys cooperation with the al Nusra publicly, however, only fleetingly in late 2014. Shortly after leaving Ankara, Francis Ricciardone, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 2011 through mid-2014, told The Daily Telegraph of London that Turkey had worked with groups, frankly, for a period, including al Nusra.

The closest Washington came to a public reprimand of its allies over the arming of terrorists in Syria was when Vice President Joe Biden criticized their role in October 2014. In impromptu remarks at Harvard Universitys Kennedy School, Biden complained that our biggest problem is our allies. The forces they had supplied with arms, he said, were al Nusra and al Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.

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Biden quickly apologized for the remarks, explaining that he didnt mean that U.S. allies had deliberately helped the jihadists. But Ambassador Ford confirmed his complaint, telling BBC , What Biden said about the allies aggravating the problem of extremism is true.

In June 2013 Obama approved the first direct U.S. lethal military aid to rebel brigades that had been vetted by the CIA. By spring 2014, the U.S.-made BGM-71E anti-tank missiles from the 15,000 transferred to the Saudis began to appear in the hands of selected anti-Assad groups. But the CIA imposed the condition that the group receiving them would not cooperate with the al Nusra Front or its allies.

That condition implied that Washington was supplying military groups that were strong enough to maintain their independence from al Nusra Front. But the groups on the CIAs list of vetted relatively moderate armed groups were all highly vulnerable to takeover by the al Qaeda affiliate. In November 2014, al Nusra Front troops struck the two strongest CIA-supported armed groups, Harakat Hazm and the Syrian Revolutionary Front on successive days and seized their heavy weapons, including both TOW anti-tank missiles and GRAD rockets.

In early March 2015, the Harakat Hazm Aleppo branch dissolved itself, and al Nusra Front promptly showed off photos of the TOW missiles and other equipment they had captured from it. And in March 2016, al Nusra Front troops attacked the headquarters of the 13th Division in northwestern Idlib province and seized all of its TOW missiles. Later that month, al Nusra Front released a video of its troops using the TOW missiles it had captured.

But that wasnt the only way for al Nusra Front to benefit from the CIAs largesse. Along with its close ally Ahrar al Sham, the terrorist organization began planning for a campaign to take complete control of Idlib province in the winter of 2014-15. Abandoning any pretense of distance from al Qaeda, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar worked with al Nusra on the creation of a new military formation for Idlib called the Army of Conquest, consisting of the al Qaeda affiliate and its closest allies. Saudi Arabia and Qatar provided more weapons for the campaign, while Turkey facilitated their passage . On March 28, just four days after launching the campaign, the Army of Conquest successfully gained control of Idlib City.

The non-jihadist armed groups getting advanced weapons from the CIA assistance were not part of the initial assault on Idlib City. After the capture of Idlib the U.S.-led operations room for Syria in southern Turkey signaled to the CIA-supported groups in Idlib that they could now participate in the campaign to consolidate control over the rest of the province. According to Lister , the British researcher on jihadists in Syria who maintains contacts with both jihadist and other armed groups, recipients of CIA weapons, such as the Fursan al haq brigade and Division 13, did join the Idlib campaign alongside al Nusra Front without any move by the CIA to cut them off.

As the Idlib offensive began, the CIA-supported groups were getting TOW missiles in larger numbers, and they now used them with great effectiveness against the Syrian army tanks. That was the beginning of a new phase of the war, in which U.S. policy was to support an alliance between relatively moderate groups and the al Nusra Front.

The new alliance was carried over to Aleppo, where jihadist groups close to Nusra Front formed a new command called Fateh Halab (Aleppo Conquest) with nine armed groups in Aleppo province which were getting CIA assistance. The CIA-supported groups could claim that they werent cooperating with al Nusra Front because the al Qaeda franchise was not officially on the list of participants in the command. But as the report on the new command clearly implied , this was merely a way of allowing the CIA to continue providing weapons to its clients, despite their de facto alliance with al Qaeda.

The significance of all this is clear: by helping its Sunni allies provide weapons to al Nusra Front and its allies and by funneling into the war zone sophisticated weapons that were bound to fall into al Nusra hands or strengthen their overall military position, U.S. policy has been largely responsible for having extended al Qaedas power across a significant part of Syrian territory. The CIA and the Pentagon appear to be ready to tolerate such a betrayal of Americas stated counter-terrorism mission. Unless either Congress or the White House confronts that betrayal explicitly, as Tulsi Gabbards legislation would force them to do, U.S. policy will continue to be complicit in the consolidation of power by al Qaeda in Syria, even if the Islamic State is defeated there.
Yemen Images Saudi Arabia Doesn't Want You To See Video Batool Ali is six years old, though you would never guess that from her huge, haunted eyes and emaciated frame. Ribs jutting out over her distended belly, Batool weighs less than 16 kilograms (35 pounds). She is one of nearly half a million children in Yemen suffering from severe malnutrition. Posted June 24, 2017 No Advertising - No Government Grants - This Is Independent Media Get Our Free Daily Newsletter The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
Israeli Minister Calls For Full Saudi Ties And Official Riyadh Visit





Intelligence minister Yisrael Katz has also invited King Salman to send new crown prince to Israel to establish mutual ties



By MEE and agencies

June 23, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Senior Israeli ministers have called on Saudi Arabias King Salman to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel.

Speaking at the Herzliya conference on Thursday, Israels intelligence and transportation minister Yisrael Katz asked King Salman to invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to Riyadh and to send newly appointed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Tel Aviv in return.

"I call upon Salman, the King of Saudi, to invite the prime minister of Israel Netanyahu to visit Saudi Arabia," Katz said, at the annual gathering of Israeli political leaders and strategists.

"We saw what a wonderful host you can be... when President Trump was there. You can also send your heir, the new one, Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He's a dynamic person. He is an initiator. And he wants to break through.

"Exactly this way... they know who Iran is. They know we have to create an access vis-a-vis Iran. You can send him for a meeting in Israel and I promise you, he's going to be a very welcome guest."

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's defence minister, also called for "full diplomatic and economic relations" at the conference.

A peace deal must be reached with "moderate Arab Sunni countries" before a peace agreement could be made with the Palestinians, Lieberman said.

He said: "The only light at the end of the tunnel is a complete regional agreement." The hard-right defence minister added: "Full diplomatic and economic relations. Not under the table, but on the table.

"I saw research on what the result of a regional agreement and full economic relations would mean between Israel, the Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia. This would mean an additional revenue of $45bn for Israel. That's the potential. We have to clearly say what our priorities are."

Prince Salman's appointment as crown prince and heir to the Saudi throne has brought renewed hope of a rapprochement between the two countries, according to communications minister Ayoub Kara.

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Salmans appointment means more economic cooperation in the Middle East, and not just regarding oil, Kara said in a statement. The strengthening of relations with the Trump administration is the beginning of a new and optimistic time between Saudi Arabia and regional states, including Israel and the Jewish people.

Saudi Arabia has refused to recognise Israel since its inception in 1948 and has supported Palestinian rights to sovereignty over territory occupied by Israel since 1967. However, the Gulf kingdom did not participate in any of the Arab-Israeli Wars.

Both countries see Iran as a strategic threat and are close allies of the United States, while recent years have seen growing ties between the bastion of Sunni Islam and the self-proclaimed "Jewish state".

Israel has also been supportive of a blockade of Qatar led by Saudi Arabia. Tel Aviv has repeatedly called on Qatar not to give asylum to key Palestinian figures, including Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and Azmi Bishara.

During a tour of the Middle East last month, US President Donald Trump flew directly from Saudi Arabia to Israel in a flight dubbed a historic moment in relations between the two countries by deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Pro-Israel Group Is Desperate To Keep You From Watching This Video?





By Peter Beinart

June 24, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - When it comes to Palestinians, the American Jewish establishment is in the ignorance business. The average American synagogue has never hosted a Palestinian speaker. The average pro-Israel activist has never read a book by a Palestinian author. The American Jewish philanthropists who fund Birthright send thousands of young American Jews to Israel each year, on a program that systematically excludes the voices of 50% of the people who live under Israeli control.

But thats not the worst part. The worst part is that for major American Jewish organizations, ignorance is an export. It is not enough that American Jewish leaders never hear from Palestinians themselves  they do their best to ensure that American politicians dont, either.

Consider the sequence of events that began on June 8. On that day, an advocacy group called No Way To Treat a Child hosted a panel discussion on Capitol Hill. Thats not unusual. Advocacy organizations hold panel discussions on Capitol Hill all the time; the location makes it easier for congressional staff to attend. What made this one unusual was its subject: the Palestinian experience under Israeli control.

You can watch the panel online . The first speaker was Omar Shakir, the Israel-Palestine director of Human Rights Watch. In dry, rather clinical, terms, Shakir discussed some of the consequences of the fact that West Bank Palestinians are subjects, not citizens, of Israel. He noted, for instance, that in Area C, which encompasses roughly 60% of the West Bank, it is nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain a permit to build a home. When Palestinians build without a permit, the Israeli government often demolishes their homes.

Following him was Brad Parker, a staff attorney at Defense for Children Palestine. Observing that, according to the most recent statistics, Israel holds hundreds of Palestinians between the ages of 12 and 17 in its jails, often for stone throwing, Parker explained that the Israeli military frequently arrests Palestinian children at night. They are often bound, blindfolded and transported to a military installation, where they wait until morning before being interrogated without a lawyer and without their parents knowing where they are. They essentially disappear for 24, 48, 96 hours. Then they are generally prosecuted in military courts where the conviction rate approaches 100%. F ollowing Parker was Yazan Meqbil, a young West Bank Palestinian attending college in the United States, who talked about growing up in a house repeatedly slated for demolition. Every single day, he said, I used to wake up hoping my house will not be demolished. Meqbil ended his remarks by saying: Palestinians, we all have a dream, to be free, to live like normal human beings. To not be afraid whenever we leave our homes.

The final speaker was Nadia Ben-Youssef, who works for Adalah-The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. She stressed the links between Israels treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and its treatment of Palestinian citizens inside Israel proper. Israels Palestinian citizens, she noted, lived under military law until 1966. And even today, she argued, inside the Green Line, Israel privileges Jews over non-Jews in important ways.

I offer this summation to illustrate the shamelessness of the attack that followed. In a video posted June 12, The Israel Project, which is led by former AIPAC spokesman Josh Block, called the event an anti-Israel hatefest filled with hate speech. Notice the Orwellian turn.

According to The Israel Project, it is not hateful to hold millions of West Bank Palestinians for 50 years as non-citizens, without due process, free movement or the right to vote for the government that controls their lives. It is hateful to criticize Israel for doing so. By that standard, the 2012 documentary The Gatekeepers, which featured former heads of the Shin Bet calling Israels occupation of the West Bank brutal, colonial and unbearable, was an anti-Israel hatefest, too.

Then came the inevitable insinuation of anti-Semitism. As menacing music played in the background, the video declares that while the panel pretended to be about human rights, the speakers couldnt stop talking about Jews. Actually, the panel was entirely about human rights. But, as if uncovering a terrible offense, the video noted that panelists had 17 times used the phrases Jewish, Jewish state, Jewish people, Jewish citizens or Jews. How sinister! Im sure Josh Block never uses such despicable phrases when speaking about Israel.

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In fact, two of Shakirs uses of the word Jewish came from quotations. He quoted the State Department as calling settlement growth inconsistent with Israels future as a Jewish and democratic state, and President Obama as saying that settlement growth undermines Israel as both Jewish and a democracy. Then again, everyone knows that Obama and the State Department are anti-Semitic, too.

Most of the references to Jews came from Nadia Ben-Youssef. The video quoted her as saying that Israel was established as a Jewish state to privilege the rights of Jewish people, and referring to this Jewish state that is premised on the basis that you must have greater rights, so that means more Jewish people than anyone else in that land. The video never explained whats incorrect or odious about those statements. Their hatefulness is presumably self-evident.

But both statements are true. Yes, Israels Declaration of Independence speaks about ensuring complete equality of social and political rights irrespective of religion, race or sex. And yes, Palestinians inside Israel proper (as opposed to Palestinians in the West Bank) enjoy citizenship and the right to vote. But Israel was also explicitly founded to represent and safeguard the Jewish people, and that inevitably privileges Jews over non-Jews.

Jews who immigrate to Israel, for instance, gain citizenship on day one. For non-Jews who wish to immigrate to Israel, by contrast, including Palestinian refugees born inside Israels borders, gaining citizenship is virtually impossible. Israels flag contains a Jewish star; its national anthem speaks of the Jewish soul. In these symbolic ways, too, Israel privileges Jews over non-Jews. As for Israels effort to maintain a Jewish majority so that Jews can control the destiny of the state, thats hardly a secret. Its a goal that the Israeli government and mainstream American Jewish organizations proudly endorse.

Israel is not the only country on earth to face a tension between its desire to protect and nurture one ethno-religious community and its commitment to provide equality under the law. Many European democracies have immigration policies that favor a dominant ethnic group. Many have crosses on their flags. The 2003 Palestinian Constitution states that the Palestinian people are part of the Arab nation and that the principles of Islamic Sharia shall be the main source of legislation. So if a Palestinian state is ever created, it will likely wrestle with the tension between ethnic nationalism and democracy, too.

I believe that in a post-Holocaust world, its important to have one country on earth that assumes a special obligation to protect Jewish life. The goal, therefore, should be to minimize the tension between Jewish statehood and liberal democracy as much as possible, while acknowledging that you can never erase it entirely. The challenge, as Martin Buber once put it, is to do no more injustice to others than we are forced to do in order to exist.

Zionist thinkers like Chaim Gans and Alexander Yakobson and Amnon Rubinstein have sought to meet that challenge. But doing so honestly requires acknowledging that all forms of Jewish statehood entail some moral costs, and that some are more morally defensible than others.

These are the kinds of debates that the American Jewish establishment fears. It fears them because such debates give Palestinians a voice. Given the influence that American Jewish groups wield in Washington, its far easier to simply deny Palestinians a platform. Thats why The Israel Project ends its video by urging people to call Rep. Mark Pocan, who authorized No Way To Treat a Child to use a room on Capitol Hill, and demand that he condemn the event. The goal is to scare members of Congress so they dont facilitate such discussions again.

The deep, dark secret of the American Jewish establishment is that its leaders are not equipped to respond to smart Palestinian critics of Israel. Theyre not familiar enough with the realities of Palestinian life under Israeli control. So having built itself a cocoon that shuts out Palestinian voices, the American Jewish establishment insists that Congress live inside that cocoon too. Because if the cocoon cracks, American politicians, and the American public, will realize how intellectually weak the American Jewish establishment actually is.

When it comes to Israel, the organized American Jewish community would rather bully than think. Thats what happens when power corrupts. It doesnt only make you immoral. It makes you dumb.

Peter Beinart is a Forward senior columnist and contributing editor. Listen to Fault Lines, his podcast with Daniel Gordis here or on iTunes.
US Recklessly Provoking Russia

By Stephen Lendman

June 23, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Instead of fulfilling a campaign promise to improve bilateral relations, Trump so far continues acting provocatively.

Hes pursuing the same reckless agenda as Obama, pushing the envelope toward possible direct confrontation.

Despite neither country wanting war, unfolding events may cause the unthinkable to happen by accident or design.

Among major powers, Russia is the worlds leading peace and stability champion  America just the opposite.

Its recklessly waging wars in multiple theaters, threatening conflicts against North Korea, Iran, and perhaps Russia the way things are going.

Madness defines US policy, state terror on a global scale, naked aggression its main expression, controlling planet earth, its resources and people its objective  risking potentially life-destroying nuclear war.

Last week, Senate members near unanimously imposed new illegal sanctions on Russia, including on its energy sector. House action awaits.

On Monday, the US Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it reinforced existing sanctions on Russia by designating or identifying a range of individuals and entities involved in the ongoing conflict under four Executive orders (EOs) related to Russia and Ukraine, adding:

US sanctions on Russia related to the situation in eastern Ukraine will remain in place until Russia fully honors its obligations under the Minsk Agreements.

US sanctions related to Crimea will not be lifted until Russia ends its occupation of the peninsula.

Fact: Russia wages peace, not war. Alone its gone all-out to resolve things in Ukraine diplomatically, its good faith efforts sabotaged by Washington.

Fact: Crimea is Russian territory, its newest republic, supporting the will of its people, correcting a historic error.

Fact: The territory wont be handed back to US-installed putschists running Ukraine. Its people wont be betrayed for Washington or anyone else.

Russia and America are worlds apart on Syria. Moscow seeks diplomatic conflict resolution, the countrys sovereignty respected, its territorial integrity preserved.

Washington wants endless conflict, puppet governance it controls replacing overwhelmingly popular Assad, reelected president in June 2014 by an 89% majority.

International observers called the process open, free and fair despite ongoing war, creating enormous hardships for its people. They want no one else leading them.

They want their sovereign independence respected. They reject foreign meddling in their affairs  especially by America, NATO, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and their rogue allies.

On Wednesday morning, a NATO F-16 warplane, likely a US one, provocatively tried following closely behind Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigus aircraft over Baltic Sea international waters while en route to Kaliningrad.

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Russian Su-27 fleet fighters escorted his plane. As the likely US warplane approached, a Russian Su-27 maneuvered between both aircraft, waving its wings, displaying its arms, sending a clear message to back off or risk being downed.

The F-16 few off, ending the provocation, avoiding a possible serious incident. An unacceptable NATO statement said the alliance can confirm that three Russian aircraft, including two fighters, were tracked over the Baltic Sea earlier today (21 June 2017).

As the aircraft did not identify themselves or respond to air traffic control, NATO fighter jets scrambled to identify them, according to standard procedures.

NATO has no information as to who was on board. We assess the Russian pilots behavior as safe and professional.

Several Russian Su-34 aircraft escorted Shoigus return flight from Kaliningrad, NATO warplanes, likely US ones, following from a distance.

Baltic Sea provocations by US warplanes with Russian aircraft increased in recent weeks  risking possible direct confrontation if they continue.

Americas rage for unchallenged global dominance risks unthinkable nuclear war, its recklessness threatening humanitys survival.
The World Is Going Down With Trump

By Paul Craig Roberts

June 24, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - On June 21 the editorial board of the Washington Post, long a propaganda instrument believed to be in cahoots with the CIA and the deep state, called for more sanctions and more pressure on Russia.

One seconds thought is sufficient to realize how bad this advice is. The orchestrated demonization of Russia and its president began in the late summer of 2013 when the British Parliament and Russian diplomacy blocked the neoconned Obama regimes planned invasion of Syria. An example had to be made of Russia before other countries began standing up to Washington. While the Russians were focused on the Sochi Olympic Games, Washington staged a coup in Ukraine, replacing the elected democratic government with a gang of Banderite neo-nazi thugs whose forebears fought for Hitler in World War II. Washington claimed it had brought democracy to Ukraine by putting neo-nazi thugs in control of the government.

Washingtons thugs immediately began violent attacks on the Russian population in Ukraine. Soviet war memorials were destroyed. The Russian language was declared banned from official use. Instantly, separatist movements began in the Russian parts of Ukraine that had been administratively attached to Ukraine by Soviet leaders. Crimea, a Russian province since the 1700s, voted overwhelmingly to seperate from Ukraine and requested to be reunited with Russia. The same occurred in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

These independent actions were misrepresented by Washington and the presstitutes who whore for Washington as a Russian invasion. Despite all facts to the contrary, this misrepresentation continues today. In US foreign policy, facts are not part of the analysis.

The most important fact that is overlooked by the Washington Post and the Russophobic members of the US government is that it is an act of insanity to call for more punishment and more pressure on a country with a powerful military and strategic nuclear capability whose military high command and government have already concluded that Washington is preparing a surprise nuclear attack.

Are the Washington Post editors trying to bring on nuclear armageddon? If there was any intelligence present in the Washington Post, the newspaper would be urging that President Trump immediately call President Putin with reassurances and arrange the necessary meetings to defuse the situation. Instead the utterly stupid editors urge actions that can only raise the level of tension. It should be obvious even to the Washington Post morons that Russia is not going to sit there, shaking in its boots, and wait for Washingtons attack. Putin has issued many warnings about the Wests rising threat to Russian security. He has said that Russia will never again fight a war on its own territory. He has said that the lesson he has learned is that if a fight is unavoidable, strike first. He has also said that the fact that no one hears his warnings makes the situation even more dangerous.

What explains the deafness of the West? The answer is arrogance and hubris.

As the presstitute media is incapable of reason, I will do their job for them. I call for an immediate face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin at Reykjavik. Cold War II, begun by Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama, must be ended now.

So, where is President Trump? Why is the President of the United States unable to rise to the challenge? Why isnt he the man Ronald Reagan was? Is it, as David Stockman says, that Trump is incapable of anything except tweeting? http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47310.htm

Why hasnt President Trump long ago ordered all intercepts of Russian chatter gathered, declassified, and made public? Why hasnt Trump launched a criminal prosecution against John Brennan, Susan Rice, Comey, and the rest of the hit squad that is trying to destroy him?

Why has Trump disarmed himself with an administration chosen by Russiaphobes and Israel?

As David Stockman writes, Trump is up against a Deep State/Dem/Neocon/mainstream media prosecution and has no chance of survival short of an aggressive offensive against those working to destroy him. But there is no Trump offensive, because the man is clueless about what he is doing in the White House and is being advised by a cacophonous coterie of amateurs and nincompoops. So he has no action plan except to impulsively reach for his Twitter account.

Our president twitters while he and Earth itself are pushed toward destruction.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order .

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.
Trumps Policy Is Clear: Civilian Casualties Dont Matter in the War on Terror



Multiple air strikes on cities and the use of white phosphorusa probable war crimeguarantee a growing death toll.



By Phyllis Bennis

June 24, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - R ecent news reports describe a massive increase in civilian casualties at the hands of the US military or US allies. In Mosul, Iraq, hundreds of residents have been killed as US forces join Iraqi troops in the last stage of their assault on the ISIS-held city. In Yemen, the United States is increasing its direct involvement in the Saudi-led air war being waged against the poorest country in the Arab world, as the UN and other aid workers struggle against mass famine and a looming cholera epidemic on top of the thousands already killed and millions displaced. And in Raqqa, Syria, US air strikes and white-phosphorus munitions have led to what the UN calls a staggering loss of life, as Washington provides backup to Kurdish and Arab forces now besieging the ISIS stronghold.

These attacks, and the skyrocketing civilian casualties that result from them, have two things in common: direct US involvement, a result of the recent escalation in Washingtons direct role in the 16-year-old Global War on Terror; and an absolute disdain for the civilian lives being destroyed in these wars.

Defense Secretary James Mad Dog Mattis claimed in sworn congressional testimony that

there has been no change to our rules of engagement and there has been no change to our continued extraordinary efforts to avoid innocent civilian casualties, despite needing to go into populated areas to break ISIS hold on their self-described caliphate, despite ISIS purposely endangering innocent lives by refusing to allow civilians to evacuate. And we continue all possible efforts to protect the innocent.

And yet, the already high casualty figures continue to mount. When the top UN official on the Syria war described the staggering loss of life, he was specifically condemning the impact of US and allied air strikes against Raqqa, not simply bemoaning the war in general. He also discussed the 160,000 people driven out of their homes by US air strikes. An estimated 200,000 more civiliansfamilies, children, old peopleare still trapped in Raqqa, and according to the AirWars monitoring group in London, Rarely a day goes by now when we dont see three or four civilian casualty incidents attributed to coalition air strikes around Raqqa. All of the local monitoring groups are now reporting that the coalition is killing more civilians than Russia on a regular basis.

There is no question that ISIS, which proclaimed Raqqa as the capital of its so-called caliphate in 2014, is responsible for horrific atrocities against the civilian population; recent reports indicate that civilians have been killed trying to escape the besieged city. But Trumps recent policy shiftdescribed as an approach aimed at the annihilation of ISISguarantees that civilian casualties at the hands of US troops, gunners, and drone and warplane pilots will continue to mount as they attack ISIS fighters holed up with civilians in the crowded, desperate city.

Mattis argues that the US military is using all possible efforts to protect the innocent. But that argument collapses when the ostensible protection comes in the form of massive curtains of white-phosphorus bombs dropped in civilian areas. White phosphorus is a deadly chemical weapon that burns through skin, muscle, and bone and responds to no treatment. Using white phosphorus is almost always a war crime; the only exception may be its use to screen troop movements on the battlefield. But those troops can be shielded within tanks or armored personnel carriers; vulnerable civilians have no such protection.

In Raqqa, as well as in Mosul, where the United States also dropped white phosphorus, use of the chemical bombs may well qualify as a war crime. According to Amnesty International ,

The use of white phosphorus munitions by the US-led coalition gravely endangers the lives of thousands of civilians trapped in and around al-Raqqa city, and may amount to a war crime under these circumstances. The use of white phosphorus in densely-populated areas poses an unacceptably high risk to civilians and would almost invariably amount to indiscriminate attacks.

Beyond the use of white phosphorus, the United States is ramping up its direct involvement in wars across the region. In Syria, the Pentagon is now officially arming the Kurdish YPG (Peoples Protection Units). The United States depends on their prowess in the offensive against Raqqa, but the move is further antagonizing Turkey, which views the YPG as terrorists. And a US warplane downed a Syrian government plane just days ago, significantly ratcheting up the tensions between the United States and Syrias key backers, Iran and Russia. While Russias response so far has been cautious, Moscow has stated that it will treat any US or allied planes in certain parts of Syria as a legitimate target.

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The US claim is that of self-defensethat the Syrian warplane threatened US-backed rebel forces attacking ISIS-held areas. But the United States has no legal right to be in Syrianot under international law, and not even under US domestic law. Asserting the right to shoot down any plane supposedly threatening US troops anywhere in the world, regardless of the legality of those troops presence, is not a legitimate claim. Things could deteriorate very quickly, and the icy cold war between the United States and Russia could heat up very rapidly if more of these provocations take place.

And we should not forget Yemen, where the United States is now threatening to escalate its direct involvement. More than 10,000 people have already been killed in the civil war, and thousands more are dying from the consequences of the Saudi-imposed blockade of the import-dependent countrys ports, preventing virtually all food and vital medicines from getting in. American planes and pilots have been providing in-air refueling for Saudi bombers, allowing them to attack with greater efficiency, and Washington is now planning to participate in a major military assault that would destroy the countrys main port of Hodeidah, further crippling the country. America is supposedly involved because the Houthi rebels, who have challenged the Saudi-backed Yemeni government for years, have received some support from Iran. So for Washington, backing the Saudi war in Yemen has everything to do with challenging Tehrans role as a regional power. The fact that more Yemenis will die is not important.

In Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, the United States dropped a 23,000-pound explosive behemoth, the largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat, on a cave complex thought to be used by the local branch of ISIS. The use of the Mother of All Bombs there was far from the last salvo of that seemingly endless war; Trump has now given his favorite (at least for the moment) general, Defense Secretary Mattis, the power to raise troop levels across the region. In Afghanistan, it looks like at least 4,000 more US troops will be sent, despite the acknowledged lack of any strategy to actually change the lethal stalemate.

We should note that sending more troops to Afghanistan without a strategy is nothing new. Just weeks after President Obamas inauguration in 2009, he announced plans for a major review of Afghanistan strategy. But first, he said, well send 17,000 more troops to help out against the Taliban. Then well have a strategy discussion. Months later, the decision was to send another 30,000 troops, for a total surge of 47,000. But the troops came first, then the strategy. Now, eight years later, the Taliban still control almost one-third of Afghanistans territory; ISIS is in the mix, at least on a small scale; and Trump still has no strategy. But hes allowing his commanders to send more troops.

This broadly applied effort to annihilate ISIS is apparently based on what Mattis described as a tactical shift from shoving ISIS out of safe locations in an attrition fight to surrounding the enemy in their strongholds so we can annihilate ISIS. He claimed that surrounding ISIS-controlled locations would allow the United States and its allies to carry out the annihilation campaign so we dont simply transplant this problem from one location to another. And if civilians get in the way? Well, well try to be careful, but you know, going after ISIS comes first. Civilians are an afterthought.

The global war on terror has failed, is still failing, and will continue to fail. There is no military solution to terrorism. All the tactical shifts, from shoving to annihilation of ISIS, are not going to work. More troops and bigger bombs and white phosphorus are not going to work. There are only political, diplomatic, economic, and humanitarian solutions. The military ones just keep killing more civilians, while allowing terrorists to flourish.

Phyllis Bennis, director of the Institute for Policy Studies New Internationalism Project, is the author of Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror: A Primer .

This article was first published by The Nation -
A Nigerian national in Kharghar has been arrested by Anti-Narcotics Cell of the Navi Mumbai policeon Tuesday for being in possession of 178.6 gram of methaqualone worth 8.15 lakh.

The accused, identified as Garry Okafor , was arrested from Sector 34 in Kharghar after Sub Inspector Rani Kale from the Anti-Narcotics Cell received a tip-off.

According to the police, Okafor arrived in India a one year ago on business visa and trading in garments. The police said methaqualone, the drug seized from the accused, was a party drug that cost between 4,000 and 5,000 per gram.

An official from the Anti-Narcotics cell said, This drug is mostly used by youngsters at parties. We are trying our best to curb the supply of such drugs in the city.

We are trying to find where the accused acquired the drugs from. Usually in such cases, after a case is filed, the source of the drugs is alerted and he goes underground.

We fail to trace his name and hideout and he does not get nabbed. The police said they are also trying to find out the person who was to receive the drugs from the accused at Kharghar.

Source:( Instablog9ja )
Nollywood actor, Yomi Fash-Lanso has in a recent interview with Saturday Beats, called out Nigerian pastors, questioning their need for arms as a form of protection.

According to the actor, if they are so-called men of God  who are to be harmless  as they proclaim, then why do they need arms for protection if they arent going to harm anyone.

The actor is quoted in the interview as saying:

Our pastors go about with armed personnel and I ask myself a question, who wants to kill or kidnap a pastor? Is he not a man of God?

They know that what they are doing is not good, if not they would not move about with armed personnel. If you are truthful to Gods calling, who would want to kidnap you?

If you dont have the notion to harm anyone, then you do not need armed personnel. I was conferred as a deacon in my church a few years back but it would not stop me from talking.

If they go around with armed personnel because of the wealth they seem to have, how did they come about the wealth? Is it not from our tithe and offering? They cannot try it in America.

A pastor in South Africa is rotting in jail because he molested underage girls. I am sure that if it was in Nigeria, we would not hear anything. Nothing would happen because we have built our society around people and not laws. It is wrong.

Nathan in the bible went to King David to convey Gods message without any fear or compromise but our pastors cant do so. We are in this mess in Nigeria because our pastors are not talking.

If we are going to count the true men of God in Nigeria, they would not be up to two among the thousands that we have. Only a few of them can look in the eye of corrupt men in government and speak the truth because they would not want to lose their worldly possession.

They know all the rogues we have in government, the people that are putting us in total blackness. These people attend their churches but they are not talking to them which means that these pastors are thieves and rogues as well.

Until we start speaking the truth from the church, we are not going to make any head way in Nigeria.
Mr. Beluolisa Nwofor, who represented the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the PDP in the legal battle for the partys ticket ahead of last years governorship election in Ondo State has been stripped off his title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee.

The Sheriff faction had recorded a temporary victory by obtaining a judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which recognised the factions preferred aspirant, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim, as the PDPs governorship candidate for the said governorship poll.

The victory was truncated few days to the election when the Court of Appeal in Abuja in its judgment delivered on November 23, 2016, retrieved the ticket from Ibrahim and returned it to Eyitayo Jegede, who was the candidate of the rival Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the party.

The LPPC, in a statement released late on Friday, described the conduct of Nwofor during the hearing of the case as unbecoming of the holder of the esteemed rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

It will be recalled that Nwofor had a rancorous encounter with the Justice Ibrahim Saulawa-led three-man panel during the hearing of the case by the Court of Appeal.

Specifically, the November 16, 2016 proceedings went on for over five hours in a tense courtroom charged by the confrontation between members of the Justice Saulawa-led panel and Nwofor.

Also before the conclusion of the case, Nwofor also on behalf of his client filed before the Supreme Court, two motions, one of which asked for a stay of the appeal courts proceedings.

The second motion also sought an order disbanding the Justice Saulawa panel. Incensed by the motions which Nwofor filed on behalf of his clients, the Supreme Court after dismissing them, awarded cumulative fines of over N10m against the applicants and Nwofor, their lawyer, for filing the applications adjudged to have constituted an abuse of court process.

Source:( Instablog9ja)
The Police in Akamkpa Local Government Area of Cross River State, successfully rescued 117 pupils from the Stella Maris Seminary that had been under hostage for three days, following a communal clash between two communities.

According to reports, at least eight persons have so far been killed as of Friday in the bloody clash between youths of Uyanga and their neighbouring Ojor community.

The Catholic school, which is located in the boundary between Uyanga and Ojor, became the battleground for the gun and machete-wielding youths.

Confirming the evacuation, the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hafiz Inuwa, said corps members currently serving in the affected communities were also evacuated.

He said, What we did on Friday was to first evacuate the youth corps members that were in the warring communities. They were becoming very apprehensive and the community leaders asked that they are evacuated, which we did before assisting the school in evacuating the pupils.

The corps members were taken to Awi in Akamkpa LGA, while the pupils are in Calabar. We already have police presence around the school.

The principal of the school, Rev, Fr. Charles Lwanga, had for three days made frantic efforts to ensure that the kids were secure in the fenced environment before succour came their way.

An anonymous worried parent, whose ward was among the pupils under hostage in the school, said it was a thing of joy that his ward was safely evacuated.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Billionaire kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeje Onwuamadike, a.k.a. Evans, has dismissed a woman who came to Lagos State Police Command to claim that she was kidnapped by Evans, adding that she paid millions of Naira as ransom.

Some victims who claimed that they were kidnapped by Evans have appeared at the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja, where they accosted the kidnap kingpin.

Evans also dismissed a female accuser, saying he does not kidnap women.

The kingpin also denied two of his alleged victims, who claimed to have paid N5 million and N10 million respectively.

Evans was reported to have told the two alleged victims that he does not collect such small amounts for ransom.

A man, who identified himself as Murphy Ajala, according to Vanguard, came along with claims that he was kidnapped by Evans but the kingpin denied abducting him.

Ajala, a hotel owner in Apapa, Lagos, accused Evans of kidnapping him in 2010 and demanding N10 million.

He told Evans that he abducted him at the entrance of his hotel after he returned from the Coronation of Ojota of Ijora and was taken in his Hummer SUV to a bush in Ajah.

The alleged victim, who claimed to be a British citizen, said Evans and his gang abandoned his SUV at Lekki, where it was later found.

When Evans came before Ajala, he looked at him and said bluntly; I didnt kidnap you.

The kingpin demanded further, How much did you pay as ransom? Ajala responded, I paid N10million.

Upon hearing that, Evans declared, I dont collect N10million as ransom.

Evans also told another alleged victim, a middle-aged woman that I dont kidnap women.

The woman also came screaming that Evans kidnapped her and collected the sum of N5million as ransom.

Evans reportedly looked at the woman and said, Madam, I wasnt the one who kidnapped you, and I dont kidnap women.

I also do not collect ransom as little as N5million. You may have to look elsewhere for the person that kidnapped you.
The capture of Nigerias most-wanted kidnapper should have been a cause for national celebration in the West African country, which has been blighted by high-profile abductions and ransom payments for years.

But instead, many Nigerians have been left angry by what they view as the national media glamorizing the crimes of Chukwudi Dumeme Onuamadike, popularly known as Evans.

Police in the port city of Lagos captured Evans from Anambra State, in southeastern Nigeria, earlier in June following a gun battle with the suspect and his associates.

The 36-year-old is allegedly responsible for the abductions of numerous victims, including foreign nationals, traditional chiefs and wealthy businessmen. For some of these, he reportedly demanded ransoms of up to $1 millionalmost 400 times the average annual income of a person in Nigeria.

Unsurprisingly, Evans is thought to be one of Nigerias wealthiest criminals, owning two mansions in an upmarket Lagos district and another two in Accra, the capital of Ghana.

But now, Nigerians on social media are fuming over the media scrum for coverage of Evans. The alleged kidnapper has given interviews to several major Nigerian outlets, including a nearly nine-minute video interview with Channels Television, one of the countrys biggest networks, that has been viewed almost a quarter of a million times on YouTube. Evanss wife and family have made emotional appeals for his release, and photos of his luxury properties have been published.

This has not gone down well with Nigerians on social media, who have called for harsh penalties for the alleged criminal. (Earlier in 2017, the Lagos governor signed a decree authorizing the death penalty for kidnappers in cases in which the victim dies.)

See from sound bites from Twitter below:

JJ. Omojuwa @Omojuwa

If anything less than a life jail term happens to Evans, half the Nigerian population will become kidnappers by 2040, other half? Kidnapped!

Dr. Dipo @OgbeniDipo

Evans must die.

The Lagos State law says death to kidnappers.

The director of a unit within the Nigerian presidents office, Joe Abah, said that the reporting of Evanss crimes and lifestyle would have the effect of pushing people into crime, rather than deterring them.

Dr. Joe Abah @DrJoeAbah

#TodaysHypothesis: It is always rude to ask a woman if shes pregnant.

#TodaysHypothesis: The media glamourisation of the Evans story is more likely to encourage kidnapping and Dollar ransoms than to deter it.

There was even a short-lived #FreeEvans hashtag campaign in a misguided attempt to obtain the suspected criminals freedom. That did not last long with Nigerian Twitter.

Igala_Alan_Shore @i_am_Anomeli

If you collected money to trend #FreeEvans, may the fleas of 1000 camels attack your groin & may your hands be too short to reach & scratch.

King. @teddi_speaks

You wont be tweeting #freeevans if youve been a victim of kidnapping. Disgusting hash tag

For the time being, the fate of one of Nigerias most notorious criminals remains unclear: High-profile trials often take years in Nigeria, and Evans has reportedly promised to become an anti-kidnapping ambassador if he is granted a second chance. But one thing is clear: Nigerians have no time for nonsense on social media.
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja has adjourned to July 7, 2017 the trial of a cousin to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Azibaola Robert; his wife, Stella and their company, One Plus Holdings.

The judge adjourned the trial after a stunning revelation by the tenth prosecution witness, David Nkpe, on how One Plus shared to various companies the sum of $40 million received from the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA.

Azibaola and his co-accused allegedly diverted $40 million purportedly meant for supply of Tactical Communication kits for Special Forces which was transferred from the account of the ONSA with the Central Bank of Nigeria to the domiciliary account of their company, One Plus Holdings.

At the resumed sitting today, Nkpe told the court that analysis of documents relating to One Plus Holdings Nigeria Ltd, showed that the company received the sum of $40 million from ONSA.

According to him, investigation was extended to ONSA to ascertain the purpose for which the payment was made.

EFCC wrote to ONSA to avail them with documents regarding the payment mandate and the reply came, Nkpe said.

According to him, the payment for that particular mandate was for the Supply of Tactical Communication Kits for Special Forces.

He went on: We investigated the utilisation of the funds and discovered that the funds were transferred to other companies including Bureau de Change and some of the funds transferred offshore to countries like London and United Arab Emirates.

Asked if he could recall some of the beneficiaries, Nkpe said that, there were several of them, but I remember that $6.6 million was transferred to a company called Karahyna between October 2014 and April 2015, which was specifically done in eight tranches. I also recall that the sum of $1.5 million was transferred to Reya Telecommunication which is a company under One Plus Holdings group.

He added that, Another sum of $1.493million was transferred to Kakatar El Ltd which is also a company under One Plus Holdings; a sum of $2 million was transferred to Capitafield Investment Ltd and another $330,000 transferred to a company called Teledom.

The PW10 told the court that investigation did not find any tactical communication kits procured from that fund. Most of the companies that received the money did not supply any goods, he said.

The witness said that the analysis carried out on the account of the third defendant (One Plus Holdings) on September 9, 2014 showed that the $40m was the only major inflow into the account and from the time of that receipt, all the transactions in the account were outflows, which is the distribution of the said $40m.

He said the credit balance in the account before the transaction was $17,277.50.

Thereafter, documents were presented and admitted as exhibits including: petition from the ONSA to EFCC as exhibit ASO 16 (1&2), Search warrant dated March 23, 2016; two power of attorney as exhibit ASO 18a &18b; Deed of Assignment as exhibit ASO 19a, 19b, 19c; transfer mandate from One Plus Holdings to Zenith Bank as ASO 20 (1-39); the two statement of the first defendant dated March 23 & 24, 2016 marked as exhibit ASO 21a & ASO 21b

Justice Dimgba, thereafter, adjourned for cross-examination of the prosecution witness.

Source: (PM News )
The Nigeria Senate has asked Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Mr.Babatunde Fashola (SAN), to stop spreading wrong information and half-truth on the slashing of the vote to Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in the 2017 budget.

A statement on Saturday by Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said the legislators worked to ensure equity across the country on all new and outstanding projects.

The Senate stated that Fashola failed to give members of the public full details about the expressway, which had been under a private finance initiative from the beginning.

It alleged that the minister would have preferred an arrangement that allowed his ministry to continue to award contracts and fund the project through government budgetary allocation at a time when the nations revenue was dwindling and at an all time low.

Even as of last year, the 2016 Appropriation Act voted N40bn for the project on the insistence of the Ministry and only N26bn was released.

If we had known, the rest of N14bn could have been allocated to other critical roads across the country, Abdullahi said.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Tanzanian President, John Magufuli has banned pregnant teenage girls from returning to school, either they eventually become mothers or not.

Magufuli disclosed this while addressing residents of Chalinze, Bagamoyo District in Dar es Salaam during his three-day-tour of Coast Region on Thursday.

According to him, the government funds set aside for education are meant for serious students, and not for pregnant girls.

He noted that the young mothers would be unable to focus while in class, adding that allowing them in class would encourage other girls to engage in sex.

After calculating some few mathematics shed be asking the teacher in the classroom let me go out and breastfeed my crying baby, BBC quoted the president as saying.

He said only girls at the university level are allowed to get pregnant without any penalties attached.
The Katsina State Government has given assurance that no fewer than two million children will be immunised during the next round of Immunisation Plus Days (IPDs).

Mr Abba Musa, the Assistant Health Educator, Katsina State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, made this known on Saturday in Katsina at a media focus group meeting.

Musa said that the exercise meant for children below five years, would be conducted between July 8 and July 11 across the state.

The health official said that the team of vaccinators would be going from house-to-house to administer the Oral Polio Vaccines (OPV) to the targeted children in all the 34 local government areas.

Musa said that the OPV was harmless, urging parents to present their children to the vaccinators for the vaccines.

He said that other team of vaccinators would be stationed in some places to immunise children against other child killer diseases.

The official listed the diseases to include measles, hepatitis, tetanus, tuberculosis and diphtheria.

Musa urged the media to intensify efforts toward enlightening the public on the dangers associated with rejecting the OPV.

The health educator said that the measure would also assist to reduce the cases of non-compliance in high risks areas of the state.

Source: ( PM News )
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, has urged Nigerians to embrace the virtues of tolerance, unity and cooperation regardless of their ethnic, religious or social status, saying that it was only in such atmosphere that the nation can make meaningful progress.

In the Governors Eid-el-Fitri message, signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Habib Aruna, said it is only by embracing peace, unity, and fairness that Nigerians can put the country back on its leadership pedestal, urging them to imbibe the tenets of love, tolerance, forgiveness, and brotherhood which the period of the holy month symbolizes.

According to him, Nigeria was in dire need of brotherly love and harmonious co-existence among her citizens above all other things as a means to overcome the numerous challenges threatening her fledgling unity, especially with the disturbing trend of hate speeches.

Governor Ambode added that in the last two years, despite the economic challenges, the nation has witnessed the appreciable level of development expressing optimism that more can be achieved if all hands are on deck.

Continuing, he said: As we celebrate this auspicious occasion, therefore, let us renew our faith in our nation and implore the Almighty God to restore to us those values that place high premium on human life, love for our country, love for our neighbour and sharing even as we ventilate our faith in the unity of our dear country and the possibility of her taking her proper place in the comity of nations.

Governor Ambode thanked Lagos residents for their continued harmonious and peaceful co-existence in the midst of diverse ethnic origin and religious affiliation.

With your demonstration of love for your neighbour and the willingness to serve, our State will continue to be a model of what patriotic Nigerians will want our dear country to be, he said.

Hence, Governor Ambode wished all Muslim brothers and sisters in the State a happy Eid-el-Fitri celebration.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Nigerian top detective, Abba Kyari, who masterminded billionaire kidnap kingpin, Evans arrest, alongside other resolved crimes in Nigeria, has slammed Nollywood actress, Kate Henshaw for criticizing the Nigerian Police.

Recall that before now, Kate Henshaw criticized Nigerian Police Officers for posing for photos with arrested Evans. Reacting to this, Kyari said Kate Henshaw must be out of her mind to criticize the Police.

Dailypost reports that he said;
AN OPEN LETTER TO Nnamdi Kanu ..BIAFRA A RESURGENCE OR ANTHER SELF CENTERED CALL

Nnamdi Kanu born in 1970, the same year the Nigeria civil war ended. Truth be told how much of the war relic did he see or experiencedyour guess is as good as mine. Many who witness the war and who are lucky to be alive now, has continually pray never to witness such war again.

In 1967, just seven years after we gain independence when the war broke out, Nigeria back then can still be describe as a nation still groping , our military institution were very much at its infancy, arms, ammunitions, ballistic missiles and other war fare weapons were still in its dark age compare to the 21st century where we now have nuclear weapons, radioactive weapons and several others, yet the irony of it was that even in 1967 when the war began and in 1970 when the war end, the carnage as a result of the war was massive.

The Nigerian Civil War, better known as the Biafran War, (6 July 1967  15 January 1970), was a war fought between the government of Nigeria and the secessionist state of Biafra. Biafra represented nationalist aspirations of the Igbo people, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the Northern-dominated federal government.

The conflict resulted from political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions which preceded Britains formal decolonization of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included a military coup, a counter-coup, and persecution of Igbo living in Northern Nigeria. Control over oil production in the Niger Delta played a vital strategic role.

Within a year, the Federal Military Government surrounded Biafra, capturing coastal oil facilities and the city of Port Harcourt. The blockade imposed during the ensuing stalemate led to severe famineaccomplished deliberately as a war strategy.

Over the two and half years of the war, there were about 100,000 overall military casualties, while between 500,000 and 2 million Biafran civilians died from starvation. .

Over a million were homeless, those who made it alive battle with one deformity or the other, is it the several rape, or the loss of a vital part of the body or famine in the land particularly in the eastern part of the country. Imagine if the war was to commenced today, imagine its impact, the implication from an economic or financial point of view to the human point of view, is better imagine than told given modern warfare compare to the like of 1967.

No one recall any of the then war lord, Sir Odumegwu Ojukwu or that of his lieutant Philip Effiong.losing their ward, children or any of their family member in the pogrom and massacre of their fellow ibos , as their wards were ferry out of the country before the war. Nigerians lost so much in terms of human, resources and the ill effect that the war brought upon us as a nation.

Once upon a time, The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) a secessionist movement in Nigeria, associated with Igbo nationalism, which supports the recreation of an independent state of Biafra, led by an Indian-trained lawyer Ralph Uwazuruike, with headquarters in Okwe, in the Okigwe district of Imo State came up calling for the liberation of the ibo/igbo people calling for an IBO nation, today the likes of Ralph Uwazuruike have gone like a candle in the wind, extinguish beyond recognition, not by federal might but rather because his ideas do not conform with realities of time.

We have had of rumours of war, of war and wars, the Somalia war the DR Congo war, the Gulf war, Cuban revolution, Vietnam war, Kosovo war, bay of pigs invasion, but in all cases unwarranted death, destruction to live and properties were the tell-tale signs, no one live to tell a good story of war and no one will live to say it..always negative.

Nwannekaenyi Nnamdi Kenny Okwu Kanu a British-Nigerian political activist is a leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), today is a leading light in the campaign for a Biafra nation and in recent times says the November 18 governorship election in Anambra state will not hold unless the federal government conducts a referendum on Biafra.

He threatened that members of his group might also boycott the 2019 general election in Biafra land should the government refused to heed to the call for referendum, he said Biafrans were ready to go to prison if the federal government did not grant their request of having a republic.

Today the results are not farfetched, the Arewa youth has made her own pronunciation that the Ibo should live the Northern region, the Niger Delta has asked the Hausa/Fulani to live or face the consequences, something very similar to what happen in 1966 leading to the civil war we experienced as a nation.

Or is Nnamdi looking for cheap popularity, because today, I am sure his name is on google search engine, Wikipedia etc. Or is he just another Nigeria begging for attention and use his ibo men to rise to prominent.

Otherwise agitations comes in various forms, self-governance should start with self-righteousness, we have Ibo men as governors in all of the eastern region, yet I cannot as an average Nigeria point to one major achievement of this governors, Senators, Federal Rep member, state assemblies etc. It is still an everyday life of personal enrichment, poverty in the land, erosion is gradually taken over the eastern part of Nigeria, bad road, no good hospitals, poor infrastructure, the state of the school is appalling, education is not free, the land smell of rots.

One would have expect that for KANU charity should begin at home, called a referendum, bring your people together, show them how the ibo should live collectively, start a message, a message of hope, a message of unity a message of togetherness in that way, you can win a war against the oppress ibo man, the armed and pen robbers, the kidnappers and above all to win the most important of them all, making your leaders a call to service, a call to serve the interest of the ibo land.

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa, but certainly not in the world, take a look at China, a look at India, a look at USA, very diverse, multi religious, multi race yet in their diversity lies their common strength, in brotherhood they stand and brotherhood has kept them collectively together.

Kanu, in my opinion the enemy of Ndigbo is Ndigbo itself. Recall Jonathan regime, how many minister do we have from the South South and South East, choice position, what do they do, they were busy looting our common wealth, diverting billions of naira into their accounts home and abroad, today someone is calling for a Biafra nation. Who is to blame? Who is marginalizing the igbos? If you Kanu becomes Nigeria president tomorrow, will there be any difference I am sure your own people will be further marginalized.

I have a different opinion though, I have followed you for a while, your press conference, the interview sessions and I am not convinced that your agenda is truly for a Biafra interest. Otherwise you wont make a clarion call asking your own people not to exercise their right to vote or be voted for, you can go about this in a different way altogether, we saw the one day sit at home and it was a huge success, but how sustainable is it, given that your people must eat, must buy and sell and must go to schools

If you are sincere, call your people together first, the young and the old, here what they collectively want, seek the opinions of the traditional ruler in your kingdom, seek the opinion of the elites, the scholars, the artisans the market women, seek opinion from all works of life, let your own people decide what they want for themselves and not from your selfish point that can plunge this nation into another civil war, wanton destruction of life and properties. Never again must we allow this to ever happen again, if Nigeria will break, it will be a collective decisions by all regions in this country and of course we are sure that this country will not break, it will go forward and make progress in the committee of nations.

God bless our country Nigeria..and all its inhabitant.

Ogbeide Osa Kennedy

Writes from Lagos Nigeria.
The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers of Nigeria (NUPENG) has suspended its strike just after 48 hours after it embarked on the strike.

The strike was suspended on Friday and it was declared that there will be no scarcity of petroleum products in Rivers State as the union will continue to discharge its responsibility of supplying products.

The Rivers State Government also promised to reconstruct the damaged portion of the East West road, stretching from Eleme Junction to Refinery Junction, in conjunction with Indorama Plc.

The government will also reconstruct the Port Harcourt-Aba Federal Road, along the Oyigbo axis

Addressing journalists on Friday after meeting with the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike at the Government House, Port Harcourt, National Industrial Relations Officer of NUPENG, Comrade Bassey Harry declared that having met the governor, the union will cooperate with the administration as following its promise to fix the two Federal roads.

Following the agreement with Governor Wike, NUPENG will use its platforms to supply products to all local government areas of the state.

NUPENG commended Governor Wike for the initial reconstruction of the East West Road, which was a death trap at the time he assumed duty as the governor of the state.

He said: We understand the effort of the governor. We took into consideration the fact that the area we are mentioning today was like a death trap. But within six months in office, 80 percent of the road was fixed by him.

With him, that road as promised will be fixed as soon as possible. We are prepared to cooperate with him to see how that road will be fixed . There will be no fuel scarcity. We will manage the situation. The trucks will ply the roads as we know how to go about it.

The National Industrial Relations Officer added: We have given him our word that we will manage the situation to ensure that there will be no fuel scarcity. So people should not go for panic buying. People should not store fuel in their houses.

Governor Wike who said he had been fixing federal roads in the past expressed his commitment to the growth of the states economy.

Source: ( PM News )
According to our source, a rather scorned girlfriend felt the need to publicly call out her ex-boyfriend. Nah.. She didnt do it on Social Media.

She decided to put up his picture, printed, photocopied lots of copies and pasted around the institution.

It reads:

BEWARE:

OBED ILIYA BALA JATAU

AKA SEE THIS BITCH O, AKA EVERYWHERE GOOD

KASU/15/***/**** BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT

FROM PLATEAU STATE, 090284****

PROFESSOR OF FAKE LOVE, SELF-CENTERED, DECEIVER, LIAR, CHEATER, DREAMS KILLER, HEART BREAKER, TWAT KNACKER, KPANSHER, OPENER, GOLD-DIGGER, SUGAR BOY, HOME BREAKER, DOG, BROKE ASS AND MOST OF ALL F*CK BOY

Source: Naijaloaded
Aides of President Muhammadu Buhari, confirmed last night said the ailing Nigerian leader might head home within a week, subject to clearance by his doctors.

In an interview on condition of anonymity, one of the two sources also claimed that some of the presidents latest health symptoms revealed in our recent reports arose as adverse reactions to drugs prescribed for President Buhari since he arrived in the UK. The symptoms include memory loss and speech impairment.

Mr. President [Buhari] is getting better and wanting to return to Nigeria very soon, one of the two sources said. Despite our correspondents pressure, the source declined to disclose any specific date for Mr. Buharis return, saying the matter totally depends on his doctors.

There were earlier speculations that President Buhari would return to Nigeria by today, but our two sources said they were not sure about the source of such speculations.

Asked why the President had not spoken to his vice or revealed the true nature of his sickness to Nigerians, despite his avowed transparency and honesty, one of the sources told SaharaReporters, Sickness is not a matter you just start broadcasting to everybody. Remember that Mr. President, after his return to Nigeria in March, told Nigerians that he had never been so sick in his life. I think that statement has already disclosed enough about his health.

The latest claims by the presidential sources that Mr. Buhari was on the cusp of returning to Nigeria seem triggered by our latest report that the chronically sick leader had suffered speech impairment and a worsening of memory loss in the course of his medical treatment in London.

One of the Presidency sources said he was in no position to discuss the specifics of Mr. Buharis treatment, but disclosed that part of the presidents treatment had led to some side effects. Asked if the side effects included speech problems memory loss, the source obliquely acknowledged those side effects. However, he claimed that the issues [side effects] are temporary. They occurred after the medical team administered a particular medication on Mr. President.

The same source revealed that President Buhari had been receiving blood transfusions to help improve his health.

President Buhari left Nigeria for the UK some 47 days ago to continue medical treatment for an undisclosed ailment believed to be cancer. Since arriving in London, Mr. Buhari has not been seen in public, but has been ensconced in the Nigerian Presidential Guest House in London known as Abuja House.

The President has hardly spoken to his vice, now acting President Yemi Osinbajo, since he left. The lone exception was two weeks ago when the gravely sick president held a short-lived telephone conversation with Mr. Osinbajo. Mr. Buhari spoke with such incoherence that the conversation had to be ended abruptly.

This year alone, President Buhari has spent more than 100 days outside of Nigeria on account of his failing health. There remain major concerns that Buhari would remain frail as he suffers from age-related infirmities in addition to the chronic health condition that took him to London. Officially 74 years old, the president is believed by some to be much older.

Even if President Buhari returns to Abuja within a week as claimed by some of his aides, including the ones we interviewed, it is almost certain that he would soon need to return to the United Kingdom to continue treatment.

An opposition politician told SaharaReporters that members of a cabal close to the ailing President have renewed their plan to return him to Nigeria to assume office after his current prolonged absence.

Some members of that cabal were last week in Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj. The opposition politician, who asked for anonymity, said the group used the lesser hajj as a cover to hold clandestine meetings with Senate President Bukola Saraki as part of their design to control power. He identified Issa Funtua, an in-law of the President, as the leader of the cabal in Saudi Arabia.

Source: ( PM News )
President Muhammadu Buharis peace initiatives has been supported by Ex-militant leaders of phases 2 and 3 had resolved in Port Harcourt, Rivers.

This decision followed a crucial meeting between Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh (Retd) and the ex-militant leaders.

According to a statement signed by Ms Stella Inametti, Media and Communication Dept, PAP, on Saturday in Abuja, the meeting is aimed at peace building and conflict resolution among the groups and the Amnesty office.

The statement quoted Boroh also the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, as saying it is imperative for the leaders to meet regularly with officials of the Amnesty Programme.

To share ideas, make observations and proffer solutions that will bring about peace, infrastructural change and human capital development of thousands of the youth captured in the PAP.

He emphasised that conflict and violence were no resolutions to crisis.

He tasked the leaders to constantly remind the ex-agitators in their camps not to breach the peace in the country.

The presidential aide noted that they should ensure that the non-violence agreement signed at Obubra that led to the declaration of Amnesty in 2009 was upheld.

Boroh urged the leaders to use all channels of dialogue in solving problems to allow governments developmental projects like the rail construction, modular refineries and the community pipeline surveillance to take off.

He said that it would be of benefits to the people and create massive job employment opportunity for the youth of the region.

The Presidential aide called on the people of the region and Nigerians to take ownership of President Buharis peace and development initiatives for the region.

Also, the Special Assistant to the President on Economic Council, Mr Donald Wokoma, said the Amnesty office is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring peace and stability in the region in collaboration with other agencies.

Wokoma advised the ex-agitators to take advantage of opportunities made available by government to develop themselves and stop unfounded petitioning of appointees.

The Amnesty Offices Head of Data Management Major Bernard Ochoche (Retd) and Head, Post Training and Engagement, Major Abdul Mati (Retd) had in separate speeches addressed issues of late payment of stipends to ex-agitators arising from delay in budget passage.

The Amnesty office has reached out to the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NABDA) to engage 3,200 beneficiaries, trained in oil and gas related fields.

Source: ( PM News )
Two aides of President Muhammadu Buhari last night said the ailing Nigerian leader might head home within a week, subject to clearance by his doctors.

In an interview on the condition of anonymity, one of the two sources also claimed that some of the presidents latest health symptoms revealed in recent reports arose as adverse reactions to drugs prescribed for Mr. Buhari since he arrived in the UK. The symptoms include memory loss and speech impairment.

Mr. President [Buhari] is getting better and wanting to return to Nigeria very soon, one of the two sources said. Despite a correspondents pressure, the source declined to disclose any specific date for Mr. Buharis return, saying the matter totally depends on his doctors.

There were earlier speculations that President Buhari would return to Nigeria by today, but the two sources said they were not sure about the source of such speculations.

Asked why the President had not spoken to his vice or revealed the true nature of his sickness to Nigerians, despite his avowed transparency and honesty, one of the sources told SaharaReporters, Sickness is not a matter you just start broadcasting to everybody. Remember that Mr. President, after his return to Nigeria in March, told Nigerians that he had never been so sick in his life. I think that statement has already disclosed enough about his health.

The latest claims by the presidential sources that Mr. Buhari was on the cusp of returning to Nigeria seem triggered by our latest report that the chronically sick leader had suffered speech impairment and a worsening of memory loss in the course of his medical treatment in London.

One of the Presidency sources said he was in no position to discuss the specifics of Mr. Buharis treatment, but disclosed that part of the presidents treatment had led to some side effects. Asked if the side effects included speech problems memory loss, the source obliquely acknowledged those side effects. However, he claimed that the issues [side effects] are temporary. They occurred after the medical team administered a particular medication on Mr. President.

The same source revealed that President Buhari had been receiving blood transfusions to help improve his health.

Mr. Buhari left Nigeria for the UK some 47 days ago to continue medical treatment for an undisclosed ailment believed to be cancer. Since arriving in London, Mr. Buhari has not been seen in public, but has been ensconced in the Nigerian Presidential Guest House in London known as Abuja House. The President has hardly spoken to his vice, now acting President Yemi Osinbajo, since he left. The lone exception was two weeks ago when the gravely sick president held a short-lived telephone conversation with Mr. Osinbajo. Mr. Buhari spoke with such incoherence that the conversation had to be ended abruptly.

This year alone, President Buhari has spent more than 100 days outside of Nigeria on account of his failing health. There remain major concerns that Mr. Buhari would remain frail as he suffers from age-related infirmities in addition to the chronic health condition that took him to London. Officially 74 years old, the president is believed by some to be much older.

Even if President Buhari returns to Abuja within a week as claimed by some of his aides, including the ones we interviewed, it is almost certain that he would soon need to return to the United Kingdom to continue treatment.

An opposition politician told SaharaReporters that members of a cabal close to the ailing President have renewed their plan to return him to Nigeria to assume office after his current prolonged absence.

Some members of that cabal were last week in Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj. The opposition politician, who asked for anonymity, said the group used the lesser hajj as a cover to hold clandestine meetings with Senate President Bukola Saraki as part of their design to control power. He identified Issa Funtua, an in-law of the President, as the leader of the cabal in Saudi Arabia.
Popular Nigerian comedian, Ali Baba, has spoken out about the recent calls for the release of the arrested kidnapper, Evans.

Ali Baba, Nigerias ace comedian and entrepreneur, has condemned calls for release of kidnap kingpin, Chikwudubem Onwuamadike, aka, Evans.

He said it was unbelievable that people were being emotional for Evans, who made lives of many innocent people and their families miserable.

In the post he shared on Instagram, Ali Baba also spoke on some issues facing the nation.

Ali Baba wrote: I said it before, that we got here, where our country now stagnates, as a consequence of what we failed to do, what we allowed and a combination of all we did individually and collectively.

But most assuredly, as a result of letting evils in our society go unpunished. Someone goes into government, owning only a bungalow, comes out after a term in office with several properties, serious balances in their domiciliary accounts, several cars yet there is no way, that officials salaries and allowances can fund all those. And when questions are asked, its witch hunting.

How much was your paid tax since you are the owner of all these wealth indicators? How did you make the money? Can you imagine some idiots are asking that a confessed kidnapper be freed?

We are not talking petty thieves, who steal food to feed his family. Someone who caused families pain. Made the lives of their victims hell. And even got some killed. How do you people sleep at night?

I have a friend, a commissioner in Ogun State, whose father-in-law was kidnapped, the ransom was demanded and paid. Yet, over 5 or 6 years on, the body of the man has not been found. Did you see the robbers in the Zenith bank video that went viral? How can you listen to such heartless criminals and say its ok to forgive.

How would the family of the police officer take it? Now you know why corruption is fighting back. All those who have survived through lawlessness and illicit businesses are the ones fighting back on behalf of corruption. Same goes for so-called unknown soldiers.

There is a disagreement, next thing a bunch of soldiers will hop on a vehicle raze down a police station, burn down a BRT bus, shoot and maim And this happens every now and then. Yet no heads roll. Thats why they will do it again. Herdsmen enter someones farmland. Trample on planted crops, an on going business concern. Even schools. No consequences.

A legislator opens a colleagues head with a mace. No punishment. Someone kidnaps a sitting governor and brags about it. Nothing happens to him. You embezzle pensions of elders who served Nigeria. And walk free. You burst pipelines. And get Amnesty of 1.3m monthly. What do I know

Source: Naijaloaded
EU leaders are not convinced her proposals are adequate, saying many questions remain. "We won't be seeing families split apart," May said before the start of Friday's meeting. She said she wanted similar reassurances for British citizens living in EU countries.

May has offered to allow an estimated 3 million EU citizens living in the United Kingdom to remain in Britain post-Brexit. Speaking Friday in Brussels on the second day of an EU summit, May said the government "will set out more detailed proposals on Monday."

British Prime Minister Theresa May says the offer she has made on the rights of European Union citizens living in Britain after Britain leaves the EU is "very fair" and "very serious."

 Be Pragmatic

On Thursday, the president of the European Parliament said Europe needs to be pragmatic in dealing with Britain following the country's decision to leave the bloc, but urged cooperation in future dealings.

"The UK will leave the European Union not Europe. This is important to pave the way also for good relations after the separation," Antonio Tajani, the EU Parliament's president said.

EU leaders opened a two-day summit Thursday in Brussels to address everything from Britain's planned exit, terrorism, migration and other issues facing Europe. European Union chief Donald Tusk said the remaining 27 EU nations are ready to choose new locations for the Europe-wide agencies currently headquartered in Britain.

 Refugees

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to work with Germany to relaunch the European project as member-states argued over how to manage refugees after Britain leaves the union.

"Europe is not, to my mind, just an idea. It's a project, an ambition," he said, noting that France is working "hand-in-hand" with Germany to implement the refugee resettlement plan.

Tajani, in his opening remarks, called it "vital" that Europe devise a solution to the current migration crisis affecting Europe. He said Europe needs to do more to stem the tide of migrants traveling to Europe from sub-Saharan Africa through Libya.

"So we've got to strengthen the stability of Libya and help this country as the prime minister asked yesterday, but also act in Sub-Saharan Africa," he said.
Detectives attached to the Abia State Police Command have arrested a 23-year-old man for allegedly robbing a filling station in the state, NewTelegraph reported.

He begged that he will become a pastor if he is forgiven. The suspect identified as Eziaha Joshua, from Ukwa West Local Government Area, confessed that he and his gang members attacked and robbed the filling station located at Obehie in Ukwa West Local Government Area, carting away N86,000, which was realised from the days sales.

Joshua, who introduced himself as the gang leader, said that he got N35,000 as his share of the loot. He explained that the motorcyclist, who took them to the scene of the crime, smiled home with N18,000. He noted that the third suspect, who is still on the run, got N27,000.

Narrating how he and his gang members carried out the robbery operation, Joshua explained that his friend, Onyempa, sold the idea of robbing the filling station to him and he bought it.

He said:

Onyempa told me that he had a short gun and a knife, which he and others used in disarming people going to their offices in the morning before robbing them of their valuables. Onyempa asked me to arrange for a motorcyclist, who would take us to the filling station. I contacted a commercial motorcyclist, who I had known for long. I told the cyclist about the operation and he agreed to join. I then rehearsed the operation with him.

On the fateful day of the operation, the gang got to the filling station about 7.30 p.m. This was the time given to them to arrive at the scene by Onyempa.

Onyempa also told them that he wouldnt join them at the filling station because the manager and some of the attendants knew him.

The plan was for Onyempa to wait at the point where the motorbike was parked among flower hedge until after the operation. It was a successful operation.

The gang robbed the filling station and disappeared into the darkness. However, luck ran out on them when the manager reported the matter to the police. The manager also remembered the type of perfume one of the armed robbers sprayed on the day the gang stormed the filling station.

It was the perfume that exposed Joshua and led to his eventual arrest.

A police source said:

The suspect lives in that community. He also used to work as a tiller in that community. The perfume was not a common one. One day, the suspect and the manager walked past each other. The manager smelt the perfume fragrance on Joshua and started suspecting him. He reported to the police. The rest, as they used to say, is history. We followed up on the managers complaint and observation. We picked Joshua, during interrogation, he confessed.

While in police custody, Joshua told the police that the filling station robbery was not his first operation.

He said:

I regret my action. I promise to repent and enrol in a Bible school and become a pastor if Im pardoned. Before I started robbing, I was a tiller. I also play music at events.

The cyclist, who gave his name as Chibuike, said he was a software engineer, but got involved in robbery because it sounded attractive. He, however, confessed that he actually did the operation, but added that it was a mistake.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Leye Oyebade, said that the gang was arrested on June 13, following a tip-off. The police boss said that the gang robbed the filling station on May 19.

He said:

They were arrested by operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) attached to Obehie Police Station. This was as a result of the follow up to the arrest of Joshua and a member of the three-man gang. The two suspects, who are members of a three-man gang, confessed to have robbed Ezeudu Chinasa of Benvick Filling Station, of her Intel phone valued N180,000, a wristwatch and a bag containing a Holy Bible.

Oyebade added that the gang members were armed with a locally-made pistol, kitchen knife and rode on a motorcycle. He said the Intel phone had been recovered, while policemen are already on the trail of the third suspect.

Oyebade urged members of the public to assist police with information, in order to reduce crime in the state. This was even as he promised Nigerians who assist police with information of absolute confidentiality.

According to Oyebade, in keeping with the avowed commitment to a crime-free state, the police in the state was collaborating with banks and private school proprietors.

The commissioner observed that with the recent arrest of suspected kidnap kingpin, Chukwumeme Onwuamadike aka Evans, kidnapping would no longer be attractive. He noted that the command would follow the recent achievement of the police, with proactive policing in Abia State.

He added: We will continue to do our best and with the collaboration of sister security agencies in the state. We will intensify land patrol and air/helicopter surveillance.

Source: Yabaleftonline
In the spirit of Eid-el-Fitr celebrations, eighteen rams and five cows have been donated to the inmates of a Nigerian prison.

Jigawa Government has donated 18 rams and five cows to the state command of Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS) for distribution to inmates in the state for Eid-el-Fitr celebration.

The NPS Spokesman in the state, Mr Adam Muhammad, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse on Saturday that the animals were distributed among the 11 prisons in the state.

He added that the government also donated two cows and four rams to officers and men of the command.

He commended the Jigawa Government for the kind gesture.

According to him, it will enable the inmates and officials to celebrate the forthcoming Sallah happily.
Earlier this week, we reported that Alterplate Boss, Harrysong welcomed twins with his Abuja based baby mama and businesswoman, in Beverly Hills, California, United States.

The twins, boy and a girl, have been christened Perez and the girls name is Tarela, coined from Harrysongs own name Tare.

It was also gathered that Harrysong is excited about this new development because it is coming at a time when he is gearing up to release his new album titled Double.

Here are their photos below;
The United States Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria on Friday said it had granted N2.9m to 50 women caregivers to support children orphaned by victims of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

The beneficiaries were selected from five communities in the Apapa Local Government Area of Lagos State, a statement said.

The statement added that the US-Nigeria partnership on HIV/AIDS began in 2004 through the US Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and that between 2004 and 2016, the US support for HIV prevention, care, treatment, and support programmes in Nigeria had totalled over $4.3bn.

In its latest donation under the PEPFAR Small Grants Programme, the US said a non-governmental organisation, Blissful Life for Women and Children, would provide training to the beneficiaries in the areas of business and vocational skills and trade mentorship, and would receive trade articles and supplies.

According to the statement, the Acting US Consul General Will Steuer said, The people and government of the United States continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with Nigeria and Nigerian families in the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Todays event highlights the importance of supporting families, especially children who are affected by HIV/AIDS through programmes that not only support treatment for the infected, but also to improve the socio-economic wellbeing of families affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, as the PEPFAR Small Grants Programme seeks to do.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Cork tech firm Azotel has teamed up with wireless internet service provider Eurona Ireland to provide high-speed wireless broadband connectivity for residents in Longford, Cavan, Roscommon, and Leitrim.

The connection comes as the Government ploughs ahead with the National Broadband Plan, a policy which aims to deliver high-speed broadband to every citizen and business in Ireland. It aims to achieve 100% coverage in three to five years of the start of large-scale rollout.
Hopes have been raised that Kerry South TD Brendan Griffin will tackle the issues arising from dwindling numbers from Irish tourisms biggest visitor bloc, the UK.

Mr Griffin was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism, and Sport in Taoiseach Leo Varadkars reshuffle.

While Mr Griffins predecessor, Limerick TD Patrick ODonovan, was highly regarded among tourism lobby groups, it is hoped that because Mr Griffins constituency is so dependent on tourism, he may up the ante when it comes to tackling the industrys current Brexit headaches.

Mr Griffin is a former member of Kerry County Council where he represented Dingle, one of the countrys most popular tourist areas.

The number of visitors from the UK has dropped significantly since the Brexit vote in June last year and with the pound falling ever since, it means less spending money for visitors if they chose to visit Ireland.

The number of visitors from Britain dropped by more than 10%, to 866,000, between February and April this year compared to the same three months in 2016, according to CSO figures.

Failte Irelands tourism barometer has found counties in the north and west of the country were particularly badly hit by falling numbers.

According to Failte Ireland, Britain represents 41% of all visits from overseas.

The next biggest source market is mainland Europe, which accounts for 36% of international volume.

Some 17% of overseas tourists come from North America. The balance comes from other long-haul markets.

Irish Tourism Industry Confederation chief executive Eoghan OMara Walsh said Mr Griffins appointment was a welcome one but warned he was taking on a difficult brief.

All our Brexit concerns are being realised. We will strongly reiterate the call for support for the tourism industry through a 12m package that is needed to consolidate the market share, help business diversify into different markets, and offer supports to businesses to get through this turbulent period, he said.

Tourism is one of the very few industries that can provide jobs in every county.

The Irish Hotels Federation said it welcomed the appointment of Mr Griffin, stating that he will play an important role within the department in ensuring that national policies are focused on supporting and developing the industry, the countrys largest indigenous employer.

Federation president Joe Dolan said the appointment comes at a pivotal time for the tourism sector, with Brexit beginning to bite.

He said: The recent strong recovery in Irish tourism has been supported by a range of targeted Government measures that have been enormously positive for our industry.

In the last six years we have created over 50,000 jobs with the tourism industry as a whole now supporting approximately 230,000 jobs.

We look forward to working closely with Minister Griffin to build on that progress and to facing the very real challenge that Brexit is posing to our industry.
Christopher Twohig, of Banteer West, Co Cork, was sentenced to one year for the first sexual assault at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday and a concurrent four years for the second crime with the last year suspended.

Judge Sean O Donnabhain said any one these crimes merited a jail term but he said it was very troubling that there were two such crimes that were very similar in nature, one in 2011 and the other in 2014.

The first sexual assault was committed between August and October 2011 when the injured party was 15 and the accused was aged between 18 and 19.

She was visiting a house and decided to stay the night. She fell asleep on the couch with her legs in front of her on a coffee table. The defendant, whom she knew, was sitting beside her watching television when she fell asleep.

At around 5am, she woke to find the accused interfering with her. She froze and pretended she was still asleep as she did not know what to do.

Her legs were at this time across his lap. Over a period of about 15 minutes as she pretended to sleep he fondled her breasts and put his fingers inside her vagina.

Around Christmastime in 2014, the second victim was staying in a house were a number of friends were staying. She went to bed alone and woke to find Twohig lying behind her with his fingers in her vagina.

Twohig pleaded guilty to both sexual assaults. He had no previous convictions. Donal OSullivan, defending, said Twohig was educated to third level and had hoped to work in childcare but that this career was now denied to him because he would not get through Garda vetting for such work.

The victim of the 2014 assault did not wish to make a victim impact statement. The victim of the 2011 assault did give evidence yesterday.

Those 20 minutes made my life shatter because I almost disconnect myself from that 15-year-old girl, she said. When I think back at what happened I cant help but feel sorry for that 15-year-old. I put all the blame on myself and carried it with me for many years.

He saw me as dirt and used me for his own benefit. This challenged my relationship with my family and every other relationship I ever had.

I struggled in college and school. I didnt think I was worth enough to do as well in life as everyone else. I was damaged and just something for people to use.

I have been bullied and shamed for speaking up.

The victim thanked her family, gardai, and Support After Crime Services.

The accused cried during yesterdays sentencing hearing. He got into the witness box to apologise to the two young women he sexually assaulted.

I am extremely sorry. For what they have had to go through over the last few years I am extremely sorry, he said yesterday.

Mr OSullivan said the defendant came from a well-respected family who were devastated by this. He said the defendant and been getting help for his difficulties and was also dealing with an alcohol problem.
The security threat facing the 18-strong deployment, part of a UN-authorised EU military training mission, EUTM Mali, has worsened after a terror attack last Sunday on a hotel in which five people were killed, including a Portuguese solider attached to the EU mission.

Two Irish soldiers were in the Le Campement Hotel at the time, but were unharmed, in an attack that the government of Mali has reportedly blamed on jihadist terrorists.

Lt Col Bernard Markey, who returned from a six-month tour of Mali last March, said the security situation in the country is difficult. He told the Irish Examiner:

The problem in Mali is that it is entirely unpredictable where or when an attack will happen and who is behind it  a militant group, an ideological group or a purely criminal group.

Lt Col Markey is an experienced hand at overseas missions, with 16 tours to date, including four in Africa: Rwanda in 1994, just after the genocide; Darfur, Sudan in 2004-2005 (two tours) and Mali: Im not new to Africa, which can be a little intimidating if you are not familiar with the environment.

The average temperature in Mali is 51C.

I would call it a robust mission. The facilities are basic, its extremely hot, the conditions are rural, very isolated, and basic military food. Its a tough six-month slog.

On top of that is the general hostile security situation: Where we go, we go in armoured convoys with maximum security protocols. No soldier moves unescorted from camp. There is no question of people going into an unknown or unsecured area.

EUTM Mali was established in 2013 on the request of the Malian government to train the Malian Armed Forces, build their capacity and help secure the countrys territorial integrity.

We have come in to try and assist in training their army and improve the governments capability to resist the growing number of vicious militias around the country. We also train them in humanitarian law and to have a responsible approach to unarmed civilians and minors, said Lt Col Markey.

Of the 18 personnel from the Defence Forces, 11 are trainers in the sprawling Koulikoro Training Centre north of the capital Bamako, where the remaining seven serve in the mission headquarters.

The military trainers teach them infantry skills, such as tactics, being a platoon commander, how to handle weapons and how to co-ordinate with other units, said Lt Col Markey.

However, he emphasised: We are not training people to act in an uninhibited manner. We teach them the concepts of proportionality and restraint.

He said Africa is full of stories of atrocities by military and militia and that he saw this first hand in Darfur, which he said was the most difficult of tours he served.

EUTM Mali has trained an estimated 10,000 soldiers so far and Lieut Col Markey said the mission is a credit to the EU. He said the mission takes the safety of its members very seriously.

We are fully geared up and constantly exercising security drills and taking preventative measures. We have very strict medical protocols and have the golden hour rule  that you have to be off ground and in the field hospital within one hour.

He said Mali is huge. The southern part is the size of Spain and the northern part is the size of France: The country is enormous, the communication structure is negligible, there are few roads and no railways into the north and minimal electronic communication.

Lt Col Markey said the main threat to the country is in the north, where Malian forces are fighting a Tuareg liberation army as well as Islamist factions: You have unrest in the north and considerable drift across Mali by armed elements.

Its very difficult with many of the incidents to determine who is behind it, what the motivation is and what their capacity is.
U2 Agus An Arc, an Irish-language documentary, will be broadcast on RTE One next month, and will trace U2s development in the context of the thriving music scene on Leeside in the late 1970s and early 80s.

That scene was centred around the Arcadia Ballroom  a venue U2 played about nine times.

Being able to attract regular crowds of about 1,000 enthusiastic punters in Cork  more than in their hometown  meant the band would use the Arc as a showcase venue for visiting record labels and British journalists.

Famously, U2 recruited their sound engineer, Joe OHerlihy, and other Cork members of their long-serving road crew, while playing these gigs.

The new documentary is the work of Forefront, a production company based on Douglas Road in Cork.

Documentary director, Tony McCarthy, was a regular attendee at the bands gigs at the Arcadia, while his father Joe worked with RTE from the early days of television in Ireland, and was a cameraman at U2s famous secret gig at the Lee Fields in Cork in 1985.

It was a great time for music in Cork, and we wanted to tell that story, as well as showing U2s part in it. It was also a good opportunity to give recognition to Elvera Butler, who organised so many of those gigs, said Tony.

Ms Butler, who features in the documentary, was the Thurles woman who set up UCCs Downtown Kampus at the Arcadia, and had a major hand in nurturing the local scene, as well as bringing major acts to Cork.

Pic: David Corio

While no footage of U2 at the Arcadia exists, the documentary makers were able to use rarely-seen pictures from a number of local sources, as well as from famed British music photographer David Corio.

The NME music paper had sent Corio to Cork for a piece by Paul Morley, who also contributes to the film.

Among the footage that is included in the documentary is of U2s Lark by the Lee gig in 1985.

That was organised by Joe OHerlihy and the band partly to say thank you to Cork, Tony McCarthy said.

It was kept secret because they couldnt set up an official gig in the city at the time, and they didnt want too big a crowd showing up at this.

I knew about it because my dad was going to be filming at it.

U2 Agus An Arc will be broadcast on RTE One on July 20.
Newly promoted Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government Eoghan Murphy is also considering introducing an affordable rent scheme for professionals in Dublin City, mirroring a system operating in London.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner , Mr Murphy said every option was on the table to solve the housing crisis, including a big stick to force action on vacant sites and properties.

He admitted he was a little surprised to have been given the housing portfolio by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, but he had been advised by him that no idea was too radical or too big to discount.

One of his first priorities is to come up with a way to make the best use of the estimated 189,000 vacant housing units around the country.

He said he is still considering what measures he can bring in to address the crisis, but he is conscious that whatever budgetary changes he might bring in could have legal ramifications.

I am going to come up against property rights, but we do have a new attorney general, so I have to talk to him, as well, he said.

The Irish Examiner understands that property owners who have a second home or idle property may be offered enticements, such as grants or tax incentives, to modernise rooms or units. If these are ignored, penalties could be applied, under ideas being considered.

Mr Murphy said it is too early to provide any specifics about what measures he might introduce, but he promised radical action that may involve increased powers.

They will be bold interventions, they will be something that hasnt been tried before, so it might require new powers, but I think thats what we need, said Mr Murphy. Its going to be a carrot-and-stick approach and it is going to be a big stick.

There are sites, there are houses, there are stranded assets that arent even being used for housing that need to be used.

Housing is the challenge, the crisis of our time, and we are in it right now. We need to find what new powers we need to make sure we get the supply-side measures in place and we get these new vacant sites into play.

Earlier this week, economic think-tank the ESRI said the number of new builds required per year to meet basic demand has gone up from 25,000 to between 30,000 and 35,000, whereas only around 13,000 are actually being constructed.

It suggested some homes built during the recession were only being connected to the ESB grid now, which means official completion figures may be much lower.

The new minister has also come under fire after admitting that a pledge by predecessor Simon Coveney to end the use of hotels for housing the homeless by July 1 would not be met.

Mr Murphy also said he is examining how to make affordable rents more of an option for professionals working in cities, along the lines of a system in London.

Im in discussions with other parts of government on an affordable rent, to bring on-stream as quickly as possible cost rental models that either a council would manage or someone else would manage on behalf of the council, to make sure people can rent at an affordable rate, he said.

Councils could lease lands or build units and let them at market rates or with discounts, under plans being considered.

So instead [in Dublin] of being fleeced at 2,000, that might be paid today for a two-bedroomed anywhere near the city centre, you [the professional tenant] could find a more affordable rent value at a lower rate that would still be profitable, either to the council or the private investor, said Mr Murphy.
Hannah Comber, a 74-year-old patient with schizophrenia, was found dead at Heatherside Hospital, near Buttevant, on June 22, 2006.

Ms Comber died as a result of asphyxiation, occurring when she slipped in her sleep after being placed in a chair with a restraint belt.

A HSE report was carried out into the circumstances surrounding the death of Ms Comber, reportedly at a cost of up to 90,000.

In response to a request made under the Freedom of Information Act, the HSE refused to release this internal report, citing ongoing legal proceedings relating to the case.

A judgement was handed down in the High Court in January in legal proceedings taken by two individuals who were involved in the incident against the Nurses and Midwifery Board of Ireland.

The HSE refused to say whether it was aware of separate legal proceedings currently underway with a third party.

The HSE also refused to release the full report into Ms Combers death under the Freedom of Information Act as information gathered during the investigation was given in confidence.

In a statement, the HSE said: Unfortunately the HSE does not expect to be in a position to publish the report in full because the investigation was carried out under a process called trust in care.

Under that process, which has been agreed with staff representative bodies, those taking part are entitled to expect confidentiality.

We will shortly publish the report recommendations and its terms of reference, which is as much as is open to us to publish.
In the last budget, an extra 3m was secured to be specifically targeted to assist in the departments response to the evolving Brexit scenario.

It was to enable the agencies, including the IDA and Enterprise Ireland, to recruit some 40 to 50 additional staff to supplement existing staffing numbers.

The additional 3m was allocated to: Enterprise Ireland (1.7m); IDA Ireland (750,000); Science Foundation Ireland (150,000); the Health and Safety Authority (150,000), and the department itself (250,000).

In response to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fails Stephen Donnelly, Jobs Minister Frances Fitzgerald said 12 positions had been filled to date in Enterprise Ireland, with 19 more advertised and the recruitment process ongoing.

The remaining eight job specifications are being finalised with a view to advertising them in the immediate future, said Ms Fitzgerald.

Just three Brexit-related posts have been filled to date at IDA Ireland. Again, the department said the recruitment process for the remaining seven is ongoing. The minister said IDA will fill the remaining Brexit appointments at the earliest possible opportunity.

Additionally, IDA Ireland has sought a further 21 staff resources in order that it can meet the jobs and investment targets set out in its Strategy  Winning Foreign Direct Investment 2015-2019  and to meet the global challenges of 2017 and beyond, with Brexit key among the identified challenges, said Ms Fitzgerald.

In respect of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), the minister said the recruitment process to fill three Brexit-related posts was underway and successful candidates are expected to be in place in the coming months. She said a number of current SFI staff also have Brexit-related responsibilities.

The Health and Safety Authority hopes to commence the process of recruitment in July for two Brexit-related posts.
The omission has been heavily criticised by the outgoing Mayor of County Cork, Seamus McGrath, who is also seriously concerned that his local authority will lose so much revenue from the boundary extension it could become a non-viable entity.

In a submission to the Mackinnon expert advisory group, the county council suggested that both local authorities could run their own day-to-day services, but that reserved powers and functions would be assigned to the combined governing body for strategic policy.

Mr McGrath said fears have been raised in County Hall that without the presence of a governing body, the massively expanded city council would take control of all development, leaving some towns and villages in what remains of the county at a distinct disadvantage.

The Mackinnon report proposed Cork Airport, Ballincollig, Blarney, Glanmire, Little Island, and Carrigtwohill be ceded to the city.

It is expected that close to 80% of future development in Cork is likely to occur in the extended city boundary areas. In a letter to Eoghan Murphy, the minister forhousing and local government, Mr McGrath said a governing body would add significantly to overall governance and management of local government in Cork.

The county council told the Mackinnon report authors it is totally opposed to any situation that would result in an extension to the city boundary without the creation of this body, which it suggests calling the Cork Economic Development and Planning Board.

Rural Co Cork needs to be supported in such way as to guarantee that it too will benefit from the significant increased development and growth that is expected to take place in the revised city council area in the years ahead, said Mr McGrath.

He said he also has serious concerns about compensation being paid by the city for the loss of county council rates and local property tax revenue.

While the report allows for compensation in relation to lost income currently, it will not make provision for the loss of income from the substantial development into the future in the area that is to be transferred, he said.

Meanwhile, the Irish Examiner has learnt that the county council is carrying out an examination of the projected amount of money it may lose in the coming years if the boundary extension proceeds. It stands to lose 400m over the next 10 years. Its expected the council will compile a report showing the total loss of earning potential up to 2050.
University College Cork and NUI Galway have submitted complaints over its May 25 RTE Investigates programme, Universities Unchallenged.

The programme detailed a range of issues at various colleges, including severance packages at University Limerick to former managers and how it handled two whistleblowers allegations about expenses.

UCC corporate secretary Michael Farrell told the Dail Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this week that the university is not satisfied at how it was represented in the programme.

It featured details about the acquisition last November of the Irish Management Institute (IMI), in a deal that saw UCC pay 20m for the Dublin campus of the institute it took over.

A UCC spokeswoman declined to elaborate to the Irish Examiner on the details of its complaint, saying it awaits RTEs response under the complaints process.

It will be open to UCC to consider their response and to make a complaint to the Broadcasting Authority, if necessary, she said.

RTE News and Current Affairs said it endeavours to reply to all complaints within 20 working days, which will be July 7 in this instance.

It did not comment on the substance of the complaint or another received from NUIG, on which it says a response will issue by a deadline of next Tuesday.

RTE stands by its programme and refutes any breaching of broadcasting regulations, it said.

The programme reported that the Higher Education Authority instructed UCC by email last November not to proceed with the IMI acquisition, pending final checking of due diligence. As reported by the Irish Examiner last month, however, UCC had subsequent HEA approval before completing the deal.

It is understood that this information was given to RTE Investigates within the timeframe given to UCC to respond before broadcast.

However, RTE News and Current Affairs did not respond to this, saying the correspondence and complaints process are confidential at this point.
Whats new?

This is the new Honda Civic Type R  it has huge shoes to fill and marks a change in tactic by Honda.

You see, normally when a new Civic is built, the Type R team cant get started until the car is finished and on dealer forecourts, but this time the standard car and hot version have been built in tandem.

The last Civic Type R was made in pretty low numbers and had a reputation for being rapid and unforgiving. For this version, Honda wanted it to be more approachable, so the ride has been softened off and an extra comfort driving mode introduced alongside the standard sport and performance-focused +R.

Theres a whole host of new tech too, such as clever engine cooling, improved aerodynamics and revised suspension. And the fuel tank has been moved so you sit lower in the car than before, which is fantastic news.

Honda wants the Type R to go more mainstream. Seventy-five will be built every day at its Swindon plant, with 13,000 expected to be built for the world market over the next 12 months.

Looks and image

The Civic Type Rs styling is sure to divide opinion. The brutal, angular design of the standard car is amplified by the hot versions functional aerodynamics  the front splitter, vortex generators on the roof and that prominent rear wing are certainly eye-catching.

Inside, the dashboard design is fairly uninspiring and doesnt quite have the visual drama of the exterior. The plastics are fairly cheap but durable, while the surprisingly comfortable bucket seats add a welcome touch of sportiness.

Space and practicality

The latest Civic is longer and wider than ever before, and thanks to a repositioned fuel tank, one of the biggest complaints of its predecessor has been addressed  the driving position. Not only do you sit lower in the car, the increased wheelbase improves cabin space and furthers the Type Rs case as a practical performance car.

There are plenty of cubbyholes, with the centre console featuring two large, staggered spaces in which to store items. However, the USB and 12V adapter slots are impractically placed low down.

Behind the wheel

Under every objective measure, the new Civic Type R is better than the old one. In fact, its come on leaps and bounds, feeling much more grown up and serious about the job of going silly-fast.

However, its character has somewhat changed. The old model felt like it was straining at the leash even when pootling around town, but the new one is much more approachable even in the track-focused +R mode and is far less likely to be unsettled by bumps in the road.

Flick the drive mode selector to this sportiest setting and throttle response is improved, the steering becomes heavier a little too heavy at slow speeds  and the ride firms up.

On the road, the standard sport setting is enough, but +R mode transforms the Type R into a hyper-alert hot hatch and its hard to resist its sense of urgency.

On the track its ludicrously capable thanks also to the 10mm wider and stickier tyres, but it never feels intimidating.

This arguably makes it slightly less fun, but theres no doubt it covers ground much more quickly and with little fuss.

Value for money

The going rate for high-performance hot hatches is circa 40,000-45,000, and the Civic Type R starts at 48,000 with the hi-spec GT trim costing extra. This puts it in direct competition with the Ford Focus RS, which is hugely appealing thanks to a clever rear-biased all-wheel-drive system, subtler styling and 345bhp, though theres slightly less kit as standard.

Most impressive is the Honda Sensing safety system, which comes as standard. Radars, sensors and cameras work together to offer collision avoidance, road departure mitigation and adaptive cruise control to name but a few of its nifty features.

Opt for the pricier GT-spec model and youll get dual-zone climate control, a wireless charging pad, LED front foglights and more.

Who would buy one?

The hot hatch demographic is typically quite young, but the Type R in particular will appeal to an even younger audience because of its extrovert styling and general character.

The hot hatch has been hugely popular as a performance car that can be used every day  the old Type Rs harsh ride made it hard to justify in that regard, but this latest model could genuinely be used in day-to-day life with very little compromise.

AT A GLANCE

Model: Honda Civic Type R

Engine: 2.0-litre petrol

Power: 316bhp

Torque: 400Nm

Max speed: 169mph; 0-60mph: 5.5 seconds

MPG: 36.7mpg

Emissions: 176g/km
Fates simple randomness, its hand in how lives unfold is a mystery, but one with life-defining consequences for those who draw the short straw.

The people of East Africa, especially those in South Sudan, Somalia, north-east Nigeria and in the adjacent Arabian peninsula country of Yemen, have drawn more than their share of short straws and, tragically, they have done so again.

Just five years after famine took the lives of an estimated threequarters of a million people in South Sudan the country faces the greatest food crisis of recent decades. About 7.5m people, almost two thirds of the population, desperately need help immediately. In some parts of that country, one caught in the grip of drought, violence and deepening anarchy, half the population is malnourished. An appeal by the UN for more money to try to turn the tide has run into the sand. Less than half of 1.5bn sought for aid projects has materialised.

Official figures show that last year Irelands humanitarian funding was just over 150m. More than 22m went to the Horn of Africa, to countries including South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia. In particular, Ireland provided more than 11m to South Sudan. These figures represent about half of what is needed to reach the 0.7% of GDP target for overseas aid. Despite that aid, parts of South Sudan have reached a level-four emergency phase which means people will die from hunger in months, if aid, which can only come from the international community, does not reach them.

A relentless drought has played a significant part in driving this catastrophe but there is much more behind this complex situation. Violence between tribes, political alliances and government forces is the primary cause  this famine is manmade and is a direct consequence of dysfunctional, corrupt and racist authorities. In South Sudan, famine is concentrated where government forces and rebels have carried out ethnic killings. The countrys leaders have been accused of deliberate starvation tactics. Citizens face random atrocities, including the abduction of children, massacres and gang rapes. Aid workers have been targeted: Six were killed between Pibor and Juba last month.

In Yemen, where half a million children face starvation, conflict and a blockade operated by the Saudi-led coalition seem to make famine inevitable. In northern Nigeria, the military is regaining territory from Boko Haram and uncovering shocking levels of malnutrition.

It seems voyeuristic to rehearse this all-too-familiar horror story especially as there seems so little we can practically do in the short term to end the misery inflicted on these people by their compatriots. This is an age-old question but it is hard, and just too dispiriting, to suggest we can do nothing. It may seem an almost impossible challenge, it is, but the rich world must find a way to prevent this famine.
Saturday, June 24th, 2017 (1:03 am) - Score 2,401

Fixed wireless ISP Kijoma Broadband, which serves parts of West Sussex, Portsmouth, the Isle of White, Hampshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Surrey, has informed ISPreview.co.uk that theyve begun to deploy a major upgrade on their network that will boost capacity and service speeds.

At present the the providers top Home Standard package for domestic use offers download speeds of up to 40Mbps (2Mbps uploads) and a 40 GigaByte usage allowance (1.20 per GB thereafter) for 17.99 inc VAT per month on a 12 month contract. Faster uploads and bigger allowances are possible on their business tariffs.

However, starting in the Midlands of England, Kijoma is now rolling out a new network upgrade (funded entirely by customer revenue) that should enable them to offer unlimited usage allowances and to boost their actual download speeds to 78Mbps or faster. Apparently some of the first to benefit will be on the Staffordshire and Derbyshire (on the border) side of their network.

Kijomas Midlands network primarily covers Tatenhill, Rangemore and Callingwood (also Lancaster park and others in Needwood). On top of that it also covers a large part of Hanbury, part of Anslow and a few rural areas near Rosliston and Caldwell (Derbyshire). The ISP also delivers their service to two major schools at Caldwell and Newton Solney, as well as the Rosliston forestry centre.

The two new services going live there are home and business unlimited broadband with phone (VoIP via Voipfone) included at 24 inc. VAT and 37.20 a month respectively, which gets you an actual download speed of 78Mbps+ (upload is 20Mbps+ for business and 5Mbps+ for home).

A number of the ISPs customers in the Staffordshire village of Rangemore have already started to trial the service and local independent speedtests suggest that locals are receiving download speeds of around 80-100Mbps, while upload speeds have been hitting 16-47Mbps. Mind you its not uncommon for trial networks, where theres less contention, to deliver better than advertised performance.

As usual we should point out that real-world speedtests can be negatively affected by other external factors, such as the performance of your computer / smartphone or a weak WiFi signal on your home network. In other words, always take such things with a pinch of salt.

Competition

One challenge for Kijoma is that, despite their best efforts and submitting coverage data to various Open Market Reviews (e.g. the most recent one in Staffordshire), local authorities tend to shun their fixed wireless network (example). The same happened in Staffordshire and as a result their network is sometimes overbuilt by state aid supported fixed line FTTC and FTTP based broadband deployments from Openreach (BT) and others.

In fairness, overbuilding is a thorny issue with any operator and thats particularly true of wireless networks where the wide coverage area means that some overbuild is often unavoidable. Similarly not all areas greet wireless networks as optimistically as others, much as weve recently seen in North Swindon (here), and politicians arent immune to that feeling (even though theyre supposed to now be much more technologically neutral).

Kijomas network in Tatenhill and neighbouring Rangemore, which has been present since 2012, is another example of this issue. So far Kijoma has been holding on to their existing customers in such areas and many of them appear to be happy with the service they receive, although its obviously a lot harder to add new subscribers when your state aid fuelled competition is deploying into the same patch.
Sui Ishida's mega-hit anime series, "Tokyo Ghoul" may not release a new installment after all as Viz media is still mum about producing another series. Fans will, however, get the chance to relive the life of Ken Kaneki as a live movie adaptation of "Tokyo Ghoul" is to be released this year. Following the movie release, the L.A. fans of the anime will get the chance to see the film ahead of its world premiere.

After two years of being rumored to air new episodes this 2017, the fate of "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3 is still up in the air. A lot of the anime's fans have even stopped talking about the theoretical Season 3 as no clear updates are being given by Viz Media.

Following the long wait for the talked about installment, there are new rumors swirling online that Viz Media might have already canceled the production of "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3 despite previous news that it is only being delayed. Senior Sales and Marketing Director Kevin Hamrick, who was previously misquoted for his announcement, has also not updated the fandom about the anime. There are few talks though claiming that the show will push through once the live-action movie finishes with Ken Kaneki resurrecting with another identity.

While waiting for more concrete details about "Tokyo Ghoul" Season 3 to come by, fans might want to witness the live-action adaptation of Sui Ishida's creation on cinemas worldwide. The movie is set to hit 23 countries starting July 27, but it was recently announced that the L.A. fans will get the chance to see the film beforehand during the Anime Expo 2017.

"Tokyo Ghoul" live-action movie will have an advance screening at the L.A. Convention Center on July 3 at 2:30 to 4:00 a.m. where Director Kentaro Hagiwara and actor Masataka Kubota (Kaneki) will be present. In line with the nearing premiere of the show, "Tokyo Ghoul" released a new three-minute English-subbed trailer which featured the making of Ken Kaneki, half human-half ghoul. The promo also revealed the battle between Ken and Koutaro.

The highly anticipated movie is scheduled for release in other countries in North America, Europe, and Asia. "Tokyo Ghoul" is set to hit Tokyo theaters on July 10 while Berlin fans will see the movie on July 7.
Samsung is gearing out to launch its most expensive smartphone yet. In a recent news, the Galaxy Note 8 will retail for $900. The device is said to feature a 6.3-inch screen with 18.5:9 aspect ratio AMOLED edge-to-edge display and will be unveiled in the second half of September.

At nearly the same size as the 6.2-inch of Samsung's powerhouse Galaxy S8 Plus, for the first time in its seven-year history, Samsung is counting on more than an expansive screen to differentiate the Note line from the S-series. As far as the specs go, while the Galaxy Note 8 will use the same top-of-the-line Exynos 8895 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipsets as the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, it will be backed up with a massive of 6GB of RAM making it only Samsung's second handset, after the Galaxy C9 Pro, to exceed the 4GB RAM threshold.

Interestingly, the Galaxy Note 8 is said to be Samsung's first smartphone with dual cameras on the back, each of which will feature a 12-megapixel sensor and independent optical image stabilization for the lens. The lenses are reported to be configured horizontally, placed to the left of the flash and heart rate sensor.

As far as Touchwiz, Evan Blass said, "On the software side of things, Samsung has apparently improved the ease-of-use of split-screen multitasking, endowed the S Pen with more capabilities (such as full-sentence language translation and currency conversion), and added the ability to pin handwritten notes to the always-on display." More so, the upcoming Galaxy Note 8 will also have the same DeX capability as the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus.

Interestingly, the Galaxy Note 8 will be powered by a decent 3300mAh battery, a sign that Samsung is reluctant to repeat the debacle of last year's Galaxy Note 7 recall and eventual cancellation. Reports claimed that the Galaxy Note 8 will be available at launch in three different shades; black, blue, and gold.
Microsoft is asserting that enterprise customers have the wrong idea about the asset management investigations its partners tout as a way to save money on software licensing.

"There is a misperception around Software Asset Management and Compliance Audits," Patama Chantaruck, the general manager for Microsoft's software asset management & compliance group, claimed in a post to a company blog last month that included the phrase "myth-busting" in its title.

Chantaruck was vague about what the "misperception" was, but implied that customers conflated the two different programs when she offered definitions of each, Software Asset Management, which goes by SAM, and licensing audits.

"Microsoft SAM programs are voluntary services designed around industry standards that help customers gain data insights, optimize licensing, minimize risks, and be more productive with their IT investments," Chantaruck said. "A compliance audit is a mandatory review of a company's use of Microsoft's products and services designed to help customers achieve and maintain license compliance and to protect Microsoft intellectual property rights [emphasis added]."

The idea that Chantaruck was worried about mixed-up customers was bolstered by a Microsoft-published FAQ on audits. To the question, "Some sources claim that Microsoft SAM and license compliance verification (commonly known as an 'audit') are the same. Is this correct?" the FAQ's reply was unequivocal. "No."

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It's unclear what prompted Chantaruck's jeremiad, although she noted that she became aware of the confusion over the programs after meeting with partners to discuss SAM. Presumably, she was relating what partners had told her, that customers were wary of SAM because they thought it was another name for the invasive audits that Microsoft conducts and businesses fear.

Because Microsoft and its partners offer fee-based SAM services, concerns on the part of customers about their practices could easily dampen enterprise enthusiasm for the evaluations, and thus reduce revenue from SAM programs. And Microsoft clearly sees SAM as a money maker for its partners.

"The SAM opportunity in enterprise has never been bigger. Learn about Microsoft's plan for enterprise and industry accounts, and how you can build new revenue streams with SAM," states a description of one of several SAM-related sessions listed on the schedule for the upcoming Inspire conference in Washington, D.C. July 9-13. Microsoft Inspire is the renamed Worldwide Partner Conference, long the yearly massive meet-up of the firm's global partner network, on which Microsoft relies for much of its software and services sales.

One licensing expert, Wes Miller of Directions on Microsoft, had no insights into what triggered Chantaruck's blog post, but pointed out that SAM is not new. "It's existed for a long time," Miller said. "And there are very specific rules of engagement of SAM versus an audit," he added, echoing Microsoft's description of two completely different processes, one voluntary, the other mandatory.

Hold on a minute, countered Paul DeGroot, the principal of Pica Communications, a consulting firm that specializes in deciphering Microsoft's licensing practices and advising enterprises on handling software audits.

"The point of [Chantaruck's blog and the FAQ] is that Microsoft thinks nice language will somehow make customers happy to invite them in," DeGroot said in a lengthy email reply to Computerworld's questions. "No matter how nice [that invitation] is, even if you are fully compliant, these exercises generate a lot of overhead, and unless you hire someone full time to understand the licensing and read the contracts, which is also overhead, you're probably missing something."

Most of all, DeGroot disputed Microsoft's clean-cut separation between SAM and an audit, calling the company's efforts "more word play than substance."

"Microsoft has a continuum of audit levels," DeGroot said. "There's a self-audit, mentioned in some volume licensing contracts, where Microsoft sends them a form to fill out. There's a Microsoft-paid SAM engagement. There's a mandatory audit. If you elect to not do the first, you will get an 'invitation' to do the second. If you decline the second, you will get the third."

In DeGroot's experience, Microsoft sees an investigating continuum, with SAM -- those that Microsoft pays for -- but a step in the sequence that ultimately leads to an actual audit.

Not surprisingly, software licensing audits have a strong revenue-generating rationale, just as do, for instance, tax audits. "If Microsoft doesn't think [an audit] will pay off, they don't do it. Remember, they're paying the auditor and [those people don't] come cheap," DeGroot added.

In fact, even as Chantaruck decried what she characterized as a "misconception" about SAM and audits, elsewhere Microsoft linked the two.

"Customers who take licensing compliance seriously and have a robust internal Software Asset Management (SAM) process are likely to be better prepared for license compliance verifications," the FAQ read, substituting "license compliance verification" for the shorter "audit."

DeGroot's firm doesn't deal in SAM directly -- although it partners with vendors who do -- but it does perform functions that Chantaruck ticked off as SAM features, including license optimization and, thus, potential savings.

To prepare a client for an announced audit, said DeGroot, his team conducts a "mock audit" using the same tools Microsoft and the contracted accountant auditors deploy. "[We] get the customer cleaned up before a Microsoft auditor comes in," he said. "The customer may still owe Microsoft, but we do our level best to apply the rules in the optimal way for the customer. We may also suggest pre-emptive changes that, without spending more money, eliminate or reduce non-compliance."
Are remote workers more productive? Or are they just slacking off?

Three years ago, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer famously banned employees from working remotely. Earlier this year, IBM did the same thing, forcing remote workers to start showing up at the office.

The most popular justifications for such a policy are efficiency and collaboration  especially collaboration. The idea that employees from various groups should randomly encounter each other, brainstorm and collaborate is practically a Silicon Valley religion.

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was a major proponent of the collaborative work environment idea. Now that Apple's new Apple Park headquarters is nearing completion, press accounts are emerging about how the main "spaceship" building is designed to encourage chance employee encounters.

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But the strongest embodiment of this idea is to be found in Facebook's HQ, which boasts the world's largest open-office workspace  a single room spanning eight acres. Something like 2,800 employees all work in the same open area, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The irony here shouldn't be lost on anyone. IBM is one of the major companies selling the infrastructure to enable secure remote work. And Facebook's entire company is built on the idea of cloud-based social interaction. Yet both companies apparently believe that getting computers and networks out of the way is the key to better communication.

Other companies, including Canonical, Mozilla and MySQL, go to the opposite extreme, requiring all or most employees to work remotely.

The best reason for insisting on remote work can be found in the book Deep Work by Cal Newport. The author's thesis is that corporate culture in particular and the wider culture in general is encouraging us all to be constantly interrupted and distracted, spending our working hours multi-tasking. Newport calls this mode "shallow work." He points out that multitasking is a myth, and that in fact interruptions shatter concentration, degrading the quality of work. "Deep work," on the other hand is something that's increasingly rare and valuable.

The pros and cons of remote work

On the pro side, advocates boast higher morale, more focused work, less interruption, time saved on commute, reduced turnover, lower overhead, more flexible hiring  all of which adds up to higher productivity for the company.

The perceived cons for remote work are increased employee isolation, professional marginalization, lower productivity from goofing off or doing home and family-related tasks during work hours, fewer opportunities for spontaneous collaboration -- all of which adds up to lower productivity for the company.

So which is it? Does allowing employees to work from home increase or decrease productivity?

This is a mission-critical question because remote work is definitely on the rise.

A recent Gallup survey found that in the four years from 2012 to 2016, the percentage of U.S. employees who worked remotely rose from 39% to 43%.

Dell found recently in an employee survey that 58% of its employees work remotely at least one day a week. Which surprised the company because only 17% were authorized to do so.

Other reports predict the percentages of employees working remotely full time by 2020. Citrix Systems, for example, forecasts that half the American workforce will be remote within three years.

The trend is clear. With each passing year, a greater percentage work takes place outside the office.

The truth about remote work

It's important to think clearly about this trend. It helps to divide employees not into two categories  office and remote  but three:

Full-time office worker

Part-time remote worker

Full-time remote worker

While much of the press and company edicts fixate on the first and third categories, it's the second that really demands attention.

The reason this is important is that planning, equipment, company culture and IT infrastructure for the second two categories are similar. They're also similar to other flexible work arrangements.

For example, the infrastructure to support both bring-your-own-device arrangements and flexible desk situations (where each day employees are assigned a different desk) are also similar to remote work deployments. They all involve increased mobility, increased leveraging of the cloud, flexible security and up-to-date communication tools, such as Slack-like systems and good mobile video conferencing.

Yet part-time remote workers are often treated like -- and provisioned as -- full-time office workers.

I believe that companies who suddenly force all employees to work in offices, or push them all to remote locations, are making a mistake. It's the kind of "power move" -- like mergers or divestment -- that ambitious CEOs like to make to demonstrate bold leadership.

The truth is that certain kinds of employees, certain kinds of work and certain kinds of companies demand in-office collaborative work, and other kinds favor remote, solitary work.

What Dell and others have learned is that employees, along with their managers, will self-select work modes depending on the circumstances. And they're in a better position to make these decisions than C-level executives.

To issue a top-down, blanket policy of everybody working from the office or everybody working from home is to interfere in an important decision that can usually be better made by managers, team leaders and employees. This "local" decision-making tends to lead to better decisions, as well as happier and more loyal employees who are more likely to do better work.

Three take-aways about remote work

What's needed in enterprises now is more sophisticated thinking about remote work. It's time to shed dogma and face three basic facts:

1. Flexibility is opportunity

The only right answer to the question of whether remote work is more or less productive is: It's complicated. Generally, the best option is the one that most professionals choose, which is occasional remote work. Sometimes it makes sense for all-hands-on-deck collaboration. Other times it's vital to have long stretches of uninterrupted, focused work time.

Office workers should have the flexibility to work remotely. And remote workers should have the flexibility to come into the office. Flexibility and right-sizing the work environment for the employee and task gives any company a tactical advantage.

2. Blanket policies impose inflexibility

Top-down edicts simply end this beneficial flexibility. It's true that some employees can't be trusted to work productively at home, or will lose opportunities to collaborate. (It's also true that some employees slack off and work alone even in an office.)

But employee changes of any kind can happen quickly. What takes time is the preparation to enable remote work. The solution to employee productivity and collaboration isn't edicts that tie everyone's hands.

Also: flexibility in hiring is becoming more important all the time. Sometimes the very best developers or other high-demand workers insist as part of their employment contract the ability to live where they want and work remotely. By banning remote work, you're effectively reducing your company's ability to flexibly hire the best people. You also may be losing future opportunities to place staff geographically closer to clients, partners, customers and industry events.

3. Enterprises need to assume remote work

Clinging to an old-fashioned fantasy that all work must be conducted in a central office puts companies at risk. We're now entering an era where a majority of the workforce works remotely at least part time. If your company pretends this isn't happening, you'll fail to develop relevant policies and build secure remote infrastructure. Without a solid company plan for remote work, employees will use their own, insecure solutions and methods around data and communication, to potentially disastrous effect.

The winning approach is not a blanket ban on remote or office work. It's crucial to plan for a future that assumes all, or nearly all, employees will work remotely at least part time. That's how you can benefit from the flexibility of enabling each department, manager, employee, project and task to determine where work takes place.

It's hard to know what technologies, trends and opportunities are coming in the next few years that will affect who in the company works where. The key is to maintain flexibility.

Because when you're ready for all your employees to work remotely, you're ready for anything.
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Christophe Voiret

Notre correspondant sur le terrain des startups de la proptech et de linnovation, vous propose de decouvrir dans cette rubrique une presentation synthetique de jeunes entreprises et de leurs services destines aux professionnels de limmobilier. Une rencontre avec les fondateurs, leur pitch et les services apportes par leur entreprise.
Reynolds issues 401(k) plan blackout notice

Reynolds American Inc. said in a regulatory filing Thursday that it has notified employees of a temporary blackout period affecting its 401(k) plan as it relates to the potential closing of the sale of the company to British American Tobacco Plc.

BAT said in a June 15 regulatory filing it would pay $54.5 billion for the 57.8 percent of Reynolds American Inc. that it does not already own, up $5.1 billion from what the companies disclosed Jan. 17.

The companies have set simultaneous shareholder votes for July 19: 2 p.m. in London and 9 a.m. in Winston-Salem. If shareholders approve, the deal is projected to close July 25.

The proposed temporary blackout period would begin at 4 p.m. July 21. It is projected to end between July 27 and Aug. 1.

During the blackout period, plan participants will be unable to make exchanges into or out of the Reynolds American common stock fund or BAT stock fund. Also, participants will be unable to request a loan or distribution from their 401(k) plan.

Certain transactions are exempt from this trading prohibition, such as bona fide gifts, transfers by will or laws of descent and distribution, and sales of stock not acquired in connection with service or employment as a director or executive officer.

Richard Craver

Three Triad projects gain rural infrastructure grants

The N.C. Rural Infrastructure Authority said Thursday it has approved three Triad grant requests worth a combined $1.01 million.

The largest grant involves $493,480 to Surry County to provide an upgrade to sewer infrastructure at a Weyerhaeuser Co. facility that has at least 134 jobs.

Weyerhaeuser said its wastewater system needs upgrading, including connecting to a municipal water system. The company said it plans to spend $2.5 million on capital investment on the project.

Reidsville would gain $275,000 to help renovate a three-story building built in 1910 that has been vacant for more than 20 years. The grant would assist Lucky City Brewing Cooperative, which plans to spend $315,000 in a capital investment.

Lexington would gain $240,000 toward the reuse of a 19,400-square-foot industrial building that has been vacant for 11 years. Goose and the Monkey will operate a brewery at the site. The company plans to creation 12 jobs and spend $1.2 million in capital investment.

Richard Craver

Boeing plans job cuts

at S.C. plant

Boeing Co. said Thursday it is eliminating some jobs at its 787 Dreamliner plant in North Charleston, S.C.

The company would not say exactly how many jobs are being eliminated in South Carolina. The job cuts include managers and salaried workers.

Local media outlets reported the layoffs of fewer than 200 workers are the first in South Carolina since the company moved to North Charleston in 2009.

The Associated Press
Benjamin Small, who escaped last Saturday from the Davidson County Jail, turned himself in to authorities Friday in the Linwood community near Lexington, Sheriff David Grice said.

Grice and detectives with the Davidson County Sheriffs Office arrested Small and charged him with first-degree kidnapping, common law robbery, assault on a detention officer inflicting physical injury and escape from the jail, the Davidson County Sheriffs Office said.

We are glad that hes back in custody, and we are glad that no one else was hurt, Grice said. We are also glad that we are no longer expending resources in manpower and our time in searching for him.

Small is accused of assaulting Roxanne Powell, the detention officer, by beating her with a shower head and taking her keys and other items, the sheriffs office said. A foot chase took place after Small escaped from the jail.

Powell is recovering, Grice has said.

Small, who didnt resist his arrest, was returned to the Davidson County Jail with his bond set at $5 million, the sheriffs office said. Small is scheduled to appear in court on July 24.

Small surrendered shortly after 5 p.m. at Bills Truck Stop at 1210 Snider Kines Road in Linwood after the sheriffs office negotiated with his attorney, Richard McCain of Lexington. Smalls mother accompanied him to the truck stop, Grice said.

After he was arrested, Small declined to speak to Grice or the detectives, Grice said. McCain couldnt be reached Friday to comment on Smalls case.

It was going back and forth, Grice said as he described the negotiations. Small thought he might be treated badly by the sheriffs office.

Part of the negotiations took place with Smalls mother as she was driving Small back to Davidson County, Grice said.

During the six-day search for Small, investigators interviewed Smalls relatives about his whereabouts, Grice said. His relatives initially werent forthcoming about any information they had about Small, and were reluctant to tell investigators whether they had contact with him, the sheriff said.

Investigators later learned that Small had traveled to Oklahoma, and that his mother traveled there to return him to Lexington, Grice said. Small and his mother traveled back to Davidson County before Small surrendered.

Grice said that Small likely drove a stolen pickup on part of his trip to Oklahoma before that vehicle broke down.

Small then hitchhiked a ride in a tractor-trailer to get to Oklahoma, Grice said.

Grice said he didnt know exactly where in Oklahoma that Small had traveled to during his short time of freedom. Investigators are looking for the pickup, which was stolen from a local business near the jail in Lexington.

Grice thanked the U.S. Marshals Office and the FBI for their assistance in the search for Small.

Small also is facing several felony and misdemeanor offenses in addition to the charges related to his escape.
The move had come just weeks after Supreme Court annulled the previous appointment of MS Rajashree citing that UGC norms were flouted.
JURIST Guest Columnist Mark R. Killenbeck of the University of Arkansas School of Law discusses Alabamas HB 24 which allows adoption agencies to refuse to place foster children with same-sex couples according to religious beliefs 

In March 1967, a three-judge district court in Lee v. Macon County Board of Education condemned Alabamas relentless opposition to the elimination of its dual public school system such as that condemned by Brown v. Board of Education. In particular, it rejected a thinly disguised attempt to shift the responsibility for evasion to individual parents, declaring that [i]t is . . . axiomatic that a state may not induce, encourage or promote private persons to accomplish what it is constitutionally forbidden to accomplish.

Fifty years later, Alabama is once again trying to induce, encourage and promote private acts of discrimination, this time on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identification. The Alabama Child Placing Agency Inclusion Act (H.B. 24) does not mention these traits. Nor does it invoke a central tenet in the law of child custody and care in Alabama, the best interests of the child. Rather, it speaks simply and repeatedly of the need to protect sincerely held religious beliefs, invoking as its central legal premise the inherent, fundamental, and inalienable right to free exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Statutes of this sort have become increasingly popular in response to recent decisions by the Supreme Court, variants on what the late Justice Antonin Scalia characterized as modest attempt[s] by seemingly tolerant [citizens] to preserve traditional sexual mores against the efforts of a politically powerful minority to revise those mores through the use of laws. Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620, 636 (1996) (Scalia, J., dissenting). In each instance, religion and religious beliefs were part of the debate. In Romer, in which the Court invalidated a state constitutional amendment that altered the legal status of gays and lesbians in the private sphere, the state argued that the contested provision was grounded in respect for the liberties of landlords or employers who have personal or religious objections to homosexuality. In Lawrence v. Texas, which protected the right of same sex adults to engage in private, consensual intimate sexual conduct, the Court noted that religion had been one of the powerful voices that for centuries had condemned homosexual conduct as immoral. And in Obergefell v. Hodges, Justice Kennedy acknowledged the power and pervasiveness of religious objections to same-sex marriage, declaring that religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned.

None of the religious claims prevailed. That may have reflected how the cases were litigated. More likely, it tracked an historical reluctance to sanction religious justifications for invidious discrimination. See Loving v. Virginia, (noting the trial judge declaration that Almighty God created the races and placed them on separate continents, a fact that shows he did not intend for the races to mix); Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises, (rejecting as patently frivolous the contention that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was invalid because it contravenes the will of God and constitutes an interference with the free exercise of religion'); Bob Jones University v. United States, (an institution whose sponsors genuinely believe that the Bible forbids interracial dating and marriage could not qualify for federal tax-exempt status). Im confident H.B. 24s champions will object, vehemently, to the suggestion that their deep seated hostility toward LGBT individuals is comparable to their States past embrace of the fundamental principles of segregation, at the heart of which was the belief that [i]ntegration of all human life . . . would destroy humanity. Lee, n. 16. Rather, they believe they are promoting an incontrovertible moral good, a reading of the Christian Bible that twice elected  and now twice ejected  Chief Justice Roy Moore characterized as the principles that right conscience demands, a steadfast view of homosexuality as an intolerable evil. Ex parte H.H. (Moore, C.J., concurring).

H.B. 24s constitutional legitimacy must then turn on the premise that its embrace of religious liberty makes it different. But it is no accident that Obergefell is carefully couched in terms of convictions and advocacy, as opposed to positive acts of discrimination. That reflects a largely unknown (at least in the body politic) but doctrinally powerful qualification on the free exercise of religion: the belief/conduct dichotomy. Originally articulated in Reynolds v. United States, belief/conduct was reaffirmed in Employment Division v. Smith, which rejected the notion that free exercise claims would be assessed within the rigors of strict scrutiny, under which government interest must be compelling and the means selected to attain that goal be the least restrictive available. The Court has never held, Justice Scalia stressed, that an individuals religious beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that the State is free to regulate. That risked mak[ing] the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself.'

H.B. 24 accordingly hedges its bets, giving the Free Exercise Clause first billing even as it adds a state-based layer of protection, the Alabama Religious Freedom Amendment, which protects the free exercise of religious rights of Alabama citizens by prohibiting the government from burdening the freedom of religion of a person unless the burden is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is done in the least restrictive means. H.B. 24,  2(8) (citing Ala. Const. of 1901 amend. 622). That arguably mimics the holding in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., in which two companies asserting the sincere religious belief that life begins at conception were allowed to object on religious grounds to providing health insurance that covers methods of birth control that . . . may result in the destruction of an embryo.

Burwell was not a Free Exercise case. Rather, it was premised on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, a Congressional decision to limit its own authority by applying strict scrutiny to any federal action imposing a substantial burden on a persons exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability. 42 U.S.C.  2000bb-1(a) & (b). By enacting RFRA, Congress went far beyond what this Court has held is constitutionally required. Burwell, 134 S. Ct. at 2767. The two companies that brought the case were closely held corporations whose corporate identity (their personhood, for constitutional purposes) reflected their sincerely held religious beliefs. H.B. 24 sweeps more broadly, extending its protection to any individuals [or] organizations that engage in such activities. Nevertheless, it is difficult to envision a court in Alabama denying protection to an individual or entity professing that their sincere religious beliefs bar placements with an LGBT family, given that the only live issue will be whether the belief is sincerely held. As Justice Alito explained in Burwell, the proper judicial inquiry is whether a government action imposes a substantial burden on the ability of the objecting parties to conduct business in accordance with their religious beliefs. It is not, he emphasized, the job of the courts, or of government in general, to tell individuals that their beliefs are flawed.

All of this assumes that [t]here is no compelling reason to require a child placing agency to violate its sincerely held religious beliefs in providing any service, since alternative access to the services is equally available. H.B. 24,  2(14). But is that, or should it be, the law? Lets assume the Alabama Supreme Court is willing to let the Alabama legislature tell it what are and are not compelling interests, separating itself from the United States Supreme Court, see City of Boerne v. Flores, and quite likely virtually every other state court of last resort. Can it possibly be true that the availability of an alternate source of service relieves a business of the obligation to conduct its affairs in compliance with the law?

That might be the case if the sole frame of reference is Alabama state law, adjudicated in an Alabama state court. The people of that state have refused to bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in each of the areas tracked by LGBT advocates. But that was certainly not the case for another Alabama entity, the now-closed Ollies Barbecue, which was unable to resist the strictures of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 under the theory that African Americans could work and eat at other venues. See Katzenbach v. McClung.

The parallel is not an exact one. Katzenbach involved a statutory claim and my assumption for the limited purposes of this commentary is that the LGBT community now enjoys robust constitutional protection, grounded in principles of liberty and equality that define and protect the rights of gays and lesbians. Obergefell, 135 S. Ct. at 2604. Any such claim requires both intent and a state actor. Which brings us back full circle, to the battle against school segregation. The intent to discriminate is obvious: H.B. 24s entire purpose is to offer a religious liberty shield to individuals and entities who wish to do so. The involvement of the state, in turn, lies in its role in making that possible. For these purposes, [t]he crucial factor is the interplay of governmental and private action, for it is only after the initial exertion of state power . . . that private action takes hold. NAACP v. Alabama. And, as I noted at the outset, [i]t is . . . axiomatic that a state may not induce, encourage or promote private persons to accomplish what it is constitutionally forbidden to accomplish.' Norwood v. Harrison, (quoting Lee).

I am not a great fan of Employment Division. The Free Exercise Clause protects exercise, not simply belief. The religious liberty statute epidemic of recent years has, however, made me rethink these matters. I find it impossible to believe that ones sexual orientation or gender identity is pertinent in the vast majority of instances in which such judgments are made, situations when personal moral revulsion about certain types of conduct are invoked as the justifications for denying basic civil rights and liberties to a broad class of people. These types of claims are especially troubling when followers of a particular sect enter into a commercial activity as a matter of choice. United States v. Lee. In such situations, the logic of belief/conduct is especially compelling: the limits accept[ed] on . . . conduct as a matter of conscience and faith are not to be superimposed on the statutory schemes which are binding on others in that activity. Individuals whose religions tell them that homosexuality is an abomination are free to believe this. What they cannot do is enlist the support of the government, via either the federal Free Exercise Clause or its state equivalent, to accomplish what Thomas Jefferson condemned in his Letter to the Danbury Baptists: placing their presumed natural rights in opposition to [their] social duties.

Professor Killenbeck is the Wylie H. Davis Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law. He is the author of numerous books, chapters, articles, and papers, with a special focus on federalism, American constitutional history, and affirmative action and diversity. His book, MCulloch v. Maryland: Securing a Nation, published in 2006 by the University Press of Kansas, was the first book-length treatment of that important case. Professor Killenbeck is an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Suggested citation: Mark R. Killenbeck, Alabamas Religious Freedom: Natural Rights, Social Duties, JURIST  Academic Commentary, June 22, 2017, http://jurist.org/forum/2017/06/Mark-Killenbeck-alabamas-religious-freedom.php
Amnesty International UK (AI) [advocacy website] on Friday called for [press release] improved police training and a review of the legal framework as they relate to hate crimes in the UK. In a news briefing tilted Against Hate: Tackling hate crime in the UK [PDF], AI highlights a 42 per cent rise in hate crime in the two weeks prior to and following the EU referendum vote in 2016, primarily against members of minorities including, but not limited, to new migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. AI noted its particular concern that significant numbers of victims do not report their experiences to the police or other relevant organisations, adding:  police have not always regarded such offences with the seriousness they should  if, indeed, they have recognised them as offences at all. AI reasoned that the under-reporting of hate crimes is a reflection of the poor understanding of hate crimehow it is defined, what forms it takes and how it applies in law  among actual and potential hate crime victims. Among the recommendations AI makes in its briefing to improve the situation include: 1) extended review of the hate crime legal framework in the UK 2) adopting policies to speak out against discriminatory language 3) sensitivity training for public officials, police officers, and others in the law enforcement and justice sectors, 4) fostering community engagement by public officials and law enforcement, 5) monitoring online hate crime, and 6) extending the category of protected groups to include gender, age, socio-economic status and any and all characteristics that should have equal legal protection. The AI briefing documents the accounts of various individuals who have been subjected to hate crimes in the UK. Referring to the events following the recent London and Manchester attacks, AI UK Director Kate Allen stated:

we have seen reports of a rise in demonising language and dangerous comments that can cause real harm to real people. Now, more than ever, we must stand together against this hatred . We are now calling for police to receive increased training in how to respond to hate crime and support victims, for more resources to assist investigation and prosecution, and for more awareness in how victims can report hate crimes.

Almost a year ago the UK Home Office [official website] encouraged prosecutors to use tougher sentences [JURIST report] against hate crimes in response to the nations increasingly hostile environment since the EU referendum. That move came as a response to the more than 6,000 hate crimes and incidents reported to the authorities since June 2016. Hate crimes have been on the rise in recent years both within and outside the US. In November, the FBI [official website] released [JURIST report] the 2015 Hate Crime Statistics showing the number of hate crimes reported to police to have increased by about 6.7 percent the previous year, led largely by a 67 percent rise in crimes against Muslims. Two months prior, a report compiled by California State University, San Bernardino [official website] similarly revealed [JURIST report] an increase in hate crimes in 2015, particularly among Muslims and Arab-Americans. The study compiled data from 20 states, representing over 53 percent of the national population. Overall hate crimes across the 20 states increased by about 5 percent. However, hate crimes against Muslims increased by 78 percent. Despite the increase of hate crimes, five states still do not have any hate-crime statutes [NYT report]: Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Wyoming and Indiana.
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] lifted an injunction [opinion, PDF] Thursday on a Mississippi law that critics say allows individuals, including government employees, to discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people for religious reasons. According to a legal analysis [text, PDF] from Columbia University [official website], House Bill 1523 [text], or the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act, strips Mississippians of applicable anti-discrimination protections in order to accommodate the preferences of religious individuals and institutions. Those with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction can discriminate against LGBTQ individuals by denying housing, occupation, educational guidance, and other services. Heterosexual individuals could also be adversely affected such as single mothers being denied housing or jobs due to a religious objection of premarital sex. The three-judge panel stated:

Because a preliminary injunction may only be awarded upon a clear showing that the plaintiff is entitled to such relief, the plaintiffs must make a clear showing that they have standing to maintain the preliminary injunction. None of these plaintiffs has clearly shown an injury-in-fact, so none has standing.

Additionally, It is not enough simply to argue that there has been some violation of the Establishment Clause; the plaintiffs must allege a personal violation of rights. The plaintiffs can request a rehearing before the full Fifth Circuit panel or appeal directly to the Supreme Court [official website].

LGBT protections are still disputed globally and many rights groups have raised concerns about the future of LGBT rights within the US since the November elections. In May the US Supreme Court declined to hear [JURIST report] an appeal challenging Californias 2012 ban on gay conversion therapy. In April Nigerian prosecutors in Kaduna charged [JURIST report] 53 men for celebrating an LGBTQ wedding in violation of the states law against unlawful assembly and the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act. The same week Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] and other advocacy groups urged [JURIST report] UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres [official website] to investigate alleged abuse against LGBT people in Chechnya. A week earlier the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] dropped [JURIST report] a federal lawsuit against the state of North Carolina over a bill requiring transgender people to use the public bathroom associated with their birth gender.
The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Friday for an immigrant who had received poor legal advice from his counsel. The petitioner in Lee v. United States [SCOTUSblog materials] came to the US from South Korea in 1982 and found success as a businessman. In 2009 he was charged with possession of ecstasy with an intent to distribute. Concerned for his residency status in the US, Lee took the advice of his lawyer who told him he would not be deported if he pleaded guilty. Lees attorney was incorrect and the conviction carried a mandatory deportation. In order to have his sentence vacated, Lee needed to show that he not only had ineffective legal counsel but that he was prejudiced because he took erroneous advice. The court recognized that preserving the clients right to remain in the United States may be more important to the client than any potential jail sentence. In his opinion Chief Justice John Roberts considered Lees three decades in the US, during which he had established two businesses and never once returned to South Korea, as well as his naturalized parents dependency on his care. Roberts concluded:

Lees claim that he would not have accepted a plea had he known it would lead to deportation is backed by substantial and uncontroverted evidence. Accordingly we conclude Lee has demonstrated a reasonable probability that, but for [his] counsels errors, he would not have pleaded guilty and would have insisted on going to trial.

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented and was joined by Justice Samuel Alito except in Part One. Thomas asserted that overturning a guilty plea where a defendant has admitted his guilt, the evidence against him is overwhelming, and he has no bona fide defense strategy because his attorney had not properly advised him of the immigration consequences of his plea is not supported by the Sixth Amendment [text] or precedent.

The Supreme Court granted certiorari in the case in December and heard oral arguments [JURIST reports] in March.
The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Wednesday that the proper review forum when the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) [official website] dismisses a mixed case on jurisdictional grounds is district court. The decision comes out of Perry v. Merit Systems Protection Board [SCOTUSblog materials], a case concerning a federal employee who had a complaint of both adverse employment accusations and that those accusations were based on discriminatory grounds, otherwise known as a mixed case. If a federal employee asserts rights exclusively under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA) [text], a statute that gives the MSPB the power to review personnel actions against a federal employee, the decisions are subject to judicial review in the Federal Circuit whereas if the employee invokes federal antidiscrimination law, the federal district court has jurisdiction. The government argued that Perry should split their claims, appealing MSPB nonappealability rulings to the Federal Circuit while repairing to the district court for adjudication of their discrimination claims. The court held, in mixed cases, such as Perrys, in which the employee (or former employee) complains of serious adverse action prompted, in whole or in part, by the employing agencys violation of federal antidiscrimination laws, the district court is the proper forum for judicial review.  Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented stating,

At the end of a long day, I just cannot find anything preventing us from applying the statute as writtenor heard any good reason for deviating from its terms. Indeed, its not even clear how overhauling the statute as Mr. Perry wishes would advance the efficiency rationale he touts. The only thing that seems sure to follow from accepting his invitation is all the time and money litigants will spend, and all the ink courts will spill, as they work their way to a wholly remodeled statutory regime. Respectfully, Congress already wrote a perfectly good law. I would follow it.

The Supreme Court granted certiorari in the case in January and heard oral arguments [JURIST reports] in April.
HOLDREGE  Holdreges BD plant was recognized by a national trade publication for its $100 million investment into the local operation.

Each year, Trade & Industry Development magazine celebrates companies that make their communities a better place and who invest in their communities with its Corporate Investment and Community Impact (CiCi) Awards.

This year, the list of 15 companies recognized in the Community Impact category includes General Motors, Amazon, Microsoft, and right among them is Holdreges Becton Dickinson and Company (BD).

It is a prestigious list, said BD Plant Manager Chuck Mix. And BD Holdrege is proud to receive this award on behalf of our great team here and our business who supports and funds our plant here in Holdrege.

The company is being recognized for its $100 million investment into the Holdrege plant, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in the community last fall.

Construction on the $100 million expansion has begun and will continue for three years. Evidence of the investment can already be seen with an updated exterior being installed. Much of the investment will go toward replacing older manufacturing lines with new equipment, which will help the plant increase its output of syringes by about 20 percent. BD already produces more than 2 billion syringes each year, which averages close to 300,000 syringes per hour.

BDs investment helped secure 650 jobs in the community and will create new jobs in the future.
KEARNEY  Appointments are still available at a temporary application center for the TSA Precheck program at Kearney Regional Airport next week.

The application center will be open 8 a.m. to noon and 1-5 p.m. Monday-Friday in the airport managers office in the sixth building south of the terminal at 4845 Airport Road. Signs with directions will be posted throughout the airport. Applicants are not required to have an airline ticket to access the center.

Although walk-ins will be accepted on a space-available basis, appointments are strongly encouraged. Travelers can make an appointment online to visit the temporary application center at the Kearney airport at www.tsa.gov, and then must complete their enrollment in-person at the application center.

Travelers who are enrolled in the program or another trusted traveler program such as Customs and Border Protections Global Entry, SENTRI or NEXUS are permitted to keep on their shoes, belts and light outerwear jacket, and can leave their laptops and liquid 3-1-1 bags inside their carry-on bags when transiting the checkpoint. To find the program that best suits your travel needs, use the DHS trusted traveler comparison tool.

Passengers who fly out of Kearney will now have a convenient way to apply for TSAs expedited screening program, said Mike Fowler, TSA federal security director for the state of Nebraska. Travelers appreciate the benefits of the program, which makes the screening process faster and easier.

The application fee is $85, which covers a five-year membership. The fee must be paid at the application center by credit card, money order, company check or certified/cashiers check. Cash and personal checks are not accepted. Enrollees will need to bring documentation proving identity and citizenship or legal residency status. Fingerprints are collected to complete a background check.

Successful applicants will receive a Known Traveler Number, which they can access online in about a week. Passengers should enter the KTN when booking airline reservations online via a participating airline website, via phone call to the via phone call to the airline reservation center, or with the travel management company making reservations.
HOLDREGE  A medication aide course will meet from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays, July 10-19, at Central Community College-Holdrege. Registration is open for a six-session medication aide course that will be from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. July 17-19 and July 24-26 at Central Community College-Lexington.

The courses are designed to train beginning medication aides to safely administer medications.

Class size is limited for both courses so preregistration is required to reserve a space. The cost is $360, which includes tuition, books and fees. There are additional fees for state testing and Department of Health and Human Services registration.

For more information or to preregister, contact CCC-Holdrege at 308-995-8133; toll-free at 877-222-0780, ext. 6104; or by email at shstump@cccneb.edu. To contact CCC-Lexington, call (308) 324-8480 or toll-free at 1-877-222-0780, ext. 8480.
LINCOLN  Nebraska farmers have until July 21 to apply for special U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service funding for erosion control projects.

The funds are available through the special Ephemeral Gully Control Initiative within the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

Nebraska State Conservationist Craig Derickson said ephemeral gullies are rough spots where water concentrates and causes soil to wash away, creating small ditches. Damage to cropland appears small, but there can be significant decreases in soil health and yields if erosion isnt controlled.

Recipients of USDA program benefits such as federal crop insurance subsidies and conservation program payments are required to control erosion on all cropland determined to be highly erodible.

For more information about the special initiative, visit a local USDA Service Center before July 21.
OMAHA (AP)  The parents of a young woman strangled by her boyfriend, who then dumped her body in an open cemetery grave, can pursue their lawsuit against an Omaha mental treatment facility where the boyfriend had been a patient, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The ruling opens the door for the parents of Melissa Rodriguez to proceed with a lawsuit against Lasting Hope Recovery Center of Catholic Health Initiatives, various center employees and its parent health system. Douglas County District Judge James Gleason was wrong to dismiss the lawsuit and to deny the parents a chance to amend their complaint, the high court said.

Mikael Loyd, 23, was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2013 death of 19-year-old Rodriguez.

Police say he strangled her the night of Aug. 14 following an argument after walking away from the treatment center. Rodriguezs body was found the next morning in an open grave intended for another homicide victim in an unrelated case.

Loyd pleaded no contest to the charge after initially being found not mentally competent to stand trial.

Loyd was being held at Lasting Hope at the request of police because of erratic comments he made during interviews for allegedly assaulting Rodriguez. Police said they feared he might harm himself or someone else.

The lawsuit says the center is responsible for failing to call police after Loyd walked away from the center, and then killed Rodriguez.

The lower court had granted Lasting Hopes petition for summary judgment to dismiss the lawsuit, finding that the center and its affiliates did not owe a duty to take reasonable precautions to warn or protect Rodriguez from Loyds violent behavior.

The state Supreme Court on Friday disagreed, saying facts showed Loyd was in Lasting Hopes custody.

We further determine that the appellants pled sufficient facts which could establish that the Lasting Hope defendants breached the duty owed to Melissa, Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman wrote in the opinion.

Brian Jorde, the attorney representing Rodriguezs parents, said they were thrilled to learn Friday that their lawsuit could proceed.

All weve ever wanted is the opportunity to tell our story, Jorde said.

Attorneys representing Lasting Hope did not immediately return messages Friday seeking comment.
A license plate says a great deal about the vehicle that carries it around. Thanks to the Nebraska Legislature, your license plate can proclaim your affinity to corn, your love of the Huskers and even your desire to make friends with a mountain lion.

In April the Legislature voted to allow a license plate urging other motorists to Choose Life. To most license plate observers, we have all the opinions, stances and positions covered by specialty license plates with the 20-odd designs available to motorists. While that may seem like a large number, consider that Texas offers 150 different plates. Obviously, Nebraska needs to beat the bushes for a few new ways for motorists to express themselves. Obviously.
Giant pandas Meng Meng, right and Jiao Qing look out of the transport containers during a presentation after the arrival from China at the airport Schoenefeld near Berlin, Saturday, June 24, 2017. Two giant pandas arrive in Berlin and will be housed at the Berlin Zoo. Two giant pandas from China have landed safely in Berlin where they are being welcomed by the German capital's mayor and the Chinese ambassador. Meng Meng and Jiao Qing were treated like royalty on their 12-hour-flight from Chengdu in southwestern China Ai their entourage included a Berlin veterinarian, two Chinese zookeepers and traveling press. The German capital is going nuts over the cute bears, which will first be presented to the public at the zoo on July 6. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
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Former University of Cincinnati police officer Raymond Tensing reacts as Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Leslie Ghiz declares a mistrialA on Friday, June 23, 2017 in Cincinnati. Tensing was charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of unarmed black motorist Sam DuBose during a 2015 traffic stop. (Cara Owsley /The Cincinnati Enquirer via AP, Pool)
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President Trump told a group of Republican Senators that the House-based American Health Care Act is mean  and on this he surely called it right!

How else would one describe a bill that would take health insurance away from 23 million people, allow states to waive rules requiring insurers to cover people with preexisting conditions at no extra charge, and raise premiums and deductibles to the oldest and sickest patients? He reportedly urged the Senate to come up with a bill that has more heart.

Well, if that was his pitch, the draft bill released by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is anything but. Its heartless and harmful to the most vulnerable in America: women, children, the disabled, the elderly, the sick and the poor; to people suffering from opioid addiction; and especially to the more than 70 million Americans who rely on Medicaid for coverage and access to health care. Yet the President tweeted this morning in favor of the bill. Go figure.

In fact, in many respects, the Senate bill, introduced under the Orwellian name The Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) of 2017, is meaner and has even less heart than the House bill. It cuts Medicaid by more than the House bill. It allows states to waive almost all of the protections mandated by the ACA, including coverage for essential benefits (like chemotherapy and treatment for opioid use disorders) and the requirement that insurers spend at least 80 percent of their premiums on patient care services rather than administration and CEO compensation (and it even lifts the $500,000 cap on the amount that an insurer can deduct from taxes for CEO compensation!). You can read about all of the things that are heartless and harmful in the bill in a letter ACP sent yesterday expressing our strongest possible opposition to it.

Yet Majority Leader McConnell plans to bring it to a vote next week, before Congress adjourns for an Independence Day recess, even though the bill was developed in secret, with no hearings, no committee mark-ups, and with no effort to consider the views of ACP and others who actually know something about how a lack of insurance affects patient care. We wont know the Congressional Budget Offices assessment of what the bill would cost, and how many would lose coverage, until just hours before the bill will be voted on.

And make no mistake about it: The bill will pass the Senate unless three Republican Senators have the moral courage to say no to it, and if the Senate passes it, the House almost assuredly will do the same. Game over.

But we can still win this fight, but only if enough of you, the constituents who your Senators are supposed to represent, speak out now about the harm it will do to patients. Today, issued an all-hands-on-deck legislative alert to our Advocates for Internal Medicine. It has simple instructions and a sample script to use in making your calls. We especially need calls to the following Senators: Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Rob Portman (OH), Dean Heller (NV), Dan Sullivan (AK), Jeff Flake (AZ), Cory Gardner (CO), Bob Corker (TN), Bill Cassidy (LA), and Shelley Moore Capito (WV).

Next Wednesday, which may very well be the day before the bill will be voted on in the Senate, ACPs President will fly to Washington to join with his counterparts with the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology, American Psychiatric Association, and American Osteopathic Association to deliver personalized letter to all 100 U.S. Senators urging a NO vote on the bill, on behalf of the 560,000 physician and medical student members collectively represented by our organizations, and their millions of patients. (Read the coalitions statement on the Senate bill.)

We are doing everything in our power to stop the Senates heartless and harmful bill from becoming law.

Bob Doherty is senior vice-president, governmental affairs and public policy, American College of Physicians and blogs at the ACP Advocate Blog.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
FRANKFURT, June 24 (Reuters) - U.S. missile maker Raytheon's cybersecurity unit could thrive were it to be listed separately, the head of the unit, Forcepoint, told German business daily Boersenzeitung in an interview published on Saturday.

"Raytheon has undertaken that Forcepoint will achieve for civilian cyber defence what Raytheon does for the defence of nation states, and we think that we could unleash enormous potential in our company via a stock exchange listing," Matthew Moynahan said.

He said it was a little early to contemplate such a move, though, according to the newspaper.

Raytheon bought an 80 percent stake in Forcepoint, then known as Websense, from private equity firm Vista in 2015 for $1.9 billion and combined it with its own cybersecurity operations. Vista owns the other 20 percent.

Vista retains the right to exit the joint venture, including by requiring Raytheon to buy its 20 percent stake or by Forcepoint's pursuing an IPO.

Forcepoint made sales of $566 million and operating income of $51 million in 2016.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; editing by John Stonestreet)
(Clarifies detail in Yishidun's statement in paragraphs 6-7, specifies Citadel Securities, rather than Citadel, in last paragraph)

SHANGHAI, June 23 (Reuters) - A Chinese court meted out a nearly 700 million yuan ($102.4 million) punishment to a Russian-controlled high-frequency trading firm for futures market manipulation on Friday, drawing a line under one of the most high-profile cases of misconduct Beijing blames for contributing to the 2015 stock market crash. The verdict by the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, posted on its official microblog, also involves a penalty to two executives of Yishidun International Trading Co. The ruling comes at the end of a week in which index publisher MSCI agreed to include China's domestic shares in its emerging market benchmark.

"Malicious" short selling by domestic and foreign "speculators" have been largely blamed by the Chinese government for causing the market crisis that started in the summer of 2015.

Yishidun, based in China's eastern city of Zhangjiagang, and controlled by Russian nationals Georgy Zarya and Anton Murashov, pocketed illegal gains worth 389 million yuan by frequently trading China's index futures between June 1 and July 6, 2015, the Shanghai court said in a statement.

According to the verdict, Yishidun would be fined 300 million yuan, and its illegal gains would also be confiscated.

In a statement emailed to Reuters, Yishidun said it had conducted an independent audit of its trading model after the company was investigated, and found nothing consistent with "market manipulation" as this term is understood outside China.

The audit also found the company's trading was subject to a functioning risk-management system," it said.

The court gave suspended sentences to Yishidun's two executives, Gao Yan and Liang Zezhong, of three years and 2.5 years, respectively.

Jin Wenxian, an employee from a brokerage the trading firm used, received a sentence of five years.

In its battle against speculators during the market crisis, Beijing netted journalists, senior executives in brokerages and even securities regulators. Other foreign funds punished by Beijing included Citadel Securities, whose account in Shanghai managed by a unit was suspended by the Chinese government.

($1 = 6.8388 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Samuel Shen and David Stanway; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
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A guest post by Liam Hehir:

I have been lucky enough to attend the National Party conference in Wellington as media. As a writer who has allowed to attend as an observer, it is fascinating to be able to watch what goes on.

One of the things you wont see much of this in the news is the members. Going by what you see on television, the members are there to clap and laugh at the right times. They are the studio audience providing the soundtrack for the performers onstage.

In reality, political party members are the unsung heroes of New Zealands democracy. Many of them do an enormous amount of work for no other reason that, in their perception, they are doing it for the good of the country. Sure, a few of them are ambitious politicians in training, but they dont tend to stick around.

Most volunteers spend a lot of time doing things that are not fun. They stuff envelopes and deliver pamphlets, sell raffle tickets and ask for donations, knock on doors and erect hoardings. They attend meeting after interminable meeting.

There is no real personal reward for this. Do a good job and the chances are you will be shoulder-tapped for more unpaid responsibility. In fact, membership can be costly as you are forever pestered for donations and required to travel at your own expense.

And not all MPs treat party members well. Some almost seem to regard them as low-level employees. The risk here tends to be greater where the MP does not have a history of time with the party.

This matters, because organised members are crucial force multipliers for election campaigns. They man the infrastructure that truly gives bigger parties the edge over smaller ones. I would bet that a partys pool of unpaid labour is a bigger predictor of success than its campaigning spending is.

And, most importantly, volunteers are the people with whom unaligned voters are most likely to have contact. They are a vital bridge the Wellington hive and the rest of the country. They give their party some ability to circumvent the media filter.

At the local level, they are just indispensable.

If you are more interested in making a difference than personal glory, joining and being active in a party is something you should consider. Youll certainly have a bigger impact doing that than by winning arguments on the Internet.

In such matters, National supporters should take encouragement from the conference so far. So far, ministers and party officials have kept much of the focus on the members. There have been expressions of gratitude and morale building for the campaign to come.

Chances are this wont come through in the media coverage, which tends to focus on the theatrical side of things. Its a useful reminder that theres an awful lot that goes on in elections that you just wont see on the six oclock news.
Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Plenty of sunshine. High 34F. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Mainly clear. Low 18F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
By Park Si-soo



Newly appointed Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha has ordered all overseas South Korean envoys to offer their resignation. There are 160 affected ambassadors and consul generals, according to the ministry.

"This is a sort of practice implemented when a new administration comes in," a foreign ministry official said. "The minister will decide who will stay and who will be shown the door."

The scale of the shakeup is uncertain, but it is likely that South Korean ambassadors to the nation's four major diplomatic counterparts -- the United States, China, Japan and Russia -- will be changed.

Meanwhile, President Moon Jae-in has expressed the need to bolster ties with countries in Europe, Asia and Africa to have a bigger voice in the international community.
/ Yonhap



By Park Si-soo



Thousands of protesters marched near the U.S. embassy in Seoul on Saturday, accusing U.S. President Donald Trump of "forcing" South Korea to deploy the controversial American missile defense system China opposes.

The protest came as South Korea's new president Moon Jae-In heads to Washington next week for his first summit with Trump amid soaring tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

Around 4,000 people participated in the first anti-U.S. rally under Moon's presidency. It was also the largest protest since South Korea and the United States agreed to deploy the system, known as the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).

Protesters marched with placards that read: "Trump, stop forcing (South Korea) to deploy THAAD" and "No THAAD, No Trump."












South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae expressed dismay Saturday over what it called "false" reports by a Japanese newspaper that suggested a possible crack in the South Korea-U.S. alliance.



The rare rejection by Cheong Wa Dae came after Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported that the U.S. has urged South Korea to allow complete deployment of the THAAD U.S. missile defense system here before the year's end.



Quoting unidentified U.S. sources, the Japanese daily said such a request was filed by Thomas Shannon, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, during his trip to Seoul earlier this month.



Yoon Young-chan, the chief press secretary for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, flatly dismissed the report, calling it "incorrect."



"The Asahi Shimbun's report that U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon demanded the deployment of the THAAD before the year's end in a meeting with our government officials is not true," the Cheong Wa Dae official said in a released statement.



The Japanese newspaper earlier claimed the South Korean presidential office had refused to extend a warm welcome to U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), forcing him to cancel his trip to Seoul.



Yoon also called the earlier report "false."



"Cheong Wa Dae expresses its deep regrets against the news outlet that has repeatedly published false reports about Undersecretary Shannon, following its report on Sen. McCain," he said.



South Korea temporarily suspended the THAAD deployment, citing a need for an environmental impact assessment of the U.S. missile shield.



Two THAAD interceptor launchers and the system's radar have already been deployed here, but South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier said the original agreement with the U.S. was to deploy one launcher in 2017 and an additional five in 2018.



Still, Moon said the temporary suspension of the deployment did not mean any change in his country's decision to host the U.S. missile shield, which is aimed at protecting some 28,000 U.S. troops stationed here, along with the country itself. (Yonhap)




Judges will be encouraged to prescribe longer sentences for repeat gun offenders under a plan signed into law by Gov. Bruce Rauner.

The idea is to help curb street violence in Chicago. Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson attended the bill signing Friday at the Capitol with the Republican governor.

The law also introduces a diversion program for non-violent first-time offenders and creates a State Police-led violent crime intelligence task force.

Debate on the issue was contentious with some claiming that stricter sentencing would disproportionately incarcerate minorities without addressing issues underlying Chicago's violence.

Proponents say it'll decrease gun violence by giving Chicago law enforcement a needed tool. Rauner calls it another step in the right direction.

Johnson calls the bill a "monumental win" for Chicago residents' safety.
PRESS RELEASE

Italian Chamber of Deputies Sets Up Investigating Committee on the Banking Crisis with Broad Powers

June 23, 2017 (EIRNS)The Chamber of Deputies voted unanimously, with three abstentions, to create an investigating committee on the banking crisis June 21. The mandate is broad, and apparently the committee will have judiciary powers. However, in the best case it will have eight months to work, or, in the worst case, much less if early elections are called. The members and the chairman of the committee must now be elected.

In the debate, M5S party spokesman Alessio Villarosa welcomed the decision, even if very late. Villarosa said he is confident that the Committee will be able to find out the truth about banks scams to dump their losses on depositors, through the sale of subordinate bonds. He cited the example of Banca Etruria, which started to sell those bonds to retail customers after receiving a letter from the Bank of Italy in December 2013, saying that the bank situation was "irreversibly degraded." The Bank of Italy, the Stock Exchange Supervisor, and the government covered that scam, Villarosa said. Those customers were burnt through the "burden sharing" solution implemented by the government in 2015. Banca Etrurias vice-president was the father of cabinet minister Maria Elena Boschi, who drafted the failed constitutional reform for then-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

In a radio talk show with Dep. Renato Brunetta, head of the Forza Italia faction in the Chamber, the issue was discussed on June 21. Lyndon LaRouche activist Flavio Tabanelli called in and asked whether the Committee will have broad powers and will be able to do what the Pecora Commission did in the United States in 1932-34, paving the way for the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act to separate speculative banking from business banking. Brunetta replied that the Committee will have judiciary powers, but did not respond on Glass-Steagall.
PRESS RELEASE

Lavrov Delivers a Message to Tillerson: Does the U.S. Want an Improvement of Relations with Russia, Or Not?

June 23, 2017 (EIRNS)The Russian Foreign Ministry summary of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovs conversation yesterday with Secretary of State Rex Tillersona call initiated by Tillerson according to the Russian accountmakes clear that the Russian government drew the line, after the combination of the imposition of yet more sanctions against Russian individuals and companies on June 20 by Steven Mnuchins Treasury Department, and the U.S. shoot-down of a Syrian fighter jet in Syria two days earlier.

Lavrovs call with Tillerson followed Russias cancellation of the meeting of U.S. and Russian Deputy Foreign Ministers, scheduled to be held today.

The Foreign Ministry statement speaks for itself:
PRESS RELEASE

Gareth Porter on Why Tulsi Gabbards Stop Arming Terrorists Act Needs To Become Law

June 23, 2017 (EIRNS)Investigative reporter Gareth Porter, in an article published yesterday in The American Conservative, reviews in considerable detail how President Obama facilitated the arming of al-Qaeda in Syria in order to use it as a weapon to bring down the Assad government in the name of "democracy" and "pushing back" against Iranian influence. Citing numerous reports that have been published since 2012, Porter details how the Obama Administration went from facilitating the flow of weapons to jihadi groups in Syria from Libya, through U.S. allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to facilitating even larger quantities of weapons from the Balkans, to the outright supply U.S. weapons, mainly TOW anti-tank weapons, to "moderate" rebel groups from which they ended up directly in Al Qaedas hands for use against the Syrian army. "The Obama administrations Syria policy effectively sold out the U.S. interest that was supposed to be the touchstone of the "Global War on Terrorism"the eradication of al Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates," Porter writes. The result of this policy, writes Porter, has been the expansion of Al Qaedas military power in Syria.

Much of the history that Porter relates has been already in the public domain for some time, but he uses it to explicitly to argue for the passage of the "Stop Arming Terrorists Act," sponsored by U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) which would make illegal exactly the activity that Porter describes.

"The significance of all this is clear: by helping its Sunni allies provide weapons to al Nusra Front and its allies and by funneling into the war zone sophisticated weapons that were bound to fall into al Nusra hands or strengthen their overall military position, U.S. policy has been largely responsible for having extended al Qaedas power across a significant part of Syrian territory,"

Porter concludes.
As record-setting temperatures surged into the triple digits in parts of California this week, the manager of the states electrical grid put out an urgent plea: Turn down the AC and conserve power to avoid rotating outages.

The two-day flex alert by the California Independent System Operator drew headlines from dozens of media outlets across the state and country. It also sent electricity prices on the wholesale market soaring four to five times higher than normal  a cost that will be passed on to utility customers.

There was no statewide shortage of electricity  not even close, according to a Times analysis of federal and state energy data.

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Even as the mercury climbed, consumers used 44,184 megawatts Tuesday  3,656 fewer than the forecast. But the system can generate about 71,000 megawatts, which means there was 38% unused capacity. Thats well above the 15% reserve required by the state for emergencies.

Some energy experts said the flex alert was unnecessarily alarmist.

The notion that the sky is falling is a little bewildering to us, said Robert McCullough, of Oregon-based McCullough Research, who works as a consultant for power companies.

Theres no question that flex alerts will attract peoples attention, he said. But with actual usage at times falling as much as 10% below Cal-ISOs forecast, he said someone failed to seriously analyze the data. I would hate to report into the utility executive with that information. This would be a career-ending moment.

Robert Freehling, an energy policy consultant who has done work for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and the Imperial Irrigation District, also questioned the grid operators computer models and analyses.

Theres been a very heavy overestimation of demand, he said, noting that the statewide flex alert certainly raised eyebrows.

Even the utility companies said that the increased demand caused by rising temperatures had not created an energy shortage.

Were looking at normal operations, Robert Laffoon-Villegas, a spokesman for Southern California Edison Co., said as he gave his companys report during a media call Tuesday.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. was hit the hardest with some 377,000 customers in the San Francisco Bay Area out of power at some point through Thursday, said Lynsey Paulo, a spokeswoman for PG&E. By Thursday afternoon, power outages had been reduced to typical daily levels, she said.

But the source of the outage wasnt consumers draining the power supply nor a lack of power plants.

This is not an energy supply issue at all, Paulo said. Transformer failure has been the No. 1 cause for heat-related failure for us.

No one questions PG&Es transformer troubles in the Bay Area, but critics said the problem was localized and didnt require the statewide alert.

Cal-ISO says its complicated. Spokeswoman Anne Gonzales defended the grid operators decision to call the first flex alert of the year.

She said the western heat wave is being described as the worst in 11 years. Cal-ISO must consider not only the heat itself but also the potential for wildfires to disrupt the electrical grid at the same time some power plants might be offline, she said.

We plan for the peaks and worst-case scenarios during a heat wave, knowing that one wildfire can make all the difference in transmission, Gonzales said.

The flex alert, Gonzales said, is one way to help ensure adequate supply. It is simply asking consumers to help prevent strain on the system and avoid potential problems.

We call flex alerts after consideration to all impacts, including cost, economy, health and safety, and overall reliability, Gonzales said.

When a flex alert is issued, consumers are asked to voluntarily cut back electricity use during peak hours, typically between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Although Edison reported typical operations, it did take some added precautions  such as canceling or reducing maintenance outages of its distribution equipment. And Edison crews were working to restore service to customers affected by wildfires, Villegas said.

Cal-ISO acknowledged during the media call Tuesday that this heat wave did not require the heightened measures developed last summer in response to concerns about energy shortages in Southern California.

The Los Angeles area is on guard as it moves through its second summer without the troubled Aliso Canyon natural gas storage plant, the largest holding facility for the fuel in the state.

The storage plant, operated by Southern California Gas Co., was taken offline after one of the companys 115 wells leaked, forcing thousands of residents in nearby Porter Ranch from their homes. The utility sealed the leak and closed the well in February 2016, but it cant replenish natural gas supplies in the storage facility until it is deemed safe.

Without Aliso Canyon, utilities, regulators and Cal-ISO worry that if a lengthy heat wave engulfs the region, there wont be enough fuel to power lights and air conditioners or to keep gas pilot lights lit.

The utility industry warned of up to 14 days of blackouts last summer without Aliso Canyon  a prediction that never materialized.

To McCullough and others, Cal-ISOs warnings this week amount to an expensive miscalculation.

On Tuesday, for example, electricity prices shot from the typical $50 per megawatt-hour to $200 to $300 per megawatt-hour as the wholesale market reacted to news of anticipated increased demand. Some of that difference will ultimately be passed on to consumers.

This is akin to crying wolf, McCullough said. I dont see any emergency.

ivan.penn@latimes.com

For more energy news, follow Ivan Penn on Twitter: @ivanlpenn

ALSO

SpaceX again launches and lands a used rocket booster

Travis Kalanick is no longer Ubers CEO, but drivers still want him on the hook in lawsuit

Wilshire Grand Center, tallest skyscraper in the West, debuts in downtown Los Angeles

UPDATES:

8:50 a.m.: This article was updated to provide additional details about Southern California Edisons preventative measures.

This article was originally published at 4 p.m. on June 23
At 1,100 feet and the tallest building west of the Mississippi, L.A.s newest skyscraper is hard to miss.

With a sweeping sail of a roofline, it stands out by day among the flat tops of its tall rivals and is illuminated at night with an enveloping expanse of ever-changing colored lights.

But for its owner, the best view of the Wilshire Grand Center is looking east from Koreatown, where the just-completed $1.35-billion tower can be viewed as a symbol of how much Korean immigrants and their descendants have shaped their adopted city of Los Angeles.

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From Olympic Boulevard, you can directly see this building, the tallest and in the center of the downtown skyline, said Yang Ho Cho, chairman of Korean Air. All the Korean community in L.A. is very proud of this.

At the peak of visibility is the airlines logo, emblazoned atop the the 73-story building that houses an InterContinental hotel, several floors of leasable office space and five restaurants.

Yang Ho Cho, the man behind L.A.'s tallest building -- and the tallest building in the West -- stands next to the pool at the Wilshire Grand Center in downtown Los Angeles. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Cho, who also heads Koreas Hanjin Group, the airlines largest shareholder, celebrated the grand opening of the skyscraper on Friday evening with parties and a florid show of the buildings dancing LED lights visible for miles.

The Wilshire Grand is a new tent pole for Los Angeles, said Mayor Eric Garcetti a few days before it opened.

Indeed, the building with a curling lobby skylight that looks like a ski jump reflects the resurgence of downtown Los Angeles as the citys cultural center and economic engine. New apartments and condos are attracting thousands of residents  and the long-suffering white-collar office market is starting to turn around as more businesses follow.

For all its scope, the Wilshire Grand Center is only one of several large-scale real estate developments being built by foreign investors, including Chinese and Canadians who have homed in on Los Angeles in recent years.

For Cho, 68, the completion of the Wilshire Grand Center ends an odyssey that began in 1989 when he and his father, Choong Hoon Cho, the founder of the familys Hanjin business empire, paid $168 million for a hotel they hoped would serve travelers arriving on their flights from Korea.

That community in Los Angeles and Orange counties is now home to an estimated 225,000 Korean immigrants, the most in the United States.

The Chos bought the former Statler Hotel, built in 1952 at Wilshire Boulevard and Figueroa Street, because they thought it was a prime location. For more than two decades, it wasnt. Downtowns hotel market was relentlessly weak.

Chos company spent $40 million on improvements to the hotel, which was renamed Wilshire Grand, but occupancy didnt improve much. Cho held on through economic recessions.

Everyone told me to sell in tough times, he said. Im stubborn. I dont believe in right decisions. I believe in making decisions and then making them right.

Cho eventually decided that it would be best to level the old hotel and start over. Los Angeles architecture firm AC Martin was chosen to design the building and manage construction.

The Wilshire Grand Center, third building from left, is photographed at dusk on June 15, 2017. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

The project was originally envisioned as two smaller towers but was eventually combined into one grand architectural statement at the suggestion of Chos daughter Heather, a graduate of the USC Marshall School of Business who managed the familys hotel operations.

Demolition of the 16-story original hotel began in 2013 and the final piece of steel was put in place last September, but along the way Cho faced more than just the enormous challenges of raising the skyscraper and a connected seven-story building that houses ballrooms, a pool and a restaurant.

Hanjin, which was founded in 1945, grew by serving the U.S. military and pioneering containerized freight shipping for South Korea. But the familys shipping business was hit hard by last decades recession and it collapsed last year, leaving its cargo ships temporarily stranded outside ports worldwide for lack of fees.

Korean Air was the largest shareholder in its sister company, Hanjin Shipping, which Cho personally tried to rescue by lending it $46 million of his own money, according to Reuters. But that was to no avail as a South Korean court in February ruled that the carriers assets should be sold off.

His timing on the Wilshire Grand Center has been more fortunate. After years as a backwater, the downtown hotel market has become a destination of choice for business, leisure and convention travelers to Los Angeles.

The InterContinental has 889 rooms, with nightly rates around $250 and up. Guests check in on the 70th floor, in front of floor-to-ceiling windows where blocks of the city can be seen far below. There is a 24-hour cafe and a French steakhouse on the 71st floor that Chos architect Chris Martin describes as Marie Antoinette meets caballero California in style.

Though Cho is proud of the Korean provenance of the tower, he deliberately prioritized American influences in the design. The curved glass top, for instance, reflects the shape of one of Californias most famous rock formations, Half Dome in Yosemite.

This is in the middle of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., he said. We want it to be Western. Korean touches are mostly limited to a fancy Korean restaurant with a traditional Korean drum outside.

Cho and his team were really hard taskmasters at times, Martin said, with Cho weighing in even on small details.

We keep moving toward perfection, is how Cho put it.

The Wilshire Grands InterContinental joins a booming hotel market downtown, where developers are converting historic buildings into boutique hotels and erecting new glass towers.

A short walk away is the Hotel Indigo  a 350-room hotel that opened earlier this year at the massive Metropolis project. More rooms are on the way, including the 184-room Park Hyatt hotel at the upcoming Oceanwide Plaza project across the Staples Center.

The development follows years of criticism from city boosters that downtown lacked enough hotel rooms to attract events to the Convention Center.

Ernest Wooden Jr., president of the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, called the rooms at the Wilshire Grand critically important to our ability to attract larger conventions.

Even with all the new hotels opening up, downtown should be able to absorb the rooms with little problem, said Bruce Baltin, managing director of CBRE Hotels Consulting.

We know downtown has come very far, he said. What was one of the weaker sub-markets for decades is now one of the strongest.

Thats because in many ways, downtown is now defining the image of Los Angeles, Baltin said.

He said occupancy is around 78% downtown and it should dip a bit with all the new product but get back up to that level in two years.

The downtown office market is less robust, but as the first new skyscraper with offices completed since 1992, the Wilshire Grand Center has cachet.

When the project was envisioned as two buildings it included hotel rooms, condos and 1.5 million square feet of offices, but the single tower has far fewer offices and no residences.

Cho has 372,000 square feet to rent between floors 11 and 29 and so far has leases or tentative agreements for about half of the space to such tenants as real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield and the Southern California Assn. of Governments, he said.

Office vacancy downtown decreased from 17.2% in the first quarter a year ago to 16.5% this year, according to CBRE Group Inc.

To be considered a success, the Wilshire Grand would need to keep its hotel rooms mostly occupied and fill the offices at rents above the rest of the market. Potential tenants have expressed interest in more space than there is available, Cho said.

Although several U.S. developers are building projects downtown, foreign investors such as Korean Air are among the biggest players.

Construction on the $1-billion mixed-use Grand Avenue Project is expected to begin next year on Bunker Hill after New York developer Related Cos. received a financial infusion from and established a partnership with one of Chinas largest state-owned companies, China Communications Construction Group.

Other moneyed Chinese developers such as Greenland Group, Oceanwide Holdings and Shenzhen Hazens Real Estate Group have already launched mega mixed-use projects that are changing the skyline with residences, hotels and stores.

Onni Group of Vancouver, Canada, has billions of dollars worth of mixed-use developments underway or in planning stages downtown, including a 49-story tower on Olive Street that will be one of the tallest residential towers in California.

On Thursday, Cho stopped on the open-air lounge atop the Wilshire Grand Center to snap a photo of the spire that rises about 175 feet above the building, giving it the bragging rights as the tallest in the West, surpassing the U.S. Bank Tower on Bunker Hill, which opened in 1989.

Korean Air passengers arriving on more than 30 flights a week from Inchon will be able to see it from the air as their planes circle into LAX, he said.

After 25 years, he said, I have achieved my dreams.

To read the article in Spanish, click here

roger.vincent@latimes.com

Twitter: @rogervincent

Times staff writers Andrew Khouri and James Rufus Koren contributed to this report.

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A Santa Monica couple seeking to defend more than two years of part-time work is going to battle with Snap Inc. over whether the term geofilters can be trademarked.

Tracy and Paul Grand picked up a partial victory this month when the international body in charge of website name disputes ruled against Snaps bid to snatch geofilters.com from their control.

Their next move is expected to be a formal filing in August opposing Snaps effort to secure a U.S. trademark for the word geofilter. In Snaps Snapchat messaging app, geofilters apply decorative graphics to images that often name or depict a location, such as a shop or city.

Paul Grand, a veteran software developer who runs competitions and mentorship programs for medical device start-ups, says hes been working on an app related to location-based graphics since late 2014.

Snapchat introduced geofilters in mid-2014. About the same time, Apple announced it would begin allowing app makers to create editing features for the iPhone camera app. Its that update that Paul Grand says prompted him to start thinking about building his geofiltering tool. He registered geofilters.com in November 2014.

Using spare time on weekends to build the app, he says he has come up with a working version. But he and his wife dont think its ready yet for release. He declined to say why exactly the geofilter term is essential to the app, but he doesnt want Snap to have a monopoly.

Weve spent three years developing it, and were passionate about it, Paul Grand said.

The Grands see geofilter  like banner ad or profile photo  as a term that has come to describe a feature across the tech industry, as opposed to a distinctive word associated only with Snapchat.

The three-person panel at the World Intellectual Property Organization that heard the geofilters.com dispute agreed, finding that Snap failed to show that the consuming public has come to recognize geofilter as an indicator of the source of the product rather than the product itself.

Snap declined to comment for this article, but it told the panel that the Grands have no legitimate interest in the term and that they registered the domain in bad faith. As evidence, the Los Angeles company cited the Grands suggesting that the URL was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Paul Grand said a formal offer was never solicited or made.

Snaps desire to protect the term makes sense. It produces some of the graphics internally, but also allows customized submissions from the public and paid ones from advertisers. Ordinary users, let alone big-name brands, are expected to collectively spend tens of millions of dollars on geofilters tied to their weddings, birthdays and graduations.

Even if they win trademark protection, the Grands fear that Snap could pursue litigation against them. Even if Snap cant use geofilters.com, it can still make life difficult for the Grands, the couples attorney, David Miclean, said.

Tracy Grand runs JacketFlap, a decade-old online community centered on childrens books. And Paul Grand operates MedTech Innovator, which he formed after more than a decade as an investor at a biotech firm. He also founded and sold online shopping and visitor-tracking companies during the 1990s.

Theyve toyed with other ideas, including a smartphone app that would use the devices camera to identify lice in someones hair. The ideas led them to register dozens of URLs over the years  evidence in Snaps eyes, according to the WIPO filings, that the couple registered the disputed domain name after the company launched its geofilters in an attempt to sell it at an exorbitant price.

Paul Grand disputed the accusation, saying thats never been our M.O. [This] is the first time weve dealt with a dispute. 

UCLA Investment Co. dropped support of venture capital firm tied to harassment accusations

The group that manages $2 billion of UCLAs endowment had invested in a venture capital firm whose co-founder has come under scrutiny this week for allegedly unprofessional behavior toward women.

Six women, three of whom allowed their names to be used, came forward in a story in the Information saying that Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital made unwanted sexual advances as they tried to seek investment from his firm. On Friday, Caldbeck went on an indefinite leave of absence from the firm and apologized for mistakes over the years.

UCLA Investment was among many contributors to the $125 million in Binary Capitals inaugural fund in 2014. But over undisclosed concerns with the management style of Caldbeck and his partner Jonathan Teo, UCLA Investment decided not to invest in the San Francisco firms second fund, which was raised last year. And it has no intentions of putting money into Binary Capitals newest fund.

Joe Bryant, associate investment director for UCLA Investment, said her team had stepped up the amount of research it does before investing in venture capital firms. After this weeks revelations, among the questions she plans to bring up are whether venture capital firm founders have faced sexual harassment allegations.

Folks should be a lot more careful when committing to first-time funds, Bryant said.

Binary Capital didnt respond to a request to comment.

Former insurance commissioner seeks to rally start-up creation in Southern California

Steve Poizner, the former state insurance commissioner who sold a GPS technology start-up to Qualcomm years ago, launched a nonprofit venture this week that plans to bring together investors, universities and entrepreneurs.

Poizner, who splits time between La Jolla and Los Gatos, plans to work nearly full time on the staff-less operation, a spokeswoman said. The Alliance for Southern California Innovation initiative remains in the early stages, but its major goals include serving as a local conduit for investors from other regions and coming up with a branding strategy for Southern Californias tech community. Boston Consulting Group plans to work for free to develop recommendations by the fall on boosting technology development in Southern California.

Michael Yanover, Creative Artists Agency business development head, and Scott Wolfe, an attorney at Latham & Watkins, are among volunteer leaders who plan to begin brainstorming ideas. Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and venture capitalist Bill Maris, whose $150-million health tech fund is based in San Diego Countys Cardiff-by-the-Sea, have signed on as advisors.

Elsewhere on the Web

Entertainment company AEG invested in e-sports team operator Immortals, which plans to host events at AEGs L.A. Live complex in downtown Los Angeles, according to ESPN.

invested in e-sports team operator Immortals, which plans to host events at AEGs L.A. Live complex in downtown Los Angeles, according to ESPN. The latest investment in Culver City mobile game maker Scopely valued the start-up at near $600 million, according to Variety.

valued the start-up at near $600 million, according to Variety. San Jose continues to woo tech conferences away from Los Angeles, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

continues to woo tech conferences away from Los Angeles, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Yoshi , a subscription service that brings the gas pump to drivers wherever their car is, launched in Los Angeles, according to L.A. Biz.

, a subscription service that brings the gas pump to drivers wherever their car is, launched in Los Angeles, according to L.A. Biz. Los Angeles start-up FinalPrice wants people to pay $99-a-year for access to discounted travel bookings, according to TechCrunch.

wants people to pay $99-a-year for access to discounted travel bookings, according to TechCrunch. Los Angeles media start-up Beautycon expects to generate more than $25 million in revenue next year, according to Forbes.

In case you missed it

Coming up

The Los Angeles Venture Capital Assn. hosts First Look L.A. at Cal State Los Angeles on Wednesday. The event is expected to feature about 40 young companies in physical and life sciences and presentations tied to research out of Caltech , UC Santa Barbara and the University of Hawaii.

paresh.dave@latimes.com

Twitter: @peard33

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UPDATES:

11:40 a.m., June 25: This article was updated to provide more specific details from the WIPO filing.

This article was originally published at 3 a.m. on June 24.
Celebrating #HarryPotter20: How Harry Potter and his blockbuster films came of age on screen

The Boy Who Lived has cast his spell on the box office since Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, the first film in Warner Bros. blockbuster franchise, hit theaters in 2001.

The bestselling, seven-book series was adapted into eight record-breaking films -- and a two-part play -- as the boy wizard ventured through Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the wizarding world with his pals Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, taking on the enigmatic Lord Voldemort and his magical henchmen each school year.

As J.K. Rowlings debut novel Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone -- the first of the books from which the decade-spanning films were adapted -- marks its 20th anniversary, heres a reminder of how Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviewed the Harry Potter films. (Spoiler alert: He didnt always like them.)

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone film is imaginative and faithful but shuns any risk-taking (2001)

As his 11th birthday approaches, orphan Harry Potter learns that hes a wizard and enrolls at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where his reputation as the Boy Who Lived precedes him during his magical training.

The result is a remarkably faithful copy of the book that treats the text like holy writ (hence its 2-hour-and-33-minute length), wrote The Times film critic Kenneth Turan. From the gold in Gringotts, the safe-as-houses goblin-run bank, to the centaur lurking in the forbidden forest that adjoins Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, so much is presented just as written that Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone starts to resemble one of those fiendishly exact replicas of great works of art that Sunday painters can be seen working on in galleries of museums.

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets doesnt capture the well-balanced tone of the book (2002)

In their second year at Hogwarts, Harry and his pals Ron and Hermione contend with a celebrity author professor and a well-meaning house elf named Dobby who thwart the trio in unexpected ways.

The darkness that invades Chamber of Secrets underlines how well the books managed to exactly balance good and evil, dark and light, so that within their pages you seemed to be experiencing both at the same time. Not so here, Turan wrote. Because Chamber of Secrets cant seem to get the balance right, it ends up broadly overdoing things on both ends of the spectrum. The films scary moments are too monstrous and its happy times have too much idiotic beaming, making the film feel like the illegitimate offspring of Alien and The Absent-Minded Professor.

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban film comes close to capturing the essence of the books (2004)

The wizarding world gets markedly darker as convicted murderer Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), who is believed to have killed Harrys parents, escapes from the Azkaban prison and the soul-sucking Dementors are loosed to chase him down. Director Alfonso Cuaron takes the helm from Chris Columbus, who directed the two previous films.

"[T]he final hour of the two-hour-and-21-minute Azkaban is the closest any of the films has gotten to capturing the enormously pleasing essence of the Potter books, wrote Turan, adding, Those three leads (Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Emma Watson as Hermione, Rupert Grint as Ron) play characters who are now 13, an age when anger and frustration are more publicly expressed. One of the benefits of Cuarons direction, his expertise with younger actors, means that the constant determination and occasional fury exhibited by the characters, especially Harry and Hermione, are completely convincing.

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire finally gets Harry Potter right (2005)

Harrys surprising inclusion in the prestigious Triwizard Tournament, as a fourth-year student, raises concerns and brings danger to the Hogwarts castle.

Its taken them long enough, but the movies have finally gotten Harry Potter right, wrote Turan. It has fallen to the veteran [director] Mike Newell, eager, in his own words, to break out of this goody-two-shoes feel, to make the first Harry Potter film to be wire-to-wire satisfying.

Though memorable acting is neither called for nor delivered on the part of Goblets collection of juveniles, Radcliffes Harry does get one thing exactly right. Watching him face myriad challenges, were convinced that Harrys heart will lead him to do the right thing. He does good in the most natural way and, like so much of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, thats just how it should be.

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix cant shake an episodic feeling (2007)

With the Ministry of Magic refusing to acknowledge Lord Voldemorts (Ralph Fiennes) return, fifth-year Harry is brooding at school as he contends with spooky visions and Ministry transplant Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton). His knowledge of the dark magic-fighting organization, the Order of the Phoenix, and a prophecy further complicate matters.

"[Director David] Yates and his team handle the films visuals well, including the impressive sets for the atrium of the Ministry of Magic and its Hall of Prophecy, as well as fine flying sequences involving either broomsticks or equine creatures called Thestrals, Turan wrote. The director also works well with the films juvenile leads, which is important, because these are the raging hormone years at Hogwarts School, and that is especially true where Harry is concerned. Looking so disgruntled in his gray hoodie that you fear he might start rapping, Harry comes off as more Grumpy Potter than the bright light of the wizarding world.

6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is well-crafted but sometimes hard to endure (2009)

As dark magic spills into the Muggle world, Harrys mentor, Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), tasks him with bringing down Lord Voldemort. But Harrys discovery of an old textbook teaches him more than he expected about his past.

Now in its sixth episode shot over an eight-year span, with two more features still to come, this one-of-a-kind film cycle has become as comfortable and reliable as an old shoe, providing a degree of dependability thats becoming increasingly rare, Turan wrote. As directed by David Yates, who did the previous film and is on tap for the final two, Half-Blood Prince demonstrates the ways that the Potter pictures have become the modern exemplars of establishment moviemaking. We dont turn to these films for thrilling or original cinema, we look for a level of craft, consistency and, most of all, fidelity to the originals -- all of which we get.

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 1" (2010)

The penultimate film sees Harry, Hermione and Ron venturing out into the real world to locate and destroy Lord Voldemorts soul-encapsulating Horcruxes as Hogwarts and the wizarding world fall to He Who Must Not Be Named.

Much of the plot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows involves the attempt to find and destroy a series of Horcruxes, and if you havent a clue about what they are or why theyre important, you might as well stay home, Turan wrote. There is something different, however, about this Potter movie, and that is the words Part 1' that end the title. Understandably distraught about Hallows being the last of the phenomenally popular J.K. Rowling novels, Warner Bros. has split the final effort into two films and is likely kicking itself for not having thought of that with the earlier books.

(It should be noted that the studio reboots the wizarding world with the forthcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series. The first film hit theaters in 2016.)

8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2" (2011)

Harry goes wand-to-wand with Lord Voldemort, concluding Harrys final year at the wizarding school with the epic Battle of Hogwarts.

In a classic storybook finish, however, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2' turns out to be more than the last of its kind. Almost magically, it ends up being one of the best of the series as well, Turan wrote. The Harry Potter films, like the boy wizard himself, have had their creative ups and downs, so its especially satisfying that this final film, ungainly title and all, has been worth the wait. Though no expense has been spared in its production, it succeeds because it brings us back to the combination of magic, adventure and emotion that created the books popularity in the first place.

For more of The Times Harry Potter anniversary coverage, go here.
Center Stage: African American Women in Silent Race Films In the first half of the 20th century, hundreds of movies coined race films were created by black writers and directors, mostly outside of the Hollywood system. These films starred all black casts in stories that eschewed the negative stereotypes seen in mainstream studio movies. These films, which were marketed to and largely seen by black audiences, offered actresses such as Evelyn Preer, Flo Clements and Cathryn Caviness the kind of meaty leading roles that would likely pass the modern Bechdel Test. More than half of these film were lost over time, but the California African American Museum will screen five of them: Within Our Gates (1920); The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920); By Right of Birth (1921); The Scar of Shame (1927); The Blood of Jesus (1941). CAAM, 600 State Dr., Los Angeles. (213) 744-7432. www.caamuseum.org/ The series starts on June 28 and the films will screen in the above order starting at 10 a.m., Tue.-Sat. through Oct. 15. Beginning July 2, the films will also screen at 11 a.m. on Sundays; the museum is closed on Mondays. Free.

Freeway Writer-director Matthew Brights surprising and satiric 1996 take on the Little Red Riding Hood tale is an almost Lynchian black comedy, complete with a blond anti-heroine (19-year-old Reese Witherspoon), and effective performances from Kiefer Sutherland and Brooke Shields as Bob and Mimi Wolverton as well as Amanda Plummer, Brittany Murphy and Dan Hedaya. Granny (Kitty Fox), by the way, lives in modern-day Stockton in this iteration of the tale. A 35 mm print will screen at the Cinefamily, Silent Movie Theater, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles. (323) 655-2510. www.cinefamily.org June 25, 8 p.m. $12; free for Cinefamily members.

The Hippopotamus Once-acclaimed British poet turned alcoholic and disgraced theater critic Ted Wallace (Roger Allam) is hired to investigate a series of what he sniffingly refers to as healing miracles at an English country manor. The 2017 film, based on the comic novel of the same name by British wit Stephen Fry, even features an uproarious (and now prescient) interruption of a Shakespeare play. After the film will be a Q&A featuring Stephen Fry, Roger Allam and the filmmakers recorded this year at the Hay Festival in Wales. Laemmle Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills; Laemmle Town Center, 17200 Ventura Blvd., Encino; Laemmle Playhouse, 673 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. www.laemmle.com June 28, 7:30 p.m. $15 for adults; $12 for seniors.

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My Neighbor Totoro Beloved Japanese animator Hayao Miyazakis gentle 1988 story is about Mei and Satsuki, two sisters who discover a host of spirits living in and around their new home, not far from what turns out to be a matter-of-factly enchanted forest. Miyazakis more recent films such as Ponyo, Spirited Away and Howls Moving Castle have shown him to be one of the worlds modern filmmaking masters. The gentle giant, Totoro, a rabbit-like spirit, has his own cult-following and even made a cameo appearance in Toy Story 3. My Neighbor Totoro is the first in the six film monthly Studio Ghibli Fest. The English dubbed version of the film will screen on June 25 and the Japanese-language, English subtitles version will screen on June 26. AMC, Cinemark, Edwards, Regal and other theaters, June 25, 12:55 p.m. June 26, 7 p.m. $12.50 www.fathomevents.com

1776 More than a decade before the birth of Hamilton composer-playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Broadway musical 1776, about the behind-the-scenes machinations of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Hancock to get the Declaration of Independence signed at the Second Continental Congress, won three Tony Awards. the American Cinematheque screens the 1972 film adaptation of 1776, starring William Daniels, Howard Da Silva and Ken Howard, as part of its Independence Day 2017 celebration. A discussion with director Peter H. Hunt will follow. Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica. (310) 260-1528. June 30, 7:30 p.m. $12; $8 for Cinematheque members. www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/

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The hottest ticket at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, the film people pushed and shoved hardest to get into, was not a heavy drama or heartbreaking romance, but a three-hour-plus documentary on the history of French cinema. If you dont think that sounds scintillating, you dont know Bertrand Tavernier.

Tavernier is more than the director of the 190-minute My Journey Through French Cinema. At age 76 hes had a remarkably long and varied cinematic career. This encompasses work as a film historian, a dramatic director whose more than two dozen films include the Oscar-winning Round Midnight and A Sunday in the Country, even a publicist who helped promote some of the key films of the French New Wave.

More than any of this, and linking them all, are Taverniers analytical powers and his enthusiasm, both of which are on view in Journey, which is now playing at Laemmles Royal.

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Settled comfortably on a sofa in the Beverly Hills guest house of Irwin Winkler (his Round Midnight producer), the director was in Los Angeles recently, checking in with fellow devotees like Leonard Maltin and Quentin Tarantino on the way to showing his documentary to eager audiences around the country.

MORE: My Journey Through French Cinema is a deeply personal and passionate trip 

Given that Tavernier is as formidably articulate in English as he is in French, the chance to talk to him personally about this film in particular and film culture in general was too tempting to pass up.

The director refers to Journey as a film of admiration and gratitude, an opportunity to share my passions, to share with audiences what I have discovered. I wanted it to be personal, moving, funny  everything cinema was for me.

I live in a world where I see a growing ignorance about films and books of the past. People are completely taken over by the tyranny of the present.  Bertrand Tavernier

As I was becoming old enough to see the grave, I wanted to express how grateful I am not only for the joys these filmmakers gave me, but for the fight they put up, the courage they had.

Journey covers French film from the start of sound to the early years of the New Wave, with emphasis on classic directors like Jean Renoir and lesser known names like Edmond T. Greville, stopping when Tavernier himself became a feature director with 1974s The Clockmaker of St. Paul. If these pictures are firmly rooted in the past, thats the way he thinks it should be.

Those films gave us so much material, so much to think about; I want to throw light on them, on how alive they are, the director explains. I live in a world where I see a growing ignorance about films and books of the past. People are completely taken over by the tyranny of the present.

Tavernier admits to being inspired by two earlier documentaries by Martin Scorsese, 1995s A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies and 1999s My Voyage to Italy, but points out that while Marty had a huge team he himself had but five people to work through an enormous amount of material.

We were trying to get rights, negotiating deals for 600 clips from more than 100 films. Before that, we discussed 1,200 to 1,500 clips and had to watch 1,000.

Some films had no material or the rights were not completely clear or people were asking for too much money. We never had a problem with the people making films, it was the people holding the rights.

Still, despite maneuvering through all this cinema, Tavernier is not done with French film. He is working on a completely different TV series about all the people I left out. I have so much remorse, so much guilt, about leaving out [Robert] Bresson, [Max] Ophuls, [Jacques] Tati, [Jean] Gremillon  one of the most underrated directors  [Marcel] Pagnol, [Henri-Georges] Clouzot. Its going to be eight hours and its not enough, I would need 10.

When you put a label on a film you put it in a box, it prevents you from from discovering what makes a film unique.  Bertrand Tavernier

A marvelous raconteur, Tavernier loves to tell stories about the filmmakers hes known, his mentors Jean-Pierre Melville and Claude Sautet and giants like the one-eyed American director Raoul Walsh, who told Tavernier he stopped a meddlesome producer from visiting his set by dropping his glass eye in a cup of coffee, wiping it off and putting it back in the empty socket.

Tavernier gets especially animated when talking about the excitement of discovering previously little known films he considers gems, like 1958s Police Judiciaire, a procedural by Maurice de Canonge, a director who most of the time was a lousy director. But this is really rewarding, so you have to be always open-minded.

If Tavernier loves movies unreservedly, what he cant abide is the cultures habit of categorizing them. I dont like the idea of schools of filmmaking, like the New Wave or poetic realism, the director explains. When you put a label on a film you put it in a box, it prevents you from from discovering what makes a film unique. All my life I have fought against general statements. I refuse these fights; I want to praise all kinds of films.

One of Taverniers favorite anecdotes involves director John Boorman visiting the deathbed of the great British filmmaker David Lean.

Lean took his arm and said, John, we had a great life, we made films. Boorman said, They tried to stop us, and Lean replied, Yes, but we fooled them. He died the next day.

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While All Eyez on Me, the long-gestating biopic of prolific, slain rapper Tupac Shakur, was mostly a hit with fans, the film has been derided by critics, and its authenticity has been questioned by both friends of the late rapper and hip-hop heavyweights.

And on Friday, former Vibe journalist Kevin Powell filed a federal lawsuit against Morgan Creek, Lionsgate, and the producers and writers of the film for copyright-infringement. Powell in the suit admits to having concocted a made-up character in his articles; a figure with the same name appears in All Eyez on Me.

While some of the content in these articles was factual, some portions of the article were changed or embellished, reads the suit, filed Friday in an U.S. district court in New York. The court papers state that some of Powells accounts of fictional characters and re-worked narratives appear in the film.

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In question is the films alleged usage of a series of interviews the activist and writer conducted while Shakur was behind bars for sexual assault. Powells meetings with Shakur were the basis of several Vibe features in the 1990s, including the rappers jailhouse confessional, which became one of the hip-hop magazines most famous covers.

Claiming that significant portions of All Eyez on Me were based on his interviews, Powell is asking a judge to have the Lionsgate film pulled from theaters and is seeking an unspecified amount to be determined by a jury.

Since its release last week, the film has grossed more than $32 million domestically.

Powell has previously said he needed to leave details regarding the rapper out of his reporting as well as change names in order to protect the artist. Part of the basis of his suit is the films inclusion of a character named Nigel, whom Powell created as a composite of a real person named Haitian Jack.

The name and character of Nigel in the Original Work was specifically created by the plaintiff without the authority or encouragement of Tupac Shakur, reads the complaint.

This made-up character of Nigel was the embellishment of a real-life character that was central to the narrative in plaintiffs articles, the suit continues.

The lawsuit addresses other alleged similarities. Powell argues that a bulk of the film appears to be based on his jailhouse interviews with the artist. In the film, the interviewer, portrayed by actor Hill Harper, is never given a name.

Representatives for the film have not yet responded to requests for comment.

Powells lawsuit adds to the drama that has embroiled the film.

In 2011, Morgan Creek announced it had teamed with Emmett Furla Oasis Films to co-finance and co-produce the film, with Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Magnificent Seven) attached to direct.

The filmed aimed to chronicle Shakurs rise as a rapper and actor, his legal troubles, his stint at Death Row Records and the 1996 drive-by shooting that claimed his life at age 25, which came at the height of the East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry.

His slaying, like that of peer Christopher Wallace (a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G.), remains unsolved.

A legal battle between Morgan Creek and Shakurs mother, Afeni, over creative control added to the projects hold-ups  both parties eventually settled, with Afeni working with filmmakers and granting rights for her sons music catalog. Afeni, who died in May 2016, isnt credited on the film  reportedly at the request of the Shakur estate.

Yet director Fuqua dropped out, and John Singleton was next to fill the role, signing on to rewrite, direct and produce the film in 2014. He had especially close ties with the late rapper, having directed him in 1993s urban romantic drama Poetic Justice alongside Janet Jackson and had hoped for him to star in what became his 2001 film Baby Boy.

A little over a year later, however, Singleton was out and Carl Franklin (Devil in a Blue Dress) was in. Singleton criticized producers for not respecting Shakurs legacy.

Adding to the drama, producers Emmett/Furla filed a $10-million lawsuit against Morgan Creek in October 2015, claiming the company had breached a co-production agreement by selecting a lead actor and setting a budget and production schedule without Emmett/Furlas approval.

Franklin then quietly exited the project and was replaced by Benny Boom, who has directed music videos for a variety of A-list hip-hop and R&B stars.

Upon release last weekend, critics lambasted the film  The Times review called the screenwriting lazy  and the artists childhood friend Jada Pinkett Smith said the portrayal of her relationship with Shakur was deeply hurtful.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 

gerrick.kennedy@latimes.com

For more music news follow me on Twitter:@GerrickKennedy
In the morning today, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Portugal beginning his three-nation tour. He is scheduled to visit Portugal today, the U.S. on June 25 and 26, and the Netherlands on June 27.

PM Modi yesterday said "My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world."

"My visit to Netherlands seeks to boost bilateral ties & deepen economic cooperation," he added.

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Michael Kors and Alina Cho were interrupted by animal rights activists early on in their discussion Wednesday night at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, but neither was about to let the protesters ruin the night.

One minute the designer was talking about giving his likeness a cute backside in a resort print and moments later he was encircled by demonstrators chanting about his use of fur. But Cho and Kors kept their cool. Once order was restored, after a short break, they returned to the stage to discuss his career. After the fact, Kors said of his intrepidness, Listen, I had the ceiling fall during a runway show and hit Suzy Menkes on the head, and the show went on.

Kors priority is his shoppers. I always say that I make the frame so that the women who wear the clothes are the picture, he explained. Here, are a few of the highlights.

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The companys recent decision to close 100 stores

We all have to remember that nothing is ever going to compete with the rush, the rustle of the tissue paper, the shopping bag  you cant give that up. We just did a trunk show in Chicago. Youre showing clothes to women who have seen them on their phones. Its not quite the same thing. Its a matter of how all of this works together how you shop online on your phone, on your laptop, in a store.

Giving back with Gods Love We Deliver and the U.N. World Food Program Watch Hunger Stop

We live a very fast life in New York. A lot of people are very privileged. I tell everyone, Go deliver a meal. It will change your world.

Why is Asia so important to everyones business?

Everyone has to remember the best word in fashion is curiosity, so if you have a customer who is excited, inspired, enthused and curious isnt that the best business opportunity? Now weve seen there is less variance from region to region. Maybe we sell more boots in Moscow or more sandals in Singapore, but our customer travels and they actually have a very similar point of view.

Sizing up Mario Testinos shots of Edie Campbell in the new fall campaign

I love that shes so chic and so bored. Whats amazing though in fashion, a lot of people think fashion has to be sad and dour. And it can never be happy or, God forbid, wearable. Mario and I both love joy, energy, luxury and glamour. Sometimes I hear people say, Oh, Im going to wear that for special occasions. Im like, Your life is a special occasion. Wear your damn beaded dress with a sweatshirt over it. Enjoy the things you own.

His view of the Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons exhibit

Mind boggling. When you see the breadth of her work, its remarkable. Everyone says they wear Comme des Garcons T-shirts or cute sneakers, but then you look at these pieces that certainly were never designed to be worn or packed. I mean packable? Its not walkable or sittable. Heres a designer whos not thinking of that when shes creating these things. Shes really creating in a very different sphere.

Walking the red carpet and dressing Kerry Washington for this years Met Gala

Torture  the stairs freak me out. They seem endless. When I talk to celebrities who have walked the red carpet a zillion times, they say they still get nervous. Kerry had just had a baby and I said, You want everyone to see how remarkable the bod is looking.Right before we were about to get into the car, I asked her, Are you wearing commando briefs? She said yeah. I said, Youve got to switch your underwear. So we switched everything and sewed her underwear to the dress at the last minute literally on our way. Thats the ultimate couture attention.

Melania Trump wearing Michael Kors

Shes been a customer of ours for a long time. What we have to remember is that my favorite customers are opinionated. They know what works on them, whats right for them.The simple truth is if I do my job well we have customers who are 17 and who are 90, customers who are size zero and size 22. So I dont think its a political thing.

Securing the largest IPO for a fashion company in 2011

When I first started in fashion, American fashion was for America. The reality is if you have been doing something for a long time and can still stay curious, that is the greatest thing as a human being. And certainly to do what you love. But I think it says a lot about American fashion and how potent American style is globally.

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In his fashion collections for Milan-based brand Moschino, Jeremy Scott is hardly one to play it safe. (His latest offerings, shown earlier this month in Hollywood, were predicated on showgirls, fire motifs and Playboy bunnies.)

So when Scott collaborated with Italian furniture house Gufram for his debut decor line, he wasnt about to rein it in.

The Los Angeles-based designer created four pieces in the capsule collection, among them his interpretation of Guframs signature Bocca sofa -- a big, squishy pair of red lips.

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Gufram talked to me about taking their iconic Bocca and playing with it, said Scott at the recent launch party for the Moschino Kisses Gufram collection at Mass Beverly in West Hollywood. Well-wishers lounged on his iteration of the Bocca, which has a thick zipper down the middle and is priced at $17,998.

They also rested on his High Heel -- an ottoman housed within a 4-foot-tall black shoe. (The other pump in the pair has glass shelves: $27,900 for the pair.) The final item in the line is a 6 -foot-high cabinet on wheels modeled on Moschinos popular biker bag, complete with studs, zippers and pockets ($81,900).

I love surrealism, said Scott. I think of design like water in a pitcher. I can pour it into a glass, a pool, into the crack of a sidewalk, and build creativity in whatever shape I have to.

Where in the home does he suggest these pieces fit?

You can have the shoes in your boudoir, he says, the bookcase in your library. And who doesnt need a lip couch in their lives?

Where: Mass Beverly, 900 Beverly Blvd., West Hollywood

When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays. Closed Sundays.

Info: www.massbeverly.com
Bill Cosby was not convicted of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand.

Nor was he acquitted.

And while his supporters may be claiming a victory, his legal travails are far from over.

Following the declaration of a mistrial on June 17, prosecutors in Montgomery County, Penn., vowed to retry the now-disgraced comedian and actor on charges that he drugged and assaulted Constand, a Temple University employee, in 2004 at his Philadelphia-area home.

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In addition to that, Cosby is facing 10 civil lawsuits by women alleging sexual assault or defamation.

And yet, instead of a speck of humility, there was Cosbys spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, in an interview with a Birmingham, Ala., TV station on Wednesday, acting as if Cosby not only had been exonerated but is perfectly positioned to impart valuable advice to other men who feel unfairly accused of sexual assault.

Mr. Cosby wants to get back to work, Wyatt said. We are now planning town halls.

Really? asked WBRC-TV host Janice Rogers. (I wish I could convey to you the alarmed tone of her voice when she interjected that, but youll have to watch for yourself.)

This is bigger than Bill Cosby, Wyatt said. This issue can affect any young person, especially young athletes of today. They need to know what they are facing when they are hanging out and partying, when they are doing certain things they shouldnt be doing. And it also affects, you know, married men.

I know that Cosby likes to give advice; for years, he admonished black men to pull up their pants, stop using slang and be better fathers while he was (by his own admission) giving women pills for sexual purposes, an exploitation so egregious that his career and reputation are now in ruins.

Its in keeping with Cosbys legendary arrogance that he thinks he can hold town halls offering his experience as a cautionary tale to young men  especially athletes and married men  who are doing things they shouldnt be doing when they are hanging out and partying.

After all, Cosby has been accused of sexually assaulting nearly 60 women over a period of 50 years, so clearly, he knows the material.

At Wyatts side during that preposterous TV interview was Ebonee Benson, a spokeswoman for Cosbys wife, Camille. Benson suggested that because statutes of limitations for sexual assault are being extended that men are now subject to criminal charges for, well, almost nothing!

A brush against the shoulder, you know, anything at this point can be considered sexual assault, she said.

In a statement read by Benson, Camille Cosby ripped apart just about everyone involved in her husbands prosecution. The prosecutor, she declared through Benson, was heinously and exploitatively ambitious. The judge was collaborating with the district attorney. Constands attorneys were totally unethical. And the media was blatantly vicious.

Well, did Camille Cosby suggest in any way that her husband had misbehaved? Did she address his admissions in a 2005 police report and 2006 civil deposition that he had given Quaaludes, a powerful sedative, to women with whom he wanted to have sex?

Nope.

Some feminists were none too happy about Camille Cosbys failure to even acknowledge her husbands admitted misdeeds. But not everyone was willing to criticize.

Her statement was very vitriolic and I have never heard anything like that, said attorney Gloria Allred, who represents at least 33 Cosby accusers, including Kelly Johnson, the only alleged victim besides Constand who testified in the Pennsylvania trial. But I am not interested in attacking Camille because I feel in many ways that she may be a victim as well of what her husband has done.

I agree. Camille Cosby is probably living in her own private hell. Punishment enough.

::

I asked Allred what she thought about a Cosby jurors statement, made to the Philadelphia Inquirer shortly after the mistrial, that he didnt believe Constand was assaulted because Cosby said she had brought him some small gifts, and that they had consensual sex once after she arrived at his home in a midriff-baring top. (Constand denied that such an encounter ever took place.)

Lets face it, the juror said. She went up to his house with a bare midriff and incense and bath salts. What the heck? He also told the newspaper she should have dressed properly and left the incense in the store.

Its very disturbing, said Allred, who has represented hundreds of women in sexual assault and rape cases. Wearing a certain kind of clothing is not an invitation to a rape or sexually assault a woman. She can wear whatever she wants. For us to be stuck in this conversation is so unfortunate. Its also off subject. The issue was consent.

On Tuesday, Allred will be in court in Santa Monica to set a trial date for one of her clients, Judy Huth, who has filed a civil case against Cosby in Los Angeles Superior Court. Huth alleges that when she was 15 years old in 1974, Cosby gave her beer, and sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion.

::

When someone who has been accused by so many of so much finds a way to portray himself as the wronged party, something is terribly amiss.

Maybe prosecutors did not meet their burden of proof in Cosbys first trial. And maybe they will fall short again.

Cosby, however, is a victim of nothing but his own hubris.

Get more of Robin Abcarians work and follow her on Twitter @AbcarianLAT.

robin.abcarian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AbcarianLAT

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Two news items jumped out at me in the last several days.

Item one: The U.S. Senate, after conducting its business behind closed doors, burped up a healthcare reform package that is likely to throw millions of people off the health insurance rolls.

Item two: The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced a contract agreement that offers free healthcare for members of the utilitys biggest union, and its being rushed to a vote without much chance for public input.

Both deals are subject to review. The U.S. Senate has to vote on healthcare reform, and the L.A. City Council is scheduled to vote on the DWP contract Wednesday.

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So why the feast or famine? Why no healthcare for some, but free healthcare if you happen to work for the DWP?

Union members and Department of Water and Power workers rally outside the DWP in 2014. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Extremes from both Republicans and Democrats

The short answer is politics. Congressional Republicans and President Trump are fixed on firebombing Obamacare, both the good and bad of it, throwing the frail and elderly and poor off the rolls while handing tax breaks to wealthy individuals and medical companies.

Shamelessly evil? Yes. A total obliteration of Trumps repeated promises to deliver cheaper, better healthcare for all, no sweat? Obviously.

But in Democrat-led Los Angeles, we have the opposite extreme, as our very own shell game plays out. If Republicans steal your health insurance in the near future, my advice is that you apply for a job at the DWP. Or maybe at City Hall, where the vast majority of employees still pay little or nothing for health insurance despite promises from Mayor Eric Garcetti and others to wrestle contributions out of them.

Garcetti was elected mayor in 2013 despite being targeted for defeat by the DWPs biggest union and its two-fisted bruiser of a boss, Brian DArcy. So Garcetti punched back, stalling a contract agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18 and waging a public fight for a better deal.

Garcetti notched a couple of wins, sticking IBEW with three years of no raises followed by a 2% jump. But on healthcare contributions, the mayor swung and missed.

This isnt the last move we can have on these issues, Garcetti said at the time. There is an ability for us to adjust healthcare costs.

Well, here we are four years later. Wheres the adjustment, and wheres the public fight to win it?

Garcetti did score a couple of concessions in this contract. He got mandatory annual performance reviews of employees, and he put the kibosh on annual DWP contributions of $4 million to two training institutes that dont appear to have been much more than cookie jars for the union.

Employees get more, DWP ratepayers get the bill

But on healthcare, DWP employees got another pass, and ratepayers will keep picking up the tab.

The deal, backed by Garcettis appointees to the DWP board, also offers six raises by 2021. Some employees will get a 22% pay hike, depending on certain variables, even as wages remain flat through much of the private sector.

In the story by my colleagues David Zahniser and Dakota Smith, DWP General Manager David Wright said that in the case of linemen, raises were necessary to keep them from leaving for better-paying utilities.

Was my memory as fuzzy as a cheap sweater? I thought wed reported that DWP employees make far more than their counterparts at City Hall and more than their counterparts at other utilities.

So I checked with Fred Pickel of the citys Office of Public Accountability, and he referred me to a report by a consulting firm that compared DWP pay and benefits with compensation packages at other utilities.

To summarize, DWP salaries are at roughly the median, retirement benefits are lower than median because a less generous package was negotiated for new employees, and medical benefits are the best. The average total compensation ($99,500 salary, $14,500 retirement costs and $22,100 medical and other benefits) is $136,100, which is near the median in the utility industry.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power building. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

This is a horrible game

But even if DWP employees are no longer tops in some categories, its not as if theyre underpaid.

Jay Handal, co-chair of Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates, said he thinks Garcetti is making nice with unions to win their support if and when he runs for higher office. And Handal said the DWP contract sets up the mayor and City Council for similar demands from other municipal employee unions in the midst of a projected budget deficit of more than $200 million.

This is a horrible game, and we are the pawns in it, Handal said. Come on, dont you feel the footsteps on your back as Garcetti is climbing to the next level? Those are cleats hes wearing. Those arent sneakers.

Garcetti was traveling Friday, but his deputy chief of staff, Matt Szabo, said IBEW made clear it was willing to strike over healthcare contributions. He said neither side gets everything it wants in labor negotiations. But the city got some of what it was after, Szabo said, as has been the case with other contract negotiations in which Garcetti took concessions on pensions or pay in lieu of healthcare contributions.

Wright, the DWP general manager, told me about half of the last 50 linemen to complete four years of training  at a cost of about $500,000 each in compensation  left the DWP to go to Southern California Edison Co. He said the trainees said they could make more money at Edison, with signing bonuses and unlimited overtime at double pay.

The math doesnt quite add up

So maybe the bump in pay and free healthcare is the best way to hold on to those employees. But DWP has only 400-plus linemen, which leaves another 8,500 employees who arent leaving for better deals.

So why didnt the agency hold out for health insurance contributions from them? In the private sector, employees typically chip in 30% or so of the cost of healthcare. Couldnt DWP get a measly 10% out of its employees? Maybe 5%? Something? Anything?

We couldnt get IBEW to move on healthcare, period, Wright said. It was a nonstarter.

Geez, whos running this city?

I asked Wright why DWP didnt throw it back at IBEW and tell the union that zero contribution was a nonstarter.

It was clear the union wouldnt budge, Wright said, and Garcetti was on board with moving forward without that concession.

So what would Wright tell ratepayers who want to know why, even as their own access to healthcare might be jeopardized or their costs might surge, theyre paying for DWP employees to get free care?

Our rates remain some of the lowest in Southern California, Wright said of the utility, which is coming out of a years-long debacle involving the improper billing of thousands of customers, even as rates have risen. Thats what our customers want most is low rates, and were delivering.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

A call to action

Rather than let Wright speak for you, I suggest you drop a line to your City Council representative or the mayor, or visit City Hall on Wednesday when the council is scheduled to take up the contract.

Before they vote, they owe you nothing less than a chance to speak up.

Get more of Steve Lopezs work and follow him on Twitter @LATstevelopez

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Astrid Saenz wants to be a Los Angeles police officer one day, and as one of the most decorated cadets in the LAPDs signature youth program, shes already well on her way.

The 18-year-old has spent the last three years serving as a cadet in the Devonshire Division, where she says shes developed a respectful but friendly relationship with the officers who mentor her. While she makes judicious use of sir and maam when interacting with them, Saenz hopes theyve earned each others respect.

But as Saenz and hundreds of other cadets gathered for a graduation ceremony Saturday morning, they did so amid disturbing allegations about misconduct among some of their peers in the program.

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Smiling in her light blue cadet uniform and perfectly pressed tie, Saenz spoke highly of an initiative she says has emboldened her hopes of entering the citys Police Academy. For every cadet accused of wrongdoing, she said, there are hundreds more who wear the uniform for the right reasons.

Were not that, she said. Were not those people.

Amid a widening scandal that has seen an LAPD officer arrested on suspicion of committing a sex crime and seven cadets accused of stealing police property, the department held its cadet graduation ceremony Saturday hoping to extol the virtues of a program that has mentored thousands of at-risk teenagers throughout Los Angeles.

Just two days after he placed handcuffs on LAPD Officer Robert Cain, who is accused of having sex with a 15-year-old cadet, Police Chief Charlie Beck delivered an emotional speech to the thousands assembled at USCs Galen Center, speaking with a tremor as his voice wavered between solemn and determined.

These young people come into our lives, come into our facilities, come into our organization, as part of our family, Beck said to his officers. And you will protect them like they are your own.

More than 450 cadets graduated at the ceremony, and roughly 1,275 cadets were in attendance, said Officer Aareon Jefferson, an LAPD spokesman. Marching in pairs through the Galen Center, cadets ages 13 to 20 moved swiftly toward Beck early Saturday morning, waiting to receive a slight head nod from the chief to show they had passed inspection.

Dramatic music blared overhead, and cadets could be seen laughing and joking with officers. The friendly and positive interactions marked the kind of trust-building the cadet program aims to achieve, standing in stark contrast to the troubling allegations that have surfaced in recent days.

Though he acknowledged that the graduation ceremony was a more solemn affair than usual, Beck still called on the cadets to celebrate their completion of an 18-week training course. He maintained that the initiative is a success that aims to improve the lives of those enrolled.

Our goal is to make you the best human beings you can possibly be, to prepare you for what can be a difficult life, the chief said.

He also said he had full confidence that the cadets seated before him would uphold the virtues instilled in them by the LAPD.

You wouldnt be in this program, you wouldnt have graduated, if you didnt know what the right thing was, he said, adding that the cadets represent what Los Angeles will become.

The graduation ceremony came 10 days after a pair of car chases through South L.A. led to allegations that several cadets had stolen at least three LAPD cruisers and other supplies from the department.

An investigation into that incident turned up evidence leading to an allegation that Cain, 31, had engaged in an illegal sexual relationship with a 15-year-old cadet arrested in connection with the thefts, Beck said. Text messages between Cain and the victim allegedly revealed the relationship and also showed Cain probably knew of the thefts and may have even helped facilitate them, the chief said.

Cain, who has been with the LAPD for 10 years and was assigned to the 77th Street Divisions equipment room, was arrested Thursday morning. Charges have yet to be filed and Cain remains free on bail, but he is scheduled to appear in court July 21. Until then, he remains assigned to his home, said Megan Aguilar, an LAPD spokeswoman.

Seven cadets have been arrested in connection with the thefts of vehicles and equipment. All but one was assigned to the 77th Street Division.

On Friday, sources told The Times that more than 100 firearms, including modified assault rifles and an inert grenade launcher, were seized during a search of Cains Rancho Cucamonga home, the latest in a string of unsettling allegations linked to the cadet scandal.

Beck provided no updates about investigations into the cadet program or Cain on Saturday morning, only repeating his belief that the scandal is largely confined to the 77th Street Division.

The whirlwind week and a half has seen Beck repeatedly defend the program, which has been hailed by LAPD brass as one of the agencys most effective community initiatives.

Beck ordered a top-to-bottom review of the cadet program last week after the thefts were uncovered. On Friday, City Councilman Mitchell Englander introduced a motion calling for an audit of all of the LAPDs youth initiatives, including the cadet program, and raised questions about how the department supervises interactions between minors and the officers who mentor them.

The department does not have a written policy forbidding one-on-one interactions between adult officers and minor cadets of different genders, an LAPD spokesman said Friday.

Walter Carrero, a cadet sergeant for two years in the Southwest Division, said he was afraid of signing up for a military-type program at first, but now he regrets not joining sooner. The 17-year-old said he has built great relationships with community resource and youth services officers and counted volunteering at events at Dodger Stadium and the Hollywood Bowl among his favorite memories as a cadet.

But when asked about the recent scandal, he shook his head in disgust.

I feel that they, you know, kind of messed it up for us, he said.

Jesse and Noehmi Rodriguez, a brother and sister who have been cadets at the Foothill Division for roughly a year, said the graduation was a special moment given the controversy. Some people, they said, were concerned the scandal might mark the end of the program. Nohemi said she was stirred by Becks speech and hoped the event would make people focus on the positives of the program.

Ive never seen him like that, said Nohemi, 14. It really did hit me. It hit a lot of us.

james.queally@latimes.com

UPDATES:

4:05 p.m.: This story was updated with additional comments from cadets and the LAPD.

12:25 p.m.: This story has been updated with more comments from Police Chief Charlie Beck.

This story was originally posted at 11:45 a.m.
The father of a 5-year-old boy from South Pasadena who mysteriously disappeared more than two months ago was arrested Friday on suspicion of murder, Los Angeles County sheriffs officials said.

The arrest comes after an extensive search for the boy that reached from his hometown to Santa Barbara and down to Orange County. Officials have not said whether they found the boys remains or what evidence led to the arrest.

Aramazd Andressian Sr. was taken into custody about 1 p.m. in Las Vegas by sheriffs homicide detectives. He is being held on $10 million bail and is expected to be returned to Los Angeles County after extradition proceedings next week.

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His son, Aramazd Andressian Jr., was last seen April 20 with his father, who was initially detained on suspicion of child endangerment and abduction but released for lack of evidence. Andressian told investigators he took Aramazd to the Cachuma Lake Recreation Area in Santa Barbara County the day after the boys last sighting, but there have been no confirmed sightings of him there.

Andressian Sr., who detectives have said has given inconsistent and misleading statements, hired an attorney and refused to cooperate with investigators.

He was found unconscious in a South Pasadena park on April 22, the day he was supposed to return Aramazd to his ex-wife in San Marino.

The boys mother notified police and gave them a description of her estranged husbands vehicle, a 2004 gray BMW, according to South Pasadena police Chief Art Miller. Officers discovered the car had been impounded that same morning in South Pasadena.

The mother told investigators she had handed off Aramazd to his father about 8 a.m. April 15 in Baldwin Park, authorities said.

The couple are in the process of getting a divorce but share custody of their child.

Since the boys disappearance, detectives have searched Andressians home, and the childs mother and her family have repeatedly made public appeals to help find Aramazd. Police have also searched a South Pasadena park again and served search warrants at the boys grandmothers home in Montebello.

The missing child is described as 55 pounds, white, with brown hair and brown eyes. Authorities have offered a $20,000 reward for information about his disappearance.

richard.winton@latimes.com

Twitter: @lacrimes

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UPDATES:

6:15 p.m.: This article was updated with additional background about the case.

This article was originally published at 5:15 p.m.
A man convicted in the 1998 killing of a pregnant woman will receive a new trial after an appellate court concluded that the Orange County district attorneys office failed to disclose pertinent information about a jailhouse informant, the latest fallout from a years-long controversy embroiling the countys justice system.

In a 55-page opinion made public late Friday, the appellate court upheld a ruling by Judge Thomas Goethals ordering a new murder trial for Henry Rodriguez, who was twice convicted in connection with the slaying of Jeanette Espeleta and her unborn child.

The ruling is the latest to stem from allegations that the the district attorneys office and Sheriffs Department maintained a covert network of jailhouse snitches and repeatedly failed to disclose information about those informants to defense attorneys, violating the constitutional rights of criminal defendants.

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A spokeswoman for the district attorneys office said prosecutors are prepared to retry the case. A pre-trial setting conference is scheduled for Aug. 11. In a previous press release, the district attorneys office denied it had done anything improper in Rodriguezs case.

The ruling comes less than two weeks after the Orange County grand jury released a report dismissing as a myth claims that sheriffs and district attorneys officials ran a secret operation using jailhouse informants to obtain confessions from criminal defendants. The report was hailed as a vindication by the district attorney and sheriff but blasted as a whitewash by several attorneys who have won retrials for their clients in the wake of the allegations about the use of informants.

Espeleta was eight months pregnant with the child of Rodriguezs friend, who authorities say did not wish to pay child support, when she was killed and her body dumped in Long Beach harbor.

Rodriguez was first convicted of aiding in Espeletas slaying in 2000, but an appeals court threw out the conviction based on a Miranda rights violation.

At a second trial in 2006, Michael Garrity, a jailhouse informant, testified that Rodriguez made incriminating remarks about the murder to him while they were housed together in jail. According to Garrity, Rodriguez confessed he had helped dump Espeletas body in the ocean and left her as shark bait.

Rodriguezs attorney, James Crawford, argued in court at the time that Garritys testimony should be thrown out because he had been acting at the governments behest as a planted snitch during his talks with Rodriguez.

Doing so would have been a violation of a Rodriguezs right not to be questioned without his attorney present.

Nevertheless, Rodriguez was convicted of murder in the second trial.

In February 2016, Goethals vacated that conviction based on Crawfords argument that prosecutors failed to disclose important information about Garritys background. Rodriguez has remained out on bail since then, according to Crawford.

In Fridays ruling, a three-justice panel found that the district attorneys office failed to give the defense information about Garritys history of receiving lenient sentences in exchange for providing information on other inmates.

Information contained in the OCDAs internal record that Garrity had in fact received consideration on cases in Orange County and that it attempted to withhold this information was material because it implicates the OCDA in connection with the Sheriffs Departments jailhouse informant program, the appellate panel concluded.

Fallout from the snitch scandal is likely to ramp up in the coming weeks. Goethals is overseeing an evidentiary hearing in the case of Scott Dekraai, who confessed to gunning down eight people in a Seal Beach hair salon in 2011.

Much of the information about the controversy has been gleaned from hearings in Dekraais case. Allegations about the misuse of informants have repeatedly stalled the penalty phase of Dekraais case, and led Goethals to remove the district attorneys office from the case. The California attorney generals office is now handling the case.

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens is expected to testify about the jailhouse allegations in Dekraais case later this month.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the state attorney generals office are also investigating accusations that the district attorneys office and Sheriffs Department violated the constitutional rights of defendants through the use of informants.

Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.

james.queally@latimes.com

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.
For 51 years, a cross at the San Diego County airport in Ocotillo Wells has stood to honor a soldier who died in the Vietnam War, but is now slated for removal because of one complaint.

An online petition to stop the removal started the weekend of May 13 and had 2,349 supporters in less than a week. Were ready to battle for the right to stay where it is, said Sherri Kukla, who started the petition.

An Ocotillo Wells resident, Kukla publishes S&S Off Road Magazine and said that for five decades thousands of people recreating in the desert have enjoyed the cross that sits on a hill, adding that it has been helpful to off-roaders.

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They use it as a point of reference, she said. It has also been a source of comfort to those who have lost loved ones, she stated in an article in her magazine.

Kukla didnt know the history of the cross when she received a call on May 9 alerting her to the fact that the county was going to remove it.

The Ocotillo Airport is one of eight owned by the County of San Diego and is adjacent to the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Park. According to the county, it has two dirt runways, no county or Federal Aviation Administration staff on-site, and the second-least aviation traffic of all its airports, averaging less than 200 takeoffs and landings per month.

Alex Bell, program manager for the countys Land Use and Environmental Group, said a complaint was received in January that a cross was located on county property. She would not say who made the complaint.

After investigating, Bell said the county confirmed the cross is on its property, 84 feet from the unmarked property line.

Bell said in an email that the presence of a monument of this nature on government land is an establishment of religion and in violation of federal and state constitutions, and the county is taking steps to address the issue.

Kukla doesnt see it as a religious monument. Its a historical memorial monument, she said. Thats what really its about.

The cross was erected in honor of Jim Bruce Robison, an Ocotillo Wells resident who was killed in action in Vietnam at age 21 in 1966. His house, still owned by the family, is across the street from the cross. The cross also serves as a memorial for two other residents in the community, according to a news article Kukla found in her research.

The airport property was given to the county by the federal government in the 1950s with the stipulation that permission was required from the FAA if the land should ever cease to be used for aviation purposes, according to Bell.

Bell said the county reached out to the FAA to request approval to sell the land under the cross to a private party or relocate the cross to another section of the airport that would be acceptable to sell. The requests were denied, she said.

There is no official date to remove the cross, said Bell, adding that the county is actively trying to work with the community to either identify a new permanent home for it or to modify it so there is no religious reference and can remain. One idea, she said, is to replace it with a flagpole with the American flag and a memorial plaque at the base honoring fallen military members. Kuklas goal is to get 5,000 supporters on the petition and present it to Supervisor Bill Horn, whose District 5 includes that area.

As of June 20, there were 2,922 signatures. The petition has attracted supporters from all over the country.

Bell said that questions may be directed to Airport Manager Marc Baskel at (619) 956-4805 or Marc.Baskel@sdcounty.ca.gov.

karen.brainard@sduniontribune.com

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L.A.'s new tallest building is poised to become a light saber with massive LED displays
As dusk fell on downtown Los Angeles, dozens of people gathered on the sidewalks outside the Wilshire Grand Center, watching as the hotels LED lights  confined to a stripe on the side of the building  glowed in an array of rainbow colors.

Koreatown resident Miky Nam brought a small folding chair to take in the spectacle. A Korean American, she said she was proud to learn that the tallest building in the West was built by Korean Air.

It can be a landmark for L.A. she said.

The newest addition to the L.A. skyline opened Friday to the brassy sounds of a USC marching band and suggestions that the 73-story building, which houses an InterContinental Hotel, office space and several restaurants, could forge a new chapter in the relationship between Southern California and East Asia.

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Now the largest bird of Korea has built the most beautiful and gorgeous nest in the City of Angels, said Lee Key-Cheol, the consul general of the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles.

The new building replaces the old Wilshire Grand, which was torn down in 2013. At 1,100 feet, it is the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River thanks to a spire that pushes it past the U.S. Bank Tower on nearby 5th Street.

Kathie and Ed Enriquez were among the Angelenos who stayed downtown Friday evening to check out the new building after finishing work. A Mount Washington resident, Kathie remembers when the corner of 7th and Figueroa streets was a ghost town and no one wanted to stay downtown after 6 p.m.

With the new Wilshire Grand, downtown is thriving and booming, she said. Its great. It makes the city alive.

One of several politicians to speak at Fridays opening, California Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, called the Wilshire Grand a symbol of successful intentional partnerships. He pointed to the political division seen in Washington, D.C., but said the new hotel demonstrates our willingness for collaboration with our friends and neighbors across the world.

This is an example of when we break down barriers and walls, he said.

The building marked several firsts for the city. It helped usher in a code change that allows developers to forgo the citys long-required helipads safety feature in tall buildings, a requirement blamed for contributing to L.A.s flat-topped skyline.

The USC marching band performs under the skylight during the grand opening ceremony for the Wilshire Grand Center in downtown Los Angeles. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

The Wilshire Grand also secured special rights from the city for an array of lucrative digital advertising and artistic presentations, a precedent that wasnt without controversy and pushback from foes of digital billboards.

The lower section of the building allows for digital advertising, while the top will feature brightly lit signs promoting the buildings owner and major tenants. On the floors in between, the building is allowed to display noncommercial lighted images such as flowers and vines.

In additional to securing sign rights, the city provided significant financial assistance. The L.A. City Council agreed to provide up to $193 million over 25 years for the reconstruction of the hotel because the company said it faced a funding gap, budget officials said.

Christopher Martin, right, chairman and chief executive of AC Martin, celebrates with Blanca Diaz, senior projects engineer for Turner Construction Co., during the grand opening ceremony for the Wilshire Grand Center. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Koreatown architect Christopher Pak said the Korean American community has taken pride in the fact that Koreas largest airline has now built the tallest building on the West Coast.

Many immigrants arrived in America after a flight on Korean Air, and they had been abuzz about Fridays grand opening party, Pak said.

A lot of people are comparing notes on who was getting an invitation to the event, Pak said.

Pablo Peralta cleans the windows at the base of the sail on the 73rd story on opening day of the Wilshire Grand Center. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Times staff writer Andrew Khouri contributed to this report.

dakota.smith@latimes.com

Twitter: @dakotacdsmith
One month after declaring martial law on the southern island of Mindanao, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte proclaimed success this week in preventing groups linked to Islamic State from declaring a mini-caliphate on the island.

The order in late May followed a week of violent clashes between government forces and fighters affiliated with Islamic State in the city of Marawi that left more than 100 people dead.

More than 200,000 people wait in limbo as the Philippines fights Islamic State's allies in Mindanao 

But how did groups hoisting the black flags of Islamic State all but take over this city of 200,000 people?

Heres a look at the long history of Islamic insurgency on Mindanao and how it ended up in the latest round of violence.





History of Islamic insurgency on Mindanao

Mindanao is an island in the southern Philippines bordering Malaysia. Its the second largest island in the country and is home to about 16 million people. More than half its population is Roman Catholic and around 20% are Muslim, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The island, which has low literacy and life expectancy rates, has been the epicenter of a decades-long Islamic insurgency. Historians say its origins stem from 1968, when Christian officers killed around 28 Muslims  an incident known as the Jabidah massacre  sparking clashes that lasted years.

Fast forward to today, and at least four Muslim separatist groups on the island have pledged support to Islamic State. Analysts say that in order to expand their reach, many of these groups are forming coalitions and cooperating with each other.

Who are these groups?

Abu Sayyaf Group

ASG is an Islamist militant group that formed in 1991, seeking an independent state for the Muslim population in Mindanao. Its leader, Isnilon Hapilon, pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi in a YouTube video in 2014. Soon after, other members released a video that pledged support to Islamic State. In February, the group reportedly beheaded a German hostage whom it had held for three months.

Maute

The Maute group is another radical Islamist organization on the island that fights the Philippine government and pledged support to Islamic State in 2015. The group formed in 2012 under the leadership of Omar Romato Maute. Many of its members come from other Muslim separatist groups on the island.

Ansarul Khilafah Philippines

This group was led by Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, who died this year. The group has pledged to help Islamic State by facilitating recruitment and hosting training camps.

Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters

This group is responsible for many of the attacks on the island. It is also a pro-Islamic State group. It first emerged in 2010 after it splintered off from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

What happened in Marawi?

The latest round of violence on Mindanao reached a boiling point May 23 when pro-Islamic State militants took control of several neighborhoods in the city of Marawi  one of the biggest Muslim cities in the Philippines.

Philippine forces clashed with militants linked to the Maute group when they attempted to capture Hapilon, the leader of Abu Sayyaf Group. Dozens of civilians died and thousands were stranded when Islamists and government forces launched into battle after the governments failed attempt to capture him.

Duterte, who has taken a hard-line approach to fighting drug crimes in the Philippines, imposed martial law on Mindanao. Soon after, armed forces entered the city in an attempt to retake control and carry out arrests.

Was martial law successful ?

It might be too soon to tell.

On Friday, Duterte declared the first month of martial law a success, saying that government forces have so far been successful in regaining control in Marawi and driving out pro-Islamic State militants.

However, the fighting in Marawi has driven hundreds of thousands of residents out and as the fighting enters its second month, causalities continue to mount.
The grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park has been protected by the federal government for more than four decades.

That will begin to change next week.



For the record: An earlier version of this article reported that grizzly bears had not been observed in California since the 1990s. They were last seen in the 1920s.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke this week said the agency intends to remove grizzlies living in the Yellowstone area from Endangered Species Act protection. The change will be entered into the federal registry next week and can take effect 30 days from that point.

The move was decried by several conservation groups and Native American tribes who feared the delisting of the grizzly would lead states to open up hunting season on the bears in the protected Yellowstone zone, which reaches into Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

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Jonathan Proctor, Rockies and Plains program director for Defenders of Wildlife, said Friday that populations of grizzlies remain in isolated ecosystems and need continued federal protections to grow and connect with other pockets of bear populations to increase genetic diversity and help sustain the species.

The ongoing recovery of the Yellowstone population shows how we can bring a species back from the brink, he said. But we are concerned about the actions of states after a delisting. We cant let the work of saving these bears go down the drain.

Stan Grier, chief of the Piikani Nation of the Blackfoot Confederacy, described the decision in cultural terms.

This announcement is no doubt being celebrated by trophy hunters like Don Jr. and Eric Trump, and the presidents extractive industry cronies, but for us it is an act of cultural genocide, Grier said. Calling the grizzly a sacred being that protects our sacred lands, he added, this is a struggle for the very spirit of the land  a struggle for the soul of all we have ever been, or will ever become.

Grizzly bears number close to 700 in whats known as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which expands well beyond the parks boundaries, according to Hilary Cooley, grizzly bear recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

She said that in 1975, the grizzly population numbered about 130  having being hunted and killed with relative impunity for decades prior. The restrictions and protections put in place by the Endangered Species Act allowed the bear population  which reproduces at a relatively slow rate  to climb steadily over the decades.

This announcement is no doubt being celebrated by trophy hunters like Don Jr. and Eric Trump ... but for us it is an act of cultural genocide.  Stan Grier, chief of the Piikani Nation of the Blackfoot Confederacy

Now with the population more than five times what it was 42 years ago, the Fish and Wildlife Service has met recovery criteria, Cooley said. Biologists with the agency believe they have given the bears a path forward for sustainability.

Removing the Yellowstone population from the endangered species list, Cooley said, allows Fish and Wildlife to focus on the recovery efforts of hundreds of other species  including other pockets of grizzly populations  currently protected under the Endangered Species Act.

She said that there are about 1,000 grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and that the agency would next focus on whether grizzlies in that region are ready for delisting. There are four other areas in the Washington-Idaho-Montana area where grizzlies enjoy protection  though in two of them, biologists havent reported any bear populations.

Grizzly bears as a species will remain protected under the Endangered Species Act in all Lower 48 states, so once an area is delisted, bears would still be protected in locations outside that area.

Natural Resources Defense Council senior attorney Rebecca Riley said its too soon to allow any kind of hunting season for grizzly bears.

This population is still so small that any hunting would be a problem, she said. We need the population to continue to grow bigger and more genetically diverse.

She said that can only happen by allowing the bears population density to expand and ultimately connect with other isolated bear populations near Glacier National Park in Montana. But unlike wolves, which travel vast distances, grizzlies dont wander far  making connections with other bear groups a longer process.

Ben Nuvamsa, former head of the Hopi tribe, was angered by the decision. In a statement, he called the move to delist the grizzly a regression to the Old West frontier mentality.

The grizzly bear, historically, is a religious icon to virtually all tribal nations, he said. The Fish and Wildlife Service promised us that it would conduct full and meaningful consultation with us, but it turns out, those were only empty promises.

Grizzlies once numbered about 50,000 when Lewis and Clark explored the West in the early 1800s, but as cities and towns expanded and developed, the bear population declined steeply. Prior to being listed as an endangered species, the bears were subject to trophy hunts.

Several areas, including California, once had abundant grizzly populations. California, however, hasnt seen a grizzly since the 1920s, despite it being the symbol on the states flag. There have been proposals to reintroduce the grizzly to parts of the Golden State, but none has been tried to date.

Proctor said state actions once the bears are delisted remain a key concern.

The Idaho Legislature passed a law, signed in March by Republican Gov. C.L. Butch Otter, that would allow owners of pets and livestock to kill a grizzly if they believed the bear was threatening their animals. The law would apply to people living within the Yellowstone ecosystem but outside the national park boundary  and only once delisting occurred.

Proctor said laws like that suggest states wont take the grizzly bears long-term health into consideration.

But if protections remain in place, he said, then the grizzlies will do the rest and continue to rebound. But thats a big question  will these states allow them to thrive or will they add to increased mortality? We will be monitoring it closely.

david.montero@latimes.com

Twitter: @davemontero

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As the summer heats up, the pleasures of Southern California farmers markets intensify, especially if you head out early in the morning when the farmers  and your neighbors  are in a conversational mood. So we have our weekly market report, in which we consider the joys of zucchini and summer squash. We also have recipes for brownies, because you might have kids at home (or need something for them to do), and 13 grilled chicken recipes and a catalog of grilled vegetable recipes, maybe for dinner on the patio.

After all that shopping and cooking: restaurants. So this week, Jonathan Gold reviews Kato, the much-lauded Taiwanese-Japanese, seafood-focused tasting menu restaurant in Sawtelle. In other stories, we talk to a Southern food expert (It is a good time to be eating Southern food in Southern California), consider a cocktail inspired by some TV binge-watching, get an SOS recipe and check in on a few new restaurants.

 Amy Scattergood

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KATO IS KICKING

Kato chef-owner Jonathan Yao. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Named for a Green Hornet character, chef-owner Jonathan Yaos restaurant is in a Sawtelle mini-mall and serves only tasting menus. In other words, Jonathan finds Kato to be very of-the-moment, as are the gorgeous, Instagram-ready dishes. For example, a recent menu included a dish of three-cup octopus cooked with soy, oil and rice wine in the manner of Taiwanese three-cup chicken.

TALKING ABOUT SOUTHERN FOOD

Food writer Tien Nguyen interviews John T. Edge, the cookbook author and writer-editor-director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, about his new book, The Potlikker Papers, which is about the history of Southern food. She caught up with him on his book tour recently to ask him about the book, Southern food and its influence on what were eating in L.A. at the moment.

TIKI TIME

Deputy Food editor Jenn Harris goes behind the bar at Lono, a new tiki bar on Hollywood Boulevard, just down the street from the original Don the Beachcomber. There she finds a cocktail called the King Kamehameha, which was inspired by some recent binge-watching of Magnum P.I. She got the back story  and the recipe.

SHADOWS AND WHISPERS

Chef Jordan Kahn in front of his new restaurant Vespertine in Culver City. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

In her latest Restaurant News column, Jenn checks in on Vespertine, Destroyer chef Jordan Kahns new Culver City restaurant, which he describes as a place of shadows and whispers, and which comes with its own trailer. And chef Ricardo Zarates new restaurant Rosaline has opened (Peruvian food, named for Zarates mother), in the former Comme Ca space (i.e. right across the street from Lucques).

CULINARY SOS

At a readers request, Test Kitchen Director Noelle Carter gets the recipe for a red wine-braised tri-tip pot roast from Mistral, the French bistro in Sherman Oaks thats long been a San Fernando Valley favorite. Just the thing to pair with all that market zucchini! (Got a request? Let us know. We love asking chefs for recipes; what a surprise.)

Goldbot: You can talk to Jonathan Gold any time you want  or at least the robot version of him that lives on Facebook Messenger. You can ask Goldbot for a personal restaurant recommendation based on location, type of food or price. The bot will also deliver Jonathan Golds latest reviews straight to your device.

The Daily Meal, the food and drink website under the editorial direction of Colman Andrews, is now one of our partners. Check out their 101 best pizzas in America and other stories, recipes and videos.

Jonathan Golds 101 Best Restaurants, the authoritative annual guide to local dining, is online for subscribers and now features his 2016 Best Restaurants. If you didnt get a copy of the booklet, you can order one online here.

Check us out on Instagram @latimesfood

Check out the thousands of recipes in our Recipe Database.

Feedback? Wed love to hear from you. Email us at food@latimes.com.
Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It is Saturday, June 24. Heres what you dont want to miss this weekend:

TOP STORIES

The dream is dead  for now

A high-profile effort to establish a single-payer healthcare system in California sputtered on Friday when Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) decided to shelve the proposal, calling it woefully incomplete. The plan captured the imagination of many across the country but also was dogged by questions of costs and operations. Is a ballot measure next? Los Angeles Times

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What the Obamacare repeal means for the state

The Affordable Care Act has had a huge impact on California, where roughly 4 million people have gained insurance and the percentage of uninsured residents has dropped more than half. Senate leaders have now released their Obamacare repeal bill, and it would hurt wide swaths of the states population. Los Angeles Times

Look what they found

More than 100 firearms, including modified assault rifles, were recovered at the home of the Los Angeles police officer accused of having sex with an underage member of the departments long-hailed cadet program. Los Angeles Times

Family sues the city

The parents of a gun-wielding 14-year-old whom Los Angeles police shot and killed in Boyle Heights last year have filed suit against the city and an officer, alleging that police violated their sons civil rights, used excessive force and denied him timely medical care. Los Angeles Times

Some curious stuff: Montebello school district officials discussed ways to reward certain companies, notes about contract meeting suggest. The School District raised eyebrows last year when it awarded a $2.5-million painting contract to a firm even though a competitor offered to do the same work for less than half the price. Los Angeles Times

State official steps down: Bill Croyle, whos been the sometimes controversial public face of the states response to the Oroville Dam emergency, announced his retirement Friday as acting director of the Department of Water Resources. The Sacramento Bee

No sting here: Fresno County prosecutors have charged two men in a series of beehive thefts that targeted Central Valley almond orchards. Los Angeles Times

Grab a Metro Card: The Gold Line extension to Claremont will break ground this October based on a plan approved by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority Thursday. KPCC

A new legal challenge: The Justice Department is quietly exploring new legal theories to take on so-called sanctuary cities in court, working to force them to aid the Trump administrations aggressive deportation effort. The Wall Street Journal

Plus:

-- The strange story behind Californias travel ban. Mercury News

-- Water levels in Lake Tahoe are reaching maximum capacity thanks to all the snow. Sacramento Bee

This weeks most popular stories in Essential California:

1. Carrie Fisher opened up about her demons  and knew she wouldnt have a Hollywood ending. Los Angeles Times

2. Theres so much solar polar in California that other states are sometimes paid to take it. Los Angeles Times

3. Motorcyclist kicks car and triggers chain-reaction crash in apparent road-rage video. Los Angeles Times

4. Rapes date to 1997 in former Santa Cruz brain surgeon case, assistant DA says. Santa Cruz Sentinel

5. Everyone loves L.A.  and thats the problem. Los Angeles Times

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

On June 23, 1967, President Lyndon Johnson arrived at Century City to deliver a speech at a Democratic Party fundraiser. Ten thousand anti-Vietnam War protesters also arrived.

In a June 23, 1997, Los Angeles Times article, staff writer Kenneth Reich reported:

The war at home over Vietnam had yet to explode in mid-1967. Five hundred American soldiers were dying every month, yet 40% of Americans still supported sending more men.

So 30 years ago tonight, when a coalition of 80 antiwar groups staged a march to the Century Plaza Hotel where President Lyndon B. Johnson was being honored, Los Angeles Police Department field commander John A. McAllister expected 1,000 or 2,000 protesters.

When the mass of humanity came up Avenue of the Stars and over the hill, I was astounded, he recalled. Where did all those people come from? I asked myself.

Read more from the archives here

ICYMI, here are this weeks Great Reads

After all these years: In early 2012 the body of BreeAnna Guzman was found in the brush of an onramp to State Route 2. For years, her mother, Darlene, wondered what happened and even in her grief, she found a path to peace. These years have placed me in a spot that I cant turn back from. I have to keep going forward, Darlene says. Los Angeles Times

Down by the border: Heres how a Arizona used ranchers killing to justify harsh immigration laws even as the truth of the case remains far from clear. The 2010 killing of 58-year-old Rob Krentz, head of one of the oldest ranch families in southeast Arizona, was the impetus less than a month later for the passage of the show your papers law. This bill required police to ascertain the immigration status of anybody suspected of being in the U.S. illegally and helped cement Arizonas reputation as the countrys toughest state on immigration. Los Angeles Times

Go back and read this: A USA Today investigation, which found that port trucking companies in southern California have spent the past decade forcing drivers to finance their own trucks by taking on debt they could not afford. Companies then used that debt as leverage to extract forced labor and trap drivers in jobs that left them destitute. USA Today

A man in the news: Los Angeles is a dominant character in the writings and music of Father John Misty. The indie-rock provocateur says he wants to be authentically bogus rather than bogusly authentic. The New Yorker

LOOKING AHEAD

Monday: Longtime L.A. Times cartoon Paul Conrads Chain Reaction peace sculpture rededicated in Santa Monica.

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.
To the editor: Promoters of the nascent movement of scientists into political life suggest that rational, objective research (and researchers) in government will lead to better policy results for Americans. (A new take on political science: Training researchers to run for office, June 15)

They also imply that the scientists running for Congress are somehow immune to personal opinions that may skew their conclusions toward one or another political solution.

As a social scientist, I see this as an interesting hypothesis, but hardly one that has been confirmed empirically.

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My job title is research scientist. I know Ive got opinions and personal viewpoints that inform how I understand the world, as does every scientist profiled in this article. To suggest otherwise, that merely by being a scientist one can somehow transcend oneself, is naive.

Im all for more scientists being socially and politically engaged and running for office, but lets at least be honest about our aspirations and limitations and the reality of the social and political world.

Richard Flory, Newport Beach

The writer is senior director of research and evaluation at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture.

..

To the editor: I applaud some scientists decision to run for political office.

Their intellect notwithstanding, another key advantage is the scientists across this country running for Congress are unlikely to become career politicians if they do get elected.

Aristotle, in his Politics, spent much time discussing the citizen-politician. Among the challenges, he thought, was paying enough so that serving would not be a hardship, but not so much that one would seek politics as a career.

You can imagine how I feel about term limits for officeholders.

David Wilczynski, Manhattan Beach

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
President Trump cited Cubas poor human rights record as his primary reason for tightening the restrictions on travel and business dealings with that island nation that were loosened by his predecessor. In letters to the editor this week, several readers doubted Trumps sincerity, noting that the president tolerates abuses by other leaders.

Another group of readers speculated that Trump might have a more personal concern in tightening the screws on Cuba: his own wallet. This suspicion among Times letter writers has been expressed on Trumps handling of several other issues, including political appointments, government regulation and the environment. With a billionaire in the White House who bristles at calls for more transparency on his business dealings, its doubtful these will be the final letters that connect Trumps decision making to his personal wealth.

Laguna Beach resident Michael Schneider sees Trump hotels in Havanas future:

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Ten years from now, when Trump has returned to private life and is no longer embracing regressive policies that are an affront to American democracy and human decency, will anyone be surprised to see the Havana skyline adorned with bright and blazing Trump signs atop new hotels and casinos?

If Trump had a hotel in Havana, would he have restricted travel to Cuba?  Bernadine Bednarz, Los Angeles

By endorsing policies that prohibit commercial investment by U.S. companies in Cuba and drastically inhibit the rapidly growing local private sector initiatives to remove tourism from state control and return capitalism to the island, our president has simultaneously rewarded a tiny slice of Americans who put Florida over the top for him and, more importantly, has put tourist-related investment on hold until the Trump Organization can develop Cuba the way it has probably envisioned for years.

When investment and growth of the empire is the objective, rejecting Communism and endorsing human rights may somehow simply fall off the radar screen. Lets remember to take a look at Havana in 10 years.

Carl Swallow of Rancho Mission Viejo accuses the president of warping the free market:

Trumps economic policies have destroyed my faith in capitalism.

I thought climate change would be solved when someone figured out how to make a profit from the solution. Trumps rejection of the Paris climate accord may stop this from happening.

The presidents executive order on Cuba effectively gives an advantage to Trump hotels while harming the competition, eroding the free market.

Bernadine Bednarz of Los Angeles also brings up Trumps hotel empire:

If Trump had a hotel in Havana, would he have restricted travel to Cuba? Mr. President, let me know after you read this.

Walnut resident Robert Price lauds Trump for punishing the Cuban regime:

I am so glad Trump is standing up for human rights.

President Raul Castro and his brother Fidel before him have been terrible on humans rights, and U.S. companies want to exploit Cubans for their own profits.

This was apparently OK for President Obama, but it is not for Trump. I am glad the current president is taking the high road.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
Trump promotes sons Justice with Judge Jeanine interview President Trump promoted via Twitter an interview with his son Eric Trump just before it aired Saturday night on Fox News Justice with Judge Jeanine. Eric Trump on @JudgeJeanine on @FoxNews now!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2018 Eric Trump called into the show to defend his father from criticism prompted by the first government shutdown in more than four years, as well as a series of Womens March events that saw protesters in dozens of cities take to the streets to oppose the presidents policies. .@EricTrump joined me over the phone from Mar-a-Lago ! pic.twitter.com/Hro3TzUW52  Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) January 21, 2018 Speaking to host Jeannine Piro  who is reportedly an old friend of the presidents  Eric Trump offered effusive praise for his father, ticking off glowing statistics to illustrate the strength of the U.S. economy and gains against Islamic State fighters overseas. My fathers working like no ones ever worked before to bring back this country and to fulfill his promise to make America great again, said the executive vice president of the Trump Organization. He also repeated a sentiment recently expressed on Twitter by his father: That Democratic lawmakers forced a government shutdown on the anniversary of the presidents inauguration in a bid to distract from his achievements. You look at this whole government shutdown, and the only reason they want to shut down government is to distract and to stop his momentum, Eric Trump said. I mean, my father has had incredible momentum. Hes gotten more done in one year than arguably any president in history. Facebook

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Trump tweets: a perfect day for all Women to March President Trump hailed the nationwide Womens March gatherings Saturday. On Twitter, the president called it a perfect day for all Women to March, seeming to imply that those taking part were celebrating his administrations accomplishments: Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Participants in the marches across the United States were actually seeking to deliver a powerful rebuke to Trumps policies and mount a crucial mobilization for this years midterm elections. But Trump continued to tout his administrations unprecedented success in tweets sent later in the day: Unprecedented success for our Country, in so many ways, since the Election. Record Stock Market, Strong on Military, Crime, Borders, & ISIS, Judicial Strength & Numbers, Lowest Unemployment for Women & ALL, Massive Tax Cuts, end of Individual Mandate - and so much more. Big 2018!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 The Trump Administration has terminated more UNNECESSARY Regulation, in just twelve months, than any other Administration has terminated during their full term in office, no matter what the length. The good news is, THERE IS MUCH MORE TO COME!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2018 In addition to the roll call of major American cities where womens marches took place  including New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta  protesters also raised their voices in suburbs and small towns, reflecting the aim of coalescing a broad-based movement on the anniversary of Trumps inauguration to oppose the presidents stance on immigration, healthcare, racial divides and an array of other issues. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Laura King. Facebook

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Trump calls shutdown a present from Democrats By Associated Press President Trump is blaming Democrats for the government shutdown  tweeting that they wanted to give him a nice present to mark the one-year anniversary of his inauguration: This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present. #DemocratShutdown  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 That comes after Senate Democrats late Friday killed a GOP-written House-passed measure that would have kept agencies functioning for four weeks. Democrats were seeking a stopgap bill of just a few days in hopes that would build pressure on Republicans, and they were opposing a three-week alternative offered by GOP leaders. Democrats have insisted they would back legislation reopening the government once theres a bipartisan agreement to preserve protections against deporting about 700,000 immigrants  known as Dreamers  who arrived in the United States illegally as children. Trump on Saturday accused Democrats of holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration: Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration. Cant let that happen!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Democrats are laying fault for the shutdown on Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House and have struggled with building internal consensus. In a series of tweets hours after the shutdown began, the president tried to make the case for Americans to elect more Republicans to Congress in November in order to power through this mess: Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border. They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 He noted that there are 51 Republicans in the 100-member Senate, and it often takes 60 votes to advance legislation: For those asking, the Republicans only have 51 votes in the Senate, and they need 60. That is why we need to win more Republicans in 2018 Election! We can then be even tougher on Crime (and Border), and even better to our Military & Veterans!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 #AMERICA FIRST!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 The stopgap spending measure won 50 votes in the Senate, including five from Democrats. Although the House and Senate were in session Saturday, it was unclear whether lawmakers would take any votes of consequence. Trump had been set to leave Friday afternoon for a fundraiser at his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., where he intended to mark the inauguration anniversary. But he remained in Washington and ended up scrapping his plans to attend the Saturday fundraiser. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweet casts doubt on likelihood of averting shutdown President Trump appeared to cast doubt on the likelihood of reaching a deal to avert a government shutdown Friday night in a tweet. Trump also sought to blame Democrats for what would be the first shutdown since 2013. His message came just hours before the midnight deadline by which lawmakers must pass a measure to fund government agencies, or some operations will cease. Not looking good for our great Military or Safety & Security on the very dangerous Southern Border. Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Despite last-minute negotiations Friday between Trump and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, Congress remained deadlocked over a spending bill and the federal government was headed toward a shutdown at midnight. Senate Democrats  joined by some GOP deficit hawks and immigration allies  were set to filibuster a stopgap funding bill approved by the House on Thursday. A Senate vote was planned for 10 p.m. Eastern, and even White House officials predicted it would fail. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Lisa Mascaro. Facebook

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Trump signs surveillance law after confusing tweets By Associated Press President Trump on Friday signed a bill into law to renew a foreign intelligence surveillance program, announcing his action in the latest in a series of confusing tweets about the spy program: Just signed 702 Bill to reauthorize foreign intelligence collection. This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2018 Trumps tweet on Jan. 11 created chaos in the House just before it voted to reauthorize what is known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He linked the intelligence program to a dossier that alleges his presidential campaign had ties to Russia. That caused people to wonder if he didnt support the program that allows U.S. spy agencies to collect intelligence on foreign targets abroad. Trump and other Republicans have alleged that Obama administration officials improperly shared the identities of Trump presidential transition team members mentioned in intelligence reports. Democrats say there is no evidence that happened. Shortly before the House vote, and after conferring with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump did an apparent about-face. This vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land, he tweeted. We need it! Get smart! In his tweet announcing that he had just signed the bill, Trump wrote: This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first! There are no obvious links between the dossier Trump spoke of, which includes salacious but unsubstantiated allegations against him, and the reauthorization of the spying program, or between the program and Trumps oft-repeated claims that the Obama administration conducted surveillance on Trump Tower during the presidential campaign. Facebook

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In tweet, Trump suggests that Pennsylvania trip is a political one The White House press office was once again forced to walk back a tweet from President Trump on Thursday morning after he described a trip to Pennsylvania later in the day as a political one  a statement that would force the Republican Party, not taxpayers, to pay for the journey. The White House had said Trump was going to an industrial equipment company outside of Pittsburgh to highlight the good economy and new tax cuts, making it an official, policy-oriented event. It was widely assumed that the trip had a political cast  the area is holding a special election to fill a congressional seat vacated by a Republican who resigned. Trump, by his tweet, seemed to confirm that politics was the whole purpose: Will be going to Pennsylvania today in order to give my total support to RICK SACCONE, running for Congress in a Special Election (March 13). Rick is a great guy. We need more Republicans to continue our already successful agenda!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 Trump later shared via Twitter a pair of video clips of his speech at H&K Equipment, in which he touted the tax cuts he signed into law just before Christmas and tried to turn the conversation back to his accomplishments after weeks dominated by distractions, including questions about his mental health and comments about immigration that some considered racist: Departing Pittsburgh now, where it was my great honor to stand with our incredible workers, and to show the world that AMERICA is back - and we are coming back bigger and better and stronger than ever before! pic.twitter.com/kWPgylqFzj  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 AMERICA will once again be a NATION that thinks big, dreams bigger, and always reaches for the stars. YOU are the ones who will shape Americas destiny. YOU are the ones who will restore our prosperity. And YOU are the ones who are MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! #MAGA pic.twitter.com/f2abNK47II  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 The Republican National Committee, rather than the White House, is supposed to pay for political travel so that taxpayers are not financing party activities; for trips that combine policy and politics, parties have split the cost under past presidents. Neither the RNC nor the White House responded to emails sent Thursday asking who would pay. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement later Thursday suggesting that taxpayers would foot the bill. She insisted that Trump would be conducting government business while in Pennsylvania. Read More This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump tweets praise of Bob Dole after awarding him Congressional Gold Medal By Associated Press Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole knew the art of the deal before President Trump published the 1987 book of the same name. The two shared a stage under the Capitol dome Wednesday as Dole, 94, accepted Congress highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, for his World War II service and decades of work in the House and Senate. Trump later praised Dole in a tweet, attaching to his message a video composed of clips from the ceremony: Today, we witnessed an incredible moment in history  the presentation of Congress highest civilian honor to our friend, and true AMERICAN HERO, Bob Dole. #CongressionalGoldMedal pic.twitter.com/qNQqDLRmCk  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 17, 2018 At the ceremony, the president saluted Dole as a patriot and gave tribute to Doles struggle as a veteran who worked his way back from a grievous shoulder wound he suffered in Italy. He knows about grit, said Trump. But it was Doles penchant for working across the aisle that earned him his latest award, according to the legislation. Bob Dole was known for his ability to work across the aisle and embrace practical bipartisanship, reads the legislation Trump signed in September. Some of the awards 300 recipients include George Washington and Mother Teresa, according to the Congressional Research Service. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts report that seeks to link terrorism cases with immigration By Joseph Tanfani The Trump administration on Tuesday released a report attempting to link terrorism with migration, arguing that it was evidence of the need to dramatically reshape the nations immigration system. New report from DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are foreign-born. We have submitted to Congress a list of resources and reforms....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 ....we need to keep America safe, including moving away from a random chain migration and lottery system, to one that is merit-based. https://t.co/7PtoSFK1n2  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The report, ordered by President Trump in an executive order last year, said that 75% of the 549 people convicted of terrorism charges since 9/11 were born outside the U.S. Administration officials called that a sign that the U.S. needs to scrap its policy of family preferences for visas, which they call chain migration, and a diversity visa lottery program. But the report did not specify how many  if any  of the convicted terrorists entered the country through those means. It also did not detail how many of the convictions were related to attacks or plans in the U.S. versus overseas and how many involved people who went to fight overseas for the Islamic State or another terrorist group. Those details were not available, officials said. The report, due last year, is being released in a highly charged moment in the immigration debate, as Trump and some Republicans in Congress seek tough new border and immigration measures in return for a deal protecting the 690,000 people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump also fired off a pair of tweets on the topic earlier Tuesday: We must have Security at our VERY DANGEROUS SOUTHERN BORDER, and we must have a great WALL to help protect us, and to help stop the massive inflow of drugs pouring into our country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The Democrats want to shut down the Government over Amnesty for all and Border Security. The biggest loser will be our rapidly rebuilding Military, at a time we need it more than ever. We need a merit based system of immigration, and we need it now! No more dangerous Lottery.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The focus of our immigration system should be assimilation, a senior administration official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition that his name not be used. He said the nation should give priority to potential immigrants who speak English, who have an education and those who are committed to supporting our values  not family members of people already here. The official said the timing of the report was coincidental. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets welcome to president of Kazakhstan By Associated Press President Trump said Tuesday that he and the president of Kazakhstan are united in a shared determination to prevent North Korea from threatening the world with nuclear devastation. Trump and President Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed North Korea along with other issues during meetings at the White House. Today, it was my honor to welcome President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan to the @WhiteHouse! pic.twitter.com/TerYFZViax  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 Trump said Kazakhstan, once part of the Soviet Union, is a valued partner in our efforts to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. Together we are determined to prevent the North Korean regime from threatening the world with nuclear devastation, he said, as both presidents addressed journalists between meetings. Nazarbayev noted that his country once had one of the worlds largest nuclear arsenals but voluntarily gave it up after the Soviet Union collapsed. He said his country is in talks with Iran, which was the focus of a global deal that lifted some economic sanctions in exchange for Irans curbing its nuclear program. Trump has sharply criticized the Iran nuclear deal and threatened last week to pull out soon unless other countries fix what he says are terrible flaws. Read More Facebook

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Trump falsely claims his approval rating among black Americans has doubled By Alex Wigglesworth President Trump lashed out at the news media Tuesday morning in a tweet denouncing the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion among members of his campaign team. Do you notice the Fake News Mainstream Media never likes covering the great and record setting economic news, but rather talks about anything negative or that can be turned into the negative. The Russian Collusion Hoax is dead, except as it pertains to the Dems. Public gets it!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 It wasnt immediately clear exactly what prompted the presidents tweet, but it appeared as though he was watching Fox & Friends. A short time later, Trump tweeted a headline from a report that aired during that mornings episode: 90% of Trump 2017 news coverage was negative -and much of it contrived!@foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The segment focused on the latest survey results from conservative watchdog Media Research Center, which purportedly analyzed the evening news broadcasts on ABC, CBS and NBC from Jan. 20 to Dec. 31 and found that 90% of the statements made about Trump were negative. Study: 90% of Trump media coverage in 2017 was negative pic.twitter.com/vbrwup4Drg  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) January 16, 2018 But believe it or not, through all this negative coverage, they did a survey of 600,000 people about how black America views this president, co-host Brian Kilmeade said. His numbers have actually doubled in approval. Trump highlighted the statement in another tweet: Unemployment for Black Americans is the lowest ever recorded. Trump approval ratings with Black Americans has doubled. Thank you, and it will get even (much) better! @FoxNews  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 But its not true. The claim appears to have originated from a misreading of data from the online polling firm SurveyMonkey, according to factcheck.org. The firm polled 600,000 Americans in 2017 and found that Trumps approval rating among blacks actually dropped from 23% early in his presidency to about 17%, as of the week ending Jan. 3. Some conservative outlets, including Breitbart, produced an average from those and other SurveyMonkey figures and compared them to the scores Trump received from black voters in the 2016 exit polls. That methodology is not sound. And since the statistics measure different things, the comparison is misleading. Facebook

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Trump goes after senator who surfaced his immigration remark By Associated Press President Trump turned his Twitter torment Monday on the Democrat in the room where immigration talks with lawmakers took a famously coarse turn, saying Sen. Richard J. Durbin misrepresented what he had said about African nations and Haiti and, in the process, undermined the trust needed to make a deal. Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting, Trump tweeted, using a nickname to needle the Illinois senator. Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military. Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 Trump was referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects young people who came to the United States illegally as children. Members of Congress from both parties are trying to strike a deal that Trump would support to extend that protection. Trump also cast doubt on the likelihood of reaching an agreement in tweets sent earlier Monday: Statement by me last night in Florida: Honestly, I dont think the Democrats want to make a deal. They talk about DACA, but they dont want to help..We are ready, willing and able to make a deal but they dont want to. They dont want security at the border, they dont want.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 ...to stop drugs, they want to take money away from our military which we cannot do. My standard is very simple, AMERICA FIRST & MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 On a day of remembrance for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Trump spent time at his golf course with no public events, bypassing the acts of service that his predecessors staged in honor of the civil rights leader. Instead, Trump dedicated his weekly address to Kings memory, saying Kings dream and Americas are the same: A world where people are judged by who they are, not how they look or where they come from. That message was a distinct counterpoint to words attributed to Trump by Durbin and others at a meeting last week, when the question of where immigrants come from seemed at the forefront of Trumps concerns. Some participants and others familiar with the conversation said Trump challenged immigration from shithole countries of Africa and disparaged Haiti as well. Without explicitly denying using that word, Trump lashed out at the Democratic senator, who said Trump uttered it on several occasions. Read More Facebook

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Trump thanks pundit for laudatory Fox & Friends spot By Alex Wigglesworth President Trump thanked Fox News personality Stuart Varney after Varney praised Trump during an appearance on Fox & Friends. In a pair of tweets early Sunday, Trump quoted from Varneys commentary, in which he argued that Trump deserves more credit for the booming economy. The pundit, who also hosts a show on Fox Business Network, cited moves by some corporations to raise workers minimum wage or pay out one-time bonuses in response to the GOP tax cuts. President Trump is not getting the credit he deserves for the economy. Tax Cut bonuses to more than 2,000,000 workers. Most explosive Stock Market rally that weve seen in modern times. 18,000 to 26,000 from Election, and grounded in profitability and growth. All Trump, not 0...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018 ...big unnecessary regulation cuts made it all possible (among many other things). President Trump reversed the policies of President Obama, and reversed our economic decline. Thank you Stuart Varney. @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018 Varney was reacting to a quote from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who on Thursday called the bonuses handed down to workers pathetic in comparison to the gains corporations are expected to see from the tax cuts. In terms of the bonus that corporate America received versus the crumbs that they are giving to workers to kind of put the schmooze on is so pathetic, Pelosi told reporters. Its pathetic. Varney shot back Sunday that the bonuses, along with explosive stock market growth, are enriching all Americans. This is a huge shot in the arm, its the result of this tax cut deal and I think President Trump should get the credit for it, he said. .@Varneyco Sets the economic record straight after Nancy Pelosi calls U.S. mass bonuses crumbs pic.twitter.com/BvjIHGm3HE  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) January 14, 2018 The sweeping tax plan passed last month lowers the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and cuts personal income taxes. Analysts say the benefits will largely flow to corporations and the wealthy, as theyre more likely to be in positions to share in corporate profits. For instance, Wells Fargo & Co., which responded to news of the tax overhaul by announcing it will raise workers pay to at least $15 an hour, also reported that it expects to pay an effective tax rate of 19% this year, down from about 31% in previous years. That should amount to tax savings of more than $3 billion annually. On average, middle-class Americans are expected to see a very small tax cut in the near term and a tax increase after 2025, when all of the tax cuts for individuals expire. The tax cuts for corporations, however, are permanent.  This post contains reporting from Times staff writer James Rufus Koren. Facebook

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Trump touts MLK proclamation in tweet, but ceremony is overshadowed by reports of racist remarks By Associated Press President Trump signed a proclamation Friday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, noting the contributions of a great American hero. Today, it was my great honor to proclaim January 15, 2018, as Martin Luther King Jr., Federal Holiday. I encourage all Americans to observe this day with appropriate civic, community, and service activities in honor of Dr. King's life and legacy. pic.twitter.com/samlJsz1Nt  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 Overshadowing the event was mounting backlash from Trumps comments during a private meeting with lawmakers the day before. A short time after the meeting, which was called to discuss a possible immigration deal, reports emerged that Trump had asked participants why the United States should accept immigrants from shithole countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, the Senates second-ranking Democrat, appeared to confirm those reports on Friday. Trump did not respond Friday to several questions about the incident, including whether he actually used vulgar language to describe African nations, or if he is racist. The president said at the White House that love was central to the slain civil rights leader. Trump said the nation celebrates King for standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so dear, that no matter what the color of our skin or place of our birth, we are all created equal by God.  This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump criticizes Democrats in tweet calling for stricter immigration rules President Trump hit out at Democrats on Thursday night in a tweet calling for stricter immigration rules. Trump wrote that members of the party seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the border with Mexico: The Democrats seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the Southern Border, risking thousands of lives in the process. It is my duty to protect the lives and safety of all Americans. We must build a Great Wall, think Merit and end Lottery & Chain. USA!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 It wasnt immediately clear exactly what prompted the tweet. Earlier Thursday, Trump rejected a bipartisan compromise to resolve the standoff over so-called Dreamers, young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children but have temporary permits to work, attend school or serve in the military. The president drew widespread condemnation after reports emerged that he had asked participants in an Oval Office meeting about the proposal why the United States should accept immigrants from shithole countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts bill aimed at improving border screening for fentanyl By Associated Press President Trump signed legislation Wednesday aimed at giving Customs and Border Protection agents additional screening devices and other tools to stop the flow of illicit drugs. Speaking at a surprise bill-signing ceremony while flanked by members of Congress from both parties in the Oval Office, Trump described the bill as a significant step forward in the fight against powerful opioids such as fentanyl, which he called our new big scourge. He echoed that language Thursday in a tweet: Yesterday, I signed the #INTERDICTAct (H.R. 2142) with bipartisan members of Congress to help end the flow of drugs into our country. Together, we are committed to doing everything we can to combat the deadly scourge of drug addiction and overdose in the United States! pic.twitter.com/ELZvFol5Lo  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 The legislation will pay for new portable and fixed chemical screening devices to detect and intercept fentanyl at ports of entry and in the mail, along with other laboratory equipment and personnel, including scientists. Trump has made fighting the opioid epidemic a centerpiece of his administration, though critics say he hasnt dedicated nearly enough money or resources to make a difference. Trump suggested during his remarks on Wednesday that hed like to take a more aggressive approach to the drug crisis  but the countrys not ready for what he has in mind. So were going to sign this. And its a step. And it feels like a very giant step, but unfortunately, its not going to be a giant step, because no matter what you do, this is something that keeps pouring in, he said. And were going to find the answer. There is an answer. I think I actually know the answer, but Im not sure the countrys ready for it yet, he added. Does anybody know what I mean? I think so. Facebook

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Trump applauds news that Toyota-Mazda plant is slated for Alabama By Associated Press Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda on Wednesday announced plans to build a mammoth, $1.6-billion joint-venture plant in Alabama that will eventually employ about 4,000 people. President Trump lauded the news in a tweet: Cutting taxes and simplifying regulations makes America the place to invest! Great news as Toyota and Mazda announce they are bringing 4,000 JOBS and investing $1.6 BILLION in Alabama, helping to further grow our economy! pic.twitter.com/Kcg8IVH6iA  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Good news: Toyota and Mazda announce giant new Huntsville, Alabama, plant which will produce over 300,000 cars and SUVs a year and employ 4000 people. Companies are coming back to the U.S. in a very big way. Congratulations Alabama!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 Several states had competed for the project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and company executives held a news conference to announce that the facility is coming to the Huntsville area not far from the Tennessee line. Production is expected to begin by 2021. The decision to pick Alabama is another example of foreign-based automakers building U.S. factories in the South. To entice manufacturers, Southern states have used a combination of lucrative incentive packages, low-cost labor and a pro-business labor environment, because the United Auto Workers union is stronger in Northern states. Read More Facebook

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Trump highlights call for border wall in tweets on visit with Norways prime minister By Associated Press President Trump praised Norways prime minister in a tweet on Wednesday after Erna Solberg became the first foreign leader to visit with the president in 2018. Today, it was my great honor to welcome Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway to the @WhiteHouse - a great friend and ally of the United States! Joint press conference: https://t.co/qWR1BhfQZI pic.twitter.com/PJvwznjRCO  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Trump also shared via Twitter a video clip of a joint news conference he held with Solberg on Wednesday afternoon. In the clip, Trump responds to a question from a reporter by saying there can be no bipartisan immigration deal absent funding for his long-promised wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been seeking a solution for hundreds of thousands of so-called Dreamers, young people who were brought to the United States as children and are living here illegally. The United States needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval. The safety and security of our country is #1! pic.twitter.com/4CFzQXb5aS  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 We need the wall for security, we need the wall for safety, we need the wall for stopping the drugs from pouring in, Trump said Wednesday.  Any solution has to include the wall because without the wall, it all doesnt work. On Tuesday, Trump drew widespread attention when he said during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers that he would be agreeable to signing a stand-alone bill to protect the Dreamers, before moving on to a more comprehensive immigration bill. That contradicted the Republican consensus that Dreamers fate needed to be part of a broader immigration bill that would include some version of Trumps promised border wall and other immigration reforms. Trump backed away from a stand-alone Dreamer bill in subsequent tweets and public comments. Read More This post contains reporting from Los Angeles Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump praises Cabinet in tweet touting meeting By Associated Press President Trump promoted a meeting of his Cabinet on Wednesday, sharing via Twitter a link to a video of the session posted on the White House YouTube account. In his tweet, Trump thanked his Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country and wrote that the last year has been one of monumental achievement. I want to thank my @Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country. 2017 was a year of monumental achievement and we look forward to the year ahead. Together, we are delivering results and MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! https://t.co/ptXa1hAPwW pic.twitter.com/yv6RALkQf3  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 The former reality television star continued to dispense accolades at the meeting Wednesday, greeting reporters in the Cabinet Room by saying: Welcome back to the studio. Then he proceeded to relive a Cabinet Room session from the prior day, when he had allowed reporters and TV cameras to stick around for much of his meeting with a bipartisan group of legislators on the thorny issue of immigration. It was a tremendous meeting. Actually, it was reported as incredibly good. And my performance  you know, some of them called it a performance  I consider it work, Trump said. Trump went on to say he had received letters from news anchors calling it one of the greatest meetings theyve ever witnessed. He added that the media will ultimately support Trump in the end, because theyre going to say, if Trump doesnt win in three years, theyre all out of business. Asked for examples of letters received from news anchors, the White House said it had received private communications. It also offered a series of positive on-air comments and tweets from journalists about the unusual access to the meeting. During his remarks, Trump swung from praising his own meeting coverage to telling journalists that they were dependent on his presidency for ratings to threatening a strong look at libel laws. Still, Trump thanked the journalists in front of him, joking: Youve gotten very familiar with this room. I appreciate your nice comments yesterday. Facebook

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Trump blasts DACA ruling in tweet calling courts broken and unfair By Lisa Mascaro President Trump denounced the federal courts Wednesday as broken and unfair after a district judge in San Francisco issued a nationwide injunction keeping protections in place for so-called Dreamers. Trump tweeted: It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 On Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco temporarily blocked the Trump administrations decision to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which has protected from deportation some 700,000 people who came to the country illegally as children. Alsup granted a request by the state of California, the University of California and other plaintiffs to stop Trump from ending DACA on March 5. The administrations decision to end DACA, which was announced in September, was based on a flawed legal analysis, Alsup wrote in his decision. Dreamers would be irreparably harmed if their DACA protections, which allow them to live and work legally in the U.S., were stripped away before the courts had a chance to fully consider their claims, he ruled. The action is the mirror image of a ruling in 2015 by a federal judge in Texas who ruled in favor of that state when it sought to block President Obama from expanding DACA to include the parents of Dreamers. Trump administration officials praised that judicial ruling. By contrast, they sharply criticized Alsups decision. Read More Facebook

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Trump thanks lawmakers for productive immigration meeting, says deal must include border wall President Trump thanked a bipartisan group of lawmakers for participating in a meeting on immigration legislation on Tuesday. Much of the discussion involved so-called Dreamers, an estimated 700,000 young people who were brought to the country illegally as children and are now facing deportation. In a tweet, Trump wrote that there was strong agreement to negotiate a bill to protect Dreamers, as well as put into place some of the reforms favored by Republicans. Thanks to all of the Republican and Democratic lawmakers for todays very productive meeting on immigration reform. There was strong agreement to negotiate a bill that deals with border security, chain migration, lottery and DACA. https://t.co/SdqAQ3aL3z pic.twitter.com/8DYHZHspAy  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 The most notable exchange of the meeting came when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the San Francisco Democrat, asked Trump whether he would be agreeable to signing a stand-alone bill to protect the Dreamers, before moving on to a more comprehensive immigration bill. Yeah, I would like to do it, Trump responded. The statement drew widespread attention because it contradicted the Republican consensus that Dreamers fate needed to be part of a broader immigration bill that would include some version of Trumps promised border wall and other immigration reforms. Trump later backed away from a stand-alone Dreamer bill, tweeting that a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico must be part of any deal: As I made very clear today, our country needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Pressure has been mounting for Congress to broker an immigration deal by Jan. 19 as part of a must-pass budget package to fund the government. This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump thanks officers and veterans in tweets President Trump doled out a slew of accolades Tuesday via Twitter. He thanked the nations law enforcement officers, including in his message a hashtag denoting a day of appreciation organized by a national support group for law enforcement families. On behalf of the American people, THANK YOU to our incredible law enforcement officers. As President of the United States - I will fight for you, and I will never, ever let you down. Now, more than ever, we must support the men and women in blue! #LawEnforcementAppreciationDay pic.twitter.com/Qb4uxB4JRm  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 Trump later expressed gratitude for federal immigration agents, in particular: .@ICEgov HSI agents and ERO officers, on behalf of an entire Nation, THANK YOU for what you are doing 24/7/365 to keep fellow Americans SAFE. Everyone is so grateful!#LawEnforcementAppreciationDay

President @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/HXCpTlruVo  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 The president thanked veterans as he cited his administrations efforts to curb the number of veteran suicides by improving mental health treatment for the high-risk group: Today, it was my great honor to sign a new Executive Order to ensure Veterans have the resources they need as they transition back to civilian life. We must ensure that our HEROES are given the care and support they so richly deserve! https://t.co/0MdP9DDIAS pic.twitter.com/LP2a8KCBAp  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 Trumps tweet included photos of the president signing an executive order Tuesday directing the secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs to develop a plan to provide seamless access to mental health and suicide prevention resources for 12 months for members leaving the armed forces. Also on Tuesday, Trump touted a law he signed the day before designating the birthplace of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a national historic park: It was my great honor to sign H.R. 267, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park Act, which redesignates the Martin Luther King, Junior, National Historic Site in the State of Georgia as the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. https://t.co/Qe0b6HBFTY pic.twitter.com/QTgaqTawPT  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 And he thanked House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) for sharing a video compilation comprised of clips of politicians and commentators praising the GOPs tax cut bill: Thank you @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy! Couldnt agree w/you more. TOGETHER, we are #MAGA https://t.co/QaxtqpyXTR  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018  This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump hails tax bill in tweets recapping speech to farmers By Associated Press Connecting with rural Americans, President Trump on Monday hailed his tax overhaul as a victory for family farmers. Farm country is Gods country, Trump told the annual convention of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Trump became the first president in a quarter-century to address the federations convention. His Southern swing also included a stop in Atlanta for the national college football championship game. Cant wait to be back in the amazing state of Tennessee to address the 99th American @FarmBureau Federations Annual Convention in Nashville! #AFBF18



On my way now - join me LIVE at 4:00pmE: https://t.co/QaljAqekdD. pic.twitter.com/Wm7Io0hYT8  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Joined by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and a group of Tennessee lawmakers, Trump said most of the benefits of the tax legislation are going to working families, small businesses, and who  the family farmer. The package Trump signed into law last month provides generous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and more modest reductions for middle- and low-income individuals and families. In every decision we make, we are honoring Americas PROUD FARMING LEGACY. Years of crushing taxes, crippling regs, & corrupt politics left our communities hurting, our economy stagnant, & millions of hardworking Americans COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN. But they are not forgotten ANYMORE! pic.twitter.com/MdYS7xnukQ  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 The president vastly inflated the value of the package in his speech, citing a total of $5.5 trillion in tax cuts, with most of those benefits going to working families, small businesses and who? The family farmer. The estimated value of the tax cuts is actually $1.5 trillion for families and businesses because of cuts in deductions and the use of other steps to generate offsetting tax revenue. We have been working every day to DELIVER for Americas Farmers just as they work every day to deliver FOR US. #AFBF18 pic.twitter.com/QDH7fvFkZ7  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 From Nashville, Trump traveled to Atlanta to watch Alabamas Crimson Tide and Georgias Bulldogs face off Monday night in the College Football Playoff National Championship. We are fighting for our farmers, for our country, and for our GREAT AMERICAN FLAG. We want our flag respected - and we want our NATIONAL ANTHEM respected also! pic.twitter.com/16eOLXg6Fi  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Before departing for the game, Trump referenced his ongoing defense of the American flag and the national anthem, saying there was enough space for people to express their views. We love our flag and we love our anthem, and we want to keep it that way, he said. Facebook

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Trump tweet hails drop in unemployment rate for African Americans By Associated Press President Trump touted a drop in the unemployment rate for African Americans on Monday in a tweet. African American unemployment is the lowest ever recorded in our country. The Hispanic unemployment rate dropped a full point in the last year and is close to the lowest in recorded history. Dems did nothing for you but get your vote! #NeverForget @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 The rate fell to 6.8% in December, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1972. The reasons range from a greater number of black Americans with college degrees to a growing need for employers in a tight job market to widen the pool of people they hire from. Trump also hailed the development via Twitter on Saturday. His latest tweet on the topic came about an hour after it was discussed during an episode of Fox & Friends, according to Mediaite. Facebook

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Trump talks up the economy and dresses down the media in Sunday tweets With President Trump cheering from the sidelines, the White House on Sunday pressed its defense of the presidents fitness to govern, as fired former aide Stephen K. Bannon reversed course and apologized for his role in a new books explosive portrait of Trump. The presidents critics, meanwhile, said Trumps stream of taunts and insults in response to the book  Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, released last week  served only to underscore the authors unsettling portrayal of Trumps year-old presidency, depicting a leader whose own aides consider him childish, ignorant and dangerously erratic. Trump provided more ammunition Sunday morning, as he continued to attack the book via Twitter while preparing to depart Camp David for the White House: Leaving Camp David for the White House. Great meetings with the Cabinet and Military on many very important subjects including Border Security & the desperately needed Wall, the ever increasing Drug and Opioid Problem, Infrastructure, Military, Budget, Trade and DACA.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Ive had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 The most vehement defense of Trump on Sunday came from senior advisor Stephen Miller, a onetime Bannon acolyte who distanced himself from his former mentor. In a combative appearance Sunday on CNNs State of the Union, Miller called the book grotesque and writer Michael Wolff the garbage author of a garbage book. Trump is known to closely monitor aides televised performances in putting forth his case, and he gleefully weighed in within moments of Millers televised clash with host Jake Tapper. CNN has long been a particular target of Trumps ire. Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed in his interview with Stephen Miller of the Trump Administration. Watch the hatred and unfairness of this CNN flunky!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Trumps reaction, however, seemed to bolster Tappers on-air depiction of Miller as using his appearance on the show to play to the president rather than addressing questions put to him. I get it  theres one viewer that you care about, the host said exasperatedly after Miller turned the discussion repeatedly to negative news coverage of the president while deflecting specific queries. Later on Twitter, Trump took up two themes that have been prevalent on his social media feeds recently. The president again went after the news media, tweeting that the recipients of his self-proclaimed most dishonest & corrupt media awards of the year, which he promised earlier in the week to announce on Monday, would actually be revealed the following Wednesday: The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday. The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Trump later lauded a New York Post opinion piece that compared him favorably with his predecessor, President Obama, as well as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. In quoting the op-ed, Trump initally misspelled consequential as consensual, but he deleted those tweets and re-sent the messages. His is turning out to be an enormously consequential presidency. So much so that, despite my own frustration over his missteps, there has never been a day when I wished Hillary Clinton were president. Not one. Indeed, as Trumps accomplishments accumulate, the mere thought of...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 ...Clinton in the WH, doubling down on Barack Obamas failed policies, washes away any doubts that America made the right choice. This was truly a change election  and the changes Trump is bringing are far-reaching & necessary. Thank you Michael Goodwin! https://t.co/4fHNcx2Ydg  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Trump also continued talking up the economy, which has been enjoying a period of strong gains. The Stock Market has been creating tremendous benefits for our country in the form of not only Record Setting Stock Prices, but present and future Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Seven TRILLION dollars of value created since our big election win!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 In addition to Miller, other senior administration officials made the rounds of Sunday news talk shows to decry the claims made in Wolffs book. CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Wolffs characterization of Trump as averse to digesting classified briefing material was ludicrous, and the ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, insisted that that those around Trump love their country and respect their president. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Laura King. Facebook

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Responding to book that mocks his intelligence, Trump tweets hes like, really smart By Tracy Wilkinson President Trump declared himself a very stable genius on Twitter on Saturday and later in a televised news conference called the author of a book that questioned his mental fitness a fraud. His comments came on a bone-cold day at Camp David during a weekend retreat with top administration officials and Republican congressional leaders strategizing on the years legislative agenda, including matters such as infrastructure, immigration, welfare reform and national security. Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 ....Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 ....to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 Still, Trumps explosive rebuttal to author Michael Wolffs claims not only opened the day, but it also ensured the presidents capability to fill the highest office in the land was a topic that would not go away. In his early-morning tweets, Trump said two of his greatest assets have been mental stability, and being, like, really smart. He noted that his former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, played these cards [about competence] very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). Read More Facebook

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In morning tweets, Trump touts job numbers and takes digs at news media By Associated Press President Trump used Twitter on Saturday morning to tout a drop in the unemployment rate for African Americans. He also used the tweets as an opportunity to take digs at media outlets whose past coverage he has found to be critical. The African American unemployment rate fell to 6.8%, the lowest rate in 45 years. I am so happy about this News! And, in the Washington Post (of all places), headline states, Trumps first year jobs numbers were very, very good.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 The unemployment rate for African Americans fell to 6.8% in December, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1972. The reasons range from a greater number of black Americans with college degrees to a growing need for employers in a tight job market to widen the pool of people they hire from. Still, the rate for black workers remains well above those for whites and some other groups, something experts attribute in large part to decades of discrimination and disadvantages. Robust job creation has lowered unemployment for all Americans. U.S. employers added nearly 2.1 million jobs in 2017  the seventh straight year that hiring has topped 2 million. In his tweet, Trump praised a report that noted the numbers, touting the fact that it appeared in the Washington Post (of all places). Minutes later, Trump renewed his attack on an ABC News reporter who was suspended last month after filing an erroneous report on Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security advisor. Brian Ross, the reporter who made a fraudulent live newscast about me that drove the Stock Market down 350 points (billions of dollars), was suspended for a month but is now back at ABC NEWS in a lower capacity. He is no longer allowed to report on Trump. Should have been fired!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 The reporter, Brian Ross, was reportedly reassigned within ABC News upon returning from his unpaid suspension. But on Saturday, Trump wrote that he should have been fired. Trumps tweets came hours before he was set to host congressional Republicans and administration officials at Camp David. The meeting scheduled to begin at midmorning Saturday was expected to touch on the budget, infrastructure, immigration, welfare reform and the shape of the midterm election this fall. Facebook

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Trump commends Sen. Rand Paul after he proposes eliminating all U.S. aid to Pakistan President Trump commended Sen. Rand Paul after the Kentucky Republican announced plans to introduce legislation that would eliminate all U.S. aid to Pakistan. Trump tweeted Friday night: Good idea Rand! https://t.co/55sqUDiC0s  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 On Thursday, the Trump administration announced it was suspending security assistance to Islamabad until the country moves aggressively against local militants who have attacked U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan. Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration at the apparent inability of Pakistani authorities to rein in militants who cross out of the countrys rugged tribal areas to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson. Facebook

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Trump continues to lash out at Sloppy Steve Bannon in tweets on tell-all book By Associated Press President Trump is praising a major Republican donor family for distancing themselves from his former advisor Steve Bannon. Trump tweeted Friday: The Mercer Family recently dumped the leaker known as Sloppy Steve Bannon. Smart!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Trump has continued to lash out at Bannon over an explosive new book that quoted his former aide as questioning Trumps competence and describing a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower among Donald Trump Jr., Trump campaign aides and a Russian lawyer as treasonous and unpatriotic. On Thursday, billionaire GOP donor Rebekah Mercer issued a statement distancing her family from Bannon. Mercer is a co-owner of Breitbart, the populist website Bannon helps run. I support President Trump and the platform upon which he was elected, Mercer said. My family and I have not communicated with Steve Bannon in many months and have provided no financial support to his political agenda, nor do we support his recent actions and statements. The book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, quickly shot atop Amazons best-seller list, and the publisher moved up its release date by four days, to Friday. Trump took up the topic again on Twitter on Friday night, denouncing both Bannon and the books author, Michael Wolff, in starkly personal terms: Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book. He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad! https://t.co/mEeUhk5ZV9  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 Trumps message linked to a meme depicting a parody book cover titled, Liar and Phony, that featured a photo of Wolff and disparaging quotes about the author. In a tweet sent earlier Friday morning, Trump suggested the book was intended to serve as a distraction from the FBIs investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, which Trump wrote is proving to be a total hoax. Well, now that collusion with Russia is proving to be a total hoax and the only collusion is with Hillary Clinton and the FBI/Russia, the Fake News Media (Mainstream) and this phony new book are hitting out at every new front imaginable. They should try winning an election. Sad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 That came amid reports that Trump directed his White House counsel to tell Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself from the Justice Departments Russia investigation. Trumps effort to keep Sessions, a vocal and loyal supporter of his election bid, in charge of an investigation into his campaign offers special counsel Robert Mueller yet another avenue to explore as his prosecutors work to untangle potential evidence of obstruction. Read More Facebook

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Trump praises the economy ahead of meetings at Camp David By Associated Press President Trump is praising the strength of the U.S. economy ahead of meetings at Camp David with congressional Republicans. Trump tweeted early Friday: Dow goes from 18,589 on November 9, 2016, to 25,075 today, for a new all-time Record. Jumped 1000 points in last 5 weeks, Record fastest 1000 point move in history. This is all about the Make America Great Again agenda! Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Six trillion dollars in value created!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 The president also told reporters on the South Lawn that the tax cuts are really kicking in after Congress passed a package of tax cuts at the end of 2017. And the president praised the December jobs report, which found U.S. employers added 148,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate stayed at 4.1%, the lowest level since 2000. The modest but steady pace of hiring is a reassuring sign for investors who have been buoyed by the just-passed Republican tax plan and have been sending stock market indexes roaring to uncharted heights. The president is meeting with Republican congressional leaders and members of his Cabinet on Friday and Saturday to discuss the 2018 agenda. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets as Dow crashes through 25,000 By Associated Press President Trump dispatched a congratulatory tweet as the Dow Jones industrial average rose above the 25,000-point mark Thursday, just five weeks after its first close above 24,000. Dow just crashes through 25,000. Congrats! Big cuts in unnecessary regulations continuing.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 After the Dow closed above 25,000, Trump shared a graphic depicting the stock indexs record-setting rise. MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/iONbr1DkVk  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Later in the day, the president was back on Twitter, complaining that news outlets had barely covered the stock market milestone. He suggested that the strength of the economy would be the biggest story on earth, had it unfolded during the presidency of his predecessor. The Fake News Media barely mentions the fact that the Stock Market just hit another New Record and that business in the U.S. is booming...but the people know! Can you imagine if O was president and had these numbers - would be biggest story on earth! Dow now over 25,000.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 The Dow broke past 1,000-point barriers in 2017 on its way to a 25% gain for the year, as an eight-year rally since the Great Recession continued to confound skeptics. Strong global economic growth and good prospects for higher company earnings have analysts predicting more gains, although the market may not stay as calm as it has been recently. The Dow has made a rapid trip since it reached 24,000 points Nov. 30, partly on enthusiasm over passage of the Republican-backed tax package, which could boost company profits this year with across-the-board cuts to corporate taxes. Read More Facebook

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Trump reacts to Fire and Fury book in tweet lashing out at author and Sloppy Steve President Trump lashed out at the author of a soon-to-be-released book about the chaotic first year of his presidency Thursday night. In a tweet, Trump called Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, a phony book and claimed that hed never spoken to its author, Michael Wolff. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve! Trump wrote. He appeared to be referring to former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, whose stunning criticisms of Trump and his circle figure prominently in the title. I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that dont exist. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Trumps tweet came hours after he had his lawyer demand that Henry Holt & Co. and Wolff stop publication the book. Instead, the publisher expedited the books release to Friday, four days before it was slated to hit bookstore shelves, in response to unprecedented demand. Published excerpts on Wednesday and Thursday whetted that appetite and roiled Washington. Bannons comments, including that it was treasonous and unpatriotic for Trumps son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort to have met in 2016 with Russians said to have dirt on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, prompted Trump on Wednesday to rebuke his former advisor, saying Bannon had lost his mind. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writers Brian Bennett and Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump thanks senators who attended meeting on immigration President Trump tweeted thanks to Republican senators who attended a meeting about possible immigration legislation on Thursday. In his message, Trump also listed his top priorities when it comes to any type of overhaul of the nations immigration system. Thank you to the great Republican Senators who showed up to our mtg on immigration reform. We must BUILD THE WALL, stop illegal immigration, end chain migration & cancel the visa lottery. The current system is unsafe & unfair to the great people of our country - time for change!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Trumps tweet echoed his remarks at the beginning of Thursdays meeting, when he insisted again that constructing a border wall and overhauling two legal immigration programs must be part of any deal with Democrats to protect the so-called Dreamers from deportation. Two-year deportation protections and work permits given under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program begin to expire March 6 under an executive order. Trump announced in September that he was ending the Obama-era program, but told Congress to draft a law to continue protections for people brought to the country illegally as children  a group that has widespread public support. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Brian Bennett. Facebook

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Trump resumes Twitter war against kneeling NFL players President Trump has resumed his Twitter war against NFL players who kneel during the national anthem to protest social injustice and racial inequality. In a tweet early Thursday, Trump replied to a supporter who shared a meme that appears to depict family members lying on the grave of a fallen soldier with the caption: This is why we stand. Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel! Trump wrote. So beautiful....Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel! https://t.co/tJLM1tvbvb  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 The president has denounced players who kneel during the anthem in previous tweets. Hes also called for the firing of players who do so. His latest message came amid news that the NFL finished the regular season with TV ratings that fell nearly 10% below the previous season. Analysts attribute the drop to controversies facing the league, as well as changing viewing habits and a possible saturation point in the number of games available. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writers Stephen Battaglio and Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump credits himself with facilitating talks between North and South Korea By Associated Press President Trump says his tough stance on nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula is helping push North Korea and South Korea to talk. Trump tweeted early Thursday: With all of the failed experts weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasnt firm, strong and willing to commit our total might against the North. Fools, but talks are a good thing!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 That assertion is in conflict with some of the presidents own statements. Last year, he ridiculed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for talking about negotiations with the North. This week, Trump seemed open to the possibility of an inter-Korean dialogue after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare overture toward South Korea in a New Years Day address. But Trumps ambassador to the United Nations insisted that talks wont be meaningful unless the North is getting rid of its nuclear weapons. The overture about talks came after Trump and Kim traded more bellicose claims about their nuclear weapons. In his New Years Day address, Kim repeated fiery nuclear threats against the United States. Kim said he has a nuclear button on his office desk and warned that the whole territory of the U.S. is within the range of our nuclear strike. Trump mocked that assertion Tuesday evening in a tweet. Facebook

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After disbanding his vote fraud panel, Trump still says voting system is rigged By Brian Bennett One day after disbanding his troubled voter fraud commission without any findings of fraud, President Trump continued to call the U.S. voting system rigged and said states should require that Americans have voter-identification cards. In two tweets on Thursday morning, Trump blamed the commissions failure on the lack of cooperation from mostly Democrat States that refused to hand over voter rolls because they know that many people are voting illegally. However, voting supervisors in Republican-led states refused as well, objecting on privacy and other grounds. Many mostly Democrat States refused to hand over data from the 2016 Election to the Commission On Voter Fraud. They fought hard that the Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally. System is rigged, must go to Voter I.D.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 As Americans, you need identification, sometimes in a very strong and accurate form, for almost everything you do.....except when it comes to the most important thing, VOTING for the people that run your country. Push hard for Voter Identification!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Despite Trumps assertions, analysts have not found evidence of widespread voter fraud. Trump created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in May after alleging, without proof, that millions of illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Trump was elected after winning a majority in the electoral college, but the nationwide count showed Clinton received nearly 3 million more votes. The commission sought personal data on voters across the country and faced mounting lawsuits in recent months over privacy concerns. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts another good day for stocks, credits tax cut By Associated Press President Trump touted another good day for the stock market Wednesday in a tweet. Stock Market had another good day but, now that the Tax Cut Bill has passed, we have tremendous upward potential. Dow just short of 25,000, a number that few thought would be possible this soon into my administration. Also, unemployment went down to 4.1%. Only getting better!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Big gains for technology and healthcare stocks helped U.S. indexes set records again Wednesday. Some analysts attributed the surge to investor enthusiasm for Trumps $1.5-trillion tax cut. All told, Wall Street analysts estimate the tax package should boost earnings for companies in the Standard & Poors 500 index by roughly 8% this year. Thats much more generous than the average tax cut of 1.6% that middle-class families will receive, according to the Tax Policy Center. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 The public has been less enthusiastic about the tax law. A Monmouth University poll last month found that nearly half of Americans disapproved of it, with only 26% in support. Still, as Trump also noted on Twitter, some workers have seen a benefit: So far, dozens of companies have announced bonuses and higher minimum wages as a result of the tax cut. AT&T, Comcast, Bank of America, and American Airlines have all pledged to pay $1,000 bonuses to their employees. Some 40 U.S. companies have responded to President Trumps tax cut and reform victory in Congress last year by handing out bonuses up to $2,000, increases in 401k matches and spending on charity, a much higher number than previously known. https://t.co/bmWrwWzxMR  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Investors also appear less concerned than many politicians about how the additional profits will be used. The Trump administration says it expects companies will plow much of the extra profit back into their businesses, purchasing more software, machinery, and other equipment. Those investments will make workers more productive and provide a key boost to the economys long-run growth. They should also boost wages and salaries for employees. Opponents of the tax law respond that companies are more likely to pass the windfall on to shareholders in the form of higher dividend payments and share buybacks, which raise the price of those shares still in investors hands. Previous cuts in corporate tax rates, in the United States and overseas, havent always led to higher wages. For Wall Street, its all good, at least in the short run. Most analysts take the view that either way, companies and the economy will benefit. Facebook

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Trump reacts to death of Mormon Church president By Associated Press President Trump mourned the death of Mormon Church leader Thomas S. Monson on Wednesday evening. Trump tweeted a link to a statement in which he said that Monson demonstrated wisdom, inspired leadership, and great compassion and delivered a message of optimism, forgiveness, and faith. Melania and I are deeply saddened by the death of Thomas S. Monson, a beloved President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...https://t.co/ETD3fWtfU3  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 A church bishop at the age of 22, Monson became the youngest church apostle ever in 1963 at the age of 36. He served as a counselor for three church presidents before assuming the role of the top leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February 2008. After a life of church service, Monson died Tuesday at his home in Salt Lake City, according to church spokesman Eric Hawkins. He was 90. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets that Iranian protesters will see great U.S. support at the appropriate time By Associated Press President Trump continued to express support for Irans anti-government protesters on Wednesday. In a tweet, Trump commended the protesters and pledged that the United States will support them at the appropriate time. Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Trumps tweet Wednesday morning came as Iranian Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo sent a letter to United Nations officials complaining that Washington was intervening in a grotesque way in Irans internal affairs. The President and Vice-President of the United States, in their numerous absurd tweets, incited Iranians to engage in disruptive acts, the ambassador wrote to the U.N. Security Council president and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The U.S. didnt immediately respond to the letter, which maintains that Washington has crossed every limit in flouting rules and principles of international law governing the civilized conduct of international relations. At least 21 people have been killed and hundreds arrested in Iran during a week of anti-government protests and unrest over economic woes and official corruption. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people took part in counter-demonstrations Wednesday backing the clerically overseen government, which has said enemies of Iran are fomenting the protests. Trump has unleashed a series of tweets in recent days backing the protesters, saying Iran is failing at every level and declaring that it is time for change in the Islamic Republic. Facebook

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Trump congratulates Sen. Orrin Hatch upon news of his retirement By Associated Press President Trump congratulated Sen. Orrin Hatch for an absolutely incredible career upon news of Hatchs impending retirement. In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Trump called Hatch a tremendous supporter and wrote that he will be greatly missed in the Senate. Congratulations to Senator Orrin Hatch on an absolutely incredible career. He has been a tremendous supporter, and I will never forget the (beyond kind) statements he has made about me as President. He is my friend and he will be greatly missed in the U.S. Senate! pic.twitter.com/0VjzLEeHTl  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Hatchs decision to retire from the Senate after four decades lets the Utah Republican walk away at the height of his power after helping to push through an overhaul of the tax code and persuading Trump to downsize two national monuments. Retirement also preserves the 83-year-olds legacy by allowing him to avoid a bruising reelection battle that would have broken his promise not to seek an eighth term. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweet exaggerates progress in improving veterans care By Associated Press President Trump played up tremendous progress in improving care for veterans in his first year on Tuesday in a tweet. His message linked to an Instagram video describing eight accomplishments that show Trump is fighting for our veterans. But it overstates the impact of these steps. We will not rest until all of Americas GREAT VETERANS can receive the care they so richly deserve. Tremendous progress has been made in a short period of time. Keep up the great work @SecShulkin @DeptVetAffairs! https://t.co/ir25vW15hx pic.twitter.com/OtuzIgxMn6  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Of the eight achievements cited, two are ceremonial proclamations recognizing National Veterans and Military Families Month and National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Two are pieces of legislation that extended the troubled Veterans Choice program on a temporary basis. This became necessary because the Trump administration repeatedly miscalculated the amount of taxpayer dollars available to pay for care from private doctors outside the Veterans Affairs system when veterans had to endure long waits for treatment at VA medical centers. The departments poor budget planning caught lawmakers off guard. A fifth claim involves telehealth, a step letting doctors practice medicine across state lines using digital technology. Announced in August, it has yet to take full effect because a proposed VA regulation hasnt been completed. The VA wants authority to practice across state lines to come from legislation, not a regulation. On Wednesday, the Senate approved a telehealth measure that now goes to the House. A sixth claim refers to legislation that streamlines the appeals process for disability compensation claims within the VA. This step has had limited effect so far because it applies to new disability claims, not the 470,000 pending claims. The last two initiatives make it easier for the VA to discipline employees. The department has pointed to more than 1,300 employees who have been fired under Trumps watch. Because their infractions are not detailed in public documents, the effect on veterans care is not fully known. Facebook

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Trump unleashes his first tweetstorm of 2018 By Noah Bierman President Trump clearly didnt resolve to change his Twitter habits this year. With nine disparate tweets over three hours on Tuesday morning, the first working day of 2018, Trump continued to exploit social media to be the most aggressive commentator in chief in American history. For any other president, his posts would have made for a monumental day of (mis-)statements. Yet for Trump, the series  attacks on political foes and media, provocations of foreign leaders and self-praise for events he had nothing to do with  was all but unremarkable. His Twitter barrage  sent between 7:09 a.m. and 10:16 a.m.  reflected a familiar gamut after nearly a year in office: Attacks on political foes: Nearly 14 months after his election, Trump called for the jailing of Huma Abedin, Crooked Hillary Clintons top aid (his misspelling, another occasional feature of Trump tweets). Crooked Hillary Clintons top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 In the same tweet, he disparaged the Deep State Justice Dept, headed of course by his appointees, calling on it to act against James B. Comey, the FBI director he fired for investigating the Russia thing. Diplomatic provocations: Trump again called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Rocket man, ridiculed the volatile nuclear-armed foe for recent military defections and openly speculated about potential talks between North and South Korea. Sanctions and other pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea. Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea. Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not  we will see! Trump wrote. Later Tuesday, Trump tweeted: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times. Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Also later Tuesday, Trump tweeted an attack on Pakistan, his second in as many days, and added a new one against Palestinians: It's not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries, and others. As an example, we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They dont even want to negotiate a long overdue...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 ...peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Undermining media: Trump offered Congratulations! to A.G. Sulzberger, who took over as publisher of the New York Times this week. The Failing New York Times has a new publisher, A.G. Sulzberger. Congratulations! Here is a last chance for the Times to fulfill the vision of its Founder, Adolph Ochs, to give the news impartially, without fear or FAVOR, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved. Get...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 ....impartial journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent sources, and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY, so that the next time I (and the people) win, you wont have to write an apology to your readers for a job poorly done! GL  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 But the two-part post was really yet another slam against a perceived media foe: Trump said the paper had a last chance to fulfill its journalistic mission, and accused it of relying on phony sources and substandard reporters  just days after he granted another exclusive interview to the paper. As a bonus, the tweet contained a recycled falsehood, that the paper apologized after the election for reporting on him unfairly. It didnt. Trump later said on Twitter that he would soon announce the most dishonest & corrupt media awards of the year. Stay tuned! I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 oclock. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 The president also tweeted a quote from Fox Business Networks Lou Dobbs Tonight, which aired a segment praising Trumps first-year accomplishments. Dobbs reportedly joined Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday for a gala to celebrate New Years Eve. President Trump has something now he didnt have a year ago, that is a set of accomplishments that nobody can deny. The accomplishments are there, look at his record, he has had a very significant first year. @LouDobbs Show,David Asman & Ed Rollins  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Taking credit: Trump congratulated himself for policing the border with Mexico, an area where his policies and anti-immigration rhetoric are believed to have had some effect on reducing illegal crossings. Thank you to Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council for your kind words on how well we are doing at the Border. We will be bringing in more & more of your great folks and will build the desperately needed WALL! @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 He took credit for employee bonuses by companies after he signed Republican tax cuts into law last month. Companies are giving big bonuses to their workers because of the Tax Cut Bill. Really great!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 But the jaw-dropper was Trump congratulating himself for planes not crashing. Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 It was the safest year on record worldwide, but the American streak without commercial jet passenger deaths goes back to 2009. Trump, who has promoted deregulation as one of his top accomplishments, has not signed off on any new airline safety regulations. The White House pointed to new security screening of passengers, to electronic devices to prevent terrorist attacks and to Trumps support for privatizing air traffic control  a proposal that has gotten nowhere in Congress. Falsehoods: Trump said President Obama, in brokering the 2015 nuclear arms limitation deal with Iran, foolishly gave money to the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. He didnt. The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 The nuclear deal, which included major U.S. allies as signators, released Irans own funds that had long been frozen. Trumps art of the deal: When Trump sees a big deal looming, he often blasts the other side  to gain leverage, as hes written. This week he resumes a showdown with Democratic lawmakers over funding the government and immigration protections for so-called Dreamers, who were brought to the country illegally as children. Democrats are doing nothing for DACA - just interested in politics. DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start falling in love with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Trump, who in September ordered a gradual end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, sought to shift blame for the resulting controversy, saying Democrats are doing nothing for DACA and are just interested in politics. Trump has insisted that any help for Dreamers be paired with funding for a border wall and a crackdown on legal immigration. Democrats, and some Republicans, are opposed. Read More Facebook

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In tweet, Trump suggests U.S. will withdraw financial assistance to Pakistan By Shashank Bengali Pakistan lashed out Monday after President Trump accused its leaders of lies & deceit and suggested the United States would withdraw financial assistance to the nuclear-armed nation it once saw as a key ally against terrorism. It was the presidents latest broadside against Pakistan after a speech in August in which he demanded its leaders crack down on the safe havens enjoyed by Taliban militants fighting U.S.-backed forces in neighboring Afghanistan. The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018 U.S. Ambassador David Hale was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to discuss the presidents statement, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said. Pakistan lodged a strongly worded protest and asked for clarification about Trumps comments, according to two foreign office officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Pakistans prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, called a Cabinet meeting for Tuesday and a meeting of the National Security Committee on Wednesday to discuss Trumps New Years Day tweet. Read More Facebook

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Trump continues to tweet in support of Iranian protesters By Laura King President Trump expressed renewed support Sunday for protesters in Iran, declaring that people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. In a tweet from his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, the president said the nationwide economic protests that began on Thursday  and have taken on wider political overtones as they have grown in size  were a signal that Iranians will not take it any longer. Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Trump has tweeted about the protests for three days straight as Iranians took to the streets despite a heavy police presence, tear gas and scores of arrests. The defiance gained urgency after two people were reported shot to death in the city of Dorud, about 200 miles southwest of Tehran. As the conflict escalated, Iranian authorities on Sunday slapped a temporary ban on Instagram and the messaging app Telegram, which were widely used to fan protest fervor. Iran, the Number One State of Sponsored Terror with numerous violations of Human Rights occurring on an hourly basis, has now closed down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate. Not good!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Irans leaders already are casting Trumps increasingly effusive expressions of support for the demonstrators as opportunistic meddling and are painting the demonstrators as foreign pawns, adopting a strategy that some analysts say could jeopardize the legitimacy of the nascent antigovernment protests. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets condolences after Colorado deputies are shot in ambush, one fatally By Associated Press A man fired more than 100 rounds at sheriffs deputies in Colorado early Sunday, killing one and injuring four others, before being fatally shot himself in what authorities called an ambush. Two civilians were also injured. President Trump expressed sorrow, writing on Twitter: My deepest condolences to the victims of the terrible shooting in Douglas County @DCSheriff, and their families. We love our police and law enforcement - God Bless them all! #LESM  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said deputies came under fire almost
Trumps latest tweet in media war is a literal show of mock pugilism By Laura King President Trump on Sunday circulated a doctored video clip on Twitter that showed him physically attacking a crudely rendered stand-in for CNN, a post that drew rebukes from critics as an incitement to violence, but prompted renewed expressions of support from backers. In doing so, Trump also ignored pleas to stop tweeting or at least take a more presidential tone -- from lawmakers in his own party -- after he took his war against news media to new heights last week with a coarse post on the appearance and intellect of cable television host Mika Brzezinski. On Saturday he also posted several anti-media messages as Americans began their Fourth of July celebration. Sundays tweet, which used an edited version of a years-old promotional video for professional wrestling, showed Trump, clad in a business suit and tie, administering a choreographed beat-down to a figure whose face was obscured by CNNs logo. #FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017 CNN, which has been a particular target of the president since the network was forced to retract a story relating to an element of the sprawling investigation into possible collusion with Russia by the Trump campaign, quickly condemned the tweet. It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters, the network said in statement. It also tweeted a recent assertion by White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders that Trump had never engaged in such incitement. "The President in no way form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence. If anything, quite the contrary." - @SHSanders45 6/29/17  CNN Communications (@CNNPR) July 2, 2017 As is often the case, the presidents surrogates were left scrambling to explain or justify an inflammatory Twitter outburst. Homeland security advisor Thomas Bossert, who was shown the clip while appearing on ABCs This Week, watched it stone-faced and then declared: No one would perceive that as a threat. I hope they dont. The night before, Trump had used a celebration of veterans at Washingtons Kennedy Center to again denounce the news media. The president, who had briefly broken a weekend golf getaway to appear at the rally, pounded away at the theme that he is being treated unfairly. The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House, he told the raucous crowd. But Im president, and theyre not. Facebook

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Increasing number of states reject request for personal information on voters from Trump commission By Colleen Shalby (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press) A growing number of states have rejected a request for personal information about voters from a presidential commission on vote fraud led by Kansas controversial Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Kobach, the vice chairman of the commission, sent letters to each state and Washington, D.C., asking for voters personal information. The request asked for names, addresses, voting history and the last four digits of voters Social Security numbers. The commission was set up to look into voter fraud after President Trump alleged that he lost the popular vote in 2016 only because millions of people voted illegally -- a claim that numerous states election officials from both parties and outside experts have dismissed as groundless. As of Friday afternoon, at least 13 states had outright rejected the request from the Presidential Advisory Committee on Election Integrity. Officials in several other states either said they would not supply all the information or needed more information before making a decision. Some officials did not mince words in their nos. They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, and Mississippi is a great State to launch from, Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann wrote in a statement. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said in a statement that strongly criticized Kobach that he would continue to defend the rights of all eligible voters to cast their ballots free from discrimination, intimidation or unnecessary roadblocks. Secretary Padilla's response to the Election Commission's request for personal data of CA voters: pic.twitter.com/UdUt55HSim  CA SOS Vote (@CASOSvote) June 29, 2017 As a Kansas official, Kobach has been a leading backer of immigration restrictions and of measures to put new requirements on who is allowed to vote. His opponents note that he was fined last week for misleading a federal court in a voting rights case. Democratic elected officials in several states criticized the commission, itself, not just the information request. The president created his election commission based on the false notion that voter fraud is a widespread issue  it is not, Kentucky Secretary of State Allison Grimes wrote. "I do not intend to release Kentuckians' sensitive personal data to the fed. gov't."  Sec. Grimes



Statement on Pres. Commission request: pic.twitter.com/9Js05x99eF  Alison L. Grimes (@KySecofState) June 30, 2017 In an odd contradiction, Kobach said that Kansas, like some other states, will partially reject at least one aspect of the request. In Kansas, the Social Security number is not publicly available.  Every state receives the same letter, but were not asking for it if its not publicly available, he told the Kansas City Star. The states that have fully rejected the request include California, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Dakota, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Mississippi and Minnesota. Others, including Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Missouri, Kansas, Utah and Texas will turn over some of the requested information. Vermont has requested an affidavit from the commission. And Wisconsin has suggested that the commission could purchase the publicly available information, just as political campaigns do. Officials in Washington state said they were reviewing the request. Facebook

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Look at possible conflicts of interest in Trump teams OneWest Bank probes, 2 Democrats urge By Jim Puzzanghera Protesters gather outside a OneWest Bank in Pasadena in 2014. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times) Two House Democrats want Congress to look into possible conflicts of interest in the Trump administrations handling of investigations into Pasadenas OneWest Bank  a bank formerly headed by now-Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Al Green (D-Texas) said Friday that there was room for considerable doubt as to the impartiality and the adequacy of this administrations investigations into OneWest and a subsidiary, Financial Freedom. Mnuchin was the banks chairman from 2009 to 2015. President Trump has nominated Joseph Otting, the former chief executive of OneWest, to be comptroller of the currency, a key bank regulator who is part of the Treasury Department. And Brian Brooks, who was OneWests vice chairman, reportedly will be tapped to be deputy Treasury secretary. Read More Facebook

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Healthcare issue delivers nothing but pain for Nevadas embattled Sen. Dean Heller By David Montero Dean Heller is Stephanie Diaz-Gonzalezs problem now. Shes never met Nevadas Republican senator and hadnt had much time to familiarize herself. How could she? The 25-year-old is holding down a full-time job and ra+ising a 7-year-old son, who keeps her busy with soccer games, math homework and those too-often terrifying moments when he cant breathe. When President Trump was elected and congressional Republicans moved on their top priority to dismantle Obamacare, Diaz-Gonzalez got to know Heller a whole lot better. Given his back-and-forth on the issue, she came to distrust him. I dont know if I could vote for him or support him, the Democrat said. He seems very contradictory. Which is why Heller is also Karen Steelmons problem. Steelmon, a 48-year-old Republican who grew up in northern Nevada, isnt happy with the lawmaker, who is considered the most vulnerable GOP senator in the country when he comes up for reelection next year. Obamacare has always been an abomination to Steelmon, an ardent supporter of repeal. To her, deeply held principles are at stake. Heller has never acted in favor of what I would consider conservative, constitutional principles as a general rule, said Steelmon, who would like to see the incumbent taken out in a GOP primary. And on the very few times he has, its always come as a surprise. This is Hellers dilemma. Read More Facebook

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Trump will meet face-to-face with Putin in Germany next week By Brian Bennett (Alexei Nikolsky / Associated Press) President Trump has governed five months under a cloud of questions about his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, yet the two men will meet next week for the first time, on the sidelines of the G20 summit of world leaders in Hamburg, Germany. White House officials on Thursday confirmed plans for the private meeting but said no decisions had been made about the topics Trump will raise. So its unclear whether the men will discuss Russias election-year cyberattacks that are the focus of criminal and congressional investigations. Our relationship with Russia is not different from any other country in terms of us communicating with them, really, what our concerns are, where we see problems in the relationship but also opportunities, said Trumps national security advisor, H.R. McMaster. McMaster said he expected the two men to have a broad, wide-ranging discussion about problems in the relationship but also about where the U.S. and Russia have common interests. Theres no specific agenda, McMaster said. Its really going to be whatever the president wants to talk about, he added. The White House has refused to say whether Trump would sign legislation with new sanctions on Russia for meddling in the elections by hacking, including into some states voting systems, and by spreading false news stories. But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin indicated the existing restrictions against Russia were sufficient. Weve got plenty of those as well, Mnuchin said. Trump will also meet with the leaders of China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Indonesia, Singapore and other countries during the summit of 20 major world economies. Trumps director of the White House National Economic Council, Gary Cohn, said the meeting would fall short of a typical bilateral discussion between the American president and the head of another country, but would be more than whats known in diplomacy-speak as a pull aside  a quick, informal get-together on the edge of a conference. Trumps scheduled meeting with Putin in Hamburg places added significance on his stop in Poland next Wednesday. In Warsaw, McMaster said, Trump intends to bolster U.S. relationships with Poland and other central European and Baltic states that were once in Moscows orbit under the Soviet Union, but now rely on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the U.S. to counter pressure from Russia. Trumps meetings there seem designed to strengthen his hand with Putin. McMaster called Poland a front-line NATO nation with regards to the eastern flank, noting that it sent troops to fight alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan and Iraq and has exceeded its pledge on NATO defense spending. As a candidate and president, Trump has criticized other NATO countries that have not yet met those pledges for military spending equal to at least 2% of the size of their respective economies. Facebook

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Travel ban seen a win by at least one conservative; Breitbart focuses on upcoming votes in Congress By Kurtis Lee After it stalled for several months in federal courts, a portion of President Trumps travel ban is set to take effect Thursday evening and will bar individuals from six majority-Muslim countries. Some in conservative media are viewing it as a much-needed political victory for Trump. Here are some of Thursdays headlines: Two wins for Trump (Washington Times) Trump has seen setbacks in his fledgling administration  probes into possible collusion with Russia, infighting among his party over a healthcare overhaul, federal courts halting his travel ban. But now, the president gets a W. The Supreme Courts decision to allow portions of President Trumps travel ban to proceed is a much-needed victory for the administration, Cal Thompson writes. In doing so the unanimous court affirmed  at least temporarily, pending a full hearing on the case in the fall  a presidents constitutional authority to determine whether people seeking admittance to the U.S. pose a threat to our safety and security. Thompson also highlights the Supreme Court decision this week that churches have the same right as other charitable groups to seek state money for new playground surfaces and other non-religious needs. Thompson called the ruling in the case, Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia Inc. v. Comer, a victory for religious institutions and Trump, who at times has touched on the issue of religious freedom. Breitbart prods GOP leaders to pass pro-American immigration reforms (Breitbart) For Trump, Breitbart hasnt always delivered the most approving headlines for his administration  particularly on immigration. Some right-wing bloggers and pundits dont think Trump has done enough on immigration, a key pillar of his campaign platform. This piece turns the attention to members of Congress, where two bills  focused primarily on detaining people in the country illegally  could come up for a vote . The GOP-run House is expected to vote for two modest immigration-reform bills as soon as this week, but pro-American reformers are using the two votes to build loud and energetic public pressure for major reform legislation, notes the right-wing website. Trump attacks Psycho Joe Scarborough, Crazy Mika Brzezinski in Twitter tear (Fox News) At first, they were friends; now, perhaps, enemies?

Trump used Twitter early Thursday to jab Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who the president in past has said he admires. The tweets have drawn the ire of Republicans. Heres what the president wrote: I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017 ...to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017 And the response? pic.twitter.com/8YhzcCUwM1  Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) June 29, 2017 Facebook

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Trump plans to nominate Brendan Carr to fill final FCC seat and provide crucial vote on net neutrality rules By Jim Puzzanghera President Trump intends to nominate Brendan Carr, a former aide to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, to fill the final open seat at the agency and provide a crucial vote on the future of tough net neutrality rules. Carr, the FCCs general counsel, would fill a Republican slot on the commission and would be expected to support Pais push to roll back the regulations for online traffic. Carrs intended nomination was announced by the White House on Wednesday night. It comes after Trump nominated Jessica Rosenworcel, a former FCC commissioner, on June 14 to fill a Democratic seat. If the Senate confirms both nominees, as expected, the FCC would have its full complement of five commissioners and a 3-2 Republican majority. Read More Facebook

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Gorsuch is already pushing Supreme Court to the right on religion, guns and gays By David Savage Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) When Judge Neil M. Gorsuch went before the Senate in March as President Trumps first nominee to the Supreme Court, he sought to assure senators he would be independent and above the political fray. There is no such thing as a Republican judge or Democratic judge, he said more than once. We just have judges. But in just his first few weeks on the high court, Justice Gorsuch has shown himself to be a confident conservative activist, urging his colleagues to move the law to the right on religion, gun rights, gay rights and campaign funding. He dissented along with Justice Clarence Thomas when the court rejected a gun-rights challenge to Californias law that strictly regulates who may carry a concealed weapon. The 2nd Amendments core purpose, they said, shows the right to bear arms extends to public carry. He wrote a dissent, joined by Thomas and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., when the court struck down part of an Arkansas law that gave opposite sex-couples, but not same-sex couples, the right to have both spouses listed on a childs birth certificate. The court said it had already decided that same-sex couples deserve fully equal rights under state law. And when Trumps travel ban came before the court this week, Gorsuch dissented from the majoritys middle-ground approach, which allowed the ban to take effect except for foreign travelers who had a relationship with this country, such as a close relative or a student enrolled in a university. Read More Facebook

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When he meets South Koreas president, Trump will be asking for trade concessions and help confronting North Korea By Brian Bennett (Nicholas Kamm / AFP Photo) President Trump plans to pressure South Korean President Moon Jae-in to make trade concessions when they meet Friday, while at the same time seeking closer cooperation against North Koreas accelerating nuclear program. Both aims, outlined Wednesday by a senior administration official, could make for some difficult discussions, especially since the newly elected Moon campaigned for a softer approach to the government in Pyongyang. Moon, who arrived Wednesday in Washington, began his four-day visit by laying a wreath at a memorial at Marine Corps Base Quantico in northern Virginia to the U.S. Marines who died during the Korean War in the battle at Chosin Reservoir. Trump will host Moon and his wife, Kim Joon-suk, for dinner at the White House on Thursday before the two leaders meet one-on-one in the Oval Office on Friday morning. Having criticized the two countries trade agreement when he was running for president, Trump will argue for a more balanced trade relationship, the administration official said in a background briefing. In particular, Trump will cite the large amount of Chinese steel that is sometimes processed in South Korea before being sold cheaply in the U.S. market. The two leaders will have a friendly, frank discussion about the trade imbalance between South Korea and the United States, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Seouls trade surplus is shrinking, the official added, but there is still a large gap. The visit will mark the first time the two leaders have met since the liberal Moon took office last month after the ouster of President Park Geun-hye, a scandal-tarred conservative who had taken a hard line against North Korea. Trump and Moon share precisely the same goal, the Trump aide said -- the complete dismantlement of North Koreas nuclear program. But the approach of the two leaders is starkly different. Trump has called for maximum pressure against North Korea, seeking additional economic sanctions and demanding that China, North Koreas main ally and patron, do more to shut off assistance to Pyongyang. Moon has risen through the ranks of his countrys politics advocating for closer ties between the Koreas, which technically are still at war. Already he has taken steps to delay the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, known as THAAD, an anti-missile system intended to counter any North Korean strikes. The anti-missile system is a divisive issue in South Korea; it prompted protests last weekend at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. China has objected to installation of the powerful radar defense as well, but the White House believes the U.S. system will ultimately be fully operative. The delay should not be equated as a reversal of the decision to deploy THAAD, the official said, and suggested that the topic would not be central to the two presidents discussions. As important as anything [will be] building a rapport and getting to know each other, the official said. Facebook

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Senate Republicans aim for new healthcare bill by Friday, but skeptics remain By Lisa Mascaro (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) Senate Republicans reconvened behind closed doors Wednesday trying to break the impasse on their healthcare overhaul but emerged with no apparent strategy for resolving differences by an end-of-week deadline. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky vowed to try again for a vote after the Fourth of July recess, despite having abruptly delayed action this week. Senators were aiming for a revised bill by Friday, the Republican whip, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, told reporters, so it could be assessed by the Congressional Budget Office during the break. But senators remained skeptical after the lengthy lunchtime huddle that appeared to run long on ideas but short on consensus. I think its going to be very difficult, said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). McConnell surprised senators by delaying this weeks expected votes once it became clear he did not have a majority for passage  or possibly to even open the debate. As many as 10 Republican senators now publicly oppose the bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, and leaders are scrambling to win them over with an estimated $200 billion in savings from the bill that can be applied to their particular states needs. But even with that fund of resources, it is not clear McConnell will be able to satisfactorily improve the legislation, which now threatens to cut 22 million Americans off health insurance. He can only afford to lose two Republican votes in the face of Democratic opposition. Its going to be very difficult to get me to a yes... have to make us an offer we cant refuse, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) said on a telephone town hall late Tuesday, according to journalist Jon Ralston, who monitored the call. Fresh polling Wednesday showed paltry support for the Republican approach to overhauling the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, which has enjoyed a surge in popularity now that Republicans are closer than ever to repealing it. A USA Today poll put approval of the Senate GOP bill at 12%. Republicans, though, are under enormous pressure from their most conservative supporters  and big dollar donors, including the powerful Koch network  to deliver on their promised to end Obamacare. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, suggested that President Trump convene all 100 senators  much the way then-President Obama did during his first days in office for a session at Blair House  to see how they might be able to work together to improve, rather than repeal, the Affordable Care Act. Id make my friends on the Republican side and President Trump an offer: Lets turn over a new leaf. Lets start over, said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). President Trump, I challenge you to invite us  all 100 of us, Republican and Democrat  to Blair House to discuss a new bipartisan way forward on healthcare in front of all the American people. No such invitation, however, seemed forthcoming. Trump dismissed Schumers proposal  he just doesnt seem like a serious person, the president said  and instead promised his own big surprise on healthcare. Healthcare is working along very well, Trump told reporters at the White House. We could have a big surprise, with a great healthcare package. Asked what he meant by a big surprise, Trump simply repeated: A great, great surprise. The Republican bill, like its counterpart passed by House Republicans, does not fully gut Obamacare, but rescinds the new taxes imposed on high-income individuals and healthcare companies to pay for expanding coverage through Medicaid and subsidies for private insurance on the ACA marketplace. Senators said the private talks Wednesday focused mainly on changes to the Obamacare marketplace that could bring down the cost of insurance premiums. One idea from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to allow insurers to offer policies that do not meet the Obamacare benchmarks for what insurance needs to cover met with mixed reaction, senators said. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician, warned that such changes would alter the risk pool, keeping insurance costs high. You end up with policies that, for example, dont cover maternity, Cassidy said. Do you want a policy that doesnt have maternity, which would be principally appealing to young men, when obviously typically men have had a role in that pregnancy? Other senators were floating new ideas, but McConnell gave no indication whether those proposals would be included in the final revised product. Michael A. Memoli contributed to this report. Facebook

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No new laptop bans, but air travelers to the U.S. will face tighter screening all over the globe By Joseph Tanfani Homeland Security officials said Wednesday they will order stricter passenger screening and other new security measures for all flights entering the United States but will not bar laptop computers in carry-on luggage as airlines and passenger groups had feared. The new order will cover about 2,000 flights a day from 280 airports in 105 countries, a move that could make international flying even more onerous just as the busy summer travel season starts. Security officials would not detail the new measures but said passengers headed to the United States will face more intensive screening at airports, and probably more security dogs. They gave no date for when the new procedures will start. If carriers dont implement the measures effectively, Homeland Security still may ban laptops, e-readers and other electronic devices larger than cell phones from cargo holds as well as passenger cabins. The decision follows intelligence, reportedly gathered from Islamic State in Syria by Israeli spy services, suggesting a lethal new threat from bombs that could be concealed in digital devices and that could evade detection by airport screening devices. In March, U.S. and British authorities banned laptops in cabins on flights from eight Muslim-majority countries in North Africa and the Middle East, saying terrorists were seeking innovative methods to bring down commercial jetliners. Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly told a security conference in Washington on Wednesday that the new security measures will be both seen and unseen and will be phased in over time. He said they will include tougher screening, particularly of electronic devices, plus new technology and procedures to protect planes from so--called insider attacks by airline employees. It is time that we raise the global baseline of aviation security, Kelly said. We cannot play international whack-a-mole with every new threat. He said terrorists still see commercial aircraft as the crown jewel target for attacks, and that intelligence has shown renewed interest by terrorists to attack airlines. Kelly told a House committee several weeks ago that the department was considering extending the laptop ban to 71 more airports overseas. But Kelly ultimately decided to tighten screening across the board, instead of focusing on laptops or chasing after each item that might be used to bring down a jetliner, senior Homeland Security officials said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to brief reporters, said Kelly worked with airlines to find ways to improve screening without unduly inconveniencing passengers. Intensive doesnt always mean slower, said one official. In some cases, airlines have been doing these things at international airports for some time. The officials said more security dogs, which sniff for explosives, may be used. And they said airlines and airports may institute pre-check programs like those approved by the Transportation Security Administration for use in U.S. airports. The officials said restrictions on the first 10 airports will be lifted once airlines in those countries satisfy the new security protocols, officials said. Airport authorities in the eight countries affected by that ban  Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates  have been told about the new security measures and will put them in place so the ban is lifted, the officials said. In recent weeks, Kelly and his aides have huddled with their counterparts overseas, as well as with representatives of major airlines, to discuss whether to expand the ban around the globe. Airlines protested that a laptop ban would inconvenience passengers and not remove the threat. Aviation experts and European security officials warned that putting laptops in cargo holds would pose other dangers because the lithium batteries could start fires. In 1988, a bomb hidden in a radio cassette player exploded aboard a Pan Am jet flying over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 passengers and crew. The plot was blamed on then-Libyan strongman Moammar Kadafi. In 2010, powerful bombs hidden in printer ink cartridges were found aboard two cargo jets headed from Yemen to Chicago. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula later claimed responsibility for the plot. Facebook

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Its crunch time for McConnell after Senate GOP is forced to delay vote on healthcare bill By Lisa Mascaro ( (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)) The abrupt decision Tuesday by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to temporarily shelve a vote on the Republican Obamacare overhaul gives him a few extra weeks to build support for a revised bill before it risks becoming hopelessly stalled by the opposition. The seasoned GOP leader will be aided by what amounts to a $200-billion piggy bank to push Republican holdouts into line. Thats the bills extra cost savings, compared with the House version, that McConnell can tap to provide perks to individual senators, from more opioid assistance to expanded tax-free health savings accounts. A similar strategy  delay and enticements  worked well in the House, where Republicans last month passed their healthcare bill on the third try. But prolonging the debate also gives Democrats and other critics time to mobilize, and ensures that senators will be exposed to an onslaught of opposition as they head home for the weeklong holiday break to defend a bill that has estimated would leave tens of millions of Americans without insurance. After the delay was announced, President Trump hosted a White House gathering of all GOP senators. But rather than rally them around the bill with the power of the presidential bully pulpit, he struck a surprisingly detached tone. This will be great if we get it done, Trump told senators in the East Room. And if we dont get it done, its just going to be something that were not going to like. And thats OK. Read More Facebook

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As vote looms, concerns over Medicaid cuts rise from some in conservative media By Kurtis Lee Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press ) The vote  for now  is delayed. As President Trump has urged Senate Republicans to pass a bill that would overhaul the Affordable Care Act, some, including Sens. Dean Heller of Nevada and Rob Portman of Ohio, have expressed concerns over cuts to Medicaid. Both represent states that, under Obamacare, expanded Medicaid coverage to low-income adults. The current Senate healthcare bill would deliver deep cuts to Medicaid, leaving millions uninsured. While Trump awaits a vote in the coming weeks  originally scheduled for this week, but pushed back until after the July 4 recess  its on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to gather enough support from within his GOP caucus to secure the bills passage. Some in the conservative media are questioning the current bill. Here is an overview of todays headlines on this and other issues: Republicans have a Medicaid problem (Weekly Standard) The Republican healthcare bill would cut Medicaid spending by $772 billion over the next decade. Chris Deaton writes that Republicans aim to offset the consequences of these Medicaid changes by offering tax credits for private insurance to people under the poverty line. In this piece, Deaton raises the question of whether low-income earners would be better off with Medicaid coverage or obtaining insurance through a GOP tax credit? He answers by noting, Its long been a contention of conservative thinkers that healthcare outcomes improve with private insurance rather than Medicaid. Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman, registers as foreign agent (Associated Press) Hes among those facing scrutiny in an FBI investigation into Russian meddling in last years election. Now, Paul Manafort, who at one time served as Trumps campaign chairman, has registered with the Department of Justice as a foreign agent. In a filing with the department, Manafort notes that his consulting firm received nearly $17 million between 2012 and 2014 from a Ukrainian political party with links to Russia, according to the Associated Press. Last spring, former national security advisor Michael T. Flynn, who resigned from his position in February after misleading administration officials about contacts with Russians, also registered as a foreign agent, for consulting work he did for a Turkish businessman. A Democratic road to recovery (American Spectator) The party is attempting a reboot. After Hillary Clintons 2016 loss and defeats in several special elections this year, Democrats are in search of a new face for the party. Even so, liberals are in lock-step in their opposition to Trump. This piece offers Democrats some advice  from the right  on how to recover. Leftists: You have been lied to and taken advantage of. When you eventually come out of this haze you are in, you will realize that it was done not by the president, but by the snake oil salesmen and charlatans, who took advantage of your sickness and weakness, simply for money and power, writes Judah Friedman. Ask yourselves this: What is the Democratic Party, right now, without this rage, and hate, with which it is fueling your addictions? The answer is nothing. Facebook

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Sarah Palin sues the New York Times for tying her PAC ad to mass shooting By Associated Press Former vice presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is accusing the New York Times of defamation over an editorial that linked one of her political action committee ads to the mass shooting that severely wounded then-Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. In the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court Tuesday, Palins lawyers say the Times violated the law and its own policies when it accused her of inciting the 2011 attack that killed six people. The lawsuit refers to a June editorial in the Times on the recent shooting of Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise. The editorial later was corrected. Palin is seeking damages to be determined by a jury. A spokeswoman for the Times, Danielle Rhoades Ha, says the company hasnt seen the lawsuit but will defend against any claim vigorously. Facebook

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Trump succeeds where Obama failed  spawning a new wave of liberal activism By Mark Z. Barabak Amanda Litman and Ross Morales Rocketto launched the Democratic activist group Run For Something, which encourages people under 35 to seek elected office. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) The night Hillary Clinton lost the White House, Amanda Litman cried so hard she threw up. In Atlanta, as the returns rolled in, Traci Feit Love faced a question from her anguished 8-year-old daughter: Now what do we do? Across the country, in the heart of Silicon Valley, Rita Bosworth wondered the same thing. The three never met, never spoke, never communicated in any fashion. But in the days and weeks that followed, they became common threads in a sprawling patchwork: the angry and politically aggrieved who  with no help from politicians, political parties or any formal campaign structure  have joined to fight President Trump and his policies. Read More Facebook

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Trump on healthcare bill: If we dont get it done ... thats OK By Associated Press (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) President Trump said that if the healthcare bill fails to pass in the Senate, he wont like it  but thats OK. Trump spoke Tuesday at a gathering of Senate Republicans after their leaders delayed a vote on their healthcare bill until at least next month. Trump said, This will be great if we get it done and if we dont get it done its going to be something that were not going to like and thats OK and I can understand that. He added, I think we have a chance to do something very, very important for the public, very, very important for the people of our country. Facebook

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Watch live: Press briefing with Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and Energy Secretary Rick Perry Facebook

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Senate GOP leaders abruptly delay vote on healthcare bill until after July 4th recess By Lisa Mascaro Facing resistance from their own party, Senate Republican leaders said Tuesday they would postpone a vote on their healthcare bill until after the July 4th recess. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to provide more time to make changes to the bill to try to convince reluctant GOP senators to vote for the measure. Were going to press on,' McConnell said, adding he remains optimistic. Were continuing to talk. Since the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the bill would leave 22 million more Americans without insurance after 10 years, several Republicans senators had said they would not even support allowing the bill to be brought to the Senate floor for a vote. Meanwhile, President Trump invited all GOP senators to the White House for a meeting Tuesday afternoon. But Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a moderate who has expressed serious doubts about the bill, questioned whether revisions would make a difference. I have so many fundamental problems with the bill, that have been confirmed by the CBO report, that its difficult to see how any tinkering is going to satisfy my fundamental and deep concerns about the bill,' Collins said on CNN. McConnell is struggling to appease two factions in his party. Centrists like Collins want to lessen the impact of proposed cuts to Medicaid, while conservatives want to go further in repealing benefits provided under Obamacare. Senate leaders hope to continue talks this week, with an eye toward moving quickly when Congress returns after the holiday. McConnell plans to wait for the CBO to review any changes and reissue a score. He can only afford to lose two Republicans given the partys 52-seat majority in the Senate. Theres more work that needs to be done, its pretty obvious, said Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho as he was leaving a Senate lunch with Vice President Mike Pence. Pence ignored reporters questions about the decision. If more work needs to be done, you shouldnt try to light the fire. But the delay in a vote will give Democrats and other opponents of the repeal bill more time to mobilize, particularly as Republicans return to their home districts during the holiday. We know the fight is not over,' said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York. Facebook

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Trump administration warns of Syrian chemical attack, but with damaged credibility By Noah Bierman The Trump administration Monday night sent the kind of dire warning -- of the Syrian regimes apparent preparation for another chemical weapons attack, and a threat of U.S. retaliation -- that requires credibility to have a receptive national and foreign audience. Yet the initial bafflement about the warning among U.S. defense officials, and the simultaneous distraction of President Trumps unrelated tweets, seemed to undercut the seriousness of the moment. More broadly, the episode is testing the damage Trump has done to his and his administrations trustworthiness by his assaults on the intelligence community as well as other perceived enemies. Trump has spent months attacking the credibility of the intelligence community, at one point comparing their tactics to Nazis and repeatedly calling its findings of Russian meddling in the election a hoax and witch hunt, even as foreign policy experts cautioned that he was diminishing the reputation of a community he would need in times of crisis to rally public support. At a moment of crisis when U.S. decisions and actions rest upon information coming from the intelligence community, [Trump] may have diminished the credibility of that information in the eyes of the public and the eyes of the international community, said Daryl G. Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Assn. Kimball called the White House statement unusual and said such messages would normally be sent through private diplomatic channels. He added that the public allegation should be followed by a formal presentation of the evidence to the United Nations Security Council, to build international support against suspected Syrian violations of the chemical weapons ban. The four-line statement on Syria from the White House Press Secretary came just after 9:44 p.m. EDT Monday. The United States has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children, the statement read. The activities are similar to preparations the regime made before its April 4, 2017 chemical weapons attack. If Syrian President Bashar Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price, it concluded, citing a U.S. missile strike after the previous chemical attack to reinforce the new threat. A Pentagon spokesman confirmed Tuesday that preparations for a chemical attack were observed at the same base in Syria from which its military launched a sarin nerve gas attack that killed 86 people, including children, in April. We have observed activities at Shayrat Air Base that suggest possible intent by the Syrian regime to use chemical weapons again, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Adrian J.T. Rankine-Galloway said in a statement. These activities are similar to what we observed prior to the regime chemical weapons attack against Khan Sheikhoun in April. But some senior U.S. defense and intelligence officials reached late Monday and early Tuesday were caught off guard by the White House statement. Some knew, some didnt, said a U.S. official who sought anonymity to discuss the intelligence matter. The official described the release of the nighttime statement as ungraceful, but said the assessment that Syria was preparing for an attack is sound. Such official statements are typically distributed widely across an administration for internal vetting before theyre publicly released. The White House said the relevant agencies were informed before the statement was published. Yet Trump lent further confusion about the urgency of the matter and his own level of concern by sending out a tweet about domestic politics only minutes later. He cited a Fox news report about the FBIs Russia investigation, writing as he often does about the probe, Witch Hunt! From @FoxNews "Bombshell: In 2016, Obama dismissed idea that anyone could rig an American election." Check out his statement - Witch Hunt!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2017 Indeed, Trump continued through the next morning to demonstrate his frustration with the Russia investigation and what he calls the American medias fake news with posts on his Twitter feed. Many tweets quoted supportive conservative commentators and Fox News reports. Trump was eager to go after CNN, one of his top media targets, after it retracted a Russia-related story and three journalists involved resigned. So they caught Fake News CNN cold, but what about NBC, CBS & ABC? What about the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost? They are all Fake News!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2017 Trumps willingness to mix politics and his administrations ominous red line to Syria opened him up to criticism that he was trying to divert attention from other unfavorable news Monday. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had found that the Republican plan to replace Obamacare would strip 22 million people of health insurance coverage over the next decade. The Syria statement also prompted a sharp backlash from the Kremlin, which is Assads military ally in his nations civil war. Russian officials denied there is evidence of an imminent chemical attack and called the White House threat unacceptable. The tensions have heightened as Trump is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin next week at the G20 Summit of industrialized nations in Germany. Mondays statement may be seen as a warning not just to Syria but to Russia, which is widely seen as enabling Assads harsh tactics by bolstering his military as he has tried to retain power. Facebook

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Kremlin calls White House warning to Syria unacceptable, denies any Assad chemical attack in the works By Sabra Ayres The Kremlin is calling unacceptable a White House warning to Syrias government that it would pay a heavy price if it carries out another poison gas attack against its own people. Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, also declared Tuesday that there is no indication that a chemical weapons strike is in the works. The White House said late Monday night that activity had been detected similar to that preceding a nerve gas attack on April 4 that killed dozens of civilians, including children, in rebel-held Idlib province. President Trump responded by launching nearly 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian military airfield that U.S. officials said was used for the chemical attack. It was the first U.S. attack on Syrian forces in the six-year civil war. Russia continues to deny that Assads forces carried out the April 4 gas attack and Peskov criticized the White House for saying there were signs of preparation for another such strike. Peskov said the Kremlin does not think it is possible to lay the blame on the Syrian armed forces for the April strike on the village of Khan Sheikhoun, which the U.S. and its allies said involved sarin, a banned nerve agent. Despite all the demands from the Russian side, an impartial international inquiry into a previous tragedy using chemical agents has not been carried out, the spokesman told Russian news agencies. Peskov criticized the White House warning to Assad, saying such threats to Syrias legitimate leaders are unacceptable. Read More Facebook

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Senate healthcare overhaul hits trouble as Republicans hesitant to proceed to vote By Lisa Mascaro The Senate Republican healthcare bill ran into serious trouble late Monday when key GOP senators indicated they may block the Obamacare overhaul from proceeding to a vote this week. Political turmoil has been building over the bill for days. But GOP tension burst open after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that 22 million more Americans would lose insurance coverage under the plan and that out-of-pocket costs for many of those buying policies on the Affordable Care Act marketplace would rise. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hoped to start procedural votes by Wednesday, and President Trump called key senators over the weekend as support splintered. Its the same political dynamic that stalled the House Republican bill last month, as conservative and centrist factions wrestle for dominance. Conservatives want a more complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which they hope will lower premium costs, while centrists are trying to avoid leaving millions of Americans without health coverage. Senate bill doesnt fix ACA problems for rural Maine, tweeted Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). I will vote no on mtp, she said, referring to the motion to proceed to the bill. Conservative Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is also working to change the bill so that he can vote yes on the procedural motion. We are not there yet, Lees spokesman said. Senators have bristled at what they viewed as McConnells secretive and rushed process, and several other senators said they wanted more time before voting. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was among those Republicans who shared concerns in weekend calls with Trump. We continue to make progress, Cruz told reporters Monday, as Democrats, who oppose the bill, planned an almost-all-night protest session. Cruz is part of the gang of four conservatives -- including Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky -- who have said they cannot vote for the bill as is. Among the changes being pursued is one provision that would allow insurers to offer cheaper policies that do not meet ACAs requirements and another to let consumers sock more money into health savings accounts We can get there and Im hopeful we will get there, Cruz said. However, he declined to say whether he would agree to Wednesdays procedural vote. Also hesitant to proceed was Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, who has strongly criticized undoing Obamacares Medicaid expansion that has enabled about 200,000 people to gain coverage in his state. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, for example, wanted changes to help residents in her geographically far-flung state where healthcare costs are particularly high. Some senators, though, dismissed the budget analysis and said keeping the ACA would be worse. Its clear the CBO cannot predict the purchasing patterns for millions of Americans, said Georgia Sen. David Perdue, a Trump ally, in a statement. This bureaucratic analysis will do nothing to prevent Obamacare from failing. Others are weighing their votes. Republican Sen. Bob Corker, whose office is receiving thousands of daily calls, spent part of Monday on the phone with health officials in Tennessee as he assesses the fallout in his state of 22 million more people in the country without healthcare. I kind of figured it was going to be a pretty big number, said Corker, who remains undecided. Theres a lot of incoming. CBO says 22 million people lose insurance; Medicaid cuts hurt most vulnerable Americans; access to healthcare in rural areas threatened. 2/3  Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) June 26, 2017 Facebook

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Supreme Court puts off decision in three pending cases about borders and immigration By David Savage ((Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) Amid its flurry of decisions Monday about Trumps travel ban and cases involving religious liberties and guns, the Supreme Court put off final rulings on three pending cases involving immigration and the U.S. border. In Hernandez vs. Mesa, the court in an unsigned opinion told the U.S. appeals court in New Orleans to take a second look at a border shooting case. The parents of a 15-year-old Mexican boy sued a U.S. border patrol agent who shot and killed the teenager when he was standing a few feet from the border on the Mexican side. The 5th Circuit had thrown out the parents suit. The facts alleged in the complaint depict a disturbing incident resulting in a heartbreaking loss of life, the court said in sending the case back for a further hearing. The court said it would rehear in the fall a Los Angeles case involving whether immigrants awaiting deportation can be jailed indefinitely, or instead have a right to a bond hearing after six months. The courts action suggests the eight justices were evenly split in Jennings vs. Rodriguez. The court also said it will rehear the case of Sessions vs. Dimaya to decide whether non-citizens can be deported for an offense like breaking into an empty home because it may be deemed a crime of violence. Facebook

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Refugee advocates says even partial reinstatement of travel ban will cause hardship By Laura King Immigration and refugee advocates expressed disappointment Monday with the Supreme Courts partial reinstatement of President Trumps travel ban, saying even limited implementation could cause hardship to refugees and others seeking to travel to the United States from six affected Muslim-majority countries. However, organizations taking part in the months-long legal fight against the revised travel ban expressed hopes that the high court ultimately will reject the restrictions after arguments are heard in October. And they welcomed what they described as an implicit rebuke of the White Houses assertion that Trump has unfettered powers to exclude arrivals based on purported national security concerns. The initial rollout of the ban, days after Trump took office in January, caused pandemonium at airports across the United States and overseas as tens of thousands of visa-holders arriving from seven affected countries were turned away without warning or detained. After courts blocked that order, Trump issued a revised travel ban that took Iraq off the list. A replay of Januarys travel chaos was unlikely Monday because the courts action will allow visa-holders with bona fide ties to people or entities in the U.S. to enter, meaning students, employees and family members can still get in. But refugee advocates said the courts limited ruling, which the administration can move to implement on Thursday, could leave many would-be arrivals in limbo pending the finalizing of new vetting procedures. The administration had originally said a three-month travel ban was needed in part to review the checks to which would-be entrants are subjected. David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, said the partial reinstatement of the ban particularly threatens vulnerable people waiting to come to the U.S., including those with urgent medical conditions. We urge the administration to begin its long-delayed review of the vetting process and restart a program which changes lives for the better, said Miliband. The National Immigration Law Center, one of the groups that challenged the ban, said that as of this week, approximately 50,500 refugees from the six affected countries had been approved for travel and resettlement in the United States  all having already undergone intensive checks. The Middle East Studies Assn., one the groups contesting the ban in the lower courts, said many students and academics were ensnared by the original order. Even though Mondays court move should allow entry to those studying or working at American academic institutions, many from the affected countries remained wary of leaving and then attempting to re-enter the United States, the group said. Iran  along with Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Libya  is one of the affected countries, and Southern California is home to a large Iranian American community that was hit hard by the original ban. Some advocates said even with Mondays limited action, there has already been a chilling effect on movement. Todays Supreme Court decision immediately places the status of many Americans families into question again, said Shayan Modarres, legal counsel for the National Iranian American Council. The group said that visas issued to Iranian passport-holders had fallen by nearly half since the legal battle over the ban began, and that obtaining a U.S. visa was becoming so onerous that many would not even try to get one. The Trump administrations new idea is to make it so hard on Iranians and Muslims to get a visa that visa officers will have the unrestricted discretion to reject visa applications, Modarres said. He added that grounds for rejection could be social media postings critical of Trump or not being able to produce airline boarding passes that could have been issued and used more than a decade ago. Advocacy groups reiterated their position  which was argued in a number of the lower court cases that propelled the issue to the high court  that the travel restrictions run counter to core American traditions and values. Mark Hetfield, president of the refugee resettlement agency HIAS, said the group considered the courts move an affirmation that the president does not have unfettered, unchecked authority to bar refugees from the U.S. without evidence to justify such action. But he added that the executive orders partial resurrection would once again cause irreparable damage to refugees, immigrants, and Americas reputation as a welcoming country. The initial ban prompted large nationwide protests, and advocates suggested they would again seek to marshal popular opposition to the restrictions. When the first order went into effect, tens of thousands of Americans showed the world that this is not who we are and not what we want, said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, another of the groups involved in the legal challenge. We will never give up defending the rights of those who are affected by this discriminatory executive order. Facebook

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Trump says Supreme Court action on travel ban gives him important tool By Michael A. Memoli .@POTUS statement says SCOTUS action allows him to "use an important tool for protecting our Nation's homeland." Will admin press further? pic.twitter.com/gxBJO5aYYZ  Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) June 26, 2017 President Trump celebrated the Supreme Courts decision Monday to allow a curtailed version of his travel ban to take effect, calling it a clear victory for our national security. In an official White House statement, the president said he was particularly gratified that at least part of the ruling was 9-0; three conservative justices said they would have let the presidents revised executive order take effect completely. My number one responsibility as Commander in Chief is to keep the American people safe. Todays ruling allows me to use an important tool for protecting our Nations homeland, he said. The White House has long maintained that the president was acting within his authority in seeking to temporarily restrict travel to the United States. They most often point to a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that states a president can suspend or limit entry of individuals whenever the president finds that the entry ... would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. Facebook

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Rival Senate factions push competing agendas as healthcare bill hangs in balance By Laura King Heading into a week of intense jockeying and arm-twisting over the Senates polarizing healthcare plan, the rift appeared to widen Sunday between moderates who consider the measure too punitive and conservatives who want to see the sweeping bill toughened up before agreeing to back it. President Trump, who made the repeal of his predecessors signature Affordable Care Act a campaign centerpiece, expressed optimism about chances for Senate passage, but declared again that he wanted to see a plan with heart  suggesting he might undercut Republican efforts to bring recalcitrant conservatives on board. With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seeking to push ahead with a vote this week, the bills prospects hung in the balance. Five GOP senators have said publicly they oppose the measure as written; the defection of only three Republicans would be enough to sink it. Read More Facebook

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Analysis: Atop 2017 losses, a sobering challenge for Democrats aiming at Trump next year By Cathleen Decker Republican Karen Handel, winner of last weeks special House election in Georgia. ( (Bob Andres / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)) Democrats have hoped that President Trumps deep unpopularity would propel them to gains in next years midterm election as they fight to take control of the House and improve their position in the Senate. But last years contests and this years special elections suggest a complication: Trump is so distinctive a politician that its hard to persuade voters that other Republican candidates are carbon copies of the president. Trumps outsized persona makes even those Republicans who share his views seem more moderate, an important attribute to swing voters. That presents a problem for the party out of power. Midterm elections traditionally serve as referendums on the president, but voters complicated views of Trump may give Republicans more running room than his popularity figures suggest. The votes cast by individual Republican incumbents may be more important to their survival than any linkage with the president. Read More Facebook

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Conservatives at Koch summit outline changes to Senate healthcare bill to win their support By Lisa Mascaro Tim Phillips, who heads Americans for Prosperity, the largest of the Koch networks advocacy groups, speaks to the media at the White House in Washington on March 8. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press) Conservatives floated two amendments for toughening up the Senates Obamacare overhaul this weekend at the influential Koch networks confab of wealthy donors, as Republicans seek ways to win over detractors and tip enough GOP votes for passage. That the Koch network quickly panned the Senate bill is no surprise. The organization of deep-pocketed conservative advocacy groups similarly rejected the House GOP bill this spring until party leaders tacked on tough amendments to appease right-leaning Republicans. Weve been disappointed that movements not been more dramatic toward a full repeal or a broader rollback of this onerous law Obamacare, said Tim Phillips, who heads Americans for Prosperity, the largest of the Koch networks advocacy groups. But we are not walking away, he said. We worked to make the House bill better and it did get better. Were doing the same thing on the Senate front. One key lawmaker attending the weekend summit at the luxurious Broadmoor Hotel, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a chief negotiator on the House bill, outlined two key changes to the bill that he said could likely win enough conservative support for passage. One amendment from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) would allow companies that offer insurance policies on the Obamacare marketplace to also offer plans that do not meet the ACAs strict requirements. Such a change would in essence allow insurers to offer cheaper, though skimpier, policies that may help achieve the GOPs goal of lowering premiums for consumers. Another amendment would broaden the ability of those who buy insurance on the marketplace to sock away more money in tax-free Health Savings Accounts to help them pay for their premiums. Cruz is one of four Senate conservatives who have said they would not support the bill unless changes are made, positioning them for negotiations in the days ahead. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) needs to win back some of their votes to pass the bill with his slim 52-seat Republican majority. One of the conservatives, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), was among those feted Saturday night at a reception with Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist who funds the conservative network. Koch told those gathered for an outdoor cocktail reception on a breezy Colorado Springs evening about how far his team has come over the years at promoting what is a libertarian-leaning conservative agenda. Now when I look at where we are, at the size and effectiveness of this network, Im blown away, he told donors. Koch met Friday with Vice President Mike Pence. But the politics in the Senate remain difficult as McConnell continues to negotiate behind closed doors and rushes the bill to a vote expected this week. On Sunday, one key centrist, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, doubted a swift resolution. Its hard for me to see the bill passing this week, she said on ABCs This Week. Another crucial vote, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who had offered his own proposal, also criticized the rush. I frankly would like a few more days to consider this, Cassidy said on CBSs Face the Nation. But Republicans are anxious to resolve the healthcare debate, which has created a logjam in their legislative agenda. Meadows also told reporters if the Senate passes the bill this week, the House could quickly follow with a weekend session -- ahead of a Fourth of July bill signing by the president. Facebook

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Schiff: Obama should have acted on Russian interference, but Trump shouldnt complain By Laura King A top House Democrat says President Obama should have reacted more forcefully upon learning of Russian election-meddling, but also asserted that it was illogical for President Trump to levy such criticism against his predecessor. I think the [Obama] administration needed to call out Russia earlier, needed to act to deter and punish Russia earlier, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), said in an interview aired Sunday on CNNs State of the Union. Failure to do so, he said, had been a very serious mistake. But Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Trumps criticism of Obama made little sense in light of the current presidents own inaction in the face of decisive U.S. intelligence conclusions about Kremlin efforts to tip the 2016 race to Trump. Trump, Schiff said, is in no position to complain here in light of the fact that as a candidate, he openly urged the Russians to hack Clintons emails. To criticize Obama is now a bit like someone knowingly receiving stolen property blaming the police for not stopping the theft, said Schiff, a former prosecutor. On Saturday, Trump issued a statement on Twitter referencing a Washington Post report a day earlier detailing the previous administrations wrestling with how, when and whether to make public the degree of Russian interference. Since the Obama Administration was told way before the 2016 Election that the Russians were meddling, why no action? Focus on them, not T! the president tweeted. The Post report said Obama was worried about the appearance of improperly using mounting intelligence reports about Russian activities to aid Clintons candidacy. The subject was particularly inflammatory because at that point in the race, Trump had complained repeatedly about the rigged political process and even suggested he might not respect the election outcome. Facebook

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Trump says hes optimistic about Senate approval of GOP healthcare measure By Laura King President Trump says he believes that backers of a sweeping GOP healthcare measure are going to get there and pass the measure despite the refusal of five Republican senators to endorse the bill as written. Healthcare is a very, very tough thing to get, but I think were going to get it, Trump said on Fox and Friends in an interview aired Sunday that he had touted beforehand on Twitter. We dont have too much of a choice because the alternative is the dead carcass of Obamacare, the president said, referring to the Affordable Care Act, his predecessors signature piece of legislation. Opinion polls have indicated low public support for the version of the healthcare bill passed earlier by the House of Representatives. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), wants to bring the Senate version, unveiled days ago, to a vote this week. In addition to the five Republican senators who have publicly aired their opposition, several others have declined to explicitly endorse the bill, which would overhaul the U.S. healthcare system and set the stage for massive tax breaks that would primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans. With a 52-seat Republican advantage in the 100-member chamber, only three GOP defections would be sufficient to derail the measure, since Vice President Mike Pence could cast a tie-breaking vote. Facebook

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Pro-Trump group launches new attack ad against special counsel Robert Mueller By Lisa Mascaro A Southern California group backing President Trump is out with a new ad attacking special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, criticizing the investigation into the Trump campaigns possible cooperation with Russian interference in the 2016 election. The ad, called Witch Hunt, features conservative favorite Tomi Lahren reflecting Trumps own language to complain about the probe. The more than $400,000 ad buy is expected to start running Sunday. Only in Washington could a rigged game like this be called independent, Lahren says, using air quotes in the ad to emphasize her point. She is now a senior advisor to Great America Alliance, which backs Trump. The ads chief complaint echoes Trumps criticism that Muellers team has ties to Democrats, because some of the lawyers have given campaign contributions to the party. Trump has also complained of the relationship between fired FBI Director James B. Comey and Mueller, who was once his boss. Mueller is a registered Republican. Among the members of the legal team he is assembling for the Russia probe -- which is also looking into whether the president obstructed the federal investigation by firing Comey -- four have donated to Democrats. One who gave the maximum donation to Trump rival Hillary Clinton also donated to Republicans. Both Republicans and Democrats have praised Muellers credentials and ability to handle the Russia probe as an independent investigation. The group, which ran a similar attack against Comey ahead of his testimony earlier this month on Capitol Hill, has emerged as a key pro-Trump organization. Facebook

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Koch brothers political network says Senate GOP healthcare bill is insufficiently conservative By Associated Press ( (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)) Chief lieutenants in the Koch brothers political network lashed out at the Senate Republican healthcare bill on Saturday, becoming a powerful outside critic as GOP leaders try to rally support for their plan among rank-and-file Republicans. This Senate bill needs to get better, said Tim Phillips, who leads Americans For Prosperity, the Koch networks political arm. It has to get better. Phillips called the Senates plans for Medicaid a slight nip and tuck over President Obamas healthcare law, a modest change he described as immoral. The comments came on the first day of a three-day private donor retreat at a luxury resort in the Rocky Mountains. Invitations were extended only to donors who promise to give at least $100,000 each year to the various groups backed by the Koch brothers Freedom Partners  a network of education, policy and political entities that aim to promote small government. No outside group has been move aggressive over the years-long push to repeal Obamas healthcare law than the Kochs, which vowed on Saturday to spend another 10 years fighting to change the healthcare system if necessary. The Koch network has often displayed a willingness to take on Republicans  including President Trump  when their policies arent deemed conservative enough. Read More Facebook

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Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions wants to get tough on crime. These people think hes got it all wrong By Jaweed Kaleem Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions has vowed to crack down on crime by sending more criminals to prison for longer periods of time. Every one of our citizens, no matter who they are or where they live, has the right to be safe in their homes and communities from the scourge of criminal gangs, rapists, carjackers and drug dealers, Sessions said in an address to law enforcement officials in Memphis, Tenn., last month. In his view, imprisoning more criminals would make families safer, and fewer people would break the law if there were more severe punishments for crimes such as drug offenses. In a recent memo to federal prosecutors, Sessions instructed them to pursue the harshest punishments legally allowed, a reversal of an Obama-era move giving federal lawyers more leeway to reserve such prosecutions for repeat offenders and people who had committed the worst of crimes. Department of Justice officials hope the changes at the federal level  where a sliver of crimes across the country is prosecuted  will trickle down to a similar approach to crime in states. Read More Facebook

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Vice President Mike Pence stops in for an unscheduled chat with billionaire Charles Koch By Lisa Mascaro Vice President Mike Pence popped in for a visit this weekend with Charles Koch, the billionaire GOP donor hosting his semi-annual confab of like-minded business leaders assessing their priorities for the White House and Congress. The meeting was not listed on Pences official schedule for the day. President Trump never much enjoyed backing from Koch s sprawling, secretive, political enterprise, which has emerged as a libertarian-leaning power center, sometimes overshadowing the traditional Republican Party apparatus with its high-dollar donors and vast operations. Kochs group did not endorse the GOP presidential nominee. But the network has always had close ties with Pence. The vice president had previously attended the exclusive gathering of donors, held this weekend at the luxurious Broadmoor hotel. And his top staff was plucked from a key Koch organization, Freedom Partners. Pence and Koch and their top aides spoke for nearly an hour late Friday, according to a Koch spokesman. They discussed tax reform, the GOPs healthcare overhaul and other heavy legislative lifts that have run into resistance in the Republican-controlled Congress. The aide described the talks as casual. Pence was in the area making other stops, including at the Air Force Academy and an evening fundraiser for GOP Sen. Cory Gardner. Even without investing in Trump, the Koch network has made impressive strides in advancing its agenda this year. Congress swiftly rolled back more than a dozen regulations, including some intended to protect the environment, that Koch-backed groups complained were too rigorous and invasive in industry operations. The Koch network groups, including Freedom Partners, a free market-oriented, chamber of commerce-type organization, is pushing the Trump administration and Congress to pass tax reform and overhaul healthcare. Both those efforts have stalled in Congress amid Republican infighting, but the Koch groups is able to put their army of resources  money, staff and volunteers in the states  to pressure lawmakers to act. Facebook

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Kris Kobach fined for misleading court and refusing to produce previously exposed Trump memo By Colleen Shalby (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press) Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has been fined $1,000 for misleading a federal court in an effort to keep two documents private. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit last year against Kobach arguing that his states proof of citizenship law violates the National Voter Registration Act. ACLU lawyers asked Kobach to produce two documents they said pertained to the case. One of those documents was a draft of a proposed amendment to the National Voter Registration Act. The second was a document that had been photographed and widely shared in late November after Kobach met with then-President-elect Donald Trump. The power of a zoom lens exposed certain details of his proposal to Trump to deport potential terrorists. In a 24-page ruling made public Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge James OHara wrote that Kobach did not accurately represent the contents of the documents when he argued against producing them. Defendant refused to produce these documents, asserting that they are beyond the scope of reopened discovery, do not seek relevant information, and are protected by the attorney-client, deliberative-process, and executive privileges, the judge wrote. The court took Kobach at his word, OHara wrote, but upon review of the documents  produced under a court order  found that they did relate to the voting rights case. The judge wrote that while the court could not say that Kobach flat-out lied, the defendants statements can be construed as wordplay meant to present a materially inaccurate picture of the documents. For now, the documents will remain classified, as Kobach designated them. But, OHara wrote, that status could change. Trump tapped Kobach last month to serve as vice chairman of a presidential commission that would oversee a voter fraud investigation. Facebook

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Number of refugees admitted to U.S. drops by almost half By Tracy Wilkinson (Patrick T. Fallon / For the Los Angeles Times) The number of refugees admitted to the United States was cut by nearly half in the first three months of the Trump administration compared with the final three months of the Obama presidency, reflecting the new presidents skepticism toward immigration. Government statistics released Friday showed that more than 25,000 refugees were permitted to enter and reside in the United States at the end of the Obama administration. In the initial months under President Trump, the number fell to 13,000. The statistics were released by the Department of Homeland Security, based on information supplied by the State Department. Countries of origin were largely unchanged. In both periods, two-thirds of the arrivals came from five countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Myanmar. Refugees from two of those countries  Syria and Somalia  would have been banned under Trumps executive order against entries from certain Muslim-majority nations, but federal courts have blocked the order. Trumps original order covered Iraqis as well, but he omitted Iraq from his revised order. The data suggest that the Obama administration, as it was about to turn over power to Trump, significantly stepped up the number of refugees admitted. Arrivals in its final three months reflected an 86% year-over-year increase compared to the same period the previous year. In Trumps first three months, arrivals were 12% lower than for the same period in the previous year. Trump has sought to limit the number of refugees to 50,000 this year. But adverse rulings in the courts could work against him. The United States already has one of the lowest quotas of refugee admissions among major receiving countries. Nations closer to conflict zones such as Syria have taken in millions of refugees. More people have been displaced from their home nations, because of violence and poverty, than at any time since World War II. Facebook

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Trump nominates former Dodgers co-owner Jamie McCourt as ambassador to Belgium By Lauren Rosenblatt Trump nominated Jamie McCourt, former co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, as ambassador to Belgium. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) President Trump nominated Jamie McCourt, former co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, to be the ambassador to Belgium on Thursday night. McCourt, who co-owned the Dodgers with her husband, Frank, until their messy 2011 divorce, has donated money to several Republican organizations, including funds for Trumps campaign and his transition to the White House. McCourt was among many business leaders who signed their support for Trump early on in his campaign, praising his plan for economic development and growth. In the months leading up to Trumps victory, McCourt gave more than $400,000 to the Trump victory fund, according to data from the Federal Election Commission. She signed a letter in October 2016 with 100 other business executives and CEOs championing Trumps plan and criticizing opponent Hillary Clinton for having thrown in the towel on strong economic growth. McCourt was listed as a 2016 State Victory Finance Chair for Trumps campaign in July, according to a report from the GOP. Robert Wood Johnson, chairman and CEO of the New York Jets and Trumps nominee for ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was also on the list as Trump Victory vice chair. After Trump won the election, McCourt continued to financially support his transition to office. In December, she helped host a fundraiser breakfast for the incoming president where tickets sold for $5,000 a piece. Prior to her support for Trump, McCourt also donated to the campaigns of several other Republican presidential candidates, including John Kasich, Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina, although in much smaller amounts. In the past, she has also supported former President Obama, contributing to his campaign and victory funds in 2011 and donating $50,000 to the inauguration in 2009. She donated about $2,000 to Hillary Clinton for her presidential campaign in 2007, according to the FEC. McCourts ex-husband said his former wife had political aspirations of her own, with an end goal of ending up in the White House, according to a March 2010 Los Angeles Times article. Her high-profile divorce gathered a lot of public attention and ended in dispute over finances and assets. McCourt has founded and directed entrepreneurial enterprises in Los Angeles and Boston throughout her career as a entrepreneur and attorney. Her investment firm, Jamie Enterprises, invests in real estate and technology start-ups. She has degrees from Georgetown University, the University of Maryland School of Law and from MIT/ Sloan School of Management. The Senate must confirm McCourts nomination for ambassador. Facebook

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Nevada Sen. Heller -- a key swing vote -- says he opposes Senate healthcare bill By David Lauter (Andrew Harnik / AP) Nevada Sen. Dean Heller said Friday that he planned to vote against the Republican healthcare bill, a potentially key defection. Although the White House and Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have said they plan further negotiations over the bill, its going to be very difficult to get me to a yes, Heller said at a news conference in Nevada with Gov. Brian Sandoval (R). The bill unveiled Thursday by McConnell is simply not the answer, he said. In this form, I will not support it. Given the unified Democratic opposition to the bill, McConnell can afford to lose only two Senate Republicans, so Hellers announcement is significant. A no vote by Heller would not seal the fate of the bill, however. Heller is widely viewed as the most vulnerable Republican senator up for reelection in 2018 -- the only one running in a state that Hillary Clinton carried last year -- and Republican leaders have been hoping to avoid having to count on his vote. Heller cited several reasons for opposing the bill, but the chief one was its deep reductions in federal support for Medicaid. This bill will mean a loss of coverage for millions of Americans and many Nevadans, he said. Nevada, under Sandoval, has used its authority under the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid, which has given health coverage to more than 210,000 additional state residents, Sandoval said. These are folks who are worth fighting for, he added. The cutbacks the Senate bill, which would end Medicaid expansion, would cost the state $120 million a year by 2022, with the cost rising sharply after that the governor said. Thats a cost that the state cannot sustain. Heller also cited the bills impact on treatment for opioid addiction and the likelihood that the plan would fail to reduce premiums. There isnt anything in this piece of legislation that will lower your premiums, he said, contradicting one of the main arguments that supporters of the bill have made. Hellers announcement increases the pressure on McConnell to find ways of persuading several other reluctant senators to support the bill. Four conservatives, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, said Thursday they were opposed to the bill in its current form because it does not go far enough to roll back the Affordable Care Act. Several more centrist senators, including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, have voiced concerns similar to Hellers about the depth of the bills Medicaid cutbacks and its impact on opioid treatment. Collins and Portman have both said they want to review the analysis of the bill from the Congressional Budget Office before making up their minds. The budget office has said it will release that assessment early next week. Facebook

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Trump signs VA reform bill to make it easier to discipline and fire employees By Lauren Rosenblatt President Trump signed into law Friday a bill that will ease restrictions on the discipline and termination of employees from the troubled veterans affairs department. The Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 is designed to speed up the process to discipline an employee for misconduct and put more decision-making power in the hands of Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin. The act is in response to the 2014 VA scandals involving long wait times for medical care and attempts by VA employees to cover up the delays. Trump, who promised to improve healthcare for veterans during his campaign, said the bill was one of the largest reforms to the VA in its history and is essential to making sure our veterans are treated with respect. The bill passed the House with bipartisan support June 13 and the Senate on June 6. Although the bill is widely supported by veterans advocacy groups, civil servant unions condemn the legislation as a way to get around long-standing protections for government employees and whistle-blowers. The reform, Shulkin said, will not be used as a tool for mass firings, but rather a way to raise morale throughout the department and attract new employees. Slow, steady, incremental change isnt what this organization needs, Shulkin said. Right now, I believe this is progress. Facebook

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Mexico pushes back against Trumps tweet calling it the second deadliest country in the world By Kate Linthicum Mexicos Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray speaks during a news conference in Cancun, Mexico, on June 19. (PEDRO PARDO/AFP/Getty Images) After President Trump incorrectly tweeted that Mexico is the second deadliest country in the world after Syria, the Mexican government responded quickly. No, Mexico isnt the second deadliest place on the globe, said a tersely worded statement issued by Mexicos secretary of foreign relations, pointing to a host of other Latin American countries that have higher per capita murder rates. And while homicides have been rising in Mexico in recent years, rising violence in Mexico is inextricably linked to demand for drugs in the United States, the statement said. Illicit drug trade is indeed the most important cause of violence in Mexico and drug trafficking is costing thousands of lives both in Mexico and the U.S., the foreign ministry said Thursday. However, as has been repeatedly stated by the U.S. government itself, drug trafficking is a shared problem that will end only by addressing its root causes: high demand for drugs in the U.S. and supply from Mexico and other countries. In order to be effective, we must be able to move beyond finger-pointing, the statement said. The Mexican government issued the response after Trump tweeted a reference to a controversial recent study that ranked Mexico as the worlds second most-dangerous conflict zone after Syria. Trump misrepresented the study in his tweet, saying Mexico was just ranked the second deadliest country in the world. He also neglected the considerable debate about the studys accuracy. The annual Armed Conflict Survey, released this year by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, has been called into question by the Mexican government and others who say it wrongly points to the existence of an armed conflict in Mexico. The existence of criminal groups is not sufficient criteria to speak of a non-international armed conflict, said a joint statement issued by Mexicos secretaries of governance and foreign relations in May, adding that drug-war violence is part of a bigger regional problem. Although Mexicos homicide rate has soared  the first two months of 2017 were the most violent since the government started releasing such statistics in 1997  other countries are experiencing higher homicide rates. In January, Mexico had a homicide rate of 20 deaths per 100,000 people, according to a Times analysis of Mexican crime statistics. By comparison, El Salvadors homicide rate was 81 deaths per 100,000 people in 2016, according to InSight Crime, a think tank that studies organized crime in Latin America. Venezuela had a homicide rate of 59 deaths per 100,000 people. Trump ended his tweet with a frequent campaign mantra: We will BUILD THE WALL! Mexico was just ranked the second deadliest country in the world, after only Syria. Drug trade is largely the cause. We will BUILD THE WALL!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017 Facebook

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Supreme Court says final decisions of term will come on Monday By David Savage The Supreme Court is shown at sunset on Feb. 13, 2016. (Jon Elswick / Associated Press) (Jon Elswick / Associated Press) The Supreme Court announced it will hand down its final rulings for this term on Monday. But that does not mean the justices will actually decide the six cases that remain, which include three significant disputes involving immigration and the U.S. borders. Heres a look at the notable decisions so far. On Nov. 30, with one seat on the court still vacant, the eight justices heard arguments in a Los Angeles case on whether noncitizens who face possible deportation can be held in jail indefinitely or instead have a right to a bond hearing after six months. The case, Jennings vs. Rodriguez, has taken on added importance in the Trump era, but the long delay may signal that the justices are split 4-4. If so, the court may announce Monday that the case will be reheard in the fall, leaving it to new Justice Neil M. Gorsuch to cast the tie-breaking vote. Also still pending, since January, is a California case that will decide whether a crime such as breaking into an empty home qualifies as a crime of violence, triggering automatic deportation, even for an immigrant who is a longtime legal resident. A ruling in Sessions vs. Dimaya could affect thousands of deportations The third case, pending since February, is a closely watched border shooting. At issue in Hernandez vs. Mesa is whether a U.S. agent can be sued for fatally shooting a 15-year-old who was standing on the Mexican side of the border. On Friday, the justices gave a second chance to a Korean restaurant owner from Memphis who faces deportation for selling Ecstasy pills. Based on his lawyers advice, he pleaded guilty to the drug charge, having been assured it would not trigger his deportation. The lawyer was wrong. By a 6-2 vote in Lee vs. United States, the court said the Korean man may withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial. But for his attorneys incompetence, he would not have accepted a plea, said Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.. Dissenting were Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.. The justices, including Gorsuch, are likely to rule in a significant case on religion and funding for church schools. In Trinity Lutheran vs.Comer, the justices will decide whether states may exclude church schools from receiving public funds. Also still pending, but on a different track, is the Trump administrations appeal over his blocked foreign travel ban. The court may act on that appeal at any time. Facebook

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Trump backs L.A. Olympic bid in meeting with IOC officials By Michael A. Memoli The opening ceremonies of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. (Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times) President Trump pledged his full support for the Los Angeles bid to host a future Summer Olympics, the White House said Friday after an Oval Office meeting with the head of the International Olympic Committee. Trump met Thursday with IOC President Thomas Bach and three U.S. members of the IOC -- Larry Probst, Anita DeFrantz and Angela Ruggiero. A White House official called it a very constructive conversation in which Trump backed a potential third Summer Games in Los Angeles. With only L.A. and Paris bidding to host the 2024 games, the IOC is moving to reward both cities, giving one hosting duties in 2024 and the other in 2028. The United States hasnt hosted a Summer Olympics since the Centennial games in Atlanta in 1996. Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he discussed the citys Olympic bid during a post-election conversation with Trump last November and that the then-president elect pledged his backing. Facebook

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Trump says he tweeted about tapes to influence Comeys account of their private conversations By Michael A. Memoli .@POTUS on why he wanted former FBI Dir. James Comey to believe there were tapes of their conversations pic.twitter.com/pCuibM5Z6k  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) June 23, 2017 President Trump called it bothersome that the special counsel now overseeing the Russia probe was good friends with fired FBI Director James B. Comey, and said he hinted at having tapes of his private conversations  apparently falsely  to try to influence Comeys eventual testimony. The president made his remarks during an interview that aired Friday morning on Fox & Friends, but was recorded on Thursday just hours after he tweeted that he did not, in fact, have tapes. Trump said that floating the possibility they did exist might have forced Comey to tell what actually took place at the events. When he found out that, I, you know, that there may be tapes out there, whether its governmental tapes or anything else, and who knows, I think his story may have changed, Trump said. My story didnt change. My story was always a straight story. Foxs Ainsley Earhardt followed up: So it was a smart way to make sure he stayed honest in those hearings? It wasnt very stupid, I can tell you that, Trump answered. Many disagree, including Republicans. Comey testified that Trumps tweet is what prompted him to as
It looked like smooth sailing for Palmdale resident Sal Ortiz and his fiancee Elisa Granados. With about three months to go until their wedding at the Castaway Restaurant in Burbank, they had a few more tasks to do before their big day on Sept. 9.

The couple were scheduled to have a food tasting at the Castaway on June 16, but the day before that appointment, Ortiz received a phone call from the restaurant.

It wasnt good news. He was told his wedding and reception would have to be changed to another date or moved to one of the restaurants sister locations because of a $10-million renovation that is scheduled to start at the Burbank facility in August.

Specialty Restaurants Corp., the company that owns the Castaway and several other Southern California restaurants, announced earlier this month it would be renovating the 54-year-old Burbank landmark to improve its amenities and give it a fresh look.

The restaurant is set to be closed on Aug. 6, and its estimated the work will take about six months. Its banquet halls are scheduled to be closed for about two months, beginning Aug. 13.

Ortiz said he thought the phone call from the Castaway would be a reminder about the food-tasting session. However, the news he received was the last thing he and Granados wanted to hear.

I told them that they ruined my freaking wedding, Ortiz said. A lot of planning and a lot of time goes into picking your venue, so thats most of your wedding right there.

Ortiz, 41, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley, said he and Granados had made a deposit of about $2,500 and booked their date at the Castaway in October 2016. He said they were willing to pay the price  a little over $12,000  for the venue, because they believed it was the ideal location for their wedding.

Management at the Castaway offered Ortiz the option of moving his wedding to the Odyssey restaurant in Granada Hills. Ortiz said he has had several business meetings at the Odyssey, but it is not his ideal venue for his wedding.

According to a statement from Specialty Restaurants, all guests who had reservations for dates that coincide with the time of the renovation were notified and that anyone who does not want to move their wedding to one of the companys sister venues will receive their deposits back.

The happiness and comfort of our valued guests is our number one priority, restaurant officials said in the statement. Well make sure that all reservations are taken care of to the best of our ability and with the upmost hospitality. We understand the importance of your special day and apologize for any inconvenience for you and your guests.

Specialty Restaurants would not comment on how many guests were affected by the renovations.

Ortiz and Granados scrambled to find another venue that would accommodate about 150 guests on short notice. They have since booked the La Canada Flintridge Country Club, Ortiz said.

Ortiz and his fiancee were not the only couple affected by the Castaways renovation. Torrance resident Courtney Hall and her fiance Daniel Rafaeloff had booked the venue almost a year ago and were looking forward to celebrating their wedding there on Sept. 16.

Hall said she found out about the renovation on June 14 after her father sent her a link to a Leader story about the scheduled work. She quickly contacted the restaurant representative she had been working with and was told the representative had just learned about the closure as well.

After hearing about the renovation, I completely shut down, Hall said. We definitely dotted our Is and crossed our Ts and booked everything in advance, so hearing this was devastating.

She and Rafaeloff were ready to pay about $26,000 to hold their wedding at the Castaway and had put down a $5,600 deposit. Hall added that they were scheduled to make another payment to the venue on June 18, but opted not to, after learning about the renovation.

Finding the right venue was already challenging for Hall and Rafaeloff. Because she is Catholic and he is Jewish, Hall said they wanted a venue that could meet their needs and accommodate more than 250 guests, many of whom are flying in from across the country and from Israel.

Hall said she and her fiance have been open to working with Specialty Restaurants. After looking at several venues, Hall said that they are considering moving the wedding to one of the sites recommended by Specialty, Calamigos Equestrian, located in Burbanks Rancho District.

However, Hall said that the cost of having the wedding at Calamigos Equestrian is estimated to be a little over $34,000 and that she might have to change the wedding date in order to keep the vendors she has already booked.

Its a waiting game right now, Hall said. I emailed Castaway to see what they can do for us, so well just have to go on from there  Im truly devastated by this.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio
Tran Linh lived in Vietnam when she first came across a books cover illustrating a boy flying on a broomstick, reaching for a golden ball with little white wings while she was wandering inside a bookstore.

I was curious, said Linh, 19, Thursday while outside Orange Coast Colleges library. The book cover prompted her to read J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.

Now living in Costa Mesa, Linh still beams with delight as she recalls memories of when she first read the young adult fantasy series.

Monday marks the 20th anniversary of Rowlings Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, published June 1997 in the U.K. The U.S. published the book under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.

Rowlings best-selling wizarding-world series follows Harry Potter, an orphaned English boy who discovers on his 11th birthday he is a wizard living in an ordinary world with people known as Muggles. He attends Hogwarts, a boarding school for wizards, where he creates a band of friends and learns the truth about his parents deaths.

The series spawned a franchise of films, theme parks, video games and memorabilia.

It also transformed the way kids consume literature and it inspired readers to create their own multimedia content, said Jonathan Alexander, chancellors professor of English at UC Irvine who lectures on young adult fiction.

Prior to Rowlings series, young adult novels such as S. E. Hintons The Outsiders and Robert Cormiers The Chocolate War dealt with gritty realism about conflict among social classes and the transition of childhood into adulthood.

Though Rowling does tackle issues of intergenerational conflict and being an outsider, Alexander said Harry Potter struck a needed tone with readers on the importance of using real life magic with the power of imagination to lead a better life.

The characters are very easy for not only kids to relate to but everyone. ... Characters were multifaceted and were just like me.  Megan Cole, a UC Irvine student majoring in literary journalism and English

Media industries realized they could make additional components to the book series, he said, and readers realized this too.

Readers began writing their own fan fiction  borrowing characters or story plots from an author to create their own storyline  and fan videos and sharing it on the Internet.

A wealth of media has cropped up with these stories, said Alexander, who added that it coincided with the birth of the worldwide web. We hadnt seen that kind of media around a set of books before.

During his lectures on young adult fiction, Alexander said he incorporates the Harry Potter series to show historical landmarks in the development of young adult fiction. Almost all students respond positively to the fantasy novel and often discuss which house they were sorted into by the Sorting Hat on Pottermore.com.

The characters are very easy for not only kids to relate to but everyone, said Megan Cole, a UC Irvine student majoring in literary journalism and English. It was the first book I read that was complex like that. Characters were multifaceted and were just like me.

Cole, 21, remembers being 8 when she read the fourth Harry Potter book. Her grandpa gifted it to her not knowing it was part of a series. She loved it so much, she bought the books available and attended midnight launches held at Barnes & Nobles for each new installment.

Ive been a huge bookworm all my life. I really dont really know if Id be that way if it wasnt for Harry Potter, she said. Its the first thing I remember thats really struck me.

Since then shes been dedicated to studying literature and writing with plans to be a journalist or professor in literature.

Linh knew Harry Potter would be triumphant in the end, but she kept reading for the rest of the characters. And when certain characters would die, shed turn to fan fiction to read alternative endings.

The series inspired her to read more fantasy novels, Linh said, though she hasnt found a story that has caught her interest like Rowlings.

For Orange Coast College student Nayeli Gaytan, 23, it was a family experience watching all the movies.

Gaytan said she saw all the movies before reading the series, saying she wanted to see what details were missing from the blockbusters.

She even visited the platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross station in London and has plans to visit Universal Studios new Harry Potter light show this weekend.

The books cover also attracted Wan Fong, another OCC student. She was 10 when she first read it.

Fong remembers finding a cubicle in the library and dedicating hours to reading the series.

I really didnt have a life outside of school, so reading Harry Potter opened up a new world for me by seeing what happened to him and following his adventures, she said.

Priscella.Vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscella

ALSO

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Harry Potter turns 20. Heres how J.K. Rowling and Twitter are celebrating

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Laguna Beach police detectives found a cute, cuddly and malnourished surprise earlier this month at the home of a San Bernardino man wanted in connection with a string of car burglaries in Laguna.

While at the house on June 11, detectives discovered a German shepherd puppy who had an injured paw and appeared frightened, Laguna Beach Sgt. David McGill said Thursday in relaying what detectives told him. Detectives had executed a search warrant on the house.

The dog belonged to the parents of Johnny Cervantez, one of the suspects, McGill said.

Cervantez, who lives with his parents, was not home at the time police arrived, McGill said, adding that detectives told the parents to turn in their son and offered to help find a new home for the dog.

Laguna Det. David Gensemer suggested calling the unnamed dog Gordon as tribute to Gordon French, McGill said. French was a Laguna officer who was killed in the line of duty in 1953.

McGill liked Gensemers suggestion and shortened the name to Gordo.

It seemed more fitting for a dog than Gordon, McGill said.

Another of McGills colleagues, reserve Officer Spring Sendele, called rescue groups to inquire about fostering Gordo and decided on Labradors and Friends Dog Rescue Group.

McGill admitted he was interested in bringing Gordo home as a playmate for Stan, his 9-year-old Chihuahua rat terrier mix.

McGill sent a photo to his family and said his youngest daughter replied, Youre bringing him home, right?

McGill filled out adoption paperwork and waited. The call came June 16 with news that McGill could take Gordo, who is 9 weeks old, home.

Two days later, on Fathers Day, McGill and his family drove to Hermosa Beach to pick up Gordo at the home of his foster family.

Hes doing great, McGill said. Hes got some puppy behavior. He ate all the peppers off the plant in the backyard. Apparently he likes spicy food.

And hes only had a couple of accidents in the house, McGill said.

Cervantez was arrested and is charged with possession of a controlled substance paraphernalia, possession of a controlled substance, receiving stolen property and grand theft, all misdemeanors, the Daily Pilot reported last week. His arraignment is scheduled July 24.

Redlands resident Rachel Alvarez was sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years probation after pleading guilty to grand theft and receiving stolen property, both misdemeanors, in connection to the vehicle burglaries, according to the Pilot.

bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Twitter: @AldertonBryce
Local cities are set to dedicate millions of dollars more per year on top of already-determined payments to try to bring down unfunded employee pension liabilities that are running up to seven times higher than a decade ago.

With Californias pension crisis clearly defined, cities are beginning to budget for even larger payments to the state retirement system to keep ahead of interest.

Newport Beach has committed to paying roughly $9 million more a year through 2038, and its exploring setting aside money in a trust. Without taking action, the citys projected unfunded pension liability for the new fiscal year starting July 1 would balloon to $353 million, compared with $46 million 10 years ago.

Costa Mesa will add $500,000 a year, Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach about $1 million each. Costa Mesas unfunded liability is projected at $246 million for fiscal 2017-18, up from an estimated $46 million 10 years ago. In Huntington Beach, the latest number is $363 million; a decade ago, it was $79 million.

Why are we in this mess? Well, everybodys in this mess, said Huntington Beach Assistant City Manager Ken Domer.

The reason depends on whom you ask.

The bottom line is that public employees didnt cause this problem  it was caused by Wall Street bankers who got greedy and we ended up in a recession and the stock market crashed, said Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley.

According to the California Public Employees Retirement System, or CalPERS, about 62% of its income is the result of earnings from investing employer and employee contributions in stocks, bonds and real estate.

Many city leaders throw their hands up and say that any meaningful action must come from the state, said Newport Beach Councilman Will ONeill. I agree that the state must take meaningful action. But cities that do not take meaningful action themselves risk deficits and bankruptcy.

Some state remedies are already in place  for example, the Public Employers Pension Reform Act of 2013, which essentially lowered new hires future retirement benefits by capping how much of their compensation can be factored into calculating their pensions.

Costa Mesa Councilman Jim Righeimer, who spearheaded the citys 2011 outsourcing effort to reduce pension commitments, apportions the blame for its unfunded liability as such: 75% the people that get the money  the employees  and 25% the people that want to be elected and dont want to upset that apple cart.

Nobody can believe the numbers when they start to dig into it, he said. They dont realize how ridiculous it is. There is no mathematical way, period, to pay an employee 90% of their pay for the rest of their life when theyre 50 years old.

Righeimer was referring to what is known as the 3% at 50 benefit formula, in which some public safety employees, including in Costa Mesa, can retire as early as age 50 with a pension rate set at 3% of their final years salary multiplied by how many years they were on the job.

Cities financial experts identified these factors in how the pension balloon swelled:

More-generous benefits: In 1999, the state Legislature passed a law giving public employees robust, retroactive retirement benefits. This resulted in the 3% at 50 formula.

Agency after agency accepted the new benefits as if they were free, said Newport Beach Finance Director Dan Matusiewicz. They competed with each other, contending the benefits were necessary to attract and retain employees.

As a result, liabilities likely grow at a faster rate than revenue growth, he said. The 2013 reforms will soften this ascent, but we all know this will take decades to have a meaningful impact.

Pensions are grandfathered for employees who benefited from the earlier law.

Lower returns: A gradual lowering of the rate of investment return from 7.5% to 7% per year.

For Huntington Beach, that means the city will have to pay an additional $23 million over the next few years toward pensions to make up the difference. City Manager Fred Wilson described it as a pretty heavy hit.

Recessions: The financial crisis of 2008 caused crippling investment losses.

For many, it took the investment losses in 2008 to reveal how susceptible agencies are to the market-value losses on assets to fully understand how vulnerable their agencies are to the (accrued liability) associated with their promised benefits, Matusiewicz said.

Here are local cities strategies for paying down their unfunded pension liabilities:

NEWPORT BEACH

The plan: Add about $9 million a year to the existing pay-down schedule and explore setting aside money in a special trust.

Mayor Kevin Muldoon sees his city as a trendsetter.

Newport has agreed to direct $9.1 million more per year for the next 20 years to its minimum annual payments in an effort to shrink its liability. Muldoon expects other California cities to step up their payments as well.

Its not a pleasant issue to have, he said at a meeting this month where the City Council voted to accept the new fiscal years budget with the addition. Newport Beach is setting a trend to aggressively pay down our unfunded pension liability and pick up the slack left by Sacramento.

With a $25-million compulsory payment defined by the state, $16.2 million in normal annual costs and the $9.1-million boost, the citys net pension cost in 2017-18 will be $40.3 million after deducting $10 million contributed by employees.

The voluntary boost is expected to save about $15 million in interest over the 20 years.

The $9.1-million addition will be challenging but no real sacrifice, City Manager Dave Kiff said. The city has healthy property, sales and bed taxes, plus about $48 million gathering interest in its rainy-day reserve. It will split the added millions over 12 monthly installments, allowing the city to pull back if the market goes sideways.

It is a very good strategy in (that) it strikes balance between providing a valuable service to both current and future residents, Matusiewicz said.

Councilman ONeill, who also is on the city Finance Committee, said this isnt like prepaying a mortgage. Pensions are more like a devils mortgage because cities liabilities are growing without meaningful stability, he said.

The Finance Committee, which discusses pensions at every semi-weekly meeting, likely will address socking away money in a dedicated trust fund.

Kiff said Newport is cautiously optimistic about its plan.

Theres always caution in what will happen in the economy, he said.

COSTA MESA

The plan: Budget $500,000 per year for additional payments to CalPERS and annually prepay CalPERS for employee bargaining groups and use the savings from a prepay discount  more than $250,000 per year  to make additional payments. The city also has formed a Finance and Pension Advisory Committee to look at options for future reductions in pension cost and liability.

In 2011, Costa Mesa was ground zero in the battle over public employee pensions. The City Council drew national attention for a controversial decision to issue layoff notices to more than 200 employees and outsource many services.

The motivation, officials said, was to get a handle on Costa Mesas ballooning pension obligations. Critics, though, blasted the move as a reckless political stunt.

Though the council eventually abandoned the bulk of its outsourcing plan and settled a lawsuit with the Costa Mesa City Employees Assn., the philosophical battle over public pensions in the city has never entirely gone away.

The unfunded liability itself also hasnt disappeared. In the next fiscal year, its expected to be roughly $246.2 million, according to interim Finance Director Stephen Dunivent.

By comparison, the citys adopted budget for next fiscal year is $163.2 million.

There are multiple tiers for both safety and non-safety employees in Costa Mesa, determined by an employees hire date.

Among Orange County cities, Costa Mesas employees pay some of the highest contributions toward their pension costs, according to city officials.

For instance, under a new contract the council approved in April 2016, the citys rank-and-file police officers are required to contribute 14% of their pay to their pensions.

Members of the non-public safety Costa Mesa City Employees Assn., who have paid as much as 17.04% of their salaries toward their pensions, will contribute at least 12% throughout the life of a new contract the council OKd in March.

Both groups also brokered raises as part of their contracts.

Negotiations are continuing with the Costa Mesa Firefighters Assn.

Costa Mesa employees are already paying more than their fair share toward pensions, Mayor Foley said, and other options need to be looked at in Sacramento  such as implementing a new retirement cap or having the state make additional payments to CalPERS.

It is my firm opinion that the state Legislature and the governor have got to solve this problem, because the cities cannot do it, she said. We cannot balance these requirements and these obligations on the backs of the employees.

In Councilman Righeimers mind, though, any solution needs to include now-retired employees taking a cut on their pension benefits.

I will debate anybody who says there is some simple way to fix it short of the employees who get the money taking less, he said. Until you do that, you cant fix it.

HUNTINGTON BEACH

The plan: Pay an extra $1 million a year beyond the required minimum, with additional contributions from a pension rate stabilization trust.

Wilson, the city manager, believes unfunded pension liabilities are the greatest budget issue the city will face over the next five to seven years.

The city currently is on the hook for 1,440 retirees and will have to cover 958 active employees. The citys unfunded liabilities also are affected by 437 transferred and 295 terminated employees, according to city documents.

But under Wilsons command the city has come up with a two-pronged plan to prepay the citys liabilities.

The first part requires the city to devote an extra $1 million to pensions each year. The plan was initiated in 2014 and Wilson said it should save taxpayers $54 million in the long term.

Additionally, the city created a pension rate stabilization plan last year that the City Council funded with a $2.5-million contribution. Wilson said the budget feature is essentially a trust that money can be allocated to, earmarking it to pay down pension liabilities.

Councilman Erik Peterson believes changes made about a decade ago to the equation the city uses to calculate pension values is part of the problem. The equation includes the year of retirement when the pension would become available and the percentage of yearly compensation aggregated through a career.

In 2008, the council increased the formula from 2% at age 55 to 2.5% at 55 for non-public safety employees. For public safety personnel, it was increased to 3% at 50, a figure mirrored by other Orange County cities.

This is a huge problem, Peterson said.

He praised the city for its efforts to combat the pension issue with prepayment but added that its like going down a hole that doesnt have a bottom.

He and other council members said the state may ultimately have to deal with it.

The council recently voted to support state pension reform legislation proposed by state Sen. John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa).

Moorlach has proposed three bills and three amendments to the state Constitution. One of the constitutional amendments would prohibit public employers from increasing retirement benefits for their employees without two-thirds voter approval.

Another would give the Legislature and public pension systems the ability to adjust public employees retirement benefit formulas on a prospective basis without impacting any benefits earned.

FOUNTAIN VALLEY

The plan: Add about $1 million a year to the pay-down schedule.

A local sales tax increase approved by Fountain Valley voters last year will help pay down the citys unfunded pension liabilities.

Revenue from the Measure HH 1% sales tax, which the city started collecting in April, will go toward essential city services including roads, parks and public safety. That includes pensions for all city employees.

A portion of sales tax revenue will be set aside in a trust just for pensions and doled out at a rate of a little more than $1 million a year over 10 years on top of regular annual payments to help shrink the $65-million unfunded liability the city expects to have next year, said city Finance Director David Cain.

Fountain Valley residents will not see a cut in local services as the city directs more money toward pensions, officials say.

Part of what we recognized as we moved into the (Measure) HH as a potential solution for the community is without doing something we were going to impact (services), Cain said.

Over the past five years, Fountain Valley also has instituted a tiered benefit system for new hires and paid off the liability in its side fund, the amount of unfunded liability it had when it was in a pooled plan.

Fountain Valley was one of the first cities in Orange County to bring on employees with lower retirement benefits when it started the two-tiered system in 2012, Cain said.

LAGUNA BEACH

The plan: Commit 4% of revenue greater than budget estimates to help offset increasing pension costs in the next five years.

Laguna Beach officials have made paying down the citys unfunded pension liability a priority. The city had 362 retirees as of fiscal 2014-15. Its projected unfunded pension liability for 2017-18 is $53 million.

In 2010, the City Council approved borrowing surplus money from Lagunas own funds, such as its parking fund and street lighting fund, to pay off $10 million in a side fund earmarked for police, fire and marine safety plans. Three years later, it approved higher employee contributions for pensions, ranging from 8% to 12% of salary.

The city expects those strategies to save $25 million in the next 30 years and significantly reduce Lagunas unfunded liability, according to a letter from City Manager John Pietig to the City Council.

But in a foreboding development for Laguna and other California cities, CalPERS late last year said it would lower its expected investment return rate from 7.5% to 7%.

Increases to Lagunas overall pension costs, including unfunded liabilities, will be phased in over five years, with the citys required minimum contribution jumping from $9.1 million in 2016-17 to $11.8 million by 2021-22, according to city statistics.

At a city budget workshop last month, the council agreed to commit 4% of revenue greater than budget estimates to pay all or a portion of that increase in the next five years in hopes of not reaching into reserves or reducing services, city Finance Director Gavin Curran said. The city will evaluate the plan every six months.

We do everything we can do to address the situation, Councilman Robert Zur Schmiede said. With the reserves we have, were in a better position than most cities.

An unfunded liability does not mean failure to fund the plan, said Councilman Steve Dicterow, a lawyer who at one point focused exclusively on pension planning.

A new liability gets created every year, even if you paid down to zero, Dicterow said.

He said the only thing cities have control over is salaries they pay employees. But he did not suggest Laguna start cutting pay.

We are not going to reduce peoples salaries because the pension costs are too large, Dicterow said. Were in a competitive environment with other cities.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD

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Glendale Unifieds real estate agent this week presented an attractive property the school district could swap their headquarters for, following recent discussions by Glendale school officials about their intent to relocate.

School officials have said that upgrading their current building at 223 N. Jackson St. would cost anywhere from $15 to $20 million.

Demolishing their building altogether and constructing a new one would cost about $30 million, according to Re/Max Realtor Sam Manoukian.

A new building would not fix administrators parking crunch, Manoukian added, which can leave them searching for spaces on surrounding residential streets or parking at a Ralphs grocery store lot down the block.

Manoukian said a search of buildings in the city turned up one that may qualify for a swap, located at 425 E. Colorado St., a half-mile south where the district is housed now.

The building is about 113,000 square feet, according to the Los Angeles County Assessor, and was built in 1984.

Manoukian said there are 380 parking spaces, 224 more than the 156 Glendale Unified has now.

He suggested school officials occupy a portion of the building, and rent out space to others to generate revenue.

I personally think its a very attractive opportunity, at least from the preliminary information that we have, said school board member Shant Sahakian.

Manoukian assured board members they would not have to commit to anything in the process of negotiations, which could begin once the school board passes a resolution at an upcoming meeting.

If something doesnt smell right, or if something doesnt look right, Id be the first one to yell and scream, Manoukian said. So far, what has been presented, what were looking at, absolutely makes all the sense.

Manoukian worked with the board two years ago when, after a Burbank-based developer expressed interest in Glendale Unifieds property, they looked into making an exchange. Officials did find a property with more parking, but school officials ultimately walked away from swapping land without publicly disclosing why.

Manoukian said the board has the option to do the same again.

If it doesnt happen, then we walk, just like we did last time, he said.

In the meantime, school board member Greg Krikorian suggested officials tour the building on Colorado Street.

Board members also want to confirm how leaving the districts headquarters will affect Daily High School, which is located next door and will remain there, even if the land near it is developed, according to Manoukian.

Enrollment at Daily High School varies each year, but is often made up of about 200 students.

Daily stays exactly where its at, he said.

kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
Wilson Middle School student Sonya Siegel-Chanen won accolades from the Glendale school board this week for her flute performance during a festival held last month.

In May, she performed music by the Italian composer Benedetto Marcello during the California Music Educators Assn.s State Solo and Ensemble Festival held at Azusa Pacific University.

Sonya was the only Glendale student to qualify for the festival, in which 50 students participated, said her mother Rachel Siegel.

kelly.corrigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
Nathaniel Wayne Scheiern will spend 41 years to life in prison for killing his grandparents in their Glendale home.

The sentence came this week after the 36-year-old pleaded no contest to first- and second-degree murder in late April.

The Los Angeles County district attorneys office said Scheiern killed his grandparents on or around June 24 or June 25, 2015, in the 600 block of Alexander Street. The couple had lived at the home for over 20 years, and Scheiern had recently moved in.

Scheiern attacked and killed his 82-year-old grandmother, Verna Scheiern, with an ax, according to court testimony. William Scheiern, his 77-year-old grandfather, tried to intervene and was then killed with a hammer.

The double-murder was discovered June 28 after a family member called the Glendale Police Department to conduct a well-being check on the couple, according to testimony given in 2016.

An officer found the homes front door ajar and a foul odor emanating from inside. The bodies were found covered with a blanket on a bed in a significant state of decomposition, according to the testimony.

Officers found a bloodied hammer a few feet from the bodies and recovered an ax caked in dried blood embedded in a wall.

Police soon found Nathaniel Scheiern recovering at a Valencia hospital, where he was being treated for injuries sustained in a car crash that occurred sometime after the killings.

He was taken into custody and confessed.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_Truc
Hundreds of flights to and from Shanghai were delayed or canceled Monday as Chinese authorities imposed strict air traffic control measures reportedly due to military exercises -- the second such near-shutdown of airspace over the metropolis in eight days.

Further interruptions are expected in the coming weeks.

The sudden restrictions have prompted frustration as well as speculation about whats behind the mysterious controls. On Sunday, two men were arrested for spreading rumors about the July 14 delays and cancellations, the Beijing Youth Daily reported Monday.

The men reportedly posted messages on social media suggesting that the measures were part of a dragnet set up by authorities to catch a high-level official who was attempting to escape a corruption investigation. Thirty-seven other Internet users received related warnings about fabricating rumors, the paper said.

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Aviation authorities said only that other users were occupying the airspace on Monday, leading to severe restrictions from 8 a.m. to noon and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., fraying travelers nerves and leading to heated words between passengers and airline staff. On July 14, authorities also severely limited commercial flights to and from Shanghai between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

By midday Monday, 101 flights had been canceled at Pudong International Airport and 103 were delayed by more than two hours, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said. Another 98 flights were canceled at the citys Hongqiao airport. At Pudong, 74% of arrivals and 36% of departures were delayed; at Hongqiao, 60% of arrivals and 57% of departures were pushed back.

Even without military maneuvers, Shanghai is known as one of the worst cities in Asia for flight delays. According to a December report from FlightStats.com, Hongqiao ranked 31st out of 35 airports in Asia, with only 48% of flights on time. Pudong was worse, with a 43% on-time rate.

About 34% of Chinas total airspace is available for civilian use, the state-run China News Service said last year. But commercial airline traffic has been exploding in China; domestic traffic climbed 11.7% from 2012 to 2013, the biggest leap of any market in the world, the International Air Transport Assn. said.

Charles A. Laughlin, a Chinese literature professor at the University of Virginia, was one of the passengers caught up in the July 14 delays. His 11 a.m. flight from Shanghai to Tianjin was held up more than six hours, causing him to miss a lecture he was scheduled to deliver at Nankai University.

As more and more flights backed up, Laughlin said, passengers were left with no place to sit in the terminal and gate staff were unable to provide any estimate of when his flight would take off  until they suddenly announced at 5 p.m. that the flight would be boarding. After another 45-minute wait on board -- during which time the head flight attendant said military maneuvers were to blame for the delay -- the aircraft finally departed.

The weather was fine ... but the whole departure board was lit up red and yellow with delays and cancellations until the evening, Laughlin said. We thought it was odd for military exercises to affect civil aviation for a whole day.

Tao Yuanyong, a Beijing travel agent, said Monday that he had to assist more than 20 customers who have been delayed by the two episodes in Shanghai. He helped them obtain refunds for their flights and then booked high-speed rail tickets.

I tell people, if youre in a rush, take the train, said Tao, who added that the airlines are not getting much advance notice of the airspace restrictions.

The situation has proved taxing for airline and airport staff. One flight attendant sent out a note Monday on Chinese social media saying, I hope all the passengers going to east China are tolerant today, and ending her message with a hashtag meaning please do not hit me!

An airport security guard took a more poetic approach, alluding to William Butler Yeats line, Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.

Call for information, dont waste your time in endless waiting, he added on the Twitter-like service Weibo. And please do not think naively that when the military drill stops, your flight will [immediately] take off. Thats absolutely impossible!

More delays and cancellations look to be in the offing. The official Weibo account of a flight attendants group said Monday that some airlines had been asked to lower their capacity by 25% through Aug. 15 while military drills continue, affecting 12 airports including Hongqiao and Pudong in Shanghai as well as in the cities of Nanjing, Hangzhou, Hefei, Jinan, Wuxi, Ningbo, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Zhengzhou and Wuhan.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China, the flight attendants group said, would soon release more details.

Before you take a plane, please prepare enough food and water, and better bring your sleeping bag as well, the group advised. If you want to take a plane, it will definitely be delayed. Better choose the high-speed train instead!

Tommy Yang in The Times Beijing bureau contributed to this report.

Follow news out of China with @JulieMakLAT on Twitter.
As the time for afternoon prayers approaches, Onder Soy puts on a white robe and cap and switches on the microphone in a small 19th century room adjoining the Hagia Sophia.

Soon, Soys melodic call to prayer rings out over a square filled with tourists hurrying to visit some of Turkeys most famous historical sights before they close for the day.

The room Soy is in  built as a resting place for the sultan and now officially called the Hagia Sophia mosque  fills up with around 40 worshipers, drawn not by the modestly decorated space itself, but by the ancient building it shares a wall with.

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Built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in AD 537, the Hagia Sophia was originally a Greek Orthodox basilica and one of the most important churches in all of Christendom. It became a mosque in 1453 after the Ottoman Empire defeated the Byzantines and took over Constantinople.

With the birth of a secular Turkish Republic, the Hagia Sophia became a museum in 1935, meant to highlight the shared legacy of the space for the worlds two largest religions. But, eight decades later, the fate of this building still tugs at the hearts of Muslims and Christians alike.

In October, Turkeys Directorate of Religious Affairs appointed Soy as the full-time imam for the room adjoining the Hagia Sophia, a space that opened in 1992 but was previously only meant for workers in the area to use for prayers.

Five times a day now, Soys voice rings out, not just as a call to daily prayer, but also as an audible reminder for many Muslims in Turkey that their long-held dream of worshiping inside the Hagia Sophia may become a reality.

This June, three separate groups led marches to the museum calling for its opening as a mosque. One group began a campaign asking people to remove their shoes before they enter the building, just as they would when entering a mosque.

I have never entered the Hagia Sophia and I never will until it is reopened as a mosque, said Emrullah Celik, 29, an activist who has helped lead a small but influential grassroots campaign to have the building converted to a mosque. We want to enter with a prayer rug, not with a ticket.

Its not like the stones of the Hagia Sophia are holy, there is nothing inside it that makes it special, but God told us it is important, said Salih Akyuz, the head of the youth branch of the Saadet Party, one of several Islamist groups that led a march to the Hagia Sophia on May 29, the 564th anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. We were taught by our prophet Muhammad that Constantinople was an important place, and this was the most important place in the city, so it is dear to our hearts.

Outside the Hagia Sophia, two women walk past Soy and purchase tickets to enter the museum. One places a shawl over her head and briefly kneels to make the sign of the cross, her eyes fixed on a glimmering 9th century mosaic above the basilicas Imperial Door.

Thousands of marble squares, semiprecious stones, and cut glass in dozens of colors depict Christ seated on a throne, flanked by the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Gabriel, with the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI kneeling, cherishing the chance to kiss Christs feet.

For nearly a thousand years, the Imperial Door  made of wood that some believe came from Noahs Ark  was opened only for emperors.

Justinian I was reportedly hoping to outdo Solomons Temple, and to many of those who visited the Hagia Sophia over the centuries, he succeeded.

A series of semicircles draw the eye to the center of the space and a 108-foot-wide dome is set on 40 windows that seems to float some 200 feet in the air.

Three aisles running east to west are separated by rows of massive Corinthian columns topped with leaves and scrolls so elaborate it is difficult to fathom they were carved in stone.

The floor has been weathered so smooth by 14 centuries of visitors, in some places signs remind you that it is slippery.

Nearly every Byzantine emperor until 1453 was crowned in the Hagia Sophia. In 1054, a representative of the Latin Pope Leo IX marched up to the central altar and declared the patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated, marking the beginning of the Great Schism that would separate the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic faiths.

The basilicas most awe-inspiring contents have been the nearly four acres of mosaics that once covered its walls, most of which were obscured during Ottoman rule to adhere to a strict Islamic ban on images inside mosques. But even as a mosque, visitors could often peer up at giant mosaics of angels with their faces obscured, or make out Greek crosses inside the painted designs encircling them that were meant to convert them into benign geometric patterns.

We want to enter with a prayer rug, not with a ticket.  Emrullah Celik, an activist who has led a grassroots campaign to convert the Hagia Sophia to a mosque

With the rise in popularity in Turkey of Ottoman-themed television shows and the promotion of the nations imperial heritage by the ruling AK Party, the marches and similar rallies at the Hagia Sophia have become increasingly frequent.

At the May 29 march, a man dressed in royal regalia meant to mimic that of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, rode a white horse along the route that was used by the sultans soldiers in 1453 as they breached the city walls and headed for the Hagia Sophia.

At a side door to the museum today, a saying attributed to Muhammad is found in intricate gold calligraphy: You [my followers] will conquer Constantinople, and the leader who does so will be great, and his army will be great.

Muhammads immediate successors tried unsuccessfully to take the city, as did a long line of Ottoman leaders before it finally fell to Mehmet II, whose tomb, two miles away, is a popular pilgrimage point for the pious.

Nearly 3.5 million people visit the Hagia Sophia annually, making it the most popular tourist attraction in Turkey. But not everyone in Turkey is eager to see the treasures inside.

In the predawn hours, Celik and a few dozen young men and women gathered before the museum entrance, and had a picnic breakfast, the last meal before the start of a Ramadan fast.

If now is not the right time, when is? Celik asked.

While President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has held off on announcing any retooling of the Hagia Sophia, Islamists see hopeful signs, like the opening of the full-time mosque in the small adjoining room.

As Celik and the others gulped down glasses of water in preparation for the fast, a TV news satellite van parked nearby carried a live feed from inside the Hagia Sophia.

The show, broadcast nationally since last year, features a soft-spoken host interviewing a rotating cast of academics, historians and religious scholars. The last half-hour features a recitation of the Koran inside the museum, the only occasion on which such a practice has been allowed by authorities.

Celik helped spark the current round of interest around the Hagia Sophia. In May 2014, he and a handful of activists organized an early morning march on the museum that ended up drawing thousands.

At the time, it was a hot topic, and me and a group of young activists were thinking, how can we get people to be more interested, to put more pressure on our leaders? said Celik.

After the march, the Greek government and the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church condemned the proposal to turn the building into a mosque. Meanwhile, one Islamist group, the Anatolia Youth Assn., collected more than 15 million signatures on a petition calling for the mosque to be reopened.

A bill to do so was introduced in parliament, only to be quietly withdrawn by the ruling AK Party. Erdogan, then prime minister, who has built his political career on empowering conservative Muslims in Turkey, rebuffed Celik and the other activists, saying they should first fill the nearby Blue Mosque with worshipers before turning to the Hagia Sophia.

On other occasions, Erdogan has said he would like to see the Hagia Sophia eventually become a mosque, but the presidents pace, and real motivations for such rhetoric, does not impress Islamist activists like Celik.

If the issue was about filling mosques, why is Erdogan building the Camlica mosque? How is he going to fill that? said Celik, referring to a new mosque nearing completion on a hill overlooking Istanbul that will be the largest in the country.

Its a political issue in Turkey, and the AK Party has taken some steps so far to make it [the Hagia Sophia] a mosque, but that has not been enough.

If Mehmet IIs conversion of the church to a mosque in the 15th century was a turning point, Celik says, Turkey is ready today for a new historic moment.

For us, 1453 was a symbol of Islam winning over Christianity, said Celik. Now, for those who want to keep the Hagia Sophia a museum  I think a very small number of people  its a symbol of secularism winning over Islam. But Turkey has changed, and they are out of touch with it.

Umar Farooq is a special correspondent.
The evacuation of hundreds of London public housing residents from their apartments rolled on Saturday as the fallout from Britains deadliest fire in generations continued to intensify and turn into a full-blown crisis.

More than a week after a council-owned west London residential tower block caught fire, leaving an estimated 79 people confirmed or feared dead, residents on the Chalcot Estate in Camden, north London, were informed late Friday that their homes were also at risk.

Some 650 homes were evacuated, forcing hundreds of people to hastily pack suitcases and ask to stay with friends and relatives, or take shelter in hotels or a leisure center where inflatable mattresses were set up until a more permanent solution could be provided.

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The leader of Camden Council, Georgia Gould, said she had acted on the clear guidance of the fire department, which said residents safety could not be guaranteed after tests showed the estates five tower blocks had cladding similar to that used on Grenfell Tower.

Issues around the insulation of gas pipes and fire doors were also discovered during the safety checks and residents were told to expect to be out of their homes for up to four weeks while vital improvements were made.

One of the five buildings was later deemed to be safe enough for residents to return but four others remained out of bounds.

Having to evacuate people from their homes is always going to be distressing for those residents, especially when we have to do it at such short notice, she said. I know some residents are angry and upset, but I want to be very clear that Camden Council acted to protect them ... Grenfell changes everything, and we had to act fast.

A fire engine parks outside Braithwaite House residential block in Islington in north London on June 24, 2017. Residents of 650 London flats were evacuated due to fire safety fears in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, but 83 people refused to leave their homes. (AFP /Getty Images)

Still, there were heated exchanges with some residents, some of whom said they had only found out they were being evacuated from their homes by watching television Friday night.

During one such confrontation, a 72-year-old with emphysema challenged the council leader Saturday morning, saying she had spent the night sitting in a chair outside her home because she was told she could not enter temporary accommodation with her dog.

I am so absolutely stressed, she told the council leader. Why was hotels not looked at before we were all evacuated?

What do they want me to do with my dog? Put my dog to sleep?

A few dozen residents refused to move, which Camden Council said was an issue that would have to be dealt with by the fire department.

The government has been ordering urgent tests on the estimated 600 high-rise residential buildings across the country in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and is urging all public and private landlords to test their buildings.

The Premier Inn hotel chain has also raised concerns about the cladding on some of its buildings and has sought expert help to address those issues.

On Saturday officials said 27 blocks in cities across the country including Manchester, Plymouth and Portsmouth had also failed fire checks but so far Camden was the only area where evacuations had taken place.

This is now a nationwide threat and the prime minister needs to get a grip, Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn said.

Officials said Friday that the blaze started in a faulty refrigerator, but the cladding installed during a recent multimillion-dollar refurbishment of Grenfell Tower is believed to have exacerbated the inferno, which consumed nearly all 24 floors in about an hour.

The cladding, made of an aluminum composite material, has been banned in the U.S. and Germany.

Police announced they were considering filing manslaughter charges and have launched a criminal investigation which will look at every company that was involved with the building and renovation of the tower.

Prime Minister Theresa May has ordered a public inquiry into the tragedy and established a $6-million fund for victims after initially being severely criticized for her response to the fire and failure to adequately gauge the public mood and outrage.

Camden Council said it has spent $640,000 on hotel rooms and a $128,000 fund was available to provide the displaced with food and drink and was dealing with an unprecedented operation to ensure tenants in its public housing were safe.

Boyle is a Times special correspondent.
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Ford testing plug-in hybrid Escape

Jun 24, 2017, 5:39am ET

The gas-electric Escape might not arrive until the 2020 model year.

Ford is currently testing a plug-in hybrid version of the Escape, according to a recent report.

The model will replace the C-Max Energi. Nothing is official yet, but the move makes a lot of sense from a business standpoint. The minivan segment is declining, while the crossover and SUV segments are booming.

Specifications such as the Escape PHEV's powertrain, electric-only range, and price haven't been released yet. More details will trickle out over the coming months as testing continues, and Ford might even provide us with tidbits of official information when the auto show season starts up.

The Ford Escape PHEV will make its official debut in early 2018 or late 2019, according to website Inside EVs. That means it likely won't arrive in showrooms until the 2020 model year. It will allegedly be joined by plug-in variants of the Explorer, the Focus, and the Transit.

Deja vu

The Escape has received a plug-in hybrid drivetrain before. The Blue Oval built a small batch of plug-in prototypes based on the second-generation Escape starting in late 2007.
Pennsylvania has about 86,000 miles of flowing waters, and a state program has been working to determine which are home to wild trout populations.

In 2010, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission launched the Unassessed Waters Initiative, which involves state officials, conservation groups and citizens attempting to study the rivers, streams and creeks statewide that support wild trout.

So far, more than 3,000 streams totaling over 21,000 miles have been surveyed by the fish and boat commission.

Streams with large numbers of wild trout are a sign of excellent water quality, according to Trout Unlimited Mid-Atlantic Policy Director David Kinney. They're also popular with anglers.

Trout Unlimited is a national conservation group that has been helping the state survey streams.

"The water has to be exceptionally clean for there to be a naturally producing population of trout," Kinney said.

The waters receive different classifications based on the size and number of trout counted in a particular section of a stream.

Streams designated as Class A trout waters -- those that support a significant population of naturally produced trout -- receive special protections from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection during permitting processes. Nearby wetlands and associated tributaries also are eligible for increased protections.

"Whatever work you do around that water, you need to make sure that water remains to be high quality," Kinney said.

Trout are measured and counted by using a method called electrofishing. A surveyor will typically go into a stream wearing a backpack containing a 40-pound battery- or gas-powered generator connected to a large "wand." The wand emits a low voltage current in the water, which stuns and immobilizes the fish so they can be more easily collected and counted.

The fish are then released back into the water.

While wild brown trout and even rarer wild rainbow trout populations have been found, 95 percent of the wild population counted are wild brook trout, according to a state report.

Northampton County currently has 14 stream sections considered to be Class A trout waters and Lehigh County is home to 16 of the same designation. One designated section of Monocacy Creek runs through both counties.

Next month, the fish and boat commission will consider designating an unnamed tributary of the Little Bushkill Creek as a wild trout water.

Terry Kleintop, who is on the Plainfield Township Planning Commission, Environmental Advisory Council and is a Bushkill Stream Conservancy member, said the wild trout designation for the tributary that runs through Plainfield Township would be a good thing.

"The program could be a benefit to many municipalities so they can see what is going on in their streams," Kleintop said.

Here's a rundown of the Lehigh Valley stream sections given Class A designation:

NORTHAMPTON COUNTY

Bushkill Creek from Tatamy's southern border to a private bridge off Route 2019;

Bushkill Creek from the dam at Binney & Smith to the 13th Street bridge in Easton;

Frys Run;

Martins Creek from its headwaters to the Bangor sewage treatment plant;

Martins Creek from the dam 0.6 km upstream from intersection Route 1015 and Old Franklin Hill Road to its mouth;

Monocacy Creek from the Route 987 bridge to the Route 248 bridge;

Monocacy Creek from the upstream boundary of Gertrude Fox Conservation Area to Illick's Mill dam;

Monocacy Creek from the Illick's Mill dam to the Schoenersville Road bridge;

Nancy Run;

Saucon Creek;

Unnamed tributary to the Delaware River;

Unnamed tributary to the Lehigh Canal;

Unnamed tributary to the Lehigh River;

Waltz Creek

LEHIGH COUNTY

Catasauqua Creek;

Cedar Creek;

Hosensack Creek;

Iron Run;

Little Cedar Creek;

Little Lehigh Creek from Smith Lane bridge to Spring Creek;

Little Lehigh Creek from Spring Creek to Wild Cherry Lane bridge;

Little Lehigh Creek from 0.4 km upstream of Country Club Road to the Fish Hatchery Road bridge;

Little Lehigh Creek from Fish Hatchery Road Bridge to just upstream of Bogerts Covered Bridge;

Ontelaunee Creek;

Saucon Creek;

Schaefer Run;

Spring Creek;

Trout Creek;

Unnamed tributary to Ontelaunee Creek;

Unnamed tributary to Saucon Creek

TRAVERSING BOTH COUNTIES

Monocacy Creek from Schoenersville Road to the Lehigh River

John Best is a freelance writer. Find lehighvalleylive on Facebook.
TROPHIES

It took a sympathetic Phillipsburg police officer and helpers from St. Luke's Hospital in Phillipsburg, the hospital's trash hauler and Covanta Energy Corp. to recover a hospital patient's irreplaceable keepsake. Samantha "Sam" LaRochelle, who was treated Sunday at the hospital, discovered that her necklace containing a family heirloom was missing. Eventually it was traced it to about 15 tons of hospital trash that had been taken to the Covanta trash-to-energy plant in Oxford Township. Workers there spent two hours sorting through the garbage before one of them, Steve Acierno, pulled out the missing treasure. The break in the case came when Phillipsburg officer Steven Fielding, in reviewing the hospital's surveillance footage, saw that items taken from her room were thrown into a trash can near a central desk. LaRochelle was overjoyed; one pendant contained a thumbprint of her mother, and the chain had been made by Audrey LaRochelle, her partner of 23 years. "I almost wanted to drop to my knees crying," Sam said.

Fifteen years after her death, civil rights activist Clarine Boyer of Easton has been memorialized for her efforts. On Monday the Easton Area Neighborhood Center named its community room in her honor -- a place where she often took part in activities and where she suffered a fatal stroke in 2002. Boyer, a founder of the neighborhood center and a 50-year member of the Easton branch of the NAACP, was known for her staunch defense of the rights of the city's black citizens. She was a tireless advocate for education, and she shared her opinions in letters to The Express-Times. She is remembered for many examples of resistance -- including boycotting stores that would not hire blacks and forming a new Girl Scout troop after a local church-sponsored troop refused membership to her daughters. Next year the Easton NAACP plans to initiate the Clarine Boyer Foot Soldier of Justice Award to recognize outstanding community service.

TURKEYS

If you think fake news doesn't have real-world implications, consider the case of Edgar Maddison Welch. The North Carolina man entered a pizzeria in Washington, D.C., and fired an AR-15 rifle, saying he was "investigating" an internet rumor that it was a front for child sex trade. The baseless "Pizzagate" theory, which gained traction with online fringe groups and Hillary Clinton critics, alleged the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria was part of a Satanic child sex abuse ring with connections to top Democrats, including Clinton. U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said Welch's actions "literally left psychological wreckage." He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale has faulted Penn State University on two fronts -- falling short on background checks on adults who work in youth programs on campus, and failing to keep a lid on tuition, especially for in-state students. The first shortcoming is unconscionable in the post-Sandusky era. DePasquale said tuition for Pennsylvania residents -- now nearly $20,000, among the highest in the U.S. for public universities -- has gone up 500 percent in three decades, fueled by aggressive expansion and cuts in state government subsidies. In recent years Penn State has accepted more out-of-state students, who pay higher tuition rates. The number of in-state students at the main campus fell by 12 percent from 1990 through 2016. DePasquale said maintaining 23 branch campuses adds to the financial burden.

Easton Area School District officials are resisting an order by the state's Office of Open Records to release a video of a teacher accused of slamming a student into a bus seat. The release is being sought by lehighvalleylive.com. In an appeal to Northampton County Court, the district asserts that the video is an educational record and should be considered confidential. The open records office said protected education records include grades and financial aid, but not all records that involve students. A source who viewed the video said the teacher manhandled the child on the morning on Feb. 8 in front of Paxinosa Elementary School. He was fired for "failing to follow the proper procedures in dealing with a disruptive child, otherwise causing unnecessary distress and humiliation to the child," district solicitor John Freund said.
A fugitive wanted in Warren County for more than a year was arrested Friday in Bethlehem, according to the Northampton County Sheriff's Department.

Michael Marra (Courtesy photo)

Michael Marra was wanted in New Jersey on a charge of theft by deception. He failed to appear in court on the charge and a warrant was issued in January 2016, authorities say.

His last known address was on Route 57 in Washington when he was listed as a Warren County fugitive of the week last August.

Northampton County Sheriff's Sgt. George Volpe on Friday said an investigation found a new address for Mara, who was arrested just before 8 p.m. Friday in the 100 block of West Frankford Street in Bethlehem.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Having recently launched the Sound Check Ireland 2017 campaign with famous hotelier and RTEs At Your Service star, Francis Brennan, Specsavers Portlaoise will host the Specsavers hearing van on Sunday, 2nd and Monday, 3rd July.

The hearing van will be in Fisherstown on Sunday, July 2 and Portlaoise on Monday, July 3, with the Specsavers professional team on hand for consultations and to answer any hearing or optical queries that locals may have.

To raise awareness of the importance of hearing health, national TV personality Francis Brennan recently launched Specsavers Sound Check Ireland 2017, a campaign which encourages Irish adults to take a more proactive approach to their hearing health.

Recent research commissioned by Specsavers revealed the majority of Irish adults (69%) have not had their hearing tested in the last five years.

Specsavers Portlaoise audiologist David Hughes commented: Specsavers recommends that those over the age of 55 should have their hearing tested every two years.

Hearing loss can be gradual and many people might not notice that they are struggling with proper hearing and without treatment, hearing loss can lead to depression, frustration and anxiety.

Because of the slow progression of hearing loss, identifying the problem early and addressing hearing loss with an expert can mean preserving the ability to communicate with friends and family well into later life.

The Specsavers Hearing Van is designed to ensure that anyone who is concerned about their hearing has access to free and professional advice.

David is keen to remind his customers that Specsavers Portlaoise has recently launched rechargeable hearing aids as part of their hearing package, ideal for those who do not want the fuss of changing batteries.

They are simple, smart and powerful meaning youll enjoy the benefit of all-day hearing and the simplicity of recharging.

With PRSI hearing benefits for the employed and self-employed now available, customers can claim up to 1,000 off the cost of their hearing aids, so now is a great time to update your hearing aids with Specsavers Portlaoise.

Specsavers Portlaoise offers free three-minute hearing screenings and their hour-long hearing tests are completely free with no obligation to purchase.

The Hearing Centre boasts hi-tech facilities, quality hearing aids at great prices and is managed by a qualified audiologist and highly-trained staff.

All Specsavers digital hearing aids are sold as part of a complete hearing package.

From the starting price of 750 this includes:

- Two hearing aids for the price of one

- Four years worth of batteries

- Four year guaranteed (representing a two year extension to the manufacturers guarantee)

- Telecoil / auto-telephone

- Directional microphones

For further information on the hearing offering available at Specsavers Portlaoise pop by the hearing van on Sunday 2nd and Monday 3rd July or call the store on 057 866 4802.
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Work on three major infrastructural projects  the Sallins by-pass, the M7 Naas to Newbridge by-pass upgrade and the M7 Osberstown interchange  should start towards the end of this year.

According to Emmet Stagg, former TD and Labour's Kildare North representative, five tenders have been received for the work.

These tenders will now be evaluated by National Roads Office attached to Kildare County Council.

Mr. Stagg said that it is expected that the contract for the work will be awarded by September.

The three projects are to proceed at the same time and some 21m was allocated for the work this year although the total cost has been put at 110m.

It is estimated that the project will take three years and three months which means the new roads will be open by mid-2020.

The 100m. estimate is some 10% greater than originally suggested.

It is not yet known where work will start at the outset and KCC have said that the commencement location will be a matter for the contractor to manage.

The most expensive of the three projects is the road widening plan which has been billed at 55m.

Plans for the by-pass of Sallins were first drawn up more than ten years ago but never proceeded despite the increase in population there. At least 20,000 vehicles are driven through Sallins every day.

Because the by-pass will mean less traffic in the area, plans to provide enhanced facilities for cyclists and pedestrians between Poplar Square in Naas Sallins, 3.5 kms away, were shelved.
The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) - whose members work with over 380,000 young people nationwide - has highlighted concerns at the number of young people in County Leitrim who are unemployed for 6 months or more.

New data from the Department of Social Protection show that the number of young people under 26 in Leitrim in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance or Benefit for 6 months or more is 146.

Concern at unemployed young people

Commenting on the figures James Doorley, NYCI Deputy Director said: We are concerned at the number of young people who are unemployed in Leitrim, particularly those unemployed for six months or more. This disappointing figure is mirrored at the national level, where we have over 11,711 young people long-term unemployed.

The EU Youth Guarantee Programme guarantees a work, education or training opportunity to any young person unemployed for four months or more. In 2013, the Government committed to the implementation of the Youth Guarantee in Ireland. Yet four years on, despite the improving economy and labour market, we still have too many young people out of work, explained Mr Doorley.

The NYCI is calling on Government to develop an action plan under this scheme in order to reduce the number of young long term unemployed to 5,000 - more than halving long term youth unemployment by the end of 2018.

It is vital we support young jobseekers into education, training and work experience and prevent the drift into long-term joblessness. This will require a renewed focus on the implementation of the Youth Guarantee and the provision of additional education and training places.

As the economy recovers we should be much more ambitious in tackling long term unemployment in particular among young people. Our proposals are achievable and we look forward to engaging with the new Taoiseach on this issue in the coming weeks, concluded Mr Doorley.
Politics hates a vacuum. It especially hates a vacuum in the tinderbox cockpit of the Middle East where the conflicting issues of money, vital resources, religious extremism , religious conflicts, historic rivalries and the geopolitical link between East and West dangerously clash.

The virtual collapse in 2011-2012 of Bashar Al-Assads despotic regime in Syria created such a vacuum. It was filled by the even more despotic Islamic State Caliphate.

Now the Caliphate is on its knees. The Western half of Mosul is recaptured. Only a handful of IS fighters remain in the dangerously narrow winding streets of the Eastern half.

The fundamentalists once boasted that their Syrian-Iraqi base would become a springboard from which to launch an Islamic conquest of the Middle East and Europe. They have retreated to their spiritual capital of Raqqa in Syria for the final battle to the death.

They will lose . But who will win? And what will they win? Assad, Russia, the US and its Western allies, Iraq, the Kurds, Turkey, Iran, a score or more of rebel forcesall are directly involved in the fighting. Then there are there are the backersor interested parties: Saudi Arabia, Israel, Qatar, Kuwait, the EU, the United Arab Emirates, Somalia, Afghanistan and the wider Islamic world.

It looks as if Assad will regain and remain in power for the foreseeable futurebut he will be a political shadow of his former self. Neither the Trump Administration nor any of its European or Arab allies have any stomach for removing a secular despot who can be replaced by another fanatic Islamic despot. And besides, he will have the military support of Iran and Russia.

Russia and Iran are set to be the big winners. They gambled on Assad when he was all but dead and buried . They can expect payback in the form of military bases, political influence and lucrative contracts to rebuild war torn Syria.

This is not good news for the US and its allies. They do not want Russian influence back in the Middle East at a time when Moscow is also flexing its muscles in the Baltic and Ukraine and hacking into Western computer systems. They especially dont want Iran to extend its regional tentacles.

Israel should have special cause for concern. To have Assad on its northeastern border was bad enough. To have an Assad backed by Iran andpresumablywith Iranian troops is the stuff of nightmares.

The EU will have mixed feelings. They dont want expanded influence in the Middle East for Russia or Iran, but they would welcome a return to normality which would stem the tsunami of refugees.

Then there is Turkey and, of course, the Kurds. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to have designs for revived Ottoman greatness. Relations with the EU and NATO have been relegated to the back seat in pursuit of his goal. Erdogans troops are in Northern Syria and he will want them to stay.

Standing in his way are the Turks traditional bete noire the Kurds. They have been struggling for a homeland carved out of Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey for more than a century. They have been the boots on the ground for the US-led coalition and expect their reward. The question is: Will America be in a position to give it?

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States are even more worried about spreading Iranian influence than Washington. Moscow they can live with, but not Tehran. The end of the civil war in Syria would free up battle hardened Iranian troops for the fighting in Yemen and embolden Tehran to foment discontent among Shi-ite populations in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

For the rest of the Islamic world the approaching end of the Syrian civil war eliminates a focal point for their dissident fundamentalist populations. Its removal undermines the Jihadists but also means that thousands of angry battle-hardened Jihadists will be returning homemany of them still firm in their warped political-religious beliefs. You can destroy a state, but you cant kill an idea.

As the end approaches the players jockey for pole position and the stakes and dangers increase inexorably. Current conflicts are not so much between crazed Jihadists and super powers but between Super Powers keen to retain or regain influence at the others expense. All sides are aware of the dangers, but the closer we come to the end the more determined they become to succeed, or, at the very least, prevent the other from succeeding.

* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and the author of The Encyclopedia of the Cold War and the recently published America Made in Britain that has sold out in the US after six weeks but is still available in the UK.
Oh no! Here we go again  another year, another leader. Still we cling, the drowning man, to a way of doing politics that is so very Noughties or perhaps even very Nineties  Eighteen Nineties even.

In response to the 2010/15 disaster we devised a Board, which is frankly very grown up but totally unimaginative in the light of the huge alteration to our reputation, status and standing, as well as being culturally inappropriate to Liberalism.

WANTED: a politics for the 2020s or even the 2030s, shipped today.

We need to predict the future. Hey, if you want to predict the future, make it?

Good advice. Who said that?

Steve Jobs.

You see, in 2015, I began to wonder how Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX would approach the problems we had. Watch Musk on some wicked issues here.

People like Musk and Jobs disrupt entrenched thinking. Thats what we need.

Jobs started the biggest corporation in the world in his Dad and Mums garage. The secret of his successes (which included a fair few ups and downs) was that he kept faith with the Garage Culture. That is how he took on Big Blue and how he dwarfed Sony.

As Jobs said Picasso said, Good artists copy, great artists steal. We have just got to steal from Musk and Jobs.

From the grave, like Hari Seldon in the first Foundation novel, Jobs gives us this direction, You have to imagine a world not yet in existence.

Want to make a dent in the universe? Well stop emulating, start disrupting. Be the counter-culture. Put it in the product and make art. Adequacy is insufficient. Repeat,

is insufficient. And boy have we been trying to be adequate.

WANTED: a leader who can help us imagine a world not yet in existence.

Then make it happen.

How?

With this Reality Distortion Field I have right here.

An RDF, whats that?

Its the way the aliens in The Menagerie created their own new world through mental force. Its even got a Wiki page. Its the new FOCUS newsletter.

WANTED: a leader with own Reality Distortion Field?

No, Garage Politics is about helping each and every person on the globe build their own RDF.

Jobs says, people who are serious about software need to make their own hardware. Lib Dems are generally REALLY REALLY serious about software (thats my metaphor for policy) but they want to leave hardware  a.k.a. building kits that help people create their own RDFs  to others. Thats why we are where we are, i.e. in political terms, back living with Mum and Dad.

At least the house has a garage.

WANTED: a Leader who thinks the Theory and Practice of Garage Politics is cool.

Well, heres the dent in the universe: sooner than you think, it will be as likely as not that a person in this country will be a Liberal Democrat. Read that carefully. Thats 50% but none of whom is a core vote. A core vote spells B-O-N-D-A-G-E and bondage is a double-edged sword.

Do you get that? Is my RDF reaching you? No? Let me try again.

Jobs says, the future isnt what it used to be.

Back in the Nineties, Sony (well Labour actually) started using market research to hone policies to match what people wanted. You know what Jobs said when asked if he used market research? He said, Useless. Customers dont know what they want until weve shown them.

And its not as illiberal as it first appears. Quite the reverse when you think about it. Remember, a consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time. A politician is someone who takes your power to give you a tenth of what you could achieve yourself. More B-O-N-D-A-G-E.

WANTED: a leader who helps us make politics so easy to do that everyone realises they can do it for themselves and, in so doing, becomes an active citizen. Tasting freedom.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Everyone connected like PCs in a network  open access, jointly maintained, equal power, the sum greater than the parts, myriad life chances.

WANTED: a leader like Berners-Lee?

* Bill le Breton is a former Chair and President of ALDC and a member of the 1997 and 2001 General Election teams
THE Shannon Estuary Way will enable Limerick to cash in on the phenomenal success of the Wild Atlantic Way, Minister of State Patrick ODonovan said when he officially launched the new drive in Glin at the weekend.

The 207-km Shannon Estuary Way extends from Tarbert to Limerick and along the south Clare coast to Killimer and is the first of a series of drives off the Wild Atlantic Way to be developed by Failte Ireland.

As the Wild Atlantic Way continues to grow, we can now start to develop additional experiences for visitors to enjoy and, through initiatives like this, we can start to develop tourism activity which ensures a greater spread of visitors across the West of Ireland, Minister ODonovan said on what was one of his last jobs before being appointed Minister of State for Finance and Public Expenditure.

The new Shannon Estuary Way would enhance rather than dilute the Wild Atlantic Way brand, he added.

One of his first aims as Minister of State for Tourism, he continued, was to expand the Wild Atlantic Way in our own area. He recognised, he said that the Shannon Estuary from Tarbert to Limerick was an area that could be exploited a lot more.

What emerged, through a partnership between Failte Ireland, the local authorities along the estuary and the local communities was the Shannon Estuary Way as well as other drives in the Burren and in Donegal.

Nearly quarter of a million people are employed in the tourist industry, he pointed out, contributing 5b to the Irish economy. Last year, 10m people visited this country so there is plenty of room for everybody to get a share of it.

This is a very good day for this area, Minister ODonovan said. It allows us with Failte Ireland to really embrace the concept of tourism. The Wild Atlantic Way is a phenomenal success. Now is our turn to cash in on it.

The collaborative approach adopted and the community meetings held had led to a richness of information that might otherwise have been missed, Fiona Monaghan, of Failte Ireland said. We asked people for their input, what are the must-sees.

Providing the signage and information boards along the route would take place during phase two, she explained and she expected this phase be rolled out within six to nine months.

Welcoming the launch of the Shannon Estuary Way, Cllr John Sheahan, chairman of the Newcastle West Municipal District, said up there had always been a great connection between the shores of Limerick and Clare across the Shannon.

But, he said, the water is what we are under-utilising here.

The Wild Atlantic Way was a slow burner but has been an absolutely roaring success, he said, adding that in Limerick, the aim would be to organise packages to cater for people staying one, two and three nights in the area. We dont want them driving through, he said.

The proposed new road from Limerick to Foynes would also direct more people towards the Estuary, he said.

A new visitor friendly map of the route will be distributed to local businesses and tourist information offices for the 2017 summer season and will be published on www.wildatlanticway.com
A GLOBAL company, which employs over 150,000 people and achieved revenues of 66.6 billion in 2016, plan to invest 5 million in Cappamore.

Engie Developments Ireland - part of the ENGIE Group - have lodged a planning application for a 20 acre solar farm at Dromsallagh, Cappamore that would generate electricity from renewable sources.

Worldwide, Engies businesses are developed around a model based on responsible growth to take on the major challenges of energys transition to a low carbon economy.

John McGarry, business development manager energy infrastructure renewables UK and Ireland, said the site at Cappamore was chosen after a lengthy process.

We have quite a targeted approach in terms of how we identify our sites. We dont want to identify something, for example, that wouldnt be best suited to the location.

We have in-house GIS (geographic information systems) to help us identify sites which ensure that our applications or projects are outside environmentally sensitive areas.

But also that theyre close to existing infrastructure such as proximity to the grid connection, so that the electricity produced can actually be used, explained Mr McGarry.

Currently there are no working solar farms in Ireland but many are going through the planning process.

Its all driven by Irelands ambitions for a transition to a low carbon economy. There was a government-wide paper issued towards the end of 2015, and it suggested that solar as a technology would be something that Ireland would be interested in supporting.

Wind development is quite prevalent in Ireland, if anything Ireland has depended on wind for its renewable targets as set by Europe almost entirely. But I think the government want to try to diversify from wind a little bit, and are interested in what other technologies can contribute towards renewable targets.

Solar is one way in which they can do that. Solar is something that exists in almost every other European state on a commercial scale, but doesnt as yet exist in Ireland on that scale mainly because of that support which doesnt exist from the government, and by support I mean, financial support. For example, although the cost of the technology is falling, the cost of the grid in Ireland can be expensive," said Mr McGarry.

Engie is proving its commitment to solar in Ireland as the farm in Cappamore will cost in the region of 5 million.

That includes everything - the infrastructure thats required, the grid connection, the improvements to local electricity network that everyone will benefit from, the solar panels, and the costs after that, for example maintenance, he said.

The construction phase could also provide a spin-off for the local economy. While Mr McGarry cant disclose the leasing arrangement with farmers he does say it is generous.

The farmers that we are talking to really see this as a real advantage to them. Theyre not at the beck and call of the weather conditions to depend on their income, they can diversify their income, and continue to farm the land.

One of the main benefits of solar is the ability to accommodate small animals - sheep or poultry, but as well as that, there is the biodiversity element of solar farms as well as the green electricity being produced, said Mr McGarry.

They are actively looking for other sites in County Limerick and Ireland.

We are continuing to talk to farmers and landowners. If someone thinks they have a suitable site, we would be happy to assess it and come out and see them, with a view to developing it along similar lines as we have done with this one in Cappamore, said the business development manager.

People can get in touch via www.engie.ie and by logging on they can also find out more information.

The only thing we need now is for the support to be announced from the government. Thats one of the main risks to the operation. If that doesnt come through, companies like us could end up retreating. If we were to call for anything its for the government to announce its support scheme as early as possible, concluded Mr McGarry.
THE call came early on Tuesday morning, the call that Patrick ODonovan and all his family, friends and supporters had been hoping for.

The new Taoiseach was on the line, telling him he wanted to appoint him as Minister of State at the newly merged Department of Finance and Public Expenditure Reform.

I didnt really hear anything else, the new Minister of State revealed.

But hours later, when the waiting for the official announcement was finally over, he admitted: It is a big elevation for me. I was a bit shocked this morning. I hadnt had any formal communication with him up to then.

Its a great day. I am delighted to be honest about it, he declared.

And he was also pleased to hear from former Finance Minister and party colleague Michael Noonan.

He was one of the first to ring me and wish me well. He said I would be pretty busy, Minister ODonovan said, before going on to pay tribute to his mentor and fellow Limerick man.

From the day I went into the Dail, Michael Noonan took me under his wing, more so being a West Limerick man than anything else. His advice is and will be very important, he said.

Very shortly after the announcement of his appointment, the new Minister of State had a brief conversation with his new boss, Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure, Paschal Donohoe.

I am delighted to be working with someone like Paschal, Minister of State ODonovan said. I have great time for him, a young man with a huge responsibility.

He had come to know Paschal Donohoe quite well, he said. We both worked in the same company, Proctor and Gamble, he explained. We went in in different ways but we came out the same and got into politics.

Patrick ODonovans formal political life began with Young Fine Gael, of which he became national chairman. And it was while in college that he first met fellow Fine Gael member Leo Varadkar, whom he supported in the recent Fine Gael leadership contest.

We started at the same time. Both were elected to the Young Fine Gael executive at the same time in 1998, but it was Patrick who became the national chairman. They were both elected councillors on the same day in 2004. Leo Varadkar went on to be elected a TD in 2007 while Patrick was elected on his first attempt in 2011 and was re-elected in 2016. We were always friends. We were good sparring partners too. He was from Dublin and I was from the country.

However, he said, he neither sought nor received any promise of preferment in supporting Leo Varadkar for leader and after for Taoiseach.

In his first term as a TD, Patrick ODonovan served on the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport & Communications, the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly and the Public Accounts Committee.

Last year, he was appointed Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, a role in which he argued for gender quotas on sporting ruling bodies and in which he also emphasised the need for counties like Limerick to receive greater levels of assistance in the promotion of Tourism.

ODonovan will not shy away from what he thinks is right

Limerick has retained some clout at government level following O'Donovan's appointment.

It is a big elevation for me, he said just hours after his appointment. He was delighted and honoured to be asked by the Taoiseach to take on the role, he added, particularly as he is now the only minister from Limerick in the government.

But the Fine Gael TD for Limerick county has rejected any suggestion his appointment is a sop to Limerick, following Michael Noonans retirement as Minister for Finance.

I dont think so. I certainly hope I wouldnt be regarded as a sop, he said, pointing out that he had earned his stripes on the job, having served on the Public Accounts Committee and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communication before being appointed Minister of State for Tourism and Sport following last years general election.

Minister ODonovan is generally regarded as having done well in Tourism and Sport. He kept a cool head during the controversy over tickets at last years Rio Olympics and opened a national debate on gender quotas on sporting bodies.

But latterly, he was forced to challenge his senior minister, Shane Ross, over his (Rosss) failure to spell out ODonovans particular responsibilities.

However, he expected the new job to be a challenge, particularly given the issues that the department will face over Brexit, the next budget and the ongoing talks on public sector pay. It is exciting, he said.

He also accepted that his new position would see him going out to bat for the government on different, and often contentious, issues.

However, he said decisively, he would have no problem doing that.

I have never shied away from standing up for whatever I think is the right thing to do. There is no point in being in politics unless you are prepared to stand up for what you believe in.

Ultimately, you have to stand for something and you have to stand up for something. You cant be a weather vane, he said.

Minister ODonovan will be one of two Ministers of State (Michael DArcy is the other) working under the new Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe.

And he will have special responsibility for procurement, open government and egovernment.

And while he has yet to discuss the details of his role with his new boss, Minister ODonovan pointed out that the Programme for Government involves a lot of reform, both at government and structural level and in connection with services and access to information.

Prior to becoming a TD, Patrick ODonovan qualified and worked as an industrial chemist before then becoming a primary school teacher.

He is married to Eileen Keary and they have one son.
TWO WOMEN have been arrested by gardai following a topless brawl in front of children.

TWO WOMEN have been arrested by gardai following a topless brawl in front of children.

The fight broke out at around 9.15am when parents are bringing their children to schools and child-minding facilities in Doon last Friday morning.

One eye-witness told the Leader that it was like watching wrestling on television.

It was surreal, completely unbelievable. They just went at each other.

Biting, scratching, pulling hair, kicking, everything, you name it, said the eye-witness, who didnt wish to be named.

As the brawl progressed on Monastery Road, near Coonagh Court housing estate, the women were in a state of undress.

It was in the middle of the street. They were down on the ground on top off each other beating the heads off each other. The next thing the tops were pulled off each other and then a bra went flying through the air.

You would think that this would have stopped them  but not a bit of it, they kept at it.

It wasnt a few slaps either, this was vicious stuff. There was blood on the ground.

Remember now, this was at 9.15 in the morning at a time when mums and dads are bringing their little ones to school and child minders.

It is hard to get your head around it. The incident lasted for a good few minutes too, they said.

The Limerick Leader understands that the two women involved, both aged in their thirties, were the best of friends but have had a serious falling out in recent times.

One is from the locality while the other is originally from Limerick city, but living in Doon.

It is believed that the incident arose following a previous altercation between two males connected to the two parties. There were men there watching them among the crowd, the witness added. I dont know who they were but they were shouting and roaring. One guy was egging one on, shouting Kill her! Kill her!  they said.

Gardai confirmed to the Leader that a serious assault then took place involving two men.

A male was seriously assaulted during the altercation and taken by ambulance to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital. He was later discharged from hospital.

Another male was arrested on Saturday morning and detained in Bruff garda station for questioning.

He was released without charge and a file is being prepared for the DPP, said the garda spokesperson.

The women werent taken to the Regional.

Following garda investigations two women were arrested in Doon on Monday. They were released without charge with a file to be sent to the DPP.

The incident has been the only topic of conversation in Doon.

Everyone is talking about it. People are genuinely shocked and in horror over the whole thing. It is just incredible.

In fairness to the gardai they were on the scene very fast, said the witness.

Normally a tranquil village, the incident brought back memories of 2009 when a teenage schoolgirl was stabbed in the lower back during an assault by three pyjama-clad female attackers.
Four covers help tell the narrative of immigration through Ellis Island

May 1, 2021, 5 AM

One of the private groups that helped to see to the needs of refugees and immigrants flowing through Ellis Island sent the 1925 cover shown to the left. On the right is a 1942 censored cover sent from someone on the island.

To the left is a World War I censored cover, likely from a German sailor interned on Ellis Island. On the right is an Immigrants Letter with a back cancel of 1929, from someone on the island who had not yet been admitted into the United States.

U.S. Stamp Notes  By John M. Hotchner

My wife and I both have relatives from generations back who came through Ellis Island, the first stop for immigrants coming to the United States from Europe.

During its years of operation as the initial port of contact with United States officialdom, from 1892 to 1954, 12 million immigrants and refugees landed there. Of those, approximately 98 percent were admitted. The other two percent were returned as aliens ineligible to enter.

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Reasons for rejection included communicable diseases, criminal background, insanity, or a finding that the would-be immigrant was unlikely to be able to support himself and would become a public charge.

Over the years, Ive gathered covers related to Ellis Island, and, though small in number, they help to tell the story. Four covers are pictured with this column.

The 1918 censored cover likely was from one of the 500 German merchant sailors brought to the United States from Panama after April 1917 when the United States entered World War I.

The Hamburg-America Line ships Prinz Sigismund, Grunewald, Sachsenwald and Savoia had been interred at Colon in the Canal Zone since 1914. They would have been returned to Germany after the war, but during the war, any mail from them would have been censored.

The second cover is back-stamped New York City, July 19, 1929, and was apparently sent free of postage. With a return address that reads Immigrants Letter at Ellis Island, it has a script Y.M.C.A. where the stamp should be. Apparently, the writer had not yet been cleared to enter the United States.

Third is a 1925 cover from the Ellis Island Immigrant Aid Committee based on Ellis Island, New York Harbor.

This cover bears the logo of the Daughters of the American Revolution in the upper left, demonstrating that there were many nongovernmental organizations trying to help with immigrant processing and with meeting the immigrants needs while they were on the island.

The final cover illustrated was canceled in New York City March 16, 1942. The return address is L. Forno, Room 206. It does not say Ellis Island in the return address, but there is a censored handstamp citing the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Ellis Island as the censoring authority. Censorship would have been routine for mail leaving the island during World War II.

Im sure there are many more Ellis Island covers out there, and that they and the letters within would help to put a human face on what was a large government-run processing center. While Ellis Island was a gateway for the greatest percentage of those who passed through, it also saw many unhappy endings.
QUETTA: Balochistan Governor Amanullah Khan Yasinzai is said to have decided to leave office and will soon forward his resignation to Prime Minister Imran Khan.



The development occurred after the premier demanded Yasinzai to resign. In a letter addressed to the governor, Imran Khan said that he wants to appoint a new governor.



The prime minister, however, had clarified that he does not have a negative impression of Yasinzais performance. Imran Khan would finalize the replacement of Yasinzai in coming week. In this regard, the names of Zahoor Agha, Faiz Kakar, Saeed Mandokhel and Naseebullah Bazai are under consideration.NNI




The main structure of the Shenyang Imperial Palace was built in 1625. Photos By Zhao Xu / China Daily and Provided To China Daily

In the blood of the man who laid a pathway to Beijing for Manchu rulers, war was mingled with love

He is notorious for his cold calculation, credited with forcing his stepmother to commit sacrificial suicide upon the death of his father to clear himself of a potential political foe. He was also a man of great ambition and amorous passion, his renown owing as much to his horseback achievements as to the fabled members of his harem.

This is Huang Taiji, founder of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and today there is no other place where his colorful life is more powerfully evoked than in the Shenyang palace.

In the late 16th century, Nurhaci (1559-1626), a chieftain from Northeast China, united all the feuding tribes of his Manchu roots, before launching attacks on the already-rickety Ming Empire. He soon conquered what is now Liaoning and used it as a base for much more daring military moves. Around 1625 (the exact year is a matter of conjecture), Nurhaci ordered the construction of his royal palace, in Shenyang.

However, Nurhaci, who died a year later, in 1626, never spent a day in the residence he envisioned for himself as an emperor. It was Huang Taiji (Huang is not his surname, as the surname for the Manchu royal blood is Aisin-gioro.), Nurhaci's fourth son and successor, who later became the master of the Shenyang palace.

Enter the Shenyang palace from Daqing Gate, the main entrance, and you find yourself facing a yellow-roofed expanse, the Chongzheng Hall, where the emperor pored over mountains of documents or discussed state matters with his generals and court officials. Chongzheng means to fulfill royal duty and be a diligent ruler. Many of the plans that guided the Manchu troops from one military triumph to another must have been hatched here.
Midway through the San Francisco Trans March, a full brass, gay band blared out a stirring rendition of David Bowie and Queens Under Pressure, an anthem that seemed to match the mood of the moment of the thousands of trans people and their supporters who packed San Franciscos streets Friday evening.

The San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band set up shop on the brick sidewalk that lines Market Street near Octavia on the edge of the Mission District. Marchers, waving trans pride flags and hoisting fists in the air, sang along  pressure, pushing down on me, pressing down on you.

Though the overall mood of the Trans March  which began in 2004 and kicked off Friday morning with a community brunch at Mission Dolores Park  was one of jubilation, beneath it appeared an undercurrent of unease, of anger, of resistance.

The evening, after all, marked the first such march, one of several events related to the San Francisco Pride celebration that lasts all weekend, under President Trump, a figure reviled by much of the LGBT community in the Bay Area.

Many trans activists and their allies also point out the rise of recent legislation in states other than California as worrisome. On Thursday, Attorney General Xavier Becerra added four states  Alabama, Kentucky, South Dakota and Texas  to a list subject to Californias state-sponsored travel ban, saying each state had enacted laws that discriminated against LGBT individuals and their families.

We are stronger together, and our event really wants to be the place where people are inspired, theyre invigorated, they feel prepared for the resistance, said Dylan Martin, chair of the board of directors for the march. This year feels different than past years. The sense of urgency has increased.

Martin, who prefers to be referred to as they, said this year marked other firsts for the march, one of the largest such trans gatherings in the world. The inaugural family center launched at Dolores Park this year, Martin said, is part of an effort toward making the event more family-friendly.

From the park, which featured a host of speakers and musicians, marchers thousands strong pounded the pavement about 2 miles northeast out of the Castro, ending with another rally in the Tenderloin. Several dozen San Francisco Police Department officers shadowed the route, but there did not appear to be signs of trouble.

Before the march, before the chants of Trans rights are human rights and This is what democracy looks like, a couple of veterans of the Bay Area LGBT scene sat on a bench overlooking the masses gathering at Dolores Park below.

San Francisco residents Jolene Engo, a trans woman, and her friend Erin ONeill, who identifies as a dyke, took in the marijuana smoke wafting in a lazy haze toward a surprisingly clear San Francisco sky, glancing down upon the two dozen white tents packed with LGBT vendors, musing aloud on progress made toward trans rights and considering the ways to go.

ONeill, a longtime organizer in the San Francisco gay community, said the first Trans March was born in 2004 from an email list that had existed for long before that. There were gay marches, those original organizers reasoned, so why not a trans one?

ONeill said she recently stopped going to the main Pride Parade when it became too commercial, with corporate sponsorships and Facebook knocking at the door. This, she said, was different. This was still grassroots. This was trans people in all their glory.

Below the two, down the hill packed with the colorfully clothed and the not-so-clothed, a line snaked around the corner for public restrooms. One door said male, and another said female.

But no one seemed to pay the labels much mind.

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michael_bodley
US Attorney's Office

Federal prosecutors said a northeast Texas man was like Bonnie and Clyde "minus the Bonnie" as he robbed convenience stores, banks and even a movie theater over the space of several days in 2015.

Bobby Wayne Lance, 50, was sentenced Friday to almost 88 years in prison for the one-man crime wave that occurred within about 50 miles of his home in Avery, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Texarkana said.
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Days after being named a suspect in a bizarre kidnapping attempt of a grieving mother at a Magnolia-area cemetery, Charles Michael Glaze bailed out of the Montgomery County Jail Thursday.

Glaze, 52, of Houston, originally only faced one aggravated assault charge, but prosecutors filed a second charge for aggravated kidnapping the day after his arrest, meaning he could face up to life in prison if convicted. He only became a suspect after a second victim came forward about her interaction with Glaze at another cemetery months ago.

The charges stem from the June 16 attack at Klein Memorial Park Cemetery in the 32500 block of Texas 249. A woman told Montgomery County Sheriff's investigators that she was visiting her late 10-year-old son's grave that Friday evening. The woman's son died of health issues in September 2014, according to an obituary in The Navasota Examiner.

At the cemetery, she noticed a man laying down next to another grave closer to the cemetery's crematorium. The man walked up and started talking to her, which made her uncomfortable. As she tried to get away, he grabbed her hand and told her she was "an attractive lady" and did not let go, she said.

That's when the interaction became more violent, she told detectives.

She told detectives the man placed his hand over her mouth and told her not to yell before sitting on her chest and using a stun gun on her neck. He also allegedly pulled a gun at her  saying she would survive the altercation only if she cooperated.

He bound her hands with zip ties and gagged her with a tie as he dragged her to his truck, she said.

She was eventually able to escape after the assailant became too tired from her fighting, detectives said. She ran to the nearby Magnolia Volunteer Fire Department Station 184 on Decker Prairie Road and got help.

During interviews with Klein Memorial Cemetery employees days later, detectives noted a vehicle similar to the one involved in a similar incident on Mother's Day.

The second victim had felt uneasy during a conversation with a man as she was visiting her late mother at Klein Memorial Park on FM 2090 in downtown Tomball.

After that, detectives showed the June 16 victim a photo lineup, which contained Glaze. She identified him as the one who attacked her that night.

Glaze, whose home is in Houston's far northwest side, was freed on a bond of at least $250,000 around 5 p.m. Thursday. He is required to wear a GPS ankle monitor as a condition of his bond, MCSO officials said.
On Nov. 21, 2012, Sheila Bartels walked out of the Sunshine Medical Center in Oklahoma with a prescription for a "horrifyingly excessive" cocktail of drugs capable of killing her several times over.

A short time later, she was at a pharmacy, receiving what drug addicts call "the holy trinity" of prescription drugs: the powerful painkiller Hydrocodone, the anti-anxiety medication Xanax and a muscle relaxant known as Soma.

In total, pharmacists handed her 510 pills that day - all legal, because she had a prescription with the signature of her doctor, Regan Ganoung Nichols, scrawled at the bottom, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Bartels' lifeless body was found later that day,court documents say. A medical examiner concluded that she died of multiple drug toxicity, another victim of the America's opioid epidemic.

But investigators say the 55-year-old Bartels was also a victim of Nichols, a pain management doctor who investigators concluded "either didn't know or didn't care what she was doing."

Nichols is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Bartels and four other patients, some of whom died just days after receiving large prescriptions from the doctor. She was arrested Friday and released from Oklahoma County Jail on $50,000 bail.

She couldn't be reached for comment on Saturday. A number listed for Sunshine Medical Center was disconnected. Jail officials didn't know whether she had hired an attorney.

The doctor's arrest is part of a new and growing offensive in America's battle against the abusive use of opioids, which kill an average of 91 people a day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Law enforcement agents aren't just going after drug dealers and Mexican cartels - they're also targeting pharmaceutical companies and doctors, who they say are irresponsibly flooding the nation with potent painkillers, and holding them responsible for overdose deaths.

"Nichols prescribed patients, who entrusted their well-being to her, a horrifyingly excessive amount of opioid medications," Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter told the Associated Press on Friday as his office announced the doctor's arrest. "Nichols' blatant disregard for the lives of her patients is unconscionable."

Opioids killed more than 33,000 Americans in 2015, according to the CDC. Since 1991, the number of opioid overdose deaths has quadrupled. In 2014, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 1.3 million Americans were hospitalized for opioid-related issues.

And prescription opioids are a primary driver, and prosecutors increasingly have gone to the source to stop abuse. InFebruary 2016, another doctor, Hsiu-Ying "Lisa" Tseng, was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison after three of her patients fatally overdosed, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Prosecutors said Tseng made millions from overprescribing opioids to drug-addicted patients.

And lawyers for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma have sued the nation's top six drug distributors, according to The Washington Post's Scott Higham and Lenny Bernstein. The suit says the pharmaceutical companies are profiting from the epidemic and "decimating communities across the nation's 14 counties in the state."

Last month, seven counties in West Virginia, a state that has the highest prescription drug overdose rate in the nation, filed suits against many of the same corporations, according to Higham and Bernstein.

A lawsuit by the state of Missouri against pharmaceutical giants strikes a similar tone.

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley said the companies have used bogus science to mislead patients about just how addictive opioids are, according to The Washington Post's Katie Mettler. As a result, the companies have "profited from the suffering of Missourians."

The lawsuits have different aims, although attorneys in the Missouri case say they want state legislatures to more closely monitor prescription drug use.

Oklahoma's attorney general has been trying to paint Nichols in the same light.

Nichols prescribed more than 3 million doses of controlled dangerous drugs from 2010 through 2014, according to court documents, including "irrational" and dangerous combinations of drugs that led to five deaths.

On March 24, 2010, for example, Debra Messner received a prescription for 450 pills - the same cocktail of Hydrocodone, Xanax and Soma and died six days later of acute drug toxicity, according to court documents. A doctor contracted by the Drug Enforcement Administration to review her case file found that there was "no need for the quantity or combination" of those drugs.

Lynette Nelson was evaluated by Nichols once, a few days before Christmas in 2008. Still, over the next four years, Nelson was prescribed so many potent drugs from Nichols's clinic that investigators were baffled that she didn't die sooner.

She was found dead on March 1, 2012, five days after getting her final prescription of Xanax filled.

In the probable cause affidavit, the doctor contracted by the DEA to examine the dead patients' files concluded that because of Nichols's "lack of the use of the basic fundamental safeguards, patients suffer and very well may end up paying the ultimate price as all ten of these patients did."
Ketumile Masire, a cattle herder turned statesman who, as president of Botswana from 1980 to 1998, helped solidify his country's standing as one of the most richly thriving nations in Africa, died June 22 at a hospital in the capital city of Gaborone. He was 91.

His death, announced in a statement by his family, was reported by the Associated Press. The cause was not disclosed.

Masire was widely heralded as a model leader in a model nation on a continent where poverty, corruption and violence had crushed many hopes for stability and prosperity.

"We have seen the promise of a new Africa whose roots are deep here in your soil, for you have been an inspiration to all who cherish freedom," U.S. President Bill Clinton declared to Masire during a visit to Gaborone in 1998.

Clinton noted that in 1966 when Botswana - then known as Bechuanaland - obtained independence from Britain, it had two miles of paved roads and a single public high school. Its chief export was beef.

The discovery of diamond reserves transformed the country's prospects, and under Masire and his predecessor, Seretse Khama, the nation used its revenue to build roads and schools, to improve health care and expand access to clean water, to advance farming techniques and to extend life spans.

Khama, who had been the first president of independent Botswana, was featured in last year's film "A United Kingdom," starring David Oyelowo, with Rosamund Pike portraying the white Englishwoman Khama married in defiance of British authorities.

Masire - a self-described "farmer who has been drawn into politics" - was credited with leading his landlocked nation through a drought that dragged on for much of the 1980s. In 1989, he shared the Africa Prize for Leadership, valued $100,000, from the charitable organization the Hunger Project in recognition of the food distribution efforts that helped the country avoid starvation during the crisis.

He navigated a delicate relationship with South Africa, Botswana's neighbor to the south. While South Africa was Botswana's major economic partner, Botswana opposed the apartheid system of racial segregation under which South Africans were ruled for decades before its dismantlement in the early 1990s.

"He had to walk a line [in] a really rough neighborhood," said Chester Crocker, a Georgetown University professor and former assistant secretary of state for African affairs. "He had to get along with everybody, without sacrificing his principles."

While many other African nations suffered under dictatorship, Botswana featured a robust democracy with little if any noticeable corruption. The "political inclusivity" Masire fostered, Crocker said, "is a magic formula, and it's too rare in Africa and elsewhere."

The stability of Botswana allowed its tourism industry to flourish in times of economic prosperity, with many visitors coming to witness its wildlife.

Masire - often known as Quett - was born in Kanye, in southern Botswana near the South African border, on July 23, 1925. In his youth, he was a herder before enrolling in a primary school at 13, according to a statement from Botswana's government announcing his death.

Crocker said Masire worked the land in a country that may go years without rain and learned a profound sense of self-reliance. He received a scholarship to attend a secondary school in South Africa that was said to have trained many leaders of the first government of independent Botswana.

After both of his parents died when he was in his early 20s, he suspended his education to become a teacher to support his siblings. He was a headmaster before saving enough money to purchase a tractor and pursue farming, distinguishing himself with modern agricultural techniques.

He also worked as a newspaper journalist, an activity that along with his community involvement helped draw him into politics. He served on tribal and regional councils and was a founder and secretary-general of the Botswana Democratic Party, now the country's dominant political party. According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography, he once traversed 3,000 miles of the Kalahari desert to attend two dozen meetings over two weeks.

Before becoming president, Masire had served in roles including minister of finance and development planning and vice president.

After leaving office, he advised other African leaders and chaired an international panel that probed the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Crocker credited him with making important contributions to peace efforts in Congo and, more recently, Mozambique.

In his retirement, Masire established the Sir Ketumile Masire Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that seeks to improve agriculture, governance and children's health in the region. He also tended the cattle on his ranch.

Masire's wife, Gladys Olebile Molefi Masire, whom he married in 1958, died in 2013. They had six children. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

"We have a saying in Botswana: A man is never strong until he says what he believes and gives other men the chance to do the same," Masire once told The Washington Post. "I am proud to say without a doubt . . . we are a strong democracy."
For several hours one morning last week, a truck sporting six-foot-tall electronic signs admonishing Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) to "Do your job Hold a Town Hall" cruised around her Northern Virginia district while some drivers honked their approval.

"Hey, there it is!" shouted a protester waiting for the truck on the grassy strip between a busy road and a shopping center that is home to Comstock's district office in Sterling.

The mobile billboard is the latest stunt dreamed up by Sean Schofield, a 44-year-old computer programmer from Silver Spring, Maryland, and Abbey Ruby, a 34-year-old lawyer from McLean, Virginia, who have been needling Comstock for months with a snarky website, social-media strikes and ambushes caught on video.

That Comstock faces opposition in a district where Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump by 10 points is no surprise.

But the aggressive tactics employed by the group, called Dump Comstock, and its single-minded focus on embarrassing the two-term congresswoman more than a year before the 2018 election are highly unusual in this district.

Through a spokesman, Comstock declined to answer questions about the group.

It's impossible to know whether Dump Comstock will make a difference by the midterm elections, but Democrats and Republicans say it has provoked activists on both sides and suggests that the midterm races could get nasty.

"This is a lot more energy than we've seen for this race this far ahead of time probably in my lifetime," said Zach Pruckowski, 30, chairman of the 10th Congressional District Democratic Committee. "They're certainly making a lot of noise."

The race is a top target for national Democrats even though Comstock won reelection to a second term by six points last year and defied predictions that sharing a ballot with Trump would damage her chances.

John Whitbeck, chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, engages with Dump Comstock online and reads Schofield's "mean tweets" at GOP meetings - editing out the profanity.

"To be honest with you, they're fun to play with on Twitter, but we don't take them all that seriously," he said, calling Dump Comstock "a fringe, extremist group."

Schofield said he understood the importance of the district, formerly held by Republican congressman Frank Wolf, when he showed up in Bethesda in 2008 to volunteer for Barack Obama and was dispatched to Manassas. Eight years later, he returned to Comstock's district to knock on doors and register voters for Clinton.

He attended the Women's March with his wife and son and was inspired to start Dump Comstock. His idea was to create enthusiasm for flipping the congressional district long before the major parties, preoccupied with the Virginia governor's race, were focused on midterms.

Applying his experience as the founder of an e-commerce software company, Schofield created a website and social-media accounts based on the idea that voters should break up with Comstock. That led to the name (tag line "It's not us. It's her") and eventually a red-and-blue broken-heart logo. Today there are buttons, bumper stickers and yard signs.

To gain followers early on, Schofield looked for critics of Comstock who had posted on her Facebook page. He sent them private messages, the online version of a cold call, and invited them to join the group.

About 1,400 people are members of the Facebook page and, using the organizing tool Action Network, he estimates about 20 percent live outside Comstock's district, in Maryland and the District, although Comstock supporters suspect that figure is higher.

Schofield, who tweets at @uberzealot, said living in Maryland doesn't undermine his mission because federal decisions affect everyone.

"It's not another planet," he said. "What Barbara Comstock does affects me just as much as what [Montgomery County Democratic Rep.] Jamie Raskin does," he said.

Dump Comstock is working with other groups seeking to unseat Comstock, including Planned Parenthood, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Indivisible. They want to amplify Democrats' discontent in the Trump era and channel it toward the only swing district in the region.

Ruby is treasurer of Dump Comstock's political action committee, Take Back the Tenth, which has not yet reached a filing deadline to report its donors. She said it collected about $8,000 to hire the truck, which is also booked for the July 4 parade in Leesburg.

"Comstock shows up with 20 high school kids in T-shirts with balloons and big totem signs," Schofield said. "And we figure we can't let that go unchecked."

Interactions with the group can escalate quickly.

A man who identified himself as a constituent approached Comstock at the Lovettsville Mayfest to question her, while another person recorded the encounter - video that was posted to YouTube by Dump Comstock.

During the tense exchange, the man asked Comstock to hold a town hall. She said she preferred to meet with constituents at her offices or in other smaller settings like her booth at Mayfest.

"We're talking to people instead of, you know, being harassed," she said, and walked off.

Schofield considered it a milestone when Comstock's campaign Twitter account responded to his website's claim that she missed two recorded votes to join Trump in the Oval Office when he signed a bill she sponsored.

"It's simple - always pleased to have my bills signed into law. Attended bill signings with Gov. McDonnell and Gov. McAuliffe too," the tweet said, referring to her time in the legislature with a photo.

Early Thursday at a McLean park where the billboard truck prepared to start its rounds, three of the 12 people who showed up were candidates or there on behalf of candidates challenging Comstock. Seven people have either filed paperwork to run or indicated that they intend to.

No one seemed to notice that the truck was parked directly next to a handicapped space in an access aisle painted with diagonal white lines, a blunder clear in photos online.

When questioned by the Loudoun County GOP, Dump Comstock responded: "Space doesn't looked blocked to the rest of us."

"Because you don't care about anyone except yourselves. A van would have trouble opening a door. That's why the white lines are there," the Loudoun County GOP wrote.

To Schofield, it's all gravy because anytime Republicans are responding to him, he said, they're not defending Comstock.

"They can't help themselves," he said. "They're falling into our trap."
Seoul, South Korea

North Korea on Friday called itself the "biggest victim" in the death of an American student who was detained for more than a year and died days after being released in a coma.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency denied that North Korea cruelly treated or tortured Otto Warmbier, 22, and accused the U.S. and South Korea of a smear campaign.The comments published by KCNA were North Korea's first reaction to Warmbier's death in a U.S. hospital Monday after it released him. Doctors said Warmbier had a severe neurological injury from an unknown cause. Relatives say they were told the University of Virginia student had been in a coma since shortly after he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March 2016.

Warmbier was accused of stealing a propaganda poster. North Korea said it dealt with him according to its domestic laws and international standards.

"Although we had no reason at all to show mercy to such a criminal of the enemy state, we provided him with medical treatments and care with all sincerity on humanitarian basis until his return to the U.S., considering that his health got worse," the agency quoted an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
JERUSALEM - The Israeli air force struck three Syrian army targets in the Golan Heights on Saturday, after errant fire from the Syrian side landed in Israeli-controlled territory.

Israel's military spokesman said that 10 projectiles fired from Syria landed in open areas on the Israeli-controlled side of the Golan Heights. Israel's government said the fire was a result of fighting in Syria and not intentionally aimed at Israeli soldiers or civilians.

In response, an Israeli aircraft hit two Syrian army tanks and a heavy-machine-gun position on the Syrian side of the buffer zone that separates the two countries, the spokesman said.

The Israel Defense Forces released aerial video of the airstrikes. The spokesman did not say whether the errant fire from Syria consisted of mortar rounds, artillery shells or bullets.

Syrian media reported that at least two people were killed as a result of the Israeli strikes on the outskirts of the Syrian farming town of Quneitra, which is visible from the Israeli side and has been a scene of frequent clashes in the six-year conflict between anti-government forces and the Syrian army.

Syria's state news agency, quoting a Syrian army communique, alleged that the Israeli strikes coincided with an attack by militants in the area and suggested that Israel was aiding the Islamist forces, according to Reuters news agency.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli retaliatory strike "made our policy clear: We are not willing to accept any spillover or leakage of fire from any front. We will respond with force to any fire on our territory."

On Saturday, Israel lodged a complaint about the errant fire to the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force, a peacekeeping mission operated by international troops that monitors the 1974 buffer zone between Israel and Syria.
+2 High Court ruled Abdi Yusuf was eligible for damages for being detained unlawfully

A Somalian thug has made a mockery of deportation procedures by winning a compensation battle  and then continuing his one-man crimewave.

Weeks after the High Court ruled Abdi Yusuf was eligible for damages for being detained unlawfully pending deportation, the 41-year-old created more trouble.

He was convicted of assaulting a defenceless woman in the street and has been jailed for six months. Yusuf had been detained after completing a previous jail term because he was considered at high risk of absconding and offending again.

But after securing his release from an immigration removal centre and launching a court bid for compensation, he went on to commit a further violent offence. His latest jail term is likely to hold up his deportation until at least next year.

The case raises further questions about the system for kicking out foreign criminals.

At huge expense to the taxpayer, Yusuf has been fighting to stay in the UK since completing a four-year jail sentence for assault in 2012. Sources believe the state is facing a six-figure bill for compensation, court, legal and detention costs.

Yusuf came to London legally in 1989 sponsored by an aunt, Maryan Hassan. In 1992, when he was 17, he was granted indefinite leave to remain in Britain.

But he embarked on a criminal path, amassing ten convictions for 20 offences and has served prison sentences for actual and grievous bodily harm.

The jail terms served as an automatic trigger for him to be deported back to Somaliland, an independent state in Somalia.
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Culture / Art Republik

Jun 22, 2017 | By Art Republik

ART JOG, the artists fair that started a decade ago, has fast grown into a boutique fair whose quality is acknowledged beyond Yogya, and Indonesia for that matter. Increasingly popular with foreign art aficionados, it has also organised the Jogja Art Weeks, a month-long festival of openings and events around the Yogyakarta Special Regency, which has been a major boost to Yogyakarta tourism.

Arriving at the critical age of a decade, ART JOG wanted to change perspectives. The focus of the tenth anniversary edition, which ran from 19 May to 19 June 2017, was on Changing Perspective. Unlike the previous edition which had more works by established artists, this edition had more young, emerging artists. About fifty percent of the artists were relatively unknown, and there were just 14 foreign artists.

On the surface, this edition of ART JOG was not particularly different. The mandatory commissioned work featured in the facade of the Jogja National Museum was seven metres high, showing Wedhar Riyadis creation, which consisted of bulging eyeballs that seemed to overlook the entire scene. In the entry, Ichwan Noors sculpture, featuring a skull made of machine components, was not extraordinary either.

But changes were visible. Angki Purbandono, for instance, who is known for his creative scanography images, this time with filmmaker Nicholas Saputra dealt with the conservation of tigers on the island of Sumatra. There were also other familiar names who tried to come out of their comfort zone and present works that differed from their usual practice, with more or less success. There was Syagini Ratna Wulan with her psychedelic colour schemes, Bagus Pandega with his light work Random and Constant (oblique), Syaiful A. Garibaldi, Agan Harahap, Mulyana Mogus with pristine white instead of coloured crocheted corals, Uji Hahan Handoko, and many more.

But it was Jim Allen Abels installation, Season in the Abyss, that stood out. Jim, Jimbo or Jimmyboy, as he is nicknamed, is a photographer whose socially induced images have reached many countries. To create this installation, he chose to do something different. Moved by the fatal flight of Adam Air heading from Surabaya to Manado, he created the installation in honour of the 108 passengers who were in the aircraft. Emotive and fascinating, the installation consisted of seven plates hanging from the ceiling featuring the different phases of the accident projecting onto the various tins down below, while the storyline unfolded on a video imagining of the sea or the sky.

Also notable was a video installation by film director Kamila Andini, who collaborated with her colleague and husband Ifa Isfansyah in the work The Seen and Unseen. It was an adaptation of their film Sekala Niskala (The Tangible and Intangible), a mystical tale about the night when children, unlike grown-ups, imagine the moon in different ways, engendering the magical. Their installation at ART JOG invited visitors to crawl down a black hole to arrive before a scenic paddy field, which, with the full moon at night, gave a sense of van Goghs Starry Night. HONF founder Venzha Christs work, focused on new media art, was utterly intriguing, although equally puzzling.

The star of the exhibition, however, was a video by Beijing-based sculptor and mixed media artist Geng Xue, whose rarely-used porcelain characters proved to be a surprising phenomenon in the video. Interpreting a classic supernatural tale of the Qing Dynasty, she brought her porcelain characters to life with a stop-motion video, Mr. Sea. The importance of this work lies in the use of porcelain as a language in new- and multi-media.

It seems that this time, ART JOG has more than one interesting work from abroad. The tangled work Healing Chromosomes by Japanese-Australian artist Hiromi Tango is amongst such works. While one would initially walk past the work without paying much attention, a closer look at the accompanying text explains how the tangled cables are metaphors for our brain and dependency on devices in our daily life and the phenomenon of how our lives seem to almost fall apart when were disconnected from the Internet.

Visually similar is the work Flight Risk by Thai-born artist, Linda Sormin, which appears to be a mesh of tangled components. It is not easy to understand this work, which is said to be of this moment. An explanatory text reads: the work explores issues of fragility, aggression, mobility and survival. Although such a work would be incomprehensible to the novice, it is intriguing, and one would wonder at the complexity of an artists mind. An artist-educator who has been teaching ceramics since 2003, Linda Sormin currently teaches at New York State College at Alfred University, where she is associate professor of Ceramic Art.

The inclusion of these three works is telling of the aspirations that ART JOG has been steering towards. It has, of course, always been the desire of ART JOG founder and CEO Heri Pemad and his team to foster and facilitate younger artists, and this may be one of their strategies. An artist himself, Heri Pemad has been and still is the major passionate force behind the event, which continues to be a source to tap into for the development and evolution of Indonesian art and artists.

This article was written by Carla Bianpoen for Art Republik.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Tibet Question: A Dragon-hold and a Stifling US Agenda

by Pradeep Nair and Sandeep Sharma

The United States Tibetan Policy Act of 2002, clearly states that the US would support the aspirations of Tibetan people in order to safeguard their distinct identity. Other provisions which follow speak about the possible monetary assistance to be provided in lieu of attaining the aforesaid objective. This Act, a major piece of Tibet Legislation, was enacted as law by President George W. Bush on September 30, 2002, as part of the US Foreign Relations Authorisations Act. Reversing its stand on the Tibet policy and giving a huge jolt to the Tibetan aspirations, the Trump Adminis-tration recently took a divergent step by proposing zero aid in 2018 to the Tibetans and justified the action by stating that as we work to streamline efforts to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of the US taxpayers dollars, we acknowledge that we have to prioritise and make some tough choices.

This whole episode indicates the changing internal politics of the US, especially after Trumps election, and also the new geopolitics and emerging world order which is shadowed by the Peoples Republic of China. (Piccone 2016) Besides analysing the US internal politics and emerging world order, this short note attempts to revisit and explore historical aspect of the US Tibet Agenda which ultimately has culminated in withdrawal of all financial aid to the Tibetan community.

Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, the Tibet Question remained an important factor in Sino-American relationship. The Tibet Agenda of the US was tactically inspired by a dual policy encompassing both a strategic and a pragmatic aspect. Strategically, the United States has consistently and explicitly supported the Chinese position that Tibet is a part of China. But at the pragmatic level, Washington has been opportunistic in its dealings with Tibet and has been prone to wide fluctuations, ranging from the provision of financial and military aid to the Tibetan guerrilla forces in the 1950s and 1960s; neglect and almost no official contact in the 1970s and 1980s (Goldstein 2006); the enactment of the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 in the post-liberal era and most recently the proposal to withdraw all monetary assistance to the Tibetan community.

In 1942, the United States made its first contact with Tibet. The Roosevelt Adminis-tration, after several efforts, finally succeeded in seeking permission to enter Tibet with the help of the British envoy in Lhasa with the explicit desire to build roads and airfield in the region and to seek moral support against the Axis. (Goldstein 1989) During that period, China was under the rule of the nationalist party called Gounmintang and till that time it had exercised no authority in Tibet. Tibet was de facto an independent state and had control over not only its internal affairs but also its territorial defence and foreign relations. However, the US, in its policy statement about Tibet at that time, had very clearly acknowledged Chinese suzerainty over Tibet, a fact which the Lhasa Government was kept uninformed about by the US. The statement reads:

For its part, the government of the United State has borne in mind the fact that the Chinese Government has long claimed suzerainty over Tibet and that Chinese constitution lists Tibet among areas constituting the territory of the Republic of China. This government has at no time raised question regarding either of these claims. (UKNA 1942)

Another major turn of events came in 1948, when the Tibetan Government sent an official trade delegation to the United States. At first, the delegation was ostensibly denied a formal meeting with US officials for strategic reasons. However, after lots of guesses and estimations, the delegation was finally allowed to meet the Secretary of the State and that too only when the delegation was accompanied by the Chinese ambassador. The very next year the US Embassy in New Delhi advised the State Department to do a review of the US policy toward Tibet. The embassy suggested that, in case the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took over Beijing, the United States should be prepared to treat Tibet as an independent country. The embassy had underlined the usefulness of keeping Tibet friendly to the United States and other Western countries. In 1949, the CCP successfully captured power and an apprehensive Lhasa Government sought the US for help. The request was immediately turned down. This fluctuating attitude of the US toward Tibet pushed Lhasa to sign a Seventeen-Point Agreement with Beijing. This was the first document which formally recognised Chinese sovereignty over Tibet.

In 1951, the US again communicated a series of messages to the Tibetan leaders with a covert desire to gain support in favour of an anti-Chinese Communist propaganda. The messages asked the Dalai Lama to leave Tibet and disavow the seventeen point agreement. In return, the US agreed to take a stand against communist aggression and also assured that it would officially adopt the position that the Dalai Lama is the Head of an autonomous Tibet and would support his return to Tibet at the earliest practicable moment as the head of an autonomous and non-communist country. But from the lessons learnt in the past, the Tibetan political and religious leader the Dalai Lamawas not very much convinced by the US assurance and decided to stay in Lhasa for some more years. In 1956, a series of revolts broke out in the Kham area of western China inhabited by ethnic Tibetans and the US got an opportunity to get involved in the situation. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) started helping the rebels by providing training and weapons. As the situation further worsened, Lhasa became the epicentre of rebel activities. This led to the exile of the Dalai Lama to get political asylum in India. In 1959, the US had achieved what it had unsuccessfully tried in 1950-51.

In the coming years, the US consistently restricted the exile governments move of raising the Tibet issue on international platforms and pressurised it to make Tibets case a matter of human rights violations rather than a matter of independence and sovereignty. It was due to this pressure that the Tibetan leader had to change tone on the Tibet issue and settle for the demand of an autonomous status under the Chinese regime. The Strasbourg proposal of 1984under which the Dalai Lama expressed his willingness to settle for something less than independencewas well received by the world community, solidifying the Dalai Lamas reputation as a leader who was reasonable and seeking a compromise solution. This change of stance not only earned the Dalai Lama the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 but also made the Tibet question a part of the domestic and international politics of the US. The Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 carried forward the old tradition and reinstated the importance of the Tibet question as a crucial factor in Sino-American strategic relationship. But Trumps recent decision on Tibet turns the whole situation upside down and generates curiosity among political scientists and diplomats as to how this situation can be interpreted. Is it the dead end of the US long-held Tibet agenda? Is this change inspired by the global economic and geopolitical conditions in which the increasing presence of China is pressurising the US to mend its foreign policy? Or is this turn of events just a part of Trumps populist agenda?

Amidst the rapidly changing world order and global political conditions, the struggle of Tibetans for freedom and democracy itself is fading day-by-day. The decision to cease all aid to the Tibetan people by America would be looked at as a likely consequence of the changing world order in addition to a major action towards declining global support to the Tibetan struggle for their homeland. Even though the Tibetan cause was very well supported, both on moral and political grounds, the struggle still remains at the same place and the negotiations have not been able to make the world take it to an another level. (Goldstein 1995) No country in the world, including the United States and the United Nations, has clamped any economic blockade and created diplomatic pressure to compel China to moderate its policy toward Tibet. Neither could the US do what Russia did for Mongolia in 1945 by pressurising China to accept plebiscite for Mongolia. The trade relationships of many countries with China never allowed these countries to support the Tibetan leadership openly. They only sympathised with the Central Tibetan Administration and the exile government functioning from Dharamshala, India. (Aneja and Kumar 2006)

In the process of regaining freedom, the Tibetan movement has lost its traction over time, due to the paucity of financial aid. The five decades of global hand-holding have led the Tibetan leadership to be plagued with compla-cency, division and internal disharmonies that were well reflected in the recently held general elections for the post of the Prime Minister and Members of Parliament, when for the first time dissenting voices were raised against the negotiation policies of the Dalai Lama. Further, the irony of this stateless and territoryless democracy is that in the last fifty years it has never succeeded in evolving a strategy to survive on its own as the Tibetans were not able to generate resources by either means  trade and intellect, like the way the Jews had contributed to the American and European economy, with science and intellect during the period of Great Depression. The total survival of the exiled Tibetan community on foreign aid had made their position akin to that of a parasite and this dependency had continuously weakened their struggle. The Tibetan government-in-exile was often blamed by their own people that it failed to take appropriate political and diplomatic steps to engage with the Chinese Government for a long-term solution. (Aneja and Kumar 2006)

In the past, the United States invested an annual budget of $ 34 million to support Radio Free Asia, an instrument of free speech, but this voice failed to raise its tone at the most appropriate time of diplomacy which not only upset the United States but gave it a notion that the funds were not properly utilised. By slashing the budget, the US, under the guise of promoting freedom and democracy, has failed to fulfil pragmatic goals in the context of Tibet. Tibet received more than $ 24 million as financial assistance from the US last year for their various welfare programmes. The further removal of the decades-old Tibet Fund and the proposed zero dollars against the Ngwang Choephel Fellow, which accounted for more than a million dollars in 2016-17, has made the future of many social welfare programmes of the Tibetan community uncertain like the NGO programmes benefiting the Tibetan refugees in South Asia; the Tibetan Scholarship Programme for Tibetans outside Tibet; Radio Free Asias Tibetan Service and many others. The Tibetan government-in-exile is in a state of shock and is not in a position to devise an immediate mechanism to handle this.

It is a well known fact that China had a fundamental national interest in retaining power in Tibet as it is its anchor in the Himalayas. If that loosens, the vast buffers between China and the rest of Eurasia would break down. (Goldstrein 2005) The autonomy of Tibet would also open the door to Indian expansion due to the emotional attachment it has with India for providing refuge to Tibetan migrants. (Singh 2006) That is why, China is very particular about Tibet and reacts on each and every action which supports the Tibetan struggle. (Scott 2008) The China-American trade and diplomatic relations never led China to forcefully counter the Tibet pressure at inter-national forums as Chinas dependency on exports to the United States forces it to deal with the matter more strategically.

In contrast, despite a historical political identity entwined with China, Tibet from the decade of the 1950s looked towards India to support its struggle by helping the Dalai Lama to raise his voice at various global forums. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the British also had an active policy to create a buffer against China in the form of an independent Tibet during the post-World War I period, but unfortunately it failed due to the changed politico-economic scenario of following World War II. Due to the new world economic order that emerged after World War II, the Tibet issue became passive for some time in the post-liberal era.

Historically, East Asia has proved to be a stumbling block to the global ambitions of the US. To retain its economic and political dominance, the US has mainly relied on the strategy of war and economic blockades. Unfortunately, both the strategies, specially in the context of the East, has not won the intended results. Even the US Vietnam experiment ultimately backfired and not only did economic and human losses mount but also undermined the status of the US as a single world power. The US is also in a fix as to how to proceed in the matter of the South China Sea conflict between China and Japan. In the Far East, Kim Jong Uns nuclear ambitions and irresponsible attitude posed serious security threats not only to the US itself but also to its ally, South Korea.

The US has substantially failed to cash in on the Tibet opportunity as it did in the case of Israel. Further, the emerging ideological and geopolitical conflict between China and the United States has provided an opportunity for the countries in Asia to exploit their own national interests and to strengthen their geo-political ties with either Washington or Beijing, thus making the issue relevant. Chinas rise on the world stage and recent outreach to South Asian countriesPakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepalin the form of financial aid and trade relations is helping the region to diversify relations with other partners and is consistently reducing the political and economic influence of the United States in the region. In the absence of a reliable partner in South Asia, like Israel in the west of Middle-East, the US is not able to convince the new partners to join its liberal order.

The recent political trend showing the willingness of more countries to join China is further pushing the US policy to work closely with like-minded partners in the region to reinforce their support for the international liberal order. The recent step of the US to withdraw its financial support to the Tibetan community may be seen as an initiative to normalise its relations with China by starting a strategic dialogue to manage political conflicts in the region, especially when Putin is becoming more visible day-by-day and is changing his tone on the issue of North Korea.

REFERENCES

Aide-memoire from the US State Department to the British Embassy, July 13, 1942, FO371/35756, British Foreign Office Records, The National Archives of the United Kingdom (UKNA). Retrieved from https://case.edu/affil/tibet/tibetanSociety/documents/TheUnitedStatesTibetandtheColdWar.pdf

Aneja, Urvashi and Atul Kumar, 2006, Tibet, Connectivity, Capabilities and Consequences, Peace and Conflict 9 (9): 36-39.

Goldstrein, Avery, 2005, Rising to the Challenge: Chinas Grand Strategy and International Security, Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Goldstein, Melvyn C., 1989, A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Goldstein, Melvyn C., 1995, Tibet, China and the United States: Reflections on the Tibet Issue, Occasional Papers, Atlantic Council Publications.

Goldstein, Melvyn C., 2006, The United States, Tibet, and the Cold War, Journal of Cold War Studies 8 (3): 145-164.

Piccone, Ted., 2016, The Geopolitics of Chinas Rise in Latin America, Geoeconomics and Global Issues, Brookings Paper 2: 4-5.

Scott, David, 2008, The Great Power Great Game between India and China: The Logic of Geography, Geopolitics 13 (1): 1-26, DOI:10.1080/14650040701783243

Singh, Bawa, 2006, India, China and the Politics of Regionalism, Peace and Conflict 9 (1): 29.

Pradeep Nair, Ph.D, is an Associate Professor and Dean, School of Journalism, Mass Communication and New Media, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala. He can be contacted at e-mail: nairdevcom@yahoo.co.in

Sandeep Sharma is a Research Scholar, Department of Mass Communication and Electronic Media, School of Journalism, Mass Communication and New Media, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Resentment Growing over False Charges against Nikhil Dey and Other RTI (...)

Resentment is growing in Rajasthan and at the national level against some of the most senior, distinguished, selfless social activists being given a prison sentence in a 20-year-old case. The case relates to one of those struggles of Right to Information (RTI) activists in rural Rajasthan which were praised all over the world as pioneering efforts to bring trans-parency and ensure accountability in rural development.

This was a particularly difficult case for RTI activists as a sarpanch, who also doubled as a liquor contractor at that time and had been accused by several villagers of corrupt dealings, had refused to provide information despite being approached for this many a time in the proper legal way by activists and other villagers. When RTI activists persisted in their efforts, he turned violent towards them; but instead it is the activists, in fact some of the most respected activists known for their great work and integrity, who have been given a prison sentence.

The Rajasthan branch of the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties has also drawn attention to this serious anomaly that the peaceful activists, who were treated violently by corrupt persons, were convicted and sentenced to four-month imprisonment.

In another statement released on behalf of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana (MKSS) and one of the most respected social activists of world, Aruna Roy, it has been stated, The MKSS is shocked and dismayed to receive the judgment of the Munsif Magistrate Court, Kishengarh, Ajmer, convicting senior activists Nikhil Dey, Naurti, Ramkaran, Babulal and Chotu Lal Malakar of trespass and simple hurt under sections 323 and 451 of the IPC. The judgment comes on 13th June, 2017 in an incident which took place on 6th of May, 1998.

Drawing attention to an important aspect of this 19-year-old case, this statement points out that the case filed by the sarpanch was closed on June 30, 1998 but on July 5, 2001 the same case was revived once again. Calling this prison sentence a body blow to the efforts of citizens to fight corruption, this statement has expressed deep disappointment with the verdict. At the same time this statement has noted that the sentence has been suspended pending an appeal to be filed by the activists.



One reason why this sentence has evoked so much resentment among justice-loving people is that the convicted activists are very well known for their commitment to peaceful struggles as is evident from their RTI movement and related struggles. One of the accused, Naurati Bai, has herself served as a sarpanch and is widely regarded as a model sarpanch who achieved a lot in a short time. She is also known for her struggles on behalf of rural women workers and her work for gender justice. Nikhil Dey is one of the most highly regarded social activists of the country, widely known for his contribution to the RTI, NREGA and numerous other worthy causes. Ramkaran, one of the most gentle activists I have ever met, has been a pillar of strength for the RTI movement as well as for several other noble causes.

I have been a frequent visitor to various meetings of these and other social activists of Rajasthan who work on several issues of common interest with mutual cooperation. As this case dragged on, at some of these meetings the activists implicated could not come because of court dates. On such cases other persons attending the case, while expressing regret that these senior activists could not come, would invariably express resentment about why such noble persons had been implicated in frivolous charges as no one could believe such charges against them. It was often said that even asking such senior activists engaged in important tasks concerning the welfare of the people, particularly the weaker sections, to attend to such a court case for so many years was itself a great injustice against them.

It is very important in a democracy that those activists and citizens who take up peoples causes against corrupt persons should get justice. When even very senior and respected activists are subjected to years of harassment culminating in even more injustice, this sends a very wrong message to the peoples faith in democratic and constitutional struggles. Hence it is very much an issue of protecting democracy and democratic rights that all the activists implicated in this case should get justice and get it fast.

The author is a freelance journalist who has been involved with several social movements and campaigns.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Sudhakars Letter to Modi on Agrarian Crisis

Dear Shri Narendra Modiji,

Sub: Unprecedented Agrarian CrisisRequest for urgent special session of Parliament

This is to bring to your attention that the country is facing an unprecedented agrarian crisis. There was famine and drought in some States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rayalaseema area of Andhra Pradesh and parts of Odisha, while there is bumper crop in some other areas which is a contrast.

The bumper crop and good yield have become a curse to the peasants. The prices of Onion, Tomato, Chilli, Soyabean and Pulses have fallen to 40 per cent to 25 per cent of last years prices. Pulses and wheat were allowed to be imported, while the peasant is suffering with low price of his crop of pulses and wheat.

Thousands of peasants have already committed suicide and many are on way. According to one estimate, 35 farmers commit suicide per day on an average which is shocking. Over five lakh kisans committed suicides since 1995. The cultivable land is shrinking year after year because of mines, acquisition for industries, corporates, new and expansion of roads, urbanisation, etc. The population of farmers has been reduced by one crore fifty lakhs in the recent period and most of them have transformed as agricultural labour. The real incomes are going down. The Indian kisan is angry and frustrated. We have witnessed serious agitations in Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh, massive protests in Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, frustrated angry agitation of Tamil Nadu peasants in Delhi and State-level agitations of peasants in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telan-gana, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh etc. Loan waiver is only a temporary relief which is opposed by the Reserve Bank and finance authorities while they agree to help big corporates by sanctioning, at throwaway prices, minerals, natural gas, coal mines, reduce taxes and waive lakhs of crores of rupees as bad loans.

Loan waiver to farmer is not a charity but a necessity. Loan waiver is only a small relief for one year. Lack of irrigation, costly fertiliser, non-availability of quality seeds at unreasonable prices, irregular electricity supply, marketing of agri-products and, above all, remunerative price are some of the other problems. The Minimum Support Price (MSP) is many times less than the market price and does not even meet the cost of production.

Crop insurance is not insurance to the farmer but insurance to the bank which is lending loan to the farmer. Even five per cent of farmers are not benefited by crop insurance but insurance companies benefit in looting the peasants through premiums.

Watering down the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Act by Central and State govern-ments, through unjustified methods of amend-ments, made the positive features of it totally ineffective. Social impact assessment and prior consent of the affected peasants are being thrown to the winds, to satisfy the lust of the corporates, by the Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States. The NDA Government tried the same through ordinances which failed for the time being. The government is committed to promote ease of doing business than ease of doing agriculture, as appropriately commented by prominent social activist E.A.S. Sarma, Former Secretary of Energy to the Government of India. Millions of farmers are displaced without proper compensation.

The farmers are facing natures wrath every year, besides the risks of middle men after the crop yielding. Crores of small farmers are the unfortunate victims. The Indian farmer is born in debt, lives through debt, dies in debt since the British days till today.

The collective anger of the Indian peasant is manifest in small protests in the recent agitations. If not solved, it may take a gigantic form. Hence, we request you to act now, right now.

The Dr M.S. Swaminathan Commission has drawn the attention to complete the unfinished agenda of land reforms, technology access, adequate and timely institutional credit, remunerative marketing etc. The Dr Swami-nathan Commissions recommendations need to be adopted as those are pro-farmer. It is the right time to implement them in toto.

Hence, the CPI urges upon you to call a special session of Parliament, both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, for 10 working days as early as possible with the only agenda of agrarian crisis and to find immediate and permanent solutions.

I hope you will consider our proposal and take a positive decision.

Thanking you,

With regards,

Yours sincerely

June 14, 2017

New Delhi Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy

Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy, a former MP, is the General Secretary, CPI.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Yechurys Letter to PM on Farmers Plight

Dear Pradhan Mantri Ji,

I am writing this letter to draw your attention to the plight of farmers across India, which has resulted in a high level of rural distress, including thousands of suicides by farmers in the past three years. There have been increasing protests by farmers in one State after another, which have been met by your silence and apathy while the State governments of your party have let the police loose on the poor farmers. Six farmers have lost their lives in police firing in Madhya Pradesh, and many have been seriously injured. Meanwhile, many continue to commit distress suicides, the latest such tragedy occurring in the CMs own constituency.

The response of your partys State Govern-ment in Maharashtra has been equally inconsi-derate and repressive towards the genuine pleas of the farmers. During my visit to Nashik, 15 months ago, when the Maharashtra farmers had blockaded the town, the CM called for nego-tiations and asked for six months to settle all the demands. Fifteen months have since passed, after which the peasantry decided to go on a unique form of struggle: a kisan strike. The past weekends negotiations follow from there. Even now the kisan organisations have warned that if this latest agreement is not honoured in letter and in spirit, then they will resume the agitation from July 26, 2017.

It is my duty to remind you, Mr Prime Minister, that during your election campaign, you had promised a Minimum Support Price that will provide a 50 per cent net profit to the farmer over his production costs. During the last three years, you have done nothing to fulfil this promise. The current MSP for various crops fixed by your government barely provides any returns to the farmer.

The two government agencies, FCI and NAFED, do not buy all the produce of the farmer, even at the existing MSP, forcing the farmer to distress sell his produce at a loss in the market.

Under these circumstances, I am writing to you to demand that your government introduce and pass a legislation in the forthcoming mon-soon session of Parliament which not only confers on farmers the Right to Sell at MSP, but also guarantees an automatic annual review of the MSP which will be, at least, 50 per cent more than the comprehensive production costs as established by the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) for that year.

Regards,

Yours sincerely,

Sitaram Yechury

June 15, 2017

New Delhi

Sitaram Yechury is the General Secretary, CPI-M.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Criterion for Presidents

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cannot hide its anti-Muslim fangs. Instead of building con-sensus behind the candidature of Hamid Ansari for presidentship, the party has appointed its top three leaders to find a candidate who commands the consent of most political parties.

I cannot understand what is wrong with Vice-President Ansari. He has handled the Rajya Sabha extremely well and before that he made the Aligarh Muslim University a really thriving academic institution during his tenure as the Vice-Chancellor. His erudition is beyond doubt and his commitment to secularism is without any blemish.

The non-BJP parties have come together to adopt Vice-President Ansari who is acceptable to all parties. It would be embarrassing for him to be the Opposition candidate when he is the countrys Vice-President. Dr Abdul Kalam, the former President, was the popular choice of several Opposition parties for a second term but had to face a similar predicament before pulling out. So, all that he got was the re-naming of the Aurangzeb Road as Dr Abdul Kalam Road.

The BJP is ultimately going to tick the choice of the RSS. It has indicated that it would keep in mind the secular ethos of the county. But it is neither here nor there because when it comes to selecting a person for the top constitutional post, a Muslim candidate would be far from the thought of the RSS.

It would ultimately depend on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to nudge the party to choose a person of his choice. And from the speeches made by the BJP President, Amit Shah, it has been quite clearly indicated that the person thus chosen would be anybody but a Muslim. He has been touring different parts of the country, including the southern States, and exhorting that the choice of a presidential candidate should be someone who is acceptable to the ruling party.

The two Houses of Parliament and the State Legislatures which comprise the Electoral College suggest that the BJP will have its way. The BJPs appointment of a three-member committeeRajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naiduwho are part of Prime Minister Modis Cabinet, makes it clear that the partys top leadership will ultimately decide who should go to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who was initially, supported by the ruling party has been dropped. She is not being considered by either the DMK or the AIADMK. Understandably, the person has to be acceptable to the southern States like Andhra, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Even L.K. Advani looked like the candidate of the BJP. Probably, the Court verdict on the Babri Masjid demolition may have forced the party to look elsewhere as he has been charged as part of a conspiracy to destroy the mosque. Over the years, the rough ends in Advani had been rounded off and he is more like a person who went to Karachi and laid a wreath at the mausoleum of Qaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

If one were to look back, controversies between the President and Prime Ministers have not been rare. Of the seven previous Presidents, only Dr Zakir Hussain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed left office without any public confrontation. Zakir Hussain, who died in harness, confined himself to scholarly pursuits while Ahmed was one of the most pliable heads of state India has ever had. It was during his tenure that the Emergency was declared and he signed the proclamation without verifying whether it had the Cabinet approval or not.

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr Rajendra Prasad had many constitutional run-ins. Dr S. Radhakrishnan had even succeeded in getting Defence Minister Krishna Menon sacked after Indias debacle at the hands of the Chinese in 1962. In 1967, Radhakrishnan embarrassed the ruling Congress by allowing the Swatantra Party to parade its MLAs in Rashtrapati Bhavan to prove their majority in the Rajasthan Assembly.

Even V.V. Giri, a prominent trade unionist who was elected with the help of Mrs Indira Gandhi, the then Congress President, to the presidency, often expressed his reservations over anti-labour legislations. Thus he objected when the Centre wanted to dismiss striking Railway employees. He also registered his protest over the supersession of Supreme Court judges.

The Acting President B.D. Jatti, who succeeded Giri temporarily, proved more assertive. When requested by the Janata Government to sign the ordinance dissolving nine Assemblies in States ruled by the Congress, Jatti prevaricated, pleading that the Centre had no powers to prematurely dissolve duly-elected Assemblies without proper reason. Then Prime Minister Morarji Desai was forced to hold out the threat of his resignation if Jatti delayed the ordinance and the Janata Party even organised angry demonstrations against the President.

Matters hardly improved even after the Janata Party installed Sanjiva Reddy. Reddy and Desai could not get along and the latter prevented the President from going abroad even on ceremonial visits. Reddy, nursing a grouse against the Janata Government, made constitu-tional history when he invited Charan Singh to form a government after Morarji Desai lost his majority in the Lok Sabha. Reddy set yet another precedent when he dissolved the Lok Sabha on the advice of a Prime Minister who could not prove his majority. Even Zail Singh installed Rajiv Gandhi soon after Mrs Gandhis assassi-nation even before he was elected the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party. It is another matter that both Zail Singh and Rajiv Gandhi were at loggerheads more often than not.

I wish Pranab Mukherjee had utilised his term to erase the decision which he took during the Emergency. He was the right-hand man of Sanjay Gandhi, an extra-constitutional authority. Hence, his name will not go down well in history. Like his predecessors, he too was mired in controversies particularly when he published the book of his memoirs while in office. He could have waited for his retirement to pen down his experiences at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Meanwhile, the present government at the Centre must explain how secularism can survive when soft-Hindutva is spreading in the country. By elevating Ansari as the President, the BJP would have assured the people that the countrys ethos cannot go astray and it would not do things which do not fit into the idea of India: democratic and secular.

The author is a veteran journalist renowned not only in this country but also in our neighbouring states of Pakistan and Bangladesh where his columns are widely read. His website is www.kuldipnayar.com
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Open Letter by Retired Officials on the Growing Climate of Religious (...)

The following is an open letter of sixtyfive retired officials released on June 12, 2017.

We are a group of retired officers of All India and Central services of different batches, who have worked with the Central and State governments in the course of our careers. We should make it clear that as a group, we have no affiliation with any political party but believe in the credo of impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Indian constitution. A sense of deep disquiet at what has been happening in India has prompted us to write this open letter to chronicle our reservations and misgivings about recent developments in the body politic. What has gone wrong?

It appears as if there is a growing climate of religious intolerance that is aimed primarily at Muslims. In Uttar Pradesh, in the run-up to the elections, an odious and frankly communal comparison was made between the relative number of burial grounds and cremation grounds. The question was also asked as to whether electricity was being supplied equally to different communities during their religious festivals. All this without any basis in fact or evidence. The banning of slaughter-houses targets the minorities and affects their livelihoods as well. Such intolerance breeds violence in a communally charged atmosphereeven to the extent of a local leader in UP provoking an attack upon the residence of a Superintendent of Police, whose family was terrorised.

Vigilantism has become widespread. An Akhlaq is killed on the basis of a suspicion that the meat he has is beef and a Pehlu Khan is lynched while transporting to his place two cows he had bought and for which he had the necessary papers. Nomadic shepherds are attacked in Jammu and Kashmir on some suspicion as they practice their age-old occu-pation of moving from one place to another along with their cattle and belongings.

Gau-rakshaks function with impunity and seem to be doing so with the tacit complicity or active encouragement of state machinery. Punitive action against the perpetrators of violence does not take place promptly but cruelly, the victims have FIRs registered against them. The behaviour of vigilanteswho act as if they are prosecutor, judge and executioner rolled into oneflies in the face of law and juris-prudence. These actions undermine the rule of law and the Indian Constitution since only the statethrough its various organs and insti-tutionshas the power to enforce the law.

Vigilantism has become popular as anti-Romeo squads threaten young couples who go out together, hold hands and are perhaps in love with each other. A thinly-veiled effort to prevent a Hindu-Muslim relationship or marriage, there is no justification in law to harass these couples, particularly when there is no complaint from the woman of being ill-treated.

Student groups and faculty members on campuses like Hyderabad and JNU, who raise troubling questions about equality, social justice and freedom, are subject to attack by the administration, with a supportive government to back them. In Jodhpur, a planned lecture by a renowned academic was cancelled under pressure and the faculty that organised the event subjected to disciplinary action. What happened in Jodhpur has happened at other institutions as well. Argumentation and discussion about different perspectivesthe life-blood not only of institutions of learning but of democracy itselfare being throttled. Disagree-ment and dissent are considered seditious and anti-national. Such attitudes have a chilling impact on free speech and thought.

Several reputed NGOs and civil society organisations are being charged with violating the provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act and the Income Tax Act. While we agree that genuine violators should be identified and penalised, we note with dismay that several of the targeted groups are those who have taken stands against government policies, expressed dissent or supported communities in cases against the state.

We are also seeing an ugly trend of trolling, threats and online intimidation of activists, journalists, writers and intellectuals who disagree with the dominant ideology. How does this square with free speech?

There is a growing hyper-nationalism that reduces any critique to a binary: if you are not with the government, you are anti-national. Those in authority should not be questioned that is the clear message.

In the face of a rising authoritarianism and majoritarianism, which do not allow for reasoned debate, discussion and dissent, we appeal to all public authorities, public institutions and constitutional bodies to take heed of these disturbing trends and take corrective action. We have to reclaim and defend the spirit of the Constitution of India, as envisaged by the founding fathers.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > GJM Revives Separate Gorkhaland DemandDarjeeling Burns Again

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) has suddenly revived the demand for a separate Gorkhaland and the Darjeeling hills are witnessing widespread violence. GJM supporters have repeatedly clashed with the police, burnt police and government vehicles and set fire to police posts and government offices. Several police personnel have been grievously injured and two GJM workers died of bullet injury, though it is not clear who fired the shots. The police denied having opened fire.

But following the sequence of events since the first week of June, it is obvious that there is more in the GJM suddenly going on the war- path than meets the eye. State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee announced on May 15 that henceforth students of all schools, irrespective of the Boards they were under and irrespective of their mother tongue, would have to learn three languages from Class I to X, one of which will be Bengali. From now on, it will be compulsory for students to learn Bengali in schools. English medium schools will have to make Bengali an optional subject from Class I so that the students can study it either as a second or third language.

The GJM did not react to this announcement or oppose it at that time. Trouble suddenly broke out when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee decided to hold a meeting of the State Cabinet in Darjeeling. The meeting was held on June 8. Incidentally, it was after 40 years that a State Cabinet meeting was being held in the hill town. As the Cabinet was meeting, workers of the GJM came out on the streets and indulged in widespread violence. The GJM said it would oppose tooth and nail the imposition of Bengali on the Gorkhas. Mamata later clarified that Bengali was not compulsory but optional. This did not have any effect on the GJM because introduction of Bengali was just a ruse. The real cause of their violent agitation was very different.

The Ministers and the large number of tourists who usually visit Darjeeling during this time of the year, suddenly found themselves trapped. They could not drive down to Siliguri as the GJM supporters had blocked the roads. At this point of time Mamata took over command. Herself staying put in Darjeeling, she arranged her Ministers to leave the town and send them back to Kolkata. Next, she made arrangement for the safe passage of all the tourists who were passing hours and days in fear and anxiety to Kolkata and other destinations.

The situation took such a turn that the State Government had to ask for Army help. Two columns of Army, each of 80 men, were deployed to maintain law and order as the situation had gone out of control of the police. More security forces have since been deployed.

On June 11, the Morcha announced it would start an indefinite bandh from the very next day, June 12. Two days before, on June 9, that is, the day after the Cabinet meeting, it declared a 12-hour bandh.

An interesting development took place before the sudden eruption of the Morchas belligerence. On June 7, the day before the Cabinet meeting in Darjeeling, GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri met the BJP State President Dilip Ghosh in a closed door meeting in Kolkata. What transpired at the meeting is not known. Giri also called on Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and requested him to intervene in the State Governments decision to introduce Bengali in schools.

Next, the GJM called a meeting of five hill parties on June 13. At the meeting, the State BJP announced its support for the separate Gorkha-land demand. This caused widespread resent-ment among the people of West Bengal. As an urgent damage-control measure, BJP National President Amit Shah said that his party had not taken a stand on the Gorkhaland question. But he refrained from saying categorically that the party does not support the Gorkhaland demand. It was a clever ploy to assuage the feelings of the people of West Bengal and at the same time to assure the GJM that the Centre had not decided against it either.

Meanwhile, the police raided the residence of GJM chief Bimal Gurung and the office of the GJM on June 16. A huge cache of traditional arms like bows and arrows and khukri, firearms, explosives, night vision binoculars, wireless transreceivers and lakhs of rupees in cash were recovered. Obviously, the arms were not acquired on a single day but over a period of time. It meant that not only the Intelligence agencies of the State but also those of the Centre were blissfully unaware of what was going on in the hills.

Police officials are of the opinion that the GJM was preparing for a long-drawn guerilla-type war. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said the GJM had contacts with some insurgent outfits of the North-East and that a foreign country was also helping the Morcha. She did not name the country. A section of police officials have pointed out that there are many retired Army personnel among the Gorkhas and if they lend their support to the movement the situation may further worsen.

The real reason for Gurungs discomfort and anger is believed to be Mamatas decision to send special audit teams to audit the accounts of the Gorkha Territorial Council and the three municipalities of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseongall controlled by the GJM. The audit teams have been asked to scrutinise how much money the GTA and the three civic bodies received from the State and the Centre and how the money was spent.

In the eighties the CPI-M Government never undertook any audit of the accounts of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), run by the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leader, Subhas Ghising. The Left Front Govern-met deliberately allowed Ghising to spend money as he liked without any accountability because the CPI-M wanted to buy peace with Ghising. Ultimately, Ghising discredited himself so thoroughly that he had to leave Darjeeling and take up residence in Siliguri. Bimal Gurung took advantage of the situation to float his own outfit, the GJM.

Mamata Banerjee and many others believe that the GJM is getting support from the BJP party and government. There is one view that if violence continues and spreads in the hills and the contiguous Dooars and Terai region, then a case can be made out that the constitutional machinery has broken down in the State and imposition of Presidents Rule under Article 356 of the Constitution has become unavoidable. This seems rather far-fetched because such a step will play directly into the hands of Mamata. The BJP will shoot itself in the foot. It will have no chance of increasing its footprint in Bengal in the midterm poll that will have to be held within six months or in the general elections in 2019. The BJP has no leader who may be put up as a chief ministerial face and who can come anywhere near Mamatas charisma and personality. As a party, the BJP cannot take on the powerful organisational machinery of the Trinamul Congress.

But the BJP may be tempted to keep the pot boiling in Darjeeling. One of the two BJP MPs from West Bengal is elected from Darjeeling with the support of the GJM. Interestingly, the Bengal units of the CPI-M and the Congress are also criticising Mamatas handling of the Darjeeling situation. They have accused her of dividing the hill people.

In the last two to three years, the Trinamool Congress has been able to dent the GJMs mono-poly of power in the hills and register its presence. It has won the Mirik municipality while in each of the other three civic bodies it (Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong) it has been able to win a seat or two. By setting up separate Development Boards for the non-Gorkha communities, like the Lepchas and Bhutias, Mamata has been able to corner the Morcha.

Mamata is firm in her resolve not to allow the separation of the hills from Bengal. She will not submit to any pressure or threat from any quarter. Talks with the GJM will be possible only after it withdraws the bandh. If the Morcha still persists in its confrontation with the State Government and does not retract from the path of violence, it will only deepen the suspicion that Gurung & Co. has powerful political backers, as Mamata has hinted.

The author was a correspondent of The Hindu in Assam. He also worked in Patriot, Compass (Bengali), Mainstream. A veteran journalist, he comes from a Gandhian family and was intimately associated with the RCPI leader, Pannalal Das Gupta.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Ideological Struggle in Presidential Poll

EDITORIAL

As we go to press, it has become clear that the country will face yet another presidential election next month. The Opposition parties, as many as 17 of them, decided today to put up, by rare consensus, a Dalit candidate of eminence, Ms Meira Kumar, for the presidential poll against the current Bihar Governor, Ram Nath Kovind, a non-Jatav Dalit, who the BJP had nominated for the post last Monday (June 19) as the ruling NDAs candidate. So is this a Dalit-versus-Dalit contest for the countrys highest office? CPI leader D. Raja, himself an outspoken Dalit, refutes the very idea and asserts: Its an ideological fight now. He and all the parties backing Ms Kumar are of the unequivocal view that it is a battle for the idea of India with which secularism and democracy are intimately linked.

Kovind belongs to the RSS and headed the BJPs Scheduled Caste Morcha. But he did not side with the Dalits who are at the receiving end under the present dispensation at the Centre. So Kovinds nomination was a symbolic affair as far the BJP is concerned.

Not just that. Kovind, being opposed to reservation for religious minorities as any loyal RSS activist would be, was reported to have stated in 2010 that Islam and Christianity are alien to the nation. Later his supporters said he was misquoted as he used the word notion instead of nation!

There has been one surprise, however. The BJP has been able to garner support for Kovinds candidature not merely from the fence-sitters as expected, but also a political figure in the Opposition of the calibre of Bihar CM and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar who himself was only recently engaged in putting up a joint Opposition candidate against that of the BJP. Amazingly, Nitish has extended support to Kovind even before the Opposition picked up its candidate. Why? Is it because of the Bihar CMs smooth formal relationship with the State Governor (who hails from UP)? No. Nitish has done so in order not to further alienate the Mahadalits, to which Kovinds community belongs, after his open tussle with Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Mushahar, that forced him to pay quite a price. This, of course, does not mean, as some observers are speculating, that Nitish is planning to return to the NDA fold. Several JD(U) leaders, meanwhile, have categorically affirmed that the Bihar State Government, based on the JD(U)-RJD-Congress mahagathbandhan, is and will remain intact.

However, despite all talk to the contrary, the Opposition is united. Even NCP stalwart Sharad Pawar is on board. And Laloo Prasad has promised to appeal to Nitish not to commit a historic blunder and instead return to the Opposition camp after weighing all the pros and cons.

It is indeed an ideological struggle in the battleground of the presidential election. No amount of false propaganda can conceal this truth.

June 22 s.c.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > Corrigenda - Mainstream, VOL LV No 27 New Delhi June 24, 2017

While introducing Badri Raina at the bottom of the first page of his article, The Barricades and Battlelines in Kashmir (that is, in the first column on page 3), in Mainstream (June 10, 2017), it was written that his latest book, The Underside of ThingsIndia and the World: A Citizens Miscellany, 2006-2011, came out in August 2012. Actually this is not his latest book. Two books by him, published after the Citizens Miscellany, are: Idea of India Hard to Beat: Republic Resilient and Kashmir: A Noble Tryst in Tatters.

In the same issue of Mainstream (June 10, 2017) in Sankar Rays article, Wages of Conceit and Eulogy on the 50th anniversary of the Naxalbari Uprising, there is a reference to Nandini Dhak (in the second column on page 28). The actual name of the lady was Malina Dhak who put her blood-stained fingers on her forehead as the vermillion mark after killing a police constable with a dagger! Sankar Ray further informs: .....the incident took place in Durgapur in the early 1970s and she (Malina) was sentenced to death. The Left Front Government (1977-2011) waived the capital punishment and later released her as part of the decision to release all political prisoners.

These errors are regretted. Editor
Kochi: In a turn of events to the attack on actress case, film fraternities including actor Dileep and Nadirsha filed a complaint in the police over an alleged blackmail call.

In a complaint filed to to DGP, they alleged that a co-prisoner of Pulsor Suni, Vishnu demanded a one crore for not revealing their names in the sensational case. Last day the police team probing the kidnap and assault of a Malayalam actress recorded her statement again.

Pointing 'conspiracies' behind the incidents, the actor added that Vishnu told him that some peole even offered him two Crores for naming Dileep in the case.
Kochi: The contents of the letter written by Pulsar Suni, the prime accused in the actress abduction case, to actor Dileep has been made public.

According to the latter, Suni asked Dileep to give him some money as he is in great difficulty. He also pointed in his letter that though his life was ruined after the incident but has not ditched Dileep.

Meanwhile, Dileep said that he received a copy of the letter through one of his friend. The actor had handed over the letter to the police earlier.
MARTINSVILLE - Being the only school board candidate with children in county schools, Dr. Makunda Abdul-Mbacke feels she has an understanding of the issues as well as a real stake in the system.

Abdul-Mbacke filed this week to run for the Iriswood District seat on the Henry County Board of Education, a position currently held by Curtis Millner. Former Laurel Park principal Ben Gravely has also filed to run for the seat.

Im coming in completely as a parent trying to advocate for both the parents and the students, putting students first, Mbacke, a physician, said. She has three sons, one in high school, one in elementary and one in preschool.

She said that being a parent of students is very vital. If I didnt have kids in the schools, I wouldnt know that Mt. Olivets first grade didnt take a field trip last year, apart from a visit to Magna Vista High School. Also, a neighbors child was given the chance at only one field trip last year  to a local company which paid all the costs of the trip.

How can we be raising global citizens when we cant even get them to go to Greensboro? she said. People on the board who dont have children can take a cut on field trip expenditures and its not real to them.

If she were on the board, I would hear about these decisions at home and be held accountable by her children, she said. Obviously I want the teachers and administrators to be happy, but at the end of the day our constituents are the students.

An idea she said she would like to develop is to create more opportunities for vocational education, including skilled trades and technical training.

Four-year colleges arent for everyone, Mbacke said, so she also feels the schools should institute more vocational programs.

Last year, the hospital contracted out of state for many surgical technicians because there werent enough qualified people locally to do the job, she said.

This is a one- to two-year training program that we could incorporate into the high schools and work collaboratively with Patrick Henry Community College to develop, Mbacke said. Having a program for that field would place (graduates) into jobs paying $40,000 to $60,000 without doing the four-year degree.

Not only would having technical programs benefit the students individually but also the community as a whole, because young people would be able to stay in the area to work in fields for which theyve prepared instead of leaving.

Mbacke is also the founder of Prevention vs. Punishment, a community activism group to reduce expulsion and suspension rates in local schools.

She started that effort after hearing her son, a student at Magna Vista High School, talk about how common suspension was as punishment. She looked into studies and statistics on the matter and found that it was a common response, even for non-violent matters such as talking too much or using a phone in class. Those issues are not reasons to prevent an education, she said.

Prevention vs. Punishment has been looking at alternative methods to help keep order in the classroom while still ensuring that offending students continue learning.

Organizing and promoting that effort is how she became involved with the schools, she said.

A lot of things they are doing right, but having had lived in different areas, I can see things for improvement that people here have gotten used to, she said.

Mbacke said she grew up in a modest, single-parent household in Harlem, New York, where she learned the importance of education early on. Watching her mother work multiple jobs with only a high school diploma showed her that education could be used as a tool for mobility to opportunities not common where she grew up.

She now owns Piedmont Preferred Womens Healthcare in Ridgeway. She says she has delivered more than a thousand babies in the Martinsville/Henry County area.

Mbacke was appointed by Governor McAuliffe to the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Museum of Natural History in 2015, is an active member of Virginia Organizing and a member of The Galilean House of Worship Scholarship Committee, which awards money for college to local students.

Over the years because of my occupation and friendships with parents in the community I feel I have gotten to know what's important for kids and parents, and what is important is that our schools and community prepare our youth for success, she said.

Holly Kozelsky reports for the Martinsville Bulletin. She can be reached at holly.kozelsky@martinsvillebulletin.com
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NEW BEDFORD - Two New Bedford people are being held in a New York City jail after they were arrested by U.S. Marshals in the Bronx Friday.

Estefanie Helena, 19, and 20-year-old Justin Ortega are wanted for the Monday afternoon shooting that seriously wounded a 60-year-old New Bedford man.

The New Bedford Standard-Times reported that the couple was arrested by marshals at an apartment belonging to a relative of Ortega's.

The two are suspects in the Monday shooting that seriously wounded Tom Souza, 60, as he stood in his Tallman Street living room. Souza was hit by a bullet that passed through the wall of his home and struck him in the neck. He was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital where he treated for the wound that left a bullet lodged against his spine.

Police attributed local in-fighting as the cause for the shooting. They are continuing to investigate a motive for the shooting.

Helena and Ortega face multiple charges once they are returned to Massachusetts. Police are charging the couple with two counts each of assault and battery by discharging a firearm, malicious destruction of property, carrying a loaded rifle or shotgun on a public way, carrying a firearm without a license, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling. e
SALEM - A New Hampshire man denied he killed a food delivery driver in Lynn, then raped a North Andover convenience store clerk. The Salem News reported that Brian Brito was arraigned on murder, rape and firearms charges in Salem Superior Court Friday.

Brito., 21, of Manchester, NH was arrested in March not long after he allegedly shot and killed food delivery driver Mohammedreza Sina Zangiband in what police believe was an act of road rage. Authorities said three hours later Brito forced the female clerk in the Richdale Variety store in North Andover into the back room at gunpoint and raped her.

He was arrested by State Police soon after as he drove toward New Hampshire. A grand jury indicted Brito in May, and all charges in other jurisdictions, including Lynn, Lawrence and Peabody, were dismissed.

He was ordered held without the right to bail and will return to court in August for a pretrial hearing.
SPRINGFIELD - A former employee at Denny's restaurant on Boston Road is facing criminal charges after clashing with co-workers and threatening to blow up the restaurant.

Mohammed Y. Haroon, 48, of Springfield, pleaded not guilty on June 1 in Springfield District Court to making a bomb threat and threatening to commit a crime.

The charges were filed after Haroon, a native of Pakistan, got into a dispute with his boss and co-workers after punching out at 5 a.m. before his shift ended, according to the police report.

When the manager told him to finish his work first, Haroon stormed out of the office and into the dining room, the report said.

"You keep forgetting that I'm Pakistani," he said, before telling co-workers he would throw one "in the fryers (and) burn him up real pretty," according to the report.

In a statement heard by three co-workers, he also threatened to blow up the restaurant, the report said.

Judge William Hadley set bail at $5,000 personal surety and ordered the defendant to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, report once a week to a probation officer and stay away from the restaurant and its employees.

During a hearing on June 12, the judge ordered Haroon to report once a day, not once a week, to his probation officer.

Haroon is due back in court for a pretrial hearing on July 25.

Haroon, who is listed as disabled on the police report, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct following a traffic stop in April 2016, court records show.

He allegedly tried to run down two Springfield police officers who stopped his SUV for having excessively tinted windows. One officer drew his firearm to stop Haroon, whose son was a passenger in the vehicle, according to the arrest report.

Information about the disposition of those charges was not immediately available Friday, but court records indicate that Haroon is on probation from an earlier case.
HOLYOKE -- Entrepreneurs can seek mentoring opportunities and join workshops Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. during Holyoke Small Business Day at the Holyoke Public Library, 250 Chestnut St.

"Holyoke Small Business day is ideal for individuals that have ambitions to become business owners, as well as experienced entrepreneurs that are seeking new opportunities to learn and meet new people," said Tessa Murphy-Romboletti, program manager of SPARK HOLYOKE.

SPARK Holyoke is a program of the Greater Holyoke Chamber Centennial Foundation, which is holding the small business event with Western Massachusetts Regional SCORE chapter, she said. The SCORE chapter provides free meetings and advice to prospective business owners and those already in business, according to its website.

The event is free, open to the public and will be held rain or shine. To reserve a seat, register online by clicking here.

Registration will begin at 9:30 a.m.

Those who register get a $5 food ticket and will be entered in a drawing for prizes during the event, Murphy-Romboletti said.

SPARK stands for Stimulating, Potential, Accessing, Resource & Knowledge. The federal and state granted-funded program began in March 2015 to help entrepreneurs become business owners.

The business event is designed to support entrepreneurs in the Pioneer Valley with workshops, classes and mentoring opportunities, she said.
SPRINGFIELD - A Springfield man suffered a broken jaw and brain injury after allegedly delivering some bad news to the manager of a hair salon in the Eastfield Mall.

William Rodriguez, 36, pleaded not guilty Monday in Springfield District Court to one count of assault and battery with serious bodily injury.

The charge was filed after a confrontation last month in the food court between Rodriguez and the alleged victim, who had just left the Hair Palace Salon after informing Rodriquez's wife of an "indiscretion" involving her husband, according to the police report.

Minutes after leaving the salon, where Rodriguez's wife works as manager, the victim crossed paths with Rodriquez, who had just arrived at the mall, the report said.

Rodriquez knocked the man down with one punch and continued punching him on the ground, with the victim's head repeatedly hitting the floor, the report said.

Walking into the salon, Rodriquez bragged, "I just beat that guy up," and then fled out the back door as police arrived, the report said.

The assault, which took place about 3 p.m. on May 27, left the victim unconscious, with a broken jaw and bleeding in his brain. He was transported to Baystate Medical Center, where his injuries prevented him from speaking to police.

Two weeks later, after being transferred to a rehabilitation center, he gave his first statement to investigators.

The victim said he could not recall the assault, but said it was likely due to his discussion with Rodriguez's wife about a sexual affair the defendant was having or contemplating, the report said.

A salon employee told police the victim came in to tell Rodriquez's wife about the alleged affair, but the discussion "quickly turned hostile and an argument ensued," the report said.

To defuse the situation, the employee took the victim to Donovan's Irish Pub nearby in the mall. On their way back, Rodriquez approached the victim from behind and punched him in the face, the report said.

"Don't you ever disrespect my wife like that again," Rodriquez allegedly said after knocking the other man down.

Based on accounts from several witnesses and video surveillance footage from the mall, Rodriquez was arrested.

On Monday, after denying the charge, he was released on $1,000 cash bail by agreement of the prosecution and defense lawyer Matthew Hutchinson.

Judge Matthew Shea also ordered him to stay away from the victim and approved a motion by Szafranski to subpoena the victim's medical records.

Rodriquez, a self-employed barber and native of Newburgh, New York, is due back in court on Sept. 8.
BRIMFIELD -- Francesco's Restaurant celebrated 30 years in business this month.

The family-run eatery, located along Route 20 in Brimfield at 45 Palmer Road, was started by Francesco Ferrentino.

He emigrated from Salerno, Italy, with his parents at age 16 in 1970. He married his wife, Rosa, six years later. All his formal education occurred prior to arriving in the U.S.

"I went to school in Italy," he said.

Ferrentino credits the restaurant's longevity to his family, hard work, being open seven days a week, making ingredients including sauces from scratch, and variety -- seafood, veal, chicken and beef.

"Everything is made by us," he said. "Family is the strength.

"If you don't have (that) you cannot go into (the) restaurant business."

After Ferrentino suffered a back injury, his daughter Cathy, 38, took over as chef and now runs the establishment with assistance from his son, Alfonso, 37, and his wife.

Asked what he would say to someone entering Francesco's for the first time, Ferrentino said: "I would recommend anything- veal, chicken, beef, fish, we got 'em all."

When he opened the restaurant in 1987, the owner said he was not aware of the three-times per year Brimfield antiques and collectibles show. Ferrentino said the restaurant is mobbed when the flea market is in town.

The restaurant's web page bears this slogan: "A Day Without Wine Is Like A Day Without Sunshine."

Francesco's is open for lunch and dinner.
NORTHAMPTON - A Holyoke woman was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail after she was arraigned Friday in Hampshire Superior Court on charges of conspiring to have a witness in a rape case against her husband killed before trial, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported.

Cynthia Coons, 50, is being charged with conspiring with her husband, Jason Coons and a friend, Elinor Roberge, to hire a hitman to kill the alleged victim in a rape case brought against Jason Coons. The trio believed if they could kill the witness, charges against Coons would be dropped.

Coons was originally arraigned on charges in Hampshire District Court in April, and has been held since. Her husband was incarcerated in the Hampshire House of Correction on unrelated charges at the time of the alleged plot, and has remained in custody. Roberge was released on her personal recognizance, with conditions, pending trial.

Prosecutors called Coons an "integral player in two separate murder for hire plots." According to investigators, payments for the killing had already been started when the three were arrested.
MONTGOMERY -- This tiny Hampden County hilltown could have residential broadband internet service from Comcast within 18 months.

Comcast received an $805,800 grant from the Massachusetts Broadband Institute to build a cable network in Montgomery, MBI announced this week.

Town officials and Comcast still need to sign a cable franchise agreement. If that goes as planned, Comcast estimates it could have its cable network up and running by the end of 2018.

Comcast has agreed to reach around 96 percent of the town's premises, or 360 homes and businesses. The arrangement was approved by town officials in April.

Unlike 13 rural Massachusetts communities building their own fiber optic networks assisted by state grants, Montgomery's agreement with Comcast won't require local borrowing. Montgomery taxpayers would have had to raise $950,000 for their share of a town-owned network, according to MBI.

"The speed of these projects, removing the need to do a municipal bond, and the overall lowered risk of these public-private partnerships make them the best option for certain towns," said MBI chairman Peter Larkin in a statement.

Last year Comcast won $4 million to extend its cable network in nine towns already "partially served" by cable. A design phase has been completed, and the company will reach 15 percent more homes than it originally agreed to, according to an MBI press release.

In a prepared statement set to the press by MBI, Sen. Don Humason (R-Westfield) praised the Baker administration, and said broadband in rural towns "has been a long time coming while access to and familiarity with high speed internet has grown increasingly more important in order to thrive in our 21st economy."
SOUTHBRIDGE - Police are searching for 15-year-old Allison Degray, who left her home in Southbridge on June 21 and hasn't been seen since.

Sgt. Robert Salisbury of the Southbridge Police Department said police believe Degray may be "hiding out" in the Springfield area, as several of her extended family members live there.

"We've exhausted a lot of the areas to search in our area," said Salisbury, commenting that police had been checking a number of local residences.

Salisbury said police believe Degray purposefully ran away and that she was not taken against her will.

"At this point, we just would like to get her home, get her off the streets and make sure that she's safe," Salisbury said.

Police describe Degray as being 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing approximately 140 pounds.

She also has three distinctive tattoos, a sun tattoo on her left arm, a Yin Yang symbol on her right ankle, and an "illuminati-style" pyramid on her right thigh.

Police say that when she ran away Degray was last seen wearing a red crop top and blue shorts.

Police say anyone who believes they may have information on Degray's whereabouts should call Southbridge police at 508-764-5420.
NORTHAMPTON -- With last week's purchase of the 114-acre Burts Bog Greenway, and another 32 acres teed up for acquisition, the city's protected open space now exceeds a full quarter of its nearly 223,000 acres.

Burt's Bog represents "some of the most valuable habitat in the city," said Mayor David Narkewicz. The land extends from Burt's Pit Road to Florence Road, and will eventually host an extension of the Manhan Rail Trail to Woods and Sandy Hill roads.

The conservation deal created ten new building lots on three acres, so will yield a net increase in property taxes, according to Planning and Sustainability Director Wayne Feiden. Three of the lots are set aside for affordable homes.

"This year, on Burts Pit Road and in other projects, we are increasing the availability of land for housing and generating new tax revenue, even as we create more conservation and parks," said Feiden in a statement.

Feiden has been a longtime champion of targeted land conservation.

His work has led to the creation of the Fitzgerald Lake conservation area, woodlands protecting Broad Brook and Beaver Brook, protected forest habitat within the Sawmill and Mineral Hills, and ongoing projects such as the Mill River and Connecticut River greenways.

The effort has been aided by Massachusetts Audubon Society, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of Northampton Recreation, Kestrel Land Trust, the Broad Brook Coalition, Grow Food Northampton, and other organizations. In addition, private individuals have contributed.

In a press release, Narkewicz gave credit to the city's Conservation Commission, Office of Planning and Sustainability, Parks and Recreation Department, Community Preservation Committee, and City Council. The Department of Public Works also oversees significant watershed protection land in Northampton, Williamsburg and Whately.

The protected properties include city, state, federal, and non-profit parks, recreation and conservation areas, and privately-owned working forest and farmland. Trail maps are available on the city's website.
SPRINGFIELD - Four decades ago, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal's political career began in Springfield Union Station.

The official, who now serves the First Congressional District of Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress, first ran for political office in 1977, making a bid for a seat on Springfield's City Council.

The announcement for that candidacy was made at Union Station where Neal, surrounded by a small group of devoted followers, spoke about his ambitions for a life in politics. Neal would ultimately be elected in 1978, before being named President of the City Council only a year later. From there, Neal's political career took off, with the young official going on to become Springfield's Mayor in the early 1980s, before later being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988.

On Friday night, Neal returned to Union Station to celebrate the 40th anniversary of that first bid for public office. The station, which was in a period of decline and decay when Neal first entered office in the 1970s, has now, after years of development and $94 million in floor-to-ceiling renovations, been revitalized.

A lot of that revitalization has been the work of Neal, who has been called a "driving force" behind the effort, and has lobbied on behalf of various parts of the project, even cutting a deal to install historic Grand Central benches inside the facility.

Neal's family and Springfield Mayor Sarno introduced the Congressman Friday night, lauding him for his public service as well as his personal warmth as a family member and father.

Neal's daughter, Maura Katherine Neal, spoke about her father's commitment to both his work and his family. "Growing up, all my brothers and I knew was campaigns," Neal said, relaying stories of how her family's life was an endless series of campaign events and parties. "While my memories are all of parties and campaigning and signs and all that fun, they're also of my father spending all day, all night working," she said, tearing up.

Neal said her father's commitment to his work was equal to his commitment as a father. "He was always squeezing in one more thing in his busy schedule for us," she said.

When it was his time to speak the Congressman kept it brief, thanking his family and supporters and commenting on how much time had passed since the early days of his career. "It's been 14, 700 days since we met before under this clock," Neal said, noting that, throughout all that time, the same people that had supported him 40 years ago are the same people standing by him presently. "You've lifted my aspirations," he said to them.

"I love you all, thank you," he concluded.

Union Station's opening weekend festivities continue Saturday with a black-tie gala and Sunday with an open house.

Planners expect the station -- with its bus and rail service, retail, dining and office tenants and 377-space parking garage -- will draw 5 million passengers in its first year of operation, a number that could swell to 8 million or more annually.
SPRINGFIELD-- U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, a longtime advocate for Union Station's resurrection, announced his first candidacy for public office -- the Springfield City Council -- at the station in 1977.

And on Friday evening, the Springfield Democrat celebrated the 40th anniversary of that announcement with supporters in the newly refurbished transportation center.

Union Station's grand reopening follows a $94 million floor-to-ceiling renovation and rehabilitation years in the making.

The facility was built in 1926 to replace earlier stations. But it has been mostly empty since the late 1970s, and was underused and decaying for decades prior to that, as interest in rail travel declined.

The new Union Station will offer service from Amtrak and Connecticut's commuter rail system to New Haven and on to New York City beginning in 2018. It will have local bus service from the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority and long-distance service from Peter Pan Bus Lines and its partner, Greyhound.

Neal's vision is to have Union Station once again be a focal point for the city, like stations in Washington, D.C., and closer to home in New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut.

And the grand opening celebrations don't stop with Friday's gathering. On Saturday, a gala organized by Spirit of Springfield will be held from 6 to 11 p.m. The event will be catered by Sheraton Springfield Monarch Place Hotel and students from American International College will serve as hosts. The Republican and MassLive will have a reporter and photographers at the party.

And on Sunday, two free open house events will give a look inside Union Station.

The first, from 10 a.m. to noon, is for contractors who worked on the project and their families, according to Spirit of Springfield. The second open house for the general public is from noon to 2 p.m.

The open houses will feature historic vehicles from Peter Pan Bus Lines and collector George Holman, as well as a model railroad display by the Amherst Rail Society, which puts on a display every winter on the grounds of The Big E.

Artist Ed Pessolano will discuss the murals he created for the station. Ken Guerin Drama Studio will offer train conductor role-play. And The Republican will be there with books commemorating the station.

The Springfield Museums are also planning hands-on activities for children.
SPRINGFIELD - The fifth annual Springfield Dragon Boat Festival drew hundreds of spectators to North Riverfront Park in the North End on Saturday to cheer on teams from around the Northeast.

Twenty teams from Western Massachusetts, Vermont and New York raced down the Connecticut River, taking part in a 2,000-year-old traditional sport that got its start in China.

Each 20-person team participated in three 200-meter races. Proceeds from the day-long festival support the work of the Pioneer Valley Riverfront Club.

In addition to Dragon Boat races, the festival featured family-friendly performances, music, food, vendors and children's activities like face painting.

An Albany, N.Y.-based team called Hope In The Boat featured two dozen breast cancer survivors. After their second race, they threw roses into the water in memory of those who have lost the battle with cancer.

Ellen Schell said the team members joined for the exercise and camaraderie. They practice on the Mohawk River near the town of Latham.

"Having breast cancer can be a very, very lonely thing, even if you have family helping you through it," said Schell. "All of us know what it's like. ... The best part of (racing) is we have a hell of a lot of fun."

A team representing CRRC MA, the Chinese rail car builder opening a new factory in the city, said the day was about team-building and engaging with the community.

"We didn't do any training. ... This was Rowing 101," said Bobby Doyle, a consultant working with CRRC, with a laugh. "We won our first meet, though!"

Sponsors for Saturday's event included the Springfield Cultural Council, Baystate Health Rays of Hope, Bach Towing, Mountain River Taiko and Health New England. DJ Les Couture provided music. Mascots of the Springfield Thunderbirds and Springfield Technical Community College gave out fist bumps and took photos with families.

A Canadian club called 22 Dragons supplied boats, paddles and life jackets.

"Our mission is to connect the community to the Connecticut River," said Ben Quick, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Riverfront Club. "(The racers) love that they can enjoy a great team-building event and support programs that help our local youth and adults get fit."
SPRINGFIELD -- Teach for America corps members Madeline DiGiovanni and Tiffany Porter are eager to begin working with low-income students in local schools.

The young women are among 25 new Teach for America recruits -- hailing from Massachusetts to Michigan and New Jersey to Arkansas -- who have been assigned to schools in Holyoke and Springfield in the fall, when the program enters its third year here.

During a welcoming event at the Museum of Springfield History last week, DiGiovanni and Porter said the social justice mission of Teach for America spoke to their core values.

DiGiovanni, a 2017 graduate of Brown University, will teach ninth grade special education students at Holyoke High in the fall.

She said her plan to attend medical school changed when she met a Teach for America recruiter in the spring of her senior year. An advocate for mental health reform and for erasing the stigma attached to mental illness, DiGiovanni said she wanted to do something right after graduation.

"I realized I wanted to work face-to-face with children," she said, adding that Teach for America would give her that opportunity.

Porter, a 2016 graduate of Howard University, is one of eight children and a former YMCA camp director. Her younger brother Xavier was this year's valedictorian at the Springfield High School of Science and Technology.

She said she is thrilled that Teach for America now has a presence in her hometown. She will teach sixth and seventh grade science at Impact Prep at Chestnut Middle School.

"I'm thrilled to be working in my home community," she said. "There is no place else I want to be."

Teach for America Western Massachusetts Managing Director Kwame Webster, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse and Springfield officials welcomed the new recruits during last week's event, which included a lesson in Springfield's history during a tour of the museum.

Earlier in the day, the recruits had a chance to visit some of the schools where they have been assigned.

In an address, Morse praised the recruits. The mayor said his horizons were expanded when he attended an Upward Bound program at Northfield Mount Herman, a prep school in Gill, when he was a Holyoke public school student.

"It's all about access," he said. "What you're doing is restorative justice."

Morse said Holyoke Public Schools, with its 47 percent Hispanic population, faces challenges, and added that the system is making strides in lowering its dropout rate and increasing graduation rates.

Morse told fellow Brown alum DiGiovanni that public service is a worthy, challenging and rewarding career.

Teach for America corps members make a two-year commitment to work in the schools. The hope is that they will stay on in city schools as long-term teachers.

The program includes ongoing and intensive professional development training, beginning with a summer institute based in Lawrence city schools.

This year's recruits include five graduates of the Five Colleges in Western Massachusetts, Webster said.

At the end of the 2016-17 school year, there were 41 active recruits working in local classrooms, he said. And as of last week, nine of those who have completed their two-year commitment to Teach for America are staying on in jobs in city schools, he said.

Five questions about Teach for America answered:

Q: Who do they recruit?

A: Recent college graduates and professionals from varied backgrounds who are committed to social justice and agree to teach for at least two years in a low-income school system.

Q: Do corps members take jobs from veteran teachers?

A: Corps members apply for open jobs and go through the same interview and hiring process as any candidate, but no community is obligated to hire Teach for America teachers.

Q: Do Teach for America members create a revolving door of teachers?

A: Teach for America teachers are more likely than others to stay in the classroom during the first two years. Some 90 percent of its first-year teachers return for a second year, compared with 83 percent of first-year teachers in high-poverty schools and 86 percent of all new teachers.

Q: How does Teach for America spend its money?

A: Corps members are paid by the district they work in, just like any other teacher. Teach for American invests about $51,400 per corp member over three years, starting with the recruitment year. The expenditure breaks down to $16,400 to recruit and select each teacher, $7,000 to train each new teacher and $14,000 in professional development during each of their two years in the classroom.

Q: Does Teach for America prefer charter over traditional schools?

A: The organization has no preference for the mode of school governance. About twice as many corps members work in district schools as in charters. Teach for America believes that school leaders need autonomy to exercise leadership.

Source: Teach for America.
SPRINGFIELD -- Veritas Preparatory Charter School marked its fifth anniversary this week -- along with the five-year renewal of its charter and the purchase of its 370 Pine St. building -- as it sent off its second class of graduating eighth-graders to area high schools.

The 55 graduates, who wore caps and gowns, received diplomas on Thursday evening at CityStage as friends and family took cellphone videos and showered them with bouquets and balloons.

The scholars, as Veritas Prep students are called, were praised by Executive Director Rachel Romano, the school's founder, and Principal Emily Beacher for embracing and mastering a challenging college preparatory curriculum.

"You embraced math concepts usually reserved for high school students," Beacher said.

Most of the graduates will be going to a Springfield public high school, with many headed to the new Springfield Honors High School that is slated to open in a wing of Commerce High School at the start of the new school year.

"The scholars leave a legacy of challenging work and achievement," Romano said. She said Veritas Prep scholars have surpassed their district peers and are outperforming statewide averages, with 83 percent scoring proficient or advanced in English language arts (ELA) and 75 percent scoring proficient or advanced in math.

As a sign of the school's success and stability, Romano said the state board of Elementary and Secondary Education recently renewed its charter "unconditionally" for another five years.

In the letter notifying Veritas Prep of its charter renewal, Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester said, "The charter school initiative is a key component of education reform in Massachusetts, and your school has proved what a strong vision, high standards and hard work can accomplish for the students of Massachusetts."

With the help of PeoplesBank, other local banks and a MassDevelopment grant, Romano said Veritas Prep recently closed on its $3.2 million purchase of the former nursing home where the school has been operating since its 2011 founding.

"Securing a permanent home speaks to the stability of our school," said Romano. "It reinforces our commitment to transform public education in the city of Springfield."

Class representatives Yashi Agarwal and Mohammed Abassi spoke at the ceremony, encouraging their classmates to continue their academic journey with the goal of graduating from college.

Agarwal asked her classmates to imagine a better society -- one that is is accepting and encouraging of people from different backgrounds.

Abassi, who is headed to The MacDuffie School in the fall, said he learned to respect in his teachers and to confide in them when he had doubts.

As a charter school, Veritas Prep is a tuition-free public school that is available to all students through an open lottery system. Operating expenses are primarily funded by per-pupil tuition revenue paid by the state, as well as federal and state entitlement grants.

The school also receives funding from private foundations, corporations and individuals to support its growth, special projects and mission. Unlike district schools, however, charter schools are responsible for buying or leasing their own facility and paying the expenses associated with the facility.
Batman, Wonder Woman, Dr. Who and other fan favorites showed up at the DCU Center in Worcester to celebrate nerd fandom during the MASSive Comic Con.

The event attracted hundreds of guest Saturday morning, many dressed up as their favorite characters.

A few WWE celebrities showed up, such as Diamond Dallas Page, who was scheduled to host a yoga session.

The comic con will continue until Sunday.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the creation of Harley Quinn, the famous DC Comics psychiatrist-turned-psychopath. The comic con will feature six of the creators of the DC Comic series, who will meet and greet fans.

In addition to meeting the Harley Quinn creators, comic fans will also be able to meet dozens of more guest artists including Ming Doyle, whose work has appeared in DC, Vertigo, Image, Marvel and more.

"MASSive Comic Con is where fans of Harley Quinn can meet six superstar creators who have all worked on the hit DC comic series," said Chris Proulx, co-founder of MASSive Comic Con. "Our show gives attendees the opportunity to personally interact with these and other artists, to give them a truly one-of-a-kind experience."
BOSTON -- Matt Barnes walked six batters in 2 1/3 innings over four outings on the Red Sox's eight game road trip.

He threw 69 pitches, 31 strikes -- or just 45 percent of his pitches for strikes.

Manager John Farrell changed things up in the eighth inning with the Red Sox leading by three runs against the Angels here Friday at Fenway Park.

He instead went with Joe Kelly who pitched a scoreless inning. Boston won 9-4 over the Angels.

Kelly will keep the eighth inning at least for the time being.

"When he's available," said Farrell who has used Kelly just twice on back-to-back days this year. "Because if you look at the work usage for him, it's been pretty regimented how frequently we go to (him). But he's been on a good run himself. There's been a lot of strikes thrown. He's been in command of counts. The walks haven't been part of it.

"So felt like a stretch that Matt Barnes has been in previously, we're in the midst of one of those again where maybe the delivery might be a little out of sync. But a quality inning once again from Joe."

Kelly has a 1.14 ERA and 1.14 WHIP, nine holds, 15 walks and 24 strikeouts in 31 2/3 innings (30 appearances).

He has not allowed a run in his past 20 appearances (18.1 innings), a career-long streak.
Legislators from Billings and Havre say their communities are frustrated with the way the Montana University System is organized and governed, which puts Montana State University in Bozeman in charge of their hometown campuses.

Clay Christian, commissioner of higher education, responded that frustrations probably result less from the way the campuses are organized and more from tight budgets. The amount of state money Montana has to educate its college students, he said, is among the lowest in the nation, ranking 46th.

"I dont think we have the resources to do everything everybody wants," he said.

By Gail Schontzler Chronicle Staff Writer

Full Story: http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/montana_state_university/billings-and-havre-frustrated-msu-s-in-charge-of-campuses/article_8c064c10-3ed8-53bc-be95-f27c460a7f38.html
Its not everyday you meet a literary miracle worker like Safrat, whos able to sell books like theyre bread rolls  and at the same price as a baguette.

"I believe that reading can replace studying. Hence my notion of bringing reading to those who dont read."

Its Sunday on a long spring weekend in Paris, and the mini Parisians of the 18th arrondissement are all jostling for a spot in the Jacqueline de Romilly library.

The kids make their way toward the stacks of books piled up at the Lire cest partir stand, which has been set up as part of the Salon du Livre de Jeunesse Solidaire (the Youth Solidarity Book Fair). The childrens shared sense of excitement makes it hard to move, never mind reach one of the coveted works of fiction.

This hyperactivity has a sole reason: as if by magic, these little ones  who have never owned a book in their lives  are suddenly proprietors of a novel or two. Once in their hands, the frantic reading of these tales begins.

Without delay, Sophie dives into Neige Blanche et les 7 geants (Snow White and the Seven Giants), while Paul joins the queue to get his copy of LApprenti Mousquetaire (The Apprentice Musketeer) signed by the illustrator Gregoire Vallancien, who is there alongside several authors.

"Sir, I only have 2 euros right now, but Ill return with 40 cents more to buy a third!"

Caroline de Malet, Le Figaro

Full Story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/06/24/french-entrepreneur-changes-childrens-lives-one-cheap-book-time/102813608/

This article is one of dozens being shared to media outlets around the world for Impact Journalism Day on Saturday, June 24, 2017. It was produced and edited independently from USA TODAY.
Ride sharing and self-driving vehicles will redefine our relationship with cars. Auto makers and startups are already gearing up for the change.

By Tim Higgins

Full Story: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-end-of-car-ownership-1498011001

***

Can Auto Fatalities Go to Zero?

Some auto makers and regulators believe self-driving cars could get us close to that goal

By Adrienne Roberts

Full Story: https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-auto-fatalities-go-to-zero-1498239201
Consortium of nine development partners to support Biovacs expansion of its existing vaccine manufacturing plant capacity, and enable the production of Pfizer-BioNTechs COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines; Biovac to raise around $150 million (ZAR2.3 billion) to boost increased local vaccine manufacturing capacity across the African continent; Partners include AfDB (www.AfDB.org), CDC Group, DEG, DFC, EIB, IFC, Proparco, the European Union Delegation to South Africa, and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC).

To support South Africa and the African continent increase vaccine manufacturing capacity and reduce reliance on imports, a consortium of nine development and finance institutions have today announced a partnership with Biovac in Cape Town, South Africa to support Biovacs vaccine manufacturing expansion.

Biovac, a bio-pharmaceutical company and established vaccine manufacturer based in South Africa, is part of a consortium (https://bit.ly/3Izu6EK) of organizations that has partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) and its COVAX partners to establish the first COVID-19 mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub in South Africa. Biovac has also entered into an agreement with Pfizer in July 2021 with the goal to manufacture up to 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use exclusively in Africa.

Biovac aims to expand its vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa initially through its current activities related to the production of Pfizer-BioNTechs COVID-19 vaccine and subsequently for much needed routine vaccines as well. This will bolster the global response to COVID-19 and advance long-term health security throughout the African continent. This expansion is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development (SDG) Goal 3 on Good Health and Well-being by improving access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines; and UN SDGs 8 and 9 on improving economic opportunities and upgrading technological capabilities of the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector in Africa. To realize the expansion and increased local vaccine manufacturing capacity on the African continent, Biovac will need to raise around $150 million (ZAR2.3 billion).

The consortium partners will aim to support Biovac in this future manufacturing plant capacity and vaccine pipeline expansion. The consortium partners include the African Development Bank (AfDB), CDC Group  UKs development finance institution which is soon to be renamed British International Investment, the German development finance institution DEG, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union Delegation to South Africa, International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC), and the French development finance institution Proparco.

COVID-19 has proven that a more geographical spread of vaccine manufacturing is much needed globally, with the African continent having the least number of vaccine manufacturers. We are pleased that the consortium of funders is willing to work with Biovac to create sustainable African vaccine manufacturing, not only to respond to the current pandemic, but also to much needed routine vaccines and future pandemic vaccines as well, said Biovac CFO Craig Mitchell.

We have developed a 2030 Pharmaceutical Action Plan/Continental Vision for Africa. We aim to increase the local production of pharmaceuticals to 70% by 2030, and of vaccines to 60% by 2040. Todays announcement with Biovac is a strong testament to our pledge to make direct investments in manufacturers and provide leadership to support the development of the pharmaceutical industry on our continent. Africa must become self-sufficient. Health security is fundamental to economic security, said African Development Bank Group President Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, adding the COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call that Africa could not outsource the health of its people to other continents or rely on global supply chains.

Accelerating vaccine delivery to countries that need them the most must become a global priority, and this requires collective effort. CDC is thrilled to be a part of this consortium that brings together DFI expertise and capital to support Biovac in contributing to scaling vaccine production across Africa, and bolster the continents response and self-reliance on this and other health crises, said Tenbite Ermias, the CDC Groups Managing Director for Africa.

It is essential to join forces to address medical care in Africa. This is why we welcome Biovacs initiative to expand its vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa. Besides strengthening vaccine production on site, it has a positive signaling effect for South Africa as a medical hub. We are happy to support the development of this project and look forward to strengthening the cooperation, said Roland Siller, CEO of DEG.

The United States is proud to collaborate on this effort to expand manufacturing capacity for COVID-19 and other critical vaccines in Africa in order to improve healthcare on the continent, said DFC CEO Scott Nathan. Supporting the global communitys continued response to the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthening health systems in developing countries are top priorities for DFC. This project advances President Bidens Build Back Better World (B3W) Initiative by bolstering global health infrastructure.

Scaling up vaccine production in South Africa is crucial to accelerating global immunization and beating COVID-19. EIB Global is working with African and international partners in supporting vaccine manufacturing, improving public health and enhancing economic resilience to the pandemic across Africa. As part of Team Europe, the EIB is pleased to join financial partners to support Biovacs plans to produce vaccines in South Africa for Africa, said Ambroise Fayolle, European Investment Bank Vice President responsible for development.

Our differentiated approach to find the best way to assist partner countries fight the COVID-19 pandemic has made possible EU funding to help unlock significant Development Finance Institution loans in support of South Africas own vaccine manufacturing capacity. The EU grant is an expression of Team Europes unwavering commitment to the global fight to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic, said Dr Riina Kionka, the EUs Ambassador to South Africa.

The IDC has a long-standing partnership with Biovac. From the onset, the Corporation appreciated the companys long-term objectives to establish a world-class commercial vaccine production facility. Recent development in vaccines access has reinforced the need to scale up and ensure capacity to manufacture vaccines locally, for our country and our continent, said Hilton Lazarus, IDCs Head of its Chemicals, Medical and Industrial Mineral Products Business Unit.

This unique partnership will help boost the production and manufacturing capacity of a range of vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine, in Africa. With strong partnerships and increased investment, manufacturers in Africa, such as Biovac, can ramp up domestic vaccine production to build a more resilient health sector and strengthen regional value chains, said Makhtar Diop, IFC Managing Director.

France is strongly committed to increasing vaccine production and access in Africa, as illustrated by its support to the creation of the continents first mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub announced by President Emmanuel Macron in June last year. Through this partnership with Biovac and our DFI partners, Proparco will build on its experience working with local pharmaceutical companies and further contribute to scaling up vaccine manufacturing capacities in South Africa, said Gregory Clemente, CEO of Proparco.

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Taipei, June 24 (CNA) The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has launched an investigation into allegations that synthetic fiber firms in Taiwan and other four countries were dumping their products on the U.S. market at unfairly low prices, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).
Histoplasmosis is a fungal infection that can cause no symptoms or may cause symptoms similar to those of pneumonia. But what causes it and how is it treated? A histoplasmosis infection usually causes mild to moderate symptoms. However, in those who have problems with immunosuppression, such as older people, it can be more severe. For some people, the infection can lead to long-term complications. This article explores the causes, risk factors, and available treatments for histoplasmosis.

Risk factors The Histoplasma capsulatum fungus is responsible for the histoplasmosis infection. The fungus does not grow in all of the United States (U.S.). Instead, it is located mostly in the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio River valleys. People who live in Latin America and Africa also experience the infection. The fungus thrives in dark damp areas and can be found in the soil. When a person starts digging in the soil, particularly in an enclosed area such as a barn or chicken coop, the fungal spores begin to circulate in the air. When a person breathes in, the fungus enters their lungs where it can cause infections. Share on Pinterest Fungal spores can circulate in the air if a person is working in an enclosed space, such as a chicken coop. People who have occupations that involve working with soil are more at risk of histoplasmosis. These occupations include: archaeologists

construction workers

farmers

geologists

landscapers

people working in or exploring caves The spores from the Histoplasma capsulatum fungus are so small that a person would not be able to see them when working in these environments.

Symptoms Most of the time a person infected with histoplasmosis will experience no symptoms. They may pass off any symptoms they do have as a common cold, without ever knowing a fungus had caused them. Histoplasmosis symptoms can resemble those of the flu. Examples include: body aches

chest pain

chills

cough

fatigue

fever

headache Timing According to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) , these symptoms are most likely to appear 3-17 days after a person initially breathes in the fungus. Histoplasmosis is not contagious. However, the condition can be long-lasting. Chronic histoplasmosis It can take between 2 weeks and several months for the infection to go away. When the condition leads to longer-term effects, it is said to be chronic. This tends to happen when a persons immune system is suppressed, due to an infection, such as HIV. Chronic histoplasmosis symptoms include: a cough, causing thick, yellow sputum

a low-grade fever

night sweats

shortness of breath

weight loss Chronic histoplasmosis can severely affect lung functioning. Disseminated histoplasmosis Some people can experience a more severe form of histoplasmosis known as disseminated histoplasmosis. This condition is when the infection spreads beyond a persons lungs to other organs of the body. This can cause severe and potentially deadly illness. The symptoms of disseminated histoplasmosis can include: gastrointestinal bleeding

headaches

low blood pressure

shortness of breath

swollen spleen and liver

ulcers in the mouth and lips

fever

fatigue

low blood counts Disseminated histoplasmosis requires hospitalization and antifungal medication. Ocular histoplasmosis Sometimes histoplasmosis can travel from the lungs to the eye. The result is a condition known as ocular histoplasmosis syndrome or OHS. According to the National Eye Institute , OHS is a leading cause of vision loss among people ages 20 to 40 in the U.S. A person does not usually experience symptoms in the first few days after an OHS infection. However, over time they may have changes in vision, such as wavy lines or blind spots. A person may be young when they are infected with histoplasmosis. However, they may not experience symptoms associated with the eye infection until decades later.

Causes Share on Pinterest Exposure to bird or bat droppings increases a persons chance of a histoplasmosis infection. People experience histoplasmosis when they breathe in fungal spores. Some of the activities and areas that are linked with histoplasmosis infection include: caving, such as spelunking

cutting and transporting wood from decaying wood piles or dead trees

engaging in demolishing, remodeling, or working in old buildings

working in chicken coops, especially when dealing with bird droppings People working in these types of environments are more likely to experience histoplasmosis. Exposure to bird and bat droppings brings a particular risk for breathing in the histoplasmosis spores. Wearing masks and other protective clothing when working in these environments can help. Also, spraying the soil with water before digging can reduce the likelihood of dust and fungal spores entering the air and infecting people. Vulnerable groups There are additional groups, as well, who tend to be more vulnerable to the effects of histoplasmosis and experience a more severe infection. They include people with: cancer

HIV

long-term corticosteroid use, prednisone

a history of lung diseases, such as emphysema

a history of organ transplant

the very old or very young

Diagnosis A doctor will start by taking someones medical history and asking questions about their symptoms. If histoplasmosis is suspected, the doctor may ask about a persons occupation and exposure to soil or any recent travel they have done. Other questions include when the symptoms started and what makes them worse or better. There are several other ways of identifying histoplasmosis, including by testing a persons blood or urine for the presence of the fungus. If the condition appears severe, a doctor may recommend a bronchoscopy. This involves putting a lighted tube into the lungs, so as to see any inflammation. The procedure can also take a tissue sample to test for fungus. A doctor can also use imaging scans, such as X-ray imaging or computed tomography scans (CT). These can identify inflammation in the lungs that could indicate the presence of histoplasmosis.
Former research has suggested that having an older father may put children at risk of serious health conditions, but a new study shows that sons of older dads may also have some intellectual and educational advantages.

Share on Pinterest Sons of older fathers may perform better academically, a new study suggests.

Previous studies have shown that advanced paternal age at the time of conception puts the offspring at risk of several neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

But new research suggests that there are also considerable advantages to having an older dad.

Researchers from Kings College London in the United Kingdom, in collaboration with scientists from the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, NY, set out to examine the effects of paternal age on certain psychological traits of the sons.

The researchers put together a so-called geek index, comprising three main characteristics: high intelligence, strong focus on intellectual interests, and social aloofness.

Although these traits are widely spread across the population, the authors note, ethnographic literature groups them under the umbrella-term geek.

The researchers hypothesized that geekiness would correlate with educational success, and that having an older father would bring such an advantage.
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The study by Abigail Silva, PhD, MPH, and colleagues is published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology. Silva is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.The Affordable Care Act eliminated copayments and other out-of-pocket costs for 45 preventive care services, including mammograms. This made mammograms more affordable, potentially leading to earlier diagnoses.The earlier cancer is detected, the more effectively it can be treated. Diagnosing breast cancer when it is still in Stage 1 could improve the prognosis for thousands of women and reduce the need for invasive treatments such as chemotherapy for a substantial number of women, Silva and colleagues wrote.Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States. The American Cancer Society estimates nearly 253,000 women will be diagnosed this year.Compared to white women, Latinas are less likely to receive mammograms overall and African Americans are less likely to receive mammograms at recommended intervals. Out-of-pocket payments have been identified as a potential barrier to getting screening mammograms.The retrospective study included 470,465 breast cancer patients between the ages of 50 and 74 who were covered by private insurance or Medicare and were newly diagnosed with Stage 1-4 cancer. Researchers examined two time periods: 2007-2009 (before the Affordable Care Act took effect) and 2011-2013 (after the act took effect). Researchers obtained data from the National Cancer Database, which includes approximately 70 percent of all newly diagnosed cancers in the United States from about 1,500 hospitals.Overall, the percentage of breast cancers that were diagnosed at Stage 1 increased 3.6 percentage points, from 54.4 percent to 58.0 percent. There was a corresponding decrease in Stage 2 and Stage 3 diagnoses, while the proportion of Stage 4 cancers did not change. The shift toward Stage 1 breast cancer diagnoses increased by 3.2 percentage points among whites, 4.0 percentage points among African Americans and 4.1 percentage points among Latinas.Compared to African Americans and Latinas, a higher percentage of white breast cancer patients are diagnosed at Stage 1. This disparity decreased following the Affordable Care Act, as minorities saw modestly higher improvements in Stage 1 diagnoses.Researchers concluded that further studies to evaluate the impact of the Affordable Care Act on cancer outcomes and disparities "should be supported as they will help inform future policy recommendations."Source: Eurekalert
Charlotte A. Gaydos, Sajo Beqaj, Jane R. Schwebke, Joel Lebed, Bonnie Smith, Thomas E. Davis, Kenneth H. Fife, Paul Nyirjesy, Timothy Spurrell, Dorothy Furgerson, Jenell Coleman, Sonia Paradis, Charles K. Cooper. Clinical Validation of a Test for the Diagnosis of Vaginitis. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2017; 1 DOI: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000002090 What is vaginitis? - (https://medlineplus.gov/vaginitis.html)

Charlotte Gaydos, Dr. P.H., M.P.H., professor of Medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for the Development of Point of Care Tests for Sexually Transmitted Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said, "Overall, the disease prevalence identified by the traditional and the new molecular methods were similar."The data she added earned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration market authorization for use by the diagnostic laboratories.The assay has been found to be licensed to BD Diagnostics, that will market under the BD MAX Vaginal Panel.Gaydos said, "Diagnostic tests traditionally used to distinguish among the causes of vaginitis are archaic, quite subjective and time-intensive, plus they require extensive training for those reading the results."Laboratories must conduct microscopical studies of the cells for infections; they must grow cultures and should even smell samples that are commonly known as the "whiff" test to distinguish among the possible causes and to select the proper treatment.Gaydos said, "The new test is objective. Either the DNA of the causative agent is there or not; no gray area."The new test uses a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) that could amplify large amounts of specific DNA sequences obtained from the three most common causes of vaginitis from the patient samples.The test would then read either a positive or a negative result that is based on whether enough DNA could be present to indicate infection.In the study, the research team used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify and test the DNA of, six bacteria species and six species of the yeast.The research team collected vaginal swabs from 1,740 symptomatic women who had symptoms of vaginitis like itching and burning of the vagina. These women ranged in age from 18 to 81 years of age and were of different educational status and ethnic backgrounds which included American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, African American, Caucasian, Hispanic or Latina, and Pacific Islander decent.Four vaginal swabs were collected from each patient. Out of which, two of them were used for traditional lab testing, one of which has been used for the new molecular test and one for use with a separate comparative genetic method that can validate the results for discrepancy analysis methods.The research team prepared all the samples and added them to the cartridge that is equipped with the reagents needed for PCR.This can then be inserted into the BD MAX system, a real-time PCR platform that could read the genetic sequence and reports for each of the three microbes.The scientists then compared these results with the results obtained from the traditional diagnostic tools and the alternate genetic test.The bacterial vaginosis was positive in about 37.3% of patients according to the traditional methods and around 36.1% in the molecular method.Around 14.7% of cases were found to be positive for yeast infection by traditional methods and around 16.2% by the molecular method.About 1.5% of the patients were found to test positive for trichomonas using the traditional method. While 1.6% of them tested positive using the molecular method.Gaydos said that the new molecular test can be faster in performing separate tests for each cause of vaginitis.This can be more sensitive and unlike the current tests, they can detect the species of the bacteria that cannot be grown easily in the lab.Even though the new test is expensive and costs around $75 -$ 125 depending on the lab's existing equipment. The new test usage is limited as the samples are needed to be sent to a PCR-capable lab. This can take hours or even a number of days before a diagnosis can be made.The economic advantages of the molecular test can compensate the costs. The results can be accurate and detailed diagnosis could reduce the number of patient visits for the same illness, thereby saving time.Further, the new test's accuracy has to be evaluated because of the subjectivity of the traditional tests that are used for comparison.However, the traditional methods have been found to be less reliable as the accuracy of the molecular test can be higher when compared with future testing options. The research team also hopes to develop a better version of the molecular tool to provide faster results.Swelling, itching, burning or infection in the vagina can result in vaginitis. It usually affects women between the age of 15 and 44 years.The most common kinds of vaginitis include, bacterial vaginosis, yeast and a fungus. Trichomoniasis caused by parasitic protozoa calledcan also cause vaginitis.Source: Medindia
Every year, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, goes on a year-long tour of America. And so, he did this year, too, with the aim of hitting all 50 states. On Thursday night, he landed in Minnesota, as part of this tour. Now, this also happened to mark the last day of the holy month of Ramadan. And so, to commemorate the occasion, Zuckerberg had his first ever Iftar dinner.

Facebook

But, there was more to it because it wasn't just the Facebook CEO. Zuckerberg was joined by nine Somali refugee Muslim women who had no idea that they would be sitting at a dining table with the Facebook founder. The small party discussed their stories with Zuckerberg who listened intently to each of the women who talked about trying to fit in unknown territory. He thanked them for making it.

And so, Zuckerberg took to Facebook to share a heart-warming message about his experience. Here's what he said.

And at once, over 300,000 users reacted to the post. One of them even said, If everyone in the world had your beliefs...the world would be a better place...but In the mean time thank you for making us closer through Facebook.

Facebook

Zuckerberg is one of the few who has been working actively with refugees, trying to settle in the displaced. In April 2013, he even launched FWD.US, an effort toward immigration reform, which became a fast-growing organisation due to Zuckerberg's funding. And two years ago, Zuckerberg even announced that he was going to work to connect the refugee camps to the internet.

If only our country leaders thought this way, we'd be a lot closer to connecting the world, in real time.
Apple is currently in the process of building their brand new flagship store in Chicago and some of the initial shots of the store suggest one thing: It will look like MacBook Air. DNAInfo took some shots of the construction that is underway and it looks like they have planted a massive MacBook Pro on the top of the store.

One can see a curved glass and the roof of the upcoming store and DNAinfo reports that the giant Apple logo can bee seen from the top which makes it resemble Apple's laptop.

The Apple logo is a new addition that wasn't revealed when renderings of the new store were shared in 2015. The electronics giant is moving its flagship Chicago store from 679 N. Michigan Ave. to the north bank of the Chicago River, a development real estate observers say marks a shift in the Mag Mile's centre of retail gravity.

Our store on North Michigan Avenue has welcomed more than 23 million customers since it opened in 2003 and we're now creating something even more remarkable for Chicago, Nick Leahy, an Apple spokesman, told DNAinfo in 2015.

Previous shots of the Apple Store showed no sign of this new development but one should know that the MacBook type roof will not be visible from street level. You can check out the video footage below to see how it looks.

Source: 9to5Ma


Armed Forces Day: Liverpool leads events across country

BBC News24 June 2017The UK's annual Armed Forces Day is taking place, with the national event in Liverpool one of more than a record 300 across the country.The day is billed as a chance for people to show their support for those connected with the armed forces.Prime Minister Theresa May said that the armed forces are more relevant than ever after "playing a vital role" after the Manchester attack.In Liverpool, there was a parade to the Waterfront from St George's Hall.As well as those currently serving, the day salutes veterans, reservists, cadets, families and charities.Mrs May said that armed forces "provided visible reassurance to our communities" when they were deployed on the streets after the terror threat level was raised to critical.Troops were deployed after 22 people were killed by suicide bomber Salman Abedi at the Manchester Arena on 22 May.Mrs May, who is attending the Liverpool event, said it was an opportunity for thousands of people to show their "gratitude to the men and women who do so much to preserve our freedom."The parade comprises about 100 personnel from each of the services, plus bands, veterans, and about 300 cadets.Other attractions include Typhoon and Red Arrows flypasts, HMS Iron Duke opening to visitors, dragon boat racing, a Royal Navy Wildcat (helicopter) flypast, and finale by the massed bands.Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said: "As we celebrate Armed Forces Day there are 10,000 regulars and reserve personnel serving now on Nato operations."Current deployments include Royal Navy ships serving in the Gulf, and the Royal Air Force patrolling the Black Sea as part of Nato deployments, and the war against Islamic State.
U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) of Fremont was recognized for his concern about civic education during a banquet Wednesday in Washington D.C.

Sasse was awarded the John M. Ashbrook Award, which is bestowed annually to recognize an individual who upholds the ideals of limited constitutional government.

As a historian, former educator and public servant, the Senator shares our commitment to civic education, Roger L. Beckett, executive director of the Ashbrook Center, said in a news release.

Sasse, a Fremont High School graduate, has a doctorate in American history from Yale University and earned an undergraduate degree in government from Harvard University. He taught history at the University of Texas at Austin.

For five years, Sasse served as president of Midland University in Fremont.

A fifth-generation Nebraskan, Sasse was elected in 2014 to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mike Johanns, defeating Democratic Party candidate David Domina.

He has brought national attention to the crisis of civic education and the obligation we have as Americans to pass on this great inheritance of freedom to the next generation, Beckett added. He recognizes that the American experiment in self-government is at risk if the next generation doesnt understand and appreciate our unique form of constitutional government.

Sasse briefly discusses this concern about civic education in his book, The Vanishing American Adult.

A hard truth about our public life today is that millennials and the generation coming of age know exceedingly little about the nation theyre inheriting, Sasse wrote in the book. the American experiment depends on engaged, informed, fully participating citizens.

The Ashbrook Center at Ashland University in Ohio, which gave the award to Sasse, offers educational programs, resources, publications, and training to high school and middle school teachers and to high school and university students that help them develop a deeper understanding of the principles on which the United States was founded.

John Ashbrook was a Republican U.S. congressman from Ohio from 1961 until his death in 1982 while running for Senate. He ran against President Nixon in the 1972 primary.
Double-amputee 82nd Airborne Division Sgt. Michael Verardo was at the White House on Friday to attest to the urgent need to hold Veterans Affairs Department employees more accountable for delayed or poor treatment.

With President Donald Trump and Veterans Affairs Secretary Dr. David Shulkin looking on, Verardo told an audience of lawmakers and representatives of veterans service organizations of his struggles with the VA system after stepping on an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in 2010.

Verardo said he was prepared for the risks and injuries of combat, but "what I was not prepared for was coming home to a broken VA system. I wasn't prepared to wait 57 days for a signature on a piece of paper so that my prosthetic limb could be repaired."

"I wasn't prepared to make a three-hour round trip so that just last year they could check to see if I still had my serious combat injuries. I wasn't prepared to watch my wife [Sarah] beg, plead and make countless phone calls so that I could receive what was often basic and necessary medical care."

Verardo said he also had to wait three years for the VA to make the promised adaptations to his home in North Carolina to make it handicapped-accessible, "but today is a new day and this administration has fulfilled its promise -- that the veteran is empowered and the veteran is in charge of his or her own care."

Shulkin, noting Verardo went through 111 surgeries in his recovery, said, "It's veterans like Michael who are the reason the VA exists. It was heartbreaking to me to hear his story. He had to jump through one bureaucratic hoop after another," but "I'm pleased to say he's waiting no longer."

Following his own remarks, Trump signed the Veterans Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, empowering Shulkin to bypass existing civil service rules at the VA in the hiring, firing and promotion of employees. Trump then handed the pen to Verardo.

"In just a short time, we've already achieved transformative change at the VA -- and believe me, we're just getting started," the president said. "The enthusiasm for the Veterans Administration and for making it right for our great veterans has been incredible, and I want to thank all of them."

"As you all know all too well, for many years the government failed to keep its promises to our veterans," Trump said. "We all remember the nightmare that veterans suffered during the VA scandals that were exposed a few years ago" at the Phoenix VA Medical Center.

"Veterans were put on secret waitlists, given the wrong medication, given the bad treatments, and ignored in moments of crisis for them. Many veterans died waiting for a simple doctor's appointments. What happened was a national disgrace," he said.

"And yet, some of the employees involved in these scandals remained on the payrolls. Outdated laws kept the government from holding those who failed our veterans accountable," Trump said. "Today, we are finally changing those laws -- wasn't easy, but we did have some fantastic help -- to make sure that the scandal of what we suffered so recently never, ever happens again."

The Accountability Act, he said, "gives the secretary the authority to remove federal employees who fail and endanger our veterans, and to do so quickly and effectively. It's been a long time since you've heard those words. Those entrusted with the sacred duty of serving our veterans will be held accountable for the care they provide."

"At the same time, this bill protects whistleblowers who do the right thing. We want to reward, cherish, and promote the many dedicated employees at the VA," Trump said.

The bill had the support of the veterans service organizations and the bipartisan support of lawmakers in the House and Senate. "This bill finally corrects the archaic and broken civil service system that has prevented the VA secretary from removing bad actors, and strengthens protections for whistleblowers who are committed to the health and well-being of veterans," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement.

"For too long, secretaries of the VA have been without the tools they need to hold underperforming employees accountable. This bipartisan legislation will finally change that," said Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., the ranking member on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

"Three years ago, a nationwide crisis in access to care and confidence engulfed the entire VA," said Veterans of Foreign Wars National Commander Brian Duffy. "Today's signing will not instantly fix an employee culture of indifference to appointed leadership that took years -- if not decades -- to fester, but it does send a very loud and unmistakable signal to all employees that maintaining the status quo no longer works for those who have borne the battle."

As the bill was working its way through Congress last month, American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox warned of its unintended consequences.

"This legislation is the antithesis of accountability because it would allow corrupt or incompetent managers to get away with firing anyone who challenges them," Cox said in a statement. "Real accountability would strengthen, not weaken, protections for the rank-and-file employees who are subjected to mismanagement, abuse, and political corruption."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
The Air Force announced the career specialties eligible to receive the "R device" for remote impacts, the Pentagon's award for those with hands-on employment of a drone or other weapon system that directly impacts combat or military operations overseas.

"The 'R device' may be awarded to airmen who, during the period of an action, served in the remotely piloted aircraft, cyber, space or [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] career field," Air Force spokesman Col. Patrick Ryder told reporters Thursday.

The award is retroactive to Jan. 7, 2016, when then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced changes to the military decorations and awards program, Ryder said.

A comprehensive review was initiated by then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in 2014 to improve the military awards program "by harnessing lessons learned from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan," according to the Defense Department.

Hagel's predecessor, Leon Panetta, initially introduced the remote impacts device in 2013 as the Distinguished Warfare Medal -- but the Pentagon ended up scrapping the idea at a time when critics viewed the award as the "Nintendo Medal."

Ryder noted that airmen in career fields eligible for the device have had significant impact during Operation Inherent Resolve, the Pentagon's air war to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The move marks the first time the service has detailed "who [will get] it and how it would be distributed," said Air Force spokeswoman Brooke Brzozowske.

"These actions can be performed in any domain but must not expose the individual to personal hostile action," the Air Force said in a release following the briefing.

Additionally, the actions may not "place him or her at significant risk of exposure to hostile action while engaged in military operations against an enemy of the U.S.; or involved in a conflict against an opposing foreign force; or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in military operations with an opposing armed force in which the U.S. is not an aggressive party," the release said.

Eligibility for the award is not based on a "list of Air Force Specialty Codes, but falls within career specialties -- more broadly," Brzozowske told Military.com on Friday, which "opens up [the] scope of who could be eligible."

The "R" device may be worn on battle ribbons for the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, service-specific Commendation Medals, Joint Service Achievement Medal, and service-specific Achievement Medals, according to the 2016 Pentagon directive.

In defining criteria for the "R" device, the Air Force maintained objectives outlined by the DoD for the "V" and "C" devices.

"The standardization of the V device as a valor-only device will ensure unambiguous and distinctive recognition of distinguished acts of combat heroism," the release said. The "V" device may be worn with the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, and service-specific Commendation Medals.

The "C" device was created to recognize service members performing meritoriously under the most difficult combat conditions -- but does not rise to the level of "V."

Personnel must be engaged against an enemy, engaged in military operations against an opposing foreign force, or serving with friendly forces engaged in an armed conflict in which the United States is not a principal party, according to the directive.

"Unlike the 'R' device, the 'C' device may be authorized for sustained performance or service, provided the criteria of personal exposure to hostile action or significant risk of hostile action are met," the Air Force said.

"C" devices may be worn with the following awards: the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, service-specific Commendation Medals, Joint Service Achievement Medal, and service-specific Achievement Medals.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

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Retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger made it his mission to tell the world that if they lived or served on Camp Lejeune...
Jermarius Ellison

ANN ARBOR, MI - A second teen has pleaded guilty in the October 2016 killing of Ann Arbor high school student Jordan Klee.

Jermarius Ellison, 17, of Redford pleaded guilty Friday, June 23 in Washtenaw County Trial Court to charges of armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery and second-degree murder.

His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 25 in front of Judge David S. Swartz.

Ellison was one of three teens charged in the fatal shooting of Klee.

Co-defendant Danta Wright, 17, is scheduled for a final pre-trial conference Monday, June 26.

The third defendant, 17-year-old Delreno Gracey, pleaded guilty in December to second-degree murder, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 25.

Klee was found dead Oct. 4, 2016, on a pathway near the Pinelake Village Cooperative in the 2600 block of Adrienne Drive on Ann Arbor's west side.

The three teens were accused of attempting to steal controlled substances and/or clothes and/or shoes, according to court records.
BAY CITY, MI -- Having already been deported several times, a Mexican man is facing prison time after again pleading guilty in federal court to being in the U.S. illegally.

Aaron Diaz-Leal, 32, in early June appeared before U.S. District Magistrate Patricia T. Morris at the federal courthouse in downtown Bay City and pleaded guilty to one count of illegal reentry of a previously removed alien. The charge is a 10-year felony.

Diaz-Leal spoke through an interpreter to address Morris and enter his plea.

Records indicate Diaz-Leal's sentencing guidelines range from eight to 14 months. He could also face a fine of up to $250,000 and deportation to Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington is to sentence Diaz-Leal at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31.

Diaz-Leal has been deported at least three times before his May 11 arrest from which his most recent conviction stems.

On two days in September 2005, he was arrested in South Carolina on charges of simple assault and driving without a license. He was ordered to pay $905 and spent 30 days in jail.

He was arrested again in South Carolina in August 2007, this time for cocaine possession. Prosecutors dropped the case, but he was deported in January 2008.

Police in South Carolina arrested Diaz-Leal yet again in March 2009 for driving without a license and driving while intoxicated. The next month, he was deported a second time.

Diaz-Leal was deported a third time following a June 2010 arrest in Indiana on drunken driving charges. The actual deportation occurred in October 2010.

By May 2017, Diaz-Leal was back in the U.S., specifically Michigan. An affidavit written by Border Patrol Agent Niklas Green states two of his colleagues on May 11 were in Gaylord in response to a tip they'd received of an undocumented immigrant staying in Nottingham Trailer Park. The agents spotted a parked Cadillac CTS with North Carolina plates, matching a description given by the tipster as being a car driven by the immigrant.

At 10:30 a.m., the agents pulled over the Cadillac on M-32 and found Diaz-Leal behind the wheel, with another man also in the car. The agents arrested Diaz-Leal when he admitted he was a Mexican citizen and did not have any documents indicating it was legal for him to be in the U.S.

Diaz-Leal was transferred to the Sault Sainte Marie Border Patrol Station for processing.

Diaz-Leal is the fifth person to face federal charges illegal reentry of a previously removed alien in Bay City since May 4.

Rafael Munoz-Molina, deported seven times since the late 1990s and arrested in Monitor Township in May, has pleaded guilty to the same charge as Diaz-Leal and is awaiting sentencing. The three other defendants -- Raul Resendez-Ledezma, Josefina Hernandez-Gomez, and Jose Suarez-Huerta -- have plea hearings pending.
BAY CITY, MI -- For the first time in 31 years, Bay County has declared a state of emergency following extreme flooding across the Great Lakes Bay Region.



The order was signed by Bay County Executive Jim Barcia at about 3 p.m. Friday, June 24. Isabella and Midland counties also declared local state of emergencies due to the flooding.



Shortly after, Lt. Gov. Brian Calley declared a state of disaster for neighboring Isabella and Midland counties after 6 inches of rain pounded the region overnight, flooding and, in some cases, collapsing roads.



"It's probably some of the worst we've experienced in years," Tony Casali, Isabella County Road Commission manager, told The Associated Press.



In Bay County, the decision to declare a state of emergency was primarily to ensure the county is eligible for state and federal relief funds, Barcia said. As of 3 p.m. Friday, the county had accounted for six small road bridges and culverts that were destroyed as a result of the flooding.



"Without the declaration, we can't be eligible for those funds," Barcia said.

Anderson Road, near the Bay-Midland county line, collapsed Friday, June 23, following extreme flooding in the region.





The Bay County Road Commission is going to be the entity applying for funds to repair damaged and collapsed roadways, Barcia said.



"They are already hard-pressed with the costs of maintaining our roads and aren't in a position to financially take on these additional repairs," he said.



By declaring a state of disaster in Midland and Isabella counties, the state makes available all state resources in cooperation with local response and recovery efforts in disaster areas.



"We have been actively working with our local emergency management partners in all locations impacted by the severe storms and flooding," Capt. Chris A. Kyle sake, deputy state director of emergency management and homeland security, said in a statement.



The last time Bay County declared a state of emergency came in 1986 following the "Great Flood," which resulted in $500 million in damages throughout Michigan's central lower peninsula.



55 amazing photos from the Great Flood of 1986



Barcia added the state of emergency also adds to the seriousness of Friday's and Saturday's flooding.



"It serves as a reminder to residents to be extra careful on our roads," he said.



Emergency officials are asking motorists to avoid driving their vehicles on flooded roads.





Bay County roadways impacted by flooding



Flooding tips
Infosys non-executive chairman R. Seshasayee speaks during a news conference in Mumbai, India, February 13, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui - RTSYGP3

Infosys reiterates its commitment to enhancing shareholder returns, said R Seshasayee at the companys 36th Annual General Meeting. In a speech that touched on a wide range of topics, Chairman of Infosys Board, stressed that the company has identified up to Rs 13,000 crore or USD 2 billion to be paid out to shareholders in FY18 in a timely manner.

Alert to the challenges facing the IT industry in general, Seshasayee said that Infosys has been navigating 2017 amidst numerous headwinds. US policy on H1-B visas and the growing threat of automation, among others, have cast a shadow over the functioning of many home-grown IT companies.

The management would be better supported through a more engaged and fully aligned board, he said.

In the last 18 months, there have been criticisms that have been levelled against the board alleging governance absences. Executive leadership compensation was an issue, he said, adding that the CEO compensation which was effected in 2016 was only implemented after 98.7 percent shareholders gave their vote in favour of it. In the aftermath of criticisms, the board introspected and recognised that the communication could have been better, he admitted.

He highlighted that the severance pay doled out to Rajiv Bansal in October 2015 was another issue that has been making the news. Out of the total Rs 17.3 crore promised to him, about Rs 2.52 crore was paid, while the claim for the balance has been under arbitration.

More to follow
Infosys

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Moneycontrol News

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said that the State had reached a USD 1 million settlement with Infosys for abusing the United States visa rules.

A statement from the AG's office said that Infosys abused existing visa rules and failed to properly compensate hundreds of workers and pay applicable taxes.

We will not permit companies to violate our laws in order to undercut New York workers. My office is committed to ensuring that our states labor marketplace is fair, competitive and transparent for all, said Attorney General Schneiderman in a statement late Friday.

The statement further said that Infosys used temporary visas called B-1 visas, which are easier to obtain, instead of H-1B work visas which are used for transfer of skilled workers to send its employees to onshore locations in the state of New York.

"Because they apply only to visits, B-1 visa holders are not permitted to perform work of the kind Infosys workers were sent to New York to do, and they are not subject to the H1-B prevailing wage requirements," the statement added.

Infosys provides consulting and outsourcing services to many New York-based clients in the financial sector, among other industries.

The settlement resolves whistleblower claims that Infosys, in the course of providing outsourcing services, routinely brought foreign IT personnel into New York to perform work in violation of the terms of their visas, the AG's office said.

The misuse of H-1B visas has been a long drawn issue for the Indian IT industry in the US, which is its largest market.

The industry is grappling with impending changes to the H-1B visa allotment process, which could significantly impact the movement of skilled IT workers from India to the US.

This helps them keep costs low and gain an advantage over global competitors.

The settlement includes a recovery to the State for tax damages and other applicable damages and penalties.

The AG's office said Infosys was found to have provided instructions to employees on B-1 visas regarding how to deceive US Consular Officials and/or Customs and Border Protection Officers.

The statement further said Infosys submitted, or caused to be submitted, invitation letters to US Consular Officials that concealed the true purpose of the Infosys employees visits to the United States.

Infosys was also found to have been paying lower wages than the applicable prevailing wage requirements to these workers, in addition to avoiding paying applicable payroll taxes on the wages of the Indian workers who were sent on B-1 visas to New York, instead of the prescribed H-1B visas.

The Bengaluru-based company said in a statement: "Infosys agreement concludes the State of New Yorks investigation relating to the amount of taxes the Company paid in 20102011 without any criminal or civil charges being filed."

While this investigation centered on alleged paperwork errors, the company committed no wrongdoing and denies all allegations made in this regard, Infosys added.

This settlement, according to the company, relates to legal issues already resolved under the 2013 settlement with the US Department of Justice, and was reached by both parties to avoid protracted litigation.

"Infosys maintains robust policies and procedures to ensure adherence with all applicable regulations and laws. Infosys will continue to focus on boosting American innovation, hiring American workers and better serving our valued customers across the United States," Infosys said.
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After three weeks of decent show, most pharma stocks ended in red. The week's highlights include the government making Aadhaar mandatory for treatment of tuberculosis, IHH pulling out of Fortis deal, US FDA chief emphasizing fast-tracking of generic approvals and Cipla settling an important patent challenge case with Roche on cancer drug Tarceva.

How did pharma index perform?

While the BSE Healthcare declined 1.26 percent this past week, benchmark Sensex dropped 0.10 percent.

Sun Pharma (2.23 percent) and Aurobindo Pharma (1.94 percent) have extended their gains this week, while Dr.Reddy's (-1.29 percent), Cipla (-0.18 percent), Cadila Healthcare (-0.55 percent), Glenmark (-1.66 percent), Divis (-1.02 percent) and Torrent (-2.81 percent) were on the losing side. Lupin was the worst performer with its shares declining by 6.29 percent.

US FDA

Cadila Healthcare, Lupin, Glenmark and Alembic Pharma were in action in terms of approvals in US.

Cadila Healthcare said this week it has received an establishment inspection report (EIR) for its Moraiya plant in Gujarat indicating the closure of warning letter.

The US FDA new chief Scott Gottlieb this week said his agency is working on a plan to speed up generic drug approvals to address the problem of high drug prices in US. The move is seen as a double edged sword for Indian generic makers. It increases the approval rate but at the same time will also lead to increased competition and pricing pressure.

Aadhaar mandatory for TB treatment

The government has made Aadhaar mandatory for TB patients and health providers seeking cash assistance under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme. Aadhaar requirement for TB treatment came in for criticism as many affected by TB are from poor and marginalized sections of the society who often dont have any proof of identity.

IHH - so close so far in Fortis deal

The Malaysia government-backed Integrated Healthcare Holdings (IHH) announced that its nowhere close to signing on the dotted line when it comes to picking up stake in Fortis group. Fortis has been scouting for strategic investors who could bail them out from the groups piling debt. Its ongoing litigation with Japanese drug maker Diachii Sankyo over recovering its USD 500 million arbitration award is said to have weighed on IHH pullout.

Cipla ends litigation with Roche over cancer drug

Cipla on Thursday said it withdrew from the ongoing patent dispute with Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche related to anti-cancer medicine Elontinib Hydrochloride after it reached an out-of-court settlement acknowledging the laters validity of patent rights over the drug. The settlement possibly marks the close of the first pharma patent case in India in the post TRIPS era.
narendra_Modi_PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held talks with his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa and discussed ways to further intensify bilateral relations.

Modi, who arrived here on the first leg of his three- nation tour, said his brief visit will further strengthen relations between India and Portugal.



Advancing bilateral engagements. PM @narendramodi & PM @antoniocostapm discuss ways to further intensify bilateral relations pic.twitter.com/zGaBkYNUq8

 Gopal Baglay (@MEAIndia) June 24, 2017

"Advancing bilateral engagements. PM @narendramodi & PM @antoniocostapm discuss ways to further intensify bilateral relations," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted along with some photographs.

The two sides are expected to sign some agreements.

Departing from protocol, Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva received Prime Minister Modi at the airport earlier in the day.

Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Portugal on a bilateral trip, Baglay said.

Before leaving for Lisbon, Modi had said during his meeting with Costa, the two leaders will build on their recent discussions and review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions.

Portuguese Prime Minister Costa tweeted this is an excellent opportunity to review the implementation of the accords agreed during his India visit and sign new agreements.

Costa had visited India in January this year.

The highlight of Modi's four-day three-nation visit will be the US leg as Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

From the US, he will travel to the Netherlands.
On the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit, the Trump administration has dismissed reports that it has been ignoring India, saying President Donald Trump realises that the country has been a "force for good" in the world and ties with it were important.

"I think that it would be wrong to say that this administration has been ignoring or not focused on India," a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the two-day Modi visit from June 25.

The Prime Minister would meet President Donald Trump face-to-face for the first time at the White House on Monday.

"I think that the US really appreciates India, and I think that President Trump realises that India has been a force for good in the world and that it's a relationship that's important. And I think that will come through in the visit on Monday," the official said.

The senior administration official made the remarks while responding to questions on whether the US-India relationship has drifted under the new government, in part, because of President Trump and the administration's support to China.

"I think it's a bit unfair. I mean, we're only six months into the administration. But there have been two very good phone calls between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi that you can point to as showing both countries' interest in the relationship," the White House official argued.

"Yes, this will be the first opportunity for them to sit down and have a conversation, but I think that this is still fairly early on in the administration," the official said.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said President Trump and Prime Minister Modi would have a very robust discussion when they meet at the White House.

"During the meeting, the President and the Prime Minister will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism, defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement, and energy," Spicer said in response to a question.

Senator Mark Warner, Co-Chair of the Senate India Caucus hoped that Trump, in his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, shows enthusiastic support for deepening the US-India relationship, which enjoys strong bipartisan support.

"The relationship is ripe for additional cooperation in areas such as the development of aircraft carrier technology, space surveillance, unmanned aerial vehicles, cyber and increased defense manufacturing," Warner said.

"As we venture further into the Asian Century, there is little doubt of the increasing significance of India on the world stage. Our cooperation helps increase global security and advance economic opportunity in both countries," Warner said in response to a question.

On whether the contentious H-1B visa issue would come up for discussion during the meeting, a senior administration official said it was unlikely to be raised from the US side but if raised by the Indian side, the Americans were ready for it.

Ahead of the visit, Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna said the first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump will give them an opportunity to look at the entire gamut of Indo-US engagement and to exchange views on issues of global interest.

At the invitation of Trump, the Prime Minister would spend several hours with the US President at the White House on Monday afternoon, which would end with a dinner later that night.

This would be the first working dinner being hosted by Trump for a foreign leader at the White House.

"I think that just shows the amount of care that has gone in on the part of the White House to welcome our Prime Minister and the kind of planning that has gone into making this a very special visit," Sarna said.

"This dinner is a special gesture and it is appreciated," he said.

On the agenda of the meeting, a senior administration official told reporters that the civil nuclear deal would be part of the discussions between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump.

The White House also emphasised that the US was looking forward to its nuclear reactors contributing to India's energy security.

It said the US is interested in providing India with the kind of defence technology it normally reserves for its closest allies, signalling the Trump administration's resolve to strengthen the bilateral defence relationship.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and told him that Prime Minister Modi's Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth.

The two agreed that the two countries have a deep and growing strategic partnership and hope to work more closely on regional and global issues.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department.

Ahead of his visit, PM Modi, yesterday said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.



My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world. https://t.co/UaF6lbo1ga

 Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 23, 2017

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he tweeted.

In a statement posted on the Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.

"President Trump and I have spoken on the telephone prior to this. Our conversations have touched upon our common intent to take forward our productive all round engagement for the mutual benefit of our people," he said.

"I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide-ranging partnership between India and the United States," the Prime Minister said.
N. R. Narayana Murthy, founder and chairman of Infosys, listens to a question during an interview with Reuters at the company's office in Bangalore February 28, 2012. Picture taken on February 28, 2012. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash (REUTERS - Tags: BUSINESS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY PROFILE HEADSHOT) - RTR30CV2

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By Angel Broking

In a recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Infosys has highlighted increased shareholder activism as a major risk to the companys market value. The reference may or may not have been to Mr Murthys recent disapproval on management pay and corporate governance, but that is off the point.

The point is that companies in India need to be increasingly open to shareholder activism. Remember, Murthy is not a minor shareholder of Infosys because he along with co-promoters owns nearly 13 percent of Infosys.

In a way, the Infosys DNA has been synonymous with the DNA of its promoters and therefore they surely have a point to make. For those who are still sceptical, it would be worthwhile to peruse this famous case of Benjamin Graham, which was featured in the Harvard Business Review.

The famous case of Benjamin Graham

To people even remotely connected with stock markets and investments, Ben Graham needs no introduction. Suffice to say that he is considered the father of value investing and Warren Buffett looks up to Graham as his mentor and Guru. But for now, back to the case of shareholder activism!

Back in 1926, Ben Graham was a small shareholder in the Northern Pipeline Company. Graham found out from the annual report that the company held millions in railroad bonds and other securities.

Graham was of the view that Northern Pipeline should sell off these bonds and distribute the proceeds to shareholders as a special dividend.

Over the next 1 Year Graham solicited the support of every shareholder holding more than 100 shares of Northern Pipeline and eventually, the company had to relent.

The same happened in the case of General Motors. Billionaire shareholder, Ross Perot, urged the company to entirely change its strategy in the mid-1980s to counter the threat of Japanese competition. At that time, GM was sinking billions of dollars into technology and manufacturing facilities but the fact was the Japanese were managing the auto business much better.

Not too long ago, it needed the persuasiveness of Carl Icahn to compel Apple to take up a buyback of shares. As the Harvard Business Review pointed out, When CEOs are focused purely on quarterly earnings you need a larger vision to look at the bigger picture. That is exactly what Murthy and his team of promoter shareholders are trying to play. But first, what exactly is the challenge at Infosys?

Infosys has underperformed markets by a margin, and that is rankling

Consider two charts of Infosys stock price performance over the last five years. The irony is that when the stock performance of Infosys is compared with the Nifty and with TCS, the real divergence in performance has come in the last one year. That is also the period when Infosys has been faced with a plethora of challenges.

Firstly, the grand plan of achieving USD 20 billion in revenues by the year 2020 has now been put on hold. That obviously means that the company is no longer confident of aggressive growth targets in the light of the global demand scenario.

Secondly, the last 1 year has seen a visible contraction in tech spending in the US and European markets as well as a clear shift in spending patterns from erstwhile BFSI focus to a new-age SMAC focus. SMAC focuses on emerging growth areas like social media, mobility, analytics and cloud.

Thirdly, the last 1 year is also the period when the differences between the promoter shareholders and the board have come out into the open. Consider the charts below

The chart above captures the relative performance of Infosys and the Nifty over the last 5 years. The real divergence has been in the last one year when the Nifty and Infosys have diverged by nearly 35 percent. To get a better apple-to-apple comparison, let us also compare the 5-year performance of Infosys vis-a-vis TCS, the largest and most valuable Indian IT company.

Over the last 5 years, even TCS has outperformed the Infosys stock by 42 percent. If you look at the returns on Infosys over the last 5 years on a CAGR basis, the annualised returns are hardly 8.75 percent. That is obviously what rankles the promoters as the company has never reported such a tepid stock market performance over a longer time frame.

Coming back to the case of TCS, it has had a few advantages. Firstly, Tata Sons have virtual control over TCS and hence there is unity of command. Secondly, TCS already derives 18 percent of its annual revenues from SMAC and that gives it a big advantage. Which is the reason shareholder activism becomes important and essential for Infosys!

Why Infosys actually requires Murthys shareholder activism

Globally, there are large investors who act as meaningful activist shareholders. Bill Ackman, Daniel Loeb and Carl Icahn are examples of large shareholders who have the capacity and the will to enforce the discipline of performance on corporate managements.

In India, there are the proxy advisory firms who do not have the powers to enforce decisions on the management. Domestic mutual funds and FIIs have typically chosen to keep out of shareholder activism and focus purely on ROI of their investments.

Financial institutions like LIC have traditionally chosen to maintain the stability of management and they have therefore limited their role. It, therefore, just leaves interested shareholders like the original promoters who can play a critical role in guiding the management.

It is ironic that at a time when Infosys requires the guidance and shareholder activism of Murthy more than ever before, the grapevine is rife with rumours of a likely exit by the promoters.

One hopes that Murthy continues to play his activist role and the board and the other institutional shareholders take the feedback more as an actionable input. For the sake of Infosys and for the sake of India Inc, this is essential!
Fishermen

Eight Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested by Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in the territorial waters of the island nation early today, police said.

The fishermen from here were fishing near Paruthithurai, when the Lankan naval personnel came and took them to Kangesanthurai port there, they said.

The Joint Director of fisheries department, Nagapattinam district, Amala Xavier, said the fishermen using mechanised fishing boat, were arrested on charges of alleged violation of the International Maritime Boundary Line and fishing in the exclusive zone meant for Lankan fishermen.

Their boat was also impounded, the official said.

The incident comes two days after four fishermen from Pudukottai district and 17 from Karaikal region in Puducherry were arrested by Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing near Neduntheevu in the island nation.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami had on June 22 sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to secure the release of 20 fishermen from the state and 137 boats, allegedly apprehended by Sri Lankan Navy.

As many as 22 fishermen from the state have been arrested by Sri Lankan authorities since the ban on fishing ended on June 15, fisheries department officials said.
Pakistani forces violated ceasefire by firing from automatic weapons and shelling mortars along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Saturday.

The violation comes just days after an attack by a Pakistani special forces team that sneaked across the LoC into Poonch under heavy fire-cover and killed two jawans while losing one of their men.

The Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 11.30 hours on Indian Army posts along the LoC in Poonch sector, a Defence spokesman said.

The Indian troops returned the fire strongly and effectively, he said adding that the firing stopped at 14.10 hours.

Earlier on Thursday, in the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces sneaked 600 metres across the LoC into the Poonch Sector and killed two Indian jawans and lost one Border Action Team (BAT) member in retaliatory action.

The BAT comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan army and terrorists.

It had carried out the attack at around 2 PM on an Army patrol party in the Gulpur belt of Poonch on 22 June under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops.

In the firefight, two Indian soldiers - 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur - were martyred.

The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) members were armed with 'special daggers' and 'headband cameras' to mutilate and record the attack on the Indian Army patrol.

Earlier, on June 16, Pakistan violated the ceasefire by firing on forward posts along the LoC in Naushera sector of Rajouri district of J&K, killing an Indian Army jawan.

There have been 19 ceasefire violations along the LoC and the international border in Jammu region in June in which one civilian was killed and seven others injured.
Anantnag : Army jawans stand guard during an encounter with militants at Arwani village of Anantnag district of South Kashmir on Friday. Two youth were killed and nearly a dozen others injured as security forces opened firing to chase away stone-pelting protesters who tried to obstruct an anti-militancy operation in the village where three militants were holed up in a house. PTI Photo by S Irfan (PTI6_16_2017_000199B)

The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT), which attacked an Indian Army patrol after crossing the LoC, was made up of special forces' men and terrorists who were armed with 'special daggers' and headband cameras for recording the strike in Poonch district.

The attack on June 22 left two Indian soldiers dead while one BAT member was killed in retaliatory action by Indian troops.

Army troops during search and sanitation operations, recovered the body of a member of the BAT team along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on June 22.

"The body of the intruder killed in the BAT attempt has been retrieved and handed over to the local police," a senior army officer told PTI yesterday.

"Arms, ammunition and other war-like stores including a special dagger and a headband with a camera, knife, one AK rifle, 3 magazines, 2 grenades besides dresses and bags was recovered which reflects the barbaric mindset of the Pakistani Army," he said.

Giving details, the officer said that a special class of dagger and a knife was meant to engineer quick mutilation and beheading of jawans killed in the firing exchanges and it has been foiled by the quick action by Indian soldiers.

The BAT member was wearing headband with camera on his head to record the action and possible mutilation of jawans, which was prevented by other troops who shot dead one of them and injured another, he said.

The officer said it is matter of investigation whether the camera was live connected with Pakistani Army establishments across the border.

"The data and details of the camera will be analysed," he said.

"We are confident that another BAT member has also been killed but his body was taken back by the other members of the BAT," he said.

"The resolute action of our soldiers didn't let the nefarious plan (of mutilating bodies and recording it on camera) succeed," officer said.

In the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector.

The Border Action Team (BAT), which generally comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistani Army and some terrorists, carried out the attack at around 2 pm under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops from their posts, he said.

"A Border Action Team of five to seven heavily-armed men, under the cover of Pakistani firing, entered 600 meters inside the LoC in Gulpur forward area in Poonch sector," the official said.

The Pakistani attackers came up to 200 meters near the Indian posts.

During the attack, the Pakistani troops resorted to firing in Gulpur-Karmara-Chakan-Da-Bagh area along the LoC.

The armed intruders targeted an area domination patrol of the Indian Army, triggering a gunfight, the official said.

The Indian troops killed one of the attackers and injured another whose extrication was facilitated by the cover fire by the Pakistani troops from their posts.

In the firefight, two Indian soldiers were killed. They were 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad, Maharashtra and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

The Pakistani firing continued till 3.30 pm yesterday even as the Indian posts retaliated strongly.

In a similar BAT attack on May 1, two Indian soldiers were beheaded in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district. That attack too was carried out under the cover of shelling by the Pakistani troops.

Prior to that, a BAT attack was carried out in February but there were no casualties.

Earlier, there have been several BAT attacks in which Indian jawans have been beheaded or their bodies mutilated.

On October 28 last year, militants attacked a post and killed an Indian Army soldier and mutilated his body close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Machil sector.

In January 2013, Lance Naik Hemraj was killed and his body mutilated by a BAT. It had also beheaded Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today embarked on a three-nation tour of Portugal, the US and the Netherlands during which he will hold talks with the top leadership of those countries to boost bilateral ties.

The highlight of his four-day visit will be the US leg as Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

Ahead of his US visit, Modi said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he had tweeted.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.

Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.

In the first leg of the tour, Modi will visit Portugal where he will have talks with Prime Minister Antonio Costa.

"Building on our recent discussions, we will review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions," he said about his upcoming meeting with Costa.

After the US visit, Modi will travel to the Netherlands on June 27 where he will have a meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and call on King Willem-Alexander and meet Queen Maxima.

This year, the two countries are celebrating 70 years of the establishment of Indo-Dutch diplomatic relations.

"I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Rutte and reviewing our bilateral relations. I would be exchanging views with PM Rutte on important global issues including counter- terrorism and climate change," Modi said ahead of the visit.
ram_nath_kovind_President

The Shiv Sena skipped the filing of nomination papers by the NDA's candidate Ram Nath Kovind for presidential poll on Friday as it didn't want the BJP to take its regional ally for granted on the issue, said a highly-placed source in the Uddhav Thackeray-led party.

Interestingly, the source of the Sena, which had in 2007 and 2012 backed the then UPA nominees during the presidential polls, suggested the party has extended support to Kovind reluctantly and it would still have preferred nomination of either RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat or veteran agriculturist M S Swaminathan, whose names it had suggested earlier.

Officially, Sena has stated there was no specific reason behind not attending the event.

Speaking to PTI, Sena spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut said, "I and Anand Adsul (party MP) have been in Delhi for the two days. We signed as proposers on the nomination form (of Kovind) and returned to Mumbai only yesterday. There was no specific reason why we did not attend Kovind's filing of nomination papers today. We just didn't go."

For his part, Adsul, who was among proposers, blamed "miscommunication" regarding the timing of the event as the reason for not attending it.

When Kovind's candidature was announced by the BJP, Thackeray had initially said his party was against backing him if his nomination was aimed at garnering Dalit votes. However, a day later, Thackeray changed his tack and extended support to the NDA's pick for the top office.

Sena, a key constituent of the NDA, shares an uneasy relationship with the BJP as it couldn't reconcile to the reality of the BJP's spectacular ascent to power at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

Raut said Sena still sticks to the names of Bhagwat and Swaminathan.

"...The BJP chose somebody else (instead of Bhagwat or Swaminathan) which is OK. Once he (Kovind) is nominated as the presidential candidate, he is above all party politics," Raut said.

In a bid to needle the BJP, Sena had proposed the name of Bhagwat on Hindutva line as the likely nominee for the presidential poll. However, as the RSS chief didn't show any inclination, the party proposed the name of Swaminathan who too didn't show any interest.

WATCH | How The President of India is Elected

According to the source, who is believed to have Thackeray's ears, another reason for the party not attending the nomination filing event was that it wanted to send a message to the BJP that the latter is dependent on Sena's support in the matters of the national importance.

"We have already announced our support for Kovind and even signed as proposers. However, the BJP had to be given a message that however powerful it may be, it would still need our support in the matters of the national importance," he said.

Kovind on Friday filed his nomination papers before the Lok Sabha secretary general in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 15 chief ministers, many Union ministers, besides a galaxy of the BJP leaders.
State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) presented a check to Yardley Borough Police Chief Joseph Kelly for $68,600 for the purchase of a new police vehicle and motorcycle during a visit to the station. Our police put themselves on the line every...
June 24, 2017

Israel's Fire Support For Its Al-Qaeda Mercenaries Started Three Years Ago

12:13 PM - 24 Jun 2017



12:16 PM - 24 Jun 2017



2:24 PM - 24 Jun 2017



Al-Qaeda attacked a Syrian Arab Army position in Madinat al-Baath (map) next to the Israel occupied Golan heights. Al-Qaeda requested Israeli fire-support by launching some mortars towards empty space in the Israel occupied area. The Israeli Defense Force accepted the request and destroyed two Syrian Arab Army tanks. Two Syrian soldiers were killed. The SAA held steady and the al-Qaeda attack on its position failed.

This was very easy to predict. Israel has supported al-Qaeda in the area since at least 2014. The al-Qaeda fire-request-by-mortar scheme has been in place for at least three years. In October 2014 the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which back then still covered the area, reported to the UN Security Council:

On 23 June [2014], Israel targeted nine Syrian army positions with tank fire and air strikes after mortar fire from the Syrian side the previous day killed an Israeli civilian. Israels assessment is that most of these incidents are due to errant fire resulting from fighting in Syria. Israel said that armed opposition groups were probably responsible but that its forces fired on Syrian military positions to stress that Syria was responsible for security on its side of the ceasefire line.

The UN observers mentioned the "black flags" the "rebels" were using. The "rebels" in that area are al-Qaeda forces. This "fire support request by mortar" scheme has been repeated again and again. The Israeli argument is an insult to logic: "The Syrian army is responsible for keeping al-Qaeda out of the area so we respond to "errant" al-Qaeda fire by destroying the Syrian army."

But "western" and Israeli media did and do not report or analyzed the obvious scheme. This even as this theater act gets repeated over and over again. They lie and simply report the "errant fire" nonsense even when it is clear that this is coordinated military support for al-Qaeda. For years they have hidden Israeli support for al-Qaeda and its deep involvement in the Syrian war. Witness Haaretz which only today(!) headlines: Analysis - Israels Slow Creep Into the Syrian Civil War. That "slow creep", which Haaretz describes and analyzes as a new phenomenon, started at least three years ago and was neither slow nor a creep. It is full fledged support for terrorism and has been such since its beginning.

The Wall Street Journal, also three years late, reported last week that Israel had set up a special IDF unit to advise, train, support and control al-Qaeda in the Golan area: Israel Gives Secret Aid to Syrian Rebels

Israel even pays al-Qaeda's salaries:

The person familiar with Israels assistance confirmed that cash moves across the border but said it goes for humanitarian purposes. However, rebels interviewed said they use the cash to pay fighters salaries and to buy weapons and ammunitionsomething the Israeli military wouldnt comment on.

Israel wants to steal and occupy even larger parts of Syria than the parts of the Golan heights it illegally holds. It pays al-Qaeda and supports it by fire to achieve that. The main stream reporting on this is at least three years late. Why is it now starting to publish about this? Is there a new media advisory that Haaretz and the WSJ are now allowed (or required) to report on the issue? To what purpose?

Posted by b on June 24, 2017 at 18:06 UTC | Permalink

Comments
Citizens can purchase beer in Morganton. They can purchase it in Valdese, Glen Alpine and Hildebran, too. But drive to any gas station just outside municipal limits, and customers will notice some drink coolers missing along the walls of the store.

Thats because Burke County is considered a dry county, meaning alcohol sales are prohibited. But that could all change soon.

Burke County Chamber of Commerce Director Jerry Davis said the chamber plans to present a resolution at the July county commissioners meeting to request a referendum placed on the November ballot to allow alcohol sales in the county.

The resolution comes after Davis sent out a message to the chambers members about three weeks ago asking for their opinions. About 15 members responded, and no one opposed, he said.

Whatever is allowed in cities and towns ought to be extended into unincorporated areas, he said.

Davis said commissioners will have to approve the referendum. He said he believes a referendum is important because citizens should have the right to vote on such a large issue and because industries such as craft breweries in the county would boost the economy and attract tourists.

If you look at craft breweries, were not talking about the Dew Drop Inn on the top of the hill anymore, he said. That is an industry that is growing with science and artisanship.

Craft breweries, like Fonta Flora Brewery in Morganton, have been an integral part of tourism in Burke County, Davis said. In fact, the brewery was named the Burke County Attraction of the Year for 2017.

Fonta Flora has enriched our culture tremendously, Davis said. People are coming from all around for their product.

Fonta Flora recently purchased the old Whippoorwill Dairy Farm just outside Nebo to expand production. Todd Boera, an owner of Fonta Flora, said the brewery is allocating space for a tasting room just in case laws change, but current laws do not allow sales in the county.

However, Senate Bill 155 aims to loosen regulations on craft breweries by allowing them to sell beer in dry counties if they are located on a farm. This is similar to the way wineries currently operate, but still would require local permits. The proposed law also includes allowing alcohol sales at 10 a.m. on Sundays instead of at noon.

The laws are insanely and completely unfair the way they are, Boera said. Wineries can manufacture and retail in dry counties. When you look at those wineries, theyre making wines with 12 to 14 percent alcohol.

Some beers at Fonta Flora contain as low as 3 percent alcohol, Boera said.

I personally feel weve done a great job with responsible alcohol consumption and educating our customers, Boera said. This isnt just some alcohol factory thats disconnected from the people and where we live. We are just trying to carry our mindset to a different setting, but we just have these restrictions. 

If Fonta Flora were allowed to sell their product at the renovated dairy farm, Boera said tourists and nearby residents would be attracted to their new location. When they come to visit, they will likely visit restaurants and gas stations nearby and help boost the countys economy, he said.

But gas stations are another type of business that is struggling under current dry-county laws. Bobby Patel, a manager at the New Salem General Store, said people often come in the store to ask for alcohol. When customers realize the store doesnt sell alcohol, they leave, he said.

They just drive into the city, Patel said. We have everything  smokes, soda, eggs, lottery tickets  but no alcohol.

Patel said the store has struggled to sell some of these non-alcoholic items because people want to go to stores where they can get everything at once.

Patel used to work at a similar gas station in Hickory, but sales are 30 to 40 percent lower in Salem. He believes it has a lot to do with the inability to sell alcohol.

Rachel Benfield, who lives in Salem, said she used to work at the store and comes in to shop when she doesnt need beer. But when she does need to buy beer, she drives an extra 10 minutes, she said.

It just seems like in Burke County, were stuck in the old days, she said.

Davis said the process for including a referendum on the November ballot will have to happen fast, as the Burke County Board of Elections office already is working on the ballots. Davis said he is not sure how the commissioners will act.

Ive never second-guessed an elected body on anything, he said. But I think theyve seen this coming.
RALEIGH  It would be very surprising if North Carolina Democrats didnt make significant gains in the next election for General Assembly  whenever that may be.

Normally, wed be talking in the summer of 2017 about legislative elections to be held in the fall of 2018. That remains the most likely scenario. However, because the U.S. Supreme Court has now upheld a lower court ruling that Republican lawmakers used the race of voters to an impermissible degree to draw 28 House and Senate districts, Gov. Roy Cooper and other state Democrats are pressing for an immediate redrawing of legislative maps and a special election to be held either this fall or in early 2018, followed by another round of legislative elections in late 2018.

Having three legislative elections in the space of as many years would be extraordinary. Practical considerations may well convince the U.S. Supreme Court not to agree to such an order. But leaving that aside for now, whats the likely effect on the composition of the General Assembly?

Weve already been through something similar with North Carolinas congressional districts. Plaintiffs successfully made the same argument as in the legislative redistricting case  that the Republicans concentrated black voters too much, depriving the latter of a sufficient ability to influence the outcome of elections in neighboring congressional districts.

As a result, the state legislature redrew the congressional map. The new districts, used for the first time in 2016, are much more compact than the previous ones, and dont appear to run afoul of the new Goldilocks standard that federal judges have endorsed, the one that forbids state lawmakers from using race too little or too much in drawing districts.

Nevertheless, the new congressional map didnt produce a change in partisan balance. There were 10 Republicans and three Democrats in North Carolinas delegation before the 2016 election. There are 10 Republicans and three Democrats in the delegation under the new districts.

You can expect GOP lawmakers to use a similar approach when redrawing legislative districts. Theyll attempt to comply with the Goldilocks standard (its subjectivity will always be a problem) and otherwise seek to maximize Republican victories. Because there are far more seats in play  several dozen in the House and Senate, including both the 28 Voting Rights Act districts and neighboring ones  there will probably be more competitive races under the new maps, although Democrats ought not to assume the political cartography will shift dramatically in their direction.

Whats arguably more important for Democratic prospects in the next wave of legislative elections is the overall political environment. Even if the maps werent being redrawn, Democratic gains would be likely.

History is certainly on their side. In the modern era, the party not in the White House has almost always gained seats in the North Carolina legislature in midterm elections. By my count, that average gain since 1950 has been 11 seats. The largest anti-White House party wave was in 1974, when Republicans lost 40 seats in the General Assembly in the midst of the Watergate scandal. The other two massive midterm losses were by North Carolina Democrats  39 seats in 1994 and 26 seats in 2010.

As we speak, history appears to align with the present. Republican President Donald Trump is unpopular. Generic ballot tests for Congress and legislature favor Democrats by significant margins, including a double-digit Democratic edge in the latest Civitas Institute poll.

But what about cases in which one party controls the presidency and the other controls the governorship? There have been five such instances, including two when Dwight Eisenhower was president, one under Richard Nixon, one under Ronald Reagan, and one under Barack Obama. In four of those cases, it was a Republican president and a Democratic governor. The average Democratic gain across those four cycles was nine seats.

Its too early to hazard a specific prediction here. If Democrats net nine to 11 seats, theyll be disappointed. If they match the 39-to-40 seat gains of some past cycles, theyll jump for joy.

John Hood is chairman of the John Locke Foundation and appears on the talk show NC SPIN. You can follow him @JohnHoodNC.
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The weather was wild Friday in Midland.

One hour, the National Weather Service reported a record, 108-degree high temperature at Midland International.

Two to three hours later a cold front delivered sideways rainfall, gusts around hurricane strength, small hail and a temperature drop of about 30 degrees.

More than 6,000 customers were without power Friday night, according to Oncor. More than 3,800 of those homes and businesses resided in the 79705 zip code. The power situation left intersections without working signals. Motorists had to be extra cautious approaching some intersections, such as A Street and Wadley Avenue, as stopping appeared to be optional for many drivers because of the traffic signals.

Weather by the numbers 108 - the record temperature recorded at the airport 74 - highest recorded gust at Airpark 60 - highest recorded gust at Midland International 31 - temperature drop in around three hours at Midland International 27 - Drop in temperature from Friday's high (108) to today's forecasted high (81) 0.78 - inch of rain at Airpark Trace - rainfall at Midland International Source: National Weather Service website See More Collapse

While the rain lasted for parts of three hours Friday night, the worst part of the storm happened between 5:30 and 5:50 p.m. It was during that time that the NWS recorded 74 mph gusts at Airpark and 0.6 of an inch of rain in a 20-minute span.

The debris field was notable. If there was one place that showed the force of Fridays storm, it was the Grand Buffet restaurant on Andrews Highway and Louisiana Avenue. The restaurant was the site of the social media pictures of the day: Gusts ripped off vaulted portions of siding from along the edge of the restaurants roof. Manager June Hu said the restaurant will be closed while the roof is fixed. He also said restaurant officials have decided to take the opportunity to do some remodeling inside.

Before we were not wanting to close down, Hu said. I guess it was God saying take a break. ... A raised roof is not a good idea.

Other areas showed uprooted trees and damage to power lines, signs -- including a mangled sign at Office Depot on Loop 250 -- and roofs.

Several power lines have fallen across town; multiple roofs have collapsed, city spokeswoman Sara Bustilloz said Friday night via text.

Multiple families were displaced at Chaparral Apartments due to collapsed roofs.

The manager of the complex on the 4200 block of Garfield Street was trying to settle the tenants into vacant apartments, she said.

The cold front will be reflected in lower temperatures and the possibility of rain for at least the next three days, according to the NWS. A high temperatures of 81 is expected today.. The low temperature tonight should fall into the 60s. The chance of rain continues with a 40 percent chance today through Monday.
'The big truck is still on ...
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Covenant Health Plainviews trophy case just keeps getting bigger as the hospital was honored once again for their dedication to enhancing patient care.

At a special Excellence in Healthcare Conference held in Austin, Covenant Health Plainview earned the Gold Achievement Award from national healthcare research leader, Professional Research Consultants.

The Excellence in Healthcare Awards recognizes organizations and individuals who achieve excellence throughout the year by improving patient experiences, healthcare employee engagement and/or physician alignment and engagement.

PRC collects data on each facility through in-depth surveys given to patients after they are discharged.

Earning an achievement award for the past three consecutive years, Covenant Health Plainview was honored once again in 2017 for Achieving Excellence through Education, Training and Interdisciplinary Teamwork as well as Excellent Work to improve Inpatient Medical/Surgical Services.

This is a really high honor and it just shows the quality work we do, said Leslie Hackett, Covenant Health Plainview chief nursing officer and co-coordinator of the hospitals Service Excellence Council.

Hackett said the award is a result from Covenant Health Plainviews dedication to analyze feedback about the facilitys care and ability to turn that data into true change that enhances patient care.

Because when you get data, a lot of people just look at the data and go on. They dont do anything about the data. So if you have scores that are low, we look at it, we get with our teams, we implement process and practices to improve things and then we can show our improvement, Hackett said.

For nearly 10-years, Covenant Health Plainview has been in a constant state of improvement which has been reflected in skyrocketing scores and ratings, including their HCAHPS scores which dictate Medicare reimbursement.

It all comes down to patient satisfaction and patient experience, said Carol Terrell, Foundation/Development coordinator and co-coordinator of the hospitals Service Excellence Council.

To ensure patients are getting the best experience, the Service Excellence Council, which is made of frontline staff from all hospital departments, keeps a watch full eye on ideas that will improve the care of their patients.

Covenant Health Plainview Frontline staff works directly with patients.

This past year, the Council worked to educate and improve hospital culture. Processes implemented by the Covenant Plainview teams included better bedside report, increased staff during busier work hours, daily caregiver shift change huddles to improve patient care communication, Transition Care teams that visit patients at home who are at high risk for readmission and a new no-pass policy which does not let any hospital employee pass by a patients call button light without asking to assist them.

The work of our hospital staff is definitely reflecting on our scores, said Terrell, who praised the hospitals staff commitment to improving the quality of care for each patient.

And the thing I appreciate the most about our hospital is the buy-in from our staff. They are just as excited about this award.

For nearly eight years, Covenant Health Plainview has thrived in employee satisfaction scores. The Plainview hospital has grown from an average 59 percent patient satisfaction score in 2009 to an 81.9 percent score. In 2016, Covenant Health Plainview was also awarded a 4-Star distinction from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

At the Award Ceremony, the Covenant Heath system also received awards as a whole as well as Covenant Health Lubbock and Covenant Health Levelland.
The Plainview/Hale County Crime Stoppers Committee will pay a reward of up to $350 to anyone with information that will lead to the arrest and indictment of the person or persons responsible for the following crimes:

--On June 22 someone entered 1909 Galveston and took a red colored lawn mower and an air compressor.
An infant and two adults, including Michael A. Villalobos, 26, of Tulia, Texas, died early Wednesday in a crash on Interstate 57 in southwest Illinois.

According to information released to the media by Illinois State Police, the two-vehicle collision occurred at 2:14 a.m. Wednesday, June 22, in Union County, leaving three dead and one with critical injuries.

Pronounced dead at the scene by the Union County Coroners Office were Villalobos; Taylor D. Garza, 24, of Adrian, Michigan; and a 3-month-old girl who has not been publically identified. They were passengers in a 2002 GMC Yukon driven by Eric M. Barnett, 25, of Adrian, Michigan. He was airlifted to a regional hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Illinois State Police reported that Barnett was wearing a seatbelt and the child was restrained in a child safety seat. Neither Villalobos nor Garza were wearing seatbelts. Although the four were traveling together, police did not provide information on how they might be connected.

The driver of the other vehicle, a semi truck-trailer, refused medical treatment at the scene. He was not identified by state police.

According to preliminary investigative details from state police, the semi driver was southbound on I-57 approaching mile marker 32.5  between the Illinois 146 exit and the Lick Cred Road exit, when it collided with the GMC Yukon which reportedly was traveling northbound in the southbound lanes after crossing the median. Both vehicles left the roadway after colliding head-on.

The crash is being investigated by the ISP Traffic Crash Reconstruction Unit with the assistance of Zone 7 investigations. I-57 was closed for seven hours for crash investigation and clean-up. All lanes of I-57 were reopened to traffic later Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trump signed a bill into law Friday that will make it easier for the Department of Veterans Affairs to fire employees, part of a push to overhaul an agency that is struggling to serve millions of military vets.

"Our veterans have fulfilled their duty to our nation and now we must fulfill our duty to them," Trump said during a White House ceremony. "To every veteran who is here with us today, I just want to say two very simple words: Thank you."

Trump repeatedly promised during the election campaign to dismiss VA workers "who let our veterans down," and he cast Friday's bill signing as fulfillment of that promise.

"What happened was a national disgrace and yet some of the employees involved in these scandals remained on the payrolls," Trump said. "Outdated laws kept the government from holding those who failed our veterans accountable. Today we are finally changing those laws."

A member of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Plainview native Jodey Arrington is chairman of the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity. Representative from the 19th Congressional District of Texas, Arrington has been working on this bill, and other VA reform measures, since he began his first term in Congress.

Speaking in support of this bill from the floor of the House prior to its passage, Arrington said, This legislation gives the secretary the tools he needs to hold his employees accountable for serving our veterans and to change the culture from one that tolerates mediocrity to one that expects excellence.

The first-term Republication added, These folks gave their very best to our country, and they deserve the very best from their country.

The newly-signed law was prompted by a 2014 scandal at the Phoenix VA medical center, where some veterans died as they waited months for care. The VA is the second-largest department in the U.S. government, with more than 350,000 employees, and it is charged with providing health care and other services to military veterans.

Federal employee unions opposed the measure. VA Secretary David Shulkin, an Obama administration holdover, stood alongside Trump as the president jokingly suggested he'd have to invoke his reality TV catchphrase "You're fired" if the reforms were not implemented.

The legislation, which many veterans' groups supported, cleared the House last week by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 368-55, replacing an earlier version that Democrats had criticized as overly unfair to employees. The Senate passed the bill by voice vote a week earlier.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, applauded the move, saying, "In a nasty, partisan environment like we've never seen, veterans' issues can be a unique area for Washington to unite in actually getting things done for ordinary Americans."

The bill was a rare Trump initiative that received Democratic support. Montana Sen. Jon Tester said the bill "will protect whistleblowers from the threat of retaliation."

The VA has been plagued for years by problems, including the 2014 scandal, where employees created secret lists to cover up delays in appointments. Critics say few employees are fired for malfeasance.
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A Texas A&M graduate and former special forces soldier has been seen by millions after a photo of his humanitarian efforts went viral.

David Eubank works with the Free Burma Rangers, an organization that provides humanitarian aid to people in conflict zones. Eubank has spent the past nine months in Mosul, Iraq, and came back to the United States four days ago.

MORE MOSUL NEWS: UN says IS targets children to hold Mosul civilians hostage

Eubank was featured on CNN for his efforts to save the Iraqi people and has since been featured in numerous media outlets.

"That was just one of the many things that happened to us that was captured on video,"Eubank told Chron.com. "We've had many, many days that were similar to that where ISIS was killing civilians."

Story continues below...

Recently, the Islamic State blew up a 12th century al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, the Associated Press reports. The group has been fighting with Iraqi special forces in the city.

IN IRAQ: Iraqi Kurdish forces take more ground east of IS-held Mosul

"I've already been shot and have lost so many friends," Eubank said. "But I love the Iraqi people, they keep growing on me."

Eubank said Iraqis are warm, welcoming people. He said he's always wanted to be a humanitarian after leaving the military.

Eubank said he was born in Texas but grew up in Thailand with his parents, who did missionary work. He attended Texas A&M from 1979 to 1983. He then joined the military, first as an infantry officer and then as a ranger. From 1989 to 1992, he served in the special forces. After the military, Eubank attended seminary in Pasadena, California.

FORCES TO IRAQ: US sending 560 more troops to Iraq as Mosul push intensifies

People from Burma traveled to Thailand and contacted Eubank's parents, seeking humanitarian help. That's how Eubank and his wife Karen ended up in humanitarian work since 1993.

"When I was 5 years old, I remember walking out into the yard and looking up in the sky and saying, 'I'm going to be a soldier and then a missionary,'" Eubank said.

That's precisely what Eubank has done, raising his kids with his wife while they work to deliver humanitarian aid.

Click through the slideshow above to learn more about Mosul.
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GREENWICH  Tears mixed with laughter at the Second Congregational Church of Greenwich, as hundreds of classmates, friends and family members paid tribute to Nicolas Del Priore, the Greenwich student whose death last week stunned the school community.

Del Priore was recalled as a thoughtful, creative and funny young man who loved being on the water and in the natural world. As he was a volunteer who helped to collect food for the needy, mourners brought boxes of food and piled them high in the church entryway as a testament to his altruistic nature.

Friends and family said he was especially loyal and vigilant to all who knew him.

He was a young man of tremendous heart and soul whose life ended tragically and abruptly, said the Rev. Maxwell Grant. This a time to grieve, but also to feel Nics spirit and his presence, to give thanks to what he taught us, in word and deed.

Del Priore, a junior at Greenwich High School, died early Sunday last week on the tracks of the Cos Cob train station. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority police and the state medical examiners office classified it as a suicide.

His father, Federico Del Priore, recalled his sons creative talents  in music, drama and building fanciful contraptions of his own design. Ridiculously entertaining, he called his sons whimsical devices.

Speaking of the volunteer work he performed at Greenwich Hospital, Federico Del Priore said, He provided comfort and support to patients, doing whatever was needed, from which he derived great satisfaction.

His father said his curious and keen mind, his tender heart led him to express an interest in medicine. He always commented about how he wanted to lead a meaningful and purposeful life, wanted to make a positive difference in the world, he said.

Nicolas also coped with depression and anxiety, his father said, though it did not define him.

It is that fuller picture of Nic, that profound positive impact on the town, on his friends, the community, we ask all of you to share and celebrate that, he said.

Mark Cadigan, an English teacher at Greenwich High School, said Nic Del Priore was a talented writer who had a keen eye for detail.

His contributions to discussions were always observant and insightful, and he wrote with style and substance. He has a knack for description, the teacher said. Beyond his academic abilities, interests and hobbies, Nic was best defined by his spirit  that of a kind, gentle soul, with an easy natural smile.

Another teacher, Jessica Keller, said Del Priore was engaged in the world and was particularly interested in humanitarian issues. When they discussed current affairs, she said, Nic always had a comment, or a question, or an interesting thought to share.... He is a true reflection of a compassionate human being.

His sister, Isabella, said they shared a secret language, and she would always think of herself as a big sister to him.

A friend from GHS, Alex Braverman, said Del Priore was fiercely loyal to friends: He was always looking out for us and his friends, even if he had to go out of his way. When we were struggling with friends, or parents or classes, we always went to Nic.... We all feel blessed by the personal memories we carry of Nic.

The GHS Theater Group, wearing T-shirts from stage plays, sang Seasons of Love from the musical Rent.

Rev. Grant reflected on the wide circle that Del Priore had touched in his short life.

He found all kinds of people, young and old, comics and do-gooder, people who felt great, people who felt lousy, teachers and so many others. Nic kind of collected people, he said. He had a wonderful mischief to him, and people loved him for that, probably more deeply than he ever realized.

In conclusion, Grant said, Even in the depth of our loss, to have known Nic, to be in the circle of his mischief, creativity and love, was a great, great blessing.

Nicolas Del Priore is also survived by his mother, Doris Del Priore. Arrangements are being handled by Fred D. Knapp and Son Funeral Home.

rmarchant@greenwichtime.com
Five nonprofit organizations and two police departments were awarded a total of $46,500 in grants to help improve the quality of life for residents in East Montgomery County.

The Board of Directors of the East Montgomery County Improvement District presented checks last week for the biannual grants, which were approved by the board in May. Roman Forest Police Department will use its $20,000 grant to update radio systems in compliance with the Montgomery County radio system. Montgomery County Youth Services plans to utilize its $6,000 grant to help send 20 children from East Montgomery County to the 2017 Camp Watsitumi. Nonprofit applicants of this type of grant must have at least 33 percent matching funds for their projects; taxing entities must have at least 50 percent of matching funds.
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Organizers are one step closer to changing what they call outdated liquor laws in East Montgomery County.

John Hatch, founding partner at Texas Petition Strategies, and EMC business and community leaders gathered at the Montgomery County Elections Office June 20 to turn in a mound of signatures they think puts them above the 4,461-signature threshold to force a referendum in November on the issue. Hatch said they estimate having about 4,700 valid signatures.

Currently, the sale of beer and wine for off- and on-premise consumption is allowed in the Justice of the Peace Precinct 4, as well as the sale of mixed beverages inside certain restaurants. But the sale of distilled spirits for off-premise consumption, which is the distinction needed for liquor stores to legally sell hard liquor, is prohibited, held over from a Prohibition-era law.

Rick Hatcher, president of the Greater East Montgomery County Chamber, said having the liquor laws changed could help spark more economic development in the precinct.

"It's hard for us to be able to recruit major hotels and things of that nature without the ability for them to have full-service bars," Hatcher said. "Those types of businesses will not come without that. Getting it on the ballot is very important for us to get that going."

An initiative by the Signorelli Company, which developed the Valley Ranch Town Center, fell short of gathering enough signatures earlier this year. The Valley Ranch Town Center is a 240-acre retail development near New Caney started by The Woodlands-based development company.

The petition was sparked in part by a commitment from Spec's Wine, Spirits & Finer Foods to open a location at the Valley Ranch Town Center, according to an earlier report in the Courier, although company officials denied any such agreement last week.

Officials with Election Central have 30 days to tally up the signatures. If the petition had enough signatures, the issue will go to a vote in November.
In a unanimous vote Thursday night, The Woodlands Township Board of Directors set a fee structure to allow organizations and businesses to rent the park and ride locations in the community for events.

Following a public hearing on the matter, the board amended a township order to establish fees for the facilities and permit costs. Board Chairman Gordy Bunch and director Brian Boniface were absent from the meeting.

According to Assistant General Manager for Community Services John Powers, nonprofit organizations can rent the park and ride facilities for $500 for the first six hours and $100 per hour after. The permit fee for nonprofit organizations will be $500. Commercial businesses can rent the facilities for $2,000 per day with a $1,000 permit fee.

Additional costs to rent the park and ride facilities include a $50-per-hour cleaning fee and coverage of any damages plus any additional 15 percent.

President and General Manager Don Norrell noted that while the park and ride locations are federally funded facilities, the Federal Transit Administration allows for incidental use of federally funded facilities. The Woodlands has three park and ride locations: 3900 Marsico Place, 701 Westridge Road and 8001 McBeth Way.

"The township often received requests to use the park and ride facilities for overflow parking," said Powers, noting the staff was not able to grant that use without the amendment to the order.

Powers said there is little capacity at most of the facilities but said the Sterling Ridge Park and Ride is large enough to accommodate events.

However, Norrell noted the Sterling Ridge facility is located close to residential areas.

"With cars and events, you will have music," he said. "We would hope we would be able to keep the music to a reasonable level so it is not an intrusion on the neighborhood. If it is you might see this issue back."

Board member Ann Snyder asked whether events with music could be located at other park and ride facilities to avoid "a potential issue."

Powers said the township would have the authority to limit hours, suggest locations and specific sound levels.

"All those things would follow suit," Powers said.

Snyder asked what organizations have requested use of the park and ride facilities. Powers said the requests range from a construction company needed the space for employees to park while working on a large project, overflow parking for events and car shows.

"If it is disruptive to residents, we can always stop," Snyder said.

Powers said the most common use probably will be overflow parking.

Board member John McMullan said he could see stricter noise regulations for the Sterling Ridge location.

"I think it is a good idea to try and see how it goes and if we need to modify it, that's what we are here for," board member Laura Fillault said.

Board member Bruce Rieser echoed Fillault and added the board needed to be aware of any potential effects on the community.

"If we are going to do anything at Sterling Ridge, we need to be sensitive to that," he said.
Amazon customers love the e-commerce site for the convenience of having household goods to electronics delivered, and after its proposed acquisition of Whole Foods Markets, it may soon dominate the grocery industry too.

Prior to the $13.7 billion acquisition last Friday, Amazon already sold groceries on its website through its platforms AmazonFresh and Prime Pantry. But even with those options, is it cheaper than Whole Foods?
Carol Kaliff / Hearst Connecticut Media

NEW FAIRFIELDTwo of three proposed ordinances were adopted in a special town meeting Thursday. The third ordinance was voted down for what some residents called a lack of detail.

The first ordinance proposed by the Board of Selectmen, which passed, allows the tax collector to waive any property taxes less than $5. The selectmen said this ordinance was suggested by the towns tax collector because in past years, collecting small tax bills cost more than the revenue from the bill itself.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump and his allies are waging their most aggressive effort yet to help Senate GOP leaders pass an expansive health-care bill next week, but the endeavor encountered new resistance Friday when a fifth Republican senator said he does not support the bill as is.

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., announced that he could not vote for the legislation without revisions, singling out the measure's long-term spending cuts to Medicaid as the reason for his opposition. The announcement caught some Republicans in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's orbit by surprise.

It also prompted a Republican super PAC to plan a seven-figure advertising campaign in Nevada to pressure Heller - raising the specter of an ugly intraparty fight that could serve as a harbinger of the political clashes to come during next year's midterm elections.

As the vote-counting effort intensifies, Trump, who has said he supports the bill but it needs more "negotiation," is trying to build consensus both in public and behind the scenes. On Thursday, he telephoned Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, one of the five GOP holdouts, to speak with him about his proposed changes, according to White House officials and a Trump ally with knowledge of the conversation.

McConnell is now scrambling to save a bill that aims to repeal and replace major parts of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He released it Thursday morning after writing it in secret for weeks with a small group of aides. After keeping the White House at a distance during the bill's crafting, McConnell is suddenly more dependent on Trump - mainly to apply political pressure on skeptical conservatives.

At the same time, McConnell is seeking a separate way of winning wary GOP moderates over whom Trump holds little political influence, such as Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who oppose the bill's blockage of federal funding to Planned Parenthood, among other details.

"He's looking at how to bridge a gap that seems to be insurmountable and try to find a way to get this," said Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., a defender of the bill, said in a Friday interview.

McConnell is hoping to bring the bill to a vote next week, after it receives a score from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO will estimate how many people could lose coverage under the plan and what impact it would have on insurance premiums and federal budget deficit.

But he can afford to lose only two votes from the pool of 50 GOP senators, with all Democrats united against it and Vice President Mike Pence ready to break a 50-50 tie.

"It's that very, very narrow path," Trump said in an interview with Fox News Channel broadcast Friday. "But I think we're going to get there."

The White House's strategy is to continue to let McConnell take the lead. Trump is involved only as an encourager, as he was with Cruz on the Thursday call. He is not offering or cutting deals, those familiar with the situation said.

Pence is also playing a supporting role. He has hosted meetings with individual senators to discuss their concerns with the overhaul.

Heller is seen as a bellwether for how the bill is perceived across the country. He is facing reelection next year in swing state where Hillary Clinton defeated Trump but where there is also an active Republican base, which turned out overwhelmingly for Trump during the battle for the GOP nomination. Nevada is among 31 states and the District of Columbia that expanded Medicaid under the ACA.

"I cannot support a piece of legislation that takes away insurance from tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nevadans," Heller said in a news conference in his home state Friday, where he was joined by Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval.

Heller said he is particularly worried about making sure that states that expanded Medicaid under the ACA can continue to provide insurance to low-income Americans. He said the current bill would cap Medicaid payments at a growth rate that won't keep up with the true cost of medical care and could force states to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year to keep people insured.

Heller said he was open to voting for the legislation - but only if leaders agree to changes before a procedural vote scheduled for Tuesday. The changes he is seeking, particularly his call for higher growth rates, could alienate conservatives and threaten the delicate balance McConnell is still trying to strike.

Soon after Heller announced his opposition, Katie Walsh, Trump's former deputy chief of staff, confirmed that the super PAC she now advises - America First Policies - is planning a "seven figure" advertising buy in Nevada targeting Heller. If more GOP senators come out against the bill, they could be targeted in the coming days as well, she said.

Multiple Republicans familiar with the Senate GOP leadership's strategy, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations, said there is a particular focus in winning over two of the four GOP senators who issued the joint statement of disapproval on Thursday: Cruz and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. The other two, Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., are seen by leadership as likelier to vote no.

One of the Republicans argued that Trump holds political sway over Cruz and Johnson. The former is up for reelection in 2018 in is hoping to avoid a serious primary challenge; the latter unexpectedly won a second term thanks to Trump's strong showing in Wisconsin.

The phone conversation between Cruz and Trump was described by the White House officials and Trump ally as substantive and encouraging. It was about hearing each side out and getting a better sense of where things stand, they said. A Cruz spokeswoman declined to comment on the call.

Cruz is pushing for the elimination of more Obamacare regulations and wants to allow people to buy insurance plans across state lines, among other things. He said Thursday that he believes "there is an agreement to be reached."

Speaking of Cruz, Lee, Paul and Johnson, Trump said on Fox News: "It's not that they're opposed. They'd like to get certain changes."

The White House sees Johnson as a likely ally on tax reform and they want to work with him on that. They view his concerns on this bill as more about taxes than health care.

Johnson and McConnell have not always enjoyed a warm working relationship, according to several GOP aides familiar with their relationship who were granted anonymity to speak candidly. Johnson was frustrated after McConnell and his allies nearly wrote off his chances of winning reelection in 2016 and canceled plans for spending in the last months of the campaign. In the months since, Johnson has agitated for a bigger role in Senate GOP circles, particularly on health care.

Many of Johnson's complaints about the draft bill have been about McConnell's secretive process rather than the substance of the policies. He complained about the "speed of the process and the lack of information" on Thursday.

Some in GOP leadership believe he can be swayed through careful lobbying, including by a fellow Wisconsinite: House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Ryan's chamber passed its own bill and is invested in trying to get a bill to Trump's desk. The speaker supported Johnson throughout his campaign with donations, including money for the state party, and by joining Johnson on a four-day bus tour of Wisconsin that included a rally with Pence.

Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said Ryan and Johnson are in frequent contact about issues that affect Wisconsin and "it would be surprising if they didn't talk about Obamacare repeal and replace."

McConnell is operating on the understanding that Collins and Murkowski are less prone to being swayed by pressure from Trump or other national political figures. They have cultivated reputations as independent senators willing to buck the national party in favor of the interests of their home states. So, McConnell will have to find a way to make the substance of the bill more appealing to them to win their votes.

Collins is among the moderates who might join Heller in rejecting the bill over cuts to Medicaid. She has said she is waiting to see the CBO estimate of many people stand to lose coverage and how premiums would be impacted by the Senate bill.

As for the Planned Parenthood provision, Collins said she expects that she and Murkowski will push an amendment to strike it if it is not removed before the bill hits the Senate floor.

Some Republicans predict privately that McConnell has a better chance of winning over Murkowski than Collins. Murkowski has traditionally been more aligned with leadership's interests in her 14 years in the Senate. Her father was a senator, and in her early years in the chamber, McConnell helped advance her into a junior leadership post. Having just won her own reelection last year, Murkowski has more political freedom to maneuver than Collins, who is up for reelection in 2020 and has flirted with running for governor.

Collins has spent more than 20 years forging a singular brand of political standing, emulating her political idol, Margaret Chase Smith, the Republican senator who was one of Joe McCarthy's sharpest critics in the early 1950s.

The two Republicans have become close allies. When they band together, they are a force to be reckoned with - and McConnell has learned that lesson the hard way. In early 2014, when Republicans just expected the two moderate women in their caucus to join Democrats and pass a debt ceiling lift, they refused because they were tired of being taken for granted.

The vote remained open for an extra 45 minutes, just shy of the votes needed, until McConnell relented and his entire leadership team joined the two women in casting the politically tough vote.

Now, the question is whether more senators will join those who oppose the bill in its current form. Each new senator who chooses to do what Heller did on Friday makes the overall task before McConnell and Trump that much harder.

"Certainly it complicated things," said Toomey.

- - -

The Washington Post's Ashley Parker and Paul Kane contributed to this report.
Dedra Sykes had a mother's intuition about her daughter, who disappeared almost two months ago.

She said she would see the teen again. She said technology would lead them to 14-year-old Jennifer Lee Willis. She predicted that the family would locate the girl before police.

Her mother wit proved accurate this week, when Jennifer was found by the family and taken to a hospital. Now they're working to help her recover from the weeks-long ordeal.

"We shouldn't have to find our own child," Sykes said.

The teen first vanished in April after she was punished for talking to strangers in an online chat room. Her parents found her the next day in their Hiram Clarke neighborhood on Houston's south side.

She was gone again on May 5, and the Houston Police Department classified her as a runaway.

Thanks to cloud photo storage, however, the family maintained hope that Jennifer was alive.

Photos and video the girl uploaded on her phone kept showing up on a tablet through a joint family account over the last seven weeks.

Her parents could see that she looked thinner, was wearing makeup and an adult hairstyle, with a long weave or wig and blonde highlights. Some of the videos suggested the teen, who has behavioral and mental health diagnoses, might have been exploited by adults.

Some of the uploaded content include geomapping that helped Jennifer's parents stay on her trail.

"They would only come up sometimes and when we would get to the locations, we would just miss her," Sykes said.

The latest photo popped up around 1 p.m. Thursday.

"She posted a picture and we pulled up the location," Sykes said.

They rushed to a budget motel off Beltway 8 between Westheimer and Richmond.

"There was a guy outside and we showed him her picture and he said she just left and went to the store," Sykes said. "She was right down the street."

Cautious, they hid in their vehicle to avoid tipping off their daughter.

Jennifer's father, Lee Allen Willis, a boxer-turned-personal trainer, speedwalked the less than half a mile from the motel to the convenience store in a Chevron gas station. He saw Jennifer at the Burger King inside, and they scuffled.

Her mother showed up moments later and called 911.

"The people in the store, they don't know what's happening," Sykes said. "He goes to try to help her and these people are trying to help Jennifer get away. It's like a little physical brawl. Then he showed them paperwork. Now we're in a dangerous situation because whoever has her, we don't know how bad they want to keep her. She was not alone. She was with some other girls."

As they waited for paramedics and police, Sykes said several people approached and threatened her.

"They asked me if that was her dad or a police informant," she said.

When a Houston police officer arrived, Sykes said, the officer focused on Jennifer and did not immediately interview the people at the motel room or others who made threats.

The officer handcuffed Jennifer and put her in the back of the police car for safekeeping before the trip to a hospital.

Sykes said she has lost faith in HPD and the people in charge of finding runaways or missing minors like Jennifer. The family got little assistance in tracking the digital fingerprints that could have led them to the teen sooner, she said.

HPD spokesman John Cannon, however, said the missing persons unit had been in frequent contact with Sykes and Willis, and that police followed up on the teen's posted videos and photos.

A lead missing persons investigator worked the case by interviewing Jennifer's school friend, also a neighbor, who said she "had been with her as recently as three weeks ago," but denied knowledge of the missing teen's whereabouts, Cannon said Friday.

Police said earlier this month they believed the teen may have been sneaking into her home to shower and eat when her parents and siblings were away.

Two-thirds of the 566 lost and missing people reported to HPD in April were children, according to a Chronicle review of missing persons reports. The month's cases included 157 missing juveniles, 231 runaway minors and 178 missing adults.

Most are located in short order, though Houston police don't maintain an active list of individual cases. A few never return home, lost to the streets or the morgue.

In Jennifer's case, her parents were the sleuths who solved the case by finding their daughter alive.

"We were giving them the leads," Sykes said. "They're still failing us. They need to be interrogating and finding out: Who are these people? There might be other young ladies in trouble over there."

Sykes is convinced her daughter was lured away from home, but is focused on getting her stabilized on medications she's gone without for weeks.

"This is a business. These little girls are being targeted," she said. "She was gone almost two months. She was in a motel room. You see all these grown men and grown women with her. She's only 14 years old."
HOUSTON  Even as he tried to strike an optimistic tone, the head of the Democratic National Committee acknowledged Friday to labor leaders here that both the party and unions have a daunting task ahead of them.

It is undeniable that this is the most challenging stress test, perhaps  in my lifetime and one of the most challenging stress tests in the history of our democracy, said Tom Perez, the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The Texas Legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott are going after unions again in an upcoming special session; Democrats struck out badly in their efforts to pick up seats in Congress this week; and U.S. Senate Republicans unveiled a health care plan Thursday that many see as a direct assault on former President Barack Obamas signature accomplishment.

But Perez, a former U.S. labor secretary, told the Texas AFL-CIO Convention at the Hilton Americas-Houston that even though the sense of urgency is heightened, he still absolutely believes Democrats  with help from organized labor  will retake the U.S. House in 2018. And he said past legal fights with Abbott show his latest mean-spirited proposals on so-called sanctuary cities can be stopped in Texas.

Perez reminded the hundreds of union leaders gathered in the ballroom that he was an attorney in Obamas Justice Department in 2011 and was assigned to fight Texas and its stricter voter identification laws. Abbott was the attorney general for Texas then.

Your governor is no better (now); I fought with him when I was at the Justice Department, Perez said, explaining how he helped block key parts of Texas ID laws.

Perezs comments come as Texas cities, including San Antonio, have joined a lawsuit in opposition of the new law, which would allow police to question people about their immigration status during routine stops and threatens to punish law enforcement officials who refuse federal immigration holds.

Perez said the Justice Department successfully fought similar proposed laws in Arizona, and they are working with Texas Democrats to help make sure the law here also gets tossed by the courts.

Im confident the same thing will happen here, Perez said in an interview after his speech. Texas is going to waste a lot of money on legal fees that they could be investing in workers and other opportunities.

Perez did his best to downplay the results from Tuesday, when Democrats lost a special election for a U.S. House seat in Georgia. The party was hoping an upset victory would show a tide turning against President Donald Trump heading into 2018.

Perez said in both that Georgia race and in South Carolina, Democrats did far better than they have in decades in those districts. Sure they didnt win either, but Perez said Tuesday showed progress.

I know people are disappointed in the results from earlier this week, Perez said. We didnt quite get to the finish line. But you know what folks, those are beet-red districts.

Perez said there are more than 70 other districts that are more competitive for Democrats than the Georgia race and Democrats will be aggressive in all of them.

Democrats need to win 25 House seats next year that are held by Republicans now. Perez said he is absolutely confident that will happen in 2018.

The Republican National Committee says no way.

In a statement, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said the problem for Democrats in Georgia is the same as what they have going into 2018: no vision.

Obstruction and resistance is not a vision, McDaniel said. Its lost them these last four (special) elections, and itll continue losing them elections going forward.

Perez also used his speech to stress that the Democratic Party is committed to fighting for organized labor. He recounted growing up in a union household in Buffalo, New York, and said history shows that the middle class has been healthiest when unions were at their strongest.

The health of the middle class and the health of the labor movement go hand and hand, he said.

He said in politics there are a lot of twists and turns, but he said the DNC remains committed to helping labor.

The Democratic Party will always be there with you, Perez said.

Texas AFL-CIO President John Patrick said the recently completed legislative session was the most miserable hes ever experience but ticked off examples where unions beat back attempts to go after their memberships.

Unions are at the core of the mighty resistance here in Texas, Patrick said.
Following one of the ugliest and least productive regular legislative sessions in recent memory, Gov. Greg Abbott has called a special session of the Texas Legislature to address 20 items.

I saw firsthand as lawmakers missed plenty of opportunities during the regular session to adopt solutions that would have improved the lives of Texans. But instead of focusing on the real challenges facing our state, they were busy crafting discriminatory responses to manufactured problems.

Thanks to the sheer determination and smart strategies of some leaders, a few sensible policies did manage to get through. But overall, the session exploited divisions between Texans and their neighbors while failing to make investments where they count.

Why was the session so vicious this year? The acrimony and hate didnt take place in a vacuum. Federal proposals from school vouchers to the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act gave fuel to ultra-conservative Texas lawmakers.

Then there were the fireworks between the Texas Senate and House.

Finally, too many state lawmakers spent the session fighting Texas cities and counties, instead of working with local leaders to advance policies that could benefit all Texans.

Emboldened by Trump-inspired xenophobia, Texas lawmakers targeted immigrants and abandoned Texas long-held reputation for sensible immigration policies.

Despite hours of testimony against Senate Bill 4 from law enforcement, local officials, educators and faith leaders, the Legislature passed a damaging show me your papers law. Among the worst in the country, the law will force immigrants into the shadows, threatening public safety and the Texas economy.

Another blown opportunity this session was the failure to enact school finance reform.

The 5.3 million students in Texas public schools deserve a quality education, regardless of where they live or their background. The House crafted a reasonable plan, but zealots in the Senate stripped most of the funding and attached a school voucher proposal that would have used state dollars to subsidize private school tuition  a compromise the House wisely and soundly rejected.

At the same time that the Senate was refusing to pay the states fair share of public school funding  the real way to control property taxes  it was pushing hard to limit the ability of local governments to raise the revenue they need. That was one of many state efforts to steal local control from Texas cities  the engines of our economy.

Though the scheme to cut revenue from local governments failed to pass during the regular session, Abbott added it to the agenda for the July special session. For the sake of the police officers, firefighters and paramedics that local revenue supports, I hope it fails again.

Speaking of funding, I wish I had a nickel for every time a lawmaker complained of what a tight budget we had.

Remember that this sessions budget situation was mostly created by the Legislatures own shortsighted tax cuts and revenue diversions last session. And the state budget they passed this session foolishly leaves billions of dollars in the rainy day fund despite the growing population and changing needs of our state.

Texans will suffer from these state cuts, especially compounded by looming federal cuts to health care, food and education programs.

There were some bright spots, and I am grateful to the many lawmakers, legislative staff, partners and supporters who did bold work this legislative session in the face of daunting odds to fight for Texas families.

Mental health in Texas got a big boost when both houses passed bills that make coverage more accessible and equal, and bolstered programs that help people living with mental illness get the treatment they need and stay out of jail.

Texans who receive surprise medical bills after visits to emergency rooms will now have better protections. And because of advocacy and inspiration from San Antonio grandmothers, kinship caregivers will receive some additional financial support to help children stay with family.

What can Texans expect from the special session?

The most damaging items are deja vu all over again  and bad ideas are still bad ideas. Limiting the ability of cities and counties to raise revenue remains a misguided and harmful policy proposal.

If lawmakers really want to lower property taxes, they should invest in public schools. As of the most recent Biennial Property Tax Report, 54 percent of property taxes are levied by school districts.

Vouchers are still the wrong solution for Texas kids because they would drain money from our public schools to pay for private tuition while remaining inaccessible to low-income families. Limiting state investments by tying the hands of elected officials with arbitrary spending caps is another shortsighted idea that would impact services Texans rely on.

The governor has included a handful of good ideas to the call for the special session, including much-needed raises for teachers, and a bill that would create a commission to study the Texas school finance system. Indeed, its because of our outdated, underfunded school finance system that teachers need raises.

There is also a renewed  though limited  push to address maternal mortality.

As a proud Texan, I expect our Legislature to come together and enact policies that would make Texas the best state for hardworking people and their families. They mostly failed during the regular session, so lets keep up the pressure during the special session.

Ann Beeson is executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin.
The use of public education funding to advance a political agenda during the last legislative session was shameful. School financing will return for a special session on July 18  the governor has requested that a committee be formed on the topic  but that does not alter the failure.

Particularly disturbing was an opinion piece distributed to Texas media in the past few weeks by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. The piece, The truth about education spending, was published in the Express-News on June 9. It claims education bureaucrats have been pushing misinformation insisting that the state cut funding for public schools.

Wed like a pair of the rose glasses through which Patrick is viewing the states budget. To arrive at the same conclusion and implications as Patrick, fuzzy math and ignoring the facts are required.

Patrick goes to great lengths to explain why education funding measures failed in the regular session. But we note that the proposed public education legislation was declared dead after House members rebuffed his attempts to pass a private school voucher program  for special-needs children  in return for his support of increased school funding.

Opponents credibly suspect that this voucher proposal is a Trojan horse for future expansion of such a program to include all Texas public school students.

The point is, the need for Texas public schools is for more money generally.

A strict look at the numbers makes it appear more money is allocated for public education, but some of that is to cover costs for an expected influx of 80,000 new students in the next biennium. There is no new money for schools. The state is, in fact, shifting more of the financial burden for public education on school districts.

Most analyses of the state budget, approved May 30 in the waning days of the 85th Legislature, calculate more than $1 billion in state funds was stripped from public education. The Texas Tribune reports that funding for schools fell by about $1.1 billion and growing local property tax collections are expected to add about $1.4 billion to school funding.

While ignoring Gov. Greg Abbotts request for increased prekindergarten funding, lawmakers passed legislation requiring school districts to use $236 million in existing funding to implement strict, high-quality standards for pre-K programs.

In an interview with Texas Public Radio, San Antonio Independent School District Superintendent Pedro Martinez laments the Legislatures failure to reach a consensus on public education funding. His inner-city school district will have to spend about $10 million that it would have been allowed to keep if House Bill 21, the Houses school finance legislation, had passed.

Northside ISD Superintendent Brian Woods told TPR the district has set its budget with the anticipation there would be no revenue increases.

Going forward, however, there will be impacts, Woods said. After the last big round of cuts in 2011, when some of the those cuts were restored in 2013 and 2015, we did not put everything back. And weve been kind of setting money aside for this anticipation that we could continue not to get any additional revenue.

We should not have to remind lawmakers that figures compiled by the National Education Association for the 2014-15 school year indicate Texas ranks 38th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia on spending on public education.

As they head back to Austin in July, legislators need to focus on the education needs of Texas schoolchildren. Regrettably many of the items on the 30-day special session agenda will be manipulated by those who like to use their bully pulpit for political reasons.

Forming a commission on school financing has merit if it comes up with a formula that eliminates the inequities among the states districts. But it will likely do nothing to address the funding gaps in the next biennium.

And thats where the Legislature generally  and Patrick as the Senates leader in particular  failed.
Two grackles, last seen perched on a wire over lower Broadway back in January, returned for an agonizing reassessment of the way things went.

Ron Nirenberg appeared to be flying against the wind and won. How is it, one of the birds mused in a voice dripping with sarcasm, that www.liberalron.com maneuver didnt work to derail this guy?

The other bird, his shiny wings slightly ruffled, let out a heavy sigh.

No, really! the first bird said, with a giggle, his tongue firmly in the side of his beak. Is it that San Antonio voters were just tired of that kind of campaigning? Liberal Ron wasnt anywhere near as pointed as Lying Ted and Crooked Hillary, but it was thrown out there in the same spirit.

Well, the second bird said as he claimed more comfortable footing on the nearby utility pole, political campaigns get ugly from time to time. And pointing out the liberal leanings of a liberal politician is about as hostile as someone calling us birds of a feather.

Oh, clearly were very different, the first bird said, still giggling. But Ill tell you why it didnt work. The campaign tactic fell flat because voters have had enough of name-calling. Theyre sick of the angry campaigns. Theyve had it, and theyre sending a message.

Maybe. Maybe that kind of campaigning doesnt strike the same chord in this city. Maybe the president ruined it for everybody, and now the rest of us cant amuse ourselves by crafting creative names for those who oppose us.

Or maybe, the first bird, smirking, said, it was because a male candidate could come up with nasty names and win but a female candidate cant?

He noticed that a group of smaller birds gathered on a nearby branch were now hanging on to every word. Taking this cue, he puffed his feathers and continued.

Maybe, he conceded. But the Liberal Ron thing wasnt an off-the-cuff remark the former mayor came up with on a lark. A web presence was established, for crying out loud! Someone came up with this idea, someone pushed it out of the nest a couple of times before it was ready, and someone gave the go ahead to let it fly and  judging by the image she projected to the public during her time in office  it probably wasnt all her. 

A half-dozen more grackles and few doves gathered next to them. The first bird, empowered by the growing audience, turned up the volume.

Well, the term liberal shouldnt be a dig, the first bird said, It has become a dig. Its now a polarizing label. Its uttered with scorn. That label was meant to cast him in a certain light. It was bad play. It was a bad move.

Maybe. Then again  it might make a good quip on the campaign trail, but labels arent just for soup cans, the second bird huffed as more tiny warblers landed on the wire, chirping asides and tweeting dissenting jabs at the grackles. They are indicators of how an elected official will lead. And isnt that vital in determining which way to vote at the mayoral level, even if the city manager does a great deal of the heavy lifting?

The first bird stopped giggling as a few of the smaller birds sitting next to him flitted closer to the utility pole. By now the lines above Broadway looked as if Tippi Hedren were about to drive past.

No matter, the second bird continued, The system  labels and all  works. And maybe the time seems to be right for someone who can rock the liberal label. Nirenberg didnt set up a site calling anybody anything, but he won the votes because he is representative of what the voters wanted. Thats the point.

Thirteen percent of them, anyway, said a small bird who was sitting nearby. And if you ask me  and I know you arent  thats probably a good thing. Too many are influenced by a clever one-liner, an argument that sounds as if its based on facts but isnt, or all manner of nasty campaign maneuvers. And believe me, the noisy, the birdbrained and the easily swayed do flock together.

Luckily, he was able to zip away before anybody figured out who chimed in.

mariaanglin@yahoo.com
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The lead story at the Wall Street Journal describes how Uber, with its top ranks decimated and the company now run by an unwieldy 14 member committee, is begging employees to stay. From the Journal:

In the days after Travis Kalanick stunned Uber Technologies Inc.s more than 15,000 employees by resigning as chief executive, the companys senior leaders made impassioned pleas reassuring them it is worth sticking around. Months of unflattering headlines and an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and sexism at Uber have taken a toll. In interviews, some employees expressed sadness over the companys now-tainted reputation, while others said they were upset with management for allowing its dirty laundry to be aired. Some said they were hopeful Uber could restore its reputation after adopting nearly 50 changes to improve its culture that resulted from an internal investigation into workplace conduct by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holders law firm Some employees said the uncertainty has made it hard to work, especially as they have watched co-workers pack up their desks. Others said they are considering leaving, fearful that Uber could face a struggle to raise new funds. On the other hand, some worry about missing on out a big payday if they leave before their stock options fully vest, which takes four years, or before a reinvention of the company culture. People are leaving because they feel like its on fire, said Nora Hamada, a recruiter with Mirus Search, who said she has helped a handful of Uber employees find work at other startups.

The Wall Street Journal pointed out that waiting for stock options to vest could lead some workers to stay on, but that Uber made them less juicy as its valuation skyrocketed. From a New York Times story earlier this month:

Since at least 2015, Uber has offered employees different versions of the share buyback program. In general, employees who have worked at the company four years and have been granted stock options meaning the ability to buy a certain number of shares from the company at a low price  may sell part of those options back to Uber at a locked-in price. Uber pays the employee for those options over several months. The idea behind the program is that employees can turn some of their paper wealth into cash while still working at Uber. If they quit before the entire amount is paid, the payments stop. Such a buyback targets early employees because participants must have worked at Uber four years or more. About two years ago, when Uber had fewer than 2,000 full-time employees, it stopped issuing stock options in compensation packages and instead issued restricted stock units, which the company is not permitted to repurchase. Uber now has about 14,000 employees.

As Lambert demonstrated this week in Links, none of the initial stories on Kalanicks ouster as CEO questioned Ubers business model or lack of a credible path to profits. Thats starting to change. From a Financial Times story, Can Uber ever make money?:

the challenge now will be to shift Ubers model from one that has been very successful at revenue growth, to one that is more financially sustainable and, eventually, profitable. Some economists say there was no obvious way to do that There is no clear pathway I can see for Uber to go from a high-revenue growth company to a profitable company, says Aswath Damodaran, a professor of finance at the Stern School of Business. Normally the story for start-ups is that as revenues grow economies of scale will kick in, but that story is tough to tell with Uber.. Uber has between $6.5bn and $7bn of unrestricted cash in the bank, with a further $2.3bn untapped line of credit. This could cover the companys cash needs for roughly three more years, extrapolating from its losses during the first quarter of this year. The fact that switching costs are so low between one service and the other  both drivers and riders can easily flip between the apps  means that it can be hard for Uber to defend its market dominance.

In comments, reader Nick Name pointed out:

It is just an app, nothing more. Amazon have built a formidable distribution machine, Googles IP is unassailable, even Netflix is now creating some unique content, but Uber could be replicated by a proficient teenager. Even beyond that the fundamental flaw in their model is that there is no inherent penalty in a driver working for multiple networks nor for the customer using multiple networks. In fact it makes economic sense for the drivers to do this as they can play the networks against each other. In the world where uber owns a fleet of autonomous vehicles first mover advantage would have been huge and unassailable. This is decades away however and I doubt uber will still be around then (not to mention the fact that the motor giants are probably perfectly capable of running their own fleets).

The Journal described in some detail how Liane Hornsey, chief of human resources, and Frances Frei, senior vice president of leadership and strategy, both of whom recently joined the company, are shaking up performance reviews and other policies. For instance:

Rather than numerically ranking employees against one another based on performance and potential career trajectory, and linking the ranking directly with pay, Uber is encouraging managers to help their teams set three or four business goals and broader citizenship goals for the company, employees said. Other changes include training in diversity and adopting a version of the Rooney Rule, which requires hiring managers to interview diverse candidates for all open positions.

Who gets paid and who gets promoted send the strongest signals to employees as to what a company really cares about. But its way too early to tell how these new programs will relate to pay. Moreover, younger workers famously want very specific feedback and individual assessment. A lot of workers may be less than keen about team-based approaches, not just because its by design a big departure from what management hopes will be the old Uber, but also because it seems to go against the grain of the preferences of self-perceived tech stars. Plus with so many top slots open, particularly that of the CEO, who knows how many of these new initiatives will turn out to be provisional or wind up being treated as corporate eyewash.

And on top of that, theres a rearguard action underway:

Some employees are standing by Mr. Kalanick. More than 1,000 signed an internal petition demanding that the board reinstall him. Employees, we need to revolt this! read the petition, reviewed by the Journal.

Some employees also have friends and colleagues urging them to quit:

Theres a lot of peer pressure to quit Uber to work at a more ethical company, Ms. Hamada said. Female employees she has spoken with in particular feel pressured by friends and peers at other tech firms to leave, she said.

And this Mercury News story Friday, Uber sanctioned for refusing to comply with Moraga sexual battery investigation, judge calls companys record horrific, sure wont help:

Uber was sanctioned Friday for its failure to comply with a search warrant for records on a driver suspected of sexually battering a female passenger for more than 10 minutes, with a judge calling its reputation for dealing with law enforcement horrific. Before imposing a $1,000 sanction, which takes effect Monday if Uber hasnt submitted the records by then, Judge Clare Maier blasted the ride hailing company for its history of failing to cooperate with law enforcement, and said she was very concerned the company had an ulterior motive for its noncompliance in the Beker case.

$1,000? No wonder the company is thumbing its nose at the judge. But now is one of the few times that a story like this can do actual harm to the local ride company.

So Uber drama will continue to keep reporters busy. Couldnt happen to a more deserving bunch.
(NaturalHealth365) Strep throat is a bacterial infection that causes sore throat, fever, headache and swollen tonsils. Although possible complications of untreated strep infection can include kidney inflammation and rheumatic fever, the illness usually resolves with no lasting ill effects.

But for one 44-year-old Michigan man, the consequences were life-threatening  and involved the loss of his hands and feet. And, you know what makes all of this so tragic? Its avoidable when you implement strategies to keep the immune system strong.

WARNING: Bacterial infection can lead to amputations

According to WOODTV.com, Kevin Breen, of Alto, Michigan, developed a stomach ache on Christmas Day, 2016. After several days of worsening pain, Breen sought care at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital, where his condition rapidly deteriorated. His stomach became distended and filled with pus, and he began to experience organ failure  which caused his body to redirect blood away from his hands and feet, and his fingers and toes to blacken.

Acute care surgeon Dr. Elizabeth Steensma characterized Breen as one of the sickest patients she had ever cared for.

After a telltale rash on Breens abdomen alerted doctors to test for strep, they discovered the bacterial infection had traveled to his stomach  making him one of only 32 people in the world to whom this has ever happened.

Although Breen is now recovering, the rampant infection necessitated amputation of his feet and hands.

Researchers are trying to determine why Breen was vulnerable to such a life-threatening and dangerous infection. The current theory is that that the infection was caused by an extremely strong strain of the bacteria  to which Breen was uniquely susceptible  but the investigation is ongoing.

What causes strep throat?

Strep throat, or Streptococcal pharyngitis, is caused by the Streptococcus pyogenes bacterium. More commonly seen in children, strep throat can also strike adults  and is extremely contagious.

Although the symptoms can make you feel as if youve been hit by a truck, strep throat typically resolves in 3 to 7 days  with the help of bed rest, natural treatments and/or antibiotics (the go-to solution of Western medicine).

Antibiotics do kill strep pathogens, but  as natural health experts have long noted  they also work against and weaken the bodys own natural antibodies. And, with the growing threat of antibiotic resistance in mind, many look to natural remedies to ease symptoms. If you think you have strep throat, discuss treatment options with a knowledgeable medical professional.

Prevent infections by boosting your immune system

Although the strep exacted a toll on Breens body, his attitude remains positive, and he notes hes happy to be alive. On June 6, he posted a video to Facebook showing him taking his first steps after the surgeries.

Dr. Steensma says the incident highlights the importance of seeking prompt medical care when potentially serious symptoms  such as severe stomach pain  are present. (According to the Mayo Clinic, you should also call a doctor if you have sore throat accompanied by swollen glands or a rash, a sore throat lasting longer than 48 hours, a fever over 101 degrees F, or difficulties breathing or swallowing).

But, equally important is the necessity of maintaining optimal immune system functioning.

Click here to learn more about the Immune Defense Summit and discover the best ways to eliminate the threat of chronic and infectious diseases.

Enhance your immune system with vitamin D

Vitamin D is essential to proper immune system function, with lack of the nutrient linked to weak immune systems and ineffective infection-fighting cells.

In one meta-analysis conducted by Queen Mary University in London, 25 different double-blind, placebo controlled trials examined the protective effects of vitamins D2 and D3 against colds and influenza.

Vitamin D3, in particular, had an effect that was equal to that of receiving a flu shotand accomplished this without side effects or the presence of toxic adjuvants used in vaccines. Vitamin D-3, or 25-hydroxyvitamin D, is produced by the body in response to sunlight exposure. It is superior to the vitamin D2 found in fortified foods.

To ensure sufficient vitamin D levels, experts recommend getting at least 20 minutes of sun several times a week.

If you live in a Northern climate or in an area where there are many overcast days, supplementation may be in order. A typical dose advised by natural health experts is 2,000 to 6,000 IU a day.

Natural remedies designed to ease strep throat symptoms

Reishi mushrooms, strongly antibacterial and antiviral, strengthen the immune system by boosting the effectiveness of disease-fighting lymphocyte cells and natural killer cells  important artillery against bacterial and viral invaders. Reishi mushrooms can be taken as a supplement or brewed into a tea.

Made from the bark of a South American tree, tinctures of Pau darco can also enhance the immune system, with antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects as well.

Sage, with potent antibacterial and astringent properties, is a time-honored herbal remedy for strep throat. You can brew it into a soothing tea by pouring a cup of almost-boiling water over 2 tablespoons of fresh sage (or one tablespoon of dried sage), steeping the liquid for 15 minutes, and straining. You can also gargle with the cooled tea. However, as a general rule, dont use sage tea if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Finally, you can employ the antibacterial effects of apple cider vinegar and clover honey, and the analgesic powers of cayenne pepper, to deliver a one-two-three wallop against strep throat. Mix one teaspoon ACV, one teaspoon of cayenne pepper and three teaspoons of honey in a cup of warm water.

Editors note: Build a healthy immune system, and prevent and reverse infections, check out the Immune Defense Summit  featuring the brightest minds in integrative medicine and science  hosted by Jonathan Landsman.

References:

https://woodtv.com/2017/03/14/strep-throat-leads-to-quadruple-amputation-for-kent-co-man

/naturalnewslinks/2017-03-16-shocking-strep-throat-responsible-for-michigan-mans-quadruple-amputation.html

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/strep-throat/symptoms-causes/dxc-20165964
Authorities say a former counselor to high school students in Northern California is facing more than two dozen counts of having sex with at least two teen boys.

The Record Searchlight reports that 36-year-old Jacqueline Bryce Herron has pleaded not guilty in Shasta County Superior Court to the charges, which include engaging in sexual intercourse.

Herron was working at a group home and a continuation high school when the alleged crimes occurred in 2015 and 2016, the newspaper reported. The boys were 16 at the time.

A preliminary hearing is set for July 20.

Herron could not be reached for comment on the case. Her attorney, Alec Rose, said he was not authorized by his client to discuss her case.
Relatives and residents were stunned by the arrest and murder charges against the father whose 5-year-old son has been missing since late April, most believing that the boy is still alive.

Aramazd Andressian Sr. was arrested Friday afternoon in Las Vegas on suspicion of Aramazd Andressian Jr.'s murder. He was being held there on $10 million bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Sheriff's investigators presented evidence from a search warrant to LA County prosecutors, who deemed it sufficient to arrest Andressian, the statement said. But the department would give no further details on what that evidence was, whether the evidence came from the search at Andressian's or his mother's house, or what Andressian was doing in Nevada.

"I felt very sad," Levon Asatourian, Andressian Sr.'s uncle, told NBC4 Friday night. "I didn't even know he was in Vegas."

Video showed Andressian in handcuffs being taken to jail. His booking photo shows him clean-shaven and his hair dyed a noticeably lighter color.

Investigators have been searching for Aramazd Jr., or "Ara," since his father was found passed out in a park in South Pasadena on April 22. Sheriff's officials say the father took prescription pills and was in a car doused in gasoline.



"He swears to his dad's grave. He says I never would do such things like that to my child. Never," Asatourian said, adding that he's spoken to his nephew numerous times since the boy disappeared.

Searchers have fanned out across several counties to try to find the boy, at least twice narrowing their search around a lake area in Santa Barbara County. Investigators have not recovered a body.



Ana Estevez, Ara's mother, told NBC4 Friday in statement that she's grateful for the support and prayers.

"I will continue to believe my son is alive until (he is) found," she said.

Neighbors in Montebello, where Ara's paternal grandmother lives, maintain the boy is still alive, some speculating that he's out of the country.

"My thought was he was sent to live with relatives in Armenia," Margaret Robles said.

"I feel that he's not here...that he's in another country. I feel that he's not dead," Julie Lazarraga added.

Nicole Nishida, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's department, declined to say what evidence led to Andressian's arrest. A news conference is scheduled for Monday.

The father was initially arrested on suspicion of child endangerment but later released. He once put out a public plea to help find his son. The father's attorney called the disappearance a mystery and has said his client had gaps in his memory.

Rewards totalling $30,000 have been offered for information leading to the boy's safe return.

The Associated Press and NBC4's Lolita Lopez contributed to this report.


What to Know Aramazd Andressian Sr. faces murder charges in son's death

His 5-year-old son had been missing since April

The father was initially detained in the disappearance, but was released due to lack of evidence

The father of a 5-year-old boy who has been missing for two months was arrested on suspicion of his murder, officials said.

Aramazd Andressian Sr., 35, was arrested Friday in Las Vegas in the death of his son, Aramazd Andressian Jr., according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Daniel Nardoni, the suspect's attorney, was shocked by the arrest. He said his client maintained Thursday that he had no idea where his son is and is adamant he had nothing to do with his disappearance.

The Sheriff's Department gave no details on what evidence they had, details about the boy, or what Andressian was doing in Nevada.

Nicole Nishida, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's department, declined to say what evidence led to Andressian's arrest. A news conference is scheduled for Monday.

Investigators have been searching for Aramazd Jr. since his father was found passed out in a park in South Pasadena on April 22. Sheriff's officials say the father took prescription pills and was in a car doused in gasoline.

The father was initially arrested on suspicion of child endangerment but later released. He once put out a public plea to help find his son. The father's attorney called the disappearance a mystery and has said his client had gaps in his memory.

Searchers have fanned out across several counties to try to find the boy, at least twice narrowing their search around a lake area in Santa Barbara County. Search warrants have been served at the boy's father's home and at the home of the boy's grandmother in Montebello.

Rewards totalling $30,000 have been offered for information leading to the boy's safe return. A prayer vigil was held.



In May the boy's mother, Ana Estevez, joined sheriff's officials to make a public plea for her son's safe return, saying, "I will never stop looking for you."

Robert Kovacik and The Associated Press contributed to this report.


San Francisco will be celebrating the LGBT community June 24- to 25. Events will run throughout the weekend, including the 47th annual Pride Parade. Thousands of LGBT community members and supporters will take to Market Street to join this procession on Sunday, June 25. If planning to be one of the many raising a rainbow flag, here are some places that will keep the fun going and your body fueled.

Parade Breakfast Preparation

 Farm:Table: If looking for a locally sourced, wholesome meal, head over to Farm:Table on Post Street. This quaint spot has a selection of items that are simple yet satisfying. The restaurant also changes select menu items during each season, ensuring that the customer gets the freshest ingredients. Make sure to keep an eye out for the rainbow Rice Krispies as well, as Farm: Table is donating 100% of the sweet snacks profits to the San Francisco LGBT Center.

 Mazarine Coffee: Another spot that would make for a stylish start to the day is Mazarine Coffee. Located on Market Street, dwindlers will not have to have to venture far from the parade path to grab a coffee and some avocado toast. Other menu items include Fig and Ricotta Brioche as well as Yogurt Parfait. While a quick breakfast, the food is fit to satisfy both hangover hunger and social media snaps.

 The Village: No Sunday morning would be complete without brunch and San Franciscos Pride weekend promises the best. The Village at 969 Market Street is putting on a Bubbles and Brunch event. Parade-goers will be able to begin Sundays festivities at 9 a.m. The 21+ event will include a variety of food items as well as music.

Lunch and Bar Stops

 The Sentinel: For those who want to grab a quick bite during the parade, check out The Sentinel. This sandwich shop is located a block over from the Montgomery Street BART station on Stevenson Street and New Montgomery. With menu choices for both vegetarians and meat lovers alike, it is sure to please any picky eater.

 Zero Zero: No day of festivities is complete without a good slice of pizza. Zero Zero makes for an open and airy lunch time stop. Along with a menu packed with pizzas, there is a great drink selection to add that pep back into your step. Located three blocks south of the parade route, this Folsom Street pizzeria is worth the detour.

 Mikkeller Bar: The perfect pit stop for a pint of beer, Mikkeller Bar is hidden away just off of the Powell Street BART station. The interior supplies a good helping of exposed brick along with a draft list that will impress any beer connoisseur. Groups can also opt to split for a hearty appetizer as well before heading back out on the LGBT pride path.

Post-Parade Events

 The Cinch Saloon: After the parade is over, festivities will begin all over the city. The Cinch Saloon on Polk Street will recommence celebrations at 3 p.m. Guests will be transported back to a 1977 disco party that would leave ABBA amazed. Along with groovy music, attendees can participate in a best dressed contest and show off their bellbottoms.

 Mezzanine: Also beginning at 3 p.m. is the Mezzanines Hard French Los Homos VII. This 7th annual pride party will be playing out across six different clubs until the late evening hours. Accompanying this party playground will be an outdoor block party as well as a performance by Ronnie Spector & The Ronettes.

 The Chapel: The Chapel on Valencia Street will be continuing the party later on in the evening. Those who choose to dance the night away at this well-known venue will be able to do so free of charge as well. The event will take place from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., and will be hosted by DJ Rockaway.
San Francisco police on Friday said the UPS driver who shot and killed three colleagues last week was armed with two stolen guns and appeared to target his victims.

Commander Greg McEachern told a news conference Friday that investigators have not yet determined Jimmy Lam's motive, but "the shooting appeared purposeful and targeted."

The 38-year-old Lam, who had prior arrests for nonviolent crimes, shot and killed three fellow drivers and wounded two others before killing himself in front of police in the June 14 shooting rampage at a San Francisco UPS warehouse.

McEachern said Lam was armed with two stolen weapons.

He described one as an assault pistol stolen in Utah. Lam fired 20 of 30 rounds from that gun during the shooting. Lam also had a semi-automatic handgun stolen from Napa County and a box of ammunition.

McEachern said it was not known who stole the weapons or how Lam got his hands on them.

An investigation into the shooting spree is ongoing. Investigators are combing through a computer, journal and phones found at Lam's home.

NBC Bay Area's Jean Elle contributed to this report.
Its no secret that living in the Bay Area is expensive, and the number of people living out of cars and vans in San Mateo County has reportedly spiked in recent years.

With stories of homeowners converting to mobile living popping up each week, we talked to Advanture Co., a van conversion company and lifestyle brand, about the #vanlife and its beginnings in a San Mateo employee parking lot.

Families Explain Why They Ditched Traditional Homes For #VanLife

Q&A have been edited for brevity:

Where did the idea for the Advanture Co. come from?



"[Co-founder Brandon Nelson] was actually working at GoPro in San Mateo for a couple years and was unable to afford rent in the Bay Area," said Scott Nelson, co-founder of the Santa Cruz-based company. "Him and a couple of other people decided to live in Sprinter vans with mattresses."

His small business has been rolling out customized vans now for about a year-and-a-half and has evolved into a lifestyle brand, which advocates for what it says is a more affordable and flexible living option than home ownership.

"After four or five months of living on a mattress, we decided to take it to another level. We built out his van over eight months," Nelson said. "So thats kind of how it started.

The van conversion company has already converted and built vans for a folk band, physical therapist, photographers and more.

"The whole idea is basically allowing yourself the freedom to do anything you want," Nelson said. "Thats the bottom line."

Whats the process like?

"Everythings custom, totally varied," Nelson said.

The company works with each client to determine pricing and needs. Depending on the use of the van  whether for work, touring or leisure  can change the outfit of the van, according to Nelson.

San Francisco Couple Transforms Van into Nomadic Home

Do you think the number of people living in vans is going to keep going up?

"I think its going to keep going up if housing keeps going up, Nelson said. "We live in one of the most expensive places to live in the world."

Perhaps because of this, the perception of those living in cars has started to change.

"At first it was thought of as a weird homeless situation, but its now being viewed as more for mobility, to not throw away $2,000 plus dollars rent, to get rid of the mortgage, Nelson said. "Its really an investment if you do it right."

What is the biggest hurdle to joining the #VanLife?

"At the end of the day, to do the "vanlife," you do have to downsize your wardrobe," Nelson said.

But, he says, it isnt a lifestyle restricted to couples and single people.

"You could have a family of four in there if you build it right," Nelson said. "Set up to live small. Dont try to cram all your stuff into it. You dont have to."

And, he says, it comes with a big payoff.

"It simplifies everything," Nelson said. "There are all of these costs that you can eliminate. Every appliance in the vans runs on solar. The only thing you need is diesel fuel and new tires every five to 10,000 miles."

The Advanture Co. will be producing a series of short films with photographer Chris Burkard, after completing his own van. After that, the small team is looking at expanding their company into tiny homes, Airstream travel trailers as well as other cities that might be interested in van conversion services.
A 49-year-old man shot while riding his bicycle in Old Town was part of the latest string of weekend shootings that left a man dead and at least 18 more people wounded across Chicago since Friday evening, according to police.

More than 300 people have been shot so far this month, and almost 1,660 people have been shot this year, according to Chicago Sun-Times data. Of those victims, 290 have died.

Last year, more than 700 people were shot to death in the city. Over the same weekend last year, at least 47 people were shot, 8 of them fatally, from June 24, 2016, to June 27, 2016.

This weekends killing happened Friday night when a 21-year-old man was shot in the head about 6:30 p.m. in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, Chicago Police said. He was standing on a porch in the 4700 block of West West End Avenue when two males who got out of a yellow vehicle, walked up to him and began firing.

He was struck in the head and taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died, police said. The Cook County medical examiners office has not released his identity.

A slew of attacks early Saturday left nine people shot in the span of less than two and a half hours.

The most recent of those shootings happend in the Gage Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side. A teenage boy was in a vehicle at 2:55 a.m. in the 5400 block of South Campbell when someone fired shots, striking him in the arm, police said.. The 15-year-old boy was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.

About 20 minutes earlier, a 52-year-old man was shot in the West Chatham neighborhood on the South Side. He was standing about 2:35 a.m. in the 7500 block of South Wentworth when someone got out of a vehicle and opened fire, striking him in the leg, police said. He was taken to St. Bernard Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.

Nearly half an hour before that, a man was shot in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side. The 18-year-old was sitting in the back of a vehicle at 2:06 a.m. in the 1300 block of North Lavergne when someone opened fire, striking him in the finger, according to police. He took himself to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, where he was listed in good condition.

At 1:53 a.m., two men were wounded in the West Side Humboldt Park neighborhood. The men, ages 22 and 23, were standing on the corner in the 1400 block of North Kildare when a dark-colored van pulled up and someone inside fired shots, police said. The older man was shot in the ankle and taken to Norwegian American Hospital in good condition. The 22-year-old suffered a graze wound to the cheek, but refused medical attention.

Thirteen minutes before that, a 56-year-old woman was shot in the head in the South Side Chatham neighborhood. The woman was walking on the sidewalk about 1:40 a.m. in the 8000 block of South Cottage Grove when she heard gunfire and felt pain, according to police. She was taken Jackson Park Hospital in good condition with a gunshot wound to the side of her head and was later released from the hospital.

Earlier Saturday, a man was shot in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side. The 26-year-old was shot in the arm at 1:14 a.m. while he was sitting on a porch in the 8800 block of South Ada, police said. He told officers he heard shots and felt pain. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in good condition. The shooting was not believed to be gang-related.

About half an hour earlier, a 49-year-old man was shot while riding his bicycle early Saturday in the Old Town neighborhood on the Near North Side. He was riding his bike about 12:45 a.m. in the 1200 block of North Clybourn when he felt pain and noticed he was shot. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg, police said. His condition was stabilized.

Minutes earlier, a 17-year-old girl was shot multiple times in the South Side Grand Crossing neighborhood. About 12:30 a.m., the girl was a passenger in a vehicle traveling north in the 7600 block of South Stony Island when she got into an argument at a stoplight with passengers in a gray-colored car, police said. Shortly after, one of the cars passengers fired shots, striking the girl three times in the right leg. She was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in good condition.

At least nine more people have been wounded in other shootings since 5 p.m. Friday night. Last weekend, 57 people were shot  eight of them fatally.
An Illinois man has been charged after posting online several times that he wants to assassinate President Donald Trump.

Joseph Lynn Pickett of Edwardsville was charged June 15 with threatening the president of the United States, the Belleville News-Democrat reported.

U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Vincent Pescitelli said in a criminal complaint that Pickett "did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, to kidnap, and to inflict bodily harm" against Trump on Facebook.

The posts included frequent profanity as well as detailed death threats to the president.

After making the online threats, Pickett also posted several times that he was "still waiting" for the Secret Service to come arrest him.

The complaint said two of Pickett's co-workers at Lowes contacted the Secret Service indicating that Pickett had posted threatening messages against Trump on Facebook.

Pickett also bragged about having weapons.

"Please call the Cops on me now so I have an,excuse to use my firepower .... AR 15, AK 47, s and w 40, Sig sauer 9 mm. Oh I'm so afraid of the police now..," he wrote.

Pickett will be detained until a trial because the court can't ensure the safety of other people in community due to "mental instability," according to court documents.

A phone message left by The Associated Press seeking comment from Public Defender Thomas Gabel was not immediately returned.
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday signed a stronger gun bill that has been repeatedly pushed for by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Supt. Eddie Johnson as well as former Mayor Richard M. Daley.



Rauner announced the signing, which he described as a "very important bipartisan effort to keep our communities safe," with Johnson by his side.



"This is a very important day, a good day for the people of Illinois," Rauner said, "a very important step forward in criminal justice reform to keep our neighborhoods safer but also to create an opportunity for non-violent offenders to have a second chance and be productive citizens as well."



"Today is a monumental win in the name of the safety and security of those that we serve," Johnson said, noting he firmly believes "this bill is the first step to creating a real culture of accountability in Chicago among gun offenders that will make someone think twice about picking up a gun before they ever use it."

Johnson testified twice in Springfield, personally lobbying for a stronger gun sentencing bill and calling on lawmakers to keep repeat gun felons off city streets and in prison longer.

The bill changes the current gun sentencing from three to 14 years, giving the judges discretion to sentence offenders from seven to 14 years.



Johnson said the "cycle of violence just continues in our city" and believes stronger sentences will send a message.



"Improving public safety is everyones responsibility," Emanuel said in a statement, "and this law will help make neighborhoods across Illinois stronger, safer and more secure.



Critics claim the measure would lock up more minorities when the state should concentrate on creating jobs and opportunity for impoverished neighborhoods.



"Im not seeking to mass-incarcerate minorities or establish additional mandatory minimums, or take guns out of the hands of people who hold them legally," Johnson said when he testified in May. "This legislation gives judges the guidelines to sentence repeat gun offenders at the higher end of the already existing sentencing range."



One of the sponsors of SB1722, State Sen. Kwame Raoul, testified at the same hearing, saying, "This bill is not a cure-all to the violence in Chicago or outside of Chicago, but I do believe it is something that will help."

GOP House Leader Jim Durkin is proposing an amendment to provide a break for first-time offenders, to address those who are concerned that the tougher sentences will send more minorities to prison.

Johnson has long been pushing the passage of the bill, which would create tougher sentences for gun offenders. He told a Senate committee in March that criminals tell him they don't fear the state's judicial system.

"The gang members know that when it comes to judges, the courts and sentencing its a joke. And that should not exist," Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.

Chicago recorded more homicides last year than New York City and Los Angeles combined.

The signing of the law comes days after the beginning of a special session calling lawmakers to Springfield.

The special session has seen little work being done so far and is costing taxpayers $40,000 a day.
The latest healthcare bill cuts deep into Medicaid funding, defunds Planned Parenthood, eliminates the mandate requiring people to buy health insurance and cuts taxes on the wealthy.

Connecticut's U.S. senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal traveled around the state on Friday to spread the word that the healthcare overhaul bill is a bad move.

"This would be a humanitarian catastrophe for Connecticut if it passed, and it would be a fiscal disaster for the state," Murphy said.

Both Senators call the impact devastating, saying potentially hundreds of thousands of people could lose coverage in the state. The two traveled to New Haven and spoke to a large crowd, calling the bill cruel, costly and unaffordable.

"This Republican proposal should be called the Un-American Unaffordable Health Care Plan," said Blumenthal.

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke in Washington and directly addressed the criticism from Democrats.

"They were wrong before, they're wrong again now. Because Obamacare isn't working by nearly any measure it has failed and no amount of eleventh hour reality denying or buck passing by democrats is going to change the fact that more Americans are going to get hurt unless we do something," said McConnell.

Reaction from residents in Connecticut vary: Some believe the bill would end up causing more harm if it passed.

"I think it's definitely going to hit a lot of Americans hard," Elizabeth Carlos from Waterbury said.

Others believe any change is better than the current healthcare law.

"It's not working. It's costing too much money, especially for those who already had healthcare. My premiums went up," Heather Florio from Ellington said.

But with the bill aimed at defunding Planned Parenthood, director of Public Policy and Advocacy, Gretchen Raffa, said it could hurt 30,000 Connecticut patients who depend on Planned Parenthood.

"Simply put, it's the worst bill in a generation for women's healthcare," Raffa said. "What this bill will do is block people that rely on Medicaid for health care coverage from coming to Planned Parenthood for preventative services."

Linda Masci from Clinton attended the gathering in New Haven with Connecticut's U.S. senators. She said she knows how critical health insurance is. Her daughter was diagnosed with cancer at a young age. Masci said she was fortunate to have health insurance and knows not everyone is.

"I saw parents going out to do fundraisers to get money for children with cancer. That's unacceptable in the United States," Masci said.

It's expected the Senate could take up the bill as soon as next week, but no vote can happen until the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's analysis comes out, which is expected early next week.

With no Democrats expected to support it, Republicans can only lose two on their side. Already four conservative senators have publicly said they oppose the current form of the bill. Senator Murphy doubts that opposition will stand. He says for them, they're focused on convincing moderate Republicans it's a bad move.

"I don't think Mitch McConnell has the votes today, but he is really close," Murphy said.
Crews from two area fire departments spent Saturday morning battling a house fire in East Hartford.

A neighbor first noticed the flames at the home at 94 Sisson St. around 3 a.m and called 911.

When crews arrived, flames were coming out of the side of the unoccupied home. Fire officials say that because of the old construction at the home, there was nothing to stop the flames from spreading quickly.

Crews say the fire started in the basement and traveled up, catching every floor of the home on fire.

John Oates, East Hartford Fire Chief says it took crews 90 minutes to get the fire under control.

Oates said there is significant damage to the home, but he doesn't believe it will have to be torn down.

The owner of the home passed away last year and her daughter says that her belongings were still inside of the home. Family has been trying to sell the home.

The fire marshal is working to determine the cause of the fire.
Gov. Rick Snyder is urging the Republican-led Michigan House to pass economic development tax incentives when it meets in July, saying there's still time to lure a Taiwanese electronics giant to the state.

Snyder told The Associated Press Friday the job-creation program is "straightforward" and is about "more and better jobs." House Speaker Tom Leonard canceled a vote on the bills Tuesday, citing concerns that Snyder had cut a deal with Democrats to "undermine" unspecified GOP priorities.

Snyder says "it shouldn't be about partisanship."

Foxconn plans to locate a display panel factory in the U.S. and could announce investment plans by early August for at least three states.

Chairman Terry Gou has mentioned Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Texas as manufacturing states with which Foxconn hopes to work.
A Texas nurse who is in prison for the 1982 killing of a toddler has been charged with murder in the death of an infant a year earlier, and authorities said Friday that they think she may have killed up to 60 young children around that time.

Genene Jones, 66, is serving concurrent 99-year and 60-year sentences at a Gatesville prison for the 1982 killing of 15-month-old Chelsea McClelland and the sickening of a 4-week-old boy who survived. The girl was given a fatal injection of a muscle relaxant and the boy received a large injection of a blood thinner.

Jones was due to be freed next March under a mandatory release law that was in place when she was convicted. But on Thursday, the Bexar County district attorney's office announced that she has been charged in the 1981 death of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer, who investigators say died of a fatal overdose of an anti-seizure drug, Dilantin.

During Jones' time working in hospitals and clinics in San Antonio and elsewhere in Texas, children died of unexplained seizures and other complications.

At a news conference Friday in San Antonio, District Attorney Nico LaHood said investigators believe Jones may have killed some or all of those children because they died under unusual circumstances during or shortly after her shifts.

"She's been suspected in dozens of infant deaths and she's only been held accountable in one," he said.

It's not clear why Jones' actions, involving so many suspected victims, were not detected earlier. But Sam Millsap, a previous district attorney in Bexar County, told KSAT-TV in 2013 that medical records at the San Antonio hospital at one point were accidently destroyed, hampering efforts by investigators to prove their suspicions.

Chelsea McClelland died after receiving an injection at a clinic in Kerrville, northwest of San Antonio, and prosecutors at Jones' 1984 murder trial said the nurse lethally injected children there to demonstrate the need for a pediatric intensive care unit at a nearby hospital.

Other prosecutors theorized that Jones' tactic was to take swift medical action and save some of her victims, making herself appear to be a sort of miracle worker.

LaHood said the new murder charge is based on fresh evidence that came to light and a review of old evidence. He also said the deaths of some of the other children are being re-examined and that additional charges could be coming.

Jones has been consistently denied parole over the years. She was due to be released next March after serving one-third of her sentence under a mandatory release law adopted in 1977 to help alleviate prison overcrowding. The law was overhauled 10 years later.

Jones, whose case has been chronicled in two books, a TV movie and numerous articles, was "emotional" when she was served an arrest warrant Thursday, LaHood said.

"We have every reason to believe that she fully expected to get out next year," he said.

Because of the new charge, Jones will be transferred to the Bexar County jail and held on a $1 million bond while the case is prosecuted. A murder conviction brings a maximum sentence of 99 years. LaHood said Jones is not eligible for the death penalty because Texas did not have such a sentence at the time of the 1981 death.

"We will do our best to ensure that Genene Jones takes her very last breath behind bars," LaHood said.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is among several Republican lawmakers standing in the way of the Senate health care bill from clearing the chamber.

Cruz says he's a "no" but wants to get to a yes, adding that the bill does not go far enough to lower premiums.

Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Dean Heller of Nevada joined Cruz in arguing the measure missed delivering a GOP promise to Americans "to repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs."

"That should be the central issue for Republicans  repealing Obamacare and making health care more affordable," Cruz said. "Because of this, I cannot support it as currently drafted, and I do not believe it has the votes to pass the Senate."

Texas Sen. John Cornyn tells NBC 5 that this bill is a discussion draft, a place to start.

"We are having conversations literally minute by minute, hour by hour with colleagues to try to come up with a consensus bill that will get the support of at least 50 Republicans," Cornyn said.

Cornyn said he is encouraged that Cruz says he wants to get to a yes on the bill.

"Basically what we are trying to do is four different things. We are trying to stabilize the insurance markets, which are now in disarray  premiums have gone through the roof, deductibles are so high that people basically don't have effective insurance, and insurance companies are pulling out of the markets  so we try to stabilize the markets, and we try to bring premiums down as much as we can by providing people more choices. In other words, not a government-approved health care policy but one rather that they want, that serves their needs at a price they can afford. That is Sen. Cruz's principle concern, one that I share," Cornyn said.

"The third is we want to make sure that we continue to protect people against pre-existing conditions. This has been a big issue, particularly with regard to the House bill, and we maintain the law that it exists today on protecting people with pre-existing conditions. And then finally what we do is we put Medicaid, which is a safety net for low income Americans, on a sustainable path, and we give more authority to the states to manage health care delivery to the Medicaid population, like we do in Texas, for example," Cornyn added.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., wants to push the package through the Senate next week, and will succeed if he can limit defections to two of the chamber's 52 Republicans.

McConnell indicated he was open to changes before it reaches the Senate floor, but he said it was time to act.

The Senate bill would phase out extra money Obama's law provides to 31 states that agreed to expand coverage under the federal-state Medicaid program. Those additional funds would continue through 2020, then gradually fall and disappear entirely in 2024.

The measure largely uses people's incomes as the yardstick for helping those without workplace coverage to buy private insurance. That would focus the aid more on people with lower incomes than the House legislation, which bases its subsidies on age.

The bill would let states get waivers to ignore some coverage requirements under Obama's law, such as specific health services insurers must now cover.

The bill has not yet been scored by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO said that under the House bill, 23 million fewer people would have coverage by 2026. The budget office analysis of the Senate measure is expected early next week.
A former Mexican government official once romantically linked to drug kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman was arrested in San Diego on suspicion of conspiracy to distribute drugs, a federal complaint confirms.

Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez was detained Wednesday at around 9:30 a.m. at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry as she tried to enter the United States from Mexico using her visa.

According to a complaint filed in the United States District Court, Southern District of California, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer working the inspections booth at the border crossing used a database to check the status of Lopezs visa and discovered it had been canceled by the U.S. State Department.

Additional checks of the database revealed Lopez is believed to have been involved in illegal drug trafficking and money laundering activities linked to Guzman.

The federal complaint accuses Lopez of conspiring with others to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine in the U.S. between January 2013 and June 21, 2017. Lopez was arrested Wednesday on drug conspiracy charges and booked into the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

She made her first appearance in a federal courtroom in San Diego Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara L. Major. Lopez did not enter a plea, Kelly Thornton of the Office of the U.S. Attorney Southern District of California told NBC 7.

Thornton said there was a question in court about whether Lopez was truthful on a financial document that judges use to determine if a defendant is eligible for court-appointed counsel. That matter will be the subject of a hearing set for June 29.

For now, Judge Major appointed federal defenders to represent Lopez temporarily. She is considered a flight risk, so the government moved to detain her, Thornton said. Lopezs preliminary hearing is set for July 6.

Lopez made headlines in 2014 after Mexican authorities accused her of meeting secretly with Guzman while he was imprisoned in Mexico. Officials claimed Lopez had a romantic relationship with the drug kingpin.

The federal complaint filed against Lopez this week details some of her alleged involvement in an elaborate drug trafficking conspiracy for Guzman and other leaders of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel. She is one of many suspects under investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in a case out of Nogales, Arizona, targeting an El Chapo-led drug ring known as DTO.

The federal investigation has found that DTO transports large quantities of cocaine and other illegal drugs into the U.S., including via Southern California. This is done through a complex, "tiered," secret communications system between Sinaloa Cartel leaders and lower-level members.

According to the complaint, Lopez communicated with Guzman's operatives via cell phones, at times using cryptic messages. She also went by several aliases during those communications.

Many messages detailed in the complaint were about delivering drug proceeds  between $100,000 and $500,000  to certain people in Guzmans network.

The complaint also details encounters Lopez allegedly had with an informant who told federal investigators that Lopez claimed she was with El Chapo on Feb. 16, 2014  the day the cartel leader famously escaped through a tunnel hidden under a bathtub as Mexican authorities raided his house.

Per the informant, Lopez allegedly told Guzman to go to Cosala, Sinaloa, with her because she worked there as a government official. To read the full complaint, click here.

While Lopez will be back in court next week, El Chapos trial is slated for April 2018.

He faces charges for allegedly overseeing the multibillion-dollar international drug trafficking operation responsible for murders and kidnappings. He has pleaded not guilty.

El Chapo is famous for twice escaping from prison in Mexico.

He was recaptured in early January and extradited to the U.S. and has since remained in solitary confinement, in a 20-by-12-foot cell for 23 hours a day. The U.S. government has said severe restrictions are necessary for El Chapo, as he has used coded messages, bribes and other means to continue operating his drug empire from behind bars.
A college student from Ireland who was found nearly beaten to death in a Pacific Beach alley is showing signs of improvement as he continues to recover, according to a friend.

Evan White, 21, was discovered unresponsive and severely beaten in an alley between Law and Chalcedony streets in the early morning hours of June 16. Once hospitalized, he was put into a medically-induced coma.

White is a student at the University College Cork in Cork, Ireland. He and friend Denis Murphy are visiting San Diego for the summer, along with five other University College Cork students. The group has been in Pacific Beach since May 16.

Like many Irish university students before him, White came to Pacific Beach for the usual tourist trappings: a summer job and a cultural experience.

The night before White was found brutally beaten, he had been out in the beach neighborhood celebrating his 21st birthday at several bars and restaurants along Mission Boulevard. At one point in the night, he was separated from his friends. Murphy said he wasn't with White that night because he had to work the next morning.

For now, San Diego Police Department (SDPD) investigators have very little information about what happened to White and why he was attacked. No witnesses have come forward just yet. The investigation is ongoing.

Despite the terrible turn of events, White and his friends are not giving up on their pursuit to enjoy their summer trip of a lifetime. They also haven't soured on San Diego.

Murphy told NBC 7 White is on the mend and now out of the medically-induced coma.

He is doing great. He is recovering very well. His progress is coming along nicely," Murphy said.

Murphy said White's parents flew into San Diego to be with their son. Murphy has been visiting with the family and with White.

Theyre just glad to see their son. Once they heard what happened they were scared, and once they saw him they are fine," he added.

Murphy is hopeful that his friend will soon be back on his feet and that their group from Ireland can continue the summer adventure theyd planned.

We were a little scared when we first found out what happened to him, but hes fine, and we are going to try to move on as best as we can, Murphy said.

Another Irish student in San Diego with White's group told NBC 7 that White's recovery is a key factor in helping police piece together what happened to the college student. His friends are hopeful White will soon be able to tell police details about who did this to him.

White was working a summer job at the Ray's Rentals store near Belmont Park.

Murphy said White is a kind, genuine person, which makes the assault even more baffling.

"Hes a nice guy and completely genuine. Hes harmless. Hes a gentle soul and would never do anything to anyone else and has never been in any sort of altercation in his life," he explained. "Hes one of my best friends. Weve known each other since we were kids."

The group of Irish students plan to stay in San Diego until their original departure date, which is Sept. 10.
With a growing scandal emerging, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck reiterated his support for the cadet program during its graduation ceremony Saturday.

The ceremony came just days after seven cadets were recently arrested for their alleged involvement in stealing LAPD squad cars -- which culminated in two high speed chases and crashes -- and an officer was arrested for allegedly having sex with one of the accused cadets.

Despite the arrests, Beck has expressed support for the program, a sentiment reinforced during his address to cadets and their families.

He conducted a personal inspection of the graduating class before the 11 a.m. ceremony at USC's Galen Center.



Azucena Varela

Ahead of the graduation, he encouraged the media and public to attend "so they can see the other 2,200 cadets who so well served this city and are such good examples of young people in Los Angeles."

"Normally, cadet graduations are a time for celebration," he said.

"They are a time to recognize the hard work of the young people sitting in front of me, the commitment that their families have shown, the commitment of the department to your future, and as a joyous time. And today is joyous, because we will recognize you. I am proud of you."

But Beck also noted it was "also a somber day, because of the events of the past week."

While discussing commitments and lessons learned in the cadet program, Beck reassured parents and cadets about the program as he celebrated their achievements.

"We will take care of your kids like they are our own," Beck said. "We are committed to the safety of these young people and to the development of their futures."

[2017 UPDATED 12/19] 2017 Southern California Images in the News

Officer Robert Cain, 31, a 10-year LAPD veteran, was arrested Thursday for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl who was a member of the LAPD's cadet program. Beck personally took Cain into custody at the 77th Street Division station, where he is assigned. More than 100 weapons, including sawed-off shotguns, were seized at his home, a source close to the investigation said Friday.

Cain's arrest came after the arrest of seven juvenile participants stemming from the theft of three police cruisers. The 15-year-old girl involved in the alleged sexual relationship with Cain is one of those seven, according to the chief.

Three cadets were arrested at the end of two vehicle pursuits the night of June 14. Police recovered the two cruisers involved in the chases, then found a third parked nearby. Four additional cadets were later arrested.

Six of the arrested cadets were assigned to the 77th Street Division program and one was assigned to the Pacific Division. Beck last week suspended the cadet program at those two divisions.

[LA GALLERY UPDATED 12/27] Crimes Caught on Camera in Southern California

The cadets are believed to have pulled people over while impersonating officers and also are suspected of stealing LAPD equipment, including tasers, radios and a bulletproof vest.

Investigators believe the cadets used their knowledge of the LAPD's computer inventory system to check the vehicles out under the name of a sergeant who was on vacation, Beck said.
The tallest building west of the Mississippi River is celebrating its grand opening Friday in downtown Los Angeles.

The 73-story Wilshire Grand Center at 900 Wilshire Blvd. was developed by Korean Air, which is owned by Hanjin International Corp., at a cost of more than $1 billion.

The high-rise is 1,100 feet tall, surpassing the height of the U.S. Bank Tower, which was previously the tallest building in Los Angeles at 1,018 feet. Officials held a ceremony in September of last year when a 10-ton spire was placed atop the tower, which officially made it the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.

The tower features 889 hotel rooms and over 400,000 square feet of office space. The grand opening program will include a ribbon cutting, cornerstone signing ceremony, evening light show and news conference featuring key project leaders and officials, including Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, Council President Herb Wesson and L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis.





CNS-06-23-2017 01:49
More than 100 weapons, including sawed-off shotguns, were seized at the home of the Los Angeles Police Department officer accused of having sex with an underage police cadet, a source close to the investigation said Friday.

The latest development in the cadet program scandal came a day after the arrest of 31-year-old Officer Robert Cain, a 10-year veteran of the LAPD, on suspicion of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old female cadet.

The weapons seized at his Rancho Cucamonga residence included sawed off shotguns, a grenade launcher and inert grenades, the source told NBC4. Authorities were attempting to determine whether any of the weapons were illegal.

Cain's attorney didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.



Video showed officers removing weapons and other items from Cain's home Thursday afternoon.

A neighbor told the Los Angeles Times that Cain keeps a large gun collection.

Cain was arrested around 11 a.m. Thursday by Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck at the 77th Street Division station, where Cain is assigned. Search warrants were served at his Rancho Cucamonga home, on his vehicle, locker, phone and social media accounts, police said.

The cadet program was shaken last week with the arrest of seven juvenile participants for the theft of three police cruisers. Two of those cruisers were crashed June 14 by the cadets at the end of pursuits in South Los Angeles.

The 15-year-old girl involved in the alleged sexual relationship with Cain is one of the seven cadets who were arrested, according to the chief. Beck said the relationship between Cain and the 15-year-old girl appeared to be short-term, occurring "within the past month," but he said investigators were still looking through phone records and social media.

Investigators learned about the alleged illicit relationship when they reviewed text messages on the arrested teen's cellphone, Beck said.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents LAPD officers, issued a statement saying if the allegations are true, "we applaud the department for taking swift action."

"There should be zero tolerance for any officer who takes advantage of those they are entrusted to protect," according to the union. "We are deeply disturbed by this development and condemn this officer's alleged actions in the strongest possible terms."

Of the seven arrested cadets, six were assigned to the 77th Street Division program and one was assigned to Pacific Division. Beck last week suspended the cadet program at those two divisions.

Beck, speaking at a Police Commission meeting Tuesday, said the arrested cadets on a number of occasions impersonated police officers and initiated traffic stops of motorists, although no one who was pulled over was handcuffed, had force used on them or was issued a citation.

The cadet program has more than 2,300 active participants, and Beck continued to express support for the program. He said he still plans to attend the program's graduation ceremony this Saturday, and he encouraged the media and public to attend "so they can see the other 2,200 cadets who so well served this city and are such good examples of young people in Los Angeles."

An LAPD supervisor doing inventory discovered that a squad car was missing from the 77th Street station on June 14, and the investigation quickly identified a female cadet caught on camera driving it off the lot, Beck said last week. Police spotted two squad cars driving in tandem around 9:35 p.m. that night near the 77th Street station, leading to the chases.

Cain, who had been assigned to the 77th Street Station for the past two years and was not formally involved in the cadet program, was being held in lieu of $75,000 bail at the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, according to sheriff's inmate records that did not indicate a pending court appearance.
Police are searching for a knife-wielding, bike-riding man who burglarized at least five homes in Queens and Brooklyn in a little over a month.

The man made off with a heap of valuables, including electronics, jewelry and a bike, from early April until mid-May police said. The NYPD hopes to get him in custody before he strikes again.

Police say he has hit five homes in Ridgewood and Bushwick, with his most recent burglary at an apartment near Putnam Avenue and 60th Street on May 16. He gained entry to the apartment through a locked door. When the man who lived there returned, the burglar said he was a detective investigating a break-in and took off on a yellow bike.

The burglar has stolen thousands of dollars worth of valuables, police said. He gains access to locked apartments by using some sort of wallet-sized device to break into the homes.



Police believe he's behind another burglary on May 11 in which a laptop, camera, rings, watches and a bicycle were stolen. They say hes also a suspect in three burglaries in April, including one in which he pulled out a knife and threatened a 27-year-old woman. He fled on a bike in that burglary as well, police said.

The 27-year-old woman, who only wanted to use her first name, Joanna, told News 4 New York that she caught the suspect picking a lock and trying to get into her home.

Joanna says she confronted the man from a window. She says he denied trying to break into her Catalpa Avenue home and then became defensive.

"He took out a knife, and he said he was going to come get me," Joanna said.

After she yelled, he ran off and hopped on the bike.

"God forbid I was outside. Who knows what he would have done?" she said, adding that she no longer feels safe in her home.

"I hope they find this guy, because it can happen to anyone."

Police said the suspect has worn New York Islanders apparel during multiple break-ins.
Philadelphia Police came to the rescue of a wayward deer who became trapped in the Delaware River Thursday evening.

The deer was trapped in thick mud in a basin next to the Chart House restaurant at South Streets and Christopher Columbus Boulevard on Penn's Landing.

After police received several calls, the Marine Unit was dispatched to rescue the animal.

Philadelphia Police

Sgt. Gregory Caputo said when he and his unit arrived, the deer had freed himself from the mud, but was swimming around looking for a way out of the water. At one point, he swam under a run down pier, Caputo said.

Armed with a dog lasso, the officers were able to snag the deer and pull him out of the 4-foot deep water.

"It didn't give us any struggles or any issues. Once we got it onto the boat, we were able to cover it with a blanket just to prevent it from moving around just so it didn't injure any of the officers on-board," Caputo said.

Caputo and his unit had an an audience of onlookers for the rescue who were thrilled to see the animal saved.

"Customers from the Chart House were all out on the balcony and they all applauded for us," Caputo said.

Officers took the deer to a nearby wooded area, where the animals frequent, and set him free.
The University of Missouri's Board of Curators has voted unanimously to revoke an honorary degree it granted to Bill Cosby.

University system President Mun Choi recommended that the board strip the comedian of a doctorate in humane letters he received in 1999. Choi cited allegations from several women that Cosby sexually assaulted them. Choi says Cosby's actions do not reflect the university's values.

The university said at least 25 other colleges and universities across the country have withdrawn honorary degrees and honors from Cosby since the sexual assault accusations became public.

The Missouri Faculty Council recommended in November 2015 that curators revoke Cosby's degree.

It was the first time the university has ever revoked an honorary degree.
Within the course of five hours over $1 million worth of cocaine seized and a fugitive wanted for homicide was apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Wednesday.

At approximately 2 a.m. officers at the San Ysidro port of entry and PedWest facility encountered a 62-year-old man with a Mexican citizenship, and who was a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., driving a Ford Explorer.

After an initial inspection of the vehicle, CBP said officers noticed discrepancies and sent it for a more thorough second inspection, where a canine team alerted CBP to narcotics.

CBP officers found 28 packages of cocaine hidden inside a secret floor compartment of the vehicle.

The packages weighed more than 75 pounds, with an estimated street value of over $1 million, according to a statement from CBP.

The man was arrested and is being held by Homeland Security for further investigation.

Around 7 a.m., a second incident occurred involving 35-year-old Alex Machain, a U.S. Citizen, who was turned over to the San Ysidro PedWest facility by Mexican officials.

Machain was processed by a CBP officer using the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), which revealed Machain was wanted by the Los Angeles Police Department for murder-homicide, with bail set at $2 million.

CBP officers continue to combat the drug trafficking originations attempts to smuggle narcotics into the U.S. said Pete Flores, the director of field operations for CBP in San Diego, in a statement. CBPs apprehension of the fugitive is a prime example of why partnerships between the U.S. and other countries are useful in assisting CBPs mission of securing the Nations borders.

CBP routinely stops illegal activities like the ones described, according to a statement.

Suspicious activity including human, drug and contraband trafficking can be reported to San Diego Border Patrol at (619) 498-9900.
Eight hikers were stranded on the bluffs at Torrey Pines State Beach Friday night after the high tide rolled in, covering the path the group planned to use to exit the recreation area.

The hikers were exploring the northern end of the cliffs along the 12000 block of North Torrey Pines Road around 8:40 p.m.

Suddenly, they noticed they couldn't use the stairs to get back down because ocean waves had covered the area, Monica Munoz, spokeswoman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) said.

One of the hikers called 911 to request emergency assistance.

"There was a group of eight people hiking and walking on the beach, and the tide came in and cut off their path of exit from the beach," explained SDFD Battalion Chief Lane Woolery.

The hikers were stranded for a little over three hours.

Woolery said lifeguards swam out to the group, helped calm them down and told them to move to a safer location on a large rock.

The hikers remained on the rock while SDFD crews and lifeguards assessed the situation and figured out a way to safely get them out of there.

San Diego lifeguards planned to wait for the tide to recede enough to help the hikers walk out of the area. Lifeguards also had jet skis on hand, in case they needed to reach the hikers via watercraft.

"We just waited out the tide," Woolery explained.

Just after 11:45 p.m., the tide had receded enough for the hikers to walk up the trail alongside lifeguards and other officials.

They were all unharmed; outfitted with backpacks, most of them had smiles of relief on their faces.

Woolery said this case serves as a reminder for all hikers to be aware of the tide times when enjoying beachside trails.

"Any time you're going to be on the beach, you need to be aware of the surf, the waves, rip currents -- things like that. If possible, talk to a lifeguard before you go to the beach to try to get some information; they have plenty of safety information to give you," Woolery added.
One of the moderators of a private Facebook page for active and retired U.S. military service members is defending the group after facing criticism over inappropriate and lewd comments posted to the social media page.

The so-called "Mendleton" Facebook page started a few years ago as a locally-based social media group for service members around Camp Pendleton. Currently, it has over 37,000 members from across the nation.

Patrick Shaughnessy, 26, a moderator for the Facebook page, said he has generally received praise for creating the page, considered by many to be a supportive outlet for the military community.

"It's one of the greatest community gatherings that I've personally witnessed," said Shaughnessy. "From the veteran community, we've received nothing but praise."

Shaughnessy describes the page as an online platform where service members can connect, share jokes and vent. They can also address more serious issues like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and most importantly, suicide prevention.

When a member of the Facebook group posted a picture implying he was going to kill himself, Shaughnessy said the online community didn't waste time.

"Within a half-hour, we had gotten people to him," said Shaughnessy. "He was in the middle of the forest. We were on the phone with a sheriff [deputy] standing over him."

The social media page recently garnered negative attention for some crude and sexually suggestive comments about a disabled woman and a teenage girl.

One of the posts stated, "I can't wait for her to start doing porn."

The group's administrators said some disturbing comments are bound to fall through the cracks.

"As soon as we are made aware of the comments or posts, or anything that's inappropriate or shines a bad light on the person and the page, it's gone," said Shaughnessy. "None of us have any control over that. It's more of a societal issue."

The page is not directly connected to Camp Pendleton. It's managed by a group of young veterans, most of whom are in their mid 20s and early 30s.

Camp Pendleton issued a statement to NBC 7 about the "Mendleton" Facebook page and the group that manages it.

"They have the ability to police, ban [and] shut down derogatory information on their closed site," said Carl Redding, a spokesman for Camp Pendleton.

Back in March, a nationwide scandal broke when marines posted nude and compromising photographs of their female colleagues on a Facebook page titled 'Marines United.'

The controversy led the Marine Corps to update its social media guidelines with harsher consequences for online misconduct.

Referring to the "Mendleton" page, Camp Pendleton officials released the following statement:

"Any active duty Marine found to be engaging in inappropriate activity will be investigated and held accountable by their commands if found guilty. If active duty Marines are participating in derogatory behavior online they are violating the UCMJ and what it means to be a Marine and a good citizen of this county."

Camp Pendleton officials also highlighted that they cannot punish those who are not on active duty.

"I can't think of a certain situation where 'Mendleton' has been mentioned in a negative light," said Shaughnessy. "We really do do our best to make sure those comments are deleted immediately."

The Marine Corps' social media guidance is available here.
A new technology called the ShotSpotter has been installed on the campus of the University of California, San Diego.

As its name indicates, the technology promises to pinpoint gunshots and quickly notify authorities.



The city implemented ShotSpotter in several San Diego neighborhoods it at a cost of almost a quarter of a million dollars a year.

NBC 7's questions to UC San Diego about cost and where the university is getting the money went unanswered Wednesday.

In a statement, UC San Diego's Campus Police Chief David Rose, said, in part:

"There has not been any specific incident that prompted the university to install the ShotSpotter system...It is a proactive measure to increase campus safety."

ShotSpotter promises to detect gunfire and explosions within 20 feet of the origin, and alert authorities in real time, bypassing 911 or dispatch systems.

It is a series of strategically placed audio receptors. The sensors capture data and a recorded audio file and then send it to the company's incident review centers. Experts review the data and can even add extra information such as whether there are multiple shooters or if is a high capacity weapon being used.

An alert with a map and location information is sent to emergency dispatch and other authorities in seconds.

In his statement, Rose said, "The technology, used by municipalities, universities and critical infrastructure applications, will enhance security for the UC San Diego campus, enabling a more rapid response."

After a further inquiry, NBC 7 did get some answers to its questions Friday afternoon.

In an e-mail, Judy Piercey, a spokesperson for UC San Diego said the ShotSpotter system has a one-time installation fee estimated at $46,000. The annual lease (recurring), maintenance and 24/7 monitoring cost about $71,000.

The funding comes from the UC San Diego annual operating budget.

In response to if the university considered other ways to spend the money to enhance safety, and why the Shotspotter was chosen, given that shootings on campus are rare, Piercey wrote:

"UC San Diego Police Chief David Rose likens the ShotSpotter gunshot location and detection system to fire alarm systems in all of the campus buildings. You install them and hope to never have a fire, but if you do  the detection and subsequent warning may save lives. ShotSpotter, like fire alarm systems, is a preventive measure to ensure the security and safety of the UC San Diego campus community. If even one life is saved, it is worth every dollar."

Piercey also wrote the sensors are installed throughout campus and "cover approximately 2-square-miles, which includes the UC San Diego main campus, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and all ARCH Housing properties (including Mesa and La Jolla Del Sol). Alert Data is shared with SDPD (Northern Division) on a real-time basis."
What to Know Ramadan, Islam's holy month of fasting and prayer, ends Saturday.

Organizations in the D.C. area say charitable donations made during Ramadan help Muslims and non-Muslims in our region and beyond.

The head of one nonprofit compared Muslims' donations during Ramadan to Christians' donations during Christmas.

When a low-income family in Northern Virginia needs food for dinner, Asad Zia steps up.

The D.C. management consultant says he regularly delivers meat from his in-laws' store to the Foundation for Appropriate and Immediate Temporary Help (FAITH), a Muslim organization in Herndon, Virginia, that helps low-income families and domestic abuse victims of all faiths in Northern Virginia.

"One of things that attracted me to FAITH is, even though they are an Islamic charity, they help everybody, which is really what Islam is all about," he said.

Ramadan -- Islams holy month of prayer and dawn-to-dusk fasting -- is a major time for charity for Muslims, and the donations help Muslims and non-Muslims in our region and around the world.

FAITH expects to receive at least $500,000 through Saturday night, which marks the end of Ramadan and the start of Eid al-Fitr celebrations, said the group's director of business development, Fakhir Ahmad.

Thousands of mourners of many faiths attended Wednesdays funeral for Nabra Hassanen, the 17-year-old Virginia high school student was murdered over the weekend as she walked with a group of friends to a mosque. Meagan Fitzgerald reports.

A lot more clients will come in and say, You werent able to help me out before Ramadan. Do you have any funds that will help me pay my rent? he said. We get a lot busier, in terms of helping clients, the two months after Ramadan really. People who we couldnt help, were helping them.

Islam requires that Muslims give zakat, a donation of at least 2 percent of their wealth, to the poor, said Imam Talib Shareef of Masjid Muhammad, on 4th Street NW in the Shaw neighborhood of D.C. Muslims can fulfill this responsibility at anytime; however, many choose to do so during Ramadan, Shareef said.

Everything you do during Ramadan is, like, supersized in terms of blessings, the imam said. No other month on the Islamic calendar gives you more rewards for doing good than the month of Ramadan.

In D.C., the group the Human Development Foundation also is expecting their Ramadan donation total to be high. They had accepted more than $47,000 in zakat as of Friday. Some of the donations were made through LaunchGood, a crowdfunding platform designed for Muslim charitable efforts.

The funds will help provide education, clean water and health care to high-poverty communities in Pakistan, chapter president Sharmeen Khan said. Just $50 is enough to provide 25 children with school uniforms, she said

In Bethesda, Maryland, the the Islamic-American Zakat Foundation also is expecting donations in the final days of Ramadan. The foundation provides food, shelter, clothing and transportation for people in D.C., across and the country and abroad.

News4's Jackie Bensen reports police are looking into whether she was sexually assaulted.

Khan, the chapter president of the organization that serves Pakistanis, compared zakat giving for Muslims to Christmastime charity for Christians.

During Christmas, you tend to give more, because youre spending on your own family, but you feel like you want to share it with people who are more needy, she said. I think its the same kind of thought process. Regardless of faith, during your religious and more holy times of the year, you tend to give more.
A customer inside a diner in Northeast D.C. was shot during a robbery attempt Friday afternoon, and D.C. police are searching for two men.

D.C. police Chief Peter Newsham tweeted a photo of two people wearing light-colored hooded sweatshirts on the sweltering day.

The shooting occurred about 2:30 p.m. inside a small restaurant on Kenilworth Avenue near Douglas Street in Deanwood, D.C. police said. The restaurant officially is called Breakfast Place, but many people in the area know it as Mary's Place.

The victim was shot during an attempted robbery about half an hour before the restaurant closed for the day.

A woman who has worked in the restaurant for a decade said she was terrified when the armed men entered.

"Where's the money at?" one man asked, she said.

As a worker opened the register, a man stood on the corner, waved a gun and then shot a young man, she said.

He was wounded. Police said he's expected to be OK.



Police combed the scene for evidence, and K-9 dogs searched outside.

Customer Willie Nicholson said he could see trouble was coming.

"When I went in there at 12 o'clock, there was a bunch of young kids in there, and they shouldn't have been in there," he said. "You could feel it."

Anyone who recognizes the men is asked to call police.
A Washington, D.C., council member is asking for the U.S. Park Police to clarify why teenagers were handcuffed on Thursday for selling bottled water on the National Mall.

According to Sgt. Anna Rose of the U.S. Park Police, shortly after 5 p.m., officers detained the three teens at 12th Street and Jefferson Drive, Northwest, for illegally vending.

A witness took photos of the three teens -- all of whom are black -- being handcuffed by the plainclothes police officers, which were shared widely on social media.



The teens, two of whom are 17 and the other 16, told officers they did not have a vendors permit, which is required to sell items on the National Mall, Rose said.

Officers placed them in handcuffs for the safety of the officers and of the individuals, Rose said on Friday.



Democratic D.C. Council member Charles Allen, who chairs the public safety committee, wrote a letter to Park Police Chief Robert MacLean on Friday, asking him to explain the agency's actions.

[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More

In the letter, Allen wrote he believes the officers' actions would've been different if it were different children who were operating a lemonade stand in the same location.

"While still the same violation of selling a beverage without proper permits and licenses," Allen wrote. "I doubt we would have seen little girls in pigtails handcuffed on the ground."

I would appreciate your response in reviewing yesterdays events. I would also appreciate knowing how standards and expectations will be evenly applied in the future, Allen said in the letter.

The witness who took photos of the teens in handcuffs had a similar reaction to Allen.

"There's obviously a racial disparity in how they are treating these young men and other vendors that we see on the mall," said Tim Krepp.

According to Rose, the teens were eventually released to their guardians with a verbal warning from Park Police regarding illegal vending. Their belongings were also returned to them.

Read Allen's full letter below.

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Military chiefs will seek a six-month delay before letting transgender people enlist in their services, officials said Friday.

After meetings this week, the service leaders hammered out an agreement that rejected Army and Air Force requests for a two-year wait and reflected broader concerns that a longer delay would trigger criticism on Capitol Hill, officials familiar with the talks told The Associated Press.

The new request for a delay will go to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for a final decision, said the officials, who weren't authorized to discuss the internal deliberations publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Transgender servicemembers have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban, declaring it the right thing to do. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

But Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to newly join the military, if they meet physical, medical and other standards, and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months. The military chiefs had said they needed time to study the issue and its effects on the readiness of the force before taking that step.

Officials said Friday that the chiefs believe the extra half-year would give the four military services time to gauge if currently serving transgender troops are facing problems and what necessary changes the military bases might have to make.

The chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps discussed the matter with Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work on Thursday, officials said.

Dana White, the Pentagon's chief spokeswoman, said there have been ongoing discussions with the service chiefs and a recommendation is expected, but she declined to disclose any details.

"It's been a very deliberative process," she said. "The deputy secretary of defense has not submitted a recommendation to the secretary yet and so no decision has been made."

Stephen Peters, spokesman for Human Rights Campaign, said the group is disappointed with the delay request.

"Each day that passes without implementing the final piece of this important policy harms our military readiness and restricts the Armed Forces' ability to recruit the best and the brightest," said Peters, a Marine veteran. "There are thousands of transgender service members openly and proudly serving our nation today, and as they've proven time and time again, what matters is the ability to get the job done  not their gender identity."

Already, there are as many as 250 servicemembers in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagon's personnel system, according to several defense officials.

According to several officials familiar with the matter, three of the four services wanted more time. In recent weeks, Navy officials suggested they would be ready to begin enlistment in July but asked for a one-year delay, largely to accommodate a request from the Marine Corps for more time, officials said. The Navy secretary also oversees the Marine Corps.

The Army and Air Force wanted a two-year delay to further study the issue, said the officials, who were not authorized to talk about the internal discussion publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Officials said there was a broad recognition that allowing transgender individuals to enlist affects each service differently. They described the biggest challenge as the infantry. They said the discussions aimed at a solution that would give recruits the best chance of succeeding, while ensuring the services maintain the best standards for entry into the military.

Service chiefs will also require that transgender recruits be stable in their preferred genders for at least two years, an increase from Carter's earlier plan to allow 18 months, the officials said. The chiefs also want to review the policy in a year to see how things are working, the officials said.

Key concerns are whether currently enlisted troops have had medical or other issues that cause delays or problems with their ability to deploy or meet physical or other standards for their jobs. Military leaders also want to review how transgender troops are treated, if they're discriminated against or have had disciplinary problems, the officials said.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate committee last week there have been some issues identified with recruiting transgender individuals that "some of the service chiefs believe need to be resolved before we move forward." He said Mattis is reviewing the matter.

The military services have various ways of counting the number of transgender troops currently serving. The Pentagon has refused to release any data. But officials said there are 42 servicemembers across the Army, including the National Guard and Reserve, who have been approved to change their gender identities in the personnel system. At least 40 more are in the process of transitioning, they said.

Officials said there are about 160 sailors in the Navy who are somewhere in the process of gender transition. That could include counseling, hormone treatment or gender reassignment surgery. And about "a handful" of Marines have come forward to seek medical care involving gender transition, and there are possibly others going through the process with their commanders, officials said.

The Air Force refused to release any numbers, and other officials did not know those details.

A RAND study found that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members in the active duty military, and another 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.
John Podesta will answer questions next week in a closed session from the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating the Russian meddling in last year's election, NBC News reported.

Podesta was Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign manager. The committee will likely focus on the emails from his Gmail account published by WikiLeaks during the closing months of the campaign.

That time period is a key part of the hacking attack that U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded was carried out by Russians.
A little girl amid a pile of bodies was rescued by an American aid worker sprinting out from behind a tank in the besieged city of Mosul despite the threat of ISIS sniper fire this month. The moment, captured on video, shows the devastation of Iraq's struggle to end the ISIS insurgency.

The video shows veteran Dave Eubank rush through a cloud of smoke toward the corpses as two other men from his group provide covering fire from behind a tank. Seconds later, he reemerges with the girl scooped in his right arm and passes her off to another volunteer from his group, a Syrian refugee who speaks to the girl in Arabic.

"I just prayed to God and told her I'd knew we'd save her," Eubank said. "I told her in English, as we're running through the gunfire, 'If no one will have you, if there's nowhere out there for you, don't worry. I'll adopt you.'"

The footage captures the harrowing reality that civilians face amid the battle for Mosul, and it's been shared widely online. One tweet showing the incident has more than 16,000 retweets, and he's earned praise from Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., among others.

Street-by-street fighting has left much of Mosul in northern Iraq crumbling, and ISIS has increasingly been killing civilians as it struggles to maintain control, according to Eubank and the United Nations, whose human rights division found credible reports that it slaughtered at least 204 people over three days  including at the gutted Pepsi factory where Eubank's rescue took place.

On Tuesday in the city, ISIS destroyed the iconic mosque where it announced its caliphate in 2014 as Iraqi forces approached, according to the Iraqi government.

Eubank, who served in the U.S. Army Special Forces and is from Southern California, told NBC that his rescue was part of a coordinated effort on June 2 to save the few people who survived a mass attack.

Thirteen-year-old Amna Mahmoud Alo cannot sleep and spends her days in a tranquilizer-induced calm, as fighting in her home of Mosul, Iraq, has left her emotionally shattered.

A crowd of 30 to 40 civilians had been gunned down outside the former Pepsi factory while trying to flee their neighborhood in the northwest part of the city.

"We see ISIS shooting people daily, but not in those numbers," he said. "They're just sweeping the highway with fire, killing anyone trying to flee, and there were a couple of living people among the dead."

Eubank and his aid organization, the Free Burma Rangers, had been called in by Iraqi forces the day before to provide medical aid to wounded civilians. After hearing from victims that there were still survivors, the group hatched a plan with the U.S. military to rescue them, including the young girl.

The video begins just after U.S. forces had dropped smoke canisters in order to conceal Eubank  who is wearing only a helmet and bulletproof vest  and a team of American and Iraqi soldiers conducting the rescue, he said.

[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More

Other videos from the rescue that he provided to NBC show Eubank and his team rescuing a young man from the same pile of bodies moments later, then carrying the pair to safety.



Eubank said he founded the Free Burma Rangers, which is currently embedded in the Iraqi army's 9th division, after leaving his army post in order to "serve God in a different way" and "help people, with the freedom to do it."

Besides medics and aid workers, every team includes a videographer to capture and spread news about the atrocities of the war zones where they work.

"We video everything: refugees getting fed, people having fun, people getting shot," Eubank said. "I've been doing this for 20 years, and many of the people I meet say, 'Please tell the Americans about us, please tell the Americans we need help.'"

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He added, "We want people to know the Iraqis are wonderful people and worthy of being helped."

The little girl he rescued was taken to the hospital "terrified, devastated and dehydrated," Eubank said, and is now in the care of an Iraqi general. Though calls have been put out on social media in search of any surviving relatives, the general is filing adoption papers in the increasingly likely case that no one is found.
A massive, 5-alarm fire broke out Friday at an abandoned mill building in Sanford, Maine.

Crews from around 20 communities, including more than 100 firefighters, responded to the blaze, which was reported shortly before 7 p.m., according to affiliate WCSH.

Fire officials said the Stenton Trust Mill building at 13 River St. was considered very dangerous and has previously caught fire.

According to WCSH-TV, fire officials were worried that the building might collapse prompting warnings to keep firefighters a safe distance away.



"A lot of the fire is contained to the original building," Sanford Fire Chief Stephen Cutter said. "We've backed all units away from the building. It looks like one of the walls is bowing, so we've created a collapse zone around it."

No firefighters have gone inside, and no injuries have been reported.

Crews from Alfred, Lebanon, Ross Corner, North Berwick, Kennebunk and Acton are among those who responded.

Sanford Police are asking people to avoid the area while crews continued to battle the blaze into the morning hours.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Fire officials were asking anyone with information relating to the incident to call their tip line at 207-324-3644, x 170.
A woman has been arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of her boyfriend at their home Friday, in Brockton, Massachusetts, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney's office.

Police arrested Kristen Smith, 54, and charged her with one count of murder in the death of 53-year-old Scott Benoit.

Officers had responded to 65 Magure Rd. on Friday just after 1 p.m. for a report of a stabbing where they found Benoit dead.

Smith was initially taken into custody for questioning.

Following an investigation, Brockton Police and State Police Detectives assigned to the Plymouth County District Attorneys Office recovered a knife, along with other evidence at the scene and arrested Smith in connection with the murder Friday night.

"This is really devastating for not only his family, but anyone who had the pleasure of knowing him," said Benoit's son, Justin Benoit. "He was an incredible and giving person and deserves to be remembered in a positive light. We are all still in shock over the whole situation."

Neighbors said just about a month ago, Smith had been trying to get into people's homes.

"Asking me if I could bring her to the liquor store," said Tianna Tessier. "Slurring her words. I told her, 'You need to get out of my house, I'm going to put my hands on you if you don't get out of my house.'"

Joseph Lussier said Smith tried to get into his aunt's house that same day.

"She told her, 'No, we're not taking you to the store,'" said Lussier. "Then she tried to ask more people for rides, and that's when the cops were called."

Smith is currently being held and is scheduled to be arraigned on the murder charge Monday in Brockton District Court.

A motive for the stabbing is unclear.
An adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign who called for Hillary Clinton to be shot is visiting the White House.

Al Baldasaro attended a veterans event Friday just hours before White House press secretary Sean Spicer denounced a play for seemingly urging violence against the president.

Baldasaro, who advised Trump on veterans issues, said last summer that he believed Clinton "committed treason" for putting American lives at risk while secretary of state.

He then said "anyone that commits treason should be shot."

Baldasaro attended an East Room ceremony Friday as the president signed a bill into law that will make it easier for the Department of Veterans Affairs to fire employees.

Spicer criticized a New York production of "Julius Caesar" that dressed the assassinated Roman leader like Trump.
It was such a fantastic response from a generous community"

WEST Berkshire residents have responded to the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy in London by donating essential supplies.

Judith Bunting, who was the Liberal Democrat candidate for Newbury in the recent general election, said she began receiving calls from constituents soon after news broke of the horror in North Kensington on June 14.

She added: Day by day, news about the scale of the disaster worsened and more and more offers of help came in from people around Newbury.

Within hours, people had come forward from across the local area with enough offers of clothing, nappies, toiletries and shoes, to fill my car to the brim.

It was such a fantastic response from a generous community and, on Monday, I drove back (to the relief centre) where our donations were welcomed with grateful thanks.

Ms Bunting went on: Its hard to say how moving it is to approach the burned-out shell of the tower, passing all the fences and walls where people have posted names, photos, flowers, poems and prayers to people who are missing or lost.

Working with a fine crowd of people, I helped to unload donations and sort them into useful categories: womens, mens, childrens, baby clothes, nappies.

The good news is that no more donations of clothes and household goods are needed.

Meanwhile, I hope the investigation into the causes of the fire will be allowed to run unfettered, so residents and their families can enjoy a prompt conclusion.

We all need to be sure that any person or organisation that contributed to such a cruel blaze is dealt with appropriately.
Its important that we celebrate our culture in the local area"

THAI Buddhists gathered in Newbury last Saturday (June 17) in a ceremony to celebrate their culture.

The event also raised funds for the Wat Phra Singh UK temple in Runcorn.

Organised by Newbury resident Noi Davis, more than 60 Buddhists came together for the celebration which also welcomed three Buddhist monks from Wat Phra Singh UK, a registered charity aimed at promoting Theravada Buddhism in the UK.

Mrs Davis said: It went very well. The weather was lovely, it was so hot and people from all over the area came to celebrate  of all ages too.

The youngest was a two-month-old baby, who received a special blessing from the monks.

The celebrations, held at Mrs Davis home, also included a mini market and an auction to boost the fundraising total.

Mrs Davis, who has lived in Newbury for 37 years, has been organising the annual gathering for more than a decade and said that it provided a good way to celebrate Buddhism in the local area.

Its important that we celebrate our culture in the local area, she said

Its a good way to keep it alive.

We need to keep it going and if we dont do things like this it would die out.

More than 660 was raised for the temple.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Auto major Ford India has recalled 39,315 units of Fiesta Classic and the previous-generation Figo models made at its Chennai plant in India to rectify faulty power assisted steering hose.

The recall affects units of both models, two of the most popular in the Ford India stable, manufactured in the Chennai plant between 2004 and 2012. The company, through its dealers, will replace the high pressure power assisted steering hose on all affected vehicles, a company statement said.

Ford also added that it remains committed to delivering world-class quality vehicles to its customers and this voluntary safety recall is part of that commitment.

In a bid to increase road safety standards, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) had introduced the Voluntary Code on Vehicle Recall effective from July 1, 2012. The code addresses potential issues that exist in motor vehicles that do not meet safety requirements due to a manufacturing defect and subsequent remedial actions. Put together after a consensus was arrived at with member automobile companies over 18 months, the code places the onus on the manufacturer to recall a defective vehicle be it a two-wheeler, car or a commercial vehicle. SIAM had indicated that should the government draw up an alternate mandatory code, it will not be averse.

This is not the first such recall by Ford India, which had recalled 1,66,021 units of Figo and Fiesta Classic models in September 2013 to rectify faulty rear twist beam and the power steering hose. In 2016, Ford recalled around 42,300 units of hatchback Figo and sedan Figo Aspire to fix a software glitch, with potential to malfunction of airbags during a collision.

In November 2015, the US auto major had to recall 16,444 units of compact SUV EcoSport in India to fix faulty rear twist beam bolt, a part in vehicles suspension. Other OEMs, including Honda Cars and Volkswagen have also made recalls this year.

NEW DELHI: Auto major Ford India has recalled 39,315 units of Fiesta Classic and the previous-generation Figo models made at its Chennai plant in India to rectify faulty power assisted steering hose. The recall affects units of both models, two of the most popular in the Ford India stable, manufactured in the Chennai plant between 2004 and 2012. The company, through its dealers, will replace the high pressure power assisted steering hose on all affected vehicles, a company statement said. Ford also added that it remains committed to delivering world-class quality vehicles to its customers and this voluntary safety recall is part of that commitment. In a bid to increase road safety standards, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) had introduced the Voluntary Code on Vehicle Recall effective from July 1, 2012. The code addresses potential issues that exist in motor vehicles that do not meet safety requirements due to a manufacturing defect and subsequent remedial actions. Put together after a consensus was arrived at with member automobile companies over 18 months, the code places the onus on the manufacturer to recall a defective vehicle be it a two-wheeler, car or a commercial vehicle. SIAM had indicated that should the government draw up an alternate mandatory code, it will not be averse. This is not the first such recall by Ford India, which had recalled 1,66,021 units of Figo and Fiesta Classic models in September 2013 to rectify faulty rear twist beam and the power steering hose. In 2016, Ford recalled around 42,300 units of hatchback Figo and sedan Figo Aspire to fix a software glitch, with potential to malfunction of airbags during a collision. In November 2015, the US auto major had to recall 16,444 units of compact SUV EcoSport in India to fix faulty rear twist beam bolt, a part in vehicles suspension. Other OEMs, including Honda Cars and Volkswagen have also made recalls this year.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: The city police on Saturday opened fire at a habitual offender who allegedly tried to attack the police in HAL area on Saturday.

Just a day earlier, the man was arrested for attacking and killing a person who had tried to prevent him from carrying out a chain snatching.

According to the police, Johnson, a resident of Vibhutipura in HAL was arrested on Friday in a chain-snatching case where he had attacked a passerby named Sai Charan who had tried to prevent him from committing the crime. Charan later succumbed to his injuries.

On Saturday, Johnson was being taken to the scene of the crime for recording of the panchanama (where investigating officials collect and record details from from witnesses to the crime in the presence of reliable mediators) and recovery mahajar (details recorded with respect to the deceased victim). Johnson requested to be freed on the pretext of attending nature's call. Once freed, he attacked one of the constables Kantha. Another constable Manjesh tried to intervene, but Johnson attacked him too.

Additional Commissioner of police (East) Hemant Nimbalkar said Johnson was repeatedly warned to surrender but in vain. Wary of being attacked further, Inspector Sadiq Pasha shot at his leg to subdue him. Johnson has now been shifted to the hospital.

The incident would be probed, said police, apart from investigating the crimes committed by Johnson, of chain snatching and attack of a person, who later succumbed to his injuries.

BENGALURU: The city police on Saturday opened fire at a habitual offender who allegedly tried to attack the police in HAL area on Saturday. Just a day earlier, the man was arrested for attacking and killing a person who had tried to prevent him from carrying out a chain snatching. According to the police, Johnson, a resident of Vibhutipura in HAL was arrested on Friday in a chain-snatching case where he had attacked a passerby named Sai Charan who had tried to prevent him from committing the crime. Charan later succumbed to his injuries. On Saturday, Johnson was being taken to the scene of the crime for recording of the panchanama (where investigating officials collect and record details from from witnesses to the crime in the presence of reliable mediators) and recovery mahajar (details recorded with respect to the deceased victim). Johnson requested to be freed on the pretext of attending nature's call. Once freed, he attacked one of the constables Kantha. Another constable Manjesh tried to intervene, but Johnson attacked him too. Additional Commissioner of police (East) Hemant Nimbalkar said Johnson was repeatedly warned to surrender but in vain. Wary of being attacked further, Inspector Sadiq Pasha shot at his leg to subdue him. Johnson has now been shifted to the hospital. The incident would be probed, said police, apart from investigating the crimes committed by Johnson, of chain snatching and attack of a person, who later succumbed to his injuries.
Ashwini M Sripad By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: After failing to make the cut twice, Bengaluru has finally been chosen for the Smart City project. This time, the state government plans to focus on preserving the heritage aspects of the tech city.

Under the project, Bengaluru is expected to get `1,000 crore over the next five years. This includes `500 crore as the states share. We had made a presentation for `1,700 crore worth projects to improve the city, especially those that represent old Bengaluru, said an official of Urban Development Department.

Major places in the core areas like K R Market (City market), Russell Market, Cubbon Park, Ulsoor and Sankey tanks, KC General hospital, TenderSURE roads and the slum in Gandhinagar, which is in the heart of the city, are expected to get a makeover.

Urban Development Department Additional Chief Secretary Mahendra Jain told Express that the Smart City project will give further impetus to the governments ongoing efforts to provide enhanced services through leveraging technology and improving delivery systems.

In terms of resources, it is not a massive addition to what the state government is already doing over the recent years. But it has potential to catalyse citizen participation and become true stakeholders. We are excited that the Union government has approved our proposal to include Bengaluru under the project, he said.

Urban expert V Ravichandar welcomed the move. Under the project, money flow might be limited. But it gives an opportunity to handle an issue with a different outlook. For instance, if KR Market is developed, the same model can be replicated at other markets. Similarly, other issues can be dealt with, not necessarily with the Smart City project fund, but with other grants, he felt.

Bengaluru wasnt considered in the first round when the project was announced in 2015. The following year, due to pressure from Union ministers and MPs from Karnataka, the city was considered for the project, but lost out by 0.5 marks. This is because we had less time to prepare. We were given 30 days to make the presentation. This year, we had three months time where we did survey, used social media, interacted with stakeholders, communicated with the public and undertook lots of exercises, an official in Urban Development Department said.

Explaining about the project aspects, a senior BBMP official said the existing KR Market was a santhe (fair) ground during the time of the citys founder-chieftain Kempegowda. In the 1900s, during the reign of the Mysore maharajas, the KR Market structure was constructed. It is historically significant because it was the first building to get power supply in Asia. But at present, it is in a pathetic state with no toilets, mounds of garbage, chaos in the parking lot etc. BBMP is struggling hard to keep the place clean, but in vain.

We chose this place because we want to keep it clean and protect its heritage value, said the official. The same model can be replicated at Russell market which also has heritage value. K C General hospital in Malleswaram too has historical value. With the funds alloted under the Smart City project, we can improve the hospital on par with private hospitals, the official said.

How they fare

Shivamogga Survey, design taken up

Eight months after Shivamogga received final clearance for Smart City project, there are some signs of work on the ground. In the first week of June, consultants from two private firms took up the survey and design of three works.

Davangere: Work yet to start, funds unused

Davangere was selected for the project in 2015, but nearly two years later, it is yet to kick off. The state and Central governments had released D387 crore, which is lying with Davangere City Corporation.

Hubballi-Dharwad Plans under draft stage

Hubballi-Dharwad Smart City Ltd signed an MoU with project consultant, Pricewaterhouse Cooper (PwC), but progress has been slow. Authorities said all proposed plan are under draft stage. Once project reports are prepared, PwC will choose agencies through request for proposal or tender bids.

Belagavi: Command centre yet to be set up

Belagavi was selected for the project in 2015 but two years later, a command control centre is yet to be established. The city corporation invited a global tender to set up the centre at D76.53 crore only last week.

Mangaluru: Private funds yet to flow in

Despite being touted as the most potent case for smart city among 100 cities in the country, Mangaluru has not been able to cope with demands of generating income from private agencies vis-a-vis government participation.

BENGALURU: After failing to make the cut twice, Bengaluru has finally been chosen for the Smart City project. This time, the state government plans to focus on preserving the heritage aspects of the tech city. Under the project, Bengaluru is expected to get `1,000 crore over the next five years. This includes `500 crore as the states share. We had made a presentation for `1,700 crore worth projects to improve the city, especially those that represent old Bengaluru, said an official of Urban Development Department. Major places in the core areas like K R Market (City market), Russell Market, Cubbon Park, Ulsoor and Sankey tanks, KC General hospital, TenderSURE roads and the slum in Gandhinagar, which is in the heart of the city, are expected to get a makeover. Urban Development Department Additional Chief Secretary Mahendra Jain told Express that the Smart City project will give further impetus to the governments ongoing efforts to provide enhanced services through leveraging technology and improving delivery systems. In terms of resources, it is not a massive addition to what the state government is already doing over the recent years. But it has potential to catalyse citizen participation and become true stakeholders. We are excited that the Union government has approved our proposal to include Bengaluru under the project, he said. Urban expert V Ravichandar welcomed the move. Under the project, money flow might be limited. But it gives an opportunity to handle an issue with a different outlook. For instance, if KR Market is developed, the same model can be replicated at other markets. Similarly, other issues can be dealt with, not necessarily with the Smart City project fund, but with other grants, he felt. Bengaluru wasnt considered in the first round when the project was announced in 2015. The following year, due to pressure from Union ministers and MPs from Karnataka, the city was considered for the project, but lost out by 0.5 marks. This is because we had less time to prepare. We were given 30 days to make the presentation. This year, we had three months time where we did survey, used social media, interacted with stakeholders, communicated with the public and undertook lots of exercises, an official in Urban Development Department said. Explaining about the project aspects, a senior BBMP official said the existing KR Market was a santhe (fair) ground during the time of the citys founder-chieftain Kempegowda. In the 1900s, during the reign of the Mysore maharajas, the KR Market structure was constructed. It is historically significant because it was the first building to get power supply in Asia. But at present, it is in a pathetic state with no toilets, mounds of garbage, chaos in the parking lot etc. BBMP is struggling hard to keep the place clean, but in vain. We chose this place because we want to keep it clean and protect its heritage value, said the official. The same model can be replicated at Russell market which also has heritage value. K C General hospital in Malleswaram too has historical value. With the funds alloted under the Smart City project, we can improve the hospital on par with private hospitals, the official said. How they fare Shivamogga Survey, design taken up Eight months after Shivamogga received final clearance for Smart City project, there are some signs of work on the ground. In the first week of June, consultants from two private firms took up the survey and design of three works. Davangere: Work yet to start, funds unused Davangere was selected for the project in 2015, but nearly two years later, it is yet to kick off. The state and Central governments had released D387 crore, which is lying with Davangere City Corporation. Hubballi-Dharwad Plans under draft stage Hubballi-Dharwad Smart City Ltd signed an MoU with project consultant, Pricewaterhouse Cooper (PwC), but progress has been slow. Authorities said all proposed plan are under draft stage. Once project reports are prepared, PwC will choose agencies through request for proposal or tender bids. Belagavi: Command centre yet to be set up Belagavi was selected for the project in 2015 but two years later, a command control centre is yet to be established. The city corporation invited a global tender to set up the centre at D76.53 crore only last week. Mangaluru: Private funds yet to flow in Despite being touted as the most potent case for smart city among 100 cities in the country, Mangaluru has not been able to cope with demands of generating income from private agencies vis-a-vis government participation.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: At least 200 sheep in a village in Kancheepuram have died of suspected pulpy kidney disease over the last 10 days, which the locals blame on official negligence.

It began when four sheep owned by S Ethiraj from Nelli in Madhuranthagam were found dead about 10 days ago. The very next day, villagers said, six more died. The villagers first gave a medicine suggested by a vet pharmacy, but it did not help and deaths continued. They alleged their efforts to get help from the Animal Husbandry department authorities were in vain.

The officials finally reached there only after the public thronged the Kancheepuram Collectorate on Friday, but by then at least 200 sheep had died, resulting in a loss of `8 lakh.

We suspect it to be a case of enterotoxemia or pulpy kidney disease due to overeating. Bacteria found in soil and grass might reproduce rapidly in the intestines under specific conditions, producing toxins. This might result in high mortality rates, said Flinton, Joint Director of Animal Husbandry department.

Even after informing the local authorities that there was an outbreak, they advised us to use the same medicine which the vet pharmacy gave us, said Ethiraj.

Responding to this, Flinton said that the disease was endemic and it was reported for the first time in the district. Vaccination drive was carried out in full swing to prevent it from spreading, he added.

CHENNAI: At least 200 sheep in a village in Kancheepuram have died of suspected pulpy kidney disease over the last 10 days, which the locals blame on official negligence. It began when four sheep owned by S Ethiraj from Nelli in Madhuranthagam were found dead about 10 days ago. The very next day, villagers said, six more died. The villagers first gave a medicine suggested by a vet pharmacy, but it did not help and deaths continued. They alleged their efforts to get help from the Animal Husbandry department authorities were in vain. The officials finally reached there only after the public thronged the Kancheepuram Collectorate on Friday, but by then at least 200 sheep had died, resulting in a loss of `8 lakh. We suspect it to be a case of enterotoxemia or pulpy kidney disease due to overeating. Bacteria found in soil and grass might reproduce rapidly in the intestines under specific conditions, producing toxins. This might result in high mortality rates, said Flinton, Joint Director of Animal Husbandry department. Even after informing the local authorities that there was an outbreak, they advised us to use the same medicine which the vet pharmacy gave us, said Ethiraj. Responding to this, Flinton said that the disease was endemic and it was reported for the first time in the district. Vaccination drive was carried out in full swing to prevent it from spreading, he added.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD/BHONGIR : Even as inquiry about the 48 surrogate mothers who were discovered at Sai Kiran Fertility Centre in Hyderabad is ongoing, where a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court directed the States medical and health department to submit a report for their protection, in another raid conducted at a private hospital in Bhongir officials found 120 surrogates on the hospital premises.



Dr Padmaja Surrocacy Centre, a private hospital in Yadadri Bhongir district has been operating in the hospital premises and also in four homes owned by them. Conducted under the supervision of ACP Mohan Reddy, the raid brought to light that 80 of the 120 women are ready to deliver, while 20 of them are pregnant.



All these women are commercial surrogates. We are yet to determine where they come from. The hospital is run by Dr Padmaja Reddy and her husband, Diwakar Reddy who is an advocate, informed Mohan Reddy. The district medical and health officer Sambashiva Rao said that a detailed report will be submitted after which action will be taken on the centre. All the women have been saying that they are all bearing children of their relatives. We will be investigating on these lines, said the officer.



Meanwhile, when the press questioned Diwakar Reddy about commercial surrogacy, which is against the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2016, he responded rashly saying that this is not something that is being carried out only by them.

Committee to be set up to look into surrogacy issues

In absence of an Act which lays clear cut guidelines related to surrogacy, a panel comprising expert doctors would look into the details of surrogacy. They would take views from various parties involved. Though there are no rules, the opinion that ethics and morals are compromised in the whole process of surrogacy echoed in corridors of the health department.

Deadline has not been not slated yet to set-up the committee. The decision to set up a committee was taken on Friday at a meeting headed by health minister C Laxma Reddy and participated by officials of the department. The Surrogacy Regulation Bill is still in Parliament, an official from the department said. Since the state government officials are not able to take any action though they are coming across ethically wrong practices at clinics where surrogacies are taken up, sources said they might rely on other rules such as Clinical Establishment Act to regulate some aspects at infertility Clinics which take up surrogacies.

HYDERABAD/BHONGIR : Even as inquiry about the 48 surrogate mothers who were discovered at Sai Kiran Fertility Centre in Hyderabad is ongoing, where a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court directed the States medical and health department to submit a report for their protection, in another raid conducted at a private hospital in Bhongir officials found 120 surrogates on the hospital premises. Dr Padmaja Surrocacy Centre, a private hospital in Yadadri Bhongir district has been operating in the hospital premises and also in four homes owned by them. Conducted under the supervision of ACP Mohan Reddy, the raid brought to light that 80 of the 120 women are ready to deliver, while 20 of them are pregnant. All these women are commercial surrogates. We are yet to determine where they come from. The hospital is run by Dr Padmaja Reddy and her husband, Diwakar Reddy who is an advocate, informed Mohan Reddy. The district medical and health officer Sambashiva Rao said that a detailed report will be submitted after which action will be taken on the centre. All the women have been saying that they are all bearing children of their relatives. We will be investigating on these lines, said the officer. Meanwhile, when the press questioned Diwakar Reddy about commercial surrogacy, which is against the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2016, he responded rashly saying that this is not something that is being carried out only by them. Committee to be set up to look into surrogacy issues In absence of an Act which lays clear cut guidelines related to surrogacy, a panel comprising expert doctors would look into the details of surrogacy. They would take views from various parties involved. Though there are no rules, the opinion that ethics and morals are compromised in the whole process of surrogacy echoed in corridors of the health department. Deadline has not been not slated yet to set-up the committee. The decision to set up a committee was taken on Friday at a meeting headed by health minister C Laxma Reddy and participated by officials of the department. The Surrogacy Regulation Bill is still in Parliament, an official from the department said. Since the state government officials are not able to take any action though they are coming across ethically wrong practices at clinics where surrogacies are taken up, sources said they might rely on other rules such as Clinical Establishment Act to regulate some aspects at infertility Clinics which take up surrogacies.
Aditya Shrikrishna By

Express News Service

Film: Tubelight

Director: Kabir Khan

Cast: Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub, Zhu Zhu

Salman Khans films release around Eid with such certainty that the latest from Kabir Khan-Salman Khan stable, Tubelight, has TubelightKiEid as its Twitter handle. Salman Khan was Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi in Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Playing a Brahmin who wouldnt be out of place in an RSS office, Salman and his director Khan surprised everyone with the way they subverted the shackles of their own conceit. Kabir Khan is both shrewd and calculative.

He probably knew that hed hit the jackpot long before Bhaijaan began filming. Here he is again, with Tubelight, focusing on another neighbour of India (it was Pakistan in ) where Salman Khan is Lakshman. His brotherplayed by his real-life brother Sohail Khan in the filmis Bharat. Bharat gets drafted into the army, and is sent to the Sino-Indian war of 1962, a war India suffered huge losses in. There is no Ram. Its Lakshman who must rally himself for deliverance. Of the kidnapped Bharat. Or, should we say, India?

Tubelight is third in the line of the Great Salman Khan Image Cleansing Project, after Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Sultan; Kabir Khan being the mastermind behind all three. We followed Salman as the South Indian archetype mass hero for more than a decadethe violent thug who is really a cop or an economically corrupt, morally sound small-town police officer or a bodyguard or even the super spy belonging to the Research & Analysis Wing.

Since Bajrangi Bhaijaan, we have the kind-hearted Salman who possesses the physique of a wrestler but the mind of a non-cynical, harmless 10-year-old. Or he is a real wrestler gone sideways trying to find himself in both professional and personal life. You cannot fault these Khans for the people they are. You root for them. You want them to win, not because they smash the brains out of a terrorist or a gangster, but because if they win, good wins. The continuing saga and philosophy of the Great Salman Khan Image Cleansing Project.

But in that regard, Tubelight is dull. Its almost lifeless and nothing moves. The word yakeentrust or faithis used a lot, but one gets the feeling that the makers had no trust or faith in their script (screenplay credited to Kabir Khan and Parveez Shaika). Everyone seems disinterested. Tubelight also cannot decide if it wants to be a film about brotherhood or about Lakshmans coming of age (if you watch the film, youll chuckle at this line. Trust me.) or friendship. Kabir Khan is a director who can tap into the prevailing political atmosphere and pull something interesting out of the hat. But in Tubelight, they remain as ideas. He wants to talk about forced patriotism, the thrusting of Indianness or nationalism, racism and immigrants.

But he is not able to muster the forces that would package these into a coherent film thats both eye-opening and entertaining. At one point, Tubelight becomes an ELI5 (Explain Like Im Five) on Gandhis philosophies. The difference, of course, is that Salman Khan actually plays a 5-year-old trapped inside an adult. Its not a bad idea but we already have a film that did it better - Lage Raho Munna Bhai. And lets face it - Kabir Khan may well have borrowed from Rajkumar Hiranis school for Bajrangi Bhaijaan, but can lightning strike twice?

Tubelight feels inconsequential at every step and we are also forced to brave what is possibly Salmans worst performance in recent times. Not to mention that the other Khan, Shah Rukh, cannot catch a break. Even for a special appearance, he has chosen the least promising Salman Khan film. Zhu Zhu and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub comprise a spirited presence albeit belonging to different ends of the spectrum. A performer like Ayub deserves to be seen in greater works already. The same, maybe with lesser yakeen, is applicable for Kabir Khan. The template has run its course.

Film: Tubelight Director: Kabir Khan Cast: Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub, Zhu Zhu Salman Khans films release around Eid with such certainty that the latest from Kabir Khan-Salman Khan stable, Tubelight, has TubelightKiEid as its Twitter handle. Salman Khan was Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi in Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Playing a Brahmin who wouldnt be out of place in an RSS office, Salman and his director Khan surprised everyone with the way they subverted the shackles of their own conceit. Kabir Khan is both shrewd and calculative. He probably knew that hed hit the jackpot long before Bhaijaan began filming. Here he is again, with Tubelight, focusing on another neighbour of India (it was Pakistan in ) where Salman Khan is Lakshman. His brotherplayed by his real-life brother Sohail Khan in the filmis Bharat. Bharat gets drafted into the army, and is sent to the Sino-Indian war of 1962, a war India suffered huge losses in. There is no Ram. Its Lakshman who must rally himself for deliverance. Of the kidnapped Bharat. Or, should we say, India? Tubelight is third in the line of the Great Salman Khan Image Cleansing Project, after Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Sultan; Kabir Khan being the mastermind behind all three. We followed Salman as the South Indian archetype mass hero for more than a decadethe violent thug who is really a cop or an economically corrupt, morally sound small-town police officer or a bodyguard or even the super spy belonging to the Research & Analysis Wing. Since Bajrangi Bhaijaan, we have the kind-hearted Salman who possesses the physique of a wrestler but the mind of a non-cynical, harmless 10-year-old. Or he is a real wrestler gone sideways trying to find himself in both professional and personal life. You cannot fault these Khans for the people they are. You root for them. You want them to win, not because they smash the brains out of a terrorist or a gangster, but because if they win, good wins. The continuing saga and philosophy of the Great Salman Khan Image Cleansing Project. But in that regard, Tubelight is dull. Its almost lifeless and nothing moves. The word yakeentrust or faithis used a lot, but one gets the feeling that the makers had no trust or faith in their script (screenplay credited to Kabir Khan and Parveez Shaika). Everyone seems disinterested. Tubelight also cannot decide if it wants to be a film about brotherhood or about Lakshmans coming of age (if you watch the film, youll chuckle at this line. Trust me.) or friendship. Kabir Khan is a director who can tap into the prevailing political atmosphere and pull something interesting out of the hat. But in Tubelight, they remain as ideas. He wants to talk about forced patriotism, the thrusting of Indianness or nationalism, racism and immigrants. But he is not able to muster the forces that would package these into a coherent film thats both eye-opening and entertaining. At one point, Tubelight becomes an ELI5 (Explain Like Im Five) on Gandhis philosophies. The difference, of course, is that Salman Khan actually plays a 5-year-old trapped inside an adult. Its not a bad idea but we already have a film that did it better - Lage Raho Munna Bhai. And lets face it - Kabir Khan may well have borrowed from Rajkumar Hiranis school for Bajrangi Bhaijaan, but can lightning strike twice? Tubelight feels inconsequential at every step and we are also forced to brave what is possibly Salmans worst performance in recent times. Not to mention that the other Khan, Shah Rukh, cannot catch a break. Even for a special appearance, he has chosen the least promising Salman Khan film. Zhu Zhu and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub comprise a spirited presence albeit belonging to different ends of the spectrum. A performer like Ayub deserves to be seen in greater works already. The same, maybe with lesser yakeen, is applicable for Kabir Khan. The template has run its course.
By Express News Service

Wed earlier reported that Dulquer Salmaan will begin shooting for his travel-based film in Tamil, directed by newbie Ra Karthik from December. Now, we hear that he has another Tamil project in the pipeline directed by Desingh Periyasamy, award-winning director of the short film, 99.

Sources say the actor will begin work on this new film from August. Once he completes this project, hell move on to Karthiks. Sources add, The official announcement will be made next month and Kuttram 23s cinematographer RM Bhaskaran has been brought on board too.

As Dulquer isnt keen on getting this publicised, the makers of this film are maintaining a low profile.

Dulquer wrapped up his Tamil-Malayalam bilingual Solo early this month, and has started shooting for Mahanati, in which he plays the late Tamil actor Gemini Ganesan.

Wed earlier reported that Dulquer Salmaan will begin shooting for his travel-based film in Tamil, directed by newbie Ra Karthik from December. Now, we hear that he has another Tamil project in the pipeline directed by Desingh Periyasamy, award-winning director of the short film, 99. Sources say the actor will begin work on this new film from August. Once he completes this project, hell move on to Karthiks. Sources add, The official announcement will be made next month and Kuttram 23s cinematographer RM Bhaskaran has been brought on board too. As Dulquer isnt keen on getting this publicised, the makers of this film are maintaining a low profile. Dulquer wrapped up his Tamil-Malayalam bilingual Solo early this month, and has started shooting for Mahanati, in which he plays the late Tamil actor Gemini Ganesan.
Diana Sahu By

Befriending an injured stray animal and treating it isnt everybodys cup of tea.

Many believe that stray animals are no ones responsibility. But an animal welfare organisation in Bhubaneswar is changing this notion by rescuing homeless animals with serious health issues from across the city.

Started by 33-year-old Purabi Patra, Animal Welfare Trust Ekamra (AWTE) launched Project Boond this summer. As part of it, cement water bowls were placed for stray animals across the city. AWTE is working on bird nesting project to increase population of endangered bird species, including house sparrows. We are providing handmade wooden nest boxes to people, at a very affordable cost of Rs 200-250, says Purabi.

Purbi Patra with rescued dogs at the animal care centre in Bhubaneswar | Shamim Qureshy

Patra, who was an Assistant Professor in marketing management at Indraprastha University in Delhi, gave up her career in December 2015 to start AWTE.

Having volunteered for Maneka Gandhis Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre during my stay in Delhi, I was asked by Maneka to revive the shelter of People for Animals (PFA) in Bhubaneswar, which was inactive then, says Purabi, who did her MBA in marketing management from Biju Patnaik University of Technology in Rourkela.

With her friends, she started reviving the shelter but faced resistance from PFA staff over use of the facility. This was when I decided to start an animal care centre and rented a small patch of land at Patrapada in Bhubaneswar to start AWTE, says Purabi. The organisation was registered in November 2016.

Purabi and her group of volunteers, who are mostly students or job holders, not only rescue animals, but also run an animal shelter where injured and sick strays are rehabilitated. Not all animals we rescue get sheltered. Many of them are treated on the spot. Only permanently disabled animals, paralysed ones and orphaned animals are moved to the shelter, she says.

Till now, AWTE has rescued 1,000 animals and birds, and sheltered more than 200. It has 40 resident animals and over 10 admitted cases.

Not all volunteers can spare much time, so most of them come here on holidays and Sundays to help in bathing and grooming the dogs, cleaning the shelter and doing the paper work. The organisation also gets help from senior city veterinarians, says Purabi, who was earlier associated with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Noida, and Friendicoes and Fauna Police in Delhi.

Whenever need arises, vets from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology also help us, she says. While funding always remains a problem, the body manages with money that it gets from social media promotions and donations.

The animal lover feels that mindset of people towards adopting stray dogs is yet to change in Odisha, while the concept has been well accepted by people in bigger cities.

Befriending an injured stray animal and treating it isnt everybodys cup of tea. Many believe that stray animals are no ones responsibility. But an animal welfare organisation in Bhubaneswar is changing this notion by rescuing homeless animals with serious health issues from across the city. Started by 33-year-old Purabi Patra, Animal Welfare Trust Ekamra (AWTE) launched Project Boond this summer. As part of it, cement water bowls were placed for stray animals across the city. AWTE is working on bird nesting project to increase population of endangered bird species, including house sparrows. We are providing handmade wooden nest boxes to people, at a very affordable cost of Rs 200-250, says Purabi. Purbi Patra with rescued dogs at the animal care centre in Bhubaneswar | Shamim Qureshy Patra, who was an Assistant Professor in marketing management at Indraprastha University in Delhi, gave up her career in December 2015 to start AWTE. Having volunteered for Maneka Gandhis Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre during my stay in Delhi, I was asked by Maneka to revive the shelter of People for Animals (PFA) in Bhubaneswar, which was inactive then, says Purabi, who did her MBA in marketing management from Biju Patnaik University of Technology in Rourkela. With her friends, she started reviving the shelter but faced resistance from PFA staff over use of the facility. This was when I decided to start an animal care centre and rented a small patch of land at Patrapada in Bhubaneswar to start AWTE, says Purabi. The organisation was registered in November 2016. Purabi and her group of volunteers, who are mostly students or job holders, not only rescue animals, but also run an animal shelter where injured and sick strays are rehabilitated. Not all animals we rescue get sheltered. Many of them are treated on the spot. Only permanently disabled animals, paralysed ones and orphaned animals are moved to the shelter, she says. Till now, AWTE has rescued 1,000 animals and birds, and sheltered more than 200. It has 40 resident animals and over 10 admitted cases. Not all volunteers can spare much time, so most of them come here on holidays and Sundays to help in bathing and grooming the dogs, cleaning the shelter and doing the paper work. The organisation also gets help from senior city veterinarians, says Purabi, who was earlier associated with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Noida, and Friendicoes and Fauna Police in Delhi. Whenever need arises, vets from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology also help us, she says. While funding always remains a problem, the body manages with money that it gets from social media promotions and donations. The animal lover feels that mindset of people towards adopting stray dogs is yet to change in Odisha, while the concept has been well accepted by people in bigger cities.
G Parthasarathy By

President Donald Trump returned home triumphantly after attending what he felt was an immensely successful Muslim Summit, hosted by Saudi Monarch King Salman. He had interacted in Riyadh with leaders from the Saudi-sponsored Muslim Military Alliance, comprising Sunni-dominated countries ranging from Egypt to Pakistan. Trump paid special attention to leaders from Bahrain, UAE, Oman and KuwaitSaudi Arabias partners in the Monarchical Gulf Cooperation Councilamidst scathing attacks on Shia-dominated Iran by his Saudi hosts. This was music to the ears for the simplistic US President. He had not only succeeded in securing a $100 billion deal for the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia, but also felt elated by the widespread Iran-bashing by his hosts.

The Trump administration soon received a shock. Instead of unitedly fighting Iran, serious differences arose between Qatar, where the US has its largest airbase and military presence in the region, on the one hand, and Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, on the other. Kuwait and Oman remained neutral. Saudi Arabia and its partners imposed wide-ranging sanctions, including a termination of diplomatic relations and a ban on over-flights, travel and trade. After initially supporting the Saudis, Trump soon backed off, realising the importance of Americas strategic military presence in Qatar. The Saudis have been irked for years over Qatar challenging their dominance and defying them on a series of issues.

Qatar has an indigenous population of just 3.13 lakh, with Indian nationals totalling double that number. But, with vast gas resources, Qataris have the highest per capita income in the world, of over $1 lakh. Moreover, given the fact that Qatar shares the largest gas field in the world with Iran, its ruler doesnt support Saudi Arabias tantrums against Iran, or give it a free run in determining regional developments. Challenging Saudi Arabia, Qatar supports the radical Palestinian group Hamas, the Opposition Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and radical groups in Libya and Syria, which have no love lost for Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

While Nawaz Sharif is busy facing domestic challenges, with strong opposition to his joining the Saudi-led Sunni Muslim alliance, India has kept away from these rivalries. Stability in the Gulf Region, where six million Indians reside and remit back over $50 billion annually, is crucial. India also gets over 60 per cent of its oil imports from the region. It now seeks new investments, especially from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Qatars importance cannot be ignored. It plays a predominant role in meeting our growing requirements of natural gas, with gas imports presently around $10 billion. Indian construction companies, moreover, have a presence in Qatar, while our exports exceed $1 billion.

Prime Minister Modi is heading for the US and, thereafter, to Israel.

While India wisely avoids taking sides in the fratricidal disputes across the Islamic world, it would be useful if we suggested to both Washington and Tel Aviv to incentivise Qatar to revert to its earlier policies. Qatar had the best relations with Israel in the Gulf region a few years ago. It is going to require considerable diplomatic effort by the US and Gulf neighbours such as Oman and Kuwait, to bridge the differences between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, because of personal animosities and their differing interests, on relations with Iran. It is also time to press Qatar to improve the appalling living conditions of Indian workers, just like the UAE.

While we now have an established Act East Policy, it is perhaps time to craft a comprehensive and imaginative Act West Policy, in a growingly turbulent Islamic world. India is today a major exporter of petrochemical products. Enhanced investments from the Gulf countries in petrochemicals and fertilisers would naturally be welcome.

G Parthasarathy

Former diplomat

dadpartha@gmail.com

President Donald Trump returned home triumphantly after attending what he felt was an immensely successful Muslim Summit, hosted by Saudi Monarch King Salman. He had interacted in Riyadh with leaders from the Saudi-sponsored Muslim Military Alliance, comprising Sunni-dominated countries ranging from Egypt to Pakistan. Trump paid special attention to leaders from Bahrain, UAE, Oman and KuwaitSaudi Arabias partners in the Monarchical Gulf Cooperation Councilamidst scathing attacks on Shia-dominated Iran by his Saudi hosts. This was music to the ears for the simplistic US President. He had not only succeeded in securing a $100 billion deal for the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia, but also felt elated by the widespread Iran-bashing by his hosts. The Trump administration soon received a shock. Instead of unitedly fighting Iran, serious differences arose between Qatar, where the US has its largest airbase and military presence in the region, on the one hand, and Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, on the other. Kuwait and Oman remained neutral. Saudi Arabia and its partners imposed wide-ranging sanctions, including a termination of diplomatic relations and a ban on over-flights, travel and trade. After initially supporting the Saudis, Trump soon backed off, realising the importance of Americas strategic military presence in Qatar. The Saudis have been irked for years over Qatar challenging their dominance and defying them on a series of issues. Qatar has an indigenous population of just 3.13 lakh, with Indian nationals totalling double that number. But, with vast gas resources, Qataris have the highest per capita income in the world, of over $1 lakh. Moreover, given the fact that Qatar shares the largest gas field in the world with Iran, its ruler doesnt support Saudi Arabias tantrums against Iran, or give it a free run in determining regional developments. Challenging Saudi Arabia, Qatar supports the radical Palestinian group Hamas, the Opposition Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and radical groups in Libya and Syria, which have no love lost for Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia. While Nawaz Sharif is busy facing domestic challenges, with strong opposition to his joining the Saudi-led Sunni Muslim alliance, India has kept away from these rivalries. Stability in the Gulf Region, where six million Indians reside and remit back over $50 billion annually, is crucial. India also gets over 60 per cent of its oil imports from the region. It now seeks new investments, especially from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Qatars importance cannot be ignored. It plays a predominant role in meeting our growing requirements of natural gas, with gas imports presently around $10 billion. Indian construction companies, moreover, have a presence in Qatar, while our exports exceed $1 billion. Prime Minister Modi is heading for the US and, thereafter, to Israel. While India wisely avoids taking sides in the fratricidal disputes across the Islamic world, it would be useful if we suggested to both Washington and Tel Aviv to incentivise Qatar to revert to its earlier policies. Qatar had the best relations with Israel in the Gulf region a few years ago. It is going to require considerable diplomatic effort by the US and Gulf neighbours such as Oman and Kuwait, to bridge the differences between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, because of personal animosities and their differing interests, on relations with Iran. It is also time to press Qatar to improve the appalling living conditions of Indian workers, just like the UAE. While we now have an established Act East Policy, it is perhaps time to craft a comprehensive and imaginative Act West Policy, in a growingly turbulent Islamic world. India is today a major exporter of petrochemical products. Enhanced investments from the Gulf countries in petrochemicals and fertilisers would naturally be welcome. G Parthasarathy Former diplomat dadpartha@gmail.com
By PTI

NEW DELHI: NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind will start a nation-wide tour on June 25, stopping first in Uttar Pradesh, where he will talk to members of the electoral college that votes for the new president.

The former Bihar governor will be accompanied by senior BJP leader and Union minister Nitin Gadkari in the UP leg of the tour.

BJP sources said Kovind, 71, would travel to the bigger states and at some places interact with electoral college members from more than one state.

He would discuss the issue with MPs and MLAs of the parties which have announced their support to him.

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members besides MLAs from all state assemblies comprise the electoral college, totalling 10,98,882 votes.

The vote value of a member of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha is 708, while that of an MLA would depend on the population of the state he or she represents.

They said state BJP leaders may reach out to opposition parties as well and ask them to attend the meetings to be addressed by Kovind.

As there is no provision of party whips in presidential elections, the BJP hopes that it may get the support of people who would like to vote for Kovind, irrespective of their party position.

The complete itinerary of Kovind's travel is still being finalised as it will also depend on the availability of state leaders, including NDA chief ministers and others supporting him, the sources said.

After filing his nomination Kovind reached out to the opposition by asserting that the president's office was above party politics and that he did not belong to a party.

"Since I became the governor I do not belong to any political party," the former head of the BJP's Dalit Morcha -- who is almost certain to be the next president -- said.

NEW DELHI: NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind will start a nation-wide tour on June 25, stopping first in Uttar Pradesh, where he will talk to members of the electoral college that votes for the new president. The former Bihar governor will be accompanied by senior BJP leader and Union minister Nitin Gadkari in the UP leg of the tour. BJP sources said Kovind, 71, would travel to the bigger states and at some places interact with electoral college members from more than one state. He would discuss the issue with MPs and MLAs of the parties which have announced their support to him. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members besides MLAs from all state assemblies comprise the electoral college, totalling 10,98,882 votes. The vote value of a member of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha is 708, while that of an MLA would depend on the population of the state he or she represents. They said state BJP leaders may reach out to opposition parties as well and ask them to attend the meetings to be addressed by Kovind. As there is no provision of party whips in presidential elections, the BJP hopes that it may get the support of people who would like to vote for Kovind, irrespective of their party position. The complete itinerary of Kovind's travel is still being finalised as it will also depend on the availability of state leaders, including NDA chief ministers and others supporting him, the sources said. After filing his nomination Kovind reached out to the opposition by asserting that the president's office was above party politics and that he did not belong to a party. "Since I became the governor I do not belong to any political party," the former head of the BJP's Dalit Morcha -- who is almost certain to be the next president -- said.
Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: DySP Mohammad Ayoub Pandiths daughter had come home to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr with her family. Little did she know her trip would end with her attending her fathers funeral. The 24-year-old, who is studying medicine in Bangladesh and had come on a vacation, is now shattered and inconsolable.

Mohammad Ayoub Pandiths

wife (left) and daughter (right)

grieve at his residence

in Srinagar on Friday | PTI

Pandith is survived by wife, son and daughter. Danish, his son, recently completed his graduation. Hailing from Nowpora area of downtown Srinagar, Pandith was born in April 1960 and joined the police department as a Sub Inspector in 1990 after having completed M.Com and LLB.

He was posted at south Kashmirs Pulwana district in 1992. After serving as Station Head Officer at different locations, he was promoted as DySP in 2013. During his career, he served in different wings of police --- District Police, Railways, Vigilance and Security in different capacities.

Pandith was laid to rest at a graveyard in his native Nowpora, in the presence of a large crowd of friends, relatives and colleagues. He was a nice guy and was helpful to others. He does not deserve this type of killing. It is very unfortunate, said a fellow officer. He would never harm anybody. The police have lost a honest and dedicated person.

It was a rare and emotional sight to see some police officers breaking down while their colleague was laid to rest.

SRINAGAR: DySP Mohammad Ayoub Pandiths daughter had come home to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr with her family. Little did she know her trip would end with her attending her fathers funeral. The 24-year-old, who is studying medicine in Bangladesh and had come on a vacation, is now shattered and inconsolable. Mohammad Ayoub Pandiths wife (left) and daughter (right) grieve at his residence in Srinagar on Friday | PTIPandith is survived by wife, son and daughter. Danish, his son, recently completed his graduation. Hailing from Nowpora area of downtown Srinagar, Pandith was born in April 1960 and joined the police department as a Sub Inspector in 1990 after having completed M.Com and LLB. He was posted at south Kashmirs Pulwana district in 1992. After serving as Station Head Officer at different locations, he was promoted as DySP in 2013. During his career, he served in different wings of police --- District Police, Railways, Vigilance and Security in different capacities. Pandith was laid to rest at a graveyard in his native Nowpora, in the presence of a large crowd of friends, relatives and colleagues. He was a nice guy and was helpful to others. He does not deserve this type of killing. It is very unfortunate, said a fellow officer. He would never harm anybody. The police have lost a honest and dedicated person. It was a rare and emotional sight to see some police officers breaking down while their colleague was laid to rest.
Aishik Chanda By

Express News Service

DARJEELING: Christine Grace has seen Darjeeling transform from a busy tourist town into a garrison town within a month's time.

The Australian writer came to Darjeeling for some peace to pen down her latest novel. But, just as her ears got used to the cacophony of the Bengali tourists, high pitched slogans demanding Gorkhaland brought her back memories of the 1980s.

"This is my second time in Darjeeling. Last time when I came here as a teen in the mid 1980s, I was witness to similar agitation for Darjeeling for statehood. But, this time it seems the agitation has grown stronger," said Grace, now in her mid 50s.

Just after Grace witnessed the first round of Gorkhaland statehood agitation, the hills broke into armed insurgency from 1986 to 1988. An estimated 1,200 Gorkhas lost their lives. Innumerous incidents of rapes

Asked about her opinion on the movement, Grace said:"I see old, young and teens walking in massive rallies for a cause. That signifies that it is a unified mass movement. It's very telling about the yearning for statehood."

Affected by the shortage of food supplies in the Darjeeling hills due to indefinite bandh since June 15, Grace is making a lot of noodles to satiate her hunger. "The family with whom I am staying in a homestay near Loreto Convent school is also affected by the indefinite strike. Food supplies are really low," she said.

Grace had plans to visit a few other places in Darjeeling hills but now has to quietly leave the town in the middle of the night. "I am leaving home on Friday. I have got guaranteed transport with a few other foreigners in the middle of the night. I hope we safely pass through to Siliguri," she said.

DARJEELING: Christine Grace has seen Darjeeling transform from a busy tourist town into a garrison town within a month's time. The Australian writer came to Darjeeling for some peace to pen down her latest novel. But, just as her ears got used to the cacophony of the Bengali tourists, high pitched slogans demanding Gorkhaland brought her back memories of the 1980s. "This is my second time in Darjeeling. Last time when I came here as a teen in the mid 1980s, I was witness to similar agitation for Darjeeling for statehood. But, this time it seems the agitation has grown stronger," said Grace, now in her mid 50s. Just after Grace witnessed the first round of Gorkhaland statehood agitation, the hills broke into armed insurgency from 1986 to 1988. An estimated 1,200 Gorkhas lost their lives. Innumerous incidents of rapes Asked about her opinion on the movement, Grace said:"I see old, young and teens walking in massive rallies for a cause. That signifies that it is a unified mass movement. It's very telling about the yearning for statehood." Affected by the shortage of food supplies in the Darjeeling hills due to indefinite bandh since June 15, Grace is making a lot of noodles to satiate her hunger. "The family with whom I am staying in a homestay near Loreto Convent school is also affected by the indefinite strike. Food supplies are really low," she said. Grace had plans to visit a few other places in Darjeeling hills but now has to quietly leave the town in the middle of the night. "I am leaving home on Friday. I have got guaranteed transport with a few other foreigners in the middle of the night. I hope we safely pass through to Siliguri," she said.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Bucking the worldwide trend, the print media in India has grown by 61 per cent in the last 10 years, figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) show. Average sale of copies per day has increased from 3.91 crore in 2006 to 6.28 crore in 2016, according to figures published by the circulation watchdog.

The ABC, which certifies the circulation figures of publications every six months, reported that the print industry in India has been growing at an incredible CAGR of 4.87 per cent over the 10-year period, with 251 publishing centres added to the 659 back in 2006.

Growth has been strongest in north India, where print grew by 7.83 per cent CAGR during the period, followed by the south with 4.95 per cent. Much of the growth of the industry is due to the robust growth of regional titles, with Hindi publications topping the growth chart by a CAGR of 8.76 per cent followed by Telugu with 8.28 per cent.

English newspapers grew at the rate of 2.87 per cent in the same time. The ABC report drew upon projections by KPMG which indicated that print would hold its place as the second biggest media platform in India, next to TV, right into the 2020s. Print industry size is tipped to grow to Rs 431 crore by 2021, at a CAGR of 7.3 per cent.

CHENNAI: Bucking the worldwide trend, the print media in India has grown by 61 per cent in the last 10 years, figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) show. Average sale of copies per day has increased from 3.91 crore in 2006 to 6.28 crore in 2016, according to figures published by the circulation watchdog. The ABC, which certifies the circulation figures of publications every six months, reported that the print industry in India has been growing at an incredible CAGR of 4.87 per cent over the 10-year period, with 251 publishing centres added to the 659 back in 2006. Growth has been strongest in north India, where print grew by 7.83 per cent CAGR during the period, followed by the south with 4.95 per cent. Much of the growth of the industry is due to the robust growth of regional titles, with Hindi publications topping the growth chart by a CAGR of 8.76 per cent followed by Telugu with 8.28 per cent. English newspapers grew at the rate of 2.87 per cent in the same time. The ABC report drew upon projections by KPMG which indicated that print would hold its place as the second biggest media platform in India, next to TV, right into the 2020s. Print industry size is tipped to grow to Rs 431 crore by 2021, at a CAGR of 7.3 per cent.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Alleging that propaganda of the sangh parivar against the minority communities had led to spurt in attacks on Muslims, CPI (M) Saturday announced to hold nationwide protest against such attacks and demanding stringent action against those involved.

A CPI (M) delegation comprising Polit Bureau members Brinda Karat, Lok Sabha MP Md. Salim and other party members went to the village of Khandavli in Haryana and met the family members of Junaid, Shakir, Hashim who were lynched by a criminal communal mob on the Delhi-Mathura local train two days ago. While Junaid died, Shakir and Hashim were injured.

The delegation learnt that not a single Government or ruling party functionary has contacted the family or expressed sorrow at what has happened. The father and brothers have been called to the thana several times but till now only one criminal has been arrested.

The delegation was told that young men travelling on this train to and from Delhi with identifiable signs of being Muslims, such as the skull cap or beard are targeted for communal abuse by groups on the train.

Bhajanmandalis with battery operated mikes have converted many general compartments into exclusive religious zones and there are many aggressive and abusive comments made when Muslim men enter the compartments. The delegation was told that harassment has become a common experience and there is fear and apprehension when travelling. Several times complaints have been made to the police but they have been ignored, said Karat.

The party said that the incident was motivated entirely by communal considerations but the question is how armed men were allowed onto trains.

All the initial attackers were carrying big knives. They incited other passengers to join them in the lynching. Clearly, if such incidents can occur in a crowded train, it is because the perpetrators are confident of political support and patronage, said the party.

The CPI (M) holds that it is the sustained toxic propaganda of the sangh parivar against the minority communities which has led to such a situation where Muslims feel unsafe in public places and where such spaces have been communalized.

The party demanded immediate arrest of those guilty, identification of the political connections of the criminals and appropriate action and compensation for the family.

NEW DELHI: Alleging that propaganda of the sangh parivar against the minority communities had led to spurt in attacks on Muslims, CPI (M) Saturday announced to hold nationwide protest against such attacks and demanding stringent action against those involved. A CPI (M) delegation comprising Polit Bureau members Brinda Karat, Lok Sabha MP Md. Salim and other party members went to the village of Khandavli in Haryana and met the family members of Junaid, Shakir, Hashim who were lynched by a criminal communal mob on the Delhi-Mathura local train two days ago. While Junaid died, Shakir and Hashim were injured. The delegation learnt that not a single Government or ruling party functionary has contacted the family or expressed sorrow at what has happened. The father and brothers have been called to the thana several times but till now only one criminal has been arrested. The delegation was told that young men travelling on this train to and from Delhi with identifiable signs of being Muslims, such as the skull cap or beard are targeted for communal abuse by groups on the train. Bhajanmandalis with battery operated mikes have converted many general compartments into exclusive religious zones and there are many aggressive and abusive comments made when Muslim men enter the compartments. The delegation was told that harassment has become a common experience and there is fear and apprehension when travelling. Several times complaints have been made to the police but they have been ignored, said Karat. The party said that the incident was motivated entirely by communal considerations but the question is how armed men were allowed onto trains. All the initial attackers were carrying big knives. They incited other passengers to join them in the lynching. Clearly, if such incidents can occur in a crowded train, it is because the perpetrators are confident of political support and patronage, said the party. The CPI (M) holds that it is the sustained toxic propaganda of the sangh parivar against the minority communities which has led to such a situation where Muslims feel unsafe in public places and where such spaces have been communalized. The party demanded immediate arrest of those guilty, identification of the political connections of the criminals and appropriate action and compensation for the family.
Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party today accused Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal of engineering a fake loan waiver for which there were no provisions made in the states budget, which was presented four days ago. The opposition parties, represented by SADs Sukhbir Singh Badal and BJPs Som Prakash, also said provisions hadnt been made for other schemes that the government under Captain Amarinder Singh had promised the state of Punjab. Here are five points they raised.

1) A budgetary allocation of Rs 1,500 crore has been allocated for loan waiver whereas the accumulated loans, according to the Sad-BJP, were as high as Rs 90,000 crore.

2) Will farm workers also benefit from the loan waiver? There is a feeling that a fraud has been committed against small farmers, and that it is the medium and rich farmers who take crop loans that are being incentivised, said Sukhbir.

3) He also asked if only cooperative loans were covered under the scheme or also those of nationalised and cooperative banks and commission agents would also be waived.

4) According to SAD-BJPs estimates Rs 2,300 crore is needed to fulfil Chief Minister Amarinder Singhs promise of power supply at the rate of Rs 5 a unit, for which no budgetary allocation has been made, he said.

5) The Government had promised 25 lakh jobs for the youth. Nothing allocated, Sukhbir Singh Badal mockingly asked if Finance Minister Manpreet planned to make all of them drive taxis for Ola and Uber, and if so has an allocation been made to purchase taxi cabs for them.

Responding to the allegations, Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar praised the Chief Minister and said he had made these big announcements within the first 100 days of his government, when he could as well have waited for four years if he were looking at it as a populist measure to win him brownie points ahead of an election.

Jakhar said the waiver and other schemes had been announced despite the finances of the state being in poor condition, as inherited from the former SAD BJP government.

He also accused SAD of being hand-in-glove with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), both ahead of the elections and now in the State Assembly which, he said, they had reduced to a battleground over power struggled within their own parties and between the two parties .

Jakhar put before Sukhbir three questions, the answers to which he said would expose the nexus between SAD and AAP, and also expose the complete bankruptcy of leadership in SAD.

First, will Sukhbir withdraw defamation case against AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, who had accused Bikram Majithia of drug smuggling, as their nexus had been now exposed; second, will Sukhbir apologise for using derogatory words against the Speaker; and finally, will Parkash Singh Badal come to the Vidhan Sabha to take charge of the Opposition.

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party today accused Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal of engineering a fake loan waiver for which there were no provisions made in the states budget, which was presented four days ago. The opposition parties, represented by SADs Sukhbir Singh Badal and BJPs Som Prakash, also said provisions hadnt been made for other schemes that the government under Captain Amarinder Singh had promised the state of Punjab. Here are five points they raised. 1) A budgetary allocation of Rs 1,500 crore has been allocated for loan waiver whereas the accumulated loans, according to the Sad-BJP, were as high as Rs 90,000 crore. 2) Will farm workers also benefit from the loan waiver? There is a feeling that a fraud has been committed against small farmers, and that it is the medium and rich farmers who take crop loans that are being incentivised, said Sukhbir. 3) He also asked if only cooperative loans were covered under the scheme or also those of nationalised and cooperative banks and commission agents would also be waived. 4) According to SAD-BJPs estimates Rs 2,300 crore is needed to fulfil Chief Minister Amarinder Singhs promise of power supply at the rate of Rs 5 a unit, for which no budgetary allocation has been made, he said. 5) The Government had promised 25 lakh jobs for the youth. Nothing allocated, Sukhbir Singh Badal mockingly asked if Finance Minister Manpreet planned to make all of them drive taxis for Ola and Uber, and if so has an allocation been made to purchase taxi cabs for them. Responding to the allegations, Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar praised the Chief Minister and said he had made these big announcements within the first 100 days of his government, when he could as well have waited for four years if he were looking at it as a populist measure to win him brownie points ahead of an election. Jakhar said the waiver and other schemes had been announced despite the finances of the state being in poor condition, as inherited from the former SAD BJP government. He also accused SAD of being hand-in-glove with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), both ahead of the elections and now in the State Assembly which, he said, they had reduced to a battleground over power struggled within their own parties and between the two parties . Jakhar put before Sukhbir three questions, the answers to which he said would expose the nexus between SAD and AAP, and also expose the complete bankruptcy of leadership in SAD. First, will Sukhbir withdraw defamation case against AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, who had accused Bikram Majithia of drug smuggling, as their nexus had been now exposed; second, will Sukhbir apologise for using derogatory words against the Speaker; and finally, will Parkash Singh Badal come to the Vidhan Sabha to take charge of the Opposition.
By PTI

SRINAGAR: A two-member delegation of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat Conference today visited the house of lynched police officer here to express condolence and sympathies with the bereaved family. "A high-level delegation comprising of Mohammad Shafi Khan and Sheikh Yasir Rouf Dalal, on the direction of Mirwaiz, visited the Nowpora residence of slain DSP Mohammad Ayoub Pandith and expressed their condolences, sympathies and solidarity with the bereaved family, including his son," a spokesman of the moderate Hurriyat said in a statement here.

He said the delegation conveyed the condolence message of Mirwaiz to the bereaved family on the occasion and prayed for the departed soul.

The delegation informed the family that Mirwaiz and Hurriyat does not "endorse the brutality of any sort or from any quarter," the spokesman said.

He said Mirwaiz and Pandit families have a long religious and social connection.

The police officer was on security duty at Jamia Masjid when he was lynched by a mob during 'shab-e-Qadr' prayers, drawing strong criticism from different quarters, including Mirwaiz.

The delegation informed the family that Mirwaiz and Hurriyat does not "endorse the brutality of any sort or from any quarter," the spokesman said.

He said Mirwaiz and Pandit families have a long religious and social connection.

The police officer was on security duty at Jamia Masjid when he was lynched by a mob during 'shab-e-Qadr' prayers, drawing strong criticism from different quarters, including Mirwaiz.

SRINAGAR: A two-member delegation of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat Conference today visited the house of lynched police officer here to express condolence and sympathies with the bereaved family. "A high-level delegation comprising of Mohammad Shafi Khan and Sheikh Yasir Rouf Dalal, on the direction of Mirwaiz, visited the Nowpora residence of slain DSP Mohammad Ayoub Pandith and expressed their condolences, sympathies and solidarity with the bereaved family, including his son," a spokesman of the moderate Hurriyat said in a statement here. He said the delegation conveyed the condolence message of Mirwaiz to the bereaved family on the occasion and prayed for the departed soul. The delegation informed the family that Mirwaiz and Hurriyat does not "endorse the brutality of any sort or from any quarter," the spokesman said. He said Mirwaiz and Pandit families have a long religious and social connection. The police officer was on security duty at Jamia Masjid when he was lynched by a mob during 'shab-e-Qadr' prayers, drawing strong criticism from different quarters, including Mirwaiz. The delegation informed the family that Mirwaiz and Hurriyat does not "endorse the brutality of any sort or from any quarter," the spokesman said. He said Mirwaiz and Pandit families have a long religious and social connection. The police officer was on security duty at Jamia Masjid when he was lynched by a mob during 'shab-e-Qadr' prayers, drawing strong criticism from different quarters, including Mirwaiz.
When polls are near, poll sops cant be far behind. So, it wasnt a surprise when the Karnataka government came up with a loan waiver scheme for more than 22 lakh farmers. While the growing demand to waive farm loans and the effects of such a measure on the economy are a subject of debates, the timing of the announcement does smack of politics of populism.

To give the Congress government the benefit of doubt, Karnataka was not the first state to waive off farm loans this seasonUP, Maharashtra and Punjab have already done it. And, the country has seen many such gestures in the past, benefitting less-deserving sections. Besides, the state has only waived off farm loans up to Rs 50,000, totalling about Rs 8,165 crore, borrowed from cooperative banks. While it may seem wrong to fault the government for wanting to help farmers distressed by three successive droughts, waiving off loans is probably not the best way to address a farm crisis. There were reports on how, many farmers stopped repaying loans in anticipation of a waiver. Economists argue that its not healthy to subject banks to frequent loan waivers.

Agriculture is a risky affair in India, especially for marginal and small farmers. Besides the vagaries of weather, farmers have to contend with market uncertainties and exploitative middlemen. According to a 2013 report, 52 per cent of agricultural households in the country were in debt. Andhra Pradesh at 93 per cent had the highest share of farmers with outstanding loans. In Karnataka, 77 per cent of the farming families were in debt.

So, it is essential for governments to help struggling farmers. But the way to do that is by designing better credit schemes, improving crop insurance coverage, expanding the scope of minimum support price and cracking down on middlemen. Not by waiving off loans, which is intended to win votes. A financial culture that condones loan default doesnt bode well either for the economy or for agriculture.

When polls are near, poll sops cant be far behind. So, it wasnt a surprise when the Karnataka government came up with a loan waiver scheme for more than 22 lakh farmers. While the growing demand to waive farm loans and the effects of such a measure on the economy are a subject of debates, the timing of the announcement does smack of politics of populism. To give the Congress government the benefit of doubt, Karnataka was not the first state to waive off farm loans this seasonUP, Maharashtra and Punjab have already done it. And, the country has seen many such gestures in the past, benefitting less-deserving sections. Besides, the state has only waived off farm loans up to Rs 50,000, totalling about Rs 8,165 crore, borrowed from cooperative banks. While it may seem wrong to fault the government for wanting to help farmers distressed by three successive droughts, waiving off loans is probably not the best way to address a farm crisis. There were reports on how, many farmers stopped repaying loans in anticipation of a waiver. Economists argue that its not healthy to subject banks to frequent loan waivers. Agriculture is a risky affair in India, especially for marginal and small farmers. Besides the vagaries of weather, farmers have to contend with market uncertainties and exploitative middlemen. According to a 2013 report, 52 per cent of agricultural households in the country were in debt. Andhra Pradesh at 93 per cent had the highest share of farmers with outstanding loans. In Karnataka, 77 per cent of the farming families were in debt. So, it is essential for governments to help struggling farmers. But the way to do that is by designing better credit schemes, improving crop insurance coverage, expanding the scope of minimum support price and cracking down on middlemen. Not by waiving off loans, which is intended to win votes. A financial culture that condones loan default doesnt bode well either for the economy or for agriculture.
SV Krishna Chaitanya By

Express News Service

SRIHARIKOTA : Though PSLV-C38 mission does not match up to the pomp and gaiety of the recently launched GSLV MkIII or its predecessor C37 mission that lobbed 104 satellites in the orbit shattering the world record, the primary payload Cartosat-2 series satellite is an important asset up, which would come in handy for defence forces during strategic and surveillance operations.

Also, the national space agency has conducted complex manoeuvres re-igniting the rocket three times after successfully deploying all the 31 satellites onboard in a bid to master the art of placing different satellites in different orbits.



In its 40th flight, PSLV blasted off from Sriharikota coast from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC-SHAR) at 9.29 am on Friday. Sixteen minutes into the flight, 712 kg Cartosat satellite was first deployed into the designated 505 km Polar Sun Synchronous Orbit. In the next seven minutes, all the remaining 30 co-passenger nano satellites were separated at an altitude of 520 km.



The 29 co-passenger nano satellites that were flown belonged to 14 foreign countries  Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, the UK and the US. One nano satellite was conceived by Noorul Islam University in Kanniyakumari.



Though ISROs 104 satellites feat in February eclipses this mission, it is still the third biggest launch in the world in terms of the number of satellites launched in one mission. Russia in 2014 launched 37 in a single mission and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) rocket carried 29 satellites in 2013. The total weight of all the 31 satellites combined is about 955 kg.



ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar credited the success to the entire team. The PSLV is emerging as a credible launch vehicle across the globe, both because of the frequency at which the launches are happening and also the access and timeline within which their satellites can be put into orbit... With each PSLV launch, we are trying to improve our capability in one new area, like multiple restarts, multiple orbit and capabilities we are building.

I am sure PSLV will continue to be the demanded vehicle for going into lower orbits, he said. To a query, he said Cartosat-2E is a repeat earth-orbiting satellite providing remote sensing services using its panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras. There is a demand for a few more.

SHAR director P Kunhikrishnan said three launches, including SAARC satellite and GSLV MkIII, in 50 days was a record. This mission took just 18 days for realisation.



Kiran Kumar told Express that three atomic clocks imported from Europe and integrated in IRNSS-1A, which was the first of the seven satellite constellation, has stopped working. He denied reports that the navigation services were affected. Four satellites are enough to deliver robust navigation services. We have six now. As per the original plan, we have kept two spares ready for contingency measures. So, one of the spares will be flown in two months, he said.



What next?

ISRO officials said IRNSS-1A replacement satellite is ongoing. Prior to that GSAT-17 will be launched on June 28 from French Guiana, Kuru. Later, GSAT-11, another communication satellite weighing 5.80 tonnes, is scheduled. These are the two satellites that require capacity higher than what the ISRO have today. Otherwise, the idea is to have eight PSLV, two GSLV MK II and two GSLV Mk III per year.

Two experimental payloads conduct micro gravity test

Sriharikota: In a crucial technology demonstrator, ISRO on Friday had two experimental payloads onboard PSLV C-38 to gather scientific data in over 10 different orbits. After ejecting all the 31 satellites at an altitude of 520 km, the PS4 was brought down to 350 km height and made to travel for nine hours in over 10 orbits. While doing so, the stage was restarted thrice. This is for the first time, even after the stage completed, its mission is kept active.

Key measurements like micro gravity, electron density and other atmospheric data are captured, which would help us in future missions, Kumar said. Also, it was a ploy to reduce space debris. The stage will disintegrate faster when it is brought lower into atmosphere. Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Director K Sivan said it was not an ordinary mission. The idea is to maximise utilisation of the stages & add capabilities.

SRIHARIKOTA : Though PSLV-C38 mission does not match up to the pomp and gaiety of the recently launched GSLV MkIII or its predecessor C37 mission that lobbed 104 satellites in the orbit shattering the world record, the primary payload Cartosat-2 series satellite is an important asset up, which would come in handy for defence forces during strategic and surveillance operations. Also, the national space agency has conducted complex manoeuvres re-igniting the rocket three times after successfully deploying all the 31 satellites onboard in a bid to master the art of placing different satellites in different orbits. In its 40th flight, PSLV blasted off from Sriharikota coast from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC-SHAR) at 9.29 am on Friday. Sixteen minutes into the flight, 712 kg Cartosat satellite was first deployed into the designated 505 km Polar Sun Synchronous Orbit. In the next seven minutes, all the remaining 30 co-passenger nano satellites were separated at an altitude of 520 km. The 29 co-passenger nano satellites that were flown belonged to 14 foreign countries  Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, the UK and the US. One nano satellite was conceived by Noorul Islam University in Kanniyakumari. Though ISROs 104 satellites feat in February eclipses this mission, it is still the third biggest launch in the world in terms of the number of satellites launched in one mission. Russia in 2014 launched 37 in a single mission and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) rocket carried 29 satellites in 2013. The total weight of all the 31 satellites combined is about 955 kg. ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar credited the success to the entire team. The PSLV is emerging as a credible launch vehicle across the globe, both because of the frequency at which the launches are happening and also the access and timeline within which their satellites can be put into orbit... With each PSLV launch, we are trying to improve our capability in one new area, like multiple restarts, multiple orbit and capabilities we are building. I am sure PSLV will continue to be the demanded vehicle for going into lower orbits, he said. To a query, he said Cartosat-2E is a repeat earth-orbiting satellite providing remote sensing services using its panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras. There is a demand for a few more. SHAR director P Kunhikrishnan said three launches, including SAARC satellite and GSLV MkIII, in 50 days was a record. This mission took just 18 days for realisation. Kiran Kumar told Express that three atomic clocks imported from Europe and integrated in IRNSS-1A, which was the first of the seven satellite constellation, has stopped working. He denied reports that the navigation services were affected. Four satellites are enough to deliver robust navigation services. We have six now. As per the original plan, we have kept two spares ready for contingency measures. So, one of the spares will be flown in two months, he said. What next? ISRO officials said IRNSS-1A replacement satellite is ongoing. Prior to that GSAT-17 will be launched on June 28 from French Guiana, Kuru. Later, GSAT-11, another communication satellite weighing 5.80 tonnes, is scheduled. These are the two satellites that require capacity higher than what the ISRO have today. Otherwise, the idea is to have eight PSLV, two GSLV MK II and two GSLV Mk III per year. Two experimental payloads conduct micro gravity test Sriharikota: In a crucial technology demonstrator, ISRO on Friday had two experimental payloads onboard PSLV C-38 to gather scientific data in over 10 different orbits. After ejecting all the 31 satellites at an altitude of 520 km, the PS4 was brought down to 350 km height and made to travel for nine hours in over 10 orbits. While doing so, the stage was restarted thrice. This is for the first time, even after the stage completed, its mission is kept active. Key measurements like micro gravity, electron density and other atmospheric data are captured, which would help us in future missions, Kumar said. Also, it was a ploy to reduce space debris. The stage will disintegrate faster when it is brought lower into atmosphere. Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Director K Sivan said it was not an ordinary mission. The idea is to maximise utilisation of the stages & add capabilities.
By Express News Service

VISAKHAPATNAM: As many as 21 Manasarovar pilgrims from Visakhapatnam district, majority of them senior citizens, are stranded in Simmikot of Nepal since June 20, owing to bad weather conditions.

Sources said the group of pilgrims left the city for the annual Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in the second week of June. After finishing their tour, the pilgrims travelled to Simmikot on June 20 from where they were supposed to return to Vizag on the same day. However, the flight got cancelled due to bad weather.

The pilgrims alleged that a travel agency from Simmikot, which was supposed to send them back the next day, had been delaying their return journey. As a result, they were stuck in a room since the last four days.

"Majority of us are above 60 years of age. Our luggage has already been sent. Though the agency is providing food, we do not have clothes and we have run out of our medicines. Some have developed some skin infections too," said 70-year-old PV Ratnam, a stranded pilgrim.

Visakhapatnam collector Pravin Kumar has deputed special deputy tehsildar D Sekhar to bring the pilgrims to New Delhi.

"The pilgrims will be brought to New Delhi. They will be staying in AP Bhavan before being brought to Visakhapatnam," a communique released by the district administration said on Saturday.

VISAKHAPATNAM: As many as 21 Manasarovar pilgrims from Visakhapatnam district, majority of them senior citizens, are stranded in Simmikot of Nepal since June 20, owing to bad weather conditions. Sources said the group of pilgrims left the city for the annual Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in the second week of June. After finishing their tour, the pilgrims travelled to Simmikot on June 20 from where they were supposed to return to Vizag on the same day. However, the flight got cancelled due to bad weather. The pilgrims alleged that a travel agency from Simmikot, which was supposed to send them back the next day, had been delaying their return journey. As a result, they were stuck in a room since the last four days. "Majority of us are above 60 years of age. Our luggage has already been sent. Though the agency is providing food, we do not have clothes and we have run out of our medicines. Some have developed some skin infections too," said 70-year-old PV Ratnam, a stranded pilgrim. Visakhapatnam collector Pravin Kumar has deputed special deputy tehsildar D Sekhar to bring the pilgrims to New Delhi. "The pilgrims will be brought to New Delhi. They will be staying in AP Bhavan before being brought to Visakhapatnam," a communique released by the district administration said on Saturday.
By Express News Service

KOCHI: Now, you can serve liquor at home during a family function without worrying about lawmen breathing down your neck. The Kerala High Court on Friday held liquor licence (FL-6) was not needed for serving liquor on special occasions within the precincts of a persons house. The HC made it clear a private function at home did not fall within Rule 13 (6) of the Foreign Liquor Rules, 1953.



But even to those private family functions, other regulations, including quantity of liquor and the identity of place, will apply, the court observed. Stressing the importance of hospitality, the court cited a Sanskrit proverb - Atithi Devo Bhava.



The court said if it went by the governments stand, a person has to obtain a FL-6 licence paying `50,000 even for serving a glass of wine at his home. There will be no sale (of liquor) in a family function, nor does the host serving liquor to guests amount to a gift and, by legal fiction, a sale, the court said.



The court issued the order while allowing a petition filed by Alex V Chacko, a native of Peroor, seeking permission to serve liquor at the dinner arranged during the baptism of his grandson.The state government submitted the petitioner perforce had to have a FL-6 licence for serving liquor to the guests.



Baptism is a public function where his relatives, friends and neighbours are invited to participate in the dinner. By having an FL-6 licence, a person can possess three litres of Indian made foreign liquor and it is for his own consumption and not for serving, sharing or for giving as gift.



Unpalatable allegation

If the petition is allowed, people will start selling liquor in their houses. This will make each and every house a bar in the state, said the government.



The High Court struck down the argument saying it was an unpalatable allegation.

Foreign Liquor Rules

The court made it clear a private function at home did not fall within Rule 13 (6) of the Foreign Liquor Rules, 1953

KOCHI: Now, you can serve liquor at home during a family function without worrying about lawmen breathing down your neck. The Kerala High Court on Friday held liquor licence (FL-6) was not needed for serving liquor on special occasions within the precincts of a persons house. The HC made it clear a private function at home did not fall within Rule 13 (6) of the Foreign Liquor Rules, 1953. But even to those private family functions, other regulations, including quantity of liquor and the identity of place, will apply, the court observed. Stressing the importance of hospitality, the court cited a Sanskrit proverb - Atithi Devo Bhava. The court said if it went by the governments stand, a person has to obtain a FL-6 licence paying `50,000 even for serving a glass of wine at his home. There will be no sale (of liquor) in a family function, nor does the host serving liquor to guests amount to a gift and, by legal fiction, a sale, the court said. The court issued the order while allowing a petition filed by Alex V Chacko, a native of Peroor, seeking permission to serve liquor at the dinner arranged during the baptism of his grandson.The state government submitted the petitioner perforce had to have a FL-6 licence for serving liquor to the guests. Baptism is a public function where his relatives, friends and neighbours are invited to participate in the dinner. By having an FL-6 licence, a person can possess three litres of Indian made foreign liquor and it is for his own consumption and not for serving, sharing or for giving as gift. Unpalatable allegation If the petition is allowed, people will start selling liquor in their houses. This will make each and every house a bar in the state, said the government. The High Court struck down the argument saying it was an unpalatable allegation. Foreign Liquor Rules The court made it clear a private function at home did not fall within Rule 13 (6) of the Foreign Liquor Rules, 1953
By Express News Service

KOCHI: In the wake of the recent revelations by a prisoner who shared cell with Sunil Kumar Surendran aka Pulsar Suni, the special investigation team (SIT) recorded fresh statement of the actor who was abducted and sexually assaulted in the city on February 17.



The SIT led by ADGP B Sandhya recorded the actors statement at the Aluva Police Club to verify Jinsons revelations and find out whether the actor suspects any conspiracy behind the incident. The police said the SIT relaunched the probe after Jinson allegedly revealed the involvement of more persons in the incident. Jinson has made some shocking revelations in connection with the case. But we cant divulge the details, the police said.



Court nod sought

The police have sought the permission of the court to record the statement of Jinson before the Aluva Magistrate as he reportedly revealed the names of some persons involved in the case. Jinson was close to Suni who revealed the names of some persons to him. But we dont have evidence against those persons, said a police officer.

KOCHI: In the wake of the recent revelations by a prisoner who shared cell with Sunil Kumar Surendran aka Pulsar Suni, the special investigation team (SIT) recorded fresh statement of the actor who was abducted and sexually assaulted in the city on February 17. The SIT led by ADGP B Sandhya recorded the actors statement at the Aluva Police Club to verify Jinsons revelations and find out whether the actor suspects any conspiracy behind the incident. The police said the SIT relaunched the probe after Jinson allegedly revealed the involvement of more persons in the incident. Jinson has made some shocking revelations in connection with the case. But we cant divulge the details, the police said. Court nod sought The police have sought the permission of the court to record the statement of Jinson before the Aluva Magistrate as he reportedly revealed the names of some persons involved in the case. Jinson was close to Suni who revealed the names of some persons to him. But we dont have evidence against those persons, said a police officer.
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu was holding talks with IT behemoth Googles CEO Sundar Pichai to establish a Google Centre in Madurai, said IT Minister M Manikandan in the State Assembly on Friday.

The minister said this, intervening in the speech of DMK MLA I Periyasamy during the discussion on the demands for grants for Industries Department, when the opposition member alleged that none from the government had met Pichai when he visited Chennai.

I have made a personal request to Sundar Pichai with regard to setting up of Google centre in Tamil Nadu. Further talks for establishing this centre may take place in the US or in Singapore within two or three months, he said.

Earlier, Periyasamy wondered how State could attract investments in IT sector by ignoring such a person like Sundar Pichai, who hailed from the State and is now known across the globe.

Responding, Finance Minister D Jayakumar said Sundar Pichai was on a personal visit to Chennai. Had he proposed something to the TN government, we would have definitely followed it up, he added.

Meanwhile, the software export by the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), which stood at just `42,105 crore in 2010, had now gone up to `98,117 crore during 2015-16, added Minister Manikandan.

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu was holding talks with IT behemoth Googles CEO Sundar Pichai to establish a Google Centre in Madurai, said IT Minister M Manikandan in the State Assembly on Friday. The minister said this, intervening in the speech of DMK MLA I Periyasamy during the discussion on the demands for grants for Industries Department, when the opposition member alleged that none from the government had met Pichai when he visited Chennai. I have made a personal request to Sundar Pichai with regard to setting up of Google centre in Tamil Nadu. Further talks for establishing this centre may take place in the US or in Singapore within two or three months, he said. Earlier, Periyasamy wondered how State could attract investments in IT sector by ignoring such a person like Sundar Pichai, who hailed from the State and is now known across the globe. Responding, Finance Minister D Jayakumar said Sundar Pichai was on a personal visit to Chennai. Had he proposed something to the TN government, we would have definitely followed it up, he added. Meanwhile, the software export by the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), which stood at just `42,105 crore in 2010, had now gone up to `98,117 crore during 2015-16, added Minister Manikandan.
By Express News Service

KARIMNAGAR : karimnagar rejoiced at the Urban Development Ministrys announcement that it had been included in the list of Smart Cities on Friday.

Among 30 cities in round 3, stage 2 competitions, Karimnagar occupied sixth place, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu announced. In the previous list, Karimnagar didnt make it as only Warangal qualified from the State.



Later, Urban Development Ministry proposed Hyderabad as a Smart City. However, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao wrote to the Centre asking them to consider Karimnagar instead of Hyderabad.

Karimnagar Municipal Corporation of (KMC) submitted Smart City proposals with Detailed Project Report on March 3, 2017. KMC engaged Investment Information & Credit Rating Agency (ICRA) Consultancy and prepared the proposals which were presented to the High Power Steering Committee (HPSC) by the KMC Commissioner K Shashanka.



Karimnagar MP camped in New Delhi had tried to convince Venkaiah Naidu till he succeeded. Under this project, Centre will spend `500 crore for Karimnagar. Moreover, the state government will have to shell out another `500 crore in five years. As part of it for the first fiscal year ` 200 crore will be credited into KMC account right away. The funds are slated to improve infrastructure in the city.

KARIMNAGAR : karimnagar rejoiced at the Urban Development Ministrys announcement that it had been included in the list of Smart Cities on Friday. Among 30 cities in round 3, stage 2 competitions, Karimnagar occupied sixth place, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu announced. In the previous list, Karimnagar didnt make it as only Warangal qualified from the State. Later, Urban Development Ministry proposed Hyderabad as a Smart City. However, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao wrote to the Centre asking them to consider Karimnagar instead of Hyderabad. Karimnagar Municipal Corporation of (KMC) submitted Smart City proposals with Detailed Project Report on March 3, 2017. KMC engaged Investment Information & Credit Rating Agency (ICRA) Consultancy and prepared the proposals which were presented to the High Power Steering Committee (HPSC) by the KMC Commissioner K Shashanka. Karimnagar MP camped in New Delhi had tried to convince Venkaiah Naidu till he succeeded. Under this project, Centre will spend `500 crore for Karimnagar. Moreover, the state government will have to shell out another `500 crore in five years. As part of it for the first fiscal year ` 200 crore will be credited into KMC account right away. The funds are slated to improve infrastructure in the city.
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Releasing the Rs 271 crore towards interest amount on farm loans to the bankers, Finance minister Etela Rajender on Friday gave an earful to the bankers.

Be sympathetic to farmers and do not insist on interest on loan amount as the government has released the same, Rajender told the bankers. The state government released `271 crore towards the interest amount on farm loans to the bankers on Friday.

The Finance minister, along with agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, who participated in the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting, even showed the copy of Government Order releasing the `271 crore to the bankers. The interest amount is between the state government and bankers. Do not collect interest money from farmers, Rajender said.

Taking objection to bankers chasing farmers for interest amounts, Rajender said, As per the statistics of banks, normally non-performing assets (NPAs) will be 4 to 11 per cent. When the state government paid `17,000 crore farm loans, the bankers should express gratitude towards the state government. Even if you calculate a simple 7 per cent NPAs in `17,000 crore, it comes around `1,200 crore. We paid the full amount. Yet, you are insisting the farmers to pay the interest.

Responding to this, SLBC president Hardayal Prasad assured Rajender that they would not insist payment of 4 per cent interest on farm loans waived by the state. He also said they would convene a steering committee meeting on extending subsidies to farming sector including starting the agro-based industries in rural areas.

Meanwhile, Srinivas Reddy said renewal of old loans and depositing farm loan waiver amounts into the farmers account was going on at a slow pace. Even the input subsidy of `701 crore given by the state was not deposited in accounts of farmers, Pocharam said.

All land records available online

Special Chief Secretary BR Meena circulated the copies of recently promulgated Ordinance on RoR Act to all the bankers at the meeting. Meena said that all the land records were digitised and are available online. He advised the bankers to verify the records and issue crop loans.



Ensure cash for famrers

Rajender wanted the bankers to talk to RBI and ensure sufficient cash is disbursed to farmers. After demonetisation, TS got Rs 59,000 crore new currency notes. Of this, 94 per cent is J2,000 notes. In agriculture season ryots cannot pay labour charges and others through cheque. Ensure sufficient cash is available, he said.

HYDERABAD: Releasing the Rs 271 crore towards interest amount on farm loans to the bankers, Finance minister Etela Rajender on Friday gave an earful to the bankers. Be sympathetic to farmers and do not insist on interest on loan amount as the government has released the same, Rajender told the bankers. The state government released `271 crore towards the interest amount on farm loans to the bankers on Friday. The Finance minister, along with agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, who participated in the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting, even showed the copy of Government Order releasing the `271 crore to the bankers. The interest amount is between the state government and bankers. Do not collect interest money from farmers, Rajender said. Taking objection to bankers chasing farmers for interest amounts, Rajender said, As per the statistics of banks, normally non-performing assets (NPAs) will be 4 to 11 per cent. When the state government paid `17,000 crore farm loans, the bankers should express gratitude towards the state government. Even if you calculate a simple 7 per cent NPAs in `17,000 crore, it comes around `1,200 crore. We paid the full amount. Yet, you are insisting the farmers to pay the interest. Responding to this, SLBC president Hardayal Prasad assured Rajender that they would not insist payment of 4 per cent interest on farm loans waived by the state. He also said they would convene a steering committee meeting on extending subsidies to farming sector including starting the agro-based industries in rural areas. Meanwhile, Srinivas Reddy said renewal of old loans and depositing farm loan waiver amounts into the farmers account was going on at a slow pace. Even the input subsidy of `701 crore given by the state was not deposited in accounts of farmers, Pocharam said. All land records available online Special Chief Secretary BR Meena circulated the copies of recently promulgated Ordinance on RoR Act to all the bankers at the meeting. Meena said that all the land records were digitised and are available online. He advised the bankers to verify the records and issue crop loans. Ensure cash for famrers Rajender wanted the bankers to talk to RBI and ensure sufficient cash is disbursed to farmers. After demonetisation, TS got Rs 59,000 crore new currency notes. Of this, 94 per cent is J2,000 notes. In agriculture season ryots cannot pay labour charges and others through cheque. Ensure sufficient cash is available, he said.
By Associated Press

PARIS (AP)  Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says the environment shouldn't be a partisan issue.

The actor-turned-Republican politician told reporters in Paris on Friday that he had a "wonderful" one-hour meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. Schwarzenegger says he and Macron, a centrist, discussed climate change.

"We all breathe the same," he said after Macron saw him to the steps of the presidential Elysee Palace.

Schwarzenegger has publicly sparred with U.S. President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican and "Apprentice" host who is withdrawing the U.S. from a global climate accord reached in Paris and taken jabs at Schwarzenegger's TV ratings.

I was truly honored to meet with President @EmmanuelMacron about how we can work together for a clean energy future. He's a great leader. pic.twitter.com/MSoxjIruup  Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) June 23, 2017

Before leaving the Elysee, the former Hollywood star went back up the palace steps to give first lady Brigitte Macron a kiss on the cheek.

Schwarzenegger received France's Legion of Honor in April.

PARIS (AP)  Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says the environment shouldn't be a partisan issue. The actor-turned-Republican politician told reporters in Paris on Friday that he had a "wonderful" one-hour meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. Schwarzenegger says he and Macron, a centrist, discussed climate change. "We all breathe the same," he said after Macron saw him to the steps of the presidential Elysee Palace. Schwarzenegger has publicly sparred with U.S. President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican and "Apprentice" host who is withdrawing the U.S. from a global climate accord reached in Paris and taken jabs at Schwarzenegger's TV ratings. I was truly honored to meet with President @EmmanuelMacron about how we can work together for a clean energy future. He's a great leader. pic.twitter.com/MSoxjIruup  Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) June 23, 2017 Before leaving the Elysee, the former Hollywood star went back up the palace steps to give first lady Brigitte Macron a kiss on the cheek. Schwarzenegger received France's Legion of Honor in April.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: The civil nuclear deal would be part of the discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump, the White House has said, emphasising that the US was looking forward to its nuclear reactors contributing to India's energy security.

"In terms of the actual deals, the US is still looking forward to US-built nuclear reactors contributing to India's energy security. We think that this civil nuclear partnership will bolster India's energy security, create jobs and trade opportunities for the American people.

"So we're still very much interested in seeing this deal move forward," a senior administration official told reporters ahead of PM Modi's visit to the US next week.

"I think Westinghouse stands behind the viability of the project, and it presented it in its technical commercial offer to India.

"So we very much support continued negotiations between Westinghouse and its Indian partners, recognising that deals on this scale can take time," the official said, acknowledging that this is a very complicated issue.

"This will be part of the discussion. It's the White House Energy Week, so civil nuclear energy cooperation is bound to come up," the official said in response to a question and dismissed reports that it has been suspended.

"I wouldn't characterise the civil nuclear deal that was completed now nine years ago as being suspended or it's done.

That waiver was provided for India. The Nuclear Suppliers Group agreed to a waiver for India to receive civil nuclear technology and fuel. So that's completed," said the official.

Meanwhile, a senior White House official preparing for PM Modi's maiden meeting with Trump, said that the US president is well aware of India's economy and strategic potential.

He said that Trump has already visited Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, in his capacity as a real estate tycoon.

"He has visited India. I think Mumbai, he's been to Mumbai," he said.

"As you know, during the campaign he was very much in touch with the Indian-American community. He expressed a very positive feeling toward India.

"I think he said that if he were to be elected, India would find a true friend in the White House," said the official.

"He (Trump) is not new to India. He has understood their contribution to the US economy, everything that's happening in Silicon Valley, for example. Indian Americans have really embraced the innovation and entrepreneurship. So there's a lot of synergies and linkages between the US and India in this particular realm," the official said.

Noting that Indian-Americans have founded 15 per cent of Silicon Valley startups alone, the official said that as a businessman, India is not new for him (Trump).

"He has been acquainted with India. This will offer an opportunity to really deepen the strategic partnership and his strategic understanding of India," he said.

According to the official, the preparations for Modi's trip started long ago.

"There's been a lot of preparatory work done. There has been a great deal of preparation to make this a really memorable visit," the official said adding that both sides recognise the importance of the US-India partnership.

"There are a lot of things that the two countries need to do together in terms of promoting security and stability.

There's a lot they have to do that is in their mutual interests," the official said adding that the administration has been working with inter-agency when it comes to the USIndia partnership.

"There have been a tremendous amount of preparation, and we're looking forward to a really good visit," he added.

WASHINGTON: The civil nuclear deal would be part of the discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump, the White House has said, emphasising that the US was looking forward to its nuclear reactors contributing to India's energy security. "In terms of the actual deals, the US is still looking forward to US-built nuclear reactors contributing to India's energy security. We think that this civil nuclear partnership will bolster India's energy security, create jobs and trade opportunities for the American people. "So we're still very much interested in seeing this deal move forward," a senior administration official told reporters ahead of PM Modi's visit to the US next week. "I think Westinghouse stands behind the viability of the project, and it presented it in its technical commercial offer to India. "So we very much support continued negotiations between Westinghouse and its Indian partners, recognising that deals on this scale can take time," the official said, acknowledging that this is a very complicated issue. "This will be part of the discussion. It's the White House Energy Week, so civil nuclear energy cooperation is bound to come up," the official said in response to a question and dismissed reports that it has been suspended. "I wouldn't characterise the civil nuclear deal that was completed now nine years ago as being suspended or it's done. That waiver was provided for India. The Nuclear Suppliers Group agreed to a waiver for India to receive civil nuclear technology and fuel. So that's completed," said the official. Meanwhile, a senior White House official preparing for PM Modi's maiden meeting with Trump, said that the US president is well aware of India's economy and strategic potential. He said that Trump has already visited Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, in his capacity as a real estate tycoon. "He has visited India. I think Mumbai, he's been to Mumbai," he said. "As you know, during the campaign he was very much in touch with the Indian-American community. He expressed a very positive feeling toward India. "I think he said that if he were to be elected, India would find a true friend in the White House," said the official. "He (Trump) is not new to India. He has understood their contribution to the US economy, everything that's happening in Silicon Valley, for example. Indian Americans have really embraced the innovation and entrepreneurship. So there's a lot of synergies and linkages between the US and India in this particular realm," the official said. Noting that Indian-Americans have founded 15 per cent of Silicon Valley startups alone, the official said that as a businessman, India is not new for him (Trump). "He has been acquainted with India. This will offer an opportunity to really deepen the strategic partnership and his strategic understanding of India," he said. According to the official, the preparations for Modi's trip started long ago. "There's been a lot of preparatory work done. There has been a great deal of preparation to make this a really memorable visit," the official said adding that both sides recognise the importance of the US-India partnership. "There are a lot of things that the two countries need to do together in terms of promoting security and stability. There's a lot they have to do that is in their mutual interests," the official said adding that the administration has been working with inter-agency when it comes to the USIndia partnership. "There have been a tremendous amount of preparation, and we're looking forward to a really good visit," he added.
By AFP

BOGOTA: Rebels with Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) group have freed two Dutch journalists snatched days ago in the country's northeast, officials said Saturday.

Colombia's ombudsman office, which handles human rights issues, wrote on Twitter that the rebel group freed reporter Derk Johannes Bolt, 62, and his cameraman Eugenio Ernest Marie Follender, 58, in a rural area of Norte de Santander state.

The office posted an accompanying photos purporting to show the pair, pictured with some of the rebels, along with Colombian human rights officials.

The announcement came after rebels issued what turned out to be an erroneous announcement earlier Friday stating the two men, who were kidnapped on June 19, had been released.

Officials feared the high-profile kidnapping could disrupt peace talks between the ELN and the Colombian government.

The Dutch journalists work for Spoorloos, a program on Kro-Ncrv TV that helps Dutch people trace their biological relatives around the world.

The government of Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos and ELN opened peace talks on February 7 in Quito, Ecuador, after nearly four years of secret negotiations.

The ELN, with 1,500 fighters, is the last guerrilla group still active in Colombia.

The government is seeking a "complete peace" with the ELN after reaching a peace accord last year with the much larger FARC -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

The Colombian civil conflict erupted in 1964 when the FARC and ELN took up arms for rural land rights.

The fighting, which over the years drew in various rebel and paramilitary groups and drug gangs as well as state forces, has left at least 260,000 people dead, according to authorities.

BOGOTA: Rebels with Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) group have freed two Dutch journalists snatched days ago in the country's northeast, officials said Saturday. Colombia's ombudsman office, which handles human rights issues, wrote on Twitter that the rebel group freed reporter Derk Johannes Bolt, 62, and his cameraman Eugenio Ernest Marie Follender, 58, in a rural area of Norte de Santander state. The office posted an accompanying photos purporting to show the pair, pictured with some of the rebels, along with Colombian human rights officials. The announcement came after rebels issued what turned out to be an erroneous announcement earlier Friday stating the two men, who were kidnapped on June 19, had been released. Officials feared the high-profile kidnapping could disrupt peace talks between the ELN and the Colombian government. The Dutch journalists work for Spoorloos, a program on Kro-Ncrv TV that helps Dutch people trace their biological relatives around the world. The government of Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos and ELN opened peace talks on February 7 in Quito, Ecuador, after nearly four years of secret negotiations. The ELN, with 1,500 fighters, is the last guerrilla group still active in Colombia. The government is seeking a "complete peace" with the ELN after reaching a peace accord last year with the much larger FARC -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The Colombian civil conflict erupted in 1964 when the FARC and ELN took up arms for rural land rights. The fighting, which over the years drew in various rebel and paramilitary groups and drug gangs as well as state forces, has left at least 260,000 people dead, according to authorities.
By AFP

TEHRAN: Iran on Saturday condemned a suicide bombing near Islam's holiest site in Mecca and offered Saudi Arabia its assistance in tackling terrorism despite their severed ties.

"Iran... as always expresses its readiness to assist and cooperate with other countries to confront these criminals, who deal death and ignorantly spread hate," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said.

Six foreign pilgrims were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, where hundreds of thousands of worshippers had gathered for prayers on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The Saudi interior ministry said a wider plot had been foiled with the arrest of five suspects earlier in the day.

Since late 2014, the kingdom has faced periodic bombings and shootings claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are locked in a bitter battle for regional influence and have had no diplomatic relations since January last year.

TEHRAN: Iran on Saturday condemned a suicide bombing near Islam's holiest site in Mecca and offered Saudi Arabia its assistance in tackling terrorism despite their severed ties. "Iran... as always expresses its readiness to assist and cooperate with other countries to confront these criminals, who deal death and ignorantly spread hate," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said. Six foreign pilgrims were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, where hundreds of thousands of worshippers had gathered for prayers on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The Saudi interior ministry said a wider plot had been foiled with the arrest of five suspects earlier in the day. Since late 2014, the kingdom has faced periodic bombings and shootings claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group. Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are locked in a bitter battle for regional influence and have had no diplomatic relations since January last year.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar here.

Secretary Tillerson met with Foreign Secretary Jaishankar yesterday to discuss the US-India relationship and the agenda for Prime Minister Modi's meetings at the White House on June 26, a State Department spokesman said told PTI.

"The Secretary noted the Prime Minister's visit will strengthen ties between the United States and India and advance our common interest in fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth and prosperity, and expanding security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region," the spokesperson said.

The two agreed that the two countries have a deep and growing strategic partnership and hope to work more closely on regional and global issues, the official said in response to a question.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department.

Jaishankar, a former Indian ambassador to the US, has been playing a leading role in shaping the India-US relationship under the Modi government.

WATCH VIDEO:

Modi's US visit would begin on June 25.

Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

Ahead of his visit, Modi yesterday said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he tweeted.

In a statement posted on the Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.

"President Trump and I have spoken on telephone prior to this. Our conversations have touched upon our common intent to take forward our productive all round engagement for the mutual benefit of our people," he said.

"I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide ranging partnership between India and the United States," the prime minister said.

He noted that India's partnership with the US is multilayered and diverse, supported by not just governments but all the stakeholders on both sides.

"I look forward to building a forward-looking vision for our partnership with the new Administration in the United States under President Trump," he added.

Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.

Like in the past, he will also be interacting with the Indian diaspora.

WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar here. Secretary Tillerson met with Foreign Secretary Jaishankar yesterday to discuss the US-India relationship and the agenda for Prime Minister Modi's meetings at the White House on June 26, a State Department spokesman said told PTI. "The Secretary noted the Prime Minister's visit will strengthen ties between the United States and India and advance our common interest in fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth and prosperity, and expanding security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region," the spokesperson said. The two agreed that the two countries have a deep and growing strategic partnership and hope to work more closely on regional and global issues, the official said in response to a question. Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department. Jaishankar, a former Indian ambassador to the US, has been playing a leading role in shaping the India-US relationship under the Modi government. WATCH VIDEO: window.__ventunoplayer = window.__ventunoplayer||[];window.__ventunoplayer.push({video_key: 'OTU2Mzc4fHw4fHw2fHwxLDIsMQ==', holder_id: 'vt-video-player', player_type: 'vp', width:'100%', ratio:'4:3'});Modi's US visit would begin on June 25. Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington. Ahead of his visit, Modi yesterday said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views. "My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he tweeted. In a statement posted on the Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump. "President Trump and I have spoken on telephone prior to this. Our conversations have touched upon our common intent to take forward our productive all round engagement for the mutual benefit of our people," he said. "I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide ranging partnership between India and the United States," the prime minister said. He noted that India's partnership with the US is multilayered and diverse, supported by not just governments but all the stakeholders on both sides. "I look forward to building a forward-looking vision for our partnership with the new Administration in the United States under President Trump," he added. Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs. Like in the past, he will also be interacting with the Indian diaspora.
By AFP

SEOUL: A North Korean soldier defected to the South after crossing the heavily fortified border, a defence ministry spokesman said Saturday, the second soldier to defect this month.

"A North Korean soldier defected to one of our Guard Posts at around 9:30 p.m. on Friday at the middle section of the border," the spokesman said, according to a report by the Yonhap news agency.

"He has been taken into custody for questioning," he added

There was no exchange of fire between the two sides when the North Korean soldier, a private, smuggled himself across the border to the south, the Yonhap report said.

His defection came after another North Korean soldier walked across the tense border on June 13.

On June 18, a North Korean civilian swam across a river to defect to the South, with styrofoam pieces strapped to both shoulders to stay afloat.

Early this month, two of four crew members of a North Korean fishing boat which drifted to the South refused to return home. They were allowed resettle.

Over the decades since the peninsula was divided, dozens of North Korean soldiers have fled to the South through the Demilitarised Zone, which extends for two kilometers either side of the actual border.

A North Korean soldier defected to the South in September last year, and a teenage North Korean soldier defected in June 2015.

In 2012 a North Korean soldier walked unchecked through rows of electrified fencing and surveillance cameras, prompting Seoul to sack three field commanders for a security lapse.

More than 30,000 North Korean civilians have fled their homeland but it is very rare for them to cross the closely guarded inter-Korean border, which is fortified with minefields and barbed wire.

Most flee across the porous frontier with neighbouring China.

SEOUL: A North Korean soldier defected to the South after crossing the heavily fortified border, a defence ministry spokesman said Saturday, the second soldier to defect this month. "A North Korean soldier defected to one of our Guard Posts at around 9:30 p.m. on Friday at the middle section of the border," the spokesman said, according to a report by the Yonhap news agency. "He has been taken into custody for questioning," he added There was no exchange of fire between the two sides when the North Korean soldier, a private, smuggled himself across the border to the south, the Yonhap report said. His defection came after another North Korean soldier walked across the tense border on June 13. On June 18, a North Korean civilian swam across a river to defect to the South, with styrofoam pieces strapped to both shoulders to stay afloat. Early this month, two of four crew members of a North Korean fishing boat which drifted to the South refused to return home. They were allowed resettle. Over the decades since the peninsula was divided, dozens of North Korean soldiers have fled to the South through the Demilitarised Zone, which extends for two kilometers either side of the actual border. A North Korean soldier defected to the South in September last year, and a teenage North Korean soldier defected in June 2015. In 2012 a North Korean soldier walked unchecked through rows of electrified fencing and surveillance cameras, prompting Seoul to sack three field commanders for a security lapse. More than 30,000 North Korean civilians have fled their homeland but it is very rare for them to cross the closely guarded inter-Korean border, which is fortified with minefields and barbed wire. Most flee across the porous frontier with neighbouring China.
By Associated Press

RIYADH: A suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca as police disrupted a plot to target the holiest site in Islam just as the fasting month of Ramadan ends, Saudi security forces said Saturday.

The Interior Ministry said it launched a raid around Jiddah, as well as two areas in Mecca itself, including the Ajyad Al-Masafi neighborhood, located near the Grand Mosque.

There, police said they engaged in a shootout at a three-story house with a suicide bomber, who blew himself up and caused the building to collapse. He was killed, while the blast wounded six foreigners and five members of security forces, according to the Interior Ministry's statement. Five others were arrested, including a woman, it said.

Saudi state television aired footage after the raid Friday near the Grand Mosque, showing police and rescue personnel running through the neighborhood's narrow streets. The blast demolished the building, its walls crushing a parked car. Nearby structures appeared to be peppered with shrapnel and bullet holes.

The Interior Ministry said the thwarted "terrorist plan" would have violated "all sanctities by targeting the security of the Grand Mosque, the holiest place on Earth."

"They obeyed their evil and corrupt self-serving schemes managed from abroad whose aim is to destabilize the security and stability of this blessed country," it said.

The ministry did not name the group involved in the attack. The ultraconservative Sunni kingdom battled an al-Qaida insurgency for years and more recently has faced attacks from a local branch of the Islamic State group. Neither group immediately claimed involvement, though IS sympathizers online have urged more attacks as an offensive in Iraq slowly squeezes the extremists out of Mosul and their de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria comes under daily bombing from a U.S.-led coalition.

The disrupted attack comes at a sensitive time in Saudi Arabia. King Salman earlier this week short-circuited the kingdom's succession by making his son, Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman, first in line to the throne.

The newly appointed 31-year-old crown prince is the architect of Saudi Arabia's stalemated war in Yemen against Shiite rebels. He has also offered aggressive comments about the kingdom confronting Shiite power Iran.

Iran's Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the Mecca plot and said it remains willing to work with other countries in confronting terrorism.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have cut diplomatic ties to neighboring Qatar and are trying to isolate the energy-rich country over its alleged support of militants and ties to Iran. Qatar long has denied those allegations.

As the Interior Ministry announced the raid, over 1 million Muslim faithful prayed at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina to mark the end of Ramadan. In July 2016, a suicide bombing there killed four members of Saudi Arabia's security forces.

Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque, the burial site of the Prophet Muhammad, every year as part of their pilgrimage. The same day in July, separate suicide bomb attacks targeted a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia and near the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah.

The Grand Mosque has been the target of militants before, in part because it represents a symbol of the ruling Al Saud family's clout in the Islamic world. The Saudi monarch bears the title of "custodian of the two holy mosques."

In 1979, some 250 militants seized the mosque and held it for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne. When Saudi troops stormed the mosque, the official death toll was 229, including extremists and soldiers.

RIYADH: A suicide bomber blew himself up near the Grand Mosque in Mecca as police disrupted a plot to target the holiest site in Islam just as the fasting month of Ramadan ends, Saudi security forces said Saturday. The Interior Ministry said it launched a raid around Jiddah, as well as two areas in Mecca itself, including the Ajyad Al-Masafi neighborhood, located near the Grand Mosque. There, police said they engaged in a shootout at a three-story house with a suicide bomber, who blew himself up and caused the building to collapse. He was killed, while the blast wounded six foreigners and five members of security forces, according to the Interior Ministry's statement. Five others were arrested, including a woman, it said. Saudi state television aired footage after the raid Friday near the Grand Mosque, showing police and rescue personnel running through the neighborhood's narrow streets. The blast demolished the building, its walls crushing a parked car. Nearby structures appeared to be peppered with shrapnel and bullet holes. The Interior Ministry said the thwarted "terrorist plan" would have violated "all sanctities by targeting the security of the Grand Mosque, the holiest place on Earth." "They obeyed their evil and corrupt self-serving schemes managed from abroad whose aim is to destabilize the security and stability of this blessed country," it said. The ministry did not name the group involved in the attack. The ultraconservative Sunni kingdom battled an al-Qaida insurgency for years and more recently has faced attacks from a local branch of the Islamic State group. Neither group immediately claimed involvement, though IS sympathizers online have urged more attacks as an offensive in Iraq slowly squeezes the extremists out of Mosul and their de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria comes under daily bombing from a U.S.-led coalition. The disrupted attack comes at a sensitive time in Saudi Arabia. King Salman earlier this week short-circuited the kingdom's succession by making his son, Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman, first in line to the throne. The newly appointed 31-year-old crown prince is the architect of Saudi Arabia's stalemated war in Yemen against Shiite rebels. He has also offered aggressive comments about the kingdom confronting Shiite power Iran. Iran's Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the Mecca plot and said it remains willing to work with other countries in confronting terrorism. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have cut diplomatic ties to neighboring Qatar and are trying to isolate the energy-rich country over its alleged support of militants and ties to Iran. Qatar long has denied those allegations. As the Interior Ministry announced the raid, over 1 million Muslim faithful prayed at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina to mark the end of Ramadan. In July 2016, a suicide bombing there killed four members of Saudi Arabia's security forces. Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque, the burial site of the Prophet Muhammad, every year as part of their pilgrimage. The same day in July, separate suicide bomb attacks targeted a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia and near the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah. The Grand Mosque has been the target of militants before, in part because it represents a symbol of the ruling Al Saud family's clout in the Islamic world. The Saudi monarch bears the title of "custodian of the two holy mosques." In 1979, some 250 militants seized the mosque and held it for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne. When Saudi troops stormed the mosque, the official death toll was 229, including extremists and soldiers.
By AFP

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations today rejected Israeli claims that Lebanese Hezbollah militants were establishing observation posts along the border under the cover of an environmental NGO.

The Israeli military yesterday published pictures of a building near the Israeli-Lebanese border supposedly controlled by an organisation called Green Without Borders.

The UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL reported that Green Without Borders members have planted trees in the area, but it "has not observed any unauthorized armed persons at the locations or found any basis to report a violation of resolution 1701," said UN spokeswoman Eri Kaneko.

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, had sent a letter of protest to the Security Council with images of the alleged observation posts and maps locating them.

Dannon described the activities as a "dangerous provocation" and said Hezbollah was carrying out reconnaissance activities near the Blue Line border demarcation while posing as a civilian organisation.

Israel fought a month-long war against the Lebanese Shite movement in 2006, killing more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Resolution 1701 was adopted to end the war, calling for full respect of the Blue Line.

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations today rejected Israeli claims that Lebanese Hezbollah militants were establishing observation posts along the border under the cover of an environmental NGO. The Israeli military yesterday published pictures of a building near the Israeli-Lebanese border supposedly controlled by an organisation called Green Without Borders. The UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL reported that Green Without Borders members have planted trees in the area, but it "has not observed any unauthorized armed persons at the locations or found any basis to report a violation of resolution 1701," said UN spokeswoman Eri Kaneko. Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, had sent a letter of protest to the Security Council with images of the alleged observation posts and maps locating them. Dannon described the activities as a "dangerous provocation" and said Hezbollah was carrying out reconnaissance activities near the Blue Line border demarcation while posing as a civilian organisation. Israel fought a month-long war against the Lebanese Shite movement in 2006, killing more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. Resolution 1701 was adopted to end the war, calling for full respect of the Blue Line.
By AFP

WASHINGTON: Washington's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan stepped down on Friday, just as the United States is preparing to send thousands more troops to the region.

A senior State Department official told AFP that acting special representative Laurel Miller left the post without a replacement being named.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Miller is returning to a position at the Rand Corporation and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has not yet decided what to do with post.

The office was created when US officials decided that the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan are inextricably linked and ought to be dealt with together.

President Donald Trump came to office planning to slash diplomatic spending and Tillerson plans to cut several special envoy roles.

Miller's responsibilities will now fall under the department's South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau, which has a much bigger footprint that includes India.

But this bureau is itself leaderless, with no assistant secretary appointed to lead it and no one nominated by the new administration for Senate approval.

When news site Politico broke the news that the envoy post had gone, it cited diplomats complaining of a rushed process and a dangerous leadership vacuum.

But, also speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior official told AFP the decision was part of a broader policy review.

Tillerson thinks the issue is best handled at a regional level, the official said, arguing that it made sense to consider India part of the equation.

Trump has given the Pentagon and US commanders wide latitude to decide on the future of Washington's longest ever war -- the 16-year slog in Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is reportedly planning to deploy up to 5,000 extra troops to bolster efforts to train Afghan forces to repel a resurgent Taliban insurgency.

WASHINGTON: Washington's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan stepped down on Friday, just as the United States is preparing to send thousands more troops to the region. A senior State Department official told AFP that acting special representative Laurel Miller left the post without a replacement being named. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Miller is returning to a position at the Rand Corporation and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has not yet decided what to do with post. The office was created when US officials decided that the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan are inextricably linked and ought to be dealt with together. President Donald Trump came to office planning to slash diplomatic spending and Tillerson plans to cut several special envoy roles. Miller's responsibilities will now fall under the department's South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau, which has a much bigger footprint that includes India. But this bureau is itself leaderless, with no assistant secretary appointed to lead it and no one nominated by the new administration for Senate approval. When news site Politico broke the news that the envoy post had gone, it cited diplomats complaining of a rushed process and a dangerous leadership vacuum. But, also speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior official told AFP the decision was part of a broader policy review. Tillerson thinks the issue is best handled at a regional level, the official said, arguing that it made sense to consider India part of the equation. Trump has given the Pentagon and US commanders wide latitude to decide on the future of Washington's longest ever war -- the 16-year slog in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is reportedly planning to deploy up to 5,000 extra troops to bolster efforts to train Afghan forces to repel a resurgent Taliban insurgency.
Trinity Church honors veterans buried as far back as 1731

The flags will be on display until Nov. 13, and the church graveyard, which is adjacent to the park at Queen Annes Square, is open to the public.
Just as he has changed the lives of people suffering from a devastating genetic disease, molecular endocrinologist John J. Kopchick, Ph.D., and his wife, Charlene, of Athens, Ohio, are paving the way for future scientists to do the same with a transformative $10.5 million gift to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

To spur future breakthroughs, the Kopchicks' gift will fund up to 15 student fellowships at the MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School, where John Kopchick received his Ph.D. in 1980 and launched an illustrious career. The fellowships will accelerate the school's continued success in educating medical trailblazers.

"My success is dependent on something special, and that something special was my education at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. It is nice to give something back," said John Kopchick, who received the Rosalie B. Hite Fellowship during his time at the MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School.

Charlene Kopchick, assistant dean of students for campus involvement at Ohio University, is equally passionate about student education. She and her husband are the first in their respective families to go to college.

"There is a statement about giving forward and for me that is important. Had John not gotten scholarships to come here, we wouldn't be where we are," said Charlene, adding that the fellowships will help students who are in need of financial assistance to achieve their dream of a graduate medical school education.

The MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School is a partnership between The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the No. 1 cancer center in the U.S., and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

"This gift represents the important role that collaborations between two UT institutions will play in advancing discoveries and cures by making sure that they develop scientific and medical leaders to do just that," said The University of Texas System Chancellor William H. McRaven. "When you combine the expertise that exists in the nation's leading cancer center and the state's most comprehensive academic health institution, graduate students in the biomedical sciences will have unprecedented opportunity for learning and discovery. We are profoundly grateful to the Kopchicks for understanding and generously supporting the power of collaborative science."

In addition to the fellowships, the gift will fund the Dr. John J. Kopchick Research Symposium, which will draw leading scientists from around the world and recognize Graduate School students who hold Dr. John J. Kopchick and Charlene Kopchick Endowed Fellowships. The gift also will fund competitive research awards to students and their faculty mentors.

"The fellowships and research symposium will nurture graduate students and faculty of the highest caliber in their pursuit of innovation and excellence in the biomedical sciences," said Ethan Dmitrovsky, M.D., executive vice president and provost of MD Anderson. "We are grateful to Charlene and John Kopchick for their incredible generosity, vision and support. Their legacy gift advances our collective goal to help the next generation of biomedical scientists realize their potential in making a global impact on eradicating diseases around the world."

The Graduate School was established in 1963 and has trained more than 2,600 biomedical scientists. Its more than 600 faculty members come from both MD Anderson and UTHealth.

"We are grateful for this opportunity to build a program that celebrates the accomplishments of John and Charlene Kopchick," said Giuseppe N. Colasurdo, M.D., president and Alkek-Williams Distinguished Chair at UTHealth. "Our Graduate School is raising the bar for health care innovation, with students and faculty members at the forefront of translational biomedical research. This generous gift from the Kopchicks will transform the lives of our trainees and, ultimately, the lives of millions through groundbreaking scientific discoveries."

The deans of the Graduate School are Michelle Barton, Ph.D., professor of Epigenetics and Colin Powell Chair for Cancer Research at MD Anderson; and Michael Blackburn, Ph.D., William S. Kilroy, Sr. Chair in Pulmonary Disease at McGovern Medical School and John P. McGovern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Endowed Distinguished Professor at UTHealth.

Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

"This transformational gift will forever change the future of scholarship and science at the MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School," Barton said. "The funds from this gift will allow the school to attract the finest students, many of whom may not be able to nurture their talents without the benefit of financial assistance, providing a critical opportunity for them to pursue their education without financial burden."

Blackburn said, "John and Charlene's generous philanthropic support will help the school inspire a legacy of innovation and synergy in science. Thanks to their gift, our school will be able to offer more stipends that support our most elite graduate students' life-changing research endeavors in areas like Parkinson's disease, leukemia, attention deficit disorder and ovarian cancer. These awards will represent the pinnacle of achievement in education and research at our school, distinguishing the students and faculty who receive them and rewarding the top talent at our school for their accomplishments."

Alex Perakis, the MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School student president for 2016-2017, said alumni donations represent the school's commitment to securing the future of the next generation of well trained and educated scientists. "These heartwarming efforts to create fellowships and scholarships that support the school means the world to our students and further deepen the connection of our entire Graduate School family," Perakis said.

Kopchick earned a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania before he was recruited to the Graduate School by his mentor and academic adviser Ralph Arlinghaus, Ph.D., professor and Hubert L. Stringer Chair in Cancer Research in the Department of Translational Molecular Pathology at MD Anderson.

"I spent a wonderful four and a half years there," Kopchick said. "Ralph and his research group were great. In fact, I base my current research group on things I learned in Ralph's laboratory - work hard and play hard. And Char and I embraced the Texas lifestyle 100 percent and have many long-term `Texas' friends that we still visit."

Kopchick's pioneering research, which occurred at Ohio University in the 1990s and continues to this day, centers on the molecular structure of a growth hormone, a protein produced in the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. Tumors and genetic mutations in the gland can alter the production of this hormone.

Too much growth hormone can lead to acromegaly or gigantism, a condition reportedly affecting the late wrestler Andre the Giant and the world's tallest man, Sultan Kosen. Conversely, too little growth hormone can lead to growth hormone deficiency that may lead to dwarfism.

Kopchick's research led to a drug that inhibits growth hormone functions and in 2003, the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug called SOMAVERT (pegvisomant) for use in patients with acromegaly. Kopchick believes SOMAVERT may have other applications including the treatment of cancer. Related to this, he has established a collaborative research project with Ahmed Kaseb, M.D., and Hesham Amin, M.D., at MD Anderson to determine whether inhibition of GH action will affect tumor growth.

At Ohio University, Kopchick is a Distinguished Professor and The Goll-Ohio Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and directs the Growth, Diabetes and Obesity Section of the Edison Biotechnology Institute in the Konneker Research Laboratories. He also is a member of the Biomedical Sciences Department in the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.

He received an MD Anderson Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2002 and was named the Graduate School's Alumnus of the Year for 2006.

The inaugural Dr. John J. Kopchick and Charlene Kopchick Fellows are anticipated to be awarded in 2018.
Leaders from Meharry Medical College and Middle Tennessee State University signed an agreement Thursday (June 22) to develop an accelerated pathway for talented students to graduate as physicians to serve in rural areas of the state.

Meharry President James Hildreth and MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee launched the partnership at a State Capitol signing ceremony that highlighted the unique collaboration between the private and public institutions that was brokered by state officials.

State Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, a graduate of MTSU, and Mike Krause, executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, helped bring MTSU to the table after Hildreth first proposed the accelerated bachelors-to-doctoral degree program.

"It is imperative to increase the number of primary care physicians in the state and to incentivize them to practice in underserved areas if Tennessee is to improve the overall health of its citizens," said Hildreth, a medical doctor.

Said McPhee, "This unique collaboration between a private medical college and a major public comprehensive university is just the right catalyst to spark true change for the benefit of the people of the great state of Tennessee."

Hildreth said the health status of Tennessee is among the worst in the country, with the state ranked in the bottom five for many important health metrics. One reason, he said, is the fact that there aren't enough doctors to care for those who are sick.

The agreement, McPhee said, will help accelerate the production of physicians by creating a six-year pathway for selected high-ability students to attain a bachelor's degree at MTSU and a medical degree at Meharry.

MTSU and Meharry will develop a three-plus-three-year program that will allow students to enter MTSU as undergraduates, then matriculate at Meharry for a medical education, earning degrees from both entities.

McPhee and Hildreth said officials from both entities are already working to develop a joint admissions process and criteria for selection into the program. They hope the program will be able to accept students at MTSU by the Fall 2018 semester.

Students selected for the program would be eligible for financial aid from a $750,000 commitment put forward by the state -; if they commit to working in underserved areas of Tennessee for a specific duration to be determined.

A video recap of the signing ceremony can be viewed at https://youtu.be/NiaNv7c60WQ.

Krause said THEC was "particularly excited about the possibility for graduates of this joint program to serve as health care providers in our most needy areas."

He also said the partnership was "exactly the kind of collaboration we need to reach our state's Drive to 55 goal," which calls for 55 percent of adult Tennesseans to receive a post-secondary credential by the year 2025.

"Innovative, collaborative approaches like this partnership are exactly what we hope will materialize across this state as we try to increase the number of Tennesseans with a college degree," Krause said.

Ketron said the arrangement may be the first partnership of its kind between a private college and a public university.

"To my knowledge, this is the only partnership of this magnitude anywhere in the country," he said. "When I mention this partnership to people, it becomes a 'wow' moment, because it is such a game changer."

"This will benefit the entire state," said House Speaker Beth Harwell, who was among several lawmakers in attendance at Thursday's signing ceremony. "It is innovative, and I applaud the leadership here today for working on this endeavor for quite some time."

Located in Nashville, Meharry is one of the nation's oldest and largest historically black academic health science centers dedicated to educating physicians, dentists, researchers, and health policy experts.

Founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College, Meharry was the first medical school in the South for African-Americans. It was chartered separately in 1915.

Hildreth said Meharry "has a strong, enduring legacy of training primary care physicians who practice in underserved areas throughout the country and Tennessee. Of the Tennessee students enrolled in our schools, about half stay in Tennessee to practice medicine or dentistry."

Hildreth said MTSU's reputation and results as one of the state's leaders in undergraduate education and a top choice for students from Tennessee made the institution a great choice for the collaboration.

MTSU, founded in 1911, is a Carnegie Research Doctoral University composed of eight undergraduate colleges, offering more than 40 departments and more than 140 degree programs. Its College of Graduate Studies offers more than 100 degree programs.

McPhee pointed to MTSU's newly built and renovated Science Corridor of Innovation, which houses state-of-the-art equipment and laboratories for its College of Basic and Applied Sciences, as a key asset in the collaboration.

MTSU's $147 million Science Building, which opened in 2014, is among the most advanced undergraduate science research and teaching facilities in the nation. It is the largest single investment by the state of Tennessee on a higher education campus.

"MTSU is the No. 1 producer of college graduates in the Greater Nashville region and boasts some of the most innovative partnerships in Tennessee higher education," McPhee said.
A self-help approach to a graded exercise program, supervised by a specialist physiotherapist, is safe and may reduce fatigue for some people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), according to a new trial of 200 people published in The Lancet. The intervention, undertaken over 12 weeks, had a smaller effect on reducing physical disability.

The self-help intervention (guided graded exercise self-help, or GES) involves slowly and safely building up physical activity levels (eg. a few minutes walking) after establishing a daily routine, with the support of a specialist physiotherapist over the phone or Skype.

The self-help approach means that patients do not need to travel to a clinic, and the authors say the intervention might be useful as an initial treatment for patients to help manage the symptoms of CFS.

CFS affects about seven in 1000 people, and is characterized by chronic, disabling fatigue in the absence of an alternative diagnosis. Based on previous trials, UK guidelines recommend graded exercise therapy and cognitive behavior therapy for patients with CFS. However, graded exercise therapy is usually delivered in a clinic by specialist therapists with up to 15 sessions over 3-6 months, so it can be expensive to deliver and access to clinics providing these treatments is limited.

In this study, patients with CFS were randomly assigned to receive GES (107 patients) in addition to specialist medical care, or receive specialist medical care alone (104 patients). Specialist medical care could involve prescriptions or advice regarding medication to treat accompanying symptoms such as insomnia, pain or depressive illness.

Participants in the GES group were given a self-help booklet describing a 12-week, 6-step program (developed with patient input) to gradually and safely increase physical activity levels. During the first 8-weeks, participants in the GES group were also given up to four guidance sessions with a specialist physiotherapist over the phone or Skype to discuss progress and so that the physiotherapist could provide feedback and answer any questions.

In GES, patients first stabilize a routine to spread usual daily activities throughout the week. Once a routine is established, patients choose a physical activity they would be able to do on 5 days per week in addition to usual daily activities. Most people chose walking, and it could be for a little as one minute per day. Once this is consistently achieved, participants then start to make a small increase (no more than 20% per week) in the time they spend being physically active. For instance, someone walking for 5 mins a day would increase that to 6 mins a day. The time spent being active is slowly increased, and later on the intensity (eg. walking a bit faster). Importantly, if participants feel their symptoms increase after an incremental change in physical activity, they are advised by their specialist physiotherapist to maintain that activity level for longer than a week, until the symptoms have settled, before considering another increase.

All participants completed questionnaires to assess their levels of fatigue and physical function at the start of the trial and at 12 weeks, roughly 4 weeks after the GES guidance with the physiotherapist had ended. Nearly half (42%) of the participants in the GES group adhered to the program well or very well.

Overall, at 12 weeks, the mean fatigue score in the GES group was 4 points lower than in the control group, consistent with a moderate size effect. The mean physical function score was 6 points higher in the GES group than in the control group, consistent with a statistically significant but relatively small effect.

When rating their overall health, about 1 in 5 people in the GES group (18% [17/97]) reported feeling much better or very much better, compared to 1 in 20 (5% [4/101]) in the control group. This suggests that the self-help approach helped more people than specialist medical care alone, but still only helped a minority of patients to feel much better.

There were no reports of any serious adverse reactions to GES, after scrutiny by independent clinicians. When rating their overall health, only one person out of 97 participants reported feeling much worse or very much worse in the GES group, compared to eight people (8/101) in the specialist medical care group.

More participants in the GES group dropped out of the study compared to the specialist medical care group (10 vs. 2). Assuming that all participants who dropped out got worse, there was no significant difference in worsening symptoms between the two groups. Of the people who completed the GES program, 85% were moderately or very satisfied.

Dr Lucy Clark, lead author, Queen Mary University of London, UK, said:

We found that a self-help approach to a graded exercise program, guided by a therapist, was safe and also helped to reduce fatigue for some people with chronic fatigue syndrome, suggesting that GES might be useful as an initial treatment for patients to help manage symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome. We are now looking at whether the effects were maintained beyond 12 weeks. Graded exercise focuses on improving routines and changing physical activity patterns, and it may even require an initial reduction in activity. The aim is to progress carefully to improve, under the supervision of a CFS-experienced therapist, rather than pushing people too hard and towards a setback. Offering the therapy as a self-help approach, supervised by a physiotherapist, could increase access and avoid the fatiguing effects of travel for the intervention.

Participants involved in the trial were diagnosed according to NICE criteria, most commonly used by UK clinicians. Subsequent analyzes found that the findings were similar when other diagnostic criteria were applied. The findings apply only to patients with CFS who are diagnosed in UK secondary care and referred for therapy. Research in other health care settings will be needed to test whether the same is found elsewhere.

The authors note that the participants and the therapists necessarily knew which treatment they were receiving, but the statistician analyzing the results did not. The outcomes including fatigue, physical function, overall health and symptoms of chronic fatigue were all self-reported using validated questionnaires commonly used in clinical trials.

The authors note that the trial was not designed to test the causes of chronic fatigue syndrome, and the relative efficacy of a behavioral intervention does not imply that chronic fatigue syndrome is caused by psychological factors.

Writing in a linked Comment, Dr Daniel J Clauw, Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Centre, the University of Michigan, USA, says:
New Delhi: The Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) sets a deadline of two months for completion of a rape trial. But it takes at least eight months for a fast-track court in Delhi to just record statement of a rape survivor. Incidentally, Delhi courts are considered to be the model courts in the country.



A Delhi High Court-mandated study on rape trials in the national capital has revealed that breach of the two-month deadline for conclusion of a rape trial has become a norm in the fast-track courts and that a complete overhaul at pre-trial and subsequent stages was required to reform the system.



The study was conducted by Delhi-based NGO Partners for Law in Development (PLD) with support of the Union Law Ministry and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In October 2013, the High Court had asked the NGO to carry out research studies of trials of rape cases in the special fast-track courts in Delhi.



PLD was asked to identify 16 cases of rape pending before the courts, observe the proceedings, interact with the victims and then submit a report with suitable recommendations.



At the outset, the report underlines that although not representative, the sample size of 16 cases was deemed sufficient for a qualitative analysis and preliminary findings within the constraints of time and resources available for the study. The study was conducted between January 2014 and March 2015.



Citing Section 309(2) of the CrPC, the report, which has now been released by the Law Ministry, laments that despite a legal obligation to conclude the trial in 2 months, the timeline was invariably breached in all the 16 cases.



Contrary to the stipulation in S.309(2), CrPC of completing rape trials in a period of two months, it was found the deposition of the prosecutrix (victim) alone was not completed within this time period. The minimum time taken to complete just the deposition of the prosecutrix in our data was 77 days (2 months 16 days), with the average time period being 37 weeks (8.5 months), stated the report.



It further rues that in some cases, the deposition of the victim continued even after the 15 month period of the study. Delays occur for multiple reasons, including receipt of the FSL reports and systemic factors like increasing case-load, which make delay unavoidable... the need for reform of all agencies that feed into the trial must be emphasized, as well as a stricter approach to adjournments, said the report.



It pointed out that instead of setting a mandatory outer limit for completion of such trials, the most appropriate method would be to conduct day-to-day hearings, and complete the deposition of the victim at the commencement of the trial so as to leave little room for influence and coercion.



The report added that in all the 16 cases, accused were known to the victims, with the most number of victims in the category of 20-30 years.



The study has made recommendations under three categories  pre-trial stage, trial stage and need for support services.



At the pre-trial stage, the report states that apart from training of all the agencies involved in investigation and prosecution of rape cases, there is a need for a specialised agency such as a one-stop crisis centre to provide necessary response to the help victims of sexual assault and to enable the victim navigate the legal procedure, rendering her less vulnerable.



PLDs study added that at the trial stage, it is imperative to shield and protect the victims and witnesses beyond deposition during the trial since accused persons and their families had access to the survivors outside court complexes.

It further recommended that questions on behalf of the lawyer for accused should be mandatorily routed through the judges since defence questions are inevitably hostile, often sexually explicit and intended to insinuate lack of resistance to imply consent.



Underlining lack of legal orientation on procedure and rights impedes availing remedies under the law, the report said that need for a specialised agency to orient, guide the prosecutrix through the legal process, in addition to providing other support services cannot be emphasized enough.



The study highlighted absence of support services as the most pressing lacuna that deprives a rape survivor from accessing judicial remedies and receive restorative justice outside of the court processes. It said that support services were a must to help victims get compensation, pre-trial orientation, counselling and access to rehabilitation.



In its conclusion, PLD suggested that more studies should be conducted across the country to appreciate how one of the most vulnerable users of the justice deliver system experience their encounter with the law.

If reform is a process of dynamic engagement, in which legislative changes must be accompanied by trainings, monitoring, analysis and dialogue between stakeholders, then such studies necessarily contribute towards processes of transformative justice, advocated the report.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday embarked on a three-nation tour of Portugal, the US and the Netherlands during which he will hold talks with the top leadership of those countries to boost bilateral ties.The highlight of his four-day visit will be the US leg as Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington. Trump would host Modi for a working dinner at the White House on Monday, the first dinner for a foreign dignitary at the White House under the new administration.Ahead of his visit, Modi said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views. "My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he had tweeted.Beginning Monday afternoon, the two leaders would spend several hours together in various settings including one-on-one, delegation level, a reception and conclude with a working dinner."They'll start off with a one-on-one meeting. They'll go from the one-on-one meeting to the bilateral meetings. That will last for about an hour. Then they will each give press statements," PTI quoted a White House official as saying."They'll move from the press statements to a cocktail reception. And that will be followed by the working dinner.So it's a long interaction, lots of time for the two leaders to get to know each other, to interact on the critical issues that face our two countries," the official said.During the meetings, the American side would be represented by top leaders, including the Vice President Mike Pence, National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. HR McMaster, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.In the first leg of the tour, Modi will visit Portugal where he will have talks with Prime Minister Antonio Costa."Building on our recent discussions, we will review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions," he said about his upcoming meeting with Costa.After the US visit, Modi will travel to the Netherlands on June 27 where he will have a meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and call on King Willem-Alexander and meet Queen Maxima.This year, the two countries are celebrating 70 years of the establishment of Indo-Dutch diplomatic relations."I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Rutte and reviewing our bilateral relations. I would be exchanging views with PM Rutte on important global issues including counter-terrorism and climate change," Modi said ahead of the visit.(With PTI inputs)
The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) made up of special forces men and terrorists were armed with 'special daggers' and 'headband cameras' to mutilate and record the attack on the Indian Army patrol party after entering 600 meters across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.The attack left two Indian soldiers dead while one BAT member was killed in retaliatory action by Indian troops.Army troops during search and sanitation operations, recovered the body of a member of the BAT team along LoC in Gulpur sector of Poonch district."The body of the intruder killed in the BAT attempt on 22 June has been retrieved and handed over to the local police," a senior army officer told PTI."Arms, ammunition and other war-like stores, including a special dagger and a headband with a camera, knife, one A-K rifle, three magazines, two grenades besides dresses and bags was recovered which reflects the barbaric mindset of the Pakistan Army," he said."The resolute action of our soldiers didn't let the nefarious plan (of mutilating bodies and recording it on camera) succeed," officer said.Giving details, the officer said that a special class of dagger and a knife was meant to engineer quick mutilation and beheading of jawans killed in the firing exchanges and it has been foiled by the quick action by Indian soldiers.The BAT member was wearing headband with camera on his head to record the action and possible mutilation of jawans, which was prevented by other troops who shot dead one of them and injured another, he said.The officer said it is matter of investigation whether the camera was live connected with Pakistan Army establishments across the border."The data and details of the camera will be analysed," he said."We are confident that another BAT member has also been killed but his body was taken back by the other members of the BAT," he said.In the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir.The Border Action Team (BAT), which generally comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan Army and some terrorists, carried out the attack at around 2 pm on Thursday under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops from their posts, he said."A Border Action Team of five to seven heavily-armed men, under the cover of Pakistani firing, entered 600 meters inside the LoC in Gulpur forward area in Poonch sector around 2 PM yesterday and launched a fierce attack on Indian Army patrol party with several types of weapons," the official said.The Pakistani attackers came up to 200 meters near the Indian posts.During the attack, the Pakistani troops resorted to firing in Gulpur-Karmara-Chakan-Da-Bagh area along the LoC. The armed intruders targeted an area domination patrol of the Indian Army, triggering a gunfight, the official said.The Indian troops killed one of the attackers and injured another whose extrication was facilitated by the cover fire by the Pakistani troops from their posts.In the firefight, two Indian soldiers were killed. They were 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad, Maharashtra and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur, Maharashtra.The Pakistani firing continued till 3.30 pm even as the Indian posts retaliated strongly.In a similar BAT attack on May 1, two Indian soldiers were beheaded in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district. That attack too was carried out under the cover of shelling by the Pakistani troops.Prior to that, a BAT attack was carried out in February but there were no casualties.Earlier, there have been several BAT attacks in which Indian jawans have been beheaded or their bodies mutilated.On October 28 last year, militants attacked a post and killed an Indian Army soldier and mutilated his body close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Machil sector.In January 2013, Lance Naik Hemraj was killed and his body mutilated by a BAT. It had also beheaded Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh.
Infusing fresh impetus to multifaceted relationships. PM @narendramodi departs for three nation tour pic.twitter.com/W0MSpu7M4X  Gopal Baglay (@MEAIndia) June 24, 2017

PM @narendramodi in Portugal on first ever bilateral visit by an Indian PM pic.twitter.com/ecXc51gfAR  Gopal Baglay (@MEAIndia) June 24, 2017

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday arrived on the first leg of his three-nation tour during which he will hold talks with his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa to boost bilateral ties."Ola Portugal. PM @narendramodi arrives in Lisbon, departing from protocol Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva receives the Prime Minister," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted along with some photographs.Before leaving for Lisbon, Modi had said during his meeting with Costa, the two leaders will build on their recent discussions and review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions.Portuguese Prime Minister Costa tweeted this is an excellent opportunity to review the implementation of the accords agreed during his India visit and sign new agreements.The highlight of Modi's four-day three-nation visit will be the US leg as Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.Ahead of his US visit, Modi said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views."My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he had tweeted.In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.After the US visit, Modi will travel to the Netherlands on June 27 where he will have a meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and call on King Willem-Alexander and meet Queen Maxima.This year, the two countries are celebrating 70 years of the establishment of Indo-Dutch diplomatic relations."I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Rutte and reviewing our bilateral relations. I would be exchanging views with PM Rutte on important global issues including counter- terrorism and climate change," Modi said ahead of the visit.
: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hailed the contributions of the more than 65,000 Indians in Portugal, saying they were India's "real ambassadors" and have enriched the culture of the country they have made their home."Indians have carried their cultural heritage with them and have always been proud of them," Modi said addressing the diaspora Indians in Lisbon.The prime minister cited the diversity of language and taste in India to point out that Indians can adapt to the culture of the country they live. "You have effortlessly gelled with the culture of the country you have been," he said.Also read: PM Modi Presents Overseas Citizen of India Card to Portugal PM Modi hailed Indians in Portugal as the "real ambassadors of India" in that country.On Portugal's historic relations with India, Modi said the country is tied with India in many ways, including through sports. "Who has not heard of Christiano Ronaldo. His name fills every sportsperson in India with energy."He said Portugal has historical ties with India, but a special one with Gujarat and narrated the story of Kutch sailor Kanji Malam, who helped the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discover the sea route from Europe to India in 1497.Kanji Malam had navigated the commander to Calicut from Malindi on east African coast.Also Read: PM Modi Arrives in Portugal on First Leg of Three-nation Visit "The Radha Krishna Temple is the symbol of social conscience in Portugal. People here do not discriminate, and that is the identity of Indians, the diversity of India," he said to the gathering after visiting the temple along with Prime Minister Antonia Costa, who is the first prime minister of Indian origin in Europe.He also highlighted the role Portugal is playing in furthering the message of Yoga, an ancient Indian spiritual discipline. Modi thanked Costa for promoting wellness movement through yoga as a holistic health care practice.Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit Portugal for a bilateral trip, though Atal Bihari Vajpayee had visited the country but it was for a European Union conference in 2000.
Srinagar: North Srinagar Superintendent of Police (SP), Sajad Khaliq, has been transferred with immediate effect a day after Deputy SP Mohammad Ayub Pandit was lynched by a mob outside a mosque in Srinagars Nowhatta.



Assistant SP (Traffic), Sajad Shah has taken up the post after Khaliqs transfer.



Mohammed Ayub Pandith was lynched by a mob late on Thursday after he opened fire on a group of people who caught him clicking pictures near a mosque in Nowhatta area of Srinagar.



The incident reportedly occurred before separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was to make a speech at the Jamia Masjid.



Pandith, who was in civilian clothes, was caught clicking pictures outside the mosque, following which the officer opened fire with his service pistol, injuring three people. He was caught by an angry mob and beaten to death near the mosque.



The officer was laid to rest with full honours later on Friday in the presence of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.



The incident came as Muslims across Kashmir were observing Laylatul Qadr (the night of power) with night-long prayers and supplications being made inside the mosques and shrines of the Valley.
New Delhi/ Ballabhgarh: With one son dead, one in hospital and two others left to carry the trauma of seeing their brothers murder, this family in Haryanas Ballabhgarh is awaiting justice.

My son was studying. He used to come home only during Ramzan. Now he is dead. His skull cap was snatched and crushed. Why this hatred against us? asks Saira whose son Junaid was stabbed to death onboard a Delhi-Mathura train near Haryanas Ballabhgarh on Friday.

Her other son, Shakir, is admitted to AIIMS in Delhi. Recounting the incident, Shakir said their attackers kept alleging that they were carrying beef, but it wasnt true.

My three brothers and I were returning home after buying clothes for Eid. We boarded the train at Sadar. Some people boarded the train at Okhla and then at Kalkabad. They started abusing us, saying we were Muslims and deshdrohi (traitor). They said we should go back to Pakistan. They then threw my brother Junaids skull cap on the ground and pulled my other brothers beard. They slapped us. We couldnt do anything but only shout back at them. Four to five of them were quiet healthy and seemed to be over 30 years old. When we neared Ballabhgarh, they prevented us from getting off the train. They took out a big knife. I havent seen such a big knife before. They stabbed my brother. They stabbed me too. I have stitches on my neck and chest. Junaid died on the spot.

ALSO READ | Teen Stabbed to Death, 2 Injured Inside Train in Haryana

Shakir added that none of the other passengers came to their rescue and that no policemen were present when they finally left the train. A friend called an ambulance. We had to wait for an hour.

Until this train ride, I never thought someone could speak to us like that. Im a Hindustani first, and a Muslim after that. I told them that we hadnt harmed them in any way and that we were traveling on the train like all other passengers. But they attacked us saying we were Muslim. My brother is dead. I hope the law will punish them, Shakir told CNN-News18 from the hospital bed.

Back home, the family is plunged into mourning and looking for answers on why their son was killed.

Speaking to CNN-News18, Junaids mother Saira said, We are made of the same flesh and blood. We are all one. This hatred needs to stop. What happened to my son, can happen to yours too.

As Haryana government spokesperson Jawahar Yadav promised action, the victims grandfather said he expected the government to stick to its promise. We are not satisfied. Nobody came to help our child. We feel insecure wherever we go in the country. We want the government to ensure my grandson gets justice.

So far, one person has been arrested, two detained and two others identified. The murder weapon was also reportedly recovered from the accused.

In police custody, one of the accused said before reporters that he was drunk at the time. One of my friends told me to attack them as they eat cow meat. I was drunk.

The incident was condemned by political parties, with the Congress training its guns on the BJP. Party leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi took to Twitter to ask why such incidents were happening after 2014.

Shocking lynchings on mathura train. No one can xplain this as 2017 india. Why Such incidents only post 2014. Conspiracy of encouragement.  Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) June 24, 2017

NDA hs lost it in J&K. Chest thumping, bravado, false nationalism &despicable killings of policemen openly. Is this BJp's final solution?  Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) June 24, 2017

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said, It is very unfortunate. This shows the atmosphere of hate and Islamophobia that is being created.

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Kolkata: Three people were lynched in West Bengal's North Dinajpur district after they were allegedly caught stealing cows from a house on Thursday night.



The incident occurred on the same day as a teenager was stabbed to death, and his three brothers were injured by a group of people in a dispute over beef and seat on a train near Ballabhgarh in Haryana.



Police sources said those killed have been identified as Mohammad Nasir, Nasirul Haque and Mohammad Samiruddin. We have arrested three people in connection with the incident, and hunt for remaining accused is on, District SP Amit Kumar Bharat Rathod said.



Mumtaj Biwi, mother of Nasirul Haque, registered an FIR at Chopra police station, alleging murder. We are investigating the matter, and no one will be spared. Preliminary inquiry revealed that the deceased were earlier involved in cow theft cases, a senior police officer said.



The villagers alleged that seven cow smugglers entered their village on Thursday night, and managed to lift two cows in a matador van. When they were trying to steal a bovine from another house, one of the villagers saw them, raising the alarm immediately.



Soon after, a large number of the villagers gathered in the area and managed to nab three of them. The three were allegedly beaten to death while the rest managed to flee.



It is learnt that there has been an increase in the number of cattle theft cases over the past few months in the village.



The villagers had informed the police of the rising cases. But when the cops failed to put an end to the problem, the villagers formed their own village guard committee to protect cows from being smuggled.
With the Delhi University coming out with its first cut-offs for 2017, the race to get into the best colleges has already begun. The colleges in North Campus still remain the popular choice, but with high cut-offs students may opt for institutes off campus or wait it out for subsequent lists. There are 63 colleges under Delhi University, with around 57 undergraduate courses offered by different colleges. English is the most popular course, followed by BA (Programme). The courses with the highest cut-offs are usually B.Com (Honours), Economics (Honours), and English (Honours).Here are the 10 things you need to know about the first cut-offs:Hindu College, Lady Shri Ram (LSR), and Kirorimal College have set their cut-offs for Economics (Honours) at 97.5%.SRCC has pegged its cut-offs at 97.75%, for Economics (Honours) and B.Com (Honours).Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Khalsa College has a 98.25% cut-off for Economics (Honours). The college left behind others when it came to Sciences with the highest 99.66% cut-off for B.Sc. (Electronics).For BA (Honours) English, SGTB Khalsa College set an enviable cut-off of 98.75%, higher than the rest. It raised the bar highest for Arts as well with a 99% cut-off for its BA (Political Science) course.LSR set its B.Com (Honours) cut-off on par with SRCC at 97.75%Miranda House came in at an asking rate of 97% for B.Sc. (Zoology) and 96.67% for Maths and PhysicsHansraj College pegged its sciences cut-off at 97.33 and 97.75% for Chemistry and Computer ScienceAmong colleges offering journalism course, LSR set the highest cut-off of 98%, followed by Delhi College of Arts and Commerce (DCAC) with 97%Off campus colleges like Bharti College and Institute of Home Economics set their journalism cut-off at 96%, followed by Maharaja Agrasen College, located in Mayur Vihar in east Delhi, at 95%.Cut-offs for courses in Hindi and Sanskrit (Honours) hovered within an achievable 60-70% for most colleges.Document verification and approval of admission for the first cut-off will be from June 24 to June 28. The university will release its second list on July 1 2017, the document verification and approval of admission for which will take place from July 1 to July 4.A third cut-off will also come on July 7, verification and approval for that will take place from July 7 to July 10. While a fourth and fifth cut-off list will most likely come, further cut-off lists in Delhi University may be declared depending on the vacant seats in the colleges.
Mumbai: Salman Khan's Tubelight is released this Friday did not go well with the critics but he is pleased as they did not give minus rating to film.



"The critics were really good. I was expecting minus 3 and minus 4 but they gave 1, 1.5 apparently, so I am very pleased," said Salman at an event where his Being Human joined hands with PVR for an initiative under which every time when a customer book tickets for a movie at PVR, they will get the option to pay Rs 2 extra and this amount will be given to the Being Human foundation for different causes.



About the feedback about his film, Salman said: "As per reports people are saying they can not see 'Bhai' (Salman) crying. So I asked, are they (audience) laughing and the answer was "no, they are crying". So I said don't worry about it."



"As it is an Eid release, people have preconceived notions and plans to throw coins, sing and dance at the cinema hall. So they have gone to watch a certain film but get to watch another film. This film is not of a kind which you watch with your buddies as you will not get an opportunity to dance or have fun. It is a very emotional film. Even an emotionless, stone hearted person will get tears in his eyes. So this is an emotional film to be seen with parents, grand parents and entire family."



Asked about mixed reviews the film is getting, the "Dabangg" Khan said: "I got so many text messages, saying that they got emotional watching the brothers dancing on the song. So we are preparing audience for a beautiful, simple, emotional film about brothers. As far as reviews are concerned, every film has mixed reviews."



Asked about any sense of failure and bother due to the mixed reviews, he laughed and said: "Look at me, are there any sign of worries on this face. I am not bothered, I know the film will do well and will be a hit and get lot of respect."



Produced by Salman Khan Productions, Tubelight is directed by Kabir Khan, who has earlier given hit films like "Ek Tha Tiger" and Bajrangi Bhaijaan. The film also stars Sohail Khan and Chinese actress Zhu Zhu along with child artiste Matin Rey Tangu.




Mumbai: Soundaryaa Rajinikanth says it is a visual treat to see Kajol and Dhanush on the big screen together in her upcoming directorial venture VIP 2.



VIP 2 is a prequel of Tamil comedy-drama of the same name released in 2014.



"It is a visual delight to see two powerhouse performers Kajol and Dhanush in the same frame. 'VIP 2' has been an interesting and a memorable journey," Soundaryaa said in a statement.



The trailer and music launch of the film is scheduled tomorrow at a suburban multiplex here and several B-town celebrities, including Aanand L Rai and R Balki, will be attending the event.



"It feels great to have the support of (directors) R Balki sir, Aanand L Rai sir. It is gracious of them to take

time out from their busy schedule and be a part of the event," she added.



South megastar Rajinikanth, who is currently shooting in the city, is also likely to come for the event.



Produced by V Creations along with co-producer Wunderbar Films, VIP 2 will release in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi languages on July 28.
New Delhi: Sixteen-year-old Junaid was stabbed to death on Friday onboard a Delhi-Mathura train near Haryana's Ballabhgarh. He, along with his brothers, was travelling to Delhi to buy clothes and shoes for Eid celebrations.



The Opposition parties, with Congress at the forefront, launched a scathing attack on the ruling-BJP, saying the country was getting increasingly polarised.



Congress spokesperson Gaurav Gogoi said his party had warned that "BJP's developmental agenda was only a mask, while communal hatred was the face". "The truth emerges as Hindustan becomes Lynchistan."



CPI-M's Brinda Karat on Saturday said that the Ballabhgarh incident clearly showed the communal hatred against Muslims. She said that the incident should be condemned, and such issues are the biggest challenges to the country.



Referring to the incident as "unfortunate", AIMIM President Asauddin Owaisi said it showed the atmosphere of hate and Islamophobia that is being created.



Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi took to Twitter to express shock and dismay over the incident. "No one can explain this as 2017 India. Why such incidents only post 2014. Conspiracy of encouragement."



Singhvi attacked the BJP over the current disturbance in Jammu and Kashmir, too. "NDA has lost it in J&K... When PM Modi and Communal BJP talk about Pseudo-secularism, they should explain how endangered minorities feel on trains and buses where they can be lynched."



Junaid is second person to have been lynched in a span of less than a week. Three of his brothers who were also stabbed over a seat in the train sustained injuries. Recounting the incident, victim Junaids brother Shakir said their attackers kept alleging that they were carrying beef, but it wasnt true.



On June 17, another man was beaten to death by municipal officials when he objected to them taking photographs of women defecating in open in Rajasthan.



Pehlu Khan, a 55-year-old farmer from Haryana, was attacked by a group of "gau rakshaks" when he was returning from a cattle market in Rajasthan. Khan was hit brutally in his head. Khan died two days later.








Kolkata: The Bhartiya Janata Partys top brass is in a fix when it comes to its policy on a separate state for Gorkhaland. Till date, it has tiptoed around the issue, trying to balance its stance to make sure that all stakeholders are on the same page.



But with the protests continuing for more than a fortnight now, it has become increasing difficult to manage expectations as the BJP has neither supported the demand, nor spoken against it.



The agitation is being spearheaded by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, an alliance partner of the BJP that helped the party fight the Lok Sabha election in the region. So now it is facing heat from the GJM for not supporting its demand. But if BJP backs Gorkhaland, it risks upsetting its unit in Bengal and halting any progress made in the plains.



Amid all this, the Centre claims to have some formula to resolve the issue as promised in its manifesto before the general elections. Some members of the Darjeeling unit of BJP had recently participated in a protests for a separate state. They slammed the Centre for taking the sentiments of Gorkhas lightly.



On the other hand, the Bengal faction of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has backed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees stand on Gorkhaland.



To take a fresh look at the Gorkhaland issue among other things, the RSS recently held a two-day chintan shivir (brainstorming session) in Puri and decided that it is not viable to form a separate state of Gorkhaland.



Jishnu Basu, RSSs general secretary in South Bengal said the area that would be carved out would be too small for a state.



First of all its not viable to carve out a portion of hills and some terai regions. Second, what will happen to Greater Cooch Behar movement  which is much older than the Gorkhaland demand? he asked.



He added, The proposed Gorkhaland comprises of Darjeeling, Dooars and Siliguri terai regions. Present autonomous GTA covers three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Mirik, and some areas of Siliguri subdivision and the whole of Kalimpong district. Its too smallsmaller than Sikkim. Do you think it will be viable for a separate state?



Basu said it is yet not clear how the economy will be impacted if a separate state is formed. Our assessment is there will be a total mess and chaos, he said.



During the meet - RSS reached at the conclusion that TMCs information and cultural affairs minister, Indranil Sen, was the first to instigate Gorkhas with his derogatory remarks.



In May, before the Municipal Elections in the Hills, Sen had said he would tie up GJM chief Bimal Gurung and secretary Roshan Giri in steel trunks and dispatch them to another district.



After Sens remark, the Chief Ministers imposition of Bangla language against flared up their anger. We felt that there was no need for such announcement and it was taken in haste, he said.



The third observation was formation of 16 development boards in North Bengal including Lepcha board. This sends a signal that CM Mamata Banerjee is trying to divide the Gorkha community. These are the blunders the state government has committed and now the result is there in front of everyone, he added.



Even Shanta Chhetri  former Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) MLA and an active Trinamool Congress leader  believed that the demand for Gorkhaland is unrealistic.



When asked why she supported the Gorkhaland movement in 90s, she said, Then I was immature but now I understood that separate state is going to be a bad move for the Gorkhas. People have to understand that this is not possible. Chhetri is Banerjees surprise pick for the upcoming Rajya Sabha election.
New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday announced a scheme, providing Rs 34,000 crore debt relief to farmers.



Claiming it to be the largest loan-waiver in the history of India, Fadnavis acknowledged that loan-waiver will burden the State treasury. "We may have to cut down on some work. But, we are committed to helping the farmers in distress," Fadnavis said.



The Chief Minister also informed that all the ministers and MLAs will give their one month salary to support the loan waiver.



Farm loans of up to Rs 1.5 lakh each will be waived, Fadnavis said, adding that farmers who paid their loan instalments on time will be given a waiver of 25%.



On June 11, Maharashtra farmers had called of their protest after the state government promised to waive off all loans on Sunday.



The governments decision came after the farmers agitation for a loan waiver entered its 11th day.



Earlier, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced his decision to waive off farm loans up to Rs 50,000 which were taken from co-operative banks till June 20, costing the state exchequer Rs 8,165 crore.



The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh had also approved waiver of farm loans up to Rs 1 lakh, fulfilling a major election promise made by the BJP.



However, the Centre has ruled out any waiver of farm loan and said it will adhere to fiscal targets. On Tuesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Centre is not considering any such plan.



Jaitley had said the Centre will not fund any of the loan waivers by states and they will have to find their own funds for doing so.



The government had in 2008 waived farm loan to the tune of Rs 74,000 crore.




With very few popular dessert names starting with the alphabet O, the next Android versionAndroid O or Android version 8.0 may be called Oatmeal Cookie. Several Android developers noted at the recent Google I/O 2017 conference that Google has used this name in source codes of Android 8.0. Google had already introduced the developer preview of the next Android operating system.Here are the improvements that Google is bringing to its users in the next Android upgrade.Background Limits: Android O will continue the work done in Android Nougat to improve the battery performance of the Android devices. Android O will come with additional limits on apps, targeting three crucial aspects: implicit broadcasts, background services, and location updates. The apps created with these changes in place will put minimal stress on user devices battery performance.Notification Channels: Android O brings notification channels which will allow users to have a better control over the channels through which an app notification appears. Users will now be able to change the way each of these channels act. This also includes grouping and new visuals added to notifications for the users ease while viewing the notifications.Autofill API Support: Google has now added a platform support for autofill in its latest Android O, meaning, users can store their information such as passwords, addressees or names in an Autofill app. This will make it easier to use the stored information across the Android ecosystem.PIP for handsets: Android O will come with a Picture in Picture mode, wherein users will be able to continue watching a video while replying to a chat message or booking a ride.Font resources in XML: Google has branded Fonts as a fully supported resource type in the new Android O. This will allow apps to use fonts in XML layout and define font families in XML.Wide-gamut color for apps: Imaging apps of Android can now use devices that support a wide-gamut colour display.Connectivity: Android O will come with enhanced connectivity options like the LDAC codec for high-quality Bluetooth audio. It will also incorporate Wi-Fi Aware, a Wi-Fi feature which will allow nearby devices to communicate through Wi-Fi without an internet access.Keyboard Navigation: In Android O, Google has come up with a arrow and tab navigation for a more reliable and predictable model. The arrival of Google Play apps on Chrome OS initiated this change.AAudio API: This new API has been designed especially for the apps that need high-performance audio on a low-latency. This will be done by reading/ writing datda through streams.WebView enhancements: Google has added an API that lets apps handle errors and crashes for better security and app stability.
Bulgaria's first geostationary communications satellite has been launched into space, operator Bulsatcom said in a statement on Saturday.The BulgariaSat-1 satellite, which will provide television and communication services to Europe and North Africa, was launched by SpaceX from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1910 GMT on Friday.The satellite could be also used in force majeure situations - accidents due to natural disasters - such as earthquakes, storms and floods when land-based networks are not operational.Also read: Sony SRS-XB30 Review: All About Thumping Bass and Lights "When we started this space project more than 10 years ago, we clearly knew that what was need to complete it successfully was patience, commitment and a strong team," said Maxim Zayakov, CEO of Bulgaria Sat and Bulsatcom."We launched our BulgariaSat-1, we stepped up a as one of the leading space nations in Europe and opened the path for the development of the related Bulgarian high-tech sectors and talented specialists."The satellite will be positioned into orbit at 36,000 km (22,000 miles) above the Earth and be operational up to 20 years. Over the next month, the ground control room will carry out the necessary tests and settings to make the satellite operationally ready to broadcast.WATCH VIDEO: OnePlus 3 reviewBulsatcom has secured financing for the $235 million project from the United States' Export-Import Bank and a Deutsche Bank-led consortium of European banks.
Canada's top court cleared the way on Friday for a lawsuit against Facebook Inc over privacy rights to be heard in the province of British Columbia instead of California where the social media site is based.British Columbia resident Deborah Douez brought a notice of claim against Facebook in 2012, saying that her name and image were used without consent for the social media platform's "sponsored stories" product.Douez said her privacy rights under provincial law were violated, a growing concern among social media users in recent years who fear their personal information or photos will be used without their knowledge.The ads, which the company has since dropped, used Facebook members' names and pictures to advertise companies and products to other members.Menlo Park, California-based Facebook had sought to suspend Douez's lawsuit, saying that its terms of use require disputes to be resolved in the U.S. state.In a 4-3 decision, Canada's Supreme Court ruled that the clause is unenforceable.The justices wrote that there was evidence of "gross inequality of bargaining power" between individual consumers and the company, given users have little choice but to accept Facebook's terms of use.Also read: Sony SRS-XB30 Review: All About Thumping Bass and Lights Canadian courts also have a greater interest in deciding cases that impinge on citizens' rights "because these rights play an essential role in a free and democratic society and embody key Canadian values," the court said.A spokesman for Facebook said the company continues to believe the underlying claims are without merit, and it will defend itself "vigorously".British Columbia's top court is better placed to rule on the province's laws than a California court would be, the court said. Justices said their decision was also supported by the expense and inconvenience of having Canadians travel to California to sue Facebook being greater than any inconvenience the company would face in making its records available in British Columbia.WATCH VIDEO: OnePlus 3 reviewA lower court had allowed Douez's case to be considered as a group lawsuit, but the high court did not address the issue of class action status.Facebook reached a $20 million settlement in the United States in a class action lawsuit over the use of Sponsored Stories. The settlement was given court approval in 2013.Facebook's shares were up 0.4 percent at $154.09 in mid-day trade.
London: Ten fire engines and 72 firefighters were battling a blaze in east London on Saturday after flames engulfed a third-floor apartment in a low-rise block of buildings, injuring one man who was taken to hospital.



Britain has been rocked in recent days by a fire which killed at least 79 people when it engulfed a 24-storey building in west London on June 14, trapping residents in their beds as they slept.



That fire at Grenfell Tower spread rapidly, turning the burning building into a giant torch and terrifying residents.



The worst fire to hit the capital since World War Two has prompted a nationwide review of high-rise buildings after police said the cladding used on Grenfell had failed all safety checks.



The London Fire Brigade, which is also working to evacuate residents from an estate in north London found to have similar cladding to Grenfell, said it had been called on Saturday to a building in Bethnal Green, east London, where the third floor apartment and roof were on fire.



It had received 50 calls to its emergency telephone line.



"Firefighters from Bethnal Green and surrounding fire stations are attending the scene," they said in a statement. "The cause of the fire is not known at this stage.



"The whole of a flat on the third floor and roof is also alight. A man has been taken to hospital by London Ambulance Service crews."
Washington: The US is interested in providing India with the kind of defence technology it normally reserves for its closest allies, the White House has said, signalling the Trump administration's resolve to strengthen the bilateral defence relationship.



However, a senior administration official refrained from confirming reports that the State Department has approved the sale of 22 Guardian drones to India. "We can't really talk about a potential or pending arms sale before they are actually notified to Congress," the official said.



"But I will simply note that the defence relationship is extremely important. The US is interested in leaning forward in providing high technology, the kind of technology it provides to its closest allies and partners," the senior administration official said.



Defence is expected to be a major agenda item when Trump hosts Modi at the White House next week. "We're looking at a very productive visit. These kinds of sales that we're talking about are important for the strategic partnership, for cooperating in areas like the Indian Ocean region, increasing that cooperation, serving the interests of both countries," the official said.



"They create jobs, -- these kind of defence deals create a lot of jobs here in the US. So they're right in line with this administration's priorities.



"And of course, the United States is the world's technological leader in the kind of systems that you have mentioned," the official said in response to a question.



"As other nations begin to deploy these systems, that the US knows it has a responsibility to ensure these sales are consistent with US national security and foreign policy interests, our economic security, international standards, and US values," the official said.



Noting that defence relationship is extremely important to both countries, the official said they have to identify any defence transfers on a case-by-case basis.



"Of course, we do this in accordance with the Arms Export Control Act and other policies and legislation. And so all these things are taken into account when we move forward with particular sales," the official said in response to a question.



He said in this particular case, the US evaluates that this is an important way for America and India to cooperate on specific areas of mutual concern, and that both sides benefit from transferring the kind of high technology, the Trump administration has been talking about.



"This is very much an example of the US wanting to treat India as a major defence partner, sort of demonstrating that, in concrete terms, that we consider India a close defence partner on par with our closest allies and partners," he added.
Thumbs up to the folks who decided to take action against hunger in the Hill City and started the Little Free Pantries program thats popping up all over Lynchburg.

There are Little Free Libraries across Lynchburg and Central Virginia  a person can stop by, check the books in the outdoor stands, take one to read or leave some for others, making it easy for someone to find a good book to read. Little Free Pantries take the little libraries guiding principle  Take one, leave one  and adapt it to food items: Take what you need, leave what you can.

In late 2016, Tracey Dixon, the executive director of Lynchburg Daily Bread, reached out through Facebook, asking if someone in the community could build a single prototype for her.

The purpose was straight-forward: Get food to the people who need it. Though there are dozens of food pantries in Central Virginia, there are still many people who have trouble accessing them because of a lack of transportation. A Little Food Pantry, strategically placed, can help address that need. Typical items you might find in a Little Free Pantry include baby food and formula, paper and personal care products, high-protein canned goods like tuna or chicken and peanut butter.

This first Little Free Pantry will be located at Daily Bread on Clay Street in downtown Lynchburg. Therell be an official unveiling at 12:30 p.m. on Monday. Dixon and her staff at Daily Bread will be monitoring and restocking the Little Free Pantry and assessing the programs success.

If youre interested in more information about the Little Free Pantries, just call Daily Bread at 845-5703.

* * *

Thumbs up to Rufus Rucker, one of the many chefs whos rapidly making the downtown Lynchburg restaurant scene a destination point for all of Central Virginia.

For years, Rucker was the owner and chef of Toy Town Take Out, located on U.S. 29 just north of the Town of Amherst. For those in the know, it had the reputation of being one of the prime spots in the region for genuine, down-to-earth, Southern/soul food cooking just like your grandmother used to make.

Now, hes the inspiration in the kitchen of Fifth and Federal Station, the whisky, bourbon, BBQ and Southern cooking restaurant that opened earlier this year in downtown.

Ruckers been in Central Virginia restaurant circles for decades, beginning with a stint at the Radisson hotel in downtown Lynchburg, now a Holiday Inn. He has degrees in business management and hotel and restaurant management from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. After serving in the Army Reserve for 12 years and working as a food service manager at Liberty University, he opened Toy Town in 2002 with his father, closing it in 2011 after his dads death. Thanks to the cajoling of Fifth and Federals owners, hes now back in front of a stove.

Downtown is popping, and Rucker is one of the reasons why.
A chocolate dream

Saunders company, Exotic Caribbean Mountain Pride, a name that was given to her by her mother, has developed from a small-scale, home-kitchen idea to a regionally-known, premium cocoa- derived products business.

At her unique Chocolate Bar Caf?, where all chocolate products are made using locally-produced Trinitario cocoa beans, Saunders was beaming with pride, having acquired her dream caf? at a location she was particular in choosing.

The caf? is nestled in the scenic Santa Cruz valley at 2 Sam Boucaud Extension Road. It is a place where customers are assured an experience of TTs culture and taste.

Saunders held up her very first product, a chocolate in the shape of a cocoa pod and said: With this little product, it changed my life.

I actually toured the world and I have been throughout the United States and the Caribbean, Nicaragua, Panama, Chile, Argentina, China... She explained that her innovation in agriculture was recognised by the US Government, and in particular, former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton in 2015, after which Saunders was asked to address the Women Entrepreneurship of the Americas, an organisation which Clinton founded in 2012.

Saunders said when Clinton saw streets lined with craft made by rural women in Columbia for the Summit of the Americas in 2015, she wanted to support them, by getting those skilful women in rural, impoverished communities to start their own home-based industries and employ other women in the community, thus empowering themselves.

Being bilingual and able to communicate with the South Americans during the Summit in 2015, I was chosen to represent Entrepreneurship in Rural Industries by the Clinton Foundation and to speak on women in home-based industries and their influence on the economy, Saunders said.

They saw what my involvement in cocoa did to the cocoa industry in TT and now there are so many other people who are involved in local chocolates and cocoa.

This indigenous product represents our history and our culture from our ancestral days. It is natural, with no added chemicals, it has a lot of antioxidants, and it is natural healthy. Saunders shared her story, from a child growing up on a cocoa estate in rural Tamana, and how she has been affiliated to cocoa throughout her life.

I grew up in a family where my parents were public servants but were also landowners with a small cocoa estate. As the only girl I really didnt have that much estate experience because my parents pushed education.

In those early days the cocoa will always come home, the beans were always in the backyard drying, but the most I will have to do is turn the beans and close the cocoa house if rain was coming. I was also part of dancing the cocoa and that was my involvement then. After school, Saunders got a scholarship to study agriculture in Venezuela, something that she described as an experience that was more of a cultural exchange where she enhanced her cultural knowledge.

However, when her father died, her brothers looked to her to take over the land since she was the one that studied agriculture.

I then told them if I am doing cocoa I am going to make chocolate, Saunders said, reasoning that nobody was making edible chocolate at that time because it was not profitable.

As a graduate in agricultural management from United World College in Venezuela, Saunders taught herself from scratch about the fine art of chocolate making.

By visiting the parts of Trinidad where traditionally cocoa has been grown and processed to cocoa beverages for centuries, she engaged with the old folks, extracting the almost forgotten way of making cocoa-tea, especially from the older women who provided her with necessary knowledge and recipes for making the healthy, delicious drinks.

Later, after working closely with research institutions including the University of the West Indies and the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (Cariri), she diversified the range of drinking chocolate products by adding flavours such as ginger, orange, mint, lemon grass and chili, herbs such as bay leaf and nutmeg, as well as rum for the chocolate liquor.

She started off in very small batches, making the cocoa tea at home and selling it to neighbours and souvenir shops in the region.

After a couple of months, Saunders started selling her products to the TT airports.

The business grew by word of mouth and the company was becoming increasingly recognised.

In 2007 Saunders was entrusted with the handling of the family cocoa estate up to the present.

This is why ten years later, this is so emotional for me now.

Though there were challenges every step of the way, but converting cocoa to chocolate was a fascinating experience to me.

Now I am doing white chocolate, milk chocolate but my goal was to have a place where people can enjoy my products and the culture of cocoa. So this dream I had was to get this caf? on the way to Maracas Beach and as a tourism thing. In 2016 Saunders acquired the Santa Cruz property and began working on her dream. She said her design of the building was aimed at making it as natural as possible, not too commercial, not too modern, but classy as her chocolates classy finish.

Then to make it real she brought in the cocoa house complete with beans and movable roof.

At the Chocolate Bar Caf? breakfast, lunch and dinner are served.

The hot drinks menu offers original cocoa tea, mocha, non-diary chocolate, hot chocolate supreme, almond chocolate, americano and espresso, while the cold drinks include cocoa-mania (mint and coconut), mocha (coffee) very berry (strawberry) and chocorange (orange).

The hot cocoa is served in enamel cups.

For breakfast customers can get fried or coconut bake with local delights, and during the day, pancakes, bagels, omelettes, paninis, salads, burgers, buffalo wings and more.

Also on sale are a number of Saunders chocolate products including a four-piece box that is 60 per cent dark chocolates with a local flavour, since fudge, sugar cake and fruits for black cake are added for that Caribbean or Trini flavour, while the truffles come in different shapes.

The caf? is a beehive of activity on weekends, public holidays and for breakfast.

Saunders daughter Astrid, a business graduate who manages the caf? said she is her mothers understudy and sees herself as part of a team comprising her other sister Milagro working together to keep the wheels turning.

Mom is production, my sister  social media and marketing, and me to project the goals of the company to the shareholders, but our main goal is to keep the business family- oriented. The elder Saunders said her mission now is to employ and support single women and their children in the community.

Currently she has six part-time employees and four others when the need arises.

Asked how she feels about her achievement, she responded: I feel proud that I was able to accomplish my dream and that people can appreciate the history and the passion that went into the project
Looking Glass to show new works

De Bique is a selftrained artist highlighting the lives and experiences of the new Caribbean millennial through visual art, graphic design and soon fashion.

Explaining the concept behind Looking Glass, De Bique said in a media release that he decided to experiment with colour.

After a period of creative block and a month of not producing new work, I decided to experiment with colour combinations. During that period, I realised because I didnt require as much concentration, my mind wandered.

Subsequently, my thoughts influenced what I produced. Because of my moods, Im prone to introspection.

Because of my memory, I tend to go down different lanes simultaneously.

And it was interesting what was being produced, so I continued, De Bique said.

The name Looking Glass came about because what I felt and what the painting meant to me were vastly different to what others saw. Then I realised that every persons life experiences, morals, values determine what they see.

So each one would be viewed from a unique perspective from person to person. A definite departure from any of the more representational pieces he is known to create, Looking Glass, sees the artist stepping out of his comfort zone and working on material more abstract in nature, the release said.

A fan of mixed media and acrylic, the artist says the lack of formal art education has allowed him the room to express his creativity freely without feeling like he has to follow any prescribed tenets of visual art production. He loves applying mediums that produce a visual texture that ages the art immediately and creates an air of longevity and resilience.

De Biques vision is to create work for the New Caribbean Millennial.

He believes that so much of the work that is presented does not necessarily resonate with, or is representative of this generation.

He wants his work to do this, to foster a sense of fraternity. For Us, By Us.

For more info: akimbotrinidad@ gmail.

com, 868-381-6469 or  v2.marketingtt@gmail.

com , 868-491-3684.
Justice Seepersad speaks out

Before him is a judicial review application by several of the Piarco Airport corruption accused who are seeking to stop a magistrate from hearing the corruption case against them.

At the start of hearing yesterday, Seepersad invited attorneys to voice any concerns they may have with him presiding over the application.

Having regard to these recent developments, the court wishes to reiterate that it has no control over the matters that are placed on its docket but, as always, the court shall unapologetically continue to fearlessly and impartially discharge its constitutional obligations in a way that is transparent and judicious, even if its attempt at proficiency causes discomfort in some quarters, he said.

He further explained that when the case came to him, he referred it to the judge-led case calendering committee to make a decision on whether it should be reassigned.

Seepersad said having considered the issue, the committee found no rational basis to remove it from his docket.

Over the last few weeks there has been a significant degree of disquiet and misinformation in the public domain in relation to the methodology and manner adopted with respect to the assignment of certain matters to this particular judge.

Some three days after scurrilous social media statements made their way onto the front page of a daily newspaper, the Judiciary issued a statement which sought to explain the computerised random nature of the docketing system under the Civil Proceedings Rules.

This was followed by welcomed statements by the Law Association and leading members of the bar. He said for him, the publics confidence in the administration of justice was of paramount importance.

Queens Counsel Edward Fitzgerald, who leads a team of attorneys including Senior Counsel Fyard Hosein for former UNC financiers Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson, former ministers Sadiq Baksh and Brian Kuei Tung and former Airports Authority executives Amrith Maharaj and Tyrone Gopee and companies Northern Construction Limited and Maritime General Insurance, said they had no concern or objection to Seepersad hearing the matter.

Senior Counsel Gilbert Peterson, who represents the Director of Public Prosecutions who is seeking to intervene in the matter, said he had absolutely no issue, adding that he was also pleased the Law Association had spoken out in defence of the judge.

In their application for judicial review, the Piarco Airport corruption accused, who are before Senior Magistrate Ejenny Espinet in the Piarco 2 inquiry, are seeking to have the magistrate removed from hearing their almost completed case on the basis of bias.

They contend that in her rejection of their no-case submission on February 10, Espinet concluded that there was a prima facie case made out against them when she had no jurisdiction to make such a finding.

They have alleged that the magistrate in her flawed ruling made a series of conclusive adverse findings against them and had already reached a conclusion on their committal without giving them an opportunity to advance their defence.

Lawyers for the accused have asked Espinet to recuse herself and she is expected to rule on these submissions on Friday.

Galbaransingh, Ferguson and the others are charged with a series of criminal offences arising out of the construction of the Piarco Airport Development Project dating back to 2002.
Harvey appointed Bishop-elect of St Georges, Grenada

At a press conference at Archbishops House, Port-of-Spain, Harvey said he was not running away from Trinidad and Tobago and was not surprised by the appointment.

If I were to begin, as is usual, by telling you that I am surprised by the appointment, that would not be true, Harvey said.

This appointment that is formally announced today (yesterday) has been in the making for some time and I have been aware that I was being considered. Im going to Grenada, not because I dont like Trinidad, not because someone tried to kill me and I am running, that is not what it is all about. It is about being called to serve and hopefully the work that I do there will also benefit Trinidad and Tobago.

What we sometimes forget is Grenada has given a lot to T&T beginning with (calypsonian) Sparrow. Asked if he felt he accomplished his purpose working with at risk communities here, Harvey said, Absolutely not. This is one of the reasons I kind of faltered (in deciding on this appointment) towards the end because the events of two weeks ago really shook me up in that regard.

Walking the streets of Port-of-Spain over the past days, having young men approach me...and lets face it, a lot of them are mentally unstable now.

We are not doing very much about it. He said the work is not finished and encourages others to continue what he has been doing.

Harvey said another set of heroes are grandmothers who continue to care for the children of those who died.

We pay no attention to that. Sometimes they go for help and they dont get it.

They need to prove the child is their grandchild...rubbish! Grandparents are struggling. What are we doing for them? And now I am called out to leave this place, I want to encourage others. It is not enough to say I am giving to this organisation and that organisation.

It takes a lot of time...get involved with at least one young person, relate to that young person, dont just give them money. They need you. Being no stranger to Grenada, he said his life has been guided by what God wants him to do and would be going to Grenada guided by four words __ look, listen, learn and love.

He said in December, 2011, Archbishop Joseph Harris took him into the centre of the Churchs leadership as a vicar for clergy in which he served until last September.

If it were not for that invitation, I would probably not be here today. Without the experience of working with and for Archbishop Harris, I would not be well-prepared for these responsibilities.

Of course, only time will answer the enigma of my own preparedness. Harvey said although this country is divided in many ways, people must learn to work with others no matter what their political affiliations may be.

He said with Mondays passage of Tropical Storm Bret, citizens need to think about the occasions God gives the country to do things to help unify the country.

North Trinidad you can help south and central Trinidad.

Lets help the people of Debe and Penal.

Those are the divine opportunities which we missed because we are only seeing God in some supernatural sense.
Two injured in St Anns accident

Residents and workers in the Forestry Divison, under the supervision of the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA), were up to press time yesterday clearing the debris from the massive mango tree which fell.

Residents said while they are still trying to find out the total estimation of the damage that was incurred, they are thankful that no one died in the accident.

Things could have been much worse, said residents yesterday, We are just thanking God that everyone was alive. I am not sure if they will, but I hope that the NWRHA or someone could compensate us for the damage. Velma Pierre, one of the residents in the yard, told Newsday that the family was preparing the area where the tree fell for the wake of another relative who died recently.

Minutes before the tree fell, they were called by a member of staff from the St Anns hospital, and told that they heard one of the trees cracking.

At about 8.30 pm on Thursday, the tree fell across the wall and into the neighbouring yard, bringing down the wall and power lines along with it. The tree damaged the roof of the house, as well as three vehicles parked in the roadway.

Two people sustained minor injuries as the tree came down.

Newsday was told that one of the injured was trapped between the fallen tree and a light pole. Emergency services were called and employees of TTEC cleared the debris and the pole to free the person.

The two people were both examined by medical personnel at the St Anns Hospital and transferred to the Port of Spain General Hospital. Both suffered minor injuries.

Officials at the NWRHA believe the tree, along with others on the compound, had been compromised since the passing of Tropical Storm Bret.

According to a release sent to the media yesterday, all potentially hazardous trees will be removed. It is not known if the NWRHA would compensate residents for the damage which occured
Chamber : Declare Penal/Debe a disaster zone

In a telephone interview yesterday, Roopnarine said a full assessment of the damage had not yet been undertaken as several businesses were still submerged under several feet of water.

Some businesses were wiped out completely, Roopnarine said, adding, Some tint shops and printing companies- completely gone. One of my neighbours, who owns a graphic shop- everything was destroyed- he secured his things on top of his counters and his counters floated away, he said, adding, I got a call from a mechanic, everything in his garage went through water- at a window supply shop- everything was covered with water. It was the biggest flood, businesses in Penal has ever seen, he said. Roopnarine continued, It was the worst that we have ever experienced and I have been saying since day one that it is a local and national disaster but it should have been declared a disaster a long time now so that the relevant authorities can come in and help. He said business owners were unsure how they would be able to restart their businesses as several had bank loans or were using other peoples equipment which were damaged in the flood waters.

I just spoke to a guy and he doesnt have insurance, he doesnt know what could be done, he doesnt know where to go for assistance, he has to start over from scratch. If there is any grant for businesses, he would like to find out that, Roopnarine said.

Some of them have other peoples equipment at their place to be repaired, they have things that were taken on loan and they lost those things as well and this is a time when Penal Debe not seeing the best of business and activity such as construction not going on so businesses are depressed prior to this and this just heightens the situation, he said.

He said the Chamber was assisting with cleaning supplies, hampers and hot meals.

Meanwhile, San Fernando Business Association (SBA) president Daphne Bartlett observed that the storm may be the catalyst that was needed to convince the population to grow their own small crops as local produce would experience a temporary increase due to the severe flooding of agricultural lands.

It will be temporary but this is a good occasion for many people to get out their pots and pans and dig a hole and plant their little plants, Bartlett said, adding, we shouldnt be buying chive, peppers and ochroes, we can plant that in a pot, a flower pot. We have been advocating agriculture to diversify, the government must get into more agriculture but just saying that and giving it lip service is not enough, we have always said that we are a developing country, but when you look at the farming industry abroad, how well structured they are and what grants are in place for the farmers, they protect their prices, we could follow suit and put a plan, a whole system in place that will encourage young people to go into agriculture, she said.

Meanwhile, Rio Claro Chamber of Commerce president Avid Moonan said while the business community had escaped the flooding which had engulfed low-lying areas, he said their major issue was the disruption of the electricity supply as gas stations and fast food outlets were unable to open their businesses.

Within the business community, there was no damage, there was no flooding in the heart of the town, the only major problem that we had was loss of electricity from 10pm on Monday night and it was restored at 9pm on Tuesday, Moonan said.

Up to last night, (Thursday), electricity had now returned to some surrounding districts, he said.
Daly slams CJs misinterpretation talk

In a telephone interview on Thursday, Daly said, When you look at the media release there are three sentences that cannot be interpreted than anything other than the language of a decision having been made. He was referring to a letter an attorney representing the CJ wrote to former attorney general Anand Ramlogan,SC, in which he said no such decision was made at a meeting of stakeholders on May 24.

Ramlogan on June 12 wrote to attorney Ian Roach, who represents Archie, seeking answers on the consensus arrived at a meeting of stakeholders on May 24, when it was reported these stakeholders agreed to have all 53 cases restarted de novo (new trial). However, in his letter to Ramlogan dated June 20, Roach said, Your letter proceeds on a wholly erroneous premise. My instructions are that no such decision was made in your letter. On May 25, a release by the Judiciarys Court Protocol and Information Manager Alicia Carter- Fisher, announced that a decision was made at the stakeholders meeting of May 24. In the release, Carter-Fisher said, consensus was reached and the meeting agreed to have all 53 matters restarted de novo. It was also announced that Ag Chief Magistrate Maria Busby-Earle Caddle would preside over all indictable cases, while all summary matters would be taken over by an assigned magistrate at the Port of Spain Magistrates Court. All other Eighth Court matters which were not started will be managed by the acting deputy chief magistrate, the statement further noted.

Speaking with Newsday on Thursday, Daly pointed to the key sentences of the release sent by the Judiciary on May 25, which he (Daly) said it were obvious consequences of a decision having been arrived at when the parties met with the CJ.

It is not conceivable that it is a question of interpretation or misinterpretation as the Chief Justices attorney is now saying, Daly said.

It (the wording of the Judiciarys media release) is entirely consistent with an administrative decision having been taken, he said.

In his letter to Ramlogan, Roach also indicated that no further directives were issued to any judicial officer as to how they should deal with the matters which may come before them. He also told Ramlogan that no person or persons arrogated unto themselves the power to determine the future conduct of his clients case.

Your clients legal representative is free to make any representations or submissions he considers appropriate before the presiding magistrate and have same dealt with at that time. That is the protection of the law and the right to a fair hearing that the Constitution guarantees to your client, Roach further advised Ramlogan. Several of the affected part-heard cases are expected to be called next Tuesday.
EOC, Maha Sabha to make written submissions in gay rights case

Hearing of Jones constitutional claim came up before Justice Devindra Rampersad in the Port of Spain High Court yesterday, when it was also indicated that the Trinidad and Tobago Council of Evangelical Churches will reconsider its position on wanting to intervene in the claim. The matter has been adjourned to July 25.

Jones constitutional claim challenges Sections 13 and 16 of the Sexual Offences Act, which criminalises buggery and serious indecency even between consenting adults.

The very existence of these sections continuously and directly affects the claimants private life by forcing him to either respect the law and refrain from engaging  even in private with consenting male partners  in prohibited sexual acts to which he is disposed by reason of his homosexual orientation, or to commit the prohibited acts and thereby become liable to criminal prosecution, Jones fixed date claim form states. Jones is also claiming that the long-standing legislation contravenes his constitutional rights to privacy and freedom of thought and expression in addition to being in direct contradiction to this countrys international human rights obligation.

His lawyers are also contending that the legislation opens his client to public prejudice and ridicule as it labels him and other homosexuals as criminals.

He is accordingly the subject of extensive societal prejudice, persecution, marginalisation, a lifelong entrenched stigma that he is an unapprehended criminal by virtue of being homosexual and he experiences the lifelong fear of being punished for expressing his sexuality through consensual conduct with another adult, the lawsuit adds.

He is being represented by Richard Drabble, QC, Rishi Dass and Antonio Emmanuel. Senior Counsel Fyard Hosein is appearing for the Attorney General.

Jones lawyers will also argue that since the controversial legislation amended in 1986 and 2000 repealed and replaced pre-Independence sexual offences legislation, covered by the savings clause, it is open to review.
Calls for Columbus statue to be removed

Kambon made the remarks at the launch of the project at the National Library and Information Service in Port of Spain on Thursday.

He urged citizens and academics to engage in a more thorough revision of historically significant figures and landmarks such as the Lopinot estate.

We are calling on all of our partners to join with us as we seek to correct this collective lie that has been repeated throughout history and throughout the entirety of the Americas that Christopher Columbus discovered anything.

The statue as it is, is absurd and perverse as it continues to represent the oppression and genocide that the first peoples faced from the Spanish colonisers. In addition to the removal of the statue, Kambon said that the project also seeks to address the renaming of the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus main hall from Milner Hall.

Kambon said the hall which is named after eighteenth century British statesman Alfred Milner, was contradictory to the UWIs mandate to promote regional integration, as Milner was one of the major proponents of the apartheid system in South Africa. Kambon is instead in talks with the UWIs administration to rename the hall after Trinidadian lawyer and Pan-Africanist, Henry Sylvester Williams.

What we want is a change in name from the oldest hall of residence at the UWI St Augustine from Milner Hall to the Henry Sylvester Williams Hall.

Milner was one of the architects of the apartheid system in South Africa he participated in some of historys most horrendous crimes. Citing the work of West Indian historian and intellectual Frantz Fanon, Kambon said that greater introspection is needed on the part of academics and the general public in order to dispel neo-colonial myths and is calling on all stakeholders from different cultural backgrounds to lend their voices to the ongoing discussion on historical revision.

The projects launch ended with a visit to Columbus square where activists staged a spirited demonstration calling for the statues removal.
Fuad: Murray just like other doctors

As such, It is no big deal if Dr Conrad Murray  the cardiologist who served two years in prison for involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson - is doing the same.

If you are already registered in Trinidad and Tobago and you went abroad and you are on your way back, there is no need to bring a letter of good standing because you are already registered, said Khan in a telephone interview with Newsday yesterday.

What you need to do is to pay your retention fee and you go about your business.

And sometimes people do not pay retention fees and they continue to practice anyway. A lot of people do not pay their annual retention fee in Trinidad and Tobago. Asked about the consequences for a doctor not paying the fee Khan said, Suppose he (a doctor) operates on a patient and the patient claims medical insurance, some insurance companies use the fact that the retention fee wasnt paid to not pay the patient back the money that they are supposed to pay them. That is the only problem said Khan.

But that is not law. It is a policy. Newsday exclusively reported that Murray was registered to practice locally in 1999 but had not renewed his medical licence since 2004 based on information provided by administrative officials at the medical board.

But Murray, through his attorney Keil Taklalsingh, as reported in another newspaper, has since denied the claim, saying that the law does not require an annual renewal of the licence.

However, Taklalsingh said the payment of an annual retention fee is required, but for reasons unknown the medical board denied Murrays attempts to pay the fee. For their refusal to accept his payment, Murray has stated his intentions to take legal action against the medical board, arguing that they had no grounds to refuse his payment.

Newsday previously reported, based on information provided by a credible source, that because Murray had practiced out of the country for so long, his attempts to pay the fee were denied pending his provision of letters of good standing from the medical boards where he last worked.

Newsday reported that Murray was unable to do so as his licences in California and Nevada were still listed as suspended and his Texas licence was revoked after his conviction.

But Khan said there was no requirement for Murray to provide said letters as he was already registered before leaving to practice abroad. His conviction in another jurisdiction, Khan explained, did not affect his local status. The only way for a doctor to be barred from practicing is if he is officially de-registered by a tribunal set up by the board, said Khan.

And then you have to go through a tribunal.

You have a defence, you can bring your lawyers, and after that process, there is a decision which you can be de-registered.

However, you could take that to court and take the board to court to say you are unfairly being de-registered. According to Section 2 (5) of the Subsidiary Legislation Medical Board (fees) Regulations in the Medical Board Act, when an annual retention fee is paid, the member or holder of a licence shall receive a certificate of good standing. The Act does not define the power of a certificate of good standing or whether not paying the annual retention fee makes a medical licence invalid.

The Act does, however, empower the Council of the Medical Board to set rules and regulations as it sees fit for the carrying out of its mandate.

Newsdays attempts to seek clarification from the medical board on the interpretation of the law were futile. Newsday was told that the board will be discussing the reports of Murrays status in its next sitting carded for the second Wednesday in July.
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The US European Command has released dramatic photos of a Russian jet coming within a few feet of a US Air Force reconnaissance jet over the Baltic Sea in a maneuver that has been criticized as unsafe. The AP reports the photographs released Friday show the Russian SU-27 coming so close to the wing of the US RC-135U that the Russian pilot can be seen in the cockpit in some images.

Intercepts are common and are usually considered routine, but EUCOM said in this case on June 19 "due to the high rate of closure speed and poor control of the aircraft during the intercept, this interaction was determined to be unsafe." Two days later, Sweden summoned Russia's ambassador after another SU-27 jet flew close to a Swedish Gulfstream reconnaissance plane over the Baltic. (Read more intercept stories.)
"I just do the most stupidest things sometimes," Angel Gort tells WSVN. The Florida 11-year-old was reported missing by his family around 10am Tuesday. As police were searching his Hialeah neighborhood with bloodhounds, WSVN's helicopter was flying over the scene. "We were just kind of searching here waiting for our next hit on this story when we spotted the child," Ralph Rayburn says. Angel hadn't gotten far in the two hours he was missing; the copter spotted him lying on the roof of his house. After police convinced him to come down, he explained that he has ADHD and ran away because he was upset with his mom. My mom is embarrassed, Angel says. I didnt mean to cause any trouble." He says it's the last time he runs away. (Read more missing child stories.)
A former Texas nurse who prosecutors say may be responsible for the deaths of up to 60 young children was indicted Wednesday on a murder charge for the second time in recent weeks, the AP reports. The Bexar County district attorney's office said in a statement that Genene Jones was charged in the September 1981 death of 2-year-old Rosemary Vega. She was charged with a separate count of murder last month in the death of an 11-month-old boy. Jones, 66, is serving concurrent 99-year and 60-year sentences in state prison for the 1982 killing of another toddler and the sickening of a 4-week-old boy who survived. But she was scheduled to be released in March under a mandatory release law in place when she was convicted.

During Jones' time working at a San Antonio hospital and elsewhere in Texas, children died of unexplained seizures and other complications. District Attorney Nico LaHood previously said investigators believe Jones may have killed some or all of those children because they died under unusual circumstances during or shortly after her shifts. The 11-month-old boy died of a fatal overdose of an anti-seizure drug, Dilantin, and prosecutors at Jones' 1984 murder trial said the nurse lethally injected children at a clinic to demonstrate the need for a pediatric intensive care unit at a nearby hospital. Other prosecutors theorized that Jones' tactic was to take swift medical action and save some of her victims, making herself appear to be a sort of miracle worker. More indictments are possible. (Read more child murder stories.)
A black off-duty officer with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department was shot by a white officer Wednesday night while trying to assist with some suspected car thieves, CBS News reports. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a stolen car crashed near the off-duty officer's home, and he came outside with his service weapon to help. Two officers ordered him to the ground, and he complied. Once they recognized him as an 11-year veteran of the department, they told him to get up and walk toward them. As he was doing that, a fourth officer arrived on the scene and shot the off-duty officer in the arm. The police department says the late-arriving officer was "fearing for his safety" and didn't recognize the off-duty officer.

The unnamed officer who was shot in the arm was released from the hospital Thursday. His attorney, Rufus Tate Jr., says the shooting is a "real problem," Fox 2 reports. Tate says a "black professional in law enforcement" was "treated as an ordinary black guy on the street." He notes there's no evidence in the police report that the off-duty officer posed any sort of threat, and yet the officer who shot him is said to have feared for his safety. "There is this perception that a black man is automatically feared," Tate says. The chief of police had originally blamed the shooting on the off-duty officer getting caught in the crossfire between officers and suspects. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is investigating. (Read more police shooting stories.)
A University of Delaware professor is causing a riot online after posting to her personal Facebook page that student Otto Warmbier "got exactly what he deserved" following his death Monday upon returning from North Korea. According to USA Today, adjunct anthropology professor Kathy Dettwyler went off on students like Warmbier, whom she called young, white, rich, clueless males who come into my classes." She wrote (in a post that has since been made private or deleted), "These are the same kids who cry about their grades because they didn't think they'd really have to read and study the material to get a good grade, and said Warmbiers parents are to blame for raising him to believe he could do anything he wanted.

The Facebook rant, as well as similar comments posted by Dettwyler on a National Review article, have people demanding her termination. University of Delaware released a statement saying that Dettwylers words did not reflect the institution, and that it found the comments particularly distressing and inconsistent with our values. A spokeswoman did not comment on Dettwylers employment status, saying it was confidential. (Warmbier didn't attend the school.) Fox News reports that the professor has mixed reviews among students, with many who laud her for her expertise in the anthropology department on RateMyProfessors.com, but some who say her opinions get in the way of her teaching: Professor Dettwyler is intelligent, but way too opinionated to the point where she becomes unprofessional. (Read more Otto Warmbier stories.)
The Trump administration has been trying to get another US hostage home: Austin Tice. The New York Times reports that clandestine talks between CIA director Mike Pompeo and Syrian intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk began in February to initiate the release of the American journalist and former Marine, who went missing in 2012 and is believed to have been detained in Syria for the past five years. The communications, which the Times calls the highest level contact between the governments in years, ended following Syrias chemical weapon attack against rebels in April. President Trump responded to the attack by ordering a strike on the air base that issued it.

Thats a big deal, says Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy of the Syrian attack, which killed dozens of civilians. There is no way the US is going to ignore these actions. According to RT, Tice was freelancing in Syria for news outlets including the Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, and CBS when he went missing in August 2012, and a video of Tice, blindfolded and being led by gunmen, appeared on YouTube a month later. The Times reports that secret intelligence analysis suggests that Tice is still alive and was treated for dehydration last year in a Damascus hospital, but Syrian officials deny knowledge of his whereabouts. Tabler says the timing to continue negotiations just isnt there. Thats just a hard reality. (Read more Austin Tice stories.)
The White House had another no-camera press briefing on Friday, and CNN found a unique way to give viewers a look. It sent veteran courtroom sketch artist Bill Hennessy to draw Sean Spicer as he briefed reporters. It was the third time this week the White House has banned cameras and audio from a briefing, notes the Washington Post, part of a rethinking of its press-room strategy. (Reporters are none too pleased.)

Jeff Mason of Reuters, president of the White House Correspondents' Association, met with Spicer and deputy press chief Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday to relay complaints about the new restrictions, reports TVNewser. When Spicer was asked about the matter, however, it didn't sound like changes were afoot. "I think it's great for us to come out here and have a substantive discussion about policies, he said. I don't think that the be-all and end-all is whether it's on television or not. (Read more CNN stories.)
Martha is big, ugly, lazy, and gassy. And a world champion. In a competition annually dominated by the old, the tiny, and the hairless, the 3-year-old, 125-pound Neapolitan Mastiff used her lollygagging youth to win the 29th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest. Per the AP, she was a favorite of the Northern California crowd from the start, often plopping down on her side on stage with her droopy face spread across the ground when she was supposed to be showing off. The judges didn't even need to hear her signature snore to give her the award. Martha lumbered away with $1,500, a flashy trophy, and a trip to New York for media appearances, all things she could hardly care less about.

The dog was rescued when she was nearly blind from neglect by the Dogwood Animal Rescue Project in Sonoma County, where the contest was held. After several surgeries, she can now see again. Moe, a 16-year-old Brussels Griffon-pug mix from Santa Rosa, Calif., who was the oldest in the competition, came in second while Chase, a 14-year-old Chinese Crested-Harke mix, came all the way from Neath, UK, to take third. The contestants were judged on first impressions, unusual attributes, personality, and audience reaction. These dogssome with acne, others with tongues permanently sticking outare used to getting called ugly. But for their owners, it was love at first sight. (Read more dogs stories.)
China set to again block India's entry into Nuclear Suppliers Group membership

New Delhi : Two weeks after the Indian and Chinese top leadership agreed to address sensitive issues dogging their bilateral ties, Beijing on Friday appeared poised to once again oppose India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), saying there was "no change" in its position on Indian's bid. China's oft-stated position came as the 48-member elite grouping was holding an important plenary session in Berne.

India, which has been engaged in getting support from member countries to get itself a berth in the grouping, was not very hopeful as sources in New Delhi said Beijing's position was "strictly policy based" and no major power was likely to exert pressure.

Talking to reporters here, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said: "As for non-NPT countries being admitted to the group, I can tell you there is no change in China's position."

During his June 9 meeting in the Kazakh capital Astana with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the SCO, Chinese President Xi Jinping had stressed that the two sides should "address major and sensitive issues".

Modi had conveyed that both nations "should enhance cooperation and coordination in international affairs and deal with sensitive issues between the two countries".

During the briefing on Friday, Geng said "the NSG has clear rules on expansion and the Seoul plenary made clear the mandate on how to deal with this issue. With these rules and mandates, we need to act as they dictate.

"As for the criteria regarding admitting new members, this plenary meeting in Switzerland will follow the mandate of the Seoul plenary and uphold the principle of decision upon consensus, and continue to discuss various dimensions like technical, law, legal and political aspects of non-NPT countries admission to the group."

At the NSG plenary session in Seoul last year, China had rejected India's application for entering the bloc, citing its non-signatory status to the Non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

NPT is a requirement to become the member of the grouping, which regulates global nuclear trade. India finds the treaty discriminatory. Beijing's move at this year's plenary in Berne is likely to be on expected lines.

"China is firm on opposing Indian's bid based on our non-NPT signatory basis. Form what I understand, no major power is likely to pressure Beijing on this. They believe China's position is strictly policy-based," sources in New Delhi said.

The NSG works on the principle of consensus and all members have a sort of veto to block any proposal in the grouping. China's persistent opposition has emerged as a major stumbling block to India's bid, which has the support of most countries, including the US.

Beijing says if India is let in, then its "all weather" ally Pakistan too should be allowed admission. Islamabad too has not signed the NPT. On Thursday, India had said it was in touch with NSG member countries over its application for membership.

"The NSG meeting is going on. Our application for membership is under consideration. We are in touch with all the NSG member countries," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said at a briefing in New Delhi. The NSG meeting began on June 19 and is to conclude on Friday.
PM Narendra Modi leaves for three-nation tour of Portugal, US and The Netherlands

New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left for Portugal, the first-leg of his three-nation tour that will also take him to the US and Netherlands.

"PM @narendramodi emplaned for Portugal, after which he shall visit USA and Netherlands for important bilateral visits," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) wrote on Twitter.

Modi will visit Portugal on Saturday before his trip to the US on June 26 and is expected to be on a whirlwind tour to the Netherlands on June 27. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay had said Modi's visit to the US has "its own significance because it will be the first visit of the Prime Minister to engage with the new leader, with the new President ( Donald Trump) after the elections last year" in the United States.

Modi would also hold talks with Antonio Costa, the Portugal Prime Minister of Indian origin, in Lisbon before flying to the US where he would meet President Donald Trump.

Infusing fresh impetus to multifaceted relationships. PM @narendramodi departs for three nation tour pic.twitter.com/W0MSpu7M4X  Anurag Srivastava (@MEAIndia) June 24, 2017

On his way back, Modi would visit The Netherlands for talks with Prime Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague, besides calling on the King of The Netherlands Willem Alexander.
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Jammu:

Warning of chaos if Goods and Services Tax is not implemented in Jammu and Kashmir by July 1, Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh on Friday said the government would not be able to control the situation that emerges.

We have told our people that if GST is not implemented by July 1, there will be chaos. GST should be implemented in J&K and if it is not implemented we cannot control the situation then, Singh said at a seminar in Jammu.

We hope GST will be implemented in J&K before July 1 but Opposition is creating hurdles in it, he said.

We cannot stay in power by compromising on our basic ideology, Singh said while hitting out at the opposition for raking up issues like Kashmiri Pandit townships, Sainik colonies, and GST.

On the situation in Kashmir, he said we are in a transition phase and in a decisive phase. The proxy war waged by Pakistan against J&K and India and its nationalistic forces are on the same page for stamping it out and central and state government are united in this. There will be a decisive decision in the future. We will fight and win it.

Jammu people have voted for BJP and made its victorious and created such a situation in which we incorporated the ideology of BJP in the manifesto. We did not leave that ideology. We cannot leave that ideology, he said.

We formed the government after three months long discussion and set up the government for giving people governance. We have performed and ensured equal development and governance in all three regions of J&K, he added.

Also Read: GST to lower overall tax burden over time: RBI governor Urjit Patel

He said that Rs 80,000 crore package has been granted in J&K and smart cities for Jammu and Srinagar.

Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. Two years cannot change everything but today they way the mindset of people and political class have been contained and ensured that J&K is integral part of India is what we have been talking about, he added.

We are passing through a transition state. There is desperation from separatists and militants. The PM and BJP are focused on J&K. They are working to better the situation in J&K, he said.

Singh said for the first time, the Centre has made J&K as their first priority. In J&K, the nationalist forces would have to be strengthened and the separatists and terrorists forces would be stamped out soon here.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi favoured friendship with Pakistan. He kept the agenda of the friendship and neghbourhood as his first priority with Pakistan and instead we got in returned Pathankot, and beheading of our soldiers. PM also gave a message to Pakistan by undertaking surgical strike that we can cross the border and hit you, he said.

On 2016 unrest, he said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited Kashmir thrice and he said talks cannot be held in an environment of gun battles and firing. The Centre and state government has said it clearly that no talks can be held under the shadow of guns in hinterland and blasts of mortars on the border by Pakistan.

A vigorous anti-terrorism operation is on and 40 militants have been killed in the past one month in Kashmir, he said adding We have not compromised on terrorism.

NIA has successfully conducted raids against separatists in Kashmir which has never happened in the past, he said.

Majority of people in Kashmir want peace. On June 21, 400 schoolchildren participated in yoga camps in Kashmir, he added.

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New Delhi:

During late evening on 21 June, two men allegedly tried to kidnap a Delhi University student in Vijay Vihar but their attempts were thwarted by the woman who threatened them with a knife.

After the incident, the accused were arrested, said police.

The woman, who is pursuing her graduation from Delhi University's School Of Open Learning, was returning home on June 21 around 8 PM when the two men, who are in their 20s and work as drivers for a cab aggregator firm, allegedly made some comments on the woman, police said.

When the woman, who is also a civil defence volunteer, protested, the two men got angry and slapped her, they said.

The accused then tried to pull her into their car but she somehow picked up a knife and threatened them, police said.

After which the accused fled but she noted down their car's registration number and informed the police.

The duo was later arrested.
New Delhi:

It's been a couple of months since Malayalam actress Bhavana Menon was allegedly molested in Kerala. While the Kerala police has been investigating the matter, a new twist in the case unfolded, after renowned actor Dileep and director Nadirsha alleged to be blackmailed in connection with the case.



Reportedly, Dileep and Nadir had alleged that a co-inmate of Pulsar Suni, main accused of Bhavana Menon's molestation case, have blackmailed them through phone calls demanding Rs 1.5 crore.



The actor-director duo filed a complaint with police and stated that the caller, who has been identified as Vishnu, had threatened to involve their name in the case if the two failed to give him the money.



According to a report published in Mathrubhumi News, Nadir stated Vishnu had even claimed to have got an offer of Rs 2.5 crore to trap Dileep in the case.



He said certain actors wish to drag Dileeps name into the controversy. The list even had the names of few actresses. However, we have not believed his words and his intentions are not clear. It's high time the truth must come out, Nadirsha old Mathrubhumi News.



Dileep-Nadir have reportedly handed over the audio clip of the entire conversation to the cops, who are investigating the mater further.



On the other hand, actor Dileep had reportedly claimed these threats to be an attempt to tarnish his image.



Notably, it was in February, when Bhavana had alleged that she was kidnapped and molested in her Audi car. It was reported that her driver Martin and his associate Sunil abducted her while she was returning back from the shoot in Ernakulam district in Kerala.

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Mumbai:

Tubelight's one of the biggest highlights was reunion of Salman and Shah Rukh Khan, where the latter had a special appearance, but the superstars have no plans to do a full-length feature film in near future.

"He (SRK) was suppose to do make only a guest appearance in the film. He was not there in the entire film. There is no such planning as of now (to do a film together). If you (media) say then we will plan", the actor quipped when asked about working with SRK again.

Meanwhile, Salman hopes his another good friend Aamir Khan, who is currently shooting in Malta for "Thugs of Hindostan", watches the Kabir Khan-directed movie.

Read more: Salman Khan not worried about critics' response for 'Tubelight'

"Is there a PVR theatre in Malta? I hope the film stays in theatres (till he comes back) or else I will have to arrange a show for him."

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London:

Hollywood star Johnny Depp has apologised for joking about assassinating US President Donald Trump, saying his remarks were in "poor taste." The 54-year-old actor said his comments did not "come out as intended" and was only meant to amuse, reported People magazine.



"I apologise for the bad joke I attempted last night in poor taste about President Trump. It did not come out as intended, and I intended no malice. I was only trying to amuse, not to harm anyone," Depp said in a statement.



The actor's joke, what could be a reference to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth in 1865, was made during an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival.



"When was the last time an actor assassinated a president? I want to qualify, I am not an actor. I lie for a living. However, it has been a while and maybe it is time," Depp had said.



Shortly after news broke of Depp's comments, the White House issued a statement strongly condemning the joke and calling on others in Hollywood to speak out.



"President Trump has condemned violence in all forms and it's sad that others like Johnny Depp have not followed his lead. I hope that some of Mr Depp's colleagues will speak out against this type of rhetoric as strongly as they would if his comments were directed to a Democrat elected official," the statement read.



Depp is only the latest celebrity to find himself in hot water over violent commentary aimed at Trump. Late last month, Kathy Griffin posed for a photo shoot in which she held up a bloody prop head that resembled Trump. The comedian has also apologised.

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New Delhi:

The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) made up of special forces men and terrorists were armed with special daggers and headband cameras to mutilate and record the attack on the Indian Army patrol party after entering 600 meters across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district.

The attack left two Indian soldiers dead while one BAT member was killed in retaliatory action by Indian troops.

Army troops during search and sanitation operations recovered the body of a member of the BAT team along LoC in Gulpur sector of Poonch district on Friday.

The body of the intruder killed in the BAT attempt on 22 June has been retrieved and handed over to the local police, a senior army officer told PTI.

Arms, ammunition and other war-like stores including a special dagger and a headband with a camera, knife, one AK rifle, 3 magazines, 2 grenades besides dresses and bags was recovered which reflects the barbaric mindset of the Pakistan Army, he said.

The resolute action of our soldiers didnt let the nefarious plan (of mutilating bodies and recording it on camera) succeed, officer said.

Giving details, the officer said that a special class of dagger and a knife was meant to engineer quick mutilation and beheading of jawans killed in the firing exchanges and it has been foiled by the quick action by Indian soldiers.

The BAT member was wearing headband with camera on his head to record the action and possible mutilation of jawans, which was prevented by other troops who shot dead one of them and injured another, he said.

The officer said it is a matter of investigation whether the camera was live connected with Pakistan Army establishments across the border.

The data and details of the camera will be analysed, he said.

We are confident that another BAT member has also been killed but his body was taken back by the other members of the BAT, he said.

In the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces yesterday sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

Also Read: Multiple blasts and firing kill 62 in Pakistan; IS, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claims responsibility

The Border Action Team (BAT), which generally comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan Army and some terrorists, carried out the attack at around 2 pm yesterday under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops from their posts, he said.

A Border Action Team of five to seven heavily-armed men, under the cover of Pakistani firing, entered 600 meters inside the LoC in Gulpur forward area in Poonch sector around 2 PM yesterday and launched a fierce attack on Indian Army patrol party with several types of weapons, the official said.

The Pakistani attackers came up to 200 meters near the Indian posts.

During the attack, the Pakistani troops resorted to firing in Gulpur-Karmara-Chakan-Da-Bagh area along the LoC.

The armed intruders targeted an area domination patrol of the Indian Army, triggering a gunfight, the official said.

The Indian troops killed one of the attackers and injured another whose extrication was facilitated by the cover fire by the Pakistani troops from their posts.

In the firefight, two Indian soldiers were killed. They were 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad, Maharashtra and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

The Pakistani firing continued till 3.30 PM on Friday even as the Indian posts retaliated strongly.

In a similar BAT attack on May 1, two Indian soldiers were beheaded in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district. That attack too was carried out under the cover of shelling by the Pakistani troops.

Prior to that, a BAT attack was carried out in February but there were no casualties.

Earlier, there have been several BAT attacks in which Indian jawans have been beheaded or their bodies mutilated.

On October 28 last year, militants attacked a post and killed an Indian Army soldier and mutilated his body close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Machil sector.

In January 2013, Lance Naik Hemraj was killed and his body mutilated by a BAT. It had also beheaded Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh.

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Darjeeling (WB):

With GJM chief Bimal Gurung threatening to intensify the agitation for a separate state, protesters marched through the streets in several places on Saturday as the indefinite shutdown in the Darjeeling hills entered its tenth day.

Internet services were suspended for the seventh day and local cable channels remained blocked in certain parts of the hills.

Elected members of the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) belonging to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) which is leading the stir, resigned en masse on Friday.

The party decided to burn copies of the GTA Accord, reached in 2011 between the Union home ministry, the West Bengal government and the GJM, on June 26 and 27.

Gurung, who surfaced in public yesterday, addressed the media at the partys stronghold at Patlebas and threatened to fight till the end for their one point agenda of Gorkhaland.

Students stranded at several boarding schools were evacuated yesterday after the GJM gave a 12-hour window till 6 pm to allow them to leave the hills safely.

A case of murder, arson, assault on police personnel and conspiracy to incite violence was filed against Gurung and his wife Asha on June 17.

The Calcutta High Court has directed that notice be served on Gurung by all means possible in view of a PIL challenging the indefinite bandh called by the party in Darjeeling.

Also read: Darjeeling violence: Police register case against GJM supremo Bimal Gurung, wife

Gurung said talks were on with the central government and was hopeful of positive results.

The West Bengal government yesterday offered a dialogue to defuse the crisis with Home Secretary Malay De saying that the doors of the government were open for talks to restore normalcy in the hills.

It also sent a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh protesting Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling support of GJMs demand for a separate Gorkhaland state and said it was unconstitutional.

Also read: Darjeeling: GJM bandh enters eighth day; Medical, cable TV, tourism services hit

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New Delhi:

In a tragic incident, a Muslim teenager was allegedly stabbed and beaten to death while several others were injured on a local train in Haryana on Thursday night, after a group of people accused them of carrying beef in a bag, said news report.

According to Hindustan Times, the incident triggered when a family of five was returning home after Eid shopping in Delhi and got involved in an argument over changing of seats when things took a communal turn and Hafiz Junaid was stabbed to death.

The police have arrested one person on Friday in connection with this incident, and the accused has confessed to his crime.

It was a group of 15-20 people boarded a Mathura-bound train. As the argument turned communal, they reportedly called the Muslim family "anti-nationals" and "beef eaters", before throwing their skull caps on the floor, grabbing their beards, and taunting them with abuses, said police.

Haryana director general of police BS Sandhu denied that the incident happened over an argument regarding beef. "This was a clash between two groups which resulted in the death of one person. We have already arrested one of the accused. Police teams are investigating and others too will be arrested," The Times of India quoted Sandhu as saying.

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New Delhi:

The government has cleared a proposal for setting up a greenfield airport in Jewar in Greater Noida, which is likely to be operational in the next five to six years.



Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said at a press briefing in New Delhi on Saturday that in-principle clearance has been granted for the airport.



The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority has notified 3,000 hectares of land for a world-class international airport, Raju added.

Read | Thane: Farmers' protest against land acquisition by MoD turns violent; additional security forces sent in



Noida International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years, Raju tweeted.



The airport will help reduce congestion at the Delhi international airport.



In Delhi, we are expecting 91 million passengers by 2020 and 109 million passengers by 2024, Raju told reporters.

We thank the Central Govt for giving approval for an airport in Jewar(Gr Noida): SN Singh, UP minister pic.twitter.com/hTA2LQX49I  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) June 24, 2017



Read | 5 airlines to fly 128 routes, link 70 airports under affordable flight scheme UDAN

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Moscow:

In a major move, India and Russia on Friday agreed on a roadmap for ramping up bilateral defence cooperation and decided to conclude negotiations for different military platforms soon.

Both the sides signed a protocol for the roadmap to step-up defence engagement during the annual meeting of the Indian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC).

The meeting was co-chaired by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and his Russian counterpart General Sergey Shoigu.

The roadmap includes specific activities to be concluded by both the sides, and aims to enhance cooperation in the field of political and military dialogue, besides exercises between the armed forces of the two countries.

In the meeting, Jaitley conveyed to the Russian side about the importance of having a robust and reliable after-sales support mechanism with regards to the serviceability of Russian-origin equipment, Indian government officials said.

Russia has been one of Indias key major suppliers of arms and ammunition. However, it has been a long-standing grievance of armed forces that supply of critical spares and equipment from Russia takes a long time affecting maintenance of military systems procured from that country.

Jaitley also talked about the new opportunities for participation of Russian companies in the Indian defence manufacturing sector as part of the Make in India program under the new strategic partnership policy for defence production.

The Indian government last month unveiled a strategic partnership model under which select private firms will be engaged along with foreign entities to build military platforms like fighter jets, submarines, and battle tanks.

Both the sides also agreed to conclude various ongoing negotiations for different platforms as well as restructure the inter-governmental commission to enhance military to military cooperation, the officials said.

During the meeting, both the sides expressed satisfaction at the concrete progress that has been made on areas of cooperation since the last meeting of the commission in October 2016.

The discussions were productive and held in an atmosphere of warmth and friendship, the officials said.

Indias military-technical cooperation with Russia is one of the key pillars of our relationship, they said.

We are determined to go ahead with building up cooperation in order to enhance the combat readiness of both countries armed forces and to exchange experience in various defence-related matters, Gen. Shoigu said at the meeting.

It was the 17th meeting of the IRIGC-MTC.

The meeting took place nearly three weeks after Prime

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New Delhi:

Pakistan violated ceasefire in Poonch sector in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday. Indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars were seen from Pakistan.

The violation comes just days after an attack by a Pakistani special forces team that sneaked across the LoC into Poonch under heavy fire-cover and killed two jawans while losing one of their men.

The Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from small arms, automatic weapons and mortars from 1130 hours on Indian Army posts along the LoC in Poonch sector, a Defence spokesman said.

The Indian troops returned the fire strongly and effectively, he said adding that the firing stopped at 1410 hours.

Earlier on Thursday, in the third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces sneaked 600 metres across the LoC into the Poonch sector and killed two Indian jawans and lost one Border Action Team (BAT) member in retaliatory action.

The BAT comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan army and terrorists.

It had carried out the attack at around 2 PM on an Army patrol party in the Gulpur belt of Poonch on 22 June under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops.

In the firefight, two Indian soldiers - 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur - were martyred.

The Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) members were armed with special daggers and headband cameras to mutilate and record the attack on the Indian Army patrol.

Earlier, on June 16, Pakistan violated the ceasefire by firing on forward posts along the LoC in Naushera sector of Rajouri district of J&K, killing an Indian Army jawan.

There have been 19 ceasefire violations along the LoC and the international border in Jammu region in June in which one civilian was killed and seven others injured.

With PTI inputs

ALSO READ | J-K: Indian Army guns down two terrorists, foils infiltration bid in Kupwara's Keran sector

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New Delhi:

Tej Pratap Yadav, the elder son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and health minister of Bihar is accused of abusing and beating Sanoj Yadav, a member of his own party during an Iftar party at his residence on Friday.

The incident occurred during the Iftar party hosted by Lalu Prasad Yadav at his residence. According to sources Tej Pratap got involved in a heated argument with Sanoj Yadav and started abusing and beating him.

The cause of the rift between Tej Pratap and Sanoj, according to sources, was related to latter's interview to a news channel in which he did not spoke well of Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Reportedly, after the debate, Sanoj got a call from Lalu Yadav's residence and was accused of not speaking positively of RJD in the news channel debate.

Being angry over this issue Tej Pratap Yadav abused and beat Sanoj Yadav.

ALSO READ: Lalu again urges Nitish to reconsider decision on Ram Nath Kovind

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New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday addressed Indian diaspora at the Radha Krishna temple in Portugals Lisbon. PM Modi said that India is fast moving ahead, and is touching new heights in many fields.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented Overseas Citizen of India card to Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.

PM presented Portuguese PM Antonio Costa with latter's old PIO card framed with a picture of Costa receiving Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award.

Indians have carried their cultural heritage with them and have always been proud of them, Modi said addressing the diaspora Indians in Lisbon.

The prime minister cited the diversity of language and taste in India to point out that Indians can adapt to the culture of the country they live. You have effortlessly gelled with the culture of the country you have been, he said.

Modi hailed Indians in Portugal as the real ambassadors of India in that country.

On Portugals historic relations with India, Modi said the country is tied with India in many ways, including through sports. Who has not heard of Christiano Ronaldo. His name fills every sportsperson in India with energy.

He said Portugal has historical ties with India, but a special one with Gujarat and narrated the story of Kutch sailor Kanji Malam, who helped the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discover the sea route from Europe to India in 1497.

Kanji Malam had navigated the commander to Calicut from Malindi on east African coast.

The Radha Krishna Temple is the symbol of social conscience in Portugal. People here do not discriminate, and that is the identity of Indians, the diversity of India, he said to the gathering after visiting the temple along with Prime Minister Antonia Costa, who is the first prime minister of Indian origin in Europe.

He also highlighted the role Portugal is playing in furthering the message of Yoga, an ancient Indian spiritual discipline. Modi thanked Costa for promoting wellness movement through yoga as a holistic health care practice.

Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit Portugal for a bilateral trip, though Atal Bihari Vajpayee had visited the country but it was for a European Union conference in 2000.

With PTI inputs

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Washington:

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit, the White House has said that America's relations with India and Pakistan are of different nature but it is certainly eager to deepen the strategic partnership with India.

We seek to have an effective partnership with each country. With India, were building that strategic partnership. We see Indias role and influence growing. We like to encourage that trend. So, were looking for ways to cooperate on our mutual interests, a senior administration official told reporters at a news conference in Washington.

With Pakistan, we seek to have a productive partnership working together. But frankly, the priorities are different, and the nature of the relationships are different. So, I think that we would like to move forward with both countries, the official added.

PM Modi  President Trump meet: Counter-terrorism ties, defence deals, NSG and others outcomes to hope for

Briefing about the discussion that would take place during Modi-Trump meeting, the White House said the civil nuclear deal would be part of the discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump, emphasising that the US was looking forward to its nuclear reactors contributing to Indias energy security.

In terms of the actual deals, the US is still looking forward to US-built nuclear reactors contributing to Indias energy security. We think that this civil nuclear partnership will bolster Indias energy security, create jobs and trade opportunities for the American people.

So were still very much interested in seeing this deal move forward, a senior administration official told reporters ahead of PM Modis visit to US on June 26.

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New Delhi:

As opposition leaders sat to discuss the presidential poll, one mans absence told its own tale. The man was Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his message was clear. The JD(U) president was nobodys man but his ownand his partys.



Opposition leaders on Thursday devoted some time to Nitish, whose decision to support NDA presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind had rattled many.



RJD leader Lalu Prasad promised to coax him into supporting the opposition candidate Meira Kumar, a Dalit from Bihar, a state that Nitish has ruled since 2005, barring a nine-month break.



Though described in many quarters as a surprise move, Nitishs endorsement of Kovind is just one among many decisions he has taken in recent months which set his party apart from the non-NDA bloc it belongs to.



He takes contrarian decisions from time to time if he thinks they are in public interest, JD(U) leader K C Tyagi said.



That the 66-year-old Socialist was going against the tide on the presidential poll, to be held on July 17, became evident last month when he skipped an opposition lunch convened by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to discuss the issue - and the very next day attended a lunch hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.

Suggested read: Nitish says he has lot of respect for Meira Kumar, but JDU will support NDAs pick Ram Nath Kovind



The CM also supported the NDA on issues roundly criticised by the opposition such as the Armys strike on Pakistan troops in October last year and the NDAs decision to ban high currency notes in November.



He wont take decisions on the basis of his conscience and pragmatismand at times both. He thought demonetisation and GST were good for the country and so backed them, said Patna-based social scientist Shaibal Gupta.



Nitish has weaved his way in and out of tie-ups with the NDA. He left the non-NDA group for an alliance with the BJP, and then opted out of it to form a maha-gathbandhan against the NDA for the 2015 assembly polls.



Hostile to Modi to begin with, Nitish has made soothing sounds in recent yearsa far cry from 2010 when he called off a dinner in Patna because Modi was going to be a part of it.



Nitish was said to have been irked that supporters of the then Gujarat CM had put up posters which tom-tommed that Gujarat had donated Rs 5 crore to Bihar for flood relief.



Modis resounding victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections may have tempered Nitishs position. In 2015, when Modi made a sudden stopover in Lahore on his way back from Kabul, Nitish surprised his allies by congratulating him.

Suggested read: Nitish Kumar extends support to NDAs presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind in JDU meet



Nitish has a habit of deviating from the official line of the party or alliance, said senior Bihar BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav. He did so in the past, too, Yadav said, referring to the 2012 presidential poll.



The CM had then sprung a political surprise on his allies the NDA - by backing the UPA presidential candidate, Pranab Mukherjee, against the NDAs PA Sangma. He had a personal relationship with Mukherjee, he said.



In the case of Kovind, a dalit, caste politics are possibly at play. The Maha-dalits are a large constituency in Bihar, and Nitish would not like to alienate them - as he did when he installed, and then summarily dismissed, Jitan Ram Manjhi, a dalit, as Bihar CM before the 2015 state poll.



Not everybody saw Nitish Kumars moves as politically astute.



Nitish has nothing to do with his own party or alliance and goes by whatever suits his narrow and personal political interests, said RJD MLA Bhai Birendra.



The MLAs outspoken views strengthened the belief that all was not well between the JD(U) and RJDs Prasad, whose family members financial dealings were being probed by central agencies. This, some leaders said, was another reason why Nitish was publicly moving away from his allies.



He is very image conscious. And he doesnt want a dhabba (stain) on him, a Bihar watcher said. This is his way of distancing himself from the larger opposition where Lalu plays a big part.



But Nitish, known for his tightrope acts, isnt walking out of the opposition either. So while he skipped Gandhis lunch, he was present in Chennai for DMK leader M Karunanidhis 94th birthday last month.



On Thursday, LJP leader Ramvilas Paswan urged Nitish to join the NDA. He should not be in two boats at the same time, he said.



But the Bihar CM has shown that he will do just that. As long as he wants to.

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New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday departed for a three-nation tour of Portugal, US and Netherlands. The tour is aimed at bilateral ties on economic and defence fronts along with increasing cooperation on counter-terrorism.



On his visit, PM Modi will first stop at Portugal on Saturday. India has cordial relations with the country which was last marked by Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costas visit to India in January 2017.

"I am looking forward to my meeting with PM Costa. Building on our recent discussions, we will review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions. We will also discuss ways to further enhance the bilateral engagement, especially in the areas of economic cooperation, science & technology, space collaboration and people to people ties.," PM Modi said before the visit.



Second and perhaps most anticipated stop on his visit is the United States. PM Modi will be in the US from June 24 until June 26. He is visiting the country at the invitation of new President Donald Trump. PM Modi will meet Donald Trump on June 26.



Both leaders of the nations have spoken on the phone three times, last being President Trump calling Modi to wish for the win in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. "Indias partnership with the United States is multi-layered and diverse, supported by not just Governments but all the stakeholders on both sides. I look forward to building a forward-looking vision for our partnership with the new Administration in the United States under President Trump."



Apart from official meetings with President Trump and his cabinet colleagues, I will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.

Suggested read | PM Modi  President Trump meet: Counterterrorism ties, defence deals, NSG and others outcomes to hope for



In the final leg of his trip, PM Modi will visit Netherlands to celebrate 70 years of the establishment of Indo-Dutch diplomatic relations



During the visit, the Prime Minister will have an official meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. He is also scheduled to call on King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and meet Queen Maxima.



During the meeting with Prime Minister Rutte, the two leaders are expected to review bilateral relations on important global issues including counter-terrorism and climate change.



The Netherlands is India's 6th largest trading partner in the EU and 5th largest investment partner globally. The Dutch expertise in areas such as water and waste management, agriculture and food processing, renewable energy and ports and shipping, matches with our development needs.



"I will discuss with PM Rutte as to how the two sides should work to further harness the synergies. I will also be meeting with CEOs of major Dutch companies and will encourage them to join the Indian growth story," PM Modi said in a Facebook post.



In all three nations, PM Modi will interact with Indian diaspora at specially organised events.







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New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to embark on a fresh mission to reinforce Indo-US ties under the new Trump administration. While the Prime Minister shared a very cordial relationship with previous US President Barack Obama, to the extent of being hailed as Bromance on social media, he and President Donald Trump have been getting along well.



After Trump won the presidential elections last November, the two leaders have spoken over phone three times, the last being Trumps congratulatory phone call after the BJP won the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.



PM Modi will reach the US on June 25 and meet US President Donald Trump on June 26. He will hold talks with Trump on a range of issues, including terrorism and Indias concerns over possible changes in H-1B visa rules.

Suggested read: PM Modi departs on three-nation tour of Portugal, US and Netherlands; Here's full itinerary and agenda



Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar who recently called on US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to give final touches to PM Modi's meeting with President Trump said that meeting was focussed on improving bilateral ties between the two countries. We have a lot of areas of mutual cooperation, fighting terrorism, we have a lot of people-to-people ties, strong people-to-people ties; so were looking forward to that visit, Jaishankar said.



But the pundits suspect the agenda of the visit is not limited to visa or terrorism issues. In fact, Modi, who will be Trumps first guest on a White House working dinner, would have major issues like China, NSG and multi-billion defence deals on his plate.



Lets have look at key agendas of PM Modis meeting with US President Donald Trump on June 26:



Counter-terrorism cooperation: Both PM Modi and President Trump have made the international cooperation against global terrorism the key agenda of foreign policy. While India has been consistent in galvanising support against Pakistan-based terror organisations in various bilateral and UN meets, Trumps first state visit to Saudi Arabia also revolved around the issue of state-sponsored terrorism. It is likely that both nations will strengthen cooperation against the global threat of Islamic terror after this meet.

Suggested read: Bill tabled in US Congress to revoke Pakistans ally status



Defence deals: India will be looking to sign a major purchase of 22 predator Guardian drones, a force multiplier that will boost the Indian Navys intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. The deal, estimated to be worth USD two to three billion, has been approved by the State Department. In another landmark deal for Modi Government, Tata Group and American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin have signed an unprecedented deal to produce, operate and export the combat-proven F-16 fighters in India, boosting Prime Minister Narendra Modis Make in India plan. Under the deal, Lockheed will shift its Fort Worth, Texas plant to India without directly affecting American jobs, a campaign pledge of Trump who has vowed to put America First.



Reinforcing Indo-US ties: PM Modi had a warm and fruitful relationship with Obama administration, which resulted in deals and international cooperation. Obama administration had also whole-heartedly supported Indias NSG membership, which has become a crucial mission for PM Modi. In the meeting, Modi would be looking to ensure that Trump administration reinforces faith in commitments previous government made to India, including support for nuclear supply group membership. (China on Thursday once again reiterated its opposition to Indias membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group during the ongoing meeting in Bern.)

Suggested read: Modi-Trump meeting: H-1B visa, counter-terrorism and defence partnership to be India's priority



Counter China: Apart from continuing to halt Indias entry into exclusive NSG club, China also remains a massive economic nemesis of both India and US. Its manoeuvres in the South China Sea also keep both nations at the edge. Partnering with India could help the US advance its own security interests, as well as counter the Chinese penchant for aggression in the Indo-Asia region, Bharath Gopalaswamy director of the Atlantic Councils South Asia Centre, said in a memo to the president. Gopalaswamy said the US should assist India by providing it with the means to maintain a commanding position in the Indian Ocean region. Such a policy would bolster Indian capacity through the sale of maritime and surveillance technologies while also spurring domestic business growth and job creation here in the United States. India particularly needs assistance in three domains carrier aviation, space surveillance, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), he asserted.

Suggested read: China asks India, the US not to disturb peace in the South China Sea



Stabilising H1-B visa concerns of Indian IT industry: PM Modi is under immense pressure from the cooperate sector to settle the issue of H1-B visa for India nationals, which has hampered the seamless IT trade between two nations. President Trumps America First policy commanded kerb on Indian IT companies access to US job markets within first 100 days of his administration, plunging the industry back home in crisis. PM will be seeking to persuade the US to liberalise the visa regime as Indian companies contribute significantly to the American economy. Your desire to return outsourced information technology services to the United States would cost India economically. Such policies would also pose a hindrance for bilateral trade and impede further cooperation. While appealing in the short term, such policies may inflict greater long-run costs to US security interests, the experts memo to White House said.

Suggested read: H1B visa one of the issues on table ahead of PM Modi's US visit, says Commerce Secretary



Paris Climate Change Agreement: When President Trump pulled out of historic Paris Climate Change agreement, he held no bars back in criticising India and China as the major fund benefactors from the deal, while US was being forced to cut down emission. This is first Indo-US meet after the incident. It is expected, although not acknowledged, that India will try to persuade US to bring the agenda of Climate Change back on the table. China certainly hopes so.

Suggested read: Trumps withdrawal from Paris climate deal shock for India and world, says Rajnath

Chinese official media have expressed keen interest in any gains made by PM Modi in his talks with President Trump, on immigration and climate change as it will also benefit China. "Chinese people will take a close look at the summit because some of the issues also concern China's interests," it said. If the Modi-Trump meeting can make achievements in this regard, other countries like China are also expected to benefit from it." China is glad to see India and the US strengthening their economic ties. However, New Delhis bargaining power in negotiations with Washington is limited, so it is unrealistic for Modi to totally change Trumps attitude toward the H1B visa and Paris agreement. China needs to have a clear anticipation of the summit and be prepared for any eventualities," it said.



With eyes of the world on PM Modi, India hopes with the caution that this visit, not unlike his previous ones, would be fruitful for Indias geostrategic and economic position.



I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide-ranging partnership between India and the United States, PM Modi said in a statement on Facebook.



Apart from official meetings with President Trump and his cabinet colleagues, PM will also be meeting some prominent American CEOs, he added.

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New Delhi:

Security forces in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday detained Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik to avoid any unrest during the Eid u-Fitr celebrations on Monday.

According to sources, most likely all separatists will be kept detained or house arrested for Eid.

Kashmir plunged into yet another controversy after a mob lynched senior police officer for allegedly taking pictures outside the mosque on Thursday night and later shooting at the chasing crowd.

The death of Deputy SSuperintendentof Police Ayub Pundith of security received wide condemnation from ruling party and opposition. Separatists also voiced concern over unholy and impatient behaviour by mob.

Also read:

J&K DySP lynched: CM Mufti warns people against testing patience of police, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq condemns incident



J&K DySP mob lynching outside Srinagar mosque: People behind 'travesty' should 'burn in hell', says Omar Abdullah

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Rameswaram:

As many as 25 Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested by Sri Lankan Navy in two separate incidents on charges of fishing in the territorial waters of the island nation on Saturday, drawing angry reaction from the state government.

In the first incident, eight fishermen from Nagapattinam were arrested while fishing near Paruthithurai, Fisheries Department sources said.

They were held on charges of crossing International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and fishing in a zone exclusively meant for Sri Lankan fishermen, they said.

They have been taken to Kangesanthurai port there, Joint Director of Fisheries Department, Nagapattinam district, Amala Xavier said, adding that their mechanised fishing boat was also impounded.

In the second incident, 17 fishermen from here and Jagadapattinam were arrested on charges of crossing the IMBL, Rameswaram Fisheries Department Deputy Director Issac Jayakumar said.

Their two mechanised boats were also taken into custody.

While 10 of them were taken to Thalimannar, the others were taken to Kanagesanthurai in the island nation, he said.

Two days ago, four fishermen from Pudukottai district and 17 from Karaikal region in Puducherry were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on charges of fishing near Neduntheevu in the island nation.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami termed the arrest of the eight fishermen from Nagapattinam as an abduction and took up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Also read: Pakistan Maritime Security Agency apprehends 23 Indian fishermen, four boats off Gujarat coast

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New Delhi:

A sub-inspector of the CRPF was killed while three others were injured when militants attacked their vehicle at Pantha chowk, in the outskirts of the city, the police said. According to sources, Lashkar-e-Taiba took the responsibility of the attack.



Two terrorists have been holed up at Delhi Public School building in Srinagar's Pantha Chowk, CRPF said.

"Appropriate response will be given. There is no security lapse," ADG CRPF on firing on CRPF vehicle near Srinagar's Pantha Chowk.

Appropriate response will be given.There is no security lapse: ADG CRPF on firing on CRPF vehicle near Srinagar's Pantha Chowk (J&K) pic.twitter.com/Hrqp1jQnPu  ANI (@ANI_news) June 24, 2017

ALSO READ: Pathankot, Gurdaspur on high alert after terror threat from Pak-backed terrorists

The deceased sub-inspector has been identified as sub inspector Sahib Shukla and the injured as constable-driver Nissar Ahmed, officials said. The CRPF personnel, part of road opening deployment, were sitting inside their vehicle at Pantha chowk bypass along the Srinagar-Jammu national highway when, around 1750 hours, militants carried out the attack.

"Firing was on our vehicle. One SI lost his life and 2 of our personnel are injured. We have cordoned the area," IG CRPF Ravideep Sahi said.

Firing was on our vehicle. One SI lost his life & 2 of our personnel are injured. We have cordoned the area:IG CRPF Ravideep Sahi #Srinagar pic.twitter.com/ONVWJqDhBz  ANI (@ANI_news) June 24, 2017

In the melee, a constable of Jammu and Kashmir was injured in the foot when his rifle went off accidentally, officials said. The CRPF personnel retaliated but there was no immediate report of any casualty on the militant side. Reinforcements were rushed to the area and a search operation was launched to track down the militants, they added.

"Restrictions under Section 144 imposed from Ram Munshi Bagh to Sempora (around Pantha Chowk attack site) with immediate effect," Srinagar Deputy Commissioner said.

With inputs from agencies.

ALSO READ: Armed forces kill 3 LeT terrorists in Pulwama, South Kashmir

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Chennai:

Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Saturday launched a series of initiatives taken up under Southern Railway.



Prabhu launched, among others, the seven km Ennore-Tiruvottiyur fourth line, a 10 KW solar plant at Moore Market complex here and a food plaza at Tiruchirappalli, through video conferencing.

Various passenger amenities and LED lighting facilities at different railway stations under division were also inaugurated by the Minister.

Speaking at the event, he proposed a coastal railway route connecting and Kanniyakumari and sought the state government's cooperation in its implementation.



Earlier, he addressed a seminar on GST, organised by the Southern Regional Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of

Also Read: Railways rolls-out new Humsafar Trains with better security features



He said efforts were on to ensure that operationalisation of the regime is smooth and assured it would benefit people.



"is a landmark legislation in which everything will change for the better," he said about the new tax regime, due for roll out from July 1, 2017.



The will benefit every Indian citizen in the long run, he added.

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Gangtok:

The first batch of around 50 Indian pilgrims who were scheduled to travel to Kailash Mansarovar through the Nathu La pass in Sikkim were refused entry by China, citing damage to roads due to rains and landslides in the Tibet region.

The 47 pilgrims, who were stopped by the Chinese officials at the border from proceeding further, have now returned to their respective states, official sources said on Saturday.

The pilgrims were scheduled to cross over to the Chinese side on June 19 but had failed to do so due to inclement weather. They had waited at the base camp and tried to cross again on Friday but were denied permission by the Chinese officials.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay on Friday had said some difficulties were being experienced in the movement of pilgrims through Nathu La and that India is taking up the matter with China.

Read more: Landslide in China: 140 people feared buried after mountain collapse

The development has cast a shadow of uncertainty on the annual yatra as Chinese officials maintained that it would take some time to repair the roads and the Indians would not be able to make the pilgrimage any time soon.

"The pilgrims and the liaison officer were told that because of incessant rainfall the roads in the Chinese side had been washed away in major landslides. So they cannot proceed any further", a source said here.

The Chinese officials said they were concerned about the safety of the Indian pilgrims which is why they were stopped from proceeding further.

The Chinese officials also informed the yatris that as and when the weather would improve and the road conditions in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), China would be restored they would be allowed to enter into China, the sources said.

The first batch of 47 yatris had arrived in Sikkim on June 15. The Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation is the nodal authority for conducting the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through Nathu La.

"Yes, there are some difficulties being experienced in movement of KMY (Kailash Mansarovar Yatra) Yatris via NathuLa. Matter is being discussed with Chinese side", Baglay had said on Friday to a query on the development which came amid tensions in bilateral ties over a host of issues including the CPEC and India's NSG bid.

Hundreds of Indian pilgrims undertake Kailash Mansarovar yatra in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China every year negotiating the mountainous terrain.

Read more: China asks India, US not to disturb peace in South China Sea

This year, a total of 350 yatris had registered for the yatra via Nathu La route and they were to travel in seven batches.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Kazakh capital Astana.

In the meeting, Modi had said the two sides should tap their potential in cooperation, strengthen communication and coordination in international affairs, respect each other's core concerns and appropriately handle their disputes.

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Peshawar/ Karachi:

Twin blasts tore through a market crowded with Eid shoppers in a mainly Shia town, a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car and militants opened fire on police in separate attacks in Pakistans three major cities on Friday, killing 62 people and wounding nearly 100.

The suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car near Inspector General of Police Ehsan Mehboobs office in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, killing at least 13 people, including seven policemen, and wounding 21 others.

The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Thirteen people, including seven policemen, died in the suicide car bombing, officials said.

Hours later, two back-to-back blasts tore through a market crowded with the people shopping for Eid in the Shia-dominated Parachinar city in the Kurram tribal region, killing at least 45 people, mostly Shias, and injuring 75 others.

The first blast occurred during rush hour in Turi Market, where a bus terminal is also located. The second blast took place as rescuers and bystanders rushed to aid those who had been hurt in the first explosion.

At least 45 people have been killed and 75 others injured in Parachinar, an official from the Parachinar administration told PTI.

Earlier, Medical Superintendent of the District General Hospital, Parachinar, Sabir Hussain, confirmed the death of at least 25 people and injuries to over 100 in the blasts. More than 20 of the injured were in critical condition.

No group claimed responsibility for the blasts. However, Sunni militant groups have claimed responsibility for several attacks in the area in the past.

In the evening, two armed men on a motorcycle, with their faces covered with helmets, opened fire on police officers at a roadside restaurant in Karachi and killed four of them.

An assistant sub-inspector was among those killed in the attack, said Superintendent of Police Asif Ahmad.

In Parachinar, officials said the blasts on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramazan targeted people shopping in the area and those heading out of the city ahead of Eid.

Also Read: Pakistan twin blasts: 38 killed, 121 injured in Parachinars Kurram Agency ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr

The emergency and rescue services shifted injured to Agency Headquarters hospital Parachinar. The security forces cordoned off the entire area and started search operation.

Pakistan Army contingents and FC personnel reached the site of the attack to aid in rescue efforts.

Two Army aviation helicopters have taken off from Peshawar to Parachinar for the speedy evacuation of the injured to Peshawar, the army said in a statement.

Rescue operation in progress, it added.

Pakistan army, meanwhile, launched a countrywide intelligence-led military operation against militants. Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said that security has been tightened across the country.

Special Intelligence-Based Operation (IBOs) and search operations (were) launched in coordination with intelligence and other Law Enforcement Agencies, he said.

On March 31, a car bomb blast near an Imambargah of Shia Muslims killed 23 people and injured 70 others in Parachinar.

In January, 25 people were killed and 87 others when a bomb tore through a crowded vegetable market in the same city.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks, saying that terrorists involved in the attacks will be taken to task and all out efforts will be taken to eliminate terrorism.

President Mamnoon Hussain, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Governor Balochistan Muhammad Khan Achakzai and former president Asif Ali Zardari, among others, also condemned the attack.

Balochistan government spokesperson Anwarul Haq Kakar told Geo News that the suspected Quetta bomber tried to break a security perimetre to target the police offices but blew up after policemen standing guard attempted to stop him.

Of the injured, nine are said to be policemen. Kakar blamed India for the Quetta blast.

DIG Quetta Abdul Razzaq Cheema, addressing the media, said they are examining CCTV footage to determine the details of the incident.

Officials said body parts of the suspected bomber, strewn across the site of the blast, were being collected along with other evidence for forensic examination.

An initial investigation report by Civil Defence Director Aslam Tareen revealed that 75 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the Quetta blast.

Footage of the incident showed two vehicles badly damaged in the explosion, while debris lay scattered on the street.

Officials said the explosion was loud enough to be heard from a distance and shattered windows of nearby buildings.

Earlier this year, on February 13, a blast took place near the Saryab Bridge in Quetta killing two personnel of the bomb disposal squad and leaving 11 injured.

Later in March, an explosion targeting a security forces convoy occurred on Saryab Road. Four people were injured including three Frontier Corps personnel and a passer-by.

In August, last year, a suicide bomber targeted the emergency services ward at Civil Hospital, following the death of the president of the Balochistan High Court Bar Association, killing at least 70 people and leaving many wounded.

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Lahore:

More than 60 terrorists were arrested by Pakistani security forces they were suspected for plotting launch attacks in the run up to Eid in the country's relatively peaceful Punjab province.

The arrests were made over the past few days as part of Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad (elimination of discord) launched on February 22 as a response to the continuing wave of terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

Twenty nine suspects were arrested in Faisalabad and Gujranwala. "Most of them are terrorists' facilitators. Fifty weapons and explosives have been recovered from them. These were to be used for terrorist activities on Eid-ul-Fitr", the Counter Terrorism Department of the police said.

Read more: Pakistan violates ceasefire in Poonch sector in Jammu and Kashmir

In another raid, the CTD claimed to have arrested three members of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LeJ) from Gujranwala.

The CTD said it has seized more than 11 kg of explosives, one pipe bomb, improvised explosive devices, one suicide jacket, one cooler bomb, two remote controls for detonation of jackets, three detonators and other materials from them.

In Gujrat district, some 250 kilometres from Lahore, 23 members of Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Jammatur Ahrar were arrested and illegal weapons and ammunition seized from them. They were involved in facilitating terrorists, it said.

Three TTP members were arrested from Bahawalpur who were allegedly plotting an attack in the city on Eid.

In another raid, five alleged facilitators of militants were arrested in Mandi Bahauddin, some 350 kms from Lahore.

Read more: Terror attack: Pak Army launches countrywide crackdown on militants

The Pakistan Rangers (Punjab), Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) reported to have taken part in the operation ahead of Eid in different parts of Punjab.

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Dubai:

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE will celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr on Sunday to mark the end of fasting month of Ramzan, it was announced on Saturday.

The decision to celebrate the festival on Sunday came following the sighting of the moon of Shawwal, the month following Ramzan. Official Twitter for Haramain, which gives updates about Makkah and Madinah, announced the sighting of the moon.

"The moon has been sighted in Saudi Arabia. Eid-ul-Fitrwill be celebrated tomorrow, Sunday 25th June 2017," it said on Saturday.

In Dubai, the Dubai Media Office sent out a tweet announcing the beginning of the month. "Eid Mubarak. UAE announces tomorrow 25 June 2017 as the first day of Eid ul-Fitr," the tweet said which was shared on Saturday.

The announcement comes shortly after Saudi Arabia announced the sighting of the Shawwal moon in the Kingdom.

Meanwhile, Oman's Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs has announced that Monday, June 26, will be the first day of Eid ul-Fitr after failing to sight to crescent moon in Muscat.

Also Read: Eid-ul-Fitr 2017: Markets gear up all over the world

Bangladesh, Pakistan, India will be sighting the moon on Sunday. These countries started Ramzan on May 28 and so tomorrow will be the 29th of Ramzan for them. Eid ul-Fitr, which means "festival of breaking the fast", marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramzan.

Turkey and Muslim communities in North America, Europe and Australia had previously announced they would celebrate Eid ul-Fitr from Sunday, 25th June based on astronomical calculations.

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Peshawar:

After weeks of relative peace in Pakistan, terrorists struck three cities killing 62 people and injuring over 100. It has prompted the army to launch a countrywide crackdown on militants.



A suicide bomber on Friday blew up his explosives-laden car near Inspector General of Police Ehsan Mehboobs office in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, killing at least 13 people, including seven policemen, and wounding 21 others.



The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.



Hours later, twin blasts tore through a market crowded with the people shopping for Eid in the Shia-dominated Parachinar city in the Kurram tribal region on Friday, killing at least 45 people, mostly Shias, and injuring 75 others.



Banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Sunni militant group linked with the Taliban took responsibility for the attack. The first blast occurred during rush hour in Turi Market, where a bus terminal is also located. The second blast took place as rescuers and bystanders rushed to aid those who had been hurt in the first explosion.

ALSO READ | Pakistan: Quetta blast kills 5, injures several other near IGP office



At least 45 people have been killed and 80 others injured in Parachinar, an official from the local administration said. Officials said the blasts on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramazan targeted people shopping in the area and those heading out of the city ahead of Eid.



Separately in the evening, three militants riding on two motorbikes killed four policemen in a restaurant in Karachi. Police said that a banned group was involved in killing of cops in Karachi but did not identify the attackers.



However, pamphlets found from the spot of attack in Karachi showed that previously little known outfit Ansar al-Sharia Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack. It also warned to launch an operation against security forces.



It appears to be in retaliation for Radd-ul Fassad operation launched by security forces earlier this year to eliminate the facilitators of militants. The Pakistan Army launched a countrywide intelligence-led military operation against militants.



Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said that security has been tightened across the country. Special Intelligence-Based Operation (IBOs) and search operations (were) launched in coordination with intelligence and other Law Enforcement Agencies, he said.



Ghafoor also said that Afghan soil was used to launch the attacks. Recent terrorist incidents linked to sanctuaries across (the Pak-Afghan border), he said. Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa said enemy (was) trying to mar festive mood of nation through such coward acts.



He also said that the enemy would fail against resilience of Pakistan. The word enemy is reserved for India but sometimes it is also used for those using Afghanistan for anti-Pakistan activities.



The attacks were condemned by all parties. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks, saying that terrorists involved in the attacks will be taken to task and all out efforts will be taken to eliminate terrorism.



On March 31, a car bomb blast near an Imambargah of Shia Muslims killed 23 people and injured 70 others in Parachinar. In January, 25 people were killed and 87 others when a bomb tore through a crowded vegetable market in the same city.

ALSO READ: London style attack suspected in Delhi, Police conduct mock drill

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Washington:

The Trump administration has dismissed reports that it has been ignoring India saying President Trump realises that the country has been a 'force for good' in the world and ties with it were important. The incident took place ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit.

"I think that it would be wrong to say that this administration has been ignoring or not focused on India," a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the two-day Modi visit from June 25.

The Prime Minister would meet President Donald Trump face-to-face for the first time at the White House on Monday. "I think that the US really appreciates India, and I think that President Trump realises that India has been a force for good in the world and that it's a relationship that's important. And I think that will come through in the visit on Monday," the official said.

The senior administration official made the remarks while responding to questions on whether the US-India relationship has drifted under the new government, in part, because of President Trump and the administration's support to China. "I think it's a bit unfair. I mean, we're only six months into the administration. But there have been two very good phone calls between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi that you can point to as showing both countries' interest in the relationship," the White House official argued.

"Yes, this will be the first opportunity for them to sit down and have a conversation, but I think that this is still fairly early on in the administration," the official said.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said President Trump and Prime Minister Modi would have a very robust discussion when they meet at the White House.

"During the meeting, the President and the Prime Minister will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism, defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement, and energy," Spicer said in response to a question.

Senator Mark Warner, Co-Chair of the Senate India Caucus hoped that Trump, in his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, shows enthusiastic support for deepening the US-India relationship, which enjoys strong bipartisan support.

Also Read: India, Russia sign major protocol to enhance defence engagement

"The relationship is ripe for additional cooperation in areas such as the development of aircraft carrier technology, space surveillance, unmanned aerial vehicles, cyber and increased defense manufacturing," Warner said.

"As we venture further into the Asian Century, there is little doubt of the increasing significance of India on the world stage. Our cooperation helps increase global security and advance economic opportunity in both countries," Warner said in response to a question.

On whether the contentious H-1B visa issue would come up for discussion during the meeting, a senior administration official said it was unlikely to be raised from the US side but if raised by the Indian side, the Americans were ready for it.

Ahead of the visit, Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna said the first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump will give them an opportunity to look at the entire gamut of Indo-US engagement and to exchange views on issues of global interest.

At the invitation of Trump, the Prime Minister would spend several hours with the US President at the White House on Monday afternoon, which would end with a dinner later that night. This would be the first working dinner being hosted by Trump for a foreign leader at the White House.

"I think that just shows the amount of care that has gone in on the part of the White House to welcome our Prime Minister and the kind of planning that has gone into make this a very special visit," Sarna said.

"This (dinner) is a special gesture and it is appreciated," he said. On the agenda of the meeting, a senior administration official told reporters that the civil nuclear deal would be part of the discussions between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump.

The White House also emphasised that the US was looking forward to its nuclear reactors contributing to India's energy security. It said the US is interested in providing India with the kind of defence technology it normally reserves for its closest allies, signalling the Trump administration's resolve to strengthen the bilateral defence relationship.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar here and told him that Prime Minister Modi's Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth.

The two agreed that the two countries have a deep and growing strategic partnership and hope to work more closely on regional and global issues.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department. Ahead of his visit, Modi on Friday said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views. "My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he tweeted.

Also Read: Priorities and nature of ties with India, Pak different: White House

In a statement posted on the Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump. "President Trump and I have spoken on telephone prior to this. Our conversations have touched upon our common intent to take forward our productive all round engagement for the mutual benefit of our people," he said.

"I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide ranging partnership between India and the United States," the prime minister said.





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Washington:

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit here, the US has cleared the sale of 22 predator Guardian drones, a force multiplier that will boost the Indian Navys intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.



The deal, estimated to be worth USD two to three billion, has been approved by the State Department, sources said. The decision has been communicated to the Indian government and the manufacturer by the State Department yesterday, according to the informed governmental sources.



This is the first very significant sign of the Trump administration being more result oriented in its relationship with India compared to Obama administration, a source said.



While the deal has not been formally announced, the sale of 22 predator drones being manufactured by General Atomics is a game changer for the US-India relations as it operationalises the status of major defence partner.

ALSO READ: Security breach at Karwar Naval Base, three intruders spotted



The designation of India being a major defence partner was decided by the previous Obama Administration, and formally approved by the Congress. The State Department and the White House did not immediately respond to the questions in this regard. An official announcement is expected soon.



Modis first meeting with Trump has been scheduled to take place at the White House on June 26. According to General Atomics, the Predator Guardian UAV, a variant of the Predator B, can be used for wide-area, long-endurance maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.



It can stay in the air for up to 27 hours and can fly at maximum altitude of 50,000 feet. The Indian Navy made the request for this intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform last year.



This maritime capability will be a force multiplier for the Indian Navy who has procured other advance technologies including Boeing P-8 aircraft. The Guardian has cutting edge technologies that do not do not exist in the current Indian Navy arsenal.

ALSO READ: Khanderi, second indigenous Scorpene-class submarine, makes maiden sea sortie from Mumbai harbour

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Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, is well-known for being a loud and boisterous speaker at rallies.

Some of his remarks at President Donald Trumps rally in Cedar Rapids this past week were heard across the country.

Before Trump hit the stage, Kaufmann lambasted so-called Never Trumpers, Republicans who pledged during the 2016 presidential campaign that they would not support Trump as the GOPs candidate.

Kaufmann in particular singled out Ben Sasse, a Republican U.S. senator from Nebraska who was critical of and campaigned against Trump during the lead-up to Iowas first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses in February of 2016.

Weve got Never Trumpers out there. You know what? Im getting just a little tired of that, too, Kaufmann said. We had Sen. Ben Sasse from Nebraska. He crosses the Missouri River and in that sanctimonious tone talks about what he doesnt like about Donald Trump. You know what, Sen. Sasse? I really dont care what you like. We love Donald Trump. And if you dont love him, I suggest you stay on your side of the Missouri River.

Kaufmanns remarks spread like wildfire the next day on social media and in news coverage. Stories detailing his comments about Sasse appeared online in Politico, multiple media outlets in Nebraska, and The Hill. The story also was reported on conservative news sites, such as Breitbart and Newsmax.

The state GOP leader doubled down on his remarks in an interview with Politico, saying he thinks Sasse before the caucuses was treating Trump supporters with condescension.

Hes an arrogant academic, Kaufmann said of Sasse in an interview with Politico. Sasse is a former college president. (Kaufmann is a college history professor.) Hes sanctimonious. His statements are geared toward what can help him. Hes arrogant. And hes not a team player, when in reality the only reason hes got any clout at all in the Senate is because the Republican Party has the majority.

Sasse has not responded to Kaufmanns remarks.

Sasse is, however, scheduled to cross the Missouri River and appear in Iowa on July 7 as the keynote speaker at the Story County GOPs annual fundraising dinner.

In Iowa, unwavering support for Trump

Perhaps Kaufmann felt free to lay into Sasse because he knows Iowans who voted for Trump have not wavered in their support of the president.

That has been evident at Republican rallies  this reporter found nothing but Trump loyalty at U.S. Sen. Joni Ernsts Roast and Ride fundraiser, which featured Vice President Mike Pence.

And it was evident in new polling published this week.

In a sampling of Iowa voters in four rural counties  Cass, Clay, Hardin and Page  the individuals polled who said Trump is doing an excellent job rose from 25 percent in April to 27 percent in June.

Trump is losing support among voters in swing districts in other areas polled, but not in Iowa, the poll results showed.

The poll was conducted by Brown University, in Rhode Island, and the Iowa-based, bipartisan polling firm RABA Research. It also surveyed Trump voters in working class suburbs in Rhode Island, rural areas in the Carolinas, upper middle class suburbs in Pennsylvania, and wealth suburbs in Colorado.

Results underscore that President Trump is losing support in locales that switched into the Republican column in the November 2016 election. But hes gaining support in places that traditionally vote Republican, said a press release that accompanied the poll results.

As examples, the press release noted in the working class suburbs in Rhode Island, those saying Trump is doing an excellent job fell from 30 percent in April to 23 percent in June, but that those percentages increased from April to June in what the poll called a rural, Midwestern sample of Iowa.
WATERLOO, Iowa | A pricey pizza party that turned out to be a prank has led to one arrest.

Employees at Papa Johns Pizza on University Avenue baked and delivered 55 pies to John Deere on May 16 only to be turned away at the door because no one at the plant placed the order.

The deception cost Papa Johns $724, according to court records.

On Saturday, Waterloo police arrested Christopher Michael Barbeau, 33, address unavailable, on a charge of third-degree theft, a misdemeanor, said Capt. Tim Pillack with the Waterloo Police Department.

Investigators traced the phone number that placed the order to Barbeau, court records state. Officers also determined that Barbeau was an acquaintance of a Papa Johns employee who was demoted shortly before the order was placed, records state.

The employee knew the policies at the pizza parlor and the ordering practices of John Deere.

The Papa Johns worker who took the bogus order over the phone told police it wasnt placed by the demoted employee, court records state.

The order for 55 pizzas came in at 11:07 p.m. May 16 from a person claiming to be a worker at Deeres Westfield Avenue location. The bill was to be paid on delivery, and the caller left a phone number.

Papa Johns employees called the number back, and the person who answered confirmed the order. After they discovered the order wasnt legitimate, no one would answer the phone, records state.
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Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle website Goop, which brought us jade vagina eggs and pricey vitamins, is now playing with science.

And NASA isn't having it.

Paltrow's latest product is called Body Vibes, wearable stickers that purport to "promote healing" and "rebalance the energy frequency in our bodies," and it is being slammed by NASA.

These stickers, which cost $60 for a pack of 10, will allegedly reduce inflammation, boost cell turnover, and smooth out "both physical tension and anxiety,' among other claims.

Apparently, the product's science comes straight from NASA.

According to Vox.com, aestheticians who invented the Body Vibes stickers claim their products are made with "the same conductive carbon material NASA uses to line space suits so they can monitor an astronaut's vitals during wear."

NASA told Gizmodo.com that spacesuits "do not have any conductive carbon material lining the spacesuits." A former chief NASA scientist added, "What a load of BS this is."

Goop has since removed the NASA claim from its site and released this statement:

As we have always explained, advice and recommendations included on goop are not formal endorsements and the opinions expressed by the experts and companies we profile do not necessarily represent the views of goop. Our content is meant to highlight unique products and offerings, find open-minded alternatives, and encourage conversation. We constantly strive to improve our site for our readers, and are continuing to improve our processes for evaluating the products and companies featured. Based on the statement from NASA, we've gone back to the company to inquire about the claim and removed the claim from our site until we get additional verification.
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DANBURY  For several years, home for John Martin was a red and gray tent deep in the woods in New Milford.

His bed was a pile of sleeping bags. His bathroom often was at Dunkin Donuts, where hed give himself a sponge bath to stay clean.

But Martin, 47, now has a roof over his head, a bed with a mattress, blankets and pillow, a bathroom of his own and a door that locks. He doesnt have to worry that he will find his belongings burned, as he did weeks ago.

Martin had been homeless for much of the last three decades after leaving his Waterbury home at 16. But about two weeks ago, he moved into a small one-bedroom apartment in Danbury.

Im used to being in the woods, said Martin, sitting in a green rocking chair in his new living room. Im just happy that I finally got an apartment.

After I got that bed, I did not want to get up, he said. Sleeping in a bed rather than on the hard ground is a big difference.

Martin was able to get permanent housing thanks to Catholic Charities, whose case managers helped him get the documentation he needed to rent an apartment and secure a state voucher that covers his rent.

Martin is one of 80 homeless men and women in greater Danbury who have been placed in housing since the fall of 2015, when a group of social services agencies, including Catholic Charities, launched an effort to find housing for those who had been on the streets the longest.

Over the last two years, some 1,400 chronically homeless people statewide have been placed in permanent housing since a change in philosophy regarding how best to help them.

Previously, the homeless often werent eligible for housing unless they met certain conditions, like going to therapy or staying sober. But now the approach is to house people first, despite underlying problems that may exist.

The housing-first model is successful because it recognizes the stabilizing factor of housing, said Michele Conderino, director of homeless services at Catholic Charities of Fairfield County.

If a person is struggling with drug addiction on the streets, there is little to no motivation to get clean, and for those who feel motivated, it is extremely hard not to get triggered to use again once you are discharged to the streets, Conderino said. When you put a person in housing though, it gives a person a motivation to get clean.

Statewide, homelessness declined for the third year in a row, according to the annual census completed in January. The census counted 3,387 homeless, the lowest count recorded in the state since 2007, according to the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness.

Research has found that offering people housing as a first step, not as a final step, to end their homelessness is what works, said Lisa Tepper Bates, the coalitions executive director. Asking them to meet a variety of conditions in order to get housed does not work. Once they are housed, people are much more able to address their other challenges, like mental illness and substance use disorders.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, someone is considered chronically homelessness when he or she has a disability, has been homeless for more than a year or has had at least four episodes of homelessness totaling a year in the past three years.

The chronically homeless tend to cycle in and out of emergency rooms, hospitals and correctional institutions. Studies have shown towns and cities can save up to 70 percent of the expenses involved by addressing chronic homelessness, according to the coalition.

In order to house the homeless, a large stock of affordable housing is needed because of Connecticuts high rents.

Since 2011, the state  together with the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority  has created 9,905 affordable-housing units with an additional 3,286 under construction, and commitments are in place to create another 5,200 units. In Fairfield County, the state has funded just under 5,000 housing units.

Without a strong pipeline of affordable housing, we would not have the units we need to transition people out of homelessness, said Dan Arsenault, spokesman for the state Department of Housing. The state expends far less funding on an annual basis when its efforts are focused on preventing and ending homelessness. The outcome has as much of a social impact as it does a financial one.

Catholic Charities in Danbury was able to find Jim McHann, 57, a home about a year ago.

For 26 years, McHann had worked for a paper company in New Milford. After he became homeless for the first time, he stayed with friends and family, going from one couch to another. After a stint in prison, he was homeless again.

He sank into a deep depression, living on the streets in Danbury, waiting for the shelters and soup kitchens to open. At one point, he was hospitalized for severe dehydration and malnourishment.

It killed me because I never thought it would happen to me, he said.

McHann struggled with alcoholism for many years but has been sober for three years. And staying sober is easier, he said, now that he has place to call home again.

My family is coming back to me, he said. All of my old friends are coming back to me. Its totally changed my life.

Youve got to have a home, he added. Being on the streets, its devastating.
OTTAWA, TORONTO, KITCHENER, LONDON, NIAGARA, WELLAND and WINDSOR, June 23, 2017 /CNW/ - 140 children from one of the most renowned choir groups performing Hungarian music are travelling to Ontario. The choir will be joined by children from the Hungarian community in Canada, and thus altogether 150 children will give Canada an historic vocal musical salute for its 150th birthday.

The Szentegyhaza Children's Philharmonia will perform "Oh Canada" and songs in Hungarian, English, French and Rumanian in seven cities across Canada from June 25 to July 5 as part of a Canada150 tour.

The choir has been practicing for more months. See one of their practices here.

Please see the full programme calendar here.

Hungarian Canadians have been sharing their past with Canada for more than 130 years, after the first settlers arrived in southern Saskatchewan in 1886.

"Hungary will always be grateful for Canada for accepting so many talented Hungarians over our shared history," says Balint Odor, Hungary's Ambassador to Canada. " We also remember and remind others for the historic link between our nations and the great contribution of the Hungarians for building a successful, prosperous Canada."

The single biggest influx of Hungarians was after the revolution of 1956 when Canada received almost 38 thousand political refugees at numerous Canadian ports like Montreal and Halifax.

"Canada gave hope when hope in Hungary was stolen, Canada gave peace when my country was war-torn, Canada gave the prospect of a successful life when all Communism could offer was misery and oppression," says Odor.

Today, Canada is home to more than 300 thousand Canadians who have Hungarian origins.

The Philharmonia was founded about 30 years ago in the Transylvanian Hungarian community of Szentegyhaza (Vlahita, Romania) under the leadership of choir leader Sandor Haaz.

The Government of Hungary would like to invite Canadians to share with us this remarkable experience!

SOURCE Embassy of Hungary in Ottawa

For further information: Embassy of Hungary in Ottawa, 613-612-0082
OTTAWA, June 23, 2017 /CNW/ -

Issue

Health Canada is advising Canadians that multiple unauthorized health products seized from two adult stores in Scarborough and Etobicoke, ON, may pose serious risks to health. Products seized include "poppers" and products promoted for sexual enhancement.

Who is affected

Consumers who have bought or used any of these products

Affected products

The following unauthorized products are either labelled to contain or have been tested and found to contain the listed ingredients.

Retailer Products Ingredient(s) Mostly Adult Video Store 2832 Markham Rd Scarborough, ON - Amsterdam 10 mL

- Super Rush 9 mL

- Blue Boy 30 mL

- Gold Rush Original 10 mL

- Jungle Juice Platinum 10 mL

- Jungle Juice Platinum 30 mL

- Jungle Juice Plus 10 mL

- Rush 30 mL

- Rush 9 mL Isobutyl nitrite - Super Panther 7K

- Triple Green

- Passion Classic

- Spanish Fly Sex Liquid Zesty Cola

- Spanish Fly Sex Liquid Hot Cherry

- Spanish Fly Sex Liquid Wild Strawberry

- Spanish Fly Sex Liquid Stimulating Coffee Yohimbe or corynanthe yohimbe bark extract - ExTenze DHEA, pregnenolone and yohimbe extract (bark) - Rhino 8 Platinum 8000 Sildenafil (identified by United States Food and Drug Administration testing) Wiggles Adult Video

980 The Queensway Etobicoke, ON - Brown Bottle 10 mL

- English Royale 10 mL

- English Royale 30 mL

- Gold Rush Original 10 mL

- Gold Rush Original 30 mL

- Jungle Juice Gold Label 10 mL

- Jungle Juice Platinum 10 mL

- Jungle Juice Platinum 30 mL

- Pig Sweat 10 mL

- PowerPlay Formula Leather Eagle 10 mL

- Real Gold 10 mL

- Rochfort 10 mL

- Rush Original 10 mL Isobutyl nitrite or alkyl nitrite - 7K

- Passion Classic

- Rhino 8 Platinum 8000

- Spanish Fly Sex Liquid Hot Cherry

- Spanish Fly Sex Liquid Stimulating Coffee

- Spanish Fly Sex Liquid Wild Strawberry

- Spanish Fly Sex Liquid Zesty Cola

- Super Panther 7K

- Triple Green Yohimbe or corynanthe yohimbe bark extract - One More Knight 1750 Sildenafil, tadalafil and dapoxetine

The following unauthorized products were also seized by Health Canada. The Department previously seized unauthorized products with similar packaging from other retailers because they were labelled to contain or tested and found to contain a prescription drug.

Retailer Products Details Mostly Adult Video Store

2832 Markham Rd Scarborough, ON - Amsterdam 30 mL

- Blue Boy 10 mL Previously seized products with similar packaging were labelled to contain alkyl nitrites - Blue Diamond For Men

- Kangaroo Previously tested products with similar packaging were found to contain undeclared sildenafil - ResErection!

- Stiff Nights Previously tested products with similar packaging were found to contain undeclared sildenafil and tadalafil Wiggles Adult Video

980 The Queensway Etobicoke, ON - Amsterdam 10 mL

- Blue Boy 10 mL

- Rush 10 mL

- Super Rush 10 mL Previously seized products with similar packaging were labelled to contain alkyl nitrites - Poseidon Platinum 3500

- R Se7en

- Stiff 4 hours Previously tested products with similar packaging were found to contain undeclared sildenafil - ResErection!

- MV7 Days 3500 Previously tested products with similar packaging were found to contain undeclared sildenafil and tadalafil - Black Stallion 5000 Previously tested products with similar packaging were found to contain undeclared sildenafil, tadalafil and homosildenafil

What consumers should do

Stop using these products. Consult with your health care professional if you have used any of these products and have health concerns.

Read product labels to verify that health products have been authorized for sale by Health Canada. Authorized health products have an eight-digit Drug Identification Number (DIN), Natural Product Number (NPN) or Homeopathic Drug Number (DIN-HM). You can also check whether products have been authorized for sale by searching Health Canada's Drug Product Database and Licensed Natural Health Product Database.

Report adverse events to health products to Health Canada by calling toll-free at 18662342345, or by reporting online, by mail or by fax.

Report complaints about health products to Health Canada by calling toll-free at 18002679675, or complete an online complaint form.

Background

"Poppers" is a slang term for products that contain alkyl nitrites. Despite being labelled for various uses such as leather cleaners, room odourizers or liquid incense, these products are inhaled or ingested by consumers for recreational purposes. Alkyl nitrites, such as amyl nitrite, butyl nitrite and isobutyl nitrite, are prescription drugs and should be used only under the supervision of a health care professional. Products containing alkyl nitrites may pose serious risks, including death, depending on the amount used, how frequently they are used and how long they are used for, as well as the person's health and the other medications they may be taking. Since it is difficult to control how much is inhaled, people can accidentally overdose. Swallowing these products can lead to serious medical complications and may be fatal. People with certain medical conditions (including recent head trauma, bleeding into the head, glaucoma, or heart disease) and those taking certain medications (particularly drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction), and other drugs (such as high blood pressure medications, certain migraine drugs, and high doses of aspirin) or illicit drugs are at particular risk.

Health Canada maintains a list of retail locations across Canada that have been found to be selling "poppers." Canadians can monitor the list for updates in their area.

Dapoxetine is a drug used to treat premature ejaculation and is not authorized for sale in Canada. Side effects include fainting or loss of consciousness, dizziness, changes in blood pressure, blurred vision, seizures, headache, diarrhea and nausea. In particular, dapoxetine should not be used by individuals who have cardiac conditions, liver disease, a history of mania or bipolar disorder, or are taking certain other medications, including monoamine oxidase inhibitors, antidepressants, and a number of other drugs and herbal products that can interact with dapoxetine.

DHEA is a controlled drug that can cause higher than normal levels of female and male hormones in the body and could increase the risk of prostate, breast, ovarian, and other hormone-sensitive cancers. It should be used only under the supervision of a health care professional. Potential side effects include serious cardiovascular disease, as well as changes in fertility and sperm production. DHEA should be avoided by individuals with a history of abnormal heart rhythms, blood clotting disorders, liver disease and those who are pregnant or breast-feeding.

Pregnenolone is a prescription drug that can cause higher than normal levels of female and male hormones in the body and could increase the risk of prostate, breast, ovarian, and other hormone-sensitive cancers. It should be used only under the supervision of a health care professional. In particular, pregnenolone should not be used by women who are pregnant or breast-feeding, and should be avoided by individuals who suffer from epileptic seizures or who are taking anti-seizure medications.

Sildenafil and tadalafil are prescription drug ingredients. Products containing these ingredients should only be used under the supervision of a health care practitioner. Sildenafil and tadalafil should not be used by individuals taking any kind of nitrate drug (such as nitroglycerine) as they can cause potentially life-threatening low blood pressure. Individuals with heart problems are at increased risk of cardiovascular side effects such as heart attack, stroke, chest pain, high blood pressure and abnormal heartbeat. Other side effects include headache, facial flushing, indigestion, dizziness, abnormal vision and hearing loss.

Homosildenafil is an unauthorized substance similar to sildenafil and may pose similar health risks.

Yohimbine is a prescription drug and should be used only under the supervision of a health care professional. Yohimbine is derived from yohimbe, a bark extract. The use of yohimbine or yohimbe may result in serious adverse reactions, particularly in people with high blood pressure, or heart, kidney or liver disease. Side effects include increased blood pressure and heart rate, anxiety, dizziness, tremors, headache, nausea and sleep disorders. It should not be used by children, or pregnant or nursing women.

What Health Canada is doing

Health Canada seized the products from the retail locations. Should additional retailers or distributors be identified, Health Canada will take appropriate action and inform Canadians as necessary.

Images

For more information

Stay connected with Health Canada and receive the latest advisories and product recalls using social media tools.

To learn more about natural health products and other self-care products, visit Canada.ca/selfcare-products.

Egalement disponible en francais

SOURCE Health Canada

For further information: Media Enquiries: Health Canada, (613) 957-2983; Public Enquiries: (613) 957-2991, 1-866 225-0709
State police are searching for two fugitives from Tennessee who are in the Hudson Valley area Saturday, according to reports.

Both are wanted for kidnapping and attempted murder. Authorities warned residents the fugitives are in Pine Bush, Orange County, and they may also be in the Village of Bloomingburg in Sullivan County.

Jarret Cole Heitmann, is 24 years old, 6-feet, 1-inch and weighs 165 pounds. He has brown hair and hazel eyes. Makayla Danielle Stilwell, 22, is 5-feet, 9-inches and weighs 145 pounds. She has brown hair and green eyes.

State police are searching those areas and asking the public to report any information to the state police in Middletown at 845-344-5300 or the state police barracks in Wurtsboro at 845-888-2494.

According to the Poughkeepsie Journal, the couple are fugitives on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's 10 "Most Wanted" list.

Heitmann and Stilwell allegedly kidnapped an individual at gunpoint in Mount Carmel, Tennessee. They then used the kidnapped victim to lure another individual, who then was shot, according to Times News.

Authorities are not sure why the pair fled to the Hudson Valley area. Police in Tennessee say they are armed and dangerous.
Silly me.

I am reminded of the story of the man who set out to catch a porcupine and took a chair with him. A friend asked him what he was going to do with the chair.

He said, "That will give me something to sit on while I figure out my next move."

In Iowa in recent weeks, the porcupine has been the new fireworks law approved by the State Legislature. It allows for the sale of fireworks for the first time in about 70 years and sets a timetable for the days around the Fourth of July and New Year's Day.

But it leaves it up to individual counties and cities to regulate when they can be shot off. Here's where the porcupine starts dancing around.

It is a strange situation when public officials put their stamp of approval on danger.

Some cities, Clear Lake included, decided to ban the use of fireworks altogether within the city limits. Other cities, which already had the ban, agreed to continue it. Still others limited the shooting of them to just the Fourth of July and New Year's Day. And some just decided to use the same parameters as outlined in the state law.

In other words, they're all over the place. If you live in Mason City, you can shoot them off on July 3 and July 4 - but don't stray over into Clear Lake and do it, or you'll be breaking the law.

If you're traveling across Iowa and you want to stop and shoot off fireworks, you better have a chart with you to make sure you're legal.

Some local officials have complained about the mess the Legislature dumped on them by allowing the same law to be interpreted in so many different ways for so many different places.

But doesn't that amount to local control -- exactly what those same officials wanted the Legislature to provide for hog confinements? And, come to think of it, legislators, why is local control OK for fireworks but not for hog confinements?

Silly me.

With all due respect to people who sell fireworks and those who shoot them off, I have a question for public officials who allow them. What are the guidelines for sanctioning danger?

Many officials have cautioned that fireworks must be used responsibly and they have limited the times fireworks can be shot off. In Mason City, for example, the council has limited the times to July 3-4 and New Year's Eve up to 12:30 a.m. on New Year's Day.

Putting time limits on them doesn't make fireworks more safe. That's like telling someone who shouldn't be driving they can only drive to the grocery store but to stay off the Interstate. If they shouldn't be driving, the danger is still there.

Almost 20 years ago, Mason City invested about $20 million in a new water system because the EPA determined there was a chemical problem in the water that had to do with old pipes. The worst-case scenario was the potential for bone cancer.

Dr. Darrell Fisher, a retired bone specialist, said at the time that if someone drank a gallon of water everyday for 70 years, they might get cancer from our drinking water.

City officials determined that was too big a risk and began the multi-million dollar water plant renovation -- to keep us safe.

The long and short of it is that no law can guarantee safety but some laws sanction danger -- and have lawmakers grabbing chairs while the porcupines dance.

Silly me.




A lawmaker in the Ghanaian Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has faulted the manner Nigerias Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Kpotoun Idris, made public revelations on the suspected notorious kidnapper  George Dubeme Onwuamadike  popularly known as Evans.Ablakwa, who is a ranking member on the Parliaments Foreign Affairs Committee, told Joy TV that he really would have wished that the Nigerian IGP did not put all the information as publicly as he did.It could be recalled that Evans was arrested two weeks ago in Lagos state, Nigeria and was found to be a holder of Ghanaian passport.The police also revealed the circumstances under which he came to obtain Ghanaian passport; adding that the kidnappers wife and five children are resident in Accra.Commenting on the revelations, Ablakwa said he hoped that Nigerian IGP shared these information with Ghana earlier other than through a television interview which would have led to more arrest of the members of his kidnap syndicate residing in Ghana.The lawmaker also urged Ghanaian security agencies to move fast to seal loopholes that allowed Evans to move stealthily in and out of Ghana.How we manage information is very critical.It is important that with adequate tracking, the loopholes are quickly identified and closed so that other criminals, especially terrorists, would not exploit that and cause maximum damage, he said.
Interfax news agency said that the likelihood that ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has been killed is close to 100 percent.The Russian news agency said it based its position on the head of the defense committee in Russias upper parliamentary house.Russias defense ministry said a week ago it believed it may have killed Baghdadi when one of its air strikes hit a gathering of senior Daesh commanders on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa.But armed groups fighting in the region and US officials say they have no evidence that Baghdadi was killed, and many regional officials have said they are skeptical about the information from Moscow.Committee head Viktor Ozerov was quoted as saying the defense ministry would not have released information about Baghdadis death if it believed it could be later proved incorrect.I think this information is close to 100 percent, Interfax quoted Ozerov as saying. The fact that Daesh has still not shown him anywhere also adds to our confidence that Al-Baghdadi has been killed.Baghdadi has frequently been reported killed or wounded since he declared a caliphate from a mosque in Mosul in 2014, after leading his fighters on a sweep through northern Iraq.His death would be one of the biggest blows yet to the jihadist group, which is trying to defend its shrinking territory in Syria and Iraq against forces backed by regional and global powers.
ACP Abba Kyari, a Kanuri, is a quintessential crime buster, a cop who puts the fear of God in criminals; an officer of the law who restored...

ACP Abba Kyari, a Kanuri, is a quintessential crime buster, a cop who puts the fear of God in criminals; an officer of the law who restored public confidence in polices ability to crack criminal cases.

Proficiency and hard work earned him the reputation of a first-class crime buster. He has to his credit a long list of solved high-profile criminal cases, including the recent clampdown on acclaimed most brilliant kidnapper in Nigeria, Chikwudubem Onwuamadike, otherwise known as Evans.

In this interview with dailypost, he opens up on the secret of his power, what Evans did to him for five years, as well as why he is no longer afraid of death.





Congratulations on your latest feat by bringing Evans on his knells.

May Allah be praised. Thank you.





How long have you been looking for Evans?

I have been on his trail since the past five years. He really gave us a tough time.





Why tough times, was he more sophisticated that your team?

Not really, I think he is the smartest criminal I have ever seen in my entire life. Among all the high-profile robbers and kidnappers we have nabbed, Evans stands to be the smartest. He really gave me headache because we couldnt track him.





How true is the report that his sister showed you his hideout?

That is not true. He kidnapped someone and refused to release the person after collecting ransom of N300m. When the victims family called, he asked them to bring another N300m. Unfortunately for him, the victim escaped and alerted the police. However, on getting there, they had fled but left some details behind. That was how we traced him.





What was his reaction when he saw you?

That guy is very smart. On sighting us he was shocked to his marrow, he wanted to run but when he sighted my pistol he surrendered. He never thought he could ever be arrested. He was speechless for hours because he made sure he equipped himself with all the gadgets that would not enable us track him.





Would you say his arrest is your greatest feat as an intelligent Police officer?

Well, I think my biggest catch was a notorious kidnapper, called Abiodun Egunjobi, otherwise known as Godogodo. The man had killed over 200 Nigerians. Upon his arrest, he admitted killing over 50 policemen and took away their rifles. But he is not as smart as Evans.





Some people believe you use spiritual power to track criminals, how true is this?

I dont have any spiritual power aside the almighty Allah. There is no other secret aside God, hardwork and dedication. If you have been to developed countries, then you would know Nigeria still has a long way to God. In this job, I try to be focused and dedicated. This is the secret to a successful life. I dont use any juju in the course of my duty.





Are you not afraid of being attacked by these people?

Well, when I ventured into this job, I know what it entails, so there is nothing to be scared one, though one has to be very careful. Of course, you dont expect me to party around like other people would do. I try as much as possible to be careful.





When are you going to arrest Benue most wanted criminal, Ghana?

All I can say now is, just watch out. I dont want to speak much on that hence it becomes an empty noise. Nigerians will see result soon





Kate Henshaw and other Nigerians have been trashing you for celebrating and snapping pictures with Evans, whats your reaction?

Who is Kate Henshaw and what does she know? She must be out of her mind to criticize us. Even in other developed countries, people celebrate the capture of criminals and I wonder why she is running her mouth criticizing us why she has never caught a fly in her entire life.





There were reports that you are at loggerheads with the IGP Ibrahim Idris for snubbing you in the special promotion for your officials for the recent feat?

When I read that stuff, I laughed because those people dont even know how the police operate. The IGP only has the power to promote constable, corporal and sergeant. Any other promotion above that must be done by the Police Service Commission. I wonder where they got their news from





Who is going to be the next victim?

Will surely let you know when the time comes. So hold your breathe.




According to Playgroundng, celebrity couple, Patrick Doyle and Ireti Doyle have separated, after over 20 years of marriage. A source cl...

According to Playgroundng, celebrity couple, Patrick Doyle and Ireti Doyle have separated, after over 20 years of marriage. A source close to Patrick and Ireti, hinted they are no longer living together.

The Tinsel star, Playgroundtv checks, revealed has since moved into a new apartment in Anthony Village area of Lagos, living far away from her veteran broadcaster and actor husband and children.While the reason for their break-up is still unclear, a source said Patrick and Ireti ended their relationship after thoughtful consideration and chose to remain friends.Ireti and Patrick married over two decades ago, shortly after his first wife passed on. Both share six children, and lost one to sickle cell in 1999. Iretis first daughter, Bimbo from a previous romance got married in July 2014.
The Bishop of Lagos West, Anglican Diocese, Rev. James Odedeji, on Friday, refuted claims by kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeje Onwuamadike, a.k....

The Bishop of Lagos West, Anglican Diocese, Rev. James Odedeji, on Friday, refuted claims by kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeje Onwuamadike, a.k.a. Evans, that he donated several times to the church.

Odedeji made the clarification while reacting to claims by Evans that he (Evans) had sponsored indigent students, given money to widows as well as donated to the renovation of the Anglican church building.

We have verified it, and we are very certain that Evans is not a member of any elements of our church. We dont know him and we have no affiliation with his person.

All that he his saying about paying school fees for indigent students, helping widows and donating hugely to renovations of our church are pure lies. Please ignore the false information, it is only meant to mislead the public, Odedeji said, speaking through Ven. Paul Adeyemi.

When asked if Evans had probably been one of the anonymous philanthropists in the church, Odedeji replied: We know all our members, he is not one of us and he has never been part of us.
Dreaded kidnap kingpin, Chukwudemeje George Onwuamadike, alias Evans, has explained why he never collected ransom from victims, through a b...

Dreaded kidnap kingpin, Chukwudemeje George Onwuamadike, alias Evans, has explained why he never collected ransom from victims, through a bank account.

Evans is renowned for demanding ransom in foreign currencies and has now denied allegations that he received any money in South Africa.

I dont give bank account to my victims because it could be traced. Whoever made the allegations that he paid part of his ransom in South Africa isnt sincere. I would have been arrested and they should bring the account number they paid the money into. The Interpol can trace the account and know the account and know the owner.

I collect my ransom in Nigeria and after collecting it, I also do not travel abroad. I usually ask the people keeping my victims to tell them that I have traveled abroad. I usually call my victims relatives with my satellite phones and inform them that I was out of the country.
Some members of the Senate are spoiling for a fresh battle with the Presidency over the decision by the Federal Government to appeal against the judgment of the Code of Conduct Tribunal which acquitted President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, of a false and anticipatory declaration of assets when he was governor of Kwara State.The senators, who spoke to newsmen, said the matter of the appeal would be raised when the National Assembly resumes from break.The lawmakers are to resume on July 4, 2017.While describing Sarakis trial as a political witch-hunt, the lawmakers said the appeal against the CCT judgment had clearly shown that the executive was out against the legislature.This is just as Saraki on Friday said he remained unperturbed by the appeal.This appeal against the CCT ruling is nothing but another attempt to grandstand and embark on another media trial without any substance. This is why the Senate President is sure it will be another exercise in futility, a statement on Friday by the Special Adviser to Senate President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, said.The CCT had on June 15, 2017, discharged and acquitted Saraki of all 18 charges preferred against him.The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, through a private prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), and a lawyer in the AGF office, had on Tuesday filed 11 grounds notice of appeal against the acquittal, describing the CCTs judgment as unreasonable.Speaking to reporters, the Deputy Minority Whip, Senator Abiodun Olujimi, described the appeal of the CCT ruling by the AGF as another move to waste the countrys time and resources.She stated that the issue would be raised at the Senate when the lawmakers resumed from break.Olujimi, who is a member of the minority Peoples Democratic Party caucus and representing Ekiti South Senatorial District, maintained that the legislature would take a step on the matter after resumption.She said, I think the APC is a party that has failed to put its house in order. I dont understand it (the appeal) at all because the CCT absolved him; what are they going to get from the Court of Appeal?The CCT looked thoroughly at all the issues before making the pronouncement. Why are they wasting taxpayers money on such? And I think they will also regret it.I am sure that when we resume, we will send a strong signal to show that if there is no understanding between the arms of government, the government cannot make progress.I dont know why they want to drag down Nigerians and box them with frivolous suits, which will never take anybody anywhere. We will do that as soon as we resume.Also, Senator Danjuma Laah (PDP, Kaduna-South), said the Senate would express its grievances with the executive on the trial when the legislators returned from break.He asked why the Federal Government would go ahead to appeal against Sarakis acquittal at the CCT when the Federal Government failed to file an appeal against the acquittal of a former governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, by the same tribunal.Laah said, The appeal by the Federal Government is a witch-hunt; the government only wants to bring down our Senate President. They are fighting with every tooth and nail to make sure they stop him from contesting. He has not declared that he wants to contest (for the Presidency), so why are they bothering themselves? To tell you the fact, this issue is between the Acting President (Yemi Osinbajo) and Tinubu.We have our way of interacting and showing our concerns to the executive, and that will happen when we resume. We will not relent. We stood by him (Saraki) to the end, but they are not happy.Tinubu was given the opportunity (by not appealing against his acquittal by the CCT) even though his case was worse than that of the Senate President. I see no reason why the Senate President should not be given the same opportunity.A member of the APC from the South West, who spoke on condition of anonymity, however, blamed the prosecution for losing the case against Saraki at the CCT.I dont think the prosecutors were well-equipped. They had a bad case and they messed up their case. You cannot blame the judges; the prosecution gave the defence the room to manoeuvre because they (the prosecution) did not come with empirical evidence, the official said.Meanwhile, Saraki, in the statement, said he was confident that the verdict by the appellate court would not be different from that of the tribunal as the facts of the case remained the same and the grounds on which the decision of the CCT was based remained unassailable.The Senate President also alleged that there were forces in the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration and collaborators outside the government who were bent on pulling him down.The statement read in part, Anybody who has been following the proceedings and the evidence given by the prosecution witnesses during examination-in-chief and cross-examination should know that if presented before any court of justice and law, the same outcome as in the CCT would be arrived at.Those who are running commentary on the ruling by the tribunal and criticising it are those who are not even familiar with the case and the details coming out of the trial. That is why Dr. Saraki continues to wonder how desperate some people in government and their collaborators outside have become to pull him down at all cost and by all means up to the point that they do not care if they destroy the institution of the judiciary in the process.That is why they sponsored stories of an allegation of bribery in an online publication against the tribunal judges. The Senate President seizes this opportunity to call on security agencies to immediately commence an investigation into this bribery allegation. It is his views that those who made the allegation should be invited to substantiate their claims.This same desperation made a man like Prof. Itse Sagay, the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Anti-Corruption, to appear on tape, admitting in a foreign country that he interfered with the process in the tribunal when in an unethical manner he was instructing the judge on how to conduct the trial.Corruption is not just about giving or diverting money; when an official interferes with the judicial process with a view to achieving personal objectives, it is corruption.The Senate President notes that another sign of desperation by those who want to get him convicted at all cost was the failed antics of the prosecution counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), who, in collusion with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, sought to manipulate evidence at the tribunal.On realising the fundamental flaw in its case as it did not invite the defendant to make any statement at any point in the investigation, the prosecution brought in an agent of the EFCC to tender old statements Saraki made in a totally different and unrelated matter that had nothing to do with false assets declaration.Saraki stressed that the prosecution forgot that the letter inviting him to make the tendered statements explicitly mentioned the matter being investigated and there were documents to prove this.He said, The prosecution tried to circumvent the judicial process by ensuring that the witness did not enter into the witness box so as not to be on oath. However, the tribunal, as it is obvious in its ruling, saw through the dirty trick. It, therefore, disregarded that piece of evidence and described it as irrelevant and of no value to the case.The Senate President added, If not desperation by the prosecution, why is the EFCC so involved in a case of false assets declaration which is an exclusive preserve of the Code of Conduct Bureau? All the evidence presented during the trial was from the EFCC.The commission rendered the CCB a second fiddle player. That is why the only CCB witness presented by the prosecution gave what the tribunal referred to as hearsay evidence. The CCB chief prosecutor testified that he got his instruction to investigate the case orally.
States' rights be damned.

Those are the Cliffs Notes of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' letter to Congress that could undermine burgeoning medical marijuana programs in Iowa and Illinois.

In a letter to Congress made public last week, Sessions sought the lifting of protections from federal prosecution for state-run programs. And the entire basis for Sessions' argument for a federal crackdown flies in the face of accepted science.

No surprises there.

Sessions talks of a "drug crisis." He mentions spiking crime. And likens state-licensed growers to "dangerous drug traffickers who threaten American lives."

Apparently, the U.S. attorney general isn't one for nuance.

The "drug crisis" Sessions hits has nothing to do with medical marijuana. It's an opiate epidemic that's overtaking small-town America, birthed by the medical industries' over-reliance on powerful pain killers.

Heroin has become the fallback for those whose prescriptions run out. By linking the opiate epidemic to state-run pot programs, Sessions is giving voice to an outdated, flatly false narrative that's militarized police and ruined millions of lives.

But, perhaps, it's even more shocking that Sessions' apparent desire for crackdown would do real harm to so many Iowans and Illinoisans. From veterans suffering with post-traumatic stress to those battling cancer, the clinical application of marijuana is all but established fact.

It's these people whom Sessions hopes to rob of valuable treatment. And, ironically, his backward policy would leave many with few options but the very prescription drugs that actually are damaging communities.

The U.S. attorney general has been all over the map on state's rights and the 10th Amendment. One day, he's shouting from the rooftops about the importance of local control. The next, he's seeking a federal crackdown.

It all boils down to whether he personally supports the state-level policy. Such inconsistency smacks of a lack of principle.

It would be an understatement to call Illinois' medical marijuana program cautious. The state's multi-year pilot program was rolled out slowly. Only now is it getting legitimately established.

Iowa's program is downright prudish, considering the growing scientific consensus on pot's medical value. Just this year, did lawmakers finally OK a licensing program for growers, and this program is only for the oil extracted from the plant.

To hear Sessions tell it, both states are slinging joints to toddlers.

Some states are certainly testing the feds. Colorado and Washington state have both adopted full-fledged legalization, an effort designed to address draconian laws that sent a disproportionate number of young, black men to prison.

Many others have followed suit. More than half the states in the country now tout a medical or recreational program.

In short, the Nixonian drug war is heading toward its rightful home, the trash heap of misguided policy.

Marijuana's place in society has changed drastically in the past decade. So, too, has the public's opinion on it, polls show.

Thousands of Iowans and Illinoisans benefit from the state-run programs. And thousands more stand to as research continues to legitimate its place as a viable treatment for those in pain.

But Jeff Sessions doesn't seem to care about the collateral damage. He's too busy fighting a war that never should have existed.

This editorial appeared in the June 23 edition of the Quad-City Times, another Lee Enterprises publication.
The Osi Olubadan and former Oyo State Governor, Rashidi Ladoja, on Saturday said the Olubadan of Ibadan land, Oba Saliu Adetunji, was not in support of the Olubadan chieftaincy declaration review that Governor Abiola Ajimobi had proposed for the state.He said this while speaking on a radio programme monitored in Ibadan on Saturday. Ladoja said Olubadan did not commit himself to the move. He substantiated his position with a recording where the Olubadan said the proposal would not be effected in his days as king.The Olubadan was quoted as saying that the crown on his head was given to him by the Ibadan people and that the present chieftaincy process should be maintained.I do not support giving crowns to everybody. Ibadan began this way and it should be left like this. This (review) will not be done while I am the king. If it has to be done, let it be after me, said the Olubadan.Controversy has followed the proposal since a panel was set up to review the declaration, with the Otun Olubadan, Sen. Lekan Balogun, and Ladoja challenging the governor in court.But after a meeting between the governor, the Olubadan and Ibadan high chiefs at the state secretariat, Sen Balogun threw his weight behind the move, leaving Ladoja, who did not attend the meeting, alone in the fight.Olubadan was heard in a recording that if the governor was in support, he would support it also.The governors Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy, Mr. Yomi Layinka, told our correspondent after the meeting that areas of controversy in the proposal had been ironed out and that the move had received the monarchs consent.
The Department of State Services (DSS) said yesterday that it had foiled a plot by terrorists to kill and maim innocent Nigerians across...

The Department of State Services (DSS) said yesterday that it had foiled a plot by terrorists to kill and maim innocent Nigerians across the country during this years Eid-el-Fitr.Official confirmation of the Eid day is still being awaited.The terrorists, according to the DSS, planned to bomb Sallah prayer grounds and other soft targets, including markets, motor parks, public processions and recreation centres in major cities.Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the alleged plot.Found in their possession and seized by the agency are 27 hand grenades, eight AK-47 rifles, 20 fully loaded AK-A7 magazines,793 rounds of live ammunition, one gas cylinder, three laptops, manuals, a printer, one motorcycle and a GSM handset.One of the suspects, Bashir Mohammed, was arrested at Unguwar Barnawa in Kumbatso Local Government Area, Kano State on Tuesday.It was from him the agency recovered the hand grenades and exhibits, according to the acting spokesman for DSS, Nnana Nnochi.The DSS described Basir, who is in his 20s, as an explosive expert and co-ordinator of the planned attacks.His accomplices, according to the security agency, include Yusuf Adamu and Abdumuminu Haladu, both of who were picked up in Sokoto yesterday.The agency said their arrests were a confirmation of the terrorists plans to cause mayhem in Kano, Sokoto, Kaduna and Maiduguri.Nnochi said: In the past few weeks, this service has uncovered a sinister plot by terrorist elements to stage series of coordinated attacks, using explosives on different cities across the country.Their aim was to hit soft targets such as markets, public parks, public processions, recreation centres as well as worship centres, especially the Eid praying grounds and other densely populated areas during the forthcoming Eid-el-Fitr celebration.The latest plan by the terrorists was to unleash mayhem on Kano, Sokoto, Kaduna and Maiduguri.Consequently, the Service wishes to announce that the planned terrorist attacks in Kano and aforementioned states have been nipped in the bud.This followed the arrest of Yusuf Adamu and Abdumuminu Haladu in the early hours of today (yesterday) in Sokoto.Adamu and his accomplice were to command the operation in Kano.However, the Service had earlier arrested the facilitator of the Kano attack, an explosive expert by name Bashir Mohammed, at Unguwar Barnawa, Shekar Madaki, Kumbatso LGA, Kano State on 20th June, 2017.Their plan, together with others now at large, was to assemble the explosives and use them on select targets during the Eid-el-Fitr celebrations.Nnochi asked Nigerians not to panic, saying that the agency was working in concert with other security agencies to ensure that no part of the country is attacked during and after the period.He also urged members of the public to complement the efforts of DSS and other security agencies through prompt report of suspicious movements and faces as well as unusual activities of criminals and terrorists around their neighbourhoods .He said: The public is encouraged to disregard the antics of these terrorist extremists to cause a breakdown of law and order and instill fear in the populace. The Service is working.Law abiding citizens and residents are not only assured of their safety but enjoined to go about their normal businesses without fear of attack.Security beefed up nationwideAlready, the police and other security agencies have beefed up security around the country to avoid any untoward situation during the Sallah period.As part of efforts to ensure hitch-free Sallah celebration, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris yesterday ordered zonal Assistant Inspectors General of Police and Commissioners of Police in charge of zones and state commands nationwide to beef up security.The senior officers are also to ensure massive deployment of Police personnel to all Eid praying grounds, recreation centres, public places and critical infrastructure and public utilities.The Force leadership in a statement in Abuja by the Force Spokesman, CSP Jimoh Moshood, noted that the deployment would prevent crime and ensure hitch-free celebration.According to the statement: Federal Highway patrol Teams, Safer Highway patrol, and Anti-Crime patrols have been deployed along major roads and highways throughout the country for the protection of public highways and major roads to ensure safety of travellers, commuters and other road users.They are under strict instruction to be civil, polite and firm in carryout their duties. Police visibility and surveillance will be maintained, raiding of criminal hideouts, black spots currently ongoing throughout the country aimed at removing criminal elements from the society will be sustained all through the period of the Eid-el-Fitr celebration and beyond.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that Dubai-based investment fund  Mubadala  has pulled out of Etisalat Nigeria after the...

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that Dubai-based investment fund  Mubadala  has pulled out of Etisalat Nigeria after the telecommunications firm failed on Friday to renegotiate a $1.2 billion loan taken out four years ago with 13 Nigerian banks.

The CBN made this revelation, during the weekend, in a statement signed and issued to newsmen by its spokesman, Isaac Okorafor.

Although he gave no specific details on what he meant by pulling out, Okorafor said the CBN had intervened in the loan renegotiation talks to prevent job losses and asset stripping.

He said representatives from the central bank and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) would continue to hold talks in the next few days with lenders and IHS Towers, the mobile phone tower managers, as well as equipment suppliers.

The statement reads in part: Given the inability of Etisalat (Nigeria) to come to an acceptable agreement with the banks, the largest shareholder in the company, Dubai-based Mubadala Development Company of the United Arab Emirates, has now pulled out of the company as well as the ongoing negotiations.

It was based on the attempt of the banks to takeover the company that the financial and telecommunications regulators have moved in to intervene and forestall down-sizing and asset stripping,

In March, the central bank, and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) tried to prevent lenders placing the firm in receivership to avoid a wider debt crisis and agreed with banks to pursue a default deal.

But lenders, under pressure to avoid loan-loss provisions, have been pushing to finalise a restructuring before half-yearly audits this month.

The original loan was a seven-year facility to refinance a $650 million loan and fund expansion of Etisalat Nigerias network.

The company missed payments in February after sharp falls in the Nigerian naira bloated the loans value, making repayments difficult.

Etisalat is Nigerias fourth biggest mobile operator with a 14-percent market share. South Africas MTN has 47 percent, Globacom 20 percent and Airtel  a subsidiary of Indias Bharti Airtel  19 percent of Nigerias mobile phone market.
The Wife of Ebonyi State Governor, Mrs. Racheal Umahi, has called for the arrest of a policewoman who allegedly poured hot water on her 15-year-old house-help for wrongfully applying condiments in a pot of soup.Umahi made the call after officials from her office and the State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development rescued the girl from the policewoman at her home in Mile 50, Abakaliki.Mr. Donatus Owo, the Chief Press Secretary to Umahi, said in a statement in Abakaliki on Saturday that she was touched by the fact that girls body looked irritable because she was not given proper medical care.The matter has been reported to the police while the victim was taken to Police Clinic for medical treatment, she said.The victim, Chinyere Igwe, who hails from Igbere in Bende Local Government Area of Abia, said she had lived with the policewoman for two years within which she suffered various forms of maltreatment.Igwe said she was preparing soup on that fateful day when her employer got annoyed that she did not prepare the soup according to her instruction.Only my mother is alive and I have been living with my madam for over two years now. This is as a result of my fathers death coupled with my mothers financial handicap.I failed to follow her instruction and in anger, she came out and carried the pot of soup together with the egusi (melon) and threw at me and it landed on my back.She also carried iron and hit me on my body and ordered me to bend down and raise my leg up but I refused because my back was paining me seriously.She locked me up in a room while she went to boil water to pour on me.I pleaded with her to have mercy on me but she went inside and brought tear gas, then I started crying when she rushed to get hot water and poured on me, Igwe said.The victim said that Mr. Kingley Okochi, the husband of the suspect, also hit her after the wife complained to him about the incident.Her husband also beat me up, but he was not aware that I had such injury because it was in the night. He later apologised and asked his wife to use honey to treat my back, Igwe said.The suspect, Mrs. Joy Okochi, however, claimed told the team from the Government House that she did not pour hot water on the girl intentionally.The Director of Child Welfare Development in the State Ministry of Women Affairs, Mr. Godwin Igwe, and the State Chairman of International Federation of Women Lawyers, Miss Olivia Okpaleke, said the culprit must face justice.Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer in Ebonyi, Mr. Jude Madu, said he had not received the report.
I never thought I would live to see the day that Sahara Reporters would publish a story alleging, together with supporting documents, that a person reputed to be one of its benefactors, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the under-performing Governor of Kaduna State, has been systematically engaging in acts of corruption by way of awarding over-invoices contracts to his fronts, family, friends and cronies, without passing these contracts through the due process of tendering and public advertising.Not only did I never think I would see such a day, I also did not believe that El-Rufai would turn around and accuse the website he had celebrated of lying and practicing gutter journalism. Wonders shall never cease to happen!But I have issues with El-Rufais contretemps with Sahara Reporters after his many long years of nuptial bliss with the notorious site.My issue is not that El-Rufai spoke, tweeted and facebooked against former President Jonathan and even my humble self during those times like a parrot that swallowed a dictionary of curse words!Both Dr. Jonathan and I have since moved on. Jonathan to international statesman status, I to a bestselling book. No, my issue is that having used and promoted many slanderous Sahara Reporters stories against the former President and me, this mischievous and femininely vindictive character now wants the world to join him in his unholy crusade to delegitimise that medium.El-Rufais actions are pitiable. Obviously, he has never read the words of Nabi Suleiman (King Solomon in Christendom) which says Whoever digs a pit will fall into it-Proverbs 26:27.That El-Rufai, the notorious disseminator of false information who has has said false things about almost every noteworthy Nigerian that has held influence in the federal government at one time or the other, should call Sahara Reporters liars is rich, very rich indeed.El-Rufai seems to think that you can sleep with a prostitute at night and deny her in the morning. That will be a very difficult venture for El-Rufai seeing as his fondness for the prostitute led to sweet and carnal moaning from their love nest which was so loud that all Nigerians could hear.There are also some dots we can connect in this whole saga. Sahara Reporterss exposition of El-Rufais alleged sordid corruption and his labyrinthine scheme (according to Sahara Reporters, not me) is coming as news that a major telecommunications firm is facing serious money troubles became public knowledge.One can only hope that those who may or may not have lost huge sums of money in this telecommunications firm are not desperate to recover their lost monies from whatever avenues they can find.I do not know who is or was behind a certain failed newspaper or this telecommunications outfit that is failing right before our very eyes, but assuming I was behind both ventures, I would not be in a position to boast about having any managerial or business acumen. Especially if I have made a mess of my present office and turned a once peaceful enclave into the most murderous place on planet earth.Of course, I have been speaking hypothetically. Do not let your imaginations run wild!And while we are on the subject of El-Rufai, I would like to talk about his very close friend, Tunde Bakares recent not-so-subtle attacks on the acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who he accused of trying to outdo his benefactor.Said Bakare, The king may be cold, the king may need warmth, but the final authority is still in his hands. All the actors in the corridors of power can keep acting, but the residual power is still in the man who is cold.Not content, he also said Adonijahs confuse birthright with leadership rights, and assume that the next in line is automatically the next king, whenever the current king is no more.He then concluded by warning that Adonijah is more strategic than Absalom, that he connects himself with Emirs, Kabiyesis, Obisthe chief of army staff, but often has a hole in his armour, adding that the next in line is a show-off.For those not familiar with Tunde Bakare, let me introduce you to him. He is the man who famously prophesied that the prophetic axe would fall on former President Olusegun Obasanjo before his swearing-in on May 29, 1999.His exact words on March 7, 1999 were:Rejoice not oh land, or your joy will be temporary. For I am bringing the nation  Nigeria, the rulers, the priests and the prophets there to my threshing floor. I will judge Saul and his comrades, and after I have finished my purging, then I will restore to you permanent joy Obasanjo is not your messiah. He is King Agag and the prophetic axe will fall upon his head before May 29.It is not my place to question Mr. Bakares prophecies. Romans 14:4 says, Who are you to judge someone elses servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.However, my response to Tunde Bakare on his shading of acting President Osinbajo is this: If Osinbajos show off is leading to the appreciation of the Naira, the reduction in the price of diesel, the availability of petrol and the prompt payment of salaries, then not only Osinbajo, but every elected politician should show off.By the way, Muhammadu Buhari ran with Tunde Bakare and lost, then he ran with Osinbajo and won. Maybe if Tunde Bakare had shown off he would not have lost the election for Buhari!Tunde Bakare perhaps can now see that he may have not been wrong when he said in the The Punch Newspapers of Monday October 2, 2006 that Let me tell you the truth by the Spirit of God, neither OBJ, Atiku, IBB and this tall one, Buhari are part of the new. They are part of the old that is decaying. That old one is passing away. The new is emerging and these ones are not part of that new.Bakare himself confessed with his mouth that President Muhammadu Buhari is not part of the new. He says the Holy Spirit told him this. If what he said in 2006 was indeed given to him by the Holy Spirit, as he claims, then why is he in 2017 fighting for the man that the Holy Spirit, according to him, revealed was part of Nigerias decaying past? Why is he fighting against a new political blood like the acting President?When you marry what Tunde Bakare said in 2006 with what he said last Sunday (June 18, 2017), there is a disconnect, there are discrepancies, there are contradictions. And what does the word of God say in 1 Corinthians 14:33? God is not the author of confusion.How can the Holy Spirit reveal Muhammadu Buhari to you as part of Nigerias decaying past and you, the vehicle through whom The Holy Spirit gave us this message, are trying to shove the decaying matter (according to Bakare not Mr) down our throats?Is Tunde Bakare in the habit of feeding his own children food that is rotten, old and decaying? I am guessing no. Then why does he want us to eat what he does not feed his children?When I was a boy, there was a major hit song titled Rumors performed by a group known as Timex Social Club.Some of the lyrics of the song went thus:How do rumors get started, theyre started by the jealous people and they get mad seein somethin they had and somebody else is holdinI highly recommend this song to Tunde Bakare. It was tailor-made for him. He is starting a rumour about the acting President wanting to usurp the Presidency by outperforming his boss and benefactor.Why is he doing it? Because, he wanted to be Vice President to Muhammadu Buhari but unfortunately their joint ticket lost in 2011.Why is he jealous? Because the acting President has something he wanted but did not get.Thank you Timex Social Club for simplifying what would have been very difficult for some to understand.The funniest thing to me is that had it been that the acting President had not done all the consultations he has been and is still doing in the wake of the quit notice given to the Igbo, it is precisely characters like Tunde Bakare that would have criticised him for being inept and letting down his benefactor, but now that he has shown that he is up to the task of leadership, he is being accused of outshining his boss. Let me however assure Tunde Bakare et al that it is not hard to outperform President Buhari. I have a 12-year-old daughter. I bet she can also outperform him.Now, I am a known admirer of the acting President, but I must say this to him. When Professor Yemi Osinbajo warns that the Federal Government will deal with those making hate speeches, I hope the acting President knows his boss and benefactor is guilty?President Muhammadu Buharis 5% versus 97% D.C. speech marked the beginning of hate speeches in this dispensation. Before that he was guilty of hate speech when he threatened that both the baboon and the dog will be soaked in blood.Fish starts to get rotten from the head. When a nation is led by a hate speaker, should anyone be surprised when the led begin to act like him?And let me close this piece with the way I began, with Sahara Reporters.Lai Mohammed says President Muhammadu Buhari talks to acting President Professor Yemi Osinbajo everyday, meanwhile Sahara Reporters, once Lai Mohammed and the All Progressives Congress favourite news medium, reported recently that President Buhari has not spoken to Osinbajo since he left Nigeria for London, U.K. on the 7th of May, 2017.Who do Nigerians now believe between Lai and Sahara Reporters? I would like to believe Lai, but my mind finds it hard to believe a man who said that President Buhari has fulfilled his campaign promises or that the Whistle-Blower policy has generated $8 billion within two months or that the President is hale and hearty or that dressing up a single masquerade can provide a thousand jobs or that the herdsmen killing Nigerians are from Mauritius. The truth is that even when I want to believe Lai, he makes it hard for me to do so.And yes, you read me right. Lai Mohammed actually claimed that the Whistle-Blower policy has generated $8 billion within two months.In fact, his exact words were, Within two months of our whistle-blower policy, we retrieved $8 billion.Lai, easy with these lies, remember YOU ARE FASTING! If not that The Bible established that Satan is the father of lies, I would have thought that Lai was Lies father and wished him a happy Fathers Day yesterday! I think it is high time we did a DNA testing on lies to determine who is their real biological father between Lai Mohammed and Satan.
The Lagos State Police Command has raised an alarm over the new tactics used by kidnappers. Below is a statement issued by the Spokespe...

The Lagos State Police Command has raised an alarm over the new tactics used by kidnappers. Below is a statement issued by the Spokesperson of Zone 2 command, SP Dolapo Badmos.

"Please if any one send credit to you and the person later calls you that it was a mistake that you should send it back to them. If you send it back, they will still call you to ask for more details about you that they want to appreciate what you did and pray for you.
The Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has revealed his wishes for Nigeria, saying the people if united can build a new nation...

The Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has revealed his wishes for Nigeria, saying the people if united can build a new nation.









Osinbajo spoke as Special Guest of Honour at the graduation of the 2017 class of Senior Course 39 of the Armed Forces Command & Staff College, Jaji.

His words: We can build a new nation; a new nation built on trust, consensus and love for one another and love for our country is possible.

A nation where the rulers do not steal the commonwealth, where every Nigerian is safe to live and work, where the State takes responsibility for the security of each and every Nigerian, where the State knows every Nigerian by name and can find and locate each one of us.

A Nigeria where the Igbo or Ijaw man can live peacefully in Sokoto, and the Fulani man can live peacefully in the Niger Delta.

The Acting President insisted that the elite were largely to be blamed for the festering negative narratives.

I would like to emphasize the fact that this was essentially an elite phenomenon, unity and disunity are promoted by the elite which the vast majority of the Nigerian people are only later conscripted.

While we must remain irrevocably committed to freedom of expression and the tenets of a free press, we must draw the line between freedom that conduces to healthy democracy and that which threatens and endangers the entire democratic enterprise . It is an important balance, that we must strike. Failure in any way will be tragic, he said.

He also observed that the problem was exacerbated by the influence of the internet and hate media emphasizing that today a great deal of the threats facing Nigeria are being nurtured and cultivated in the vast spaces of the Internet.

The rumblings of secession, the dangerous quit ultimatums to ethnic groups, the radio stations and blogs that spew divisive speech and exploit our fault lines; all of these are now to be found online.

The battle is not just to defeat the terrorists, the greater battle is to defeat the ideology and mindset that feeds the madness and to cut off its oxygen, money and publicity.

The truth is that our nation and national unity is worth preserving and protecting. We are the preeminent power in Africa today in terms of population, size of our markets , natural resources and economy.

We are a factor in the geopolitics of the world, no one can ignore a nation state that is home to one in every four black persons. Smaller is weaker not stronger today.

Osinbajo charged the nation to rise above unproductive ethnic and religious sentiments.

He added, We must develop the emotional intelligence required to cope and adapt in a swiftly and constantly changing world.

We must adopt a global mindset, that seeks to learn from the experiences of other countries, far and near, so that we do not waste valuable time repeating mistakes that we should have learned from and learned to avoid.




The Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee has withdrawn the Senior Advocate of Nigeria rank from a lawyer, Mr. Beluolisa Nwofor, who re...



The Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee has withdrawn the Senior Advocate of Nigeria rank from a lawyer, Mr. Beluolisa Nwofor, who represented the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the PDP in the legal battle for the partys ticket ahead of last years governorship election in Ondo State.

The Sheriff faction had recorded a temporary victory by obtaining a judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which recognised the factions preferred aspirant, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim, as the PDPs governorship candidate for the said governorship poll.



The victory was truncated few days to the election when the Court of Appeal in Abuja in its judgment delivered on November 23, 2016, retrieved the ticket from Ibrahim and returned it to Eyitayo Jegede, who was the candidate of the rival Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the party.





The LPPC, in a statement released late on Friday, described the conduct of Nwofor during the hearing of the case as unbecoming of the holder of the esteemed rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

It will be recalled that Nwofor had a rancorous encounter with the Justice Ibrahim Saulawa-led three-man panel during the hearing of the case by the Court of Appeal.



Specifically, the November 16, 2016 proceedings went on for over five hours in a tense courtroom charged by the confrontation between members of the Justice Saulawa-led panel and Nwofor.



Also before the conclusion of the case, Nwofor also on behalf of his client filed before the Supreme Court, two motions, one of which asked for a stay of the appeal courts proceedings.
Kidnap kingpin, Chukwudemeje George Onwuamadike alias Evans, has how he was able to evade arrest over the years.

Kidnap kingpin, Chukwudemeje George Onwuamadike alias Evans, has how he was able to evade arrest over the years.

In an interview with Vanguard, Evans revealed how he maintained multiple identities and ensured that his pictures were not in circulation.

He said: I beat security operatives over the years because my system is a sensor that detects problems. I dont use charms of any kind but I developed the ability to detect danger since my early days as an armed robber. That was why I was able to know that the Police were close to me even when they havent informed me.

I dont snap pictures. In fact, I dont have any picture. Nobody on earth had my picture before now. Even those who are very close to me dont have my picture. I dont snap pictures

My mother doesnt have my pictures. My wife and siblings dont have them as well. My pictures are not in my house and that made it difficult for security agents to apprehend me because they dont know how I look like.

Another issue you may have to take into consideration is the fact that I have numerous names for different people. My wife knows me as Somtochukwu, while all my girlfriends knew me as Mike. My neighbors at Gowon Estate knew me as George. I was also known as Sunny in Benin while in Portharcourt, I was known as Richard.

These are the reasons it was difficult for policemen to track and arrest me. No one has my pictures and the names I bear in Lagos werent the names I had in other states. I would have been worse than this if I had proper education. With education, I could have done worse things and be elusive. But thank God its over and I have been stopped.

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Two days after a report broke the news of a threat letter sent to the Lagos State Model College, Kankon, Badagry, by some suspected kidnappers, staff members of the school said they did not believe any kidnapper is powerful enough to attack the school.The writers of the letter, who claimed to be behind the kidnap of the pupils of the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe, had written that they were coming to kidnap the two principals in the school and six students.Some of the teachers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, explained that the remote neighbourhood where the school is located is known for its juju, which makes the possibility of a successful kidnap of students and staff unlikely.The last time some international armed robbers passed through this community, the community showed its power and they were caught within few days, one of the three teachers in the senior schools common room told our correspondent.Many of the parents, who spoke with newsmen on Friday, explained that they were shocked when they heard the news on some radio stations newspaper reviews.Some of the parents were on the school premises to take their children home with luggage in tow.A woman, Mrs. Bisi Oladiji, went to pick her 12-year-old son just few hours after she heard the news of the threat letter.She said, My husband was the one who heard about the letter on the radio. Nobody told us anything. He told me to go and pick our son quickly.Some of the parents, however, said they were in the school to take their children home as a result of the Sallah public holiday.When asked if they would have decided to take the same step if there was no holiday, one of the parents, Mrs. Theophilus Oladega, said, Even if there is no public holiday, I would have come here to take my son home if for the weekend alone.How can I sleep at home peacefully knowing that kidnappers have said they were coming to abduct children where my son is?Meanwhile, on Friday, our correspondent counted six policemen within the school premises with a patrol van stationed at the entrance.Despite this, some parents said they were not confident their children were safe in the school.The public holiday is coming at a very good time. We need to take our children home in the face of this threat. Look at the fence. Can you tell me that even a child cannot scale that? a parent, who has two daughters in the school, told newsmen.The fence in question is about five feet high and surrounds the entire compound which sits on more than one hectare of land.An entire part of the fence borders a thick bush which has grown higher than the fence.But, the staff members of the school insisted that there were security arrangements beyond what the eyes can see.The principal of the senior school, Mr. Sunday Fadahunsi, one of the two threatened in the letter, said he feared no abduction as I am a child of God. He had earlier told The PUNCH that the situation was under control as the Lagos State Government and the police were handling the matter.It was learnt that when the letter first got to the school, the police, Department of State Services and the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps were deployed.The Air Force, which has a base few metres to the school, was also notified.But days after, only few policemen were seen within and outside the compound.The chairman of the senior school parents association, Mr. Wale Alo, told newsmen that he had a meeting with the parents earlier on Friday morning to calm their fears.I dont see any reason why parents should come and take their children because of the letter. Everything is under control. That was the message we passed across to them and there did not seem to be any panic during the meeting, he said. Asked if he was satisfied with the security arrangement on the ground, he said he believed that the state government and the police were capable of doing what is right.The Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, had said that the government was aware of the letter and that the security agencies were on high alert and alive to their responsibility.Ayorinde said that the Lagos State Government would not yield any of its schools or pupils to the evil machinations of kidnappers.The spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Olarinde Famous-Cole, had earlier explained that security agencies had beefed up their presence in the school.But he was unavailable to comment on the current state of security at the school as calls made to his mobile line were unanswered as of the time of filing this report.
NEW ORLEANS, June 23, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF) and KSF partner, the former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until July 10, 2017 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:ABX), if they purchased the Companys securities between February 16, 2017 and April 24, 2017, inclusive (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.



What You May Do

If you purchased securities of Barrick Gold and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ( lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com ). If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by July 10, 2017.

About the Lawsuit

Barrick Gold and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

The alleged false and misleading statements and omissions include, but are not limited to, that: (i) the internal safety framework at the Veladero mine was not adequate for preventing gold-bearing chemical spills; (ii) as a result, local authorities would restrict the addition of cyanide to the Veladero mines facility and require corrective work; (iii) these complications would have a detrimental effect on the production capacity of the Veladero mine; (iv) as such, the Companys Veladero mine production guidance and total gold production guidance were overstated; and (v) as a result of the foregoing, Barrick Golds financial statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.
A group known as Nigerian Ethnic Nationality Youth Leaders Forum has called on Arewa youth groups to withdraw the quit notice issued to Igbos living in the North.The Forum also called on the coalition of the Niger Delta militants to withdraw the ultimatum issued to Northerners to return oil blocks controlled by them and leave the region.Making the appeal during a briefing with journalists in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, spokesperson for NENYLF, Mr. Imoh Okoko, explained that the move would promote peace and unity in the country.While commending the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, for dousing the tension created by hate speeches and quit notice orders issues by some ethnic groups in the country, Okoko revealed that the forum would soon organise a meeting of youth leaders of all ethnic groups in the country to help maintain peace in Nigeria.He said, We as a forum are calling on Arewa youths to withdraw the quit notice issued to Igbo people living in the North and also urged the coalition of Niger Delta militants to withdraw its ultimatum for the return of oil wells.We are doing this for peace to reign and for the unity of this country. We urge the Arewa youths to see Nigeria as a place where people can stay and do business without fear. We want them to see the Igbos as their brothers.The Igbo people should also stop the agitation for Biafra and the division of Nigeria. We are aware that there are a lot of problems causing these agitations and we appeal to the Federal Government to see how these problems can be solved.It is necessary that the Federal Government begins to speak with the youths of various ethnic nationalities in the country. On our own, we are organising a meeting of the youth leaders from all ethnic nationalities next week Thursday in Abuja. The meeting will be attended by representatives of all agitators in the country.Okoko lauded state governors for their stand on the countrys unity, adding that the forum would not support any group trying to distract the efforts of President Muhammadu Buharis administration in moving the nation forward.
TRENTON -- As New Jersey's budget deadline approaches, millions of dollars in state funding hangs in the balance for local schools.

A deal cut between New Jersey's top Democrats would boost the state's overall school spending, but reduce state aid to some districts in a controversial plan that hinges on approval from Gov. Chris Christie.

But Republican lawmakers have denounced the plan, and the governor is insisting that Democrats get onboard with his own contentious initiatives, leaving budget talks in limbo.

Meanwhile, districts set to lose state aid are protesting the Democrats' proposal, a compromise put forth by Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson).

The deal could still fall apart before the budget is passed. If not, here's what to expect from the agreement.

What does the deal mean?

The proposal wouldn't constitute a major change for most districts right away, but the long-term impact could be much more significant.

In the short term, the deal would add a small amount of new school funding: $100 million for K-12 and $25 million for pre-K for the 2018-19 school year.

It would also immediately reallocate $46 million in existing school aid, shifting funding from districts considered overfunded by the state to districts considered underfunded.

Long-term, the proposed deal is the first step in a plan to increase school funding by a projected $1.6 billion, which should take at least five years to implement, Sweeney said. And the $46 million diversion is just the beginning of a Democratic plan to reallocate more than $600 million in existing aid, the most controversial aspect of the deal.

Will this affect my property taxes?

It won't right away because districts have already set their tax rates for the upcoming school year, said John Donahue, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials.

But the deal could have an impact in future years, depending on where you live, Donahue said.

Districts with growing enrollment could see more state dollars while those losing students could get less state aid. Districts could also gain aid if their tax base is weakening or lose state funding if there's a boom in development.

Just because a district gains or loses state aid doesn't mean it will automatically raise or lower taxes, though, Donahue said.

Will students be affected?

Students might not notice anything different, but there would likely be some impact if a district's state aid changes substantially in the next few years.

Budget cuts could be the first change in districts that lose aid, while districts that gain state dollars might be able stave off potential cuts or implement new programs, Donahue said.

Why is this happening?

The state has consistently shorted its school funding formula under the Christie administration, so most districts are considered underfunded. State school aid hasn't been adjusted to account for districts' enrollment and demographic swings, leaving growing districts especially at a disadvantage.

What exactly is the state's formula for funding schools?

The formula is actually a series of formulas designed to answer two key questions: How much money does each district need to spend to provide a quality education, and how much of that money should come via state aid?

The calculation starts with a base cost for an elementary school student that increases for older students. The formula also awards extra money for students who historically require extra support, including students from low-income families and those learning to speak English as a second language.

Once it's determined how much a district needs to spend, the formula considers a district's wealth and its ability to generate revenue through property taxes.

A wealthy districts with a strong tax base is expected to cover a higher percentage of its school costs through local revenue.

Why is the state reducing aid to some districts?

When the current funding formula was passed in 2008, some districts would have lost money in the first year, a politically undesirable situation, Sweeney said.

So, lawmakers created a category of funding called adjustment aid, better known as "hold harmless" funding. Essentially, money was awarded to those districts solely so that they did not lose any state aid and their lawmakers could support the school funding proposal.

Designed as a temporary measure, the aid has remained in the budget ever since. Now, Sweeney says those districts should be able to adapt to less state funding.

Without reallocating the hold harmless funding, the state would need to come up with another $600 million to fully fund its formula.

How will the state pay for increasing school funding?

This part isn't entirely clear.

Sweeney has said the plan is dependent on a proposed tax on earned income above $1 million, which should generate at least $600 million a year. He also wants to add $100 million in new funding annually over the next five budgets.

That's a combined $1.1 billion, or about $500 million less than needed. Lawmakers will have to find a way to find the remaining funding in future budgets, Sweeney said.

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Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
PILESGROVE TWP. -- Even though most people may think of Texas when rodeo is mentioned, the oldest, weekly professional rodeo -- and one of the most well-known -- is located right here in New Jersey.

In 1929, Howard Harris Sr. and his son, Howard "Stoney" Harris Jr. hosted a rodeo at the Salem County Fair in Woodstown. They discontinued the rodeo in 1937, and it didn't return until 1955 due to World War II. That year, Stoney's son, Howard Harris III -- the 1954 Intercollegiate All Around Rodeo Champion -- revived the event.

Cowtown Rodeo has since earned the distinction of being the "oldest weekly rodeo in the United States," and is known nationally due to extensive television exposure in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Howard Grant Harris, fourth generation cowboy, runs the show today with his family at the arena on Route 40 in Pilesgrove.

Cowtown Rodeo is PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) Pro Rodeo sanctioned event that features seven different competitive categories every week including steer wrestling, girl's barrel racing, and the most popular event -- bull riding.

Here is a guide so you can be in the know at the rodeo.

Girls Barrel Racing

The spotlight event for cowgirls is barrel racing. Each contestant races her horse in a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels in the arena. The timer begins when horse and rider cross the start line and ends after all three barrels have been cleared. The fastest horse and rider pair -- usually a winning time is around 13 or 14 seconds -- wins the event.

A cowgirl guides her horse around a barrel in the barrel racing event at Cowtown Rodeo. (Tim Hawk | For NJ.com)

Bareback riding

Bareback riding produces the most injuries for riders than any other rodeo category. With one hand, riders hold onto a leather rigging that resembles a suitcase handle on a strap that wraps around the horse's withers, and try to stay on for as long as possible while executing the proper riding technique. The cowboy must have both spurs on the horse's shoulders until the horse's feet hit the ground out of the chute, or he's disqualified. Once the ride begins, the rider pulls his knees up as the horse bucks, and straightens his legs as the horse descends.

A cowboy competes in the bareback riding competition at Cowtown Rodeo. (Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Media)

Saddle bronc riding

The most classic rodeo event, saddle bronc riding, requires strength, style, grace, and precise timing. This event evolved from cowboys breaking and training wild horses on ranches out west. Saddle bronc riders hold onto a thick rein attached to the horse's halter with just one hand. If his other hand touches the horse, himself, or any part of the rigging he is disqualified. Judging is based on the horse's bucking ability, the cowboy's control of the horse, and his spurring action while keeping his toes turned out.

A cowboy competes in the saddle bronc riding competition at Cowtown Rodeo. (Jesse Bair | For NJ Advance Media)

Steer wrestling

A steer wrestler, or bulldogger, uses strength and timing to chase a steer, descend from his horse, and wrestle the animal -- which can weigh twice as much as the cowboy -- to the ground as quickly as possible. Once he jumps onto the steer, the cowboy grabs the animal's right horn, slows it down, and then wrestles it to the ground. The event ends when the steer is on its side with all four legs facing the same direction. The fastest cowboy wins.

A cowboy competes in the steer wrestling event at Cowtown Rodeo. (Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Media)

Team roping

While several events involve more than one person, team roping is the only true team rodeo sport. A header and a heeler work together to chase down, catch, and tie up a steer. After the steer gets a head start, the header and heeler take off after it on horseback. The header throws his rope and must catch the steer either around both horns, around one horn and the head, or around the neck. The heeler then throws his rope to catch the steer's hind legs. Time is called when there is no slack in either rope and the riders' horses are facing each other.

One half of a team roping duo chases down a calf at Cowtown Rodeo. (Jesse Bair | For NJ Advance Media)

Tie down roping

When working on western ranches, cowboys would catch sick or injured calves using ropes and skilled horses to chase, catch, and immobilize the animals as quickly as possible as to avoid further injury. The rodeo's tie down event is exactly like what cowboys did in the old days, except, today, the competitors are timed and judged, and the calves are healthy. The cowboy lassos the calf then dismounts his horse, which is trained to stop and pull the rope backward. The cowboy then lays the calf on its side and ties any three legs together with a short looped rope called a pigging string. Once the calf is tied, the cowboy throws his hands in the air and time stops.

A cowboy ropes a calf in the tie down roping event at Cowtown Rodeo. (Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Media)

Bull riding

Many rodeo events grew from daily challenges faced on western ranches. However, bull riding was born from a cowboy's love of competition and danger. In rodeo, bull riders climb onto the back of a full-grown bull -- most which weigh around 2,000 pounds -- and attempt to hold on for eight seconds. The cowboy is tethered to the animal by a rope that is wrapped around the bull's chest, then looped tightly around the rider's hand. Once the chute gate flies open, the bull bursts into the area, kicking, twisting, and turning with one single goal -- to get the cowboy off its back.

A cowboy competes in the bull riding competition at Cowtown Rodeo. (Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Media)

The bull riding event also features rodeo clowns who look funny and entertain the crowd, and a rodeo dog. Both serve to distract the bull from the rider once he is bucked off. The dog also herds the animal into the corral once the ride is complete.

Rodeo clowns help protect the cowboys who compete in the bull riding event at Cowtown Rodeo. (Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Media)

Cowtown Rodeo is every Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. through Sept. 30.

Kelly Roncace may be reached at kroncace@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @kellyroncace. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.
NEWARK-- A joint operation involving the police division and the New Jersey State Police has resulted in the apprehension of 60 people wanted on outstanding warrants since June 1, Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said in a statement Friday.

The operation, which included members of the Special Enforcement Bureau, Fugitive Apprehension Team (F.A.T.) and Narcotics Unit in conjunction with the State Police focused on 181 violent offenders with open warrants. Among those arrested were suspects with warrants for robbery, theft and weapons offenses, including shootings.

Among those arrested were city residents Jihad Anderson, 21, who was wanted following his June 1 arrest on charges of assault and weapons offenses; Radee S. Foye, 18, who was wanted following his June 14 arrest on weapons charges; and Dawud Q. West, 28, who was arrested June 16 for possession of a sawed-off shotgun -- a prohibited weapon -- and possession of a defaced weapon.

"I commend the officers, detectives and supervisors who facilitated the success of this operation from both the Newark Police Division and the New Jersey State Police," Ambrose said.

"Removing violent offenders from our streets results in safer neighborhoods and enhanced quality of life for our residents and visitors."

"This massive roundup sends a message to the good, law abiding residents of Newark that we will not allow wanted criminals to roam freely with impunity," said Colonel Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police.

"We will continue to work diligently with Newark police, and I commend all of the troopers and officers involved with this operation."

Paul Milo may be reached at pmilo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@PaulMilo2. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY - The 50-year-old Passaic man charged with pushing a woman into her Hoboken home and raping her was ordered detained through the course of his prosecution today.

"Stop taking pictures," an incensed Marcos Blandino said to photographer snapping photos as he was led from the Jersey City hearing by a sheriff's officer this afternoon. "I am an innocent man. I will sue you."

Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Jane Wiener said that at about 6 p.m. on April 23 the 22-year-old woman was entering her home and said she was tackled from behind and forced into the apartment, where she was raped.

Wiener said surveillance cameras across the street captured images of a dark-colored car and it shows a man getting out of the car, approaching the building and entering the door that leads into the building.

During the investigation that led to Blandino's arrest more than a month later, he told investigators that he had sex "with no one that day, let alone in Hoboken," the prosecutor said. She said tests on DNA recovered as evidence could not be excluded as being Blandino's.

Defense attorney John T. Somohano told Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale that his client was working as a driver in Hoboken that day, he had struck up a conversation with the woman on the street and she was waiting for him to park so he could enter her building.

"There's no doubt he was at the scene," said Somohano, adding that it appears she left the exterior door open for Blandino. "They were two consenting adults."

The attorney said neither his client nor the woman had any signs of injury or bruises at all. He said there was no evidence to support the allegations of what took place inside. Somohano said the whole incident lasted only about six minutes.

In arguing that Blandino be detained, Wiener noted the need to protect the woman and the community. Somohano noted that no harm came to the woman in the month before his client's arrest.

In ordering Blandino detained, DePascale noted the serious nature of the charges. He also noted the "contradiction" between Blandino's statement he had no sexual activity that day and his attorney's argument today that there had been consensual sex. He also said substantial evidence has been compiled.

DePascale's order to detain Blandino can be appealed. Blandino did not speak during the hearing.
PERTH AMBOY -- A group out fishing the waters near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Thursday had a close encounter with one of the largest animals in the sea -- a humpback whale.

The whale was seen a number of times by a group that included Paul Ziolkowski, who filmed the encounter and posted it to Facebook. When the boat sailed closer to investigate, the animal suddenly breached, coming within an arm's length of Ziolkowski, WABC 7 reported.

"This definitely was one of the craziest experiences in my life and I've had many, who --- would have thought I would see some Moby Dick --- right here outside the Verrazano on my boys 19 footer. That humpback was chasing bunker all the way up to the side jumped out of the water and tapped the hull of my boat, knocking bunker into the boat. Crazy, I know it sounds like a fish story LOL but these #NewJersey waters are serious," he wrote.

Whales are not an uncommon sight in Jersey coastal waters. A whale, possibly a humpback, was seen off Belmar on New Year's Day.

Paul Milo may be reached at pmilo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@PaulMilo2. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
By Jill Colvin and Josh Boak | The Associated Press

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WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump is crediting himself with the idea of building a Mexico border wall of solar panels. But that looks to be a borrowed brainwave; others pitched a solar wall back when he was a skeptic of tapping power from the sun.

Trump's speech in Iowa on Wednesday night was rife with misstatements. He claimed beneficial effects to the economy from actions he has not yet taken. He declared that the "time has come" for a welfare moratorium for immigrants that has been in place for two decades. He juiced up the tax burden on Americans beyond reality.

A look at some of his claims:

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TRUMP: "We're thinking about building the wall as a solar wall so it creates energy and pays for itself. And this way, Mexico will have to pay much less money. And that's good right? ... Pretty good imagination, right? Good? My idea."

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THE FACTS: His idea was to run with the idea of others.

The notion of adding solar panels to the border wall was explored in a Wall Street Journal op-ed in March. Vasilis Fthenakis, director of the Center for Life Cycle Analysis at Columbia University, and Ken Zweibel, former director of the Solar Institute at George Washington University, concluded it was "not only technically and economically feasible, it might even be more practical than a traditional wall."

They said a 2,000-mile solar wall could cost less than $1 billion, instead of tens of billions for a traditional border wall, and possibly become "wildly profitable." The writers were studying a concept laid out by Homero Aridjis and James Ramey in the online World Post in December.

The idea also was proposed by one of the companies that submitted its design to the government as a border wall prototype. Las Vegas-based Gleason Partners proposed covering some sections of the wall with solar panels and said that selling electricity from it could eventually cover the cost of construction.

Trump repeatedly described solar power in the campaign as "very, very expensive" and "not working so good."

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FACT CHECK: A rosy Cabinet meeting, a Trump tweet tirade; Pence on Obamacare

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TRUMP: "The time has come for new immigration rules which say that those seeking admission into our country must be able to support themselves financially and should not use welfare for a period of at least five years. And we'll be putting in legislation to that effect very shortly."

THE FACTS: A federal law passed in 1996 already has that effect. It bars most foreigners who enter the country on immigrant visas from being eligible for federal benefits like Social Security and food stamps for the first five years. States typically have the authority to determine eligibility for local programs. As for people in the country illegally, they are generally prohibited from those benefits altogether. Same with foreigners who are in the U.S. on non-immigrant visas.

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President Trump speaks during a rally at the US Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on June 21, 2017. Trump spoke on his idea to build a solar wall along the US Southern border and on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement. (Tannen Maury | EPA)

TRUMP: "You see what we've already done. Homebuilders are starting to build again. We're not confiscating their land with ridiculous rules and regulations that don't make sense."

THE FACTS: Housing starts as tracked by the Census Bureau have actually fallen over the past three months. Trump seems a bit mixed up on deregulation. Some of the biggest constraints on homebuilders come from local governments, rather than federal rules.

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TRUMP: "Farmers are able to plow their field. If they have a puddle in the middle of their field, a little puddle the size of this, it's considered a lake and you can't touch it. And if you touch it, bad, bad things happen to you and your family. We got rid of that one, too, OK?"

THE FACTS: Trump appears to be referring to an executive order he signed in February that the Environmental Protection Agency review its rule on regulations to protect clean water. The rule can stop some farmers from using pesticides and herbicides. But Trump hasn't overturned the rule at this stage as his remarks suggest.

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TRUMP: "We're working really hard on massive tax cuts. It would be, if I get it the way I want it, the largest tax cut in the history of the United States of America. Because right now, we are one of the highest-taxed nations in the world. Really on a large-scale basis, we are the highest tax nation in the world. ... And I think it's going to happen."

THE FACTS: The overall U.S. tax burden is actually one of the lowest among the 32 developed and large emerging-market economies tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Taxes made up 26.4 percent of the total U.S. economy in 2015, according to the OECD. That's far below Denmark's tax burden of 46.6 percent, Britain's 32.5 percent or Germany's 36.9 percent. Just four OECD countries had a lower tax bite than the U.S.: South Korea, Ireland, Chile and Mexico.

It's not clear Trump will sign the largest tax cut in U.S. history. His administration has yet to settle on enough details of any planned overhaul to make that claim. To put the claim in context, Ronald Reagan essentially cut taxes during his first term by slightly more than 2 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. For Trump to surpass that, his tax cut would essentially have to be more than $400 billion a year.

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(Photo by Tannen Maury | EPA)

TRUMP: "Unemployment is at a 16-year low."

THE FACTS: Unemployment is indeed that low, at 4.3 percent.

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FACT CHECK: A rash of Trump statements under scrutiny

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TRUMP: "We're working really hard on massive tax cuts. It would be, if I get it the way I want it, the largest tax cut in the history of the United States of America. Because right now, we are one of the highest-taxed nations in the world. Really on a large-scale basis, we are the highest tax nation in the world. ... And I think it's going to happen."

THE FACTS: The overall U.S. tax burden is actually one of the lowest among the 32 developed and large emerging-market economies tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Taxes made up 26.4 percent of the total U.S. economy in 2015, according to the OECD. That's far below Denmark's tax burden of 46.6 percent, Britain's 32.5 percent or Germany's 36.9 percent. Just four OECD countries had a lower tax bite than the U.S.: South Korea, Ireland, Chile and Mexico.

It's not clear Trump will sign the largest tax cut in U.S. history. His administration has yet to settle on enough details of any planned overhaul to make that claim. To put the claim in context, Ronald Reagan essentially cut taxes during his first term by slightly more than 2 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. For Trump to surpass that, his tax cut would essentially have to be more than $400 billion a year.

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TRUMP: "We have Gary Cohn, who's the president of Goldman Sachs. That's somebody. He's the president of Goldman Sachs. He had to pay over $200 million in taxes to take the job, right? ... This is the president of Goldman Sachs, smart. Having him represent us. He went from massive paydays to peanuts. ... But these are people that are great, brilliant business minds. And that's what we need."

THE FACTS: Trump appears to be confusing taxes paid with stocks sold. Cohn and his family members held about $220 million in Goldman stock, which he had to divest in order to resolve possible conflicts of interest before becoming White House economic adviser. He would have had to pay taxes on any capital gains from the sale, but that sum would only be a fraction of the figure cited by Trump. Moreover, Cohn had to divest the stock in pieces, so the final tally from his sales is unclear, as the stock has declined from highs in March.

It's also worth noting the president's about-face praise for Wall Street. His campaign routinely criticized Goldman Sachs and its ties to Hillary Clinton, even using it as a villain in a political ad that included video of the bank's chairman and CEO.

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RELATED: The fake news is coming from Trump's White House

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TRUMP: "Since I was elected, illegal border crossings  and this is without the wall, before the wall  have decreased by more than 75 percent, a historic and unprecedented achievement."

THE FACTS: That's overblown, according to government figures about the Mexico border. The decrease in his first four full months in office is about 59 percent, still substantial but not more than 75 percent.

More than 56,600 foreigners have been caught crossing from Mexico illegally between February and May, up from 137,800 people in the same period during President Barack Obama's last year in office.

The number of illegal crossings is not known because some people slip in undetected. Officials consider the number arrested to be representative of the broader trend of attempts to cross illegally.

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Associated Press writer Alicia A. Caldwell contributed to this report.

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BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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A roundup of some of the most popular, but completely untrue, headlines of the week. None of these stories are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked these out; here are the real facts:

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In this July 1, 1997, file photo, Diana, Princess of Wales, smiles as she arrives at the Tate Gallery in London. The AP reported Friday, June 23, 2017, that a story renewing conspiracy theories that blame British agencies or the British royal family for the August 1997 death of Diana and boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed in Paris are false. (Photo by Jacqueline Arzt Larma | Associated Press)

NOT REAL: Retired MI5 Agent Confesses On Deathbed: 'I Killed Princess Diana'

THE FACTS: A piece on a site called the Anti News Network renews a take on conspiracy theories blaming British agencies or the royal family for the princess' August 1997 death in Paris. A coroner's jury ruled in 2008 that Diana and boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed were killed by the reckless actions of their driver and paparazzi. Investigators testified that no British government agency was involved in her death. MI5, Britain's domestic security agency, has a policy of not identifying current or past employees. The ANN story cites as its source the website yournewswire.com, which says it makes no representations about the accuracy of the information it posts.

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RELATED: The fake news is coming from Trump's White House

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NOT REAL: NASA'S Kepler Telescope discovered artificial alien megastructure.

THE FACTS: Some scientists speculated that an unusual light pattern coming from a star about 1,400 light years away could be the result of megastructures built by aliens to surround the star and harness its energy. A headline from univverse.org suggests the theory has been confirmed, but the authors of a study about the light pattern wrote that it was most likely the result of comet and planet-like space debris passing nearby.

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White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders attends a news conference in which she defended the tweets about the mayor of London by President Trump at the White House on June 5, 2017. (Photo by Michael Reynolds | EPA)

NOT REAL: Sarah Huckabee Blames Clinton For Comey's Removal: "If She'd Confessed, He Wouldn't Have Had To Commit All Those Atrocities Against Her"

THE FACTS: The deputy White House press secretary did use the word "atrocities" when explaining the reasoning behind former FBI director James Comey's May 9 firing by President Donald Trump, but she didn't put the blame on Hillary Clinton. A story that originated with admitted satire outlet Newslo falsely claimed Sanders said if Clinton confessed to her role in mishandling of emails, Comey wouldn't have lost his job. Sanders cited Comey's handling of the investigation into the emails as the reason for his firing.

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In this Oct. 2, 2011, file photo, British actor Rowan Atkinson, center, waves while walking a red carpet as he arrives for the United Kingdom premiere of "Johnny English Reborn" in London. The AP reported Friday, June 23, 2017, that hoaxes circulating since 2016 that "Mr. Bean" actor Rowan Atkinson died in a car crash or killed himself are false. (Photo by Joel Ryan | Associated Press)

NOT REAL: FOX HEADLINES British Actor 'MR BEAN' Rowan Sebastian Atkinson dies at 62 After CAR-CRASH - TODAY 2017

THE FACTS: Hoaxes on the actor's death, alternately describing a car crash or a suicide that ended the "Mr. Bean" actor's life, have been circulating since last summer. Some pieces have listed Atkinson's age as two years younger than he is  he was born Jan. 6, 1955. Others falsely superimpose reports of his obituary on BBC and Fox News logos, which never ran such reports. Atkinson recently resurrected his portrayal of French detective Jules Maigret in a British TV series.

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Fake News Alert: June 19-23, 2017

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In this Aug. 20, 1970, file photo, Charles Manson, head of the cultic "Manson Family" charged with murder-conspiracy in the Tate-LaBianca slayings, is escorted by deputy sheriffs to court in Los Angeles. The AP reported Friday, June 23, 2017, that stories claiming Manson is dead or free on parole are false, with California corrections officials verifying Manson remains incarcerated. (AP file photo)

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NOT REAL: Charles Manson has been granted parole

THE FACTS: The website now77news.com has one story saying Manson is out on parole and another saying he's dead, but California corrections officials say Manson remains incarcerated. Manson was last denied parole in 2012 and continues to serve time for a series of slayings, including the 1969 murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six other victims over two nights. The false story claiming Manson is out on parole lists his age as 79; he's actually 82.

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This weekly fixture is part of The Associated Press' ongoing efforts to fact-check claims in suspected false news stories.



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The event of the week was a fundraiser for Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise who wants to stay another term before collecting Social Security. The most interesting political action was taken by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer who announced she was not seeking re-election.

Thursday evening hundreds arrived at the Son Cubano restaurant on West New York's waterfront. I arrived a bit late and to make matters worse the Cuban-themed eatery had the Marx Brothers handling valet parking. Nevertheless it's event like these where you sniff for political heat or drama.

DeGise's event trumpeted a visit by three big names to the Democratic Party soiree, gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy and both U.S. senators, Bob Menendez and Cory Booker. I wanted to catch them in action. They usually say nothing but every once in awhile a news item spills out -- no such luck tonight.

After finally gaining entrance, Murphy was on a small stage with the house DJ addressing the crowd. He was praising DeGise, made some comments about protecting health care, perhaps something angry about President Satan and how the county executive works hard and cares, I presume about the people and the New York Mets. "Blah, blah, blah and blah," I heard the Murph say. In a flash he was heading for the exit but not before he stood for a few pictures with groupies. These days the candidate's visits are measured with a stop watch.

IT'S PHIL, NOT JON

The Democratic Party candidate for the top political job in New Jersey has been trying hard this campaign season to convince everyone that he is not former Gov. Jon Corzine 2.0 by promoting himself as a champion of the middle class and the downtrodden. This is why much of his literature and blogging attacks President Trump and outgoing Gov. Chris Christie - a "progressive" thing to do to demonstrate what could happen if you push the wrong voting button.

Just this morning I got a personal email from Murphy's people. It read:

"I'm counting on you, Augie.

"That's because Governor Christie and Lt. Governor (Kim) Guadagno (Murphy's Republican gubernatorial opponent) are relying on our grassroots campaign taking a break. They hope we lose focus, so they can hold onto power for themselves and continue to enable President Trump's reckless agenda ... But we're not going to take anything in this election for granted.

"With your help, we won the Democratic primary -- and I'm grateful for everything you've done already as a part of this campaign.

"New Jersey law requires us to start up a brand new campaign account for the general election. That essentially means we have to restart this campaign to end politics as usual.

"That's why when you chip in $3, or whatever you can, your contribution will be matched 2-to-1, and you'll become a founding member of our general election campaign.

"With New Jersey shedding another 14,000 private sector jobs in May, we simply cannot afford another four years of failed leadership and politicians who put the interests of President Trump above those of working families ... "

Someone tried to convince me this was a mass emailing to make it look personal and that they just want me to donate $3 to the multi-millionaire's campaign. Nah, he was writing to me, he knows me. True, I can't get him to sit down with me at a diner the way we did a couple of times before he won the primary. I realize he's busy probably reading Corzine's personal notes about Wall Street reform since they are both Goldman Sachs alumni.

Menendez took the stage and right from the start you can tell he was in fourth gear. His speech was both fiery and well-pronounced as if he was singing Stephen Sondheim lyrics with no commas. How was he getting any oxygen? It was amazing to me that the senator was putting out such an effort for a candidate who is a walk-in. It's probably because they come to expect that in Hudson County and they have learned that about Menendez in Washington, D.C. There was no mention of his upcoming fall trial on federal corruption charges which he has a bit more than a 50-50 chance of winning.

Next to address the paella-stuffed crowd was DeGise's daughter, Amy, who recently won a Jersey City school board seat. I listened to her a bit then decided I needed a carrot or piece of cheese.

DEAR DIARY, BYE

Now this is where the Zimmer action starts to effect the evening. Earlier this week the mayor of Hoboken apprently wrote in her diary her concern for the attacks on Mother Nature. It upsets her that President Trump has dismissed the Paris Climate Agreement. Coal mines are reopening. Zimmer obviously believes the president's middle name is Lucifer. For these reasons, she needs to leave office and fight for restoring the natural order of the planet -- or something close to that.

There are some in political circles who believe that Murphy is going to make her his lt. governor candidate. To me the rumor is delusional. You always ask what is this person going to bring to the campaign, votes or money. In Zimmer's case, neither. She has said there has been nothing offered.

The locals, meaning Hobokenites who plan to run for mayor, believe that the incumbent wanted to leave undefeated and that there was a question of whether she would survive another political bout. Sure, she could be one of those people who want to join foundations or just retire to bake muffins in Vermont. In Hudson County, they prefer believing you're a quitter.

Zimmer says she believes the city is well on the way to defending itself against future super storm flooding and providing adequate open spaces. She has even endorsed Council President Ravi Bhalla as her successor. He has no doubt danced a jig and so have eventual Bhalla opponents.

At the DeGise affair, Freeholder Anthony Romano, who claims he is leaning toward a mayoral run, even though we know he's running, was busy accepting a lot more handshakes and comments such as "hello, Mr. Mayor" than usual. Romano's smile is wider than usual. He knows that the road to City Hall is also wider.

Quietly circling the room was Councilman Michael DeFusco, who has announced he is a mayoral candidate. DeFusco politely introduced himself to me. Light blue jacket, checkered shirt, yellow/gold tie and a Miami Vice stubble that everyone wears these days (including me) made DeFusco look like a young professional who one may suspect lives in Hoboken.

He also wore self-assurance well when he said he intended to win because he has a good organization, dedicated supporters and adequate financing for the campaign. He handed me a business card that had "Michael DeFusco for Mayor" that also reminded people to "Vote Tuesday November 7th." I forgot why he said his picture was on the card, but let's face it, not everyone is familiar with a candidate or in many cases, even cares.

With Zimmer out of the picture, this year's campaign got interesting. It becomes a play without a third act. Eventually, there could be about a half-dozen mayoral candidates. Let's not get into the ramifications of a possible Union City and North Bergen proxy war. We have time yet to beat that drum.

Whatever happens, a couple of candidates believe that to win they will have to get a nod of approval from Union City Mayor and state Sen. Brian Stack, whose 33rd District includes the Mile Square City. Despite face saving comments, it had to be embarrassing for Stack who endorsed Zimmer only to see her leave to fight the enemies of Gaea.

INSIDER NOTES

-- Thursday evening, I never did see Booker inside the restaurant. While waiting forever for the valet to retrieve my vehicle, someone grabbed my shoulders as he quickly jumped into his waiting SUV. Caught by surprise all I could do is yell at Booker, "the Golden Knights suck!" He responded with a shocked loud "What!" His Old Tappan High School is the rival of my Norsemen. It's something between us.

-- Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop wasn't mentioned once, oops.

-- Former Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy attended the DeGise affair and he was asked whether he intends to endorse anyone in the upcoming city mayoral race? He raised both his hands as to deflect an attack and said, "I'm staying out of it."

-- At a Fulop event hosted by a local blogger at the Talde restaurant on June 8, I was introduced to Rebecca Symes. She was told I'm a longtime political columnist. I must have looked ancient to this very young attorney, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. I knew Symes lived Downtown and she supposedly impressed a few people I knew. I had a sense of things and the first words out of my mouth: "So, when are you going to announce that you're running for the Downtown City Council seat?"

In a blink of a gnat's eye, Symes said something super fast that could have been "I hear my mom calling me," turned on her heels and disappeared somewhere around the crowded bar.

The seat I mentioned is the one occupied by Candice Osborne who also provided some drama by announcing she also is not seeking re-election.

This week a press release went out from the Democratic Party-approved PR firm, Vision Media of Secaucus, announcing that yes Symes is seeking the Ward E council seat. There's been no "official" endorsement. Well, we're off to a surreal, and crowded, start for that post.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Agustin C. Torres' columns appear in The Jersey Journal usually on Saturdays.
Just 18 months ago, the State Commission of Investigation found that the auto malls in New Jersey were $10 million delinquent in tax payments, committed fraud, practiced "suspicious" financial transactions, and evaded regulations with the tacit blessing of mid-level managers at the Motor Vehicle Commission.

And now, all the regulations designed to curtail the venality at these used car wholesalers - notably the massive New Jersey Dealers Auto Mall in Bridgeton, which the SCI says has a connection to the Bonanno crime family - are in danger of being erased by a bill that just passed the Assembly by a unanimous vote.

Which begs the question: Why is this "sham" industry - eviscerated in a 178-page SCI report for perpetuating "a range of consumer and other fraud and abuse for years" - now being given another chance to rewrite its own rules just 18 months after it was sent to the penalty box?

"That's what I would like to know," says SCI director Lee Seglem, who authored the Dec. 2015 opus on the 11 multi-dealer locations (MDLs) around our state, with NJDAM as its focus.

"We put out a strong report, we demonstrated everything we knew to be wrong at these MDLs, and we made a list of recommendations that were just being put into effect administratively inside the (MVC). So when their lobbyists realized they couldn't manipulate the regulatory process anymore, they had the law changed."

All's fair in Trenton. There is nothing wrong about influencing lawmakers; regulated industries often try to rewrite the laws that impede business.

But in this case, the method was tawdry. The sponsors of the bill from both houses have not explained the rationale for relaxing these rules, and at no time during its drafting did they consult Seglem or MVC administrator Raymond Martinez, who believes the Legislature is about to unleash the varmints.

"This guts our ability to properly regulate used car dealers," Martinez told the Philadelphia Inquirer last week. "This in no way, shape or form serves the public interest. It harms the consumers."

It is unclear whether Martinez's boss, Gov. Christie, agrees that the bill will handcuff the MVC's ability to keep 2,800 used car dealers (including 800 MDLs) under control. But we may soon find out, because the bill has swept the Assembly (71-0) and the Senate Commerce Committee.

It's also unclear, however, whether the new regulations will prevent fraud, since they just went into effect three weeks ago. Most are arcane and logistical - such as mandating regular business hours and having one employee on site at all times for surprise MVC audits - and they seek to tighten New Jersey's "relatively lax licensing rules," as the SCI put it.

But they were designed to help regulators and aggrieved consumers track the dealer when recourse is necessary - and we all know some car-shopper who found it necessary.

The lobbyist for NJDAM, former Morris County assemblyman and longtime GOP stalwart Dick Kamin, insists the rules missed a crucial distinction: These are not dealers who sell to the public; they are wholesalers who sell to used car lots and simply need a place to stash the inventory they acquire at auctions.

Though he represents the landlord (NJDAM) and not the 300-plus absentee dealers who occupy the Bridgeton lot, he insists that "consumers will not be adversely impacted in any way."

We'll find out soon enough. Perhaps Kamin had little use for the SCI report - "The SCI is a burial ground for attorneys who can't make it in the private sector," he said with seething derision - but there was no excuse for lawmakers to ignore it. If they believed input from Seglem and MVC regulators was unnecessary, they were sold a lemon.

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CLEARWATER, Fla., June 24, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On the 21st of June, Pinellas County Sheriffs Deputy Jessica Hughey spoke to parents and educators at the United for Human Rights (UHR) Center in Downtown Clearwater on Internet Security - Protecting our Children from Human Traffickers. The UHR Center, supported by the Church of Scientology, promotes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the 30 rights that all humans have, including the right to no slavery.



Sanna Heden, Deputy ED of UHR, said, With the open and free way for people to connect and communicate online, there are also ways for Human Traffickers to get to our children.

Human Trafficking, or modern day slavery, has now grown into one of the top three multi-billion industries in the world.

Deputy Hughey told the audience that one of the ways traffickers lure youth into the Sex Trafficking industry is by making friends with them over social media and online internet pages. The traffickers gain the trust of the youth which allows them to extract these youth from their homes into a life of slavery.

For more information about the United for Human Rights (UHR) Center, on holding your own events in the Center or to request what issues you think is needed to create awareness of, contact the United for Human Rights Center Manager on 727-467-6960, email sanna@humanrights.com or visit the Center on 29 North Fort Harrison Avenue, Clearwater FL 33755.

United for Human Rights (UHR)

UHR is a non-profit organization that assists and unites individuals, educators, organizations and governmental bodies at all levels around the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). They distribute booklets on the 30 articles of the UDHR, The Story of Human Rights" video and an educator's guide on the 30 articles. These materials are created in collaboration with the Human Rights Department of the Church of Scientology International and are available for free to all educators, youth and anyone interested in preserving human rights. The UHR Center also houses the Youth for Human Rights (YHR) Campaign, a 501(3) non-profit organization. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology inspired the movement when he said, "Human Rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream."
PATERSON - The "Mother Church" of the Catholic Diocese of Paterson, St. John the Baptist Cathedral, will be rededicated Saturday after the completion of a $17.4 million restoration project.

The ticket-only event will be led by Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli on the day of the feast for the church's patron, St. John. It will also be live streamed at www.rcdop.org

"The re-dedication of our historic cathedral now beautifully rebuilt is a visible sign of the vitality of our great Diocese," Serratelli said. "I am so grateful for the faith and generosity of our people. Our cathedral remains a beacon of hope and faith for generations to come."

The six-year renovation of the tallest building in Paterson was prompted by falling ceiling tiles.

Significant interior and exterior repairs were made to the 146-year-old Neo-Gothic structure including a redesign of the liturgical space and the re-purposing of historic features such as the 1987 altar, the 1927 Stations of the Cross, the 1881 Mission Cross and the 1878 reredos, an ornamental screen at the back of the altar.

The parish, began in 1820 when Bishop John Connolly of New York assigned the Rev. Richard Bulgar to Paterson -- the first priest permanently assigned to New Jersey, according to a history of the cathedral prepared by Msgr. Raymond Kupke, pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Hawthorne.

A year later, with $1,000, the first St. John's was built at the corner of Mill and Market streets.

It was outgrown by the rapidly expanding community and in 1833 a new church was built for $15,000 on Oliver Street. Thirty years later, Bishop James R. Bayley of Newark named Father Dean McNulty as St. John's 13th pastor. He served for nearly 60 years and watched Paterson's population grow to more than 100,000 people.

To accommodate the influx, McNulty wanted to make a grand statement by locating the church at the corner of Main and Grand. He purchased 16 lots for $10,000 and the cornerstone was laid before a crowd of 10,000 onlookers Sept. 11, 1865. The new church was designed by Patrick C. Kiely, a prominent New York City architect who also designed the Cathedrals of Boston and Chicago.

Stone quarried from Little Falls and brought to Paterson down the Morris Canal was used by volunteer laborers to build the $232,000 structure. All along, McNulty had to deny rumors that he had pretentious of cathedral status for St. John's.

But in December 1937 Pope Pius XI created the Diocese of Paterson -- covering Passaic, Morris and Sussex counties -- and set St. John's as the Cathedral.

Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AllisonPries. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
PATERSON -- A judge on Thursday dismissed murder and gun charges against a woman accused in the 2014 Paterson slaying of a recently released ex-convict, according to a published report.

Jose "Chepa" Rodriguez, 25, was killed in March 2014. (Courtesy of Kim Rodriguez)

Jennifer Suriel, 28, still faces an obstruction of justice charge for allegedly making false statements to police investigating the shooting of Jose "Chepa" Rodriguez, 25, the Paterson Press reported. The case against three others charged in the murder will continue.

Suriel's defense lawyer Matthew Priore told the newspaper his client has long maintained she is innocent of the charges.

Rodriguez was attempting to take control of the illegal drug trade at Park Avenue and Straight Street from Suriel's then-boyfriend, according to court documents, cited by the Paterson Press. The group was allegedly searching for Rodriguez and found him at an illegal club on Crooks Avenue, where he was gunned down March 23, 2014.

Family members previously told NJ Advance Media Rodriguez had served prison time, but was working to turn his life around when he was killed. Records show he served four years on weapons offenses and was released the October before he was shot.

"He was changing his ways," Rodriguez's aunt, Dalia Miranda, said in a 2014 interview. "He was young. He did his mistakes, and no one's perfect."

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc and on Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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TRENTON -- The raucous battle between Gov. Chris Christie and the state's largest health insurance provider that's threatening to grind budget negotiations to a halt has spurred the governor to issue a new executive order designed to let the public know more about state actions.

The governor on Friday ordered state agencies to publish orders, opinions or fines they levy against any groups under an agency's purview.

Christie issued the order two days after he vilified Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, who he's been pressing to give up $300 million of its reserves to the state, for getting slapped with $16 million in fines from New Jersey over a period of nine months.

The governor made clear in his news conference Wednesday that the Department of Human Services, which has issued some of the fines against the insurer, had not been going public when it fines an organization.

The department, which operates the state Medicaid program, slapped Horizon with a $15.5 million fine for mishandling thousands of claims over the past year and for misreporting some financial information to the state, the governor said.

But Human Services has yet to release details of the fine or of past fines against the insurer.

Christie's new executive order forces all state agencies to make such information public by posting final or interim orders.

"Transparency and accessibility of agency decisions ensures accountability of state government and the entities with which it contracts for goods and services," Christie said in a statement on Friday.

"It is especially necessary and in the public's interest when such conduct concerns matters of public health, safety and welfare, and when these decisions involve the receipt and expenditure of public money," he said.

A DHS spokeswoman, Pam Ronan, refused to release the penalty letter NJ Advance Media requested under the Open Public Records Act even after the governor's executive order.

Horizon is challenging the release of the letter to the media, which the state has permitted under its contract.

"We oppose the release of the letter for the same reasons we are challenging the action, it contains numerous factual inaccuracies and improper conclusions," Horizon spokesman Kevin McArdle said.

The department released instead a chart listing insurance companies which have participated in the Medicaid program since 2008, how many times each has violated the state contract, and the amount of money the department has assessed in fines.

From 2008 to May 2017, the department cited eight different Medicaid insurance companies 292 violations, amounting to $47.6 million in penalties. Horizon was cited 52 times and assessed $19.1 million. United Healthcare was cited 75 times but assessed less, at $16.3 million.

Christie said Wednesday Horizon also bungled a new Medicaid payment system last year that resulted in the company withholding $8 million from 1,127 doctors, hospitals and other medical providers. Horizon deemed these to be overpaid claims, but did not give the providers advance notice and a chance to appeal, according to a notice on the state Department of Banking and Insurance's website.

In March, Horizon agreed to pay a $150,000 fine for this offense, and pay $241,824 in interest to these providers to resolve the matter, according to the consent order.

Horizon also agreed in September to pay a $400,000 for wrongly denying 4,500 hospice and home care claims, according to the state consent order.

Christie is brokering a budget deal with legislative leaders that would allow Democrats to inject an extra $125 million into state education funding in exchange for, among other things, Christie's Horizon legislation.

Horizon officials have resisted handing over the $300 million, saying it would be unfair to its policyholders.

Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) on Thursday said he wouldn't support taking $300 million from Horizon "in no way, shape, or form."

NJ Advance Media Staff Writer Susan K. Livio contributed to this report.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook.
TRENTON -- Former state Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) has emerged as a top contender to be Democratic nominee for governor Phil Murphy's running mate, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Oliver, New Jersey's first black woman Assembly speaker who led the lower house of the Legislature from 2010 to 2014, is highly regarded for the lieutenant governor's spot for reasons of resume and demography.

"She brings intimate knowledge of Trenton and the workings of how legislation moves," said one insider with direct knowledge of the Murphy campaign's thinking. "Which is probably an added benefit, coming to someone of Phil's position."

Murphy spent 23 years as a top executive at investment bank Goldman Sachs and served as U.S. ambassador to Germany during President Barack Obama's first term, but has no experience in New Jersey government.

Murphy's campaign strategist, Brendan Gill, declined to comment on the search for a running mate, and a Murphy campaign insider stressed that there was no decision made yet.

Oliver, reached by phone on Friday by NJ Advance Media, said she'd heard she was under consideration but said she hadn't been formally offered the slot and declined to comment on her chances for getting it.

"That's something you'd have to ask Ambassador Murphy," Oliver said.

But one Democratic lawmaker who'd been under consideration for the slot was emphatic: "I hear it's Sheila."

Bridget Harrison, a professor of law and political science at Montclair State University, who said she'd heard Oliver was in strong contention for the slot, noted that choosing Oliver would benefit Murphy in several ways.

"With Oliver having served as Speaker, she brings a skill set that many have noticed is likely lacking in Murphy's toolbox," Harrison said.

And Harrison added: "The importance of African-American voters was demonstrated heavily in the 2016 election."

Former Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly Sheila Oliver listens to Phil Murphy at a an event at the D'lorice Banquet Hall. Tuesday April 19, 2016. Irvington, NJ, USA (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Hillary Clinton won New Jersey by 14 points last year but Obama carried the state by 17.7 points in 2012.

What's more, exit polling data shows Clinton's failed 2016 presidential bid was informed by weaker turnout by black voters and stronger-than-expected turnout among white and Hispanic voters. New Jersey mirrored that trend.

The lowest voter turnout in 2016 was in Essex County, at 59 percent -- three and a half percentage points lower than in 2012, when Obama was reelected.

Essex is 42 percent white and 40 percent black.

"Self-aware Democrats walked away recognizing that it's hugely important that the concerns of African- Americans are addressed," Harrison said. "(Voters of color) are asking, 'Is this a candidate who listens to people like me?'"

Oliver is on a sizeable list of women of color said to be under consideration by Murphy, including state Sen. Shavonda Sumter (D-Essex), Camden mayor and former state senator Dana Redd, as well as state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex) and Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez.

But one Murphy campaign insider stressed the former Assembly Speaker in particular has credibility with the communities she's represented, is a compelling public speaker and comes across as someone with a deep understanding of state and local political issues.

Oliver is "top of the class in all those elements," according this Murphy campaign insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the vetting process.

With the exception Redd, all of Murphy's choices for lieutenant governor are from north Jersey, something that Harrison said may be a nod to a potential changes in state Assembly leadership.

Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) is facing a facing a challenge from Assemblyman Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) who last month announced he'd cobbled together a patchwork of central and southern Jersey lawmakers to defeat Prieto when lawmakers choose leaders after the November election.

Giving the lieutenant governorship to a north Jersey lawmaker like Oliver helps assuage worry among northern county leaders that they're losing influence in Trenton. The state Senate is led by south Jersey's Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester).

"If it appears that north Jersey is losing the Assembly," Harrison said. "Then giving her the lieutenant governorship can be used to placate those concerns."

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
Edvard I. Moser Facts

 Nobel Media AB. Photo: A. Mahmoud

Edvard I. Moser

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014 Affiliation at the time of the award: Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway Prize motivation: for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain Prize share: 1/4

Life Edvard Moser was born in Alesund, Norway. After studying at the University of Oslo, where he met his future wife and co-recipient May-Britt Moser, he received a doctorate in neurophysiology in 1995. After stays at the University of Edinburgh and University College London, the couple moved to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Edvard Moser is a professor of neuroscience and director of the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Trondheim. Edvard and May-Britt Moser have two daughters.

Work The awareness of ones location and how to find the way to other places is crucial for both humans and animals. In 2005 May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser discovered a type of cell that is important for determining position close to the hippocampus, an area located in the center of the brain. They found that when a rat passed certain points arranged in a hexagonal grid in space, nerve cells that form a kind of coordinate system for navigation were activated. They then went on to demonstrate how these different cell types cooperate.

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WASHINGTON  With thousands of south Louisiana homeowners receiving startling increases in the cost of their flood insurance, members of the Louisiana congressional delegation said Thursday they have run out of patience waiting for FEMA to explain what went into calculating the new rates.
A favorite summer pastime soon will light up the skies on both sides of the Missouri River.

For the first time in nearly 80 years, Iowans, like their Nebraska neighbors, can purchase and set off fireworks for the Fourth of July.

Omahans can begin buying and lighting firecrackers in town on Sunday, but some fireworks businesses already have opened up shop in Iowa.

Fireworks could be sold in permanent structures in Iowa starting June 1, weeks before Nebraska sales begin. Fireworks sales in temporary structures such as tents could begin on June 13 in Iowa.

Dan Williams, owner of Wild Willys Fireworks, told The Omaha World-Herald that he has had several locations in Iowa running since last week.

We see it as a new market, he said of the Springfield, Nebraska-based business.

But expansion into Iowa hasnt been as easy for Bellino Fireworks.

The Papillion-based company is seeking an injunction in U.S. District Court to bar four central Iowa cities from enforcing fireworks restrictions.

The Des Moines Register reported that Ankeny, Boone, Johnson and Pleasant Hill are the targets of the Bellino complaint. Another company has sued to stop Des Moines from limiting firework sales to industrial areas.

According to state law, cities cant restrict the sale of fireworks, but many cities have passed regulations on their use, such as reducing the dates or times they can be shot off.

Several communities have banned firecrackers from being shot off in city limits.

Vince Bellino, manager of Bellino Fireworks, said the lawsuit came about because of the conflict between the state fireworks law and what some cities have forbidden in their regulations.

It seems to be contradictory, he said.

Bellino said the company would be opening around 45 locations in the Iowa market this year. Setting up shop in some communities, he said, has gone much more smoothly than in others.

Were pretty excited about the opportunity to open up there, but its been a process, he said.

Two destructive blazes started by fireworks led Iowa officials to ban the explosives in the 1930s. Until this year, the state permitted only novelty firecrackers, such as snakes and sparklers.

The new law allowing consumer-grade fireworks in Iowa was signed in May, leaving many cities scrambling to adjust their ordinances in time for the Fourth of July.

Iowas always been a state of very limited items that you could sell, said Marv Kohler with the Nebraska Fireworks Retailers Association. To go from minute to extreme was quite a variance there.

Iowas law permits a few types of fireworks that are banned in Nebraska, such as wire sparklers and bottle rockets. Kohler said this might encourage some Nebraskans to cross over to Iowa for their fireworks, but the selections offered at stands in the two states shouldnt vary much.

The Council Bluffs City Council voted unanimously to allow residents to shoot off firecrackers from July 1 to July 4.

Theres concern across the state about how the first year with fireworks will go, Council Bluffs City Clerk Jodi Quakenbush said.

Council Bluffs city officials have said they are worried about the threat fireworks pose to public safety and how swiftly the state law passed.

It came so quickly, so were just waiting to see what happens ourselves, Quakenbush said.

Quakenbush said she estimated the city would approve about seven or eight tent permits for firework sales.

On Thursday afternoon, sisters Ashley Rhoades, 13, and Taylor Rhoades, 16, were taking a break from setting up in a fireworks tent in the Walmart parking lot on Manawa Center Drive.

Theyre trying to raise money with the Midwest Family Worship Center for a trip to a youth conference in Branson, Missouri, and were excited when their pastor asked them to help with a fireworks stand.

Now that were doing it, its not as much fun as we thought, Taylor Rhoades said.

Youve got to get it perfect, Ashley Rhoades said of setting up the stand. And then the inspectors have to look at it, and if its not right with them, you have to redo most of it.

The idea of raising thousands of dollars selling fireworks like Crazy Eyeballs and High in the Sky makes it worth it, though, Taylor Rhoades said.

Their stand opened Friday.

In the Omaha metropolitan area, more than a hundred fireworks stands have permits to sell for this Independence Day.

Several metro-area communities also feature professional displays.

In 2010, when the Nebraska State Legislature was looking to expand the types of fireworks that could be sold, fireworks retailers estimated their sales generated at least $500,000 in sales tax revenue, Kohler said.

The Iowa Legislative Services Agency estimated the states first year of fireworks sales would bring in about $1.1 million in sales tax revenue.

 This report includes material from the Associated Press
SIOUX CITY (AP)  Police radios have been crackling in the background of Jeff Wessendorfs life for more than 40 years.

Growing up, he fondly remembers his parents running the Bearcat police scanner they bought from Greenville Pharmacy in Leeds.

As he grew up, the 52-year-old kept at least one scanner in his home or vehicle, for use as a personal hobby and to monitor conditions during the winter for his snow removal business.

Its interesting, he said, describing what has kept him listening for so long. And its good for road reports and stuff like that.

Beginning a week ago, however, things changed for Wessendorf, as well as for the other loyal scanner hobbyists in the Sioux City metro.

Radios ceased receiving traffic from most local law enforcement as the agencies began encrypting their main channels, which had previously been public.

While Wessendorf can still receive a few remaining fire department and medical channels, listening isnt quite the same, he said.

Its the end of an era, he told The Sioux City Journal. It was a hobby for a lot of people.

The encryption follows a major, multi-million-dollar upgrade at the Siouxland Tri-State Area Radio Communications System, or STARCOMM, which includes agencies in Woodbury County; Union County, South Dakota; and Dakota County, Nebraska.

On June 9, STARCOMM fully switched to upgraded radio equipment and joined Iowas statewide radio system, which allows law enforcement and other agencies to communicate with their local contacts from anywhere in the state.

At the same time, channels from all law enforcement agencies in the participating counties  with the exception of the Union County Sheriffs Department  underwent encryption, meaning only those with specially enabled radios can hear the traffic.

Sioux City Police Chief Doug Young said his departments decision to move to encryption was to prevent criminals from eavesdropping on their location and then using that knowledge to elude or ambush officers. He said times have changed.

There are people out there that monitor police frequencies and commit crimes, he said. Youre going to see probably more departments moving toward this, if they havent already done it.

Before the switch-over, the department had used two encrypted channels  one for tactical purposes and one for information  and one unencrypted one for its main operations.

Young said discussions among department officials to encrypt the third channel began after a pair of burglaries that occurred about a year ago, in which the suspects had vanished by the time police arrived on scene.

After authorities apprehended and interviewed the suspects, they discovered they had been monitoring scanner traffic through a cellphone app.

South Sioux City police chief Ed Mahon said his department switched over for similar reasons, as well as to be sure that sensitive information like peoples names, birth dates and social security numbers werent being broadcast on the departments main channel, as had been previous practice.

Some traffic, when it gets out, is inappropriate for everyone to hear, Mahon said.

Mahon added that South Sioux City Police have the option to de-encrypt their main operations channel in the future if they find a way to remove sensitive information.

I dont think any hard-and-fast thing has been decided, he said.

Wessendorf said he understands law enforcements reasoning, but hes still a bit disappointed about the move.

Its a hobby for a lot of older people, he said. Its kind of a disappointment for the honest people who use it like theyre supposed to.

As another aspect of the change, STARCOMM has now joined Iowas statewide radio system, along with radio systems in West Des Moines and Dallas County.

The move has saved both STARCOMM and the state money by providing state-funded upgrades to STARCOMMs existing towers and updating aging equipment, according to city and county 911 director Glenn Sedivy.

Sedivy said STARCOMMs radio equipment was going to be obsolete by 2018, as Motorola would no longer support that version of the equipment.

We were 10 versions behind, Sedivy said. This brings us up to the latest that Motorola has on the shelf.

Some local police departments, such as Sioux City and South Sioux City, have purchased new scanner radios, as well, replacing ones that were also nearing becoming obsolete.

So far, the Sioux City Police Department and Woodbury County Sheriffs Office have made arrangements to share encrypted main channels with local media to allow them to continue to monitor traffic. Mahon said South Sioux City is willing to work toward a similar arrangement.
ELM CREEK  Theres a curious old glass structure right off of Interstate 80 near Elm Creek filled with antique cars.

Catch it at the right time of day, and the central Nebraska sun makes the old building beam at passers-by like a nostalgic road sign. Chevyland USA, a classic car museum, is full of auto history, each steel relic telling its own story.

Look closely and youll find treasures, such as the green 1965 Chevy Duane Earl Pope used as a getaway car during the Big Springs Massacre, one of the deadliest bank robberies in Nebraska history.

Murderer to find home in Nebraska penitentiary The man responsible for one of the bloodiest bank robberies in Midwestern history will be re

Back in the 60s or 70s, somewhere in there, there was a guy who wrote a book on the 60 years of Chevy, Monte Hollertz, owner of Chevyland, said. One night I was not sleepin, and I thought, Well, if hes going to write the book, Im going to start collecting.

It can be hard to pinpoint the Pope getaway car among its car brethren  the relic is tucked away safely among a row of Impalas. Monte, whos been collecting the classic rides since 1976, gives each auto its own dedicated space, telling the story of each old car in an equally unassuming fashion.

I was farming south of Holdrege, and I started collecting and picking all the sport models. No two-doors or sedans in the bunch, Monte said.

Over the years, he has traveled well outside of Nebraska on his journey for Chevys, venturing to Oregon and Kansas where he dug up quite a few of his prized possessions. Monte worked with his sons to restore the old beauties, and even found an old skating rink in Minden to house them.

That original version of Chevyland was in Minden for three or four years, Monte said, before he decided the traffic wasnt what he expected.

Monte did what any industrious farmer would do: He found another piece of land to grow on.

I thought Id come up here on the interstate and let it advertise itself, Monte said. I started looking and found this place. I drove a 55 Chevy and parked it in this driveway and kept track of the people who looked at the car that went by on the interstate.

Satisfied by the number of curious onlookers, Monte headed over to the owners house and asked him to sell it, no questions asked.

The new property, right off of I-80 at Elm Creek at 7245 Buffalo Creek Road, wasnt for sale when Monte found it, but the farmer-turned-car-curator has had to be a salesman to get his hands on some of the more rare automobiles, and quickly convinced the owner to sell him the prime locale.

I think I paid $30,000 for six acres here, Monte said.

Finding the new property was the easy part, though, according to Monte and his wife, Jo.

I didnt know anything of what I had to do, Monte said.

The rules and regulations, Jo said, laughing.

Monte opted to wing it, purchasing a prefabbed building from Oxford, which he placed on the property with windows facing the interstate. One misplaced sand water pump later, and Chevyland USA was officially in business, this time in Elm Creek. Monte kept up with the farm on a full-time basis, and also worked nonstop to get Chevyland USA to start up.

He didnt take over as the head curator of Chevyland USA full time until 1980, when he married Jo.

Monte and I didnt get married until 1980, Jo said. He was still living down on the farm. When we got married, we moved up here and the oldest boy took over the farm.

I always liked cars, Jo said. I learned to like them more after I got here.

The building had only a small kitchen and bedroom for the nights when Monte would rather crash among his cars than drive back to Holdrege when the couple moved in, but with nine kids total, the couple needed more room to spread their wings. They built a cozy little home onto the museum, and have spent the years welcoming the curious.

This has been our home for 37 years, Jo said.

Jos always been a good sport about Montes penchant for collecting, although Monte, now 84, says he has run out of gas when it comes to digging up cars.

I always told him other guys took their wives up and down Main Street, Jo said. Mine took me up and down the back alleys to look for cars.

Finding relics takes a lot of research and a lot of investigating, and its just not something hes up to. Hed rather spend his time watching Fox News or Animal Planet.

Monte isnt sure the exact number of cars in the collection these days  probably 80-something  but the collection has long surpassed being Chevy-exclusive. There are a number of Fords, Audis and Mercedes lined up against their Chevy counterparts, and one may even spot the odd Oldsmobile or Cadillac in the bunch, too.

Out of the 60 years of Chevy, at one time I had 55 of them, Monte said. Now I got probably 10 or 15 different brands of cars in there.

Hes not sure how many Chevys are left back in that collection these days  hes traded some off for other cars that interested him

Thats (number of Chevys) not up here now, Monte said, pointing to his head.

Still, its apparent that whatever the number, its a lot.

Among the collection at Chevyland are several rare cars  including that getaway car, which Pope rented in Salina, Kan., in June 1965. He drove it to the Farmers State Bank in Big Springs where he shot the bank employees during a robbery. Monte displays the rental agreement and news stories about the crime on the dashboard of the old Chevy.

Most of the cars in Montes collection have slightly less morbid histories, though  theyre just cool cars to own, a blast from the auto past.

The Whippet is a very rare one, Jo said. Theres a 32 Chevy Roadster thrown in the collection too, a very rare and very expensive vehicle.

I like the 60s, Jo said. The bigger the body, the better.

At the height of Chevylands popularity, the couple clocked about 100 visitors a day to the museum. They installed a notification system in their home to alert them when curious onlookers drove onto the property, but its been out of order for a few years. Not that it matters much now  its slowed down a lot, his wife said.

The older people who were most interested in the museum really arent around anymore, Monte said, and the younger generation dont get wrapped up about old cars as much.

Now Im 84 years old and I cant do things like I used to, Monte said. His hands and his brain wont cooperate most days, he said, which makes tinkering with his toys a lot more difficult.

The couple also has a lot bigger of a priority  19 great-grandchildren to spoil  so the slower life of the museum hasnt been too hard to get used to. They still welcome visitors to the museum, and Monte still happily conducts the tours, telling visitors about the history of that Chevy getaway car and his other treasures when the odd onlooker stops by.

Weve got it made now because its kind of peaceful, Monte said.
Northwest Indiana fireworks merchants have slapped up billboards, inflated giant dinosaurs, lit up sparklers in their parking lots, and set out Burma Shave-like series of signs promising the lowest prices anywhere, direct from China or buy one, get six free.

Fireworks sellers, many of which are open year-round in the Region, will seemingly do anything to grab a passing motorists attention.

Thats because fireworks are big business in Northwest Indiana and 90 percent of annual sales come in the crucial month of June, leading up to the Fourth of July. Store owners say as much as 80 percent of the business comes from out-of-state, often from Michigan and Illinois, where fireworks are banned.

The Region benefits most if out-of-towners spend time here on a fireworks run, such as to grab a craft beer, Indiana University Northwest assistant professor of economics Micah Pollak said.

"The impact of fireworks tourism on Northwest Indiana this year will be similar to past years," Pollak said.

"While fireworks are a powerful draw for people from Chicago and Illinois to cross the border to Indiana, we get the most economic benefit when we can encourage these visitors to lengthen their trip. Rather than simply crossing the border for fireworks and returning, every visitor that stays and visits local stores, restaurants, breweries and casinos brings money into the regional economy that otherwise might not exist."

Nearly 100 fireworks businesses operate in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties, according to the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. Theyre not fly-by-night roadside shacks, though some take up residence in empty strip malls for a few weeks. Many are emporiums that offer big-box shopping similar to what one could find at a Target or Walmart, each employing dozens of workers.

The parking lots are often filled with cars sporting out-of-state license plates, especially near the border. Northwest Indiana fireworks store owners say they get customers from as far away as Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio.

"As the reputation of Northwest Indiana in Chicago and Illinois continues to slowly improve, visitors are more likely to consider extending their visit and spending more time and money in the Region," Pollak said.

"The amenities and offerings of cities directly on the border such as Munster and Hammond or along interstate 80/94 play a crucial role. One example is the expansion of microbreweries in these areas over the last few years. While Three Floyds is a common destination for Chicagoans, we can add to this 18th Street Brewery and Byway Brewery in Hammond along with a number of others."

Booming business

The fireworks business has been booming nationwide. U.S. fireworks sales skyrocketed to $1.17 billion last year, nearly double from $610 million in 2000, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association.

Fireworks sales have grown by about 10 percent a year since the state legalized aerial mortars, empowering people to shoot off ordnance one could see at Guaranteed Rate Field or a professional fireworks show on the Fourth of July in their backyards, said Aaron Zambo, president and owner of Uncle Sam Fireworks in Hammond. His Michigan City store also saw a 10 percent boost in sales last year, even though neighboring Michigan allowed aerial fireworks three years ago.

Northwest Indianas a more mature market, he said. You have a lot of stores, and a lot of price competition.

His brother Kris Zambo manages Dynamite Fireworks on Calumet Avenue by the Indiana Toll Road in Hammond. The stores been in business for 50 years, and been just off the toll road for the last 13 years.

Kris Zambo said the legalization of aerial shells caused the fireworks business to explode in popularity. Fireworks manufacturers, mostly based in China, have been looking to capitalize.

When we were kids there were just tanks and snakes, he said. Now there are hundreds of items. There are hens, confetti and sky lanterns ... Designs are getting more intricate. They can make smiley faces.

Everything, even sparklers, are getting bigger and more dramatic, Kris Zambo said. Smoke balls, for instance, are now five times bigger than they once were.

Bigger, higher and louder

The theme is bigger, higher and louder, he said. Its unbelievable  you can have Comiskey Park in your backyard. And now its very safe with government regulations.

The business is becoming more year-round with sales of fireworks during New Years, the Hindu festival of lights Diwali, Cinco de Mayo, and even the Cubs World Series win, Zambo said. People are even buying sparklers for bottle service in clubs and for weddings.

Still, about 90 percent of sales takes place during the crucial weeks leading up to the Fourth of July.

"So far, it's been a pretty good season," Kris Zambo said. "People are having backyard parties and putting on a heck of a nice show. A trend is that people are coming in wanting not just to beat their neighbors but to beat their own show last year."

Region benefits

Fireworks stores create thousands of seasonal jobs in the Region and are often filled by college students looking to put money toward tuition or housing, Kris Zambo said.

"It's a great example of capitalism at work," he said. "Everything I needed to know about business I learned in a fireworks store  marketing, pricing, customer relations, everything."

Fireworks also generate significant tax revenue for the state, since the effective tax rate is 12 percent, Aaron Zambo said. People pay a sales tax of 7 percent and an additional fireworks tax of 5 percent.

He expects sales will be strong this year at his Hammond store, which employs 50 people, because the Fourth of July falls on a Tuesday, making it a four-day weekend.

"People spend more time celebrating the holiday, partying and blowing up fireworks," he said. "People will start lighting them up on a Friday or a Saturday. Once you start, it's addictive."
U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky and the Congressional Steel Caucus are pushing for only American-made steel to be used for naval shipbuilding after the president announced plans to grow the U.S. naval fleet.

Such a requirement would benefit ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor, which typically makes roughly half of the 50,000 tons of steel plate that goes into the average aircraft carrier.

The bipartisan group of Congressmen called upon the administration to require that any future shipbuilding support jobs in the American steel industry, including at the Northwest Indiana mills that ring Lake Michigan. They also asked for the government to consider acquiring aircraft carriers every four years instead of every five years, which they said was needed to grow the fleet and safeguard the U.S. steel industry.

"Aircraft carriers and other naval ships produced by our domestic shipbuilding industry are a vital element of our national defense," Visclosky and the lawmakers wrote in the letter. "As threats to American interests continue to proliferate around the world, our nation increasingly relies on the inherent flexibility and capabilities of the United States Navy and its carrier strike groups comprised of an aircraft carrier, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines. That is why the caucus strongly supports proposals to increase our fleet size."

A single aircraft carrier injects $3 billion into the U.S. economy, supporting jobs in Indiana and 42 other states, the lawmakers wrote. Steelmakers including ArcelorMittal USA provided $265 million worth of steel.

"There is no doubt that as a nation we face difficult choices in order to strengthen the economic health of the defense industrial base," the Congressional Steel Caucus wrote in the letter. "As a caucus, we are united in the belief that a healthy domestic steel industry and a strong domestic steel workforce are vital to our nations naval shipbuilding industry, our national security, and our economic well-being."
WHITING  Aug. 27, 1955, began like any other day for paperboy Dennis Hittle, 13. He heard banging and hissing, but that was normal for anyone who lived in the shadow of Standard Oils Whiting Refinery. Hittle was riding his bike, tossing papers onto customers porches, when it started raining metal.

The refinerys new hydroformer  at 26 stories tall and made of steel 2 inches thick, this catalytic cracker designed to increase the octane level of gasoline was the largest structure in Whiting  exploded with the force of an earthquake.

Author John Hmurovic of the Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society tells this story in his new book, One Minute After Sunrise, which completes three years of work for the historical society in capturing the stories of 82 people who witnessed the explosion that became a turning point for Whiting and its refinery.

"It was a catastrophe like people here had never seen," he said.

Russian attack?

Hmurovich said many of the people who heard the explosion thought the Russians had finally dropped the bomb.

This was 1955, at the height of the Cold War. President Dwight Eisenhower had sent the first U.S. advisors to Vietnam that year, and Illinois Gov. William Stratton signed into law the Loyalty Oath Act, which required public employees to take a loyalty oath or forfeit their jobs.

Conventional wisdom in the Region was that the Russians would bomb the refineries and steel mills first to cripple the United States ability to build new machines of war.

A number of witnesses told Hmurovic and other historical society volunteers they thought it was the end of the world.

The casualties

If you count only the number of people killed and injured, the 1955 explosion and fire wasnt the worst in the plants history. Eight died and 27 were injured in a 1921 explosion at Whiting Refinery.

But the 1955 blast was the first time a crisis at the plant killed someone outside its borders  3-year-old Ricky Plewniak, who was in bed when a 10-foot-long metal pipe killed him.

All told, the blast killed two people and injured 37 others.

The Stieglitz Park neighborhood was among the casualties, torn down to create a safety buffer. The homes and residents lives were destroyed, Hmurovic said.

It was a turning point for Whiting, which had relied heavily on the refinery to provide jobs for residents and money for charitable causes.

After the explosion, the refinery began to lay off employees, something it didnt do even during the Great Depression, Hmurovic said.

Whiting changed, too. No longer can it be assumed that anyone who lives in Whiting works at the refinery or has a family member who does.
EAST CHICAGO  A 43-year-old accused of operating a "social club" selling crack cocaine in the city's Calumet section entered into a guilty plea Friday in federal court.

Lloyd Bruce, of East Chicago, entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, though he had initially faced other numerous drug charges, U.S. District court records show.

In owning and operating a social club in the 4800 block of Alexander Avenue, Bruce allegedly "knowingly (used) and (maintained) a place ... for the purpose of manufacturing, distribution and using," of crack cocaine, court records alleged.

A confidential source met in October with federal DEA agents, who were seeking names of the most prominent drug traffickers in the city's Calumet area, a criminal complaint said. The source provided names of individuals, including Bruce, who he said was opening a social club in the neighborhood. Santiago at the time had transferred the social club property to Bruce, the source told DEA agents.

Agents monitored an Oct. 20 a controlled $300 purchase of crack cocaine between Bruce and the source at the social club, records show.

At 12:45 p.m., agents observed the confidential source enter the social club, and at 12:48 p.m., the source exited to the alleyway behind the property with the crack cocaine received from Bruce, court records show. The source handed off to the agent a bag containing a white, rock-like substance that field tested positive for cocaine.

Agents also recorded audio and video of a second controlled purchase between the source and Bruce on Nov. 1, 2016.

Bruce is named in two superseding indictments from the U.S. attorney for the U.S. District of Northern Indiana accusing several people in East Chicago of dealing cocaine in the Calumet neighborhood.

Those arrested suspects in a second superseding indictment, filed April 17, include: Jose Zay Santiago, 39, of Munster; Derrick Twin Everett, 38; Jerome Juju Anderson, age unknown; Jeffrey Sims, 57; Deandrea Shorty Black Davis, 35; Victor Davis, age unknown, and Dylan Glover, 46, all of East Chicago. Sims entered a guilty plea last month, admitting to crack cocaine distribution and firearm possession to further a drug trafficking crime, records show.

Bruce, along with Santiago and Davis, dealt crack cocaine between the dates of Sept. 1 and Dec. 1, 2016, the second superseding indictment alleged. Bruce and Anderson are also accused of crack cocaine distribution on Oct. 25, 2016.

Under Bruce's plea agreement, he faces up to 20 years and life term for supervised release for the first count. On the second count, he faces anywhere between five years and life in prison, records show.
HAMMOND  The federal government is recommending 18-month prison sentences apiece for a mother and daughter from Gary accused of dealing drugs to an undercover agent.

Shanterra Jones, 23, first indicted in June 2016, pleaded guilty earlier this year to dealing Ecstasy on April 20, 2016, to an undercover agent, according to U.S. District Court records. Jones allegedly texted the agent to arrange a meeting to purchase a firearm and Ecstasy that day.

Her mother, 42-year-old Consuela Jones, pleaded guilty earlier this year to selling Ecstasy on April 7, records show. She is accused of texting an undercover agent to arrange the purchase of Ecstasy and Vicodin.

In exchange for their plea agreement, other drug charges were dropped, records show.

Consuela Jones pleaded guilty in 1999 to conspiracy to distribute narcotics, according a sentencing memorandum from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Indidna.

"A little over (16) years has passed since the defendant's conviction ... A key difference this time around is the involvement of her daughter," the memorandum stated.

Despite knowing the dangers and consequences of selling drugs, Consuela Jones "stood by, and allowed her daughter to sell drugs right alongside her," the federal government's sentencing memorandum stated.
VALPARAISO  As the release date nears for inmates in the Indiana Department of Correction, those with substance abuse problems are at an increased risk of going back to using drugs and/or alcohol no matter how long they have been sober, according to the director of addiction recovery services.

This is the case because the anticipation of regaining access to drugs and/or alcohol is enough to fuel dangerous cravings in addicts, Stephanie Spoolstra said.

Prison officials have a tool that has proven effective in not only combating cravings, but also literally standing in the way of opioids and alcohol producing euphoric effects on users. And a small, but growing, number of counties around the state are taking notice, including Porter County.

The tool is the drug Naltrexone and Porter County Sheriff Dave Reynolds intends to begin offering it July 1 to qualified inmates leaving the jail if the county's judges sign off on the program as expected this coming week.

Injection and pill forms

Reynolds said he and a team of others involved in the local legal system are attempting to derail the troubling pattern of substance abusers being released from jail only to victimize the county once again.

"Then what are we doing?" he asked. "They eventually will just be coming back."

The proposal calls for administering the drug by injection a day or two before the inmate is released on a voluntary basis, Reynolds said. This form of the drug remains effective for up to 30 days, he said.

Continued use of the drug, in conjunction with addiction treatment, will then be required as part of the offender's probation or pretrial release, he said.

The IDOC provides its injections of the drug seven days prior to releasing inmates, who qualify through a screening process and medical review, Spoolstra said.

The effort has proven effective enough that it is now being expanded to include a pill form of the medication that will be provided to inmates 90 days before their release to combat cravings, she said. It will also be offered to incoming inmates to combat their cravings.

"We're starting to use it as a maintenance medication," Spoolstra said.

The medication has no known time limits on use and has minimal side effects other than to cause a painful detox for those who have used drugs up to 10 days earlier, she said.

Neither Lake nor LaPorte counties currently uses or is pursuing use of the drug Naltrexone, according to their sheriff's departments.

Therapy and 12 step included

To understand how Naltrexone works, Spoolstra suggested seeing opioids and alcohol as keys that fit into a lock and open a door. Naltrexone is also a key that fits into the same lock, but does not open the door and blocks the opioid and alcohol keys from entering.

Naltrexone, which goes by the name Vivitrol in injectable form and Revia as a pill, is most effective when used in conjunction with a therapeutic and 12-step recovery program, she said.

Reynolds said inmates released on the drug will face violating their probation or pre-trial release if they fail to follow through with treatment.

The drug is different than other medical treatments for addiction such as Methadone and Suboxone in that it does not have a mind-altering impact on users, Spoolstra said. This means it is not abusable and thus more appropriate for an institutional setting like a prison.

Police said earlier this year they had broken up a highly coordinated effort of smuggling Suboxone into the Porter County Jail in the form of tiny sublingual sheets that were sold for up to $100 each among inmates.

Officials at the IDOC's Westville Correctional Facility said they caught a mother earlier this year attempting to smuggle Suboxone into the prison for her son.

No cost to taxpayers

Reynolds said he was approached a couple years ago with the idea of using Naltrexone at the jail.

"The reason we didn't was the cost," he said.

The injection costs between $500 and $1,700 per dose, depending where in the country it is purchased, Spoolstra said. The pills cost $1 each.

Porter County will not be spending any tax money on the effort, Reynolds said. The cost of the medication will be charged to the offender's insurance or Medicaid coverage, he said. It can also be billed to the state's Recovery Works program, which provides support services to felons without insurance coverage.

The IDOC also relies on insurance, Medicaid and Recovery Works to cover the cost of the drug once the inmates are released, Spoolstra said.

The drug maker donates the injectable form for use within the prisons, she said, and the prison's medical provider covers the in-house use of the pills.

Both the state and county programs are completely voluntary. Reynolds said it will be up to defense attorneys to request participation for their clients.
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INDIANAPOLIS  The Indiana Election Commission began working Friday to consolidate Lake County's numerous "small" voting precincts after local officials failed to adopt a bipartisan plan on their own.

The two Republicans and two Democrats on the state panel unanimously agreed to allow the Lake County Republican, Democratic and Libertarian party chairmen to submit proposed consolidation plans to the commission by July 13.

Members of the Lake County Board of Elections and Voter Registration were given until Aug. 1 to file recommended precinct plans with the state.

The commissioners also gave themselves individual authority to craft preliminary plans, though none appeared eager to do so.

"I would strongly encourage the Lake County folks to sit down and work this out," said Anthony Long, the Democratic vice chairman of the commission.

The election commission expects to review any submitted plans during its Aug. 9 meeting at the Statehouse and could adopt a new county precinct plan that day.

A state law enacted last month requires Lake County precincts with fewer than 600 active voters, of which there are 283, be merged with adjacent precincts to reduce the cost of staffing and equipping the county's 523 total precincts.

The consolidation plan ultimately adopted by the state commission will determine in part where Lake County residents vote in the 2018 elections.
GARY  Preliminary work on a project that will include paving and various other improvements to Broadway, including the removal of an old railroad overpass, is expected to begin Monday.

The work will not include sidewalk replacement, although at least one Gary City Council member was hoping it would.

The Indiana Department of Transportation said there will be periodic lane closures on Broadway, between 4th Avenue in Gary and U.S. 231 in Crown Point, from Monday through the end of November. U.S. 30, between Indianapolis Boulevard and Taft Street, will also experience lane closures during this time period.

The work on Broadway will include paving along much of its path, removal of the no-longer-used Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad bridge south of 10th Avenue in Gary, crosswalk improvements from 33rd to 35th avenues, lighting upgrades from 25th to 45th avenues and construction of bus shelters from 6th Street to 86th Place in Merrillville.

The project will support the Gary Public Transportation Corp.'s planned implementation of the Broadway Metro Express bus service this summer, which will increase the speed and frequency of bus trips between Gary and Crown Point.

At last week's Gary City Council meeting, Chief of Staff Dayna Bennett said the amount of work could cause the Broadway project to stretch into next spring.

"It may be too cold to pave by the time all the other work is done," she told the council.

Bennett also mentioned that part of the project will include curb cuts to meet American with Disabilities requirements.

Council President Ron Brewer, D-at large, said he wanted Bennett to check with the state about why sidewalks are not being improved as part of the project. He said it makes no sense for curb cuts to be put in if people are not able to use the sidewalks because of their crumbling conditions.

Doug Moats, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Transportation, said the department of transportation only replaces sidewalks on complete reconstruction projects. The work being done on Broadway, he said, is a rehabilitation project that includes patching and intermittent milling and resurfacing.

According to Moats, cities and towns are typically responsible for the maintenance and updating of sidewalks. He said replacing the sidewalks along Broadway would cost several million dollars.
Maura Healey will be the first openly lesbian governor in U.S. history. Here's a look at 20 candidates who made history in the 2022 midterms.
For the second time this month, an officer at an East Harlem stationhouse has come down with Legionnaires' disease, according to police.

Authorities said the officer at the 23rd Precinct on 102nd St. tested positive for the disease earlier this week but did not need to be hospitalized.

Another officer at the same station house tested positive for the illness about two weeks ago.

The city police department said recent tests for Legionella bacteria in the stationhouse's water supply came back negative.

But the NYPD is conducting additional inspections now as a safety measure.

Seven Legionnaires' disease cases were reported in Lenox Hill earlier this month.

One of the people diagnosed died, but city health department officials said that person was in their 90s and had additional health conditions that contributed to their death.

Symptoms of Legionnaires' disease are similar to the flu and include cough, fever, nausea, and stomach discomfort.

The bacteria are not usually contagious  although they can possibly spread in rare cases  and can be treated with antibiotics.

The bacteria that cause Legionnaires' disease are transmitted through the air.

Between 200 and 400 cases of the disease are reported in the city each year.

In 2015, there were multiple clusters of Legionnaires' disease in the Bronx. More than 100 people got sick and 12 died in the largest one, which was clustered in the South Bronx.
This weekend, the city will celebrate the achievements of the LGBT community during the annual pride parade. But some preservationists want City Hall to do more  and formally recognize as landmarks sites central to the gay rights movement. Our Michael Scotto has the story.

This 19th century building in Greenwich Village is home to Julius'  a gay bar that played a pivotal role in the gay rights movement more than 51 years ago.

It was here that Dick Leitsch and fellow gay rights activists challenged a common practice by bars of refusing to serve drinks to gay people.

What they did became known as a "sip-in."

"This is the first time we ever had a demonstration, and we really didn't know what we were doing," said activist Leitsch.

The "sip-in" is the main reason Julius' is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. However, the building is not a city landmark, and preservationists say it should be, because only that designation, they argue, would prevent it from being altered or demolished.

"We want to make sure that its future is safe and secure and that the incredibly important history that took place here is honored and protected," said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

The only official city landmark connected to the gay rights movement is the Stonewall Inn, the site of the 1969 riots considered the start of the gay rights movement. It was named a national monument last year.

Preservationist Andrew Berman wants the city to recognize other important sites to the fight for equality  including this former firehouse in SoHo, which was home to an early gay rights group, and the LGBT Community Center on 13th Street. It is in this room that the group ACT UP held its first meetings to combat the AIDS crisis.

"They were very emotional, they were very empowering," Berman said.

The landmarks commission insists the buildings are currently protected because they sit inside existing historic districts. But the agency says it will look at ways to formally recognize them as spots pivotal to the gay rights movement. Dick Leitsch says that's important.

"The gay bar is the most historic place in the gay world," Leitsch said. "And Julius' is what makes them historical. It reminds people that this is the world of gay people. This is where the gay world began."
At a truck stop a half hour east of Chicago, a semi driver pulled up to a green van marked with a Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium logo.

The driver leaned out the window of his cab and nodded back toward a 17,000-pound gray crate sitting atop a Werner-towed lowboy trailer.

Whatre you hauling? he asked.

Dr. Julie Napier, the Omaha zoos veterinarian, didnt hesitate.

An elephant.

Wow! the trucker said, eyes lighting up as he took off, shaking his head. Napier went back to pumping gas.

That conversation in the shadow of an Indiana convenience store captured the sheer rarity of Louie the elephants 13-hour-47-minute overnight ride to Omaha. And Napiers matter-of-fact reaction illuminated just how remarkably unremarkable and safe this trip was going to be.

Months of planning and preparation went into moving a 6,000-pound, 14-year-old elephant 700 miles across Interstate 80. It paid off.

Louie and his caravan of handlers left the Toledo Zoo about 7:45 p.m. EDT Thursday. They arrived at his new home at the Omaha zoo about 8:25 a.m. Friday.

A convoy of three vehicles crossed parts of five states without incident or injury. Once he reached Omaha, Louie walked uneventfully into his new space.

Everything went according to plan.

It was almost a model trip, said Dennis Pate, the Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquariums CEO and executive director.

Louie had been in training  getting acclimated to his crate  for weeks, and he was a star student. But keepers were still nervous, until they got going, at least.

We felt highly prepared, but Louie made it amazingly easy, and of course the trainers in Toledo made that also incredibly easy, said Dan Houser, Omahas curator of large mammals.

Apparently Louie was a little nervous himself at the start. He trumpeted as the crate left his home zoo, and again as the convoy first rolled onto I-80 in Ohio. Once they got on the highway, it was smooth sailing.

It was progressively better, Houser said.  ... He was still becoming familiar with the things that he wasnt easily exposed to during crate training: Cars driving by, the rumble of the road and the little bit of motion in the crate, but after that, he grew very comfortable.

Louie has come to Nebraska for one clear reason: making babies.

Two female elephants the Omaha zoo imported from Swaziland last year are ready to become pregnant, and the zoo wants to make the most of its chance.

Louie is a fertile bull. Omahas wild-born elephants are considered highly valuable to the genetic diversity of the species, given the rarity of a wild elephant import to the United States.

They have been able to test and know he has a very viable sperm count, Houser said. We know he can reproduce.

In August, when Omahas female elephants are ready to breed, the zoo hopes Louie will be able to seal the deal.

Hes going to be on a double honeymoon here, Pate said.

Pate said the zoo has been seeking a compatible bull elephant for two years. The nationwide species survival plan for elephants recommended several males for breeding, and Louie was ultimately chosen to move to Omaha to ensure the Swazi elephants reproduced. An agreement was reached a few months ago.

There was no payment for Louie, although Omaha covered travel expenses, as is customary in animal transports. Louie still will belong to the Toledo Zoo, but hell live in Omaha for the foreseeable future.

Omaha will keep all his male offspring and every odd-numbered female offspring, and the remainder will be the Toledo zoos property. Family groups will stay together until the baby elephants are mature, and even then, they may move as a unit to a new zoo.

That way we arent fracturing families, Houser said. We believe that will improve reproductivity over time.

Louie was one of four elephants and the first one to be born in Toledo, so seeing him off was difficult. The Ohio zoo has since birthed a second male, Lucas, a 7-year-old.

Louie is regarded by staff at both zoos as a model elephant, despite a 2010 incident that injured his keeper. The keeper, since retired, violated protocol by entering the enclosure alone, and suffered punctured lungs and fractured ribs after he appeared to startle the elephant.

After Toledo announced its intentions to send Louie to Omaha, his admirers showed up to wish him farewell.

The LaPlante family  Kelly, Dan, 17-year-old Cassy and 12-year-old Rachel  have visited every April 30 to celebrate a birthday shared by Louie and Cassy.

We just came for one last time to say goodbye to him, Kelly LaPlante said as the family visited on Wednesday. Were sad, of course, but we know that zoos need to do this to populate.

Getting Louie to Omaha was a meticulously orchestrated endeavor that began months ago, involving staffers from both zoos and a U.S. Department of Agriculture representative in Omaha.

The Henry Doorly Zoo paid Louies way, using a $38,000 custom-built crate that it intends to share with other zoos that need to move elephants.

Zookeepers in Toledo trained Louie to use his crate for nearly three weeks. Omaha zoo staff flew to Ohio in the past week to join the training and to build a rapport with Louie.

On the first day of training, Louie walked directly into the crate, curious and calm. So when it came time to move for real, it was a simple maneuver for Louie.

Officials at both zoos waited for a night with temperatures lower than 85 degrees.

On Thursday, a heavy-duty forklift loaded Louie onto the truck at 4:30 p.m. EDT, and the three-vehicle caravan departed about three hours later.

Louie was accompanied by a crew of seven, including two truck drivers with Werner Enterprises. Houser and Omaha maintenance supervisor Bob Raymond co-piloted a box truck loaded with food, water, supplies and one of Louies favorites: fruit punch flavored Gatorade.

Napier, the Omaha veterinarian, was joined in the green van by Omaha elephant manager Sarah Armstrong and Louies longtime Toledo keeper, Ben Whitebread.

Throughout the drive, the veterinary crew was able to monitor Louies condition using baby monitors located inside the crate. The crate was equipped with an evaporative cooler capable of dropping the in-crate temperature by another 20 degrees.

The convoy moved at 65 mph, stopping every three hours for wellness checks and opportunities to provide Louie with food and drink.

The convoys arrival at the back gate of the elephant exhibit in Omaha was a scene reminiscent of the March 2016 import of the six Swazi elephants.

A crane unloaded Louies crate behind the elephant building in the African Grasslands. That took about two hours, and once complete, Louie again shined.

Crews affixed a temporary V-shaped chute to the crate, leading to a private stall where Louie will get familiar with his new surroundings.

Whitebread, his longtime keeper, eased him out of the crate and, on the second try, down the chute and into his new home. The Toledo keeper plans to stay in Omaha for a few days to help the elephant adapt to his new life.

Shayla Bell Moriarty, Toledo Zoos director of communications, said Louie has been a wonderful ambassador for Toledo and for his species. Were proud to have spent these 14 years with him.

Now its time for a new chapter in Louies life. Its time to grow up and become a daddy.

If the Omaha zoo can make that happen, Pate said, itll do a lot more good than just adding an adorable tyke to the herd. A baby elephant may help stitch the herd together.

Omahas six elephants come from two different herds in Africa. Adding a baby to the mix may help the individuals from different herds meld into one new Omaha family.

All those other females, they protect (the calves), Pate said. It really helps strengthen that group of females as a herd.

That starts with Louie, ideally sometime in August. He may go on display in the next few weeks, depending on how he adjusts to life in Omaha.

Thats all to be sorted out at a later date. After his long journey to Omaha, all Louie needs to worry about is getting cozy.

Well shut the door and give him a chance to adjust, Pate said, and let him catch up on sleep.
The Nebraska-native comedy duo of IMomSoHard took the stage at the Holland Center on Friday night and gave their fans a live R-rated version of their wildly popular web series.

The hundreds of women (and a few men) in the audience whooped, cheered and laughed nonstop as Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley  respectively raised in Central City and Bellevue  talked about their spouses:

Hensley: I knew my husband was perfect for me the day we met. We were in bed 

They talked about the benefits of drinking wine:

Smedley: Wine lowers your standards. Thats why I always think Im doing great.

They talked about what childbirth did to their bodies:

Hensley, pointing to her stomach: Its like the bagel that gave up.

They then pulled up their shirts and squished their bellies into various shapes. Soon their belly buttons were talking, then having a dialogue, then making out.

I find you quite attractive, Smedleys belly told Hensleys. You represent realistic standards of beauty.

This show was the first of two sold-out Omaha performances for Smedley and Hensley (the second show is tonight). Theyre near the start of a national tour, performing about 30 shows over the next several weeks.

The live show grew out of their Facebook-native series, IMomSoHard, which the two comedians launched a little more than a year ago. Their videos have garnered nearly 100 million views.

It was special, they said, to be performing back in Nebraska. Each of them has lived in L.A. for more than a decade. A fair portion of Central City and Bellevue were among Fridays audience.

Ive got so many good friends here that its like my wedding, Smedley said. Only I weigh a lot more than I did.

The comedians families were in the audience. Hensley repeatedly mentioned her father, who later stood up, to audience applause. Hensley liked to bring up the fact that he was in the audience every time the conversation veered into risque territory. After a particularly salty segment:

Hensley: Is my dad still here?

Smedley, squinting into the audience: No. He left. To go to the bar.

The women continually interacted with the audience throughout the night.

They answered submitted questions, most of which we cant repeat. And in the most hysterical bit of the evening, they asked women in the audience to hand over their mom bags. They then rifled through the relinquished bags on stage, trying on various clothing items and exploring the mysteries of the Jesus bag, a red purse with a crucifix bedazzled on one side.

Hensley and Smedley also called out to the few men in the audience:

Hensley: Do we have any single dudes in the house?

One man raised his hand.

Hensley: Oh, sir. You might be a genius.

Smedley: Youre definitely good at math.

Hensley: But you might not make it out of here alive. You could literally light this place on fire with all this estrogen.

Throughout the evening, the moms came back to their message: No mom is perfect. Everyones just doing her best. And wine helps.

I think we should all agree to be OK with being just OK, Smedley said. Because, like, some days? Thats the best anybodys getting.

She then took a drink of wine as she was met with rapturous and empathetic applause.
As Tropical Storm Cindy made landfall in Louisiana this week, citizens and market watchers braced for its impact.

One big concern was that the storm could flood rice-growing areas of Louisiana, which sent prices to a one-year high at 11.5 cents per pound on Monday as storm watchers warned of flood risks. Luckily, the damage to fields was largely contained, which knocked prices swiftly lower by Friday.

As the remnants of the storm continue inland through Arkansas and into the Corn Belt, the storm will bring heavy rain to Midwestern farmers, which should ultimately help the growing corn and soybean crops, which sent prices for both markets to the lowest level of the year.

As of midday Friday, corn for delivery in December was worth $3.78 per bushel, while November soybeans sold for $9.09.

Oil prices slump

Crude oil prices tumbled to a ten-month low as U.S. oil producers continue pumping more oil.

Despite falling prices, U.S. drillers have been adding oil wells for 22 weeks in a row, and are now producing 8 percent more crude oil than last year. However, many of the U.S. wells are likely running at a loss, so further price drops could force a cutback and eventually shoot prices back higher.

The U.S. and others nations like Libya and Nigeria are counteracting the recent production cuts by OPEC and Russia, neutralizing their effort to raise prices.

As of midday Friday, August crude oil traded for $43 per barrel.

Brazilian steaks banned

The USDA announced a ban of Brazilian beef on Thursday, a move that caused a flurry in the global meat markets.

Brazil is one of the worlds largest beef and poultry exporters, but its beef has been tainted by accusations that major companies bribed meat inspectors, which has resulted in increased scrutiny. Since March, the USDA has turned away over 10 percent of Brazilian beef imports due to quality concerns before putting an all-out ban in place this week.

For now, U.S. futures markets shrugged off the news, trading unchanged on Friday after the story broke. However, if other countries follow the U.S. in banning Brazilian meat, the global supply chain could be affected and drive prices higher.

Walt and Alex Breitinger are commodity futures brokers in Silver Lake, Kansas. They can be reached at 800-411-3888 or www.paragoninvestments.com.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  A Kansas federal jury awarded nearly $218 million on Friday to farmers who sued Swiss agribusiness giant Syngenta over its introduction of a genetically engineered corn seed variety.

Syngenta vowed to appeal the verdict favoring four Kansas farmers representing roughly 7,300 growers from that state in what served as the first test case of tens of thousands of U.S. lawsuits assailing Syngentas decision to introduce its Viptera seed strain to the U.S. market before China approved it for imports.

The Kansas trial and a Minnesota one next month involving about 60,000 cases are to serve as bellwether trials, providing guidance for how the complex web of litigation in state and federal courts could be resolved. Attorneys can see how juries react and determine whether to settle other cases or take them to trial.

Cases are currently pending in Nebraska and Iowa.

This is only the beginning, the Kansas farmers attorneys said in a statement, calling Fridays verdict great news for Kansas and U.S. corn growers. We look forward to pursuing justice for thousands more corn farmers in the months ahead.

Syngenta began selling Viptera in the U.S. for the 2011 growing season, but China didnt approve it until December 2014. The lawsuits allege Syngentas move to market the seed variety before Chinas clearing of it for imports wrecked an increasingly important export market for U.S. corn, causing years of depressed corn prices. Court filings show Syngenta aggressively marketed the seeds even when it knew Chinese approval was going to be a problem.

Most of the farmers suing didnt grow Viptera, but China also rejected millions of metric tons of their grain because elevators and shippers typically mix grain from large numbers of suppliers, making it difficult to source corn that was free of the trait. So they say all farmers were hurt by the resulting price drop.

Experts speaking for the farmers who sued said they estimate the economic damage at about $5 billion, though Syngenta has denied its actions caused any losses for farmers.

Fridays jury award, if upheld on appeal, would be dispersed to the more than 7,000 Kansas farmers in the class, minus unspecified attorneys fees. But it remains unclear how much each victim ultimately will get, given that the payouts likely will be proportionate to such variables as the number of bushels each sold during a relative time period, said Don Downing, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

Syngenta said it was disappointed with Fridays outcome because it will only serve to deny American farmers access to future technologies even when they are fully approved in the U.S.

Syngenta said it invested more than $100 million and 15 years in developing Viptera, which has a trait called MIR162 that protects against pests such as earworms, cutworms, armyworms and corn borers.

Court papers show that Syngenta initially assured stakeholders that China would approve MIR162 in time for the 2011 crop, but the date kept slipping. Some exporters sent shipments containing the trait to China anyway. After two years of accepting them, China began rejecting them in late 2013.
The trick to making money with airplanes is to not own them.

Jet Linx learned that lesson four years after the Omaha company started in 1999, giving up ownership of its jets and shifting to aircraft management and a private jet travel card service.

Now, Jet Linx is celebrating its 100th managed jet  actually, the fleet stands at 101 today  and ranks No. 3 in the highly fragmented industry of managing and renting out expensive air vehicles as a service to their owners.

A hundred airplanes is a phenomenal benchmark, said Jet Linx President and CEO Jamie Walker.

He hosted about 400 clients, staff members, vendors and others Friday for supper at downtown Omahas Blatt Beer & Table restaurant, followed by a private concert by the band Smash Mouth at Slowdown.

No. 1 in managed fleet size is Executive Jet Management of Zurich, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaways NetJets, with 160 aircraft. No. 2 is Gama Aviation, based in Hampshire, England.

Jet Linx added 38 aircraft last year and is headed for 110 by the end of 2017. Walker attributed that growth, about 30 percent a year in revenue, to the people running its network of 14 local private airport terminals, alongside the 95-member staff at its operational headquarters near 132nd and Pacific Streets.

From pilots to airplane polishers, Jet Linx has 485 employees.

Joe Moeggenberg, president and CEO of air travel data company Argus International of Cincinnati, said Jet Linxs local network is a unique structure in private jet management, an industry with 2,300 businesses, nearly all of them tiny, that manage private jet airplanes.

Jet Linx  an Argus customer  has a cost advantage because most of its flights start or end at its network cities, Moeggenberg said, meaning fewer expensive empty-cabin flights.

Aside from a few jets managed exclusively for their owners, Jet Linxs card customers can book any of the airplanes made available at the owners discretion.

Jet Linx handles fueling, maintenance, safety checks, hangar storage and other services, including employing pilots, as well as scheduling and tracking flights for Jet Linxs card members, more than 200 in Omaha and 1,300 total.

Card members are guaranteed hourly rates  $3,500 to $8,500, depending on the size of the plane  as well as flight access and safety standards, Walker said. Their travel fees cover Jet Linxs costs and supply revenue for the aircraft owners, often cutting net operating costs by 50 percent.

But no matter how well you manage costs, Walker said, theres an industry truism: You cannot make money owning an airplane.

Besides operating expenses, aircraft prices are high, especially for long-range aircraft.

Jet Linxs fleet includes seven-passenger Beechjet 400s that can travel 1,400 miles on a tank of fuel, often priced around $700,000, and 14-passenger, $20 million-plus Gulfstream 450s with a 5,000-mile range.

Walker said some businesses would end their company flight operations if they had to absorb all the costs. By bringing in revenue from travel card customers they can keep the convenience and time savings that jets offer.

Besides Omaha, Jet Linxs local offices are in Atlanta; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Forth Worth, Texas; Houston; Indianapolis; Nashville, Tennessee; St. Louis; San Antonio; Scottsdale, Arizona; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C.

Jet Linx is majority owner of each location, with a local partner as minority owner.

We need somebody locally who gives us that credibility and trust and support in that community, Walker said, plus contacts to recruit as travel card members.

Besides reduced dead-head flight costs, he said, the terminals provide local-style, personalized service for card members and aircraft owners. The local Jet Linx partner typically becomes the jet guy in each city, he said.

Later this year Jet Linxs local offices will celebrate the 100-aircraft landmark. Jet Linx was founded by Denny Walker, Jamies father and now chairman. He is former head of MemberWorks Inc., an Omaha-based card membership company. Jamie Walker said Jet Linx has room to grow, with plans to open about two locations a year. He said another dozen or so U.S. cities meet Jet Linxs requirements for airport services and other standards.

The Omaha World-Herald is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
A favorite summer pastime soon will light up the skies on both sides of the Missouri River.

For the first time in nearly 80 years, Iowans, like their Nebraska neighbors, will be able to purchase and set off fireworks for the Fourth of July.

Omahans can begin buying and lighting firecrackers in town today, but some fireworks businesses have been open awhile in Iowa.

Fireworks could be sold in permanent structures and used in Iowa starting June 1, weeks before Nebraska sales begin. Fireworks sales in temporary structures such as tents were allowed to begin June 13 in Iowa.

Dan Williams, owner of Wild Willys Fireworks, said he has had several locations in Iowa running since last week.

We see it as a new market, he said of the Springfield, Nebraska-based business.

But expansion into Iowa hasnt been as easy for Bellino Fireworks.

The Papillion-based company is pursuing an injunction in federal court to bar four central Iowa cities from enforcing fireworks restrictions.

According to state law, cities cant restrict the sale of fireworks, but many cities have passed regulations on their use, such as reducing the dates or times they can be shot off. Several communities have banned firecrackers from being shot off within city limits.

Vince Bellino, manager of Bellino Fireworks, said the lawsuit came about because of the conflict between the state fireworks law and what some cities have forbidden in their regulations.

It seems to be contradictory, he said.

Bellino said the company would be opening about 45 locations in the Iowa market this year. Setting up shop in some communities, he said, has gone much more smoothly than in others.

Were pretty excited about the opportunity to open up there, but its been a process, he said.

Two destructive blazes started by fireworks led Iowa officials to ban the explosives in the 1930s. Until this year, the state permitted only novelty firecrackers, such as snakes and sparklers.

The new law allowing consumer-grade fireworks in Iowa was signed in May, leaving many cities scrambling to adjust their ordinances in time for the Fourth of July.

Iowas always been a state of very limited items that you could sell, said Marv Kohler with the Nebraska Fireworks Retailers Association. To go from minute to extreme was quite a variance there.

Iowas law permits a few types of fireworks that are banned in Nebraska, such as wire sparklers and bottle rockets. Kohler said this might encourage some Nebraskans to cross over to Iowa for their fireworks, but the selections offered at stands in the two states shouldnt vary much.

The Council Bluffs City Council voted unanimously to allow residents to shoot off firecrackers from July 1 to 4.

Theres concern across the state about how the first year with fireworks will go, Council Bluffs City Clerk Jodi Quakenbush said. City officials have said they are worried about the threat fireworks pose to public safety and how swiftly the state law passed.

It came so quickly, so were just waiting to see what happens ourselves, she said.

Quakenbush said she estimated that the city would approve about seven or eight tent permits for fireworks sales.

On Thursday afternoon, sisters Ashley Rhoades, 13, and Taylor Rhoades, 16, were taking a break from setting up in a fireworks tent in the Walmart parking lot on Manawa Center Drive.

Theyre trying to raise money with the Midwest Family Worship Center for a trip to a youth conference in Branson, Missouri, and were excited when their pastor asked them to help with a fireworks stand.

Now that were doing it, its not as much fun as we thought, Taylor Rhoades said.

Youve got to get it perfect, Ashley Rhoades said of setting up the stand. And then the inspectors have to look at it, and if its not right with them, you have to redo most of it.

The idea of raising thousands of dollars selling fireworks like Crazy Eyeballs and High in the Sky makes it worth it, though, Taylor Rhoades said. Their stand opened Friday.

In the Omaha area, more than 100 fireworks stands have permits to sell for Independence Day this year.

In 2010, when the Nebraska Legislature was looking to expand the types of fireworks that could be sold, fireworks retailers estimated their sales generated at least $500,000 in sales tax revenue, Kohler said.

The Iowa Legislative Services Agency estimated that the states first year of fireworks sales would bring in about $1.1 million in sales tax revenue.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.

Tips for fireworks safety

 Buy fireworks only from a licensed seller, not from someone on the street or from someones house.

 Read and follow the instructions on the fireworks before lighting them.

 Have water handy in case of an emergency.

 Use fireworks only in an open, outdoor area.

 Light the fireworks on a hard surface and be cautious of wind.

 Do not alter or combine fireworks.

 Aim the fireworks device away from houses, dry leaves, flammable materials and people.

 Light one device at a time.

 Never relight a dud device.

 Wait 20 minutes after setting off a fireworks device to approach it, then soak it in water.

Source: Omaha Professional Firefighters Association

What's legal, what's not

Nebraskans and Iowans are allowed to buy consumer fireworks, which include items such as sparklers, Roman candles, fountains and traditional firecrackers.

Nebraska prohibits wire sparklers, nighttime parachutes and rockets that project into the air from a stick or wire. Larger fireworks meant for public displays and ground firecrackers with more than 50 milligrams of explosive composition also are banned for personal use in Nebraska.

Iowas law permits missile-type rockets and wire sparklers.

Sky lanterns are banned in Nebraska. They are allowed in Iowa but must be tethered.

In Nebraska, fireworks can be sold in the summer June 24 through July 5. Cities may have their own restrictions on fireworks as well.

In Omaha, fireworks may be sold and used between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. June 24 through July 4.

Also in Omaha, children as young as 12 may use fireworks under the supervision of an adult. Those older than 16 can light fireworks by themselves.

In Iowa, summer fireworks season is June 1 through July 8. State law says fireworks may be used only between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. The exception is July 4th and the weekend immediately following the holiday, when the hours are 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Only people 18 and older can purchase fireworks.

Many Iowa cities have their own restrictions on fireworks, and several still have bans on their use.

Council Bluffs permits the use of fireworks from July 1 to 3 from noon until 10 p.m. On July 4th, the hours for fireworks are extended until 11 p.m.

Area fireworks stands
LINCOLN  State troopers should be assigned to light duty to reduce their exposure to danger or be immediately issued new bulletproof vests, a grievance filed by a labor union contends.

The union says a number of the vests now in use have expired warranties.

The complaint, filed Monday by the State Law Enforcement Bargaining Council, was among the concerns cited by Gov. Pete Ricketts on Friday as he ordered a review of the State Patrols policies and leadership.

The union said that trooper safety was being compromised by the use of expired equipment, and that taxpayers faced higher liability because the warranties had expired.

We just dont know how these things get lost in the cracks. It shouldnt happen, said Gary Young, an attorney for the union. The idea that were putting people out there without the proper armor, and ballistic vest, you just cant do that.

State Patrol spokesman Cody Thomas said Friday that the agency moved quickly to address the problem when it was first presented to patrol officials in February.

Thomas said officers were measured for 78 new protective vests, and an order was placed on March 10.

Those new vests will arrive next week, and a process for quick distribution has been set up, he said. The Nebraska State Patrol cares deeply about officer safety.

In addition, any trooper with concerns about wearing an out-of-warranty vest was given the option of replacing it with an in-warranty vest that had been turned in due to a retirement or resignation, Thomas said.

When asked if the patrol acted quickly, Young responded, Theyve taken action.

Generally, body armor manufacturers provide a warranty for vests for five years, warning that heat and water can slowly degrade the fibers that stop bullets and other weapons.

There are safety concerns with expired body armor, but the bigger issue may be liability. Once the warranty is expired, manufacturers are exempt from liability, leaving any damages to be paid by taxpayers.

Theres also a union contract issue: The patrols contract with the troopers requires the state to replace the body armor before the manufacturers warranty expires.

The Omaha Police Department recently dealt with a similar issue of expired warranties.

Lt. George Merithew, who serves on the uniform and equipment committee with the Omaha Police Department, said officials mistakenly believed that the contract to resupply body armor ran through 2017, but it had expired at the end of 2016.

About 88 vests had expired warranties, Merithew said.

That prompted the Mayors Office, on June 9, to sign an emergency request to buy new vests at a cost of $62,000, a spokeswoman said Friday.

Merithew said Omaha police test out-of-warranty body armor, and it still can stop bullets. The old vests are used at the police training center to get new recruits accustomed to the equipment, he said, and to protect recruits when they are using the firing range.

Such bulletproof vests are individually fitted to the officers to conform to their body type, for comfort and safety.
COUNCIL BLUFFS  The man who will face off against Gov. Kim Reynolds in a June 2018 primary election said the Branstad era has come to a close during a campaign stop in Council Bluffs on Wednesday afternoon.

Reynolds, who served as former Gov. Terry Branstads lieutenant governor until his selection to become U.S. ambassador to China, is widely seen as Branstads personal pick to succeed him.

I think there are some leadership issues right now. Its time for a new opportunity, said Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett.

We have a selection process in Iowa, not an appointment process, he said. Picking the same old people results in the same old solutions.

Corbett, who is serving his second term as mayor of Iowas second-largest city, announced Tuesday that he will challenge Reynolds for the Republican nomination for governor.

In announcing his candidacy in Cedar Rapids, Corbett, who has served as mayor there since 2009, introduced himself as a conservative Republican with an independent streak.

Corbett faces challenges  one of which is money, the other recognition  in his bid to unseat Reynolds.

Reynolds reportedly has $1 million in her campaign fund and has said she will double that by the end of the year.

It isnt all about money, Corbett said, although I believe I can raise enough to be competitive. Right now my job is go get people to know who Ron Corbett is.

Asked about the current budget shortfalls facing the Reynolds administration, Corbett said the budget shortfall was predictable and preventable.

Instead of taking action last summer, they took a wait-and-see attitude, he said.

Weve got to grow the economy, Corbett said. Weve got a 3.1 percent unemployment rate, which is good. But it also means it is difficult to fill jobs. We need more people to fuel the economy.

Corbett, who has proposed adoption of a flat tax and simplification of the states income tax code, said Iowas 8.98 percent tax rate is holding us back. He said elimination of tax credits and deductions coupled with implementation of a flat tax could reduce the tax rate to 3 percent.

Corbett has proposed raising the state sales tax by a penny. Three-eighths of the increase would address Iowas water quality issues, and the remainder of the sales tax revenue would go toward offsetting Corbetts proposed income tax cut.

One of the benefits of a primary election is the discussion of ideas, Corbett said. Weve lost our focus on education, and Im sounding more of an alarm on this issue. Im really concerned about the morale of our teachers and principals.

Referring to changes in Iowas collective bargaining regulations for educators approved by lawmakers and Branstad earlier this year, Corbett said, Were not going to get the best and brightest if all teachers are going to get is cost of living increases.

We cant have our battle cry be, Move over Mississippi,  he said, referring to Mississippis last-place ranking in terms of teacher pay.

In announcing his candidacy, Corbett said that the administrations budgeting practices were creating chaos and unpredictability and that Branstads decision to privatize Medicaid two years ago was hurting the poor and disabled, who are facing cuts and delays in services.

Corbett, 56, graduated from Cornell College in Mount Vernon in 1983, then worked for the Equitable Life Insurance Co. as an agent for 10 years.

He was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 1986 and served seven terms. He served as speaker of the House from 1995 until 1999, when he resigned to become president of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce.

He left the chamber to become a vice president with CRST, a trucking firm based in Cedar Rapids.

Corbett was elected mayor of Cedar Rapids in 2009 and was re-elected to a second four-year term in 2013. In 2015, he officially resigned from CRST and launched a conservative think tank, Engage Iowa, which focuses largely on education, water quality and state tax reform.

Mike Brownlee of the World-Herald News Service contributed to this report, which also includes material from the Associated Press.
Sunday, June 25 is the big Heritage of Pride March, also known as the Pride Parade, which steps off at noon at Fifth Avenue and 36th Street and heads down into West Village. Below, you can find the street closures, which start at 11 a.m., for the parade's formation, route, dispersal and festival.

The grand marshals for the parade are NYC's first openly transgender firefighter Brooke Guinan; Krishna Stone, Community Relations Director at Gay Mens Health Crisis; Geng Le, an LGBT rights activist in China and the ACLU and NYCLU, with Gavin Grimm.

Besides activists and gorgeously-decked out (or nearly naked) performers, numerous elected officials will be on the parade route; State Senator Brad Hoylman said, "Ill be handing out 5,000 copies of the U.S. Constitution this weekend at NYC Pride because Donald Trump is a one-man constitutional crisis. Now, its more important than ever for the LGBT community to know its rights."

Street Closures

Formation:

41st Street between Park Avenue and 5th Avenue

40th Street between 6th Avenue and Park Avenue

39th Street between 6th Avenue and Park Avenue

38th Street between 6th Avenue and Park Avenue

37th Street between 6th Avenue and Park Avenue

36th Street between 6th Avenue and Park Avenue

Route:

5th Avenue between 41st Street and 8th Street

8th Street between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue

Greenwich Avenue between 6th Avenue and Christopher Street Christopher Street between Greenwich Avenue and Greenwich Street



Scott Lynch / Gothamist

Dispersal:

Greenwich Street between W.11th Street and Leroy Street

Miscellaneous:

5th Avenue between 8th Street and Washington Mews

Bleecker Street between Christopher Street and W.10th Street

Festival:

Hudson Street between Bethune Street and West 14th Street

West 13th Street between 9th Avenue and West 4th Street
Naxal who executed Sukma attack was trained by LTTE in ambush tactics

Maoist attack in Sukma: 2 security personnel killed, 3 injured

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Two security personnel were killed in an exchange of fire with naxals in Elmagudem area of Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Saturday. Three security personnel have also suffered injuries in the gun battle.

Earlier, five Special Task Force jawans were injured in an attack by Maoists in Chintagufa area of Sukma district in Chhattisgarh.

Three out of total five injured jawans are reported to be critical. All injured are evacuated from the spot.

Sukma Encounter: Visuals of evacuation of five injured jawans from Tondamarka to Raipur #Chhattisgarh pic.twitter.com/H8NeZYqKcl  ANI (@ANI_news) June 24, 2017

The encounter is still going on. The exchange of fire is underway between a joint team of security forces and ultras in the interior forests of Chintagufa police station area, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Dantewada range) Sundarraj P told PTI.

"As per the preliminary information, five STF jawans have sustained injuries in the encounter," he said. The joint team, comprising personnel from STF, District Reserve Guard (DRG) and CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), was carrying out anti-Naxal operation in Chintagufa area, around 500 km from here, he said.

In April this year, 26 CPRF personnel were killed in an ambush carried out by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) during the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency, which ended up being the largest since a similar 2010 attack in a neighbouring district.

The attack took place between Burkapal and Chintagufa in Sukma district of Chattisgarh.

OneIndia News
CBSE class 12 result 2017: Re-evaluation will take place, marking scheme in two days

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

There is good news as the CBSE has assured that it would re-evaluate the answer sheets of Class 12 students who have asked for the it. The CBSE told the Delhi High Court that it would re-evaluate the answer sheets.

Several petitions had been filed after the CBSE had decided to scrap its re-evaluation policy. Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain made the assurance to a vacation bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Yogesh Khanna hearing various petitions by students, who appeared for Class 12 board exams this year, against the board's decision to scrap its re-evaluation policy.

Jain said that the marking schemes concerned will be uploaded on CBSE's website within two working days. He later told the court that all such requests will be considered on first come, first served basis and papers of those who have applied for re-verification will be scrutinised on priority basis.

Advocate Kirti Uppal, appearing for some of these students, had challenged the CBSE's May 29 notification and requested the court to direct it to reconsider this policy.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 6:39 [IST]
Next list on July 1

The university will release its second list on July 1 2017. Like the registration process, the process of selecting courses and colleges will be online, and applicants will only have to visit colleges for verification of documents. Admission fee can also be paid online.

What you need to carry

The applicants will need to carry their Class X and Class XII marksheets and certificates, character certificate, caste certificate (if any), and two self-attested passport size photographs. Those who have passed their senior secondary examination from outside Delhi will also need to produce transfer certificate from their school/college, as well as migration certificate from the board/university.

Admission

Check the centralised admission website (http://ug.du.ac.in/app/) and respective college websites to see if you meet the cut-off for your choice of course.

If you meet the cut-off, log in to your registered account on the UG admission portal and select the college/course, where you wish to take admission.

Once done with selecting the course and the college, you will need to take a print out of the admission form and other documents, and head to the college for verification of documents and calculation of the cut-off percentage.

If the cut-off is met and the documents are in place, the college will keep the original documents to avoid multiple admissions. After this, they will approve the admission on the UG admission portal. Documents will be returned if you withdraw/cancel the admission.

Once you are done with the above, log on to the UG admission portal to pay the admission fee through the available online payment options. You will be able to pay the fee till 12 noon on the next day of the given admission list deadline.

Science

Science

Humanities

Humanities
Should Kashmir be given to Pakistan: Row erupts after this question appears in MP civil service exam

Funding the Kashmir unrest: The big nexus revealed

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Enforcement Directorate filed a chargesheet in a money laundering case against terror groups and separatists operating in Kashmir and Pakistan. The ED named the likes of Hafiz Saeed, the chief of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, it did not take the names of any separatist leader.

The ED chargesheet comes close on the heels of a National Investigation Agency probe into the funds being received by separatists and terrorists in the Valley to fund the unrest.

This is a continuation of the NIA probe, an ED officer informed. We will now scan the bank records and also the money exchange that has taken place, the officer also said. The NIA had found that terrorists had been raising money through cross-border trade and also the sale of California almonds.

The ED is a specialised agency to track money laundering and transfer of funds. The NIA which will probe the larger conspiracy would rely on the ED's investigation to file a detailed chargesheet.

The big draw:

Investigators say transfer of money through hawala is still the biggest draw. In November 2011, four businessmen were booked by the Enforcement Directorate for facilitating hawala transactions through the Line of Control. It had become evident that this money was being sent by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba to facilitate its terrorists and separatists.

However, investigations had found that the businessmen were only facilitating the transfer for a fee and were not ideologically connected to the LeT. The terror groups still find hawala to be their best bet since it is safer compared to legal banking. "It is very difficult to crack this trail as the persons involved in the transfer change after every two or three transactions," the officer says.

Cross border trade:

There is a lot of trade along the border that takes place on the barter system. Terrorists, separatists and their agents pose as traders and exchange money along the border. Very often, these persons also pass on money which is in turn brought into India and handed out to separatists and terrorists.

Investigations have shown that there were at least 48 agents until 2014 who were using the barter system to fund terrorism in the valley. The NIA and the ED had found that these persons had moved Rs 7.5 million in 20 different cases.

The seizures also led to the NIA finding cheques worth Rs 1 lakh which was meant to reach a terrorist or a separatist. The investigations also revealed that at least 90 persons from different parts of the world were involved in funding terrorists in the valley.

Investigations reveal that between the years 2009 and 2011 an amount of Rs 12 million had been recovered.

Fake and foreign currency was recovered from agents who were funding terrorists. In 2011, some agents had also brought in 74,000 Saudi Arabian Riyals into the valley.

Who benefits:

NIA sources say that the funding has gone both to terrorist groups and separatists. Money has been pumped into the Hurriyat Conference, Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front, Islamic Students Front, Hizbul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Jamiat ul-Mujahideen.

An 1997 FIR against separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani an FIR alleges that he had got funding to the tune of Rs 190 million from Saudi Arabia and also another donation of Rs 100 million from the Kashmir American Council. Investigations had revealed that all these funds were routed through a Delhi-based Hawala operative.

It was also found that Yasin Malik, another separatist, had received funding of USD 1 lakh and the money was being carried by a woman called Shazia. "We are looking at each case since 1995, and this will help us get a better picture of the entire racket," an NIA officer adds.

Fueling the unrest:

Intelligence Bureau officials tell OneIndia that the money is being used for various purposes."There is a considerable amount that goes into funding their own lavish lifestyles. The ISI which orchestrates this racket does not mind these persons living in lavish bungalows as long as they keep the fire going," says the officer.

Investigations had found that a considerable amount of the money had been used to fuel the 2010 unrest in Jammu and Kashmir. The NIA says that funding is the biggest concern and this route and channel needs to be broken. "These troublemakers do anything for money and Pakistan is not hesitant to pump in as much as is possible to keep the fire in the valley burning," the officer says.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 5:50 [IST]
HR Manager abuses delivery boy; says 'Kannadigas are lazy people'

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

The Bengaluru police arrested the HR manager of a private firm based on a complaint filed by food delivery boy, who alleged that the HR abused 'Kannadigas' and made anti-Kannada statements for the late delivery.

In his complaint to the police, Anil, who is employed with Swiggy, alleged that Sathvik Sachar called Kannadigas "lazy people".

Anil said that though he delivered the food within seven minutes after the order, Sachar was not ready to accept his explanation for the delay. When Anil spoke in Kannada, Sachar reportedly told him 'don't use your dirty language'. Anil said he could not tolerate the abuse against Kannada and Kannadigas and filed a complaint. He filed the complaint with the help of pro-Kannada activist Vatal Nagaraj.

Sachar was arrested under sections 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 153A (promoting enmity). He was later released on bail, reports CNN-News18.

Vatal Nagaraj said that he appreciated Anil for filing the complaint, also he issued a call for All Kannada organisations to come together to counter the anti-Kannada sentiment growing in the state.
Iftar at Rashtrapati Bhavan; Central ministers skip

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, June 24: Ahead of Ramzan, President Pranab Mukherjee hosted an Iftar party at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, on Friday. The party was attended by several political leaders and special invitees but what stood out evidently was the absence of Central ministers. Despite receiving invites to attend the iftar dinner, none in the BJP-led government at the center attended the dinner hosted by the President. This is the last iftar party being hosted by the President as his term ends in July.

"There was not a single minister, not a single government representative and not a single BJP leader. In all these years, I have never been to an Iftar hosted by the President where there has been no representative of the Government of India," CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.

SP Rajya Sabha MP Javed Ali Khan, among those invited, said: "I could not spot a single minister at the Iftar hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee. In the past, I have attended three Iftars at Rashtrapati Bhavan and I remember seeing ministers like Rajnath Singh, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Mahesh Sharma and Vijay Goel. This time, no one was there."

Rashtrapati Bhavan had made seating arrangements with ministers in mind - Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar was to share a table with Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad. Rashtrapati Bhavan invites all members of the Union Council of Ministers to the Iftar.

Asked about the no-show, Naqvi told The Indian Express: "I was about to go but exactly at that time, a CCPA meeting was convened. It was an urgent meeting that could not be missed. The Prime Minister, as you know, is travelling tomorrow. The meeting started at 6.30 pm and continued till 7.30-8 pm. Did nobody turn up? All ministers are usually invited."

Notably, PM Modi left for a three-nation tour today. The trip includes a two-day visit to the United States where Modi will meet with President Donald Trump.

Oneinida News

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 13:00 [IST]
In his journey of love, UP Muslim man surrenders his Taj Mahal dream to build girls school

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Lucknow, June 24: In order to woo their beloved, many men end up making tall promises, the famous of them being, "I will build a Taj Mahal for you" or "I will bring the moon for you, my sweetheart".

Unfortunately, nobody ever fulfills these "tall and impossible" promises. In fact, even women know it well that these are just plain simple lines their lovers say to make them happy.

Indeed, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan had set some really high standards for men when it comes to express their love for their beloved by building the world famous Taj Mahal in memory of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, in Agra, Uttar Pradesh.

Hundreds of kilometers away from the actual site of Taj Mahal, one more man is attempting to raise another "wonder of the world" by building a mini 'Taj Mahal' for his late wife.

For a couple of years now, Faizul Hasan Qadri, a retired postmaster, is working towards his cherished dream of building a 'Taj Mahal' for his wife Tajamulli Begum who died in 2011.

The dream of the 81-year-old man from Bulandshahr's Kaser Kalan, a small village in UP, still remains unfulfilled. Instead he has managed to help build a government school for girls near his dream project by donating his land for the noble purpose. The school is on the verge of completion, but the work for Qadri's 'Taj' has been halted due to lack of finances.

It is not that he has junked his most ambitious project, but two years ago when the then Chief Minister of UP, Akhilesh Yadav, learnt about Qadri building another 'Taj' decided to help him.

However, the retired postmaster, who did not want to take any kind of help to build the memorial for his wife, asked the government authorities to spend the money on building a school for girls.

He not only gave away the monetary help from the government but also donated land to build the school.

When asked why he did not take the money from the government to build the mini 'Taj', Qadri told The Hindustan Times, "I will not take any financial help from outside. Who knows the money may have come from unfair means. Taking such money will not be good. I will get the work done out of my own savings."

These days, the octogenarian with his small pension, is trying hard to save Rs 6-7 lakh to get the marble work done in his 'Taj'. Moreover, recently he met with an accident and thus ended up spending a lot to clear his medical bills. Because of the accident he was bed-ridden for some time and now finds it hard to walk also.

The school building is likely to be completed by the end of June. "The school is part of former CM's announcement. Qadri saheb donated his land for students. We have also written to higher officials for start of classes so that we can start session by July. The fund for the school was also released. The school will hold classes from sixth standard to class twelve for girls," said Veena Yadav, district inspector of schools, Bulandshahr.

However, nobody knows when Qadri's 'Taj' will be finished. Inside the half-built structure, Qadri has left some space for himself so that after his death he could be buried next to his wife's grave.

The modern day Shah Jahan, Qadri, not only loves his late wife dearly, but his heart also beats for the needy and thus ended up building a school for girls.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 9:10 [IST]
Mehbooba Mufti gets notice to vacate official bungalow 'meant for J&K CMs'

Accession Day: Valley lights up on this day when J&K became part of India

AAP "merely a party of UT Delhi", only Cong can challenge BJP in Gujarat, HP: Azad

J&K: CRPF vehicle attacked, one SI killed, 2 personnel injured

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

One CRPF Sub-Inspector was killed and two personnel were injured on Saturday when terrorists attacked their vehicle near Srinagar's Pantha Chowk.

"Firing was on our vehicle. One SI lost his life and 2 of our personnel are injured. We have cordoned off the area," IG CRPF Ravideep Sahi told news agency ANI.

CRPF PRO Rajesh Yadav has said that militants have rushed to DPS School after a attacking on an ROP killing One Sub Inspector and injuring two others.

IG CRPF has ruled out a fidayeen attack and said this was a shootout. A siege has been laid around the area and search operations are underway.

Reports suggest that millitants have taken positions in the DPS building. Another media report quoting Home Ministry officials said that two CRPF personals have been killed .

On June 17, a vehicle of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) came under fire from militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Badgam district. No one was injured in that incident.

On June 16 evening, six policemen patrolling in Achabal locality of Anantnag district were attacked by about 10-15 heavily-armed terrorists.

The terrorists, after the ambush was over, got into the police vehicle and sprayed bullets at the policemen from point-blank range to disfigure their faces.

OneIndia News
Journalism has enough problems, politicians needn't add to them

India

oi-Prabhpreet

By Prabhpreet

The last couple of days witnessed peculiar kinds of advice and actions, related to journalists, by politicians in India as well as US President Donald Trump's White House.

In India, Karnataka State Assembly decided to sentence two journalists to jail for what have been labelled as defamatory reports about certain members of the house, while the speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan, advised reporters to avoid telling "unpleasant truth."

While all the way in America, the country considered the beacon of light when it comes to free speech and the rights enjoyed by the press, in what can be seen as nothing but anger towards its coverage, the President's White House administration apparently decided to bar cameras from recording a regular press briefing.

Though such acts might not seem too hostile to journalists working under dictatorial regimes, the trouble with the current development is that the first two occurred in the world's largest democracy and third in the most powerful.

If there is something that political leaders around the world need to learn from the happenings of the recent US elections and the rise of social media as a source of unverified news and its implications, it's that though it may be fairly easy to blame the mainstream media and not be happy with its reporting of uncomfortable facts, leaders and the general population need real journalism to survive as much as it needs their support.

The problems in these three cases

While surprising in their nature, these cases are just a continuation of the tussle between political leaders and journalists, that has existed since press became the source of information based on which people judged their representatives. But the authoritarian nature of the latest advice and actions by leaders in the two countries just goes to show the fight, between those in power and those who are supposed to hold them accountable, is not going to end anytime soon and that all tools available will be used in it.

The order to jail journalists was a clear case of proper legal recourse being bypassed. As instead of the courts of the country deciding on the matter, the group to which the alleged victims belong decided on the conviction and the punishment itself.

Such steps even if the allegations are true, by no means follow the principles of justice. And can easily be seen as another step in the direction of putting fear in the minds of journalists by lawmakers, whose actions media is duty bound to report on, as they dealt their own brand of 'justice.'

As for the suggestion by Mahajan that journalist should not be reporting "unpleasant truth," it goes against the very nature and the need for the profession in the first place. Speaking truth to power is one of the most important parts of journalism and it involves telling all the relevant facts in a fair and transparent manner. The reliability of the public in the press to do so is the reason that it is called the "fourth pillar" in a democracy, which will help make the other three pillars- Executive (Government), Legislature (Parliament) and the Judiciary- uphold their duties.

If the journalists of the country were to follow her advice, it would be a blatant dereliction of their duties and turn them into PR managers.

Away from India, the final one of the three acts which came directly from the centre of US government and should have been the most surprising was the least so, given the nature of the Trump presidency so far where he has regularly criticised the media's coverage of him as too critical and unfair. He has even publicly taking names of channels whose coverage of he did not agree with.

Though certain problems like these were assumed to be possible before he took office, the level which they have reached have probably never been seen before. Such actions are attempts at making the media toe the official line. The repercussions of not doing so being actions like the latest one or being branded 'fake news.'

'Fake News' is a threat to both politicians and journalists

Politicians and the press have always been at loggerheads and the tussle has been understood to be a logical conclusion of their work. While both of them have viewed each other as a threat to their survival, they now seem to be under attack from a new development, which can undermine both.

This comes from the rise of social media as a part of modern day life and the circulation of 'fake news' on it. And the incidents that have been reported from around the world, especially in India and the US, showcase how real this new threat is.

The recent US elections and the spread of fake news on a scale never seen before by a foreign power like Russia should help realise the serious nature of such a problem. Top US investigative officers such as the former head of the US Federal Bureau Of Investigation, James Comey, have confirmed Russian interference. This came not only in the form of interference in the process of the election but also through wide circulation of propaganda and false news which in all probability had a very serious impact on the election results.

This along with reports of lynchings and attacks by mobs in India taking place following the spread false information on social media platforms such as Whatsapp among others in the form of news just help bring the realisation of this new threat home for Indians.

And politicians, particularly in India, need to realise that if the mainstream media stops reporting verified fact, it leaves a vacuum for alternatives with ulterior motives to step in and spread lies which are deemed beneficial to them. While today these might be helpful to a particular party or ideology, there is nothing stopping them from becoming the victims of it tomorrow.

For the media, such a rise is an even bigger threat since it leads to its loss of reputation as the public finds it difficult to differentiate between the two. In addition, journalists will find it difficult to make a genuine piece of journalism heard and read with it getting swamped in a wave of unverified and malicious news.

The spread of such news also makes the jobs of those reporting more difficult as the narrative that forms on a topic makes it hard for them to understand it and leads to chances of unverified facts getting integrated into authentic reports and hence delegitimising journalists.

Such factors have also made them the target of attacks from those who are not happy with the coverage done by journalists and getting labelled under the bracket of fake news.

This proves that the rise of fake news on alternate platforms is a threat to both politicians and conventional media, as while the latter is becoming obsolete and drowned by it, the former just need to realise that in a world without hardcore and proper journalism, the leaders will have the most problems as propaganda on social media will define their chances of winning elections, and a single fake story could ruin years of hard work as it is said 'In politics perception is reality.'

Journalism has enough problems already

The fact which makes the latest attack on it by political leaders and the spread of fake news even more serious is that media houses all over the world and the profession as a whole is going through testing times as it is. These include those forced on it from the outside as well as those of their own creation.

The profession which is mostly described as a 'calling,' rather than a job, and the conventional media as a whole has been under pressure given the changing of how news is read, where it is read and by who.

While the newspapers have seen a fall in readership in most countries across the globe, a growing dependence on advertisements for revenue generation has added a change in the attitude of those responsible for the news. From readers becoming less of a focus of attention, with it moving towards getting more advertisers. In turn creating cases of conflict of interest as to which reports can be published in their original form or not, depending on who it is about. A problem seen across newspapers. possible

In TV journalism, the rise of hundreds of 24-hour news channels has brought with it intense competition for grabbing viewership. This is especially the case when it comes to the English medium channels in India, which have a limited number of viewers. This has led to a drastic fall in standards, from the expected in-depth works of journalism to more sensationalization of the news in order to grab the highest TRP ratings. This has not only led to falling of standards and non-issues becoming news, but also made the profession more vulnerable to attacks from critics.

Points related to both the print and broadcast journalism hold true for the multimedia world of online journalism too. And maybe more so as they face the combined problems of the other two along with being the main medium used for spreading fake news. The one benefit that this medium has is of growing viewership as more and more people are choosing to get their news online.

As for the journalist reporting from the ground, cases of them getting killed, harassed, court cases filed against by them by the rich and powerful including governments who are not happy with critical reporting, are getting more prevalent in present times.

This has not been helped by journalists themselves, especially those influential, becoming agents and middlemen in the corridors of power. As was seen in the 'Radia tapes' scandal.

All these and many more problems faced by the those in the field of journalism prove that conventional media have enough problems already and don't need fresh ones added by politicians.

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 14:15 [IST]
Karnataka Governor accepts Parameshwara's resignation as Home Minister

India

oi-Anusha

By Anusha Ravi

Almost a month after he tendered his resignation as the Home Minister of Karnataka, G Parameshwara's resignation was accepted by the Governor. G Parameshwara quit from Siddaramaiah's cabinet after the Congress allowed him to continue as the President of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.

Incidentally, despite Parameshwar submitting his resignation on June 1, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah forwarded the same to Governor VajuBhai Rudabhai Vala only on Friday evening. In less than 24 hours, Parameshwara's resignation has been accepted. The delay in sending the resignation for governor's approval has further fueled speculation of an early election in Karnataka.

Parameshwar was asked to step down from the Home Minister's after General Secretary of the Congress decided to allow him to continue as the KPCC president. After serving two terms as the state Congress chief, Parameshwar was given a third term keeping caste calculations ahead of 2018 elections in mind. The Congress is focusing on getting their Dalit vote bank consolidated and Parameshwar was the first choice after Kharge refused to take up the post.

With the announcement of a loan waiver and now timely submission of Parameshwara's resignation letter to the governor have strengthened rumours of an early poll in Karnataka. Congress is looking to call for polls in December when top brass of the BJP is busy with Gujarat elections.

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 18:26 [IST]
Kashmir is killing its own: 17 J and K policemen killed this year alone

India

oi-Anusha

In just six months and 17 policemen in Kashmir have been killed so far. DySP Mohammad Ayub Pandith who was lynched by a mob was the latest addition to the list of men in Khakis killed by their own in Kashmir.

While most of the attacks on Jammu and Kashmir police have been reported from Anantnag and Kulgam districts, three officers who were on duty were killed in the last two months alone. While Mohammad Ayub Pandith was lynched on the premises of Jamia Masjid in Srinagar on Thursday night, Feroz Ahmad Dar was killed in a militant ambush last Friday.

Station House Officer Dar was killed along with five other policemen at Thajwari in Anantnag. He was killed while he was returning to the police station in the attack for which the Lashkar-e-Toiba claimed responsibility later. Eleven policemen have been killed in two attacks that took place in Achabal and Kulgam.

Five policemen including a sub-inspector were killed on May 1 in yet another militant attack. The men in uniform were killed when militants attacked a cash van of Jammu and Kashmir Bank at Kulgam. The incident also ended up in the death of two private security guards who were manning the van.

Jammu and Kashmir had lost 13 policemen in militancy-related incidents in 2016 and the numbers of this year are already alarming. Top police officials in Kashmir have appealed to the people to understand that the policemen are deputed for the people's safety.

OneIndia News
Kerala priest who went missing in Scotland found dead after three days

India

oi-Anusha

A 33-year-old Keralite priest and PhD scholar who went missing from Edinburgh was found dead on Saturday. The Scotland police informed the Provincial House in Thiruvananthapuram that the body of Fr Martin Xavier Vazhachira was found near a beach close to Edinburgh University where he was a scholar.

Carmelites of Mary Immaculate provincial received information about Fr Vazhachira's death from the Archbishop of St Andrews in Edinburgh on Saturday morning. The archbishop's message said that the priest, hailing from Pulinkunnu in Alappuzha district, was found dead by Edinburgh police. Fr Vazhachira served at St John the Baptist Church, Corstorphine in Edinburgh.

While the cause of death is yet to be ascertained, the body has been sent for forensic tests. The leader of the Opposition in Kerala assembly, Ramesh Chennithala, has written to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj seeking help in bringing back the body. Fr Vazhachira was last seen on Tuesday. Authorities at the diocese claimed that he was available in person and on calls till 1 PM on Tuesday after which he went missing. His purse, passport and other personal belongings were found in his room. But the door of the room was lying open.

Fr Vazhachira, who was the assistant vicar at the Chethipuzha church under Changanassery diocese, arrived in Edinburgh eight months ago for higher studies. The Edinburgh diocese is said to have used his services owing to a shortage of priests. Fr. Vazhachira was staying and working at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Corstorphine near Falkirk under the Edinburgh diocese.

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 15:32 [IST]
Liquor ban: Bengaluru's M G Road is not a national highway but pubs may still shut down

India

oi-Anusha

Whose road is it anyway? Thanks to the confusion about whether M G Road, Brigade Road, St Mark's Road and Residency Road in Bengaluru are deemed National Highways or not, the Central business district may run dry starting July 1. While the government calls these roads National Highway, the NHAI has said that they do not come under their purview.

'Not highways,' says NHAI

The National Highways Authority of India in a letter addressed to Excise inspector of Ashok Nagar range dated 6/4/2017 has confirmed that these roads are not under its jurisdiction. The letter confirms that according to the records of NHAI, the roads are not National highways and come under the state purview. Despite the letter confirming that the roads do not come under the NHAI purview, the state government is asking the centre to denotify these roads adding to the confusion.

The heart of the city, Central Business District, is also home to close to 100 pubs, bars and liquor outlets. While excise licences of liquor outlets in the rest of the city are being renewed, the excise department has refused to renew licences of pubs and bars on these four stretches. The Supreme Court has ordered a ban on selling liquor within 500 meters of highways. Despite being in the heart of the city, M G Road, Brigade Road, St Mark's Road and Residency Road have been marked as National highways according to BBMP records.

State government points fingers at centre

The BBMP, as well as the excise department, maintain that the roads are deemed National Highways. Despite a letter of clarification from the NHAI, no changes have been made to the state records. Liquor sales in CBD area is an average Rs 5 crore on a daily basis. In 2016-17, the excise department had earned a little over Rs 7,000 crore from Bengaluru Urban and CBD was a huge contributor.

According to records from BBMP and Excise department, the road from Basaveswara Circle, passing through Raj Bhavan and MG Road till Trinity Circle, before reaching Old Madras Road, is a national highway. The road from Town Hall to Hosur Road, passing through JC Road, is another highway. With different record books giving contradictory information, bar and pub owners on CBD road are a concerned lot.

In Karnataka, the cycle to renew licences is between June 1 and July 1. With less than a week for Supreme Court order banning the sale of liquor on highways kicking in, owners now fear being forced to shut shop.

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 14:58 [IST]
Maharashtra waives Rs 34,000 crore farm loans, MLAs to donate a month's salary

India

oi-Anusha

By Anusha Ravi

The Maharashtra government on Saturday announced a Rs 34,000 crores waiver for farmer loans. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the state would cut down expenses to deal with the burden.

Maharashtra ministers and MLAs will also support the waiver by donating a month's salary. "We will cut our expenses to deal with the burden. All ministers and MLAs will give one month salary to support loan waiver," said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

"We have decided to waive off loans of Rs 34,000 crores. We are waiving loans up to Rs 1.5 lakhs completely. Farmers who have repaid loans regularly will get a 25 percent loan return benefit," said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Fadnavis had promised a loan waiver before October 31 following violent farmers' protest in Maharashtra.

Fadnavis added that the loan waiver scheme will be called Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Samman Yojana. "The scheme will benefit a total of 89 lakh farmers and will make 40 lakh farmers who have borrowed less than Rs 1.5 lakh debt-free," he added.

Maharashtra was the second state to announce a loan waiver following ryot agitations. The announcement by the Maharashtra government comes two days after the Congres-ruled Karnataka government announced a partial loan waiver.

OneIndia News
Manipuri sociologist dreams of becoming next President of India, launches online campaign

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Imphal, June 24: It's a dream many would say is an exercise in futility. But that has not deterred a Manipuri sociologist from aspiring to become the next President of the country.

As the politics over the top post in Delhi has reached its peak, 42-year-old Ibochouba Singh Konthoujam, a resident of Ningthoukhong, a small town in Bishnupur district, has gone online to drum up support for his candidature.

In his Facebook post, Konthoujam, who holds a doctoral degree, is trying to garner support from MPs and members of state Assemblies for proposing and seconding his candidature.

Several people have shared his online appeal and wished him luck in his 'herculean' effort. Konthoujam is all set to file his nomination paper on June 28.

"I took the form from Parliament House on June 20 and I will file the nomination paper on June 28. I am ready to contest for the presidential post," Ibochouba told The Telegraph.

The father of three sons, Konthoujam runs a private school, D-Cacus-Education Centre, in his home town of Ningthoukhong. His wife is a home-maker.

"I was thinking of contesting for the post of President for some time. I have decided that I should contest this time," he said.

Asked him why he wishes to become the President, the Manipuri man said that he wanted to "accelerate the process of human resource development and pace of economic growth, and restructure the administrative system".

"I also want to seriously focus on education, health and empowerment of the youth. I have been working in the social sector and I don't have any political affiliation. I am not a politician. I grew up in a poor family and I wish to work for the poor and neglected," Konthoujam added.

Although his friends and neighbours were initially surprised to learn that Konthoujam wanted to contest the presidential polls, now they support him in his endeavour.

Ibochouba said he would lobby for the support of MPs from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Haryana, besides his home state.

It looks hard if he would get the support from MPs outside his state, as till now no Manipur-based political party has spoken in favour of his candidature.

It would be interesting to see what kind of a fight Konthoujam would be able to put up against heavyweights like NDA candidate, Ram Nath Kovind, and opposition nominee, Meira Kumar, in his race to Raisina Hill.

OneIndia News
Modi leaves for 3 nation tour: What to expect from the US visit

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left for this three nation visit to Portugal, US and Netherlands. Modi will visit the US which is probably one of the most anticipated.

On June 26 Modi will for the first time meet with Donald Trump. A working dinner is scheduled for that day. Modi and Trump will meet at around 3.30 pm, EST (1 am IST June 27).

The two leaders are expected to discuss a variety of issues which would include defence, terrorism, strategic partnership and H-1B. A lot of focus would be on the chemistry between Modi and an unpredictable Trump.

Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director, and Senior Associate for South Asia Asia Program, Wilson Centre decodes for OneIndia what one could expect from the meeting of the two leaders.

H-1B: Modi is most certainly going to raise this issue. However many see this as a futile exercise. Donald Trump would not stand in the way of dismantling a programme that Americans believe is taking away their jobs.

Strategic Partnership: This is an area that needs focus. Both countries have time and again spoken about a strategic partnership, but the term has never been properly defined. Kugelman says that one of the constraints in U.S.-India relations has been an inability to agree on the meaning of this term as it applies to the bilateral relationship. This is problematic, given that both countries in a general sense tend to conceive of the term quite differently.

For India, strategic partnership entails close cooperation on technological transfers and arms sales. For the United States, it entails those things but also joint military operations and even a willingness to fight wars together, Kugelman also adds.

China: Both leaders have been worried about the rising clout of China. This is an issue that both countries would handle carefully as the two leaders would not want provoke China. Kugelman says that this dynamic could well change; the ever-fickle Trump began his presidency with a flurry of bellicose anti-China rhetoric before walking back his threat to label Beijing a currency manipulator and embracing China as an essential mediator to deal with North Korea. But for now, with the two men in general agreement about China, Modi should seize the moment and highlight another area of convergence.

Will India join the coalition: On the war on terror, America may ask India to be part of the coalition against the Islamic State. India has in the past refused to be part of the coalition. This time around too if such an offer is made, India is likely to back off. However Modi would seek more participation from the US in handling the Jihadis of Pakistan.

Attacks on Indians: The big question is whether Modi will raise the issue relating to the attack on Indians in the US. The recent murder of Srinivasa Kuchibhotla in Kansas had created an outrage. Trump had been slow to react to these incidents, but did make a statement on the same almost a week after the murder during a joint address to the Congress.

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 7:37 [IST]
Nurse forced to slavery in Gulf; Sushma Swaraj to the rescue

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, June 24: A family of three children in Karnataka can now hope that their mother trafficked and sold to a Saudi man will soon return home to India as Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has taken note of the plight of the victim Jacintha Mendonca.

Sushma Swaraj on Friday asked the Indian envoy in Saudi Arabia to help a nurse from Karnataka who has reportedly been pushed into slavery in the Gulf country. "Javed : Pls help rescue this lady. @IndianEmbRiyadh," Swaraj tweeted, asking India's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ahmad Javed to help Jacintha Mendonca, the Indian nurse. As per media reports, a man in Saudi Arabia has demanded 24,000 Saudi Riyals (USD 6,398) to free her.

On June 23, The Times of India had reported that a Saudi Arabia national was demanding 24,000 riyals (approximately Rs 4 lakh) in exchange for her release. Mendonca was allegedly taken to Saudi Arabia on June 19, 2016. Her family said the last time they spoke to her was in December 2016. "My mother has been sold for Rs 5 lakh by an agent," Mendonca's son, Vinroy, was quoted as saying. "She is suffering terribly in Saudi Arabia. She is ill and is being beaten by the kafil.

Replying to a separate query on twitter, Swaraj said every PIO (person of Indian-origin) cards has to be converted to OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) cards, saying it is mandatory. She also directed the passport division of the External Affairs Ministry to resolve difficulties being faced by a person with disability.

Her response came after one Luv Kher requested to renew a passport of his disabled son. "@SushmaSwaraj @MEAIndia Kindly approve passport renewal of my divyang son (J9503328), can't visit biometrics. Appl. pending @ RPO GZB Thanks (sic)," Kher said. Responding to the issue Swaraj tweeted, "I have asked @CPVIndia to resolve this".

PTI
When PM Modi stopped by on Bengaluru street to greet crowd | VIDEO

Over 400 kgs of banned substance Ephedrine seized from export shed in Bengaluru

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

A seizure of 50 kgs of banned substance Ephedrine from an export shed in Bengaluru on Friday led the authorities to a godown in Kothanur where 425 kgs of the prohibited chemical was found.

The Central Intelligence Unit, based on a specific unit, examined an export consignment of 81 bags of Ammonium Chloride at Air Cargo Complex. During the search, they found that two bags contained banned substance Ephedrine worth Rs 2.50 crores in the international market.

The exporters were attempting to smuggle Ephedrine in the guise of ammonium chloride to Malaysia. Ephedrine is a banned chemical under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) act.

The subsequent raid at the exporter's complex led to the seizure of 425 kgs of Ephedrine which is valued at approximately Rs 21.50 crores in the international market.

A customs department statement says that the total value of 475 kgs Ephedrine seized is close to Rs 24 crores.

The Central Intelligence Unit and Investigation branch of the customs have launched a full fledged operation to nab the culprits.

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 20:21 [IST]
Reason why cops in Kashmir are being killed: Ex R&AW chief Sahay explains

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

In the past 3 decades, 1,600 police personnel have sacrificed their lives in Jammu and Kashmir. The death of deputy superintendent of police, Mohammad Ayub Pandith is yet another grim reminder of how bad the situation in the Valley is. On June 16, six policemen were killed by terrorists in Anantnag.

The Hizbul Mujahideen has given a clarion call to target policemen and their families. Loosely the message from the Hizbul read that the policemen should be targeted because they draw government salaries. While it may seem like madness, C D Sahay, the former Chief of the Research and Analysis Wing says that it is a planned move with a clear objective. Sahay took time off to chat exclusively with OneIndia and helped us decode the real meaning behind the targeting of the policemen in the Valley.

The real reason behind the killing of policemen:

Sahay explains that there is a clear change in pattern. They used to target central government establishments earlier. Now they have broadened that arc. Even in the 1990s when militancy was at its peak, local police men were not being targeted. In those days the militants tried to win over the policemen rather than killing them.

After the restoration of normalcy following the madness of the 1990s, the police had become extremely active. The local police were able to get pin-pointed information. The other forces in the Valley who did not have their routes in the state would rely heavily on the local police for information. The local police know each and every family. Kashmir in that sense is a very interactive and closely integrated society. The police have always known who is a militant and who is not, says Sahay.

Successful operations:

The former R&AW chief explains, thanks to the pin-pointed information given by the police, the security forces have launched highly successful operations in recent times. Earlier on, the Special Operation Group of the Kashmir police had become a dreaded forces for the terrorists in the Valley. This force knew each and every individual.

He further says that, if one looks at the recent past, every operation of the forces has been backed by the pin-pointed information given by the local police. More importantly the police were getting real time information and not after several days. This has started becoming dangerous for militants.

Shot life of Hizbul commanders:

Sahay says that if one looks at the life span of a Hizbul Mujahideen commander it is very short. The forces have successfully reduced their life span to one year after they have taken over as commanders.

The local police are aware of their location and the information shared with the security forces helps get these commanders with much ease. Recently the NIA and the ED too launched probes into terror funding. The local police have plenty of information on this and this in turn has become dangerous for the militants. Moreover the information being imparted is helping the security forces gun for the big fish, C D Sahay says.

This time pressure is intense. The intent of the government is loud and clear. This is real reason why they are going after the police as the militants want them to stop providing information to the security forces. It is not madness by the militants, but a very planned operation with a clear objective, he also explains.

This will end soon:

Sahay says, The killing of the policemen has already started having adverse reactions among the locals. "I was watching on television some of the ladies cry after the death of the Dy.SP. They kept saying, we are Indians, come and kill us, " the former R&AW chief points out.

He also added that many political parties too have come forward and condemned the incident. I however saw some in the Congress blaming the ruling party. This is the unfortunate part about this. Why should national security and integrity be looked only through the prism of party politics.

OneIndia News
Subramanyam alias Omer: Detailing this Hyderabad man's journey into the ISIS

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

He embraced Islam in 2014 and three years later was arrested for conversing with an Islamic State handler. Konakalla Subramanyam alias Omer was on Friday arrested by the Hyderabad police from Tolichowki. The preliminary investigation showed that he was in touch with a person named Abu Qahafa al-Hindi.

The police are detailing his journey into the ISIS. A native of Challapalli in Krishna district Omer stopped living with his parents after he converted to Islam. With the help of his friends he moved to Tolichowki.

In Hyderabad, he set up a juice shop and earned his living. Booked now for criminal conspiracy and sedition, Omer is alleged to have come in touch with some elements in Hyderabad following which he is alleged to have been drawn towards the ideology of the ISIS.

His conversations came under the radar of the Intelligence Bureau. He would chat with Abu Qahafa, an ISIS handler believed to be in Mumbai. He is alleged to have shown a lot of interest in the ideology of the group headed by Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi.

While detailing his journey into the ISIS, an officer attached to the investigation said that after embracing Islam, he visited Gujarat where he trained in religious rituals. He is also said to have visited Srinagar. However the police suspect that he may have come in contact with Qahafa during a visit to Mumbai in 2016.

The police say that he was planning on carrying out subversive activities.

He was in touch with ISIS sympathisers through Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram and was in contact with a man named Abu Qahafa Al-Hindi, a Mumbai-based ISIS sympathiser.

Our investigation revealed that Omer wanted to carry out subversive activities in the country, the preliminary probe has revealed.

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 6:05 [IST]
Two key leaders quit Karnataka Congress in a span of two days, 'no big deal,' says the party

India

oi-Anusha

As elections draw closer the Karnataka Congress is losing more leaders. In a span of two days, veteran party leader H Vishwanath and a prominent Vishwakarma community leader K P Nanjundi have quit the Congress.

While K P Nanjundi chose to join the BJP after B S Yeddyurappa visited his residence to extend an invitation, Vishwanath is expected to join the JD(S). While H Vishwanath is the member of All India Congress Committee, K P Nanjundi is a General Secretary of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee. While Vishwanath's exit may not be a cause of concern to the party, especially in the Mysuru region, K P Nanjundi's exit means the wrath of the Vishwakarma community.

"He is a businessman and has been a Congress member. Yes, he has the backing of a community and his exit means we will lose support in considerable numbers from voters of that community but you can't keep everyone happy at all times. We will now look at it as one contender less for tickets," a Karnataka Congress leader said.

K P Nanjundi quit the Congress after being denied an MLC seat on multiple occasions. Last time around, he was shortlisted to be nominated under the social work quota but lost out at the last minute. While announcing his decision to join the BJP K P Nanjundi said that he was not looking at any posts. However, sources from the BJP believe that he would be given a prominent post in the state unit. "Yeddyurappa drove home a point when he visited Nanjundi's residence and extended an invitation for him to join the BJP. Since he was an office bearer in the Congress he is likely to be given a prominent post in the state BJP, probably the post of Vice President," said a source in the BJP. Nanjundi has the support of over a dozen Vishwakarma seers and their followers which makes up a significant vote bank.

Vishwanath who has been at loggerheads with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had been threatening to quit for many weeks now. Credited to be the man who brought Siddaramaiah to the Congress, Vishwanath had been expressing disappointment at the way he was being treated in the party. After S M Krishna and Srinivas Prasad, Vishwanath becomes the third Congress leader for the Cauvery region to express disappointment with the Congress and quit the party.

The Mysuru-Mandya region is Congress' bastion. The real battle in the region is between the Congress and the JD(S) while the BJP comes a distant third, With three leaders from the region now exiting the Congress, the party's popularity is likely to take a hit but its vote share is unlikely to suffer anywhere in the region expect Srinivas Prasad's turf.

OneIndia News
Things are about to get unreal for real estate investors in Coimbatore: watch out for opportunities in Coimbat

What is a 'Smart City?' All you need to know

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

The Government on Friday announced the fourth list of 'smart cities', with Thiruvananthapuram topping the list, 30 new cities added to the existing 60 cities that are under transformation.

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu released the list of new smart cities taking the total number of smart cities to 90. Total 100 cities were supposed to be selected for the Smart Cities Mission in total.

For the remaining 10 spots, 20 cities are in competition - Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, Biharsharif in Bihar, Diu in Daman & Diu, Silvassa in Dadra and Nager Haveli, Kavaratti in Lakshadweep, Navi Mumbai, Greater Mumbai and Amaravati in Maharashtra, Imphal in Manipur, Shillong in Meghalaya, Dindigul and Erode in Tamil Nadu, Bidhannagar, Durgapur and Haldia in West Bengal, Meerut, Rai Bareilly, Ghaziabad, Sharanpur and Rampur in U.P.

The Smart City Mission launched on 25 June 2015 now has 90 cities under it as of now.

Then, what is Smart City?

According to Ministry of Urban Development, the concept of smart city aims to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of 'Smart' Solutions.

The focus is on a sustainable and inclusive development and the idea is to look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act as a light house to other aspiring cities.

The core infrastructure elements in a smart city would include:

Adequate water supply

Assured electricity supply

Sanitation, including solid waste management

Efficient urban mobility and public transport

Affordable housing, especially for the poor

Robust IT connectivity and digitalization

Good governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation

Sustainable environment

Safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly

Health and education

What are smart solutions?

E-Governance and Citizen Services

Waste Management

Water Management

Energy Management

Urban Mobility

This is not, however, an exhaustive list, and cities are free to add more applications.

Thus, the purpose of the Smart Cities Mission is to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local area development and harnessing technology, especially technology that leads to Smart outcomes.

Application of Smart Solutions will enable cities to use technology, information, and data to improve infrastructure and services. Comprehensive development in this way will improve the quality of life, create employment and enhance incomes for all, especially the poor and the disadvantaged, leading to inclusive Cities.

OneIndia News
Woman constable's WhatsApp forward mocking Kerala CM lands her in trouble

India

oi-Anusha

A woman police constable in Thiruvananthapuram is facing the ire of higher ups after mocking Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The constable attached with the Medical College police station shared a Whatsapp forward criticising the Kerala government.

An inquiry was initiated after another member of the all-women police WhatsApp group complained about messages mocking the Left Democratic Front government being shared. Kerala has been witnessing fever-related deaths and the government as well as opposition parties have taken up sanitation drives. The message that the constable forwarded is said to have mocked the Pinarayi Vijayan government on failing to curb such deaths.

The message, a parody of government advertisements on its first anniversary was forwarded to the group. The message also contained a picture of Vijayan's smiling face and mocked his government for failing to arrest fever-related deaths. City police commissioner G Sparjan Kumar has ordered an inquiry into the incident. The police have concluded that the constable had only forwarded the message and are now tracing the origin.

All digital evidence including phone numbers were recorded by the cyber cell to take the investigations forward. Government employees including the police are prohibited from propagating campaigns against their employer and this is the basis on which probe has been initiated.

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 16:14 [IST]
We know exactly who he is: Trump says US is aware of new Islamic State chief

Baghdadi dead? Almost 100 per cent, but there is no evidence

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Self-professed Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Bhagdadi is dead and the news is almost 100 per cent correct, the Russian media has reported. The confirmation comes a week after the Russians had claimed that a missile strike may have killed the chief of the Islamic State.

The Interfax news agency while quoting the head of the defence committee in Russia's upper parliamentary house said that the news is almost confirmed. However the armed groups fighting in the region and the US officials said that there is no evidence to support the claim.

An officer with the Indian Intelligence agency told OneIndia that they too have been trying to gather evidence regarding his death. Our counterparts in Syria and Iraq have not been able to confirm the news. It is also not clear if Bhagdadi was present at the Grand Moque at Mosul when the Iraqi forces launched an attack. The ISIS had destroyed the Grand Mosque in the encounter. This was the same Mosque in which Baghdadi had declared himself the Caliph.

The news of Baghdadi's death has been floating around since the past year. He has been termed as a cat with nine lives. Baghdadi had around 6 months back issued an audio statement in which he had said that the foreign fighters must return to their home land and stage attacks. For the local fighters his message wads to blow themselves up. The statement was issued in the wake of the ISIS losing considerable ground in their strongholds of Iraq and Syria.

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 5:45 [IST]
Coronavirus crisis: Why COVID-19 death rates is higher in some countries?

Russian invasion: Italy latest country to close its airspace to Russian flights

Teen pilot on track to become youngest pilot for solo global flight

Belgium: Two spectators killed after race car runs off road

Belgian court convicts 8 Emirati Princesses for human trafficking, ill treatment of staff

International

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

A Belgian court on Friday convicted eight Emirati princesses fro human trafficking and given suspended jail terms in connection with treatment of servants at a Brussels luxury hotel nearly 10 years ago.

The women are from Abu Dhabi's ruling al-Nahyan family, given 15-month suspended sentences for human trafficking and degrading treatment, the lawyer, Stephen Monod, said.

He said the defence was pleased the case was finally resolved after nearly a decade, reports Reuters.

"Belgian justice has appropriately assessed this case which has generated many misconceptions," he said in a statement.

They were ordered to pay a fine of 165,000 euros ($184,000), with half the sum suspended, also, the defendants acquitted of the more serious charge of inhuman treatment.

The case was filed after a servant of the Emirati Royal family slipped out of the hotel and complained to Belgian police.

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 10:10 [IST]
Britain-Mauritius dispute: India backs UNGA resolution, refer case to ICJ

International

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United Nations, June 23: India has voted against the UK to back of a UN General Assembly resolution seeking the International Court of Justice's opinion on the decades-long dispute between Britain and Mauritius over a strategic island in the Indian Ocean.

In a diplomatic blow to Britain, the General Assembly on Thursday voted by 94 to 15 to ask the Hague-based court to examine the legal status of the Chagos Archipelago, which Mauritius maintains is part of its territory that has been unlawfully claimed by the UK since 1965. Britain cut off the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965 before granting it independence in 1968. India was among the nations voting in favour of the resolution proposed by Mauritius and co-sponsored by the Group of African States.

"As part of our longstanding support to all peoples striving for decolonisation, we have also consistently supported Mauritius, a fellow developing country from Africa with whom we have age-old people to people bonds, in their quest for the restoration of their sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said in his statement to the General Assembly on the resolution. Akbaruddin said India supports the draft and votes in favour of it, "continuing with our consistent approach on this important issue of decolonisation".

Speaking before the vote, Mauritius Minister Mentor and Minister for Defence Anerood Jugnauth told the 193-member General Assembly that the Chagos Archipelago has been part of his country since at least the 18th century, when France had governed it. He said the entire territory had been ceded to the United Kingdom in 1810, and kept intact until the unlawful excision of the Chagos Archipelago in November 1965.

He added that information had come to light about British efforts to manipulate the international community at the time, and to present the United Nations with a fait accompli regarding the separation. Those facts alone should warrant a fresh look at the situation, he emphasised.

PTI

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Story first published: Friday, June 23, 2017, 14:37 [IST]
IT industry veteran appeals to PM for a 'corruption-free' Karnataka

Thailand: PM Prayuth can stay in office, court says

UK PM Liz Truss resigns after 45 days in office, successor to be elected next week

Iraq gets a new government after a year of deadlock

PM in Portugal: Costa arranges Gujarati meal for Modi

International

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday arrived in Lisbon on the first leg of his three-nation tour to Portugal, U.S. and the Netherlands. This is the first ever bilateral visit of an Indian Prime Minister to Portugal.

Portugal Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva received Prime Minister Modi at the airport.

Modi later interacted with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa at Necessidades Palace in Lisbon. The Prime Minister will attend a dinner at Necessidades Palace.

Costa arranged a Gujarati meal for Modi for Modi to show his generous hospitality towards the Indian Prime Minister.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa arranged a special Gujarati meal at the lunch hosted for PM Narendra Modi in Portugal. pic.twitter.com/Zh8a7plNbW  ANI (@ANI_news) June 24, 2017

Modi had earlier said in a Facebook post that his visit is aimed at enhancing the bilateral engagement, especially in the areas of economic cooperation, science and technology, space collaboration and people to people ties.

"We will deliberate on means to intensify our cooperation in counter-terrorism and on other international issues of mutual interest. I also see significant potential for deepening bilateral trade and investment ties," he wrote in his post.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa had in January visited India for a week, during which he also visited his ancestral place in Goa.

Modi's visit is being seen as his effort to reach out to the European countries where China has already made significant inroads.

According to reports, China has high levels of per capita investments in energy, telecommunication and infrastructure sectors in Portugal.

Lisbon gets ready to welcome PM @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/78cZPaEDvK  Gopal Baglay (@MEAIndia) June 24, 2017 Lisbon streets decorated to welcome Modi Modi is also set to interact with the Indian community in Portugal. pic.twitter.com/aqPPcqIef7  India in Portugal (@IndiainPortugal) June 23, 2017 Modi's Facebook post on Portugal visit Modi said that India and Portugal share close historical and friendly ties. Landed in Portugal. My brief visit will further strengthen relations between India and Portugal. pic.twitter.com/4HQ4RfbYb7  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 24, 2017 Modi's arrival in Lisbon Portugal Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva received Prime Minister Modi at the airport.

OneIndia News
IT industry veteran appeals to PM for a 'corruption-free' Karnataka

Thailand: PM Prayuth can stay in office, court says

UK PM Liz Truss resigns after 45 days in office, successor to be elected next week

Iraq gets a new government after a year of deadlock

Modi interacts with Indian diaspora before emplaning for Washington

International

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

On the first leg of his three-nations tour, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday offered prayers at the Radha Krishna temple in Lisbon and interacted with the members of the Indian diaspora in Portugal.

Modi then left for Washington for his first visit to the US since President Donald Trump took the office.

Speaking to the members of the Indian diaspora, Modi recalled ISRO's recent launch of 30 nano satellites into the orbit.

"In the field of space, our scientists have done great work. Recently 30 nano satellites were launched," he said at the Radha Krishna Temple.

"India is fast moving ahead, and is touching new heights in many fields," he added.

Modi also presented Overseas Citizen of India card to Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who has ancestral links with Goa.

Earlier, Modi thanked Portugal for supporting India's United Nations Security Council bid and said both nations have agreed to setup a four million Euros worth of science and technology fund.

Modi and Costa also launched the India-Portugal International StartUp Hub (IPISH) in Lisbon to help in mutual capacity building, and enable connections between start-ups, investors, and incubators from relevant sectors.

Modi offering prayers at Radha Krishna temple Radha Krishna temple in Lisbon is a prominent religious place for Hindus settled in Portugal. It also serves as an inter-community meeting point for people of Indian origin. Modi being welcomed by Indian diaspora The Hindu-Portuguese community has over 9,000 members, most of them originated from the ex-colonies held by the Portuguese. Modi and Costa at Indian diaspora event Earlier, Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who has his origin in Goa, sprang a surprise for Modi when he hosted a special Gujarati vegetarian lunch for him. Modi and Costa at Mahatma Gandhi's statue Honoring the Father of the Nation. PM Modi offered floral tributes to Kasturba and Mahatma Gandhi statutes in Lisbon

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 23:48 [IST]
Saudi-led 13-point demands not 'reasonable', says Qatar

International

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Doha, Jun 24: Qatar on Saturday said that a 13-point list of demands made by the four Arab governments impinged on its sovereignty and failed to meet US expectations they be "reasonable".

The Arab allies delivered the demands to Qatar through Kuwait on Thursday, more than two weeks after severing all ties with the emirate and imposing an embargo. The document has not been published but has been widely leaked and the demands are sweeping in their scope.

They require Doha to join Riyadh and its allies in outlawing the Muslim Brotherhood, which it has long supported. They also require it to close Iran's embassy and a base on its territory operated by its ally Turkey, as well as to shut Al-Jazeera television. Qatar is also required to end all contacts with opposition groups in the four countries -- Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In Qatar's first response to the demands, government communications director Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al-Thani said on Saturday that they went far beyond the four governments' stated aim of combating terrorism. "This blockade is not aimed at fighting terrorism but at impinging on Qatar's sovereignty and interfering in its foreign policy," Sheikh Saif said.

He recalled that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had said on Wednesday that Washington wanted a clear list of grievances that was "reasonable and actionable". This list "does not meet those standards," he said. Saudi Arabia and its allies have put enormous pressure on Qatar to meet their demands.

Rex Tillerson has sought to mediate but the White House has been more hands-off, describing the diplomatic crisis as a "family issue". The rift between the US Gulf allies has been awkward for Washington. The UAE state minister for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, warned on Friday that Qatar should "deal seriously" with the 13 points or face "divorce" from its neighbours.

PTI

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Story first published: Saturday, June 24, 2017, 17:46 [IST]
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Rakhibazaar.com Announces the Opening of its Sale of the Latest Designer Rakhi Collection

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Rakhibazaar.com has opened doors for its customers to put in their orders for the latest collection of rakhis to officially begin the Raksha Bandhan season.New Delhi, India : The Raksha Bandhan excitement has gripped the nation with Rakhibazaar.com unveiling the latest collection of rakhis and rakhi gifts (). It was worth the wait for its customers who had kept their plans on hold and they were rightfully satisfied with this years collection on one of the largest portals for Raksha Bandhan shopping in India.Raksha Bandhan is always celebrated with lots of rejoicing by Indians in India and around the world. It has also attracted many foreigners because of the tender love between sisters and brothers that it stands for. The rakhi thread is the most important component in the celebration of Rakhi. The sister ties it on her brothers wrists as a sign of request for his care and protection. The brother accepts her request and offers her gifts to solemnise their relationship. The tradition of tying a piece of thread or cloth to bind someone in a promise was first practised many centuries ago in the history of India. It has been carried forward by ancestors and, thus, is still practised today.The rakhi thread has seen a lot of major and minor adjustments all along the years. The fashion that was popular with people shaped the design of the rakhi and nowadays the designer rakhis are available in such designs that have never been seen before. All these designs are now available at Rakhibazaar.com. Kids have differentkind of rakhis for them with cartoon and toy figures ascribed on the rakhis motif while those who are elderly have religious symbols on their rakhi to suit their tastes. A spokesperson for the website commented, Our customers are spoilt for choice when they visit our store to purchase the best rakhi for their brothers. Our store has a very wide range of designs in place to fulfil the needs of all our customers.The different sections at the online store of Rakhibazaar.com represent the different kinds of rakhis that it has in its collection. Customers will find Fancy rakhis, Zardosi rakhis, Golden rakhis, Pearl rakhis, Mauli rakhis and other forms of designer rakhis that are unique and yet at affordable prices. The spokesperson also said, Raksha Bandhan unites families and friends in special bond of love and togetherness. We want all our customers to feel it so we provide attractive rakhis and gift hampers at prices that are reasonable.Apart from rakhis, Rakhibazaar.com also has a vast variety of rakhi gifts available for worldwide delivery. The gift packs include rakhis coupled up with chocolates, dry sweets, flowers and other kinds of gifts that add value to the celebration. The website provides delivery of rakhis and gifts within India so its customers can send rakhi to Mumbai (), Delhi, Kolkata and other major cities and towns.Contact -Rakhibazaar.com has emerged as the best online retail store for Raksha Bandhan shopping. All its products are of the best quality and are designed to satisfy the requirements of every one of its customers who purchase rakhi gifts from the website. Its delivery system is also built to provide fast and efficient delivery to all parts of India and the world.Media Contact :-Rakhi BazaarMayur Vihar Phase 1, Pandav NagarPostal Code :- 110091City - DelhiCountry - IndiaCustomer Service No. : +91 8470001155Email - support@rakhibazaar.com
Global Interior Design Market Forecast 2022 Top Players  Gensler, Gold Mantis, HOK, HBA, Perkins+Will, Jacobs.

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http://www.researchtrades.com/report/global-interior-design-market-size-status-and-forecast-2022/1101503

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Global Interior Design Market Size, Status And Forecast 2022 is a professional and incisive analysis on the market dynamics of the Interior Design Market industry and future growth prospects of the key market players across the global. The study offers detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the industry by offering an overview of key market conditions and statistics on market estimations. An in-depth insight into the industry overview is offered in the study in terms of product definition and classification, applications analysis and manufacturing technology. The market participants can going through the study explore the profile of international market players in terms of their capacity utilization, market shares of the major segments, growth opportunities and challenges they need to overcome to gain a foothold in the market.This report studies the global interior design market, analyzes and researches the Interior Design development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeGenslerGold MantisHOKHBAPerkins+WillJacobsStantecIA Interior ArchitectsCallisonNelsonLeo A DalySOMHKSDB & BCannon DesignNBBJPerkins EastmanCCDAECOM TechnologyWilson AssociatesM Moser AssociatesSmithGroupJJRAreen Design ServicesClick here for sample report @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, Interior Design can be split intoResidentialCommercialOthersKey Chapter1 Industry Overview of Interior Design1.1 Interior Design Market Overview1.1.1 Interior Design Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Interior Design Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia2 Global Interior Design Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Interior Design Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Gensler3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Interior Design Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent DevelopmentsTo View Full Report @Who we areResearch Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.We distribute customized reports that focus on meeting the clients specific requirement. Our database consists of a large collection of high-quality reports obtained using a customer-centric approach, thus providing valuable research insights. The research encompasses information gathered and examined by subject-matter experts, laying down growth opportunities and developmental strategies for enterprises.Reach at us:Flat No.10, Wing C,S. No. 245/4/2+245/5/1,Baner, Pune-411045Email: sales@researchtrades.comCall us: +91 7507349866Skype ID: researchtradesconWeb:
New research report offers detailed research on developments in Water Soluble Fertilizer Market

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Fertilizers are the substances added to increase the yield by supplying crops with the nutrients the soil lacks. Water soluble fertilizers are the type of fertilizers that are dissolved in water and applied to plants at the base or foliage throughout the growing season. The addition of fertilizer often leads to double or triple the yield. Ever growing demand for agricultural products is the major reason for growth in demand of water soluble fertilizers. Global demand for fertilizer nutrients is estimated to grow at 1.8 percent per annum from 2015 to 2019.The main advantage of water soluble fertilizer over other type of fertilizers is the more rapid impact, ease of use and easier coverage. Hence, water soluble fertilizer are witnessing rapid growth in demand. Water soluble fertilizers can also be applied more frequently than granular fertilizers, therefore can be used according to the need and availability. The growing awareness over organic farming may affect the use of water soluble fertilizer in future.Water Soluble Fertilizer market: Drivers and RestraintsThe ever increasing population is the main reason of increasing demand for food. The amount of yield produced hence has to be adequate to meet the demands. The positive outlook towards using technology and new products to maximize the yield is another factor responsible for driving the demand of water soluble fertilizers. The fertilizers world consumption in 2014/15 is growing by more than 3% year-on-year. The water soluble fertilizer industry was valued around U.S. $ 11 Bn and expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 5%.Request For Report Sample@On the other hand the harmful environmental effects of use of fertilizers such as imbalance in ecology, high traces of fertilizers in food and water resources may restrain the consumption of water soluble fertilizers. Furthermore, stringent government laws and awareness towards organic farming may slow down the consumption and demand of water soluble fertilizer in coming years.Water Soluble Fertilizer Market: SegmentationOn the basis of type, the global water soluble fertilizer market is segmented into:Nitrogen(N)Potassium(K)Phosphate(PO43-)Secondary NutrientsMicro-nutrientsOn the basis of types of application, the global water soluble fertilizer market is segmented into:FoliarFertigationWater Soluble Fertilizer Market: Region Wise OutlookEurope is estimated to be the largest market for global water soluble fertilizer with more than 1/3rd of the total consumption. In terms of growth rate, Asia pacific is the fastest growing market for the global water soluble fertilizer. Economic developments in African countries are estimated to benefit the water soluble fertilizer market during the forecast period.Request For TOC@Water Soluble Fertilizer Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players identified in the global water soluble fertilizer market are Agrium Inc., Israel Chemical Ltd., The Mosaic Company, Haifa Chemicals Ltd., Yara International ASA, Zuari Industries Ltd., Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative, Coromandel International Ltd., Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers among many others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
New report- Gasoline Turbochargers Market analysis (2016  2026)

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Gasoline Turbochargers is expected to unlock the potential of market due to cutting-edge technologies in turbocharger market. Which enables spur new opportunities to market players involved in turbochargers business. Gasoline Turbocharger is a device which increases internal combustion of engines efficiency and power out -put by forcing extra air in to the combustion chamber. The performance of an engine can be enhanced by addition of turbocharger. It enables compress the air and more oxygen flows in to the combustion chamber. According to fuel the power output of an engine increases. Turbochargers can shape the characteristics of engine and it effects engines economy, emission characteristics. Gasoline Turbochargers used for synergy effects, and it is mostly used in commercial vehicle sector. The fuel economy can be increased with turbochargers by maintains a specific torque and power density. Whilst maintaining the vehicles performance. The turbo charging standard technology used to boost the engines. However, waste gate controlled turbines have standard for gasoline turbochargers. The technological advancements and innovations in the gasoline turbochargers creates new opportunities for the companies which are striving in Gasoline Turbochargers industry across the globe. Global Gasoline Turbochargers market is expected to exhibit a significant CAGR as well as annual growth over the forecast period.Gasoline Turbochargers Market: Drivers and restraintsGlobal Gasoline Turbochargers market can be influenced by following factors, Gasoline Turbochargers gaining importance across the globe due to increasing trend of emission reduction along with increased engine economy. Increased awareness among the people regarding the innovative technologies which enables drive the global gasoline turbochargers market. Growing disposable income of consumers in advanced countries is expected to boost the Gasoline Turbochargers Market. This, in turn, would lead to increase in demand for gasoline turbo charger. The high quality of turbocharges offeres at affordable price is major roadblock for market.Request For Report Sample@Gasoline Turbochargers Market: SegmentationGlobal Gasoline Turbochargers Market can be segmented as following typesBy Vehicle TypePassenger CarLow Commercial Vehicle (LCV)High Commercial Vehicle (HCV)By TechnologyVariable Geometry Turbo Chargers (VGT/VNT)Waste Gate Turbo ChargersTwin Turbo ChargersGasoline Turbochargers Market: OverviewGlobal Gasoline Turbochargers market is rapidly evolving across the globe due to increased awareness among automobile industry as well as people. Which enables change the trend towards advanced and novel technologies in Gasoline Turbochargers market. Technological advancements in the Gasoline Turbochargers market enables make significant changes in the market. The global Gasoline Turbochargers market expected to account for significant CAGR and witnessed for lucrative market over the forecast period.Gasoline Turbochargers Market: Region-Wise OutlookGlobal market is segmented into seven key regions: Those are North America, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia pacific excluding japan, Japan, Middle East and Africa.North America region is accounted for majority of the market share due to increased awareness among the people towards the innovative technologies followed by Europe and Asia. Asia-Pacific region, which includes the greater China, India, Japan, Korea are fastest growing economies across the globe. Japan and China is leading in automobile industry, which enables offers majority of market share in Asia-Pacific region. However, Gasoline Turbochargers market in Asia-Pacific region becoming matured. Asia-Pacific region market is considered to rapidly evolving infrastructure, is witnessed for create robust opportunities for Gasoline Turbochargers market.Request For TOC@Gasoline Turbochargers Market: Key playersSome of the key players are Honeywell International, Inc., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Turbo Energy Private Limited, Ningbo Weifu Tianli Turbocharging Technology Co., Ltd., Bosch Mahle Turbo Systems, Eaton Corporation Plc, Continental AG, Borg Warner Turbo Systems.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Comprehensive analysis of global Polyurethane (PU) Adhesives Market published by a leading research firm

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Adhesive is the substance applied on to different surfaces to bind them together. Use of adhesives has eliminated the demand for welded parts, rivets, and other mechanical parts in many equipment. The incorporation of polyurethane adhesives helps to reduce the overall manufacturing cost. Manufacturers have been using polyurethane adhesives due to superior product performance, improved product life, and reliability. Polyurethane adhesives are used in multiple industries such as construction, electronics, footwear, furniture, automotive, packaging, and so on. Nowadays, vehicles contain more of plastic parts over mechanical fasteners. Use of polyurethane adhesive makes vehicle parts light in weight and thus enhances the fuel efficiency. In automotive arena, the consumption of polyurethane based adhesives is significantly growing.Polyurethane adhesives are well accepted in many end-use applications, since they provide excellent adhesion to different substrates and binds them immediately. Polyurethane based adhesives are preferred over other adhesives due to fast curing. The demand for polyurethane adhesives is driven by growth in automotive and building & construction industry. Thermoplastic polyurethane adhesives are widely used for different applications as it offers enhanced flexibility and improved adhesion. However, thermoplastic polyurethane based adhesives are costlier. Rising demand for housing and government spending on infrastructure in China and India boosts the demand for Polyurethane adhesives. Industrial development and growing demand of customers for packaging, automotive, and electronics in terms of adhesives is expected to drive polyurethane adhesives market over the forecast period of 2016-2026.Request For Report Sample@Polyurethane Adhesives Market: Market DynamicsDemand for polyurethane adhesives from end-use industries such as footwear, automotive, building & construction, packaging, and electronics has significantly increased over the past few years. The key driver of polyurethane adhesives market is the rapidly growing construction and renovation activities. There is significant growth in the building & construction industry of India, China, and Brazil, which results in propelling the demand for polyurethane adhesives. Increasing government expenditure on construction and growing economy are anticipated to boost the demand for Polyurethane adhesive market over the next few years in these countries. Growth of automotive industry due to rise in production of passenger and commercial vehicles with increasing demand for light weight components has impelled the demand for polyurethane adhesives. In Asia-Pacific region, significant automotive growth is observed in the past few years due to economic growth and rise in disposable income. The demand for automotive is likely to continue in next few decades in this region and thus drive the demand for polyurethane adhesives over the forecast period.Rising income, change in life style, consumer preference, and improving standard of living fuels the demand for electronics appliances, which in turn boosts the demand for polyurethane adhesives market. Asia-Pacific is the rapidly growing region for automotive and electronics segments of the polyurethane adhesives market. Growth in other end-use industries such as footwear, furniture, and packaging is supporting the demand for polyurethane adhesives across the world. The product development and innovation will be the keys to increase the customer base and market share of polyurethane adhesives market. New products with superior solutions and eco-friendly features are the major demand drivers of polyurethane adhesive market.Polyurethane Adhesives Market: Market SegmentationPolyurethane AdhesivesMarket is segmented on the basis of technology type, product type, and end-use application.On the basis of technology, Global Polyurethane Adhesives Marketcan be segmented as:Solvent-borneDispersionHot-meltReactiveOthersOn the basis of product type, Global Polyurethane Adhesives Market can be segmented into:ThermosetThermoplasticOn the basis of applications, Global Polyurethane AdhesivesMarket can be segmented as:FootwearAutomotiveBuilding & ConstructionPackagingElectrical & ElectronicsFurnitureOthersRequest For TOC@Polyurethane Adhesives Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the Global Polyurethane Adhesives Market identified across the value chain include, 3M, BASF, ADCO Global Inc., Avery Dennison Corp, Arkema S.A., Ashland Inc., H.B. Fuller, Henkel AG & Co, Huntsman Corporation, Illinois Tool Works Inc., Pidilite Industries, American Biltrite Inc., Adhesives Research Inc., Chemence, Ellsworth, RPM International Inc., Beardow & Adams (Adhesives) Ltd., Scott Bader Company Ltd., Ninghai Dingcheng Adhesive Co Ltd., Sika AG, and Dow Chemical Company among others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
United States Healthcare/Medical Simulation Market Dynamics 2017: Opportunities, Risks and Driving Factors to 2022

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In this report, the United States Healthcare/Medical Simulation market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report splits the United States market into seven regions:The WestSouthwestThe Middle AtlanticNew EnglandThe SouthThe Midwestwith sales (volume), revenue (value), market share and growth rate of Healthcare/Medical Simulation in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast).To Browse Complete report visit @United States Healthcare/Medical Simulation market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Healthcare/Medical Simulation sales volume, price, revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingCanadian Aviation ElectronicsLaerdal Medical3D SystemsGaumard Scientific CompanyLimbs & ThingsKyoto Kagaku CoMentice ABSimulab CorporationSimulaidsSurgical Science Sweden ABOn the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume, revenue, product price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPatient SimulatorsTask TrainersSurgical SimulatorsEndovascular SimulatorsUltrasound SimulatorsDental SimulatorsEye SimulatorsOthersTo Get Sample report visit @On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Healthcare/Medical Simulation for each application, includingAcademic InstitutionsHospitalsMilitary OrganizationsOther End Users.About usReports Monitor is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. Our aim is to change the dynamics of the Market Research industry by providing quality intelligence backed by data. Your requirement for market forecasting is fulfilled by our exclusive quantitative and analytics driven intelligence. We have a vast collection of reports, covering maximum industries worldwide. Our process is meticulously planned and executed in order to use maximum resources and explore the market for getting genuine insights. Prime focus is to get reliable data, Decision makers can now rely on our distinct data gathering methods to get factual market forecasting and detailed analysis.Contact UsJay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-5911Email: sales@reportsmonitor.comWebsite:008, Mihir Co-operative,Above Bharat Suzuki showroom,Fatima Nagar,Pune,Maharashtra,India
Global Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit Market Forecast, By Countries, Type And Application, With Sales, Price, Revenue And Growth Rate Forecast, 2017-2022

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Report Monitor Present's Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit Market 2017 Industry Trend, enhances the decision making capabilities and helps to create an effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage.DescriptionThe Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit Market report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit industry. This report evaluates the market for " Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit ".The Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit Market report provides complete analysis of the Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit by analysing all round market dynamics such as regional market opportunities, drivers, challenges, constraints, threats, and other market trends.To Browse Complete report visit @The Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit Market report contains latest Business Data resulting from various Research sources that helps Decision Makers to deliver a Distinctive and Trustworthy Analysis for Companys Growth.Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit Market Survey starts with Industry overview of Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit Market covering Major Regions Status, Industry Chain Structure, Definitions and Specifications, with a detailed focus on Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis including Raw Material Suppliers, Equipment Suppliers and Manufacturing Process.Get a PDF Sample of United States Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit report atIn Next Part, the researchers has collected and presented information on Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis which comprises of Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source of Major Manufacturers .In following segment, with Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin, Business Region Distribution Analysis, Competition between various Company Profile has been given along with Product Pictures and Specifications in Visual Field Analyzer Industry Report.The Key Players Mentioned in Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit Market Report are:B.BraunTeknimedEmerge MedicalTo Read Similar Medical Devices Reports visit at:The Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit Industry Report is also a Great Source of Marketing Type Analysis consisting:1. Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit Regional Marketing Type Analysis2. Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit International Trade Type Analysis3. Traders or Distributors with Contact Information of EMEA Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit by Regions4. Spinal Osteosynthesis Unit Supply Chain AnalysisGot any Query? Feel free to ask us at:Lastly, the Report provides Development Trend Analysis for 2017-2022 years which will forecast Market Size (Volume and Value), Sales Price, Consumption Forecast, Market Trend (Product Type) and Market Trend (Application). Also the List of Major Consumers is analyzed and Contact Details are provided to easy communicating.Finally, the Report is concluded with Various Methodology, Analyst Introduction and Data SourcesAbout usReports Monitor is a platform for companies looking to meet their market research and business intelligence requirements. Our aim is to change the dynamics of the Market Research industry by providing quality intelligence backed by data. Your requirement for market forecasting is fulfilled by our exclusive quantitative and analytics driven intelligence. We have a vast collection of reports, covering maximum industries worldwide. Our process is meticulously planned and executed in order to use maximum resources and explore the market for getting genuine insights. Prime focus is to get reliable data, Decision makers can now rely on our distinct data gathering methods to get factual market forecasting and detailed analysis.Contact UsJay MatthewsDirect: +1 513 549-5911Email: sales@reportsmonitor.comWebsite:
Beaverton police arrested a man early Saturday morning who is accused of injuring a woman and holding officers at bay with a gun while a 3-year-old child was in a house with him, police said.

Officers arrived at the home in the 15100 block of Southwest Barcelona Way at about 2:40 a.m. and found a child, believed to be 9 years old, outside and "crying that her mommy and daddy were hurting each other," a Beaverton police news release says.

The woman in the home was out of the house when officers arrived, the news release says.

But a 3-year-old child remained in the house with the man, who was not identified in the news release.

The man refused to come out of the house and "armed himself with a gun and challenged the police to shoot him," the news release says. "The Washington County Tactical Negotiations Team, along with crisis negotiators, were activated and responded to the scene. After several hours of attempts, the male surrendered peacefully and was taken into custody around 7:50 this morning."

Neither child was injured. The woman's injuries were not known nor were the charges for which the man was being investigated, a police spokesman said.

-- Allan Brettman
Roxane Gay begins her new book - the hardest she's ever had to write - by describing what it isn't.

"The story of my body is not a story of triumph," Gay writes in the opening pages. "Mine is not a success story."

Instead, it's a searing account of the essayist's lifelong struggle with her weight, which once topped 500 pounds. "Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body" (Harper, 320 pages, $25.99) is no weight-loss memoir, she is quick to explain. There's no tidy resolution here, no willowy woman on the book jacket holding the waistband of her old pants an arm's reach from her new body.

"I wished I could write that book," says Gay, 42, a once-obscure academic and fiction writer whose tart takes on social issues and pop-culture built a loyal online audience and helped launch a best-selling 2014 collection of essays, "Bad Feminist."

"I'd wanted to write about fat for a while, and I didn't quite know how," she says. "And then I started to think, 'Well, what would it be like to write a memoir of my body?' "

The resulting book turned into a portrait of resilience in the aftermath of trauma: When Gay was 12, a boy she adored lured her to a cabin in the woods near her Nebraska home, and he and a group of his friends raped her.

"They did things I've never been able to talk about, and will never be able to talk about," she writes. "Those boys treated me like nothing so I became nothing."

For years, she told no one. Food became a vital source of comfort; her doting parents, both Haitian immigrants, were alarmed as their quiet daughter gained more and more weight. "They knew nothing of my determination to keep making my body into what I needed it to be - a safe harbor rather than a small, weak vessel that betrayed me," Gay writes.

Gay has long focused her work on matters such as sexuality, gender, race, body image, violence. Her most recent collection of short stories, "Difficult Women," is filled with quirky, surrealist tales of sisterhood, loss and toxic relationships. But of all her work so far, "Hunger" is certainly the most vulnerable. Which made it the most painful story to tell, Gay says.

Writing is usually a source of joy for her; she assumed the words would flow easily. But the prospect of revealing herself so completely proved terrifying. She procrastinated, and the book, originally scheduled for publication last year, was delayed. In April 2016, Gay explained to her 200,000 Twitter followers: "There is no mystery beyond I still haven't turned it in because the book is scary."

It was a surprising confession from a writer who has never shied from personal disclosure or controversy. Starting as a creative writing professor at Eastern Illinois University, she made her name with trenchant essays for online outlets such as Salon and the Rumpus. She wrote about the dark pull the saccharine "Sweet Valley High" books had over her childhood; she examined the troublesome ways that rape is represented in news coverage; she condemned the fixation on Trayvon Martin's hoodie as a way to shift the blame for his murder.

Gay, now on faculty at Purdue University, is the kind of writer who is usually game to jump into a Twitter battle or slap down a troll. In January, she pulled a forthcoming book from Simon & Schuster in protest, after the publishing house signed far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.

But this was different. This was her own body.

"When you're fat, your body is not a secret, but you still hold on to secrets; you pretend, of course, that people don't see you the way you know they see you," Gay says. "And so to expose myself and this history of my body ... it's not something I took any pleasure in."

Over "Hunger's" 88 short chapters, she explores the loneliness and pain of her body's constraints. There is the exhaustion of constant scrutiny, of unavoidable logistical challenges. (How sturdy is a chair? How high the step onto a stage?) She conveys the relentless anxieties that fuel a "constant, destructive refrain": I am the fattest person in this shopping mall. I am the fattest person on this panel. I am the fattest person in this casino. I am the fattest person.

But she also chronicles her perseverance, her formative relationships, and her ongoing quest for healing and peace. Though she turns a critical eye inward, she has much to say about a culture that glorifies television shows such as "The Biggest Loser" and "My 600-lb Life" but makes little effort to accommodate larger people or support their physical and mental health.

"I really just wanted to talk about what obesity - no, I hate that word - what fat looks like, beyond what people generally see, where you're talking about someone who is 60 or 100 pounds overweight," Gay says. "I wanted to wrest control of that narrative back from the people who have seized it."

The book offers a pointed retort to the smug strangers who shoot Gay sidelong glances at the gym or gawk as she settles into an airplane seat: Here is everything you could have possibly wanted to know about why and how someone comes to live in this body.

"We are human, these are our bodies, and it's nobody's business. You don't get to judge," Gay says. She hopes the book "increases the empathy that people have for others in different kinds of bodies. And maybe it will make people mind their business a little bit more."

As for what it means for her - she's still living her way into that answer.

"Writing the book has allowed me to just take a hard and necessary look at myself that I had been unwilling to take - at how I got from then to now," she says. "And to just be honest with myself."

And has that brought her closer to the peace she seeks?

"We'll see," she says. "It's too soon to know."

***

Roxane Gay

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 30

Where: Powell's City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside St.

Admission: Free; powells.com or 503-228-4651
More bad news for Sears Holdings: The beleaguered chain on Friday said it will shutter an additional 20 U.S. stores, amounting to more than 260 closures so far this year.

The announcement, which deals yet another blow to the 124-year-old company, comes as retailers across the country struggle to stay relevant in an era of online shopping. Department stores like Sears, J.C. Penney and Macy's have been particularly hard hit as Americans look beyond the suburban shopping mall for clothing, furniture and appliances.

A day earlier, spin-off Sears Canada filed for bankruptcy protection and said it would close 59 stores and lay off nearly 3,000 workers.

"These are businesses that have badly neglected their customers, forgotten that stores need to be invested in and are running out of ways to raise cash," Brian Sozzi, a former retail analyst, wrote Friday on TheStreet.com. "This is yet another sign that Sears' business model no longer works, and efforts to save costs are in no way deep enough."

Analysts, including those from credit ratings agency Moody's, have been sounding the alarm that Sears Holdings may be headed for bankruptcy, joining more than 300 U.S. retailers so far this year.

As part of its latest effort to stay afloat, Sears Holdings said it would close 18 Sears stores -- including locations in San Diego and Houston but none in Oregon or Washington -- and two Kmart stores, all of which are owned by Seritage Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust that in some cases has effectively become Sears' landlord.

Hedge-fund billionaire Eddie Lampert is the chairman of both Seritage and Sears, an arrangement that has resulted in at least one shareholder lawsuit.

In 2015, Sears sold 235 properties to Seritage and has been renting the store locations back from the trust, according to a Sears spokesman.

Under its agreement, Sears can cut short the lease on "unprofitable" stores as long as it pays Seritage an extra year's worth of rent -- a total of about $11.2 million in this case for 20 stores -- and one year of estimated operating expenses, according to a company filing by Seritage with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"We have been strategically and aggressively evaluating our store space and productivity, and have accelerated the closing of unprofitable stores," Howard Riefs, a spokesman for Sears Holdings, said in an email. Seritage did not respond to a request for comment.

The stores will close in mid-September, and liquidation sales are expected to begin within the next week.

The relationship between Sears and Seritage has raised concerns among Sears shareholders. Earlier this year, Lampert and Sears' board of directors paid $40 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that Lampert had tried to siphon off the company's best real estate by selling it to Seritage. Sears shareholders argued that the "highly conflicted transaction" would likely "plunge the company into insolvency."

Sears, once the country's largest retailer, dominated the industry for years by building a collection of well-known brands like Kenmore, DieHard and Craftsman (which it sold to Stanley Black & Decker earlier this year for an estimated $900 million). The company, which started as a Chicago-based mail-order business, quickly grew into a one-stop shop for American families.

"Sears was regarded as a national institution, almost like the Post Office," Gordon Weil, who chronicled the history of Sears in a 1977 book, told The Washington Post earlier this month. "Everybody went there, everybody did business with them. Everybody believed they were a permanent part of the landscape."

But as the retail industry changed, Sears failed to keep up. The company hasn't turned a profit since 2010, and last year it reported losses of $2.2 billion. Analysts say many of the company's stores have fallen into disarray, and its website has yet to attract much of a following. In 2016, online orders made up less than 8 percent of Sears' total sales, compared to about 18 percent at Nordstrom and Macy's, according to market research firm eMarketer.

So far this year, the company has announced the closure of more than 260 Kmart and Sears stores. (It has about 1,100 locations left.) In March, Sears executives said they had "substantial doubt" about the company's financial viability, sending shares of Sears plunging by nearly 13 percent. (The company's stock has lost nearly 97 percent of its value in the past decade, from a peak of $195.18 a share in 2007, to less than $7 a share, today.)

But there are also signs that the company is trying out new ideas. On Thursday, it opened its first Sears Appliance & Mattresses store, a 20,000-square-foot location in Pharr, Tex., about 12 miles from the Mexico border. In addition to large appliances, the location also lets customers schedule appointments with in-house experts.

"Plans are underway to open additional Sears free-standing stores dedicated to two of its strongest categories," Leena Munjay, a senior vice president at Sears Holdings, wrote in a blog post.

-- The Washington Post
A flagger died Friday in Happy Valley after deputies say he was accidentally run over by a dump truck while a crew was in the area working to repair a natural gas leak.

The crash was reported about 4:10 p.m. near Southeast 132nd Avenue and Rose Meadow Drive. The 71-year-old flagger was helping the driver move a stalled dump truck out of the road when he was struck, said Deputy Robbie Nashif, a Clackamas County sheriff's spokesman.

The dump truck driver put the truck in neutral and allowed the truck to roll backward as the flagger was behind helping direct where it should go, the deputy said.

The truck hit the flagger and then ran him over, Nashif said. The worker died at the scene.

The driver remained at the scene and an investigation is ongoing. No arrests have been made. The flagger and the driver aren't employees with Northwest Natural Gas, but were assisting crews with traffic and other aid, Nashif said.

It's at least the third crash leading to the death of a worker on an Oregon road since May.

Pablo Dominguez-Amezcua, 48, of Portland was killed May 23 when a driver plowed through a construction zone near Southeast 122nd Avenue and Yoakum Lane in Happy Valley, the sheriff's office said. The crash also injured his co-workers Preston Stucky, 26, and William Griffin, 62.

Fedot Tsopko, 51, of Portland faces charges including first-degree manslaughter, second- and third-degree assault, driving under the influence of intoxicants, failure to perform the duties of a driver in the crash.

Antonio Bahena, 20, of Troutdale and Ronald Davis, 57, of Powell Butte were injured June 13 when they were hit in a work pickup by a box truck while clearing the roadway on Interstate 5 near Aurora, Oregon State Police said. Davis later died from his injuries.

Colin Cook, 27, of Fairview is accused of second-degree assault and failure to perform the duties of a driver. He remains held at the Marion County Correction Facility.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey
The Montana Nurses Association hosted a sign and window painting party on Friday to support St. Peters nurses who have been unable to convince the hospital to raise their base wages.

In a meeting last week to negotiate contracts, administrators from St. Peters left the table. The next mediation session is scheduled for July 26 and the MNA is spending the next month rallying the community to support nurses and encourage the best patient care and safety possible. They are also asking the hospital for measures to improve their safety and create a unit counsel to ensure nurses are included in decision making.

Businesses have asked for signs to put in windows to support raising wages for nurses, and cars around town are painted with phrases such as I love nurses and patients before profits.

The last contract for the nurses expired on May 31, but the hospital has agreed to honor the old terms until a new contract is signed. If nurses do receive any wage increases, theyll also receive back pay beginning June 1.

Nurses are asking for an 8 percent increase in wages for the first year, a 7 percent increase in the second year and a 6 percent increase in the third year.

St. Peters nurses are paid the lowest base rate in the state among large facilities, Vicky Byrd, executive director of MNA, said.

Byrd said its not abnormal for hospitals and nurses to take several meetings before agreeing on terms, but she said conditions that encourage nurses to leave St. Peters are already noticeable.

Nurses are the backbone of a hospital, she said. The nurses are coming together to protect the quality of care.

Nurses at St. Peters said low wages are already encouraging experienced nurses to relocate for better pay. A shortage of nurses could impact the quality of patient care at St. Peters.

Gina Davis, a nurse in the womens and childrens unit, said she loves her job, but she doesnt want to be forced to give her patients subpar care when resources are stretched thin. She said she already knows of nurses leaving or commuting out of Helena for higher paying jobs in nearby communities.

We have had a pretty high turnover recently, she said. I know its difficult to attract quality nurses.

Davis said she often works with parents who have sick kids and can often take out their frustrations on a nurse. The nurses have proposed both methods to prevent violence in the first place and if it does occur, make sure the employer is responsible for the cost instead of the employee.

Michelle Smith, a nurse in oncology, said shes also noticed units where jobs go unfilled for months.

Were losing good people, she said. Theres nobody applying.

St. Peters declined to answer questions on whether its taken as long to reach an agreement during past contract negotiations or if having multiple meetings is normal. Instead, the hospital provided the following statement:

We intend to negotiate directly with the Montana Nurses Association without engaging in public contract negotiations. St. Peters Hospital is committed to providing fair compensation for our nurses, and what we have proposed is in good faith and reflects this commitment. We hope to reach an agreement in the coming weeks that is both sustainable for the organization and accepted by our nurses.
The generic office paperclip holds loose pages together, but the Prada paperclip holds loose dollar bills. Such ordered money comes at a cost, though. Barneys New York is selling the Prada paperclip for $185.

"By the time I buy the paperclip, there won't be enough for it to hold," observed one Twitter user.
Just outside a subdivision overlooking Lake Helena, a sandy, 12-acre field scattered with sagebrush and gopher holes lies almost barren. Sparsely strewn throughout the dry tilled field, little green sprouts no taller than an inch cling to the last bit of moisture from the spring rains.

They arent alfalfa sprouts, not bean sprouts, not anything one could find in a grocery store. Theyre hemp  a close relative of marijuana  but with insignificant levels of the drugs psychoactive effects.

Montanas Industrial Hemp Pilot Program is underway for the first time this year, allowing approved farmers to grow the fibrous plant under oversight from the state Department of Agriculture. However, the little plants in the Helena Valley field are going without water due to conflicting regulations coming from federal and state authorities.

Kim Phillips moved here from Idaho, built a house, leased a field, licensed a business, spent two years navigating the bureaucracy to become a legal hemp grower through the pilot program and invested about $6,000 in this year's crop. Rain provided enough water for the seeds to germinate, but as the heat of summer descended on her new farm, she hit her most dire roadblock yet.

Phillips was denied access to water by the Helena Valley Irrigation District on Thursday because her plants are ineligible for federally controlled water.

The Bureau of Reclamation, charged with regulating and distributing water from federal reservoirs, holds a statute banning the use of its water on federally controlled substances, which includes marijuana and its close relative, hemp, even if a state has legalized either of the substances.

Under the 2013 federal Farm Bill, states were allowed to license farmers to grow hemp for research by state agriculture departments and universities. The Montana Industrial Hemp Pilot Program followed these federal regulations, and Phillips was issued a license to grow hemp this year.

Phillips said everything was going well until she went to the irrigation district office to finalize everything after being given the go-ahead on June 15. Then she mentioned what crop she would be growing.

Thats when the wheels fell off and everything came screeching to a halt," she said.

The Montana Department of Agriculture is working with the Bureau of Reclamation and Phillips to resolve the problem, spokesman Andy Fjeseth said.

Phillips said she planned to truck in water from a well to keep the plants alive. Irrigation district officials said that would be illegal too, Phillips said, although they did not offer a legal explanation.

After two years of jumping through hoops and doing everything the right way, I just couldnt believe water access is the problem, Phillips said. Ill fight the government if I have to, but it certainly isnt how I wanted to do this.
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Some 4 to 7 inches of rain fell overnight, flooding homes, roadways and vehicles, causing power outages and even displacing some residents.

On Friday, users swamped social media with photos of the aftermath that showed flooded basements and roadways, submerged vehicles and even kayakers wading Eastman Avenue and other parts of the city.

Due to the flooding, West Midland Family Center, 4011 W. Isabella Road, is currently open as a Red Cross shelter and available to anyone needing shelter during the flooding event.

Hannah Reynolds, 25, lives on South 11 Mile Road off M-20.

She posted several photos on Facebook of flooding in her yard, including one that showed the water level just below her knee. It was shin to thigh deep depending on where you stand, she said.

There was water in her home (built atop a slab) due to the standing water in the yard, she said.

The home is surrounded by ditch on three sides, which Reynolds said helped.

Farther northeast in Midland County, Trisha Leigeb wasnt as fortunate.

Leigeb, 31, said she and her husband had to evacuate their bi-level home at 2384 N. Eastman, about a mile north of the mall. They were sleeping and heard a noise in the middle of the night. Leigeb got up and tried to go downstairs, but couldnt  the lower level was under about four feet of water, she said.

Leigeb said she called the fire department at 4 a.m. Responders were there within five minutes and told them they needed to find somewhere to go, she said.

The water had risen above 5 feet by then, Leigeb said.

So we are displaced at the moment, she said on Friday around 2:40 p.m. Everything downstairs is under water my washer, dryer, bedroom set, TVs, computers etc.

Leigeb called Red Cross, which offered a shelter in Lee Township. They opted to stay with relatives. (They brought their fur children with them  two dogs, named Chopper and Lucy  but had to leave cats upstairs at their home with food and water. Leigeb said on Friday she had planned to retrieve them soon.)

Lacey Quintel, 29, lives on Harper Lane near Jefferson Avenue and Wheeler Street.

Our front door was actually blown open from the storm and we discovered it because my boyfriend went to make sure no one came into our basement, Quintel said.

They had about 2 inches of water in their basement. They spent Friday extracting it with a shop vacuum. Quintel said she called carpet restoration businesses around 7:30 a.m., but by that time there was already a two- to three-day waitlist everywhere.

We just moved here in the end of March so this was a surprise, she said, noting they were able to save electronics and furniture.

The Tittabawassee River had climbed past 25 feet by 3 p.m. Friday. Flood stage is 24 feet.

The river is expected to crest at 31.5 feet Saturday morning, which would be the second highest historic crest, according to National Weather Service records. On Sept. 13, 1986, the river crested at 33.89 feet. The next highest  29.7 feet  was set on March 28, 1916.

According to the forecast as of Friday afternoon, no significant rainfall is expected in the next few days.

RELATED:

Midland under water, officials warn motorists to stay off the roads

Images from drone show flooding near Midland Mall

What to do if your basement is flooded in Midland

Tittabawassee River flooding: Here's what happens when the water rises
MidMichigan Health has announced that Marita Hattem has been named president of MidMichigan Medical Center  Gratiot.

In this role she will also oversee MidMichigan Medical Center  Mt. Pleasant, MidMichigans newly expanded health park that opened in February.

A native of Spring Lake, Hattem holds a masters degree in business administration from the University of St. Francis in Ft. Wayne, Ind., and a bachelors degree in psychology with honors from Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant.

She joins MidMichigan from Wausau, Wis., where she had a wide range of responsibilities as the chief experience officer of Connexus Credit Union for the past two and a half years. Prior to that she was with the Aspirus health system, also in Wausau, where she held positions of increasing scope and responsibility from vice president of physician support services to interim president and chief operating officer of the Aspirus Wausau Hospital to senior vice president of provider relations and service lines for Aspirus, Inc.

We are pleased to have Marita join our MidMichigan Health leadership team, said Diane Postler-Slattery, president and CEO, MidMichigan Health. Hattem was selected for the position after an extensive national search and interviews with the medical center board of directors, medical staff and key administrative leaders. There were many well qualified candidates interested in this position, and Marita rose to the top. Her background, talent and experience are an excellent match for the challenges and opportunities ahead of us. We are confident that she will excel as president.

I was immediately impressed with MidMichigan Health and their emphasis on quality of care and the teamwork that is involved in creating an excellent patient and family experience, Hattem said. Being part of a nationally recognized organization is an honor and I look forward to working with an outstanding team.

A Fellow of the American College of Health Care Executives, Hattem holds a Certification in Professional Medical Services Management. In addition, this month she completed her 200-hour certification as a yoga teacher.

Hattem is married to Randy Schiffman and has two rescue dogs. She believes strongly in community service and has been active with such organizations as the United Way, Boy Scouts and the YWCA. She will relocate to Alma, beginning her responsibilities with MidMichigan Health in July.
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Lt. Gov. Brian Calley on Friday declared a "state of disaster" for Isabella and Midland counties after severe weather and intense rain struck the area, resulting in widespread flooding damage.

"Our state and local emergency response and volunteer services have been the backbone for responding to the extraordinary flooding and resulting damage," Calley said in a news release. "I commend them for their work in protecting the public health and safety of our residents during this time. All state resources are being made available to assist with further recovery efforts."

By declaring a "state of disaster," the state of Michigan will make available all state resources in cooperation with local response and recovery efforts in the disaster area as outlined in the Michigan Emergency Management Plan.

Calley's declaration authorizes the Michigan State Police, Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division to coordinate state efforts.

Communities within Isabella and Midland counties have been severely affected by flooding, impacting hundreds of homes, businesses and public facilities and infrastructure.

Public health and safety is a concern due to damaged structures and debris, contaminated flood water, increased emergency vehicle response times caused by road and bridge closures, and loss of electric power and utility services.

"We have been actively working with our local emergency management partners in all counties impacted by the severe storms and flooding," said Capt. Chris A. Kelenske, deputy state director of emergency management and homeland security and commander of the MSP/EMHSD, in a news release. "I have directed my staff to work closely with our communities so they can receive the needed resources to respond and recover from this incident."

Both counties declared a "local state of emergency" on Friday, activating local emergency response and recovery plans. By requesting a governor's declaration, these counties and their communities have determined local resources are insufficient to address the situation and state assistance is required to protect public health, safety and property to lessen or avert the threat of a crisis.

As of 6:30 a.m. Saturday the Tittabawassee River was at 29.91 feet and was projected to crest at 31 feet on Saturday afternoon. Flood stage is 24 feet.

Many Midland County roads and bridges have washed out. Visit www.midland911.org for a full list of roadways affected by flooding and plan your travels accordingly.

Do not drive through flooded areas. Do not drive around barricades. Proceed with extreme caution and never drive through standing water, officials stated.

For information on emergency food safety and flood cleanup, visit the Midland County's website at www.co.midland.mi.us/healthdepartment

City residents who experienced basement flooding can visit the City of Midland Facebook page for information.

The American Red Cross has opened a shelter at the West Midland Family Center. 4011 W. Isabella Road. Animals are not allowed inside the shelter. Arrangements for pets can be made by contacting the Humane Society at 989-274-5066.

On Saturday, City of Midland Dial-A- Ride will provide service for passengers who have already scheduled rides. No new rides will be accepted. Dial-A- Ride Dispatch will be unavailable.

The Midland Area Farmers Market is closed Saturday.

Consumers Energy is in close contact with emergency management personnel in both counties regarding flooding. When safe to do so, Consumers Energy is responding to customer requests to shut off gas and/or electric service, officials stated. River levels along the Chippewa and Tittabawassee rivers and tributaries are expected to crest above flood stage early Saturday.

Consumers Energy customers with flooded homes who have not been disconnected are encouraged to call the company at 1-800- 477-5050 and ask for a "storm disconnect."

After flooding subsides, Consumers Energy will work with local emergency management officials and affected customers to restore electric and gas service.
This column is for all the females whove been stuck in a car longer than expected when they got the call.

Im not talking about a call on their cellphone. No, this is the call of nature. Guys, you also may have experienced this uncomfortable situation, but this is a case when you generally have more options.

A few weeks ago, my childhood friend Muriel Ann Glitzengelder and I made the trip to Chicago on Interstate 55. From Central Illinois, it should be about a 2-hour drive. But on this day, the journey took longer. Not three hours, not four hours, but five hours.

We surmised an accident must have caused the delay and quickly said a silent prayer for those involved. Then we sat there. And sat there. And sat there. In three lanes of bumper to bumper traffic.

It wasnt like we were creeping along at 10 mph. This was a dead standstill. We turned off the car engine.

When theres no nearby exit ramp (it was blocked by construction barricades), and your car is trapped between vehicles on all sides, you start to think, hey, this is no fun.

Why? Because youre feeling the effects of the coffee you drank three hours ago.

I have to go to the bathroom, I told Muriel Ann.

Dont think about it, she advised.

That worked for an hour, but then I was in serious discomfort and seeking options for relief.

If youre familiar with I-55, you know there are stretches of road without a tree in sight. Later in the year, the landscape wouldve offered tall cornfields, but in June, there was about as much cover as a putting green.

A man in the car ahead of us emerged from the drivers seat and hopped into his back seat. After sitting there for a few moments, he spryly jumped out of the back seat and returned to the driver position.

He had to go, too, Muriel Ann said. Maybe he went in a plastic bottle?

I was having difficulty imagining how I could remove a pair of jeans, slump down in my seat and perform the necessary duty in an empty water bottle with any accuracy whatsoever.

In the old days, a desperate person could find a shrub or sign to hide behind and do her business. The potential downside was others would snicker at the embarrassing predicament.

Today, thanks to social media, the entire act would be captured on video and shared on Facebook for the whole world to view.

Muriel Ann offered to hold up a piece of cardboard along the road to shield me from any would-be recorders, but I didnt think the cardboard was wide enough.

Do you have any diapers or paper towels in the car? she asked.

Sorry, all out of diapers at the moment. Not even a leftover napkin from Dairy Queen.

The situation was approaching an explosive medical emergency when traffic began to inch forward and we exited the highway.

Theres a McDonalds! she shouted. Ah, yes, the bathrooms with more than 100 billion served.

But when I attempted to sprint across the parking lot in a pathetic and over-pressured state, my dear old chum could not resist the temptation to mock me.

As I have for decades, I laughed at her silliness, and then it was all over. (My jeans, that is.)

I kept running, trying to regain control of my laughter and my bladder. Luckily, I made it to the toilet to finish the deed, but a telltale stain on my pants advertised the mishap. It made for a damp day in the Windy City.

Im buying one of those ladies portable toilets for the car, I said.

Me, too, Muriel Ann agreed. Or at least keep a diaper in the glove compartment.
NORMAL  After more than three decades in the Normal city clerk's office, Wendy Briggs has simple advice for her peers.

"Listen well," she said.

Briggs, 62, hopes that's how she's remembered as she retires as city clerk June 30. She's worked in the office since 1985 and as clerk since 1998.

During that time, Briggs has often been just outside the spotlight, storing and maintaining vital town records and helping the public access them; licensing everything from taverns to tree trimmers; and serving as secretary for the Normal City Council.

The Gibson City native came to the clerk's office somewhat by accident. She worked for the town over a summer as an Illinois State University student, got a business degree in 1976 and worked in the private sector for nine years before finding herself unexpectedly needing a new job.

"The attorney I worked for passed away," she said. "I ran into a couple people from the town and knew the deputy clerk position was coming open, so I decided to reapply."

Briggs remembers being thrown into the deep end at the clerk's office.

"The town was hopping. There was all this development that hasn't happened for a few years now like it was then. ... We were just very busy, and it's a two-person office, so you come in and learn it all," she said.

"You have to become very familiar with municipal code and learn all the steps involved in developments and filings. ... Technology has made our lives much easier."

That process meant Briggs was well-equipped to succeed her predecessor, Marianne Edwards. She also received registered clerk and certified municipal clerk designations while serving as the deputy city clerk.

Edwards also passed on a desire to help other clerks. Briggs was a founding member of the Central Illinois Municipal Clerks Organization and worked often with Bloomington's and McLean County's clerks, and she's trained her own expected successor, Deputy City Clerk Angie Huonker. Normal city clerk is an appointed position, and the City Council has yet to take up the selection of her replacement.

"I feel like it's my responsibility to help somebody when they call. You can get a clerk that's elected and has never set foot in an office," Briggs said. "I hope my legacy is I worked well with everybody. I tried to help as much as I can."

The town thanked Briggs at her final Normal City Council meeting as part of the staff Monday.

"Ms. Briggs developed a reputation, both locally and throughout the state, as a highly competent and professional city clerk, such that her counterparts ... sought her advice on important matters and often emulated her systems," according to a resolution.

"Wendy Briggs has had a profound and lasting impact on this community through her professionalism, her competency, her passion for public service and her commitment to excellence."

City Manager Mark Peterson personally thanked Briggs. He noted how difficult record keeping is for an organization as complicated as the town.

"She keeps us all out of trouble," he said. "Wendy does it all. Amazing."

Briggs said she looks forward to traveling, cleaning out her house and, mostly, spending more time with her husband, Chris, and grandchildren. They have twin 10-month-old granddaughters and another grandchild on the way in July.

Briggs said she'll miss the people she works with the most.

"You get to a point where you have to let go and let them take over," she said. "We'll stay in Bloomington-Normal, but it's time to spend time away from here."
Iran demands that Saudis release three detained Iranian fishermen

06/22/17

Source: Tehran Times

Iran's interior minister called on Wednesday for the immediate release of three Iranian fishermen who were detained by the Saudi navy last week, saying their boasts were pushed off course by waves.



cartoon by Keyvan Varessi, Iranian daily Ghanoon



"Carrying fishing and legal permits, three fishing boats departed from (Iranian) Bushehr Port on Thursday toward deep Persian Gulf waters.



"Fishing at midnight, the boats had lost their control due to tumultuous waves, two of which pushed off course into Saudi waters," read part of the statement by the ministry.



While one of the boats had managed to steer back into Iranian waters, the other two had come under fire from the Saudi coastguard, it added.



One of the fishermen of the boat returning into Iranian waters got killed in the shooting.



"It is required that that the Saudi government compensate for the damage incurred, punish those who committed the irresponsible act, and take immediate measures to release the detained fishermen," the statement further noted.



The development is expected to further complicate relations between the two countries, which escalated last month when U.S. President Donald Trump visited Saudi Arabia and took a bellicose stance against Iran in an official speech.



Relations are at their worst in years, with Tehran and Riyadh supporting opposite sides in Syria.



On Monday, Saudi Arabia's information ministry offered a different narrative, claiming that the arrestees were members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) who were trying to approach the kingdom's offshore Marjan oilfield for sabotage purposes.



"This was one of three vessels which were intercepted by Saudi forces. It was captured with the three men on board, the other two escaped," a statement from the ministry's center for international communications said.



"The three captured members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are now being questioned by Saudi authorities," it said, citing a Saudi official.



On Tuesday, IRGC deputy chief for political affairs Rassoul Sanaeerad slammed the Saudi claim as an outright lie.
Well over US$400 million is lost to ships annually through demurrages at the countrys ports. This has been described by the vice president, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as a punitive and inefficiency cost to the country.



There are other inefficiency and nuisance costs, including those used in facilitating clearance through the Regulatory agencies and GRA Customs itself. These are said to contribute greatly to the high cost of goods and services in the country, which renders the ports uncompetitive and leads to high dissatisfaction among port clients.



Therefore a new board that has been reconstituted, by the Ministry of Transport for the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, has been tasked to ensure that this deadline is met and the ports are made profitable and viable.



Chairman of the reconstituted board, Peter Mac Manu, speaking to Goldstreet Business said the new GPHA board is poised to make the ports more attractive. He said the team will strive to initiate policies and programmes that will reduce turnaround time of vessels, speed-up cargo clearing and ensure a paperless system in sync with the Vice Presidents policy directives.



I am happy the ports environment has embraced change and is ready to work to ensure that the turnaround time for instance is improved to make clients happy.



Demurrage is cost to the economy. In fact on the average, over US$400 million are lost to the ships through demurrage annually, something that can stay in the economy to make the GDP rise and business grow. So if we are able to reduce time it takes to clear goods at the port for example, it is money that we are saving. And it is the process that has to be shortened. Like the Vice President said, now inspection is going to be simultaneous to avoid waste of time, Mac Manu said.



He disclosed there are various programmes and actions currently taking place between now and September, so that by the set time all stakeholders including the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, and Customs among other stakeholders will be ready to implement the policy.



The policy programme is ongoing. Already there is a process in motion and we are going to deepen it so that by September we will be able to achieve the task that the Vice President has given us. The paperless transaction will eliminate the human touch where the bribery and money changing hands come in so its a good policy that has been initiated. We on the board are going to embrace it and ensure that our management implements it to the fore, he said.



The Vice President has given a three policy reforms at the port, including a joint inspection, 100 percent paperless transaction at all ports, and the removal of all customs and excise preventive services road barriers.



The new board has therefore promised to lead the GPHA with an exemplary set of leadership skills to position GHPA as a center of logistics excellence; efficienct, customer friendly and profit oriented.







Source: Goldstreet Business









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The 31st December Womens Movement has accused Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, former first lady of Ghana of being an Usurper, as regards her determination to make the movement her private property.



Members of the Movement said they are agitated by Mrs. Konadu Rawlings actions contrary to their regulations and constitution.



It is established that per the constitution of the movement decisions cannot be taken by a single member but the former first lady is controlling things contrary to the provisions in the constitution of the movement.



They said. Mrs. Konadu has since the establishment of 31stDWW been the president of the movement till date, which also contravenes the democratic governance of the Movement which states explicitly that All National Officers shall hold office for a period of five {5} years and may be eligible for re-election for at least two or more consecutive terms for the same position. But not for more than three {3} consecutive terms



The members of the Movement are however refuting the letter written by Ms. Sylvia Ahorlu dated 15th February 2016, REF: DWM|1|1|9766 in the Daily Graphic.



The publication in the Daily Graphic of 19th June 2017 granted by Mrs. Konadu purporting that the movement has changed its name to Development Womens Movement and changed its character is a fabrication and not true.



The members stated at a press conference that this publication is illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional.



According to the aggrieved members , the laws of Ghana states clearly that each citizen has the freedom of association, and members of 31st DWM cannot automatically become members of the newly created Development Womens Movement without the express consent of each member.



They said the 31st DWM is a company limited by guarantee so necessary changes must follow due process as per the companys code and the laws of Ghana.



The members reiterated that any persons or entity who has transacted business on behalf of Caridem Development company and 31st DWM with Mrs. Konadu, have themselves to blame.



They indicated that at the last congress held by the NGO in May 1992 it was indicated that  congress shall be convened once every five {5} years to review the operations of the movement, approve any decisions from the national executive committee and elect new national executive officers , but this has not been done.



The 31st December Womens Movement is the sole beneficiary of ALL the assets of Caridem Development Company Limited, established as an investment {commercial} company to generate funds to support the programs and activities of the Movement and creates employment for the women. The women are therefore demanding an audited account of the 31st DWM and caridem development company Ltd from 1999 to date, including all bank accounts, financial statements and the asset register to date from Dr. Mrs. Nana Konadu Rawlings, holding herself out as president of the 31st DWM.



31st December Womens Movement is a Non-Governmental Organization {NGO} founded on the principles of mobilizing resources to support disadvantaged and vulnerable in both rural and urban areas.



It was established 34 years ago and registered under the laws of Ghana as a company limited by guarantee under the companys code 1963{act 179}, is agitated by Mrs. Konadu Rawlings actions contrary to the regulations and constitution since its inception

Source: New Crusading Guide









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The General Overseer and Founder of the Trinity Revival Ministry-Upper Spring Temple, Father Tony, also known as Fada 1, has called for serious prayers against planned assassinations against Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong; Minister for the Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey and Education Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh.



The man of God who prophesied about a month ago has stressed that, the lives of these three politicians were at skake especially the fire brand politician, Kennedy Agyapong.



According to him, some individuals within the party who are threatened by the way the MP speaks the truth about corruption and thievery, want to assassinate him so they can have their peace of mind.



"Some individuals are planning to assassinate Kennedy Agyapong because of the way he exposes rot and corruption. They want to kill him because he speaks the truth.



"They want to kill him so they can have their way by stealing and corrupt the government. I gave the prophecy in London and through prayers, God revealed to me that his assassinators will butcher him to death and kill his driver, but his personal bodyguard will manage to escape the attack.



"They will kill him and his driver but they will assault the bodyguard. This is a serious issue I am talking about. We should not joke with it," he said.



"We have to pray against it," he added.



Father Tony went on to state that, he has been threatened by those who are planning to assassinate the MP and the two other state Ministers because of his prophecy. He said, an unknown number called to warn me to stay away from my prophecy.



"They threatened to kill me if I dont keep mute. The caller told me that he knew the location of my church and will send people to come and kill me in place of the three if I dont keep quite."



The man of God refuted claims that he wants to ride on the politicians to become popular but he wants to speak the truth so the MP will be very careful.



"He should be very careful with his own party members. They have planned to kill him, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey and Matthew Opoku Prempeh. He [Kennedy] should be very cautious with his own party members because some of them are planning to kill him," he said.

Source: rainbowradioonline









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Mr Boakye Agyarko, the Minister of Energy, has expressed confidence in the country's oil and gas sector saying the industry has the potential to create many jobs to help reduce unemployment in the society.



Mr Agyarko said the industry had a" bright future" and government was committed to championing robust plans to develop it for economic growth.



The Energy Minister was addressing a stakeholder forum in Accra on Tuesday on Ghanas upstream petroleum industry; a decade after the commercial discovery of oil and gas which was organised under the auspices of the Petroleum Commission, Ghana and the Ministry of Energy to mark the 10 years anniversary of oil discovery.



Mr Agyarko said government was directing its energies towards the development of a prudent regulatory framework to guard oil exploration and exploitation in the Jubilee, Tweneboah-Ehyenra-Ntomme, and the Sankofa-Gye Nyame oil fields.



Some of the regulations include the Petroleum Local Content and Participation Act, 2013 (L.I 2204) and the Petroleum Exploration and Production Measurement Regulation, 2016 (L.I2246) whilst other projects such as a comprehensive Petroleum Data Repository Register was being developed to record all upstream activities.



The move, he said, was to regulate the award of contracts and other significant activities in the oil and gas industry to ensure that Ghana benefited satisfactory from her resources.



The Energy Minister said following the discovery of oil, the country has attracted several foreign investors with some of them establishing their offices in Ghana.



Going forward government will ensure transparency through competitive bidding, he said and assured industry players of opened doors for both foreign and local direct investment within the sector.



Mr Theophilus Ahwireng, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Commission, said the journey since 2007 has been challenging yet beneficial, with production increasing from the previous 100,000 barrels of oil to the present 200, 000 barrels per day.



He said several human capacity building and skills development programmes have been undertaken to increase local participation and also ensure technology transfer.



Mr Ahwireng said there have been several benefits such as the reservation of goods and services for indigenous companies leading to an improvement in the quality of life of these communities resulting from the jobs created.



Dr Kofi Kodua Sarpong, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, announced that the Corporation would be awarding scholarships to 250 students in the tertiary institutions who were pursuing courses in oil and gas-related sciences, this year.



This, he explained, forms part of the Corporations corporate social investment which was anchored on education and training and called on all partners to support this course.



The GNPC, Mr Sarpong said, would also focus on targeted interventions to ensure that communities affected by the oil and gas exploration had sustainable livelihoods.



He said the organisation constantly engages with local communities to educate them on the realities of the oil find and the revenue accrued from the upstream industry to clear all forms of doubts formed by community members.



There were presentations from oil industry companies made up of KOSMOS, EO Group, Tullow, ENI and HESS.



Mr George Owusu, the Chief Executive Officer of E.O Group, whose untiring efforts led to the first discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Ghana, urged young businessmen, engineers and students to maintain high levels of integrity and truthfulness in all their dealings particularly in redeeming tax obligations for national development.



He commended all players who contributed towards the discovery of oil and its development in the country saying there is the need to honour our heroes before their demise.

Source: GNA









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The acquisition or renewal of Ghanaian passports, especially for those outside the shores of Ghana, is a major challenge, but the introduction of the new national identification card will soon make such hassle a thing of the past, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has said.



Dr Bawumia said this at a meeting with the Ghanaian community in China.

Many Ghanaians home and abroad have bemoaned the delay and hassle associated with the acquisition or renewal of passports, but Dr Bawumia is convinced the new national ID card is the best solution to the delay.

The National Identification project is expected to be completed within the first year of the NPP administration to build a database of Ghanaians and other nationals resident in Ghana.

The national ID will be linked to the databases of institutions such as the Police, National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Passport Office, Immigration, courts, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).

Dr Bawumia, during the interaction, also reiterated the NPPs commitment to delivering on the promises made to Ghanaians.

On Thursday, the Vice President of China, Li Yuanchao, in a meeting with Dr Bawumia, pledged the support of the Chinese government to the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government's quest to undertake a massive transformation in Ghana's economic fortunes through win-win partnerships.

Source: classfm









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Excursions are fun activities that many Ghanaian school kids look froward to, especially as a long weekend approaches.



And these schools kids in Kumasi certainly got a treat when they bumped into President Akufo-Addo on Friday.

Posted by a presidential Staffer, Francis Asenso-Boakye via his Facebook page, these school kids during their excursion to the Kumasi Airport had a chance meeting with the president.

The children and their chaperones were excited at the encounter, with many selfies and photos being taken.

Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo will be heading to Zambia on June 26 for a three-day state visit at the invitation of the Zambian President.

He will hold bilateral talks with President Lungu, as well be a special guest of honor at the opening ceremony of the 5th Zambia International Trade Fair.

Source: yen.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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BILLINGS  U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., will decide whether to support his partys health care bill after hearing from Montanans this week, the lawmaker said Friday.

The senator said he will spend the weekend reading the 142-page bill and then hear from Montanans at a Wednesday telephone town hall meeting. Daines expects 30,000 people to participate in Wednesdays call, based on the 28,000 people who participated in a call a couple weeks ago.

What Montanans have told me they want to see, first and foremost, is a reduction in premiums, the affordability question, Daines said. Number two, taking care of those with pre-existing conditions, that they have access to care and affordable care. And number three, very important for Montana is, we are one of the Medicaid expansion states, is that we save Medicaid and protect Medicaid.

Concerns about Medicaid cuts topped criticisms June 22 when Senate Republican leaders published the Better Care Reconciliation Act. The bill, crafted behind closed doors by 13 key Republican lawmakers, didnt seem out of step with the House Republican American Health Care Act passed in May. The Congressional Budget Office had estimated 23 million people would lose health coverage under the House plan, mostly because of Medicaid cuts affecting the working poor.

The Montana Health Care Foundation put lost coverage in Montana at 70,000 or more people, basically by ending Medicaid coverage offered to working people earning 138 percent of the of federal poverty level, or $16,400 a year. The Affordable Care Act championed by Democratic congressional majorities and President Barack Obama in 2010, sought to cover working people who couldnt afford insurance. Medicaid had previously not been offered to the working poor and instead primarily protected children and people with disabilities.

Republicans have argued since ACAs conception that Medicaid needed to return to its original mission, which meant winding down federal Medicaid funding of coverage for the working poor. Daines said the Republican bill unveiled last week would continue through 2020 the current federal level of support for Medicaid expansion at more than 90 percent of the cost.

After 2020, federal support for Medicaid would begin declining. The federal government would step down support starting with an 85 percent match in 2021 and ultimately lowering support to about 68 or 70 percent percent, the normal Medicaid reimbursement rate, after 2024. States would continue to offer Medicaid to the working poor, but would have to either spend more to offset the lower federal support level, or scale down their Medicaid programs to levels not seen since before the ACA. Republicans consider Medicaid unsustainable at its current size.

Medicaid is a very important safety net. The disabled, elderly pre-Medicare, pregnant moms, children. In fact, one of the highest percentage of Medicaid enrollees are children, Daines said. So, its very important for rural states, frankly its important for every state, and we want to make sure we got a Medicaid system that is sustainable and that weve allowed the state a greater voice in the way Medicaid is administered.
Audio Attachment: Listen to Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa

Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has rubbished the report by the United States of America to withdraw diplomatic courtesies to Ghanas former Presidents and Members of Parliament.



The government of the United States of America (USA) is reported to have withdrawn diplomatic courtesies to Ghanas former Presidents and Members of Parliament.



This means that, henceforth, the affected persons, by this diplomatic decision, would have to be at the US Embassy in person to acquire their visas when on private trips or alternatively schedule private arrangement with the embassy for their visas.



This was disclosed in Accra yesterday by the US Ambassador to Ghana, Mr. Robert Jackson, when he met Parliaments select Committee on Foreign Affairs.



For personal travels, every person is required to make a personal appearance. So there are no exceptions, Mr. Jackson told the lawmakers.



Before this decision, Protocol Officers at the Foreign Affairs Ministry were mandated to secure visas for the travelling state officials but that arrangement has been reviewed.



Pursuant to worldwide guidance from the US Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs, protocol officers will no longer be allowed inside the consular waiting area to accompany visa applicants.



"Protocol officers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration will [only] be allowed into the consular waiting area in order to deliver and pick up passports and documents, the letter read.







But reacting to US new directive on diplomatic courtesies, the Member of Parliaments select committee on Foreign Affairs on Okay FMs 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show fumed, saying the committee will not countenance this disrespectful attitude towards the country's former Heads of State.



We will resist any attempt by the US government to maltreat our former Heads of State. We wont allow it to happen in this country; for now, no former Head of State has been maltreated by the US Embassy, he fumed.



He stressed that Ghana will surely reciprocate the measures the United States has adopted in issuing its visas to Americans. There are protocols that are reciprocal; in diplomacy, there is something called reciprocity therefore if it is done to you, you do the same so we will look at it.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Remember that bloke in the interesting t-shirt who Shawshank Redemption-ed himself out of a Bali prison earlier this week?

And then started receiving a bunch of legal advice from his mates via Facebook?

Welp, Shaun Davidson, originally from Perth, has apparently made it all the way to Europe, and hes continued making use of social media while hes at it.

Channel 10 reports that he made a private check-in on Facebook on Friday in bloody Amsterdam. His caption? Living the dream.

This is astonishingly ballsy stuff for a man who broke out of prison with two months left on his sentence, and has a warrant out for his arrest both in Bali and back home.

Not only has he literally advertised his whereabouts, hes also posted a photo of a bunch of his mates out clubbing in the Dutch city, with the caption closing time wheres all the ladies.

Mate. You are a fugitive. Have some digital decorum.

Two of the three other blokes he nicked off with have been nabbed, but one, Malaysian man Tee Kok King, is still at large. Probably because hes not posting on bloody Facebook every ten minutes, for gods sake.

Source: Channel 10.

Image: Facebook / Sean Davidson.
Gwyneth Paltrow has reached a giddy, Pete Evans-esque level of bullshittery with her latest Goop endorsement, wearable Body Vibes stickers that claim to be made made of NASA spacesuit material, and are intended to re-balance your bodys energy.

Paltrow, who flogged off products like scented oxygen at her recent Goop health summit, ran an article on her blog praising the stickers, which will run you a cool $120 for a pack of 24. Per the product description:

Human bodies operate at an ideal energetic frequency, but everyday stresses and anxiety can throw off our internal balance, depleting our energy reserves and weakening our immune systems. Body Vibes stickers come pre-programmed to an ideal frequency, allowing them to target imbalances. While youre wearing them  close to your heart, on your left shoulder or arm  theyll fill in the deficiencies in your reserves, creating a calming effect, smoothing out both physical tension and anxiety. The founders, both aestheticians, also say they help clear skin by reducing inflammation and boosting cell turnover.

The claim is so bold that it drew the ire of former Mark Shelhamer, the former chief scientist at NASAs human research division, who told Gizmodo that the stickers are a load of BS.

Not only is the whole premise like snake oil, the logic doesnt even hold up, he told the publication. If they promote healing, why do they leave marks on the skin when they are removed?

A NASA representative also told the publication that NASA suits do not have any conductive carbon material lining, and that even if they did, it would be for the purpose of strengthening the suit, and would have nothing to do with health and wellness.

After criticism of the Body Vibes stickers, Goop have removed certain claims from their website, and added the disclaimer:

As we have always explained, advice and recommendations included on goop are not formal endorsements and the opinions expressed by the experts and companies we profile do not necessarily represent the views of goop. Based on the statement from NASA, weve gone back to the company to inquire about the claim and removed the claim from our site until we get additional verification.

Source: Gizmodo.

Photo: Matt Hayward / Getty.
Gold Coast yoga wear company Flow Yoga Wear are in trouble with Hindu communities in Australia and across the globe for making and selling culturally appropriative/exploitative/just plain dumb yoga pants featuring the image of Lord Ganesha. Lord Ganesha is one of Hinduisms most widely known deities, with a head that looks like an elephant.

Earlier this month in the US, the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed, asked for an apology, and for the product to be taken off the market:

Lord Ganesha was highly revered in Hinduism and was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to adorn ones legs. Such trivialisation of Hindu deities was disturbing to the Hindus world over. Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else, if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivialising it hurt the followers.

The Hindu Council of Australia called the leggings very insensitive, and backed Zeds request for product withdrawal and an apology, while Hindu consumers are taking to Twitter to encourage others to contact the company in protest.

But Flow Yoga Wears owner Kylie Morris says her intent with the design was to show honour and respect:

I am currently seeking counsel privately from people of the Hindu faith, my customers and my conscience. I wanted to showcase artistically a design that could link to yoga in a deeper, more meaningful way. And I think this is why customers love the design so much.

I have yet to say whether I will remove or change the design. But I definitely have never said that I refuse. Before I act I will listen and before I react I will think.

The aptly named Ganesha leggings, part of their Flow Collection, are currently out of stock, but would usually sell for $75 a pop for a capri-length pant, and $80 for full-length. They are Australian-made and designed, and have been sold by Flow for the last two years.

The tagline for the product on their website is: Grant us Always New Energy, Spirit & Happiness Lord Ganesha! Im just going to leave that there.

Flow Yoga Wear also sell Buddha Says tees, which are currently out of stock, because its not enough to appropriate only one culture in your designs. But you can buy a crop shirt that says Heavily meditated which is heaps funny to people who have never needed to take medication. Those shirts are made in Bangladesh, the third largest Hindu state in the world.

Its not the first, and it certainly wont be the last time that western yoga practices have pilfered traditional cultures for money to enrich their lives.



Photo: Facebook.

Source: Brisbane Times.
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 May 28-June 3 and were recorded as of June 13.

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

Lebanon County

Establishments with violations.

June 2

DONUT BREAK

1405 E. MAIN ST., ANNVILLE

Opening inspection.

Temperature-measuring devices for ensuring proper temperatures in the hot-holding cabinet, is not available; food facility does not have available sanitizer test strips or test kit to determine appropriate sanitizer concentration; toilet rooms do not have a self-closing door.

TOP DOG MFF TYPE 3

140 SCHOOLHOUSE ROAD, CAMPBELLTOWN

Opening inspection.

Food facility does not maintain Food Employee Certification records as required.

June 1

A & M PIZZA

2900 HORSESHOE PIKE, CAMPBELLTOWN

Regular inspection.

Commercially processed refrigerated, ready-to-eat, time/temperature-control-for-safety food (deli meat), located in the walk-in cooler, and held more than 24 hours, is not being marked with the date it was opened; deli meats held at 50 F in the prep table not 41 F as required - food was disposed; screen in the food-prep window is only attached at the top allowing for the entry of insects into the food-prep area.

AMERICAN LEGION POST #831

155 PALMYRA ROAD, CAMPBELLTOWN

Regular inspection.

Ice used for consumer drinks in contact with the soda cooling lines in the ice bins in the bar area; lights in the dry-storage area are not shatterproof or shielded from breakage.

LICKDALE GENERAL STORE

11 LICKDALE ROAD, JONESTOWN

Regular inspection.

Commercially processed, refrigerated, ready-to-eat, time/temperature-control-for-safety food (sliced deli meats), located in the walk-in cooler, and held more than 24 hours, is not being marked with the date it was opened; dried rodent-like droppings at locations around the perimeter of the basement.

SOPRANO'S PIZZA

50 LYNMAR AVE., CAMPBELLTOWN

Regular inspection.

Concentration of the chlorine-based sanitizing solution in the three-bowl sink was 0 PPM not 50-100 PPM as required; thermometer used to monitor temperature-controlled foods was out of calibration by 8 F.

SPHINX CUISINE

35 S. EIGHTH ST. (MARKET), LEBANON

Regular inspection.

Sauce, food, a potentially hazardous ready-to-eat food requiring date-marking, in the cold-hold unit, area was not date-marked; person-in-charge did not demonstrate adequate knowledge of the PA Food Code as evidenced by incorrect responses to food safety questions; food employees were working with exposed foods with fingernail polish and/or artificial fingernails; food employee in prep/serving area, wearing bracelet/watch/ring on hands or arms; not enough drain-boards, utensil racks, or tables to allow for storage of soiled and/or cleaned items before and after cleaning; food facility does not have available sanitizer test strips or test kit to determine appropriate sanitizer concentration; ice machine, a food-contact-surface, had mold on drip pan and was not clean to sight and touch; paper towel dispenser and/or soap dispenser for hand-washing improperly installed by food prep/ware-washing sink; paper towel dispenser empty at the hand-wash sink in the * area; soap was not available at the hand-wash sink in the prep area.

THREE J'S

901 E. MAIN ST., SUITE 1A, PALMYRA

Regular inspection.

Foods that are served raw or undercooked at the consumer's request were without a written consumer advisory provided to the consumer - facility is currently printing new menus and will add the consumer advisory; facility does not have a recording thermometer or strips to monitor the water temperature of the mechanical dishwasher at 160 F -194 F; lights in the dry storage area are not shatterproof or shielded from breakage.

May 31

JUSTINO'S PIZZA & SANDWICHES

28 E. MAIN ST., NEWMANSTOWN

Regular inspection.

Return-air ducts of fume hood have presence of grease.

Establishments with no violations.

June 3

ICE CREAM EXPRESS

Lebanon

Regular inspection.

June 2

FOLTZ'S PRETZELS

35 S. EIGHTH ST. (MARKET), LEBANON

Regular inspection.

TTT STAR

35 S. EIGHTH ST., LEBANON

Regular inspection.

June 1

CANDY-RAMA

35 S. EIGHTH St., (MARKET), LEBANON

Regular inspection.

CARMANY'S DOUBLE TWIST

35 S. EIGHTH St., (MARKET), LEBANON

Regular inspection.

CRAB CRAZY LLC

35 S. EIGHTH St., LEBANON

Regular inspection.

May 31

ADRIAN'S FAMILY RESTAURANT

21 E. MAIN ST., RICHLAND

Regular inspection.

THE TIMELESS CAFE

18 S. EIGHTH ST., LEBANON

Regular inspection.

May 30

BRASS RAIL DELI

2824 HORSESHOE PIKE, P.O. BOX 42, CAMPBELLTOWN

Regular inspection.
Federal prosecutors on Friday announced the arrest of a 51-year-old Lackawanna County man in connection with a IRS scam and online loan scheme.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Hiteshkumar Patel, of South Abington Township, on multiple counts of mail and wire fraud, extortion and aggravated identity theft charges. Patel's initial court appearance is set for June 29 in Wilkes-Barre.

He remained in the Camp Hill prison Friday night.

The indictment against Patel alleges he executed a scam where people falsely represented themselves as Internal Revenue Service agents.

Potential victims were told they had to immediately make a monetary payment in order to satisfy outstanding IRS debts or fees.

Victims were threatened with "severe consequences" if they did not immediately comply such as federal agents knocking on their door, notification to employers, garnishment of wages and even arrest.

Victims were instructed to remit payments to a number of different individuals via U.S. mail, Western Union, and MoneyGrams.

Prosecutors allege the money was received by Patel or members of the unlawful telemarketing organization and unindicted co-conspirators.

Prosecutors estimate that Patel and his co-conspirators received hundreds of thousands of dollars from victims.

As part of another scheme, Patel allegedly ran an illegitimate online loan business. Victims of that scheme were instructed to make monetary payments to process their application and pay fees for expediting the loan and insurance.

IRS scams have ballooned across the country lately, even topping the "dirty dozen" list put out by the IRS as a continuing serious tax scam.

"The IRS has seen a surge of these phone scams as scam artists threaten police arrest, deportation, license revocation and other things," according to an IRS statement issued in February. "The IRS reminds taxpayers to guard against all sorts of con games."

The IRS Commissioner Josh Koskinen said if taxpayers are "surprised to be hearing from us, then you're not hearing from us."

Police in India in April arrested an alleged ringleader of an IRS scam that may have netted $15 million between 2013 and 2015.

The IRS provided a list of five things that scammers will do that the IRS would not:

The IRS will never:

Call to demand immediate payment, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill.

Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.

Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.

Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.

Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money, here's what you should do:

If you don't owe taxes, or have no reason to think that you do:

Do not give out any information. Hang up immediately.

Contact TIGTA to report the call. Use their "

Report it to the Federal Trade Commission. Use the "

If you know you owe, or think you may owe tax:
Glen Rock Borough Council on Wednesday decided that a council member's practice of playing a recording of "Taps" over a PA system at his home each evening violates the borough's nuisance ordinance, according a report by the York Daily Record.

Council concluded that U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joshua Corney would not be violating the ordinance -- which prohibits the loud playing of sound devices that can be heard beyond a property's boundaries -- if he plays the amplified recording only on Sundays and seven "flag holidays," YDR.com reported.

The vote by council was 5-0, but Corney, recovering from surgery, did not attend, YDR.com reported. Corney told the York Daily Record that he is considering whether to continue playing "Taps," and plans to circulate a petition in support of the practice.

Corney, a veteran with 20 years of service, about 20 months ago began to broadcast the traditional military bugle call that marks the end of the day as well as final honors for fallen soldiers from the sprawling yard of his Glen Rock home, which sits high on a hill on top of Glen Avenue.

Since then, every night just before 8, Corney has been broadcasting the 57-second musical piece. He said it's an effort to honor and remember all fallen soldiers.

A handful of residents complained about the nightly amplified music, but quickly found themselves the targets of a social media backlash. After receiving complaints, borough council took up the matter.
Former Attorney General Kathleen Kane refused to testify, invoking the Fifth Amendment, at a court hearing in which an accused killer was challenging wiretap evidence, according to a report on Philly.com.

Price Montgomery, an accused drug dealer charged with shooting and killing a witness, is challenging a 2014 wiretap that was authorized by former Deputy Attorney General Adrian King when Kane was on vacation in Haiti.

Kane, feuding at that time with King, left for the trip without leaving a designation letter that would allow him to make decisions in her absence. King, according to Philly.com, approved the wiretap using an auto pen to add Kane's signature to the document.

Now Montgomery is challenging the validity of that authorization, and wants the evidence gathered as a result of that wiretap thrown out.

King, who later testified against Kane at her trial, said during the hearing Tuesday Kane verbally approved the wiretap in a phone call.

However, Philly.com reported that when Kane took the took the stand at the hearing, she refused to answer questions, citing the Fifth Amendment.

Kane was sentenced to 10 to 23 months in prison after she convicted last year on perjury and obstruction charges. She is currently free while her appeal makes its way through the courts.
WILLIAMSPORT -- A Bloomsburg restaurant owner has agreed to change the name of his establishment to end a legal dispute with Boston Market Corp.

A consent order was filed Friday in U.S. Middle District Court in which Frank Nashar agrees within 15 days to change the name of his restaurant from Boston Style Chicken to Houston Family Meals.

Boston Markets in April sued Nashar and his restaurant claiming the name and logo infringed on its trademark and copyrights.

Boston Chicken is a trademark of the Colorado-based chain that offers dine-in and take-out meals.

The consent order prohibits Nashar, his employees and attorneys from suggesting in any way they are affiliated with Boston Markets.

The defendants agreed to pay $2,000 in monthly amounts of $200 to Boston Markets to cover part of its legal fees in the case.

Once final payment has been received, Boston Markets says it will dismiss the suit.
An armed man who barricaded himself inside an apartment in Lebanon committed suicide following a standoff with police, officials said.

The incident started at about 6:45 a.m. Saturday along the 900 block of Walnut Street, according to city police.

A 53-year-old man was holding a woman and his 23-year-old handicapped daughter captive in the home for more than three hours, police said.

The woman was eventually able to escape and called for help, police said.

"The police arrived and were advised that the male was in the apartment with his handicapped daughter. The male was armed with a handgun and refused to talk with police," according to a news release.

The Lebanon County Emergency Service Unit eventually entered the home, rescued the daughter, and removed her from the home, police said.

Police did not say what time the standoff ended.

"After the Team brought her out to a safe location the Team went back into the apartment. The (man) was found deceased in a rear bedroom with what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound," police said.

The identity of the man has not yet been released pending the notification of family members.
By Carrie Fischer Lepore

Pennsylvania's legislators are deep in the process of determining how the commonwealth's taxpayer dollars should be spent in the upcoming budget year. That's always a challenging and complicated process, but the current budget deficit adds an extra wrinkle.

Carrie Fischer Lepore (submitted photo)

There is one line item that, if better funded, could help make an immediate, universal impact on the state's economy: tourism marketing.

Consider three simple points:

1. The state is facing a revenue crisis.

Depending who you ask, Pennsylvania is on track to end the fiscal year $600-$700 million in the red.

Lawmakers are burning the midnight oil to determine the best way to close that gap. They could always raise taxes. They're also looking at online gambling expansion. In the end, there doesn't appear to be one obvious solution.

2. Tourism marketing is an investment - with a direct, immediate and positive impact on Pennsylvania's economy.

We all agree that safekeeping the public's money is critical. But I urge lawmakers to draw a distinction between "spending" and "investment" - and note that funding for the Pennsylvania Tourism Office is classified as the latter.

And it's not just an investment; it's an immediate shot in the arm for Pennsylvania's economy and should be a crucial part of the solution to the budget deficit.

In Pennsylvania, tourism generates tax revenues that far exceed the state's investment in marketing the state. According to a 2015 report released by the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association (PRLA), every $1 invested in tourism marketing generates $3.43 in tax revenue, which is used to pay for public safety, education and other essential programs. The Department of Community and Economic Development constantly touts tourism as a major economic driver.

While some may doubt the direct correlation between tourism marketing and visitor spending, citing other factors in the broader economy, new data counter that claim.

Data specific to Pennsylvania show that 49 percent of visitors arrive within one week of seeing a Pennsylvania tourism brand advertisement, and 73 percent of visitors arrive within 14 days. Let those numbers sink in - this proves that advertising the Pennsylvania tourism brand in neighboring states and in the commonwealth leads directly and immediately to increased travel to Pennsylvania.

Those travelers fill our hotels, eat in our restaurants, shop on our main streets, and visit our landmarks, amusement parks, museums and more - injecting money directly into our communities and economy. Think about it; no other state program or investment offers such a significant, immediate impact on Pennsylvania's economy.

3. Pennsylvania tourism is significantly underfunded - but Governor Wolf's budget proposal offers a glimmer of hope.

Less than a decade ago, Pennsylvania was investing $30 million each year in tourism marketing and promotion. Since then, Pennsylvania has become the perfect case study of what happens when a state substantially cuts its tourism budget.

Over a six-year period after lawmakers slashed the state's tourism budget, 37 million fewer tourists visited the state, and Pennsylvania's market share of overseas visitors declined 24 percent, according to the PRLA study.

Where did all those travelers go? To New York, Connecticut, Maryland and other states that increased their spending on tourism marketing and promotion during the same period. The result for Pennsylvania was a $7.7-billion loss in visitor spending, close to $450 million in state tax revenues, and $165 million in local tax revenues.

The state's effort to "save" a total of $125 million by defunding tourism marketing from 2009 to 2014 resulted in a net loss of $324 million.

In Fiscal Year 2016-17, the Pennsylvania Tourism Office had only $3.9 million to work with. And while we're thrilled that Governor Wolf has proposed to raise this to $10 million next year - which would be a vital first step - the House Republicans recommended slashing it even further, to $2.5 million.

Approving Wolf's proposed tourism budget would begin the process of restoring Pennsylvania's marketing budget and attracting more visitors to Pennsylvania.

It would be a devastating step back to cut tourism funding, as the House Republicans proposed, and would lead to an even larger revenue shortfall.

As a state, we need to rethink what it means to fund a robust tourism marketing budget.

It is an investment in a key industry that generates revenue to the general fund that funds vital services to all Pennsylvanians.

Carrie Fischer Lepore is deputy secretary of the Office of Marketing, Tourism and Film at the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. She writes from Harrisburg.
Conservative MP Alain Rayes stands during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday, June 19, 2017. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has named a rookie MP as his Quebec lieutenant.Scheer announced Saturday that Rayes will be his political lieutenant in the province.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
University of Pennsylvania graduate students opposed to a drive to unionize them on campus had secured the services of Wally Zimolong, a Philadelphia-area lawyer who represents people and companies in disputes with unions. Read more

University of Pennsylvania graduate students opposed to a union drive on campus had lawyered up. But they didn't pick just any lawyer.

They chose Wally Zimolong, the Philadelphia lawyer behind a successful drive to get National Labor Relations Board regional director Dennis Walsh suspended for a month in 2015 over allegations of appearing biased because he raised money for a scholarship fund for law students interning with pro-union law firms, unions, or worker-advocacy groups.

They picked a lawyer who tweeted about the NLRB in April: "When is the @realDonaldTrump going to dismantle this whacko leftist agency?"

Plus, the union foes said on their website, they got Zimolong's help for free, because the Center for Independent Employees "has agreed to pay for his legal fees." CIE says it aids people "opposed to union oppression in their workplace." It receives funding from a Koch brothers affiliate, according to Sourcewatch, run by the Center for Media and Democracy.

But, on Saturday, six days after they chose Zimolong, they severed their ties to him. "It really became clear that Wally's personal beliefs do not match ours," Ian Henrich, one of the leaders of the group, No Penn Union, wrote in an email.

As NLRB hearings resume in Philadelphia on Monday over whether the grad students  who teach, assist in laboratories, and perform research  have properly formed a group for a union election, students who don't want a union had said they needed legal help to keep pro-union forces from "continuing to harass" them, as they said on their website.

"During our campaign, it was becoming increasingly clear that we simply did not have the experience and knowledge about the intricacies of labor law," the group's website said. The group reached out to labor lawyers, but only Zimolong, with his background in legal matters involving the NLRB, was willing to help. "During our initial meeting, he was polite and professional, and agreed to provide us with legal advice when we needed it."

"We apologize to our fellow students," the website said. "In our rush to better understand labor law, we did not fully investigate all aspects of our new partner," the website said.

The pro-union group had said that their grad student colleagues were being hijacked by a lawyer with a right-wing agenda.

Welcome to the world of union elections, where it doesn't take long for civility to erode, even among earnest, latte-drinking doctoral students at a prestigious Ivy League institution.

No Penn Union says GET-UP, the graduate students' group that affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, improperly used the university's student directory to contact people about the union. GET-UP, it says, gave students who wanted to withdraw a hard time, and deliberately did not include engineering and Wharton School grad students in the NLRB election petition because more of them opposed the union.

GET-UP is "promising things that are beyond the capacity of a union," said Scott Dooley, a doctoral student doing research in gene therapy as part of the Biomedical Graduate Studies research program. "They are pandering to us. It's not realistic."

The GET-UP people deny all harassment and say they have support in every school.

Zimolong "sees this as a battle in a national campaign to get rid of unions and the NLRB," said Salar Mohandesi, one of the original organizers of the GET-UP drive. Mohandesi graduated from Penn in May with a Ph.D. in European history. He could not be reached Saturday afternoon to comment on Zimolong's departure.

In an email, university spokesman Ron Ozio said: "We are unaware of and uninvolved with any such development."

Henrich, a graduate student researching cancer, had said in an interview Thursday that No Penn Union would not allow itself to be used as propaganda. "If they try to feature us in a news conference, like `Look at these poor grad students being bullied by the union,' that won't happen."

In an interview Friday, Zimolong said he took the case pro bono, without financial help from the Center for Independent Employees, because "I believe in the little guy." He said he didn't know why the students had said the CIE was paying him, noting that the CIE is a "group I can rely on for advice and counsel."

Zimolong said unions want grad students because their traditional membership base has eroded. "These union bosses are the fat cats, who want more union dues to finance their political agenda," he said. As for Penn's students, "I want to make sure they aren't being bullied by the union."

Given labor laws, the No Penn Union members enrolled in the Biomedical Graduate Studies program are in a complex spot: They can't turn to the American Federation of Teachers, which is helping GET-UP, because they disagree with the union's tactics. And, because they are part of the schools GET-UP included in its election petition, they can't seek assistance from the university, which would risk an unfair labor practice if it interfered with the students enrolled in schools GET-UP included in the proposed bargaining unit.

Zimolong had been contacted by one of their members, Henrich and Zimolong said.

Henrich and Dooley said they aren't opposed to unions, but they didn't like how GET-UP included their biomedical program among pro-union students petitioning the NLRB. They don't need a union, they say.

"I don't care if another school wants to unionize," Henrich said. "I don't know their situations, so I don't have a right to say. But we should have a choice."
An adjunct professor at the University of Delaware is under fire for posting on Facebook that Otto Warmbier, an American taken into custody in North Korea who later ended up in a coma and died, "got exactly what he deserved."

Kathy Dettwyler, a 62-year-old professor in the anthropology department, wrote in the now-removed Facebook post that the 22-year-old was "typical of a mindset of a lot of the young, white, rich, clueless males who come into my classes."

"These are the same kids who cry about their grades because they didn't think they'd really have to read and study the material to get a good grade," Dettwyler wrote. "His parents ultimately are to blame for his growing up thinking he could get away with whatever he wanted. Maybe in the US, where young, white, rich, clueless white males routinely get away with raping women. Not so much in North Korea. And of course, it's Ottos' parents who will pay the price for the rest of their lives."

The University of Delaware released the following statement in response to the outcry over Dettwyler's comments:

"The comments of Katherine Dettwyler do not reflect the values or position of the University of Delaware. We condemn any and all messages that endorse hatred and convey insensitivity toward a tragic event such as the one that Otto Warmbier and his family suffered.

"The University of Delaware values respect and civility and we are committed to global education and study abroad; therefore we find these comments particularly distressing and inconsistent with our values. Our sympathies are with the Warmbier family."

Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea in March 2016 after being accused of stealing a propaganda banner from a hotel hallway. Warmbier was returned to the U.S. earlier this month after 17 months in custody, but was almost comatose, in a state of "unresponsive wakefulness" and later died just days later.

Dettwyler did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a comment on the National Review website, she attempted to explain her Facebook post, noting that she loved the "hard-working, sincere, non-arrogant college students" who attended her classes.

"If you knew some of these kids, you'd be appalled," Dettwyler wrote. "They think nothing of raping drunk girls at frat parties and snorting cocaine, cheating on exams, and threatening professors with physical violence."

It's unclear if the University of Delaware plans to take any disciplinary action against Dettwyler.

"We are not able to comment on the specifics of her employment," university spokesman Andrea Boyle told the New Journal. "Personnel matters are confidential."

The University of Delaware's Facebook page has been flooded with comments calling for Dettwyler to be fired.
Heather Jo Mangum and Gene Goroschko

May 6, 2017, in Philadelphia

Hello there

After two years of fizzling dates, Heather Jo gave up. She had her supply-chain career at Johnson & Johnson, and more important, three beloved stepkids from her earlier marriage  kids who were spending the summer of 2014 with her.

EHarmony had not quite given up on Heather Jo. An email informed her a match had reached out, and over July Fourth weekend, she could read his profile and respond free. From the start, Gene seemed different from the fizzlers. Heather Jo read thoughtful answers to the dating website's get-to-know-you prompts. Example: The person who had most influenced him was not some celebrity, but his high school band director, whom Gene admired for the example he set.

With the free weekend about to end, Heather Jo, a Malvern native who is now 44, wrote: "Hey, I'm not on here anymore, but here's my phone number, if you want to talk."

Gene, a Hamilton, N.J., native who is now 48, had rarely read a more disappointing sentence.

Heather Jo's profile  from the photos of her laughing with kids Jorden, Zachary, and Jarred, to her confession that she sings too loud at stoplights  made her seem so very real. But as senior vice president of information systems for Physicians Endoscopy, Gene is paid in part to notice patterns of cyberfraud, and he doubted she was real. That "I'm not on here anymore, but here's my phone number if you want to talk" was right out of a catfisher's handbook.

Wanting to be wrong, he invited her to correspond by email.

Heather Jo was disappointed and insulted. "I gave him my phone number, and he sends back his email address? Forget this!" she thought.

Both tried to forget, but throughout the summer, each looked at the other's profile and wondered. After the kids left at the end of August, Heather Jo rolled the dice: "Sorry I haven't written," she wrote. "I've been busy."

Gene called immediately. They talked for hours that night and have talked each night since.

They met at Harvest Seasonal Grill in North Wales, and Date Two was set before Date One ended.

"It took us a long time to get started, but once we got started, every moment after that was perfect," Gene said.

It was exciting, yet comfortable. "I knew where he stood from the beginning," Heather Jo said. "I never had to wonder."

Heather lived in Furlong and Gene in nearby Chalfont with his father, Valentin. Valentin had dementia, and Gene was his primary caregiver. "In moments of clarity, he would tell me she's the one I was meant to spend the rest of my life with," Gene said.

Heather Jo's parents  dad John, stepmom Valerie, and mom Susan  all loved Gene, too. Shortly after meeting him, Susan bought a new set of Tupperware so she could set Gene and Valentin up with home-cooked meals.

In July 2015, as Gene, Valentin, and their dog, Skippy, were preparing to move in with Heather, Valentin died. Gene, whose mom, Alexandra, died when he was just 7, took it very hard. "Trying to go through that alone would have been impossible," he said. "Heather Jo made it possible."

Gene, Heather and Skippy live in Furlong, where some special teens are also spending the summer.

How does forever sound?

Live performances have always been among this couple's favorite pastimes, so a Broadway trip to see Jersey Boys was not unusual. But in June 2016, any event  or no event at all  had Heather Jo wondering whether the ring she knew had been ordered would soon be on her finger.

Once the show and dinner came and went, Heather Jo figured it wouldn't be that weekend. She planned to sleep in on Sunday morning, but Gene was up and at 'em by 7 a.m. and bugging her to get a move on. Why, she pleaded, couldn't she sleep more? Brunch reservations at the Rainbow Room weren't until 11. Gene was practically bouncing around the room. "Let's go to the Observation Deck at Rockefeller Center!" he urged. Since her logic that the dreary weather meant they wouldn't see much wasn't working, she gave in.

The photographer Gene hired sent texts urging him to act quickly so they could beat the rain. The first drops fell as the couple walked through Rockefeller Plaza. Heather Jo wanted to seek cover, but before she could speed-walk off, Gene took both her hands.

Thirty seconds in, he saw Heather Jo's eyes well up as she realized what was happening. Gene was overwhelmed, too, and he kept forgetting what he planned to say. "When I forgot where I was, I would kiss her," he said.

He got to the question, and Heather Jo gave her jubilant answer. Gene jumped to his feet. "She said yes!" he yelled. At the Rainbow Room, Heather Jo's mother, father, stepmom, sister, brother-in-law, and aunt and uncle were waiting to celebrate.

"That's when I really started crying," she said. "He sent a limo to Pennsylvania to pick them all up."

It was so them

The couple's ceremony and reception for 130 were held at the Academy of Music, where they are subscribers and gold members. Heather Jo's grandfather, the Rev. Walter Taylor, a retired Methodist minister, had always performed family ceremonies, but his health won't allow it now. Her Uncle Jeffrey was ordained online, and he announced to all he was honored to officiate on her grandfather's behalf.

Gene is generally more a crier than Heather Jo, but not that day. "We wrote our own vows, and he was like a public speaker. When I started reading mine, I had to stop and tell myself that if I lost it, I was going to lose my eyelashes, and I couldn't walk back up the aisle with lashes stuck to my cheek."

Any teary guests were well-covered. In a nod to their 1940s elegance theme, everyone received a classic white handkerchief at the door.

Both sets of vows ended with the same sentence: "I did, I do, and I always will."

The groom wore a wedding gift from the bride on his sleeves  cuff links with photos of his parents.

Donations were made in honor of the guests to the Alzheimer's Society and the American Cancer Society. Wedding flowers were donated to the Ronald McDonald House of Delaware through Forget Me Knot Flowers of Haddonfield on behalf of Ronan, a young friend of the couple's.

Awestruck

"The entire time we were taking pictures before the ceremony, I couldn't stop staring at Heather Jo," Gene said. "The photographer asked her to step away from me for a moment and twirl around. The smile on her face and the way she was twirling made my heart sing."

"The moments we stepped back to just watch everyone dancing and having fun, I felt nothing but love and happiness," said Heather Jo. "I was so happy to be [Gene's] wife, and I honestly felt like everyone was so happy for us."

The budget crunch

A bargain: Electronic invitations from Paperlesspost.com appealed to the couple's environmental and techy sides. Including the handful of paper versions the company printed and mailed to guests who don't use email, the total cost was $100.

The splurge: Googling photos of ballrooms led them to a space that not only awed them, but turned out to be right in Philadelphia with one of their favorite restaurateurs  Jose Garces  as caterer. They couldn't say no.

The honeymoon

A night in Hong Kong, and 17 in Bali.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Officiant: Jeffrey Gabriels, uncle of the bride, was ordained by the Universal Life Church to perform the ceremony.

Ceremony and reception venue: Academy of Music, Philadelphia.

Food: Garces Events.

Music: DJ Bob of Philly Event Group; Guitarist: Nikolay Gavlishin; pianist: Neil Podgurski.

Photography: Mike & Jana of mkPhotography, West Chester.

Videography: Jeff at New Milford Productions, Hatboro.

Flowers: Brittany at Petals Lane, Philadelphia.

Bride's Brooch Bouquet: Elegant Wedding Decor by JoAnne.

Dress: Le Bella Donna, Jenkintown.

Valet Service: Justin at Royal Valet.
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Life

What to do when it rains at the Shore

There's plenty to do, see, and learn if the weather takes a turn.
Flooding occurred in Philadelphias Schuylkill River Park, near 25th and Spruce Streets in Center City, after heavy rains fell early Saturday morning, June 24, 2017. Read more

The National Weather Service extended its flash-flood warning until 4 p.m. Saturday, saying Pennypack Creek was flooded by heavy rains that hit the region earlier.

Forecasters said there could be flooding along the Wissahickon Creek, too.

An earlier flash-flood warning had been issued until 11:15 a.m. for Philadelphia, parts of surrounding counties and parts of New Jersey.

The flooding was caused by torrential rains that hit the region early Saturday with the band of thunderstorms. As much as two inches of rain had fallen in the region by about 7:20 a.m., according to the NWS in Mount Holly, N.J.

Motorists were urged not to drive into flooded roads, since most flood deaths occur in vehicles.

Power outages were reported in the Philadelphia region. A PECO spokeswoman said at about 10 a.m. that 4,600 customers lost power, including 3,700 in Montgomery County. In Philadelphia, fewer than 300 customers were without power, she said. Crews were working to restore power to those affected.

A Camden County spokesman, in a statement, said the severe weather and strong wind gusts that came through the county at about 6:30 a.m. knocked down trees and damaged residential properties. County work crews have been out since the end of the storm clearing roadways and making the streets passable for residents.

"At this time, we've had some trees come down across roadways, on top of homes and cars," Freeholder Jonathan Young, liaison to the Camden County Office of Emergency Management, said in the statement. He added that the storm's worst effects were localized in the northern end of the county, affecting Collingswood and Haddon Township.

A PSE&G spokesman said when the morning storm started, 5,000 customers lost power in the state. That number was down to 1,400, including 800 in South Jersey, at about 11:30 a.m. after crews restored power to most customers.

New Jersey Transit experienced delays Saturday morning after a tree fell on its Atlantic City rail line between Lindenwold and Cherry Hill. A spokesman said at about 10 a.m. that the tree had been cleared and train service was resuming between Atlantic City and Philadelphia's 30th Street Station and back.
Secretary Ryan Zinke is coming back to visit his hometown this week to address the Western Governors' Association after four months as Montanas first U.S. Secretary of Interior.

There were reasons to be cautiously hopeful when then-President-elect Donald Trump floated then-Congressman Zinkes name for the post. We were hopeful because Zinke comes from a place whose economy depends on a balance between our outdoor heritage and resource development. He has also repeatedly said he opposes the sale or transfer of federal public lands.

However, his long history of close relations with the oil and gas industry that desperately lobbies Interior for unfettered access to drill on public lands was more than enough reason to be cautious about his candidacy for the job.

So, how can Montana grade the states first-ever Cabinet secretary after four months on the job? It turns out that caution was justified.

In his confirmation hearing Zinke committed to fight for much-needed funds for our nations largest public land agency. Now hes defending a budget that has less for programs that help the public access our lands, and more for oil companies that want to profit from them. Whats worse is that it kills thousands of jobs in the process.

National parks have seen record visitation in the past few years, including in Glacier and Yellowstone national parks. Thanks to their popularity, these parks face a maintenance backlog worth billions of dollars. Despite this, Secretary Zinke supports a budget that cuts even more from the Park Services budget.

To rub salt into the wounds, hes called Park Service employees serpents and questioned their ability to do their jobs. Hes now floating the idea of privatizing national park campgrounds  a move that will pass the buck to visitors in the form of higher entrance and user fees.

Without explanation, Secretary Zinke canceled local stakeholder meetings and delayed important access and public land funds for states only to release them months late. There was no response to federal, state or local inquires as to why the funds were delayed.

After years of collaborative work, Interiors Sage Grouse Initiative resulted in plans that avoid listing the bird under the Endangered Species Act by allowing for both resource development and the protection of sagebrush landscapes. Despite its success, Secretary Zinke is now reviewing the initiative leaving many, including western governors, to wonder whats next. Additionally, he hasn't responded to two bipartisan letters from western governors imploring him to not change course.

Altogether, Secretary Zinkes time at the Department of Interior has been characterized by decisions that benefit the special interests that brought him to power, and harm public lands users. Thats a record hes not likely to mention at the Western Governors' Association meeting in Whitefish, but it will be widely felt beyond the walls of that meeting by Westerners that need him to take a more responsible approach to the management of our public lands.

Chris Saeger is the executive director of the Western Values Project, a government watchdog nonprofit based in Whitefish that holds officials and their allies in industry accountable for mismanaging public lands across the West.
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If Fox News didnt spend so much time defending Emperor Trump  and attacking his detractors (of which there are many)  there might be enough time to actually broadcast some real news. No matter, because Fox & Friends  his favourite show  quintupled down, airing another another softball interview with him this morning, which Ill get to eventually.

In our last exciting episode of Friday Fox Follies: F&F was calling for greater tolerance while attacking liberals in the wake of the Rep. Scalise shooting. However, they looked deeply into a Funhouse Mirror to praise Ted Nugent for his leadership when he pretended he never used intolerant and violent hate speech against President Obama and Hillary Clinton. By the weekend they were hosting Nugent (via a really crappy Skype connection), who laughingly called his previous hate-a-thons metaphors.

After helping The Nuge clean up his reputation by blaming others, they started a days-long attack on Joy Reid over on AM Joy on MSNBC for correctly pointing out Scalises hateful/hurtful policies. Coincidentally this occurred right about the time Reid was retweeting one of my silly little anti-Trump missives:

Thats the only reason it got so many LIKES and RTs.

Need any more examples of Fox & Friends journalistic malpractice this week?

Donald Trump loves the safe space of Fox & Friends

Why Does Trump Love Fox & Friends

So Much? Because Its the Media

Equivalent of Donald Trump

At Iowa rally, Donald Trump praises

Fox and attacks CNN and NBC

CNN and MSNBCs morning shows fact-check

Trumps Iowa rally lies, while Fox & Friends

urges the president to do more of this

Ignoring Republican sabotage,

Fox & Friends uses health care insurer

withdrawal to claim Obamacare failure

Which brings us to todays big, sloppy, wet kiss of an interview with Foxy Friend Ainsley Earhardt. Just like he should stay away from the Twitter Machine, maybe Trump should stay away from Fox & Friends. As my editor says in Trump Admits To The Crime Of Witness Tampering In Disastrous Fox News Interview:

After saying that he did not tape Comey, Fox News goaded Trump into taking an arrogant victory lap that turned into a confession of a crime. Fox and Friends host Ainsley Earhardt called Trumps lie a smart way to keep Comey honest during the hearings. Trump responded, Well, it wasnt very stupid. I can tell you that. He did admit that what I said was right, and if you look further back before he heard about that, I think maybe he wasnt admitting that, so youll have to do a little bit of investigative reporting to determine that.

Media Matters snagged the train wreck video:

Meanwhile, F&F were also promoting ANOTHER interview with Trump for Sundays show, this time with Pete Hegseth.

THIS WEEK IN ISLAMOPHOBIA:

Fox News Uses Finsbury Park Attack To

Promote Muslim Ban And Glorious Trump!

Fox Anchor Ibanez Exploits Finsbury Park

Attack With No-Go Zone Fear Mongering

Two glaring problems in one

segment: Fox News problematic

coverage of anti-Muslim hate on display

Daily Beast: FBI fired Trump adviser

and frequent Fox News guest Sebastian

Gorka for anti-Muslim diatribes

DONT FORGET: Fox News is promoting tolerance (unless youre Muslim) (or left of center, for that matter).

TUCKERS APPENDIX: Last weeks sudden attack of appendicitis sent him to the hospital, but after some magical incantations, Carlson was cured without surgery . . . just in time to spew this stunningly lack of self-awareness:

Tucker Carlson: Its Not Really

Journalism What CNN is

Practicing Anymore; Its Advocacy

In any given week theres plenty of ammunition against Tucker, but when Bret Stephens Angers Tucker Carlson, Other Conservatives With Anti-Trump Deportation Satire in The New York Times, I just about bust a gut.

Tucker Carlson, the bowtie wearing tribune of the common man, came out strongest against Stephens. Heshows little care for Americans as anything besides units of economic productivity, widgets to fuel the machine of global capitalism that pays Bret Stephens many thousands a year to write mediocre opinion columns in a dying newspaper.

TO BE FAIR: The prig hasnt worn a bow tie in years. It just feels like he still wears it.

This is unusually dishonest even by @TuckerCarlson's standards. Apparently they didn't teach satire at St George's. https://t.co/H5y3bxvP67  Bret Stephens (@BretStephensNYT) June 20, 2017

Laugh? Thought Id surely die.

BOLLING FOR DOLLARS: While Trump fan-boy Eric Bollings show The Specialists is going down in flames with regular Fox viewers, hes making noises about running for the Senate. No. Really. And just to demonstrate what a thoughtful legislator he will be, he advocated a preemptive nuclear strike on North Korea. No. Really.

SCAMMITY UNHINGED: Forget F&F and Bolling. Theres no greater Trump shill on Fox than Sean Hannity (now that Loofah Lad is gone). Heres a partial roundup of this weeks crazy conspiracies, hypocrisy, and Trump defense:

Im waiting for Hugh Hewitt to interview Erick Erickson.

CREDIT WHERE CREDITS DUE:

Oh boy this is weird: Chris Wallace

shreds Trump lawyer for both

confirming and denying investigation

Shep Smith debunks false right-wing

narrative that Republican secrecy on

healthcare is the same as the Democrats

Steve Doocy Accidentally Destroys

Republicans Secret Health Care Strategy

THE TRUMP DUMP: Defending Trump is still a full time job.

Foxs Ainsley Earhardt Exploits Death Of Otto Warmbier To Smear Obama And Glorify Trump  Lowering the bar: Fox host lauds Trump for not flying off the handle after student held prisoner in North Korea dies  THE STORY: Fox News mocks the media outrage over hidden White House press briefings as inside baseball  Foxs The Story Deceptively Suggests Americans Dont Care About Russia Investigation

However, things dont always go well for Trump . . . or Fox, for that matter:

Jay Sekulows bizarre debut: Donald Trump picked a lawyer he saw on Fox News and it isnt going well  Watch Trump Atty And Hannity Pal Sekulow Completely Blow It On Fox News  Fox News host begs Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow: Please keep the president off Twitter

But, that doesnt mean that Fox wont keep trying.

PASSAGES:

Its a girl! Fox & Friends co-host

Abby Huntsman brings husband on the air

to confirm she is pregnant with their first child

How moving to CNN saved Alisyn Camerotas career

Whatever your view of Camerotas performance, Zucker claims that her addition to the program has given New Day a key asset in its bitter ratings battle against Morning Joe over on MSNBC. In 2015, Camerotas first full year on New Day, the program zoomed to an impressive lead over Morning Joe in the pivotal 25-54 age demographic, after establishing a tenuous edge in 2014. You have to look at this and go, Huh, something changed,  says Zucker. In 2016, Morning Joe regained a narrow lead in this category. The competition, as far as Zucker is concerned, doesnt include the morning offering at Fox News. We dont look at them as a direct competitor.  Thats not a news program at Fox in the morning, and I dont think anybody looks at it that way.

Which brings us full circle to Fox & Friends and their newest mess:

How Fox News botched a Comey story

and then furiously tried to backtrack

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Headly Westerfield, the Not Now Silly Newsrooms Head Writer, has been writing Fox News criticism for nearly a decade.
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In a social media statement that can only be labeled psychotic, Trump blamed former President Obama for not stopping the Russia attack on the 2016 election that he claims never happened.

Trump tweeted:

Just out: The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 24, 2017

Yesterday, Trump called the Russia scandal a Democratic hoax:

Why did Democratic National Committee turn down the DHS offer to protect against hacks (long prior to election). It's all a big Dem HOAX!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2017

Today, Trump is claiming that the scandal is real, and it is all Obamas fault.

Guilty people throw as many conspiracies and allegations as they can muster at the crime that they are accused of committing. Trump is trying to muddy the waters by both denying that the election interference ever happened while blaming Obama if it did.

Trump just admitted that Russia interfered in the election, but if Russia interfered in the election that makes the investigations legitimate.

With each tweet, Trump is digging his way to impeachment or prison 140 characters at a time.
CHICAGO  Gov. Bruce Rauner has threatened to reject a plan extending the funding mechanism for Illinois' 911 call centers, saying proposed fee increases are too steep and the plan is loaded with other things.

The Republican's administration issued a memo Thursday to a statewide 911 administrator saying the hikes are "unacceptable," while warning of consequences if lawmakers don't send him a "clean" extension bill before July 1, when the current plan sunsets. Without legislation, Illinois won't be able to collect and distribute fees to fund 911 services in Illinois.

"The General Assembly should not put the 911 system at risk by sending the governor legislation with poison pills knowing full well he will not sign them into law," read the memo from Jason Heffley, Rauner's policy adviser for energy and environment. "There is time left to send the governor a clean 911 bill."

It was immediately unclear when services might be cut off without funding. A message to Illinois State Police, which distributes the 911 money collected by phone carriers, wasn't immediate returned Friday.

The proposal seeks to raise the surcharge in Chicago from $3.90 to $5 and from 87 cents to $1.50 elsewhere in Illinois. Democratic state Sen. Bill Cunningham, a bill sponsor from Chicago, said the fees help 911 centers who've lost funds over time with more people dropping landline service. Chicago officials say the new funds, which require City Council approval, would be used to modernize 911 operations.

The memo doesn't outline specific changes or new suggested fees, but does note a 911 advisory board had recommended a $1.05 statewide fee.

Among other things, the plan also lets AT&T disconnect traditional landlines in Illinois, allowing the utility giant to free itself from a legal obligation to provide landline service in areas with old technology. AT&T says about 90 percent of its customers have already dropped landlines for wireless technology or internet-based communication and the plan would allow more investment in modernization. Opponents, including AARP Illinois, say landlines are vital for older residents and estimate 1.2 million people would be affected.

Sponsors of the plan said Friday that they're discussing options if Rauner vetoes the bill, which had bipartisan support in the Legislature.

Lawmakers tasked with ending the state's budget impasse are currently meeting in special session. If they don't reach agreement before July 1, Illinois will enter a third straight year without a spending plan.
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In more proof that Donald Trumps mental health may be in a death spiral of its own, the president kicked off the weekend with a morning tweet saying that former President Barack Obama is to blame for Obamacares current troubles.

In the post, Trump slammed rising premiums and deductibles, but he conveniently forgot that the uncertainty caused by him and Republicans in Congress are causing much of the laws troubles.

Trumps tweet:

Democrats slam GOP healthcare proposal as Obamacare premiums & deductibles increase by over 100%. Remember keep your doctor, keep your plan?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 24, 2017

By attacking President Obama, Trump isnt only looking desperate as the GOP health plan struggles to gain support, but hes telling another massive lie.

According to a Bloomberg report last month, Obamacare itself isnt to blame for rising premiums  Trump and the Republicans are.

Health insurers are asking for sharp increases in the cost of their Obamacare plans next year, thanks to instability in the laws coverage markets thats been compounded by the Trump administration, Bloomberg noted.

A more recent report in The Hill outlined this same thing  that GOP sabotage is causing much of the laws troubles.

Insurers all over the country have asked for double-digit rate increases for next year because the Trump administration has yet to provide clarity on whether it will continue ObamaCare insurer payments known as cost sharing reduction subsidies, the report noted.

In the swing state of Iowa, GOP sabotage has led to a massive 43.5 percent increase in premiums in 2018.

The president is desperately trying to distract from his massively unpopular and disastrous health care plan, but the American people likely wont buy it. The president and Republicans now own health care.

Thats a problem that Trump wont be able to tweet his way out of.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Becoming windy with showers likely during the afternoon. There may also be a thunderstorm or two. High 77F. Winds SSW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 64F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph.
Last week I wrote of an interesting drive through North Dakota into Canada. As son-in-law, Greg, and I approached Canada's third largest city, Calgary, I saw in the distance the reason for our two-week trip: the Rocky Mountains.

Posing as the backdrop behind Calgary, the still snow-covered peaks showed why the 1988 Winter Olympics were held there. Driving amongst them, with my daughter and two grandchildren now joining us, I was once again reminded how massive these mountains are.

We would spend the next four nights in the city of Banff, oddly enough located within Canada's Banff National Park . While it was a nice stay, and we had some interesting drives and hikes, once we left and got across the border to Glacier National Park I felt more like we were in wilderness. Banff had four-lane highways and lots of fences with fewer pull-offs and hikes available than we later encountered in Glacier.

One interesting stop while in the Banff area was the continental divide separating waters ultimately going to the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans. It was also used as the dividing line between the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. In the 1800s it had to be clearly surveyed so mineral and water rights for the two provinces could be determined.

Big hike, big mountains, big bears

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We did make a trip to Lake Louise, undoubtedly Banff's most famous, and crowded, destination. But for me, it was probably eclipsed by a strenuous hike from this pristine lake at the base of a glacier to another at higher elevation. There we rested at a "Teahouse" that served a limited menu of beverages and food prepared from provisions brought in by helicopter and cooked over wood fires.

As we crossed into the U.S., it was amazing to see the backbone of the western U.S., the Rocky Mountains that rose to their heights when colliding geologic forces pushed the land up. Up close, the slanted appearance of many of the rock layers, especially the sedimentary rocks once laid down by oceans, told of their origins and tremendous pressures.

We headed for Many Glacier, where we had reservations for two small cabins, all that was needed to be able to take in the surroundings and sleep safely. We took a short hike and were treated to a close encounter with a cinnamon-colored black bear before retiring for the night. It was dwarfed in size by the grizzly we had seen in Banff a few days earlier.

Glacier tragedies

That evening I read 50 pages of a book I had picked up on tragedies in Glacier. The author chronicled more than 250 deaths since its opening in the early 1900s. It was interesting reading that water deaths were number one, followed by heart attacks and climbing accidents. Bear deaths, foremost on the minds of most people, numbered fewer than 10. But the book was a stark reminder of how nature still rules.

The next day we jumped in the car to head to the east entrance of the park. From there, we drove 13 miles on what some call the most beautiful drive in America, the Going to the Sun Road . Closures on most of this 50-mile road traversing the park happen every year as crews must go out in spring months to clear many tons of snow and rocks to hopefully make it passable by July.

The 13 miles was well worth it to see the mountains, glaciers, and streams, along with colorful rocks and wildflowers, many of which were dominating areas where forest fires had removed the shading overstory of coniferous trees. I was amazed at the largest and most dominant of flowers we would see, blooms of the bear grass plant, which I didn't recall seeing before. This drive also included our trip favorite, a mother black bear with three cinnamon-colored cubs climbing trees near her.

At the ranger station we would learn that the number of glaciers in the park was now less than 30, down from more than a hundred not many decades ago, with predictions all would be gone by 2030. I was surprised to see the current administrations discrediting of human impacts on global warming had not yet removed such information from Park Service brochures.

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Although only there for a couple days, I would rate Glacier in my top five trip destinations and encourage folks who can to take it in. I hope to get there again myself.
Minnesota's tourism outlook  a key factor in the state's economy  appears to be on the upswing again this summer travel season.

That's the finding of a pre-summer survey of Minnesota lodging businesses, according to results released by Explore Minnesota , the state's tourism marketing agency.

Close to half of the respondents  46 percent  reported that they expect summer revenue to be up, while 41 percent predict increased occupancy as compared to the strong summer showing in 2016.

In contrast, only 11 percent of the respondents expect decreased occupancy and 12 percent decreased revenue.

The reasons cited for optimism, according to Explore Minnesota Director John Erdman, include the number of reservations already on the books, a good economy, and successful advertising efforts  particularly online via social media and online booking engines. New and improved facilities at various lodging facilities and well as improved business from weddings and groups also were cited.

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Erdman said, "We are very pleased but not surprised to hear that Minnesota's lodging industry is expecting another strong summer. Successful marketing, increased social engagement and high-quality customer service are leaving a lasting impression on visitors. Combined with a good economy, we expect those trends to continue throughout the summer."

The survey was broadly based. A total of 234 Minnesota lodging businesses, including hotels and motels, resorts, bed-and-breakfasts, campgrounds and vacation home rentals completed the survey.

Minnesota's outlook is similar to national trends. AAA projected the highest travel volume since 2005 over the Memorial Day holiday, with an estimated 39 million Americans traveling, with higher confidence and more consumer spending as driving factors. Road trips accounted for an estimated 88 percent of the travel over Memorial day.

Erdman commented that there are "many events, big and small, being held in Minnesota and they contribute to a $14.4 billion leisure and hospitality industry."

Minnesota hosts some 70 million domestic and international travelers annually, Erdman estimates. The state's hospitality industry employs nearly 260,000 workers, representing 11 percent of Minnesota's private sector employment. Leisure and hospitality also generate 17 percent of the state's sales tax revenues.

DC-3 planes gone; Dreamliner appears

A tale of two airplanes:

DC-3 airplanes, a prop-driven aircraft that has been a mainstay in the U.S. for years before the jet era, are no longer in the skies. A few days ago Catalina Flying Boats Air Freight Service flew the last DC-3 in operation out of Long Beach Airport in California.

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On the other hand, the new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner soon will make its first flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The Dreamliner, the newest aircraft line from Boeing Co., will be used by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines on flights from MSP to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. An exact date for the aircraft's arrival is not yet known. KLM flights from MSP to Amsterdam occur three times a week.
MANKATO  A Preston man was arrested Thursday for allegedly stealing a police car and then leading law enforcement on a chase through the region.

Authorities were dispatched to the 100 block of Hanover Street in Mankato to arrest Danny Zuehlke, 38, who had an outstanding felony arrest warrant issued by Fillmore County, according to the Mankato Police Department.

However, when officers arrived, Zuehlke allegedly stole a police car and fled the scene at around 5:16 p.m. This led to a high-speed pursuit by Mankato Police, the Blue County Sheriff's Office, Minnesota State Patrol, and the Waseca County Sheriff's Office.

The chase ended in rural Waldorf when police used stop strips to deflate the tires on the car. Zuehlke tried to flee on foot, but was arrested shortly after. The police department did not have information on how long the pursuit lasted.

Zuehlke faces charges of theft of a motor vehicle and fleeing police in addition to his outstanding warrant. He was booked in the Blue Earth County Jail, and is in custody.
WABASHA  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has listened, and it will continue to do so.

The Corps again extended the deadline for public comments on its dredge material management plan for Lower Pool 4. The Corps will take comments on the new plan through July 14. The original public comment deadline was June 9 and later was extended to June 23, said Craig Evans, chief of plan formulation section for the St. Paul District of the Corps.

"We are listening," Evans said. "And if people have an idea that would save us money, we'd be happy to hear it. We'd incorporate that into our decision-making process."

The plan would mean acquiring nearly 500 acres of land in Wabasha County and across the river in Wisconsin for the transport and permanent storage of 40 years of dredge material. That includes 298 acres from Willard and Nora Drysdale, and their daughter, Chelsey, whose family has lived on their Kellogg-area farm since 1939.

So far, Evans said, the Corps has received somewhere between 100 and 200 written, emailed and phoned comments, a significant amount for a dredging plan. There also is a Change.org petition with more than 1,100 supports. People making comments on the petition include local folks from Wabasha, Kellogg and Nelson, Wis., but also individuals as far afield as California, Texas, Florida and New York. The petition states it eventually will be delivered to project manager Robert Edstrom at the Corps.

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Most commenters simply offer their feelings about the plan, Evans said. Some, however, have brought forth alternative proposals for how the Corps can transport and dispose of the anticipated 10.7 million cubic yards of dredge material  the sand and silt it moves to keep the 9-foot-deep navigation channel open  during the next 40 years.

Minnesota Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, said some of those alternative plans should meet the Corps' internal mandate of finding the least expensive and most environmentally friendly plan. He said he counted eight recommendations from the audience at the public meeting on June 15. Three of them -- using the dredge material to build islands in Lake Pepin, barging it down to Winona where a 160-acre mining pit needs to be filled or separating frac sand from the rest of the silt and selling it  seemed to meet the Corps' mandate.

"We need to find some options that would make economic and environmental sense but not garner public opposition like this one did," Drazkowski said.

The good news, Drazkowski said, is it shows the Corps is listening to the public, and the second extended comment deadline proves that. "It validates the really growing consternation and public awareness around this issue and full fledged opposition to it," he said. "The idea of taking private property when there are all kinds of options that have not even begun to be vetted yet, the Corps has heard the public response."

Drazkowski said he is setting up a meeting between the Corps, the departments of natural resources for Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the states' legislative representatives to explore the Lake Pepin island idea. The Corps also has committed to conducting a cost analysis on the Winona mining pit option.

Drazkowski said a letter from senators Al Franken, Amy Klobuchar and Tammy Baldwin also dispelled the idea that the mandate to find the lowest cost solution comes from the federal government. That letter -- along with others from the city and county of Wabasha, U.S. Rep. Jason Lewis, and other lawmakers all have urged the Corps to find other options.

During Tuesday's Wabasha County Board meeting, board members all expressed concern over the plan. "Sometimes you've got to spend a little more to make it more appealing for everyone," said Wabasha County Commissioner Mike Wobbe.

Evans said the cost mandate is an internal Corps policy, but it's one the local district cannot unilaterally dismiss. "The implications of that are very high," he said. "If we don't use least-cost plan here, why would we hold to it in other parts of the country."

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The Corps dredges in rivers ranging from the Mississippi to the Missouri and Ohio in addition to the Great Lakes and along the coasts. Just in Lower Pool 4, increased costs of transporting the material could amount to $5 million annually. "They are all using this least-cost environmentally acceptable standard," Evans said.

Still, Drazkowski said, he is hopeful a better solution  one that does not mean enforcing eminent domain on unwilling landowners  can be found. "It's forcing some self-reflection on the agency," he said, referring to the pubic input the Corps has received. "They spent three years on developing this plan, and they didn't get input from the Minnesota DNR. Three years on a plan that isn't vetted."

But even with some new ideas to explore, don't expect another three years, Evans said. "We're going to consider every idea we get," he said, adding the final decision likely will be made some time in 2017. "But we need to be able to start moving toward acquiring real estate somewhere, and that takes a lot of time."
FOUNTAIN  When she drives home from work, Jackie Hrstka likes to circle the homestead, her appraising eye taking in the various changes and home improvements.

Hrstka enjoys scanning her yard, the red, white and pink crabapple trees, and the house whose steeple looms over this tiny southeastern Minnesota city of 450. Yes, you heard right, Hrstka's house has a steeple. It also has a belfry and a bell that she can ring, because Hrstka lives in a church.

It's like living in a castle, said Hrstka, who has lived there for 14 years.

"I like old better than new," she said. "It's character. I'm not a modern, so I like something with some character in it."

Brimming with character

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The big, Gothic-looking, 90-year-old church, she discovered after buying it, brimmed with all kinds of character  and a mountain of repair projects.

Hrstka bought St. Lawrence O'Toole Church from the Diocese of Winona in 2003 soon after the Fountain church was shuttered. The last church pastor to serve the church attached only two conditions to the building's future use when it was sold: That it not be used as a brothel or a place of gambling.

"I said, 'You don't have to worry about that, Father,'" Hrstka recalled.

Hrstka is owner of Jackie's Health and Fitness Center in Chatfield, and her first thought, when she saw the notice in the the Chatfield News of the church's availability through a silent auction, was to convert the building into a fitness center. But her ambitions for the building would grow in time.

Hrstka doesn't say what she bid on the church, but she bid low  in fact, so low that the diocese would have demolished the church if the price had dropped much lower. Hrstka and another person were the only ones to make bids on the church  a lack of interest that surprised her.

"It wasn't that bad. You could do a lot of things with it," she said. "It had a lot of potential  a great big building."

More than a home

Somewhere between her conception of the building as a fitness center and purchasing it, Hrstka's plans for the church began to enlarge in scope. Today, it serves not only as her home but as a fitness center and a banquet hall  called Mulligan's Hall  that can be rented for dances, celebrations, marriages and Christmas parties. Work is also nearing completion on turning the church's choir loft into a bed and breakfast.

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Through her adult life, Hrstka has shown an instinct for seeing value in buildings that others don't and breathing new life into them. Part of that was a function of her upbringing and her chosen career. A farm girl, Hrstka was raised in Chatfield and graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in exercise science.

"My goal in life wasn't to work at Mayo Clinic. It was to have my own fitness center," she said. "So for 10 years, I worked at other fitness centers to get the experience."

But with limited capital, Hrstka wasn't in the position to build her own fitness palace from scratch. Instead, she developed the habit of taking existing, abandoned buildings and repurposing them. In the course of building up her business, she would convert a post office and pizza place into exercise centers.

Community cornerstone

St. Lawrence church has had two incarnations, the first one dating back to 1872. It's unclear what happened to the first church, but word is that it burned down. The second one, erected in 1927, cost $30,000 to build. In a cornerstone-laying ceremony in July 1927, Father O'Day presided over a ceremony that drew people from within a 20-mile radius.

"The laying of the cornerstone of a new church is a momentous occasion," he told the assembled. "It is an indication of the character of the people of the parish. It proves they are interested in things which make life more complete, and the community greater."

By 1962, 35 years later, the church with a seating capacity of 400, whose congregation had gone from solid Irish to Norwegian, was down to fewer than 100 congregants. By 2003, it was on the auction block, awaiting a new owner or the wrecking ball.

That was when Hrstka, recycler extraordinaire, stepped forward to take on the most ambitious project of her career.

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"I didn't want anything to go to waste," Hrstka said. "You don't want to see a church go down, no matter what church it was."

Good works

She may have paid a song for the building, but she soon realized that restoring the old ramshackle church would take patience, skill, economy and money.

Her first project  replacing the leaky roof with a steel one  cost more $30,000. From there on out, she would chip away at the renovation, doing one to two projects a year for 14 years. A talented carpenter friend she engaged, Geoff Dornink, helped keep costs down.

"I couldn't have done it without him," she said. "He knows that I can't afford a lot. And he knows I'm just going to do a one project a year and spend like $3,000 each summer for him to do something."

She made the sanctuary into a living area, the sacristy into a kitchen. The basement was made into a fitness center. The dues paid by its members pay the building's heating and water bills (Yes, the workouts down in the basement literally heat the building).

Hrstka recycled whatever and wherever she could along way. Little got tossed. The stained-glass windows that were left behind were installed at both ends of the building, creating a castle-like ambiance in the hall late at night. Instead of throwing away the alter, the oak trim was recycled to create a set of stairs.

"You can't buy that stuff. It's like gold," Hrstka said about the oak. "When you're furnishing a place and can get oak, holy cow! It means a lot to me that I walk up the altar when I go to bed at night."

She avoids being too specific about expenses, but figures she dropped a couple hundred thousand dollars on the entire project  a fraction of what it would have really cost. Ninety percent of the church is complete, she estimates.

And she's glad it's almost done.

"I love living here. It's very open. I have great big yard. I still have other plans for it, too," Hrstka said, adding, however, that she wouldn't want to tackle another, similarly monumental project.

"I wouldn't do it all over again, probably not at my age, because it has been a lot of work."
ALBERT LEA  The Freeborn County Board offered pointed, unanimous criticism Tuesday of Mayo Clinic's decision to transition most of its inpatient services from Albert Lea to Austin.

The board followed up Thursday with a terse invitation asking Mayo to attend an upcoming meeting to explain its June 12 decision that's left community leaders feeling "extremely dismayed."

Albert Lea also has announced a public forum 7 p.m. Thursday in the Albert Lea High School gym to discuss Mayo's decision and its potential effect on the city.

"Needless to say, the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners were extremely dismayed to hear the announcement to close Naeve Hospital in Albert Lea," commissioners wrote to Mayo in a letter dated June 20. "It has been a long-standing source of pride for the community, not to mention the lives and health of patients that have been impacted over the years, the significant funds contributed through the Naeve Health Care Foundation, and the thousands of hours people have volunteered to the organization.

"The board would be interested in hearing more details as to how this decision was arrived at, what services the community would be losing, any plans to allow another medical provider to utilize the facility, and the projected economic impact such a closure would have."

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Mayo spokeswoman Tami Yokiel said, "Mayo Clinic Health System leaders are willing and eager to meet with community and business groups who want to discuss the future of health care in Albert Lea, Austin and the surrounding communities." It's likely that meeting will take place on July 11 or 18.

"Our commitment to the patients and communities we serve is to deliver high-quality, affordable care, both now and for future generations," Yokiel said via email. "While not easy, our decision to reduce duplication of some inpatient services reflects that commitment. Similar to many industries, health care is changing and our models need to be adjusted. We are making necessary changes to ensure we can continue to care for patients in Albert Lea and Austin for many years to come."

All five Freeborn County commissioners "expressed displeasure" with Mayo's recent announcement at Tuesday's meeting, according to interim county administrator Kelly Callahan. He also told the Albert Lea Tribune "there's a lot of frustration and disappointment in the community."

According to the Albert Lea Tribune, Commissioner Mike Lee said he did think Mayo was following its own mission statement. Commissioner Chris Shoff said Mayo's plans also could have negative impacts on Freeborn County's Public Health and Human Services departments.

Commissioner Dan Belshan said he's frustrated by the fact Mayo received $550 million in state funding for Destination Medical Center in Rochester while it continues to reduce services in its rural hospitals. He also raised the idea of pursuing options with other medical providers, such as Mercy Hospital in Mason City, Iowa.

"If they want to pay the ($550) million back, then I won't complain," Belshan said, adding "it's our responsibility to actually have a meeting and have them explain themselves."

The Minnesota Nurses Association also will address the Freeborn County Board at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Details of that discussion are murky, but MNA has been highly critical of Mayo's announcement.

MNA spokesperson Barb Brady also announced Mayo and Albert Lea's nurses reached a tentative contract agreement this week. A union vote is planned for July.
On September 30, 2016, Hungarian police stopped a truck on the M5 highway and discovered it was carrying over 1,000 artifacts, including gold coins.

The 51-year-old Turkish driver, who carried no documentation for the cargo, was arrested and charged with stealing valuable cultural artifacts.

The Hungarian press has written that the artifacts are Armenian in origin.

Hetq has contacted its colleagues in Hungary to verify the claim and to find out more about the case.

We were told that experts from the Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE) and the National Museum of Hungary were brought into the investigation and have concluded that most of the seized artifacts date from the Kingdom of Urartu and are valued at $23,000-$31,000. They would fetch the higher amount if sold as a collection.

The experts also concluded that the artifacts had been plundered at an illegal excavation site given the unrestored state they were found in.

Some of the artifacts were found to be almost perfect fakes.

After examining photos of the artifacts, Dr. Pavel Avetisyan, who directs the Archeology and Ethnography Institute at Armenias National Academy of Sciences, said the artifacts are from the fringes of the Armenian Highlands, in particular, from the current border between Turkey and Iraq.

The photos below show some of the artifacts labeled Urartian by Avetisyan.

The driver of the truck will be handed over to Turkish authorities. Hungarian police argue that theres a better chance for the case to be cracked in Turkey.

In a conversation with the Hungarian COP magazine, a Hungarian police employee said the truck had picked up the artifacts in Istanbul, but that the driver wasnt involved. The driver had been instructed to drive to Poland and then on to Latvia.

The publication also states that the copper artifacts date to the Urartian period and that they were most likely taken from the grave of a high-ranking soldier. These include fragments of a chariot, helmet, and copper teapot. Globally, archeologists have only discovered four such pots. Similar soil samples found on the artifacts have led experts to believe they hail from the same location.

All the artifacts are being kept at the Art Museum of Hungary.

Speculation in the Hungarian social media as to whether the artifacts should be returned to Turkey or Armenia seems a forgone conclusion

International practice in such matters obligates Hungary to return the items to Turkey, their assumed place of origin, if Ankara files a demand for their return.

Anita Komuves from Atlatszo.hu, a Hungarian investigative non-profit, contirbuted to the preparation of the story.

Photos: Hungarys police department
Dr. Annie Sadosty will be tasked with guiding the Mayo Clinic Health System  Southeast Minnesota region through some trying times.

The veteran administrator was named the new regional vice president on Wednesday by Mayo President and CEO John Noseworthy. She joined Mayo in 1999 and currently serves as chairwoman of Emergency Medicine, overseeing staff and 21 departments across the Midwest who serve more than 300,000 patients annually.

She replaces Dr. David Agerter as the physician leader serving Albert Lea, Austin, Lake City, Cannon Falls, Red Wing, Fairbault, Owatonna and the surrounding communities. It was announced in March that Dr. Agerter was being transitioned to a newly created role as director of Academic Strategy and Development for Mayo Clinic Health System.

"We are delighted to welcome Dr. Sadosty to this role," Noseworthy said via news release. "I am confident she will continue to build and strengthen Mayo Clinic's presence within southeast Minnesota and enhance Mayo's delivery of outstanding care to patients and communities across the region."

Dr. Bobbie Gostout, Mayo vice president and leader of Mayo Clinic Health System, chaired the search committee that ultimately selected Sadosty. The pair of relative newcomers  Gostout was promoted in November 2015  will be tasked with navigating a number of regional challenges.

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Mayo is facing increasing criticism in Albert Lea, Lake City and Wabasha for reduction of services. While Mayo attributes the decisions to changes in health care, it's created hard feelings among many city and county officials.

After years of acrimony, Wabasha recently announced it would be leaving Mayo's system. Albert Lea is in the preliminary stages of exploring a similar plan in response to Mayo shifting some services to its Austin campus. Some members of the Lake City City Council also have raised concerns about Mayo's direction.

Mayo did not specifically address those regional concerns in its release, but Gostout did highlight Sadosty's "understanding of today's challenging health care environment."

"Dr. Sadosty has been an outstanding leader in Mayo Clinic's Rochester and Midwest practices, and we are delighted that she will be bringing her skills and experience to Mayo Clinic Health System as she takes on this regional vice president role," Gostout said. "Throughout the search process, we were all impressed with her understanding of today's challenging health care environment, particularly as it impacts community care, and her clear vision for keeping our southeast Minnesota system of care strong and viable for the future."

It's possible one of Sadosty's first public appearances in her new role will be attending Thursday's public forum in Albert Lea, where hundreds are expected to express their feelings about Mayo's recent announcement. She's expected to work closely with Agerter for the next few months to ensure a smooth leadership transition.

Sadosty called it an honor to be selected as Agerter's successor.

"I look forward to the work ahead as we bring Mayo's rich history of innovation to bear on the opportunities for strengthening our presence and the way we deliver care to the communities we serve," Sadosty said. "Our patients value the convenient, high-quality care we provide, and it will be our ongoing mission to build a sustainable system that keeps care available to present and future generations."

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AUSTIN  Mower County continues to outpace state competitors in wind energy generation.

Mower County ranked first in state wind energy production tax revenue in 2016. During a press conference Friday, wind industry representatives presented a $2,373,932 check to county officials for the generated tax revenue. The money will go toward funding local roads and bridges and keeping taxes down for residents. Energy representatives and state officials attended the conference, touting the benefits wind energy brings to the state's economy.

The payment to Mower County was the largest to any county in Minnesota, and was a 26.5 percent increase from last year's payment.

"Wind has become very, very important to Mower County, its taxpayers and our environment." said Mower County Board of Commissioners Chairman Tim Gabrielson.

Gabrielson said $400,000 of the tax revenue will go toward funding local roads and bridges, while the rest of the roughly $2.3 million will go toward tax relief for residents.

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Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, said the local wind industry has fueled area jobs and tax relief.

David Easler, Vestas senior operations manager, said more than 30 jobs are created over each wind turbine's lifespan.

"The wind industry supports more than 100,000 workers across the United States," Easler said. "That includes thousands of employees in Minnesota."

The wind industry also has a hiring rate of veterans above the national average, said Justin Van Beusekom, senior operations manager for EDP Renewables North America and a military veteran.

Wind energy has been financially beneficial for Minnesota this year  with revenue from the wind energy production tax topping $12 million. Minnesota has roughly 3,500 megawatts of installed wind capacity, generating nearly 18 percent of the state's electricity.

And wind will continue its upward trajectory as prices drop, said Chris Kunkle, regional policy manager for Wind on the Wires.

"As the price of wind continues to fall, you're seeing utilities throughout Minnesota really embracing this," he said.
Updated plans for redesigning the Rochester's downtown core will be revealed Tuesday.

The Heart of the City Community Advisory Committee will review proposals for the Destination Medical Center subdistrict at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in Chateau Theatre, 15 First St. SW, and a public workshop will follow at 5:30 p.m. in the historic theater.

Patrick Seeb, director of economic development and placemaking for the DMC Economic Development Agency, said the plans will later go to the Rochester City Council and DMC Corp. board for potential modifications.

"I think we're headed in the right direction," he said, noting consensus on plans for Peace Plaza, the area east of the Gonda Building and First Avenue between Center Street and Second Street Southwest is growing.

Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede, who serves a a co-chairman of the committee, said concerns still exist regarding plans for the area outside Chateau Theatre, which designers have dubbed "Theatre Square."

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Seeb said designers are juggling the needs of the theater and future development as they consider final options. At the same time, Brede noted some residents have voiced a desire to keep existing elements, including the Peace Fountain, in place.

One design element introduced in February has gone away, according to Brede and Seeb. While a proposed 24-foot-wide elevated Peace Plaza section between the Kahler Hotel and Siebens Building is no longer in the plans, Seeb said elevated outdoor elements still exist.

"We're showing some potential decks off of some skyways," he said.

The planning process is being led by Minneapolis-based consultants RSP Architects and its design team, which includes Coen+Partners, 9.Square, HR&A Advisors and Kimley-Horn, with the goal of reaching a final proposal this summer.

Brede said he's seen some of the latest drawings but looks forward to seeing the overall plan Tuesday.

"We'll take a good look and hear them explain it," he said.

Statements made during the March workshop would indicate any changes are likely the result of public comments and community engagement.

"The next time we see you, you can anticipate we will have listened to you," said Amber Hill, of Coen+Partners, told the group of area residents who met in the Rochester Art Center to discuss the proposals that resulted from earlier study and community input, which started in October.

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Meetings during the week of June 26 include:

City of Rochester

 City Council committee of the whole, 3 p.m. Monday in room 104 of City Hall, 201 Fourth St. SE.

 Public Utility Board, 4 p.m. Tuesday in the Rochester Public Utilities board room, 4000 E. River Road NE

 Planning and Zoning Commission, 6 p.m. Wednesday in council chambers of the city-county Government Center, 151 4th St. SE.

 Rochester-Olmsted Council of Governments, noon Friday in conference room A at 2122 Campus Drive SE.

Olmsted County

 Extension Committee, 5 p.m. Monday in suite B at 421 Third Ave. SE.

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 Rochester-Olmsted Council of Governments, noon Friday in conference room A at 2122 Campus Drive SE.
ST. PAUL  Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders said Friday they have a deal to keep the Legislature and its staff funded for the next 90 days as a lawsuit continues over Dayton's earlier move to defund the House and Senate.

Without the agreement, funding would stop on July 1. Legislative leaders said Thursday in a court filing that they would have to start furloughing employees within the next couple months as they exhaust their reserve funds.

A judge needs to sign off on the agreement. A hearing in the Legislature's lawsuit against the governor is still set for Monday morning in Ramsey County court.

"If approved, this agreement will protect legislative employees, who are not to blame for our present disagreement, and Minnesota's credit rating, which we have worked so hard to restore," Dayton said in a statement. "I hope that this agreement signals the resumption of good faith negotiations to resolve our policy differences and protect our state's fiscal integrity."

Dayton used his line item veto power to zero out House and Senate funding to try to get them to come back to the bargaining table on other budget issues. Legislative leaders argue the move is unconstitutional.

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"If granted, this stipulation will allow the legislature to continue representing more than 5million Minnesotans and protect Minnesota's credit rating as the legal process continues," said Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-Nisswa. "We look forward to Monday's hearing and hope for a swift decision from the courts."

"This will prevent the voice of Minnesotans from being silenced by the governor's unconstitutional veto," added House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Zimmerman. "We're pleased the governor has recognized the importance of ensuring that Minnesotans continue to have representation in St. Paul."
The jury in the trial of St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez was deadlocked for almost a week before acquitting him on all charges for the shooting death of Philando Castile.

Nearly a week after a jury found Yanez not guilty on second-degree manslaughter and felony weapons charges, one of the jurors has given MPR News the first detailed account of what took place during deliberations.

The juror spoke with MPR News host Tom Weber on the condition that he remain anonymous, because he said he is afraid of retribution. During deliberations, the jury was deadlocked for days before reaching its unanimous verdict to acquit Yanez on all counts.

This juror discussed the group members' mindsets during deliberation but declined to make public how he voted each day.

"What happened to Philando is not OK to any of us. Nobody felt good about any part of this," the juror said. "We were just asked to do a job, and we did it, and I think every one of us is proud of how we acted, but nobody felt good. Nobody was OK with it."

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Castile's death and Yanez's trial held the nation's attention since that fatal traffic stop last July. But the goal of jury selection is to find a group of people who don't know much about the case and who have no preconceived opinions on it. Jurors are to consider only what's presented in court.

The juror who's now speaking out didn't know who Philando's mother Valerie Castile was when she stood up and walked out of the courtroom right when the verdict was announced.

Here's one juror's account of how the trial went down and what he's taken away from it all.

On who the jury was

The jury comprised "down the middle, working people," the juror said.

"I don't want to call us average, but that's exactly what we were," he said.

When they realized the gravity of the case, the juror said, those selected to sit on the jury seemed to hope they were alternates. At least one volunteered for the role.

Everyone was respectful to one another regardless of their thoughts on the case, the juror said.

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In the middle of the week, he said, the jury was "hopelessly deadlocked." But one of the jurors had a birthday.

"We brought in a crown from Burger King, and somebody gave her some M&Ms, and somebody brought her some tea they picked up in Scotland, and we sang happy birthday to her at the end of the day."

How the jury went from deadlock to unanimous verdict

Jurors were quick to decide Yanez's acquittal on felony weapons charges. The juror said photos of Castile's body showed that Yanez was aiming away from the two passengers, Diamond Reynolds and her 4-year-old daughter.

Jurors couldn't agree on the manslaughter charge for days, though.

"What we were looking at was some pretty obscure things to a lot of people, like culpable negligence. You think you might know what it means: It's negligent, but maybe pretty bad negligence. Well, it's gross negligence with an element of recklessness. ... We had the law in front of us so we could break it down.

"It just came down to us not being able to see what was going on in the car. Some of us were saying that there was some recklessness there, but that didn't stick because we didn't know what escalated the situation: Was he really seeing a gun? We felt [Yanez] was an honest guy ... and in the end, we had to go on his word, and that's what it came down to."

On his takeaways of the past week

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"Overall, I think if anybody's handling this the right way, it would be Philando's mom. I think if you want to make a change, you can't go after jury or a police officer. I think you need to go after the law. I don't know what that means. I've been thinking about it this week. I don't know how you go about doing that. Do you run for city council?

"I feel like Obama said it best when he was leaving office: Just get involved. I don't know if that means contacting your representative or your congressman or picking up a book and going to law school. I don't know you do it, but I think people should figure out a way to make a difference. They should get involved.

"Go after the law. Don't go after people. There are some situations where people are clearly guilty and then yes. But in situations like this, it's the law. It's the law that people need to go after."
ST. CLOUD  The scene inside Revolver Studios earlier this month looked like most midday yoga classes might: About 30 people stretched in synchrony while listening to classic rock and the instructor's directions.

But the sound that stood out from a typical yoga class was the occasional "meow" or "yooowl"  while the yogis moved from pose to pose, kittens skittered across the floor and nestled into laps.

The event  a fundraiser for Tri-County Humane Society  was the idea of Revolver Studios owner Scarlette Revolver. She asked if yoga instructor Carrie Clauson would be willing to lead the class.

"Would there ever be a 'no?'" Clauson asked with a laugh.

Before Saturday, Clauson had never led or participated in a kitten yoga class, but said she has seen similar events on social media. Staff at Tri-County Humane Society were new to kitten yoga, too.

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"We had heard of cat yoga before. It's a pretty popular event," said Kayla Koscielniak, marketing and events coordinator for Tri-County Humane Society. "It's actually pretty funny  I think a week prior to hearing from (Revolver Studios), I found an article online about cat yoga and forwarded it to my boss."

Other people thought it was a good idea, too.

"Sure enough, the class filled up in less than a day," Koscielniak said.

Eleven eight-week-old purr-fect kittens  old enough to be away from mom but young enough to still clumsily trip over their paws  joined the yoga class for some meowdidating.

"I picture it as one of the best distractions ever for a workout class," Koscielniak said. "You get to relax and have kittens playing all over you."

And the kittens delivered on their promise to distract  while Lillian and Shirley scampered between yoga mats, Betty White repeatedly tried sneaking under the full-length mirrors at the front of the class. And a little gray guy unhappily groaned at the other cats while curled up in the litter box.

Participants savored the mewment.

St. Cloud resident Deb Sorum attended the class with her daughter Kali, who repeatedly had to jump up from her mat to rescue Betty White from scaling the wall behind the mirrors. Despite having two cats at home, Deb Sorum said Saturday was the first time she had done yoga with cats.

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"We usually have to shut them out of the room," she said with a laugh.

St. Augusta resident Justin Haakenson had also never attended kitten yoga before. He said his wife asked him if he wanted to go to Saturday's session with her.

"If I can play with cats, why not?" he said.

St. Cloud State University student Annabelle Merchant attended her first yoga class Saturday. She said she grew up on a farm with about 30 cats who roamed around, so despite the distraction, she felt "right at home" with kittens underfoot.

Clausen planned the class to include many seated poses and not as many standing or balancing poses, so no cats got stuck in a tree pose (Get it?).

And at the end of the class, Clausen did an exercise to help participants synchronize their internal systems. The technique is thought to help mood, health and immunity, and cognitive performance, as well as lower stress hormones.

"Studies have shown that using animal friends is very helpful with that," she said.

Clausen said she hopes to lead a kitten yoga class again. It cost $10, with $7 going to the humane society.

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Clausen sent off the participants with a final wish to spread peace and joy in the world  and to remind the folks that all the kittens were available for adoption.

"Meow-maste."
Yesterdays Washington Post carried the Russia story of the day. Post reporters Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashima and Adam Entous purport to deliver the goods on Obamas secret struggle to punish Russia for Putins election assault. Its a long, long story that is of interest from a variety of perspectives.

The Post purports to give us the inside story on the collection of intelligence on Russian interference in the presidential election and serve up the apologetics explaining the Obama administrations passive response. Based on highly classified intelligence related to the Post, the CIA discovered Russian interference in the election while it was in process within months of the election in the last year of the Obama administration. According to the CIA intelligence, the interference came on the order of Vladimir Putin and furthered Putins desire to aid the election of Donald Trump as president.

The Post dates the critical intelligence bombshell obtained by the CIA to August 2016. The Post reports that CIA Director John Brennan deemed it so confidential that he withheld it from the Presidents Daily Brief and conveyed it directly in writing to Obama by hand delivery.

The intelligence provided Obama administration officials time to foil Putins plans and/or punish Putins deeds. Indeed, administration officials concocted plans to punish and deter Russia from interference. The Post reports that Obama administration secretly debated dozens of options for deterring or punishing Russia, including cyberattacks on Russian infrastructure, the release of CIA-gathered material that might embarrass Putin and sanctions that officials said could crater the Russian economy. But in the end, in late December, Obama approved a modest package (emphasis added). In other words, President Obama declined to take any action while it might still have done some good in 2016.

One might infer from story that President Obama colluded with Putin to defeat Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump. One might support the inference with Obamas own comment open mic comment to Dmitri Medvedev that during Obamas second term he would have more flexibility to cooperate with Putin.

To be fair, we might consider the explanation that Obama was just a pusillanimous pussy disinclined to protect the interests of the United States from our enemies. Perhaps Obamas passivity was overdetermined and other hypothetical explanations apply. Certainly some explanation beyond any offered by the Posts sources is called for. The possibilities are endless.

By contrast, however, the Posts reportage offers no evidence of Trumps collusion with the Russian interference intended to assist Trumps election. Zero. Nada. Not even by inference.

Perhaps evidence of Trump collusion with Russia is beyond the scope of the Posts story. If the Post had obtained such evidence from its numerous sources, however, it would certainly have found a place for it in the story.

So far as I can tell, sophisticated commenters on the story take it at face value and consider it on the terms presented by the Post. See, for example, David Frenchs NRO column and Tom Rogans Examiner column.

The story comes complete with this revelation: Obama also approved a previously undisclosed covert measure that authorized planting cyber weapons in Russias infrastructure, the digital equivalent of bombs that could be detonated if the United States found itself in an escalating exchange with Moscow. The project, which Obama approved in a covert-action finding, was still in its planning stages when Obama left office. It would be up to President Trump to decide whether to use the capability.

Im sure Putin is grateful for the heads-up from the Post. You dont have to be a CIA officer or analyst to figure that out.

Now like much of the Post story, this is a piece of highly classified intelligence whose disclosure violates the oaths of those who gave it to the Post. The violation of a solemn oath by a witness is commonly taken to detract from the credibility of the witnesss testimony. Consider, moreover, that the sources for the story were not under oath when they confided in Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashima and Adam Entous. The intelligent reader would be well within his rights not to believe a word they say.

If we believe it, however, this pertinent fact should be added. The disclosure of highly classified intelligence by government officials also violates the espionage laws of the United States. It is in all likelihood felonious several times over in the case of each of the Posts numerous anonymous sources.

The Post and its reporters are accomplices to the crimes committed by their sources. They have disseminated highly classified intelligence to the enemies of the United States  as the left has lately discovered Putin and Russia to be.

Taking the story at face value, we can conclude that the Post and its sources have done great damage to the national security of the United States. The Post attributes the leaks on which the story is based to three dozen current and former U.S. officials in senior positions in government, including at the White House, the State, Defense and Homeland Security departments, and U.S. intelligence services. Most agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity As for the requirement of anonymity imposed by the Posts sources, see the paragraph above.

Again, taken at face value, the story buries this bombshell. Three dozen current and former U.S. officials in senior government positions have undertaken a campaign of gross lawlessness for their own purposes undermining the national security of the United States beyond anything Vladimir Putin can do.

UPDATE: A reader points out that NBC reported the preparation of the United States for a cyberattack on Russia in November 2016 according to a senior intelligence official and top-secret documents reviewed by NBC News.
Good news from Thunderbird 1's press conference, both pilot and backseater are in good condition.Pilot is Captain Erik 'Speedy' Gonsalves, he was giving a fam flight to aircraft maintainer Tech Sergeant Kenneth Cordova. Both were conscious and talking during the lengthy extrication. Since they were sitting upside down on hot ejection seats, I'm glad that the effort was not unduly hurried by circumstances.As usual, some of the questions in an earlier media briefing given by airshow and airport officials were perhaps not well phrased. When asked if the aircraft occupants were pilots, one of the briefers said that we know that at least one was. When asked if the crew attempted to eject after the plane rolled inverted on the ground it was intimated that the ejection vector might not have been favorable in that situation so the answer was probably no.During the 5 pm media conference Lead Thunderbird Lieutenant Colonel Jason Heard received word that the T-birds would NOT fly in the show on Saturday. Participation in Sunday's Dayton show would be decided later. He seemed pleased and not surprised by the decision as he looked at his phone on the podium. I sense that his input to the decision was in line with the result in this case.
During the period of June 18 - 24, Azerbaijan violated the Karabakh ceasefire around 400 times, firing various caliber small arms, also 60 mm and 82 mm mortars and seven automatic anti-tank grenade launchers, this according to the Artsakh Ministry of Defense.

Apart from the above-mentioned violations, there was an incursion attempt by Azerbaijani special forces in the wee hours of June 22, which was prevented by Artsakh forces. At least four Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in the incident.

The ministry adds that Artsakh forces continue to monitor the situation.
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Inne oferty, ktore mogy byc w kregu Twoich zainteresowan:
Dubbed Kannywoods bad boy, Zaharaddeen Sani, is well known for the many villain roles he portrays in Kannywood flicks.

His forthcoming movie Abu Hassan is highly awaited. Set in the north, the movie, a first of its kind in Nigeria, explores the intricacies behind the activities of a dreaded terror group, which unleashes so much havoc in the state before being confronted and defeated by the military.

The heightened anticipation the movies trailer has garnered, has ensured that Kannywood fans wait with bated breath for the its final release.

PREMIUM TIMES Mohammed Lere met with Zaharaddeen in Kaduna where he defended his decision to premiere the film in Ghana instead of Nigeria.

PT: Abu Hassan is highly anticipated by your fans. Why are you yet to release it?

Zaharadden: Yes, the release has actually taken some time since I got approval from the Film Censors Board. But, like I once told you, this is not those run-of-the-mill films that people are used to. It is action-packed and it is centered on criminality and kidnappings. It took me a long to even get the nod of the censors board and the SSS. All this contributed to the delay. I also need to be careful not to do something that will mar my commitment to making a one-of its kind film in the north and Nigeria.

PT: So when are you likely to premiere the film?

Zaharaddeen: The film is going to be premiered during the Sallah festivities in Ghana and then in Nigeria.

PT: Why Ghana first?

Zaharaddeen: As I said earlier, I am doing something out of the box. We have great fans in many African countries and Ghana is one of them. For the first time I thought to take something to them so they can feel at home too. It is not bad to do so. They are all lovers of Kannywood and they will love us more if we are also lend a hand of friendship.

PT: Dont you think Nigerians, especially your fans, will be unhappy having waited this long?

Zaharaddeen: I dont think so. The film will be shown in Ghana while other films will be shown at the same time in Nigeria. Let me tell you something, Kannywood has changed the way it now sells it films. The issue of piracy is really affecting us. So the industry has concluded that henceforth every Kannywood movie will be shown only in Cinemas for some time before they get released to the market. So if you are a pirate you will wait until it gets to the market. Filmmakers have agreed on that.

PT: But dont forget that some northern states no longer have cinema houses.

Zaharaddeen: This is one issue that the regulators are still talking about because as it stands, films will only be shown in Kano because it has cinemas and film viewing centers. The other states will have to wait until it gets to the market. But since it is just a pilot phase, more cinemas and viewing centers will be encouraged in other states so they can have these movies as they break. This is how it is done in developed countries.

PT: So, Ghana will see Abu Hassan first then Nigeria?

Zaharaddeen: I am not sure if Nigeria might be next. This is because I intend to stay back in Ghana for a couple of weeks before I return.

PT: Is it that you could not secure a slot to premiere the film in Nigeria know fully well that films like Mansoor Rariya are already scheduled for release during Sallah? Could that be the reason you settled for Ghana first?

Zaharaddeen: Not at all. As I said earlier, I want do something different. Besides Ghanaians are also our fans and lovers. When I return I will premiere it in Nigeria.

PT: Dont you think some pirates will follow you to Ghana and sneak a copy back to Nigeria?

Zaharaddeen: No, It is well protected Insha Allah.

PT: Thank You and Barka da Sallah.

Zaharaddeen: Thank You Premium Times.

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The sack by the Supreme Court of Abubakar Danladi, the senator representing Taraba North, from the upper legislative chamber, on Friday was not only shocking but also enthralling.

The nations highest court which in 2014 saved Mr. Danladis political career has now thrown him into a fresh political turbulence.

In a unanimous judgement, the Court nullified Mr. Danladis election and declared his challenger, Shuaibu Lau, the winner of the 2014 primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party in the Taraba North Senatorial District.

It ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to issue a certificate of return to Mr. Lau.

The appellant has the right to participate just like any other candidate in the primary and if he feels his right was infringed upon, he has the right to approach the court, the five-member panel of the Court held.

And his substitution at the primary election is null and void since the appellant scored the highest number of votes, the only option is to declare the appellant as the winner of the primary.

The court asked Mr. Danladi to refund all salaries and allowances earned as a senator in the last 24 months within three months.

For Mr. Lau, it was a long road to victory.

In October 2015, the election petition tribunal in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, had nullified Mr. Danladis election and pronounced him (Lau) as the winner of the primary. Mr. Lau had claimed that he was wrongfully substituted by the PDP.

The tribunal declared the primary inconclusive, saying it was in violation of the Electoral Act 2010.

It said there were irregularities in 48 polling units which disfranchised more than 36,000 eligible voters from participating in the poll.

It ordered fresh election in the 48 polling units spread across 13 wards in three local government areas in the senatorial district.

Dissatisfied with the judgement, Mr. Danladi challenged the decision of the tribunal at the Court of Appeal, which upturned Mr. Laus victory, prompting him (Lau) to proceed to the Supreme Court.

With the landmark judgement of the apex court, Mr. Danladi becomes the first to be sacked from the senate.

Before now some of his colleagues had been sacked by the lower court. The Court of Appeal had at different times nullified the elections of Bashir Marafa (Taraba Central), Uche Ekwunife (Anambra Central), and George Sekibo (Rivers East).

HISTORY AT SUPREME COURT

But Mr. Danladis case an interesting one. In 2014, the Supreme Court had restored him as the deputy governor of Taraba State after a legal battle that lasted about two years.

The embattled Mr. Danladi had been impeached from office in October 2012 following allegations of gross misconduct against him.

He was also accused among others of diverting projects to places he had personal interest, including his school.

The document containing the allegations reads, By virtue of your being the deputy governor of Taraba State, you had easy access to the office of the Federal Government/World Banks Millennium Development Goals projects in the state and other state agencies

And in that capacity, therefore, you used your office and influence and caused to be diverted MDGs facilities and street light projects to Yaggai Academy, a private school owned and operated by Yaggai Academy Limited, with you as the alter ego of the company and thereby denying the underprivileged members of the state access to and use of such facilities, and doing so contravenes the oath of office you sworn to.

Despite challenging the integrity of its members by Mr. Danladi, the judicial panel constituted to investigate the allegations against the former deputy governor continued with its assignment and recommended his removal from office by impeachment.

Subsequently, 20 out the 24 members of State House of Assembly found him guilty of the allegations. Three of the lawmakers were absent from the sitting while the remaining one abstained from voting.

His principal, Danbaba Suntai, soon replaced Mr. Danladi with Garba Umar. That was shortly before Mr. Suntai was involved in a fatal plane crash that almost rendered him incapacitated.

Dissatisfied with the manner he was removed, Mr. Danladi proceeded to court to challenge his removal. After about two years, Mr. Danladi was reinstated by the Supreme Court.

The appeal panel of the court whose unanimous decision was read by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, had the current Chief Justice of Nigeria, Samuel Onnoghen, Bode Rhodes-Vivour, Kumayi Akaahs, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun and John Okoro as members.

In effect, at all material times, the appellant, Alhaji Sani Abubakar Danladi, remained and still remains the deputy governor of Taraba State and he is to resume his interrupted duties of his office, the Supreme Court said on November 21, 2104.

Impeachment of elected politicians is a very serious matter and should not be conducted as a matter of course it has implications for the impeached and the electorate, who bestowed the mandate on him.

Whether it takes one day or the three months prescribed by law, the rules of due process must be strictly followed.

If the matter is left at the whims and caprices of politicians and their panels, a state or even the entire country could be reduced to a status of banana republic.

Following the judgement, Mr. Danladi was to act as governor until 2015 when Mr. Suntais second term as governor ended. He was elected into the Senate on March 28, 2015.

With his sack, the political career of the embattled former senator and deputy governor has run into another hitch.

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President Muhammadu Buhari has sent a message of greetings to Nigerian Muslims and Christians on the occasion of the Eid-el-Fitr, urging all citizens to resolve to live in peace and avoid making reckless statements, his office said.

According to presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, the message reads thus:

I am immensely grateful to God for his mercy in guiding us successfully to conclude another Ramadan fast. My greetings to all Nigerian Muslims and our brother Christians on the occasion of Eid-el-Fitr.

May the lessons of Ramadan namely; piety, self-denial, prayers and generosity to the poor and needy be with us for all time.

I, again, appeal to all Nigerians to avoid reckless statements or actions against our fellow countrymen. We should all resolve to live in peace and unity in our great country, which is the envy of many less endowed nations.

Happy Eid-el-Fitr

Mr. Buhari travelled to the United Kingdom on May 7 for treatment for an undisclosed ailment. He is spent nearly two months yet, with the presidency giving no schedule of his return.

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A magistrate, Lateef Owolabi, of the Lagos State Special Offences Court sitting in Oshodi on Friday declared the sureties presented by a suspected land grabbing kingpin, Kamorudeen Lamina (popularly known as Sir K Oluwo), as unverifiable and thus unable to stand for his bail.

The State Government, through the Special Task Force on Land Grabbers set up by Governor Akinwunmi Ambodes administration, had on June 16 arraigned Mr. Lamina and others before the court over alleged forceful dispossession of residents from their legitimate rights to land ownership.

In his ruling after their arraignment, Mr. Owolabi had granted bail to the defendants in the sum of N1 million and two sureties in like sum. One of the sureties, he said, must be a land owner in Lagos, while the other must be a civil servant not below grade level 15. The sureties must have three years tax clearance and registration with Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA).

The magistrate had also ordered the defendants to deposit N150,000 each with the court, while they are to be remanded in Badagry Prison pending when they were able to meet their bail conditions.

But Mr. Lamina and the other defendants failed in their many attempts to meet the conditions of his bail, by presenting persons that the court has found to be unverifiable to stand as surety.

Mr. Lamina and his gang were said to have been terrorising the people of Ikorodu area of the state for some time before he was arrested on June 15.

Others arraigned alongside him included Omotola Ogunsanmi, Samson Shobule (A.K.A Samson Salau), Biliaminu Orega (A.K.A Biliaminu Salau), Jimoh Aromasodu, Wasiu Orenuga, and Nurudeen Kasali.

In counts one and two, Mr. Lamina, sometime in February 2017 in Mowo Kekere area of Ikorodu Local Government, allegedly took over one plot of land forcefully which was sold to one Ebere Okafor by Ifegbuwa family contrary to Section 2 (1) of the Lagos State Properties Protection Law 2016.

The action was allegedly carried out by Mr. Lamina despite the fact that the sale of the land had been ratified with proof of payment.

In count three, Mr. Lamina was accused of forcefully taking over and remaining in possession of 200 plots of land in Mowo Kekere belonging to Planet Properties Ltd contrary to Section 2 (2) of the same law; while in count five, the defendants were said to have fraudulently sold 60 hectares of land which had been previously sold by the rightful owner contrary to Section 8 (1) (b) of the law.

The fraudulent sale, which was allegedly carried out in January 2017, was perfected by the defendants fraudulently claiming to be the descendants of Ifegbuwa family.

In count six, the defendants were accused of fraudulent selling 25 hectares of land to third parties without any lawful right to do so, an offence punishable under the law.

The magistrate adjourned the matter to July 13.

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A judge of the Lagos Division of the Lagos State High Court Friday ordered journalists out of the courtroom during the hearing of a suit filed against the Lagos State Government and five others by the Incorporated Trustees, Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria, otherwise known as Private Sector Participation operators of wastes.

Justice Taofiquat Oyekan-Abdullahi, sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square complex of the court, told the reporters to leave quietly or be thrown out of the court room.

The PSP operators had filed the suit seeking to stop the Lagos State Government from relieving them of their job of managing domestic wastes in the state.

They claimed that the state government had perfected plans to take their job and give it to a foreign company, Visionscape Sanitation Solutions Limited.

Joined with the Lagos State Government as respondents in the suit are both its Commissioner for Environment and Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice.

Others are Visionscape Group, Visionscape Sanitation Solutions Limited and ABC Sanitation Solutions Limited.

During the Friday hearing, Mrs. Oyekan-Abdullahi ordered the reporters who were from The PUNCH, The Guardian, and Vanguard newspapers out of her courtroom.

The judge sternly asked the journalists to identify themselves among the people sitting in the gallery and walk out of her courtroom to save themselves from being fished out and embarrassed by the policeman attached to the court.

The judge gave the directive following a complaint by counsel to the state government, S.A. Quadri, that journalists were always in court to cover proceedings in the case.

Mr. Quadri alleged that the journalists were being sponsored to cover the case by the PSP operators.

According to him, the PSP operators, after filing a suit against the government in court, were still using the press to fight the state.

Mr. Quadri said he appreciated the path that this honourable court wants the parties to go but expressed concern that our learned friend have employed the press.

It was while Mr. Quadri was expressing this concern that Justice Oyekan-Abdullahi turned to the people sitting in the gallery and asked, are there journalists here?

She advised the journalists to identify themselves and honourably go out before they would be fished out and embarrassed.

The journalists in the courtroom stood up walked out immediately.

In an application for interlocutory injunction filed through their lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, the PSP operators are praying the court to restrain the Lagos State Government and its agents from terminating their right to collect, dispose and manage domestic solid wastes in all areas of Lagos.

They want the court to stop the state from taking over the role of managing solid wastes in the state from them and giving it to a foreign company, Visionscape Group, which is operating in partnership with two Nigerian companies  Visionscape Sanitation Solutions Limited and ABC Solutions Limited.

But all the defendants have opposed the suit and urged the court to dismiss it.

Earlier in the proceedings, the judge had called for calm among the lawyers after realising how tempers were flaring in the course of arguments.

While standing down the matter down so that the lawyers could calm down, the judge noted that the case was sensitive as it bordered on the means of livelihood of people, who were at the risk of not being able to feed their families.

What were all trying to do is strike a balance and ensure that nobody has problem in the course of this case, Mrs. Oyekan-Abdullahi said, adding that, theres effort on the part of the state to do justice. I dont want you to think that it is only through legal means that we can solve this case.

The claimants counsel, David Fadile, and counsel for Visionscape Group, Francis Akinlotan, had locked horns in arguments as to the legality of filing a further counter-affidavit.

Mr. Akinlotan had told the judge that he had an application seeking the leave of the court to file a further counter-affidavit to enable him respond to some new issues raised by the claimants counsel in his further affidavit.

But Mr. Fadile objected, describing Mr. Akinlotans application as completely strange.

You cannot seek the leave of the court to do what does not exist in law, Mr. Fadile argued.

But Mr. Akinlotan insisted that his application was not strange, adding that there was a Court of Appeal authority to that effect.

Although, he could not readily cite the Court of Appeal case, he knew that Mrs. Oyekan-Abdullahi had allowed such an application in the case of Olukoya Ogungbeje and the Registered Trustees of the Nigerian Bar Association.

Responding, the judge said she remembered the case and directed the court registrars to look for the case file while she stood the matter down.

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As the rainy season begins, United Nations Childrens Fund, UNICEF, has warned that more than 5.6 million children are at increased risk of contracting waterborne diseases, such as cholera and diarrhoea infections, in conflict-affected areas of countries around Lake Chad.

The humanitarian agency said in a statement Saturday that the threat of disease outbreaks in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria coincides with growing regional insecurity and increased population movements particularly in Nigerias northeast.

Marie Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa, said the rains will further complicate what is already a dire humanitarian situation, as millions of children made vulnerable by conflict are now facing the potential spread of diseases.

Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene conditions can lead to cholera outbreaks and to Hepatitis E, a deadly disease for pregnant women and their babies, while standing water pools can attract malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Staving off disease is our top priority, it said.

Flooding and muddy roads are expected to severely limit humanitarian access to remote areas for several weeks, just as the needs of children and families are sharply on the rise because of heightened insecurity across the region.

According to the agency, in Nigeria, security concerns have made it difficult to preposition supplies ahead of the rains and UNICEF is concerned about the availability of clean water for large numbers of people returning from Cameroon.

While in the Diffa region of Niger, 150,000 people are living in makeshift shelters and will be exposed to heavy rains and unsanitary conditions.

Ms. Poirier said the 5.6 million children in need in the Lake Chad region are spread across the four countries in varied living conditions from host communities to camps for internally displaced and refugees.

We adapts methodologies based on community needs to deliver clean water and sanitation in the multiple and complex situations where children are living, she added.

UNICEF said they are working with its partners across the Lake Chad region, in communities at higher risk of cholera outbreaks to teach families about the effects of the disease and practical steps like hand washing to help avoid infection.

While in Niger, Cameroon and Chad, essential drugs and bars of soap have been prepositioned in warehouses close to IDP camps in case of a cholera outbreak.

According to the agency, the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene response in the Lake Chad Basin has received less than 20% of the US$80 million required to meet urgent needs in 2017.

Despite the lack of funding, this year UNICEF leading the WASH cluster in the crisis, aims to provide 2.7 million people with a basic supply of water needed to survive, UNICEF said.

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The House of Representatives has described the statement of the Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, as regards the 2017 budget as misleading and mischievous.

In a statement Saturday, the House described the ministers statement as an attempt to blackmail the National Assembly and set it on a collision course with the executive.

The lawmakers said the minister was fixated on matters of power, rather than issues that will benefit the Nigerian people.

Mr. Fashola had earlier accused the lawmakers of inserting in the 2017 budget, projects that were not priority of the government.

Mr. Fashola said it was unfair for such distortions to occur after public hearings had been held to discuss the budget.

Responding to the charge, the chairman of its Committee on Media and Public Publicity, Abdulrazak Namdas, said the decision to redistribute the projects proposed by the ministry was in order to ensure an even spread of projects across all regions, which the proposal of the executive had failed to do.

The House reacted after the senate also criticised the minister.

Mr. Namdas said added that considering that the funds that were allocated for the 2nd Niger Bridge in 2016 were returned untouched at the end of the year, the National Assembly decided to reduce N5 billion from the 2017 Budget for 2nd Niger Bridge to fund other projects from the South East, leaving N7 billion for the 2nd Niger Bridge.

The truth is that in the 2016 Budget, N12 billion was appropriated for the 2nd Niger Bridge and not a kobo was spent by the Ministry, he said.

The Ministry could not provide the Committees of the National Assembly with evidence of an agreement on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) or a contract for the 2nd Niger Bridge, Mr. Namdas said.

Mr. Namdas added that the National Assembly had to intervene to fund some other critical roads that were totally neglected in the Executive Budget proposal.

He listed some of the roads as the Abuja- Kaduna  Zaria  Kano Road.

N5 billion was provided in the 2016 Budget. It was not utilised. In 2017 Budget, the National Assembly again provided N3 billion for this very critical road that connects many states and where incidents of kidnapping are rife because of bad roads, as we believe that all parts of Nigeria deserve attention or would the Minister also claim that this road has no design? Mr. Namdas queried.

On the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the lawmaker said the leadership meetings of both the Executive and Legislature were held, where it was clarified that alternative funding exists for the road through PPP arrangement and the concessionaires had enough money to fund the project, hence the decision to move some funds to other areas of need.

Why spend government money if there is a clear existing funding framework in place and so many ongoing road projects are unfunded? Mr. Namdas asked.

He urged the minister to be mindful of the fact that the budget of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing is not his personal budget but that of the Federation.

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***SEE OFFICIAl STATEMENT BY THE NSCIA BELOW***

=============

The Sultan of Sokoto, Abubakar Saad, has announced the sighting of the new crescent of Shawwal, signifying the end of Ramadan fasting for Nigerian Muslims.

Mr. Abubakar, who made the announcement in his palace in Sokoto on Saturday, said Muslim faithful in Nigeria are to observe the Eid El Fitr Sallah celebrations Sunday.

The Sultan of Sokoto said the new moon was sighted in Adamawa, Katsina and parts of Sokoto state.

The new moon marks the end of the 29-day long Ramadan and the start of the Islamic month of Shawwal.

President Muhammadu Buhari has sent a message from London, where he is undergoing medical treatment, felicitating with Muslims on the Sallah celebrations.

The federal government already declared Monday and Tuesday as public holidays for the celebration.

The Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) had on Friday asked Muslims to look out for new moon of Shawwal.

The NSCIA also released the names and telephone numbers of members of its moon sighting committee members across Nigeria.

Members of that committee were to be contacted if the new moon of Shawwal is sighted, according to Islamic tradition.

Saudi Arabia and several other countries around the world had earlier announced the end of the Ramadan fast, saying the new moon of Shawwal had been sighted in their territories.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Ali Ahmad, has congratulated Muslims on the successful completion of the fast and urged them to sustain the virtues of Ramadan by maintaining the love, togetherness and peaceful co-existence that characterized the month.

The speaker said the discipline and self-restraint displayed during the holy month remained the only way to live a good life and make the society a better place to live.

Mr. Ahmad urged Muslims to see Eid-el-fitri celebration as a season for sober reflection, noting that they must also rededicate their lives to the teachings of the Holy Quran as demonstrated by Prophet Mohammed.

He said Nigerians, especially Muslims, should use the Sallah period to pray for Nigeria to overcome the multifaceted challenges facing the country.

Being good Muslims requires that we follow the examples of Prophet Muhammad who was always quick to forgive those that transgressed against him and lived a life of building common understanding among the people, Mr. Ahmad said.

UPDATE: BELOW IS THE OFFICIAL PRESS STATEMENT BY THE NSCIA ANNOUNCING THE END OF THE 2017 RAMADAN FAST

SHAWWAL PRESS RELEASE

The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), under the leadership of its President-General and Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alh. Muhammad Saad Abubakar, CFR, mni, wishes to inform the Nigerian Muslim Ummah that there was positive sighting of the crescent of Shawwal, 1438AH on the 29th of Ramadan, 1438AH, equivalent to 24th June, 2017.

Therefore, Saturday, 24th June, 2017 is the last day of Ramadan, 1438AH.

In line with the above, His Eminence, the President-General of NSCIA and Sultan of Sokoto, has approved Sunday, 25th June, 2017 as the 1st day of Shawwal, 1438AH.

The Council hereby enjoins the Nigerian Muslim Ummah to continue to promote peaceful coexistence and unity among all the citizens of the country.

Signed

Ustaz Christian Isa Okonkwo,

Director of Administration,

NSCIA.

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A Nigerian journalist, Ibraheema Yakubu, who was arrested while covering a procession by Shiites in Kaduna Friday, says he was beaten and slapped by the police, before being detained.

Mr. Yakubu reports for the Hausa service of the German Deutsche Welle, DW radio.

He was arrested as he covered a scene in which locals attacked the Shiites and tried to force them to disperse.

At least two people were injured in the attack, witnesses say. Authorities said 10 people were arrested.

Mr. Yakubu was released on bail to officials of the Kaduna council of Nigerian Union of Journalists around 7:30p.m. on Friday, six hours after his arrest by the police. It is not clear whether he was one of the 10 people arrested.

He is to return to the police on Wednesday.

Mr. Yakubu told PREMIUM TIMES that police physically attacked him, and destroyed his laptop and recording gadgets, and dumped him alongside other arrested people, despite identifying himself as a journalist.

The police also slapped me and made us to sit in the sun at the state headquarters. I received yet another slap from the police at the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) when I was transferred there, he narrated.

I was beaten with a club, others kicked and slapped me, destroyed my laptop and recording gadgets contained in a bag, when I approached them for cover, seeing how dangerous the clash had become.

He said he was feeling serious internal pains on my legs and face from the beating.

Its a terrible experience that looks like a movie scene, he added.

Police has not commented on the incident. A spokesperson for Kaduna command, Aliyu Usman, could not be reached Saturday.

The senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, condemned Mr. Yakubus attack, saying although he had been released, after a horrible experience, security agents must conform themselves to the constitutional guarantee for press freedom.

The senator said the arrest and detention of the journalists as unacceptable.

The image of the country and that of the government is significantly stained and tainted each time an onslaught of such occurs. Those who are allergic to free press have no legitimacy in a democratic society, Mr. Sani added.

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The authorities of the University of Ibadan on Friday announced July 2 for the re-opening of the institution for normal academic activities.

A Students Union leader, however, said the students would resist the resumption unless the issues that led to the closure are resolved.

According to the Director of Public Communications, Olatunji Oladejo, the first semester examinations for the 2016/2017 academic session will start on July 4.

The Senate of the University of Ibadan, has decided to recall its undergraduate students, who were asked to vacate the institution on May 29 to resume academic activities, he said in a statement.



He said the Senates decision taken on Friday followed the consideration of the interim report of an Ad-hoc Committee on the students crisis.



The students had May 29 staged a protest following a ban on the use of hotplates and other electrical appliances in the halls of residence in the institution.

The students also protested the non-issuance of identity cards to students before the examination.

The students are expected to arrive on the campus as from Sunday, July 2, 2017, Mr. Oladejo said.



By this decision, the 2016/2017 first semester examinations will commence on Tuesday, July 4 in the various faculties of the university.

All students will be allowed into the examination halls on presentation of their course registration forms on which their passport photographs are affixed.



Senate notes that the conduct of examination is dictated by senate and not the students union executive council as all activities of the university are guided and regulated by the University of Ibadan Act.



An implementation machinery may soon be set up to engage students on the modalities for the use of hotplates and other unauthorized electrical appliances, the spokesperson said.

In its reaction to the universitys announcement, the Students Union said many of the students demands had not been met.

It will be recalled that the Union has placed certain demands on the desks of the Administration. The demands were; That the school be reopened immediately and that students should be returned to their halls of residence; That the Students Union be reinstated immediately; That hot plates be allowed in the kitchenette because it borders on students survival on campus; and That cases of certain suspended students be reviewed, the union said in a statement signed by its president, Ojo Aderemi.

On all of these, we were open to dialogue. We made ourselves available for negotiations but none came. We were respectful and positive in all our media engagements. We were civil with the whole process.

The union leader, who has since been suspended by the university management, criticised the authoritys handling of the students demands.

It should be noted that we are not averse to resumption and we would not be pleased to rot at home, he said. However, we cannot go home for four weeks and come back without having our demands met. It is unacceptable for students to be on campus without a Union or with some illegal structures that will not protect the democratic rights of students. Students have clamoured for the issuance of their ID cards which they paid for. The ID cards do not bother on presentation at exam centres alone. It is valuable as an integral part of our lives as students within campus, in town and outside the country.

Mr. Ojo alleged that the university management planned to divide the students.

We are aware of the plans to divide us by instigating our final year students against us. We believe that they are not robots. They are intellectuals who have passed through a system. Nigeria is not in need of half-baked graduates who cannot stand on their two feet against injustice and brutal violation of human rights.

On this basis we, hereby, call for the reinstatement of our Union without which the resolve of students will not be changed. Our Union is our dignity. Survival is a right. Without these, we are not writing any exams. All legitimate mechanisms will be deployed towards actualising our rights and ensuring our demands are met.

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A Kaduna-based journalist, Ibraheem Yakubu, who was arrested while covering a protest in Kaduna has been released.

Mr. Yakubu reports for the Hausa service of the German Deutsche Welle, DW radio.

He was arrested on Friday by the police while covering the attack on protesting Shiites by some community members in Kaduna.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how two people were injured and 10 arrested in the clash at Kasuwan Barci community.

I have just been released on bail to some officials of the Kaduna council of Nigerian Union of Journalists around 7:30pm after being arrested at the clash Shiite/mob scene and detained since 1:30 p.m. at CID, the journalist told PREMIUM TIMES.

I am on my way home now to break my fast after grilling me to confirm whether I am a member of the Shiite sect.

They (Police) asked me to return to the CID, where I was detained, on Wednesday for further questioning.

Speaking on the reason for his arrest, Mr. Yakubu said he presented himself to the police after he misplaced his identity card while covering the rally only to end up being arrested and whisked to police headquarters before being transferred to CID.

The police have not spoken on the arrest. Aliyu Usman, the Kaduna police spokesperson could not be reached as his phone was switched off on Friday evening.

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Leading actress, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, has returned to Nollywood. After a three-year hiatus, the 39-year-old is lined up to debut Alter Ego alongside Wole Ojo and Jide Kosoko.

PREMIUM TIMES had an exclusive interview with the award-winning actress who has appeared in over 300 films. Omotola opens up about her career, marriage and playing a controversial character inAlter Ego.

PT: You went off the scene for three years. Was this deliberate?

Omotola: Yes it was. I knew I was going to embark on a break so I starred in a few movies, which have not been released. I shot Blood on the Lagoon with Teco Benson, and another one in London called Amina, which are yet to be released. I got to that point when I felt like nothing was challenging me anymore and I began to feel like my standard was dropping. I went through that period and I knew I needed to stay away and wait for Nollywood to catch up with some of our ideas.

PT: Do you think starring in Chineze Anyaenes 2010 movie, Ije, in the United States, sort of placed you on a pedestal?

Omotola: Well, I knew cinema movies were the next step for me. After starring in Ije I knew that the industry was not moving fast enough and I knew the only way out for me was to make that sacrifice and just dropout. So I starred in movies that I thought could hold forth for me while I concentrate on other things like building my business. Coming back was hard for me because I was aiming for that movie that would challenge. I was looking for something as strong as or better than Mortal Inheritance. I knew I had to reset my mindset, I was looking for something that would excite me the same way Mortal Inheritance did. I got a lot of scripts and none of them filled that gap. I could have taken up some of them for the sake of money. But I have gone past that point.

PT: Your fans cant stop talking about your sex scenes in Alter Ego. Was your husband comfortable with you playing the role?

Omotola: Some of the sex scenes in Alter Ego were downplayed because Im married. But I wont play the sex scenes if it wasnt necessary to be included in the film. I know by starring in this movie that my fans would either hate me or love me forever. While shooting the film, I knew I was doing something quite risky. There are several ways to shoot a sex scene tastefully. Im all for playing a sex scene convincingly and my husband knows this. I tell my husband, You know what darling, you married an actor; and secondly, he is my biggest fan. I tell him, Do you want me to be great or do you just want me to be good? He will say, I want you to be great, sparklingly great. Then Ill say, Ehen, we go love o and hes fine with it. He understands but just like every other human being and the professional that he is, he too wants to be convinced that I played a sex scene because it was necessary. I know when he watches movies sometimes he would say, Did they have to kiss if they were not going to kiss well?

PT: You got pretty raunchy with your co-stars in your latest movie, Alter Ego. Are you ready for viewers criticisms?

Omotola: When I wasnt even confident, I starred in a movie called a prostitute, which was released 22 years ago. If I didnt die then, is it now? Im ready.

PT: Playing a believable sex scene would mean going extra lengths. Do you think Nigerians will embrace such films?

Omotola: You dont even have to chop somebodys mouth if you dont want to. If the scene is not about you showing real mad crazy love then you cant now be showing mouth to mouth kissing or removing of clothes. In Nigerian movies, we have downplayed chemistry. I hope we can bring that back. Back in the day when I shot Mortal Inheritance in 1995, I had to spend time with my co-star, Fred Amata. He was already a renowned director and in those days, directors were revered. So imagine, my director who had directed me in a movie prior now acting as my lover. I was really afraid but we broke the ice by spending time with each other. So, he demystified himself and we had chemistry and you could tell. So, Im hoping all of this returns to Nigerian movies. So, as professionals, we need to ask ourselves if it is necessary for a movie to have a sex scene and when it is, it should be done well.

PT: With regards to Alter Ego, how were you able to build some on-screen chemistry with your co-star, Wole Ojo?

Omotola: I was working with Wole Ojo for the first time, so we had to spend time together and we played very rough. I understand the power of being friends with your love interest in a movie so we became like a couple. We ate together and basically just broke down the walls to make sure we were both comfortable with each other and have each others backs and interest at heart. So, it spilled into the movie without you even noticing.

PT: Alter Ego appears to be the first Nollywood movie to truly address Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Do you think it would appeal to the Nigerian Nollywood audience?

Omotola: We dont talk about PTS that much in Nigeria, so, when you see someone that is mentally traumatised, the first thing that comes to your mind is, this person is crazy!. We dont talk about depression in Nigeria. We dont talk about how it affects children, especially those that have been abused.

When you ask a lot of adults, you might find out that some people have been abused as children. And if we want to tell ourselves the truth, how many of us were actually able to tell our parents about this?

In Africa, its always a taboo to say, uncle, somebody touched me. They will practically ask you one million questions. What did you say to him? How were you sitting? What were you wearing? As if its your fault, you become the victim. Alter Ego sets out to address how sexual abuse affects victims as kids and as adults.

Sometimes, you see people as adults behave in a certain way, but because we have not diagnosed this problem  because in Africa, you are either just crazy and should go to Yaba Left; but we dont think about the fact that people actually have psychological trauma and that PTSD actually affect Africans. We think its an Oyibo disease.

PT: Why were you drawn to Alter Ego?

Omotola: Its the soul of the movie. It must come quickly in a movie and must also be underlining throughout the film. Some come naturally while some dont. The movie got me on time because I switch very quickly; so if I read through the first 10 pages of a movie script and I dont get the story, I get bored. I loved the film from the beginning but it was a diamond in the rough. I knew what was lacking in it. So, I called the director and told him we will have to tear the script apart and rebuild it and he gave me his nod. It takes a big mind to shoot Alter Ego.

PT: You once hinted of plans to build a film village in Badagry in conjunction with your husband. Will it be ready anytime soon?

Omotola: I hope it will be ready next year hopefully. I also began another project on Mobolaji Bank Anthony,Lagos, which is supposed to be annex of the film village first called, Double Doors. So, these are some of the things I was busy putting together when I went off the scene. I have always said that what we need in Nollywood is infrastructure. So, I needed to start building infrastructure.

PT: Do you think the Buhari administration has done enough for Nollywood?

Omotola: I think this government needs to wake up. The sad part is that they go around the world and they brag about Nollywood. Thats why I dont understand how to brag about something you are not helping enough. They need to understand that Nollywood in itself is a force and it should have its own ministry. We have a problem in Nigeria which is that we are afraid to allow ourselves be great. So, instead of allowing someone who knows his or her onions do the job we put stumbling blocks because of see finish. But if a white person comes along, we will support him or her. We need to start supportting ourselves. You will be amazed to know that Nollywood is the second (highest) employer of labour in Nigeria after agriculture. I think if they want to be sincere they will say Nollywood is number one. Why dont we forget our immediate petty jealousy and begin to invest in this industry?

PT: You have yet to star in a Yoruba film?

Omotola: I starred in one a long time ago titled No Rival and Oyato. I might be shooting one soon. Its not a fully Yoruba film; its a collaboration. Im currently reading the script.

PT: How have you managed to reinvent yourself year in year out?

Omotola: I think its knowing what matters and being authentic and hoping that your authentic self makes sense. I am blessed that from a very tender age I was able to find God and my Christian values have shaped me. The real me is real; I no dey form, I no dey do pass myself and what you see with me is what you get. Somewhere along the line in my career, I deviated because of the distraction of money. Our brothers that were bringing so much unnecessary money into the industry and they were the ones dictating the pace. Thank God that I was able to find my core self back.

PT: Did marrying early boost your career?

Omotola : Absolutely. Its one of the biggest blessings of my life because I look back now and I am like if I wasnt married then, will I be married now? I can understand that as a celebrity it is hard, really hard, to get people who really love you for who you are and not because of the image of you that they have in mind. So, I can understand what some of my colleagues are going through because its not easy. Having said that, marrying my friend, a very wonderful, powerful man, who is confident of himself, has helped me. It has allowed me have that stability and be able to go out and fly.

PT: Whats happening to your music career?

Omosexy : I want to get back to music so bad and I am coming out viciously and its not like I care about what people were saying when I launched my music career.

I hope we can get to that place where we can find a balance. But, I want to do music in such a way that I can be in concert like Barbra Streisand. I want to fashion my career like hers I wont be a Tiwa Savage because music is her career. So, I cant compete with her because of movies; but Ive told people in the past that I almost love music more than movies. That is why I love to express myself a lot in music. I want to build my own place and be in concert and have people come watch me. Thats the way I think Ill be able to do music.

PT: On a final note, will your son produce your songs?

Omosexy : I would love him to produce me but we fight a lot and I complained a lot about that. But, I now understand that he is very finicky. He knows exactly and I dont know if we can ever work together because we are both very headstrong. I will love to work with him because he is a very fantastic producer. Anyone who has met him says the same thing and he is the future and Im not saying this because he is my son. Visit his website and check out his music.

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The Senate on Friday justified its decision to cut the budget of some major projects of the federal government in the 2017 Appropriation Act.

The senate said projects like the Second Niger Bridge and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway were dropped from the budget because a counterpart funding arrangement for their construction had previously been entered with the private sector.

Besides, Sabi Abdullahi, the Senate spokesperson who signed the statement, said the lawmakers measured the countrys needs against available resources and concluded that it would be more prudent to channel public funds towards smaller projects that were necessary for the citizens but might not be commercially viable.

What we reduced from Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in the 2017 budget estimates was spread on Oyo-Ogbomoso Road in the South-West, Enugu-Onitsha Road in the South-East, and two other critical roads in the North-East and North-West, Mr. Abdullahi, an APC member from Niger North district, said.

This was done to achieve equity, he added.

The senator tackled the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who recently said lawmakers trimmed funding for the Second Niger Bridge and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in order to hike their own budget.

The National Assemblys budget surged by N10 billion to N125 billion in the 2017 budget, which was signed into law earlier this month.

Top administration officials sparred with lawmakers for months as they hashed out a compromise on some major areas of disagreements in the budget line items. The deadlock was believed responsible for the delay in signing the budget, which was jacked up from N7.28 to N7.44 trillion.

Although the deal included a provision that executive may request virements if the need arises, officials still continue to express concerns about the extent of changes introduced into the budget by the legislature.

Last week, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo drew strong criticism from Speaker Yakubu Dogara after he reportedly suggested that the power of the legislature to rework appropriation bills was limited.

The Speaker said the parliament has absolute constitutional powers to make changes to the budget, admonishing the acting president to seek a judicial interpretation if he sees any ambiguities.

A declaration as to which of the arms has the power and rights, in as much as it is related to the interpretation of the law, is the function of the judiciary and not of the executive, Mr. Dogara said.

But the administration dug its heels in, with Mr. Fashola reechoing the assertion that the legislature should not be making far-reaching amendments to budgets.

I am not saying that the legislature cannot contribute to the budget, but I hold the view that it cannot increase the budget because they do not collect the revenue with which to run or implement the budget, Mr. Fashola said last week.

He lamented that the lawmakers removed some signature infrastructure projects the administration planned to develop or complete before 2019 and replaced them with over 100 roads in rural areas.

It is unconstitutional for the National Assembly to legislate on state roads, he said.

Mr. Fashola said the budget for Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was slashed by more than two-thirds from N31 billion to N10 billion, even as contractors have demanded an outstanding payment of N15 billion.

Also, the budget of the 2nd Niger bridge was reduced from N15bn to N10bn and about N3bn or so was removed from the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja Road budget, he added. The Second Niger-Bridge

The Second Niger Bridge, which is under construction, was designed as a second bridge across the River Niger between Asaba in Delta State and Onitsha in

Anambra State.

The road and bridge together will be 11.9 kilometres long, and the bridge itself spanning 1.59 kilometres, according to Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, which is the federal government department in charge of the project.

The design includes a toll plaza on the Asaba end. The bridge will have six lanes, three in each direction. The path of the road right of way will have an average width of 91.44 metres, but wider near the embankments and the toll plaza, the NSIA said.

In his statement, Mr. Abdullahi said the picture Mr. Fashola painted was a deceit of the highest order.

The lawmaker said the minister knew that the projects would not be completed in 2019 even if their respective funding were untouched.

Just going by the last two years of funding where an average of N30b per annum was released, then the nation would have to wait for the next six years for completion of the work, the senator said.

Mr. Abdullahi said the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway would have been due for completion this year had Mr. Fashola not cancelled a 2013 agreement the last administration signed with some private investors. Under the Private Finance Initiative, the government agreed to pay 30 percent of the contract sum while private investors finance the larger part. But the agreement was cancelled even though construction work on the expressway was 30 percent executed.

He said lawmakers voted N40 billion for the expressway, which is the busiest in the country, in 2016, only for the administration to release N26 billion and divert the rest.

The rest N14 billion could have been allocated to other critical roads across the country, Mr. Abdullahi said.

He accused Mr. Fashola of scheming for major projects for his ministry to enable him to supervise big contract awards.

Mr. Fashola obviously wants the Federal Ministry of Works to have many construction projects it can award contracts for and that is why he would always oppose any attempt to allow the private sector financing initiatives through Public Private Partnerships, he said.

It is our view that the Federal Government cannot fund the reconstruction and maintenance of all the 34,000 kilometres of roads under its care. We are looking for private funds for some of these roads, particularly those with high potentials of attracting private investors.

The National Assembly already has an agreement that if for example, the Private Finance Initiative does not materialise to provide the needed funds for the completion of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, just as in other areas where government has issues with the budget, the instruments of virement and supplementary budget can be used.

This is as a result of our belief that it is one government and we all share the gains of the successes and pains of the failure, he said.

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Ex-militant leaders of phases 2 and 3 had resolved in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to support President Muhammadu Buharis peace initiatives for the region.

This decision followed a crucial meeting between Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh (Rtd) and the ex-militant leaders.

According to a statement Saturday by Stella Inametti, an official of the media and communication department of PAP, the meeting is aimed at peace building and conflict resolution among the groups and the Amnesty office.

The statement quoted Mr. Boroh, also the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, as saying it is imperative for the leaders to meet regularly with officials of the Amnesty Programme.

To share ideas, make observations and proffer solutions that will bring about peace, infrastructural change and human capital development of thousands of the youth captured in the PAP.

He emphasised that conflict and violence were no resolutions to crisis.

He tasked the leaders to constantly remind the ex-agitators in their camps not to breach the peace in the country.

The presidential aide noted that they should ensure that the non-violence agreement signed at Obubra that led to the declaration of Amnesty in 2009 was upheld.

Mr. Boroh urged the leaders to use all channels of dialogue in solving problems to allow governments developmental projects like the rail construction, modular refineries and the community pipeline surveillance to take off.

He said that it would be of benefits to the people and create massive job employment opportunity for the youth of the region.

The Presidential aide called on the people of the region and Nigerians to take ownership of President Buharis peace and development initiatives for the region.

Also, the Special Assistant to the President on Economic Council, Donald Wokoma, said the Amnesty office is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring peace and stability in the region in collaboration with other agencies.

Wokoma advised the ex-agitatators to take advantage of opportunities made available by government to develop themselves and stop unfounded petitioning of appointees.

The Amnesty Offices Head of Data Management, Major Bernard Ochoche (Rtd) and Head, Post Training and Engagement, Major Abdul Mati (Rtd) had in separate speeches addressed issues of late payment of stipends to ex-agitators arising from delay in budget passage.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Amnesty office has reached out to the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board(NABDA) to engage 3,200 beneficiaries, trained in oil and gas related fields. (NAN)

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Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Friday attended the graduation of ceremony of the Armed Forces Command & Staff College, Senior Course 39 in JAJI, Kaduna.

Here are some moments of the day captured by Novo Isioro, personal photographer to Mr. Osinbajo.

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The Igbo Community in Borno State on Saturday held a peace meeting with the people of the state, and both sides condemned the eviction threat issued by the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF).

The Arewa group had weeks ago issued a three months ultimatum for the Igbos to vacate the 19 northern states. Its threat followed sustained agitation for the secession of the Igbo states of the Southeast Nigeria by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB.

The eviction threat was widely condemned by different groups and state governments across Nigeria.

A Maiduguri-based nongovernmental organisation, Borno State Progressive Associations, initiated a meeting between the host state and the Igbo Community.

Speaking at the meeting that was attended by government officials, traditional chiefs and clerics, the chairman of BOSPA, Ashelik Dadai, said his group initiated the meeting because they believe in one and indivisible Nigeria.

According to him, the IPOB agitation was needleless and should be condemned by the Igbos and other Nigerians.

He also said his group had also dissociated itself from the threat of the AYCF whom he said did not act on behalf of the northerners.

He said BOSPA stood by the earlier statement of the Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima, who led in the condemnation of the eviction threat of AYCF, a group he said was unknown.

He appealed to the two groups to draw lessons from the bitter experiences of the civil war, which he said had left deep scar on the face of Nigeria.

The Igbos are our brothers and sisters with whom we have been living together peacefully and in harmony, he said.

Borno is the home for all Nigerians and we wish to assure the Igbos that they are safe in Borno and they have nothing to fear.

The representative of the Shehu of Borno, Zannah Boguma, went into memory lane to emphasise how the Igbos had been part of the Borno history dating back to pre-colonial days.

He said the Shehu of Borno wanted the Igbos to live freely in the state without any fear.

Even after the unfortunate incident of the civil wars of the 60s, we in Borno welcomed the returning Igbos who came back and met their assets and other belongings very intact.

The governor, who was represented by the states Commissioner for Justice, Kaka Garbai, said the governor had made his position clear on behalf of the Northern Governors Forum which he said remains the same.

He implored the Igbos to live freely in any part of Borno and Nigeria.

He commended the BOSPA officials for initiating the meeting even before the elders did.

The president-general of Igbo Welfare Association in Borno State, Mikelaw Nwaogwu, thanked BOSPA, the Borno State government and the Shehu of Borno, for their kind words of assurances.

He said despite IPOBs agitation, the Igbo in Borno state and other parts of the northern region believed in the spirit of one Nigeria. He added that the country should develop the spirit of freedom of speech and agitation.

The Igbo elders have not spoken for secession. They believe in one Nigeria where there is equity and fair play in the running of the country. All they want is equality and equal opportunity for all and not for who knows who. Even in Borno state, we have never for once agitated for Biafra or cessation, he said.

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A former Nigerian ambassador to Russia, Assam Assam, has told the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, not to betray or undermine the second term ambition of the current governor of the state, Udom Emmanuel.

Mr. Assam said in an open letter to Mr. Akpabio said that there was no option to Governor Emmanuel in 2019 election in the state.

Mr. Akpabio, who is the Senate Minority Leader, is arguably the most influential politician in Akwa Ibom today. He enjoys a great following in the state and is believed to hold the key to the 2019 governorship race in the state.

There have been reports of a crack in the relationship between Mr. Akpabio and his protege, Governor Emmanuel. Both leaders have, however, repeatedly denounced such reports as false.

Mr. Emmanuel was a director in Zenith Bank and was relatively unknown in Akwa Ibom politics before he was handpicked by Mr. Akpabio in 2014 and foisted on the people as a governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state.

Mr. Emmanuel eventually won the general election to become the fourth civilian governor of the state, but his emergence had created a distrust and division within the party because how Mr. Akpabio allegedly gave other aspirants, especially his political associates, false hope that he was backing them in the race.

Mr. Assam was among the 22 or so aspirants who contested against Mr. Emmanuel in the primary.

In the open letter, which trended on Facebook, Mr. Assam recalled the controversy and confusion that had trailed the primary.

The only mistake you made was in not sitting all of us down to discuss your successor as the Governor of the State, Mr. Assam told Mr. Akpabio.

Mr. Akpabio, alongside other PDP leaders in the state, a few days ago passed a vote of confidence on Mr. Emmanuel and also endorsed the governors second term ambition. But many have continued to doubt the genuineness of the senators support for the governor.

Mr. Assam said in the open letter that he was initially among those who placed a question mark on Mr. Akpabios support for Governor Emmanuel.

I even personally went to the Governor and told him that he would be a fool to take your support for granted and that from both the grapevine and those friendly with your political circle, the message was that you were not disposed to support him as there were too many grey areas in your relationship, Mr. Assam wrote in the letter.

I can assure you, however, that until the 2019 elections are over, you still must expect the nuisance of doubts.

Some of those who called to brief me, particularly from your Senatorial District were adamant in their claim that it would be foolhardy to rely on your assurance. They recalled the 2011 Senatorial elections where, according to reports, you invited Chief Bassey Inuaeyen, Iquo Inyang Minimah, Prof. Ini Udoka and Hon Ekperikpe Ekpo to contest the Senatorial nomination of the PDP, against each other and at the end abandoned them all to support Senator Aloysius Akpanetok.

They also cite the notorious fact that you propped Obong Umana Okon Umana and introduced him to every political level player in Nigeria as your successor only on the 2nd of January 2012 to take him and your then Deputy, Obong Nsima U. Ekere before your political father, the great Chief Michael Afangide and informed your political family that Umana and Nsima would alternate as your candidate for Governor until one of them emerges and at the end you dumped the two of them.

Mr. Assam, who is from the same federal constituency with Governor Emmanuel, subtly warned Senator Akpabio against a repeat of history, making reference to a 1983 political event in the then Cross River State where Clement Isong couldnt win re-election as the then governor of the state having lost in the primary of the now-defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN.

The error cannot be repeated by you, another leader of Annang extraction, working to deny another Ibibio son, a second term nomination, he told the senator. It will tear this state apart irredeemably, and could smear you forever. As a successful politician, I am sure the lesson of that historical event is not lost on you.

Mr. Assam, however, said that Mr. Akpabio assured him of his support for Governor Emmanuels re-election when he (Assam) met recently with the senator in his office at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja.

The spokesperson to Senator Akpabio, Anietie Ekong, told PREMIUM TIMES, Friday, that Mr. Assam was merely being mischievous with the letter.

Does Assam Assam want to claim that he loves Governor Udom Emmanuel more than Senator Akpabio does? Mr. Ekong asked, adding that the senators support for the governor remains intact.

When you see things like these, know that the man may be broke and is looking for money in the guise of supporting Governor Udom Emmanuel.

The publicity secretary of the PDP in the state, Ini Ememobong, said Mr. Akpabios support for Governor Emmanuel has never been in doubt.

If Senator Akpabio was trusted yesterday and he is trusted today, he sure can and must be trusted to support Governor Emmanuel tomorrow, Mr. Ememobong said.

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Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has congratulated Muslims in Delta State, Nigeria and all over the world on the occasion of the 2017 Eid-el-Fitr celebrations.

Governor Okowa in a statement on Saturday in Asaba by his Chief Press Secretary, Charles Aniagwu, enjoined all Muslim faithful in Delta State and Nigerians in general to extend the spiritual benefits of Ramadan, which are love, peace and justice to their daily living and through this contribute to the development of the nation.

I felicitate with all Nigerians, especially our Muslim brothers and sisters on the auspicious occasion of this years Eid-el-Fitri celebrations. I congratulate all of our countrymen and women who have successfully undertaken the purifying Ramadan fast.

As we celebrate Eid-el-Fitri, it is my hope and prayer that Ramadans spiritual lessons and the Holy Prophets teachings of piety, love, justice, fairness, equity, peaceful co-existence with others, tolerance, honesty and dedication to duty will remain with us all for the benefit and greater glory of our dear nation.

On behalf of my family, the government and people of Delta State, I extend our warmest wishes to Muslims celebrating Eid-el-Fitr in Delta State, Nigeria and around the world.

As Muslims celebrate Eid across Nigeria, it is important to remind Nigerians of the importance of respecting the faiths and beliefs of all. He enjoined all Muslim faithful and Nigerians in general to use the occasion of the celebration for sober reflection and pray for peace, unity and progress of the nation

May the lessons and blessings of the Holy Month also permeate into us all, and positively influence our attitudes towards our fellow countrymen and women, irrespective of religion or place of origin; and promote greater commitment to the peace, unity and stability of the nation. It is my hope that today brings joy to all of your homes, both here in Delta State, Nigeria and around the world, he said.

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The first lady of Ebonyi State, Racheal Umahi, has called for the arrest of a policewoman who allegedly poured hot water on her 15-year-old house-help for wrongfully applying condiments in a pot of soup.

Mr. Umahi made the call after officials from her office and the State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development rescued the girl from the policewoman at her home in Mile 50, Abakaliki.

Donatus Owo, the chief press secretary to Mrs. Umahi, said in a statement in Abakaliki on Saturday that she was touched by the fact that girls body looked irritable because she was not given proper medical care.

The matter has been reported to the police while the victim was taken to police clinic for medical treatment, she said.

The victim, Chinyere Igwe, who hails from Igbere in Bende Local Government Area of Abia, said she had lived with the policewoman for two years within which she suffered various forms of maltreatment.

Igwe said was preparing soup on that fateful day when her employer got annoyed that she did not prepare the soup according to her instruction.

Only my mother is alive and I have been living with my madam for over two years now. This is as a result of my fathers death coupled with my mothers financial handicap.

I failed to follow her instruction and in anger she came out and carried the pot of soup together with the egusi (melon) and threw at me and it landed on my back.

She also carried iron and hit me on my body and ordered me to bend down and raise my leg up, but I refused because my back was paining me seriously.

She locked me up in a room while she went to boil water to pour on me.

I pleaded with her to have mercy on me but she went inside and brought teargas, then I started crying when she rushed to get hot water and poured on me, Igwe said.

The victim said that Kingley Okochi, the husband of the suspect, also hit her after the wife complained to him about the incident.

Her husband also beat me up, but he was not aware that I had such injury because it was in the night. He later apologised and asked his wife to use honey to treat my back, Igwe said.

The suspect, Joy Okochi, however, claimed she did not pour hot water on the girl intentionally.

She spoke when the team from Government House, Abakaliki, went to her apartment.

The Director of Child Welfare Development in the State Ministry of Women Affairs, Godwin Igwe, and the State Chairman of International Federated of Women Lawyers, Olivia Okpaleke, said the culprit must face justice.

Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer in Ebonyi, Jude Madu, said he had not received the report. (NAN)

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Hammonton has branded itself the blueberry capital of the world  a bold claim from a town that you can drive through in a matter of minutes.

But there is a lot of truth to the slogan. As far as blueberry production goes, New Jersey is among the Top five states, and 80 percent of those blueberries come from Atlantic County farms that are in or around Hammonton. South Jersey also has the perfect storm of fine, sandy, acidic soil and a humid climate that makes for big, juicy berries. Given the logistics of how many blueberries are produced in Hammonton, the relatively small size of the town is even more impressive.

Needless to say, blueberries are big in Hammonton, which is why every year the town hosts its Red, White and Blueberry Festival, taking place this year 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 25.

The history

John Runfolo, executive director of the Greater Hammonton Chamber of Commerce, has been with the festival since its beginning, 31 years ago. He even named the festival, which actually played a big role in marketing Hammonton as the king of blueberries.

We were always big on blueberries, but we used to be called Peach City, the Hub of South Jersey, the Heart of South Jersey and other names like that, Runfolo says. But I thought, why not focus on the Blueberry Capital of the World and, since its a festival that is supposed to celebrate the Fourth of July, why not name it the Red, White and Blueberry Festival?

Once the Blueberry Festival took off in popularity, so did the slogan.

A lot of what other states do is slosh them and put them in other things. We can lay claim to the fresh-picked, whole blueberries, Runfolo says of the berries Hammonton produces. Then again, it is a nickname and some people may want us to prove it. Theres no way to prove it, but you can decide for yourself.

Proving it

Attending the Blueberry Festival is perhaps one of the best ways Hammonton proves its title. Held on the grounds of Hammonton High School, the festival is always thronging with people looking to get their hands on a different blueberry-based delicacy.

The basics  like blueberry lemonade, blueberry pie and, of course, just plain ol blueberries  will be on hand. However, according to Runfolo, vendors are stepping up with even more creative desserts for the festival. Runfolo promises blueberry cobbler and cinnamon rolls, as well as blueberry donuts with ice cream and the ever-popular blueberry cannoli, whipped up fresh by Manninos Cannoli Express food truck. If its blueberry, its probably at the Blueberry Festival.

Whats old

We tweak everything, but the formula is there. We try not to mess it up, says Runfolo.

True to his word, year after year Runfolo and the 11-person planning committee he works with re-creates a festival nearly indistinguishable from the last years, subscribing to the mantra, if its not broke, dont fix it.

This winning formula packs food and craft vendors, a classic car show, kiddie rides, arts and crafts and live music provided by the popular local cover band Stealing Savanah who performed at last years festival, onto the green at the high school. This landscape is the home of other traditions, like the annual pie-eating contest and the Hammonton Kiwanis Club blueberry pancake breakfast, taking place this year from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Whats new

The tweak that Runfolo speaks of comes this year in the form of a karaoke contest. He plans to bring up contestants to sing the same song  Fats Dominos Blueberry Hill  with the possibility of prizes thrown in the mix.

Its very low key, low intensity. Maybe you can win some blueberries. Its just for fun and to see what we can get out of it. Maybe Stealing Savanah can sing along with them, Runfolo muses.

Keeping tradition alive

Hammonton is a town steeped in tradition and pride, and the Red, White and Blueberry Festival is undoubtedly a part of that. The event has been a place for locals to shop, eat and catch up, and a draw for others outside of Hammonton to see what the town is all about, for over 30 years.

Our mantra as the Chamber of Commerce is to keep the economy vibrant, Runfolo says. The existing business is vibrant, but we want to encourage new business and investment in our town. We try to include quality of life within that. With the festival we can show how great our downtown is  were proud of our housing and businesses and schools  all the entities in our town.
In some parts of South Jersey, shopping with food stamps is a little like entering a complex scavenger hunt. Looking for a staple like bread? Theres one loaf on a bottom shelf, next to Elmers glue and other school supplies. Want fresh fruit? Hope you like high-priced bananas. Bacon and bologna often serve as the only fresh available meat.

Unless you visit a supermarket or neighborhood grocery store, your choices of nutritious food can be slim and expensive  even in places that are an approved Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, location.

WHAT IS SNAP? The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, is a federal assistance program to help low-income and poverty-stricken consumers buy food. The program is fully funded by the government and supports more than 800,000 adults and children in New Jersey. About 39 percent of state SNAP clients are in working families. In New Jersey, 6,142 vendors accept EBT/SNAP benefits. To participate in SNAP, vendors are required to provide varieties of food in four staple food groups and offer perishable foods. Specialty stores such as fish markets, bakeries and farmer's market stands qualify if half their sales are made from any staple foods.

Food assistance and policymakers say SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, has kept millions of U.S. children and adults from going hungry and feeling food insecure. While not perfect, it is one of the most successful federal programs the country has, experts say. But under President Donald J. Trumps 2018 proposed budget, it could be cut.

This spring, The Press Growing Up Hungry team visited 50 SNAP stores in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and southern Ocean counties. These locations  which each must meet strict criteria to be certified as SNAP-eligible vendors  were primarily convenience stores, specialty markets and small grocery stores. Supermarkets were omitted from the Press inspection as they already meet federal regulations, and offer competitive price and variety.

While most South Jersey SNAP locations met the most basic requirements, The Press found some fell short of what it means to provide food that is affordable and nutritious.

Few locations had fresh fruit and produce; that was mainly offered in cans or frozen. At some locations where fresh fruit or bread was sold, bananas were sold individually at the price of a supermarket bundle, and a single loaf of sandwich bread sat hidden on a cart near the register.

The most popular meat items were canned meat, bologna, hot dogs, bacon and beef jerky, all known for containing unhealthy levels of sodium.

On a refrigerator door at a chain drugstore in Lower Township, a sign advertising EBT  the electronic benefits transfer card used instead of food stamps  was followed by the phrase, Putting healthy food within reach. Four packs of bacon, Kraft American singles and one pound of butter for $4.99 sat in the glass case.

An Atlantic City convenience store clerk did not know what SNAP, EBT, or food stamps were, even though the store accepts them.

How colleges deal with food insecurity on campus Rowan University sophomore Nicole Cummings saved money this year by forgoing a meal plan.

For some of these locations, a super store or supermarket was just down the road or a short drive away. But for South Jersey SNAP participants living in food deserts, or areas with limited grocery stories, these SNAP vendors may serve as the only locations for food shopping.

Its key in that aspect to make sure fresh fruits are in the small vendor areas, said Adele LeTourette, director of the New Jersey Anti-Hunger Coalition. Its always something for us and officials to be looking at.

First line of defense

More than 800,000 New Jersey residents depend on a store or farmers market accepting EBT cards.

In New Jersey, SNAP participation extends to adults and children of all backgrounds, with more than 39 percent of SNAP clients in working families, according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report in January.

The clients common factors are poverty and low incomes, making it difficult for someone to choose between paying rent or spending money to put nutritious food in their childs belly.

Its often the first line of defense against hunger, because the program is so inclusive, LeTourette said. I think one reason SNAP was such a great, effective program to create was because the need was so severe, and it still is.

Trumps budget proposes to cut SNAP by more than $193 billion over the next 10 years  more than 25 percent  through a massive cost shift to states, cutting eligibility for millions of households and reducing benefits for hundreds of thousands more, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute.

How this Atlantic City family survives amid poverty ATLANTIC CITY  Nicole Fischers hands moved methodically, chopping lettuce and tomatoes as 

To participate in SNAP, food retailers and vendors must provide varieties in staple food groups of breads and cereals, fruits and vegetables, meats, fish and poultry and dairy products.

SNAP benefits can be used to purchase soft drinks, candy, cookies, snacks and ice cream, but the store must also provide sufficient staple food items in quality and quality, or be a specialty store that focuses on one staple food group, like a farmers market, seafood market or bakery.

Linda Doherty, president and CEO of the NJ Food Council, said food vendors are encouraged to accept SNAP benefits to serve the needs of the community, especially in low-income and poverty-stricken areas. Even if SNAP participation is low, she said, retailers participate because its the right thing to do.

The council is an alliance of food retailers and partners in New Jersey, including Wawa, ShopRite, Stop&Shop, Acme, Whole Foods, Wegmans and others that participate in SNAP. Doherty said being bigger means having more resources such as fresh produce, organic foods and varieties to offer customers.

Smaller vendors face greater challengers to meet SNAP requirements because of their size and limited shelf space, Doherty said. Better inventory and recording of sold items may be needed for retailers to more effectively offer SNAP items in high demand.

Room for improvement

Some smaller shop owners are succeeding in meeting the needs of low-income shoppers.

A tiny store attached to a laundromat in center city Vineland has a large open refrigerated unit and produce bin that includes specialty Hispanic dairy products, lettuce, peppers, avocados, limes and mangos. The store carries the products because people buy them.

We have to have avocados, said the clerk, who declined to give her name. The store is a member of the N.J. Healthy Corner Store Network, a statewide program focused on increasing the availability of healthy, affordable food in local stores and bodegas in communities underserved by supermarkets.

Cumberland County has some of the highest poverty and childhood food insecurity rates in the state. Projects such as the corner store network and Live Healthy Vineland, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, identified ways to help corner convenience and food stores carry and sell more fresh produce.

A large number of their customers use EBT cards to buy goods, county experts said.

In Atlantic City, Save-A-Lot, which opened in 2012 on Atlantic Avenue, is a hard discount, limited assortment grocery store. It offers more fresh fruit, vegetables and meat than any other location in the resort and is the closest the city has to a supermarket.

While traditional grocers may carry 1,000 items, including different sizes, brands and receipts, a limited outlet will stick to the most popular flavors and sizes, greatly reducing the footprint needed. This also allows for more items in smaller footprint, reducing overhead and labor cost, thus passing the savings along to the customer, said Chon C. Tomlin, Save-A-Lot spokeswoman.

Current savings are 40 percent compared with traditional outlets, Tomlin said.

Tomlin, who was in Atlantic City when the corporate store was being established, said the abundance of fresh fruit, vegetables and meats are typical of the Save-A-Lot format.

N.J. food stamp recipients can shop online this summer Grocery shopping may become a little easier this summer for New Jersey residents using food stamps.

Similarly, legislators have fought to streamline the way farmers markets can get approved to participate in SNAP and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. The state Assembly passed a bill Thursday that would provide $1 million for small food retailers operating in low- and moderate-income urban and rural communities to help increase access to healthier foods.

Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center for Budget Policy and Priorities, said there is continuous conversation around how to make SNAP healthier without reducing program effectiveness, but states have flexibility with the program and improvements can be made at the state level before changes are made at a federal level.

SNAP is one of the oldest and most comprehensive programs we have, she said. Its not broken. Its doing what it is meant to do and it doesnt need any radical reform, but SNAP is a program that can always be improved, and we have ad hoc committees working very hard in overseeing it.
ATLANTIC CITY  Two city men have been charged in a June 14 shooting and fast-food restaurant robbery on Atlantic Avenue.

Jeshua Sammons, 20, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a weapon and robbery, police said.

Bilal Freeman, 22, was charged with robbery, police said.

Police found Raheem Miller, 24, of Atlantic City, had a nonlife-threatening wound after witnesses reported they saw one male being shot in the 1500 block of Atlantic Avenue and taken by private vehicle to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, City Campus, authorities said.

The shooter fled before officers arrived, police said.

Detectives found Sammons had assaulted and robbed a male inside a Taco Bell/Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant before the shooting, police said.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call investigators at the police Violent Crimes Unit, 609-347-5788. Information may be texted to tip411 (847411). Begin the text with ACPD. All texts are anonymous.

 Nicholas Huba
ATLANTIC CITY  Over the last few months, the city has seen its optimism grow as a wave of good news has hit the city.

Talk of the citys struggling finances and casino closings has been replaced by discussions over the opening of Stockton Universitys Gateway Project and Hard Rocks new casino at the former site of the closed Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in 2018.

The two projects have been viewed, by some, as a sign that the citys next boom era is on the horizon. While the projects are a sign the city is moving in the right direction, some experts think expectations should be dialed back.

Before these projects come online, the city must navigate a year of anticipation and two major political races that could impact the states role in the city. In November, voters will head to the polls to elect a new governor and a new mayor. Both gubernatorial candidates, Democrat Phil Murphy, former ambassador to Germany, and Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno have expressed concerns about the states involvement in the city and said they would look to end it. The city was put under state oversight following years of financial mismanagement.

I think that most people in Atlantic City and around the state are biding their time for the next six months, said Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University, referring to the end of Gov. Chris Christies tenure.

In summer 2018, Hard Rock is expected to open its new property. Hard Rock International and investors Joe Jingoli and Jack Morris plan to spend $500 million renovating and rebranding the property. The Hard Rock project is expected to generate more than 1,000 construction jobs and 3,000 permanent jobs, according to the company.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to open Memorial Day weekend ATLANTIC CITY  Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City is expected to open by Memorial D

I think finally Atlantic City has hit bottom and is starting to go back up, said Michael Busler, professor of finance at Stockton University. We had a lot of private investment come into the city, but to lure more investment, the citys financial issues have to be resolved.

Then a couple of months after Hard Rock opens, Stockton plans to open its 675,000-square-foot, $220 million Gateway Project  the new headquarters for South Jersey Gas and a campus for the university that includes an academic building, housing for more than 500 students and a parking garage.

Its Atlantic City after all, so there is cautious optimism, Harrison said, referring to the countless projects that were proposed but never built in the resort. Peoples hopes have been raised so many times over the years only to see it not happen. People are guarded.

Matthew Hale, associate professor of political science and public affairs at Seton Hall University, said residents should temper their expectations.

Hard Rock project could top $500 million, much more than expected ATLANTIC CITY  The cost of turning the former Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort into Hard Rock 

There is no reason for Atlantic City to be cocky, Hale said.

The citys reliance on a single industry, casino gaming, has led to it seeing many boom-and-bust cycles over the years, Hale said.

When times are great in Atlantic City, they are great; when they are bad they are horrible, he said.

Despite the pending projects and their impact not being felt this year, Joe Kelly, president of the Greater Atlantic City Chamber, said he is still optimistic about the summer.

We expect growth, and we should be growing. Im bullish about 2018, Kelly said during Stockton Universitys ninth annual Jersey Shorecast tourism panel in May. You are going to add a thousand college students to the marketplace. I think in the theme of diversifying, the Gateway is a game-changer.
SEA ISLE CITY  The county-owned Townsends Inlet bridge connecting Sea Isle City and Avalon reopened Friday afternoon after being closed for more than two months, city officials said.

Mayor Leonard Desiderio said Friday that "it's a great day in Sea Isle."

"We are very, very happy that the bridge opened today at 4 o' clock," Desiderio said, noting that cars were already making their way over the bridge. "Now we will be able to use ocean drive and our neighbors will be able to visit us in Sea Isle City."

Desiderio thanked the construction company and county for getting the bridge open.

"Safety is our No. 1 concern. We hope it remains open for the foreseeable future," he said.

The bridge closed in April after divers found a crack in a support piling while inspecting the bridge in preparation for underwater substructure repairs planned for 2017 and 2018.

Cape May County Engineer Dale Foster said earlier this month he hoped to have the bridge reopened prior to the July 4 weekend.

The 77-year-old toll bridge, owned by the Cape May County Bridge Commission, was initially expected to open by Memorial Day weekend. Complications due to stones placed in 1962 around the piers at the Avalon end of the bridge made installing the new pipe piles very difficult and the removal of the stones was very time-consuming, Foster said.

South State Inc. of Bridgeton was hired by the county to do the emergency repairs, which included installing a new cluster of support piling on the Avalon side of the bridge. The total cost of the emergency repairs was not available.
MADRID, June 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Ibrutinib: A promising new treatment for chronic graft versus host disease.

Chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD) is a serious and life-threatening complication observed in most patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantations. Both B and T cells are known to be involved in the pathophysiology of cGVHD. Ibrutinib, a Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is known to inhibit B cells; recent studies have shown that ibrutinib also inhibits specific subsets of T cells by blocking interleukin-2-inducible T-cell kinase. In mouse models, ibrutinib delayed the progression and reduced the severity of cGVHD. This multicenter, open-label trial was conducted to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ibrutinib in 42 patients with active cGVHD whose disease had failed between 1 and 3 prior treatments; patients were given daily ibrutinib (420 mg) until cGVHD progression or dose limiting toxicity. At a median follow-up of 13.9 months, the AE profile shows largely low-grade events consistent with those reported for B cell malignancies treated with ibrutinib and those observed in cGVHD patients on corticosteroids. Serious AEs occurred in 22 patients (52%). The overall cGVHD response rate was 67% with 71% of responders showing a sustained response for  20 weeks. Patients showed similar rates of response in all organ domains, and most patients with multi-organ disease responded in multiple organs. Corticosteroid doses were also reduced in most responders, and 5 responders discontinued corticosteroids completely. The clinical benefit make ibrutinib a promising treatment option for patients with cGVHD whose disease failed to respond to frontline therapy.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/524821/EHA_Logo.jpg )



Presenter:Dr Iskra Pusic

Affiliation: Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA

Topic: IBRUTINIB FOR CHRONIC GRAFT-VERSUS-HOST DISEASE AFTER FAILURE OF FRONTLINE CORTICOSTEROIDS: RESULTS OF A MULTICENTER OPEN-LABEL PHASE 2 STUDY

Abstract S441 will be presented by Iskra Pusic on Saturday, June 24, 16:00 - 17:15 in Room N103.

About the EHA Annual Congress

Hematology is a specialty that covers everything to do with blood: its origin in the bone marrow, diseases of blood and their treatments. The latest data on research and developments will be presented. The topics range from stem cell physiology and development, to leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma - diagnosis and treatment; red blood cells -, white blood cells- and platelet disorders; thrombosis and bleeding disorders.

SOURCE European Hematology Association
SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- California Association of Health Underwriters President Rick Coburn applauded actions taken today by Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) that recognize the serious deficiencies of SB 562. The Speaker has officially postponed any further legislative action on this bill until January 2018. He also indicated there would likely be a single payer ballot initiative on the California November 2018.

SB 562 proposes a $400 billion per year government-run single payer system for California. SB 562 does not contain any credible funding mechanism other than immense new taxes on all Californians. The bill also fails to address or manage the real problems healthcare systems face today such as the constant upward cost spiral of medical care, escalating prescription drug prices and ensuring consumers have access to quality medical providers throughout California.

Coburn stated, "CAHU remains committed to helping repair problems encountered by everyday Californians who are trying to obtain and pay for health care. CAHU stands ready and willing to help advance viable market stabilization strategies that will ensure our state continues to lead the nation in successfully administering an affordable, quality health care system for all Californians."

Stephanie Berger, CAHU President-Elect, stated, "Despite what is happening in Washington, DC. California is uniquely positioned to lead the nation by enacting meaningful legislation that will actually drive down the cost of care and expand coverage, under a public/private partnership model. That is what Californians really want from their elected officials, not a government-run, government-dispensed health care system.

CAHU looks forward to working with state lawmakers on alternate solutions that provide a quality, comprehensive and affordable health care for all Californians.

The California Association of Health Underwriters is the largest associations of professional licensed health insurance agents and other health insurance industry professionals. Our members help millions of individual Californians and businesses evaluate, select, purchase and use their health care coverage plans, resulting in greater health and financial security. Our agents and brokers also act as advocates for policyholders and their families when coverage disputes arise. Agents and brokers perform many functions for employers with respect to managing their employee benefits program. All of these services are provided at no cost to the consumer.

SOURCE California Association of Health Underwriters

Related Links

http://www.cahu.org


SANTA ANA, Calif., June 23, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Friday, June 23, a California state court rejected an activist organization's challenge to an ancient religious ceremony practiced by a small Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Irvine, California. The challenge to the synagogue, represented by First Liberty Institute, could have threatened the religious practices of every house of worship across the state. The court's decision is the second court since May to reject a lawsuit brought against the synagogue by activists who sought to end a millennia-old Orthodox Jewish ceremony. Read the court's order here.

"We are thrilled that, once again, another court has seen the importance of protecting our ability to practice a cherished tradition of our faith," Rabbi Alter Tenenbaum, the rabbi of the Chabad of Irvine, says. "As we live in peace and tolerance with one another, we hope these legal victories strengthen and encourage the religious liberty of everyone."

The synagogue was represented at trial by Leslie Keith Kaufman of Kaufman & Kaufman and Stephanie Taub of the national religious freedom law firm First Liberty Institute.

"Targeted attacks on a religious sect should be rejected by every American," Stephanie Taub, counsel to First Liberty says. "Protecting a millennia-old religious tradition is a victory, not just for the Chabad of Irvine, but for all Californians."

Had the lawsuit been successful, the synagogue's religious ceremony would have been declared a "business practice," putting at risk the religious practices of every mosque, church, temple, synagogue, or house of worship. The lawsuit attempted to transform these non-profit religious ceremonies into government-regulated business practices whenever a place of worship accepts voluntary donations, tithes, or offerings. The lawsuit is the second in just over a month to come to a conclusion in favor of Chabad of Irvine. On May 12, 2017, a federal district court judge dismissed a similar lawsuit, filed by another activist organization. After one day of trial, California state judge Martha K. Gooding of the Superior Court of California, Orange County, ruled in favor of the Chabad of Irvine.

As the court concluded, "[M]any religious services or ceremonies result in donations being solicited and made . . . But that does not convert those religious activities, rituals and observances into business practices. They remain religious activities, rituals and observances."

Read more about both cases at FirstLiberty.org/Chabad

About First Liberty Institute

First Liberty Institute is the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.

SOURCE First Liberty Institute
The program works to improve treatment for, and prevention of, cardiovascular and stroke events by helping hospitals and providers consistently adhere to the latest scientific treatment guidelines. In the last 15 years, Get With The Guidelines has transformed patient care for heart and stroke patients in the U.S., helping hospitals and providers learn the correct treatment and translate guidelines into practice. This program has saved lives and resulted in more than 400 scientific publications that advance heart and brain health around the world.

The adapted Get With The Guidelines program, designed through a collaboration of the ASA and the CSA, endorsed by the China National Health and Family Planning Commission, and supported by Medtronic, is a set of "best practices" that aim to continuously improve treatment, enhance the quality of care, and prevent future stroke events in China.

While several evidence-based, highly effective, guideline-recommended therapies are known, adherence to guidelines for stroke care remains incomplete and highly variable from region to region, and country to country.

This effort aims to solve for that in China. Specifically, this program addresses the need for:

1. Enhanced education for EMS and pre-hospital caregivers, especially since analysis shows only 13 percent of Chinese stroke patients arrive at the hospital by EMS, versus 50 percent in the U.S.

2. A reduction in "door-to-needle" times for patients to receive the clot-busting drug tPA. To-date, analysis for rates of compliance with evidenced based therapies notes significant gaps in timeliness to tPA treatment.

3. Increased awareness and application of mechanical endovascular reperfusion therapies in appropriate patients.

4. Increased awareness and application of secondary prevention in appropriate stroke patients to fill significant gaps in venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis, lipid lowering therapy, anticoagulation for atrial fibrillation and rehabilitation assessment in Chinese patients.

With a population of 1.4 billion, stroke is the leading killer and claims the lives of 1.6 million Chinese people annually. Today, China faces cardiovascular and stroke risk factors similar to those in Western nations. Among risk factors, hypertension remains the most important for all types of strokes.[1] Additionally, the concept of a "stroke belt" in China has emerged which identifies specific geographic regions where the mortality associated with stroke is 50 percent higher than that of other regions in the country. Currently, the areas with higher mortality are the northeast and the western/southwestern.[2]

In 2007, the Ministry of Health -- now National Health and Family Planning Commission -- sponsored the Chinese National Stroke Registry and a five-year plan to increase comprehensive stroke centers in China. Establishing the registry also led to creating the Stroke Screening, Prevention and Treatment Project in 2009, and more recently the National Center of Stroke Care Quality Control in 2011.

"The American Stroke Association is deeply committed to having a transformative impact on healthcare systems and patients worldwide by working alongside countries, governments and international cardiovascular and cerebrovascular societies to facilitate the application of the tools and knowledge of our quality programs," said Ying Xian, M.D., Ph.D, American Stroke Association spokesperson and Assistant Professor of Neurology and Medicine at the Duke University Medical Center and Duke Clinical Research Institute. "The U.S. marketplace has given us a road map to develop scalable and sustainable models for international quality improvement initiatives. Now, with our consult, the Chinese Stroke Association aims to adopt those models to achieve better outcomes for stroke patients in China."

"It is with great excitement that we announce the launch of this collaborative stroke quality improvement project between the CSA and ASA to further enhance cooperation on clinical research, education, and the impact of acute stroke science," said Jizong Zhao, President, CSA. "I congratulate both organizations' dedication to improving stroke outcomes in China."

Reaching healthcare providers with the Get With The Guidelines program at Chinese secondary and tertiary hospitals -- and at all stages of the chain of survival, from pre-hospital advanced medical care (also known as EMS or emergency medical services) to neurologists to even hospital administrators -- is the priority.

"Medtronic is a leading stroke care solution provider in stent retriever therapy with more than 20 years of experience in China. We provide clinical education and training systems for Chinese physicians and, together with medical societies, we consistently promote a hierarchical treatment system, raise public awareness, and speed up patient admission and treatment to ensure the proper care for patients," said Chris Lee, President, Medtronic Greater China. "We are very proud to collaborate with both the CSA and ASA, and we will continuously work together to improve China's stroke care quality."

Stroke has also had a significant impact on healthcare expenditures and the Chinese economy. The cost for stroke care by the government-funded hospitals was 1.17 billion RMB (approx. $170M USD) in 2003 and 8.19 billion RMB (approx. $1.3B USD) in 2009, a 117 percent increase annually. Now, the annual cost of stroke care in China is approximately 40 billion RMB ($5.8B USD).[3]

[1] http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/42/12/3651

[2] http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/strokeaha/44/7/1775.full.pdf

[3] http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/42/12/3651

About the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association

The American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association are devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke  the two leading causes of death in the world. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based American Heart Association is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. The American Stroke Association is a division of the American Heart Association. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our offices around the country. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

SOURCE American Heart Association
BURIEN, Wash., June 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Western Distribution Services (WDS) of Burien, WA, along with Kidder Mathews (KM) of Seattle, WA, Bridge Development Partners (BDP) of Chicago, IL, and Tippmann Innovation (TI) of Fort Wayne, IN, are proud to announce the ribbon cutting of an advanced, convertible refrigerated/freezer warehouse near Seattle's Sea-Tac Airport. The ceremony, held on June 23, 2017 at 1010 South 146th St. in Burien, Washington, is the culmination of a project that brought the four companies together to create a state of the art facility to service the rising need for cold storage in the growing Seattle area.

WDS Ribbon Cutting with Tippmann Innovation, Seattle, Washington WDS Ribbon Cutting with Tippmann Innovation, Seattle, Washington

WDS will operate the new facility which was designed and constructed by Tippmann Innovation with Bridge Development serving as developer. The massive 241,140-square-foot facility will house 41,000 pallets with the versatility to operate a range of temperatures to accommodate products from fresh perishables to frozen foods. The warehouse was built on a 15-acre site that came with its own set of challenges, including a sloping terrain. Over 100,000 cubic yards of soil was moved during construction. However, the close proximity to the airport provides a huge advantage for WDS' cold storage customers.

Brian Niven of Bridge Development explains the impact of the location, "This location is the equivalent of having seats on the 50 yard line at the Super Bowl. It is at the center of a growing area with easy access to several transportation options, including land, sea and air. With today's heavy emphasis on fresh products, this facility is perfectly positioned for quick distribution to just about anywhere in the country."

Built to fit the needs of WDS, the new facility meets all their expectations and then some. "We have been looking for a cold storage solution for several years," says John Naylor, WDS president. He said that once they were able to secure the land, WDS knew they wanted Tippmann to design and build the facility. "This is not their first rodeo. They have the experience and expertise we needed. If I were going to build another cold storage facility, I would call them again."

Dan Mathews of Kidder Mathews recalls how the project team was created. "Kidder Mathews, Tippmann Innovation and Bridge Development were very compatible working as a team. We each recognized the other companies' unique perspective and strengths. We all shared in the vision to make the needs of the customer the highest priority. Collectively, we were able to create the right solution for WDS and their customers."

Tippmann Innovation, a leader in the planning and building of cold storage facilities, worked with BDP and WDS to design a modern, efficient facility that has the capacity and the flexibility to provide refrigerated service as the needs arise, using the most advanced technology in the industry.

About Tippmann Innovation. Tippmann Innovation is an award winning, specialty industrial cold storage builder that develops buildings around a business plan, ensuring that an investment becomes a profit center. TI utilizes time-honed expertise and advanced technology solutions to create efficient buildings that scale with a business, and are designed to maximize profitability through fully integrating operations and supply chain, by design. TI provides a full suite of cold storage construction services, including master site planning and operations guidance. TI's innovations include the Patented QF+ in-rack freezing and thawing system, coupled with the T2 spacer system that creates the fastest system available. TI has offices in Indiana, Illinois and Florida and operates internationally.

Learn more about this project: https://www.ticold.com/Western-Distribution-Services

About Western Distribution Services. WDS operates top cold storage warehousing facilities in the Pacific NW Region and offers a breadth of services designed to protect customer assets, improve distribution efficiency and save money. WDS provides customers the critical vision, information, service, flexibility and partnership to make them more competitive. Learn more at wdscold.com.

About Bridge Development Partners, LLC. Named GCFD's 2016 Developer of the Year, Bridge Development Partner's goal is to develop and acquire properties that add investor value. Headquartered in Chicago, Bridge develops investment-grade buildings and business parks and acquires land for the development of speculative and build-to-suit projects. Additionally, Bridge develops and owns cold storage and refrigerated facilities throughout the Chicago and now Seattle areas. Learn more at bridgedev.com.

About Kidder Mathews. Founded over 40 years ago, Kidder Mathews is now the largest independent commercial real estate firm on the West Coast with nearly 700 employees in 20 offices throughout Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Arizona. Kidder Mathews has built a reputation of absolute integrity, high-level expertise and incredible client service that continuously impresses clients. Learn more at kiddermathews.com.

For more information: Rob Adams, TI: 260-424-2222

Media inquiries: [email protected]

SOURCE Tippmann Innovation
CARLSBAD, Calif., June 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Nathan Locke, a partner with Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors and a board member for Source Intelligence, was named one of Southern California's most influential private equity investors. Mr. Locke was among nine professionals honored by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

The honor comes as Source Intelligence reports continued growth and product expansion to serve companies, suppliers and vendors with supply chain data collection and analysis, growing compliance requirements, and brand protection.

"Nathan certainly deserves this recognition. He provides exceptional insights and has been a trusted advisor as Source Intelligence meets growing demands in the United States and around the world for technology-based supply chain solutions," said Jess Kraus, CEO of Source Intelligence. "We are proud to count Nathan and Kayne Anderson as our partners in our success."

Source Intelligence's expanding portfolio of solutions have become more appealing to some of the world's biggest enterprises and hundreds of thousands of suppliers because of continued focus on issues of modern-day slavery and human trafficking, conflict minerals trading, Kraus said.

To learn more about Source Intelligence's expanding global capabilities and product lines, visit www.SourceIntelligence.com or call 877-916-6337.



ABOUT SOURCE INTELLIGENCE

Source Intelligence (SI) is a global network of businesses linked together to expedite the exchange and validation of compliance information. SI's cloud-based SaaS platform helps customers make informed decisions about business partners to offer products that meet legal, ethical, and environmental standards. The company's information and analytics platform provides customers with visibility into supply chains in order to comply with the law, minimize operational and brand risk, and improve efficiency. Founded in 2009 by career experts in environmental solutions and analytics, Source Intelligence has headquarters in Carlsbad, California and operations worldwide. SI has received multiple awards, including the "2015 GRC Innovation Award" by analyst firm GRC 20/20, "Most Promising Supply Chain Tech Solution Provider for 2014 and 2015" by CIO Review, and CEO Jess Kraus was recently named "CEO of the Year" by CIO Review. www.sourceintelligence.com

Media Contacts:

Lina Ramos, Chief Business Officer

760-232-4087

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Denis Wolcott, APR

213-200-1563

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CHICAGO, June 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Yeah Design Works is happy to announce they have been listed on Agency Spotter's Top 20 Design Agent Report, which was released in June 2017. Agency Spotter's quarterly report evaluates more than 3,000 design agencies based on their credentials, focus and expertise in design, client feedback, and project work. They look at a broad range of agencies including those who specialize in branding, communication design, innovation, industrial design, design strategy, user experience design, motion video, and packaging design.

"We are honored to be ranked among the Top 20 design agencies of the more than 3,000 evaluated by Agency Spotter," says Steve Zweiback, founder and creative director at Yeah Design Works. "We are a small company making a big impact in the industry. Our greatest success stories are with new product launches and extending brands into new markets. Clients often credit our work for helping them far exceed original sales projections."

Launched in 2007, more than 80 percent of Yeah Design Works' clients are Fortune 500 companies. They have worked with such notable names as Ace Hardware, Jarden Consumer Products including Oster, Sunbeam, Bionaire, Holmes, and more, Lava Lamp, Pixie, Bang and Olufsen, Zero Odor and many more. Yeah Design Works' team has a combined 45 years of design experience, specializing in packaging and branding. The company's specialty is creating integrated visual identities for brand families of products.

For more information about the company, their team, and services, visit their Agency Spotter page or their website at Yeahdw.com.

About Yeah Design Works

Yeah Design Works is small design company located in Chicago, Illinois. Their team many be small in size but their impact in the marketplace is big, working primary with Fortune 500 companies providing design for packaging, branding, and collateral materials. To learn more, visit Yeah-Marketing.com.

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Washington, June 20 : White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is leading a search for his own replacement on the briefing room podium in order to secure a different role inside the West Wing, a media report said.

Last week, Spicer and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus reached out to Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham about the role of Press Secretary and Daily Mail editor David Martosko about the role of communications director, a White House official with knowledge of the development told Politico news on Monday.

Spicer and Priebus have had preliminary discussions with Ingraham, and Martosko met with chief strategist Steve Bannon last week, according to the official.

Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was considered for Press Secretary during the transition, is not interested in the position.

The search for new members of the White House communications team comes after Communications Director Mike Dubke resigned last month, and Spicer once again took on dual roles as the White House faces numerous scandals, including the deepening Russia probes, Politico news reported.

Meanwhile, White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed on Monday that interviews are underway for new members of the communications team.

"We have sought input from many people as we look to expand our communications operation," Sanders said, and added, "As he did in the beginning, Sean Spicer is managing both the communications and press office."

Spicer's time at the White House briefing room podium has decreased amid rumours that he would soon transition to a different role, with some suggesting the President was unhappy with Spicer's performance in the public-facing role, reports CNN.
Bengaluru, June 21 : Sacked Immigration Head of Infosys Ltd Erin Green has filed a lawsuit before the US District Court at Texas, alleging discrimination and retaliation by the senior management of the global software major.

The civil suit, filed on June 19 in the Eastern District of Texas (Sherman Division), seeks a trial by jury on the alleged discrimination against non-Asian employees at the company's offices in the US, resulting in Green's dismissal nearly a year ago.

Green, who joined the IT major in October 2011 at Plano in Texas, questioned his dismissal on June 28, 2016, while he was tasked to analyse and rectify all H-1B, L-1 and I-9 and other US immigration compliance-related issues.

"Plaintiff (Green) was subjected to discriminatory measures of increasing severity designed to undermine both his position and his professional credibility within the defendant (Infosys)," said the lawsuit, a copy of which has been accessed by IANS from a source in the know of the case.

A Infosys spokeperson, however, declined to respond to the charges in the lawsuit, saying "we cannot comment on an ongoing litigation".

During his five-year tenure with the company's American subsidiary, Green worked under global immigration head Vasudava Nayak and global talent head Binod Hampapur in its Human Resources Department.

"My dismissal was a result of retaliation for reporting discriminatory treatment of self and other executives based on race and national origin," said Green in the complaint.

This is the second time the city-based outsourcing firm is facing discrimination charges after four former employees filed a similar lawsuit, alleging discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity.
London, June 22 : Six hundred tower blocks in Britain could be covered in similar combustible cladding which was blamed for aiding the rapid spread of the Grenfell Tower blaze, Downing Street said.

Urgent tests in the wake of the disaster that killed at least 79 people have so far revealed that the flammable material has been found on at least three tower blocks across the UK, Prime Minister Theresa May told the Commons.

But Downing Street later disclosed that English councils estimated that 600 high-rise buildings used similar cladding to the block in west London that was the scene of last week's tragedy, The Telegraph reported.

Addressing questions about whether any of the blocks will be evacuated, a No 10 Downing Street spokeswoman said: "Obviously nobody will be living in buildings that are unsafe. They will be rehoused if they need to be."

May said all local authorities responsible for the flats had been told this, BBC reported.

The announcement comes after the boss of Kensington and Chelsea Council resigned following criticism of the London authority's response to the Grenfell tragedy.

Speaking in the Commons, May said that the council "couldn't cope" in the aftermath of the fire, and that it "was right" its chief executive, Nicholas Holgate, had stepped down.

Councils were told to give details to the government about the cladding they used in the tower blocks by Monday.

The Downing Street spokeswoman said: "So far, three samples have been found to be combustible." She said these were part of a "small number" that had been tested and that results are coming back "within hours".

"We are in touch with all the local authorities to encourage them to urgently send us the samples and then we will carry out the checks that we need to see where we are with that," she said.

Meanwhile, Camden Council confirmed that cladding used on its Chalcots Estate in north London is being removed after tests raised concerns about its safety.

Last week, it emerged that Grenfell contractors had used a more flammable type of material for the outer layer of the cladding, which Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, said was banned in Britain.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) later confirmed that the polyethylene filling between the two Reynobond aluminium panels did not pass building regulations for tower blocks over 59 feet and a flame retardant material should have been used instead.
Washington, June 23 : US President Donald Trump denied having recorded conversations with James Comey, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Trump fired last month.

"I have no idea whether there are 'tapes' or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have any such recordings," Trump tweeted on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The tweet was an effort to quell questions whether he recorded his private conversations with Comey in the White House and by phone before firing Comey.

Trump has tweeted on May 12, days after firing Comey, that "James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!" prompting widespread speculation that such recordings existed.

Neither Trump nor the White House gave out recordings since then, and were reluctant to confirm if such recordings did exist.

Trump told the press on June 9 that "I'll tell you about that maybe sometime in the near future" and that the press "are going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer".

White House Spokesperson Sarah Sanders refuted speculations from the press that Trump was playing "game" in order to make sure that Comey tell the truth.

"I certainly think that the president would hope that the former director would tell the truth. I think that it was more about raising the question of doubt in general," she told an off-camera news briefing on Thursday.

Trump allegedly asked Comey for his loyalty and for the FBI to stop investigating former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn as part of an ongoing probe into alleged collusion between Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government, according to Comey's testimony to Congress early this month.
New Delhi, June 23 : "One Nation, One Tax, One Market", affirms Amitabh Bachchan in a video on the virtues of GST, while Akshay Kumar is out to make his "humble contribution to Swachh Bharat" through his new film "Toilet: EK Prem Katha".

Bollywood, it seems, is striving to stay on the right side of the ruling dispensation.

Amitabh, one of Indian cinema's most globally recognised faces and whose friends-turned-foes history with the Congress is not unknown, has been made brand ambassador for the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a sweeping tax reform set to roll out on July 1.

It is not surprising because Amitabh has remained in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's good books for quite some time. Remember, Gujarat Tourism's "Khushboo Gujarat Ki" campaign with Amitabh as the brand ambassador?

The Congress, on whose ticket the megastar had contested the Lok Sabha election from Allahabad in 1984, is clearly not happy.

But it is worth mentioning that during the Congress regime only, Unicef had appointed the megastar Goodwill Ambassador for Polio Eradication in India. It was a success, given that the nation was declared polio-free in 2014 by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

"Both Prime Minister (Modi) and Finance Minister (Arun Jaitley) know that the government is not ready nor does it have the infrastructure to roll out GST. That's why it is using a legend like Amitabh Bachchan so that he becomes the fall guy and has to face the brickbats," Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam has said.

When it comes to campaigns, Big B is certainly a lucky mascot.

What does the actor have to say?

"I was asked, I did it," the 74-year-old veteran, who endorses other government initiatives like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and is recently seen in 'Darwaza Band' campaign, tweeted about his decision to push the GST buzz.

As far as Akshay is concerned, he is doing his bit through films like "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha" and "PadMan".

A dekko at the trailer of "Toilet..." hints at how Akshay's entertainer will perhaps set an example of wielding Bollywood's soft power in giving a hard push to menacing social concerns like open defecation, gender discrimination and myths around menstruation.

"Here is my humble contribution towards a Swachh Bharat, 'Toilet: Ek Prem Katha' trailer," read a social media post from Akshay, who even met Modi to talk about his movie last month.

"Good effort to further the message of cleanliness," Modi lauded the actor.

The latest in the grapevine is that Akshay, who won the Best Actor National Award for "Rustom" earlier this year, has landed a chance to play Modi in a film. Some contrary reports refute that claim -- but from what one can tell, Akshay is in the good and 'right' books.

There are more.

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar's "Indu Sarkar" is making a noise ever since the launch of its poster featuring Neil Nitin Mukesh bearing resemblance to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The film captures the Emergency period of India during the rule of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 -- obviously ruffling up feathers in the Congress.

In his defence, Bhandarkar says the film is "70 per cent fiction and 30 per cent realism", that he has not named any politician and that the project is "not sponsored".

Even the government-backed censor board, which is readily asking filmmakers to bring NOCs for films on real life personalities, is ready to offer leniency to Bhandarkar as his project takes no names.

Veteran actor Anupam Kher, who is in "Indu Sarkar", is also going to play former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in "The Accidental Prime Minister".

The film will be based on a book by Singh's media adviser Sanjaya Baru, who had controversially depicted his former boss as not being in full control of his own cabinet and being subservient to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Prodded about playing a Congress man, the pro-BJP actor, whose wife Kirron Kher is a BJP MP from Chandigarh, told IANS in a recent chat: "It's too early to talk about it."

But at a press conference he took a dig at Singh, saying: "It is not a silent film."

A master of wit and sarcasm, Rishi Kapoor had last year stirred a political storm with tweets slamming the Congress party for naming important places such as roadways, railways and airports after the Nehrus and Gandhis.

Back then, the Congress said people were targeting the Gandhis "to get into the good books" of the ruling BJP, which has a string of Bollywood supporters like Paresh Rawal, Hema Malini and Shatrughan Sinha.

They say films are a mirror to the society and Bollywood fraternity is certainly doing its bit to propagate the initiatives of the NDA government by highlighting them in their cinematic offerings.

(Radhika Bhirani can be contacted at radhika.b@ians.in)
Colombo, June 23 : Sri Lankan police on Friday arrested Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) leader Lahiru Weerasekara following violent clashes between students and security forces.

The police said a probe would be conducted over the protest staged by the IUSF in front of the Health Ministry on Wednesday which resulted in 85 students and nine policemen being hospitalised, reports Xinhua news agency.

The Health Ministry property had also been severely damaged as a result of the violent protest.

The police said the students had behaved in an unruly manner after they forcibly entered the ministry building in violation of the order issued by the Colombo Chief Magistrate.

The students wanted the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), Sri Lanka's only private medical faculty, to close down.

As a result of the clashes, doctors attached to the Government Medical Officers Association went on an indefinite island-wide strike on Wednesday, severely hampering the medical sector and leaving thousands of patients stranded.
Few people left a Chippewa County courtroom after Judge Steven Cray on Friday sentenced a former Chippewa Falls teacher to six years in prison and another six years on extended supervision for the sexual assault of a student.

The sentencing of Joel Charles Jahnke included emotionally riveting testimony, including from the victim who was 13 years old when she was assaulted. The pain I endured has left me a shell of what I was, said the girl, her legs shaking for much of her testimony.

The girl added: Hes left me like Im living a nightmare, where I cant wake up.

After the sentencing, members of Jahnkes family stayed in their seats. So did members the victims family. All waited for the 29-year-old Jahnke to finish talking with defense attorney Cole White.

With that done, the former Bloomer resident was led out of the courtroom into custody and into a lifetime of registering as a sex offender.

Mr. Jahnke, you took a girl who had a school girl crush on you and broke all the barriers, Cray told Jahnke, a Burlington resident who formerly lived in Bloomer. This is not the victims fault, Cray emphasized, adding he hopes the victim will eventually heal and become a productive person.

The breach of trust goes not only to this child, (but also) to the parents who entrusted their child to this person, Cray said of the defendant.

Jahnke pleaded no contest to second degree sexual assault of a child, exposing genitals/intimate parts to a child and causing a child over age 13 to view/listen to sexual activity. The charges that Jahnke pled no contest to span from Jan. 1, 2015 to March 2016.

Jahnkes sentencing lasted longer than 2 hours.

Jahnke, his head down, did not look at the victim as she told Cray: Kids in my school dont associate themselves with me. She said she cant ride the school bus any longer, because other kids call her a slut.

She told of being consistently being sent or being left notes from Jahnke, and receiving from Jahnke nude videos of him and invitations for the victim to send him photos of herself.

The victim said on two occasions she took sleeping pills in attempts to take her life.

These events are embedded in my head, and I can not stop thinking of it, she said.

The victims mother addressed Jahnke. You raped her body, her heart and her soul. She added: You have tortured this child for the last two years.

The girls father said: The defendant used my little girl as a sex object for his own pleasure. He said Jahnke used Snapchat to send messages to his daughter that would quickly disappear.

It is because of his sexual desires that he tore apart my family.

Chippewa Falls Superintendent Heidi Eliopoulos said Jahnkes actions while being a teacher haunts her. Before she became a superintendent, Eliopoulos was principal of the Chippewa Falls Middle School.

I hired Joel Jahnke, and that is something that I will have to live with for the rest of my life, she said.

When she learned of the charges against Jahnke, Eliopoulos said she was devastated and felt betrayed, fooled and manipulated.

She said she has seen first-hand the many good deeds of teachers, including buying things for students when they cant afford them.

Our parents trust in our school district has been destroyed because of Joel, Eliopoulos said.

She said students were confused and upset. The teachers they had loved and trusted did the unimaginable to one of their classmates, she said.

Cray said there was nothing in Jahnkes background to show he would assault a student. You didnt see this coming, he said, referring to Eliopoulos. No one saw this coming.

The maximum sentence Jahnke could have received was 25.5 years in prison and another 24 years of extended supervision.

District Attorney Wade Newell proposed a 15-year prison sentence for Jahnke, followed by five years of extended supervision. I have not seen a case in my 16 years of being here where theres been such devastation to the victim, he said.

A young girl reached out for help in a matter, and the defendant took her innocence, he said.

He broke this young girl. I cant think of a better way of saying it.

White did not offer a sentencing recommendation, but said the state average in similar cases is two to three years prison. This conduct was stupid, it was terrible and it was wrong, White said. But he said he has seen that Jahnke has had gut-wrenching remorse for what he did, and has no previous criminal record.

Five of Jahnkes relatives testified on his behalf, saying he is a loving and kind person.

An apology is not enough, Jahnke said, adding he was deeply sorry and was wrong to let it happen.

I failed you, the community, my family and my former wife, he said, weeping. I dont understand my actions.

In his sentence, Cray said Jahnke can not be with children under age 18 without his probation agents permission.

Obviously, we can not trust Mr. Jahnke with young kids, Cray said. He said Jahnke can not hold a job or volunteer for a position that works with a child under age 16. He ordered Jahnke pay the victim $10,000 restitution, the maximum under state law.

According to the criminal complaint:

A Chippewa Falls Police investigator talked to a student at the middle school, who said Jahnke had sexual activity with her during the spring semester of 2015. The girl said sexual contact took place in a classroom at the middle school.

The girl said the sexual contact ended in June 2015, but she and Jahnke had communicated after that.

Jahnke admitted to investigators having sexual contact with the girl in his classroom at the school.

After the verdict, the victim hugged Chippewa Falls High School Principal Becky Davis. Others offered words of encouragement for her.
London, June 23 : The Grenfell Tower fire in London that killed 79 people started in a faulty fridge, the Metropolitan Police said on Friday, adding the cladding on the 24-storey block has failed all safety tests.

Both the insulation and tiles at the tower had failed safety tests, with the insulation proving more flammable than the cladding, Scotland Yard's Detective Superintendent Fiona McCormack said in a statement.

The police will consider manslaughter charges, the Evening Standard newspaper quoted her as saying.

The catastrophic Grenfell Tower blaze led to the death of at least 79 people last week while many more were left homeless. The number of dead is likely to still rise, said McCormack. "I fear there are more."

She said police had established that the initial cause of the blaze was a fridge-freezer in a flat at the fourth level and that the fire was not started deliberately, Xinhua news agency reported.

McCormack said the police were also considering health and safety breaches against companies, organisations or individuals in relation to the fire, "the worse fire in London since World War II".

The investigation will probe whether the use of the cladding material at the Grenfell Tower had been illegal, the report said.

She said the police had already shared its findings with the government's Department for Communities and Local Government, recommending they immediately share the findings with town and city councils across the country.

McCormack said she feared more people could have been killed in the fire amid concerns some of the people living there had been in the country illegally.

She issued a plea for information saying the police and the national immigration department had promised the legal status of victims of the fire would not be questioned.

The way the fire spread and the rapid speed of its spread through the building, leading to whole families being incinerated by the flames, is forming part of what was described as "one of the biggest and most complex investigations" by the Met police.

An estimated 600 tower blocks across the country have facia cladding similar to that used in the Grenfell Tower.

Some local authorities have already started to remove cladding from buildings as a safety precaution and to assure residents afraid to live in high rise towers.
Srinagar, June 23 : A mob stripped and lynched a senior police officer in the grand mosque of Srinagar, triggering widespread outrage. Hundreds attended the funeral of 57-year-old Deputy Superintendent of Police Muhammad Ayub Pandit even as two persons were arrested.

"All those involved in the officer's murder will be brought to justice," said DGP S.P. Vaid, adding that a third person has been identified and a manhunt has been launched to trace him.

Pandit was deployed at Srinagar's largest mosque, the Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta area of Srinagar's old city.

He was deployed on frisking (access control) duty at the mosque to ensure that nobody enters the holy place with weapons to harm Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and other devotees inside.

Mirwaiz Umer leads the Friday prayers at the mosque and on all other holy occasions.

What has shocked people about his killing is that he was killed during the holiest night of the Islamic calendar -- 'Shab-e-Qadr'.

Pandit was reportedly clicking pictures of the crowd outside the grand mosque to which some people objected. Surrounded by an irate mob, the officer fired from his service revolver to free himself, injuring three persons.

However, the mob overpowered him, stripped him and beat him to death.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who attended the wreath laying ceremony at the district police lines, condemned the brutal killing. "He had allowed all his personal security guards to go home and observe the Shab-e-Qadr at their native mosques.

"He performed his duties trusting the goodwill of the people whose lives he was protecting. His murder is actually a murder of trust," she said.

"Jammu and Kashmir Police is one of the finest police forces in the country. They exercise maximum restraint while dealing with the law and order situation. I fear what will happen if this police force loses its patience," she said.

Senior ministers Naeem Akhtar, Altaf Bukhari and Haq Khan were also present at the Police Lines besides senior civil, police and paramilitary officers.

Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh termed the killing "highly condemnable". "It is murder and police would take strongest action against those who were involved."

DGP Vaid said the lynching of the officer had proved that "very little difference is now left in Kashmir between humanity and barbarism".

Former state Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah condemed the killing, saying "His death is a tragedy and the manner of his death a travesty. May the people who lynched DySP Pandith burn in hell for their sins."

Mirwaiz Umer Farooq described the murder of the officer as "a brutal act which is outside the parameters of humanity and religion".

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi said the lynching marked a "new low" in Jammu and Kashmir and it was "heartbreaking" to see the state "being pushed back several decades" due to the failure of the BJP-PDP government.

The killing has invited more condemnation, including on social media, as the officer was not deployed on any anti-militancy, intelligence gathering or even maintenance of law and order duties when the mob lynched him.

Pandit belonged to Nawpora area in Srinagar city where he was buried in his ancestral graveyard. He is survived by his wife, a daughter and son.

His daughter who is pursuing MBBS in Bangladesh had returned home two days ago to celebrate Eid with her parents.

After the killing, Friday prayers were not allowed at the Jamia Masjid and the mosque was shut -- for the first time since the Dogra rule ended in the Valley.

A police statement issued here on Friday said: "The martyred police officer was laid to rest at his native place. Hundreds of people, including police officers, friends and relatives attended the the funeral prayers."

A week earlier, six policemen including a Station House Officer (SHO), Feroz Ahmad Dar, were killed by militants in Anantnag district.

In an unrelated development, authorities imposed restrictions in some areas of Srinagar on Friday after separatists announced post prayer protests in the Kashmir Valley.

The curbs under Section 144 preventing the gathering of five or more people at any place were imposed in areas falling under the jurisdiction of Khanyar, Nowhatta, M.R. Gunj, Safakadal and Maisuma police stations, a police officer said.

The separatists called for protests after the Friday prayers against the killing of a civilian, Touseef Ahmad Wani, in Pulwama district in firing by security forces on Thursday.

Wani was killed when a mob attacked the Kakapora police post on Thursday after three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were killed in the area by the security forces.

June 23 is the last Friday of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
London, June 24 : Author JK Rowling has revealed there were two different Harry Potters in the "Harry Potter" franchise.

When it comes to Harry's name, Rowling has now revealed the existence of a second Harry Potter who was never mentioned in the books, reports mirror.co.uk.

The revelation came in her latest post to Pottermore, a blog.

Henry Potter -- known as Harry to his friends -- was Harry's great grandfather who enjoyed an illustrious career as part of the Wizengamot from 1913 to 1921. Like the younger Harry, he was very pro-Muggle rights, which meant the author of pure blood guide "The Sacred Twenty-Eight" refused to recognise the Potter clan as pure blood.

Rowling posted: "Henry caused a minor stir when he publicly condemned then Minister for Magic, Archer Evermonde, who had forbidden the magical community to help Muggles waging the First World War. His outspokenness on the behalf of the Muggle community was also a strong contributing factor in the family's exclusion from the 'Sacred Twenty-Eight'."

Henry had a son called Fleamont, who went on to marry Euphemia and have their son James, who is Harry's father. Sadly, neither Fleamot or Euphemia ever got to meet Harry, Rowling added.

"Fleamont and Euphemia lived long enough to see James marry a Muggle-born girl called Lily Evans, but not to meet their grandson, Harry.

"Dragon pox carried them off within days of each other, due to their advanced age, and James Potter then inherited Ignotus Peverell's Invisibility Cloak," the post read further.

Rowling's "Harry Potter" books -- about a young wizard -- were successfully turned into a film franchise.
Dubai, June 24 : Security forces in Saudi Arabia thwarted a terror attack on the Mecca Grand Mosque and worshippers there, the country's Interior Ministry has said.

The attack on Friday had been planned by a group stationed at three locations, Khaleej Times reported citing Arab News which quoted the Interior Ministry's statement.

A security spokesperson said that one of the sites was in the province of Jeddah, and the two others were in Mecca.

The first was in the neighbourhood of Asilah, and the second in Ajyad Al Masafi, located within the perimeter of the central area of the Grand Mosque, the spokesman said.

One site was a three-story house where the suicide bomber tasked with the crime was stationed. He blew himself up when surrounded by security forces.

The United Arab Emirates has strongly condemned the terror crime.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in a statement, condemned the crime in the strongest words, and said the heinous crime shows the level to which the brutality of these terrorists has reached.

"No sane person can give any justification or explanation for such a crime," the statement said.
New Delhi, June 24 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left for Portugal, the first-leg of his three-nation tour that will also take him to the US and Netherlands.

"PM @narendramodi emplaned for Portugal, after which he shall visit USA and Netherlands for important bilateral visits," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) wrote on Twitter.

Modi will visit Portugal on Saturday before his trip to the US on June 26 and is expected to be on a whirlwind tour to the Netherlands on June 27.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay had said Modi's visit to the US has "its own significance because it will be the first visit of the Prime Minister to engage with the new leader, with the new President (Donald Trump) after the elections last year" in the United States.

Modi would also hold talks with Antonio Costa, the Portugal Prime Minister of Indian origin, in Lisbon before flying to the US where he would meet President Donald Trump.

On his way back, Modi would visit The Netherlands for talks with Prime Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague, besides calling on the King of The Netherlands Willem Alexander.
San Francisco, June 24 : California has issued a ban on state-funded and state-sponsored travel to four more states that it says have laws discriminating against the LGBTQ community, the media reported.

The travel ban was first put into effect January 1 when state measure AB 1887 became law. The law says California is "a leader in protecting civil rights and preventing discrimination" and should not support or finance "discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people", reports CNN on Friday night.

Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee were the original states banned by AB 1887, but California Attorney General Xavier Becerra added Alabama, Kentucky, South Dakota and Texas on Thursday, citing what he called new discriminatory legislation enacted against the LGBTQ -- lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer -- community in those states.

Alabama, South Dakota, and Texas have all passed legislation that could prevent LGBT parents from adopting or fostering children and Kentucky passed a religious freedom bill that would allow students to exclude LGBTQ classmates from campus groups.

"Our country has made great strides in dismantling prejudicial laws that have deprived too many of our fellow Americans of their precious rights. Sadly, that is not the case in all parts of our nation, even in the 21st century," Becerra said.

"While the California DOJ (Department of Justice) works to protect the rights of all our people, discriminatory laws in any part of our country send all of us several steps back," CNN quoted Becerra as saying.

"That's why when California said we would not tolerate discrimination against LGBTQ members of our community, we meant it."

The law bans state-funded or state-sponsored travel by employees of state agencies and departments as well as members of boards, authorities, and commissions.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and Rick Zbur with Equality California on Friday applauded the state's decision to widen the ban.

"These discriminatory laws in Texas, North Carolina, South Dakota, and other states are completely out of step with the values that make California the vibrant economic powerhouse that it is," Zbur said.

"It is imperative that California continue to denounce those actions publicly and financially."
Srinagar, June 24 : Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik was arrested by police here on Saturday.

A spokesman of the JKLF said Malik was arrested from his residence in Maisuma area.

Malik along with Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq has been spearheading the separatist resistance in the Kashmir Valley for over one year.
Agartala, June 24 : Tripura's Left Front government is facing an unprecedented shortage of teachers to run its 5,000 schools from the next academic year beginning in January.

The Supreme Court order of March 29 upholding a state High Court order terminating the jobs of 10,323 government teachers has added to the vacuum. The state also faces a dearth of eligible candidates to fill up 15,436 teachers' posts.

The Tripura government has appealed to the Centre for relaxation in the norms for recruiting teachers in order to fill up the posts -- an issue that is turning into a political hot potato ahead of the Assembly elections early next year.

"We had sought one time relaxation in qualifying marks and exemption of professional qualification with the MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) for recruiting teachers, but the ministry rejected our request," Tripura Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty told IANS.

Chakraborty said he met Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar last month and also wrote several letters to him on the issue. "Our senior officials met the ministry officials in Delhi many times on the issue, but the central government disallowed our appeal. This has deprived thousands of unemployed youths in the state an opportunity (to take up teachers' posts)," he added.

The Minister said that the Union HRD Ministry in April relaxed the minimum qualification norms for teachers notified by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) for Assam and West Bengal states. He wants that Tripura should be extended the same relaxation.

According to Chakraborty, Tripura has only six teachers education institutes. "The intake capacity of the six institutions is only 1,130 for a two-year teacher's course," he said, adding, "Hence to fill up the vacancies of 15,436 teachers posts with qualified teachers will take a few decades."

Under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, before recruitment of teachers in government schools, Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) is mandatory. To appear for the TET, the candidate has to have 50 per cent marks in certain subjects and a Bachelor degree or Diploma in Elementary Education or Diploma in Education.

The Education Minister said that Tripura requires 52,315 teachers to run 5,000 government schools. The state currently has around 47,000 teachers -- of whom 10,323 face the axe due to the Supreme Court order.

"Like other states in India, the pass percentage of candidates in TET is very minimal in Tripura too. This makes the situation worse," Chakraborty added.

The apex court on March 29 upheld the Tripura High Court order to terminate the jobs of 10,323 teachers, but allowed them to continue in service till December 31.

The court asked the government to frame a new Employment Policy, to initiate a fresh recruitment process and complete it by December 31.

The Tripura High Court's division bench headed by then Chief Justice Deepak Kumar Gupta (now elevated to the Supreme Court) on May 7, 2014, terminated the jobs of the teachers citing "incorrect selection procedure".

However, on May 17, the state government announced the creation of 13,000 non-teaching posts in two departments -- ostensibly to "accommodate" the teachers facing ouster.

Ahead of next year's assembly elections in February, the opposition and ruling Left parties are hurling accusations at each other over the issue.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state secretary Bijan Dhar said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government and the party leadership have been playing a "double role" on the crucial education issue.

"The BJP government at the Centre gave a relaxation in teachers' recruitment norms to Assam and West Bengal, but rejected Tripura's proposal. The BJP leadership also asked the union HRD Minister not to give any relaxation to Tripura - thus depriving the state's youths," Dhar told IANS.

On April 11, when three Tripura MPs met Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar demanding one-time relaxation on TET for the youths of Tripura, BJP's observer for Tripura Sunil Deodhar tweeted: "Prakash Javadekar assured me that there is no question of relaxation regarding eligibility of 10,323 teachers."

Tripura Lok Sabha member Jitendra Chaudhury, who had led the three-member MPs team, said: "Rejection of Tripura's demand for relaxation will create a huge vacuum in the state's school education system and cause immense inconvenience for the school students."

The Congress has also criticised the central government's role in education.

"The central government must follow a uniform role on education across the country," Tripura Congress vice-president Tapas Dey told IANS.
New Delhi : It's a no-brainer, for the result is known before the contest. The support which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been able to muster for its presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind in the electoral college will give him an easy ride to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Even then, the confrontation between him and the opposition's nominee, Meira Kumar, will provide an idea of the contours of the bigger battle which awaits the two sides in less than two years.

For the moment, the BJP has the edge. The party may succeed in retaining it till the 2019 general election. But the margin between the combatants is not written in stone. The chances of it changing, therefore, cannot be ruled out if the BJP's outreach to the Dalits via Kovind fails to make an impact on the community or if the farmers' agitations show no sign of abating.

The very fact that the BJP chose a Dalit underlined its nervousness over the widening of the gulf between the community and the party ever since the bright young Dalit scholar, Rohith Vemula, was virtually driven to suicide in Hyderabad by the combined hounding of the saffron apparatchiki among students, the university authorities and the ministers in Delhi.

The more recent clashes between the Dalits and the upper-caste Thakurs in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, where a Thakur is the Chief Minister, and the earlier lynching of a group of Dalits at Una, Gujarat, by gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes) for skinning a dead cow, their traditional occupation, have deepened the sense of alienation among the Dalits towards the Hindutva brigade.

There was no alternative, therefore, for the BJP but to try to douse the flames by momentarily suppressing its 'savarna' (upper caste) instincts and opting for a Dalit President. It is anybody's guess, however, whether the act of tokenism will succeed, for few among the Dalits will believe that the saffron brotherhood's ingrained bias against the lower castes is about to undergo a dramatic change.

In real life, therefore, outside the heated atmosphere of Lutyens Delhi, the electoral arithmetic is likely to remain more or less the same, as will the efforts by a new generation of young Dalits emerging from Saharanpur and Una to put together a Dalit-Muslim alliance.

However, since tokenism begets tokenism, the Congress-led 17-member opposition group has also fielded a Dalit, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, to oppose Kovind. Most observers are likely to regard her as a sacrificial lamb in view of the virtual impossibility of her coming anywhere near the winning post. But what she can introduce into a campaign whose outcome is known is the ideological difference between the multicultural "idea of India", which she represents, and the monolithic "idea of Hindu rashtra", which her opponent with his roots in the Hindu supremacist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) stands for.

If the BJP's nominee indeed believes that the Muslims and Christians are aliens in India, he will set off a controversy which the BJP will not relish at a time when it is laboriously trying to feel its way through the labyrinthine diversity of the country's cultural scene as the party's contradictory takes on what the people can eat have shown.

Apart from the ideological battles, what is clear is that caste has become the leitmotif of the Presidential election, underlying a step backwards towards the country's primordial past when a person's worth was mostly judged on the basis of his birth at the expense of his or her intrinsic merits.

In the BJP's case, however, Kovind's caste credentials were reinforced by his persona. His low-key style evidently made him an ideal choice in Narendra Modi's presidential mode of governance where one man, viz, the Prime Minister, towers over the rest. In such a milieu, the palpably modest Kovind, who was seen as an ideal Governor in Bihar by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, fits the bill.

Kovind's moderation is another point in his favour, for he appears to be quite unlike the forthright Governor of Tripura, Tathagata Roy of the BJP, who wanted those who attended the terrorist Yakub Memon's funeral to be kept under permanent surveillance as potential subversives.

Only time will show whether Kovind will be as ideal a President as he was the Governor in Bihar. Considering that the BJP's 2002 choice as President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, once sent the office of profit bill back to the cabinet, as a President is entitled to do, and publicly regretted the signing of the resolution dissolving the Bihar assembly in 2005, Kovind will have to live up to high standards.

India has seen submissive Presidents such as Giani Zail Singh, who famously said that he was willing to sweep the floor if his leader Indira Gandhi asked him to do so, and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, who infamously signed the proclamation for throttling democracy on the morning of June 25, 1975 without asking whether it had been approved by the cabinet.

The new President will have to show that his only allegiance is to the "holy book" of the Constitution as the Prime Minister has described the manuscript.

(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
New Delhi, June 24 : Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez, an investor in Indian cold pressed juice brand RAW Pressery -- has taken the first steps towards going global by stepping into the Dubai market.

Anuj Rakyan started RAW Pressery in Mumbai in June 2013. It now has a presence in Indian cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Jacqueline, from Sri Lanka, who found fame in Bollywood with films like "Kick" and "Housefull 2", came on board as an investor aka 'Green Warrior' in April, by investing Rs 3.5 crore in the brand.

"Jacqueline is someone who celebrates fitness, eating clean and living natural. Jacqueline finds the association with Raw Pressery an opportunity to impact people's well being," Rakyan told IANS.

He said the company was planning to expand availability to the Middle East. "We've seen a lot of interest from the Middle East and are in the process of streamlining our supply chain to better serve the region. The brand sees great potential in the market and forecasts an expansion to other emirates as well as GCC countries by the end of FY17," he added.

The brand has partnered with Lulu Hypermarkets in Dubai, and will be air-freighting the products and retailing through the mall. They started the expansion last month.

Talking about his decision to get to the foreign shores, Rakyan said: "Dubai along with Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Al Fujairah have shaped up as interesting geographies in our first foray.".

The aim is to "be the first clean label beverage brand from India to have presence across Asia". He said the fact that they are a "clean label" -- not adding any sugar to the juices -- adds value to customers in India and abroad.

Asked about his plans for Indian market, Rakyan stressed "India will remain the primary market for the brand".

(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)
Two Mauston residents were charged with maintaining a drug trafficking house near West Side Elementary School and child neglect after being arrested June 9.

Gregory A. Riggs, 30, and Heather L. Riggs, 31, both face charges of possession with intent to deliver THC greater than 200 grams, possession of a controlled substance on or near certain places, maintaining a drug trafficking place, child neglect and possession of drug paraphernalia. Each count is a party to a crime charge. Both defendants could face possible $10,000 fines or three years and six months in prison, or both, for the first two charges, along with special stipulations because they lived within 1,000 feet of West Side. The court could order community service and have their operating licenses revoked for up to five years.

The child neglect charge also carries a $10,000 fine or nine months in prison, or both, while the paraphernalia possession could get them each a $500 fine or 30 days incarceration, or both.

According to a criminal complaint:

On June 7, Mauston police received a search warrant to investigate the Riggs home, which is within 600 feet of the school. Upon entering the house June 9, police detained Greg Riggs, who admitted to using marijuana in the home. He was arrested and taken to the Juneau County Jail without incident.

Police continued to search the home and found several items which tested positive for THC. In the childrens room, officers found three pipes used to smoke marijuana, scraper tools and rolling papers, an empty bag of synthetic marijuana, and three prescription pill bottles. A .22 bolt action firearm was also discovered, but in a different room.

Along with a social worker from the countys Child Protective Services (CPS) Unit, an officer went through the home to find it in disarray with some dishes containing mold all over the house. Along with marijuana, prescription medicine and drug paraphernalia, the Riggs allegedly had a machete lying in plain sight and reach of children. Riggs was arrested and the children were taken by the CPS worker.

Heather Riggs was detained and interviewed. She admitted the place was not safe for children and said Greg Riggs and Billy Radcliff, 37, were selling marijuana out of the house for several months. After speaking to Heather Riggs, Radcliff came over to the house, admitted to selling drugs there, and was arrested. He said he lived at the house since April.

While being interviewed at the Juneau County Sheriffs Office, Heather Riggs said Radcliff and Greg Riggs sold pot from the home at $20 per gram. She said she lived in the house for five years and drugs were being sold there for at least four. Greg Riggs was also questioned by police and said he didnt have time to clean the house because he was busy watching the kids and selling marijuana. He said he sold daily with the help of Radcliff and Heather Riggs, in some capacity. Radcliff was also interviewed and said he sold a couple times a week.

Greg Riggs, Heather Riggs and Radcliff will have an initial appearance July 12 at 9 a.m. at the Juneau County Justice Center. All have signed $5,000 signature bonds and were released June 13.
New Delhi, June 24 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left on a three-nation tour that will take him to the US for his first meeting with US President Donald Trump. He will also visit Portugal and the Netherlands.

Modi will visit Portugal on Saturday before his trip to the US on June 26 and is expected to be on a whirlwind tour to the Netherlands on June 27.

"PM @narendramodi emplaned for Portugal, after which he shall visit USA and Netherlands for important bilateral visits," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) wrote on Twitter.

Ahead of his visit, Prime Minister Modi on Friday said he will hold in-depth discussions with President Trump during his visit to Washington and hoped to build a forward-looking vision for partnership with the new administration.

The Prime Minister said the visits were aimed at enhancing bilateral engagement in various areas.

He said India's partnership with the United States is multi-layered and diverse, supported by not just governments but all the stakeholders on both sides.

"I look forward to building a forward-looking vision for our partnership with the new administration in the United States under President Trump," Modi said.

"I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide-ranging partnership between India and the United States," he said.

It will be the first meeting between the two leaders since Trump became US President earlier this year.

The Prime Minister said that apart from his official meetings with Trump and his Cabinet colleagues, he will meet some prominent American CEOs and the large Indian diaspora.

Referring to his visit to Portugal, Modi said he was looking forward to his meeting with Prime Minister Antonio Costa and there was significant potential for deepening bilateral trade and investment ties.

The Prime Minister said the historical and friendly ties between the two countries have picked up momentum after Costa's visit to India in January 2017.

Modi said the two countries will review the progress of various joint initiatives and discuss ways to further enhance bilateral engagement, specially in areas such as economic cooperation, science and technology, and space collaboration.

"We will deliberate on means to intensify our cooperation in counter-terrorism and on other international issues of mutual interest," Modi said, adding that he was keen to interact with the Indian community in Portugal.

Referring to his visit to the Netherlands on June 27, Modi said he will have an official meeting with Prime Minister Mark Rutte and exchange views on important global issues, including counter-terrorism and climate change.

"I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Rutte and reviewing our bilateral relations," Modi said.

Modi will also call on King Willem-Alexander and meet Queen Maxima.

Modi said the Netherlands is India's sixth largest trading partner in the European Union and fifth largest investment partner globally.

He said the Dutch expertise in areas like water and waste management, agriculture, food processing, renewable energy, and ports and shipping, matches with India's development needs.

"India-Dutch economic engagement is a win-win proposition. I will discuss with PM Rutte as to how the two sides should work to further harness the synergies," Modi said.

The Prime Minister said he will meet CEOs of major Dutch companies and will encourage them to join the Indian growth story.

Modi said there were strong people-to-people relations between India and the Netherlands due to the presence of the second largest Indian diaspora in Europe in that country.
Bengaluru, June 24 : Members of the Information Technology Employees' Union (ITEU) on Saturday sought the intervention of Karnataka's IT Minister Priyank Kharge to prevent illegal layoffs by software firms in the state.

"We urge Kharge to intervene and prevent arbitrary and illegal retrenchment of thousands of employees by software companies in the state," ITEU President A.C. Kumara Swamy told reporters here.

Swamy alleged that software major Wipro Ltd was set to sack about 6,000 employees by June 30 and many more IT firms were planning to do the same in the near future.

"The state government should soon convene a meeting with IT firms to stop such illegal layoffs," reiterated Swamy.

Though the union members met Kharge on June 5 with the same demand, the minister was yet to initiate talks with the IT companies on feared retrenchments.

"We expect the IT minister to come to our rescue," said Swamy.

The union also alleged that many IT firms were putting work pressure on junior employees through their middle level managers to meet targets without concern for their health and welfare.

"Many employees are compelled to resign due to work pressure and long-working hours," said ITEU Secretary M. Chandramouli.

The union secretary also urged the state Labour Minister and Labour Commissioner to intervene in the interest of about one million employees in the state's IT industry.

"We want IT firms to give at least two-month notice to their employees before retrenching them. They should also be given severance package with one-year salary and medical insurance cover for next 12 months," added Chandramouli.
Jaipur, June 24 : The Jat community in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, on Saturday called off their stir demanding reservation on the second day after holding talks with a government delegation, police said.

"The Jat agitation has been called off after talks with a high-level state government delegation," Superintendent of Police, Bharatpur, Anil Kumar Tank, told IANS over phone.

On Friday, the protest had badly affected road and railway traffic in Bharatpur district, over 170 km from state capital Jaipur.

Vishvendra Singh, a prominent Jat leader and former ruler of Bharatpur, told IANS: "We have got a written statement from the state government that they will discuss the report of the Commission that was set up by the state government to survey the socio-economic status of the Jat community in Bharatpur and Dholpur districts in the first of the Cabinet meetings."

Jats in Rajasthan are classified as Other Backward Classes (OBC), except for the Jats of Bharatpur and Dholpur districts, who now are demanding similar status.

The Commission set up in 2016 submitted its report on Thursday.

The Congress legislator said the state government has assured them that they would sympathetically look into their demands.

"I request my community members to lift road and rail blockades," Singh said.

On Friday, the protesters had resorted to road and train blockades in some places, mainly between Bharatpur to Mathura, Jaipur and Agra and roads connecting various towns in the district.

Many trains in Jaipur, Agra and Mathura sectors were cancelled while train traffic between the important Delhi-Mumbai sector was affected.

Roads from Bharatpur to Delhi, Deeg, Alwar, Agra and Mathura were also blocked.
New Delhi, June 24 : The central government has given its "in-principle approval" for the construction of a green field airport at Jewar, located in Gautam Budh Nagar district, adjoining the national capital city of New Delhi.

The new facility will be the second international airport to serve the catchment areas of the National Capital Region (NCR).

The new aviation facility at Jewar -- Noida International Airport -- is expected to ease the infrastructure pressure on the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) located here.

According to Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, the approval or site clearance has been given for the first phase of the airport which is envisaged to be completed in five years.

"We have granted in-principle approval for a greenfield airport at Jewar (Greater Noida) to cater to the growing flying requirements of NCR," Raju said at a press briefing held at the Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan here which is the headquarters of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

"Noida International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years."

Elaborating on the project, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said the first phase of the new airport project is expected to cost Rs 10,000 crore.

The state government through the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority is expected to complete land acquisition and conduct a techno-economic feasibility study for the project within one year.

In April, Sinha had said that the new state government in Uttar Pradesh has asked for a fresh technical evaluation for setting up a green field airport at Jewar.

A technical evaluation of the proposed site at Jewar was conducted earlier but due to the time lapse there was a need to conduct a fresh study, Sinha had said.
Agartala, June 24 : A Tripura tribal party organised rallies in 29 places across the state on Saturday to support the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state in West Bengal's Darjeeling.

Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), a tribal based party in Left-ruled Tripura, held rallies and protest demonstrations in 29 places under the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) areas.

"We not only support the separate Gorkhaland state in West Bengal, we also strongly condemn the atrocities on the leaders and members of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM)," IPFT President Narendra Chandra Debbarma told reporters here.

The IPFT has for the past few years been agitating for the creation of a separate state, carved out by upgrading the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) area.

The TTAADC was formed in 1987 under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to protect and safeguard the political, economic and cultural interests of the tribals.

The IPFT has announced blockading of National Highway-8 and the rail tracks for an indefinite period from July 10 in support of their demand.

NH-8 maintains the surface connection between the land-locked state and the rest of the country through Assam.

The politically-important TTAADC constitutes two-third of Tripura's 10,491 sq km area and 1,216,465 (mostly tribals) of the state's total 37 lakh population reside in the areas.

Almost all the political parties in Tripura have opposed the IPFT's demand for a separate state.
Washington, June 24 : When Narendra Modi comes calling on Donald Trump Monday, one can say "with a high degree of confidence" in spook lingo that the POTUS would face at least one question about Russia.

That seems to be the standard drill for the Trump baiting main stream media (MSM) whether a White House visitor is from Romania or India. So is the case at the daily press briefings that have now gone largely off camera.

And pundits are sure to talk their heads off around what the President said or didn't say about Russia as they did after White House spokesman Sean Spicer came to face the much complaining scribes after eight days.

"Does President Trump believe that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 elections?" asked one intrepid reporter demanding "just very plainly, a yes or no answer."

Spicer's response that he and Trump haven't talked about it lately was quickly translated as "Spicer won't say if Trump believes overwhelming evidence of Russian election interference."

For MSM there is no 'masala' in India and it's the Russian vodka that wins them the eyeballs - millions of them.

Evidence: Former FBI chief James Comey's 150 minute tell-all tale about his firing was so riveting that even some avid porn addicts tuned in to the June 8 Senate hearing.

PornHub's analytic team has reported an over ten percent decrease in their online traffic in the Washington region starting with a dip at 10 am when Comey's testimony began.

But the prophets of doom on the left still reeling under Trump's incredible victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton have met more than their match in the former reality TV star who has mastered the art of changing the conversation.

After teasing the media for 41 days, the POTUS who had "warned," as MSM would have it, Comey "better hope there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!" cleared the mystery in a tweet.

Trump "admitted" that he "did not make, and do not have" recordings "of my conversations with James Comey," but he also dangled the tantalizing prospect of his own spooks eavesdropping on him.

"With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea whether there are 'tapes' or recordings of my conversations," he fired.

Even as critics went hoarse crying "witness intimidation," Trump told Fox News he "bluffed" about having tapes to keep Comey honest.

With a possibility of tapes, "I think his story may have changed," said the President suggesting his "not very stupid" move may have forced Comey to admit publicly what he had told Trump thrice privately that he personally was not under investigation.

There was "no collusion" with Moscow, Trump asserted again asking, "if Russia was working so hard" to meddle in the 2016 election during the Obama administration "Why didn't they stop them?"

Amidst the never ending Russia circus, a noted legal scholar Alan M. Dershowitz declared "Trump's bluff: perfectly legal." As a lawyer, even "honest Abe" Abraham Lincoln had resorted to bluff to get at the truth.

Calling it "the most absurd of the many absurd charges levelled against Trump by those out to get him without regard to the law," he asked how a move to induce someone "to tell the truth be witness intimidation?"

And even if the Trump campaign did coordinate or "collude" politically with Russia, it would be no crime under law as it stood today.

He also offered some sane advice to "those out to get President Trump" to stop concocting "'crimes' out of the most innocent behaviour."

"Remember that today's use of the criminal law against a president you don't like may become a precedent to using a criminal law against a president you do like," cautioned Dershowitz, who is no Trump supporter.

Trump on his part gladly escaped from the "Washington swamp" to hold a campaign style rally in Iowa rally to regale his die-hard base about his crusade against "Crooked Hillary" and the "fake media."

Meanwhile, with activists gunning for Trump at the drop of a hat - or without - a group called DC Local Ambassadors that helped organise "March for Truth" is offering help to plan more protests in the capital. But can truth prevail in a fractured America?

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
New Delhi, June 24 : The central government has given its "in-principle approval" for the construction of a greenfield airport at Jewar, located in Gautam Budh Nagar district, adjoining the national capital city of New Delhi.

The new facility, expected to be spread across 3,000 hectares of land, will be the second international airport to serve the catchment areas of the National Capital Region (NCR).

The new aviation facility at Jewar -- Noida International Airport -- is expected to ease the infrastructure pressure on the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) located here.

It is expected that IGIA's passenger handling capacity will reach up to 91 MPPA (million passengers per annum) by 2020 and 109 MPPA by 2024 from the current level of 62 million.

The Noida International Airport in Uttar Pradesh will be located 72 km from IGIA and 65 km from Hindon Air Force station in Ghaziabad.

According to Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, the approval or site clearance has been given for the first phase of the airport which is envisaged to be completed in five years.

"We have granted in-principle approval for a greenfield airport at Jewar (Greater Noida) to cater to the growing flying requirements of NCR," Raju said at a press briefing held at the Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan here which is the headquarters of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

"Noida International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years."

The first phase of the project would require around 1,000 hectares of land, the minister said.

Elaborating on the project, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said the first phase of the new airport project is expected to cost Rs 10,000 crore.

Sinha pointed out at the press briefing that one runway and a terminal building will be developed during the first phase.

The state government will implement the project through the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA).

The YEIDA is expected to complete land acquisition and conduct a techno-economic feasibility study for the project within one year.

In April, Sinha had said that the new state government in Uttar Pradesh has asked for a fresh technical evaluation for setting up a green field airport at Jewar.

A technical evaluation of the proposed site at Jewar was conducted earlier but due to the time lapse there was a need to conduct a fresh study, Sinha had said.

The announcement comes a day after the Steering Committee on Greenfield Airports, headed by Civil Aviation Secretary R.N. Choubey accorded in-principle approval for the project based on a proposal submitted by the recently elected state government of Uttar Pradesh.

In 2001, the then UP chief minister Rajnath Singh proposed the idea of an airport located in Greater Noida. Later, governments including those of Mayawati, proposed that the project be set up in Jewar, near Greater Noida.

The last UP government scrapped the project, citing a clause that bars development of a second airport within a 150-km radius of an existing one. The IGIA is being developed and managed by a consortium led by GMR.

However, Raju said that the project which is expected to be developed on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, will provide the GMR-led consortium with the "First Right of Refusal" at the time of the bidding.
Jammu, June 24 : Indian and Pakistani troops had a nearly three hour long artillery duel on the LoC on Saturday after Pakistan army resorted to heavy shelling and firing in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, defence officials said.

"Pakistan army resorted to unpr ovoked shelling and firing on the LoC in Poonch district. Indian army retaliated effectively and strongly," a defence source told IANS.

According to the source, the Pakistan shelling and firing started at 11.30 a.m. and firing exchanges only stopped at 2.10 p.m."
Chandigarh, June 24 : The ruling Congress in Punjab on Saturday alleged that the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) were playing a "fixed match" in the state assembly.

Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar told media here that both the parties "played a fixed match before the polls and are doing it again in the state assembly".

Jakhar lashed out at the opposition parties for making a mockery of the democratic institution of the state assembly and demanded an unconditional apology for undermining the sanctity of the House and the speaker.

"They have reduced the assembly to a battleground due to their inter and intra party power struggles," he said.

The Punjab assembly had witnessed a commotion on Thursday (June 22) as marshals were ordered to take away protesting AAP legislators. The AAP alleged that turbans of two of its Sikh legislators were tossed and two other legislators were injured in the incident.

Jakhar warned the Akali Dal leaders not to disturb the assembly by protesting inside.

He said the Akalis "looted the state and its people for 10 years" and now it's time for action.

"They won't have to wait for long as the Amarinder Singh government is going systematically about initiating inquiries and action against the various mafias that mushroomed during the Akali regime," Jakhar said, adding that the Congress government will not be vindictive but no mafia would be spared.

He said historic decisions by the Congress government like abolition of truck unions and transparency introduced into mining auctions showed its commitment.

Jakhar said the "inexperienced" AAP leadership was playing to the gallery in the assembly in a clear attempt of one-upmanship and both parties were trying to manipulate issues by resorting to antics in the assembly.

The Congress came to power in Punjab in March this year.
Mumbai, June 24 : National Award winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar's short film "Mumbai Mist" received a positive response at the BRICS Film Festival in Chengdu, China.

The film premiered at the fest on Friday, and Bhandarkar was present there.

The story of the film themed on "where has the time gone" shows a bond shared between an old man and an orphan ragpicker, played by Annu Kapoor and child actor Master Devrath.

Since Bhandarkar has a soft corner for Bollywood classics, he used the song "Awaara hoon" from Raj Kapoor's film, and that brought back a moment of nostalgia for audience members, said a statement.

"Mumbai Mist" was part of The Magnificent Five - Directors Collaboration Project for the BRICS Film Festival.

Bhandarkar represented India, alongside globally-feted storytellers like Brazilian Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries fame), Chinese director-screenwriter Jia Zhangke, Russian storyteller Aleksey Fedorchenko and South African filmmaker Jahmil XT Qubeka.
SmartUQ, a Madison engineering analytics software company, says it has signed a contract to work with a prestigious aerospace organization.

SmartUQ's statistical tools speed up the development of product prototype designs by minimizing potential risks.

The company has landed a two-year project with PACE, the Probabilistic Analysis Consortium for Engines, which is developed and managed by the Ohio Aerospace Institute under contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory.

SmartUQ will help the consortium develop next-generation jet engines use that will be more powerful and last longer, SmartUQ chief scientist Peter Qian said.

"Designing an engine is one of the most difficult tasks," said Qian, who declined to disclose terms of the contract.

SmartUQ, 3525 University Ave., has about 15 full-time employees, all but two in Madison.

The company, founded in 2014, recently finalized a $1.9 million funding round from investors, bringing its total amount raised to $4.5 million.

Qian has said SmartUQ is working with some multinational companies and plans to expand overseas.
Bengaluru, June 24 : Global software major Infosys Ltd has embarked on a three-pronged transformation journey for a sustainable and secure future, said its Board Chairman R. Seshasayee on Saturday at the company's 36th Annual General Meeting (AGM) here.

"We are undertaking three transformations simultaneously for a sustainable and secure future for your company. The first is business transformation from a traditional IT services to an innovation-led software-plus services company, which is formidable enough; second the cultural transformation that comes along when you induct global leadership talent; and third, the abrupt transition from the promoter-led Board to an independent Board," he told about 1,000 shareholders at the AGM.

Admitting that none of the transformations were easy, Seshasayee said other industry players might have one or the other, but not all the three and underlaid the board and the management's commitment to accelerated efforts to navigate the company through these daunting changes and deliver performance.

Noting that Infosys was at a defining moment, he said it was at the cusp of the fourth industrial revolution, with all prospects for human advancement and new business opportunities.

"The rapid digitisation of everything around us is disrupting entire industries in an irreversible and profound way. As this revolution accelerates, the opportunity for us is two-fold.

"First, to bring automation and software-led efficiencies to the core of our traditional services, whilst rapidly learning to imbibe new technologies and innovation. Second, to do the same for our clients as we partner with them through their digital transformation."

Seshasayee said the twin-approach would bring technology-enabled efficiencies to the clients problem-solving and freeing them to find new opportunities to create greater value.

"Our endeavour is to deliver our traditional services through a people plus software model so that our engineers can focus on higher-value work and on innovating for our clients," he said.

Asserting that the progress in the fiscal under review was encouraging, he said navigating through the year was not without challenges posed by the external environment due to "growing commoditisation of our traditional business, rapidly spreading protectionism and escalating demand from clients for more value for their technology investments".

"Our strategy had to quickly evolve to respond to changing dynamics in the marketplace and our execution had to be elevated to a higher level of efficiency," he said.

The company has set up a Committee of Directors to monitor execution and enhance alignment between the board and the management in strategic responses to the changing market situations.

The chairman also referred to the challenges the company faced during the last 18 months, including intense criticism of the board and management's "governance lapses".

"Executive leadership compensation was an issue that dominated the narrative on governance. The Board has, in the spirit of further transparency, released a document, explaining in detail the policy on executive compensation, the key performance indicators for variable pay and related matters on the company's website and in the annual report," added Seshasayee.
Kolkata, June 24 : The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) on Saturday said it arrested a smuggler from West Bengal's Alipurduar district and seized a consignment of wildlife products worth Rs 2.47 crore from his possession.

One 540-gm rhino horn worth Rs 1.72 crore and a Tokay Gecko lizard valued at Rs 75 lakh, were seized in a joint operation conducted on Friday by SSB's 53 Battalion troopers and the Forest Department on a tip-off, an SSB official said.

"The total valuation of seized rhino horn and Tokay Gecko lizard as calculated by forest officials according to international market rate is Rs 2,47,80,000. The wildlife products were to be smuggled from India to China through Bhutan," the official said.

Tokay Geckos and Rhinos are found in Jaldapara forest and Buxa Tiger reserve and their body parts are smuggled through Alipurduar to Bhutan, from where they are sent to China, the official said.

The arrested trafficker, identified as Badal Tirki, was later handed over to the West Bengal Forest Department. He informed interrogators that he usually gets Rs Rs 5 lakh-Rs 20 lakh per Tokay Gecko as per weight and size.

The SSB, which is mandated to guard the 1,751-km India-Nepal and the 699-km India-Bhutan international borders, has seized wildlife products amounting to more than Rs 129 crore so far this year and arrested 55 traffickers in 61 cases.
Mumbai, June 24 : Veteran film celebrities Javed Akhtar and Paresh Rawal have condemned the lynching of a police officer in Srinagar and another incident in Haryana, asking people to think "where are we going".

"Lynching of an officer in Kashmir and four innocent Muslims in Haryana. Brothers and sisters, we all need to think calmly where are we going," Akhtar tweeted on Saturday.

A mob had stripped and lynched 57-year-old Deputy Superintendent of Police Muhammad Ayub Pandit, in a grand mosque of Srinagar, triggering widespread outrage; while a teenager was killed and three of his friends injured in an attack by a group of persons in a train in Haryana.

When a social media user questioned Akhtar: "Officer was just a officer... But that four people were Muslims... Where we are going Javed ji?", the celebrated writer responded: "That officer's name was Ayub but what matters is that he was a police officer who was lynched by a Muslim mob in Kashmir."

BJP MP Paresh Rawal wrote: "Muhammad Ayub is lynched just outside mosque on Friday and in the holy month of Ramadan. For Muhammad Ayub, where are award wapsi jerks and liberal louts and the whole termite clan?"

Jewellery designer Farah Khan Ali, who often comments on social issues, reacted: "We are living in times where mobs are taking the law into their own hands lynching innocents be it Dadri, Rajasthan or Kashmir, etc. Sad times.

"We the liberals are all here Mr Rawal. The question is -- be it Dadri, Rajasthan Kashmir, etc, where are the law enforcers? Why don't you condemn them?"

Meanwhile, filmmaker Onir said: "It's a shame... What we are turning into."
New Delhi, June 24 : Union Minister Giriraj Singh has called for a population control law without which "communal harmony would be disrupted" while blaming "appeasement politics" for the declining Hindu population.

The minister, known for making controversial remarks, said appeasement politics has led to the Hindu population "declining from 90 per cent in 1947 to below 72 per cent at present".

"If population control law is not introduced in India, communal harmony would be disrupted. Wherever Hindu population has decreased in the country, communal harmony has been affected," he told a regional Zee Group channel in an interview to be aired on Saturday.

However, according to 2011 census, Hindus comprise 79.8 per cent of the total population compared to 84.1 per cent as per 1951 census.

The Minister added that there was also a need to "revisit the definition" of minorities. "I can do anything for this. I am a Hindu first and then a BJP man," he said.

The Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, who was also a minister in Nitish Kumar's cabinet in Bihar, alleged that the Janata Dal-United leader was not concerned about the development of the state anymore but "was running after power now".

Attacking Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad, he termed him a "brand ambassador of Jungle Raj".

Giriraj Singh also said he wanted yoga to be made compulsory in schools across the nation as it was "good for health".
Washington, June 24 : Talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump in what would be their first face-to-face meeting would focus on ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism and defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, besides trade and law enforcement, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has said.

Spicer said that talks between the two on Monday would be "robust".

"... The President and the Prime Minister will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counterterrorism, defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement, and energy. I think it's going to be a very robust discussion," he said at his regular briefing on Friday.

Modi left New Delhi on Saturday on a three-nation tour that will take him to the US, Portugal and the Netherlands. He reached Portugal on Saturday ahead of his visit to the US on June 26 and will visit the Netherlands on June 27 on the way back home.

Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar flew into Washington ahead of Modi's visit to meet senior officials in the Trump administration and to lay the groundwork for the Modi-Trump meeting.

On Friday, Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and both sides focused on areas of convergence.

Indian envoy to the US Navtej Sarna has termed Modi's visit a "great opportunity for the two leaders to know each other". He said Modi will meet the top 20 CEOs of the US during the visit.

Sarna also expressed the hope that the visit will provide sufficient time for Modi and Trump to get to know each other.

He said that India is major defence partner of the US and both countries have a robust defence and security relationship.

In a pre-departure statement, Modi on Friday said he will hold in-depth discussions with Trump during his visit and hoped to build a forward-looking vision for partnership with the new administration.

The Prime Minister said that apart from his official meetings with Trump and his Cabinet colleagues, he will meet some prominent American CEOs and the large Indian diaspora.

Former President Barack Obama had called India-US ties the "most defining partnership" of the 21st century. Both leaders had struck a warm personal equation and worked to ease any bilateral irritants.

The Obama administration had accorded India the status of a 'major defence partner'.

According to reports, the US has cleared the sale of 22 American-made Guardian surveillance drones for India ahead of Modi's visit. The deal is estimated to be worth $2-3 billion.

Both sides will also discuss the sale of US fighter jets during the Modi's visit.

Earlier this week, US defence giant Lockheed Martin and India's Tata group signed an agreement to jointly build the F-16 Block 70 fighter in India, in a boost to Prime Minister Modi's 'Make in India' programme.

Under the deal, Lockheed will shift its Fort Worth, Texas plant to India without directly affecting American jobs.

The deal was announced during the Paris Airshow between Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) and Lockheed Martin.

The navies of India, US and Japan also participate in the Malabar exercise.
Kolkata, June 24 : West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Saturday claimed that the ruling Trinamool Congress is not willing to resolve the Darjeeling unrest to gain political benefit in the region by trying to create a divide between Nepali and Bengali communities.

Ghosh, who earlier advocated a tripartite meeting between the Central and state governments and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leaders to resolve the unrest, alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government is trying to fuel "anti-Nepali sentiment" among the Bengalis living in north Bengal.

"The state government is not willing to discuss the Darjeeling unrest because they do not want to solve it. The issue gives them political benefit," Ghosh told IANS.

"They are trying to create a divide between the Nepali community and the Bengalis living in the hills. North Bengal is not a stronghold of Trinamool. That's why they are trying to strengthen their base here by fuelling anti-Nepali sentiment," he said.

Taking a swipe at Chief Minister Banerjee, the BJP leader said that "it's funny she had to depend on the army, which she once termed as extortionists, to save her face in Darjeeling".

"The state police have no role in the hills now. They have been driven away to the plains. The army has been called in to maintain law and order," Ghosh said.

The picturesque Darjeeling district in the northern West Bengal is on the boil for more than two weeks over demands for a separate state of Gorkhaland. It has been facing an indefinite shutdown for the last 10 days.

While GJM, which is spearheading the movement for Gorkhaland, has repeatedly rejected any possibility of talks with the state government accusing it of "oppression and high handedness", the state government maintains that it is ready for a discussion after the situation in the area becomes normal.
Kolkata, June 24 : BJP MP George Baker and some party workers were on Saturday injured after alleged Trinamool Congress workers attacked them in West Bengal's East Burdwan district.

Four persons were arrested so far in the case, police said.

The actor-turned-politician, who had gone to Kalna as part of BJP's "Vistarak' programme, filed a complaint with Kalna police station.

"All of a sudden, they started beating our workers. When I got down from my vehicle, they attacked me. I resisted when one tried to hit me on the head. Some of them hit from behind," said the nominated Anglo Indian MP from West Bengal.

Baker and other injured persons were taken to a local hospital for treatment.

"We have arrested four local persons so far. The investigation is going on," said an official from Kalna police station.

Denying their party's involvement in the incident, local Trinamool Congress leaders said the incident was a result of an intra-party feud in the BJP.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh alleged that their party workers involving in the Vistarak programme were targetted everyday in different parts of the state.

"George Baker was beaten up at Kalna while Locket Chatterjee was heckled in Birbhum," he said.
Hyderabad, June 24 : AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said Islamophobia was being spread in the country, resulting in incident of lynching of Muslims.

Condemning the lynching of a 17-year-old youth on a train in Haryana, Owaisi said a hate atmosphere was being created.

"I called this atmosphere Islamophobia. Those creating Islamophobia are responsible for lynching of Muslims in the name of cow, religion or beard," he told reporters here.

The Hyderabad MP was reacting to Friday's incident in Haryana in which four Muslim boys were attacked by a group of people after an altercation and one of the victims, Junaid, died. The were returning to their village in Haryana from Delhi after Eid shopping.

Owaisi also condemned the lynching of a police officer by a mob outside Srinagar's Jamia Masjid. "I condemn the lynching of DYSP Ayub and that too on the holy night and near Jamia Masjid," he said adding that there is no difference between those who lynched Ayub and those who are lynching Muslims in the name of cow or religion.

"There is no difference whatsoever. They can't be called human beings and need to be condemned," he said.

The MP said the incident shows the misgoveranance by BJP and PDP which were in power in Jammu and Kashmir. He said they were clueless on what was happening on ground. He said the two parties had made tall promises and assurances but nothing happened.

Owaisi said BJP's choice of Ram Nath Kovind as its candidate for the post of President showed that it wants to convert India into a "Hindu rashtra".

"President of India's post is a Constitutional post. If a person aspiring to become the President of India holds the view that minorities which includes Muslims and Christians are alien to this nation, what kind of confidence this candidate or his party is creating in the Constitution. What kind of message they are sending to minorities?" he asked.

Owaisi said Kovind was repeating "ideology of Sarvarkar, Golwalkar and RSS". On BJP's criticism that he is doing communal politics over the issue, he said the party should clarify whether Kovind made this statement or not.
Srinagar, June 24 : A Central Reserve Police Force jawan was killed and four other security men were injured on Saturday after militants attacked a CRPF vehicle here in Jammu and Kashmir.

Police said militants attacked the CRPF vehicle in Pantha Chowk on the outskirts of Srinagar city outside the Delhi Public School (DPS) in the evening.

"A sub-inspector of the CRPF was killed and two CRPF troopers injured in this attack," police said.

In another incident, a local policeman and a CRPF trooper were injured at the site of the militant attack when the rifle of a policeman went off accidentally.

The injured have been shifted to hospital for treatment and the school has been surrounded to trace the militants, police said.

Spokesman of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Abdullah Ghaznavi called a local news agency to own responsibility for the attack.
Doha, June 24 : Qatar's Foreign Minister on Saturday rejected a list of 13 conditions set by four Arab countries for lifting sanctions, saying it is neither reasonable nor actionable.

Qatar is under strict sanctions from Saudi Arabia and its allies, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain over its support to terror organisations, BBC reported.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, quoted by Al-Jazeera, said: "The US Secretary of State recently called upon the blockading nations to produce a list of grievances that was 'reasonable and actionable'."

"The British Foreign Secretary asked that the demands be 'measured and realistic.' This list does not satisfy that criteria."

He said the demands were proof that the sanctions had "nothing to do with combating terrorism... (but) limiting Qatar's sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy".

The country has been under unprecedented diplomatic and economic sanctions for more than two weeks, with Iran and Turkey increasingly supplying it with food and other goods. Qatar denies accusations that it is funding terrorism and fostering regional instability.

Among the 13 demands, the four Arab countries have demanded the closure of Al Jazeera TV, which is funded by the Qatari government.

They also want Qatar to reduce its ties with Iran, kick members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard out of Doha and cease any joint military cooperation with the country. The nations asked Qatar to close a Turkish military base, setting a deadline on Friday of 10 days.

The list also demanded that Doha severe all ties with "terrorist organisations", including the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State group, Al Qaeda and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Additionally, the nations also demanded that Qatar hand over all individuals who are wanted for terrorism and stop funding any extremist entities that are designated as terrorist groups.

Al Jazeera accused them of trying to silence freedom of expression, adding: "We assert our right to practise our journalism professionally without bowing to pressure from any government or authority."

The UAE's Foreign Minister Anwar Mohammad Gargash said there would be a "parting of ways" with Qatar if it failed to meet the demands.

"The alternative is not escalation," he said. "The alternative is parting of ways. It's very difficult for us to maintain a collective grouping with one of the partners... actively promoting what is an extremist and terrorist agenda."

He described Qatar as a "Trojan horse" within the group of Arab monarchies.
New Delhi, June 24 : Opposition parties on Saturday slammed the Narendra Modi government after none of its representatives turned up for an Iftar party hosted by outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee.

The ruling BJP was hard put to explain the absence of NDA ministers at the Friday evening gathering -- the last before Mukherjee demits office next month. The BJP maintained that it "should not be seen as disrespect" to the President.

"Over the past three years the politics which has been practised by the NDA government is completely exclusive in nature. Not attending the Iftar hosted by President is a reflection of that nature," senior Congress leader Manish Tewari told IANS.

Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid took to Twitter to attack the government questioning its "sabka sath, sabka vikas" policy.

"BJP leaders skip Iftar meals by President and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. If sab ka Iftar unacceptable what is left of sab ka saath, sab ka vikas? New India?," Khurshid asked.

Janata Dal-United leader Ali Anwar accused the BJP of ignoring President Mukherjee just because he is about to retire.

"They talk much about the culture and tradition of the country. But instead of following that, they keep on ignoring and do just the opposite. In our culture we even pray to the setting sun. But now they have thought that he is retiring that's why they are not giving him much importance," Anwar told IANS, adding that his party wanted another term for Mukherjee.

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Jha said, "The absence of all ministers from the Iftar party hosted by the President defines their politics and inclination and is also a downright contempt for the precedents that were set in place many years ago. This also tells us of what more we would we see in terms of RSS' influence on the government."

CPI leader D. Raja said the government should clarify on the issue.

However, BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said that the ministers were "pre-occupied" and thus could not attend the President's Iftar.

"This should not be seen as disrespect to the President. We respect him a lot. Ministers were pre-occupied and so could not attend it," Hussain told IANS.

The Indian Express had carried a front-page report on Saturday, quoting CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury as saying that "There was not a single minister, not a single government representative and not a single BJP leader. In all these years, I have never been to an Iftar hosted by the President where there has been no representative of the Government of India."

Yechury could not be reached by IANS for his comments.
Ballabhgarh (Haryana), June 24 : One person has been arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of a teenager in a train in Haryana, police said on Saturday.

Authorities said four more accused had been identified, but refused to disclose their identities.

The CPI-M said on Saturday that such crimes are a result of "toxic campaigns" of the right-wing outfits.

Accused Ramesh, 35, was arrested from his native place Palwal in Haryana late Friday night on the charge of involvement in the murder of 16-year-old Junaid, a senior police officer told IANS.

Ramesh was later sent in three-day police custody by a local court.

"He is claiming he didn't stab Junaid, and also not telling who all were with him during the crime on Thursday night."

The officer said three police teams have been formed to identify and arrest the remaining attackers who were part of the mob that attacked the four youths.

A Government Railway Police official told IANS that Section 298 of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to utterance of words etc. with deliberate intent to injure religious feelings of any person had been added to the case on Saturday.

Earlier, the GRP registered a case of murder and criminal assault.

On Thursday night, Junaid and his friends Hasib, Shakir, and Mohsin were returning to their village on a Mathura-bound passenger train after shopping at Sadar Bazaar in Delhi.

In his police complaint, Hasib said at least 15-20 persons boarded the train at Okhla railway station and asked them to vacate seats for them.

All four were thrashed all the way from Tughlakabad to the Ballabhgarh railway station and were attacked with sharp-edged weapons and later thrown out of the train at Asaoti railway station in Palwal district.

Media reports earlier said the murderous attack followed rumours about beef eating by the four youths.

Junaid succumbed to his injuries on Thursday night in a hospital. His three friends were injured, two of them critically, and are under treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Trauma Centre in Delhi.

Earlier in the day, a Communist Party of India-Marxist delegation led by Brinda Karat visited Junaid's native village.

Karat told IANS: "It should not be seen as a routine crime. It is a result of the toxic campaigns of the sangh parivar."

"Public spaces have been communalised -- whether trucks on roads or trains. And if these spaces are being communalised, there are going to be very serious implications."

The CPI-M leader questioned how persons with sharp weapons were allowed to board the train.

The CPI-M delegation said area villagers in Haryana had told them that such incidents of communal and abusive comments on local trains were commonplace but police had not taken any action on complaints in this regard.
Srinagar, June 24 : Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants attacked a Central Reserve Police Force vehicle on the outskirts of Srinagar on Saturday evening, killing an officer and injuring two others.

The militants attacked the CRPF vehicle in Pantha Chowk, on the Srinagar Jammu National Highway just outside Delhi Public School (DPS).

"A sub-inspector of the CRPF was killed and two CRPF troopers were injured in the militant attack," police said.

The militants reportedly took refuge inside the school, which was surrounded by security forces. The forces fired "probing" shots at the building to see if any hiding militant would fire back.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which has been behind some of the recent major militant attacks in the valley, has owned up responsibility for the attack. Abdullah Ghaznavi, LeT spokesperson, called a local news agency to say the outfit was behind the attack.

In a freak incident at the shootout site, the rifle of a local policeman went off accidentally, injuring a CRPF trooper and a policeman.

Restrictions have been imposed in the area following the militant attack.

District Magistrate Srinagar Farooq Ahmed Lone said: "Restrictions have been imposed with immediate effect from Ramunshi Bagh to Sempora" -- a stretch of the highway.

The injured have been shifted to hospital for treatment.
Raipur, June 24 : At least two Special Task Force (STF) personnel were killed and five injured in a gunfight with Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Saturday, police said.

The STF men were patrolling an area of the Tundamarka forests in Chintagufa area around 10 a.m. when they came under fire from a group of Maoists. In the ensuing exchange of fire, two of them were killed and five were injured.

"An Indian Air Force helicopter rescued the injured from the site. They have been taken to a hospital here for treatment," said Inspector General (Naxal (Maoist) Operations) Vivekanand Sinha.

Ramkrishna Hospital Director Sandeep Dave said: "The injured jawans are being treated and they are in stable condition. Two jawans have undergone operations and are out of danger."

A joint operation against the Maoists is ongoing in the state where police is claiming to have killed 15-20 Maoists. Nine Maoists have been arrested during the operations.

"The Maoists wouldn't have thought that a operation would occur in Tundamarka forests. The attack has caused heavy Maoist casualties," Sinha said.

Seven Maoists have been arrested from Dantewada district's Kuankonda area and two from Sukma's Kukanar area. One Maoist was killed in a gunfight in Bijapur district, he added.

Director General D.M. Avasthi said: "During the ongoing joint operations, Maoists shot at a battalion of District Reserve Guards which returned fire and even destroyed a weapons factory of the Maoists. The security forces have conducted many operations against the Maoists after May 8."

Reportedly, a meeting of senior officials is underway in the police headquarters which includes Avasthi, Air Commodore Ajay Shukla, CRPF Inspector General Devendra Chauhan and others.

On April 24, 25 Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed in an ambush in Sukma's Burkapal area while 12 CRPF troopers were killed in a Maoist attack in Sukma on March 11.
Daisy Intelligence Corporation, an artificial intelligence software-as-a-service company, will provide insight into the application of artificial intelligence in the real world during a panel discussion at this years #SmartCanada!: A.I. In the Real World networking reception in New York City on June 27, 2017 at the Thomson Reuters Building in Times Square. Daisy Intelligence will be one of the five Canadian companies that will be part of the panel discussion.

The networking reception aims to highlight Canadas competitive business climate and recognize Canadas culture of innovation for artificial intelligence. The Consulate General of Canada in New York has collaborated with established businesses, start-ups, entrepreneurs, investors, and academic institutions to showcase Canada as a world leader in the business intelligence economy.

Canadian A.I. experts will discuss the economic outlook, industry trends, and the A.I. opportunity across all industries. Keynote speakers and panelists will discuss topics like:



All the hype and the next frontier of A.I.

Canadas boost in A.I. funding and the increase of industry partnerships

Opportunities for U.S. companies to partner or look into investing in Canada

A.I. in the real world: industry examples of how A.I. can improve the lives of millions

Were thrilled to showcase the Canadian artificial intelligence companies leading the way in this emerging space, said Shaaz Nasir, Trade Commissioner. Canada has become a hotbed for the development of A.I. solutions, as well as a hub for top A.I. talent, and this well-timed event is a great opportunity to showcase Canadas investment in A.I.

These are exciting times for Daisy Intelligence. We have been working very hard with our retail and insurance clients to bring the vision of artificial intelligence technologies to reality in meaningful ways to help them improve their operational effectiveness, said Gary Saarenvirta, CEO and Founder of Daisy Intelligence. It is gratifying to have been chosen to participate in this showcase event by the Commissioners office and have the opportunity to continue our journey as we expand into new markets.

About Daisy Intelligence

Daisy Intelligence is an artificial intelligence (A.I.) software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that turns impossible big data problems into actionable decisions. We analyze very large quantities of our clients transaction and operational data in order to provide weekly promotional, price, and forecasting recommendations which our clients can use to grow total sales, improve margins, reduce fraud, and delight customers. Using our proprietary mathematical solutions and the Daisy A.I. based simulation platform, Daisy Intelligence analyzes 100% of the data and trade-offs inherent in any complex business question to help our clients make more profitable decisions and compete in the new world of retail. http://www.daisyintelligence.com

About the Canadian Consulate General in New York

The Consulate General of Canada in New York will be hosting a panel discussion and networking reception in partnership with NYU Future Labs, OReilly AI Conference and Layer 6AI to explore the global economic impact on the usage of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) across all vertical industries.

Canada is a world leader in business intelligence services, and offers a wealth of opportunities for companies looking for A.I. solutions to invest in Canada. The #CanadaAI Summit will be an opportunity to learn more about the economic outlook, industry trends, along with Canadas deep learning talent pool and capabilities in A.I. The Summit will bring together tech companies, entrepreneurs, VCs, and academia with an interest in A.I., and feature a keynote, panel discussion and networking reception showcasing Canada as a global leader in the innovation economy.

For more information or to register, please visit: http://bit.ly/CanadaAISummit

The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service

The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service has trade commissioners across Canada and over 161 offices around the world. We can assist with export advice and guidance to help you achieve your international business goals. The Regional Network provides on-the-ground client service across Canada through five Regional Office hubs and Client Service Satellites co-located with partners in every province of Canada.

For more information, contact:

Gary Saarenvirta

CEO, Daisy Intelligence Corporation

gsaarenvirta (at) daisyintel.com

905.642.2629 ext. 221

Shaaz Nasir

Trade Commissioner, ICT Lead

Shaaz.nasir (at) international.gc.ca
A dog that is afraid of loud noises may hide or try to run away during fireworks. If your dog is bothered by loud noises...take precautions to keep him at home and feeling safe.

To most Americans, theres nothing quite like the thrill of fireworks booming and soaring overhead. But to a dog afraid of loud noises, the upcoming holiday week  with its fireworks, firecrackers and other loud noises -- is terrifying.

Some hide, but many run away, trying to escape the sounds. In fact, there are more lost dog incidents in early July than at any other time of the year.

If your dog is bothered by loud noises  whether its fireworks or thunderstorms  its important to take precautions to keep him at home and feeling safe during this period of celebration, says Renee Coughlin of Canine Company. She offers these dos and donts for dealing with an anxious dog during this noisy season.



Dont take a fearful dog with you to the community fireworks display or a backyard celebration that includes fireworks. Even if a dog hasnt been troubled by loud noises in the past, this could be the time he runs off to escape the scary sounds.

Set up a safe place for noisy times, likes fireworks and thunderstorms, in a quiet room  ideally one without windows. A pet bed and favorite toy will help her associate the area with comfort. When the fireworks begin, turn on a fan, TV or radio to help block out disturbing noises.

Distract him with a favorite game or by practicing obedience training. Concentrating on obeying commands may help keep his mind off the background noise  even as the sounds get increasingly louder.

Never punish a pet for being afraid. That will only make her more anxious. And, although its tempting, dont comfort her either. Cuddling and consoling will actually reinforce the fearful behavior. In her mind, shes being rewarded with attention and love.

"If your dogs anxiety is severe, dont leave him alone during fireworks, because he might injure himself trying to escape. If you cant be there, find someone to stay with him. Human attention is the best distraction," says Coughlin.

It is possible to de-sensitize a pet to loud sounds, she adds, but it takes time, patience and the help of a professional trainer.

About Canine Company

Born of a family's love for dogs, Canine Company provides at-home services to keep pets healthy, safe and happy. The company serves families across New England, New York and New Jersey with the Invisible Fence brand systems, Manners dog obedience training, and mobile grooming and pet sitting in select markets. Its charitable Canine Gives campaign supports pet rescue groups and donates pet oxygen masks to first responders. For information, visit CanineCompany.com or call 800-818-3647.
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Hodnett Cooper Real Estate is pleased to announce that several new professionals have recently joined the team at the St. Simons Island and Brunswick, Georgia office locations.

Chris Curry, Marty Gillespie, George Poole, and Lee Rainey have recently joined the growing sales team and are all proving to be valuable assets to the brokerage. George Poole is working out of the Brunswick, Georgia sales office and brings a wealth of experience to the office. Chris Curry, Marty Gillespie and Lee Rainey have offices in the St. Simons Island location and each will focus on residential real estate in the Golden Isles.

Pat Cooper, President and Broker of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Hodnett Cooper Real Estate, shares, We are excited to announce we have expanded our leading team of professionals and are thrilled to welcome these experienced REALTORS to our team. These REALTORS share our commitment to quality and customer service, and are exactly the type of sales professionals we are seeking, as we continue to grow our company and increase our presence in the local community.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Hodnett Cooper Real Estate, which is independently owned and operated, became a member of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brokerage network, operated by HSF Affiliates LLC, earlier this year. Since that time, it has earned a host of honors and welcomed several new professionals to the highly successful real estate team.

About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Hodnett Cooper Real Estate

Hodnett Cooper Real Estate is a family-owned and operated company with three offices throughout the Golden Isles offering a full range of real estate services including real estate sales, residential rentals, property management and commercial sales. The brokerage is the premier real estate company in southeast coastal Georgia with a professional and diverse team of agents. Visit http://www.BHHSHodnettCooper.com.

About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, based in Irvine, CA, is a brand-new real estate brokerage network built for a new era in residential real estate. The network, among the few organizations entrusted to use the world-renowned Berkshire Hathaway name, brings to the real estate market a definitive mark of trust, integrity, stability and longevity.

About HSF Affiliates LLC

Irvine, CA-based HSF Affiliates LLC operates Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Prudential Real Estate and Real Living Real Estate franchise networks. The company is a joint venture of which HomeServices of America, Inc., the nations second-largest, full-service residential brokerage firm, is a majority owner. HomeServices of America is an affiliate of world-renowned Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
AeroVision has built a platform that allows us to provide world-class parts support to EMB 120 operators, said Angela Baker, Vice President  Components

AeroVision International announces the purchase of 10 Embraer EMB 120s, the first acquisition of this aircraft type for the company. The 30 seat aircraft were part of a larger package acquired from SkyWest Airlines.

The acquisition marks AeroVisions entry into airframe and engine support for the EMB 120 series of aircraft, with several aircraft immediately available for outright purchase or lease. A number of the PW118B engines are immediately available for sale or lease, others are slated for the reduce-to-parts process and individual components will be available soon.

We are excited to launch our support of the EMB 120 product line, said Pete Gibson, AeroVisions Vice President  Aircraft & Engines. We continue to leverage our expertise on the Embraer ERJ series to build a best in class engine and airframe support offering to EMB 120 aircraft operators around the world.

AeroVision has built a platform that allows us to provide world-class parts support to EMB 120 operators, said Angela Baker, Vice President  Components, and our commitment to the unique requirements of legacy aircraft and engine operators of has been proven by our growth. This is a significant step in AeroVisions efforts to build a complete regional aircraft support business.

About AeroVision International LLC: Founded in 2003, AeroVision International has become a trusted business partner to business and regional aircraft MR&O shops worldwide. AeroVision supplies business and regional commuter engines and engine parts (PT6 / PW100 / JT15D / PW300 / PW500 / TFE-731 / AE3007) in support of operators and MRO facilities around the world. With a strong focus on regional aircraft like the ATR 42/72 & Embraer EMB 120, ERJ & EJet type aircraft, AeroVision offers sales & leasing of aircraft, engines, auxiliary power units, avionics and landing gear as well as outright or exchange sales of all major internal and external spare parts. Information on AeroVisions support for regional aircraft can be found at http://www.aerovi.com.
The Creig Northrop Team of Long & Foster Real Estate was ranked first in the nation for the third time based on sales volume, according to REAL Trends, a provider of statistical analysis for the residential real estate industry, in partnership with The Wall Street Journal. This is the first time any real estate team has achieved the top ranking three times. The Northrop Team also received the nations top-ranking position in 2010 and 2011.

The Northrop Team also ranked No. 1 in Maryland with a sales volume of $765,479,027 and 1,772 completed transaction sides in 2016. This marks the 11th consecutive year for achieving the ranking of No. 1 real estate team in Maryland.

Northrop Teams No. 1 ranking nationally reflects the unparalleled service we provide our customers. They benefit from a powerful, top-ranked real estate team with wide-reaching resources to accomplish their success, said Creig Northrop, president and CEO of the Northrop Team. We position an ahead-of-the-curve, robust marketing effort tailored for our customers.

The Northrop Teams ranking is part of REAL Trends The Thousand, which was developed jointly by The Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends. REAL Trends compiles rankings based on surveys of previous applicants as well as more than 900 of the largest United States brokerage firms. An independent third party verifies all submissions, and staff from REAL Trends also reviews these submissions for accuracy.

Over the 10 years REAL Trends and The Wall Street Journal have collaborated on ranking the top real estate agents and teams in America, no team has been more consistently in the top teams than the Creig Northrop Team, said Steve Murray, president and owner of REAL Trends. Reaching the No. 1 position among thousands of top teams in terms of closed volume is not a one-time thing but the result of years of hard work by Creig and his team. All of us at REAL Trends and our marketing partners at The Wall Street Journal congratulate him and his team.

The Creig Northrop Team of Long & Foster Real Estate is the No. 1 real estate team in Maryland for all brokerages.* They represent buyers and sellers of residential real estate in the Baltimore and Washington metropolitan regions with offices in Annapolis, Clarksville, Sykesville, Silver Spring and Lutherville-Timonium, Maryland. Creig Northrop has more than 25 years of experience in residential real estate and leads a team of over 85 full-time real estate agents. Long & Foster Real Estate is the largest independent residential real estate company in the United States and the No. 1 seller of luxury homes in the Mid-Atlantic region.**



By volume & transactions according to the Wall Street Journal & REAL Trends since 2006

** Luxury Portfolio International and Christies International Real Estate

###
We owe it to our veterans to staff and fund the very department that looks after their wellbeing.

The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) announced its support for the swift consideration of the president's nominee for deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs, retired Marine Col. Thomas G. Bowman.

Bowman currently serves as the staff director for the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.

Bowman brings an intimacy with the issues and challenges veterans face with the VA. Following a 30-year career of service in the Marine Corps, he served in several leadership roles in the VA, including acting assistant secretary for the Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, deputy chief of staff, and chief of staff.

MOAA strongly recommends the Senate promptly take up Bowmans nomination and, if he is confirmed, the association looks forward to working with him on the complex issues of importance to our membership and to all of the nation's veterans and their family members and survivors.

Appointment delays across the departments have impeded organizational progress and results. We owe it to our veterans to staff and fund the very department that looks after their wellbeing, said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dana T. Atkins, president and CEO of MOAA.

About MOAA:

Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is the nations largest officers association with more than 355,000 members from every branch of service, including active duty, retired, National Guard, Reserve, and former officers and their families and survivors. MOAA is a nonprofit and politically nonpartisan organization and an influential force in promoting a strong national defense. MOAA represents the interests of service members and their families in every stage of their lives and careers, and for those who are not eligible to join MOAA, Voices for Americas Troops is a nonprofit MOAA affiliate that supports a strong national defense. For more information, visit http://www.moaa.org or http://www.voicesfortroops.org.

Members of the news media who wish to be added to our media distribution list for MOAA news releases, please contact requestnews(at)moaa.org. Visit MOAAs Multimedia & Press Room at http://www.moaa.org/media/default.htm.
Martha, 2017 World's Ugliest Dog She's a 125-pound, drooling, snoring, gassy, loud and silly girl. She knocks over every water bucket. She bosses the other dogs around and makes sure all guests are suitably slimed on arrival, says Shirley Zindler

Martha, a 3-year-old Neopolitan Mastiff, won over the judges and the crowd for her drooling chops, excess skin and wrinkles in the 2017 Worlds Ugliest Dog Contest. Chief Judge Brian Sobel said We were impressed by a 125-pound dog with 300 pounds of skin. And Martha was the overwhelming crowd favorite. Martha, who is being fostered by Shirley Dawn Zindler for the Dogwood Animal Rescue Group, takes home $1,500 and a monumental, 5-foot-tall trophy.

She's a 125-pound, drooling, snoring, gassy, loud and silly girl. She knocks over every water bucket no matter how securely attached to the fence. She bosses the other dogs around and makes sure all guests are suitably slimed on arrival, says Shirley.

Second place went to Moe, owned by Miriam Tcheng and third place was Chase, owned by Storm Shayler. The Spirit award was won by Precious, owned by Catherine Kennedy.

Fourteen homely hounds competed in the annual Worlds Ugliest Dog contest for the title and world fame from as far away as Neath, UK. An Ugly Dog contest has been held in the small California coastal town of Petaluma for over 50 years, most of them at the Sonoma-Marin Fair.

From a Red Carpet Walk and a Fashion Faux Paw Show featuring Ugly Sweaters and rescued dogs, this annual competition has all the trappings of a Hollywood event, including cameras flashing and video rolling by international and network media. Even dog royalty Snoopy was in attendance.

We celebrate the spirit and imperfections that make these dogs loveable and adoptable, explains Karen Spencer, Marketing Director.

For more information visit Sonoma-MarinFair.org and click on Worlds Ugliest Dog Contest.
National Pawnbrokers Association 30th Anniversary The NPA community of pawnbrokers is committed to supporting the educations of the next generation of business leaders to further strengthen the industry

The National Pawnbrokers Association (NPA) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2017 Future Business Leaders (FBL) Scholarships. Through generous donations by pawnbroker members of the NPA, the following seven students were awarded $1,000 scholarships:

Savannah Garris

Sponsor - Sylacauga Pawn Shop, Alpine, AL

Austin Dale Hipps

Sponsor - Larrys Jewelry & Pawn, Harvest, AL

Julia Mae Newberry

Sponsor - Johnson Brothers Jewelry & Loan, Mansfield, OH

Destiny Owens

Sponsor - Lombard Financial Services, Inc, Fort Worth, TX

Joseph Marvin

Sponsor - Alans Jewelry & Pawn, Inc, Asheville, NC

Miranda Fulton

Sponsor - USA Pawn & Jewelry, Ridgeland, MS

Zachary McClain

Sponsor - USA Loans, Little Rock, AR

Dana Meinecke, Executive Director of the National Pawnbrokers Association, emphasized the importance of supporting aspiring business students with recognition and scholarships to help secure their continuing education. The NPA community of pawnbrokers is committed to supporting the educations of the next generation of business leaders to further strengthen the industry, said Mrs. Meinecke. The Future Business Leaders scholarship program has awarded over $147,000 since its inception in 2003.

FBL also awarded a $1000 scholarship to Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.). Since 1994, C.O.P.S. has donated over a million dollars in scholarships to survivors of fallen officers who do not receive tuition-free education as a state death benefit. C.O.P.S. provides scholarships to survivors who no longer meet their states eligibility for assistance.

The Future Business Leaders scholarship program was established to provide financial aid to individual applicants who are planning to enroll or are enrolled in an accredited two-year or four-year college or trade school.

Qualified applicants are children, grandchildren, customers, or employees of NPA members or an individual. Qualified applicants are sponsored by an NPA member in good standing. Student selection is based on academic performance, community leadership, and written essay submissions.

NPA is proud to be an active member in our communities by giving to programs like the Future Business Leaders scholarship and C.O.P.S. programs.

For more information, contact media(at)nationalpawnbrokers(dot)org or visit NationalPawnbrokers.org.

The NPA works to provide independent pawnbrokers nationwide with resources and tools to strengthen the pawn industry. NPA members are committed to operating their businesses in such a manner as to enhance and promote the positive and professional image of all pawnbrokers. Members believe in establishing positive and long-lasting relationships with local, state, and federal government officials. The NPA is the industrys only national association and is located in Keller, TX.
And the way Biden responded shows his personality is still fiery as ever.

The former vice president was speaking at a private dinner during last month's SALT conference in Las Vegas. At one point, former presidential candidate Jeb Bush, also in attendance, asked Biden why he didn't run in the 2016 election, according to a Fox Business account published Friday.

Biden reportedly responded by talking about his late son Beau Biden, who died in 2015 from brain cancer, and the room fell silent, according to the account. Biden then stopped himself.

"Im sorry  I've said enough," he said.

That's when Ackman intervened with an apparent attempt at a joke:

"Why? Thats never stopped you before," he said.

Biden didn't take kindly to Ackman's jab. From Fox Business:

A spokesman for Ackman downplayed the interaction, but didn't refute Biden's language.

Biden's near-candidacy was a popular topic at the SALT conference. In one speaking appearance that week, Biden publicly said of Hillary Clinton: "I never thought she was a great candidate. I thought I was a great candidate."

But it took until Friday for news of the Ackman incident to surface.

"Biden was in rare form," a source told Fox Business. "I cant believe it has never leaked out."

The former vice president has not ruled out a 2020 White House bid.
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The all-boys school from Kumasi amassed 43 points to beat of competition from T.1 Amass who obtained 39 points and Wesley Girls High School finished last with 31 points.

Kumasi High School started the competition slowly when they finished last after the first round, but they fought back during the true or false section in round four to occupy the top spot and subsequently maintained their lead in the final round.
The accused, a resident of Ajanlekoko Street, Kirikiri Town, Apapa, Lagos, pleaded not guilty to a three-count charge of attempted murder, grievous body harm and stealing.

The prosecutor, Sgt. Olusegun Kokoye told the court that the accused committed the offences on May 22 at their residence.

Kokoye alleged that the accused assaulted the complainant, one Mercy Ogula, while she was trying to settle a dispute between him and her cousin.

He said that the accused had the intention of pouring the hot oil on the complainants cousin, but it landed on Ogula.

Kokoye said that other tenants who were at the scene of the incident immediately rushed Ogula to the hospital, while Egbule was apprehended and taken to the police station.

The prosecutor claimed that Egbule also attempted to steal a phone worth N120,000 belonging to a police officer, Abiola Popoola, while at the police station.

Kokoye said that the offences contravened Sections 228,243 and 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 228 prescribes life imprisonment for attempted murder.

The magistrate, Mr M.A Etti, granted the accused bail in the sum of N100,000 with one surety in like sum.
The General Manager of the station, Samuek Asare Owusu, said he will go to court to ensure that the order by the National Media Commission is obeyed by all TV stations in the court.

He told Accra-based Citi FM: This order that has been given to us, we will abide it but we want to make sure that it is going to apply to all other TV stations.

We will come back to seek more clarification from the court because you cannot tell us to stop showing pornographic materials and later on well see other TV telecasting such materials, we wouldnt take that kindly.

READ ALSO:

His threat comes after the MNC blocked some three television stations from telecasting "pornographic materials" late evenings.

This comes after some ace broadcasters petitioned the National Media Commission to take action against television stations that show pornography.

In the said petition, the two ace broadcasters, Tommy Annan-Forson and James Oberko said from May 26 to June 7, they monitored and realised that that stations like Ice TV, XYZ TV and Thunder TV, were streaming pornographic content contrary to the broadcasting guidelines.

Earlier, the National Media Commission indicated that it will not take any action against the three television stations

But the NMC in a statement said contents of the three stations did not meet the standards of decency required by the Broadcasting Standards of the Commission.

Chairman of the NMC Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng said "Section 7 (e) of the NMC Broadcasting Guidelines provides that Actual sexual intercourse between humans should at no time be transmitted. The Commission said this provision does not admit of any exceptions."

The NMC noted that the three TV stations at a meeting, apologised and committed themselves and would ensure that there would be no more pornography on their network.
He made the disclosure at a stakeholders forum on Ghanas 10 years experience as a commercial oil producer in Accra organised by the Petroleum Commission.

He said a victory for Ghana will help attract more investors into the oil and gas sector.

READ ALSO:

With the final judgment by September 2017, the Ghana legal and technical team has put in their very best efforts, consequently we are very hopeful of securing a favourable decision, it is expected that the ruling will provide investors with the certainty they need to make long-term investment decisions in this country, Agyarko said.

President Nana Akufo-Addo has indicated the two countries must accept the final outcome of the ruling.

READ ALSO:

Speaking in Ivory Coast last month, the President opined that it is important to the populations of the two countries that they leave in peace and harmony.
Sam Pee Yalley is also on record to have said the location of the Flagstaff is a national security threat because it is closer to Nima, a Muslim dominated community.

In a statement, the Coalition of Muslim Organization (COMOG) accused Mr Yalley of religious bigotry.

As a nation that prides itself in the peaceful co-existence between members of different religious persuasions, such acts of bigotry and Islamophobia from no less a person than Mr. Yalley must be condemned by all peace-loving Ghanaians, the statement said.

The group said it was the NDC guru finds the presence of Muslims at the Flagstaff at the behest of the Vive President as nuisance.

Dr. Alhaji Bawumia is the second gentleman on the land, and as humble as we know him may have sought permission from President Nana Akufo-Addo and perhaps other officials before the first-ever Iftar took place there, the statement said.

We therefore find it unfortunate that Mr. Yalley decided that Muslims presence at the presidency is a nuisance since no law was broken.

The statement further denounced his comments as expression of intolerance as well as the promotion of islamophobia.
Mr Robert Jackson told the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament on Thursday that the US Embassy has withdrawn courtesies which were before then extended to officials in the country who are embarking on such visits to their country.

He said the Embassy would process visas for officials travelling for government business within 48 hours of receipt of their passports from the Protocol Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

READ ALSO: Four Ghanaian MPs cited in alleged UK visa fraud

He, however, indicated that officials travelling on private business will have to go through the process like any ordinary citizen.

Now if you are travelling for tourism or business that is not related to government business, you will need to make a personal appearance. I want to reiterate, for official travel, protocol officers pass the passports for visa applications through the foreign ministry and the foreign ministrys protocol officers bring it to us.

"But for personal travel, every person is required to make a personal appearance, even former presidents of Ghana have to come in for personal appearance, he stated.
The government must be firm, not rude and we can get what we want also, he admonished.

He continued: What we have to do is make sure that foreign policy is not dictated to us, and they will still continue to talk because these things are always done diplomacy is such that you try to veer your opponent to your bidding and that is what they are doing.

Mr Antwi-Danso claimed that the US is seeking to put pressure on Ghana and some African countries it wants military bases on the continent.
In a statement said, it said the US laws require applicants for visas to appear in person but said special circumstances are created for former Presidents for all the necessary courtesies to be extended to them.

The statement said under U.S. law, travelers seeking a non immigrant visa for travel to the United States must generally appear in person for an interview with a consular officer. U.S. law also designates limited exceptions under which the visa interview may be waived, such as for diplomats and officials traveling on official government business.

However, under U.S. law, when a diplomat or official applies for a new visa for personal travel, that applicant must appear in person for an interview. This is not a new policy. In such limited and special circumstances as having a former president come in, we have procedures established to ensure the appropriate courtesies are extended.

The statement continued: When a diplomat or official applies for a visa for personal travel, it is neither necessary nor appropriate for the applicant to be accompanied to the interview by protocol assistants. As a general policy, only visa applicants are allowed in the waiting room.

Our communication to the Government of Ghana was meant to clarify this policy. We will continue to work with the government to facilitate legitimate personal and official travel.

The clarification comes after the US ambassador, Robert Jackson, told parliaments Foreign Affairs Committee that such individuals were able to take advantage of "protocol services" where they did not have to physically appear at the US embassy to obtain a visa.

"If you are travelling for tourism or business that is not related to government business, you will be required to make a personal appearance, even with former presidents," he told the committee.

"There are no exceptions."
The decision has generated heat in the country, forcing the embassy to clarify that presidential courtesies will be extended to the former presidents.

Ghana has three living ex-President: John Kufour, Jerry John Rawlings and John Mahama.

Speaking on Accra-based Class FM Friday, the former Deputy Minister of Education said: We will not allow ex-Presidents Rawlings, Kufuor, and Mahama to be embarrassed and to be subjected to any kind of treatment, because at the end of the day it is not about them, it is about the image of our country and the respect that we must command in the comity of nations as a people.We cannot accept that because of visa they will treat our former presidents anyway and anyhow they like; that will not be allowed to happen.I can assure that the necessary support will be extended to the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

He explained that Ghana has good relations with the USA, saying the cooperation between the two countries should not be allowed to deteriorate.

We have current cooperation and very strategic relations between the US and Ghana, some of which we cannot even disclose on air. And so there is no need for us to, as it were, get to a point where there will be a diplomatic [rift] between Ghana and the United States, he said.
At a press conference Friday, the Vice Chair of the Food and Agriculture Committee, Kwame Asafu Adjei, said the free distribution of fertilizers under the National Democratic Congress administration was fraught with cronyism and hoarding.

He explained that: Until 2014, fertilisers were being subsidised and farmers had easy access to the input. However, from the beginning of 2014/2015 crop season, the authoritarian Chief Executive of Cocobod, Dr Opuni, decided to give out fertilisers free of charge to farmers for application on their farms.Quantities purchased were insufficient to meet the demands of all farmers due to budgetary constraints.Farmers complained of inadequate supply as well as diversion of the inputs. On paper, huge quantities of fertiliser were purchased, but most cocoa farms were not fertilised and this is one of the major reasons why cocoa production never exceeded the 700,000 metric tonne range.

According to him, based on this considerations, the Akufo-Addo administration decided to introduce the fertiliser subsidy programme in a bid to ensure that the budgeted amount of fertiliser is equitably distributed to all farmers.

He stressed that price of fertilizers have been slashed by almost GHC70 from GHC150, saying that any well-meaning cocoa farmer should be able to afford one and apply on his farm.

The Minority MPs last Wednesday accused the Akufo-Addo replaced a promising Cocoa fertilization programme the Mahama government introduced and is thus ripping off cocoa farmers.

Surprisingly, the NPP government on assumption of office has replaced the free fertilization programme with a programme under which farmers pay (GHc80) for a bag of fertilizer. This is unacceptable, we cannot sit aloof for the government to cheat our cocoa farmers.
Since winning the 2015 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) award, the book Unstable has gained much-needed recognition in the literary sphere. It is now set to be staged on Saturday, June 24, 2017, at the Prestigious Muson Centre and features the multi award-winning director Ben Tomoloju, and an intimidating array of iconic thespians, including Tina Mba, Ropo Ewenla, Bassey Okon, Segun Dada, Olu Okekanye and Inna Erizia.

This award-winning play, set in the cultural splendour of a fictional Benin Kingdom, tells the story of a powerful King (King Ido) who rescues an outcast, (Esewi) from a bloodthirsty mob. Her beauty gradually draws him to her and his unbridled love for her despite her multiple indiscretions eventually becomes his nemesis. Esewis dangerous liaisons, inevitably bring King Ido in direct conflict with a powerful rival King (Ediae) and leads to a series of tumultuous events, capable of plunging his Kingdom into chaos.

Unstable is a classic story of the power of redemptive love, forgiveness, treachery and the fallible nature of the human mind. This is a classic African story that would leave you spellbound, melt your heart and intrigue your senses......

Unstable represents a major "Paradigm shift" in the theory of the "Alpha male"

It is incorporated with several original & classic Ed cultural songs and intricate African contemporary dance pieces

Online Tickets Available at www.ariyatickets.com , www.naijatickets.com

Quintessence ,Park View Ikoyi

Ebeano Supermarket, Lekki Phase 1

Muson Centre

Bogobiri House 9, 7 Maitama Sule Street, Lagos

For more information please contact:

CAST & BIOGRAPHIES Gbenga on Tel: 07081379023

Email: mylnigeria@gmail.com

OR

Kemi Dowokpor (Project Brand Manager)

Unit B7, 3 Bradbury Street London N16

8JN

Tel: 0207 993 3641
Here are the 10 best low-cost airlines in the world, according to the results of the Skytrax survey.

10. IndiGo

Previous rank: 8

Why it's awesome: The New Delhi-based airline burst on the scene in 2006 and quickly became one of the best low-cost carriers in Asia. The airline operates a brand new fleet of more than 100 Airbus A320 jets. With more than 400 Airbus jets on order, IndiGo is one of the quickest growing airlines in the region. Reviewers on Skytrax praised the airline for its great cabin service and good value for money.

For the eighth consecutive year, IndiGo has been named

See additional airline information at

9. Southwest Airlines

Previous rank: N/A

Why it's awesome: With more than 700 Boeing 737 jets in its fleet, Southwest is one of the largest airlines in the world. Over the past four decades, Southwest has earned a reputation for delivering low-cost flights with a smile. More recently, the company's free checked bag policy has earned it considerable praise from the flying public.

See additional airline information at

8. Azul Brazilian Airlines

Previous rank: 10

Why it's awesome: Azul Brazilian Airlines is the latest brainchild of JetBlue and WestJet co-founder David Neeleman. The Sao Paolo-based airline operates a fleet of new Airbus, ATR, and Embraer airliners mainly on routes within Brazil. Its Airbus fleet now operates to limited destinations in the US and Europe.

In addition to a top 10 finish, Azul also picked up the awards for

See additional airline information at

7. AirAsia X

Previous rank: 6

Why it's awesome: AirAsia X is the long-haul subsidiary of Malaysia's low-cost mega airline AirAsia. The airline's fleet of Airbus A330-300 jets are outfitted with both premium and economy cabins and operates throughout Asia.

In fact, the low-cost airline's premium service garnered AirAsiaX with the Skytrax awards for

See additional airline information at

6. Jetstar Airways

Previous rank: 5

Why it's awesome: JetStar Airways the low-cost subsidiary of Australia's national airline  Qantas. The Melbourne-based airline operates a fleet of Airbus A320 and Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Skytrax reviewers praised the airline for its quality cabin service and good value for money.

For the sixth year in a row, Jetstar has been named

See additional airline information at

5. Virgin America

Previous rank: 2

Why it's awesome: Even though Virgin America is no longer the best low-cost airline in North America, it remains one of most beloved carriers in the skies. The San Francisco-based boutique carrier offers the style and high-quality service expected from a Virgin-branded company, but with the competitive prices of a low-cost carrier. In 2016, the company was sold to Alaska Airlines for $2.6 billion. The brand is expected to disappear by 2019.

See additional airline information at

4. EasyJet

Previous rank: 4

Why it's awesome: Over the past two decades, easyJet and its no-frills, low-cost approach has helped it become one of the world's leading budget airlines. The airline's fleet of more than 230 Airbus jets fly to roughly 800 destinations throughout Europe.

Reviewers on Skytrax praised the airline for its solid service and low prices.

See additional airline information at

3. JetBlue Airways

Previous rank: N/A

Why it's awesome: Since its inception in 1998, New York-based JetBlue has helped raise the standard of service and amenities for low-cost carriers in the US. The airline's signature mood lighting, friendly service, complimentary satellite TV along with free food and snacks make it an industry leader economy flying. In fact, at 34 inches of pitch, JetBlue's Airbus A320 fleet has the roomiest economy seats in the US.

See additional airline information at .

2. Norwegian

Previous rank: 3

Why it's awesome: Norwegian Air is one of the most aggressive and controversial airlines in the world. The low-cost carrier had drawn the ire of its US competitors by proposing a plan to operate trans-Atlantic flights using an Ireland-based subsidiary. The airline's critics claim that such a move would allow Norwegian to flaunt Norway's strict labor laws and use Ireland as a flag of convenience. Norwegian has denied these accusations. Regardless, Norwegian CEO has won US government approval to launch ultra-low-cost trans-Atlantic flights from smaller airports in the Northeastern part of the country.

Controversy aside, the airline remains beloved by its customers. Norwegian has been named Best Low-Cost Airline in Europe five years in a row. In addition, the company is once again the

See additional airline information at

1. AirAsia

Previous rank: 1

Why it's awesome: For the ninth year in a row, AirAsia has earned the title of World's Best Low-Cost Airline. CEO Tony Fernandes and his team have done a miraculous job over the past 15 years to turn a small, failed, state-owned airline in one a multi-national aviation juggernaut.

Reviews of AirAsia on Skytrax praise the airline for its responsive customer service, friendly cabin crew, and efficient operation.
The young man took to his Instagram page to address the issue of a leaked text message which Poko is alleged to have sent to her mother-in-law, his mother.

He described the seemingly dedicated mother-of-one as a psychopath, saying that the text message never got to his mother.

Churchill's brother claimed to have blocked Tonto on his mother's phone since the first message she sent left his mum traumatised.

Read his comments in the post below:

He said that he had been trying his best to remain mum on the situation but seeing as Tonto has involved his mother, he would no longer sit by and take it.

As you will recall, earlier this week, the actress accused her UK-based mother-in-law of witchcraft, the same woman she once praised for loving her unconditionally and caring for during her pregnancy.
Shadrach, a resident of Onitsha in Anambra, pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge of conspiracy and stealing.

The prosecutor, Insp. Peter Nwangwu, told the court that the accused with others at large conspired and stole a container load of car stereos valued at N9 million being property of Mr Chinasa Uzowuru.

The accused provided an empty container to the complainant where he loaded the said goods.

The accused assured the complainant then that the container was travelling to Onitsha in Anambra.

Shadrach later diverted the container load back to Lagos and offloaded the goods in a warehouse at Ladipo, Mushin area of Lagos State, and sold all the goods, Nwangwu said.

He said that the accused committed the offences on Feb. 2, at about 10.30 a.m. at Mushin.

Nwangwu said that the accused converted the proceeds from the sales to his personal use and absconded until he was apprehended by the police.

The prosecutor said that the offences contravened Sections 287 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

Chief Magistrate Y.O. Aje-Afunwa granted the accused bail in the sum of N1 million with two sureties in like sum.

Aje-Afunwa ruled that the sureties must be gainfully employed and have evidence of three years tax payment to the Lagos State Government.
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The Director Defence Information Maj.-Gen. John Enenche gave the assurance in a statement issued on Friday, June 23, 2017.

Enenche said that this followed "so many requests in the recent past, to know from the military about the safety of Nigerians living in parts of the country, other than their aboriginal habitats.

"As such, it behoves on the Defence Headquarters to reassure the general public that all lives and property in Nigeria are secured and safe at any location.

"Thus, the Armed Forces of Nigeria are constantly on surveillance, in collaboration with other security agencies, to curb acts capable of distorting the peace," he said.

He, therefore, urged the general public to "report suspicious movements and any act that point to creating any situation of insecurity to lives and property to the nearest security agency."

ALSO READ: Army presents N400m cheque to families of deceased personnel

The spokesman also urged the public to reach the Nigerian Army Call Centre, short code 193 and email: na.callcentre@army.mil.org, in case of emergency.

"The Armed Forces hereby reaffirms its commitment to protecting the lives and property of all Nigerians living in any part of the country.
Some members of the upper chamber have vowed to tackle the government over its decision to appeal against Saraki's acquittal at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

The Senate President was acquitted of a false and anticipatory declaration of assets when he was governor of Kwara State.

According to Punch, the senators who spoke in separate interviews said the matter of the appeal would be raised when the National Assembly resumes from break on July 4, 2017.

On June 15, 2017, the CCT discharged and acquitted Saraki of all 18 charges preferred against him.

But on Tuesday, June 20, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, appealed the judgment.

Malami, through a private prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), and a lawyer in the AGF office, filed 11 grounds notice of appeal against the acquittal, describing the CCT's judgment as unreasonable.

Reacting to the appeal, the Deputy Minority Whip, Senator Abiodun Olujimi, described it as another move to waste the countrys time and resources.

"I think the APC is a party that has failed to put its house in order. I dont understand it (the appeal) at all because the CCT absolved him; what are they going to get from the Court of Appeal?", Olujimi, who is a member of the minority Peoples Democratic Party caucus and representing Ekiti South Senatorial District, said.

"The CCT looked thoroughly at all the issues before making the pronouncement. Why are they wasting taxpayers' money on such? And I think they will also regret it.

"I am sure that when we resume, we will send a strong signal to show that if there is no understanding between the arms of government, the government cannot make progress.

"I dont know why they want to drag down Nigerians and box them with frivolous suits, which will never take anybody anywhere. We will do that as soon as we resume."

Senator Danjuma Laah (PDP, Kaduna-South), also questioned the action of the Federal Government following Saraki's acquittal.

Laah said, "The appeal by the Federal Government is a witch-hunt; the government only wants to bring down our Senate President. They are fighting with every tooth and nail to make sure they stop him from contesting. He has not declared that he wants to contest (for the Presidency), so why are they bothering themselves? To tell you the fact, this issue is between the Acting President (Yemi Osinbajo) and Tinubu.

"We have our way of interacting and showing our concerns to the executive, and that will happen when we resume. We will not relent. We stood by him (Saraki) to the end, but they are not happy.

"Tinubu was given the opportunity (by not appealing against his acquittal by the CCT) even though his case was worse than that of the Senate President. I see no reason why the Senate President should not be given the same opportunity."

ALSO READ: Here's why FG lost its case against senate president Saraki

However, a member of the APC from the South West, who did not want to be named, blamed the prosecution for losing the case.

"I dont think the prosecutors were well-equipped. They had a bad case and they messed up their case. You cannot blame the judges; the prosecution gave the defence the room to manoeuvre because they (the prosecution) did not come with empirical evidence," the APC member said.

In a statement issued on Friday, June 23, Saraki had expressed confidence that the appeal court would uphold the judgment of the CCT.

He alleged that there were forces in the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and collaborators outside the government who are bent on "pulling him down."
Okowa made the call on Friday while inaugurating a private broadcast station Bridge Radio 98.7 FM in Asaba, in the company of Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo.

Okowa observed that the acting president, within the last few days had worked tirelessly to unite the country.

He, therefore, underscored the need to support the acting president in every way possible.

He urged the people to tailor their words toward uniting the nation whenever they exercised their freedom.

The governor expressed happiness that the radio station was coming on air at a time when quest for information among Nigerians was on the increase.

Information is power; that is why we are happy that this station is coming on air this time in our nations history."

Information is power when you disseminate the right information because a misinformed man is dangerous to the society."

We should properly educate our people to have a more united country; the press can make or mar this nation, depending on what voices that connect the people."

This is because we are in trying times as a nation, we are in recession and there are different ethnic groups speaking with different voices that do not tend to unite us as a people, he said.

Okowa said that apart from empowering Deltans to be self-sufficient, his administration had provided a conducive environment for the private sector to thrive.

He promised to make the state an investors haven.

On his part, Obaseki described communication as very vital for a better society, adding that the media should adopt standard global technology.

It is so important that our media houses adopt standard global technology and that is what we are witnessing here."

We are very glad that this is happening because, you are going to use this medium to inspire a new generation of people."

I have no doubt that it is going to be a successful venture, Obaseki said.

Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of the station, Dr Henry Nzekwu, said that the station would offer quality broadcast to Nigerians.

Nzekwu said that it was designed to provide a voice for the people through quality programming and world class technology.
The movie which features the actress as Adaora Igwe, a lawyer who specializes in defending less privileged abuse victims, comes with quite a number of sexually explicit scenes.

Speaking during a press conference on June 21, 2017, the actress said she is ready for the criticism that would come with her sex scenes.

"What they gonna do," the actress said in a humorous manner.

"When I wasn't even confident, there was a movie called if I didn't die then, is it now?"

The sexy mother of four had come under attack years ago for her role in the Fred Amata movie, "The Prostitute," which starred her alongside Segun Arinze.

In a 2015 interview with Encomium, the actress revealed that the movie which she used a body double for, had threatened her marriage.

"You know, Nigeria was not ready for that, so there was a lot of controversies around that. So, that was the only time I really worried about my marriage," the actress had said to Encomium.

"And to be frank and candid, until my husband told me he wasnt bothered, then I had peace.'
He sheds his furniture maker's outfit and dons a bright red Ottoman-style cap, or tarboosh, reading out handwritten stories from the curling, yellowing pages of an old book.

"This occupation is steadily going extinct. I am the only hakawati left in the Old City," he says. "If I stop, there will be no storytellers left."

Lahham, who also goes by the stage name "Abu Sami", settles into an ornately-carved wooden chair on a raised platform overlooking the cafe, where young men sip tea and smoke on bubbling water pipes.

Clearing his throat, he opens with a well-known tale of 13th-century ruler Baibars before moving on to the heroic antics of Antarah Ibn Shaddad, a pre-Islamic knight.

He says such tales of courage and conquest have become much more popular, at the expense of traditional poems or romantic stories, since Syria's war erupted in 2011.

"We went through a period where we wouldn't come out much, but the owner of this coffee shop insisted that hakawatis continue to tell stories -- even if he and I were the only ones left," Lahham says.

"But today, as you can see, the situation is much better, and dozens of people wait for me every night."

'We come to forget'

The storytelling nights usually happen once a week but during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends this weekend, the show is daily.

Listeners pack the cafe in the shadow of the famed Ummayad mosque late in the evening after breaking their fast.

Many stay until the early hours of the morning to enjoy some sustenance before the fast resumes at dawn.

Damascus residents have grown accustomed to regular rocket and mortar fire from rebel-held districts on the edges of the capital, with occasional rounds even reaching the Old City.

But those fronts have calmed since a May deal that saw opposition fighters withdraw from several neighbourhoods, along with a separate agreement on "de-escalation" zones -- including one in a rebel stronghold just outside the capital.

Even so, the war is never far away, and listeners at Nawfara say the hakawati nights help them escape it, even if just for a few hours.

"We're living every little part of the crisis everywhere we go. Every media outlet broadcasts tragedies. So we come to the coffee shops to forget -- the hakawati's tales help us do that," 49-year-old Mohammad Duyub says.

A regular at Nawfara for over 20 years, he occupies a prime seat in the corner of the cafe, a ribbon of smoke curling up from his water pipe as he watches the storyteller.

"His performance takes us back to the past to escape the reality we're living," he says. "The hakawati gives us space to breathe."

'Preserving the tradition'

Mohammad Jaafar, 57, closes his eyes and focuses on Abu Sami's booming voice.

"Since Ramadan started, I've made sure to follow the story of Sultan Baibars because it's exciting and beautiful. It reminds us of the powerful history that we're proud of -- compared to our current situation," he says.

Nawfara's wood-panelled walls and ceiling are decorated with Damascene mosaics which, its owner says, date back to the 17th century.

One wall features rows of framed photographs of historical figures who feature in Abu Sami's tales -- as well as a simple portrait of an elderly man in a red tarboosh and white robe.

The Arabic caption reads: "Abdelhamid al-Hawari, the first hakawati of Damascus, born 1885."

But the art of public storytelling is on the decline, says Wassim Abdalhay.

The 32-year-old was once a full-time hakawati but financial woes forced him to take a day job at a local power station.

During Ramadan, he performs each evening at a luxurious downtown restaurant under the stage name Abu Shadi, sporting loose black pants, a white cap and his own thick storybook.

"Before the crisis, there was a huge group of us who would travel to Gulf countries and perform Damascene folklore. But because of the situation, we weren't able to travel -- so we focused on preserving the tradition here," Abdalhay tells AFP.
Magufuli reportedly made the declaration on Thursday, June 22, 2017, while addressing Bagamoyo District residents during his three-day-tour of Coast Region.

He said foreign agents are behind some of the non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which have been urging the Tanzanian government to allow teen mothers back to school.

"There are many things that girls, who are impregnated can do after delivery; they can join VETA (Vocational Education Training Authority centres), they can learn sewing but they cant go back to school," President Magufuli was quoted as saying.

He pointed that if pregnant teenagers are allowed back in school, it would send a wrong signal to other girls in the school - to engage in sex.

"If we were to allow them back to school, one day we will find all girls who are in Standard One have babies," he allegedly said.
A spokesman for Spain's state maritime rescue service told AFP that 224 people had been rescued from five vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea, which separate Spain from Morocco.

Another 72 were rescued later after being spotted by a plane belonging to Europe's border agency, Frontex.

Spain's sea rescue service said Thursday that it had saved more than 400 migrants this week alone.

The relatively short sea crossing from Morocco to Spain is a popular route taken by migrants from sub-Saharan and north Africa in their quest to reach Europe.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, 3,314 people attempted this crossing between January 1 and April 30 this year.
Putin made a stop at the legendary Artek holiday camp for young people, dating from Soviet times, on the shores of the Black Sea, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Founded in 1925 based on an idea from Lenin, the father of Russian communism, Artek went from a sanitorium for children with tuberculosis to a camp for "pioneers", the communist youth organisation for children aged 10 to 14.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Artek, like all of Crimea, was part of an independent Ukraine and the facility fell on hard times. But after the Russians took back the peninsula the youth camp was renovated.

"It wasn't that long ago that Artek went through rather difficult times. But now it is being reborn, and it is reborn as an international holiday camp," Putin said in a speech to the young people.

Putin has visited Crimea before since Russia's annexation, which was condemned by the international community, and Kiev considers it to still be part of Ukraine.

The country's foreign ministry issued a statement saying Kiev "considers this visit... to be a gross violation of the sovereignty of the State and the territorial integrity of Ukraine," according to the Russian TASS news agency.
OTTAWA, Ill.  The soldiers marched across the field, muzzle-loaded Enfield muskets well in hand as they prepared to face the enemy.

These stalwart new recruits to the 53rd Illinois Infantry Regiment were from Earlville and they were about to walk in the footsteps of the same young men and boys that enthusiastically flocked to Ottawa back in January 1862.

The newest recruits are re-enactors serving under sergeant and teacher Michael Roberson at Earlville High School. Roberson first caught the re-enacting bug from a fellow teacher many years ago.

Then the teachers went their separate ways until recently meeting again in Ottawa a few years ago. Roberson's interest in re-enacting was renewed.

He could have joined his friend's regiment. Instead, Roberson decided to form the 53rd.

"I was interested in the 53rd because one year, a kid came in with this book and he said he found it while they were renovating his house," Roberson said. "It was titled 'A True and Complete History of the 53rd Illinois' by Herbert Ranstead. He was from Earlville here so I had an interest about that."

Not only was the 53rd mustered into Federal service in Ottawa, it also was Sgt. George Poundstone's regiment. Poundstone, originally from Grand Ridge, was wounded in combat. The flag he so closely guarded in combat was eventually returned to La Salle County a few years ago. Roberson said that history also contributed to selecting the 53rd as his local re-enactment regiment instead of joining an established company.

Once Roberson decided to recruit for Co. D, he had a meeting with some of his students last year.

Several of them were quick to enlist either as soldiers or as support characters and they began to attend different events. They started with a local event and eventually skirmished with the 21st Illinois.

"We went to Morton, they were having Civil War Days there," Roberson said. "We went down and participated and had a pretty good time. We were having too much fun firing and running."

His other soldiers practiced their artillery skills while some of the girls learned about dancing, clothing and other 19th century etiquette tips and tricks.

"Minus the heat and how slow we had to walk, it was good," said Hailey Anderson. "The heat was really rough. It was hot that day."

Anderson said the borrowed dresses were uncomfortable and yet another aspect of history she never would have considered.

"We had the hourglass shapes, different layers and they were talking to us about how (the women) would pass out so they had to carry smelling salts, actual smelling salts," she said.

Several of the other students said they plan to work on making their own reenactment dresses over the summer.

"I might actually make more than one," said Karly VanDorsten. "I might do a nurse one and then a casual one and a formal one. Last time when I went someone had some slivers in their fingers so I got them out for them."

The students are learning about authenticity on the battle field and in the drawing rooms after the battles by actually participating. They get to go home to air conditioning and hot showers, a luxury real 19th century soldiers never had, but the students said it gives them a new perspective on what they had previously learned from books.

"I think it beats all the other ways to learn it," said Jacob Benson. "You can't get this in a book. And you get to shoot guns. I just really like this. I've always been very interested in the Civil War but I never thought we'd have the Civil War re-enacting. It's something you can't get anywhere else."

The newest recruits plan to spend their summer drilling, training and quite possibly, camping out with other regiments over the summer. They also would welcome additional members to their growing Company.

Roberson said he has talked with teachers and students in Paw Paw and other surrounding schools. So far, only Matthew Farrell, a middle school student at Harding, has joined the 53rd. Roberson hopes interest grows as more students find a hands-on way to learn about their history.
Since the DispatchArgusQCOnline.com joined an effort sparked by the Illinois Press Association to find photos of heroes missing from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Funds Virtual Wall of Faces, the faces of many local heroes have been added.

The goal is for the Wall of Faces to connect a face and a story to each of the more than 58,300 names that appear on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which honors those who gave their lives in the Vietnam War. Collected photos are displayed online at vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces.

Information is still being sought on the following area veterans:

Rock Island County

 Rock Island: Mark A. Foster, Kenneth J. Knoeferl, Wayne M. Lenderman.

 East Moline: James D. Raychel

Moline: Leroy A. Rost, Leroy F. Schyska, Rolleen C. Sorim

Whiteside County

 Morrison: Lawrence E. Howard

 Sterling: Hans L. Mills, Jack E. Searing.

 Albany: John M. Smith

If you have information on these veterans, please contact us at letters@qconline.com, or contact the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund directly. Get details at vvmf.org/how-to-submit#sthash.uLzHzCvm.dpuf.
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$1 NO RESERVE - HIGH BID WINS THIS PROPERTY (plus document fee of $199) Owner financing (if needed) @ 0 % I only sell property that has the three "A"s : Access - road access, not land locked - Attribute - close to lake or other unique scenery, not in the middle of a desert - Affordability - Give you, the buyer, the lowest price for this type of property. I BEAT ALL THE COMPARABLE sale prices in the area ! This parcel of land is in Taney County, near Branson, Missouri. Branson, Missouri is one of...

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Heath Elementary School principal Jesse Porter-Henry finds the hand he cast in glass as a Heath student years ago, when the school was first built. Recorder Staff/Paul Franz

There were hugs and tears as students leave the Heath Elementary School for the last time on Friday. Recorder Staff/Paul Franz

Photos with friends as students leave the Heath Elementary School for the last time on Friday. June 23, 2017. Recorder Staff/Paul Franz

The banner from the last graduating class at the Heath Elementary School. June 23, 2017. Recorder Staff/Paul Franz

K1 students at the Heath Elementary School goof around on the last day of school. June 23, 2017. Recorder Staff/Paul Franz

Heath Elementary School students Cameron Sessions-Delisle, Landon Smead and Emmalee Inman look at class photos in the lunch room on the last day of classes at the school. June 23, 2017. Recorder Staff/Paul Franz

One last hug for principal Jesse Porter-Henry on the last day of classes at the Heath Elementary School on Friday. June 23, 2017. Recorder Staff/Paul Franz

Parents, teachers and residents bang on drums and other musical instruments as students leave the Heath Elementary School for the last time on Friday. Recorder Staff/Paul Franz

HEATH  The child chatter in the half-filled cafeteria on the last day of school was seemingly cheery, until you asked if they were looking forward to their summer vacation.

One little girl hesitated, then nodded her head. Yes, she said solemnly. But Im sad to leave this school.

Im sad that the school is closing, added the 8-year-old boy beside her. Its my favorite school in the whole world.

For the final day of school, most of the children wore green Heath School T-shirts designed by some of their school mates.

One teacher gave her students beach balls as a going-away gift. Others were given potted plants or had special snacks of brownies or cupcakes.

In the fall, most of the children will go on to the Hawlemont Regional School in Charlemont. The Heath School closing comes after a long, and, for many, agonizing process that led to the determination that operating the school was too costly for the small enrollment. Heath had more than 90 elementary students when the school opened; now there are 32, and the operating costs for the school were over $1 million.

On July 1, the school building is to be returned to Heath town officials, along with a lease termination agreement from the Mohawk Trail Regional School District to pay the town a total of $240,000 over the next three years, while Heath finds a new use for the building.

Around 1 p.m., before the school buses arrived for the last time, school parents and town officials started gathering at the school.

One table in the cafeteria had large photographs of bygone classes. And the hand-print glass partition in the central room, designed by Heath glass-artist Bob Dane, was a focal point for many local residents who helped make the school a reality in 1995.

Art Schwenger wearing a Building Committee T-shirt, which he must have had from before 1995, was there, along with School Committee member Budge Litchfield  also one of the early community members to get the school built in this town of 700 people.

Heath School Principal Jesse Porter-Henrys 10th-grade handprint is among those encased in a glass tile on that partition. So is his twin brothers. All Heath children of school age in 1995 were invited to contribute a handprint, he explained.

It was a bittersweet day for the teachers, also wearing the kid-designed Heath T-shirts. They were quietly cheerful. We want to keep things light, for the children, said one. Porter-Henry said some of the teachers and school aides have found other positions within the Mohawk Trail Regional School District for the coming school year, while others are moving to other school systems.

Porter-Henry, who was assistant principal at Mohawk for two years before becoming Heaths principal, will be teaching next year at the Hampshire Regional Middle School, he said.

When the buses arrived, the children walked through a gantlet of cheering selectmen, parents and teachers, some school staff playing rhythm instruments as the children walked through. Next, the teachers were given community cheers and fresh flowers.

One of the Heath School traditions has been for each graduating sixth-grade class to design and make a banner, like a coat of arms, that hangs above the walls of the central room.

The Class of 2017s is, of course, the last banner hanging. It shows a boulder with Heath School carved into it and above it are the words of famed anthropologist Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, its the only thing that ever has.
'In the Asean market, the train left at the same time for India and China, but while India's ride has been symbolic of India's rickety railways, it seems that China's has been on a bullet train,' note Renjini V R, Manmeet Ajmani and Devesh Roy.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

Multilateral trading arrangements under the World Trade Organisation have expanded over time.

Yet, the current global trade landscape is characterised by an overwhelming number of regional trading arrangements.

The proliferation of regional trading arrangements has been so pervasive that Jagdish Bhagwati calls it a spaghetti bowl.

All countries try to tap into emerging markets through trade agreements.

One of the strongest emerging markets is the group of nations that comprise the Asean.

Asean was established in 1967. Since then it has crossed a significant milestone by forming the Asean Economic Community in 2015 by integrating 10 countries with different economic, cultural and social backgrounds.

Asean is uniquely placed, being near two emerging giants of the world -- China and India.

Asean itself has been a big growth pole in Asia. Hence, there has been a special interest in trade negotiations between Asean, China and India.

Chinas and India's trade with Asean has been increasing over the years as compared to non-Asean countries, which explains the keen interest of both economies.

Yet, there is a big contrast between China and India.

While China is an established player in the world market with export and import shares of more than 10 per cent, India's share is less than one-fifth of China's.

Since both India and China have pursued greater integration with Asean (both have signed free trade agreements), the contrasting outcomes highlight the factors underlying the differential or even distinct performance of the two in global trade.

China's share in Asean trade is around 15.2 per cent, with an export share of 11.4 per cent and an import share of 19.4 per cent, making it Asean's top trading partner.

India's share in contrast is a mere 2.6 per cent, with export and import shares of 3.3 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively.

The differences between China and India in trade with Asean are visible at every stage, starting from the trade negotiations themselves.

Soon after China's entry into the WTO in 2001, China started trade negotiations with Asean by signing an initial framework agreement in 2002.

Within a decade China completed the agreement governing the trade in goods, services and investment, finally establishing the Asean-China Free Trade Area in 2010 itself.

Hence, the FTA frontier was reached within eight years.

India, despite her cordial relations with Asean and her 'Look East' policy, could not catch up.

India also initiated FTA negotiations with Asean in 2003, right after China. But it took six years to sign an agreement on trade in goods (in 2009), while the investment and service agreement was signed only in 2014.

Finally, it is expected that the India-Asean FTA will be effective only by 2019.

The whole journey would have taken 16 years, twice the time China took to reach there.

China clearly is both a first mover as well a fast mover.

Indeed, the impacts show in the relative trade performances of China and India.

Trade between China and Asean has increased manifold, while India seems to have a 'Hindu rate of growth' of trade.

China moreover was able to quickly diversify its exports from agriculture to manufacturing, such as machinery and textiles, whereas India's exports are still dominated by primary products.

China's share in Asean's trade increased from three per cent in 1995 to 16 per cent in 2015, replacing the United States, the European Union and Japan.

In contrast, India's share in Asean's trade increased by only one percentage point to two per cent.

At this point, India's potential for trade with Asean becomes pertinent.

Our empirical trade analysis shows that both China and India have been trading above potential, where potential is a function of trade-determining fundamentals.

However, the extent of over-exporting to Asean is significantly higher for China.

Moreover, India's engagement with Asean is marked by under-trading with countries like Vietnam and Cambodia, the two fast-growing countries in Asean.

Looking at competition between India and China in the Asean market, China is in close competition with India in most of India's top exports to Asean, but the converse is not true.

Relegated to exporting primary products, China has engendered competition with India, given that it is easier due to the low technology and capital intensity of her exports.

China has also moved up the value chain, which is reflected in low competition with India in value terms.

India's hesitation in bringing off deals in quick time has thus resulted in lower trade with the Asean region.

Time is of the essence here. India has been tardy with the issue of sensitive commodities, with bureaucratic delays a function of relying on primary products, where the political economy is comparatively tenuous.

The new world of trade is about globalised value chains. Unless India gets on this train the comparative story of India and China in different markets will be repeated.

The government's chief economic advisor recently mentioned that India is catching a train that left 20 years ago.

In the Asean market, the train left at the same time for India and China, but while India's ride has been symbolic of India's rickety railways, it seems that China's has been on a bullet train.

Renjini V R is with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, while Manmeet Ajmani and Devesh Roy are with the International Food Policy Research Institute.
'The surge of Saudi nationalism is the last thing Washington wants,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.

IMAGE: President Donald Trump, flanked by White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, second from right, and Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn, right, with Mohammed bin Salman, now Saudi Arabia's crown prince and defence minister, left, at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Reading tea leaves in Saudi politics is hazardous.

That makes Moscow's jubilation over Mohammed bin Salman's appointment as the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and the next in line to the throne rather intriguing.

The crown prince whom King Salman dismissed, Mohammed bin Nayef, had held the post of Saudi Arabia's interior minister continuously since 2012 and had years of experience in intelligence work.

MbN used to be regarded as the most pro-American of the Saudi leadership.

In February, Mike Pompeo made his first overseas tour as CIA chief to Riyadh to confer the George Tenet Medal on MbN in recognition of his 'excellent intelligence performance in the domain of counter-terrorism and his unbound contribution to realise world security and peace.'

Now, just four months later, King Salman has dismissed MbN and replaced him with his trusted son.

Strange, isn't it?

The Russian state news agency TASS carried a report within hours of MbS's appointment, quoting expert opinion, that the new crown prince may be 'ready to reach compromises concerning complex regional issues -- the crises in Syria and Yemen.'

The TASS report praised MbS' 'political farsightedness by building trust-based dialogue with the Russian authorities, particularly with President Vladimir Putin', which has taken the Saudi-Russian relations to 'an unprecedented high in the past years', and leading to a partnership that 'opens the door to resolving conflicts in the Middle East.'

IMAGE: Russian President Vladimir Putin with Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, now Saudi Arabia's crown prince, at the Konstantin Palace in St Petersburg, Russia, June 18, 2015. Photograph: Grigory Dukor/Reuters

Indeed, MbS is a familiar figure for the Kremlin.

He visited Russia four times during the past two-year period to meet with Putin. A Moscow analyst at the Russian new agency Sputnik wrote on Wednesday, June 21:

'The fact that Mohammed bin Salman is slated to be Saudi Arabia's next King -- provided, of course, that no 'black swan' event removes him from that position first -- is wildly good news for Russia and China because of the very productive working relationships that each of them has established with the new Crown Prince... they understand just how positively transformational a figure he's poised to be... Russia and China are poised to see their own interests promoted if Mohammed bin Salman becomes the next Saudi King.'

What explains such high expectations?

IMAGE: Prince Mohammed and Vladimir Putin, this time at the Kremlin, May 30, 2017.Photograph: Pavel Golovkin/Reuters

The short answer is -- oil.

Saudi-Russian energy cooperation has phenomenally transformed the Russian-Saudi relationship. The OPEC decision to cut oil production has been a joint Saudi-Russian initiative aimed at balancing supply and demand in the oil market to keep price stable at around $50 per barrel.

But then, this congruence of interests also means countering the US' rapidly growing profile as energy exporter.

The US shale industry is in a position to boost production to leverage oil price by creating glut in oil supply.

Therefore, Saudi Arabia and Russia hope to strengthen the oil cartel.

Do not rule out Russia becoming an OPEC member.

This oil cooperation strategy might assume a strategic dimension if an integration can be brought about between OPEC and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, the grand design being that a mega cartel can block any disruptive role by the US in the world market.

This is a high stakes game, considering the complex backdrop of the proposed IPO of Aramco, which is expected early next year.

MbS hopes that the IPO will provide the first injections of capital into a massive sovereign wealth fund that could provide the underpinning for his ambitious project known as Vision 2030, the long-term development project through which he hopes to transform Saudi Arabia into a diversified and efficient economy and to modernise the country.

Unsurprisingly, MbS' evaluation of the IPO at $2 trillion is being contested by Western analysts.

A Reuters report on Thursday, June 22, estimated that if the oil price stays where it is now, at around $50 per barrel, Aramco would be worth only less than $1.1 trillion.

Evidently, Western pressure is building up to keep oil price low so that MbS is compelled to sell Aramco shares at discounted price.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is canvassing to secure the Aramco IPO, the biggest in history, for the New York stock exchange.

IMAGE: US President Donald Trump, centre, looks on as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, formerly Exxon's CEO, and Saudi Arabia's then crown prince Muhammad bin Nayef, right exchange a memorandum of understanding, a commitment by the Gulf states not to finance terrorist organisations, at the Gulf Cooperation Council leaders summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 21, 2017.

Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

But Saudi Arabia is non-committal because of the unease over the US laws that allow victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue the Saudi government.

All in all, Saudi Arabia's (read MbS') strategic autonomy is under severe challenge.

Therefore, eyebrows will be raised that the US state department chose to come out with a suo moto statement on Tuesday, June 20, coinciding with the royal decree on MbS' appointment as crown prince, which cast aspersions on the Saudi stance in the standoff with Qatar (which, of course, carries MbS's imprimatur).

State department spokesperson Heather Nauert hinted at the US 'having to step in in some sort of formal mediation role', and went on to make a surprisingly pointed reference to Saudi Arabia's past involvement in terrorism -- 'whether it is through terror financing or other means' -- and for not doing enough to fight terrorism.

The Russian analysts' prognosis is that given MbS' gravitation toward multi-polarity in oil politics, he may run into strong headwinds in his bid to succeed his father.

Control of the world oil market was a strategic theme of the Cold War and it cannot be otherwise in a New Cold War.

The US strategists maintained since the mid-1940s that to maintain 'substantial control of the world' through control of Middle Eastern oil ought to be 'one of the greatest material prizes in world history' -- to quote from a 1945 memorandum from the state department to President Harry S Truman.

Simply put, the surge of Saudi nationalism is the last thing Washington wants when it hopes to go for a big-time kill in the privatisation of Aramco.

The point is, Aramco is a State within the State of Saudi Arabia.

US faces historic setback in the Middle East

'Can the US ever restore its hegemony over the Muslim Middle East?' asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar

IMAGE: US President Donald Trump with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in Riyadh, May 21, 2017. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst

The bloc of four Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia that imposed an embargo against Qatar on June 5 has finally presented their charter of demands.

An AP dispatch lists the 13 demands. The most striking demands include Doha reducing ties with Iran, severing relationships with Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood, closing a Turkish military base in the country, and shuttering State broadcaster Al Jazeera and several news outlets.

Interestingly, Qatar is also expected to 'consent to monthly audits for the first year after agreeing to the demands, then once per quarter during the second year. For the following 10 years, Qatar would be monitored annually for compliance.'

All this means that abject, unconditional capitulation by Qatar only will satisfy its 'big brothers' -- nothing less.

By the way, there is also a timeline to comply -- within the next 10 days -- or else the demands get ratcheted up.

To my mind, Qatar will have no difficulty to see this is nothing short of a thinly-veiled push for 'regime change'. The regime's response can only be that these Arab bigwigs can go and hang themselves.

What happens next?

IMAGE: A poster shows Saudi King Salman and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani as people wave Qatari and Saudi flags during a welcoming ceremony for King Salman at the Royal Court on Doha Corniche, Qatar, December 5, 2016. Photograph: Naseem Zeitoon/Reuters

Simply put, the (Sunni) Muslim Middle East is about to split and the historic schism will have profound consequences for regional and international security.

Make no mistake, this latest development also signifies a slap on the face for the Trump administration.

Only last Tuesday, June 20, the US state department warned Saudi Arabia to resolve the standoff without any further delay lest direct US intervention became necessary, doubting the stance taken by Riyadh (which is widely regarded as carrying the imprimatur of the new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman) and showing broad empathy with Qatar (where the US Central Command is headquartered).

Curiously, the US spokesperson also had alluded to Saudi Arabia's past involvement in terrorism 'whether it's through terror financing or other means.'

IMAGE: Prince Mohammed bin Salman with US President Donald Trump at the White House, March 15, 2017.

Evidently, Saudi pride has been touched to the quick and Riyadh has taken exception to the US censuring.

Without doubt, these demands are a show of defiance at Washington too.

This is all now going to become a protracted crisis in all likelihood, which will seriously debilitate the US' regional strategies -- unless, of course, Qatar crawls on its knees -- and weaken its war against tISIS.

To be sure, Turkey will take great exception to the Saudi demand that its so-called military base in Doha should be shut down unceremoniously.

President Recep Erdogan will see this demand as an intolerable affront to Ottoman legacy.

Voice of America reported on Thursday, June 22, that Turkey has been moving food and troops to Qatar in a big way.

IMAGE: Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, left, with US President Donald Trump, who is flanked by Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz-al Saud to his right and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan to his left. Jordan's King Abdullah II, is at right.

This was the last time Qatar's young ruler met Trump, at the Arab-Islamic-American Summit in Riyadh, May 21, 2017.

Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Quite obviously, the crux of the matter is that the virus of the Arab Spring is hibernating in Qatar and it threatens to become an epidemic someday again, threatening the autocratic regimes in the Middle East.

Only Turkey, Iran and Israel are immune to the virus of democratic empowerment.

Evidently, Al Jazeera and the Muslim Brotherhood are driving the sheikhs crazy in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain and threaten the military dictatorship in Egypt.

US credibility on the 'Arab Street' is now irreparably damaged.

For President Donald Trump all this becomes a big political embarrassment domestically.

It remains to be seen how the US can afford to sustain its belligerent posturing in Syria and Iraq much longer without any regional allies from the Arab world.

The Trump administration's containment strategy against Iran seems destined to collapse even before its launch and Trump's pet project of the 'Arab NATO' looks a macabre joke.

Can the US ever restore its hegemony over the Muslim Middle East? Doubtful.

A big slice of modern history of the Western hegemony over Arabs is breaking away and drifting toward the horizon.

To be sure, the Russians are coming!
'... For the India-US relationship to continue its positive trajectory, it will require India to adapt to a different approach.'

Nisha Desai Biswal -- who as the Obama administration's point person for South Asia was in the inner circle of all the Obama-Modi Summits -- tells Rediff.com's Monali Sarkar why she is hopeful that India and the US are on an irreversible forward course.

IMAGE: At the mega California community reception for Prime Minister Modi in 2015.

Photograph: Stephen Lam/Reuters

Despite the hiccups preceding the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Donald Trump on June 26, Nisha Desai Biswal believes both India and the US recognise the tremendous potential for collaboration and economic cooperation to create opportunities in both countries. And that, she says, will keep the partnership on course.

Biswal speaks from nearly three decades of experience in South and Central Asian Affairs.

She served as Assistant Administrator for Asia at the US Agency for International Development.

Then, as the Obama administration's Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, she not only formulated US foreign policy and managed relations with Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan but also had a ringside view of the eight meetings between Modi and US President Barack Obama.

Biswal, who now a senior advisor with the Albright Stonebridge Group, a commercial diplomacy firm led by former US secretary of atate Madeline Albright shares her insider perspective on the Modi-Trump Summit.

Trump's campaign stand on China, Pakistan and Islamic extremism had made many in India view his ascent to the presidency in a positive light. But that perception is beginning to dissipate amid his interactions with China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia.

It is also telling that Trump did not nominate an ambassador to India till this week nor has the administration named your successor.

Based on all that has happened since January 20, where do you believe Trump and his team stand on the India question?

Do you expect anything tangible from the June 26 summit?

I think the initial euphoria in some circles around the election of Donald Trump was premature and based on conjecture rather than sound analysis.

In the last few months, we have had more insight into President Trump's priorities and approach to foreign policy.

We have seen that he tends to focus more on short-term transactions rather than long-term strategic goals.

This is not necessarily to India's advantage.

The US-India relationship has flourished under a recognition of India's strategic importance in maintaining an open and rules-based architecture in the Asia-Pacific.

But a Trump administration that is focused on its immediate crises at home and abroad may be looking more at how India can contribute to its short-term priorities.

That said, I know that colleagues in the White House, and at State and the Department of Defence value the partnership with India and are looking for ways to deepen the relationship.

The pick of Kenneth Juster for US ambassador to India is also an indication of the importance of the relationship.

So, I suspect that there is plenty of scope for the relationship to continue its positive trajectory, but it will require India to adapt to a different approach.

Given that there is usually a script when heads of States meet, how much weightage do you ascribe to the rapport between leaders when it comes to the final outcome?

The personal chemistry and rapport between leaders is always important and perhaps even more so with this President, who seems to put a great deal of stock in his personal relationships.

I think you saw that during the President's interactions with Japan's President Shinzo Abe and China's President Xi Jinping.

PM Modi is a very charismatic leader, and I suspect will develop his own personal relationship with President Trump.

I think the team preparing for the visit on both sides are working hard to ensure that happens.

Beyond the hugs and photo-ops, how genuine was the Modi-Obama camaraderie?

Having observed it up close, I would say that there was indeed a deep camaraderie and personal bond between President Obama and PM Modi.

They may not have agreed on every issue, but I think the two men respected and admired each other.

The Republic Day visit was a reflection of that bond.

The relationship with President Trump will be different, but can still be beneficial for both.

At the time of the 2014 Modi-Obama summit, you had said that the US recognised Modi's domestic transformation priority and hoped to collaborate with India to make that happen.

Do you believe that could still be the case or do you see Modi's India First and Trump's America First campaigns clashing for the next four years?

I hope the two countries recognise the tremendous potential for collaboration and economic cooperation to benefit both societies, to create opportunities in both countries.

The US has always been for America First -- but our understanding of America First has not been through a zero-sum lens that pits us against our partners and allies, but rather through the lens that America benefits when we create stability and opportunity around the world.

Both countries have to pursue policies that create jobs and grows their economies.

Both countries need to pursue policies that allow for collaboration, innovation and job creation.

India must open up its economy and reduce trade barriers, and the US needs to reassert its leadership on trade and welcome Indian investment as well as Indian talent into the American economy.

IMAGE: Then US secretary of state John Kerry, left, and then US secretary of commerce Penny Pritzker, left, confer with Nisha Desai Biswal, centre, during the US-India Joint Strategic and Commercial Dialogue Opening Plenary in Washington, DC in 2015.

Photograph: US State Department

What do you think are the repercussions of Trump's remarks -- in terms of the optics and beyond it -- about India in relation to the Paris Agreement?

I think this was a misstep, largely for domestic political effect, and it created unnecessary friction.

But India has handled it maturely and moved beyond it.

American companies are the ones that will suffer if we alienate or rebuff India on climate change.

India has the most ambitious targets for clean energy and represents that largest market for green infrastructure.

You have said that you believe cooperation between India and the US on climate change issues will continue despite Trump pulling out of the Paris Agreement?

Do you have similar faith regarding the survival of other US-India collaborations in the Trump years?

In every new administration, some things will remain, and some new initiatives will emerge.

I expect the defence and counter-terrorism cooperation to move forward smoothly.

On the Strategic & Commercial dialogue, Energy Dialogue, and myriad other dialogues that reflect the broad and comprehensive nature of our partnership, I think the Trump administration may have a different view and may restructure some of these dialogues.

What is your assessment of the geopolitical direction in Asia, especially South Asia, in the Trump years?

What role do you think the Trump administration has in mind for India?

It is too early to write the book on the Trump years. Much of its foreign policy has yet to be crafted.

While there may have been some early missteps, they were not major.

The US-India relationship is important to both countries, and that is accepted on both sides. But how much the two leaders prioritise this relationship above others remains to be seen.

In the Obama administration you saw the extraordinary importance both governments placed with eight leader level interactions, and intensity of engagement across the cabinet.

Be it the narrative against immigrants in the US or unchecked issues like gau rakshaks and lynch mobs in India, domestic politics in both countries have taken a disconcerting turn in the past year.

Trump's silence after attacks on minorities in the US echoes Modi's silence on the issue.

As an Indian American, how do you view all this?

Nativist and nationalist sentiments that are so much on display in the US, in India and around the world are not new, but have always been on the fringes of the political and social lexicon. But what is troubling is when political leaders enable and give legitimacy to these fringe sentiments for political gain.

There are real concerns and legitimate grievances that are the cause of frustration in many poor urban and rural communities in the rust belt and farm belt.

The changing economic and demographic composition of the country has created a great deal of innovation and opportunity, but it has also caused economic dislocation.

Rather than scapegoating the minority or immigrant population, we should be having a national dialogue on how government, industry and academia can work together to help create the solutions to the challenges this poses.

In his speech to the joint session of the US Congress last year, Modi had spoken about India-US ties overcoming the 'hesitations of history'.

But the expectations from the upcoming summit seem to be so low that those hesitations might as well be back.

What is your take on this?

I think that speech was a bold vision and articulation of the growing strategic and economic convergence that is defining and shaping the trajectory of this relationship.

I don't think we will revert to the status quo ante.

But the relationship needs constant tending, and the current administration has been slow to engage.

Let's give it some time -- I am still hopeful that we are on an irreversible course.

Modi-Trump Meet: What the Pundits Say
42 terrorists, 7 civilians, 15 security personnel have lost their lives since May 15.

Umar Ganie reports for Rediff.com

IMAGE: A policeman aims a tear gas gun at demonstrators in downtown Srinagar during protests.

Photograph: Danish Ismail/Reuters

Ramzan in the Kashmir valley has been deadly this year with 64 people --- soldiers, policemen, civilians and terrorists --- being killed during the holy month.

Perhaps the most brutal of the deaths was Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammed Ayoub Pandith's lynching outside the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.

The police officer was stripped and beaten to death on June 22, the most auspicious night of the holy month.

The spike in violence corresponded with the death of Sabzar Bhat, who succeed Burhan Wani in the Hizbul Mujahideen, along with another HM member, in an encounter with security forces in Tral on May 27.

According to figures, 42 terrorists, seven civilians and 15 security personnel (five army men and 10 policemen) lost their lives during the unrest in the Kashmir valley in the Ramzan month.

Sixteen terrorists were killed in encounters across Kashmir. The army said it killed 26 terrorists along the Line of Control in north Kashmir.

On June 13, within a span of four hours, nine Central Reserve Police Force troopers, two policemen and four soldiers were injured when terrorists lobbed grenades at the camps of the forces at Baramulla and in Pulwama.

IMAGE: Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammed Ayoub Pandith's family weeps after learning of the police officer's lynching on June 22. Photograph: Umar Ganie for Rediff.com

Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police S P Vaid said accused Pakistan of sending terrorists to "instigate violence" during Ramzan.

"Ask Pakistan and the terrorists why they initiate violence," DGP Vaid said. "I am here to control it."

National Conference General Secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar holds the ruling Peoples Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government responsible for the mayhem.

"How will the situation be peaceful when a large number of youth, many of them highly educated, join the militant cause?" Sagar asked, adding that the PDP-BJP coalition is contributing to this grave situation.

"The state and central governments are issuing statements which add fuel to the fire," Sagar said, "and forcing the people to protest."

IMAGE: Protesters in Srinagar have taken to pelting stones at the security forces. Photograph: Danish Ismail/Reuters

PDP Vice-President Sartaj Madni attributed the violence to the recent phenomenon of Kashmiris gathering at locations where security personnel are engaged in firefights with the terrorists and pelting stones at the security forces.

"The government is aware of the situation," Madni said, "but the unfortunate part for every one of us is that people are going to encounter sites; it makes no sense."

While the politicians continue the blame game, Showkat Ahmad, a resident of Sanat Nagar in Srinagar, said, "It is unfortunate we are facing tremendous hardship even in the holy month of Ramzan. During Ramzan we seek blessing from God."

"Drawing blood during this month is totally against the principles of Islam," Ahmad said.

"No religion allows killings. Those who resort to violence are enemies of humanity."
The National Democratic Alliances presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will be in the Uttar Pradesh capital on Sunday to seek support from elected representatives while preparation in the assembly is on for smooth conduct of voting, slated for July 17.

A senior Congress leader said the Oppositions presidential pick Meira Kumar might also pay a visit to Lucknow to seek votes from the electoral college as the party will not leave any stone unturned for the election.

She, in all probability, will be accompanied by AICC general secretary Gulam Nabi Azad and is likely to meet all elected representative, cutting across party affiliations, he said.

The state, which has the maximum population in the country, has the highest value of each vote in the presidential election.

The electoral college includes elected members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, states, union territories and the NCT region of Delhi.

The NDAs presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will be in the state capital tomorrow and will be going to Uttarakhand the next day, national general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party Bhupendra Yadav said.

He is likely to meet MPs and MLAs of the BJP, its allies and also leaders of other political parties over dinner, sources said.

On its part, the state assembly secretariat has started preparations and had also held meeting with a high-level delegation of the Election Commission on Friday.

All necessary steps are being initiated to make foolproof arrangements before the presidential election, a senior official of the assembly said.

For the first time, a special pen and ink would be brought to Lucknow from Delhi to be used by voters to mark their preference of candidates.

For presidential elections, votes are marked in a preferential order which is then counted to declare the winner.

Since the NDAs presidential pick hails from Kanpur Dehat district of the state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said it is an honour that the son of Uttar Pradesh would be occupying the presidential office.

Kovind had been active in the Uttar Pradesh unit of BJP and was even appointed the general secretary when Laxmikant Bajpai was the partys state chief. But, he chose to switch to the partys central unit.

After the Narendra Modi government came to power, he was appointed the Bihar Governor, from where he resigned after being named the NDAs presidential nominee.

Image: NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind. Photograph: Subhav Shukla/PTI Photo
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in Washington, DC.

Image: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson greets Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar before their bilateral meeting at the US Department of State in Washington, DC, on June 23, 2017. Photograph: State Department photo/ Public Domain.

Secretary Tillerson met with Foreign Secretary Jaishankar on Friday to discuss the US-India relationship and the agenda for Prime Minister Modi's meetings at the White House on June 26, a State Department spokesman said told PTI.

"The secretary noted the prime minister's visit will strengthen ties between the United States and India and advance our common interest in fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth and prosperity, and expanding security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region," the spokesperson said.

The two agreed that the two countries have a deep and growing strategic partnership and hope to work more closely on regional and global issues, the official said in response to a question.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department

Jaishankar, a former Indian ambassador to the US, has been playing a leading role in shaping the India-US relationship under the Modi government.

Modi's US visit begins on June 25.

He will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

Civil nuclear deal will be discussed

The civil nuclear deal would be part of the discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump, the White House has said, emphasising that the US was looking forward to its nuclear reactors contributing to India's energy security.

"In terms of the actual deals, the US is still looking forward to US-built nuclear reactors contributing to India's energy security. We think that this civil nuclear partnership will bolster India's energy security, create jobs and trade opportunities for the American people.

"So we're still very much interested in seeing this deal move forward," a senior administration official told reporters ahead of PM Modi's visit to the US next week.

"I think Westinghouse stands behind the viability of the project, and it presented it in its technical commercial offer to India.

"So we very much support continued negotiations between Westinghouse and its Indian partners, recognising that deals on this scale can take time," the official said, acknowledging that this is a very complicated issue.

"This will be part of the discussion. It's the White House Energy Week, so civil nuclear energy cooperation is bound to come up," the official said in response to a question and dismissed reports that it has been suspended.

"I wouldn't characterise the civil nuclear deal that was completed now nine years ago as being suspended or it's done. That waiver was provided for India. The Nuclear Suppliers Group agreed to a waiver for India to receive civil nuclear technology and fuel. So that's completed," said the official.

Meanwhile, a senior White House official preparing for PM Modi's maiden meeting with Trump, said that the US president is well aware of India's economy and strategic potential.

He said that Trump has already visited Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, in his capacity as a real estate tycoon.

"He has visited India. I think Mumbai, he's been to Mumbai," he said.

"As you know, during the campaign he was very much in touch with the Indian-American community. He expressed a very positive feeling toward India.

"I think he said that if he were to be elected, India would find a true friend in the White House," said the official.

"He (Trump) is not new to India. He has understood their contribution to the US economy, everything that's happening in Silicon Valley, for example. Indian Americans have really embraced the innovation and entrepreneurship. So there's a lot of synergies and linkages between the US and India in this particular realm," the official said.

Noting that Indian-Americans have founded 15 per cent of Silicon Valley startups alone, the official said that as a businessman, India is not new for him (Trump).

"He has been acquainted with India. This will offer an opportunity to really deepen the strategic partnership and his strategic understanding of India," he said.

According to the official, the preparations for Modi's trip started long ago.

"There's been a lot of preparatory work done. There has been a great deal of preparation to make this a really memorable visit," the official said adding that both sides recognise the importance of the US-India partnership.

"There are a lot of things that the two countries need to do together in terms of promoting security and stability. There's a lot they have to do that is in their mutual interests," the official said adding that the administration has been working with inter-agency when it comes to the US-India partnership.

"There have been a tremendous amount of preparation, and we're looking forward to a really good visit," he added.

1st face-to-face meeting will give them a chance to assess ties: envoy

The first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump will give them an opportunity to look at the entire gamut of Indo-US engagement and to exchange views on issues of global interest, India's envoy in Washington, DC, has said.

At the invitation of Trump, the prime minister would spend several hours with the US President at the White House on Monday afternoon, which would end with a dinner later that night.

This would be the first working dinner being hosted by Trump for a foreign leader at the White House.

"I think that just shows the amount of care that has gone in on the part of the White House to welcome our prime minister and the kind of planning that has gone into make this a very special visit," Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna told PTI on the eve of Prime Minister Modi's visit.

"This (dinner) is a special gesture and it is appreciated," he said.

"I think the first face-to-face meeting will allow the two leaders an opportunity to look at the entire India-US engagement and also to exchange views on issues of global interest," Sarna said.

Responding to a question on the agenda of the two leaders, Sarna said he would not like to guess what they would be discussing.

"But when they sit across the table and they have a one-on-one discussion or they have an extended delegation that will talk, I would presume that they would cover the wide gamut of relations between India and the US, which is a verystrong, strategic partnership, issues between the engagement of two largest democracies, the engagement of two very vibrant economies with tremendous potential for engagement for mutual growths" in the military, security and science and technology sectors, he said.

Any of these and issues of global interests, the challenges that the world is facing today, could come up for discussion, he said.

"But as I said, it would be very much up to the leaders to decide what to talk about," the Indian envoy said.

Sarna said it was a very significant trip because this will be the first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump.

"They have, of course, spoken three times on the telephone. They've had very good, constructive and warm conversations," he said.

Ties with India, Pak not a zero-sum game: WH

Asserting that the US' ties with India and Pakistan were not a 'zero-sum game', the White House has said that the Trump administration's priorities and the nature of relationship with the two countries were different.

"We seek to have an effective partnership with each country. With India, we're building that strategic partnership. We see India's role and influence growing. We like to encourage that trend. So, we're looking for ways to cooperate on our mutual interests," a senior administration official told reporters at a news conference in Washington, DC.

"With Pakistan, we seek to have a productive partnership working together. But frankly, the priorities are different, and the nature of the relationships are different. So, I think that we would like to move forward with both countries.

"We realise that the pace and scope of that relationship is going to be different in each case," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity said in response to a question on concerns in Pakistan with regard to increasing ties with India.

The relationship with India and Pakistan is not a zero-sum game, he said.

"I want to make the point here that US relationships with India and Pakistan really stand on their own merits and terms. We don't see a zero-sum relationship when it comes to the US relationship with Pakistan and the US relationship with India.

"We're certainly eager to deepen the strategic partnership with India," he said.

"We are also interested in continuing our cooperation with Pakistan," the official said adding that the US is concerned about tensions between India and Pakistan.

He said the US would like to see the normalisation of relations between the two countries.

"We believe it's in both countries' interests. It's in the interests of the region, and even the globe, given that they're both nuclear-weapon powers," the official said.

"But we very much encourage India and Pakistan to engage in a direct bilateral dialogue aimed at reducing those tensions," the official said while denying reports that sale of high-tech defence items to India would have any adverse impact on Pakistan.

"The US also has a defence partnership with Pakistan. We do cooperate with Pakistan on some security and defence and counter terrorism issues. So again, we don't see this as a zero-sum game," the official said.

"We see this as the US and India having mutual security interests that they want to advance, and we believe that the defence sales that are being discussed will help advance those. It is not about Pakistan.

"The defence deals -- we do take into account the regional situation. We very much want to avoid a situation that escalates tensions between the two," he said.

"So these issues are taken into account. But some of the defence systems that we're talking about we don't believe impact Pakistan. They may be different systems than we are transferring to Pakistan, but we don't believe they represent a threat to Pakistan," said the White House official.

'India, US have common objective in Afghanistan'

Meanwhile, a senior Trump official on Friday said that India and the US have a common objective in Afghanistan, and the two countries could increase their cooperation to enhance the Afghan economy.

"India has played a positive role in Afghanistan, the US believes. They have pledged over USD 3 billion in assistance to Afghanistan. The Afghans appreciate the kind of support and assistance that the Indians have provided -- I'm not just talking about the government, I'm talking about the population," the official told reporters.

"When they've done polling, there's a very positive feeling toward India and the kind of assistance -- they've assisted in the education sector, the health sector. They built the parliament building. They support democracy, democratic development there," he said, listing out the developmental activities by India in the war-torn country.

"So I think this administration's opinion is that India has played a helpful role in Afghanistan in helping to stabilise that country, helping to strengthen the government in its fight against the Taliban insurgency.

"That's the kind of role that the US would like to encourage and perhaps maybe even cooperate in terms of development projects," the official said on condition of anonymity.

As such, "this is an area that the two can increase their coordination and their consultation," the official said.

"Of course, the US has major assistance programmes to Afghanistan as well. So I think this is an area where I think they can expand that dialogue on what they can do to help the economy, help Afghanistan become more self-sufficiently financially.

"Ultimately, that's the ultimate goal," the White House official said.

"We have that mutual goal, and you'll see more consultations on that moving forward," he added.

The Trump administration is currently doing a review of its Afghan policy.
India and Portugal on Saturday signed new agreements in the field of taxation, science, space, youth affairs and sports to further expand their bilateral relations.

IMAGE: Modi shakes hands with his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa at the Necessidades Palace in Lisbon. Photograph: Rafael Marchante/Reuters

Speaking at a joint conference after holding a bilateral discussion with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the two sides have also agreed to set up a joint science and technology fund of 4 million (Rs 28 crore).

He also announced setting up of a Chair for Indian Studies in University of Lisbon and developing a Hindi-Portuguese dictionary for mutual benefit.

We are determined to deepen our cooperation against terrorism and violent extremism, he added.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all smiles as he meets his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

Start-up sphere is an interesting space for cooperation. It is a great means to generate value and wealth for society, Modi said.

The India-Portugal International StartUp Hub is a platform for all stakeholders of the start-up ecosystem in India, including start-ups, investors, mentors, incubators, accelerators, aspiring entrepreneurs, service providers and government bodies, the hubs official website said.

IMAGE: Modi and Costa in talks during the PM's Portugal leg of his three-nation tour.

Photograph: @MEAIndia/Twitter

He also expressed condolences for the families and victims of forest fire, in Portugals Pedrogao Grande that claimed at least 60 lives.

IMAGE: Portugal PM Costa welcomes Modi at the Palacio das Necessidades, Lisbon.

Photograph: @MEAIndia/Twitter

On his part, the Portuguese Prime Minister welcomed his Indian counterpart in Gujarati.

He said that 17 cooperation projects have been identified to work on and that the bilateral talks.

IMAGE: Modi is the first Indian PM to visit Portugal on a bilateral trip. Photograph: @MEAIndia/Twitter

He stressed that science is going to be one of the most important areas for cooperation between the two nations in the future.

While in past it was the maritime link that connected our two countries, today its the digital link thatll join us in future, Costa added.

IMAGE: Modi was welcomed to Portugal by its foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva at the airport.

Photograph: @MEAIndia/Twitter

Prime Minister Modi, who reached Lisbon Portugal on the first leg of his three-nation tour earlier on Saturday, will also visit the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon known for its advanced biomedical research and clinical care.

Earlier in the day, departing from protocol, Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva received Prime Minister Modi at the airport earlier in the day.

Prime Minister Modi in the second-leg of his visit will later depart for The United States of America.

Portuguese PM treats Modi with special Gujarati veg lunch Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa on Saturday sprang a surprise for Narendra Modi when he hosted a special Gujarati vegetarian lunch for him that included dishes like Aakhu Saak and Mango Shrikhand. Aakhu means whole and saak simply means curry. It is a dish in which vegetable stuffing is heavily spiced and is ideal for big get-togethers. The other items on the menu included Saag Kofta, Rajma aur Makai, Tarkha Daal, Kesar Rice, Parantha, Rotli, Papad, and Gulab Jamun and other sweets. Earlier today, Modi and Costa took a stroll around the Palacio das Necessidades, a historic building in the Largo do Rilvas, a public square in Lisbon.

-- With inputs from PTI
On the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modis United States visit, the Trump administration has dismissed reports that it has been ignoring India, saying President Donald Trump realises that the country has been a force for good in the world and ties with it were important.

I think that it would be wrong to say that this administration has been ignoring or not focused on India, a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the two-day Modi visit from June 25.

The PM will meet President Donald Trump face-to-face for the first time at the White House on Monday.

I think that the US really appreciates India, and I think that President Trump realises that India has been a force for good in the world and that its a relationship thats important. And I think that will come through in the visit on Monday, the official said.

The senior administration official made the remarks while responding to questions on whether the US-India relationship has drifted under the new government, in part, because of President Trump and the administrations support to China.

I think its a bit unfair. I mean, were only six months into the administration. But there have been two very good phone calls between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi that you can point to as showing both countries interest in the relationship, the White House official argued.

Yes, this will be the first opportunity for them to sit down and have a conversation, but I think that this is still fairly early on in the administration, the official said.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said President Trump and Prime Minister Modi would have a very robust discussion when they meet at the White House.

During the meeting, the president and the PM will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism, defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement, and energy, Spicer said in response to a question.

Senator Mark Warner, Co-Chair of the Senate India Caucus hoped that Trump, in his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, shows enthusiastic support for deepening the US-India relationship, which enjoys strong bipartisan support.

The relationship is ripe for additional cooperation in areas such as the development of aircraft carrier technology, space surveillance, unmanned aerial vehicles, cyber and increased defence manufacturing, Warner said.

As we venture further into the Asian Century, there is little doubt of the increasing significance of India on the world stage. Our cooperation helps increase global security and advance economic opportunity in both countries, Warner said in response to a question.

On whether the contentious H-1B visa issue would come up for discussion during the meeting, a senior administration official said it was unlikely to be raised from the US side but if raised by the Indian side, the Americans were ready for it.

Ahead of the visit, Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna said the first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump will give them an opportunity to look at the entire gamut of Indo-US engagement and to exchange views on issues of global interest.

At the invitation of Trump, the PM would spend several hours with the US President at the White House on Monday afternoon, which would end with a dinner later that

night.

This would be the first working dinner being hosted by Trump for a foreign leader at the White House.

I think that just shows the amount of care that has gone in on the part of the White House to welcome our PM and the kind of planning that has gone into make this a very special visit, Sarna said.

This (dinner) is a special gesture and it is appreciated, he said.

On the agenda of the meeting, a senior administration official told reporters that the civil nuclear deal would be part of the discussions between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump.

The White House also emphasised that the US was looking forward to its nuclear reactors contributing to Indias energy security.

It said the US is interested in providing India with the kind of defence technology it normally reserves for its closest allies, signalling the Trump administrations resolve to strengthen the bilateral defence relationship.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and told him that Prime Minister Modis Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth.

The two agreed that the two countries have a deep and growing strategic partnership and hope to work more closely on regional and global issues.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department.

Ahead of his visit, Modi on Friday said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world, he tweeted.

Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Body cameras for the Mooresville Police Department have arrived. Find out when they will be used.
Nathaniel Mitchell (1753  February 21, 1814) was an American lawyer and politician from Laurel, in Sussex County, Delaware. He was an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, a Continental Congressman from Delaware, and a member of the Federalist Party, who served as Governor of Delaware.

==Early life and family==

Mitchell was born near Laurel, Delaware, son of James & Margaret Dagworthy Mitchell. A croquet fan from a young age he often trained at Graveny school of croquet. He married Emma Yrten and had ten children: Rebbeca., Emma, William I, Theodore, Alfred, Dagworthy, Elizabeth, Mary Ann, Elizabeth and Frederick. Mitchell was one of the founders of Georgetown, Delaware, and lived there on the northeast corner of the Square from about 1791 until 1808. The family returned to their Laurel home, Rosemont, now 121 Delaware Avenue in 1808. They were members of Christ Episcopal Church at Broad Creek.

==Military career==

Mitchell was an officer of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. In 1776 he was captain of a Delaware company raised under Colonel Samuel Patterson as part of what was known as the Flying Camp. They were stationed at Perth Amboy, New Jersey and saw no action. When the Flying Camp disbanded the company was attached to Colonel David Halls regiment, but fought with Colonel William Graysons Virginians at the Battle of Brandywine. Nursing an illness he was not at Germantown, but spent the winter at Valley Forge. Following William Graysons promotion to Brigadier-General, Mitchell led his regiment in the attack at the Battle of Monmouth. This was the attack that was ordered back by General Charles Lee and which eventually led to his court-martial. In 1779 he was Brigade Major on General Peter Muhlenburgs staff in the tidewater Virginia. When British General Benedict Arnold attacked Richmond, Virginia, Mitchell was defending Petersburg, Virginia when he was captured on May 10, 1781. By most accounts, his childhood friend Michael OBrien died in the affray. He was held prisoner until after the Battle of Yorktown.

==Professional and political career==

Mitchell served as Delawares delegate to the Continental Congress during its last two years from his election on October 27, 1786 until the Congress was replaced by the new government under the United States Constitution of 1787. Following that he was Prothonotary for Sussex County. In 1801 he ran for Governor of Delaware, losing to David Hall, the emocratic-Republican candidate. Hall was another veteran of the American Revolution who ran a campaign critical of Mitchells alleged deistic Anglicanism. Mitchell lost heavily Presbyterian New Castle County by just enough votes to overcome his wide margins elsewhere. Three years later, in 1804 he was successful, beating Joseph Haslet, the Democratic-Republican candidate. Mitchell served as Governor of Delaware from January 15, 1805 until January 19, 1808.

==Death and legacy==

Mitchell died at his home at Laurel. He may have been buried there at first, but was later removed to Christ Church, and is buried in the Broad Creek Episcopal Graveyard, near Laurel.

Hannah, Nathaniel Mitchells widow, later married Colonel Manaen Bull, a British soldier who became a resident of Laurel after the American Revolution. He had the first store there, on the northwest corner of Delaware Avenue and Market Street. They lived near Trap Pond. Unlike Mitchell, Bull was a Democratic-Republican and ran for Governor of Delaware in 1816 and 1819, losing to John Clark and Henry Molleston.

No known portrait exists of Nathaniel Mitchell.

==Almanac==

Elections were held the first Tuesday of October and members of the General Assembly took office the first Tuesday of January. The General Assembly elected the Continental Congressmen for a term of one year, State Senators had a three-year term and State Representatives had a one-year term. The Governor takes office the third Tuesday of January and had a three-year term.

Source(s): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Mitchell
A Tibetan man called out on Friday for freedom for Tibet before cutting his own throat in a solo protest outside Lhasas famous Jokhang temple, Tibetan sources said.



No details were available on whether the man had died or been detained following his 10:00 a.m. protest, a Tibetan living in the area told RFAs Tibetan Service on June 23.



But he is unlikely to have survived, the source said, writing to RFA on condition of anonymity.



When police arrived on the scene, they immediately covered the place with blue sheets so that no sign of the incident was visible, he said.



By 4:00 p.m., no evidence of the protest remained, a second source in Lhasa, Tibets regional capital, told RFA.



Everything looked normal, and there was no unusual activity in the area, the source said, also speaking on condition he not be named.



Tibetans were still coming to the Jokhang to pray and receive blessings, and people in the area nearby were behaving just as always, he said.



The protest was the second incident of its kind to be reported from the Jokhang, an important Tibetan pilgrimage site, in recent years.



In May 2012, two young Tibetans, believed to be monks, set themselves ablaze outside the temple in a protest challenging Chinese rule in Tibetan areas.



One of the two men later died, while the other was left badly burned, state media reported at the time.



Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.




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The chief executive officers of 18 publicly traded companies based in the Richmond region earned average compensation of almost $5.7 million in 2016, but only one of the local CEOs made enough to be listed among the 200 top-paid corporate chiefs in the United States.

The top-paid CEO among the Richmond-area companies was Martin J. Barrington of tobacco giant Altria Group Inc., who earned a total compensation package valued at about $24.2 million, up 126 percent from 2015.

That made Barrington the best compensated CEO in Virginia in 2016, a status that was held the previous year by the top executive of Falls Church-based defense contractor General Dynamics.

The other top executives of companies based in the Richmond area earned pay packages ranging from $410,520 for Tredegar Corp. CEO John D. Gottwald to just over $12 million for Dominion Energys Thomas F. Farrell II, according to data compiled on CEO pay for the Richmond Times-Dispatch by Equilar, an executive compensation and corporate governance research firm.

Average compensation for local CEOs in 2016 was up about 48 percent from 2015, but the average was skewed by major increases for a few of the CEOs.

When measured another way, the median pay  meaning half of the CEOs earned more and half earned less  stood at about $3.529 million for the 19 local executives in 2016. Median pay increased about 11 percent from 2015.

The CEOs lead local companies that are on the Richmond Index, a listing of the largest local, publicly traded companies that gained 9.53 percent for 2016.

In comparison, median pay for CEOs who manage companies that are on the Standard & Poors 500 index rose about 8 percent, to $11.5 million, in 2016  the largest pay increase in three years. The S&P 500 stock index rose 9.5 percent for the year and, including dividends, the total return was 11.96 percent.

The Equilar report showed that compensation climbed in 2016 for top executives nationwide as stock prices for publicly traded companies generally improved. Median pay for CEOs has increased about 19.6 percent over the past five years, according to the report.

CEO pay is going up, because we are seeing the stock market go up, said Dan Marcec, director of communications at Equilar. As we see stock prices go up, these (compensation) numbers are getting bigger and bigger. It will be interesting to see over the next few years, if we see a market correction, whether these numbers come down.

The median household income in the Richmond metropolitan area stood at about $59,900 per year in 2015, the latest year for which data are available from the U.S. Census Bureau.

***

Nine of the Richmond-area CEOs saw their pay packages increase in value in 2016, while four saw their compensation decline.

Comparisons between 2015 and 2015 were not available for six of the CEOs because they were not in place for two complete years.

One local company, insurer Markel Corp., has two co-CEOs.

Equilar did not include changes in pension plan value or deferred compensation in its calculations, so some of the CEO compensation figures are different from what appears in the regulatory documents that the companies send to their shareholders.

The overall rise in CEO pay reflects a better economy, said Tom Arnold, a professor of finance at the University of Richmonds Robins School of Business.

It also reflects an increased emphasis by corporate boards on setting CEO pay to align financial rewards with the interests of shareholders. As in past years, most local CEOs did not earn the majority of their pay from a base salary  only six got paid more than $1 million in base salary.

Instead, a significant portion of CEO pay was in form of stock awards, and a significant amount of pay for local CEOs came from long-term, non-equity incentive pay, or NEIP, which typically links executive compensation to the achievement of pre-determined goals and is often calculated using formulas.

Linking CEO pay with financial or stock performance is meant to mitigate potential issues between shareholders and a CEO, by making the CEO a significant shareholder or at least compensated when the firms performance benefits the shareholders, Arnold said.

In general, I dont think people object to CEOs earning more pay when the firm does well. It is when the firm doesnt do well that they want to see these incentive packages go down commensurately, Arnold said. When that doesnt happen is when you really start hearing objections to CEO pay.

Altrias pay package for Barrington put him at No. 35 on Equilars list of the nations 200 largest CEO pay packages for 2016. The top spot was held by Thomas Rutledge of cable company Charter Communications. He got $98 million in 2016, a 499 percent increase from 2015, with most of the pay in stock.

As with most local CEOs, Barringtons base salary was only a part of his overall pay, at about $1.4 million for 2016 compared with $1.3 million in 2015, while his total compensation included about $6.5 million worth of stock awards.

But the largest portion of his compensation  about $15.9 million  was in the category of NEIP. Barringtons NEIP category rose significantly in 2016 because it was the end of a three-year cycle in the companys long-term incentive plan. Payouts to executives covered under that plan occur every three years, if certain goals are met.

The companys board said the reasons for his compensation included delivering 2016 total shareholder return of 20.5 percent, which outpaced the S&P 500; paying out more than $4.5 billion in dividends to shareholders; raising the dividend by 8 percent; strengthening the companys cost competitiveness through a productivity initiative and manufacturing facility consolidation expected to save the company $350 million by 2018; and overseeing the companys transition to U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation.

The largest increase in total compensation among Richmond-area CEOs went to George L. Holm of Performance Food Group, the Goochland County-based food service distributor that went public in October 2015.

Holm saw a 248 percent increase from 2015 to 2016. Like Altrias Barrington, Holms base salary increase was only a small part of the overall growth in compensation, rising from $1 million in 2015 to $1.03 million in 2016.

The biggest increase in Holms overall compensation came from stock and stock option awards and a bump in non-equity incentive pay from $682,500 in 2015 to $1.03 million for 2016, which the companys board said was the result of exceeding targets for growth in earnings excluding interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a measure of a companys operating performance.

Dominion Energy CEO Thomas F. Farrell II saw a 25 percent increase in total compensation to $12 million in 2016, with a base salary that was the highest of all the Richmond-area CEOs at about $1.5 million.

Farrells compensation also included about $5.1 million worth of stock awards, and $5.2 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation. Dominion said in its proxy report to shareholders that about 89 percent of Farrells 2016 compensation was performance-based and tied to pre-approved performance metrics or the performance of the companys stock.

Genworth Financial Inc. CEO Thomas J. McInerney saw his overall compensation rise about 168 percent in 2016 because of an increase in stock awards and an annual incentive award for 2016. But his base salary decreased to $996,804 in 2016 from $1.02 million in 2015.

McInerney was awarded an annual NEIP incentive award of $3 million for 2016, compared with $1.2 million in 2015, for meeting operational and financial targets that the board had set out as part of a turnaround plan for the company.

His salary performance may not be on next years list because the Henrico County-based insurer is slated to become a private company if a $2.7 billion deal is approved by regulators to have Genworth acquired by China Oceanwide, a privately held, family-owned international financial holding company based in Beijing. If approved, Genworth, now a Fortune 500 company, would keep its headquarters in Henrico, and its management team would remain intact.

Also likely not to be on next years list is Henrico-based Straight Path Communications Inc., which holds spectrum licenses that can be used for faster 5G service. Verizon Communications is buying the company for about $3.1 billion pending approvals.

Not on this years list is Vincent L. Sadusky, who had been Media General Inc.s president and CEO from December 2014 until the Richmond-based communications company merged in January with Texas-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. in a stock and cash deal valued at $4.6 billion. The new company is called Nexstar Media Group and is based in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

Equilars Marcec said companies have been moving toward CEO pay for performance for the past few years.

That trend does not seem to be changing, but what I think is going to change is that company shareholders are going to look more closely at what those goals are. Is it something that really creates value for the shareholders?
A Henrico mom left her children behind when she went on a trip to Mexico last September, resulting in a conviction this week on three counts of child neglect.

Aida Stovall, 31, was found guilty Thursday of the charges following a bench trial before Henrico Circuit Court Judge John Marshall.

Stacey T. Davenport, an assistant Henrico commonwealths attorney, said Stovall asked two neighbors to watch her three daughters. The oldest girl was 11 at the time of the Mexico trip and her twin sisters were 8, the prosecutor said.

Those neighbors told Stovall they would check in periodically, but were adamant they couldnt stay at the home or be the ones ultimately responsible for taking care of the children, Davenport said.

Both neighbors testified that they were never asked by Ms. Stovall for their last name or phone number, Davenport said.

Stovalls oldest daughter testified that Stovall told her to get up extra early to make sure she and her sisters got breakfast, got dressed and got to the school bus on time, Davenport said.

She was supposed to cook dinner and make sure everyone ate dinner, Davenport said of the 11-year-old.

The prosecutor said the judge was particularly struck that the oldest daughter was responsible for giving her twin sisters their medication.

Vincent Robertson, Stovalls attorney, said Friday that the case involved very poor judgment by his client, particularly since Stovall was traveling so far and didnt know the neighbors very well.

On Sept. 16, Stovalls 11-year-old daughter told a school official at her middle school that her mother was in Mexico and that she and her younger sisters had been left at home, Henrico police said in an affidavit filed with a search warrant in the case.

The 11-year-old told police her mother left for Mexico on Sept. 14 and was set to return on Sept. 19, police said in the affidavit. The girl told police she was not supposed to tell anyone about the situation, police said in the court papers.

In an interview, Stovall told police that she went to Mexico with her boyfriend, the affidavit said.

Stovall was arrested by U.S. Customs agents when she returned to the U.S. from Mexico, according to police. Davenport said the trip was to Cancun, and that the defendant was arrested when she arrived in Miami.

Robertson stressed that his client had taken steps to ensure people were there to watch her children after they got home from school. The defense attorney added the house was clean and there was plenty of food in the home, Robertson said.

The oldest daughter is now being cared for by her biological father, while the twins are being cared for by a grandparent, Robertson said.
Neighbors said theyll never forget the terror visible on the three childrens faces as they raced out of the South Richmond apartment a few doors down from their own.

The children  7, 5 and 4 years old  had just seen their pregnant mother, Jawanda Johnson, shot, allegedly by her husband. It was 2:41 p.m. Thursday, the end of a long line of domestic abuse.

If you would have seen their eyes  youll never get that look out of my head, Shana Le Master, who lives off Chalfont Drive near Johnsons mother and stepfather, said Friday.

The oldest child was splattered with blood, Le Master said. The middle child, a girl, clung to the bag of chips shed gotten shopping just before the shooting began.

Le Master, her husband, Aragon Le Master, and Laura Mills said they comforted the children as police arrived.

Dont let them take my momma, Mills said one of the kids pleaded. We told them it was going to be OK. We thought she would be coming home.

But when an officer asked that they take the children inside, it was to remove Johnsons body from the home.

The 26-year-old lived in the 2200 block of Fairfield Avenue, but was apparently hiding out at her mothers after seeking a protective order against her husband, Terrell D. Cook, the day before she was shot and killed. Richmond police confirm that the order hadnt yet been served on Cook because he couldnt be found.

Police responded to Johnsons home five times this year. Three were related to the domestic situation, and all three were received this week, according to department spokesman James Mercante. Of the three, Johnson called twice and Cook called once, Mercante said.

The U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force tracked Cook to a home in Christiansburg on Friday morning. Cook, 28, of the 1300 block of Overbrook Road, had apparently shot himself and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The system failed, Le Master said. She followed the protocol. She asked for help, but no one listened. Now the children dont have a mother, or a father.

Two of Johnsons three children are Cooks.

A two-year family abuse protective order issued on March 10, 2015, expired March 3, just three months before Johnson was killed. Court records show a long line of complaints by Johnson against Cook dating back four years.

The couple were married in November 2012, but according to court documents, it doesnt appear they lived together for much of their marriage. Complaints of abuse began four months after the wedding.

On March 23, 2013, Cook was charged with assault and battery of Johnson. In the criminal complaint, a Richmond police officer said Johnson said was punched in the face and head several times by her husband. She had visible marks and bruises. Cook was released on a $2,500 bond, records show.

An emergency protective order was issued the same day and lasted for three days. Another was issued the following day.

A month later, Cook was charged with threatening Johnson by telephone. He was again released on a $500 bond.

Cook pleaded guilty to both charges in September 2013 and received no active jail time.

At the time, the defendant was suffering from Stage 4 cancer, Hodgkins lymphoma, according to Richmond prosecutor Kelli Burnett. In a letter, a Richmond jail doctor strongly recommended that he be released from the Richmond city jail immediately. He was given the suspended sentence and released the next day.

In 2014, Cook was charged twice more with assault and battery of Johnson  once in March and once in August. He was released on a $5,000 bond, and a three-day emergency protective order was issued in both cases, which were dropped by prosecutors in July 2015.

On March 15, 2014, Terrell Cook grabbed Jawanda Johnson around the throat and pushed her, the criminal complaint read. Ms. Johnson was able to get free and he grabbed her again. Mr. Cook is already subject to a protective order.

Burnett said Cook was still believed to be suffering from cancer at that time. The case was continued once to allow for a bone marrow transplant, and twice more when Johnson didnt show up to court. Eventually, the cases were dropped.

In February 2015, Johnson filed a complaint saying he has been threatening to kill my father and myself. The two-year order, which expired three months ago, was issued in March 2015 forbidding Cook contact with Johnson or her children.

Even with the protective order in place, Cook apparently continued to harass Johnson. Twice in August, he was charged with violating the order, as well as stalking resulting in reasonable fear of death or assault, court records show. In July 2016, these three charges were dropped after Johnson repeatedly failed to appear in court.

On Sept. 7, 2015, Cook was charged with maliciously shooting at an occupied dwelling  Johnson and her three children were inside, court records said  but the charges were again dropped in 2016.

Its certainly not uncommon for victims of domestic abuse to be uncooperative, Burnett said. Its difficult to break the cycle.

Cook had been convicted previously of child abuse in Henrico County in 2013. He was given a five-year sentence, all of which was suspended.

The neighbors said they believe not enough was done to protect Johnson.

Where is the follow-up? Aragon Le Master said. Theres no excuse. Someone needs to be held accountable.

Johnson is the 12th woman to be killed in the city this year  compared with 10 in all of 2016  and fifth domestic-related homicide.

There have been 36 slayings overall in Richmond this year. City police have investigated 27, including this one, as homicides; two as death investigations; two as justified homicides; one as an officer-involved shooting; and one as manslaughter or accidental death.

Three additional homicides are being investigated by Virginia State Police.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline has received support from Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.

The pipeline also has stirred fierce opposition along its proposed route. Foes have included potentially affected property owners, environmentalists, historic preservation groups, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy, property rights advocates and boards of supervisors in four of six Virginia counties through which the pipeline would pass: Giles, Montgomery, Craig and Roanoke.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC joint venture includes the following partners: EQT Midstream Partners, operator of the proposed pipeline with a 45.5 percent ownership interest; affiliates of NextEra Energy, at 31 percent ownership; Consolidated Edison, at 12.5 percent; WGL Holdings, at 10 percent; and RGC Midstream, with a 1 percent stake.

RGC Midstream is a subsidiary of RGC Resources, the parent company of Roanoke Gas, which will be a shipper of gas on the pipeline.
I heard that The Roanoke Times was dropping Starshine Roshells column and cried. It wasnt my first welly eyed moment over Starshine, either.

In 2008, I was living in Boston. My husband had suffered a traumatic brain injury and lost his left arm while serving with the Army in Iraq early that year. We were miles away from our Virginia families so that he could receive specialized rehabilitative care. At Christmas, my Mom brought me a copy of Roshells Keep Your Skirt On: Kicky Columns with Legs. It was a signed copy from Rams Head Bookstore. Love at first read.

The next month, I traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the first Obama inauguration. Id been reading the book one column at a time to make it last longer. For total indulgence, I took the book to read during the flight. Then, it happened. Excitedly exiting the plane, I left the book behind. My autographed copy of Starshines book was gone. I was so upset.

I called the airline hoping that maybe there was some sort of lost and found. No luck. Then came the tears. It might sound silly but during a very difficult time in my life, Starshines columns had provided, in her words, escapist jaunts into the lighter side of life when I needed them most. Sure, I could buy another copy, but it wouldnt be the signed one my Mom brought from Roanoke for Christmas. Id treasured that book. Page by page, line by line, Starshine had become my friend.

On a whim, I messaged Starshine. I told her the story and asked if I sent a new copy of the book would she sign it? Realistically, I never expected to hear from her. But in no time at all, Starshine herself wrote back asking for my address. I couldnt believe it.

A few days later back in Boston, I found a new, signed copy of the book waiting in my mailbox. Starshine had replaced the book herself. Wow.

I opened the book and found the following inscription: To Catherine  I know wed be great friends. Starshine

The truth is, Starshine, you are my friend.
PRINCE GEORGE  Christian Lynn Amos kept an uneasy secret for 10 years, his mouth shut and his conscience on fire.

Had he stepped in front of a speeding truck, died of a heart attack or otherwise remained silent, a man he did not know would have sat in prison for another year, innocent and with no hope of ever clearing his name.

Instead, on May 17, 2016, Amos, shamed and inspired by an 8-year-old boy, dialed 911 and reached a communications officer with the Prince George County Police Department.

I told them that I wanted to turn myself in, that I had committed some bank robberies.

And she asked for my name and I gave it to her and everything, and she came back on and she said, Were not looking for you. I said, I know youre not because Ive never been caught.

Amos, 63, is now behind bars at Riverside Regional Jail, sentenced to 12 years. Gary Bush, 67, is a free man after nearly a decade in prison. He returned to his family home near Covington on geriatric parole and hopes to win a formal exoneration from the Virginia Court of Appeals.

At Amos sentencing in Prince George Circuit Court last month, his lawyer, Edward Tomko, said, Judge, Ive never had a case like this, and I doubt that Ill see one like it again. I hope I dont.

When I first advised him that Mr. Bush had served almost 10 years of incarceration because of these offenses, Mr. Amos broke down and wept. He had no clue, no idea, that anyone else had been serving time for the crimes he had committed, Tomko told Judge W. Allan Sharrett.

I have never had a client, I dont think, with the depth of feeling with regards to his remorse for what he did, Tomko said.

Bushs case is highly unusual, at least in recent Virginia history, but defense lawyers caution that he has yet to be exonerated  and that what happened to him could happen to anyone.

There have been several instances in Virginia over the past few decades where the real perpetrators of crimes for which innocent persons were imprisoned came forward and either admitted wrongdoing or made up allegations against an innocent person. However, in all of those cases, the criminals knew innocent people were in prison serving time. Amos, by all accounts, did not know that Bush  a man he had never met  had been sentenced to 12 years in prison for two robberies Amos got clean away with.

His extraordinary 911 call last year stunned police, prosecutors and Bush, who got the news from his lawyer.

Attorney Christopher Ackerman said, It just doesnt happen. How often do you hear about someone with a conscience who calls up the police and confesses to a crime 9, 10 years later?

Bush always maintained his innocence. The new evidence was this confession. There was no DNA. ... It was straight up Mr. Amos calling 911, Ackerman said.Bush remembers the day in May 2016 when he was called to a prison counselors office and spoke with Ackerman, who gave him the good news over a conference call.

I was in there for nine years, six months and two weeks before I was released. Amazingly the guy came forward. I dont know why he did it, said Bush, relaxing on the front porch of his parents home surrounded by heavily wooded hills and ridges.

I have no animosity toward him at all, Bush said of Amos. Tell him I just hate to see anybody get 12 years for robbing banks with a note cause it was not a real threat.

Amos was relieved to hear that in an interview at Riverside Regional Jail last week, but he is still deeply troubled.

Theres no way I can make it up to him. No way at all, Amos said. Had he known Bush was in prison, Amos said he believes he would have come forward sooner. I just feel like I would have. I had no idea. No idea.

Amos wears his silver hair in a ponytail. Until a few years ago, he was often seen riding his Harley Davidson around Hopewell. He is being housed at a special unit for veterans at the jail until he is transferred to the Virginia Department of Corrections.

Born in Petersburg, he said, Im an Army brat. Lived out at Fort Lee for numerous years.

He attended Walnut Hill Elementary School, where he completed fifth-grade, later earning his GED. He was in the Army from 1971 to 1973, serving with the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. His father, a parachutist, was in the Army and a Vietnam veteran.

Amos is divorced, has two daughters and five grandchildren, and has worked most of his life as a welder, operated a carpet and flooring business, hung sheet rock and has done some carpentry.

His life changed for the worse in 1997 when he broke his leg in a motorcycle accident and became addicted to pain medication. The opioid pills were too expensive to obtain illegally, he said. Heroin, which he snorted and did not inject, was cheaper, so he regularly drove to Richmond to buy it.

I was addicted to heroin, he said. My addiction, it had consumed my life. If I didnt get it, I would get sick.

He committed three bank robberies over the years  one in Prince George and one in Petersburg, both in 2006, and another one in Petersburg in 2014  to support his habit. He used notes that threatened he had a firearm, but he never carried one. He said he rationalized robbing banks because they were insured. I wasnt really hurting anybody. Theyd get their money back. The only one I was hurting, you know, would be the teller  frighten the heck out of her, he said.

The first bank robbery was in Petersburg on Oct. 6, 2006, and the second in Prince George County in Nov. 8 of that year. The take totaled roughly $6,000.

That same year, Bush was living in Prince George and had just retired after 23 years as a machine operator for DuPont when he was caught with cocaine by police that October.

Awaiting trial on the drug charge, Bush returned to live on his familys property, where he was born and raised, near Covington. He wanted to sober up, straighten out his life and stay clean. Every time they gave me a drug test, I passed it with flying colors, he said.

But then around 5 p.m., Nov. 13, 2006, a family friend, Dwayne Paxton, a police officer, knocked on the back door and was invited in. We sit here and talked for a little while, recalled Bush  him, Paxton and his parents. We all knew each other, he said.

Paxton told him, Gary, I have a warrant for your arrest. And I asked him, What for? And he said, I cant discuss that right now.

The two men went outside so Bush would not be taken into custody in front of his parents. Paxton said, Ill put the handcuffs on you up front, that way it wont bother you so much. But I have to put the handcuffs on you.

He wasnt too happy about it, said Bush. And, he took me in and four hours later police from Prince George showed up. They took me back to Prince George.

He asked them what he was accused of doing. When they told him robbery, Bush said, I was shocked. I was amazed.

I was charged with a bank robbery. About two weeks later, I was charged with another bank robbery, one in Petersburg, he said.

Bush said he offered to take a polygraph test but the police told him they did not need one, that they had their man.

In the Prince George robbery, a witness who claimed to have used cocaine with Bush said he saw Bush leaving the bank when it was robbed. I didnt know the guy from Adam, Bush said. A teller also misidentified him.

He was convicted by a judge in Prince George and by a jury in Petersburg. The Petersburg conviction was on April 16, 2007, the same day as the shootings at Virginia Tech. They came back after lunch and they were ready to convict anybody, Bush said of the jury.

I was in shock. I couldnt believe it, he said. Bush was sentenced to five years in Petersburg on June 16, 2007, and to 50 years with 43 years suspended in Prince George on Aug. 2.

The Prince George judge told him that with a 12-year sentence, he would be out in 10 years and could start collecting Social Security.

Loved ones remained loyal despite the convictions.

Nobody believed it. Everybody stuck by me. The whole family stuck by me, most of my friends stuck by me, Bush said. He spent time at six prisons in different parts of the state, but he always had visitors.

He handled things one day at a time. To be honest with you, Id lay awake at night and try to figure out how in the world I got there. I kind of accepted it. Nevertheless, I told my story to anybody that would listen to me while I was in prison. I always thought that somehow I would be proven innocent. But then I didnt know ... how I would ever prove that I didnt do it.

Meanwhile, Amos stopped using heroin and said he was always troubled by the robberies. There was not a day that went by that I did not think about it. It weighed heavily on me, he said. What I had done, it was eating at me from the inside out. I was scared. I wanted to own up to it but I was afraid to do it.

He stopped using heroin after losing friends to overdoses and said he wanted to be a role model for his grandchildren. I quit cold turkey, just by myself, he said. Ive been clean and sober  itll be three years in July.

Last year, his 8-year-old grandson was playing outside his home in Disputanta, threw some rocks and broke some windows in a mobile home that was being renovated nearby. Amos confronted the boy, And he said, No, Grandpa, I didnt do it. I let it go. The next day, out of the blue, [he said] you know, Grandpa, I did it.

After school that day, Amos walked the boy over to the owner of the mobile home and Amos stayed back as his grandson confessed to David Manning, owner of the Manning Mobile Home Park. Reached by telephone last week, Manning recalled the incident well. He came up to me, his granddaddy stayed behind, and he came up on his own and told me what he had done and apologized for it.

Amos said he made the 911 call just a month or so after his grandson confessed. I was just so proud of him. Ive always been proud of him. But that day, especially, I was just so proud and it just left me feeling like a hypocrite. I knew that day that I had to turn myself in. I had to. But it still took me a month.

He said his conscience does not stem from religion  he lost his faith on May 16, 1969, when he was 15 years old and saw his father die.

I had a premonition that it was going to happen that day. And I remember my mom driving us to Fort Lee for Armed Forces Day, Amos said. I was in the back seat and I was like, Please God, dont let nothing happen to my dad.

His father, Robert Roy Amos Jr., was a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army. He was part of a holiday skydiving performance in front of 3,000 spectators at Fort Lee. He had just returned from Vietnam where he served with the 1st Air Cavalry Division, Amos said.

An account in The Progress-Index of Petersburg said Robert Amos was descending with his main canopy open when, at about 300 feet, he released it and fell to his death.

The last sentence in the newspaper story noted that he was survived by his widow and nine children.

As Amos recalls, He was just above trees and he released his main chute. I dont know if it was suicide. Thats what I assumed it was. He released his chute right above the trees. When I was young, when it happened, I used to have nightmares about it.

Ever since that day I really dont believe in God.

His conscience, he said, comes from his father, not a church. He was a strict father. He wasnt my biological father but he was the only dad I ever had.

The recording of his 911 call to Prince George police at 1:18 p.m. May 17, 2016, is not available. Amos said two police officers showed up, interviewed him and took him into custody.

After business hours that same day, police called Prince George County Commonwealths Attorney Susan OPrandy Fierro, who was not in office in 2006.

The next day I had the file and found out who the defense attorney was, she said.

She called Ackerman, told him what was happening and that officers were looking into whether there was some kind of connection between Amos and Bush.

Fierro said the police investigated Amos confession, came to believe it was genuine and that Amos had no idea someone else was in prison for the robberies. They let Amos lawyer break the news to Amos about Bush.

Ackerman contacted the Virginia State Parole Board. Fierro said, At that point we felt pretty confident that Mr. Amos was telling the truth.

I told the parole board investigator that I would have no objection to him being released. And then I called the Petersburg Commonwealths Attorneys Office and talked to them and they also had no objection, she said.

Virginia no longer has parole but Bush was eligible for geriatric release and the board quickly granted it. He returned to live with his elderly parents in Covington.

Amos has since been convicted of the bank robbery in Prince George. While he admitted he committed both Petersburg bank robberies, he has thus far only been prosecuted for the 2014 robbery, not the 2006 bank robbery for which Bush was convicted.

Cheryl Wilson, the Petersburg commonwealths attorney, said Friday that Amos will eventually be prosecuted for the 2006 bank robbery.

Amos netted seven years in Petersburg for the 2014 robbery when he was sentenced in February.

When Amos was sentenced in Prince George Circuit Court on May 12 by Sharrett, the judge made sure the case had been thoroughly investigated to rule out collusion between Amos and Bush and to make sure Amos did not have any psychiatric issues that might prompt a false confession.

His lawyer put Amos on the stand and asked him what his sentence should be.

A transcript of the proceedings shows that Amos, referring to Bush, answered: I think I should serve every day that he had to serve.

Sharrett imposed a 50-year sentence with 45 years suspended that, when combined with the other conviction, left Amos with the same 12-year term that Bush received.

The judge noted that Bush and Amos both had some drug issues but otherwise essentially had no prior criminal records. He said, Its deeply disturbing because an innocent man has spent a number of years in prison for a crime he simply did not commit.

It does, in fact, give lie to the euphemism victimless crime. There was an unintended victim, but a victim nonetheless, Sharrett said.

Nevertheless, Sharrett noted that Amos has voluntarily, without any compulsion, except from his conscience, confessed to a crime and essentially sentenced himself to a significant term of incarceration.

Amos is adjusting to imprisonment and said he is taking medication for depression and anxiety and is receiving counseling in the veterans unit at the jail.

Im having nightmares that Im going to be leaving prison in a wheelchair, he said.

He saw a recent television interview with Bush in which Bush said that after his convictions he considered taking his own life and that his biggest regret in the decade behind bars was missing a daughters wedding.

I feel really bad that I robbed Mr. Bush of 10 years of his life, Amos said. He wasnt able to walk down the aisle with his daughter for her wedding. I saw him on TV. And he said that he contemplated suicide. That would of like just tore me up if that would have happened.

I broke down and I cried again, he said.

Im just so glad I came forward. Theres a reason for everything in this world. Im just glad that I was able to clear Mr. Bushs name.
RICHMOND  Richmond Mayor Levar Stoneys new panel that will study ways to add context to Confederate statues also should consider renaming additional public buildings to more fully tell the citys story, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said Friday.

What I would encourage a commission like this to do is not just even look at existing statues  but we have places for other statues, said Kaine, a former Richmond mayor who was in town Friday on an unrelated event about Senate Republicans health care proposal.

We have public buildings that arent named after anybody now that we could name after people to broaden the story that were telling about the city, Kaine said.

I think theres opportunities to take what is existing and figure out how to put it in context  thats what I think the mayor talked about, Kaine said. But theres also opportunities to tell new parts of our story, to really flesh it out and be more full about it.

Kaine, a former civil rights lawyer, served on the Richmond City Council from 1994 to 2001 and was the citys mayor from 1998 to 2001.

As Hillary Clintons running mate in 2016, Kaine spoke of how he and his wife, Anne Holton, chose long ago to focus on racial healing.

We a long time ago decided  and maybe it was because we live in Richmond, a city with a history, a city with some scar tissue  we decided that our work would be reconciliation, he said on the campaign trail.

In Richmond on Friday, he gave an example of how a city building was named for a civil rights luminary in 1996.

Used to be the juvenile courts building was the juvenile courts building, Kaine said. Its the Oliver Hill Building now, he said, referring to the celebrated civil rights lawyer and former Roanoke resident who was a key figure in the legal fight for public school desegregation .

You take a building that didnt have a name and you name it after somebody who has a tie to justice, OK, now youre telling a story. I think theres a lot of those opportunities around the city.

Kaine, Virginias governor from 2006 to 2010, presided in July 2008, when the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial was dedicated on the grounds of the state Capitol. Among others, the memorial highlights Barbara Johns, the 16-year-old African-American girl who in April 1951 led a walkout at Robert Russa Moton High School in Prince Edward County to protest substandard facilities in a school for black students in Farmville.

Hill and Spottswood Robinson took on the students case, which was rolled into the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.

In January, Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced that the renovated 9th Street Office Building just outside Capitol Square would be renamed for Barbara Johns.

The federal courthouse on Broad Street in Richmond, which opened in 2008, is named for Robinson and for Robert R. Merhige Jr., both late federal judges with ties to Richmond.

Robinson, a Richmond native, was an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund from 1948 to 1960. In 1964 he became the first African-American appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Two years later he became a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He later became its chief judge.

Merhige, a New York native, was a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia for 30 years. His notable rulings included a 1970 order that the University of Virginia admit women, and later rulings backing desegregation in a number of Virginia school districts.

In 2015, Richmond officials named the citys Manchester courthouse for former state Sen. Henry L. Marsh III, the citys first black mayor, and for his brother, Harold M. Marsh Sr., a substitute judge who was slain in 1997.
UPDATE 12:15 AM, 6/24: A band of showers moving through the New River and Roanoke valleys over the next couple of hours early on this Saturday morning will mark just about the sum of the former Tropical Storm Cindy's effects on our region. A few gusts near 40 mph, especially in higher elevations, and quick downpour may occur, but this will not be flooding rain, and it appears the tornado risk has passed. Saturday (afternoon for sure, and maybe morning as well) and Sunday will turn into pretty nice days for us. END UPDATE

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The former Tropical Storm Cindy will continue to interact and eventually be absorbed by a cold front moving in from the northwest, so as today and Saturday progress, it will continue to lose its structure and effects as a separate weather entity.

More and more, it is looking as if the heaviest rain will be focused well northwest of our region in the Ohio Valley, with periods of showers and perhaps a few thunderstorms moving through Southwest Virginia. The likelihood of a widespread, serious flooding event for our region is low, as rainfall amounts may not even reach an inch in most locations. Any flooding that does occur will likely depend on localized torrential downpours in stronger thunderstorms that may develop.

One hallmark of an inland tropical system is the heightened risk of tornadoes, sometimes occurring in rather non-assuming storms, or even shower cells lacking lightning. There was quite a destructive, though brief, tornado near Birmingham, Alabama, on Thursday; fortunately no one was apparently injured. This happens because the leftover spin of a tropical system provides shear in the atmosphere that can give updrafts a twist.

As Cindy's circulation continues to unwind, the chance of tornadoes will continue to diminish but there may be a brief resurgence this afternoon, especially to our west in the Tennessee Valley closest to the remnant circulation, and also if sunshine can warm things enough to destabilize the atmosphere for more vigorous storms. For the afternoon and evening there is the slightest of risks of an isolated tornado or two in storms even into our region. Just something go be aware of. Any tornadoes that develop will likely be brief and weak. There may also be a few strong wind gusts in more intense storms.

Some showers and storms may continue into Saturday morning, before a front starts clearing out moisture late in the day, and leaves a nice Sunday. Next week, there may be 2 or 3 really cool mornings for late June -- 40s possibly in some locations. We'll get back to that after Cindy exits stage right.
It was at the beginning of the year we were warned.

It came from the Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Agafili Shem Leo, who cautioned that the rise of international crimes within the Pacific region means Samoa has become extremely vulnerable as the conduit of some of the criminal activities.

At the time, Agafili was speaking as the Head of Samoas Immigration office during the Pacific Immigration Directors Conference (P.I.D.C) meeting with the press.

Agafili warned that Samoa was being targeted by different criminals as part of organised crime especially with the availability of technology.

These crimes are happening globally, and Samoa is no exception from being affected indirectly.

The warning from Agafili came to mind yesterday when we read the front page story titled Police nab alleged schemer. It became even more alarming because in a matter of months, weve now had two similar cases, which means this country definitely needs to lift the level of alertness in relation to these organised crimes.

For the uninitiated, the story in question referred to a 33-year-old Romanian man who has been arrested for allegedly scheming money from one of the local banks.

In confirming the incident, Police Commissioner, Fuiavailili Egon Keil, reiterated the message from Agafili.

As you remember we had a similar incident where we arrested two Chinese nationals and they have been convicted and will be sentenced soon, Fuiava said.

The Commissioner added these incidents are growing in the Pacific.

Usually this is a ring that occurs in the region and its not just one individual, its organized crime. Essentially thats what it is, he said.

It travels in different islands and victimizes people from different islands. This is not the only crime that is transnational but it is a trend thats happening in the Pacific. We are working together with other Pacific islands to bring this crime to a halt.

So what do you need to know?

I want to advise all the customers out there in the banking industry to please check your bank accounts to make sure that theres no illegal or unauthorised A.T.M. money that was taken out of your account, Fuiava said.

I wont say which bank it is but I will just say generally to check your A.T.M. cards and A.T.M. transactions to ensure that those A.T.M. transactions are yours.

If is not then please report the matter to your banking industry and institution and also bring it to the attention of law enforcement so we can stop this transnational crime.

There is of course a lot more that is being done to counter these transnational crimes. Whats comforting to know is that the Police and the relevant authorities are not sleeping on the task. They are well aware of, and are being proactive in combating it.

The Pacific Transnational Crimes Network which is housed in Samoa plays a key role. We track and we coordinate and communicate with our partners all over the region like Tonga, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia to stop transnational crimes from occurring.

This is exactly whats happening right now and it is through the hard work of the women and men in blue in the T.C.U. thats bringing these criminals into justice.

Fuiava said the goal is to stop criminals from victimizing innocent members of the public.

We will make sure that we will stop these crimes and stop these people from victimising everyone.

I also want to send a message out there to those folks who want to come in Samoa and commit these types of crimes here that Samoa police will not tolerate these kinds of transnational crimes. We will find out and we will prosecute them.

Lastly, it must be stressed you and I have a very important part to play, as the Police Commissioner acknowledged.

We want to thank the public and also the banking industry for their cooperation and assistance in this matter in arresting and bringing these individuals into justice, said Fuiavailili.

Most of the crimes are reported by the public. So without the publics help and assistance not only in reporting it and also helping us with the prosecution, we wouldnt be able to catch these people.

So there you have it Samoa, keep a look out for these people. We need to be alert and we all have a part to play. Stay safe and have a wonderful weekend Samoa, God bless!
The Samoa Umbrella for Non-Governmental Organization (S.U.N.G.O.) delved into the challenging issues of today during a forum for the Civil Society this week.

Held at Hotel Millenia at Sogi, the forum was to inform the Civil Society Organization members and the public at large about what is being done to address some of the challenges of today  with issues like climate change, trade, land and others.

President of S.U.N.G.O, Roina Vavatau, said the Forum is all about awareness.

This is basically awareness and we have to raise the awareness among Civil Society; make sure we filter down the information to them about the different developments that we are working on right now, she said.

This includes the S.D.Gs (Sustainable Development Goals), you know ways that we can make our world a peaceful and better place.

Another thing discussed is our preparation for our 48th Leaders meeting in Samoa.

Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has asked that the Civil Society and private sectors must be improved so thats a change that our country will be looking forward to.

The civil society forum is basically a forum for anyone that wants to listen, voice their opinion.

Mrs. Vavatau raising awareness about the issues is a key part of S.U.N.G.Os role.

It is one of our core functions, to enlighten and to raise the awareness of N.G.O. civil society or the general public on whats going on in the region, what are the global agendas and things that our government are part of.

The ocean is another issue that weve discussed and how fishermen fish without having limits.

Its true that the Pacific does not hold much land but mind you, most of us depend on the sea.

This forum can be useful to the farmers out there and its important for them to give their feedbacks.

You know theres a way of living made from our lands and theres a way of living from the ocean and I think these are some of the things that Im proud of especially the sea. Its something that we should fight to protect; from people turning it into places for mining; you know from what we called deep sea mining.

Our country depends on the land and on the ocean; this is where we get food from and thats why its important to not destroy it with research, exploration or mining for gold.

So let us not be tempted into doing things like these and thats why not only Im thankful for the government of Samoa but its also important to continuously communicate with the government so that they will be aware of what the people want.

We also need food security so that we will continue to have food for our children in the future.

I mean if we sell fish undersized, there will be no food for you tomorrow so its really important to understand these things; because this is another goal for the S.D.G. for our ocean.

I know that we already have laws regarding these issues but the problem is; no one is guarding or monitoring the process.

P.A.C.E.R Plus was also on the agenda,

S.U.N.G.O. acts as an advocate to provide input into Government policy from N.G.Os, Civil Society and Community Based Organisations on issues they face; and that is why Roina hopes for this forum to have a positive outcome for the people of Samoa.

So hopefully at the end of this forum, we will report back feedbacks and advices from people to the government about the things that are happening, things that need to be changed.

So our duty is to just inform the government about those issues but its up to them whether they want to approve or not but S.U.N.G.O. will always do what theyre supposed to do.
Welsh super fan, David Mather, aged 53, has crossed the world to watch his home country play at Apia Park.

His dedication to his rugby team has seen him stop off at several different countries, but Samoa has special significance, due to its beautiful surroundings.

David made the three hour drive to London to catch a plane to Dubai, subsequently to Bangkok, Sydney, Canberra, Auckland, and finally Samoa, all for 80 minutes of Rugby!

David brings with him 18 pairs of Rugby boots for the children of Samoa from my minis Rugby team back home, in Pontypridd.

Samoa is world renowned for its sporting ability; any extra recourses are always greatly appreciated by the young talent of the country.

Having only just touched down in Samoa, David has been welcomed by a downpour of rain, but he is happily embracing the weather, fully understanding that it is the tropics.

I have only got here early hours of this morning, but first impressions are great. The hotel is lovely and the staff are excellent, said the loyal rugby fan. He is staying at the Tanoa Hotel near Apia, where his competition the Manu Samoa squad are also staying for the week.

Having just eaten breakfast, David added: There was everything you could want and plenty of it. Excited to get out into the city and explore, he had a map in hand, highlighting the best stops to meet the locals before enjoying the big game.

During his six day stay on the island, he hopes to travel around, but already embracing the relaxed Samoan way, he stated I will see how it goes, I have no set plans.

Being adaptable and relaxed is the best way to make the most of the beautiful island as you never know what you may discover! Doubtless, David a keen runner, will experience this for himself while out jogging around the beautiful island.

For now he is anticipating the big game and ready to embrace the culture and have a sing and chat to people; singing is very important to me. David definitely has something in common with the local community who also love to welcome travellers through song.
Travelling from Northern Australia, couple Brett and Siena Morrisey, both aged 49, have fully embraced their time on the island.

We really, really love Samoa its fantastic, and we had never been before, they say.

Brett has enjoyed his two week trip to Samoa, as he and his wife travelled extensively around both Upolu and Savaii.

On the way to the airport, both Brett and Siena regret that they couldnt stay for the historic event of the Manu Samoa vs Wales test match.

However, they had an experience of a life time, as they got to meet the team, the national rugby team are staying here at the hotel and they are so friendly Brett added.

In support with his new friends, he purchased a Manu Samoa cap and will be there wishing them all the best in spirit.

Sad to be heading home, the couple have been pleasantly surprised by how much they have loved the island.

Weve enjoyed it all, there hasnt been a bad day, Siena said.

This is a reflection on the hard work of the Tanoa Tusitala Hotel staff and the people of Samoa itself. Hotel has been really great. The staff are good, and its so calm and quiet.

The couple also spent time in Lalomanu with a local family and enjoyed traditionally umu cooked Samoan cuisine.

The local Church also embraced the couple allowing them to experience one of the main elements of Samoan culture. Religion is very important to the people, and it is an honour to participate in such an occasion. The couple said that it was a great experience.

Striking the perfect balance between relaxing on the beaches of Savaii, and getting actively involved with kayaking and snorkelling, Brett and Siena were lucky enough to see some of the Sea Turtle indigenous to Samoas shores.

Having learnt a great deal of Samoan while on their trip, they were pleased to be able to understand more and more of the local culture. Its such a beautiful language Siena added. Samoa is best enjoyed when you throw yourself into local life, and this is doubtless the reason the couple enjoyed their stay.

Another highlight was the welcoming display at the airport. Brett said, When we arrived, there were four local guys playing in the airport. I didnt realise it was live, they were playing beautifully and that was definitely a highlight. The islanders love to sing and dance, and always welcome visitors in this manner.

They also love to share food, which the couple found a great experience as the family they stayed with invited them to join them in their beach-side Fales and for a meal. We all sat on one big table all together Brett said excitedly.

They also experienced, not one, but four Fia-Fia nights, which are shows highlighting Samoan traditional culture. Enjoying each more than the last, they added that they would definitely recommend attendance!
Life is tough.

But it is meant to be that way to challenge us to get better.

Thats what Maota Lopati, 84-year-old mother and grandmother from the village of Saanapu-tai, believes.

Looking at whats happening today, the mother of eight is particularly concerned about the increasing cost of living.

Back in the days we usually bought most of the goods for 50sene, but as you can see nowadays, thats not the case anymore, she said.

Most people are buying on credit everyday to survive, and thats the truth if we talk about the hard life, most of our people are struggling from day to day.

To be honest, all families in Samoa are struggling and my one is no exception.

But hard work and never giving up is the key.

What do you think of todays development in our country?

I think the government is focusing more on development which is okay.

But I think there is a need to create more jobs. This is the most important thing they need to look at.

Maota beleives that leading by example is very important.

We have to set good examples, she said. Ive done that with my children.

As you can see, this is my life everyday, tidy up the house, pick up the rubbish outside the house, cooking...I mean everything.

She also wants to stay active and healthy.

As Ive mentioned before I have eight children and theyve all grown up raising their own families. I wish for them to succeed in everything they do.

She understands that old people are never too old to exercise.

Thats true, she happily said.

You know back in those days we never had many types of equipment to do chores, cut the grass so we mainly used our old tools  hands.

Thats the life we were brought up with, we exercise in doing a lot of chores and helping out to our parents.

How is life in the village for Maota?

She told the Village Voice that village life is awesome.

In our village, everyone lives in beautiful and natural surroundings; there is land to work on to provide food and to take care of our family and church.

We live together as one family, we share our views together for the good of others especially the future of our children.
Earning money means sacrifices.

For Pili Lualu, of Savaia Lefaga, it means four nights away from his family.

He sleeps at the market to sell taro. When the Village Voice caught up with him, he was spent and tired. But he was happy hed made some money.

Ive been a farmer for a very long time now and this is what my family depends on, he told the Village Voice.

As you can see, my face and my hands are all dirty. Ive been staying at the Fugalei market for four nights to sell taro. I couldnt bear going home with nothing.

He had nine sacks of taro to sell.

I went to the market early Monday thinking by Tuesday I will return home but it has been slow.

The father of four children says the market is not what it used to be.

There are a lot of people like me selling taro at the market. They brought twenty to thirty sacks of taro and they spend two to three weeks trying to sell it.

Its not the same like the market back in the day where usually eight to ten farmers selling their crops and people also buy a lot.

Its not the same anymore. Sometimes we also try to decrease the price in order for people to buy our crops. I sold some of mine for $10 a basket.

I just wanted some money for it.

The harvest is his last for a while.

I wont be planting anymore taro because of the virus. I guess that is another reason why people are trying to sell their taro.

They dont want their hard work go to waste, because this virus is actually killing farmers plantations.

The Ministry of Agriculture has nothing to cure the disease, but we put so much hard work on tending our plantation.

So how much did he make?

For four nights of sleeping at the market, I made less than $500. Im just happy I have some money.

Im looking forward to seeing my children and to get some sleep.
Dear Editor,

Re: Ex-Minister objects to street vendors plan

I am dumbfounded why the government is proposing such law as I myself like the Hon. Minister was a street vendor many years ago.

The semantic of my pragmatic humble beginning plying street vendor to weave between office desks in down town Apia to sell any commodities to get money.

That education had made me a better tool for the future the essence of herein a headache for many in todays world.

Being a street vendor at young age gave me the will to succeed and overcome obstacles life had thrown at me that I had come out unscathed.

It surely educated me at young age the spinning nature of commerce and the courage not to rest on my laurel but continue on to achieve my own destiny without relying on anyone to lift me but survive on my own effort.

As Rome never was built in one day, and so as our Palisi mansion from seleni and sisipeni collected from I and siblings effort at young age to help our parents with our daily needs, and to buy that property currently valued over a million Tala.

However, we never did it during school time as we also attended the learning institutions.

I remember well those mundane days when we were on the way to school in Apia in the morning carrying the supplies for my late mother to sell at the Savalalo Market.

After school, I would change from school uniform and don my street vendor apparel.

From that humbled effort, it surely educated me to implement the nature of the beast that without dollars and cents, no ice-creams and fasimamoe, fish, eggs, butter that we as kids way back then in Samoa were eating.

Did we ever blame the Honourable Prime Ministers of Samoa back then?

Why would I blame the late Fiame Mataafa Faumuina Mulinuu ii?

Why would I blame the late Vaai Kolone even he had a Sawmill and Hotels in his name?

Why would I even blame Hon. Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Lealofi iv; since New Zealand had left Samoa, perhaps had taken with them even the bank book and if ever was any vacant spaces on MV Matua and Tofua, would have taken the soil as well.

Its how it was but for now above all, being a street vendor is not a burden but an advantage for the kids.

A countrys economy is built and measured from the diversity of her people entrepreneurial will; believe you me.

It is our ambition to deliver that counts.

Tofaeono Joe Hollywood
The Unit Trust of Samoa (U.T.O.S.) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Fiji company, Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (A.T.H.).

Signed in Apia on Friday, the Chief Executive Officer of U.T.O.S., Sau Justina Sau said the M.O.U. is a step in the right direction for Samoa.

This will open a lot of doors for us in terms of investment opportunities outside of Samoa including Fiji not only in the telecom industry but also at other sectors, said Sau.

Part of this also is A.T.H. will look at U.T.O.S., increasing its shareholding as you are aware we only owned 25 percent in Bluesky Samoa."

We can now move forward and look at the possibility for U.T.O.S. increasing its shareholding in Bluesky Samoa to about 30percent and the same with Bluesky Pacific Holdings."

We also have the opportunity as you are aware the Govt. of Cook Islands hold 40 percent of the Telecom Cook Islands and Blue-sky owns 60percent."

So the Govt. of Cook Islands is looking at diverting its 40 percent so this also provides an opportunity for U.T.O.S. and A.T.H. to go invest in terms acquisition of that 40 percent."

In terms of Telecom Cook Islands A.T.H. already has acquired them so there are opportunities for U.T.O.S. to acquire some of the shareholding in Vanuatu and other region as well."

So at the end of the day its all about expanding investment for better returns for the U.T.O.S.

Chief Executive Officer of A.T.H, Ivan Fong, said the M.O.U. represents some very exciting and interesting opportunities for both parties.

The M.O.U. is essentially capturing the working relationship between the two parties going forward, Mr. Fong told the media.

Weve been looking at investing together hand in hand in places in the region where at this stage is telecommunications and I.C.T. Investment but the scope for much more to be done."

Why it is interesting A.T.H. and U.T.OS and other institution in the Pacific especially because for many years weve talked about the need to work together."

The Pacific is not in a big place and weve all heard the issue of people saying we dont have economy of scale and access of market and that sort of thing."

However when you look at it broadly we can see that across the Pacific is a population of over ten million people and if we all get together and work together, I think the world will sit up and take notice and we can access more opportunities.

I think we can make a lot of investment and other things work a lot better as well."

So for us, the future of how we want to work together and wed like to put this as an example for many other institution in the pacific that it is actually very easy to cooperate rather than just talking about things but lets just get things done.

But why is A.T.H interested in U.T.O.S?

In many of the island countries, Ive talked about the need to cooperate."

Within your own country you are very limited in investment opportunities and I cant speak for the funds but I would say that number of the fund in Fiji Id like to see them build returns for my retirement and that sort of things so they need good investment to work on."

So the idea is the funds can work together, they can start to increase the investments, get more diversity and generally you will also open doors and find more opportunities across the pacific."

[And] thats why we think its interesting and many times we talked about cooperating but I think really we just have to sit down and get some things done and work together because you cannot build relationship if you just talk but dont work together to actually understand that we can build a trust and these are parties that we can work together with.
Lets say you want to go to Paris on vacation and you find a really inexpensive airfare online.

But the flight leaves out of LAX, not Lindbergh Field in San Diego.

Given the notorious traffic conditions on I-5  not to mention the hassle and high price of parking your car during your trip at the airport parking lot  chances are, you would quickly toss that idea out the window.

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But lets say a ridesharing service could pick you up from your neighborhood Starbucks and drop you off at or near LAX for about $50, maybe less. And you would make the trip while riding in a Tesla.

Then you might just say, Bienvenue a Paris.

An example like that fits precisely into the business strategy of Tesloop, a 2-year-old startup based in Culver City, that ferries passengers to and from locations in greater Los Angeles, Orange County and Palm Springs. Last month, the company added San Diego to its SoCal loop.

San Diego is a huge market for people traveling between L.A. and San Diego, said Rahul Sonnad, Tesloops CEO and one of its co-founders. We think its about 48,000 people each day, each direction.

When you look at the current transportation options, driving yourself is a challenge. Its stop and go, it takes a long time, its tiring  so we think San Diego is really a great market  the right distance where you can more effectively travel by electric car.

All the cars in the companys fleet are all-electric Teslas  hence the name Tesloop  but Elon Musks signature brand has no connection to the startup.

Sonnad said the people running Tesla have never complained about the similarities in companies names.

I would guess they had some discussions but they decided it wasnt infringement, Sonnad said. Were actually in a different category of business than them. Were in transportation; theyre in car-making  Early on we told them if they had a problem we would change our name and they didnt request we do so.

Tesloop bills itself as the future of mass transit, like an airline or train system but in a smaller and more customer-friendly scale, serving routes up to 250 miles, which corresponds to the range a Tesla can predictably go on a full charge.

The company also emphasizes its green credentials, pointing out traveling in all-electric vehicles does not emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

So how does Tesloop work?

Riders go to the companys website and, just like booking a flight, browse Tesloops departure times and estimated arrival times for the routes it serves.

Tesloop shuttles between locations in greater Los Angeles and San Diego areas four to six times a day and between Los Angeles and Palm Springs six times a day.

Tesloops fleet is made up of one Tesla Model S that seats up to three passengers (not counting the driver, which the company calls a pilot) and seven of Teslas Model X series vehicles that seat up to four riders.

Just as one would be assigned a specific seat on a plane, customers book a reserved seat.

Prices generally run between $39 to $79 per leg. The price can go as low as $29, with the passenger riding in the third row of the Model X. In order to avoid empty seats, the $29 fare is available the day before or the day of a trip.

If you prefer to travel in private, an entire car can be booked for as little as $116.

Its like a business-class experience, Sonnad said. You dont touch shoulders (with other riders). Its very relaxing.

A Tesloop car drives near Mission Bay. The ride-sharing service offers trips between cities such as San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County and Palm Springs. The service uses Teslas with amenities such as wifi, chargers, snacks and drinks. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Customers have access to free Wi-Fi modems, USB ports for electronic devices, smart-phone charging cables, headphones and neck pillows. Complimentary beverages, such as coconut water, and healthy snacks are also provided.

Pickup and drop-off locations are concentrated at hotels and Starbucks outlets.

Our goal is to have you wait no longer than five minutes but theres this thing in Southern California called traffic that sometimes gets in the way, Sonnad said, We dont want anyone to wait more than 20 minutes and if youre waiting 20 minutes at a Starbucks or at nice hotel lobby, thats not so bad  We try to make all of our pickup places pleasant.

Tesloop does not offer door-to-door pickups and says its drivers will wait no longer than 10 minutes for passengers who are running late.

A ride from one of Tesloops pickup spots in downtown San Diego to downtown Los Angeles takes about two and a half hours. You can also go between greater San Diego and destinations in Orange County but not from San Diego directly to Palm Springs.

Tesloop is working to get the necessary permits to pick up and drop off customers at every airport in its service area. Some of its cars have access into LAX and Sonnad expects that within the next month every Tesloop car will have the OK.

Once a trip is booked, riders receive multiple messages by text or cellphone from a concierge, updating them on pickup times and alerting them of the estimated time of arrival.

Via a smartphone in the vehicle, the concierge speaks to riders from Tesloop headquarters and is ready to address any needs of riders during the trip. Passengers can request a bathroom break at any time.

Tesloops ground control monitors the cars every move, continuously noting its speed and location.

Sonnad said Tesloop has about 60 people on staff, including 40 drivers and 10 people working shifts at company headquarters.

So if the fares are pretty cheap, how does Tesloop make money?

A big chunk of the companys business model is based not only using their vehicles efficiently but frequently.

Tesla guarantees its cars with an eight-year unlimited mile warranty on the motor and Tesloop seeks to maximize the use of each of its vehicles.

The oldest car in the Tesloop fleet has racked up 300,000 miles without any significant maintenance costs. We had to buy a battery and get an alignment and that was it, other than tires, Sonnad said.

The companys cars on the L.A.-Palm Springs route rack up 17,000 miles a month.

Plus, since the cars are electric, Tesloop doesnt pay for gasoline. And since Tesla offers customers free unlimited supercharging, Tesloops fees for charging its fleet is essentially nil.

Sonnad said it takes as few as two paying passengers to make a single trip profitable.

Lets say you (book) three seats at $50, Sonnad said. Thats $150 each trip. Thats $600 a day. Thats $17,000 a month. Thats more than anybody in the world makes with cars today. And the car costs $3,000 a month to lease. So youre (taking in) $17,000 a month and youre getting free fuel.

Working on the expectation that autonomous  essentially, driver-less  vehicles will hit the roads and highways in the coming years, Tesloop officials anticipate selling the drivers seat to a prospective passenger as well, which would further boost revenue.

The cost basis for these cars is unprecedented, Sonnad said earlier this week, while on a brief stop at Mission Bay. He pointed to a car parked nearby. It is cheaper to drive this car than that Toyota Corolla, per mile.

What if just one person is booked? Sonnad said Tesloop will not cancel a trip once someone has confirmed a seat. We absorb the risk of low bookings, Sonnad said.

Tesloop officials say the company has not turned a profit yet but projects to in about a year.

While Tesloop describes itself as a ride-sharing company, Sonnad does not consider outfits like Uber and Lyft as direct competitors because those companies focus on shorter trips.

Under 50 miles, we dont think we have any major benefits, Sonnad said. But going longer distances fits the Tesloop model. Were competing with the train and the plane and the bus and long hauls.

Tesloop co-founder and CEO Rahul Sonnad drives one of his companys cars around the San Diego area. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)

The concept for Tesloop did not come from Sonnad but from his son, Haydn. After receiving his drivers license, the then 16-year-old wanted to lease a Tesla and thought a good way to pay the monthly bill would be by shuttling people from the Los Angeles area to Las Vegas.

He turned out to be too young to qualify for the insurance required for livery service but his father, a tech entrepreneur, thought the idea was a good one and organized a startup team that launched the company in 2015.

Tesloop has discontinued its LA-Las Vegas route, finding it less than cost-effective since there are inexpensive flights between the two cities and the 270-mile distance required a stop to charge the car.

Sonnad said the company expects to expand service to Santa Barbara and, looking long-term, is considering taking Tesloop to South Florida and Texas.

Clearly, Tesloops future in many ways is tied to the fortunes of Tesla Motors.

Even though Teslas NASDAQ valuation has soared above $380 a share, the company has its share of doubters.

Pointing out that Tesla vehicles make up a tiny percentage of the overall auto market, former GM vice chairman Bob Lutz last year said, Tesla supporters are like members of a religious cult.

Earlier this month, the chief executive of the Russian oil giant Rosneft called manufacturers such as Tesla overvalued and overestimtated.

But Sonnad is undeterred, convinced the entire transportation sector will be upended in just a few short years.

Everything around here over the next 10 years is going to change, Sonnad said. Every car, every road, every gas station, every energy power center.

One of the trips offered on the Tesloop website between San Diego and downtown Los Angeles

Date: Friday, June 23

From: Hillcrest Starbucks, 1240 University Ave.

To: JW Marriott, downtown LA, 900 W. Olympic Blvd.

Leave: 8:42 p.m.

Arrive: 10:51 p.m.

Cost: $49

Source: Tesloop website

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A Tesloop car drives near Mission Bay. The car riding offers service between cities such as San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County and Palm Springs. The service uses Teslas with amenities and includes amenities such as free wifi, chargers, snacks and drinks. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)

rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski
Plans for a long-sought convention center and resort hotel on Chula Vistas waterfront cleared a major hurdle Tuesday when San Diego port commissioners and the citys council members approved an agreement with a Houston developer to build the nearly $1 billion project.

The actions of the two governmental entities set in motion a series of steps culminating in a more formal development and lease agreement that will clear the way for a possible construction start by the end of 2019.

The project, two decades in the making, calls for a 1,450-room hotel, a 275,000-square-foot convention center and resort-style amenities, including a lazy river, on a 36-acre site where aircraft manufacturing and a power plant once stood at the foot of H Street.

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Port and Chula Vista council members hailed the development as one that promises to not only transform the South Bay waterfront but will also induce other developers to invest in the more than 500-acre master-planned Chula Vista bayfront.

The South Bay and Chula Vista bayfront are the economic future of the port, said Port Commissioner Ann Moore, who represents Chula Vista on the board and was credited with helping bring the project to fruition. The hotel and convention center will create a whole lot of jobs and also will put a lot of money into the economy for a long time to come. This will be a catalyst for the future development of the waterfront.

If design work and continued negotiations on a more specific financing plan and lease move forward as expected, the bayfront project could open by 2022.

The ports financial consultants are projecting an annual economic impact to the region of nearly $400 million, in addition to the creation of 3,700 permanent jobs.

Public subsidies, though, will be required to make the convention center project pencil out.

Houston-based RIDA Development, chosen by the port in 2014 to carry out the project, will be required to contribute at least $688 million, while the San Diego Unified Port District and city of Chula Vista will be expected to come up with roughly $300 million, which amounts to about one-third of the projects price tag. That investment would include the still undetermined cost of constructing a 1,500-space parking garage that would be available to the project, as well as the general public.

Port officials say that the two governmental entities should be able to cover their financial obligations for the project from a number of sources, including existing bayfront lease revenues, sales and hotel room taxes generated by the development, and future lease revenues from the convention center project. However, those latter rent payments wouldnt start trickling in until after the first 18 years of the lease.

The bulk of the financial return to the port district will come in the last 29 years of RIDAs 66-year lease. The port estimates those later-year revenues at nearly $2.4 billion.

RIDA is in discussions with Gaylord Hotels, a large convention hotel brand of Marriott International, to manage the hotel and convention center. Years before it was acquired by Marriott, Gaylord had applied to tackle the project but ultimately withdrew during the recession.

RIDA CEO Ira Mitzner reassured port commissioners that the project will in no way compete with San Diegos much larger downtown convention center. What it can do, he said, is help complement the center when the city is hosting large, citywide meetings as it is this week with a large biotech gathering.

This is going to benefit not only Chula Vista and the county and the city of San Diego but the entire region, Mitzner said. It will make this region all the more competitive.

RIDA is currently partnering with Gaylord on a convention center complex outside Denver. The size of the convention space envisioned for the Chula Vista bayfront appears to be somewhat smaller than some of the four existing complexes Gaylord operates in Florida, Texas, Tennessee and the Washington, D.C., area.

Besides the Chula Vista hotel and convention center, RIDA also is seeking priority rights to build a 550-room hotel next door.

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lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-2251

Twitter: @loriweisberg
An office manager who admitted stealing more than $500,000 from her Escondido employer  money authorities say ended up in slot machines  was sentenced Friday to six years in prison.

Sheila Jo Jackson, 46, pleaded guilty last month to embezzlement, forgery and grand theft charges linked to the theft from Betz Concrete Inc., where she had been in charge of the keeping the books for nearly 15 years.

The Temecula woman was sentenced to state prison by Vista Superior Court Judge Michael Washington.

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Deputy District Attorney Anna Winn said the thefts happened over at least a four-year period, and were uncovered in April 2016 when a bank contacted the companys owner after suspecting his signature had been forged on a $2,500 check to Jackson.

The owner called police. During the investigation, Escondido police detectives discovered Jackson had left open a company bank account she had been instructed to close and then used it to deposit customer checks, withdrawing the money for herself, according to Winn.

And with a smile and a hug, she would embezzle over $565,000 from our small business.  James Betz, owner of Betz Concrete, Inc.

Investigators reached out to area casinos, and learned that Jackson had gambled all of the money away at slot machines.

In a statement read in court, company owner James Betz told the judge he felt betrayed by the woman hed hired so long ago, a decent young gal from the Midwest with two young kids to support.

The company had fewer than 10 employees, Betz said, and Jackson insisted on ending each day with a smile and a hug.

And with a smile and a hug she would embezzle over $565,000 from our small business, Betz said.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT
Camp Pendleton marked the beginning of a new command for the 1st Marine Division in a ceremony Friday afternoon at the divisions headquarters on base.

Maj. Gen. Daniel ODonohue, who served as the divisions commander for two years, turned the command over to Brig. Gen. Eric M. Smith, previously the assistant deputy commandant for Plans, Policy and Operations.

Smith is taking charge of the oldest, largest and most decorated division in the Marine Corps. The division includes nearly 23,000 Marines and Sailors who make up four combat ready regiments and seven battalions.

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The ceremony, which included the Passing of Battle Colors, drew several hundred Marines, sailors, family members and veterans who heard speeches from Lt. Gen. L. A. Craparotta Commanding General, I Marine Expeditionary Force, along with the divisions incoming and outgoing commanders.

The group paid tribute to Marine Lance Cpl. Donald Hogan of the 1st Marine Division, who was awarded the Navy Cross. Hogan was killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb.

The tone of event was set by the famed 1st Marine Division Band, which performed for the ceremony.

Lt. Gen. Craparotta recognized the accomplishment of both ODonohue and Smith and highlighted the significance of the Passing of Battle Colors in continuing the divisions legacy of success in battle through the new leadership.

We are following a long line of legendary commanders, Craparotta said.

ODonohue was commended for his warfighting summits and efforts to further build up combat readiness.

Smith was called upon to write the next chapter in Marine Corps history.

Smiths previous posts included commanding officer of 1st Battalion, 5th Marines with several deployments to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and and assistant chief of staff.

He served in the 2nd Marine Division as the assistant chief of staff and commanding officer of 8th Marine Regiment; completing a year deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. From July through November of 2015, he commanded Marine Corps Forces Southern Command in Miami and subsequently transferred to the Pentagon to serve as the senior military assistant to the Secretary of Defense.

The 1st Marine Division, known as The Old Breed was activated aboard the battleship U.S.S. Texas on Feb. 1, 1941, and since that time has served in every major conflict the U.S. has been involved in.
As a 2-year-old, Jae Anthonys first stage was her home and her set list included the songs shed learned from Sesame Street and The Disney Channel. A full-time artist who performs under the name JerVae, Anthony went on to study at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts from fourth through 12th grades, and graduated from the California Institute of the Arts, where she studied vocal performance.

Singing allows me to communicate my truth and tell stories using the unique instrument that Ive been gifted with, and a variety of techniques that I continue to study, she says.

Today, shes one of the scheduled performers in the Poets & Painters event organized by the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, taking place at the Market Creek Amphitheater in San Diego from noon to 5 p.m.

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Anthony, 33, lives in southeast San Diego and also works as a consultant with The SOULcial Workers, a collective of artists who use art to work with youth and provide them with access to explore and express themselves. She took some time to talk about her singing and songwriting, the purpose behind her art, and what people can expect from her performance today.

Q: Tell us about Poets & Painters.

A: Poets & Painters is a free arts festival featuring music, poetry and visual arts. Ill be doing a set of original compositions and audio-emotional storytelling.

Q: What can people expect from your performance today?

A: They can expect to be entertained and surprised. I have a few tricks up my sleeve that Im excited to share with our audience. I dont want to ruin the surprise, but I can say that I have been known to perform with puppets, remix and cover classic songs. Blending genres and bending rules excite me. During this performance, I will be using multiple media to create something tangible that allows the audience to take a piece of me home with them.

Q: You sing and write songs. Do you remember the first song you wrote?

A: One of the first songs I wrote was Life Is What You Make It, and its a song about finding happiness outside of what society encourages us to obtain. Looking back, this was probably the beginning of me trying to decolonize my mind.

What I love about southeast San Diego ...

Im proudly from southeast San Diego, and I love my communitys culture. The elders of the community who have taught us how to survive. The beauty and innovation and style of the people. The love that we extend to each other. The validation that I receive when I walk into establishments filled with people of color who respect me as a human being and a powerful member of my community. I love that my neighborhood is still mine.

Q: What has the process of decolonizing come to look like for you in practice?

A: Decolonizing my mind has been a continual process of rethinking the values that guide my actions. Its emotional, intellectual and spiritual labor that involves centering myself as an African-American woman and not allowing my entire existence to be a performance tailored for the white, cisgender male gaze. I understand that our agendas in life are impacted by what society deems as important, but society treats women of color differently. There are social standards that imply that I am inherently less than, and its important for me to remember I am not the origin of those lies as I navigate life.

Im either infantilized or villianized for being too black, too big, too emotional and too sensitive, but its no longer my job as an African-American woman to exist in a way that makes people feel comfortable. If Im upset, theres a reason why and its a valid reason. If people are upset by me, they should investigate for themselves their values and how my presence interrupts their belief systems. Understanding this has allowed me to live more honestly and move freely outside of respectability politics. My happiness is an original work of art and its essential to my mental health and physical well-being.

Q: What is your goal with your music? When you sing, what do you want people to get from hearing you?

A: My goal is to heal myself and the world. Being visible for fat, black femmes is important, also. Representation matters. Im unapologetically me and I think we all deserve to be ourselves. I think thats what God wants.

Q: Can you talk to us a little about why this specific representation of fat, black femmes is important?

A: When the film Precious came out in 2009, I was an undergrad at Cal State Los Angeles, preparing to graduate with honors. At that time, nearly every dark-skinned fat, black woman was being harassed on the street by people screaming out Precious! to us and laughing hysterically. Those people were meaning to shame us for being fat and dark-skinned. Representation of the diversity of the fat, black femme is important (and I say femme because every person that looks like me doesnt identify as a woman and they also deserve to be a part of these conversations).

I understand the power of the fat, black femme. People fear us and treat us unkindly. They paint us in one color and make sure that that image is unfavorable and maintains that they hold more social capital than we do. But look what happens when we find a coloring box of our own? Shonda Rhimes, Oprah Winfrey, world domination. Its a disaster for many, but its incredibly healing and empowering for even more. Healing is a threat to a world that thrives on sickness, but Im fine with being a threat and doing this work.

Q: With a significant part of that work being your music, what style of music are you drawn to creating and singing?

A: Im drawn to all kinds of music. Im more musical theater than one specific genre. My roots are in gospel, but Im a theater nerd, a child of the neo-soul movement and a top-shelf weirdo.

Q: Whats your process for songwriting?

A: Songs just happen for me. They come when they want. Some nights, I might stay up all night and write three songs and then sleep for two days. Or some songs come at the most inconvenient times while sitting on the toilet or driving in traffic. I just sing them into my recorder and revisit them when I can. When I write for clients, I sit with them and talk and jot down lyrics that come to me, and I write to loops or series of chords that I record in GarageBand.

Q: What does the act of creating music do for you?

A: Creating music sets me free.

Q: What inspires you when youre creating?

A: The things that people dont say. The fine print of life, the jarring text between the lines.  Im inclined to say those things. I wrote a song during the holiday season entitled Silent Night to help us process all the murders of innocent black people that continue to happen throughout America. Some of the lyrics read: Silent night, Holy night / They get the stars, we get the stripes / Son of God fight this fight / Rubber bullets, rubber rights / Tear gas thrown on our open graves / Quiet quiet dont riot, behave

Q: Whats been challenging about creating your art?

A: Moving past the desire to be perfect and just creating what needs to be created. Im not perfect and thats OK. Im perfectly valid as an artist and human being. My voice is important.

Q: Whats been rewarding about it?

A: The validation from God that Im doing the right thing. The doors that continue to open. The people that continue to reach out and tell me that what I had a hand in creating helped them somehow.

Q: What has it taught you about yourself?

A: Ive learned that I was born a mystery to myself and Im learning that I may not know who I truly was in this life until Im gone, but Im fascinated. Im intrigued. Im the performer but also an audience member like everyone else, sitting on the edge of my seat, wondering what God is going to do next.

Q: What is the best advice youve ever received?

A: Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but manifestations of strength and resolution. Kahlil Gibran said that.

Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?

A: Im actually an introvert. Music and art have just compelled me to be vocal and express, but I live happily and quietly in my head 89 percent of the time and I have about three friends.

Q: Describe your ideal San Diego weekend.

A: A day at the beach, sitting with friends and family talking about our dreams and things that make us laugh hysterically.

Email: lisa.deaderick@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @lisadeaderick
When a defendant in a criminal trial is accused of rape or some other type of sexual assault, prosecutors rely on evidence from as many sources as are available to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

That would include physical and forensic evidence, such as scratches and bruises on the victim, torn clothing and, of course, DNA.

Often, the most compelling evidence comes from the testimony of the victims, who sit at the witness stand in a courtroom filled with strangers and describe the horrors they endured  sometimes in excruciating detail.

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But what happens when a victim either cant or wont testify? Can the the case go forward?

That was the situation earlier this month in the trial of Jacob Paul Skorniak, 51, who was accused of kidnapping and raping an intoxicated German exchange student he met in Pacific Beach more than a year ago during New Years celebrations.

He was accused of using a knife in the attack.

Skorniak, who is from Colorado, contended the sexual encounter with the 21-year-old was consensual, and he testified to that in front of a San Diego Superior Court jury.

The young woman, who initially cooperated with the prosecution, ultimately chose not to return to San Diego to testify, something Deputy District Attorney Lisa Fox was not able to confirm until about week before the trial started.

So if this was a he-said/she-said situation, the jury would only have direct evidence of the he-said part. Thats fairly unusual in a rape case, but Skorniaks trial went forward anyway.

We cant force a victim in a sex case to testify, Fox explained, noting that in other types of criminal cases a witness could be subpoenaed to come to court.

In this case, the victim decided she had moved on and wanted to put this behind her, Fox said. Theres nothing in the law that says a victim has to testify.

That said, its especially difficult to prove charges of rape of an intoxicated victim  or one in which the defense argues that the sex was consensual  without the victims testimony, the prosecutor said. But in cases like Skorniaks, in which there was plenty of circumstantial evidence to support the charges, it can be done.

After deliberating a half day, the jury found Skorniak guilty of rape, kidnapping with intent to commit rape and sexual penetration of an unconscious person, as well as allegations that include using a deadly weapon.

We werent going to let this person walk, Fox said.

Skorniak faces a possible term of 81 years to life in prison when he is sentenced.

This isnt the first time in recent history that the District Attorneys Office has taken a rape case to trial without the victims testimony. In 2015, Dan Owens prosecuted a cold-case involving defendant Kenneth Tenner, now 39, who was accused of raping a 79-year-old woman in her North Park apartment in 2003.

The victim in that case died of natural causes in 2007, about eight years before Tenner was arrested on felony domestic violence charges. His DNA profile was entered into a law enforcement database, which led to a hit.

Owens said in addition to the DNA evidence, he presented testimony from a neighbor who saw the victim outside of her Texas Street apartment the evening of the attack, partially clothed with a letter opener in her hand.

The neighbor heard the victim say, That bastard raped me. Im going to kill him, which was admitted as a spontaneous statement, an exception to court rules against hearsay evidence.

Tenner was convicted of rape and other charges and sentenced to 14 years in prison, Owens said.

In Skorniaks case, graphic video of the crime recorded by the defendant himself was played for the jury. The prosecutor said the video showed the victim was unconscious during part of the rape, and at other times was scared to death and is just letting the crime happen.

The victim inadvertently dialed her cellphone during the sexual assault, and her parents answered the phone in Germany.

Her father testified that he could hear his daughter pleading with her attacker, Take everything, just dont hurt me.

He said he screamed into the phone until the line went dead.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @danalittlefield
The use of marijuana to fight chronic pain and other ailments is spreading to a new group of San Diegans that you might not expect: dogs, cats and other household pets.

The citys first legal medical marijuana dispensary in Otay Mesa recently began selling a liquid form of the drug designed to help pets struggling with arthritis, separation anxiety, nausea, loss of appetite and other problems.

My dogs been on medication for years and he was always vomiting and dealing with other side effects, so when I saw this I knew I had to try it, said Sandra Moreland, whose dog Vago has an auto-immune disorder, kidney problems and a torn ACL. Its been a miracle. Theres been no more vomiting, a lot less pain and hes just a happier dog.

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While most animal advocacy groups dont support giving marijuana to pets because of a lack of research on the subject, customers using the drug typically rave about it in similar fashion to Moreland, said Zach Lazarus, owner of the Otay dispensary.

Its been more popular than predicted and its selling very well, Lazarus said. It seems to really be working well for a lot of people and their pets.

The drug doesnt get pets stoned because the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana  THC  has been removed, said Dr. Tim Shu, the veterinarian who created it. Shu said he makes the medicine by isolating marijuanas cannabidiol or CBD, the element of the drug most often credited with pain relief and other medicinal benefits.

Shus product, called vetCBD, is sold in more than two dozen dispensaries across California, and similar products are being sold elsewhere in the nation.

Animal advocacy groups, however, are skeptical.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says its opposition is based on a lack of research.

There have been no scientifically accepted studies comparing marijuana products to known pain control medications, said Dr. Tina Wismer, medical director of the ASPCAs poison control center. In addition, research hasnt been able to adequately define what a safe and effective does of marijuana would be.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it could support marijuana for pets if it could be shown to actually work, but that there are doubts about whether people will use it responsibly.

If proper administration of marijuana can truly relieve dogs pain, then they should be given the same consideration that humans in pain are given, with regular doses to help reduce their misery, said Daphna Nachminovitch, a PETA senior vice president. But its an entirely different matter to amuse oneself by getting the cat drunk or the dog high. In fact, it sounds like something only a total pothead or moron would do.

Dr. Shus partner, Don Duong, said thousands of testimonials from pet owners make him optimistic the tide of public opinion will turn in support of marijuana for pets when additional studies are completed.

The research hasnt caught up with the anecdotal evidence, he said.

Duong also said Shu has significantly advanced the safety of giving marijuana to pets by devising a complex dose chart based on the species, breed and size of an animal.

Weve heard stories of people blowing pot smoke in their pets faces or making their own concoctions, said Duong. Weve taken all the guesswork out of it.

Vetcbd comes in one-ounce bottles that sell for $40 each. Owners give the drug to pets by squirting it into their mouths with a syringe or spreading it over their normal food like salad dressing.

Because consuming marijuana edibly instead of smoking it prolongs the drugs effect, an animal can achieve around-the-clock symptom relief with just two doses per day, he said.

Duong said the drug can extend the lives of pets months or even years, because people frequently euthanize their pets based on concerns about how much pain they are experiencing.

This can make them active again, he said. They can move around and lead more normal lives again because this relieves the aches and pains pets get when they are older.

Because marijuana  even with the THC removed  is illegal under federal law, vetCBD and similar drugs can only be sold at legally permitted dispensaries. And it can only be sold to pet owners who have gotten a medical marijuana prescription from a doctor, which is only a small percent of residents in San Diego and the nation.

We tell pet owners who dont have a medical marijuana card that we dont want them to do anything unethical, but that its fairly well known its pretty easy to get a card if you really want one, Duong said.

An additional hurdle locally is that San Diego County has only three legally permitted dispensaries, the Outliers Collective on county land near El Cajon and two in the city: A Green Alternative in Otay and the Point Loma Patients Cooperative in the Midway district.

But the city has approved nine more dispensaries this year that are all expected to open by next summer.

Moreland, who lives in Bonita, said convenience will make a big difference.

Ive already been telling people how great this is, but driving to Otay isnt very convenient, she said. I see this blowing up for pet owners once there are more dispensaries open.

The citys municipal code is silent on whether dispensaries can sell marijuana products aimed at pets, stipulating only that medical marijuana and edible products containing medical marijuana comply with packaging and labeling requirements.
With nowhere else to go, individuals and families with only their cars as a home pull into one of two parking lots in San Diego each night, knowing they will be safe until morning.

Its kind of like a family here, sahd Chauncy Evans, 56, who sleeps in his 1999 Ford Contour. I feel comfortable here. You know the people. Theres some value to that.

His is one of 40 cars that park each night at the Jewish Family Services Joan and Irwin Jacobs Campus in Kearny Mesa under a program operated by Dreams for Change.

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Along with its second lot at New Life Church on 28th Street in Golden Hill, the parking program can accommodate 70 cars night.

The latest homeless count in San Diego County found about 9,100 people living on the street, in shelters or other places. Of those, Dreams for Change founder Teresa Smith estimates about 1,000 live in cars.

1 / 11 Because they can use a long extension cord to plug into an outlet on the side of a nearby building, Dyana Stark wears a mask connected to a CPAP machine, to help her sleep, as her husband Dale Stark also puts one on while they and Dales mother, who is in the backseat, prepare to sleep in their car at the Jewish Family Services Joan & Irwin Jacobs Campus. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 11 Jesse Larson, right, and his wife Rose Larson, holding their 15-month-old daughter Jolene, talk to Chauncey Evans, who is employed and homeless, while standing among cars that they and other homeless people will sleep in. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 11 Dale and Dyana Stark, who are homeless, cover the front windshield in preparation to spend the night in their car. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 11 Fleur Stark, mother of Dale Stark, left, reads a book as he son works to get the front seat ready for sleeping. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 11 Fleur Stark, mother of Dale Stark, reads a book while in the backseat of the car that she, her son, and daughter-in-law Dyana Stark, are going to spend the night in. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 11 The Starks cat Fluffy sits in her cage covered with clothes and other items over it in the backseat as they prepare to spend the night in their car. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 11 The Starks cat Fluffy sits in her cage in the backseat. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 11 The Starks puppy, named Lady, sits outside as they prepare to spend the night in their car. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 11 Dyana Stark, left, her husband Dale Stark, other side of the car, and Dales mother Fleur Stark, who are all homeless, prepare to spend the night in their car. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 11 Dyana Stark plays with her dog Lady before she, her husband, and mother-in-law, spend the night in their car. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 11 Dyana Stark and her husband Dale Stark both wear CPAP machine masks, which helps them sleep, while they and Dales mother, who is sleeping in the backseat, prepare to sleep in their car. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Were at capacity, Smith said. We have a wait list of over 25. Were adding about three people a day.

Smith, who founded Dreams of Change in 2009 and started the parking program in 2010, said she believes its the largest of its kind in the country, and only one not run and funded by a city.

While its hard to know for sure how many people in the county are living in cars, Smith said the annual point-in-time count of homeless people has gotten better at detecting them by looking for tell-tail signs.

Those signs are easily spotted in Jewish Family Services Balboa Avenue parking lot, where some cars are crammed with boxes, blankets, clothes and other possessions needed for day-to-day existence.

Many of the people in the parking lot are like Dale and Dynna Stark, who had been living in an apartment before being evicted in March.

That was a grind, said Dale, 49. It took us eight days to unload a two-bedroom apartment. Ive never been so injured, and everything hurts so much that you cant really move fast.

He and Dynna live with his mother Fleur and their 11-week-old German shepherd puppy, Lady, in a 2009 Ford Taurus.

Most of their possessions were put in storage, and the family packed everything they could into the car.

Its not comfortable, but at least theres an electrical outlet nearby, which the husband and wife need to run CPAP machines that helps with their sleep apnea.

Stark said he and his wife are disabled and have little money. A veteran of the Marine Corps, he said he has been working with Veterans Village of San Diego to help find an apartment for less than $1,000 a month.

Smith said the cost of rentals and the scarcity of vacancies has exacerbated homelessness in the county.

Its taking them a lot of extra time to find housing, she said, adding that people in the program usually stay in the parking lots for six months.

A year or a year and a half ago, it was three months, she said. The reason is theres no housing. The vacancy rates bottomed out, and rents are through the roof.

Smith said people who live in cars often dont identify themselves as homeless, but rather see themselves as going through a tough patch.

When we started the program, that was the biggest thing wed hear, she said. They go to a shelter and come back and say, Oh my God, Im not THAT homeless. Thats not me. Im just in-between right now.

Smith said the organization has had some bumps in the road over the years. It was kicked out of a parking lot at a Vista church twice because the city found it in violation of its camping ordinance. Its now-closed Chula Vista parking lot had 80 spaces, which she said was chaotic because the ratio of case workers to clients was too high.

The nonprofit found a better fit at Jewish Family Service. Michael Hopkins, the CEO of the organization, said the mission of both nonprofits are aligned.

Were more than just a parking lot, said Hopkins about Jewish Family, which provides a shower for Dreams for Change clients and has several programs they can use.

When people get together to problem-solve, weve able to do way more than any one organization, he said.

Ashley Harrington, public policy manager for Jewish Family Service, said Dreams for Changes also aligns with her organizations emphasis on self-sufficiency.

You cant be self-sufficient and thriving if youre living in your car, she said. You might just need a hand-up this month to get where youre going.

Harrington said Jewish Family Service gave financial assistance to a woman who had been in their parking lot, and she now has an apartment.

Hopkins said a 67-year-old woman living in the parking lot was helped by his organizations senior employment program, and she is working in the kitchen at Jewish Family Service to raise money for a deposit on an apartment.

Harrington said having the clients on their property has been an eye-opening experience for her.

When I talk to folks at night when Im leaving, its demystifying, she said. It changes what you think about in terms of who are San Diegos hidden homeless. Theyre folks going to school, going to work. And theyre living in their cars.

Smith said clients are screened before being allowed to enter the program and have a background check to see if they are on a sex-offender list because of children on the property.

People also are required to meet with case workers who help them find jobs, homes and financial aid, and everyone in the program has to want to transition out of homeless.

They have to have a desire to get out of their car, Smith said. If somebody says they like living in their car, we say, Great, just dont do it here.

Evans said he has been looking for a place to live since being evicted in February, but cant find one he can afford.

I used to own a house in Clairemont, he said. I put a $175,000 down payment on it when I bought it years ago, and now Im like this.

Evans said he was mortgage broker before the real estate market collapsed.

All the brokers went broke, he said.

Jesse Larson, 49, is living in a Jeep Cherokee with his wife, Rose, 29, and their 15-month old daughter, Jolene.

Weve really looked around and all the shelters are filled up for months, he said. There just doesnt seem to be any help to get into a house or even a temporary situation.

Larson said they became homeless in Montana in January 2016 and moved around to other cities before landing a month and a half ago in San Diego, where he came to study at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. He hopes to earn a massage therapy license in December.

Until then, its a struggle for the family. Jolene suffers from colic and Rose Larson doesnt have a drivers license.

Its really difficult, she said. Especially when hes in school. I really dont have a place to keep the baby. Theres not really any playgrounds nearby where he goes to school, so she has to be in the stroller most of the day, and she doesnt like that at all.

While he appreciates having a safe place to park at night, Evans is frustrated that more isnt being done to help the families living in the parking lots.

I dont understand why you have all these big vacant properties and buildings, he said. Why cant they have somewhere for somebody to at least spend a night or something. Were not like homeless, mentally ill bums, you know. Were just down on our luck.

To learn more about Dreams for Change, including how to volunteer or support the program, visit www.DreamsForChange.org.

gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939
For the second time in three years, local crime novelist Don Winslow has taken out a full-page ad in a national newspaper criticizing the governments war on drugs, an issue that has formed the backbone of several of his bestselling books.

The Julian residents newest salvo is in Sundays New York Times, framed as a Twitter post from Winslow to President Donald Trump, who uses the social media platform often to air his thoughts.

Winslow, 63, has spent almost 20 years researching and writing about drugs  Americas appetite for them, the Mexican cartels that torture and kill each other to control distribution, the police on both sides of the border who try to stem the tide or corruptly become part of the flow. His books The Power of the Dog and The Cartel are violent, searing and critically acclaimed epics about the cost and futility of the war.

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In addition to his novels, hes written about the subject numerous times in essays for major newspapers and magazines in the U.S., Mexico and Europe. He favors legalization, treatment and rehabilitation instead of mass incarceration.

Sundays full page ad echoes an essay Winslow published last week on Time.com. He criticized Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions for being either woefully or willfully ignorant of the facts surrounding drugs. Both have called for a renewed crackdown emphasizing law enforcement instead of public-health strategies.

After five decades of this war, drugs are cheaper, more plentiful and more potent than ever, Winslow wrote. If thats Trumps idea of success, Id hate to see his version of failure.

He added, Rather than make a real effort to address the drug problem at its roots  at a time when more Americans die from opiate overdose than from car accidents  Trump and Sessions hand us fantasies such as the border wall, which will do nothing to slow the flow of drugs, and facile, intellectually lazy lock em up soundbites that make for good politics but horrible policy.

In May, Trump said the cartels have literally taken over towns in the U.S. The drug epidemic is poisoning too many American lives, and we are going to stop it in many different ways, he added. One of them will be the wall.

In 2015, Winslow took out a full-page ad in the Washington Post urging Congress to change directions with the nations drug policy. The only way to win the war on drugs is to stop fighting, he wrote. A half-century of failed policy, $1 trillion and 45 million arrests have not reduced daily drug use at all.

Winslow is currently on a tour promoting his newest book, The Force, which came out Tuesday. Its about the leader of an elite New York Police Department unit caught up in corruption while fighting the influx of drugs and guns to the city.

The author will be at Warwicks in La Jolla on Monday and at Mysterious Galaxy in Clairemont on Friday.

RELATED: Don Winslow calls The Force the cop novel hes always wanted to write

john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com
View the Video Miracle On The Mesa

You must be going for a walk.

People assumed as much 100 years ago if you headed for the Torrey Pines Mesa. Its scrubby bluffs were lined with hiking and horse trails that offered a priceless view of the big blue Pacific.

Today, people are more likely to assume that youre a cancer researcher if you head for that part of La Jolla. Or that you study light from the early universe. Or that youre trying to improve nuclear reactors.

As San Diego nears the centennial of the Panama-California Exposition at Balboa Park, science stands as one of the defining pillars of the city, up there with the military and tourism.

Erica Ollmann Saphire, a biologist at the Scripps Research Institute, is leading a global team thats looking for ways to fight the ebola virus.  Howard Lipin (Howard Lipin)

Upward of 26,000 people work on the mesa, mostly on or near a two-mile stretch of North Torrey Pines Road. Fueled by war, genius and generosity, the mesa has grown into one of the largest and most concentrated centers of science, engineering and medicine in the country.

A new Thomson Reuters study said 45 of the worlds most influential scientists work there. The mesa also is home to five active Nobel laureates, along with others considered to be potential winners of sciences greatest prize.

Smack in the middle of it all is UC San Diego, a mash of handsome and homely laboratories and offices whose scientists pulled in more than $1 billion in research grants last year. Some call it the mother ship of the mesa, a reference not only to its size but also its ability to scrap with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University for talent.

General Atomics employs 700 people at its campus on the Torrey Pines Mesa. They work on such things as next-generation gas-cooled reactors, magnetically levitated trains and underwater vehicles.  K.C. Alfred (K.C. Alfred)

The campus is flanked by four major biomedical institutes and a slew of nameplate companies, from drugmaker Novartis to nuclear-energy leader General Atomics.

The mesa has become a scientific mecca, said Inder Verma, a prizewinning geneticist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, a prime tenant. I have never failed in my four decades at the Salk to find an expert or equipment or reagents that I needed to do my experiments.

The only thing that has failed me on occasion is my imagination.

It is the stuff of legend in science. And it materialized, in no small way, because UC Berkeley zoologist William Ritter fell in love with San Diego on his honeymoon, back when the city was first being wired for electricity.

EARLY DAYS

Zoologist William Ritter was the founding director of the Marine Biological Association, which emerged into the Scripps Institution of Oceanograhy. UCSD Mandeville Special Collections (UCSD Mandeville Special Collections)

Ritter was a quiet man who traveled widely for research and pleasure. He especially loved the California coast and chose to honeymoon at the Hotel del Coronado in 1891. He ended up meeting Fred Baker, a San Diego civic booster who rushed to discuss his interest in seashells with visiting marine experts.

A chain reaction was slowly set in motion.

By the turn of the century, the city was courting the Navy, hoping to stoke the economy and raise San Diegos visibility. At the same time, Ritter was searching for money to create a permanent marine research station. Baker and others helped raise enough funds for Ritter to set up a summer lab at the Del in 1903. They thought it would be an attention-getter.

It was.

The enterprise intrigued newspaper magnate E.W. Scripps and his affluent half-sister, Ellen Browning Scripps, both of San Diego. They soon met Ritter and hit it off. Within weeks, the Scripps siblings created and largely funded the Marine Biological Association, forerunner of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Ritter was put in charge of the association.

Photo taken in 1910 in what then was a desolate area of La Jolla Shores shows first permanent structure with its water tower, built in 1909 on the campus of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, formerly named the George H. Sripps Memorial Marine Biological Laboratory for benefactress Ellen Browning Scripps brother. The two-story Irving Gill designed structur eis familiarly known as Old Scripps Building.

E.W. Scripps, who described himself as a crank, liked Ritters contrarian views on how to conduct science. Ritter believed that scholars should do lots of field work rather than simply examine specimens in a laboratory. Ritter also was a deeply philosophical person, forever trying to figure out the nature of humanity and how all living things are connected. Scripps hungered for the same thing, asking Ritter, What is this damned human animal, anyway?

Mortality was on his mind. His, and Ellens.

In 1906, Scripps told Ritter: I want you to get my sister so deeply interested in this project that she will forget her age. She is 71 and our family drop off at 71, 72, and I know Ellen is thinking about it. I want her to become so absorbed in something that the next two or three years will pass before she realizes it.

BRANCHING OUT

E.W. Scripps underestimated his sisters hardiness, and perhaps her interests.

Ellen Browning Scripps, philanthropist on her 94 th Birthday Oct. 18. 1930

She lived to age 95 and broadened the familys philanthropic endeavors, founding the Scripps Metabolic Clinic in 1924. La Jolla quickly went from having one science institute to two. The clinic collaborated with Scripps Memorial Hospital, which Ellen Browning Scripps also helped to establish.

Scripps made it clear that she expected the new clinic to conduct research as well as treat and diagnose people with diabetes and other metabolic disorders.

She may have been swept up by the extraordinary progress then being made in medicine. In the 1920s alone, researchers discovered penicillin and vitamin D, introduced insulin for the treatment of diabetes and created vaccines against diphtheria, pertussis and tuberculosis.

Ellen Browning Scripps also made sure the clinic would prosper, leaving $300,000 to the center upon her death in 1932.

Local newspapers praised her generosity, something she didnt like. She once said, I hate the role of philanthropist. What I do, I do as an investment.

Scripps Research Institute in Torrey Pines..  Nelvin C. Cepeda (Nelvin C. Cepeda)

Her investment evolved into The Scripps Research Institute, which migrated to the mesa and has become one of the most respected biomedical research centers in the world. Scripps Research has helped to develop drugs that fight cancer, arthritis and diabetes. It is a quick walk from UC San Diego, which grew out of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography  also a world-renowned center that grew out of another Ellen Browning Scripps investment.

THE WAR YEARS

Scripps cultivated her interests softly, quietly. Roger Revelle did the opposite.

The brassy, 6-foot-4 oceanographer blew into the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the early 1930s as a graduate student. He boldly helped overturn scientific dogma, showing that the ocean did not absorb as much carbon dioxide from fossil fuels as widely believed. The finding became part of the institutions groundbreaking work in climate change. Eventually, Revelle would become known as the father of the greenhouse effect.

He wasnt shy about seeking support. Historians remember Revelle as a habitual collaborator who had once lobbied officers on a submarine about investing in basic research. He made similar pitches at Navy bases in San Diego, where the military was expanding partly because of the citys offers of free land.

Revelle later joined the Navy Reserve, accelerating the chain reaction set in motion by Ritter and the Scrippses.

As World War II approached in 1941, Revelle left the Scripps faculty to help the Navy decide where to invest money on research that would improve things such as anti-submarine warfare and amphibious landings.

Portrait of Roger Randall Dougan Revelle in laboratory circa 1958. Photo: UCSD S10 Photo Lab

He was a giant man filled with self-confidence, said Mary Walshok, dean of UC San Diego Extension. He was unequivocal, whether he was dealing with the Pentagon or the City Council.

In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, a U.S. Coast Guard landing barge, tightly packed with helmeted soldiers, approaches the shore at Normandy, France, during initial Allied landing operations, June 6, 1944. These barges ride back and forth across the English Channel, bringing wave after wave of reinforcement troops to the Allied beachheads. U.S. Navy (U.S. Navy)

Revelle nodded to Point Loma, where Scripps researchers became part of the new Navy Radio and Sonar Laboratory. Scientists had a primitive understanding of the ocean at the time, but progress came quickly. Scripps scholars found ways to get sonar to take better images underwater, and helped reveal how the sound of snapping shrimp could muffle the sound of submarines. Scripps scientists Walter Munk and Harald Sverdrup used their fresh insights about surf and waves to help Allied forces better plan amphibious landings, including the D-Day invasion at Normandy.

We scrounged together observations from oceans, lakes and wave tanks and came out with rather pleasing results, Munk later told a Scripps historian.

Such advances crystallized the value of research. With Revelles prodding, the Office of Naval Research was created in 1946. It soon began funneling millions of dollars to Scripps, enabling the institution to expand its scientific endeavors and taking some of the sting out of the postwar economic downturn in San Diego.

NEW UNIVERSITY

World events and advances in science soon propelled Scripps even higher, and led to an intense effort to persuade the University of California Board of Regents to create a campus in San Diego.

The atomic age was born the moment that American bombers dropped nuclear weapons on Japan in 1945. The jet age was emerging about the same time and soon changed the mix of aircraft loaded onto carriers operating out of San Diego Bay. Then came the intensification of the Cold War.

The demand for engineers and physicists soared, creating a need for schools to educate and train them.

Revelle became director of Scripps in 1950 and soon took up the cause. He suggested that the institution essentially expand into a UC campus, with a focus on graduate-level training.

He quickly found an ally in John Jay Hopkins, president of defense giant General Dynamics.

General Atomics founder John Jay Hopkins offered the UC Board of Regents $1 million to create a UC campus in San Diego. Consolidated Vultee Aircraft (Consolidated Vultee Aircraft)

Hopkins bought San Diego plane maker Convair in 1953 and shifted its focus to missiles, including the kind that could carry nuclear warheads. He also began talking about creating a major research center in San Diego devoted to nuclear energy. He planned to call it General Atomic (now General Atomics).

As they had done with the Navy, city officials rushed to offer Hopkins public land for his company at no charge. A spot was chosen on the mesa, a short distance from Scripps, which had long helped the military carry out nuclear-warhead testing.

The city also joined in the call for a new university.

A chorus arose, but it didnt speak as loudly as a single gesture by Hopkins. In 1956, he waved a $1 million check at the UC regents, saying they could have it if they created a campus in San Diego.

Lots of wrangling followed, but the campus was formally established on public land in 1960. It was placed between Scripps and General Atomics.

1966 -- Aerial view of University of California, San Diego, shows recently completed Revelle College, first of 12 colleges to be built on 100-acre campus. U-T San Diego file photo

BOOM TIMES

The founding faculty members of UC San Diego had begun to arrive before 1960, and their star power turned heads. One of the brightest minds was Harold Urey, who had won the 1934 Nobel Prize in chemistry for helping to discover deuterium. He went on to become a leading figure in the Manhattan Project, which created the worlds first atomic bombs.

The strategy was simple: The UC system believed it could attract lots of talent to bucolic, little-known La Jolla if it seeded the new campus with a few giants. The idea worked, and not just to the benefit of UC San Diego.

Leo Szilard, the physicist-biologist who conceived of nuclear chain reaction, advancing the Manhattan Project, visited the mesa in 1957 to do consulting at General Atomics. Like Ritter, he became smitten with La Jolla and began extolling its virtues to friend Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine.

Jonas Salk (left) poses with an unidentified man during construction of the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in La Jolla. UC San Diego Mandeville Special Collections (UC San Diego Mandeville Special Collections)

Szilard proposed an innovative biology study center to Salk and enlisted eminent scientists in Europe and America as founders, said historian William Lanouette of North Park.

Lanouette added: Salk wanted to create an institute in Pittsburgh, where he had done his poliovirus research. Frankly, Szilard told Salk, I see no possibility of getting many first-class people to move to Pittsburgh. Instead, Szilard conspired with Revelle to lure Salk to San Diego  and once the city offered free land, the deal was made.

General Atomics. UC San Diego. The Salk.

In early 2014, the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, under the leadership of Kristiina Vuori, obtained an anonymous $275 million donation, the largest gift of its kind in San Diego County history. Alex Fuller (Alex Fuller)

The pieces fell into place quickly, giving the mesa cache and momentum. The Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, as it is known today, followed the others on to the mesa.



This timeline of growth and progression wasnt problem-free.

For years, UC San Diego and the neighboring institutes made little effort to commercialize their work or form deep ties with the private sector.

Walshok said things changed with the arrival of Richard Atkinson, who became the UC San Diego chancellor in 1980.

His leadership was pivotal to advancing technology commercialization efforts across UCSD and through organizations such as CONNECT, Walshok said. Today, the Torrey Pines Mesa is the driver of the diverse science and technology clusters that make up close to 25 percent of San Diegos economy.

Geneticist J. Craig Venter recently began one of the largest efforts in history to sequence human genomes.  John Gastaldo (John Gastaldo)

The buildup has lured stars such as J. Craig Venter, a UC San Diego alumnus who went on to help lead the Human Genome Project. He built an institute that sits on a bluff above Scripps, on university land.

I learned as a graduate student that UCSD really took a different approach to things. It had multidisciplinary teams instead of the same old static departments, Venter said. Biotech companies built up around it. Its a great place to find the kind of talented people needed to make a difference on every project we do.

We have no problem getting people from other parts of the world to come to La Jolla.

Sources: UC San Diego Mandeville Special Collections, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, The Scripps Research Institute, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, J. Craig Venter Institute, San Diego History Center, Biocom, CONNECT, American Geophysical Union American Institute of Physics, US Navy, Mary Walshok, dean, UCSD Extension, General Atomics, "An Improbable Future: A History of the University of California, San Diego" by Nancy Scott Anderson, historian William Lanouette.

SAMPLE OF MAJOR SCIENCE ACCOMPLISHMENTS ON THE MESA

UC San Diego

Charles David Keeling SIO (SIO)

Chemist Charles David Keeling established a long-term carbon dioxide monitoring program in Hawaii, helping to reveal humanitys impact on the greenhouse effect and global warming. The program, which continues today, is known as the Keeling Curve.

Pharmacology professor Michael Karin was the first to demonstrate a molecular link between inflammation and cancer.

Researchers Walter Munk and Harald Sverdap at the Scripps Institution of Ocenography, now a part of the university, used their pioneering research in surf prediction to advise Allied forces when and where to put amphibious forces ashore during World War II.

Computer scientist Kenneth Bowles and his students modified the Pascal programming language, allowing a program to be moved around from machine to machine, a technique now widely used to build mobile applications.

Roger Tsien UCSD (UCSD)

Roger Tsien shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry for helping to find a way to use green fluorescent proteins to monitor and image the workings of living cells, broadly aiding the field of drug development.

Medicine professor Jerrold Olefsky helped determine that insulin resistance is a primary cause of Type II diabetes. The discovery has led to new insulin-sensitizing drugs.

Neuroscientist Ralph Greenspan co-authored a plan for exploring the brain that the Obama administration turned into the BRAIN initiative.

Geneticist Theodore Friedmann helped to draft the concept of treating and preventing disease through gene therapy.

Scripps researchers Arthur Raff and Ronald Mason made discoveries about the ocean floor that helped explain seafloor spreading, a fundamental aspect of global plate tectonics.

Epidemiologist Cedric Garland helped show that a lack of vitamin D may contribute to breast cancer.

George Varghese and Stefan Savage developed the first automated method for automatically identifying worm and virus attacks across the Internet and other high-speed networks almost as soon as the outbreaks occur. Cisco acquired the technology.

Kenneth Moser and Stuart Jamieson developed novel curative surgery for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, a deadly lung disease. Their work helped establish UC San Diego as a global leader for this procedure.

Neuroscientist Eric Courchesne found clear and direct evidence that autism begins during pregnancy, based on differences in prenatal brain development between autistic and non-autistic children.

Cognitive scientist Javier Movellan developed the smile detection technology first used by Sony for its Smile Shutter feature on digital cameras since 2007.

Scripps Translational Science Institute

Eric Topol Scripps.org (Scripps.org)

Cardiologist and genomics expert Eric Topol developed an experimental blood test that might make it possible to provide up to two weeks warning that a person is at risk of suffering a heart attack.

First use of genotyping to guide Plavix, an anti-clotting medicine, in routine clinical practice.

Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Ron Evans Salk Institute (Salk Institute)

Overturning a long-held belief, geneticist Fred Gage proved that new brain cells can grow in adults. This finding aids efforts to repair aged and diseased brains.

Biologist Tony Hunter discovered a cellular process that led to the development of the cancer drug Gleevec.

Biologist Joseph Ecker led a team that created the first detailed map of the human epigenome, which regulates the behavior and operation of the genome.

Biologist Ronald Evans won the 2012 Wolf Prize for studies of hormones that are helping in the development of drugs to fight cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Geneticist Inder Verma pioneered the use of viruses for gene therapy.

Computer scientist Terry Sejnowski pioneered the use of computers to model the brain, revealing more about diseases like multiple sclerosis.

Biologist Joanne Chory discovered several plant hormones that respond to light, paving the way for designing crops that grow more efficiently.

Biologist Clodagh OShea determined how the common cold attacks cells, leading to promising ways to understand and destroy cancer cells.

Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

Erkki Ruoslahti Sanford-Burnham (Sanford-Burnham)

In 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved two drugs for the treatment of heart disease based on Erkki Ruoslahtis work on inter-cellular adhesion molecules.

Neuroscientist Stuart Lipton performed the first research that reprogrammed skin cells directly into functioning neurons. The work could help treat Alzheimers disease and other neuro-degenerative disorders.

Eva Engvall invented the technology used in the PSA test, the worlds only blood test for the detection of prostate cancer.

Biochemist Minoru Fukuda discovered technology that led to the drug Epogen, used to treat patients with anemia caused by chemotherapy.

Drs. Marcia Dawson and Xiao-Kun Zhang conducted research that helped in the formation of Targretin, a medication for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

Biochemist Jose Luis Millan discovered the basis of soft bone disease (hypophosphatasia), which led to a new drug in clinical trials by Alexion Pharmaceuticals.

Geneticist Hudson Freeze discovered the cause of a life-threatening, inherited metabolic disease called CDG-1B that impairs the production of glycoproteins. He also conceived of a simple and successful treatment for it.

The Scripps Research Institute

Charles Cochrane TSRI (TSRI)

Humira, one of the best-selling drugs in the world, was developed with technology from professor Richard Lerners laboratory. It treats a range of inflammatory diseases, from rheumatoid arthritis to Crohns disease.

Immunologist Charles Cochrane and his colleagues developed Surfaxin, which treats respiratory disease syndrome in premature infants. An aerosol version of the drug is in clinical trials.

Scientists at the institute collaborated to develop and run clinical trials for Leustatin, which cures or creates long-term remission for the vast majority of hairy cell leukemia patients.

In 2011, the FDA approved Benlysta  a medication developed with Lerner lab technology. It was the first new medication for lupus in more than 50 years.

Researchers at the institute purified proteins important to blood clotting (Factor VIII), now used in Monoclate-P, a drug that helps hemophiliacs lead practically normal lives.

Several of the institutes laboratories have greatly advanced the effort to create an HIV/AIDS vaccine, solving the structure of human antibodies that neutralize many different strains of the virus and developing new vaccine technology.

Professor Barbara Mason and her colleagues showed that the drug Neurontin, already approved by the FDA for treating seizures, is safe and effective in helping people eliminate or reduce their alcohol intake, increasing abstinence and improving sleep and mood.

Biochemist Jeffery Kelly and his colleagues developed Vyndaqel, a drug approved by the European Medicines Agency for the treatment of familial amyloid polyneuropathy, an inherited and ultimately fatal protein misfolding disease.

San Diego VA Medical Center

Dr. Michael Oxman led a national, VA-funded clinical trial that demonstrated the effectiveness of the shingles vaccine for reducing the incidence of this painful and debilitating disorder in people infected with the herpes zoster virus, which causes chicken pox.

SAMPLE OF WORKFORCE ON TORREY PINES MESA

UC San Diego: 12,658

VA Medical Center San Diego: 3,534

Scripps Research Institute: 2,258

Scripps Green Hospital and Scripps Clinic: 1,935

Salk Institute for Biological Studies: 960

Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute: 877

General Atomics: 700

Novartis: 600

Sequenom: 445

BD Biosciences: 345

NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center: 283

Synthetic Genomics: 130

Agilent Technologies: 100

California Institute for Biomedical Research: 91

J. Craig Venter Institute: 90

Regulus Therapeutics: 74

West Health Institute: 70

Scripps Clinical Research Services: 70

Human Longevity: 40

Scripps Translational Science Institute: 25

Ligand: 19

Sources: UC San Diego Mandeville Special Collections, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, The Scripps Research Institute, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, J. Craig Venter Institute, San Diego History Center, Biocom, CONNECT, Scripps Translational Science Institute, Scripps Health, American Geophysical Union American Institute of Physics, US Navy, Mary Walshok, dean, UCSD Extension, General Atomics, "An Improbable Future: A History of the University of California, San Diego" by Nancy Scott Anderson, historian William Lanouette.
The end of annual budget negotiations usually brings a sense of calm to the Capitol, but behind the scenes Gov. Jerry Brown has intensified his efforts to reach a deal with lobbyists and lawmakers on a blueprint for Californias future climate change policies.

An agreement to extend the states landmark cap-and-trade program, which requires companies to buy permits to release greenhouse gas emissions, may not be possible before the end of next week  the governors original goal for resolving its fate. However, Browns advisers believe they can seal the deal in July, and negotiations escalated this month after a previous effort stalled in the Assembly.

The governors office has hosted a steady stream of meetings this week with advocates from environmental and industry groups, as well as various factions of legislators. Brown made a rare visit to the offices of Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) and Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) in an attempt to overcome their reluctance to push the issue on the heels of another contentious vote to raise the states gas tax.

At the same time, legislators, particularly those in the Assembly, have held their own confabs to stake out negotiating positions. Even some Republicans are involved, working with moderate Democrats on a series of business-friendly priorities such as using state funding to help the agriculture industry reduce emissions with cleaner equipment. Meanwhile, a progressive cadre of Democrats have pushed the governor to address the states affordable housing shortage.

We are not close, De Leon said Wednesday. We still have to do a lot of hard work.

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The governors office has been developing draft proposals and circulating them in the Capitol, and several have been reviewed by The Times. Although the documents have not been publicly released and details remain in flux, theyve provided the foundation for negotiations among environmentalists, labor leaders, industry groups and utilities  all of which have a stake in Californias climate policies.

Provisions favored by oil companies have been particularly divisive, including one idea that would limit regulations on refineries.

After a Wednesday meeting with Rendon, Brown demurred when asked about the proposals floated by his administration.

Cant talk about it, he said.

The governor is eager to finalize a deal as he contrasts Californias environmental leadership with President Trumps decision to withdraw from the Paris accord on fighting global warming. Brown has also ramped up his efforts on the international stage, gaining a role as a special advisor at the next United Nations conference on climate change later this year. He recently traveled to China, where he met with President Xi Jinping to discuss increased cooperation.

Since the governor returned from his trip to China, hes exerted his leadership directly, said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable. Thats dramatically helped the conversations move forward.

Nancy McFadden, a top aide to the governor, said its going to take a bit longer than we would have liked to reach a deal and that theyre aiming for a vote on extending cap and trade in early July.

Follow live coverage from the Capitol on Essential Politics 

The ongoing talks are aimed at reaching a two-thirds vote in each house of the Legislature, a high threshold intended to insulate cap and trade from future legal challenges.

Much of the debate is focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, but slashing pollution in disadvantaged communities has also been an essential part of the negotiations.

A draft of the governors proposal would boost monitoring of air pollution to better determine where issues need to be addressed. The California Air Resources Board and local air districts would be responsible for developing neighborhood-level plans to mitigate the problems, a more localized approach than regulators currently employ.

The plan is geared toward addressing the concerns of environmental justice advocates, who are focused on alleviating pollution to improve public health. Amy Vanderwarker, co-director of the California Environmental Justice Alliance, said her organization has been encouraged by the conversations, but wants to make sure that any measure includes real teeth.

Oil refineries, like this one in Wilmington, could be spared some new regulations under proposals circulated in the Capitol. ((Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times) )

The governors draft proposal would extend the cap-and-trade program  the only one of its kind in the country  until 2030 and modify its operations.

Among the changes would be a cap on the price of emission permits, although the exact level is still being debated. The idea has concerned some advocates who fear the states focus on managing prices would detract from its ability to ensure emission reductions.

Were very concerned about some of the discussions in the Capitol, said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, an organization thats been among cap and trades most vocal promoters.

During a recent panel discussion in Sacramento, McFadden said the administration was dedicated to making sure that cap and trade remained environmentally effective.

Another controversial part of the talks is a provision that would benefit oil companies by limiting the Air Resources Boards ability to regulate refineries. The board had proposed requiring refineries to slash their greenhouse gas emissions by 20%.

Local air districts would also be prevented from creating another level of rules on greenhouse gases from refineries and other industrial facilities, a step that Bay Area regulators have considered.

Finding the right balance between environmental and industry goals will be an ongoing challenge for negotiators.

We still want to land this plane, but right now the runway looks a little too oily, said Alex Jackson, a San Francisco-based lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Hanging in the balance is revenue from the cap-and-trade program, which has ranged from several million dollars to more than $1 billion in recent years.

Negotiations havent yet centered on how the state would spend the money  some of which Brown is counting on for building the bullet train, the largest infrastructure project in the country.

Money has also been spent on projects intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as mass transit and electric car rebates.

Lawmakers leave for their summer recess on July 21.

chris.megerian@latimes.com, melanie.mason@latimes.com

Twitter: @chrismegerian, @melmason

ALSO

A new proposal on Californias cap-and-trade program emerges as vote is delayed

California sees a rebound in cap-and-trade auction, bolstering key climate change program

Updates on California politics
A substantial majority of Americans are worried about their chances of achieving a secure retirement, and they also feel the nations elected leaders cannot relate to the challenges they face in preparing for life after work.

A recent national poll conducted by the National Institute on Retirement Security showed strong bipartisan, grass-roots concern about retirement security. It found that 78 percent of Democrats and 76 percent of Republicans responding were concerned about economic conditions affecting their ability to achieve a secure retirement. Theres no partisan divide on this one.

And when asked if they agreed or disagreed with the statement that America is facing a retirement crisis, 88 percent agreed. Similarly, 85 percent of those surveyed (88 percent of Republicans) agreed with the statement that, Leaders in Washington do not understand how hard it is to prepare for retirement.

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Why are people so anxious? There was a time when pensions were a common benefit in private sector employment. They guaranteed a comfortable retirement.

Now pensions in the private sector are a rarity. Theyve been replaced, in part, by 401(k) investment accounts, but as the creators of the 401(k) have repeatedly stated, they were designed to supplement pensions not replace them.

These savings vehicles typically come with high costs of up to 2 percent or more, which sap earnings; and when the recent recession happened, many people raided their own 401(k)s, leaving them with little to nothing for retirement. So there is good reason for those relying on these deferred savings accounts to be concerned.

A few states, including California, are trying to assist a huge segment of private sector workers who currently have no access to a retirement savings plan. The idea is to create a defined contribution retirement system in which employees would be enrolled by default, but could opt out. Under Californias Secure Choice plan, 3 percent will be withheld from paychecks, unless employees decline or wish to contribute a different amount, with no contribution by employers and no liability for taxpayers. The funds will be conservatively invested, with fees to participants capped at 1 percent of total investments.

Even though these proposals are very modest in terms of providing retirement income, they are better than nothing and allow workers to plan for a more independent and self-sufficient future.

Unfortunately, those out of touch federal leaders in Congress and the Trump administration have undermined these state-based proposals by revoking a regulation making it easier for states to offer defined contribution benefits to private sector workers. They did so at the behest of business groups and Wall Street interests, who make lots of money off 401(k) fees.

There has been much in the way of negative publicity about pensions, so a response to one of the survey questions might surprise many. Of those polled, 85 percent agreed with the statement that, I believe that all workers should have access to a pension plan so they can be independent and self-reliant. And 75 percent said that state retirement plans aimed at private sector workers are a good idea.

The good news is that Californias Secure Choice plan is moving forward, despite the roadblocks put in place by Washington. Its leaders have announced that they plan to have the system phase in beginning in 2019. Will they be challenged? Probably.

We believe that all working Americans deserve and should have retirement security. Wed encourage everyone to review Californias Secure Choice program and to ask their representatives to support it as well.

Employer-based private sector pensions have slowly faded away, with no reliable replacement. Tens of millions of Americans are looking at an uncertain future as a result. Its time to insist upon solutions to make sure that everyone is secure in their retirement.

For more information on Secure Choice, go go www.treasurer.ca.gov/scib/

McTighe is president of Retired Employees of San Diego County. Baross is president of City of San Diego Retired Employees Association
A recent CALmatters report detailed the plight of 3,000 U.S. military veterans, many from California, who have been deported since 1996. These veterans were automatically eligible for U.S. citizenship but didnt complete necessary paperwork, some believing that serving alone secured their citizen status. Then, after completing their service, they committed crimes that led to their automatic deportation under strict federal laws adopted in 1996.

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Men and women who serve in the U.S. military deserve better than this even if they did make mistakes. These are people who made a compact with the federal government  they were willing to give their life and fight for their country  and in exchange our military service said you will be granted citizenship. And for whatever reason that didnt happen, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, D-San Diego, told CALmatters. To me, whatever crime they committed is irrelevant because we dont deport people who commit crimes, we deport people who arent U.S. citizens.

Gonzalez Fletcher wants the $45 million the California Legislature included in the state budget sent to Gov. Jerry Brown to defend immigrants facing deportation to be used to help the deported veterans, some of whom regularly gather at the Deported Veterans Support House in Tijuana.

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, including Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, visited the support house on June 3. Vargas and Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona, are co-sponsoring a bill that would allow the deported veterans to come home.

Thats right  home. They served America, and America should have their back.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion
The Union-Tribune last week started a subscribers discussion page on Facebook.

The idea behind it is Union-Tribune subscribers can connect with one another and talk about stories produced by the U-T. They also will be able to hear from reporters, columnists, photographers, graphic artists, videographers, editors and the Readers Rep. And subscribers will learn of upcoming coverage before it publishes.

Subscribers received an email inviting them to join the group. If you didnt receive an email, you can search on Facebook for San Diego Union-Tribune subscribers and request to join. As of Friday, the group had almost 350 members.

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Ill monitor the page, but it really should be fed by reader input. Its envisioned as place for subscribers who care about the news to discuss it with like-minded, well-read peers in the county, and for the U-T to hear from readers so the paper can serve them better.

Have you wondered why a story was covered a particular way, or why a certain photo was chosen? Do you think something was missing in story? Should an upcoming event be covered? Readers can pose questions, give their thoughts or make suggestions on a variety of news subjects.

The tone should be civil. Newspaper readers are intelligent and mature.

A good discussion took place with a article posted on the Facebook page by U-T Watchdog editor Ricky Young. The story was about a Cuban man who after living in the U.S. for decades was being deported. It was written by U-T immigration reporter Kate Morrissey and published June 16. A reader had emailed earlier saying the story was biased in favor of the man, who had a criminal record in the U.S.

One comment was from a reader who said the mans criminal record appeared too far down in the story. It was reported in the 10th paragraph. He said many people do not read that deep into stories, and the information should have been printed higher.

Business writer Jennifer Van Grove also added to comments about cable TV. Van Grove covers technology. She writes a weekly column on the current phenomenon of consumers dropping cable television subscriptions in favor of other TV options, commonly referred to as cutting the cord. She mentioned that two stories are in the works on peoples experiences in moving away from cable. Van Grove, by the way, also hosts a Facebook page on the subject called SDUT cord-cutters.

I envision the subscriber page as having more of that interaction. A place where readers can get an inside scoop, and U-T staffers can benefit from readers insights.

Bygone days at the fair

While at the San Diego County Fair a week ago I fondly recalled the days of when the Union-Tribune had a large presence there. Im sure many readers remember it too.

Today, other than a banner on the outside of the grandstand, I saw no representation. And thats too bad. The countys main media company that goes back to the San Diego Union in 1868 should participate more than it does now.

Its a far cry from the days of when the company played host to the Newsroom at the Fair. City editor Ray Kipp would organize the display and greet visitors every day during the monthlong run. Computers would be set up so reporters could actually work out of the newsroom. Fairgoers could meet reporters, columnists and Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Steve Breen.

The newsroom would include an exhibit of Breens art, photographers shots and graphic artists illustrations.

A Mergenthaler linotype press from the 1930s would be trucked in from the Mission Valley headquarters and put on display. One of the most popular items surprisingly was an old Royal manual typewriter that visitors could type on.

Because of post-recession cuts, the newsroom became too expensive to run. It ended around five years ago. Thats understandable.

But as I walked through the exhibit hall of photographs and art, I thought the U-T should at least have a display that showcases its recording of county life through its pages, photos and graphics. Im sure readers would enjoy it. What do you think?

adrian.vore@sduniontribune.com(619) 293-1729readers.rep@sduniontribune.com
Is the pen as mighty as the  camera?

With cameras are increasingly being banned at daily White House press briefing, CNN is doing what it can to shine a less technological light on whats going on behind closed doors. So on Friday, the cable network sent a sketch artist into the afternoon briefing with Press Secretary Sean Spicer in an attempt to still get the picture.

Spicer and his deputy Sarah Huckabee Sanders  who has been holding the daily briefings more and more lately, but thats a whole other story  have only held four official on-camera briefings in June.

"Some days we'll do it" on camera, Spicer said on Friday of the lack of access. "I think it's great for us to come out here and have a substantive discussion about policies. I don't think that the be all and end all is whether it's on television or not."

Of course plenty of jokes were made about the situation on social media.

But journalists, and many others, are taking the camera ban very seriously. Heres a statement from Jeff Mason, president of the White House Correspondents Association.

White House briefings and press conferences provide substantive and symbolic opportunities for journalists to pose questions to officials at the highest levels of the U.S. government. That exercise, conducted in full view of our republic's citizens, is clearly in line with the spirit of the First Amendment. Doing away with briefings would reduce accountability, transparency, and the opportunity for Americans to see that, in the U.S. system, no political figure is above being questioned. The White House Correspondents Association would object to any move that would threaten those constitutionally-protected principles.

Reporters have voiced frustration on Twitter as well.

However, some think CNN and others arent handling the briefing brouhaha appropriately.

Others thought Fridays sketches were awesome.

CNN media reporter Brian Stelter defends the decision this way.

The point here is serious, he said on Friday. CNN did not send a cartoonist in order to make fun of the briefing, it sent an actual sketch artist because its a way to create a picture, paint a picture of these briefings for people because we, the viewers, were not able to watch on camera.

Good move? Bad move? Send a tweet to @sdutideas to let us know what you think and we may add it to this page.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin
For 51 years a cross at the county airport in Ocotillo Wells has stood to honor a soldier who died in the Vietnam War, but it is now slated for removal because of one complaint.

An online petition to stop the removal started the weekend of May 13 and had 2,349 supporters in less than a week.

Were ready to battle for the right to stay where it is, said Sherri Kukla, who started the petition.

An Ocotillo Wells resident, Kukla publishes S&S Off Road Magazine and said that for five decades thousands of people recreating in the desert have enjoyed the cross that sits on a hill, adding that it has been helpful to off-roaders.

They use it as a point of reference, she said. It has also been a source of comfort to those who have lost loved ones, she stated in an article in her magazine.

Kukla didnt know the history of the cross when she received a call on May 9 alerting her to the fact that the county was going to remove it.

The Ocotillo Airport is one of eight owned by the County of San Diego and adjacent to the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Park. According to the county, it has two dirt runways, no county or Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) staff on-site, and the second-least aviation traffic of all its airports, averaging less than 200 takeoffs and landings per month.

Alex Bell, program manager for the countys Land Use and Environmental Group, said a complaint was received in January that a cross was located on county property. She would not say who made the complaint.

After investigating, Bell said the county confirmed the cross is on its property, 84 feet from the unmarked property line.

Bell said in an email that the presence of a monument of this nature on government land is an establishment of religion and in violation of federal and state constitutions, and the county is taking steps to address the issue.

Kukla doesnt see it as a religious monument.

Its a historical memorial monument, she said. Thats what really its about.

The cross was erected in honor of Jim Bruce Robison, an Ocotillo Wells resident who was killed in action in Vietnam at age 21 in 1966. His house, still owned by the family, is across the street from the cross. The cross also serves as a memorial for two other residents in the community, according to a news article Kukla found in her research.

The airport property was given to the county by the federal government in the 1950s with the stipulation that permission was required from the FAA if the land should ever cease to be used for aviation purposes, according to Bell.

Bell said the county reached out to the FAA to request approval to sell the land under the cross to a private party or relocate the cross to another section of the airport that would be acceptable to sell. The requests were denied, she said.

There is no official date to remove the cross, said Bell, adding that the county is actively trying to work with the community to either identify a new permanent home for it or to modify it so there is no religious reference and can remain. One idea, she said, is to replace it with a flag pole with the American flag and a memorial plaque at the base honoring fallen military members.

Kuklas goal is to get 5,000 supporters on the petition and present it to Supervisor Bill Horn, whose District 5 includes that area. As of June 20, there were 2,922. The petition has attracted supporters from all over the country.

To see the Save the Ocotillo Memorial Cross petition, visit bit.ly/2r0yqsz.

Bell said that questions may be directed to Airport Manager Marc Baskel at 619-956-4805 or Marc.Baskel@sdcounty.ca.gov.
Biblical and Islamic values will be the topic when Ramona Tead meets on Saturday, June 24.

The meeting will feature human rights activist Nonie Darwish as guest speaker and will be held in Ramona Lutheran Church, 520 16th St. Doors will open at 11 a.m. and the program will begin at noon.

Darwish was born and raised as a Muslim in Cairo, Egypt, and Gaza and lived under Islamic law, or Sharia law. She lived in the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict during the 1956, 1967, and 1973 wars. As a result, she became a Middle East expert and covers topics related to human rights and womens rights under Islamic law; including the Arab Israeli conflict, terrorism, and radical Islam and its agenda.

A senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy, she cofounded www.FormerMuslims United.org (FMU) in 2009. FMU stands for freedom of religion and to protect the life and civil rights of people who were born in Islam and wish to leave their religion. It stands against and exposes the Islamic law that condemns apostates (non-believers in Islam) to death, states the Ramona Tead announcement.

Darwish has authored four books regarding Islam including Now They Call Me Infidel. She lectures on college campuses nationally and internationally. A regular guest on radio talk shows across the country, she has been featured in several documentary films. She is published in the Guardian and Wall Street Journal, spoke before the European Parliament, and is the recipient of several awards for courage.

For more information, see ramonatead.com.
State legislation opens the door to major changes in San Diego County elections is a step closer to becoming law and setting a new policy that could help put more Democrats in power.

A bill introduced in February by Assemblyman Todd Gloria, D-San Diego, cleared the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee on Tuesday, and is headed to the full Senate.

The legislation applies only to San Diego County, and it would authorize the Board of Supervisors or a voter initiative to require races for all county offices to be decided in the November general election.

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Currently, candidates for supervisor, district attorney, sheriff, treasurer-tax collector, assessor/recorder/county clerk, and the board of education, can win in the primary election if they receive more than half the vote.

The change would mean that elections for all county offices are decided in November, when turnout is highest, and typically increases among Democrats.

Gloria said that electing politicians when turnout is highest mean more people will pick their representative.

More San Diegans should have a voice when selecting who gets to make the most important decisions facing our region, he said. (This bill) will make certain our county-level elections are decided by the largest number of San Diegans.

Under the proposed system, if there are only two candidates running for a seat, then the primary election will be skipped with the deciding contest in November. Currently these races are decided in the primary.

If county elections are changed, they will be consistent with San Diego city elections. In November voters approved a ballot measure that requires city offices to be decided in general elections. These offices are nonpartisan, but campaigns often follow partisan lines.

Urban Counties of California and the California Association of Counties are against the bill.

The Board of Supervisors  currently five Republicans  oppose the legislation because members feel that current laws already allow for elections to be changed in the way Gloria proposed, without state legislation. Furthermore, elections will be more expensive if they are required to have both a primary and general election for every office.

The bill is supported by firefighter unions, the Center on Policy Initiatives think tank, the Independent Voter Project, and several other organizations.

Substantial amendments have overhauled the legislation since it was first introduced. It previously would have applied only to supervisor races, but was subsequently amended to require all county offices to be decided in November.

Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1841
An Australian billionaire said Monday hell build a high-tech replica of the Titanic at a Chinese shipyard and its maiden voyage in late 2016 will be from England to New York, just like its namesake planned.

Weeks after the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the original Titanic, Clive Palmer announced Monday he has signed a memorandum of understanding with state-owned Chinese company CSC Jinling Shipyard to build the Titanic II.

It will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic, but ... will have state-of-the-art 21st-century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems, Palmer said in a statement. He called the project a tribute to the spirit of the men and women who worked on the original Titanic.

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More than 1,500 people died after the Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its first voyage. It was the worlds largest and most luxurious ocean liner at the time.

Palmer built a fortune on real estate on Australias Gold Coast tourist strip before becoming a coal mining magnate. BRW magazine reported he was Australias fifth-richest person last year with more than 5 billion Australian dollars ($5.2 billion).

Palmer said at a news conference that previous attempts to build a Titanic replica failed because proponents failed to raise enough money and commission a shipyard. The Titanic II is the first of four luxury cruise ships Palmer has commissioned CSC Jinling Shipyard to build.

Palmer did not provide a cost estimate. He said he had established a new shipping company, Blue Star Line Pty. Ltd., and that design work for the Titanic II has begun with assistance from a historical research team.

The diesel-powered ship will have four smoke stacks like the coal-powered original, but they will be purely decorative.

The most obvious changes from the original Titanic would be below the water line, including welding rather than rivets, a bulbous bow for greater fuel efficiency and enlarged rudder and bow thrusters for increased maneuverability, Palmer said.

Brett Jardine, general manager for Australia and New Zealand in the industry group International Cruise Council, said Titanic II would be small by modern standards but could prove viable at the top end of the luxury market.

From a marketing point of view, many will embrace it and perhaps therell be some that wouldnt, Jardine said.

If youve got a niche, its going to work. Why go out there and try to compete with the mass market products that are out there now? he added.

While the Titanic II would carry around 1,680 passengers, most modern cruise ships create economies of scale by catering for more than 2,000 passengers, he said.

Among the worlds largest passenger ships, Allure of the Seas is 90 meters (295 feet) longer than the 270-meter (886-foot) Titanic and has 2,700 cabins.
Family members of a filmmaker who was fatally shot in an Encinitas neighborhood two years ago told a judge Wednesday that they had never seen any sign of remorse from the killer, who claimed to have fired the shots in self-defense.

Even then, their words appeared to have no effect.

Given his turn to speak at his sentencing hearing, Michael Vilkin said he was sorry John Upton lost his life that day in March 2013, but that Upton had tried to deny him access to his land.

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Vilkin, 63, claimed that an access path on a 2.6-acre vacant lot he owned was a major source of conflict between him and Upton, who lived in a rented house next door, and it eventually led to the shooting that would send Vilkin to prison.

I was a good neighbor, he told a Vista Superior Court judge. I allowed all my neighbors to park their cars on the property and walk their dogs.

As Vilkin started to go into further detail about the dispute, Judge Robert Kearney interrupted him, telling him that the hearing was his opportunity to talk about how the incident had affected his life, not to rehash the trial.

When Vilkin continued, apparently ignoring the warning, the judge cut him off for good.

Kearney sentenced the defendant to 64 years to life in prison. Earlier in the hearing, the judge denied a defense request for a new trial and a motion to reduce the murder conviction to voluntary manslaughter.

Deputy Public Defender Matthew Wechter argued that manslaughter was the more appropriate charge rather than first-degree murder because Vilkin acted in imperfect self-defense, mistakenly believing Upton had a weapon.

Deputy District Attorney David Uyar said the defendant waited outside on March 28, 2013, for the right moment to commit murder.

That morning, Vilkin was watching day laborers he had hired trim trees along the access path.

Upton came outside about 9 a.m., spoke to the workers then walked toward Vilkin.

According to trial testimony, Vilkin had bought two guns, one of them a .44-caliber Magnum revolver that he used to shoot Upton twice  once in his abdomen and then again in his head. The prosecutor argued it was a premeditated killing, spurred by months of discord between the two men in the Encinitas community of Olivenhain.

Richard Berkon, who represented Vilkin in trial, argued that his client was afraid of Upton, who became upset anytime Vilkin cleared brush or trimmed trees on his property on Lone Jack Road. He said Vilkin reached out to sheriffs deputies for help, but was told that they would not intervene in a property dispute.

The defendant testified he saw his neighbor with a gun the morning of the incident. No gun was found, but a cellphone was recovered near Uptons body.

After he fired the shots, Vilkin called 911 and told a dispatcher, The neighbor assaulted me and I shot him.

Uptons daughter, one of his three children, said at the Wednesday hearing that she spoke to her father frequently and he never mentioned Vilkin, or any dispute, not even on the day he was shot. She described him as a passionate and caring man, who didnt hesitate to help people in need.

Upton gained attention in the 1990s for his efforts to rescue Romanian orphans.

My dad had no idea what was waiting outside for him that morning, Elizabeth Upton Vaca said of the shooting. She and others said Vilkin never expressed any contrition about the incident, not during the trial or at any of the court hearings that preceded it.

I havent seen any evidence of remorse or regret from Michael Vilkin, the victims brother, Michael Upton, wrote in a letter that was read aloud in the courtroom.

The victims girlfriend, Evelyn Zeller, wrote in a letter to the court that she hoped Vilkin would stay in prison for the rest of his life. She said she would fear for her own life if Vilkin were ever a free man.

He seems to be proud of what he did, she said.
Enrollment is expected to be up at Escondido Adult School thisfall despite some significant fee increases to certain classes,Principal Dom Gagliardi said.

Theyre coming in pretty strong, Gagliardi said Thursday aboutenrollment figures. Frankly I wasnt sure, because theres beensome raised prices.

Classes at the school began Tuesday, and other classes arescheduled to begin next week, he said.

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The school had 7,770 students enrolled in its Adult Educationprogram last year and 2,658 enrolled in its Regional OccupationProgram.

Gagliardi said the two programs have different funding sourcesfrom the state. Adult Education offers a variety of courses thatinclude career technical education classes, while ROP classes areonly in career technical education.

About 500 students also were enrolled in the schools communityeducation classes last year, he said.

The school moved into a new home at 220 W. Crest St. inEscondido last year. Gagliardi said he was concerned thatenrollment might drop because of the move, but the school ended upserving 2,000 more students in 2010 than in the previous year.

The wide variety of courses at the school range from $25 classesin crocheting to $3,600 courses that can lead to a career in thehealth field.

New this year in Adult Education is a phlebotomy techniciantraining program, a $2,695 course that requires 48 classroom hoursand 40 externship hours, as well as an online electronic healthrecords systems technician course that costs $3,600 and requires216 study hours over 18 weeks.

All classes related to allied health careers are filling up,"Gagliardi said about the popular programs.

The school was tuition-free just three years ago, but has had tointroduce fees because of the state budget crisis, Gagliardisaid.

A medical assistant course that cost $875 last year is $975 thisyear, he said as an example of the latest price increases.

Many classes still cost much less, such as English as a secondlanguage courses that are $40.

The school is about the third largest adult school in thecounty, and Gagliardi said he hopes to expand it by offering moreclasses on Saturdays.

Statewide, the number of classes offered at publicly fundedadult schools has been declining over the past few years. Gagliardisaid 1.2 million students were enrolled in California adult schoolsthree years ago, but enrollment has dropped to 650,000 as programswere cut.

The Escondido Adult School did cancel two courses this semester---- computer-aided drafting and woodworking ---- because of lowenrollment, he said.

Among the new community education courses offered this year areclasses in knitting, crocheting, clowning, drawing and Feng Shui.Community education classes range in price from $25 to $250, withmany around $60.

Class catalogs are available at the school and online atwww.escondidoadultschool-rop.org.
Americans love guns. Rural America loves to hunt. But this is not what is driving gun sales. According to a new study, more guns purchased in this country are bought to be used for self defense rather than sport. The manufacturing and purchasing trends are evidence that Americans are buying guns because they are scared. What are they scared of? Apparently its not a fear of ducks or deer.

According to Donald Trump. People are fearing violent crime. He said when he was a candidate for president that there was a rising tide of violent crime in America. This statement turned out to be false according to a recent study. New York University's Brennan Center for Justice found 2016's crime rates near an all-time low. 2016 showed a slight increase in violent crime with an overall increase of just 0.3 percent. The numbers are statistically at the low end of a 30 year decrease in violent crime in this country. So why all the guns for self-defense?

America is scared. This fear is not new. If we look at the statistics, the increase in gun purchasing and manufacturing, fueled by an increase in pistol manufacturing began to rise in dramatic numbers in 2009 and peaked in 2012.

Researchers looked at data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) for all 50 U.S. states for 1990-2015, as well as FBI data from National Instant Background Checks, investigators identified trends in the type and caliber of firearms being manufactured in the U.S. from 1990 through 2014. The chart shows that that gun production was pretty much flat from 1990 until 2005 Gun productionn was at a steady rate of about 3-5 million guns per year. Think about that for a second. It wasn't like we as a country were not scared at this time. Even the terrorist attacks of September 11th did not make Americans scared enough to go out and buy firearms.

Then in 2005, gun sales started to rise slightly as demand for hand guns increased. The productions of guns increased 1.7% in 2005, 1.6% in 2006 and 3.3 % in 2007. After this, we see a large spike in gun sales and manufacturing.

In 2009, the percentage of firearm production rose 11%. This was fueled by an increase in pistol sales which rose 18% in 2009. That is an increase in overall firearm sales that is nearly double the increase of the previous year and triple the increase in 2007.

Why did the sale of firearms suddenly spike during this time? The gun lobby, mostly the NRA, and the right wing of the media sold the Americans a huge lie that President Obama was here to take their guns. The spike in firearm sales should be known as "Obama effect." The thing that American gun owners were scared of turned out to be a black president.

The firearms production numbers continue to be high throughout the Obama years. Gun production rose a whopping 14.5% in 2012, the year Obama was re-elected.

Guns as self-defense tools are here to stay. Even Barack Obama couldn't pry them out of the hands of owners. In fact his presidency saw the sale of these weapons increase dramatically. Now President Trump is in power and has repeatedly told us that we need to be scared of Muslims, Mexican drug dealers and just about any other boogey man he can dangle in the face of white America. The gun as a self defense tool is here to stay.

It is up to public health officials to figure out what to do about that. Don't expect the NRA or the rest of the gun lobby to solve this problem. They are too busy counting their money.
Nothing says Southern more than a big pot of butter beans or peas.

At one time Lake City was considered the Bean Capital of the World. Bushels and bushels of snapbeans were loaded onto rail cars and shipped to all the large Northern cities. This is why Lake City is the home of the National Historic Bean Market Museum.

The Bean Market Museum is a true gem in the Pee Dee of S.C. Not only do the folks at the Bean Market Museum preserve the past of how beans were marketed, sold, and shipped but they also encourage the future of the Pee Dee through community development and tourism.

Today, the Lake City area and the surrounding counties are still the bean capital of South Carolina, but now instead of snap beans, butterbeans and peas have become the fresh market kings. Some snap beans are still being grown in the area but the real demand is for butter beans.

However, butter beans can be difficult to grow in South Carolinas heat and humidity. When night temperatures stay above 75 degrees the flowers of beans do not pollinate properly, do not set pods and drop off the plant. This dropping of the flowers reduces yields and limits the bean production season to early spring and again in the fall for South Carolin. What happens is that you can have a beautiful plant that is flowering up a storm but never sets pods.

It has surprised me that the demand for fresh butter beans has remained high even in our fast-food society. In many years the demand far outweighs our production. So the moral of the story is to get your beans early. Therefore, at my research area at Pee Dee Research & Education Center in Florence, I am screening over 100 lines selected from the 15 most popular butter bean varieties for heat tolerance. Hopefully in a few years we may have some heat-tolerant varieties to help with these supply problems.

Also, many folks have compensated for flower-drop in beans by switching to Southern peas in mid-summer. Peas love the heat, tolerate drought, and grow well with low fertility making them the perfect S.C. crop. However, the problem with fresh market peas is that they can be difficult to pick with mechanical harvesters. Some varieties like Top Pick and others are much easier to pick but most folks in our area demand the Dixie Lee variety because of its flavor, small seed size, and brown pot liquor (soup). Dixie Lee is a vining variety making it difficult to pick with machines, but if grown on low-fertility soil, with no fertilizer inputs, and no/little irrigation sometimes one can limit the plant size, improving mechanical harvest. This practice reduces per-acre yields, but most growers have sorry -- almost-good-for-nothing -- fields that can make good pea land.
MARTINSVILLE, Va. - After decades of lawsuits, public campaigns and painful struggles, Americans have finally done what once seemed impossible: Most of the country has quit smoking, saving millions of lives and leading to massive reductions in cancer.

That is, unless those Americans are poor, uneducated or live in a rural area.

Hidden among the steady declines in recent years is the stark reality that cigarettes are becoming a habit of the poor. The national smoking rate has fallen to historic lows, with just 15 percent of adults still smoking. But the socioeconomic gap has never been bigger.

Among the nation's less-educated people - those with a high-school-equivalency diploma - the smoking rate remains more than 40 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today, rural residents are diagnosed with lung cancer at rates 18 to 20 percent above those of city dwellers. By nearly every statistical measure, researchers say, America's lower class now smokes more and dies more from cigarettes than other Americans.

This widening gap between classes carries huge health implications and is already reshaping the country's battle over tobacco control. Cigarette companies are focusing their marketing on lower socioeconomic communities to retain their customer base, researchers say. Nonprofitand advocacy groups are retooling their programs for the complex and more difficult work of reaching and treating marginalized groups.

As inequality in America continues expanding by many measures, smoking is a growing aspect of that divide that is a matter of life and death, with wealthier and more-educated Americans now largely spared the cost and deadly effects of the vice.

Advocacy groups say funding for smoking cessation is dropping, and they worry the attention and political will needed for tobacco control is also waning as America's upper and middle classes see smoking as an already solved, bygone problem.

"If you're educated and live in a well-off area, the smoking problem we're talking about these days is now largely invisible to you," said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "In some places, you can go days without bumping into a smoker. So you start to hear the question, why push more resources into this? Meanwhile, the need is getting even greater, because the people left smoking are the ones who can least afford to."

- - -

Debbie Seals, 60, has fought on the front lines of this new class battle for the past six years from her home in the rural foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains.

She has driven her tiny blue Fiat to the farthest corners of southern Virginia and West Virginia to hold classes aimed at helping smokers quit. Her cessation clinics are often the only ones offered for miles around.

"It's like there's two worlds now," Seals said.

Every month, she travels to Northern Virginia to visit her grandchildren in the D.C. suburbs. In Alexandria, she sees couples jogging on the streets and buying expensive organic groceries at Whole Foods - and not a single one smoking.

But in her home town of Martinsville, Va., cigarettes are ubiquitous. People smoke on their morning drive to work and on weekends mowing their lawns. Tobacco stores line the strip malls, and cigarette ads are in the windows of every gas station and convenience store.

The smoking is a symptom of deeper problems here, Seals said on a recent afternoon as she headed out to check on three former students from her cessation class.

Martinsville was once known as the "Sweatshirt Capital of the World," a booming center of textile mills and furniture factories. Now it is littered with abandoned factories and vacant storefronts. So many families here live in poverty that all children in elementary and middle school automatically qualify for free and reduced-price meals.

"People down here smoke because of the stress in their life," Seals said. "They smoke because of money problems, family problems. It's the one thing they have control over. The one thing that makes them feel better. And you want them to give that up? It's the toughest thing in the world."

Seals - who retired years ago from a career with Girl Scouts of the USA - began teaching her classes as a volunteer for the American Lung Association. After seeing the desperate need, she began working full time on cessation for the nonprofit.

She's taught many classes in recent years at the handful of furniture factories left. Many of the participants attend her clinic over and over, unable to stop smoking. She is careful not to make any of them feel like failures.

"If they manage to quit for a week or even a day, they succeeded," she said. "I tell them if you were able to quit once, you can do it again."

Meeting up with three of her former students at a diner last week, Seals probed gently, asking how much they are smoking these days.

"I've slid back," admitted Victoria Cassell, 57, who has attended Seals's seven-week program every year for four years. "There was just too much going on in my life last year."

First, Cassell's sister died. Then her husband started having heart problems again. On top of it all, her daughter and grandson moved back in.

The last time Cassell tried to quit was three months ago, after a doctor's test gave her a lung cancer scare. "It was like losing my best friend," she said. "My cigarettes have kept me company for 40 years, longer than just about anyone in my life."

She ate lunch alone at the factory where she works, because her friends all smoke. She tried coloring while watching TV, just to keep her hands busy.

Three days in, an argument with a co-worker pushed her over the edge, she said. She ran to a friend at her first chance to bum a cigarette.

Pulling out her pack of Winstons, she tried to describe the feeling of that first cigarette after a hiatus. "It makes you feel like you're floating," she said. "You get lightheaded like you could just lay down and sleep. It almost gets you a little bit drunk."

Seals, sitting nearby, said: "I'm proud of you for holding out as long as you did."

- - -

It wasn't always this way.

When smoking first gained popularity in the early 20th century, it was a habit of the rich, a token of luxury dusted with Hollywood glamour. Then came the 1964 surgeon general's report on its deadly effects, and during the next 3 1/2 decades, smoking among the nation's highest-income families plummeted by 62 percent. But among families of the lowest income, it decreased by just 9 percent.

"There's this tendency now to blame the ones still smoking," said Robin Koval, president of Truth Initiative, a leading tobacco-control nonprofit group. "The attitude is, 'You're doing it to yourself. If you were just strong enough, you'd be able to quit.' "

What isn't taken into account, Koval said, are the vast resources tobacco companies are spending to hold onto their last remaining strongholds.

In recent years, studies have found those companies' discounts often target low-income and minority communities. New research also shows that lower-income neighborhoods have a much higher density of tobacco retailers.

"Poorer people don't smoke because anything's different or wrong about them," Koval said. "Their communities are not protected like others are. They don't have access to good health care and cessation programs. If you have a bull's eye painted on your back, it's harder to get away."

Tobacco companies have also invested considerable resources in recent years lobbying against smoking restrictions and taxes, especially in poorer, rural and often southern states, where smoking remains highest.

Several major tobacco companies did not respond to requests for comment on the socioeconomic disparities related to the use of their products. The country's largest tobacco company - Altria, based in Richmond - said it uses the same marketing approach across rural, suburban and urban retail locations and makes sure its signage follows legal limits.

Altria spokesman George Parman also pointed to more than $112 billion that tobacco companies have handed over for smoking prevention as part of the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Parman said that it has been state lawmakers across the country who keep diverting those massive funds to other budgetary needs, leaving just a fraction for anti-tobacco programs.

Even that funding is now shrinking, and nonprofits and health agencies have begun revamping their approach to fit the new socioeconomic trend. This winter, the Truth Initiative launched a series of ads framing tobacco companies' targeting of black and low-income neighborhoods as a social-justice issue. "It's not a coincidence. It's profiling," the ads say.

The CDC has used a national ad campaign of its own to reach especially hard-hit populations, including low-income, rural, Native American, mentally ill and minority smokers.

In the tobacco control world, "disparity" and "health equity" have become new catchwords, and pilot programs in some states have been launched.

"But the frustrating thing for folks in the public-health community is we know from research exactly what would make the biggest difference," said Brian King, deputy director for the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. "They're just not being implemented at the policy level. It's bread-and-butter strategies like getting states to pass smoke-free laws, increasing cigarette taxes and funding tobacco cessation and prevention."

In the face of such frustrations and challenges, Seals - the cessation teacher in Martinsville - said she tries relentlessly to keep herself and her students focused on the positive.

"They need someone who will come in and say, 'It's okay, you're going to be able to stop,' " she said.

As Seals's visit with her former students came to a close, Cassell - the factory worker who has now tried quitting six times - said she measures her victories these days in smaller increments: cutting back to a pack every three days, holding out until after her morning cup of coffee to light up.

"Do I ever think I'll be able to quit?" she said. "No."

Seals responded with a smile, unfazed. "Well, are you going to be at the next clinic?"

"I'll be there," Cassell promised. "I don't know if it's ever going to take, but I'll keep trying."
Festivities took place against a backdrop of snow-covered mountains with the public invited to a concert featuring Norwegian musicians. The godmother was Marit Barstad, sister of Viking Cruises founder and chairman Torstein Hagen. She used a gilded Viking axe to cut the cord that smashed a bottle of Gammel Opland aquavit on the bow.

The aquavit hails from the same county in Norway where Torstein and Marits mother, Ragnhildknown as 'Mamsen'was born, and it was her favorite brand. (Norwegian Sky's Scandinavian deli is named Mamsen's.)

Also, the chopping block used for the ceremony was brought from the Rotnes farm in Nittedal, where the godmother grew up.

'This is a special time of year in Norway; these are the days of the midnight sun and the perfect backdrop for a celebration. All of our ships proudly carry the Norwegian flag, and it is an especially proud day to officially welcome our new ship in Troms, the Arctic capital of the world,' Hagen said.

Arriving at Troms harbor Thursday morning, the 930-passenger, 47,800gt Viking Sky was met by water cannons from fireboats, music from local bands and flag-waving residents.

At a concert stage built for the celebration, Viking guests and Troms residents were treated to a public concert, with performances by Norwegian musicians including the Arctic Philharmonic, Lisa Stokke, Violet Road, Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska and Jrn Hoel.

Immediately following the naming, Viking Sky sailed from Troms with a convoy of small boats and fishing vessels to mark the summer solstice in the North Cape. On board, guests were treated to a special dinner of Norwegian delicacies and musical performances by Stokke, Tor Jaran Apold and Mari Boine.

The ship will now spend the summer season in Scandinavia and the Baltic.
Indeed, the studies appear to reveal the underlying causes of a growing rift between Europe's maritime powerhouses, Greece and Germany, on the Greek institutional framework for oceangoing shipping.

Leading industry consultants, shipbrokers Clarkson-Platou and audit, financial advisory firm, Deloitte have just released findings which appear to add weight to the Greek argument that the countrys booming shipping sector is not paying less taxes than its competitive counterparts. Indeed, it is paying more.

Union of Greek Shipowners president, Theodore Veniamis has accused Schauble of an ill informed attack on Greek Prime minister Alexis Tsipras and the tax regime covering the Greek shipping industry, while the European Commission continues to urge Greece to reform its institutional framework for shipping, a process which started some two years ago following pressure from rival interests in northern Europe.

Now Deloittes tax services department has issued a comparative study of the tax frameworks in Greece and Germany and elsewhere.

Deloitte found in a global survey that the competitiveness of European shipping is under pressure generally in relation to other international shipping centers due to the absence of a flexible tax and regulatory framework.

A comparison with the five fastest growing international shipping hubs, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Shanghai and Vancouver, showed the shipping policy pursued in the EU lags in the main competitiveness indexes such as in tax and financial incentives, in the regulatory framework, the attractiveness of national registers and the legislative framework for shipping activities.

Further Deloitte recently issued a comparative study of the tax frameworks in Greece and Germany and in Greece with other shipping forces. It showed the Greek capacity tax on ships is far higher than in any other country in the EU and 10 times as high as Maltas.

Deloitte has calculated the Greek shipowner has to pay an annual tax of EUR68,328 for a dry bulk carrier of 58,000 dwt, while an identical vessel owned by a German would see him pay German taxes of just EUR23,850.

Deloittes survey comes in the wake of a report by shipbrokers Clarkson-Platou which shows the rise of Greek shipping and the decline of German since the outset of the crisis in 2010.

Clarkson-Platous study shows the crisis-driven period in freight markets has had a significant impact on many German banks as Greek shipowners have expanded their combined fleet by 89.3m gt. At the same time, their German peers have reduced their own by 12% to 86.4m gt.
Press Release

June 22, 2017 SEN. LEILA M. DE LIMA ON THE CONTINUED KILLINGS IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

Dispatch from Crame No. 101 6 / 22 / 17 It's distressing to note that news coverage of summary killings, still happening on a daily basis, has been scarcer, hardly meriting any prominence in our dailies. Is this a case of news fatigue, or worsening desensitization of the public's consciousness? Yes, there are occasional reportage about awards from prestigious outfits for iconic photos or images (and I'm truly proud of the Pinoy photojournalists bagging those awards). However, except for EJK cases with human interest dimensions, we don't get to read about them anymore in most papers. We don't even know what's the current running totals of the EJKs. Suddenly, the authorities have turned timid in their disclosure of the official body count of those killed during police operations and those slain by unknown assailants or vigilantes. Are the figures being deliberately downplayed, and the whole EJK landscape sanitized? Are the official statistics being understated thru the ruse of reclassifying or renaming the actual category of the crime, or altogether outright non-recording? Remember that our authorities are allergic to the term EJK. What about the unreported cases of EJKs? I keep hearing about them in certain urban areas like Caloocan and Taguig. If actual incidents of summary executions are unreported, then so-called official figures cannot be truly reflective of the exact extent and magnitude of the carnage. Unreported killings translate to corpses being unaccounted for. Where are they? Have they been dumped or thrown away in some river, bay or ocean (ala Samal Island) or buried in mass graves (ala Laud Quarry)? I urge people to start asking questions and demand for transparency and accountability. And let's not stop asking until we get the answers, truthful answers. Without them realizing it, by their silence or apathy, people have become complicit to these rampant killings.
Press Release

June 22, 2017 Koko affirms party's trust in Dino Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III on Saturday affirmed the confidence of the ruling PDP Laban party in Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Martin Dino's efforts to improve the beleaguered SBMA's financial position. The SBMA is the body tasked with the administration of the former US Naval Base. "Subic has not lived up to its potential due to corruption and mismanagement in the past. For this special economic zone to reassert its rightful place as a driver of economic growth, it needs the leadership of someone like Chairman Martin Dino to clean up its ranks and streamline its operations", the PDP Laban Party President said. "Chairman Dino enjoys the support of his party, PDP Laban, in his aggressive campaign against smuggling and corruption", Pimentel said. Pimentel recalled that China was able to rise to become the second-largest economy in the world on the back of its able administration of its special economic zone. The Senate President said, "As the government embarks on its Program for Change, we need every revenue generating agency to maximize its collection for the benefit of the Filipino people." He added, "We need leaders who have no qualms with implementing radical solutions to address persistent problems, those who enjoy the full trust and confidence of the President." Martin Dino rose to national prominence as the Chairman of the group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, and as the candidate who gave way to President Rodrigo Duterte as the standard-bearer of the PDP Laban Party.
Sen. Bam calls for stakeholders' cooperation to combat fake news

With more Filipinos now getting their news from social media, a senator stressed the urgent need to combat the proliferation of fake news online.

"Huwag na tayo magpabola sa mga nagpapakalat ng fake news," said Sen. Bam Aquino. "Panahon na para labanan ang pekeng balita sa Pilipinas".

"Hindi lang nakakasira ng reputasyon ang pekeng balita, nilalayo pa tayo sa tunay at mahalagang isyu ng lipunan," he added.

While he supports the passage of Senate Bill No. 1429, Sen. Bam said it needs to be discussed further.

"Nagkakaisa kami ni Sen. Joel na naniniwala na lahat, lalo na ang ating sworn public servants, ay dapat managot sa pagkalat ng maling balita," he added.

"Pero marami pa tayong kailangan klaruhin, like what is considered a reasonable period for a social media platform to be able to put down a fake post? What would be an acceptable basis for branding fake news?" Sen. Bam said.

In addition, Sen. Bam called for stakeholders cooperation, from government officials, social media platforms and schools to combat fake news online.

"Kailangan natin ng kooperasyon ng lahat, lalo na mula sa mga opisyal ng pamahalaan, at mga social media platforms para labanan natin ang pagkalat ng pekeng balita sa Internet," said Sen. Bam, who during his stint as chairman of the Committee on Education pushed for social media literacy in schools.

"In a hearing on social media literacy last year, we already called on schools to better educate the youth on fake news and cyberbullying," said Sen. Bam.

Sen. Bam said fake news is not just a local concern but a worldwide phenomenon, with different countries starting different initiatives to battle its spread.

Countries like France are strengthening their fact-checking capabilities while Germany has passed legislation to regulate social media.

In Malaysia, online chat administrators are facing legal action for allowing spread of disinformation among members of their groups.

Sen. Bam also said Indonesia is setting up an agency that will tackle fake news.

"We must study all possible courses of action and learn from the best and most effective practices," he said.
Press Release

June 23, 2017 De Lima airs concern over impact of tax reform package to poor families Senator Leila M. de Lima has called for a thorough review of the possible adverse impact of the administration-sponsored Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) program to millions of poor families. De Lima filed Senate Resolution (SR) No. 407 urging the appropriate Senate committee to scrutinize the potential effects of the TRAIN which has been passed on third and final reading at the House of Representatives. "There is an urgent need to investigate such impact, in aid of legislation, especially in light of the TRAIN bill in the Lower House," she said in her resolution. The TRAIN, a priority measure of the Duterte administration, seeks to lower personal income taxes and estate taxes but will impose higher excise taxes on fuel, sugar sweetened beverages, new cars to recover losses the government will incur by lowering personal and estate taxes. Critics of the tax reform program also noted that the increase in excise taxes will drive prices of basic commodities up, apprehensive that poor families will even become poorer with the increased cost of goods. Once the revenue measure reaches the Senate, De Lima underscored the need to study the possible long-term effects of the tax reform program which she said might bring more harm than good to the country's economy. "The government must be ready to withstand the economic shocks of the proposal, while taking into consideration other economic factors like rising unemployment," she said in her resolution. Under SR No. 407, De Lima noted that, at its face value, the tax reform package merely reshuffles the burden of taxes, as it only shifts the costs to other fast-moving taxable sources, which will strongly affect the poor, such as the minimum wage earners, and the unemployed, who have no capacity to pay. "Congress is duty-bound to ensure that tax proposal abide by the Constitutional standard of uniform and equitable tax system, and that they have long-term positive effects for all stakeholders, including taxpayers, those who pay direct and indirect taxes alike, and the Government," she said. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, 6.6 percent or around 4.6 million of the workforce population are unemployed and stand to be the most affected by the price increase of commodities caused by tax reform package of the Duterte administration.
Press Release

June 24, 2017 Legarda Lauds Creation of UP Resilience Institute Senator Loren Legarda commended the University of the Philippines (UP) for taking a step further in contributing to enhancing the nation's resilience by creating the UP Resilience Institute (UP-RI). Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committees on Finance, Foreign Relations and Climate Change, said that this initiative will significantly reduce the impacts of natural hazards by strengthening the country's disaster resilience through advanced and collaborative disaster management programs. "I envision this to be a center for topnotch research on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Not only will it be a primary source of climate information, it will also disseminate information and essential tools for the public, especially the local government units (LGUs)," said Legarda, the UNISDR Global Champion for Resilience. The UP-RI aims to produce effective capacity building programs for sustainable development plans that will benefit all Filipinos, especially the poor and other marginalized sectors. It seeks to deliver accurate, reliable, understandable and timely data acquired through progressive scientific research, with the full utilization of state-of-the-art equipment and technology. Legarda lauded the integration of the UP Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH) Center within the UP-RI, stressing that the Center has been instrumental in improving disaster preparedness in the country, particularly in providing accurate information and timely warnings to our agencies and communities. "The best strategies for disaster risk reduction are possible only with the guidance of science. Especially for the Philippines, an archipelagic country with one of the longest coastlines in the world, we need probabilistic maps and impact-based forecasts and risk-informed warnings through multi-hazard early warning systems," Legarda said. She added, "We need science in strengthening building codes and making risk-sensitive land use plans that are linked into yearly investment plans of governments. Hazard maps can provide a good foundation for the work of our planners and builders. We need science in capacitating the private sector, especially the micro, small and medium enterprises, as we urge and support them in creating business continuity plans that reflect corporate strategy on how to swiftly spring back to operations after each disaster. We need science in providing the depth and breadth of information that the public needs to make decisions and take early action." Citing a study by the World Bank, Legarda said disasters displaced 22 million people all over the world last year alone. Furthermore, 26 million people are thrown into poverty every year because of disasters, which cost the global economy US$ 520 billion annually. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) stresses that data is key to disaster prevention as it helps improve our understanding of disaster risk and how underlying factors drive up losses. Having data baselines in place will help guide national and local strategies for reducing disaster risk. "There will be many more typhoons, earthquakes and other natural hazards that will come our way. The challenge at hand is to do more and to do better in prevention and risk reduction, to build back better following disasters, and build better from the start," Legarda concluded.
The last Portals told the story of Mooneysville, the squatters colony that entrepreneurs erected on the beach just south of the Cliff House in December 1883. At its height, Mooneysville consisted of about five dozen tents, shacks and frame buildings, and it purveyed whiskey, coffee, doughnuts and clam chowder, as well as various games and hustles, to the thousands of people who thronged the beach.

The city was initially more amused than outraged by the ragtag settlement. But as the possibility of a permanent squatters colony on the beach sank in  Mooneysville even had a recorders office, with claimants asserting that their property rights extended all the way to China  the city decided to crack down.

In January 1884, several of Mooneysvilles most prominent residents, including founder Con Mooney, were convicted of selling liquor without a license. Mooney and others argued that they had actually been selling crackers for 10 cents each and and gave away the liquor as a sort of premium, but the court didnt buy it. The convictions were a death sentence for Mooneysville, and its fate was sealed on Jan. 27, 1884, when the Board of Supervisors called for the removal of the Ocean Beach nuisance.

The Alta California gloatingly editorialized, The end of Mooneysville is close at hand. Too long it has been flaunting its unwholesome, decency-defying banner to the breeze, and now it is going to be snuffed out in a most inglorious manner.

Mooneysville residents, who included Denis Kearney, San Franciscos most famous rabble-rousing sandlot orator, had always tried to give their actions a populist patina by arguing that the Park and Ocean Railroad, owned by the mighty Southern Pacific Railroad, had acquired its franchise to run through Golden Gate Park to Ocean Beach by means as dubious as their own. They also blustered that they had legal right to the beach land and were prepared to defend it by force.

However, even the squatters did not take their arguments very seriously. Mooneysville was a scam, and they knew it.

In a story that appeared in the Daily Honolulu Press, Kearney said he and his partner had started their coffee and doughnut stand with $25 each and had raked in $1,018 in dimes  the equivalent of about $23,000 today. He said they know they have no legal right to the premises but it was their way of killing time, and when the order came for them to leave they would leave without a murmur, and with a nice little capital to put into some new speculation, the Press reported.

The Alta wrote that when city Park Commissioner Frank Pixley told Mooneysville residents to leave, Kearney heaved a sigh, for on last Sunday he sold, so he told me, 1,200 cups of coffee and 2,400 doughnuts, to say nothing of turnovers and pieces of pie.

The axes fell on Mooneysville on Thursday, Jan. 31, 1884. Legal notices to vacate had been placed on all structures on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Alta reported, Park Superintendent John McKewen had assembled 25 employees with ponderous crowbars, heavy axes and hammers, who, like good soldiers (had) slept all night on their arms in Golden Gate Park.

Shortly before 7 a.m., the men were called into line and ordered to move in close ranks to the beach. Pixleys March to the Sea, as the Evening Bulletin referred to it, had begun.

By the time they reached the spot selected for their first attack, they were reinforced by Sergeant Nash of the police force, accompanied by the stalwart officers Cummings, Crosby, Burke, Ransbury, Kelly and Dwyer, each armed with rifle, pistol, knife, club and handcuffs, the Alta reported. So silent were their movements that for an instant the Park squad thought they were ambushed, and it required the most energetic movements of their commander to prevent them from throwing away their heavy arms and taking to the bush.

Fortunately for the honor of the Park squad, the panic quickly subsided and they resumed their march to the southern end of the shantytown.

The first building they came upon was a hotel belonging to a Mrs. Noonan, one of two female residents of Mooneysville. Mrs. Noonan had posted a sign saying she had gone to town and would dismantle the building herself; this was deemed satisfactory, so the squad moved on to the next line of shanties. Squad members quickly dismantled them, leaving the lumber stacked neatly.

They worked their way up the beach, demolishing unoccupied structures and working with owners who were removing their shanties themselves. No one resisted, although the park commissioners came in for considerable verbal abuse.

At none of the leading places did they find any of the squatter claimants, except at the doughnut palace of Denis Kearney, the Alta reported. Kearney was demolishing his stand himself, but when the squad arrived he stood aside and exclaimed, Let the Romans do it!

After squad members reached the northern end of the beach, they retraced their steps to make sure all the shanties were gone. By 5:30 p.m., the job was finished and not a structure remained.

Thus passed Mooneysville from the Earth. Its rollicking existence had lasted less than two months. Its story would not be complete, however, without its final curtain call.

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.

On Feb. 11, just 12 days after the shantytown was demolished, a burlesque called Mooneyville, or the Fate of a Seal opened at the Standard theater. The musical send-up was written by humorist Charley Reed, who had carved out a theatrical niche by writing madcap tomfoolery about current events and people.

In its notice, The Chronicle wrote, Charley Reed reappeared and was given a rousing welcome. The numerous evicted tenants of Mooneyville were there in force, and they received the skit, which is simply one of those indefinable ludicrous absurdities for which Reed is now famous, with lots of laughter. It may be said that the thing made a hit. Charley Reeds fight with a seal was funny, and his new song won a double encore.

It was the perfect ending to the zany story of Mooneysville: its leading lights cracking up as they watched themselves and their short-lived seaside village being lampooned on a San Francisco stage.

Gary Kamiya is the author of the best-selling book Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco, awarded the Northern California Book Award in creative nonfiction. All the material in Portals of the Past is original for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: metro@sfchronicle.com

Trivia time

Previous trivia question: What was Portsmouth Square before 1847?

Answer: A potato patch run by a Californio named Candelario Miramontes.

This weeks trivia question: Where is the tallest sundial in San Francisco?

Editors note

Every corner in San Francisco has an astonishing story to tell. Gary Kamiyas Portals of the Past tells those lost stories, using a specific location to illuminate San Franciscos extraordinary history  from the days when giant mammoths wandered through what is now North Beach to the Gold Rush delirium, the dot-com madness and beyond. His column appears every other Saturday, alternating with Peter Hartlaubs OurSF.
Stuart Rosenstein doesnt usually get up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday to come to Twin Peaks in San Francisco.

But this weekend, the Santa Cruz resident felt a call of duty. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and joined more than 200 other volunteers to install, for the 22nd time, the pink triangle  an emblem that represents the years of discrimination and physical attacks that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has endured throughout history.

This years installation was different and had two underlying themes: President Trump and resistance.

Its very ironic that we are putting up a pink triangle as we are headed into a dark space for the LGBT community, Rosenstein, 55, said. It scares me to death. I do have to go back to my old closeted thoughts. Is it safe to hold hands in a particular space?

The pink triangle was first used by the Nazis during the Holocaust in concentration camps to identify LGBT prisoners, but has since been reclaimed by the LGBT community as a symbol of pride, said Patrick Carney, who hoisted the first pink triangle atop Twin Peaks in the dead of night in 1995.

I said, Theres a blank canvas up there at Twin Peaks. So we went to Home Depot and got about eight to 10 others to help us paint it, Carney said of the first installation.

Fast-forward two decades. The triangle has grown to 1 acre in size, requires 175 pink tarps and can be seen for 20 miles, Carney said. The triangle will be brought down Sunday evening at the end of Pride weekend.

Volunteers on Saturday had on white T-shirts with a pink triangle and the words Friends of the Pink Triangle in pink letters. Hammers were strewn about as people finished setting up under the haze of the San Francisco fog and snacked on doughnuts and croissants.

Not far away, the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Band rehearsed, the melodic sounds of the trumpets and clarinets traveling through the area. They took the stage to perform Bruno Mars Uptown Funk and Tony Bennetts I Left My Heart in San Francisco.

Some people had on rainbow socks, rainbow hats and rainbow belts with pink balloons, carrying flowers in hand as bubbles floated in the air.

Shortly after the volunteers completed their morning duties, Hannah Portner, 17, of Walnut Creek took a seat atop the triangle.

She pulled out paintbrushes and started mixing her watercolor paints. She opened her sketchbook and began painting the triangle and city view.

It was also Portners first year participating in the installation.

It was on my bucket list, she said, brushing back her pink and blue hair from her eyes while she pulled out a black notebook from a paint-stained backpack.

Under numerous pages titled Life Goals, Portner checked off the item she had scribbled down years before: to partake in the pink triangles assembling.

Also written down in her hopes for the future, Donald Trump becomes good.

This years installation had a clear message for the man in the White House, Carney said.

At night, the triangle will be illuminated by a projector with videos of peoples lips blowing kisses to the world, a showing of love, Carney said.

All of the joy of the last few years has been diminished by the current administration, Carney said. We dont know what to expect. I want the man to see we are in resist mode.

That sentiment was echoed throughout the pink triangle dedication ceremony, which included speeches by state Sen. Scott Wiener, Assemblyman David Chiu and other San Francisco politicians.

As Chiu held his baby son in his arms, he reassured the crowd of people gathered that the support for the LGBT community wouldnt waver.

That commitment was reinforced by Wiener as he took the podium.

Trump has allowed us to embrace and remember our core California values, Wiener said, citing support for immigrant rights, the LGBT community, women and health care.

These are American values, and we are going to prevail in the end, Wiener added.

For Rosenstein, a future filled with fear was looming. And while he said he feels like he needs to double think about how he acts in public, events like this restore his faith.

Its a message of hope, Rosenstein said of the pink triangle. For me, its a message of celebration, not just acceptance and tolerance.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
There probably arent many independent bookstore owners who have graduated from Harvard Business School.

Kathryn Grantham is one of them.

Having moved from Cambridge, Mass., to San Francisco a year ago, Grantham is the citys newest bookseller, the owner of a shop that just opened in the Outer Sunset.

The reception has been overwhelming, Grantham said. San Franciscos a book town, but I didnt realize just how full the area is of readers and creative people.

Located at 4033 Judah St., just a few blocks from Ocean Beach, Granthams shop, Black Bird Bookstore, is the only bookstore in the neighborhood, a welcome addition to a sleepy, unassuming part of town. Its in a narrow 900-square-foot space that had been occupied by Small Talkers, a preschool, and its aesthetic is minimalist and tasteful.

Sachi Cunningham

And its business model represents a break from the past.

Unlike many stores that are lined floor to ceiling with thousands of books, Black Bird Bookstore has only roughly 250 books for sale. Grantham says she expects the stock to rise to 1,000 titles.

Its a curated bookstore, she said. Its a different experience and always will be. But everybody finds something.

In the age of Amazon, Grantham noted, many readers now go online to buy specific titles.

The model of 50,000 titles is just not current, she said. Its a belief that was reinforced by her time at Harvard Business School, which she attended after running a Manhattan feminist bookstore, Bluestockings, for five years. She founded the shop in 1999, and its now a social justice, activist bookstore.

Sachi Cunningham

I have no idea why I was admitted, she said about Harvard, laughing. I was running a radical feminist bookstore. But I actually loved it. It was a terrific experience.

A 41-year-old native of New Orleans who moved to New York after college, Grantham says she has kept track of the book industry for the past two decades.

I believe people come to bookstores in search of ideas and recommendations, she said. If you mapped where people gravitate to most in a bookstore, it is the staff picks section. We are turning that section into a whole store.

And so Black Bird will sell only books that are recommended by Grantham and her staff of six employees. All the books are displayed with their covers facing out, accompanied by handwritten notes from the staff.

Sachi Cunningham

Grantham also plans to update sections on a regular basis, making them topical. For instance, she said, right now we have a section on climate change and the environment.

Another section is titled Our country, our culture. Curating such a section, she said, gives me the opportunity to pull together and highlight some of the terrific, diverse voices that are being published today, and hopefully help us all have a deeper understanding of who we are as a people.

Books bridge gaps in our own experience, she added. Perhaps I am also hoping to find the answer to the question of how we got here in this Trump era.

Before moving to San Francisco, Grantham regularly visited the Bay Area to spend time with three younger siblings who live here. She and her husband, Oliver, an investor in forestry and an avid surfer, are building a house on a property they bought in the Sunset three years ago, initially drawn to the nearby surfing.

The couple have three sons, ages 6, 4 and 1. Grantham says theirs is one of the many young families in the neighborhood. Shes passionate enough about childrens literature that half of her stores books will be for younger readers. She even had a tree house built, including a small oak tree for children to climb. And the shop will host a childrens story time every Saturday at 9 a.m.

How did Grantham conceive of the stores name? She wanted a local reference. While she was pondering possible names, she said, those big black birds kept flying into my view. It also has nice alliteration.

As familiar as Grantham is with San Francisco, its in opening a bookstore, she said, that you certainly feel like youre really sinking your roots into the community. Which is why I love bookstores.

More information: www.blackbirdbooksf.com

John McMurtrie is The San Francisco Chronicles books editor. Email: jmcmurtrie@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @McMurtrieSF
As Congress rushes to overhaul a federal law that could alter millions of Americans access to health insurance, investors continue to pour millions of dollars into growing health care startups that are building businesses around avoiding the insurance system altogether.

Health industry experts say the wave of startups operating outside of that system  by billing consumers and employers, rather than insurance companies  is not entirely new. But it is thriving because of a phenomenon that predates the 2010 Affordable Care Act and will continue no matter what comes of the repeal and replace effort: Health care costs are rising for many Americans, whether they have insurance or not. Even people with employer-sponsored insurance are seeing their companies increasingly offer high-deductible plans that are shifting a greater portion of costs onto consumers.

Investors are betting that if these young companies  whose services range from preventive cancer screenings to telemedicine consultations for flu and minor infections  can offer care faster, cheaper and with greater convenience than what consumers get from traditional providers, they can carve out a niche in the crowded and notoriously slow-to-innovate health care industry.

Bay Area startups are gaining traction using this model, including San Franciscos Lemonaid Health. The firm, founded in 2015, charges consumers a $15 flat fee to consult a Lemonaid physician within two hours, using a mobile app, to seek treatment or prescriptions for sinus infections, acne, flu, urinary tract infections and other common ailments. In May, the 15-employee company announced $11 million in new funding led by Novartis Venture Fund and Hikma Ventures.

One of the things I thought in the business early on was we might need to start accepting insurance because I thought patients would say, I want to pay for my doctors visit using insurance, said Lemonaid CEO Paul Johnson. In fact, very few patients have raised that concern. They seem open to seeking out the most affordable and convenient care they can get, irrespective of whether they can use their insurance or not.

Lemonaid has treated about 45,000 patients in 14 states, Johnson said. Johnson is watching the federal health law repeal closely, but said he does not expect the outcome to drastically impact his business because consumer demand for affordable health care will continue  for the millions who have insurance, and the millions who do not.

If access to insurance is changing and some people are going to drop out and not be able to get insured because they cant afford it or for other reasons, we provide a solution to that, Johnson said. A large number of our patients have told us they dont have insurance. Many tell us they have insurance with a high co-pay. We provide solutions to those groups, both of which are groups that, with the changes (to the federal health law), may increase in size.

High-deductible plans are becoming the new normal, some health industry experts said, prompting more consumers to comparison-shop for health care and making the market for direct-to-consumer providers like Lemonaid seem promising.

After implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2014, the market for people who have insurance expanded, but all those people who bought in have high deductibles, said Bob Kocher, a health care technology investor at Palo Alto venture capital firm Venrock. Even if you have insurance, you still have to pay for it. After 2014, theres been a wave of really lower-priced products. Theyre trying to reach consumers without worrying about whether its covered by your health plan.

Between 2006 and 2016, the percentage of American workers on high-deductible health plans increased from 4 percent to 29 percent, according to a 2016 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Such plans typically allow enrollees to contribute, tax-free, to health savings accounts to pay for medical expenses.

We have quite a few folks who pay their fees with a flexible spending account or health savings account, said Ilya Abyzov, co-founder of the San Francisco startup Forward, a high-end medical clinic that provides primary care services in the Financial District. Forwards revenue comes entirely from monthly membership fees paid by individuals or their employers, not insurers.

That was a really important consideration when we started Forward and thought about designing it, Abyzov said. We knew we wanted to start direct-to-consumer because we wanted to make sure our incentives were in line with our customers.

The firm  backed by Silicon Valley heavyweights like Alphabet Inc. Chairman Eric Schmidt, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and venture capitalist John Doerr  opened its first clinic in January and is preparing to open a second location.

Abyzov said he wanted to offer round-the-clock telemedicine services and high-tech body scanners that collect patients vital signs  which typically are not covered by insurance.

A lot of those dont have billing codes, he said. We didnt want to block our path of innovation based on what insurance would and wouldnt pay for.

Kocher, the investor, said its common for health startups to start off marketing to consumers and employers, but as they mature, may find it difficult to grow without incorporating the vast network of customers that insurers bring with them.

Its good to test things with consumers; you can do it fast and iterate quickly because you can just change it, he said. But if you want to build a large business, its hard to imagine you dont want to work with insurance companies.

Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat__Ho
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Venture capitalist Justin Caldbeck, the co-founder of Binary Capital who was accused this week of sexually harassing half a dozen women who work in tech, will take an indefinite leave of absence from the San Francisco firm he helped start three years ago and will seek professional counseling, according to a news release.

Caldbeck, who has served on the board of directors at several local startups, including on-demand labor market TaskRabbit, said in a statement Friday afternoon that the decision to step down from his firm was preceeded by the darkest 24 hours of his life.

Those hours came after Susan Ho, Leiti Hsu, Niniane Wang and three other women who declined to share their names publicly, spoke out about several instances where Caldbeck harassed them. The allegations include groping a woman under a table, sending sexually explicit late-night messages and propositioning female entrepreneurs for sex.

Ho and Hsu founded travel startup Journy. Wang is the founder of animation startup Evertoon and previously served as the CTO of stationary startup Minted and helped create Google Desktop.

Several of the women reportedly experienced Caldbecks unwanted advances as they were seeking funding or advice from him in his role as a venture capitalist while they were trying to start a business.

Leiti and I originally were not going to say anything because we felt that what happened to us was just unfortunately so commonplace and trite these days, Susan Ho wrote in a private Facebook group, according to tech news site PandoDaily. But after hearing the stories of other women who endured much worse, we decided we had to say something to make sure this article would get written. Niniane Wang was the first to agree to go on the record and she said it best  if we don't say anything and this happens to someone else, it's really something we could have had a hand in preventing.

Caldbeck has worked as a VC three firms over the past decade: Bain Capital Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and his own firm, Binary Capital.

Prior to Caldbecks announcement Friday, Binary Capital denied the womens allegations, calling them false, and characterized Caldbecks actions as flirtation.

The womens stories, first reported in the Information, a subscription news service for venture capitalists and other tech insiders, have since made their way around the Internet, attracting outrage from many in the tech industry, who decried Caldbecks actions but said they found them unsurprising, given the systemic and pervasive sexism and misogyny many have long reported experiencing in tech and venture capital.

Two of the six women who reported inappropriate advances from Caldbeck said they did not follow through on business deals with him because of his inappropriate behavior.

In a statement Friday, Caldbeck said he was grateful to the women for speaking up and deeply ashamed.

The power dynamic that exists in venture capital is despicably unfair. The gap of influence between male venture capitalists and female entrepreneurs is frightening and I hate that my behavior played a role in perpetrating a gender-hostile environment, Caldbeck wrote in his statement. It is outrageous and unethical for any person to leverage a position of power in exchange for sexual gain, it is clear to me now that that is exactly what Ive done.

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Caldbeck has invested in 14 startups through his firm, Binary Capital, including photo- and video-sharing app Snapchat, interior design startup Havenly, on-demand transportation startup Bellhops and luxury-hotel startup Recharge.

Binary Capital, based in the Mission District, is an early-stage investment firm that focuses on consumer-facing businesses. It has invested more than $300 million in the past three years. Among its limited partners, or investors, are the University of California at Los Angeles and Weathergage Capital, a firm whose five managing directors include three women.

I will be seeking professional counseling as I take steps to reflect on my behavior with and attitude towards women. I will find ways to learn from this difficult experience  and to help drive necessary changes in the broader venture community, Caldbeck wrote. I apologize again to those who Ive hurt during the course of my career  and for the damage Ive done to the industry I care so deeply about.

Marissa Lang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mlang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Marissa_Jae
Mortgage lending has proven to be a tough industry for new companies to make waves in, and the sudden shutdown last week of San Francisco mortgage startup Sindeo helps show why.

Sindeo was one of more than two dozen startups seeking to streamline the cumbersome mortgage application, origination and closing process. Despite having what many described as top-flight technology and executives, it took down its website Tuesday night and replaced it with a brief note saying it had made the difficult decision to wind down Sindeo.

It didnt say why, but a note from CEO Nick Stamos to investors obtained by Housing Wire said an investor who had committed to fund it tacked on a last-minute requirement to close the deal that it couldnt meet. My subsequent efforts to secure emergency bridge financing from this investor and others were also not successful, he wrote.

Stamos said the company laid off 61 of its 70 employees Tuesday, keeping a small team to deal with loans already in process.

According to CB Insights, Sindeo had raised $25.5 million from investors including Renren, the Chinese social networking company.

Sindeo was a mortgage broker, which means it originated loans for others, but did not fund them itself. Its website formerly said it offered access to 40+ lenders & 1,000+ loan programs to best meet your specific needs and goals and closings in as few as 15 days.

Borrowers, it said, could apply for a loan on a smartphone, tablet or desktop computer and get a preapproval letter in just five minutes. Unlike other companies offering only automated service, Sindeo also had human advisers whose pay was based not on commission but on customer satisfaction.

Eric Boyenga, whose South Bay real estate firm had a marketing partnership with Sindeo, had more than 20 clients who got mortgages through Sindeo. The technology behind it was great. They had really top talent, Boyenga said. But the whole tech industry is tightening a bit. All you hear about is Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple. If you look at the startups, investors wanted to see a higher return, faster. With Sindeo, they werent seeing what they were looking for.

Getting a mortgage is a time-consuming process that involves shopping for a loan; choosing from various rates and terms; filling out an application; submitting pay stubs, tax returns and financial statements; waiting for approval; and, finally, closing the loan.

It is highly regulated by federal and state governments and requires coordination with appraisers, title companies, county recorders offices and investors, who buy most loans.

Mortgage-tech companies are attempting to save people time and money by letting them shop and apply online and either upload their documentation or give the mortgage company permission to pull it directly from employers, financial institutions and the IRS. But its still a Herculean task.

A true digital mortgage lets consumers run the loan from application to funding from any device, with the choice of working on their own or having a loan adviser jump in at any time  and enabling the lender to have a fully documented loan that passes all rules and regulations from both lawmakers and investors, said Julian Hebron, an executive vice president with RPM Mortgage.

On top of hiring engineers and attorneys, you need a huge investment in customer acquisition. In the end, it proved to be too much for Sindeo, and it will prove too much for the other mortgage disruptors.

To compete, a company needs lending, technology, regulatory and marketing infrastructure, Hebron said.

The company that has all four is Quicken Loans, the nations largest nonbank mortgage lender and the third biggest overall after Wells Fargo and Chase, according to Inside Mortgage Finance.

Quicken makes loans directly to borrowers, traditionally over the phone. In early 2016, it launched Rocket Mortgage, an all-digital loan whose ads are hard to miss. In 2016, Rocket accounted for $7 billion of the companys $96 billion in loans.

About two-thirds of those getting Rocket loans are buying rather than refinancing and about half are Millennials, said Regis Hadiaris, Rocket Mortgage product lead at Quicken.

He said Rocket customers are closing loans in as few as nine days for refis and 16 days for purchase mortgages. That compares with an industry average of 45 days.

Because of the complicated nature of the industry, we took a very deliberate path to roll it out, Hadiaris said. We had a public (test) in 2013. We kept learning and adding to it.

The question facing the industry, he said, is, Will the large established companies with scale become innovative, or will the smaller, new entrants be able to scale?

To succeed, you need a lot more than a front-end user interface or mobile app. Peoples financial lives are complicated. Mortgage underwriting is complicated. Building simple technology that lets people do this on their own is like putting someone who doesnt know how to fly in the seat of a 747.

That may be true, but it wont stop companies from trying to break into the industry, which originated almost $2 trillion in mortgages last year.

CB Insights identified 25 mortgage startups transforming the mortgage industry.

Unlike Sindeo, which was purely a broker, some are mortgage banks that initially fund the loans they make, although they quickly sell most or all of them. They include Lenda and Clara Lending (both in San Francisco), and Better Mortgage (New York).

Lenda and Clara both distance themselves from Sindeo. As a broker, you cant control the price. You cant control the speed at which loans are closed, said Jason van den Brand, CEO of Lenda. You can build something snazzy on the front end and give it to whoever you are brokering it to. But they could take two months to get it done. This is a business where time is money. We control the entire process.

Others are business-to-business companies that provide software to mortgage originators who want to provide a digital experience. They include Blend (San Francisco), Roostify (Burlingame) and Cloudvirga (Irvine).

The industry is so big and so complicated that if you try to disrupt it all at once you will probably die of indigestion, said Blend CEO Nima Ghamsari. Thats why his company is focusing on one area. Sindeo, he said, tried to disrupt it all at once.

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender
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A United Parcel Service worker who killed three of his fellow delivery drivers and then himself in San Francisco last week wielded a MAC-10-style assault pistol with a 30-round magazine that had been stolen in Utah and is illegal to possess in California, police said Friday.

Jimmy Chanh Lam, 38, fired the semiautomatic handgun made by MasterPiece Arms 20 times during the June 14 shooting in which he also wounded two UPS workers who survived, said officials during a news conference detailing the citys progress in the investigation.

They said a motive in the rampage remained elusive. Lam said nothing as he calmly and methodically opened fire, turning a company meeting into a scene of horror and chaos, and detectives have not been able to gain insight into the violence through searches of Lams home, his car and his computer files or contacts with his family.

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At this point, we have not established a motive, said Cmdr. Greg McEachern.

He said Lam carried a second handgun that had been stolen in Napa, but didnt fire it before he shot himself to death at the companys Potrero Hill distribution center at 320 San Bruno Ave. Lam also had a black backpack with a box of bullets inside, which was recovered along with the guns.

McEachern said investigators do not yet know who stole the weapons or how Lam obtained them. He did not know when the weapons were stolen or when their original owners had reported them being taken.

Gun theft is a common problem around the country and a leading reason why illegal guns get on the streets and end up being used in crimes. And while California outlaws an array of assault weapons as well as high-capacity ammunition magazines, the weaponry frequently travels across the border  sometimes even in the mail.

Lam, a city resident who had a history of drunken driving but no past arrests for violence, killed Benson Louie, 50, Wayne Chan, 56, and Michael Lefiti, 46. McEachern said it appeared Louie and Chan were specifically targeted  but for reasons that remain unknown.

Those who worked with Lam said there was no indication that the 17-year company veteran would commit mass violence. They described him as quiet and said he kept to himself, though one colleague said he had been troubled in the past over the consequences of a drunken-driving conviction and his relationship with his wife and son.

At Fridays news conference, Police Chief Bill Scott, who had been on a trip away from the city on the day of the shooting, said he was proud of his officers response, saying that they contained the threat and they saved lives.

The men and women of the San Francisco Police Department did a tremendous job responding to this tragedy, he said. We train for these incidents, but each incident presents its own challenges.

McEachern detailed how the shooting unfolded during a routine company meeting. Lam was in uniform, as were the victims. He said that the massacre was not captured on video, but that investigators have been able to view footage of other aspects of the incident and the response.

At about 8:50 a.m., he said, Lam suddenly pulled out the black semiautomatic pistol with the extended magazine and, without warning or saying anything, shot Louie. A driver who witnessed the shooting told The Chronicle in an earlier interview that Lam shot Louie in the head at close range.

Lam shot Chan next, and then he shot the two UPS employees who survived. As others fled or took cover, McEachern said, Lam calmly walked outside the building, where he approached Lefiti at 17th Street and San Bruno Avenue. Without a word, he shot him several times.

The first call to police came at 8:56 a.m., officials said, and the officers who responded  who all wore body cameras  were told there was an active shooting being committed by Lam.

McEachern said that as officers began searching for Lam, they directed a number of hiding UPS employees to safety. After about two minutes, he said, they came upon Lam, who was near the fallen Louie and Chan and had the pistol pointed at his head. The officers ordered him to put down the gun, but he pulled the trigger.

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Investigators were able to locate a journal belonging to Lam, but so far have not discovered any insights into why he resorted to such violence.

Our job as investigators is to do everything we can to uncover a motive, McEachern said. I cant say whether or not we will be able to reach that point.

Some of the most notorious crimes in recent Bay Area history have involved stolen guns.

In 2015, on San Franciscos Pier 14, 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle was fatally shot by Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who said he had been playing with a gun he found. The gun had been stolen from a Bureau of Land Management officers personal vehicle that was parked in the city.

Later that same year, artist Antonio Ramos was killed in Oakland while painting a mural by an assailant armed with a gun that had been stolen from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents car in San Francisco.

A few days later, a trio of troubled young drifters killed two people, one in Golden Gate Park and another in Marin County, using a gun they had stolen from an unlocked vehicle.

From 2005 to 2010, some 1.4 million guns were reported stolen in the U.S., according to a Department of Justice report.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo
A lifelong stand-up comedy fan, Emily Gordon doesnt approve of heckling. But at a Chicago nightclub in 2006, the then-therapist broke her own rule and heckled comic Kumail Nanjiani.

He was doing pretty well, but then he asked if anybody in the audience was from Pakistan, and I thought it would be really funny if I, a girl whos clearly not from Pakistan, was to shout something, Gordon says. So, I said, Woohoo! and he kind of called me out for it, and was very funny.

That is a moment of truth depicted in The Big Sick, the romantic dramedy, written by Nanjiani and Gordon, produced by Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, Trainwreck), and starring Nanjiani as himself and Zoe Kazan as Emily. The tale is based on a calamity that befell Gordon in 2007, when she was put in a medically induced coma for 12 days while doctors tried to diagnose a harrowing mystery illness that threatened to kill her. This fictional version of what happened pulls in both sets of parents  Kumails expect him to marry a Pakistani girl and Emilys are initially leery of Kumail when they meet him in the hospital  as well as the Chicago stand-up scene.

For me, it was interesting, because some of the dialogue from the movie is directly from my parents, Nanjiani says. My mom was on set once watching us shoot and she started laughing. And I said, Why are you laughing? She said, I said that to you!

Lionsgate

Outside of Chicago stand-up fans, Nanjiani was an unknown when the events depicted in The Big Sick happened. Since then, his career has skyrocketed and today he is probably best known as the sarcastic programmer Dinesh on the HBO series Silicon Valley. He describes the show as always fun and new and exciting, but after four seasons, he never worries about how it will be received. His first starring role in a movie, one that he and his wife wrote, is a big unknown.

This movie is such an expression of me and Emily, its so personal, that if people dont like it, its like theyre rejecting our very existence, Nanjiani says.

When Nanjiani and Gordon were working on their script for three years, and when the film was being shot in 2016, they couldnt have anticipated how politically relevant a story about a Pakistani Muslim immigrant boy and an American girl would be. Nanjiani touched on politics in his recent commencement address at Iowas Grinnell College, his alma mater, but hes grateful that politics were left out of The Big Sick.

Judd said recently, Its good that we made this movie not knowing that it was going to come out at such a politically charged time, because then we would have tried to make a statement, Nanjiani says. And really we just made a movie that tells our story and its a love story and the statement is incidental to that.  Now, portraying Muslims as a loving family feels like a big political statement.

Lionsgate

The Big Sick came about after Nanjiani met Apatow in 2012 at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Apatow asked him to pitch some ideas, and the story of Emilys illness was among them. Gordons reaction to the idea of a film about their lives was mixed, but she eventually overcame her reservations enough to co-write the screenplay. In the months since the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, she has begun to see the opportunity to make the movie as a gift.

You know, some people have the same diagnosis that I do, people told me about relationships that theyd been in that had been similar, says Gordon, about the illness that turned out to be adult-onset Still's disease, a rare type of arthritis that is a threat to major organs if undiagnosed and untreated. And that is something I didnt even anticipate, (that) this could connect with people that are in a very similar situation.

I had gotten used to the idea of being vulnerable in front of people or exposing parts of myself to people, adds Nanjiani. There is a joy, I think, in expressing yourself in such a vulnerable and naked way, but its also a little embarrassing. You feel like people sort of know you off of this.

Pam Grady is a Bay Area freelance writer.

The Big Sick (R) pens Friday, June 30, at Bay Area theaters.

To see a clip of Kumail Nanjiani performing stand-up: http://bit.ly/1Ayhc20
For anyone who has contemplated Californias devastating housing shortage and wondered how the state got in this mess, heres one short answer: Senate Bill 106.

Of course, this single unfortunate piece of legislation is not responsible for a crisis rooted in decades of bad state and local government decisions. But the bill, which would exempt Marin County from housing density standards that apply to the rest of the Bay Area for more than 10 years, does embody the sort of parochial policymaking that has been ruinous for the states greater good.

Pushed by Assemblyman Marc Levine, a Marin County Democrat who secured a similar development dispensation for the states wealthiest county in 2014, the bill would extend the exemption, currently scheduled to expire in 2023, to 2028. It would continue to classify the county, including its largest cities, San Rafael and Novato, as suburban, excusing it from the high-density housing developments prescribed for metropolitan areas.

The Legislatures ruling Democrats introduced the exemption, as the Los Angeles Times reported, as part of a budget trailer bill addressing a wide variety of unrelated issues and escaping the level of public scrutiny applied to most legislation. Now before the state Senate, it was passed by the Assembly this week without a single Democratic or Bay Area lawmaker voting against it. David Chiu, D-San Francisco, who abstained, was the lone member from the housing-starved region who did not vote for the bill.

Every part of our state must create housing to help solve the affordability crisis, Chiu said in a statement, but this policy makes that harder.

While it neighbors San Francisco and is considered part of the same metropolitan region for census purposes, Levine said that Marin County is more like its northern neighbor, Sonoma County, and that it was therefore a mistake to subject it to the density requirements that apply to the rest of the Bay Area. Because suburban-style housing is more likely to be built in Marin County than San Francisco- or Oakland-style developments, the legislation is pragmatic, Levine said. Less density doesnt mean less housing.

But its a result of policy, not an accident of geography, that the median price of a single-family home in Marin County is $1.25 million, the highest in the region. The countys population density of about 500 residents per square mile is a third of San Mateo Countys and a fourth of Alameda Countys.

Marin is an extreme but by no means unique example of the forces that created the housing crisis. As long as local objections to development carry the day, and Sacramento lacks the courage to override them, homelessness and other repercussions will persist.

Democratic legislators have often noted that they are considering more than 100 bills addressing the housing crisis. Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Gov. Jerry Brown have made particularly promising proposals to reduce barriers to development. But the only one being rushed through the Legislature at the moment would have the opposite effect.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerras aggressive legal counterattack to Trump administration policies has been compared to the efforts by Texas to undercut President Barack Obamas orders on everything from the environment to immigration to transgender rights.

In the midst of that flurry of lawsuits, the Texas attorney general at the time, now Gov. Greg Abbott, famously described his typical workday to a Tea Party gathering in 2013: I go into the office, I sue the federal government, and I go home.

Altogether, Texas sued the Obama administration almost 50 times.

I had a chance to ask Becerra about the comparison as part of a wide-ranging interview before an audience at the City Club of San Francisco.

My job is very different, he said. When I take any action that relates to the federal government, its principally been to expand peoples rights and to protect their constitutional rights  versus to diminish peoples rights and exclude individuals. So I look at what were doing in California as very different in substance to what Texas did previously, even though were using the same mechanism.

If the current trend continues, Becerras Department of Justice could very well approach the breadth of Texas attempted blockades on all things Obama. Becerras office has challenged President Trump on the travel ban from selected Muslim-majority nations, on potential sanctions against sanctuary cities, on curtailment of subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and multiple White House attempts to undercut Californias clean-air rules.

None of this was a surprise. It was widely accepted that the reason Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Becerra to succeed Kamala Harris after her election to the U.S. Senate was that the 12-term congressman would have the gravitas and the savvy to defend California values in a hostile environment.

The full-frontal resistance is not without risk.

Even before his December confirmation, Becerra was being warned by some legal scholars to tread carefully in suing the federal government. After all, any significant state-vs.-feds conflict was likely to end up in the U.S. Supreme Court, which Trump came into office with a chance to cement its conservative majority  which he did with the appointment of Neil Gorsuch. As the saying goes, courts cant rule on whats not before them. Texas had a decidedly mixed record in the Obama years, clearly winning only a handful of its nearly 50 cases.

Becerra acknowledged there is a lot of merit to such admonitions. A courtroom should be the place of last resort, he said.

The goal is to defend what California is doing, he said. Im not suing the federal government because I dont like what theyre doing. Im only going to sue them to stop us from doing what were doing.

So far, its working.

Becerra was considered a surprise choice for attorney general, and in many ways seemed an unlikely leader of the California resistance. Yet now he has shown himself to be an ideal fit for each role. He has that rare combination in politics: a self-effacing, disarming style with a fierce commitment to principles. Sincerity and seriousness.

He plans to run in 2018 for a full term as attorney general, but his escalating profile would almost certainly put him in the mix if a certain other Washington-based statewide office were to become available.

I had to ask him about the issue that dominates Washington: the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. In May, he had suggested that the specter of impeachment was on the horizon. Had anything since then changed his mind?

He paused for a moment.

I think were headed in that direction; I dont see how were not, he said. I think this is self generating on the part of the president. If our institutions work properly, well get to the bottom of it. It may take a while. Watergate took a while.

This is not Watergate. This is way different. Watergate was a two-bit burglary. This is a foreign government, adversarial to many of our interests, trying to influence our election.

The words were delivered with a calm deliberation that gave them authority, and helped illustrate why Xavier Becerra is the right leader for the California resistance.

John Diaz is The San Francisco Chronicles editorial page editor. Email: jdiaz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnDiazChron

A state of attitude  and action

Prominent state Democrats are drawing national attention for their contribution to the resistance.

Jerry Brown

What hes doing: The governor has moved into the vacuum of U.S. leadership on climate change, even going to China to talk cap-and-trade and other strategies to reduce carbon emissions.

What hes saying: Erasing climate change may take place in Donald Trumps mind, but nowhere else.

Kamala Harris

What shes doing: U.S. senator, a former prosecutor, was relentless in challenging Attorney General Jeff Sessions and deputy Rod Rosenstein. Admirers loved her persistence, one Trump surrogate on CNN called her hysterical.

What shes tweeting: The American people dont deserve evasion  we deserve the truth.

Gavin Newsom

What hes doing: Lieutenant governor has been the most high-profile state politician to call for commencement of impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

What hes tweeting: In 151 days, @POTUS has made 669 false and misleading claims. Hes lying or misleading the public over 4 times a day.

Eric Swalwell

What hes doing: The East Bay congressman, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, sponsored a bill for an independent commission to probe Russias role in the 2016 election.

What hes saying: If there was ever a time for Republicans and Democrats to unite and say this democracy is worth protecting, its now.

Jackie Speier

What shes doing: The Peninsula congresswoman, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, has emerged as a leading voice in the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

What shes saying: This is as big, if not bigger, than Watergate.
Days of bruising arguments among San Francisco city officials about how to divvy up a $46 million pot of money among dozens of city programs and community organizations ended Friday when the supervisors Budget and Finance Committee finally agreed on a $10.1 billion budget.

Tensions had been flaring for the past week as supervisors and their legislative aides haggled, sometimes into the small hours of the night, over how large that pool of money ought to be and how it should be allocated, creating new rifts between the boards moderate and progressive blocs that may take time to mend.

The money in that pot  known informally as add-back money that is apportioned each year by the supervisors after the mayors initial budget proposal is combed for funds  includes $4 million over the next fiscal year for the Office of Early Care and Education to maintain its current workforce levels and to keep care centers open, $1.5 million to expand housing subsidies for 200 homeless people, and $1 million for educational and employment services for vulnerable and homeless youth and young adults.

Each supervisor creates a wish list of agencies and causes to fund, which usually vastly exceeds the amount of add-back money available, prompting the negotiations necessary to whittle down that list.

Budget committee Chair Malia Cohen said the final stretch of talks was hobbled in part by the absence of two members, Supervisors Jane Kim and Norman Yee. Kim was studying traffic congestion pricing models in Europe, and Yee left for Chicago late Thursday to meet with a charity with which hes affiliated.

Our process has been hampered because the full committee is not present, Cohen said Friday.

Board of Supervisors President London Breed went further. To say that Im disappointed that two of the members of this committee are not present to see this and havent necessarily participated in this process in the wee hours of the night as the rest of you have, is an understatement, she said, referring to the absence of Kim and Yee.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin had been filling in for Kim in her absence, but did not participate in the budget committees vote Friday.

Peskin texted that he was in a labor mediation. He and several other supervisors closed their City Hall offices Friday, with some posting signs indicating they were participating in Pride Week events.

The add-back funds are apportioned each year after the citys budget and legislative analyst scours the mayors budget and recommends cuts. Large portions of those funds come from money that goes unused by city departments because of attrition and positions left unfilled and is then added back into other city agencies and initiatives.

On Thursday, the budget committee agreed to distribute $1 million for each member of the Board of Supervisors to allocate at their discretion  $6 million of which stemmed from direct negotiations between Cohen and Mayor Ed Lee.

That left the supervisors to negotiate over how to best apportion the remaining $35 million among scores of city agencies and nonprofits, most of which provide social services to vulnerable communities like senior citizens and the homeless.

Members of the boards more progressive wing  including Supervisors Hillary Ronen and Peskin  had been fighting for a larger add-back allocation pulled from deeper cuts to city departments.

I find it ridiculous that in a city with a $10 billion budget, we cant agree on cutting bloated department budgets in order to fund solutions to the biggest crises facing our city, including homelessness, seniors that are hungry and families that desperately need and cannot afford child care, Ronen said Friday. She is not a member of the budget committee.

Peskin on Wednesday rankled the budget committee by requesting that the budget and legislative analyst find an additional $10 million in savings. Peskin and Yee voted to approve those cuts, but were overruled by Cohen and fellow budget committee members, Supervisors Jeff Sheehy and Katy Tang.

The full Board of Supervisors will take up the budget at their July 18 meeting. The budget must be finalized and signed by the mayor by Aug. 1.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
Diplomacy talk: A panel with foreign affairs experts, U.S., Iran, Saudi Arabia: A New Diplomatic Calculus?, runs from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. at the World Affairs Auditorium, 312 Sutter St., Suite 200 in San Francisco. Tickets cost $20. For information: http://bit.ly/2rRlx4H.

Impeachment march: Nationwide marches will call for President Trumps impeachment. The march in San Francisco begins at 1 p.m. along the Embarcadero and will head to Powell and Market streets. For information: http://bit.ly/2sYoEER.

Where money should go: A discussion on how to invest public and private dollars, and what questions are most pressing for policymakers, investors and organization leaders. The event begins at 12:30 p.m. at the SPUR Urban Center, 654 Mission St., San Francisco. For information: http://bit.ly/2sVj0pM.

Environmental action: A conversation with the Sierra Clubs executive director and local environmental justice groups on what people can do to take action against President Trump's environmental agenda. The event is from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the International Hotel Manilatown Center, 868 Kearny St. in San Francisco. For information: (510) 848-0800.
The price of bitcoin has hit record highs in recent months, more than doubling in price since the start of the year. Despite these gains, bitcoin is on the verge of losing its position as the dominant virtual currency.

The value of ether, the digital money that lives on an upstart network known as Ethereum, has risen an eye-popping 4,500 percent since the beginning of the year.

With the recent price increases, the outstanding units of the ether currency were worth around $34 billion as of Monday  or 82 percent as much as all the bitcoin in existence. At the beginning of the year, ether was only about 5 percent as valuable as bitcoin.

The sudden rise of Ethereum highlights how volatile the bewildering world of virtual currency remains, where lines of computer code can be spun into billions of dollars in a matter of months.

Bitcoin, the breakout digital currency, is also hitting new highs  one bitcoin was worth $2,600 last week. But bitcoin has struggled with technical issues and there have been bitter internal divisions among its biggest supporters. It has also been tainted by its association with online drug sales and hackers demanding ransom.

Meanwhile, ether has been gaining steam. The 2-year-old system has picked up backing from both tech geeks and big corporate names like JPMorgan Chase and Microsoft, which are excited about Ethereums goal of providing not only a digital currency but also a new type of global computing network, which generally requires ether to use.

In a recent survey of 1,100 users of virtual currency, 94 percent were positive about the state of Ethereum, while only 49 percent were positive about bitcoin, the industry publication CoinDesk said this month.

If recent trends continue, the value of Ethereums virtual currency could race past Bitcoins in the coming weeks. Virtual currency fanatics are monitoring the value of each and waiting for the two currencies to switch places, a moment that has been called the flippening.

The momentum has shifted to Ethereum  there is no doubt about that, said William Mougayar, the founder of Virtual Capital Ventures, which invests in a variety of virtual currencies and startups. There is almost nothing you can do with bitcoin that you cant do with Ethereum.

Even though most of the people buying ether and bitcoin are individual investors, the gains that both have experienced have taken what was until very recently a quirky fringe experiment into the realm of big money. The combined value of all ether and bitcoin is now worth more than the market value of PayPal and is approaching the size of Goldman Sachs.

Investors buying ether are placing a bet that people will want to use the Ethereum networks computing capabilities and will need the currency to do so. But that is far from a sure thing. And real-world use of the network is still scant.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, has made inroads into mainstream commerce, with companies like Overstock.com and Expedia accepting bitcoin for purchases, along with the black-market operators who use the currency.

The fact that there are fewer real-world uses for Ethereum has many market experts expecting a crash similar to the ones that have followed previous runups in the price of bitcoin and other virtual currencies. Even during recent pullbacks, though, the value of ether has generally continued to gain on bitcoin in relative terms.

Ethereum was created in the middle of 2015 by a 21-year-old college dropout, Vitalik Buterin, who was born in Russia and raised in Canada. He now lists his residence, jokingly, as Cathay Pacific Airlines because of his travel schedule.

The ether he holds has made him a millionaire many times over, but he has generally avoided commenting on the price increase in ether.

Buterin was inspired by bitcoin, and the software he built shares some of the same basic qualities. Both are hosted and maintained by the computers of volunteers around the world, who are rewarded for their participation with the new digital tokens that are released onto the network each day.

Because the virtual currencies are tracked and maintained by a network of computers, no government or company is in charge. The prices of both bitcoin and ether are established on private exchanges, where people can sell the tokens they own at the going market price.

But Ethereum was designed to do much more than just serve as digital money. The network of computers hooked into Ethereum can be harnessed to do computational work, essentially making it possible to run computer programs on the network, or what are referred to as decentralized applications. This has led to an enormous community of programmers working on the software.

One of the first applications to take off was a user-led venture capital fund of sorts, known as the Decentralized Autonomous Organization. After raising more than $150 million last summer, the project crashed and burned, and appeared ready to take Ethereum with it.

But the way that Buterin and other developers dealt with the problems, returning the hacked ether to users, won him the respect of many in the corporate world.

It was good to see that there is governance on Ethereum and that they can fix issues in a timely manner if they have to, said Eric Piscini, who leads the team looking into virtual currency technology at consulting firm Deloitte.

Many applications being built on Ethereum are also raising money using the ether currency, in what are known as initial coin offerings, a play on initial public offerings.

Startups that have followed this path have generally collected ether from investors and exchanged them for units of their own virtual currency, leaving the entrepreneurs with the ether to convert into dollars and spend on operational expenses.

These coin offerings, which have proliferated in recent months, have boosted demand for the ether currency. This month, investors sent $150 million worth of ether to a startup, Bancor, that wants to make it easier to create virtual currencies. If projects like Bancor stumble, ether could as well.

Several big companies have also been building programs on top of Ethereum, including mining company BHP Billiton, which has built a trial program to track its raw materials, and JPMorgan, which is working on a system to monitor trading.

Over the last few months, more than 100 companies have joined the nonprofit Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, including global names like Toyota, Merck and Samsung, to build tools that will make Ethereum useful in corporate settings.

Many of the companies using Ethereum are building private versions of the software, which will not make use of the ether currency. Speculators are betting that these companies will eventually plug their software into the broader Ethereum network.

There is also the possibility that none of these big trials come to fruition, and the current excitement fizzles out, as has happened many times in the past with bitcoin after big price jumps.

I hope this is the year where we start to close the gap between the speculative value and the actual value, Mougayar said. There is a lot at stake right now.

Nathaniel Popper is a New York Times writer.
Martin Shkreli, former hedge fund manager, pharma bro and self-styled bad boy, sat in federal court for a hearing last week.

Like most defendants, he sat mostly still; like most defendants, he stayed quiet, declining to speak to reporters as he left.

Then he went home, turned on his webcam and live-streamed himself on the computer for almost 2 hours. He played League of Legends. He filled in Excel models on pharmaceutical stocks and bonds. He drank Coca-Cola and checked Twitter. He voice chatted while live chatting in another window while playing online chess. The only sign that he would go on trial Monday was a window that could be seen briefly, a PowerPoint titled Witness Guide and a slide on a former boss.

This is how a self-promoter goes to trial.

In January 2015, learning that federal prosecutors had opened an investigation, Shkreli volunteered to meet with prosecutors and FBI agents  without a lawyer. After agents arrested him in December 2015, he continued to talk, making additional one-off statements, according to a prosecution filing, even as he was recorded. The next day, at home, he live-streamed for almost five hours. Sorry I couldnt live-stream yesterday. Had a lot going on, he told viewers.

Shkreli, who has run several hedge funds and pharmaceutical companies, is perhaps best known for increasing the price on the drug Daraprim, which treats a parasitic infection, to $750 a tablet from $13.50, when he was CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals in 2015.

His trial, in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, is on eight counts of securities and wire fraud. The charges stem from two hedge funds he founded and ran between 2009 and 2012, MSMB Capital Management and MSMB Healthcare, and from Retrophin, a biopharmaceutical company he founded in 2011. Shkreli has denied the charges.

The indictment contends that Shkreli lied about the funds performance, about how much money investors had put into the funds, and about how much he withdrew from the funds for himself.

Investors began to get suspicious after he told them, in September 2012, that he was winding down both funds and that they could redeem their stakes for cash or for shares in Retrophin, according to the indictment. But Shkreli didnt give cash to those who had requested it.

According to the indictment, he then arranged to pay the hedge fund investors through Retrophin. He created settlements without board approval, and made up sham consulting agreements with hedge fund investors so that Retrophin routed them money.

A lawyer for Shkreli, Benjamin Brafman, said, Because of the many complicated issues in this trial, I am intent on doing all of my commenting in the courtroom, not in the press.

Shkreli is a curious mix of blue-collar-boy-made-good and attention seeker  particularly when that attention is negative.

Born to Albanian parents in Brooklyn who worked as janitors, Shkreli, 34, attended the competitive public Hunter College High School in Manhattan, landed an internship at the hedge fund of the CNBC star Jim Cramer in high school, and went on to Baruch College, a City University of New York school.

While at Baruch, he continued working at Cramers company, and at night read patent filings and other drug-research documents, according to a filing by his lawyers. He started his first hedge fund in 2006, then MSMB Capital in 2009, followed by running pharmaceutical companies Retrophin, Turing and one other.

Vilified by the public and politicians for the Daraprim price increase, Shkreli responded by buying another drug that treated a rare disease and announcing he would raise the price on that one, too.

Called before Congress last year to testify at a hearing on drug prices  after his indictment, when some public sympathy might have helped  Shkreli invoked the Fifth Amendment, smirked through the hearing, and afterward tweeted Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government.

He harassed a journalist on Twitter until he was banned from the site. Derisively called pharma bro on social media, Shkreli now uses PharmaBroMS as his handle in the League of Legends.

While neither his personality nor the pharmaceutical prices are on trial, Shkrelis out-of-court exploits have already complicated his lawyers in-court arguments.

At the hearing last week, they indicated they would portray Shkreli as a boy genius who never meant to defraud his investors  who ultimately got their money back.

Prosecutor Jacquelyn Kasulis argued that investors getting money back was not a legitimate defense. Fraud, she said, can mean depriving investors of a right to control their assets.

There is law here, there are rules, they apply to Mr. Shkreli, she said.

The trial is expected to last six weeks.

Im so innocent, the jury, judge and the prosecution are gonna give me an apology, Shkreli said in a recent live stream.

The cost of his defense, though, has already affected one of his bragging rights: how rich he is.

Shkreli told federal authorities he was worth $70 million after he was arrested, prosecutor Alixandra Smith said.

But in asking for a reduction in Shkrelis $5 million bail, his lawyer said that his client had no bank accounts, and no valuable assets other than his share in Turing, worth $30 million to $50 million. And Shkreli is restricted from selling that because of how his stake in the private company is structured.

Smith argued against a bail reduction, pointing to recent articles and statements from Shkreli about his free spending. Those included paying $40,000 to a Princeton student who solved a geometry proof; buying domain names related to journalists who had written about him; offering $100,000 for information leading to the murderer of Democratic National Committee staff member Seth Rich; buying an Enigma coding machine of the sort used by Nazi Germany in World War II; and buying the sole copy of a Lil Wayne album. (He had already bought, before his arrest, the only copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album for millions of dollars.)

He has a Picasso, Smith noted.

Judge Kiyo Matsumoto has yet to rule on the bail matter.

Stephanie Clifford is a New York Times writer.
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Let's be blunt: the North Bay is one of the most naturally beautiful places in the United States, and tourists and locals alike head to Marin and beyond every weekend to set up the tripod.

With cliffs, beaches, and sky-high views from mountaintops, snapping a gorgeous photo of the local landscape is extremely easy in Marin.

"We are much more active on Instagram than other social media venues because of the visual impact it offers to potential visitors," said Mark Essman, president of the Marin Convention and Visitor's Bureau. "Marin's natural beauty, scenic vistas, and the fact it is surrounded by water on three sides offer an abundance of photographic opportunities for those seeking unique images not found elsewhere in the greater Bay Area."

The area is also home to one of the most popular natural attractions in the country. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (which spans from the North Bay to San Francisco and San Mateo) tallied 19 million visitors in 2016 (compared to Yosemite's 4 million), with many of those traveling to the North Bay. In fact, according to National Parks Service records, the Point Reyes National Seashore saw 2.4 million visitors in 2016 and Muir Woods alone welcomed 1.1 million. Many of those are weekend hikers with cameras in hand.

"Most visitors to Marin County are within a 200 mile radius," says Essman, noting that the Visitor's Bureau has a much larger following on the photo-based Instagram platform than on Facebook.

We combed through some of the most popular locations in the North Bay for Instagrammers to see the places tourists and locals are exploring around Marin, San Rafael, and Tiburon to take advantage of some of the best views in California. Some are obvious (ahem, Muir Woods), but others are not.

See the above gallery for where you should head to take in the view in person.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.


Shawna Cepeda of San Dimas, California says she still feels sick a week after finding a dead frog in her salad at BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse in West Covina, California.

In a June 13 Yelp review, Cepeda states that she was "about four bites into it" when she "noticed it tasted a little different."
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Jerry Nelson, who conceived of the design for the segmented telescope, which allowed scientists to peer farther into the universe than ever before, died June 10 at his home in Santa Cruz. He was 73.

His death was confirmed by his daughter, Alexandra Nelson, who said she did not know the cause.

Professor Nelsons designs were the basis for the twin telescopes at the W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii. Astronomers have used those telescopes to help measure the giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and to find and confirm planetary bodies outside our solar system, including potentially habitable planets.

When the first Keck telescope was installed, in 1993, it was nearly twice as large as any other telescope, at 10 meters in diameter.

For decades, the size of telescopes seemed to have stalled with the roughly 5-meter Hale Telescope at Palomar Mountain, built in 1949. (The Soviet Union constructed a roughly 6-meter telescope in the Caucasus Mountains, but its performance never lived up to its size.)

The sticking point was the central mirror. The diameter of the mirror, a giant round disk of glass whose surface is exquisitely polished to ensure maximum accuracy, determines how much light the telescope can capture and how sharp an image it can create.

Building a mirror larger than 5 meters is a Catch-22: It needs to be thick enough to support its weight and not collapse, but the mass required to do that can cause gravity to change the shape of the mirror when it moves.

Rather than use a single concave mirror, Professor Nelson, along with physicist Terry Mast and engineer George Gabor, proposed using 36 smaller hexagonal mirrors, arranged in a honeycomb-like pattern, to make one large one.

Each interlocking piece, about 6 feet wide and 3 inches thick, would be supported and rearranged by a computer to maintain its correct position.

It was a radical idea, and it required a level of precision that many thought impossible. They told us we couldnt electronically glue together broken pieces of glass, Gabor told the Los Angeles Times in 1993.

Today, the design is the basis for many advanced telescopes, both on the ground and in space.

Jerry Earl Nelson was born on Jan. 15, 1944, in Glendale (Los Angeles County), to Julian Bonne Nelson, a machinist for Lockheed, and the former Leona Jeanette Hill, who managed the local childrens park.

After attending Verdugo Hills High School in Los Angeles, Professor Nelson received a B.S. in physics at the California Institute of Technology in 1965 and a Ph.D. in physics at UC Berkeley in 1972. He worked as a staff researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 1970 to 1981 and taught astronomy at Cal from 1981 to 1994.

He spent the early 1990s in Hawaii as a project scientist during the construction of the Keck telescopes, before returning to the mainland and taking a position as a professor of astronomy at UC Santa Cruz in 1994.

In addition to his daughter, Professor Nelson is survived by his wife, Jocelyn Torricelli Nelson; a son, Leif Nelson; a sister, Jeanne Moat; and three grandchildren. His marriage to Victoria Alexandra Wearne, the mother of his children, ended with her death in 1992.

In the 1990s, Professor Nelson was one of the few people who understood the potential and the practical technology challenges of building adaptive optics systems, which improve the performance of telescopes by correcting for Earths atmosphere. In 1999, he became the founding director of the Center for Adaptive Optics at UC Santa Cruz.

Even after he had a stroke in 2011 that left him partly disabled, Professor Nelson continued to travel to the Santa Cruz campus and worked as a project scientist for the Thirty Meter Telescope, a project to build the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere.

His colleagues recalled Professor Nelson as a deeply curious man with almost impossibly high standards. When you were working with Jerry, Michael Bolte, a fellow professor at Santa Cruz, said in an interview, nothing seemed impossible.

Jonathan Wolfe is a New York Times writer.
SPRINGFIELD - Leftist media isn't interested in hearing from the Illinois legislature's conservatives - and there are plenty of energetic and passionate conservatives in Springfield. Instead of giving up, lawmakers like State Rep. Mark Batinick, State Senator Kyle McCarter, State Rep. Allen Skillicorn and others have been taking their messages directly to the people on Facebook via videos. Here's one from Rep. Batinick this week:
(BCN)  Eighteen farm workers were hospitalized after being exposed to pesticides at a ranch south of Salinas on Thursday morning, according to Monterey County agricultural authorities.

The Tanimura and Antle celery transplant crew worked for about an hour starting at 4:30 a.m. before some of them came down with nausea, headaches and stomach pain.
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SEBASTOPOL (BCN)

Dozens of customers may have been victims of card skimming at a Sebastopol Fast Gas station pump since March, Sebastopol Police Chief Jeff Weaver said.

The Redwood Credit Union informed police that multiple account holders had fraudulent charges on their credit or debit cards since March, Weaver said. West America Bank also reported the fraud.

The skimming device that captures credit and debit card data is physically installed in pumps where motorists insert their cards.

Sebastopol police Officer Cameron Fenske met with a Redwood Credit Union representative on June 13. Police and the staff at the Fast Gas at 1080 Gravenstein Hwy. inspected the card readers three times but did not find any suspicious devices, Weaver said.

A gas pump technician conducted a deeper inspection of the pump's hardware on June 21 and two skimming devices were located and taken as evidence. Sebastopol police and other law enforcement agencies are trying to identify the suspects.

Fast Gas also is taking additional security measures to prevent future placement of skimming devices in the pumps, Weaver said.

Anyone who has purchased gas at the Fast Gas since March 1 should check their bank and credit card statements and report any fraudulent transactions to Sebastopol police at (707) 829-4400.
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Permits for outdoor burning are being suspended starting next week in Napa, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma and Marin counties in the San Francisco and Monterey bay areas because of high fire danger, Cal Fire officials said.

Following a wet winter, the abundant growth of grass and warm, dry weather, Cal Fire officials are suspending burning in each county's state responsibility areas starting at 12:01 a.m. July 1.

The suspension bans all outdoor residential burning of landscape debris such as branches and leaves.

"We are asking that residents not be lulled into a false sense of security on the heals of an exceptionally wet winter," Cal Fire director Chief Ken Pimlott said in a statement.

Cal Fire officials said in addition to the abundant fuel, the recent heat wave has increased the fire danger.

Residents are being asked to prepare for wildfires in case there is one.

Residents should clear all dead and dying vegetation from around all structures on their property.

Landscaping with fire resistant and drought tolerant plants will also protect residents' property.

Residents are encouraged to find other ways to get rid of landscape debris such as chipping it and hauling it to a biomass energy center or green waste center.

Cal Fire officials said they will consider issuing temporary burning permits if there is a need for burning for the health and safety of the public.

Agricultural, land management, fire training and other industrial-type burning may continue if a Cal Fire official inspects the burn site and issues a special permit.

The suspension of burn permits does not apply to campfires, which may be allowed if they are maintained so they don't start a wildfire.

Campfire permits can be obtained at local fire stations or online at preventwildfireca.org.

For more information on creating defensible space around structures and for tips to prevent wildfires, go to www.readyforwildfire.org.
OAKLAND (BCN)  The death of a 102-year-old woman whose body was found in her East Oakland home Sunday is being investigated as suspicious, according to Oakland police officials.

Mildred Williams was found unconscious in her residence in the 3000 block of 22nd Avenue after officers were sent to investigate at about 1:20 a.m., according to Oakland police spokesman Officer Marco Marquez.
BEIJING  More than 100 people were feared buried after a landslide caused by torrential rain destroyed a mountain village in southwest Chinas Sichuan province, state media reported Saturday.

The landslide hit the village of Xinmo in Maoxian county around 6 a.m. Saturday, and more than 40 houses were buried, according to officials from the local propaganda department, state news agency Xinhua reported.

When I got to Xinmo village around 6 a.m., there was only one house in the entire village that was still visible, Li Yuanjun, a local official told the Sichuan Daily newspaper. Everything else was buried by rocks and mud.

Local police official Chen Tiebo told state broadcaster China Central Television, or CCTV, that officials were still verifying the casualty numbers, but that he expected it could be between 100 and 200 people.

There were more people in the village than usual because students were home for the summer holiday, Chen said, adding that there is a possibility tourists could also have been staying there.

Maoxian county is largely inhabited by members of the small Qiang ethnic group. Maoxian lies in Sichuans Aba prefecture, around 110 miles by road north of the provincial capital Chengdu.

The whole village is buried, buried, a man is heard saying on a video posted on the website of Sichuan Daily, as his camera pans across earth and rocks at the scene.

Its all over, its all over, a man can be heard saying over one video posted on social media. The whole village is gone.

Simon Denyer is a Washington Post writer.
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LONDON  Britains fire safety crisis expanded substantially Saturday as authorities said 34 high-rise apartment blocks across the country had cladding that failed fire safety tests. London officials scrambled to evacuate four public housing towers after experts found them not safe for people to sleep in overnight.

Hundreds of residents hastily packed their bags and sought emergency shelter, with many angry and confused about the chaotic situation. Some refused to leave their high-rise apartments. Scores of evacuees slept on inflatable beds in a gym while officials sought better accommodations for them.

Camden Council leader Georgia Gould said it decided to evacuate four blocks in north Londons Chalcots Estate late Friday after fire inspectors uncovered problems with gas insulation and door stops, which, combined with the presence of flammable cladding encasing the buildings, meant residents had to leave immediately.

The evacuation comes amid widening worries about the safety of high-rise apartment blocks across the country following the inferno that engulfed Grenfell Tower in west London on June 14, killing at least 79 people. Attention has focused on the 24-story towers external cladding material, which has been blamed for the rapid spread of that blaze, but multiple other fire risks have now been identified in some housing blocks.

The government said Saturday that the cladding samples that failed fire safety tests came from 34 apartment towers in cities including London, Manchester, Plymouth and Portsmouth. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said further testing is running around the clock.

So far, Camden Council has been the only local authority to have asked residents to leave as a precaution. It said about 650 apartments were evacuated, though initial reports put the figure at 800 apartments.

The council said residents would be out of their homes for three to four weeks while it completes fire-safety upgrades.

I know some residents are angry and upset, but I want to be very clear that Camden Council acted to protect them, Gould said in a statement. Grenfell changed everything, and when told our blocks were unsafe to remain in, we acted.

Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, who has been criticized for her slow response to the Grenfell tragedy, said Saturday that the government was supporting Camden officials to ensure residents have somewhere to stay while building work is done.

Sylvia Hui and Danica Kirka are Associated Press writers.
BEIJING  China mounted a major rescue effort Saturday with 118 people still missing after a landslide caused by torrential rain destroyed a mountain village in the southwestern province of Sichuan, state media reported.

Just 15 bodies had been recovered by late Saturday.

The landslide hit the village of Xinmo in Maoxian county around 5 a.m. Saturday, burying 62 houses, according to the Sichuan provincial government. Three survivors  a couple and their month-old baby  were rescued and taken to the hospital.

Qiao Dashuai said they survived only because his infant son woke him up.

It was after 5 a.m. and my son was crying, so I got up to change his diaper, he told China Central Television. Then I heard a loud noise from the back. I thought it was the wind, so I went to close the door, but air and water came in, and rocks landed in the living room.

Qiao said he and his wife grabbed their son and ran out of the house.

The rest of the village was obliterated, and hopes of finding anyone else alive appeared slim.

When I got to Xinmo village around 6 a.m., there was only one house in the entire village that was still visible, Li Yuanjun, a local official, told the Sichuan Daily newspaper. Everything else was buried by rocks and mud.

Zhang Liancheng, who lives in a nearby village, said the landslide buried eight members of his family. It was raining, and the house was shaking, he told the local newspaper Huaxi Metropolis Daily. It was very foggy, and I could only see something like a fire pushing toward Xinmo village.

Chen Tiebo, a local police official, told CCTV that there were more people in the village than usual because students were home for the summer holiday.

Some 140 tourists were evacuated from nearby villages after the landslide, thepaper.cn website reported.

Maoxian county is largely inhabited by members of the small Qiang ethnic group, known for building watchtowers and rope bridges in their mountainous land.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for an all-out rescue effort, state media reported.

The Maoxian county government said almost 2,000 people, including soldiers, police and medical workers, were involved in rescue operations, with 31 pieces of equipment including bulldozers and diggers.

Simon Denyer is a Washington Post writer.
ISTANBUL  Turkish authorities announced Saturday they will not allow the Istanbul Pride march to take place Sunday  the third year in a row the celebration has been banned. The move prompted criticism from rights groups and fears of possible violence, as Pride organizers said they would defy the ban.

For more than a decade, Istanbul Pride had attracted tens of thousands of participants, making it one of largest gatherings celebrating gay, lesbian and transgender rights and diversity in the Muslim world.

Unlike other Muslim countries, homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey. However, lesbian, gay and transgender activists say they lack legal protections and face widespread social stigma in a nation that is heavily influenced by conservative and religious values.

The Istanbul governors office said the Pride march would be banned to keep public order and for the safety of participants and tourists. It said the area around central Taksim Square, where the march begins, was not designated for demonstrations.

The Pride committee said the ban violates domestic and international laws on the right to peaceful assembly. It asked the governors office to reconsider and fulfill its obligations by providing security precautions.

This week, like last year, ultranationalist and conservative groups said they would not allow the Pride march to take place even if the authorities allowed it. LGBT activists said the ban legitimizes threats and hate speech under the guise of protecting the publics sensitivities.

Amnesty International expressed deep worry following the ban and said Turkish authorities violated freedom of expression and assembly in a routine and arbitrary way.

Turkey should protect rather than ban Pride marches, Amnesty said, adding it would make sure to document developments on Sunday.

The bans are a reflection of the increasingly conservative and majoritarian policies of the government, said Murat Koylu of Ankaras Kaos GL, a group promoting LGBT rights.

The Pride Week events and parade, held in Istanbul since 2003, allowed the LGBT community to try to assert their rights, including demands for explicit bans on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Bram Janssen and Neyran Elden are Associated Press writers.
I have always been fascinated by the way Boards work and what makes them successful and otherwise.

There is a very high co-relation between high performing Boards and high performing organizations.

I have been fortunate to be on Boards with some excellent Directors.

There is no doubt that any review of NZXs performance would show that it has underperformed in many areas despite it being a Government Legislated monopoly.

NZX is great for a few companies but most parties who we speak to have a complaint about the Company and the way they have been treated by NZX .

Personally I believe that NZX have mostly competent, capable, decent staff. However most people believe NZX has been they have been poorly led and they are confused as to what their role is and who their clients are.

There is no doubt that compliance is critical in this crazy world, however the key to any business is to attract clients who value and appreciate the service you offer. NZX is not achieving that.

Mr. Tony Falkenstein is standing for the Board of NZX. The meeting will be held on Friday the 30th of June 2017.

It is interesting to note how direct the current Chairman has been in discouraging shareholders from supporting Mr. Falkenstein.

I personally support Mr. Falkensteins appointment.

My reasons are as follows:

1) The current Board of Directors is too small. With only 6 Directors there is insufficient diversity to allow for debate and alternate views.

Mr. Falkenstein can be elected without anyone missing out. This will increase the size of the Board and add to diversity.

2) The Board does not have a Director who has been on a listed small company Board.

3) Mr. Falkenstein has been a client of NZX and he understands how the business works from the client perspective.

4) The current Board is too compliance focused and it is not focusing on developing its business and particularly early stage companies.

5) NZXs has had 3 separate attempts to run a smaller Cap Board (NCM,NZAX,NXT) but it has simply not succeeded in gaining any real momentum. There needs to be real commitment at Board level to this sector.

6) I have known Mr. Falkenstein for a number of years and I believe he would be a valuable asset to any Board that he was interested in joining. His business knowledge, social conscience, entrepreneurial skill plus his ability to analyze and debate make him a valuable addition to any Board.

Summary

I am a little perplexed at the way NZX has handled this.

I am not sure why there are not 8 Directors on the NZX board with a variety of backgrounds.

We all simply want a high performing quality New Zealand Exchange.

Everybody would win if we could achieve this.

I am sure that adding Mr. Falkenstein to the Board there will be a higher chance achieving this.

If you are a NZX shareholder I strongly recommend that you consider voting in favour of Mr. Falkenstein as I believe he will be an excellent addition to the NZX Board and I also believe the quality of decision making will improve.

I am happy to interact with anyone about this matter.

You are welcome to contact me on Brent.King@IRG.co.nz

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-- The Eltingville doctor busted in a multi-million pill-mill ring pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Friday in Manhattan federal court, his lawyer told the Advance Saturday.

Dr. David Taylor, 74, is out on $250,000 bond, and is not allowed to write prescriptions as part of his bail condition, said defense attorney Steven Brill.

However, Taylor, who has been a doctor on Staten Island for 30 years, can still see patients, Brill said.

"He denies the charges and looks forward to defending his reputation as a doctor in court," the lawyer said.

Taylor is due back in court July 6.

His co-defendants, Vito Gallicchio, 48, of Woolley Avenue in Willowbrook, and Daniel Garcia, 57, of Gloria Court in Graniteville, also pleaded not guilty at their arraignments, Brill said.

The three men were charged Thursday with one count of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone. They face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Taylor, whose office is located at the corner of Hylan Boulevard and Oceanic Avenue in Eltingville, allegedly exchanged services for prescriptions, according to a law enforcement source.

The doctor allegedly traded the pills for bottles of Glenlivet, a single-malt Scotch whisky, as well as construction work at his home, the source said.

Taylor is accused of writing prescriptions for oxycodone, oxymorphone and alprazolam, an anti-anxiety medication sold as Xanax, without examination, according to the source.

The doctor, the source alleged, also didn't do MRIs or maintain medical records, and kept prescriptions at the same level of oxycodone for every refill.

Taylor, Gallicchio and Garcia worked together from January 2012 through at least June of this year to illegally distribute millions of dollars worth of pain medication, authorities allege.

Gallicchio allegedly sent fake patients to Taylor to get prescriptions filled, said the source.

Many of the patients are believed to be addicts, authorities allege.

There were more than four million pills, worth about $40 million in street value, diverted to Staten Islanders, authorities said. The prescriptions were filled in Staten Island and New Jersey.

SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY

One neighbor near Taylor's office said he noticed "junkies" hanging around the neighborhood, especially on the weekends.

"It felt like a methadone clinic," he added. "It became fishy when there were like 10 people lined up outside his office at 8 a.m. on a Sunday waiting for him."

The neighbor said he suspected something was going on over the past year, and even thought about calling the authorities.

"You would see all these people hanging around at all hours," he said. "They looked like junkies."

Taylor's office was closed Thursday and Friday.

"It's just very, very sad," another resident said.
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"In many ways ... we dealt with this as a cyberthreat and focused on protecting our cyber infrastructure," Rhodes said in an interview. "Meanwhile, the Russians were playing this much bigger game, which included elements like released hacked materials, political propaganda and propagating fake news, which they'd pursued in other countries." "We weren't able to put all of those pieces together in real time," Rhodes said, "and in many ways that complete picture is still being filled in." Rhodes declined to discuss any sensitive information.
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
NSW deputy premier and member for Monaro John Barilaro has slammed the ACT government's decision to ban greyhound racing and would welcome the sport's relocation across the border.

In light of the ACT's announcement on Friday to ban greyhound racing in the territory by July 2018, Mr Barilaro backed it moving just eight kilometres away to Queanbeyan.

Mr Barilaro was elected deputy premier following a politically disastrous decision by the NSW government to ban the sport, which was later reversed.

"We know what happened in NSW with taking on the industry and we've accepted we got it wrong," Mr Barilaro said.
The winter chill of NSW's southern highlands and the ACT is one of the most common complaints about living in this part of the country.

But a growing number of landowners have taken advantage of the frosty ground to grow the "black gold" for which the cold conditions are perfect.

Mr Haslam said the average farm gate price for truffle was $1500 to 2000 per kilogram. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos

As workers in nearby Canberra move from heated houses into heated offices, the region's truffle growers set out with teams of trained dogs or pigs to seek out the culinary delicacy.

Their findings will end up on the plates of some of Sydney and Canberra's finest restaurants, or otherwise be exported to an eager international market.
The NSW government's reaction to the ACT government's decision to ban greyhound racing in the territory is a strong indication it will not be successful in ending the sport.

While the ban will stop racing taking place inside the territory's borders it can do nothing about the entire industry moving across to NSW.

The ACT government might become the first state or territory to ban greyhound racing in Australia but it will actually do little to address the problems said to be plaguing the sport.

The Canberra Greyhound Racing Club said while its priority was to fight to overturn the decision it would be happy to up and move the entire operation across the border.
The idea of countries requiring local language proficiency from applicants for citizenship is not a new thing. Australia has experimented lavishly with language requirements before, and indeed already has a basic language test.

And the idea that such a requirement might be tweaked or tightened from time to time is, similarly, not without international precedent.

That this move would be contemplated, however, by the Australian Parliament  a collection of lovable linguistic scoundrels whose collective rap sheet of offences against the English language is longer than Yoda's  is deeply, existentially hilarious.

The policy  proposed by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton with all the mellifluity of a man who has spent nine years in the Queensland Police  is currently under consideration by the parliament.
It is impossible for the authorities to find all the rhino carcasses left behind by poachers and it is an accepted view that the kill numbers could be understated by up to 20 per cent. Credit:Brent Stirton Making the task even harder is the lifting of the ban on trade of rhino horn. The ruling by South Africa's highest court in April, which legalised domestic trade in horn, has raised emotions across the globe. It has been seen by many as a decision that could hasten the extinction of rhinos in the wild. "This is the death-knell for rhinos," said one delegate from the October 2016 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Enter John Hume, the largest private owner of rhinos on the planet. Hume, an avowed conservationist, has more than 1500 white rhinos at his property outside Johannesburg. His stated goal is to have enough rhinos to ensure 200 more are born each year. The tipping point  where the rhino kill rate exceeds the rhino birth rate  has long been reached. Credit:Beverly Joubert He dehorns all his rhinos in the hope that a dehorned rhino will not be attractive to poachers. Unfortunately, this does not always work  two of his dehorned rhinos were killed a few months ago. And this is despite Hume spending about $2 million on security every year.

Hume stashes his rhino horns in bank vaults around Johannesburg and Pretoria  conservative estimates put his cache at more than five tonnes. He is planning two auctions of rhino horn in coming months  online and a public auction  which are only possible as a result of the court's decision to legalise the trade in rhino horn. He has previously voiced his support for the trade to be legalised. "It's not the demand for rhino horn that's killing our rhino, it's the way that demand is currently supplied," he told London's Telegraph in 2016. "Up until 2008, we had no rhinos being poached in South Africa because demand was being supplied by legal sales from live rhino. Then they banned that trade and those sales were mirrored by rhino poaching deaths in Kruger National Park." The rhino's horn grows back, which means rhinos can produce more in their lifetime than those that are slaughtered by poachers, he says. Hume's auctions will infuriate those who oppose the trade, but it will also shed light on who actually buys the horn. Bear in mind that this trade in rhino horn is only permissible within South Africa, so who are the likely buyers? Certainly, some investors and collectors, but who else? People with intent to sell to international crime syndicates? The pro-trade block  mainly in South Africa  are convinced that this will drive down the price of illegally traded horn, currently sitting about $US70,000 per kilogram.

Rhino horn is often powdered and sold as a cure for anything from a cold, to cancer, to improving sexual performance, in countries including Vietnam and China. Those against the legal trade in rhino horn believe this will actually accelerate the demise of rhinos in South Africa  poachers will increase their activities as they bank on the extinction of the species. I have long held the view that the war on poaching will not succeed through the barrel of a gun. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been directed against poaching in the past five years and yet more than 5000 rhinos have been killed in the same period. This number is purely not sustainable. The tipping point  where the rhino kill rate exceeds the rhino birth rate  has long been reached. Another disturbing statistic is the number of poachers who have been killed during their incursions into Kruger and other parks. Estimates are that as many as 300 poachers have been killed in the past three years. Certainly, many of these poachers are driven by greed but the higher number is those who are killed trying to earn a living. Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world. Similarly, on the western side of Kruger, in communities such as Acornhoek and Bushbuck Ridge with hundreds of thousands of people, unemployment reaches almost 50 per cent of the population. It is my firm belief that the war on poaching will not succeed. The staggering amounts of money at stake are too great and, in terms of risk, shooting rhinos is very low for the crime syndicates who fuel the trade. They also believe that life in Africa is very cheap and that there is a never-ending supply of potential poachers who will risk their lives to get a piece of the action.
Some in the sector argue a recent change in the way 1800RESPECT handles calls has seen a serious reduction in quality, with one group going so far as to recommend their clients go to other services. In Parliament last week, the Senate backed a Greens-led motion noting these concerns and calling on the Turnbull government to provide the specialist counselling arm of the phoneline with "sustainable" funding. But the Coalition insists the service has, on the contrary, improved over the past year, and that it has the facts and figures to prove it. Medibank Health Solutions (MHS), which counts beyondblue, Quitline and healthdirect among its other clients, has provided the phonelines and other infrastructure for 1800RESPECT since it began in 2010. It subcontracts to Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia (R&DVSA), who provide the specialist trauma counselling component. But following a government-commissioned KPMG review into the service, a "triage" system was set up in August 2016. This means MHS counsellors now answer the calls, do an initial assessment (is this person just calling for basic information? Do they need a state-based service instead?) and then refer them to a R&DVSA counsellor if necessary. R&DVSA's contract runs out in October and so, this specialist counselling component of 1800RESPECT is currently up for grabs. MHS is expected to announce a decision about future arrangements soon.

For Funnell, who is an ambassador for the Full Stop Foundation (an initiative of R&DVSA) and a former R&DVSA board member, the triage model is worrying because it means people with more general expertise are taking calls that were once handled by trauma experts. However, Social Services Minister Christian Porter says the new approach was introduced because there were "serious deficiencies" in the R&DVSA service, even though it was given an extra $3.6 million for 2015-16 and 2016-17. "Before the 1800RESPECT line was reformed and properly funded by this government, 33 per cent of calls were being answered, 67 per cent of calls were being abandoned and the average wait time for calls was 10.3 minutes," Mr Porter told Fairfax Media, adding the answer rate is now 90 per cent with average wait times down to 51 seconds. "It's an incredible improvement in the service." He notes that those taking the initial calls all have three-year degrees in relevant areas like social work and two years of full-time counselling experience. "It's not a huge gulf in experience," Mr Porter says. The government also points out the number of complaints reported by MHS is relatively small. Senate estimates was recently told that from August 2016 to March 2017, the service took more than 43,700 calls and received 72 complaints and 55 compliments. According to MHS, it is "uncommon" for calls to be disconnected.

R&DVSA has its own internal log which lists more than 330 issues raised by clients and R&DVSA counsellors about the triage service. These include technology or system issues as well as things like the manner of MHS workers. There are also multiple public reports of people having poor experiences with the new look 1800RESPECT. This includes the previously reported case of a woman who was told her call would be stopped if she didn't stop crying. MHS says incidents such as this one and suggestions about having a glass of wine have been "fully investigated" by senior clinicians and dealt with and potential callers should have every confidence in the service. "While it is very important that concerns are heard and debated publicly, and we reiterate we have already taken action in response to the matters you have raised, we are concerned that continued publication of these same complaints could have an impact on Australians who might need to seek assistance through 1800RESPECT," Medibank chief medical officer Linda Swan told Fairfax Media. "We stand behind the 1800RESPECT service, which is a world-class national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service that provides a critical service to Australians." End Rape on Campus Australia director Sharna Bremner is not convinced. She says her organisation has had repeated run-ins with 1800RESPECT, including student survivors either not getting through or being told to call back if they want to speak to trauma experts. As a result, End Rape on Campus has stopped referring survivors they work with to 1800RESPECT, directing them to state-based services instead. This comes ahead of a landmark report into university sexual assaults, which is due in August and expected to prompt many people to contact services for help.

"We don't want to stop people to getting help. But we don't want people to be re-traumatisted. The potential for added harm is far too great for us," says Bremner. EROC's stance greatly concerns and even angers Mr Porter. "If it were the case that anyone was out there advocating that people don't call 1800RESPECT where people are in need of a service, then that would be grossly irresponsible," the Social Services Minister said. EROC's position also seriously concerns others within the sector, who say at-risk women should not be discouraged from seeking help and 1800RESPECT is doing an important job, even if if there have been some issues. Although, in a further sign of the sensitivities around the debate, Fairfax Media spoke to three senior experts supportive of the helpline who would not make comments on the record. And as the debate around 1800RESPECT continues, so too do the deplorable rates of violence against women. One in five Australian women over 15 experiences sexual violence, while one in four experiences sexual or physical violence from a partner. And on average, at least one woman is killed each week by a current or former partner.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has welcomed the decision by United States prosecutors to file charges against Riduan "Hambali" Isomuddin, the alleged architect of the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians.

Terror charges against the 53-year-old Indonesian, a Guantanamo Bay detainee since 2006, accuse him of directing the co-ordinated October attacks on Paddy's Irish Pub, the Sari Club and the US consulate as well as the 2003 bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Credit:Andrew Meares

Ms Bishop said the event, representing the single greatest loss of Australian life in a terrorist attack, had been a "scar on the hearts of all Australians". She urged life sentences for people convicted of plotting and supporting them.

"Australia will provide whatever assistance we can. We must never forget that 88 Australians, mostly tourists in Bali, were murdered when Islamist terrorists took their lives in a brutal terrorist attack. So we will do whatever we can to hold those responsible for these atrocities to justice," the Foreign Minister said on Saturday.
Federal Greens MPs have launched an extraordinary attack on their colleague Lee Rhiannon, accusing the senator of betraying them by attempting to derail the party's school funding negotiations with the Turnbull government.

Fairfax Media can reveal all nine of Senator Rhiannon's federal colleagues  including leader Richard Di Natale  have co-signed a letter of complaint against her that has been sent to the powerful Greens national council.

A senior Greens source described the intervention as "seismic" and said it could make the NSW hardliner's position in Parliament untenable.

Another source said: "This is unprecedented. Lee has breached the faith of the party and the party room."
By Press Trust of India: By Anisur Rahman

Dhaka, Jun 24 (PTI) At least 16 people, mostly factory workers and labourers, were killed today when a cement-laden truck they were travelling on while returning home for Eid overturned and fell into a ditch after the driver lost control near the northwestern Bangladeshi city of Rangpur.

"They were travelling on a cement-laden truck...11 of them died instantly and five succumbed to their wounds on the way to or at two hospitals," a police officer told PTI.

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Four among those dead were women while one was a 10-year- old girl.

Highway Police camp in-charge Hafizur Rahman said that five people injured in the accident were being treated at a Rangpur hospital and had suffered critical wounds.

The truck overturned and fell down into a roadside ditch after its driver lost control and passengers were buried under tonnes of weight of heavy cement bags that the vehicle was stacked with.

Media reports said the passengers were mostly poor garment factory workers or daily wage labourers, who had taken the cheap truck ride from suburban Gazipur to return to their families in northwestern Lalmonirhat district for the Eid festival.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh is preparing for Eid celebrations with tens of thousands of people expected to travel to their villages by buses, ferries and trains.

Shortage of vehicles prompted desperate travellers to undertake dangerous journeys on rooftop or stairs of trains, ferries and buses despite warnings. Many people also undertake cheap rides on trucks carrying goods. PTI AR ASK ASK

--- ENDS ---
Liberal politicians from non-English speaking migrant backgrounds have defended toughened language requirements for aspiring Australian citizens, arguing that the ability to communicate properly with others is critical to successful migration and a multicultural society.

The parents of Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Jason Falinski and Julia Banks arrived in Australia with little or no English. But the federal MPs say their forebears either could have passed the Turnbull government's proposed test or that, even if they couldn't, times have changed.

Under the sweeping citizenship package, applicants would have to score a six on the IELTS, the primary international language test, amounting to a "competent" level of English. Labor has rejected the measure out of fears it demands "university level" fluency that many Australians could never reach.

Senator Fierravanti-Wells, the Minister for International Development and the Pacific, said in her first speech to Parliament in 2005 that her father arrived in Sydney in the early 1950s not speaking any English. She learnt the language when she attended kindergarten in Wollongong.
Road test

This week I try... an Icelandic beauty prescription

The lowdown Don't be too jealous, but I am in the land of the Vikings  Iceland  to discover more about cult skincare brand Bioeffect. Located just on the edge of the liveable part of Earth, Iceland is a land of extremes, and skin has to contend with harsh conditions.

It's important to keep the skin hydrated during winter. Credit:Philipp Jelenska / Trunk Archive

Bioeffect boffins explain to me how their skincare products contain genetically enhanced barley proteins. To learn more, we visit the geothermal greenhouse where the modified barely is grown in volcanic pumice. This skincare regime is based on plant biotechnology.
After a one-year stay at Cooma Correctional Centre, Oliver Curtis spent his first day as a free man making up for lost time with wife Roxy Jacenko and their two children, Pixie and Hunter.

The former investment banker, 31, who spent the last 12 months behind bars for conspiracy to commit insider trading, first hit the family's favourite Bondi breakfast spot, Bills, before making his way over to Paddington to check out his publicist wife's newly refurbished, $2.7 million Sweaty Betty offices.

Later in the afternoon, wearing just shorts and a cap, he strolled down from his North Bondi home to Bondi Beach for a swim.

The day was a far cry from how he spent the last 365 days as an inmate in Cooma, with no menu to leisurely peruse for breakfast, his whereabouts constantly monitored behind bars and the nearest beach over 100km away.
A Turkish fashion designer has raised eyebrows in Paris after his latest collection featured symbols and patterns inspired by Aboriginal art and history.

Fashion commentators have accused Istanbul-based Bunyamin Aydin, of Les Benjamins, of cultural appropriation after his latest range featured luxury sportswear adorned with dot paintings, geckos and "1788"  the year of European colonisation of Australia.

A model wearing a design from the Les Benjamins spring/summer 2018 collection. Credit:Les Benjamins

In a social media post featuring a look from the collection, Aydin said he had created a range that was "streetwear meets Aboriginal culture".

"I was highly curious about Asia Pacific and wanted to discover the history of Australia and New Zealand ... Aboriginals, Islanders, and Maori people are the natives and their cultures, traditions and rituals are rich in culture. I take on the challenge to translate it to today by applying it on modern shapes and oversized silhouettes," Aydin said in an interview about the collection with Pause magazine.
A Sydney synagogue may have to close because it is unable to sack its rabbi, the synagogue's president says.

For 32 years, Benzion Milecki has served as the chief rabbi of the South Head and district synagogue, an orthodox congregation on Old South Head Road, Rose Bay.

Rabbi Benzion Milecki in 2012. Credit:Sahlan Hayes

But this year, the synagogue attempted to bring that relationship to an end.

Facing mounting financial difficulties, the synagogue's management appointed administrators on April 26. A day later, those administrators wrote to Rabbi Milecki to tell him he had been made redundant.
Assertions that technological change will create massive unemployment are wrong, says Australia's top tech adviser.

But there is a caveat  Australia must be a leader in the technology charge, and its embrace has to be done with care.

Adrian Turner, head of the CSIRO's technology research division Data61, says if the country is to prosper from the huge social and economic changes ushered in by artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation, businesses must stop merely modifying overseas models and instead create unique, world-leading innovations.

He says many predictions about the effects of technical change  particularly those concerning widespread job losses  are overblown. The key to managing the imminent upheaval, he says, is to identify "scenarios and suggestions to help move society towards embracing these technologies, but doing it in a way that isn't disruptive or dislocating".
Two men, one armed with a long knife, have been caught on camera committing a home invasion in broad daylight at Taylors Lakes in Melbourne's west.

Pablo Medina posted CCTV footage on Facebook after his parents' home in Sandpiper Drive was broken into just after 12.30pm on Friday.

A screenshot from CCTV footage shows a man at the front door of Mr Medina's parents' home in Taylors Lakes.

He said fortunately no one was home at the time.

"Thank God my mother was out," Mr Medina said.
He was searching for a more engaging way to teach his maths and science classes, when he spotted an aeroplane flying above. "I thought, I have all this experience and knowledge; why am just going through textbook after textbook when I have a great skill set? Why am I not using it? I've got to be able to incorporate 27 years' experience into my teaching," he said. Two years ago, the Glen Waverley state school won a Victorian Education Department grant of $100,000 to help fund a specialist aviation course. The school bought two $18,000 flight simulators, which are a key tool in the aviation science elective. It helps students shave off expensive flight time by practising on the simulators instead. "It helps them learn how to take off, how to land, straighten and level, climbing turns or descending turns  any normal flight manoeuvres they would normally have to practise on an aeroplane," Mr Barry said.

But the highlight was always the real thing,he said. The students get into their flying gear, check the four-seat, single-engine Cessna 172 for structural faults, before jumping into the aircraft with an instructor and taking off. By the end of the six-month course, they are on track to obtaining a private pilot licence. Over six years, 15 students have greceived private pilot licences; eight of them are now commercial pilots. Mr Barry is trying to increase the number of females taking up the profession; only three female students have received licenses and less than 10 per cent of Australian pilots are female. "I'm trying to steer away from the perception that pilots are all male," he said. "Girls are equally good as boys. In fact, I find them to be far more co-ordinated. They think first rather than act, and I'm trying to get as many girls in the course as I can."
A police officer should ask opened-ended questions to get a victim to talk and give a detailed statement. But that's not going to be possible with Geoff.

Geoff is his 70s and he had a stroke a while back, so his speech is limited. He can't say numbers, but he can write them down so at the moment he's scribbling down the years he's known "Tony".

Speech pathologist Helen Tzanakis and Detective Sergeant Tony Breen monitor an interview taking place in the next room. Credit:Eddie Jim

The detective asks him if Tony's tall or short and what his hair is like. Geoff points to his own head with a wry smile to say Tony has less hair now, then he pats his stomach and tells the policeman Tony is also a little bigger.
Attempts to identify the causes of loneliness have traversed matters such as living alone, poor social skills, and lack of parental bonding during childhood. Credit:Greg Newington "Some may be socially isolated but content with minimal social contact or actually prefer to be alone; others may have frequent social contact but still feel lonely," wrote a team of researchers led by psychologist Julianne Holt-Lunstad from Brigham Young University in Utah, US, in a landmark 2015 study. The research, a meta-analysis of 70 existing papers, was the first to conclusively identify loneliness as a significant cause of death. People who self-identified as lonely, the scientists found, had a 26 per cent greater chance of dying in any given period than people who did not. People who self-identified as lonely have a 26 per cent greater chance of dying. Credit:iStock The chances were complicated  and increased  if the loneliness was combined with the loosely associated conditions of social isolation and living alone.

One of the principle difficulties Holt-Lunstad and her colleagues encountered was that many studies for which loneliness was a focus purported to assume it was a product of something else: solitary life, or mental health issues such as depression. It's mistaken to think young people can't be lonely because they are surrounded by school-mates and use social media. Because of these problems, they excluded more than 1300 studies from their analysis. It's a position with which Houghton has considerable sympathy. "One of the big problems in the past is the instruments that have been used to measure loneliness," he said. One researcher characterised loneliness among old people as 'a silver tsunami'. Credit:Anne de Haas

"A lot of people have assumed that loneliness is the same for everybody, regardless of age or gender or where you live. They've assumed it's uni-dimensional and only needs one way to measure it. "But we know that loneliness is multi-dimensional: we experience it in different severities, different extents and different ways." You can have 30 friends and still be lonely because they're not quality friends. And therein lies the challenge. Attempts to identify the causes of loneliness have traversed matters such as living alone, poor social skills, and even lack of parental bonding during childhood. Tackling the issue in 2000, US researcher Professor Richard Booth concluded that "in the final analysis, people appear to feel their loneliness, even though they may not fully understand it".

As a clinical assessment, the position is closer to Elvis Presley's than Houghton's or Holt-Lunstad's. All researchers in the field, however, tend to agree on one measurement point: loneliness is characterised by a lack of meaningful friendships. "Loneliness is a subjective experience," said social work professor Dr Mark Hughes, from Southern Cross University in Queensland. "It's the feeling that you don't have sufficient social connections. It's an internal, emotional response to your life situation. I think measures will always be based on self-reporting of the experience of loneliness." With that in mind, how prevalent is it? In a recent interview with Fortune magazine, leading US loneliness researcher John Cacioppo from the University of Chicago's Centre for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, quoted figures as high as 45 per cent for retirees, and 26 per cent in the general population.

In Australia, in 2016, Lifeline conducted a survey and reported that 60 per cent of respondents said they "often" felt lonely. The organisation also revealed that 55 per cent of callers to its crisis line (13 11 14) lived alone, "often without strong support networks". There may well be factors in the design of the survey that produced such a high percentage of self-reports, so declaring Australia to be the loneliest country in the world would be unwise. Completely dismissing the finding, however, would be equally foolish. There is broad consensus among researchers that loneliness is an increasing problem around the world. (And one major study found it to be worse in family-orientated rather than individualistic societies.) And while the term "loneliness epidemic" seems to be much more popular with headline writers than scientists, the scale of the problem does from time to time generate a certain degree of academic metaphor. Cacioppo recently described loneliness among old people as "a silver tsunami". Yet if loneliness resulted only, or even primarily, in individuals feeling miserable while staring at the television, perhaps a Trumpesque self-interested civil society could simply ignore it.

But it doesn't. Loneliness induces a surprisingly wide range of physical problems  from chronic heart disease to genetic malfunction  that make sufferers proportionately heavy users of health system resources. Take note, therefore, Trumpites: reducing loneliness levels will save billions of dollars. A 2016 study led by US psychologist Dr Turhan Canli of New York's Stony Brook University found that chronic loneliness permanently changes the way hundreds of genes work. Conducting post mortem research on 26 people, all with "known loneliness measures", Canli's team found abnormal function in 1599 genes. These genes, they reported, were "previously associated with behavioral processes, neurological disease, psychological disorders, cancer, organismal injury and skeletal and muscular disorders". Loneliness has long been linked (variously, as cause and effect) with depression, but a 2016 project by Cacioppo also showed that it significantly altered other brain functions. Using magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) his team found "robust associations" between loneliness and parts of the brain responsible for alertness and impulse control. Another 2016 study, led by Nicole Valtorta of the University of York in Britain and published in the British Medical Journal, looked at previous papers and found lonely people to be 26 per cent more likely to have heart disease and 32 per cent more likely to have a stroke.

The study concluded: "Our work suggests that addressing loneliness and social isolation may have an important role in the prevention of two of the leading causes of morbidity in high-income countries." It might also help in other fields  one as prosaic as getting places. A study published this year by Dr Aparna Shankar and colleagues from the University of London found that loneliness, quite literally, slows people down. Shankar's team found that over a six-year period, lonely people walked ever more slowly, and experienced increasing difficulties with day to day tasks. Personality, too, can be affected, to the point of being less, well, likeable. A study this year led by Dr Julie Aitken Shermer of the University of Western Ontario in Canada found that lonely people are likely to develop a sense of humour that is "aggressive and self-defeating". And this month, Cacioppo's team reported that some lonely people develop a level of self-centredness that, while protective in the short term, makes them harder to get to know and thus risks exacerbating their social isolation.

"That does kind of make sense," said Mark Hughes. "Loneliness is associated with living alone, not being in a relationship, experiencing mental health issues, and having fewer social connections." Another factor that can have a significant effect on a person's vulnerability is the make-up of the society in which he or she moves, and the levels of acceptance thus experienced. Hughes' research centres on the health and wellbeing of LGBTi people in New South Wales. In a 2015 study, he reported that loneliness within that community was associated with "higher psychological distress and lower mental health". And while, perhaps, that sort of linkage may be expected in lonely people from any background, he found the risk of it developing was higher than usual in his target group.

"There are risk factors associated with LGBTi people's lives," he said. "But those risk factors may relate to stigma and exclusion  and a range of risks for health factors have been identified as resulting from social exclusion. "Also, there are life patterns among LGBTi people that might make them more predisposed to loneliness. For instance, older gay men are more likely to live alone than older heterosexual men." There are life patterns among adolescents and children, too, it turns out, that also induce loneliness. Stephen Houghton finds one of his toughest arguments is breaking down the dominant adult belief that young people can't be lonely because they are typically surrounded by school-mates, and use social media a lot. He quotes one of the many children he's interviewed, who told him that "school was the loneliest place in the world". His current research has shifted focus from teenagers to younger children, and, among other findings, he and his colleagues are discovering that children with learning difficulties  as a result of ADHD, for instance  report much higher levels of loneliness than others.

"Definitely loneliness is a major public health concern," he said. Research showed, he added, that a child able to ameliorate loneliness by developing just a single robust friendship potentially saves the heath system large amounts of money across his or her lifetime because loneliness-derived physical and mental conditions are less likely to arise. In 2011 in Britain, recognising the financial and social burden of inaction, a coalition of advocacy groups and local councils combined to launch the Campaign to End Loneliness. No such strategy exists in Australia, but most researchers in the field, you get the feeling, would wholeheartedly support one. As well as providing direct help to people in the community whose marginalisation is both hidden and ignored, such a campaign would also provide a valuable data stream to help scientists better understand the fine weave of 21st century social isolation.

"You've got both the lifespan patterns of loneliness and the life-course experience of loneliness," explained Hughes. "These can be quite different. For some people, it might be going in and out of periods of loneliness, for short amounts of time, whereas for others it might be more continuous and long term, and underpinned by deeper exclusion from communities." Despite researching at different ends of the country, and at different ends of the age spectrum, Hughes and Houghton both found that the primary treatment for loneliness was meaningful social connection. "You can have one great friend and not be lonely," said Houghton. "But you can have 30 friends and still be lonely because they're not quality friends. That's a thing that comes out with our research into adolescents: it's about having friends you can trust, that make you feel part of a group. It's about quality."
By Press Trust of India: Aizawl, Jun 24 (PTI) Mizoram Excise and Narcotics department officials seized 212 grams of heroin worth around Rs 10.60 lakh from the Mizoram-Myanmar border in Champhai district, a department spokesman today said.

The department officials arrested a person last night for alleged possession of the contraband, reportedly smuggled from Myanmar.

The person was booked under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

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The officials also seized 1,560 cans of Myanmar-made beer called Dagon at a place near Myanmar border Tlangsam village on Tuesday last. PTI HCV RG

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Missing toddler Milena Malkic has been found safe and well after going missing nine days ago.

Her mother Nadia Malkic and step-father Joshua Coates attended Dandenong police station with the two-year-old on Saturday.

Milena Malkic has been found safe after Victoria Police issued their first Facebook AMBER Alert to search for a missing child. Credit:Victoria Police Media

The couple had been living with Milena in Springvale before moving to an unknown location.

The girl's disappearance prompted Victoria Police to use the Facebook AMBER Alert system for the first time.
Something has been going on in the streets of Carlton.

Maybe you noticed it while rushing to catch a movie at Cinema Nova or after polishing off a slice of cake at Brunetti.

Forget the Bermuda Triangle, this is the Elgin rectangle.

The mystery began a few months ago, when people parking in the area realised something weird was happening: the remote control on their car keys had stopped working.
London: Addise Mekonen was working a night shift Friday when he learned from television news that his apartment was one of 650 London flats being evacuated in the middle of the night amid fears that it might be as dangerous as Grenfell Tower, which had been incinerated in the deadliest blaze in Britain in more than a century.

More than a week after the blaze gutted the 24-story Grenfell Tower, killing at least 79 people, the aftershocks are rippling across Britain as the nation grapples with the unsettling prospect that thousands of families may be at risk of a similar fate, and could have been for years.

Camden Council's extraordinary evacuation of thousands of people, who had to grab clothes and whatever else they could find and leave quickly in the dead of night, is a jarring example of a gathering political and social crisis.

For some, the blackened remains of Grenfell Tower, close to some of the city's most expensive homes, has also become a symbol of the economic and class divides in Britain's globalised capital city. And there is angry suspicion that lives could have been saved had relatively small sums of additional money been spent on Grenfell for nonflammable material.
Indonesia says terror charges laid in the United States against Hambali, the alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings, were aimed at providing the Guantanamo prisoner with "legal certainty".

Indonesian-born Encep Nurjaman - better known as Hambali - has been detained by the CIA and US since he was arrested in Thailand in 2003 but has never previously been charged with any offence. He is also known as Riduan Isamuddin.

However, a war court prosecutor has now filed the terror charges in the US.

The chargesheet, obtained by the Miami Herald, describes Hambali as having directed three simultaneous bombings in Bali on October 12, 2002 in an attack that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. It remains the deadliest attack in Indonesia.
Bali's police chief says he believes a crime syndicate helped four foreign prisoners, including Australian Shaun Davidson, stage a brazen escape from Bali's Kerobokan jail.

The police chief spoke after two of the escapees  Bulgarian Dimitar Nikolov Iliev and Indian Sayed Mohammed Said  arrived back in Bali under heavily armed guard. They had been arrested in Dili, the capital of East Timor, on Thurdsay.

Davidson appears to be teasing police and the media by "checking in" to locations throughout Europe. Credit:Amilia Rosa

"These people are organised crime and transnational crime. This is extraordinary," Bali's police chief, Inspector General Petrus Golose, said. "We will first dig deeper."

The captured escapees wore orange prison jumpsuits and were escorted by black armed and masked officers from BRIMOB, the special operations police force and paramilitary. The prisoners were both sporting beards, which Indonesian authorities had earlier suggested was part of their disguise.
Oranjestad:--- The first progress report of this year shows that the deficit in the collective sector on Aruba in the first quarter amounts to 1.1% of GDP, which is higher than the 0.5% GDP deficit standard for the full year. Both the tax revenues over the first quarter and the revenues resulting from the reorganization measures are insufficient, while the expected effects of the re-opening of the refinery are also lagging behind due to delay. Aruba faces the challenge to comply with the legal deficit standard this year as well. The Board of financial supervision Aruba (CAft) proposes to consider announcing in this stage already an overall commitment stop and vacancy stop.

Unsatisfactory results over the first quarter

The CAft indicates that, in particular, the wage tax and corporate turnover tax (BBO) revenues are below budget. The measures implemented by the government at the tax authorities in order to increase tax compliance have not resulted in the intended effect. In addition, because of the delay in the work activities with regard to the oil refinery, a great deal of the investments will have their effect only later in this year, slowing down the income from tax revenues. At the expense side the government's reorganization measures that are necessary for sustainable public finances seem to be withering. The Board emphasizes how important it is that the budgeted income of AWG 67 million, comprising the settlement sum of Valero (AWG 27 million) and the sale of Fuels Marketing & Supply Aruba (AWG 40 million), be realized this year.

Work to be done

The financial results over the first quarter are at such level that the Board advises to implement a vacancy stop and a commitment stop. The CAft chairman: "Personnel costs amount to about one-third of the total government spending this year and this amount should be reduced. There is work to be done." At the beginning of this year, more people have entered public service, which is not in line with government's intention to save 5% on government staff annually. In order to further reduce public spending, the frequency and level of fees for predictable over time should be better anticipated in the budgetary process. In addition, the establishment of a functioning house for government officials can help to counter the autonomous growth in staff expenditure. As far as taxes are concerned, further tax reform is needed and the country's liquidity position has to be structurally strengthened. The Minister of Finance, together with other government departments, takes the necessary steps to obtain an auditors report. The next step in this process is to formulate a concrete and realistic time path to that end.

Last visit current chairman

In addition to discussing the results for the first quarter, this visit was also related to the forthcoming farewell by the current chairman, Age Bakker, as of July 1, 2017, and making acquaintance with the upcoming chairman Raymond Gravus. The departing chairman looks back with a satisfied feeling of a fruitful cooperation with Aruba. Age Bakker on his period at the CAft: "It was not always easy, but together, each working on his own role, we contributed to the fact that Aruba has met the legal deficit standard over the past two years. With this achievement, important steps have been taken to reduce the untenable debt position". As usual, during the visits of the Board to Aruba, meetings were held with the Governor, the Minister of Finance, the Council of Ministers, and the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Economic Affairs, and Government Organization. The CAft also visited the Central Bank of Aruba. The conversation included amongst others the delayed work activities of the refinery.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The stakeholders, represented on the board of The Advancement for Vocational Education (AVE) Foundation, namely SVOBE, FAVE, Windward Island Chamber of Labour Unions, St. Maarten Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Ministry of VSA (absent) and Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth & Sport met with the board of directors of The AVE Foundation on June 16th 2017.

Stakeholders were given the opportunity to address published reports and therein outlined supposed issues at NIPA. Candid discussions were undertaken, detailed and well-substantiated responses were provided on questions posted by the stakeholders. Full clarity was obtained by the Stakeholders and with a proper understanding of matters the portrayed issues in published reports could be placed in proper context and verified on validity.

In addition, thereto the AVE board provided full and unfiltered insight into the realities, the strengths and the weaknesses which the NIPA faces as a learning institution. The AVE Board in a well-structured manner outlined the way forward as they continue to put first the study opportunities for students and means for students to obtain excellence.

Planned and impending initiatives, including:

1] an extensive marketing campaign to be launched within short, through which the general public, future students -locally and internationally-, will be provided with more information on the type of institution NIPA is, the current programs offered, as well as future programs to be offered at the institution);

2] NIPA partnering with other internationally known institutions, to offer students an opportunity to pursue their studies at higher levels in their field of study;

3] Collaborations with Secondary school boards FAVE and SVOBE as NIPA offers further programs for graduates from schools presided over by these entities;

The Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Ms. Silveria Jacobs, who requested the Inspectorate to investigate the issues published in reports, received from the Inspectorate a report with recommendations, which recommendations have immediately been adopted and included in the action plans of the AVE board.

The Stakeholders, having verified that principles of good governance are being applied, and tasks are executed in accordance with the Articles of Incorporation of the AVE Foundation, are content with the functioning of the current board of directors.

Stakeholders, being kept abreast of their representatives of the strives made and the developments at the NIPA Institute, are pleased and satisfy with their representation

on the board and have pledged their continued support to the Institute. Stakeholders, Boards of FAVE-SVOBE and COCI have confirmed that incorporate actions within their respective planning to attain and safeguard study and career opportunities for NIPA graduates.

The Windward Island Chamber of Labour Unions expressed its satisfaction with the functioning of the AVE board, having a full understanding and a complete picture of the institution and the undertakings of the AVE board.

As stakeholders, with the board of AVE Foundation, management and staff of NIPA one joint goal is served and that is the continued development of the institution and its offerings to students including adults attending the evening programs; all with the ultimate aim to offer to the workforce in St. Maarten well-rounded, knowledgeable, practically trained and experienced workers.

The Stakeholders collectively reaffirmed their support of the AVE Board and pledged to move forward, to ensure that current- and future programs will continue to be offered at the institution, so its students may attain excellence in study and career, and in doing so fundamentally contribute towards the further socio-economic development of our people and country.

COCI Press Release
Creditunion-Domains available at first-come, first-served basis

Posted by Publisher Internet

The Credit Union National Association (CUNA) has recently announced that credit unions are now will able to register, and identify themselves and their websites with a new domain  the Creditunion-Domain.

The domain names,explains CUNA, will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis and are available exclusively to currently operating, natural-person U.S. credit unions.

Why Creditunion-Domains? The Creditunion-Domains are trustworthy domains because they can be registered by credit unions only.

The mission of Creditunion-Domains is to provide a trusted, hierarchical, and intuitive namespace for entities that have a meaningful nexus with the credit union sector. Such entities include but are not limited to, credit unions, credit union trade associations and leagues, credit union service organizations, regulatory bodies, and entities offering products and services aimed primarily at credit unions.

The Creditunion-Domains are promoting a safe eco-system for the credit union sector by providing best in class safeguards that will evolve over time, continuing to incorporate additional security and other safeguards as necessary.

The relationship between better ranking and the new top-level domains was proved by a study of Searchmetrics for Berlin-domains. Websites with Berlin-Domains frequently place better than websites with .de domains and .com domains in regional searches with Google. The result of the study by Searchmetrics can be summarized as follows:

42% of searches show that .berlin domains rank better locally .

A study of Total Websites in Houston shows that the results by Searchmetrics can be generalized to all new top level domains, including the Creditunion-Domains: It was proved that Google uses the domain endings of the New Top Level Domains as a key element for the assessment of domains. Total Websites draws as a conclusion:

It is clear that the new top-level domains improve the ranking in search engines.

Internet users, who are interested at the Creditunion-Domains, are also interested in many cases at the Bank-Domains and Coop-Domains.

Hans-Peter Oswald

http://www.domainregistry.de/creditunion-domain.html

http://www.domainregistry.de/bank-domain.html

http://www.domainregistry.de/coop-domain.html
The contest which is usually won by older dogs but this year, a huge and lazy Mastiff Martha who is only three-years-old, has won the World's Ugliest Dog Contest.

By India Today Web Desk: What is this dog apart from world champion? Big, ugly, lazy, and gassy.

In a competition annually dominated by the old, the tiny, and the hairless, the 3-year-old, 57-kg Neapolitan Mastiff -- Martha -- used her dawdling youth to win the 29th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest.

Martha from Sebastopol was rescued when she was nearly blind from neglect by the Dogwood Animal Rescue Project in Sonoma County, where the contest was held. After several surgeries, she can now see again, said her handler Zindler.

Photo: Associated Press

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When she won the contest, the judges did not even have to hear her signature snore to give her the award. The North Carolina crowd immediately fell flat for Martha.

"Do you know, you just won the World's Ugliest Dog Contest?" asked Kerry Sanders of NBC News, one of three judges who gave Martha the crown.

Her handler Shirley Zindler answered for her: "I'd gloat, but I need a nap."

MARTHA COULD NOT CARE LESS

The 3-year-old Martha went home with $1,500 (Rs 96,000 approximately). Other things that came along with the win she could not care less about were a flashy trophy, and a trip to New York for media appearances.

MORE FROM THE CONTEST

The only animal in this year's contest too big to be held by her handler, Martha beat out 13 other dogs, most of them older, smaller dogs who usually win here when the likes of Martha isn't winning.

Moe, a 16-year-old Brussels Griffon-pug mix from Santa Rosa, California, who was the oldest in the competition, came in second.

He had lost his hearing and sight but his sense of smell is strong and he was enjoying all the smells at the Sonoma-Marin Fair, including funnel cakes and other fried goodies.

Chase, a 14-year-old Chinese Crested-Harke mix, came all the way from Neath, United Kingdom to take third place.

The contestants were judged on first impressions, unusual attributes, personality and audience reaction.

Many of the contestants were adopted.

Monkey, a 6-year-old Brussels Griffon, and Icky, an 8-year-old unknown breed, were both rescued from the homes of hoarders.

These dogs some with acne, others with tongues permanently sticking out, are used to getting called ugly. But for their owners, it was love at first sight, and why would it not be right?

"He's my sexy boy," Vicky Adler, of Davis, California, spoke of her 8-year-old Chinese Crested named Zoomer.

FYI || Lapse of reason: Dog sentenced to death in Pakistan for biting a child ||

FYI || I need a dog(c)tor: Pet dog hugs injured owner until help arrives, proves why dog is a man's best friend ||

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FYI || New Yorkers beat dogma, carry dogs in bags after ban in trains ||

--- ENDS ---
'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever': What to know before you see it
By Press Trust of India: Ahmedabad, Jun 22(PTI) Stage is set for the 140th annual Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra to be taken out here tomorrow, with Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and leaders from BJP and Congress offering prayers at the temple on its eve.

The procession, led by a chariot with the statue of Lord Jagannath, his brother Balbhadra and sister Goddess Subhadra, covers around 15 kilometres route on the auspicious day every year before returning to the temple located in Jamalpur area here.

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Rupani, accompanied by deputy CM Nitin Patel, today offered prayers at the Lord Jagannath Temple.

They will again perform Pahind ceremony (symbolic cleaning of road ahead of the Yatra) at 7 am before the yatra commences.

Separately, Congress leaders Bharatsinh Solanki, partys Gujarat in-charge Ashok Gehlot, and senior leader Shankersinh Vaghela also offered their prayers at the temple.

Temple sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi also sent his offering to the temple, something he has been doing since several years.

The massive yatra is taken out every year on the second day of Asadhi Bij, or the second day of the month of Asadh as per the Hindu calendar.

This time, the procession will have 18 elephants, 101 trucks, 30 akhadas, 18 bhajan mandalis and 7 cars, organisers have said.

The procession will also see unprecedented security cover to avoid any untoward incident as the roughly 1.5 kilometre long procession passes through some of the communally sensitive pockets.

Over 20,000 policemen and other uniformed men will be deployed along the route of the yatra, with a company of National Security Guard being deployed for the first time. PTI KA PD NRB

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Brussels, 24 June 2017 (SPS) - The President of the European Coordination of Committees in support of the Saharawi people, Pierre Galand, protested Friday against the way French television channel France2 presented documentary "Morocco seen from the sky ", denouncing an attempt to make Western Sahara as a Moroccan territory.

"I would like to express my total disapproval of the way in which your channel France 2 presented the documentary of Pascal Plisson and Ali Baddou, on 22 June 2017, in the evening: 'Morocco seen from the sky,'" he wrote in a letter to the French Television Mediator, Gora Patel.

Pierre Galand considered that even if the images captured by Yann Arthus-Bertrand are "superb", the channel should not "authorize" the diffusion of a so-called "documentary" which is not more than "a propaganda film of the Moroccan government that attempts to present Western Sahara as Moroccan territory, map and interventions of the supporting journalist ".

"In presenting this documentary, which is a partisan, you are helping to seriously harm the interests and rights of the Saharawi people," he warned, reminding the television channel that Western Sahara is a non-autonomous territory, occupied and colonized by Morocco.

Pierre Galand demanded the French television channel to broadcast a correction "on behalf of the right of viewers to correct information" as part of a program as well as on its web site. (SPS)

062/090/TRA




A licensed practical nurse from Ansonia who is accused of murdering an Eastern Connecticut State University student has lost his nursing license in an unrelated case involving a fight he had with a visitor in a patients home.

The Board of Examiners for Nursing voted Wednesday to revoke the license of Jermaine V. Richards, 34, after holding a hearing. Richards did not attend the hearing because he is being held on a $500,000 bond at Northern Correctional Institution in Somers on a charge that he murdered his is ex-girlfriend, Alyssiah Wiley, 20, of West Haven in 2013. After an extensive search, her dismembered body was found in Trumbull in May 2013, less than two miles from Richards home.
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STAMFORD - If an election were to be a target of a voter scam, the one that took place in 2015 seems an unlikely choice.

The stakes were low  five open seats on the Board of Representatives, five on the Board of Education, and three on the Board of Finance.

No state or national offices were up for grabs. It was strictly municipal, with candidates citing the perpetual issues of spending, tax increases, school crowding, traffic, road repaving, train-station parking and affordable housing.

Only 20 percent of Stamford voters even bothered to show up.

But the 2015 election is now the subject of a criminal investigation. The states attorney is looking into potential fraud involving absentee ballots.

Sources with firsthand knowledge of the matter told Hearst Connecticut Media last week that more than 30 absentee ballots may have been requested under the names of unsuspecting voters and cast by unknown persons.

The sources, who characterized the scheme as extensive, said investigators are looking into the role of John Mallozzi, who at the time was chairman of the Democratic City Committee.

Mallozzis attorney, Stephan Seeger, said last week that the investigation is not anywhere near the criminal level and really is about procedures that might not have been followed.

Information from the office of the Stamford registrars of voters shows that 708 votes were cast by absentee ballot in that election. They accounted for 6 percent of the total 11,858 votes.

But, because turnout was so low, the number of absentee ballots - though small - had the potential to influence individual races.

In the Board of Representatives races, for example, Democratic incumbent Michael Briscoe of District 17 was initially declared the winner, defeating Republican Jon Hoch by one vote. A recount, however, declared Hoch the winner - by one vote.

On the Board of Finance, the three winners, all Democrats - Dudley Williams, Mary Lou Rinaldi and David Kooris - had higher percentages of absentee-ballot votes than their Republican counterparts.

For Williams, 6 percent of his vote total was cast by absentee ballot. For Rinaldi, it was 7 percent, and for Kooris it was 6.8 percent.

The Republicans had fewer absentee-ballot votes - 4.7 percent for Dennis Mahoney, 4.4 percent for Christina DellaCamera, and 4.9 percent for Shelley Michelson.

Democrat Kooris beat the next-highest vote-getter, Republican Mahoney, by only 99 votes. The difference in their absentee-ballot votes - 351 for Kooris and 242 for Mahoney - was enough to turn the race.

Democratic winners got higher percentages of absentee-ballot votes in Board of Education races, too. David Mannis got 7 percent and Jennienne Burke got 6 percent.

For Republicans, it was 4.6 percent each for Michael Altamura and Andy George, and 5 percent for Gerald Bosak.

Among those who won seats on the Board of Representatives, two of three Democrats outpaced Republicans with percentages of absentee-ballot votes.

Alice Liebson came in at 12 percent, Virgil de la Cruz had 8.8 percent, and Rodney Pratt, 3.8 percent.

For the Republicans, Jon Hoch got 3.9 percent of his total, and David Watkins got no absentee-ballot votes.

If Democrats indeed tampered with absentee ballots, its not clear how it happened. The state has a strong system of checks and balances for handling the ballots, said Antoinette Spinelli, president of the Connecticut Town Clerks Association.

To obtain an absentee ballot, Spinelli said, a voter first must obtain an application. They are available online and at the town clerks office, or a voter may ask the town clerk to mail one.

Theres one more way, Spinelli said - a voter may receive an absentee-ballot application from someone who registered with the town clerk as a distributor.

Someone who works for a political party may come in and request a large volume of absentee-ballot applications, said Spinelli, town clerk for the City of Waterbury. They are all numbered, and, by state statute, the person distributing them must register with the town clerk and keep a log of everyone they give one to. They have to return the log to the town clerk before the election.

Political workers typically distribute applications to people who have voted by absentee ballot in the past, or others on party mailing lists, Spinelli said.

I had one person who took out a thousand applications, she said.

Party workers may help voters fill out applications, Spinelli said.

If someone goes door-to-door, that person is supposed to sign and print their name at the bottom of each application, saying they assisted, she said.

Completed applications are returned to the town clerk, who verifies the voters identity then prepares a ballot set - an outer envelope containing an inner envelope that contains the ballot, Spinelli said.

The ballot set goes directly to the voter, she said. The voter may mail it back to the town clerks office or walk it in. The voter may designate someone to walk it in for them, but the law is very specific about who may do that. That person has to give us a signature and show us identification.

The town clerk then time-stamps the outer envelope of the ballot with a serial number that is recorded and dated on a log sheet. The clerk stores absentee ballots in a vault and turns them over to the registrars of voters on election day.

That day, registrars give the ballots to central counting, where they are opened by people from both political parties according to procedures set by state law. The ballots then are checked against voter registration lists and recorded, Spinelli said.

The problem in Stamford came to light after registrars filed a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission. A voter named Shkodran Hoti had reported that he showed up at his polling place in District 6, the Cove, but was told his vote had already been recorded by absentee ballot.

It later was found that the signature on the absentee ballot in Hotis name was not his, sources with firsthand knowledge of the investigation said last week. The SEEC investigated and, in April, turned the matter over to state prosecutors.
Like at private hospitals, patients visiting AIIMS will now be allotted proper timings and slots to meet their doctors. This facility is likely to start from mid-July.

By Priyanka Sharma: AIIMS has good news for its patients. Like at private hospitals, patients visiting AIIMS will now be allotted proper timings and slots to meet their doctors, sparing them the horror of standing in queue for hours.

Presently, patients only get to know the dates of the appointment for consultations with health experts and start struggling from 9am at the OPD in never-ending queues.

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AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria told MAIL TODAY, "Around 10,000 patients line up at the OPD everyday. It is impossible for doctors to see all of them in one day. The idea is to manage the rapidly increasing crowd and also to ensure that no patient gets neglected."

This facility is likely to start from mid July and for this a software is being developed on which the IT department is working. Dr Guleria said the timings for OPD registration would be extended and also laboratories for collecting samples would remain open till the OPD is running for the convenconvenience of patients.

SAMPLE-COLLECTING CENTRE

Laboratories presently close at 1 PM. AIIMS is coming up with "dedicated sample-collecting centre" said the AIIMS chief. "We are consulting each and every department and trying to figure out how many patients each can see in an hour. Some departments that are packed with patients, will get consultants and senior residents," he added.

AIIMS administration has also enough concern for out-stationed patients, who arrive at the OPD, without any prior appointment. "We are planning in such a way that the 30 per cent patients, who visit AIIMS without appointments, do not get deprived. The poor or the illiterate may always remain unaware of the online facility. So we will try to ensure that consultants see them and their OPD registration are done on the same day," said Guleria.

What concerns Guleria is the new OPD block. "I am working hard to functionalise it from March 2018. Once the new OPD block would start, we can manage the patient load efficiently."

ALSO READ | AIIMS declares MBBS entrance test results, denies charge of question paper leak

ALSO READ | Ailing AIIMS: Health Ministry's clean chit puts probe into Rs 7000 crore scam in jeopardy

--- ENDS ---
P olice have announced a clampdown on far-right and anti-fascist protest marches planned in central London this weekend to prevent serious public disorder and disruption.

The EDL is preparing to take to the streets on Saturday, while counter demonstrations by United Against Facism and United Against Extremism are also planned.

Scotland Yard said it was taking action under public order laws over the marches planned for Saturday "due to concerns of serious public disorder, and disruption to the community".

The protests come in the wake of deadly terrorist attacks on Westminster and London Bridges and more recently close to a mosque in Finsbury Park in the north of the capital.

Chaotic: A previous EDL march through London / AFP/Getty Images

Superintendent Emma Richards said: "We have made the decision to impose conditions based on current tensions and concerns, information about the intentions of the organisers of these events and intelligence from previous marches held by similar groups.

"We believe the approach is appropriate. We have a duty to ensure that the community in central London can go about their daily business not unduly impacted by demonstrations taking place."

Rules laid down by police mean the EDL march in the heart of London will only be allowed to legally take place for 90 minutes from 1pm on a route from Charing Cross to a rally on the Victoria Embankment.

A counter-demonstration by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) will be allowed to take place on the Victoria Embankment only between 12.30pm and 3pm. Assembly at any other location is not permitted.

A separate United Against Extremism (UAE) demonstration in the City will be allowed to assemble outside St Paul's Cathedral from noon to 1pm and then march to London Bridge until 2.30pm.
A ctivists clashed with police in central London today as the far-right English Defence League and anti-fascist groups staged rival protests.

A march and rally planned by the EDL took place near to counter demonstrations by United Against Fascism and United Against Extremism.

Images showed police grappling with protesters, while officers formed barriers along some parts of the route.

Six people taking part in the demonstrations were arrested by Met police officers for "various offences".

A woman is detained by police / Rex Features

Around 50 EDL protesters made their way from a pub near Trafalgar Square to a rally on the Victoria Embankment on Saturday afternoon.

Some carried banners and St George's Cross flags, while others covered their faces as they chanted "EDL" and "Whose streets? Our streets."

They were met with cries of "Nazi scum, off our streets" as officers kept them separated from anti-fascist groups, including Unite Against Fascism (UAF), who were holding their counter-demonstration on the Embankment some 50 metres away.

EDL speakers made reference to recent deadly terror attacks in Manchester and London.

One was greeted with cheers as he said if the Islamist attacks continued: "I'll be the first white suicide bomber in England."

People take part in an English Defence League (EDL) protest in central London / PA

But tensions died down as EDL demonstrators talked among themselves in smaller groups while music played within a metal cordon, surrounded by police.

On Friday, Scotland Yard said it was taking action under public order laws over the marches planned for Saturday "due to concerns of serious public disorder, and disruption to the community".

Superintendent Emma Richards said: "We have made the decision to impose conditions based on current tensions and concerns, information about the intentions of the organisers of these events and intelligence from previous marches held by similar groups."

Rules laid down by police meant the EDL march was only allowed to legally take place for 90 minutes from 1pm.

The counter-demonstration by UAF was allowed to take place on the Victoria Embankment only between 12.30pm and 3pm.
Delhi Congress Chief Ajay Maken today asked 21 AAP MLAs accused in the office of profit case to step down on moral grounds.

He said that in year 2006 similar accusations were made against Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi and she had resigned immediately.

By Abhishek Anand: Delhi Congress Chief and former Union Minister Ajay Maken today said that all 21 MLAs of the ruling Aam Adami Party(AAP) should resign on 'moral grounds' as the Election Commisssion of India has found them guilty in office of profit case.

"If they (AAP) claim to be aam adamis then they should resign immediately on moral grounds as the Election Commisssion has declared that they have enjoyed the benefits of a minister during in the office of profit case," said Maken.

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He said that in year 2006 similar accusations were made against Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi and she had resigned immediately.

"When such accusations were made against Sonia Gandhi, she did not wait for an enquiry. She resigned immediately and contested the elections again and won with a historic margin. The AAP MLAs should do the same," said Maken.

READY TO FACE AAP IN ELECTIONS: MAKEN

He said his party is ready for elections if the AAP MLAs are disqualified or if circumstance arise for by-election.

"In our survey, we have found that our vote percentage is rising in many AAP ruled area. Th party has been exposed and we are ready to face them in elections," said Maken.

Earlier on Friday, the Election Commission of India had rejected the plea of AAP to drop office of profit case against them. The hearing in this case concluded on March 27 and EC had reserved the matter.

The controversy was triggered in year 2015 when CM Arvind Kejriwal appointed 21 AAP MLAs as parliamentary secretaries.

Activist Prashant Patel had filed a plea in EC against AAP MLAs for having an office of profit."They (AAP MLAs) were enjoying facilities of a minister. The Delhi High Court had cancelled their posts but it never said that the matter is and void what the AAP leaders are claiming. The matter can now go to the President who can take a decision over their disqualification," said Patel.

Also read: AAP says Kumar Vishwas was invited to Delhi govt's iftar party, but invite didn't reach in time

Also read: AAP crisis: Okhla MLA Amanatullah to submit proof against 'BJP agent' Kumar Vishwas in 10 days

Also read: Look who's talking: AAP ranks miffed with Kumar Vishwas over his 'don't stay in 5-star' comment

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M ore than 70 firefighters tackled a huge blaze at a block of flats in Bethnal Green.

Ten fire engines and 72 officers were sent to the scene in Turin Street on Saturday afternoon.

Thick black smoke poured into the sky as firefighters fought the blaze which broke out in a third floor flat.

Paramedics took one man to hospital who was suffering from smoke inhalation.

Images and video footage showed bright flames billowing from the roof.

Fire: Smoke was seen billowing out of the windows of the building

London Fire Brigade said the whole of the third floor and the roof are alight.

One image shared on social media shows the entirety of the roof destroyed.

And one horrified bystander tweeted: "The fire has spread to the rooftop of the flat in Bethnal Green Turin Street! Hope everyone is ok."

A spokeswoman said: "The Brigade was called at 4.25pm. Firefighters from Bethnal Green and surrounding fire stations are attending the scene.

"The cause of the fire is not known at this stage."

Bethnal Green Road was closed both ways between Satchwell Road and Turin street a fire crews from surrounding fire stations tackled the blaze,

The fire was under control by 7.30pm.
R esidents who have been forced to leave their flats in Camden over fire safety fears in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster may not be able to return home for up to four weeks.

A letter sent to residents on the Chalcot estate by the council warns them that they need to be moved from homes for between three and four weeks.

Up to 4,000 residents - including families with newborn babies and a Second World War veteran  were ordered out of their homes on Friday night after fire officers said they could not guarantee the safety of the buildings.

Four high rises on the estate are thought to be covered with a similar type of cladding as that used at Grenfell Tower, five miles to the south west, where at least 79 people died in the June 14 tragedy.

800 households to be evacuated from Camden high-rises to allow fire safety works

The letter said: "The Grenfell fire changes everything. We are taking this action because the safety of our residents comes first.

"We are sorry for the disruption this will cause to your lives, but we will work as quickly as possible over the coming weeks to get you back into your homes."

Residents evacuated from Chalcots Estate tower blocks arrive at Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre and Library in Camden / EPA

The letter also advises that staying with friends and family "may be the best option", and states that the council will provide temporary accommodation at no extra cost if residents are unable to do this.

A fifth tower block was evacuated but it was later deemed safe for residents to return.

Residents were sent to two relief centres in Swiss Cottage and the Camden Centre in King's Cross which were said to be near capacity on Saturday morning.

Camden Council said it had also secured hundreds of hotel beds for evacuated residents.
A Hackney-based collective has launched a film, arts and music festival to raise money for pop-up libraries in refugee camps around the world.

Coinciding with Refugee Week, the Beats Collective Festival will see the capitals DJs, bands, filmmakers and photographers collaborate in support of education projects for teenagers and adults living in camps.

The festival is in support of the ECHO Mobile Library project  which provides portable education hubs for those awaiting asylum or transportation.

The project is designed to facilitate language learning and equip refugees  some of whom are in limbo for years at a time  with the skills and opportunities to help them find work in their final country of residence.

Echo mobile library / Echo

The co-founder of Beats Collective, 21-year-old Asnia Ramdane, launched the group in February after returning from a volunteering stint abroad.

We all volunteered in camps around the world and then went on to help out with various projects in places like schools, she told the Standard.

Beats Collective co-founder Asnia Ramdane

The idea came to us when we realised that, in Greece, there are a lot of education projects focussed on children but not many for teenagers and adults.

It is totally right that the focus should be on children  they should be the priority  but we want to make sure there is access to education for older people as well.

The libraries will be used in refugee camps (Luca Piercey)

And in some camps there is nothing at all. So we thought about this idea of a camp-based library and then we realised that this one already existed so instead we decided to finance them.

As a collective, we want to support education. But it is also very much about integration and helping these people to get jobs in the places they are eventually resettled.

Festival: The schedule includes talks, DJs and bands including The Soft and Whippy Jam Band (pictured)

Echo is the first project supported by the Beats Collective and all proceeds of the Hackney Wick festival will be donated to it.

The festival combines performances, exhibitions, food and talks; all raising awareness of the plight of refugees in the global crisis.

Highlights include a Yoga For Kids workshop at midday, Campaign Against Arms Trade workshop at 1.15pm and a Q&A session with the Dunkirk Legal Support Team at 7pm.

Beats Collective fundraiser programme

Beats Collective Festival runs from June 23 to 24 at Stour Pace in Hackney Wick. For more information or to get tickets click here.
T his moving image showed the world what appeared to be a Good Samaritan comforting a bloodied stranger after the Westminster terror attack.

But it has now been revealed that the two people pictured in the photograph are husband and wife Cara and Stephen Lockwood, from Oxfordshire.

The couple featured in this weeks astonishing episode of BBC series Hospital which documented the response of doctors and nurses at St Marys in Paddington who were treating those injured in the attack.

Speaking about the now-famous image during the programme, Mr Lockwood said tearfully: Cara is on her knees, crouched over me, telling me to be OK and its alright.

I just see love in it really. All that chaos and hatred, all I can just see is my wife looking after me. But were going to deal with it together.

Westminster victim in Hospital on BBC 2

He added: I feel like Im allowed to say weve won. We survived and were safe.

The couple had travelled to London for a day-trip to celebrate Stephens 40th birthday when they were caught up in the attack on Westminster Bridge.

They were walking across the bridge to hail a taxi as Mrs Lockwood was nervous about using the Tube because she feared a terror attack.

Seconds later, she was nursing him on the ground after attacker Khalid Masood ploughed his vehicle into pedestrians on the bridge.

Mr Lockwood suffered serious injuries including deep cuts to his leg, a broken tibia and a fractured fibula. He needed a four-hour operation to repair the damage and narrowly avoided having his leg amputated. He spent several days in intensive care.

After the London Bridge attack on June 4, Mr Lockwood reposted the image of him and his wife on Twitter and wrote: Just wanted to let them know we got through it and so can they.
T he police watchdog has launched an investigation as a young man died in hospital after being detained by police in east London.

Family of Edir Frederico Da Costa, known by friends as Edson, allege he was brutally beaten after officers stopped him in Newham on June 15.

They said the 25-year-old had his neck broken and suffered head and other injuries after he was stopped in a car, containing three people, by Met officers.

A post-mortem was conducted on Thursday, and the pathologist concluded there were no injuries to suggest severe force was used.

Edson, a father to a young son, died in hospital six days after the incident.

A spokesman for the police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), said it is believed officers used force and CS spray.

Edson: The police watchdog launched a probe as the young father died days after being detained / GoFundMe

He added: "Mr Da Costa became unwell, first aid was administered, an ambulance was called and he was taken to hospital. Tragically on Wednesday June 21, Mr Da Costa died."

According to the family's lawyer, Sarah Kellas, Mr Da Costa's relatives are "very concerned about the circumstances in which he died".

Newham Borough Commander Chief Superintendent Ian Larnder said: "All police officers are fully aware that they will be asked to account for their actions, officers are not exempt from the law and we would not wish to be.

"I know that Edir's family, friends and the wider community want answers, but it is important that the investigation is allowed to take place to establish the full facts of what happened before any conclusions are made."

The IPCC said the post-mortem indicated there were no spinal injuries caused by police.

Its statement on Twitter, on Friday, read: "Today we have contacted Mr Da Costa's family to share with them the findings from the pathologist and we are now able to correct some misinformation that is being widely shared on social media.

"The preliminary post mortem found that Mr Da Costa did not suffer a broken neck, or any other spinal injury during his interaction with the police."

The IPCC has warned "false information, could have dangerous consequences" for the findings of the case.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to support Edsons family for funeral and possible legal costs.

And social media flooded with support for the family, with the hashtag #Justice4Edson being shared widely.

The police watchdog is appealing for witnesses to come forward by emailing woodcocksroad@ipcc.gsi.gov.uk or calling 0800 096 9073.
C abinet minister Andrea Leadsom has sparked a backlash after she called for broadcasters to be patriotic over Brexit.

The Leader of the Commons drew fire after making the remarks in a heated TV clash with Newsnight anchor Emily Maitlis on Friday night

She told BBC Newsnight: "It would be helpful if broadcasters were willing to be a bit patriotic.

"The country took a decision, this Government is determined to deliver on that decision."

The broadcaster hit back at the minister by asking her if she was being accused of being unpatriotic because she questioned whether Prime Minister Theresa May was in a position of strength in dealing with EU counterparts.

Cabinet Minister Andrea Leadsom being interviewed by Emily Maitlis / BBC Newsnight

Ms Maitlis said: "Are you accusing me of being unpatriotic for questioning how negotiations are going, questioning whether you have the position of strength that she said she wanted?"

The minister replied: "I'm not accusing you of anything, Emily. I'm simply saying we all need to pull together as a country.

"We took a decision a year ago today to leave the European Union, we have a very strong hand and we are very well prepared for the negotiations."

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron branded the comments sinister and stupid and called on Mrs Leadsom to apologise.

He said: "This is a sinister threat to the free media. How dare Andrea Leadsom tell the press what they should think, this isn't a George Orwell book.

"She needs to apologise for these comments and realise what she said was frankly stupid."

Mrs Leadsom is no stranger to controversy after she pulled out of the Tory leadership race against Mrs May after telling The Times: "Genuinely I feel that being a mum means you have a very real stake in the future of our country, a tangible stake."

The comments provoked uproar after Mrs May had previously spoken about how she and husband Philip were affected by being unable to have children.

Firm Brexiteer Mrs Leadsom also faced challenges over her CV during the leadership contest, in particular on some of the roles she previously held in the City.

The Newsnight comments came after EU leaders cold shouldered Mrs May's hopes for an early deal on the rights of expat citizens at a Brussels summit.

European Council president Donald Tusk said the UK plan fell below Brussels' expectations and could worsen the situation of three million EU citizens living in the UK, while German chancellor Angela Merkel said they did not represent a "breakthrough" in Brexit talks.

The PM insisted that her offer was "fair and serious" and should reassure EU nationals in the UK that they will be able to go on living their lives as before.
T heresa May praised the tremendous work of the military in the wake of recent terror attacks as she visited Liverpool to mark Armed Forces Day.

Mrs May joined the Earl of Wessex and Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon for the national event on the city's waterfront.

She said: "It is wonderful that we mark the tremendous job that our armed forces do for us here at home and across the world, helping to keep us safe.

"Of course recently, after the terrible terrorist attack in Manchester, we saw our armed forces on the streets helping to reassure people of their safety and security, and it's great that we recognise the work that all our armed forces do, as I say, both here and across the world.

Parade: members of the British armed forces during the National Armed Forces Day / EPA

"They do a fantastic job for us and we should be grateful to them all."

Sir Michael also praised the reaction of the Army following the Manchester Arena bombing, in which 22 people were killed.

He said: "The armed forces are always ready now to deploy in aid of the police, as back-up for the armed police and in aid of local authorities.

Liverpool: The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight passes the Royal Liver Buildings / PA

"The operation after Manchester has been well-rehearsed. They were ready to deploy.

"We deployed nearly 1,000 armed troops within 12 hours on the streets, which freed up armed police to do more patrolling."

He paid tribute to the work done by service personnel across the world.

Fly-past: The RAF Red Arrows / EPA

He said: "There are some 10,000 servicemen and women who are working for us around the globe on operations or in our bases.

"They have been helping to deal with Daesh terrorism, they have been helping to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean, they have been on Nato deployments, they have been peacekeeping in South Sudan.

"All of that keeps us safer here at home."

Mrs May, who attended the event with husband Philip, toured some of the displays at the event with Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson.

Parade: Theresa May speaks to members of the public during the ninth annual Armed Forces Day / PA

She stopped to pose for pictures with some of the hundreds who attended the celebration on Liverpool's Pier Head and was cheered by many in the crowd, although some booing was also heard.

Military personnel, their families and veterans gathered in the city for the ninth annual Armed Forces Day.

The event began with a gun salute and parade and also included receptions, displays, a visit from Royal Navy ship HMS Iron Duke and flypasts by the Red Arrows and Typhoon.

More than 300 other events will take place around the world as part of the celebrations.
H undreds of women marched to Downing Street today in protest at Theresa Mays alliance with Northern Irelands Democratic Unionist Party.

Activists descended on Whitehall on Saturday afternoon to campaign against a Tory deal with the DUP which has drawn criticism for its right-wing stance on issues such as gay rights and abortion.

Talks are continuing between the Conservatives and DUP over a confidence and supply arrangement to help get Government legislation through the Commons.

Protesters carried placards reading anti-DUP and pro-Jeremy Corbyn messages and chanted: Racist, sexist, anti-gay, no DUP, no way.

The group gathered in Parliament Square from midday before marching to Downing Street for a rally.

Protesters were encourage to wear read / EPA

A statement on the Facebook page for the event said: We are marching in support of the right to access abortion in Northern Ireland and against a Tory working agreement with no democratic mandate with a political group known to promote policy which restricts the rights of women and LGBT people and is known for links to far right politics.

Activists joining the protest were encouraged to wear red in protest at all the blood which has been shed under austerity.

A previous demo was held in Whitehall to protest against Mrs Mays alliance with the DUP the weekend after the General Election.

Prime Minister Mrs May began talks with the 10-strong group of DUP MPs after the disastrous Tory showing in the General Election left her eight seats shy of a majority.

The DUP has made it clear it will only cut a deal if it delivers tangible benefits for Northern Ireland in terms of jobs and investment in health and education.
T wenty-seven high-rise blocks of flats in 15 local authority areas have failed fire cladding safety tests, the Government has said.

It comes after Camden Council announced a mass evacuation after cladding concerns were raised following the Grenfell Tower disaster.

Residents of 650 flats in tower blocks on an estate in the north London borough were evacuated late on Friday, but more than 80 residents refused to leave.

Council leader Georgia Gould said the local authority was left with little choice when the fire service said nothing could immediately be done to ensure residents' safety.

The number of council-owned high rises that failed the tests has now risen from 14 - the figure that emerged on Friday.

Evacuation: Residents were ordered to leave their homes on the Chalcots Estate / EPA

They include buildings in Hounslow and Camden, as well as Plymouth and Manchester, a spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said.

The news comes amid a national safety operation under way to identify buildings with cladding akin to that used on the Grenfell Tower.

Inside Grenfell Tower 1 /17 Inside Grenfell Tower Water is sprayed on Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA Fire service personnel inside Grenfell Tower in west London PA A view inside the Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA Sniffer dogs were sent inside to the tower today PA Fire service personnel inside Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA Part of the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA A view inside the Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building PA

It sparked an evacuation of about 650 properties in the five tower blocks of the Chalcots Estate in Camden.

Up to 4,000 residents  including families with newborn babies and a Second World War veteran  were told to leave their homes by fire officers.

Camden Resident Says Evacuation is 'Excessive'

A letter sent to residents by the council warns them they need to be moved from homes for between three and four weeks.

The letter read: "The Grenfell fire changes everything. We are taking this action because the safety of our residents comes first.

"We are sorry for the disruption this will cause to your lives, but we will work as quickly as possible over the coming weeks to get you back into your homes."
T he number of blocks found to have failed safety tests continued to rise on Saturday, following an urgent nationwide inspection of cladding used on the outsides of buildings.

The Government announced that 34 blocks of flats in 17 local authority areas have not passed the cladding tests - rising from 27 buildings cited earlier in the day.

This latest figure comes after Camden Council became the first local authority to order a mass evacuation of accommodation due to fire safety concerns in the wake of tragic Grenfell Tower fire.

On Friday, Scotland Yard confirmed the fire had been started by a faulty fridge and said it had spread quickly through the building due to cladding and insulation that was not fire retardant.

Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures 1 /49 Notting Hill Grenfell Tower Fire - In pictures A blaze rages through Grenfell Tower block in Notting Hill Jeremy Selwyn Aerial view of the fire at Grenfell Tower, Notting Hill Jason Hawkes Jeremy Selwyn Aerial view of the fire at Grenfell Tower, Notting Hill Jason Hawkes Jeremy Selwyn A firefighter investigates a floor after a fire engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA Exhausted firefighter rest on steps of houses after ours of tackling the blaze Alex Lentati Jeremy Selwyn Residents wave frantically at a window during the blaze Nigel Howard Emergency personnel operate during the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 27-storey apartment block in North Kensington, London EPA A police officer helps to evacuate a local resident from close to the scene of a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London Reuters Debris and ash surrounding Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate, Latimer road Jeremy Selwyn A fleet of ambulances at the scene ready to deal with the injured AFP/Getty Images A firefighter rests during the battle against the blaze at Grenfell Tower Jeremy Selwyn Firefighters prepare to enter the building to tackle the flames EPA Nigel Howard Smoke billows from a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London PA Flames engulf the tower block in Notting Hill AFP/Getty Images This shocking image shows flames engulfing the 27 storey tower Jeremy Selwyn Police and Emergency services at the scene of a major fire in Notting Hill after a block of flats Grenfell Tower is engulfed in flames Nigel Howard A person peers out of a window from the building on fire in London AP Firefighters react as a huge fire engulfs the Grenfell Tower AFP/Getty Images Smoke rises from the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block in North Kensington, London EPA Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Alex Lentati Aw omen react followign the blaze at Grenfell Tower Alex Lentati Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Jeremy Selwyn A water jet douses the fire at the Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey apartment block seen through a fence in North Kensington EPA Young children wear protective face masks near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images Two men hug within the security cordon as Grenfell Tower is engulfed by fire AFP/Getty Images A man (circled) looks from a window as smoke pours from a fire that has engulfed the 27-storey Grenfell Tower PA Smoke billows across the London skyline follwing a fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate Alex Lentati Firefighters on the scene at Grenfell Tower on Latimer Road early this morning Alex Lentati A view of debris from the Grenfell Tower fire covering a football pitch EPA Aerial view of the closed of Westway follwing a the fire at Grenfell Tower in the West Lancaster estate, Latimer Road. Jeremy Selwyn Fire fighters tackle the building after a huge fire engulfed the 24 story Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images A local resident is carried to receive some medical aid at a community centre close to a fire that has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower PA

Following the announcement, Camden Council carried out a safety inspection of buildings on Chalcots Estate, north London, and deemed them unsafe.

More than 3,000 residents on the estate were urgently told to leave their homes under instruction from London Fire Brigade.

Evacuation: Residents were ordered to leave their homes on the Chalcots Estate / EPA

Council leader Georgia Gould said the local authority was left with little choice when the fire service said nothing could immediately be done to ensure residents' safety.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said testing of potentially combustible cladding "is running around the clock".

"So far the cladding from 34 high-rise buildings, in 17 local authority areas, has failed the combustibility test," he added.
Fifteen-year-old ballet dancer Aamiruddin Shah is dancing his way from the slums of Mumbai to the prestigious American Ballet Theatre.

By India Today Web Desk: Dance is one art form that is often, especially in its core classical form, believed to be too "feminine" for boys. Kicking this lame stereotype to the curb, 15-year-old Aamiruddin Shah is tip-toeing his way to be a ballet dancer with the New York City Ballet.

Having grown up in the slums of Mumbai, Shah's story may remind one of the Slumdog Millionaire, only his is more filled with ballet.

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Shah is now New York-bound for a four-year training program at the prestigious American Ballet Theatre's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School.

"I never thought I would become a ballet dancer," Shah said. "India is not on the ballet map, and I want to take India to an even higher level."

Fifteen-year-old ballet dancer Amiruddin Shah. Source: AP

Shah, who knew from the age of 6 that he loved to move with music, began studying ballet less than three years ago from Israeli-American instructor Yehuda Maor.

Maor had been invited by the Danceworx Academy to teach ballet in India, where there are no special ballet academies. Here, Maor saw Shah doing cartwheels and backflips as a part of the Danceworx jazz and contemporary dance program for underprivileged students.

"I had no idea about ballet," Shah recalled. He had been dancing freestyle whenever he got the chance, sometimes he was invited to weddings to perform, sometimes he just goofed around with friends.

Source: AP

Maor was impressed with how Shah moved and asked to see the bottom of Shah's feet. He discovered the boy had perfect arches for ballet and urged him to train.

Within two and a half years, Shah had nailed his pointe, pirouette and arabesque, "which is unheard of," Maor said.

"I knew I had found a diamond in a pile of rocks," said Maor, acknowledging that his pupil now "needs to be challenged" by more teachers.

Shah with Israeli-American ballet instructor Yehuda Maor. Source: AP

Maor has helped Shah and another young dancer, 21-year-old Manish Chauhan, win scholarships in June to New York's Joffrey Ballet School. But they could not secure US visas in time.

Shah and Chauhan were then offered scholarships at the Oregon Ballet Theater starting in December. Shah attended for three months, while Chauhan is still training in Portland.

Now, Shah is trying to raise funds for four years of travel and tuition with the American Ballet Theatre in New York. They have enough for his first year, beginning in August, but have set up a website to accept donations for three more years in the U.S.

Shah said he is eager to stay in a dormitory and "be in a proper ballet school."

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"I am so excited, but slightly scared, too," said Shah, who speaks basic English. "How would I interact with people? New York is very crowded."

One day, he hopes to be a principal dancer in the New York Ballet.

And eventually, he said, "I want to teach other children who cannot afford to pay for dance."

We wish Shah the very best of luck.

(With inputs from AP)

For more on Aamiruddin Shah and ballet:

Meet India's male ballerinas, Manish Chauhan and Aamiruddin Shah

A day with 'Swan Lake' ballet

From Navi Mumbai to New York: 15-year-old welder's son to train at prestigious US ballet school

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By Srivatsan: Is this week's big Kollywood release, Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangathavan, worth a watch? Here's our review.

Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangathavan Cast: Silambarasan, Shriya Saran, Tamannaah Bhatia and VTV Ganesh

Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangathavan Director: Adhik Ravichandran

Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangathavan Rating:

In 2015, Adhik Ravichandran made his debut with Trisha Illana Nayanthara - a bold, unadulterated sex comedy, which, despite its misogynistic plot, received a thumbs up from the Tamil audience mainly for its fresh treatment. When a promising director works with a star like Simbu, the result should ideally reflect the quality of the film, right? Sadly, it doesn't.

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Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangathavan is about an ageing gangster Ashwin Thatha (Silambarasan), who falls for Ramya (Tamannaah), who's one-third his age. What happens when Ashwin Thatha finds out about Ramya's boyfriend, Thikku Shiva (also Simbu)?

Unlike your average masala films, Adhik builds AAA with the very first scene. We have Ruby (Kasthuri) seducing a white man and he's charged with arms trafficking. Both Ruby's character and her fake accent are laughable. In the next scene, Kabir's (Mahat) statement about his friend Madurai Michael is recorded by the Interpol in Dubai.

The film goes back in time, while Simbu gets one of his best introduction scenes in the recent past. After all, he's the star! Madurai Michael is in jail. Almost every prisoner helps Michael break out of prison - literally. To Yuvan Shankar Raja's terrific theme, the audience roars when Madurai Michael enters the frame with a cigarette in hand. For a moment, it looked as if it was his father T Rajendar getting wolf-whistles from the young audience.

Simbu's introduction is perhaps the only thing that works well in Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangathavan. AAA is set in the 80s, so you cannot avoid Rajinikanth and T Rajendar's references. Because of its timeframe, Adhik's detailing - there's a panchayat scene and the caste angle and low-key sex jokes are fairly effective.

About half an hour into it, Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangathavan is partly funny and has decent mass moments, though inconsequential. Even the much-hyped Ashwin Thatha's character just doesn't work. For the most of AAA, it looks more like a spoof of Tamil cinema than a solid comedy entertainer. When Ashwin Thatha decides to find a girl, it reminds of Chaplin Chellappa's track from Punnagai Mannan.

In the first half, Selvi (Shriya Saran) asks Madurai Michael to rush to a registrar's office. He, along with his friends Kabir and Somu (VTV Ganesh) get really excited, only to discover that Selvi wanted his help to be a witness for a friend's marriage. Aboorva Sagotharargal anyone?

Madurai ties the knot with Selvi, to save her friend from her father and 30-odd henchmen. Remember the scene in Thevar Magan, when Kamal Haasan is forced to marry Revathi? There's also a reference to Murugakai from Bhagyaraj's Mundhanai Mudichu. AAA constantly reminds you of the films that you grew up watching. But all these are lazily written scenes.

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Simbu should really, like really, move on after his break-up and should stop making films for VTV Ganesh, whose lines are pathetic. Each time Simbu takes a lesson on Kadhal (love), you either want to take the anger out on your partner, or on yourself. More often the latter. We don't see Simbu lecturing on women in say, a Gautham Menon film.

Save for the bits with Madurai Michael, there's no denial that Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangathavan is not even an ordinarily made film. From what we get, Adhik Ravichandran wanted to bring Subramaniyapuram into his of Trisha Illana Nayanthara space.

At the end of the day, Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangathavan is no sirappu, but sirippu. And you thought AAA needed a second part, Mr Adhik?

PHOTOS: Simbu celebrates birthday with Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangathavan team

ALSO WATCH: Shriya, Tamannaah, Manju and Amyra shake a leg at India Today Conclave South 2017

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Reining in mercurial partymen isn't as easy as it seems, chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is discovering. On June 15, former minister and MP J.C. Diwakar Reddy, 72, broke office equipment and abused IndiGo staff at Visakhapatnam airport when they refused to let him board the flight to Hyderabad as he had turned up late - 28 minutes prior to take-off. Reddy relented only after the aircraft doors were reopened and he was allowed on board. Union minister for civil aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju, also of the Telugu Desam Party, was at the airport at the time. Reddy claimed Raju's intervention helped him board the flight, but the minister rejected the claim and promised a probe "to ensure that lawful outcomes follow".

Seven airlines, including IndiGo, have since barred Reddy on all flights as they did following misconduct by Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad on an Air India flight in March. Unfazed and unremorseful, Reddy boarded an Emirates flight to Dubai with his morning walkers group. He also promised to "raise the issue in the Lok Sabha. I'll fight to protect my rights both as an individual and as an MP". Notably, the TDP MP was involved in a similar fracas with Air India staffers at the Vijayawada airport last October.

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Barely a week earlier, the MP's son-in-law, G. Deepak Reddy, elected to the Legislative Council in March, was charged with falsifying documents to grab government land worth Rs 160 crore. CM Naidu lost no time in suspending the MLC from the party. "There is no question of tolerating anybody bringing a bad name to the party. We should not forget we are in public life," he said.

But it didn't end there. Just last month, Naidu suspended another party member, V. Narayana Reddy, who was booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation for using forged documents to secure a Rs 190 crore bank loan. In March, Naidu forced Kesineni Srinivas, another party MP, to tender an unconditional apology to the state transport commissioner, N. Balasubramanyam. Srinivas and his cronies had thrashed the officer's gunman and abused him in his Vijayawada office for questioning irregularities in inter-state luxury bus operations, unauthorised and illegal bus services.

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The debate over debates in Virginias governors race flared anew Friday evening, as Democrat Ralph Northam responded to Republican Ed Gillespies push for 10 debates by proposing three, plus seven joint appearances.

Gillespie termed that offer insulting to Virginias voters.

Gillespie, whose competitors in the GOP primary accused him of avoiding them in an effort to run out the clock, on Monday proposed 10 general election debates with Northam.

After pressuring the lieutenant governor for four days to respond, the Gillespie camp on Thursday released a list of 10 debate invitations from outside groups that he has accepted. The proposed debate sponsors ranged from the Virginia Bar Association to TV stations, regional chambers of commerce and former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder.

After 5 p.m. Friday, Northams campaign announced a commitment to three debates and seven joint appearances without specifying sponsors whose invitations he would accept.

If Mr. Gillespie had been serious about his proposal, he would have reached out to us directly prior to attempting to negotiate through the media, Northams campaign said in its statement.

Gillespie retorted: Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northams long-awaited response of only three debates is insulting to voters across the commonwealth. With so many serious issues at stake, Virginians deserve to hear the clear differences between us. The lieutenant governor debated his primary opponent five times, so why debate so few times in the general election?

In the 2009 campaign for governor, Republican Bob McDonnell proposed 10 debates with Democrat R. Creigh Deeds. They ultimately faced off in four. Gillespie was general chairman of McDonnells campaign.

Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli debated three times in the 2013 campaign for governor.
A Chadron woman has been accused of child abuse by neglect after a child was diagnosed as being malnourished.

According to a press release from Chadron Police Chief Tim Lordino, the Chadron Police Department received information from Rapid City Regional Hospital on May 18 that staff were treating a 2-year-old child for a suspicious health condition. The child had been transported from the Chadron Community Hospital.

According to a search warrant filed in Dawes County Court, the 2-year-old child had been suffering from seizure-like activity, had a clinched jaw, starred off and experienced rapid eye movement. The child was described as being quite thin and small for her age. The child also suffered from bruising.

She was diagnosed as suffering from severe hyponatremia, which means she suffered from a very low sodium level. The girl weighed 17.4 pounds when admitted to the hospital in South Dakota, according to the arrest affidavit. Doctors could find no medical reason that the girl had failed to gain weight and doctors found her to be malnourished. The girl gained weight during her hospital stay and subsequent stay in foster care.

In the press release, Lordino said subsequent investigation resulted in the arrest of Katrina A. Keller, 25, Thursday evening in Chadron. Police arrested Keller without incident on a charge of committing child abuse in a neglectful manner which resulted in serious bodily injury, a Class IIIA felony.

She was transported to the Dawes County Jail where she was booked and released on bail of ten percent of $10,000.

The Chadron Police Department was assisted by the Dawes County Attorneys Office, the Pennington County Sheriffs Office, the Nebraska and South Dakota Departments of Health and Human Services and the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office.
SCOTTSBLUFF  Bridges to Hope, sponsored Followers of Christ Prison Ministry, will be hosting a Bike-A-Thon on Saturday, June 24 at Calvary Lutheran Church, Scottsbluff.

Bridges to Hope in Lincoln is a non-profit agency serving men and women soon to be or recently released from correctional institutions. The goal is to create and sustain joint efforts to prevent them from falling back into their criminal behaviors and lower the recidivism rate. This is done by providing them with everything they would need to start up a new home. Beds, sofas, tables, chairs, kitchen items, bathroom items, clothing and hygiene products are a few of the items provided to them at no cost. All items are donated by community members.

What can be done to help people who are released from prison keep from being rearrested? With no job, no money, no treatment, no clothes, no furniture and no place to live, those reentering the community often find themselves facing the same pressures and temptations that landed them in prison in the first place. Financial and in-kind support assists Bridges to Hope in providing these men and women the support needed to remain successful outside of the correctional facilities.

Registration will begin at 8 a.m. and ride beginning at 8:30.

Funds raised will allow Bridges to Hope to assist former offenders while they are moving out of the correctional institutions and into the community.

After riding, people can enjoy the annual Calvary barbecue beginning at 11 a.m.
LINCOLN, Neb.  The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has begun offering an online boater education course.

The course, which is available beginning June 19 at OutdoorNebraska.org/boatereducation, will allow students to take the course wherever and whenever is convenient for them. Game and Parks will continue to offer classroom boater education courses across the state, for those who prefer to learn in a more traditional setting.

In Nebraska, anyone born after Dec. 31, 1985, is required to successfully complete a boater education and possess a course certificate while operating a boat or personal watercraft.

Boater education courses teach students how to safely operate a motorized boat while following all rules and regulations. Topics covered include navigation and safe operation, Nebraska laws and emergency preparedness. Nonresidents who have successfully completed a National Association of State Boating Law Administrators-approved boater safety course recognized by another state are allowed to operate a motorboat in Nebraska.

You must be at least 14 years of age to operate a motorboat or personal watercraft in Nebraska.

For a list of what is required on a boat, check out the 2017 Boating Guide at BoatSafeNebraska.org.
By Press Trust of India: Bhubaneswar, Jun 24 (PTI) Balasore city in Odisha is all set to witness Lord Jagannaths annual rath yatra from the majestic Emami Jagannath temple tomorrow.

The festival is celebrated on the second day of Shukla Paksha of Ashadh, the third month, according to the traditional Oriya calendar.

The journey will begin around 7.30 AM tomorrow from the Emami Jagannath temple.

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As many as three new splendid chariots have been created for the yatra of the Gods -? Lord Jagannath and his siblings -- from the 78-feet high magnificent shrine, constructed on sprawling three acres of land on the premises of Emami Paper Mills, a release said.

The caravan of Lord Jagannath will stop midway for a meal of sweet pancakes, believed to be Jagannaths favorite dish.

The Lord will also be accompanied by the celestial wheel called Sudarshan Chakra during the journey.

Apart from the three holy chariots, the procession will have 10-12 trucks accompanying them.

The colourful chariots of 45-feet high idols of Lord Jagannath, Balaram and Subhadra are pulled by thousands of devotees from India and abroad, moved through the major city roads amid the joyous chants of Jai Jagannath and Hare Krishna.

The carpenters, having rights for this job by heredity, follow century-old styles, written in the holy Hindu text, for building and decorating the chariots.

One of the significance of this Yatra is that people from all religions and faiths can see the deities and participate in the procession as they are not allowed to enter the temple on other days, the release said.

"The lord of mercy himself will come out on the streets of Balasore to shower his benevolence on all, blessing the participants and their families with happiness and peace forever," said Sushil Goenka, trustee of the temple.

Jena, a senior IAS officer, in-charge of the temple administration, had yesterday said that the administration had made the provision of sign boards to be put at different places in order to create awareness among devotees visiting the holy town.

The state government is expecting a congregation of about 10 lakh devotees during the yatra. PTI KIS SRY

--- ENDS ---
Otto Warmbier's death is one of hundreds of thousands at the hands of the most brutal regime in the world, North Korea's. The American student went to North Korea on a tour in 2016 and did something foolish: He tried to steal a propaganda poster from the wall of his hotel, an act captured on surveillance cameras. For his "crime," the North Koreans sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor. The scene of his tearful confession in his sham trial is the last picture we have of Warmbier alive. We will probably never know exactly what happened to him, but we do know that the healthy young man lapsed into a coma shortly after his trial and that his brain slowly died. By the time the North Koreans shipped him home, his brain was so damaged he would never recover, and he died within days.
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Three more people have been arrested in connection with the lynching if Jammu and Kashmir policeman Ayub Pandith. An SIT has also been formed to investigate the Thursday night incident.

By India Today Web Desk: The Jammu and Kashmir Police today said three more people have been arrested in connection with Thursday night's lynching of Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammed Ayub Pandith outside the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.

Two people were arrested earlier, bringing the total of those detained to five. Posting a message on Twitter, Jammu and Kashmir Police that a Special Investigative Team has also been constituted to ensure a speedy investigation into Pandith's lynching.

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Earlier in the day, news agency ANI reported that J&K SP (North Srinagar) Sajad Khaliq Bhat was transferred following the Thursday night incident in which Pandith lost his life.

Pandith died after a mob brutally attacked and stoned him outside the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar on Thursday night. Pandith was on frisking duty outside the Jamia Masjid and was reportedly clicking pictures of people coming out of the mosque.

This led to an altercation with Pandith, who was in mufti, having to fire three times with his service revolver in self-defence. Following this, the irate mob caught hold of him and stoned him to death.

Pandith's lynching evoked sharp, all-round condemnation, with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti calling it "shameful". The Jammu and Kashmir police shows "a lot of restraint in dealing with their own people", Mufti added.

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also strongly censured the attackers, saying they should 'burn in hell.' "His (Pandith's) death is a tragedy & the manner of his death a travesty. May the people who lynched DySP Pandith burn in hell for their sins", Abdullah said in a message posted on Twitter.

TIMELINE OF PANDITH'S LYNCHING

8 pm (Thursday) - DSP Mohammad Ayub Pandit got an order from Jammu and Kashmir Police Headquarters asking him to be on duty at Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta area of Srinagar.

9 pm - The cop reached the mosque for his duty from home which was 3 km away. He was posted at the gate on "access duty" in plain clothes but was armed.

10 pm - Ayub went inside the mosque to offer prayers during which some people spotted the weapon on him and left some devotees angry. However there is another contradictory report which says the policeman was doing surveillance activities inside the mosque.

10:30 pm - The DSP came out of the prayer area of the mosque when he was confronted by other people. One version of the story says that he was found clicking pictures of the mosque with his phone which angered the devotees. Heated arguments ensued and people charged at him. He was identified as a police officer all along since he was a local. Army sources however say since he was a local and a police officer, DSP Ayub was the target and the lynching was pre-planned.

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10:45 pm - His bodyguards fled and in panic he fired. The horrific act of lynching starts.

Contradiction: The guards have told the investigators that they were relieved by the DSP who asked them that it was an important day and they should be with their families. June 23 is the last Friday of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

This theory is being investigated as guards are not supposed to leave the officer on their own.

11-11:15 pm - Deputy Superintendent Mohammad Ayub Pandit was stripped naked and stoned to death by the mob.

Midnight - Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who delivers sermons at the historic mosque in old Srinagar city's Nowhatta area every Friday after prayers, arrived at the spot.

After midnight - The battered body was handed over to the police which could not identify him.

6 am - Family calls up police that the DSP had not reached back home. Search starts and police zeroes on the dead body. Family identifies it as the DSP's body.

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ALSO READ | Should J&K government remove security to separatist leaders? Time to take a call, says DGP Vaid

ALSO READ | DSP Ayub Pandith lynching: Are policemen the new target of terror agents in Valley?

ALSO WATCH | Jammu and Kashmir: Police officer beaten to death by mob near Jamia Masjid in Srinagar

--- ENDS ---
By Press Trust of India: (Updating with victims brothers version)

Chandigarh, Jun 24 (PTI) Police said investigations were on and they were hopeful of nabbing all the accused after a Muslim youth was stabbed to death by a group of people when an altercation over a train seat turned communal near Ballabhgarh in Haryana, even as the brother of the victim today narrated the harrowing experience.

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"One accused has already been arrested. He is being quizzed. Further investigations in the case are under progress," a Government Railway Police official in Faridabad said over phone.

He said some facts have come to light on the basis of which further investigations are going on.

"The investigations have revealed that there was a dispute over a train seat. The complainant party has said the accused used some words which hurt their religious sentiments after which the issue flared up resulting in the incident," the official said.

Junaid (17) was stabbed to death while his three brothers - Hashim (20) and Sakir - were injured by a mob which also allegedly hurled slurs against them after the dispute over the seat onboard the Delhi-Mathura passenger train between Ballabgarh and Mathura stations on Thursday night.

The arrested accused, before being remanded to police custody by a court in Faridabad district today, told reporters that he was in an inebriated state at during the incident.

However, Hashim gave a different account indicating that there was no dispute over seats in the train.

Giving details, he said that they finished their Eid shopping from Sadar Bazaar in Delhi and boarded a train from there on Thursday.

"When we sat in the train, it was almost empty. When the train started running from Sadar station, a couple of stations came in between and from Okhla it was full. From there 20-25 persons boarded it. My brother Junaid was asked by an aged man who boarded the train to give seat to him. He got up and gave the seat to him.

"All of a sudden the group of 20-25 persons who had boarded the train from Okhla station pushed us and my brother Junaid fell down. When I and Junaid told them why they were pushing they pointed to a skull cap on my head. They told us that we are Muslims, anti-nationals, Pakistani, ate beef and then while hurling abuses at us they pulled my cap and threw it down. They also tried to pull my beard," Hashim said recounting the harrowing experience.

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Hashim said that later the group started beating him and his brothers in the train.

"I was the eldest at 20 years of age, rest all were younger ones," he said.

He said when the train reached Tughluqabad railway station in Delhi, he rang up his brother who was at home, for help.

"I told him to reach Ballabgarh (Haryana). When it reached Ballabgarh, the train was full and my brother, whom I had asked for help, reached there. He too was pulled inside by this group of people and he was also beaten. When the train started from Ballabgarh for onward journey, the accused took out a knife and attacked Sakir.

"Junaid tried to help him, but he too was stabbed. Four to five people were holding me and I was trying to free myself. In the meantime, both my brothers Sakir and Junaid fell down. They inflicted injuries on me as well. They thought both Sakir and Junaid had died..," Hashim said.

The complainant in the case, Hasib, said the police have assured them that all the culprits will be nabbed and justice will be done to them.

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"They asked us if we could identify the accused if they are paraded before us. We told the police that we can identify every single person. They have assured that action as per law will be taken in the case and we are hopeful that we will get justice," he told reporters in Ballabgarh.

Junaids father Jamaluddin said they were cooperating with investigators in the case.

"Police asked us about the sequence of events, like from where the victims had boarded the train. We told them that they had gone to Sadar Bazaar in Delhi for Eid shopping and boarded the train from there and were returning home when they were attacked," he said.

Earlier, a CPI(M) delegation today visited the family of the victims.

The delegation, which asked the police to ascertain the political affiliation of those involved in the "horrific mob lynching", said the accused would not dare target the victims sans "political patronage" in the BJP-ruled state.

CPI(M) politburo members Brinda Karat and Mohammed Salim reprimanded the Centre over the attack and rued that no government representative issued a statement on the incident or met the youths family. PTI SUN VJ KUN

--- ENDS ---

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BERKELEY  The day the compressor went out on the morgue cooler, workers for the St. Louis County medical examiners office scrambled to move more than 20 bodies into a refrigerated trailer designed as a portable morgue for mass disasters.

Furnished five years ago by a Homeland Security grant, the trailer was meant for anything from a plane crash or terrorist attack to an outbreak of a pandemic disease. It had gone unused all these years.

The compressor that broke earlier this month was repaired the next day, but use of this refrigerated trailer may be a sign of things to come. The St. Louis County medical examiner is considering using the trailer to store the overflow of corpses in drug deaths.

Fatal overdoses from heroin, fentanyl and other opioids are surging. If this pace continues, St. Louis Countys medical examiner, Dr. Mary Case, envisions hooking up the refrigerated trailer to her offices power source and using it as a makeshift morgue on an ongoing basis.

I think its a very real possibility, she said. Our storage facilities are strained to the limit.

The St. Louis County medical examiners office is in the single-story, brown brick George Gantner building on Helen Avenue, near Airport Road and Interstate 170. Inside the building, the main cooler is a stainless steel room where carts on wheels line the walls. The morgue has a capacity for 20 bodies, one per cart. A body is X-rayed and autopsied on that cart.

Largely because of a surge in drug overdoses, the morgue typically is crowded, especially on weekends. As new bodies arrive and before autopsies are performed or funeral homes retrieve them for burial, attendants make room by putting two bodies on a cart designed for one. A census sheet of the body count shows 24 days in May when more than 20 bodies were stored there. There were two days when 33 bodies were in the storage facility, and two days with 29.

The St. Louis County medical examiners office recorded 181 fatal overdoses last year, nearly double what it had in 2010. Officials expect to surpass that number in 2017. Homicides are also up, although not as sharply. The county had 78 homicides last year, compared with 48 in 2010.

On some weekends, there are times when we have no capacity for the bodies that we have, Case said. If that were on a daily basis, when that happens, we will have to have refrigerated trucks.

Usually, refrigerated trucks are meant for mass disasters. They were used in Joplin, Mo., when a tornado killed 161 people. New York City shut down an entire street to make room for rows of trucks to store remains of those killed at the World Trade Center. In a heat wave in 1995 that killed hundreds, Chicago brought in refrigerated semitrailers to hold the bodies.

The opioid tsunami

Case, 74, who began her career here in the mid-1970s, is a board-certified forensic pathologist and chief medical examiner for St. Louis County, as well St. Charles, Franklin and Jefferson counties. She has seen it all, but she says the opioid crisis is surprising.

When Case arrives at work each morning, she enters the morgue and looks at a board listing the new deaths. Some days, I gasp because there are seven, eight, nine cases, she said. It used to be if we had four or five cases, that was an ungodly day. Not anymore.

The list might say overdose, overdose, suicide, car accident, homicide. It used to be, every few days there would be a drug overdose. Now almost every day, now maybe half of the deaths are drug overdoses, she said.

The refrigerated trailer, if its parked nearby, would be a way to ease overcrowding without having to add on to the building. Worried that her staff handling bodies might be at risk if powder from the powerful drugs became airborne, Case this month requested that the county train them to use Narcan, an opioid antidote.

Heroin-related overdose deaths in the United States have more than quadrupled since 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Coroners and medical examiners across the country struggle to keep up. Using a refrigerated trailer meant for mass disasters to handle the surge in drug deaths isnt such a stretch, Case said.

We have a mass casualty of drug overdoses in this country, only its not all at once, Case said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a report on the U.S. opioid epidemic, said 52,404 people died in the U.S. in 2015 from drug overdose, compared with 47,055 deaths in 2014. The drug overdose death rate increased significantly in the last few years: from 12.3 deaths per 100,000 population in 2010 to 16.3 in 2015, the report says.

Dr. Brian L. Peterson, chief medical examiner in Milwaukee County, Wis., is president of the National Association of Medical Examiners. Virtually every medical examiners office and toxicology laboratory in the U.S. has felt the impact of the opioid tsunami, Peterson said.

The sheer number of drug cases is threatening accreditation of offices across the country, Peterson said. The association has workload standards. An office is considered deficient if a pathologist must perform more than 250 autopsies a year. If the pathologist performs more than 325 autopsies a year, the office would get provisional accreditation at best, he said.

Nationwide, at least four offices already have dropped to provisional accreditation because of the bigger caseload, Peterson said.

I expect that trend to continue, he added.

Dire shortage of pathologists

Theres also an extreme shortage of forensic pathologists, Peterson said. There are about 400 working across the country, and 900 are needed.

Filling that void isnt easy. Peterson said only 30 or 40 people finish their fellowships each year. Not all of them will go into full-time forensic pathology. With low staffing numbers, expected retirements and increased caseloads, the situation in forensic pathology is truly dire, Peterson said.

A mass killer: St. Louis heroin deaths hit new high Addition of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, has made illicit drug use more lethal. Death toll from opioids has quietly surpassed homicides.

Locally, if the burgeoning case load continues, Case said she might need to hire two additional pathologists. Her staff includes three full-time pathologists and one part-time pathologist. Because of a long-held policy in the office, they run toxicology tests and perform mostly external exams, but not a full autopsy, when evidence points to an obvious drug overdose. We dont have the manpower to do it, Case said.

Some offices across the country have turned to hired guns to work as temporary fill-ins to perform autopsies. They are in high demand. Offices from Kansas to Hawaii are advertising for help. A busy medical examiners office in Reno, Nev., offered to pay up to $1,200 a day, plus travel and hotel costs. About 30 counties are advertising for this temporary fill-in physician help, Peterson said.

In Dayton, Ohio, Montgomery County is considering hiring a forensic pathologist from Florida who would fly in for five days and perform four or five autopsies a day on people who died of drug overdoses, said Ken Betz, director of the coroners office there.

Betz said his office is on pace to handle 700 to 800 drug overdose cases this year, compared to 371 in all of last year. The population of Montgomery County is about 500,000, or half that of St. Louis County.

Its terrible, Betz said of the climbing drug deaths. My staff is tired, overworked. His county converted a garage to additional freezer space 1 years ago, bought two refrigerated trailers at $46,000 each, and has rented space in funeral homes.

Dealing with a surge

The city of St. Louis has enough storage space. St. Clair County has no issues either, storing its bodies at hospitals. Madison County uses a refrigeration crypt in Wood River that normally has adequate space for 12 bodies but sometimes is crowded by victims of overdose. Stephen P. Nonn, coroner of Madison County, said he might consider adding another refrigerated unit inside the morgue.

In Berkeley, the 16-foot-long refrigerated trailer Case considers using was given to the county about five years ago as part of a Homeland Security grant through St. Louis Area Regional Response System. The trailer cost $35,000 but was stocked with thousands of dollars worth of equipment, such as cameras for identifying bodies, knives and other autopsy gear.

Case said she would use that trailer first, before renting 18-wheeler truck trailers like the ones New York City used after 9/11. Another option, Case said, might be to convert space in the office building for a cooler.

In Chicago in 2012, a scandal rocked the Cook County medical examiners office after an investigation found 363 bodies stacked up in a cooler designed to hold 300. The medical examiner, who complained of inheriting an understaffed and underfunded office, resigned.

So we dont ever want to get there, Case said. I will have a refrigerated truck come here and put it out there in the back if I dont have any place to store the bodies.

The refrigerated trailer behind her office is identical to trailers from the same grant that are parked in St. Charles, St. Clair and Madison counties. If God forbid there is a terrorist attack (in the region)  then all trailers would be delivered down there, said Nick Gragnani, director of the St. Louis Area Regional Response System.

Told the county might use the trailer for the drug overdose surge, Gragnani said: Thats fine. Do it. He said he doesnt want the gear bought for terrorism response to go unused.

Before getting the trailers, the Regional Response Systems mass fatality planning group in 2010 had discussed all sorts of scenarios where the bodies could pile up quickly, such as an earthquake along the New Madrid fault, severe weather events  and if a mass disaster were to strike a countys morgue. However, nowhere on that groups radar was the thought that drug overdoses might surge so much that the trailers would be needed, said Madison Countys deputy coroner Roger Smith, who was co-chair of that panel. The number of overdose deaths has brought us a dynamic weve never seen, Smith said.

Staff writer Kim Bell of the Post-Dispatch can be reached at kbell@post-dispatch.com
There was a weird media event outside the White House lawn on Wednesday. Six Missouri residents had been flown to Washington to air their complaints about the Affordable Care Act.

This was the day before the Senates secret version of the House-passed Obamacare replacement bill was finally unveiled. The subtext of the media event was Obamacare bad. Republican replacement good.

The Post-Dispatchs Chuck Raasch reported that the six Missourians all live in western and central Missouri, in counties that next year will no longer have an insurance company willing to sell policies on the Healthcare.gov exchange. The Missouri residents complained of rising premiums and deductibles and said they were worried that, come January, they wouldnt be able to find affordable insurance at all.

The Republican bill is not going to fix that. If it passes, the six Missourians may be able to buy crummy insurance that doesnt cover many services or pre-existing conditions, but it might cost more than their full-coverage Obamacare policies did.

The media event was misdirection at its finest, taking advantage of people who dont pay close attention to details. But at least the misdirected Missourians got a free trip to the White House in exchange for letting themselves be used as props.

There is one man who could fix it for them. His name is Roy Blunt, and he is Missouris Republican U.S. senator. If Blunt has any interest in fixing the problems Missourians are having with Obamacare, the first thing he has to do is vote against his partys replacement.

Oh sure, you say. Like thats going to happen. Blunt is a stalwart corporate conservative, friend to lobbyists everywhere. You say the Republican health care bill would eliminate $600 billion in Obamacare taxes over 10 years, most of them paid by people making $250,000 a year and up. People with incomes of $1 million a year will get 24 percent of the cuts. You say if I think Blunt is going to vote against a tax cut for wealthy people, Im out of my mind.

Probably. But I believe in redemption. If just three Republican senators vote against the health care bill, it will fail. Blunts name appears on none of the lists of shaky Republican votes, but it should. Because this bill would be awful for Missouri.

Consider those six Obamacare complainers who were summoned to the White House. They are among the one-third of Missourians who live outside of metropolitan areas. This is a population that tends to be older and sicker than the urban population and thus more expensive for insurers to cover. The Affordable Care Act wrongly assumed that there would be enough healthy people signing up to deepen the pool and offset that sick population.

The fundamental flaw in Obamacare was that it relied on for-profit insurance companies. The Obama administration made a deal with the devil so insurance companies wouldnt block the bill in Congress.

Where Obamacare isnt working is because it didnt offer a government-backed public alternative to hold prices down. Congress could still do that, but you cant have a public option and $600 billion in tax cuts, too. People like Blunt will have to choose between their constituents and their donors.

The second way Obamacare extended health insurance was by offering states federal dollars to expand their Medicaid programs so more working poor adults would become eligible. Missouri never did this, spurning free money and 24,000 new health care jobs.

The Republican Legislature worried what would happen when the free money went away, pointing out that Medicaid was already eating up nearly 20 percent of the general revenue budget. Its hard to cut taxes for corporations and wealthy people when the government has to spend $1.8 billion a year on Medicaid.

Never mind that 63 percent of Missouris Medicaid spending goes for children, with most of the rest going to disabled persons, pregnant women and elderly Missourians in nursing homes.

But Republicans in Washington are also worried about rising Medicaid costs. So the Republican health care bill would begin to trim those costs. States would get to choose: a per capita limit on 990,000 Missourians on Medicaid, or a fixed sum it could divvy up how it wanted.

This would not be good for Sen. Blunts constituents, particularly those in outstate Missouri who tend to vote heavily Republican. The Urban Institute estimates Missouris share of Medicaid costs would grow by $3 billion over 10 years. Rural areas, which are disproportionately dependent on Medicaid, could see hospitals and doctors offices closing.

Blunts choice is clear: Stand with hundreds of thousands of Missourians  Republicans and Democrats  who depend on Obamacare insurance and Medicaid, or stand with the donors who gave $19 million to his campaign and political action committee in the last election cycle. How many chances do you get to be a hero?
If you travel alone, you already know this: You pay more.

Hotel rates, cruise-ticket prices and tours quote rates based on double occupancy. Go alone and youll pay a single supplement that can double the cost of your vacation.

Understandable? Sure, considering that most rooms accommodate two or more people. Unfair? Yes.

Janet Campbell has faced that kind of price discrimination many times. A retired librarian from West Wareham, Mass., she routinely sees her cruise fares double because shes traveling alone, not to mention the surcharges  often as much as $100 per day  that tour operators impose on travelers like her.

Every company I looked at charged extra, she says.

But thats slowly changing. Campbell recently discovered a tour operator, Overseas Adventure Travel, that doesnt charge a single supplement. She also stumbled upon Holland America Cruises, which only increases the regular fare by 60 percent. I felt that was fairer, she says.

The industry appears to be gradually ending its discrimination against the lone traveler. Why? Because more people are going it alone.

A recent survey by special-interest travel site BookYogaRetreats.com identified solo travel as a trend for 2017. Roughly half the respondents said they would take their next vacation on their own. If the same is true of the population at large, it would make the solo travel market a niche the industry cant ignore.

The travel industry is waking up to the fact that (there are) more and more solo travelers, says Soumya Nambiar, a project manager from Bangalore, India, who writes the solo traveler blog Travel, Books & Food. And they are adjusting to this as well.

Yet parts of the industry remain firmly stuck in a more traditional model, which heavily favors couples. If youre thinking of heading somewhere by your lonesome, there are few standout solo-friendly companies but, as always, you need to read the fine print.

While single supplements are a hot-button issue, they make sense, says Greg Geronemus, co-chief executive of SmarTours, a New York tour operator.

These fees are simply the reality of what happens when the cost of hotel rooms are not split across two people. Think about when youve reserved a hotel room for just yourself  you incur the full cost of that room as opposed to splitting it with someone else, he says.

In order to remedy that without taking a loss, some travel companies are raising prices for double-occupancy travelers  unless, of course, they have single-occupancy rooms or cabins. In such cases, Geronemus says, doing away with the single supplement is a mere marketing ploy.

Solo travelers shouldnt shop for a cruise, hotel room or tour based strictly on the elimination of single supplements. They should compare rates as they normally would. Also, people traveling in pairs might want to pay closer attention to their rates, especially with companies that promise no single supplements; they may be underwriting the cost of someone elses vacation.

There are legitimate single-friendly options, of course. Norwegian Cruise Lines, for example, offers solo staterooms and common areas specifically for the single cruisers on the NCL Epic, Sky and Getaway, according to the company. Celebrity Cruises new ship, the Celebrity Edge, which sets sail in 2018, has single staterooms with all the amenities of double cabins and generous verandas.

But cruise lines are dipping their toes into the water. The Celebrity Edge has 900 staterooms; 16 for singles. The NCL Epic, which accommodates 4,100 passengers, has 128 solo cabins.

Companies such as Contiki, which specializes in tours for travelers ages 18 to 35, focus on experience rather than price. More than half of its clients are single, so Contiki matches those singles with same-sex roommates at no additional cost. A seven-day tour of Thailand for October, for example, is $865 for a single willing to share; the price jumps to $1,484 for a solo traveler without a roommate.

At our core, Contiki is a social travel experience, says Contiki President Melissa da Silva. Our travelers choose to experience new destinations and cultures with a group of similarly aged, like-minded explorers. So no matter what country they visit, or what travel style they choose, they will always make new travel mates.

Becoming solo-friendly has its risks. Ben Julius, who runs the tour operator Tourist Israel, has adopted an approach similar to that of Contiki, trying to match tourists who dont want to pay a single supplement. But he notes that its something of a zero-sum game.

Single supplements make us, as operators, no extra profit and increase our workload, he says. Matching people up is also problematic. In around 5 percent of cases, the traveler holds us as the operator responsible for the behavior of the person a room is being shared with.

In other words, creating a singles-friendly tour is more trouble than its worth. No surprise, then, that finding a legitimately solo-friendly travel company is a challenge.

Its not easy, admits Aaron Boltman, who owns Superb Vacations, a full-service travel agency in Richmond, Texas. But if you search hard enough you can find them.
By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: At least 17 people were killed, and 18 others injured as a truck overturned in Pirgonj upazila of Rangpur district in Bangladesh.

Pirganj police's Officer-in-Charge, Rejaul Karim said, the cement-laden truck was going from Dhaka to Lalmonirhat with 50 people.

The victims were mostly ready-made garment workers and day labourers. They were traveling on the back of the truck when the accident took place at Kolabaria of the Dhaka-Rangpur Highway at 5:30 am Saturday.

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They were returning home from Dhaka for Eid-Ul Fitr celebrations. "Most of the victims are in Kaliganj and Aditmari Upazilas of Lalmonirhat district," said Karim.

15 deceased have been identified. They are Rabiul Islam, Nasida Akhter, Azizul Islam, Alamgir Hossain, Delwar Hossain, Jasim Uddin, Anichujjamana, surpana, Kohinoor Islam, Shahidul Islam, Majnu Mia, Saddam Hussain, Munir Hossain, Rafiqul Islam Mia and Khalil.

They were going home in cement loaded trucks, after they did not get the bus ticket. The injured said that the truck was being driven by the assitant, as the driver was sleeping. The driver and helper escaped after the accident.

The truck, which lost control around the Kalabari area of Pirganj upazila, turned down the roadside. Some of those injured were taken to Pirganj Upazila Health Complex. Seven injured people were admitted to Rangpur Medical College Hospital.

Assistant Director of Rangpur Fire Service, Sultan Reza Khan said, a fire service unit was found dead and rescued the injured. The bodies are in Pirganj Upazila Health Complex and Highway Police Camp. Road accidents are common in Bangladesh during the Eid season when millions of people travel back home.

This triggers an acute transport crisis while the overwhelming demand pushes up ticket prices.Many desperate commuters, particularly the poor who cannot afford overpriced tickets, often undertake perilous journey riding on the roofs of trains, buses, trucks and launches.

ALSO READ:

Bangladesh: 1 dead, 2 injured in Maitree bus accident, Indian driver detained

ALSO WATCH: Indian Navy rescues 18 after Cyclone Mora kills 6 in Bangladesh

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Dormice are being returned to a Warwickshire woodland.

RARE hazel dormice have been released into the wild in south Warwickshire in an attempt to stem the decline of the endangered species.

They have become extinct in 17 English counties since the end of the 19th century and populations are declining elsewhere.

That can be attributed to the loss of woodland and hedgerow habitat, as well as changes to traditional countryside management practices.

Wildlife charity Peoples Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and Warwickshire Wildlife Trust are keeping the location the dormice have been released into a secret to allow them to settle in.

The dormice are captive-bred by members of the Common Dormouse Captive Breeders Group.

Prior to that they have undergone a six-week quarantine at the Zoological Society of London and Paignton Zoo in Devon, during which vets conducted a full health examination to check they are in top condition and to reduce the risk of them passing non-native disease.

They are released in breeding pairs or trios in their own wooden nest box, which is fitted inside a mesh cage secured to trees.

The cages are filled with food and water to help them to their new home in the wild. The cages are opened after about ten days to allow the dormice out into their new woodland home and are eventually removed once they have settled into the wood.

Ian White, PTES dormouse officer, said the charismatic creatures were in critical need of help. The reintroductions are important for the long-term conservation of this species, as were restoring dormice to counties where theyve been lost so that they can thrive again.

"This is a great start in beginning to combat their decline. Our approach also benefits a whole raft of other species, including birds, bats and butterflies.

The reintroduction marks the culmination of weeks of work by partners PTES, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, Natural England, Zoological Society of London, Paignton Zoo and the Common Dormouse Captive Breeders Group.

There was a successful reintroduction at Windmill Naps neat Tanworth-in-Arden in 2009, where 46 hazel dormice were returned to the wood.

A another reintroduction is also planned at a woodland near to the 2017 site.

Over the last 24 years, more than 864 dormice have been released at 22 different sites across 12 English counties.

PTES is also managing a nationwide dormouse monitoring scheme, coordinating annual reintroductions, and advising landowners about empathetic land management practices.
The ISPR on Thursday released another video recording of convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav in which he gave further information about his subversive activities in Pakistan.

They include details about the specific areas he was targeting, his modus operandi for facilitating the infiltration of RAW agents into the country from the Makran coast, the illegal transactions undertaken to finance the operations, etc.

The ISPRs stated objective of placing the confession in the public domain is that the world should know what India has done and continues to do against Pakistan.

It is a welcome opportunity for an establishment that has long bristled at the worlds dismissive attitude towards its regional concerns.

For Jadhav, making a clean breast of what he has been orchestrating in this country has no obvious downside: he has already been found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death by a Field General Court Martial.

His fulsome account and expression of contrition may even help him in his appeal for clemency to the army chief.

Jadhavs culpability aside, it is in Pakistans interest that the authorities proceed in a procedurally fair and transparent manner.

This would to some extent help reverse some of the worlds negative perceptions about this country.

Any other course will work in Indias favour by enabling it to divert international attention from the actual, substantive issue, that is, its meddling in Pakistans internal affairs.

Our neighbour has already proven itself adept at such a smoke-and-mirror strategy.

Moreover, if this is an open-and-shut case, as it so appears, Pakistan should share the details of the proceedings in the special military tribunal with the International Court of Justice which is hearing Indias petition alleging lack of consular access to its citizen during his detention and trial.

Such a measure would counter the countrys claims that it had sought recourse to the ICJ because Jadhav was convicted in a sham trial and that his life was in danger.

It would also negate Indias criticism following the latest development that the video confession is a selectively culled, manufactured statement, and an attempt to influence ICJ proceedings.

That said, given that this case involves a foreign national, that too of a country with which Pakistan has a long and bitter history, it would be prudent to let the final decision lie with the president.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs son-in-law Captain (retired) Safdar claimed Saturday that the ideology of Pakistan was being held accountable rather than the premier.

He was interrogated by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), tasked by the Supreme Court to probe Panama case, for five hours. After the long meeting with JIT members at the Federal Judicial Academy, he came out and talked to media.

While telling about his experience with the JIT interrogation, he stated the questions were not relevant. He suggested Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman to keep himself away from the national ideology. Nawaz Sharif will remain in power after 2018 elections, he claimed.

The premiers son-in-law went on to praise his party leader and told how he made Pakistan an atomic power. He accused the JIT members of receiving questions on pieces of papers. Capt (retd) Safdar complained that no one dared to catch the culprits of Kargil War and the infamous Surrey Mansion of the Bhutto family.

A large number of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers had gathered outside the Judicial Academy before his arrival and chanted slogans in the favour of PM Nawaz Sharif. Security personnel were deployed all over the place. JIT members asked Capt (r) Safdar about the assets owned by his wife Maryam Nawaz Sharif and her dependency on her father.
The first Pakistan-owned early-harvest wind power project constructed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework has started commercial operation after passing required assesments.

The 49.5MW facility developed by Sachal Energy Development (Private) Limited over 680 acres of land in the Jhimpir Wind Corridor in Sindh province was wholly financed by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The success of the project sets a good example for the construction of CPEC and the Belt and Road initiative, according to Global Times.

Sachal Energy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arif Habib Corporation Limited, one of the largest private sector conglomerates in Pakistan.

It has received formal notification from the Central Power Purchasing Agency (Guarantee) Limited. The company is committed to supplying electricity to the national grid through the National Transmission and Dispatch Company for 20 years under an energy purchase agreement.

The project comprises 33 wind turbine generators manufactured by Goldwind of China whereas HydroChina is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) as well as operation and maintenance (O&M) contractor of the project.

It is the first project that has received Sinosure-backed financing and has been 100% financed by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Pakistan and China have signed $57-billion worth of energy and infrastructure projects under the CPEC framework. The bulk of the investment is going to the energy projects, including renewable and clean energy to bridge the energy shortfall.
There is a new theory that Banksy, UK's top graffiti artist who is still unidentified, could be Robert Del Naja.

By India Today Web Desk:

The mystery of the UK's top graffiti artist, Banksy, could soon be unfolded. The artist who has been anonymously painting over walls in the UK to revolt against politicians and terrorists could finally have a name and a face.

Who is Banksy?

Banksy is an anonymous graffiti artist based in England. Being a film director and political activist, Banksy's works revolve around dark humour to revolt against the social and political situations.

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Earlier works

Banksy started freehand graffiti in the 1990s in Bristol. The artist sold the work through a photographer known as Steve Lazarides. The artworks feature humorous images with slogans giving messages on anti-war, anti-capitalist etc.

Even after receiving numerous eminent awards like Academy award for his documentary and person of the year 2014, the artist never revealed the identity.

Here is some samples of the best of Banksy:

Photo: Reuters

Photo: Reuters

Photo: Reuters

Photo: Reuters

Photo: Reuters

Photo: Reuters

Is Robert Del Naja 'Banksy'?

Goldie, a band member of the band Massive attack accidentally revealed that Robert Del Naja could be the artist many adored for quite a long time.

During a podcast with Scroobius Pip's 'Distraction pieces', Goldie said, "Give me a bubble letter and put it on a T-shirt and write Banksy on it and we're sorted. We can sell it now.. No disrespect to Robert, I think he is a brilliant artist. I think he has flipped the world of art over."

Robert Del Naja is an artist and activist based in Bristol and is a member of the English band, Massive Attack. Surprisingly, Del Naja was also a graffiti artist before joining the band.

According to a report by Independent, Craig Williams, a journalist did an investigation on Robert Del Naja and figured out that the graffitis used to be present only where the band performed earlier or was scheduled to perform.

Responding to the investigation Del Naja said, "a good story but sadly not true".

Several theories have cropped up in the past when it comes to the artist's real identity.

Although, Banksy's identity still remains a mystery, the artist is still tagged as one of UK's best contemporary artist.

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With the Nitish Kumar-Lalu Prasad Yadav combine showing no signs of cracking despite its attempts to woo the chief minister, the BJP seems to have switched to 'Plan B' for Bihar - sending Yogi Adityanath to Nitishland.

Addressing an impressive rally in Darbhanga (north Bihar) on June 15, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister told his Bihari audience that he had been "chosen" to work in their state. "By the next assembly polls, I'll travel to every district and see that a BJP government is formed in Bihar," he told them.

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Though Adityanath spoke of only the assembly polls, party insiders say the aim is to build up the BJP in Bihar before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance bagged 31 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar in 2014 but that was because Nitish and Lalu were fighting separately. Coming together in a 'grand alliance' a year on, they gave NDA a drubbing in the assembly polls.

With less than two years before the general election, the BJP is taking no chances. Adityanath has been given the responsibility of Bihar in addition to his own state, in the belief that he has greater appeal than the party's Bihari leaders. The national leadership believes his clean image as a hard taskmaster makes him an effective counter to Nitish. Adityanath's presence in the state through the countdown to the 2019 polls, they believe, will also keep a certain pressure on Nitish. They're also counting on his immense popularity in the north Bihar districts.

And the UP CM revealed some of his 'soft Hindutva' strategy for Bihar when he dared Nitish to "close down illegal slaughterhouses in 24 hours" as he did in UP. At the Darbhanga rally, he questioned Nitish's silence on triple talaq.

Analysts however say creating a dent in Bihar's mahagathbandhan won't be easy. Adityanath's constant forays into the state, they say, could help keep the Nitish-Lalu alliance on its toes.

Pullquote

Speaking in Darbhanga district in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath praised the prime minister for, among other things, presenting official visitors to India with copies of the Bhagvad Gita and Ramayana. Adityanath also criticised Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for not "break[ing] his silence" on the issue of triple talaq. Adityanath then added that he didn't participate in the "politics of caste and religion".

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Ailing tea and rubber sectors By Dr. C.S. Weeraratna View(s): View(s):

In Sri Lanka, around 880,000 hectares are under plantation crops which constitute tea, rubber, coconut, sugarcane, etc. Among the plantation crops, tea and rubber are important export crops. Around 330 ha are cultivated under these two crops (tea-200,000 ha, and rubber 130,000 ha). The total production of these two crops as indicated in the table given below, has continued to decrease during the last four years. In fact the total rubber production has decreased from the year 2011.

Some amount of tea and rubber are imported and re-exported after value addition. Hence it is not possible to indicate the foreign exchange earned from locally produced tea and rubber, However, as indicated in the table (given in millions of kg), the value of tea and rubber exports during the last few years have decreased in spite of re-exports of imported tea and rubber and value of the rupee falling compared to the US Dollar. the decline in these two sub sectors can be attributed to a number of factors. Among these are land degradation, shortage of water, old age crop, etc.

Land degradation

Productivity of large extents under tea and rubber has decreased mainly due to soil erosion, soil compaction, and nutrition depletion, etc making crop production less profitable. Land degradation would cause yields to decline and have a negative impact on our efforts to increase production. According to various reports around 40 t/ha/yr of soil in tea estates are lost annually due to soil erosion. The participants of the first national symposium on Land Degradation, held a few years ago, who were representing many land-related institutions in the country, were of the view that urgent action such as implementation of proper land use planning and the Soil Conservation and Environment Act, etc need to be taken by the relevant organisations to control land degradation.

Labour shortage

It is a common knowledge that at present there is a dearth of labour in both tea and rubber sectors. According to a labour force survey in 2000, 36 per cent of the labour force was working in the agriculture sector. In 2008 this value has dropped to 33 per cent and in 2014 it has further dropped down to 29 per cent. As a result of the labour shortage tea plucking and rubber tapping are affected in addition to other cultural practices in these two crops.

Age of tea and rubber plants

A considerable part of the tea and rubber crop is mature and old. For example, 40 per cent of the tea extent is under seedling tea and about 90 per cent of the seedling teas are over 60 years old and need replanting. Around 30 per cent of the VP tea are more than 30 years old and these also need replanting. Replanting had been neglected in the 1960s and 1970s partly because of low tea prices and high export duties and the profit margins were not high enough to make it a profitable enterprise. The yield of a considerable extent of rubber holdings are low as rubber trees, like tea, are old and mature. The extent replanted is insignificant when the total extent of mature rubber land is considered.

Solutions

1. There are tea and rubber lands in which the annual production is very low. A survey needs to be done to identify these unproductive tea and rubber lands, and these need to be diversified. Such lands may be put under pasture and have cattle. This will reduce our expenditure on milk imports, and also degradation of the lands will be reduced resulting in less silting of the reservoirs and reduce incidence of floods. There are many other crops such as spice crops, etc, energy yielding crops such as gliricidia and fruit crops which could be cultivated on unproductive tea and rubber lands. These crops would give better returns to the cultivators. An in-depth study needs to be carried out to determine appropriate land use in the unproductive holdings/estates giving due consideration to factors such as climate, topography, availability of labour, etc.

2. Those tea and rubber lands which are not going to be diversified need to be managed better. In this regard infilling, cultivation of better tea cultivars and rubber clones and their effective management including better fertiliser and pest management practices, increased rate of replanting, reducing soil degradation and conservation practices are essential.

Extension in the rubber sector: Around 65 per cent of the rubber holdings belong to the small holder sector. There are nearly 100,000 rubber small holders (RSH) who need to be provided with technical know-how in the activities involved from land preparation to processing, so that the rubber production is increased qualitatively and quantitatively. In this regard the extension activities are important. In 1980s there were nearly 150 rubber extension officers working for the Rubber Research Board to assist the RSH in the eight districts to grow and process rubber. However at present there are only around 20 extension staff and as a result the rubber extension programme at the Rubber Research Institute (RRI) appears to be very weak.

This institute is going to cultivate large extents of rubber in non-traditional areas such as Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Hambantota and Puttalam. These areas which the RRI is proposing to cultivate rubber are in the dry and arid zones of the country and are not suitable for rubber mainly from the point of view of the rainfall requirement of this crop. The ideal annual rainfall for rubber is in the range of 1650 mm  2500 mm reasonably uniformly distributed throughout the year. The traditional rubber areas in Sri Lanka such as Kalutara and Kegalle districts get a well distributed annual rain fall of 2000 mm-3000 mm. The annual rainfall in the areas which RRI is proposing to cultivate rubber is around 1000- 1500 mm and most of it comes during October to February. The other months are relatively dry. Under such climatic conditions it is futile to grow rubber in the dry areas. There are many other crops which grow well under such conditions. Instead of trying to grow rubber in unsuitable areas, what the RRI needs to do is to pay more attention to promote rubber cultivation in areas which are more suitable to grow this crop. Sometime ago, a project was initiated to grow rubber in the Moneragala district and it has been found that this crop grows well and gives a better yield.

(The writer is an agriculture specialist and can be reached at csweera@sltnet.k)
Anilanas inflated pricing catches up By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera View(s): View(s):

Anilana Hotels and Properties PLC (Anilana) which has negotiated with Sampath Bank PLC on a repayment schedule to settle its dues some time ago found its public offer application rejected by the authorities, informed sources said.

The company whose Initial Public Offering (IPO) was rejected by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2012 (during the now SEC Chairman Thilak Karunaratnes earlier tenure in the same capacity) ultimately managed to raise Rs. 486.6 million after the application was approved during the then SEC Chairman Nalaka Godahewas time in 2013.

The SEC rejected Anilanas IPO after accounting watchdog Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board (SLAASMB) which monitors company financial statements revealed how inflated Anilanas balance sheet was that it led to their IPO application being rejected, SEC sources told the Business Times.

These are part of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and SLAASMB was concerned by IFRS 13 which relates to fair value measurements, the source added.

Anilanas IPO application had re-valued property at a substantial valuation. SLAASMB, after consulting the Chief Valuer didnt accept Anilanas argument that these are the correct estimates as they had bought these lands at a cheap price during the war and now their value had escalated SLAASMB told the SEC not to allow the IPO to proceed.

Defying all this, the IPO was granted the green light a year later and the company is now submerged in debt.

Anilana said that they will settle their overdue portion of the credit facilities at Sampath with an initial lump sum payment and made settlements in two installment on 5th and 9th May 2017 while promising remainder of the overdue balance on or before 31st July 2017.

The company was targeting largely up-market traveller segment with plans to become the leading hotelier in the East Coast.

Anilana in a stock announcement on Monday said the directors already made arrangements to settle Sampath Bank PLC on or before next month end, but didnt reveal the action plan.

Sampath had published four notices on their Board resolutions to auction mortgaged property in a national daily mid this month  two pertaining to Anilana alone and two regarding Anilana and Eastern Development Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd.

Values of defaulted credit facilities as at February, the notice said amounted to a total of Rs. 1.323 billion, Rs. 404 million, Rs. 130 million, Rs. 744 million and Rs. 45 million.

The firm whose principal activity is developing hotels and properties and has mortgaged land is in Nilaveli, Passikudah and Vakarai.

Last year Dhammika Perera, businessmen and entrepreneur, was trying to buy Anilanas Trincomalee Property, but the deal full through after the price quoted was too high. The Anilana team wasnt available for comment.
India-Japan link to set up LNG power plant in Sri Lanka By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s):

In a far reaching move to further strengthen relations with India, the government will go ahead with a 300 MW Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) power plant in Kerawalapitiya with Indian and Japanese assistance, a senior official of the Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy told the Business Times.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) has been informed by the Ministry that Indian and Japanese parties involved in the venture will visit Sri Lanka soon to discuss and finalise the project.

Indias Petronet and a Japanese firm will form a joint venture to set up a US $250 million LNG import terminal at Kerawalapitiya near Colombo, he revealed.

The proposed LNG terminal will be built in two-and-half to three years, he said adding that the governments policy is not to have any more coal power plants.

The plant will be built on a 10 acre land. Meanwhile existing thermal power plants will be converted to LNG plants where feasible.

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) also approved the project which will be implemented as a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer basis and it will be connected to the Kerawalapitiya Grid substation.

The Treasury granted Rs. 5 billion recently to the CEB for its activities relating to power supply in the country; Treasury Secretary Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunga informed the CCEM noting that the CEB needs expert knowledge. The CCEM has approved to obtain the advice from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) while endorsing the proposal to purchase two 60MW and 100 MW barge mounted emergency power plants to be used as backup power during emergency situations.

The Ministry of Finance has been entrusted with the task of auditing the commercial operations of the CEB. CCEM has granted approval to obtain proposals from KPMG and PWC to carry out this task.

The Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy and the CEB have been instructed to take immediate action to ensure an uninterrupted power supply in the country.
Overflowing comments as Sri Lankan citizens strongly express themselves over dengue outbreak View(s):

From clearing garbage on time, increasing penalties to garbage dumpers, increasing hospital facilities for dengue patients to holding municipal elections to urging the public to help the government in the anti-dengue drive.

Like overflowing government and private hospitals with dengue patients, dozens of Sri Lankans responded to a joint Business Times Research Consultancy Bureau (BT-RCB) poll to examine issues pertaining to the dengue epidemic and its impact on society, with comments overflowing through street interviews and on email.

The joint polls, resuming after a long break this past few months, appeared to have touched a chord amongst over 1000 respondents polled, as amidst anger and frustration over the governments handling of the crisis, there was also sympathy and soul-searching within,with people looking in the mirror and blaming themselves (meaning insensitive people who dump garbage on roadsides or dont keep their home environment clean).

The poll was conducted on the street (RCB in Colombo and Galle) and on email (BT). Below is a synopsis of the comments received:

From the BT emails:

All governments have failed to manage this epidemic in an effective way. Politicians and officials give no correct leadership and no commitment

By not finding a permanent solution to the garbage problem, the Government is exacerbating the dengue epidemic. Uncleaned drains, canals, waterways are also causes for the epidemic.

Municipalities have failed to keep the environment clean. This may also be due to lack of resources/manpower, etc.

There are not enough doctors to tackle the epidemic. Ratio is a major issue. Overall, the authorities say we need to have 25,000 doctors but we have only 17,000 doctors. So obviously there is a shortage in every area.

Hospitals are stretched to its limits with dengue patients.

People should be blamed for not keeping their environment clean. If every individual takes responsibility for his or her own vicinity this epidemic would not have grown to this extent.

The tug of war between the central government and provincial administrations on the garbage disposal has given rise to this situation. There is a blame game going on without any one party taking the responsibility. Above all, having No policy & plan towards waste management in the country, the citizenry cannot expect a proper system in place at least in the foreseeable future.

Local authorities, road authorities and Land Reclamation authorities (SLLRDC) also create mosquito breeding places. Deep dug drains at roadsides, bottom and sides concreted canals with poor gradients, providing permits to construct in low-lying marshy areas blocking drainage, eliminating wetland natural environs destroying natural/ecological balancing of mosquito breeding, are some of the issues.

The biggest blame lies with local authorities. Uncleared garbage, irregular schedule for garbage clearance, unscrupulous municipal workers who have to be paid to clear garbage, uncleaned drains, waterways and canals and badly maintained garbage dumps are all helping to prolong the epidemic.

People should be held responsible for keeping the households, roads and their community clean. Where is the Environment Police? Newspapers said there will be monitoring as to who litter the roads but we have not seen any such thing happening.

People should be blamed to a large extent for this predicament.

Most households too have to be blamed for keeping unclean premises around their homes.

I live in Aluthgama/Bentota area and for nearly 30 days garbage have not been cleared from the roads. We have lots of luxury hotels and lots of tourists visit this area continuously. We were told by the new government that the public sector is not efficient and something will be done about it. But the status quo remains. Public sector offices do what they want. The new president seems to have a good vision specially on stopping shopping bags. But everywhere the roads are full of garbage and plastics. Im very sad about Sri Lanka.

The crisis is all about cleanliness. For treatment we have the experts. But why come to that stage when we could nip the problem in the bud. Seriousness is critical if we are to succeed. The members of Parliament, Pradeshiya Sabas, Town Councils, etc have to get on the roads and lead by example. If all the NGOS have a common theme and all their social work is focused on this, the menace could be eradicated. I remember going for many Shramadana projects while in school. Even all offices could do it. The state should increase the DDT spraying. Of course the state has no funds now. Strange because there are budgets for fancy cars!

7-point plan suggested

A Colombo resident suggested the following 7 point structure to ensure a clean environment:

1. Clean private residencies and lands (responsibility of each owner)

2. Clean private business buildings and lands (responsibility of the owners)

3. Clean government buildings and lands (responsibility of the institute/school/university)

4. Clean common areas such as roads, culverts and parks (responsibility of the local body)

5. Conduct effective awareness campaigns (Ministry of Health/Ministry of Media)

6.Formulation of effective dengue treatment plan (Health Ministry /Private Hospitals Association)

7. Formulation of well-coordinated task force (Responsibility of the executive)

Street comments in Colombo and

Gampaha put together by RCB:

Colombo:

It is proven beyond doubt that the work of the municipalities are unsatisfactory as garbage is never collected on time.

The Government is incapable of eradicating epidemics like dengue in spite of foreign assistance.

Make your home surroundings clean.

An unclean domestic environment contributes to the spread of the disease.

Commissioners in local authorities are ineffective in ensuring cities are clean.

Since there are no bins to hold garbage refuse collected in market places, the environment is threatened.

There is no commitment shown by the public although the Government is taking every effort to arrest the issue.

Patients get sick by the way they are addressed in hospitals by the staff and given shoddy treatment.

Just like garbage, the Government also stinks over this issue.

If the Government worked properly the dengue epidemic could have been controlled like in Cuba.

Residents should keep their home environments clean to prevent the spread of dengue mosquitoes.

Doctors perform to the best of their ability. With limited resources they are doing their best. There is a scarcity of doctors and drugs especially in rural areas.

Volunteer organizations can do much more in helping to contain the spread of the virus.

Rather than protesting on the streets and wasting time, angry youth should cooperate with dengue prevention measures.

The Government has no plan. It is simply buying time. If the people are compelled to do everything why should there be a government? Are the ministers only interested in vehicles and houses? Only a handful are working in the interests of the country while the others are feathering their own nest.

Government officials dont work in offices. They sleep. Punish them.

Garbage is not collected by the local authorities on time.

Bring the public service and the armed forces together in a joint effort to quickly contain the epidemic.

There is a need for an effective drainage system to collect waste water treatment and maintenance.

All state and private institutions to be held responsible for this calamity and stiff penalties imposed including responsible officers held accountable for a clean environment.

Empower residents in localities to clean their compounds and to keep them to required standards.

Garbage is the responsibility of everyone, not only the government.

It is unfortunate that the Health authorities have not found the vaccine or drug against dengue.

Galle residents:

No proper system for the disposal of garbage in towns and in villages. It is seasonal.

Local officials have a dictatorial attitude on the disposal of garbage. There is no interest by local councilors as councils have been dissolved and no elections are yet in sight.

There are no rules for the disposal of garbage in this country. What is the Government doing while the epidemic is spreading?

Doctors are doing their maximum but the number of patients are increasing.

Launch a national programme against the epidemic with the participation of local government members like in the past.

Enforce tough action against haphazard dumping of garbage.

The Central Government should take action against provincial councils which are ineffective in containing the epidemic.

Politicians are capitalizing on these issues. The public should be alert and resist such moves.

The Government is trying its best while the import of drugs is at a heavy cost.

People need to be given proper and accurate information on these issues not only from the Government but by the media too.

Local Government institutions are only checking private lands while schools and Government institutions have become breeding grounds.

Enforce strict laws and implement them fully on anybody irrespective of their status. Unfortunately the enforcement mechanism is poor.

Import the anti-bacteria to control the epidemic.

There is only talk and no implementation by the authorities. Lets all unite and face the enemy together.

Although the local authorities are collecting the garbage there is no interest by the pubic to keep their compounds clean.
Public anger mounting over dengue management: BT-RCB Poll Teach Civics and manners in schools View(s): View(s):

Unsurprisingly, a new joint poll by the Business Times (BT) and the Research Consultancy Bureau (RCB) on the dengue crisis that has engulfed the country, reveals mounting public anger against the Government and local authorities for failing to contain the epidemic.

With both public and private hospitals overflowing with patients and public concern over dengue at its peak, the BT-RCB poll (conducted on email and on the street) saw dozens of those polled venting their anger and frustration with comments flowing.

But respondents also sympathised with the Government saying the state has its hands full and cited public apathy as one of the main problems. The people in this country wait till everything is provided by the Government. The fault lies with the public, one respondent in the street poll conducted by the RCB, said.

Another said that while the Government is unable to visit every home to prevent an outbreak and has limited resources, the public too has a responsibility towards ensuring a clean environment.

With strikes and protests by unionised government doctors, the Government Medical Officers Union (GMOA) was not spared. The treatment of the patients are regularly neglected due to doctors strikes, said a respondent.

The poll also drew a caustic comment from one respondent: Teach civics and manners in the classroom (as people dont know their duties and obligations). Another frustrated Colombo resident urged the authorities to hold the Colombo municipal election fast with the garbage and dengue issue being the main platform plank!

Titled Dengue  No respecter of persons, the poll on email (by the BT) and on the street (in Colombo and Galle by RCB), triggered some interesting data. The results of the poll is seen in the graphic on this page and what is most interesting was that street respondents in Galle differed in their view from Colombo. While Colombo was unsure whether the Government was managing the situation well (46 per cent agreed while 43 per cent disagreed), Galle residents gave a 50 per cent (disagreed) response with only 26 per cent agreeing.

More than 600 people were polled in the street survey while the email base covered over 900 respondents.

Street respondents lamented that while the rich can afford to go to private hospitals, the poor flock around overcrowded state facilities and urged improvements there.

The Health Minster is always talking and less work, one respondent claimed while another claimed that the public was inconvenienced due to the classification of garbage and not been collected on time.

The majority of Sri Lankans are unfortunately litter-bugs. They throw waste out of vehicles, spit everywhere and are not bothered about the garbage just outside their doorstep, said another respondent, adding for this attitude to change the subject of Civics should be taught from the kindergarten upwards so that at least a new generation will change their attitude.

The poll revealed that another issue that has triggered the crisis was that the provincial councils and local bodies were not cooperating with the present regime. They are waiting for the regime to fall, said a respondent.

Harder fines and penalties were urged against offenders dumping garbage. A Galle resident said that small and medium industries should be held responsible for dumping of industrial waste.
Presidents Fund drying up, Sirisena wants one billion rupees urgently View(s):

From providing financial assistance for medical treatment to granting relief to low-income groups over the years, the Presidents Fund is now, literally broke.President Maithripala Sirisena, under whom the Fund functions, wants at least a billion rupees immediately as a temporary measure to fund the Fund.

Towards this end, he has come up with three different proposals to ensure that the flow of funds is not curbed and there is a steady flow of applicants seeking help. One is to impose a levy on the excess funds of the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission and get the revenue credited to the Consolidated Fund. Thereafter, the Treasury is to direct that revenue to the Presidents Fund.

Another proposal is to exempt the Development Lotteries Board from all taxes since the contributions from there are utilised for providing medical assistance and other forms of financial assistance to low income groups. The third is for the Treasury to provide annually to the Presidents Fund an amount which is part of proceeds of various taxes levied by the Department of Inland Revenue.

The Presidents Fund which is chaired by the President functions under a Board of Governors. Other members are the Prime Minister, the Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition and three other members.

The Presidents Fund is at present wholly dependent on funding by the Development Lotteries Board, an institution which has just been brought under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Fund has spent Rs 1.4 billion every year on medical assistance to the needy. This was from around Rs 1.85 billion provided by the Development Lotteries Board. The Board had also credited 50 percent to the Mahapola Higher Education Scholarship Trust Fund.

President Sirisena has noted that judging by the revenue forecasts of the Development Lotteries Board for 2017, it could contribute around Rs 154 million to the Presidents Fund for 2017 following the recovery of Rs 1,807 million by the Department of Inland Revenue. However, the requirements of the Presidents Fund to meet demands for financial assistance and other payments are said to be around Rs 1,400 million.

President Sirisena has opined that no taxes should be levied on the funds contributed to the Presidents Fund by the National Development Lotteries Board. He has suggested that ministers should examine amendments to relevant laws to make this possible to common people, low income groups, who were the beneficiaries.

President solves Kabir-Yapa spat, but shows he is in control

President Maithripala Sirisena not only resolved a dispute of sorts, but also ended up sending a veiled message to his UNP partners this week.

It was over the appointment of Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena as the Minister of State for Public Enterprise Development. He had earlier walked out of the World Trade Centre offices of the Ministry complaining that he was given a lesser number of rooms than his predecessor, who was a Deputy Minister.

That was to see Enterprise Development Minister Kabir Hashim, who is also the General Secretary of the UNP, raising issue with President Sirisena allegedly on the tenor of the remarks made publicly by Mr. Yapa Abeywardena. The President responded by asking for time to sort out matters and even suggested that he would make the newly appointed State Minister, Chief of Staff of the President.

However, the President later succeeded in persuading Mr. Yapa Abeywardena to stay as the Minister of State for Public Enterprise Development. And when he decided to eventually move into his office at the World Trade Centre this time, President Sirisena turned up to take part in the ceremonies.

Minister Hashim made a brief speech when the ceremonies began. It is a pleasure to have a one-time MP as State Minister now, he declared rather acidly. Then, he left the event not knowing that President Sirisena was on his way.

The President was somewhat surprised to see a large turnout of media personnel at the ceremony. The new State Minister Yapa Abeywardena explained to the President that the media wanted to know what was going on at SriLankan Airlines. Mr. Sirisena remarked laughingly that with the media around we cannot discuss matters.

When President Sirisena left, a journalist asked the UNP turned SLFP State Minister what the President said. Well, it is clear. He has appointed me as his State Minister, the new State Minister declared. The remark  and President Sirisenas presence at the function  assumes more than the eye meets, particularly in the light of the political tug-of-war between the coalition partners of the National Unity Government.

Legal action in Lanka against visa overstayers in Korea

Foreign Employment Minister Thalatha Athukorale has sought the help of the South Korean government to identify Sri Lankans who are visa overstayers in that country.

The appeal came when she visited Seoul and held talks with her counterpart Lee Ki-Kweon.

She learnt from the South Korean Minister that there are 50,000 Sri Lankan workers in that country under the Employment Permit Scheme.

According to the Minister Athukorale, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment has introduced a bond scheme where workers proceeding to South Korea are required to sign a guarantee to return. As a result of the scheme, some of the visa overstayers who returned to Sri Lanka are now facing legal action, she said.

Technological University to be set up in Padukka

The Sri Lanka Technological University to be set up is to be the first of its kind residential research body, the Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure claims.It is to be located on a 36-acre site alongside the Satellite Earth Station in Padukka.

The proposed University has already entered into student transfer agreements with the Lancaster University (UK) and the Deakin University (Australia). Negotiations are under way with the Georgia Tech University, Texas (USA) and the Lincoln University in New Zealand. The degree awarding university will offer four-year engineering degree programmes.

Diplomats tussle draws big boss retort

It was the intervention of the big boss of the land that has prevented the change in the status quo of a Sri Lanka diplomatic mission in Europe.

Feuding in that mission are the number one and two. Insiders say that the tussle has been going on ever since the numero uno turned up and assumed duties. The crisis reached a climax last week.

This was when the numero uno declared that there would be no option other than give up the posting. This is if the number two is not removed forthwith.An angry big boss at home said that it was wrong to dictate terms to his Government. Those posted should be willing to work with others who were also representing Sri Lanka, he said.

Envoy in Kenya recalled to Colombo

Sri Lankas envoy in Kenya C. Dahanayake has been recalled to Colombo.Foreign Ministry officials declined to comment on reasons for the withdrawal, but said a career officer will succeed him.

In Colombo, in the meanwhile, two envoy-designates, one to Paris (Buddhi Athauda), a US dual citizen, and to Berlin (Karunasena Hettiaratchchi) were cleared on Friday by the High Posts Committee of Parliament.
Press ejector-button at least now View(s):

At last! Whoever it is that finally decided enough was enough and brought the national carrier and some of those who run it (mostly to the ground) back to terra firma before an incensed public crash-landed it on those inflated heads at the top of SriLankan Airlines, deserves an attar of roses.

For two years or more SriLankan Airlines has been run by a hand-picked team of master craftsmen who were mandated to turn it around. In which direction we are still to learn. Some say the runway was expanded because they did not know where to turn.

After the 2015 regime change the new leaders enthusiastically appointed a committee of inquiry to scrutinise the operations of the airline which was fast losing altitude and the reputation it once enjoyed.

Those who heard of strange goings on at SriLankan Airlines under the new management, the rising tensions between pilots and management leading at one point to a boycott threat wondered whether the national carrier would survive these turbulent times.

An exasperated and vexed lot of cabinet ministers some rightly angered by the arrogance of the airlines top management which even ignored its own minister thought it was time to act.

Last week President Sirisena who also was aware of some unsavoury happenings but kept them hidden like a family boodelay, summoned the airlines board to answer for its actions some already public knowledge. From all accounts the airlines board had to fasten its seat belts as it ran into heavy flak in the skies above the presidential secretariat from where ministers had the opportunity to deflate their pompous pronouncements.

One fact emerged clear enough  the airlines board of directors was as divided as Gaul in Caesars time. The chairman of SriLankan Airlines Ajith Dias, its CEO Suren Ratwatte and maybe one or two board members stood together while others who included highly-skilled professionals showed disgust at the manner in which decisions were rammed through despite strong dissent.

Dias and Ratwatte perhaps believe they are politically untouchable, Dias having been appointed by schoolmate Ranil Wickremesinghe and Ratwatte, once a pilot at Emirates and said to have little or no management experience to be CEO  also belonged to the college cabal called FRCS (Former Royal College Student) like Wickremesinghe, is the younger brother of Charitha Ratwatte, senior adviser to Wickremesinghe.

It seems old school ties which have tied the yahapalanaya chaps in several knots in recent years, is seen by FRCS members with close connections to the politically powerful, as a licence to ignore rules, regulations and other such impediments. Reporting last weeks meeting that apparently raised the ire of President Sirisena, one website said the president is expecting the board to resign gracefully without him having to sack the lot.

After Tuesdays ferocious questioning of the SriLankan top management, ministerial sources expected the board to quit on their own it said. After the bruising grilling, some directors who are at loggerheads with Dias and Ratwatte told ministers that the questions were just the tip of the iceberg and they had documentary evidence of many more irregularities.

One troubling issue is why Dias  and perhaps Ratwatte  threw the Weliamuna committee report into the dustbin (metaphorically if not literally) when it made so many strictures which the management could and should have acted on. I quote below some excerpts from a column of mine last October following a joint press conference by Dias and Ratwatte which raised issues that some ministers pursued last week.

Many, many years ago somebody said that the bikini is like a barb-wired fence; it protects the property without obstructing the view. In more recent days there has been a new addition to female swim wear. It is the burkini  a word coined out of two others  burqa and bikini  which covers everything below the neck.

The more I read of the self-gratifying achievements articulated by the head honcho of Sri Lankas national airline and his faithful Tonto the more I am reminded of the cover-up known as the burkini which continues to show the face but for how long one does not know.

Armed with the most potent qualifications that todays mahaththaya class installed in highly-paid or influential positions in this yahapalana administration could hold, Chairman Dias and CEO Ratwatte faced the media. Whether there were others armed with the same FRCS escutcheon that the two main actors sported, hovering in the background I could not of course say being so many kilometres from Colombo.

But as the chattering class frequenting Colombos numerous posh pubs and night spots which have escaped the attention of political progeny, say in sniggers it is not a medical qualification though some of its holders are not beyond doctoring this and that and handling some parts of the anatomy when time and circumstances permit.

One report led its coverage of the media conference with the headline Dias side-steps Weliamuna findings. The news report went on to say that the chairman of the national carrier did not respond to allegations contained in a government commissioned report which had found that the airline illegally provided the services of an air hostess to a politician while the airline was also a paradise for sexual predators.

Apparently Dias was irked when questioned on the action he had taken in respect of the Board of Inquiry conducted by lawyer J. Weliamuna who had reported massive corruption and sexual scandals at the loss-making carrier. The public had long known of the scandalous nature of mismanagement, abuse and financial profligacy at SriLankan Airlines in the past years especially under the Rajapaksa administration.

But long before Weliamuna and his three-member team were picked to investigate the goings-on, the presidential election campaign saw allegation after allegation thrown at the national carrier and those who ran it  to the ground one might say.

So with all the strictures made by those in the government who put Dias and his crew into place and the findings of the Weliamuna inquiry delving deeper into some of those allegations with the help of ex-staffers and current employees, the public would have expected the holders of office at the airline to make a more determined and exhaustive effort to examine the findings of the inquiry without shunting much of it aside as lacking in evidence or the tales of discredited or disgruntled individuals.

In the meantime there are other issues that cannot be swept under the carpet or simply wished away. The media report cited earlier said that Dias was irked when questioned on the action he had taken in respect of the Board of Inquiry conducted by Weliamuna.

Dias claimed the latter allegations were personal matters and not within our purview.

When the journalist persisted and asked him who released the female cabin crew member to go to do political work for Namal Rajapaksa, Dias is reported to have replied You know, you know, I mean personal things of that nature, I dont think it is appropriate at this (press conference), air hostesses and things like that.

Now that is what is worrying. The attempt to dismiss these charges as personal things is what is not appropriate, not the fact that the question was asked at the press conference.

No doubt the intention of the management in calling the conference was to inform of the improved performance of the airline in the last one and a half years or more under their wing. Of course it might have been more appropriate if it was also clearly stated how much lower oil prices contributed to it.

But as Dias has stated in an earlier interview with the DailyFT, SriLankan Airlines is a state enterprise. It has been constantly infused with public funds to keep it in the air. Its board of directors has been appointed by the government and those like Dias also by government.

The functioning of SriLankan Airlines is therefore a matter of public interest as it is public finance that permits its existence. Anything that happens or does not happen in a state institution is of interest to the people.

The cabin crew member and others specifically referred to in the Weliamuna report and the charges levelled against them are a matter of public interest as they are employees of a state-owned institution.

It is strange therefore that Dias with Ratwatte by his side claims the matters raised were personal things especially when the report says that the crew member seemed to have drawn two salaries and even received cabin crew allowances when her feet were firmly planted on terra firma or wherever. It all amounted to an overpayment of Rs. 4.2 million and the report recommended that the airline recover the money.

The question for Mr. Dias and his crew is whether this money was recovered or the person concerned was even asked to pay back the excess. If not why has it not been done? Moreover who in the airline authorised the payment of the crew allowance?

In an interview in August Chairman Dias was quoted as saying that Nowhere in the world are the internal problems of a company reflected in the newspapers. This seems to happen only here and that too in respect of SriLankan Airlines.

Wrong Mr. Chairman unless of course you inhabit a different world.

It is surprising that SriLankan Airlines is engaging in this side-stepping exercise falling back on two phrases not within our purview and personal matters when the very press release the airline issued states that stringent cost controls underscored by heightened accountability and transparency have been the cornerstones of the new strategy.

If avoiding simple questions represents the heightened accountability and transparency the public surely has a right to know the whiz kids who thought up this strategy. Unless, of course, the words accountability and transparency have acquired new meanings since the Dias-Ratwatte duo were educated at Race Course Avenue.

Some of these issues are the very ones that are worrying the ministers and will continue to occupy peoples minds until plausible and reliable answers are provided. It is time they learned or departed.
When land acquisition ignores citizens rights View(s):

From time to time, Governments in this country have embarked on aggressive land acquisition drives citing development requisites. But when it comes to compensating those who are forced to give up their homes and businesses, the wheels grind very slowly indeedor, for some, not at all.

Under the Land Acquisition Act, the State can secure any private land, provided it is for public purpose. There has been a significant rise in Section 2 notices, informing landowners that their properties are to be possessed. Acquisitions are now (and have been for some time) the largest group of gazettes published by the Department of Government Printing.

Thousands of plots, big and small, are involved. Budgetary allocations to cover the cost of acquisitions have also risen. But the Government still owes its citizens millions in unsettled acquisition dues. The scale of takeover, therefore, is massivea natural consequence of mega projects which have become the norm.

This has created tremendous insecurities and disrupted the lives of large sections of the population. The authorities are routinely using Section 38(a) of the land acquisition act to take immediate possession of lands. The law does provide for consultations with the public with a view to reaching consensus; and for affected parties to oppose or make suggestions, thereby making the Government more accountable. But these clauses are blatantly ignored in favour of barging in and taking over.

The Sunday Times reported only last week how the descendants of the late philanthropist Charles Henry de Soysawho, ironically, bequeathed many of his properties for the public goodlost their inherited lands at Kompannaveediya in 2012 when the Government acquired vast tracts under the Urban Development Projects (Special Provisions) Act. They havent received a cent in compensation.

This is just one case. There are countless others. Some landowners have been waiting decades for their money (they dont even know how much is owed to them). Others have died before ever receiving that elusive cheque. There is no central record of just how many people remain unpaid. These dues are not even counted as Government liabilities. They should be, because this is a debt the State owes its people.

There are serious concerns about the way in which the Government is taking over lands. Not paying compensation before taking vacant possession is a grievous fault. Cheating people out of their hard-earned assets, particularly if the project is economically unfeasible, is indefensible.

To build the Rajagiriya flyover, the Minister first issued a notice under Section 38(a) in September, 2016. There was no prior consultation with residents. They were merely told to break their walls within a week or face demolition. Nearly one year later, there is no sign of payment for the restructuring or rebuilding of premises and residences after the acquisition. Several of those affected are pensioners.

It has been strongly argued that using Section 38(a) for every acquisition is a violation of fundamental rights. It permits land to be possessed at any time after the first notice is exhibited on or near the land over which that servitude is to be acquired. No reason need be given for the acquisition. Reasonable timeframes are not prescribed for the display of notices or objections.

Donor agencies like the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency have strict social safeguardsspecific requirements project authorities are expected to meet when there is negative fallout from involuntary land acquisitionincorporated into the terms and conditions of their loans. For this reason, those affected by projects that they support are considerably better off.

The construction of the ADB-funded Southern Expressway funding even led to the creation of a comprehensive National Involuntary Resettlement Policy (NIRP) which was passed by the Cabinet. But one would be hard pressed today to find a copy of that document in any of the offices of project implementers.

There was a reason for the NIRP to be adopted amidst much fanfare in 2001: to protect the rights of the thousands affected by continued land acquisitions. It states, in the first instance that involuntary resettlement should be avoided or reduced as much as possible by reviewing alternatives to and within the project. But the Government has routinely used 38(a) to abdicate any responsibility of finding options that do not require people to give up their properties. The NIRP also says that, where involuntary resettlement is unavoidable, affected people should be assisted to reestablish themselves and improve their quality of life. In practical terms, this happens only in the cases of those projects funded by donors that subscribe to and insist on these standards. In most others, the fates of those whose lands are possessedand who are, therefore, displacedare grim.

One of the chief complaints of affected persons is that they are not given information about, well, anything. Notices are issued. Then, authorities turn up at a site and start measuring and marking it out. From that point onwards, landowners, squatters, tenantswhoever is in occupationare haunted by feelings of sheer helplessness and powerlessness as they are dragged into an abyss of ignorance. Officials are known to tell affected persons that, like it or not, they have to give up their properties and take whatever is given to them, whenever it comes.

This is morally, ethically and fundamentally wrongeven if 38(a) does allow it. There is a globally accepted principle that development projects must not leave anybody worse off than they were before. Not only is Sri Lanka failing to embrace this, the country is well behind in bringing about urgent amendments to the Land Acquisition Act.

India, by contrast, is far ahead. That country, in 2013, brought in the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act to replace its Land Acquisition Act. It has provisions to provide fair compensation to those whose land is taken away, bring transparency to the process of acquisition and assure rehabilitation to affected parties.

In 2016, Sri Lankas new Government set up an Expert Technical Working Group to suggest changes. It called for, among other things, the establishment of a negotiation board to make every effort to reach negotiated land purchases and a separate authority for national priority projects to support land acquisition and resettlement processes. The report, which contained a host of other progressive recommendations, was submitted to the Government and has not been heard of thereafter.

In the meantime, Sri Lankas administrators continue to extol the very doubtful virtues of 38(a). The common attitude is that consultation is not necessary as private lands are being taken over for national purpose. But let it not be forgotten that a whole host of human and fundamental rightsincluding the right to shelter, right to occupation, right to notice, the right to be heard, etcare blatantly violated in the process.
State Minister for Social Welfare and Corporation Nemcha Kipgen launched a 24x7 helpline number 181 to address problems faced by women in Manipur.

By India Today Web Desk: To battle the ever increasing crimes against women in Manipur, the Biren Singh-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has launched a toll free 24/7 helpline number 181 for women in the state.

This is first time in the history of Manipur. A helpline just for women was launched today at Kuranga Nayani Hall, D C office complex of Lamphel by Manipur State Commission for Women (MSCW) and department of social welfare.

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The helpline 181 was launched by State Minister for Social Welfare and Corporation Nemcha Kipgen.

Principal Secretary (Social Welfare) J C Ramthanga, Director (Social Welfare), Jacintha Lazarus and Deputy Commissioner (Imphal West District) N Geoffrey attended the function as guests of honour.

Addressing the launch programme, Kipgen said the helpline will help fight and reduce crime against women in the state.

"The reports of crime against women have been alarmingly increasing over the years, as can be observed through the daily news, which calls for an action to stop such incidents from occurring in our near future," she said.

She also urged the people of Manipur to cooperate. Further, she urged that people should extend support to run this helpline smoothly and effectively in the interest of all women in Manipur.

BENEFITS OF HELPLINE

The helpline will provide a 24-hour telecom service to women affected by violence, seeking support and information.

The helpline will also facilitate crisis and non-crisis intervention through referral to the appropriate agencies such as police, hospitals, ambulance services, District Legal Service Authority (DLSA), protection officer (PO)/OSC.

The helpline will also provide information about the appropriate support services, government schemes and programmes available to the women affected by violence, in her particular situation within the local area in which she resides or is employed.

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN THE STATE

Dignitaries expressed their heartfelt congratulations to the MSCW and hoped that it will not just become an ordinary helpline but bring positive changes in the state amid everyday news of crime against women.

Chairperson of Manipur State Commission for Women, K Sobita Devi, said this is only a beginning to empower in the state.

This scheme is available and designed for all 16 districts of the state and for this purpose District level nodal officers have been appointed.

(With inputs from ANI)

FYI || Triple talaq: How it affects lives of India's 90 million Muslim women ||

FYI || Humanity derailed: Unhelpful people ignore woman stuck between closing train doors ||

--- ENDS ---

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Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon Award to Auction View(s):

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) gold plaque signifying Pink Floyds The Dark Side of the Moon LP that sold a million dollars worth of copies was auctioned off by Nate D. Sanders Auctions on Thursday.

The award was once owned by Pink Floyds former keyboardist and founding member, Richard Wright, who died in 2008 at age 65.

Pink Floyd memorabilia has been in great demand in recent months Nate Sanders said in a statement.Even the Victoria and Albert Museum in London is hosting an extremely popular retrospective of this iconic band.

The Dark Side of the Moon came out in 1973, reached Number One on the Billboard Albums chart and went on to sell more than 15 million copies in the U.S. alone. Last March, the console used to record the LP sold for $1.8 million  more than twice the expected price.

According to Nate D. Sanders Auctions website, The minimum bid for The Dark Side of the Moon gold plaque starts at $20,000.
Return of Transformers View(s):

Transformers; The Last Knight, the latest Hollywood action thriller, the fifth installment of the live-action Transformers is now being screened in theatres in Colombo and the outstations.

Directed by Michael Bay, the film series is based on the toy line of the same name created by Hasbro.

The film revolves around a fierce war between humans and Transformers and Optimus Prime is gone. The key to saving the future lies buried in the secrets of the past, in the hidden history of Transformers on Earth.

The film stars Mark Wahlberg and Stanley Tucci returning from the last Transformers joined by Josh Duhamel, and John Turturro reprising their roles from the first three films and Anthony Hopkins joining the cast.

It is screened at Liberty By Scope Cinemas 3D, Savoy Premier 3D, MC Platinum, Empire, Vista  Ja-Ela, Sky Lite Malabe in Colombo and suburbs and other outstation theatres.
The Korean Cultural Festival 2017 From Korea with love By Susitha R. Fernando View(s): View(s):

The Korean Cultural Festival, one of the arts and culture events becoming popular in Sri Lanka will be held from 1.30 pm to till 7.30 pm at the Bishops College Auditorium on July.

Organised by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea together with the National Unification Advisory Council South West Asia Chapter, the Korean Residents Association of Sri Lanka and the Korean Businessmens Association, the evening will consists of two main events the Quiz-on Korea and the K-Pop World Festival.

This year also marks the 40th anniversary of Sri Lanka-Korea diplomatic ties and celebrations will continue till November.

In recent years, with the growing popularity of the Korean Wave, epitomised by K-Dramas and K-Pop, many Sri Lankans including young people have shown a deep interest in Korean culture and language.

Responding to this love for Korean culture, the Embassy has organised the annual Korean Cultural Festival over the last few years. And it has proved to be a successful way to further deepen the friendship and goodwill between Korea and Sri Lanka, Korean Embassy said in a statement.

in partnership with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Wayamba Development and Culture Affairs of Sri Lanka, and the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation.

On July 1, the Quiz-on Korea (13:30  16:00 pm) is a survival quiz competition where the questions will be on generic topics on Korea, including Korean lifestyle, traditional culture, history and language.

The winner will get an opportunity to learn and experience Korea this September, and compete with national representatives from different countries around the world to win the top prize.

The K-Pop World Festival (17:00  19:30 on 1 July) is a K-pop performance competition, for which the Embassy has invited talented Sri Lankan vocalists and/or dancers to show their K-pop spirit on stage.

Winning team(s) will stand the chance to go to Korea for the final round and compete internationally in September, following a screening process. They will also get a chance to meet and perform together with K-Pop stars.
Aloysius distillery: Finance Ministry asked to show cause Presidential task force says licence goes against national policy View(s): View(s):

A Task Force, functioning under President Maithripala Sirisena, has queried the Finance Ministry on how approval was granted to establish an ethanol distillery in Batticaloa, contrary to government policy. The Presidential Task Force on Drug Prevention (PTFDP) functions under the purview of President Maithripala Sirisena. The PTFDP has asked the Finance Ministry Secretary to explain how approval was granted to set up a new ethanol distillery in Kalkudah, Batticaloa, in violation of the National Drug Prevention Policy (NDPP).

W.M. Mendis is owned by Arjun Aloysius, the son-in-law of the Central Banks former Governor Arjuna Mahendran who is currently being investigated over the bond issue. Last year, the Excise Department gave approval to the company to set up a grain-based extra neutral alcohol (ENA) distillery on instructions from the Department of Fiscal Policy, both of which fall under the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry was then headed by Ravi Karunanayake.

The NDPP states that No new licences will be issued for tobacco and alcohol production. Now, PTFDP Director Samantha Kumara Kithalawaarachchi has asked Finance Ministry Secretary R.H.S. Samaratunga to submit a report on how W.M. Mendis & Co received permission to set up an ethanol factory in the East. Dr Kithalawaarachchi has pointed out in his letter that the PTFDP strives to create a country free of drugs and has been able to generate positive changes with the help of Government and NGO agencies.

But the PTFDP has received a complaint about the setting up of a liquor distillery by W.M. Mendis & Co in Kalkudah, Batticaloa. The NDPP is explicitly against the granting of new licences for such purpose.

Therefore, we find that this establishment is a violation of the National Policy, Dr Kithalawaarachchi says. He has sought an immediate reply which he would submit to the President. At at time when His Excellency the President himself shows immense dedication to eradicate the drug menace, we hope you will render your fullest support to create a country free of drugs, he concludes. His letter has been copied to 13 others, including Batticaloa District parliamentarians.

W.M. Mendis is owned by Arjun Aloysius, the son-in-law of the Central Banks former Governor Arjuna Mahendran who is currently being investigated over the bond issue. Last year, the Excise Department gave approval to the company to set up a grain-based extra neutral alcohol (ENA) distillery on instructions from the Department of Fiscal Policy, both of which fall under the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry was then headed by Ravi Karunanayake.

The Fiscal Departments first communication to the Excise Department saying approval has been granted for the project is dated May 2015, a bare five months after the presidential election. In March 2016, W.M. Mendis wrote to the Commissioner General of Excise seeking a distillery licence to commission the plant. This was granted shortly afterwards.

But the project has run into stiff resistance in the East. It has been opposed by the Batticaloa District Coordinating Committee, the Koralaipattu Pradeshiya Sabha, the Eastern Provincial Council and the Koralaipattu-Valachchenai Divisional Coordinating Committee.

Last month, around 2,000 people turned up for a protest organised by the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama. Petitions have been forwarded to the Government through area MPs.
Bid to bomb Meccas Grand Mosque foiled View(s):

DUBAI, June 24 (Reuters)  Saudi security forces have foiled a suicide attack on the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, cornering the would-be attacker in an apartment, where he blew himself up, the Interior Ministry said. In a statement read on state television, the ministry said that three cells had planned the attack on worshippers and security forces at the mosque as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan nears its climax.

The trapped would-be suicide bomber exchanged fire with the security forces on Friday, then set off explosives when he was surrounded in a house in the central Mecca neighbourhood of Ajyad al-Masafi near the mosque that had been used as the base for the attack, the ministry said.The building collapsed, injuring six foreigners and five members of the security forces.

Earlier in the day, security forces had shot dead a wanted man at another suspected Islamist militant hideout in Meccas al-Aseelah neighbourhood. The ministry also said a third cell had been broken up in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, but gave no further details.Five suspected militants including a woman were arrested, it said. Saudi monarchs usually spend the last 10 days of Ramadan in Mecca.
Celebrating a deep sense of fellowship and co-existence Prime Minister's Ramazan Festival Message View(s): View(s):

In his message on the occasion of Ramazan, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe observed that the Festival is celebrated with a deep sense of fellowship and co-existence. Following is the full text of Premier Wickremesinghes message:

Ramazan Festival is celebrated by Muslims with a deep sense of fellowship and co-existence throughout the world.

He further said Ramazan ends a time of fasting undertaken as a period of reflection and religious observances, marked with alms-giving and sharing.

The fasting associated with Ramazan encourages mental and physical commitment to the faith, and also enables families and communities to connect with one another and renew values sacred to Islam.

Eid Mubarak to all Muslims in Sri Lanka and throughout the world.
GMOA suspends strike, claims President agreed to demands View(s):

Government doctors yesterday called off a strike that had paralysed public hospitals after they reached an accord with President Maithripala Sirisena.

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) claimed that the President had agreed to accept several demands made by the doctors relating to the controversial South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM). However, the Presidents Office said a statement on the talks would be issued only today.

The GMOA claimed that there had been agreement to suspend further registration of students to SAITM and to strip the institution of its degree awarding status. There was also agreement to convey the Governments stance on the SAITM to the Supreme Court through the Attorney General. The GMOA said there had also been agreement that there would be no action that had an impact on the independence of the Sri Lanka Medical Council or its president. There would be a new approach to resolve the issue without an impact on the people.

The GMOA said it would launch a token strike if there were indications that the Government was going back on promises made to the doctors by the President. GMOA Secretary Dr. Naveen de Soysa said the doctors would on Tuesday decide on their next move after an assessment of how the government was implementing these promises. Dr. de Soysa warned that if any Government Ministers attempted to stop the implementation of agreement reached with the President, there would be another strike.

The GMOA said it emphasised at the meeting that a solution should be based on a proposal made by the GMOA, Deans of Medical Faculties and Student organisations.

The GMOA initially launched a token strike on Thursday to condemn attacks on university students by police after they stormed the Health Ministry. Meanwhile, thousands of patients were seriously affected by the doctors strike. Most clinics were postponed and routine surgeries delayed.

Despite claims by the GMOA that the dengue patients will not be affected by the strikes, a large number of them were left unattended during the strike.
Indo-Sri Lanka talks to release more Indian boats View(s):

Negotiations between Sri Lanka and India are under way to release more Indian boats seized after they were caught fishing in Sri Lankas territorial waters.

Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Mahinda Amaraweera said the Indian Govt had requested the boats be released, as Sri Lanka was encouraged by the commitment shown on the Indian side to tackle several concerns raised by the country. Over 100 Indian boats are currently in Sri Lankas custody.

Mr Amaraweera said instances of Indian fishing vessels crossing the maritime border and poaching in Sri Lankas territorial waters had reduced by as much as 50%. India is also taking steps to phase out bottom trawling by converting the vessels into deep-sea fishing trawlers, he added. Sri Lanka currently has 142 Indian bottom trawlers in its custody, after they were caught poaching in Sri Lankan waters. Last week, the Govt announced steps are being taken to release 42 of them.

The Indian fishermen will have to come to Sri Lanka to take them back. However, the boats, which have remained in Sri Lankan custody for a long time, are seriously damaged after being in long anchorage at the jetties. The Indian fishermen will have to repair the boats at their own expense, before taking them back to India, the Govt insists.
New laws to check multiple voting by the displaced View(s):

By Ranjith Padmasiri

Displaced people found to have registered to vote in several electorates by submitting false information and documents risk being fined, sentenced to a prison term or both, under new laws now being drafted. Under the new laws, internally displaced people have been allowed to register to vote in the electorate they resided in before being displaced. If, however, such persons are found to have registered to vote in several electorates, they risk a two-year jail term, a Rs.100,000 fine or both.

Displaced people who wish to remain in current places of residences have the option of registering to vote in that particular electorate. Additionally, those found to have submitted false information and forged documents when registering to vote risk a one year jail term, a Rs.50,000 fine or both. Police are to be given powers to file cases in a Magistrates Court against such people.

The Government has formulated these laws while recognising, in principle, the right of those who were internally displaced during the war and their children who are over 18 years of age, to register to vote in the electorate they resided in before being forced to leave. Those who were internally displaced can register to vote in their original areas of residence by submitting an application with a certificate issued by the Grama Niladhari of the area. Displaced people can apply to register during the next four years.
RTI progress assessed: Appeals heard and info relased disclosed View(s):

Commission launches trilingual website and logo

Pending is a request for the declaration of the assets of the President and the Prime Minister

Launching its trilingual website (www.rticommission.lk) and the RTI logo consisting of Sri Lanka in the black pupil of an eye signifying information held aloft by a hand of a citizen, the RTI Commission of Sri Lanka this week, disclosed details of appeals heard and information released by public authorities summoned to the commission.

This was following appeals filed by citizens against the Road Development Authority (RDA) and the Panadura Urban Council among other public authorities. During the past four months following the operationalising of Sri Lankas RTI Act on February 3, 2017, the commission has responded to approximately 69 Government ministries clarifying duties cast on public authorities under the Act.

Among these was the office of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Presidential Secretariat, the Sri Lanka Customs, the Employees Trust Fund Board, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the Department of Meteorology and several provincial authorities including the Chief Secretarys Offices of the Southern Province, the Central Province, the Eastern Province and the Secretariat of the Governor of the Western Province. Pending appeals before the commission include an appeal filed by a citizen against the Governors Secretariat of the NPC.

Also pending is a request for the declaration of the assets of the President and the Prime Minister. The commissions website states that the part heard matter will be continued on August 8, 2017 to enable the two Designated Officers (DOs), the Secretary to the President and the Secretary to the Prime Minister to obtain legal representation. This was on a request made by the DOs to the commission citing the complexity of the issues involved. The commissions order states that two preliminary questions of law before it for consideration relate to the failure on the part of the appellant, Transparency International, Sri Lanka, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), to state the fact of its membership coming within the definition of a citizen in the initial information request to the public authorities asking for the assets declarations.

The preliminary questions of law arise under Section 3(1) of the RTI Act which only gives a citizen the right to seek information from a public authority having possession, custody or control. Section 43 defines a citizen as a body whether incorporated or unincorporated, if not less than three-fourths of the members of such body are citizens. The Rules of the Commission (February 2017) provide that though use of RTI 01 (the information request format) is not mandatory when filing an information request, the necessary details must be stated even on a blank sheet of paper in accordance with the Act.

The commissions website also features two draft guidances on pro-active disclosure applicable to all ministries as required under the RTI Act. Along with draft Inquiry Rules, these have been published in advance to obtain public feedback before gazetting. It has also been announced that the commission will seek the views of PAs through a series of public consultations.

A special feature of the draft Guidances relates to information that must be disclosed three months in advance of the initiation of projects, the value of which exceeds USD 100,000 (in case of foreign funded projects) and Rs. 500,000 (in respect of locally funded projects) under Section 9 of the Act.

In these cases, the commission has specified that ministers must disclose all capital expenditure of procurement activities approved by procurement committees. These include project budget and financial information including the total estimated cost of the project, the source of finance (foreign/ local/other  for example Public Private Partnership) and identification of the foreign or local entities/institutions involved in financing the project.

It is also stipulated that if the proposed project is to be implemented on the basis of a Public Private Partnership, the relevant ministers must provide the main terms and conditions of agreement between the Government and the private sector party, including details of equity and profit share bases, financial information such as fees, tolls, or other kinds of revenue that may be collected by private sector parties under authorisation from the Government.

Further, all additional benefits or concessions, if any, offered to the contractor or private parties at the cost or expense of the State/Government of Sri Lanka in the implementation of the proposed project. For example, tax holidays, tax concessions, sale or lease of land at concessionary rates/prices etc must be listed.

The draft Guidances state that information on environmental impact assessments for the project must be disclosed along with approvals from relevant regulatory agencies mandated by the law. In addition, details of the supplier/vendor/contractor who will implement the project, the number of bidders as well as the relevant names/contact details of those who submitted bids for the project and the complaints handling mechanism conforming to accepted standards of fairness and transparency which is accessible to the public.

In a different Guidance under Section 8 which relates general pro-active disclosure duties, ministers are required to provide a breakdown of all costs and expenditure, including but not limited to, rentals, utility costs, salaries, emoluments and allowances, travel costs (both foreign and local, including cost of air travel and accommodation), stationery, fuel, cost of other facilities, such as repair of vehicles, repairs, renovations, improvements and refurbishments to buildings and structures. Also required to be disclosed in advance is the relevant procurement plan of the ministry.

The commission has also proposed rules relating to the procedure for holding inquiries which includes the holding of public hearings on matters of public importance.
C R Chaudhary, Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, said that three new initiatives by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had transformed the socio-economic landscape of the state.

By Kaushik Deka : "Rajasthan is making all round progress in infrastructure, education, health and water resource development under the dynamic leadership of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje," said C R Chaudhary, Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution at the India Today State of the State Conclave in Jaipur today.

The Conclave is a signature India Today event where a special report on various growth indicators of a particular state is released. All the districts in the state are ranked based on various parameters and categories. Chaudhary thanked the India Today group for doing this exercise of evaluation of Rajasthan's progress as the government is constantly scrutinized by citizens on those parameters on which the State of the State study is based, such as education, health and infrastructure.

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The Union Minister explained how India's largest state made sectorial progress in last three years. "We have 10 per cent of India's land but one per cent of water. Thanks to Mukhya Mantri Jal Sawalamban Scheme, we have improved a lot on water conservation," he said. Through the Gaurav Path Yojna, 2,000 panchayats have been asked to improve roads connecting the national highways. According to the minister 7,000 km roads have been constructed at a rate of 133 km per day in last three years.

In education, 5,000 secondary schools have been upgraded to senior secondary school and 75,000 teachers have been promoted. The government also recruited 18,000 new teachers. "Every panchayat will have a model school equipped with modern facilities," says Chaudhary. Bhamasa Shwasthya Bima Yojna more that 300 model PSE have started in last three years. For improvement in the health sector, Raje government has recruited over 4,000 doctors and 20,000 nursing staff. Over 300 model PSEs with all facilities have been set up in last years.

The union minister also highlighted water crisis in Nagod district, which he represents. "The CM has sanctioned Rs 3,500 crore for water resource development in that area," he said adding that the state has been performing best among all states in Pradhan Mantri Kushal Vikas Yojna and 2,000 panchayats are now open defecation free.

Concluding his speech, Chaudhary said that three new initiatives by the CM has transformed the socio-economic landscape of the state-Sarkar Aapke Dwar, Aapk Zila Aapka Sarkar and Nyay Aapke Dwar.

ALSO WATCH | State of State Conclave: Rajasthan poised for a great future, says Raj Chenggappa

--- ENDS ---
Letters to the Editor View(s):

Where is the justice for depositors of failed finance companies?

A few years back, with the collapse of Golden Key and other Ceylinco Group finance companies, it was widely perceived by the public that this collapse would have a domino effect on other finance companies too, as the trend had been set by the Central Bank by disowning responsibility and doing nothing to prevent the collapse or doing something positive to revive them.

No doubt the domino effect has cascaded down the way leading to the collapse of many finance companies since then, and the trend seems to be continuing unabated.

Thousands of depositors of licensed or non-licensed financial institutions with CB such as Golden Key and other Ceylinco Group companies, the CIRL, the CIFL, Okanda Finance, Vajira Investments, Entrust, etc., to name just a few, have been deprived of their valuable deposits or monthly income, turning their lives into one of beggary after having lost their lifes earnings.

In my own experience, in the case of CIRL which is now functioning as The Standard Credit Lanka Ltd, though an arbitrary decision had been taken to convert 68% of the deposit to stocks and treat the balance 32% as the new deposit at a mere 8% interest thereon, even this pittance has not been forthcoming for the last five years and nobody knows what has happened to the 68% of deposit.

In the case of CIFL, things are at a standstill as no investor has come forward to take over the company for the mess it is and the chaotic way it had been run (down) under the scrutiny of CB. In the case of Okanda, the liquidator has not been able to dispose of the dilapidated teak plantation and other assets which had been exposed to the elements and there is no realizable value to compensate the depositors after settling liquidators fees and income tax owed to the Government.

At Vajira Investments too a similar situation prevails and they are unable to pay the balance amount owed to depositors. It is a matter of surprise for depositors as to why investigators have not attempted to unearth the Company Directors hidden assets.

If such is the situation in general of financial institutions allowed to operate in the country and those coming under the microscope of the CB in particular, which has turned a blind eye to the chaotic management and disregard of laid down regulations, what is the use of the CB calling itself the controlling body of financial institutions? Should such a situation ever happen in any other country where rule of law is supremely enshrined and good governance in place, all of those who played out the public would be behind bars, but not in Sri Lanka as those taken into custody have been bailed out and they will be free forever as no progress is made to frame charges against them.

I hope the new Finance Minister and the Central Bank Govenor would do something to address the issue of collapsed finance companies and redress the grievances of the innocent depositors and thereby salvage the image and reputation of the country in the eyes of the world outside.

Nihal Fernando

Moratuwa

Coming back home: Ecstasy and agony

On a warm summer day, with an elated feeling, bidding goodbyes, I board the luxurious bus from Canberra to Sydney. It is from there, that I will take a flight back home.

Upon completion of all formalities and immigration, I head towards the departure lounge. Most of the other passengers are on holiday or heading home.

Are they also happy as I am, I wonder. As scheduled, the flight takes off and with a brief stopover in Singapore it is now homebound. An ecstatic feeling engulfs me with the aircraft touching the ground, I feel a strong bond, my mother land, my home as I still call it, a great feeling.

Yet, as I go on, I realise things have changed.

This is the country I was born and educated in. Sri Lanka, known as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, depicting a tear drop. A beautiful country blessed in abundance with natural beauty and resources, culture and heritage.

Alas! Today this beautiful Sri Lanka has turned into a den of hooligans, corrupt with malpractice, deceit and scam. I felt a rush of nostalgia mingled with sadness for a way of life that has disappeared forever.

Leaders, high-ups, politicians and law enforcement agents, greedy for power and fame have turned a blind eye, to almost all wrongdoings, for their personal gain.

Righteousness and justice remain at the bottom line, offenders slip away from punishable crimes due to the lapses and loopholes.

Like many others, in various circumstances and grievances, I have been an unfortunate victim of a deceitful building contractor.

These building contractors trap gullible clients as they are aware of the loop holes and weaknesses of law and order enforcing agencies.

I had opted for an amicable way to sort out things, yet, to no avail.

With other fraudulent agencies and businesses, is the hotel industry, which goes hand in hand with the so called booking agents.

Tourism has become just a money making industry. Adding pain to injury, I have witnessed tourists charged ridiculously high rates.

Who will come to their rescue? Where are the law enforcing agents? Some take back bad images of our country.

With the conclusion of the war, (thanks to our former President) we were able to raise our heads as a nation, move around once again free from terrorism and horrifying incidents. The country was slowly and gradually rebuilding and moving towards progress.

Tourism started picking up, yet, today with the new political scenario everything has taken a U turn going back to square number one.

Thanks to the former Defence Minister, Colombo was beginning to bloom. It was a pleasure and a proud privilege to bring visitors from overseas to show my beautiful country. It is short lived now and a dream fading away.

The disarray and disorganized manner in the current transport system has made travelling very stressful. I was stuck in traffic jams on several occasions. Heavy vehicles emanate poisonous fumes threatening the lives of innocent civilians who cannot afford luxury travel. The common man is penalised for violating negligible traffic rules while the high and mighty slip away.

It is time that people stood up together, before it is too late and before irreparable damage is done to our country once again. A desperate need for unity among the masses is the need of the hour.

Hope people recollect the dark and frightful days from which we were rescued. A fact and truth that the entire world knows and accepts.

It is with mixed feelings, disappointment and a heavy heart, that I board the flight back, hoping that things would change for the better.

Mary Mendis

Australia

Collect the garbage before demanding annual rates

I saw a banner displayed near the YMBA Kiribathgoda by the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha calling all residents to pay immediately the annual rates to the Pradeshiya Sabha.

For the past one month the PS has stopped the collection of garbage saying that a Minister has ordered them to stop the collection process.

If PS officials are responsible for the management of the administration of the area under their purview they should decide to stop the collection of rates as well, which is more reasonable.

The collection of garbage is one of their main functions and if they fail to carry out their duties the PS should be dissolved immediately.

Will the minister in charge intervene in this matter and provide a solution soon as the dumpped garbage is left uncollected for days, polluting the envirioment.

Mahinda Wimalasena

Kiribathgoda

41 years as an educationist and this is the thanks I get

I was in the government teachers service from 1975-2012. In 2012, I was appointed to the Principal Service class II. I retired from my service last December (2016).

At the time of my retirement, my Principal Service had not been confirmed. I was asked to get it confirmed by the Ministry to get the permission letter from the Secretary of Ministry of Education, to be sent to the Pension Department.

I got all the relevant documents certified by the Zonal, Provincial Department heads and submitted it in February 2017, to the Principal Service Branch of the Ministry of Education at Battaramulla where I was told, I would have to wait two more weeks to get my confirmation letter from the Education Service Commission at Narahenpita.

After three weeks, when I inquired about my letter from the E.S.C., I was told that they didnt receive any letter from the Ministry (Isurupaya) relevant to my subject. So far, when I went to Isurupaya I confirmed it from my personal file. But the clerk pretended to me as if it had been posted.

In April I was told by the Ministry that the documents of Principals of class I and higher ranks were only confirmed by the Education Service Commission and since I was in class II my service would be confirmed by the Secretary of the Ministry itself.

During the past six months three clerks were handling my personal file. But none of them bothered that I was without any payment since my retirement day.

I have been to Isurupaya more than ten times to produce the relevant documents they wanted to get my work done. But still my work remains undone.

I served my country in the education field for the past 41 years.

In return the Ministry of Education treats me like a dead cent. I dont know how long it will take to get my pension in this just government. Will it be before or after my death? Only the Ministry of Education knows the answer.

A victim

of Education Service

Correcting two oft-repeated inaccuracies regarding South Indian Tamil labour during British rule

This is to highlight and counter two oft-repeated inaccuracies regarding the import of South Indian Tamil workers for the British tea and coffee plantations which appeared in your editorial (Sunday Times- 21/5/2017- Plantation workers are Sri Lankan citizens of recent origin).

The two contentious issues are that a) Indian labour was brought in because the Sinhala peasantry refused to work in colonial plantations and that, b) the Indian labour became disenfranchised and made stateless at Independence in 1948.

Since space does not permit me a detailed analysis, I only state the bare facts. After the 1817/18 anti-British uprising (or the Uva rebellion) Governor Brownrigg wrote to the Colonial Secretary on 19.02. 1818 that the rich province of Dumbarawill not be reduced to good order till severe examples are made in it affecting both life and property.

Thereafter extremely harsh measures were adopted to evict the Kandyan peasant by killing over 14,000 young boys and men over 14 years of age ( a horrendous act of colonial genocide for which the British have never apologised), destroying houses, agricultural lands, temple lands, crops, fruit trees, livestock, forests, water sources etc, culminating in the Crown Lands Ordinance of 1840. The Sinhalese were driven out en-masse from the hills.

By 1883, the Kandyan territory was amalgamated with the maritime provinces (already under colonial rule) and the whole island thereafter divided into 5 provinces and much later, in 1889, it was further divided into 9 provinces which yet stand. Interestingly, the Northern Province (1833) included the present north-central region of Anuradhapura, thus proving the British had no intention of demarcating provincial boundaries based on ethnicity, i.e. a Tamil north.

It was colonial policy to prevent any further uprisings for which the Sinhalese had to be prevented from returning to their ancestral lands.

In 1852, Governor Viscount Torrington stated   the expediency on political grounds, of separating the old Kandyan provinces from one another and breaking up their political unity ( British House of Commons sessional paper No. 568; xxvi; p.27, 1852) which proves the above point.

By 1883, 1.8 million acres of upcountry lands had been allocated to British plantation companies. Initially the remaining Sinhala peasants were forced to work in jungle clearing and cutting access roads as unpaid slave labour.

Thereafter they were evicted and not provided employment. This was British policy to evict the Sinhalese after getting the initial hard work done for free and thereafter planting an alien population in the heartland of the island so as to keep the Sinhalese permanently out of the hill country.

J. Whiteford, Secretary of the Uda Pussellawa Planters Association wrote to the Ceylon Observer in June 1889: I can give you the names of scores of villagers who have died of want and destitution within a short distance of this estate, after being turned out of their ancestral lands.

There is much more evidence but space is a limitation. The Indian Tamil workers were brought here with the sole purpose of creating instability and not because the Sinhalese were lazy and refused to work on the planatations. Even if they did refuse, they cannot be blamed.

This same colonial policy was followed in other British colonies such as Malaya.

The second issue is that of the Indian workers becoming stateless and thereafter disenfranchised at Independence in 1948. Prior to Independence, both Indians and Ceylonese were officially British subjects.

Indian and Pakistani workers being British subjects had limited voting rights in Ceylon due to this fact.

At independence all such Indians and Pakistanis lost this privilege automatically and reverted to their original status which they never lost in the first instance since the Indian constitution guaranteed their citizenship rights even when abroad.

Thus there was no question of them becoming stateless.

Those Indians/Pakistanis who wished to remain here and had continuous residence of seven years from 01.01.1931 were initially granted citizenship under the Indian and Pakistani Citizenship Act of 1949. About 134,000 qualified.

The rest, most of whom wanted to get back home were asked to register themselves at the Indian High Commission in Colombo, a mere formality.

However estate trade unions backed surreptitiously by the Indian government placed all kinds of obstacles to prevent registration until the final date of application expired.

Thus, they were administratively prevented from returning to their own country and thereafter declared stateless. It was the intention of India to keep a permanent large population of Indians here and the local trade unions gladly colluded with this.

This Indian plan was amply signified by Prime Minister Modis recent remarks on his visit here.

It has also to be mentioned that Indian workers who wanted to return home during the war period ( 1939-1945) could not do so since there was a travel ban imposed by India during this time.

Thus these people had been stuck here for six long years and were eager to return home after the war but got stuck again at Independence due to the machinations of India.

Most of these details and facts have been hidden so far and distorted by political parties for political expediency.

Cecil Dharmasena

Kandy

Politicians will be booted out if they dont change their deaf and blind stance

I agree with Mr. Walter Fernandos letter in the Sunday Times of June 11, requesting the President to take control of the country.

Catering to the Ministers needs is not the agenda of the day. To make them do their duty to the public should be uppermost. This and the committee appointed by the President is not going anywhere other than wasting our money.

Flood victims, doctors, students, farmers, etc are all protesting blocking the main roads demanding their rights.

Dengue and garbage problems are a headache to the government. If the garbage problem can be solved, the dengue threat can be minimised.

Politicians do not see these things because they travel by helicopter or in luxury glass tinted vehicles. The President cannot give an order for all Ministers to use one kind of vehicle (ideally a Micro).

The ordinary people were there for the people in need but not the politicians. Its pathetic when they try to distribute donated items in front of the TV cameras.

The day will soon come when politicians will be booed and chased away from their electorates.

The day will come sooner if the government does not change its DB (deaf and blind ) stance.

Sunil R. Wickremeratne

Mathugama
Who will fill Americas shoes? View(s):

By Richard N. Haass

NEW YORK  It is increasingly clear that US President Donald Trump represents a departure when it comes to Americas global outlook and behaviour. As a result, the United States will no longer play the leading international role that has defined its foreign policy for three quarters of a century, under Democratic and Republican presidents alike.

We have already seen many examples of this change. The traditional US commitment to global organisations has been superseded by the idea of America first. Alliances and security guarantees once regarded as a given are increasingly conditioned on how much allies spend on defence and whether they are seen to derive unfair advantage from trade with the US.

More broadly, foreign trade is viewed with suspicion  supposedly a source of job loss rather than an engine of investment, job creation, growth, and stability. Immigration and refugee policies have become more restrictive. Less emphasis is being placed on promoting democracy and human rights. More dollars are going to defence, but fewer resources are being devoted to supporting global health or development.

This is not to be confused with isolationism. Even Trumps America will continue to play a meaningful role in the world. It is using military force in the Middle East and Afghanistan, increasing diplomatic pressure on North Korea to rein in its nuclear and missile programs, and renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. And the policies of states, cities, and companies will translate into an American commitment to climate change, despite Trumps decision to abandon the Paris agreement.

Still, a shift away from a US-dominated world of structured relationships and standing institutions and toward something else is under way. What this alternative will be, however, remains largely unknowable. What we do know is that there is no alternative great power willing and able to step in and assume what had been the US role.

China is a frequently mentioned candidate, but its leadership is focused mostly on consolidating domestic order and maintaining artificially high economic-growth rates to stave off popular unrest. Chinas interest in regional and global institutions seems designed mostly to bolster its economy and geopolitical influence, rather than to help set rules and create broadly beneficial arrangements.

Likewise, Russia is a country with a narrowly-based economy led by a government focused on retaining power at home and re-establishing Russian influence in the Middle East and Europe. India is preoccupied with the challenge of economic development and is tied down by its problematic relationship with Pakistan. Japan is held back by its declining population, domestic political and economic constraints, and its neighbours suspicions.

Europe, for its part, is distracted by questions surrounding the relationship between member states and the European Union. As a result, the whole of the continent is less than the sum of its parts  none of which is large enough to succeed America on the world stage.

But the absence of a single successor to the US does not mean that what awaits is chaos. At least in principle, the worlds most powerful countries could come together to fill Americas shoes. In practice, though, this will not happen, as these countries lack the capabilities, experience, and, above all, a consensus on what needs doing and who needs to do it.

A more likely development is the emergence of a mix of order and disorder at both the regional and global level. China will promote various trade, infrastructure, and security mechanisms in Asia. The 11 remaining members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership may launch their trade pact without the US.

Less clear is whether China is prepared to use its influence to restrain North Korea, how India and Pakistan will avoid conflict, and the resolution of Asias many territorial disputes. It is all too easy to imagine an Asian and Pacific future characterised by higher spending on arms of all types  and thus more susceptible to violent conflict.

The Middle East is already suffering unprecedented instability, the result of local rivalries and realities, and of 15 years during which the US arguably first did too much and then too little to shape the regions future. The immediate danger is not just further deterioration in failed states such as Yemen, Syria, and Libya, but also direct conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Europe may be something of an exception to such trends, as the election of President Emmanuel Macron in France has given rise to a government that is committed to reforming the EU. But the EU itself faces an uncertain future, given Brexit and slow-motion crises in Italy and Greece, not to mention the potential for additional Russian mischief or worse.

To all of this, one could add the meltdown in Venezuela and the all-too-familiar horrors in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And then there is the growing gap between global challenges such as how to govern cyberspace, and the willingness of governments to work together to address them.

There is no little irony in this global turn of events. For decades, many countries criticised US policy, both for what it was and what it was not. These same countries now face the prospect of a world in which American leadership is likely to be less of a factor. It is far from clear that they are prepared for such a world, or that they will find themselves better off in it.

(The writer is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order.) Courtesy: Project Syndicate, 2017. Exclusive to the Sunday Times.www.project-syndicate.org
By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Jun 24 (PTI) The CBI today arrested a former assistant director of the Enforcement Directorate for allegedly demanding a bribe from an accused in the National Rural Health Mission scam.

N B Singh, who was posted in the Lucknow office of the ED, along with middleman Subhash was allegedly threatening to attach the properties of the accused.

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They were demanding a bribe of Rs 50 lakh to take a lenient view of the matter.

The officer was on May 18 relieved by the Enforcement Directorate but he continued going to office, sources said.

A trap was laid by the CBI and the duo were arrested while allegedly taking Rs 4 lakh as a part payment of the bribe.

Singh belonged to the Central Excise and Customs service and was posted with the ED. He was handling certain cases related the NRHM scam.

The ED is also considering registering a money laundering case against him. PTI ABS GVS

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D-day to the finals of the Americas Cup is looming as many New Zealands gear up to watch Team New Zealand take in Oracle tomorrow.

Emirates Team New Zealand design boss Dan Bernasconi has talked up the engineering skills of helmsman Peter Burling as being crucial to the rapid development of their radical Americas Cup catamaran.



- Audio courtesy RNZ

Team New Zealand lead defenders Oracle Team USA 3-0 in the Americas Cup match with racing resuming on Sunday.

The Kiwis need four more wins to win back the Auld Mug.

It seems the off-the-water talents of the key sailors are playing a huge part with their feel for the boat and suggestions for improvements helping Team New Zealands innovative design team.

Taurangas Burling is halfway through an engineering degree and Glenn Ashby, a multi-hull specialist, has a history in sail design and construction, operating a loft in Australia.

"Both Pete and Glenn are a massive asset to the design team because they are intimately involved in everything we do. That goes for the other guys as well  Blair (Tuke) and Andy (Maloney) and Josh (Junior) and the others. They are really involved in every step of the progress," Bernasconi told Stuff.

Peter Burling always had the gift of making a boat go faster.

Thats what Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club commodore Nick Wrinch told SunLive following Team New Zealands win in Bermuda.

Burling, the Tauranga raised helmsman of Emirates Team New Zealand, took the challengers into the Americas Cup contest, by defeating Artemis in the challenger finals.

I think he always had a good knack of making a boat sail fast, whatever that knack is its probably an unseen skill, its probably almost instinctive, says Nick.

And Peter always had that gift and thats shown from an early age when he was a pre-teenager, he could always make a boat go fast - and I guess some people have that gift, and he certainly does."

-Additional reporting from Stuff.co.nz
A snap back at a reporters remark along the lines of sailing being only a sport for rich people has brought about unexpected television coverage for one of Taurangas little known sailing secrets.

Peter Burlings mum Heather Burlings reply to the question resulted in the reporter interviewing Bay of Plenty Sailing Academy staff this week.

She was sick of all these Peters Mum stories and comments about sailing being a rich mans sport, says BOPSAT chairman Stuart Pedersen.

Well hang on, back home where I come from we have this thing called BOPSAT with the schools programme.

When the reporter returned to New Zealand she visited Tauranga and interviewed BOPSAT staff, and filmed at Merivale School and the sailing centre.

The story is expected to air on the Super Sport Sunday segment of the six oclock news between 6.30 and 7pm Sunday night  on TV3.

Merivale School pupils are among the beneficiaries of the Trusts mission to reduce the cost of sailing for youth, particularly giving sailing opportunities to those who are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

This year the trust has used a recently established endowment fund to reduce the hire rate for its 420 fleet for high school team sailing, and to start a free school sailing programme for hand-picked students at low decile schools.

Five schools are now doing this in term four and term one. With more income and/or more volunteer instructors, the academy is hoping to expand the programme.

Last year the academy was able to give ten boats to TYPBC for the Sailing School which helps support the viability of the Sailing School, which is crucial to the growth of junior sailing in Tauranga.

The academy is also running a Sponsor a Sailor programme where sailors from the free school sailing programme being supported by corporate/private sponsors and BoPSAT funds to take their sailing to the next level and beyond.

BoPSATs endowment fund at the Acorn Foundation, the Sail for Life fund, received a boost of $74,000 to the end of May.

Our main interest through BoPSAT is in the personal development advantages that come to young people from getting on the water. Having gained a lot personally from sailing, all the trustees want to see everyone have this chance, says Stuart.
Bathers on Calahonda and El Salon beaches in Nerja alerted SUR to the presence of froth caused by effluent in the sea near the shore during the course of last weekend. The dirty water caused alarm in the town at the start of the high season and despite repair work to a broken wastewater pipe situated between El Playazo beach and the mouth of the Chillar river being finished less than a fortnight ago.

On Tuesday the mayor of Nerja, Rosa Arrabal called for an urgent meeting with Spains Environment minister to seek a solution to the towns ongoing problems with its unfinished wastewater station. Work stopped to the plant, which should have been complete a year ago, in April this year, largely due to financial problems with the construction company Isolux-Corsan-Corviam.
A 38-year-old Max Meadows man who had sex with a teenage girl he met through Facebook was sentenced to prison time on Wednesday after pleading guilty to three felonies.

Arrested last April, Jason Michael Dunford was convicted in Wythe County Circuit Court of carnal knowledge of a minor, procuring a minor for obscene material and soliciting a minor to be the subject of child pornography.

According to a prosecutor, Dunford began communicating with the girl through Facebook and they eventually decided to meet in person. Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Meghan Lackey said the girl had told Dunford that she was 14 before they drove to Case Knife Road and had sex.

Lackey said that Dunford also messaged the girl on Facebook and asked her to send nude photographs of herself. The crimes occurred between December 2015 and February 2016, according to the indictments.

Facing a maximum punishment of 45 years in prison, Dunford was sentenced to serve three years and five months as part of a plea agreement with the commonwealth  a move approved by the victim and her mother, Lackey said.

After his release, Dunford will be on active probation for five years, during which time he can have no contact with juveniles and must stay away from the victim and her family. In addition, hell waive his Fourth Amendment rights, which means that police can search him at any time without a warrant.

Dunford was already on the Virginia State Police sex offender registry when he was charged with the new sex offenses.

In 2012, he was convicted of possessing child pornography and drugs, according to court records.

During a 2013 probation violating hearing on those convictions, Dunford, who has a history of mental illness and drug abuse, told a judge, Youll see me back, arguing that jail time  he got two years  wasnt going to change him and that he needed help with his addiction.

In addition to having state convictions, Dunford is also on federal probation for a drug conspiracy conviction.

Jeffrey Simmons can be reached at 228-6611, extension 19, or jsimmons@wythenews.com.
By Press Trust of India: (Eds: Adding details of complainant)

New Delhi, Jun 24 (PTI) The CBI today arrested former Assistant Director in Enforcement Directorate, N B Singh for allegedly receiving Rs 4 lakh of Rs 50 lakh bribe amount from an accused in the National Rural Health Mission scam.

Singh, who was posted in the Lucknow office of the ED, along with a middleman Subhash was allegedly threatening to attach properties of an accused in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.

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They were demanding Rs 50 lakh bribe to be lenient in the matter.

The officer was relieved by the Enforcement Directorate on May 18, but he continued going to office on the pretext of formalities of handing over the charge, the sources said.

They said the duo was arrested following a trap operation by the CBI, while they were receiving Rs 4 lakh as part payment of the total bribe amount.

Singh belongs to the Central Excise and Customs service and was deputed in the ED. He was handling certain cases of the NRHM scam.

The ED is also mulling to register a money laundering case against him.

The CBI had registered the case based on a complaint from one Surendra Chowdhary, who is facing the agency probe in one of the cases related to the scam.

Chowdhary in his complaint to the CBI said Singh had called him in the office, accusing him of causing loss to the tune of Rs 21 crore to the exchequer.

He apparently clarified that the loss was not of Rs 21 crore and was merely Rs two crore, and that he had deposited the same in a CBI court.

Chowdhary also told the official (Singh) that even the Allahabad High Court had not pegged the loss to the exchequer at Rs 21 crore.

Despite arguments put forth by Chowdhary, Singh called him in his office where alleged middleman Subhash was also present, and demanded Rs 50 lakh as bribe to not arrest Chowdhary and attach his assets, the complaint alleged.

Chowdhary said he did not have that much money which left Singh infuriated, it alleged.

Subhash allegedly took Chowdhary outside the office in Hazratganj area in his car where he told him to make the payment to avoid trouble.

The duo kept pestering Chowdhary and his brother over phone to make the payment, it alleged.

On June 10, nearly 20 days after Singh being relieved from the ED, Subhash called Chowdhary asking him to make the payment of Rs five lakh immediately to avoid arrest and also buy two iPhones from a particular store in Lucknow, he alleged.

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He said the receipt for the shop had already been prepared and Chowdhary needed to make the payment in the shops account at Axis bank, the complaint said.

In his complaint, Chowdhary provided a copy of the SMS on which the account number of the shop was sent.

After verifying the complaint, the CBI laid down a trap and arrested Singh and Subhash red-handed while they were receiving Rs four lakh of the alleged bribe amount. PTI ABS SRY

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The Central Board of Secondary Education has announced that it will scrutinise discrepancies in the markings of Class 12 board exam answer sheets, and take appropriate action.

By Sneha Agrawal: Students who had complained about discrepancies in the markings of Class 12 board exams can breathe a sigh of relief. The Central Board of Secondary Education on Friday announced that it will scrutinise such answer sheets and take appropriate action.

However, the requests will be considered on a first-come, first-serve basis. The papers of those who have already applied for re-verification will be reviewed on priority. The marking scheme will be uploaded on the CBSE website within two working days.

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Sanjay Jain, additional solicitor general (ASG), told Mail Today: "My submissions to the court don't revisit the re-evaluation policy, which stands withdrawn. Rather, it indicates a liberal approach proposed to be applied to the verification policy in the facts and the circumstances pointed out in the batch of the petitioners of this year."

Jain told the high court that CBSE will not act upon the undertakings given by the students that they cannot approach the court on account of their having obtained photocopies of the answer sheets.

Justices Manmohan and Yogesh Khanna accepted the statements made by the ASG. The court said, "The statements of ASG shall bind CBSE with regards to those students as well who have already applied with a similar grievance, and will not confine to the petitioners only."

The court was approached by the students through senior advocate Kirti Uppal, after multiple discrepancies were reported in the marking of class 12 board exam answer sheets.

Jain submitted that the timeline for re-verification of the answer-sheets will be extended and apparent mistakes in the marking will also be fixed during the re-verification.

ALSO READ | CBSE extends date for verification and obtaining photocopy of answer books

ALSO READ | 697 marks in CBSE NEET 2017: Punjab's Navdeep Singh gets All India Rank 1

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A small independent ISP in Texas has filed a lawsuit against Comcast claiming that the telecom giant intentionally severed its lines after refusing a buyout offer.

Anthony Luna, the owner of Telecom Cable, is suing Comcast and its contracted agents, Aspen Utility and A&A Cable Contractors, for $1 million. According to Courthouse News, the cable provider and its agents disrupted service to Luna's 229 customers during infrastructure construction and subsequently put him out of business. The lawsuit is also seeking mental anguish and exemplary damages, which could tack on another $750,000 in damages.

Luna claims that when Comcast began expanding into Weston Lakes in 2013, it initiated talks to buy Telecom Cable. After nearly a year of negotiations, a fair offer could not be met, so Comcast "walked away" from the table and pressed forward with its expansion. Having established a solid customer base, Luna did not object to the competition.

In 2015, when he learned that the brand name ISP wanted to lay lines in his customer's utility easements, he took special care to have his cables marked with orange paint and flags. This practice is an accepted industry standard for indicating that live utility lines are below the markings. He also sent them a map of his infrastructure.

"Whether it was intentional, negligent or grossly negligent, they put Telecom out of business and turned Luna's life upside-down."

Despite the clear markings, one of the contractors, A&A, severed a Telecom mainline. When Luna began hearing of outages to his customers, he went to the job site to ascertain what happened. The foreman he spoke to acknowledged that they had seen the markings, but had "assumed that the fresh orange paint marked an abandoned cable plant."

Luna had the line repaired and tried to contact Comcast. Over the next six weeks, Luna attempted to get in touch with someone in charge of the installation, but never reached anyone who knew what was going on with the job. During this time the contractors severed three more marked lines completely destroying Telecom's infrastructure.

"One would like to believe that the destruction was accidental," states the lawsuit. "But the comprehensiveness of it - coupled with Comcast's prior interest in Telecom - renders such a conclusion doubtful."

Luna attempted to repair the extensive damages, but the repairs took too long. By August 1, 2015, Luna had lost his entire customer base. Comcast now serves Weston Lakes, including all of Luna's former clients.

Comcast VP Ray Purser said in a statement to Ars Technica, "We disagree with Telecom's claim and will vigorously defend ourselves." The company had no further comment and has not filed an official response to Luna's lawsuit.
So far, Voyager 2 has been the only spacecraft to visit the planets Uranus and Neptune, but that may change soon.

NASA has revealed that they are considering sending an orbital mission to Neptune or Uranus. The mission, which is expected to cost no more than $2 billion, will be launched between 2024 and 2037.

Four Options For Neptune And Uranus

NASA has proposed four potential options for the possible mission to Uranus and Neptune. One would be a mission to Neptune with an atmospheric probe, and the other would be an orbiter with a probe to Uranus. The third option is an orbital Uranus mission without the atmospheric probe. The fourth option would be a flyby mission to Uranus, which would carry a probe and capture images of the planet's moons.

Each mission has its own benefits and downsides. The probe missions would only carry three instruments: a narrow-angle camera, a Doppler imager, and a magnetometer These missions would have the benefit of letting NASA examine the planets' inner atmospheres. The non-probe option would carry 15 instruments and would give NASA a lot more information about the planet but would not let it gather data on the inner atmosphere.

Why The Ice Giants

While neither Neptune or Uranus are capable of supporting life, information on Neptune and Uranus would go a long way toward helping us understand the origin of planets and the universe. Beyond that, ice giants are among the most common planets in our galaxy accounting for the majority of exoplanets that NASA has discovered so far.

"Exploration of at least one ice giant system is critical to advance our understanding of the Solar System, exoplanetary systems, and to advance our understanding of planetary formation and evolution," said the report's executive summary.

Given how far these planets are from Earth, the missions are expected to last at least 11 years. To reduce the amount of fuel used as well as the cost of the mission, the spacecraft would make use of Jupiter's gravity to help push it toward the target planets. This would also affect the launch date of the missions. If NASA chooses to send the spacecraft to Jupiter, then the ideal launch windows for Uranus would be between 2030 and 2034. Neptune has a tighter launch window with the craft needing to be launched between 2029 and 2030. After that, there will not be another launch window until 2041.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
An estimated 2.2 million people in the world die annually because of infectious diseases from animals. With such a high mortality rate, scientists have started to identify which specific creatures are the most likely to carry deadly illnesses and where they can be found. The result is a comprehensive map of viral hotspots in the world.

In a study featured in the journal Nature, researchers from EcoHealth Alliance in New York examined various animals that could likely serve as carriers for infectious diseases. They focused their study on viral infections from mammals since humans are particularly vulnerable to these illnesses, possibly due to the similarities in biologies.

The scientists' search centered on zoonotic diseases, which are illnesses known to spread from one species to another. They wanted to know what exactly happens when these pathogens are transmitted from animals to humans during a "spillover event."

To help them find out more, the researchers collected viral data from 754 different species of mammals. This number represents 14 percent of all known mammals in the world. These were combined with information on 585 different viruses known to infect mammals. About one third of the viruses examined have been known to infect humans as well.

The researchers also added information on various mammalian family types and where they can be found in the world. They then determined the likelihood of the mammalian viruses to infect humans using a mathematical model.

Danger Map Of Animal-To-Human Diseases

Using the comprehensive list of viruses that they have created, the researchers were able to identify mammals that pose the biggest threat in terms of animal-to-human infection.

Topping the list are bats, which have been known to transmit several diseases such as Ebola, Histoplasmosis, Hendra virus disease and Marburg hemorrhagic fever. They can also infect humans with severe acute respiratory syndrome. The research team estimates that bats could carry an additional 17 other zoonotic viruses that have yet to be identified.

Primates have also been found to be primary sources of animal-to-human diseases. Of these mammals, the ones from Africa, Central America and Southwest Asia appear to be the most likely virus carriers.

Coming in at third are rodents, which many believe helped spread the Black Death that almost wiped out the population of Europe during the mid-1300s. The study showed that rodents living in Central Africa and in North and South America are the ones most likely to infect humans.

The researchers said there are still approximately 10 more zoonotic viruses that have yet to identified in primates and rodents.

While the study helps identify potential carriers of animal-to-human diseases, it is important to note that its estimates were produced through computer modeling and contain incomplete information. The researchers hope that they would be able to add more information to their database over time so that they could refine their findings further.

Once the database is complete, the research team believes it could help determine when and where the next catastrophic pandemic could occur. This would allow fellow scientists to prevent a disease outbreak from happening, or at the very least prepare public health agencies beforehand.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Ministers from the Union Cabinet were missing at Friday's iftar party organised at Rashtrapati Bhavan. This was Pranab Mukherjee's last iftaar party before he demits office.

By Poulomi Saha, Javed M. Ansari : The Central government went unrepresented at outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee's iftar party that was held on Friday evening.

No minister from the Narendra Modi cabinet attended the event - while Modi has stayed away from the presidential iftar party ever since he became prime minister, ministers like Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley have previously been present at the yearly get-together.

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On Friday, however, no one from the Union Cabinet was present at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Opposition leaders, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad were present at the event.

Sources told India Today that Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Naqvi could not attend the iftar party because of a hurriedly called meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.

Notably, PM Modi left for a three-nation tour today. The trip includes a two-day visit to the United States where Modi will meet with President Donald Trump.

This was President Pranab Mukherjee's last iftar party before he demits office later this month.

Also Read:

Nitish hosts Iftar party, Lalu Yadav and sons in attendance

RSS Muslim wing organises Iftar in Ayodhya, fast broken with cow milk

Also Watch:

Jamia students protest as RSS leader Indresh Kumar visits varsity for Iftar party

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Fear and panic struck a small village in South Africa after a local sheep gave birth to what appears to be a "half-human" lamb.

Residents of Lady Frere in South Africa reported that a sheep in their village gave birth to a strange-looking creature that resembled a half-human half-beast. The odd appearance of the animal led elders to believe that it may have been "sent by the devil."

Experts from the Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development were sent to the village after photographs of the half-human lamb began to spread around the community. They conducted several tests to find out what really happened to the deformed animal.

The Truth Behind The Half-Human Lamb

Investigators discovered that the lamb had died after having been born. While the creature did have physical features that looked like those of a human being, they said it was not part human.

Dr. Lubabalo Mrwebi, chief director of veterinary services for the village, said they can confirm that the photograph of the strange creature was not a hoax. It belonged to a newborn lamb that was severely deformed. At a quick glance, the creature may resemble a human form.

Mrwebi, however, clarified that the animal is not a human being but rather a deformed stillborn lamb. Its mother may have been infected with Rift Valley Fever (RVF) while it was going through the early stages of pregnancy.

To further dispel the notion that the creature may have been born through the union of a sheep and a human being, Mrwebi explained the difference between their chromosomes. He said that humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes while sheep have 28 pairs. This means that it won't be possible to conceive a life form by combining human sperm and sheep ovum.

As far as the odd appearance of the lamb goes, Mrwebi said the creature shows signs that it may have experienced a problem during its early fetal development, likely a result of a viral infection to the mother.

Sheep often give birth after a gestation period of about five months. This means that the stillborn lamb may have been conceived between December 2016 and January 2017. Mrwebi believes the mother of the creature may have been infected by the RVF virus during this time since the period is known for plentiful rainfall. It is when virus carriers, such as mosquitoes and midges, are most active in the area.

Other Strange Deformities

In June 2015, a piglet in a village in Colombia was born with two heads and three eyes. The animal was believed to have been born with polycephaly, a condition where two heads are conjoined during development.

The owner of the piglet said his neighbors told him to sacrifice the animal out of fear that its condition might spread to other animals in the farm. He has also received offers from other people to buy the deformed piglet to use an attraction for their businesses.

Meanwhile, in April 2016, a farmer in Malaysia claimed that one of his goats gave birth to a human-like creature. It was born with a bi-pedal frame and a distinctively human face. However, the deformed animal did not survive long following its birth.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Privacy advocates achieve a big win today when Google announced that Gmail will no longer be used for targeted ads.

Prior to this change in policy, it was common for Google to scan the contents of emails in a user's inbox to help create targeted ads. Google has now announced that they will instead rely on a user's activities on Google's sites and partner sites for those purposes. Ads are still frustrating, but at least the contents of users' inboxes are will be safe.

Protecting Inbox Privacy

Google did not say what prompted it to make this change regarding Gmail, but it did note that the users of its corporate-focused G Suite service were not being scanned for the purpose of creating targeted ads. The company's blog did note that this change will bring Gmail in line with the policies of G Suite, but beyond that, they have given us no details regarding the reasoning behind the change.

However, it is possible that Google made the change to promote consistency across its brand and remove confusion about the company's policies. It is possible that companies were wary to rely on Google's G Suite service since they were unsure if Google would be reading their sensitive emails. Despite Google's insistence that they never scanned the emails of G Suite customers, it is possible that companies were wary of trusting them.

Regardless of Google's reasoning behind these changes, they're sure to be welcome. Many privacy advocates have raised concerns about such policies in the past. In recent years, such debates have only gotten more heated as concerns grew over how corporations collect and use consumer data.

New Targeted Ads

Under current policy, Google scans the inbox of Gmail users to determine which ads they'll be interested in. For example, if users talk about video games a lot, then they may start seeing ads from GameStop or Nintendo. While it is highly unlikely that an actual human being ever saw those emails, the concept is still troubling for those concerned about online privacy.

Of course, Google isn't about to give up targeted ads since they are a large part of its revenue stream. Instead, they'll be determined based on a user's activities on YouTube, Google Search, and other sites. It will still be frustrating to see ads everywhere, but at least they won't be based on the contents of a users' inbox.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched Bulgaria's first communications satellite into orbit after it blasted off from Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, June 23 at 3:10 p.m. EDT.

Mission Used Previously Flown Falcon 9 Booster

The mission marks the second time that Elon Musk's space transport services company used a previously flown Falcon 9 booster. SpaceX has been working on launching used rockets in a bid to reduce the financial cost of space launches, which could make future space missions more affordable.

"Today's Falcon 9 launch of BulgariaSat-1 to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit was SpaceX's second successful mission with a flight-proven booster," SpaceX said.

Bulgaria's First Communications Satellite

The BulgariaSat-1 satellite, which was built by Palo Alto, California-based SSL company, is the first communications satellite owned by Bulgaria. The craft will provide television and data-communications services to Bulgaria, the Balkans, Middle East, Northern Africa, and some parts of Europe.

"BulgariaSat-1's payload includes 30 Broadcast Satellite Service (BSS) Ku-band transponders and two Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) Ku-band transponders, in order to meet the current demand for high quality HDTV and Ultra HDTV broadcasting, as well as various other communications applications," SpaceX said.

Satellite Healthy After Deployment From Launcher

BulgariaSat and Bulsatcom CEO Maxim Zayakov said that the satellite was healthy following its launch on Friday. He said that ground controllers were able to establish contact with BulgariaSat-1 a few minutes after it was deployed from the launcher.

Zayakov said that after power-generating solar arrays unfurl on the satellite, a series of on-board engine burns will reshape the satellite's orbit at about 22,300 miles above Earth over the next few days.

By early August, the satellite should be at geostationary orbit to start its 15-year mission of beaming television. The controllers will park the satellite along the equator at 1.9 degrees east where the craft's orbit will match the rate of the Earth's rotation to provide constant coverage over Europe.

"It's a big milestone and gives us a chance for regional development, more presence in the region, as well as throughout Europe, where we have our main coverage," Zayakov said.

SpaceX Making Space More Accessible To Small Countries And Companies

Zayakov said that SpaceX's cost-cutting ways made space more accessible for small nations and money-conscious companies like BulgariaSat. The BulgariaSat-1 costs $235 million and this covers the purchase of the satellite, launch services, insurance and ground systems.

Zayakov said that without SpaceX, small countries and small companies would not even be able to think about space. Zayakov also thinks that costs would be more affordable in the future because of reusability with SpaceX's capability of recovering and relaunching boosters.

Bulsatcom currently leases transponders on the 14-year-old satellite Hellas-Sat 2. The newly launched communications satellite will add more capacity to the company's network.

BulgariaSat-1 will broadcast satellite television channels into businesses and homes. A Bulsatcom subsidiary in Serbia will also relay the TV channels through the newly launched satellite.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A doctor in Oklahoma has been charged with five counts of second-degree murder after her patients died because of opioid drug overdose.

Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter has accused osteopathic physician Regan Nichols of being involved in the deaths of five of her patients from 2010 to 2013. The victims' age ranged from 21 to 55 years old.

According to a report from the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's office, all five patients showed high toxicity levels caused by multiple drugs taken. Nichols allegedly prescribed three of the victims with "deadly" and "addictive" combinations of drugs, which included Alprazolam, Carisoprodol, Hydrocodone and Oxycodone.

Overprescribing Controlled Dangerous Substances

The probable cause affidavit stated that Nichols signed off on prescriptions for more than 3 million dosage units of various controlled substances from Jan. 1, 2010 to Oct. 7, 2014. This was based on information gathered by the state's Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control (OBN) through its Prescription Monitoring Program.

Medical experts who examined the files of the victims said the prescriptions that Nichols gave were way beyond the recommended levels and had no medical basis.

Hunter's office said 10 of the patients who went to see Nichols in her clinic in Midwest City during that period died because of drug overdose. She has since been charged with five counts of second-degree murder.

"The dangers associated with opioid drugs have been well documented and most doctors follow strict guidelines when prescribing opioids to their patients," Hunter pointed out.

"Nichols prescribed patients, who entrusted their well-being to her, a horrifyingly excessive amount of opioid medications. Nichols' blatant disregard for the lives of her patients is unconscionable."

In September 2015, Nichols was stripped of her ability to prescribe controlled substances by the state's Board of Osteopathic Examiners. She has also surrendered her credentials to authorities voluntarily.

During the hearing, Nichols was asked if she thought she had prescribed too much medication to her patients. She claimed that her patients had developed tolerance to the drugs that she was prescribing.

When she was interviewed by OBN officials earlier in 2015, Nichols described how she tried to discipline her patients so that they would comply with the agency's drug screen policies. She said she would "fire" or dismiss those who did not follow the regulations. However, she would "unfire" or offer second chances to patients if the drug that they had abused was marijuana.

On Friday, June 23, the Oklahoma County court issued a warrant to have Nichols arrested. She will be held in lieu of a $50,000 bond.

Opioid Abuse In The United States

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of deaths linked to prescription opioid overdoses have quadrupled since 1991. More than 183,000 Americans have already died because of prescription drug overdose from 1999 to 2015 alone.

Most cases of opioid overdose deaths involved prescription medications such as Hydrocodone, Methadone and Oxycodone.

From 1999 to 2014, the highest rates of overdose cases were seen among people between 25 and 54 years old. Non-Hispanic whites and American Indian or Alaskan Natives were more susceptible to prescription opioid overdose compared with Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks.

Men were also more likely to die because of opioid overdose than women. However, the CDC warned that mortality gap between the two genders is closing.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The government of Mao county in Sichuan province says the landslide from a mountain fell onto the village of Xinmo.

Around 100 people from 40 homes are feared buried by the landslide. (Picture for representation)

By AP: A county government in southwestern China says around 100 people from 40 homes are feared buried by a landslide that crashed into their homes.

The government of Mao county in Sichuan province says the landslide from a mountain fell onto the village of Xinmo at about 6 am Saturday. It blocked a 2 kilometer (1.24 mile)-section of a river.

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The county government's website says search and rescue efforts are under way.

Photos posted on the site showed piles of rubble and large rocks and emergency responders helping a woman by the road.

ALSO READ | Sri Lanka appeals to UN to help after landslides, floods kill over 100, displace 2,900

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By Press Trust of India: By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Jun 24 (PTI) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi today held talks with Pakistan Prime Ministers Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz here on a range of bilateral issues as well as the situation in Afghanistan.

Wang, who arrived here today on a two-day visit, is also expected to hold talks with Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.

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Soon after his arrival, the Chinese minister went into delegation level talks with Pakistani side led by Aziz.

"All issues of bilateral and regional interest are on the table," sources said.

Earlier, Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria during his weekly briefing on Thursday said that the Chinese foreign minister will discuss "all issues of mutual interest including the regional situation."

From Pakistan, Wang is expected to visit Afghanistan, in an effort to defuse tensions between the two neighbours.

The visit is aimed at defusing tensions between the two neighbours, media reports had earlier said.

Citing sources in the foreign ministry, Dunya TV had said that all bilateral efforts to normalise relations in the past have yielded no output and interference of third party seems mandatory to fill the void.

Pakistan-Afghanistan rift have deepened further after the Afghan government put blame of the recent attack in Kabul?s diplomatic area on Islamabad. PTI SH PMS AKJ PMS

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The citizens also called for the drafting of a new constitution and the resignation of Attorney General Patricia Benavides. | Read More
By Press Trust of India: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jun 24 (PTI) The civil nuclear deal would be part of the discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump, the White House has said, emphasising that the US was looking forward to its nuclear reactors contributing to Indias energy security.

"In terms of the actual deals, the US is still looking forward to US-built nuclear reactors contributing to Indias energy security. We think that this civil nuclear partnership will bolster Indias energy security, create jobs and trade opportunities for the American people.

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"So were still very much interested in seeing this deal move forward," a senior administration official told reporters ahead of PM Modis visit to the US next week.

"I think Westinghouse stands behind the viability of the project, and it presented it in its technical commercial offer to India.

"So we very much support continued negotiations between Westinghouse and its Indian partners, recognising that deals on this scale can take time," the official said, acknowledging that this is a very complicated issue.

"This will be part of the discussion. Its the White House Energy Week, so civil nuclear energy cooperation is bound to come up," the official said in response to a question and dismissed reports that it has been suspended.

"I wouldnt characterise the civil nuclear deal that was completed now nine years ago as being suspended or its done. That waiver was provided for India. The Nuclear Suppliers Group agreed to a waiver for India to receive civil nuclear technology and fuel. So thats completed," said the official.

Meanwhile, a senior White House official preparing for PM Modis maiden meeting with Trump, said that the US president is well aware of Indias economy and strategic potential.

He said that Trump has already visited Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, in his capacity as a real estate tycoon.

"He has visited India. I think Mumbai, hes been to Mumbai," he said.

"As you know, during the campaign he was very much in touch with the Indian-American community. He expressed a very positive feeling toward India.

"I think he said that if he were to be elected, India would find a true friend in the White House," said the official.

"He (Trump) is not new to India. He has understood their contribution to the US economy, everything thats happening in Silicon Valley, for example. Indian Americans have really embraced the innovation and entrepreneurship. So theres a lot of synergies and linkages between the US and India in this particular realm," the official said.

Noting that Indian-Americans have founded 15 per cent of Silicon Valley startups alone, the official said that as a businessman, India is not new for him (Trump).

"He has been acquainted with India. This will offer an opportunity to really deepen the strategic partnership and his strategic understanding of India," he said.

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According to the official, the preparations for Modis trip started long ago.

"Theres been a lot of preparatory work done. There has been a great deal of preparation to make this a really memorable visit," the official said adding that both sides recognise the importance of the US-India partnership.

"There are a lot of things that the two countries need to do together in terms of promoting security and stability. Theres a lot they have to do that is in their mutual interests," the official said adding that the administration has been working with inter-agency when it comes to the US- India partnership.

"There have been a tremendous amount of preparation, and were looking forward to a really good visit," he added. PTI LKJ ARK ASK ARK

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By Kaushik Deka : The Narendra Modi government has received a big thumbs-up from industrialist Anil Agarwal on its reform agenda.

"Demonetisation, the new bankruptcy law and GST will change India and it will give comfort to investors. Credibility of India has never been so high in last 30 years," said Agarwal, founder and chairman of Vedanta Resources at the India Today Group's State of the State Conclave held in Jaipur today. The Conclave is a signature India Today event where a special report on various growth indicators of a particular state is released. All the districts in the state are ranked based on various parameters and categories.

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Agarwal also took the opportunity to reveal that Vedanta Resources will invest Rs 60,000 crore in India in next three years and 30 per cent of that will go to Rajasthan. In the state, Vedanta has plans for investment in stone quarries, mining of rock phosphate and potash and mining of silver. He appealed to Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje, who was among audience, to open up stone quarries to auction and ensure that mining can happen in the most environment-friendly way.

Talking about Rajasthan economy, the Vedanta head said that if Punjab could take care of India's grain, Rajasthan could be the leader in eradicating poverty. The London-based industrialist also batted for swdeshi economy.

"Gandhiji talked about being swadeshi. Why is not our gold swadeshi? Why is not our oil swadeshi?" he questioned saying that the government must focus more on under the ground exploration for resources.

"In India we have done enough above the ground, now money must come from below the ground," he added. He even demanded a separate industry for exploration of every resource under the ground.

Agarwal also announced that he would give away 75 per cent of his wealth for the welfare of youth and women. He recalled how he used to be impressed in his younger days by JRD Tata for his simple living and high thinking and drew a parallel between American philanthropist and ancient India sages.

"Our sages were epitome of sacrifice. American top philanthropists live such simple life and give away all their resources to institutions. I think, Indian sages died and took rebirth in the US."

During the day-long event, spread over 12 riveting sessions, 31 eminent speakers including Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and CR Chaudhary, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, former Union Minister CP Joshi, educationists T.V. Mohandas and Manish Sabharwal, Grammy award-winning musician Pandit Vishwamohan Bhatt, actor Ila Arun and fashion designer Raghavendra Rathore discussed and debated about the multi-dimensional growth trajectory of Rajasthan.

ALSO READ:

State of state conclave: Rajasthan making progress across fields, says C R Chaudhary

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ALSO WATCH VIDEO:

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As Baton Rouge considers expanding its city limits to envelop more businesses in the southeastern part of the parish, St. George firefighters saying they are the ones feeling the squeeze.

The Metro Council will vote Wednesday on whether to approve annexing property around the Siegen Lane Marketplace, which includes most of the stores there, such as Walmart and a Sam's Club, as well as undeveloped land nearby that is zoned for mixed-use buildings.

The land is connected to the city's boundary lines through property around the Mall of Louisiana, which was annexed in 2014. The mall was annexed as the city-parish strove to absorb land that would have been incorporated into the proposed city of St. George.

L'Auberge Casino and Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center also entered the city around the same time.

The efforts to incorporate a new city of St. George failed two years ago but legally can resume this summer. No new petitions have appeared yet, and St. George organizers declined to comment publicly about their planned timing and the boundaries of any new proposed city.

Firefighters in the southeast part of the parish, though, are frustrated that more commercial property seems to be headed into the city of Baton Rouge and fear it will mean a loss of revenue to support their operations.

They worry that because the city doesn't have a nearby fire station they'll have to keep responding to calls in the area, and without the benefit of taxes paid by those property owners.

"There is NO CONNECTION between the St. George Fire Protection District and the once-proposed City of St. George," public information officer Eldon Ledoux wrote in a news release last week.

"One is an independent taxing district that has been in existence for the provision of public safety services for almost 50 years; while the other does not exist except in the minds of some people that feel they can do a better job of educating their children and governing themselves than the current governmental structure provides."

Attorney Mary Olive Pierson, who fought against St. George incorporation, said the city had tried to annex the Siegen Lane Marketplace area two years ago, and it's just taken time to work with the property owners to draw up the legal paperwork.

The annexation push happened under previous mayor-president Kip Holden. Current office holder Sharon Weston Broome is not trying to expand the city limits, said acting chief administrative officer Jim Llorens.

Broome opposes the creation of St. George. However, he said, the administration will try to fight any incorporation efforts by addressing the concerns of residents in the southeastern part of the parish.

Asked if snapping up portions of the tax base may also help prevent incorporation, Llorens responded: "We don't snap up anything."

Richard Carmouche, who owns The Grove mixed-use development near the Siegen Lane Marketplace, said he was motivated to seek annexation so he can enter the city's consolidated lighting district and get street lamps on his property.

"It isn't to make any kind of political statement about St. George. ... I just want my lights," he said.

The company that owns most of the Marketplace did not respond to a request for comment, and a Walmart spokeswoman responded to questions about the annexation with a vague written statement that did not address why the retailer favors annexing to the city.

"Walmart plays an important role in the communities we serve, from providing good jobs with career growth opportunity, to supporting local nonprofits, to helping economic growth and development through the tax dollars generated in our stores. We are proud of our long-standing partnership with the city and look forward to continue serving the children and families of Baton Rouge, she wrote.

However, those tax dollars are the sticking point.

The property in the proposed annexation area, some of which is yet to be developed, has a market value of $55 million, said East Baton Rouge assessor Brian Wilson. The St. George Fire District is mostly supported by a number of property taxes that add up to 16 mills. That means the land slated to enter the city is worth $110,000 annually for the St. George firefighters.

It's not a death knell for the department, said Chief Jerry Tarleton. But it lays on more hurt after the annexation of the mall and casino. By next year, they'll have $200,000 or $300,000 less due to the 2014 annexations, and the losses will grow as more taxes expire.

"Where does it stop?" he asked. "What do we do when the revenue goes down?"

As a practical matter, St. George crews still respond to L'Auberge if there's a medical emergency or other matters that requires their care.

The closest St. George station is a mile and a half away from Siegen Marketplace. The closest city station is twice as far. Tarleton asked what he's supposed to do if someone is hanging out the window of a burning building, even if the property owner doesn't pay their taxes to him.

"We can't not respond. We have to," he said.

The city fire department directed questions to Llorens, the mayor's chief deputy. He said the community needs to have discussions about the long-term plans for public safety. That could include consolidating some of the smaller districts, which are also located north of the city. However, he didn't go so far as to call for one parish-wide service.

"I have no idea what it would look like," he cautioned.

Metro Councilman Dwight Hudson, an ardent St. George supporter, said he did not oppose property owners' rights to join the city but wondered if there was a way they could still pay fire taxes to the St. George crews since they are the ones who will generally be first on the scene to any emergencies.

Two other council members whose districts also take in part of the southeastern part of the parish, Buddy Amoroso and Matt Watson, questioned if the city should build another southeast station or two so Baton Rouge firefighters would be better positioned to help cover the area.

Amoroso, whose own district is half in the city limits and half outside, questioned the logic of piecemeal annexations. Either let St. George residents vote on incorporation, he argued, or let them all into Baton Rouge.
Embattled state District Judge J. Robin Free resigned Friday, just three weeks before he was set to return to the bench after a yearlong suspension.

The state's Judiciary Commission had mounted a new investigation into recent actions by Free involving the alleged harassment of speed-enforcement officers with the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office, sources told The Advocate. He reportedly threatened to investigate them upon his return to the bench in July.

Robert Gunn, spokesman for the Louisiana Supreme Court, said he could not confirm or deny whether Free was under investigation, citing state law that deems Judiciary Commission proceedings confidential.

"The Supreme Court does not communicate with judges regarding Judiciary Commission matters," he said in an email.

In a brief telephone interview on Friday, Free called it "an honor and a pleasure" to serve on the bench in the 18th Judicial District Court.

"And I look forward to retired life," he said, then hanging up without answering any further questions.

Free submitted his resignation letter to the Louisiana Secretary of State's Office late Friday afternoon.

"It hasn't been processed yet," Meg Casper, spokesman for the state's Secretary of State, said around 4:20 p.m. Friday. "A special election will have to be called at some point."

Free has served as a judge in the 18th JDC, which encompasses West Baton Rouge, Iberville and Pointe Coupee parishes, since 1996.

But for the past couple of years, his tenure on the bench was marked by controversy.

Free is currently on suspension without pay after the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled he failed to maintain the integrity of his position and exhibited behavior that the majority of the Supreme Courts seven justices described as injudicious, lacking judicial temperament and giving an appearance of impropriety.

He was suspended in June 2016 for comments in front of a victim's family showing bias toward prosecutors, abusing his contempt authority in two separate cases, making inappropriate comments toward women during domestic abuse proceedings and using slang when speaking to defendants in several criminal cases.

During his suspension from the bench, Free secured a $75,000 a year job with Iberville Parish government as supervisor of the parish's Department of General Services.

Parish President J. Mitchell Ourso has said hired Free to update Iberville's personnel manual and assist in drafting the parish's 2017 fiscal year budget.

Prior to his current suspension, Free was suspended without pay for 30 days in December 2014 for accepting an all-expense-paid trip from a Texas attorney whose client was awarded $1.2 million in a personal injury lawsuit tried in the judges court.

West Baton Rouge judge suspended for accepting free trip from attorney in 2014 District Judge J. Robin Free has been suspended without pay for 30 days for accepting an all

Col. Richie Johnson, spokesman for the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office, recently claimed that while on his current suspension Free had "bizarre" confrontations over a three-week period with five officers from the Local Agency Compensated Enforcement program run by the District Attorney's Office of the 18th JDC.

The incidents, which occurred as deputies were conducting speed enforcement along U.S. 190, were at the center of the Judiciary Commission's most recent investigation, sources told The Advocate.

The deputies said Free videotaped them while as they performed traffic stops and tried to warn motorists that deputies were up ahead issuing speeding tickets by parking along the highway and flashing his vehicle's lights. He also questioned them about the speeding enforcement program, calling it illegal and saying he intended to shut it down when he returned to the bench.

Johnson previously said Free was lashing out after one of his relatives was issued a speeding ticket.

Free denied having any knowledge of the encounters.
Devendra Fadnavis's announcement of a 'blanket loan waiver' is unlikely to douse any fires in Maharashtra. State revenue minister Chandrakant Patil is already talking of 'filters' that will deny a significant chunk of farmers any benefit. Heading an empowered group of ministers tasked with finalising the terms of the loan waiver, Patil says farmers who own four-wheelers, families where a member has a government job and those defaulting on property taxes and power bills won't be eligible. "There is a demand to keep the rich farmers out. We'll soon come up with a detailed plan," he says.

The minister also insists that many farmers secure interest-free crop loans from district cooperative banks and earn interest from short-term deposits in commercial banks. No interest is charged on co-op loans returned within a year. "Farmers have found a new way to earn money," says Patil.

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Big farmers, he says, must voluntarily refuse the loan waiver like the families who surrendered the LPG subsidy on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call. Patil claims many farmers have called him to say they don't need waivers.

Farmers' organisations, for their part, have raised a red flag. "Each and every farmer must be covered by the loan waiver," says Ajit Navale, member of the farmers' steering committee. Officials say were the revenue minister's parameters applied, the number of eligible farmers will come down to 6 million, less than half the 13.7 million figure in the revenue department records. "Will the government make it mandatory for its employees to refuse benefits of the 7th Pay Commission if more than one family member is in a government job?" asks Yogesh Bhise, a farmer in Sangli.

Finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has meanwhile ruled out the possibility of new taxes to pay for the waiver. "There are other ways to generate revenue," he says. Sources say the Fadnavis government might hike the fee of land leased out in south Mumbai. Raising money from the sale of land outside Mumbai [about 2,000 ha] is another alternative. These options, say officials, will at best earn Rs 17,000 crore as against the Rs 30,500 crore needed for the waiver.

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The Woden Valley Community Council wants to see the area's diminishing green space be able to be used by the living.

However, a plan to expand the Woden Cemetery will instead leave it to the dead.

Woden Valley Community Council president Fiona Carrick was worried about Woden Cemetery's plan to expand into public parks. Credit:Karleen Minney

Council president Fiona Carrick has come out against the expansion plan for the cemetery, which would involve turning parts of the nearby Eddison Park into new grave spaces.

Under the proposal an extra 1.5 hectares would be added to the cemetery, which would include room for 1600 new graves.
St Kilda are set to monitor the health of Paddy McCartin after the luckless forward suffered his sixth concussion since 2014 after copping a head knock while playing for Sandringham in the VFL.

McCartin, who missed out on a recall to the Saints side for Sunday's clash with Gold Coast having missed last weekend's loss to North Melbourne with a knee issue, went off the field after getting a knee to the head early in the Zebras' 25-point loss to Coburg on Saturday.

Paddy McCartin (centre) has had another knock to the head in the VFL. Credit:Getty Images

While McCartin was seen walking around the boundary line not long after, he did not return to the field.

The Saints said after the game that McCartin was doing OK, but he will continue to be monitored. It is a worrying turn of events for the former No.1 draft pick, who was concussed three times at AFL level last year. Those incidents followed a concussion playing for Sandringham in 2015, and one in his draft year of 2014.
Time will stand still in the hours leading up to 11.30am next Tuesday, and then perhaps go backwards.

It's a ritual made necessary by the uncertain way the Bureau of Statistics calculates Australia's population.

Could Tuesday's census turn back time? Credit:Tanya Lake

The ABS "population clock", reached from the top of its homepage, currently stands at 24,503,300, depending when you're reading this. Right now, while I am typing this, it reads 24,500,024. It ticks over every one minute and 22 seconds, meaning that every day our population grows by about 2000, and every six months by something close to the population of Canberra.

The bureau calculates the growth rate by assuming one birth every one minute and 40 seconds and one death every three minutes and 18 seconds, based on information obtained from registers of births, deaths and marriages, and by assuming that net overseas migration is running at one new resident every two minutes and 18 seconds. That figure is net of a much larger number of people coming into the country each hour and a fairly hefty number leaving or going back home. It does its best to estimate it using those cards we fill out arriving and leaving, and data from the department of immigration.
Denise Stevens, Healesville Would the ministers be able to pass? Let us see if our Prime Minister and Minister Dutton can answer the following questions on grammar rules that IELTS6 (International English Language Training System Level 6) candidates need to know: Do you know how to put verbs in the right tense and aspect? What is the difference between simple past and present perfect verb tenses? How is the past perfect different from the present perfect? Is the past participle the first, second or third form of the verb? When would you use modal verbs? What is the difference between the definite article and indefinite article? When would you use a comparative instead of a superlative? When do adjectives use three of more syllables? When "y" follows a consonant why would it change to "er" or "est" and what are some exceptions to the rule? If they and anyone else fail the test, should their citizenship be revoked or is this another example of government incompetence? Gregory Clark, Woodend

THE FORUM A price to pay The IELTS (International English Language Training System) proposed as part of the new citizenship test is part of the international English testing business. It costs $330 to sit the test and numerous providers offer help, at a price, to pass it. Will this be another bonanza for shonky training providers? IELTS was designed for academic purposes. If it is used for other purposes, its relevance and cost needs to be explained. Jan Thomas, North Melbourne Hidden agenda?

Our Immigration Minister requires Australia's future citizens to have university level English. Are you sure you don't want them to have blue eyes and blonde hair as well Peter Dutton? Pat Anderson, Airport West Part of a plan The government's plan to raise the English standard requirement comes at the same time it has ended funding to state TAFEs for their support for volunteer teachers in the huge community ESL sector. This will leave those volunteers with no professional support, and undermine the confidence and quality of our teaching. I'd call it hypocrisy if I wasn't sure that the government wants to put as many barriers as possible in front of would be citizens. Sharon Hetzel, Parkside

System overload RE: 'Bitter-sweet win over NDIS" (18/6). The Administrative Appeals Tribunal is the external route available to all NDIS participants unhappy with their plan support but the reality is, it is legally required to first go through an internal review. This internal review took my five year old granddaughter's parents over six months for a decision of no change. AAT may be another several months away as the system is overloaded. The plan expires in December after which it cannot be reviewed. This may leave almost a year of inadequate support. There is a groundswell of others caught up in this bureaucratic ambush that is hurting people with real needs. Shirley Humphris, Geelong. Ignore the trolls The ignorance or arrogance, even narcissism, of internet trolls ('Me and my troll', 18/6) is amazing. Most people think of trolls as losers who don't have the courage to stand behind what they say. Let's just ignore them and their words as they have nothing of value to offer. There are many better voices to listen to.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill Walk in fright Let me add another area where pedestrians are frequently at risk of injury from cyclists: the FOOTpath, right outside our front gate. On a number of occasions, when exiting our front gate, I (and others) have narrowly escaped serious injury and possible death at the hands of (adult) cyclists who persist in tearing along at breakneck speeds. They tell me they ride on the footpath because the roads are "too dangerous". It doesn't seem to matter if the main arterial road fronting our property is busy or not, they clearly prefer the footpath where they have unimpeded access, unless of course, they slam into a grey haired senior citizen enroute. And bells? What bells? Even on a shared route no one rings their bell any more to indicate they are coming through. Trish de Visser, Ascot Vale Help them thrive

Autism is a complex condition that can be much misunderstood to varying degrees in the widespread community, and not just senator Pauline Hanson. My adult son presented one morning very much out of character, highly agitated and then had a massive meltdown. Eventually, after he calmed down, I was able to get him assessed at a public hospital where a serious and very painful medical condition was diagnosed, he was operated on later that day. He was unable to articulate he was feeling extreme pain, this is pretty much what those with autism are faced with as having complexities with sensory intolerences and information processing challenges amongst a myriad of attributes that are part of having a autism spectrum condition. He thrives when healthy and in a supported environment with people who understand him and have a good comprehension regarding autism and he does amazingly well. As much I agree more government intervention is required, those with autism, may also thrive in a society that is understanding and more tolerant of their needs. Name withheld, Greensborough

Needs to know It's time we dropped the misnomer "needs-based" in relation to Gonski 2.0. I have taught students from private, government and Catholic schools, and (with a few notable exceptions) the higher the school fees, the better the educational and life opportunities on offer. Many private school fees are upwards of $20,000 annually. It's well worth typing "School funding estimator" into your search engine, then browsing a few schools to see the ludicrous inequities between government school funding and taxpayer support of schools with luxury facilities. Parents' ability to pay fees is a better indicator of "socio-economic status" than their postcode or taxable income. Joan Reilly, Surrey Hills Double speak danger I am astonished by The Age's use of Orwellian language that draws on the failed experiment of neoliberalism in the debate about physician-assisted suicide. It may be named the "Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill" but one only need check a dictionary to realise it will make suicide legal. Moreover, the language used overlooks the fact that policies have only increased the power of the privileged and further marginalised the vulnerable. The privileged will always be able to exercise their choices if assisted suicide is legalised. But the disabled, the elderly and the infirm will be at an ever greater risk of being pressured into exercising their newly acquired "choice" to die, especially as the funding for the public health system remains in crisis.

Paul Cocks, Ivanhoe False economy 'NBN speeds top the complaints list' (18/6) is an indictment on the Coalition, and Malcolm Turnbull in particular who was the minister responsible for the National Broadband Network roll out under the Abbott government. Rather than opting for the state of the art plan envisaged by the Gillard administration, Turnbull has given Australia an inferior NBN at a time when the optimum utilisation of advances in technology are essential. The Coalition constantly claim to be a superior economic manager but saddling Australia with second rate technology is false economy of the highest order. Phil Alexander, Eltham

Not app-ropriate Will you please stop referring to Uber as tech company. It's a taxi company that uses technology. Like Menulog is a food home delivery company that uses an app. There is hardly a business these days that doesn't use technology. But they aren't all tech companies. Andrew Moffat, Williamstown Shrinking pool When I arrived here as a "10-pound Pom" in 1957, my Australian husband informed me that "we read The Age and listen to the ABC".

Nothing's changed other than the format  a tabloid is much easier than doing battle with a broadsheet and iView is a small miracle for me. But I fret over the constant threats to both quality newspapers and broadcasters and the loss of staff/funds. Online blogs and commentaries are fine up to a point but nothing replaces the morning newspaper, in whatever shape, and the added bonus of being able to check on "Latest and Breaking News" throughout the day. Ros Collins, Elwood A common line

Human Services Minister Alan Tudge (who has has repeatedly stood by the Centrelink debt recovery program), says that unfortunately some people deliberately defraud the Commonwealth and compliance measures are necessary. I note that unfortunately some Members of Parliament deliberately defraud the Commonwealth, and therefore it seems only reasonable that comparable compliance measures are necessary. I ask Alan Tudge when will he be introducing such legislation into the House? Des Bleakley, Vermont South If it's good for one ...
This weekend Shona Lorigan will be on a coastal headland, joining thousands of others around the country scanning the horizon for whales.

Sunday marks the annual national humpback migration census day run by Ms Lorigan's marine mammal rescue group, ORCCA and conducted by hundreds of eager volunteers. Every indication points to another record year.

As of 4pm on Saturday, June 24, 2209 humpback whales had been sighted passing Cape Solander near the entrance to Botany Bay since May 24, almost 50 per cent more than a year ago, according to the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

"All of us love to be around them, they are truly majestic creatures," Ms Lorigan said. "We're so fortunate to be able to experience them literally off every headland."
Oh the righteous celebrity!

The bonhomie wrapped around Rebel Wilson when she emerged victorious in her legal battle with those naughty women's magazines has been truly something to behold.

Part-time poet and full-time Hollywood star Russell Crowe hit Twitter to tell his 37-year-old pal: "So brave, so much integrity  now 'f--k off' back to Hollywood and be your brilliant self. Proud of you."

It was the sort of endorsement that would melt any celebrity's heart. Crowe is a man well-versed in the black arts of gossip magazines, having had every detail of his life, from his romance to his marital woes and hotel lobby temper tantrums, documented for the past couple of decades.
The Martin Place encampment that has become a symbol of the city's homelessness problem was all but swept from the streets on Saturday by Clover Moore's City of Sydney council, in part to make way for a property development.

Underneath banners advertising a charity CEO Sleepout ("Homelessness Doesn't Have a Postcode," the banners declare) staff employed by the council moved quickly on Saturday morning to remove rows of bedding and furnishings that had built up at the north-eastern end of Martin Place.

Nigel Blakemore, who had been living in Martin Place, cleans up belongings after the City of Sydney removed the homeless camp. Credit:Anna Kucera

The removal of the camp came amid a tense morning of negotiations between the Council's director of city operations, David Riordan, and the organisers of what had become, over the past six months, a community of Sydney's homeless.

"I was a broken man when I came here three months ago," said Nigel Blakemore, one of the camp's residents. "Now I'm ready to take on the world, get back on my feet."
The heath on the clifftop at North Head provided enough cover to keep the sound low and afford some privacy to the men who went there for sex. Not that there was a lot of modesty going about. Clothes were entirely optional. They came in groups or alone, with a picnic or only a towel, picked out a rock and sunbaked with an open mind to something more. Mostly they parked at Shelley Beach, walked up the goat tracks and climbed through a hole in the wall, but those who wanted discretion could park at the hospital. A sunny day attracted them to the beat in scores.

This was the place where Scott Johnson spent his last moments. Fishermen discovered the 27-year-old's body at the foot of the cliff on December 10, 1988. His clothes were neatly folded at the top. Police swiftly determined death by suicide. No witnesses have come forward.

Scott Johnson about four months before his death.

But NSW Coroner Michael Barnes concluded hearings on Friday for an exceptional third inquest into the circumstances of Mr Johnson's death, which exposed for the first time a more sinister undercurrent to the activity on the headland.

During the 1980s, the Northern Beaches were in the grip of AIDS panic, stoked by the grim reaper advertisements running on television and an inherent prejudice against gay men. Heavily tattooed skinhead gangs prowled public toilets and gay beats and went "poofter bashing" for sport. One member of the group was known to have beheaded cats and microwaved his mother's budgerigar. Another set his dog on a cat. Their names cannot be revealed for legal reasons.
Trump today said there were important strategic issues to discuss with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he called a "true friend."

By India Today Web Desk: US President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "true friend," and said he looked forward to his visit to the US, which begins today.

"Look forward to welcoming India's PM Modi to @WhiteHouse on Monday. Important strategic issues to discuss with a true friend!" Trump tweeted from the President of the United States' (POTUS) official Twitter handle.

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The PM's reply came just hours later: "Thank you @POTUS for the warm personal welcome. Greatly look forward to my meeting and discussions with you @realDonaldTrump," he tweeted.

On Monday, after a long day of talks, Trump and Modi will sit down for a working dinner.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has said talks between Trump and Modi will be "robust".

"The President and the Prime Minister will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counterterrorism, defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement and energy. I think it's going to be a very robust discussion", he said at his regular briefing on Friday.

Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar flew into Washington ahead of the PM's visit to meet senior officials in the Trump administration, and to lay the groundwork for the Narendra Modi-Donald Trump meeting.

PM Modi left New Delhi on Saturday on a three-nation tour. He's on his way to the US after wrapping up his trip to Portugal. He'll visit the Netherlands on June 27 on his way back home.

ALSO READ | When Narendra Modi meets Donald Trump: An India First vs America First affair

ALSO READ | Narendra Modi leaves for 3-nation tour, will be first world leader to meet Donald Trump for White House dinner

ALSO READ | This is what PM Modi has to say about his first meeting with President Trump

ALSO WATCH | PM Modi to visit United States on June 26, will discuss Indo-US ties with Trump

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Most NSW doctors and nurses support a controversial medical euthanasia bill headed for Parliament, according to research that could prompt new debate about the medical fraternity's willingness to accept changes to assisted suicide laws.

A bill, to allow patients to apply for medically assisted euthanasia in specific circumstances when older than 25 (an age when informed consent is deemed reached), will be introduced to the NSW upper house in August for a conscience vote.

Dr Anne Jaumees, an anaesthetist based in western Sydney. A poll of doctors and nurses into what they think about euthanasia has just been conducted. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

About 60 per cent of doctors support the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill and fewer than 30 per cent oppose it, according to a survey by market research company Ekas emailed to a database of 4000 NSW doctors it deemed "opinion leaders" and returned by about 500.

A smaller sample of about 100 nurses had support running at 80 per cent in favour of the law reform and opposition at fewer than 10 per cent.
A man has been found guilty of burning down a house so his ex-wife wouldn't get it in their divorce.

Krste Kovacevski claimed he still owned the Wollongong home in the early hours of August 4 last year, as he poured fuel through its rooms, dropped a lit piece of paper, and retreated to his granny flat to watch it burn.

With his home still smouldering, Krste Kovacevski retreated to his garage and fielded questions from curious neighbours. Credit:Angela Thompson

But on Friday a magistrate ruled otherwise: Kovacevski destroyed the uninsured, owned-outright home after losing it in divorce proceedings.

Magistrate Mark Douglass found the home didn't belong to Kovacevski, and that he was well aware of this, having signed it over in the presence of his lawyer the day earlier.
Spiky bursts of plasma called spicules swirl around the surface of the sun. Millions erupt every moment, spurting solar material some 6,000 miles high at speeds of about 60 miles per second.

"These things are very violent," said Bart De Pontieu, a research scientist with the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab in Palo Alto, California. "The gas in spicules is about 10,000 degrees, and they travel the length of California [1,240km] in just a minute or so."

Plasma jet on the Sun - August 31, 2012 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21422679 Credit:NASA Goddard Space Flight Cente

Scientists have studied spicules for decades but were not sure how the plasma jets formed. Now, De Pontieu and his colleagues think they have solved the searing mystery. They published their findings Thursday in the journal Science.

Using data gathered by high-powered land and space telescopes, they created a computer simulation that reconstructed the conditions between the sun's surface and its atmosphere, where spicules form.
Two men charged with slavery and the possession of child exploitation material have received bail.

The human trafficking charges came after Australian Federal Police officers raided a home in Melbourne on June 19.

A 33-year-old man and a 31-year-old man were subsequently charged with possessing child exploitation material and bailed to appear in court.

In court on Friday, further charges relating to human trafficking were laid.

The 33-year-old was charged with facilitating the entry of another person into Australia, deceiving that person with regard to their exploitation in Australia.
Firefighters broke through the front door of a Cloverdale property overnight and helped rescue a woman from her burning home.

The fire started at the Fulham Street property just before 3am.

The woman was rescued a short time ago. Credit:Jason South

A Department of Fire and Emergency Services spokesman said they had to break down the front door to get to the woman and rescue her.

She was taken to Royal Perth Hospital by St John Ambulance but has since been transferred to Fiona Stanley Hospital.
Baghdad: If and when Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is confirmed dead - he's been reported killed multiple times - he is likely to be replaced by one of his top two lieutenants, both of whom were Iraqi army officers under late dictator Saddam Hussein.

Experts on Islamist groups see no clear successor but regard Iyad al-Obaidi and Ayad al-Jumaili as the leading contenders, though neither would be likely to assume Baghdadi's title of "caliph", or overall commander of Muslims.

Russia's defence ministry said last week Baghdadi may have been killed in an air strike in Syria and Interfax news agency quoted a senior Russian parliamentarian on Friday as saying the likelihood that he had been killed was close to 100 per cent.

But armed groups fighting in the region and many regional officials are skeptical about the reports.
A 66-year-old nurse in Texas who is suspected of killing up to 60 children has been indicted on murder charges in the deaths of two of them in 1981, prosecutors said.

The Bexar County District Attorney's office said on Wednesday that the nurse, Genene Jones, was indicted on the charge of murder in the death on September 16, 1981 of two-year-old Rosemary Vega. A separate indictment in May charged Jones with murdering an 11-month-old boy, Joshua Sawyer, by injecting him with a "toxic level" of Dilantin, an anti-seizure drug, in December 1981 while she worked in the paediatric intensive care unit in the former Bexar County Medical Center, it said.

Genene Jones, centre, arrives at court in Georgetown, Texas, where she was sentenced to 99 years in prison, in 1984. Credit:AP

Jones is already serving concurrent prison terms in Gatesville, Texas, for the death of one child and the injury of another. Prison records and the district attorney's office said that in 1984, a jury in Williamson County sentenced her to 99 years in prison for the death of a 15-month-old girl, Chelsea McClellan. The same year, a Bexar County judge sentenced Jones to 60 years in prison on charges of injury to a child for injecting a four-week-old boy, Rolando Santos, with Heparin, a blood thinner. He was sickened but survived.

Jones worked as a nurse at a hospital in Texas in the 1970s and '80s, and authorities suspect that she may have been involved in the deaths of up to 60 infants. Her trials in 1984, at which she maintained her innocence, drew national attention.
Talks between PM Modi and US President Donald Trump would focus on ongoing cooperation, including counterterrorism and defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, besides trade and law enforcement, the White House has said.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump in what would be their first face-to-face meeting would focus on ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism and defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, besides trade and law enforcement, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has said.

Spicer said that talks between the two on Monday would be "robust".

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"The President and the Prime Minister will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counterterrorism, defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement and energy. I think it's going to be a very robust discussion", he said at his regular briefing on Friday.

Modi left New Delhi on Saturday on a three-nation tour that will take him to the US, Portugal and the Netherlands. He reached Portugal on Saturday ahead of his visit to the United States on June 26 and will visit the Netherlands on June 27 on his way back home.

HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar flew into Washington ahead of Modi's visit to meet senior officials in the Trump administration and to lay the groundwork for the Modi-Trump meeting. On Friday, Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and both sides focused on areas of convergence. Indian envoy to the US Navtej Sarna has termed Modi's visit a "great opportunity for the two leaders to know each other". He said Modi would meet the top 20 CEOs of the US during the visit. Sarna also expressed hope that the visit would provide sufficient time for Modi and Trump to get to know each other. He said that India was a major defence partner of the US and both countries had a robust defence and security relationship. In a pre-departure statement, Modi on Friday said that he would hold in-depth discussions with Trump during his visit and hoped to build a forward-looking vision for partnership with the new administration. The Prime Minister said that apart from his official meetings with Trump and his Cabinet colleagues, he would meet some prominent American CEOs and the large Indian diaspora. Former President Barack Obama had called India-US ties the "most defining partnership" of the 21st century. Both leaders had struck a warm personal equation and worked to ease any bilateral irritants. The Obama administration had accorded India the status of a 'major defence partner'. According to reports, the US has cleared the sale of 22 American-made Guardian surveillance drones for India ahead of Modi's visit. The deal is estimated to be worth USD 2-3 billion. Both sides will also discuss the sale of US fighter jets during Modi's visit. Earlier this week, US defence giant Lockheed Martin and India's Tata group signed an agreement to jointly build the F-16 Block 70 fighter in India, in a boost to Prime Minister Modi's 'Make in India' programme. Under the deal, Lockheed will shift its Fort Worth, Texas plant to India without directly affecting American jobs. The deal was announced during the Paris Airshow between Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) and Lockheed Martin. The navies of India, US and Japan will also participate in the Malabar exercise.

Also read | When Modi meets Trump: An India First vs America First affair on cards

Also read | Trump-Modi meeting an opportunity to assess Indo-US ties: Indian envoy to US

Also read | PM Modi thanks Portugal for backing India's UN Security Council membership bid

WATCH VIDEO

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The result of Engineering Services (Main) Examination, 2017 has been declared by the UPSC. The main examination was conducted on May 14 at various test .centres across the nation to fill up 440 vacancies in different engineering disciplines.

By India Today Web Desk: The result of Engineering Services (Main) Examination, 2017 has been declared by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). All those candidates who had appeared for the same are required to check their respective results at the official website www.upsc.gov.in.

The main examination was conducted on May 14 at various test centres across the nation to fill up 440 vacancies in different engineering disciplines.

Steps to check the result

Log on to the official website www.upsc.gov.in

Under 'What's new', click on 'Written Result: Engineering Services (Main) Examination 2017

A PDF file will open displaying the roll numbers of the selected candidates

Download the same and take a printout for future reference

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The candidates whose roll numbers are there on the list have qualified for interview/ personality test.

Documents required for personality test

The candidates would be required to produce the original certificates in support of their claims relating to age, educational qualifications, community, physical disability (where applicable) etc. at the time of the personality test.

(Read: NEET 2017 result declared at cbseneet.nic.in: Steps to check the result)

DAF to be filled

In accordance with the rules of examination, all these candidates are required to fill up the Detailed Application Form (DAF), which will be made available on the commission's website. The DAF will be available from June 29 to July 12 till 11:59 pm.

Interview schedule

The interview of the candidates who have qualified for the personality test is likely to be held during July-August, 2017 onwards. The exact date of interview will, however, be intimated to the candidates through e-summon letter.

About UPSC:

It is India's central agency authorised to conduct the Civil Services Examination, Engineering Services Examination, Combined Medical Services Examination, Combined Defence Services Examination, National Defence Academy Examination, Naval Academy Examination and other important government exams.

For any query, the candidates can visit the official website.

Read: DGE DEE Exam 2017: Admit cards released at dge.tn.gov.in

Read: MHT CET 2017: Final merit list released at dtemaharashtra.gov.in

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The government has cleared a proposal for setting up a greenfield airport in Jewar in Greater Noida, which is likely to be operational in the next five to six years.

By Anand Patel: The proposal to set up a greenfield airport in Jewar in Greater Noida has finally been cleared by the government. Located in Gautam Budh Nagar district, adjoining national capital city Delhi, the airport is likely to be operational in the next five to six years.

At a press briefing in Delhi today, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju was quoted by PTI as saying that "in-principle clearance has been granted" for the airport. The Civil Aviation Minister said that the airport will cater to 30-35 million passengers per year over the next 10 to 15 years.

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Raju said he is happy that 3,000 hectares of land have been identified in Jewar for the international airport. "In Delhi, we are expecting 91 million passengers by 2020 and 109 million passengers by 2024," Gajapathi Raju said at the briefing.

Also at the briefing, Minister of State Jayant Sinha told media persons that within a year, the land procurement process is expected to be completed to start the bidding process for identifying the company which will develop the airport.

"NOIDA TO TURN INTO AEROTROPOLIS"

"We expect that the first phase of the Airport will be operational in 5 years," Sinha said. The minister of state also said, "With a Rs 15 thousand crores of investment, Noida will turn into a aerotropolis, UP officials have confirmed us to extend the Greater Noida metro upto Jewar to provide a multi modal transport facility in the airport area."

"Noida International Airport will provide an alternate to meet this growing demand for air connectivity in the NCR," Jayant Sinha added. The new airport will boost economic activity for export oriented cities like Moradabad and Aligarh in Western Uttar Pradesh, Sinha further added.

Also at the briefing, Uttar Pradesh minister Siddharth Nath Singh thanked the central government for approving the setting up of the airpost in Greater Noida. "Jewar airport will be the cargo hub of the country apart from catering to domestic and international traffic," Singh was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The decision to clear the proposal for the aiport was taken last evening in a meeting where the Defence Ministry said that it has no objections. The airport will help reduce congestion at the Delhi International Airport.

UP BJP HAD WRITTEN TO CIVIL MINISTRY EARLIER

In the past, according to Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Sinha, the current BJP state government in Uttar Pradesh had written to his ministry for a technical evaluation of the proposed site.

The minister pointed out that there was a need to consider development of a green field airport at Jewar, since the IGI airport located here will be utilising its full passenger handling capacity in another 4-8 years time.

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Earlier, a technical evaluation of the proposed site at Jewar was conducted, but due to the time lapse there was a need to conduct a fresh study, Sinha said.

Also Read:

Udan scheme: Now you can fly to these 43 cities, see the full list here

DigiYatra may halve check-in and boarding time at airports by year end

Also Watch:

PM Modi's UDAN scheme to make air travel a reality for common man

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Each day, Mary Frances "Muna" McHam dolls herself up with makeup, pantyhose and high heels. She loves to play piano and is sharp as a tack and healthy as a horse. In fact, she's never taken prescription medication.

So it's understandable that she was the life of the party Friday when she celebrated her 102nd birthday with more than 50 relatives at a picnic in College Station.

For McHam's birthday picnic, relatives and family friends showed up to barbecue, drink lemonade, eat cookies, play games and enjoy each other's company at family property in east College Station. Most of McHam's family lives in Bryan-College Station and several grandchildren have attended Texas A&M. McHam's unusual talents and strength were the talk of the party.

"What's kept her young is wearing high heels and climbing upstairs to her bedroom," said grandson Brad Scott. "For her 100th birthday, the theme on the cake her church made had high-heeled shoes all over it."

"We all know the recipe for her oatmeal muffins by heart," said granddaughter Debbie Orozzo.

"The fact that she is always smiling and in such a good mood is great," said McHam's physical therapist Michael Perkins. "Every time she shows up for therapy, the whole room lights up."

Born June 23, 1915, in Wichita Falls, McHam has lived in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. She married a sailor and they had three daughters and a son. In the late 1970s, after her husband died, McHam moved to Bryan, where she and her son took ownership of the La Salle Hotel in Downtown Bryan. At the time, they operated it as an active community for retired seniors.

"My son and I invested in that at the time, and we had older people who still wanted to be independent," she said. "They each had a padded room, and could walk down to the Woolworths next door by using the elevator. They really enjoyed being what they thought was independent."

Over the decades, McHam and her family have owned various retirement homes. Before she had her first child, she worked as a kindergarten teacher for several years. She's also had a long career as a volunteer, giving her time at the Humana Hospital, which is now the College Station Medical Center.

"With her, volunteer work was very important," daughter Sandie Light said. "She mostly worked with the hospital, but then she's also volunteered with Johnson Elementary School here [in Bryan], working in the library. She did that until she turned 100."

Life hasn't always been easy. McHam's husband died 40 years ago and three of her grandchildren have been killed -- one in a bus crash in the Philippines, one in a small plane crash in Bryan and the other in a tractor-trailer crash in Wichita Falls. As she grows older, McHam's selfless spirit also causes her to worry about becoming a burden.

"People shouldn't live to be this old, because you're worn out and people have to take care of you," McHam said.

Her family said McHam is always concerned about how she impacts other people. She wants to be nothing but helpful, and maintains a relentlessly forgiving, positive attitude.

"She is pretty amazing," Light said. "People ask why she lives so long. I say it's because she wakes up smiling every morning and loves people, and it shows. She just has a good outlook on life. If someone [acts badly], she'll say, 'Well, maybe they're just having a bad day.'"

McHam, who lives with Light, isn't as active with volunteering as she once was, but stays busy with the A&M Church of Christ and visits those in nursing homes. She enjoys playing the piano by ear and relaxing with her daughter's wolfdog, whom she constantly spoils.

It was difficult for those at the party to narrow down just a few simple traits to praise -- "Muna" McHam, after all, is no simple lady. McHam says she has the secret to living to 102:

"It's all because of a lot of love from this family," she said. "It's a big family, and it's full of love."
Across a street full of corpses and a barrage of ISIS bullets, a Texas A&M graduate saw something in an Iraqi girl hiding under her dead mother's hijab -- his own family.

While supporting the Iraqi military this month in their mission to take back Mosul, aid worker David Eubank came across a girl who was around 5 years old, stranded in an area under ISIS fire. Looking out at her, he said he had two thoughts -- he was probably going to die, and he had to try anyway.

"I don't know what else to do," he said of what he was thinking in that moment. "I would want someone to save my kids. And if I die, my wife and kids would understand because I'm doing the best I can for someone else's kids, and I ran forward."

It wasn't the first life he has saved during the course of his career as a U.S. Special Forces operative or in his career as the founder of Free Burma Rangers, a Christian-based aid group. It wasn't even the first life he had helped save in the past 24 hours. But the moment was captured on camera, and the image of Eubank carrying the unnamed girl spread across the internet in the days that followed.

Eubank, with his wife and children in tow, was in the country helping the Iraqi military with other Free Burma Rangers for the previous eight months. The 1983 graduate of Texas A&M said he was called to help in the Middle East, but it wasn't until he got there that he truly connected with the Iraqi people.

"Intellectually I cared about them, but not in my heart," he said. "But working with them the last year seeing their bravery, seeing their struggles, seeing the humanity the love they've given to me and my family -- I love them."

In the last couple of months of the trip, as Eubanks got closer to Mosul, Eubanks said there was a notable shift -- "things got worse and worse. ISIS was killing more and more civilians," he said.

Eubank said Iraqi forces called on the Free Burma Rangers to help civilians who were fleeing the nation's ISIS-controlled city on June 1. As they got closer, he said they found at least 30 civilians shot and "limping down the street in blood" -- all of whom said ISIS was killing anybody who tried to leave the city on a nearby bridge street.

When it became dark, he said the team crept to the edge of the area to find wounded Iraqis crawling through corpses, desperately trying to get to safety.

"The next morning we trekked out there again, and we could see bodies all over the street," he said. "Guys in wheelchairs shot to death. Little kids that were running for it shot to death. Moms. Every kind of person."

On the morning of June 2, they saw movement 150 yards away -- a man weakly waving at them and children wandering around, including the pigtailed girl who would become just one of two Iraqis to make it out of the area alive that morning.

Despite not being far from the man, Eubank said there was so much enemy fire that crossing the space was impossible. So he shared what he was seeing with Americans in the area, who agreed to drop smoke, obstructing their movement from the ISIS fighter's line of vision.

Using an Iraqi military tank as a shield, they got closer to the girl as the smoke dissipated.

"We had no smoke, there was nowhere we could run from the tank to where the living were," Eubank said. "It was just dead everywhere. It was the perfect kill zone."

Then the Americans dropped another powerful wave of smoke -- "it was perfect," Eubank recalls.

He ran for the girl then went back again with his team to help carry two men in the area, one of whom would die moments later when the team started to retreat and "ISIS really opened up."

When he recounts the story, he first says a prayer, asking for strength.

He offers the disclaimer that he may cry, but says it's important that he shares the story of the horror Iraqi people face.

"I want to tell their story, and I want Americans to know these are worthy people -- these are good people," he said. "They need help and they are fighting a battle that is not just their's. It's the world's."

It's the same reason he said he apologizes to every Iraqi he meets, civilian or otherwise. Eubank said the U.S. has done "great things in Iraq" that don't need to be defended, but he adds that the U.S. has at times "treated Iraqis as tools."

"In many cases, we killed Iraqis," he said. "Sometimes on accident, sometimes on purpose. And I think not all the motives to invade Iraq were good."

He said ridding Iraq from Saddam Hussein and liberating Iraqis were noble reasons for getting involved, but cautions that Iraqis can see through attempts to advance an American agenda.

"They need to hear that we are honest about our mistakes, and we're sorry," he said. "Because otherwise it means they don't count, or we have a different view of morality. So they need to know that we know they count and our view of morality is the same as their's...That's the only way forward in any relationship."

He said the Iraqis he's apologized to have never refuted him or affirmed that the U.S. hasn't made mistakes, but the gesture paves the way for a more meaningful relationship.

"Once you are forgiven, then they are the ones to say how many good things your country has done for them," he said. "Then they say, 'Thank you for caring for us,' and that's the beginning of a real partnership and a real mutual respect and friendship."

Now back in the U.S., Eubank said his hope is that those in the U.S. reach out and do what they can to help.

"The Iraqi people are doing a great job. They need more help. And they need love and understanding," Eubanks said. "The other thing I would say for Americans and for anybody is don't be led by comfort. Don't look at things and say, 'Is it safe?' Ask, 'What should I do?' "
Frustrated, nauseous and terminally ill, Nishi Whiteley's mother turned to medical marijuana in 2010, towards the end of her fight with lung cancer.

"The pharmaceuticals she was taking were not doing what she needed them to," Whiteley said of her mother's vomiting. Acquiring edible cannabis butter, the family incorporated it into "whatever she was hungry for," from pizza to pasta to peanut butter cookies.

"We were stunned what it did for her beyond just addressing the nausea and the vomiting," Whiteley said of the marijuana, which helped her mother to manage her apprehension about her impending death, decreased her neuropathic pain and stimulated her appetite, all of which "made it possible for her to be fully present for the last couple weeks of her life."

Now an advocate for the benefits of medical marijuana and its legalization in Texas, Whiteley -- who has written a book on the subject -- will host a "Cannabis 101 Seminar" at Bryan's First United Methodist Church from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. July 15. Registration will begin at 12:30.

"We need to inform the people in the community, both the church community and the Brazos Valley community, so they understand how the use of medical cannabis can bring relief to people who suffer from chronic illnesses," said the Rev. Rick Sitton, the church's senior pastor.

John Delaney, a senior district judge and former 272nd District Court Brazos County judge, said the seminar is "all about education."

"Americans have had it hammered into their heads that marijuana is evil and immoral," said Delaney.

A University of Texas and Texas Tribune poll conducted in February reveals increased support among Texans for marijuana legalization. The poll showed that 30 percent of respondents believed marijuana should be legalized only for medical purposes; 83 percent of Texans are in favor of some form of marijuana legalization, be it for medicinal purposes or for possessing varying amounts. Opposition to marijuana legalization of any kind dropped seven percentage points in two years, from 24 percent in 2015. Multiple bills in the state Legislature concerning medical marijuana did not get passed, so supporters of medicinal legalization will have to wait until the next legislative session to continue their fight.

Whiteley said the goal of her seminar "is to provide a basic understanding of how and why the components of the cannabis plant are such a safe and effective medicine."

Topics covered will include plant chemistry, intake methods, risks and how to reduce harm, and the three common denominators of disease -- inflammation, oxidation and pain relief -- and how marijuana plants work to address them, among other topics.

Research on the effects of cannabis is limited -- the federal government classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, in the same category as heroin and methamphetamines, and considers it a highly addictive substance with no medicinal value -- but existing studies suggest it could help people suffering from migraines and epilepsy. And, non-scientifically, a quick YouTube search shows video of people with Parkinson's Disease, epilepsy and autism using some form of marijuana to manage their symptoms.

Whiteley said the range of people who could benefit from medical marijuana is broader than just a few illnesses.

"Any disease or ailment that has anything to do with inflammation potentially could be benefitted by cannabis," Whiteley said, suggesting those with autoimmune diseases, lupus or diabetes, among other ailments, could benefit from medical marijuana.

"Almost every single age-related disease you can think of," she said of which diseases could potentially be better managed by medical marijuana.

Sitton said he took an active role in helping organize the seminar because, as a Christian pastor, he wants to aid those suffering in silence who aren't getting the relief they need from traditional treatment options.

"I want to help," he said.

Still, Sitton said he's aware of the relatively controversial nature of the seminar and that many may remain skeptical of legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes.

"I'm not saying that everyone in the congregation is going to agree," Sitton said, but "I think compassionately we have to reach out to people who have few real options."
One of the accused men on Thursday's lynching onboard a train in Haryana today said that he was drunk at the time of the attack. He also claimed that he did not make beef taunts or attack the victims.

One minor was killed after being attacked by a mob on a train in Haryana

By India Today Web Desk: One of the accused in Thursday's Delhi-Ballabhgarh train lynching today said that he regreted the violent incident but claimed that he wasn't the one who made comments accusing the victims of carrying beef.

A 15-year-old boy died on Thursday after he and his two brothers were violently attacked by a mob on Thursday evening. The three had boarded an EMU train to Ballabhgarh from Tughlakabad in Delhi and were attacked between the Ballabgarh and Mathura stations.

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The deceased was identified as Junaid (17) and according to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Faridabad Government Railway Police (GRP), Mohinder Singh was killed after being stabbed by a knife. The two other brothers, who suffered injuries, were identified as Hasim (21) and Sakir (23).

Initial reports of the incident were contradictory with some saying that the altercation was because of an argument over seats, while reports said that the attackers accused the victims of carrying beef.

Police officials, who made one arrest in the matter on Friday, said the fight was over seats.

News agency ANI today quoted one of the accused expressing regret over the incident. 'Regret it, was drunk, but I didn't make the beef taunts or attack the victim, my friends did,' the accused man said.

Meanwhile, one of the brothers - Hasim - who also came under attack spoke to India Today and recounted how other passengers on the train, instead of helping the victims, egged the attackers on.

Hasim said that while they were attacked, the other passengers started instigated the attackers to continue with the beating. 'Unhone koi madad nahi ki, blaki kaha maaro inko (They did not help, but instead said beat them up),' Hasim told India Today.

Hasim went on to express his belief that the attackers knew each other and said that no politician or even the local district collector have yet visited the victims or their family.

(With inputs from Tanseem Haider)

ALSO READ | J&K: 3 more arrested over Ayub Pandith's lynching, SIT formed to probe Jamia Masjid incident

ALSO WATCH | Delhi: Man lynched, 3 injured in train

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There will be plenty of oohs and aahs during the July Fourth fireworks celebration in Costa Mesa, Calif., this year. But there wont be any bone-rattling booms and bangs. Thats because the city is putting on a silent fireworks display  and other cities should, too.

Noisy fireworks arent fun for everyone. For many dogs, cats, wildlife and veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, they are terrifying and can even be deadly.

Countless dogs and cats panic at the sound of explosions  their hearing is much more acute than that of humans, after all  and bolt from their homes, sometimes tearing through screens, digging under fences or even crashing through windows. Animal shelters across the country brace for an influx of lost and injured animals following every July Fourth.

Some animals never make it to a shelter and are killed after running into traffic. Others go missing, never to be reunited with their guardians. Those who remain at home may spend the nights following Independence Day trembling in fear, panting, hiding under beds or couches, or clinging tightly to their guardians, desperate for comfort.

When bombs start bursting in air, sensitive wildlife also flee for cover. Birds who are terrorized by fireworks have abandoned their nests  sometimes orphaning their fledglings  and crashed into buildings, power lines and even each other in frantic attempts to escape in the dark. Many have been severely injured or killed.

In the Netherlands, where fireworks are ignited on New Years Eve, a team of international researchers used weather radar to track birds and found that tens of thousands of them took flight just as a fireworks display began. They continued flying for 45 minutes  roughly the duration of the show.

The sound of explosions can also be extremely traumatic for veterans who have served our country and are suffering from PTSD. The gunshot-like noises can trigger combat flashbacks, hypervigilance, intrusive thoughts and even suicide.

In 2015, a Georgia veteran who was suffering from the disorder reportedly became so agitated and distressed by fireworks that he ran home and fatally shot himself. One veteran who served in Somalia and Afghanistan described the feeling this way: Fireworks for us is like a bomb going off. I want to hit the ground. Take cover.  It sounds and feels like incoming (fire).

The Fourth of July should be festive, not frightening, and thats one reason why more cities are modernizing their celebrations by switching to silent fireworks or other dazzling displays such as laser-light shows. The town of Collecchio in Northern Italy made headlines recently when it passed a law requiring that fireworks be silent, and in Britain, many venues that are close to animal farms, wildlife habitats or residential areas permit only quiet displays.

Silent or quiet fireworks displays can be even more colorful and mesmerizing than noisy ones because the large explosions needed to create the huge booms destroy some of the chemical compounds that create fireworks brilliant colors. Quiet displays often emphasize artistry and choreography and can be timed to accompany music.

If you arent lucky enough to live in a quiet-fireworks community, there are still ways to make the holiday less stressful for your animals. Staying with them during fireworks displays, closing blinds and curtains, keeping the lights on, and playing classical music will help keep animals calm and safe. Special recordings for dogs, such as Through a Dogs Ear, can help, as can a ThunderShirt  a snug, stretchy garment that can alleviate anxiety.

Always keep animals indoors unless theyre on a leash and harness or under constant supervision in a fenced yard, and ensure that theyre microchipped and wearing collars with current identification tags, just in case.

We can also ask our local legislators to ban booming pyrotechnics in favor of silent fireworks or other beautiful and peaceful displays that all Americans can enjoy.
Veterans Day deals and activities this Friday

Area veterans can be treated to a variety of deals, discounts and ceremonies this Veterans Day.
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After 228 days in space on three space shuttle missions and one long stay at the International Space Station, Connecticuts astronaut has retired.

Rick Mastracchio, 57, a University of Connecticut graduate and Waterbury native, retired from NASA on Friday.

Rick is a classmate and a friend and he has done great work for NASA, both in space and on the ground, Chief Astronaut Pat Forrester said in a release announcing the veteran spacemans retirement.

Forrester, who was selected as an astronaut in the same class as Mastracchio, said his breadth of experience over three decades in human spaceflight will serve him well as he moves on to his next endeavor.

During his four spaceflights, Mastracchio took photos of his native Connecticut from high above. He used social media to post photos and send greetings to Nutmeg State residents on Earth. His most recent mission ended in May 2014 after he spent 188 days aboard the International Space Station.

Some of the photos are so detailed, you can even see Charles Island in Milford, Interstate 95 and major southwest Connecticut cities.

Touched down in Stamford

In 2014, Mastracchio and colleague Steve Swanson did a live question-and-answer session from the space station with children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which had a new building since the December 2012 shooting that killed 26 people.

Last March, Mastracchio visited King School in Stamford where he told students of his time in space.

My first mission, I would float upside down and hang from the ceiling eating my lunch, for no really good reason other than I can float upside down and eat my lunch, Mastracchio said. Its really neat.

Mastracchio, who made nine spacewalks since 1996, told students that weird things happen in space aside from the challenges of simple-on-Earth tasks like showering and shoe-tying.

The lack of gravity causes astronauts to lose the calluses they have on the bottoms of their feet and develop new ones on top. While orbiting Earth, they experience 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours. Six people sharing the same filtered air gives the International Space Station a unique smell.

Weightlessness also causes fluid retention.

You get this puffy head and you feel warm like maybe you have a bit of a fever, Mastracchio said. You see some astronauts and its really, really obvious. Your body goes through a lot of changes in both directions.

But nothing beats floating.

Its really cool, he said. Its like youre Superman.

From UConn to space

In 1982, Mastracchio was awarded a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Connecticut, and two master of science degrees in electrical engineering and physical science, from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and University of Houston-Clear Lake, respectively.

In 2014, he delivered the graduation address to UConns school of engineering. His recorded address was shown on the video boards at Gampel Pavilion to about 5,000 people, including more than 400 graduating seniors and their families, and several members of Mastracchios family, including his wife, Candi.

Beginning in 1987, Mastracchio worked first with Hamilton Standard and then with Rockwell Shuttle Operations Co. before coming to NASA in 1990 as an engineer. He worked in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory on space shuttle flight software, and in the Astronaut Office on ascent and abort procedures for crew members. From there, he became a Guidance and Procedures Officer flight controller, working in mission control for space shuttle ascents and entries, before being selected as an astronaut in 1996.

The missions

His first flight, STS-106, came in 2000, on board space shuttle Atlantis, when he and his crewmates worked to prepare the space station for its first expedition crew. He returned aboard space shuttle Endeavour for STS-118 in 2007, when as lead spacewalker, he participated in three spacewalks to install a new truss segment, a new gyroscope and a new spare parts platform on the space stations exterior.

In 2010, Mastracchio was part of the STS-131 crew of space shuttle Discovery. He performed another three spacewalks and helped deliver 27,000 pounds of hardware, including three experiment racks and new sleeping quarters for the space station. He was then able to put the hardware to use in 2014, when he spent 188 days in space as part of the Expedition 38 and 39 crews. During that stay, he performed three more spacewalks, leaving him with a total of 53 hours spent outside the space station on nine spacewalks.

Earlier reporting by Liz Skalka was used in this story.
By Press Trust of India: Indore, Jun 23 (PTI) Authorities at the government-run Maharaja Yashwantrao Hospital here today set up two inquiry committees following media reports which claimed that nine patients died due to temporary stoppage of oxygen supply between June 21 and 22.

Denying the reports, Dr V S Pal, hospital superintendent, said that between 8 am on June 21 and 8 am on the next day, as many as 17 critically ill patients died in various wards, but the cause of death in any of these cases was not due to deprivation of oxygen supply. In fact, none of them was on oxygen supply, he said.

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Hospital Dean Dr Sharad Thora however said that two committees of experts have been constituted.

One would examine the oxygen supply system, whereas the other would scrutinise the causes and circumstances of all deaths in the hospital which occurred in the last few days.

The committees would give the report by tomorrow, he said. PTI HWP KRK RMT KUN

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NORWALK  The findings of a state audit on Norwalks renowned Center for Global Studies has left officials scrambling to both rework the schools structure and avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money back to the state.

The bad news: the state audit that took place in April with findings released at the end of May found that  despite more than two decades of operating in a similar fashion  the state would no long categorize the Center for Global Studies as a full interdistrict magnet school program.

The good news: the schools leaders were able to work with state politicians to get wording into a bill  which passed through the General Assembly and will likely be signed into law by the governor  that will give the Center for Global Studies full magnet status for the 2016-17 school year, negating a $450,000 bill from the state for no longer qualifying as a full magnet program for the school year and therefore losing its rights to state grant money.

We were shocked and dismayed that after 14 years of the Center for Global Studies and 25 years as a language immersion program the state was re-categorizing us without any conversation, said Julie Parham, director of the Center for Global Studies, but we are going to make it work.

The Center for Global Studies is a magnet school housed within Brien McMahon High School with a capacity of 300 students. Its goal is to prepare students to become citizens of a global society through the study of Arabic, Chinese or Japanese and corresponding cultures and history. Students travel to countries around the world on two-week study abroad tours.

Because its an interdistrict magnet school, students are accepted from outside of Norwalk, including various cities and towns in Fairfield County such as Darien, Fairfield and Bridgeport.

Historically, freshmen have taken three courses at the Center for Global Studies and two courses there for their sophomore, junior and senior years. The rest of each student's courses are taken at Brien McMahon High School.

Parham said the Center for Global studies is one of just two magnet schools across the state to operate under this school-within-a-school setup. This year, the state decided that model is no longer enough to earn the school the categorization of a full magnet status.

Our best guess is that the state is feeling a lot of fiscal pressure and re-examining everything, Parham said, making sure everything fits their current definitions.

The Norwalk Hour reached out to the State Department of Education to learn more about how and why it made its decision, but did not receive comment by this storys publication.

In an effort to bring the school back up to full magnet status, Parham reworked the schools operations.

Starting in the 2017-18 school year, every student at the Center for Global Studies must take seven magnet-themed courses each year, compared to the three or two needed historically. To make that happen, she said Brien McMahon teachers will be trained to teach Center for Global Studies courses that students would have previously taken within Brien McMahon, such as math or science.

An example might be a interdisciplinary project between a Japanese language class, a world history class and an environmental science class, Parham said. Looking at circular economy, how the Japanese were embracing that concept during the 1600s Edo period, how culture and language reflects that and what we in 2017 can learn from those practices.

Parham said she was able to make these changes without any impact on budget or staffing numbers at the school level.

But some uncertainties in the programs future do remain.

For example, Center for Global Studies students currently graduate with Brien McMahon High School. Parham said it is unclear if the state would want that changed moving forward.

There are lot of cases where its not clear whether its a state decision or a district decision, Parham said. We will be working out those details this year.

To get the school categorized as a full magnet school for the 2016-17 school year  and avoid having to pay back grant money it received for having claimed that status  Parham worked with Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, and other state representatives to get wording in House Bill No. 7201 to classify the Center for Global Studies as a full magnet school. That moved from a bill to Public Act No. 17-172, but still needed to be signed into law by the governor at the time of this storys publication.

Through it all, Praham hopes to have the school back on track to operating as a full magnet program as soon as possible.

Hopefully by the end of the summer they will let us know if they approve this, Parham said. I am confident we have given them every reason to say yes.

KSchultz@thehour.com; 203-842-2567; @kevinedschultz
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NORWALK The senior population has been growing and along with that growth, there has been a corresponding increase of scams and abuse against the elderly.

To prevent local seniors from becoming victims, Sgt. Sofia Gulino of the Norwalk Police Department spoke Thursday to a group of people at Brightview Senior Living and alerted them to common scams, fraud and abuse that target the elderly.

Statistics show that one in 10 people over 60 have experienced some kind of elder abuse, but only one in 14 reports it, Gulino said.

Under-reporting crimes against the elderly  legally defined as someone 60 and older  may happen for a number of reasons. A senior victimized by a family member, for example, may hesitate to reach out for help, Gulino said.

Who is a typical abuser? Statistically it is an adult living with a senior widow, Gulino said. The person may say I cant afford cigarettes or liquor and goes through moms purse. An argument ensues and a physical confrontation can happen. Are they going to call the police? No.

Fifty-eight percent of financial exploitation of the elderly is done by family members. Gulino said that financial abuse against seniors totals $30 billion every year nationally.

There are times that nobody wants to make that call for help, she said. But silence is not golden.

Forms of abuse

Abuse comes in many forms, Gulino said. There is physical abuse, causing injury or pain; emotional abuse; sexual abuse; neglect, not getting basic needs met; self-neglect, we see this in people with dementia or depression; abandonment; and financial exploitation.

The most frequent form is neglect, in which a caregiver may not provide food or medication, Gulino said.

Gulino cited the case of a 58-year-old Norwalk man who was charged with cruelty to persons last November after his elderly female relative was found unresponsive in her home, covered in feces and severely malnourished. Police say that the man, a convicted felon with a long criminal history, was the sole caregiver for the 86-year-old woman.

Victims who are most prone to elder abuse fall into several categories, Gulino said.

We see abuse among victims who are isolated and have little social support, people with dementia have almost double the statistics of abuse, previous domestic violence victims; lower income people, and those in poor physical health, Gulino said. Women are more abused than men because they live longer and are alone without their spouses.

Seniors who are abused are 300 percent more likely to die earlier, she said.

Seniors and the law

Laws specific to crimes such as larceny and assault against seniors carry heavier sentences, Gulino said.

First-degree assault on a person over the age of 60, for example, is a Class B felony and carries a five year prison sentence upon conviction. By law, reporting suspected abuse is mandatory for physicians, nurses, nursing home staff, patient advocates, the medical examiner,clergymen, pharmacists, among others who come into contact with the elderly.

Among the many scams seniors are susceptible to, Gulino cited health insurance scams, counterfeit prescriptions, funeral scams, telephone scams and bogus IRS calls.

The IRS doesnt contact you by phone, they will contact you by mail only, she said. Do not go out and buy a card for someone who says you owe money to the IRS. People say to us, They sound so real. Dont fall for it. Hang up the phone.

There are also scams involving lottery tickets in which the scammer will ask the victim for cash or valuables as collateral in exchange for turning over the ticket. In a local case, the victim turned over cash and jewelry before they booted her out of their car.

You could be walking and a car full of people pulls up and says, We just won a lottery ticket-were illegal and we need someone to cash it for us. If you get us the money, we will split it with you, Gulino said. People fall for this every day.

Fighting back

Call the police if you see any suspicious activity in your neighborhood, Gulino said. Its important to take ownership of your community. Show people who have bad intentions that people are paying attention.

Gulino cited the arrest of a fake home contractor who fleeced thousands of dollars from Norwalk homeowners.

This man took $24,750 from a homeowner to purchase supplies to fix their roof, Gulino said. Another homeowner handed over $7,000 for supplies and called us because the man never showed up to do the work.

Gulino advised people to call the Better Business Bureau before hiring a contractor, and paying no more than 10 percent up front.

Another way thieves find their way into homes is by pretending to be from a utility company, tree trimming company, or municipal department. While the homeowner is being distracted, an accomplice enters and burglarizes the home.

They take you outside and another person goes through your home, she said. If someone comes to your door, dont let them in. Call the utility company or town hall to ask if this is legitimate. Have it confirmed.

Gulino reminded attendees that any sales person who comes to your door must have a city-issued solicitor permit. She also warned attendees to use care in choosing a caregiver.

Choose a caregiver carefully, do a background check, she said.

Gulino also advised attendees to use a confetti-type shredder for personal papers; lock mailboxes; check credit reports and keep a close eye on bank statements; take photographs of valuables; and use caller ID.

If you have an emergency call 911, Gulino said. For non-emergencies contact us at 203-854-3000.
When Karen Bredthauer was a little girl growing up on a farm about six miles outside Burwell, she never thought she would travel around the world.

At age 7, Bredthauer was driving a tractor, on a rake in the hay field and pulling pigs on the family farm.

You stay very simple and in your own little world, she said.

Years later, Bredthauer has gone outside her little world and discovered the world is a much bigger place than she could have ever imagined as a young farm girl.

Since she first traveled abroad in 2010, Bredthauer has been to 28 countries, including the United States. In the last 370 days alone, she said, she has been to about 10 countries and to Europe three times. Most recently, May 28 through June 11, she traveled with a group of friends to Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Russia and Sweden.

Why exactly does Bredthauer like to travel?

Because I like to see the culture, I like to eat the food, and I like to ask questions about their government, she said. The thing that is really neat is you see it here in movies, but when you actually feel it, walk on it and breathe it, it is different.

As a developer in Grand Island, Bredthauer built the Springdale Subdivision in 2006 and constructed 37 homes. When she was building these homes, she said, she used a lumberyard where she accumulated trip points. Eventually, she accumulated enough points for a trip.

My friend and I had a list of trips, she said. She said, Lets go to Italy. I go, You want to go to Italy? She goes, Yes, lets go to Italy. Thats the most popular spot. So we took off and went to Italy on a Builders Warehouse trip. Thats probably the demon of my travels.

Bredthauer added that, since then, she has paid out of pocket for her trips abroad. She credits her ability to travel to her simple lifestyle.

Sometimes I look online, find some deal and take off, she said. Maybe sometimes it has been 30 days or less than 30 days when I see something and say, I better go run.

Bredthauer added she considers herself a workaholic and said sometimes she just needs an escape, which she gets in her travels.

Of all of the places in the world she has traveled to, Bredthauer said, Paris is one of the best because she saw the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower lit up at night.

That is just something we see in magazines every day, she said. This is something you always dream of, but when you see it and you feel it, it is different.

As a developer and a homebuilder, Bredthauer said, one aspect of her travels she enjoys the most is the history of the countries and their buildings. She said she is fascinated by the fact that Catherine the Greats palace was built in the 1700s and is still used today.

Bredthauer added that, as a developer and a Hall County supervisor, traveling makes her more open-minded and gives her a different perspective of how Europe runs in comparison to the United States.

We are so spoiled in America, she said. We have a very good life, and it makes you realize how lucky we are.

As she reflected on her most recent trip, Bredthauer showed off some of the souvenirs she picked up along the way  evidence she has been to 28 countries.

For each country she visits, she said, she buys a T-shirt as a way to remember her time spent traveling through it. She added she hopes to one day have them made into a quilt so she can reflect on her travels in her older years.

I have this idea where one day with my T-shirts, I am going to have a blanket made so, when I am in the nursing home, I can have that T-shirt quilt put on my lap, she said.

In addition to the T-shirts, books and other knickknacks, Bredthauer also displayed some stacking matryoshka dolls she bought in Russia. One set has pictures of Russian officials on them.

There was just a small section with political stuff, she said. I think it was something that they just have tourists come and pick up. I thought it was hilarious.

So is Bredthauer addicted to traveling? Probably, she said with a laugh.

Id rather travel because its your experiences in life, not the stuff, she said. It is always just a great experience and a new adventure because every country is different.
The devastating effects of the financial meltdown can still be felt today. The abuses of big Wall Street banks resulted in tremendous losses and forced an overwhelming number of Americans in unemployment and financial ruin.

In an effort to help Americans get back on their feet, Congress established the Consumer Bureau and appointed Richard Cordray as its director. Since its creation in 2011, the Consumer Bureau has returned nearly $12 billion to 29 million Americans and they show no sign of slowing down.

Unfortunately, the current administration and some Senate Republicans are working to dismantle the Consumer Bureau, which would leave hard working Americans vulnerable to the next round of financial wrongdoing. The time has come to take action and let our senators in Washington know that we support the Consumer Bureau under the direction of Richard Cordray.
The Gujarat Congress veteran said he would not follow the party leader if it continued on its suicidal path in the state as elections are due this year.

Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela spoke about the need to prepare for the Gujarat Assembly elections.

By Press Trust of India, PTI: Senior Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela on Saturday said he would not follow the party leadership if it continued on its present "suicidal path" in Gujarat where elections are due this year.

He also said after he spoke out about the need to prepare for the Gujarat Assembly elections, all other state leaders were working to "oust him from the Congress".

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Mincing no words, he said the Congress leadership "lacked foresight". Vaghela, sulking after the high command refused to give him a free hand ahead of the polls, on Saturday addressed a meeting of his supporters here, which is being seen as a show of strength.

"I have conveyed my grievances to the Delhi leadership. Even for undertaking a small trip, you plan it out. I can't understand why these Delhi people don't realise that elections will be held in December. After the crushing defeat in Uttar Pradesh, you have to be more alert in Gujarat," Vaghela said.

"As you are the owners of the party, we have to follow whatever you say. We have to follow if you give wrong orders. We follow whatever you say because we are in the party, but do not consider this as my weakness," he said.

"My problem with the party is they have done no planning to win Gujarat elections, when we know that it (elections) wont be delayed for even a month. Owners lack the foresight. They do not know what is going to happen tomorrow.

"(AK) Antony committees report was accepted which said that candidates should be declared one year prior to elections... do it (at least) six months in advance. But the time is running out here," Vaghela said.

"You are heading for committing suicide. There is a big ditch ahead, if you want to fall, then go on. I wont stay on this path," he said.

"I have made my case before the Delhi high command and told them all this," said Vaghela, who visited the national capital two days ago.

"One cannot sit (idle) and expect to win, one has to do homework. If you do not want to do anything then I believe you have taken a supari (contract) to lose to the BJP," he said.

Many of his supporters, who spoke at the meeting, urged him to fight till the end.

Vaghela said he will meet party vice-president Rahul Gandhi after the latter returns in the first week of July.

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ALSO READ | Congress leadership likely to clip wings of Vaghela, Bharatsinh Solanki ahead of Assembly polls

ALSO READ | Gujarat Congress veteran Shankersinh Vaghela unfollows Rahul Gandhi on Twitter. Is he joining BJP?

ALSO READ | Shankersinh Vaghela continues to sulk, skips Congress event in Ahmedabad

ALSO WATCH | Congress leader calls Rahul Gandhi Pappu on WhatsApp, removed from all party posts

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As the new public safety facility is nearing its completion, the Public Safety Committee recommended the approval of a professional services agreement with Gray Design Group of Illinois, Inc. for furniture design services in the amount of $38,000 which was approved at Tuesdays City Council meeting.

If approved, Gray Design Group will assist the city in delegating what furniture can be moved to the new facility, what furniture can be repurposed and setting reasonable budgets.

Edwardsville Fire Chief Rick Welle said after the city went out on a request for a proposal, it received four responses from separate companies, which led the fire department to recommend Gray Design Group.

The city had gone out on a request for proposal and got four responses from separate companies providing an array of services for the furnishings for the new public safety building. So this is not for the purchase of the furnishings themselves rather for the design services, to be able to take all of our existing equipment, furnishings and systems that are still useable in our current public safety building, figure out where they can go easily in the new building and in those areas that dont have those items that are no longer suitable for future use. Then, help design and set the specifications, help us set budgets on reasonable amounts that should be considered for various offices and even help with the arranging for the installation and moving of the existing equipment, Welle said.

So its for all of the design services, all of the coordination. Out of the four companies, staff interviewed two and recommended Gray Design Group, he added.

The contract will include selection of the business furnishings, performing field measurements of existing furnishings that can be repurposed, provide written reports, schematics, illustrations, elevations and timelines, develop cost estimates and assist with public biddings of furniture systems.

The new public safety facility will house both police and fire departments. Its anticipated to be completed this fall and will be a total of 45,000 square feet.

The new facility will feature a sally port, a lock-up, an investigations room, a police administration room, a records area and a dispatch area for the Edwardsville Police Department. The EFD will include a dayroom, a fire administration room and bunk rooms, a joint-use fitness room and a training facility. The large training room will serve as an Emergency Operation Center as well.

As discussion closed, all Council members were in favor of its approval.

The motion passed unanimously.

For more information about the Public Safety Facility, visit the citys website at www.cityofedwardsville.com.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) New York  Sat, June 24, 2017 16:03 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a6928d7 2 Art & Culture Banksy,contemporary-art,#artist,#art,art-and-culture Free

An unguarded moment in an interview has renewed speculation over one of contemporary art's great mysteries -- could elusive graffiti activist Banksy be Robert Del Naja of band Massive Attack?

Goldie, a well-known DJ who was a friend and competitor of Del Naja as the two sprayed Bristol in southwest England with graffiti in the 1980s, made an apparent slip of the tongue in an interview this week.

Goldie was speaking with dismay at the high prices that can be fetched for works by Banksy, whose signature style is politically provocative graffiti that appears suddenly on walls around the world.

"Give me a bubble letter and put it on a T-shirt and write 'Banksy' on it and we're sorted... We can sell it now," Goldie told the Distraction Pieces podcast.

"No disrespect to Rob. I think he is a brilliant artist. I think he has flipped the world of art over," he said, before pausing and switching the conversation to music.

Del Naja has often been speculated to be Banksy, who as an artist makes only shadowy appearances with his face and voice concealed.

Banksy has cited Del Naja as an influence and writer Craig Williams in an article last year noted that several Banksy pieces emerged in locations shortly after Massive Attack concerts.

In 2008, however, The Mail on Sunday concluded after interviewing friends that Banksy was Robin Gunningham, another artist from Bristol.

Banksy often produces art in charged political settings. In 2015, the artist painted a mural in the Calais "jungle" of migrants seeking to leave France for Britain.

The work, "The Son of a Migrant from Syria," depicts Apple co-founder Steve Jobs -- who was of Syrian descent -- clutching a bag of belongings and an Apple computer.

Banksy earlier painted a series of images on the Israeli separation wall with the occupied West Bank, including one depicting a vacation setting with palm trees.

Del Naja -- who goes by the moniker 3D -- and Goldie were two of the leading figures in Bristol's graffiti movement in the 1980s, which took inspiration from the burgeoning hip-hop scene in New York.

Massive Attack, led by Del Naja with Daddy G, helped create Bristol's trip-hop sound which brought dark electronic layers to hip-hop.
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Linkedin Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, June 23 2017

Major lenders have reported smooth business operations as targeted close to the end of the first half, supported by an improving economy and internal tune-ups.

Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), the most profitable lender, will exceed all growth targets of third party funds (DPK), loans and net profit this year.

BRI plans on jacking up its annual loan growth target from 12 to 14 percent at present. Data from BRI shows its outstanding loans stood at Rp 658.09 trillion as of May, already equal to more than 90 percent of its current target.

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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 17:22 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a699b9e 1 City #IdulFitri,Ahmadiyah-Mosque,vandalism,Depok Free

Ahmadiyah mosque in Sawangan, Depok, became the target of vandalism a day before Idul Fitri, as a group of people reportedly threw eggs and paint at the mosque prior to dawn on Saturday.

Civil Freedom Defenders Team, the lawyer team of Depok Ahmadiyah congregation, said that based on witness testimony, the incident occurred around 12.30 a.m.

The vandals, who used motorcycles, threw eggs and paint at the mosques yard and front and back gates. They also threw eggs at the mosques CCTV cameras so their actions would not be recorded, Fatiatulo Lazira, a lawyer with the team, said.

They also placed a banner expressing animosity toward Ahmadiyah near the mosque.

The Depok chapter of Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) is set to report the incident to the police on Saturday afternoon.

Fatiatulo added that the lawyers would assist the Ahmadis in requesting the police ensure their safety during the Idul Fitri prayer to be held in the mosques yard on Sunday morning.

The mosque has been sealed off by the Depok administration seven times, with the most recent occurring on June 4.

Previously, the mosque was sealed off on March 19, 2011; March 13, 2013; Oct. 2, 2014; Jan. 7, 2015, Jan. 14, 2015 and Feb. 23. The administration's actions occurred amid the congregations continued fight for their rights.

The Ahmadis have long been persecuted in the country, with the government issuing a joint ministerial decree banning their activities in 2008.

The decree referred to 2005 Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) fatwa declaring the teachings of Ahmadiyah heretical.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 14:21 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a68e5d3 1 Business tourism,soekarno-hatta-airport,Angkasa-Pura-II Free

PT Angkasa Pura (AP) II, through a cooperation with the Tourism Ministry and the Transportation Ministry, launched on Monday a digital tourism information center (TIC) in Soekarno-Hatta International Airports Terminal 3.

In a press release made available on Wednesday, the company expected that TIC, which contains information about tourist destinations, would help promote Indonesian tourism, in line with the governments target to increase foreign visits to the archipelago.

TIC will also increase the number of digital content in the terminal, which is in line with our commitment to make Soekarno-Hatta a digital airport. We hope that the digital-based services will help us improve our standards in servicing passengers, said AP II president director Muhammad Awaluddin.

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said that he expects the TIC to be a tourism supermall, which provides a complete set of services for tourists, including hotel reservations and accommodation.

AP II and the government have committed to develop the tourism sector by improving the connectivity of international flights in all airports managed by the company. (rdi/ags)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 14:42 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a68f1ce 1 Business BCA,acquisition,Bank-Agris Free

Publicly listed lender Bank Agris has underlined that it is not seeking new investors, denying a market rumor saying that it is in negotiations with Bank Central Asia (BCA) for acquisition.

Bank Agris president commissioner Paulus Nurwadono said the Financial Service Authority (OJK) had told the bank to increase capital, but replied that it would not do so in the near future due to current economic conditions.

"We never had a plan for corporate action, such as share offerings or finding strategic partners. While were still in the Buku I category, we will keep focusing on agriculture, poultry and fisheries," Paulus said in a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday, referring to the term used to categorize banks with a Core Capital of less than Rp 1 trillion (US$75 million).

BCA president director Jahja Setiaatmadja recently said the firm planned to acquire two small banks in the Buku 1 category in the second half of 2017. Eyeing those with strong portfolios in the retail and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) segment, BCA has set aside Rp 3 trillion for the acquisition.

BCAs plan has sparked speculative buying over Bank Agris shares, which rocketed by 291.23 percent in the last three months, for it currently has a core capital of Rp 580 billion.

Bank Agris is owned by PT Dian Intan Perkasa (DIP), controlled by Benjamin Jiaravanon, a member of the family controlling PT Charoen Pokphand Indonesia. DIP holds 82.59 percent of shares in Bank Agris, while Benjamin individually holds 0.28 percent. The public holds the remaining 17.12 percent. (ags)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 16:17 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a696775 1 Business Idul-Fitri-2017,food-prices,Kebayoran-Lama-market,Palmerah-market,Mayestik-market,chili-price,shallot-price,Bulog Free

A day before Idul Fitri, a number of traditional markets in Jakarta have reported rising food prices.

Yakub, a vendor at Mayestik market in South Jakarta, said the price of red birds eye chili had increased approaching the festivity.

It was Rp 50,000 [US$3.75]per kg at the beginning of Ramadhan, but is up to Rp 80,000 per kg now, Yakub said on Saturday, adding that the price reached its peak at Rp 180,000 per kg in February.

The prices of other commodities are also on the rise at Mayestik.

Red chili is sold at at Rp 50,000 per kg compared to Rp 25,000 per kg on regular days, garlic at Rp 80,000 per kg from the usual Rp 50,000 and shallots at Rp 45,000 per kg from Rp 30,000.

Vendors at Palmerah market in Central Jakarta and Kebayoran Lama market in South Jakarta have also reported higher prices as well. Red birds eye chili is sold at Rp 50,000 per kg, shallots at Rp 40,000 per kg, and garlic at Rp 70,000 per kg.

Tuti, a housewife from Selong, Kebayoran Baru, said that she had anticipated the price hike and bought red chilies several days ago.

Despite the increases, many consider them to be more tolerable than in previous years.

State logistics firm Bulog began to release its supply of staple food in the middle of May, while the government flexed its muscles against traders who allegedly play a major role in hoarding food and causing prices to soar. (dis/tas)
By Press Trust of India: By Yoshita Singh

New York, Jun 24 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a leader, US President Donald Trump can truly work with and the two should communicate in their first meeting the desire to advance bilateral relations while addressing concerns over H1B work visas, experts here have said.

"The visit of Prime Minister Modi couldnt come at a more opportune time. President Trump badly needs both an opportunity to bolster his presidency and a clear achievement to add to his win column. In India, Trump has a natural partner, and in Modi, he has a leader he can truly work with," Asia Society Policy Institute Assistant Director Anubhav Gupta said on the eve of Modis visit to the US for his first bilateral meeting with Trump.

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Gupta said Trump and Modi can begin on the right foot by communicating their desire to advance the relationship to new heights. However, the two should also ensure that "legitimate disagreements" on certain issues, including the H1-B work visas and intellectual property rights do not hold the relationship back.

"There is strong bi-partisan support in the US Congress for a closer partnership with India. Indias fast growing and increasingly more open economy are huge opportunities for the United States. Additionally, India can serve as a vital partner for the United States in the Asia-Pacific region. For all of these reasons, pursuing stronger ties with India would be a clear win for the Trump administration," Gupta said.

He added that Modi, who has steadily moved India closer to the United States in his three years in office, is well positioned to take the relationship further after consolidating political power in India through big victories in recent state elections in India.

With Modi "strongly situated" to win re-election in 2019, the US should take advantage of his good standing.

"The visits success will depend on whether the Trump Administration has been able to focus enough of its attention on India to decide whether and how it will seek an upgrade in the relationship. It will also depend on whether the White House can reassure India about some of its major concerns," Gupta said.

The Institutes Director of Asian Security Lindsey Ford said while Trump and Modi may have challenging waters to navigate on the economic front, especially regarding trade deficits and visa issues, a "bright spot" in their conversation is likely to be the security and defence relationship.

"The most notable deliverable likely to emerge from the visit is the announcement of the US decision to sell India 22 unmanned Guardian drones, a request which had been at the top of Modis wish list. If approved, India will become the first non-NATO country permitted to purchase the high-tech drones," Ford said.

The drones deal, combined with Lockheed Martins recent announcement of a new joint venture with Tata Advanced Systems, signifies the rapid growth of US-India defence ties over the past decade, Ford added.

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Gupta stressed that in his meeting wth Trump, Modi is sure to bring up South Asian stability, in particular US policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"India will look for reassurance that the Administration is committed for the longer term in Afghanistan and has a true interest in and strategy for maintaining stability. Modi will also push the administration for a more stern US policy toward Pakistan, which continues to support militancy in Afghanistan and India. Support on these two fronts would reassure India greatly," Gupta said.

The two leaders can commit to strengthening economic ties by agreeing to a genuine dialogue on enhancing trade or negotiating a bilateral investment treaty, Gupta said.

Ford added that given the uncertainty surrounding the Trump administrations Asia policy, and in particular, US strategy in South Asia, Modi will also want to remind Trump of the significance of the US-India strategic partnership and of the US commitment to long-term stability in Afghanistan.

Noting that India is the indispensable country for addressing climate change, Asia Society Policy Institute Director of Asian Sustainability Jackson Ewing said India embodies the core climate debate about how much emerging economies should rely on fossil fuels for their development needs.

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"India will aggressively transition away from fossil fuels only if doing so makes strategic and economic sense to the countrys political and economic leadership," Ewing said.

"Accelerating its transition to a cleaner energy future ? as Modi makes clear at every opportunity ? will require substantial international support. It remains to be seen if such support is in the offing," Ewing added. PTI YAS AMS

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Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 12:27 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a686d13 1 Business fuel-price,subsidized-fuel Free

The government has decided that subsidized fuel prices will stay the same until the end of September, after an initial plan to increase them.

A ministerial decree from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry signed on Wednesday stated that starting July 1, prices for subsidized gasoline with a research octane number (RON) 88, locally known as Premium, will stay at Rp 6,450 (45 US cents) per liter.

Meanwhile, subsidized diesel, known as Solar, will be Rp 5,150, and kerosene will be Rp 2,500. These are the same prices as those determined in April.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said that the government had initially predicted that it would have to raise fuel prices, but then changed its mind.

"Based on our calculations, we have determined that there will not be any fuel price hikes next month in July. We initially calculated a possible rise, but after calculating it again, fuel prices will not go up," he said during the opening of a plenary Cabinet meeting at the State Palace in Central Jakarta on Thursday.

Global crude oil prices have been largely stagnant despite initial optimism that it would reach the $60 per barrel mark this year after a sudden price crash almost two years ago.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded crude at $42.56 per barrel on Thursday afternoon, while fellow benchmark Brent settled at $44.91. (ags)
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Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih and Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 16:19 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a6967b2 1 National Cipali-tollroad,exodus,Idul-Fitri-2017,idul-fitri-exodus Free

The government has called on travelers not to use the busy Cikopo-Palimanan (Cipali) toll road in West Java as their sole route to return home to prevent a prolonged gridlock during this years Idul Fitri exodus.

This year, the Cipali toll road will be strictly monitored by the police. If there is gridlock that stretches more than 2 kilometers, we will close the access to enter the toll road, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said on Thursday.

The Cipali toll road, officially opened in June 2015, is the longest toll road in Indonesia that spans more than 116 km.

Budi pointed out alternative routes that could be used by travelers, including the old Pantura highway.

Last night, when we checked the situation at exodus routes by helicopter, we saw that Pantura highway was so quiet. So, dont just rely on Cipali toll road, Budi added.

According to private toll road operator Lintas Marga Sedaya, traffic passing through the Palimanan gate at Cipali toll road reached 83,465 vehicles on Friday at 6 a.m., up 2.2 percent compared to the previous day.

The number of vehicles coming and going through Palimanan gate is the highest since Thursday last week and three times normal traffic at 26,000 to 30,000 vehicles, LMS vice president director Firdaus Azis said, adding that the company is operating 25 toll booths in Palimanan gate to ease traffic. (ags).
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 16:10 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a694133 1 City Idul-Fitri-2017,Istiqlal-Mosque,Cathedral-Church,Joko-Widodo,jusuf-kalla,Pramono-Anung,Quraish-Shihab Free

The Istiqlal Mosque, Indonesias largest mosque, is prepared to welcome up to 150,000 Muslims to perform the Idul Fitri prayer on Sunday morning.

The mosques protocol head Abu Hurairah Abdul Salam said that it had prepared a diesel generator to ensure there would be no electricity problems during the prayer among other measures.

We have also had talks with the Cathedral Church and it will allow the congregation to pray in the churchs yard, Abu said on Friday.

Dozens of Jakarta Boy and Girl Scouts and youth from Istiqlal will be in charge of serving the people on Sunday.

Istiqlal Mosque imam Ahmad Husni Ismail is set to lead the Idul Fitri prayer, while the Quranic exegesis expert Quraish Shihab will deliver a sermon.

The sermons theme, however, will only be informed later by the Religious Ministry on Saturday afternoon.

Istiqlal, which is located in Central Jakarta, has yet to receive information on whether or not President Joko Jokowi Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla will pray at the mosque, Abu said.

Residents [around the mosque] hope Jokowi can pray together with them at Istiqlal, he added.

The president has celebrated Idul Fitri outside Jakarta for the past two years  in Aceh in 2015 and in West Sumatra in 2016.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung earlier stated that Jokowi would celebrate this years Idul Fitri in Jakarta. (tas)
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Linkedin Linda Yulisman (The Jakarta Post) Tokyo  Sat, June 24, 2017 20:50 1965 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a6a0055 1 World JICA,ASEAN,unity,regional-integration,development-assistance,infrastructure-development Free

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has called members of ASEAN to further embrace their unity as a group so it may exert a larger influence internationally.

Learning from the European Union (EU), a common diplomacy instead of economic integration was the best result from the blocs regional unification, said JICA president Shinichi Kitaoka.

If it [ASEAN] is divided into several groups or divided by some elements into a couple of groups, then you will lose your power. I really hope that it will develop more as an entity, he told a group of visiting journalists from ASEAN countries on Friday.

(Read also: Indonesia told to strengthen role in ASEAN)

Kitaoka further said that JICA also expected to see a higher expansion of middle class across Southeast Asia, which he considers the foundation of sound economy and politics regionally.

He also asserted that going forward, the agency would continue its commitment to support ASEANs economic growth through assistance in infrastructure development.

JICA funneled 13.61 trillion yen (US$122.29 billion) in overseas development assistance (ODA) comprising loans, grants and technical cooperation to ASEAN in 2015, according to the latest data available.

Indonesia is its largest beneficiary with 4.72 trillion yen, followed by the Philippines with 2.44 trillion yen and Vietnam with 2.39 trillion yen.

Currently, the agency supports the development of Jakarta Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system and Patimban Port in Subang, West Java, among other projects.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 17:00 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a698c0a 1 National Malaysia,Najib-Razak,bali,Obama,vacation Free

After former United States president Barack Obamas five-day vacation, the resort island of Bali will welcome Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose holiday is scheduled to start on June 26.

According to the security plan we have received, there will be two [VVIP vacations in a week]: Obama and the Malaysian PM, National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Rikwanto said on Friday.

Najib is scheduled to land in Bali on Monday afternoon and will reportedly stay in the luxurious St. Regis Resort in Nusa Dua, the same hotel where Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud stayed for a week during his visit to Indonesia in March.

The police, however, have yet to obtain information about the prime ministers activities in Bali.

Rikwanto said he believed Obama and Najibs presence would enliven the Island of the Gods, which is already crowded by domestic and international tourists, especially during the Idul Fitri holiday.

He added that police would cooperate with relevant stakeholders to provide security details for Najib during his stay in Bali.

Security measures are meant to ensure both holidays run smoothly, so both VVIPs could enjoy their time here in Bali, he said. (kuk/dmr)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 22:26 1965 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a6a00a4 1 City Idul-Fitri,Idul-Fitri-prayer Free

Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saefuddin has asked Muslim leaders for reflective sermons during Idul Fitri services on Sunday morning.

Lukman said Muslim leaders should deliver sermons that noted the essential meaning of Idul Fitri, so that the people would reflect on their lives.

"The sermons shall invite Muslims to train and evaluate themselves; therefore, this Syawal month [that begins with Idul Fitri] will be a new beginning for them," he told reporters following the isbat (confirmation) meeting in Jakarta on Saturday.

Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairman Ma'ruf Amin also called on Muslim leaders to have a peaceful heart, so that they could spread values of kindness through their sermons.

"If Muslim leaders still hide anger or envy, they should not become preachers, because their feelings can disturb the sermons," he said. (ecn)
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Peshawar  Sat, June 24, 2017 13:27 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a689d68 2 World bomb-blast,#bomb-blast,Pakistan,Pakistan-blast,#Pakistan,#Ramadhan2017,ramadhan Free

Multiple blasts and a gun attack killed more than 50 people and wounded at least 170 in three Pakistani cities on the last Friday of Ramadhan, Islam's holiest month, as officials warned the toll could rise.

Authorities said 37 people were killed and more than 150 wounded when twin blasts tore through a market in Parachinar, capital of Kurram district, a mainly Shiite area of Pakistan's tribal belt.

Local official Nasrullah Khan told AFP that the first blast detonated as the market was crowded with shoppers preparing for the Idul Fitri festival marking the end of Ramadan.

"When people rushed to the site [...] to rescue the wounded, a second blast took place," he said.

Basir Khan Wazir, the top government official in Parachinar later told AFP that apparently both the blasts were carried out by two suicide bombers.

"We have transported 15 injured to Peshawar but condition of 15 to 20 injured people were critical," Wazir said and warned that the death toll could rise.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called for security to be beefed up across the country as he condemned the attack, saying that no Muslim could ever imagine committing such a "horrific" act.

Pakistan has seen a dramatic improvement in security in the last two years, but groups such as the umbrella Pakistani Taliban and other extremist outfits still retain the ability to carry out attacks.

Local lawmaker Sajid Hussain Turi, the owner of the market, said bazaars in Parachinar had been barricaded off and vehicles banned from the area after multiple attacks have hit the city this year.

Parachinar was the location of the first major militant attack in Pakistan in 2017, a bomb in a market which killed 24 people in January and was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban. In March a second Taliban attack killed a further 22 people.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday's attack.

Kurram, one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal districts, is known for sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shiites, who make up roughly 20 percent of Pakistan's population of 200 million.

The twin blasts in Parachinar followed a bombing earlier in the day in southwestern Quetta, capital of insurgency-wracked Balochistan province, that killed at least 13 people.

Investigators said the attack targeted police. It was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, according to the SITE monitoring group.

There was no immediate explanation for the dual claims. Islamic State Khorasan Province, the Middle Eastern group's affiliate in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been known to work with the myriad of Pakistani militant groups in previous attacks, including with JuA.

Officials at the city's Civil Hospital said at least 13 people were killed and around 20 injured, mostly by shrapnel. Police officials said nine policemen were among the dead.

At the hospital in Quetta, worried children stood by the bloodstained cots of wounded relatives, and Pakistani soldiers visited injured colleagues.

Stunned survivors could give few details about the attack. "I was sitting on a chair. There was an explosion. I got injured and fell down," said one victim, Gulzar Ahmad.

Separately, gunmen on motorcycles Friday shot dead four policemen sitting at a roadside restaurant at SITE area in southern port-city Karachi.

Asif Bughio, a senior police official, told AFP that four attackers wearing helmets fled the scene.

Pakistan has waged a long war with militancy, but security has markedly improved in the country since its deadliest-ever terror attack, an assault on a school in northwestern Peshawar in which Taliban gunmen left more than 150 people dead, most of them children.

That attack shocked a country already grimly accustomed to atrocities, and prompted the military to intensify an operation in the tribal areas targeting militants.

The army has also been fighting in mineral-rich Balochistan, the country's most restive province, since 2004, with hundreds of soldiers and militants killed.

Its roughly seven million inhabitants have long complained they do not receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth, but a greater push by Pakistani authorities has reduced the violence considerably in recent years.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 16:10 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a69432d 1 National Naqsabandiyah,Idul-Fitri-2017 Free

Islamic minority group Naqsabadiyah in West Sumatra celebrated Idul Fitri on Saturday, with hundreds of its followers performing the Eid prayer at Baitul Makmur mosque in Pauh, Padang, in the morning.

The prayer was led by its main preacher Syafri Malin Mudo, who during his speech emphasized the importance of Idul Fitri for the country's unity.

"In addition to Baitul Makmur mosque, the Eid prayer is also being held by Naqsabandiyah followers at several mosques in Kuranji, Pauh Kota Tengah and Solok districts," he said, as quoted by Antara.

(Read also: Naqsabandiyah followers start fasting on Thursday)

Syafri said he also appreciated the gesture made by several members who came from outside Padang for the celebration, adding that the move would strengthen the group's unity.

The groups celebration took place even though the government plans to hold an isbat (confirmation) meeting on Idul Fitri on Saturday evening.

The meeting will be attended by representatives of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and several Islamic organizations.

Religious Affairs Ministry official in Padang, Japeri Jarap, said locals should respect the community for celebrating Idul Fitri earlier.

"Sure, there are those who celebrate Idul Fitri on Saturday and Sunday. We are all Muslims and must respect each other," Japeri said. (yon/tas)
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Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 16:15 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a695d9c 1 National Idul-Fitri-2017,idul-fitri-exodus,disaster-risk-reduction,disaster-mitigation,Brexit Free

The government says that it has done everything it could to ensure smooth homecoming travel during this years Idul Fitri exodus season, with the only risk being natural disasters.

One thing that we cant be sure of is [natural disaster, such as] an earthquake. However, everything else that is in our control has been properly prepared to ensure a smooth trip for all travelers, Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said recently.

Indonesia is set to see 28.59 million people travel to their hometowns during this years annual exodus, an 8.45 percent surge from a year ago.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has instructed each provincial administration with a track record of natural disasters, including earthquakes, landslides, flash floods and volcanic eruptions, to prepare anticipatory measures as early as possible.

In terms of aviation safety, we have also intensively issued a volcano observatory notice for aviation [VONA], the ministrys geological agency head Ego Syahrial said earlier in June.

Last years Idul Fitri holidays were marked by massive traffic jams occurring at the East Brebes toll road exit, dubbed Brexit, resulting in the death of at least 12 travelers due to severe fatigue.

This year, the government has opened new roads and prepared 3,826 health centers at all exodus routes that will be open 24 hours to anticipate emergencies. Helicopters and even motorbikes are also on standby. (tas)
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Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung, West Java  Sat, June 24, 2017 18:45 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a69c5eb 1 National Ahmadiyah,Ahmadiyah-Mosque,Idul-Fitri-2017,Depok-administration,Yayasan-Satu-Keadilan,citizen-lawsuit Free

Ahmadiyah followers in Depok, West Java, may not be able to celebrate Idul Fitri due to a lack of security assurance from local police following threats and vandalism attacks on its Al Hidayah mosque in Sawangan, Depok, on early Saturday.

Ahmadiyah Indonesia spokesperson Yendra Budiana said that unknown people rode four motorcycles around the mosque and threw paint and eggs at the mosque and surrounding areas.

They then put up a banner expressing Sawangan residents rejection of Ahmadiyahs Eid prayer, Yendra told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

(Read also: Ahmadiyah mosque in Depok vandalized ahead of Idul Fitri)

The mosques organizers have reported the case to the police and are waiting for the latters response before making any decision on whether or not to perform the Eid prayer the next day.

Civil Freedom Defender Team member and Ahmadiyah Depok congregation attorney Asep Komarudin condemned the attack.

The perpetrators scoped the location and targeted CCTV cameras in some spots around the mosque, he said, adding that they left the mosque for Jalan Parung Bingung, Depok, West Java.

They tried to minimize evidence of their crime by throwing eggs at the CCTV cameras to reduce the cameras function, Asep said.

He suspected that the attack was connected to a citizen lawsuit filed by human rights organization Yayasan Satu Keadilan (YSK) against the Depok administration and the central government over the sealing off of an Ahmadiyah mosque. (dra/tas)
By Press Trust of India: Moscow, Jun 24 (PTI) India and Russia have decided to conclude negotiations for different military platforms soon as they agreed on a roadmap for ramping up bilateral defence cooperation.

Both the sides yesterday signed a protocol for the roadmap to step-up defence engagement during the annual meeting of the Indian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC).

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The meeting was co-chaired by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and his Russian counterpart General Sergey Shoigu.

The roadmap includes specific activities to be concluded by both the sides, and aims to enhance cooperation in the field of political and military dialogue, besides exercises between the armed forces of the two countries.

In the meeting, Jaitley conveyed to the Russian side about the importance of having a robust and reliable after- sales support mechanism with regards to serviceability of Russian-origin equipment, Indian government officials said.

Russia has been one of Indias key major suppliers of arms and ammunition. However, it has been a long-standing grievance of armed forces that supply of critical spares and equipment from Russia takes a long time affecting maintenance of military systems procured from that country.

Jaitley also talked about the new opportunities for participation of Russian companies in the Indian defence manufacturing sector as pert of the Make in India programme under the new strategic partnership policy for defence production.

The Indian government last month unveiled a "strategic partnership" model under which select private firms will be engaged along with foreign entities to build military platforms like fighter jets, submarines and battle tanks.

Both the sides also agreed to conclude various ongoing negotiations for different platforms as well as restructure the inter-governmental commission to enhance military to military cooperation, the officials said.

During the meeting, both the sides expressed satisfaction at the "concrete progress" that has been made on areas of cooperation since the last meeting of the commission in October 2016.

"The discussions were productive and held in an atmosphere of warmth and friendship," the officials said.

"Indias military technical cooperation with Russia is one of the key pillars of our relationship," they said.

"We are determined to go ahead with building up cooperation in order to enhance the combat readiness of both countries armed forces and to exchange experience in various defence-related matters," Gen. Shoigu said at the meeting.

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It was the 17th meeting of the IRIGC-MTC.

The meeting took place nearly three weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to "upgrade and intensify" defence ties through joint manufacture and co-production of key military hardware, during their annual summit talks at St Petersburg.

Addressing a leading forum for technological development showcasing Indias "path-breaking" initiatives for defence production, Jaitley, who is in Russia on a three-day visit, on Wednesday invited Russian firms to set up joint ventures with Indian firms and manufacture advanced military platforms through technology transfer. PTI MPB/AKJ CPS ZH

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 15:51 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a6918b4 1 City Idul-Fitri-2017,idul-fitri-exodus,KAI,Gambir-station Free

State-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) has reported a double-digit increase in the number of passengers traveling by train from the Greater Jakarta area (Jabodetabek) during this years Idul Fitri holidays.

The company transported 341,605 passengers from 10 days before Idul Fitri up to two days before the festivity, an increase of almost 16 percent from the same period in 2016.

We offered 46,000 tickets each day, however the demands were always higher than that, KAI operation region 1 spokesperson Suprapto said during a media briefing on Friday, adding that tickets were all sold out.

The company is now increasing security at its train stations by partnering with the National Police and Indonesian Military (TNI).

They have deployed a joint security team that consists of 1,145 police officers, military officers and KAIs own security personnel. The team is complemented by K9 police dogs as well.

During the Idul Fitri holidays, we hope we can give passengers ultimate comfort, punctuality and guaranteed security, Suprapto said. (hol/tas)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 16:45 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a698449 1 National IdulFitri,Idul-Fitri,Idul-Fitri-2017,Ramadhan-2017,Ahmadiyah,Ahmadiyah-Mosque,#IdulFitri,#IdulFitriExodus Free

The Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) has said it will follow the government in determining which day they will celebrate the Idul Fitri festivities.

The move aims to show the Ahmadiyahs cooperation with the government as good Indonesian citizens, a JAI official said.

We have always followed the governments decision on the start of the first day of Ramadhan and also the fall of Syawal 1 to celebrate Idul Fitri, JAI spokesman Yendra Budiana told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The Religious Affairs Ministry is scheduled to hold a meeting to determine the exact days on which Idul Fitri is celebrated at the ministry office in Central Jakarta on Saturday.

Yandra emphasized that the Ahmadis needed to be respected and accepted as normal Indonesian citizens because their rituals are similar to those of other Muslims, including members of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah  Indonesias largest Islam organizations.

Followers of Ahmadiyah have long faced discrimination in the country, with the group being declared a deviant sect and not part of Islam. In the latest development, an Ahmadiyah mosque in Sawangan, Depok, was sealed on June 3.

Although our mosque has been sealed, people continue to join as new congregation members. We just recruited a new member in the last two weeks," Yandra said. (yon/ebf)
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Linkedin Hui Min Neo (Agence France-Presse) Berlin  Sat, June 24, 2017 11:58 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a685d66 2 World #panda,panda,#Germany,Germany Free

Germany was bracing for panda mania as furry ambassadors arrive from China on Saturday, destined for a new life as stars of Berlin's premier zoo.

The pair, named Meng Meng and Jiao Qing, will be jetting in on a special Lufthansa cargo plane, accompanied by two Chinese panda specialists, the Berlin Zoo's chief vet and a tonne of bamboo.

Berlin's mayor, China's ambassador to Germany and a gaggle of journalists will greet the VIPs as LH8415 pulls to a stop on the tarmac of Schoenefeld airport.

After just over a week's acclimatization, they will be unveiled to the public by no less than Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping, most likely two days before the G20 summit of world leaders hosted by Germany.

Famed for its "panda diplomacy", China has dispatched its national treasure to only about a dozen countries as a symbol of close relations.

Export giants Germany and China have nurtured increasingly close economic ties, and over the last year, have also taken on the leading role in championing free trade as Donald Trump shifts the US away from market liberalization with his "America First" push.

"The Chinese see the pandas as Chinese brand ambassadors. China obviously has an image problem in Europe and giving pandas is a very smart and easy way to win hearts," said Bernhard Bartsch from the Bertelsmann Foundation think tank in Berlin.

The "pandas will lend a very positive spin in German media to the visit by Xi Jinping in July," he added.

The excitement over the two bears is evident in the run-up to their arrival, with the zoo publishing a daily updated blog about the pair.

"We are obviously nervous now because everything must go well," Berlin Zoo director Andreas Knieriem told SWR radio on Friday.

"There's a plane flying them in exclusively, and the flight route  Chengdu to Berlin  is not a usual route. But I think we are well prepared," he said.

The 12-hour-and-20-minute journey to Germany has been carefully prepared, with "bamboo snacks" to keep the pandas happy and absorbent mats to ensure the transport box stays dry and odorless.

And their new home at Berlin's zoo will measure about 5,500 square meters (59,000 square feet) and comes fitted with a wooded climbing area and an artificial stream.

Meng Meng means "dream" in Chinese, while Jiao Qing translates as "darling", though the Chinese characters are a composite of "tender" and "festive" or "celebration".

But the honor of hosting them does not come cheap.

The zoo will pay US$15 million (13.4 million euros) for a 15-year contract to host them, with most of the money going towards a conservation and breeding research program in China.

And the pandas' main dish  bamboo  will cost tens of thousands of euros each year.

The zoo will probably look to offset part of its outlays through panda-themed merchandising.

Ultimately, it hopes that the pair will produce babies, even if experts have warned that panda reproduction is a fine art.

Panda expert Jerome Pouille said that "the female is only receptive to a male for about 24 to 48 hours a year", adding that there was little chance of a cub within the first three years.

China has previously given three pandas to Germany, but the last one, 34-year-old Bao Bao, died in Berlin in 2012, having become the oldest male panda in the world.

About 1,864 pandas remain in the wild in China, up from around 1,000 in the late 1970s, according to the environmental group WWF.

Just over 400 pandas live in zoos around the world, in conservation projects set up with Beijing.
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Semarang, Central Java  Sat, June 24, 2017 16:30 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a697617 1 National IdulFitri,Idul-Fitri,Idul-Fitri-2017,#IdulFitri,pet-house,pet-shelter,surakarta,Central-Java Free

Pet houses in Surakarta, Central Java, have seen a jump in demand for safe temporary homes for pets ahead of the Idul Fitri festivity, which is expected to fall on Sunday.

Many residents chose to entrust their pets to animal shelters before they went home to celebrate the holiday. Some of them had ordered a place for their pets three weeks before Idul Fitri.

By three days before Idul Fitri, we had received 20 dogs and 15 cats. Around 30 more pets will come, said Hartanto, 29, an administrator of a pet shelter in Kawatan, Surakarta.

He said his pet shelter provided 80 cages for dogs and cats. Like in previous years, the cages were fully occupied by Friday, two days before Idul Fitri.

In normal days, only around five animals are entrusted to this shelter. But during Idul Fitri holidays, all cages will be fully booked. We have rejected several pet owners because of our limited capacity."

Pet shelter Kucing Mania prepared 50 cages for cats. Theyre fully booked, said owner Rio Rosha Putra.

Hartanto said during a holiday season, the boarding service fee for dogs was Rp 80,000 (US$6) per day and Rp 50,000 for cats. In normal days, the fees were much cheaper, at only Rp 50,000 for dogs and Rp 30,000 for cats.

The fee covers all treatments, such as food and health care including bathing. Usually, they entrust their pets to us for around 4-5 days, said Hartanto. (ebf)

Stay safe: A worker at a pet shelter in Karanganyar, Central Java, puts a cat entrusted by a customer into a cage on June 22. (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
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Linkedin Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 16:14 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a694e44 1 Business Idul-Fitri-2017,Sri-Mulyani-Indrawati,finance-minister Free

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has personally drawn and written an Idul Fitri greeting for those who celebrate it.

The former World Bank managing director posted the greeting on her Instagram and Facebook accounts on Saturday.

She drew the Istiqlal mosque in Jakarta with an Idul Fitri wish below the drawing.

"Let's use the newly regained victory and purity to strengthen our determination to achieve the country's ideals: to create a just, prosper and dignified Indonesia," her handwriting reads.

Her gesture has received warm responses from her social media followers, who also wished her a happy Idul Fitri and expressed their astonishment at her drawing skills.

The post received almost 5,000 likes on Instagram and around 3,600 likes on Facebook with hundreds of comments.

This is not the first time the minister has posted personal messages to her followers on social media.

She has written and posted five letters since Nov. 22, 2016.

She also wrote a letter on the last day of the tax amnesty to thank the public, tax officials and President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo for their support of the program. (tas)
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta, Central Java  Sat, June 24, 2017 17:15 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a699523 1 National Tirtonadi,Tirtonadi-terminal,surakarta,IdulFitri,Idul-Fitri,Idul-Fitri-2017,idul-fitri-exodus,ramadhan,Ramadhan-2017,#IdulFitri,#IdulFitriExodus Free

Ganug Nugroho Adi

The number of Idul Fitri homebound travelers arriving at Tirtonadi Terminal in Surakarta, Central Java, shows a declining trend compared with the holidays exodus last year. It is believed a long holiday, during which school breaks and Idul Fitri holidays have taken place in a row, may have triggered such a trend.

Tirtonadi Terminal head Eko Agus Susanto said it was predicted this years Idul Fitri exodus would peak on Thursday and Friday. However, the arrival of homebound travelers at Tirtonadi Terminal showed a declining trend seven days before Idul Fitri on Sunday.

It is lower compared to the flow of passengers during last years holiday season, said Eko on Thursday.

He said a long school holiday had contributed to the decline. Children had entered their school break in the middle of Ramadhan so they could take their Idul Fitri holiday with their parents in their hometowns earlier.

There is a significant decline compared to last years Idul Fitri, during which the number of passengers had continued to increase one week before the festivity, said Eko.

The number of passengers arriving at Tirtonadi Terminal seven days before Idul Fitri reached 18,154, lower than last year's figure of 20,508,.

Five days before Idul Fitri, the number of arriving passengers jumped to 25,303, but it was still lower than last year, which reached 25,702. The figure was even down drastically four days before Idul Fitri, in which only 6,582 passengers arrived at Tirtonadi Terminal, while last year, the total reached 28,260 people. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 14:23 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a68f003 1 Business Telkomsel,Greater-Jakarta,West-Java,Idul-Fitri-2017 Free

Indonesia's largest cellular provider PT Telkomsel has established 210 command post along the homebound travelers routes and tourist spots throughout Greater Jakarta and West Java in anticipation of the surge in mobile data usage during the Idul Fitri Holiday.

Telkomsels executive vice president for Greater Jakarta and West Java regions Yetty Kusumawati said Telkomsel aims to make its services more accessible during Idul Fitri.

The command posts are available in rest areas, train stations, ports and bus terminals and will be equipped with various facilities, such as massage chairs, karaoke services, childrens playgrounds, barbershops and charging stations that are free for travelers.

Apart from operating the 210 posts, Telkomsel has also added 20 units of compact mobile Base Transceiver Service [BTS] during the Ramadhan and Idul Fitri holidays, as well as 95 customer services GraPari throughout West Java and Greater Jakarta, said Yetty.

On the third week of the holy month of Ramadhan, Telkomsel recorded a 17 percent spike in mobile data usage in Greater Jakarta and West Java compared to the usage in the early period of Ramadhan.

The surge was dominated by the increase in video streaming services by up to 34 percent and social media access by up to 32 percent compared to the same period in Ramadhan last year.

In Greater Jakarta alone, Telkomsel saw its mobile internet browsing services increase by 192 percent during Ramadhan compared to the normal months. (cio/ags)
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Port Moresby  Sat, June 24, 2017 12:15 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a68654b 2 World Papua-New-Guinea,Election-day,#election Free

Voting began in Papua New Guinea (PNG) elections Saturday with the Pacific nation's leader urging peaceful polling to show it has "come of age", as he seeks another term to fix an economy under siege.

Peter O'Neill's People's National Congress won the last election in 2012, and he has campaigned on delivering key infrastructure and providing free education and health to a country that remains mired in poverty.

He also points to more stability in a sprawling crime-ridden land where elections have been marred by violence in the past.

"I appeal to all our citizens to peacefully cast their votes," said the prime minister, with more than 3,000 candidates from over 40 political parties jostling for support.

"Lets show the international community that PNG has come of age and will express its democratic principles in a manner acceptable to the community."

Polling for the 111-seat parliament runs for two weeks until July 8 with staggered voting across the vast and remote country. A result is not expected until late July.

There is no opinion polling in PNG, so it is unclear who holds the advantage.

But no party has ever won a majority, meaning a coalition is likely, held together by strategic political appointments.

O'Neill's main threat is seen as Don Polye's Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party.

Opponents accuse O'Neill of mismanaging an economy hurt by slumping global commodity prices, racking up debt by recklessly spending to meet his goals.

He has also been tarred by corruption allegations, surviving a no-confidence vote last year following weeks of protests and civil disobedience urging him to resign.

PNG's largest aid donor Australia has been working closely with Port Moresby to ensure the polling passes off smoothly, supplying election experts to train 30,000 local staff.

It has also provided military helicopters and planes to help transport election materials to remote areas of a mountainous country that has some of the worlds most difficult terrain.

Hundreds of observers are in the country monitoring the polls, watching for any vote-buying as candidates jockey for a position in government.

PNG villagers, who receive little from the political system, often see elections as simply a "time of food"  a reference to the cash, pigs and other items candidates provide to win votes.

"We will consider whether the elections have been conducted according to the standards for democratic elections to which Papua New Guinea has committed itself," said Commonwealth Observer Group chair Anand Satyanand on the role his team was playing.
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Linkedin Ted Aljibe (Agence France-Presse) Marawi, Philippines  Sat, June 24, 2017 16:41 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a6982b4 2 SE Asia #marawi,Marawi,#Terrorism,terrorism,Philippines,#Philippines Free

One of America's most wanted terrorists may have escaped a five-week battle with Islamist militants in a southern Philippine city, which began with a raid to capture him, the Philippine military said Saturday.

Isnilon Hapilon, a veteran Filipino militant said to be the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group in Southeast Asia, has not been seen in the battle zone in Marawi City, said Lieutenant General Carlito Galvez, head of the military's Western Mindanao Command.

An attempt by government troops to arrest Hapilon in Marawi on May 23 triggered a rampage by Islamist militants flying black IS flags and backed by some foreign fighters who seized parts of the mainly Muslim city.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Marawi and the entire southern region of Mindanao, unleashing an offensive to crush what he said was an attempt by the jihadist group to establish a province in the area.

"He [Hapilon] has not been seen in the area. We have some reports that he was already able to slip somewhere but as of now we are still confirming the reports,"

Galvez said in an interview with DZBB radio station.

Asked if Hapilon was on the run, he said: "Yes, yes because reportedly he suffered a lot of casualties. Majority of his group, more than half, were casualties."

Hapilon was indicted in Washington for his involvement in the 2001 kidnapping of three Americans in the Philippines, and has a $5-million bounty on his head from the US government, which has his name on its "most wanted" terror list.

He leads a faction of the Philippine militant group Abu Sayyaf that has pledged allegiance to IS.

Security analysts say he has been recognized by IS as its "amir", or leader, in Southeast Asia, a region where the group wants to establish a caliphate.

The military says Hapilon's group had joined forces with another armed militancy, the Maute Group, to launch the Marawi siege, now on its second month.

On Saturday, security forces continued intense air raids and artillery fire on pockets of Marawi still occupied by the militants, while troops fought house-to-house gun battles on the ground.

"The operation is going on, the firefights are intense. We have gained substantial ground," said Galvez, the military commander.

Nearly 300 militants and 67 government troops have been killed in the fighting, according to official figures.

Galvez said there are "strong indications" that two or three of the Maute brothers  among the key players in the siege had been killed, including Omarkhayam Maute, believed to be the group's top leader.

Only one brother, Abdullah, has been visible in the fighting, Galvez added.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said in Manila the military is "validating an intelligence report" that Malaysian Mahmud bin Ahmad, who helped lead and finance the Marawi siege, died from wounds he had sustained in the early days of the fighting.

Abella said he would not officially confirm the death unless government troops recovered the remains.

When asked about Mahmud's reported death, Malaysia's Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar told AFP in a text message in Kuala Lumpur: "Not true. He is still alive."

Abella said authorities were also verifying another intelligence report that 89 foreign fighters are in Mindanao, entering the region through the Philippines' porous maritime borders with Malaysia and Indonesia.

Galvez said troops on Friday recovered two decomposing corpses that bore features of people from the Middle East.

Eight other militants, including those from Chechnya, Indonesia and Malaysia, had been killed earlier in the fighting, defense chief Delfin Lorenzana has said.

Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines on June 19 launched joint patrols on their maritime borders to block the movement of the militants.

Australia said Friday it will send two high-tech spy planes to help Filipino troops fight the militants, joining the US which has also provided similar help.
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Linkedin Jessicha Valentina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 10:37 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a681aba 1 Guide To Semarang,#Semarang,Little-Netherlands-Semarang,Sam-Poo-Kong,Lawang-Sewu,destination,#destination,travel,traveling,#travel,#traveling,food,#food,IdulFitri,Idul-Fitri,#IdulFitri,Idul-Fitri-2017,Jakpost-guide-to,#JakpostGuideTo Free

A toll road connecting Jakarta and Semarang in Central Java is set to open during the Idul Fitri holidays.

It is certainly good news for those planning to leave the capital city as part of the annual homecoming exodus, locally known as mudik. However, those yet to plan an itinerary may want to use this opportunity to take an impromptu trip to Semarang.

If you choose to visit Semarang, here are some recommended activities for your holiday.

What to wear

Semarangs weather is considered hot and humid. Hence, casual yet modest clothing is highly recommended.

Where to stay

Simpang Lima is a huge roundabout in Semarang, the interior of which features a lush green field. The area is surrounded by food centers, shopping complexes and hotels, such as Amaris Hotel Simpang Lima, Hotel Santika Premiere Semarang and Hotel Ciputra Semarang, making it an ideal place to stay.

At night, visitors can stroll around the field, take a ride in a neon light covered pedicab or sample local delicacies.

What to see

Housing five temples, Sam Poo Kong is Semarangs oldest Chinese temple. The temple's foundations were built by Chinese Admiral Cheng Ho in 1405 after he arrived in Semarang. Visitors can check out the klenteng (Chinese temple), see details of Cheng Ho's journey in a relief on the rear wall or take photos in traditional Chinese clothing.

For this Idul Fitri holiday, the temple will operate as usual, starting from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Read also: The return of Semarangs Old Town

In addition to Sam Poo Kong, Lawang Sewu (A Thousand Doors) is another Semarang landmark. Built by the Dutch between 1904 and 1907, the colonial building is said to be haunted, but that does not stop tourists from visiting. For first-timers, a visit to the buildings eerie underground jail is recommended.

Lawang Sewu (A Thousand Doors) is another Semarang landmark.(Shutterstock/File)

In addition to these popular destinations, Kampung Pelangi and Kota Lama are also must-visits. Located on J. Sutomo, Kampung Pelangi has recently began capturing visitors imaginations with its colorful houses.

Originally named Kampung Wonosari, Kampung Pelangi features some 232 brightly-colored houses in two community units [RW] in Kampung Wonosari, Randusari subdistrict, South Semarang district.(JP/Suherdjoko)

Meanwhile, Kota Lama, also known as Little Netherlands, is home to many colonial buildings, including Blenduk Church (Nederlandsch Indische Kerk).

Besides visiting the colonial buildings, tourists are also encouraged to drop by Klitikan Market, which hosts a range of antique shops.

What to do

Embark on a culinary adventure by visiting Semarangs Chinatown. At night, Semawis Market, also known as Pecinan Semarang, hosts a plethora of street food vendors, offering a wide array of dishes.

Sample pisang plenet (grilled banana served with various toppings), es hawa (traditional ice cream bar), es teler durian (a beverage made of shaved ice, syrup and fruits served with durian) and jamu (traditional herbal beverage) while experiencing the Chinese cultural influences in Semarang.

What to eat

Some of Semarang's most popular dishes are tahu gimbal (prawn fritters in shrimp-paste sauce), tahu pong (fried tofu) and soto Semarang (Semarang-style chicken soup). However, loenpia (spring roll with bamboo sprouts, fried egg and prawn filling) is said to be the city's most iconic local food.

Read also: Semarang's Ahmad Yani airport to be eco-friendly, artistic

Loenpia (spring roll with bamboo sprouts, fried egg and prawn filling) is said to be the city's most iconic local food. (Shutterstock/File)

Loenpia Gang Lombok is the Citys legendary loenpia seller. Established around 100 years ago, the stall opens at 8 a.m. and is usually packed with customers since morning. For this holiday, Loenpia Gang Lombok will be closed on June 25 to 26 and will reopen on June 27. The loenpia is priced at Rp 15,000 (US$1) per piece.

Toko Oen is another iconic food spot in Semarang. Located on Jl. Pemuda, the eatery was established in 1910.

Presently, Toko Oen Semarang is the only remaining outlet operated by Tjoen Oen Hoks family, the founder. Here, foodies can sample a wide array of Dutch influenced delicacies such as bitterballen (Dutch meat-based snack), poffertjes (mini pancakes), bestik lidah (braised beef tongue), ice cream and more.

What to buy

Those in search of souvenirs should also check out bandeng presto (grilled boneless milk fish) at Bandeng Juwana outlet on Jl. Pandanaran. The milk fish is packed nicely and can last around five days if refrigerated and months in vacuum packaging.

Furthermore, do not forget to buy wingko babat. Combining coconut and sugar, the sweet treat can easily be found in souvenir shops along Jl. Pandanaran.

Tips

- Check opening times as some places may be closed during holidays.

- Those wanting to visit Lawang Sewu or Sam Poo Kong temple are advised to arrive early as possible to avoid the crowd. (kes)
India's Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarnahas has said that the first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump will give them an opportunity to look at the entire gamut of Indo-US engagement and to exchange views on issues of global interest.

By Press Trust of India: The first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump will give them an opportunity to look at the entire gamut of Indo-US engagement and to exchange views on issues of global interest, India's envoy here has said. At the invitation of Trump, the Prime Minister would spend several hours with the US President at the White House on Monday afternoon, which would end with a dinner later that night.

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This would be the first working dinner being hosted by Trump for a foreign leader at the White House. "I think that just shows the amount of care that has gone in on the part of the White House to welcome our Prime Minister and the kind of planning that has gone into make this a very special visit," Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna told PTI on the eve of Prime Minister Modi's visit.

"This (dinner) is a special gesture and it is appreciated," he said.

"I think the first face-to-face meeting will allow the two leaders an opportunity to look at the entire India-US engagement and also to exchange views on issues of global interest," Sarna said.

Responding to a question on the the agenda of the two leaders, Sarna said he would not like to guess what they would be discussing.

"But when they sit across the table and they have a one- on-one discussion or they have an extended delegation that will talk, I would presume that they would cover the wide gamut of relations between India and the US, which is a very strong, strategic partnership, issues between the engagement of two largest democracies, the engagement of two very vibrant economies with tremendous potential for engagement for mutual growths" in the military, security and science and technology sectors, he said. Any of these and issues of global interests, the challenges that the world is facing today, could come up for discussion, he said.

"But as I said, it would be very much up to the leaders to decide what to talk about," the Indian envoy said. Sarna said it was a very significant trip because this will be the first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump. "They have, of course, spoken three times on the telephone. They've had very good, constructive and warm conversations," he said.

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PM Narendra Modi to meet US President Donald Trump on June 25-26

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ALSO WATCH: Ahead of PM Modi's US visit, Donald Trump may ease restrictions on H1-B visa issue

--- ENDS ---

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 11:30 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a684d7f 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Barack-Obama,#BarackObama,bali Free

Former US president Barack Obama is currently enjoying some down time in Bali.

Obama is reportedly staying at the Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan from Friday until June 28.

Read also: Bali declared world's top destination for 2017

The plane carrying the 44th United States president landed at 5:55 p.m. local time at the Ngurah Rai International Airport on Friday.

A special plane landed at Ngurah Rai International Airport at 5:55 p.m. Cars were provided to pick up the guests, said Bali Provincial Administration assistant III Dewa Eka.

Read also: Yogyakarta: One day, eight destinations

According to reports, Obama is bringing 12 family members with him on this trip, including his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

After Bali, the group is scheduled to continue their trip to Yogyakarta from June 28 to 30 and Jakarta from June 30 to July 2. (kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Shanghai, China  Sat, June 24, 2017 18:09 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a69c212 2 News China,Chinese,language,#China Free

Public signs such as "Pee Park" and "deformed man toilet" may finally be a thing of the past as Chinese authorities crack down on poor translations known as "Chinglish".

China has waged various campaigns in recent years to root out poor grammar and misused English vocabulary and this week took special aim at "eradicating poor translations that damage the country's image", the state newspaper People's Daily said.

The new standard will go into effect on December 1 and aims to wipe out Chinglish once and for all on public signs.

"English translations should prioritise correct grammar and a proper register, while rare expressions and vocabulary words should be avoided," the newspaper said, adding that English should "not be overused in public sectors".

It also warned against direct translations, which have thrown up examples in the past such as "Racist Park" for the China Ethnic Culture Park in Beijing.

"Pee Park" in Beijing should have read "Fee" and was for a pay parking spot, while others were more offensive -- the "deformed" toilet was for disabled people.

There was also the sign at an entrance to a shopping mall in Beijing that helpfully recommended: "To take notice of safe the slippery are very crafty."

The stamp-down on Chinglish will disappoint English-speaking visitors to China who have long delighted in signs such as one at the Great Wall that reminded people to be careful: "Do not forget the fire is heartless."

It is not the first time authorities in China have attempted to rid the country of Chinglish.

Beijing officials ordered an urgent clean-up of English-language signs as the Chinese capital prepared for the 2008 Olympic Games.
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Linkedin Ni Nyoman Wira (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 09:32 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a68115f 1 News travel,affordable-travel,domestic-travel,Indonesia,#travel,Skyscanner Free

Idul Fitri is around the corner and people are getting ready to travel to their hometown to celebrate the auspicious occasion.

Those who are seeking to extend their vacation or plan to go on a trip across Indonesia this year, but still want to save some money, can consider following a new set of data from global travel search company Skyscanner about the most affordable times of year to travel within the archipelago.

If you want to enjoy the sunset at Tanah Lot Temple in Tabanan or marvel at terraced paddy fields in Ubud, Bali, it is advised to fly to the island in January and September, with return tickets priced at around Rp 2.2 million (US$165).

As for those who are planning to visit Affandi Museum or simply walk down the street of Malioboro, Yogyakarta, it is best to come to the province in February and September, with return tickets costing around Rp 1.33 million.

Meanwhile, visitors traveling to Praya in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, are advised to fly in February, when the average ticket price is at Rp 1.4 million. Meanwhile, October is the best time to purchase a return ticket, when the price starts at Rp 2 million.

Price predictions for domestic flights across Indonesia in 2017.(Skyscanner/File)

Read also: Guide to airlines operating at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport

A graph showing the cheapest times to travel across Indonesia.(Skyscanner/File)

In February, it is also the recommended to head to Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), when the average price of a return domestic flight is Rp 1.9 million. However, price-conscious travelers are suggested to wait until next year to fly to this increasingly popular destination as prices may still increase this year.

Released in May, the data serves as predictions for Skyscanners Price Evolution Guide. It is organized into multiple graphs that show the average cost of return tickets to 10 popular tourism destinations across Indonesia. It reflects on pricing patterns for the past two years as indicators for where prices will end up this year.

The company also said that the showcased prices are nationwide averages, which are based on flights from all local airports to the listed cities.

We are aware that Indonesians, by and large, care about the cost of domestic travel. For this reason, we believe we can help by compiling our companys data in an easy-to-understand way and making educated predictions to help serve local travelers on a grassroots level, said Skyscanners senior marketing manager for Indonesia, Yulianto Balawan. (kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, June 24, 2017 12:33 1966 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a6879db 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Times-Square,new-york,Wonderful-Indonesia Free

To commemorate the upcoming visit of former United States president Barack Obama to Bali, Yogyakarta and Jakarta, the Tourism Ministry will place another billboard advertisement of the Wonderful Indonesia tourism campaign in Times Squares, New York City.

Read also: Bali ready for Obama vacation

A similar marketing move was conducted during King Salman of Saudi Arabias visit to Indonesia, during which the Wonderful Indonesia advertisement was being broadcasted on the Al Jazeera news channel.

This is not the first time Indonesia has promoted the tourism brand in Times Squares. Similar advertising strategies were done in October last year and earlier this year.

Every year, about 39 million people, including foreign tourists, walk through Times Square.

Read also: Indonesian tourism graces Times Square billboards

Obama is scheduled to open the 4th Indonesian Diaspora Congress initiated by Indonesia Diaspora Network Global (IDNG) in early July. (kes)
By Press Trust of India: Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 24 (PTI) A 33-year-old Keralite priest who was missing from last four days was found dead on a beach in Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, according to information received by Church sources here today.

A message about the death of Martin Xavier Vazhachira, belonging to the CMI Congregation, was received by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate provincial here from the Archbishop of St Andrews in Edinburgh this morning.

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The message said the priest, hailing from Pulinkunnu in Alappuzha district, was found dead by Edinburgh police.

Details would be available only after Tuesday, a CMI official told PTI.

The priest served at St John the Baptist Church, Corstorphine in Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader in State Assembly Ramesh Chennithala asked External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to take immediate steps to bring the priests body to India.

In a letter to Swaraj, Chennithala said the body was found under mysterious circumstances on a beach and sought a comprehensive probe into his death. PTI JRK LGK BN AAR

--- ENDS ---
Friday is 1 year since the UK voted for #Brexit. With the talks officially starting, we're asking: How do you feel 365 days later...?  The National Student (@NationalStudent) June 20, 2017

For some it was a shock decision, and for others it was the victory they wanted. Either way we wanted to see how people felt a year later.Here's the results:The majority of individuals wanted to "scream into the abyss", while 25% decided they were "resigned to accept it." Only 3% thought it was "a top decision." Many - but not all - young people supported the campaign to remain in the European Union. you can read their more in-depth opinions. On the other hand, according to poll siteover-65's were more than twice as likely as under 25's to vote to Leave the EU. How are you feeling a year on from the Brexit vote?
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Malik along with Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq has been spearheading the separatist resistance in the Kashmir Valley for over a year.

By India Today Web Desk: Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik was arrested by police in Srinagar on Saturday.

A spokesman of the JKLF said Malik was arrested from his residence in Maisuma area. Other separatists are also likely to be arrested or put under house arrest.

Yasin Malik had on Friday given a slip to the police and had reached Charar-e-Sharif where he addressed a big congregation.

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Malik along with Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq has been spearheading the separatist resistance in the Kashmir Valley for over one year.

Reacting to the arrest, BJP MLA Ravinder Raina demanded that all other hurriyat conference leaders including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Shabir shah and others be immediately arrested under murder cases.

Also Read:

Jammu and Kashmir government arrests JKLF chairman Yasin Malik from Srinagar

Crackdown on Yasin Malik, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq ahead of separatists' meet

Also Watch:

Stung by sting, JKLF chief Yasin Malik attacks India Today crew

--- ENDS ---
It takes talent, even for a prime minister like Justin Trudeau, to make fellow world leaders and the media stop and look down at his feet.

Angela Merkel and others bow down to take a look at Justin Trudeau's Nato-themed socks. Source: Mark Slatema?/Twitter

By India Today Web Desk: Needless to say, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made most of the world believe that he is one uber cool world leader. From stripping for a charity event to photo-bombing wedding ceremonies out of nowhere, he has done it all.

Sticking to this image of his, Trudeau, at the very serious event of NATO summit last month, decided to lift up his very serious-looking navy pants to show off his socks to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others.

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And guess what? This team of very serious people took very serious interest in Trudeau's socks, huddling around him to take a good look at it.

Why wouldn't they? After all, underneath his monochromatic official attire, Trudeau was wearing a pair of snazzy pink and blue socks that had the emblem of NATO printed on them.

Breaking: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shows off his socks to Merkel & C.O. at the NATO summit. pic.twitter.com/YqhamrxIi6- Mark Slatem (@trentster) May 25, 2017

Mr Prime Minister's sock adventures do not end there.

During an appearance on the American talk show, Live With Kelly and Ryan, Trudeau flaunted a pair of red and white maple leaf printed socks.

Later, on the show, the hosts gifted Trudeau a 'Live With Kelly and Ryan' themed pair of socks.

Earlier in May, Trudeau met with then Irish Prime Minister Justin Enda Kenny wearing a mismatched pair of socks, featuring Star Wars characters, R2D2 and C3P0.

Even when he sat with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss issues like "jobs, security and climate", his stripped red and white socks made an appearance.

One pair that made heads turn was the one he wore on an official trip to Switzerland. The socks has skulls on them!

Those famous socks. PM Justin Trudeau awaits the constitutional plenary at the Liberal party convention. #wpg2016 pic.twitter.com/SlUI3juqvn- Allan Thompson (@ElectAllanT) May 28, 2016

And when you are talking about Trudeau's socks, how can you forget this moment?

We wonder designs Trudeau will wear if he comes to India. Any suggestions?

--- ENDS ---
The incident took place at Udanoor cross in Kalburgi where Siddamma was walking with her son Ninganna.

By Rohini Swamy: Yet another heart wrenching story of apathy has been reported in Karnataka. A young man was forced to carry his unconscious, and injured mother on foot until help came by.

He requested several people for help and even requested for an ambulance but did not get it in time.

The incident took place at Udanoor cross in Kalburgi where Siddamma was walking with her son Ninganna. She had come to the city to meet her daughter.

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Siddama was rammed by a motorbike. Immediately after the accident, locals rushed to the spot and Ninganna found her mother lying in a pool of blood. She suffered head and leg injuries.

Ninganna pleaded with several people around to help him take his mother to a hospital. But his pleading fell on deaf ears.

For about 45 minutes he sought help, two policemen who were seated in a police van which was parked nearby also remained mute spectators.

The locals tried calling an ambulance, but no ambulance turned up. Finally Ninganna decided to take his mother by foot towards the closest hospital.

It is only after a crowd that had gathered there asked the police to help the young man, that they were transported to the nearest general hospital.

Siddamma was given first aid by the government hospital and was later referred to a private hospital as they did not have facilities to treat her injuries.

Unfortunately, Siddamma died on the way to the private hospital. A bike and ambulance arrived at the spot an hour late.

Locals said that had she got access to the ambulance on time she would have been alive.

Also read:

Uttar Pradesh: Denied ambulance, man cycles home with dead niece on shoulder

Medical apathy at Delhi's GTB hospital: Two dozen diabetics get wrong jab

WATCH | Bengaluru: Cop halts President Pranab Mukherjee's convoy for ambulance

--- ENDS ---
Telecom companies have been asked to reduce 3G and 4G data services to 2G speed in the strife-torn Kashmir Valley.

By India Today Web Desk: Telecom companies have been instructed to bring down 3G and 4G data services in the entire Kashmir Valley to 2G speed immediately, the news agency ANI reported.

This comes after terrorists on Saturday opened fire at a CRPF convoy near the Army cantonment in Srinagar's Pantha Chowk, and fled towards Delhi Public School (DPS) Srinagar, which has been cordoned off.

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Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) claimed responsibility for the attack, in which a CRPF sub-inspector was martyred, and another soldier and a civilian were injured.

The sub-inspector has been identified as GD Sahab Shukla, a resident of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

A room-to-room search is under way in Delhi Public School to nab the terrorists.

(With inputs from Shuja-ul-Haq and Ashraf Wani)

ALSO READ | Srinagar: 1 CRPF soldier martyred in Lashkar terror attack, combing ops on

ALSO READ | Congress student wing chief justifies stone-pelting in Jammu and Kashmir

ALSO READ | Video claims Zakir Musa's Taliban-e-Kashmir provided info to forces about LeT militants killed by Army

ALSO WATCH | Demand for sedition charges against Kashmiri students cheering Pakistan's victory

--- ENDS ---
Mishra, who was sacked from the Delhi cabinet about a month back, said Vishwas should not remain silent on the issue of corruption within the Aam Aadmi Party.

By Abhishek Anand: Sacked Delhi minister Kapil Mishra on Saturday urged Aam Aadmi Party leader and Hindi poet Kumar Vishwas to stand against corruption in his party. Mishra, who was sacked from the Delhi cabinet about a month back, said Vishwas should not remain silent on the issue of corruption within the Aam Aadmi Party.

Earlier on Friday, Vishwas had taken a jibe at his party after being questioned on his absence in the Iftaar party that was organised by CM Arvind Kejriwal and party MLA Amanatullah Khan. Kumar had questioned the party's move of spending people's money on Iftaar party.

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Mishra said Vishwas should also raise questions on party leaders who indulge in corruption.

"Vishwas ji is known as a person who stands against corruption fearlessly. If he is raising question on an Iftaar party then he should also raise questions on Satender Jain and Manish Sisodia who are accused of corruption," said Mishra. Also, Mishra said that there is a conspiracy going on inside the party to expel Vishwas.

"I know Amanatullah (Okhla MLA) and some other MLAs are tying to make false statements to implicate Vishwas in fake accusations and expel him from the party," said Mishra. Mishra said he will be 'exposing' Kejriwal government on many issues soon. He also pulled Vishwas for accepting the post of AAP's state convenor of Rajasthan and ignoring the things going on in the party.

"When he said that party cannot remain silent on corruption, we thought he will take on the corruption in the party. But as the party gave him the convener post of Rajasthan, he remains quite on these issues," said Mishra.

ALSO READ:

AAP says Kumar Vishwas was invited to Delhi govt's iftar party, but invite didn't reach in time Delhi: Posters outside AAP office call Kumar Vishwas traitor, demand his ouster

Delhi: Posters outside AAP office call Kumar Vishwas traitor, demand his ouster

ALSO WATCH: This is AAP's sixth defeat and not because of EVM rigging: Kumar Vishwas slams Kejriwal

--- ENDS ---
Abhi and Pragya are excited to start their new life together.

Abhi and Pragya are get to get married in jungle.

By India Today Web Desk: Priest's daughter tells Pragya that Abhi loves her a lot and how he wanted to give her a surprise by planning the wedding.

Abhi takes out Tanu's photo from his wallet, shreds it into pieces and burn it in the hawan kund, signifying the end of all ties with Tanu. At this point Pragya enters the temple.

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Baba warns Abhi that goons are on a lookout for them. Abhi tells him that he doesn't care because he has Pragya's support and his blessings. Meanwhile, one of the kidnappers have reached the temple where Abhi and Pragya are set to wed.

Abhi and Pragya exchange garlands and Pragya tells Baba to do her kanyadaan.

The kidnapper calls up Alia and tells her that he has found Abhi and Pragya and they are getting married in the jungle. Alia is astonished and tells Tanu about what the kidnapper just told her. Tanu snatches the phone from Alia and asks kidnappers to show her how the two are getting married, over a video call.

Alia calls up Nikhil to tell him that she knows where Abhi and Pragya are and what they are up to. She tells him to stop the wedding by hook or by crook.

As Abhi and Pragya start taking saat pheras, Pragya's mother has a happy feeling that the two are starting a new life together and all their troubles will end.

Also read: Kumkum Bhagya: Dear Pragya, now we know why you get kidnapped all the time

Also read: After Ishqbaaz, now Kumkum Bhagya to get a spin-off show Kundali Bhagya

Also read: Kumkum Bhagya: 5 reasons Pragya-Abhi's Adhuri Kahaani is the No. 1 show right now

Also read: Dear Pragya, aren't you tired of getting kidnapped in Kumkum Bhagya?

--- ENDS ---
Spread love, peace and happiness Its time again for the most awaited spiritual procession  Rath Yatra  that is carried out in Jagannath Puri. The deities of Lord Krishna, Lord Balarama and Devi Subhadra are carried out in three gigantic chariots in a long procession during the Jagannath festival.

The huge chariots, each approximately 45 feet high, are pulled around the town by thousands of devotees from India as well as abroad who come together to celebrate the Jaganath festival which takes place on the second day of the fortnight in the month of Ashadha. This year it falls on 25 June.

The 5000-year-old Rath Yatra is the most famous Hindu festival of the state. It is related to the master of the universe Lord Jagannath. Every year, during the festival, the chariots are pulled from Janakpur to one of the four most sacred temples in four directions of India Lord Jagannath Temple.

The story behind Jagannath temple and the festival

According to mythology, there was a Malwa king in central India named Indradyumna. He was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu. There was an eccentric desire in him to see Lord Vishnu face to face. Once he dreamt that Vishnu could be seen in his best form in Utkala (ancient Odisha). So, he deputed Vidyapati, the brother of royal priest to find out the place where Vishnu had such a manifestation.

After a strenuous search, Vidyapati came to know that Lord Vishnu was known by the name Nila Madhava and was being worshiped on a hill in a dense forest. He also knew that Nila Madhava was the family deity of Visvavasu, a Sarvana (a tribe) chief. Later, Vidyapati married Lalita, the daughter of Visvavasu.

On repeated requests by Lalita, Visvavasu took Vidyapati blindfolded to the cave where Nila Madhava was being worshipped. Vidyapati somehow managed to drop mustard seeds on the ground on his way to Nila Madhava which later germinated. On returning to Malwa, Vidyapati described everything to King Indradyumna. He immediately set out on a holy pilgrimage to Odisha and followed the germinated mustard seeds to reach the cave where Nila was. Sadly, Nila miraculously vanished when the king reached this holy cave. The king went into a state of deep sorrow.

The divine intervention

One day, Lord Jagannath directed the king in his dream to make idols of Lord Jagannath and his siblings Balabhadra and Subhadra out of the wood of the fragrant tree on the seashore of Puri.

The king also had a vision of the images of the three deities and accordingly he got them made and installed in the temple. It is believed that the lords architect Vishwakarma arrived there as an old carpenter to carve the deities. He made it clear that if anybody would disturb him while carving the statues, he would vanish that very moment leaving the work unfinished.

After few months, King Indradyumna became impatient to see the work of Vishwakarma and out of his curiosity he opened the door of the work place where he was carving the statues. As Vishwakarma warned before, he disappeared at once leaving the statues unfinished. The king sanctified the incomplete statues and installed them in the temple.

How the deities are made

The icons are carved and decorated with wooden stumps with large round eyes and with stumps as hands with the conspicuous absence of legs. They are the oldest and most famous deities of Lord Jagannath and his siblings. The statues are changed every 12 years  the new ones being incomplete too and the chariots are built anew each year only from a particular type of tree. The chariots are decorated as per the traditions followed for centuries. The massive chariots covered with bright canopies made of stripes of red cloth and combined with those of black, yellow, green and blue colours are lined across the wide avenue in front of the majestic temple close to its eastern entrance Sinhadwara. Lord Jagannath uses red and yellow, Lord Balarama uses red and green while Subhadra uses red and black canopy.

The blissful sound of Lord Jagannath's chariot

The chariot of Lord Jagannath is called Cakradhvaja or Nandigosha which means blissful sound. It is approximately 45 feet high and weighs 65 tons. It is drawn by four white wooden horses, has 16 wheels and carries a figure of Garuda on its crest. Balarama cart is called Taladhvaja that means the sound of powerful rhythm. It is drawn by four black wooden horses, uses 14 wheels and carries Hanuman on its crest. Subhadras chariot is called Padmadhvaja or Darpadalam that means destroyer of pride. It is drawn by four red wooden horses, has 12 wheels and carries lotus on its crest.

What happens furing the festival

During the Rath Yatra, Lord Balaram is brought out of the temple, first followed by Devi Subhadra and Lord Jagannath. The most famous ritual Chhera Pahara associated with Rath Yatra is performed. The king sweeps the deities and the chariots. Then he cleanses the road with a broom having a gold handle. He sprinkles the sandalwood water and powder on the way. The ritual is repeated on the last day, when the deities are ceremoniously brought back to Puri temple. The custom showcases that every devotee whether a king or a common man is equal in the Lords eyes. When everything is ready, a whistle is blown to indicate hundreds of devotees to start pulling the chariots with ropes.

At the time of this popular Rath Yatra, the deities come out of the temple on the main street of Puri known as Bada Danda for all devotees to have a splendid view (darshan). Each deity visits the Gudicha temple that is dedicated to the lords aunt (located at a distance of three kilometres) in their specific chariots drawn by the pilgrims, taking up long and thick ropes to pull. The deities stay here for a week and are served with sweet pancakes.

The return journey of the deities is known as Bahuda Yatra. While coming back to the Jagannath temple, the chariot of Lord Jagannath stops at his mausi maas temple where he takes the bhog of his favourite rice cake known as Poda Pitha. By the day of Ekadasi, the deities reach the Jagannath Puri temple. Their costumes are changed here. In these new baby attires, the idols are known as Suna Vesa. On the following day, the deities move into the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. This brings the Rath Yatra festival to an end. The return car festival or Bahuda Yatra falls on 3 July.

The nine-day festival exhibits the impeccable skill of the artists of Puri and the enthusiasm of the devotees all around the world. The city seems to be dipped in most vivid hues of absolute bliss and paryers. Offer your prayers to the deities this year and seek their blessings.

Prayer is an expression of your silent being. Its a pious vibration  a compassionate feeling  a positive thought in the lotus feet of the Lord. Stop fighting in the name of religion. Spread love, spread peace, spread happiness. This is the message of Lord Jagannath to all his disciples.
China has refused entry to the first batch of around 50 Indian pilgrims who were scheduled to travel to Kailash Mansarovar through the Nathu La pass in Sikkim, citing damage to roads due to rains and landslides in the Tibet region.

The 47 pilgrims, who were stopped by the Chinese officials at the border from proceeding further, have now returned to their respective states, official sources said here today.

The pilgrims were scheduled to cross over to the Chinese side on June 19 but had failed to do so due to inclement weather. They had waited at the base camp and tried to cross again yesterday but were denied permission by the Chinese officials.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay had yesterday said some difficulties were being experienced in the movement of pilgrims through Nathu La and that India is taking up the matter with China.

The development has cast a shadow of uncertainty on the annual yatra as Chinese officials maintained that it would take some time to repair the roads and the Indians would not be able to make the pilgrimage any time soon.

"The pilgrims and the liaison officer were told that because of incessant rainfall the roads in the Chinese side had been washed away in major landslides. So they cannot proceed any further," a source said here.

The Chinese officials said they were concerned about the safety of the Indian pilgrims which is why they were stopped from proceeding further.

The Chinese officials also informed the yatris that as and when the weather would improve and the road conditions in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), China would be restored they would be allowed to enter into China, the sources said here.

The first batch of 47 yatris had arrived in Sikkim on June 15. The Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation is the nodal authority for conducting the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through Nathu La.

"Yes, there are some difficulties being experienced in movement of KMY (Kailash Mansarovar Yatra) Yatris via Nathu La. Matter is being discussed with Chinese side," Baglay had said yesterday to a query on the development which came amid tensions in bilateral ties over a host of issues including the CPEC and India's NSG bid.

Hundreds of Indian pilgrims undertake Kailash Mansarovar yatra in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China every year negotiating the mountainous terrain.

This year, a total of 350 yatris had registered for the yatra via Nathu La route and they were to travel in seven batches.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Kazakh capital Astana.

In the meeting, Modi had said the two sides should tap their potential in cooperation, strengthen communication and coordination in international affairs, respect each other's core concerns and appropriately handle their disputes.
Fadnavis said that the loan waiver scheme would be called Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Samman Yojana.

By Vidya : Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said that the state government has decided to waive off loans of farmers up to Rs 1.5 lakh completely.

Fadnavis said that the loan waiver scheme would be called Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Samman Yojana.

The chief minister also said that all the ministers of his cabinet and MLAs would donate one month's salary to support loan waiver.

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"This will benefit about 90 per cent of Maharashtra's farmers who have taken loans", he said.

Fadnavis said, "Maharashtra government has decided a loan waiver of Rs 34,000 crore. We are waiving loans up to Rs.1.5 lakh completely."

WE WILL CUT OUR EXPENSES: FADNAVIS

Speaking about the fiscal load on the state exchequer, Fadnavis said, "I am aware that the burden will fall on us. But, we will cut our expenses. All ministers and MLAs will give one month's salary to support loan waiver."

Fadnavis also plans to give incentive to farmers, who have repaid a part of their loans. "Those farmers who have paid back their loans regularly, we will give 25 per cent loan return benefit to them", Fadnavis said.

Chief Minister Fadnavis said that the loan waiver would benefit approximately 19 lakh farmers in Maharashtra.

Also read | Shiv Sena elected representatives to donate a month's salary for farm loan waiver

Also read | NCP, Shiv Sena slam Venkaiah Naidu for 'loan waiver now a fashion' remark

Also read | Captain Amarinder follows Adityanath, Fadnavis, announces loan waiver for Punjab farmers

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India and Portugal on Saturday announced a four million euros joint fund to bolster research in science and technology as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held in-depth talks with his Portuguese counterpart on cooperation in areas like counter-terrorism, space and climate studies.

In a joint address to the media after the signing of 11 bilateral agreements, Modi and his counterpart Antonio Costa said the two countries have made substantial progress in their relations in the past six months.

The agreements signed included cooperation in outer space, double taxation avoidance, nano technology, improving cultural ties, youth and sports, higher education and scientific research, and Portugal-India business hub and Indian Chamber of Commerce.

"We held wide-ranging discussions today. The Portuguese economic rebound and strong Indian growth offer excellent opportunities for us to grow together," Modi, the first India prime minister in Portugal on a bilateral visit, said.

Speaking on bilateral collaboration in cutting-edge technology, Modi also announced the setting up of a joint science and technology fund of four million euros.

"Our economic ties continue to follow an upward trajectory, and we can do more for the flow of goods, services, capital and human resources," he said.

"We are also determined to deepen our cooperation against terrorism and violent extremism," he said and thanked Lisbon for its "consistent support" for India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council and multilateral export control regimes.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said Islamophobia was being spread in the country, resulting in the incident of the lynching of Muslims.

Condemning the lynching of a 17-year-old youth on a train in Haryana, Owaisi said a hate atmosphere was being created.

"I called this atmosphere Islamophobia. Those creating Islamophobia are responsible for lynching of Muslims in the name of cow, religion or beard," he told reporters here.

The Hyderabad MP was reacting to Friday's incident in Haryana in which four Muslim boys were attacked by a group of people after an altercation and one of the victims, Junaid, died. The were returning to their village in Haryana from Delhi after Eid shopping.

Owaisi also condemned the lynching of a police officer by a mob outside Srinagar's Jamia Masjid. "I condemn the lynching of DYSP Ayub and that too on the holy night and near Jamia Masjid," he said adding that there is no difference between those who lynched Ayub and those who are lynching Muslims in the name of cow or religion.

"There is no difference whatsoever. They can't be called human beings and need to be condemned," he said.

The MP said the incident shows the misgoveranance by BJP and PDP which were in power in Jammu and Kashmir. He said they were clueless on what was happening on ground. He said the two parties had made tall promises and assurances but nothing happened.

Owaisi said BJP's choice of Ram Nath Kovind as its candidate for the post of President showed that it wants to convert India into a "Hindu rashtra".

"President of India's post is a Constitutional post. If a person aspiring to become the President of India holds the view that minorities which includes Muslims and Christians are alien to this nation, what kind of confidence this candidate or his party is creating in the Constitution. What kind of message they are sending to minorities?" he asked.

Owaisi said Kovind was repeating "ideology of Sarvarkar, Golwalkar and RSS". On BJP's criticism that he is doing communal politics over the issue, he said the party should clarify whether Kovind made this statement or not.
Talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump in what would be their first face-to-face meeting would focus on ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism and defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, besides trade and law enforcement, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has said.

Spicer said that talks between the two on Monday would be "robust".

" The President and the Prime Minister will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counterterrorism, defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement, and energy. I think it's going to be a very robust discussion," he said at his regular briefing on Friday.

Modi left New Delhi on Saturday on a three-nation tour that will take him to the US, Portugal and the Netherlands. He reached Portugal on Saturday ahead of his visit to the US on June 26 and will visit the Netherlands on June 27 on the way back home.

Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar flew into Washington ahead of Modi's visit to meet senior officials in the Trump administration and to lay the groundwork for the Modi-Trump meeting.

On Friday, Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and both sides focused on areas of convergence.

Indian envoy to the US Navtej Sarna has termed Modi's visit a "great opportunity for the two leaders to know each other". He said Modi will meet the top 20 CEOs of the US during the visit.

Sarna also expressed the hope that the visit will provide sufficient time for Modi and Trump to get to know each other.

He said that India is major defence partner of the US and both countries have a robust defence and security relationship.

In a pre-departure statement, Modi on Friday said he will hold in-depth discussions with Trump during his visit and hoped to build a forward-looking vision for partnership with the new administration.

The Prime Minister said that apart from his official meetings with Trump and his Cabinet colleagues, he will meet some prominent American CEOs and the large Indian diaspora.

Former President Barack Obama had called India-US ties the "most defining partnership" of the 21st century. Both leaders had struck a warm personal equation and worked to ease any bilateral irritants.

The Obama administration had accorded India the status of a 'major defence partner'.

According to reports, the US has cleared the sale of 22 American-made Guardian surveillance drones for India ahead of Modi's visit. The deal is estimated to be worth $2-3 billion.

Both sides will also discuss the sale of US fighter jets during the Modi's visit.

Earlier this week, US defence giant Lockheed Martin and India's Tata group signed an agreement to jointly build the F-16 Block 70 fighter in India, in a boost to Prime Minister Modi's 'Make in India' programme.

Under the deal, Lockheed will shift its Fort Worth, Texas plant to India without directly affecting American jobs.

The deal was announced during the Paris Airshow between Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) and Lockheed Martin.

The navies of India, US and Japan also participate in the Malabar exercise.
The National Capital Region (NCR) will get a new international airport in the next five years at Jewar, located in the Gautam Budh Nagar district, adjoining the national capital city of New Delhi.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi announced that the project  Noida International Airport  has received an "in-principle approval" and is expected to be developed in phases with the initial stage sporting one runway and a terminal building.

The new facility, expected to be spread across 3,000 hectares of land, will be the second international airport to serve the catchment areas of the NCR after the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).

Distance-wise, the new airport will be located more than 77 km away from Connaught Circus, 72 km away from IGIA and 65 km from Hindon Air Force station in Ghaziabad. It will be connected to Delhi and Noida via metro rail and improved road network.

According to Raju, the approval or site clearance has been given for the first phase of the airport which is envisaged to be completed in 5-6 years.

"Noida International Airport will cater to 30-50 million passengers per year over the next 10-15 years," Raju said at a press briefing held at the Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan here which is the headquarters of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The first phase of the project would require around 1,000 hectares of land and it is expected to ease the infrastructure pressure on the IGIA, the minister said.

The IGIA's passenger handling capacity will reach up to 91 MPPA (million passengers per annum) by 2020 and 109 MPPA by 2024 from the current level of 62 million.

Elaborating on the project, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said the first phase of the new airport project is expected to cost Rs 10,000 crore.

"Noida airport will be major growth driver for NCR and Western UP  will boost manufacturing, tourism, educational, and export sectors," Sinha said.

Sinha pointed out at the press briefing that industries such as electronics and pharma manufacturing will especially get a boost from the new airport.

As per the development plan, the Uttar Pradesh government will implement the project through the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA).

The YEIDA is expected to complete land acquisition and conduct a techno-economic feasibility study for the project within one year.

In April, Sinha had said that the new state government in Uttar Pradesh has asked for a fresh technical evaluation for setting up a green field airport at Jewar.

In 2001, the then UP chief minister Rajnath Singh proposed the idea of an airport located in Greater Noida. Later, governments including those of Mayawati, proposed that the project be set up in Jewar, near Greater Noida.

The last UP government scrapped the project, citing a clause that bars development of a second airport within a 150-km radius of an existing one. The IGIA is being developed and managed by a consortium led by GMR.

However, Raju said that the project which is expected to be developed on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, will provide the GMR-led consortium with the "First Right of Refusal" at the time of the bidding.

Aviation sector experts said that the move will benefit passengers.

"It (step) will probably prevent Delhi from going through the same hardship that Mumbai is going through due to the saturation of its existing airport," said Kuljit Singh, Head of Infrastructure at EY LLP India.

"However, this airport may also (just like Navi Mumbai Airport) have difficulty in generating sufficient bidder interest due to the pre-emption right available to the incumbent developer and in case government does not undertake key pre-development activities prior to putting the project to bid."

Amrit Pandurangi, independent aviation expert said: "From users' perspective its always good to have another airport. But for that to happen under the current agreement the government has to either convince GMR to take it up under the first right of refusal or have an airport with limited operations."

"Unlike Mumbai, Delhi airport still has plenty of land for expansion."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left for the US for his first meeting with President Donald Trump after concluding his brief visit to Portugal during which the two nations signed 11 agreements.

Modi, who arrived here on Saturday, held wide-ranging talks with his counterpart Antonio Costa.

He also addressed the Indian community and presented the Overseas Citizen of India card to Costa.

Deviating from protocol, Costa came to see off Modi.

"Concluding a historic visit to Portugal. Deviating from Protocol, PM @antoniocostapm see off PM @narendramodi, a warm goodbye," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted.

"PM @narendramodi visit takes #IndiaPortugal bilateral relations to new heights," Baglay said.

In the US, Modi will attend a community reception on Sunday and hold talks with Trump on Monday.

Ahead of his US visit, Modi said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he had tweeted.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington was at the invitation of Trump.

Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.
NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will seek support from the ruling bloc's MPs and legislators from Uttar Pradesh on Sunday and speak to their Uttarakhand counterparts in Dehradun on Monday as he begins a nationwide tour.

BJP General Secretary Bhupender Yadav, who is also Kovind's authorised representative for the presidential poll, said that Kovind will seek support from members of the president's electoral college.

He will start from Uttar Pradesh, which is also the 71- year-old Dalit leader's home state.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will receive him at the airport and the meeting with the NDA members will take place at Adityanath's official residence in Lucknow, Yadav said.

Yadav, besides Union minister Nitin Gadkari and two members of Parliament will accompany Kovind during the Lucknow leg of the tour.

During his interaction with the BJP-led NDA MPs and MLAs in Dehradun on Monday, Kovind will be joined by Union minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot and Anil Baluni, who is the BJP's media head and belongs to the hill state, besides two other MPs.

BJP sources said a Union minister, a senior organisation leader from the party and two MPs will accompany Kovind during his nationwide tour to reach out to all members of the electoral college.

Though his meeting will be with the supporting MPs and MLAs, Kovind will make an appeal to all the members of the electoral college in every state to support his candidature.

The opposition parties have fielded Meira Kumar, also a Dalit leader, against Kovind.

With over 62 per cent of votes firmly behind him, Kovind's election as the next president is almost certain.

Besides the BJP and its NDA allies, parties like the TRS, the YSRCP, the AIADMK, the BJD and the JD(U) have announced their support to him.

The presidential election is scheduled for July 17 and the counting of votes will take place on July 20.

Kovind, if elected, will be the second dalit to occupy the highest constitutional office. The first was K R Narayanan, who was in the Rashtrapati Bhavan in 1997-2002. PTI KR


Britain and the European Union are set for a messy divorce if Monday's first round of formal talks is any indication. British negotiators appear to have readily conceded the key European demand to keep discussions on free trade on hold till the cost of the multibillion-euro UK divorce settlement is settled. In a sense, both sides have at the threshold agreed to disagree. The tactical dominance of EU has thus been reinforced and on a contentious issue.

Brexit secretary David Davis seeks to put up a brave face when he insists that the "initial retreat" of Whitehall is consistent with the government's long-term strategy. Its not how it starts, its how it finishes that matters, was Mr Davis' somewhat strained defence in Brussels after the first day of formal talks. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. Theoretically, he is right. Yet the fact of the matter must be that Theresa May's team is not in a position to assert itself to the extent it would have wanted to.

The crucial negotiations have been convened in the immediate aftermath of the serial shocks that 10 Downing Street has suffered, notably the terrorist outrage in Manchester, the devastating fire in a highrise, the electoral setback of the Conservatives, and the upward curve in the prospects of Labour, indeed the "Remain" camp. Negotiations at the high table in Brussels have not exactly turned out to be the row of the summer, as Mr Davis had envisaged. Britain was anxious to avoid being held to ransom over the divorce settlement, and had hoped that trade talks would be held in parallel with the pullout discussions.

In the net, the terms of withdrawal have been accorded precedence over trade. Small wonder that a politically weakened delegation from London had no option but to accept the priorities set by the EU headquarters.

The other prickly issue, in addition to free trade and the terms of the withdrawal, is the rights of EU citizens living in Britain. There may be hope yet for this segment not least because the British Prime Minister is scheduled to visit Brussels very shortly to unveil the terms of a new British offer to guarantee the rights of these citizens, post the withdrawal from EU.

While the details of the offer will be published in a paper next week, Whitehall has assured EU citizens that it will be a "generous offer". Yet another irritant is Britain's border with Northern Ireland, if and when the withdrawal materialises. Whitehall, for now, will have to contend with the shelving of parallel talks on trade.

There are fears that the EU might extract the highest possible divorce settlement from an atrophied government in London. Mrs May must hope that Brexit does not extend the loop of her setbacks.
Few would imagine such a petite person to have so much grit and fire. A gentle, graceful manner hides the determination with which Laila Tyabji has gone about reviving and promoting traditional craft across the country. In 1980 a group of six people began an initiative to revive craft. Today, Dastkar is a leading Indian craft NGO, which strongly believes that craft and craftspeople have a vital place in the countrys economic mainstream. It seeks to strengthen their position in India through support services that act as a bridge between the traditional rural craftsperson and the new urban consumer.

Social worker, craft revivalist, art designer and founder of Dastkar, Laila Tyabji was honoured in 2012 with the fourth-highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri. She has authored Threads and Voices ~ Behind the Indian Textile Tradition, published in 2007, and has written several articles in Indian journals. In 2003, Tyabji was awarded the Aid to Artisans and Preservation of Craft Award, the first Asian and the second overall recipient of the award, the investiture ceremony taking place in New York. She is also a recipient of the NIFT Lifetime Achievement Award and the Chishti Harmony Award. The Limca Book of Records named Tyabji as the Person of the Year in 2014. "One is happy to see the results of ones work," she said in an interview with ASHA RAMACHANDRAN. Excerpts:

Q: You have worked extensively with people involved with traditional arts and craft. What, in your opinion, ails this vital segment of our culture?

A. The fact is that India is a very mysterious country. You can say something and somebody may say the direct opposite and they may both be true. Thats our saving grace, I suppose. Yes, Indian craftspeople are in decline and they are getting more and more marginalised, out of the mainstream of the consumer market. On the other hand, they are also in a curious way, beginning to thrive a little. Another paradox is that people always make the sweeping assumption that people dont want to buy crafts.

Most of our bureaucrats, our planners, our economists, everybody seems to have this idea that crafts and craftspeople are lovely but they are dying. But this is not quite the case. Its true that 15 per cent of our craftspeople are leaving the (trade) every decade. But its not because theres no market. In fact, the demand for craft is on the increase both domestically and internationally. What Dastkar feels very strongly is that craft has actually got a lot of potential. We are at a very interesting time in the international market, where people are getting a little jaded with branded, mass-produced things.

Q: While several art forms have survived down the ages, many more have died or are on the verge of extinction. What is being done to preserve them?

A. The crisis is because of economics, because its difficult for craftspeople based in rural India to reach the metropolitan markets. Earlier, people made things for their own local markets. Now, that is obviously unrealistic because branded, cheaper products have come in. But there is this new demand in metropolitan cities. But how does the craftsperson reach there?

Q:What more needs to be done?

A. If craftspeople are to reach their full potential, they need, like any other economic activity, investment, not just in terms of money or government schemes, but a whole lot of information, hand-holding, R and D, design and product-development. And those are the things that Dastkar through its basket of services provides. This helps craftspeople become sustainable, successful. There are so many stories of that sort in 36 years of Dastkar.

Q: Artisans are generally a neglected or exploited lot. Often they are the last repositories of an art form. How can this be addressed?

A. Its too facile for people to say crafts is wonderful, its beautiful, part of culture but today they are not relevant. They feel that the reason craftspeople are having such a tough time is that the next generation does not want to come into this sector. As I said, there is a market and its a growing market. The reason is because of the social status of the craftspeople. Some craftspeople are today making quite a lot of money. But even those who are successful, do not want their children to come into this line. And that is because a craftsperson, even if he is a shilp-guru, does not get the recognition that a very ordinary professional in other sectors get.

Q: Once educated, do the children of craftspeople turn away from their tradition?

A. This has two parts and is a decision one has to make. Craft is something that you have to learn when quite young and because the way our education system is structured, it is a decision whether you are going to have your child enter the education process and, therefore, limit his ability to learn the craft. Or, are you going to train him in the craft and leave him semi-educated? In that situation its quite a dilemma.

Some years ago we had recommended that in crafts pockets, children in that craft cluster should be allowed to get some grades for the craft ~ that should become one of their subjects. And also, if they could change the timing of the curriculum so that they could also work at home. There was quite an enthusiastic response to that. But it has not yet taken off.

Q: What is being done to revive the crafts?

A. A lot is being done. I must say now, in my over 45 years of working in the sector, crafts that one didnt even hear about are coming to light again and becoming very mainstream. Like Ajrak and Kalamkari, which 40 years ago, you couldnt buy in the Delhi market, today everybody wants them.

Except states like Punjab and Maharashtra, I dont think one should be too gloomy about crafts because the skills are still there, potential is there and the need is there. Potter families are doing better than they ever did because they are making these larger items, decorative items ~ planters, lamp-stands ~ and they are being allowed to experiment and innovate.

We shouldnt forget all that but we must use these modules as a way to say whatever input has gone in needs to apply to the sector at large instead of just giving a subsidy. We need to take lessons from countries like China.

Q: How much hope do you hold for Indias rich tapestry of art and craft?

A. I am strongly convinced that this is one of the gold mines of India. Sometimes one is really frustrated. But Im optimistic ~ it doesnt take much. The amount of money and training may be quite small but it can turn the sector around very fast.
North Korea and Syria are two powder kegs in the world at the moment. By comparing these two states we may be able to find solutions to the two crises. The North Korean crisis is directly related to the division of Korea into two separated states by the Allied Powers in World War II in 1945, whereas the Syrian crisis was touched off by a domestic democratic movement influenced by the Arab Spring in 2011.

The main cause of the North Korean crisis is the North Korean regimes complete distrust and antagonism toward South Korea and the US.

Since the US and China are allied with South Korea and North Korea respectively, they are deeply involved in the inter-Korean conflict.

In the Syrian case, the democratic movement turned into an inveterate antagonism between the Alawites (a Shiite sect) and the Sunnis. Since the al-Assad regime is supported by the Alawites, the democratic movement turned into a sectarian war between the Shiites and the Sunnis within the country and in the Arab world  the former supported by Iran, the leading Shiite state, and the latter by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni neighbours.

Antagonism between the US and Russia is also pulled into this domestic conflict in which the US supports the pro-Western rebel forces and Russia directly supports the al-Assad regime. Russia wants to keep Syria as its foothold in the Middle East.

In contrast, the US is interested not so much in supporting the democratic forces as in preventing the Islamic extremist groups, particularly the Islamic State group, from taking over Syria and spreading their influence to other parts of the world.

There is a similarity between the Syrian and the Korean situations in this sense.

The only difference is that in the case of the Korean Peninsula, the US and China are the main external competitors, whereas in the Syrian case the main non-Arab competitors are the US and Russia.

Kim Jong-il and Basher al-Assad share a similar view of the outside world. Al-Assad once said that the conflict in Syria is due to enemies outside of Syria and they would be taught a lesson. Kim will completely agree with this view. Both look for a scapegoat for their internal difficulties.

The North Korean delegation told Assad in 2015 that North Korea and Syria are targeted because they are among those which enjoy real independence.

Real independence implicitly refers to WMDs (nuclear and biological weapons). It should be noted that North Korea had once aided Syria for the latters development of nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea and Syria also share similarity politically: Both are ruled by totalitarian dictatorships. Kim Jongun and Bashar al-Assad are political twins: They will never abandon their absolute political power in any circumstances. They identify themselves with their own state, and therefore they are willing to die with their own state.

On the other hand, it is much easier for Kim than al-Assad to indoctrinate his people because Koreans are secular and homogeneous but Syrians are divided into different religious and sectarian groups which seek autonomy.

The North Korean regime is strongly and tightly armed with one single ideology and spiritual determination. They are juche (self-reliance) ideology and the partisan spirit. Juche ideology stands for the independent spirit in all aspects of the state  political, economic and socio-cultural.

This ideology also justifies North Koreas independent nuclear power.

The most important codes of conduct of the partisan spirit are the will to persevere despite unbearable odds and commitment to solidarity.

Baathism can be the comparable Syrian ideology but is much weaker and run out than juche ideology.

Moreover, Kim Jong-un is supported by a ruling group composed of dedicated former anti-Japanese guerrillas descendants and other highly indoctrinated communist party leaders and their families. On the other hand, al-Assad is protected by the intelligence agency, the high-level military and secret police elites as well as various Alawite and Shiite groups but their loyalty has been weakening.

These indicate that the North Korean leadership is more consolidated and secure than the Syrian leadership, and therefore more dangerous and risky to eliminate Kim than alAssad by force or subversion.

Both Kim and al-Assad reject Western civilisation and rule of law, but support strongly the main principle of the Westphalian state system (national sovereignty and principle of non-intervention). They also reject Western democracy and American hegemony. Most leaders of the nonWest support their position.

Ironically, most Western leaders are reticent about the two crises.

Perhaps, they are either too preoccupied with their own problems or feel guilty about the application of the Western standards of the nation-state to non-Western states. They, particularly the leading Western states, adopted the principle of self-determination at the League of Nations and the UN according to the Westphalian state model.

It is ironic that the Korean people who had enjoyed a single nationhood for almost 13 centuries (676-1950) live in two divided states while the Syrian people who have lived as one nation only since 1941 are still fighting for nationhood.

Most failed states are the former Western colonies which became independent states after WWII according to the Western concept of national self-determination. Syria is one of them. If a state fails to guarantee seven kinds of human security (economic, food, environmental, personal, community, political, and health security defined by the UN Human Development Report), it is no longer a state, because they are the raison detre of the state.

North Korea and Syria have failed to meet all these standards.

It is no surprise that North Korea strongly supports the al-Assad regime and opposes humanitarian intervention. Other non-Western states including China and Nigeria also support the al-Assad regime. They reject Western values and norms, Western democracy and American hegemony.

How to resolve the two crises is a common task of the Western powers which created Syria and the two Koreas.

The writer is a columnist for The Korea Herald. A former career diplomat, he served as rector of the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies at Kyung Hee University in Seoul and is the author of Globalized Korea and Localized Globe. This is a series of columns on global affairs written by top editors and columnists from members of the Asia News Network and published in newspapers and websites across the region.
By Press Trust of India: Amritsar, June 24 (PTI) The holy city would soon see a memorial dedicated to great leader Master Tara Singh come up, which would imbue future generations with a sense of sacrifice for the sake of the country, Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said here today.

Addressing an event here, the Local Government, Tourism and Cultural Affairs minister said the memorial would be constructed at a place chosen by the family members of the great leader.

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Selfless leaders like Master Tara Singh will continue to rule the hearts of the people, he said. Master Tara Singh always put the interests of "Panth" over and above his own, Sidhu said as he thanked Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. He said Master Tara Singh rose above the confines of party politics to devote his life to the country.

The Congress leader also exhorted the youth to follow the ideals of Bhagat Singh. Sidhu also said that the chief minister is committed to eradicating the menace of drugs from the sacred soil of Punjab and those indulging in this trade would be acted against. On the occasion, Dr Jaspreet Kaur, a relative of Master Tara Singh, spoke about the contribution of the great leader. PTI Cor SUN ADS

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High on symbolism, less intense in terms of the way the numbers will actually crunch. That is the way the essay to elect a successor to Mr Pranab Mukherjee has been scripted after the Congress-led 17 Opposition parties in settling on Mrs Meira Kumar as their nominee for the upcoming poll. Since only a turn of events as unexpected as at the Oval last Sunday will hinder the BJP/NDA choice of Mr Ram Nath Kovind attaining the highest of Constitutional offices, the query that arises is what does the contest symbolises? It has been reduced to a Dalit versus Dalit affair, a case of my Bihari is better than yours. True that both Mr Kovind and Mrs Kumar have generally blemish-free track-records, but do either exude the eminence that the high office demands? Perhaps the only saving grace is that only on very few occasions have the people, albeit through their elected representatives, been given the challenge of choosing one of two truly outstanding candidates. The system ensures that the national cookie crumbles in accordance with the way the numbers stack up: mostly by accident rather than design does the palace on the hill get a genuinely lofty occupant.

Without even thinking of casting a slur on Mrs Meira Kumars credentials, she would have to concede that she was picked by Sonia Gandhi & Co only to try and negate the impact of the Modi-Shah duo playing the Dalit card ~ for their narrow political purposes. Had Mrs Kumar been the Oppositions first preference (there was, reportedly, some hard bargaining involved) her name would have been mentioned much earlier. Hindsight would suggest that had she been thus favoured the BJP might have found itself under pressure. She will ever have to carry the cross of being an essentially reactionary choice.

It is worth noting that Gopal Krishna Gandhi (whose reputation is not based entirely on his ancestry) indicated he was no longer interested after the Dalit card had been played. Recall Mayawati declaring that she would support Kovind unless the rest of the Opposition also played the deprived section game. And that Mrs Kumar was evaluated as the best among another few Dalits ~ the field had been thus narrowed down. The claim that a battle of ideologies is being fought rings somewhat hollow; that bane of Indian electoral politics ~ winnability ~ has proved contagious enough to infect the road leading to Raisina Hill.

For all the euphemisms (such as identity politics), the pundits and their media brethren may use, the fact remains that divisions dictate political developments. Neither Mrs Kumar nor Mr Kovind can be deemed guilty of causing that, yet in the larger interests of the democratic polity this brand of symbolism could prove suicidal.
"'When the wind is right and the cloud is gone, you can see down this road as far as Darjeeling,' I told her. 'But it is a long and difficult road, full of perils, and if a traveller on foot were to look at the length of it, his spirit would be overcome and he would sit down and refuse to go any further. You must not look to the end of the road, Portia. Look only to the step in front of you. That you can do. Just one step. And you will not make the journey alone,'" Deanna Raybourn famously wrote in "Dark Road to Darjeeling".

These lines would be read aloud again and again by our headmaster during my childhood in a boarding school in Darjeeling. He was a strict disciplinarian and an avid trekker who would lead a troupe of 50-60 interested students on long treks right up to the mountains and through the most remote hamlets of the hills  the small pristine villages of Chitre, Chimney, Dowhill and Bagora, among others  literally mingling with the fog that played hide and seek with travellers.

Growing up in the hills, surrounded by birds, bees and a hundred different kinds of trees in the midst of a perennial calm that then exemplified Darjeeling, I had come to terms with the serenity of the hills, the composed temperament of being one with nature and, above all, a sense of belonging to a home of lush green tea valleys.

There is much more to Darjeeling than just tourism. The lifestyle and culture in this part of north Bengal is different from most parts of the country, and more so from West Bengal, the state in which this small tourist destination is situated. Another significant aspect of Darjeeling is its many heritage schools that house boarding students from across the country. The small towns of Kurseong, Mirik, Kalimpong and, of course, Darjeeling, are home to some of the most reputed ICSE schools in India.

As one looks at the horrifying images of violent mobs burning public properties and clashing with police personnel amid the growing unrest in the hills, thoughts return to those carefree days in Darjeeling, an everlasting testament to calmness and peace. Violence and protests that have now come to define the Gorkhaland agitation are contrary to my memories of Darjeeling and its ever-warm and humble residents.

When I first arrived in Darjeeling as a young student  away from the comfort of home  its many warm people embraced me with open arms and thus began my tryst with the hills that has continued till today. This was also the period when the Gorkhaland agitation, which was spearheaded in the 1980s by Subhash Ghisingh, a former army soldier and a poet, had faded away and paradise remained undisturbed.

In 2007, the demand for separate state was once again was raised by Bimal Gurung, who broke off from Ghisingh's Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) and floated a new party, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. Repeated protests and agitations marked the next four years but as somebody witnessing it first-hand in the hills, it seemed more a result of the long-standing ethnic and linguistic factors than being politically motivated. Whenever there were strikes or protests, the locals came out in large numbers to support the tourists and help them back safely.

Students like me were guided by our teachers and we took to the streets distributing food to stranded tourists, addressing their queries and even providing shelter to many in the school dormitories, when required. It is these memories that make me refuse to believe that people in Darjeeling, as seen in recent reports, are violent and contemptuous towards tourists.

Darjeeling taught me to respect the "other", and to respect things that I may not associate myself with. As issues such as beef bans and religious tensions gain prominence today, I am reminded of the many meals that students shared happily at the same table. My friends from Nepal loved pork, while those from Bangladesh preferred beef. I was happy with my chicken drumsticks and just around the corner would be vegetarians who were content with paneer.

Seven days a week  all through the course of our schooling in  we shared meals together, without one offending the other, or the other being offended by another.

One may argue that we were too young at that time to understand or voice opinions on these complex issues, but such habits of mutual respect are inculcated in the lives of almost everybody who grows up in Darjeeling. Imposing Bengali and making it compulsory was thus bound to displease the Nepali-speaking hill communities.

People in Darjeeling are, as they should be, proud of their heritage and culture. They are only as protective about it as their counterparts in the rest of Bengal but the violence that has come to surface does more harm to the ethereal image of Darjeeling than good.
The Trump administration has said that if the Indian side raises the contentious H-1B visa issue during President Donald Trump's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Americans were ready to respond.

On the (H-1B) visas issue, there's no plans for that to come up specifically, a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the Modi-Trump meeting at the White House on Monday.

But if raised by the Indian side, the Americans are ready for it, the official said.

But if it's raised, I would just note that the administration has signed some executive orders related to work and immigration, and President Trump's executive order on H1-B visas of course directs the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Homeland Security to propose potential reforms to the H1B visa program, the official said.

However, there have been no immediate changes to visa application or issuance procedures, so the administration was not in a position to kind of prejudge what the outcome of the review might be, the official said.

So there's really been no changes as such at this point, and no specific changes that target any specific country or sector as of yet, said the senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

His remarks come amid growing concerns in India over the crackdown on H-1B visas, the most sought-after by Indian IT professionals.

Trump signed an executive order in April for tightening the rules of the H-1B visa programme to stop visa abuses.

Trump said his administration is going to enforce 'Hire American' rules that are designed to protect jobs and wages of workers in the US.

The executive order also called upon the Departments of Labour, Justice, Homeland Security, and the state to take action against fraud and abuse of the US' visa programmes.
The death toll in Friday's blasts targeting civilians and security personnel in Quetta and Parachinar areas of Pakistan has risen to 63, with nine people injured in the twin Parachinar blasts succumbing to their injuries overnight, local media reported.

More than 200 injured people are being treated in hospitals.

Most casualties happened in Parachinar  50 dead and about 200 wounded  because a second bomb attack was timed to target people rushing to help victims injured in a prior explosion, reports Dawn news.

Eyewitnesses in Parachinar said the first blast, which took place in the busy Turi Market where people were shopping for Eid, occurred minutes after an Al Quds Day rally had started dispersing at some distance from the blast site.

Muhammad Hussain, who sustained injuries in the incident, told Dawn that he was heading for his poultry shop after the conclusion of the Al Quds rally when the first blast took place. Another explosion shook the area soon after a large number of people rushed to the site to help the injured.

"I lost consciousness after the second blast and later found myself on a hospital bed," Hussain said.

The medical superintendent of Parachinar's district headquarters hospital, Sabir Hussain, said that army choppers airlifted 11 seriously injured people to Peshawar. He said some bodies might also have been taken away from the blast site.

The town, which has been caught in the crosshairs of militants for the past several years, was virtually cut off as communication links were broken soon after the incident.

"Better ask the hospital about death toll as we are dealing with a security situation," a political administration official told Dawn when approached for comment.

While no group claimed responsibility for the twin attacks in Parachinar, two outfits said they had carried out the suicide car bomb blast in Quetta  Jamaatul Ahrar, a splinter group of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, and, according to the SITI intelligence group, the Islamic State group.

The attack left seven policemen and a leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Nazaryati) dead, as well as 24 others injured.

The bombing took place in front of the Balochistan police inspector general's office at Shuhada Chowk.

Sources said that law enforcement agencies had received a threat alert over the possibility of such an attack.

Provincial government spokesperson Anwar-ul Haq Kakar said it was likely that the attacker wanted to target the IGP's office. However, the IGP was not in his office when the bomb went off, a constable said.

There are several important government offices in the vicinity of Shuhada Chowk, including the State Bank of Pakistan, the Army's China check post, the entry to the Quetta Cantonment and the residence of the provincial home minister.

A vehicle carrying army personnel was damaged in the blast, and a captain and three soldiers were injured.
The last days of the Newfie Pride

There were many nights he didnt sleep. The numbers and scenarios turned over and over in his mind, making rest impossible. Id get up two, three oclock in the morning, night after night, come out to the kitchen table and work the numbers every ...
By Press Trust of India: terror

By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jun 24 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modis Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar here.

Secretary Tillerson met with Foreign Secretary Jaishankar yesterday to discuss the US-India relationship and the agenda for Prime Minister Modis meetings at the White House on June 26, a State Department spokesman said told PTI.

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"The Secretary noted the Prime Ministers visit will strengthen ties between the United States and India and advance our common interest in fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth and prosperity, and expanding security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region," the spokesperson said.

The two agreed that the two countries have a deep and growing strategic partnership and hope to work more closely on regional and global issues, the official said in response to a question.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department.

Jaishankar, a former Indian ambassador to the US, has been playing a leading role in shaping the India-US relationship under the Modi government.

Modis US visit would begin on June 25.

Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

Ahead of his visit, Modi yesterday said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he tweeted.

In a statement posted on the Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.

"President Trump and I have spoken on telephone prior to this. Our conversations have touched upon our common intent to take forward our productive all round engagement for the mutual benefit of our people," he said.

"I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide ranging partnership between India and the United States," the prime minister said.

He noted that Indias partnership with the US is multi- layered and diverse, supported by not just governments but all the stakeholders on both sides. "I look forward to building a forward-looking vision for our partnership with the new Administration in the United States under President Trump," he added.

Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.

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Like in the past, he will also be interacting with the Indian diaspora. PTI LKJ ASK ASK

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But the tribe has a long way to go
The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) has recommended holding the session from July 17 to August 11.

By Press Trust of India: The month-long monsoon session of Parliament will commence on July 17 and conclude on August 11.

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) has recommended holding the session from July 17 to August 11, according to sources in the committee.

The CCPA meeting, chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, was held in the evening yesterday after NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind filed his nomination papers.

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The House may not function on the first day of the session on account of death of two sitting MPs- Lok Sabha member Vinod Khanna and Rajya Sabha member Pallavi Reddy.

Notably, voting for the presidential election will also take place on July 17.

Also Read:

Ram Nath Kovind files nomination for presidential election, PM Modi leads NDA's show of strength

Parliament's special midnight session for GST: PM Modi to share stage with Manmohan Singh, Deve Gowda

Also Watch:

Ram Nath Kovind for president: BJP's Dalit card to spook Opposition a masterstroke?

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As part of its capital allocation policy, Infosys has identified an amount of upto Rs 13,000 crore to be paid out to its shareholders during fiscal year 2018. Experts say such a move is aimed at keeping its shareholders happy and at peace so that they do not time and again question the management for different issues.

Some experts point out that though Infosys had announced that its internal audit committee found no evidence of a whistle blower's allegations of improprieties related to the Panaya acquisition deal, it does not mean that the deal was clean and brought value to the company.

Despite the clean chit given by the internal audit committee of Infosys to the Panaya deal, I feel that there is still something fishy about the deal. Why did the company initially agree to pay such a high severance package to the former chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal who was against the deal? Moreover, a loss making company was taken over at a time when the IT industry is having a tough time. The shareholders will time and again question such deals and Infosys wants to keep them pacified hence it has identified an amount of Rs 13,000 crore to be paid to them this fiscal, said Alok Shende of Ascentius Consulting, Mumbai.

He further points out that Vishal Sikka as the head of such a large IT company has not exuded the level of maturity when it came to dealing with such a situation. The whole Panaya issue and other issues confronting the company should have been handled with much higher levels of maturity by Sikka. I feel he has not lived up to the expectations. He was hired to take Infosys to greater levels and to achieve the USD 20 billion mark but nothing much has been talked about it in the recent times, added Shende.

On the other hand, experts such as Kris Lakshmikanth of Head Hunters India Limited say that just a clean chit to Infosys on the Panaya deal does not mean that the deal has turned out to be valuable for the company. Valuation is a very tricky thing and the audit committee may have given a clean chit to Infosys, but we are not seeing much value coming out of the deal. The company as such was bleeding and the whole idea of acquiring it was wrong. In the future, Infosys will be doubly careful about acquiring any new company, said Lakshmikanth. He further says that there is nothing unusual about the visa issues and the settlement by Infosys as many Indian IT companies are dealing with such issues in the US and elsewhere.

The company during its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Bengaluru announced that around 11,000 employees were released during the last fiscal due to automation and that they were increasingly on the path of bringing in further automation. R. Seshasayee, chairman of the board of Infosys, announced that he will retire in May 2018 and this was his last AGM. He also said his succession will be a smooth transition.

During the AGM, many shareholders expressed their concerns about Infosys getting negative publicity in the media on a regular basis especially during the last one year. They said that this was not the case during the time of its founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.
Global software major Infosys Ltd paid $1 million (Rs 65 lakh) to settle a litigation on the alleged abuse of visa rules, said New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman on Friday.

"Infosys has agreed for a $1 million settlement for failing to follow US visa requirements for foreign workers and placing them in New York jobs without paying prevailing wages and taxes owned on them," said Schneiderman in a statement from New York.

In response, the IT major said the settlement related to legal issues was already resolved under the 2013 settlement with the US Department of Justice and was reached by both parties to avoid protracted litigation.

"The agreement concludes the State of New York's investigation relating to the amount of taxes the company paid in 2010-2011 without any criminal or civil charges being filed. While this investigation centred on alleged paperwork errors, we committed no wrongdoing and deny all allegations made in this regard," said the company.

Infosys also asserted that it maintained robust policies and procedures to ensure adherence with all applicable regulations and laws.

"We will continue to focus on boosting American innovation, hiring American workers and better serving our valued customers across the US," it added.

Schneiderman, however, clarified that the settlement resolved a whistleblower's claims that Infosys brought foreign IT personnel into New York to perform work in violation of the terms of their visas.

Infosys has a significant presence in New York State and provides consulting and outsourcing services to many New York-based clients in the financial sector, among other industries.

To perform the services offered by it, its foreign workers needed H1-B visas. But to avoid the difficulty and expense of obtaining such visas, the company knowingly and unlawfully obtained temporary visitor visas (B-1 visas) instead, as they are much easier to secure.

"We will not permit companies to violate our laws in order to undercut New York workers. My office is committed to ensuring that our state's labour marketplace is fair, competitive and transparent for all," said Schneiderman.

"As B-1 visas apply only to visits, its holders are not permitted to perform work of the kind Infosys workers were sent to New York to do and they are not subject to the H1-B prevailing wage requirements," he said.

Infosys workers using B-1 visas were doing work that would otherwise have been performed by US citizens or H1-B visa holders and were paid less than what comparable US workers or H1-B visa holders would have been paid in the same positions.

"Consequently, New York was deprived of taxes that should have been paid on the higher wages that Infosys avoided by its misconduct. The settlement includes a recovery to the State for tax damages and applicable New York False Claims Act damages and penalties," he said.

The AG's investigation also found that Infosys provided instructions to its employees on B-1 visas on how to deceive US consular officials and/or customs and border protection officers.

"This conduct included creation of a 'do's and don'ts' memorandum that was provided to Infosys employees entering the US and that explicitly instructed them to avoid talking about the work they were doing," he added.

The settlement is the latest tax-related recovery resulting from an action filed under the New York False Claims Act.
Benchmark equity indices were under pressure on Friday, with both Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex and the NSE Nifty closing about 0.5 per cent lower, as investors remained cautious after the markets hit fresh high earlier this week, and uncertainty prevailed as we head towards the launch of the Goods and Services Tax from July 1. Some profit booking ahead of the long weekend was also seen.

The Sensex was down near 153 points or 0.5 per cent to close at 31,138.21 points and the wider Nifty50 index declined 0.6 per cent or 55 points to 9,574.95 level.

For the week, trends were mixed; Sensex rose 0.3 per cent, but the Nifty 50 fell 0.1 per cent.

The Sensex hit a lifetime high of 31,522.87 on Thursday.

There was selling pressure as we head into a long weekend...There is also the F&O (futures and options contracts) expiry in the short week ahead, so investors didn't want to take fresh positions now, said Sageraj Bariya, vice president at East India Securities.

The weak trend was also visible in markets overseas. While, Hong Kong Hang Seng and Singapore's Straits Times ended slightly lower, Japan's Nikkei and Korea's Kospi saw little gains. European markets also traded mixed.

Back home on Friday, auto stocks were among the major losers; while Hero MotoCorp and Tata Motors skidded around 2 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra fell 1.5 per cent and Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto were down close to 1 per cent.

Automobile wholesales are likely to be impacted in June as dealers are not stocking up in the wake of the GST rollout from July 1. Many car makers have in fact offered huge discounts and promotions to attract customers ahead of the GST rollout.

Some banking stocks were also under pressure on Friday with State Bank of India down about 2 per cent and HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank declining around 1.1 per cent. ICICI Bank, however, bucked the trend and ended 0.7 per cent higher.

Elsewhere, Electrosteel Steels tumbled 6 per cent after a consortium of lenders agreed to refer the company to the National Company Law Tribunal under the insolvency and bankruptcy code.

Bhushan Steel, which has also been refered to the NCLT, also slumped close to 10 per cent, although it recovered to close in the green.

The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday expanded the oversight committee that was formed to advice banks on the resolution of bad loans by adding three more members to the existing two. YM Deosthalee, the chairman of L&T Finance Holdings, MBN Rao, former chairman of state-run Canara Bank and S Raman, wholetime member at Securities and Exchange Board of India are the new members.

While the recent steps taken to reduce the NPA problems of banks is largely positive, addressing the issues is going to take a long time and banks may also have to take a hair cut in some of the cases, so there is some concern, said an analyst at a domestic brokerage.

Meanwhile, in another major development, the joint lenders forum led by State Bank of India and ICICI Bank approved the Rs 86,000 crore sale of Essar Oil to Rosneft. This will be the largest foreign direct investment into India. On Thursday, Igor Sechin, CEO of the Russia's largest oil producers had told shareholders that the deal could now be considered closed.
Karnataka's crop loan waiver smacks of tokenism

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's announcement of a crop loan waiver in an election year was a good political move. The government order on loan waiver issued on Saturday has many riders. The loan waiver of Rs 50,000 per farmer (which costs the exchequer Rs 8,165 crore) is unlikely to bail out the distressed farmers caught in the vicious cycle of drought, crop loss, price crash and the burden of growing debts leading to suicides. The suicide toll of farmers in the state in the last three years has crossed 3,000.

A closer look at the populist announcement tells you the waiver is only on short-term crop loans availed through the cooperative banks, which amounts to Rs 10,736 crore. This was expected to benefit nearly 23 lakh farmers. To begin with, only 16.9 lakh farmers will benefit from the waiver as it is restricted to loan amounts up to Rs 50,000. For loans exceeding Rs 50,000, the waiver will be applicable only if the beneficiary repays the remaining amount within the stipulated time. More than 33 lakh farmers will be deprived of any relief as the waiver does not apply to loans availed from nationalized and commercial banks (which amounts to Rs 42,000 crore). The benefit is not applicable to medium and long-term loans and non-agriculture loans availed under various schemes.

In the drought-hit state, the government has so far distributed the central funds of Rs 1,459 crore to 2.19 million farmers as compensation for crop loss as there was no sowing after 167 taluks were declared as drought-hit this year. While the opposition is demanding for compensation of Rs 25,000 per acre, the farmers who have neither received compensation nor paid-up crop loan are struggling to raise credit as the sowing season has already started.

During the recently concluded legislature session, the members of both ruling and the opposition parties had stressed the need to enhance and redesign the loan schemes for farmers in the wake of the deepening agrarian crisis, including writing off of loans availed from nationalised and commercial banks. However, the Siddaramaiah government has done little to mitigate the crisis.

The farm loan schemes and the waiver are both seriously inadequate. But the Siddaramaiah government's announcements increasing the compensation for families of farmers who committed suicide from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, widow pension of Rs 2,000 and compensation for the death of an uninsured cattle expose the politics of tokenism.

Panel to look into bill to rein in private hospitals

An amendment bill to regulate the pricing for medical treatment in private hospitals, which was tabled in the assembly, was referred to a joint house committee, following opposition by private doctors and hospitals.

The Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (Amendment) Bill, 2017 that advocates price prescriptions for treatment and punitive action for violations, was tabled by Health Minister K.R. Ramesh Kumar, but was not passed in the house. The committee is expected to come up with recommendations within four to five weeks.

The bill envisages setting up of an expert committee to classify private medical establishments and recommend the state government to fix the cost of treatment for different medical servicespackage rates for investigation, bed charges, operation theatre procedures, intensive care, ventilation, implants, consultation and any additional treatments. It also prohibits imposing additional charges over and above the rates fixed by the government unless explained to and consented to by the patient. The bill has made erring doctors or hospitals liable to pay a penalty of not less than Rs 25,000 and up to Rs 5 lakh and imprisonment not less than six months and up to three years.

Terming the bill as draconian, the private hospitals association and Indian Medical Association have raised objections to the government hospitals being kept out of the purview of the legislation. The contention is that the bill has set aside the recommendation of the Justice Vikramajit Sen committee appointed in last July to regulate the healthcare system in the state. The committee had said that there couldn't be two sets of rules for private and government hospitals.

Justifying the bill, the minister said that it was to protect the interests of the patients. As a public representative, I represent the interests of the people. What use is with the assembly or the government if we cannot keep the interests of the common man in mind?, asked Kumar.

Overpricing in private hospitals is common menace. A stent costing Rs 50,000 is charged Rs 2 lakh. The situation is so grave that the insurance companies have blacklisted 337 hospitals for inflating bills, the minister told the assembly.

Meanwhile, the doctors contend that healthcare in Karnataka is the best because of the private sector. Healthcare entrepreneurs have invested their money to set up quality hospitals. What moral right does the government have to regulate the private sector, when its own hospitals have failed to deliver?, asked BJP MLA Dr C.N. Ashwathnarayana, who is also the member of the joint house panel.

IT city finally makes it to smart city list

Bengaluru finally made it to the list of Smart Cities, and is among the 10 state capitals selected by the Centre to be developed as smart cities. A hundred cities are up for selection under the mission to redevelop cities and till date 90 have been chosen. Bengaluru, which has earned disrepute for its poor infrastructure, garbage crisis, frothing lakes and notorious traffic, managed to turn lucky the fourth time, after it focused on a sound proposal on area-based development projects.

The projects will be operational across 17 wards in core area (21.8 sqkm) in the city which will witness 10 interventions including road development under Tender SURE model, integrated mobility for vibrant destinations (Shivajinagar Bus Station, Russell Market and Kempegowda Bus Station), redevelopment of historical and economic centres (KR Market and Malleswaram market), innovation of downstream clean-up of drainage system (Ulsoor Lake and Sankey Tank), protection and redevelopment of centrally located parkland (Cubbon Park), increasing affordable housing stock through slum redevelopment (Swathantra Palya, Gandhinagar) and retrofitting of a healthcare facility (KC General Hospital, Malleswaram).

This time, the application was jointly made by the BBMP and Jana Urban Space Foundation. The BBMP proposed Rs 1,700 crore for the projects. Of this, Rs 500 crore will be sanctioned by the ministry of urban development and the remaining Rs 1,200 crore will be borne by the state government.

CM's debut in film

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will debut in an upcoming bilingual (Kannada and English) children's film Summer Holidays, being directed by Kavitha Lankesh. Siddaramaiah will play the role of a chief minister in the movie too. It will be a 30-second role in the movie. Siddaramaiah is said to have accepted the role as he has a long association with the director's family. In the sequence to be shot in a forest, tribal children approach the CM seeking his help. In the past, chief ministers who have acted in the movies include Ramakrishna Hegde (Marana Mrudanga), J.H. Patel (Avasthe), H.D. Kumaraswamy (Ee Preeti yeke Bhoomi melide) and D. V. Sadananda Gowda (Chella Pilli).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Portugal, the first stop of his three-nation tour, on Saturday morning. Modi will be visiting Portugal today, the US on June 25 and 26, and the Netherlands on June 27.

Yesterday, the prime minister had stated that he intended to strengthen ties with all the three nations during the visit. "My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world... My visit to Netherlands seeks to boost bilateral ties and deepen economic cooperation," he said.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said he is expecting a very robust discussion to take place between US President Donald Trump and Modi during the latter's visit.

It will be the prime minister's first meeting with President Trump, whose presidency began on January 20. The two leaders have spoken over phone at least thrice since the latter assumed office.
The Election Commission of India on Saturday debarred Madhya Pradesh Public Relations and Water Resources Minister Narottam Mishra, considered to be the man Friday of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh, from contesting polls for three years.

Mishra, who is also the spokesperson of the state cabinet, was disqualified by the EC for corrupt practices and paid news during the 2008 assembly polls.

The EC's decision came eight years after the complaint was first lodged by Congress candidate Rajendra Bharti. In its 69 page order issued in New Delhi, the Commission reprimanded Mishra for adopting delay tactics by going to High Court and Supreme Court.

The EC in its order held Mishra guilty of paid news and expenses above the permitted limit. The commission also held him responsible for corrupt practices.

Congress has demanded the resignation of the minister after the order, but the unfazed Mishra said, There is no evidence of corrupt practices and paid news. I was not heard properly. My lawyer is studying the order and we will respond soon.

The order is regarding the 2008 elections and I have already won in 2013, which means that I have been acquitted in the court of public, he added.

The decision to debar a minister has come as a jolt to the already fledgling government of Shivraj Singh. Mishra is considered a troubleshooter and very close to the chief minister.

State Congress president Arun Yadav, who demanded Mishra's resignation, said Now, the secret is out about how the BJP won elections in the past in Madhya Pradesh.
Assuaging farmers' anguish

Shiv Sena is leaving no stone unturned to corner BJP. On the issue of farm loan waiver, it played the role of opposition very effectively. Shiv Sena activists were busy appealing to farmers to participate in the strike to put pressure on the government during the recent agitation by farmers.

Now Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray has instructed party councillors, party legislators, ministers and members of parliament to donate one month salary for the benefit of farmers affected by the agrarian crisis. Senior Shiv Sena leader and Transport Minister Divakar Raote informed Uddhav Thackeray that he would personally contribute Rs 10 lakh to this fund.

Sena knows very well that if BJP leadership does not ask its elected representatives to do the same, it is bound to find itself in an embarrassing position as the ruling party has already earned much negative publicity during farmers agitation.





Vikhe Patil's grand gesture

Speaking of agrarian crisis, leader of opposition in the legislative assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil recently stunned politicians, including his own party men, in the state. Vikhe Patil announced the decision to adopt families of 208 farmers who had committed suicide since the BJP-Sena came to power in Maharashtra in 2014. Vikhe Patil is a preeminent sugar baron and controls Pravara cooperative empire in Ahmednagar district. Pravar group runs sugar mills, cooperative dairy and a number of educational institutions, and it is managed by Vikhe Patil's son Suyash, who is a highly qualified doctor.

Vikhe Patil has decided that each child in the family of the 208 farmers will be educated at their education institutions free of cost. They will also clear pending loans of these families if the government has failed to do so, in addition, one family member each will be given a job best suitable to his or her ability in Pravara Cooperative. Vikhe Patil baiters, however, say all this is being done so that Dr Suyash is able get a firm foothold in Maharashtra politics when he contests elections in 2019.



Jog memorial award revived

Late Deepak Jog was one of the best IPS officers that the state has seen. He died young and in uniform. Jog, son of former Maharashtra DGP Suryakant Jog, belonged to the 1985 batch, and was deputy commissioner of police (crime) when he suffered a massive heart attack in 1996. After Jog's death, he was succeeded by Datta Padsalgikar as DCP (crime). Padsalgikar is now Mumbai's commissioner of police. Jog's father, late Suryakant Jog, had instituted an award for best crime detection in Mumbai in memory of his son. The last time this award was given was when Mumbai crime branch solved the J. Dey murder case. After that, this practice was stopped as it was seen as the award had been instituted by a retired DGP in memory of his IPS officer son and funds were coming from the Jog family.

Padsalgikar, who has fond memories of being Jog's colleague, has now revived the annual practice. This year's Deepak Jog memorial award for best crime detection went to J.J. Marg police station for solving the case of murder of a five-year-old girl who had been kidnapped by two persons known to her family.







Rane, Uddhav share dais

Shiv Sainik-turned-Congressman and former chief minister Narayan Rane shared the dais with Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray after 12 long years. When he quit the Sena, a bitter Rane had launched a venomous attack on Uddhav Thackeray's leadership. Since then, the two had not spoken to each other.

Both of them came together on stage for the bhoomipoojan (ground breaking ceremony) of the four-laning of Mumbai-Goa national highway undertaken by Nitin Gadkari's ministry. The event took place in Sindhudurg district. Narayan Rane and his son Nitesh, both local legislators, were invited for the event as per protocol. It is learnt that Rane's men had put up posters across the district to welcome Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.

Interestingly, none of these posters had any mention of Congress. While he praised the CM and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the interaction between Uddhav and Rane was merely formal.
Amid massive outrage over misuse of privilege by Karnataka legislators, Bengaluru police on Saturday arrived in Dharwad to arrest Ravi Belagere, editor of Kannada tabloid 'Hai Bangalore', charged with breach of privilege.

Last Wednesday, in an unprecedented move, Karnataka assembly Speaker K.B. Koliwad sentenced two journalists of Kannada tabloidsRavi Belagere of 'Hai Bangalore' and Anil Raju of 'Yelahanka Voice'to a year in jail for breach of privilege by writing defamatory articles against legislators including Koliwad. Apart from the jail term, the speaker also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of them, failing which the jail term would be extended by another six months.

Belagere, who is under observation at SDM hospital in Dharwad, said the police had arrived at his farm house in Joida in Uttara Kannada to arrest him. But as he suffered from uneasiness and chest pain, he was admitted to the hospital. I will fight back and appeal before the High Court and the Supreme Court, told Belagere, who has applied for an anticipatory bail.

Interestingly, the controversial article against Koliwad was published back in September 2014 in 'Hai Bangalore', and Koliwad, who was only an MLA, along with B.M. Nagaraj and S.R. Vishwanath had complained to then speaker Kagodu Thimmappa, who referred the matter to a committee chaired by former minister Kimmane Ratnakar.

The assembly recently passed a resolution on breach of privilege against the journalists based on the recommendation made by the committee.

The imprisonment of journalists for alleged breach of privilege is unheard of, as the House has always upheld freedom of the press, said senior members of the assembly. Many recalled that journalists were let off with an admonition. However, the current dispensation trying to rein in the media, first by setting up a panel to tame the media (though legislators backed out of the panel) and now by attempting to jail the editors, has created a furore in both political and media circles in Bengaluru and caught global attention too.
The Army wants state of the art assault rifles that remain relevant for the next 25-30 years. It also wants that the rifle should be capable of providing the desired performance across all spectrum of employment in the Indian terrain and climatic conditions. Ironically, it has to look at foreign sources for this rifle to use back home. Why? Because so far, the Army is unhappy with the desi version, which it feels isn't yet ready to bite the bullet  the reasons for which are many.

Presently, the Army uses the indigenous INSAS rifle which it feels has outlived its utility.

It may be noted that the Army had been using 7.62 (7.62x51) mm calibre earlier. In the 1990s, it suddenly adopted the 5.56 mm, which was the NATO standard, saying that was more suitable, without realising that NATO had not used them in counter-insurgency. So the DRDO developed the 5.56 INSAS.

It took the Army nearly one and a half decades to realise its folly. Now it wants to go back to 7.62 mm

Incidentally, in an age when technology is driving the world, it's proving to be a tough task for the armed forces to find its ideal assault rifle that has to be sent to the Infantry school at Mhow for testing.

Official sources said that the 7.62 mm assault rifle, developed by the Rifle Factory at Ichapore, did not perform up to the mark during the demonstrative firing between June 13 and 14.

Overall, the weapon prototype in its present form leaves much to be desired, is unsatisfactory and requires comprehensive design analysis, said an official.

What insiders also agree is that the time from which the rifle is developed to its testing and even beyond, the requirements of the forces also keep growing and changing at every stage which makes it difficult for the weapon to perform when it comes to the testing table. The easy option is to get a foreign vendor  a challenge for Make in India and the armed forces for now.

What went wrong

1. Excessive number of faults and stoppages to the extent of more than 25 times the maximum permissible standards were observed in the prototype

2. Complete redesigning of magazine is required for effective feeding mechanism

3. One of the rifles suffered barrel bulge raising concern over the safety mechanism

4. Excessive flash and sound signature were observed as compared to desired levels

5. Compatible sighting system is essential for employment or even evaluation of the weapon for various parameters like effective range and accuracy

What the Army wants

1. Effective range: minimum 500 meters

2. Lethality  ranges up to minimum 500 meters in terms of wound profile, energy transferred and penetration

3. Accuracy  the rifle should be capable of achieving accuracy better than three minutes of angle up to a range of minimum 500 meters

4. Reliability  the rifle should be reliable in its operation as per international standards for reliability and withstand sustained fire

5. Weight  the rifle should be as lightweight as possible
Saudi security forces foiled a terror plot targeting the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, exchanging gunfire with one of the suspects who blew himself up inside a home, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said.

Five people, including a woman, were arrested yesterday in security operations in Mecca, the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news website said, citing the security spokesman of the Saudi Interior Ministry, Mansour al-Turki.

The Interior Ministry said an attack on the mosque was being planned by three terrorist groups, two based in Mecca and a third in Jeddah.

Al-Arabiya said a suicide bomber hiding in a house in the Ajyad al-Masafi neighbourhood of Mecca opened fire on security forces and later blew himself up. Five security force members and six other people were injured, the report said.

The Grand Mosque houses Islam's holiest site, the cube-shaped Kaaba that Islam's followers pray toward five times a day.

The United Arab Emirates has strongly condemned the terror crime.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in a statement, condemned the crime in the strongest words, and said the heinous crime shows the level to which the brutality of these terrorists has reached.

"No sane person can give any justification or explanation for such a crime," the statement said.
By Press Trust of India: Nagpur, June 23 (PTI) Nagpur police today set up a `green corridor for speedy transportation of a harvested liver from the Orange City Hospital and the airport.

For the first time such a corridor was created in the city, police said.

The ambulance taking the liver to the airport covered the distance in four minutes, said the joint commissioner of police Shivaji Bodhke.

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Director of Orange City Hospital Dr Anup Marar said that relatives of city resident Vinayak Ramrao Deshkar (67) showed willingness to donate his kidneys, eyes and other organs after he was declared brain-dead following a stroke.

Organ retrieval surgery began at around 9.30 am.

Air traffic control in Mumbai, in the meanwhile, informed that weather conditions in Mumbai were poor, so the surgery was slowed down. It was completed after getting green signal from the air traffic control and pilot of the chartered aircraft which was to take the liver to Mumbai.

The patients kidneys, eyes and skin were donated to Nagpur-based hospitals/ institutions.

A team of Global Hospital in Mumbai harvested the patients liver.

A team of some 100 traffic cops led by ACP Jayesh Bhandarkar and inspector Sudhir Nandanwar ensured smooth transport of harvested organs. PTI CLS KRK

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For the first time in history, a BJP leader is set to move into Rashtrapati Bhavan. On June 19, the partys highest decision-making body, the parliamentary board, picked Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind as its candidate for the presidential election.

A mild-mannered, modest lawyer-turned politician, Kovind, 71, has been a dalit face of the BJP. Getting the numbers to elect Kovind as Indias 14th president will not be a problem, as several parties which are not part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance have extended their support. In 2002, the BJP government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee nominated missile man A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for the post, as it did not have the requisite numbers to get a party member elected.

By nominating Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah have sent a strong signal to the marginalised, who have been gravitating to the party in recent years. The decision has also hit the tenuous unity cobbled up by opposition parties. The non-NDA parties were pushing for an ideological contest in the presidential elections, as a way to take on the Modi government. But, opposing a dalit candidate will not be easy, as evident from initial statements by Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar and BSP leader Mayawati, both of whom have indicated that they are not opposed to Kovind.

After hindutva firebrand Yogi Adityanaths appointment as Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Kovinds nomination aims at stepping up the integration of dalits into the Hindu homogeneous mainstream. The RSS has put its energy and focus on accomplishing the task through its social inclusion programmes like Samajik Samrasta. There are those who also find significance in Kovinds first name being Ram Nath, which means Lord Ram. After Kovinds election, the Modi government would be credited with putting Ram on top, said a BJP leader.

Paraukhs pride: Jaswant Singh points to the location of the primary school in Paraukh, where he and Kovind studied together | PTI

Kovinds name was announced after some deft moves by Shah. First, a three-member panel, comprising Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu, was set up to engage with all political parties to build consensus. Shah even advanced the BJPs parliamentary board meeting by a day. On June 19, eleven members of the board sat around the horseshoe table in room number 40 of the party headquarters at 11 Ashoka Road. Rajnath could not attend, as he had fractured his leg a day earlier.

The members were briefed about the efforts made to reach out to opposition leaders. The names of probable candidates were also spelt out. Modi reportedly said he would not be able to spare any of his cabinet colleagues for the top job. Even we were not aware of Kovinds name till Shah mentioned it, said a member who took part in the meeting.

After the 40-minute meeting, members went to Shahs room, from where Modi called opposition party leaders and chief ministers, including Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh of the Congress, Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) and Naveen Patnaik of the Biju Janata Dal, apprising them of the BJPs choice and requesting their support.

Later, during a hurriedly called press conference, Shah made the decision public. He always worked for dalits and the downtrodden, said Shah. Modi, too, endorsed the decision. Kovind, a farmers son, comes from a humble background, he said. I am sure he will make an exceptional president and continue to be a strong voice for the poor, downtrodden and marginalised.

Villagers celebrate after Kovind was declared as the NDAs presidential candidate | PTI

The secrecy over choosing the presidential candidate was typical of Shah. Three weeks earlier, though, he had dropped a hint. It may not be any of the names being circulated in the media, Shah had said.

Some were dismissive of the BJPs presidential candidate. I have never heard his name, said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Congress leaders questioned Kovinds contribution to the dalit cause.

Three chief ministers, however, were quick to approve of the choice. Nitish acknowledged Kovinds dignified conduct as Bihar governor. Patnaik, who faces a resurgent BJP in Odisha, came out with a letter of support, as did Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. The BJPs recalcitrant partner Shiv Sena, too, announced its support within a day. It means Kovind will sail through the election.

Born on October 1, 1945, in Paraukh village near Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Ram Nath is the youngest of five sons. He also has two sisters. As his mother died when Kovind was young, his sisters practically raised him. His father, Maikulal, wore many hats: he was a farmer and priest, and even ran a grocery store. After Kovind became a Rajya Sabha member in 1994, he used the funds allocated to him under the local area development scheme to convert his ancestral house into a milan ghar (a rest house used for weddings), named after his father. He is a keen supporter of events and initiatives related to education and religion. His elder brother, Pyarelal, continues to run a grocery store in the village.

Kovind did his schooling in his village and neighbouring town before he moved to Kanpur. He attended D.A.V. College for his BCom and LLB. Even as he practised law, he began preparing for civil service exams. He cleared the exams in his third attempt, but dropped out, apparently because he was not allotted the service of his choice. In 1977, he met prime minister Morarji Desai, who appointed him as his executive assistant. Kovind has known Modi since 1977, when he was assisting Desai, said Prabhat Jha, MP.

Kovind also served as the Union governments counsel in the Delhi High Court from 1977 to 1979, and was its standing counsel in the Supreme Court from 1980 to 1993. He became advocate-on-record of the Supreme Court in 1978. His practice in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court lasted 16 years, till 1993.

Kovind is not a member of the RSS, but is known to be closely associated with its work. He joined the BJP in 1991, when he was 46 and Murli Manohar Joshi was party president. He soon got a ticket to contest from Ghatampur, a Lok Sabha seat reserved for dalits, but he lost the election. He also lost the assembly election from Bhognipur in 2007.

In 1994, Kalyan Singh, then leader of opposition in Uttar Pradesh, helped Kovind get elected to the Rajya Sabha. Kovind got his second term in 2000. In his 12-year tenure, he asked 283 questions. Interestingly, all but 12 questions were asked during his first term.

What made Modi and Shah pick Kovind was his performance as the partys Dalit Morcha president from 1998 to 2002. Before that, Kovind had been general secretary and president of Akhil Bharatiya Koli Samaj, an organisation devoted to the community to which he belongs. Traditionally, Kolis, also known as Koris, were weavers but with the invasion of machines, most of them have moved to other professions. In UP and Uttarakhand, the community is listed as scheduled caste, while in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, it belongs to the Other Backward Classes.

Among Kovinds political associates is Ramakant Dixit, an RSS activist. He used to visit shakhas often, said Dixit, who is now principal of Saraswati Gyan Mandir Inter College, which is known to be close to the RSS, in Azadnagar. When he was MP, we would help him with the list of Sangh activists who needed help from his MP quota, as telephones and gas connections were not easily available at that time.

P.N. Dixit, a friend who has known Kovind since 1994, told THE WEEK: He had rented our two-room house and was friendly with my elder brother A.N. Dixit, who retired as physics professor at Christ Church College, Kanpur. He used our house as his office and residence when he was MP. [When he completed his term], he did not have a car, so we used to send him ours. Last May, he invited me to Raj Bhawan in Patna, where he looked after us.

Kovind and his wife, Savita, have two children: Prashant Kumar and Swati. The couple, who were married on May 30, 1974, recently went to Mashobra in Himachal Pradesh to celebrate their 43rd wedding anniversary. During sightseeing, they wandered into the premises of the Retreat Building, the presidents summer palace. Kovind was denied entry, as he did not have the requisite permission to visit the palace.

Barely a month later, he seems all set to move into the majestic mansion in the heart of New Delhi. The Retreat Building, too, lies in wait.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold bilateral talks with US President Donald Trump on Monday. The talks between the two leaders could turn out to be clash between India First and America First ideas.

By Prabhash K Dutta: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official tour of the US begins tomorrow. US President Donald Trump will host him over dinner after a long day of talks on June 26. This is the first working dinner that Donald Trump will be hosting as the US President for any visiting foreign leader.

This visit of Prime Minister Modi has generated more curiosity than expectations for simple reasons that this is the first meeting of two leaders who are fiercely nationalist in their outlook and won elections on their own in their respective countries. Both are known to speak their minds and talk straight-forward even on the matters of diplomacy.

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Narendra Modi redefined secularism as India First in a complete break from his predecessors. Donald Trump gave the call for America First rejecting the idea of his predecessors that the US should do more for the world as large-hearted big brother.

ENTHUSIASM PRECEDES MODI'S VISIT

Before leaving for the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to social media to state that he was looking forward an in-depth exchange of views.

Narendra Modi's tweet said, "My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations and the world."

My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world. https://t.co/UaF6lbo1ga- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 23, 2017

Narendra Modi's post on Facebook said that his two-day visit to the US came in response to President Donald Trump's invitation. Modi also said that the two leaders share common concerns about the problems of the world.

Modi said, "President Trump and I have spoken on telephone prior to this. Our conversations have touched upon our common intent to take forward our productive all round engagement for the mutual benefit of our people."

Modi expressed his optimism saying, "I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide ranging partnership between India and the United States," adding, "I look forward to building a forward-looking vision for our partnership with the new Administration in the United States under President Trump ".

A LOT HAPPENED IN RUN UP TO MODI'S VISIT

Just two days ahead of Narendra Modi's departure for the US, Donald Trump administration announced to provide USD 7.5 million to help advance India's power grid. The US said that this would come as part of America's commitments to ensure access to affordable and reliable energy in both countries.

The US administration of Donald Trump is also believed to have cleared the sale of 22 Guardian drones to India. An official announcement is likely to be made during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit. This deal is estimated to be somewhere between USD 2-3 billion.

Earlier this week, US aircraft maker Lockheed Martin and Tata signed a pact to make F-16 fighter planes in India. This will bring the two countries further closer on defence cooperation.

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BUT THERE ARE POINTS OF FRICTION

Despite many commonalities that may guide the India-US relationship, there are many areas where PM Modi and President Trump may not be comfortable with each other.

H1B Visa is one issue that affects many aspiring Indians, who see their future in the United States particularly in the Silicon Valley.

Under his America First policy, Donald Trump is redrawing US immigration policies, including the H1B visa, which is big hit among the Indian software professionals. In fact, Indians are the biggest recipients of H1B visa followed by Chinese professionals.

Modi and Trump are likely to discuss the issue of curb on H1B visa. But, it seems that they might come out with a win-win formula as reports suggest that the number H1B visas for Indian IT professionals has not really reduced.

The US administration has tried to put a curb on H1B visas for students. Secondly, Donald Trump is said to be impressed with the fact that more than one-third of the start ups in the Silicon Valley have been started by the Indian or Indian American professionals, who have created huge employment opportunities in the United States.

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HATE CRIME AGAINST INDIANS

The issue of hate crime against Indians could also be a dampener during the meeting between the two leaders. The Narendra Modi government has shown extra sensitivities in handling Indians found in distress abroad.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has taken personal interest in so many cases where Indians living abroad faced difficulties. In the US, several incidents of hate crimes against Indians have been reported in past few months.

Many believe that Donald Trump's cry for America First has encouraged some elements in the US society to take it to the racist level. The government of India has raised those incidents with the US administration. Modi would definitely like Donald Trump to send a message to such elements in the US.

TIFF OVER CLIMATE CHANGE

Only a few weeks ago, Donald Trump accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to make profit out of Paris climate deal.

Pulling out of the climate accord, Donald Trump had said, "India makes its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries."

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India rejected the charge leveled by Donald Trump saying that the US President was wrong in his assessment.

Later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his message from Paris, said that protection of environment was 'an article of faith' for his government.

Trump may ask Modi to commit more towards cutting carbon emission while insisting that the US needs to secure its energy needs. This could be a point of bitter friction between the two leaders.

MAKE IN INDIA

While Trump has stated that he wants American companies to commit more investment in the US and create more jobs there employing local youths, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be pitching for Make In India during his meeting with the top CEOs of prominent American companies.

Among the top CEOs meeting Narendra Modi are Apple's Tim Cook, Walmart's Doug McMillon, Caterpillar's Jim Umpleby, Google's Sundar Pichai and Microsoft's Satya Nadella.

Modi will be addressing the Indian Diaspora at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, Virginia - a state that voted for Hillary Clinton in the fiercely contested US presidential election last year. Modi would be again making pitch for investment in India. Donald Trump may not like the idea.

However, Modi's public programme is not of the scale of his first visit when he addressed Indian Diaspora at the Madison Square in New York in September, 2014.

This is said to have been done as a measure not to offend Donald Trump, who is known for taking a swipe at the world leaders after having a bilateral meeting with them. Trump did it after his bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

THE COMMON THREAD

Despite contrasting interests, Modi and Trump may find themselves on the same page on various issues. Both leaders consider terrorism as common threat to the world peace. India and the US may see further strengthening of their cooperation against terrorism. Trump administration has stated in the past that Pakistan needed to do more in curbing terrorism from its soil.

China is another uniting factor for Narendra Modi and Donald Trump, who sees rising clout of Beijing contradictory to his America First vision. The US has been critical of China's growing influence in the Pacific region including the South China Sea.

India, on the other hand, is also concerned about China's out of the way backing of Pakistan. China has also made sure that India stays out of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The US under Donald Trump has maintained that it is committed to deepen civil nuclear cooperation with India.

Narendra Modi is also looking for greater investment from the US in India. Modi is expected to argue that more investment and fast economic progress of India is in the interests of the United States as many American think tanks have suggested that this would help counter Chinese influence in the region.

ALSO READ |

Narendra Modi leaves for 3-nation tour, will be first world leader to meet Donald Trump for White House dinner

This is what PM Modi has to say about his first meeting with President Trump

Ahead of Modi visit, US sees no threat to Pakistan from arms deal with India

China 'closely watching' Modi-Trump meet, sends warning on South China Sea

ALSO WATCH | PM Modi to visit United States on June 26, will discuss Indo-US ties with Trump

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Former U.S. President Barack Obama and his family arrived Friday on the resort island of Bali to begin a vacation in Indonesia, where he lived for several years as a child, officials said.

Obama, his wife and daughters Malia and Sasha arrived on a private jet at the military airport in the provincial capital, Denpasar, base commander Col. Wayan Superman said.

They then drove to a resort in Ubud, an arts and culture center amid hills and rice paddies where they will spend most of their vacation on Bali.

He said they were accompanied by Obamas half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and would also visit Yogyakarta, an ancient city on the main island of Java where his mother, Ann Dunham, did anthropological research.

Obama moved to Indonesia in 1967 at age 6 after his divorced mother remarried an Indonesian man. She stayed on after the marriage broke up, working as an anthropologist and development aid worker, but Obama returned to Hawaii when he was 10 to live with his grandparents.

Foreign ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo had invited Obama to take a holiday in the country after leaving office.

Jokowi also invited the Obamas to visit the Bogor Palace in West Java during their nine-day trip.

Local media reported that the Obamas would visit Borobudur, a 9th-century Buddhist temple complex located near Yogyakarta.

Obama is also scheduled to speak at an Indonesian Diaspora Congress in Jakarta on July 1.

(AP)
This August, the U.S. will experience its first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in 99 years.

Total solar eclipses occur every year or two or three, often in the middle of nowhere like the South Pacific or Antarctic. What makes this one so special  at least for Americans  is that it will cut diagonally across the entire United States.

The path of totality on Aug. 21  where day briefly becomes night  will pass over Oregon, continuing through the heartland all the way to Charleston, South Carolina. Those on the outskirts  all the way into Canada, Central America and even the upper part of South America  will be treated to a partial eclipse.

The last time a total solar eclipse swept the whole width of the U.S. was in 1918.

No tickets are required for this Monday matinee, just special eclipse glasses so you dont ruin your eyes.

Here are some eclipse tidbits as you get ready to feast your protected eyes on perhaps the greatest of all cosmic spectacles.



WHATS A TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE?

When the moon passes between Earth and the sun, and scores a bulls eye by completely blotting out the sunlight, thats a total solar eclipse. The moon casts a shadow on our planet. Dead center is where sky gazers get the full treatment. In this case, the total eclipse will last up to 2 minutes and 40 seconds in places. A partial eclipse will be visible along the periphery. Clouds could always spoil the view, though, so be ready to split for somewhere with clear skies, if necessary.



WHATS THE PATH ON AUG. 21?

The path of totality  meaning total darkness  will begin near Lincoln City, Oregon, as the lunar shadow makes its way into the U.S. This path will be 60 miles to 70 miles wide; the closer to the center, the longer the totality. Totality will cross from Oregon into Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and, finally, South Carolina. (It will also pass over tiny slivers of Montana and Iowa.) The eclipse will last longest near Carbondale, Illinois: approximately two minutes and 40 seconds. The biggest cities in the path include Nashville; Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina; Salem, Oregon; Casper, Wyoming; and just barely within, Kansas City, Missouri.



LAST TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSES IN U.S.?

Hawaii experienced a total solar eclipse in 1991. But the U.S. mainland hasnt seen a total solar eclipse since 1979, when it swooped across Oregon, Washington state, Idaho, Montana and North Dakota, then into Canada. Before that, in 1970, a total solar eclipse skirted the Atlantic coastline from Florida to Virginia. Totality  or total darkness  exceeded three minutes in 1970, longer than the one coming up. The countrys last total solar eclipse stretching from coast to coast, on June 8, 1918, came in over Oregon and Washington, and made a beeline for Florida.



WHENS THE NEXT ONE?

If you miss the Aug. 21 eclipse  or get bitten by the eclipse bug  youll have to wait seven years to see another one in the continental U.S. The very next total solar eclipse will be in 2019, but youll have to be below the equator for a glimpse. Were talking the South Pacific, and Chile and Argentina. Its pretty much the same in 2020. For the U.S., the next total solar eclipse will occur on April 8, 2024. The line of totality will cross from Texas, up through the Midwest, almost directly over Indianapolis, Cleveland and Buffalo, New York, up over New England and out over Maine and New Brunswick, Canada. Carbondale, Illinois, will be in the crosshairs once again.

(AP)
Authorities say a protester has been charged with assault after a fracas outside the rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for President Donald Trump.

Police say 22-year-old Anne Seifert was arrested after Wednesday evenings incident near the U.S. Cellular Center, where Trump later addressed supporters. A public phone listing for her couldnt be found Friday. Online court records dont list the name of an attorney who could comment for her.

Police say an officer saw Seifert throw an egg at a man and then punch and kick him. He had been filming the protesters and got into an argument with Seifert. Police say Seifert reported that she became upset because she thought the man had come across the street to provoke her and other protesters.

(AP)
The Supreme Court has almost certainly decided what to do about President Donald Trumps travel ban affecting citizens of six mostly Muslim countries.

The country is waiting for the court to make its decision public about the biggest legal controversy in the first five months of Trumps presidency. The issue has been tied up in the courts since Trumps original order in January sparked widespread protests just days after he took office.

The justices met Thursday morning for their last regularly scheduled private conference in June and probably took a vote about whether to let the Trump administration immediately enforce the ban and hear the administrations appeal of lower court rulings blocking the ban.

The courts decision could come any time and is expected no later than late next week, after which the justices will scatter for speeches, teaching gigs and vacations.

Exactly when could depend on whether there are justices who disagree with the outcome and want to say so publicly. It might take time for such an opinion to be written  and perhaps responded to by someone in the majority.

It takes five votes to reinstate the ban, but only four to set the case for argument. Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trumps nominee who was confirmed in April, is taking part in the highest-profile issue yet in his three months on the court.

The case is at the Supreme Court because two federal appellate courts have ruled against the Trump travel policy, which would impose a 90-day pause in travel from citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, said the ban was rooted in religious animus toward Muslims and pointed to Trumps campaign promise to impose a ban on Muslims entering the country as well as tweets and remarks he has made since becoming president.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the travel policy does not comply with federal immigration law, including a prohibition on nationality-based discrimination. That court also put a hold on separate aspects of the policy that would keep all refugees out of the United States for 120 days and cut by more than half, from 110,000 to 50,000, the cap on refugees in the current government spending year that ends Sept. 30.

Trumps first executive order on travel applied to travelers from the six countries as well as Iraq, and took effect immediately, causing chaos and panic at airports over the last weekend in January as the Homeland Security Department scrambled to figure out who the order covered and how it was to be implemented.

A federal judge blocked it eight days later, an order that was upheld by a 9th circuit panel. Rather than pursue an appeal, the administration said it would revise the policy.

In March, Trump issued a narrower order, but it too has been blocked.

The justices have a range of options. They could immediately allow the administration to stop travel from the six countries and hear arguments on the administrations broader appeal in October. Thats the path the administration has urged.

But the 90-day ban will have run its course by then, and there might be little left for the court to rule on.

The government has said the ban was needed to allow for an internal review of the screening procedures for visa applicants from the six countries.

That too should be complete before the Supreme Court reconvenes for its new term on October 2.

The administration also could issue a new ban that includes more countries or is permanent, or both. That might make the current case go away and also could give rise to new legal challenges.

The high court also might keep the ban on hold, but set the case for argument in October. This course might be palatable both to justices who object to the ban and those who dont like the breadth of the lower court rulings against the president.

But it also could mean that a new policy is in effect before the court ever hears the case.

The justices also could keep the ban from being reinstated and, at the same time, decline to review the lower court rulings. That outcome would essentially end the case.

One barrier to that option could be that the court usually likes to have the last word when a lower court strikes down a federal law or presidential action.

(AP)
President Donald Trump suggested he was just trying to keep fired FBI Director James Comey honest with his cryptic tweet implying there might be recordings of their private conversations.

Trump ended a month-long guessing game Thursday by tweeting that he never made and doesnt have recordings of his private conversations with Comey. In an interview that aired Friday on Fox & Friends, Trump said: When he found out that I, you know, that there may be tapes out there, whether its governmental tapes or anything else, and who knows, I think his story may have changed.

Asked if he was trying to keep Comey honest, Trump added: It wasnt very stupid, I can tell you that. He was  he did admit that what I said was right.

The tapes saga began in May, just days after Trump fired Comey, who then was leading an investigation into Trump associates ties to Russian officials. Trump has disputed Comeys version of a January dinner during which, according to Comey, the president asked for a pledge of loyalty.

Trump responded at that time, via Twitter, that Comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!

That initial Twitter missive triggered a series of consequences, each weightier than the last. Comey has suggested that the tweet prompted him to ask an associate to release damaging information to The New York Times. The resulting news reports built pressure on a top Justice Department official to appoint an independent prosecutor to oversee the Russia investigation. That special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, is now reportedly investigating Trumps own actions in a probe that could dog his presidency for the foreseeable future.

The president in his Fox News interview seemed to try to undermine Muellers impartiality, saying he is very, very good friends with Comey, which is bothersome.

Trump also did not say exactly what he thought had changed about Comeys story. The former FBI director has only offered his story publicly once, in testimony before the Senate intelligence committee, although his associates provided some details to the news media before that.

Comey testified that he had told the president in multiple conversations he was not personally under federal investigation and said the president implored him to make that public. Trump has seized on that statement as vindication, though the investigation continues, as do congressional inquiries.

Comey also testified that Trump asked him for loyalty  which Trump emphatically denies.

Trumps declaration now that there are no recordings appears to settle a key dynamic in that investigation: Its now the presidents word against Comeys notes.

Without recordings, Comeys version of his conversations with Trump  which he documented at the time, shared with close associates and testified about to Congress  will likely play a key role as prosecutors consider whether Trump inappropriately pressured the lawman to drop the investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Investigators will also weigh the credibility of Comey against a president who has shown a wobbly commitment to accuracy.

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway muddied the waters a little Friday morning when she told CNN that, while Trump answered definitively he has made no tapes, he left open the possibility that they may exist.

Trumps tweets, old and new, left many perplexed about whether there was motive or strategy behind the whole affair. The president appeared to enjoy ginning up mystery and spinning Washington reporters about the possibility there was a trove of surreptitiously recorded Oval Office conversations.

I think he was in his way instinctively trying to rattle Comey, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a longtime Trump confidant, said before the Thursday tweets. Hes not a professional politician. He doesnt come back and think about Nixon and Watergate. His instinct is: Ill out-bluff you.'

Thursdays revelation came a day ahead of a deadline to turn over any tapes to the House intelligence committee. The timing drew attention away from the release of the Senates health care bill, which the White House hopes can provide Trump a much-needed legislative victory.

But the episode tired Trumps defenders and aides, who for weeks have been dodging questions about the recordings. Advisers who speak to Trump regularly have said he had not mentioned the existence of tapes during their conversations. More than a half-dozen aides said they were unaware of any recording devices. All demanded anonymity to speak about private discussions with the president.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday she didnt think Trump regretted the initial tweet. She also could not explain Trumps new reference to possible surveillance.

Mark Warner of Virginia, top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said the tweeting is an example of Trumps willingness to just kind of make things up.

Its remarkable the president was so flippant to make his original tweet and then frankly stonewall the media and the country for weeks, Warner said. I dont know how this serves the countrys interests.

Trumps earlier suggestion about tapes evoked the secret White House recordings that led to Richard Nixons downfall in the Watergate scandal. Under a post-Watergate law, the Presidential Records Act, recordings made by presidents belong to the people and can eventually be made public. Destroying them would be a crime.

(AP)
(PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

As the 2017 New York State legislative season came to a close, leaders of Agudath Israels Government Affairs team visited the capitol to thank lawmakers for their efforts. This season saw significant accomplishments in aid to yeshivas and other nonpublic schools, as well as in other areas of importance to the broader Orthodox Jewish community.

The delegation was comprised of Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, Agudath Israels Vice President for Community Affairs, who has spent decades advocating in Albany; Leon Goldenberg, member of Agudath Israels Board of Trustees and host of the popular radio show Community Matters; together with the newest member of the team, Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, who joined the Agudah earlier this year as Director of New York Government Relations. Rabbi Silber has been in Albany for parts of almost every week of the legislative session, working on current issues and building new relationships.

The Agudah representatives met with Senate Majority Leader John J. Flanagan (R-2) and Senator Jeffrey D. Klein (IDC-34), leader of the Independent Democratic Conference, as well as Senators Martin Golden (R-22), Catherine Young (R-57), Kemp Hannon (R-6), Elaine Phillips (R-7), Terrence Murphy (R-40), Andrew Lanza (R-24), Jesse Hamilton (IDC-20), and Ruben Diaz (D-32). In the Assembly, the delegation had the opportunity to thank Assemblymembers Robert Carroll (D-44), Michael Cusick (D-63), Steve Cymbrowitz (D-45), Joseph Lentol (D-50), Walter Mosley (D-57), Francisco Moya (D-39), Felix Ortiz (D-51), Michael Simanowitz (D-27), Aravella Simotas (D-36) and David Weprin (D-24).

As in the past, Agudath Israels prime undertakings were in the area of education, which has been a focus of the organizations advocacy for decades. This year saw major accomplishments in the following areas:

Security: This was a major priority for Agudath Israel this session in Albany. The budget passed in April included a proposal championed by Governor Cuomo, which allocated an additional $25 million toward security for at-risk nonpublic schools, community centers and day care facilities. This new source of security funding follows the state more than tripling its annual allocation for nonpublic school security last year, in response to Agudath Israel advocacy, from $4.5 million to $15 million. This funding was reallocated again this year.

Smart Schools Bond Act (SSBA): The SSBA, a $2 billion commitment by New York State toward improving education for public schools, includes a provision for technology items to nonpublic schools. For over a year, Agudath Israel has been at the forefront of advocating that the funds allocated to nonpublic schools under the SSBA are wholly inadequate from a legal and equitable perspective. After multiple hearings at the Governors office and before the Senate on this topic, we were pleased to see the budget grant an additional $25 million toward certain technology equipment for nonpublic schools, of which yeshivas will receive a significant share. More significantly, the budget directs the SSBA Review Board to disapprove district plans not in accordance with the correct methodology

Comprehensive Attendance Policy (CAP): In another chapter in a decade-long saga, the state budgeted $60 million to repay the CAP debt to nonpublic schools. Comprehensive Attendance Policy (CAP) funding is one of most significant state sources of funding to yeshivas. Nearly a decade ago, Agudath Israel led the nonpublic school community in identifying a flaw in the funding formula, which resulted in an unjust shortfall of millions to nonpublic schools. Over the past two years, a whopping $250 million has flowed to nonpublic schools to repay that debt. Agudath Israel estimated the shortfall at $330.2 million dollars. In Albany this year, one of the organizations goals was to retain that final $80.2 million. With $310 of the total estimated $330.2 million paid or budgeted to be paid, the state is close to finally, and fully, closing this gap.

Immunization Reimbursement: Last year, Agudath Israel conducted a detailed survey of 63 schools to determine the correct reimbursement rate for nonpublic schools complying with the mandate to track immunizations. The current rate is pegged at 60 cents per child in NYC, Rochester and Buffalo, set in 1984 and never updated. The Agudath Israel survey revealed that nonpublic schools have been shorted $7.7 million dollars for immunization reimbursement; the correct reimbursement rate is nearly $30 per child. This year the legislature corrected this flaw by allocating $7 million in response to our pleas. This will be a recurring, well-deserved new funding stream to our mosdos.

The delegation found some receptive ears for aid to yeshivas and parents among the legislators. We respect and embrace those that want appropriate education for their children, declared Senate Majority Leader Flanagan. Many do not have the means but scrape and save and do everything conceivable to make sure their children have a really solid, faith- based education.

Added Senator Elaine Phillips, Every child deserves an A-plus education. It is not for New York State to decide for a parent whether to place their child in a public school or nonpublic school, religious or non-religious. While I support fully funding our public schools, we have families that are paying taxes, have chosen a private school education, and they deserve something as well.

In addition to education issues, Agudah played an important role in a bill allowing batei dinim flexibility to function on weekends, and was active in the fight to prevent a bill that would legalize physician assisted suicide.

This visit culminated a season of advocacy which saw numerous trips by the Agudah team to Albany, including a major mission in March.

Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Agudath Israels Executive Vice President commented,We have long since learned that, in advocacy, there is no substitute for developing personal and ongoing relationships with our elected officials. Agudath Israel constantly strives to enhance and broaden those relationships, and the results show.

The lawmakers clearly appreciated the Agudah visits. The fact that you are here so often truly makes a difference, said Senator Catherine Young. Its important that we dont lose focus on what we are doing. Your visits constantly remind us of that and I appreciate the sage wisdom I get from you, she concluded.

Senator Marty Golden echoed a similar sentiment. Your coming here gives us a sense that we dont lose who we are and our values, and that we never forget the people we represent.

While there were areas that were unfinished, such as tax credits for tuition paying parents and busing for special education, the accomplishments of this session were appreciated, and gives Agudath Israels Government Affairs team a renewed sense of vigor to come back again next legislative season and continue their advocacy.

(YWN Headquarters  NYC)
Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are seeking information about alleged political interference by former Attorney General Loretta Lynch into the FBIs investigation of Hillary Clintons use of a private email server.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa and other lawmakers are seeking details about communications in which Lynch reportedly assured Democratic operatives that she would keep the FBIs Clinton investigation from going too far. The senators cite news reports that an email sent by former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz indicated Lynch had privately assured a Clinton campaign staffer that the FBIs investigation wouldnt go too far.

The senators sent letters to Lynch, a former Clinton campaign staffer and two officials from a foundation supported by Democratic donor George Soros.

(AP)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today left for his three-nation tour that will see him visiting Portugal, the US and the Netherlands. On June 26, Modi will meet US President Donald Trump for a working dinner, becoming the first world leader Trump meets over a White House dinner.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Portugal, the first-leg of his three-nation tour in the morning today. Prime Minister Modi will also be visiting the US on June 25 and 26, and the Netherlands on June 27.

Modi on Friday said that he intends to strengthen ties with all the three nations. "My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world. My visit to Netherlands seeks to boost bilateral ties and deepen economic cooperation," the PM said.

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Modi, who will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington, said he looked forward to the opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views. In a statement posted on the Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington was at the invitation of Trump who would host Prime Minister Narendra Modi a working dinner at the White House on Monday.

"The White House is very interested in making this a special visit. We're really seeking to roll out the red carpet. In fact, the two (leaders) will have dinner, a working dinner at the White House. This will be the first dinner for a foreign dignitary at the White House under this administration. So, we think that's very significant," a senior administration official was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

India's Ambassador to the United States Navtej Sarna expressed hope that the upcoming three-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United States -- his first during the tenure of President Donald Trump -- will help both leaders to exchange views on subjects of interest to both countries, and thus result in a further strengthening of the bilateral relationship.

Very important visit by PM of India, as first meeting face to face with president Trump: Navtej Sarna, Indian Ambassador to the US to ANI- ANI (@ANI_news) June 24, 2017

MODI IN PORTUGAL In the first leg of the tour, Modi will pay a working visit to Portugal where he will have talks with Prime Minister Antonio Costa. "Building on our recent discussions, we will review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions," he said about his upcoming meeting with Costa. "We will also discuss ways to further enhance the bilateral engagement, especially in the areas of economic cooperation, science & technology, space collaboration and people to people ties," the prime minister added. He said the two leaders will deliberate on means to intensify the bilateral cooperation in counter-terrorism and on other international issues of mutual interest. "I also see significant potential for deepening bilateral trade and investment ties," he said. advertisement He will be interacting with the Indian Community in Portugal during the visit. PRIME MINISTER MODI IN US Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs. Like in the past, he will also be interacting with the Indian diaspora.

In a personalised email to his supporters in the US, Modi said that he would be holding talks with Trump on ways to boost the bilateral relationship between the two countries.

"I would be coming to Washington DC for a visit starting 24th June. During my visit I would be holding talks with President Trump on ways to boost India-USA ties," he wrote in the mail which was received by his supporters this afternoon.

"On 25th I would be addressing a community programme in Washington DC, where I look forward to interacting with you," the prime minister wrote in the mail which was sent to invitees of the community reception.

Ahead of his interaction with community leaders, who are coming to Washington DC from across the country, Modi sought ideas and inputs from the Indian Diaspora.

. "Before we meet in Washington DC, I want to hear from you," he wrote. "Share your ideas and inputs with me on the Narendra Modi Mobile App. I would refer to them during my speech at the community programme on 25th," he said advertisement NETHERLANDS VISIT After the US visit, Modi will travel to the Netherlands on June 27 where he will have an official meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and call on King Willem- Alexander and meet Queen Maxima. This year, the two countries are celebrating 70 years of the establishment of Indo-Dutch diplomatic relations. "I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Rutte and reviewing our bilateral relations. I would be exchanging views with PM Rutte on important global issues including counter- terrorism and climate change," he said. Economic relations form the core of the bilateral relations and the Netherlands is India's 6th largest trading partner in the EU and 5th largest investment partner globally. "The Dutch expertise in areas such as water and waste management, agriculture and food processing, renewable energy and ports and shipping, matches with our development needs," the prime minister said. "Indo-Dutch economic engagement is a win-win proposition," he said, adding he would be discussing with Rutte as to how the two sides should work to further harness the synergies. advertisement He said he will also be meeting with CEOs of major Dutch companies and encourage them to join the Indian growth story. "There are strong people-to-people relations between the two countries with the presence of second largest Indian diaspora in Europe in the Netherlands. I look forward to engaging with the Indian community in the Netherlands," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)

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MBABANE  Its been a long hard fought battle for women but finally there is light at the end of the tunnel for them.



Finally, they will get to be fully represented in Parliament as per the Constitution as government is working on a Bill that will make this possible.

Though still in its early stages, women already have reason to look forward to the upcoming elections.



The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) are currently engaging different stakeholders to discuss the proposed bill to be known as the Election of Women Members to the House of Assembly Bill of 2017.



marked



As part of their engagement, the acting Attorney General, Sifiso Khumalo, presented the Bill to stakeholders at Esibayeni Lodge in Matsapha on Thursday. This marked the start of the consultation exercise.

Since the adoption of the Constitution in 2005, women representation in Parliament has never reached the required 30 per cent of the total membership.



Section 86(2) of the Constitution explains that the House shall form itself into an electoral college and elect not more than four women on a regional basis to the House in accordance with the provisions of Section 95(3).

In the present Parliament, Mbabane East MP Esther Dlamini is the only elected woman in the House of Assembly.

However, there are other women in the House who were appointed.



These are Thuli Dladla, Princess Ncengencenge, Lindiwe Dlamini, Princess Tsandzile, Lindiwe Ngwenya, Jabulile Mashwama and Sibongile Simelane to name a few.

The objective of this Bill is to give effect to Section 86 of the Constitution in providing for the process and mode of nomination and election of the women members to the House of Assembly, the monitoring of elections and incidental matters.



welcomed



Gender Links Country Director Ncane Maziya welcomed the Bill, saying that it would be of great help, especially after the 2013 elections that saw the election of one woman.

She noted that the Bill would assist in implementing some of the election processes.
MBABANE  The going is getting tough for dismissed SPTC Head of Sales and Marketing Manager Charles Ndlovu.



The appeal chairperson, Sikhumbuzo Simelane has found nothing wrong with the Managing Director, Petros Dlamini, setting aside the decision to acquit and discharge Ndlovu and replacing it with a dismissal verdict.

The Industrial Court recently ordered the Swaziland Post and Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC) not to appoint Ndlovus replacement in the meantime.



He was dismissed after a disciplinary process, which was chaired by Muzi Simelane of MP Simelane Attorneys, who ruled in his favour but the decision was overturned by the MD.

He filed an appeal arguing that Dlamini committed an error by reviewing Simelanes (Muzi) ruling because he was acting in his (MD) place and stead.



Ndlovu was charged after confidential documents were leaked to the print media. Three charges were preferred against him. He was accused of gross dishonesty in that he denied that the documents were under his care, control and custody.

Ndlovu also faced a charge of negligence for failure to secure and or take adequate steps to ensure the documents belonging to the corporation were kept confidential and the failure to do so resulted in the leakage to the print media.

He was further charged with gross dereliction in that after the documents were leaked to the Times of Swaziland, he failed to take any steps to remedy and investigate the source of the leakage.



During his disciplinary hearing he pleaded not guilty to all counts and the chairman acquitted him on each one of them. The MD reviewed the findings and replaced the acquittal verdict with a dismissal and Ndlovu lodged an appeal.

In his appeal, Ndlovu, who was represented by Advocate Lucas Maziya at the instruction of MTM Ndlovu Attorneys, argued that the managing director committed a grave irregularity in reviewing the findings of the independent chairman which found him not guilty.



The advocate explained that the MD was at the time still part of SPTC and that the same employer had charged and disciplined Ndlovu. As a result, Advocate Maziya said Dlamini was incompetent to review the decision of the chairperson.

Further, it was for that reason that an independent chairperson was appointed. Since the chairperson reached a not guilty verdict, it was not for the managing director of SPTC to then review that decision and to issue a sanction of dismissal. By so doing, the managing director was then taking the position of being judge in his own cause of action, argued said.


MANZINI  At the age of four, no child should be left to look after himself and should never be left alone but one father did just that; for close to a month.



With the harsh cold winter days and nights, the boy survived through the mercy of neighbours who after seeing him sitting or playing alone outside the one-room flat would bathe and offer him some food.

In the evening, the boy would get into the flat his father shared with a friend and who at times would have his girlfriend over.



Inside the flat is divided by a make-shift curtain, which distinguishes each property.

There is no telling what the boy was exposed to if the fathers roommate enjoyed a heated moment with his partner, who has a two-year-old baby.

The room has one small window.



A few centimetres from the door, a small old mattress covered with an old blanket is seen.

This bed is shared by the boy and his father on days he would be around and according to neighbours, even this set was unacceptable.

The other bed, which is used by the fathers roommate, is obscured by the curtain.



At one corner is a makeshift cupboard, which has pots and other kitchen utensils.

Notably, the concrete slab floor has visible cracks and is covered with a small mat.

According to neighbours, the father neither left any money with his roommate to support his son nor did he leave food with anyone for him.



They said he would just disappear and sometimes come to check on him but disappear again after spending a few hours if not shorter.

Worse is that the flat is situated in the densely populated Logoba Township, a few kilometres from the Manzini city centre.



With temperatures dropping yesterday, neighbours decided that they had had enough as the Social Welfare Department was alerted of social ills and abuse the boy was being subjected to.

Social workers from Manzini arrived at the Mndzebele homestead to rescue the boy after being informed that he had been left alone for four consecutive days despite the harsh weather conditions.



The landlord, who identified herself as Make Mndzebele, said the boys father would sometimes leave his son with the friend whom he shared the flat with, in the one-room flat.

In the past month, he would leave child with the friend maybe for a day or two and this would happen frequently but we got worried when he disappeared for four straight days this week.

During the fathers absence, Mndzebele said her family gave the child some food and made sure he had clean clothes, adding that the fathers roommate also shared his plate with the boy but not on a daily basis as he also has his own family to feed.



She said what bothered them most was that the father had been taking good care of his son ever since he was dumped by the mother at the age of six months.

I do not know what has gotten in his head these days, she wondered as she further revealed that unlike some men, the father used to cook, bathe and even wash the boys nappies without a problem.

Mndzebele, who asked not to have her picture published, stressed that the young father had been a good figure until he met some new friends.



The elderly Mndzebele described the father of the child as a hustler, using a vernacular term, uyaphanda.

The shocking conditions the four-year-old was said to be living under come hardly a week after it was revealed how a two-year-old boy, who had been living in appalling conditions, was also taken to a place of safety by social workers.

The minor, who resided with his father, was said to have shared a tiny filthy room with chickens, scattered with clothes and unwashed kitchen utensils.
Securing agreement on the purchase of 22 unarmed drones, is seen in New Delhi as a key test of defense ties that flourished under former President Barack Obama.

Narendra Modi will visit US on June 26 and discuss Indo-US ties with Donald Trump. (Photo: PTI)

By Reuters: With the United States expected to authorize India's purchase of naval drones, a senior White House official cautioned on Friday that any US military transfer to India would not represent a threat to its rival neighbour Pakistan.

The official spoke to reporters in advance of US President Donald Trump's first meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, a White House visit that will include one-on-one talks and a working dinner.

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Securing agreement on the purchase of 22 unarmed drones, worth more than $2 billion, is seen in New Delhi as a key test of defense ties that flourished under former President Barack Obama but have drifted under Trump, who has courted Asian rival China as he seeks Beijing's help to contain North Korea's nuclear programme.

The US-based company that makes the drones, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc, said on Friday that the US government had approved the sale of a naval variant of the Predator drone to India.

The senior White House official said any arms transfer would take into account the regional situation.

"We want to avoid a situation that escalates the tension" between India and Pakistan, the official said. India and Pakistan should engage in direct talks and seek a normalization of ties, the official said.

"Some of the defense systems we're talking about we don't believe impact Pakistan," the official added.

DEAL OVER PURCHASE OF DRONES

The Indian navy wants the surveillance drones, variants of the Predator drones, to keep watch over the Indian Ocean. The deal would be the first such purchase by a country that is not a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

India, a big buyer of US arms that was recently named by Washington as a major defense ally, wants to protect its 7,500- km (4,700-mile) coastline as Beijing expands its maritime trade routes and Chinese submarines increasingly lurk in regional waters.

But sources tracking the discussions say the US State Department has been concerned about the potential destabilizing impact of introducing high-tech drones into South Asia, where tensions are simmering between India and Pakistan, particularly over Kashmir, which is divided between them.

Such a sale of sensitive military hardware must be authorized by the State Department before being sent to Congress for review. The drone deal would still require approval by Congress. The State Department declined comment ahead of any notification.

US TRADE DEFICIT WITH INDIA

Defense cooperation, the US trade deficit with India, counter-terrorism efforts and regional tensions are expected to be discussed between the two leaders.

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Modi's two-day visit to Washington begins on Sunday. Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in April and has also had face time with the leaders of nations including Japan, Britain and Vietnam since taking office in January, prompting anxiety in New Delhi that India is no longer a priority in Washington.

Other strains have emerged in US-India relations, with the United States vexed by a growing bilateral trade deficit and Trump accusing New Delhi of negotiating unscrupulously at the Paris climate talks to walk away with billions in aid.

US officials expect a relatively low-key visit by Modi, without the fanfare of some of his previous trips to the United States, and one geared to giving the Indian leader the chance to get to know Trump personally and to show that he is doing so.

India and the United States will also discuss the sale of US fighter jets during Modi's trip, in what could be the biggest deal since they began deepening defense ties more than a decade ago.

ALSO READ | China 'closely watching' Modi-Trump meet, sends warning on South China Sea

ALSO READ | This is what PM Modi has to say about his first meeting with President Trump

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ALSO WATCH | PM Modi to visit United States on June 26, will discuss Indo-US ties with Trump

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By Gina Martinez

In an effort to boost graduation rates at community colleges, Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) introduced the Community College Student Success Act.

The legislation would provide funding to public community colleges across the country to administer support that struggling students need to succeed. According to Meng, though community colleges enroll almost 40 percent of the undergraduates in the country, only 20 percent of full-time community college students manage to graduate within three years.

The funding would support academic advising, career counseling, and flexible financial assistance tailored to the needs of individual students.

Meng said the goal of the legislation is to replicate the success of the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), a program that first began at the City University of New York and was piloted at Queensborough Community College in Bayside.

Im proud to introduce the Community College Student Success Act to help community colleges around the country develop and implement programs modeled after ASAP to improve degree completion, Meng said. The ASAP program at Queensborough Community College more than doubled the three-year graduation rate of students completing an associates degree, and also increased the number of students who went on to complete a bachelors degree.

The ASAP program was first tested in CUNY in 2010, and the three-year graduation rate of students earning an associates degree rose from 22 percent to 40 percent. Meng said recent data is even more promising, showing an increased graduation rate from 24 percent to 53 percent. Studies also showed that ASAP students were also found to transfer to four-year colleges and have higher six-year degree attainment rates. While the program increased annual costs per student, it actually decreased the total cost of producing each graduate, Meng said. The program also tested positively in Ohio.

According to CUNY Chancellor James B. Milliken, the positive results of ASAP make this legislation based on the program a no-brainer.

We have known for some time that ASAP offers unparalleled results, graduating two to three times the number of students in three years, he said. And recent research has verified what we long believed  that the economic impacts of the program far outweigh the public investment. This makes a compelling case for expansion of this transformational program.

Queensborough Community College President, Dr. Diane B. Call, thanked Meng for her continued commitment to higher education.

I am proud of Queensborough Community Colleges long history as a nationally recognized model for student success, she said. The many benefits that Queensborough and the ASAP program offers its students, including individualized attention, have provided the foundation for each student to achieve their potential.
By Press Trust of India: New Delhi/Lucknow, Jun 24 (PTI) An international airport with a capacity to handle 30-50 million passengers per year will come up at Jewar in Greater Noida in the next five to six years to ease the load on the Delhi airport, the government announced today.

"In-principle clearance has been granted" for the greenfield airport at Jewar, civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said at a press briefing in New Delhi.

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The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority has notified 3,000 hectares of land in Jewar for a "world- class" international airport, Raju added.

Of the total land, 1,000 hectares will be acquired under the first phase of airport development, which will cost Rs 2,000 crore.

The government expects the entire project to cost Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore.

The metro service in Noida is also likely to be extended up to Jewar in order to improve connectivity to the airport. The state government, which has been pushing for this project, has also been told by the Centre to improve road conditions and provide multi-modal transport facilities, said Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, R N Choubey.

The announcement of a second airport in the national capital region comes at a time when the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi grapples with an ever- increasing number of passengers.

The IGI Airport currently handles nearly 62 million passengers every year. As per its updated master plan, the passenger handling capacity will be increased to 109.33 million passengers per year in a phased manner.

However, the airport is likely to reach that figure in the next seven years, necessitating a second airport in the vicinity of the national capital, according to the government.

"Within seven years Delhi airport will see 109 million trips a year, which will saturate its capacity. For the sake of NCR and NCRs connectivity having a second airport is vitally important and that is what Noida international airport will accomplish," Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said.

Senior minister Raju said that the government will honour the Operation Management and Development Agreement (OMDA) with GMR, which operates the Delhi Airport jointly with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for Delhi airport. As per this agreement GMR will have the first right of refusal in case an airport is built within 150 kilometres of the existing one.

The capacity to handle 30-50 million passengers per year will put the Jewar airport on par with the Mumbai airport, which sees 45 million passengers per year.

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Sinha added that the new airport will also provide seamless domestic and international connectivity to western UP with Noida, Agra, Mathura, Meerut, Vrindavan, Meerut, Moradabad and Bulandshahr likely to serve as the the catchment area for the new aerodrome.

"Noida International Airport will become like an aerotropolis with an airport at the centre and a whole host of economic activities around it," said Sinha.

The first phase will be a reality in five to six years, which includes procurement of land, bidding it out for construction and then providing connectivity, Civil Aviation Secretary Choubey said.

He added that the representatives of the Uttar Pradesh government have assured the Centre that farmers are willing to provide the land for airport development on negotiated settlement basis.

In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Civil Aviation Minister Nand Gopal Nandi and health minister Siddhartnath Singh told newspersons that the upcoming airport is expected to enable Noida to become a major global electronics manufacturing cluster, with significant investments in the sector already coming in from major global players like Samsung.

Tourism to destinations such as Mathura, Vrindavan and Agra will also see a major boost, they said, adding that it is also likely to serve as major logistics hub for various manufacturing and export centers in the western part of the state. PTI JC SAB BSA

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By Naeisha Rose

Three North Korean delegates were detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport last Friday and had a diplomatic package seized by U.S. authorities, according to North Koreas state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The alleged officials were attending a three-day United Nations convention for rights of people with disabilities. They claimed to be literally mugged by United States authorities and airport police who made a violent assault like gangsters when they were forcibly taking away the diplomatic package, the news agency said.

The confrontation comes amid mounting tensions between North Korea and the United States, following a series of nuclear tests by the isolated communist nation this year.

Most recently, University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier was returned from North Korea to his hometown of Cincinnati in a vegetative state last week after being detained for 17 months. Warmbier had allegedly removed a political poster off a wall at the hotel in which he stayed and was sentenced to 15 years at hard labor after a sham trial. Warmbier, who went to North Korea in January 2016 and intended to only stay for five days, died Monday.

In a statement, Pyongyang conveyed outrage over the JFK incident, insisting the three individuals had protections under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which states that items by diplomats shall not be opened or detained, while on missions but also have to contain only diplomatic documents or articles intended for official use.

The U.S. State Department sees things differently.

The North Korean citizens were not accredited members of North Koreas Mission to the UN and had no entitlement to diplomatic immunity. The package in question had no diplomatic protection from inspection, according to the State Department. The package in question had no diplomatic protection from inspection.

The State Department went on to further state that it seized multiple media items and packages from the individuals, at which time the North Koreans attempted to physically retrieve the items, but were prevented from doing so by [Department of Homeland Security] officers.

The aggression was initiated by the North Koreans. The individuals were released without further incident, but subsequently refused to board their departing flight without the items that had been seized, the State Department said.

A representative for the United Nations could not comment on the altercation because it had received no formal complaint from the [Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea],
An explosion at an illegal coal mine in central Colombia killed at least eight people, as rescuers scrambled to find five others still missing, authorities said Saturday, updating earlier figures.

The blast Friday occurred at a coal mine in the town of Cucunuba in Cundinamarca state, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of Bogota, at about 2130 GMT.

One person was injured in the explosion, authorities said.

Earlier reports listed two dead and 11 miners missing in the disaster.

A rescue crew of 35 miners and seven engineers has been working "around-the-clock" in a frantic search for the missing, the National Mining Agency (NMA) reported.

"We are going to dig by hand throughout the night to try to rescue" the missing workers, Wilson Garcia, director of the emergency response unit in Cundinamarca, told AFP late Friday.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who was wrapping up a visit to France, used Twitter to express his "solidarity with the victims."

Officials said they do not know what caused the explosion.

The country has seen an increase in illegal mining in recent years.

A total of 28 mining emergencies were reported in Colombia in the first five months of this year, leaving 23 dead and 33 injured, according to an NMA report. Sixty percent of the accidents occurred in coal mines.

There were 114 mining emergencies last year, causing 124 deaths, the report said.

Colombian coal production hit a record 90 million tons last year, according to the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

Colombia, a major world supplier, provided more than 70 percent of US coal imports.

SOURCE: AFP
Mali\s government and armed groups which signed a 2015 peace deal have relaunched talks aimed at speeding up its implementation after several delays, they told AFP Saturday.

The accord signed in 2015 aimed at curbing separatist uprisings in Mali\s north after a 2012 rebellion was hijacked by jihadists, throwing the nation into chaos.

But several of its key planks have yet to be fully implemented, while jihadists continue to roam the north and centre of the country, despite being ousted from key northern towns by a French-led military intervention in 2013.

Malian lawmaker Mohamed Ould Matali said the government, the armed groups which support it  known as the "Platform"  and the former rebels of the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA) had sat down for talks.

"It went well. We recognised that things are dragging and have fixed a new timeline to implement the peace deal," he told AFP.

Ilad Ag Mohamed, representing the former rebel alliance, confirmed the new timeline and said several dates had been set for rolling out key measures of the deal.

Mixed patrols between pro-government armed groups and the former rebels in the northern city of Kidal, where the army does not have a presence for security reasons, would be organised by July 20, he said.

Meanwhile the putting into place of remaining so-called "interim authorities," bodies supposed to pave the way for elections to be held when security improves, would be done by the end of July, he added.

Kidal is still in the hands of the former rebels, and when asked when the Malian state would return to the area, Ag Mohamed said the "lines would move" by July 20. He said a technical team would meet next week on how to facilitate the return of populations who fled when the city was taken over.

The office of prime minister Abdoulaye Idrissa Maiga confirmed he had attended the meeting and that there was "common agreement" on the points discussed.

Mali on Wednesday delayed a constitutional referendum due to be held on July 9 in the face of heavy political opposition and street protests, as detractors said such a vote could not be held safely and democratically in the country\s north.

SOURCE: AFP
Israel said on Saturday it had targeted Syrian military installations after shells landed in the occupied Golan Heights but a Syrian military source said the Israeli strikes killed some civilians.

Rebels including hardline Islamist factions fought the Syrian army on Saturday in Quneitra province, bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Syrian state media and a war monitor reported.

Israel\s military said 10 projectiles from inside Syria had hit the Golan and it responded with air strikes on the position they were launched from and on two Syrian army tanks, one as it was preparing to fire.

Aerial video footage released by the Israeli military purporting to show the strikes showed a machine gun and two tanks targeted and hit.

The military described the shellfire into the Israeli-held territory as errant fire and called it an "unacceptable breach" of sovereignty.

The Syrian military source said Israeli rocket fire had hit a residential building, causing a number of deaths and damage. The source did not mention Syrian fire into Israel and said the Israeli strike was in support of jihadist rebels.

The war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said rebel groups in Quneitra had launched an assault and were storming army positions near Baath City.

Israel has targeted Syria several times during the conflict, sometimes after projectiles have landed in the Golan Heights, but also to hit weapons supplies of Lebanon\s Hezbollah group, which is fighting alongside the Syrian government.

Syria\s civil war, between President Bashar al-Assad and rebels seeking to oust him, has lasted six years, killed hundreds of thousands and pushed millions to flee their homes.

SOURCE: REUTERS
The NEET 2017 online counselling schedule has been released at www.mcc.nic.in

The NEET 2017 online counselling schedule has been released on the website, mcc.nic.in.

By India Today Web Desk: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declared the results of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 on the official websites, cbseresults.nic.in, cbseneet.nic.in

As per the reports, nearly 6.11 lakh candidates have cleared the exam and qualified.

This year, a total of 11, 38,890 students appeared for NEET examination, conducted in 10 different languages across 1,921 exam centres including 1,522 NRIs, 480 OCIs, 70 PIOs and 613 foreign students.

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This year, Punjab's Navdeep Singh has secured All India Rank (AIR) 1 rank by scoring 697 marks in the male category. Meanwhile, in the female category, Nikita Goyal emerged as topper from the same state.

Meanwhile, the CBSE NEET 2017 online counselling schedule has been released on the website, www.mcc.nic.in

Here's the detailed counselling schedule:

Last year's result analysis:

In 2016, a total of 1, 71,329 applicants from the general category qualified in the CBSE NEET examination.

Out of the total, in all 2, 26,049 girls qualified for admissions than 1,83,424 qualified boys.

About NEET:

NEET is conducted for admission into MBBS and BDS courses across the country. The exam consisted of 180 objective type questions (four options with single correct answer) from physics, chemistry and biology (botany and zoology). The duration of the exam was three hours.

Read: Analog Devices felicitates winners of Anveshan 2016-17 University Design Fellowship

Read: This state will provide free education for girls from Nursery to PhD

Click here for examination, admission related news.

For more updates. follow India Today Education or you can write to us at education.intoday@gmail.com

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ALBANY -- An Albany man faces six to 12 years in state prison after pleading guilty Friday morning to felony manslaughter in the drunk driving death of a passenger in his car in January.

Terrance Kelly, 23, pleaded guilty to second degree manslaughter and second degree vehicular manslaughter as well as misdemeanor driving while intoxicated before state Supreme Court Justice Thomas Breslin.

Kelly was driving his Chevy Malibu with two passengers along Western Avenue in the early morning hours of Jan. 14 when he led police on a high-speed chase that ended with him crashing into a tree at the intersection of Western and Lenox avenues.

One of the car's passengers, William Yager IV, 25, died at the scene. Kelly was found to have a blood alcohol level of 0.16 at the time of the crash, according to Albany County District Attorney David Soares.

Yager, who also went by the nickname "Webb" was known as a "free-spirit" whose father, William S. Yager III, own Patsy's Barbershop on Howard Street and Shocker Tattoo on Lark Street.

"He was very much a free-sprinted fellow, accepting and open-minded," his father said in January. "It didn't matter if you were black, white, transgendered, he didn't care. He loved you no matter what."

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Kelly is set to be sentenced on Sept. 7. He will also face having his driver's license revoked for one year following his release and will have to have an ignition interlock device installed on his car for three years.

The case was prosecuted by Vehicular Crimes Unit Bureau Chief Mary Tanner-Richter and Assistant District Attorney David Szalda.
CHARLTON -- Saratoga County sheriff's investigators are looking into the circumstances surrounding a crash Friday that resulted in the death of a motorcyclist from Galway.

The collision occurred at about 1:20 p.m. at Route 67 at Old State Route 67 in the town of Charlton when a pick-up truck driven by Kevin M. Delaney, 32, Ballston Spa going east on Route 67 turned left onto Old State Route 67, deputies said.
A missing persons alert has been issued for a 10-year-old Fulton girl, who officials say is believed to be endangered.

According to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, Namine Archer was last seen with her non-custodial father, Byron Archer, leaving her Walahalla Road home on Saturday morning.
Daniel Morley/(Saratoga County sheriff's department)

CORINTH -- A Saratoga County man seriously injured another man by intentionally hitting him in the head with a shovel late Friday night, deputies said.

Deputies said they responded to a call of an assault at 11:37 p.m. on Palmer Avenue in the village of Corinth, arresting Eric J. McIntosh, 27, of Skylark Drive, South Glens Falls, on a charge of second-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon, both felonies.
BERNE -- Rather than travel nearly an hour to receive essential county services for veterans or crime and sexual violence victims, Albany County is bringing the resources and information to Hilltown residents.

County Executive Daniel McCoy on Saturday announced the opening of the Albany County Center for Essential Supportive Services, which will serve as a resource and information center for human services.

The center is located at the Community and Senior Services Center at 1360 Helderberg Trail in Berne, about 40 minutes from Albany, where many county services are situated.

Weve been in the community offering resources for several years but not in one permanent location, McCoy said. Residents of the Hilltowns will now have easy access to resources and can receive assistance with completing forms and applications by interacting face-to-face with our staff.

The Hilltowns office will provide residents with information for departments including, Veterans, Health, Crime Victims and Sexual Violence Center, Social Services, Mental Health, Aging, Children Youth and Families, Probation and Immigration.

The office will be open Tuesdays from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. starting Tuesday, June 27.

Sheriff Craig Apple had previously floated using the departments substation in the New Scotland hamlet of Clarksville for a county services hub. The department currently subleases space in the building, but at one point there was discussion about the county buying the old Clarksville Elementary School outright. County officials said Saturday that is no longer is on the table.

During this years State of the County address, McCoy emphasized the need to enhance access to county services in communities that are typically difficult to reach.

One of those efforts to improve access includes construction of two communications towers in Berne and Rensselaerville, which county officials have said will fill the dead spots in communities that currently lack reliable radio coverage for emergency medical service providers. The towers also could be used to improve internet service in the area.

Berne Town Supervisor Kevin Crosier said he and the county executive have been working together for several years to make the essential service center a reality, and said McCoy previously has worked to bring senior transportation and meal programs to the rural town.

This makes it easier for our residents to receive assistance closer to home, Crosier said.
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New York

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's pardon of a World Trade Center disaster worker fighting deportation to Colombia after a drug conviction is the latest example of politicians trying to rescue individuals from their immigration problems, but the mixed and unpredictable results make it unlikely to become a common occurrence.

Carlos Cardona had his 1990 drug conviction wiped off the books by Cuomo this week, improving the Queens man's chances of remaining in the U.S. while he receives health treatments for ailments linked to his work on the Sept. 11, 2001, recovery effort.

His case follows other recent instances when Democratic governors have pardoned individuals facing deportation for state crimes that sometimes occurred years earlier. The pardons have come after President Donald Trump ordered increased deportations, resulting in a boost of over 35 percent in his first 100 days in office when compared to the same period last year.

"It works some of the time," said Jason A. Cade, a University of Georgia School of Law professor who has studied how the practice has evolved over the last century. "It is a way to avert what might be unfair deportations in certain cases."

It did not work after Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe pardoned Liliana Cruz Mendez for a minor driving offense after she was detained by immigration agents when she arrived May 18 for a regular check-in. The Falls Church, Va., mother of two was sent back to her native El Salvador anyway.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, hoping to stop a deportation, pardoned a Cuban immigrant, Rene Lima-Marin, last month for an armed robbery he committed 19 years ago.

Cade said changes by Congress in the 1990s pertaining to when pardons can excuse drug offenses for immigration purposes created "a lot of weirdness" so that pardons sometimes are effective for more serious drug crimes but not for lesser offenses.

Recently, a Massachusetts judge dropped the criminal case against a man caught smoking marijuana at a national seashore so he could still get his green card, said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which argues that lower levels of immigration are better for the country.

In addition to pardons by governors, some prosecutors are thinking twice before filing charges that might result in deportation, raising the risk that a "parallel system of justice emerges where it is different for non-citizens."

"When a few people are able to get exemptions like this, the number who ask for them grows," she said.

Vaughan said the power to pardon is meant to be used sparingly for exceptional cases, which is one reason why some states do not let governors make a decision to pardon alone.

She said most of the 12 million people in the country illegally are "decent people" and many are using the extensive due process afforded by the U.S. immigration system to gain legal residency. To speed and ease the process for a few is a "slap in the face for those who wait their time, pay their dues," Vaughan said.
By Press Trust of India: Mumbai, Jun 24 (PTI) Censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani is in objection mode again, this time over the use of the word word "intercourse" in the TV promos of Shah Rukh Khans upcoming "Jab Harry Met Sejal".

Nihlani, often criticised for censoring the content of the films, said his objection this time is only for the TV telecast of the trailer. If one lakh people vote in favour of the trailer, he will allow it to be aired.

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"We are talking about TV telecast of the trailer. It is not about the movie, the issue is just about the trailer. If parents are ok with their kids below 12 watching discussion on things like intercourse I dont have any issues. We will pass it," Nihalani told PTI.

Mini promos have been released of the Imtiaz Ali-directed film. In one, the movies lead actress Anushka Sharma is seen using the word in a conversation with Shah Rukh.

According to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chief, TV is for families and the censor board has to follow certain guidelines even for trailers.

"The trailer is available online and social media in full length. But when it comes to TV we need to keep in mind the family audience and follow certain guidelines," Nihalani said.

During an interview to a TV channel, Nihalani had said CBFC would clear the promo, but he needed one lakh votes as proof that Indian audiences had changed. PTI SHD BK MIN

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Albany

Much of what's wrong with New York government can be summed up by two moments from the waning hours of the legislative session.

The first came at a little before 5 p.m. Tuesday, when Sen. Majority Leader John Flanagan revealed that there would not be a vote on the Child Victims Act.

The second arrived 28 hours later, when Flanagan introduced an 11th-hour bill to name the Tappan Zee Bridge after the governor's father. It passed the Senate unanimously.

More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

What a juxtaposition. Really, you couldn't ask for a better illustration of how Albany power brokers put the wants of the political class over the needs of ordinary people  especially the weak and the powerless. It was out-flipping-rageous.

The Child Victims Act is about protecting children from sexual abuse. It would do away with a disgraceful statute of limitations  one of the most restrictive in the nation  that bars child sexual-abuse victims from proceeding with cases once they turn 23.

It would allow survivors to bring civil cases until they turn 50 and felony criminal cases until they're 28. It also includes a one-year window to revive old cases.

Victims have been lobbying for the bill for more than a decade. They've made endless trips to Albany to cajole lawmakers. They have worked tirelessly for their cause.

Even if you oppose the Child Victims Act, which easily passed the Assembly, there's no justification for denying it a Senate vote. Advocates deserved that much for their hard work. They deserved to see which lawmakers were on their side.

Flanagan denied them that. The Republican from Long Island couldn't even be bothered to offer an explanation. The arrogance is staggering.

But Flanagan did find it within his heart to do a favor for the governor by offering up a bill to rename the Tappan Zee for Mario Cuomo  a putrid piece of puffery that strokes political egos but does nothing for ordinary New Yorkers. Gov. Andrew Cuomo even made the bill a "message of necessity," allowing it to zoom through without debate.

Think about that. Attaching the Cuomo name to an unfinished bridge is so important that it can't wait for normal protocols or input from the public. But a bill that would protect children and punish sexual predators?

Yawn. We'll get to it next year. Or the next. Maybe.

To his credit, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie saw no reason to rush the bridge bill to a vote, so it didn't pass. I suspect the governor is mightily miffed and will exact his revenge when the opportunity arises.

The existing Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge, as it is officially called, already bears the name of a former governor. Wilson was a Republican from Yonkers who followed Nelson Rockefeller in the early 1970s.

The current governor's attempt to strip the bridge of a predecessor's name to rename it for his father is, to put it gently, tacky  especially since he knows the $4 billion structure will simply be called the "Cuomo Bridge," allowing the son to bask in the associated glory.

An irony is that Mario Cuomo was famously skeptical of having things named for him, once joking that "maybe a stickball court in Queens" would be appropriate. The guy barely wanted his official portrait to hang in the Executive Chamber.

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Mario Cuomo also is not especially associated with Rockland or Westchester counties, which are connected by the span, or even the Hudson River.

If the new Tappan Zee must lose its existing name  and I see no reason why it should  there are plenty of worthy New Yorkers. Pete Seeger, dedicated to Hudson River cleanup, is a compelling choice. Or Walt Whitman? Lou Gehrig?

I'm just spit-balling here. The possibilities are many.

But Flanagan and Cuomo, Republican and Democrat working together to blindside the public, tried to ram their chosen name through in the dead of night. That's New York state government, in a nutshell.

The effort didn't go unnoticed by supporters of the Child Victims Act, who were already furious at Flanagan.

"That put salt in our wounds," said Gary Greenberg, a former Albany County legislator who was sexually abused as a child at the old Cohoes Hospital.

Greenberg believes the Child Victims Act had enough Senate votes to pass. It also had Cuomo's support, although Greenberg said the governor did not flex his political biceps to get the bill voted on by the Senate.

Yawn. We'll get to it next year. Or the next. Maybe.
[June 23, 2017] IMPORTANT INVESTOR ALERT: Khang & Khang LLP Announces Securities Class Action Lawsuit against Axiom Holdings, Inc. and Encourages Investors with Losses to Contact the Firm

Khang & Khang LLP (the "Firm") announces a securities class action lawsuit against Axiom Holdings, Inc. ("Axiom" or the "Company") (Other OTC: AIOM). Investors who purchased or otherwise acquired shares between October 14, 2016 and June 19, 2017, inclusive (the "Class Period"), are encouraged to contact the Firm in advance of the August 21, 2017 lead plaintiff motion deadline. If you purchased Axiom shares during the Class Period, please contact Joon M. Khang, Esquire, of Khang & Khang LLP, 18101 Von Karman Avenue, 3rd Floor, Irvine, CA (News - Alert) 92612, by telephone: (949) 419-3834, or by e-mail at [email protected]. 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 as well. According to the Complaint, throuhout the Class Period, Axiom made false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: the Company lacked control over the merger process sufficient to ensure that its share exchange agreement with CJC Holdings, Ltd. ("CJC") would be completed; that the agreement with CJC was never completed; that Axiom Holdings' issuance of shares to the CJC Shareholders was thus improper; and that as a result of the above, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On June 19, 2017, Axiom disclosed that it identified discrepancies related to prior news announcements in response to a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The following day, the Company issued another press release, advising investors that "it now appears the merger was never completed" and advising investors that it would rescind the shares that were issued to the CJC Shareholders in connection with the merger. When this news was announced, shares of Axiom lowered in value materially, which caused investors harm according to the Complaint.



If you wish to learn more about this lawsuit, or if you have any 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 by e-mail at [email protected]. This press release may constitute Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170623005694/en/

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Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction Market - Global Forecast and Opportunity Assessment by Technavio

The global quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 8% 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/20170623005697/en/

Technavio has published a new report on the global qPCR market from 2017-2021. (Graphic: Business Wire)

In this report, Technavio covers the market outlook and growth prospects of the global qPCR market for 2017-2021. The market is segmented based on application, which includes drug discovery and development, clinical diagnostics, and research laboratories.

PCR (News - Alert) is a technique of molecular genetics, used for precise, specific, and accurate amplification and analysis of nucleic acid sequences. It is also used in a wide range of applications in research and diagnosis, such as genetic engineering, cloning, gene expression, sequencing, diagnosis, and genotyping. The two widely accepted technologies of PCR in the areas of research and diagnosis are quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR).

Technavio's research analysts categorize the global quantitative polymerase chain reaction market into the following segments by regions:

Americas

EMEA

APAC

Americas: largest qPCR market

"Factors such as the increase in public and private funding and increasing financial support from prominent funding agencies and federal institutions for the R&D of innovative qPCR are driving the market growth in North America. Thus, the major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are preferring to use advanced qPCR technologies and products, as they provide highly accurate, specific, and productive results," says Amber Chourasia, a lead analyst at Technavio for research on lab equipment.

The qPCRmarket in the Americas is growing moderately due to the developed healthcare infrastructure and the presence of many pharmaceutical companies in the countries such as the US. The presence of a high number of pharmaceutical companies has led to the increased number of tests using various qPCR techniques related to new drug development and disease diagnosis, thus increasing the demand for qPCR in the region.







This report is available at a USD 1,000 discount for a limited time only: View market snapshot before purchasing

Buy 1 Technavio report and get the second for 50% off. Buy 2 Technavio reports and get the third for free.

qPCR market in EMEA

"The outbreak of various diseases and scope of research in this region have led to the development of research laboratories and pharmacogenomics. This growth will lead to a rise in the demand for the qPCR market," says Amber.

Europe leads the qPCR market in EMEA. Countries such as the UK, France, Italy, and Germany contribute the highest revenue in Europe. Many global and regional vendors are actively investing in the form of funding projects and research grants to develop PCR-based solutions related to various fields including agriculture and disease diagnosis. These are contributing toward the growth of the PCR technologies like qPCR.

qPCR market in APAC

The qPCR market in APAC is growing rapidly due to the increased investment in research by the governments in this region and the increased outsourcing activities by the vendors to the CRO industry to meet the increased demand. The CROs generally prefer to use the qPCR technology for rapid and accurate results to meet the high demand from the end-users. Moreover, the CRO industry is expanding its business in APAC, as the vendors are trying to reduce the cost of ownership by getting the tests and diagnostics done by the CROs.

The migration of R&D facilities to APAC by major vendors to penetrate the market with the solutions based on the requirements of APAC end-users at affordable prices will also be a driving factor for the growth of the market during the forecast period.

The top vendors in the global qPCR market highlighted in the report are:

Agilent Technologies (News - Alert)

Bio-Rad Laboratories

QIAGEN

Thermo Fisher Scientific

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Become a Technavio Insights member and access all three of these reports for a fraction of their original cost. As a Technavio Insights member, you will have immediate access to new reports as they're published in addition to all 6,000+ existing reports covering segments like category spend intelligence and health and wellness. This subscription nets you thousands in savings, while staying connected to Technavio's constant transforming research library, helping you make informed business decisions more efficiently.

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 [email protected].

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170623005697/en/
[June 23, 2017] Zipwhip Wins #4 in Seattle Business Magazine 100 Best Companies to Work For

SEATTLE, June 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Zipwhip, a Seattle-based provider of landline, VoIP, and toll free text messaging software, was named one of Washington's 100 Best Companies to Work For in an annual ranking compiled by Seattle Business magazine. This is the first year Zipwhip has participated, and it debuted in the top 5. The company was ranked #4 in the Midsize Company category, which includes organizations with 60 to 149 employees. The ranking is compiled from confidential surveys completed by employees on topics ranging from executive leadership, workplace environment, company culture, benefits, and employee satisfaction. Other honorees include Zillow, Whitepages, and Rover.com. "Today I'm proud to say that we're delivering value to our customers, providing a great career to our employees, and generating a healthy return for our investors," said John Lauer, CEO of Zipwhip. "We are honored to see our work culture celebrated by SeattleBusiness Magazine."



Zipwhip pairs direct wireless operator connectivity with industry-leading software so that existing fixed line business numbers can send and receive texts. Zipwhip has grown rapidly since the survey was conducted, adding 50 employees so far in 2017. The company moved to the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle earlier this year after closing a $9 million Series B funding round led by Voyager Capital. For people interested in joining one of Washington State's best places to work, Zipwhip is hiring for a number of sales, marketing, product, support, and engineering roles. For more information, please visit: https://www.zipwhip.com/company.

Related Images image1.jpg image2.jpg Related Links More about Zipwhip Zipwhip Job Openings To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zipwhip-wins-4-in-seattle-business-magazine-100-best-companies-to-work-for-300479183.html SOURCE Zipwhip

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[June 24, 2017] Videocon's GST Summit empowers consumer electronic traders in Bengaluru

BENGALURU, June 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Videocon, a major consumer electronics and DTH company, along with ASSOCHAM and CEAMA, organized a GST Summit for traders where the implications of the proposed 'one nation-one tax' were discussed. The summit also addressed doubts raised by consumer electronics retailers. The Bengaluru chapter of the ASSOCHAM CEAMA GST summit powered by Videocon and Videocon d2h was inaugurated by the Chief Guest Shri. R.V. Deshpande, Honourable Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industries, Department of Commerce and Industries,Government of Karnataka. The seminar was also addressed by Shri. Narayan Swamy, Commissioner - Service Tax, Bengaluru. (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/527378/Videocon_GST_Summit_in_Bengaluru.jpg )

Bengaluru is one of the 200 cities where Videocon plans to spread awareness and impart knowledge about GST, to consumer electronics trade partners. The national rollout of the ASSOCHAM-Videocon GST Summit in Delhi was welcomed by Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Honorable Union Minister of State for Finance, Government of India. He commended ASSOCHAM and Videocon for organizing the summit for the benefit of the trader community. Addressing the seminr, Shri. R.V. Deshpande, Honourable Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industries, Department of Commerce and Industries, Government of Karnataka said, "At the outset, I deem it is my privilege to be a part of this important event being organised by ASSOCHAM, and Videocon for the awareness on the GST, and appreciate this initiative to address the queries of the Retailers and Traders of Consumer Electronics & Appliances. I am glad that GST, at last is seeing the light of the day. I was pretty sure in 2006 itself when then-Finance Minister announced in his Union Budget speech that India would introduce GST by 1st April 2010. I was always sure that GST would be inevitable and will free India from the shackles of archaic indirect tax laws. It is envisaged to pave way for the 'One Nation One point single Tax' system. Overall, GST will strengthen the positioning of organised players in market and lend fillip to growth."



Speaking about the initiative, Mr. Vishal Sharan, Sales Head, Videocon, said, "We are committed to welcome GST and bring everyone in the consumer electronics industry within its ambit. The objective behind organizing this summit was to equip our trade partners in Bengaluru with complete knowledge of GST and prepare them for its implementation. Videocon has always taken initiatives to ensure the welfare and growth of the industry." Being a responsible corporate house, Videocon is committed to serve the industry and all its stakeholders. The company recently launched a digital helpline for retailers, [email protected], where consumer electronics retailers can email their queries with regards to GST. Videocon will endeavor to respond with the help of experts within 48 working hours.

GST Summit received a tremendous response from traders in Bengaluru. Around 600 Consumer Electronics retailers attended the event who utilized the platform to clarify all their GST queries. About Videocon Group Videocon Group is a global business conglomerate with a strong presence in Household Consumer Goods, Mobile Handsets, DTH, Retail, Oil & Gas, and the Power sector. Videocon group has constantly leveraged a culture of innovation to develop a range of market re-defining products.

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Speaking to India Today, Naqvi said, "Why should those who are a threat to India's security, be given any security themselves?"

By Ilma Hasan: In the wake of the lynching of DSP Ayub Pandith, the call for complete revocation of security given to separatist leaders is growing. And now MoS Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has joined in the chorus.

Speaking to India Today, Naqvi said, "Why should those who are a threat to India's security, be given any security themselves?"

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Naqvi added, "There is no difference between separatists and terrorist now. They are equally dangerous. What happened yesterday was a shock to humanity. Many atrocities are happening and the way separatists are reacting to this is shocking."

This statement from the Centre comes after J&K DGP told India Today that the time has come that security of leaders like Mirwaiz Farooq be revoked.

Speaking on the controversial statement of separatists leader Hilal that Ayub Pandith wasn't 'our' police officer, but an officer of the state, the minister said, "No matter who is murdered, it is equally condemnable and that there should be no ours and theirs in this matter."

He also assured that BJP and security forces will make sure strict action is taken to stop violence.

Farooq had earlier said he was deeply disturbed by the brutal lynching of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mohammed Ayub Pandith. Earlier Farooq came out with a defence stating, "The media is reporting falsely that when the incident happened, I was present inside the mosque. I reached the mosque at 12.15 am, while the incident had happened before that,"

He further added, "The incident that happened in Nowhatta outside the Jamia Masjid is the most unfortunate. I am deeply disturbed by this brutal act. Mob violence and public lynching is outside the parameters of our values and religion."

ALSO READ: J&K: 3 more arrested over Ayub Pandith's lynching, SIT formed to probe Jamia Masjid incident

DSP Ayub Pandith lynching: Are policemen the new target of terror agents in Valley?

ALSO WATCH:

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Election results: Check out results from various races across the state
By Press Trust of India: By M Zulqernain

Lahore, Jun 24 (PTI) Pakistani security forces have arrested more than 60 terrorists they suspect were plotting to launch attacks in the run up to Eid in the countrys relatively peaceful Punjab province.

The arrests were made over the past few days as part of Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad (elimination of discord) launched on February 22 as a response to the continuing wave of terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

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Twenty nine suspects were arrested in Faisalabad and Gujranwala. "Most of them are terrorists facilitators. Fifty weapons and explosives have been recovered from them. These were to be used for terrorist activities on Eid-ul-Fitr," the Counter Terrorism Department of the police said.

In another raid, the CTD claimed to have arrested three members of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LeJ) from Gujranwala.

The CTD said it has seized more than 11 kg of explosives, one pipe bomb, improvised explosive devices, one suicide jacket, one cooler bomb, two remote controls for detonation of jackets, three detonators and other materials from them.

In Gujrat district, some 250 kilometres from Lahore, 23 members of Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Jammatur Ahrar were arrested and illegal weapons and ammunition seized from them.

They were involved in facilitating terrorists, it said.

Three TTP members were arrested from Bahawalpur who were allegedly plotting an attack in the city on Eid.

In another raid, five alleged facilitators of militants were arrested in Mandi Bahauddin, some 350kms from Lahore.

The Pakistan Rangers (Punjab), Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) reported to have taken part in the operation ahead of Eid in different parts of Punjab. PTI MZ ABH AKJ ABH

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VIDEO: Rolling gun battle ends in car crash KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A rolling gun battle ended in a car wreck on Thursday. Kansas City police were sent to the 3900 block of Prospect for a report of shots fired. When officers arrived, they found an abandoned gold Malibu that had crashed into a pole.

Check footage of this scary gun fight caught on ATA cameras because of the close proximity to a nearby bus full of people. Checkit:
New Po-Po Pad Across The Bridge

New KCPD North Patrol Division Station Replaces 'Bumblebee' On Barry Road Where Highway 169 meets Barry Road sits the iconic Kansas City Police Department's North Patrol Division station. Interim Chief of Police David Zimmerman says it's affectionately referred to as the "bumblebee" thanks to its black and yellow exterior. That station will officially close its doors Monday, June 26, and a new station will open Wednesday, June 28.

EPIC Courtroom Win For Local Legal Eagles

KC law firm wins $218M verdict against agribusiness company - Kansas City Business Journal Representing more than 7,000 U.S. corn growers in a class-action lawsuit against Syngenta AG, Pat Stueve of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP in Kansas City is a co-lead counsel on a legal team that won a $217.7 million verdict. The case was heard in the U.S.

Dead Tree Reports Another End Game

Sears' closing at Metcalf South marks end of an era for former patrons and the community Standing alone beside the mountain of debris that once was Metcalf South Shopping Center, the Sears store of Scott Lane's youth is passing its final summer surrounded by retail destruction. "I was raised on Sears," said Lane, who grew up just blocks from the shopping center that Sears anchored for nearly 50 years.

More Deets On JoCO Gang Fear

Felony Lane Gang out of Florida reportedly stole purses from cars in Leawood LEAWOOD, Kan. - Police think a far-reaching gang network targeted Leawood City Park last weekend. The "Felony Lane Gang" out of Florida has targeted Kansas City before, and recent car burglaries fit their M.O. Two women's cars were broken into outside the Leawood Pool on June 17.

Standoff that caused evacuation at KCK apartment complex ends with arrest KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- An apartment complex near North 6th Street and Nebraska Avenue was voluntarily evacuated Friday afternoon as police work to coax a robbery suspect out of a home. At about 4:30 p.m. KCK police say that standoff ended with a robbery suspect taken into custody.

JoCo Doggie Advice

Veterinarians encourage flu vaccinations for dogs to prevent outbreak OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - On Tuesday, June 20, area vet clinics had a city-wide flu vaccination day for dogs. Zeek and Zeus are two of many dogs getting their dog flu vaccination at Hawthorne Animal Hospital. "They're our life," their pet owners, Ed and Joan Carhart, said.

Kansas City Summer Hope

Three Reasons to Believe in the 2017 Kansas City Royals Here are three big reasons why we should put all our eggs in the basket with the 2017 Kansas City Royals. Hey, remember way back in 2014 when the Kansas City Royals were counted out of just about everyone's playoff predictions? Well, we all know how well that turned out for the "analysts."

Hottieand herbrings us Kansas City evening inspiration as we collect some of the top links from today's Friday news cycle. Take a peek:And this is thefor right now . . .
A voter patiently waiting by his mailbox noted: "Where are the streetcar ballots? They were said to have been mailed out on the 20th. We have not received ours and had our ballots/proof of voters registration sent off way before the deadline. Anyone else get theirs?"

THE RIGGED TOY TRAIN STREETCAR BALLOT CONFRONTS INCREASED COMPLAINTS FROM RESIDENTS DISENFRANCHISED BY THE MULTI-STEP VOTING PROCESS THAT SMACKS OF VOTER SUPPRESSION!!!

In 2014, Kansas City votersin the midst of construction delays crippling Downtown biz and because the bus is a far more effective and flexible mode of public transit.Fast forward to the current election where streetcar extension supporters have revered back to a secret ballot tactics that carefully selects a smaller voting pool (gerrymandering) and has made the election process far more cumbersome and difficult than simply showing up to the ballot to cast a vote.However . . .Complaints posted throughout social media this week reveal voter confusion and frustration with this difficult voting process.Now that the Stalinist sounding "voter application deadline" has closed . . . Kansas City Insiders are learning of several locals who were rejected for faulty paper work despite their residence within district lines. MSM missedTo wit . . .And just so we're clear that this isn't just TKC on rant . . . Top ranking Missouri officials have also voiced their concern with TDD corruption.Example . . .And so, as the streetcar authority shifts cash around, buys more vehicles thanks to constant breakdowns and plans their deceitful expansion . . . There's afrom a controversial Kansas City transit endeavor that mostly benefits politicos, consultants and developers.You decide . . .
By Press Trust of India: By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Jun 23 (PTI) Pakistan today launched a countrywide intelligence-led military operation against militants after three terror attacks killed at least 42 people and injured more than 100.

Pakistani Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said that security has been tightened across the country.

"Special Intelligence-Based Operation (IBOs) and search operations (were) launched in coordination with intelligence and other Law Enforcement Agencies," he said.

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He also quoted army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa as saying that "enemy (was) trying to mar festive mood of nation through such coward acts".

Bajwa said that the enemy would "fail against resilience of Pakistan".

The triple terror attack on the 27th day of Ramadan has been condemned widely, as the day is considered as sacred for the Muslims.

Twin blasts tore through a market crowded with Eid shoppers in a mainly Shia town, a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car and militants opened fire on police in separate attacks in Pakistans three major cities today, killing 42 people and wounding 121 others. PTI SH CPS

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"I can vote for the President of the United States using a mail-in ballot that does not have to be notarized. But to vote for the TDD, the ballot has to be notarized. This is clearly voter suppression and is against the laws of this nation. The Missouri Attorney General needs to stop this nonsense immediately."

A look at the streetcar ballot and, even better, an important statement on voter sentiment amid the current and complication streetcar election process . . .And so, the "vote" continues as more complaints arise and Kansas City residents get a closer look at this messed up process used to STEAL an election.You decide . . .
Ratings agency Moody's announce on Friday it is raising Greece?s credit rating one notch from "Caa3" to "Caa2", citing the successful completion of the second program review, the improved fiscal prospects, as well as tentative signs the economy is stabilising. It also upgraded its outlook for the country to ?positive? from "stable".

The full text of the rating agency's press release is as follows:

"Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has today upgraded Greece's long-term issuer rating as well as all senior unsecured bond and programme ratings to Caa2 and (P) Caa2 from Caa3 and (P) Caa3, respectively. The outlook has been changed to positive from stable.

The key drivers for today's rating action are as follows:

Successful conclusion of the second review under Greece's adjustment programme and release of a tranche of ?8.5 billion in the coming days. Beyond the near-term impact of allowing Greece to repay upcoming maturities, we consider the conclusion of the review to be a positive signal regarding the future path of the programme, as it required the Greek government to legislate a number of important reform measures.

Improved fiscal prospects on the back of 2016 fiscal outperformance, expected to lead soon to a reversal in the country's public debt ratio trend. The government posted a 2016 primary surplus of over 4% of GDP versus a target of 0.5% of GDP. Moody's expects the public debt ratio to stabilize this year at 179% of GDP, and to decline from 2018 onwards, on the back of continued substantial primary surpluses.

Tentative signs of the economy stabilizing. While it is too early to conclude that economic growth will be sustained, Moody's expects to see growth this year and next, after three years of stagnation and a cumulative loss in output of more than 27% since the onset of Greece's crisis.

The decision to assign a positive outlook to the Caa2 rating reflects Moody's view that the prospects for a successful conclusion of Greece's third adjustment programme have improved, which in turn raises the likelihood of further debt relief. The euro area creditors have committed to further extend Greece's repayment terms to the EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility; senior unsecured Aa1 stable) if needed after August 2018 when the programme ends. Later repayment to official creditors would improve Greece's capacity to service debt held by private sector investors, to which Moody's ratings speak.

The long-term country ceilings for foreign-currency and local-currency bonds have been raised to B3 from Caa2, to reflect the reduced risk of Greece exiting the euro area, and the long-term ceiling for foreign-currency and local-currency deposits has been raised to Caa2 from Caa3. Moody's maintains a two-notch gap between the bond and the deposit ceilings to reflect the ongoing capital controls. The short-term foreign-currency bond and bank deposit ceilings remain unchanged at Not Prime (NP)."

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Moodys Corporation License: CC-BY-SA

Source: ANA-MPA
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of the need for member-states to show solidarity with Greece and Italy on migration, noting this is her view of Europe.

"Were here together, around a table. If we have common external borders then I have to put myself in the position of the Greek prime minister and the Italian prime minister, who receive new refugees and migrants every day," she said at a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Brussels, after the EU summit meeting in Brussels.

"I cannot just be happy I am in the center of Europe and dont have this problem with the refugees. It is very important to put yourself in someone elses position. This is what we must all do to find a compromise," she added.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Jacques Griemayer License: CC-BY-SA

Source: ANA-MPA
Greece-is.com presents Pilios beaches and mountain villages among the top family destinations in Greece in the following article:

"Cant decide between a beach holiday or hiking in the mountains? In Pilio you can have it all.

In Mount Pilio you and your family can have the best of both worlds: easy access to some of the countrys most splendid beaches as well as some of its greenest, most idyllic mountain villages. Its not by chance that this was the holiday spot of the 12 Greek Gods and legendary land of the centaurs: in Pilio you can fully savor old fashioned tranquility.

Here your days will revolve around swimming at sandy, child-friendly beaches, before snaking up oak, fir and plane tree-lined roads (especially on the northern side) that are like cool jungly tunnels speckled with shards of light. Nature on the 95km-long peninsula (on the Pagasetic Gulf, exactly between Athens and Thessaloniki) remains lush year-round, although in the coldest winter months snow blankets the slopes of Pilio and the curved, somewhat harrowing roads become harder to negotiate. Meanwhile Pilios Agriolefkes ski resort bustles with skiers and snowboarders.

Almost everywhere in Pilio youll hear the hypnotizing sound of running water  gushing out of stone fountains on the side of roads, trickling down mossy mountain walls and babbling in streams at the sides of trails.

The relatively cool evenings (by Greek summer standards) lend themselves to strolls along narrow cobblestone pathways bordered by nature brimming with life.

The slopes of Pilio are famed for their biodiversity, as the mountains proximity to the sea creates a large variety of microclimates in a relatively small area. Here the forests are full of medicinal herbs (many of which are dried and sold in the villages), wild blackberries to pop into your mouth, toads, electric blue dragonflies, hedgehogs, deer and foxes. In the villages ancient walls are splashed with bougainvillea, the air is laden with the mulchy, musty aroma of wet vegetation and kids can run free, playing hide-and-seek in village squares.

Throughout its 28 stone-built villages you will struggle to find a bad meal. The food in Pilio is primarily authentic and traditional although more modern and gourmet options are also available. Local specialties include stewed rabbit, baked goat and handmade pasta with rich sauces.

EXPLORING

Its well worth renting a car for your Pilio holiday so that you can make the best of its varied landscapes, villages and beaches. Must-see villages to take your kids are Aghia Kyriaki, a fishing village on the southern side, where you can swim and have a delicious seafood meal or lobster pasta, crispy whitebait and other fresh delights at tavernas To Mouragio or O Manolas.

Beautiful Tsagarada is also an ideal destination for kids, where they can run along cobblestone paths and climb the giant ancient plane tree in Aghia Paraskevi Square as you sip a Greek coffee or an aperitif. A lot of the regions best restaurants can be found here, such as Evoxia which has created a gourmet Mediterranean menu using quality ingredients from around the country. Deipnosofistis and The Lost Unicorn are also must-tries, both with eclectic menus and lovely outdoor courtyards.

For more traditional fare try Alekas or Agnanti, the latter located in an outdoor square in true traditional style. Other scenic villages are Milies and Mouresi, one of Pelions oldest.

A wonderful way to see Pilio that is bound to delight children is via the Moutzouris steam train that sets off from Ano Lechonia and heads to Milies in a 90 minute ride, stopping at various villages.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Aquatic activities include swimming and kayaking, while in early and late summer you can also head into the thick forests without it being too hot. A network of scenic cobblestoned kalderimi trails connect the villages and are perfect for hikes, horseback riding or mountain biking.

Aside from the lush vegetation and natural beauty of Pilio, there is much to admire by way of architecture with the villages containing many beautifully maintained stone and wood mansions, and Byzantine churches.

Walks along marked routes can either be done with guides or independently planned, using online way-pointed routes, such as those found on Pilion Walks."

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Ulz License: CC-BY-SA

Source: greece-is.com
Orascom Trading has deployed key boom lifts and telehandlers from Genie, a unit of global lifting solutions specialist Terex Corporation, for the turnkey construction of the world's largest power plant project coming up in Egypt.



The list of lifting solution tools include Genie ZX-135/70 boom lifts, a mix of 10 Genie Z-80/60 booms, GS-4047 scissors lifts and GTH-4018 telehandlers, said a statement from Orascom Trading, the authorised Genie distributor in Egypt.



Marking another milestone that reflects its leadership in the infrastructure sector in Egypt and the Middle East, since 2015 Orascom Construction (OC) has been involved in the turn-key construction of two state-of-the-art combined cycle power plants in Egypt  both of which are the largest the world has ever seen.



The project is being built in a consortium by OC with Siemens. Each of the two power plants under construction by OC has a contract value of $2.24 billion and a power generation capacity of 4,800 MW.



Both operate on natural gas with light fuel as a backup to offer an affordable, reliable and sustainable energy mix for Egypts future.



The first phase of the project was officially inaugurated in the presence of Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany representing Siemens) this March. Construction of the second facility, located on the Mediterranean coast, north of Borolos Lake in Egypts Kafr El Sheikh Governorate, started this January.



To adapt to the challenges of safe work on these challenging jobsites, OC has used two Genie ZX-135/70 boom lifts, in addition to a mix of ten Genie Z-80/60 booms, GS-4047 scissors lifts and GTH-4018 telehandlers.



Based in Cairo, OTC offers the full range of Genie products, said a top official.



Orascom Trading has been our groups internal equipment provider for the past 20 years, and when it comes to leading brands they definitely know their business. It came as no surprise to us when they signed up as an authorised Genie distributor last November, remarked Yasser El Saied, the equipment manager for Orascom Construction.



"Now that we have direct access to the wider range of Genie machines, we have had the opportunity to see their superior quality. Our operators have also been able to experience their ease of operation. We are now keen to lay our hands on as many as we can, and as far as the activity of Orascom Construction goes, that means big numbers," he stated.



Working to a tight 2018 delivery schedule, the large numbers of machines operating on the Borolos site means that the environment is extremely busy.



We are impressed by the versatility and precision of the Genie ZX-135/70 booms which are proving irreplaceable for a wide range of the plants highest-reaching tasks," remarked El Saied.



"We are also using them to support jobsite supervisors monitoring the quality of work on going on steel and concrete structures, and to assist in the inspection of completed sections of the plant. Once the job is completed, we will be using them for maintenance duties on both sites," he added.



Ashraf Noshy, the sales equipment manager, Orascom Trading Company, said: "Unlike other similar machines by other brands, we have found that Genie booms are particularly easy and smooth to operate. This also applies to the Genie ZX-135/70 boom that operates without a jolt even when fully elevated. It is also fast to get to the desired height.



Its highly smooth and precise positioning, as well as its ability to be driven at maximum 141 ft height are also key factors that help save time and make work easier. These benefits are much appreciated by our operators, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Four Arab states - Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt - that imposed a boycott on Qatar have handed the country a list of 13 demands, including closure of Al Jazeera television, curbing ties with Iran besides shutting down a Turkish military base and paying reparations, reported CNN, and have given Doha 10 days to comply with the demands.

The 13-point list of demands is so far reaching it would appear to be hard for Doha to comply, stated the report.

The uncomprimising demands leave little prospect for a quick end to the biggest diplomatic crisis for years between Sunni Arab Gulf states, reported Reuters, citing regional analysts.

"The demands are so aggressive that it makes it close to impossible to currently see a resolution of that conflict," Olivier Jakob, a strategist at Switzerland-based oil consultancy Petromatrix, said.

Ibrahim Fraihat, Conflict Resolution Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, forecast a prolonged stand-off.

Qatar would reject the demands as a "non-starter", he said, and its neighbours had already escalated as far as they were likely to go. "Military action remains unlikely at the moment so the outcome after the deadline would be a political stalemate ..."

Some of the key demands are:

*Shut down the Al Jazeera media network and its affiliates.

*Halt the development of a Turkish military base in the country.

*Reduce diplomatic ties with Iran.

*Cut ties to extremist organizations.

*Stop interfering in the four countries' affairs.

*Stop the practice of giving Qatari nationality to citizens of the four countries.

Qatar confirmed on Friday it had received the list and was studying the demands. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would give its official response to Kuwait, which has been acting as the mediator between Qatar and its neighbours.

The director of Qatar's Government Communication Office, Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al-Thani, said the demands confirm what Qatar has said from the beginning: "The illegal siege has nothing to do with combating terrorism, (but) it is about limiting Qatar's sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy."

Qatar's National Human Rights Committee said some of the demands violate international human rights conventions, according to a Qatar News Agency story tweeted Friday by the foreign ministry.

After US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he hoped the demands would be "reasonable and actionable," and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the demands should be "measured and realistic," Al-Thani said the list does not satisfy any of those criteria.

Al Jazeera said any call to close down the network is an attempt to silence freedom of expression in the region, said the CNN in its report.

"We assert our right to practice our journalism professionally without bowing to pressure from any government or authority and we demand that governments respect the freedom of media to allow journalists to continue to do their jobs free of intimidation, threats and fear-mongering," it said in a statement.

A senior UAE government official accused Qatar of leaking the list in an attempt to undermine mediation efforts and regional stability.

"The leakage will further exasperate & prolong the Qatar crisis. Undermining serious diplomacy will lead to parting of ways," UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Twitter.

An official from one of the four nations, who gave details of the demands on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the offer would be "void" unless Qatar complied within 10 days.

The UAE has said sanctions could last for years. Qatar, the world's richest country per capita, says the sanctions amount to a "blockade", but it has ample reserves to weather the storm.

The dispute is a big test for the US, which houses the headquarters of its Middle East air power and 11,000 troops at a large base in Qatar, reported Reuters.

President Donald Trump has backed the sanctions, even as his Defense and State Departments have tried to remain neutral, resulting in in mixed signals. Trump called Qatar a "funder of terrorism at a very high level", only for his Pentagon to approve selling it $12 billion of warplanes five days later.

The most powerful country in the region to back the Qatari side in the dispute has been Turkey, whose President Tayyip Erdogan has his roots in an Islamist political party similar to movements that Qatar has backed in the region.

Days after the sanctions were imposed, Turkey rushed through legislation to send more troops to its base in Qatar as a sign of support.

Since the onset of Qatar's isolation, Turkey has fast-tracked a decision to approve the deployment of troops to Qatar -- part of an existing bilateral agreement but widely interpreted as a show of support for the increasingly isolated country.

Friday, Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik tried to allay criticism of the Turkish base in Qatar and warned against intervention.

The Arab nations cut ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting terrorism and destabilizing the region. The four countries say the list will become void if Qatar fails to comply within the 10-day period.

They called on Qatar to sever ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Jabhat Fateh al Sham.

Qatar -- which shares its only land border with Saudi Arabia -- has rejected accusations it supports terrorism, calling them "unjustified" and "baseless."

The list of demands was presented to Qatar by Kuwait and was released more than two weeks after Saudi Arabia led a coordinated freeze by nine countries on diplomatic and trade relations with Qatar.

The list also demands that Qatar pay reparations to the four countries for damages or costs incurred because of Qatari policies.

It says the demands will be monitored and involve monthly reports in the first year, then every three months the next year, then annually for 10 years, the report added.
EuroMena, a major private equity fund based in Beirut, Lebanon, said it has acquired a minority stake in Retail Holding, one of the major retailers in Morocco.



It is EuroMena's 19th deal and comes in line with its growth strategy for the North and Sub-Saharen Africa regions, in which the Fund enjoys a wide network and significant market knowledge.



Retail Holding was established in the mid-80s by Zouhair Bennani, the chief executive officer of Best Financiere, initially a single supermarket in Rabat, operating under the Hyper brand.

Over the years it grew substantially, and is now the franchisee for French retail giant Carrefour, apparel group Kiabi, Virgin Megastore and fast food chain Burger King.



EuroMena has accumulated significant experience in the retail sector through its investments in Khoury Home, the leading retailer of home appliances and electronics in Lebanon, and the Indigo Company, a Tunis based apparel retail of international brands with a strong presence in Morocco and Algeria.



This is the fourth investment of EuroMena III following its previous funding of Elephant (FMCG, Nigeria), in Indigo Company (apparel retail franchising, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria), and in Credit Libanais (banking, Lebanon). Proceeds of the investment will mainly be used to fund the expansion of the Group.





The Group recently started its expansion to Africa by taking the control of CDCI (Compagnie de Distribution de Cote dIvoire), the second largest player in food distribution in Ivory Coast.



It is now the number one player in the supermarket segment, the pioneer and only player in the hypercash segment, and a leader in the commercial real estate sector.



Gilles de Clerck, the executive partner of The EuroMena Funds, said: "EuroMena is proud to join the retail leader at such an important time for the group, in which it is rapidly expanding in Morocco and regionally, led by an experienced management team."



Retail Holding is well positioned for a healthy growth in the coming five years as it will capitalise on the shifting retail landscape in Morocco, where the government is promoting the development of large modern retail spaces, and on the sub-Saharan expansion opportunities.



Paul Khoury, the partner of The EuroMena Funds, said: "We are confident that the group is well positioned for a healthy growth in the coming years, with the government promoting the development of modern retail and a shift in consumer behaviour towards the growing channel."



Bennani said: "We are proud to welcome The EuroMena Funds, a leading private equity firm invested in the MEA (Middle East and Africa) region, as a shareholder of the group and in supporting the development of the company, especially its LabelVie and Compagnie de distribution de Cote dIvoire subsidiaries, both leaders in their respective markets."



The EuroMena Fund has raised more than $350 million to date from prominent investors, and has closed more than 25 investments and divestments, within its target region.



In June 2016, the Group completed the closing of its third fund, EuroMena III, for a total of $150 million, backed by commitments of top tier European institutions such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), the French Public Wealth Funds (Proparco), and the UKs Development Finance Institution (CDC Group), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), The German Investment and Development Corporation (DEG), as well as high net worth individuals, and family offices.



EuroMena IIIs mission is to invest in high growth local companies in the Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, turn them into Regional Leading Groups, and prepare them for a profitable exit within a timeframe of 3-5 years.



In addition, The EuroMena Funds are planning on launching a Levant SME Fund and a MEA Debt Fund within the coming six months.-TradeArabia News Service


The Emperor's New Clothes

This is Part One of Two:

The one year anniversary of the approval of the ironically named "Investors Exchange" has triggered more media coverage and I feel like the little boy the classic Hans Christian Andersen story: The Emperors New Clothes. Sadly, like the "clothes" worn by the emperor, the marketing claims made by IEX are similarly transparent. Equally sadly, others see it, but like the ministers and townspeople in the story, wont say so for fear of provoking the ire of the emperor and their supporters.

The key is to evaluate IEX as an exchange, however, I must clarify what an exchange is first, so consider the following definition from Investopedia:

An exchange is a marketplace in which securities, commodities, derivatives and other financial instruments are traded. The core function of an exchange is to ensure fair and orderly trading, as well as efficient dissemination of price information for any securities trading on that exchange.

This emphasized the primacy of displayed prices for exchanges as did the SEC, when they adopted Regulation NMS:

limit orders are the building blocks of public price discovery and efficient markets. They (commenters) stated that a uniform rule for all NMS stocks, by enhancing protection of displayed prices, would encourage greater use of limit orders and contribute to increased market liquidity and depth. The Commission agrees that strengthened protection of displayed limit orders would help reward market participants for displaying their trading interest and thereby promote fairer and more vigorous competition among orders seeking to supply liquidity.[1]



Therefore, for this commentary, we will examine IEXs marketing claims, based on how their claims apply to displayed limit orders and trades which interact with such orders. On their website, IEX claims to be a Fair, Simple, Transparent Exchange. We will start with Fair

"Fair"  The most appropriate definition of fair is free from bias[2], meaning that IEX is asserting that at their exchange, no class of investor has an advantage over other classes due to their architecture. They cite two features to back up this assertion: First, they do not offer co-location services, which they claim provides advantages to HF firms, and second their speedbump slows down the market which helps their clients vis a vis HF traders. Lets look at each in turn:

1 2 3 4 next

For more information on related topics, visit the following channels:
The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

By Press Trust of India: Twin blasts tore through a market crowded with Eid shoppers in a mainly Shia town, as a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car and militants opened fire on police in separate attacks in Pakistan's three major cities on Friday, killing 62 people and wounding nearly 100. The suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car near Inspector General of Police Ehsan Mehboob's office in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, killing at least 13 people, including seven policemen, and wounding 21 others.

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The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. Thirteen people, including seven policemen, died in the suicide car bombing, officials said. Hours later, two back-to-back blasts tore through a market crowded with the people shopping for Eid in the Shia- dominated Parachinar city in the Kurram tribal region, killing at least 45 people, mostly Shias, and injuring 75 others.

The first blast occurred during rush hour in Turi Market, where a bus terminal is also located. The second blast took place as rescuers and bystanders rushed to aid those who had been hurt in the first explosion. At least 45 people have been killed and 75 others injured in Parachinar, an official from the Parachinar administration told PTI. Earlier, Medical Superintendent of the District General Hospital, Parachinar, Sabir Hussain, confirmed the death of at least 25 people and injuries to over 100 in the blasts. More than 20 of the injured were in critical condition.

FOUR POLICEMEN KILLED

No group claimed responsibility for the blasts. However, Sunni militant groups have claimed responsibility for several attacks in the area in the past. In the evening, two armed men on a motorcycle, with their faces covered with helmets, opened fire on police officers at a roadside restaurant in Karachi and killed four of them. An assistant sub-inspector was among those killed in the attack, said Superintendent of Police Asif Ahmad. In Parachinar, officials said the blasts on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramazan targeted people shopping in the area and those heading out of the city ahead of Eid.

The emergency and rescue services shifted injured to Agency Headquarters hospital Parachinar. The security forces cordoned off the entire area and started search operation. Pakistan Army contingents and FC personnel reached the site of the attack to aid in rescue efforts. "Two Army aviation helicopters have taken off from Peshawar to Parachinar for the speedy evacuation of the injured to Peshawar," the army said in a statement. "Rescue operation in progress," it added.

Pakistan army, meanwhile, launched a countrywide intelligence-led military operation against militants. Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said that security has been tightened across the country.

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"Special Intelligence-Based Operation (IBOs) and search operations (were) launched in coordination with intelligence and other Law Enforcement Agencies," he said. On March 31, a car bomb blast near an Imambargah of Shia Muslims killed 23 people and injured 70 others in Parachinar. In January, 25 people were killed and 87 others when a bomb tore through a crowded vegetable market in the same city.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks, saying that terrorists involved in the attacks will be taken to task and all out efforts will be taken to eliminate terrorism. President Mamnoon Hussain, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Governor Balochistan Muhammad Khan Achakzai and former president Asif Ali Zardari, among others, also condemned the attack. Balochistan government spokesperson Anwarul Haq Kakar told Geo News that the suspected Quetta bomber tried to break a security perimetre to target the police offices but blew up after policemen standing guard attempted to stop him.

Of the injured, nine are said to be policemen.

PAKISTAN BLAMES INDIA

Kakar blamed India for the Quetta blast. DIG Quetta Abdul Razzaq Cheema, addressing the media, said they are examining CCTV footage to determine the details of the incident. Officials said body parts of the suspected bomber, strewn across the site of the blast, were being collected along with other evidence for forensic examination. An initial investigation report by Civil Defence Director Aslam Tareen revealed that 75 kilograms of explosives were used in the Quetta blast.

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Footage of the incident showed two vehicles badly damaged in the explosion, while debris lay scattered on the street. Officials said the explosion was loud enough to be heard from a distance and shattered windows of nearby buildings. Earlier this year, on February 13, a blast took place near the Saryab Bridge in Quetta killing two personnel of the bomb disposal squad and leaving 11 injured. Later in March, an explosion targeting a security forces convoy occurred on Saryab Road. Four people were injured including three Frontier Corps personnel and a passer-by. In August, last year, a suicide bomber targeted the emergency services ward at Civil Hospital, following the death of the president of the Balochistan High Court Bar Association, killing at least 70 people and leaving many wounded.

ALSO READ:

Separate blasts kill nearly 30 in Pakistan

ALSO WATCH: 8 killed, 20 injured as serial blasts rock Pakistan

--- ENDS ---

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Earlier in the day, two CRPF jawans lost his life and two were injured after terrorists attacked their vehicle near Srinagar.

By India Today Web Desk: After the gruesome terror attack today that claimed the lives of two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, Additional Director General of Police (ADG) of CRPF S N Srivastava said that such 'cowardly act' does not affect the morale of security forces.

"Such cowardly act doesn't affect the morale of security forces in fact it will boost it. We will investigate the matter and will find out the accused behind this. Then we will respond according to that. There is no security lapse," Srivastava told media.

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Earlier in the day, two CRPF jawans lost his life and two were injured after terrorists attacked their vehicle near Srinagar.

According to Inspector General CRPF Ravideep Sahi the area has been cordoned off. "Firing was on our vehicle. One SI lost his life and two of our personnel are injured," said Sahi.

The terrorist strike took place in Srinagar's Pantha Chowk. Moments after the attack, terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) said that it was behind the terror act.

Abdullah Ghaznavi, LeT spokesperson, called a local news agency to say the outfit was behind the attack.

After the attack the terrorists reportedly fled to the nearby Delhi Public School. Security forces have cordoned off the area and an intense search operation is underway.

A policeman was injured after a police jawan misfired. It was a close shave for SSP who was in the vicinity when the policeman misfired.

Also read:

Srinagar: 2 martyred in Lashkar attack on CRPF convoy, search operation at DPS underway

Congress student wing chief justifies stone-pelting in Jammu and Kashmir

Video claims Zakir Musa's Taliban-e-Kashmir provided info to forces about LeT militants killed by Army

WATCH VIDEO

--- ENDS ---
Thiruvananthapuram, June 24

A 33-year-old Keralite priest who was missing from last four days was found dead on a beach in Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, according to information received by Church sources here on Saturday.

A message about the death of Martin Xavier Vazhachira, belonging to the CMI Congregation, was received by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate provincial here from the Archbishop of St Andrews in Edinburgh this morning.

The message said the priest, hailing from Pulinkunnu in Alappuzha district, was found dead by Edinburgh police.

Details would be available only after Tuesday, a CMI official told PTI.

The priest served at St John the Baptist Church, Corstorphine, Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader in State Assembly Ramesh Chennithala asked External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to take immediate steps to bring the priests body to India.

In a letter to Swaraj, Chennithala said the body was found under mysterious circumstances on a beach and sought a comprehensive probe into his death. PTI
Jakarta, June 23

Two inmates, including an Indian, who tunnelled their way out of a Bali prison have been captured in East Timor, police said on Saturday, in the latest prison break case in Indonesia.

Indian Sayed Mohammed Said and Bulgarian Dimitar Nikolov Iliev were caught at a hotel in Dili yesterday after arriving on a boat illegally from Indonesia.

They had escaped from Kerobokan prison Monday along with two other inmates, Australian Shaun Edward Davidson and Malaysian Tee Kok King.

The pair was originally caught for entering East Timor without legal documents, said East Timor senior police official Henrique da Costa, but police later concluded the pair was two of the four Bali fugitives.

We will most likely hand them back to the Indonesia Friday afternoon now that we know they are fugitives, da Costa told AFP.

The four foreign inmates escaped Balis prison through a 50 x 75cm (20 x 30 inch) hole at the prisons wall that connects to a 15-metre (49-foot) long water tunnel heading towards a main street.

Davidsonwho was going to be freed within monthsand the Malaysian inmate are still on the run.

The Bali jailbreak came days after dozens of prisoners swam through flood waters to escape an Indonesian jail in Jambi province after one of its walls collapsed. Most were later recaptured.

In May, more than 440 inmates fled a prison in Pekanbaru City on the island of Sumatra after prison guards let them out of their cells to pray. Only about half were caught.  AFP
Ravi S. Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 24

A CPM delegation visited Khandavali village in Faridabad district today and met the family of Junaid Khan, who was stabbed to death by a group of people after an altercation over a train seat turned communal near Ballabhgarh in Haryana on Thursday. His two brothers and a friend were injured in the attack. It demanded compensation for the bereaved family and immediate arrest of the attackers.

The delegation comprising Brinda Karat, Mohammad Salim (MP) and Haryana party secretary Surender Malik returned here after meeting Junaids family members. The party also demanded disclosure of the culprits political connection, and security in all local trains running on the Delhi-Palwal route.

Karat alleged that communal attacks on minority community members have increased in the BJP-ruled states. They were following the RSS agenda, she said.

She debunked the state governments version that the ugly incident occurred due to a conflict over a train seat. She said villagers told the delegation that harassment of minority community members travelling in trains on the Delhi-Pawal route was a common occurrence. She alleged that no elected representative or official from the Haryana Government visited the bereaved family. Persecution of minority community members has increased in BJP-ruled states. Minority communities in states, including Haryana, are feeling insecure, Karat said.

She expressed concern that Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh did not condemn the incident. The party would meet him on the issue. Surender Malik said a protest would be organised against the incident.

The CPM said the harassment of the youths on the communal ground began before the train reached the Ballabgarh railway station in Faridabad district. They were stabbed by the mob.
Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 24

In a startling revelation, two Muslim youths from the Sunderbani area of Rajouri district have exposed the Kashmir valleys insidious villains as they claimed that they have been allegedly offered Rs 1,000 per day each (Rs 30,000 a month) for stoking trouble in the valley.

They claimed that the agents of Kashmir-based anti-social forces in Rajouri had constantly been approaching them to do the job of throwing stones on security forces and police personnel.

A video of their presser in the Sunderbani area has gone viral in the social media wherein they claimed they had been facing life threat if they refused the offer of the anti-social elements.

The youth have been identified as Masood Ahmad, son of Talib Hussain, and Musaid Ahmad, son of Akbar Din, both residents of Sia village in Sunderbani.

They alleged that a person, identified as Mohammad Maqsood, resident of Makol hamlet, adjacent to their village Sia, had been offering them money for stoking unrest in the Kashmir valley.

For the past one and half months, he (Maqsood) has constantly been asking us to go to Srinagar where we will be paid Rs 1,000 per day for throwing stones. I have participated in recruitment rallies of the police and Army but could not qualify it so far. Maqsood told me that recruitment rallies will yield no results for me and I should join the stone-throwers in Srinagar to earn a handsome amount. We have been threatened of dire consequences if we do not agree to his proposal, Masood said.

Rajouri and Poonch districts, which share border with Pakistan, have substantial Muslim population but there had been no incident of Muslim youth participating in stone-throwing incidents in the Kashmir valley. The revelation of the two youths indicates the desperate attempts of Pakistan and its mercenaries in Kashmir to involve Muslim youth from Rajouri and Poonch in stoking trouble in the region.

The police have downplayed the revelation, claiming that the allegations of two youths were fake having roots in personal enmity. It, however, has arrested the accused on the charges of criminal conspiracy and attempt to abet offence.

We have taken cognisance of the matter and a probe has been ordered. It has come to the fore that the families of the youths had some issue with the family of the accused but we are looking into all angels. The brother of the accused works for a madrassa in Kashmir and he has been called for questioning, Yougal Manhas, SSP, Rajouri, said.
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 24

Lt Gen Devraj Anbu, Northern Command chief, accompanied by Lt Gen JS Sandhu, GOC of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps, called on Governor NN Vohra here today.

The Governor and the Army Commander reviewed the situation along the International Border, Line of Control and Line of Actual Control in J&K and also discussed the need for sustained strict enforcement of the counter-infiltration and counter-terrorism grids.

They also discussed the counter-measures required to deal with the terrorist attacks on the police personnel and the security arrangements made for the smooth conduct of the Amarnath yatra commencing on June 29.

Meanwhile, Surinder Kumar Bhagat, DG Railway Protection Force, in a separate meeting apprised the Governor about the measures enforced by the Railway Protection Force for protecting the Railways assets and passengers in J&K.

The Governor stressed the need for effectively ensuring the safety and security of passengers travelling by the Indian Railways and to make their journeys comfortable.
Washington, June 24

Prime Minister Narendra Modis Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar here.

Secretary Tillerson met Foreign Secretary Jaishankar on Friday to discuss the US-India relationship and the agenda for Prime Minister Modis meetings at the White House on June 26, a State Department spokesman said.

The Secretary noted the Prime Ministers visit will strengthen ties between the United States and India and advance our common interest in fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth and prosperity, and expanding security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, the spokesperson said.

The two agreed that the two countries had a deep and growing strategic partnership and hoped to work more closely on regional and global issues, the official said in response to a question.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department.

Jaishankar, a former Indian ambassador to the US, has been playing a leading role in shaping the India-US relationship under the Modi government.

Modis US visit would begin on June 25.

Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington. PTI
Gang leaders Rannvijay Singha and Prince Narula had an argument, following which, Prince walked out of the show.

By India Today Web Desk: Things have taken a rather ugly turn on reality show Roadies Rising. Recently, Prince Narula, Neha Dhupia, and Rannvijay Singha had an argument, and Prince finally walked out of the show, according to reports.

Apparently, Rannvijay had accused Prince of making a statement about how he would never let Rannvijay's gang win. Prince was shocked when he heard this. Later, Rannvijay told Prince that Neha had heard Prince make such declarations, and had informed Rannvijay about it.

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A hurt Prince claimed that he had never made any claims about not letting Rannvijay win the show.

When Rannvijay tried to include Neha in the debate, Neha quickly backed out by saying, "Don't make this about me. It is a clear case of a misunderstanding. Whatever you have to say, say it to each other and please keep me out of this," according to a report in RealityPost.

Finally, after hearing everything, Prince walked out of the sets of the show.

It remains to be seen if Prince will return to the show.

Also read: Prince Narula hits back at a guy who asked for a kiss from rumoured girlfriend Yuvika Chaudhary

--- ENDS ---
New Delhi, June 24

The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday disqualified senior Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra for filing wrong accounts of election expenditure.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

An EC spokesperson confirmed that Mishra had been disqualified for three years from Saturday.

His election from the Datia Assembly constituency also stands void.

Rajendra Bharti of the Congress had alleged that Mishra, a close aide of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, had not filed certain details in his election expenditure in the 2008 polls.

The EC had served notice to Mishra on January 15, 2013.

Mishra had moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court against the EC notice, but did not get any relief.

Finally, the EC came out with its verdict on Saturday.

Cong demands Mishra's resignation

Meanwhile, the Congress on Saturday demanded the resignation of Narottam Mishra.

In view of the EC order, he should immediately resign from the Cabinet, the Leader of Opposition, Ajay Singh, said.

It has been proved how the BJP ministers are winning the polls, Singh added.

Yadav, who is the state Congress president, claimed that the case against Mishra was related to paid news.

MP Minister Narottam Mishra disqualified for three years by poll panel for paid news in elections. Big setback for BJP in MP, All India Congress Committee (AICC) legal, human rights and RTI cell chairman and senior advocate Vivek Tankha said in a tweet.

The Aam Aadmi Partys MP unit also demanded the resignation of the minister.

However, BJP chief spokesman Deepak Vijaywargiya said the party is studying the EC order and will comment only after that on the matter.

An officer close to the minister said that he is exploring legal options against the EC order.PTI
Yash Goyal

Jaipur, June 24

A farmer allegedly committed suicide because of economic burden: at Sunel, 50 km from Jhalawar, on Friday.

Bagdi Lal Rathore, 65, having 11 bigas of land, was found hanging from a tree in the fields on Friday evening, SP Anand Sharma said on Saturday.

Deceaseds son Vishnu claimed that his father was reeling under economic burden and loan liability, the SP said. The deceased also had a flour mill in the town, he said.

The Sunel SHO is probing the case to ascertain the exact reason for the death.

The deceased leaves behind wife, two sons and two daughters.

This is the third case of farmer suicide in Rajasthan in 10 days.
Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, June 24

The Maharashtra government has announced a farm loan waiver amounting to Rs 34,000 crore.

Called the Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Krishi Samman Yojana, loans up to Rs 1.5 lakh rupees of individual farmers that were taken before July 2016 will be waived, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced at a press conference here today.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)



The loan waiver will cost the state government Rs 34,000 crore and benefit 89 lakh farmers in the state, Fadnavis said. The scheme will make 40 lakh agriculturists debt-free.

Providing some details about the scheme, Fadnavis said farmers who have regularly repaid their loans in the past would receive a payback of 25 per cent as incentive of their loans. We would like to ensure that even farmers who have regularly repaid their loans also enjoy the benefits, Fadnavis said.

He added that the details on the loan waiver scheme would be made available shortly.

Maharashtra Govt. decided loan waiver of Rs. 34,000 Crores. We are waiving loans upto Rs.1.5 lakhs completely: Maha CM Devendra Fadnavis pic.twitter.com/FXcrVgSNBg  ANI (@ANI_news) June 24, 2017

Maharashtra has announced the biggest loan waiver package in the country. The amount waived off and the number of beneficiaries is bigger as compared to UP, Karnataka, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh, Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil told reporters.

Earlier, the Maharashtra government had mulled imposing an upper limit of Rs 1 lakh that was to have been waived off per farmer. However, this was opposed by farmers' groups and the opposition parties.

Fadnavis had met with Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar in New Delhi on Friday as part of an effort to build consensus among political parties before announcing the loan waiver today.

The Chief Minister admitted that the loan waiver will add to the state's financial burden. We will come out with a programme to curtail expenses. Our ministers and MLAs will give up a month's salary to support the loan waiver programme, Fadnavis said.

Farmers in many parts of Maharashtra were on a warpath early this month, which disrupted supply of vegetables and other essentials to cities, including Mumbai. They were demanding a loan waiver, which was backed by all political parties.

The stir was called off after the government gave them a firm assurance on bringing in a comprehensive scheme to help the debt-pressed cultivators.  With agency inputs
Pune, June 24

What should have been a day of celebrations turned out to be profound grief for the family of Naik Sandip Jadhav.

Jadhav, one of the two soldiers killed in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, was cremated on Saturday on his sons first birthday.

But there were no smiles on Shivams landmark day, only eyes misting over with tears as his fathers mortal remains were consigned to flames with full military honours at Kelgaon in central Maharashtras Sillod taluka, about 230 km from here.

The 34-year-old jawan, who belonged to the 15 Maratha Light Infantry, was killed in an attack by a team of Pakistani Special Forces, which had sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch sector two days ago.

Shravan Mane, a 24-year-old sepoy from Kolhapur, was also killed in the attack.

Thousands of people from all walks of life took part in Jadhavs final journey and bid him a tearful adieu.

People converged at his home in large numbers to mourn the loss of the braveheart and chanted slogans like Sandip Jadhav amar rahe and Jab tak suraj chand rahega, Sandip tera naam rahega as his body was taken out of the house for the last time.

A pall of gloom descended over Sillod as news of Jadhavs death broke.

Jadhav had promised his family that he would be home for Shivams first birthday celebrations, but he returned in a coffin, sending his family and friends into shock.

Besides one-year-old Shivam, Jadhav is survived by his wife, a three-year-old daughter, parents and a brother.

Congress MLA from Sillod, Abdul Sattar, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagade and officials of the district administration were present at the cremation site. PTI
Lisbon, June 24

India and Portugal on Saturday announced a 4million euros joint fund to bolster research in science and technology as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held in-depth talks with his Portuguese counterpart on cooperation in areas like counter-terrorism, space and climate studies.

In a joint address to the media after the signing of 11 bilateral agreements, Modi and his counterpart Antonio Costa said the two countries have made substantial progress in their relations in the past six months.

The agreements signed included cooperation in outer space, double taxation avoidance, nano technology, improving cultural ties, youth and sports, higher education and scientific research, and Portugal-India business hub and Indian Chamber of Commerce.

"We held wide-ranging discussions today. The Portuguese economic rebound and strong Indian growth offer excellent opportunities for us to grow together," Modi, the first India prime minister in Portugal on a bilateral visit, said.

Speaking on bilateral collaboration in cutting-edge technology, Modi also announced the setting up of a joint science and technology fund of 4 million euros.

"Our economic ties continue to follow an upward trajectory, and we can do more for the flow of goods, services, capital and human resources," he said.

"We are also determined to deepen our cooperation against terrorism and violent extremism," he said and thanked Lisbon for its "consistent support" for India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council and multilateral export control regimes.

Modi arrived in Lisbon on the first leg of his three-nation tour.

The highlight of Modi's four-day three-nation visit will be the US leg as Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

Ahead of his US visit, Modi said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he had tweeted.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.

Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.

After the US visit, Modi will travel to the Netherlands on June 27 where he will have a meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and call on King Willem-Alexander and meet Queen Maxima.  PTI
Lucknow, June 24

NDAs presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will be in the Uttar Pradesh capital tomorrow to seek support from elected representatives while preparation in the Assembly is on for the smooth conduct of voting, slated for July 17.

A senior Congress leader said the Oppositions presidential pick Meira Kumar might also pay a visit to Lucknow to seek votes from the electoral college as the party will not leave any stone unturned for the election.

She, in all probability, will be accompanied by AICC general secretary Gulam Nabi Azad and is likely to meet all elected representative, cutting across party affiliations, he said.

The state, which has the maximum population in the country, has the highest value of each vote in the presidential election.

The electoral college includes elected members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, states, union territories and the NCT region of Delhi.

The NDAs presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind will be in the state capital tomorrow and will be going to Uttarakhand the next day, national general secretary of the BJP Bhupendra Yadav said.

He is likely to meet MPs and MLAs of the BJP, its allies and also leaders of other political parties over dinner, sources said.

On its part, the state Assembly Secretariat has started preparations and had also held meeting with a high-level delegation of the Election Commission on Friday.

All necessary steps are being initiated to make foolproof arrangements before the presidential election, a senior official of the Assembly said.

For the first time, a special pen and ink would be brought to Lucknow from Delhi to be used by voters to mark their preference of candidates.

For presidential elections, votes are marked in a preferential order which is then counted to declare the winner.

Since the NDAs presidential pick hails from Kanpur Dehat district of the state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said it is an honour that the son of Uttar Pradesh would be occupying the presidential office.

Kovind had been active in the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP and was even appointed the general secretary when Laxmikant Bajpai was the partys state chief. But he chose to switch to the partys central unit.

After the Narendra Modi government came to power, he was appointed the Bihar Governor, from where he resigned after being named the NDAs presidential nominee. PTI
Agartala, June 24

Tripuras Left Front government is facing an unprecedented shortage of teachers to run its 5,000 schools from the next academic year beginning in January.

The Supreme Court order of March 29 upholding a state High Court order terminating the jobs of 10,323 government teachers has added to the vacuum. The state also faces a dearth of eligible candidates to fill up 15,436 teachers posts.

The Tripura government has appealed to the Centre for relaxation in the norms for recruiting teachers in order to fill up the postsan issue that is turning into a political hot potato ahead of the Assembly elections early next year.

We had sought one time relaxation in qualifying marks and exemption of professional qualification with the MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) for recruiting teachers, but the ministry rejected our request, Tripura Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty told IANS.

Chakraborty said he met Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar last month and also wrote several letters to him on the issue. Our senior officials met the ministry officials in Delhi many times on the issue, but the central government disallowed our appeal. This has deprived thousands of unemployed youths in the state an opportunity (to take up teachers posts), he added.

The Minister said that the Union HRD Ministry in April relaxed the minimum qualification norms for teachers notified by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) for Assam and West Bengal states. He wants that Tripura should be extended the same relaxation.

According to Chakraborty, Tripura has only six teachers education institutes. The intake capacity of the six institutions is only 1,130 for a two-year teachers course, he said, adding, Hence to fill up the vacancies of 15,436 teachers posts with qualified teachers will take a few decades. Under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, before recruitment of teachers in government schools, Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) is mandatory. To appear for the TET, the candidate has to have 50 per cent marks in certain subjects and a Bachelor degree or Diploma in Elementary Education or Diploma in Education.

The Education Minister said that Tripura requires 52,315 teachers to run 5,000 government schools. The state currently has around 47,000 teachersof whom 10,323 face the axe due to the Supreme Court order.

Like other states in India, the pass percentage of candidates in TET is very minimal in Tripura too. This makes the situation worse, Chakraborty added.

The apex court on March 29 upheld the Tripura High Court order to terminate the jobs of 10,323 teachers, but allowed them to continue in service till December 31.

The court asked the government to frame a new Employment Policy, to initiate a fresh recruitment process and complete it by December 31.

The Tripura High Courts division bench headed by then Chief Justice Deepak Kumar Gupta (now elevated to the Supreme Court) on May 7, 2014, terminated the jobs of the teachers citing incorrect selection procedure.

However, on May 17, the state government announced the creation of 13,000 non-teaching posts in two departmentsostensibly to accommodate the teachers facing ouster.

Ahead of next years assembly elections in February, the opposition and ruling Left parties are hurling accusations at each other over the issue.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state secretary Bijan Dhar said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government and the party leadership have been playing a double role on the crucial education issue.

The BJP government at the Centre gave a relaxation in teachers recruitment norms to Assam and West Bengal, but rejected Tripuras proposal. The BJP leadership also asked the union HRD Minister not to give any relaxation to Tripura - thus depriving the states youths, Dhar told IANS.

On April 11, when three Tripura MPs met Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar demanding one-time relaxation on TET for the youths of Tripura, BJPs observer for Tripura Sunil Deodhar tweeted: Prakash Javadekar assured me that there is no question of relaxation regarding eligibility of 10,323 teachers. Tripura Lok Sabha member Jitendra Chaudhury, who had led the three-member MPs team, said: Rejection of Tripuras demand for relaxation will create a huge vacuum in the states school education system and cause immense inconvenience for the school students. The Congress has also criticised the central governments role in education.

The central government must follow a uniform role on education across the country, Tripura Congress vice-president Tapas Dey said.  IANS
Washington, June 24

On the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modis US visit, the Trump administration has dismissed reports that it has been ignoring India, saying President Trump realises that the country has been a force for good in the world and ties with it were important.

I think it would be wrong to say that this administration has been ignoring or not focused on India, a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the two-day Modi visit from June 25.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The Prime Minister would meet President Donald Trump face-to-face for the first time at the White House on Monday.

I think that the US really appreciates India, and I think that President Trump realises that India has been a force for good in the world and that its a relationship thats important. And I think that will come through in the visit on Monday, the official said.

The senior administration official made the remarks while responding to questions on whether the US-India relationship has drifted under the new government, in part, because of President Trump and the administrations support to China.

I think its a bit unfair. I mean, were only six months into the administration. But there have been two very good phone calls between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi that you can point to as showing both countries interest in the relationship, the White House official argued.

Yes, this will be the first opportunity for them to sit down and have a conversation, but I think that this is still fairly early on in the administration, the official said.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said President Trump and Prime Minister Modi would have a very robust discussion when they met at the White House.

During the meeting, the President and the Prime Minister will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism, defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement, and energy, Spicer said in response to a question.

Senator Mark Warner, Co-Chair of the Senate India Caucus, hoped Trump, in his meeting with Modi, showed enthusiastic support for deepening the US-India relationship, which enjoyed strong bipartisan support.

The relationship is ripe for additional cooperation in areas such as the development of aircraft carrier technology, space surveillance, unmanned aerial vehicles, cyber and increased defence manufacturing, Warner said.

As we venture further into the Asian century, there is little doubt of the increasing significance of India on the world stage. Our cooperation helps increase global security and advance economic opportunity in both countries, Warner said in response to a question.

On whether the contentious H-1B visa issue would come up for discussion during the meeting, a senior administration official said it was unlikely to be raised from the US side but if raised by the Indian side, the Americans were ready for it.

Ahead of the visit, Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna said the first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump would give them an opportunity to look at the entire gamut of Indo-US engagement and to exchange views on issues of global interest.

At the invitation of Trump, the Prime Minister would spend several hours with the US President at the White House on Monday afternoon, which would end with a dinner later that night.

This would be the first working dinner being hosted by Trump for a foreign leader at the White House.

I think that just shows the amount of care that has gone in on the part of the White House to welcome our Prime Minister and the kind of planning that has gone into make this a very special visit, Sarna said.

This (dinner) is a special gesture and it is appreciated, he said.

On the agenda of the meeting, a senior administration official told reporters that the civil nuclear deal would be part of the discussions between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump.

The White House also emphasised that the US was looking forward to its nuclear reactors contributing to Indias energy security.

It said the US is interested in providing India with the kind of defence technology it normally reserved for its closest allies, signalling the Trump administrations resolve to strengthen the bilateral defence relationship.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar here and told him that Prime Minister Modis Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth.

The two agreed that the two countries had a deep and growing strategic partnership and hoped to work more closely on regional and global issues.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department.

Ahead of his visit, Modi on Friday said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world, he tweeted.

In a statement posted on the Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.

President Trump and I have spoken on telephone prior to this. Our conversations have touched upon our common intent to take forward our productive allround engagement for the mutual benefit of our people, he said.

I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide-ranging partnership between India and the United States, the Prime Minister said. PTI
Prateek Chauhan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 24

The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) on Saturday rescued two children and apprehended two human traffickers from Bairgania Railway Station in Sitamarhi district of Bihar.

The children were allegedly being taken to Surat by Karambhumi Express train for labour.

The traffickers were handed over to GRP Sitamarhi and an FIR had been lodged, whereas rescued children were handed over to Childline NGO.

The SSB is working against the menace of human trafficking and child labour.

In this year, 75 cases of human trafficking have been registered by the SSB and 330 victims of human trafficking have been rescued along with 100 arrests of human traffickers.

The SSB is working in close coordination with state police to establish the forward and backward linkages, said a senior SSB official.
Priyanka Chopra looks like a classic beauty in the new black and white picture she shared on Instagram.

By India Today Web Desk: Our desi girl Priyanka Chopra is busy with her Hollywood ventures. After impressing the critics and audiences alike with Baywatch, PeeCee is shooting for her next Hollywood project, A Kid Like Jake, starring Jim Parsons and Claire Danes in lead roles.

The Baywatch actor shared a black and white photo of herself in a fur jacket on Instagram today. Just like us, she is having her weekend dilemma.

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Her caption read, ""Errrmmm.. to do or not to do.. that is the question.. #weekenddilemmas."

Errrmmm.. to do or not to do.. that is the question.. #weekenddilemmas ???????????? A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on Jun 23, 2017 at 7:45pm PDT

Priyanka looks both sexy and classy in a velvet dress with a fur jacket on one shoulder in the picture.

The actor is currently geared up for the third season of the American thriller series Quantico.

ALSO READ | Priyanka Chopra getting trolled for her dress: Why India doesn't deserve the global icon

ALSO READ | Priyanka Chopra was asked a dirty question about her Baywatch guys and she handled it like a boss

ALSO WATCH | Wanted to be seen as a modern actor, says Priyanka Chopra

--- ENDS ---
Pushpa Girimaji

Reports about serious injuries caused to children at daycare centres in different cities-Mumbai and Gurugram for example- have got me worried, because I leave my child in a daycare centre when I go to work. What kind of precautions should I take to ensure the safety of my child?

First and foremost, check their track record. Talk to parents who are leaving their children there and find out if they are happy with the service. Next, visit the centre and see the facilities, hygiene and the qualifications of those who are looking after the children. Is there enough number of them? How do they deal with the children? What kind of educational background do they have? How safety conscious are they? Has the centre done a background check on them? Make a list of questions and get satisfactory answers.

Last month, a nine-month old babys ring finger was severed at an expensive daycare centre in Gurugram, Haryana, where the childs working parents had left the baby for the day. The Centres explanation was that the childs finger got accidentally caught in the door of the diaper changing room. But how can that happen if the child had been properly taken care of? Not surprisingly, the Centre did not show the CCTV footage to the parents, claiming that it had accidentally got unplugged and so there was no footage! In April last year, a three year old girls thumb was amputated, following a severe injury at another expensive Centre, also in Gurugram. Here too, it was claimed that the girls hand had got caught in the gap between the door hinges and the frame! Again in November last year, the entire nation was shocked by a brutal assault on a nine-month old baby by a help at a daycare centre in Khargar, near Mumbai.

So you must also make sure that the daycare centre has a CCTV in every room and that it is working. There should be a provision for online monitoring by parents. Of course, it would not be possible for parents to constantly watch the child from their workplace, but the fear that they are watching will certainly force these centres to pay more attention to the quality and safety of care. One generally hopes that there will never be such incidents at any of these places, affecting the safety of the child, but in case of an untoward incident, make sure that the centre pays for its negligence  through a criminal case filed through the police and a case for compensation filed through the consumer court.

Is there any law regulating these centres?

Unfortunately, there is no law, but we do urgently need one to regulate them. The law should include standards for building and equipment, hygiene and sanitation, kitchen and food, qualification and training of care givers, stipulate the ratio of children and care givers, standardise safety practices to be followed like background checks, including the health of those who work at the centres and the requirement of licensing and registration of every creche or daycare centre, on their fulfilling all these standard requirements. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (or even the State Commission) should take up this issue and draft a model law that can be adopted by all the states. The main focus of the law should be to eliminate unintentional injuries and ensure the safety of children who are left in the care of such centres by working parents.

Many countries around the world have such laws governing these centres. In Australia, for example, the Australian Childrens Education and Care Quality Authority monitors the implementation of the National Quality Framework (NQF) across Australia. The NQF includes a national law, regulations, quality standards and operational requirements, besides a national body to monitor grant of approvals, assess and rate the quality of service and enforce compliance of legislation.

In India, as the number of working women increases and so also nuclear families, the demand for daycare centres to look after children, till they start going to school, will only increase in the coming years. So will accidents caused by careless negligence at these centres, unless efforts are made now to regulate these services and protect small children.
Harish Khare

The recent goings-on in the Punjab Assembly have brought no credit to anyone  neither the ruling party nor the Akali Dal  and nor is the AAP stand redeemed. My colleagues who have covered the Assembly for many, many years told me that they had never witnessed this kind of breakdown of good manners and parliamentary decorum. The roughing up of women MLAs by marshals was particularly ugly.

A kind of Rubicon seems to have been crossed. As it is, Punjab politics is overloaded with delinquencies of its own, and now even the last semblance of orderly exchange  in the legislative assembly arena  is being given the go-by. The bitterness, rivalries and the disappointments of the electoral arena got played out during the Budget session. Punjab is the loser.

The sad part is that it is the Congress party that happens to be ensconced on the Treasury Benches and all the ugly hangama took place on its watch. The Congress is one party that ought to have the greatest of stakes in ensuring that our constitutional institutions function decently and decorously. The Chief Minister is the leader of the House; and an institutional responsibility dwells on him to see to it that despite provocations and obstructions from the Opposition Benches, the House conducts itself with honour and dignity.

The AAP is a newcomer to the arena. It is neither familiar nor, perhaps, is interested in getting tutored in the parliamentary rules and regulations. Its MLAs thrive on the politics of anger and righteousness. They easily got excited and provoked and allowed the ruling party to get away unmolested.

The Speaker, too, did not help matters ease. All presiding officers begin as party men, but their office demands that they move out of the ruling party box. In this age of relentless partisanship, the presiding officers find it difficult to live up to the GV Mavalankar doctrine that a speaker will intentionally do no injustice or show partiality. Mavalankar, who was the first Speaker of the Lok Sabha, saw to it that the Treasury Benches, then headed by a giant of a man like Jawaharlal Nehru, never took the Chair for granted. The Punjab Speakers conduct fell short of the Mavalankar standards, but still it was totally unbecoming of the Akali Dal leaders to call him names.

Captain Amarinder Singh did himself no favour by not intervening and ensuring that the things did not get out of hand. His predecessor, Parkash Singh Badal, had built for himself a reputation of interjecting himself just in the nick of time to bring tempers down in the House.

The Punjab Assembly is one of the few legislatures still known for hosting serious parliamentary business. That reputation must not be allowed to get besmirched.

***************

Two weeks ago in this space, I had lauded a family friend, Heera Chand Guglani, for having the clarity to put down in writing clear-cut directions as to what was to be done  and, what was not to be done after his death. It seems that Mr Guglani is not the only one to have given thought to this post-death business of rites and rituals. Very many readers have responded and shared memories of men and women who had similarly penned their last wishes.

The most interesting letter came from Dr RK Malhotra, otherwise known as Dr Kumar Panipati. He wrote to inform about the great man of letters from Haryana, one Bal Krishan Muztar. As Dr Panipati says, Muztar was a freedom fighter, poet, writer, scholar and journalist, who had specified that his death be accepted with courage and fortitude by his family and friends. And though being a high caste Brahmin, this man had decreed that do not read the Geeta near the lifeless body. He had also instructed that no rites be performed.

Preparing for ones death is a strange sensation. It is a reminder  a healthy reminder  of ones mortality. It requires courage and rectitude. By giving precise and detailed instructions, one frees the children and grandchildren from the guilt of uncertainty of whether or not they had adequately performed the requisite rites for the departed soul. The religious clergy is always there to instigate feelings of guilt and possible retribution if this or that post-death ritual is omitted.

I am prepared to consider the idea of providing space in The Tribune for a possible series...maybe, it can be called When I take leave....

***************

T he subtitle of this book, India Dissents, says it all  3,000 years of Difference, Doubt and Argument. The Editor, Ashok Vajpeyi, a highly respected Hindi litterateur and an acclaimed poet, has brilliantly succeeded in making a much-needed point: a tradition of dissent and doubt has been central to our civilisational heritage. During the best of times in our history, subjects and citizens have felt empowered to speak to authority and question the received wisdom.

Ashok Vajpeyi was one of the key literary figures who came together in the later months of 2015 to raise their collective voice against the creeping cult of intolerance. Three intellectuals -- Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi -- it need be recalled, were killed for their crime of being, as Vajpeyi puts it, rationalists and creative dissenters. Those murders stirred up the intelligentsias collective and a worthy battle was fought; writers, artists, novelists, poets and others from the creative community found a dignified way of registering their protest  they returned the state honours. It was the most telling defiance of a powerful state.

In this remarkable collection of voices from over three centuries, Vajpeyi seeks to claim a rich and honourable heritage and legitimacy for the creative communitys protests. Right from the Rig Veda to Ravish Kumar (of NDTV), the reader is treated to a very rich history of dissent.

To begin, there was Buddhism and Jainism questioning and challenging the Vedic orthodoxy of rites and rituals. Then, there were Tulsidas, Kabir, the Sikh Gurus disagreeing and refusing to conform to the prevalent stagnant orthodoxy and its mores and manners and morals; then came Meerabai, and the Sufis like Amir Khusro, Dara Shikoh, Bulleh Shah-- each finding a personal creative idiom to argue and question and disobey.

In the modern era, the great social reformers  Rammohan Roy and Jyotirao Phule  questioned abhorrent social and religious practices and the dogma that provided legitimacy to those practices; and, then came the glorious age of ultimate defiance  of Tilak, Gandhi, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Periyar EV Ramasamy; of revolutionary practitioners like Bhagat Singh, Subhas Bose; of intellectual giants like MN Roy and BR Ambedkar.

What Ashok Vajpeyi manages to show is that free India was able to acquire a national identity and a robust national self-confidence without feeling the need to shut up dissenting voices. And, there was no dearth of dissenters, well-meaning but sincere; there were poets, politicians as also practitioners of violent dissent like Kanu Sanyal and, in our neighbourhood, Paash.

The larger and a very noble point Vajpeyi makes is that what happened at JNU  with Kanhaiya Kumar and Omar Khalid  was very much part of a democratic tradition.

One of the finest pieces in this collection is from one of The Tribune columnist Keki Daruwala, who defiantly asks: Why must artistic freedom be subordinated to that fake penumbra of hurt sentiments? That, of course, is the cross most societies often find themselves wearing when a small but vocal group appropriates the mantle of collective sentiment and demands conformism and obedience from one and all in the name of the nation and state.

It is a collection that every school principal should be giving as a parting gift to each graduating student.

I will be happy to invite any such principal and his/her students for a cup of coffee....

kaffeeklatsch@tribuneindia.com
Kuldeep Chauhan in Shimla

They are the new queens of hills  professional, educated, and smart  with a mission to make the 155-year-old city safer, drug-free, cleaner and modern, yet environmentally-friendly. They face familiar civic challenges. In the 34-member Shimla Municipal Corporation, 20 women councillors empower the civic body -- Indias oldest municipality -- for the first time. Out of 126 candidates in the fray, 61 women candidates contested the civic elections on June 1, and 20 won, including on 17 reserved seats. Three more  Congress-backed Sushma Kuthiala (Ram Bazar), BJP -backed Satya Kaundal (Sanjauli Chowk) and Congress-backed Kusum Lata Thakur (New Shimla) -- trounced their rivals decisively.

Its getting increasingly clear that the new councillors have come out from the shadows of their husbands, seeking to change Shimla the way they would like to. Heres how some of them stand, eager to measure up to the civic challenges in their areas:

Kusum Sadret (Shimla Mayor)

Councillor: Annandale ward

Age: 37 yrs, housewife

Education: Postgraduate in sociology



We will work as a team to make Shimla a smart and swachh city by involving residents and councillors of all the 34 wards. We need regular water supply in each house, sewerage connectivity, well-lit streets and ambulance roads. Parking is a huge problem. We must have a road map for the city.

Vidushi Sharma (Chhota Shimla)

Age: 37 yrs

Profession: Lawyer

Education: Law graduate



Vidushi says she wants to see a community hall in her ward. Most people do not know about various schemes and how they can stand to benefit from them. I will take various welfare schemes to women, including poor and widows, and educate them as to how they can avail of them. I will go step-by-step up, she says.

Kusum Lata Thakur (New Shimla)

Age: 41 yrs, housewife

Education: Postgraduate, owns a private computer centre



Shed like to see Shimla as an extension of her home. First we have to get down to the basics: regular water in each household, sewerage and power cables for smart streets, ambulance roads and paths and parks. The citys shabby looks can be beautified by planting shrubs, trees and flowers.

Aarti Chauhan (Engine Ghar)

Age: 38 yrs, Profession: Builder

Education: Phd (Physical Education)



Her first priority is making available clean drinking water. Also, we need to launch a campaign against drugs and sexual assaults on women. We need female counsellors at local dispensaries and a woman police station at Sanjauli.

Meera Sharma (Sangti)

Age: 43 yrs, housewife

Education: Postgraduate in social welfare

Profession: social work



Womens safety is her prime concern. We find it difficult to walk safely on congested roads. Women, despite constituting one-half of the population, have no community reading room and park except on at The Mall. All this needs peoples active participation.

Dr Kimi Sud (Benmore ward)

Profession: Ayurvedic doctor and administrator Shimla Nursing College

Age: 37 yrs, housewife

Education: BAMS & MBA



Known for her dislike for concrete multi-storied parking complex, Dr Kimi bats for small parking spaces and upgrading the sewerage lines. I want to work on the happiness model of Bhutan, replicating its eco-tourism initiatives in our town.

Kamlesh Mehta (Upper Dhalli)

Age : 38 yrs, housewife

Education: postgraduate

We need a garbage collection facility for each household. We also want an escalator and an ambulance road up to Upper Dhalli because it is difficult to carry the dead or a patient from a house to the main road.

Shailley Sharma (Summer Hill)

Age: 38 yrs, housewife

Education: MSc Physics, BEd



Summar Hill is a students hub. Well motivate them to preserve the heritage and participate in campaigns to make the area cleaner and greener. We hope once Kol Dam water scheme starts, the city will face no water problem.
Shubhadeep Choudhury in Kolkata

In violence-affected Darjeeling and Kalimpong in West Benngal, there is much more than strident voices of a separate state of Gorkhaland. An academic exercise about the idea of a separate state is silhouetted against the more impending arrangements for keeping law and order. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) championing the cause of Nepali-speaking people and spearheading the stir is aggressive, though, it is aware that politically, its demand is a long haul. Several things apart, if Gorkhaland were to be a reality, it would be the second Nepali-speaking peoples majority state after Sikkim.

Whose land, whose territory?

After the semi-autonomous Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) was formed in 2011, Bimal Gurung, GJM chief, had remarked that GTA would pave the way for a separate state. Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) in Assam, too, would become a separate state one day, Gurung had stated. He asked: Wasnt Nagaland, which formed a part of Assam but enjoyed autonomy, already a separate state?

Nagaland, Bodoland, Gorkhaland -- there is a striking similarity in the names. A huge difference though separates the first two from the last. Nagas and Bodos are sons of the soil. Gorkhas (a nomenclature chosen by the agitators to distinguish themselves from the inhabitants of Nepal), on the other hand, are immigrants. They came to the area following the footsteps of the British and outnumbered the local population consisting of the Bhutias and Lepchas.

The British legacy

With the advent of the British (1861), the demographic composition of Sikkim underwent a rapid change. Nepali settlers soon outnumbered the Bhutia-Lepcha combination of the population in Sikkim, says Anjan Chakravarti, faculty member at the University of Burdwan.

Pulls and pressures worked thereafter. The rise of Prithvi Narayan Shah in Nepal forced the lower-caste small peasants and artisans to leave Nepal. At the same time, recruitment in the British army and demand for cheap labour for carrying out British-led construction works in Sikkim forced the poor Nepalese to leave Nepal and settle in Sikkim with active British encouragement, says Chakravarti.

Nepalese settlers in Sikkim were denied right over land. This, coupled with the fact that the settlers were Hindus while the Bhutias and Lepchas were Buddhists, became a source of considerable tension.

The Nepali settlers launched a series of movements culminating in Sikkim becoming a part of India in 1974 as the 22nd state. Monarchy in Sikkim gave way for democracy. The Nepalese, by virtue of being in majority, captured power.

The decision to choose India over native Nepal for integration of Sikkim also speaks volumes about the quality of the Nepalese leadership of Sikkim, says Bani Prasanna Misra, former director of the Centre for Himalayan Studies at Siliguris North Bengal University.

Political instability and economic insecurity drove the Nepalese out of their country for generations to fan out across the Terai and Dooars and occupy large tracts of Sikkim and Bhutan, resulting in upheavals of one kind or another in both places. This migration gained additional impetus under official auspices after the British acquired Darjeeling, says political analyst Sunanda K Datta Ray.

A parallel with Tripura?

It is tempting to draw a parallel between Gorkhaland and Tripura and argue that in Tripura, too, the original inhabitants have got sidelined. Outsiders (Bengalis) dominate the political scene.

However, Anjan Chakravarty, who earlier taught in Darjeelings St Josephs College, disagrees. He says Tripura had become a Bengali-majority area long before Independence when there was no legal basis for regarding the Bengali-speaking people of East Bengal (who comprise the majority of the Bengali speaking people of Tripura) as foreigners.

But Nepal has always been a foreign country, Chakravarti points out.

If the Gorkhaland demand is conceded, it will amount to handing over political power to settlers ignoring the traditional inhabitants. It is not surprising that Lyangsong Tamsang Lepcha, chairman of the Lepcha Development Board, has agreed to become chairperson of the committee set up by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for challenging the GJM in the hills.

Sikkim, Gorkhaland and the independent country of Nepal form a contiguous territory. All those who long for Greater Nepal must be watching with interest the progress of the ongoing agitation. Greater Nepal, which spreads from the Sutlej in the west to Teesta in the east, is a live concept with a strong fan following. Check it on the google, it produces over two crore results!

Nepali migrants are now spread over a much larger area than the territory unified by the 18th century king Prithvi Narayan Shah. The Tezpur Lok Sabha seat of Assam and Kangpokpi assembly constituency of Manipur are controlled by Nepali speakers. They are present in Bhutan in huge numbers.

Harka Bahadur Chhetri of the Jan Andolon Party (JAP), a breakaway faction of GJM, however, argues that Gorkhaland poses no such threat. It will give a sense of identity to the Indian Gorkhas. A Gorkha from any part of India can come and settle there, says Chhetri.
Peshawar, June 24

Pakistan was in a state of shock after weeks of relative peace as terrorists struck at three cities, killing 62 people and wounding over 100, prompting the Army to launch a countrywide crackdown on militants.

A suicide bomber on Saturday blew up his explosives-laden car near Inspector General of Police Ehsan Mehboobs office in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, killing at least 13 people, including seven policemen, and wounding 21 others.

The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Hours later, twin blasts tore through a market crowded with the people shopping for Eid in the Shia-dominated Parachinar city in the Kurram tribal region yesterday, killing at least 45 people, mostly Shias, and injuring 75 others.

Banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Sunni militant group linked with the Taliban took responsibility for the attack.

The first blast occurred during rush hour in Turi Market, where a bus terminal is also located. The second blast took place as rescuers and bystanders rushed to aid those who had been hurt in the first explosion.

At least 45 people have been killed and 80 others injured in Parachinar, an official from the local administration said.

Officials said the blasts on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramazan targeted people shopping in the area and those heading out of the city ahead of Eid.

Separately in the evening, three militants riding on two motorbikes killed four policemen in a restaurant in Karachi.

Police said that a banned group was involved in killing of cops in Karachi but did not identify the attackers.

However, pamphlets found from the spot of attack in Karachi showed that previously little known outfit Ansar al- Sharia Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack. It also warned to launch an operation against security forces.

It appears to be in retaliation for Radd-ul Fassad operation launched by security forces earlier this year to eliminate the facilitators of militants.

The Pakistan Army launched a countrywide intelligence-led military operation against militants.

Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said that security has been tightened across the country.

Special Intelligence-Based Operation (IBOs) and search operations (were) launched in coordination with intelligence and other Law Enforcement Agencies, he said.

Ghafoor also said that Afghan soil was used to launch the attacks. Recent terrorist incidents linked to sanctuaries across (the Pak-Afghan border), he said.

Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa said enemy (was) trying to mar festive mood of nation through such coward acts. He also said that the enemy would fail against resilience of Pakistan.

The word enemy is reserved for India but sometimes it is also used for those using Afghanistan for anti-Pakistan activities.

The attacks were condemned by all parties.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks, saying that terrorists involved in the attacks will be taken to task and all out efforts will be taken to eliminate terrorism.

On March 31, a car bomb blast near an Imambargah of Shia Muslims killed 23 people and injured 70 others in Parachinar.

In January, 25 people were killed and 87 others when a bomb tore through a crowded vegetable market in the same city.  PTI
A 22-year-old Arkansas man died while swimming in Skiatook Lake on Friday, according to Oklahoma Highway Patrol reports.

Anthony Scarpati, of Centerton, Arkansas, was returning to shore from a marker buoy when he went under for unknown reasons, according to the OHP report.

The drowning occurred just after 3 p.m. at the Twin Points swimming area where Scarpati was swimming with friends.

Public-safety officials recovered his body about an hour later using dragging operations and sonar in 6 feet of water about 20 yards from the shoreline, the report states. The body was located in about the same place Scarpati went under, according to the report.

OHP troopers from the Marine Enforcement Division were assisted in the operation by the Osage County Sheriffs Office, Osage Nation Police Department, Skiatook Fire Department and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to the report.

Jarrel Wade

918-581-8367

Twitter: @jwprairiedog
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, issued an ultimatum to Doha to close Al Jazeera, curb ties with Iran, shut a Turkish military base and pay reparations among other demands.

By Reuters: Qatar is reviewing a list of demands presented by four Arab states imposing a boycott on the wealthy Gulf country, but said on Saturday the list was not reasonable or actionable.

"We are reviewing these demands out of respect for ... regional security and there will be an official response from our ministry of foreign affairs," Sheikh Saif al-Thani, the director of Qatar's government communications office, said in a statement to Reuters.

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Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, which imposed a boycott on Qatar, issued an ultimatum to Doha to close Al Jazeera, curb ties with Iran, shut a Turkish military base and pay reparations among other demands.

The statement said US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had recently called upon Saudi Arabia and the other countries to produce a list of grievances that was "reasonable and actionable."

DEMANDS AIMED AT ENDING GULF CRISIS

The demands aimed at ending the worst Gulf Arab crisis in years appear designed to quash a two decade-old foreign policy in which Qatar has punched well above its weight, striding the stage as a peace broker, often in conflicts in Muslim lands.

Doha's independent-minded approach, including a dovish line on Iran and support for Islamist groups, in particular the Muslim Brotherhood, has incensed some of its neighbours who see political Islamism as a threat to their dynastic rule.

The list, compiled by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Bahrain, which cut economic, diplomatic and travel ties to Doha on June 5, also demands the closing of a Turkish military base in Qatar, the official told Reuters.

Qatar must also announce it is severing ties with terrorist, ideological and sectarian organisations including the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State, al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Jabhat Fateh al Sham, formerly al Qaeda's branch in Syria, he said, and surrender all designated terrorists on its territory.

QATAR WON'T NEGOTIATE UNDER BOYCOTT

The four Arab countries accuse Qatar of funding terrorism, fomenting regional instability and cosying up to revolutionary theocracy Iran. Qatar has denied the accusations.

Qatari officials did not reply immediately to requests for comment. But on Monday, Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said Qatar would not negotiate with the four states unless they lifted their measures against Doha.

The countries give Doha 10 days to comply, failing which the list becomes "void", the official said without elaborating, suggesting the offer to end the dispute in return for the 13 steps would no longer be on the table.

The demands, handed to Qatar by mediator Kuwait also require that Qatar stop interfering in the four countries' domestic and foreign affairs and stop a practice of giving Qatari nationality to citizens of the four countries, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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Qatar must pay reparations to these countries for any damage or costs incurred over the past few years because of Qatari policies, he added. Any resulting agreement to comply with the demands will be monitored, with monthly reports in the first year, then every three months the next year, then annually for 10 years, the official said without elaborating.

US President Donald Trump has taken a tough stance on Qatar, accusing it of being a "high level" sponsor of terrorism, but he has also offered help to the parties in the dispute to resolve their differences.

Turkey has backed Qatar during the three-week-old crisis. It sent its first ship carrying food aid to Qatar and dispatched a small contingent of soldiers and armoured vehicles there on Thursday, while President Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Saudi Arabia's leaders on calming tension in the region.

Also Read:

Arab states send Qatar 13 demands to end crisis

Qatar vs Saudi Arabia: Story of Middle East tensions, information warfare

Also Watch:

No immediate plans to cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, says Pakistan

--- ENDS ---

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U.S. Rep. Steve Russell says changes to military policies on transgender soldiers are unconstitutional, weaken the nations fighting forces, shock his conscience and could compel soldiers to falsely claim to be transgender to avoid combat deployments.

Last June, the Department of Defense lifted a ban on transgender service and launched a training initiative with the intention of opening enlistments to transgender soldiers this July.

Russell, a Choctaw Republican and former Army commander, told the socially conservative Family Research Council recently that the change will cause detrimental confusion and hinder military readiness.

Read the rest of this story online at Newsok.com. A subscription may be required.
A Broken Arrow man has been found guilty of sexually abusing a girl when she was 10 to 11 years old.

Jurors deliberated about three hours Thursday before returning the verdict against 47-year-old Christopher Lee Douglas, recommending he spend 25 years in prison and pay a $2,500 fine.

Prosecutors said he abused the girl between July 2011 and the summer of 2013.

Douglas was charged in February 2014 with a single count of child sexual abuse, which was amended this week to say the victim was younger than 12. The statutory minimum punishment for such a charge is 25 years.

Authorities said the girls mother went to Broken Arrow police on Aug. 16, 2013, and reported that the girl had told her that Douglas assaulted her about a year earlier.

The girl, according to an affidavit, also alleged that other incidents occurred at multiple locations in Kentucky and Oklahoma, including in Broken Arrow, with the most recent assault happening around July 2013.

A state Department of Human Services worker told police she substantiated the girls clams of sexual abuse by Douglas, and a forensic interview with the girl provided further details about the incidents, the affidavit states.

Defense attorney Greg Denney noted multiple times throughout the trial that Douglas never admitted doing harm to the girl.

Assistant District Attorney Andrea Brown, who prosecuted the case, said Friday, Im satisfied that justice has been served for the child involved in this case, and I appreciate the jurys careful attention to the facts.

Douglas will be sentenced Aug. 8 before District Judge Kelly Greenough.
Tulsa Global Alliance is seeking families interested in providing lodging, meals and transportation to high school students visiting from Iraq and countries in the Caribbean and South America for a few weeks this summer.

The nonprofit works with the U.S. Department of State to bring international visitors to Tulsa for short-term exchanges and gives Tulsa families an opportunity to practice foreign language skills, introduce their children to new cultures and enjoy the company of guests from other countries.

The first group of students, who are visiting from Iraq through the State Departments Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program, will be in Tulsa from July 20 to Aug. 3.

The second group, visiting from countries in the Caribbean and South America through the departments Youth Ambassadors Program, will visit Aug. 13-24.

The two groups of 12 students ages 15 to 17 will stop in Tulsa as they travel to various U.S. cities studying a theme thats relevant to their country, Lieser said.

This year, the Iraqi students are studying refugees and displaced persons, and the other group is studying civic education and social transformation.

Tulsa Global Alliance organizes workshops, meetings, activities and volunteer opportunities related to those themes for the students visit to Tulsa, and during the evenings and weekends the students spend time with their host families.

You might see places or learn about things in Tulsa that youve never known about before, just because you hadnt had an international visitor who was curious about them, said Bob Lieser, vice president of programs and interim director of Tulsa Global Alliance.

Kate and Jason Starr, who have housed several international students over the years, plan to be the host family for a student from the Bahamas this August through the Tulsa Global Alliance program.

Its a real cultural exchange, Kate Starr said about hosting students from other countries.

She described conversations with the students as an experiential education  a way to gain knowledge about geography, history, politics and religion that you cant get from reading about another culture.

Families can apply to the program by contacting Lieser by photo at 918-631-4803 or by email at blieser@tulsaglobalalliance.org.

Background checks and home visits are conducted before applicants are approved to host a student.
Its been 10 years since Sharon King Davis set her alarm for the dead of night, waiting to wake up and do interviews about a car with news outlets on the other side of the world.

The summer of 2007 was no ordinary summer because Miss Belvedere was no ordinary car.

A decade later, the 1957 Plymouth Belvedere that sat entombed in a water-logged concrete vault underneath the Tulsa County Courthouse for 50 years finally left a New Jersey rust removal company Tuesday for its new home in Roscoe, Illinois.

Davis said she hasnt seen Miss Belvedere since a Storey Wrecker flatbed left with the car headed to New Jersey for a restoration. She spent countless hours organizing festivities for the Belvederes excavation, which drew in media and spectators from around the world.

For a few weeks that summer when the rusted Belvederes fate seemed uncertain, Davis said she worried. She said Miss Belvedere is more than a car, and its headed to a place it belongs.

I know this sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I worked on this thing for 3 years before she was unearthed, Davis said. It was like a personal relationship with this car, which sounds absurd. But I really emotionally got very invested.

It really became a deeply personal, precious thing for me, and Im thrilled shes going to have a home.

Dwight Foster with Ultra One Corp. in Hackettstown, New Jersey, said in an email to the Tulsa World that the Belvedere was finally on its way after years of rust removal treatments. Pictures of the car being loaded into a hauler Tuesday show the Belvedere looks much more like a car than it did 10 years ago.

Miss Belvederes resting place is the Historic Auto Attractions museum in Roscoe, Illinois. Wayne Lensing, the museums owner, said the car wont go on display until the 2018 season, which starts Memorial Day weekend next year. He also said he hopes the exhibit can do justice to what the car means to people.

We want to have film clips showing the process where they buried it, and then again in 2007 where they brought it back up, Lensing said. We want to tell the whole story and make it a special feeling for visitors to watch. Im hoping to get some artifacts relating to the car and all the newspaper articles on it from the past.

Tulsa hasnt changed as much since 2007 as it had from 1957, but the 10 years have flown by for many of the events organizers and those who remember the ceremony outside the courthouse. Art Couch, like Davis, remembered seeing Miss Belvedere being buried next to the courthouse.

Couchs former construction company, WN Couch Inc., helped unearth the Belvedere in 2007. He said the excavation itself was unlike anything he had ever seen.

It was unbelievable watching it all happen, Couch said. Its like being in a circus. We had our people there working, and everything was fenced off. People were hanging on the fence wanting to see what was going on. Everybody wanted to see it.

With Miss Belvedere headed to its new home, Couch said he wants to work in a trip to Roscoe to see the car again. He said though it would be special, it could never be like those extraordinary, long and exciting days in 2007.

It was a tough week, but a fun week, Couch said. Its something Ill never forget.
By Pramod Madhav: State minister for dairy development Rajendra Balaji has been in the eye of a storm after he made some bizarre comments recently. Batting for state-run Aavin Enterprises, the minister advised consumers to opt for Aavin as it was healthier. Balaji claimed that milk sold by private companies is 'cancerous' and causes cancer especially among children. He also said that the milk produced by private companies is adulterated to increase it shelf-life.

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The minister's logic is plain and simple, "If the milk doesn't turn sour after 5 hours, it contains some harmful chemicals."

When confronted, Rajendra Balaji claimed that he yet again received information about adulterated milk containing compounds like hydrogen peroxide and chlorine. "I'll hang myself if the claim is disproven," claimed the minister.

Meanwhile, a case was filed in this connection with the Madras High Court and the court sought a report from the Health Secretary. Following which, Dr. Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department filed a detailed report.

In the report, the health secretary gave data of milk samples analysed periodically from 2011 until 2017. Surprisingly, no adulterated samples were discovered during this period. According t the data, 886 samples have been analysed since 2011, of which 699 have been found safe and while no unsafe samples were discovered.

After the minister's allegations, Electronic Milk Adulteration Testing (EMAT) devices were transferred to Food Analysis Labs across the state. 32 samples lifted from Madurai, Ramanadhapuram, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Thiruchirapalli and Vellore were tested of which 22 have been cleared, 2 samples are still awaiting results while 8 samples were considered substandard.

The report also claimed that since 2011, only 11 unsafe milk samples (containing detergent, neutralizer, yeast, mould) have been found.

DMK leader MK Stalin, also raised questions over the Tamil Nadu minister's claims in the Assembly on Friday. "The dairy minister said that he'll hang himself if his claim of 'milk being produced by private companies is adulterated' is disproved. What action has been taken?" questioned the Opposition leader.

Rajendra Balaji got up and simply said that testing of samples is in progress and anyone found guilty will be definitely punished. Balaji simmered down only after the chief minister allegedly held a separate chat with him after a recent cabinet meeting.

Also Read:

Government report contradicts Tamil Nadu dairy minister's claims over adulterated milk

Tamil Nadu minister's bizarre logic: Milk from private companies causes cancer

Also Watch:

What action have you taken against private firms who supply adulterated milk, Stalin asks dairy minister Balaji

--- ENDS ---

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Facebook is no longer just about connecting the world. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has written a new mission statement: to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.

Zuckerberg has been rethinking Facebooks role, reacting to the rise of isolationism and nationalism, and the decline of membership in local community groups around the world. Connecting people on Facebook, which Zuckerberg says is now very close to having 2 billion users, was supposed to make it easier to create bonds across cultures and ideologies.

Instead, government elections of the last couple years have shown deep polarization  and Facebook has been wrapped up in the debate, criticized because its platform has played a role in the spread of misleading news and extremist ideology.

Our mission of connecting people, that was not supposed to be controversial, Zuckerberg said in an interview with Bloomberg. So now the question is, why is that a controversial thing, and how do you rebuild that?

Zuckerberg thinks part of the answer lies in facilitating deeper ties between users on Facebook, who may not have started out as part of the same families or friend groups. The new mission statement was unveiled Thursday at Facebooks first Communities Summit in Chicago, meant to galvanize administrators of Facebook Groups. Zuckerberg says he now considers those administrators as important to Facebook as its software developers and advertisers.

Facebooks Communities Summit has been conceived as a much smaller version of f8, Facebooks flagship event for developers and the press. That two-day developer conference attracted thousands of attendees when it was held in April, and was the showcase for a series of product announcements related to camera tools and augmented reality. Thursdays event was structured around a series of workshops designed to teach 300 moderators to use Facebooks new community tools, a principal way the company is hoping to address the controversy around the services role in a healthy democracy.

When enough of us feel a sense of support in our own lives, we can start to care about broader issues, too, Zuckerberg said during his keynote.

He announced several new tools to Facebooks Groups service. The features are aimed at giving moderators, the unpaid organizers of groups on Facebook, more power to police groups from spam and hate speech, or to simply keep a group on topic. Zuckerberg said Facebook would add improved data analysis tools to help moderators understand, for instance, which members are most engaged, and software that would make it easier to remove posts when needed.

Facebook said it aims to have 1 billion people involved in meaningful groups.

If we do this, it will not only reverse the whole decline in community membership weve seen for the last decade, its going to strengthen our overall social fabric and bring the world closer together, Zuckerberg said during the speech.

Zuckerberg has been on a tour around the country, as part of a personal challenge to visit all 50 states. During the tour, hes met several community leaders who have provided feedback on Groups, and how much time it takes to vet members and organize action.

Its just an amazing amount of work that these people are jumping through hoops to do, he said in the interview. And I just think, if we made that easier, how many more communities like that could you create?
1: First senior goal  on 1 May 2005  came for Barcelona as a late substitute in a Liga game against Albacete; to the manner born, the 17-year-old chipped in impudently.

2: Second-highest scorer in European Cup history  group stage to final  with 94 goals.

3: Messi has hit 37 hat-tricks for Barcelona.

4: Number of UEFA Champions League winners' medals in his collection, together with eight Liga titles and five Copa del Reys.

5: Goals Messi scored against Bayer Leverkusen in one UEFA Champions League last-16 game in 2012 (a record shared with Luiz Adriano).

Messis first 86 European goals

6: Messi found the net in six different club competitions in 2011, repeating the feat in 2015.

7: Most UEFA Champions League hat-tricks (a feat shared with Cristiano Ronaldo).

8: Consecutive seasons that he has notched 40 goals or more for Barcelona.

9: Goals short of 100 for Messi in the calendar year 2012, with a world record 91.

10: Messi wore the No19 shirt when he broke into the Barcelona team before inheriting the No10 in 2008 following Ronaldinho's departure.

11: Messi was nearly 11 when his grandmother died. She is the inspiration for his trademark celebration, looking up and pointing to the sky.

All Messis Champions League hat-tricks

12: Most goals scored for Argentina in a calendar year, 2012, a record he shares with Gabriel Batistuta.

13: Age at which he left his native Argentina to join Barcelona.

14: Number of goals Messi has struck at the Santiago Bernabeu, second only to the Camp Nou at club level.

15: Most Liga away matches with a goal in a single season (he also holds the record for home games, with 16).

16: Messi was 16 years, four months, and 23 days old when he made his Barca first-team debut in a friendly against Jose Mourinho's Porto; his 15-minute cameo saw him create two openings and have a shot himself.

17: Record number of goals registered in the Spanish Super Cup, across six different seasons.

Messis first UEFA Champions League goal

18: Age when Messi bagged his first UEFA Champions League goal, nervelessly lifting the ball over the keeper and firing in against Panathinaikos.

19: Messi is the only player to score consecutively against all 19 opposition teams in the Liga.

20: Messi has plundered 20+ goals against six opponents over the course of his career, including the rest of last season's Liga top six.

21: Longest goalscoring run in the Liga set in 2012/13, amassing 33 goals during that sequence of matches.

22: Age when he claimed the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards by record voting margins.

23: Goals scored in the Clasico, five more than Alfredo di Stefano and seven more than Ronaldo.

2009 final highlights: Barcelona 2-0 Man. United

24: Age at which he became Barcelona's all-time top scorer.

25: Major finals he has contested over the years ...

26: ... and the number of goals he has struck in them.

27: Goals converted direct from a free-kick for the Blaugrana.

28: Messi became the youngest South American to reach 100 caps four days short of his 28th birthday.

29: Goals Messi has notched so far against favourite opponents Sevilla; on the European stage Arsenal have the unwanted honour (nine).

30: Years on the clock!
Nitish Kumar kept Opposition parties guessing before he announced support for NDA's pick Ram Nath Kovind in presidential election. On the other hand, Uddhav Thackeray kept the BJP in limbo over support to a BJP's presidential candidate.

By Prabhash K Dutta: Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U president Nitish Kumar and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray don't have much in common except that they are right now supporting NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind and that they are perhaps 'nobody's man' in politics.

Their relationship with the BJP has been topsy-turvy especially after Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combination started dominating the saffron party.

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Nitish Kumar walked away with his JD-U from the NDA - much against the wishes of the then party president Sharad Yadav - after Narendra Modi's candidature for prime ministerial post became obvious.

Shiv Sena on the other hand had welcomed Modi saying that he was the face of 'Hindutva' politics. The BJP had, in fact, consulted Shiv Sena before formally announcing Modi as its prime ministerial candidate in September, 2013.

ROLE REVERSAL IN RECENT TIMES

Last few months have seen the JD-U of Nitish Kumar and the Shiv Sena of Uddhav Thackeray conveniently deserting their respective 'camps' - Opposition and the ruling NDA.

Uddhav Thackeray's problem seems to be BJP's expanding reach in Maharashtra. As the BJP, under Modi-Shah combination, got ambitious in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena felt threatened. They actually parted ways for the last Maharashtra Assembly election, in which BJP emerged as the largest party making Shiv Sena a junior partner in the post-poll alliance.

The BJP followed it up with emphatic performance in recent civic polls, where it ate into Shiv Sena's vote bank. BJP's performance in the BMC election surprised many.

On the other hand, Nitish Kumar - who once had cancelled a lunch with the top BJP leaders after the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi gave a full page advertisement in dailies published from Patna about flood aid to Bihar - shared dais with the Prime Minister in the state capital and was seen sharing quite a few laughs with him.

DEMONETISATION

While the Opposition was going berserk criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for demonetisation of about 86 per cent of existing currency in the country last November, Nitish Kumar came out in unequivocal support of the move.

Nitish Kumar echoed PM Modi's sentiment on the issue calling it a brave move to weed out corruption from the country. Nitish Kumar had to face criticism from the Opposition parties for siding with the Prime Minister. Even senior JD-U leader Sharad Yadav criticised demonetisation.

Prime Minister Modi returned the gesture by thanking Nitish Kumar for his support over demonetisation.

Shiv Sena was, incidentally, extremely critical of demonetisation. It mouthpiece Saamna likened demonetisation to 'nuclear strike'.

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"... by dropping the nuclear bomb of note ban, Modi has turned the Indian economy into Hiroshima, Nagasaki. We are very worried about the nation's future," wrote Saamna.

SURGICAL STRIKE

Following Uri terror attack, the Indian Army carried out a surgical strike across the Line of Control destroying terror launch pads last year. Nitish Kumar supported the government's decision to carry out a surgical strike in PoK.

Opposition parties had asked Modi government to make public proof to support surgical strike in PoK. Nitish Kumar had earlier congratulated PM Modi for making a stopover in Lahore on his way back from Kabul in Afghanistan.

On the other hand, Shiv Sena welcomed the surgical strike with a jibe. Shiv Sena dared Modi government to carry out a similar strike against China.

Shiv Sena, later, even questioned Narendra Modi government's Pakistan and Kashmir policies saying that despite surgical strike terror attacked continued in the Valley.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2017

The presidential election again saw the two parties hovering around in uncertainties before settling for Ram Nath Kovind.

Shiv Sena tried to needle the BJP by proposing RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's name for president's post. The RSS rubbished the idea. Bhagwat, too, did not give much weightage to the suggestion. Shiv Sena, then, propped up the name of agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan, who too did not seem interested.

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When BJP announced Ram Nath Kovind's name, Shiv Sena was left with little option but support the candidature. Though, party spokesperson Sanjay Raut made it clear that the Shiv Sena wanted Bhagwat as President of India. At the end, Shiv Sena did not go the way they went in the last two presidential elections - to vote against the BJP's candidate.

However, Shiv Sena tried to send a message to the BJP by skipping the show of strength by the NDA when Ram Nath Kovind filed his nomination papers yesterday.

NITISH DESERTS OPPOSITION

Nitish Kumar is said to have initiated talks among the Opposition parties to field a united candidate in the presidential election to have their best chance to embarrass the Modi government, which enjoyed slender majority if it kept all its partners in the same house.

As late as the last week of May after a luncheon with PM Modi and Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, Nitish Kumar had said, "Opposition is united on the issue of presidential election."

But, by then Nitish Kumar had started giving feelers that he might end up on the same side as the BJP. He had skipped the crucial all Opposition-party meet over presidential election.

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And, when BJP announced Ram Nath Kovind's name, Nitish Kumar did not waste time in announcing his support for the NDA candidate. He is still firm on his stand even though the Opposition parties have fielded another Dalit leader Meira Kumar - who hails from Bihar - against Ram Nath Kovind.

RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav asked Nitish Kumar to change his mind and support "Bihar Ki Beti" in the presidential poll. But, Nitish Kumar responded by saying, "You had opportunities twice. But, why didn't you chose the 'Bihar ki beti' when she had a chance to win?"

Nitish said that it was a matter of pride the Governor of Bihar would be the next President of India.

Also read:

Meira Kumar vs Ram Nath Kovind for President? 10 things we know so far

Central ministers skip President Pranab Mukherjee's iftar party It's a political war, Opposition will field candidate for presidential election: Sitaram Yechury

WATCH: Presidential election: Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind is NDA candidate

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Spain will play Italy and England will take on Germany in Tuesday's U21 EURO semi-finals.

The U21 EURO semi-finals

England (Group A winners) v Germany (best runners-up)  18:00CET, Tychy

Spain (Group B winners) v Italy (Group C winners)  21:00, Krakow

The last time both these particular fixtures took place was in finals. Spain ran out 4-2 winners against Italy in Jerusalem in 2013, with Germany beating England 4-0 in Malmo in 2009.

How the U21 EURO runners-up ended UEFA.com

Italy booked their place on Saturday, a 1-0 defeat of Germany enough for them to finish top of Group C by virtue of a superior head-to-head record against their opponents. Stefan Kuntz's team nevertheless qualified as best runners-up, their goal difference of +4 one better than Slovakia, who finished second in Group A.

Group B winners Spain were first to go through to the semis with a game to spare on Tuesday, while England followed them as Group A table-toppers thanks to a 3-0 win against hosts Poland on Thursday.
Sixty kilometres from Kanpur Dehat district, the road winds its way through a thick canopy of trees. Once the lair of dreaded dacoits, it now leads to a sleepy little village of ten thousand souls, Paraunkh. On June 19, the villagers there gathered under the shade of an ancient pipal tree, to celebrate the stardom of one of their own: Ram Nath Kovind. They clapped, danced, pounded dholaks and harmoniums, and sang songs of joy: "Mere gaon main khushiyan chhayi, hum dete hain Modiji ko badhai (Happiness has come home, thank you Prime Minister Narendra Modi)."

On July 26, the first president from the saffron brigade will step into the country's most elite address, Rashtrapati Bhavan. For the first time in history-with a Lok Sabha majority, sweeping victories in key assembly elections and a little help from allies-the NDA will have the numbers to get a president it wants. For the last two months, the nation has raised a storm of words and scuttlebutt: who will be the next president of India? With NDA nominating Ram Nath Kovind as its choice on June 19, the answer at last is blowing in the wind.

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KOVIND, WHO?

The surprise is total. Who is Ram Nath Kovind? Even West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, never at a loss for words, tossed her head and announced: "Ami chini na (I don't know him)." Social media has exploded. Hashtag #RamnathKovind is still trending days after the announcement. BJP ministers are tweeting about what a "genial, soft-spoken, well-read & articulate" man the governor of Bihar is, what a "perfect gentleman". Leaders in the Opposition, jolted out of their equilibrium, are swinging between "commitment of support", "contest is on the cards" and a meeting on June 22, at 4.30 pm, in the Parliament Library, to take a final call.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally came to the rescue. Through a series of Twitter posts, he explained who Kovind is and why he would "make an exceptional President": "Shri Ram Nath Kovind, a farmer's son, comes from a humble background. He devoted his life to public service & worked for poor & marginalised." A minute later, another: "With his illustrious background in the legal arena, Shri Kovind's knowledge and understanding of the Constitution will benefit the nation." Soon, yet another tweet came on its heels: "I am sure Shri Ram Nath Kovind will make an exceptional President & continue to be a strong voice for the poor, downtrodden & marginalised."

SECRET MISSION

PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah apparently zeroed in on Kovind around the first week of June. But it was a secret wrapped in silence, according to BJP insiders. Kovind has confided to one of his confidantes in Uttarakhand that he himself was not aware of his candidature till June 17. It was such a well-guarded secret that when a source close to Shah asked him on May 30 whether Union minister Thawar Chand Gehlot was to be the NDA candidate, he was told: "Someone like him." Most ministers of the Modi cabinet remained in the dark. One of the first to get a whiff, around June 11, was Union minister Nitin Gadkari. That, too, because Shah had asked for some inputs from him.

It's Shah who first spotted Kovind during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The party needed someone like him-a Kori Dalit, a caste group that forms the biggest Dalit grouping in Uttar Pradesh after Jatavs and Passis-to tackle Mayawati, to cobble together a non-Jatav Dalit alliance in UP after the BJP's shock defeat in the 2012 assembly polls. Although he was then the BJP's Dalit Morcha national president, he accepted the state-level post of BJP general secretary in UP without demur. It happened again, when Kovind wanted to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and Shah directed him to tackle the Dalit challenge. Kovind again accepted the decision gracefully. His regard for party discipline and the decisions of senior leaders, apparently, endeared him to Shah.

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Those who picked up the clues may remember the PM's speeches at the peak of the Bihar assembly election campaign in 2015. "Shriman Ram Nath Kovindji has given his all to the welfare of the oppressed, the dispossessed, the Dalit, the backward and the extremely backward, all his life?." When PM Modi spoke in exalted terms of the newly-appointed state governor, on August 18, 2015, in Saharsa, nobody thought much of it. Two years later, Kovind is running for the top post of the country, with the firm support of his patron, the Prime Minister of India. "His contribution to the RSS ideology, his stature as a leader, his thorough knowledge of the Constitution and command over the English language impressed the PM and clinched it in his favour," says a BJP member.

A DALIT, FIRST

It's not easy being a Dalit in a village dominated by Brahmins and Thakurs. A weaver by caste, Kovind's family did not own any land. Father Maikulal Kori eked out a living for his family with nine children by running a small grocery store. The children learnt their first lessons under the old pipal tree. "Ram Nath was very sharp, learnt things in no time and never forgot," says his old classmate Rajkishor Singh. High school meant an eight-kilometre walk everyday to another village. Ram Nath left for Kanpur to pursue higher studies and law. In 1970, he left for Delhi to practise as an advocate. By the late 1970s, he had become the personal assistant to former prime minister Morarji Desai. In 1991, he joined the BJP, and by 1994 he had become a Rajya Sabha MP.

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It's then that he developed his village into a 'model village', using MP funds: roads were paved, a high school was opened for girls, so was a State Bank of India branch, and every house was set up with electricity meters. Ask anyone and they will show you the way to the family stead-partly in ruins and partly a community centre, constructed by Kovind during his tenure as Rajya Sabha MP. "The services are free for everyone in the village," says Anil Kumar, Kovind's nephew. "Like our father, Ram is very spiritual," says elder brother, Pyarelal, "he learnt to recite the Ramayana and the Gita at just age 15." It wasn't just his village, Kovind contributed to the development of Kanpur city too as MP, developing stretches of barren land into some of the best places to live in-from Indira Nagar near the IIT to Maharishi Dayanand Vihar in Kalyanpur-with well-tiled, shining roads, trees and steel chairs for the elderly to rest.

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IDENTITY POLITICS

This is not the first time Kovind-a former BJP national spokesperson, two-term Rajya Sabha MP, a former chief of the BJP's SC/ST Morcha (1998-2002) and Supreme Court lawyer-has proved to be a good fit in the BJP's Dalit scheme of things. Kovind's is a classic story of Dalit empowerment, one that is closely linked to the identity politics of the Hindi heartland, especially at a time of simmering caste violence in the state (Saharanpur especially), the rise of the fledgling Bhim Army and escalating Dalit protests against upper-caste atrocities after the elevation of Yogi Adityanath, a Thakur, as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. There is also the issue of cow vigilantism and the beef ban which has hit sections of the Dalit population, who subsist on the slaughter and leather tanning industries.

To party insiders, it was common knowledge that, given the pro-poor and pro-weaker section line the PM and Shah have shown in the implementation of government schemes as well as political matters, the NDA nominee had to be either a Dalit, a tribal or a woman. In 2015, Modi had helped float the National Dalit Chamber of Commerce, saying: "We want Dalits as job creators and not just as job seekers." A Dalit face became a political imperative as well after the Saharanpur bloodbath and the rise of the 'Bhim Sena' in UP; and Left groups in Gujarat kicking off a movement against the BJP following the merciless thrashing of five Dalits in Saurashtra last year.

Kovind, who hails from UP and is presently governor of Bihar, is likely to be a key symbol of empowerment to woo the electorally formidable Dalit community in the two states-which together gave 104 Lok Sabha seats to the NDA in the 2014 general elections-in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. But it's more than that. "With one fine stroke, the PM and Amitji have taken out whatever wind was left in the sails of the Opposition," says UP BJP spokesperson Chandramohan. "It also damages a possible SP-BSP alliance in UP, as Akhilesh will not find much use for Mayawati now." From Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to the BSP's Mayawati, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik to several southern parties, they have all spoken in favour of Kovind's selection. For who can oppose a Dalit candidate openly?

AN IDEAL GOVERNOR

On the evening of June 19, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar drove down to the Raj Bhavan. Kovind's tenure was "ideal", he said, lauding him for his "impartiality" and for being a stickler for constitutional propriety. Indeed, Kovind has never given reason for the Nitish government to complain. He backed state initiatives and cleared almost every bill sent to him, including the controversial anti-liquor legislation. As the chancellor of universities, Kovind, unlike many of his predecessors, always consulted the CM and the education minister over appointments to higher posts. Bihar education minister Ashok Choudhary, a Dalit leader and also state Congress president, touches Kovind's feet in respect whenever they meet at the Raj Bhavan. Political sources believe that Kovind will be an unobtrusive president and Rashtrapati Bhavan will be a low-key power centre, as was the Patna Raj Bhavan. Perhaps another reason why Modi chose him for the job. The PM doesn't want another A.P.J. Abdul Kalam-like president, who took some of the shine off A.B. Vajpayee during NDA-I.

Opposition leaders at a meeting in Delhi to discuss strategy for the upcoming presidential elections, June 14. Photo: Parveen Negi/ Mail Today

Kovind certainly can take the credit for building bridges in Bihar. In August 2015, when the Centre appointed him as Bihar governor, just two months before the state assembly polls, both Nitish and the RJD's Lalu Prasad Yadav were suspicious of his motives. Lalu openly censured Kovind's appointment. But as Bihar governor, he reportedly played a role in reducing the bitterness between Modi and Kumar, and endeared himself to the latter with his erudition and broad vision. At the Patna Raj Bhavan, Kovind once even hosted the play, Chanakya, for the entire Bihar cabinet, an event that impressed the Sangh parivar bigwigs. Two years down the line, the chances of Nitish ultimately backing Kovind are real. "Nitish could not have expected a better governor, even if there had been a non-BJP government at the Centre," says a JD(U) leader on condition of anonymity.

BLESSED BY THE RSS

Kovind is not an RSS insider, has never attended an RSS shakha, but is close to most senior RSS leaders. Joint general secretary, in-charge of RSS-BJP coordination, Krishnagopal firmly backed Kovind as presidential nominee. Indeed, Kovind is said to have done more to uphold Sangh ideals than many formal members. For instance, after his second Rajya Sabha term ended in 2006, he led an agitation against the UPA government for its move to give reservation privileges to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims, calling it a fraud on the Constitution.

According to some, his strategy and active participation in Sangh-related social activities impressed the parivar. Hence the reward of the Bihar governorship. Kovind earned the reputation of a right-wing Dalit intellectual while heading the Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, a Sangh parivar body in Delhi. When he came to the foundation, it was just producing literature on RSS ideology. Kovind transformed it by introducing a lecture series by eminent citizens, including top BJP-RSS leaders. Party vice-president Shyam Jaju, who worked with Kovind at the foundation, says "he took the foundation to a whole new level".

He has also been associated for 17 years with the Haridwar-based Divya Prem Seva Mission of former RSS pracharak Ashish Gautam, which works for leprosy patients and their children. It began in 2000, when he learnt about the organisation and made a donation of Rs 25 lakh from his MP funds towards a residential school the mission was building for the children of the patients. Over the years, he has become a permanent patron of the organisation, contributing to the expenses of two students every year from his own savings. Recently, when a poor cancer patient came to seek his help in Patna he not only helped him with funds from his pocket but also called up Gautam and requested him to put the patient in touch with the Patanjali Yogpeeth of yoga guru Ramdev. "Empathy for the weak and the poor and honesty in matters of money are what marks Kovindji out," says Gautam.

A MODEST MAN

Formal, no-nonsense, quiet, non-intrusive, and at the same time a stickler for rules: that's Kovind for those who know him. Patna Raj Bhavan sources say he is a "modest man", indeed nobody has ever seen him lose his temper, or refuse an invitation-especially if it comes from his staff. A voracious reader, he spends most of his time with books, watching TV only for the news.

Father to a son, Prashant, and a daughter, Swati, Kovind and his wife Savita prefer to live simple, spartan lives. The President of India's 340-room palace may not be the life he wants, but given his personality, he is likely to accept it gracefully.

Kovind, as Bihar governor, welcomes President Pranab Mukherjee at Gaya airport with CM Nitish Kumar, March 2017

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A religious preschool teacher was asked to leave the porn industry if she wanted to continue teaching in the school. When she refused to do so, she was fired.

By India Today Web Desk: A 21-year-old porn actor taught at a religious preschool but was fired recently.

According to station Fox 11 Los Angeles, Nina Skye, who taught at an undisclosed Christian preschool, was fired after the school authorities came to know about her porn career.

Nina went public last month telling Fox 11 about her two lives. One as a teacher and one as a porn star. Nina has struggled to meet ends meet with her job as a teacher.

A post shared by Nina Skye (@realninaskye) on May 17, 2017 at 9:23am PDT

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Nina said that her career in porn industry allowed her to make fast cash. She earned $25,000 (Rs 1.6 lakh) in her first sex scene.

"I love teaching. I love sex. If I can get away with doing both, then I will," Skye said in her first interview at the station.

"I know what I'm doing when it comes to teaching. I'm a really good teacher."

But, a month later, school administration fired Nina and handed her out the ultimatum to leave the porn industry or she will have to leave school.

According to Skye, the morality clause she signed when she was getting into the teaching job as an incoming teacher forbade her from having premarital sex.

A post shared by Nina Skye (@realninaskye) on May 1, 2017 at 9:11am PDT

Skye said administrators even offered to help with her housing and give her a pay raise, according to a Daily Dot report.

"They were really trying to pull me away from staying in the industry, they just really wanted me out. They offered help and advice, but I don't really want out of the industry," Skye said.

Despite her polarizing career, Skye says she hopes to continue teaching in the future, though she more than likely won't find herself back at a Christian or private school.

FYI || Pornhub gives Sexual Wellness Center to curious minds ||

FYI || Pornhub top 10 Indian searches: Indians go local, choose bhabhis and teachers over Japanese and Indonesian pornography ||

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By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, Jun 23 (PTI) Former Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam today took part in the function here to mark the nomination of NDAs presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, along with his rival Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami.

Talking to reporters, Panneerselvam said, "We attended the function as we were invited by the BJP for nomination event of Ram Nath Kovind".

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The AIADMK Puratchi Thalaivi Amma faction led by Panneerselvam had yesterday extended support to Kovind, while AIADMK (Amma) camp had given its support on Wednesday.

"We had a meeting of our MLAs and MPs and considering the track record of Kovind, we arrived at the unanimous decision to support him

," Panneerselvam had said yesterday.

Speaking about the controversy within the party, he said the state government was in a disabled state and unable to solve issues of people.

"It is disturbing to witness the state government being ignorant, instead of working to improve the economy," Panneerselvam said.

He added, "though the government is in hands of the rival faction, the party is still in our control".

Chief Minister Palaniswami who also took part in the nominations returned without any interaction with media persons.

Reporters of Tamil media channels said they would boycott press interaction with the CM after they were denied entry into the new Tamil Nadu House yesterday due to "security issues".

However, according to sources in the Tamil Nadu House, security arrangements were restructured after a group of animal activists barged into the house breaching security a few days back. PTI CPB KUN

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A year to the day after Britain voted to leave the EU, Prime Minister Theresa May - pictured at the end of her press conference in Brussels - found little support for her proposal on the future of EU citizens living in a post-Brexit UK. (Photo: AFP/Emmanuel Dunand)

"My first impression is the UK offer is below our expectations and this risks worsening the situation of our citizens in the UK," EU President Donald Tusk told a news conference after the second day of a Brussels summit.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters that May's offer to EU leaders over dinner late Thursday was a "first step but this step is not sufficient".

The fate of around three million European citizens living in Britain after Brexit is one of the most contentious issues in the negotiations on Britain's withdrawal from the 28-member bloc, which began on Monday.

One year after Britain voted to leave in the Jun 23 referendum, May promised that nobody would be forced to leave after Brexit, offering permanent rights over healthcare, education, welfare and pensions to Europeans who arrive before a cut-off date.

But she declined to say when that date would fall, offering only a window between March 29, 2017, when Britain triggered the Brexit process, and its expected departure two years later.

"It was a good start, but also not yet a breakthrough," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the EU's most powerful leader, adding that there was still a "long way to go".

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said the proposal was "particularly vague".

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, speaking in Paris, said the offer was "the minimum", adding "this is actually something that should be taken for granted".

"The mere fact that you won't be thrown out (of Britain) is not a convincing breakthrough, as far as I'm concerned," he said scathingly.

'FAIR AND SERIOUS OFFER'

But May defended the proposal, telling reporters at the end of the summit: "I remain of the view that this is a fair and serious offer.

"What we're saying is that those citizens from EU countries who have come to the United Kingdom, who have made their lives and their homes in the UK, will be able to stay and we will guarantee their rights in the United Kingdom."

She added: "There are some differences between that and the proposal the European Commission put out and the matter will now go into the negotiations."

Leaders said they looked forward to seeing the more technical details when Britain publishes a formal paper on the issue on Monday.

"We don't want to buy a pig in a poke," Michel said, using an old expression for wanting to inspect something closely before buying it.

May set up a clash with Brussels by refusing to allow the European Court of Justice to arbitrate any disputes over citizens' rights in Britain.

"From our point of view these will be enshrined in UK law, they will be enforced by the highly respected UK courts, and of course if this is an aspect of the withdrawal treaty it will be enshrined in international law as well," she said.

NO 'FAMILIES SPLIT APART'

May had previously refused to guarantee the rights of Europeans until the futures of one million British expatriates living in the rest of the EU were also secured, and she said in Brussels that her proposal depended on a reciprocal deal.

But it was also probably intended as an olive branch as she struggles to maintain her authority after losing her parliamentary majority in a snap election two weeks ago, leaving her Conservative party struggling to form a stable government and throwing her entire Brexit strategy into doubt.

May called the election to secure a mandate for pulling Britain out of the EU's single market in order to cut immigration - a key issue in the Brexit vote - but some of her ministers are now warning that jobs and the economy must be the priority.

Juncker was asked if he knew what form of Brexit the government in London was now seeking, to which he replied: "No."

May's proposal on citizens' rights drew a derisory response at home, with the EU migrant lobby group "the3million" declaring it "pathetic" and "backward".

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a member of the opposition Labour party, said it "does not come close to fully guaranteeing the rights of EU nationals living in the UK".

"It is unacceptable for the prime minister to be treating EU citizens living here and contributing to our economy and society as bargaining chips," he said.
The burnt out remains of the Grenfell Tower in London has led media to dub similiar housing "tower deathtraps". (Photo: AFP/Niklas Halle'n)

"I'm very frightened when I'm in the building now," the bleached-blonde grandmother told AFP at her home on the Chalcots Estate in Camden in north London.

"This cladding looks nice. We had no idea it could be so dangerous," she said, following reports that the cladding may have helped spread the flames.

Now the modern covering on her 1965 tower reminds her of the early hours of Jun 14 when she saw Grenfell Tower on fire, with residents on the upper floors shouting for help before the flames overcame them.

Seventy-nine people were killed or are missing presumed dead in the fire and police have warned the toll could rise further.

Britain is now carrying out emergency checks on cladding installed on social housing tower blocks across the country, with 600 identified as potentially dangerous in England alone.

Cladding on 14 towers in different parts of the country has so far been found to be "combustible" and the government has warned residents may have to be rehoused or the cladding removed as soon as possible.

Camden council, which runs the Chalcots Estate, has promised to take it off the five towers and has met residents to try to reassure them.

"The people are scared. They don't sleep very well," Casey Oppong, head of the residents' association for Wordsworth's tower, told AFP.

Oppong said the council has tried to assure them the cladding would be replaced, although this is not expected to happen for another six weeks at least.

In the meantime, the council is sending fire stewards who will patrol the area around the clock.

Oppong said residents had also asked the council to install sprinklers and fire alarms, which are currently absent in the high-rise apartments, as well as provide residents with fire blankets.

'LIVING IN DEATHTRAPS'

Wearing yellow high-visibility vests marked "Camden", three fire stewards could be seen standing guard at the Chalcots Estate next to their electric car.

They smiled at residents and said they would remain in place until the cladding is removed but locals said they were still worried.

"The scariest thing to know is that if it happened to Grenfell, it can happen to us," Oppong said.

He blamed the use of multiple subcontractors for work on council tower blocks for putting fire safety at risk, saying that "in the end there is no control".

Police on Friday said they were considering charges of manslaughter in an investigation that would include companies taking part in the refurbishment.

They said the cladding on Grenfell Tower had not passed safety tests, adding that the fire had started with a faulty Hotpoint fridge freezer.

Frederica Otokunuy, 40, said she had just been visiting her elderly parents on the 15th floor of one of the towers.

"My parents are so scared! If it's the same shit, they wish it could be changed. We had no idea. It could be so dangerous but it looks so beautiful!"

In its Friday edition, the left-wing Daily Mirror tabloid referred to buildings with potentially dangerous cladding bluntly as "tower deathtraps".
RJD worker Sanoj Yadav has alleged that he fears for his life after he failed to 'defend' Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family over allegations of corruption in a news debate.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: Sanoj Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) comradeship of 30 years failed to wane Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap's ire towards him who thrashed him brutally in a party on Friday.

An RJD loyalist and worker, Sanoj had a few days back appeared in a news debate on television where he was unable to defend Lalu Yadav and his family over allegations of corruption and acquiring benami properties.

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This enraged the young Yadav so much that he abused and thrashed Sanoj black and blue in their iftar party that was held on June 23, Friday.

Sanoj Yadav expressed dismay and shock over the humiliation that he was subjected to in a gathering full of party cadres and ministers. He was also aghast at Lalu Yadav's inaction to control his son.

Speaking to India Today, Sanoj said, "I have been a loyal worker of the party for last 30 years and today I have been humiliated by Lalu's son in such a manner that I am completely shattered."

He added that now he fears for his life and has asked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to expel Tej Pratap Yadav from his cabinet.

Yadav further alleged that RJD has been completely hijacked by Tej Pratap Yadav. "This is not the first time that a RJD worker has been beaten up and humiliated by Lalu's family members. Now I fear for my life from Tej Pratap Yadav and therefore I am appealing Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to take action against him and sack him from his cabinet", said Sanoj Yadav.

Also read: Bihar ki beti will lose presidential election: Nitish on Meira Kumar

Also read: Ulta pulta moments of presidential election: Bihar ki beti vs UP ka beta

Also read: By fielding Meira Kumar against Ram Nath Kovind, Opposition's main target is Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

Also watch: How Bihar exams topper Lafda Kumar landed up in jail

--- ENDS ---
A worker harvesting rubber latex

Too high a bar for potential investors

On July 1, VRG will offer a 25 per cent stake during its IPO, expecting to earn approximately VND10 trillion ($440 million). VRG is also selling 3 per cent of its preferred shares to its employees

According to economists, there are only a few agricultural companies which have available funds with the total worth of VND5-10 trillion. Therefore, seeking a strategic investor or a foreign investor in this sector is a challenge for VRG. Although the rubber industry has recovered, the price of rubber latex is still uncertain.

Tran Ngoc Thuan, general director of VRG, said that although there are many interested investors, the companys capitalisation is so big that it is difficult to find strategic investors.

Every year, VRG publishes information about its activities as well as its development strategy and plans for investors. We have also set the criteria for selecting strategic shareholders, with the most important criterion being that investors must have real financial capacity. However, due to the huge capitalisation, finding a strategic shareholder proved impossible within only one-two years.

According to a source of VIR, VRG submitted its selection of investors to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) for approval.

Ha Cong Tuan, Deputy Minister cum head of Business Management Innovation at MARD, said that the ministry was especially concerned with VRGs IPO. MARD even called for support from the government to give advice for this case, especially for selecting strategic investors.

Unexplored treasure

Agricultural stocks are usually not attractive to investors. However, VRGs business results and prospects are quite convincing. Therefore, the companys IPO might be a seen as a good deal by investors.

Tuan shared that the rubber industry had encountered many price drops in the past years, however, VRG remained stable. In 2016, VRG achieved an after tax profit of VND1.5 trillion ($66 million).

Besides, VRG is managing a huge land fund: 420,000 hectares of rubber, including 300,000ha in Vietnam and 120,000ha in Laos and Cambodia. Moreover, rubber prices are recovering, trading at VND50 million ($2,200) per tonne, nearly double the same period last year. This is extremely advantageous for VRGs IPO.

While profit figures are mouth-watering, what confounds investors is that the brunt of this gain does not come from rubber latex, but mainly from the wood business. According to VRGs profit structure, 45 per cent of the profit comes from wood trading, then latex. The third profitable business line was the investment in industrial parks, and finally came the rubber latex processing industry.

Moreover, despite the fact that rubber prices are recovering, the prospects of this commodity are still uncertain. It is forecasted that the average rubber price in 2017 will be around VND40 million ($1,760) per tonne.

Nevertheless, the biggest advantage is the massive land fund and VRG leaders said that the company has great long-term potential for exploiting this treasure.

Deputy Minister Ha Cong Tuan said that VRG should concentrate on exploiting its special advantages in land. VRG is outlining a development strategy towards high-tech agriculture and if the company can select its strategic shareholders, the land fund might just turn into gold in their hands.
The decree will make sure less buyers get their fingers burnt

Among the big projects to be launched is An Khanh New City Developments sale of its first phase this quarter. The mega $2 billion project is developed by South Koreas Posco E&C and Vietnams Vinaconex, located in Hanois Hoai Duc district, along the Thang Long Boulevard.

Scheduled for completion in 2013, the city is expected to supply 6,440 apartments, equivalent to 392,319 square metres of accommodation, enough for 30,000 people.

Even though Hoa Phat Group, the investor in a more than 1,000 apartment Mandarin Garden in Cau Giay districts Tran Duy Hung road, refused to release its launching time, real estate experts predicted the project would be soon launched.

At the beginning of this month the CT7D, located in Le Van Luong street and invested by Nam Cuong Group and the FLC Landmark Tower of FLC Group will also be launched, with a total of 200 units and prices ranging from VND23 million ($1,200) to VND28 million ($1,470) per square metre.

In Gia Lam district, over the Red River, the second lot of Rung Co Residentials belonging to the Eco Park is also being launched, with around 1,500 apartment units.

In addition, Victoria Van Phu, Star City, Diamond Tower and Song Da City View will also add apartments to the mix.

Real estate consultant CBRE Vietnam expected that there would be 3,000 units in Hanoi launched this quarter, compared to 1,950 units in the third quarter. There were more than 4,600 units launched in the second quarter.

This decline, according to CBRE Vietnam, could be due to the Decree 71, effective on August 8, 2010 providing guidance on the Housing Law, which caps the proportion of units sold via capital contribution contracts at 20 per cent with the remaining 80 per cent sold on transaction floors.

This decree, CBRE Vietnam said, had put a pressure on developers with low financial capabilities and enhanced market transparency.

However, CBRE Vietnam executive director Richard Leech said new project launches would continue trending towards more affordable options.

With the opening and improvement of major infrastructure routes, the capitals western and southern districts are attracting new residents with easier access for commuting into the core urban districts, Leech said.

He said that the Decree 71 was expected to benefit the market by enhancing transparency, placing pressures on developers with low financial capabilities, lessening the threat of price bubbles and limiting speculative forces.

Tran Nhu Trung, Savills Vietnam associate director, said the Decree 71 had showed off its advantages to clearly regulate five types of mobilising capital investment. However, Trung said the procedures to implement Decree 71 were still complicated and wasted customers time and energy.

The more simple it [decree] regulates, the more it is practical in the real life, Trung said.
AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj said that many people were invited but a few leaders including Ashutosh and Sanjay Singh didn't receive the invitations as well.

By Ilma Hasan: AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj dismissed Kumar Vishwas' claims that he wasn't invited for Delhi government's iftar Party on Friday evening.

Bhardwaj denied the allegations after Vishwas told the media that he was not asked to attend, despite getting an invitation last year.

The MLA said, "There was a problem with the speed post. Kumar Vishwas was invited but the speed post didn't reach him."

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Bhardwaj said that the Delhi government organised the event with Urdu Academy, and the invites were sent a week ago. He said that many people were invited but a few leaders including Ashutosh and Sanjay Singh didn't receive the invitations as well. He added, "Despite the confusion, while some chose to come, others didn't."

Other invitees included Sheila Dikshit, Manoj Tiwari and Vice President Hamid Ansari.

Vishwas' comments came a week after Arvind Kejriwal was seen attending a iftar party primarily hosted by suspended AAP leader Amanatuallah Khan. Khan was temporarily suspended from the party to pacify Kumar Vishwas after the Okhla MLA spoke against him.

Kejriwal and Khan were seen leaving the iftar party together which can potentially signal that the party is distancing itself from Vishwas, who was differed with the party publicly in the last few months.

The differences rose when Kumar didn't toe party lines that AAP had lost the polls because of EVM tampering. Following this, Khan had called Vishwas a 'BJP- RSS agent'.

Also Read:

AAP crisis: Okhla MLA Amanatullah to submit proof against 'BJP agent' Kumar Vishwas in 10 days

Look who's talking: AAP ranks miffed with Kumar Vishwas over his 'don't stay in 5-star' comment

Also Watch:

AAP leader Dilip Pandey targets Kumar Vishwas, says he is soft on the BJP

--- ENDS ---
Photo: Rich Polk/Getty Images for Disney

The increasingly messy legal battle between Johnny Depp and his former business managers marches on. People has obtained court documents filed in May by Joel and Rob Mandel and the Management Group that seem to corroborate Amber Heards allegations of physical abuse at the hands of the Pirates actor.

Mandel was informed well after the fact through communications with various house staff and security that Depp had been extremely volatile and had sometimes gotten physical with Heard  Mandel was also later informed that Depp had violently kicked Heard during an incident that took place in or around 2014, the docs read.

In the file, TMG also alleges that Depp sought to cover up the abuse by denying the veracity of a damning text exchange between his assistant and Heard, in which the assistant apologizes to Heard for Depps behavior. According to People, the docs allege Depp and his longtime assistant publicly denied the messages and outrageously accused Heard of manufacturing them  TMG is informed and believes that Depp knew full well that the text messages were genuine, but pressured and berated his assistant to falsely challenge the texts publicly.

Heard and Depps divorce was finalized earlier this year.
Dr. Lukes Tennessee defamation suit against Keshas mother, Pebe Sebert, over statements she made about his alleged rape of Kesha has been dismissed. In a statement from both Luke and Sebert, Sebert admits she has no firsthand personal knowledge of the events occurring on the night of the alleged rape, adding that she was in Nashville that night, while Kesha was in Los Angeles. Dr. Lukes defamation case against Kesha over her claims he abused her will carry on in the New York courts.

Dr. Luke vigorously disputes and denies that he ever raped Kesha Sebert, and he is asserting claims of defamation in a New York court against Kesha Sebert for making statements to the contrary, which statements Dr. Luke adamantly maintains are false.





Pebe admits she has no firsthand personal knowledge of the events occurring on the night of the alleged rape. Pebe was not present that night. At that time, Pebe was in Nashville, and Kesha was in Los Angeles. The dispute between Kesha and Dr. Luke about the events of that night is the subject of the New York case, and will be decided in that case. Accordingly, all parties believe it is appropriate to dismiss this Tennessee case and focus their attention on the New York case.
Glow This Is One of Those Moments Season 1 Episode 6 Editors Rating 4 stars * * * * Previous Next   Previous Episode Next Episode  Photo: Erica Parise/Netflix/Erica Parise/Netflix

Does TV have a fledgling fascination with adult circumcision? Last Sunday, Veeps congressional man-child Jonah Ryan underwent the procedure in a hospital at the behest of his prison-magnate-heiress fiancee. Now, the sixth episode of GLOWs first season hinges on an 18-year-old Russian chess champions ceremonial bris, administered with vodka as anesthesia while dozens of family and friends celebrate with shots from an ice luge modeled after a giant knight piece. Hard to say which scenario is more improbable, but tip of the hat to GLOW executive producer Jenji Kohan, who wrote This Is One of Those Moments, for spinning a gentle satire of Russian customs into a running riff on the extreme devotion of Orthodox Jews.

To peel that back a bit (pardon the circumcision visual), Ruth set her sights on Gregory the motel owner, who is evolving into a quirky series regular. (Its still hard to compartmentalize actor Ravil Isyanov from his recent KGB turn on The Americans.) Having been her ostensible muse for Soviet slayer Zoya the Destroya, Ruth corners poor Gregory  who apparently just assumed she and the other women were all ladies of the night  and insists on soaking up his essence like a sponge. Begrudgingly, he lets her tag along for his cousin Michaels festive foreskin-snipping, and does his best to dissuade her from stereotypical notions of Russian peasants slaving away in gulags and pining for loaves of bread. It is not terribly successful. Ruth gets cozy with the ice luge and inevitably sidles up to guests, eager to see if theyll take her at accented value as one of them. One thing leads to another, and at ailing Mitchells request, she serenades everyone with a song from Yentl, assuring Gregory that Barbara Streisand is a balm for all wounds and bridge across divides.

Ruth is still chiefly annoying. Thats no knock on Alison Brie. But Sam isnt out of left field wanting her to tone down the Zoya shtick when hes barely had his morning coffee. Nor is Gregory off base in finding her overeager and unwittingly insulting. And despite Sams protestations that Debbie suck it up and overcome her best friends betrayal, its easy to empathize with Debbies demand that anyone but Zoya the Destroya oppose Liberty Belle as a signature heel. (Side note: I love the characters ease with wrestling terminology by this point.) Problem is, Welfare Queens a showboat, Viking scares her half to death, the Terrorist is terrifyingly hyperactive, and She-Wolf wont exactly bite at the opportunity. Perhaps more important, Sam is starting to see how Ruth, for all her irksome earnestness and poor personal choices, has a way of drawing extreme emotion from people. Maybe that explains how Mark fell for her in the first place. He also understands what none of her prior directors could: All that can-do emoting makes her a terrific villain. With a bit of coaxing, he finally persuades Ruth and Debbie that theyre ideal scene partners in the ring, a first step toward reconciliation, no Yentl required.

Justine, meanwhile, is feeling on the fence about punk-rock dreamboat Billy. Over diner breakfast, he has the audacity to tear into Sams reputation as a cult filmmaker, blurting out that, Ripping off De Palma isnt a genre. Next thing you know, she disses his scene zine, Agnostic Toad, and they part ways in animus. Justines day doesnt get much better when Rhonda spills the beans about she and Sam shagging (was Rhonda always this airheaded?), which prompts Justine to project her frustrations all over an unsuspecting Sam mid-urination. Sam, in turn, offers some mean words about toning down the stalker talk and working on her moves. Back at motel reception, all Billy can do is sulk and open his heart to Gregory, who merely suggests spending more spare moments giving oral sex (to Justine, not him) and less time talking. After all, thats what his sometime lady friend recommends.

The cliffhanger, if you want to call it that, finds Justine stealing Sams camcorder, which hed just used to capture Debbie and Ruths first bona fide bit of worthy performance as Zoya and Liberty. Generation Xs Ready Steady Go, a welcome, edgier choice amid GLOWs neon soundtrack so far, speaks volumes about Justines intention when Billy Idol sneers, Im not in love with television / Im not in love with the radio. Shes bent on reminding Sam and Billy what rebellion is, though well have to wait and see exactly how that looks and sounds. Good thing were ready, steady, go.

Apart From All That

 Lots of credit for the credible wrestling vocab goes to on-set fight coordinator and wrestling legend Chavo Guerrero Jr.

 No one charges a corner like Kia Stevens, a.k.a. Awesome Kong, a.k.a. GLOWs Welfare Queen.

 More back and forth like what Ruth and Debbie improvise in the ring, please.

 Orthodox Jews and anyone else are fair game so long as its funny. Which lines like I will lock you up with my completely covered legs definitely are.

 Rough Toilet Paper is a keeper.

 Any character youd like to learn more about soon? I vote Arthie.

 Sturgeon on rye? No thanks.

 The body slam Debbie takes from Viking audibly demonstrates how unforgiving that ring can be.
Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Not even 24 hours after joking around at the Glastonbury Festival that U.S. president Donald Trump should be assassinated, Johnny Depp has apologized for his remarks, explaining that it was an attempt at humor gone wrong. I apologize for the bad joke I attempted last night in poor taste about President Trump, he said in a statement to People on Friday. It did not come out as intended, and I intended no malice. I was only trying to amuse, not to harm anyone. At the popular British arts and music festival, Depp went off on his brief Trumpian tangent while presenting a screening for his 2004 film The Libertine, an historical drama that he thinks is very underrated. This is going to be in the press, and it will be horrible. But I like that youre all a part of it. When was the last time an actor assassinated a president? he said to the laughing crowd, not-so-subtly reminding them of John Wilkes Booth. I want to clarify. Im not an actor. I lie for a living.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Friday wished Indians a 'happy 70th anniversary on their independence' during his daily press briefing where he was asked about the upcoming meeting between PM Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump.

By India Today Web Desk: India celebrates 70 years of freedom this August 15, but White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has wasted no time to wish our country and its citizens. Addressing his daily press briefing, Spicer was asked about the upcoming Donald Trump-Narendra Modi meeting at the White House.

In response, Spicer said that he'd first like to "wish the people of India a happy 70th anniversary on their independence."

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The question, asked by a reporter identified only as 'Goyal', was about the expectations from Trump and Modi's June 26 meeting in Washington, DC. The two leaders are meeting for the first time; notably, Modi will become the first world leader with whom Donald Trump sits down for a working dinner.

Answering the question, Spicer said President Trump and Prime Minister Modi will "discuss ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism, defense partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement, and energy. I think it's going to be a very robust discussion."

PM Modi has already left for his US visit, which includes a stopover in Portugal today. Modi will arrive in the United States on Sunday and will meet Trump on Monday.

Spicer's comment on wishing India on its independence was not followed up by a reporter's comment, so it remains unclear whether the press secretary was merely wishing India in its 70th independent year.

Here is the full exchange (courtesy the White House) where Spicer speaks about the Trump-Modi meet and wishes India (the full transcript of Spicer's briefing can be found here):

"Q Take one question, Sean?

MR. SPICER: I know because Goyal has got a visit coming on Monday, so he gets a question on Friday.

Q Thank you, sir. Two questions.

MR. SPICER: Are you excited?

Q This will be the first face-to-face meeting --

MR. SPICER: It will.

Q Yes, sir. This will be the first --

MR. SPICER: Better get ready.

Q -- face-to-face meeting between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi. So is President Trump ready to accept him and welcome him, because both have the same dream? Prime Minister Modi is saying "Make in India," and President Trump is saying "Buy American," and make in America -- or "Hire American." So my question is, so much is there on the plate when Prime Minister Modi arrives here. He's saying that he will have a great meeting with the President because we have many things in common, as far as US-India relations are concerned. So what can we expect between the two leaders?

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MR. SPICER: Well, first, I want to wish the people of India a happy 70th anniversary on their independence.

But during the meeting, the President and the Prime Minister will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism, defense partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement, and energy. I think it's going to be a very robust discussion.

Q And a separate question, please --

MR. SPICER: Yeah.

Q Thank you. On Wednesday, June 21st was the International Day of Yoga, which was declared by the United Nations three years ago under the leadership -- initiative by Prime Minister Modi. Any citation you think President Trump will issue? Or what he has -- any message as far as yoga is concerned? Because yoga means less trips to the doctors and hospitals.

MR. SPICER: I don't have -- (laughter) -- anything on yoga at this point. But I appreciate the --

Q Show us a stance. (Laughter.)"

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ALSO READ | Ahead of Modi visit, US sees no threat to Pakistan from arms deal with India

ALSO READ | This is what PM Modi has to say about his first meeting with President Trump

ALSO WATCH | PM Modi to meet Trump on June 26, will discuss Indo-US ties with Trump

--- ENDS ---
Nowhere to Hide.

Some great documentaries cut through the inessentials and help you make sense of an apparently senseless world. Others have the opposite effect: They shock you into an even greater confoundment, demonstrating, moment by moment, how irrational the world really is. Nowhere to Hide is in the latter camp. Its an experiential doc, a first-person view of the disintegration of Iraq as it happens. The cameraperson is a medic and father named Nori Sharif who lives in the central Iraq town of Jalawla. When Americans troops withdraw from Iraq in 2011, a departing documentary crew gives Nori a small camera and tells him to shoot whatever he wants. The presumption is that after eight bloody years of occupation, the country will begin to stabilize and to heal. I am very happy, says Nori, to see the country free.

The grueling 80-plus minutes that follow take you from 2011 to 2015. The first part of the film  what Nori plainly thought would be its lowest point  focuses on the occupations immediate aftermath: the widows and orphans, the men whove been paralyzed by bullets and bombs, the father whod been kidnapped twice by al Qaeda after being sold out by a supposed friend. One year later, civil war has arrived. Nori trudges into buildings that have been shelled by the regime. A boy wails in agony over the body of his father. Iraqi regime troops open fire on peaceful Sunni protests. Central Iraq falls to ISIS. Burning military bases belch up black smoke in the distance. Most of the staff of the Jalawla hospital flees, the lone doctor among them. Nori must be the doctor now. He photographs a mother in shock, staring at God knows what, and a little girl covered in blood. Nori and his family finally flee as ISIS arrives on the outskirts of Jalawla, headed anywhere and nowhere.

Directed by Zaradasht Ahmed, Nowhere to Hide unfolds in a political vacuum, insofar as the focus is on suffering civilians. No one assigns blame for what is happening. Toward the end of the film, when Nori returns to Jalawla, after ISIS has been driven out, to inspect the rubbled hospital (he holds up a defibrillator that ISIS soldiers have deliberately smashed and shakes his head), he muses on the chaos. It was thought, he says, that a war is planned by the elite, the dumb die in it, and opportunists benefit  but this is none of the above.

Hes only partially right. The war was planned by Paul Wolfowitz and some of the most profoundly stupid and callous men ever to hold office in this country. They ousted Saddam but had no clue how to manage the country, shrugging off what Colin Powell among others called the Pottery Barn rule: You break it, you buy it. They broke it and let it further disintegrate while the dumb  i.e., the voiceless  died, Americans and, in vast numbers, Iraqi civilians. The opportunists with ties to the Bush administration benefited to the tune of billions. The horror that followed the American withdrawal was not perpetrated by these men, but they opened the floodgates.

Anyway, thats what I was thinking as I watched Nori and his family move around the country, at one point living in a school with 20 other families, often just one step ahead of ISIS. They are now in the Saad refugee camp, their town that once held several hundred thousand effectively destroyed, their present marked by dread, their future unknown.

Among the movies meta-moments is a scene in which a child asks to hold the camera and Nori says to make sure to hold each shot for at least ten seconds. Probably thats the most hopeful thing in the film  that and the spare and very beautiful guitar soundtrack by Gaute Barlindhaug and Ciwan Haco. No one can make sense of what is happening to this and other families. But they must film it.
Bread, glorious bread  perhaps Oprahs very favorite thing  is the subject of this weeks Great British Bake Off. The ten remaining bakers will be subject to special scrutiny, given that bread is Paul Hollywoods primary specialty. His secondary specialty is having piercing blue eyes.

I tend to do basic bread more than a faffed-about bread, so Im more of a bloomers and baps girl, says Kate, in a sentence so impenetrable to me it would not feel out of place in the scene where Austin Powers and his dad speak English English in Goldmember.

The signature challenge? A chocolate bread. Bakers knead their dough with abandon to help produce gluten  this episode is quite the opposite of gluten-free  and improve the breads eventual shape and structure. Candices delicious-sounding chocolate, salted-caramel, and pecan-brittle brioche loaf is formed from dozens of dough balls. (Same.) The dough for Ravs chocolate, cardamom, and hazelnut loaf is looking a little small, but hes banking on getting a good rise.

Meanwhile, this years Bread Week may represent the most times the word babka has been spoken in a single episode of television since that one Seinfeld. Benjamina is baking a chocolate, tahini, and almond babka, but Paul argues that her creation technically qualifies as a couronne (French for crown), not a babka. Dont be grumpy about it, Mary Berry chides him. Forget it, Paul. Its Babkatown.

For her Cobbled Loaf, named in honor of her late grandmother-in-law Nanny Cobbled, a perfect name for a childrens-book character if I have ever heard one, overachiever Kate is the only baker making two doughs. One is cardamom and orange, the other is chocolate and vanilla, and the cobblestone-esque bread is composed of individual dough balls stuffed with chunks of dark and white chocolate throughout. No one likes a small, underfilled ball, Kate observes.

Andrew bakes a chocolate barmbrack bread, a variation on a traditional Irish Halloween loaf. (Excuse me, why dont we have a traditional Halloween loaf?) Andrew courts controversy by adding all his ingredients before proving  that is, leaving the dough alone so it has time to rise. Hes the only baker to prove his loaf once, not twice.

Tom calls his chocolate, orange, and chili swirl loaf Aztec-inspired. Paul appreciates his daring approach to flavors, but when you fail, you catastrophically fail. Well, good luck! Self-described rogue baker Selasi (recipes schmecipes!) is working on a chocolate orange and cinnamon bread, glazed with orange syrup to cut bitter dark chocolate. Jane spreads the interior of her chocolate and cranberry couronne with a thick mixture of dark chocolate and melted butter that I would like to spread all over my face and body, because there is no way that something so beautiful doesnt have some kind of wellness and/or skin-care benefit.

The filled dough must be shaped before it proves a second time, which gives the yeast another welcome opportunity to grow. Bakers roll, cut, and twist their creations in a high-stakes Play-Doh session. Bursting with cranberries and pecans, Janes couronne looks  interesting. Sue asks her if shes seen Alien. Theres a hint of sort of John Hurts exploded stomach to that, isnt there?

Most of all, bakers have to strike the right balance between proving time and baking time. Do you let your dough rise for as long as it takes, or do you risk serving Paul something raw? (Please, for the love of babka, do not serve Paul something raw.) The wait is agonizing, so much so that Selasi lies down on the floor. When their bakes are theoretically done, the competitors pat their loaves solicitously and probe them with thermometers. Please be cooked, I beg you, Benjamina implores hers.

Candice is in a state of panic when her bread wont slide out of its tin. A small army of fellow bakers assemble around her for moral support, reminding us that the central lesson of Great British Bake Off is that people, like desserts, are basically good. She flips it over. It partly collapses on the way out. Oh no! Candice cries, Ive squashed it!

Andrews bread looks great, decorated with beautiful, even lines of frosting. Proving just once paid off! Benjaminas bread didnt cook evenly on top, Paul notes, giving it the consistency of wallpaper paste. Most bakers have at least slightly underbaked their thick loaves, but Tom was wise to choose a more shallow bake. It came out wonderfully. Rav, too, gets kudos. Janes formerly horrifying couronne looks amazing, like an all-seasons edible wreath I would gladly hang on my front door.

But Michaels Mexican-inspired chocolate and chili swirl plait, with chia seeds and cayenne pepper, is waaay too heavy on the chili. And Poor Candices bread isnt just experiencing structural issues. Its raw. With all the love in the world, Im not going to eat it, Paul tells her.

This weeks technical challenge requires the bakers to produce 12 Dampfnudel ( what), a notoriously difficult recipe courtesy of Paul, with a plum sauce and a vanilla custard on the side. Dampf, you see, is German for steam. These pale, fluffy dumplings are brown and caramelized on their bottoms. Paul says the test here is knowing when the dough has been steamed through (dont lift the lid early or theyll droop!), but to me this seems more like a test of psychic ability.

People are utterly baffled, and as usual, the bare-bones recipe is little help: Make a Dampfnudel dough, reads the first instruction. Worse, the condensation from the steam makes it nearly impossible to see how theyre coming along. Tom calls this challenge a voyage of discovery. Says Rav of his damp noodles Dampfnudel, I hate them. I absolutely hate them.

When time is up, many of the Dampfnudel are raw. Some have cooked unevenly. Others are black on their bases or have drooped unpleasantly. Val wins the technical (hers still a million miles away from his, Paul says, but whatever, pal), with Andrew and Candice in second and third. Rav is in last place, with Jane, Kate, and Michael also in the bottom.

The showstopper challenge is a savory, plaited centerpiece made with three flours. This will be tough. Different flours take different amounts of time to rise, and the strands of their plaits (that is, braids) must be neat and uniform. Janes elaborately braided Corn Maiden is inspired by a corn doll made by her children, but to me it looks like one of those creepy twig figures from The Blair Witch Project. Michael is baking a Cypriot dove-and-olive-branch plaited loaf with hummus, inspired by memories of baking with his grandmother and his familys roots in Cyprus. He plans to serve it with a glass of Zivania, a not-messing-around high-proof traditional spirit.

Candice works her Italian light-and-dark-rye twist (filled with mozzarella and olives) for ten seconds, leaves it for ten minutes, kneads it for ten seconds, leaves it for ten minutes. I am exhausted just watching her. In addition to its woven base, Andrews ambitious braided harvest-basket bread will have a pesto-filled rim and a handle flavored with orange and cardamom.

Tom is appealing to the Norse gods for his two-part centerpiece: the serpent Jormungandr (filled with cranberries and walnuts) and Mjolnir, Thors hammer, as rendered in rye and spelt flavored with ale and seaweed (!). Its very male isnt, it? Mel says of Toms noticeably phallic dough sword. He wont take the bait: My moms going to watch this.

Vals Biblical bake, And They All Went Into the Ark to Get Out of the Rain, might be the days very biggest centerpiece. It features not only the ark itself, but a fleet of spelt bread animals. The hosts point out that, oddly, those animals dont appear to be in the classical pairs. There are two giraffes, yes, but only one elephant (Theyve argued, Val explains) and a single dove (Ones flown away). Alas, Val herself flew too close to the sun. When presented to the judges, the still-raw finished product looks a little crazy. Paul thinks he sees a chicken. Mel speaks of a tortoise and slugs.

Toms bold, appealingly shiny seaweed-flavored bread is a big hit, Odin be praised. Sue puts Andrews well-received basket on his head as a helmet. Benjaminas braided bread heart gets a gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous from Paul. Selasi loses points for the three disjointed loaves that comprise his Bedouin escape tear-and-share bread, connected only tenuously by a story of his trip to Egypt. Kates Corn Maiden gets high marks for its intricate plaiting. Candices double loaf is a neat Dr. Jekyll on the bottom and a regrettable Mr. Hyde on top. And even a boozy bribe cant help Michaels entry, served on the Cyprus flag. Paul calls it a mess.

Tom, to his shock, is crowned star baker. Though Candice is sure shell be going home, the judges choose Michael, whos sad he lost on a bake that was so meaningful to him.

I think she might become my baking mascot, Kate chirps of her corn doll. I think it might become a recurring feature of my nightmares.
Two years after the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, they still cant get a courthouse wedding in Waco.

Only one Waco-based justice of the peace has been doing any civil weddings since the high court decided Obergefell vs. Hodges on July 26, 2015, and she said she will only do a wedding between a man and a woman.

Precinct 1 Place 1 Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley said she initially chose not to do weddings at all after the Supreme Court decision, as did some other JPs in the county, including her colleague, Precinct 1 Place 2 Judge Pete Peterson.

But Hensley changed her mind in September, and has done about 70 opposite-sex weddings since then, mostly at the courthouse during business hours.

My conscience was bothering me because so many people were calling and wanting a wedding, she said.

She said that as a Bible-believing Christian, her conscience also prohibits her from doing same-sex weddings, and she thinks she is entitled to a religious exemption. She said that on a couple of occasions, her office has told same-sex couples that the judge was not available and gave them a list of locals who would officiate a same-sex wedding, including ministers and Precinct 3 JP David Pareya, who is based in West.

Meanwhile, Peterson stopped doing weddings after the Obergefell decision. Some JPs, including Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace James E. Lee, have never performed them.

Hensley said she has talked to a religious liberty legal group called First Liberty, and she said she thinks that as long as Pareya performs civil weddings in McLennan County, same-sex couples have reasonable accommodations that preserve their constitutional rights.

They have also ruled that people have the right to an accommodation for their religious faith, she said. So Im entitled to accommodations just as much as anyone else.

Hensley said she does not remember the source of the legal precedent for such an allowance. She said she is familiar with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtons controversial and nonbinding memo following the 2015 Supreme Court decision.

Paxton said county clerks with a religious objection to same-sex marriage could delegate their administrative approval to another employee, while justices of the peace and other judges could have a legal case for a religious objection to performing same-sex marriages.

The Texas Justice Court Training Center issued a statement in July 2015 after the Supreme Court decision, saying it was unable to identify any current legal authority that would allow JPs to marry opposite-sex couples but not same-sex couples. Hensley said that state-run organization, which trains JPs, tends to interpret the law conservatively.

But Hensley acknowledged that a legal challenge to her decision is possible.

I thought maybe its time to run some risk, she said.

A Waco attorney is willing to take Hensley to court over the issue if he can find the right plaintiff.

I would certainly be receptive to handling such a case without charging the client, said David Schleicher, a former Democratic Party county chairman who practices in state and federal courts. I think marriage is a fundamental right, as (Supreme Court Justice Anthony) Kennedy said, Its an embarrassment to religion to use it as an excuse for bigotry. 

Schleicher said he thinks such a plaintiff will emerge.

It may not be tomorrow, but it would be a matter of time, he said. People are in a mood to stand up for their constitutional rights these days.

Hiram Sasser, deputy chief counsel for First Liberty, said he wasnt aware of Hensleys situation or of any efforts by his nonprofit group to back justices of the peace who only want to do opposite-sex weddings. Sasser said his group does support finding solutions to accommodate the religious beliefs of government employees as long as people can obtain those services in an immediate and convenient way from the governmental entity.

Our goal is not to see any cases on that issue, he said.

Attorneys advice

Mike Dixon, attorney for McLennan County, said he was unaware of Hensleys decision, but he reiterated the advice he gave to JPs after the Supreme Court decision in 2015.

It would seem the safest practice to say, You either do them all or you dont do it,  Dixon said Thursday.

He said weddings are not a ministerial duty of justices of the peace and are not official county business, so he doubts that the county would be liable for a civil rights lawsuit based on Hensleys decision.

Schleicher disagreed, saying Hensley could be sued as an official of the county and that the county could have legal exposure. He said that while commissioners dont have direct control over Hensley, who is an elected official, they could resolve that any legal expenses she incurs because of her decision would be deducted from her budget.

Hensley said she told County Judge Scott Felton about her decision.

He said, Good luck to you,  she recalls. He didnt express great concern about it, but he also felt like since I was kind of an independent contractor, they wouldnt be put in the position of defending it. He neither said good for you or woe for you. He just said, Thanks for letting me know. 

Felton did not return phone calls Friday seeking to corroborate Hensleys account of that conversation.

Carmen Saenz, founder and leader of the local LGBT advocacy group InterWaco, said she found out about Hensleys stance last October, when her friend David Garcia got married to a woman in Hensleys court. Saenz said she later asked Hensley during a phone call whether she would take LGBT couples.

I said, As a lesbian, you would not marry me? and she said, Thats right,  Saenz recalled.

Saenz said that when she objected, saying such a position is against the law, Hensley said, So sue me. 

I was shocked that she would so boldly say to me, So sue me,  Saenz said.

Hensley denied making that statement.

I most assuredly did not, Hensley said. At my age Im not looking for a lawsuit.

Garcia said he wouldnt have gotten married in Hensleys court if he had known her policy.

Very upsetting

She needs to find another job, then, Garcia said. Youre an elected official. If you want to live in a theocracy, then move to Iran. Youre sworn to uphold the Constitution, not the Bible. Its very upsetting to me as an (LGBT) ally.

Hensley was elected to the office in 2014, after precinct boundaries were redrawn and local Republican Party officials chose in a secret vote to put her on the November ballot instead of attorney Kristi DeCluitt, the Republican incumbent who had been displaced in the precinct consolidation. Hensley had worked as a campaign manager and fundraising consultant and had owned Curves Fitness franchises in Temple.

Paul Castillo, senior attorney for Dallas-based LGBT legal organization Lambda Legal, said he is aware of only a handful of cases across Texas in which justices of the peace attempt to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples.

Certainly, judges who are discriminating against same-sex couples are opening themselves to a lawsuit and an ethics complaint, Castillo said. I would definitely invite same-sex couples who are experiencing discrimination to contact Lambda Legal. . . . With respect to this particular situation, theres no basis under the Constitution for a judge to have same-sex couples undergo a different process in order to receive a service to the community thats available to everyone else.

Chuck Smith, CEO of the LGBT rights group Equality Texas, agreed that Hensleys position is discriminatory and illegal, but his group would not be pursuing litigation on the case because it is focused on the transgender bathroom fight in the Texas Legislature.

Personally I would not want to be married by someone who didnt support my marriage in the first place, Smith added.

No one at the state or local level has calculated how many same-sex couples have been married since the Supreme Court decision. McLennan County Clerks Office marriage records dont indicate gender.

Some couples have been married in private ceremonies or in local congregations that recognize same-sex marriage.

Charley Garrison, pastor of Metropolitan Community Church, said he performed about 24 same-sex weddings shortly after the Supreme Court decision and now does one about every three months.

I think a lot of them do want a ceremony thats recognized by the church, Garrison said. That means a lot to them, even though they dont attend our church. They still have a faith that speaks out. On the other hand, I know a lot of them have found me because of the recommendation they got at the courthouse.

Garrison and his longtime partner, Mark, were married last year by a friend who is an ordained minister. He said he and his husband now have the peace of mind that they have hospital visitation rights, and they also get a tax benefit from filing jointly.

It makes a difference

On a personal level, nothing changes, he said. Life goes on as in 16 years prior to that marriage. But on a legal level, it makes a difference. If one of us should die, we dont have that hurdle to jump over to make sure the other person is taken care of. . . . As far as making our relationship any more solid or firm, it hasnt, because our relationship was already affirmed.

He said the initial joy at seeing same-sex couples secure the right to marry has yielded to a sober recognition that anti-LGBT discrimination still lives on, including in the Texas Legislatures upcoming consideration of restrictions on transgender students bathroom use.

I think people are accepting more and more that same-sex marriage is as much of the norm as different-sex marriage, but were also feeling the backlash, Garrison said. We just want to be recognized as something other than second-class citizens. Thats why the legislation in the Legislature right now is so difficult for me, because it puts us back as second-class citizens. Its one step forward and sometimes two steps back.

But my profession is one of hope. Its something I constantly lean into, the hope that things will be better.
Deputy CM of Jammu and Kashmir Dr Nirmal Singh has said that the time has come to review the security cover given to Kashmiri separatist leaders in the Valley after the cold-blooded murder of DSP Mohammad Ayub Pandith in Srinagar.

By Ashwini Kumar: Dr Nirmal Singh, Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir has said that the time has come to review the security cover given to Kashmiri separatist leaders in the Valley after the cold-blooded murder of Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammad Ayub Pandith in Srinagar.

The deputy CM was echoing the views expressed by Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dr SP Vaid earlier in the day.

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Talking to India Today in Jammu, Dr Nirmal Singh said, "If the separatists do not cooperate with the police to arrest the murderers, we will have to consider withdrawing their security cover. We are looking into all the aspects and this is the time to act. Some separatists are instigating the mob to attack the police. Police officers have been deployed to protect them, not to get killed at the hands of these people", the deputy Chief Minister said.

The BJP leader said that this was cold-blooded murder and a heinous crime. "Deputy SP Ayub Pandith was on security duty in the masjid. He was killed by these inhuman people. This is a barbaric act", Singh said.

NATION STANDS WITH AYUB's FAMILY: NIRMAL SINGH

He added, "Today I visited his residence in Srinagar. People of that area are annoyed with those who killed Ayub. I told the family that the entire nation stood with them. The government will not spare Ayub's killers. We have constituted an SIT and two people, who were injured when the DSP fired at them, have been arrested. More arrests will follow in the near future."

The Deputy CM went on to say, "Whosoever is involved, no matter how influential he be, will not be spared. They are not well-wishers of kashmiris. They are behaving like animals during this pious phase of Ramzan."

"The PDP-BJP government will not tolerate such acts. PM Modi is himself monitoring the situation in Kashmir. We believe in democracy, but it does not mean that leaders of the Hurriyat Conference burn schools and kill youth in the Valley while their children go abroad for higher studies."

Also read | Was the Kashmir cop's lynching a pre-planned murder? Here's a timeline

Also read | 3 more arrested over Ayub Pandith's lynching, SIT to probe Jamia Masjid incident

Also read | North Srinagar SP transferred after Ayub Pandith's lynching outside Jamia Masjid

WATCH VIDEO

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Pete Commander and other Trib writers suggest the effort to impeach Donald Trump is nothing but a partisan political witch hunt. Im with the armchair generals who think Trump should be impeached and removed from office as soon as possible.

For the record, I had a top-secret ESI security clearance in the Air Force. I was an electronic technician in the Strategic Air Command 2nd Air Force Command Post where Lt. Gen. Austin Russell worked on nuclear war plans and contingencies to protect us from Russia. At discharge, I was told in writing not to leave the country for five years without prior approval from the Pentagon.

I had a front-row seat to the Watergate scandal. I worked in Washington at an office on Pennsylvania Avenue a few blocks from Capitol Hill when I first learned about the Watergate break-in. I read Washington Post articles by Woodward and Bernstein on a daily basis before going to work.

Some of the parallels between Watergate and the Trump scandals are striking. The first article of impeachment against Richard Nixon was for his attempt to use the CIA to shut down the FBIs Watergate investigation. Trump, personally, has now done the exact same thing.

I believe there are several reasons Donald Trump should be impeached. He has taken, and continues to take, payments from people connected to foreign governments. This is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. Trump has been sued for this by Richard Painter, George W. Bushs ethics counsel, and by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Trump also tried to shut down the FBI investigation into the Russian cyber-attack on Americas 2016 presidential election. He fired FBI Director James Comey and it appears he asked two other intelligence agency heads to lie about the Russian investigation. This is clearly obstruction of justice.

But the above reasons for impeaching Trump pale in comparison to this one: Trump is daily carrying out foreign policy desires of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He is using the presidency of the United States to advance the interests of Russia, Americas greatest adversary, at the expense of American interests. Why is he doing this?

Heres the irony: The things Trump is doing for Russia are, in and of themselves, legal. I fully expect the current investigation to uncover shocking and disturbing business connections between Trump and Russia, but the most important reason for the current investigation is to learn why Trump is working for the interests of Russia.

For more than a year, Trump has been attacking NATO, the greatest and most powerful peacetime military alliance in the history of the world. NATO is a product of the blood, sweat and tears of the Greatest Generation of Americans  the soldiers, sailors and airmen who fought in World War II. Trump seems bent on dividing and destroying NATO and lifting U.S. sanctions against Russia. He constantly attacks and offends our allied friends in NATO. Russia is the only beneficiary of such behavior.

At the recent NATO annual meeting, Trump refused to affirm Article V, the collective security provision in the NATO Treaty. He removed the statement reaffirming that provision from his speech. The foreignpolicy.com website called this an attack on every member of NATO.

Despite a warning from President Obama, Trump appointed former Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn  a foreign agent  to be his national security advisor. When acting Attorney General Sally Yates informed Trump that Flynn was subject to being blackmailed by Russia, Trump kept Flynn on for 18 more days. Trump allowed Flynn to continue taking part in intelligence briefings and talks with Russia. Trump only fired Flynn when Yates warning about Flynn was reported by the Washington Post.

It appears that Flynn talked to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to reassure him the day President Obama increased the sanctions against Russia. Did Trump direct Flynn to do this? Did Flynn assure Russia the sanctions would be lifted when Trump took office?

Trump invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov into the Oval Office, accompanied by the Russian state news camera crew, at the request of Putin. During that meeting, Trump bragged to the Russians about firing FBI Director James Comey and leaked top-secret Israeli intelligence to the Russians. Trump also revealed the geographic location of two American nuclear submarines. Theres a reason they carry those nuclear weapons under water.

Notwithstanding the views of Mr. Commander and other Trump supporters, this is not about partisan politics  its about our country. I believe Ron Reagan, son of President Reagan, said it best:

I think people are finally starting to come to gripswith the notion that we have a dangerous individual in the Oval Office who is a national security threat and he needs to be removed from office.  (H)es unfit and he needs to be removed.

Reagan went on to add: (W)hen the history books are written about this period  and they will be  there are only going to be two sides: There are going to be patriots and there are going to be partisans.

At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Founding Father Benjamin Franklin said impeachment is the remedy in cases where the president has rendered himself obnoxious. Can anyone seriously argue with that in Trumps case?
No peeking!

With all the noise about transgender bathrooms, I wonder if a lot of us are not into transgenderism ourselves. When I was growing up, we had only one bathroom and my brother, sister, parents and friends all used it. Later when I had a family of my own, while we had two restrooms, all the family and any visitors used them as needed. No signs necessary. Even this morning while I showered, my wife brushed her teeth.

Being a transgenderist is bothering me. Have I been doing this all my life? Who started worrying about someone from the opposite sex using the same bathroom as you do? I thought about this a couple of days ago when I was in a restroom at Walmart. I kept looking up to see if someone was looking over the wall to check if I was a male or a female. Evidently people do that, you know. After all, how would they know the difference if they didnt peek over the wall?

Jim Denton, Gatesville

All about money

Jeremi Suris May 27 column focuses on the government policy of engaging troops in other countries without a defined purpose. Actually, a well-defined purpose exists: money. Setting aside emotional biases and looking at the facts, all wars are fought for money. Every war the United States has been involved in since its inception has been fought over money in the form of currency, taxation, territory or natural resources. Furthermore, the industries which supply munitions, fuel, equipment and uniforms benefit from war.

Some say that money is the root of all evil. Is making a profit from war evil?

Don Garretson, West

Remember this

June is Alzheimers and Brain Awareness Month. We ask everyone to go purple in honor or memory of someone who has had this devastating disease.

There is no cure or prevention for this sixth leading cause of death in Texas. Every 66 seconds someone is diagnosed with this death sentence. While Congress has approved giving the National Institutes of Health some $400 million for research, we advocate more, including passage of the Palliative Care and Hospice Training Act. This would increase palliative care and hospice training for health-care professionals, launch a national campaign to inform patients and families of the benefits and bolster research for improvement. Nearly half of all with Alzheimers and other dementias are in hospice care at the time of death.

Contact Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and our congressman, Bill Flores, and ask them to back this bill and all others benefiting people with Alzheimers and brain injuries. This horrific disease is already out of control and will continue to worsen without their help.

And please go purple this month. I do so both in honor of my mother-in-law, Polly Lee, and in memory of my mother, Margie Ledbetter.

Melody Lee, Waco District Ambassador/Advocate, McGregor
Apparently, the Deols were keen to audition Palak Tiwari for Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas, but she did not turn up.

By India Today Web Desk: Sunny Deol is leaving no stone unturned to make sure that his son, Karan Deol, has a dream debut with Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas. According to a report in SpotboyE, Shweta Tiwari's daughter Palak's photographs caught Sunny's eye and he was keen to cast her opposite his son. Palak, who has quite a fan following already on social media, was called for an audition by the Deols, but she snubbed it.

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A source is quoted as saying, "The Deols auditioned over 200 girls for the heroine's part. They were impressed with Palak's photographs on social media and were keen that she auditions for the role."

However, Palak did not show up to the audition, much to their dismay. "Team Sunny was bewildered with no response from her end. There was no reason why she would show no interest in a film being made under Vijeta Films led by veteran actor, Dharmendra. They waited a while before settling on Saher Bamba," the source added.

Palak is likely to enter Tinsel Town with a film called Quickie, where she will be paired opposite Darsheel Safary, best known for his role as a child actor in Taare Zameen Par. Karan Deol, meanwhile, is currently shooting for Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas in Manali.

ALSO READ: Sunny Deol's son Karan begins shooting for his debut, Salman-SRK welcome him to Bollywood

ALSO READ: Shweta Tiwari's daughter Palak to debut opposite Darsheel Safary in Quickie?

ALSO WATCH: Shweta Tiwari's mehendi ceremony

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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has social media giants including Facebook and WhatsApp in his sights in the global fight against terrorism, flagging a crackdown on "ungoverned spaces" online.

In the clearest signal yet that Australia will, like Britain, pressure social media companies to do more to cooperate with governments to combat would-be terrorists who are organising online, Mr Turnbull has declared the rule of law must apply online as it does in the "analogue, offline world".

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday 19 June 2017. fedpol Photo: Alex Ellinghausen Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

In confronting Islamist terrorism, Mr Turnbull said, it was important to recognise terrorists wanted to divide Australians, but that in what was largely a "war within Islam", it was important to work with moderate Muslim leaders like Indonesian President Joko Widodo and community leaders at home.

Mr Turnbull spoke at a meeting of the Liberal Party's federal council in Sydney in which he also highlighted his government's success in passing the Gonski 2.0 needs-based school funding reforms, despite tight negotiations with the Senate crossbench.
For the past eight months he has been the third wheel in Oliver Curtis and Roxy Jacenko's much-scrutinised marriage, but yesterday the millionaire Sydney businessman Nabil Gazal jnr was uncharacteristically absent from the media circus.

It is understood "Junior" had timed a trip to his Lebanese ancestral homeland to ensure he avoided being caught up in the fanfare that surrounded the release of Curtis, who returned home to the Bondi Beach luxury digs he previously shared with his wife and children.

Nabil Gazal and Roxy Jacenko dining at Sydney's Otto restaurant in a file picture.

Curtis was silent outside Cooma prison on Friday morning when asked about Gazal.

It has been nine months since Jacenko's former lover resurfaced on the public relations dynamo's social radar.
Terror charges against the alleged Bali bombing mastermind, known as Hambali, accuse the Guantanamo captive of of conspiring in the 2002 Bali, Indonesia, nightclub bombings and the 2003 attack on the JW Marriott in Jakarta that between them killed more than 200 people.

A war court prosecutor has filed the terror charges against the notorious Indonesian.

The maximum security prison Camp Delta at Guantanamo Naval Base, where Hambali has been held. Credit:AP

When or whether Riduan "Hambali" Isomuddin, 53, will actually go to court is not yet known. At the war court, the prosecution prepares the charges, has them delivered to the captive and also to a senior Pentagon official, Convening Authority Harvey Rishikof, for review and a decision on whether to go forward. One thing Rishikof could get to decide is whether it would go to trial as a death penalty case.

Hambali becomes the first Guantanamo prisoner charged during the administration of President Donald Trump. If Rishikof approves it, Hambali would be the 11th of Guantanamo's 41 captives in war crimes proceedings.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating "the Russia thing". Credit:AP "This is a team with prosecutors who have not been timid in stretching the criminal code when it comes to prosecutions," he added. Trump, who has repeatedly denied collusion with Moscow or obstruction of justice, on Friday denounced Mueller's team for what he claimed was partisan bias. President Donald Trump on Thursday. Credit:AP "I can say that the people that have been hired are all Hillary Clinton supporters, some of them worked for Hillary Clinton," Trump said in an interview on Fox & Friends. "I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous if you want to know the truth."

He also criticised Mueller's friendship with James Comey as "very bothersome." Comey succeeded Mueller as FBI director until Trump fired him May 9, apparently out of anger at the FBI's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Sacked FBI director James Comey said Trump pressured him to drop an investigation into Michael Flynn. Credit:AP Weissmann is trained to find a weak link and break it. Jonathan Turley, law professor, George Washington University "Robert Mueller is an honorable man and hopefully he'll come up with an honorable conclusion," Trump added on Fox. After an ethics review, the Justice Department determined that Mueller did not have a conflict of interest.

Former US deputy solicitor general Michael Dreeben. Credit:Supreme Court Review To staff up, Mueller - who is a registered Republican - first turned to WilmerHale, the Washington-based law firm he joined after leaving the FBI in 2013. WilmerHale also represents Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, as well as Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in the Russia probes. Mueller picked two trusted colleagues from the firm: James Quarles and Aaron Zebley, in his first round of hires. Andrew Weissman was lead prosecutor on the Arthur Andersen accounting scandal. Credit:Courtesy Photo Quarles helped bring down a president in the 1970s as a member of the Watergate special prosecutor's team investigating Richard Nixon. He later focused his practice on civil litigation.

Zebley, Mueller's long-time chief of staff at the FBI, is a national security expert. He worked in the Justice Department's national security division and as an FBI counter-terrorism agent. He also served as an assistant US attorney in Alexandria, Virginia. Aaron Zebley was was picked from law firm WilmerHale. Credit:WillmerHale A federal grand jury there appears to be part of the FBI investigation. It has issued subpoenas to associates of Michael Flynn, who was ousted in February as Trump's national security advisor for lying about his Russian contacts. Mueller also hired Jeannie Rhee, a former deputy assistant attorney-general in the Justice Department, where she advised the Obama White House and other departments on criminal law, executive privilege and national security. James Quarles also picked from WilmerHale.

He also brought on Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer who specialises in money laundering and organised crime, and Elizabeth Prelogar, a former Supreme Court clerk who speaks Russian. She joined Mueller from the Solicitor General's office. Peter Carr, Mueller's spokesman, said additional hires were in the pipeline. None of the lawyers hired so far were giving interviews. Despite Trump's complaints of political bias, only a handful of the group are known to have contributed to Democrats. Mueller is a long-time Republican. President George W Bush appointed him as FBI director a week before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Obama asked him to stay in the post for two years beyond the normal 10-year term. Four members of Mueller's team - Quarles, Weissmann, Rhee and Prelogar - have given a total of about $US50,000 ($66,000) to Democrats since 1990, campaign finance records show. Rhee also has done legal work for the Clinton Foundation, a non-profit organisation that operates as a worldwide charity. Other known members of the team do not appear in campaign finance reports.

Quarles gave the most - more than $US34,000, including the maximum of $US2700 to Clinton's presidential campaign last year. He mostly backed Democrats, but he gave $US2500 to Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz, and $US250 to former Virginia Republican George Allen. Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney-general who appointed Mueller, told Congress on June 13 that he didn't think campaign contributions by lawyers on the team amounted to an ethical conflict. Richard Davis, who worked on the Watergate task force, said Nixon and his aides levelled the same charges of bias against prosecutors during the Watergate scandal. "People are going to yell and scream and it's going to be this and that in terms of publicity," he said. "We tended to get used to it and to some extent ignore it." As a deputy solicitor-general, Dreeben has argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court, mostly on questions of criminal law. His knowledge of federal statutes will be invaluable as Mueller considers what conduct might justify filing criminal charges, legal experts say.

"Literally I've seen him give an argument to the Supreme Court without a single note. He does it routinely," said Paul Rosenzweig, a lawyer who served as a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. "You and I read those cases and try to interpret them from a cold record. Dreeben litigated all of them," Rosenzweig said. "That's the difference between watching the movie, and acting in it. It's like having a good criminal law encyclopedia." Weissmann is expected to play a key management role on Mueller's team. They worked together at the FBI for several years, where Weissmann served as special counsel and later as general counsel. In 2015, Weissmann was named head of the criminal fraud division. He oversaw high-profile FBI probes into Volkswagen over diesel-cheating, global banks over market manipulation and Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras over corrupt payments. He also launched a pilot program that offered incentives for companies to self-report possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribing foreign officials. Several years earlier, during a stint in private practice, he cited corruption in Russia as he argued for rewriting federal standards.

"The statute should take into account the realities that confront businesses that operate in countries with endemic corruption (eg Russia, which is consistently ranked by Transparency International as among the most corrupt in the world)," he wrote in prepared testimony for a Senate subcommittee in 2010. Weissmann cut his teeth as a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn in the 1990s, where he tried more than two dozen cases that systematically took apart the leadership of New York's powerful Mafia families. Among them: Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, accused boss of the Genovese crime family, who wandered streets in a bathrobe and whose lawyers claimed he was mentally unfit to stand trial. Weissmann convinced a judge that Gigante was faking; he was convicted in 1997 and died in prison. Samuel Buell, who worked on the Enron task force with Weissmann, said he typifies the relentless, hard-core prosecutors bred in the US attorney's offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn. "It's not swagger," said Buell, now a law professor at Duke University. "It's a confidence that after six or eight or 10 years, 'I'm not going to see a problem I can't handle. There's no case that's going to be over my head.'"

Buell said Mueller's first hires should not be viewed as a road map for where he will take his investigation. He said Mueller appears focused on hiring talented lawyers whom he knows and trusts. Still, the hires suggest a legal strategy that was key to prosecutions of the Enron fraud and the mob families in New York. In both cases, convictions depended in large part on witnesses who agreed to testify to escape long prison terms. No one has been charged in the Russia case. But lower-level figures ultimately may face pressure to cooperate with Mueller's team, especially if it will lead to higher-ups. "You don't get all dressed up for some special counsel party and just come out of it with a well-thumbed report," said Turley. "Weissmann is trained to find a weak link and break it." Dan Cogdell, a Houston defense lawyer who had a cooperating client in the Enron case, said Weissmann may be the most aggressive prosecutor he ever faced in a white-collar criminal case.
Beirut: The US-led coalition against the Islamic State terror group has killed nearly 500 civilians in one month of its pursuit of militant fighters in Syria, in what the United Nations has called a "staggering loss of life".

An independent monitoring organisation has said that some 472 civilians, including 137 children, died in air strikes on the Isil-held cities of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria between May 23 and June 23.

An image distributed by IS's propaganda agency Amaq shows a Raqqa mosque damaged by the coalition earlier this month. Credit:AP

Just two weeks ago, the death toll appeared to be at 300.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the period saw the highest civilian death toll in coalition raids for a single month since they began on September 23, 2014.
A man in the US 'Snapchatted' a Sikh man after mistaking him as a terrorist during a flight to Indianapolis.

By India Today Web Desk: Racism against Indians is on a rise in the US. From the Kansas shooting to Americans stalking and blaming Indians for taking their jobs, the situation is getting worse day by day.

Recently, a Sikh man was stalked by a US man during a flight to Indianapolis.

The man was feeling 'threatened' by the Sikh man because he thought the latter was a 'terrorist', and decided to showcase him on the picture-sharing app, Snapchat.

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He showed his fear and bigotry by constantly tapping every move of the old man during the flight.

This series of snaps should give you a sense of what it's like for anyone who appears to be Muslim to travel by plane. *Thread* pic.twitter.com/9uHoVH4f6E- Simran Jeet Singh (@SikhProf) June 22, 2017

The man posted pictures of the Sikh man and said, "Never mind I may not make it to Indy", referring to Indianapolis. He also said, "Update I'm still alive."

The man kept stalking the aged Sikh man's every move and posting pictures, constantly publicising his xenophobia.

Also Read: UnAmerican: Indian harassed, abused by racist American in San Jose; police denies help

People from US on social media have condemned the shameful racist act but the question is when this all will stop. No one knows when racial slurs turn to physical abuse and another Srinivas Kochibhotla goes away.

Few Sikhs, along with other locals, opened up on a Twitter thread about how uncomfortable they feel in abroad, take a look:

As a Sikh who flies frequently, I'm no stranger to the uncomfortable stares and misguided fears people have of me.- Simran Jeet Singh (@SikhProf) June 22, 2017

I try to live my life by the Sikh maxim, "Fear none, frighten none." I think about this teaching often when I travel.- Simran Jeet Singh (@SikhProf) June 22, 2017

I think twice about getting up to use the restroom. I feel self-conscious when opening the overhead bin to take something out of my luggage.- Simran Jeet Singh (@SikhProf) June 22, 2017

When did turbans become the universal symbol of a) Islam or b) Terror? #wtf- Douglas Karr (@douglaskarr) June 23, 2017

Which is more threatening? A well-dressed Sikh gentleman, or an angry-looking white guy taking secret pics on his phone? ?- David Doherty-Jebb (@dpj1980) June 22, 2017

I have lived with Sikhs most of my life and they are the most peaceful people! This mentality also almost compels Sikhs to cut their hair :(- Suguna Dewan (@SugunaDew) June 23, 2017

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By India Today Web Desk: Sridevi has a lot of expectations from daughter Jhanvi Kapoor, who is all set to make her Bollywood debut. Jhanvi, who has reportedly signed a three-film contract with Karan Johar's Dharma Productions, is the paparazzi's new hot favourite. Recently, the star kid was in the spotlight for rumours about her following Ranbir Kapoor around at a party.

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Doting mother Sridevi is concerned about her daughter and her career. However, the English Vinglish actor said that she is okay with all the paparazzi attention on Jhanvi. "If she has got into this(acting), she must have been prepared for this. She has to be. I always tell her that success and failure are things you have to take in and accept very gracefully. This social media thing keeps happening and it's not in anyone's control. My worry is about her handling success and failure. That's more important than criticism and social media," said the 53-yesr-old actor in an interview with Pinkvilla .

Earlier this week, Sridevi sparked some controversy when she said in an interview that she would be happier to see her elder daughter Jhanvi get married than act. She faced backlash as some people took it to mean that the actor was against her daughter having a career. Sridevi took to Twitter to clarify that her comment was "misunderstood".

She wrote, "My comment was misunderstood and it really concerns me that it's sounding like I believe girls are only meant to get married and settle down. That's not what I want for my daughters, I want them to be able to stand on the own feet and have their own identity. I've always told them never to be dependent on anyone in any capacity."

Sridevi added, "It's very important to me that young girls understand that the end goal of their life is not to get married and have babies and they have every right to make something of themselves if they wish to. What I meant to say initially was that I would prefer if my daughters didn't lead the kind of hectic life that comes with this business and instead have a relatively stable and relaxed life. But they are ambitious and I have come to respect that like every parent should, and that respect overshadows my protective parental instincts now."

On the work front, Sridevi is gearing up for the release of her film, Mom, which will hit theatres on July 7. Jhanvi, meanwhile, is set to make her entry in Bollywood. However, her debut film has not been announced yet.

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ALSO READ | Sridevi responds to rumours of Jhanvi Kapoor following Ranbir Kapoor around at a party

ALSO READ | Sridevi on Jhanvi Kapoor: I would be happier to see her get married than act

ALSO WATCH | Acting comes from the heart, not from the mind: Sridevi

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Man killed after being struck by vehicle on KY 131
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jun. 23, 2017 | MURRAY, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 23, 2017 | 10:54 AM | MURRAY, KY

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of CFSB, Western Kentucky's Community Bank, The Way of Wellness is hosting the Little Miss and Mister Freedom Fest Pageant June 29th at 7 pm at Wrather Museum on the Murray State campus.



The pageant is for girls and boys newborn to age 10, with winners crowned in 4 different age divisions along with overall winners. This pageant is a little different than the typical one because an evening gown or formal wear is not required. Instead, the contestants and their parent or guardian can put together or design a fun red, white and blue outfit to celebrate our independence. The outfit can be shorts, pants - whatever - nothing fancy is required.



The pageant winners will receive the titles of Lil' Miss or Mister Freedom Fest, a crown, banner and trophy. They will also ride in the Freedom Fest parade through downtown Murray on July 4th with the rest of the court.



Each contestant will also have the opportunity to answer questions asked by their parent, family member or friend. This gives the audience a chance to enjoy the humor and personality of the youngster. There is no talent competition in this pageant.



There will be a special Audience Choice Award, and just as one would think, it will be decided by the audience, who may "buy a vote" for the contestant of their choice.



Bring your child to the contest or just come watch and enjoy yourself. Concessions will be available.



All proceeds will go to benefit the Way of Wellness, a non-profit residential mentoring facility for mothers and their children who are homeless or victims of domestic violence.



Entry forms can be picked up at any CFSB location, or see the accompanying photo. For more information email wayofwellness@rocketmail.com or call 270- 727-0387


Some reports suggest that the militants might still be holed up inside the school.

By Shuja-ul-Haq , Ashraf Wani: Terrorists today opened fire at a CRPF convoy near the Army cantonment in Srinagar's Pantha Chowk and fled towards a school nearby.

A CRPF sub inspector has been martyred in the shelling. Another soldier and a civilian have sustained injuries in the attack claimed by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Abdullah Ghaznavi, LeT spokesperson, called a local news agency to say the outfit was behind the attack.

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The militants fled towards Delhi Public School (DPS) Srinagar, which has been cordoned off. The school was closed at the time of the attack.

A room-to-room search is underway in the premises of DPS to nab the terrorists.

Appropriate response will be given.There is no security lapse: ADG CRPF on firing on CRPF vehicle near Srinagar's Pantha Chowk (J&K) pic.twitter.com/Hrqp1jQnPu- ANI (@ANI_news) June 24, 2017

The martyred sub inspector has been identified as GD Sahab Shukla a resident of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Sub inspector GD Sahab Shukla martyred in the attack. Sub inspector GD Sahab Shukla martyred in the attack.

Meanwhile, a policeman was injured after a police jawan misfired. It was a close shave for SSP who was in the vicinity when the policeman misfired.

More details awaited.

Also read: Congress student wing chief justifies stone-pelting in Jammu and Kashmir

Also read: Video claims Zakir Musa's Taliban-e-Kashmir provided info to forces about LeT militants killed by Army

Also read: Is Pakistan indirectly paving way for ISIS in Kashmir by using its videos to fuel jihad?

WATCH VIDEO

--- ENDS ---
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jun. 23, 2017 | HICKORY, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 23, 2017 | 04:05 PM | HICKORY, KY

State and local law enforcement, and family members of Eric Chrisman gathered Thursday to commemorate the second anniversary of the passing of the fallen trooper.



Chrisman died June 23, 2015 in a crash while responding to a call for service. Shortly thereafter, a flagpole was erected at the site of the collision, where flowers and other remembrances have been placed over the past two years.



Troopers gathered with the Chrisman family and other members of the law enforcement community Thursday to place a wreath in remembrance of Chrismans life and sacrifice. The inscription Everyone is Family is written on the wreath, a phrase KSP says Eric lived out during his professional and personal life.



We are overwhelmed that over 30 people would stand in the pouring rain to remember our son, said Randy Chrisman, Erics father.



Troopers said Chrisman is remembered as a man of great faith which took action in his life of service above self, and that he made a positive impact in the lives of his co-workers as well as the communities in which he served.
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Sajad Bhat, the SP of North Srinagar, was transferred after Thursday night's horrific lynching of Deputy SP Ayub Pandith, who was stoned to death.

By India Today Web Desk: Sajad Khaliq Bhat, the Superintendent of Police for North Srinagar, was transferred following the lynching of Deputy SP Mohammed Ayub Pandith in Jammu and Kashmir, news agency ANI reported early morning.

Pandith died after a brutal mob attack outside the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar on Thursday night. Pandith, who was on frisking duty outside the Jamia Masjid, was reportedly clicking pictures of people coming out of the mosque.

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The led to an altercation, causing Pandith to fire three shots from his service revolver in self-defence. The irate mob then caught hold of him, stripped him naked and stoned him to death.

"He tried to free himself and even fired in self-defence, injuring three. But the mob managed to lynch him," sources told India Today on Friday.

Notably, Pandith was in mufti while posted outside the Jamia Masjid as Jammu and Kashmir policemen assigned to the security wing do not wear uniforms while on duty.

Pandith's lynching evoked sharp, all-round condemnation, with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti calling it "shameful". The Jammu and Kashmir police shows "a lot of restraint in dealing with their own people", Mufti added.

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also strongly censured the attackers, saying they should 'burn in hell.' "His (Pandith's) death is a tragedy & the manner of his death a travesty. May the people who lynched DySP Pandith burn in hell for their sins", Abdullah said in a message posted on Twitter.

TIMELINE OF PANDITH'S LYNCHING

8 pm (Thursday) - DSP Mohammad Ayub Pandit got an order from Jammu and Kashmir Police Headquarters asking him to be on duty at Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta area of Srinagar.

9 pm - The cop reached the mosque for his duty from home which was 3 km away. He was posted at the gate on "access duty" in plain clothes but was armed.

10 pm - Ayub went inside the mosque to offer prayers during which some people spotted the weapon on him and left some devotees angry. However there is another contradictory report which says the policeman was doing surveillance activities inside the mosque.

10:30 pm - The DSP came out of the prayer area of the mosque when he was confronted by other people. One version of the story says that he was found clicking pictures of the mosque with his phone which angered the devotees. Heated arguments ensued and people charged at him. He was identified as a police officer all along since he was a local. Army sources however say since he was a local and a police officer, DSP Ayub was the target and the lynching was pre-planned.

10:45 pm - His bodyguards fled and in panic he fired. The horrific act of lynching starts.

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Contradiction: The guards have told the investigators that they were relieved by the DSP who asked them that it was an important day and they should be with their families. June 23 is the last Friday of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

This theory is being investigated as guards are not supposed to leave the officer on their own.

11-11:15 pm - Deputy Superintendent Mohammad Ayub Pandit was stripped naked and stoned to death by the mob.

Midnight - Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who delivers sermons at the historic mosque in old Srinagar city's Nowhatta area every Friday after prayers, arrived at the spot.

After midnight - The battered body was handed over to the police which could not identify him.

6 am - Family calls up police that the DSP had not reached back home. Search starts and police zeroes on the dead body. Family identifies it as the DSP's body.

ALSO READ | Should J&K government remove security to separatist leaders? Time to take a call, says DGP Vaid

ALSO READ | DSP Ayub Pandith lynching: Are policemen the new target of terror agents in Valley?

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ALSO WATCH | Jammu and Kashmir: Police officer beaten to death by mob near Jamia Masjid in Srinagar

--- ENDS ---
If Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal is to be believed, Indian coal sector is handicapped by a "scam" worth Rs 25 lakh crore.

By Kaushik Deka : If Union Minister of State (Independent charge) for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal is to be believed, Indian coal sector is handicapped by a "scam" worth Rs 25 lakh crore.

"Forty per cent of our thermal power capacity is dependent on imported coal because the plants are designed that way. They cannot run on Indian coal, though India is the third largest coal producing country. This is costing India Rs 25 lakh crore a year. This is big scam," Goyal said at the India Today's Group's State of the State Conclave held in Jaipur today.

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The Conclave is a signature India Today event where a special report on various growth indicators of a particular state is released. All the districts in the state are ranked based on various parameters and categories.

Talking about Rajasthan, the union minister praised the Vasundhara Raje government for its work in the power sector.

"When Vasundhara Raje took charge of the state in 2013, the state was suffering an annual loss of Rs 15,000 crore in power sector. In barely three years, she brought the loss down to Rs 5,200 crore. I'm sure by next year, the state will make profit and will make it to a case study by Harvard University," Goyal said.

The Union minister expressed hope that Rajasthan's solar power potential may drive the vehicles of future in the country. He also justified high GST tax rate on hybrid cars saying that this has been done keeping in view of introducing electric cars in the country by 2030.

Elaborating on Modi government's vision for India on August 15, 2022 when India completes 75 years of independence, he said: "Our vision is to see that every citizen has roof on his head, 24-hour electricity, a toilet at home, good road connectivity, quality education and proper healthcare facilities."

During the day-long event, spread over 12 riveting sessions, 31 eminent speakers including Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Union Minister CR Chaudhary, industrialist Anil Agarwal, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, former Union Minister CP Joshi, educationists T.V. Mohandas and Manish Sabharwal, Grammy award-winning musician Pandit Vishwamohan Bhatt, actor Ila Arun and fashion designer Raghavendra Rathore discussed and debated about the multi-dimensional growth trajectory of Rajasthan.

ALSO READ:

State of the State Conclave: Demonetisation, GST will change India, says Vedanta founder Anil Agarwal

State of state conclave: Rajasthan making progress across fields, says C R Chaudhary

ALSO WATCH:

--- ENDS ---
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has called superstar Rajinikanth illiterate. Swamy also said that Rajinikanth is unfit for politics.

By India Today Web Desk: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy continues his tirade against Tamil superstar Rajinikanth.

First Subramanian Swamy alleged that Rajinikanth had committed financial fraud. Now, Swamy has called Rajinikanth illiterate saying that he is unfit for politics.

News agency ANI quoted Subramanian Swamy as saying, "He (Rajinikanth) is an illiterate and is unfit for politics."

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Swamy's outbursts against Rajinikanth have followed speculations that the Tamil superstar, fondly called Thalaiva, is planning his debut in politics.

Rajinikanth on Thursday said that he had discussed his political plans with some of the leaders active in Tamil Nadu politics.

Speaking to journalists in Chennai, Rajinikanth had said, "I don't deny meeting them. We are in discussion and I will make an announcement when things are finalized."

Following Rajinikanth's remark, Subramanian Swamy said that he had 'substantial proof' showing that Rajinikanth was involved in financial fraud.

When asked about his allegations against Rajinikanth, Swamy told India Today that "Rajinikanth's famous dialogue is 'If I say it once, it is equivalent to saying it hundred times' (Naan oru thadava sonna, nooru thadava sonna madhiri)."

"If he comes there will be many things that will tumble out which will be harmful to him. I would advise him not to come [to politics]," Swamy told India Today.

ALSO READ |

Rajinikanth has committed financial fraud: Subramanian Swamy tells India Today

Rajinikanth admits discussing his entry into politics

ALSO WATCH | Subramanian Swamy drops bombshell: Rajinikanth has done financial fraud, shouldn't join politics

--- ENDS ---
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/06/2017 (1966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Wolf Parade vocalist and keyboardist Spencer Krug.

Its been six years since Montreal indie rockers Wolf Parade went on hiatus and even longer since theyve played a show in Winnipeg.

The band, fronted by both vocalist and guitar player Dan Boeckner and vocalist and keyboardist Spencer Krug, held one of the top spots in Montreals indie hierarchy in the mid-2000s, amongst other equally prolific groups such as Arcade Fire and the Unicorns. Their debut record, Apologies to the Queen Mary, was widely regarded as a near-perfect album, and the momentum from that success carried them through the production of two more excellent LPs before they ultimately went on hiatus.

Needless to say, their appearance at the Burton Cummings Theatre Friday night has been long-awaited, and even though it was looking a bit sparse with an audience of just under 600 people, when the fans all stood up and pushed toward the stage, things started to feel as they should.

That already feels better, chuckled Boeckner before the quartet launched into the first of many familiar opening riffs, this one for the track Soldiers Grin, from their sophomore release, At Mount Zoomer.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Wolf Parade vocalist and guitar player Dan Boeckner.

Wolf Parades often frenetic approach to music can be a completely overwhelming listening experience  between the onslaught of gritty guitar lines, the panicked, yet repetitive, keys and the urgency of the drum lines, it gives the appearance of chaos. All those moving parts create something aggressive, yes, but also beautiful in the way the many layers and sometimes seemingly opposing melodic lines meld together to make something cohesive and, more importantly, challenging and interesting to digest.

If any song was to be synonymous with the early days of Wolf Parade, it would be Shine a Light, which they knocked out fairly early on in the show. The track marched along, driven by strong and confident vocals by Boeckner, and had more than one head banging to the pulsing beat.

The band also threw a couple new songs into their set; the first was a more traditional indie-rock song  well, as traditional as Wolf Parade gets  but still contained the density and intensity Wolf Parade are known for. The second, lead by Krug on vocals, was a more minimalist affair (again, relative to their other work); thats not a bad thing, though  the songs suited the band and slid nicely into a setlist full of past hits.

Some of those past hits included an incredible rendition of the anthemic This Hearts On Fire, Fine Young Cannibals  with Boeckners twitching body revving up to high gear as he crooned his way through one of the sexier songs of their catalogue  and Ill Believe in Anything, which was a highlight for Krug on vocals, his unmistakable quiver ringing loud about the extremely amped up crowd as he perched on his stool like a stork guarding a nest (a position he took for much of the night).

The only thing that slowed the otherwise good pacing down was the sometimes excessive amount of dead air between songs  the band tuned and fiddled with gear but didnt break the silence by speaking to the crowd. And, at times, the sound was very muddled with the vocals almost getting completely lost, perhaps because of the sheer amount sound there was to manage. This was one of the loudest shows in recent memory, no question.

The crowd, too, kept up their end of the racket You guys are making a lot of noise, its appreciated, said Krug, after one of the many thank yous the band passed along to the audience. They seemed genuinely surprised and thankful for Winnipegs enthusiasm, which was a sweet addition to an otherwise brain-rattling show.

The group closed out the main set with 10-minute epic Kissing the Beehive, and returned for a two song encore which ended with yet another multi-layered barn burner, Dinner Bells, from their debut record. It was a lot of listening to jam into 90 minutes, and  if its even possible  this reviewers ears were tired by the end, but it was nice to see Wolf Parade back and in such fine form. Heres hoping it wont be another six-plus years until they play Winnipeg again.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRabel

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Vyjayanti Vasanta Mogli's resume is impressive. With 14 years of experience as a corporate trainer - with awards won, too - there seems no reason she should find it difficult to get a job. The problem, however, lies in what the addendum to her name on her resume reveals: Mogli was born Vijay Jagdish Mogli, a male.

In April 2014, when the Supreme Court recognised the fundamental and civil rights of transpersons via the National Legal Services Authority vs Union of India (NALSA) judgment, Mogli, then employed at a multinational IT firm, decided to come out of the closet. However, like many others from the transgender community, she found that the court's judgment carried little weight in the everyday world. As Vijay, Mogli was awarded for "outstanding contributions to enhancing training effectiveness". As Vyjayanti, she found herself being retrenched, and two years on, struggling to receive responses to her job applications. "I'm not alone in my predicament. Unemployment is rampant across the transgender community," says Mogli, who has been an activist for transpersons since 2013 and is a founding member of the Telangana Hijra Intersex Transgender Samiti (THITS).

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Photo: Manu R Mavelil

That said, there are folks from the mainstream who are trying to make a difference. Chennai-based Neelam Jain wants to create a more level playing field, and is doing so through her startup, PeriFerry - a job consultancy exclusively catering to the transgender community.

"The inclusion of transpeople into the mainstream has always been on my mind," says the 23-year-old former employee of Goldman Sachs. Jain isn't transgender herself, but was sensitised to the community's plight since she was a young girl taking local transport in Chennai. "I'd often come across beggars belonging to the third gender and wonder about their lives," she says. So when she had a chance to make a difference - via an application to the Analyst Impact Fund at Goldman Sachs - she and her colleagues pitched an employment plan to make the company more trans-friendly. The idea didn't receive the prize-winning $100,000, but Jain received a lot of praise. It prompted her to eventually quit her job. She then worked with Solidarity Foundation, which ran Project Vayati - a 15-day residential programme in Bengaluru at the end of last year to 'expand livelihood options' for the transgender community-to iron out the details. Her own firm, PeriFerry, was up and running in May.

First Steps

Twenty-three-year-old Regina, who now works as an outlet manager at Kolapasi in Chennai, is PeriFerry's first success story. And of the 15 transpeople who were signed up with PeriFerry at the beginning of May, about half have found jobs, including one transman. "It's trickier for transpersons [who were] female at birth," says Jain. "They're a minority within a minority, and usually hide their identity completely. But we've managed to find a job that allows this particular candidate to be who he is, openly. His employer has also assured us that they are willing to transfer him to Chennai if he faces any discrimination," she says.

For Jain, getting her clients employment does not automatically spell success. Often, HR policies and workplace cultures are not aligned - which is why she insists that training programmes to sensitise coworkers be mandatory for larger companies. Limited by resources, Jain currently works with five companies, including Aachi Masala and Merit Group, that have an existing eco-system that welcomes transgender employees. In Bengaluru, Solidarity Foundation, another organisation working to level the playing field, hand-holds the company as well as the transgender employee for six months. They say that one of the folks they found a job for, in an almost high school like situation, found herself lost at mealtimes. "The women would go out for lunch and the men would go sit together with their lunchboxes. The transgender employee said she didn't know what to do because technically she was neither," says Shubha Chacko, Solidarity Foundation. But the problems aren't always from the company's or the coworkers' end. "In one case, the employee was too shy to attend a meeting she was expected to because she didn't know how she would be perceived in a larger crowd," reveals Chacko.

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THE TRANS DICTIONARY

Transman: A person assigned female gender at birth but whose own gender identity is male. Some transmen undergo hormonal and/or surgical procedures to alter their appearance to better align with their felt gender identity. Others strive to convey their gender through dress, hair and other recognisable codes.

Transwoman: A person assigned male gender at birth, whose own gender identity is female.

Hijra/ kinnar/aravani: Sub-cultures with their own structures, norms and ways of being and living. Specific to the Indian subcontinent.

Queer: People who define their sexuality and/or gender identity as not heterosexual and/or not cisgender.

(Data from LABIA: A Queer Feminist LBT Collective)

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According to the 2011 census, India is home to 500,000 transpersons, a number that some, like Mogli, challenge as being too low. In either case, social stigma and a lack of employment opportunities are only two of the problems the group faces. Discrimination, a lack of education and public healthcare options, as well as issues of official documentation continue to plague the community, even two-and-a-half years after Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan's 2014 judgment legally recognising the third gender. "State governments are yet to receive guidelines [on documentation]; while I have managed to legally change my name, my gender remains the same," says Mogli.

In most cases, the difficulties faced by transpeople begin with them being thrown out of their homes. In the case of transwomen, it is usually hijra 'gharanas' or similar communities that run on income from prostitution or begging that offer the solace others don't. After her father refused to let her join the family business and then threw her out of his home, Nayana Udupi found herself living in such gharanas for nearly four years, first in Pune and then in Mumbai. But she hated the lifestyle she was forced to adopt. Though prostitution and begging seemed like her only options, she says she "was scared of living that way, of the lack of hygiene." Moving to Bengaluru, she found a job as a night receptionist. But she never lost sight of her aim: to get a job and live like any other girl. It took her 10 years to do so, but her role as a marketing associate at ThoughtWorks in Bengaluru has served as a refuge for her for the past three years.

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While diversity seems on the agenda of a number of companies, creating a culture of inclusion is a challenge too. ThoughtWorks is attempting to put its money where its mouth is. Apart from offering Mediclaim policies to transgender employees, it also ensures that new employees attend sessions on diversity and inclusion. "The sessions are extended to our housekeeping and security staff as well. We also have gender-neutral toilets," says Tina Vinod, who heads the diversity and inclusion team in India.

ThoughtWorks is a rare example. "Although it sounds like a cliche, the film, fashion and beauty sectors are far more inclusive than others," reveals Jain. Perhaps that explains the acceptance of Hindi film actress and Bharatanatyam dancer Laxmi Nayaran Tripathi or Nepalese model Anjali Lama. Technology, retail and FMCG companies are playing catch-up. In February, IBM, in collaboration with Interweave Consulting, launched an initiative for transgender empowerment with 30 other companies, including Godrej, which is already a very vocal supporter of the LGBT community. But perhaps the biggest push to the community will come from inclusion in the public sector - the Kochi Metro's recent decision to employ 23 transpeople in the ticketing, housekeeping and crowd management departments is heartening.

Photo: Jaison G

Social Structures

It is important to recognise that there is a hierarchy within the LGBT community itself. The 2016 Indian LGBT Workplace Climate Survey by MINGLE (Mission for Indian Gay & Lesbian Empowerment, a research organisation funded by the Hamsafar Trust) notes that although there is a wider acceptance of LGBT employees than before, the number of lesbian and transgender employees remains low. Transpersons may be worse-off than others, because gender seems irrevocably tied to social hierarchies. This is somewhat evident in corporate culture - for example, according to MINGLE, most major MNCs in India, including Microsoft, Google and Accenture, as well as Indian firms such as Wipro, TCS, Infosys and Mindtree have sexual orientation as part of their anti-harassment policies. However, gender identity is not included.

"There are so many stumbling blocks, so many obstacles to bringing [transgender people] into the mainstream," says Chacko. For her part, Jain is wary of getting enmeshed in a 'civilising mission', and has no intention of pushing those who are content with begging or prostitution to seek other options. But, according to Chacko, it is a chicken-and-egg situation. For many in the community, despite holding bachelor's degrees (and in a few cases, master's degrees), even the idea of a better life seems far-fetched. "Transpeople need role models from their own community. How else does one encourage them? They're not going to come forward otherwise," says Chacko, who has been attempting to mobilise the transgender community in Bengaluru. "Think of it like the struggle for women's rights," suggests Mogli. "We don't have astronomers or journalists to look up to just yet." Perhaps this is what the aim should be.

--- ENDS ---
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/06/2017 (1966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Canadian, American and Mexican agriculture ministers got together this week in Savannah, Ga., they werent there to discuss what U.S. President Donald Trump has described as the worst trade deal in the history of the world.

On the contrary, they talked about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as though it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

It was stated quite clearly at the meeting that we dont want to fix something thats not broken, Canadas Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay told reporters following his meetings with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Mexican Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food Jose Calzada.

Justin Tang / The Canadian Press Files Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay says NAFTA has benefited Canada.

Nor was MacAulay interested in enlightening reporters about the apparent disconnect between Trumps posturing and how they see the deal.

Its fair to say, we didnt discuss our bosses at all really, he said.

We sat down to discuss the issues and the great value of NAFTA and what small changes might be made in order to make sure the great growth that has been experienced over the past 23 years or so is continued.

When reporters asked what issues? MacAulay hedged, saying there are always irritants, but nothing worth fighting over.

Its well understood with the North American ministers and secretaries that NAFTA has been a very valuable asset to the three countries and what we wish to do is make sure it continues in that manner, he said.

In fact, yesterday (Wednesday) was a very collaborative effort on the part of all three countries. There was no specifics as to what will be on the table or not on the table.

MacAulay pointed out that agricultural trade between the NAFTA partners has quadrupled since the deal came into effect in 1994. More than half of Canadas $62.5 billion of agricultural and food exports goes to its NAFTA partners.

Economists Al Mussell and Doug Hedley at the University Guelphs Agri-Food Economic Systems division recently analyzed the agricultural trade patterns among NAFTA partners.

They found that Canada is the leading source of foreign bulk material for agri-food processing in the U.S., to the tune of US$1.67 billion annually.

Canada is also the leading imported source of intermediate product for agri-food processing, a market of about US$6.5 billion annually.

Canada is the leading foreign market for consumer-oriented food products produced in the U.S., selling goods worth US$16.2 billion in 2016. Mexico is the second-largest at US$8 billion.

In other words, Canada ships commodities such as wheat oats, hogs, and cattle to the U.S. and buys the processed goods back, which gives lie to Trumps assertion that NAFTA has been bad for manufacturing jobs in his country.

However, Canadas exports have also been the source of some major irritants in the past because they are perceived by grassroots farm organizations in the U.S. as either stealing or depressing domestic markets.

The cattle farmers group R-CALF is suing the U.S. government to have country-of-origin labelling laws reintroduced.

But thats not even covered under NAFTA. Canada and Mexico successfully challenged that law at the World Trade Organization.

Likewise, even though Trump has identified Canadas supply management dairy policies as an issue up for negotiation, thats not covered by NAFTA either.

The one point MacAulay was specific about was that it wont be added.

We have indicated quite clearly that we are the party that fought to put supply management in place and were the government thats going to defend it.

Thats pretty well known across North America, he said.

When asked what agricultural trade agenda Canada will pursue when negotiators do start reviewing the agreement, MacAulay said that will be for others to decide.

I cant speak for what Americans are going to do and negotiators are going to do, he said.

Well have to see how the table is set.

Were just waitin and seein.

From the sounds of it, all three ministers are waiting and seeing  and hoping it all goes away.

Laura Rance is editorial director for Glacier FarmMedia. She can be reached at laura@fbcpublishing.com or 204-792-4382.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/06/2017 (1966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Barry Prentice, the supply chain management professor at the University of Manitoba, is hard-headed when it comes to the justification of investment in transportation infrastructure.

I always tell my students the three most important words in transportation are utilization, utilization and utilization, he said.

Granted, its a cheap take on the old real estate adage about location, but its likely something being considered very seriously while engineers figure out how to address the washed out sections of the Hudson Bay Railway to Churchill.

What with the sketchy nature of information currently available on the extent of the damage its anyones guess as to how much it will cost to get it fixed.

But there is little argument that the rail line is not heavily used and that it is losing money both from a freight and a passenger traffic perspective.

The issue of utilization of the so-called Bay Line in the current state of crisis over an extended service suspension has been downplayed. And no one wants to give Omnitrax the benefit of the doubt because, over time, it has engendered so much ill will. That may be contributing to the current perception that governments seem particularly unenthusiastic about the prospects of spending money on the line.

But the fact remains, Via loses 80 cents on every dollar it spends hauling passengers to Churchill and Omnitrax says it has been losing money for years on the freight business.

No matter how large a subsidy the federal government proffers to entice grain handlers to ship through Churchill, it is not likely going to change the fact that international trade has shifted. Canadian grain handlers now export a large majority of the Canadian crop out of the West Coast and the port of Thunder Bay operates at about 50 per cent capacity.

And while the residents of Churchill are justifiably feeling on edge about their future livelihood, its current status as a fly-in community puts them in the company of hundreds of other communities in Canada, including several in Manitoba with much larger populations. (Having said that, most of those communities are probably jealous of Churchills opulent air strip  capable of landing jets the size of Boeing 737s  not to mention its sea port.)

Considering the reality of so many other communities that function without an all-weather land transportation linkage, one senior transportation industry official recently said this about Churchills plight: Its the biggest tempest in a teapot.

Prentice is likely not the only one now imagining that the rail line will never get fixed.

One of the first things Peter Touesnard, chief commercial officer at Omnitrax, said after the official announcement of long-term suspension of service two weeks ago was, It is difficult for us to wrap our head around how we would fund the reconstruction of this.

Prentice has no problem imagining replacing the rail line from Gillam to Churchill with an all-weather roadway (acknowledging, as he does, that it would have a hefty price tag  in the order of magnitude of close to $1 billion). Another option, he said, is If the rail line is to be sustained in perpetuity, then some day that track has to be relocated, because climate change is going to make the current route even worse over time. I do not see any future for that.

In a presentation this week by members of the Look North provincial task force on economic development in the North, there was lots of talk about the need for all-weather roads.

Chuck Davidson, co-chair of the task force, said strategic transportation infrastructure investment will likely be one of groups eventual recommendations to government. That sounds like a way of avoiding saying out loud that maybe the railroad is too expensive to maintain.

The public does not generally understand rail lines deteriorate and wear out and have to be replaced, Prentice said. You cant just build it and its there forever. If you do not have traffic you cannot sustain a railway. Where would the money come from just to do simple maintenance let alone catastrophic repairs?

The same argument would need to be made for the construction of a road to Churchill. Despite the fact that Omnitrax has made everyone doubt its motives, these are the kind of serious questions that are now going to have to addressed. And Prentice wonders, after all other options are considered, why not try airships.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/06/2017 (1966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rumours were swirling a week ago that Winnipeg-based Exchange Income Corp. was in the crosshairs of the same U.S. short seller who targeted Home Capital Group.

The jitters surrounding the Winnipeg company climaxed a week ago when EICs shares fell to a new 52-week low of $29.12 on one of its heaviest trading days in history.

By any measure EIC has become a star with Canadian investors. It is one of the highest-yielding dividend stocks on the TSX and was added to the prestigious TSX Composite index last year.

But its share price had fallen 50 per cent since December with the rumours that Marc Cahodes, the U.S. short seller who made a killing on Home Capital, was taking a run at it.

The news that Warren Buffett was coming to Home Capitals rescue may or may not have distracted Cahodes but the EIC rumours have subsided.

Its shares are up more than 10 per cent this week and a bullish 49-page research report from Cormark Securities, which is initiating coverage of EIC, was released on Wednesday with a 12-month target price of $40.

David Tyerman, author of that report, jokingly said he would take credit for EICs price rebound.

But thats not to say Cahodes, the independent California short seller, might not still have a plan to bet against EIC. Short sellers make money when a stock falls in price by selling borrowed shares and replacing them with shares bought at cheaper prices.

Analysts acknowledge that EICs method of reporting free cash flow, much of which is paid out to investors as dividends, is unusual.

In a recent report to investors, Trevor Johnson, an equity analyst with National Bank Financial, noted the re-emergence of the short selling-strategy that was primarily driven by their view that EICs cash flow statement (and by default its payout ratio) are unsustainable.

Johnson added, This short thesis has made the rounds a number of times in the past, and we see little validity again this iteration.

Mike Pyle, the chief executive officer of EIC, said he has no idea if the threat is still out there.

No one tells us, he said. But at the end of the day, stocks trade on earnings and we are confident in our ability to continue to generate earnings.

Having marshalled the company through challenges in the past, Pyle can handle the distractions of the last few weeks, but needless to say, he was glad to see the Cormark report.

EIC is a diversified company with holdings that include northern airlines such as Calm Air and Perimeter Aviation, a jet leasing and parts business based in Florida, and a Newfoundland company that recently won the maintenance contract for Canadas new fleet of search and rescue aircraft.

Releasing the (Cormark) report when they did is a testament to what they think of the company, he said.

Tyerman said he had no problem publishing the report when he did, because he had done his homework.

Sometimes you just have to take a stand, he said. I understand if anyone would take a short approach to the stock, what those concerns would be. We have covered them off and I dont think there is an issue here.

The companys track record stands for itself.

That track record includes 12 dividend increases since 2004 and solid single-digit annual increases in earnings.

Its not like they are trying to shoot out the lights and get 20 per cent growth, Tyerman said. There is an alignment between what investors are thinking and what is reasonable to expect.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 23/06/2017 (1967 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A week before Canada Day, Ottawa still doesnt know how much birthday money its giving each province for Canada 150 community events.

Canadian Heritage data obtained earlier this month showed that Manitoba was allotted just $523,400 from the federal community-events fund  a $100 million pot of which $85 million had been spent.

The Free Press requested information on each provinces funding on June 7, and on June 14 asked for a breakdown of how many Manitobans had applied for funding.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Denis Grenier takes a photo of Matthew Linklater and Rosco with the sign to celebrate Canadas 150th this year in front of the Pavilion in the Assiniboine Park. The Canada 150 3D public art installation is one of 19 signs that will be on display across Canada as part of the Sesquicentennial celebrations.

Weeks later, a spokesman for Heritage Minister Melanie Joly said the department is still combing through the data. We dont have a final breakdown by province available at this time, Pierre-Olivier Hebert wrote Friday.

Earlier this year, a Quebec MP filed a formal question in Parliament, giving the government 45 days to answer how many Canada 150 applications were submitted, and where the money went by province and riding.

The government responded May 5 that the information was not readily accessible and would take longer to respond. Extensive manual research would be necessary to provide a comprehensive response.

Department sources say bureaucrats have spent hours compiling information on Canada 150 funding, which is published online alongside general grants with no distinct categories or keywords.

Though the government has given Manitoba just a half-percentage of its community-event spend, it gave the province an above-average share of infrastructure funding, which will repair community halls and build new splash pads. Manitoba also had an average share of the nation-wide Signature funding, on projects like the Canada Summer Games.

Last week, Joly hinted more money may be bound for the province.

Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press Heritage Minister Melanie Joly responds to a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, June 1, 2017.

We are respecting our regional fairness, she said. Manitoba is very dear to our heart, and it will have its fair share.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/06/2017 (1966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The First World War wasnt just about trench warfare and the victory at Vimy Ridge by Canadian troops  it was also about dollars and cents at home.

The Business of War: Canadian Businesses and the First World War is open in the Millennium Librarys fourth-floor local history room until July 31.

Were really excited about the (exhibit), said Caitlin Bailey, executive director of Montreals Canadian Centre for the Great War and curator of the exhibit.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS 'We're really excited about the exhibition,' said Caitlin Bailey, executive director of the Montreal-based Canadian Centre for the Great War, and curator of the exhibit.

The exhibit uses artifacts and panels to show the different roles of various businesses, from promoting patriotic efforts to encouraging soldiers to enlist to supporting the supply effort.

Many boxes and cans with food items inside had references to the war effort on the outside, Bailey said.

The war effort was the Stanley Cup equivalent on the Corn Flakes box, Bailey said. It was encouraging people to buy by using the conflict in Europe as a marketing tool We have a cookie tin from the Christie Brown company. You bought the cookie tin with the idea to send it overseas so the soldier had something to eat. It was a very interesting way of branding.

Some of the companies that helped the war effort are still around, including the Hudsons Bay Co., which shipped millions of tons of grain and meat to Europe as the official shipping agent for France and the Russian Empire, Bailey said.

HBC placed memorial plaques in some of its stores, including the one in downtown Winnipeg, to honour its 517 employees who served in the war.

Theresa Lomas, administrative co-ordinator of information and virtual services for the Winnipeg Public Library, said Millennium Library patrons appreciate the temporary exhibits that pass through it.

These exhibits are an excellent fit for us, Lomas said. Customers take a look at the exhibits and nearby they will find books and materials that deal with the First World War and businesses.

The Canadian Centre for the Great War is a registered charity and heritage organization that promotes the social history of the First World War.

It has more than 5,000 original First World War objects in its collection.

The First World War exhibit is partly funded by the federal government.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 23/06/2017 (1967 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Pallister government is being accused of trying to balance its budget on the backs of its most vulnerable citizens  preschool children who have special needs.

The parents of these children have been told the government has put on hold all additional funding applications for its Child Care Inclusion Support Program until further notice.

The $12.5-million program pays for aides to assist special-needs children at daycare centres and nursery schools.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Devin Newton holds daughter, Hailey, 2. She had a spot in preschool in September, but the province has stopped funding.

It means these children  who are not on waiting lists, but have spots waiting for them at daycare or preschool  may not be able to attend because there wont be anybody to look after them.

The 1,053 special-needs children currently receiving inclusion support will continue to get it, but no new children will be funded.

Children affected include: Hailey Newton, 2, who has Down syndrome and is scheduled to go to preschool in the fall; and four-year-old Henry Chambers, who was diagnosed with autism last year and was going to start daycare this summer.

Im very frustrated, Haileys dad, Devin Newton, said Friday.

It just seems they are moving towards a human rights challenge here. They are denying my childs right to an education. We want her to have access to the learning she needs with support. We are laying the foundation for learning from school to adulthood. If this foundation is shaky at the beginning, it will affect her.

Its like we are stepping back in time.

Henrys mother, Rebecca Chambers, said her son got a spot at a daycare after four years of waiting and then they were told there was no money to pay for an aide.

Shes angry because she said her son isnt new to the preschool system  they just wanted to transfer his funding from the Montessori School he was at to a daycare in their neighbourhood.

He is not someone new in the system, she said.

He has been identified by the province itself as someone needing inclusion support at one centre and then they pull the funding. This is unconscionable.

Last week, Family Services Minister Scott Fielding signed a federal agreement in Ottawa that will see the province get more than $46 million during the next three years to add child-care spaces.

In the agreement, the federal government insists the money be spent to create spaces that affect families more in need including families with children of varying abilities.

Fielding said in a statement on Friday that a long-overdue review is underway of (the program) to ensure its sustainability and ensure children most in need have access to supports for years to come.

Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care has been in discussions with child-care agencies to better co-ordinate supports for children living with special needs

ELCC will continue to work with centres to identify other ways a child could be safely supported without additional staff. Support could or should be shared where possible based on amount of time required and degree of need.

Fielding said the province would ask the federal government to explore ways to improve (the program) as part of their generous funding.

Pat Wege, the Manitoba Child Care Associations executive director, said the funding freeze came as a surprise.

We are aware the province is doing a review, Wege said. We werent expecting they would say funding is used up for this year.

These are Manitobas youngest, most vulnerable citizens. We all understand deficits, but this is totally saying the most vulnerable could be a target. Who would have thought wed be here?

David Kron, executive director of the Cerebral Palsy Association of Manitoba, said he heard about the freeze earlier this week.

I cant believe since the year end was March 31 that theyd be out of money by June 30, Kron said.

How do you do that? How do you just say sorry?

Talk about a marginalized part of the society. You cant get more specific than preschool children with special needs.

Janet Forbes, executive director of Inclusion Winnipeg, which supports children and adults living with cognitive disabilities  formerly known as Community Living Winnipeg  said this will leave families with a child with a disability in a precarious position.

Families need safe and affordable daycare for their children, who may have additional needs, to be included in programs that support their pre-kindergarten development some of the recent announcement feel like were swinging backwards for the support for supporting children and adults with cognitive disabilities.

Who are the people not getting the supports? The people who need the most support. Theyre not saying that, but thats what it looks like.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/06/2017 (1966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three people and three lives, changed for the better:

Jason Hussey was reading at a Grade 3 to 4 level;

Elena Cvetkovska, who is originally from Macedonia, found her lack of Canadian work experience was preventing her from finding a job as an administrative assistant;

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Toula Papagiannopoulos (from left), Jason Hussey, Miles Murphy, Joan Embleton and Elena Cvetkovska help out at Edge Skills Centre.

Abdoul Toure could speak some English, but needed to learn more.

Today, Hussey is reading books and getting ready to apply for a new job, Cvetkovska is an administrative assistant at Teenstop Jeunesse and Toure can keep up in conversations in English, thanks to the Edge Skills Centre.

The Edge Skills Centre is a not-for-profit, charitable organization in St. Vital that is helping adults with employment, literacy and language skills.

The organization began 28 years ago at Victor Mager School to address the low-income and high-transiency rates faced by the parents of local children. Back then, the name was the Victor Mager Adult Education programs. The organization became Edge in 2012.

When many people think of St. Vital, they think of the new subdivisions with large homes and a modern shopping centre.

The reality is that in three neighbourhoods  St. George, Lavallee and Worthington  22 per cent of the residents live below the poverty line and 42 per cent dont have a high school diploma. About half of the households are single-parent families, many of them mothers who either are earning low incomes or are on income assistance. St. Vital has the highest rate of child poverty, at 20.5 per cent, of any suburban city ward.

Thirty years ago, Jan Smith was a provincially funded community liaison worker at the school. She said she was sent there because the province realized residents needed help.

Two years later, Smith founded what is known now as Edge and became its first executive director.

It was identified as a high-needs area, Smith said. And, with immigrants and refugees, there were more people coming into that area with high needs.

Smith said at first they brought the Boys and Girls Club into the school the first time the organization was in a school  and then they started a literacy program.

We started it because we saw when parents were struggling with literacy, it affected their children. And then we saw people couldnt get work and if only they could get some training and introductions, that would help them.

That was the first Edge program, then called the Victor Mager Adult Education programs.

We didnt really know what we were doing, Smith said. We just set it up.

Smith said support from school administration and the parent association was critical.

We all wanted it to be a true community school, she said.

The school is for the kids, but also for the parents and for the community. Its a tribute to what Edge does for it to still be around today. Im thrilled it is.

Funding for Edges programs comes from the provincial and federal governments as well as from donations from The Winnipeg Foundation, Assiniboine Credit Union, and individuals.

Miles Murphy, executive director of the Edge career program, said the first job program was called Mager Women Working, which gave training to single mothers on social assistance whose children were enrolled at Victor Mager School.

Now the organizations career program is a full-time pre-employment preparation and job-skills training program, open to low-income families with dependent children under 18, adults who earn less than $23,298 annually, adults on employment and income assistance, and immigrants and federally sponsored refugees.

Murphy said the program features academic upgrading, on-the-job training, work experience, and jobs.

These are jobs at Manitoba Hydro, MPI, the City of Winnipeg, and Assiniboine Credit Union. We help define a career path. This is for people wanting to make changes in their lives.

Joan Embleton, executive director of the Edge literacy program, said they make it clear to employers when clients are placed on a three-month internship that  barring something unexpected  theyre hiring a new long-term employee.

We dont want to take them off welfare and put them into a low-paying job  and we dont want them to be out of a job after the internship ends, she said.

Both Murphy and Embleton have heard that not only do their clients get jobs, but also, in several cases, have been promoted within the various organizations where they are employed.

Murphy said another key partner of Edge is the Morrow Avenue Child Care Program, which prioritizes day care spots for children of Edge clients.

Thats a huge support, Embleton said. Often not having daycare is the biggest barrier. You want to work or take a course, but you cant find day care.

Edges career program helps up to 70 people per year, the literacy program had 99 people enrolled in it this year, and the English-as-an-additional-language program serves about 150 adults every school year and provides on-site child care for about 60 children per year.

Embleton said that Edge has helped about 5,000 people whose lives have changed, and who knows how many children have been helped?

Weve always known that if you help the parents, you help the children.

Audrey Owens, chairwoman of Edges board of directors, said she used to work for the organization and saw so many success stories that she still wanted to be connected to it after she retired.

Ive seen husbands and wives say their goal was to come to Canada, get a job and then fit in, she said.

With Edge they get the language help and then they can transition to the career program and then get a job. The community drives the need. If the people werent there, the program wouldnt be needed.

Cvetkovska said she came to Canada in August 2014 and worked as a front desk agent at a hotel. She joined Edge in April 2015.

When I couldnt get a job here as an administrative assistant, my sister-in-law told me about Edge. Because I came with a pretty skilled background, the program was easy. Now Ive worked 11/2 years as an administrative assistant and I am pleased that I can help others.

If not for Edge, I dont know how I would have found the job.

Toure said he came from Mali in 2015 and enrolled in Edges EAL program. He graduated earlier this month.

This program will help me be more integrated in the community, he said. Now I can easily understand what people are saying. Before I used to hide. Now I feel comfortable wherever I go.

Until Hussey, 43, came to Edge, he couldnt read well.

I could read at a Grade 3 or 4 level. I was able to get through life by, if I had a problem, to ask someone or Google it. Google has been life-saving for me.

Im reading a book right now, Dexter. I couldnt have read a book like that before. Edge Skills will change my life.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/06/2017 (1966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Most of the Manitoba criminals sentenced to serve intermittent jail sentences spend little, if any, time behind bars because the institutions they are being sent to are already bursting at the seams.

Instead, the majority are being re-routed to places such as local halfway houses, the Salvation Army or, in some cases, home. Its a practice that has been quietly going on for years and now has some justice officials across Canada  including a local judge  calling for a major federal overhaul on the grounds key resources are being stressed and wasted.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jerry Acquisto, 42, was sentenced for a domestic assault and breach of court orders. He works his window and door business during the week and serves his sentence on weekends.

Intermittent sentences cause significant headaches for correctional officials, pose increased risk inside institutions and provide few rehabilitative benefits for those receiving such a sentence, Manitoba provincial court Judge Ray Wyant wrote in a recent report on the issue. He was commissioned by the Ontario government to study that provinces bail and remand issues and recommend improvements, and his findings echo similar concerns raised in Alberta over the practice.

According to Statistics Canada, 210 Manitobans were handed intermittent sentences for the fiscal year ending in 2016. Thats up from 197 in 2015.

There are more intermittent sentences since mandatory minimums and the removal of some CSOs (conditional sentence orders) were introduced, says Winnipeg defence lawyer Kathy Bueti. Under the Criminal Code, intermittent sentences are available to anyone who gets 90 days or less and can satisfy a judge that allowing them to maintain some semblance of a normal life is key to their rehabilitation  usually in the form of full-time employment or schooling during the week. Many involve repeat drunk-driving cases calling for minimum jail terms.

The Manitoba government provided slightly different statistics to the Free Press: 211 intermittent terms in 2016 compared to 223 in 2015. A spokeswoman said there are no plans for changes on the horizon despite the many challenges the cases pose. In a statement, she conceded that many of the offenders dont actually spend much time in a real jail.

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS "Intermittent sentences cause significant headaches for correctional officials, pose increased risk inside institutions and provide few rehabilitative benefits for those receiving such a sentence," Manitoba provincial court Judge Ray Wyant wrote in a recent report on the issue.

These offenders generally serve their time over a weekend, when more people tend to be admitted into custody. Because intermittent offenders are in the community for the remainder of the week, it is also possible they could introduce contraband. For this reason, it is necessary to house these inmates apart from the general population.

In any given week, there are approximately 30 offenders in Manitoba serving intermittent sentences. The province estimates more than half of them are in halfway houses or the Salvation Army, and about 25 per cent are doing their time in their own residence. That leaves less than a quarter behind bars, and they usually dont stay there very long.

Offenders with intermittent sentences are initially admitted to a correctional centre. After admission, an offender may be eligible to serve the balance of his or her sentence with a community-based agency, or another supervised location, where they can access programs or other supports. After serving one-sixth of the sentence, an offender may be eligible to serve the intermittent sentence from home, the spokeswoman said.

After a long week of work, Jerry Acquisto normally looks forward to kicking back and relaxing on the weekend. But the Winnipeg window installer has less time for that at the moment. He was charged with a New Years Eve assault on his ex-girlfriend and recently pleaded guilty to that charge and a handful of court-order breaches.

Defence lawyer Alan Hogg got his client a 60-day intermittent sentence, allowing Acquisto to continue operating his company during the week in a move Acquisto said likely spared him from bankruptcy. Acquisto, 43, is expected to report to jail at 8 a.m. every Saturday and then is sent home at 3 p.m. every Sunday. He gets credit for two days served as he slowly chips away at his sentence. Many offenders will report on a Friday evening and get credit for three days, but that didnt work with Acquistos schedule.

He began his punishment two weeks ago, showing up as required at the Remand Centre and was then transferred to Headingley Jail to spend Saturday night.

It was gross. Its jail. Its not a fun experience. You go there, you get strip-searched, you change into their clothing, then you go into a cage basically, he told the Free Press this week.

He was expecting to have to keep doing the same thing every weekend for the foreseeable future. But he was told by officials before he reported last weekend to go to a halfway house instead; Headingley had no room for him.

I guess I was surprised; I was sure happy to get that phone call, he said. He spent last weekend at the halfway house in the North End in what was marked departure from his experience at Headingley. There were 13 other men at the facility, all serving intermittent sentences.

Theres not much to do, so youre just sitting around, basically. You just shoot the st basically, play some cards. Everybody in there seems like good people. Its not like how you figure with Headingley guys, where people probably deserve to be there. When you see a group of intermittent guys, theyre not hardcore criminals, he said. You go into one big room, theres like seven bunk beds, theres a TV; you just sit there and do your time.

According to the most recent provincial statistics, released during the winter, every provincial jail in Manitoba is beyond capacity, led by Headingley which was housing 842 inmates in a facility designed for 549. The downtown Remand Centre, Milner Ridge, Dauphin, Brandon, The Pas and the womens facility in Headingley were also overflowing. In total, there were more than 2,500 inmates packed into facilities built to house only 2,000.

Manitoba Justice officials were unable to provide an estimate for what intermittent prisoners cost the province every year, but Alberta provides some guidance. That province also averages about 200 intermittent sentences a year, and the government announced plans in 2013 to have Crown prosecutors argue against their imposition more aggressively on the grounds it cost close to $1 million annually to incarcerate them.

Thats one of the major issues outlined in Wyants report  and a big reason why people such as Acquisto arent simply thrown into general population at Headingley.

The sheer numbers of inmates showing up for a weekend sentence can put considerable strain on the ability of correctional, detention or jail facilities to find room for them, he wrote.

These facilities are usually filled to capacity, if not over-capacity, at the best of times. Finding beds for intermittently sentenced prisoners can be very difficult. Because of the nature of their sentence it is policy, wherever possible, to keep intermittently sentenced prisoners in their own area, separate from the rest of the inmate population whether they be sentenced or on remand.

In some cases, offenders serving lengthy sentences are being transferred out of jail on weekends to make room for intermittent offenders, Wyant said.

Such movement is costly, risky and just plain unfair treatment of these transferred inmates, he wrote. If they suffer from some sort of mental illness, such transfers back and forth can have even more serious and negative effects, Wyant wrote.

There have also been reports of inmates being triple- and even quadruple-bunked in cells, which adds to tension and raises the risk of violence, he said.

Wyant said there are many examples of offenders with intermittent sentences who didnt have full-time employment, yet managed to trick the judge. And there are also cases where offenders get high or drunk just prior to reporting for their weekend stint. Some even smuggle weapons into jails at the behest of others.

In such circumstances, some weekenders become reluctant mules for others, fearing for their safety or the safety of their loved-ones, he said, adding they are essentially being warehoused due to the lack of available programming and treatment.

There is little to do for weekend inmates but to sit in a locked jail cell or area for the time of their sentence, he said.

That means rehabilitation  one of the Canadian judicial systems sentencing principles, available to prisoners serving time on consecutive days  is entirely absent from weekend terms.

Acquisto is currently serving his third intermittent sentence. He was convicted on drug charges nearly 20 years ago and did that entire weekend sentence at Headingley.

Back then you could at least smoke cigarettes, so it wasnt that bad, he said.

And about seven years ago, also following drug-offence convictions, he began his stint in Headingley but was eventually moved to a halfway house much like the one hes in this time around.

Your freedom is still taken from you, he said. If youre a family man, youve got to work all week, then go in on the weekends. Its not fun. But its a good thing, I guess, for guys who are working. You know, to get back to their life, contribute to society.

Like any sentence, intermittent terms offer the incentive of time off in exchange for good behaviour: offenders typically serve two-thirds of their imposed sentences. In Acquistos case, that means spending 20 consecutive weekends, not the ordered 30. However, he plans to soon ask for temporary absences, which would allow him to abandon the halfway house and instead stay home every Saturday and Sunday under a curfew. He would be subjected to checks from police or probation officials.

Veteran defence lawyer Mike Cook says people who get intermittent sentences have essentially been given a break by the system  and must know there is little room for error.

If they miss any check-in, that constitutes an unlawfully-at-large charge for which they are likely to get a custodial sentence if they dont have a lawful excuse for not reporting, he said. A lawful excuse would be a medical emergency, not, I missed my ride, or I did not feel well.

Cook said he hopes judges retain the the option to sentence intermittently; one of his clients able to obtain one on the grounds he was needed to help care for his ailing and elderly mother during the week.

It still aint no walk in the park, thats for sure, Acquisto said. I wouldnt say its an easy thing and guys are getting let off, because theyre not. Everybody makes mistakes.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @mikeoncrime
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 23/06/2017 (1967 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two patient-care specialists at St. Boniface Hospital have resigned their positions after the hospitals governing body stacked the board in its favour to keep assisted dying from being offered on site.

Linda Hughes and Dr. Ken Hahlweg submitted their letters of resignation this week, the Free Press has learned.

Hughes was a five-year veteran of the hospital board and chairwoman of its patient-care committee; Hahlweg was a member of that committee and is a University of Manitoba clinical professor in family medicine at St. Boniface.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES The recent decision by the St. Boniface Hospital's board to keep assisted dying from being offered on site has seen a wave of resignations by hospital care givers.

It was a difficult decision, said Hahlweg, who considered the committee to be patient-centric and apolitical, but increasingly wrestled with that as he saw his colleagues resign or step away from the board.

Board chairman Murray Kilfoyle resigned June 2, just days after the board met to consider a policy about assisted dying. In that role, Kilfoyle was the tie-breaking vote supporting an amendment allowing the procedure at the Winnipeg hospital under rare circumstances.

When news of the vote reached the hospitals governing body  the Catholic Health Corp. of Manitoba (CHCM)  it immediately added 10 of its members to the board and called for a re-vote.

Two weeks ago, the new board  minus Kilfoyle and one other member  passed the original policy banning assisted dying.

If his term as the medical staff president at St. Boniface Hospital wasnt at an end, Dr. Marcus Blouw told the Free Press earlier this week he likely would have resigned from the board as well.

With Kilfoyle gone, Blouw on his way out, and then  this week  Hughes resigning as well, Hahlweg said he felt obligated to leave.

I thought it would be difficult to continue working on a committee that answers to the board that has turned their back, in some ways, to compassionate care, he said. To deny individuals who are most vulnerable compassionate care did not sit with me very well, and I just felt that it was the right thing to do rather than feeling like a hypocrite.

In a memo sent to hospital staff earlier this week, hospital president Dr. Bruce Roe reiterated St. Bonifaces commitment to supporting patients in need of compassionate, end-of-life care.

Hughes was circumspect in explaining her decision to quit the board.

In an email, she said she resigned due to the circumstances that have evolved around the hospitals assisted-dying policy.

Hughes wrote she was pleased the original board was able to secure patients right to be assessed by the provincial assisted-dying team at St. Boniface. However, she felt a balance between the interests of all patients and the interests of the institution would have included allowing the procedure at the hospital in those rare circumstances where a transfer would cause increased suffering for the patient.

For Hughes and Hahlweg, the primary concern is for the patients. Hahlweg specifically spoke about concerns around transferring a patient from St. Boniface to another facility for the procedure.

You take them out of a bed to put them in an ambulance to send them to another hospital, he said. Theres no medical necessity to do it.

In fact, he said, thats the beauty of the provincial team model: it comes to you.

Dr. Ellen Wiebe, an assisted-dying provider in Vancouver, is familiar with transfers. In an interview this week, Wiebe spoke about the patients shes cared for who were forced to transfer out of faith-based facilities.

She was, at the time of the interview, in the middle of compiling a list of such cases for a possible legal challenge. One of her patients, she said, suffered terribly.

These individuals are the most vulnerable, Hahlweg said. Theyre at the end of their lives and suffering in every instance and to make their journey more difficult, it just goes against everything that we (as medical professionals) believe.

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @Jane_Gerster
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/06/2017 (1966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As robberies go, they dont get much lower than this one.

We mean that quite literally because the stolen item in this case was a severed and dehydrated human toe that was taken last Saturday from the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City, Yukon.

The mummified toe has long been the star ingredient in the saloons infamous Sourtoe Cocktail, wherein patrons must down a shot of whisky, making sure the preserved digit touches their lips.

Toe custodian Terry Lee holds the main ingredient of the infamous Sourtoe Cocktail served at the Downtown Hotels Sourdough Saloon in Dawson City. (Alan Solomon / Chicago Tribune files)

The hotels Toe Captain, Terry Lee, told reporters the thief is from Quebec, had a French accent and bragged he might steal the toe, which was served to him after the nightly 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Toe Time.

Toes are very hard to come by, Lee said. We fortunately have a couple backup toes, but we really need this one back.

The hotels posted fine for swallowing or stealing the toe is $2,500. It had been $500 until August 2013, when a patron gulped back the entire cocktail  toe and all  and slapped $500 on the table.

Sadly, a number of toes have vanished since the cocktail was invented in 1973, when a local man discovered a jar containing the amputated toe of rum runner Louie Liken, who had it removed after a bout of frostbite and preserved in a jar of alcohol.

Stealing a severed toe is an odd crime, but it is apparently just the tip of a large, creepy iceberg, as we can see by examining todays mildly nauseating list of The Top Five Purloined Body Parts of All Time:

5) The Purloined Part: St. Francis Xaviers toe

The Body of Evidence: Since we started with a severed toe, we might as well stick with the digital theme, so to speak. In the 16th century, St. Francis Xavier was a famed Roman Catholic missionary, spreading the gospel throughout Spain, France, Italy, Malaysia, Japan, Sri Lanka and India.

A co-founder of the Society of Jesus, St. Francis was one of the first seven Jesuits who took vows of poverty and chastity at Montmartre, Paris, in 1534.

Celebrated for his evangelist work in India, he was also the first Christian missionary to venture into Japan, Borneo and other exotic locations. He was poised to extend his missionary preaching to China, but died on Shangchuan Island before reaching the mainland.

History and legend say that, in 1554, 14 months after his death, the disinterred body of St. Francis, supposedly in a perfect state of preservation, arrived in Goa, India, where the corpse was put on display for veneration.

According to the Times of India, a Portuguese woman, Dona Isabel Carom, is said to have bitten off the small toe from the right foot in an offbeat bid to preserve it as a personal relic.

Chimes in the website of Time magazine: Allegedly, the toe gushed blood, and she was caught when people followed the grisly trail to her home. Today, St. Francis Xaviers toe is on display in a silver reliquary in a cathedral in Goa.

In 2009, according to the Times of India, the legendary toe  now in the possession of the family of the Count of Nova Goa  was put on public display in Lisbon, Portugal. Other parts of St. Francis Xavier, who was canonized by Pope Gregory XV in 1622, are also on display.

The body is in a church in Goa, while his right forearm was detached and sent to Rome, and a diamond-encrusted fingernail is supposedly on display in a village in Goa. You might say thats him all over.

4) The Purloined Part(s): Santa Clauss bones

The Body of Evidence: Before you accuse us of being The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, allow us to point out we are not talking about the real Santa Claus, as in the Jolly Old Elf who slides down every chimney in the world to deliver presents to good little boys and girls.

No, we are talking about the historic St. Nicholas, the Christian bishop in the fourth century who inherited a great deal of wealth and then became famous for giving it away to help the needy, thereby becoming the inspiration for St. Nick as we know him today.

His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young, notes StNicholasCenter.org. Obeying Jesuss words to sell what you own and give the money to the poor, Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering.

The first Santa died on Dec. 6, AD 343 in Myra, a town in present-day Turkey, and was buried in a cathedral where his remains were said to exude a liquid substance with amazing healing powers. In those days, the body parts of saints attracted pilgrims from all over the world, and Nicholass tomb became a major tourist attraction, so to speak.

Because few towns would willingly part with such an obvious cash cow, villages would hire gangs of thieves to steal relics from others, notes the website Time.com. One of the most famous capers involved the theft of St. Nicholas In 1807, the Italian town of Bari hired men  some accounts call them pirates while others refer to them as privileged mariners  to steal St. Nicholas from Myra The theft of Santas bones is still celebrated in Bari with an annual parade and fireworks.

We can imagine the entire town shakes kind of like a bowl full of jelly.

3) The Purloined Part: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts skull

The Body of Evidence: There is no doubt Mozart, born Jan. 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria, was one of the greatest composers of all time. Which seems like the perfect motivation for snatching his skull.

A child prodigy, Mozart was competent on keyboard and violin by age five, and composed more than 600 works. He was a giant who profoundly reshaped the world of classical music.

So what happened to his skull? Well, according to NationalGeographic.com, a decade after the composers death in 1791 at the tender age of 35, a gravedigger named Joseph Rothmayer supposedly snatched the brain casing as a souvenir. Mozart had been buried in a common grave, and the practice at the time was to eventually clear them to make way for new bodies.

As the story goes, Mozarts skull was passed around before landing in the hands of famed anatomist Joseph Hyrtl, who attached a red label describing it as the top of the cranium.

In 1902, the skull was quietly handed over to the curators at the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation, where it was on display for several decades, though its provenance had not been thoroughly fact-checked.

In the late 1980s, a forensic anthropologist examined the skull and noted it matched contemporary portraits of Mozart, and showed marks from a fall that may have hastened his death.

In 2006, however, DNA tests for Austrian state TV failed to find a match with some of Mozarts dead relatives. Which either means that the skull is a fake, or that there was some infidelity going on, notes National Geographic.

Online magazine Atlas Obscura calls the results entirely inconclusive, adding the fact the skull took a hard hit a year before its owner died is consistent with the headaches Mozart described in the last year of his life. But this too is ultimately speculative, and the mystery of Mozarts skull will, for the time being, remain unsolved.

Coincidentally, like Mozart, both Ludwig van Beethoven and Joseph Haydn had part or all of their skulls stolen. Which is just one way to get a head.

2) The Purloined Part: Napoleons Little Napoleon

The Body of Evidence: After losing the Battle of Waterloo, the famously diminutive French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was famously cut down to size, so to speak.

After the battle, Napoleon abdicated power and was eventually nabbed by the British and placed in permanent exile on the remote Atlantic island of St. Helena, where he died in 1821 under mysterious circumstances.

During the autopsy, it is said the doctor, Francesco Autommarchi, in front of 17 witnesses, lopped off the late emperors medically sensitive equipment. According to Britains Independent newspaper, Napoleons item was then acquired by priest Abbe Anges Paul Vignali, who gave the leader the last rites.

It passed through Vignalis family before it was eventually bought by American rare books dealer A.S.W. Rosenback in 1924 and then displayed at the Museum of French Art in New York in 1927, the Independent reports.

When it went on display, a Time magazine correspondent likened it to a maltreated strip of buckskin shoelace, whereas another newspaper described it as a shrivelled eel.

In 1977, a New Jersey urologist purchased Napoleons junk for $3,000 and stored it under his bed until he died 30 years later. The Independent says the item is now in the possession of the urologists son, Evan Lattimer, who views it as a historic treasure.

Dad believed that urology should be proper and decent and not a joke, Lattimer told the newspaper. It (Napoleons you-know-what) is very small, but its famous for being small. Its perfect structurally

Chimes in British TV presenter Mark Evans, who viewed the item for a documentary: Ive seen a lot of penises, from a chihuahua to a sperm whale. This is so withered Its strange how the withered penis has ventured farther around the world than Napoleon ever did.

No wonder he had a complex.

1) The Purloined Part: Einsteins brain

The Body of Evidence: In the wee hours of April 18, 1955, Albert Einstein, owner of the most famous brain in human history, died at Princeton Hospital in New Jersey. The pathologist on duty, Thomas Harvey, performed the autopsy on the man whose genius reshaped modern physics.

What he did next has been the subject of great controversy over the last half-century  quite simply, Harvey took Einsteins brain without permission, which some would call stealing,  according to an article on Smithsonian.com.

Less than 24 hours after his death, Einstein was cremated and his ashes scattered along the Delaware River, but without his brain or his eyes, which Smithsonian.com says are believed to be in a safe deposit box in New York or New Jersey.

It was only later that Harvey got a begrudging OK from Einsteins eldest son to keep the brain, provided it was used only for scientific study. Harvey reportedly took the brain, from which sprang the theory of relativity, to the University of Pennsylvania, where it was dissected into thousands of slides.

While he kept some of the brain, Harvey also eventually sent slides to neuropathologists around the United States in hopes of unlocking the secret of Einsteins genius.

In 2011, the Mutter Museum, a prestigious medical museum in Philadelphia, received a box of slides, which now form the only permanent display of the worlds most famous brain.

After being fired from the hospital and divorced, Harvey moved to Kansas, lost his medical licence, and ended up working on an assembly line at a plastics factory. During his time in the Midwest, his pieces of Einsteins brain reportedly sat in Mason jars in a cider box underneath a beer cooler, Smithsonian.com notes.

In 2010, the remains of the brain were transferred to the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

Which somehow brings us back to the missing ingredient for Dawson Citys creepy Sourtoe Cocktail. We have a vague idea where it might have gone, but at the moment, we cant put our tongue on it.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca
The Union Home Ministry is preparing a new policy which will enable monitoring of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

By Jitendra Bahadur Singh: The Union home ministry is planning to swoop down on those using social media to further their violent and antinational propaganda. It is preparing a new policy in this regard which will enable monitoring of platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram.

A meeting in this regard took place in the ministry on June 22. It was attended by ministry officials and senior officials of security agencies.

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Currently, only nominal dos and don'ts exist as part of social media regulation. The new policy will be aimed at stringent enforcement and monitoring.

The legal regime in which people are prosecuted currently falls under the IT Act and IPC, which does not have provisions to deal with destructive propaganda.

The MHA, according to sources, is of the view that a whole new approach is needed to tackle new and constantly emerging threats.

The next meeting is expected to take place early July.

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--- ENDS ---
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/06/2017 (1966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Andrew Coyne has written two columns in the National Post dumping on the idea that journalism in Canada  in particular the journalism traditionally done by newspapers  is in need of support from the federal government.

By doing so, he is providing great proof of just why support is needed  so people can continue to get the facts about issues of public importance.

Any public policy worth implementing is worth having a good, old-fashioned debate about. Newspapers provide forums for these debates. If, as Coyne says, most of the legacy media companies will probably fail, then both our voices could be silenced, or at least marginalized to group blogs or some other such venue that Coyne believes will deliver the news in the future.

So, while weve still got these forums, lets have the debate.

I wrote about the Canadian Journalism Fund last week. A broad group of news organizations has proposed expanding a federal program that supports magazines and some community newspapers. This would make daily newspapers, such as the Winnipeg Free Press, eligible and boost the funds spending to $350 million a year from its current level of $75 million.

Many publishers in Canada, including myself, are profoundly uneasy with going to the federal government to ask for help.

We have done so only after failing in efforts to get changes in taxation, copyright and other areas that we feel would level the playing field with other media companies, particularly the digital giants that are vacuuming up vast amounts of money from Canadian advertisers and giving very little back to communities across the country.

We have done so because of what is at stake  the ability of communities to be informed about themselves through accurate reporting of what is really going on. I believe strongly in this principle.

Coyne believes Some people want to be well-informed; most do not, which must make him question the purpose of his lifes work.

We have focused our request on preserving the jobs of journalists to ensure that the newsrooms that still exist are not cut to the point where they have nothing to offer readers who, as Coyne points out, increasingly are footing the bill for journalism.

We defined journalism for the simple reason that you cannot run a federal program without a definition to guide it. We chose a definition that is not narrow, but broadly based, open to all non-regulated news organizations, big and small, that provide regular coverage of the most important public aspects of communities.

Yes, we would exclude individual blogs and we emphasize reporting over opinion. No one wants to fund personal rants or political agendas.

It is also folly to believe that any federal subsidy would simply prop up existing newspaper companies. Most of our expenses are not in our newsrooms and would not be covered by any federal program.

At my own company, our 10 newspapers in Manitoba might qualify for $2 million. Our expense budget in 2016 was $75 million. Revenue fell by $8.5 million. A couple of million bucks is not going to save us, now or in the future. Only good management and a successful transition to a new business model will do that.

As we transition, the proposed journalism fund would protect newsrooms from being cut because money would be tied to the number of journalists employed. A news organization would lose funding if it cut editorial jobs.

We are also not going to use the money to pay higher salaries or have it dealt away to the industrys unions at the bargaining table. Unions are seeking support for the same journalistic capacity as publishers.

At the Winnipeg Free Press, our staff, represented by Unifor, already has agreed to take a pay cut if the paper cannot pay its bills at some point. That demonstrates commitment by the people who work at the newspaper every day.

Coyne suggests the real reason for the fund might be to save our cushy jobs. Anyone who thinks there is a cushy job left in newspapers has not visited many lately.

Ours is a business in constant change. Cost-cutting is not a one-time event; it is daily operating procedure. We have profoundly transformed. We have confidence in our abilities to produce journalism, find readers and pay the bills.

But as we build new business models, we are confronted with certain realities. We compete against the CBC, which offers free news that taxpayers have already funded.

We face the fact that money from TV viewers (i.e. almost everyone) is involuntarily directed by a regulator to support local TV news, also offered for free. Even Macleans magazine gets a couple of million dollars a year from the federal government.

This is a playing field with a steep incline and newspapers at the bottom. We will rise to the challenge, but we are asking for a bit of help to get there.

Bob Cox is publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press and chairman of News Media Canada.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/06/2017 (1966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

My mothers death was not sudden.

For nearly two years, she had valiantly fought lung cancer. By the time she was diagnosed, the disease had already spread through her whole body. She suffered bone fractures because of her tumours. Her brain was dotted with spots.

The end finally came when her body and her mind succumbed to the cumulative ravages of the disease, the chemicals, the radiation and the medication she had absorbed over her horrific and inspiring battle.

Paul Lachine / Newsart

She was finally admitted to St. Josephs Hospital in Toronto after suffering a complete cognitive breakdown. She couldnt recognize her family and had grown agitated. She could not walk or care for herself anymore and was in constant, consuming pain. She was disintegrating right in front of us like a sugar cube left in the rain.

Her medical team almost immediately offered us the option of terminal sedation. This involved sedating my mother just enough to put her into a low-level coma from which she would never again wake. We were asked to sign a do-not-resuscitate order. She would be hydrated but not fed.

The physician calmly told us that, over a period of a few days, she would starve to death.

And thats just what happened. My mother grew smaller and fainter until one day, her heart just stopped.

I have often thought of that last week of her life, and what my family would have elected to do if physician-assisted death was an option. Would we have hastened the end of my mothers life? Or, would we have taken comfort in the fact that medical science had obtained for her a compromise  a place that was neither living nor dead where she could slowly fade away?

All things being equal, I think we would have elected to bring an end to my mothers obvious suffering in a quicker and more decisive fashion.

This experience has made the whole issue of physician-assisted death difficult for me to tackle as a journalist. To be honest, I have worried that some of the unresolved emotions from watching my mothers final days have drained from me the balance that we must bring to our work. But then, St. Boniface Hospital entered the equation.

On May 29, the hospitals board of directors narrowly voted to allow physician-assisted death to patients under rare circumstances. This was a rather progressive decision, given that the hospital was founded by a faith-based organization.

However, the Catholic Health Corp. of Manitoba, the hospitals governing body, added 10 new directors to the board and forced a second vote on June 16, reversing the decision and banning the provision of physician-assisted death.

The fallout from the CHCMs actions has been profound. Dr. Markus Blouw, the boards medical president and a practising physician at the hospital, spoke out against the boards decision. In doing so, he hit upon the intractable issue that separates supporters and opponents of assisted death.

I have been told that I cannot understand the implications of this decision because I dont appreciate the value of redemptive suffering, Blouw told the Free Press.

Most faiths believe that suffering is a virtue that brings us closer to whatever god we worship. For Christians, its the belief that our suffering is evidence of our godliness, and will be relieved later when we reach the kingdom of God.

That is not an offensive or cruel philosophy, by any means. But how it is applied in real life can often be both.

It is impossible to escape the fact that banning physician-assisted death in the name of redemptive suffering, while providing other less-direct methods of ending someones suffering, is tenuous on both a legal and moral basis. At its extreme, its hypocritical.

Legally, publicly funded hospitals such as St. Boniface have no grounds on which to ban the practice. Individual physicians can opt out and claim freedom of religion. The Supreme Court found that institutions are also able to claim the right to freedom of religion, but only if those institutions are constituted primarily for religious purposes and that all aspects of their operation accords with these religious purposes.

A taxpayer-funded hospital that treats people of all faiths, largely in accordance with a government mandate, does not qualify as a religious organization.

How are hospitals allowed to opt out of providing this service? Across Canada, health-care facilities either operated or founded by faith-based organizations have banned assisted death, in some cases refusing to even refer patients to physicians and facilities that will provide the service. In most instances, the provincial governments that fund their operation have turned a blind eye.

Why? No province wants to pick a fight with faith-based organizations on an issue involving the sanctity of life. These organizations may not speak on behalf of a majority of citizens, but they are politically astute and can hit above their weight when elections roll around. Tolerating the decision of some facilities to opt out of an insured health service is purely a reflection of a political reality no government is willing to ignore.

The consequences of this uneasy political compromise can be dire for individual patients. Terminally ill Canadians are routinely forced to relocate from one health-care facility to another to obtain physician-assisted death. Transferring someone in a frail medical condition often results in increased pain and suffering, both for the patient and their family.

Hospitals that force patients to relocate have not disputed the fact that it adds to the patients suffering, but neither have they justified it as moral or ethical.

Which brings us back to my mother, whose final days were lived out in St. Josephs Health Centre, a facility founded by a faith-based organization that has opted out of the provision of assisted death. St. Josephs will, however, continue to offer terminal sedation. That is curious, because, in a legal and medical context, there is very little difference between euthanasia and terminal or palliative sedation.

A 2012 decision in the B.C. Supreme Court noted that euthanasia (medical intervention that brings immediate death) and terminal sedation (an intervention that results ultimately in death) are really, in most instances, the same thing: The preponderance of the evidence from ethicists is that there is no ethical distinction between physician-assisted death and other end-of-life practices whose outcome is highly likely to be death.

The fact that faith-based organizations continue to see a religious distinction between the two practices is, at its heart, tenuous. It suggests that somehow, religious principle need not be moral or ethical. Or perhaps that God would approve of a slow, painful death brought on by physician-administered sedation that leads to death by starvation, but frowns on a quicker death brought on by a deeper, physician-assisted sedation.

The direct actions of physicians at a faith-based hospital brought my mothers life to an end. Not as quickly as we would have liked, but the consequence of the end-of-life treatment she received was clear and unambiguous.

Somewhere at the intersection of religion and medical science, it is my hope that secularists and people of faith can agree on one central reality: by the time patients afflicted by terminal illnesses start to think about assisted death, they and their families have probably suffered enough to prove themselves to God. Any god.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
LA CROSSE, Wis.  An Iowa sand mining company suing Trempealeau County is asking the court to hear the case in spite of a recent Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that the county legally denied a permit for a proposed industrial sand operation.

The case was brought by AllEnergy Corp. of Des Moines and its subsidiary, AllEnergy Silica, Arcadia, which sought to operate a 265-acre frac sand mine and adjacent processing plant and rail loading terminal in the town of Arcadia.

In 2013, the Trempealeau County Environment and Land Use Committee voted 5-3 to deny the permit, saying AllEnergys application was rushed and incomplete; that the proposed mine raised environmental concerns and would have adverse effects on the landscape, wildlife, and recreation; and that it posed risks to health, culture and social conditions.

AllEnergy sued the county in 2014, claiming the denial was arbitrary and singled out the company in violation of its constitutional rights. The county asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that applying for a conditional use permit does not create a constitutionally protected property right.

AllEnergy claims it lost $3.5 million per month in revenue because of the denial and is seeking unspecified damages.

The case lingered as AllEnergy sought to overturn the permit denial in a separate court case that ultimately went to the state Supreme Court.

In an 88-page split decision released in late May, the Supreme Court upheld the findings of a La Crosse County judge on the grounds that AllEnergy has no intrinsic right to operate a frac sand mine, a conditional use subject to local government approval. Two of the four-justice majority took issue with part of the decision, saying the court overreached by venturing into the constitutionality of the countys ordinances.

AllEnergys attorney Gary Van Cleve argues in a brief filed Thursday that the Supreme Court decision has no bearing on the companys due process suit. The two cases address different legal questions, he writes, and because a majority of justices could not agree, the opinion fails to establish a precedent.

The county argues that a majority of justices agreed on two key issues: that the committee was within its jurisdiction to reject the permit and that property owners have no guaranteed right to a conditional use permit.

Van Cleve calls that a patently dishonest interpretation of the decision.

La Crosse County Circuit Judge Scott Horne is expected to rule in the coming weeks on whether the case may proceed.

AllEnergy is also seeking to open a 750-acre mine and processing facility in Jackson County, where a group of neighbors sued to block the $130 million project on the grounds that the dust, noise, lights and blasting will create a nuisance.

Horne has yet to rule on the companys request to dismiss that case.
Sauk County Sheriffs Department Deputy Cory Frank was supposed to be earning money when he went to work June 15. Instead, he wound up spending it.

And thanks to his selflessness, a Wisconsin veteran who was down on his luck got a pick-me-up on his way through Sauk County.

When Frank was dispatched to a parking lot off State Highway 33 east of Baraboo, he didnt know exactly what to expect. He found a car with a flat tire, and a man inside.

The driver was a former U.S. Army mechanic from the La Crosse area who had recently been provided with housing in Janesville by a veterans assistance organization. All his possessions were in the car, including his savings.

Frank, a 15-year employee with the sheriffs department who completed a 2006 tour of duty in Kuwait with the Wisconsin National Guard, said he immediately connected with the fellow veteran.

We sat there and talked a little bit about what we did in the military, Frank said. Basically the $25 he had in his pocket was all he had.

Frank didnt want the man to have to spend his last dollar. So he found two area businesses, which he did not want to name, to lend a hand.

A local wrecker towed the car for free, and the manager at a repair shop sold him a new tire at a reduced rate. Frank covered the cost of the tire and its installation.

I just told him, whenever youve got a chance, pay it forward, Frank said.

Sauk County Sheriff Chip Meister said hes proud, but not surprised, that Frank decided to go above and beyond his official duties.

Thats the type of individual he is, Meister said. Its fantastic that we have a deputy representing this county that does this kind of stuff. It puts a warm spot in your heart when you see stuff like this.
COLUMBUS -- TIF District No. 4 continues to grow, with Drexel Building Supply being the latest company to announce plans to build along Highway 16 on the citys west side.

At a meeting Tuesday night, the Columbus City Council approved a Memorandum of Understanding with Drexel that lays the groundwork for the building supply and contractor services firm to build on 13 acres of land southeast of the Fromm Family Foods expansion site. The land is currently owned by Carl Benck.

Plans for the site include multiple buildings, a lumberyard and a showroom, according to Joel Fleischman, Drexels owner/president.

Drexel got its start in Campbellsport, as Campbellsport Building Supplies, in 1985. It rebranded as Drexel Building Supply in 2013.

The company has five other locations in Wisconsin: Wrightstown, Kiel, Berlin, Sheboygan Falls and Brookfield.

Fleischman said he is looking forward to moving into Columbus.

It just seems like a wonderful community, he said. Were from a small town culture and it speaks to our business.

Stores have about a 50-mile range, Fleischman said. That means the new location should allow Drexel to expand its reach into Madison, Beaver Dam and adjacent areas.

If everything falls into place, the Columbus site could be open in the next 12 months, Fleischman said. The average location employs about 30 people.

City Administrator Patrick Vander Sanden said the MOU is a key step in the process of securing a new business for the TIF. The city and Drexel will now be working out a Developers Agreement.

I hope it all works out, Fleischman said. Were really excited about the new location. The city has been a joy to work with.
The Crossroads was at a crossroads this spring.

The non-denominational church had to decide if it wanted to continue to hold its Sunday services at Columbus United Methodist while operating its food and hygiene products pantry out of its building on Ludington Street, or if it wanted to remodel the front of that building in order to bring worship services back home.

In the end, the Rev. Jeremy Roll and his wife Jody, who is the pantrys administrator, decided their lives would be a whole lot easier if everything would be back under one roof. Plus, the move and remodel would mean The Crossroads could save some money on rent, and maybe even offer some additional programs.

Since making their decision, the Rolls and a band of dedicated volunteers have torn down walls and raised the ceiling in their downtown location, eliminating two underutilized offices and turning a small, chopped-up storefront into one wide-open space.

Were really excited about whats happening here, Jody said. People are more than welcome to come take a look. We want people to feel like family when they walk in.

Church meets coffee house

Sunday services, now held at 9 a.m., started back in The Crossroads building on May 1.

While most of the heavy lifting on the project is done, a few finishing touches remain. New flooring was expected to get laid down later this week, and then the Rolls will have to decide how to lay out the furniture.

Unlike most churches, The Crossroads doesnt have pews or a pulpit. Instead, it has a large number of stackable chairs that can be set out for worship services, and thanks to a recent donation, 10 to 15 tables with chairs that used to be in the dining room at the Beaver Dam Culvers restaurant.

The idea is we want to set it up like a coffee house and maybe do coffee nights in the future, Jeremy said. Our future is youth nights. We want to have stuff for the youth to come do.

Exactly where the coffee house portion of the room will be and how it will be integrated into the church service portion of the space is yet to be determined.

We might end up having to maneuver stuff around, but were a laid back, relaxed congregation, Jeremy said.

In the beginning

The Crossroads got its start in Columbus in 2013, as a church plant from Johnson Creek. After moving into town, the Rolls looked at the needs in the community and decided one of The Crossroads missions would be to offer free hygiene products to people who were struggling economically.

The idea was food pantries dont provide hygiene products, and you cant buy hygiene products with your Food Share, Jeremy said.

Then Second Harvest contacted The Crossroads about partnering with them to offer food, as well.

Now the pantry offers both, including meat and dairy products and whatever else gets donated that it can pass along to clients.

The pantry is open Mondays from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., Thursdays from 9 to 11 a.m. and the first Saturday of every month from 9 to 11 a.m.

Anyone in need is welcome to just show up at any time during those hours  no appointment necessary, Jody said. First timers are asked to bring along proof of address and ID, but the pantry is open to all with no restrictions.

The pantry typically serves about 400 people a month, although traffic has dropped a bit in recent weeks.

I like to think that the economy is getting better, but I think its more construction-related, Jeremy said. But the people that really need help, they find a way and theyre here.

Stocking the shelves

The Crossroads is able to keep its shelves stocked with the help of some generous donations. The organization recently won $1,000 from Old National Bank, in a contest in which Columbus area residents were asked to vote for their favorite charity.

The organization has also gotten support from WalMart, Kwik Trip, Sentry and Pick n Save, among others, over the years.

WalMart is the best organization Ive ever seen for grants, said Jeremy, who works nights at the Beaver Dam distribution center. As an employee, he is able to take advantage of the companys Volunteerism Always Pays program, in which the company will donate $250 up to five times a year to non-profits that its workers donate their time to.

Donations and volunteers are always welcome, the Rolls said. Hygiene items are especially appreciated because The Crossroads has to pay full price for those items, unlike food, which it can generally get at a discount. And clients often come to The Crossroads specifically because they know they can get hygiene items there.

Most needed right now are toilet paper, bar soap, dish soap, all-purpose cleaner, toothpaste, garbage bags, deodorant and shampoo.
An explosion of the zebra mussel population in Lake Mendota this year could mean more foul-smelling shoreline slime and repeats of the major fish kill and vast bloom of toxic bacteria that hit Madisons lakes already this summer, experts say.

Farm pollution is the main driver of this months surprisingly severe water quality woes, but the invasive mollusks now covering much of Lake Mendotas bottom arent going to help matters.

Weve been shocked to see how many there are, said Jake Vander Zanden, UW-Madisons top expert on zebra mussels. Its a transformation of the ecosystem.

For the first time since the little mollusks were found in Lake Mendota in 2015, it is clear they are thriving, said Vander Zanden, an aquatic biologist at the UW Center for Limnology.

The transplant from Europe took hold in many other U.S. lakes in the 1990s. Because zebra mussels were so late to become established here, researchers hoped there was something about Madison waters inhospitable to them, Vander Zanden said.

Like green cotton candy

Zebra mussels change a lake by filtering food from water, which makes water clearer so that additional sunlight reaches the bottom. The sunlight, along with nutrients mussels excrete on the bottom, spur plant growth and the potential for more dead vegetation washing up and decomposing in smelly piles on shores, Vander Zanden said.

This year divers are finding a typical zebra mussel by-product  bottom-clinging mats of algae that look like green cotton candy  all over Lake Mendota, he said.

The zebra mussels appetite also threatens to worsen the hazardous bacterial blooms that cause beach closings, and which killed large numbers of fish last week.

Zebra mussels dont eat much of the toxic cyanobacteria  commonly called blue-green algae  that can sicken or kill animals and humans. But the mussels do consume just about everything else, eliminating organisms that otherwise compete with the bacteria for food. That could mean larger and more frequent bacterial outbreaks, Vander Zanden said.

Like the unnatural growths of weeds and algae that limit recreational use in hundreds of Wisconsin lakes, the bright green cyanobacteria blooms are products of steadily warming weather and largely unchecked runoff of farm pollutants into state waters, he said.

There isnt a practical way of eliminating zebra mussels, so their growth adds urgency to the issues of the warming climate of pollution from farms.

The thing aside from climate change thats most in our power to control is the nutrient input, Vander Zanden said. But whatever were doing, its not working.

Under state law, farmers are offered financial incentives to limit runoff, and especially large farms must submit plans for spreading manure on fields. Opponents of stricter regulations say there are technical difficulties in regulating runoff, but conservationists say those could be overcome if politicians were willing get tougher with the powerful agriculture industry.

Vander Zanden said he hopes the recent large-scale bacterial bloom was a wake-up call for Madison residents who witnessed it and its aftermath.

June 16  cause for concern

Vander Zanden and limnology center director Stephen Carpenter said the bloom that formed on Lake Mendota on June 16 was the worst such outbreak in decades.

Carpenter said he was shocked to see the bright green hue stretching as far as he could see from his second floor office on Lake Mendotas south shore.

The stage was set for the outbreak by above-average rainfall this year washing nutrients into the lake, Carpenter said.

The bloom appeared as the water warmed and there was little wind or wave action to disperse the bacteria and mix them into deeper water, Carpenter said.

Under those conditions they can rise and become highly concentrated near the surface, where too much sun begins to kill them, creating broad scummy expanses. Decomposition of the organisms robs the water of oxygen and kills fish, Carpenter said.

The state Department of Natural Resources released little information except to say several dozen fish were involved. Madison closed several beaches.

The bright-colored water flowed out of Lake Mendota and carried dead and dying fish down the Yahara River and into Lake Monona. Carpenter said the river became a dead zone.

Limnology center scientists on the scene said they saw bluegills  which typically dont break the surface of the water  rising up to gasp for breath, while invertebrates like crayfish emerged from the river and died.

Based on what he saw from a bridge over the Yahara on June 18, Vander Zanden estimated that thousands of walleye, pike, bluegill and other fish were killed.

I would have a hard time putting a number on it, but it was not dozens of fish, he said. It had to have been in the thousands.

A steady stream of dead fish were floated down the river and there were many spots where between 20 and 50 of them were hung up among rocks near the waters edge, he said.

Carpenter said that by June 19 the wind had mixed most of the dead and dying cyanobacteria back into the lake water.

Next time we have a week to 10 days of hot weather we may see another bloom, he said. It is pretty early in the summer, and I would be surprised if this was the last bloom of 2017.

People who came in contact with the water could have developed skin rashes or symptoms of food poisoning, Carpenter said.

The 16 beaches monitored by Public Health Madison and Dane County were closed between 70 and 120 times per summer between 2012 and 2016. There have been 34 closures this year.
By Press Trust of India: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jun 24 (PTI) The US has said that it has not taken a decision yet on the future of the office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan amid reports that the crucial post created under the previous Obama administration was being scrapped.

"The Secretary (of State Rex Tillerson) has not made a decision about the future of the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told PTI.

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With the appreciation of the US Department of State, Acting SRAP Laurel Miller completed her detail to the Department from the Rand Corporation on June 23, she said.

"The Department will maintain the Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs Offices, which currently report to the Office of the Special Representative, to address policy concerns and our bilateral relationship with these two key countries," Nauert said in response to a question.

With respect to the broader issue of special representatives, Nauert referred to the remarks of Tillerson during his recent testimony to the House Appropriations Committee on Foreign Operations.

"We have over 70 specials envoys, special representatives, special ambassadors...one of the things we want to understand is...did we actually weaken our attention to those issues, because the expertise for a lot of these areas lies within the bureaus, and now weve stripped it out of the bureau," Tillerson had said during the Congressional hearing.

The office of the Special Representatives of Afghanistan and Pakistan was created by former US President Barack Obama during the first few weeks of his Administration in 2009.

Late American diplomat Richard Holbrook was the first occupant to this once high-profile office, which drove the Af-Pak policy of the Obama administration. PTI LKJ ASK ASK

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By Press Trust of India: London, Jun 24 (PTI) Toxins produced by fungus growing on the wallpapers in our home can contaminate the air and be easily inhaled, leading to "sick building syndrome," a new study has found.

The sick building syndrome (SBS) is used to describe a situation in which the occupants of a building experience acute health-related effects that seem to be linked directly to the time spent in the building.

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"We demonstrated that mycotoxins could be transferred from a mouldy material to air, under conditions that may be encountered in buildings," said Jean-Denis Bailly, Professor at National Veterinary School of Toulouse in France.

"Thus, mycotoxins can be inhaled and should be investigated as parameters of indoor air quality, especially in homes with visible fungal contamination," said Baily.

The impetus for the study was the dearth of data on the health risk from mycotoxins produced by fungi growing indoors.

Researchers built an experimental bench that can simulate an airflow over a piece of contaminated wall paper, controlling speed and direction of the air. Then they analysed the resulting bioaerosol.

"Most of the airborne toxins are likely to be located on fungal spores, but we also demonstrated that part of the toxic load was found on very small particles - dust or tiny fragments of wallpaper, that could be easily inhaled," said Bailly.

The researchers used three fungal species in their study: Penicillium brevicompactum, Aspergillus versicolor and Stachybotrys chartarum.

These species, long studied as sources of food contaminants, also "are frequent indoor contaminants," said Bailly.

They produce different mycotoxins, and their mycelia are different from one another, likely leading to differences in the quantity of mycotoxins they loft into the air.

Mycelia are the thread-like projections of fungi that seek nutrition and water from the environment.

Bailly noted that the push for increasingly energy efficient homes may aggravate the problem of mycotoxins indoors.

Such homes "are strongly isolated from the outside to save energy," but various water-using appliances such as coffee makers "could lead to favourable conditions for fungal growth," he said.

"The presence of mycotoxins in indoors should be taken into consideration as an important parameter of air quality," Bailly concluded.

The study was published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. PTI MHN SAR MHN

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Police in Knoxville, Tenn., are looking for a 15-year-old boy who reportedly shot and killed two teens from Southwest Michigan.

Rico "Little Rico" Cook, 15, has two first degree murder, one attempted first degree murder and three especially aggravated robbery warrants on file for his arrest.

The shooting happened around 1:25 p.m. Thursday during a planned drug deal of marijuana on Joe Lewis Road, police said.

The victims have been identified as Sergio Rivera and Jaloen Morris, both 18 of Decatur. Police said the two went to Knoxville for the drug deal.

Damien Lee, 16, of Knoxville, was injured.

When officers arrived, they found three men who had been shot multiple times. One of the victims was dead inside a vehicle.

The other victims were taken to a local hospital for treatment, where one of the men later died.

A second suspect, Deon Nolbert, 17, was arrested Thursday night, according to our sister station

in Knoxville.

He was charged with two counts of first degree murder, one count of attempted first degree murder, and three counts of especially aggravated robbery.

Full news release from the Knoxville Police Department:




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John Chan, owner of Chan's Fine Oriental Dining on Main St. in Woonsocket, right, celebrates 106 years in business with his brother Bill Chan, of Lincoln, left, and his 86 year -old mother Ethel Chan, of Woonsocket during the anniversary party at Chan's in 2011. .Family and friends gathered for the celebration, which included a performance by the Juke Joint Blues Band. The original Chan's opened in 1905. Mrs. Chan died Tuesday after suffering a stroke at age 91.
A giant gorilla is taking internet by storm after Dallas Zoo released a footage of Zola the gorilla dancing in a kiddie pool.

By India Today Web Desk: You don't mess with a gorilla, never. But you can certainly enjoy a show where a gorilla is dancing in a pool. And while it does so, it just seems so harmless.

The moves include some splashy dance tricks by Zola the gorilla at Dallas Zoo in the US.

A video of an otherwise hard-boiled gorilla dancing in a kiddie pool is indeed shocking. Dallas Zoo released the video this week of the 14-year-old Western Lowland gorilla dancing in a kiddie pool and the footage has been doing rounds on the internet ever since, with already a million views on it.

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"Zola's "dancing" is really just a play behavior (there was no breakdance music playing in the building, we promise)," the Dallas Zoo said in a news release.

Watch Zola the gorilla in action as it claims the dance floor:

After the original video went viral, a Twitter user added music to the original video and the result is, EPIC!

I added some music to this. pic.twitter.com/UwjhTKpaeu- Bob Hagh (@BobHagh) June 22, 2017

It is not the first time Zola has hit headlines. In 2011, the gorilla was filmed breakdancing at the Calgary Zoo in Canada.

FYI || Pakistan: Karachi man takes out his pet lioness in the back of his pickup truck ||

FYI || Tourists in Bali are eating dog meat in the name of chicken and they have no idea about it ||

FYI || High on drug, Aussie man tries to have sex with crocodile, goes missing ||

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Wrexham AM Shows Support For Armed Forces Day

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Jun 24th, 2017

Wrexhams Assembly Member Lesley Griffiths has shown her support for Armed Forces Day.

The event, which offers the chance for people to show their support and salute the forces for all they do, takes place today.

Local AM Lesley Griffiths is a long-time supporter of the event and said: Wrexham has a proud military tradition and Armed Forces Day provides the ideal opportunity for people to pay their respect and show their support to our military personnel.

The men and women who serve or have served in the Armed Forces often sacrifice so much for our freedom so it is vital we show our gratitude and recognise the vital contribution the armed forces community make to our country.

Events are taking place across the country and Wrexhams Armed Forces Flag is flying high above the Guildhall until Sunday 25th June.

Since its launch in 2006, Armed Forces Day has been a huge success, providing the opportunity to raise awareness of the contribution made by those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces. It also offers the general public a chance to say thank you to the men and women who make up the Armed Forces community: from currently serving troops to Service families, veterans and cadets.
Following the beginning of the Brexit talks at the start of this past week, the European Unions (EU) member states are moving rapidly to transform the bloc into a military and defence union. At the center of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday in Brussels were far-reaching measures aimed at militarisation at home and abroad.

Among other things, it was agreed to establish comprehensive and ambitious Permanent Security Cooperation (PESCO) for the strengthening of European security and defence. Within three months, the governments will finalise a joint list with criteria and obligations, together with concrete capability projects, according to the European Councils official website. This would also include missions with the highest requirements, meaning military interventions with European combat units.

Already at the beginning of the month, the EU agreed to establish a joint command centre for civilian and military operations and provide the European Commission with a multi-billion euro defence fund. A summit paper entitled Conclusions of the European Council on security and defence welcomed this step and expects its swift utilisation. The goal is to build a competitive, innovative [] European defence industry.

The aim of the measures is to develop the EU into an aggressive great power capable, when required, to intervene militarily and wage war independently of NATO and the United States.

A Reflection Paper on the future of European Defence, published by the European Commission on 7 June, states, Europeans themselves are above all responsible for the improvement of European security. The resources are actually available: taken together, the military spending of the European powers is the second highest in the world [] although cooperation with our partners will remain the norm and the preferred solution for the EU, we should also be able to act alone when necessary.

Europes military build up is therefore being measured against the fighting capabilities of the United States. EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said at a joint press conference with EU Council President Donald Tusk, The defence fund is necessary. We have in Europe 130 types of weapon systems whereas the US has 30. We have in Europe 17 types of tanks whereas the US has 1. We are spending half of the military budget of the US, but our efficiency is 15 percent So there is room for improvement, and that is what we have decided today.

The rapid militarisation of Europe is being pushed above all by the German and French governments. That is real added value we have agreed upon, enthused German Chancellor Angela Merkel in response to the defence plan reached in Brussels. Because it puts us in a position to be able to carry out missions for example in Africa, where we will not only consider the military aspect, but also incorporate the possibilities for political solutions and development cooperation.

Newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron described the decisions as historic. For years and years there has not been any progress on defence, there has been one today, he told reporters. At the same time, he noted the importance of the Paris-Berlin axis for the reorganisation of the EU. We will work hand in hand with Germany, he said.

At the end of the summit, Merkel and Macron put on a united front for the media by arranging a joint press conference. Merkel described the summit as a council of assurance and energy. Macron declared, Europe is our best defence given the global challenges. The French president obviously did not mean by this Russia, against which the EU extended its sanctions by six months, but the United States. With an eye on Donald Trumps announcement of a US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change, Macron stated that there was strong support for the deal.

The EU representatives could also not resist a swipe at British Prime Minister Theresa May, who barely played a part in the summit. My first impression is that the first offer from the United Kingdom falls short of our expectations, said Tusk on the proposal from May on the rights of EU citizens after Brexit.

Concessions to London are unacceptable to Berlin and Brussels because they would only accelerate the break up of the EU under conditions of deepening political and economic conflicts on the continent. Not everyone is satisfied with the German-French leadership duo, wrote the Suddeutsche Zeitung. The Eastern European Vysehrad states once again refused to accept any refugees, and there is allegedly dissent on trade policy. While the Netherlands, Ireland and others are advocates of free trade, Macron is calling for protectionist measures and a Europe which protects.

As the reactionary character of the EU becomes ever clearer, the propaganda from the ruling class to mobilise support for it becomes more absurd. In an interview published prior to the summit in a number of leading European newspapers, Macron claimed that Europe had a special role in the defence of freedom and democracy. Democracy emerged on our continent, Macron said. The US, like us, loves freedombut it does not share our sense of justice.

Macron knows very well that the capitalist Europe does not create justice and peace, but, like the capitalist United States, is a breeding ground for nationalism, social counterrevolution, police state measures and war. The austerity measures dictated by the EU have laid waste to entire countries like Greece and plunged millions into poverty. The brutal attack on refugees by the policy of Fortress Europe, which was strengthened in Brussels, has transformed the Mediterranean into a mass grave. In France, Macrons cabinet extended the state of emergency on Thursday and is preparing major attacks on the working class.

The propaganda about a peaceful European power is exposed above all by the fact that it is precisely German militarism, which twice left the continent in ruins during the 20th century, that is once again on the rise and seeking to organise Europe. Berlin views Brexit, the mounting Transatlantic tensions and cooperation with the new French government as a unique opportunity to expand its economic and political predominance in Europe, and increasingly dominate militarily.

None of us want to take our own special national road, not Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic or Italy, said Hans-Peter Bartels, the parliamentary ombudsman for the armed forces, prior to the summit. The policy of small military states had to be abandoned and the European part of NATO organised, he continued. In the end, there will be a European army, proclaimed Bartels. To this end, every step in the right direction [is] important.

Germanys defence ministry is working on concrete plans to establish the German army as a anchor army for NATOs European members, whose armies are to be heavily armed and integrated into the command and control structures of Germany. Germany, Romania and the Czech Republic signed cooperation agreements for closer collaboration between their armed forces in February. The Dutch army has already integrated almost two thirds of its units into German army command structures. On Wednesday, the German cabinet sealed an agreement with Norway for the building of new submarines.
Albertas New Democratic Party (NDP) government was forced to hastily release a consultancy report into its handling of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire earlier this month. The move came after CBC indicated it had obtained a leaked copy of the review, which harshly criticized the way Rachel Notleys government dealt with the blaze.

The wildfire entered Fort McMurray, a town at the heart of Albertas tar sands operations, on May 3, 2016, and forced some 90,000 people from their homes. Over the following days, around 10 percent of the town was destroyed in the flames, while tens of thousands of people remained stranded to the north of the city. The fire took the lives of two young peopleEmily Ryan, aged 15, and Aaron Hodgson, aged 19who died in a highway crash as they fled Fort McMurray.

The report from consulting firm MNP bluntly warns that government inaction means Albertans confront the threat of an even bigger catastrophe. Unless more is done to combat the threat posed by wildfires, the public can expect similar or worse outcomes on a more frequent basis, says the report.

Despite this stark prediction, which is hardly surprising given the repeated warnings issued by climate scientists over the past decade about the growing wildfire threat, the Notley government had been sitting on the report since March and only released it to avert a public relations disaster.

The reality is that the Fort McMurray disaster could have been significantly mitigated, if not prevented entirely. Successive provincial governments, led by the Progressive Conservatives and the NDP, with the full backing of federal Liberal and Conservative governments, encouraged the unchecked expansion of Albertas tar sands industry with virtually no regard to the safety and well-being of the workers whose labour secured multi-billion profits for the major oil corporations.

Fort McMurray, located in the middle of the boreal forest and hundreds of miles away from other major towns, saw its population more than treble from 1990 to 2014. Yet there remained only one highway out of the city to the south and in spite of repeated warnings, no effort had been made to establish fire-breaks around the town by removing trees and other vegetation.

Critical public services, including health, education, and social services, as well as wildfire preparedness, were starved of cash, so as to offer a low-tax environment for the enrichment of the corporate elite. Incredibly, less than two weeks before the wildfire engulfed Fort McMurray, the NDP announced $15 million in cuts to the wildfire management budget.

In stark contrast to this, the ruling class deemed the oil facilities located close by valuable enough to be equipped with hi-tech firefighting equipment, including specially-trained teams, and fire-breaks of more than a kilometer in width. It is therefore no accident that virtually no significant, long-term damage occurred to the oil drilling facilities during the fire.

The indifference shown by the ruling elite to the lives of tens of thousands of Fort McMurray residents was illustrated in another report from KPMG Consulting also released by the NDP at a June 8 press conference. It examined the overall emergency response, noting that residents of Fort McMurray were told by officials during an 11 AM, May 3, news conference that evacuation was a long way off. But just a couple of hours later, everyone was told to evacuate the burning town. The report outlined how people on social media saw residents' postings as to what parts of the town were burning and started running to inform and help their neighbours escape. Many shared all available space in their vehicles with strangers as getting out quickly had become critical.

The report said the relative young age of Fort McMurray's population, not government preparedness or action, was the major reason the death toll was not substantially higher. Ultimately the success of the evacuation during the wildfire was largely due to the young demographics of the community, and how the community rallied together.

The reports point to rudimentary emergency-planning failures. The two regional authorities engaged in fighting the two fires that broke out May 1and this in a part of Alberta where the risk of wildfires is highcould not even communicate directly with one another. The rushed evacuation of Fort McMurray occurred because one fire chief failed to inform his colleagues in the Wood Buffalo municipality about the fire's rapid progress. Firefighters also lacked the ability to communicate with water bomber aircraft helping fight the flames, so they had to resort to physically signaling where the water should be dropped.

The MNP report said the fire was complex, with shifting winds changing the situation rapidly. Nonetheless, the report stated: There is limited evidence that contingency plans were being developed and implemented during the first 36 hours aimed at providing opportunities to contain or minimize damage as the wildfire approached the community.

In the wake of the fire, the NDP increased the length of its contracts with the companies providing water bomber aircraft to 120 days due to strong public criticism of a previous move to cut them to just 90 days per year.

But the 2017 wildfire management budget remains a paltry $133 million. This is part of the NDPs overall austerity policy aimed at offloading the provinces economic crisis onto working people while ensuring that Big Oil and the corporate elite continue to enjoy the so-called Alberta advantage Canadas lowest overall rate of taxation.

The year since the disaster has been a tough one for Fort McMurrays residents. Many have been diagnosed with respiratory problems, PTSD, anxiety, and depression. There is widespread concern about the environmental effects of the flame retardant chemicals sprayed in the town and the impact of smoke and water damage on residents homes, which the government declared fit to live in less than a month after the inferno. The province has done next to nothing to deal with this public health emergency. The Medical Officer of Health, which monitors health complaints, denies the existence of any spikes in respiratory problems.

Local doctors and health care professionals tell another story. Dr. Ghassan Al-Naami, a pediatrician who worked in Fort McMurray before moving to Edmonton in January told Metro he definitely saw more kids with respiratory issues after the fire and said more study is needed. Social media support groups for those ill as a result of the smoke and flames have sprung up on Facebook. Dr. Emmanuel Osebue, a family physician who has practiced in Fort McMurray for a decade, told Metro that the demand for mental-health services among his patients is up by about 25 percent, including among children.

Research based on the consequences of wildfires that burnt through homes and communities in California suggests such blazes leave a threatening legacy of caustic ash and toxic heavy metals. "There's no doubt, it is hazardous," Scott Stephens, a fire scientist at the University of California-Berkeley, told CBC. The US Geological Survey found ash left after California's home-destroying wildfires in 2007 and 2008 was far more alkaline than ash from wood fires. Mixed with water, the ash was almost as caustic as oven cleaner. It was also significantly contaminated with metals, some of them toxic. Arsenic, lead, antimony, copper, zinc and chromium were all found at levels exceeding US Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

Prior to Fort McMurray, Alberta's worst experience with a forest fire destroying homes came in Slave Lake, where more than 400 homes and other buildings were razed in 2011, about one-quarter the number that burned down in Fort McMurray. Unlike the fire in Fort McMurray, authorities disposed of the ash from the Slave Lake fire as hazardous waste. Tests of the ash found lead, a powerful neurotoxin especially dangerous to children, was three times the recommended levels for residential soils. Dioxins and furans, some of which are highly potent carcinogens, were anywhere from 13 to 52 times the recommended levels.

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Canadian capitalism and the Fort McMurray wildfire

[10 May 2016]
On Monday, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP-Germany) presented its program for the upcoming federal election at a meeting in Berlins district of Schoneberg. The next SEP election meeting will take place this Saturday in Duisburg.

Christoph Vandreier opened the Berlin meeting by explaining the importance of a socialist response to the capitalist crisis. Vandreier is deputy chairman of the SEP and its direct candidate for the election in the constituency of Tempelhof-Schoneberg.

150 years after the publication of Karl Marxs Capital, the Marxist analysis has been confirmed, Vandreier said. It is increasingly clear that only the struggle for socialism can prevent world war and put an end to horrendous levels of social inequality.

This was nowhere more apparent than in the US. A government of billionaires, generals, and right-wing extremists is aggressively attacking the working class and promoting militarism. The ruling class is united in this respect. The Democrats criticise the Trump administration for being inadequately aggressive in pursuing war against Russia. This confirms that Trump is not some sort of aberration, but rather that he embodies the decline of American capitalism, which is seeking to maintain its position as a world power through wars abroad and attacks on social rights at home, Vandreier said.

The ruling class in Germany has reacted by pursuing its own plans for massive rearmament and seeking to dominate Europe in order to play the role of a world power. Vandreier then went on to substantiate this with statistics and commentaries and concluded: The government is using Brexit and the election of Trump to expand German dominance in Europe and build up a European army under German leadership.

The return of German militarism awakens the ghosts of the past. The ruling elite is reacting to the crisis of the capitalist system as it did in the 1930s. They are planning and carrying out military interventions, inciting nationalism, and strengthening the states oppressive apparatus in preparation for social upheaval. The war policy and growing social inequality are directly linked. Both are the expression of a bankrupt social system.

To demonstrate this, Vandreier cited the devastating fire at Londons Grenfell Tower, which has an official death toll of nearly 100. In order to guarantee the property prices of luxury villas in the neighbourhood and save just 5,000 pounds, lives of ordinary workers and their families had been sacrificed. This is nothing more than mass murder. This is social vandalism, Vandreier stressed.

The inferno in London was a product of the enormous social inequality which prevails across the continent. It is just not the case of London or Greece. In Germany, rates of exploitation, low-wage labor and underemployment are increasing. Vandreier noted that the horrendous development of social inequality could only be properly explained by a Marxist analysis. It is a manifestation of a social system that is completely irrational and which offers the great majority of the population nothing but war, social attacks and dictatorship.

This development was leading to resistance from the working class. We see our task as giving this opposition a voice and a socialist perspective. Not a single social problem could be solved without breaking the power of the rich and the oligarchs.

The independent political intervention of the working class is necessary. Banks and big corporations must be expropriated and placed under the democratic control of the population. Only in this way can the wealth of society be used for the needs of people rather than maximising profit, Vandreier said.

The SEP is the only party to put forward such a program. All the other parties defend capitalism, militarism and inequality. The SPD and Greens are justly despised as parties which introduced the anti-social Hartz IV policies and led the drive to war. The Left Party is prostrating itself and offering its services to both parties to secure them a ruling majority at the election: All of the Left Partys rhetoric about peace and social justice merely serves to prevent a movement against capitalism.

Just as before WWI and WWII, the Marxists alone opposed war, Vandreier declared, referring to the Marxist opposition in the SPD, the role of the Bolshevik Party in leading the October revolution and the struggle by Trotskyists to establish a united front against Hitler. Today it is only the SEP that embodies this tradition. Now as then, only a socialist revolution can prevent war, he concluded.

His contribution was followed by a lively discussion, in which questions were raised about the SEPs program, the perspective of revolution, and the fight against right-wing extremism. One of the speakers in the discussion was the editor of the German WSWS, Peter Schwarz.

He said, We explain that only a mass movement of the working class can overthrow capitalism. And without overthrowing capitalism, without breaking the stranglehold of the hedge funds, bankers and multimillionaires over society, you cannot change anything.

This perspective is based on objective developments, Schwarz explained. If a ruling class is so degenerate that a man like Trump can enter the White House, then society is ready for revolution. There will undoubtedly be fierce class struggles. And we want to give them an orientation.

For their part, figures like Jeremy Corbyn in Great Britain, or Bernie Sanders in the US, want to prevent an independent movement of the working class developing against capitalism. The bankruptcy of this perspective is reflected in Corbyns refusal to call to account the people responsible for the Grenfell Tower catastrophe. Instead, he merely calls on the government to pay towards the funeral expenses of the victims, Schwarz said.

A revolutionary movement can only be built against these tendencies, and the SEP is fighting in the working class for an understanding of its role as a revolutionary and international class, Schwarz said. That is why we vehemently oppose xenophobia directed against immigrants and refugees.

Discussion continued at the book table. Many participants donated towards the SEP campaign and signed the form necessary to permit the party to take part in this autumns election.
Negotiations continue between Theresa Mays crisis-ridden Conservative government and Northern Irelands far right Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) on terms for a formal coalition or a confidence and supply deal to pass key items of legislation.

By the time of the May governments Queens Speech, agreement remained only, in the words of the prime ministers newly appointed deputy, Damian Green, a possibilitywith the Tories resisting DUP demands for billions for Northern Ireland infrastructure and health spending, as well as increased arms spending.

May seeking a governing relationship with the DUPs 10 MPs is the only way she can form a majority government, but it is reckless in the extreme.

Former Conservative Prime Minister John Major said Northern Irelands peace process should not be regarded as a given. Its not certain, its under stress, its fragile.

Major warned, referring to paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland, hard men are still there, lurking in the corners of communities deciding whether they wish to return to some sort of violence.

Writing in the Financial Times, Labours Jonathan Powell, one of the leading negotiators of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which brought three decades of the Troubles to a close, explained that, in his view, since 1990, the British government has been neutral in Northern Ireland, backing neither the unionists or the nationalists. If May depends on the DUP to form a British government, then that government cannot be neutral on the current negotiations to revive the Northern Ireland Assembly, suspended since early this year, he said. Failure will catapult Northern Ireland into a serious crisis and back onto our front pages, where it has been happily absent for 20 years.

Aside from such official concern, a petition describing Mays collusion with the DUP as a disgusting, desperate attempt to stay in power and pointing to the DUPs long association with loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland attracted over 750,000 signatures before being presented to 10 Downing Street.

The DUP is indelibly associated with its founder and arch demagogue, the Reverend Ian Paisley.

In October 1966, the Newsletter, newspaper of the Socialist Labour League, the British section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, described Paisley as an extreme Protestant fanatic who is building the nearest thing to a mass fascist movement in Western Europe.

The Newsletter explained that Northern Ireland was in deep crisis, with the economic basis of the Northern Irish six-county state established through the partition of Ireland in 1921-22 coming under intense pressure. Partition was imposed by the wealthy Protestant Ulster-based capitalists to defend their industrial interests from the revolutionary threat posed by the working class by carving off the industrial North and imposing sectarian divisions by pogrom and systematic religious discrimination against the Catholic minority.

By the 1960s the large concentrations of industry around Belfast and Derry, resting on a highly organised but religiously polarised working class, were increasingly vulnerable to international competition. This expressed in a particularly acute form the bankrupt and outmoded character of much of British industry.

The Northern Ireland premier, Terence ONeill of the Ulster Unionist Party, sought to overcome the isolated character of industry by exploring links with the Catholic-dominated Republic of Ireland in the south, which was beginning to attract significant international investment. Paisley, speaking through his Protestant Telegraph, denounced ONeill as a tool of the Vatican and mobilised support among sections of Protestants, particularly rural and middle-class layers, as well as workers.

The Newsletter explained that the future of Paisleys movement depends both on the depth of the struggles aroused by the crisis, its capacity to enrage and provoke these social classes to violent solutions as they are squeezed between the monopolies and the mass of the workers, and on the decisions by more powerful sections of capital and the establishment to finance and encourage such a plebian solution to the threat from the working class.

The article continued, The immediate problem is heightened by the great militancy of the Dublin working class in the last two years. A series of violent unofficial strikes has been met with new legislation from the government of Lemass [Sean Lemass, Fianna Fail Taoiseach] and has raised again the spectre of a fighting unity of the workers of all Ireland.

Paisley, the Newsletter explained, found some measure of mass response because he put forward the most extreme version of the established system of prejudice and discrimination. By insisting on the religious truths of Protestantism, as interpreted exclusively (among the living that is) by Paisley himself, Paisley builds up an ideological barrage against the socialist movement which is the only salvation of the working class in every country.

In 1969, the British Labour government sent in thousands of troops to guard capitalism in Northern Ireland. The SLL stated, Every working class organisation throughout the length and breadth of Britain must act now, to force the immediate withdrawal of all troops and all support for ONeills government.

The SLL statement went on, The real threat to the Unionist government is, of course, not the sporadic bomb attacks, which they want to use as a pretext for armed intervention, but the mighty upsurge of the workers movement. Their nightmare is that this will unite with the mounting militancy of the workers of Eire, and the struggle of trade unionists in Britain against the Labour government.

The central purpose of the subsequent British deployment of tens of thousands of troops and the monstrous security/intelligence/spy apparatus was to head off this threat. This applies equally to the loyalist organisations and parties, who saw, and see, closer relations with Dublin as a threat to the middle class interests they represent.

The DUP was founded in 1971 as an extension of Paisleys Ulster Protestant Volunteers and the Free Presbyterian church. In 1973, the DUP was part of the Ulster Unionist Coalition (UUUC) set up to oppose the terms of the Sunningdale power-sharing agreement between the British government, the leading unionist and nationalist parties in Northern Ireland and the Irish government.

Throughout the decades of the Troubles, the party grew as the most consistent mouthpiece for loyalism.

The DUP was the only one of Northern Irelands major parties which opposed the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The agreement largely ended armed conflict in the North by laying the basis for Sinn Fein to join the Stormont Assembly, under complex sectarian power-sharing arrangements intended to create economic and political stability while still ensuring the continued religious division of the working class.

Reflecting the long-standing loss of influence by the once powerful Ulster capitalists bound up with the destruction of heavy industry, the agreement amounted to a joint unionist and republican effort, overseen by the British and Irish governments, to attract globally mobile investment. The agreement allowed the British Army to be largely removed from Northern Ireland and deployed internationally.

The DUP denounced the agreement as a capitulation and betrayal to Rome and the IRA and set out to displace the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), through being the most trenchantly sectarian party in Stormont.

By 2005, the tactic paid off, when the DUP eclipsed the UUP as the largest unionist party. Having secured pole position, the DUP sought the most favourable terms under the St Andrews Agreement of 2006, orchestrated by the British and US governments. Paisley famously agreed to share government with Sinn Fein, in return for Sinn Fein offering full support to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the former Royal Ulster Constabulary, while the IRA wound up their operations.

The two parties entered power in Stormont in 2007 with Paisley and Sinn Feins late Martin McGuiness as respectively First and Deputy First ministers.

Over the subsequent decade both parties happily collaborated in the imposition of the austerity demanded by capitalism against the working class, scrabbled to service the interests of the rival sections of the increasingly wealthy upper middle-class layers for whom they speak while carefully maintaining sectarian tensions. Peter Robinson replaced Paisley as First Minister until a succession of investment-related corruption scandals undermined support for him. His replacement was his close ally, Arlene Foster, currently First Minister of the suspended Northern Ireland Executive.

The Northern Ireland Assembly is presently suspended ostensibly over Sinn Feins objections to the DUPs role in a corruption scandal, but matters were in fact brought to a head over Brexit.

Fosters DUP campaigned for Brexit, Sinn Fein to Remain, and Northern Ireland voted by a substantial 56 to 44 percent to remain in the European Union.

Despite its pro-Brexit position, the DUP is forced to recognise that Northern Ireland is one of the areas of Britain most exposed to economic fallout from leaving the European Union. Considerable press coverage has focused on the complexities of finding a means for Northern Ireland to leave the EU along with the rest of the UK, while avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. The border, established by partition and, during the Troubles, policed by hundreds of British troops and helicopters, is today almost invisible and traversed daily by thousands of travelers, commuters and truckers, reflecting the advanced state of the islands economic integration. While all parties claim to want to avoid a hard border, no clear means has been established for this to be done while the line of partition is an external border of the EU.

The DUPs current policy, it seems, is simply to extract as much as possible from the British government to offset the economically catastrophic impact from Brexit, while maintaining Northern Irelands position in the UK. For Sinn Fein, Brexit has been seized on to push, with backing from both the Irish government and the EU itself, for a new border poll on Northern Irelands continued membership of the UK. The European Council, as part of an aggressive response to the UK, indicated that, were Northern Ireland to vote to rejoin the Irish Republic, it would be recognised as part of the EU.

Neither option has the slightest progressive content and both contain the inevitability of some form of intensified sectarian conflict. The situation is fraught with dangers for the working class. As in the 1960s, but in far more advanced conditions, the key to workers advancing their own interests is the development of an independent and unified political movement in Ireland, North and South, seeking socialism in Ireland and Britain as a part of the United Socialist States of Europe.
When the list is drawn up of those criminally responsible for the Grenfell Tower fire in London, Boris Johnsons name should be at the top.

The former mayor of London (2008-2016) recently condemned what he described as political game-playing over the inferno in west London that claimed the lives of at least 79 people. Suggestions that this tragedy was somehow caused by fire service cuts were unbelievable, he declared.

Johnson spoke as a video clip from 2013 became widely viewed on YouTube. In it he is seen telling a Labour Party London Assembly member to get stuffed when he accuses Johnson of lying over the scale and consequences of cuts to the London Fire Brigade (LFB).

Now foreign secretary, Johnson styles himself as the enfant-terrible of the Conservative Party. His famed outbursts, however, have nothing to do with unorthodoxy or plain speaking.

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, as he is more properly known, epitomises the class arrogance and social privilege of Britains upper-middle class. This is a man whose experience with the lower classes extends only to giving orders.

If Johnson is reacting so defensively, it is because in his capacity as mayor he forced through massive cuts in the LFB budget despite repeated warnings they would cost lives.

The London fire service is the fifth largest in the world and covers a metropolitan area of nearly 14 million peoplethe most populous in the European Union. In addition to firefighting, it responds to emergency situations, including traffic accidents and terror incidents, of which there have been three in the capital in the last four months.

Johnson took a sledgehammer to this vital provision. In 2012, he brought forward proposed cuts of 65 million, amounting to a 15 percent reduction in the LFBs 448 million annual budget. In words that should be branded on his forehead, he justified this on the grounds of the declining number of fire deaths.

Due to opposition on the London Assembly, Johnson ordered the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA), which consists of 17 mayoral appointees, to begin consultations on the plan. Ninety-four percent of those consulted opposed the cuts, but their views were rejected as supposedly unrepresentative of the views of all Londoners. Instead, the number of stations and engines to be lost was reduced slightly, to 10 and 14, respectively, while the number of fire-fighter job cuts was increased to 522.

Using powers introduced by the Labour Party, which enable the mayor to overrule and direct the authority to carry out his instructions, Johnson decreed that the cuts should go ahead. In a statement at the time he said he was not minded to provide additional funding to the LFEPA for 2014-15.

He was supported by then-London Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson, who had drawn up the cuts package under the grotesquely misnamed London Safety Plan 5. Only two years before, in November 2011, Dobson was allowed to retire from his 200,000 position, aged 52, in order to gain access to his pension entitlements, some 133,000 a year, before being immediately reemployed in the same post.

Johnsons decision was challenged at the High Court by seven London councilsTower Hamlets, Camden, Greenwich, Hackney, Islington, Lewisham and Southwark. They argued that it ignores the fire risks posed by a concentration of potential terrorist targets, tourist attractions, social and student housing and high-rise buildings in the affected boroughs.

The eighth claimant was Ms. Ingrid Richardson, who lived with her husband on the seventh floor of a south London 15-storey tower block. She suffered from Parkinsons Disease and could move only with the help of a walking frame, while her husband had Alzheimer's disease. Her claim was added to highlight the increased fire risks facing older and disabled residents.

Mr. Justice Foskett ruled that the closure decision was lawful, as the mayor was entitled to make use of his powers. His decision made all the more unforgivable the efforts by the Labour Party and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) to focus the considerable opposition amongst residents and fire fighters on legal challenges they knew would fail.

Dobson stated arrogantly at the time that fire stations and fire engines do not stop fires happeningproactive prevention work does. Except that there was no proactive fire prevention at Grenfell Tower or many other residences. Quite the opposite.

Official advice to stay put in a fire applies only to high-rise buildings that are fitted with fire-proofed doors. But not all the doors in Grenfell Tower were fire-proofed. Under conditions in which external cladding that was known to be combustible had been added across the entire exterior of the building as a cheap means of prettifying it, Grenfell Tower was a death trap.

A report by Insurers RSA into an August 2016 fire at the Shepherd Court tower block, also in West London, had found that flammable material in insulation panels melts and ignites relatively easily, and can cause extremely rapid fire spread and the release of large volumes of toxic smoke. The report added, This allows extensive and violent fire to spread, and makes firefighting almost impossible. [emphasis added]

Fire chiefs wrote to the local authorities to warn them, but no action was taken.

On Friday, police confirmed that preliminary tests on insulation samples collected from Grenfell Tower combusted soon after the tests started. They continued, The initial test on the cladding tiles also failed the safety tests.

Yet during the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, when the cladding was installed, the building was inspected 16 times between 2014 and 2016 by Kensington and Chelsea Council, which signed off on the work.

During the horrific fire, it became clear that the LFB (and presumably many other fire services across the country) is manned with hoses that can reach only to the 12th floor of any building. The fire service had to borrow a larger platform that could reach to 42 metresstill only the 15th floorfrom Surrey, nearly two hours away.

Like many other high-rises in the UK, Grenfell Tower had only a single stairwell. As the flames spread, it would have become quickly apparent that those in flats above the 15th floor had no means to escape the toxic fumes given off, much less the fire, and no means of rescue.

They waited to die.

Residents of North Kensington have praised the courage and commitment of the firefighters who attended Grenfell Tower and fought to save those inside, against almost insurmountable odds. They did so above and beyond the call of duty, in some instances over a 19-hour shift.

In total, some 200 fire fighters and officers attended the call-out, with 40 fire engines. Fire fighters have told how they could not get past the 15th floor and how they had to choose whom they should try to save.

Why did the fire fighters have to work such long hours under such conditions? Why do most accounts describe fire crews from Whitechapel being first to enter the buildinga station in east London, more than 40 minutes drive away? What happened to the fire prevention measures Johnson claimed meant the LFB could be cut?

The answer is clear. Small wonder that firefighters and local residents who witnessed the events broke down in tears of sorrow and fury.

Last year, a report by Lancaster University statistician Dr. Benjamin Taylor found that Johnsons cuts had led to deaths. Analysing response-time data to 24,000 house fire call-outs between 2012 and 2015, Taylor found that the average time in some areas before the fire stations were shut was well under five minutes, whereas some stations afterwards were taking up to 10 minutes to respond.

The Londons Burning report said firefighters were unable to respond to the six-minute target time in more than half of the fires studies. A least eight deaths were attributable to these delays.

In November 2015, Johnson and Dobson axed a further 13 engines in London, just two weeks after a man had jumped to his death from a burning housing block in Camden. The man, Choi Yip, was forced to jump after it took fire fighters more than 13 minutes to reach the blaze at the sheltered housing block.

The 13 fire engines had already been removed from service in preparation to break a strike by firefighters against the attack on their pensions, and were due to be returned. But a review ordered by Johnson decided they were surplus to requirements. This left the LFB with 142 engines, down by one-quarter of its strength from the end of 2013.
On Wednesday, the German parliament voted by a large majority to redeploy Bundeswehr (Armed Forced) units from the Turkish air base at Incirlik to the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. Four hundred sixty one (461) out of 569 deputies supported the motion presented by the grand coalition of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), with 85 votes against and 23 abstentions.

Since the end of 2015, the Bundeswehr has been involved in the war effort against the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq, which is also directed against the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. With the dispatch of troops to Jordan, the Bundeswehr is continuing its military intervention in the Middle East and is preparing for its expansion.

In the debate, the defence spokesman of the CDU/CSU Bundestag (parliamentary) caucus, Henning Otte, promised, We will send the tanker aircraft and the Tornadoes in August. By October at the latest, the soldiers will be fully operational again. That this can happen so quickly is due to the innovative power and the energy of our soldiers.

SPD foreign affairs spokesman Niels Annen welcomed the fact that German troops were now moving even closer to the war zones in Syria and Iraq. It is perhaps a coincidence, but not a bad one, that we are in a difficult situationyou all know that the battles are increasing in intensity on the Jordanian bordera country that has absorbed hundreds of thousands of refugees and has proved to be a stable and reliable partner in recent years, that we can now provide this symbolic support. The stationing of troops was the right message.

The attempt by the government to present the deployment of the Bundeswehr as an anti-terrorist operation or even as an initiative for human rights or refugee relief is a deliberate deception. What really concerns German imperialism is the struggle for spheres of influence and raw materials in the Middle East. The eastern part of Syria has become the site of an advanced end game, in which not only the future order in the country, but also regional power relationships could be decided for decades, the Suddeutsche Zeitung wrote on Tuesday.

With this, the increasingly aggressive intervention of the imperialist powers threatens to unleash a conflagration. Following the shooting down of a Syrian fighter aircraft by the US on June 18, the Russian government announced it would regard all aircraft of the US-led anti-IS coalition flying west of the Euphrates as hostile targets. Thus, the possibility of an armed confrontation between the two largest nuclear powers in the world has become as great as during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

The escalation of the war for regime change in Syria is also exacerbating tensions between the imperialist powers and within NATO itself. The fact that Germany has to withdraw the Bundeswehr from a NATO member state during an ongoing mission because its government refuses to grant our parliamentary deputies permission to visit our soldiers, and that this mission must instead be transferred to a non-NATO country, is a unique event, Annen declared. With the withdrawal from Incirlik, relations with Turkey have reached a new low.

The official reason for the German withdrawal is a ban on visits by Berlins parliamentary deputies to the Incirlik air base imposed by the Turkish government, which was not lifted even following a visit by German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) to Ankara earlier this month. The Turkish government has justified its attitude by citing Germanys granting of asylum to Turkish officers who were involved in the failed coup in July 2016. In total, more than 400 Turkish soldiers, diplomats, judges and government employees suspected by the Turkish government of supporting the coup against President Erdogan have applied for asylum in Germany.

Geopolitical conflicts also lie behind the ferocious tensions between Ankara and Berlin. The Left Party and Greens have been arguing for some time that too close cooperation with Turkey limits the offensive of German imperialism in the Middle East. They are demanding a more open collaboration with Kurdish militias such as the PYD, linked to the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which is banned in Germany, but which is playing an increasingly important role as a proxy force in the reconquest of former IS strongholds in the northeast of Syria.

In his speech in the Bundestag, Gregor Gysi, chairman of the European Left, criticized the redeployment because it weakened the Kurdish militias, and thus also the fight against ISand moreover, was too subordinate to US war policy.

If Germany supplies data to the [NATO] headquarters and Turkey has access to it, the impression might arise [...] that we stand on the side of Turkey, acting against the Kurds and thus indirectly helping Islamic State, Gysi declared. Turkey had bombed the Kurds in Syria. They [the Kurds], however, are conducting the ground war against Islamic state, and will be thereby weakened. The demand of the Greens and Left Party to bring the soldiers and their weapons back home and not deploy them to Jordan so that they continue their ambiguous role there was therefore justified.

The joint initiative of the Left Party and the Greens has nothing to do with the rejection of war. Under conditions of growing transatlantic tensions with the US, these parties play a key role in transforming the widespread opposition to the right-wing politics of President Donald Trump into support for a more independent German great power policy, using humanitarian phrases.

It is time that the whole Bundestag understandsby the way, also because of Trump that we have to play a different role, Gysi told the deputies. I really beg you: Stop following Trump so poodle-like! Learn to say no to him! Germany must become a mediator, a mediator between Israel and Palestine, in the Syrian war, in the war of Saudi Arabia against Yemen, in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and in other crises. I believe that this must be our role after the Second World War, after 1945.

After two criminal world wars, the government parties are also seeking to use the fairy tale of a rehabilitated Germany as a mediator and peace-maker to revive German militarism once again. In fact, the German ruling class has long been preparing new and even more comprehensive wars behind the backs of the population. Also on Wednesday, the cabinet agreed armaments projects worth several billion euros. These include the construction of five new K130 warships and new submarines.
Asia

India: Kerala private hospital nurses on strike

Nurses in over 40 private hospitals in Thrissur district, Kerala walked out on an indefinite strike on Monday to demand a pay increase. A United Nurses Association (UNA) spokesperson warned that the strike would expand to include other districts in the state if planned talks with the government on June 27 fail. Emergency services are currently not affected.

Private hospital nurses are demanding equal wages with government hospital nurses. They complained that private hospital nurses with general nursing and midwifery qualifications get an average of 8,750 rupees ($US137) a month and graduate nurses 9,250 rupees, whereas government nurses are paid between 32,000 and 34,000 rupees at entry level. Some nurses said hospitals keep them as trainees indefinitely with a stipend of 6,500 rupees.

The UNA also demanded that the minimum wage for nurses be raised from the current level of 10,000 rupees a month to 20,000 rupees. Nurses rejected the Kerala Hospitals Association offer to raise the minimum wage to 14,000 rupees a month.

Uber and Ola taxi drivers in Delhi strike

Around 70,000 apps-based taxi drivers of Uber and Ola in the Indian capital held a one-day strike on Monday to demand higher incentives and better working conditions. Delhi police stopped their protest march before it reached the rally point at Jantar Mantar in the city.

The strike was called by the Sarvodaya Drivers Association of Delhi (SDAD), which has more than 20,000 members and the 50,000-strong Delhi Taxi Tourist Transporters Association (DTTTA). The unions have submitted a memo to the Indian prime minister, the transport minister and Delhis chief minister. Mondays strike followed walkouts by these drivers in February and April.

Drivers want fares regulated by the government and increased from 6 to 20 rupees per kilometre and that they be paid the 25 percent commission that the cab companies collect for every booking. Their strike in February was called off after the government and apps-based operators falsely promised to resolve their grievances.

Kerala municipal waste management workers end walkout

Strike action by Kudumbasree workers who manage solid waste for the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation (KMC) ended on Tuesday after the corporation agreed to meet eight of their nine demands. Kudumbasree is a womens community organisation in Kerala. The workers were demanding safety equipment for working during the rainy season, resumption of their insurance scheme and to be made KMC employees.

A spokesman from the Kozhikode Jilla Kharamalinya Thozhilali Union said the corporation rejected the workers demand to be recruited into the cleaning wing of the KMC but made a commitment to discuss the issue with state government.

Mumbai bus drivers strike

About 42,000 workers from BEST, Mumbais metropolitan bus company, struck on June 22 over unpaid wages. BEST was forced to pay overdue wages in March after workers threatened to strike for their pay.

The latest walkout was because the company refused to fully implement a court order directing it to pay overdue wages by June 20. According to the drivers union, BEST only paid 50 percent of the wages. A company spokesman told the media that it had no funds to pay the wages.

Andhra Pradesh municipal sanitation workers protest

A large group of workers, representing over 3,400 fellow contract employees of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), demonstrated outside the corporations headquarters on June 13 against management plans to hand over sanitation services to a private operator. Sanitation, water supply, lighting and park workers, drivers and contract workers were involved in the demonstration.

The GVMC Contract Workers Union claimed that the corporation had reduced the sanitation workforce from 4,000 to 3,400 while the city population had grown to 2 million. The union has threatened that if the corporation does not withdraw its privatisation plan there would be indefinite strike action.

Pakistan: Punjab brick-kiln workers fight for minimum wage

Brick-kiln workers in Toba Tek Singh, Punjab province, demonstrated outside the district labour office on June 15 to demand payment of the mandated minimum wage of 1,036 rupees for 1,000 bricks ($US9.88). According to the Pakistan Bhatta Mazdoor Union, kiln owners refuse to abide by the law and pay as little as 600 rupees per 1,000 bricks. The union said it would maintain the campaign if the government failed to enforce the minimum wage.

The politically influential and wealthy kiln owners, who often use bonded and child labour, regularly mobilise thugs to attack protests by the poorly-paid workers.

Gujranwala library employees walk out

Employees of government-run Jinnah and Sheikh Din Muhammad libraries in Gujranwala, Punjab locked down the facilities on Tuesday after several days of protests demanding overdue wages. The workers have not been paid for six months.

The unpaid wages are the result of ongoing budget cuts by the Pakistan government to state and local authorities in response to International Monetary Fund austerity demands.

Punjab teachers reject new conditions for pay rise

Teachers at the government-run District Public School in Kasur, Punjab rallied at the school and marched to the Kasur deputy commissioners office on Monday in protest against the imposition of conditions placed on teachers to receive a pay increase.

School authorities are demanding that teachers sit for a written test before they receive a pay increase. The individual test results would then be used to determine the percentage pay increase a teacher was entitled to. Teachers allege that the test, which includes questions outside of the subjects they teach, is designed to fail many of them. They want the test withdrawn and said they will continue protesting until their demand for a 20 percent pay increase was accepted.

Burmese factory workers strike

Over 1,000 workers from the Chinese-owned Worldwide Value Backpack factory in Shwe Linn Ban Industrial Zone in Yangon walked off the job on Monday and demonstrated outside the factory over wages and conditions. Their action followed two days of failed negotiations in which workers had 13 demands that included double pay on Sunday, shorter hours on Saturday and days off as per the labour law.

Employees have to work from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Monday to Friday, and until 6:30pm Saturdays. They told the media that they work on Sundays because they are being sacked if they dont. The strikers also want an increase in the basic wage, the use of proper time sheets, provision of a factory cleaner and air conditioning.

Nepalese temporary teachers protest

Five leaders of the United Temporary Teachers Central Struggle Committee began a hunger strike in Nepals capital Kathmandu on June 16 to demand permanency for temporary teachers. Teachers objected to the recent vacancy announcement by the Teachers Service Commission, which did not offer postings to all temporary teachers.

The hunger strikers said that over 30,000 teachers across Nepal were hired on a temporary basis, some of whom have worked in their positions for 25 years.

Australia and the Pacific

Victoria: Unions at CHH plywood mill close down dispute

Unions covering over 200 locked out employees at the Carter Holt Harvey plywood factory at Myrtleford in Victorias northeast have recommended that the workers accept the companys inferior enterprise agreement.

Members of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Electrical Trades Union of Australia (ETU) and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), were locked out on April 19 after planning to begin rolling stoppages and overtime bans.

While the unions, who had been in 12 months of negotiations with the company, denounced the lockout they isolated the workers and directed union members at CHHs plants in Tumut and Morwell to keep working.

The unions had sought a 3 percent pay rise annually over three years, one weeks annual leave allowable in the Christmas holiday period, and better access to income protection insurance. The company wanted one nationwide agreement for all its sites and had imposed a 2 percent pay increase at its Tumut and Morwell mills.

One day after another round of failed negotiations in the Fair Work Commission, the unions announced on Thursday that they would call off industrial action and recommend workers return to work for Fridays morning shift. The unions said they were prepared to accept the companys 2 percent pay increase offer and reduce back-pay claims with workers voting yesterday and today on the previously rejected work agreement.

Construction workers hold mass rallies in Australian capital cities

Tens of thousands of construction workers rallied in Australias six state capitals on Tuesday to protest against the Turnbull governments revival of the anti-democratic Australian Building and Construction Commission and associated repressive building industry laws. The National Day of Action rallies were called by the CFMEU and other building unions, representing about 20,000 workers in Melbourne, 6,000 in Sydney, 4,000 in Brisbane and hundreds in other state capitals.

The rallies are part of an ongoing campaign by Australian unions aimed at blaming the Liberal-National Turnbull government for falling living standards, cuts in penalty pay rates and increasing social inequality, whilst covering the opposition Labor Partys involvement in this assault and calling for the election of Labor governments.

Queensland power station workers threaten industrial action

The CFMEU threatened to begin a campaign of industrial action yesterday at the state-owned Kogan Creek Power Station, in south-west Queensland. The union, which covers over 100 workers at the power station, is in dispute with its operator, CS Energy. Negotiations have been ongoing since January.

CS Energy has offered 3 percent annual pay increases over three years, along with slight improvements in entitlements, such as travel allowance, bonuses and leave. The CFMEU says that under the proposed agreement employees will only be paid time worked rather than the full overtime rate.

The union has made clear that proposed industrial action would be limited to back-of-house stoppages which will not interrupt power supplies from the plant.

Victorian oil workers protest over new contracts

Oil production workers at Essos onshore facilities in Victoria and offshore platforms in Bass Strait have set up a protest camp outside Exxon-Mobils Longford gas plant in Victoria to oppose changes to maintenance contracts. The new contracts could reduce wages by 30 percent and see the loss of long established working conditions.

The Electrical Trades Union (ETU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and the Australian Workers Union (AWU) organised the picket.

Esso recently awarded a five-year maintenance contract to UGL, but according to the union workers were told that they had to sign up with MTCT Services, a UGL subsidiary, at significantly lower wages or risk losing their jobs.

The unions claim that 200 workers face redundancy and were being offered reemployment with MTCT with pay cuts between 15 and 30 percent. The new contract also allows MTCT to introduce two-week fly-in, fly-out rosters as opposed to the current seven-day rosters.

Australian defence department workers accept inferior pay deal

Federal government employees at the 17,000-strong Department of Defence voted this week to accept a new enterprise agreement. The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) claimed the agreement was a minor improvement on the three previous proposals rejected by the workers.

Professionals Australia, another union representing the civilian defence department, declared that the new deal was a bad agreement from a deeply flawed process which reduces workplace rights and does not provide fair wage adjustments.

Over 4,000 federal public servants at the Department of Agriculture accepted a similar offer last week. It included a 6 percent pay rise over three years in return for productivity gains and stricter control over sick-leave.

The majority of the 160,000 federal public servants have been in dispute with the Liberal-National government for more than three years over proposed new work agreements. Federal public sector workers at the Australian Taxation Office and the Prime Ministers Department were voting on work agreements in ballots that ended Friday.

Prior to this week, nearly 75 percent had rejected the governments multiple offers. They have not had a pay increase since the last agreement expired three years ago. The government has demanded all annual wage increases for federal public sector workers be capped at 2 percent and that these be combined with cuts in benefits or working conditions and without any back-pay from the previous agreement.

New Zealand power transformer workers strike

Some 180 workers at Etel Ltd, a power transformer manufacturing company in Auckland, struck work on June 16 and 17 in a dispute over a pay rise. Their union, the E tu, and the company have been in negotiations for over six months. The workers, who are paid between $17 and $18.80 an hour, want the official Living Wage of $20.20 and a skills-based pay scale.

Etel has offered a $0.40 an hour increase which workers have rejected, pointing out that Etels parent company Unison recently agreed to pay its workers a 5 percent increase over two years. The company and E tu resumed negotiations this week.

American Samoa hospital workers apply bans

Medical staff at the LBJ Hospital in American Samoa, a US territory in the South Pacific Ocean, have stopped all after-hours and weekend radiology services until the hospital ends mandatory cuts to staff working hours.

A spokesman from the imaging department said the ban will remain in place until management resumes the payment of all staff for their full 80-hour pay period and for overtime. Earlier this year, the government cut public servants fortnightly work schedule by 10 hours.

US President Donald Trumps proposed budget cuts to the Office of Insular Affairs announced in May will reduce aid funding to American Samoa by $1.2 million or five percent per year. Much of this assistance goes towards education and health.
* WIPO Roving Seminar



There is still time to reserve a place at the Italian Roving Seminar on WIPO services, which will take place in Bari on 5 July 2017. There is no charge for registering or attending. In addition to the presentations and panel discussions, there will be opportunities for networking during the coffee break and lunch break. [Please note, these events and all documentation will be in English]



Additional information, such as the seminars program and a link to the registration page, can be found on the WIPO site here Please find attached the flyer for this event.





Melting weather,

the passion for IP... * New blog on the scene



Bart Van Besien started a new blog on IP rights

English version at https://finniancolumba.be/en/blog-2/

Dutch version at https://finniancolumba.be/blog/)









* Conference





The online registration for the EIPTN 2017 conference at LUND UNIVERSITY on 28-30 June 2017 is now open via the conference webpage. To register to attend please go to here





* Job opportunity





The Board of the British Copyright Council is looking to recruit a Director of Policy and Public Affairs: see details here . The role is a part-time one and on a contract basis rather than employee.





* A new IBIL Scholarship opportunity





This is to fund a PhD student at UCL Faculty of Laws to undertake research in a field relating to intellectual property law. Details can be found here





* Debate on IP law in post-Brexit Britain



On Thursday 29 June at 6:00pm, Collyer Bristow will host its annual IP Debate at its Bedford Row art gallery. This years Motion is This House believes that IP law in post-Brexit Britain will benefit from leaving the binding jurisdiction of the ECJ. Proposing the Motion is Martin Howe QC, supported by Dr Gunnar Beck, Reader in law at SOAS. Opposing the Motion is Prof. Lionel Bently of Cambridge University and Prof. Tania Aplin of KCL. The Debate will be chaired by Sir Richard Arnold. A full house of 70 attendees have registered already but there is some standing room available for anyone who would like to attend but has not yet registered by responding to On Thursday 29 June at 6:00pm, Collyer Bristow will host its annual IP Debate at its Bedford Row art gallery. This years Motion is This House believes that IP law in post-Brexit Britain will benefit from leaving the binding jurisdiction of the ECJ. Proposing the Motion is Martin Howe QC, supported by Dr Gunnar Beck, Reader in law at SOAS. Opposing the Motion is Prof. Lionel Bently of Cambridge University and Prof. Tania Aplin of KCL. The Debate will be chaired by Sir Richard Arnold. A full house of 70 attendees have registered already but there is some standing room available for anyone who would like to attend but has not yet registered by responding to events@collyerbristow.com . A report on the outcome of the Debate will follow.





* Does Size Matter? What can firms (large and small) do to welcome LGBT people?





Creating a welcoming atmosphere can be crucial to help employees and colleagues be themselves in the workplace. Kindly hosted by our friends at Fieldfisher, with speakers Jay Wetterau and Mathieu Pinot Cardoso, Diversity and Inclusion Professionals at Fieldfisher, and Rhiannon Turner and Rachel Wallis, partners and patent attorneys at Greaves Brewster. Over half the tickets are already sold, so dont delay  sign up now!





When: Tuesday 18th July, 6pm arrival for a 6.30pm start. Event finishes at 9pm.

Where: Fieldfisher, Riverbank House, 2 Swan Lane, London EC4R 3TT





Brought to you in association with IP Inclusive , working to improve diversity and inclusion in the IP profession. Read more about IP Out here (and sign up to our mailing list).



* Conference

The Rotterdam Connection When: 23, 24, 25 September More information can be found here


Early Thursday morning, Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies officers killed a 17-year-old boy named Armando Garcia-Muro in Palmdale, California. The officers were shooting at a pit bull dog and reported that Garcia-Muro was hit by a bullet that ricocheted off the pavement. Palmdale is one of several communities in the Antelope Valley, which sits in the Mojave Desert and was advertised during the 1980s as being a cheaper option than living more centrally in Los Angeles.

According to the Los Angeles Times, five deputies responded to a call about a loud party just after 3:00 A.M. As they arrived, a pit bull reportedly charged at them and bit one of the deputies on the knee. The teenager then attempted to restrain the animal and move it around the side of a building. The deputy who was allegedly attacked did not fire, and the deputies retreated to call for backup and a medical team.

Later, the pit bull allegedly broke free and charged at the deputies a second time. The dog has been described as weighing 60 to 65 pounds and was about 5 to 7 feet away from the deputies when they opened fire. The dog was struck by a bullet, but survived. Garcia-Muro was struck in the chest by a skip round that ricocheted from where it struck the ground. Investigators said that the deputies only noticed the injured boy when they attempted to corral the dog. Garcia-Muro was taken to Antelope Valley Hospital, where he died. An officer was also struck in the knee by a bullet fragment.

At a news conference at the scene a few hours after the killing, Captain Christopher Bergner of the Sheriffs Department Homicide Bureau said that five deputies were present at the time of the shooting but only two fired, discharging six to eight rounds. He may have been struck by one of the skip rounds in what were calling an extremely, extremely unfortunate incident, he said.

The Los Angeles Sheriffs department has a use-of-force policy, which holds that deputies can fire at animals if they reasonably believe that theyre about to be killed or seriously injured by the animal in question. According to the Los Angeles Times article, a deputy fired a shotgun at a dog biting his leg in 2014 and injured a resident who was struck in the legs by rebounded pellets. Another incident occurred in 2009 when a man was shot as an officer fired at a pit bull. In both cases, the district attorneys office concluded that such injuries are accidental and unavoidable given the circumstances.

Despite these justifications coming from the district attorneys office, incidents such as this are becoming more common due to the frequency of police killings across the country. In recent weeks, the police officer who brutally shot and killed Philando Castile in Minnesota was found not guilty on all counts. Another officer, in Milwaukee, was also acquitted on Wednesday, the day before Garcia-Muro was killed, and in May the killer of Terence Crutcher was acquitted in Oklahoma.

Garcia-Muro was about to enter his senior year at R. Rex Parris High School in Palmdale. He was the eldest of four siblings. His mother, Roberta, told the media that he loved dogs. He would give his life for anybody. He was a very loving person, she said.

The owner of the dog lives elsewhere in the apartment complex, and said she doubts that her dog attacked the deputies. Her home is a popular hangout spot for neighborhood kids, who frequently come over and listen to music. Thats not my dog, she said. Thats not his personality. The dog has since been euthanized.

As of Friday, 572 people have been killed by police officers in the United States in 2017. In 2016, US police killed 1,161 people. Most of these, like the shooting in Palmdale, took place in working class neighborhoods by officers who were reportedly defending themselves. United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions has stated publicly that law enforcement as a whole has been unfairly maligned and blamed for the unacceptable deeds of a few bad actors.
The Senate Republicans bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, unveiled on Thursday and set for a vote next week, comes on the heels of last months passage of a similar measure in the House of Representatives. These two bills are a milestone in the decades-long drive by the American ruling class to eviscerate the bedrock social reforms of the 1930s and 1960s.

The central feature of both versions is the imposition of more than $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled, effectively ending its status as a guaranteed benefit program. The ultimate enactment of this class war legislation, whatever its precise form, will be the prelude to the privatization and dismantling of Medicare, the government insurance program for the elderly, and Social Security, the government pension system enacted at the height of the Depression in the 1930s.

Both the House and Senate bills cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy by more than $700 billion, eliminate requirements on businesses to provide health insurance for their employees, and allow states to exempt insurance firms from having to provide essential benefits such as doctors services, inpatient and outpatient hospital care, ambulance service, prescription drug coverage, pregnancy and childbirth care and mental health and substance abuse services.

What is involved here is a social counterrevolution. It has been underway for more than four decades, under Democratic as well as Republican administrations. It was accelerated under the Obama administration following the Wall Street crash of 2008. With the coming to power of Donald Trump, the billionaire personification of the American financial oligarchy, it is being raised to new heights of savagery.

What will be the impact of this legislation on the daily lives of working people in America? People suffering from diseases such as diabetes, asthma, even cancer will suddenly find that they can no longer afford to pay for the drugs upon which they depend to survive. Low income peoplean estimated 23 millionwill be stripped of all health coverage.

Millions of people will suffer needlessly, and many thousands will die an early death. For the authors of these bills and their corporate backers, this is not an unfortunate byproduct, but the deliberate aim of their health care reform. For the richest 10 percent who tower above the lower orders and control the political system and its two major parties, the diversion of money from profits and private bank accounts to keep working people alive and reasonably healthyespecially those too old to serve as a source of surplus value and profitis an intolerable affront. Life expectancy in America is already declining and mortality rates are rising for the working class, in tandem with the colossal growth of social inequality. The ruling class wants to accelerate this process.

Is it an accident that the Republican plans single out for the biggest attacks low income older adults younger than 65, the age for Medicare eligibility? Insurers will be allowed to charge them five times more than they charge younger people. A 60-year-old woman earning $35,000 will have to spend nearly $6,000 of her own money to buy an insurance policy. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that many thousands, unable to afford health insurance, will be killed off before they can begin to collect Medicare benefits, or, if they do manage to survive to age 65, will collect far fewer benefits because they will die an earlier death, their health having been undermined.

No one should mistake the verbal protests and parliamentary stunts of the Democrats for a serious struggle in defense of health care. The assault on the basic entitlement programs dating from the 1930s and 1960s was begun in earnest by Bill Clinton, who ended welfare as we know it during his term in the White House.

Barack Obama had the gall to denounce the Senate health bill as a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class and poor families to the richest people in America. True enough! But Trump is taking off where Obama left off. By means of trillions in Wall Street bailouts and subsidies to the banks and hedge funds that lifted stock prices and corporate profits to record heights, Obama presided over the greatest transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top in US history. Along the way he slashed auto workers wages and city workers pensions and health benefits and imposed brutal cuts in food stamps.

The explosion of the opioid and heroin epidemic that, along with surging suicide rates, is cutting the longevity of large sections of workers occurred on Obamas watch. His Affordable Care Act set the stage for Trumps intensified offensive on health care, slashing health care costs for corporations and the government while increasing out-of-pocket costs and reducing benefits for tens of millions of workers. It implemented the principle of partially subsidizing the purchase of insurance from private companies with government vouchersthe framework long advocated by Republicans seeking to privatize Medicare.

The current policy of the Democrats is to plead with the Republicans to negotiate a bipartisan compromise that will fix Obamacare, i.e., make further concessions to the profit-mad insurance giants by more drastically slashing benefits and raising premiums and deductibles.

The choice offered by the ruling classbetween Trumpcare and Obamacareis no choice at all. Both lead to untold suffering, misery and death. The working class will not accept the destruction of social gains for which it fought and bled, wrenching them from an unwilling corporate elite in the course of mass social struggles.

America, along with Europe and large swathes of the world, is heading into a new period of class struggle. What the experience of decades of austerity, war and political reaction shows is that the defense of the most basic social needs, such as health care, is today a revolutionary question. Capitalism in its advanced stage of crisis and putrefaction is incompatible with basic democratic and social rightsincluding the right to a decent-paying and secure job, health care, housing, education, access to culture and a secure retirement.

The working class must advance its own independent program against both Trump and the Democrats, based on the fight for socialism. Profit must be taken out of health care. The health care industry must be removed from private hands and placed under public ownership and the democratic control of the working class. This requires an implacable struggle against entrenched wealth and privilege, and the political system that enforces them.
The Australian government yesterday announced the dispatch of air force surveillance planes to the Philippines, purportedly to assist the Manila governments suppression of alleged ISIS-inspired terrorists on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines.

Although the initial deployment by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls government consists of just two AP-3C Orion aircraft, they will form part of an intensive operation by US Special Forces and the Philippine military, and therefore the decision has a wider significance.

Officially, the Philippines agreed to Australias participation. Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said the Philippines government accepted an Australian offer of support to help fight attacks by Daesh-inspired groups in Marawi City in northwest Mindanao.

Without elaborating, Payne also claimed that the fighting in Marawi posed an actual threat to Australia. The regional threat from terrorism, in particular from Daesh and foreign fighters, is a direct threat to Australia and our interests, she said in her media release.

Payne made no mention of President Rodrigo Duterte. Instead, she said: I recently spoke with my counterpart Secretary of Defense Delfin Lorenzana about how Australia can assist the Philippines in its fight against extremists.

In reality, Washington and its proteges in the Philippines military have seized upon the conflict in Marawi, which began as a battle between rival clans, to effectively undermine Duterte, who was shifting Manilas foreign policy away from the US and toward China.

The US Embassy in Manila and the Philippine military revealed on June 9 that US Special Forces have been involved in the Marawi battle since it was launched last month. Duterte told a media conference he had no knowledge of the US participation.

Duterte had previously vowed to eject US military personnelofficially trainers and advisersfrom the Philippines. Currently, the US has no permanent military presence in the country, a former US colony, but has maintained rotations of Special Forces and signed an agreement with Dutertes predecessor, Benigno Aquino, to secure access to military bases in the country.

Although the media claims there are no US boots on the ground, Filipino journalists have posted photographs on twitter of heavily-armed American combat forces, unloading supplies in Marawi. American P-3 Orion surveillance planes have been filmed over the town, reportedly conducting targeting and electronic eavesdropping.

The Australian aircraft are likely to be closely engaged in the fighting as well. Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), an Australian government-funded think tank, told the New York Times the planes are configured to look for people on the ground.

Normally theyre maritime surveillance aircraft, but we use them very effectively in the counterinsurgency operation in Afghanistan, Jennings said. This will be about helping to locate targets of training camps, individual insurgent fighters. Itll be quite a serious commitment.

Speaking to the Australian, Defense Secretary Lorenzana indicated a broader role for the Australian aircraft. He said they would be used for surveillance across Marawi, central Mindanao, and Basilan and Suluareas of southern Mindanao provinceas well as the Sulu Sea, a stretch of water between the southern Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, adjacent to the South China Sea.

The conflict in Marawi, in which nearly 400 people have now been killed and a quarter of a million residents displaced, provided the military with the pretext to declare martial law on the island of Mindanao, and its population of over 22 million.

The battle erupted on May 23, just as Duterte arrived in Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The military launched a raid against what it claimed was the ISIS headquarters in the Philippines. Defense Secretary Lorenzana then declared military rule, compelling Duterte to return immediately to the Philippines.

In other words, it was not the president who imposed martial law in Mindanao but the military chiefs, who have strong ties to the Pentagon. Washington is using the Marawi battle to discipline Duterte and reorient Manilas geopolitical ties away from Beijing and Moscow, and firmly back into the camp of US imperialism.

Significantly, Australias deployment was announced in Canberra, not Manila. Later in the day yesterday, Ernesto Abella, Dutertes spokesman, told a news conference in Davao City that the Philippines appreciated Australias offer. He said the Philippine government would gladly welcome any form of foreign assistance allowed under our constitution to help suppress the rebellion in Marawi.

According to media reports, Australias involvement in Mindanao was discussed at this months annual Australia-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) talks in Sydney, where US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a blunt message to China to end its reclamation activities in the South China Sea.

After the meeting, Tillerson declared that the US and Australia speak with one voice in opposing Chinas militarisation of features in the South China Sea. It amounted to a warning, not just to China but also Asian nations such as the Philippines that have tilted toward Beijing in a bid to boost economic relations.

Together with ASPIs Jennings, other figures within Australias military-strategic complex have welcomed the Philippines deployment and suggested it should be broadened.

Writing in the tabloid Sydney Daily Telegraph, Catherine McGregor, an ex-military officer and adviser to former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, declared: My own view is that for both military and diplomatic reasons we should urgently commit combat forces to this fight.

McGregor said John Blaxland, a former military intelligence officer who now heads the Strategic Studies Centre at Australian National University, supports a holistic package, including police training by the AFP [Australian Federal Police] and joint naval patrols of porous approaches to the Philippines.

Australias initial deployment could be the start of a major military involvement in the region for the first time since the Vietnam War. Filipino military spokesmen this week told the media that the fighting in Marawi could be long and bloody.

Brigadier General Restituto Padilla Jr described the conflict in Marawi as a very complicated engagement. He compared it to prolonged offensives against terrorists overseas, such as in the Iraqi cities of Mosul, Ramadi and Fallujah, where thousands of people have died in assaults by US-backed forces.

Brigadier General Gilbert Gapay, the Eastern Mindanao Command deputy chief, said Australias aircraft would help the military quell rebellion not just in Marawi, but in all other parts of Mindanao.

Under the cover of the war on terrorism, the Mindanao deployment opens up another front in Canberras escalating involvement in predatory and provocative US military operations globally.

The Turnbull government recently increased the Australian contingent in the US-led war in Afghanistan, adding 30 troops to make a total of 300. Australian bombers have also resumed their attacks in Iraq, which were briefly suspended because of the danger of possible clashes with Russian jets after the US shot down a Syrian government plane.

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US Special Forces involved in declaration of martial law in the Philippines

[12 June 2017]
Saudi Arabia and its allies have issued an extraordinary ultimatum to Qatar that sets the stage for a dramatic escalation of the confrontation that began with the imposition of a diplomatic and economic blockade in early June. Qatar has been given 10 days to agree to a sweeping list of 13 demands or face unspecified consequences. Acquiescence would transform the tiny, energy-rich Gulf state into a political vassal of Riyadh.

The demands, which were published yesterday, are a calculated provocation, which, as Saudi Arabia and its allies understand only too well, will almost certainly be rejected. According to the Associated Press (AP), Qatars neighbours are insisting that their demands are a bottom linethat is, non-negotiableand are warning of further penalties beyond the existing restrictions on air, sea and land routes.

Yousef al-Otaiba, United Arab Emirates (UAE) ambassador to the US, told AP that there would be no military element to the sanctions on Qatar, but no credence can be placed in this assurance. The imposition of a blockade by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain is tantamount to an act of war and provides ample opportunity for a provocation that could precipitate military conflict.

In a display of staggering hypocrisy, Saudi Arabia, which is notorious for its funding of Islamist militias, is exploiting the war on terror as the pretext for its ultimatum. The demands include Qatars severing ties to a list of "terrorist, sectarian and ideological organizations and handing over "terrorist figures," fugitives and wanted individuals from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain.

Qatar has vigorously denied the allegations and declared that it will not negotiate until the blockade has been lifted. Responding to a terrorist list of 59 individuals and groups released by Saudi Arabia and its allies, Qatars foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Thani said it included legitimate charities, groups Qatar had already sanctioned, and extremists who had died or were no longer living in the country.

The highly political character of the Saudi demands is underscored by Riyadhs insistence that Qatars satellite TV channel and news network, Al Jazeera, be shut down, along with other Qatari-sponsored media. The Saudi monarchy and its despotic allies are determined to silence any criticism of their policies and to force Qatar to hand over critics and opponents for punishment. Qatar is to provide details of all of its contacts with the political opposition in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain.

At the top of the list of demands is for Qatar to end relations with Iran, which Saudi Arabia regards as it chief rival for regional dominance. The ultimatum calls for Qatar to scale back diplomatic ties with Iran, close Iranian diplomatic missions in Qatar, expel members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, cut military and intelligence cooperation with Iran and wind back trade and commerce with Iran.

Saudi Arabia is also demanding that Qatar immediately shut down the Turkish military base being built in the country and halt military cooperation with Turkey. Turkey, which has stepped up its support for Qatar following imposition of the Saudi-led blockade, announced yesterday that it has no intention of agreeing to the demand.

In a move that twists the knife in the wound, Saudi Arabia is demanding that Qatar pay unspecified reparations and compensation for loss of life and other financial losses allegedly caused by its recent policies.

At the same time, Qatar must align itself militarily, politically, socially and economically with the other Gulf and Arab countrieseffectively turning it into a colony of Saudi Arabia, which will determine its external and internal policies. To ensure Qatars compliance, a system of intrusive audits will be set in place for the next decade.

US President Trump has cheered on the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar and claimed it as a success for his trip to the Middle East last month. We cannot let these incredibly rich nations fund radical Islamic terror or terrorism of any kind, he told a rally in Iowa last week. Referring to his meeting with Saudi King Salman, Trump bragged that we had a huge impact in cracking down on terror funding.

While Trump lined up enthusiastically with Saudi Arabia against Qatar, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was more cautious in his approach, warning on Thursday that any list of demands against Qatar had to be reasonable and actionable. Washington has longstanding ties with Qatar, including a strategically important US air base that houses 10,000 American troops. Qatar is the forward base for the US Central Command and is at the centre of its intelligence operations in the region.

The Trump administrations support for Saudi Arabia is part of a far broader regional offensive directed in the first instance against Iran, but also Russia. The Saudi military backed by Washington is already engaged in a long-running and bloody war in Yemen against Shiite Houthi rebels that Riyadh claims are backed by Tehran.

Saudi Arabia is also part of the US-led war in Syria to oust the Russian- and Iranian-backed government of President Bashar al-Assad. While nominally directed against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a reactionary Islamist group that had its roots in outfits armed and financed by the CIA, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies, the conflict is increasingly and openly aimed against the Assad regime.

The US Air Force this week for the first time shot down a Syrian government fighter bomber in what is becoming a scramble to carve out territory in preparation for a showdown with Assad and his backers after ISIS is neutralized. The US has claimed a no-go area at a strategic border crossing from Iraq into Syria where it is training anti-Assad fighters, and has shot down two Iranian drones in recent weeks.

The US intensification of the war in Syria follows major blows to Washingtons proxy forces, which were driven from the city of Aleppo late last year. Washingtons reckless actions are heightening the danger of a far broader conflict with Iran and Russia. Following the shoot-down of the Syrian aircraft, the Russian military declared that it would no longer observe deconfliction protocols and would target threatening US and allied warplanes.

The ultimatum issued by Saudi Arabia and its allies against Qatar has added another explosive flashpoint to the tinderbox in the Middle East that could trigger a catastrophic regional and world conflict involving nuclear-armed powers.
Sri Lankan police violently assaulted university students occupying the health ministry on Wednesday and have now broadened the crackdown, arresting the protest leaders.

The government has also threatened to take action against the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) and doctors who launched an indefinite strike to protest against the police attack and demand the government take over the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), a private medical college.

Thousands of students involved in Wednesdays demonstration entered the health ministry building in Central Colombo, breaking police barriers and demanding a discussion with Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne. The Inter-University Student Federation (IUSF) leaders said they went into the building because they had been given no appointment to meet with Senaratne.

The demonstration was part of ongoing protests by students and GMOA members to demand that the government take control of SAITM, allocate 6 percent of gross domestic product for education, end school fees and resolve various problems in the health sector.

After students entered the health ministry, Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayake ordered the Special Task Force (STF) to clear the premises. The STF is a specially trained wing of the police and notorious for its brutal assaults on protestors.

Television channels broadcast footage showing hundreds of STF personnel wearing helmets severely beating students and stampeding them down the stairs. STF officers also baton-charged students staging a sit-down protest and used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the demonstration.

An IUSF activist told the media on Wednesday that over 90 students were being treated at the national hospital, about 20 of them female students, and some were in a critical condition. Police said six officers were admitted to the hospital but later transferred to its own hospital, claiming that national hospital doctors were not treating them properly.

Justifying the police attack, Deputy Inspector General Priyantha Jayakody claimed the students violated a court order obtained by the police to prevent the protest. He accused students of damaging state property and said they would be taken into custody and brought before the courts.

Health Minister Senaratne said the students would be identified using CCTV records and any student alleged to have caused more than 25,000-rupees worth of damage would be denied bail. The students denied responsibility for any damage and accused the police of destroying property in order to frame-up students.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe demanded a report on why the police were unable to stop the students entering the health ministry.

On Thursday the police took into custody Inter-University Bikkhu [Monks] Federation leader Tampitiye Sugathananda as he received hospital treatment. Yesterday, the Colombo Crimes Division arrested IUSF convenor Lahiru Weerasekera and another activist as they left a press conference. They were accused of damaging state property, brought before a magistrate and placed on remand.

GMOA members walked out on Thursday in protest against the police assault on the students and declared they would remain on strike until the government solved the SAITM issue. Health Minister Senaratne told a press briefing on Thursday the government was to ready go beyond previous measures and take tough action against the striking doctors.

Students and doctors are deeply opposed to the privatisation of education and the health services. They have been involved in protests over the past year. GMOA and IUSF members are concerned that proper standards required for teaching medicine are being compromised by SAITM.

However, the perspective of both organisations is politically bankrupt and aimed at promoting illusions that mass pressure will force the government to withdraw its cost-cutting policies.

On Thursday the IUSF held a press conference with various pseudo-left groups, including the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), which politically controls the IUSF. Others present were the Voice of the Left, a dissident faction in the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), the United Socialist Party (USP) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). These organisations all advance nationalist and pro-capitalist policies.

IUSF convenor Weerasekera told the media that the groups in attendance represented the people. All of us are saying that education and health are social rights and urge dont sell them. All of us told the president that the only solution is the abolition of SAITM or its takeover by the state but no solution was given.

Contrary to Weerasekeras claims, the pseudo-left formations have come forward to assist the IUSF and GMOA to politically derail students and doctors. They are seeking to prevent the development of a unified movement of workers, students and youth fighting against the government and for a socialist and internationalist program. All of them, in one way or another, backed the election of Maithripala Sirisena as president, claiming he would defend democratic rights and improve the living standards of working people.

Addressing a public meeting in Polonnaruwa last week, Sirisena reiterated the governments big business program. The students were not to blame for conspiracies against the government, he said, but had been influenced by an uncivilised political climate in the universities. Private universities were necessary, he declared, to cater for the thousands of students passing entrance exams.

Sirisenas claims, which are virtually the same as those by former President Mahinda Rajapakse, underscore the diversionary nature of the appeals to the government by the IUSF and GMOA. Both are seeking solutions within the capitalist system. Though GMOA is demanding a government takeover of SAITM, it supports the governments overall privatisation program.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinge governments assault on education, health and other vital social facilities is driven by the deepening crisis of the capitalist system and is part of a broader assault on the rights of workers and the poor in every country.

The Socialist Equality Party and the International Students for Social Equality insist that the only way to defeat the assault on public education and health is for students and doctors to turn to all sections of the working class, Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim alike, and fight for their mobilisation for a workers and peasants government to implement a socialist program.

This weeks brutal police attack on students and the escalating threats against striking doctors underline the necessity of this perspective.

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[18 February 2017]

Sri Lankan riot police attack Colombo port workers

[7 February 2017]
TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- Just last week, all eyes were on the Gulf watching what would later become Tropical Storm Cindy. Even though this storm tracked towards the Louisiana coast, some of the outer rain bands moved over much of our region.

This extra rain, in addition to the very wet weather from earlier in the month, has led to decreased drought conditions throughout parts of north Florida and south Georgia.

As of Friday morning, Tallahassee received over eleven inches of rain for the entire month of June. That's about six inches more than we see in a typical June. Most of the rain actually fell within the first week of June, but Tropical Storm Cindy certainly gave us a nice soaking as well.

But what does that all mean for the drought conditions in our area? Well, Florida's drought has been completely eliminated for the time being. Portions of south Georgia are still experiencing drier soil conditions. A full look at the current drought monitor can be found here.

It is important to note that when looking at the drought maps, the yellow color does not indicate a drought. Instead, those are areas that are recovering, but not quite back to normal.

Of course, more rain means vegetation will begin to "green-up," and farmers don't have to worry so much about watering their crops.

"It's great for the farmers because it means they don't have to run their pumps and irrigate their crops nearly as much, so that's a big money saver for them," says Brett Cyphers, the Executive Director, Northwest Florida Water Management District. "From our perspective, we own 220-thousand acres of land throughout northwest Florida. When it rains and we're out of a drought, we can go out and manage those lands properly."

June is just the beginning of the southeast's "Rainy Season." According to Cyphers, our rainiest months typically span from June to September, coinciding with hurricane season and the afternoon summer showers.

It is impossible to tell just how much wet weather we could get for the rest of our rainy season, but if June is any indication, things could be looking up.

For those in Georgia affected by the drought that begin last November, the Small Business Administration is offering loan assistance for the listed counties: Baker, Ben Hill, Bleckley, Calhoun, Chattahoochee, Clay, Columbia, Crisp, Decatur, Dodge, Dooly, Dougherty, Early, Emanuel, Houston, Irwin, Jefferson, Johnston, Laurens, Lee, Lincoln, Macon, Marion, McDuffie, Miller, Mitchell, Muscogee, Pulaski, Quitman, Randolph, Richmond, Schley, Seminole, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taylor, Telfair, Terrell, Tift, Treutlen, Turner, Twiggs, Warren, Webster, Wilcox, Wilkes, Wilkinson and Worth in Georgia.

These loans are available to eligible farm-related and nonfarm-related entities that suffered financial losses as a direct result of this disaster.

You can apply online for this assistance at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela.

The deadline to apply is June 24, 2017.
The article also suggests that the proxy war may even take on a more direct character as both Iran and the US show themselves to be increasingly willing to involve themselves directly in the conflict. In fact, Iran-watchers have insisted that the Islamic Republics direct participation in the conflict is long-standing.

It is well-established that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has been recruiting for militant proxies fighting in defense of the Assad regime, and also that it has been providing operation support to loyalist forces. Whats more, accounts have accumulated of casualties in Syria from among the IRGC itself, and a report published by The Guardian on Tuesday noted that IRGC fighters had been spotted in the immediate vicinity of an outpost for US-backed forces, for which the US has been providing air support.

Coalitions like the National Council of Resistance of Iran have drawn upon their intelligence resources in the Middle East to conclude that the IRGC presence has always been significantly greater than Iran or its allies would publicly admit. And whatever the case may be, the latest reports of casualties and close-encounters certainly indicate that that presence is growing. And this growth coincides with Tehrans decision to launch a ballistic missile strike on eastern Syria on Sunday. Although the strike ostensibly targeted ISIL, one IRGC general told Iranian state media that the United States and Saudi Arabia were the main intended recipients of the underlying message.

This lends both credence and context to the Washington Posts conclusion in its Thursday article that the clash expected to follow the fall of Raqqa has to some extent already begun. The article explains that some Iranian and Iran-backed forces have actually started to disengage from their fight with ISIL in order to take up positions that will help them link up with similar proxy forces across the border in Iraq and make a coordinated push to capture land along a route linking Tehran, Baghdad, and Damascus, which might otherwise fall into the hands of US-backed forces.

The article goes on to quote an anonymous White House official as saying that Iran appears to be positioning itself to block US influence while asserting its own, and that this would threaten a range of Western interests in the region, including the campaign against ISIL and the effort to secure a political solution to the Syrian Civil War. Tehran has been blamed for stymying those efforts on a number of occasions, because of the Islamic Republics preoccupation with preserving the Assad dictatorship over the long term and thus destroying all opposition movements that might enjoy international legitimacy.

In light of these threats, the US has been pushing back against the efforts of the Islamic Republic and its allies, thereby contributing to the appearance of clashes that precede the final defeat of ISIL. The above-mentioned Guardian report primarily focused upon the American shoot-down of an Iran-made drone that was apparently being operated by the Syrian military and threatening anti-ISIL forces that were being trained by the US near the al-Tanf outpost.

The report noted that a similar shoot-down had occurred on June 8, also involving an Iran-made drone. Additionally, a manned Syrian bomber was shot down on June 18, coincidentally the same day as the Iranian ballistic missile strike in eastern Syria. In this way, the US is stepping up clashes directly with the Assad regime and indirectly with its Iranian backers. The Washington Post points out that these decisions are being made by the Pentagon, although it appears as though they have at least tentative support from much of the US government.

Certainly, the Donald Trump White House has pushed a more assertive approach to dealing with the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as breaking with previous wariness about getting involved in the Syrian Civil War, as when Trump ordered a cruise missile strike on a Syrian airstrip following a chemical attack carried out by the Assad regime.

On the other hand, the Trump administration is reportedly standing in the way of a new sanctions bill known as the Countering Irans Destabilizing Activities Act, which would, among other things, extend all existing anti-terror sanctions to the IRGC. Although this would very much play into the administrations plans to confront Iran in general and against the backdrop of the Syrian Civil War, the bill also includes sanctions against Russia, thus undermining campaign-trail promises to pursue better relations between Washington and Moscow.

Although the sanctions bill passed by a near-unanimous margin of 98 to 2 in the Senate, House Republicans have stalled the bill on the basis of procedural issues, which some Democrats insist have been resolved in a matter of minutes with other bills. Reuters reported on Thursday that although House Speaker Paul Ryan insisted he would like to see quick action on the bill, it is possible that the Republicans could stall it for months if they decide to require approval and markups by a series of House committees.

Interestingly, though, the congressional roadblock being erected over the Russia issue does not appear likely to have much effect on Moscows reaction to the actions being undertaken by the Pentagon to push back against Iran and the Assad regime, both Russian allies. In fact, on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that Russia was demanding an explanation for the American shoot-down of the Syrian warplane, and also that it had ceased operation of a hotline between the Russian and American militaries, which had been intended to prevent mid-air collisions.

This goes to show that there are broader implications for the rising tide of clashes being observed between forces directly supported by Iran and by the US. Indeed, the escalation of those tensions can easily be viewed as an indicator of the overall escalation and the creation of more stark dividing lines between anti-Iran and pro-Iran alliances. The anti-Iran faction became more pronounced in the wake of President Trumps attendance of an Arab summit in Riyadh in late May. Since then, Iran has accused Saudi Arabia of responsibility for a pair of ISIL terrorist attacks in Tehran, and Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of attempting to deploy IRGC operatives to carry out a terrorist attack on an offshore oil platform.

On Thursday, Al Jazeera reported that it was sticking to its denial of that Saudi account, saying instead that the three individuals captured by the Saudis were not members of the IRGC but only fishermen who had gotten lost. The report noted that the Iranians were demanding the immediate release of the three captives, as well as reparations for another individual who was killed, and punishment for the individuals responsible. The Saudis, on the other hand, have said that the captured vessel was full of explosives and that two other boats escaped during the seizure.

As these and other tensions develop between Iran and its traditional adversaries, the Islamic Republic is striving to shore up support from among established allies and regional powers that have traditionally been caught in between the longstanding political divide. As one example of this trend, Fox News reported that Iran had announced plans to move toward 35 billion cubic meters of daily gas exportation to Iraq, after having reportedly started out on Wednesday with seven billion cubic meters. In another example, Agence-France Presse reported that Iran was apparently sending 1,100 tonnes of food to Qatar daily, following the severance of diplomatic ties and trade routes from fellow Arab countries over supposed Qatari dissent against increased Arab pressure on Tehran.
The LA Times article indicated that two things were different about this years Quds Day activities In the first place, they included statements and demonstrations against Saudi Arabia at a time when tensions are escalating between Iran and its leading Arab rival. And at the same time, the state-led rallies and demonstrations of military might include the prominent display of ballistic missiles exactly like those used the previous Sunday in a strike on eastern Syria.

Although that strike, involving six medium-range ballistic missiles, struck the linger ISIL stronghold of Deir el-Zour, a senior official in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps told Iranian state media that the attack sent a message specifically to the United States and Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, Deir el-Zour has been identified as an anticipated area of direct confrontation between Iran-backed and US-backed forces, and perhaps between Iran and the US themselves, following the fall of ISIL.

The display of ballistic missiles on Quds Day was underscored by comments from the hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami during Friday prayer services. Khatami echoed the sentiments of various government officials including President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who have vowed that missile development activities would continue without paying any heed to concerns and warnings from the United States and other world powers.

Coinciding with the implementation of the Iran nuclear agreement in January of last year, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling upon the Islamic Republic to avoid development or testing of weapons that, like ballistic missiles, are designed to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Tehran later informally rejected that resolution, asserting that it was only a suggestion and not legally binding, and also declaring that the Iranian nation would accept no foreign imposition regarding its military capabilities.

Some officials have gone further by boasting of the growing extent of those capabilities and even putting them in context of readiness for war against Israel, the US, or other adversaries. Khatami contributed to this rhetoric on Friday when he pointed to the missile strike in Syria and emphasized that it did not involve the most powerful of Irans ballistic missiles. The missiles shot at Daesh were mid-range, he said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL. You can imagine the power of our long-range missile.

On Tuesday, the leading coalition of Iranian opposition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran held a press conference at its Washington, D.C. offices wherein it announced intelligence findings regarding the escalation of Irans missile activities. The increase in development, manufacture, and testing had allegedly been initiated upon the direct order of the supreme leader, and the NCRI reported that it had uncovered 42 specific missile sites including one where the Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force was recognizably coordinating with the government institution that had been tasked with weaponizing the Iranian nuclear program.

The inclusion of ballistic missile-related provocations in the Quds Day celebrations was arguably indicative of the escalating tensions throughout the region, involving not just Iran but also its terrorist proxies and allies. Groups like Hezbollah have reportedly secured a deeper foothold in regional conflicts on the basis of Irans own involvement, and this has seemingly bolstered those groups propaganda regarding the prospects for coordinated opposition to Israel and its backers.

In fact, Reuters quoted Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Lebanese paramilitary, as saying that a war with Israel could open the way for thousands, even hundreds of thousands of fighters from all over the Arab and Islamic world to participate. Nasrallah specified that he was not referring to intervention by actual regional militaries but instead to non-state actors like the numerous Shiite militant groups that have proliferated in Syria and Iraq during recent years, largely as a result of direct recruiting efforts and logistical support from the Islamic Republic and its Revolutionary Guards.

Opposition to Israel is a longstanding focus of Iranian coordination and propaganda among militant groups. And insofar as these efforts focus specifically on militant groups whose ideology is in line with the Iranian regimes hardline Shiite version of Islam, the regime is increasingly exploiting the growing tensions between it and Sunni Saudi Arabia. This aspect of Iranian propaganda has been bolstered by American efforts to tighten relations with traditional regional allies, and on Friday the head of Irans atomic energy agency, Al Akbar Salehi, published an article in The Guardian attacking both Saudi Arabia and the US.

The article accused the US of upsetting the balance of power in the Middle East by siding with Saudi Arabia. It also suggested that the US was returning to the previous status quo either as a result of financial inducements including the Saudi purchase of American arms or because of short-sighted political motivations. Furthermore, Salehi warned of chaotic behaviour and further tension and conflict if the US continued along its present course.

Earlier in June, Iran attempted to justify similar rhetoric about Saudi Arabia by claiming that the Arab nation was directly responsible for a pair of terrorist attacks in Tehran which had been claimed by ISIL. Iranian officials have since maintained this claim in spite of the fact that no evidence has been presented and Saudi Arabia has suffered ISIL attacks as well. This week, the Saudis countered by claiming that it had foiled a planned attack by IRGC operatives on a Saudi oil platform.

According to a Fox News editorial by Georgetown Professor Brenda Shaffer, the Iranian regime has made significant efforts to use the Tehran terrorist attacks as a way of presenting itself as uniquely under siege from terrorists while also blurring the boundaries between ISIL and other enemies of the Islamic Republic. The report in question highlighted the fact that Iranian security forces began to crack down on domestic groups in the wake of the attacks but focused their attention not on ISIL affiliates but rather on Kurdish and Baluch groups that are generally ethno-nationalist but not religiously motivated.

Tehrans official statements and ISIS finger-pointing would have us dismiss domestic ethnic tensions as insignificant, Shaffer explains. Similar conclusions can be drawn from Irans celebration of Quds Day, which comes one week before a major gathering in Paris of supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, in which dissidents will make the case that hardline celebrations calling for the destruction of Israel do not represent the vast majority of the Iranian population, which is generally young, well-educated, pro-Western, and in favor of a democratic alternative to the theocratic regime.
The public is invited to discuss the potential environmental impacts of a plan to use more water from the Kachess Reservoir for drought relief
The tape sent shockwaves through Iran, as it adds new knowledge of the breadth and scope of the massacre and confirms that it involved the highest levels of leadership. For more than two decades silence has been imposed in regards to the massacre because, you see, Iranian leaders who held positions of power at that time, members of the notorious Death Commission, are still in leadership positions today.

They have never faced justice for committing this horrific crime against humanity.

Hossein-Ali Montazeri, who was subsequently dismissed as the heir by Khomeini, and subsequently spent the rest of his life under house arrest, for the very remarks heard on the audio tape, tells members of the Death Commission, who include Hossein-Ali Nayyeri, the sharia judge, Morteza Eshraqi, the prosecutor, Ebrahim Raeesi, deputy prosecutor, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi, representative of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), The greatest crime committed during the reign of the Islamic Republic, for which history will condemn us, has been committed by you. Your (names) will in the future be etched in the annals of history as criminals. He adds, Executing these people while there have been no new activities (by the prisoners) means that  the entire judicial system has been at fault.

Regarding the recent revelations, Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, described the audio recording as an historical document. Mrs. Rajavi said that the recording attests to the strength of the Mojahedin (PMOI/MEK) political prisoners rejection of surrender, to their admirable allegiance and the perseverance of their commitment to the Iranian people. She called the recording irrefutable evidence that leaders of the mullahs are responsible for crimes against humanity and the unprecedented genocide.

Following release of the audio tapes, the Iranian Resistance initiated a worldwide movement, and during the last 10 months both inside and outside Iran, have created a huge momentum against the ongoing violation of human rights in Iran.

In February 2017, Justice for the Victims of the 1988 Massacre in Iran (JVMI), published the details of numerous mass graves in Iran. Page 349 of the JVMI report, Inquiry into the 1988 mass executions in Iran, refers to the mass grave near the Behesht Abad Cemetery in Ahvaz. Then, Amnesty International published a news item on June 1, 2017 on its website, warning that the Iranian authorities may be attempting to desecrate a mass grave site in Ahvaz, southern Iran in an effort to destroy vital forensic evidence, and sabotage opportunities for justice for the mass killings of political prisoners that took place across the country in 1988.

While Iranian officials try to counter the effects of these revelations, growing sympathy for MEK members who were the main victims of this horrible massacre, and increased popularity of the opposition movement have resulted, instead.

In recent months, following a report published by The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, concerning the power and progress of the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), officials have admitted the Iranian youth has tended toward the attraction of the Mojahedin (MEK), as well as the prestige of the Mojahedin at home and at the international level.

The director general of a state funded Habilian Foundation, Hashemi Nejad, stated, We have held 300 exhibitions against MEK in Iran up to now. These days, MEK is getting recognized as a leading institute in Human Rights, He added that the duty now, is to discuss Human Rights issues against MEK since Iranian youths are the target of MEK. According to Intelligence Ministry officials, a detailed research report against MEK, of more than 8,000 words, has recently been published in the Habilian website, affiliated to the Ministry.

The Mojahedin Organization (MEK) is after total change and removal of the Velayat-e faqih system in Iran, states the report.

It also discusses the role of MEK in exposing the Iranians administration secret projects to obtain nuclear weapons, saying, Following exposure of the issue (nuclear weapons program), the media published reports in this regard and this was the beginning of a major crisis that resulted in the adoption of several resolutions and sanctions with the devastating effects which are still continuing.

The Intelligence Ministry reminded the public of the role of Mojahedin in the 2009 uprising, and admitted its fear of uprisings and revolts being tied to the nationwide resistance and to the Mojahedin, and wrote, Mojahedin (MEK) were still looking for an opportunity to strike the Islamic Republic of Iran, until the beginning of 2009 elections followed by the street riots, the group seized the opportunity and issued statements and messages to prepare the ground for achieving their goals One of the goals (of the MEK) in 2009 election was to remove Velayat-e faqih and change the regime.

The Mojahedins advancement in the international arena was also pointed out, In addition, members of the (MEK) organization hold meetings in France from time to time In the recent years, the Mojahedin organization has held campaign and meetings in every international events and communities, including the United Nations, against the country and the system.

The report concluded by describing the methods to confront the MEK, such as, Introducing and fully identifying the (MEK) organization (i.e. meaning distorting the image of the organization) to prevent, in this way, people and new members from joining the organization which would lead to increased damage to the system, and added, Strengthening the borders and increasing the countrys defense power: By this action, we can prevent entry of the MEK members into the country and so we will be able to avert and ward off the enemies of the system outside the borders.

These confessions appear to show the power, in regards to social as well as popular status, of the MEK and NCRI are welcomed by the Iranian youth.

After the Mullahs were unable the failure to destroy the MEK by siege and missile attacks, and the Mojahedin were able to maintain the integrity of their organization and transfer themselves to a safe place, the regime is frightened, and they are trying to frighten the Iranian people with warnings about the danger of Mojahedin.

In another report, published in Habilian site, the Intelligence Ministry stated that intellectual (thought) danger of unarmed MEK is much more than the threat of armed MEK.

In an interview with Vatan Emrouz, September 4, 2016, the secretary general of the Habilian Institution, which is a branch of the Intelligence Ministry, Mohammad Javad Hashemi Nejad, had previously warned about the danger of the MEK revelations, stating, Mojahedin in the areas of human rights and related issues are present in the European Parliament and in the U.S. and any places where there is opposition to the system MEK is a dangerous force

This sense of danger may be attributed to the fact that the surge in power of the MEK has coincided with the divisiveness within the Velayat-e faqih system, as well as the unrest, in the form of vastly increasing protests and demonstrations, in Iranian society.

The assistance to the West by the MEK had assisted the West in revealing Irans secret nuclear missiles programme was also highlighted. To stop the youth from joining the MEK, the Regime attempts to present a twisted view of the Resistance Forces, which is the reason behind the exhibitions and movies like Magaraye Nimroz, a film by state run media, on screen now.

However, in the midst of the propaganda and hyperbole surrounding it, a political analyst attacked the film. Sadegh Zibakalam, a political science professor at Tehran State University, and an associate of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was also responsible for dispatching of university students to war with Iraq during 80s, criticized the film. He said, The events in this movie are not reciting the reality of what has happened between the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and MEK in that era, we are condemning MEK, but have never asked why MEK fought back? As if they did it for no reason! This film is trying to imply that IRGC agents were kind and caring for humanity, (this is not true) we killed thousands of MEK members without any trials, just like the killers of Imam Hossain (a 7th century revolutionary Shiite leader who made the ultimate sacrifice for social justice in the face of corruption and tyranny). Zibakalams confession clearly shows the ineffectiveness of such desperate moves to demonize the MEK.

In their recap of the report, The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) wrote, The truth is that after the Mullahs were unable to destroy the MEK by inhumane siege and missile attacks, and Mojahedin were able to maintain the integrity of their organization and transfer themselves to a safe place, the Mullahs are frightened now. That is why the mullahs regularly yowl and whimper about the danger of MEK.

This fear and sense of danger is particularly due to the fact that the power and cohesion of the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran has coincided on the one hand with the weakness and ultimate decay of the Velayat-e faqih system and the crises engulfing the ruling class, and on the other hand by the fact that Irans society is on the verge of explosion and ready for uprising and revolution and is only waiting for a spark, they wrote.
The UN peacekeeping force on Lebanon's border with Israel has not seen any violations of the UN-brokered cease-fire that ended a war with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in 2006, as Israel claims, the UN said Friday.

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Israel filed a complaint Tuesday with the UN Security Council accusing Hezbollah of setting up observation outposts along the border on land purportedly used by an environmental advocacy group called Green Without Borders.

A Hezbollah, South Lebanon lookout station (:  ")

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Hezbollah lookout station (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

UN Spokeswoman Eri Kaneko told reporters that over the last two years, the UN force known as UNIFIL "has observed tree-planting activities undertaken by the NGO as is their stated objective."

"UNIFIL has not observed any unauthorized armed persons at the location or found any basis to report a violation of the (cease-fire) resolution," she said.

Kaneko said UNIFIL remains in contact with Lebanese armed forces on monitoring the border to ensure there are no violations "and to avoid any misunderstandings or tensions that could endanger the cessation of hostilities."

A list of positions in Lebanon that Israel revealed to the UN, claiming each point was a covert Hezbollah station

She said "UNIFIL remains vigilant and continues to monitor the Blue Line," the UN-drawn boundary between Lebanon and Israel.

The Israeli military on Thursday released photos and video of what it said were the Hezbollah observation posts. One video showed a pair of uniformed men climbing onto a watchtower on spots Israel says are used by Green Without Borders.

One of the stations with the organization's logo

Israel said the environmental group has received funding in the past from Hezbollah.

Kaneko said UNIFIL, in cooperation with Lebanon's armed forces, "closely monitors all activities close to the Blue Line."

Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit

She noted that in accordance with its mandate, "UNIFIL cannot and does not enter private property unless there is credible evidence of a violation" of the cease-fire resolution "or an imminent threat of physical violence emanating from that specific location."

The 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war ended in a stalemate.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shiite group, has since built up an arsenal that is now believed to include well over 100,000 missiles and rockets aimed at Israel. In recent years, it has suffered heavy losses backing up the forces of President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.
The Trump administration has authorized the sale of unarmed surveillance drones to India, the manufacturer said Friday, as the two nations' leaders prepare for their first face-to-face meeting.

India initiated its request to buy 22 Guardian MQ-9B unmanned aircraft for maritime surveillance last year. The deal is estimated to be worth about $2 billion. The offer is still subject to congressional approval.

The green light from the administration marks a further deepening in defense ties as India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.
Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran has condemned a plot to target the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

Iran's Foreign Ministry issued a statement Saturday quoting spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as saying "terrorism is rampant and growing now across the whole world."

He called on all nations to "be cautious" and said that Iran is ready to help other countries in confronting militants.
Faced with a sweeping set of demands, Qatar insisted Friday it can indefinitely survive the economic and diplomatic steps its neighbors have taken to try to pressure it into compliance, even as a top Emirati official warned the tiny country to brace for a long-term economic squeeze. Qatar is given ten days to comply with 13-point list.

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Given ten days to make a decision, Qatar said it was reviewing the specific concessions demanded of the tiny Persian Gulf nation, which include shuttering Al-Jazeera and cutting ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. But Qatari officials did not budge from their previous insistence that they won't sit down with Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to negotiate an end to the crisis while under siege.





Qatari capital of Doha (Photo: AP)

"I can assure you that our situation today is very comfortable," stated Qatari Ambassador to the US Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani. "Qatar could continue forever like that with no problems."

Asked whether Qatar felt pressure to resolve the crisis quickly, he said: "Not at all."

Photo: Shutterstock

According to the document, if Qatar agrees to the terms, it will undergo a monthly examination during the first year following the agreement, before switching to once every three months during the second year. After that, Qatar will undergo a yearly examination for the next ten years.

UAE Foreign Minister Anwar Garagash yesterday accused Qatar of leaking the document of demands, which was published by Arab press several hours prior to its official release.

"Qatar leaking demands and concerns of its neighbours and Egypt are either an attempt to undermine serious mediation or are yet another sign of callous policy," Gargash tweeted in English. "The leakage will further exasperate and prolong the Qatar crisis. Undermining serious diplomacy will lead to parting of ways."

Tweeting in Arabic, he said that the Qatari leakage was a teenager move that we are used to seeing in the brother.

As the United States stepped back from any central mediating role, all sides seemed to be settling in for a potentially protracted crisis. Qatar's neighbors insisted their 13-point list of demands was their bottom line, not a starting point for negotiations.

If Qatar refuses to comply by the deadline, the Arab countries signaled, they'll continue to restrict its access to land, sea and air routes indefinitely, as economic pressure mounts on Qatar.

"The measures that have been taken are there to stay until there is a long-term solution to the issue," Emirati Ambassador to the US Yousef al-Otaiba said in an interview. Suggesting the penalties would only be economic and diplomatic, he said "there is no military element to this whatsoever."

Having urged Qatar's neighbors to come up with "reasonable and actionable" demands, the US sought to distance itself from the crisis the day after the Arab countries issued a list that included several provisions Qatar had already declared it could not or would not accept. But the ultimatum was quickly rejected by Qatar's ally, Turkey, and blasted as an assault on free speech by Al-Jazeera, the Qatari broadcaster that the gas-rich country's neighbors are demanding be shut down.

Qatar has used its vast wealth over the past decade to exert influence abroad, backing factions in civil wars and revolts across the Middle East. It infuriated Egypt's present rulers and Saudi Arabia by backing a Muslim Brotherhood government in Cairo that ruled for a year until it was deposed by the army in 2013.

The current demands made of Qatar are being brought forth by the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Egyptians and the Bahrainis amount to a call for a sweeping overhaul of Qatar's foreign policy and natural gas-funded influence peddling in the region. Complying would force Qatar to bring its policies in line with the regional vision of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East's biggest economy and gatekeeper of Qatar's only land border.

"This reflects basically an attempt from these countries to suppress free media and also undermine our sovereignty," said Al Thani, the Qatari envoy. "They are trying to impose their views on how the issues need to be dealt with in the Middle East."

"They are bullies," he added.

The demands include shutting news outlets; curbing diplomatic relations with Iran; and severing all ties with Islamist groups including the Muslim Brotherhood. The United Arab Emirates said the list was intended to be confidential. The AP obtained a copy from one of the countries involved in the dispute.

The four countries cut ties with Qatar earlier this month over allegations that it funds terrorisman accusation US President Donald Trump has echoed. Qatar vehemently denies funding or supporting extremism but acknowledges that it allows members of some extremist groups such as Hamas to live in Qatar, arguing that fostering dialogue is key to resolving global conflicts.

Diplomatic crisis has the world choosing sides

The move by Qatar's neighbors has left it under a de facto blockade. Although residents made a run on the supermarket in the days after the crisis erupted, the situation has since calmed as Qatar secured alternative sources of imported food from Turkey and elsewhere.

Yet resisting the demands could prove difficult.

"The four states can afford to wait, but Qatar cannot," said Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics. "This crisis could threaten the political stability of the ruling family in Qatar in the long term if it lasts."

"The demands are so aggressive that it makes it close to impossible to currently see a resolution of that conflict," said Olivier Jakob, a strategist at Switzerland-based oil consultancy Petromatrix.

Ibrahim Fraihat, Conflict Resolution Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, forecast a prolonged stand-off. Qatar will reject the demands as a "non-starter", he said, and its neighbours had already escalated as far as they were likely to go. "Military action remains unlikely at the moment so the outcome after the deadline would be a political stalemate."

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has tried to mediate and earlier this week called on the Arab nations to limit themselves to "reasonable and actionable" demands. That call appeared to have been roundly ignored, and it was the Kuwaitiswho also offered to mediatewho delivered the list Thursday to Qatar.

"This is an Arab issue that requires an Arab solution," Otaiba said. "That's why the Kuwaitis will take the lead in the negotiation."

That's just fine, the US said. At the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer called it a "family issue" among Arab states and declined to say whether the newly articulated demands were legitimate.

"This is something that they want to and should work out for themselves," Spicer said.

The most powerful country in the region to back the Qatari side in the dispute has been Turkey, whose President Tayyip Erdogan has his roots in an Islamist political party similar to movements that Qatar has backed in the region. Days after the sanctions were imposed, Turkey rushed through legislation to send more troops to its base in Qatar as a sign of support.

Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isk rejected the demand to close the base, saying it would represent interference in Ankara's relations with Doha. Instead, Turkey might bolster its presence.

"Strengthening the Turkish base would be a positive step in terms of the Gulf's security," he said. "Re-evaluating the base agreement with Qatar is not on our agenda."

Qatari Al-Jazeera fights for its survival

Thrust into the middle of the crisis, the head of Al-Jazeera's English language service said the Qatari-based news network remained committed to continuing its broadcasts.

"Any call to close to down or curtail Al-Jazeera is nothing but an attempt to muzzle a voice of democracy in the region and suppress freedom of expression," he said by phone.

Underscoring the growing seriousness of the crisis, state-run Qatar Petroleum acknowledged Friday that some critically important employees "may have been asked to postpone" trips abroad "for operational reasons" due to the embargo. It described the move as "a very limited measure that could take place in any oil and gas operating company" to ensure uninterrupted supplies to customers.

Among other demands, Qatar's neighbors are insisting that it:

* Curb diplomatic ties with Iran, and limit trade and commerce in accordance to existing US and international sanctions.

* Stop funding other news outlets, including Arabi21, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and Middle East Eye.

* Hand over "terrorist figures" and wanted individuals from the four countries.

* Stop all means of funding for groups or people designated by foreign countries as terrorists. Despite former Sa udi statements specifically naming Hamas, the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas was not

mentioned as part of the current list of demands.

* Pay an unspecified sum in reparations.

* Stop all contacts with the political opposition in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain.
In its first five months, President Trumps presidency has witnessed dramatic shifts from the policies normalized by the Obama administration. Few are as significant or wide-ranging as the changes in American dealings with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The new attitude enjoys rare bipartisan support in Congress, and with good cause. The conciliatory policy of Trumps predecessor resulted in an ineffectual nuclear agreement and tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief for a regime that remains the worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism.

President Obama had insisted the Deal would prompt Tehran to moderate it behavior, but since the nuclear deal, Irans regime has only become more belligerent and more prone to human rights abuses, both within its own territory and across the Middle East.

In his speech at the Arab-US summit on May 21, Trump emphasized that Tehran is responsible for much instability in the region. From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, the Iranian regime funds, arms, and trains terrorists and extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos. For decades, Iran has fueled the fires of sectarian conflict while openly advocating mass murder, vowing the destruction of Israel, death to America, and ruin for many nations. Among Irans most tragic and destabilizing interventions is its support for the Syrian dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad in the midst of its unspeakable crimes.

But the Iranian regimes longest-suffering victims are its own people, as President Trump has rightly pointed out. Iran has a rich history and culture, but the people of Iran have endured hardship and despair under their leaders reckless pursuit of conflict and terror.

The US has a strategic and moral imperative to push back. The new administration has strengthened ties with adversaries of the Islamic Republic. It has also increased sanctions on Irans dangerous ballistic missile program and taken steps toward isolating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The overwhelming majority of Iranians have become disillusioned with the regime. The world saw this in massive uprisings in 2009, but by reaching out to the tyrants ruling Iran, the Obama administration helped doom them to violent suppression. Nevertheless, there are still constant reports of protests over unpaid wages, minimum social warfare, rampant corruption at the top of the regime, and so on.

These trends point to the popular support that exists for regime change. But the question then becomes whether that popular sentiment has the necessary organization to bring it to fruition.

Some contend that there is no such movement and that the opposition is fractured or lacking in support. In that case, the best strategy would be to merely contain the regime. But Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has repeatedly stated in recent weeks that any change in Tehrans behavior would be tantamount to the regime change. Faced with this attitude, containment is clearly not a realistic possibility.

A growing number of observers are making the case that there is a viable alternative. They point out that unlike many other cases in the Middle East, the Iranian opposition is organized in the form of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. It has an identifiable female leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has a progressive, democratic ten-point plan for the future of Iran.

The support among the diaspora is evident in its annual major gatherings in Paris (scheduled for July 1st), which draw tens of thousands of Iranian expatriates and their international supporters. It has solid bipartisan support among US congressmen and senior national security officials from the past four administrations.

For years the level of opposition support inside of Iran was an issue of dispute. It has been true that the key movement of the coalition, the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (POMI/MEK) has witnessed the brunt of the regimes suppression and some 100,000 of its activists have been executed over the years.

One noticeable change in the Iranian political landscape has been a substantial upsurge in domestic activism of the MEK. Its activists throughout the country have been risking arrest and torture by hanging banners and posters in major express ways and walkways urging regime change and support for Maryam Rajavi. The July 1 rally is expected to be viewed by millions, via a banned Resistance television network.

The Trump administration has moved Iran policy in the right direction but has yet to exploit the unique opportunity to turn the page against the ayatollahs for good, for the betterment of the Iranian people and the world as a whole.
The CIA had top-level intelligence last August that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered an operation to help Donald Trump win the US presidential race, the Washington Post has reported Friday.

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The intelligence shocked the White House and put US security chiefs on a top-secret crisis footing to figure out how to react.





Trump and Obama following Trump's surprises win (Photo: Reuters)

According to the Post, then-President Barack Obama decided not to go public with the information amid confidence that Democrat Hillary Clinton still had the election in the bag and worries over Obama himself being seen as manipulating the election. Instead, the administration delivered warnings to Moscow but left countermeasures until after the vote.

After Trump's shock victory, there were strong regrets among administration officials that they had shied from tough action.

"From national security people there was a sense of immediate introspection, of, 'Wow, did we mishandle this,'" a former administration official told the newspaper.

The Post further reported that as soon as the intelligence on Putin came in, the White House viewed it as a deep national security threat. A secret intelligence task force was created to firm up the information and come up with possible responses.

By the time the report landed on Obama's desk, WikiLeaks had already published the embarrassing revelations from the hacked Clinton emails. Since they could not unring that bell, the administration decided to focus on whether Moscow could disrupt the November 8 vote itself by hacking voter registration lists or voting machines, thereby undermining confidence in the vote tally itself.

Worried about making the situation worse, the administration put off retaliating, and instead delivered stiff warnings directly to the Russians not to go farther.

Officials told the Post that at least four direct warningsObama to Putin, spy chief to spy chief, and via top diplomatic channelsappeared to have an impact. They believe that Moscow pulled back on any possible plans to sabotage US voting operations.

Putin and Obama meeting at Obama's last G-20 Summit (Photo: EPA)

"We made the judgment that we had ample time after the election, regardless of outcome, for punitive measures," a senior administration official told the Post.

Options to retaliate were on the table early: more crippling sanctions on the Russian economy, leaking information that would embarrass Putin diplomatically, and launching cyber attacks on Russian infrastructure were high on the list.

But Trump's shock victory dampened the response. Obama took modest measures at the end of December, expelling 35 Russians and adding to existing sanctions. He also, according to the Post, authorized a plan to place cyber attack implants in the systems of critical Russian infrastructure.

But it remains unclear, the Post said, whether Trump has followed through with that.

Trump on Friday questioned Obama's response to the Russian hacking crisis.

"Just out: The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?" he posted on Twitter.

In an interview with Fox News program Fox and Friends that will air on Sunday, Trump groused that Obama's response did not get more media coverage.

"The CIA gave him information on Russia a long time before they evenbefore the election. And I hardly see it. It's an amazing thing," Trump said in an excerpt released by the program last evening.

"If he had the information, why didn't he do something about it? He should have done something about it. But you don't read that. It's quite sad."

Trump had previously acknowledged that Russia likely tried to interfere in the election, but has denounced investigations into possible Russian collusion with his campaign as a "witch hunt."
Jared Kushner, the special adviser and son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, was tasked with writing a report on his meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas earlier this week to determine whether the US administration should continue pushing for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, a senior Palestinian official has told Al-Hayat newspaper.

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According to the Palestinian official, Kushner asked Abbas to present his vision for a political solution during the meeting, adding that he had asked Benjamin Netanyahu to do the same.

Visuals of Abbas's meeting with Kushner

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Kushner said he would write a report based on his talks with the two leaders, and that Trump would decide whether to continue the process and present a peace initiative or withdraw it, if he concludes that both sides are not ready.

Kushner and Abbas during their meeting (Photo: Getty Images)

The senior Palestinian official added that Abbas refuses to meet the American Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, because of his past support for settlement construction, and that the US delegation even rebuked Abbas for this during their meeting.

The official's account of the meeting was published after it was reported Friday that the Palestinians were deeply disappointmented at the meeting between Abbas and Kushner. Palestinian sources described the meeting held in Ramallah as tense, charged and unsuccessful.

Photo: Getty Images

According to sources, the American delegation arrived at the meeting pushing for all the Israeli demands, which did not allow for any progress to be made, or a discussion to be held on the negotiations themselves or a trilateral summit between Trump, Netanyahu and Abbas.

"The American delegation accepted the Israeli position on the issue of paying salaries to prisoners, painted it at the meeting as a means of encouraging terrorism and demanded that it be stopped," the sources said.

Kushner with Netanyahu (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Another major issue was incitement. The Palestinians expressed great disappointment that these two issues were the main things the Americans talked , as opposed to the subject of a two-state solution, which the Palestinians tried in vain to get the American side to address.

Next month, a Palestinian delegation is expected to take off for Washington and continue the dialogue with the Americans, in preparation for a possible resumption of negotiations.
A leading Polish human rights official has come under fire for saying the "Polish nation" took part in the implementation of the Holocausta controversial statement in a country whose official view is that Poland never collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.

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The statement was made by Adam Bodnar, the country's human rights commissioner, who spoke Wednesday on the state-run TVP Info broadcaster.





The sign to Auschwitz extermination camp, located in Poland (Photo: EPA)

"There is no doubt that the Germans were responsible for the Holocaust, but many nations took part in its implementation. Among themand I say this with regretthe Polish nation," said Bodnar during his interview.

Bodnar later apologized for the comment, but members of Poland's conservative government nevertheless said he should resign.

The flap threatens to weaken Bodnar, who heads one of the last state institutions still independent from the ruling conservative Law and Justice party.

After taking power in 2015, the party moved quickly to consolidate its hold over the Constitutional Tribunal, public media and other state bodies in a way that has eroded checks and balances, sparking criticism by the European Union.

Bodnar's office has criticized the government for its steps against the constitutional court and over other human rights issues.

Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Dziedziczak called Bodnar's comment "scandalous," untrue and added it "disqualifies him from public life."

Bodnar

Bodnar quickly apologized for his choice of words and clarified that he did not mean to say that the entire nation took part in the Holocaust, only that some Poles had committed crimes against Jews.

The behavior of Poles toward Jews during Germany's wartime occupation of Poland remains an extremely sensitive subject.

Poland was subjected to a cruel occupation during the war and was the site of many death camps where the Germans murdered Jews, Roma and other minority groups.

Poles today are hugely offended at suggestions that they took part in the Holocaust. There is a state campaign to fight the term "Polish death camps," which non-Poles have sometimes used. After referring to a "Polish death camp" in a '12 speech of his, then US president Barack Obama raised the ire of the Polish population, until his administration had to issue an apology.

There also have been greater efforts in recent years to face the difficult issue of the Poles who did collaborate in violence against Jews for profit or other motives. However, the subject is anathema to the government, which prefers to speak only of the Poles who risked their lives to save Jews, sparking some criticisms of historical whitewashing.
Israeli Air Force aircraft attacked a number of targets belonging to the Syrian regime loyal to President Bashar Assad on Saturday afternoon in response to mortar shell fire earlier in the day that landed in Israeli territory.

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The IDF reported that ten projectiles were identified as having landed in the northern Israeli Golan Heights, apparently as a spillover from the civil war that is raging in Syria. The Israeli military added that the IAF retaliatory strike was aimed at two tanks and a position whence the projectiles were fired into Israel.

The Golan Heights

The IDF said that the fire from Syria landed in open areas Saturday and no injuries or damage was caused. But with Israelis flocking to the Golan Heights in the summer for hikes and fruit picking, the military asked them to keep their distance from the border area.

No siren was activated by the Syrian fire, which landed close to the border fence between Quneitra and the Valley of Tears.

A statement released by the military reads in part, "The IDF sees with severity and will not tolerate any attempt to harm the sovereignty of the State of Israel or the security of its residents, and sees the Syrian regime as responsible for what is happening in its territory."

The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said Syrian troops and their allies repelled an attack by insurgents on the outskirts of the southern city of Baath on the edge of the Golan Heights. The SCMM accused an Israeli helicopter of assisting insurgents in their attack on military outposts.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said that Israeli warplanes attacked a Syrian army position in Quneitra while Syria's state-run news agency SANA said "an army position was targeted in Quneitra."

Israel has steadfastly stayed on the sidelines of Syria's civil war, now in its seventh year, refraining from taking sides or getting drawn into hostilities. It has responded in the past with limited strikes when fire has spilled into Israel.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
DUBAIIranian security forces have arrested members of a group linked to ISIS which had planned bombings and suicide attacks in religious centers, state television reported on Saturday.

Intelligence Ministry agents "were able to arrest a group linked to Daesh (ISIS) that intended to carry out terror operations in religious cities, and (seized) explosive and suicide attack equipment," the television said.
The IDF Spokesperson's office released footage on Saturday evening of the Israeli Air Force's retaliatory strike on Syrian targets about an hour previously.

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Credit: IDF Spokesperson

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The footage, shown here, shows the IAF firing on a heavy machine gun and two tanks. The strike came a few hours after ten projectiles, ostensibly from the raging Syrian civil war, spilled over and landed in Israeli territory in the northern Golan Heights. The missiles caused no damages or injuries.

Syrian state media said a number of people were killed in the IAF strike.

IDF soldiers look towards fighting in Syria (Photo: AFP)

The minister's comments matched the spirit of a statement issued by the IDF, which reads in part, "The IDF sees with severity and will not tolerate any attempt to harm the sovereignty of the State of Israel or the security of its residents, and sees the Syrian regime as responsible for what is happening in its territory."

Holidaymakers in Israel point to the rising smoke (Photo: EPA)

Israel has steadfastly stayed on the sidelines of Syria's civil war, now in its seventh year, refraining from taking sides or getting drawn into hostilities. It has responded in the past with limited strikes when fire has spilled into Israel.
YORK  In the last year, the York County Development Corporation (YCDC) touched 49 business projects . . . meaning they were involved in some way to assist existing and outside businesses in their quests to find locations, facilitate expansions, provided for successions of ownership, assist with housing and workforce, etc.

We have been busy, says Lisa Hurley, YCDC executive director. Some of those projects were providing employment counts, some required some research, some were a matter of a few phone calls and some were site visits. They were all different, all in an effort to further the countys economic development.

Hurley made her annual report to the York County Commissioners this week.

She highlighted two new companies bringing in substantial jobs: Pellet Technology USA, which was a $40 million investment by that company that created 40 jobs, and McCarthy Holthus LLP which Hurley said will start with 25 jobs.

Business visitation surveys were completed, which showed workforce and housing continue to be the top two concerns for businesses, she said.

The YCDC participated in master planning and a due diligence study for the citys newest industrial site (along Division Avenue, east of the Nebraska Public Power District operations center).

Also in the last year, the City of York was named Community of the Year by the Nebraska Diplomats and York County was designated as a Livestock Friendly County.

We also received a 3-year community outreach grant to fund a new staff member, Hurley said. She will be working as a development coordinator who will work specifically on housing and workforce. These areas continue to be something we need to work on, it will take time but we are making headway.

She said the private investment in the YCDC organization has greatly increased in the last four years, which she sees as a sign we have improved the reputation of YCDC. And I feel we now have a positive relationship with the communities throughout the county.

I also want to mention that Lisa (Hurley) has again been elected chairman of the Southeast Nebraska Department of Economic Development Board of Directors, noted York County Commissioner Kurt Bulgrin, who also sits on that board.

I am a big believer in local, regional and state partnerships, Hurley said. We cant accomplish everything alone, we have to partner to be successful.

Thank you for what you do, said Commissioner Bill Bamesberger.

Hurley thanked the county for its continued financial support, noting that the budget request for the new fiscal year will be the same as last year, which was $70,000.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has cited 94 internet users in Iran that have been arrested in 2017, and charged with non-sensical crimes like cyber-warfare or immoral acts.

Most were users of the instant messaging service Telegram, which offers end-to-end encryption so that it should be impossible for the government to view the content.

Creator Pavel Durov said: Telegram has not entered into any agreements with any government on this planet, [and has] no plans to.

Information and communications technology minister Mahmoud Vaezi appeared to contradict this when he told the Regimes told parliament on June 7, that a deal had been made.

He said: Rather than block Telegram, which would drive users to turn to another app, we have reached an agreement with those in charge of it to block content of a sexual or anti-religious nature and content condoning violence and terrorism.

However, the Iranian Regime is no stranger to lying so we do not know for sure what happened.

In any case, the Iranian Regime must have gotten around the encryption by hacking or obtaining the passwords of at least one user, probably through torture.

On April 9, three citizen journalists were sentenced to 12 years in prison in relation to content they had posted via Telegram. They had been arrested in September 2016.

Vaezi claimed that he has launched an intelligent filtering service on the (heavily restricted) Internet which looked for certain logos and images and has blocked at least 7 million addresses and 121 software applications for violations. Over 173,000 Telegram accounts have been blocked.

Rather than focus on posts regarding terrorism, because that would actually block Regime officials, the filter focuses on websites dedicated to human rights and womens rights.

This is yet more evidence of a brutal Regime that is scared of a revolt by its own people. That is why we must support the Iranian Resistance (NCRI/MEK) and its elected leader Marya Rajavi, who serves as a government-in-exile and have a ten point plan to create an Iran for the 21st century, including respect for freedom of speech and of the press.

On July 1, the Resistance is holding a Free Iran rally in Paris with over 100,000 dignitaries, politicians and activists in attendance. The Iranian people want change and the Resistance will provide that.
Lisbon: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today visited the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon and interacted with a group of Indians working at the medical centre.



The foundation, designed by noted Indian architect Charles Correa, is dedicated to research and clinical applications in biomedical science.



There are currently three Indians undertaking advanced research at the foundation.



The foundation, which represents multiple synergies between India and Portugal, undertakes research in the fields of neuroscience and oncology at the modernistic Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown.



The aim of the foundation is to develop programmes of advanced biomedical research and provide clinical care. It was created according to the will of the late entrepreneur Antonio de Sommer Champalimaud.



The Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award was established in 2007 to recognise contributions to research into eyecare and vision. Aravind Eye Care System, an Indian organisation, won the award in the first year.



Out of the 300 researchers from 42 nations, 3 researchers at the Foundation represent India.



The foundation has a tie-up with the Prasad Institute in Hyderabad. The largest number of overseas patients for cancer treatment in the foundation are from India.
Lisbon: A gesture exuding personal warmth and attention, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa organised a special Gujarati meal at the lunch organised for visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Gujarati menu is as follows: Aakhu shakh, saag kofta, rajma aur makai, tarkha dal, kesar rice, paratha, roti, papad, mango shrikhand, Gulab jamun, egg less apple strudel, Vanilla ice cream and Sobremesa Indiana variada.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay took to twitter and shared the warm initiative taken by the Portuguese Prime Minister for his counterpart.

Earlier in the day Prime Minister Modi reached Lisbon, Portugal on the first leg of his three-nation tour on Saturday.

Prime Minister Modi in second-leg of his visit will later today depart for The United States of America.

Prime Minister Modi is the second Indian Prime Minister to visit Portugal. Earlier, former Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee attended a European Union meeting in Lisbon in the year 2000.
Gauteng: The brutal death of anti-apartheid campaigner Ahmed Timol was allowed to go quietly unsolved in the interests of South Africa's democratic reconciliation.

But now more than 45 years after he fell from a 10th-floor window at a notorious regime security building and died, Timol's case is being re-examined following a campaign to expose the truth led by his family.

Timol, a 30-year-old activist with the then-banned South African Communist Party (SACP), was arrested in Johannesburg on the night of October 22, 1971.

After being held in detention for five days, he was declared dead following his plunge from the blue-and-grey police headquarters onto the pavement below.

Following an investigation by authorities at the time, the anti-apartheid activist was found by a judge to have taken his own life.

Their verdict was not open to appeal.

"Murder, in the view of the testimony given, is excluded and even considering it, is ludicrous to accept anything other than that the deceased jumped out of the window and fell to the ground can only been seen as ludicrous," said the inquest judge, JJL de Villiers.

Case closed.

But Timol's friends and family would not be deterred from their pursuit of the truth.

His younger brother, who himself had been held in the apartheid regime's jails, was particularly instrumental in the campaign for justice.

"Whether he was pushed out of the window or whether he was forced to jump, one can't tell.

But over the years I have always said that Ahmed was killed in police custody," said Mohammad Timol.

Imtiaz Cajee, Ahmed Timol's nephew, is unequivocal about the events of October 1971.

"He was gruesomely tortured and we believe he was murdered.

If you look at the photographs of his body, nobody can believe he committed suicide," he said.

"Remember he was already the 22nd person who died in police hands in 1971, so they already had a history of killing people in police detention."

Timol's nephew has also championed the campaign for truth, pursuing many different avenues, driven by his conviction that his uncle died unlawfully.

Over the years, Imtiaz Cajee has launched media appeals, created a foundation, organised exhibitions, published a book and even recruited a private investigator with the help of an NGO.

Then in October last year there was a breakthrough -- prosecutors finally agreed to re-open Timol's case.

"We are of the opinion that there is compelling evidence that necessitates the reopening of the inquest in the interest of justice," the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) wrote.

A judge was tasked with examining the case and the first hearing was scheduled for June 26 at a Johannesburg court.

For Cajee it was a cathartic victory following a long, emotional fight.

"I have very faint memories of my uncle.

When he was murdered in 1971, I was merely five-years-old," he said.

"But from a very young age, the death of my uncle had an impact on me."

In April 1996, Cajee's grandmother relieved Timol's final hours in front of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a public forum established to air the horrors of apartheid South Africa that was chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

"I (vowed) to do something constructive to preserve the honour and legacy of my uncle," said Cajee.

But despite his grandmother's powerful testimony, the case remained largely forgotten.

Undeterred, Timol's nephew began to investigate the case, poring over old documents to get to the truth which led him to apply to prosecutors to reopen the file.

His application was rejected after a delay of four years.

Opening probes into deaths like that of Timol threatened to implicate members of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, said Yasmin Sooka, executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) and a former member of the TRC.

"They (the apartheid generals) had always said that if the NPA pursues this kind of case then they will certainly begin to lay private prosecutions against members of the ANC," she said.

With the help of Sooka's HRF, Cajee successfully reapplied for the case to be reconsidered.

And even if all of the police officers implicated in the incident have since died, Timol is eagerly awaiting the outcome of the renewed probe.

But even half-a-century after the original incident, Cajee has faced opposition to his bid to re-examine the contested and violent legacy of the apartheid era.

"It was clear during the inquest that the security branch had no motive at all to kill Timol," said JP Botha, a spokesman for the Foundation for Equality Before the Law which represents former police chiefs.

Beyond Ahmed's case, many other families are also seeking to expose the crimes of the apartheid regime and its supporters.

"Now we have gone through this entire period without any prosecution," said Sooka.

"It makes a mockery about the very promise upon which the new South Africa is built.

"It's important, I think, to close the circle of impunity."

"It's 45 years later but justice is never too late," said Mohammad Timol.

"It comes one day."
Bogota: Rebels with Colombia`s National Liberation Army (ELN) group have freed two Dutch journalists snatched days ago in the country`s northeast, officials said Saturday.

Colombia`s ombudsman office, which handles human rights related issues, wrote on Twitter that the rebel group freed reporter Derk Johannes Bolt, 62, and his cameraman Eugenio Ernest Marie Follender, 58, in a rural area of Norte de Santander state, posting an accompanying photo purporting to show the pair.
Pompano Beach: Authorities say a former Muslim threatened to blow up a Florida mosque, later telling investigators he was being targeted for converting to Judaism.

A Broward Sheriff's Office report says 38-year-old Shawkat Mzayek was arrested on Thursday and charged with making a false bomb threat.

The Islamic Center of South Florida in Pompano Beach received a call on Thursday saying the mosque would be blown up that night.

Deputies responded and traced the caller ID to Mzayek.

No bomb was found.

The report says that when questioned later at his Sunrise home, Mzayek acknowledged calling the mosque, as well as a Muslim-owned convenience store.

Mzayek said the Muslim community considers him a dead man because of his conversion.

Mzayek was being held without bail.

Jail records didn't list an attorney for him.
Bogota: An explosion at a central Colombian coal mine killed at least two people Friday, as rescuers scrambled to find another 11 who are still missing, authorities said, updating earlier figures.

The blast occurred at a coal mine in the town of Cucunuba in Cundinamarca state, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of Bogota, at about 2130 GMT.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who is wrapping up an official visit to France, in Twitter message expressed his "solidarity with the victims".

Officials said they do not know what caused the explosion which also injured one person.

Earlier Friday, officials had said reported that one person was killed and 18 trapped in the disaster.

"We are going to dig by hand throughout the night to try to rescue" the missing workers, Wilson Garcia, director of the emergency response unit in Cundinamarca, told AFP.
Washington: Talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump in what would be their first face-to-face meeting would focus on ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism and defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, besides trade and law enforcement, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has said.



Spicer said that talks between the two on Monday would be "robust".



"... The President and the Prime Minister will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counterterrorism, defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement, and energy. I think it's going to be a very robust discussion," he said at his regular briefing on Friday.



Modi left New Delhi on Saturday on a three-nation tour that will take him to the US, Portugal and the Netherlands. He reached Portugal on Saturday ahead of his visit to the US on June 26 and will visit the Netherlands on June 27 on the way back home.



Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar flew into Washington ahead of Modi's visit to meet senior officials in the Trump administration and to lay the groundwork for the Modi-Trump meeting.



On Friday, Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and both sides focused on areas of convergence.



Indian envoy to the US Navtej Sarna has termed Modi's visit a "great opportunity for the two leaders to know each other". He said Modi will meet the top 20 CEOs of the US during the visit.



Sarna also expressed the hope that the visit will provide sufficient time for Modi and Trump to get to know each other.



He said that India is major defence partner of the US and both countries have a robust defence and security relationship.



In a pre-departure statement, Modi on Friday said he will hold in-depth discussions with Trump during his visit and hoped to build a forward-looking vision for partnership with the new administration.



The Prime Minister said that apart from his official meetings with Trump and his Cabinet colleagues, he will meet some prominent American CEOs and the large Indian diaspora.



Former President Barack Obama had called India-US ties the "most defining partnership" of the 21st century. Both leaders had struck a warm personal equation and worked to ease any bilateral irritants.

The Obama administration had accorded India the status of a 'major defence partner'.



According to reports, the US has cleared the sale of 22 American-made Guardian surveillance drones for India ahead of Modi's visit. The deal is estimated to be worth $2-3 billion.



Both sides will also discuss the sale of US fighter jets during the Modi's visit.



Earlier this week, US defence giant Lockheed Martin and India's Tata group signed an agreement to jointly build the F-16 Block 70 fighter in India, in a boost to Prime Minister Modi's 'Make in India' programme.



Under the deal, Lockheed will shift its Fort Worth, Texas plant to India without directly affecting American jobs.



The deal was announced during the Paris Airshow between Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) and Lockheed Martin.



The navies of India, US and Japan also participate in the Malabar exercise.
Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar here.

Secretary Tillerson met with Foreign Secretary Jaishankar yesterday to discuss the US-India relationship and the agenda for Prime Minister Modi's meetings at the White House on June 26, a State Department spokesman said told PTI.

"The Secretary noted the Prime Minister's visit will strengthen ties between the United States and India and advance our common interest in fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth and prosperity, and expanding security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region," the spokesperson said.

The two agreed that the two countries have a deep and growing strategic partnership and hope to work more closely on regional and global issues, the official said in response to a question.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department.

Jaishankar, a former Indian ambassador to the US, has been playing a leading role in shaping the India-US relationship under the Modi government.

Modi's US visit would begin on June 25.

Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

Ahead of his visit, Modi yesterday said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations.

Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he tweeted.

In a statement posted on the Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.

"President Trump and I have spoken on the telephone prior to this.

Our conversations have touched upon our common intent to take forward our productive all round engagement for the mutual benefit of our people," he said.

"I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide-ranging partnership between India and the United States," the prime minister said.

He noted that India's partnership with the US is multi- layered and diverse, supported by not just governments but all the stakeholders on both sides.

"I look forward to building a forward-looking vision for our partnership with the new Administration in the United States under President Trump," he added.

Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.

Like in the past, he will also be interacting with the Indian Diaspora.
Washington: Asserting that the US' ties with India and Pakistan were not a 'zero-sum game', the White House has said that the Trump administration's priorities and the nature of relationship with the two countries were different.

"We seek to have an effective partnership with each country. With India, we're building that strategic partnership. We see India's role and influence growing. We like to encourage that trend. So, we're looking for ways to cooperate on our mutual interests," a senior administration official told reporters at a news conference here.

"With Pakistan, we seek to have a productive partnership working together. But frankly, the priorities are different, and the nature of the relationships are different. So, I think that we would like to move forward with both countries.

"We realise that the pace and scope of that relationship is going to be different in each case," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity said in response to a question on concerns in Pakistan with regard to increasing ties with India.

Relationship with India and Pakistan is not a zero-sum game, he said.

"I want to make the point here that US relationships with India and Pakistan really stand on their own merits and terms. We don't see a zero-sum relationship when it comes to the US relationship with Pakistan and the US relationship with India.

"We're certainly eager to deepen the strategic partnership with India," he said.

"We are also interested in continuing our cooperation with Pakistan," the official said adding that the US is concerned about tensions between India and Pakistan.

He said the US would like to see the normalisation of relations between the two countries.

"We believe it's in both countries' interests. It's in the interests of the region, and even the globe, given that they're both nuclear-weapon powers," the official said.

"But we very much encourage India and Pakistan to engage in a direct bilateral dialogue aimed at reducing those tensions," the official said while denying reports that sale of high-tech defence items to India would have any adverse impact on Pakistan.

"The US also has a defence partnership with Pakistan. We do cooperate with Pakistan on some security and defence and counter terrorism issues. So again, we don't see this as a zero-sum game," the official said.

"We see this as the US and India have mutual security interests that they want to advance, and we believe that the defence sales that are being discussed will help advance those. It is not about Pakistan.

"The defence deals -- we do take into account the regional situation. We very much want to avoid a situation that escalates tensions between the two," he said.

"So these issues are taken into account. But some of the defence systems that we're talking about we don't believe impact Pakistan. They may be different systems than we are transferring to Pakistan, but we don't believe they represent a threat to Pakistan," said the White House official.

Meanwhile, a senior Trump official yesterday said that India and the US have a common objective in Afghanistan, and the two countries could increase their cooperation to enhance the Afghan economy.

"India has played a positive role in Afghanistan, the US believes. They have pledged over USD 3 billion in assistance to Afghanistan. The Afghans appreciate the kind of support and assistance that the Indians have provided--I'm not just talking about the government, I'm talking about the population," the official told reporters.

"When they've done polling, there's a very positive feeling toward India and the kind of assistance -- they've assisted in the education sector, the health sector. They built the parliament building. They support democracy, democratic development there," he said, listing out the developmental activities by India in the war-torn country.

"So I think this administration's opinion is that India has played a helpful role in Afghanistan in helping to stabilise that country, helping to strengthen the government in its fight against the Taliban insurgency.

"That's the kind of role that the US would like to encourage and perhaps maybe even cooperate in terms of development projects," the official said on condition of anonymity.

As such, "this is an area that the two can increase their coordination and their consultation," the official said.

"Of course, the US has major assistance programs to Afghanistan as well. So I think this is an area where I think they can expand that dialogue on what they can do to help the economy, help Afghanistan become more self-sufficiently financially.

"Ultimately, that's the ultimate goal," the White House official said.

"We have that mutual goal, and you'll see more consultations on that moving forward," he added.

The Trump Administration is currently doing a review of its Afghan policy.
District of Columbia: Washington's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan stepped down on Friday, just as the United States is preparing to send thousands more troops to the region.

A senior State Department official told AFP that acting special representative Laurel Miller left the post without a replacement being named.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Miller is returning to a position at the Rand Corporation and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has not yet decided what to do with post.

The office was created when US officials decided that the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan are inextricably linked and ought to be dealt with together.

President Donald Trump came to office planning to slash diplomatic spending and Tillerson plans to cut several special envoy roles.

Miller's responsibilities will now fall under the department's South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau, which has a much bigger footprint that includes India.

But this bureau is itself leaderless, with no assistant secretary appointed to lead it and no one nominated by the new administration for Senate approval.

When news site Politico broke the news that the envoy post had gone, it cited diplomats complaining of a rushed process and a dangerous leadership vacuum.

But, also speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior official told AFP the decision was part of a broader policy review.

Tillerson thinks the issue is best handled at a regional level, the official said, arguing that it made sense to consider India part of the equation.

Trump has given the Pentagon and US commanders wide latitude to decide on the future of Washington's longest ever war -- the 16-year slog in Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is reportedly planning to deploy up to 5,000 extra troops to bolster efforts to train Afghan forces to repel a resurgent Taliban insurgency.
Dhaka: At least 16 people were killed on Saturday when a truck carrying labourers veered off the road in Bangladesh`s Rangpur district, police said.

The accident occurred around 5.30 a.m., on the Dhaka-Rangpur Highway, bdnews24 quoted a senior police official as saying.

The travellers all hailed from Kaliganj in Lalmonirhat, but they were not identified.

The labourers had hired a cement-carrying truck for their journey home from Dhaka to Rangpur, the official told bdnews24.com.

Eleven people were killed on the spot while five others died on the way to the hospital.

An initial report states that all of the passengers worked at a garments factory in Dhaka.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa: The death toll from multiple attacks in Pakistan rose to 73, officials said Saturday, a day after the bomb and gun assaults in three cities shook the country as it prepared to mark the end of Ramadan, Islam`s holiest month.

Officials in Quetta said the number of dead had risen by one to 14 after a blast in the southwestern city which targeted police. Ten policemen were among those killed.

The attack was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, according to the SITE monitoring group, though there was no immediate explanation for the dual claims.

Later Friday twin blasts in the northwestern city of Parachinar then ripped through crowds in a market before sunset. Officials confirmed Saturday that the attack had killed 39 people and injured more than 200.

Parachinar is the capital of Kurram, one of Pakistan`s seven semi-autonomous tribal districts, which has a history of sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shiites.

Officials in Kurram said dozens of people were still undergoing treatment in hospital.

"A total of 216 people were injured in the twin blasts. Some 106 are still under treatment in a local hospital," Nasrullah Khan, an administration official in Kurram told AFP.

"62 other seriously wounded people have been shifted to Peshawar," he added.

Basir Khan Wazir, the top government official in Parachinar, later told AFP that both blasts were carried out by suicide bombers.

A spokesman from a Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Alami sent a message to AFP on Saturday claiming responsibility for the Parachinar attack.

The group is believed to be linked to sectarian outfit Lashkar-e-Janghvi (LeJ), responsible for many attacks across Pakistan.

Also on Friday, gunmen riding motorcycles shot dead four policemen, spraying bullets at them while they were eating dinner at a roadside restaurant in the port megacity of Karachi.

Pakistan has seen a dramatic improvement in security in the last two years, but groups such as the umbrella Pakistani Taliban, LeJ and other extremist outfits still retain the ability to carry out attacks.

Parachinar was the location of the first major militant attack in Pakistan in 2017, a bomb in a market which killed 24 people and was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.
Dera Ismail Khan: A faction of Pakistan-based sectarian militants Lashkar-e-Jhangvi on Saturday claimed responsibility for twin bombs that hit a market in the northwestern town of Parachinar, killing at least 50 people ahead of the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

LeJ`s Al Alami faction said in a statement it was targeting minority Shi`ite Muslims and threatened more attacks over Pakistanis fighting against Sunni militants in Syria`s civil war.

Video footage after the attack showed civilians dragging bleeding victims outside to waiting ambulances in the chaos that came when the bombs exploded before the sundown meal breaking the daily Ramadan fast.

"We have received 50 bodies so far, and 250 were wounded," said Sabir Hussain, medical superintendent of Parachinar Hospital. Sixty of the seriously wounded had been transferred to the larger city of Peshawar, he added.

LeJ Al Alami, which has previously partnered with Middle East-based Islamic State to carry out attacks in Pakistan, said it has previously "warned the Shia community of Parachinar ... to stop staining your hands with the blood of Sunnis in Syria".

It repeated the demand in the statement, saying that "otherwise in the coming days you will face such hate-fueled and deadly attacks that you will not be able to stand them".

Hundreds of Pakistanis - many of them Shi`ites believed recruited by Iran - have gone to fight in Syria to defend the government of Tehran`s ally, President Bashar al-Assad.

Assad`s government is also supported by Russian air strikes and fighters from Lebanon`s Hezbollah militia, against an array of Sunni rebels backed by Turkey and Arab states.

The United States, Turkey, Arab and European powers are also participating in a coalition bombing Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim militant group.

The market bombings in Parachinar late on Friday afternoon came on a particularly deadly day for Pakistan as both Sunni and Shia Muslims prepared to mark the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Another bombing in the southwestern city of Quetta killed 13 people and a drive-by shooting killed four police officers in the southern megacity of Karachi on Friday.

Both of those attacks were claimed by another militant group, the Jamaat ur Ahrar faction of the Pakistani Taliban.

Islamic State also claimed the Quetta attack through a messaging network. It had not commented on the Parachinar attack by Saturday afternoon.

Sunni-majority Pakistan also has a sizeable Shi`ite minority and has sought to avoid being dragged into sectarian strife that is rife in Syria and also the recent rift between Qatar and Saudia Arabia-led Sunni states that have cut off ties with Doha in part over its relations with Iran.

Pakistan`s military said late Friday it had tightened security across the country, including at the Afghan border, following the attacks.

"Enemy trying to mar festive mood of nation through such coward acts. Shall fail against resilience of Pakistan," Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa was quoted as saying in a tweet from the chief military spokesman.
Nagapattinam: At least eight fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy from Tamil Nadu`s Nagapattinam in the late hours of Friday for allegedly entering into Sri Lankan territorial waters.

The navy also seized one boat used by the fishermen near Paruthithurai at the Bay of Bengal Sea.

Earlier on June 22, the Lankan Navy arrested four Tamil Nadu fishermen for allegedly fishing in Sri Lanka`s territorial waters.
Kolkata: The Future Group`s lifestyle and fashion retail outlet Central is looking at a 40 percent business growth this year to take its revenue to Rs 3,500 crore, a top company official said here on Saturday.

"This year, we target a revenue of Rs 3,500 crore for Central. We are looking at 40 percent growth over last year," the group`s CEO Kishore Biyani said here.

He said the group`s fashion business will be close to Rs 12,000 crore this year.

Central will be investing Rs 300 crore for expanding its reach across cities, he said.

The group is also looking to open 15 stores in the current fiscal year so that the total stores will be 50 by the end of this year, Biyani said at the launch of a Central store here which houses Biswa Bangla products.

At present, there are 35 stores in different cities across India.

Speaking on the Goods and Services tax (GST), he said the prices of certain products would reduce.
New Delhi: Two unidentified men were killed and two injured on Saturday after a car ran over them as they were resting on a footpath in north Delhi, police said.



The accident occurred around 12 p.m. near the Hanuman Mandir in the Kashmiri Gate area. The injured were shifted to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital here.



Police said the cause of the accident was yet to be ascertained as the car driver since arrested was in shock and not in a condition to talk.



"Prima facie, it doesn`t look like the driver is drunk, but we`re waiting for his medical report," a police officer said.
New Delhi: Ahead of Eid, a 24-year-old labourer was killed today when a wall of an under-construction building collapsed near the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi, police said.



Zubair Alam worked as a construction labourer and resided near the Jama Masjid.



"He was working at the site this afternoon when a wall collapsed, killing him," an official said.



He was rushed to a hospital where he was declared brought dead, the official added.



The body has been preserved for post-mortem.
New Delhi: Traders' body CAIT will organise 100 GST Clinics across the country to acquaint traders about the new indirect tax regime to be in place from July 1.

The Confederation of All India Traders said it is working with HDFC Bank, Tally Solutions and Mastercard for the endeavour, which will attempt to reach out to six crore traders.

"The first phase of the nationwide awareness campaign will begin on July 1 and will help the trading community transition smoothly from the current tax regime to Goods and Services Tax," CAIT said in a statement.

The clinics will inform traders about the fundamentals of GST, the designated role of technology for its compliance, requisite information about mandatory compliance obligations, linkage of digital payments with GST and the changes required to make business compatible with its provisions.

CAIT National President B C Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said because large number of traders are unaware of core issues including compliance which has led to a situation of utter confusion and unnecessary panic, the GST Clinic will ease the situation.

The GST Clinics will be held in offices of trade associations, HDFC Bank branches or markets easily accessible to traders.

However, CAIT raised concerns of traders on GST pertaining to lower tax slabs for various items capped under higher rate, levy of tax on branded food grain & pulses, seeking deferment of E Way Bill provision and applicability of HSN Code for at least six months and declaration of first nine months from July 1 as interim period.
New Delhi: Implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1 would help reduce cascading effects of multiple taxes, lower cost and make exports more competitive, a top government official said today.

Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said the two main export promotion schemes - Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) and Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) - will continue post GST implementation but would be aligned with the new indirect tax regime.

The commerce ministry, she said, is reviewing the validity of the scrips and export obligation periods to make them more realistic and aligned with GST network so that there is a seamless process of extending benefit to exporters.

She was addressing exporters at an event organised by Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) in Mumbai.

Exporters get duty/tax credit scrips under the incentive schemes. These are kind of certificates which can be used to pay duties including import taxes.

Due to introduction of GST, "there will be low effect of duty on many items, reduction in cascading effects of multiple taxes despite the apprehensions felt by the EXIM (export- import) community, ultimately resulting in lowering the cost and making our exports more competitive," FIEO said in a statement quoting Teaotia.

Speaking at the event, FIEO President Ganesh Kumar Gupta said duty drawback rates may now only cover the basic customs duty on the inputs.
London: Six emails sent by and to an Arconic Inc sales manager raise questions about why the company supplied combustible cladding to a distributor for use at Grenfell Tower, despite publicly warning such panels were a fire risk for tall buildings.

The emails, dating from 2014 and seen by Reuters, were between Deborah French, Arconic`s UK sales manager, and executives at the contractors involved in the bidding process for the refurbishment contract at Grenfell Tower in London, where 79 people died in a blaze last week.

When asked about the emails, Arconic said in a statement that it had known the panels would be used at Grenfell Tower but that it was not its role to decide what was or was not compliant with local building regulations.

The company manufactures three main types of Reynobond panel-- one with a polyethylene (PE) core, one with a fire retardant core and another with a non-combustible core, according to its website.

Diagrams in a 2016 Arconic brochure for its Reynobond panels describe how PE core panels are suitable up to 10 metres in height. Panels with a fire resistant core -- the FR model -- can be used up to 30 metres, while above that height, panels with the non-combustible core -- the A2 model -- should be used, the brochure says.

Grenfell Tower is more than 60 metres tall.

The brochure also issued a blunt warning that cladding can be a fire risk. "When conceiving a building, it is crucial to choose the adapted products in order to avoid the fire to spread to the whole building. Especially when it comes to facades and roofs, the fire can spread extremely rapidly," the brochure said.

"As soon as the building is higher than the fire fightersladders, it has to be conceived with an incombustible material."

Nonetheless, between May and July 2014, French, who was based at Arconic`s factory in Merxheim, France, responded to requests from the companies involved in refurbishing Grenfell Tower on the availability of samples of five different types of Reynobond aluminium-covered panels, all of which were only available in the combustible PE and FR versions, according to Arconic brochures.

In the end, Arconic said on Friday, the company provided PE panels.

"While we publish general usage guidelines, regulations and codes vary by country and need to be determined by the local building code experts," the company said in an emailed statement in response to the Reuters enquiry.

"The loss of lives, injuries and destruction following the Grenfell Tower fire are devastating, and we would like to express our deepest sympathies to everyone affected by this tragedy ... We will fully support the authorities as they investigate this tragedy," the statement said.

French did not respond to requests for comment.

Arconic, which was known as Alcoa Inc until 2016, declined to say if it knew how tall the tower was and the emails seen by Reuters do not specifically refer to its height. They do, however, refer to "Grenfell Tower" and mention other high rise projects where panelling has been used when discussing the appearance that was being sought for Grenfell Tower.

Arconic also knew the quantity of panels being supplied and thus the total exterior coverage. A source at one of the companies involved in the process said Arconic had "full involvement" throughout the contract bidding process.

Omnis Exteriors, Arconic`s UK distributor, Harley Facades Ltd., the company which installed the panels, Rydon Group, the overall contractor on the 2014-2016 Grenfell refurbishment, and the local authority which owns the tower block all declined to comment.

Rydon and Omnis have previously said in statements that their work on the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, which was intended to give the building better heat and sound insulation, complied with all building regulations. Harley said last week it was "not aware of any link between the fire and the exterior cladding to the tower".

In the emails, French and representatives of Harley, Omnis and Rydon also discuss the choice of panel models and colours and how they were inching towards securing the contract with the local authority, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC).

Harris did not respond to requests for comment. RBKC declined to comment.

At the weekend, British finance minister Philip Hammond said the type of panels used, which are cheaper than non-combustible panels, were banned for use in high rise buildings in Britain, as they are in Europe and the United States.

Safety experts say the regulations are not black and white as they consider the overall safety of a project, taking account of how the safety measures taken interact.

This `principles-based` approach is different to the highly specific `rules-based` approach to regulation taken in the United States.

The fatal fire was started by a faulty Hotpoint fridge-freezer in one of the apartments, London police said on Friday. Detective Superintendent Fiona McCormack said insulation on the building, and the cladding panels, had failed safety tests carried out after the disaster.

The police investigation was considering the possibility of manslaughter and criminal offences in respect of the fire.
Ahmedabad: In the event of anti-Hindi backlash being witnessed across the country, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said Hindi is the national language of India and it is impossible to progress without the language.

"Hindi is our national language and it is impossible for India to progress without Hindi.

It is unfortunate that everyone is after English medium; I am against Britishers but not their language.

We should learn all language, but by learning English our mindset is also changing, this is wrong , this is against the interest of the nation ," Naidu said.

He further said that it was necessary for people to learn their mother languages as the dominance of English medium have shadowed their cultural heritage.

"Since majority of the population speaks Hindi, it is necessity to learn Hindi, but before that we need to learn our mother language," he said.

"It is unfortunate that everyone is bent upon learning English because it guarantees employment.

Hence I want the nation to discuss, promote and learn our mother languages more and at the same time learn Hindi as well," he added.

The minister's comment comes in the backdrop of apprehensions being expressed by the people, especially in the southern states over the usage of Hindi language.

Parties like Karnataka's Janata Dal (Secular) and Tamil Nadu's Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (DMK) have criticised the Centre for 'imposing' Hindi language in their states.

DMK acting president MK Stalin threatened to begin an anti-Hindi agitation after milestones marked in Hindi were seen on Tamil Nadu highways.

In Bengaluru, protests were taking place over Hindi being used as a language in the Metro train sign boards.

Earlier this year, the Centre notified a recommendation of the parliamentary panel after President Pranab Mukherjee gave his nod to the suggestion.

The parliamentary panel had recommended the use of Hindi by parliamentarians and ministers.

The recommendation had been sent to the President in June, 2011.
Washington: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's much-awaited United States of America visit, the Trump administration has rejected reports that it has been ignoring India.

Talking to reporters, a senior administration official said: "I think that it would be wrong to say that this administration has been ignoring or not focused on India."

"I think that the US really appreciates India, and I think that President Trump realises that India has been a force for good in the world and that it's a relationship that's important. And I think that will come through in the visit on Monday," the official added.

The PM arrives in the US on Sunday and is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump face-to-face for the first time at the White House on Monday.

The senior administration official made the remarks while responding to questions on whether the US-India relationship has drifted under the new government, in part, because of President Trump and the administration's support to China.

"I think it's a bit unfair. I mean, we're only six months into the administration. But there have been two very good phone calls between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi that you can point to as showing both countries' interest in the relationship," the White House official argued.

"Yes, this will be the first opportunity for them to sit down and have a conversation, but I think that this is still fairly early on in the administration," the official said.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said President Trump and Prime Minister Modi would have a very robust discussion when they meet at the White House.

"During the meeting, the President and the Prime Minister will discuss ongoing cooperation, including counter-terrorism, defence partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, global cooperation, burden-sharing, trade, law enforcement, and energy," Spicer said in response to a question.

Senator Mark Warner, Co-Chair of the Senate India Caucus hoped that Trump, in his meeting with Prime Minister Modi, shows enthusiastic support for deepening the US-India relationship, which enjoys strong bipartisan support.

"The relationship is ripe for additional cooperation in areas such as the development of aircraft carrier technology, space surveillance, unmanned aerial vehicles, cyber and increased defense manufacturing," Warner said.

"As we venture further into the Asian Century, there is little doubt of the increasing significance of India on the world stage. Our cooperation helps increase global security and advance economic opportunity in both countries," Warner said in response to a question.

On whether the contentious H-1B visa issue would come up for discussion during the meeting, a senior administration official said it was unlikely to be raised from the US side but if raised by the Indian side, the Americans were ready for it.

Ahead of the visit, Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna said the first face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump will give them an opportunity to look at the entire gamut of Indo-US engagement and to exchange views on issues of global interest.

At the invitation of Trump, the Prime Minister would spend several hours with the US President at the White House on Monday afternoon, which would end with a dinner later that night.

This would be the first working dinner being hosted by Trump for a foreign leader at the White House.

"I think that just shows the amount of care that has gone in on the part of the White House to welcome our Prime Minister and the kind of planning that has gone into make this a very special visit," Sarna said.

"This (dinner) is a special gesture and it is appreciated," he said.

On the agenda of the meeting, a senior administration official told reporters that the civil nuclear deal would be part of the discussions between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump.

The White House also emphasised that the US was looking forward to its nuclear reactors contributing to India's energy security.

It said the US is interested in providing India with the kind of defence technology it normally reserves for its closest allies, signalling the Trump administration's resolve to strengthen the bilateral defence relationship.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar here and told him that Prime Minister Modi's Washington visit would strengthen the Indo-US relationship and help advance the common interest in fighting terrorism and promoting economic growth.

The two agreed that the two countries have a deep and growing strategic partnership and hope to work more closely on regional and global issues.

Jaishankar also met other senior officials at the State Department.

Ahead of his visit, Prime Minister Modi on Friday said he will hold in-depth discussions with President Trump during his visit to Washington and hoped to build a forward-looking vision for a partnership with the new administration.

The Prime Minister said the visits were aimed at enhancing bilateral engagement in various areas.

He said India's partnership with the United States is multi-layered and diverse, supported by not just governments but all the stakeholders on both sides.

"I look forward to building a forward-looking vision for our partnership with the new administration in the United States under President Trump," Modi said.

"I look forward to this opportunity to have an in-depth exchange of views on further consolidating the robust and wide-ranging partnership between India and the United States," he said.

(With Agency inputs)
Thiruvananthapuram: A 33-year-old Keralite priest who was missing from last four days was found dead on a beach in Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, according to information received by Church sources here on Saturday.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tonight condoled the priest's death and asked the Consulate General of India in Edinburgh to provide help.

"I am sorry Father Martin Xavier has been found dead on the Dunbar beach. My heartfelt condolences. @IndiaInScotland will provide all help," she said in a tweet.

A message about the death of Martin Xavier Vazhachira, belonging to the CMI Congregation, was received by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate provincial here from the Archbishop of St Andrews in Edinburgh this morning.

The message said the priest, hailing from Pulinkunnu in Alappuzha district, was found dead by Edinburgh police.

Details would be available only after Tuesday, a CMI official told PTI.

The priest served at St John the Baptist Church, Corstorphine in Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader in State Assembly Ramesh Chennithala asked External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to take immediate steps to bring the priest's body to India.

In a letter to Swaraj, Chennithala said the body was found under mysterious circumstances on a beach and sought a comprehensive probe into his death.
Lisbon: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today thanked Portugal for sharing a digital version of 12,000 documents comprising exchange of letters between Goa and Portugal in the 17th century.

Modi, who is here on a brief visit, said that these letters would help researchers in India.

The Portuguese conquest of Goa occurred when the governor of Portuguese India Afonso de Albuquerque captured the city in 1510.

After failure of diplomacy with the Portuguese, then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru ordered the Indian Armed Forces to take Goa by force. In a military operation conducted on December 18 and 19, 1961, Indian troops captured Goa with little resistance.
Jammu: A Pakistan Border Action Team (BAT) member, shot dead on Thursday, was wearing a headband camera on his head while sneaking across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indian Army has also recovered dagger along with arms and ammunition from the slain BAT member.

The recovery of dagger and camera from the BAT member reflects the barbaric mindset of the Pakistan Army, said a senior Army officer.

In third such attack this year, a team of Pakistani special forces had on June 22 sneaked 600 metres across the LoC, killing two Indian soldiers while losing one of their men in retaliatory action.

Army troops, during search and sanitation operations, recovered the body of the BAT member on Friday.

"The body of the intruder killed in the BAT attempt on 22 June has been retrieved and handed over to the local police," a senior Army officer told PTI.

"Arms, ammunition and other warlike stores including a special dagger and a headband with a camera, knife, one AK rifle, 3 magazines, 2 grenades besides dresses and bags was recovered which reflects the barbaric mindset of the Pakistan Army," he said.

"The resolute action of our soldiers didn't let the nefarious plan (of mutilating bodies and recording it on camera) succeed," the officer said.

Giving details, the officer said that a special class of dagger and a knife was meant to engineer quick mutilation and beheading of jawans killed in the firing exchanges and it has been foiled by the quick action by Indian soldiers.

The BAT member was wearing a headband with the camera on his head to record the action and possible mutilation of jawans, which was prevented by other troops who shot dead one of them and injured another, he said.

The officer said it is a matter of investigation whether the camera was live connected with Pakistan Army establishments across the border.

"The data and details of the camera will be analysed," he said.

"We are confident that another BAT member has also been killed but his body was taken back by the other members of the BAT," he said.

The Border Action Team (BAT), which generally comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistan Army and some terrorists, carried out the attack at around 2 pm on Thursday under heavy cover fire by Pakistani troops from their posts, he said.

"A Border Action Team of five to seven heavily-armed men, under the cover of Pakistani firing, entered 600 meters inside the LoC in Gulpur forward area in Poonch sector around 2 PM on Thursday and launched a fierce attack on Indian Army patrol party with several types of weapons," the official said.

The Pakistani attackers came up to 200 meters near the Indian posts.

During the attack, the Pakistani troops resorted to firing in Gulpur-Karmara-Chakan-Da-Bagh area along the LoC.

The armed intruders targeted an area domination patrol of the Indian Army, triggering a gunfight, the official said.

The Indian troops killed one of the attackers and injured another whose extrication was facilitated by the cover fire by the Pakistani troops from their posts.

In the firefight, two Indian soldiers were killed. They were 34-year-old Naik Jadhav Sandip of Aurangabad, Maharashtra and 24-year-old Sepoy Mane Savan Balku of Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

The Pakistani firing continued till 3.30 pm on Thursday even as the Indian posts retaliated strongly.

Pakistan's Border Action Teams (BAT) comprise heavily-armed terrorists, supported by the country's Army. The BAT teams cross into the Indian side of the LoC while the Pakistan Army engages the Indian troops in cross-border firing in a bid to facilitate BAT actions.

In a similar BAT attack on May 01, two Indian soldiers were beheaded in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district. That attack too was carried out under the cover of shelling by the Pakistani troops.

Prior to that, a BAT attack was carried out in February but there were no casualties.

Earlier, there have been several BAT attacks in which Indian jawans have been beheaded or their bodies mutilated.

On October 28 last year, militants attacked a post and killed an Indian Army soldier and mutilated his body close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Machil sector.

In January 2013, Lance Naik Hemraj was killed and his body mutilated by a BAT. It had also beheaded Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh.

(With Agency inputs)
Lisbon: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left for the US for his first meeting with President Donald Trump after concluding his brief visit to Portugal during which the two nations signed 11 agreements.

Modi, who arrived here today, held wide ranging talks with his counterpart Antonio Costa.

He also addressed the Indian community and presented the Overseas Citizen of India card to Costa.

Deviating from protocol, Costa came to see off Modi.

"Concluding a historic visit to Portugal. Deviating from Protocol, PM @antoniocostapm see off PM @narendramodi, a warm goodbye," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted.

"PM @narendramodi visit takes #IndiaPortugal bilateral relations to new heights," Baglay said.

In the US, Modi will attend a community reception tomorrow and hold talks with Trump on Monday.

Ahead of his US visit, Modi said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he had tweeted.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington was at the invitation of Trump.

Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday embarked on a three-nation tour of Portugal, the US and the Netherlands during which he will hold talks with the top leadership of those countries to boost bilateral ties.

The highlight of his four-day visit will be the US leg as Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

Ahead of his US visit, Modi said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he had tweeted.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Modi said his two-day visit to Washington from June 25 was at the invitation of Trump.

Apart from official meetings with Trump and his cabinet colleagues, Modi will be meeting some prominent American CEOs.

In the first leg of the tour, Modi will visit Portugal where he will have talks with Prime Minister Antonio Costa.

"Building on our recent discussions, we will review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions," he said about his upcoming meeting with Costa.

After the US visit, Modi will travel to the Netherlands on June 27 where he will have a meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and call on King Willem-Alexander and meet Queen Maxima.

This year, the two countries are celebrating 70 years of the establishment of Indo-Dutch diplomatic relations.

"I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Rutte and reviewing our bilateral relations. I would be exchanging views with PM Rutte on important global issues including counter- terrorism and climate change," Modi said ahead of the visit.
Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left for Portugal, the first leg of his three-nation tour that will also take him to the United States of America and the Netherlands.

The PM's meeting with US President Donald Trump is one of the most-awaited events. This is to be noted that Donald Trump, seeking to "roll out a red- carpet welcome" to Modi, would host the Indian PM for a working dinner at the White House on Monday.

"The White House is very interested in making this a special visit. We're really seeking to roll out the red carpet. In fact, the two (leaders) will have dinner, a working dinner at the White House.

This will be the first dinner for a foreign dignitary at the White House under this administration. So, we think that's very significant," a senior administration official told reporters at the White House on Friday.

Modi arrives at the US Capitol on Sunday on a three-day visit during which he would have a meeting with Trump at the White House.

Beginning Monday afternoon, the two leaders would spend several hours together in various settings including one-on-one, delegation level, a reception and conclude with a working dinner.

"They'll start off with a one-on-one meeting. They'll go from the one-on-one meeting to the bilateral meetings. That will last for about an hour. Then they will each give press statements," the official, said clarifying that it would not be a press conference.

"They'll move from the press statements to a cocktail reception. And that will be followed by the working dinner. So it's a long interaction, lots of time for the two leaders to get to know each other, to interact on the critical issues that face our two countries," the official said.

During the meetings, the American side would be represented by top leaders including the Vice President Mike Pence, the National Security Advisor, Lt Gen HR McMaster, and Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The Modi trip, the official said, is an opportunity to strengthen the US-India strategic partnership, which Trump very much views as a critical partnership in promoting stability and security in the Asia-Pacific region and globally.

"We anticipate that their discussions will be broad- ranging, hitting on a variety of regional and global issues that would seek to advance our common priorities, including fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth and prosperity," the official added.

Noting that the US is very much interested in facilitating India's defence modernisation, and helping to enhance its role as a leader in the Asia Pacific, the official said the Trump Administration believes that a strong India is good for the US.

"Now, of course, we've seen rapid growth in the defence and security partnership over the last few years, and President Trump very much wants to build on that momentum. And last year's designation of India as a major defence partner was extremely important, and I think we'll see a concrete expression of this important designation during this visit," said the senior White House official.

The Trump Administration, the official said, believes that defence trade strengthens both the countries' security, it reinforces the strategic partnership, and it allows their armed forces to cooperate more closely and improve their interaction with one another.

Observing that this defence trade has supported thousands of American jobs, the official said since 2008, India has signed over USD 15 billion in defence contracts with the US.

Counter-terrorism would be another major area of discussion.

"The US and India are both committed to combating all forms of terrorism and strengthening their cooperation in areas like terrorist screening, intelligence and information sharing, terrorists' use of the Internet, and, of course, terrorist designations," the official said.

"I think we can expect to see some new initiatives on counter-terrorism cooperation," the official said.

Among other things, Modi and Trump will also be discussing global cooperation and things like burden-sharing.

Mentioning that India has committed more than USD 3 billion in development aid to Afghanistan, the official said the US views India's role in Afghanistan as very positive in helping to stabilise the country and promote democracy there.

Noting that India has also adopted UN sanctions against North Korea in April, the official said India joins the US in sending a very strong message to the North Korean regime.

"This visit will provide an opportunity for both countries to restate their commitment to common principles in the strategically vital important region of the Indo-Pacific. This includes freedom of navigation and overflight," the official asserted.

In the trade and investment area, India and the US are committed to "expanding and balancing" their trade relationship, the official said.

"Right now, two-way trade in goods and services totals over USD 114 billion.

Now, there are challenges in the trading sphere, and both sides look to increase their market access," the official added.

Observing that the US is looking for things like stronger intellectual property protections, reductions in tariffs, the official said this visit offers an opportunity to advance that trade dialogue and look for opportunities that will enhance prosperity and create jobs for both countries.

Energy partnership is one aspect of the economic relationship that has not been highlighted as much in the past, the official said, adding that this would be an important part of the trip.

Indian energy companies have signed over USD 32 billion in long-term contracts for the export of US-produced liquefied natural gas, including from Louisiana and Maryland, he said.

The visit will also demonstrate the strong people-to- people ties, the White House official said.

Today, nearly four million Indian-Americans are in the United States, and more than 166,000 Indian students are studying in the US, contributing USD 5 billion in economic activity and supporting an estimated 64,000 American jobs, the official said.

Modi's visit to the US - the first under the Trump Administration -- offers an opportunity for relationship- building, the official said.

"I think these two leaders have a lot in common. For one, they are the world's two most followed political leaders on social media. I think President Trump is slightly ahead of Modi, but I think this shows the kind of leaders they are. They're both innovators, they're both businessmen, they're committed to bringing greater prosperity to their people and thinking about innovative ways to do that," the official noted.

"I think they're going to find a lot of common ground in their discussions, both personally and in terms of the strategic partnership," said the senior administration official.

(With PTI inputs)
Lisbon: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa here on the first leg of his three-nation tour which will also take him to the United States and the Netherlands.

PM Modi was received by Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva at the airport. This is the first ever bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister to the European nation.

The two leaders were expected to review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions.

Modi`s visit follows his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa, who traces his origin to Goa, to India in January this year.

"I will pay a working visit to Portugal on 24 June 2017," Modi said in a pre-departure statement.

"Our close historical and friendly ties have picked up momentum after Prime Minister Antonio Costa`s visit to India in January 2017," he said, adding that building on the recent discussions, both sides would review the progress of various joint initiatives and decisions.

"We will also discuss ways to further enhance the bilateral engagement, especially in the areas of economic cooperation, science and technology, space collaboration and people-to-people ties.

"We will deliberate on means to intensify our cooperation in counter-terrorism and on other international issues of mutual interest. I also see significant potential for deepening bilateral trade and investment ties," he added.

The Prime Minister also said that he was looking forward to interacting with the Indian diaspora there.

Later on Saturday, Modi will lead delegation-level talks with Costa before the signing of agreements and launch of the India-Portugal Start-up Hub.

PM Modi will then head to the United States later tonight where he would hold a series of meetings with President Donald Trump.

In October 2005, Portugal extradited terror accused Abu Salem and Monica Bedi to India - in the first extradition from any European nation to India.

In October 2015, Portugal became the first European and Western country, and only the fourth outside the East Asia Summit, to sign an MoU on the establishment of the Nalanda University in India.

"Ola Portugal. PM @narendramodi arrives in Lisbon, departing from protocol Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva receives the Prime Minister," MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted along with some photographs.

Portuguese PM tweeted this is an excellent opportunity to review the implementation of the accords agreed during his India visit and sign new agreements.

The highlight of Modi's four-day three-nation visit will be the US leg as Modi will be meeting President Donald Trump for the first time on June 26 in Washington.

Ahead of his US visit, Modi said he looked forward to the opportunity of having an in-depth exchange of views.

"My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world," he had tweeted.
Lisbon: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Saturday on a first ever bilateral visit by an Indian PM to this European nation.

The Indian prime minister was received at the airport by Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva.

PM Modi will meet his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa later today as he kick-starts the first leg of his three-nation tour.

He will then head to the United States later tonight where he would hold a series of meetings with President Donald Trump.
San Francisco: Google is going to stop reading your Gmail in search of opportunities to sell ads.

The change announced will end a practice that Google has embraced since the company introduced Gmail in 2004, even though it raised concerns among privacy watchdogs and creeped out some users.

To help finance the free service, Google has been scanning through what Gmail users were discussing and then showing ads connected to some of the topics. Someone writing about running, for instance, might see ads for Nike or Asics shoes.

Google still plans to show ads within Gmail. But instead of scanning through email content, the company's algorithms will rely on other signals to determine which ads are most likely to appeal to each of its 1.2 billion Gmail users.
Pune: What should have been a day of celebration turned out to be one of profound grief for the family of Naik Sandip Jadhav.

Jadhav, one of the two soldiers killed in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, was cremated today on his son's first birthday.

But there were no smiles on Shivam's landmark day, only eyes misting over with tears as his father's mortal remains were consigned to flames with full military honours at Kelgaon in central Maharashtra's Sillod taluka, about 230 km from here.

The 34-year-old jawan, who belonged to the 15 Maratha Light Infantry, was killed in an attack by a team of Pakistani Special Forces, which had sneaked 600 metres across the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch sector two days ago.

Shravan Mane, a 24-year-old sepoy from Kolhapur, was also killed in the attack.

Thousands of people from all walks of life took part in Jadhav's final journey and bid him a tearful adieu.

People converged at his home in large numbers to mourn the loss of the braveheart and chanted slogans like 'Sandip Jadhav amar rahe' and 'Jab tak suraj chand rahega, Sandip tera naam rahega' as his body was taken out of the house for the last time.

A pall of gloom descended over Sillod as news of Jadhav's death broke.

Jadhav had promised his family that he would be home for Shivam's first birthday celebrations, but he returned in a coffin, sending his family and friends into shock.

Besides one-year-old Shivam, Jadhav is survived by his wife, a three-year-old daughter, parents and a brother.

Congress MLA from Sillod, Abdul Sattar, Maharashtra assembly speaker Haribhau Bagade and officials of the district administration were present at the cremation site.
Imphal: Suspected militants gunned down a student leader here in Manipur and the police, fearing a students agitation, have launched a massive manhunt to nab the killers, an official said on Saturday.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

President of the Haokip Students` Organisation Letkholal Haokip was shot dead outside his home at Langol near here on Friday night.

The 40-year-old leader had just got out of his jeep when he was attacked from close range. Haokip sustained fatal bullet injuries, the police said.

His neighbours rushed him to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences here but he could not be saved.

The gunmen who came in a car managed to escape, said the police, who have registered a case. Officials said there were indications that the students might resort to an agitation.

In another incident in Tengnoupal district, a tribal farmer, T. Angshan, who was abducted on Thursday morning by two masked men, was found dead.

The kidnappers had said they wanted to speak to the 36-year-old farmer but his bullet-ridden body was recovered on Friday.

Activists said the farmer could not have offended any underground organisation and demanded the killers` arrest. Police have registered a case but no arrest has been made so far.
Mumbai: Superstar Salman Khan, who had done a promotional show for his film "Tubelight" with Sunil Grover, says he is the only comedian who is not doing comedy, but just immerses himself in a character and makes people laugh.

Salman didn't go to Kapil Sharma's show but chose to do "Super Night With Tubelight" with Sunil and Ali Asgar.



Asked about whether this is a sign of a sour relationship with Kapil, Salman said at an event here on Friday: "Do I need to answer your question?"



Praising Sunil, Salman said: "When Sohail (Khan) and I were watching him, I thought, I was the most incompetent actor -- the way he played Mr. Bachchan's (Amitabh Bachchan) role or Dr. Gulati and Guthhi's role... He doesn't try to do comedy. He just plays the character.



"He is the only one comedian who is not doing comedy. He just plays the character and while doing that he is serious and joking or laughing. When you see Sunil, he doesn't look like a comedian.



"People have very funny faces or they are sweet and cute, so that makes people laugh. But he is a serious looking guy and the ways he pulls of these acts is simply outstanding."



Salman spoke at an event where he joined hands with PVR Cinemas for his charitable organisation Being Human.



Asked about business expansion, he said: "For now, Being Human clothing, jewellery and e-cycle brands are doing really well. I am going slow at the moment and will take one step at a time."



The actor was also questioned about his thoughts about making films tax-free.



"I feel every good film should be declared tax-free, but if all films are declared tax-free, then what will the government earn through revenues? So we have to consider that as well. I feel imposing tax is a good thing, but it shouldn't be increased continuously."
Aurangabad: Amid the agitation by the Jat community over a demand for Other Backward Class (OBC) reservation benefits, the Nizamuddin-Kota Express Train and the Kota-Patna Express were cancelled on Saturday, while two other trains were diverted.

Jat leader Vishvendra Singh told ANI, "If the government is really willing to provide reservation to Jats in OBC, it should come to Bharatpur and give it in writing as to when it will be implemented," adding, "Jats in Bharatpur and Dholpur have been demanding reservation since August 2015, but this has not been fulfilled as yet."

Earlier, train services along the Alwar-Mathura route in Rajasthan's Bharatpur district were affected after Jat protesters blocked railway tracks over a demand for OBC quota reservation for the community residing in Dholpur and Bharatpur districts. The Agra-Bandikui rail route was also hit by the agitation.

Protestors blocked portions of the national highways connecting Bharatpur to Mathura, Agra and Jaipur. They also blocked state highways at Kanjoli Line, Kumher, Deeg, Bedham, Pasta, Rarah, and Delhi road in Kaman.

Convener of the Bharatpur- Dholpur Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, Nem Singh, who is leading the blockade of railway tracks at Bahaj, said, "The government should give the timeline for issuing a notification of the OBC quota. Only then will we hold discussions with Panch Patels on the lifting of the blockade."

On Thursday, the OBC Commission had submitted its report to Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. The district administration is trying to convince the protesters to lift the blockade.
Jaipur: Stir by Jats demanding reservation for community members was called off in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan today after the state government's assurance that it would consider including them in the OBC list.

The decision came after a meeting between Jat leaders and state government officials at IG Bharatpur office.

Secretary of social justice and empowerment department B L Jatawat handed over a letter to the Jat delegation led by Congress MLA Vishvendra Singh in which the state government has assured that the demands of Jat leaders would be considered.



"We are satisfied with the response of the state government which has assured us to consider our demand.



"The agitation was called off after the government assured us that it would take up the OBC commission's report in the next cabinet meeting," Singh told PTI.



He said the agitation was non-violent and the chief minister's response to the stir was positive.



Divisional Commissioner Subir Kumar, IG Alok Vashistha, Collector N K Gupta, SP Anil Tank and others were present in the meeting.



The Jat members held a mahapanchayat and began the stir on Thursday evening by blocking railway tracks demanding reservation for the community members of Dholpur and Bharatpur districts.



The agitation was intensified yesterday with thousands of members of the community blocking railway tracks and roads at more than 20 places in Bharatpur which affected train and vehicular movement in the area. Track would be restored soon.



A spokesperson of the North Western Railway said rain services would resume soon.


Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has started a scheme under which informers would alert the state authorities about attempts and incidents of female foeticide.

At an event here, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed concern over the declining sex ratio in the state and launched the 'Mukhbir Yojana' (Informer Scheme) aimed at arresting cases of female foeticide.

The chief minister also launched 181 Women Helpline and flagged off 64 rescue vans.

Adityanath said that the state government is committed to providing complete security to women and also ensure that they are strengthened - socially and economically.

"The state government is serious about providing a fear- free atmosphere to women so that they can feel secure. Along with this, the government is also serious about making them self-reliant. A society, which respects the women can develop and progress," he said today at the programme held at his official residence.

At another programme, 'Uttar Pradesh Aam Mahotsava', held at the Indira Gandhi Prathisthaan here, Adityanath said that the UP government is making continuous efforts to increase the income of the farmers.

"Efforts are being made, so that the farmers adopt new technologies. The state government is also encouraging export of mangoes and is giving grants for the same," he said.

The chief minister also planted a mango sapling and released a book of the horticulture department.
Muzaffarnagar: Suspected cow meat and hides were seized from a village and four persons were arrested for "illegally slaughtering" buffaloes in three separate incidents, the police said on Saturday.

Suspected cow meat and hides were seized from Nishana village in Muzaffarnagar last evening after a raid was carried out based on information provided by the gram pradhan.

Two persons, Anver and Riyasat, were booked in connection with the case, they said.

The accused are on the run.

In a second incident here, the police raided a house and seized suspected buffalo meat and hides in Jansath town. Four persons have been booked for "illegally slaughtering" buffaloes, SHO Kamal Singh said.

Meanwhile, four persons--Saira Bano, Soniya, Salman and Riyasat--have also been arrested in the neighbouring Shamli district for "illegally slaughtering buffaloes", the police said.
Beijing: Rescuers pulled 15 bodies from an avalanche of rocks that buried a mountain village in southwest China on Saturday as an increasingly bleak search for some 100 people carried into the night.

Only three survivors -- a couple and their one-month-old baby -- have been found so far after 62 homes in Xinmo village vanished under a mass of mud and rocks in Sichuan province.

Heavy rain caused the side of the mountain to collapse onto the riverside village in the early morning, according to authorities.

Qiao Dashi, the baby`s father, said he had woken up after 5:00 am to change his crying son`s diaper when he "heard a big noise coming from the back".

"The house shook," he told state broadcaster CCTV from his hospital bed. "Rocks were in the living room. My wife and I climbed over, took the baby, and got out."

"I have superficial injuries. Overall, I`m okay. But psychologically, it`s hard. The entire village, with dozens of families, was flattened," he said, with a bandage around his head.

The rescue operation`s headquarters reported that 15 people had been found dead by the late evening, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The Maoxian, or Mao county, government said earlier that six people died and 112 people were missing. Xinhua had reported that more than 120 were buried.

The landslide blocked a two-kilometre (one-mile) stretch of river and 1.6 kilometre of road, according to state media.

As night fell, authorities shined lamps onto the rubble while rescuers wore lights on their helmets as they sifted through the rocks, aided by sniffer dogs, according to photos from the official Xinhua news agency.

During the day, rescuers and local residents used ropes to move a boulder while others lifted rocks with their bare hands, according to videos broadcast by the Maoxian government and CCTV.

Nearly 2,000 police, soldiers and civilians were taking part in the rescue.

Bulldozers and excavators that were used earlier in the day stopped their work due to bad lighting as night fell, according to CCTV.

No sign of the village could be seen in aerial footage, which showed a grim and grey rock-strewn landscape covering the area where it once existed by a river.

"It`s the biggest landslide in this area since the Wenchuan earthquake," said Wang Yongbo, one of the officials in charge of rescue efforts, referring to the disaster that killed 87,000 people in 2008 in a town in Sichuan.Local police captain Chen Tiebo said the heavy rains that hit the region in recent days had triggered the landslide.

"There are several tonnes of rock" over the village, he told CCTV.

"It`s a seismic area here. There`s not a lot of vegetation," Chen said.

Trees can help absorb excess rain and prevent landslides.

Tao Jian, director of the local weather service, told CCTV that the 2008 earthquake had "weakened the mountain" and that even a small amount of rain could provoke a geological catastrophe.

President Xi Jinping called for rescuers to "spare no effort" in their search for survivors and prevent more disasters, state media said.

China`s national weather observatory said more heavy rain was expected in parts of Sichuan and other southwestern provinces.

More than 100 people living close to the landslide were being evacuated on Saturday night, Xinhua reported.Landslides are a frequent danger in rural and mountainous parts of China, particularly at times of heavy rains.

At least 12 people were killed in January when a landslide crushed a hotel in central Hubei province.

More than 70 were killed by a landslide in the southern commercial hub of Shenzhen in December 2015, caused by the improper storage of waste.

One of the deadliest landslides took place in 1991, when 216 were killed in southwestern Yunnan province.
Beijing: Rescuers have recovered at least five bodies after a massive landslide buried a village in southwest China on Saturday, an official said, as state media said over 120 people remained missing.

Wu Xiaobin, captain of the local fire department, confirmed the first deaths to state broadcaster CCTV hours after the avalanche of rock hit the village of Xinmo in Sichuan province.

State media, meanwhile, revised the number of people missing down from 141 to more than 120.
Mosul: Suicide bombers attacked a shopping district of east Mosul that was retaken from the jihadists months ago, killing at least three people, medical and security officials said on Saturday.

The attack struck the Muthanna neighbourhood late on Friday as residents shopped ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

"The first suicide bomber blew himself up as he was being stopped by a policeman, who died on the spot," a senior police officer said.

A second bomber managed to enter a shopping arcade and blew himself up among civilians, killing at least two and wounding nine, according to the same officer and a medic at Al-Khansaa hospital.

A third suicide bomber was killed by police before he could detonate his vest, the sources said.

The attack was not the first but among the bloodiest since Iraqi forces retook the eastern side of Mosul in January as part of a massive offensive to wrest back the country's second city from IS.

Residents in areas retaken from the jihadists have warned that sleeper cells remain a threat and that cursory screening has allowed many IS supporters to return to civilian life without facing justice.

There had been growing calls in east Mosul before Friday night's attack for the families of IS members to be banished for 10 years, among other measures.
Pakistan, NZ ready to battle in T20 World Cup 2022 semis at SCG
Beijing: The West's monopoly on rights has been dealt a blow by the United Nations decision to adopt a China-led resolution saying development promotes human rights, an editorial in the official paper of China's ruling Communist Party said on Saturday.

The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday adopted a China-led resolution on "The Contribution of Development to the Enjoyment of All Human Rights, the first time it had adopted a resolution on development issues, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The resolution was co-sponsored by more than 70 countries, Xinhua reported.

"For a long time, the international rights process and conversation has been monopolized by Western governments," the People's Daily said in a Saturday

"Some people from the West often use the pretense of human rights to export their own values and even to use them to meddle in other countries internal affairs," it added.

"The inclusion of the concept of 'development promoting human rights' into the international human rights system signifies a major shift in the global human rights conversation," the paper said.

China has long faced criticism over its poor human rights record from international bodies and Western governments, which speak out against stifling of civil society, as well as censorship and detention of rights lawyers and activists.

Beijing regularly rejects foreign criticism, saying that the definition of rights used by the West is too narrow and ignores the effort China has made on poverty alleviation and securing the rights to education and freedom from hunger.

In the face of regular pressure from the UN rights council, China has sought to gain the support of other UN members, often developing nations, on rights issues to redress what it sees as shortfalls in the current system.

Last week, Greece blocked a European Union statement to the council criticising China's human rights record, a decision EU diplomats said undermined efforts to confront Beijing's latest crackdown on dissent.

China has previously refused to allow in some UN appointed envoys and others who were allowed to visit have complained of government interference with their work, though the government pledged to cooperate with the body in September last year.
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday asserted that the government would do everything possible for the safety and well-being of Indians in Qatar which has been battling economic sanctions from a number of Arab countries.



"Please do not worry. We will do everything required for the safety and well-being of our countrymen. We are in touch with our Ambassador," Swaraj tweeted.

Please do not worry. We will do everything required for the safety and well being of our countrymen. We are in touch with our Ambassador. https://t.co/iGtmGjx1L1  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) June 24, 2017

Her response came after one Ramana Kumar asked her about the government's plans to ensure security of Indians in Qatar.



Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt had imposed a boycott on Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism.



The government had on Thursday said all Indians in Qatar were safe and secure and special flights were being operated to facilitate travel of those who wanted to come home as connectivity from that country had been hit due to restrictions imposed on it.
Moscow: Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev has not conducted negotiations on sending peacekeeping troops to Syria during his visit to Moscow, Interfax news agency quoted Atambayev as saying on Saturday.

Last week, the head of the defence committee in the lower house of Russia`s parliament said that proposals were being drafted for troops from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to join a Russian-led peacekeeping operation in Syria. Kazakhstan later denied it was in these talks.

"This question was not raised at all, neither during narrow-format meetings - we had a dinner with (Russia`s President) Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) for two and a half hours - the question was not raised at all," Atambayev told reporters.

Atambayev added that such a move, if it ever comes to discussion, would require a United Nations resolution among other approvals.
A North Korean soldier defected to the South after crossing the heavily fortified border, a defence ministry spokesman said Saturday, the second soldier to defect this month.

"A North Korean soldier defected to one of our Guard Posts at around 9:30 p.m. on Friday at the middle section of the border," the spokesman said, according to a report by the Yonhap news agency.

"He has been taken into custody for questioning," he added

There was no exchange of fire between the two sides when the North Korean soldier, a private, smuggled himself across the border to the south, the Yonhap report said.

His defection came after another North Korean soldier walked across the tense border on June 13.

On June 18, a North Korean civilian swam across a river to defect to the South, with styrofoam pieces strapped to both shoulders to stay afloat.

Early this month, two of four crew members of a North Korean fishing boat which drifted to the South refused to return home. They were allowed resettle.

Over the decades since the peninsula was divided, dozens of North Korean soldiers have fled to the South through the Demilitarised Zone, which extends for two kilometers either side of the actual border.

A North Korean soldier defected to the South in September last year, and a teenage North Korean soldier defected in June 2015.

In 2012 a North Korean soldier walked unchecked through rows of electrified fencing and surveillance cameras, prompting Seoul to sack three field commanders for a security lapse.

More than 30,000 North Korean civilians have fled their homeland but it is very rare for them to cross the closely guarded inter-Korean border, which is fortified with minefields and barbed wire.

Most flee across the porous frontier with neighbouring China.
United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the twin bombings at a market place in Pakistan's northwest tribal region and the suicide attack in Balochistan, calling for the perpetrators of the attacks to be brought to justice.

The Secretary-General "condemns" the twin bombing in Parachinar and the suicide attack at a checkpoint in Quetta, a statement issued by his spokesperson said.

"He hopes those responsible for these crimes will be swiftly brought to justice," the statement said.

Dozens of people were killed and more than 100 were injured in the two separate attacks.

Early on Friday, a bomb attack took place in Quetta in Pakistan's southwest while in the afternoon, deadly blasts hit a market in Parachinar.

Guterres extended his condolences to the families of the victims and wished the injured a speedy recovery.

He also expressed his solidarity with the people and government of Pakistan and its efforts in fighting terrorism and violent extremism.
Marawi: One of America's most wanted terrorists may have escaped a five-week battle with Islamist militants in a southern Philippine city, which began with a raid to capture him, the military said on Saturday.

Isnilon Hapilon, a veteran Filipino militant said to be the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group in Southeast Asia, has not been seen in the battle zone in Marawi City, said Lieutenant General Carlito Galvez, head of the military's Western Mindanao Command.

An attempt by government troops to arrest Hapilon in Marawi on May 23 triggered a rampage by Islamist militants flying black IS flags who seized parts of the mainly Muslim city.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Marawi and the entire southern region of Mindanao, unleashing an offensive to crush what he said was an attempt by the jihadist group to establish a province in the area.

"He (Hapilon) has not been seen in the area.

We have some reports that he was already able to slip somewhere but as of now we are still confirming the reports," Galvez said in an interview with DZBB radio station.

Asked if Hapilon was on the run, he said: "Yes, yes because reportedly he suffered a lot of casualties.

Majority of his group, more than half, were casualties."

Hapilon was indicted in Washington for his involvement in the 2001 kidnapping of three Americans in the Philippines, and has a $5-million bounty on his head from the US government, which has his name on its "most wanted" terror list.

He leads a faction of the Philippine militant group Abu Sayyaf that has pledged allegiance to IS.

Security analysts say he has been recognised by IS as its "amir", or leader, in Southeast Asia, a region where the group wants to establish a caliphate.

The military says Hapilon's group had joined forces with another armed militancy, the Maute Group, to launch the Marawi siege, now on its second month.

On Saturday, security forces continued intense air raids and artillery fire on pockets of Marawi still occupied by the militants, while troops fought house-to-house gunbattles on the ground.

"The operation is going on, the firefights are intense.

We have gained substantial ground," said Galvez, the military commander.

Nearly 300 militants and 67 government troops have been killed in the fighting, according to official figures.

Galvez said there are "strong indications" that two or three of the Maute brothers -- among the key players in the siege -- had been killed, including Omarkhayam Maute, believed to be the group's top leader.

Only one brother, Abdullah, has been visible in the fighting, Galvez added.

Press reports also quoted military chief General Eduardo Ano as saying that Malaysian Mahmud bin Ahmad, who helped lead and finance the Marawi siege, is believed to have been killed, although his body has not been retrieved.

When asked about Mahmud's reported death, Malaysia's Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar told AFP in a text message in Kuala Lumpur: "Not true. He is still alive."
MOSCOW, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. European main indexes values for 23 june:

Armenpress reports the value of german DAX down by 0.47% to 12733.41 points, french CAC 40 down by 0.30% to 5266.12 points, british FTSE down by 0.20% to 7424.13 points, russian MICEX up by 0.40% to 1867.46 points, and RTSI up by 0.94% to 990.75 points.

The German Stock Index is a total return index of 30 selected German blue chip stocks traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The equities use free float shares in the index calculation. The DAX has a base value of 1,000 as of December 31, 1987. As of June 18, 1999 only XETRA equity prices are used to calculate all DAX indices.

The CAC 40 (Cotation Assistee en Continu) is a benchmark French stock market index. The index represents a capitalization-weighted measure of the 40 most significant values among the 100 highest market caps on the Euronext Paris (formerly the Paris Bourse).

The FTSE UK Index Series is designed to represent the performance of UK companies, providing market participants with a comprehensive and complementary set of indices that measure the performance of all capital and industry segments of the UK equity market.

MICEX Index is cap-weighted composite index calculated based on prices of the 50 most liquid Russian stocks of the largest and dynamically developing Russian issuers presented on the Moscow Exchange. MICEX Index was launched on September 22, 1997 at base value 100. The MICEX Index is calculated in real time and denominated by Moscow Exchange in Russian rubles.

RTS Index is cap-weighted composite index calculated based on prices of the 50 most liquid Russian stocks of the largest and dynamically developing Russian issuers presented on the Moscow Exchange. RTS Index was launched on September 1, 1995 at base value 100. The Index is calculated in real time by Moscow Exchange in US dollars and disseminated by the S&P Dow Jones Indices.
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. The health condition of 7 servicemen who run into an accident is assessed of severe, with another 7 of medium gravity. The crash took place on Vardenis-Shorzha road, Defense Ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan informs. Armenpress reports earlier he had informed that one of them will be taken to Yerevan.

On June 24, at 08:31, on the 25th km of Vardenis-Shorzha road GAZ-66 light utility military truck lost control of the vehicle and abandoned the carriageway falling into a gorge. 14 passengers with various bodily injuries were taken to the military hospital of Vardenis, where doctors assessed the health condition of 7 servicemen of severe, and seven of medium gravity.
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. None of the servicemens life who suffered from crash by a military vehicle GAZ -66 is in danger, head of Vardenis central military hospital Yervand Hovhannisyan informed Armenpress. 12 servicemen have been taken to our hospital, since rescuers showed first aid to 2 injured who refused to be hospitalized. The health condition of 1 is assessed as severe, condition of 6 is of medium gravity, while all are in stable situation. At the moment no ones life is in danger. The servicemen in severe condition, who has suffered sternal fracture together with lung injury is being transported to the capital, while the others will receive further medical treatment after relevant examinations, Yervand Hovhannisyan said, adding that one of the injured is an officer.

On June 24, at 08:31, on the 25th km of Vardenis-Shorzha road GAZ-66 light utility military truck lost control of the vehicle and abandoned the carriageway falling into a gorge. 14 passengers with various bodily injuries were taken to the military hospital of Vardenis.
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. The program of the Government of Armenia is rather ambitious  its a program leading from stabilization to development, Armenpress reports PhD in Economics, professor at the State University of Economics Atom Margaryan told the reporters on June 24. As targets of the program he singled out the 5% rise of the GDP, minimal salary raise by 25% to 75 thousand AMD during the upcoming 5 years, up to 18% decline in poverty rate. According to him, one of the key aspects of the program is ensuring 40% rise in the export-GDP balance, which, according to the economist, is a very high indicator.

At the moment I consider 5% economic growth realistic, he said, adding that based on the 3.2% growth of the 5 months it can be assumed that 5% growth is realistic. He also mentioned that the foreign debt of Armenia has gone beyond stability and can create troubles for the economic growth. Probably, this factor was also taken into account when developing this program, he said. Atom Margaryan also noted that at the moment the balance of GDP-export does not reach 20%. Therefore, the Government has to make huge efforts and adopt a new industrial policy. According to the economist, in order to reach a 40% balance of GDP-export during 5 years its necessary to change the economic model.
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. Baku fails Formula -1 and Formula-2 races. The drivers of the participants of the races conducted in Azerbaijans capital complain over the low-level of organization and particularly the city roads. Armenpress reports Azerbaijani media write about this, quoting the words of one of the participants  Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.

The quality of the roads does not match the quality of the tires. I think all the participants encounter this problem, since its difficult to drive at high speeds on such roads. The Road asphalt temperature reaches 50 degrees Celsius, while tires used in such races are unable to resist such high temperatures and uneven roads. This is just a nightmare, Lewis Hamilton told the reporters.

This year's racing is characterized by a large number of accidents despite the fact that the race kicked off just 2 days ago.

After another crash a day before Mexican driver Sergio Perez noted, It would be desirable that the organizers should change the road curvature of the 8th turning, since its an unnecessary complication and a great risk, the driver said.

On that same 8th turning a chain reaction crash had taken place with the participation of Indonesian, Russian, Japanese and Swedish drivers. Later, as a result of another crash, Italian and Venezuelan drivers left the race.
ST. GEORGE, UtahMany AVN readers may not be aware of this, but pretty much from the invention of photography until about the 1970s, a common societal meme was the idea that it was really cute to photograph a baby crawling around on a bearskin rug. Of course, it could be argued that some who enjoyed this photography might not be on the up-and-upthat is, such photographs might be valued by pedophilesbut most were just images to post in the family photo album, to be pulled out when the kid was a teen and of an age to be embarrassed by them.

But consider the situation of Eric Leon Butt, Jr., formerly an inmate in a local Utah jail, having been convicted of theft in 2008. Butt was a family man who wrote daily to his wife and young son and daughter, and in one of his letters to that five-year-old girl, he wrote, "Well I know you want me to draw my whole body, but I cant draw very good, so this will have to work." He enclosed a drawing, and as Chief Justice Lee of the Utah Supreme Court put it, "The drawing was an unskilled, hand drawn picture portraying Petitioner naked. While the drawing was rough, it depicted Petitioners nipples, chest hair, pubic hair, penis, and testicles."

Not sure whether his family had received his first letter and enclosure, Butt tried again three days later, this time writing, "Hi beautiful girl. I miss you so much. I cant wait to bite your butt cheek. This is what it will look like. I love you." Again, according to Chief Justice Lee, "Below this note, Petitioner had again roughly sketched a picture of himself naked. This picture was even more rudimentary than the initial drawing. But it portrayed Petitioners nipples, penis, and testicles. This time, however, he was holding his daughter up with her bottom next to his mouth. A speech bubble from his mouth read: 'Oh your butt taste [sic] so good.' And a second speech bubble from his daughters mouth read: 'Oouch! Daddy dont Bite so hard Giggle giggle.'"

Of course, anyone who's been exposed to a lot of sexually explicit material, not to mention anyone who's been molested as a child, might very well look askance at Butt's notes and drawings, but we're talking about Middle America here, where a lot of people do stuff like that without giving it a second thought. They consider it playful, and even believe it helps bond them to their families.

Not so much the jail officials who intercepted and copied Butts's notes and drawings before sending them on. In fact, a few days after Butt sent that last letter, jail officials busted him for "Dealing in Harmful Material to a Minor," a third-degree felony. The definition of "harmful to minors" pretty much follows the Miller v. California definition of "obscenity," though as applied to minors: that the material "taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest in sex of minors"; that it is "patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors"; and that "taken as a whole, [it] does not have serious value for minors."

In order to be convicted under that statute, Butt's letters and drawings would have to fulfill all three "prongs" of that test, but convicted he was, and even the Utah Supreme Court affirmed the conviction when it first saw the case, apparently giving no weight to the argument that the drawings did not appeal to a "prurient interest in sex of minors."

After that ruling, Butt retained the services of three other attorneys, including Eugene Volokh, who runs the First Amendment Clinic at the UCLA Law School. Butt's new counsel filed a state post-conviction challenge, arguing that Butt's trial counsel failed to make a First Amendment argument that the material Butt sent was protected speech, and asked the Utah Supremes to consider the question, "Should this Court provide lower courts with a benchmark precedent about what material is 'obscene as to minors' or 'harmful to minors,' by deciding whether roughly drawn pictures, lacking in sexual content, sent by a father to his wife to be shown to his young child are properly viewed as 'obscene as to minors'?"

On reconsideration, the Supreme Court decided that the first drawing was clearly protected by the First Amendment, as the simple nudity of a father crudely drawn would not appeal to anyone's "prurient interest," not even that of a five-year-old, if a child that young could be considered to have any "prurient interest" at all. Besides, Butt's attorneys had explained to the court that, "The first picture stemmed from a conversation between Butt and his daughter, and from a Discovery Channel documentary that they had watched together before he went to jail. Butt testified at trialwithout contradiction by any prosecution evidencethat the documentary was about prehistoric cave paintings, in which some people were depicted as naked stick figures. 'She was laughing about it, this and that, and there was little people naked, big people naked, and she says, "Why are they naked?" I said, "Thats just how they do it back then."' Butt likewise testified, without contradiction, that his daughter had asked him to draw a picture of himself 'naked like on the cave walls.'"

Of the second drawing, Volokh wrote on his blog, the Volokh Conspiracy, that, "Although the drawing clearly depicts Petitioner naked, it is unclear whether it shows him biting his daughter or simply holding her in the air and joking about doing so. It is equally unclear whether his daughter is clothed or naked. Importantly, moreover, there is no context in the record to support the States inferences that sexual conduct is in fact being portrayed."

However, accompanying its decision, the Utah Supreme Court did add a footnote to its ruling, stating, "We caution that this is a close case. We conclude that on the record before us, Petitioners drawing was so rudimentary that taken as a whole it would not have appealed to any sexual interest of Petitioners daughter. But context matters. And a contrary decision might be merited in a case involving additional facts evidencing double entendre, an older child more perceptive of sexual suggestion, a context where the intended recipient might perceive a sexual meaning, or a more explicit drawing."

A more complete account of the Butt case can be found here.
DETROIT, Mich.Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Stephen J. Murphy III gave final approval to a settlement reached between the Deja Vu chain of adult nightclubs and various of its current and former dancers, who had sued Deja Vu and other adult nightclubs, claiming that the dancers were employees rather than independent contractors, and that therefore, Deja Vu owed them back pay amounting to minimum wages for hours worked, and some other benefits which the club gave to its other employees.

The settlement totals $6.5 million, which will be distributed to two settlement funds which, according to an article on Law360.com, would consist of "a $2 million pool for dancers who choose ... to take a single cash payment for their troubles, and a $4.5 million secondary pool that covers 60 percent of the dancers rent-credit or dance-fee payments for a year." However, half of the secondary pool would also go to paying regulatory fees under Californias Private Attorneys General Act and other costs, and Deja Vu will also pay $1.2 million in attorneys' fees to the class plaintiffs' attorneys.

The controversy that led to the settlement began in 2008, when a dancer at a Michigan club run by CinLan, Inc., and which had Deja Vu as a "joint employer," sued CinLan and Deja Vu, claiming that she and dancers at eight other CinLan-managed clubs in Michigan had been improperly classified as independent contractors when they should have been considered employees, paid a minimum wage and received other employment-related benefits. It's a claim that has dogged adult nightclubs for more than 20 years, and the current settlement recognizing the dancers as employees will apply to all Deja Vu locations in the U.S., settling similar claims brought in several states.

The settlement that was approved on June 19 also covers the objections raised by attorneys representing other class members, who argued that the value of the deal hadn't been properly calculated, and that as a result, class members were being "vastly undercompensated." Judge Murphy ruled that considering the U.S. Supreme Court's recent rulings on class action suits, the objectors' claims were on such shaky legal ground that approving the settlement was the best way to deal with all of the issues raised.

Under the settlement, two of the primary class representatives will receive between $30,000 and $50,000 from the $2 million pool, depending on "settlement notice and administration costs," while the rest of the class members who opt for cash payments will divide $935,000. Also, $100,000 will be set aside for Private Attorney General Act payments.

The $4.5 million sum will be split into credits toward dancers' rent for stage time at the clubs where they work, and other fees dancers pay the club for the right to perform there. Dancers who have worked at a club for less than a year will receive $200 in such credits, while dancers who have worked for 18 months or longer will receive credits of $2,000 each.

The settlement also sets out rules for determining whether a dancer should be considered an employee or an independent contactor, which status will be determined by a meeting with Deja Vu management where the dancer will "answer an economic realities test-based questionnaire aimed at determining whether an individual worker is better classified as an independent contractor or an employee," an article by legal reporter Braden Campbell stated. "Dancers classified as independent contractors will have more freedom to set their hours and pick their costumes, while employees will receive a minimum wage and take home their tips, minus the legal costs of their employment and other fees."

Deja Vu is represented by prominent Michigan-based First Amendment attorney Brad Shafer of Shafer & Associates PC, who told Law360 that he considered the settlement to be a win for both sides, since "it clears up the employment status issue and potentially steers both the workers and the company clear of future litigation."
That's the view of Hans Von Spakovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation who studies election law. He is a former member of the Federal Elections Commission. He was a presenter June 17 at the Conservative Leadership Conference in Raleigh.Political organizations in Washington have taken a keen interest in redistricting at the state level because it can shift the partisan balance in federal elections, Von Spakovsky told Carolina Journal.North Carolina is a swing state, boosting its importance to groups that are pushing partisan redistricting challenges, he said.Currently, three high-profile North Carolina redistricting cases are working their way through the courts. The plaintiffs in each claim black voting strength was diluted in some districts by packing minority voters into other districts. North Carolina v. Covington claims the Republican-controlled General Assembly drew 19 state House districts and nine state Senate districts using unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. The U.S. Supreme Court returned the case earlier this month to a three-judge federal panel. The lower court called for new legislative elections in 2017 without justifying such a dramatic solution when less-disruptive options were available, the justices said. Cooper v. Harris contends the General Assembly drew the 1st and 12th congressional districts unconstitutionally. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision that the districts were unconstitutional. The plaintiffs now want the Supreme Court to declare the new congressional maps excessively partisan gerrymanders. Dickson v. Rucho challenges both legislative and congressional electoral maps as racial gerrymanders. The N.C. Supreme Court twice said the contested districts complied with the federal Voting Rights Act. After the Cooper decision, the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back to the N.C. Supreme Court for reconsideration. A hearing is set for Aug. 28.Von Spakovsky said redistricting law does not define precisely what constitutes a racial gerrymander. He calls it theCase law says electoral districts relying too much on race can violate the Equal Protection Clause. But if race is considered too lightly, states get sued under the Voting Rights Act for harming minority voters. It's hard to find a balance that's just right to satisfy courts.Von Spakovsky said.Many observers expressed surprise that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sided with liberals to form a majority in Cooper v. Harris. But Von Spakovsky believes Thomas holds the correct view.The Voting Rights Act was passed to prevent states from overtly preventing people from registering and voting. More recently, courts have said vote dilution can violate the Voting Rights Act. In those lawsuits, blacks don't say they had trouble registering or voting, but claim their votes somehow were diluted in the way the districts were drawn.or specify what the dilution is, Von Spakovsky said.In Cooper v. Harris, Thomas argued the Voting Rights Act never was intended to apply to vote dilution claims or redistricting issues. Endless disputes about redistricting would lessen if courts following Thomas' premise, Von Spakovsky said.Von Spakovsky said he was mystified how the three-judge panel in Covington chose to order new legislative elections in 2017, cutting legislative terms for elected representatives to one year, setting aside the state constitution's guarantee of two-year legislative terms. He said he is not aware of any precedents for such an order.Von Spakovsky said.Gov. Roy Cooper has attempted to accelerate drawing of new legislative maps so a new election can be held. The General Assembly rebuffed his efforts.Von Spakovsky says the legislators elected last November should finish their terms, then use newly drawn districts approved by the court in the 2018 elections.
Measure loosens rules on brewers and distillers, expands Sunday retail and restaurant alcohol sales

Distillers in North Carolina aren't quite ready to extend their arms in a celebratory toast, but they've certainly opened the bottle and dropped some ice in the glass. Senate Bill 155 , omnibus legislation loosening rules on North Carolina distillers and brewers, is headed to the House Finance Committee.The House Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a Proposed Committee Substitute, which combines the Senate Bill with an earlier measure from the House specific to breweries and wineries.S.B. 155, which cleared the Senate on June 1, allows restaurants to begin selling alcohol Sunday at 10 a.m., as opposed to noon, which is the current law. North Carolina is one of a handful of states that restricts liquor sales on Sunday mornings.A provision allowing grocery stores to begin selling beer and wine at 10 a.m. had been removed from the bill, but Rep. Jon Hardister, R-Guilford, citing a desire for consistency, offered an amendment to return it. The amendment passed, 17-5.Sen. Rick Gunn, R-Alamance, a primary sponsor of S.B. 155, says the entrepreneurial spirit shines among North Carolina distillers, who drive ABC sales, hire local people and invest their time, money, and passion in demographically diverse communities from Asheville to Manteo.The bill allows out-of-state sales online, subject to laws in the other jurisdictions, and the sale of antique or rare spirits in special auction, contingent on auctioneers first obtaining a $750 permit.But maybe most important for North Carolina craft distillers, S.B. 155 would allow distilleries to sell five bottles of spirits per customer per year; the current law allows people to buy one bottle every 365 days.The significance of giving distillers the ability to sell people additional bottles can't be discounted.Melissa Katrincic is president and CEO of Durham Distillery. She and her husband, Lee, make award-winning gin, as well as a line of liqueurs and, most recently, a cold-distilled cucumber vodka.At least 30 percent of the people who tour her distillery are tourists, she said.she said.The measure provides a means to obtain a special event permit, which would cost $200 and allow distillers to offer tastings of their products - 0.25 ounce per product not to exceed an ounce - during events and gatherings such as trade shows and festivals, contingent on local approval. Lawmakers removed a provision from S.B. 155 that limited the number of distillers who could take part in a particular event.For brewers, the measure allows the sale of "crowlers," which are basically cans of beer, typically 32 ounces, sealed on site.Senate Bill 155 eases the rules for home brewers and vintners, who can share but not sell their products at organized events, such as competitions. The bill also gives beer taprooms the option to sell liquor and mixed drinks, with the required and relevant permits, and would allow farm brewers in dry counties to sell their beer; again, pending local approval of the city or county jurisdiction.Four people signed up to share their thoughts about the bill.Two spoke against it.The Christian Action League's Mark Creech is a regular at legislative hearings about alcohol. He worries about the spread of underage drinking and called parts of S.B. 155 dangerous to public health.Jon Carr, a lawyer and lobbyist for the Association of N.C. ABC Boards, spoke against increasing allowable distillery sales to five bottles and, referring to a study on the ills of underage drinking, direct shipment to consumers. He called the three-tier system effective and good for distilleries.Two people spoke in support of S.B. 155.Jim Beley, general manager of The Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary, spoke on behalf of the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association. Allowing alcohol sales during the early hours of Sunday brunch would be a huge boost to tourism and, subsequently, additional revenue in the form of sales taxes.Donald Bryson, state director for Americans for Prosperity, said North Carolina ABC sales in fiscal 2015-16 totaled almost $1 billion, and he scolded those trying to demonize distillers. Making liquor is part of our state's history, and, before Prohibition, North Carolina, by some accounts, had as many as 500 distilleries.Oh, and there's that whole NASCAR thing, which rose from moonshiners and bootleggers, who traversed our dirt-crusted backroads and craggy pine forests to delivery corn-based white lightning.Bryson said, half-jokingly.More seriously, he said,There's reason for optimism among distillers, who, collectively, navigate a labyrinth of complex rules and Prohibition-era laws that generally inhibit growth and innovation.Said Scott Maitland, TOPO proprietor and N.C. Distillers Association president:
For North Carolina counties, fiscal 2018 starts July 1, meaning counties have to pass and publish budgets. They also have to set property tax rates for the coming year, which are really important for county governments.The most obvious reason is property taxes make up just more than half of all county revenue. They are, by far, the largest single source of money counties have. They're also set at the discretion of the counties. County commissioners can raise and lower them each year as they please, with few limitations.Consequently, rates vary hugely across the state. Finally, property tax revenue can be used for anything counties are legally allowed to do. They're unrestricted funds. Property taxes also matter a lot to residents. Again, the reasons for this are obvious. As of 2014, county property taxes totaled about $6.5 billion across the state. That's just the county property taxes. Cities impose property taxes, too, but those aren't included in the $6.5 billion figure. And they affect everyone.We pay property taxes on our homes and our cars. If we rent, the landlord pays property tax, so it gets rolled into the rent we pay. Businesses pay it on their premises, so it gets passed along to consumers in the price of the goods we buy. We pay property taxes. Which means we all benefit when those rates are lower, leaving us with more money in our own pockets. We all should be concerned about whether our county commissioners are raising rates, lowering rates, or keeping rates the same.So, with the beginning of the fiscal year looming, I decided to take a look at what was happening to rates around the state, and I found several significant things. I had trouble finding information for lot of counties. For 35 counties, I could find nothing at all. This probably reflects the fact some counties do a great job of getting information online, while others don't. Still others have the information online somewhere, but not in an easily searchable form.Lesson No. 1 is counties should work on improving the access their residents have to information that's as important as property tax rate changes. It's just a basic principle of transparent government. Thirty-nine counties aren't planning to change their rates in 2018, and I commend them. There are always more requests for money and pressures on county budgets. The fact that at least 39 counties have resisted those pressures and have held taxes steady is a good thing for residents and businesses. Eight counties did even better, and they actually lowered property tax rates.Of the counties I've found so far, New Hanover is the winner in this category, with a cut in the property tax rate of a little more than 5 cents per $100 of property value. In 18 counties, property tax rates are going up. Oftentimes this is because property taxes are a percent of the property value, and counties have to conduct a reevaluation of those property values at least every eight years. If the values go down, then, to take in the same amount of revenue, the rate has to go up. So, areas where rates are increasing are the very same areas weaker economic conditions are driving property values down.This makes for a toxic combination.For most people, property is their single largest asset and the most valuable thing they own. When property values drop, so does their net worth. Put more simply, a drop in property values makes them poorer. To increase the rate in that situation seems to me to be, essentially, kicking folks when they're down. This isn't what local governments should be about.Rather than raising taxes on people who are seeing the value of their homes and businesses fall, counties should keep property taxes as low as possible. This keeps money in taxpayers' pockets, lets them invest in their businesses, allows them to spend money in the local economy, and makes it easier for them to provide for their families. If that means counties have to spend a little less, then so be it.Long term, keeping money in the hands of consumers and business owners will be far better for the local economy than sucking it away to fund bigger government.
The Democrat leadership has made constant, profound and incredible pronouncements that one's supportive vote for Republicans is tantamount to surrendering Democracy forever. Understanding their sincere thinking in their extreme position: How will you still vote on this election day?

Democrat; because the continuance of this Democracy from the existential threat of extreme Republicans is paramount.

Republican; the process of having a choice is the democratic method within what so called "Democracy" does exists.
Uganda is so poor that few can afford medical care, giving it one of the lowest life-expectancies on the planet  this toxic combination made the country ripe for infiltration by Tiens, a Chinese Multi-Level-Marketing "nutritional supplements" cult whose members set up fake medical clinics that diagnose fake ailments and proscribe fake medicines, then rope patients into becoming cult recruiters who convince their friends to sign up for the cult.



Al Jazeera outfitted an investigator with a hidden camera, and recorded her "diagnosis" and prescription by a fake doctor at a Tiens "clinic," then followed her through her induction into the cult at a series of high-pressure indoctrination sessions.



So we asked Halima to go to the weekly "training sessions" with her hidden camera.

This, we knew, was risky. I'd spoken to people who had been investigating MLM practices for years and they thought Halima, who would be attending training sessions over several weeks, might actually be in danger of being convinced and recruited.

She was going to be subjected to a barrage by the Tiens motivational speakers. We couldn't be with her the whole time, so we agreed to monitor her with regular phone discussions to check that she was not suddenly having unrealistic dreams of becoming rich through selling food supplements.

Luckily she isn't so easily fooled, and was able to document how Tiens convinces people to stay loyal through reinforcement of the idea that distributors are starting a new life and by its unrelenting "blame and shame" rhetoric about personal failure and not selling enough products. Only their inadequacies and doubts  and those of sceptical family and friends who should, of course, be dropped  were barriers to the recruits achieving great wealth.

When we met up with Michael Halangu, a former Tiens distributor, he confirmed these were the same techniques that had kept him in the business for years. In our interviews he was open about how they fooled him and how much money he lost, but the psychological impact had gone deeper; although he could see all the aspects of the scam, he still blamed himself for not having made a success of it.

But while it is clear that the poor, weak and vulnerable are particularly susceptible to such schemes, even strong people can succumb under enough pressure. Michael is an intelligent and determined man with a college degree, and we even met a university professor among the distributors at one Tiens event we attended.

Eventually, as you will see, we were able to put some of the points raised in this film to a Tiens representative. The company told us about its 5,000 distributors in Uganda and its operations across the African continent and how if people worked hard enough they too could enjoy the cars and yachts and millionaire lifestyles that their top distributors enjoyed. The company was less illuminating about those who hadn't been so lucky  or those of its distributors who, after carrying out bogus medical diagnoses, were happy to con gullible members of the public into buying Tiens products.
A secret passageway led to an trove of smuggled Nazi artifacts, say investigators in Argentina, and their collector is in trouble with the law.

They were put on display at the Delegation of Argentine Israeli Associations in Buenos Aires on Monday. Many Nazi higher-ups fled to Argentina in the waning days of the war, and investigators believe that officials close to Adolf Hitler brought the artifacts with them. Many items were accompanied by photographs, some with Hitler holding them.

"This is a way to commercialize them, showing that they were used by the horror, by the Fuhrer. There are photos of him with the objects," Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told The Associated Press.

The objects include a device used to measure heads. Nazis believed that one could distinguish a Jew from someone belonging to the supposed Aryan race by head measurements.
The CBC asked me to write an editorial for their package about Canadian identity and politics, timed with the 150th anniversary of the founding of the settler state on indigenous lands. They've assigned several writers to expand on themes in the Canadian national anthem, and my line was "We stand on guard for thee."

I wrote about bill C-51, a reckless, sweeping mass surveillance bill that now-PM Trudeau got his MPs to support when he was in opposition, promising to reform the bill once he came to power.





The situation is analogous to Barack Obama's history with mass surveillance in the USA: when Obama was a Senator, he shepherded legislation to immunize the phone companies for their complicity with illegal spying under GW Bush, promising to fix the situation when he came to power. Instead, he built out a fearsome surveillance apparatus that he handed to the paranoid, racist Donald Trump, who now gets to use that surveillance system to target his enemies, including 11 million undocumented people in America, and people of Muslim origin.





Now-PM Justin Trudeau has finally tabled some reforms to C-51, but they leave the bill's worst provisions intact. Even if Canadians trust Trudeau to use these spying powers wisely, they can't afford to bet that Trudeau's successors will not abuse them.



Within living memory, our loved ones were persecuted, hounded to suicide, imprisoned for activities that we recognize today as normal and right: being gay, smoking pot, demanding that settler governments honour their treaties with First Nations. The legitimization of these activities only took place because we had a private sphere in which to agitate for them. Today, there are people you love, people I love, who sorrow over their secrets about their lives and values and ambitions, who will go to their graves with that sorrow in their minds  unless we give them the private space to choose the time and manner of their disclosure, so as to maximize the chances that we will be their allies in their struggles. If we are to stand on guard for the future of Canada, let us stand on guard for these people, for they are us.



What happens after the 'good' politicians give away our rights? Cory Doctorow shares a cautionary tale.

[Cory Doctorow/CBC]





(Image: Jean-Marc Carisse, CC-BY; Trump's Hair)
On June 23rd, 2017, a lot of noise was made by an Italian newspaper that said that our new Senate Act 2484 had the potential to "ban the iPhone in Italy" ( here's an English article ). That's just wrong. This is a "device neutrality" bill, protecting a principle every bit as important as net neutrality, and it won't ban the iPhone, but it will protect and benefit Italians.

The controversy stems from Article 4 of the act, which states that a

consumer has the right to use any lawful software (be it open source

or proprietary) on their own devices and no company can prevent the

consumer from doing so. Apple's App Store model does indeed stop iPhone

owners from installing rival software, and Article 4 covers this

practice and others. But Article 4 doesn't directly ban the concept of

a "closed" app store.

The law only kicks in when two conditions are met: when there is a closed app

store and that store imposes unnecessary discrimination. The normal

remedy in this situation would be a decades-long antitrust action at

the EU level. The new law simplifies this process and gives immediate

relief to ordinary people.

Under this new bill, a complaint can be raised at the Italian

competition authority, the AGCM,

where it will be treated as a consumer protection case which can be

resolved within Italy in just a few months.

To be even more clear, if a software application can technically run on

a device, but it gets discriminated against or banned by the company controlling

the device for a non-technical reason, that would fall afoul of this law

and be judged promptly on consumer protection grounds, by the Italian regulator for antitrust and consumer protection.

This law is, in effect, a safety valve against discrimination. If there

is no discrimination, nothing happens. When discrimination occurs, the

case can be decided with simple and short legal procedures.





There's no risk of a shutdown of Apple (or Microsoft!) in Italy. As a

matter of fact, when Microsoft was heard at the committee of the chamber

of deputies, prior to the approval, the company's execs expressed positive

views on the bill. Apple declined to participate or to file a written

response. Google and Facebook expressed positive opinions as well.

We believe that this law protects consumers with a clear, fast way to

protect their rights against discrimination practiced by large

corporations, and resolve their cases in reasonable time.
For the first time the Energy and Natural Resources conference invited members of the fossil fuel industry to take part in their discussion at the University of Windsor.

Experts in engineering, law, political science and finance listened to topics ranging from energy solutions to natural gas and financing for renewable energy.

Organizers say about 50 people attended the first day with some coming from as far away as Prince Edward Island. One lawyer said conferences like this give an broader understanding of how energy projects are developed.

"It's important for me because I've been a long-time proponent of renewal energy," said Mark Michael MacKew, a Chatham-based lawyer. "Many of my clients are hosting wind turbines or solar farms."

Rupp Carriveau, professor at the University of Windsor in the Environmental Energy Institute, said they made an effort include people from the fossil fuel industry.

"If you really want to be responsible about talking about future power scenarios that make sense for the province, you have to include the big players, which are fossils," said Carriveau.

The goal is to look to the future of the grid and increase it's flexibility to get more modern resources on it. But Carriveau said fossil fuels will be a big part of it for the foreseeable future.

He said it's important to have people who deal with all areas of energy come together.

"You can have the most wonderful technical solution, but if you don't have the people there to finance it, and if you don't have the lawyers to sign the deal off, it's not going to happen," Cariveau explained.

One of those projects that may benefit from this conference is the Year 21 Project, which is looking at the wind power industry as it passes its supposed 20-year life span. Carriveau is looking to move wind farmers into the next generation of wind technology.

"Giving them an investment-decision support system that takes into account the physical condition of the turbine, the social license they may have, the regulatory conditions, so you need all those stakeholders involved," he said.

The second day of the conference will focus on solar energy.
Hundreds in a small Saskatchewan town are breathing a sigh of relief after finding out a family set to be deported to Honduras within two weeks gets to stay.



Sinclair Harrison was among a group of volunteers in Moosomin, Sask., working to help Victor Santos and his family to stay in Canada.



A fundraiser had been planned for Thursday in order to raise money for the family to cover some of their legal bills.

But 15 minutes before lunch began and with around 400 people gathered at the legion, Victor received a phone call: The family had been granted a two-year stay by the federal government.



"It was fantastic. There were tears of joy and naturally the family was elated," Harrison said Thursday.

"It was such a relief. I can't imagine what these people have been going through every night not knowing what's in the future."

Last hope

Victor said that Thursday will be the first night in a long time he will be able to sleep soundly.

"My life is coming back," he said.



Santos, his wife, Lesi Hernandez, and their two children have been living in the town, located 200 kilometres southeast of Regina, for the past several years.



Santos left his home country of Honduras in 2007 after he says he witnessed a murder and began receiving death threats.



The family first filed for refugee status when they arrived in Canada in 2011, but they were denied due to a lack of evidence to support their fear of returning to Honduras. Subsequent appeals of the decision have also been denied because no new information was provided.

Had been faced with July 5 deportation

The family was informed of a July 5 deportation date at the beginning of June. The youngest of the Santos's two children, Edward, was born in Canada and was not included in the order.



The family's last hope was for government intervention. They had requested the help of Saskatchewan MP and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.

Story continues

Lesi said at first, she and Victor were confused by Thursday's phone call and follow-up email from a federal immigration officer, but eventually learned the family has a temporary resident work permit that is good for two years.

She explained her older son broke down into tears when he was told the news, saying "'Mom, we're going to be here. We're going to be free and we're going to be happy. We don't have to worry.'"

Buying time

Santos said the two-year extension will give them more time to seek advice on what to do next and find a way to stay.

Currently, the family is waiting to hear back on an application for permanent residence based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds because of one of their son's medical issues.

As for Thursday's luncheon, it turned into a celebration, raising around $11,000 for the family.



"It's just wonderful. It's things like this that make us proud to be Canadian and Saskatchewanites," said Harrison.
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New York, June 23, 2017A group of Arab countries today issued Qatar a list of demands, including that the Gulf nation close media outlets that it funds, among them the broadcasters Al-Jazeera and Arabi 21, and the websites Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and Middle East Eye. The demands are a prerequisite for lifting diplomatic and economic sanctions imposed by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates earlier this month, according to The Associated Press.

CPJ condemns the use of news outlets as a bargaining chip and calls on all countries involved in this dispute to stop holding media hostage to political disputes, said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. The Gulf region needs a vibrant free press and news outlets based there must be allowed to report freely.

News outlets have been targeted throughout the political tension, with authorities in Saudi Arabia and Jordan revoking Al-Jazeeras operating license and Bahrain and UAE announcing prison terms for anyone reporting sympathetically on Qatar, CPJ has found.
Attorneys for an inmate accused of strangling his cellmate have asked a judge to declare Nebraska's death penalty unconstitutional.





Concerns over the recently reinstated capital punishment that was repealed in 2015 are among the 11 arguments in a motion filed Monday by Todd Lancaster and Sarah Newell, attorneys for Patrick Schroeder.





The move prompted a delay in Schroeder's arraignment that was set for Tuesday. Instead, District Judge Vicky Johnson scheduled a July 28 hearing on Schroeder's motion.





"Our society can no longer kill to show that killing is wrong," the motion stated.





Schroeder has been serving a life sentence for murder but now also faces a potential death sentence for allegedly choking cellmate Terry Berry Jr. to death in April at the Tecumseh State Prison.





Lancaster said the state's death penalty is racially and geographically discriminatory. He alleged that of the 9 men sent to death row in Nebraska since 2002, only one was white. The rest were black or Hispanic.





Nebraska's capital punishment law was repealed in 2015 but recently reinstated by voters. In an effort to create a viable death penalty (sic) procedure in the wake of that vote, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services changed the lethal injection protocol earlier this year.





Under the former protocol, inmates on death row were given lethal injections of 3 substances in a specific order. The new protocol gives the prisons director more authority in deciding the types and quantities of drugs to be used.





Lancaster said the decision to seek the death penalty is arbitrary because it's left to individual county attorneys.





"The decision to file aggravating circumstances can be affected by the legal experience of the prosecutor, the size and resources of the particular county, any prejudice or bias of the prosecutor, the political ambition of the prosecutor or other political circumstances," the motion stated.

 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

: Associated Press, June 23, 2017
[June 23, 2017] Plaintiffs' Counsel Announce $115 Million Proposed Class Action Settlement in Anthem Data Breach Litigation

A proposed settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit over the 2015 cyberattack of health insurer Anthem, Inc., involving the theft of the personal information of 78.8 million people. The $115 million settlement, if approved by the Court, will be the largest data breach settlement in history. Attorneys from Altshuler Berzon, Cohen Milstein, Girard Gibbs and Lieff Cabraser were court-appointed to lead the representation of the plaintiffs in the litigation. The proposed settlement provides for Anthem to establish a $115 million settlement fund, which will be used to 1) provide victims of the data breach at least two years of credit monitoring; 2) cover out-of-pocket expenses incurred by consumers as a result of the data breach; and 3) provide cash compensation for those consumers who are already enrolled in credit monitoring. In addition to the monetary fund, the settlement will require Anthem to guarantee a certain level of funding for information security and to implement or maintain numerous specific changes to its data security systems, including encryption of certain information and archiving sensitive data with strict access controls. The settlement is designed to protect class members from future risk, provide compensation, and ensure best cybersecurity practices to deter against future data breaches. "After two years of intensive litigation and hard work by the parties, we are pleased that consumers who were affected by this data breach will be protected going forward and compensated for past losses," said Eve Cervantez, co-lead counsel representing the plaintiff in the Anthem litigation.



"We are very satisfied that the settlement is a great result for those affected and look forward to working through the settlement approval process," added Andrew Friedman, co-lead plaintiffs' counsel. In early 2015, Anthem acknowledged that it had been the target of a cyberattack, in which the personal information of 78.8 million individuals was stolen, including, for many of those individuals: names, dates of birth, social security numbers, and health care ID numbers.

Over 100 lawsuits were filed against Anthem across the country and the cases were consolidated in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California before Judge Lucy Koh, who appointed Eve Cervantez and Andrew Friedman as Co-Lead Plaintiffs' Counsel, and Eric Gibbs and Michael Sobol to the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee. A motion for preliminary approval of the settlement was filed today by the Plaintiffs. Judge Koh is scheduled to hear Plaintiffs' motion on August 17, 2017. If granted, the class members will be notified about the details of the settlement, and invited to participate in and comment on the settlement. For additional updates and information about the lawsuit and settlement, please visit the Anthem Data Breach Litigation Website. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170623005603/en/

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President Donald J. Trump has signed a directive charting a new course in U.S. relations with Cuba. Citing the continuing repression of the Cuban people by the Castro regime, President Trump imposed new restrictions on U.S. travel to and business with Cuba, thereby reversing parts of an executive order by the Obama administration aimed at easing relations with the Cuban government.

In a speech in Miami, Florida, announcing the shift in policy, President Trump declared that that the previous administrations easing of restrictions on travel and trade does not help the Cuban people - they only enrich the Cuban regime:

The profits from investment and tourism flow directly to the military. The regime takes the money and owns the industry. The outcome of the last administrations executive action has been only more repression and a move to crush the peaceful, democratic movement.

The new U.S. policy channels economic activities away from the Cuban military while allowing American individuals and entities to develop economic ties to the private, small business sector in Cuba. It makes clear that the primary obstacle to the Cuban peoples prosperity and economic freedom is a stifling, state-controlled economic system  including the Cuban militarys extensive presence throughout the Cuban economy.

The policy also enhances travel restrictions to better enforce the statutory ban on U.S. tourism to Cuba; among other changes, travel for non-academic educational purposes will be limited to group travel.

In addition, the new directive reaffirms the U.S. embargo on Cuba. President Trump declared, We will not lift sanctionsuntil all political prisoners are freed, freedoms of assembly and expression are respected, all political parties are legalized, and free and internationally supervised elections are scheduled.

The United States embassy will remain open, said President Trump, in the hope that our countries can forge a much stronger and better pathWhen Cuba is ready to take concrete stepswe will be ready, willing, and able to come to the table to negotiate that much better a deal for Cubans, for Americans.

The United States, declared Mr. Trump, believes that free, independent, and sovereign nations are the best vehicle for human happiness... At the same time, he added, we all accept that all nations have the right to chart their own pathsso we will respect Cuban sovereignty. But we will never turn our backs on the Cuban people. That will not happen.
ISIS has blown up the famous Grand al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul, Iraq. It was there that ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared a so-called Islamic caliphate in 2014 shortly after the terrorist group overran Mosul.

"The destruction of the Grand al-Nuri Mosque is further evidence of the depravity and the desperation of ISIS and their so-called caliphate, which is rapidly evaporating," said State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert.

She added, "We strongly condemn this crime against the people of Mosul, which only further proves that ISIS has no respect for Iraqs identity, culture, or its religions. For nearly 800 years, the al-Nuri Mosque, with its distinct leaning minaret, al-Hadba, stood as a testament to the faith and unity of Mosuls residents. ISIS used the historic mosque, an edifice of a great religion, to publicly justify its criminal campaign of genocide, mass rape, institutionalized slavery, child murder, and aggressive territorial conquest."

The destruction of the mosque and minaret are not only crimes against the people of Mosul in Iraq, but the world, said Ms. Nauert. "The world has, yet again, lost an important part of our shared heritage at the hands of ISIS."

The Iraqi Security Forces, with the support of the coalition, have now liberated 70 percent of the territory that ISIS once controlled and has now freed 2.7 million Iraqis from ISISs brutal rule. The U.S. and its coalition partners are accelerating the global campaign against ISIS, taking ISIS leaders off the battlefield, and depriving the group of its resources.

The United States remains committed to helping Iraq drive ISIS from every inch of the Iraqi soil and ensure that the terror group cannot return. The United States and the international community support the government of Iraqs efforts to help communities suffering from the effects of the brutal occupation of ISIS.

The United States stands with the people and government of Iraq as they work to build a future that is filled with peace and prosperity for all Iraqis.
John Oliver is facing the legal wrath of a lawsuit-happy coal baron after a brutal segment in which the host tore into the American coal industry.

The document accuses Oliver of a "ruthless character assassination" of Robert Murray, CEO of the nation's largest coal mining operation, Murray Energy.

SEE ALSO: Coal company sues John Oliver for being John Oliver

It didn't exactly come as a surprise; in fact, Oliver more or less dared the notoriously litigious coal boss by mocking an earlier cease-and-desist letter from his company on the show. And at least one first amendment lawyer has said Murray doesn't have much of a leg to stand on.

But that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the absurd spectacle of the legal team for the man Oliver described as a "geriatric Dr. Evil" trying to out-bombast the HBO comedian's signature hyperbolic wit in dry legalese.

Here are some of the lawsuit's best moments:

Murray's giant squirrel tormenter

"Defendants continued their ruthless character assassination and attack on Plaintiffs business reputations by describing Mr. Murray as someone who 'looks like a geriatric Dr. Evil' and arranging for a staff member to dress up in a squirrel costume and deliver the message 'Eat Shit, Bob! to Mr. Murray.'"

This is one of the lawsuit's several references to a staffer dressed as a giant squirrel whom Oliver brought out to insult Murray. The stunt was a reference to some apocryphal company lore about a squirrel urging Murray into the coal business  it's a long story. Suffice to say, Mr. Nutterbutter seems to have really gotten under Murray's skin.

BTW Murray didn't actually talk to a squirrel, OK?

"Specifically, in reference to an absurd story that Mr. Murray claimed a squirrel had told him he should operate his own mines, Defendant Oliver stated 'You know what, I actually believe him on that one.'"

Story continues

At least everyone's in agreement that Murray didn't actually consult a squirrel about his business decisions. Maybe there's hope for an amicable resolution yet!

Oliver endorses Mr. Nutterbutter's vulgar harassment

"If that were not enough, after the live taping, Defendant Oliver exclaimed to the audience that having someone in a squirrel costume tell Mr. Murray to 'Eat Shit' was a 'dream come true.'"

On second thought, he's got a point. Have you no decency, Mr. Nutterbutter?

Good faith efforts

"Even worse, toward the end of the broadcast, Defendant Oliver confirmed that Defendants intentionally expanded their attack against Mr. Murray and the Plaintiffs as retaliation for Plaintiffs' good faith efforts to ensure the accuracy of the broadcast. Defendant Oliver stated "Bob Murray, I didn't really plan for so much of this piece to be about you, but you kind of forced my hand on that one."

Murray's lawyers seem to be working under a loose definition of "good faith efforts" that encompasses cease-and-desist letters.

Neither ceasing nor desisting

"Intentionally and in obvious retaliation for this humanitarian request, Defendant Oliver boldly announced '[a]s we have been explicitly told to cease and desist, let us do neither of those things, and let's talk about Bob Murray.'"

How many lawsuits are able to claim that a defendant explicitly announced their intention to ignore them on national television?

Clinton conspiracy

"[HBO parent Time Warner] is widely reported as a top ten donor of Hillary Clinton, as tracked by the Center for Responsive Politics at OpenSecrets.org. As a presidential candidate, Mrs. Clinton's agenda was to 'put a lotta coal miners and coal companies outta business.'"

Murray's lawyers have connected the dots. This one goes all the way to the top.

Anti-Trump agenda

"[The defendant's statements] advance their biases against the coal industry and their

disdain for the coal-related policies of the Trump Administration."

What's a controversy these days without a Donald Trump cameo?

Oliver's job description

"Instead, presumably to boost ratings, line their pockets with profits and advance the shows anti-coal agenda..."

The first two items are, after all, Oliver's job. As for the third, it seems pretty fair to say he's not a huge fan of the industry's practices.

Public shame and disgrace

"The Defamatory Statements are defamatory per se in that, on their face, they reflect upon Plaintiffs' reputation and character in a manner that: injured Plaintiffs' reputation and subject Plaintiffs to public hatred, ridicule, shame, or disgrace."

This would actually make a good blurb for Oliver's show.
By Victoria Bryan and Tim Hepher

PARIS (Reuters) - Boeing (BA.N) won a race for new business at the Paris Airshow, rolling out a new model of its best-selling 737 airliner that helped it claim back the order crown from rival Airbus (AIR.PA)

After a show in which both manufacturers did brisk business under a sweltering sun, the European planemaker said on Thursday it had won 346 net new orders and commitments - including a last-minute order for 20 - while U.S. rival Boeing reached 571.

That included 147 new orders and commitments for the new Boeing 737 MAX 10, plus 214 conversions to the MAX 10 from other models to support the launch of the new plane.

"The MAX stole the show," Ihssane Mounir, vice president of sales and marketing at Boeing's commercial aircraft division, said. "This is probably one of our busiest air shows."

Combined orders were stronger than expected and edged past the total from the same show two years ago, but were well below a 2011 order blowout when Airbus alone managed a similar tally.

Asked if Airbus had lost momentum after years in which it often trounced Boeing at annual industry gatherings, sales chief John Leahy said the slowdown in orders had been expected.

"Is this a slower show than previous years? Yes, it is. Are we conceding that Boeing sold a few more airplanes than we did? Yes," he told a news conference.

In a late flurry on Thursday morning, Airbus signed deals for almost 100 aircraft, with AirAsia and Iranian carriers Zagros Airlines and Iran Airtours. It later added a last-minute Tibetan order for 20 aircraft.

Iranian Roads and Urban Development Minister Abbas Akhoundi toured the show and met suppliers on Thursday in a reminder of Iran's return to the aviation market after sanctions were lifted last year under a deal between Tehran and major powers.

Boeing topped up its tally by announcing a firm order for 125 737 MAX 8 airplanes with an undisclosed customer and another deal with lessor AerCap (AER.N) to convert 15 of its MAX 8 orders into the larger MAX 10.

Story continues

It also added a memorandum of understanding from Chinese domestic Ruili Airlines for 20 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

TRAFFIC STRONG

Analyst Richard Aboulafia, of Virginia-based Teal Group, said commercial activity had been better than expected and was reminiscent of shows in 2009 and 2011, when the aircraft industry had generally bucked a retreating world economy.

"This time we've got instability and uncertainty in many regions of the world, but airline traffic is strong, and as we've seen at this show, airlines want jets and the finance people are certainly happy to help."

The A321 is larger than any previous member of the 737 family, an important gap in the minds of some airlines that the larger-capacity MAX 10 is intended to address.

Leahy, speaking at his last big air show before retiring later this year, said he had expected the new Boeing plane to make more of a splash.

"We had expected they would have had a bigger launch on the 737 MAX 10, not quite as many conversions, more incremental orders,"

But Mounir said converting existing orders to the new model was the most efficient way for airlines to secure attractive early delivery slots once the plane enters service in 2020.

"This is just the beginning. This is one week's worth of commitments," he told Reuters.

While he did not expect the MAX 10 to be a viable competitor to the A321, Leahy said its launch could result in price pressure. "They're clearly going to come after us on price."

Both firms accuse each other of heavy discounting to win deals.

(Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal and Mike Stone; editing by John Stonestreet)
[June 23, 2017] Gamification Market : Industry Insights, Trends and Forecast upto 2024

Global Gamification Market: Overview The global market for gamification, which entails deploying game mechanics into a non-game context to facilitate user engagement, is in a nascent stage waiting to explode. Points, rewards, badges, challenges, and leader boards are to name a few game mechanics. They are primarily used to enhance customer loyalty and employee productivity. Currently, a host of small and medium entities across various industries are implementing gamification solutions to boost efficiency and profitability. Sensing opportunity, a large number of established companies are rushing in to tap into the market with carefully-considered alliance and expansion strategies. The market also holds out a lot of promise for new players with opportunities to innovate new solutions and applications. The demand for gamification in developed countries is particularly high on account of the concentration of numerous organizations in them aware of various gamification solutions.







In order to study the global market for gamification, the Transparency Market Research report segments it on the basis of end users into consumer gamification development model and enterprise gamification development model. Depending upon the business type, the report segments the market into small, medium, and large business. Based on verticals, the market is segmented into logistics, consumer goods and retail, education, IT and media, telecom, financial services, government, and other sectors. The report also leverages industry-leading analytical tools such Porters Five Forces and SWOT analysis to understand the current competitive dynamics in the market and profiles prominent players operating in it.



Obtain Report Details @ http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/gamification-market.html Global Gamification Market: Trends and Opportunities Factors majorly contributing to the global gamification market are the pressing need for customer and employee engagement. With badges and points failing to have a long lasting impact on consumer engagement, for example, gamification techniques such as a rewarding system and effective use of graphics, among others, have started to gain traction. It has significantly helped in preventing consumers from switch brands. It has also helped to stem employee attrition levels by upping their motivation levels through various gamified applications. The growing need to improve customer interaction is a significant factor that is expected to foster market growth during the forecast period.





Posing a roadblock to the global market for gamification is the lack of awareness about the advantages of gamification. Inappropriate or unimaginative game designs is another factor thwarting the market. However, the market holds out a lot of opportunities because of the proliferation of information in digital world and popularity of trends such as bring your own device (BYOD) in offices. Another important trend noticed in the market is the popularity of cloud-based gamification techniques particularly among cost conscious small and medium sized enterprises.



Make an Enquiry @ http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=2038 Global Gamification Market: Regional Outlook Depending upon geography, the global market for gamification can be divided into Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Rest of the World. The market, which is still in its early stages, is dominated by North America and Europe. The continents are forecasted to lead the market in the near future too because of a certain degree of awareness about gamification in the enterprises in the two regions and their relatively developed gamifications ecosystem. The North America market, in particular, has seen growth because of a substantial uptake of customer-based and enterprise-based gamification solutions in them.



About Us 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. 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.



Each TMR 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 wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.



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This AI Startup Raised $60 Million in Round Led by First Backers of Snap

Artificial intelligence has made great strides in the past few years, but its also generated much hype over its current capabilities.

Thats one takeaway from a Friday panel in San Francisco involving leading AI experts hosted by the Association for Computing Machinery for its 50th annual Turing Award for advancements in computer science.

Michael Jordan, a machine learning expert and computer science professor at University of California, Berkeley, said there is way too much hype regarding the capabilities of so-called chat bots. Many of these software programs use an AI technique called deep learning in which they are trained on massive amounts of conversation data so that they learn to interact with people.

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But despite several big tech companies and new startups promising powerful chat bots that speak like humans when prodded, Jordan believes the complexity of human language it too difficult for bots to master with modern techniques like deep learning. These bots essentially perform parlor tricks in which they respond with comments that are loosely related to a particular conversation, but they cant say anything true about the real world.

We are in era of enormous hype of deep learning, said Jordan. Deep learning has the potential to change the economy, he added, but we are not there yet.

Also in the panel, Fei-Fei Li, Googles goog machine learning cloud chief and Stanford University Professor, said We are living in one of the most exciting and hyped eras of AI. Li helped build the ImageNet computer-vision contest, which spurred a renaissance in AI in which researchers applied deep learning to identify objects like cats in photos.

But while everyone talks about ImageNets success, we hardly talk about the failures, she said, underscoring the hard work researchers have building powerful computers that can see like humans.

For more about technology and finance, watch:

Story continues

Still, Li is excited that current AI milestones will eventually lead to more breakthroughs that will touch every single industry, like healthcare. We are entering a new phase in AI, she said.

What will help usher more breakthroughs in deep learning will be the continuing advancements in powerful computing hardware, like Nvidias GPUs that make it possible to crunch tremendous amounts of data faster than ever, explained Ilya Sutskever, the research director of Elon Musk-backed AI research group OpenAI. Deep learning will keep booming in tandem with advancements in computing hardware that shows no signs of slowing down.



Compute has been the oxygen of deep learning, Sutskever said.
Aircraft giant The Boeing Company BA has entered into an agreement for 125 737 MAX 8 airplanes. The contract, which is valued at $14 billion at list prices, has been signed with an unidentified major airline customer at the 2017 Paris Air Show.



Details of the Deal



The agreement also includes purchase rights for an additional 50 airplanes. If finalized, this agreement will be reflected on the Boeing orders and deliveries website.



Notably, Boeings 737 MAX family of commercial aircraft incorporates the latest-technology CFM International LEAP-1B engines to deliver the highest efficiency, reliability and passenger comfort in the single-aisle market. In particular, these jets boast a 40% smaller noise footprint than today's single-aisle airplanes.



Other Deals Signed at the Ongoing Paris Air Show



Demand for Boeings commercial airplanes has been on the rise owing to a steady increase in passenger and freight traffic. In addition to the aforementioned deal, Boeing grabbed other notable contracts at the Paris Air Show, including a commitment from the Kuwait-based ALAFCO Aviation Lease and Finance Company for 20 737 MAX 8s, valued at $2.2 billion at current list prices. Moreover, Lion Group committed to buy 50 737 Max 10 jets from the company for $6.24 billion.



Further, the aerospace behemoth signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with SpiceJet for 40 737 MAX airplanes, valued at $4.7 billion. Another MOU was signed with Tibet Financial Leasing for 20 737 MAX airplanes, valued at approximately $2.5 billion. It also signed MOU with BOC Aviation Limited for 10 737 MAX 10 airplanes, worth nearly $1.25 billion.



Apart from this, the company clinched an order from AerCap for 30 787-9 Dreamliners, worth $8.1 billion. Given the enormous commercial demand in the market, Boeing is expected to witness significant traction, especially in the single-aisle market.



Single-Aisle Aircraft in Demand



Over the next 20 years, Boeing anticipates demand for 29,530 single-aisle jets, worth $3.2 trillion, in the next 20 years. This projected figure reflects a 5% increase over last year's projection.



Moreover, Boeing expects single-aisle jets to be the major driver of demand growth, comprising 72% of the total commercial jets demand projection. While the new 737 MAX is likely to grab a lions share of the new orders, Boeings arch-rival Airbus Group SEs EADSY A320neo is also expected to pose a significant challenge.



Nevertheless, Boeings 737 model is one of the best-selling planes in the single-aisle market, thanks primarily to its fuel efficiency and passenger comfort. Therefore, to maintain its dominance in the commercial aerospace market, the company continues to invest in research and development for upgrading and churning out upgraded versions of its existing planes.



Q1 Order Details



A look at Boeings first-quarter order details shows that the company booked 198 net commercial orders (accounting for cancellations). This reflects a decline from the year-ago figure of 768. On the contrary, Airbus registered net bookings of just six aircraft, trailing far behind Boeing.



Since, Boeing and Airbus are the two largest players in the commercial aircraft space their direct rivalry is quite evident, which leads to intensifying competition in the industry. The enhanced orders place Boeing in a better position in the industry.



Price Movement



Share price of Boeing has increased 49.4% over the last 12 months, outperforming the Zacks categorized AerospaceDefense industrys gain of 27.4%. This could be because the companys strong balance sheet and cash flows provide financial flexibility in matters of incremental dividend, ongoing share repurchases as well as earnings accretive acquisitions. Furthermore, the stocks performance is in line with that of General Dynamics Corp. GD and Textron Inc. TXT, which also surpassed the industry mark.

Story continues





Zacks Rank



Boeing currently 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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Boeing won a red hot race for new business at the Paris Airshow, rolling out a new model of its best-selling 737 airliner that helped it claim back the order crown from rival Airbus.

After a show in which both manufacturers did brisk business under a sweltering sun, the European planemaker said on Thursday it won 326 net new orders and commitments while U.S. rival Boeing said its total was 571.

That included 147 new orders and commitments for the 737 MAX 10, plus 214 conversions to the MAX 10 from other models to support the launch of the new plane.

The MAX stole the show, Ihssane Mounir, vice president of sales and marketing at Boeings commercial aircraft division, told journalists. This is probably one of our busiest air shows.

Asked if Airbus eadsy had lost momentum after years in which it often trounced Boeing ba at annual industry gatherings, sales chief John Leahy said the slowdown in orders had been expected.

Is this a slower show than previous years? Yes, it is. Are we conceding that Boeing sold a few more airplanes than we did? Yes, he told a news conference.

In a late flurry on Thursday morning, Airbus signed deals for almost 100 aircraft, with AirAsia and privately-owned Iranian carriers Zagros Airlines and Iran Airtour.

Boeing topped up its tally by announcing a firm order for 125 737 MAX 8 airplanes with an undisclosed customer and another deal with lessor AerCap to convert 15 of its MAX 8 orders into the larger MAX 10. It also added a memorandum of understanding from Chinese domestic Riuli Airlines for 20 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

Analyst Richard Aboulafia, of Virginia-based Teal Group, said commercial activity had been better than expected and was reminiscent of shows in 2009 and 2011, when the aircraft industry had bucked a retreating world economy.

This time weve got instability and uncertainty in many regions of the world, but airline traffic is strong, and as weve seen at this show, airlines want jets and the finance people are certainly happy to help.

Story continues

Leahy said he had expected the new Boeing plane to make more of a splash. We had expected they would have had a bigger launch on the 737 MAX 10, not quite as many conversions, more incremental orders.

While he did not expect the MAX 10 to be a viable competitor to the A321, Leahy said the Boeing planes launch could result in price pressure. Theyre clearly going to come after us on price.

The A321 is larger than any previous member of the 737 family, a gap that the MAX 10 is intended to close.
E-commerce is one of the hottest business segments in the world, and Chinas biggest player is our Zacks Bull of the Day, Alibaba Holding Group (BABA). In their most recent reported quarter, the company saw sales of $5.605 billion, which was an increase of +60% year over year. And this amazing sales growth is expected to continue to expand for the foreseeable future.



This Zacks Ranked #1 (Strong Buy) operates online and mobile marketplaces in retail and wholesale trade, as well as cloud computing and other services. It provides technology and services to enable consumers, merchants, and other participants to conduct commerce in its ecosystem. The Company operates Taobao Marketplace, an online shopping destination; Tmall, a third-party platform for brands and retailers; Juhuasuan, a group buying marketplace; Alibaba.com, an online business-to-business marketplace; 1688.com, an online wholesale marketplace; and AliExpress, a consumer marketplace. Alibaba Group Holding Limited is headquartered in Hangzhou, the People's Republic of China.



Recent Announcements



During Alibabas recent Investors Day, Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu stated that the company expects sales to rise between 45% to 49% during fiscal year 2018 (ending in March of 2019). This was well above the previous expectation of +35% sales growth. This would suggest that BABA is now expecting sales of $34.3 billion for the fiscal year. Outside of their online shopping, their Alipay (digital payment division), and the Alicloud (cloud computing business) segments are expected to be positive growth drivers going forward. Lastly, the company currently has 454 million annual active buyers, an increase of 11% from the previous year.



Price and Earnings Consensus



As you can see in the graph below, the stock has had a strong 2017, and the recent increased revenue growth expectations has caused the stock price and future earnings estimates to skyrocket.

Story continues

Alibaba Group Holding Limited Price and Consensus

Alibaba Group Holding Limited Price and Consensus | Alibaba Group Holding Limited Quote

Increasing Future Earnings Estimates



Over the past 60 days earnings estimates for Q1 18, Q2 18, FY 18 and FY 19; Q1 18 improved from $0.64 to $0.71, Q2 18 rose from $0.66 to $0.76, FY 18 jumped up from $3.18 to $3.66, and FY 19 was lifted from $4.16 to $5.04.



Bottom Line



Alibaba continues to cement itself as the dominate e-commerce company in China, and with their expansion into other segments like digital payments, and cloud computing the company is increasing their footprint in the digital marketplace.

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Alisyn Camerota interviews Kellyanne Conway on CNN on Friday morning.

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, refused to say whether Trump is taking any specific actions to stymie future attempts by the Russian government to interfere in US elections during a sharp dialogue on Friday morning with CNN's Alisyn Camerota.

Camerota, the host of "New Day," began the 20-minute interview by asking Conway about the White House's response to a bombshell new Washington Post report detailing the most conclusive public evidence so far of Russian President Vladimir Putin's role in the election meddling.

Conway sidestepped the question, instead denying that the Russians were successful in influencing the election, and insisting that there is no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians, an allegation at the heart of ongoing congressional and FBI investigations.

"No nexus has been proven between what Russia or any other foreign government tried to do and the actual election result," Conway said, adding, "We know that Donald Trump won fairly and squarely 306 electoral votes  it had nothing to do with interference."

Camerota tried again.

"But what about this new reporting?" she asked. "What is the current White House doing about this?"

Conway responded that the president has said repeatedly that he "would be concerned about anybody interfering in our democracy," and then compared the Russian interference to criticism from Trump's doubters in the US.

"We saw a lot of people interfering with our democracy by saying he couldn't win here at home," Conway said.

Camerota persisted, rephrasing the question.

"I mean against Russia  what is he doing, specifically, to try to stop this?" she asked.

Conway then appeared to become frustrated and criticized CNN's reporting.

"Alisyn, I realize that we just like to say the word, 'Russia, Russia' to mislead the voters and I know that CNN is aiding and abetting this nonsense as well," Conway said.

Story continues

The CNN host didn't give up on her line of questioning, again asking what "action" the White House is taking to prevent Russian interference.

"The president has met with his national security team many times, he has an initiative or a commission on voter integrity," Conway said, "and he, himself, has used the power of the bully pulpit to express his resistance to any type of outside interference."

Camerota pressed harder.

"Do you think that he's done enough to send a signal to Russia to stop this?"

"I think the president has been very clear on how he feels about this issue and many others," Conway said, and then launched into a list of the administration's achievements, accusing CNN and other news outlets of intentionally ignoring other news in order to focus on the Russia-related investigations.

Following the interview, CNN tweeted a video compilation of what they described as "the 7 times Kellyanne Conway avoids questions about what Trump is doing about Russian interference in US elections."

"You're not answering": @AlisynCamerota asks @KellyannePolls question about addressing Russia interference 7 times https://t.co/4OHxBW03YH

 New Day (@NewDay) June 23, 2017

NOW WATCH: Here are the 6 best memes from Trump's first trip abroad

Related:





More From Business Insider
papaya

It started with rotting flesh.

Slicing into the green skin of a Hawaiian papaya ordinarily yields juicy, salmon-colored fruit that's almost custard-like in its consistency and sweetness. But in the early 1990s, one Hawaiian farmer instead found bits of whitish, dried-out flesh in his recently harvested fruit. On the skin were discolored spots resembling tiny rings.

It was a sign of trouble for hundreds of Hawaiian papaya farmers who, for the next several years, would lose field after field of their crop  altogether an $11-million dollar industry. The culprit was an incurable virus called Papaya Ring Spot Virus (PRSV).

In 1992, Dennis Gonsalves, a plant pathologist at Cornell University who grew up in the region most acutely affected by the virus, came up with a wild idea to stop it. He wanted to vaccinate the papaya crop from the virus using genetic engineering. To do it, Gonsalves and two other scientists (his wife Carol Gonsalves and David R. Lee) opened up the papaya genome and carefully inserted a gene from the ring spot virus into its genetic code.

After nearly a decade of work, Gonsalves and his team created a papaya plant that was genetically resistant to ring spot. The Gonsalves' crops blossomed across farms that had been decimated by the virus. Today, their fruit, which they named the Rainbow papaya, dominates Hawaii's papaya exports.

"We saved the papaya industry," Gonsalves says in a new film narrated by Neil de Grasse Tyson called "Food Evolution", which is set to premier on June 23. "That's it."

This wasn't the first time scientists tried to improve a fruit by tweaking its DNA  in 1994, the FDA approved the Flavr Savr brand of tomato, which scientists had genetically engineered to last longer by using a backwards copy of a ripening gene. But the Rainbow papaya represented the first time the technique was widely successful.

Yet instead of ending a storm, as the crop's name might suggest, the Rainbow papaya unleashed its own tempest.

Story continues

dennis gonsalves food evolution gmo documentary papaya scientist

"Food Evolution" dives into the controversy surrounding genetic modification, and opens with a 2013 scene of the Maui County Council floor. At the time, council member Margaret Wille was introducing a bill to ban GMOs from the Big Island.

Ground zero for genetically modified foods

"We are at a pivotal time in the history of this island," Wille told the Maui County Council in September 2013. "We have an opportunity to act, to do something. We would make history on this island. Let's make this island a model for the rest of the world."

Wille's proposed ban received more vocal support than any bill the council had previously considered  even more than its "perennially popular bids to decriminalize marijuana," according to a 2014 New York Times story by Amy Harmon.

Anti-GMO activists from around the world were video-conferenced in to the hearing to speak in support of the ban. Scientists, on the other hand, were not given as much time to speak.

hawaii aerial drone

Papaya farmers voiced staunch opposition to the bill, which forced Wille to amend it to "grandfather in" the fruit. Essentially, that meant the Rainbow papaya was exempted from the ban, so long as farmers registered with the county and paid a $100 yearly fee.

"They're treating us like were criminals, Ross Sibucao, the chair of the growers' association, told the Times in 2013.

The ban was approved and signed into law in 2014 but subsequently entered a kind of legislative limbo. In 2015, the federal government suggested it might overturn the ban, and sent to the US Court of Appeals for further debate. The following year, a federal judge killed the legislation, ruling that Hawaiian counties could not enact their own GMO bans.

But the GMO debate in Hawaii unleashed a cascade of bills around the country that aimed to limit or ban foods made with genetically modified ingredients. More than 20 other states, including California, Florida, and New York, have active anti-GMO campaigns; activists in many of them have pushed for legislation banning the products or requiring them to be labeled. Last year, Barack Obama signed the first national GMO labeling law, which requires food makers to list any genetically-modified ingredients in their products.

What scientists think of GMOs

A majority of scientific groups support genetically modified foods, citing dozens of studies that suggest the crops are safe for human consumption.

Organizations like the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the European Commission have publicly proclaimed GMO foods to be safe to eat. A large 2013 study on GMOs also found no "significant hazards directly connected with the use of genetically engineered crops." Last summer, Soylent, the producer of Silicon Valley's favorite meal-replacement drink, announced that it made its drinks with GMO ingredients.

Several scientists have also argued that nearly all the food we eat today has been genetically modified in some way. Over thousands of years, farmers have hand-picked the traits they want to see in their crops, breeding and cross-breeding plants with the sweetest flesh and the smallest seeds until they arrived at many of the fruits and veggies we eat today.

According to the USDA, the following American-grown products are genetically modified:

94% of soybeans

92% of corn

94% of cotton

95% of sugar beets, one of our main sources of sugar

90% of canola oil, commonly used in prepared foods and to deep-fry things like french fries

77% of Hawaiian papayas

"I hope people wake up one day and realize, 'Hey, almost everything is GM'  it's in the air, on our bodies, in our medicine. Maybe we can get over the GM foods controversy," Harvard geneticist George Church told Business Insider last year.

Gonsalves agrees. "We did the research and I stand by it," he said.

NOW WATCH: Here's what fruits and vegetables looked like before we domesticated them





More From Business Insider


After the US downed a Syrian jet making a bombing run on US-backed forces fighting ISIS, Russia threatened to target US and US-led coalition planes West of the Euphrates river in Syria.

But while Russia has some advanced surface-to-air missile systems and very agile fighter aircraft in Syria, it wouldn't fare well in what would be a short, brutal air war against the US.

The US keeps an aircraft carrier with dozens of F/A-18E fighters aboard in the Mediterranean about all the time and hundreds of F-15s and F-16s scattered around Turkey, Qatar, and Jordan.

According to Omar Lamrani, a senior military analyst at Stratfor, a geopolitical analysis firm, Russia has "about 25 planes, only about ten of which are dedicated to air superiority (Su-35s and Su-30s), and against that theyll have to face fifth-gen stealth fighters, dozens of strike fighters, F-15s, F-16s, as well as B-1 and B-52 bombers. And of course the vast US Navy and pretty much hundreds of Tomahawks."

"Russians have a lot of air defenses, theyre not exactly defenseless by any means," Lamrani told Business Insider, "But the US has very heavy air superiority." Even though individual Russian platforms come close to matching, and in some ways exceed the capability of US jets, it comes down to numbers.

So if Russia did follow through with its threat, and target a US aircraft that did not back down West of the Euphrates in Syria, and somehow managed to shoot it down, then what?

"The US coalition is very cautious," said Lamrani. "The whole US coalition is on edge for any moves from Russia at this point."

Sukhoi_Su 35S_at_MAKS 2011_airshow

Lamrani also said that while F/A-18Es are more visible and doing most of the work, the US keeps a buffer of F-22 stealth jets between its forces and Russia's. If Russia did somehow manage to shoot down a US or US-led coalition plane, a US stealth jet would probably return fire before it ever reached the base.

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At that point the Russians would have a moment to think very critically if they wanted to engage with the full might of the US Air Force after the eye-for-an-eye shoot downs.

If US surveillance detected a mass mobilization of Russian jets in response to the back-and-forth, the US wouldn't just wait politely for Russians to get their planes in the sky so they can fight back.

Instead, a giant salvo of cruise missiles would pour in from the USS George H. W. Bush carrier strike group, much like the April 7 strike on Syria's Sharyat air base. But this time, the missiles would have to saturate and defeat Russia's missile defenses first, which they could do by sheer numbers if not using electronic attack craft.

FILE PHOTO - U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) conducts strike operations while in the Mediterranean Sea which U.S. Defense Department said was a part of cruise missile strike against Syria on April 7, 2017. Ford Williams/Courtesy U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS

Then, after neutering Russia's defenses, the ships could target the air base, not only destroying planes on the ground but also tearing up the runways, so no planes could take off. At this point US and Coalition aircraft would have free reign to pass overhead and completely devastate Russian forces.

Russia would likely manage to score a couple intercepts and even shoot down some US assets, but overall the Russian contingent in Syria cannot stand up to the US, let alone the entire coalition of nations fighting ISIS.

Russia also has a strong Navy that could target US air bases in the region, but that would require Russia to fire on Turkey, Jordan, and Qatar, which would be politically and technically difficult for them.

This scenario of a hypothetical air war is exceedingly unlikely. Russia knows the numbers are against them and it would "not [be] so easy for the Russians to decide to shoot down a US aircraft," according to Lamrani.

russia navy putin

And Russia wouldn't risk so much over Syria, which is not an existential defense interest for them, but a foreign adventure to distract from Russia's stalled economy and social problems, according to Anna Borshchevskaya, an expert on Russias foreign policy in the Middle East at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"Russia is not a great power by most measures, like GDP, population, living standard," Borshchevskaya told Business Insider. "Russia has steadily declined. Its still a nuclear power, but not world power."

In Syria, "a lot of what Putin is doing is about domestic policies," said Borshchevskaya, and to have many Russian servicemen killed in a battle with a US-led coalition fighting ISIS wouldn't serve his purposes domestically or abroad.

NOW WATCH: There is a secret US government airline that flies out of commercial airports





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KFC, a unit of YUM Brands (NYSE:YUM), is launching one of its chicken sandwiches into outer space Thursday as a marketing stunt to help promote its new spicy sandwich coming to the U.S.

The fast food giant, who is officially calling the mission Zinger 1, is taking its new Zinger sandwich, which launched in April, to great heights  specifically around 80,000 feet into space.

Before coming to America in April, the Zinger was available in 120 countries worldwide. It was already Earth famous, so we decided to make it space famous, too. If the Colonel were around today, he would have wanted to do something big and bold with this new sandwich  sending it to space is just what he would have done, George Felix, KFCs U.S. director of advertising, tells FOX Business.

Kevin Hochman, KFCs U.S. president, says the goal is in part to help support World View  an exploration company  who they partnered with for the stunt.

In all seriousness, were proud to support World Views commitment to advancing space research, he said in a statement.

The sandwich will be placed in a stratospheric high altitude balloon that is capable of multi-day missions and a controlled flight path. Felix says the move is also a chance for the chain to be part of space exploration history in a way.

KFC wouldnt disclose the cost of the mission but Hochman did tell FOX Business Stuart Varney in April that they have invested nearly $80 million to create the new chicken sandwich.

We have been actually working on this for two years: we spent $80 million upgrading our back house equipment and we spent the last six months re-training all of our staff on how to make a fried chicken sandwich fast because ultimately at lunch, we have to win on speed, Hochman said in April.

The sandwich will be made with 100% real chicken from U.S. farms without any antibiotics, which is part of the companys undertaking to stop using antibiotics important to human medicine in its chickens by 2018.

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By Sanjeev Miglani and David Brunnstrom

NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is expected to authorize India's purchase of a naval variant of the Predator drone, two sources familiar with the situation said, ahead of a visit next week by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to try to revitalise ties in his first meeting with President Donald Trump.

Securing agreement on the purchase of 22 unarmed drones, worth more than $2 billion, is seen in New Delhi as a key test of defence ties that flourished under former President Barack Obama but have drifted under Trump, who has courted Asian rival China as he seeks Beijing's help to contain North Korea's nuclear programme.

The deal would still require approval by Congress. California-based General Atomics, the maker of the Guardian drone sought by India, declined to comment.

Modi's two-day visit to Washington begins on Sunday. Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in April and has also had face time with the leaders of nations including Japan, Britain and Vietnam since taking office in January, prompting anxiety in New Delhi that India is no longer a priority in Washington.

The Indian navy wants the unarmed surveillance drones to keep watch over the Indian Ocean. The deal would be the first such purchase by a country that is not a member of the NATO alliance.

"We are trying to move it to the top of the agenda as a deliverable, this is something that can happen before all the other items," said an Indian official tracking the progress of the drone discussions in the run-up to the visit.

India, a big buyer of U.S. arms that was recently named by Washington as a major defence ally, wants to protect its 7,500- km (4,700-mile) coastline as Beijing expands its maritime trade routes and Chinese submarines increasingly lurk in regional waters.

India already uses dozens of Israeli Heron and Searcher unarmed aerial vehicles (UAVs), but the Guardian operates at higher altitudes and can carry far heavier payloads, offering the navy greater reach.

Story continues

A source tracking the discussions said the U.S. State Department had dropped its objections to the sale of the Guardian drones to India.

It had been concerned about the potential destabilising impact of introducing high-tech drones into South Asia, where tensions are simmering between India and Pakistan, particularly over Kashmir, which is divided between them.

Such a sale of sensitive military hardware must be authorized by the State Department before being sent to Congress for review. A congressional source said no notification of a planned sale has yet been sent to Congress, but this could come next week. The State Department declined comment ahead of any notification.

Other strains have emerged in U.S.-India relations, with the United States vexed by a growing bilateral trade deficit and Trump accusing New Delhi of negotiating unscrupulously at the Paris climate talks to walk away with billions in aid.

U.S. officials expect a relatively low-key visit by Modi, without the fanfare of some of his previous trips to the United States, and one geared to giving the Indian leader the chance to get to know Trump personally and to show that he is doing so.

Modi is also not expected to press hard on a U.S. visa programme the Trump administration is reviewing to reduce the flow of skilled foreign workers and save jobs for Americans, seeing limited gains from raising a sensitive issue, they said.

FIGHTER JETS

"There is a palpable fear in New Delhi that the new U.S. president's lack of focus on India, and limited appointment of South Asia focused advisors, has resulted in India falling off the radar in Washington," Eurasia Group's Shailesh Kumar and Sasha Riser-Kositsky said in a note.

Defence deals are one area where the two countries could make progress because of bipartisan support, an Indian official involved in the preparations for the visit said.

Vivek Lal, the chief executive of global strategic development at General Atomics who has been driving the negotiations for the drones, is expected to be among a group of CEOs meeting Modi at a roundtable on Sunday.

Marillyn Hewson, the CEO of Lockheed Martin which is bidding to produce F-16 fighter planes in India, will also meet Modi. The jet deal is potentially the biggest since the two countries began deepening defence ties more than a decade ago.

On Monday, Lockheed Martin announced an agreement with India's Tata Advanced Systems to produce F-16 planes in India, provided it won a contract to equip the Indian Air Force with hundreds of new aircraft.

Lockheed has offered to shift its ageing F-16 production line from Fort Worth, Texas, as part of Modi's "Make-in-India" drive while it ramps up production of the high-end F-35 aircraft at home.

Since Trump's election on an "America First" platform, U.S. and Indian officials have sought to play down any contradiction between his stated desire to protect American jobs and Modi's "Make in India" policy, arguing, for example, that deals in which components made in the United States are shipped to India for assembly benefit workers in both countries.

Sweden's Saab is the other contender for the contract to make combat planes in India, which is expected to open for bidding in the next several months.

(Additional reporting by Mike Stone, Patricia Zengerle, Douglas Busvine and Manoj Kumar; Editing by Alex Richardson and Peter Cooney)
CASEY -- The Tarble Arts Center is pleased to announce that Cultivating Creativity 2016-2017: Consolidated Communications Childrens Art Exhibition continues at Regions Bank, 101 W. Alabama Ave. in Casey. The exhibit will be on view June 27 to July 14 during normal business hours: Monday through Thursday 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Friday 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., closed Saturday and Sunday.

The Cultivating Creativity Childrens Art Exhibition displays the most outstanding art produced by school art programs throughout East-Central Illinois during the 2016-2017 school year. Underwritten by Consolidated Communications, the exhibition is drawn from the Childrens Art Exhibition, presented annually each spring at the Tarble Arts Center. Each year, one student from every contributing school is selected to participate in the exhibition that circulates throughout the region during the next academic year. This year the exhibit will travel to 13 area communities, from Assumption to Paris and from Tuscola to Effingham. There are 44 student works on display this year ranging in media from pastel and acrylic to watercolor and tempera that represent the following schools:

Altamont Grade School; Altamont Jr. High School; Altamont High School; Arcola Elementary School; Arcola High School; Arthur Grade School; Arthur Jr. High School; Ashmore Elementary School; Bond Elementary School; Carl Sandburg Elementary School; Carolyn Wenz Elementary School; Casey-Westfield High School; Casey-Westfield Jr. High School; Central A&M High School; Central A&M Middle School; Central Grade School; Charleston High School; Charleston Middle School; Chrisman Elementary School; Chrisman High School; Crestwood School; Cumberland High School; Effingham High School; Effingham Junior High School; Gregory Intermediate School; Jefferson Elementary School; Kansas School; Lake Crest Elementary School; Mark Twain Elementary School; Mattoon High School; Mattoon Middle School; Memorial Elementary School; Moulton Middle School; Oakland High School; Okaw Valley High School; Okaw Valley Middle School; Riddle Elementary School; Shelbyville High School; St. Anthony Grade School; St. Anthony High School; St. Marys School; Williams Elementary School; Windsor Elementary School; and Windsor Jr.-Sr. High School.

Casey-Westfield Jr. High School and Casey-Westfield High School are representing schools in the Casey area.

Lanie Elder, a seventh grader at Casey-Westfield Jr. High, created a piece called The Many Moods of Lanie and James Johnson, a tenth grader at Casey-Westfield High School, created a piece called The Flow, both under the instruction of Amy Holman.

Cultivating Creativity is a community engagement program created by the Tarble Arts Center to help raise awareness of the importance of including the arts as part of the regular school curriculum. For more information about the Cultivating Creativity exhibit or other exhibitions and educational programming please contact the Tarble Arts Center at 217-581-ARTS (2787) or tarble@eiu.edu.

Sponsorship for Exhibitions and Programming at the Tarble Arts Center is generously provided by: The Tarble Family Foundation, Consolidated Communications, First Mid-Illinois Bank and Trust, EIU Art Department, the EIU Center for the Humanities and the Academy of Lifelong Learning.

The Tarble Arts Center is a major arts resource for the people of Central Illinois and Eastern Illinois University that focuses primarily on the visual arts. Its mission is taking the arts to the people. The Tarble Arts Center is open to the public Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. The Tarble is closed on Mondays and holidays. For more information, please visit us at www.eiu.edu/tarble or www.facebook.com/TarbleArts.
Vice President of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Ihssane Mounir (L) shakes hands with United Airlines Senior Vice President of finance, Gerry Laderman, during a commercial announcement at the 52nd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol (Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters) - Boeing <BA.N> said it had won 571 orders and commitments for jetliners at the Paris Airshow, upstaging European rival Airbus <AIR.PA> after the launch of a new model of its 737 MAX passenger jet.

Sales chief Ihssane Mounir said the U.S. planemaker had netted 147 new orders or commitments for the newly launched Boeing 737 MAX 10, designed to add more capacity to the medium-haul series to catch up with strong sales of the Airbus A321neo.

Responding to Airbus criticism that the new plane's success at the show had been won largely at the expense of conversions from existing models, Mounir said this was just the start and that conversions had been a useful way to meet demand.

He added it was "too early to call" whether sales of the 787 Dreamliner this week had boosted the chances of increasing production of the jet to 14 a month, but added such demand was "starting to define our thinking". Any decision will be based on overall global demand, he said.

He also hinted at orders for the 777 wide-body jet which faces a drop in production pending the arrival of a newer model.

"There will be more 777s that we can talk about as time marches on," he told a news conference.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher and Mike Stone; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
Sears

Sears Holdings is closing 20 more stores in the US, in addition to the 245 closings that had already been announced this year.

The company announced the latest closures to store employees on Thursday, several workers told Business Insider.

Employees say the new list of closures includes Sears department stores in Sarasota, Florida; Roseville, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; and Overland Park, Kansas, among others.

Sears did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The closings will bring Sears' store count to about 1,180, down from 2,073 five years ago.

Sears announced its first round of store closures in January. Three more rounds have been announced since then.

The latest closures were announced to employees on the same day that Sears Canada, which was spun off from Sears Holdings in 2012, revealed that it would be closing a quarter of its stores  59 locations total  as part of a court-supervised restructuring.

The two companies operate independently of each other, but Sears Holdings CEO Eddie Lampert remains Sears' Canada's largest investor, with 45% of the company's shares. Sears Holdings owns 12% of Sears Canada's shares.

Here's the list of new closures:

8201 S Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL

1601 N Harlem Ave, Chicago, IL

9701 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS

5715 Johnston Street, Lafayette, LA

4575 La Jolla Village Drive, San Diego

126 Shawan Road, Cockeysville, MD

17318 Valley Mall Road, Hagerstown, MD

32123 Gratiot Avenue, Roseville, MI

14250 Buck Hill Road, Burnsville, MN

1640 Route 22, Watchung, NJ

1425 Central Avenue, Albany, NY

4000 Jericho Turnpike, East Northport, NY

601-635 Harry L. Drive, Johnson City, NY

7875 Johnnycake Ridge Road, Mentor, OH

6950 W 130th Street, Middleburg Heights, OH

3408 W Central Avenue, Toledo, OH

650 Bald Hill Road, Warwick, RI

300 Baybrook Mall, Friendswood, TX

9570 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX

5200 South 76th Street, Greendale, WI

Story continues

If you work at Sears and have a story to tell, email this reporter at hpeterson@businessinsider.com

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Trump's Carrier deal is not living up to the hype  jobs still going to Mexico

More than 600 employees at a Carrier plant in Indianapolis are bracing for layoffs beginning next month, despite being told by President Trump that nearly all the jobs at the plant had been saved. The deal , announced with great fanfare before Trump took office, was billed not only as a heroic move to keep jobs from going to Mexico but also as a seismic shift in the economic development landscape.

Nearly seven months later the deal has not worked out quite as originally advertised, and the landscape has barely budged.

"The jobs are still leaving," said Robert James, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999. "Nothing has stopped."

In fact, after the layoffs are complete later this year, a few hundred union jobs will remain at the plant. But that is far different from what then-President-elect Trump said just three weeks after the election.

"They're going to have a great Christmas," Trump said to cheering steelworkers and local dignitaries on Dec. 1. The plan to close the plant and lay off 1,400 workers had become a frequent topic in the Trump campaign. He said 1,100 jobs would stay in Indianapolis, thanks to the deal.

"And by the way, that number is going to go up very substantially as they expand this area," he said. "So the 1,100 is going to be a minimum number."

But as in any deal, there are crucial details in the fine print.

The heart of the deal

The agreement does guarantee that Carrier, a unit of United Technologies Corp. , will continue to employ at least 1,069 people at the Indianapolis plant for 10 years in exchange for up to $7 million in incentives. In addition, the company has promised to invest $16 million in the facility.

But fewer than 800 of those 1,069 jobs  730 to be exact  are the manufacturing jobs that were always at the heart of the debate. The rest are engineering and technical jobs that were never scheduled to be cut.

"To me this was just political, to make it a victory within Trump's campaign, in his eyes that he did something great," said T. J. Bray, a 15-year Carrier employee who will keep his job due to seniority. "I'm very grateful that I get to keep my job, and many others, but I'm still disappointed that we're losing a lot."

Story continues

As for Trump's claim that the $16 million investment in the plant would add jobs, United Technologies CEO Greg Hayes told CNBC in December that the money would go toward more automation in the factory and ultimately would result in fewer jobs. That is not lost on the union.

"I don't see Carrier hiring anytime in the near future," James said.

Hayes said in an interview this week that the company is meeting its commitments "to keep the 800 jobs in Indianapolis to keep the factory open."

"The Indianapolis situation was difficult," he said.

Hayes said the laid-off workers would be offered jobs at other factories across the country.

"We're going to be hiring something like 5,000 people this year," he said.

But union officials say they have heard nothing from the company about any job offers elsewhere within the company. All they have received is the official notice, as required by federal law, that the first round of cuts  338 jobs  will take place on July 20, with an additional 290 employees terminated on Dec. 22, three days before Christmas.

Elaine Bedel, the president of the Indiana Economic Development Corp., which signed the agreement with Carrier, calls it a "victory" for Indiana. She believes that without the deal, the company would have eliminated not only all the manufacturing jobs  including the 730 that were saved  but the engineering and technical jobs as well.

"Obviously, having those jobs here  high wages jobs  is helpful to our economy," she said.

Bedel points out that the agreement allows the state to claw back some of the $7 million in subsidies if the company does not stay for 10 years. But union officials say there is little real incentive for Carrier to stay. United Technologies booked $57 billion in revenue last year.

"I don't think they built that facility in Monterrey, Mexico, just to have four departments in there. It's a little too large for that," James said.

Shoring up US jobs

In announcing the deal with Carrier, Trump said he was sending a signal to corporate America that the rules would be changing in his administration. Moving jobs to Mexico or elsewhere offshore would no longer be tolerated.

"They can leave from state to state, and they can negotiate good deals with the different states and all of that. But leaving the country is going to be very, very difficult," Trump said.

But experts, business leaders and economic development officials agree very little has changed since then. Ford announced this week that production for its next-generation Focus is being moved out of Kentucky, and will be going to one of Ford's existing plants in China.

Trump took credit when Ford announced earlier this year that a factory planned for Mexico to build the car was being canceled.

And Bedel acknowledges that the Carrier deal, once held up as a prototype for the new way of doing things, was "a special situation" because it involved paying a company not to leave.

"We offer incentives for businesses to grow here, to add jobs to what they already have or to bring a full new company here," she said. "We don't do retention very often, because you don't want to get into that situation where a company says, 'I'm going to leave if you don't.'"

Of course, that was exactly the situation with Carrier.

"If companies know they can do it and get money that's laying around on tables, money that's there for the taking, that hurts the tax base," said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a nonprofit Washington, D.C., watchdog group that is critical of state subsidies to business.

The big payoff

LeRoy estimates state and local governments are spending at least $70 billion a year on incentives. He says the money states are spending to lure companies like Carrier and others could be better spent on schools, infrastructure, training "and all the things that really do grow the economy over the long run, because they benefit all employers, not just those few that can game the system."

Even United Technologies' Greg Hayes acknowledges that the subsidies have limited impact on site selection.

"Frankly, the states are offering incentives, but at the end of the day, you want to be close to where your employees are, and [relocating] it's terribly disruptive," he said. "So unless you have a compelling cost reason to do it, it's really tough to do."

Nonetheless, he says, "A month doesn't go by when I don't hear from the economic development group from one state or another."

But Hayes says the contacts have not increased since Trump issued his call for more deal-making, and Bedel says it is business as usual at her agency as well.

"It really hasn't changed anything," she said. "We have been doing this since 2005."

And that means there are victories as well as defeats.

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. says already this year it has landed commitments for 80 new projects, adding more than 5,700 jobs. And that does not include the jobs saved at Carrier.

But at the same time, industrial manufacturer Rexnord is moving forward with plans to move 350 jobs out of Indianapolis, most of them going to Mexico.

Correction: This story has been revised to reflect the fact that Ford is moving production for its next generation Focus to an existing plant in China.

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Donald Trump

President Donald Trump during a Fox News interview appeared to make a case for getting Robert Mueller pulled off the FBI's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 US election.

Excerpts from an interview Trump had with "Fox and Friends" released Thursday night showed an adamant Trump criticizing Mueller, a former FBI director, for his past association with James Comey, whom Trump fired as FBI director in May amid the bureau's Russia investigation.

"Well he's very, very good friends with Comey, which is very bothersome ... We're going to have to see," Trump said of Mueller. The president also accused Mueller of hiring Hillary Clinton supporters to oversee portions of the investigation.

The Trump-Russia inquiry has grown dramatically since Mueller took the reins last month, and it now includes an investigation into possible financial connections between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. Mueller is also reportedly investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice, sparked by accusations that the president had tried to influence the investigation.

Trump told Fox News' Ainsley Earhardt "there has been no obstruction, there has been no collusion," and the president accused Comey of leaking information to reporters.

Watch news, TV and more Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.

Comey testified under oath before the Senate that Trump, in the first days of his presidency, had demanded Comey's loyalty during a private dinner at the White House. Comey said he was noncommittal.

Comey also said Trump privately asked him to "let go" of the FBI's investigation of Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

After Trump fired Comey, he told NBC News' Lester Holt that he had the Russia investigation in mind when he made his decision.

Since then, Trump and his surrogates have made public statements suggesting that the administration was floating the possibility of a major shake-up in the Russia investigation.

Story continues

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Mueller the "tip of a deep-state spear aimed at" Trump, after it was reported that Mueller was adding obstruction of justice to the FBI's investigation into Russia and the Trump campaign.

Several other Trump allies echoed Gingrich's remarks, including conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who said Attorney General Jeff Sessions "should fire Mueller," and radio host Bill Mitchell, who suggested Mueller and Comey may have "colluded" and said Mueller should "immediately" step down.

Those rumblings, among others, were labeled by critics as a move to discredit Mueller's findings before the investigation was finished.

James Comey

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Tajikistan is marking the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Tajik peace accord on June 27.

Today Tajikistan has become practically a family-run business.

President Emomali Rahmon has been leader of the country since the early days of the 1992-97 civil war.

In the years since the war ended, Rahmon has gradually rid the government and the country of political opponents and his now-adult children are increasingly taking prominent state posts.

Independent media has been battered and is now barely surviving.

Corruption is rampant, the country remains poor, and hundreds of thousands of Tajikistan's citizens work as migrant laborers in Russia due to the lack of employment at home.

Some believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and many observers ask how Tajikistan's people can tolerate the excesses of the elite and remain relatively silent.

The answer is the civil war.

A generation has grown up since the war ended. They know only stories, but the people who lived through it remember it so well that most would endure anything their government does if it would mean Tajikistan would not fall again into civil war.

So let's remember, for a moment, how bad Tajikistan's civil war was.

Knowledgeable authors have written about how the war started as a result of rival demonstrations in Dushanbe in spring 1992; of how an unlikely coalition of democratic, Islamic, and local ethnic groups formed the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), the government's battlefield enemy; and of the chaotic first months of the war that saw the boss of a state-run farm, Rahmon, propelled into a position of leadership with the support of pro-government, paramilitary chiefs.

Battles were fought in places few had ever heard of before -- villages and towns such as Komsomolabad, Garm, and Tavil-Dara in the mountains east of Dushanbe were the scenes of almost constant fighting.

Casualties were appalling for a country that at the time had a population of less than 6 million people. It wasn't uncommon for hundreds of fighters, mainly government troops, to be killed within just a week or two of outbreaks of fighting.

Cease-fires were continually reached by representatives far from the battlefield but rarely were observed for even 24 hours by the combatants. Only agreements to exchange the bodies of the dead stopped the fighting for any significant amount of time, and even then only in one or two places.

And this went on, over and over, for five years.

Somewhere between 10 to 20 percent of the population was displaced at any given time during the war.

Western neighbor Uzbekistan closed its border to Tajikistan's refugees, and northern neighbor Kyrgyzstan agreed only to allow refugees to transit its territory. Tens of thousands of Tajikistan's citizens, and many armed UTO fighters, chose to flee across the border into Afghanistan, where there was also a civil war.

Pro-government forces were bolstered by the presence of Russian border guards and the Russian 201st Division that remained in Tajikistan after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in late 1991.

Russian border guards were often involved in firefights with UTO forces trying to reenter Tajikistan from Afghanistan. Moscow continually denied that the troops from the 201st were involved in fighting in Tajikistan -- but air strikes on UTO positions, in particular, could not have been carried out by anyone else but Russian forces.

Uzbekistan sent troops and later Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan sent units also. Along with elements of Russian forces already there, they became the CIS Peacekeeping Force.

The UTO made no distinction between them and Tajik government forces. Not only did UTO forces attack these peacekeeping units (17 Kazakh troops were killed in one battle near the Afghan border) but the UTO also launched a campaign of terrorism against them, shooting them at bazaars away from the battlefield or blowing up their vehicles in towns and cities, including Dushanbe.

Pro-government forces were no better, especially the paramilitary forces known as the Popular Front. Their leaders behaved like warlords.

The city of Tursunzade, west of Dushanbe, where the largest aluminum plant in Central Asia is located, was the scene of numerous turf wars until eventually the young commander of the Tajik Army's 1st Brigade, Colonel Mahmud Khudaiberdiev, took control there.

Khudaiberdiev's unit was the best-armed and trained in Tajikistan's military and, far from bringing Tursunzade under government control, Khudaiberdiev used the city twice as a staging area to advance on Dushanbe while making demands for changes in the government.

The government's position was so weak that Rahmon had little choice but to concede to these demands, and eventually make Khudaiberdiev commander of the Presidential Guard.

Other units of the Tajik Army were equally undisciplined at times. In December 1996, two teams of UN military observers traveling to Garm were stopped at a government checkpoint. Troops there physically and verbally abused them, marched them into a field, formed them in a line, and staged a mock execution in which they fired above the UN observers' heads.

There were other groups such as the Sadirov brothers' gang. To secure safe passage for his brother and other members of the bandit group from Afghanistan to Tajikistan in February 1997, Bahrom Sadirov took UN and Red Cross workers, Russian journalists, and later Security Minister Saidimir Zuhurov hostage.

Again, the government could little but comply, though in the end the hostages were freed and, amazingly, government and UTO forces combined to attack the Sadirov band.

Noncombatants were targeted regularly. Chief Mufti Fatkhullo Sharifzoda and his family were shot dead in January 1996; the rector of Dushanbe's medical school, 65-year-old Yusuf Ishaki, was gunned down in May 1996; more than 40 journalists were killed during the civil war, many by assassins' bullets.

The people also suffered from the problems that accompany conflicts.

There were food shortages. In the northern Sughd region, Tajikistan's section of the Ferghana Valley, there was relative calm compared to the rest of the country, but lack of sufficient food led to demonstrations in Ura-Tyube and Khujand in May 1996. During rioting that erupted in Ura-Tyube, government troops opened fire on a crowd killing several people.

At the end of July that year, another riot broke out hundreds of kilometers away in Khorog, where refugees from fighting in central Tajikistan had taxed the supplies of basic goods. Three people were killed in a riot there.

There were typhoid outbreaks, made all the worse due to the near collapse of the country's medical system.

Even after the signing of the peace accord there were incidents of violence, but gradually things settled down and they became the exception rather than the norm.

The majority of Tajikistan's people remember this and much more. The conflict drained the nation and its scars are still visible 20 years later in many forms.

And if anyone has forgotten, the government makes sure to remind them by frequently referring to the horrors of the civil war, especially prior to elections, and asking if the people want the government they have now or want to risk returning to civil war.

Author's note: This is the first report on Tajikistan's civil war in Qishloq Ovozi. Another article on the peace negotiations during the civil war is coming soon and this week's Majlis Podcast will also look at Tajikistan since the civil war.

Salimjon Aioub (@Aioubzod) of RFE/RL's Centralasian.org contributed to this report. The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL
As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ
The world faces the prospect of more tension with China over trade, security and human rights after Xi Jinping awarded himself another five-year term as leader of the ruling Communist Party and called for self-reliance in technology, a stronger military and protection of core interests abroad. At a party congress, Xi gave no sign of plans to change the "zero-COVID strategy that has frustrated Chinas public and disrupted business and trade. He called for faster military development and announced no change in policies that strain relations with Washington and Asian neighbors. Xi is tightening control at home and trying to use Chinas economic heft to increase its influence abroad.
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 ...
U.S. President Donald Trump is taking a new approach in trying to get Israel and the Palestinians to sign a peace deal.

He sent two negotiators with no international diplomatic experience to meet with both sides.

The team that traveled to Jerusalem and the West Bank was led by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior aide. Also taking part was Jason Greenblatt, an assistant to the president in charge of international negotiations.

Kushner, 36, is a former New York real estate businessman and newspaper publisher. Greenblatt also has a background in real estate. For many years, he also worked as the chief lawyer in the Trump Organization. In that position, he oversaw large business deals for the company.

For the past 50 years, the United Nations and many U.S. presidents have tried  but failed  to bring about lasting peace in the Middle East.

These efforts included many rounds of negotiations involving Israeli and Palestinian officials. Experienced diplomats and international negotiators led the talks, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former World Bank president James Wolfensohn and longtime diplomat Dennis Ross.

The first major success in Arab-Israeli peace talks came in 1978, under the leadership of U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords in Washington, D.C.

Egypt and Israel had been in a state of war.

The Camp David Accords led to a formal peace treaty signed between the two nations in 1979. And Sadat and Begin received the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.

Every American president since has launched their own Middle East peace efforts.

In the Trump administrations approach, Kushner and Greenblatt will bring their business experience to the negotiating table.

A spokesman for Kushner recently told Politico he had the presidents goals in mind as he put together his team.

Jared brought in people he trusts, and they are embracing the fact that they are not career diplomats but great listeners with deal-making experience who can try a new approach.

Guy Ziv is a professor at American University and an expert in Israeli-Palestinian relations. He says the Trump administrations approach is much different than past efforts.

It's different in the sense that Trump has assigned the most difficult, the most intractable conflict to individuals with next to no experience and very little knowledge on the issues.

Trump has said that he considers a possible peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians the ultimate deal. He made a visit to the region last month. He appeared to have started a good working relationship with both sides.

Many issues have prevented a peace agreement. Among them are disputes over borders and competing claims to Jerusalem. Others include the future of millions of displaced Palestinians and demands for more economic opportunities for Palestinians.

Ziv says he does not agree with the argument that, since previous negotiations by experienced diplomats have not led to an agreement, a completely new approach is needed.

I'm very skeptical in this regard because we're dealing, as I said, with some of the most difficult, complex issues that take years to learn. And they're getting a crash course on something that takes years to learn.

He added that when it comes to actual policy, not much has changed from the Obama administration.

Despite all the rhetoric, we are not seeing a different approach on any of the specifics. The (American) embassy (in Tel Aviv) is not being relocated (to Jerusalem). The administration is maintaining longstanding U.S. support for a two-state solution.

The two-state solution would create an independent Palestinian state to exist alongside Israel.

Ziv added that the Trump administration is also expressing opposition to new Jewish settlements in the West Bank. This issue has long been a major dispute between the two sides.

Shortly before Kushner arrived in Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted a photo of construction work being done on a new settlement. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the move a serious escalation designed to set back peace efforts.

During his trip, Kushner first met in Jerusalem with Netanyahu, who is a friend of his fathers. He then held talks with Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

After the talks, the White House said in statement that Netanyahu and Abbas had reaffirmed their commitment to the goal of getting a lasting peace agreement.

However, the statement also said that establishing peace will take time. It added that U.S. officials urged both sides to do everything possible to create an environment conducive to peacemaking.

Professor Ziv said he believes the only way a peace agreement will have a chance is if the Trump administration is willing to put pressure on both sides.

Without a massive amount of pressure at the highest level, I don't think you're going to see any progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front.

Im Bryan Lynn.

And I'm Caty Weaver.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from VOA News, the Associated Press and Reuters. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

framework  n. basic structure of something

approach  n. way of doing something

embrace  v. gladly accept something

intractable  adj. not easily managed

opportunity  n. chance to do something

crash course  n. class in which a lot of information is taught in a very short period of time

rhetoric  language intended to influence people

escalation  n. a rise or increase in activity

forge  v. create something

conducive  adj. make something possible of likely to happen

massive  adj. large amount
CHARLESTON -- Eastern Illinois University has taken its hits over the past few years because of bickering among state legislators and Gov. Bruce Rauner.

The long-running state budget impasse has resulted in Eastern and other universities across the state having to cut operations and, in most cases, personnel.

As of April, it was reported that the university has 1,224 employees, including 737 staff and 487 faculty. When the layoff process started, the university had 1,743 employees.

And according to comments made in the EIU Board of Trustees committee meeting Friday, the university might take more blows as the budget impasse continues.

Budget cuts

Paul McCann, vice president for Business Affairs, said if state legislators and the governor do not reach a compromise on the Illinois budget by June 30, there is a possibility more trimming will occur.

We will have to make additional cuts in order to proceed forward, McCann said.

No further details were mentioned on where these cuts would be made if they become necessary. The revelation came after an exchange between McCann and trustee Carl Mito at the meeting.

If nothing happens in Springfield after June 30, where are we? Mito said.

We need money, McCann responded. We need money from Springfield.

The university has not received money since the last stop-gap funding measure that ended at the end of the year. EIU President David Glassman noted that there is little traction for stop-gap funding among state lawmakers, from what he has been told.

Most recently, the governor has ordered lawmakers to return to Springfield for a special session specifically to come to an agreement on a budget that has been absent in the state for nearly three years. Three days into the session, little to no movement has been made. Legislators have until July 1 to agree on a budget, or the state enters its third year without a spending plan.

Glassman said presidents of the nine state universities, including himself, signed a letter that was sent to the governor and state Senate and House of Representative leaders recently that implored them to pass a budget

There are just no options, Glassman said. It has to be done and it has to be done this session.

Enrollment projections

As the budget impasse carries on, it is also having a continued and profound effect on enrollment and recruiting prospective students, said Josh Norman, associate vice president for enrollment management.

He said the impasse has generated a public perception of instability in Illinois public universities and it has been a force to combat from the recruitment side.

You can't deny the impact (the impasse has had on enrollment), Norman said.

Based on freshman deposits for the upcoming fall semester, a strong indicator for first-year enrollment, freshman numbers will be down this year.

These numbers are not definite, though. Norman said there are still a lot of variables that might make the difference come fall semester.

He said there has been a growing trend in Illinois showing that students are locking in their decisions even later than they have historically, a partial impact of the budget stalemate.

Folks are waiting for the budget to come through when they are determining 'do I stay in state or do I go out of state?' Norman said.

If the budget does come through, Norman noted it could tip the scales.

That could be a game changer, Norman said. I believe if the budget is passed we could make up the gap.

Other enrollment projections are positive, though. Based on other indicators, transfer and graduate student numbers will be up slightly and international student enrollments will be up significantly from last fall.

Amid the discussion of the impacts state funding shortfalls have made, trustee Joe Dively mentioned a letter he recently received from the state legislature. Ironically, he said, the letter was a proclamation encouraging state agencies like EIU to play the Illinois song to build pride in the state.

We ought to take that consideration as soon as a budget gets passed, Dively said. In the grand scheme of things, that falls way, way, way down on the list.


In 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan. Since that time, the U.S. military has lost lives and spent large amounts of money in an attempt to stop armed groups.

The battles continue.

ISIS and Al-Qaida

Dana White is the chief spokesperson for the U.S. Defense Department. She spoke to VOA for her first filmed interview.

White said the Islamic State problem in Afghanistan is "not getting better.

"It's not getting better in Afghanistan in terms of ISIS. We have a problem, and we have to defeat them and we have to be focused on that problem.

White said that the Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, is still learning about what U.S. army leaders need on the ground.

Some officials have said that the military will likely increase the number of forces for operations against al-Qaida and Islamic State in Afghanistan. White said that Mattis will speak to NATO counterparts in Brussels next week before making a final decision on a plan.

The U.S. military says three American service members were killed in April during operations against Islamic State militants.

The Taliban

On Thursday, a car bomb explosion in Afghanistan's Helmand province killed at least 34 people and wounded more than 60 others.

The suicide attack came ahead of Sunday's Eid festival, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Witnesses said soldiers and government employees were waiting outside of a bank to collect their salaries when the bomber struck.

The Taliban claimed responsibility. Mohammad Yousaf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesperson, said the bombing happened on a day when the bank does not permit civilians to enter.

Omar Zwak, a local government spokesperson, said that civilian and military personnel were among the victims.

This attack comes one day after other Taliban activity.

On Wednesday, the Taliban released a new video showing two kidnapped professors.

American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks were teachers with the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul. They were kidnapped last August.

"My captors treat me well. They treat me and my colleague Tim Weeks as their guests; but, every prisoner's final wish is to get freedom from the prison," said King.

The video's release comes at a time when Afghan officials are reportedly planning to execute a group of Taliban prisoners. They were found guilty of terrorism.

The Taliban wants these prisoners freed in return for letting the two hostages go.

The U.S. State Department declined to give comments on the video.

Unclear future

U.S. General John Nicholson is the top commander in Afghanistan. In February, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he needs "a few thousand" more troops to complete his mission of supporting Afghan forces.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump gave Secretary Mattis permission to increase the military presence in Afghanistan. The defense secretary has promised lawmakers a new strategy by "mid July."

The extent to which a new military troop increase will take place  and if it will have success against Afghanistan's insurgent groups  remains unclear.

I'm John Russell.

Carla Babb and Ayaz Gul wrote versions of this story for VOA News. John Russell adapted them for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

focused  adj. giving attention and effort to a specific task or goal

counterpart  n. someone or something that has the same job or purpose as another

salary  n. an amount of money that an employee is paid each year, usually divided into equal amounts and paid once every two weeks or once every month.

colleague  n. a person who works with you: a fellow worker

decline  v. to say that you will not or cannot do something

strategy  n. a careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal usually over a long period of time

insurgent  n. a person who fights against an established government or authority
Computer experts said to be allied with Russia have created a weapon with the ability to cause major damage to the worlds electrical systems.

Researchers have identified the cyber-weapon as a harmful software program or virus. They say it is designed to interfere with a computers normal operations.

The researchers are calling this malware program CrashOverride or Industroyer. It is known to have affected the electrical system in Ukraine in December 2016. The attack briefly cut off one-fifth of all electric power in Kyiv, the capital.

Interest in attacking U.S. power stations

The cybersecurity business Dragos identified the malware in a report released on June 12. It said Russian government hackers appeared interested in targeting power centers in countries other than Ukraine.

Currently, the malware is able to attack power systems across Europe and Asia. But Dragos said it could be used against the United States. With only some small modifications, it could cause power outages of up to a few days in parts of the U.S. electric grid. That information comes from Dragos threat intelligence director, Sergio Caltagirone.

The company believes that with other changes, the malware could also attack local transportation providers, water systems, and natural gas suppliers. Researchers say hackers linked to Russia have shown an interest in targeting such infrastructure.

News of the malwares discovery led the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to make an announcement on June 12. It advised all critical infrastructure operators to make sure they were following suggested rules for security.

Similar malware used in Ukraine in 2015

Dragos identified the group responsible for creating the new malware as Electrum. The company said it strongly believes that Electrum used the same computer systems as the hackers who attacked Ukraine's electrical grid in December 2015.

The 2015 attack left 225,000 people without power. U.S. researchers found that Russian government hackers were responsible. That attack was linked to a group called Sandworm, which is said to have ties to the Russian government.

Dragos said that Sandworm and Electrum are either the same group, or two separate groups working within the same organization. Researchers are not sure if they are individuals working for the Russian government or actual government employees.

Like a Swiss Army knife

In the 2016 attack, the malware helped the hackers to get control of Ukraines power supply.

Danu Gunter of Dragos told the Washington Post newspaper what was shocking about the CrashOverride malware is that it is part of a larger framework. He said that it works like a Swiss Army knife, where you can open the different tools you need to perform different operations. In theory, the CrashOverride malware can be changed to attack different kinds of controls systems.

ESET, a Slovakian research group, collected malware samples from the 2016 attack. The group later shared them with Dragos. ESET has named the malware Industroyer, while Dragos is calling it CrashOverride.

The malware was specifically designed to cause harm or destroy industrial-control systems. It represents the most powerful threat since Stuxnet, a worm created by the United States and Israel to slow Irans nuclear activities.

Im Phil Dierking.

This story was based on a report from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Phil Dierking adapted it for VOA Learning English. His story has information from other sources. George Grow was the editor.

How large a threat do you think cyberterrorism is? e want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

framework - n. the basic structure of something

grid - n. a network of electrical wires and equipment that supplies electricity to a large area

hacker - n. a person who secretly gets access to a computer system in order to get information, cause damage, etc.

infrastructure - n. the basic equipment and structures (such as roads and bridges) that are needed for a country, region, or organization to function properly

malware - n. software that is intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems.

modification - n. the act or process of changing parts of something
Microscope photo of adipose tissue. Credit: jxfzsy/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Discovered more than two decades ago, the hormone leptin has been widely hailed as the key regulator of leanness. Yet, the pivotal experiments that probe the function of this protein and unravel the precise mechanism of its action as a guardian against obesity are largely missing.

These are the conclusions in a commentary published June 22 in Cell Metabolism by Harvard Medical School metabolism experts Jeffrey Flier and Eleftheria Maratos-Flier.

Flier, the HMS George Higginson Professor of Physiology and Medicine, and Maratos-Flier, HMS professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, have made significant contributions to the understanding of the metabolism of obesity and starvation in general, and of leptin in particular.

The commentary highlights what the authors say is a startling lack of experimental evidence detailing the biologic roles of leptin in metabolism, and calls for a renewed effort to characterize the action of the hormone.

"It's been assumedbut never shownthat leptin helps keep lean people lean, staving off weight gain," Flier said. Science demands nothing less than a rigorous study and demonstration of this hormone's mechanism of action, he added.

"Without doing the experiments, we can't determine whether the emperor of energy balance is wearing any clothes."

Twenty-two years ago, researchers discovered the identity of a mouse obesity gene and found that it encodes a previously unknown hormone made by fat cells, which they named leptin, a term derived from the Greek word for leptos for "slim." In a rare genetic deficiency, people born with two defective copies of the gene are extremely obese, and their obesity can be reversed by restoring their leptin levels with daily injections.

In mice and in people without the mutation, studies have shown that leptin plays an important role in regulating metabolismjust not the one it's most famous forobesity prevention. Studies from the Flier lab first showed that falling leptin levels signal the body that it may be in danger of starvation. The role for leptin as a starvation signal is now well established.

Early on, researchers speculated that this protein might also play a key role in helping healthy lean people remain thin, perhaps by serving as a signal that orchestrates resistance to obesity. Paradoxically, obese mice and people who don't have the defective obesity gene almost always have high levels of leptin. Flier first hypothesized that this may be due to some kind of leptin resistance, analogous to the insulin resistance seen in type 2 diabetes, a condition in which the body produces more than normal amounts of the sugar-regulating hormone insulin, but cannot use it to normally metabolize sugar.

While some leptin is clearly necessary to prevent obesity, the authors write, the physiologic role of leptin in most individuals may be limited to signaling the response to hunger or starvation, and then reversing that signal as energy stores are restored, as they first hypothesized more than 20 years ago, they say. If that is true, according to the authors, the biology of leptin has little to do with leanness or obesity, apart from a few rare cases of primary deficiency with severe obesity.

Nevertheless, Flier and Maratos-Flier say, an anti-obesity role for leptin persists as a dogma in the field of metabolism and obesity and remains the most common description of what leptin does in textbooks and literature reviews. Yet, Flier and Maratos-Flier caution, this role for leptin has never been demonstrated experimentally in humans.

"Before we write the next chapter on leptin physiology and obesity," Flier said, "we should commit to seeing that these important questions are finally answered."

Obesity is becoming a catastrophic health problem, both nationally and globallyone that fuels a range of chronic diseases, including diabetes, high blood pressure, liver disease, kidney damage, arthritis and cardiovascular disease, among others. More than $140 billion is spent each year in the United States to treat obesity-related diseases, according to the CDC. Worldwide obesity rates have doubled since 1980, and most people now live in countries where more deaths are caused by overweight and obesity than by malnourishment, according to the World Health Organization.

"What we find most surprising is the extent to which scientists in the field of metabolism and energy balance seem minimally concerned that key experiments to define the actions of leptin have yet to be reported," Maratos-Flier said. "The widely accepted 'anti-obesity limb' of leptin physiology has never been clearly demonstrated to be present in human biology."

The authors note that it's possible, even likely, that as-yet undiscovered molecules, not leptin, mediate the regulation of body weight and its dysregulation in obesity.

Treatment with leptin was approved in the United States in 2014 for use in congenital leptin deficiency as well as in an unusual syndrome of lipodystrophy, but the protein has not been readily available for clinical experiments. There has also been limited interest in funding the types of experiments necessary to rigorously test the still-hypothetical benefits of leptin for preventing or reversing obesity, apart from obesity due to rare genetic mutations in the leptin gene, the authors write.

As one example, the authors propose a clinical study measuring how lean people respond to increased leptin levels. If leptin is an anti-obesity hormone, it might suppress hunger or increase energy expenditure in trial participants compared to those who get a placebo.

"We continue to believe that healthy and lean individuals exist who resist obesity at least in part through their leptin levels, and that some individuals develop obesity because they have insufficiently elevated leptin levels or cellular resistance to leptin," Flier said. "But in science, belief and knowledge are two different things, and as much as we may lean toward this belief, we ought to develop evidence for this hypothesis or abandon it in favor of new potential mechanisms for the regulation of body weight."

More information: Jeffrey S. Flier et al, Leptin's Physiologic Role: Does the Emperor of Energy Balance Have No Clothes?, Cell Metabolism (2017). Journal information: Cell Metabolism Jeffrey S. Flier et al, Leptin's Physiologic Role: Does the Emperor of Energy Balance Have No Clothes?,(2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2017.05.013
MTN has agreed to remove its claim of having South Africas fastest mobile network, following an Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) complaint by Vodacom.

MTN made the claim in its print advertising, with the line Get the Huawei P10 with superior LTE on SAs Fastest Mobile Network.

The claim was based on a MyBroadband article, which showed that MTN had the fastest average mobile data speed based on the MyBroadband Android Speed Test app results.

Vodacom said the article which MTN referenced only contained data for one week, and that a later article with a full months results showed Vodacom reigned supreme.

The fact that a subsequent report that contradicts MTNs superiority claim has been published means that MTNs data is no longer up to date, said Vodacom.

MTN responded, stating it had invested R33 billion in its network over the past three years, and the MyBroadband report showed evidence of the investment starting to bear fruit.

MTN said the latest report, which found that Vodacom was the fastest, showed that Vodacoms average speed was only 0.02Mbps faster than MTN.

Notwithstanding this, MTN suspended its marketing activities when it learnt of the latest report by MyBroadband.

MTN also committed to remove all advertising with the claim before 30 June 2017, which the ASA accepted.
Dollar goes up, euro rises sharply in Armenia

EU calls on Armenia, Azerbaijan to moderate their rhetoric

Erdogan says Turkey has been waiting at door of EU for 52 years and will give answer when time comes

U.S. fears that European support for Ukrainian strategy will begin to weaken

Armenia, Iran emphasize need to quickly implement agreements reached (PHOTOS)

Armenia soldier wounded by Azerbaijan shooting undergoes surgery

Gas over morality: Hungary guards Azerbaijan's interests

U.S. quietly seeks concessions from Saudi Arabia after Mohammed bin Salman humiliated Biden

Russian Armed Forces complete redeployment of grouping from right bank of Dnieper

IRGC: Adversaries are frightened and on alert

Armenia appoints ambassador to Sri Lanka

Kremlin doesn't consider leaving Kherson 'humiliating'

Israeli president thinks the world is concerned about Netanyahu's far-right coalition partner

Ukraine will seek help from its foreign partners in financing Starlink satellite internet systems

Erdogan: Situation in South Caucasus remains fragile

Azerbaijan blackmailing Armenia through Lachin corridor

Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus becomes observer in Organization of Turkic States

Armenia PM: In his latest speech Aliyev flagrantly violated agreement on refraining from threat or use of force

World Bank official: Armenia is one of best countries in terms of credit portfolio performance

Azerbaijan president makes repeated accusations, threats against Armenia

Iran citizens injured in Armenia road accident

US embassy in Armenia closed today

Karabakh MOD: Defense Army did not fire at Azerbaijan positions located in occupied territories

Israel and U.S. counter threat of hypersonic missiles together

U.S. and EU plan to publish new roadmap on artificial intelligence

Armenia ombudsperson meets with Belgium colleagues

Newspaper: Armenia parliament opposition seats to no longer be empty

US intends to protect Azerbaijan from threats of Iran

Aliyev, Erdogan discuss results of tripartite meeting in Russias Sochi

Azerbaijan army fires at Armenia positions, uses mortars as well

Amazon becomes world's first public company to lose $1 trillion in market value

EU's odd couple: Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel can't stand each other

US, China set first benchmarks ahead of presidents' meeting

Iranian MFA summons Azerbaijani ambassador to carpet in connection with anti-Iranian propaganda

Washington to resist any attempt by new Israeli government to annex West Bank

Biden thinks Elon Musk's relations with other countries are worthy of being looked at

Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister tells Polish senator about consequences of Azerbaijani aggression

Armenian deputy in Vilnius talks about goals of Azerbaijan's aggressive policy

Taliban bans women from gyms

U.S. to send Ukraine another $400 million in military aid

Ursula von der Leyen announces EUR 250 million support package for Moldova

Biden and Jinping meet on sidelines of G20 summit in Bali to be held on November 14

Riches of world get poorer suddenly

State Duma deputy: Interparliamentary format Yerevan-Baku-Moscow will be included soon to solve issues

IMF sees growing risk of economic fragmentation

Armen Gevorgyan to visit Strasbourg, Brussels and Paris

State Duma deputy: Upper Lars border crossing capacity has increased fivefold

UK government freezes over 18 billion pounds worth of Russian assets

State Duma deputy on Zatulin's ban on entering Armenia: These issues must be resolved

Borrell calls for retooling EU infrastructure for rapid transport of military equipment to East

European Parliament clears way for Croatia's admission to Schengen Area

European Council President Michel calls on EU member states to jointly purchase gas to reduce fuel prices

Alen Simonyan congratulates scientists on their professional holiday

Armenian President meets with leaders of several countries in Egypt

Greece accuses Turkey of profiting from the suffering of other countries under sanctions

USAID official says she personally saw how democracy, economic development are progressing in Armenia (VIDEO)

Spain court sentences civilian to prison for spreading fakes

Armenian Embassy in Russia issues statement on Azerbaijan's actions

Indian company to supply 155mm self-propelled artillery guns worth $155mln to Armenia

Japanese minister caught in scandal for talking about death penalty

France changes its ambassador to Azerbaijan

UN General Assembly draft resolution requires Russia to pay reparations to Ukraine

Belarusian State Border Committee: Poland creates tense situation on border

Joint meeting of Armenian National Assembly and Russian State Duma Committee takes place

Iranian President says attempt to destabilize country fails

Deputy: Russian side is informed about importance of withdrawal of Azerbaijani units from the territory of Armenia

State Duma deputy: We can't imagine Russia without Armenia

Georgian PM and Armenian Ambassador discuss cooperation issues

Bali is short of armored limousines for G20 summit participants

FLYONE ARMENIA to start flights between Yerevan, Dubai

Kyodo: Emperor of Japan revealed to have prostate hyperplasia

Iranian intelligence urges Saudi Arabia not to test Tehran's strategic patience

Kazakhstan intends to ship 1.5 mln tons of oil via Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline

Former Ombudsman: 2,700 ha of Kapan community of Armenia's Syunik Province are under occupation by Baku

Armenia to ratify cooperation agreement with China

Japan and the US begin major joint exercise

Armenia soldier sustains gunshot wound from Azerbaijan shooting

Armenia legislature speaker receives deputy chair of Russia State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration

PM: If anyone thinks peace agenda is peaceful annihilation of Armenia or Karabakh Armenians, they are sorely mistaken

Armenia Premier: We have 16 missing persons since September 13 military aggression by Azerbaijan

Bitcoin is trading just above $16,000

Armenias Pashinyan: Spreading of fake news by Azerbaijan becomes prelude to new aggression

Armenia PM: Azerbaijan, with its practices, reminds of Al Qaeda and Islamic State, which discredit Islam

PM: Armenia, Karabakh propose Azerbaijan to create demilitarized zone

Pashinyan: There is no Armenia army in Karabakh

All 10 fallen soldiers transferred on October 27 by Azerbaijan to Armenia are identified, buried

Pashinyan: Armenia is going to present new proposal to Azerbaijan

$25M allocated to Armenia MOD

Biden says he will discuss Ukraine conflict at G20 summit

Pashinyan: Armenia has no obligation to construct new roads

Pashinyan: Aliyev not only threatens but is already preparing genocide of Karabakh Armenians

Armenias Pashinyan: Azerbaijan president is attempting to create invented grounds for closing Lachin Corridor

Erdogan tells what relations between Turkey and Armenia depend on

Iran says it has developed first hypersonic ballistic missile

Armenias Pashinyan: Russia peacekeepers are deployed in Karabakh indefinitely

FM Lavrov to head Russia delegation at G20 summit

Erdogan: Ankara continues mediation efforts to resolve Ukrainian crisis

Armenia to get 100mn loan to fund budget deficit

IAEA head: Talks on Iran's nuclear program ended inconclusively

Armenia PM: Aliyev grossly violated tripartite written agreement of Sochi
DETROIT (AP)  Authorities say a Canadian man from Tunisia crossed legally into the U.S. days before stabbing a police officer in the neck at a Michigan airport. The attack raises questions about security along the northern border, including what the process is for travelers and how many people are detained or denied entry. A look at some common questions and answers.

Q: HOW MANY PEOPLE CROSS FROM CANADA INTO U.S. EACH DAY?

A: U.S. Customs and Border Protection says about 216,000 people come into the U.S. from Canada on a typical day. That's out of an average of 1.2 million people processed daily at all points of entry into the U.S. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the busiest port in terms of non-commercial traffic is Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York. Detroit came in second, and Champlain-Rouses Point, New York, was fifth. Federal authorities say the suspect, Amor Ftouhi, entered at Champlain.

Q: HOW MANY DIFFERENT PLACES ARE THERE TO CROSS?

A: Border officials say there are 328 ports of entry, including land crossings and international airports, across the U.S. Of those, about 100 are along the Canada border.

Q: WHAT'S THE PROCESS FOR GETTING ACROSS THE BORDER?

A: Travelers need a valid passport, enhanced driver's licenses offered in some U.S. states and Canadian provinces, or another official expedited entry card, such as Nexus. Such documentation became required in 2009 for U.S. and Canadian citizens who enter the U.S. at land and sea ports of entry from within the Western Hemisphere. The change was among many implemented after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Before that, a verbal claim of citizenship and identity were typically sufficient.

Q: HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE DETAINED AT U.S. BORDERS OR REFUSED ENTRY?

A: Customs and Border Protection officials say they deny entry to about 750 individuals a day nationwide. That could be due to invalid travel documents, an expired visa or a criminal record in another country. About 1,140 people who are not lawfully in the U.S are apprehended daily. For fiscal year 2016, the agency reported nearly 416,000 apprehensions of what it describes as "illegal aliens," about 2,300 of whom were detained on the U.S.-Canada border.

Q: ARE THERE EXAMPLES OF AUTHORITIES STOPPING POTENTIAL ATTACKS AT THE CANADIAN BORDER?

A: Border officials say agents at all ports of entry identify nearly 900 individuals on a daily basis who raise national security concerns. Spokesman David Long said the "primary mission" of his agency is preventing entry of attackers or weapons in to the country.

The 1999 arrest of Ahmed Ressam as he arrived at Port Angeles, Washington, by ferry from Canada with explosives in his rental car raised concerns about attackers living and operating north of the border due to lax immigration and refugee laws. Ressam was convicted in 2001 of planning to bomb Los Angeles International Airport during millennium celebrations. The Algerian who had trained at Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan was sentenced to 37 years in prison.

Q: WHAT ARE THE STAFFING LEVELS OF U.S. BORDER PATROL AGENTS?

A: The number of U.S. border agents has increased nearly fivefold since the early 1990s, from about 4,000 in fiscal year 1992 to 19,828 in fiscal year 2016. It reached a high of roughly 21,500 in 2011, the first of three years in which the level remained above 21,000. The overwhelming majority of those agents work along the Mexican border.

___

Associated Press writers Rob Gillies in Toronto and Alicia Caldwell in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
Belgian Senator Joris Poschet on Friday visited the Stepanakert Memorial, in the capital city of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic/NKR).

He placed flowers and paid tribute to the memory of the Armenians that fell in the Karabakh War and during the Great Patriotic War in World War II.

On the same day, Poschet paid a cognitive visit to the demining organization in Stepanakert and the latters airport.

Also, Belgian lawmaker visited the Artsakh Brandy Company, and the ancient Armenian city of Tigranakert.

Subsequently, he visited the Stepanakert branch of the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies, where he noted that Artsakh has a wonderful youth.

In addition, the Belgian senator prayed at the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral of Christ the Holy Savior, in Shushi town.

Joris Poschet summed up his impressions of his visit to Karabakh at a press conference in Stepanakert. He expressed his admiration, and said his meetings enabled him to get better familiarized with the challenges facing Artsakh.

The Belgian senator noted that he was very happy to be in the NKR and that, if possible, he definitely will visit it again.

Poschet added that he was fascinated by the reception, nature, and delicious food in Artsakh.
Yerevan can become one of the most attractive travel destinations for the Indonesian tourists, Indonesias Ambassador to Armenia Yuddi Crisnandi said in an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am.

What are your impressions of Armenia?

Yerevan is a beautiful city. Armenia is located in a strategic place between East and West. The Armenian people survived despite the attempts to conquer them and still remain a great nation. The Armenian Diaspora, in its turn, contribute to the world. Representatives of the Armenian Diaspora are so tolerant, they live together with other citizens and respect others. I met with some representatives of the Armenian government, with my friend, the Honorary Consul of Armenia in Indonesia Yervand Voskanyan, and I felt the hospitality of the Armenian people. This is the character of a great nation. And I believe this nation will be great forever.

When I met with your President Serzh Sargsyan, I felt warmth. The conversation was very detailed, it affected not only the relations between the two countries, but also the universal values of human rights, as every leader in any part of the world can contribute to the peaceful coexistence of countries and peoples. It was not only diplomatic rhetoric, I felt that it was from the heart of the Armenian people and its leader.

In which areas do you see potential for deepening of relations between Armenia and Indonesia?

September 22 will mark the 25th anniversary of relations between Armenia and Indonesia. We have good relations in international organizations. We respect each other. We are lucky to have Armenian embassy in Jakarta. We hope to have an embassy here in Yerevan. We will deliver this message to our capital.

In my opinion, three sectors are of special importance. First, tourism. In 2016 over 10 thousand Armenians visited Indonesia. Indonesia gives free visa for 30 days to visit our country. We hope Armenia will do the same. Secondly, it is important to enhance our relations in trade. We are looking for some opportunities here, Indonesian businessman can come here for finding a new market . Armenians also can come to Indonesia  a market of 252 million. Thirdly, we want to enhance our cooperation in terms of education and culture, like we did last year. I mean a memorandum of understanding between the Yerevan State University and University of Indonesia. This year two Armenian students have an opportunity to study in Indonesia. Hopefully, there will be more opportunities next year.

What about the direct flights? Do the governments negotiate on the opening of direct flight?

I discussed this idea with director of Asia department at the Armenian Foreign Ministry. It is a very good idea. We can start negotiations on opening direct flight from Yerevan to Jakarta or from Yerevan to Bali  an island that is a good travel destination. We will discuss it with our transport ministry. It will work because it will bring potential benefit to both countries. We hope Armenia will grant free visa for the Indonesians. If there is free visa, we will promote Armenia for our tourists. Indonesia is a great tourist market for Armenia. The Muslim nation of Indonesia will be interested in visiting the Blue Mosque  one of the most beautiful historical monuments of the 18th century.
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BCSP Presents Top 2017 Awards

Brad Giles, principal of Bradley Giles and Associates, received the BCSP Lifetime Achievement Award in Denver and thanked many people who had supported him throughout his more than 40 years in EHS management roles.

The Board of Certified Safety Professionals announced the 2017 recipients of its most prestigious awards during ASSE's Safety 2017 conference and expo held this week in Denver.

Rich Baldwin, CSP; Brad Giles, CSP; Ann-Marie Grusch, CHST; and James Lange, CSP, ASP, OHST, STSC, received their awards during the conference. BCSP reported it received many nominations from exceptional safety practitioners who have advanced the profession, and its Awards Committee and Board of Directors decided on what it called "these four exemplary certificants."

Giles, principal of Bradley Giles and Associates, received the BCSP Lifetime Achievement Award, while Baldwin received the CSP Award of Excellence, Lange received the OHST Award of Excellence, and Grusch received the CHST Award of Excellence. Giles thanked many people who had supported him throughout his more than 40 years in EHS management roles.

"I accept this award for my team members. Any successes I have had is because of our team," he said. "Continue your professional development, for you and your team. Enjoy and take pride in your job. This is a great profession. If you are as lucky as I am, I loved to get up every morning for work. Don't forget: You impact not just your employees, but their extended families, sometimes affecting generations."

Chris Patton, CSP, ASP, president of the BCSP Board of Directors, said, "I am honored to recognize our award recipients. These are leaders in our profession who have demonstrated dedication to excellence in safety."
The same night a verdict came down acquitting the Milwaukee police officer who shot Sylville Smith to death, grassroots leaders, activists and individuals close to Smith gathered in Sherman Park in a show of solidarity.

Former Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) police officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown was charged with first-degree reckless homicide. Body cam footage shows Heaggan-Brown shooting Smith once in the arm as he threw a gun over a nearby fence; a second shot hit an unarmed Smith in the chest as he lay on the ground. The shots came 1.69 seconds apart.

Prosecutors argued Smith was defenseless. Defense attorneys argued Heaggan-Brown had to act quickly to defend himself. Heaggan-Brown was dismissed from the MPD in October as the result of an unrelated sexual assault charge.

Qoulisha Thompson, who said she was "like a sister" to Smith, summed up the mood.

"We hurt," she said. "Hes gone  aint nobody bringing him back."

There was a sense of finality in the air. An episode that began when Heaggan-Brown shot and killed Smith last August, setting off unrest that rocked the neighborhood, concluded peacefully. A heavy law enforcement presence of Milwaukee police and county sheriffs patrolled the area.

"Were trying to do things in a more productive way," said Vaun Mayes, who works with at-risk youth in Sherman Park. He noted that Smiths family has staged demonstrations at City Hall since the shooting to put pressure on elected officials, adding the next step is "going after law, going after policy, trying to make actual change, amongst each other in our communities and at large." After the verdict, the family visited Smiths grave.

The decision comes on the heels of a verdict in another high-profile case, that of Philando Castile in Minnesota. Castile, a legal gun owner, was shot and killed at point-blank range in front of his family during a traffic stop last July. The officer involved was also acquitted.

Many were not surprised by the verdict in Smiths case. Smiths cousin, Taz Ashford, said he prepared himself to hear the news, rather than hoping for something he knew wouldnt come. In the end, it helped him to deal with the result.

"I felt it, Im dealing with it and Im putting [the] emotions to the side," Ashford said. "I already told myself, win or lose today, I have to put my emotions to the side because theres another family thats out there [being] victimized."

In a statement, District 10 State Rep. David Bowen said, "The second shot was clearly unjustified on video with Mr. Smith on his back with his hands in clear view."

He added, "The family of Sylville Smith and those angered over his death last year deserve to know their loss will make our community and system better. Nothing has changed since last year and no one has apologized or even committed to preventing these situations."

"The system  is not working for us because its not designed for us," said activist Frank "Nitty" Sensabaugh. He added, "We just want respect," urging black people to invest in themselves and their community.

Markasa Tucker, a founder of UBLAC (Uplifting Black Liberation and Community) spoke of the need to "dismantle this system" and the importance of telling each others stories.

"We, as people, we have power," she said. "We move and shift together, so we need the community to come out and show up."

Imani Ray, 20, said it is important for her to support her community, to go to the places she is needed and connect with people whose lives may have been more challenging than hers. Ray was a member of the youth activism organization Urban Underground before going to college.

"I see the [humanity] in everyone when Im able to see beyond the mugshot, or beyond what the media portrays  Im able to see their struggle."

Milwaukee NAACP Education Committee Chair Jamaal Smith said the fight will continue, regardless. "Were gonna continue to press, were gonna continue to march forward, were gonna continue to support each other, were gonna continue to support this community," he said, noting that the fight is not only against injustice, but for peace, love, unity and community.

"If we can get out here and try to do some things together  maybe we can start to see a change," Tucker said. "We might not see it tomorrow, we might not even see it in our lifetime, but maybe our kids and our grandkids will."
At first glance, there's nothing remarkable about SolePower's latest work boot prototype.

The Pittsburgh-based startup has gone through at least 20 other iterations of the boot, and this one took about six months to create. The footwear looks normal - all black save for the company's white and green logo.

But after a few steps, rectangular sections in the heels illuminate a bright orange, reminiscent of the lights inside a traffic tunnel. That's when you know they're charging.

To tackle ongoing issues in the industrial work space, SolePower - which has won various awards, including a spot on Popular Science's 2014 Invention Awards list for its proprietary self-charging shoe sole - has switched gears to create the first "self-charging, industrial wearable," according to Cindy Kerr, commercial director.

This unplugged technology could play a role in efforts to improve safety and efficiency in the building, construction, and oil and gas industries, according to Kerr.

It could also become part of the ongoing debate over privacy issues, as employers and technology converge to more closely track what workers are doing and where they are going.

Inside the SolePower boots are a variety of sensors, including those for temperature detection, GPS, Wi-Fi, electronics and inertial measurement units, which track location and motion. Each is powered by a kinetic charger that harnesses the untapped energy produced by walking.

"These are things we normally take for granted in a smartphone," said Hahna Alexander, co-founder and CEO of SolePower, which was founded in 2012 and has five employees.

A growing number of industrial devices are equipped with safety indicators - such as equipment producer Cat's Link technology, which allows a company to track its fleet of backhoes, excavators or compactors - but the SolePower gear is a wearable, joining the ranks of smart helmets, vests, glasses and even bionic suits.

There's a potentially sizable market to capture. Construction, for example, is one of the least digitized sectors in the world, according to research from The McKinsey Global Institute.

In a report released earlier this year, the institute estimated the world will need to spend $57 trillion on infrastructure by 2030 to keep up with global GDP growth. In the construction sector, even a fraction of a percentage change in productivity could equate to substantial savings.

It's challenging to track workflow on job sites, so inefficiencies can go unnoticed, Kerr said. "We need to know who is on the site and where they are at any given time ... you can't actually improve efficiency if you don't measure."

Chad Hollingsworth, president and co-founder of Norwalk, Conn.-based safety and communications company Triax Technologies, agreed that manual tracking on a clipboard is ineffective. "Most of these job sites can't tell you how many workers they have or where they are," he said.

Fatal injuries in construction, which is among the most dangerous professions in the world, rose by 2 percent to 924 cases in 2015 - the highest level since 2008, according to the 2015 National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"They all have stories from the job sites, and some are horrific," Hollingsworth said. "One fell down an elevator shaft and no one found him until they smelled him ... they're working in the most dangerous industry and they do want tools to keep safe."

Triax is selling a network safety device called spot-r, which is about the size of a pack of chewing gum and easily fastens to a belt.

Inside spot-r, a small sensor tracks workers' movement, indicating when slips and falls occur. There is a button workers can press to point out a safety concern - whether that's a hazardous spot in the field or an incident that occurred.

This form of tracking, though, can be controversial. Consumers and workers alike have pushed back against wearable sensors due to potential privacy infringement.

In a 2014 study, accounting and consulting firm PwC surveyed consumers on the future of wearable technology, with a focus on workplace applications. The study found a high volume of respondents felt wary about privacy and security - 82 percent were concerned that wearable tech would invade their privacy and 86 percent were concerned that it would make them more vulnerable to security breaches.

Donny Beaver, co-founder and CEO of HalenHardy, a Pennsylvania firm that invents safety tools for the industrial outdoor workforce, expressed some doubt that construction workers would embrace technology like SolePower's connected work boot.

"Anybody who really gravitates to that type of work has a bit of an independent spirit," he said. "Culturally, it's a huge difference from someone who is looking for an air-conditioned office.

"I don't know what they're finding so far with worker compliance, but unless you present it to them in a way that can really show them their job is going to be easier ... I think there may be some pushback on the 'Big Brother is Watching You' thing."

Beaver recalled working with oil and gas workers in Western Pennsylvania four years ago. His team put GoPro cameras on workers' helmets to watch what they were seeing and affixed air monitors to the workers to gauge air quality.

"Most of the guys saw it as extremely intrusive ... the project never took off, although we thought we were helping them stay away from silica dust," Beaver said.

At Triax, that problem is already being engineered out of the system. After finding it was nearly impossible to get workers to wear devices with GPS tracking, the team developed a closed, secure network that is set up on site.

"You can think of it like the Wi-Fi at your house ... when you come home, your phone automatically connects," Hollingsworth said. "The workers' sensor that they wear on their belt automatically connects to the network and then checks them out."

Though SolePower uses GPS tracking, it has an advantage when it comes to battery life - the boots never die, while Triax wearers must replace the battery in their device annually.

And, for construction workers who must currently pay for their own work boots, an employer-subsidized pair that keeps them safe may look like an attractive option.

Currently, SolePower's business model consists of an initial fee for the boots, which should compare to the price of a high quality work boot, Kerr said.

While Kerr did not give an exact price for the SolePower boot, a pair of Timberland work boots cost anywhere from $145 to $200, on average. Wolverine's line of Legend Durashocks soft toe work boots cost $160, comparatively.

There's also a monthly subscription charge for data services through an online dashboard.

Triax uses a lease and service model wherein the cost of the system is absorbed into the cost of a job by listing spot-r as a safety fee.

How successful the new technology is depends on convincing the employees that the new gear is worth it, Hollingsworth said.

"You have to show workers that first and foremost this is a safety device."

2017 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
This article was first published on 23 June 2017 and has been updated with new information.



Buying a home is one of the biggest and most important financial decisions we have to make in our lives. In addition to paying for a home in the 3rd most expensive property market in Asia and 6th in the world, purchasing a house will require us to take up a home loan that will likely stretch for the next 20 to 30 years of our lives.

This is why we need to be very mindful when it comes to working out our sums to ensure affordability in the long term when it comes to choosing a home. Of course, as people progress in their career and have a higher earning power, many may consider upgrading to homes to a posher area, bigger floorspace or near better amenities. This usually comes with a hefty price tag and extending your home loan repayment by many years requires careful planning.

To make it easier for you, we crunched the numbers to provide an approximate salary you and your spouse should be earning before you consider buying a certain type of property in Singapore. This is primarily focused on your ability to keep up with your mortgage payments.

This is also an approximation, and you should crunch your own figures to ensure you can afford the home you are intending to buy.

Read Also: What Happens To Your Money After You Sell Your Flat In Singapore

How Much Do I Need To Earn To Be Able To Pay My Monthly Mortgage?

Before we get into the actual number, here are some of the assumptions we used to facilitate our calculations in this segment.

Our Assumptions:

Down payment: 10% of property price (HDB homes) 25% of property price (private homes)

Loan tenure: 25 years

Interest rate: 2.6% (public homes); 2.0% (private homes)

We assume that buyers do not get any government grants for Housing & Development Board (HDB) flats.

We assume that private property owners do not have any other loans to service.

For simplicity, we assume both husband and wife earns the same salary.

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We also have to take into account MSR (Mortgage Service Ratio) for HDB flats and executive condominiums bought directly from developers, stipulating that owners are only allowed to pay back a maximum of 30% of their gross total income. For private property owners, they have to comply to the TDSR (Total Debt Servicing Ratio), where they can only pay back up to 60% of their gross total income. For TDSR, this includes all other loans such as personal, car or even student loans.

In the table below, we look at common property types, both public and private, to calculate the salary you need to earn to be able to afford these homes.

Source: HDB; URA; PropertyGuru

*Outside Central Region (OCR); Rest of Central Region (RCR); Core Central Region (CCR)

Just to explain how we arrived at the average housing price, we used public sources on HDB for the median resale prices of HDB flats in the 3rd quarter of 2019, on URA for resale prices of executive condominiums, condominiums, terrace houses, semi-detached houses and bungalows, and used figures quoted on a PropertyGuru article for average selling prices of GCBs (good class bungalows) for the first half to 2019.

For those seeking to buy HDB flats, these are resale prices and do not include any government grants couples may be eligible for. For a complete guide to HDB housing grants you may be eligible for in Singapore, you can read this article.

From this, we can also see that a couple buying a condominium outside central regions (OCR) may only need to earn $4,063 each while another couple buying an EC (executive condominium) will have to be earning close to $5,764 each. As in all assumptions, there may be anomalies, for this to actually be the case, the couple buying the condominium in question cannot have any other loans, to be able to allocate all 60% of their gross total income towards only their home loan. This is unlikely to be the case for many couples.

Another thing to note is that these calculations do not include other costs that are usually associated with buying a home including repairs, renovations or furniture. This is also limited by a 25-year mortgage  those who are older may not be able to qualify for such long loans that exceed the retirement age of 65 and those younger can extend their loan tenure by refinancing their home loans.

Read Also: Heres Why It Doesnt Make Financial Sense To Repay Your HDB Flat Home Loan Early

To be able to purchase a good class bungalow, or even other types of landed properties, such buyers will likely not be leveraging up to 60% of their salaries to afford their home. Typically, with the ability to afford such a price tag, comes with being able to also afford many other things in their lives as well. What this means is that the average salary per spouse listed above is likely to be a gross underestimation of how much couples that buy landed properties and good class bungalows are earning in actuality.

Dont Put All Your Money Into Your Home

It is a dangerous game to overextend yourself to afford a pricier home. The government has done its part by introducing the MSR and TDSR, as well as various other property cooling measures. On our part, we should not simply take on the maximum amount of debt we can just because we are allowed to do it.

Further, by locking our money in a home, we may be unable to invest for our future retirement or enjoy life  going on holidays, splurging on indulgences or buying new gadgets. Instead, if we stretch ourselves to afford the most expensive home we can buy, we will likely be living an extremely stressful lifestyle where going out of work or getting sick may spell financial disaster for our family.

This is how we can unintentionally veer into ending up asset rich but cash poor.

Read Also: Heres Why Overpaying For Your A Home As An Investment Is A Terrible Idea

The post Heres The Salary You Need To Earn To Afford These Homes In Singapore [2020 Edition] appeared first on DollarsAndSense.sg.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ratified a maritime demarcation agreement that sees the country cede sovereignty over two uninhabited Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, the government said on Saturday. The Red Sea islands deal has become political sensitive for Sisi, who counts on Saudi Arabia as a key ally, after the proposed agreement fuelled widespread public criticism and street protests among Egyptians angered over national sovereignty. Egypt's parliament last week backed the plan that cedes control of Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia, but the deal has also become subject to a legal tussle between different courts over jurisdiction. "President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ratified the maritime demarcation agreement between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the cabinet said in a statement. This week the constitutional court chief temporarily suspended all court decisions on the agreement until the constitutional court makes a ruling on which institution has the final say in the matter. Sisi's government last year announced the maritime agreement with Saudi Arabia, an ally which has given billions of dollars of aid to Egypt. The Egyptian and Saudi governments say the islands are Saudi but have been subject to Egyptian protection. Saudi Arabia helped Sisi with aid since he toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. But Egyptians are increasing critical over the state of the country's economic revival after years of political upheaval and a devaluation of the Egyptian pound, tax rises and subsidy cuts introduced by Sisi's government. (Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein: editing by Patrick Markey)
LONDON (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday against any measures that could weaken the Tehran-backed Shi'ite paramilitary groups, saying such actions would endanger Baghdad's stability. At a meeting in Tehran, Khamenei said the Shi'ite militias were Iraq's main forces pushing back Sunni jihadist groups, and Baghdad should not trust the United States in the fight against the Islamic State, Iranian state media reported. The Shi'ite militias, known as Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) helped Baghdad defend the country against the Islamic State militant group when Iraqi military and police divisions deserted en masse in 2014. Since then, the Iran-backed militias, estimated to comprise more than 60,000 fighters, have continued to attack the Islamic State, also known as Daesh, which has declared a Caliphate across swathes of Iraq and Syria. But Sunnis in areas freed from Islamic State control say the Shi'ite militias have carried out looting, abductions and murder. Some Arab leaders in northern Iraq have asked for the PMF to be dissolved or expelled from their Sunni-majority provinces. "The Daesh is retreating from Iraq and that is thanks to the governments trust in these young devoted forces," Khamenei told Abadi in Tehran. "The Americans are against Popular Forces because they want Iraq to lose its main source of strength," he added. U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have also dislodged Islamic State from Iraqi cities the militants captured, and are about to fully capture Mosul, which used to be their de facto capital in the country. AFTER SAUDI ARABIA Abadi met Khamenei a day after his visit to Saudi Arabia, Iran's regional rival, in a Middle Eastern tour that will also include Kuwait. Iraq lies on the faultline between Shi'ite Iran and the mostly Sunni Arab world. Deep-running animosity and distrust between the two sides is fuelled by sectarian divides. Abadi belongs to the Dawa party, a Shi'ite group with close ties to Iran. But he has managed relations with the Sunnis better than his predecessor, Nuri al-Maliki, and also improved Baghdad's ties with Saudi Arabia. Khamenei asked Abadi not to trust the Americans in their fight against the Islamic State, as "they and their regional allies (Saudi Arabia) have created Daesh with their money and do not wish to fully eliminate them" in Iraq. He said Iran was against the presence of American forces in Iraq under any circumstance including training Iraqi forces. "We should remain vigilant of the Americans and not trust them. The Americans and their followers are against Iraq's independence, unity and identity," Khamenei said. Khamenei also reiterated Iran's disagreement with any measure that threatened the territorial integrity of Iraq and divides the country. Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region announced this month that it would hold a referendum on independence, a move that Baghdad's Shi'ite-led government has rejected. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
The University of Nebraska spent more than $122,000 during a months-long search for a new chancellor at its Omaha campus before that effort stalled and an interim leader was named in April.

The UNO search was the fourth search for a top administrator conducted by NU in the last five years, but the first under a new law granting the university broad exemptions from the states public records laws requiring that the identities of four finalists be made public.

In 2016, Gov. Pete Ricketts signed into a law a bill introduced by Sen. John Murante of Gretna on behalf of the NU Board of Regents that allows the university to name a single priority candidate during searches for the system president and four campus chancellors.

NU leaders, including President Hank Bounds, applauded the measure, saying it was a necessary step to keep a competitive edge against institutions in other states that conduct their university administrator searches in secrecy.

The way were doing the search now better reflects how presidential searches and chancellor searches are done around the country, Bounds said in an interview last October.

Despite the new level of secrecy, no priority candidate emerged during the UNO search, which Bounds attributed to a competitive market for top leaders in higher education, as well as a challenging fiscal environment for the state's only public university system.

Dr. Jeff Gold, chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center since 2014, was appointed to serve in a dual role as interim chancellor of UNO, where he replaces retiring Chancellor John Christensen.

Gold will lead both Omaha institutions for an undetermined length of time, after which NU could launch a second search for a UNO chancellor.

In addition to protecting the names of candidates, the new public records exemptions also put the activities conducted during the search behind a veil of secrecy.

NU had previously responded to public records requests for documents related to the search by turning over reimbursement forms submitted by candidates for travel, lodging and food, as well as internal invoices detailing events hosted on campus.

Those records gave a broad view of how the search took place outside of the public forums hosted for each candidate, often providing insight into who candidates were meeting with in closed meetings during their whirlwind formal interview and campus tour.

Under the new law, however, the expenses paid by the university throughout the search are more nebulous, and reveal little about the activities of those conducting the search or the candidates recruited.

All but $1,747 of the $122,788 total cost paid by NU to conduct the search was billed by Parker Executive Search, instead of directly from the candidates, as has occurred in prior searches.

For example, Parker submitted a $15,236 invoice to NU on April 15 for candidate and interview expenses, while a $445 invoice dated June 15 also lists candidate expenses in the description field, but nothing else.

Parker was contracted to aid the search for $95,000, plus the reimbursement of related costs.

The only document that sheds some light on closed-door search activities is an internal invoice from UNO.

On it, catered breakfasts and lunches on April 4 and 5  as well as the cost of cleaning table linens  are listed, although the invoice for $1,405 doesnt indicate if those events were for chancellor finalists or the search committee.

Jack Gould of Common Cause Nebraska said more-restrictive public records laws leave taxpayers in the dark in understanding the universitys stalled search.

Gould noted that the university can now grant more secrecy to its top leaders than state senators and other Nebraska politicians, who are required to report campaign contributions and expenses.

If you were dealing with other public entities, youd be able to get the information about where they went and what they did, Gould said in a phone interview Friday. Its not good for a public institution to have secrets about candidates and money.

Since 2012, the university has spent more than $825,000 conducting searches for its top five leaders.

* The 2012-13 search that led to Gold being named UNMC chancellor cost $253,000.

* NU spent $260,000 in the 2014-15 president search that led to the hiring of Bounds.

* A search last year that ended in Ronnie Green being named UNLs 20th chancellor cost $188,000.

Those activities are paid from the universitys general fund comprised of state tax dollars and tuition revenue.
The waving flags, triumphant song and rousing speeches of a Mongolian presidential campaign rally were interrupted by a fight that broke out in the crowd. A group of men had entered the event for Democratic Party candidate Khaltmaa Battulga on Friday carrying posters denouncing the businessman, prompting his supporters to shove the interlopers and tear up their placards, all the while chanting: "You're mixed Chinese! You're mixed Chinese!" The jeer -- intended to be an insult to the men's Mongolian heritage -- reflected the tone of an election marked by anti-Chinese sentiment and calls to protect the country's rich natural resources from foreign forces. As Mongolia prepares to go to the polls Monday, voters are grappling with the nation's complex relationship with its powerful neighbour, characterised by centuries of historical enmity and current financial dependence. Mongolia's financial fortunes are closely tied to China, whose slowing growth has troubled the landlocked nation's economy. China is by far the country's largest trade partner, with 80 percent of Mongolian exports going south of the border. Wary of this oversized influence, Mongolian presidential candidates have advocated a "third neighbour policy" for focusing Mongolia's partnerships beyond Russia and China. - 'Biggest enemy' - A video circulating on Mongolian social media shows black and white footage of a lively Chinese community in Ulan Bator, followed by clips of Chinese migrants protesting and scuffling with Mongolian authorities. "Many Chinese people were expelled from Mongolia decades ago," the voiceover says, "but today the Mongolian People's Party (MPP) has lost its values and is running a half-Chinese person in the election." The dramatic intonation refers to rumours that the candidate for the ruling MPP, Mieybombo Enkhbold, has Chinese ancestry. "China has been Mongolia's biggest enemy since the time of Genghis Khan," Tuvshinbulag Svarikow, a 26-year-old Mongolian-Russian university student at the Battulga rally, told AFP. "Someone with a Chinese background has no right to represent Mongolia in the presidential office." In response to such suspicions, Enkhbold has published a family tree detailing his lineage. Sainkhuu Ganbaatar, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party's candidate, has done the same. This deliberate move to prove pure Mongolian origins points to a degree of nationalism absent from previous elections, University of British Columbia Mongolia scholar Julian Dierkes told AFP. "My sense is that sentiment among voters hasn't changed, but that politicians are more and more using nationalism to distract from the real issues," he said. Dierkes observed that this election has also seen the three candidates more frequently wearing a "deel," a traditional Mongolian outfit, and using "Mongolia" in their slogans as opposed to simply "our nation" or "our country." Enkhbold has advocated for a "United Mongolia," while Battulga's slogan is "Mongolia will win." All three platforms emphasise the country's territorial integrity, though its borders are not disputed. The idea that China remains Mongolia's "enemy" is shared by only a portion of voters, while others have been frustrated by the negative campaigning. Nor does it align with current geopolitics. Bilateral ties have been stable for decades, receiving a boost last year through the announcement of a China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor to be established as part of China's Belt and Road initiative, a global trade infrastructure programme. - Rationality - While Mongolia's $5.5 billion International Monetary Fund-fund bailout is expected to lessen its dependence on China, Beijing in February also announced additional financial assistance and favourable loan terms to the debt-wracked country. China's central bank will extend a currency swap line to Mongolia worth 15 billion yuan ($2.2 billion). The aid was disclosed a couple months after Mongolia pledged not to extend any more invitations to the Dalai Lama after the Tibetan Buddhist leader's visit to Ulan Bator last November angered China. "I don't think (anti-China) sentiment can win," Gerel Orgil, a Mongolian public opinion analyst, told AFP. "People are increasingly rational. They are not thinking about what happened with China in the past; they're thinking about what will happen in their daily lives if the economy doesn't improve."
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C&J Energy Services, Inc. provides well construction, well completion, well support, and other complementary oilfield services and technologies to oil and gas exploration and production companies throughout the continental United States. It operates through Completion Services and Well Support Services segments. The Completion Services segment provides hydraulic fracturing; cased-hole solutions comprising cased-hole wireline, pumpdown, wireline logging, perforating, pressure pumping, well site make-up and pressure testing, and other complementary services; and well construction and intervention services, which include cementing, coiled tubing, rig services, fluids management, and other completion and well support services. This segment also engages in the engineering and production of various parts and components, such as perforating guns and addressable switches, which are used in the completion process. The Well Support Services segment offers rig services, such as providing workover and well servicing rigs that are primarily used for the routine repair and maintenance of oil and gas wells, re-drilling operations, and plugging and abandonment operations; fluids management services, including storage, transportation, and disposal services for fluids used in the drilling, completion, and workover of oil and gas wells; and other special well site services, such as fishing, contract labor, and tool rental services for the completion and workover of oil and gas wells. The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Usefulness Content Freshness Make sure youre feeding your branding the right things for your business long-term success. In Preventing BrandSlaughter: How to Preserve, Support and Grow Your Brand Asset Value, former psychotherapist and keynote speaker David Corbin, shares the core fundamentals of branding and the potential real-life consequences of a business who doesnt take their branding seriously.

If you buy something through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.

This is a branding book that covers a unique topic, the death of a brand. Using a fictional case study, Reliance Hospital, the book shows why businesses must remain proactive about every important aspect of their brand or risk watching their brands die.

What is Preventing BrandSlaughter About?

Understanding the importance of proactively managing your brand is the core message of Preventing BrandSlaughter: How to Preserve, Support, and Grow Your Brand Asset Value. In this book, branding is more than a graphic you slap on a product to identify your business. Branding is the lifeblood of your organization. Without attention to the things that feed your brand (dedicated employees, high standards, focused leadership), your brand suffers and eventually dies. When a brand dies, the business is next to fall.

To illustrate his point, David Corbin provides a fictional case study of a hospital. The book follows two stories. The first is about new employees attending an orientation at the hospital. These new employees are introduced to the concept of Preventing BrandSlaughter along with the specific principles the hospital uses to prevent the death of its brand. The second story follows two doctors at the hospital who want to integrate new technology but encounter a clash of personalities.

As both stories in the case study emphasize, branding involves more than the marketing department. There are two major aspects of a successful brand, the external (how you define your business to the world) and internal (what your employees do to support your brand). The goal of a business is to be consistent with its external and internal branding. A brand that accomplishes this is said to have integrity.

Reaching brand integrity isnt automatic. It requires regular auditing to identify and fix areas that need improvement. By doing this, brands reinforce a high-performing culture that continues to evolve. This high performance, in turn, keeps the brand growing. High-performing businesses that proactively grow their brand avoid the same fatal missteps of a business that takes its customers and branding for granted.

Author David Corbin, known as Robin Williams with an MBA, is a former psychotherapist and consultant who currently works as a keynote speaker, author, and entrepreneur. Corbin has worked with the top leaders at companies such as AT&T, Hallmark and Sprint. He was a host and the star of a movie called Pass It and was recently featured in another movie Three Feet From Gold. Corbin was ranked as one of the top speakers at INC Magazines national conferences. He also received the International Enterprise of the Year award for designing a touchscreen patient interview system.

What Was Best About Preventing BrandSlaughter?

As described above, most branding advice focuses on how to launch a brand. This advice doesnt focus on maintaining a brand over the long-term. Preventing BrandSlaughter fills that role and does so with ease. Utilizing a heart-warming case study, it reinforces the core simplicity of branding rather than getting obsessed with the technical details. This focus on branding fundamentals and high standards of excellence remains crucial in a world requiring businesses to balance growth and agility.

What Could Have Been Done Differently?

Preventing BrandSlaughter has a heart-warming story, an empowering message and a principles-based perspective that can be applied to any organization at any level. But the the books examples focus more on principles than specifics. For example, the book references a specific type of branding audit (called Accreditation of Brand Integrity or ABBY audits) but fails to give any detailed examples or guidance on how to create one.

Why Read Preventing BrandSlaughter?

Many business owners have relegated branding to the marketing department, but David Corbins book emphasizes why readers should not do this. Instead, Corbin asserts that branding is something everyone is continually engaged in. Every transaction, every communication, every touchpoint is an opportunity to build or destroy the brand. If a brand isnt integrated into a business demanding accountability and excellence from its employees, it runs the risk of bringing about its own death.

Because the concepts discussed in Preventing BrandSlaughter should be utilized by everyone in a business, the book is relevant for everyone. However, the content will be of special interest to leaders because of the core message it reinforces: Branding is everything. Unlike other branding books which tend to get abstract when discussing branding, Preventing BrandSlaughter focuses on the down-to-earth implications of not taking your brand seriously.

Get discounts and special offers on new and classic business books with an Audible Premium Plus membership. Learn more and sign up for an account today.
Life of birds at Vtaci ostrov is possible to watch via webcam.

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Ornithologists and environmentalists and anyone interested can watch the life of birds at Vtaci ostrov (Bird Island) live via a monitoring camera everyday from 7:30 to 20:00. The camera was attached within the project Spoznaj Nespoznane (Know the Unknown). The authors of the idea are ornithologists Erich Kubica and Stefan Siska.

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The areas Vysadba (Planting) and Cajka (Gull), also called Vtaci ostrov, were created within the construction of water basin Slnava. Today both of them are protected birds areas where 245 species of birds can be seen.

We noticed twenty bird species nesting  mostly gulls, five species are nesting here. Bird Island is also the nesting place of the common tern and in the last five years a precious species of heron - the black-crowned night heron - found a home on the island, explained Kubica, as quoted by the Sme Daily.
Cocoa from the Taisha region is of the best quality, without any element of cross-breeding or artificial pollination.

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Nitra-based chocolate manufacturer Lyra Chocolate will cooperate with an Ecuadorian native tribe called the Shuar that live in the Taisha region. The agreement on cooperation was signed in early February.

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Its the first international contract that a representative of this region [Taisha] has ever signed, said Karol Styblo of Lyra Chocolate, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

Slovak President Andrej Kiska, who was also present at the inking of the agreement, praised Slovakias successes in various fields.

These people are demonstrating that startups arent only about IT and technology, but also about what we can invent in different areas, Kiska said, as quoted by TASR.

Any kind of help for new companies is important, and politicians should look for firms that have the potential to develop and export and then show them support, according to the president.

The Taisha region is in the heart of the equatorial forest, with an area of around 200 square kilometres, said Styblo, as quoted by TASR. A tribe called the Shuar lives there, and were forming a sort of joint company with them.

Cocoa from the area is of the best quality. It is original and authentic without any element of cross-breeding or artificial pollination, Styblo added.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong visits Vietnam

What started as a quarrel among siblings has escalated into serious questions about the independence of Singapores most powerful institutions.

The fight is among the children of Singapores first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, over the fate of the patriarchs housewhether it be demolished or preserved. It pits the eldest son and Singapores current prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, against his younger siblings, Lee Wei Ling and Lee Hsien Yang, who seek the demolition because its in their fathers will. Now questions are being posed about the integrity of the prime ministers office and the role of Hsien Loongs wife, Ho Ching, who also heads one of Singapores powerful sovereign wealth funds.

Although cabinet ministers have weighed in on the conflict, the younger Lees hadnt given a full account of their accusations against the prime minister until Hsien Yang yesterday (June 22) leveled allegations of impropriety at his sister-in-law. Ho Ching, he said in a Facebook post, helped herself to Lee Kuan Yews personal documents while his father was gravely ill in hospital. He says Ho acted under the auspices of the Prime Ministers Office by handing a number of the former prime ministers papers to the National Heritage Boardeven as the elder Lee lay in intensive care in February 2015. The documents Hsien Yang released appear to show an inventory of the papers, with Ho listed as the contact for the prime ministers office.

The issue with that designation is Ho is not a civil servant, nor does she hold an official government post. The wealth fund she leads, Temasek, operates independently as a commercial interest whose shareholder is Singapores finance ministry. (The company, incorporated in 1974, owns and manages investments transferred from the government.)

A number of emerging details muddy the picture of what transpired with those documents. Local media has pointed out that Ho Ching was out of the country at the time the documents were handed over. The heritage board has said the dates on the documents were wrong due to a clerical error; they were actually handed over two months later. Hsien Yang says these details dont change anything. In fact, he says, its even more troubling, because the papers were part of his fathers estate and the executors of that estate are he and his sister. Unapproved removal of these items, even by a beneficiary, constitutes theft and intermeddling, his Facebook post reads. Ho Ching is not an executor or beneficiary to our fathers estate.

Story continues

The situation casts a harsh spotlight on the entangled relationships among Singapores ruling elite. It raises the possibility of abuse of power, ignoring the rule of law, and overstepping legal bounds by the people at the apex of Singapore society. Thats especially problematic because Singapore prides itself on its meritocracy, clean government, and scrupulous adherence to the law. Lee Kuan Yew himself was the chief architect of that brand.

The senior Lee had explained his sons ascendance to the prime ministers job as the product of Singapores merit-based systemnot favoritism. Here he is in 2005, in his book, The Wit and Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew: We run a meritocracy. If the Lee family sets an example of nepotism, that system collapses. If I were not the prime minister, he [Lee Hsien Loong] could have become prime minister several years earlier. In another interview, he likened Hsien Loongs mind to a capacious computer hard drive, and said that is one of the reasons his son is the most capable to lead the country.

The prime minister will need all the computing power he can muster to explain to parliament on July 3 what has happened to those much-touted boundaries between family obligations, legal duties, and state roles. There he will address the allegations made by his siblings, and try to explain the argument over the house. He has invited lawmakersthe great majority belonging to the party he leadsto question him freely then.

Read this next: Singapores elite are feuding publicly on Facebook to bypass its state-controlled press

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WASHINGTON -- Early last August, an envelope with extraordinary handling restrictions arrived at the White House. Sent by courier from the CIA, it carried "eyes only" instructions that its contents be shown to just four people: President Barack Obama and three senior aides.

Inside was an intelligence bombshell, a report drawn from sourcing deep inside the Russian government that detailed Russian President Vladimir Putin's direct involvement in a cyber campaign to disrupt and discredit the U.S. presidential race.

But it went further. The intelligence captured Putin's specific instructions on the operation's audacious objectives -- defeat or at least damage the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, and help elect her opponent, Donald Trump.

At that point, the outlines of the Russian assault on the U.S. election were increasingly apparent. Hackers with ties to Russian intelligence services had been rummaging through Democratic Party computer networks, as well as some Republican systems, for more than a year. In July, the FBI had opened an investigation of contacts between Russian officials and Trump associates. And on July 22, nearly 20,000 emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee were dumped online by WikiLeaks.

But at the highest levels of government, among those responsible for managing the crisis, the first moment of true foreboding about Russia's intentions arrived with that CIA intelligence.

The material was so sensitive that CIA Director John Brennan kept it out of the President's Daily Brief, concerned that even that restricted report's distribution was too broad. The CIA package came with instructions that it be returned immediately after it was read. To guard against leaks, subsequent meetings in the Situation Room followed the same protocols as planning sessions for the Osama bin Laden raid.

It took time for other parts of the intelligence community to endorse the CIA's view. Only in the administration's final weeks in office did it tell the public, in a declassified report, what officials had learned from Brennan in August: that Putin was working to elect Trump.

Over that five-month interval, the Obama administration secretly debated dozens of options for deterring or punishing Russia, including cyberattacks on Russian infrastructure, the release of CIA-gathered material that might embarrass Putin and sanctions that officials said could "crater" the Russian economy.

But in the end, in late December, Obama approved a modest package combining measures that had been drawn up to punish Russia for other issues -- expulsions of 35 diplomats and the closure of two Russian compounds -- with economic sanctions so narrowly targeted that even those who helped design them describe their impact as largely symbolic.

Obama also approved a previously undisclosed covert measure that authorized planting cyber weapons in Russia's infrastructure, the digital equivalent of bombs that could be detonated if the United States found itself in an escalating exchange with Moscow. The project, which Obama approved in a covert-action finding, was still in its planning stages when Obama left office. It would be up to President Trump to decide whether to use the capability.

In political terms, Russia's interference was the crime of the century, an unprecedented and largely successful destabilizing attack on American democracy. It was a case that took almost no time to solve, traced to the Kremlin through cyber-forensics and intelligence on Putin's involvement. And yet, because of the divergent ways Obama and Trump have handled the matter, Moscow appears unlikely to face proportionate consequences.

Those closest to Obama defend the administration's response to Russia's meddling. They note that by August it was too late to prevent the transfer to WikiLeaks and other groups of the troves of emails that would spill out in the ensuing months. They believe that a series of warnings - including one that Obama delivered to Putin in September - prompted Moscow to abandon any plans of further aggression, such as sabotage of U.S. voting systems.

Denis McDonough, who served as Obama's chief of staff, said that the administration regarded Russia's interference as an attack on the "heart of our system."

"We set out from a first-order principle that required us to defend the integrity of the vote," McDonough said in an interview. "Importantly, we did that. It's also important to establish what happened and what they attempted to do so as to ensure that we take the steps necessary to stop it from happening again."

But other administration officials look back on the Russia period with remorse.

"It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend," said a former senior Obama administration official involved in White House deliberations on Russia. "I feel like we sort of choked."

The post-election period has been dominated by the overlapping investigations into whether Trump associates colluded with Russia before the election and whether the president sought to obstruct the FBI probe afterward. That spectacle has obscured the magnitude of Moscow's attempt to hijack a precious and now vulnerable-seeming American democratic process.

Beset by allegations of hidden ties between his campaign and Russia, Trump has shown no inclination to revisit the matter and has denied any collusion or obstruction on his part. As a result, the expulsions and modest sanctions announced by Obama on Dec. 29 continue to stand as the United States' most forceful response.

"The punishment did not fit the crime," said Michael McFaul, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia for the Obama administration from 2012 to 2014. "Russia violated our sovereignty, meddling in one of our most sacred acts as a democracy -- electing our president. The Kremlin should have paid a much higher price for that attack. And U.S. policymakers now -- both in the White House and Congress -- should consider new actions to deter future Russian interventions."

The Senate this month passed a bill that would impose additional election- and Ukraine-related sanctions on Moscow and limit Trump's ability to lift them. The measure requires House approval, however, and Trump's signature.

This account of the Obama administration's response to Russia's interference is based on interviews with more than three dozen current and former U.S. officials in senior positions in government, including at the White House, the State, Defense and Homeland Security departments, and U.S. intelligence services. Most agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the issue.

The White House, the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.

* * *

The CIA breakthrough came at a stage of the presidential campaign when Trump had secured the GOP nomination but was still regarded as a distant long shot. Clinton held comfortable leads in major polls, and Obama expected that he would be transferring power to someone who had served in his Cabinet.

The intelligence on Putin was extraordinary on multiple levels, including as a feat of espionage.

For spy agencies, gaining insights into the intentions of foreign leaders is among the highest priorities. But Putin is a remarkably elusive target. A former KGB officer, he takes extreme precautions to guard against surveillance, rarely communicating by phone or computer, always running sensitive state business from deep within the confines of the Kremlin.

The Washington Post is withholding some details of the intelligence at the request of the U.S. government.

In early August, Brennan alerted senior White House officials to the Putin intelligence, making a call to deputy national security adviser Avril Haines and pulling national security adviser Susan E. Rice aside after a meeting before briefing Obama along with Rice, Haines and McDonough in the Oval Office.

Officials described the president's reaction as grave. Obama "was deeply concerned and wanted as much information as fast as possible," a former official said. "He wanted the entire intelligence community all over this."

Concerns about Russian interference had gathered throughout the summer.

Russia experts had begun to see a troubling pattern of propaganda in which fictitious news stories, assumed to be generated by Moscow, proliferated across social-media platforms.

Officials at the State Department and FBI became alarmed by an unusual spike in requests from Russia for temporary visas for officials with technical skills seeking permission to enter the United States for short-term assignments at Russian facilities. At the FBI's behest, the State Department delayed approving the visas until after the election.

Meanwhile, the FBI was tracking a flurry of hacking activity against U.S. political parties, think tanks and other targets. Russia had gained entry to DNC systems in the summer of 2015 and spring of 2016, but the breaches did not become public until they were disclosed in a June 2016 report by The Post.

Even after the late-July WikiLeaks dump, which came on the eve of the Democratic convention and led to the resignation of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., as the DNC's chairwoman, U.S. intelligence officials continued to express uncertainty about who was behind the hacks or why they were carried out.

At a public security conference in Aspen, Colo., in late July, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper noted that Russia had a long history of meddling in American elections but that U.S. spy agencies were not ready to "make the call on attribution" for what was happening in 2016.

"We don't know enough . . . to ascribe motivation," Clapper said. "Was this just to stir up trouble or was this ultimately to try to influence an election?"

The August intelligence on Putin obtained by the CIA seemed to fill some of those critical gaps.

Brennan convened a secret task force at CIA headquarters composed of several dozen analysts and officers from the CIA, the NSA and the FBI.

The unit functioned as a sealed compartment, its work hidden from the rest of the intelligence community. Those brought in signed new non-disclosure agreements to be granted access to intelligence from all three participating agencies.

They worked exclusively for two groups of "customers," officials said. The first was Obama and fewer than 14 senior officials in government. The second was a team of operations specialists at the CIA, NSA and FBI who took direction from the task force on where to aim their subsequent efforts to collect more intelligence on Russia.

* * *

The secrecy extended into the White House.

Rice, Haines and White House homeland-security adviser Lisa Monaco convened meetings in the Situation Room to weigh the mounting evidence of Russian interference and generate options for how to respond. At first, only four senior security officials were allowed to attend: Brennan, Clapper, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey. Aides ordinarily allowed entry as "plus-ones" were barred.

Gradually, the circle widened to include Vice President Joe Biden and others. Agendas sent to Cabinet secretaries - including John Kerry at the State Department and Ashton Carter at the Pentagon - arrived in envelopes that subordinates were not supposed to open. Sometimes the agendas were withheld until participants had taken their seats in the Situation Room.

Throughout his presidency, Obama's approach to national security challenges was deliberate and cautious. He came into office seeking to end wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was loath to act without support from allies overseas and firm political footing at home. He was drawn only reluctantly into foreign crises, such as the civil war in Syria, that presented no clear exit for the United States.

Obama's approach often seemed reducible to a single imperative: Don't make things worse. As brazen as the Russian attacks on the election seemed, Obama and his top advisers feared that things could get far worse.

They were concerned that any pre-election response could provoke an escalation from Putin. Moscow's meddling to that point was seen as deeply concerning but unlikely to materially affect the outcome of the election. Far more worrisome to the Obama team was the prospect of a cyber-assault on voting systems before and on Election Day.

They also worried that any action they took would be perceived as political interference in an already volatile campaign. By August, Trump was predicting that the election would be rigged. Obama officials feared providing fuel to such claims, playing into Russia's efforts to discredit the outcome and potentially contaminating the expected Clinton triumph.

Before departing for an August vacation to Martha's Vineyard, Obama instructed aides to pursue ways to deter Moscow and proceed along three main paths: Get a high-confidence assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies on Russia's role and intent; shore up any vulnerabilities in state-run election systems; and seek bipartisan support from congressional leaders for a statement condemning Moscow and urging states to accept federal help.

The administration encountered obstacles at every turn.

Despite the intelligence the CIA had produced, other agencies were slower to endorse a conclusion that Putin was personally directing the operation and wanted to help Trump. "It was definitely compelling, but it was not definitive," said one senior administration official. "We needed more."

Some of the most critical technical intelligence on Russia came from another country, officials said. Because of the source of the material, the NSA was reluctant to view it with high confidence.

Brennan moved swiftly to schedule private briefings with congressional leaders. But getting appointments with certain Republicans proved difficult, officials said, and it was not until after Labor Day that Brennan had reached all members of the "Gang of Eight" - the majority and minority leaders of both houses and the chairmen and ranking Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees.

Jeh Johnson, the homeland-security secretary, was responsible for finding out whether the government could quickly shore up the security of the nation's archaic patchwork of voting systems. He floated the idea of designating state mechanisms "critical infrastructure," a label that would have entitled states to receive priority in federal cybersecurity assistance, putting them on a par with U.S. defense contractors and financial networks.

On Aug. 15, Johnson arranged a conference call with dozens of state officials, hoping to enlist their support. He ran into a wall of resistance.

The reaction "ranged from neutral to negative," Johnson said in congressional testimony Wednesday.

Brian Kemp, the Republican secretary of state of Georgia, used the call to denounce Johnson's proposal as an assault on state rights. "I think it was a politically calculated move by the previous administration," Kemp said in a recent interview, adding that he remains unconvinced that Russia waged a campaign to disrupt the 2016 race. "I don't necessarily believe that," he said.

Stung by the reaction, the White House turned to Congress for help, hoping that a bipartisan appeal to states would be more effective.

In early September, Johnson, Comey and Monaco arrived on Capitol Hill in a caravan of black SUVs for a meeting with 12 key members of Congress, including the leadership of both parties.

The meeting devolved into a partisan squabble.

"The Dems were, 'Hey, we have to tell the public,' " recalled one participant. But Republicans resisted, arguing that to warn the public that the election was under attack would further Russia's aim of sapping confidence in the system.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., went further, officials said, voicing skepticism that the underlying intelligence truly supported the White House's claims. Through a spokeswoman, McConnell declined to comment, citing the secrecy of that meeting.

Key Democrats were stunned by the GOP response and exasperated that the White House seemed willing to let Republican opposition block any pre-election move.

On Sept. 22, two California Democrats - Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff - did what they couldn't get the White House to do. They issued a statement making clear that they had learned from intelligence briefings that Russia was directing a campaign to undermine the election, but they stopped short of saying to what end.

A week later, McConnell and other congressional leaders issued a cautious statement that encouraged state election officials to ensure their networks were "secure from attack." The release made no mention of Russia and emphasized that the lawmakers "would oppose any effort by the federal government" to encroach on the states' authorities.

When U.S. spy agencies reached unanimous agreement in late September that the interference was a Russian operation directed by Putin, Obama directed spy chiefs to prepare a public statement summarizing the intelligence in broad strokes.

With Obama still determined to avoid any appearance of politics, the statement would not carry his signature.

On Oct. 7, the administration offered its first public comment on Russia's "active measures," in a three-paragraph statement issued by Johnson and Clapper. Comey had initially agreed to attach his name, as well, officials said, but changed his mind at the last minute, saying that it was too close to the election for the bureau to be involved.

"The U.S. intelligence community is confident that the Russian government directed the recent compromises of emails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations," the statement said. "We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities."

Early drafts accused Putin by name, but the reference was removed out of concern that it might endanger intelligence sources and methods.

The statement was issued around 3:30 p.m., timed for maximum media coverage. Instead, it was quickly drowned out. At 4 p.m., The Post published a story about crude comments Trump had made about women that were captured on an "Access Hollywood" tape. Half an hour later, WikiLeaks published its first batch of emails stolen from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

To some, Obama's determination to avoid politicizing the Russia issue had the opposite effect: It meant that he allowed politics to shape his administration's response to what some believed should have been treated purely as a national security threat.

Schiff said that the administration's justifications for inaction often left him with a sense of "cognitive dissonance."

"The administration doesn't need congressional support to issue a statement of attribution or impose sanctions," Schiff said in a recent interview. He said many groups inadvertently abetted Russia's campaign, including Republicans who refused to confront Moscow and media organizations that eagerly mined the troves of hacked emails.

"Where Democrats need to take responsibility," Schiff said, "is that we failed to persuade the country why they should care that a foreign power is meddling in our affairs."

The Situation Room is actually a complex of secure spaces in the basement level of the West Wing. A video feed from the main room courses through some National Security Council offices, allowing senior aides sitting at their desks to see - but not hear - when meetings are underway.

As the Russia-related sessions with Cabinet members began in August, the video feed was shut off. The last time that had happened on a sustained basis, officials said, was in the spring of 2011 during the run-up to the U.S. Special Operations raid on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.

The blacked-out screens were seen as an ominous sign among lower-level White House officials who were largely kept in the dark about the Russia deliberations even as they were tasked with generating options for retaliation against Moscow.

Much of that work was led by the Cyber Response Group, an NSC unit with representatives from the CIA, NSA, State Department and Pentagon.

The early options they discussed were ambitious. They looked at sectorwide economic sanctions and cyberattacks that would take Russian networks temporarily offline. One official informally suggested - though never formally proposed - moving a U.S. naval carrier group into the Baltic Sea as a symbol of resolve.

What those lower-level officials did not know was that the principals and their deputies had by late September all but ruled out any pre-election retaliation against Moscow. They feared that any action would be seen as political and that Putin, motivated by a seething resentment of Clinton, was prepared to go beyond fake news and email dumps.

The FBI had detected suspected Russian attempts to penetrate election systems in 21 states, and at least one senior White House official assumed that Moscow would try all 50, officials said. Some officials believed the attempts were meant to be detected to unnerve the Americans. The patchwork nature of the United States' 3,000 or so voting jurisdictions would make it hard for Russia to swing the outcome, but Moscow could still sow chaos.

"We turned to other scenarios" the Russians might attempt, said Michael Daniel, who was cybersecurity coordinator at the White House, "such as disrupting the voter rolls, deleting every 10th voter [from registries] or flipping two digits in everybody's address."

The White House also worried that they had not yet seen the worst of Russia's campaign. WikiLeaks and DCLeaks, a website set up in June 2016 by hackers believed to be Russian operatives, already had troves of emails. But U.S. officials feared that Russia had more explosive material or was willing to fabricate it.

"Our primary interest in August, September and October was to prevent them from doing the max they could do," said a senior administration official. "We made the judgment that we had ample time after the election, regardless of outcome, for punitive measures."

The assumption that Clinton would win contributed to the lack of urgency.

Instead, the administration issued a series of warnings.

Brennan delivered the first on Aug. 4 in a blunt phone call with Alexander Bortnikov , the director of the FSB, Russia's powerful security service.

A month later, Obama confronted Putin directly during a meeting of world leaders in Hangzhou, China. Accompanied only by interpreters, Obama told Putin that "we knew what he was doing and [he] better stop or else," according to a senior aide who subsequently spoke with Obama. Putin responded by demanding proof and accusing the United States of interfering in Russia's internal affairs.

In a subsequent news conference, Obama alluded to the exchange and issued a veiled threat. "We're moving into a new era here where a number of countries have significant capacities," he said. "Frankly, we've got more capacity than anybody both offensively and defensively."

There were at least two other warnings.

On Oct. 7, the day that the Clapper-Johnson statement was released, Rice summoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to the White House and handed him a message to relay to Putin.

Then, on Oct. 31, the administration delivered a final pre-election message via a secure channel to Moscow originally created to avert a nuclear exchange. The message noted that the United States had detected malicious activity, originating from servers in Russia, targeting U.S. election systems and warned that meddling would be regarded as unacceptable interference. Russia confirmed the next day that it had received the message but replied only after the election through the same channel, denying the accusation.

As Election Day approached, proponents of taking action against Russia made final, futile appeals to Obama's top aides: McDonough, Rice and Haines. Because their offices were part of a suite of spaces in the West Wing, securing their support on any national security issue came to be known as "moving the suite."

One of the last to try before the election was Kerry. Often perceived as reluctant to confront Russia, in part to preserve his attempts to negotiate a Syria peace deal, Kerry was at critical moments one of the leading hawks.

In October, Kerry's top aides had produced an "action memo" that included a package of retaliatory measures including economic sanctions. Knowing the White House was not willing to act before the election, the plan called for the measures to be announced almost immediately after votes had been securely cast and counted.

Kerry signed the memo and urged the White House to convene a principals meeting to discuss the plan, officials said. "The response was basically, 'Not now,' " one official said.

Election Day arrived without penalty for Moscow.

* * *

Despite the dire warnings, there were no meltdowns in the United States' voting infrastructure on Nov. 8, no evidence of hacking-related fraud, crashing of electronic ballots or manipulation of vote counts.

The outcome itself, however, was a shock.

Suddenly, Obama faced a successor who had praised WikiLeaks and prodded Moscow to steal even more Clinton emails, while dismissing the idea that Russia was any more responsible for the election assault than "somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds."

"The White House was mortified and shocked," said a former administration official. "From national security people there was a sense of immediate introspection, of, 'Wow, did we mishandle this.' "

At first, there was no outward sign of new resolve.

After his failed pre-election bid, Kerry returned with a fallback proposal, calling for the creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate Russian interference and make recommendations on how to protect future elections.

The panel would be modeled on the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, producing a definitive report and making recommendations that led to the overhaul of U.S. intelligence agencies.

"The idea was that if you think doing something aggressive is too inflammatory, then we shouldn't have a problem getting to the truth about what happened," said an administration official familiar with the Kerry plan. Trump was expected to oppose such a plan, but setting it in motion before he was sworn in would make it "harder and uglier politically" for him to block.

Supporters' confidence was buoyed when McDonough signaled that he planned to "tabledrop" the proposal at the next NSC meeting, one that would be chaired by Obama. Kerry was overseas and participated by videoconference.

To some, the "tabledrop" term has a tactical connotation beyond the obvious. It is sometimes used as a means of securing approval of an idea by introducing it before opponents have a chance to form counterarguments.

"We thought this was a good sign," a former State Department official said.

But as soon as McDonough introduced the proposal for a commission, he began criticizing it, arguing that it would be perceived as partisan and almost certainly blocked by Congress.

Obama then echoed McDonough's critique, effectively killing any chance that a Russia commission would be formed.

McDonough declined to comment on the principals' committee meeting on the commission or any other sensitive matters but acknowledged that he opposed the idea, in part because he believed it would be premature to do so before U.S. intelligence agencies and Congress had conducted their investigations.

* * *

Several officials described the post-election atmosphere at the White House as somber. "It was like a funeral parlor," according to one official who said that work on Russia and other subjects slowed as officials began to anticipate the damage to Obama's policies and legacy.

Others disputed that characterization, saying that the NSC carried on with no interruption or diminution of focus. "Nobody got paralyzed by grief," a high-ranking official said. "We all did our jobs."

Rice declined to comment on White House deliberations or other sensitive matters but said that the administration always planned to respond to Russia, regardless of the outcome of the election. "We felt it was on our watch and that we had to do something about it. It was our responsibility," Rice said.

Whatever the case, work on Russia did not resume in earnest until after Thanksgiving, in part because Obama made his last foreign trip.

Rice again ordered NSC staffers to finalize a "menu" of punitive measures to use against Moscow. The list that took shape was a distillation of ideas that had been circulating for months across three main categories: cyber, economic and diplomatic.

Again, the discussion ran into roadblocks.

Spy agencies wanted to maintain their penetrations of Russian networks, not expose them in a cyber-fusillade.

Treasury Department officials devised plans that would hit entire sectors of Russia's economy. One preliminary suggestion called for targeting technology companies including Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based cybersecurity firm. But skeptics worried that the harm could spill into Europe and pointed out that U.S. companies used Kaspersky systems and software.

Several senior administration officials called for imposing sanctions on Putin personally or releasing financial records or other information that would embarrass him. Some objected that the latter proposal would send the wrong message - the United States would be engaging in the same behavior it was condemning. In any case, it was not clear how long it would take U.S. spy agencies to assemble such a Putin dossier.

"By December, those of us working on this for a long time were demoralized," said an administration official involved in the developing punitive options.

Then the tenor began to shift.

On Dec. 9, Obama ordered a comprehensive review by U.S. intelligence agencies of Russian interference in U.S. elections going back to 2008, with a plan to make some of the findings public.

A week later, in one of Obama's final news briefings, he expressed irritation that such a consequential election "came to be dominated by a bunch of these leaks." He scolded news organizations for an "obsession" with titillating material about the Democrats that had dominated coverage.

Then he unloaded on Moscow. "The Russians can't change us or significantly weaken us," he said. "They are a smaller country. They are a weaker country. Their economy doesn't produce anything that anybody wants to buy, except oil and gas and arms."

It was a rare outburst for Obama, one that came amid a wave of internal second-guessing, finger-pointing from members of the defeated Clinton campaign, and the post-election posturing of Putin and Trump.

There was another factor at work, however.

Obama's decision to order a comprehensive report on Moscow's interference from U.S. spy agencies had prompted analysts to go back through their agencies' files, scouring for previously overlooked clues.

The effort led to a flurry of new, disturbing reports - many of them presented in the President's Daily Brief - about Russia's subversion of the 2016 race. The emerging picture enabled policymakers to begin seeing the Russian campaign in broader terms, as a comprehensive plot sweeping in its scope.

Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser, said that the DNC email penetrations were initially thought to be in the same vein as previous Russian hacking efforts against targets including the State Department and White House.

"In many ways . . . we dealt with this as a cyberthreat and focused on protecting our cyber infrastructure," Rhodes said in an interview. "Meanwhile, the Russians were playing this much bigger game, which included elements like released hacked materials, political propaganda and propagating fake news, which they'd pursued in other countries."

"We weren't able to put all of those pieces together in real time," Rhodes said, "and in many ways that complete picture is still being filled in." Rhodes declined to discuss any sensitive information.

Obama's darkened mood, the intelligence findings and the approaching transfer of power gave new urgency to NSC deliberations. In mid-December, as Cabinet members took turns citing drawbacks to various proposals for retaliating against Russia, Rice grew impatient and began cutting them off.

"We're not talking anymore. We're acting," she said, according to one participant.

Rice moved swiftly through a list of proposals that had survived months of debate, a menu that allowed principals to vote for what one participant described as "heavy, medium and light" options.

Among those in the Situation Room were Clapper, Brennan, Kerry and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Rice challenged them go to the "max of their comfort zones," a second participant said.

Economic sanctions, originally aimed only at Russia's military intelligence service, were expanded to include the FSB, a domestic successor to the KGB. Four Russian intelligence officials and three companies with links to those services were also named as targets.

The FBI had long lobbied to close two Russian compounds in the United States - one in Maryland and another in New York - on the grounds that both were used for espionage and placed an enormous surveillance burden on the bureau.

The FBI was also responsible for generating the list of Russian operatives working under diplomatic cover to expel, drawn from a roster the bureau maintains of suspected Russian intelligence agents in the United States.

Cabinet officials were prompted to vote on whether to close one Russian compound or two, whether to kick out around 10 suspected Russian agents, 20 or 35.

Kerry laid out his department's concerns. The U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Tefft, had sent a cable warning that Moscow would inevitably expel the same number of Americans from Moscow and that departures of that magnitude would impair the embassy's ability to function.

The objections were dismissed, and Rice submitted a plan to Obama calling for the seizure of both Russian facilities and the expulsion of 35 suspected spies. Obama signed off on the package and announced the punitive measures on Dec. 29, while on vacation in Hawaii.

By then, the still-forming Trump administration was becoming entangled by questions about contacts with Moscow. On or around that same day that Obama imposed sanctions, Trump's designated national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, told the Russian ambassador by phone that the sanctions would soon be revisited. Flynn's false statements about that conversation later cost him his job.

The report that Obama had commissioned was released a week later, on Jan. 6. It was based largely on the work done by the task force Brennan had established and made public what the CIA had concluded in August, that "Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump's election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton."

It also carried a note of warning: "We assess Moscow will apply lessons learned from its Putin-ordered campaign aimed at the U.S. election to future influence efforts worldwide."

The punitive measures got several days of media attention before the spotlight returned to Trump, his still-forming administration and, later, the initial rumblings of the Russia crisis that has become a consuming issue for the Trump White House.

But the package of measures approved by Obama, and the process by which they were selected and implemented, were more complex than initially understood.

The expulsions and compound seizures were originally devised as ways to retaliate against Moscow not for election interference but for an escalating campaign of harassment of American diplomats and intelligence operatives. U.S. officials often endured hostile treatment, but the episodes had become increasingly menacing and violent.

In one previously undisclosed incident on July 6, a Russian military helicopter dropped from the sky to make multiple passes just feet over the hood of a vehicle being driven by the U.S. defense attache, who was accompanied by colleagues, on a stretch of road between Murmansk and Pechenga in northern Russia. The attempt at intimidation was captured on photos the Americans took through the windshield.

An even more harrowing encounter took place the prior month, when a CIA operative returning by taxi to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was tackled and thrown to the ground by a uniformed FSB guard. In a video aired on Russian television, the U.S. operative can be seen struggling to drag himself across the embassy threshold and onto U.S. sovereign territory. He sustained a broken shoulder in the attack.

Though conceived as retaliation for those incidents, the expulsions were adapted and included in the election-related package. The roster of expelled spies included several operatives who were suspected of playing a role in Russia's election interference from within the United States, officials said. They declined to elaborate.

More broadly, the list of 35 names focused heavily on Russians known to have technical skills. Their names and bios were laid out on a dossier delivered to senior White House officials and Cabinet secretaries, although the list was modified at the last minute to reduce the number of expulsions from Russia's U.N. mission in New York and add more names from its facilities in Washington and San Francisco.

* * *

The compounds were even higher on the FBI's wish list.

At one point in the White House deliberations, intelligence analysts used aerial images of the facilities to show how they had been modified to enhance their espionage capabilities. Slides displayed in the Situation Room showed new chimneys and other features, all presumed to allow for the installation of more-sophisticated eavesdropping equipment aimed at U.S. naval facilities and the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade in Maryland.

Rice pointed to the FBI's McCabe and said: "You guys have been begging to do this for years. Now is your chance."

The administration gave Russia 24 hours to evacuate the sites, and FBI agents watched as fleets of trucks loaded with cargo passed through the compounds' gates.

When FBI agents entered the sites, they found them stripped of antennas, electronics, computers, file cabinets and other gear, officials said, their hasty removal leaving visible markings on floors, tables and walls.

Economic sanctions are widely seen as the United States' most potent lever, short of military force. Russia's economy is dwarfed by that of the United States, and nearly every major Russian institution and oligarch depends to some degree on access to U.S. and Western financial institutions, networks and credit.

Sanctions that the United States and Europe imposed on Russia in 2014 for its actions in Ukraine were damaging. Coinciding with a sharp drop in oil prices, those measures contributed to a 4 percent contraction in the Russian economy and sent its reserves plunging.

The election-related sanctions, by contrast, have had no such impact.

Officials involved in designing them said that the main targets - Russia's foreign and military intelligence services, the GRU and FSB, and senior officials at those agencies - have few known holdings abroad or vulnerable assets to freeze.

"I don't think any of us thought of sanctions as being a primary way of expressing our disapproval" for the election interference, said a senior administration official involved in the decision. "Going after their intelligence services was not about economic impact. It was symbolic."

More than any other measure, that decision has become a source of regret to senior administration officials directly involved in the Russia debate. The outcome has left the impression that Obama saw Russia's military meddling in Ukraine as more deserving of severe punishment than its subversion of a U.S. presidential race.

"What is the greater threat to our system of government?" said a former high-ranking administration official, noting that Obama and his advisers knew from projections formulated by the Treasury Department that the impact of the election-related economic sanctions would be "minimal."

The most difficult measure to evaluate is one that Obama alluded to in only the most oblique fashion when announcing the U.S. response.

"We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicized," he said in a statement released by the White House.

He was referring, in part, to a cyber operation that was designed to be detected by Moscow but not cause significant damage, officials said. The operation, which entailed implanting computer code in sensitive computer systems that Russia was bound to find, served only as a reminder to Moscow of the United States' cyber reach.

But Obama also signed the secret finding, officials said, authorizing a new covert program involving the NSA, CIA and U.S. Cyber Command.

Obama declined to comment for this article, but a spokesman issued a statement: "This situation was taken extremely seriously, as is evident by President Obama raising this issue directly with President Putin; 17 intelligence agencies issuing an extraordinary public statement; our homeland security officials working relentlessly to bolster the cyber defenses of voting infrastructure around the country; the President directing a comprehensive intelligence review, and ultimately issuing a robust response including shutting down two Russian compounds, sanctioning nine Russian entities and individuals, and ejecting 35 Russian diplomats from the country."

The cyber operation is still in its early stages and involves deploying "implants" in Russian networks deemed "important to the adversary and that would cause them pain and discomfort if they were disrupted," a former U.S. official said.

The implants were developed by the NSA and designed so that they could be triggered remotely as part of retaliatory cyber-strike in the face of Russian aggression, whether an attack on a power grid or interference in a future presidential race.

Officials familiar with the measures said that there was concern among some in the administration that the damage caused by the implants could be difficult to contain.

As a result, the administration requested a legal review, which concluded that the devices could be controlled well enough that their deployment would be considered "proportional" in varying scenarios of Russian provocation, a requirement under international law.

The operation was described as long-term, taking months to position the implants and requiring maintenance thereafter. Under the rules of covert action, Obama's signature was all that was necessary to set the operation in motion.

U.S. intelligence agencies do not need further approval from Trump, and officials said that he would have to issue a countermanding order to stop it. The officials said that they have seen no indication that Trump has done so.
Theresa May is reportedly facing a challenge over Brexit (Rex)

A group of Conservative MPs has reportedly told the Theresa May that they will not accept the decision to leave the European Union without a deal being reached.

According to reports by Sky News, a group of 30 MPs told party whips that the potential impact of a hard Brexit and the inability of the Conservatives to win a majority should force the Conservatives to rethink their stance of no deal is better than a bad deal.

The phrase was mentioned in the Conservative manifesto and has been repeated by Brexit minister David Davis, who is heading up the Department for Exiting the European Union.

I went through manifestos at the weekend, parties with 52% of vote ruled out No Deal: Lab (40) + LibD (7.4) + Green (1.6) + SNP (3) = 52%  Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) June 21, 2017

It is also claimed that a group of Tory centrist MPs, elected in 2015, are members of a WhatsApp group that aims to ensure that the Prime Minister is not overly influenced by the European Research Group (ERG), a contingent of Conservative Brexiteers.

The report comes after it emerged that only one in four Britons believe the government to be properly prepared for Brexit negotiations.

Brexit Secretary David Davis is in charge of negotiations for the UK (Rex)

The survey by YouGov found that just 25% of people think the Conservative government is ready to get the best deal for Britain.

MORE: Britain is laughing stock of Europe says Swiss newspaper

MORE: The Tory manifesto pledges axed from the Queens speech

In contrast, almost two thirds of those surveyed believe the government is not ready for the negotiations.

Three out of ten people (30%) said Britain is not well prepared at all and another 32% believe the government is not very well prepared.

On Monday, David Davis began Brexit negotiations in Brussels, with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier warning that the UK faced substantial consequences as a result of Brexit.

Todays Queens Speech laid out the governments plans for Brexit, confirming the Prime Ministers intention to remove Britain from the single market and the customs union.

Story continues

The Queen unveiled 27 bills and draft bills that focused heavily on the countrys exit from the European Union.

The headline legislation revealed was the Repeal Bill (formerly known as the Great Repeal Bill), which will enshrine EU laws into UK law.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Eight Emirati princesses were convicted of human trafficking by a Belgian court on Friday and were given suspended jail terms and fines in a case stemming from their treatment of servants at a Brussels luxury hotel nearly 10 years ago, their lawyer said. The Brussels criminal court handed the eight women from Abu Dhabi's ruling al-Nahyan family 15-month suspended sentences for human trafficking and degrading treatment, the lawyer, Stephen Monod, said. He said the defence was pleased the case was finally resolved after nearly a decade. "Belgian justice has appropriately assessed this case which has generated many misconceptions," he said in a statement. The defendants were acquitted of the more serious charge of inhuman treatment but also ordered to pay a fine of 165,000 euros (144,882 pounds), with half the sum suspended. The eight accused did not appear in court throughout the proceedings. The case was brought after a servant of the family slipped out of the hotel where the women stayed for several months in 2007 and 2008 and complained to Belgian police. (Reporting by Charlotte Steenackers and Elizabeth Miles; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Richard Balmforth)
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By Andrei Khalip LISBON (Reuters) - A Portuguese judge has ruled that corruption and money laundering charges brought by prosecutors against Angolan Vice President Manuel Vicente were valid and all suspects in the case, which has angered Angolan authorities, should stand trial. The former Portuguese colony, where corruption is endemic and most people live in poverty despite its vast oil wealth, has branded the charges as "a serious attack" that threatens relations between the two countries. State-run media called the investigation "revenge by the former colonial master" and "neo-colonialism". An official at the Lisbon Criminal Court told Reuters Wednesday's decision by Judge Ana Cristina Carvalho was valid for all the formal suspects in the case, including Vicente. The dates for court hearings will be set at a later phase, he said. Vicente, who was once seen as a possible successor to President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, is accused of bribing a magistrate when he was chief executive of state oil company Sonangol. Dos Santos plans to retire after 38 years in power after an Aug. 23 election. No one knows how wealthy he is but his daughter Isabel, who runs Sonangol and has business interests in Portugal, is worth $3.2 billion, according to Forbes. According to Portugal's state news agency Lusa, Vicente's Portuguese lawyer, Rui Patricio, contends that Vicente has not been notified of the accusations against him, so the judge's decision has no effect on him as he does not fit the status of "arguido", or a formal suspect. Patricio did not respond to calls and emails from Reuters, and court officials would not comment on his statement. "Arguido" is a status in the Portuguese legal system that means a suspect can be questioned in an investigation if he is presented with evidence held against him, while being granted a wider array of rights than, for instance, a witness. Prosecutors said in April Vicente had refused to come to Portugal to be questioned and Angolan authorities were not cooperating. But Vicente's lawyer denied his refusal to attend. Former Portuguese prosecutor, Orlando Figueira, who was arrested in early 2016, will go on trial on charges of receiving a bribe of 760,000 euros ($850,000) to suspend an inquiry into Vicente's dealings in Portugal before he became vice president. Two of Vicente's legal and financial representatives, Paulo Blanco and Armindo Pires, both Portuguese, were also charged with corruption and money laundering for allegedly paying the bribe jointly with Vicente. According to local media, the investigation that was suspended in January 2012 focused on the origin of funds with which Vicente had bought a luxury apartment in Lisbon. Angola ranked 164th of 170 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions index last year. (Reporting by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Louise Ireland)








A rapidly-spreading fungus is threatening to wipe out the Guess what the top-selling item is at Walmart? The banana. And we're running out of bananas as we know them.A rapidly-spreading fungus is threatening to wipe out the Cavendish banana, the kind we're used to. Panama Disease, or Tropical Race 4, spreads easily and cannot be controlled by fungicides. It has heavily infected Cavendish bananas all over Asia. The spread of the fatal strain of Panama Disease to South America seems to be only a matter of time, and scientists believe that it won't be long until the Cavendish banana ceases to be a viable staple for worldwide consumption

Wild bananas are inedible because their flesh is riddled with the hard, undigestable seeds which permit them to reproduce. The bananas we eat are seedless mutant plants which have to be artificially cultivated. All the bananas in grocery stores all over the world are effectively clones of one another. So they're especially vulnerable to scourges like Panama Disease. They can't mutate or evolve in self-defense because their genome is always the same.We have already endured one bananapocalypse caused by Panama Disease. Have you ever noticed how banana flavored stuff doesn't really taste like bananas? Well, maybe it does. That strange, slightly artificial flavor is said to resemble that of the Gros Michel, the strain that was the world's dominant banana until the 1950's. It was during that decade that a different strain of Panama Disease, which had already begun creating shortages thirty years earlier (giving rise, as you may or may not have suspected, to the song, "Yes, We Have No Bananas") finally rendered the Gros Michel impractical to grow in the numbers necessary to meet the world's demand, and made it necessary for Cavendish to replace it.The Cavendish was bred to be immune to the strain of Panama Disease which doomed the Gros Michel. But the fungus has evolved to attack the Cavendish, too. The poor thing can no more evolve to defend itself than the Gros Michel could, and the days of the world's standard banana seem numbered for the second time.This does not mean that bananas themselves will be extinct, however. There are several varieties of banana that could replace the Cavendish, but they won't taste like it any more than the Cavendish tasted like the Gros Michel. The Manzano, which some see as the leading contender to replace the Cavendish, is said to have a flavor which most people like but one that is very dissimilar to that of the Cavendish. Some compare its taste to that of an apple.Or the new standard banana could be an artificially produced hybrid of the Cavendish and some other strain, preferably resistant to Panama Disease. We're in no danger of losing the banana as such, but once again we may have to get used to a new strain which doesn't taste like what we think of when we think of a banana.So enjoy your Cavendish bananas while you can. They may soon be only a memory.Photo by Evan-Amos (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  The apparent death of a Colorado man last week has put Forrest Fenns treasure hunt in the national spotlight again, and theres vigorous debate about whether Fenn should end the hunt to save lives.

This week The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post and national television networks have featured stories about 52-year-old Paris Wallace, a Colorado pastor who was reported missing by his wife June 14 after he came to northern New Mexico to look for Fenns treasure chest  said to contain over $1 million in gold coins, jewels and artifacts.

Fenn told the Journal in an email Thursday that he is consulting with people on how to make the search safer.

There certainly is pressure to end the search, Fenn wrote. The loss of Pastor Wallace has profoundly impacted me. It is such a tragic loss. We are not ready to make an announcement (on making the hunt safer), but we hope to soon.

State Police believe they recovered Wallaces body about seven miles downstream from where his car was parked at the Taos Junction Bridge on N.M. 570, near Pilar. Authorities havent positively confirmed the identity of the body, but Wallaces Grand Junction church has scheduled a memorial service for June 29.

On Thursday, ABC News broadcast an interview with State Police Chief Pete Kassetas, who personally telephoned Fenn during the interview to ask him to call off the hunt. Earlier this week, Kassetas told the Journal the hunt was stupid, was putting lives at risk and is using up time and resources of search-and-rescue teams.

Wallace is the second Colorado man to die on the Fenn quest. Randy Bilyeu, 54, of Broomfield, disappeared after rafting on the Rio Grande west of Santa Fe in January 2016. His body was found in the river just north of Cochiti Lake about six months later.

Fenn, a Santa Fe author and antiquities collector/dealer, published a poem in an autobiographical book in 2010 said to include clues on where to find the treasure. The poem includes reference to warm waters, a creek and water high.

Interest in the treasure exploded when Fenn appeared on NBCs The Today Show in 2013. Hes said the treasure hunt was in part intended to get people outdoors to enjoy nature.

The search for Fenns treasure chest has become a national phenomenon, with various websites dedicated to the hunt. More than a few hunters maintain they know where the treasure is, should be or at least was at one point. One woman says the clues lead to a crucifix in Silverton, Colo., and that Fenn meant the search to be a spiritual quest.

Pull it

Thursdays ABC News interview showed a portion of Kassetas phone call with Fenn. You had talked about giving more clues, providing more clues, to help people better find your treasure, and again, I call for you to pull it, Kassetas said.

But Fenn responded: Im not going to give a clue to help people find the treasure. Im going to give a clue to try to keep them out of trouble, to make them safer.

Kassetas told the Journal on Thursday that the search for Wallace involved 150 people, 870 man hours, 12 search teams and a State Police helicopter that flew for 3 hours at a cost of $875 an hour.

He said he cant control what people do in the wilderness, but he said the fact that valuable loot is hidden in the chest is causing people to go out unprepared. He said he plans on calling Fenn again next week to set up a face-to-face discussion on the issue.

Im not saying hes responsible for their deaths, Kassetas said. I think his intentions are pure. People are responsible for their own actions. Its about education, and its about people making good choices. I just think that this treasure has created an environment where people are making poor decisions.

I know theres a big tourism element to this. I want them to come to New Mexico, enjoy themselves and go home alive.

Tourist attraction

While the State Police chief wants the hunt called off, the state Tourism Department has long encouraged people to come to New Mexico to look for Fenns treasure.

The Tourism Department posted a video to its YouTube page in February 2015 under the title The Searchers  New Mexico True Stories, in which Fenn is interviewed about the treasure. He said he could see trees, mountains and animals from where the chest is hidden and added, I know the treasure chest is wet.

The department has also promoted Fennboree, an annual gathering of Fenn enthusiasts.

When asked if the Tourism Department was going to take down the video or promote Fenn-related events in the future in the wake of Wallaces death and Kassetas call for Fenn to end the hunt, department spokeswoman Bailey Griffith did not provide a direct answer and instead provided statistics on how visitors affect the states economy and how people should make safety a priority while exploring the state.

A commenter who goes by the name Hatchet Jack this week posted on dalneitzel.com, a key website dedicated to Fenns treasure hunt, a message that says: They had no issues spending tax payers money on a Video about NM and Forrest chest to gain revenue for the state, and now they want Forrest to call it off. Hypocrites!

A group of people affiliated with New Mexico Search and Rescue posted an unofficial survey on SurveyMonkey.com asking if people think Fenn should call off the hunt.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Attorney Bryan Davis says he thought it was a typo.

The state Human Services Department had once accused his client of overbilling Medicaid and demanded $2.8 million back.

And then the state lowered its demand  to just $484.71.

The dramatic turnaround is the latest chapter in a four-year dispute that shook up New Mexicos behavioral health network. It began in 2013 when the state Human Services Department cut off Medicaid and other funding to 15 providers, citing allegations of overbilling, mismanagement and possible fraud, as outlined in an audit.

One of the agencies accused was the Southwest Counseling Center in Las Cruces, a client of Davis, the attorney. The center served people struggling with drug addiction or other behavioral health problems.

In an interview Friday, Roque Garcia, who worked as CEO of the group, said the $484.71 demand  made in May this year  shows how inaccurate the states allegations were all along.

Four years ago, they closed us down, Garcia said.  They called me all sorts of things, but it was all false.

Gov. Susana Martinezs administration says the scrutiny on payments to behavioral health providers has shown results. About $4.4 million has been returned to the state altogether, said Joseph Cueto, a spokesman for the governor.

As for the Southwest Counseling Center, the state says it demanded the $2.8 million only after the group had failed to provide the proper documentation for its billing.

Once the paperwork came through, the state lowered its demand accordingly, Human Services Department officials said.

Four years after the audit began and eight months after HSD made a determination of failed claims and presented it to SWCC, Cueto said, SWCC finally provided the paperwork that they are required by law and contract to maintain in order to support their billing.

The Southwest Counseling Center, Davis said, disputes even the smaller amount but agreed to pay it this year as part of a deal to receive $750,000 in payments that had been suspended in 2013.

He said he was surprised that the state had reversed course so substantially. The $2.8 million demand came in January, and the $485 demand came in May.

I actually called them and said, Is this a typo?  Davis told the Journal.

New Mexico In Depth, a nonprofit news organization, first reported on the reduced demand this week.

In halting Medicaid and other funding in 2013, the state Human Services Department cited an audit that it said showed widespread mismanagement and possible fraud. It referred the allegations to the attorney general.

The Office of the Attorney General later cleared all 15 groups of fraud and said it identified $1.16 million in overbilling, rather than the $36 million the administration had alleged.

The disruption, nevertheless, drove many of the New Mexico companies out of the behavioral health business. Legislators and others complained about the ensuing disruption in services to the vulnerable mentally ill and addicted.

They interrupted peoples lives tremendously, Garcia said.

The Martinez administration, in turn, says New Mexico has expanded access to behavioral health services in recent year, though some legislators dispute that.

More New Mexicans are receiving behavioral health services than ever before, Cueto said.

Four of the five Arizona behavioral health companies brought in after the local providers were ousted have since left the state or announced plans to.
An Albuquerque city councilor wants panhandlers  and anyone else for that matter  to stop distracting motorists, and shes introduced legislation that she says would make the streets safer for everyone.

But the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico says the ordinance appears to be an attempt to criminalize being poor in public.

The measure, introduced Monday by Councilor Trudy Jones, a Republican, would make it a crime to solicit money from motorists or to engage with motorists in any manner that elicits or requests a physical interaction while on a median, sidewalk or street-side. It would also make it illegal for a driver to stop a vehicle or to remain stopped in a traffic lane at an intersection for the sole purpose of interacting with a pedestrian. There would be exceptions in cases of emergencies.

Its now a safety issue, Jones said, adding that its common to see panhandlers at every corner and in every intersection.

Theyre very aggressive, and its not safe, she said. Drivers are rear-ending each other. Theres a high incidence of people getting hit.

But Micah McCoy, communications director for ACLU of New Mexico, said the ordinance being proposed is likely unconstitutional.

People have a right to stand in public spaces like sidewalks and street corners to solicit, he said. McCoy said the city should be trying to deal with the underlying problems of homelessness, things like having adequate mental health services, addiction treatment and an economy that provides good paying jobs, rather than trying to push poverty out of site.

I dont think anyone has proven any of these people are poor, Jones responded. She said panhandling has become a cottage industry. Jones said the city provides services to those in need, like the mayors Theres a Better Way program, a city-funded initiative through which panhandlers are given the opportunity to work for pay.

Jones measure has been referred to the Finance & Government Operations Committee and likely wont go before the full council until September or October.
A reader from New Hampshire wrote to ask, Why, just because you are born here, are you an American citizen? I know the history of this law, but it is out of date and just encourages more illegal immigration. Well, I cannot argue with that.

The reader, who goes by the handle Rocheleau, expressed displeasure with the practice that automatically awards all babies born on American soil a certificate of U.S. citizenship. Just because you are born in a garage, Rocheleau wrote, does not make you a car. That may be an odd analogy, but I take the readers point.

The answer is simple. So-called birthplace citizenship in America is guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The pertinent section, written in 1868, reads, All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.

Its common knowledge among illegal immigrants and foreigners holding U.S. travel visas that if their baby is born in America that child will be granted automatic citizenship. Many who have entered the country illegally also believe their childs status gives them an advantage toward winning their own U.S. citizenship someday. For some that has already happened, but the current administration has indicated they dont like the practice. During the presidential campaign Donald Trump made it clear he wants to do away with citizenship for newborns born to foreign nationals.

Estimates are rough, but it is widely believed that at least 300,000 babies are born here each year to parents who broke the law entering the United States. Of that group about 70 percent are of Latin American descent. Then, there are at least 36,000 more babies born here every year to so-called birth tourist mothers who are mainly from China but from other Asian countries and Russia as well. This latter group entered the U.S. with legal travel visas and hope that if the situation in their homelands becomes unbearable they can use their childs status as an American citizen to come back. An official of U.S. Immigration and Customs, asked if there is a way to circumvent this says, There is nothing in the law that makes it illegal for pregnant women to enter the United States.

Interesting to note: Expectant mothers from Russia seem to prefer to go to Florida or New Jersey to wait out their final months of pregnancy. Moms from China often choose California or Washington. They probably pick those destinations because in each location a whole cottage industry has cropped up  from birth hotels with nearby shopping centers catering to their culture to financial institutions staffed with employees who speak their language  making moms time away from home less jarring.

Like reader Rocheleau, there are many prominent politicians who would like to change this automatic citizenship system, but its tricky. Legislators know that in this supercharged political atmosphere whoever gets behind the idea of tinkering with the 14th Amendment runs the risk of being labeled a racist. That amendment, like the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that came before it, was adopted to give citizenship rights to American-born slaves.

Its important to mention that most countries do not follow the U.S. policy. No European country grants infants citizenship. Only Canada and a few African, Central and South American countries have a system similar to the United States.

Politicians in favor of doing away with automatic citizenship for babies born here are split on how to achieve their goal. Some think they can change things by simply passing legislation. Others say that would trigger an immediate and lengthy court challenge and that if one wants to change the U.S. Constitution that would require agreement of two-thirds of the states. Again, in this hyper-tense Democrats vs. Republicans era, that seems as likely as President Trump giving up Twitter.

So, what kind of difference would it make if the 300,000-plus new Americans born here each year were denied citizenship? Would that even put a dent in the impact immigrants living here illegally have already had on this country?

I have no definitive answers except to say I dont want to encourage any more people to enter our country illegally. I acknowledge the contribution immigrants have made  and continue to make  to the very foundation of the United States. My ancestors came here from Ireland at the end of the last century. I get it. But unlawful entries and residencies have put an enormous strain on our taxpayer-funded hospitals, schools and public welfare programs.

The time is long past for leaders in Washington to do what they promised to do  enact meaningful, humane reforms for our flawed immigration system. Lets face it. These babies wouldnt  couldnt  be born here if we had a handle on who enters our country. Fix the big problem, and the secondary baby-citizenship problem takes care of itself.
President Donald Trumps long-promised repeal of Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, edges closer to reality, as the Senate releases its secretly written version of the Houses American Health Care Act  the very bill that Trump first championed, then recently reportedly called mean. The Republican majority in the Senate is intent on passing the bill before the July Fourth holiday. Obamacare has led to tens of millions of Americans getting at least some health insurance, but it has problems of its own. Since health care represents one-sixth of the U.S. economy, the political debate between the very bad Republican bill and the less bad Obamacare may create an opening for the sensible solution enjoyed in just about every developed nation outside the US: single-payer health care.

Single-payer is already in practice in the U.S. and is immensely popular. Its called Medicare, the taxpayer-funded program that guarantees health care for seniors and people with permanent disabilities. Public polling soon after World War II showed widespread support for the proposal; Medicare became law in 1965. Trump, in his notorious June 2015 campaign announcement in which he attacked Mexicans as rapists, also promised: Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it.

If the current bill continues on its trajectory and gets passed, Donald Trump will have to decide if he is going to break that promise. While the bill has to first pass the Senate and then go through a process in which the Senate and House bills are reconciled, it will, at the very least, massively cut Medicaid.

The reason why many opponents call Trumpcare wealth care not health care is the elimination of an Obamacare tax on the wealthiest Americans. Theyll get a tax cut, while tens of millions will lose insurance. Others will remain unable to afford it, or will be forced to buy hollow plans that offer minimal coverage, or plans with enormous deductibles and co-pays. People with so-called pre-existing conditions will find themselves virtually uninsurable in most states. A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that there are over 52 million non-elderly people with pre-existing conditions. Kaiser specifies non-elderly, as the elderly, covered by Medicare, cant be excluded because of pre-existing conditions.

Currently, 57 million seniors and people with disabilities are on Medicare, out of a U.S. population of 320 million. There is no rational reason why Medicare couldnt be expanded to cover all Americans, regardless of age, from birth to death. This is what single-payer health care advocates call Medicare for All.

Medicare for All would maintain the current system of private and nonprofit hospitals, doctor offices and all the other familiar aspects of the U.S. health system. The single most important difference is that health insurance companies as we know them would cease to exist. Insurance companies dont actually deliver health care. They act as administrators, processing bills, making unconscionable profits off peoples pain and paying enormous executive salaries. The savings would be extraordinary, and the system would most likely be as popular as Medicare is today.

There are hopeful signs for single-payer. Rep.John Conyers, the longest-serving member of Congress  hes been in office since 1965, the year Medicare launched  has put forth H.R. 676, the Expanded & Improved Medicare for All Act. It currently has a remarkable 112 co-sponsors, all Democrats. Since the Republican majorities in both houses are unlikely to support this bill, activists are taking the fight to the states. The Healthy California Act, SB 562, would cover all residents of California and has already passed the state Senate there. The Democratic-controlled Assembly is considering it now. In New York state, a similar bill has passed that Assembly and will be debated in the state Senate, where Republicans control the chamber by one vote.

Behind all the legislation is a diverse and growing grass-roots movement. National groups have been working on it for years, including Healthcare-NOW!, Physicians for a National Health Program and unions like National Nurses United. Statewide coalitions educate, organize, lobby and pressure lawmakers, and prominent politicians like Bernie Sanders rally the troops, building momentum.

Canadas Medicare system, which covers all residents, started in the rural province of Saskatchewan and then went national. As Trumpcare versus Obamacare dominates the cable news channels, the unreported movement for single-payer health care grows. As with all great shifts in history, when the people lead, the leaders follow.

Amy Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,400 stations. She is the co-author, with Denis Moynihan and David Goodman, of Democracy Now!: 20 Years Covering the Movements Changing America. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
SANTA FE  After an industry outcry, Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn is considering delaying implementation of a policy aimed at curbing how much water oil and natural gas producers take from a massive aquifer that lies beneath New Mexicos eastern plains.

Dunn, a Republican, said earlier this week hes been surprised by heated reactions to the policy, which would allow oil and gas producers to use water from the Ogallala Aquifer for their drilling operations on state trust land only in certain circumstances.

He said he might delay the planned July 1 implementation date to give oil and natural gas companies more time to prepare.

I dont see that were stopping oil and gas development  theres a lot of other water out there, Dunn said in a recent interview. Im just trying to do whats right.

Instead of drilling into the aquifer for water, Dunn said, he wants oil and gas companies to drill deeper down to tap a nonpotable underground water source  called the Capitan Reef  though he acknowledged that could be more expensive.

The Ogallala Aquifer is a giant underground reservoir that stretches from New Mexico to South Dakota and has been steadily lowered in recent years, due primarily to agricultural operations.

Many eastern New Mexico cities, including Clovis and Portales, rely on the aquifer as a drinking water source.

The new policy, announced in a letter last month, will allow water easements for oil and gas producers to be renewed or approved only after a hydrological review.

That sparked criticism from some oil and gas producers, as well as from Eunice Mayor Matt White, whose city sells some of its water to the industry for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Rep. David Gallegos, R-Eunice, said many area residents and businesses were taken aback by the policy, because they were not consulted before it was announced. He also said delaying its implementation would be a fair move.

Oil and gas is a minor player compared to agriculture, Gallegos told the Journal.

There are more than 100 easements on state trust land that authorize the drilling of water wells from the Ogallala Aquifer, according to the State Land Office. The office does not have jurisdiction over such wells on private land.

Overall, more than 2 billion gallons of water was extracted from state trust land in the 2016 budget year, according to the Land Office, though not all of that water was taken from the Ogallala Aquifer.

New Mexico Oil & Gas Association Executive Director Ryan Flynn said the oil and gas producers care about water conservation, and said the industry uses less than 1 percent of available water statewide for its drilling and fracking operations.

Flynn, a former state Environment Department secretary, said the industry wants Dunn to consult top state officials on the matter, saying, Its our hope the commissioner is working closely on this important issue with the appropriate stakeholders.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

Journal north

SANTA FE  In a week in which nuclear safety issues at Los Alamos National Laboratory were already under scrutiny, federal officials announced Friday that the lab had shipped special nuclear material across the country using commercial air cargo services, in violation of regulations.

The term is defined by Title I of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 as plutonium, uranium-233, or uranium enriched in the isotopes uranium-233 or uranium-235, according to the website of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Greg Mello of the Albuquerque-based Los Alamos Study Group advocacy and research organization said in an interview that special nuclear material refers to material unique to the nuclear weapons world  basically isotopes used in nuclear explosives.

The National Nuclear Safety Administration said LANL has disclosed that proper procedures were not followed in shipping small quantities of special nuclear material to both Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California, and the Savannah River National Laboratory, in South Carolina.

The material was shipped last week.

The head of the NNSA said sending it by air instead of using a ground cargo service was unacceptable.

Mello said a major difference between air and ground transportation is that there can be rapid pressure changes during a flight.

Its like a ball point pen in your pocket  in an airplane there could be a loss of containment, he said.

NNSA said in a news release that the shipments should have been made using commercial ground cargo services, and were packaged and containerized for this mode of transportation.

However, the actual shipment documents were instead prepared for transport via commercial air cargo services, a mode of transportation not authorized by Federal regulations.

The shipments were subsequently sent aboard commercial cargo aircraft. Upon receipt of the shipments at their respective destinations, safety tests confirmed that there was no loss of radioactive material or contamination.

An NNSA spokesman, in a phone interview, would not say more about what the material was. He did say the aircraft that the material was shipped on did not include passenger planes.

This failure to follow established procedures is absolutely unacceptable, said NNSA Administrator Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz.

LANL is run by Los Alamos National Security LLC (LANS), a private consortium that includes Bechtel and the University of California. After a series of unsatisfactory performance reviews, the federal government has decided against extending LANS $2 billion-plus annual operating contract and will rebid the contract over the next year or so.

I require the contractors who manage and operate our national laboratories and production plants to rigorously adhere to the highest safety and security standards in performing the vitally important work they do for our national security, Klotz said Friday.

NNSA said an investigation is being conducted to determine the cause of the shipping mistakes, as well as procedures to avoid future incidents of this type, and that the agency will use the full terms and conditions of the contract to ensure that any responsible parties are held accountable.

Recent criticism

Just on Monday, Klotz had defended how his agency has held LANL accountable on safety and operations issues, noting that NNSA had withheld $82 million in performance fees between 2013 and 2016. Klotzs Monday statement also said LANLs safety culture had been attacked without offering all of the facts and the full context.

He was responding to a series of news articles published this week by the Center for Public Integrity that cited internal reports and other documents outlining federal regulators concerns about safety lapses at LANL over the years, including spilled plutonium and workers positioning plutonium rods in a way that could have led to an uncontrolled nuclear reaction.

The criticism emerged as work ramps up at Los Alamos to produce plutonium pits, a key component for the nations nuclear weapons cache and part of hugely expensive effort to refurbish and modernize the arsenal over the next decade and longer.

In an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press, LANL officials reassured employees of the safety of the labs facility for making pits. As employees, you should be proud of your laboratorys accomplishments over the past decade to strengthen our ability to operate safely and securely, according to the memo, dated Monday. While there will often be external organizations and individuals which advance a misleading narrative, it is not an accurate reflection of our work.

Lab contractor LANS was most notably penalized after a drum of radioactive waste improperly packed with a combustible mix at Los Alamos in 2014 leaked and shut down the nations nuclear waste storage facility, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant at Carlsbad.

The new incident is reminiscent of a mistake from November 1994, when an Army depot in California sent less than a pound of plutonium to Los Alamos by air using FedEx. And in 2005, contamination from radioactive americium from a LANL researcher was spread through a FedEx package sent to a U.S. Naval nuclear power research lab in Pennsylvania.

Its important to say that shipping small quantities of radioactive material with safe packaging is not necessarily dangerous, the Los Alamos Study Groups Mello told the Journal Friday . It happens all the time. And the question is that it has to be properly packed and managed and the appropriate safeguards followed.
When "The Bell Curve" by Charles A. Murray and Richard Herrnstein was published in 1994, I was a junior in college and didn't know anything about the book except that it had my white literature professors in an uproar.

A few of them inveighed against the book's premise -- the very notion of intelligence as something people possess in varying degrees -- and then the whole controversy eventually died out.

It returned last March when Murray was chased away by angry students from Middlebury College in Vermont on the grounds that his speech, centering on his magnificent 2012 book "Coming Apart," about the fracturing of American society along education and income lines, was illegitimate because his earlier work on intelligence "proved" that Murray is a white supremacist.

My kneejerk reaction was to buy "The Bell Curve" and read it -- an act I'm confident few of the book's vociferous detractors have done, as it is extremely long and dense.

"The Bell Curve" triggered such an uproar at Middlebury that not only was Murray shouted down, but a female professor who was to interview him onstage suffered a concussion from the violent actions of the students (over five dozen of whom were disciplined by the college).

But even a waiting-at-the-doctor's-office reading of "The Bell Curve" bears it out as a fair accounting of dissenting opinions on the history, processes for measuring, and analysis of data about human intelligence and its correlation to human genes.

Political contexts are laid out for novices to the field of intelligence research, and there are extensive discussions about systemic injustices based on race and the challenges that the financially disadvantaged face. Concerns over whether the instruments used in assessing intelligence are tainted by cultural bias are investigated in compelling detail across a variety of well-known standardized tests like the SAT.

"The technical literature is again clear. In study after study of the leading tests, the hypothesis that the [black/white] difference is caused by questions with cultural content has been contradicted by the facts," reads one section. "Items that the average white test taker finds easy relative to other items, the average black test taker does too; the same is true for items that the average white and black find difficult."

It's a shame that the controversy regarding "The Bell Curve" centered on the book's delineation of the differences in measured intelligence between blacks and whites. But an assertion that the authors were peddling white supremacy is derailed by their detailing that -- at the time of the book's publication, and still widely accepted -- Asians (who are currently the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the U.S, according to the Pew Research Center) had higher IQs than whites.

The authors also noted that all the literature at the time pointed to Jews testing higher in intelligence than any other ethnic group.

But questions of racism grabbed all the headlines.

Less well-known is that Murray and Herrnstein's predictions about selective self-sorting based on educational attainment and income -- and how it has accelerated and magnified economic inequality -- have been proved undeniably true.

And that the authors repeatedly note that intelligence is neither the determinant of a fulfilling life nor an accurate measure of whether someone will contribute to society: "Inequality of endowments, including intelligence, is a reality. ... [We must understand that] the success of each human life is not measured externally but internally; that of all the rewards we can confer on each other, the most precious is a place as a valued fellow citizen."

There are opposing views and contrary interpretations of many of the data points and conclusions found in "The Bell Curve" -- not to mention that there is now a wide body of research on how malleable and improvable the mind is.

The authors contend: "This thing we know as IQ is important but not a synonym for human excellence," yet we encourage an economy that increasingly devalues physical labor and repetitive work and financially rewards those with advanced college degrees.

Ultimately, debates about whether the authors invite pre-judgment of people's innate abilities based on race are undeniably necessary. As are dialogues about how much importance society should even place on intelligence.

But any informed discussion about this book's merits and deficiencies can't happen without understanding its contents. Disagree with "The Bell Curve" -- hate it, even -- or decide its authors were biased. But do so after actually reading it.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

One of Albuquerques shining high-tech startups has put the city on notice that it may leave Downtown and potentially the state if something isnt done about the marked deterioration in the safety and security of the downtown Albuquerque area.

Lavu, which launched in 2010, sent a letter to Gov. Susana Martinez and Mayor Richard Berry earlier this week decrying the crime and consistent and ongoing verbal harassment by homeless and recently released inmates that his employees have been having to endure.

I cannot stress enough to the both of you how serious the lack of safety in downtown Albuquerque has become for Lavu, company President Ohad Jehassi wrote. So much that there are now serious discussions at the Board of Director level at Lavu as to the need of Lavu to move  so that Lavu can assure employees that they need not risk their life, health or property when coming to or leaving from work.

Jehassi met with members of the Berry administration, including Police Chief Gorden Eden, on Wednesday to discuss his concerns. Gilbert Montano, Mayor Berrys chief of staff, called it a positive and productive meeting.

As a result of the meeting, we are focused and have implemented a new tactical plan to address those concerns, he said.

While he declined to go into specifics, Montano said overtime has been approved to increase the presence of officers trained in crisis intervention, including dealing with individuals with mental illness and substance abuse problems.

Part of the (tactical) plan employs and allows for more officers to saturate that area, he added. Some other issues we dont have control over. Jail drop off has always been a point of contention.

Bernalillo County runs the Metropolitan Detention Center and decides where inmates who are being released are dropped off.

The Journal was unable to reach Jehassi for comment late Friday. But he issued a statement to KOB-TV, saying the meeting went well.

Our meeting with the mayors office was very encouraging, he told the news station. We are optimistic that his administration will work with us to improve safety conditions in downtown Albuquerque, not only for our employees, but for our entire community. As a contributor to our citys growing economy, we understand how important the downtown district is and Lavu remains invested in Albuquerques success.

Stolen news vehicle

Ironically, a KOB vehicle was stolen in Downtown Albuquerque on Friday while the stations crew was working on the Lavu story.

Michelle Donaldson, KOB news director, said the crew watched as the SUV was stolen near First and Central.

I have a rule, that you can never be the lead of your own newscast, Donaldson said. So this violates that rule.

KOB recovered the vehicle within a half hour without police assistance by following the GPS tracking device that was on board, she said.

We went to that location and recovered our own stolen vehicle, Donaldson said.

She said the thief was no longer with the SUV and it had already been damaged. The SUV was locked and the keys were not left inside.

Im relieved that our people are OK and Im relieved that weve recovered our property, but Im very angry that somebody can walk up to a parked, locked, vehicle in front of you in this city and drive it away, Donaldson said. Its a helpless feeling to know you cant do anything about it.

Crime has become the main issue in the mayors race, with many candidates arguing that the situation has reached crisis level. The National Insurance Crime Bureau recently reported that the Albuquerque area had the highest per-capita rate of auto thefts in the country.

Lavus concerns a priority

Lavu developed software that allows restaurants and hotels to conduct their business on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.

It currently employs 117 people, 86 of them at its offices in the Theater Building at Central Avenue and First Street. The company has 31 positions open. Roughly 20,000 food and beverage businesses in 88 countries use its systems.

Montano said addressing Lavus concerns is an absolute priority.

Having businesses thrive and feel safe, thats a priority and will remain a priority to the end of our term, he said. Its a priority. It is something we will constantly address whether its Lavu or another business.

Jehassis letter chronicled a series of incidents over the last four months that prompted him to demand that something be done.

 At 5:30 p.m. on June 15, one of the companys female employees was the victim of an attempted mugging as she walked from Lavu to the parking structure a block away.

 On June 10, another employees vehicle was broken into in the parking structure on Second Street. His laptop and iPad were stolen.

 On March 19, a night shift employee found his vehicle window shattered in the parking garage.

There are frequently situations occurring that are concerning for our employees to encounter  employees have witnessed physical altercations break out in front of them, drug dealing, drug use and public nudity, Jehassi wrote.

He goes on to state that the sidewalk in front of their building and across the street is usually littered with empty alcohol containers, garbage and sometimes with excrement and urine.

Jehassi also states that one of his employees recently filed an official complaint with the company alleging that the working conditions at Lavu are unsafe and that an imminent danger exists for Lavu employees.

CofC worried, too

Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber is very concerned about crime in Downtown Albuquerque. The organizations offices are in the same area as Lavus offices. Cole said the problems in the area became serious enough that about seven months ago the chamber asked its landlord to secure the front door. Visitors must now announce themselves through an intercom system, and they are buzzed in.

Were doing everything we can to join with our (District Attorney), Mayor Berry and Chief Eden, all of whom have been very cooperative, to find ways to fix the problem, Cole said. The business community is part of that effort because increased crime in the city has created an economic disadvantage for our area and as a result, we need to marshal our forces and get it fixed.
The two children that New Mexico State Police said were endangered were found safe in Colorado around noon on Saturday, according to a spokeswoman for the New Mexico State Police Department.

On Friday the State Police were looking for 26-year-old Steven Attson , 26, and Andrea Attson, 25, as well as their children Aricka, 3, and Lyric, 1, Lt. Elizabeth Armijo said in a press release. Police were worried about the well being of the children.

State Police said that the couple had been actively avoiding the police after losing custody of the children.

Armijo said the Durango Police Department located the couple and the children at a restaurant in Durango before contacting the New Mexico State Police.

The children were unharmed and have been placed into the care of CYFD, Armijo said.
The Cannes Lions community came together to celebrate world-class creativity, honouring the winners of the Digital Craft, Film Craft, Radio and Creative Effectiveness Lions on Day 7. India secured 7 Lions in Film Craft, Radio and Creative Effectiveness, taking the countrys Lions tally to 39. This is the highest number of wins that India has scored at Cannes Lions so far.

Creative Effectiveness is the only global award to recognise the link between award-winning creativity and business results. From 172 entries received, 21 Lions were awarded: 5 Gold, 7 Silver and 8 Bronze and the Grand Prix went to Van Goghs Bedrooms: Let Yourself In by Leo Burnett Chicago for the Art Institute of Chicago. Jury President, Jonathan Mildenhall, Chief Marketing Officer of Airbnb, stated that the best Creative Effectiveness work impacts audiences, business, culture and the creative community at large. The Grand Prix winning work used creativity to breathe new life into an organisation, introducing it to a younger, broader audience and creating a huge global conversation. Mildenhall said, It clearly understood how to live in the uncomfortable space necessary for the work to be truly remarkable.

Indian agencies walked away with 2 Gold and 2 Silver Lions in Creative Effectiveness. Ariel Share The Load: A Social Movement to Remove the Cultural Stain of Gender work done for P&G India fetched a Gold for BBDO India. Leo Burnett won the second Gold Lion in this category for its campaign titled Bajaj V  The Nations Bike. BBDO India also won a Silver for its much appreciated Dad#ShareTheLoad campaign done for P&G Indias detergent brand Ariel Matic. Beauty Tips By Reshma, the campaign that makes a powerful statement against acid attacks on women, won a Silver Lion in Creative Effectiveness. The campaign has been done by Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai for Make Love Not Scars.

From 1,483 entries in Radio, 63 Lions were awarded: 7 Gold, 22 Silver and 33 Bronze and the Grand Prix went to three executions for KFC by Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg: Repeat the Punchline, Long Red Thin Shape, No One Cheerses. Funny, moving and expertly crafted, Jury President Mario DAndrea, President & Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu, Brazil, described the work as a very traditional brand with a very traditional way of doing copywriting.

In Radio, India brought home 2 Bronze Lions  McCann Worldwide for its campaign titled Dermaclinix - The Scientist done for Dermaclinix Hair Transplant Clinic, and Ogilvy & Mather for the #NotMusicToMyEars campaign done for RNW Media.

From 2,490 entries in Film Craft, 103 Lions were awarded: 17 Gold, 33 Silver and 52 Bronze and the Grand Prix went to The Blaze - Territory by Iconoclast, Culver City for musician The Blaze. Jury President Robert Galluzzo, Founder/Executive Producer, FINCH, Australia, said the work was more than an award-winner, its a gift to the festival audience, adding, its a stunning example of what vulnerability and poetry can look like on screen. The casting is stunning, the cinematography is stunning, the editing is superb  its a piece of film that has an ambiguous yet important narrative that you can watch over and over again.

Wieden+Kennedys campaign  Nike Da Da Ding  the sole shortlist in Film Craft, won a Bronze Lion.

From 924 entries in Digital Craft, 37 Lions were awarded: 6 Gold, 11 Silver and 19 Bronze and the Grand Prix was picked-up by Real-Time Virtual Reality Experience for Bjorks Notget VR by Analog, London/ W&N Studio, London for Bjork. Jury President, Henry Cowling, Creative Director, UNIT9, UK, said that the work combines all the facets of digital craft to the highest possible level. Its breaking new ground in media storytelling and experience design and is doing it in a way thats absolutely virtuous.

Winners of the Cyber Young Lions competition were also announced during the awards show:

Gold: Michael Phillips and Scott Kooken from Youngdogs Netherlands, The Netherlands

Silver: Casper Mandrup and Fie Lyster from Zenith, Denmark

Bronze: Martina Gonzalez Calderon and Matias Paglieri from Wunderman Buenos Aires, Argentina
Foxconn Technology Group is considering a $10 billion investment in the United States Heartland, according to the companys Chairman Terry Gou. While speaking to reporters following the firms yearly shareholders meeting that took place on Thursday, the Taiwanese business tycoon said that the tech giant is looking to revive the manufacturing industry in the United States, once again reiterating the conglomerates business interest in Middle America. Previous reports indicated that the New Taipei, Taiwan-based company may be opening a new factory in Wisconsin or Michigan, and while that rumored plant is likely related to the firms growing ambitions in the West, it may be just one of several that Foxconn ends up building in the country. The firms top executive stated that Foxconn is currently considering five states in Middle America that it may end up investing in, though another official later put that number at seven.

The Taiwanese tech giant is said to be looking to establish at least one new factory for flat-panel manufacturing in the U.S., but its currently unclear whether that facility would be focused on mobile displays, TV and monitor screens, or both. Many industry watchers interpret Gous latest statement as a direct attempt to appeal to the Trump administration, with the current President getting elected on the basis of a political platform centered around bringing back American jobs and stopping domestic tech giants from moving their manufacturing operations abroad. SoftBank, Toyota, and Samsung are some other Asian giants that are currently said to be considering significant investments in the country, though the latter was reportedly making related plans for several years now and didnt start considering new U.S. factories due to President Trumps economic policy.

Apart from at least one new manufacturing plant, Foxconn is currently also looking to ennoble its U.S. operations with automation solutions, in addition to building a more robust supply network in the country, Gou revealed, adding that he has recently met with three state governors and discussed the companys next steps on this front. According to the firms Chairman, Foxconn is planning to further develop its plans by late July or early August, indicating that an update on the situation will follow shortly.
Nests lead industrial designer since 2013, Rocky Jacob, has reportedly left the company to lend his talents to LVMH Moet Hennessy, the French chapter of Louis Vuittons global accessory empire. The well-known fashion firm will receive the former Nest designer as its chief product officer for luxury luggage lineup Rimowa. He will be overseeing and contributing to the design of the lineup, as well as helping to work on engineering and strategic moves like marketing and sales. While he will be departing Nest to work primarily on the Rimowa line, Jacobs LinkedIn page pegs him as still being linked to Nest as an advisor, though details on that are scant.

Jacobs time at Nest began fairly early in the companys life. He came on board in 2013 and has worked on every major design for the company since his work for it debuted in the second and third generation of Nests smoke alarm and iconic thermostat, respectively. In both cases, Jacob made subtle changes to the preceding designs that made the products a bit more ergonomic to use and a bit more visually appealing without sacrificing their distinctive Nest style. He worked closely with Nest co-founders Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers. The pairs ideas brought the company to the point it was at back when Jacob was hired, and were continued in spirit by his work. Fadells tenure at Apple, among other factors, led to the company leaning on a strong focus on design in order to differentiate itself in the early days of the Internet of Things.

Internal strife reared its ugly head last year when the companys performance was called into question by new CFO Ruth Porat, along with moonshots and other acquisitions, and Alphabet began to bring the proverbial hammer down on its embattled purchase. Then-CEO Tony Fadell made his exit, leaving Marwan Fawaz to carry on leading the company and Jacob to continue leading design efforts. While Jacobs role has been reduced to an advisor, there are a number of yet-unreleased Nest products that bear his design ideas, and the tropes that made his design language a good spiritual successor to Nests original product lineup are quite likely to continue being respected as the company continues to chug on.
Ubers current board members Arianna Huffington and Bill Gurley and ex-director David Bonderman saw a due diligence report that Waymo claims is undeniable proof that the San Francisco, California-based tech giant colluded with its former self-driving head Anthony Levandowski to steal more than 14,000 sensitive documents from Alphabets subsidiary and hence committed trade secret theft. Uber acknowledged that the aforementioned members of its Board of Directors saw the documentation about the companys acquisition of Otto at some point in the past, as evidenced by the firms official response to a preliminary injunction ordered against it in May. Ubers statement seen by Android Headlines was filed on Friday with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, and is the 715th document submitted in one of the most high-profile legal battles that were ever led in the Silicon Valley.

The controversial report that Waymo is trying to acquire was prepared by cyber security firm Stroz Friedberg prior to Ubers $680 million acquisition of Levandowskis self-driving startup Otto in August 2016. The ride-hailing giant is arguing that the report it commissioned cannot be made public because it contains confidential communications between attorneys and their clients. Employees of Stroz Friedberg are now among those named as having seen or heard about any of the documents related to proprietary LiDAR designs that Levandowski is said to have stolen from Waymo before leaving the Mountain View, California-based tech giant in January 2016 to found Otto. Ubers filing explicitly states that its providing the court with the names of all people associated with it that may have been in contact with stolen documentation in the interest of full disclosure, noting that its latest statement isnt to be taken as an admission of guilt or confirmation of any one of Waymos allegations.

More than 160 of Ubers employees had contact with Levandowski regarding LiDAR designs, and others may have seen, heard about, or even downloaded the stolen documentation without realizing its significance, the company said. The dispute between Waymo and Uber already led to Levandowski being demoted and consequently fired by the firm and has also contributed to the tech giants current crisis that recently prompted Travis Kalanick to resign his position of Chief Executive Officer following significant pressure from major investors.
Wireless carriers in the United States are catching on that people are less inclined to buy new smartphones these days, and are responding with competing offers meant to appeal to the BYOD crowd. Sprint is the latest and most dramatic example, offering a free year of unlimited service to switchers from its three rival carriers through the end of the month. T-Mobile, meanwhile, is running a #getoutofthered promotion that allows Verizon customers to bring over their Pixel or iPhone and get the devices payment plan paid off. Verizon has courted this crowd for some time, offering a credit to BYOD switchers to offset the device subsidy that they dont have to pay. Even AT&T is in on the trend, offering free activation for those bringing a phone. Even MVNOs want a piece of the BYOD market, touting an offer to make every other month of service free for those who bring their own compatible unlocked phone.

While the other carriers arent putting out terribly attention-grabbing promotions to attract BYOD customers, Sprint has laid out an offer that could give almost any wireless customer some pause. The offer is not being sold in stores or over the phone, and is only being promoted in a very low-budget fashion online. Despite the unique and somewhat underwhelming promotional efforts, the tactic has seen moderate success thus far. According to research firm Wave7, Sprints marketing video for the promotion featuring spokesman Paul Marcarelli managed to rack up around 168,000 views, while another video featuring prominent YouTuber Inanna Sarkis got over 500,000 in its first day.

Consumers these days are less prone to upgrade simply because a new phone wouldnt fit their needs any better than their current one, in most cases. Many flagships from a couple of years ago that customers may have paid off and gotten unlocked by now, such as the Samsung Galaxy S5 and LG G2, are still perfectly viable devices for todays mobile landscape in most use cases. On a similar note, buying secondhand devices unlocked and buying devices that come unlocked from the factory are both becoming more and more popular options, especially as unlocked phones get cheaper and more able to compete with current flagships over time. The OnePlus 5 is a great example of powerful hardware that comes unlocked and can compete with current flagships for substantially lower cost, while Amazons method of selling unlocked devices at a discount in exchange for advertising on the lockscreen is an example of the trend becoming more accessible.
OMAHA  Omaha police arrested a man they believe committed four rapes of woman and girls since March.

Police say they arrested 30-year-old Abdul-Aleem Arthur on Friday. He has not yet been charged by prosecutors.

Police say he assaulted a 15-year-old girl who was walking alone on a northeast Omaha street on March 12, then on March 30 raped a 26-year-old woman who had met him near his apartment to buy drugs.

In May, police say he approached a 13-year-old runaway on an Omaha street and offered drugs before taking her to another location, raping her and holding her against her will before she could escape the next day.

Police say on May 23, he raped a 19-year-old woman he met through a dating site.
More than 100 community leaders gathered at the Cornhusker Marriott Hotel to honor Junior Achievement of Lincolns top teachers and volunteers of the year.

More than 1,000 corporate and community volunteers brought the JA curriculum to over 1,350 classrooms this year, and a select few were chosen to receive the prestigious Peak Performance awards. Congratulations to:

Volunteers of the Year

Dawn Carta, Bryan Health

Sarah Lempka, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

Melanie Nebesniak, Lincoln Industries

Dan Ochoa, CHI Health Saint Elizabeth

Educators of the Year

Jenifer Barton, Holmes Elementary

Lauren Dostal, Lefler Middle School

Ryan Psota, Pius X High School

In addition, Rebecca Spataro of Fiserv was named Company Coordinator of the Year for her efforts in recruiting and encouraging employees to volunteer for JA.

Four individuals also received JA USA Leadership Awards, which are presented to a select few long-time supporters of JA who demonstrate extraordinary dedication to the JA mission. Recognized this year were:

Bronze

Bill Ellerbee, Lincoln Industries

Jessie Fries, Lefler Middle School

Jan Rodehorst, Junior Achievement District of Kearney

Silver

Roland Temme, TMCO Inc.

And last, six individuals were inducted into JAs Gold Apple Society, meaning they have impacted at least 500 students and have taught at least 20 JA classrooms since 2010.

Dean & Sue Belka

Kyle Hershberger, Cross Financial

Jane Janesch

Dustin Lottman, Farm Bureau Financial Services

Mike ONeill, Security First Bank

About Junior Achievement of Lincoln

Now 46 years in our community, Junior Achievement of Lincolns 1,000 business and community volunteers annually deliver its in-school programs to more than 28,700 students throughout 12 counties in 114 local public and parochial schools at no cost to the schools. JA of Lincolns reach extends into Grand Island, Kearney, Beatrice and other communities throughout southeastern and central Nebraska. JAs hands-on experiential programs teach the key concepts of work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy to give students the tools to own their economic success. For more information on JA, visit www.jalincoln.org.
There's been a rush to view 2017's House special elections as a barometer for the health of the Trump presidency, leading to an extreme national focus on the four contested races around the country  one of which became the most expensive House race in history. (A fifth special election in California's heavily liberal 34th congressional district in Los Angeles was fought between two Democrats.) Republicans went four for four in these traditionally GOP districts, but at much closer margins than 2016's congressional races, allowing both parties to spin the results as a success.

Kansas, 4th congressional district

Date: April 11, 2017

April 11, 2017 Incumbent: Mike Pompeo (R)

Mike Pompeo (R) Reason for special election: Pompeo resigned to become CIA Director.

Pompeo resigned to become CIA Director. Winner: Ron Estes (R)

Ron Estes (R) National spending: Per OpenSecrets, Estes received $130,000 from the NRCC while his Democratic challenger James Thompson received just $3,000 from the Democratic Party, having had a $20,000 request turned down by the Dems' national arm that led his campaign manager to complain that the party was "sitting on the sidelines."

Per OpenSecrets, Estes received $130,000 from the NRCC while his Democratic challenger James Thompson received just $3,000 from the Democratic Party, having had a $20,000 request turned down by the Dems' national arm that led his campaign manager to complain that the party was "sitting on the sidelines." Trump's margin of victory/GOP margin of victory in special election: 27/7

27/7 GOP margin of victory in 2016/GOP margin of victory in special election: 31/7

Montana (at-large)

Date: May 25, 2017

May 25, 2017 Incumbent: Ryan Zinke (R)

Ryan Zinke (R) Reason for special election: Zinke resigned to become Secretary of the Interior.

Zinke resigned to become Secretary of the Interior. Winner: Greg Gianforte (R)

Greg Gianforte (R) National spending: Per OpenSecrets, the race was the most expensive in Montana history and saw outside Republican groups, including the NRCC and RNC, spend $5.6 million on Gianforte while his Democratic challenger Rob Quist received a little less than $1 million from national Democrat-affiliated groups.

Per OpenSecrets, the race was the most expensive in Montana history and saw outside Republican groups, including the NRCC and RNC, spend $5.6 million on Gianforte while his Democratic challenger Rob Quist received a little less than $1 million from national Democrat-affiliated groups. Trump's margin of victory/GOP margin of victory in special election: 21/6

21/6 GOP margin of victory in 2016/GOP margin of victory in special election: 16/6

Georgia, 6th congressional district

Date: June 6, 2017

June 6, 2017 Incumbent: Tom Price (R)

Tom Price (R) Reason for special election: Price resigned to become Secretary for Health and Human Services.

Price resigned to become Secretary for Health and Human Services. Winner: Karen Handel (R)

Karen Handel (R) National spending: The race was the most expensive House race in history with $56.7 million spent. Per OpenSecrets, there was a huge amount of outside national spending with $18.2 million poured into Handel's campaign while her Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff received just under $8m from outside groups.

The race was the most expensive House race in history with $56.7 million spent. Per OpenSecrets, there was a huge amount of outside national spending with $18.2 million poured into Handel's campaign while her Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff received just under $8m from outside groups. Trump's margin of victory/GOP margin of victory in special election: 1/4

1/4 GOP margin of victory in 2016/GOP margin of victory in special election: 23/4

South Carolina, 5th congressional district
The top iPhone apps have been taking up an increasing amount of space on the device. Sensor Tower reported Tuesday that the total space required by the top 10 most installed U.S. iPhone apps is now nearly 2 gigabytes, up twelvefold since May 2013 when the top 10 apps occupied just 164 megabytes of space combined.

Data: Sensor Tower's analysis of App Intelligence; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios

Why? There are two big factors at play, and both are tied to moves by Apple itself. First, the iPhone maker has been raising the cap on the size of apps, most recently lifting the maximum to 4GB in early 2015. Secondly, the phones themselves are also coming with more memory, increasing consumer's willingness to put up with bigger apps.

Snapchat has grown the most and is now 50 times the size it was four years ago (204MB vs. just 4MB in 2013).

It's also worth noting these sizes refer just to the amount of space taken up by apps themselves. Associated files can take up way more space, especially for video and audio content.
The tallest building west of the Mississippi River opened yesterday in once-stodgy downtown Los Angeles, which is sprouting a crop of new skyscrapers. The $1.2 billion building in the Financial District had been under construction since 2014. AP's "Things to Know" on the Wilshire Grand Center:

The 73-story building has a huge spire that brings its height to 1,100 feet, topping the nearby U.S. Bank Tower by more than 80 feet. The Bank Tower had held the height record since 1989.

Critics might argue that a spire rising nearly 200 feet above the top of the building should not count, but it meets the criteria of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, which lists the world's tallest buildings based on the "architectural top of the building." A 2-foot lightning rod at the very top, however, doesn't count.

The skyscraper is still dwarfed by buildings on the East Coast and overseas. In the United States, One World Trade Center is 1,776 feet tall, making it the sixth-largest completed building in the world. The tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, rises 2,717 feet, or more than a half-mile high.

The L.A. building's spine and sail have programmable LEDs that can provide colorful illumination and visuals.

The tower includes an 889-room InterContinental hotel, a shopping mall and an observation deck.
Lawmakers have asked Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to investigate the alleged torture of prisoners in Yemen, per the AP.

The AP issued a report Thursday that the U.S. is interrogating detainees in Yemen (which the U.S. acknowledges) as part of the search for militants in al-Qaeda, but that the U.S. is interrogating them after they've been tortured by the United Arab Emirates. That would put the U.S. in violation of the International Convention Against Torture.

The intrigue of this news is that several defense officials told the AP the U.S. has already looked into the allegations of torture and was "satisfied" there wasn't any, as the AP put it. These lawmakers want a further look.
Next week, John Podesta  Hillary Clinton's campaign manager whose emails were leaked on Wikileaks last year  will talk to the House Intelligence Committee in a closed session, as the committee continues its investigation into Russian election interference, according to NBC News.

Remember: 10 years worth of Podesta's emails were released on Wikileaks late last year. The hack was allegedly traced back to Russia.
Young Pioneers Tours (YPT), the tour company that hosted Otto Warmbier on his trip through North Korea may have not been as responsible in keeping its tourists as safe as they should have been, according to fellow trip-goers, Politico Magazine reports

"It seems partying was a bigger part of the job description than taking care of us," one person who used YPT told Politico, adding that "all of the tour guides were young people who get very drunk. It was sort of like there were few or no adults around."

Why it matters: Following Warmbier's death, YPT announced it isn't taking American tourists on its trips anymore because "the assessment of risk for Americans visiting North Korea has become too high," which puts the blame onto Americans and leaves little room for a company role in the security of its tour group. But two incidents in the buildup to Warmbier's detainment raise questions about the security of tourists in YPT's care.

Incident 1: One British trip goer, Danny Gratton, found himself alone in the streets after wandering off with another trip-goer and a few North Koreans on New Years Eve, during what was reportedly a jovial celebration.

Unguided tourism is not allowed in North Korea and the country tightly monitors Western tourists, usually by placing North Korean guides with Western guides on tours. Plus, the "disappearance roughly coincides with the time Warmbier allegedly tried to steal the propaganda poster from the hotel, raising questions about whether those two events are related," as Politico writes.

Warmbier and Gratton roomed together during the trip. The morning after the alleged disappearance and Warmbier's alleged crime, the hotel "mysteriously and uncharacteristically missed their wake-up call," Gratton told The Washington Post (although he did not disclose his disappearance). Then, when Warmbier was detained by North Korean security services at the airport that day, Gratton said he was the only tour go-er to see it. Gratton said the tour company and the U.S. government never contacted him about the detainment.

Incident 2: When a friend of one of the Western tour guides hid one of the tourists' passport and North Korean soldiers took him to another area and interrogated him, the tour guide allegedly teased the man's wife instead of helping.

One other note: The Daily Mail reports that a British lawyer who went on a separate tour with YPT in North Korea said one of her tour guides brought her to an off-limits floor in their hotel building, which is similar to the location of Warmbier's alleged crime.
No nation has felt the force of the Kremlin's cyber warfare more than Ukraine. In December 2015, Russian hackers shut down electricity for more than 250,000 Ukrainians, WIRED found, and the attacks have continued since.

"You can't really find a space in Ukraine where there hasn't been an attack," Kenneth Geers, a NATO ambassador who focuses on cybersecurity, told WIRED. The repeated electrical blackouts and data breaches have impacted government, military, businesses and media in Ukraine.

Why it matters:

The Kremlin has made grand demonstrations of its prowess in cyber warfare by attacking its neighbor, Ukraine, to maintain dominance in the region. American intelligence leaders have expressed concerns that

Russia may continue

carrying out cyberattacks against the U.S. after interfering in the 2016 election. And the mayhem in Ukraine raises questions about how severe those attacks may be.
24 June 2017 09:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Teresa Buscaglia,

La Nacion



Many ancient peoples understood that the horse was more than just an animal at their service for war, transportation and work. However, its therapeutic function had never been studied until the mid-twentieth century, when they began to be used for the rehabilitation of illnesses involving physical and mental disability.

Argentina has been a pioneer in the implementation of this type of therapy. 36 years ago, when Maria de los Angeles Kalbermatter first started out, it was only known in Europe and the United States, and even there without much acceptance. After the amputation of her leg at age 27, she chose to rehabilitate herself through horse riding, something that was previously unprecedented. Over the years, not only did she demonstrate her success, but she also began to teach children with different illnesses to practice and experience the same results as her.

"The only people who believed in this were those who loved horses. Today, 38 years after I founded the first equine therapy school in Latin America, I feel proud. The school has drawn all types of patients: The vast majority with serious disorders, but in recent years we have also received patients who have suffered strokes, depression or stress. Students who, when connecting with the horse, discover the healing power of this wonderful animal," she says.

Today more than 250 centers throughout the country practice equine therapy. This therapeutic method was first implemented for patients suffering conditions linked to serious motor and neurological disorders, and has had excellent results with autism. These centers are mostly run by nonprofit associations or foundations financed by sponsors, or through municipal or lottery contributions; as is the case for La Plata School of Equine Therapy for People with Disabilities and Special Needs. Other riding schools charge a small fee and when possible, offer scholarships to people who cannot afford to pay. Social security and some prepaid health insurance issuers will cover the cost of the treatment, but in many cases it is necessary to make a request to the state to ensure they do this.

"Equine therapy is based on three basic principles: the transmission of body heat, rhythmic pulses and a pattern of movement equivalent to that of the human gait. The horse is a being capable of healing through both emotion and body language, and serves as a mirror to the human soul," explains Julieta Malleville, director of the La Paloma School of Equine Therapy, in the city of Tandil, located 300 kilometers from the Federal Capital.

The horses used for equine therapy in Argentina are either criollo (creole) or crossbred horses that are no taller than 1.60m in height and are between 8 and 15 years old. They must be docile by nature, which gives both the therapists and patients the total confidence required in order to work with and trust them. They should not be easily startled and should be familiar with all of the instructional materials used at the school: hoops, balls, bars, bubbles, music, maracas and stuffed animals.

In the last 15 years equine therapy has evolved and has been put into practice to treat diseases such as stress, depression, phobias, addictions, obsessive-compulsive disorders and eating disorders. This type of treatment is called psychotherapy with horses and it is complemented by traditional medicines and therapies.

Such is the case of Viviana Espejo, who suffers from bipolar disorder. She lives in Tandil and when she started taking her daughter to the city's horse-riding center, she realized that contact with the horses made her feel much better. "When the time comes to ride an animal, handle the reins, control its movement - my mind focuses on those activities and I think of nothing else. All my thinking is concentrated there, on handling the horse and enjoying my relationship with it. They are very noble beings, they will never hurt you," she says.

The psychotherapy sessions are performed next to, not on top of the horse. It is not necessary to have previous experience of riding and the relationship with the animal is based on different activities proposed by a therapist, according to the patients condition. Sessions last between 30 and 45 minutes, ideally weekly.

In the province of Salta in the north of Argentina, 13% of the population is affected by a form of disability. For Elena Cataldi, founder of the Equinoterapia del Azul Foundation, its possible for the rehabilitation of a disabled child to be carried out in a context of joy, freedom and contact with nature. Shes all the more convinced by the technique for having seen her own disabled son regain his motor skills thanks to the therapeutic power of horses. Launched in 2005, her foundation, which also offers a day centre and social inclusion workshops, provides therapy for more than 80 children each year.

The physician Veronica Settepassi, who has been working for 15 years at the Hipocampo Equine Therapy School in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, says that equine therapy helps people to control their fears and connect with the environment. "The movement of the horse reconciles the person with their body, it makes them feel good. I had cases of people with depression and eating disorders that showed very rapid improvements. The difficulty with promoting this complementary therapy is that families often only opt for the treatment as a last resort. Regular and constant care over time is essential in this type of activity and if patients do not have the necessary support, they leave straight away," she says.

This school stands out due to the number of professionals who are available for interdisciplinary work. The team at Hipocampo, coordinated by Settepassi, herself a physician, consists of two occupational therapists, two psychologists, a psychomotor therapist, a speech therapist and four horse-riding teachers, in addition to their collaboration with paramedics.
24 June 2017 09:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Elodie BLOGIE,

Le Soir

Inspired by the Dutch educational initiative IMC Weekendschool, TADA has launched its own weekend workshops for kids from disadvantaged neighbourhoods throughout Brussels. Here, they learn about different the trades and possibilities they can aspire to in the future.

Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the court! With heads held high, chests thrust forwards and their adult-sized legal robes trailing on the floor, Bilal, Ghalia and the other kids enter the Court of Cassation, the highest and one of the most prestigious courts of the Palace of Justice in Brussels. Mischievous and proud smiles radiate from their faces. For these 10 and 11-year-olds from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, this newfound sense of pride has helped them to transform into important lawyers in the space of one morning. Every Saturday, around 300 of them participate in the activities organised by TADA, which stands for Toekomst  Atelier de lAvenir (studio of the future).

Initially inspired by the Dutch initiative IMC Weekendschool, this bilingual programme (held in French and Dutch) aims to broaden the future horizons of kids between the ages of 9 and 12 who come from low-income neighbourhoods of the European capital. How exactly are they achieving this? Primarily, by helping hem to discover all kinds of different trades and crafts that might inspire them. Every Saturday for three years, these kids have met with passionate professionals who introduce them to their trade, whether thats law, medicine, construction, the arts, technology or hospitality.

On this particular day in the courthouse, one of the groups from the Saint-Josse branch is looking at the administration of justice. The volunteers, who come to present their trade to the kids, start with a briefing from the TADA team: the role mainly requires wandering around the group and keeping the activities running, as well as animating the youths to maintain their interest. Do you remember last week when we were explaining the penal code? Its a bit like a McDonalds menu, with the infractions on one side and the prices next to them, explains Damien Vandermeersch, Chief Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation.

Vandermeersh has already been involved in this project for years. Its thanks to him that the kids have access to the Palace of Justice every Saturday morning. The Chief Prosecutor continues to explain to the kids the case that theyll be deliberating that morning: five youths, including one major  who will be treated as an adult  have been bullying a 14-year-old teenager. Whats more serious is that, during one of the incidents, they threatened the victim with a knife. The victim was so afraid that she didnt want to go to school anymore.

Target: 1000 young people enrolled by 2020

These Saturday classes would be nothing without the hard work and tenacity of TADAs founder, Sofie Foets. Before the project began, she was working in an MEPs office and heard about the work of the Dutch association IMC Weekendschool. I immediately thought: thats what we need to bring to Brussels! Foets explains. She then dropped everything and founded TADA with a little financial support from a few private companies who were persuaded by the projects potential. For me, its a great example of how civil society can contribute to the emancipation of kids from these disadvantaged neighbourhoods, continues Foets.

But why not offer these opportunities to all children? Everyone tells these kids that all they need to do to succeed later in life is to work hard at school, explains the founder. But they dont even know what later means. Their network, their family, isnt in a position to show them what kinds of goals are in their reach. These kids need a nudge to stay motivated. Our aim is to make them into responsible citizens, and to make sure they know that this is their home, too! This particular morning, for example, many of the children taking part are discovering the centre of Brussels and the Louise quarter for the first time, which is close to the famous avenues of luxury shops. Most of them had never left their neighbourhood before.

Foets also mentions the PISA surveys and how they reveal that French-speaking Belgium stands out as a European leader in at least one particular sense: educational inequality. However, if the Dutch project is anything to go by, there are other  much more positive  alternatives. Researchers have compared the progress of disadvantaged kids who have been attending the IMC Weekendschool with that of those who havent. The former have evolved differently in their lives; theyve integrated themselves better into the labour market, and society as a whole.

Whenever anyone expresses surprise at the enthusiasm of these kids who, for three consecutive years, have taken part in these activities every Saturday  except during the school holidays  Sofie responds; on Saturdays, these kids have nothing: no activities, except maybe going to mosque. Therefore, they love to come here! At this age, a child wants to know more about the world!

Currently, TADA has three branches in Brussels: one in Molenbeek (in Dutch), one in Saint-Josse (which is bilingual) and one in Anderlecht (in French). Around 300 kids attend these workshops every Saturday. Each year, the association opens new classes, which then run for around 3 years. Despite their best efforts, they are still not able to meet the current levels of demand. The organisation prioritises the most vulnerable kids based on their parents occupations, the language spoken at home, the number of children in each family, etc. With the demand already in place, TADA hopes to include around 1000 young people in their programme by 2020.
24 June 2017 09:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Eleanor Ross

Positive News

Jessi Baker, founder of blockchain technology platform Provenance, envisions a future where all physical products have digital histories, allowing people to trace and verify products origins, attributes and ownership. Is it time for a new dawn of transparency in retail?

It was when Jessi Baker was studying for her PhD in computer science that she realised her passion project was becoming too important to ignore. She put her PhD on hold and, armed with zeal for digital disruption, focused her attention full time on Provenance.

The software platform is a means to help people find out where products are sourced from, and how ethically and sustainably. It is designed to improve the transparency of supply chains and, at the same time, promote brands that commit to ethical sourcing, fair working conditions, quality and sustainability.

At the heart of Provenance is blockchain technology, which is best known for powering the paperless, bankless and stateless currency Bitcoin. Blockchain is a means of recording and storing enormous amounts of transactional data. The data, which is unique and cannot be tampered with, can include contracts, receipts, and supplier spreadsheets. Provenance data can be linked to any physical product, from coffee beans to fish, through labelling, smart tags and embeds for websites or apps.

Provenance encourages brands to volunteer data about their supply chain, explains Baker. We ask them to prove that data, track it, and they must provide links back to proven materials. That way, we can verify an ethical provenance. Were not a WikiLeaks-style organisation, digging for the bad. We want to showcase the businesses that are really trying to be ethical.

In 2016 Provenance completed a six-month trial tracking tuna fish caught ethically in Indonesia. Fishermen sent text messages detailing their catches that were added to the Provenance blockchain, effectively attaching a digital token to the fish as it passes through the supply chain.

The Co-op supermarket then carried out a trial of including products on the Provenance system, and the team now works with more than 200 brands. Among these is Archie Rose Distilling, based in Sydney, Australia. The company was already keen to take its customers behind the scenes: its distillery is custom designed to show their production process from grain to glass.

Authenticity is so important, especially in our industry, notes Dave Withers, master distiller at Archie Rose. Having a link to the provenance of our produce is important, especially as consumers are starting to lose track of where raw materials come from.

Technical barriers when it comes to blockchain are no longer as prohibitive as they once were. Crucially, smartphone usage across the world has boomed. In Africa alone, operators report the number of smartphone connections across the continent almost doubling between 2014-16, reaching 226m. In 2015, the International Telecommunication Union estimated about 3.2bn people  almost half of the world's population  would be online by the end of that year.

The Provenance framework does not only benefit the customer. Brands that can prove that their supply chains stack up nicely could be able to charge more for their product. Transparency could become a competitive advantage.

Amid a shift in peoples perception of value, authenticity is the real currency today, suggests Scott Ewings, managing director of London-based product development studio Big Radical. There are many business sectors where provenance is important; food and drink certainly  the horsemeat scandal of 2013 is an extreme example.

Could we soon see brands being ostracised for failing to adopt transparent supply chains? There is much evidence to suggest that the incoming generation is one led far more by ethics and brands with purpose. Fakery is easy to spot, and then destroy, via social media, says Ewings.

Provenance, which is based in the UK, now employs 10 staff in four countries and Baker is enthusiastic about meeting the challenges ahead. She notes that less than one per cent of all brands are ethically certified. We have an opportunity to help change that. We want to help prove the great work that people are doing.

Above all, Baker and her Provenance colleagues want to nurture companies that are doing things well rather than criticising those who are not. We want to reinforce the good and get the good to spread quickly.
The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department (LLCHD) announced June 13 that it has achieved national accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB).

This is the first time LLCHD has received national accreditation, which has been available to public health departments since 2011. Fewer than 200 health departments nationally have achieved this status.

By achieving accreditation, our health department is demonstrating increased accountability and credibility to the public, funders, elected officials and partner organizations with which we work, said Interim Health Director Charlotte Burke. She credited former Health Director Judy Halstead for her leadership on the accreditation process, which took about two years to complete.

The accreditation process involves measuring a health departments performance against a set of nationally recognized standards. The goal of the voluntary program is to improve and protect the health of the public by advancing the quality and performance of public health departments. LLCHD is the fourth health department in Nebraska to become accredited, joining the State Department of Health and Human Services, the Panhandle Public Health Department and the East Central District Health Department. The accreditation is good for five years, and health departments may apply for reaccreditation.

Burke said meeting accreditation standards benefits our entire community because the focus shifts to evaluating how well the department and the investment of community resources are working to improve residents health.

In our community, youth smoking rates are declining, childhood injuries are lower, food safety is high, air and water quality is maintained, and waste is properly handled, she said. The community is working together to reduce chronic disease by supporting and encouraging physical activity and healthy eating. Its gratifying to watch these improvements become our new standard and part of our departments culture.

For more information about the LLCHD, visit lincoln.ne.gov (keyword: health). More information on PHAB and the accreditation process is available at phaboard.org.
24 June 2017 09:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Arlina Arshad,

The Straits Times

Indonesian farmer Kasnan Wonidin thought his life was over when he began losing his eyesight to cataracts last year.

The 48-year-old from a farming village in Gresik regency in East Java not only had to give up his work, but also his favourite pastimes such as catching crabs and feeding goats.

I couldnt ride the motorcycle and had to depend on people to take me out. Everything looked blurry, I couldnt even enjoy watching the television at home. he told The Straits Times.

Corrective surgery at five million rupiah (S$528) per eye was way beyond his means. Like millions of low-income cataract sufferers in the country of nearly 260 million people, he could only prepare to go blind.

He said: I felt so sad. Where can a poor farmer like me find so much money?

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, with cataracts accounting for more than 50 per cent of the cases, according to the Health Ministry website.

Access to eyecare services especially in the rural areas is limited and a shortage of ophthalmologists means only 180,000 out of 250,000 Indonesians who require cataract operations every year actually get them, the website states.

Mr Kasnans worry ended last May, when Singapore-based non-profit organisation A New Vision gave him a free small-incision cataract surgery, a quick surgical procedure that cut and replaced his cloudy natural lenses with clear intraocular ones. It costs the organisation S$100 per eye.

The procedure is the cheapest of three common techniques used by surgeons all over the world, but few local surgeons are trained to do it.

The wound is small and no stitches needed so its faster to heal and less prone to infection. The quality is comparable with the most expensive and advanced technique, but costs only a fraction, said one of the organisations co-founders, Nepali humanitarian eye surgeon Dr Sanduk Ruit, 62. He is the founder and medical director of the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology in Kathmandu.

Set up in 2010 by four friends who wanted to do something good for the less fortunate, A New Vision has so far performed nearly 20,000 surgeries for the rural poor in Java and Sumatra, according to co-founder Ms Effi Jono, 48, who is a trained accountant from Indonesia. The others are Singaporean entrepreneur and philanthropist Tan Ching Koon, and Indonesian social worker Dr Indra Wahidin.

After drawing 600 patients at the organisations first mass surgical outreach in North Sumatras capital of Medan seven years ago, they knew there was no turning back.

Recalled Ms Effi: We had never seen so many blind people in one location at a time. Some of the patients had been blind for more than 10 years.

An aghast Dr Ruit said then: The severity of blindness in Indonesia now is the same as in Nepal 20 years ago! We have started the fire so we must continue.

Since then, A New Vision has held 20 large-scale drives, each drawing between 600 and 3,000 patients. Its volunteers coordinate with local healthcare workers and officials to identify people with cataract symptoms and ferry them from their countryside homes to the hospitals.

The organisation typically needs S$50,000 to serve 500 patients. Funds have flowed in from multinational companies, foundations and private donors. As of now, A New Vision will remain in Java and Sumatra where it has barely scratched the surface, said Ms Effi.

The organisation has also sent local doctors and nurses to Nepal to upgrade their skills, from performing specialised eye surgeries to post-operative follow-up care. It is also raising funds to build a quality but affordable community eye centre in Indonesia.

One of A New Visions strong supporters is its volunteer eye surgeon Dr Teguh Filbert Metaputra, 35, who has been providing free cataract surgeries to the poor in Gresik in his own time.

Dr Teguhs own mother had become blind in one eye as his family could not afford surgery fees for her retina ailment. Doing this is a calling for me, he said.

I just want to help, theres nothing to lose. Cataracts are curable with a simple surgery, he added.

Patients are only grateful the doctors are giving their time and skills to make a difference to their lives. Many who have regained their eyesight are paying it forward.

For instance, fruit seller Slamet has been going door-to-door in his village in east Java to look for new patients since his own successful operation in 2013. In April, he packed 27 blind neighbours on the bus at 3am so they could undergo surgery.

I know the joy of seeing again and I want to help others to see too. I have no money but I have the energy and enthusiasm to bring them here, he said.

For many cataract sufferers, the gift of sight means not just vision, but freedom and independence.

Mr Kasnan said the idea of surgery had spooked him, but took the chance anyway.

Lying on the operating table, he clenched his jaws and balled his fists to calm his nerves as Dr Teguh removed his cloudy cataract.

Its actually painless, he said afterwards. Pointing to a patch over his left eye, he added: One eye done, one more to go. Im still scared but the fear of going blind is much stronger.
24 June 2017 09:00 (UTC+04:00)

Priscilla Goy

The Straits Times

For six years, a married homeless couple were separated and forced to live apart in Delhi, India. The husband was in one gender-segregated communal shelter and the wife in another. Last year, for the first time, they were able to move into their own home.

Their new home is a tent, designed by Singapore-based, non-profit organization billionBricks. The tent can be set up by one person in 15 minutes without any tools. It is weather-resistant, offering protection from the citys extreme temperatures which can range from 5 - 45 degrees Celsius (40 - 115 Fahrenheit). It is also spacious, with the ability to fit a family of two adults and three children. The couple even moved in a bed, explains billionBricks founder, Prasoon Kumar.

More than 20 homeless families pilot-tested the tent in Delhi and Mumbai. Mr. Kumar said homelessness is difficult to eradicate but considers the tents to be an important interim solution. Time is required to find sustainable solutions, but theres also a humanitarian need and as time passes, people are dying.

The lack of adequate housing across the world is a huge problem, with the United Nations estimating that there were approximately 100 million people homeless in 2005, which was the last time a global survey was done. Many more die as a result of exposure to extreme temperatures.

The Singapore-designed weatherHYDE tent is made to be weatherproof. In the winter, the tents triple-layer, reversible cover provides insulation, while reflective material on the inside retains body heat. Conversely, in the summer, the other side can be used to reflect solar heat and help people inside the tent stay cool. But that is only one of the benefits a weatherHYDE tent offers over other typical communal shelters and tents, said Mr. Kumar.

Apart from battling the elements, the weatherHYDE tent provides more privacy because the triple-layer cover also blocks out light, so shadows from movement inside the tent cannot be seen. Its setup is easy and does not require anchoring to the ground with tent pegs, making its use possible in urban settings (areas often hit by natural disasters).

Its unique design has attracted global attention. In July of last year, videos about the tent garnered more than 23 million views within a month of being posted online. Even celebrities shared the videos. Well-known Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher called it innovation at its finest and rapper Lil Wayne said it could save millions of lives.

Mr. Kumar had been working in architecture for 12 years when he decided to start billionBricks in 2013. Though originally from India, he has lived in Singapore for more than a decade. He sketched out the tents first design concept in 2014, after being troubled by an incident the year before. Riots in a town in northern India had left thousands of families homeless and more than 30 children died when temperatures fell to below freezing at night. Several non-governmental organizations were there to help. The people were given tents, tarps, and blankets, but no one was thinking about the extreme temperatures, he said. Sleeping bags arent adequate if a mother has a young child, how will the sleeping bag be big enough for the two of them sleep together? And even if they could squeeze themselves in, their heads would still be exposed to the cold.

Last year, billionBricks also launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter and raised more than S$145,000 (just over 100,000 USD) in two months, enabling them to provide 500 tents to needy families. The tents cost S$279 (199 USD). The 500 pre-ordered tents are expected to be shipped from China to India and the US sometime this July.

billionBricks, in its application for the internationally-acclaimed A Design Award stated that the tent does not provide a poor solution to the poor; it provides a dignified solution. The tent went on to be named one of 12 winners in the Social Design category in 2015.

Meanwhile, there have been several refinements to the tents design since the married couple gave it a test run. There are new locking mechanisms and both sides  not just the non-reflective layer  are now waterproof. billionBricks has also relaunched its weatherHYDE website (www.weatherhyde.org), with a section where donors can type in a tents unique ID number to learn more about the homeless family who received the tent they donated. Beyond providing shelter, billionBricks also hopes to offer jobs to the needy. They are in talks with US groups to create jobs for people with disabilities to have them manufacture the tents.

The organization has several sponsors, including DBS Banks corporate foundation, DBS Foundation, and Singapore-based design firm Space Matrix. Mr. Kumar hopes to continue to raise money through the weatherHYDE e-commerce platform, where the tents can be purchased and donated on a buy-one-give-one model and shipped anywhere in the world.
24 June 2017 09:00 (UTC+04:00)

Christian de Boisredon,

Founder of Sparknews and Ashoka Fellow & The Sparknews Team

Today, for Impact Journalism Day, 50 newspapers join forces to highlight stories that change the world.

Beyond the constant stream of negative news, there are many stories of hope and concrete solutions. Stories of changemakers tackling some of the world's most pressing issues with innovative ideas, in order to change the lives of millions for the better. Stories worth reading and spreading, not only to rebalance our view of the world, but to help these existing solutions be replicated worldwide.

The media can play a crucial role in telling the individual stories behind this global movement. That's why for the last five years Sparknews has invited newspapers to take part in Impact Journalism Day, harnessing the power of collaborative journalism to bring stories of change to the surface. Every year these newspapers explore and publish an array of groundbreaking solutions in special supplements on the same day, reaching 120 million people worldwide in print and digital media. Many publications have come to realize the impact of these articles, and now incorporate more solutions-driven stories into their day-to-day coverage of the world.

For the fifth edition of Impact Journalism Day, the media are joined by organizations that believe spreading these stories is a first step toward change. These include the United Nations as well as One Young World, which annually gathers together 1,500 young leaders from social and corporate sectors who are involved in positive innovations. A large community of well-known personalities and ordinary citizens have also joined the chorus in signing a manifesto to show that everyone - governments, the private sector, civil society, NGOs and everyday people - can take action for a better future. You, too, can be part of this transformational movement.

Discover those who have successfully brought answers to challenges such as good health, access to water, quality education, decent employment and clean energy. Each serves as a concrete example of the power of individual or group initiatives to help reach the UN New Sustainable Development Goals, to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity and good health for all.

We hope you enjoy the readand that you become part of the solution. Sign the manifesto (sharestoriesofchange.org) and share the stories that impress you most on Facebook and Twitter (#ImpactJournalism, #StoryOfChange, @Sparknews, @YourNewspaper).
24 June 2017 14:45 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijan has received delivery of Russian military equipment, said Azerbaijans Defence Ministry June 24.

A planned delivery of the latest Russian military equipment to Azerbaijan has been carried out in accordance with the intergovernmental agreement and within the framework of successfully developing military-technical cooperation between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation, said the Defence Ministry.

The big cargo of modern weapons that arrived at the Baku port will be sent to the frontline zone in the near future, added the Defence Ministry.

These weapons will strengthen the combat and maneuver capabilities of the forward-based units of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan to defeat armored vehicles, engineering and fortification structures, low-speed air targets, military personnel and other military facilities of the enemy.

The delivery of Russian military equipment and weapons to Azerbaijan will continue, said the Defence Ministry.

Defence Ministry said General Director of Rosoboronexport JSC Alexander Mikheev was among the first who sent a congratulatory letter to Azerbaijans Defence Minister Colonel General Zakir Hasanov on the occasion of the Armed Forces Day of the Republic of Azerbaijan, celebrated on June 26.

The congratulatory letter said, Joint efforts will benefit our states and will contribute to strengthening of defence capability of Azerbaijan.

The letter also read that the development of military and technical cooperation will allow significantly increasing the power of the Armed Forces and their ability to ensure peace and prosperity of the Azerbaijani people.

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24 June 2017 10:41 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

TurkStream Natural Gas Project is a beautiful symbol of our foreign policy and win-win approach, in which we suggest that energy should not be a cause of conflict in international relations but a unifying instrument for peace, said Turkeys President Erdogan on Friday, Anadolu reported.

President Erdogan spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was reviewing the Pioneering Spirit vessel that will undertake the construction in Russia's Anapa city, on the northern coast of the Black Sea.

Construction works for TurkStream's offshore section began in the deep waters of the Black Sea, according to Gazprom's statement released Friday.

Russia is an important energy actor in the region with its extensive natural gas resources and strong infrastructure. At the same time, Russia is a reliable and stable partner of our country in the field of energy, Erdogan said.

With large-scale projects such as Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant and TurkStream, we hope to develop our friendship, he added.

Praising the project, Erdogan said, These kinds of large energy projects have an exceptional place in establishing interdependence in terms of our economic and political bilateral relations.

Energy projects between Turkey and Russia, especially natural gas projects, have been an important and reliable part of the energy supply security for nearly 30 years, he added.

TurkStream will ensure that the Russian natural gas is transmitted directly to Turkey without being dependent on the transmission system of any other country, Erdogan said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the cooperation of both countries.

He pointed out that the business cooperation between Turkey and Russia is above the level of business association conducted with many other countries.

Putin emphasized that the coordination process with other countries took years, but with Turkey it has quickly resolved within a short period of time.

The intergovernmental agreement on TurkStream Project was signed 7 months ago. Construction began on the project within a few months, he said.

The first line will be completed within the scope of the project next year and the second line will be completed in 2019, Putin informed.

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24 June 2017 11:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

A White House spokesman did not rule out a meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin when he was asked about reports the two leaders may hold talks on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting in Germany next month, Reuters reported.

"To the extent that we can work with Russia to solve some problems and to cooperate, if we can find that willingness then we'd like to do it," spokesman Sean Spicer said at a news briefing.

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Ill bet youve heard the joking phrase, Everyone has a little ADHD.

The diagnosis of school children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has risen since 2007 by 42 percent, with one in 10 having ADHD, according to Psychology Today. In a 2015 New York Times article, Dr. Martin Wetzel of UNMC said increasing numbers of older adults are being diagnosed with ADHD.

The connection between school children and older adults is the hereditary nature of ADHD. When a child is diagnosed, a parent often has their own ADHD confirmed for the first time, which then leads to looking at a grandparents behaviors. Often, adults have had the condition their entire lives, without knowing problems with planning and reasoning, impulse control, poor listening skills, and high distractibility are a medical condition and not merely personal failings.

Dr. Wetzel explained a diagnosis of ADHD requires a doctors clinical evaluation; it cannot be determined with a blood test or from medical imaging.

Researchers have only recently begun studying older adults and ADHD, with most studies taking place in the last 10 years or so. Current thought says ADHD lasts into older adulthood; in contrast with the former belief that a person matured out of ADHD. Research shows older adults respond to medication for this condition in much the same way children do; medication helps increase the attention span, improving ability to focus and complete tasks.

A key similarity between ADHD and memory issues is the ability to pay attention and function normally. Think of memory as a filing cabinet. When memory works correctly, you pay attention, you notice something you want to file (location of keys), you file it (keys are on top of refrigerator), and then retrieve the file when you need it (find keys).

An impaired memory might fail at any of those points, such as not being able to retrieve the file (find keys) even though you noticed where they were earlier. A person with ADHD might pay too little attention to details, but not have memory loss due to damage to the brain, as with dementia.

Even though dementia and ADHD have different causes, some of the issues a person has with mild cognitive impairment and early dementias appear to resemble the issues experienced with ADHD, such as inattention to details, missing appointments, difficulty paying attention to conversations, losing things, impulsive behavior and difficulty staying on top of tasks which require focus.

These five items from the Alzheimers Associations Know the 10 Signs (alz.org) relate to attention difficulties:

 Challenges in planning or problem solving;

 Poor judgement;

 Difficulty completing familiar tasks (e.g. bill paying);

 Trouble reading or driving;

 Misplacing things and unable to retrace steps.

Dr. Wetzel noted researchers began excluding people with ADHD from Alzheimers studies around 2012. Due to now-defunct thinking about aging out of ADHD, it is possible some older adults have been misdiagnosed with dementia.

Take advantage of Brain Awareness Month. Get checked out if you have concerns about yourself, or support your loved one at a doctors visit. Alzheimers disease is not inevitable. Changes in cognitive ability may be caused by several treatable conditions.
Published On Jun 24, 2017 10:52 AM By akas

American automaker Ford has recalled around 39,315 cars in India. The recalled vehicles include the Ford Fiesta Classic and previous-generation Ford Figo that were manufactured at Ford's facility in Chennai between 2004 and 2012. The cars have been recalled to inspect a potential failure in the high-pressure power steering hose. The cars will be inspected at Ford's authorised dealerships, and if found faulty, the high-pressure power assisted steering hose will be replaced on all affected vehicles. If you own one of the recalled vehicles, we advise you to take it to the nearest Ford dealership as soon as possible.

The statement issued by the automaker reads, "Ford India is voluntarily inspecting 39,315 Ford Fiesta Classic and previous-generation Ford Figo vehicles, made at the companys Chennai plant between 2004 and 2012, for a potential concern related to high-pressure power assisted steering hose. Ford India, through its dealers, will replace the high-pressure power assisted steering hose on all affected vehicles. Ford remains committed to delivering world-class quality vehicles to its customers and this voluntary safety recall is part of that commitment.

Both the cars, the Fiesta Classic and previous-generation Ford Figo, have been discontinued long back in India. Currently, Ford is offering second-generation Figo in the Indian market which starts from Rs 4.75 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). Also, the Aspire is the only sedan from Ford on offer in the country which starts at Rs 5.45 lakh. Moreover, recently, Ford also discontinued all the manual variants of the Endeavour. Now the Endeavour has a starting price of Rs 25.49 lakh.

Also read: GST Effect: Ford Offering Discounts Up To Rs 30,000
Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Lithium, Bromine, and Catalysts. The Lithium segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, lithium chloride, and lithium specialties; and reagents, such as butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride for use in lithium batteries for consumer electronics and electric vehicles, high performance greases, thermoplastic elastomers for car tires, rubber soles, plastic bottles, catalysts for chemical reactions, organic synthesis processes in the areas of steroid chemistry and vitamins, life sciences, pharmaceutical industry, and other markets. It also provides cesium products for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries; zirconium, barium, and titanium products for pyrotechnical applications that include airbag initiators; technical services for the handling and use of reactive lithium products; and lithium-containing by-products recycling services. The Bromine segment offers bromine and bromine-based fire safety solutions; specialty chemicals, including elemental bromine, alkyl and inorganic bromides, brominated powdered activated carbon, and other bromine fine chemicals for use in chemical synthesis, oil and gas well drilling and completion fluids, mercury control, water purification, beef and poultry processing, and other industrial applications; and other specialty chemicals, such as tertiary amines for surfactants, biocides, and disinfectants and sanitizers. The Catalysts segment provides hydroprocessing, isomerization, and akylation catalysts; fluidized catalytic cracking catalysts and additives; and organometallics and curatives. The company serves the energy storage, petroleum refining, consumer electronics, construction, automotive, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, and crop protection markets. Albemarle Corporation was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
HDFC Bank Limited provides banking and financial services to individuals and businesses in India, Bahrain, Hong Kong, and Dubai. It operates in Treasury, Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, Other Banking Business, and Unallocated segments. The company accepts savings, salary, current, rural, public provident fund, pension, and Demat accounts; fixed and recurring deposits; and safe deposit lockers, as well as offshore accounts and deposits, overdrafts against fixed deposits, and sweep-in facilities. It also provides personal, home, car, two wheeler, business, educational, gold, consumer, and rural loans; loans against properties, securities, rental receivables, and assets; loans for professionals; government sponsored programs; and loans on credit card, as well as working capital and commercial/construction equipment finance, healthcare/medical equipment and commercial vehicle finance, dealer finance, and term and professional loans. The company offers credit, debit, prepaid, and forex cards; payment and collection, export, import, remittance, bank guarantee, letter of credit, trade, hedging, and merchant and cash management services; insurance and investment products. It provides short term finance, bill discounting, structured finance, export credit, loan syndication, and documents collection services; online and wholesale, mobile, and phone banking services; unified payment interface, immediate payment, national electronic funds transfer, and real time gross settlement services; and channel financing, vendor financing, reimbursement account, money market, derivatives, employee trusts, cash surplus corporates, tax payment, and bankers to rights/public issue services, as well as financial solutions for supply chain partners and agricultural customers. The company operates 6,378 branches and 18,620 automated teller machines in 3,203 cities/towns. As of March 31, 2022, it had 21,683 banking outlets. The company was incorporated in 1994 and is based in Mumbai, India.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. owns and operates utilities, transport, midstream, and data businesses in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company's Utilities segment operates approximately 61,000 kilometers (km) of operational electricity transmission and distribution lines; 5,300 km of electricity transmission lines; 4,200 km of natural gas pipelines; 7.3 million electricity and natural gas connections; and 360,000 long-term contracted sub-metering services. This segment also offers heating and cooling solutions; gas distribution; water heaters; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioner rental, as well as other home services. Its Transport segment offers transportation, storage, and handling services for merchandise goods, commodities, and passengers through a network of approximately 22,000 km of track; 5,500 km of track network; 4,800 km of rail; 3,800 km of motorways; and 13 port terminals. The company's Midstream segment offers natural gas transmission, gathering and processing, and storage services through approximately 15,000 km of natural gas transmission pipelines; 600 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage; 17 natural gas processing plants; and 3,900 km of gas gathering pipelines, as well as one petrochemical processing complex. Its Data segment operates approximately 148,000 operational telecom towers; 8,000 multi-purpose towers and active rooftop sites; 10,000 km of fiber backbone; 1,600 cell sites and approximately 12,000 km of fiber optic cable; and 2,100 active telecom towers and 70 distributed antenna systems, as well as 50 data centers and 200 megawatts of critical load capacity. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. is a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management Inc.
Tabitha Meals on Wheels are delivered to people who cannot prepare their own meals for health-related reasons. The basic menu, listed below, includes bread, margarine and milk. To order meals, get more information or volunteer, call Tabitha Meals on Wheels, 402-486-8589, or call 402-484-9669 for a prerecorded message on menus and program updates.
Genesee & Wyoming Inc. owns and leases freight railroads. It operates through three segments: North American Operations, Australian Operations, and U.K./European Operations. The company transports various commodities, including agricultural products, autos and auto parts, chemicals and plastics, coal and coke, food and kindred products, lumber and forest products, metallic ores, metals, minerals and stone, petroleum products, pulp and paper, waste, and other commodities. It owns or leases 122 freight railroads, including 105 short line railroads and 2 regional freight railroads located in the United States, 8 short line railroads located in Canada, 3 railroads located in Australia, 1 railroad located in the United Kingdom, 1 railroad in Poland and Germany, and 2 railroads in the Netherlands with a total of approximately 16,200 miles of track. The company also operates 6,200 additional miles of track that is owned or leased by others. In addition, it operates deep sea maritime containers and provides bulk haulage, including coal, aggregates, cement, and infrastructure services. Further, the company provides rail service at approximately 40 ports; rail-ferry service in North America, Australia, and Europe; and contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Darien, Connecticut.
Chile's President asks forgiveness from indigenous Mapuche ahead of Pope visit

President Michelle Bachelet asked for forgiveness from Chile's indigenous Mapuche people on Friday for "errors and horrors" committed by the state and announced plans to give them more power and resources.

In the midst of growing tension between the Mapuche and loggers and farmers in Chile's south-central provinces, the centre-left president said she would send a project to Congress creating an Indigenous Peoples' Ministry.

Cash would be dedicated to building roads and providing drinking water in remote areas, as well as programs to more rapidly transfer land to indigenous people that they claim as their ancestral home, she said.

"We've failed as a country," Bachelet said from La Moneda presidential palace in capital Santiago.

"I want, solemnly and with humility, to ask forgiveness from the Mapuche people for the errors and horrors committed or tolerated by the state in our relation with them and their communities."

Around 600,000 Mapuche live in Chile, many in the forested, hilly provinces of Araucania and Bio Bio, roughly 400 miles south of Santiago.

Ever since the Chilean army invaded the territory of the Mapuche in a brutal campaign in the late 1800s, Mapuche relations with the state and settlers of European descent have been fractious.

The Mapuche accuse the state and private companies of taking their ancestral land, draining its natural resources, and using undue violence against them. Their communities are among the poorest in Chile.

In recent years, acts of arson against forestry companies and other industries, often attributed to disgruntled Mapuche, have accelerated in the region.

While Bachelet's announcement will likely draw support from some Mapuche and elements of her base, it may not be welcomed by industry groups and tough-on-crime conservatives in Chile's divided south. Several congressmen from Araucania and Bio Bio did not attend Bachelet's ceremony in protest.

The new measures closely follow an announcement by the Vatican that Pope Francis will visit Chile in 2018, a trip that will include a visit to the heavily Mapuche city of Temuco.

"We will have, I hope, good news to give him," Bachelet said.
The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue Collar Conservatism, by Henry Olsen (Broadside Books, 338 pp., $27.99)

Ronald Reagan, who presided over the longest continuous period of peacetime economic growth in modern American history, was also, argues Henry Olsen, the most misunderstood of modern chief executives. Liberals and Democratscategories that include most of the mediahad a vested interest in depicting Reagan as the twin of Barry Goldwater. Olsens book is directed not at the media but at fellow conservatives, who sometimes make what he sees as the same mistake.

A senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, Olsen grew up as a young Republican in Los Angeless San Fernando Valley during the time that Reagan was governor of California. In his very readable new book The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue Collar Conservatism, Olsen argues that Reagan has long been misidentified as a Goldwater-like, libertarian conservative. Thats a mistake because, as Olsen demonstrates, Reagan always saw himself as a defender of what he calls the public New Deal.

Indelibly influenced by Franklin Roosevelts radio Fireside Chats, Reagan never renounced his youthful admiration of FDR. Government, preferably on the state or local level, should give people in need a hand up to help them pursue their dreams, he insisted throughout his career. He came to national political prominence with his televised speech, A Time for Choosing, delivered on Goldwaters behalf shortly before the 1964 election. Reagans speech effectively linked the two Westerners as emblematic of the Sunbelts rising conservatism, but Reagans ideas, argues Olsen, differed from Goldwaters: they were less libertarian, Olsen writes, less doctrinaire, less abstract and less antigovernment, and more willing to use federal power on behalf of both the deserving poor and the average American. His New Deal, explained Reagan, didnt aim to change Americas ideals but to bring [them] into effect. Reagans notion of the New Deal as merely a fulfillment of old and tested American ideals is historically dubious, but it served him well among independents and the once-numerous tribe of blue-collar and conservative Catholic Democrats. The young Reagan, argues Olsen, as much as the mature Reagan, was always on the side of the common man from every background. Reagans assumption, as crystallized in what came to be called the speech, was that Americans, as Olsen puts it, could have the economic and physical security they craved and the freedom they deserved.

Olsen criticizes George Will for insisting that Reagans triumph in 1980 showed that Goldwater had wonit just took 16 years to count the votes. Will fails to appreciate that Goldwater lost in a landslide when he campaigned against the New Deal in 1964, while Reagan won in 1980 by running against the vast bureaucracy spawned by the Great Society. That bureaucracy, Reagan insisted in an argument that still resonates today, has only grown more intrusive, as it wrests political control from the peoples elected representatives.

An underlying theme of Olsens book is the continuity of Reagans principles, which evoked libertarian ire when Reagan proclaimed, while governor of California, my views havent changed much since I was a Democrat. That was an overstatement, but what was true is that the 1960s sent the Democratic Party on a leftward trajectory that eventually produced Richard Nixons 1972 landslide, the emergence of the Reagan Democrats, and, most recently, Donald Trumps unexpected victory in 2016. Reagan repeatedly argued for core principles and against rigid ideology, observes Olsen, who sees the Gippers seemingly inconsistent decisions as governor and president in the context of his belief in the dignity of everyday Americans.

When Reagan ran for the White House in 1980 against feckless incumbent Jimmy Carter, the GOP was at its post-Great Depression nadir. Republicans held only 143 of 538 House seats, only 38 of 100 Senate seats, and just 12 of 50 governorships. Carter, who had to fight off a strong challenge on his left from Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy, rued the crisis of confidence that had supposedly struck the land. For the first but not the last time in American history, the leaders of a major American political party had doubts about Americas traditional ideals and the virtues of its citizens. By contrast, Reagan asked: How can we love our country and not love our countrymen?

In 1980, promising to make America great againsound familiar?Reagan won the White House in a landslide, with 489 electoral votes to Carters 49. The GOP picked up 12 Senate seats to take control of the upper chamber for the first time since 1954, while adding 34 seats in the House. The GOP surged thanks to Reagans strong showing among working-class Democrats in the Midwest, which had become the Rust Belt, as the steel and coal industries were undermined by technological changes. With an eye on those Midwesterners, President Reagan would slap tariffs on Japanese imports.

President Carter had spoken of Americas inordinate fear of Communism. President Reagan, who revived the Cold War policies begun under FDRs successor Harry Truman, had no inordinate fear of negotiating with the tottering Soviets under their youthful new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. Reagans diplomatic maneuvers, combined with his military buildup and proposed missile-defense system (derided as Star Wars), precipitated the Soviet collapse. (Ironically, it was the material demise of the Soviet Union that would allow socialist ideals to flourish among American college students of a subsequent generation.)

Concluding his book with an examination of the 2016 Republican primaries, Olsen deems Ted Cruz a new version of the unyielding, free-market ideology once associated with Barry Goldwater. By contrast, he sees the bumptious Trump as the heir to the Reagan spirit. Olsens conclusions will justifiably draw fire from Trumps many conservative criticsbut they should hold their fire until theyve read this intriguing, sure-to-be controversial book.

Photo Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Crystal River Cruises has announced the key officers for the first of its four upcoming Rhine-class river yachts.

The Crystal Bach, which embarks on her maiden voyage from Amsterdam in August, will be under the guidance of Captain Lukas Zatschkowitsch, a river captain on Europes rivers for the past 15 years. A native of Vienna and currently residing in a Danube village near the Austrian city and Bratislava, Zatschkowitschs experience along the Danube, Rhine and Main Rivers stretches back to his childhood, when he sailed the waterways aboard his fathers own boat, according to a statement from Crystal.

Joining Captain Zatschkowitsch in leadership of Crystal Bach is Hotel Director Sergio Merendino. Merendino has a long career in luxury hotel service and management throughout Europe, and joined the Crystal Serenity in 2011 and most recently served aboard Crystal River Cruises first ship, the Crystal Mozart. Merendino will

oversee all hotel operations aboard Crystal Bach, including accommodations, service and culinary programs, and will be accessible to guests during their voyages.

The quality of our guests Crystal Experience begins with the officers charged with ensuring that experience is seamless and exceptional at every point, said Crystals CEO and president, Edie Rodriguez. It has always been Crystals practice to appoint the highest caliber of professionals at every level of service aboard our ships, and the crew aboard Crystal Bach is no exception. We look forward to embarking on her beautiful journeys with Captain Zatschkowitsch and his officers overseeing every luxurious detail of the unparalleled Crystal Experience.

Crystal Bach will embark on her maiden voyage August 13, 2017.
The Hong Kong Cruise Academy, a member of the Hong Kong Cruise & Yacht Industry Association (HKCYIA), and the Hong Kong Cruise Services Academy announced that they are joining together to meet demand for skilled workers with Hong Kongs first diploma program in Cruise Services and Hospitality Management, according to a press release.

Kara Yeung, Executive Director of HKCA, and Sunny Ng, School Manager and CEO of HKCSA, signed an agreement to officially launch the program in September.

This one-year program will equip students with all of the skills and knowledge they need for a successful career the cruise industry, the group said.

Students will learn cruise operations, get an overview of the tourism industry, learn customer services, foreign languages, standards of training and other vocational and management skills.

n addition, this is the first diploma program in Hong Kong that includes the Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers.

In addition to the classroom knowledge, student will have the opportunity to receive hands-on training with a variety of internship opportunities including ground services at the terminal, commercial yacht management, and onboard various ships. Partners include MSC, Costa and Carnival.

The group said there is an extensive job referral network in place to help graduates start their careers in the industry.
RACINE  For 47 years, Jim Gottfredsen, owner of Gups Westside Service, has rolled with the punches, missed out on some huge opportunities and continued in business.

His nickname, Gup, was bestowed by an older brother, Gottfredsen said. Later, when Gup was saved and became a born-again Christian in 1975, he had his business logo designed so that the letters Gups look like the Christian ichthys, or fish symbol  although he acknowledges it can also be perceived as a guppy.

Today, Gups is at 2625 N. Green Bay Road, near Batten International Airport. But for decades, until May 2016, the business sat at the southeast corner of Spring Street and Highway 31, looking like it had been pinched into a tight corner. Theres a good reason it looked so hemmed in, Gottfredsen explained.

After attending college for 1 years to study forestry, Gottfredsen started his business in Whitewater at age 20, in 1970, with two friends. He brought it to Racine two years later, opening Gups Downtown Standard at Second and Main streets.

In 1975, Gup bought an existing gas station with one pump island and two repair bays at Spring and 31, on a land contract, and opened Gups Westside Service. He also owned the next two properties to the south, along Green Bay Road, and lived in the house next door.

But in 1980, he said, the Department of Transportation started to widen Highway 31 from four to six lanes.

They took 40 feet, about one-third of my property, he said. I lost all my parking, for 15 to 20 cars.

He also lost his gas business, because the pumps had been on the corner: sales of about 2,000 to 3,000 gallons weekly on average. For all that he gave up, Gup said, the state paid him about $10,000 per property, or about $30,000 in total.

And then he had to put up with more than a year of road construction.

The state offered to relocate his business, Gottfredsen said. Instead he stayed but moved part of his repair business, renting three bays on Washington Avenue.

Missed opportunities

Today, Gups former spot is part of the $8 million Willkomm development, Gottfredsen having been bought out by Mike and Jim Willkomm in December 2015.

However, he could have struck gold, comparatively, when the Walgreen Co.came along in the late 1980s and offered him $1.2 million for his land, wanting to build on his corner. The problem was: Mount Pleasant wouldnt play along, Gottfredsen says. Officials refused to consider a zoning change because they wanted redevelopment on the opposite corner, to the west, where a former Kohls grocery store sat vacant.

Within two years Walgreens did indeed build there, he said.

Gup says he missed out on another big buyout about 1 years after the Walgreens offer, when a developer offered him $950,000 for his land so it could build a retail strip center along Highway 31.

Mount Pleasant didnt want to do the zoning, he said, altering it from B-1 to B-2 to allow that development. They wanted duplexes, he said.

Gottfredsen said the Willkomms gave him a fair price when he eventually sold his land on Highway 31, but it was less than half of what he would have gotten from Walgreen.

Fire

Gottfredsen has also  twice  had to deal with fires at his shops. The first occurred at the Spring Street location, having been started by a waste-oil burner. It burned half of the building, he said, but they continued to work.

The second fire occurred at his current location when Gup had just rented space there from Jensen Towing. Even as they were still moving in, a car on a rack caught fire. It burned to just a shell, he said.

So Gups set up three racks in a shed on the property and worked there for almost three years while the insurance companies wrangled to a settlement before Jensen could rebuild.

Gottfredsen, 67, estimated he works 60 to 70 hours a week, including the work he does at home. Asked about retirement, he said, In two to three years, I may turn it over to my No. 1 guy.

A 1968 St. Catherines High School graduate, Gup said that, looking back, Being self-employed is the one thing I would think twice about.

Despite the hard knocks and missed windfalls, Gup isnt sorry he chose the auto business for his career. He said, Its been fun.
MSCI Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides investment decision support tools for the clients to manage their investment processes worldwide. It operates through four segments: Index, Analytics, ESG and Climate, and All Other - Private Assets. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed product creation, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct. The Analytics segment offers risk management, performance attribution and portfolio management content, application, and service that provides an integrated view of risk and return, and an analysis of market, credit, liquidity, and counterparty risk across asset classes; managed services, including consolidation of client portfolio data from various sources, review and reconciliation of input data and results, and customized reporting; and HedgePlatform to measure, evaluate, and monitor the risk of hedge fund investments. The ESG and Climate segment provides products and services that help institutional investors understand how ESG factors impact the long-term risk and return of their portfolio and individual security-level investments; and data, ratings, research, and tools to help investors navigate increasing regulation. The All Other - Private Assets segment includes real estate market and transaction data, benchmarks, return-analytics, climate assessments and market insights for funds, investors, and managers; business intelligence to real estate owners, managers, developers, and brokers; and offers investment decision support tools for private capital. It serves asset owners and managers, financial intermediaries, wealth managers, real estate professionals, and corporates. MSCI Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
In the ways of change we find our true direction.

The vision for the Homeless Assistance Leadership Organization (HALO) is that all homeless individuals and families in Racine County will be provided emergency food, clothing, shelter, transitional, and permanent housing, and supportive services through a collaborative structure that effectively coordinates services, shares information, increases funding, and eliminates duplication and gaps in services.

New leadership

After three months as interim director, the HALO board appointed Gai Lorenzen as the executive director. Prior to her position at HALO, Lorenzen was the managing attorney at Legal Action of Wisconsin Inc. For over 20 years her work has been targeted at efforts to prevent homelessness and assist those experiencing homelessness including victims of domestic abuse and veterans to become self-sufficient and achieve housing stability.

With Lorenzens skills, community connections, and leadership, HALO has expanded its role to serve a more diverse homeless population. Our programming and services  accountability and self-sufficiency  continue to be our focus at HALO. How we deliver services is changing to meet the needs of the diverse population including the development of strategic partnerships and initiatives. Access to many more resources will be offered at HALO by both staff and outside community resources. Although change can be difficult, we know that the end result will be a better, stronger HALO serving the community.

Progress and success

In a few short months since the changes began, one male and one female  who previously would not have been eligible to enter HALO due to an active addiction  are soon to be in housing after achieving and maintaining sobriety. A number of single individuals and families have successfully exited HALO into their own housing.

We are excited about the progress weve made thus far and the number of people who have wanted to be involved in it. It is because of the new partnerships, dedication of staff, volunteers, donors and vision of the board that HALO is able to continue to operate as a 24-hour-a-day full-service emergency shelter serving men, women and families with minor children year-round.

Donors and volunteers

We greatly welcome and appreciate the support of volunteers and donors. The investment of time, money, and/or goods allows us to nourish lives and provide support in ways that fit each individual that enters our facility. Our participants may come in as strangers, but they will leave knowing their stories have been heard and they are surrounded by support and possibilities.

If you havent already, please contact HALO at 262-633-3235, ext. 143, to arrange a day to volunteer or tour the shelter. Or visit us online at www.haloinc.org to donate to help make a difference in the Racine community.

Growing home

This is the second year HALO will operate Growing Home, a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that will deliver weekly baskets of produce grown on our urban farm to 20 households. Participants of HALO, as well as volunteer groups and community members will have an opportunity to work in the urban farm. Participants will receive hands-on training while learning about horticulture and cultivation, small business management, sustainable practices, environmental concerns, nutrition, teamwork, patience and more. This program also adds horticulture therapy to HALOs list of nearly 100 supportive services available to help HALO participants.

If you are interested in enrolling in the CSA, visit www.haloinc.org/growinghome for more details.

Visit www.haloinc.org for information and upcoming events. Friend us on Facebook at HALO Inc. The public is invited to come and tour HALO. Call Melissa Becker at 262-633-3235, ext. 142, to make arrangements. HALO is a United Way partner provider.
SOMERS  The University of Wisconsin-Parkside Library is the recipient of a $20,000 grant to host the NEA Big Read in Kenosha and Racine.

An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the mission of the NEA Big Read is to broaden the understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.

The UW-Parkside Library is one of 75 nonprofit organizations to receive an NEA Big Read grant to host a community reading program in the coming year. The NEA Big Read in Kenosha and Racine will feature Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Activities are scheduled for Feb. 12 through March 10.

We in the library as well as the other campus members of our Big Read team are deeply honored to receive this generous grant and with it the opportunity for exciting programming, said Anna Stadick, director of the UW-Parkside Library. The team members have so many wildly creative ideas to highlight Station Eleven and to rally the campus and community around reading.

The NEA Big Read showcases a diverse range of contemporary titles that reflect many different voices and perspectives, aiming to inspire conversation and discovery. The grants program annually supports approximately 75 dynamic community reading programs, each designed around a single NEA Big Read selection.

Since 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded more than 1,400 NEA Big Read programs, providing more than $19 million in grants to organizations nationwide. In addition, Big Read activities have reached every Congressional district in the country.

Over the past 11 years, grantees have leveraged more than $42 million in local funding to support their NEA Big Read programs. More than 4.8 million Americans have attended an NEA Big Read event, approximately 79,000 volunteers have participated at the local level and 37,000 community organizations have partnered to make NEA Big Read activities possible.

Last summer, the NEA announced a new focus for the NEA Big Read Library on contemporary authors and books written since the NEA was founded 50 years ago. For more information about the NEA Big Read, go to neabigread.org.
By Itai Vardi

A recent intensification in protests against Williams Partners planned Atlantic Sunrise pipeline in Pennsylvania prompted a state senator to propose legislation aimed at limiting demonstrations.

Last month, Pennsylvania Sen. Scott Martin (R-Norman) announced his intention to introduce legislation that would pass the costs of law enforcement responding to protests onto the demonstrators. Martin also helped introduce a different bill that would criminalize protests at natural gas facilities.

A DeSmog investigation has found, however, that Martin is intimately tied to an obscure group of lobbyists recently hired by Williams Partners.

State Legislators Against Pipeline Protestors

The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams Partners plans to construct the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline through its subsidiary, Transco. The $3 billion 200-mile project, which would transport fracked gas from the states northern shales southward to the companys interconnecting pipeline systems, received federal approval earlier this year but still requires several state permits.

Grassroots and citizen opposition to the pipeline, which has been ongoing since the projects original proposal in 2014, has intensified in recent months. In February, activists built an encampment on the planned route near Conestoga in Lancaster county, which Scott Martin represents.

Led by the group Lancaster Against Pipelines, they signaled their willingness to engage in nonviolent direct action.

Yet in early May, a day after arranging a conference call between local first responders and North Dakota law enforcement officials who dealt with the Dakota Access pipeline protests, Martin published a legislative memo detailing his plan to propose a bill penalizing protestors. The memo, which directly referenced the Dakota Access pipeline demonstrations, is aimed at shielding taxpayers against the additional costs resulting from protests. Martin is currently seeking cosponsors for his legislation.

https://twitter.com/IENearth/statuses/877914357413302276 for a year after I left being a county commissioner, before starting with the Senate.

Reposted with permission from our media associate DeSmogBlog.
The so-called first and last mile problem is one of the biggest hurdles with public transportation. How do you encourage more people to take Earth-friendlier commutes when their homes are miles away from the train or bus station?

One solution, as this Estonian electric scooter company proposes, is to simply take your commute with youliterally. Tallinn-based Stigo has developed a compact e-scooter that folds to the size of a rolling suitcase in about two seconds.

When folded, the Stigo L1E takes up a mere 48  40 cm (19 x 16 inches) of space. And at only 14 kg. (31 lbs.), it can be easily towed by hand, tucks neatly into train and bus storage compartments or, say, underneath your table at a cafe or the office.

We believe Stigo will revolutionize the way people travel, Stigo CEO Ardo Reinsalu said in a statement. Stigo is not only the worlds fastest folding electric scooter, but you can also pull it along like hand luggage wherever you go, including indoors and outdoors, and charge it from a regular outlet.

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/146993907 expand=1]

According to its specs, the electric scooter has a max speed of 15 mph (25 kph) and runs on a 250W hub motor powered by a 36V lithium-Ion battery that can be charged from a regular outlet. A single charge takes about three hours and will give a range of 22 miles (40 km). You use a grip-twist throttle to adjust the speed.

Our vision is to solve the first/last mile commuting problem by offering freedom of movement in a stylish and environmentally friendly manner, Reinsalu added.

The vehicle can be found at dealers around the world, including its first concept store in Tianjin, China. The base model sells for $1,849 at its store in the U.S.
[Editors note: Im still in shock after hearing the news that Lucia Grenna passed away in her sleep last week. When we first met in April of 2014 at a Copenhagen hotel, I was immediately taken by here powerful presence. We spent the next couple days participating in a Sustainia climate change event where Lucia presented her audacious plans to connect people to the climate issue. I had the chance to partner with Lucia on several other projects throughout the years and work with her incredible Connect4Climate team. I was always in awe of her ability to make the impossible possible. Her spirit will live on forever.  Stefanie Spear]

It is with a heavy heart that Connect4Climate announces the passing of its founder and leading light, Lucia Grenna. Lucia passed peacefully in her sleep on June 15, well before her time. We remember her for her leadership and extraordinary ability to motivate people to take on some of the greatest challenges of our time, not least climate change.

With her extensive experience in development communication, Lucia realized that communication for climate action would be key to advancing the climate movement, promoting the solutions necessary and motivating the political leadership needed to build a low-carbon, resilient and sustainable future. She made it her mission to build a social movement for climate action by raising awareness of the impact of climate change and promoting the solutions for addressing it. She worked with partners across the globe to reach the greatest audience possible, especially young people.

In 2009 she convinced the World Bank and the Italian Ministry of Environment that climate communication was critical and well worth supporting and established the Communication for Climate Change Multi-Donor Trust Fund of the World Bank Group. In 2011 the flagship global partnership program Connect4Climate was born. It quickly took hold, gathering half a million Facebook followers and forging ties with leaders in popular cultureincluding music, film and fashion iconsto reach the generations of the future while at the same time helping scientists, politicians, and administrators raise awareness and prompt action.

The World Bank Groups Connect4Climate global partnership program received a Green Oscar.

Lucia was a unique and influential presence who could mix with anyone, anywhere, gain their attention and advance proposals for seemingly impossible, but magnificent and celebratory initiatives. Who but Lucia could have brought together an unusual group of partners to orchestrate the projection of massive climate-related images on the front of the Vatican, reminding a worldwide audience of our responsibility to protecting the Planet? We remember her for making the impossible possible.

In His eyes the powerful message of hope for #OurCommonHome that we share with brothers and sisters  regardless of faith or borders pic.twitter.com/cwA7DuUxBZ  lucia grenna (@LuciaGrenna) February 8, 2017

For Lucia and the Connect4Climate program, the operative word has been to connect. This sentiment was Lucia through and through. She was passionate about finding ways for people and organizations to interact together and did her utmost to create and grow lasting connections. Connect4Climate now interacts with hundreds of partners, reaches millions online and engages with global audiences through competitions, events, and education to support the movement for climate action and to end poverty.Lucias ideas would never stay on paper but would lead to tangible outcomes that engaged partners and energized audiences worldwide. She was a leader driven to find the most impactful communications, and in doing so inspired and advocated for a sustainable development pathway.

As Lucia would always say, lets get busy and make this happen!
Researchers from ITMO University have built a setup for recording holograms of tiny objects like living cells with a femtosecond speed. The new method allows one to reconstruct phase topography of a studied sample according to deformations that emerge in a laser pulse when it passes through the specimen. In comparison to electron microscopes, the device can visualize transparent biological structures without introducing contrast agents. The paper was published in Applied Physics Letters.

Vital activity of living cells is a complex sequence of biochemical reactions and physical processes; many of them take place with high temporal resolution. To register such rapid transformations, scientists need very accurate and much more faster equipment. Biological tissue can be studied with an electron microscope, but this method requires introducing a special dye in the sample. The dye makes cells contrast, although it may affect their metabolism. Digital holographic microscopes can cope with this drawback, but have low spatial resolution.

The new camera created by ITMO scientists can register fast processes in transparent specimens and allows one to increase the resolution of images in a wide range. The device records phase deformations of ultrashort, or femtosecond, laser pulses, that emerge when the light passes through the studied sample. The phase images, or holograms, will help explore cells for better understanding mechanisms of autoimmune, oncological, neurodegenerative diseases, as well as monitoring cells during surgical interventions like, for example, cancer therapy.

"Our device will help biologists and genetic engineers track what is happening inside a living cell with a resolution of about 50 femtoseconds - this is enough to resolve many biochemical reactions. Theoretically, the camera can even capture an electron jumping to another orbit. However, that is important, now we can study viability of cells not passively, but when initiating certain processes. For example, heating or transferring viruses, cells and its structures in three-dimensional space using femtosecond laser radiation. The device also supports tracking cell states during changing pH, adding and editing of genetic material," comments Arseny Chipegin, lead author of the paper and researcher at the Laboratory of Digital and Display Holography at ITMO University.

For the analysis, a femtosecond laser beam is split in three. The first beam has a 95% energy and starts the process, two other beams are used for diagnostics. The second, known as object beam, passes through the specimen. The third, reference beam, is deflected by mirrors and goes around. The rays meet again behind the sample, where they form an interference pattern of bright bands. The strips emerge when crests of light waves overlap and amplify each other.

By adjusting the position of the mirrors, the scientists delay the reference beam, forcing it to meet the first one at different times. In other words, the second beam scans the one that passes through the sample. Every collision of the beams is recorded on a subhologram. A fast computer algorithm compiles all the subholograms in a series.

As experimental objects, the researchers used a spark from focusing an intense laser pulse, and a special glass with submicron inclusions. In both cases, the physicists could quickly obtain high-quality images with high spatial and temporal resolution.

The device removes one of the most important issues of digital holographic microscopy associated with increasing resolution capability of a system at the stage of recording holograms. "Technically, we can scale the images dozens of times, setting the magnifying system between the object and the camera. Not only does this enhance resolution, the measurement accuracy grows, too, since the number of interference bands does not change while they visually thin in comparison to the sample. Thus, it is possible to calculate the phase difference between the object and reference beams more precisely," tells Nikolai Petrov, head of the Laboratory of Digital and Display Holography.

According to the scientists, the research will continue, because the developed system is designed to be simpler than many modern microscopes, but has several advantages in speed of recording and processing holograms.

###

Reference:

Time-resolved image plane off-axis digital holography (2017), N. V. Petrov, S. E. Putilin, and A. A. Chipegin, Applied Physics Letters, http://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/1.4981899

ITMO University (Saint Petersburg) is a national research university, the leading Russian university in the field of information and photonic technologies. The university is the alma mater of winners of numerous international programming competitions: ACM ICPC (the only seven-time world champions), Google Code Jam, Facebook Hacker Cup, Yandex Algorithm, Russian Code Cup, Topcoder Open etc. Priority research areas: IT, photonic technologies, robotics, quantum communication, translational medicine, urban studies, art&science, and science communication. Starting from 2013, the university has been a member of Project 5-100, which unites top Russian universities to improve their status in the international research and education arena. In 2016 ITMO University became 56th among the world's top universities in Computer Science, according to the Times Higher Education ranking, and scored 3rd among Russian universities in the overall THE ranking.
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RACINE PUBLIC LIBRARY

RACINE  The Racine Public Library, 75 Seventh St., is offering these free events:

Camp NaNoWriMo Kickoff/registration day, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, July 1. In honor of National Novel Writing Month, teens in grades six through 12 will set their own writing goals for a month and work throughout July to complete the goal. Registration will be taken during this kick-off event. For more information, contact Carrie Richmond at carrie.richmond@racinelibrary.info.

Movie screening, 6 p.m. A free movie based on the 1965 voting rights protest march ins Selma will be shown at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 27.

To register for an event, call 262-636-9217, unless otherwise listed, or go to www.racinelibrary.info. A valid library card is required.

WATERFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY

WATERFORD  The Waterford Public Library, 101 N. River St., is offering these free events:

Block Party, 10-10:45 a.m. Monday, June 26. The University of Wisconsin-Extension and Waterford Library will host a block party featuring fun and educational activities.

Make-It, Take it Tuesdays, 9:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 27. Craft supplies will be set up during the day for children 4-10, accompanied by an adult, to create a craft in the Storytelling Room.

Storywagon performance, 10-10:45 a.m. Wednesday, June 28. The theme of this weeks performance will be Snake Discovery.

Book Club, 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday, June 28. Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead will be discussed. Advance registration is required.

For more information, call 262-534-3988 or go to www.waterford.lib.wi.us.

BURLINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

BURLINGTON  The Burlington Public Library, 166 E. Jefferson St., will offer the following:

Kohls Wild Theater performance, 10 a.m. Monday, June 26. The performance will be called A Tale of Two Hemispheres.

Musical performance, 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 28. Musician David HB Drake will perform.

Popcorn and a Movie, 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Thursday, June 29. The Lego Batman Movie will be shown.

Teacher Night at the Library, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 29. Teachers from the Burlington Elementary School District will be at the library to read with children and do projects.

Storywagon performance, 10 a.m. Friday, June 20. The theme of this weeks performance will be Snake Discovery.

For more information, call 262-342-1130 or go to www.burlingtonlibrary.org.
Broadcasting watchdogs have said an SNP political broadcast unfairly used footage of a farmer who did not know he was appearing in the film.

East Lothian farmer John Shedden knew he was being recorded but thought it was a Scottish government film, not a broadcast promoting the SNP.

Mr Shedden farms near East Garleton Farm near Haddington, East Lothian.

He complained that he was 'duped' into appearing in the broadcast aired by BBC Scotland in October last year.

Regulator Ofcom upheld a 'fairness and privacy' complaint about the film.

The farmer said he had been assured the video would be 'non-political' and was 'shocked' about it.

"I am furious. I am not a supporter of the SNP," he said.

'Unfairly represented'

In a written ruling, Ofcom said: "Mr Shedden said that he did not support the SNP, and that he would not have contributed to the programme had it been made clear to him from the outset that the footage would be used in the partys political broadcast.

"Therefore, it was our view that the inclusion of this footage in the SNPs political broadcast may have resulted in Mr Shedden and his political views being unfairly represented."

The BBC said that the content of such films was primarily the responsibility of the parties themselves, subject to compliance with the relevant editorial standards.

The SNP said the film had been made by a 'highly professional and reliable' company which it had used for more than a decade to produce party political and election broadcasts.

After complaining, Mr Shedden, who was paid 550 for allowing his land to be filmed, said: "My complaint was that this was to be non-political. We had a letter saying it was definitely non-party political and just a snapshot of life in Scotland."
The Prime Minister has unveiled proposals for EU nationals who have lived in the UK for five years by a specific cut-off date to be given the chance to take up 'UK settled status.

Theresa May has started her talks on Brexit negotiations, following a rocky snap general election for the Conservatives.

She has already envisaged giving all EU citizens the right to stay after the UK's exit - due on 30 March 2019 - and granting those resident for at the least five years the same rights to welfare, pensions and education as UK citizens.

It comes as news that the number of seasonal workers coming to work on British farms has dropped 17%, leaving farms 'critically short' of people to harvest fruit and veg, a survey by the National Farmers' Union shows.

And a recent industry survey by British Summer Fruits showed that prices could soar by 50% if the UK cannot gain access to EU workers after Brexit.

'Grind to a halt'

Access to seasonal workers is a problem that existed before the EU referendum, but the result has fast-tracked the problem, said Amy Gray, NFU horticultural adviser.

Unresolved questions around free movement of labour, fluctuating exchange rates and the availability of workers in the future are all serious issues facing producers.

Without a seasonal workforce to carry out time-sensitive jobs, such as harvest work or pruning, there is little doubt that the industry will grind to a halt, Miss Gray said.

Though research is ongoing to find a mechanised alternative, like soft robotics to perform delicate tasks, this is not yet developed enough.

Suitably quick, effective and efficient designs are still a number of years off for mainstream use, added Miss Gray.

Not certain enough

However, the British Veterinary Association (BVA), the UKs leading body for the veterinary profession, said the Prime Ministers proposals fall short of providing the certainty that EU vets and vet nurses living and working in the UK deserve.

The BVA sees around 50% of vets registering to practise in the UK coming from overseas each year, mostly from the EU.

British Veterinary Association President Gudrun Ravetz said: Our EU colleagues play a crucial role in helping the UK maintain animal health, animal welfare, and public health for the rest of society too.

Earlier this week the Defra Secretary of State rightly acknowledged the importance of EU vets to the UK economy, from food hygiene and safety to monitoring disease outbreaks and facilitating trade.

The veterinary profession is relatively small, so the loss of even a small percentage of the workforce would have a significant impact. The time has come for the Government to provide clear guarantees and stop using people as bargaining chips.

Living and working rights

The BVA has called for all EU vets and vet nurses currently working in the UK to be guaranteed living and working rights.

Gudrun Ravetz continued: At this stage, the Prime Ministers outline proposal leaves too many questions unanswered and we hope the full details, due to be released on Monday, offer something more concrete. The EU referendum has already had a serious effect on EU colleagues, who have been teetering on a knife-edge for 12 months now.

Figures recently released by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the veterinary professions regulator, show 44% of EU vets living in the UK are fearful about what the future holds.

Two in five vets are saying they are now more likely to leave, and 18% are actively looking for work outside the UK.

The outline proposal does not indicate whether individuals with settled status will be permitted to bring in children or spouses, and whether the new status will be subject to conditions other than length of residency.
COP27: Energy and food security must be addressed, farm leaders say
According to a recent report by Wood Mackenzie, big oil producers such as Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) (RDS.B) and ExxonMobil (XOM 1.47%) could shift up to 20% of their drilling investments into renewable resources in the next two decades.

In this Industry Focus: Energy segment, two Motley Fool analysts look at how big oil companies are investing in renewable energy today, why so many oil companies gave up on their renewable projects a few years ago, what some of the heavyweights are planning to do in the renewable space in the next few decades, how big oil is handling the uncertainty of the future of the oil market in the face of growing renewable energy supply, and more.

A full transcript follows the video.

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This video was recorded on June 15, 2017.

Sean O'Reilly: Very interesting report out of consulting firm Mackenzie just came out --

Taylor Muckerman: Wood Mackenzie. Big Energy.

O'Reilly: Wood Mackenzie. Everybody calls them Mackenzie. Come on.

Muckerman: Yeah, I know. It's a big energy consulting firm, a research firm.

O'Reilly: It's like Booz Allen Hamilton, everybody just calls it Booz Allen.

Muckerman: Booz.

O'Reilly: Booz. [laughs] We're not going there. They came out with a report that says Big Oil, the guys that make the carbon come out of the ground, they could shift more than a fifth of their drilling investments to renewable sources.

Muckerman: Yeah, just a few years after many of them canceled all plans to invest in renewable energy.

O'Reilly: I actually want to get to that in a second with Exxon.

Muckerman: Exxon, Chevron, BP, Shell.

O'Reilly: But, of course, basically, we're talking about, they're going to start investing in wind, solar, all kinds of good stuff, and they're saying this could happen in the next two decades. That actually seemed rather long to me, given the recent advances in solar tech. Anyway, I really wish -- Tyler Crowe, if you're listening, please call in right now, because he would of course, bring up Total S.A. right now. They're the French oil giant and they own 60% of SunPower.

Muckerman: Majority owner of SunPower, yeah.

O'Reilly: What did you think when you saw this?

Muckerman: It's the movement going forward. What we've seen is, these companies have had to write down their approved reserves over the last couple of years by double-digit percentages because of oil prices being so low.

O'Reilly: Once, again, for our listeners, we've done this in previous episodes, probably a year ago. Bottom line, proven reserves get calculated based upon how hard it is to get out of the grounds, but also the economics and the price per barrel. The SEC every year says, "You guy have to value this based upon the average price of oil last year," and it has not been high for three years.

Muckerman: No. So, since the summer of 2014, you've seen 15%, according to the Department of Energy, of proven reserves written off the books of U.S. oil.

O'Reilly: And because they're not economical.

Muckerman: Right. At the prices they were forced to assess these at. That being said, they still have access to this oil, they just can't claim it on their balance sheet as an asset. So they had to do something.

O'Reilly: Take a step back. Tell me about what these oil companies did a couple years ago. Just throwing in the towel on all this renewable stuff. What happened?

Muckerman: You saw Chevron abandon renewables in 2014. BP, in the wake of the Macondo spill, they sold off, between 2011 and 2013 --

O'Reilly: They dropped their brief moniker, "Beyond Petroleum?"

Muckerman: They did.

O'Reilly: How long did they have that? Three years? [laughs]

Muckerman: I don't know the exact time frame, but it wasn't long. And so, they sold off some of their solar, if not all, business. They pulled back on the spending almost entirely. They did keep a very big portfolio of wind farms in the United States.

O'Reilly: I was about to say, don't they have a bunch of wind farms?

Muckerman: It might be the biggest. Don't quote me. But it might be the biggest or one of the biggest in the United States, spread across multiple states. So they didn't sell that, but these companies were investing new money into renewables. Then Shell did something similar. But now a good swath of them are coming back.

O'Reilly: Thinking distinctly a couple years ago when we first started doing this show and everything, Exxon's decision to literally stop investing in all of that, and not only that but to keep that dividend going even through the downturn that we've seen for two or three years now -- I don't think I'm reaching here with this analogy; it felt a little bit like Altria Group or something. Like, we have this business, it's profitable right now, it's probably not going to be here in 100 years, we don't know.

Muckerman: If you look at the reserves, these companies only have 12 to 15 years of reserves even there, and they're not finding it at the same rate that they used to.

O'Reilly: It's like, "So, we're just going to do right by our shareholders and buy back stock or pay back in huge dividends and see how long we can keep the party going."

Muckerman: Well, Exxon is going to have to hold itself accountable now that shareholders voted for them to do a deep dive into whether or not they've been honest about climate change and its impact on the company.

O'Reilly: That's fun. It's always tricky when you're a business, because you have to make the decision of, should I return this money that we're the fiduciaries for to the shareholders, and they will invest in the renewable-energy sources? Or do we think we can get above-average returns on capital by keeping the money ourselves?

Muckerman: That's the trust you put in the company you're investing in.

O'Reilly: I don't necessarily blame Exxon for making the decision they did. Let's pretend you're an Exxon shareholder. We're both Exxon shareholders. What internal rate of return would you need with a reasonable amount of certainty from them to let them keep the money and invest in something renewable?

Muckerman: I don't have a number off the top of my head.

O'Reilly: But they don't know what they're doing, so it would have to be higher, right?

Muckerman: Also, at the time, they have the heaviest needle in oil and gas. So it takes big projects to move that needle for them, which is why they cast it aside, because at the time, solar wasn't viable, it wasn't cost-effective. Wind was really just starting to get off the ground. So it was a long-tail project, versus some of these projects in oil and gas where they can get a decent return within a few years.

O'Reilly: Let's pretend Mackenzie is right, and in 10 years, oil and gas companies are investing 20% --

Muckerman: Well, Shell says that by the end of this decade, so by 2020, they'll be investing a billion dollars per year in renewables. That pales in comparison to the $25 billion they spend every year. But going from nothing a few years ago to $1 billion by 2020, that's a pretty good move. And as you mentioned, Total, very serious about it. Statoil, big player in offshore wind, utilizing their offshore oil technology, and know how to operate in these rough environments, to then turn that into the ability to generate wind power offshore. So these companies are doing it. But having only $1 for every $5 spent on oil moved toward renewables --

O'Reilly: It seems low, doesn't it?

Muckerman: It does seem low. If they spend $350 billion over the next 20 years, what Mackenzie says is, that will get wind and solar to 6.5% of total global energy production.

O'Reilly: That's incredibly low.

Muckerman: Yeah, and they say over that same time period, they will likely spend $1.5 trillion on oil and gas.

O'Reilly: Man. I came in here wondering if there would be a time when we stop thinking of Exxon and Shell and everybody as oil and gas companies, and think of them as just energy companies. It seems to me like, with statistics like that, it's a long way off.

Muckerman: Well, then, I think they said, wind and solar only account for about 1% of total energy this year. It's 6x improvement, from 1 to 6.5.

O'Reilly: That's over a fifth of a century, though.

Muckerman: Yeah, I know. But it's only 1%, and the world has been around for Lord knows how long, so we've been producing energy from fossil fuels for quite some time. So, they have a step ahead.
Im just so excited to be testing the W08, said Russell, who is attending this weekends Azerbaijan race to embed himself further with the team. Ive probably driven more virtual laps than anyone else with this car so its going to be incredible to drive it in reality!

Alongside competing for ART Grand Prix in the GP3 Series this season, Russell has completed significant simulator mileage for Mercedes at their Brackley base and has been training with the physical demands of F1 in mind.

The 19-year-old Briton first tested with the team in 2015, before joining the Mercedes-Benz Junior Programme this year. His Hungaroing session on August 1st and 2nd will be his first taste of 2017-spec Formula 1 machinery.

My biggest priority is to do a good job for the team, to tick off the items on the engineers programme and make sure we get the most out of the car and our running over the two days, added Russell.

Teams have just four days of in-season testing, two of which must be given over to young drivers. Mercedes used race drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas at the two-day session in Bahrain back in April.
Whats Going On includes upcoming one-time events in and around Racine County such as breakfasts, dinners, car washes, rummage sales, parties and dances intended to be money-raisers by or in behalf of nonprofit community organizations, either held or requiring reservations within the next two weeks. Events held on a regular basis are not used. Announcements must arrive at The Journal Times by noon Tuesday before the desired Saturday publication date. Announcements may only be used one time. Send information to the Online Calendar at www.journaltimes.com/calendar and select Benefit & Fundraiser under sections; mail information to Community, 212 Fourth St., Racine, WI 53403; fax to Loreen Mohr, 262-631-1780; or send email to lmohr@journaltimes.com.

Through Sept. 21

MOTORCYCLE RAFFLE

Raffle tickets (on sale since June 2) to win a 2017 Indian Scout 60 motorcycle. Raffle tickets cost $5 each, three for $10 or seven for $20 and can be purchased at Indian Motorcycle of Racine/The Nash, 522 Sixth St.; Gendlin, Liverman and Rymer, 246 Main St.; or the Downtown Racine Corp., 425 Main St. The motorcycle will be shown at Downtown events, such as Tuesday Night Thunder at Indian Motorcycle of Racine on Tuesday evenings this summer. The winner will be drawn during Party on the Pavement at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, at Indian Motorcycle of Racine. Proceeds benefit the Downtown Racine Corp.

Today

PETS AND/OR PEOPLE PORTRAITS

Spectrum Gallery, 600 21st St., 9-5 p.m. today, June 24. Professional photographers will take photographs of people and/or their pets around the DeKoven Center or by the lake. After viewing photographs on a computer, participants will choose their photographs for on-the-spot printing. Portrait costs are $10 for a 4-by-6-inch, $15 for a 5-by-7-inch and $25 for a 8.5-by-11-inch. Matting will also be available for an additional price. There are no sitting fees. Proceeds will benefit the nonprofit Spectrum Gallery. Appointments are recommended by calling 262-634-4345.

BE A HERO TO A HERO

Fountain Hills, 1100 Fountain Hills Drive, Mount Pleasant, 6-9 p.m. today, June 24. The event will include a spaghetti dinner, wine, music and raffles. Tickets cost $25 and are available from Fountain Hills and Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin, 1624 Yout St. Proceeds will benefit the Veterans Outreach of Wisconsins James A. Peterson Veterans Village.

Sunday

WORLDS LARGEST TEQUILA SUNRISE FUNDRAISER

Mileagers, 4838 Douglas Ave., Caledonia, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, June 25. For a $1 donation to the Caledonia Business Beautification fund, attendees will receive a toasting glass. The toast will be held at 10 a.m. sharp. There will also be a Great Lakes Farmers Market and live music by Mean Jake.

Monday-Friday

ASCENSION VIP DIMPLES SALE

Items are priced between $10-$50 and include items from Dimples gift shop, such as imported jewelry from India and Thailand, scarves, purses and colorful socks. Sale locations are:

Memorial Dining Room, 1320 Wisconsin Ave., 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday, June 26.

Sturtevant Room, 3801 Spring St., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Wednesday, June 27-28; 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday, June 29; and 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday, June 30.

Proceeds will benefit the program and equipment needs of the Ascension All Saints Hospital.

RELY LOCAL CARD FUNDRAISER

Sponsored by Volunteers in Partnership with Ascension All Saints Hospital, the sale will be held at the following times and locations:

Memorial Dining Room, 1320 Wisconsin Ave.  9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday, June 26.

Spring Street Campus, Sturtevant Room, 3801 Spring St.  9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, June 27-28; 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday, June 29; and 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday, June 30.

Cards cost $15 each and feature local discounts, free items and services. For specific values on Rely Local cards, go to www.RelyLocalKR.com. Cards are valid for one year and $10 from each sale will go to Volunteers In Partnership with Ascension, which in turn supports program and equipment needs of Ascension All Saints Hospital, as well as academic scholarships for associates and high school seniors. Cash and checks will be accepted.

July 13

AN EVENING WITH BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS

The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread, 33 E. Four Mile Road, 5:30 p.m. Thursday, July 13. The event will include hors doeuvres, a wine tasting and silent auction at 5:30 p.m., followed by a program and presentation of awards at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $50 each or $90 per couple. Reservations are required by June 30. For tickets, go to www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-big-brothers-big-sisters-tickets-34008580580?aff=es2 or print off form and mail check and form to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Racine and Kenosha Counties Inc., 3131 Taylor Ave., Building 4, Box 7, Racine, WI 53405.
Health care bill lacks the votes, Meadows says

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The Republican-backed Senate health care bill released on Thursday lacks the votes to pass in either the House or Senate, U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows told reporters in a conference call on Friday.

We dont have enough support among conservatives or moderates in either chamber to get it to the presidents desk, Meadows said.

His main concerns are, How do we make sure that we bring premiums down substantially, and how do we solidify the insurance markets so that theres enough insurance to provide coverage, he said.

The Senate bill provided a little stability, Meadows said, by adding funds for CSR payments, which would help those on Obamacare and reducing the percentage of people that receive subsidies to those at 350 percent of the poverty line.

That reduction doesnt affect a great amount of people in terms of the threshold, he said. Most people are covered through employer health plans. One of the recommendations is to look at subsidies looking at 400 percent and being able to buy premiums out of a health savings account.

A number of us that believe there should be an amendment for people to buy Obamacare plans or other non-compliant plans that would accurately reflect the risk that they have, for example someone in their 50s would have more coverage on certain types of illness than others, Meadows said. Having flexibility as a health care provider and insurance provider is important. Itll have the greatest effect on rates and affordability, he added.

In terms of Medicaid, because North Carolina isnt a Medicaid expansion state, the impact here wouldnt be great, Meadows said. But what is of concern to him is that North Carolina would receive its fair share in compensation.

"Im optimistic that we can improve the bill and get consensus among moderates and ultimately get it to President Trump, he concluded.

In response to Trumps calling of the bill mean, Meadows isnt focused on the labels it will receive, and has a different interpretation of Trumps response.

I think what hes responding to is that we not only handle preexisting conditions, but we fund it in a way to not give people anxiety, he said. I support him fully in that. They want to make sure we adequately fund it, make sure there is no anxiety for people with preexisting conditions. I see it as a push to get the Senate to increase dollars on some critical areas.

With regard to preexisting conditions, a heated topic within the bill, Meadows says they need to be covered. A preexisting conditions provision in the House and Senate bill was never bypassed, he said. If I have a preexisting condition and go to an insurance provider I would get the same rate as someone who doesnt have a preexisting condition.

The bill looks to decrease government support for Medicaid.

I would prefer to see greater flexibility for every state to deploy Medicaid dollars in a less prescriptive manner, Meadows said. Medicaid today is broken. We somehow think that Medicaid is working the way that it is, Medicaid doesnt work the way it currently is. The real key is allowing dollars to be deployed by legislature to meet the needs. The trajectory now is not sustainable for the health care provider. Theyre getting reimbursed less and less. Theres more work to be done, but its a broader Medicaid reform package outside of an ACA repeal and replace measure.

Meadows would like to see some changes in the bill before it is passed.

The biggest thing I would like to see in terms of amendments is to have flexibility for consumers where they can buy one of 20 plans that insurance providers are allowed by law to provide those plans and still qualify for subsidies offered by the federal government, he said. The second part is to expand the ability of HSAs to allow more people to buy those types of coverage. Health savings accounts are untaxed, but only those with a high deductible health plan are allowed to have them.

Critics of the bill criticize its process and the nature in which it was made.

I dont have a problem with the speed of which its being brought forth, Meadows said. Weve (Republicans) talked about repeal and replace for seven years. I do have a concern with trying to make sure legislation has top priority with does it lower premiums and does it stop hardworking tax payers from choosing between putting food on the table and paying premiums. Most people can agree that insurance premiums have continued to skyrocket. We need to do something about that and to make sure preexisting conditions are protected and covered. We will do those two things in a bill that has my approval. As for the secrecy from the Senate, Im for open process and transparency, he added. I think the more transparent the deliberation process, the better the product.

The bill will undergo the voting process next week.

Meadows also briefly discussed tax reform.

The biggest budget concerns are increasing the amount of money for defense and non-defense discretionary dollars, Meadows said. Those numbers right now are to increase defense spending by 75 billion, keep non-defense discretionary at current levels, where most of the consensus is building in the House. If were doing tax reform, we have mandatory spending cuts.

Next week will be critical for settling on a budget and final numbers, he added.

There is growing pressure to sequester for the military, he said. If we did that, it would be a monumental vote that we havent seen in the House or Senate in at least the last three congresses. Its a work in progress in terms of the budget. There are three different camps in the House: fiscal hawks, defense hawks and those that are more moderate in spending habits wanting to increase non-defense spending levels. We need to try to bring those groups together.
MOUNT PLEASANT  The unrest within village government and between competing factions runs deep.

Trustees cant agree on a seventh member to fill out the Village Board. A search for a human resources director and village administrator has caused a rift. They have even sparred on how Village Board meeting agendas are put together.

And since the April 4 election  which resulted in a new village president and split the factional Village Board at 3-3  complaints forwarded to state agencies for investigation have piled up.

Two were filed by former Village President Jerry Garski, who argues Mount Pleasant officials mishandled a report concerning alleged violations at his properties just before the election. Allegations related to the state's open meetings laws and conflicts of interest have also been made.

In addition to revealing tensions among the two factions involved in village government, the complaints also speak to ill feelings that remain from the election. In particular, Garski and his supporters feel the report about his property, and media coverage of it, unfairly influenced the election outcome.

I believe I was sabotaged to affect the outcome of the election by people who swore an oath to uphold the law, Garski said in a statement.

New Village President Dave DeGroot and his supporters, though, bristle at that suggestion. They believe complaints have been filed simply to generate bad headlines.

They're creating fake news so they've got something out there, so they can point to DeGroot in two years and say, 'Look at this guy, he's being investigated for ethics violations,' DeGroot said. "It really hasn't been getting any traction, because there's nothing to it."

Election revisited

The Garski report in question was officially released March 31, just four days before Garski faced re-election against DeGroot. An independent inspector, with whom the village contracted after multiple residents filed complaints against Garski, reported finding numerous violations on his two properties.

An early copy of the report leaked out about a week prior. Garski argues he legally had five days to supplement the report with comments and documentation before it was released. DeGroot and village officials believe the five-day rule doesn't apply to Garski because the complaints concerned his personal properties and were not related to his role as village president.

Garski also alleges the clerk's office did not provide licenses and permits granted to Garski's business, which resulted in erroneous ordinance violations. The violations are being appealed to the village's Zoning Board of Appeals, which will set a hearing on the matter, Interim Village Administrator Tim Zarzecki said.

"Important documents were withheld by the very people who issued them," Garski said. "They rushed to release a bogus report to someone who clearly didn't wish to see me win  hours before I received a copy."

DeGroot ultimately defeated Garski with 57 percent (2,156 votes) of the vote April 4.

DeGroot believes Garski has legitimate violations and the village did nothing improper, saying Garski has not operated his Garski Truck and Equipment business legally. Village Clerk Stephanie Kohlhagen, who earlier this year alleged harassment by Garski and some board members, declined comment. Zarzecki also did not comment on the complaint.

The status of the complaint is unclear. Kelly Gahaller, a campaign organizer for Garski, said the complaints were forwarded to the state Department of Justice. A department spokesman did not return messages.

Other complaints

Garski's complaint is only one of several filed in the last several months. Among the others:

 That DeGroot and Trustee Sonny Havn had a conflict of interest voting for the appointment of John Kis, a vice president at Tri City National Bank, as village trustee because DeGroot and Havn have negotiated mortgages with Tri City. David Buerger, staff counsel for the state Ethics Commission, said the commission terminated that complaint. No reason was given.

 That several officials with or connected to the village violate the states open meetings law by regularly meeting for breakfast. Village officials argue a quorum of Village Board members is not present at those gatherings, and that no laws have been broken.

Those complaints are on top of several others filed in the run-up to the election against Garski or his campaign  including allegations of campaign finance violations and refusing to comply with open records requests. The Garski campaign has denied the allegations.

A Department of Justice spokesman did not return a message seeking comment on the complaint.
Toronto  June 26, 2017  Cendyn, the most integrated CRM provider in the hospitality industry, is proud to announce the international debut of the company's flagship enhanced loyalty solution, eLoyalty. Created specifically for hotels, it gives loyalty members an easy-to-use portal to view status, redeem rewards and manage profiles, while providing staff with centralized management across the loyalty ecosystem.

eLoyalty, which is fully-integrated with Cendyn's eInsight CRM, is one of the hospitality industry's only dedicated loyalty platforms on the market today. Offering flexible configuration, eLoyalty boasts off the shelf scalability and automation with the flexibility needed by hotels to build unique loyalty programs.

HHM's Independent Portfolio of Hotels, with 12 boutique hotels in cities like New York and Key West, recently selected Cendyn eLoyalty alongside Cendyn CRM, email marketing and other Cendyn technology solutions.

"Cendyn e-Loyalty helps us better serve our guests and improve the guest experience," said Anthony Scotland, Senior Manager for Loyalty and Brand Marketing for HHM's Independent Portfolio of Hotels. "Cendyn gives us the ability to see data more clearly and better understand a guest's journey."

eLoyalty gives hoteliers a 360-degree view of guests and the ability to nurture customer relationships with a natural cadence that drives repeat bookings and brand loyalty.

"A loyalty program is one of the most important weapons a hotel can deploy in competing against the OTAs for direct bookings," said Tim Sullivan, Cendyn Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. "eLoyalty is the most powerful loyalty platform available, backed by the innovative technology and services that hoteliers have come to love from Cendyn."

About Cendyn

Cendyn is a cloud-based software and services provider that develops integrated technology platforms for driving sales and marketing performance in the travel and hospitality industry. The Cendyn Hospitality Cloud offers the most complete set of innovative software and services in the industry, covering hotel marketing, guest engagement, group sales, and event management. With offices in Boca Raton, Atlanta, Boston, San Diego, Toronto, Whistler, London and Singapore, Cendyn proudly serves more than 30,000 clients in 143 countries with enterprise spend levels in excess of $1 billion. For more information on Cendyn, visit www.cendyn.com.

About Independent Collection Hotels

The IC is a growing collection of cultivated lifestyle hotels located in unique residential neighborhoods of gateway cities across the US. Founded in New York, first in Tribeca and then in Brooklyn, it has grown to Philadelphia's Midtown Village, Boston's West End and Cambridge, Washington's Capitol Hill and Dupont Circle, down to South Florida in Miami's South Beach and Key West, and west to Santa Barbara and Santa Monica across the last five years. This distinctive hotel concept is renowned for its simple sophistication, authentic connection to local communities and personalized service. Independent Collection hotels are created for the independently minded traveler and invite guests to experience the true spirit of the city. For more information on Independent Collection, please visit www.independentcollection.com.

Media Contact:

Casey Munck

[email protected]

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London, June 24 (IBNS): Stress during the workday can lead to overeating and unhealthy food choices at dinnertime, but there could be a buffer to this harmful pattern.

A good nights sleep can serve as a protecting factor between job stress and unhealthy eating in the evening, indicates a new study co-authored by a Michigan State University scholar.

The study, published online in the Journal of Applied Psychology, is one of the first to investigate how psychological experiences at work shape eating behaviors, read the Michigan State University website.

We found that employees who have a stressful workday tend to bring their negative feelings from the workplace to the dinner table, as manifested in eating more than usual and opting for more junk food instead of healthy food, said Chu-Hsiang Daisy Chang, MSU associate professor of psychology and study co-author.

However, another key finding showed how sleep helped people deal with their stressful eating after work, she added. When workers slept better the night before, they tended to eat better when they experienced stress the next day.

The research involved two studies of 235 total workers in China. One study dealt with information-technology employees who regularly experienced high workload and felt there was never enough time in the workday. The second study involved call-center workers who often got stressed from having to deal with rude and demanding customers.

In both cases, workday stress was linked to employees negative mood while on the job, which in turn was linked to unhealthy eating in the evening, said Yihao Liu, co-author and assistant professor at the University of Illinois.

The study proposed two potential explanations, Liu said.

First, eating is sometimes used as an activity to relieve and regulate one's negative mood, because individuals instinctually avoid aversive feelings and approach desire feelings, he said. Second, unhealthy eating can also be a consequence of diminished self-control. When feeling stressed out by work, individuals usually experience inadequacy in exerting effective control over their cognitions and behaviors to be aligned with personal goals and social norms.

Chang said the finding that sleep protects against unhealthy eating following workday stress shows how the health behaviors are related.

A good night's sleep can make workers replenished and feel vigorous again, which may make them better able to deal with stress at work the next day and less vulnerable to unhealthy eating, she said.

To address the problem, companies should emphasize the importance of health management for their employees and consider sleep-awareness training and flexible scheduling.

Companies should also reconsider the value of food-related job perks, which have become very common.

Food-related perks may only serve as temporary mood-altering remedies for stressed employees, Chang said, and failure to address the sources of the work stress may have potential long-term detrimental effects on employee health.

The paper is titled Eating your feelings? Testing a model of employees work-related stressors, sleep quality and unhealthy eating.

In addition to Chang and Liu, authors included Jungi Shi from Sun Yat-sen University in China, Jaclyn Koopmann from Auburn University and Yifan Song and Mo Wang from the University of Florida.

Image: Wikimedia Commons




Guwahati, June 23 (IBNS) : Security forces on Friday morning apprehended six hardcore militants, including a ULFA (I) member, from the area along Meghalaya-Bangladesh border.

Assam police ADGP (Special Branch) Pallav Bhattacharya said following intelligence input, Assam police with the help of Meghalaya police and other security agencies, jointly launched operation along the international border with Bangladesh near Dawki and nabbed the militants.

"Intelligence Bureau (IB) informed us about movement of a militant group comprising by ULFA (I) and NDFB (S) at International bordering area. Following IB input, a team of Assam police had camped at the area to vigil the militants movement," Bhattacharya said.

The top Assam cops said security personnel apprehended six militants of the group from the area on Friday morning.

Among the nabbed militants, five are belonging to NDFB (S) and rest one to ULFA (I).

Meanwhile, a top source said that, huge cache of arms and ammunition have been recovered in possession from them.

he source said two top leaders of the outfit groups are included among them.

Several militants groups of North East India including ULFA (I), NDFB (S), Garo outfit GNLA are active along the bordering areas with Bangladesh and these outlawed groups set up few camps on the soil of the neighbouring county.



(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Chandigarh, Jun 24 (IBNS): A group of 15 men allegedly hacked a teen to death and stabbed his family members inside a moving train on Thursday evening after accusing them of carrying beef, reports said.

The deceased, who hails from Ballabgarh, Haryana, has been identified as Junaid, 19, who was travelling home with his brothers Haseem, Moeen and Mohsin after shopping for the upcoming Eid at Delhi's Jama Masjid.

According to a Times of India report, the group passed several communal abuses and humiliated the brothers, asking them to get out of the train.

However, contrary to the reports suggesting it as a communal clash, Haryana DGP B S Sandhu said it was a clash between two groups, in which the teenager died.

"This was a clash between two groups which resulted in the death of one person. We have already arrested one of the accused. Police teams are investigating and others too will be arrested," he was quoted as saying by the daily.

Explaining their plight, one of the victims said, "They started calling us names and said we were unpatriotic and anti-nationals and then started hitting us. They were pointing at a packet which had food and saying that we should not be allowed to sit since we were carrying beef."

He added that the incident took place in front of a GRP personnel, who stood as a mere spectator.

"To save ourselves, we called the police and the emergency response number but there was no response," the victim added.

Following the incident, the victims were rushed to a nearby hospital, where Junaid was declared brought dead.

Another victim, who sustained stab injuries, is said to be in a critical state and fighting for his life in AIIMS Trauma Centre.



Image: Internet Wallpapers


New Delhi, June 24 (IBNS) : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left for Portugal, beginning his three-nation tour that will also take him to the US and Netherlands.

PM @narendramodi emplaned for Portugal, after which he shall visit USA and Netherlands for important bilateral visits, the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) wrote on Twitter.

Modi's Portugal visit would precede his trip to the US on June 26. He will be on a day's visit the Netherlands on June 27.

In Portugal, Modi would hold talks with Antonio Costa, the Portugal Prime Minister of Indian origin, in Lisbon before flying to the US where he would meet President Donald Trump.

Modi's US visit is of great significance as as this would be for the first time he would meet Donald Trump after his Presidency began on January 20.

According to reports, House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is expecting a very robust discussion to take place between Trump and Modi.

On Friday, Modi had tweeted, "My USA visit is aimed at deepening ties between our nations. Strong India-USA ties benefit our nations & the world."

According to reports, combating terror and strengthening trade ties are expected to be the thrust areas, among others.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay had said Modis visit to the US has its own significance because it will be the first visit of the Prime Minister to engage with the new leader, with the new President (Donald Trump) after the elections last year in the United States.

On his way back, Modi would visit The Netherlands for talks with Prime Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague, besides calling on the King of The Netherlands Willem Alexander.

"My visit to Netherlands seeks to boost bilateral ties & deepen economic cooperation," Modi had tweeted.
Patna, June 24 (TheBiharPost/IBNS): Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president and union minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday suggested Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar not to sail on two boats saying this could prove disastrous for him.

Instead of sailing on two boats, he should jump to the NDA boat. Past records show those sailing on two boats have often got drowned, Paswan, who was here in Patna to host Iftar party, told the media on Saturday.



Paswan whose party is a key allay of the BJP has welcomed Kumar to the NDA. Kumars JD-U was earlier an NDA ally before it broke alliance in June 2013.



He (Kumar) is most welcome in the NDA. If he joins, Bihar will move faster on the right track, Paswan observed.



The BJP also went all out to woo Kumar to the NDA and hugely praised the latter for lending his support to the NDAs presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind.



We never left him, it was he who quit the NDA, remarked BJP minister Giriraj Singh.



However, the RJD launched massive attacks on the chief minister for ditching his partners.



Aisa koi saga nahin, jise Nitish ne thaga nahin (Nitish Kumar has ditched just everyone), alleged RJD legislator Bhai Birendra.

thebiharpost.com
Srinagar, June 24 (IBNS): A sub inspector died as terrorists opened fire at a vehicle of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) here on Saturday evening, media reports said.

The incident occurred near Panth Chowk bypass in Srinagar around 5:50 pm. The attack also left two jawans injured.

Inspector General CRPF Ravideep Sahi was quoted as saying by NDTV that, "Firing was on our vehicle. One Sub Inspector lost his life and two of our personnel are injured. We have cordoned the area."

The terrorists managed to escape through the busy locality.

No terror group has claimed the responsibility of the attack yet.


New York, June 21(Just Earth News): Amid Burundi's afragilea security situation, marked by recent grenade attacks in the capital, Bujumbura, a senior United Nations political official told the Security Council on Tuesday that regional actors and international partners must press for confidence-building measures that would be conducive for holding an inclusive and credible political dialogue in the country.

Recent weeks have seen grenade attacks in the capital, and repression and intimidation by security forces and associated groups, said Assistant Secretary-General Taye-Brook Zerihoun, updating the Council on the situation in Burundi.

He said that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), as well as human rights non-governmental organizations continued to report targeted arrests, arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment of real or perceived opposition members and supporters, as well as extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances.

Citing OHCHR, Zerihoun pointed out that incitement to hatred and violence have increased since April  with regular testimonies and video recordings of rallies by the Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the ruling CNDD-FDD.

He noted that the Government had not resumed interaction with OHCHR since it had suspended it in mid-October 2016 adding that the Commission of Inquiry on the human rights situation there regretted the lack of Government cooperation and access to the country.

The Commission of Inquiry has collected more than 470 testimonies of human rights violations allegedly committed in Burundi since 2015, to be presented in its final report to the Human Rights Council in September, Zerihoun said.

Given the current climate, implementation of proposals contained in a 12 May report of the National Commission for the Inter-Burundian Dialogue would likely lead to an escalation of the crisis, he said.

That report  which affirmed that a majority in Burundi supported a revision of the Constitution, a lifting of presidential term limits and changes to other provisions of the Arusha Agreement  had been denounced by opposition parties, as had the subsequent creation of a constitutional review commission.

Turning to other issues, he said the socioeconomic and humanitarian situations have also deteriorated.

Three million people in Burundi are in need of humanitarian assistance. Nearly 2.6 million others experience acute food insecurity, with over 700,000 in need of emergency food assistance. Mass displacement continues, due to natural hazards, food insecurity and socio-political factors, he explained.

Moreover, some 209,000 people are internally displaced. The number of Burundian refugees in neighbouring countries exceeds 400,000. Humanitarian actors have scaled up their response but have yet to reach the capacity required to meet emerging life-saving needs, he added.

Also briefing the Council, Jurg Lauber, of Switzerland, Chair of the Burundi Configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission, speaking via video link from Geneva, said the East African Community summit in Dar es Salaam was a key event that had demonstrated the importance of regional engagement, with Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda and Chair of the Community, reiterating his personal commitment to the Community-led mediation and calling for resumed socioeconomic cooperation with Burundi.

The summit provided clarity on the direction of the mediation process. Mkapa, former President of Tanzania, had presented a proposal outlining a series of steps to overcome the current situation and create the preconditions for democratic elections in 2020, which was welcomed by member Heads of State and Government.

UN: Photo

Source: www.justearthnews.com
RACINE  The men and women behind the success of Racines veterans village  the collection of tiny house built to house homeless vets  are looking to expand their program to other cities.

Doubling as a worker training program, the expansion plan centers around having Racines homeless vets build tiny houses and then shipping them to cities interested in having a veterans village of their own.

Leaders of the nonprofit Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin plan to present their plan to mayors from across country Monday at a U.S. Conference of Mayors gathering in Miami, a press release from Mayor John Dickerts office states.

"We're simply introducing that idea to the nation," Dickert said when reached Friday. "We want to see if they have interest in utilizing our folks in Racine to start building these."

Speaking to the conferences Ending Veterans Homelessness Task Force, VOW Director Jeff Gustin, VOW staff member Shannon Goodman, project facilitator Fiona Murphy and Dickert will share the story of a how a small group of people made a big thing happen for veterans in Racine, according to the release.

"These are the folks that helped create funding," Dickert said. "Jeff is the catalyst of this whole thing. All we did as a city was give them help to get this going."

Joining them will be Zack Giffin, host of the popular show "Tiny House Nation" on FYI TV. Giffin joined VOW for a house building/training session last summer. The event included veterans and community volunteers working to build two of the 15 houses expected to complete the veterans village.

The three-day training session was captured in a video that will be shared at the Monday's U.S. Conference of Mayors task force meeting.

Dickert believes the conference is a great venue for the presentation because mayors from around the country traditionally present on best practices being utilized in their cities. He added that President Barack Obama challenged mayors during his term to eliminate veteran homelessness.

"We had to figure out on our own what are ways to solve this," Dickert said. "We took it to the next level."

As of earlier this month, there were nine houses at the Racine veterans village.
New York, June 22(Just Earth News): Deliberate actions by the Government and opposition armed forces as well as other actors to advance their political goals continue to severely undermine efforts to get the country back on the path to peace and development, the top United Nations peacekeeping official has warned.

We must not lose sight of the fact that this tragedy is man-made, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told the Security Council on Wednesday.

He added that the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA)-in Government, the SPLA-in Opposition, and various other entities, took decisions that have fed the conflict, creating ever deeper divisions between the people of South Sudan.

In his briefing to the 15-member Council, Lacroix emphasized that while the Organization continues to make every effort to implement its commitment to the country, only a truly inclusive political process and the genuine political will of the key protagonists to end the conflict and implement agreements they reached will bring peace to the war-torn country.

Continued violence and insecurity has left more than half of South Sudan's population in need of food aid. Furthermore, a third of its population is displaced and half of those displaced have sought refuge in neighbouring Uganda, Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Of particular concern, Lacroix said, are persisting hostilities in many parts of the country, even after a ceasefire commitment made by President Salva Kiir.

He also informed Council members that in the midst of the fighting, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) is doing its utmost to protect civilians.

Our peacekeepers are persistent in getting through checkpoints to reach vulnerable populations, even when the patrols are threatened and, at times, shot at [], giving the populations confidence that we are there to protect them enables us to report human rights abuses, and helps us to support our humanitarian partners in ensuring that assistance goes to those who need it most.

He also updated members on progress towards the deployment of the Rapid Protection Force (RPF), mandated by the Council last year to provide a secure environment in and around capital Juba, and noted some issues concerning the plot of land provided by the Government to the RPF to establish its northern basing site.

Further in his briefing, with regard to a pledge made by President Kiir to release political prisoners, the UN peacekeeping chief told the Council that while one UN staff member was released recently, two others have been held for two years without charge, and another has recently been detained in Rumbek.

We must judge the President's commitments by his actions, not his words, said Lacroix, also calling for full freedom of movement for the Ceasefire Transitional Security Arrangement Monitoring Mechanism (CTSAMM) to monitor and verify ceasefire violations as well as UNMISS, which have faced far too many obstructions to their movements, making their work extremely challenging, and in some cases, impossible.

UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, June 22(Just Earth News): Facing a fast-growing refugee crisis, Uganda is set to host in its capital, Kampala, a 'Solidarity Summit' with the support of the United Nations, to rally international support for refugees and host communities in the form of donations, investments and innovative programmes.

The two-day Summit, which opens Thursday, 22 June, comes as the UN estimates that in just one year, largely due to an influx of people fleeing violence and instability in South Sudan, the refugee population in Uganda has more than doubled  from 500,000 to more than 1.25 million  making the country host to the world's fastest growing refugee emergency.

Hosted by President Yoweri Museveni and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the event, which is expecting 30 Heads of State and international donors, looks to raise $2 billion to meet the humanitarian needs of refugees and to support the hosting communities over the next four years.

Nearly 86 per cent of all South Sudanese refugees in Uganda are women and children

For many South Sudanese refugees, the first stop once they cross the border is Imvepi camp in northern Uganda's Arua district. A tent run by UN partner organization Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym, MSF, is where they receive vaccinations, malnutrition screenings and primary healthcare.

Mary Opangi, a young woman from crisis-torn Yei town in South Sudan, was nine months pregnant when she fled, and gave birth just after arriving at the Ugandan border. Just as we came there, my stomach started to feel pain, that's why they took me to the hospital, she said.

She is one among a seemingly endless stream of daily arrivals that are putting a huge strain on Uganda's already meagre available resources.

Imvepi camp, which opened in February this year and is already filling up, is hosting 120,000 refugees, U Aye Maung, Field Officer for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told UN News, which is on the ground in Uganda ahead of the Summit.

Water is scarce, he explained, and providing adequate shelter is another challenge the UN refugee agency is facing.

I think the biggest challenge is, if you see the terrains, one is the scarcity of water, we need a huge [amount] of water supplies every day. If you see 100,000 people [in the camp]  shelter will be another priority for the next.

Furthermore, the newly arriving refugees depend entirely on food assistance.

The current funding does not cover the vast needs, the UN Office in Uganda underscored, and there is a risk that food rations might get cut.

Uganda has also opened its doors to refugees from Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. With an average of 2,000 new arrivals each day, the country needs urgent and robust support to deal with the refugee crisis.

'Uganda's magnificent response has been met by meagre support' UN refugee agency chief

In an opinion piece, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the South Sudan refugee crisis and the question of Uganda's capability and resilience is proving to be an early test of the commitments of the New York Declaration, adopted at a UN Summit last year with the aim of helping Stat plan a just, coordinated approach for global governance of both refugees and migrants within two years.

So far, Uganda's magnificent response has been met by meagre support, but [] there's a chance to turn the page, he said, stressing international indifference undermines Uganda's often-praised model for welcoming, supporting and integrating refugees. Yet, the Solidarity Summit is a chance for the world to step up so Uganda can continue to show us the way.

UN Photo/Mark Gartenl

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, June 24(Just Earth News): Calling for immediate humanitarian action amid rising malnutrition, thirst and disease, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday that millions of lives are at risk in four countries stretching from Africa to the Middle East.

The welcome announcement of an end to famine conditions in South Sudan earlier this week should not distract from the severe food insecurity that continues to put the lives of millions of children at risk in north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, said UNICEF.

The crisis is far from over and we must continue to scale up our response and insist on unconditional humanitarian access, otherwise the progress made could be rapidly undone, said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Director for Emergency Programmes, in a press statement.

There is no room for complacency, he continued. While famine has been reversed in South Sudan, the lives of millions of children are still hanging by a thread.

In north-east Nigeria, Boko Haram violence continues to contribute to large-scale population displacement, limit market activity and restrict normal livelihoods. Around 5.2 million people remain severely food insecure, with 450,000 children expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year. With deteriorating road conditions and flooding making populations harder to reach, the rainy season will further complicate the humanitarian response and raise the risk of water-borne diseases.

The fragile Somali population, battered by conflict, is facing further exposure to prolonged drought. An estimated 275,000 children will suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2017, making them nine times more likely to die of diseases such as cholera, acute watery diarrhoea and measles, which are spreading through the country.

After a scaled-up humanitarian response, famine in South Sudan has eased, according to new analysis released this week. However, the situation remains dire across a country where some six million people struggle to find enough food each day  the highest level of food insecurity ever experienced there. This year, an estimated 276,000 South Sudanese children will be severely malnourished.

In Yemen, an estimated 400,000 children are severely malnourished as an unprecedented cholera outbreak  with over 175,000 suspected cases and more than 1,000 deaths to date has complicated the ongoing humanitarian response. Some of the children who have become ill or died from cholera were already suffering from malnutrition, which had weakened their immune systems.

Moreover, Yemen's healthcare system is on the brink of collapse, with hospitals and treatment centres struggling to cope amid dwindling medicines and medical supplies. As the conflict continues, famine is a possible worst-case scenario.

Beyond these four countries, food, water and health crises are endangering hundreds of thousands of children across the Greater Horn of Africa, the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel.

This year, UNICEF is working with partners to provide therapeutic and life-saving food treatment to severely malnourished children in Nigeria (314,000), South Sudan (200,000), Somalia (200,000) and Yemen (320,000).

UNICEF is also restoring and equipping health facilities, developing medical and nutritional supply pipelines and providing clean and safe water to vulnerable children and families.

Photo: UNICEF/Hatcher-Moore

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Damascus, June 24 (IBNS): At least eight people has been killed in bombing against militant group Islamic Statein Syria's al-Raqqa province, a UK based war monitor reported on Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the victims included women and children.

Speaking on the toll, the SOHR website said: "It rose to 8 including women and children."

"The number of civilians who were killed in shelling of warplanes on areas in Mhimideh town in the western countryside of Deir Ezzor," it said.

Photo: UNICEF/Rami Zayat




New York, June 24(Just Earth News): United Nations Secretary-General AntAnio Guterres has condemned the twin bombing at a marketplace in Parachinar, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, and a suicide attack at a checkpoint in Quetta, Balochistan.

He hopes those responsible for these crimes will be swiftly brought to justice, according to a statement issued on Friday by his spokesperson.

According to news reports, dozens of people were killed and more than 100 were injured in the two separate attacks. Early on Friday, a bomb attack took place in Quetta in Pakistan's south-west. In the afternoon, deadly blasts hit a market in Parachinar.

Further to the statement, Guterres extended his condolences to the families of the victims and wished the injured a speedy recovery. He also expressed his solidarity with the people and Government of Pakistan and its efforts to fight terrorism and violent extremism.

UN Photo/Violaine Martin (file)

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Kabul, June 24 (IBNS) : Over 50 insurgents belonging to the Taliban group and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist groupas offshoot in Afghanistan were killed during operations in northern Jawzjan province, state-run Khaama Press quoting the Ministry of Defense (MoD).

MoD deputy spokesman Gen. Mohammad Radmanish said on Friday that the operations were conducted in the vicinity of Darzab district during the past several days.

He said at least 40 militants affiliated with the ISIS terrorist group were killed and around ten others were wounded.

Gen. Radmanish further added that several commanders of the terror group were also wounded during the operations.

According to Gen. Radmanish, at least eleven Taliban insurgents including their main commander for Jawzjan were also killed during the operations.

He said the Taliban commander killed during the operation has been identified as Shamsullah.

The Taliban insurgents and ISIS loyalists have not commented regarding the report so far.
Islamabad, June 24 (IBNS): The death toll in the blasts in Quetta and Parachinar area of Pakistan has touched 63, media reports said.

According to reports, the toll crossed 60 after nine more people injured in the twin Parachinar blasts passed away overnight.

More than 200 injured are being treated in hospitals, Dawn News reported.

The blasts hit Pakistan on the last Friday before Eid.

More casualties were reported in Parachinar where 50 people were killed.

This occurred as a secodn blast targeted people who rushed to help victims of the first blast.

Eyewitnesses in Parachinar told Dawn News the first blast, which took place in the busy Turi Market where people were shopping for Eid, occurred minutes after an Al Quds Day rally had started dispersing at some distance from the crime scene.

Muhammad Hussain, who sustained injuries in the incident, told the media house that he was heading for his poultry shop after the conclusion of the Al Quds rally when the first blast took place.

I lost consciousness after the second blast and later found myself on a hospital bed, Hussain was quoted as saying by the Pakistani newspaper.


Toronto, Jun 24 (IBNS) With a few hours left before a legal strike deadline, the Ontario Public Services Employees Union (OPSEU) is negotiating with Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) management to crunch out a fair deal for workers and avoid the looming strike.

The union representing workers at the LCBO has also launched a new website  www.LiqiLeaks.ca  and an extensive advertising campaign to expose the reality of their working conditions and reason for the strike.

The website tells the real story of whats happening at the LCBO, and includes a section Real People. Real Stories. filled with first-hand interviews that provide a window into what life is like for workers.

The LCBO in its attempt to ease the hardship of their customers has extended store hours for a select number of locations across the province from Thursday, June 22 to Sunday, June 25 and on Sunday, July 2, to accommodate shopping for Canada Day activities and in advance of a potential labour disruption.

George Soleas, the LCBOs president, said in a message posted online that the liquor chains stores and wholesale network should be able to operate through a labour disruption.

It is unfortunate that the union has chosen a timetable which raises the possibility of a potential labour disruption at one of our busiest times of the year. Our customers need to be able to plan ahead, particularly as we approach the Canada Day long weekend, Soleas said.

Supporting the employees, Warren (Smokey) Thomas, President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), saidthe employer has brought this on itself.

While talking to a Breakfast Television channel Smokey said the fact 84 per cent of LCBO workers are part-time is bringing these negotiations to the brink of a strike.

In a separate statement to the media, Thomas added that the way that senior management has acted, and the pressure from the provincial government to drive up profits, no matter the cost to workers, has brought us to the brink of a strike, and no worker should be treated the way these folks are being treated right now  especially not at a profitable Crown corporation that can afford to do better.

According to OPSEU the better employment for LCBO would be to give part-time workers a path to full-time jobs and that should not take 15 years or more; bringing immediate end to two-hour shifts as well as splitting shifts between workers when theres a full shift available for most of the employees.

It also called for protecting store employees from having to work alone by building internal resources instead of contracting work out to temp agencies.

The LCBO should be setting an example for Ontario employers, not joining a race to the bottom with Walmart. the President of OPSEU further added

It doesnt have to be this way, said Thomas. We hope that growing public pressure on the government and LCBO management will help them do the right thing and come to the table with a fair deal for these workers."

OPSEU union representing LCBO workers sayid that as negotiations continue it is turning up the pressure on Premier Kathleen Wynnes government to sign a new collective agreement and fix what it says are significant quality-of-life issues facing employees at the Crown corporation before a June 26 strike deadline. Both sides in the dispute are warning Ontarians to stock up on liquor before the Canada Day long weekend.

According to a LCBO Store Manager in North Brampton the sales have gone up by more than 50% in the past 3 days with a big line up at the cash counters. He said the timing of the looming strike is coinciding with the Canada Day long weekend and also July being summer month with excellent weathers there are weddings in the coming weeks as well.

The 8,000 unionized LCBO workers, who have been without a contract since March 31, voted 93 per cent in favor of a strike in April. and the same was echoed by this Manger at Brampton location who did not shun to show his approval for the strike and confirmed most of the employees at his store are working part time.

(Reporting by Suman Das,Image: IBNS Canada)
New Delhi, June 12 (IBNS): In pursuance of Indiaas Act East policy, Indian Naval Ship Sahyadri is on an overseas deployment to the South East Asia and Southern Indian Ocean. The ship would be on a port visit to Moresby from 12 June to 15 June 2017.

The visit of the Indian Naval Ships seeks to underscore Indias peaceful presence and solidarity with friendly and harmonious countries towards ensuring good order in the maritime domain and to strengthen existing bonds between Papua New Guinea and India, read a government statement.

During the state visit of Indian President Pranab Mukherjee in April 2016, a number of constructive discussions were held on the shared desire to enhance the ties of friendship and cooperation that defined the relationship between the two countries.

During the stay in harbour, various activities such as official calls, formal reception on board ships, ships open to visitors, guided tours for Indian naval personnel, professional interaction between naval personnel of both the nations and Community Welfare activities have been planned.

"Indian Naval assets have been increasingly deployed in recent times to address the main maritime concerns of the region. In addition, as part of the Indian Governments vision of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region), the Indian Navy has also been involved in assisting countries in the Indian Ocean Region with EEZ Surveillance, Search and Rescue, and other capacity-building and capability- enhancement activities. The current deployment will contribute towards the Indian Navys efforts to Consolidate inter-operability and forge strong bonds of friendship across the seas," read a government statement.

Over the past few decades, India has made substantial advances in terms of designing and building warships indigenously and the visiting ships bear testimony to these capabilities. INS Sahyadri, a multi-role stealth frigate is commanded by Captain Anil Jaggi.
Thirty-six percent of large institutional investors prefer renewable assets to traditional energy such as oil, according to Preqin.

More than half of conventional energy investors are now putting money to work in renewable resources.

Fifty-two percent are targeting renewable assets for their portfolios, according to a Preqin report Thursday. The financial data provider said that large institutional investors with more than $10 billion of assets are more likely to prefer renewable resources in their holdings.

Traditional energy investors are allocating capital to renewable energy to diversify their portfolios and keep up with increasing demand in emerging economies, according to the report. Its another sign that interest in sustainable sources of energy is gaining momentum, a global shift that may not be derailed by President Donald Trumps decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement battling climate change.

Even though oil prices are low and traditional energy sources are cheaper, the ship has sailed on renewables, said Tyler Rosenlicht, vice president and portfolio manager at real asset investment firm Cohen & Steers.

Emerging economies with large-scale energy projects aimed at improving living standards will create investment opportunities in both renewable and conventional energy, according to Preqin.

Although the decision made by the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris Agreement poses a challenge for the renewables industry in the U.S., the continued commitments of other countries to this agreement is likely to result in opportunities for fund managers and investors targeting these regions, Preqin said.

Renewable-focused funds have raised $5 billion this year, surpassing fundraising for pools targeting conventional energy, according to a report earlier this month from the data provider.

The stable returns that a diversified energy portfolio provides is likely enticing investors to consider assets tied to oil and gas, as well as those in solar or wind.

Energy funds that invest in both renewable and conventional energy perform roughly on par with conventional energy investments and with less dispersion, or difference between the best and worst performing investments, according to the report released Thursday by Preqin.

Thirty-six percent of renewable energy investors with more than $10 billion under management prefer renewable energy, the report shows. That includes 17 percent with more than $50 billion of assets.

A smaller percentage leans toward traditional energy. Twenty-eight percent of institutional investors that manage more than $10 billion prefer conventional energy investments, including 11 percent with more than $50 billion of assets, according to Preqin.

Investments in energy, including renewable resources, will have to expand to keep up with rising demand from a growing population, Rosenlicht said. Otherwise, how are you going to grow that supply?
Business The Irrawaddy Business Roundup

Myanmar has ordered thousands of bus engines from a large Chinese manufacturer as it seeks to improve inefficient transport systems. People ride a bus in Yangon, Myanmar January 16, 2017. / Reuters

Sanctions Off the Books, Some Restrictions Remain

The US Department of the Treasury removed sanctions regulations against Myanmar from the code of federal regulations on June 16 in a final move by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to culminate actions taken by the Obama administration in October of last year.

However US financial institutions must still undertake enhanced due diligence when processing financial transactions involving Myanmar because it remains a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern pursuant to section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the legal website Lexology noted.

Myanmar businesspersons were removed from the Specially Designated Nationals list last October. But Americans doing business in Myanmar should continue to screen counterparties because they could be designated under other sanctions regimes such as North Korea and narcotics trafficking, according to the report.

Under Americas Jade Act, a non-disclosed list of Myanmar military officials and any other Burmese persons who provide substantial economic and political support to the military are still subject to a visa ban, and the US Department of States Directorate of Defense Controls continues to maintain a policy to deny exports of defense articles and services to Myanmar.

Lexology reported that Americans were still encouraged to remain vigilant when conducting legal business with and in Myanmar due to remaining concerns about corruption, money laundering, and informal banking practices.

Nevertheless, the latest removal of regulations represents another step in the improving US-Myanmar relations, recognizing Myanmars democratic advancement, and welcoming it back into the community of nations, the report stated.

Bus Engines Ordered from China

Myanmar has ordered thousands of bus engines from Chinese company Guangxi Yuchai Machinery, a subsidiary of China Yuchai International, the company announced.

Guangxi Yuchai Machinery received an initial order for 2,000 of its YC6G260N heavy-duty natural gas engines to power buses to be used in Yangons public transportation system.

A further batch of 1,000 of the engines which are compliant with Euro V emission standards is expected to be ordered later, the statement said.

This order coincides with the Chinese governments One Belt One Road initiative to increase economic cooperation between China and European and Asian countries, it added.

Guangxi Yuchai Machinery has headquarters in Yulin, Guangxi Province and is a leading engine manufacturer in China, making a wide variety of light-, medium- and heavy-duty engines for trucks, buses, passenger vehicles, construction equipment and marine and agriculture applications. It was founded in 1951 and sold 320,424 engines in 2016, according to its website.

Logistics Firm Wins Start-Up Competition

Yangon-based logistics startup Kargo won the Myanmar leg of a global competition for early startups organized on June 21 in the commercial capital. The competition was organized by Seedstars World, a Swiss operation that promotes start-ups in emerging markets.

Kargo will head to Switzerland in April next year to compete with other startups from around 80 countries for a chance to receive up to $1 million in equity investment.

The Yangon firm also received a six-digit investment a month ago from Singapore-based venture capital firm Vulpes Investment Management, DealStreet Asia reported.

Eight startups from Myanmar participated in the pitching session for Seedstars World in Yangon, including agri-mobile app Greenovator; healthcare service Doctor On Call; Agtrade, a market-matching platform for farmers, brokers and traders and Amyanpoh, a delivery solution for e-commerce, DealStreet reported.

Kargo operates a fleet of independent truck drivers and companies for on-demand delivery around the country, with services offered in Yangon, Mandalay, Taunggyi, Pathein, Pyay and Lashio.

Seedstars World works closely with Omidyar Network, AYA Bank, Ooredoo and others in Myanmar. It hopes to establish a long-term presence in the country, according to DealStreet.

Cranes Ordered for Thilawa Port

The Myanmar Port Authority has awarded contracts to a Japanese company for two ship-to-shore cranes and six rubber-tire gantry cranes for a new container terminal being constructed at Thilawa Port, a trade website reported.

The terminal is expected to be completed in the autumn of 2018 and will be able to handle more and larger ships than congested Yangon port, according to the report.

Japan-based Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co. won the US$27.3 million contract for the cranes which are due to be delivered late next year.

Thilawa is Myanmars first special economic zone and formally opened for business in September 2015 as a large-scale joint project between Myanmar and Japan.

Japans Toyo Construction Co. and JFE Engineering Corporation were awarded contracts early last year to build an 18-hectare container terminal at Thilawa, which is set to become one of the countrys key logistics hubs.

Nippon Express, Japans largest international freight forwarder, opened a new warehouse at the economic zone on June 1.

Global Logistics Firm Opens Office

International logistics and supply chain management firm CEVA has opened a dedicated office in Yangon.

CEVA is owned by US-based venture capitalists Apollo Management, according to its website, and employs 41,000 people in operations all over the world.

The company is offering a full spectrum of air and ocean freight services from Myanmar, where it has also operated freight management services through a partner for five years.

Myanmar has strong growth potential, said CEVAs Mekong area manager Bruno Plantaz.

In the past, the country infrastructure has always been a limiting and inhibiting factor, but with our global network and more importantly, our experience in emerging markets, especially in the region, we are confident that with our own office and robust IT offerings we can deliver options and solutions to the market and at the same time grow our commercial footprint, Plantaz said in a company release.

China Freezes Myanmar Traders Accounts

Myanmar authorities were negotiating last week to reopen more than 300 bank accounts of Myanmar nationals frozen by banks in Shweli, Yunnan Province, China, The Irrawaddy reported.

The Myanmar authorities informed Chinese officials that the accounts belonged to Myanmar traders who were not involved in money laundering, gambling or trafficking.

Chinese bank officials said they were still checking the accounts, a Myanmar representative said.

The Chinese embassy in Yangon issued a statement on Monday saying the move was a crackdown on crime and illegal trade, but promised to free legitimate accounts and protect long-term stability with Myanmar. More than a hundred people held a protest march against the closures in Shweli on Friday.

In other media reports, traders said the accounts were mainly held by traders exporting rice and sugar. China is trying to discourage sugar imports and sugar smuggling as domestic sugar mills are facing competition from cheap imports, some reports suggested.
Dateline Dateline Irrawaddy: Govt Has Done Nothing for Independent Ethnic Media

The Irrawaddy discusses challenges facing ethnic nationality media outlets, including safety, exile, and a lack of infrastructure and support.

Ye Ni: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! The role of ethnic media is important in Myanmar, which is a multiethnic country. This week, founder and chief editor of Arakanese media Narinjara News Agency U Khaing Myat Kyaw and ethnic Kachin reporter Ma Nan Lwin Pwint of The Irrawaddy join me to discuss ethnic media. Im Irrawaddy Burmese editor Ye Ni.

According to the Information Ministry, there are over 885 publications published in ethnic languages either by government agencies or by independent media. Your Narinjara News Agency operated in exile in Bangladesh during the military regime, and returned to Myanmar after private media was allowed under the U Thein Sein government, and it continues operation under the civilian government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. How has your news agency struggled and what challenges has it faced, and is facing, through the past and at present?

Khaing Myat Kyaw: Our news agency was established in Bangladeshs Dhaka in 2001. At that time, we had enormous difficulties in gathering news because there was no phone or internet in Burma. [Reporters] had to come and report in person. We operated our news agency based on such news reports. So, we had real difficulties in gathering news while we were in exile. We were allowed to come back to Myanmar in 2014 under President U Thein Seins government. Then, it was a lot easier to do reporting in comparison to the past because there is much greater access to internet and mobile phones in Myanmar. Plus, people have more appreciation for the role of media compared to the past. As they understood the benefits brought by the media, they started to cooperate. So, at present, regarding the gathering of news, we can gather it swiftly and contact and interview sources easily. Therefore, it has been easier and more convenient to gather and publish news compared to the past.

YN: Where is your news agency headquartered? Sittwe or Yangon? Is it online-only media or does it publish a journal?

KMK: We dont have a printing press in Sittwe. We publish a journal. So, we have to run an office in Yangon and distribute journals to Arakan State. We also run a weekly TV program called Ethnic Language TV in cooperation with DVB. We also run online media. We have website and a Facebook page. It is more convenient to operate in Yangon because of greater access to electricity here than in Sittwe. Previously, Sittwe did not have access to electricity at all. It has just been one or two years that it has had access to electricity. As you know, as we need to publish news reports quickly, and make sure the news reports reach the people swiftly, we are headquartered in Yangon, which has convenient communications. And we also run a liaison office in Sittwe and have reporters in different places. They gather news and send it to us by phone or email. So, though were headquartered in Yangon, we gather news by all means, not only by phone, but also in person and by email, and internet.

YN: As you said, [ethnic areas] dont have electricity like major towns, and in some areas, the educational standards are much lower than those in major towns. You have to gather reporters to run a media outlet. So, Ma Nan Lwin Hnin Pwint, how are reporters gathered in remote towns? And what are the challenges for those wishing to become journalists?

Nan Lwin Hnin Pwint: There are various conflict issues, particularly in Kachin State, such as violations of human rights, and displacement from clashes. So, there is a greater need for reporters in order to make those voices heard. There are many youth [in Kachin State] who want to be journalists to reveal the truth and write about the plight of their people. Their difficulty lies in choosing media outlets to work in. Some of my friends gather those wishing to become journalists and organize basic journalism trainings with the assistance of religious leaders, and they are then trained by senior journalists. It is however quite hard for them to work in ethnic media outlets. There are various challenges both in terms of safety and pay for those working as journalists in ethnic areas. And compared to big news agencies in Yangon, media outlets in ethnic areas cannot take responsibility for the safety of their reporters. But again, if ethnic reporters come to work in Yangon, they have to engage with new people, as it is not their hometown, and have to try harder than others. For instance, they have to rent a house and so on. So, it is hard for ethnic people to pursue journalism careers.

YN: Most of the ethnic regions are experiencing conflicts. So how does the media in ethnic regions operate amid the conflicts between the Burma Army and ethnic armed groups, between ethnic armed organizations themselves and between different ethnic groups?

NLHP: I have a friend, and when clashes recurred in 2011 in Kachin State, there were many people who got into trouble, and he wanted to help them. He decided to help as a reporter since it is difficult for reporters from Yangon to come and gather news in Kachin State because of the language barrier and unfamiliarity with the area. So, he sought the funds from organizations, and established Kachinwaves media. Almost six years after he established it, he still finds it difficult to identify himself as a reporter in conflict zones. Since he lives in the same area, when he comes back from conflict zones and writes reports, he is the only person who has to take responsibility for his report. There is no one who can protect him. Again, as he lives in Kachin [State] and is an ethnic Kachin, he is vulnerable to accusations. It is easy to accuse him of associating with ethnic armed groups and publishing misinformation. So, they have to consider their safety in making reports. Some of my Shan friends work as reporters in northern Shan State. But when they go to gather news from the Burma Army, they are accused of being the spies of ethnic armed groups. In some cases, if reporters get along with ethnic armed groups and it is easy to get news from them, the Burma Army will brand them as propagandists. In some cases, the army threatens to kill the reporters if they come, saying that they are spies.

YN: Ko Khaing Myat Kyaw, Arakan State is a sensitive area. So, what are the difficulties you face in reporting there?

KMK: Yes, there are also clashes in Arakan State between the Arakan Army (AA) and the Tatmadaw. But in covering those clashes, we can only get statements released by AA. And we have to make reports based on those statements. We could never phone and interview the Tatmadaw. So, anyway, those reports are not impartial, but biased. We have to refer to the sources of AA and the reports are therefore one-sided, and Tatmadaw accuses us of being biased toward the rebels. In fact, we dont want to be like that. We do want to make balanced reporting. But we could never ever phone and interview Tatmadaw. So, the Tatmadaw needs to release the correct information in remote areas, especially in ethnic areas. We also have difficulties in gathering news, and we cant get any information from the Arakan State government. As you said, Arakan State is a sensitive area with various problems. Therefore, misinformation can fuel the problems. In particular, no one [in state government] has ever answered about problems in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships. And in case of storm, we need to inform the public immediately. But we could ask no one about the storm Mora. If we have to wait two or three days in such cases, the information will become useless. So, the problem is we have enormous difficulty with our right to information.

YN: The market for ethnic media is small in ethnic regions. And the spending power of ethnic media is also very limited. So, how do they survive?

KMK: The incumbent government said it would promote ethnic media and ethnic languages and culture. But it has only done so for those working in the ministries. For example, it provided cultural assistance for ethnic people working in [the state-run] MRTV and so on. But until today, the government has done nothing for independent [ethnic] news agencies. The former information minister U Ye Htut however discussed and reached some agreements with us for the development of ethnic languages. But the incumbent government still cant materialize itit will depend on the governments policy. Again, most of the ethnic media have to rely on funds of international NGOs because we dont have the market. We dont have a market in which we can sell between 5,000 to 10,000 copies of newspapers. And we dont get advertisements either. So, every [ethnic] journal is making a loss. So, if we didnt get international assistance, it would be quite hard for ethnic media to survive.

NLHP: People in ethnic areas tend to have greater trust in their local ethnic media because of the language and contact. For example, Kachin people have greater trust in publications published in Kachin language as they can read it themselves. Publications from Yangon cant arrive in a timely way because of poor transportation, and therefore there is a need for the development of ethnic media. In some western countries, the governments impose taxes related to radio and television, and share it with the media. If the government would do this and help ethnic media, they would be able to operate even if they dont get funds from international organizations.

KMK: Another thing is there is no ethnic radio station or TV channels owned by ethnicities. This is a big gap, I think. So, the government should ensure there are ethnic language-speaking TV channels in ethnic regions like Shan, Chin, Arakan and Mon. It also needs to encourage and enable ethnicities to operate community radio including FM. Only then, will there be a swifter flow of information, and the gap between us will be reduced.

YN: Thank you both for your contributions!
Guest Column Will Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaings Russia Visit Unlock More Military Cooperation?

Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing in Russia. / Facebook

At the VI Moscow Conference on International Security organized in April 2017, the Russian deputy defense minister Lt-Gen Alexander Fomin held talks with Rear Admiral Myint Nwe, deputy defense minister of Myanmar. The meeting confirmed commander-in-chief of Myanmars armed forces Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaings visit to Russia this month.

Alexander Fomin remarked we see good prospects of cooperation in military and military-technical fields between the two countries from the upcoming visit of the commander-in-chief of Myanmar.

Alexander Fomin can be said to be a key player in Russias expansion of military ties with foreign countries in the past few years. He has taken a lead role in Russias military technical cooperation with international countriesin other words, finding new markets for Russias military technology.

From 2005 to 2015, he served in the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, and was promoted through the ranks from deputy director to director. In January this year, he was appointed deputy defense minister.

Alexander Fomin reportedly has cordial ties with Myanmars military. After visits were exchanged between Russian defense minister Sergey K. Shoygu and Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing in 2013, Lt-Gen Alexander Fomin visited Myanmar in November of the same year in his capacity as the joint-chairman of the Russia-Myanmar military technical cooperation.

When Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing went to Belarus in November 2014, he made a stopover in Russia for transit, and Alexander Fomin came and met him at the airport. In September 2015, he visited Myanmar again. Whenever he met Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the discussion focused on the promotion of military ties and military technical cooperation. It can be said that his discussions have achieved certain results.

Since 2011, Myanmar-Russia military relations have gone from strength to strength. After 1988, Myanmar relied on its neighbor China because of sanctions from western countries. Especially, the Tatmadaw came to rely heavily on China for the procurement of weapons. From 1988, when the military staged a coup, to 2000, the Tatmadaw purchased weapons mostly from China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

According SIPRI data, Tatmadaw spent US$1.63 billion on weapons over this period.

In his book In the Name of Phauk-Phaw, Maung Aung Myo wrote: The Tatmadaw was not happy with Chinese weapons . so the Tatmadaw began to procure more advanced Russia weapons and sent more trainees to Russia in the early of 2000s.

In 2001, the Tatmadaw purchased 12 MiG29B fighter jets from Russia and continued to purchase more and more sophisticated weapons from the country.

From 2001 to 2016, the Tatmadaw mainly purchased weapons from Russia, with the total value of weapons it purchased from Russia during that period even higher than that of weapons bought from China. According to records, the procurement totaled $1.45 billion whereas the procurement from China was just $1.42 billion.

This indicates that Myanmars military cooperation with Russia increased after 2001. Recently, a Russian company handed over three Yak-130 trainer aircrafts purchased by the Tatmadaw. More aircraft will be transferred in 2018.

Myanmar, which mainly sent trainees to China after 1988, has now sent large numbers of trainees to Russia in recent years.

Author Ludmila Lutz-Auras, quoting the records of Russias Education Ministry, said there were a total of 4,705 Myanmar citizens learning in Russian universities in the 20 years between 1993 to 2013the number is the second largest from South East Asia, following Vietnam.

In an interview with state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper published on June 5, Russian Ambassador to Myanmar Nikolay A. Listopadov said around 6,000 Tatmadaw students have graduated from prestigious universities in Russia and some have received post-graduate and doctoral degrees. There are currently around 600 male and female students learning in Russia. It is interesting that the ambassador linked the Tatmadaws efforts to establish a Standard Army with Russias scholarship programs.

In November 2013, three Russian naval ships arrived at Yangon to commemorate 65 years of diplomatic ties between Russia and Myanmar. This was the first time Russian naval ships had come to Myanmar in modern history. In May last year, three Russian naval ships visited Yangon again.

The bilateral relations have been further reinforced by agreements signed in the last few years. In November 2014, Myanmars Parliament approved the agreement between Russia and Myanmar on military intelligence cooperation. Shortly after the National League for Democracy (NLD) assumed office, the Parliament approved an agreement on military cooperation between Russia and Myanmar.

Defense ministers of the two countries signed the agreement in June last year. Though the agreement is mainly about technical transfers and military academic training, it is interesting to see that Myanmar, a country in transition, signed a military agreement with a superpower like Russia.

The Tatmadaw realized in the 2000s that it could not be completely dependent on China regarding international relations, military technology, and weapon procurement, and boosted its ties with Russia. Besides Russia, it also started to establish relations with a number of non-Western countries. Following political transition, it was free to develop good ties with western countries.

Though the Tatmadaw is currently not able to procure weapons from western countries, it has re-established ties with them and dispatches trainees to the US and the UK on a regular basis. In addition, it has also started to purchase training aircraft from companies from Germany, a member of the EU. Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing addressed the EU Military Committee Meeting held in Brussels last year.

The Tatmadaws ties with western countries have undeniably improved in the past few years. But it is not without restrictions. Especially, there are still a lot of restrictions in purchasing weapons and military technology. So, countries like Russia are a strategic partner country for Myanmar Tatmadaw to achieve its aim of establishing a Standard Army. While military relations with western countries depend largely on relations between civilian governments, Myanmar Tatmadaw can engage more independently with Russia without being influenced by the shadow of civilian government.

Meanwhile, with the rising of China in the international arena, Russia has started to acknowledge the importance of the Asia Pacific region. Soviet leader Lenin said: Let us turn our faces towards Asia. The East will help us conquer the West. And Vladimir Putin now also has growing interest in the East. In particular, South East Asia plays an important part in Russias Look East approach.

In recent years, Russias economy, along with the countrys arms exports, has declined. The country earned $7.78 billion in 2013 from arms exports, but that amount dropped to $5.10 billion in 2014 and $5.56 billion in 2015. It is mainly because its large customer China has paid greater attention to production of arms at home and its markets in Eastern Europe and the Middle East are slumping. The market in India, which depends on Russia for 75 percent of its weapons, is also in decline. Under such circumstances, Southeast Asian countries, which are competitively building armies, have become new target for Russia.

Military analysts have estimated that Southeast Asia will spend a total of $40 billion on arms and technologies by 2020. Taking a look at Southeast Asian countries procurement of arms from Russian from 2011 to 2016, Vietnam spent $5.74 billion, Myanmar $1.45 billion, Malaysia $1.30 billion, and Indonesia $1.15 billion. During that period, Myanmar was the second largest buyer of Russian weapons in Southeast Asia after Vietnam.

Renowned Russia military expert Vyacheslav Tseluyko commented that if Russia gains a foothold in Myanmar, it has the potential to penetrate more of the Southeast Asia market including Laos, Indonesia, and even Bangladesh. Therefore, Myanmar can be a strategic market point for Russia, which is eyeing the Southeast Asia market.

As the dynamics of Myanmars international relations changed along with its political transition, Russia will not easily give up its position in Myanmar after all those years of support for the country in its troubled times. While it is still unclear about the stance and policies of the new civilian government, Russia seemingly has thought of reinforcing its position in Myanmar by maintaining good ties with the Tatmadaw.

Alexander Fomin has said there is good potential for development in military relations and military technical cooperation between the two countries. Currently, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing is on an official visit to Russia. Well have to wait and see how this visit will unlock new potential in military cooperation between two countries.

Ko Ye is the executive director of the Yangon-based Tagaung Institute of Political Studies, a civil society organization researching civil-military relations and security sector in Myanmars transition process.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Parliament This Week in Parliament (June 19-23)

A migrant worker from Myanmar carries her child at a market in the Thai border town of Mae Sot in November 2010. On Tuesday, a Lower House lawmaker inquired whether measures could be put in place so that the stateless children born to Myanmar migrants working illegally in other countries could get citizenship in their parents homeland. / Chaiwat Subprasom / Reuters

Monday (June 19)

In the Lower and Upper Houses, lawmakers discussed regional development tasks in their respective constituencies. The Lower House also discussed the issue of land confiscation.

Tuesday (June 20)

Regarding the governments policy of mid-term debt management until the 2019-20 fiscal year, Deputy Minister for Planning and Finance U Maung Maung Win told the Union Parliament that the government would seek low-interest loans and development policy loans for projects and plans that would support the countrys economic policies. As of December 31, Myanmar was nearly US$9 billion in debt, required to pay back US$100-700 million annually until 2053, according to the minister.

Wednesday (June 21)

Lawmaker Daw Khin Sithu of Loikaw Township lamented in the Lower House that children born to Myanmar citizens illegally working in foreign countries are losing their rights, and asked if the government would grant such children Myanmar citizenship.

Union minister for labor, immigration and population U Thein Swe said that the government would grant such children Myanmar citizenship if birth proof can be submitted. He added that his ministry was adopting plans and strategies to issue birth certificates in these cases.

The Parliament approved the proposal of Lewe Township lawmaker U Myo Zaw Oo which urged the Union government to provide crop insurance for farmers across the country.

In the Upper House, U Kyaw Kyaw of Arakan State Constituency (4) urged the government to release all political prisoners behind bars. Deputy Minister Maj-Gen Aung Soe said the government has still no plan to define the terms political prisoner and political offense.

Thursday (June 22)

Lower House lawmakers debated Yekyi Township lawmaker U San Shwe Wins proposal encouraging the Union government to provide universal health coverage for citizens of the country.

In Upper House, regarding the 5 percent taxation on mobile top-ups, Deputy Minister for Planning and Finance U Maung Maung Win said that the government spent 7.455 billion kyats in revenue on the education sector in the 2016-17 fiscal year. The Education Ministry currently provides cash assistance for outstanding graduates and university students with its own funds, and has no plans for the time being to set up a separate fund from mobile top-up taxation to assist impoverished students.

Friday (June 23)

The Lower House documented Paung Township lawmaker Mi Kon Chans proposal urging the Union government to review long-term projects permitted under successive government to determine if they are against the interests of people.

Dr. Kyaw Ngwe of Magwe Constituency (10) asked in the Upper House of Parliament whether the government would increase the meal and uniform allowances for midwives, which currently amounts to less than 100 kyats per month. Union minister for health and sports, Dr. Myint Htwe, said that the Union government had already agreed to increase meal allowances to 20,000 kyats per month and uniform allowances to 20,000 kyats per year.
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

The French government wants to steal increasingly unemployed US green energy scientists, who are being systematically defunded by the Trump administration.

After Trump pulled out of the Paris accords, Macron addressed US professionals:

To all scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision of the president of the United States, I want to say that they will find in France a second homeland . . . I call on them: come and work here with us. To work together on concrete solutions for our climate, our environment. I can assure you, France will not give up the fight.

At the same time, the Macron government has ambitious plans to make France a green energy powerhouse and major research hub, in hopes of capturing the trillions of dollars the renewables sector will generate. In short, who will invent the next inexpensive and efficient solar panel? The US, France or China? Whoever does will make a killing.

At the same time, French environment minister Nicolas Hulot (an actual environmentalist) announced that he France will ban any new fracking or exploration for oil, gas or coal on French soil. Now thats what it is like to belong to a country not run by the CEO of Exxon Mobil.

France has a relatively low carbon footprint because 78% of its electricity is generated by some 58 nuclear power plants. Many of these plants are aging, however, and Macron will close a lot, reducing the nuclear share of electricity production to 50% only a few years from now (2025) Likewise, the French government hopes to see all coal plants in the country closed by 2022!

Macron and Hulot want to make up the shortfall with greater energy efficiency (many French buildings dont have insulation), by encouraging 10% of work days to be telecommuting from home, and by making a massive push for wind and solar energy.

French wind power grew 7% last year, but the plan is for that pace to pick up substantially through government policy. It is now toward 5% of French electricity production.

France wants to build 2 gigawatts worth of small-scale solar installations.

France currently gets 11% of its electricity from renewables, but wants that proportion to be 23% by 2023 more than doubling in 5 years. France has applied to the EU to add 17 gigawatts of clean power over the next 7 years at a cost of $1.1 billion.

France is about to embark on the kind of energy switch Germany has long devoted itself to, with massive consequences for French society, science,engineering and the economy. The twentieth century was cruel to French military defenses, but this is a war where France will proudly be in the forefront, and winning, perhaps more than the fossil-fuel addicted US.



Related video:

Construction of PV power plant in Cestas, France
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 23, 2017) - Jaxon Minerals Inc. (TSXV: JAX) (FSE: 0U3) announces the appointment of John King Burns as Chairman and Lead Director. Mr. Burns' knowledge in corporate governance, geological strategies and all aspects of mining finance will contribute strongly to the continued development of Jaxon. Mr. Burns is former Chairman and founder of Northern Orion, which was subsequently acquired by Yamana Gold in a $1 billion transaction. He also served as Global Head and Managing Director of the Derivative Trading and Structured Finance Group at Barclays Metals London, a unit of Barclays Bank PLC, from 1991-1997, which provided over $3 billion to the mining industry during his tenure. It was Mr. Burns and his Barclays team that first proposed the combination of Minas Luismin S.A. with Wheaton River Minerals, which later became Goldcorp.

Mr. Burns currently serves as Independent Director of China Gold International Resource Corp ($800 million market capitalization) and to Simba Essel Energy and was an Advisor to Western Potash in the $32 million investment by a subsidiary of China National Overseas Oil Corporation (CNOOC). Mr. Burns' prior accomplishments working within the mining industry include being former Chairman and Lead Director of Athabasca Potash (before it was sold to BHP for $341 million); as well as former Chairman of Dolly Varden Silver which, like Jaxon, is focused on the Golden Triangle in BC.

Jason Cubitt, President of Jaxon Minerals, stated "We are deeply pleased to have the counsel of John King Burns as Jaxon builds into a significant exploration company. Not only will his experience in mining finance be invaluable, as Chairman he will ensure that the Board governs and advises the Company appropriately. John's merger and acquisition experience will open significant opportunities with institutional investors, developing strategies as we develop Jaxon's assets."

John King Burns, as Chairman of Jaxon Minerals, noted "As a junior minerals exploration and development company, Jaxon has assembled both a strong team and enviable land positions within British Columbia. These projects are located on some of the most prospective orogenic, mineral-rich areas in the world and the Company has the opportunity to advance a number of significant discoveries in 2017 and 2018. First results from the field program underway are expected shortly, and we are truly excited, based on reports from the field."

Jaxon Technical Advisory Board

The Company would also like to announce that three senior geotechnical experts have agreed to serve on Jaxon's Technical Advisory Board - Alastair Waddell, Dennis Moore and Carl Swensson. Jason Cubitt, President of Jaxon Minerals noted "these professionals are a testament to the quality of Jaxon's projects, and to Bruce Ballantyne's skill and experience in acquiring and exploring these exciting targets. Together with John King Burns, we now have an exceptional team to take Jaxon to the next level."

Alistair Waddell

Alistair is a Geologist with over 20 years of diverse resource industry experience, including senior roles with both junior and senior mining companies providing a broad vision of many aspects of the business. He was a founder and former President and CEO of TSX-V listed GoldQuest Mining Corp. principally focused on exploration in the Dominican Republic. More recently, he was Vice President - Greenfields Exploration for Kinross Gold Corp. responsible for global Greenfields exploration. Alistair has lived and worked as an expatriate in Australia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Chile and the Dominican Republic.

Carl Swensson

Carl is a mineral exploration Geologist with extensive experience in mineral exploration and resource assessment having more than 20 years in a leadership capacity. He has managed numerous exploration projects over five continents in most commodities and deposit styles for gold, base metals, lithium, uranium, diamonds, coal and graphite. Carl has a proven record for company management from juniors to multinationals, including Chief Geologist, Exploration for Normandy Mining from 1989 to 2002 (from less than $100m to $4.9 Billion market cap).

Dennis Moore

Dennis Moore is a mineral exploration Geologist and entrepreneur with over 35 years' experience in Australasia and South America. Dennis identified the Tocantinzinho deposit, acquired it, vended it to Brazauro Resources and drilled out a 2.2m oz deposit, leading to Brazauro being bought out by Eldorado for $122M. Dennis co-founded Magellan Minerals in 2005 and took it public via IPO in 2008. He put together a 120,000 hectare property package in northern Brazil including Cuiu Cuiu, his second discovery, which currently stands at 1.5M oz Au. Magellan Minerals was acquired by Anfield Nickel in 2016. Currently, Dennis is president and CEO of Fremont Gold, a new Nevada-based, TSX-V listed company and a director of Cabral Gold, a private Canadian company with mineral properties in Brazil.

About Jaxon

Jaxon is a base and precious metals exploration company with a regional focus on Western Canada. The company is currently focused on advancing its Hazelton Project in north-central British Columbia and the Wishbone/Foremore property in BC's Golden Triangle.
President Moon Jae-in speaks to government and military officials after observing the test-firing of a new home-grown ballistic missile at the Anheung test site of the Agency for Defense Development in Taean, South Chungcheong Province, Friday. Moon's spokesman said the President's visit to the site is to send a strong message to North Korea over its repeated provocations. / Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae



By Jun Ji-hye

President Moon Jae-in observed the test-firing of the nation's new ballistic missile with a maximum range of 800 kilometers, Friday, sending a strong warning to North Korea over its provocations.

The test of a Hyunmoo-type ballistic missile, which puts the whole of North Korea within striking distance, took place at the Anheung test site of the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) under the wing of the Ministry of National Defense in Taean, South Chungcheong Province.

"The missile fell precisely onto a designated target after flying a prearranged distance," presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun said at a media briefing.





A Hyunmoo-type ballistic missile with a maximum range of 800 kilometers is launched from a mobile launch vehicle during a test-firing observed by President Moon Jae-in at the Anheung test site of the Agency for Defense Development in Taean, South Chungcheong Province, Friday. / Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae

As core assets forming the Kill Chain pre-emptive strike system, the new strategic weapons will be used to attack the North's nuclear and missile facilities in the event of war, Park noted.

The military plans to complete the development of the new missile and deploy it by the end of the year.

Spokesman Park said the latest test was the fourth of its kind. "The new missile will be operationally deployed after two more test-firings," he said.

President Moon said his visit to the test site was meaningful in that the people as well as the President could affirm the nation's missile capabilities amid the North's evolving missile threats.

"The people are now convinced South Korea is not behind the North in missile capabilities," Park quoted Moon as saying. "I am an advocate of dialogue with the North, but pushing for such dialogue and engaging Pyongyang will be only possible when the nation has strong national defense, which overwhelms that of the North."

Park said there had been some concerns over Moon's visit to the test site as it could provoke the Kim Jong-un regime and complicate the situation ahead of the South Korea-U.S. summit scheduled for next week.

"The first vice chief of the National Security Office was originally planning to supervise the test-firing, but after receiving a report, Moon showed willingness to observe it in person," Park said.

If the new missile is fired from the southern resort island of Jeju, it is theoretically capable of reaching Sinuiju, a North Korean city bordering China. If fired from Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, the missile can reach anywhere in North Korea.

The military has been developing ballistic missiles with extended firing ranges since Seoul and Washington revised the guidelines on such weapons for the South in October 2012. The revision allowed Seoul to extend the maximum range of its missiles to 800 kilometers from the previous limit of 300 kilometers.

South Korea is currently operating Hyunmoo 2A and 2B short-range ballistic missiles with maximum ranges of 300 and 500 kilometers, respectively; and Hyunmoo 3 cruise missiles with a range of 1,000 kilometers.

Observers expect the new missile to be named the Hyunmoo 2C.

The North has conducted five missile provocations since Moon was sworn in, May 10, including a test-firing of a new type of anti-ship cruise missile, June 8.

Before this, Pyongyang fired a Scud-type ballistic missile from Wonsan, May 29, which was later assessed as an anti-ship ballistic missile. At the time, the North claimed the missile featured a new high-precision guidance system and a faster launch process.

The Kim Jong-un regime also fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile on May 14, a medium-range ballistic missile May 21 and a KN-06 surface-to-air guided missile May 27.
President re-questions accelerated THAAD deployment



President Moon Jae-in wants to know what caused the accelerated deployment of the U.S. missile interceptor Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.



The United States should come forward.



"For a reason I don't know, the THAAD deployment was accelerated," President Moon said during an interview with Reuters news agency Thursday. He said only one launcher was due for deployment this year with the remaining five scheduled for 2018. Now, two have been deployed with four in U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) storage.



Moon has obviously been seeking an explanation without success.



Right after his inauguration early May, the presidential office found that four launchers were brought into the country for deployment without its knowledge. Moon called it "shocking."



An investigation was launched, questioning outgoing Defense Minister Han Min-koo and the previous government's top presidential national security chief Kim Kwan-jin. A three-star general who was in charge at the working level was sacked.



The full story behind it has not come out apparently, as Moon talked about the mystery that shrouded the accelerated deployment.



The U.S. has not explained its role. Chung Ei-yong, Moon's national security adviser, traveled to the United States but obviously failed to get their side of the story. Chung said he gained the U.S. "understanding" about Seoul's readjustment on the deployment schedule.



U.S. officially said the deployment was conducted in full consultation with the Korean government. It said it expected the deployment would be implemented as agreed. This issue reached Trump, who had reportedly called in his top aides, leading his government to repeat the same statements. However, the U.S. is eager for deployment as, for one, USFK commander Gen. Vincent Brooks in November spoke publicly about a plan to finish the full battery deployment within eight to nine months.



Two months earlier, Daniel Russel, then assistant secretary of state, stressed the need to advance the deployment, considering the rapidly growing North Korean missile threat.



Reflecting Moon's reluctance, the Seoul government hit the brakes hard, saying the deployment plan needed a proper environmental impact assessment. It said the previous one sacrificed thoroughness for speed. The assessment may take up to one year, making its prompt deployment out of the question.



Now, Moon denied Korea is trying to back out of the deployment or delay it but his latest remark shows he remains puzzled despite the probe. U.S. cooperation is pivotal in letting Seoul know what has caused the "inexplicable acceleration" Moon referred to.



If Moon can't get a full explanation, it is likely the Moon-Trump summit may go in circles over this issue of growing importance with the two leaders distrusting each other. Already, there are signs of a tough summit with the U.S. believing Korea is getting closer to China at the cost of the Korea-U.S. alliance. Korea is feeling piqued by Trump who deals with North Korea exclusively with China.



If trust-building between the two leaders is a top priority for the summit, the U.S. should feel obligated to shed light on Moon's mystery.








Crystal healing is an alternative medical technique in which crystals and other stones are used to cure ailments and protect against disease. Proponents of this technique believe that crystals act as conduits for healing  enabling positive, healing energy to flow into the body as negative, disease-causing energy flows out.

But despite the fact that crystal healing has seen an upsurge in popularity in recent years, this alternative treatment is not popular with most medical doctors and scientists, many of whom refer to crystal healing as a pseudoscience.

Scientifically speaking, there is no evidence that crystal healing can be used to cure diseases, because diseases have never been found to be the result of a so-called energy flow in the body. Furthermore, no scientific studies have shown that crystals and gems can be differentiated by chemical composition or color to treat a particular ailment.

"I am not aware of any [National Science Foundation]-supported studies into the healing powers of crystals," Peter Heaney, a mineral sciences professor at Pennsylvania State University, told the " Washington Post (opens in new tab)" in 2021. He goes on to explain that while crystals can be said to have energy, in accordance with Albert Einstein 's mass-energy equivalence of e=mc^2 , there is no energy transfer between crystals and human beings.

Nevertheless, healing crystals remain popular at health spas and at New Age health clinics, sometimes incorporated into related practices of massage and Reiki. The use of crystals in such environments may help induce relaxation, although this effect is also not backed by scientific evidence.

How crystal healing is supposed to work

Crystal healing proponents believe that crystals and gemstones have properties that facilitate healing. Many sites promoting crystal healing allege that the history of this practice is ancient, dating back at least 6,000 years to the time of the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia. Ancient Egyptians are also referenced on such sites (opens in new tab) as being among the first people to have adorned themselves with crystals  including lapis lazuli, carnelian and turquoise  to ward off illness and negative energy.

But the philosophy of modern crystal healing is based on traditional concepts borrowed from Asian cultures, most notably the Chinese concept of life-energy (chi or qi) and the Hindu or Buddhist concept of chakras, which are vortices of this life-energy, said to connect the physical and supernatural elements of the body.

According to these philosophies, crystals are supposed to interact with the energy field of the body, promoting physical, emotional and spiritual healing, according to " Time (opens in new tab)."

In crystal healing, stones are assigned various properties, though healers have different ideas about which stones possess which properties. Amethyst, for example, is believed by some to be beneficial for the intestines, explains Healthline (opens in new tab); green aventurine helps the heart; yellow topaz provides mental clarity. Colors red through violet are associated with seven chakra points on the body.

During a treatment session, a crystal healer may place various stones or crystals on your body aligned with these chakra points, roughly in the regions above the head, on the forehead, on the throat, on the chest, on the stomach, on the gut, and on the genital area. The stones used and their positioning may be chosen for the symptoms reported by the patient. This is all influenced by the healer's knowledge of, and belief in, the chakra philosophy of disease and energy imbalances  a philosophy that is largely dismissed by practitioners of Western medicine.

Crystal healing also involves the use of crystals and stones worn on the body or placed under pillows to ward off sickness, shed negative energy or absorb positive energy, according to Crystal Vaults (opens in new tab), a company that sells such crystals, which it refers to as "talismans" or "amulets."

How crystal healing actually works

While there are no scientific studies on the efficacy of crystal healing, there is a study that suggests that crystal healing may induce a placebo effect in a patient who receives this type of treatment. Placebo effects accompany a treatment that are not directly due to the treatment itself acting on the disease of the patient, according to Christopher French, head of the anomalistic psychology research unit at the University of London (opens in new tab).

"There is no evidence that crystal healing works over and above a placebo effect," French told Live Science. "That is the appropriate standard to judge any form of treatment. But whether or not you judge crystal healing, or any other form of [complementary and alternative medicine], to be totally worthless depends upon your attitude to placebo effects."

In other words, a person may feel better after undergoing crystal healing treatment, but there is no scientific proof that this result has anything to do with the crystals being used during the treatment. In 2001, French and his colleagues presented a paper at the British Psychological Society Centenary Annual Conference in Glasgow, in which they outlined their study of the efficacy of crystal healing.

For the study, 80 participants were asked to meditate for five minutes while holding either a real quartz crystal or a fake crystal that they believed was real. Before meditating, half of the participants were primed to notice any effects that the crystals might have on them, like tingling in the body or warmth in the hand holding the crystal.

After meditating, participants answered questions about whether they felt any effects from the crystal healing session. The researchers found that the effects reported by those who held fake crystals while meditating were no different than the effects reported by those who held real crystals during the study.

Many participants in both groups reported feeling a warm sensation in the hand holding the crystal or fake crystal, as well as an increased feeling of overall well being. Those who had been primed to feel these effects reported stronger effects than those who had not been primed. However, the strength of these effects did not correlate with whether the person in question was holding a real crystal or a fake one. Those who believed in the power of crystals (as measured by a questionnaire) were twice as likely as non-believers to report feeling effects from the crystal.

As French pointed out, there are many forms of treatment that are known to have no therapeutic effect other than a placebo effect. However, while these treatments might make you feel better temporarily, there is no proof that they can actually cure diseases or treat health conditions. If you're suffering from a serious medical issue, you should seek treatment from a licensed physician, not an alternative healer, French said.

Despite all of this, convincing someone who believes in the healing properties of crystals can be challenging. "Its hard to argue against people who believe in the psychological effects of crystals [] Those are genuine experiences we have to respect," Zhuo Job Chen (opens in new tab), professor in the psychology of religion at the University of North Carolina, told the Washington Post.

Others feel that people moving towards so-called alternative medicine shows a growing distrust of professional doctors that should encourage more empathy within the medical professions. "The present popularity of complementary and alternative medicine is also inviting criticism of what we are doing in mainstream medicine. It shows that we aren't fulfilling a certain need  we are not giving patients enough time, compassion, or empathy," Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor of Complementary Medicine at the Peninsula School of Medicine, University of Exeter, told the " British Medical Journal (opens in new tab)" in 2018.

One of the concerns in the medical profession is that patients opting to partake of crystal healing might do so as a replacement for proven medical treatments. (Image credit: Molly Aaker via Getty Images)

Is crystal healing safe?

Crystal healers become healers by passing a certification course, often offered over the Internet from "natural medicine" universities or clinics, many of which are not accredited by any central organization. Currently, there are no state or federal laws that regulate or standardize the practice of crystal healing or the licensing of crystal healers specifically. In some states, this type of alternative treatment may fall under the category of massage or bodywork therapy. In those states, crystal healers may be required to obtain a license in order to practice their trade.

Non-profit organizations such as the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork (opens in new tab) (NCBTMB) also administer voluntary board certification exams for massage therapists and alternative healers. NCTMB endorses schools and businesses that offer certification to alternative healers, but only if they fulfill certain criteria established by the organization.

Some medical doctors tolerate crystal healing to a limited degree, seeing it as a therapy that can induce relaxation, which ultimately is therapeutic for stress management. Those seeking a crystal healer, however, should be careful not to forgo legitimate treatment for life-threatening disease.

Many parents also use Baltic amber necklaces for teething infants and toddlers, believing that the amber itself will help to take the teething pain away, similarly to the use of other gemstones to cure other ailments. According to Healthy Children (opens in new tab), there is no scientific evidence that the amber works to subside teething pain. There are two theories that explain how the amber supposedly works: one is that a pain-relieving substance (succinic acid) is released from the amber by the heat of the baby's skin and is absorbed through the skin into the blood stream, and two, the amber stimulates the thyroid gland to increase drooling and reduce inflammation in the ears, throat, stomach and respiratory system.

John Snyder, a pediatrician who wrote an article about amber necklaces on the website Science-Based Medicine (opens in new tab), listed several claims that are made about amber necklaces and how they may help lessen pain. The only claims that Snyder said were the slightest bit plausible were that it is known that Baltic amber does contain succinic acid, that some molecules are absorbed through the skin, and that succinic acid is naturally found in the human body. The amount of succinic acid in the amber, however, exists in minuscule amounts and body heat does not release it from the amber. There is also little to no evidence that succinic acid produces a therapeutic effect.

A 2016 letter to the editor published in the Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health (opens in new tab) by Alexandra Hudson, Kim Blake and Robyn McLaughlin discusses how the dangers of amber necklaces outweigh the very slim potential of benefit. The primary concerns with the necklaces are strangulation and choking, and several documented cases exist. The authors point out that both the Canadian Pediatric Society and American Academy of Pediatrics recommend against using the amber necklaces and recommend that parents are properly educated about teething and the use of amber healing.

Besides the potential dangers to the patients choosing crystal healing over traditional medicine there are also the dangers involved in the production of crystals to be considered. Mines in some of the poorest places in the world are where some of the gemstones are being sourced according to a 2019 report in " The Guardian (opens in new tab)." Madagascar, for example, saw a 170 percent increase in exports of gems and precious metals between 2016 and 2017, making it one of the top producers alongside much larger countries like India and China. However, 80 percent of crystals are mined by small groups and families for little money and without regulation in regions with poor access to water, electricity or other amenities.

Additional resources

For some really interesting crystals we recommend you read about time crystal made inside Google's quantum computer (opens in new tab).

Alternatively, learn more about the bizarre crystals (opens in new tab) made as a result of the first nuclear bomb test in 1945.
Amelia Earhart sitting in the cockpit of her Lockheed Electra airplane. In July 1937, Earhart and the plane were last seen on July 2, 1937, over the Pacific Ocean.

A search party set sail for a remote Pacific island this weekend to look for clues about the fate of Amelia Earhart.

The American aviation pioneer disappeared 80 years ago during an attempt to fly around the world. In the latest National Geographic-sponsored (opens in new tab) expedition seeking Earharts remains, a group of forensic dogs will be brought to the island of Nikumaroro to sniff for human bones.

Earhart was already a famous aviator by the time she set off for her round-the-world flight in June 1937. Among her many other records, she was the first woman, and second person after Charles Lindbergh, to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. Her flight around the world wouldnt have been the first, but it would have been the longest, following a 29,000-mile (47,000 kilometers) route close to the equator. [In Photos: Searching for Aviator Amelia Earhart]

With her navigator Fred Noonan, Earhart departed east of Oakland, California, in a modified twin-engine Lockheed Electra 10E. They were last seen on July 2, 1937, in Lae, New Guinea, as they ventured toward Howland Island in one of the last legs of the journey.

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca had been waiting at Howland Island to offer radio assistance and a smoke signal so that the flyers could better locate the mile-wide strip of land in the Pacific. But communication was spotty, and Earharts last transmissions indicate she thought she was near her destination but couldn't find it and was running out of fuel.

Theories abound about what happened next, ranging from the credible to the imaginative. The credible theories have her crashing into the ocean, while the imaginative ones claim Earhart was really a spy and was captured by the Japanese, or she ran off to New Jersey to live under a secret identity.

The new expedition will investigate the Nikumaroro theory, of which claims that Earhart and Noonan landed on the uninhabited island of Nikumaroro (now part of the nation Kiribati) when they couldn't find Howland and died there as castaways. In 1940, a British officer found 13 human bones on the island and sent them to Fiji, where they were measured and unfortunately lost. Some believe these remains could have been Earhart's, and that the rest of her bones could still be buried on the island, or have been scattered about by coconut crabs and other creatures on the island.

The search is affiliated with the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, or TIGHAR, which has mounted a dozen expeditions in the last three decades looking for evidence to support the Nikumaroro theory. TIGHAR will support the group with underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to search for the possible wreckage of Earharts plane. The National Geographic Society's archaeologist-in-residence, Fred Hiebert, is joining the expedition, too, and the organization is sponsoring the four dogs from the Institute for Canine Forensics.

The border collies (named Berkeley, Piper, Marcy and Kayle) are specially trained to look for historic and prehistoric human remains. "No other technology is more sophisticated than the dogs," Hiebert told National Geographic (opens in new tab)." They have a higher rate of success identifying things than ground-penetrating radar."

But the environment of the island, which is hot, humid and full of thick vegetation, could prove a challenge.

"We've deployed lots of different technologies at Nikumaroro over the years, some of which worked well  and some of which were utterly defeated by the Island Goddess Nei Manganibuka," TIGHARs dive team leader Andrew McKenna wrote in an expedition update. "I'm hoping the dogs will prove effective, at least they don't have motherboards to fail."

Original article on Live Science.
4-point deal with temp teachers

A week into the temporary teachers indefinite hunger strike, the Ministry of Education on Friday sealed a four-point deal with the agitating teachers, offering them a golden handshake even if they fail the permanency test by the Teacher Service Commission.
by Wayne Friedman , June 22, 2017

Mediaocean, the big systems/software company for media agencies, has struck a deal for media-measurement company comScores demographic data to be included in its national TV-buying systems.

"As an open and neutral software provider, it is critical we give our agency clients access to more than just panel-based data sets and allow them to use preferred data partners and alternative currency methods, stated Bill Wise, CEO, Mediaocean.

For a long time, Mediaocean used panel-based data sets from Nielsen measurement systems.

Data integration is available starting Thursday for Mediaocean's Spectra OX and DS local TV broadcast systems. In the fourth quarter, it will be available for DARE, a system that sends electronic orders to TV stations.

The data for Mediaoceans Spectra DS National will be available in first-quarter 2018.

Gian Fulgoni, CEO, comScore, stated: "This integration establishes comScore as a currency for the major ad agency holding companies, independent agencies and media-buying services."
by Wayne Friedman , June 23, 2017

Traditional cable TV operators' continued loss of video subscribers will translate into lower gross profit margins over the next four years -- with other company businesses looking to carry more of the load.

Big cable companies such as Comcast and Charter Communications, as well as smaller cable operators like Cable One, will see a steady erosion of gross profit margins per video subscribers in the coming years.

Craig Moffett, media analyst at MoffettNathanson Research, says Comcasts average gross profit margins from its video business will drop by 13% in four years -- to $37.18 by 2021 from $42.58 this year.

Charter will decline by a steeper level -- 28% -- to $19.12 in four years, from $26.77 in 2017. Smaller cable company Cable One is projected to drop 27% to $22.63 in 2021, from a $31.09 estimate in 2017.

With regard to the new virtual (Internet-delivered) multi-video channel program distributor businesses, Moffett says: None of the current crop of vMVPS appears even remotely poised to make any money.

But Moffett notes that current diversification in broadband, phone and other businesses will help buffer cable operators' video business declines. Video gross profit margins are only about one-third of total gross profit at Comcast, 25% at Charter, and 21% at Cable One.

Gross profit margins for broadband and phone businesses are much higher -- at 95% and 85%, respectively, says Moffett.
Bombs disposed in Morang

Bomb disposal team has disposed bombs recovered at two different places in Morang district on Saturday.
The Giants are set to designate righty Bryan Morris for assignment, according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). Lefty Steven Okert will be called up to take the open roster spot.

Morris, 30, owns an unsightly 6.43 ERA through his 21 frames on the year. He has struck out 6.4 and walked 4.7 batters per nine while showing an average fastball of just over 93 mph  well off his peak. Of course, its promising to see that Morris is healthy after shoulder issues ended his time with the Marlins.
The Padres are set to announce the signing of third-overall pick MacKenzie Gore tomorrow, per Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune (via Twitter). Once the signing is official, Gore will receive a $6.7MM bonus, per MLB.coms Jim Callis (Twitter link).

That payday lands just over the $6,668,100 slot value that came with the Friars top selection. Gores signing represents the last unfinished business from the first ten rounds of the draft for San Diego.

In Gore, the Padres landed a much-hyped left-handed prep pitcher. He drew consensus top-five pre-draft billing, with FangraphsEric Longenhagen ranking him highest at third on the board.
24.06.2017 LISTEN

Venezuelas Foreign Minister, Delcy Rodriguez, recently tweeted that theUS State Department deployed its ambassadors in the region to attack Venezuela. We come with renewed vigor to defeat them at the OAS.

So said, so done. Last week, the US Ambassador to Guyana, Perry Holloway, spewed the US false narrative regarding Venezuela in our local newspapers. US ambassadors in a number of other Caribbean countries did the same.

It was a coordinated attempt to mislead the people of Guyana and the region about what is really happening in Venezuela, and to apply pressure on members of CARICOM (Caribbean Community) and the OAS (Organization of American States) to succumb to US calls for intervention,with the aim of overthrowing the democratically elected government of President Nicolas Maduro.

US diplomats in Guyana, and for that matter throughout the Global South, are not diplomats in the strict sense of the word, and can be better described as political activists. They are constantly meddling in the internal affairs of the country they are stationed in, giving directives to the compliant neo-colonial regimes and actively undermining and destabilizing independent and anti-imperialist governments, such as the government in Venezuela.

This latest US psych-ops came just after the May 31st meeting of the OAS in Washington DC and just prior to the June 19th OAS meeting in Cancun, Mexico, whereCARICOM member states took a firm and united anti-interventionist position in relation to the current situation in Venezuela, delivering a resounding defeat to the interventionist approach advocated by the US, Mexico, Peru and Panama,

Following the June 19th OAS meeting, Venezuelas Foreign Minister, Delcy Rodriguez, said:Today we come with the strength of our people who took to the streets to denounce the interventionism of the Organization of American States, we come with the force of the rain of our commander Hugo Chavez. Independence and sovereignty triumphed today over the United States of America, with its brutal pressure, with its gross extortion, with its maneuvers

She added that the call for intervention encourages the most violent, anti-democratic factions in our country,and she thanked the Caribbean nations for theirdeeply principled stand.

In his letter and articles, US ambassador, Perry Holloway, had the temerity to lecture Guyana and other member-states of the OASabout their obligation to democracy and human rights.

He stated that:The diverse family of nations in the Americas recognizes democracy is a part of our collective DNA. Sixteen years ago in Peru, we underscored this principle with the adoption of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, affirming the right of the peoples of the Americas to democracy and obligating our governments to defend that right.

I suggest that before US Diplomats in the Caribbean and the Americas offer any criticism or advice toVenezuela or any member-state of the OAS on issues of democracy and human rights, they should first examine the behavior of their own government in relation to their undemocratic practices and policies, both internally and around the world, and their endless list of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Trump Lays Bare Sham Democracy

The only positive aspect of Trumps presidency is that it is exposing, once and for all, the sham that parades as US democracy and concern for human rights.The entirely undemocratic nature of US internal and foreign policy is clear to all in 2017. Even that minority of citizens on this planet who still held out some hope that the US resembled anything close to a democracy, have now seen through the facade. American political philosopher, Sheldon S. Wolin, in his brilliant work, Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism,renders a devastating critique of US democracy and is a vital read for anyone who wishes to understand the latent fascism that underpins the politics of this Empire.

Former US Attorney-General, Ramsay Clark,had this to say: Were not a democracy. Its a terrible misunderstanding and a slander to the idea of democracy to call us that. In reality, were a plutocracy, a government by the wealthy. He compared President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler, and is on record as saying at the outset of the US invasion of Iraq, that it will be genocide again, adding that the greatest crime since World War 2 has been US foreign policy.

As I watch the hue and cry over Trumps actions, it reminds me of Adolph Hitlers response to Europes criticism of his policies. He told them:I am only doing out in the open what you have been doing behind closed doors for centuries.

A meme that was circulated at the end of Obamas presidency said it best:Only in shallow, self-absorbed, privileged America could a leader drop 26,000 bombs on seven countries in a single year, and have citizens mourn the end of his term because he looked and sounded classy while doing it.

The illusion highlighted in this meme picks up on the public relations stunt that has become a hallmark of the US establishment, and which Sheldon Wolin identifies as a major feature of theinverted totalitarianism that exists in the US today. He describes inverted totalitarianismas a state of affairs where a small ruling elite (the 1%) have established an authoritarian society which benefits them exclusively. In this society, corporations have corrupted and subverted democracy, and natural resources and labour are seen as mere commodities to be exploited for huge profits. This status quo is maintained by a sophisticated propaganda machine that lulls the majority of people into apathy. Central to reinforcing this hegemon isa tightly controlled corporatized media, a mouthpiece for the establishment, that is constantly spinning fake news and false narratives,and emphasizing rabid consumerism, individualism and the politics of personality and sensationalism. Wolin, like Clark, compares modern day USA to Nazi Germany, pointing out that the form is different but the essence, that is, fascism, is the same.

Friendly Fascism

37 years ago, political scientist, Bertram Gross,coined the term friendly fascismand predictedthe Orwellian reality we are witnessing today in the US. His thesis converges with the conclusions reached by Wolin, Clark and others.

In his farewell address at the end of his presidency in 1961, Republican, Dwight Eisenhower, warned the American people about the dangers of the Military Industrial Complex, the control it exerted and its ability to,in his words,weaken or destroy the very institutions and principles it was designed to protect. This has surely come to pass.

So,before US diplomats such as Perry Holloway attempt to discredit the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, initiated by one of the most revered freedom fighters in the Americas, the late Hugo Chavez, and led today by President Nicolas Maduro and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela with the support of the majority of the people of Venezuela, they would do well to take a long and hard look at the crisis of democracy in their own country.

Let Mr. Holloway explain to Guyanese and the citizenry of all member-states of the OAS why, in 2017, Africansin the US continue to be gunned down in the streets on a regular basis.

Let him explain to us why the US has the largest number of persons imprisoned per capita in the world, and why the prisoners are disproportionately made up of Africans, Indigenous and other people of colour, before he points the finger at a revolution that has lifted African and Indigenous Venezuelans out of debilitating discrimination and poverty.

Let Mr. Holloway address the situation of US political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jamil Al-Amin (formerly Rap Brown), Leonard Peltier and so many others who are languishing in US prisons before he speaks of Venezuelas human rights record.

Let the US Ambassador focus on the shocking poverty and illiteracy statistics emerging from his own country, before he points the finger at the Bolivarian revolution which has made unprecedented gains in eradicating poverty and illiteracy amongst the masses of Venezuelas poor. Anyone who visited oil rich Venezuela prior to the Bolivarian revolution can testify to the abhorrent conditions and the repressive measures used to subjugate the majority of Venezuelans, and in particular, African and Indigenous Venezuelans.

Does the Ambassador truly believe that his letters and articles, full of the usual delusional and empty rhetoric, would convince any of us that his government is concerned about democracy and human rights in Venezuela,or anywhere in the world for that matter, after we have witnessed the apocalyptic events in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and the list goes on.

Does Mr. Holloway think we have forgotten our own history in the Americas and the Caribbean, including the US orchestrated coups that overthrew the democratically elected governments of President Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala, President Salvador Allende in Chile, Prime Minister Maurice Bishop in Grenada, President Manuel Zelaya in Honduras and the constitutional coup against President Dilma Rousseff in Brazil? What about the removal at gunpoint of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide by US military personnel in Haiti? There is not the space in a single article to even list the US crimes in our region. Just to chronicle them warrants a book. If we were to list US crimes against the whole of humanity, we are looking at a library of books. The US Empire and the British, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch Empires that preceded it, have been without doubt the worst examples of terrorism in all of human history.

In his letter and article, Mr. Holloway advises thatwhen a government breaks with democracy, we must act in solidarity with its people, not through intervention or interference, but with diplomacy and mediation among all parties to help find a peaceful, democratic, and comprehensive solution.Tell us Mr. Holloway: Are the examples listed above your idea of diplomacy and mediation?

These governments were not removed because of their lack of democracy or abuse of human rights. They were removed, like countless others throughout the Global South, because they were attempting to free their country from the clutches of the Empire, and liberate their wealth and resources so that they might benefit the masses of their people. Our own founding fathers in Guyana, Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham were subjected to the same destabilization tactics at the hands of the US government and its CIA.

Empire Loses its Grip

The US and its diplomats need to understand that with the advent of the internet and the availability of information in this day and age,the Empire has lost all credibility. There is no one left on earth who can be misled by their hollow and hypocritical rhetoric. Do not be fooled by those who dare not speak openly  they are afraid of losing their visas and even worse reprisals. Regardless of their cowardice and silence, everyone knows that the Emperor is naked. Behind closed doors, even those satraps who publicly profess their allegiance, such as the Saudis, snigger and jeer at the hideous state of affairs in the United States of America.

As the US Empire crumbles, its vampires, who have sucked the blood of the sufferers for so long, are in panic mode because, despite their descent into blatant authoritarianism and fascism, they continue to lose their grip on the terrifying world they have created, as it spins more and more out of control. The ugly death squads such as Al Qaeda and ISIS, the very Frankensteins of their own making, are turning right back on them. As Malcom X observed so long ago, the chickens must come home to roost. One cannot keep up with the number of attacks in the US and Europe.

One of the vampires, largely credited with creating Al Qaeda, a former US National Security Advisor, and founder of the Rockefeller-controlled Trilateral Commission, Zbigniew Brzezinski, in a speech to British elites at Chatham House in 2008, spoke volumes when he said:

new and old major powers face still yet another novel reality, in some respects unprecedented, and it is that while the lethality of their power is greater than ever, their capacity to impose control over the politically awakened masses of the world is at an historical lowI once put it rather pungently, and I was flattered that the British Foreign Secretary repeated this namely, in earlier times, it was easier to control a million people than physically to kill a million people. Today, it is infinitely easier to kill a million people than to control a million people.

The current US administration, like its predecessors, whether Democrat or Republican, is involved in just that, killing millions of people all over the worldin its bid to control, and trying desperately to convince us of the absurdnotion that that they are doing this in the name of democracy and human rights. Trouble is, no one is buying it?The majority of CARICOM countries are governed by neo-colonial political outfits and even they voted against US plans for regime change in Venezuela. The playbook is old and tired. Donald Trump just tied up an arms deal worth 350 billion US dollars with the corrupt and entirely undemocratic regime of Saudi Arabia, a regime that is without doubt the main proliferator of the ideology of Wahhabism and the movements intent on imposing this ideology worldwide, such as Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al Nusra Front and ISIS.All these weapons to a government that is funding terrorism worldwide and committing genocide in Yemen. And,when the power struggle between the Saudis and the Qataris surfaced, Trump paid lip service to the manufactured war on terrorby publicly condemning Qatars support for terrorism, and days later sold the Qataris US military hardware worth 12 billion dollars. In light of this hypocrisy and blatant disregard for the victims of these rogue states and their global terrorist network, can you really expect us to believe that your concern with Venezuela is about lack of democracy and human rights?

No Shame

Finally,to Mr. Holloway and his cohorts throughout the region, your expressed shock and horror about the so-called spillover from Venezuelascurrent predicament was perhaps the most shameful part of your missive:The spillover effects from Venezuelas crisis are serious and growing, whether it is irregular migrant flows to countries in our region or the increasing flow of arms and criminal activity that affect the Caribbean in particular.

This is rich coming from the people who illegally invaded Libya, murdered the Libyan leader and freedom fighter, Muammar Qaddafi in the street, and in so doing, destroyed the most prosperous and democratic nation on the African continent, causing a migration crisis of a magnitude never seen before. Your government handed over the nation of Libya to a conglomerate of thugs, criminals, terrorists and reactionary warlords, and this spillover continues to wreak havoc throughout Africa and the Arab Region six years on. Before you concern yourself with any spillover in the Caribbean, please deal with the spillover from your criminal invasion of Libya, a spillover that only this month reached Manchester, England.

In Guyana, the Americas and throughout the Global South, the masses of people are sick and tired of the same old playbook  the one that is in fact the cause of the current situation in Venezuela. But then, that is part of the devils own script, cause the problem and then come to us as saviour, with a solution. It plays like this: theUS, through its infamous web of security agencies, NGOs, Aid Agencies, think-tanks and other Trojan horses,destabilize, sow confusion and do everything in their power to overthrow any government and subjugate any people that refuse to obey Empire. Recently, more than 300,000 Venezuelans took to the streets in support of President Nicolas Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution. The opposition held a demonstration that attracted 50,000. Of course, in your United States, thecorporate media is reporting just the opposite.By the admission of your own president they are the purveyors of fake news and this is just another example of your countrys lack of democracy. The bottom line is this Mr. Holloway: your country and its government is no way fit to point the finger at anyone when it comes to infringement of democracy, democratic values and human rights.

In your letters and articles you ask:if these things were happening in our own countries, would we not want the rest of our American family of nations to speak out, and reach out, to help restore fundamental democratic freedoms and respect for constitutional institutions?

In your own words you proclaim that:The Organization of American States has for decades provided a forum to discuss our greatest challenges and take action together to address them. The challenge before us today is the death spiral of democracy in Venezuela.

What you say in the two quotes above is correct except for one thing,the challenge before us today is not the death spiral of democracy in Venezuela, it is the death spiral of democracy in the United States and an evil Empire spinning out of control.

You are right - the OAS should take immediate action to prevent further terrorism and turmoil because the spillover worldwide from the crisis in the United States is serious and growing.

Gerald A. Perreira is chairperson of the Guyanese organizations Black Consciousness Movement Guyana (BCMG) and Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP) and an executive member of the Caribbean Chapter of the Network in Defense of Humanity. He lived inLibya for many years, served in the Green March, an international battalion for the defense of the Al Fatah Revolution, and was an executive member of the World Mathaba based inLibya.
Johannesburg (AFP) - The brutal death of anti-apartheid campaigner Ahmed Timol was allowed to go quietly unsolved in the interests of South Africa's democratic reconciliation.

But now more than 45 years after he fell from a 10th-floor window at a notorious regime security building and died, Timol's case is being re-examined following a campaign to expose the truth led by his family.

Timol, a 30-year-old activist with the then-banned South African Communist Party (SACP), was arrested in Johannesburg on the night of October 22, 1971.

After being held in detention for five days, he was declared dead following his plunge from the blue-and-grey police headquarters onto the pavement below.

Following an investigation by authorities at the time, the anti-apartheid activist was found by a judge to have taken his own life.

Their verdict was not open to appeal.

"Murder, in the view of the testimony given, is excluded and even considering it, is ludicrous... To accept anything other than that the deceased jumped out of the window and fell to the ground can only been seen as ludicrous," said the inquest judge, J.J.L. de Villiers.

Case closed.

But Timol's friends and family would not be deterred from their pursuit of the truth.

His younger brother, who himself had been held in the apartheid regime's jails, was particularly instrumental in the campaign for justice.

"Whether he was pushed out of the window or whether he was forced to jump, one can't tell. But over the years I have always said that Ahmed was killed in police custody," said Mohammad Timol.

Imtiaz Cajee, Ahmed Timol's nephew, is unequivocal about the events of October 1971.

'He was gruesomely tortured'

"He was gruesomely tortured and we believe he was murdered. If you look at the photographs of his body, nobody can believe he committed suicide," he said.

"Remember he was already the 22nd person who died in police hands in 1971, so they already had a history of killing people in police detention."

Timol's nephew has also championed the campaign for truth, pursuing many different avenues, driven by his conviction that his uncle died unlawfully.

Over the years, Imtiaz Cajee has launched media appeals, created a foundation, organised exhibitions, published a book and even recruited a private investigator with the help of an NGO.

Then in October last year there was a breakthrough -- prosecutors finally agreed to re-open Timol's case.

"We are of the opinion that there is compelling evidence that necessitates the reopening of the inquest in the interest of justice," the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) wrote.

A judge was tasked with examining the case and the first hearing was scheduled for June 26 at a Johannesburg court. For Cajee it was a cathartic victory following a long, emotional fight.

"I have very faint memories of my uncle. When he was murdered in 1971, I was merely five-years-old," he said.

"But... from a very young age, the death of my uncle had an impact on me."

In April 1996, Cajee's grandmother relieved Timol's final hours in front of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a public forum established to air the horrors of apartheid South Africa that was chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

'Honour and legacy of my uncle'

"I (vowed) to do something constructive to preserve the honour and legacy of my uncle," said Cajee.

But despite his grandmother's powerful testimony, the case remained largely forgotten.

Undeterred, Timol's nephew began to investigate the case, poring over old documents to get to the truth which led him to apply to prosecutors to reopen the file. His application was rejected after a delay of four years.

Opening probes into deaths like that of Timol threatened to implicate members of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, said Yasmin Sooka, executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) and a former member of the TRC.

"They (the apartheid generals) had always said that if the NPA pursues this kind of case then they will certainly begin to lay private prosecutions against members of the ANC," she said.

With the help of Sooka's HRF, Cajee successfully reapplied for the case to be reconsidered.

And even if all of the police officers implicated in the incident have since died, Timol is eagerly awaiting the outcome of the renewed probe.

But even half-a-century after the original incident, Cajee has faced opposition to his bid to re-examine the contested and violent legacy of the apartheid era.

"It was clear during the inquest that the security branch had no motive at all to kill Timol," said J.P. Botha, a spokesman for the Foundation for Equality Before the Law which represents former police chiefs.

Beyond Ahmed's case, many other families are also seeking to expose the crimes of the apartheid regime and its supporters.

"Now we have gone through this entire period without any prosecution," said Sooka. "It makes a mockery about the very promise upon which the new South Africa is built.

"It's important, I think, to close the circle of impunity."

"It's 45 years later but justice is never too late," said Mohammad Timol. "It comes one day."
The Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) has received half of the money found in the bank accounts of jailed Ghanaian/Austrian drug queen Nayele Ametefe aka Ruby Adu-Gyamfi aka Angel.

The other half of the money will go to the court and the consolidated fund.

Deputy Executive Director of NACOB, Michael Addo, told Joy FM that following Nayele's arrest, her accounts were seized and the monies in them confiscated to the state.

There were five different accounts; some of the monies were insignificant and the court decides how to do the sharing. Part of it is given to NACOB to continue with the work we're doingthe sharing is done in percentage terms. Fifty percent was given to NACOB, 30 percent went to the court and 20 percent was put into the consolidated fund, he indicated.

Nayele Ametefe was arrested at Heathrow Airport in 2014 with 12kg of cocaine worth $5 million in her hand luggage and has since been handed eight years and eight months' jail term by the Isleworth Crown Court in the UK.

The 33-year-old drug baron pleaded guilty to a charge of transporting cocaine to the United Kingdom (UK) and was sentenced on her own plea by the court in London.

On Wednesday, NACOB donated shop items belonging to Nayele Ametefe and other drug barons to three rehab centres in Ghana.

It made the donation as part of the 2017 World Drugs Day celebration following a court ruling that the assets should be confiscated.

Officials of the Narcotics Control Board had carted furniture and furnishings from Nayeles business  Night Angels Enterprise  located at the Dzorwulu motorway extension in Accra.

The beautiful set of furniture have been presented to three rehabilitation centres  Darferick at Medie House of St. Francis, Ashaiman and the Addictive Diseases Unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching hospital  where drug abuse patients are receiving treatment.

Assets of the jailed drug baron have been confiscated in accordance with an Accra High Court order.

Mr Addo said, We have been seizing houses, we have been seizing vehicles.

The mother of the convict, Akua Adubofour, is in court challenging the attempt to confiscate the East Legon house Ruby lived in before her arrest in London, as well as the one in her hometown, Pease.

NACOB and the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) filed an application on December 3, 2015 asking the court to grant an order for them to confiscate Ruby's properties.

The properties included two houses  one at East Legon in Accra and one at Pease in the Ashanti Region  an electrical shop known as Night Angels Enterprise, located at Dzorwulu, and six Fidelity Bank accounts with total cash of approximately GH23,000.

The court, in a ruling on April 6, 2016, granted the applications and ordered the confiscation of the assets, stating that the properties were acquired from the proceeds of a crime.
"My Gosh, Neighbourhood Watch", Luciano called and wailedl!

"Revolution....Fight", Nasio counter-responded!

Watch your wallets, Ghana!

We just read Professor Kwesi Botchway's "8 Recommendations for NDC" and Fallen-Mahama. We noticed there is no mention of corruption, transparency, real and substantive Asset Declaration by statutory officials, accountability and NDC's failure to enact the Freedom of Information bill, etc., as factors at bottom of the NDC defeat and subsequent ascendency of Akufo Addo to the presidency. Per the highlights, Professor Kwesi Botchway's report does not express a position on outlaw and banishment of Mahama-Fubu-Type-Nepotism, Separation of Church and State in national governance, and payment of income taxes by all officials taking money from Ghanaians, regardless of their position. Further, there is nothing on NDC's failure to make strong strides on preservation of Ghana's natural and cultural resources (remember 'galamsay"?) balanced by fair and equitable revenues for Ghana's oil and gas resources. To imply in the Botchway assessment report even for a second that any of these NDC failures have nothing to do with the NDC defeat is, from our vantage position, is the height of naked, partisan, absent-mindedness.

Professor Kwesi Botchway's summary points address winning for the NDC while remaining silent about remedying the warts-infested Rawlings Constitution that is in part responsible for the defeat of the NDC.

Simply, on numerous occasions and through various media, however you slice and dice it, you can bet your bottom cedi we did our best to forewarn Fallen-Mahama and his vice President, Kwesi Bekoe Amissah Arthur. We warned them that breaking rules of nepotism, cutting corrupt deals with their kith and kin and foreign corporations, and neglecting to demand Fair Trade Oil Share for Ghana would have negative consequence for Mr. Mahama. We warned them also that it is foolish, a total waste of money, to propose coal-fired plants for Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana when the Osagyefo himself was talking about Solar Energy for Ghana way back in the 1960s, even as Ghana was gearing up to commission the Akosombo Dam (Ghana First Great Sika Duro).

And so, we thought we would tweak the title of our follow-up paper to lightly mirror Professor Botchway's and in so doing direct our core Ghana-centered advisory to Akufo Addo and the NPP considering the NPP is the party the People elected in their collective wisdom when Mr. Mahama failed them on so many grounds.

It is all in the record if you care to Google-check!

As one young woman told us recently, "I voted for change".

In sum, among areas of policy Fallen-Mahama and his NDC party screwed up big time and for which Serious Akufo Addo and his administration must focus and repair with laser-beam precision, these revised 19-Point Advisory items have actual, practical, and symbolic significance for real change, if the NPP government under Nana Akufo Addo Dankwa wants the People to take them at their own word(s) and their promise of development and progress for Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana in the short-term, here and now.

Our 19-Point Advisory for Serious Akufo Addo are the following:

(1) Tear down and rebuild the warts-infested Rawlingsian Constitution utilizing work product(s) already funded and paid for by Ghanaians as tax payers, in the name of the People of Ghana themselves who are the Sovereign. (For instance, no government official should earn income from government and other sources that is not justly taxed to support the commonwealth they supervise and administer)

(2) Pass the "Freedom of Information (FOI) bill, with an Independent Commissioner; promote transparency in government, understanding that "Right to Information" (RTI) is for very weak people and tyrants like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe). That is one sure fire way to fight corruption, if you really want to win

(3) Immediately abrogate Act 919, that fraudulent and predatory 419 oil exploration and production contract scheme on Ghana. Review all contracts on petroleum and gas exploration/production and ensure through the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation that Ghana receives no less than 50% of all oil revenues consistent with investment by Ghana in exploration and production, and the global standard Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), the US GAO recommended contract system for sovereign oil

(4) Continue to ensure that the Adansi-Asokwa MP Kobina Tahir "Hybrid" Hammond speaks only for himself and the people in that constituency who returned him to parliament

(5) Publish without further delay a list of all transportation projects and their state of completion, including those for airport and railway infrastructure development; prioritize them transparently according to their importance to Ghana's national development, and complete them accordingly. (BUT BY ALL MEANS, SWIFTLY COMPLETE THE ACCRA-KUMASI HIGHWAY PROJECT WHILE INVESTIGATING USE OF FUNDS, REASONS FOR ALL THE UNTOWARD DELAY, AND CONSEQUENCES DURING THE LAST 14 YEARS)

(6) Implement a super-effective, decentralized, alternative and sustainable power generation program with Solar Energy as centerpiece for residential, institutional, and tourism uses, to free up adequate power reserves for industry and the export economy

(7) Promote science education and culture, Singapore-style, where teachers, instructors, and administrators are evaluated on their understanding of science, nature, relevance of data for daily living, and their importance in the lives of Ghanaians in cities, towns, villages, and regions

(8) Identify tourism development and green infrastructure, including sanitation upgrades, as high priority areas. Integrate "Brand Ghana" under that banner and ensure Diaspora defined chiefly for the purpose of generation of foreign exchange (vice taxes) and protection of the rights of all Ghana nationals, become crucial engines for a more prosperous Ghana in an inter-connected global environment

(9) Mandate Ghana Police Service, the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), and the Transportation minister to provide within 3 months a credible plan on traffic safety administration that measurably reduces the carnage, maiming, and destruction of life and property on roads in Ghana, year-by-year, data-point by data-point, for the next decade. (All data published by these agencies for the consumption of the People shall be meaningfully normalized)

(10) Consistent with above, mandate the Interior Ministry, the Ghana Police Service, the Services, and the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), to provide within 3 months a credible "National Plan for Control, Eradication, and Response to Mob Justice" that measurably reduces the wanton disregard for the rule of law, presumption of innocence until proven guilty, and swift, transparent trials as close to communities as practicable. (All data published by these agencies for the consumption of the People shall be meaningfully normalized)

(11) Improve public management and civil service professionalism, including presidential staff, and ensure all have adequate training with respect to law and ethical requirements, including non-partisanship and the separation of church and state while on duty. (For instance, no Minister or government official may use government resources for their private religious affairs, including using government vehicles to transport themselves and their families to churches, mosques, and synagogues, etc.)

(12) Ensure improved health administration and control/management of diseases, including cholera, knowing that these have huge impact on Brand-Ghana, Tourism, and the Ghanaian image. Ensure recent loose talk by irresponsible officials that AIDS is now adequately under control is nipped in the bud, until Ghana is able to cheaply produce in Ghana, a vaccine for AIDS. (Ensure the Ministry of Health and Ghana EBOLA task force is maintained, trained, rewarded, multiplied, and equipped to handle current and new health/sanitation emergencies)

(13) Review Ghana national drug policy and sentencing, especially with respect to cannabis and the immoral history of Western/European-decreed drug laws in accordance with current scientific knowledge balanced by policy on use of alcohol, personal freedoms, the dignity of individuals and their families, cost to government and tax payers for administration of law and sentencing, and current practices by progressive and responsible governments the world over

(14) Resource and force-multiply the capabilities of emergency management in Ghana, paying acute attention to coastal zones and riparian corridors, and areas where oil/gas is being explored/produced, to include impacts of deforestation and desertification throughout Ghana consistent with the 2015 "National REDD+ Strategy". Plant 100 million trees. Surely, if Ghana can without regard to democratic principles employ public funds to support religious activities such as sponsoring a National Cathedral, providing meals and other services to pilgrims in far-away Mecca and the Vatican), Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana ought to be able to plant a 100 million trees within 2 years to stop deforestation, desertification, and improve Ghana's ecological balance with respect to lands, rivers, and air)

(15) Consistent with above, provide a national forest resources and habitat preservation plan for job creation, economic empowerment, and as a climate adaptation strategy, from each District to the Region, to the National level; tie execution of the major promises made to Ghanaians to those efforts and enable professional, non-partisan, and timely auditing and transparency at every level and stage; avoid waste of national resources. (Ensure Million-Dollar payments are balanced according to size of population in the region; that if any region must lose it will be Greater Accra on account of disproportionate share of national income that accrue to that region annually)

(16) Ensure technical and science education systems and the Ghana Education Service produce teachers and facilitators with requisite skills and interest in teaching technical skills, trades, critical thinking, and life-skills development for youths, with no less than 55% of resources expended on Ghanaian girls and women

(17) Employing lessons already learned at tax payer expense and consistent with the 2015 "Ghana National Spatial Development Framework 2015-2035", implement an executive-directed national development planning effort that produces coherent, coordinated, comprehensive, time-limited planning products that leverage non-proprietary, common, off-the-shelf products to support development at the district-regional levels

(18) Fully implement and fund the 2013 "Railway Master Plan of Ghana", recognizing that it is not the business of the new Railway Minister to establish as railway industry. Rather, it is the business of the Ghana Railway to ensure trains to arrive on time, that passenger and cargo throughput are safely increased with a credible plan, reduce hazards and unsafe conditions including encroachment on tracks and safe buffers zones, provide aesthetically pleasing travel conditions, these being important national development and priority items

(19) Drastically reduce customs fees and taxes for the importation of vehicles into Ghana and tighten up on revenue collections to increase payments directly to the commonwealth. Schedule of fees for all vehicles must be easily available on government websites, newspapers, at embassies, and all ports of entry.

The ordinary Ghanaians is working 7 days a week, 24-7!

We are saying forget about all those speak-easy and shiny bright promises of "Pay for Dining in Jerusalem and Mecca, 1-Million-Dollars-Per Constituency, 1-Factory-1 District, etc.

For real!

Revolution....Fight!

My Gosh Neighbourhood Watch

So it goes, Ghana!

SOURCES/NOTES:

1. Prof Lungu. 18 Ghana-centered marching orders for serious Akufo-Addo!, (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/18-Ghana-centered-marching-orders-for-serious-Akufo-Addo-496671).

2. Ghanaweb. Kwesi Botchwey makes 8 recommendations for NDC, (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Kwesi-Botchwey-makes-8-recommendations-for-NDC-550005).

3. Prof Lungu. Ashanti Region Biggest Loser: Akufo Addo's Million-Dollar Cash To Voting Districts (3), (https://www.modernghana.com/news/749158/ashanti-region-biggest-loser-akufo-addos-million-dollar-ca.html).

4. Prof Lungu. Winners & Losers: Akufo Addo's Million-Dollar Cash Giveaways to Voting Districts (1), (http://www.ghanahero.com/PROF_LUNGU_SAYS/2017-Ghana-Review/Winners_and_Losers_Akufo_Addo_Million-Dollar_Cash_to_Voting_Districts-Final.pdf).

5. Ghanaweb. Fight against corruption has to be won - Akufo-Addo, (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Fight-against-corruption-has-to-be-won-Akufo-Addo-549711).

6. Yakoema.net. Ghana loses six persons daily through road crashes,

(https://yakoema.net/2016/11/21/ghana-loses-six-persons-daily-road-crashes/).

7. Prof Lungu. Quantum Leap In Education Under Kwame Nkrumah And The CPP (1951 - 1966), (http://ghanapolitics.net/quantum-leap-in-education-under-kwame-nkrumah-and-the-cpp-1951-1966).

Visit www.GhanaHero.Com/Visions, for more information.

SUBJ: Prof Lungu's 19-Point Advisory for Serious Akufo Addo!, by Prof Lungu.

Support Fair-Trade Oil Share Ghana (FTOS-Gh) Campaign/Petition:

https://www.change.org/p/ghana-fair-trade-oil-share-psa-campaign-ftos-gh-psa/

Brought to you courtesy www.GhanaHero.com17 June 17.

(Powered by: www.GhanaHero.Com).
Changing perceptions in South Asia

Despite having close cultural, social and economic ties spanning millennia, countries in South Asia seem to be embroiled in a never-ending display of confusion, suspicion, misconception and a lack of understanding about each other and specially about India.
The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Otiko Afisa Djaba, has called on parents to make the welfare of children their priority.

She said parents have the primary responsibility for the care and protection of children for a better future for them.

Ms. Djaba said parenting should be done with love, care, attention and all the necessary support a child needs to take up roles that will make them responsible adults.

I entreat you (parents) to forge on and support the holistic development of our children to secure a bright future for our nation, she charged.

The sector minister made this charge when she was speaking at the celebration of African Union (AU) Day of the African Child themed, 'The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development for children in Africa: Accelerating protection, empowerment, and equal opportunity,' in Accra.

The celebration, marked on 16th June each year, was instituted to draw the attention of all actors to prevailing child development issues and challenges and unite their efforts towards improving the conditions of children on the continent.

Ms Djaba, who gave the keynote address, said child marriage, teenage pregnancy, child labour, child abuse, child trafficking and child commercial sex working, among others, are some of the challenges affecting the development of the Ghanaian child.

Results from Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) indicated early and forced marriage to be increasing from 25.9% in 2006 to 27% in 2011; and the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) also shows that 21.8% of children aged five to seventeen, are engaged in child labor, she noted.

The gender minister explained that these challenges are outcomes of negative socio-cultural practices, poverty, poor parenting and disparities in national development.

She however, said that the ministry, in collaboration with some partners, was investing heavily to address issues the society faces, which hinder the development of children.

She said the ministry was implementing the Child and Family Welfare and Justice for Children policies, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme, campaigning against child marriage and a five-year strategic plan to end teenage pregnancy, among others, to make the society a safer place for the development of the child.

We will continue our community dialogues on issues of child abuse, child prostitution and child labour so that communities will appreciate the gravity of harm these cause children; and make communities protectors of their own children, she affirmed.

She advised children to learn hard, be obedient to parents and guardians and take advantage of the various opportunities.

By Abigail Owiredu-Boateng & Patricia Ashiagbor
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has said it would take prompt steps to address the order issued by the Supreme Court that the two hardcore terrorists brought into the country by the United States government during the era of John Dramani Mahama's National Democratic Congress (NDC), was unconstitutional.

The apex court on Thursday threw off the deal reached between the Mahama government and the then Obama-led US government to bring to Ghana two Al-Qaeda foot soldiers  Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef, then 36 years and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, then 34.

The court, in a 6-1 majority decision, ordered the repatriation of the two reported terrorists to the United States, if the parliament of Ghana fails to rectify the deal within three months.

The arrival of the terrorists from Guantanamo Bay, near Cuba, set tongues wagging and the court has finally ruled that the deal should have been ratified by parliament, which the Mahama-led NDC government failed to do.

Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid, after the ruling by the court, issued a statement for calm as the government puts the issue to rest.

Government has taken notice of the judgement of the Supreme Court delivered on Thursday, 22nd June, 2017 by a 6-1 majority, in the matter of Margaret Banful and Henry Nana Boakye Vrs Attorney General, the statement said.

In the judgement of the Apex Court, presided over by new Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo, has held that the agreement between the Governments of Ghana and the United States of America, for the resettlement of two (2) ex-detainees from Guantanamo Bay, required parliamentary approval in accordance with Article 75 (2) of the Constitution, and a failure to secure same makes the hosting of the two ex-detainees in Ghana unconstitutional.

Consequently, the Court has instructed that the agreement be given parliamentary approval within three (3) months or the ex-detainees deported out of Ghana upon a failure by parliament to ratify the agreement.

Government wants to assure the nation that the ex-detainees, who have been comporting themselves well since their arrival in Ghana, continue to be under the supervision of the security agencies.

Unconstitutional Action

The suit, filed by Margaret Bamfo, an 86-year-old retired Conference Officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Henry Nana Boakye, a student of Ghana School of Law, had petitioned the Supreme Court to declare that then President John Mahama acted unconstitutionally by accepting the Al-Qaeda terrorists in Ghana.

The case took a new twist on April 12, 2016 when the defendants, made up of the Attorney-General and the Minister of the Interior, filed a process averring that Ghana actually had an existing agreement with the United States government regarding the two detainees whose presence continues to generate public uproar.

On page 7 paragragh 3 of the AG's statement of case filed on March 16, the government said, We admit that there exists an agreement between the two Governments, which was reached by the exchange of confidential diplomatic notes otherwise known as Note Verbales.

As a result of the u-turn by the government, De Medeiros & Associates, lawyers for the applicants, sought a request for the said agreement to be made available to them for scrutiny.

Proper Interpretation

The plaintiffs had averred among other reliefs that the court should make a declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of Article 75 of the1992 Constitution of Ghana, the President of the Republic of Ghana acted unconstitutionally by agreeing to the transfer of Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby (both profiled terrorists and former detainees of Guantanamo Bay) to the Republic of Ghana without the ratification by an Act of Parliament or a resolution of parliament supported by the votes of more than one-half of all the Members of Parliament.

They further sought a declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of Article 58(2) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the President of the Republic of Ghana who is under an obligation to execute and maintain laws of Ghana, breached the Anti-terrorism Act of 2008 (Act 762) and the Immigration Act of 2000 (Act 573), both being laws passed under the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

Gitmo 2 Arrival

It may be recalled that the Mahama administration announced that Ghana would for two years from the time the terrorists arrived, host them.

When they were brought in, the NDC government stated that Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby were being offered humanitarian assistance in Ghana under a deal signed with the Obama administration.

It turned out that the two detainees were hardcore terrorists who the US is looking for a place to dump them.

According to US security report on the two suspects, Mohammed Bin Atef was a fighter in Usama bin Laden's former 55th Arab Brigade and he is an admitted member of the Taliban.

He trained at al Farouq, the infamous al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, and participated in hostilities against US and coalition forces, and continues to demonstrate his support of Osama Bin Laden and extremism.

By William Yaw Owusu
The Coalition of Muslim Organization (COMOG) has asked Sam Pee Yalley, the immediate past Ghana's High Commissioner to India, to retract his disparaging statements and apologize to the the Muslim Community in Ghana.

The coalition, in a press statement signed by the General Secretary, Hajj Abdel-Manan, said that the recent statements attributed to Sam Pee Yalley about turning the Flagstaff House into a mosque smack of religious bigotry.

The coalition, in the statement, called on Ghanaians to ignore and proactively condemn unguarded inflammable statements from the NDC member.

In addition, they indicated that the statement was an exaggeration and not suitable for social cohesion.

As a nation that prides itself in the peaceful co-existence between members of different religious persuasions, such acts of bigotry and Islamophobia from no less a person than Mr. Yalley must be condemned by all peace-loving Ghanaians, the statement said.

COMOG therefore called for the respect of the rights of all Ghanaian citizens and for that matter Muslims who must be accorded the dignity they deserve.

Dr. Alhaji Bawumia is the second gentleman on the land, and as humble as we know him may have sought permission from President Nana Akufo-Addo and perhaps other officials before the first-ever Iftar took place there, the statement said.

We therefore find it unfortunate that Mr. Yalley decided that Muslims' presence at the presidency is a nuisance since no law was broken.

This statement is condescending, as it attempts to direct the Vice President to organize Iftar at poor areas like Fadama, etc.

They averred that it was quite misplaced for a non-Muslim, who is compound ignorant about Islamic Jurisprudence to tell Muslims where to observe Iftar in the Holy Month of Ramadan.

The group, which made reference to prayer meetings that were held by former Presidents Prof. Mills and Mahama, said the fact that Mr. Yalley had no problems with these meetings shows that he is not concerned about hosting religious events at the seat of the government.

His statement against the Iftar event at the Flagstaff House is an expression of intolerance to the manifestation of Islamic practice in public and the promotion of the fear of Islam and Muslims, they noted.

Mr Yalley, in a Radio Gold programme, said, You remember when Professor Mills was praying in the Castle; there were the hullabaloo that he was turning the Castle into a church. Now; I am not against Muslim religion; what is Bawumia doing? Every evening, people have to go and break their fast; if I were Bawumia, I will not do a thing like that; I would rather go to the poor areas of Fadama, Zongo to go and break my fast with the people there. We should stop all these facade. If you say somebody was turning the castle into a church, you cannot also turn the flagstaff house into a mosque. This religious bigotry should stop.
Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh

24.06.2017 LISTEN

The Minister of Education, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, on Tuesday told parliament that 8,268 basic schools across the country are in very deplorable state and need to be rehabilitated.

According to him, the ministry would need more than $200 million to undertake such an exercise.

He said with the onset of the raining season, the ministry had identified 20 'emergency' cases  school buildings that are death traps across the country  and so need to give prompt attention to them.

He however, failed to mention those schools that have been identified as 'death traps' which he noted are ticking bombs ready to explode.

Mr Opoku-Prempah, fondly called Napo, made the disclosure in a contribution to a statement made on the floor of parliament by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Atwima Nwabiagya South, Emmanuel Agyei Anhwere, on the dilapidated nature of some basic school buildings in the country.

The minister said to arrest the situation, his ministry would present a proposal to parliament to consider an emergency formula in the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) for the purpose of rehabilitating such structures.

Mr Agyei Anhwere said that this year alone there had been several school buildings that had collapsed, resulting in the deaths and injuries of school children.

He cited an example of such occurrences at Breman Jamara in the Central Region and that which took the lives of eight children at Nkurankuran in the Eastern Region and causing serious injuries.

Mr Speaker, basic schools serve as the foundation for our education. The quality of our basic schools is what propels students into future radiance. How can we produce another generation of astute academicians, renowned medical officers, revered lawyers and selfless leaders when the very foundation that is supposed to prepare and nurture them to climb the academic ladder are in ruins, Mr Agyei Anhwere said, stressing that the sad reality is that most of the basic schools in the country have become death traps for pupils and teachers rather than centres for knowledge acquisition.

The MP cited a primary school at Amadum Adankwame in his constituency in the Ashanti Region as one of such schools which need urgent rehabilitatio.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member for Upper West Akim, Derek Ohene Assifo Bekoe, appealed to the minister to in the interim, get some emergency fund in place so that when school buildings are ripped off in this raining season, they would receive immediate attention.

By Thomas Fosu Jnr


The Annual Delegates Conference of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Subin Constituency in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital, was nearly marred on Friday morning.

This was after some stoutly-built men, who were engaged by the party to provide security at the venue, attempted to prevent the NPP Chairman of the area, Francis Kwabena Boamah, from entering the GNAT Hall.

Mr. Boamah became incensed after the machomen allegedly shoved him in an embarrassing manner for some minutes.

The confrontation between the machomen and the NPP Chairman escalated, but luckily order was finally restored to the place following the swift intervention of armed policemen.

Mr. Boamah, who was determined to enter the event venue, was eventually allowed to enter the GNAT Hall, where about 800 delegates of the ruling political party had already taken their seats.

Machomen Apology

The machomen, after realizing that Mr. Boamah was the NPP chairman for the constituency, rendered unqualified apology to him in the presence of the media.

The nasty incident, which attracted the crowd to the scene, happened at the blind side of Eugene Boakye Antwi, the Subin Member of Parliament (MP), who was in the venue with other dignitaries.

The programme was organized to enable the leadership of the party in the constituency take stock of the activities of the party over the past year and also plan for the years ahead.

Chairman's Anger

Mr Boamah, later in an interview with the media, claimed he was not invited to the programme, which ideally should have been organized by him and other party executives.

He said even though he had no invitation, he decided to attend the programme to prove to Mr Boakye Antwi that nobody can sideline him from the party, adding that the conference was illegal since it was organized by the MP.

Mr. Boamah said he only wanted to prove to the MP that nobody can kick him out of the NPP, adding that he had accepted the apology of the machomen that nearly assaulted him.

MPs Response

Mr. Antwi stated that he and other dignitaries were not aware of the incident since they had already taken their seats.

He said it was unfortunate that the machomen, who didn't know Mr. Boamah, tried to prevent him from entering the venue, adding that he had no hand in the incident.

The Subin lawmaker, who is also the Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, debunked Mr. Boamah's allegations that he (Eugene) was trying to sideline him from the party, noting that he only performed his duties as the MP.

When I was initially elected as the NPP parliamentary candidate, Mr. Boamah and some other people in the party, who were not happy about my victory, decided not to work for the party, so they left everything to me.

I took the challenge in good faith and worked with other executives that have the interest of the NPP at heart and God-willing we won massively for our dear political party.

Interestingly, after the 2016 victory Mr. Boamah and his cohorts, who abandoned the party, have suddenly made a sharp U-turn, and they now want to take over the management of the party from me which will not work.

Machomen Apology

Meanwhile, the machomen, who tried to prevent Mr Boamah from attending the programme, apologized to him after they got information that he (Boamah) was the NPP chairman for Subin.

They said the party engaged their services to prevent unauthorized people from entering the venue to create problems.

Since Mr. Boamah was not holding an invitation card, we did our job by preventing him from entering the venue.

From I.F. Awuah Jnr., Kumasi


Apollo (W/R),June 22,GNA--The Head of Local Government Service,Ing.Dr.Nana Ato Arthur has hinted that all Metropolitan,Municipal and District Assemblies(MMDAs) will sign a performance contract effective 2018 as part of measures to deepen decentralization at the grass root level.

He, therefore. charged MMDAs to speed up development in a bid to bring prosperity to people within their catchment areas.

Ing.Dr. Nana Arthur gave the hint when he met a cross-section of staff from the 22 MMDAs in the Region at Apollo in Takoradi as part of a familiarization visit to the Western Region.

The visit which is the 9th in the series in the country since he assumed office this year,afforded him the opportunity to interact with Heads of Departments and key actors in all the 22 MMDAs in the Region to learn at first hand their condition of service and how to chart a new path.

Ing. Dr. Nana Arthur deplored the situation where MMDA staff report late to work and close very early and warned that such flippant attitude would no longer be tolerated as the productive hours lost affect efficient running of the MMDAs.

He called for a behavioral change of staff adding that 'if we are committed to transform our MMDAs,we have transformed Ghana".

Ing.Dr.Nana Arthur urged staff to be innovative,strategic,dedicated,skilled and loyal to meet the set target of government and charged budgeting officers to work in concert with Assembly members.

He catalogued six thematic areas as his major pre-occupation to streamline issues in the service as capacity building of staff,promotion of ICT to improve revenue mobilization and re-tooling of development planning.

Others are the sister-city partnership where Assemblies wills share ideas and sanitation to ensure cleanliness. and staff orientation.

As part of efficiency of the service,he warned front line staff who chat on social media during working hours at the expense of attending to clients to desist from the practice.

He hinted that the service will soon roll out transfers of staff whose services services may be needed in other parts of the country.

The Western Regional Minister,Mr.Kwaku Osei Afriyie said 20 out of the 22 Metropolitan,Municipal and District Chief Executives(MMDCEs) have been confirmed and sworn into office.

He said the Region is endowed with many natural resources and cash crops notably rubber plantation which contributes about 50% of Gross Domestic Product(GDP).

However,the Region is hampered by issues such as galamsey leading to environmental degradation and water pollution adding that places such as Wassa Akropong have been taken over by foreigners.

Mr.Afriyie also mentioned chieftaicy disputes,bad educational infrastructure and vacancies in the various sectors as challenges confronting the Region which required immediate attention.

He said the regional Cordinating Council will live up to its core mandate to incorporate values in the private sector as the main vehicle to drive development.

On the planting for food programme, he said about 4,000 indigenes of the Region have registered to cultivate 4,000 hectares of assorted food items.

The Regional said plans were far advanced for the creation of the Western-North as a new Region.
Anytime he opens his mouth to make a statement pertaining to a landmark national issue, I have to pop a Tylenol or an Aleve or some such analgesic. The fact of the matter is that the Minority Leader in Parliament is an unbearable pain in the back. And the butts and the neck and the brain, too, of course, if the dear reader knows what I am talking about. In the wake of the Supreme Courts ruling finding former President John Dramani Mahama to have been in flagrant violation of Article 75 of the countrys 1992 Constitution, in the matter of the two Guantanamo Bay terror suspects, namely, Messrs. Muhammed Al-Dhuby and Muhammed Bin-Atef, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu was widely reported by the media to have said that the 6-to-1 majority decision faulting the former President for having been in reckless breach of the highest legal document of the land, was a splendid display of Ghanas Separation of Powers at work (See Gitmo 2 Ruling: We Respect Ghanas Judicial Process  US Govt MyJoyOnline.com / Modernghana.com 6/23/17).

The man who had his Master of Social Science Degree withdrawn by the Academic Council of the countrys flagship academy, the University of Ghana, for plagiarizing a sizable chunk of his thesis, may need to explain precisely what he means by a display of Ghanas Separation of Powers at work, because we did not see this display exemplified in the case of the Montie Three/Trio pro-National Democratic Congress media propagandists, who publicly threatened to sexually violate recently retired Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, and were jointly and severally sentenced to 4 months imprisonment to be served at the Nsawam Medium-Security Prison, only for then-President Mahama to step in and use a rubber-stamp Council-of-State to summarily quash the verdict by the highest court of the land, barely halfway through the Montie Threes serving of their sentences.

In a healthily and refreshingly functional democracy, Mr. Mahama would not have intervened or presumed to impugn the integrity of the decision by the Supreme Court without creating a constitutional crisis or, worse yet, bringing himself to the brink of impeachment. Indeed, by the end of his tenure, President Mahama had effectively become what may be aptly termed as a Constitutional Dictator. He had earlier on ridden roughshod over a very weak parliamentary establishment that had also become functionally too divisive and pathologically partisan for its own good. And so it is not clear just what the Tamale NDC-MP  one of the three MPs for the Tamale municipality, that is  means when Mr. Iddrisu talks about a display of Ghanas Separation of Powers at work.

For, clearly, whatever passes for the Separation of Powers in Ghana these days, is purely so in name only. I am interested in this question because ever since his Masters Degree was withdrawn by the University of Ghana, Mr. Iddrisu has managed to secure a law degree from one of the law-certificate manufacturing private academies in the nations capital.

One can almost be certain, from the abjectly poor quality of his reasoning, that the Parliamentary Minority Leader may very well have used his power and influence as Labor and Employment Minister, at the time, to literally intimidate his way through the issuance of a law degree to him.

Of course, he is not a lone ranger in this. We know, for instance, that at least 80-percent of the Mahama deputy cabinet appointees spent sizable chunks of their salaried time foraging for graduate degrees at the various advanced-degree awarding institutions in the nations capital, in much the same way that the late President Saddam Hussein, of Iraq, was once said to have done to the dean of a Cairo law school.

Well, legend has it that having flunked out of law school in Egypt and been expelled, the former Iraqi strongman would push his way into becoming the de facto military tyrant of his oil-rich country. He would then fully dress in his generals uniform and sport a garishly visible high-caliber pistol slung to his waists belt. We are told that the newly self-proclaimed Iraqi strongman would then storm his former Cairo law school deans office. He would not have to say a word in order to have the law-degree certificate that he never earned handed to him with a diamond-gilt edge. Gen. Husseins striking visual message had been all too loud and clear for his former dean to ignore.

Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
Madrid (AFP) - Spanish coastguards rescued more than 200 migrants on Saturday as they attempted to make the perilous sea crossing from north Africa to Europe.

A spokesman for Spain's state maritime rescue service told AFP that 224 people had been rescued from five vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea, which separate Spain from Morocco.

The first rescues occurred in the early hours, the spokesman said, with dozens rescued south of Gibraltar from three boats.

Another 72 were rescued later after being spotted by a plane belonging to Europe's border agency, Frontex.

Spain's sea rescue service said Thursday that it had saved more than 400 migrants this week alone.

The relatively short sea crossing from Morocco to Spain is a popular route taken by migrants from sub-Saharan and north Africa in their quest to reach Europe.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, 3,314 people attempted this crossing between January 1 and April 30 this year. They recorded 59 deaths over the same period in this part of the Mediterranean.
24.06.2017 LISTEN

The leading telecommunications network provider in Ghana, MTN presented computers to some intellectually challenged students at a Special School in Kotei Deduako as part of their 21 days yellow care.

Mr Samuel Yeboah IT Engineer for the three northern business, speaking in an interview said, its their priority to help children with special needs and to bring out the best in them.

The Items presented was 75 bag of cements, 5 computers and accessories, desk, Gas burner and cylinder.

The computers are specialized with teaching and learning softares, internet access to help teachers with smooth teaching and learning resources.

Mr. Joseph Stanley Mwini the head master of the school he said, the school set up in 2002 and later handed over to government in 2005, pursues vocational skill alone side life skills such as needle work, candle procession, sowing, mash room among others.

He said, management of the school is hard on pin-tip since they don't take fees they lack funds to provide the training materials.

He mentioned feeding grants from government which does not flows as expected as a major contributed factor to the school hardship.

He appealed to government and the education directorate to assign more teachers into the school since the current teachers are not enough for the school.

He again appeal to government, NGOs and individual school to come to their aid and help them.

On his part, Mr Osei Yaw Akoto, Special Education Coordinator for the Kumasi Metro Education, said due to lack of teachers some of the children do get lost and appealed to the minister of education to specialize teachers for children on special needs.
24.06.2017 LISTEN

There has begun the widening of a sectional family fissure within the Kumawu Ananangya royal family. From the recent frightening development bordering on begrudging Barima Tweneboa Kodua Vs elevation and enstoolment as the Kumawu Omanhene by tradition and the en masse popular support of the Kumawuman subjects, the Ananangya royal family members run the risk of washing their extremely dirty linen in public.

Prior to divulging what is amiss, I would like to emphasize that a section of the Ananangya royal family is being instigated to do the unthinkable by a heavily depressed, selfish and confused Kumawuman woman residing in Switzerland. This woman is personally not known to them yet, she has been able through her constant exchange of telephone calls with them, polluted their minds, force-fed them false narrative history and given them false hope.

I personally know this woman a million times more than the Ananangya royal family members know her. Her maternal grandmother was a half-sibling to my mothers uncle (Nana Yaw Donkor) from Ashanti Juaben. They are both deceased nearly forty years ago. Their father was from Amanfrom near Abotanso.

Additionally, her late uncle, Opanin Kwasi Akyena, was once my fathers cocoa caretaker at Mpasaaso in the 1960s. I knew this woman when she was a pupil at Kumawu Presbyterian primary and middle school until today as I speak.

Figuratively, I know her when it comes to discussing her beauty which is only skin-deep and her ugliness which cuts across the bones. How did some Ananangya family members come to know her in the first place? It was through me via my radio guest-programmes hosted by DJ Sarkodie, alias DJ Sources of Sources radio UK.

Being somehow related to her via the Akan extended family through Nana Yaw Donkor, I invited her to participate in the radio programmes as a guest telephone speaker. It was through this that many people in America including the current section of the Ananangya royal family members she is brainwashing got to know her.

Before proceeding any further, let my readers understand that the recent past chief of Ananangya, Nana Damte, although unknown to me personally, was my uncle. His father and my mums father were brothers through Nana Fosuaa of Kumawu-Abenaso. I do not want to go into details of the family history as the little so far said is indicative of how resourced I am to tell about Kumawu history with precision.

This woman from Switzerland, my age group of course, for her individualistic selfish aspirations bordering on pursuance of acquiring 10% of the wealth of Kumawuman because her father allegedly single-handedly achieved everything in Kumawuman for the collective use of the people, has been selling her story and bastardized history to innocent but vulnerable Kumawuman citizens.

Unfortunately, she has played on the intelligence of certain Ananangya royals including Madam Berhene, Messrs Yaw Boamah and Osei Yaw, just but to mention a few. They have easily fallen for her shenanigans. Having bamboozled the mentioned persons into believing that their side of the Ananangya royals is the more eligible one to become Kumawu Omanhene (paramount chief), they decided to cause mayhem during Nana Damtes traditional one week funeral celebration although he has kicked the bucket since the last forty days with his remains still in the morgue. Subsequently, the scheduled traditional celebrations were abrogated to the shame of not only the family but also, the instigator, who is absurdly pulling the strings remotely from Switzerland.

She had allegedly maliciously instructed those who had come under her magic spell to take traditional drinks to inform the fraudulently enstooled Kumawuhene Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua (Dr Yaw Sarfo) of the death and the one week funeral celebrations of Nana Damte. Additionally, she had strictly advised them to arrange macho men, police and the military to proceed to Ananangya to offer protection to those attending the funeral while secretly tasked to injure, maim or kill any of certain marked five persons; possibly, Barima Tweneboa Kodua V, Abusuapanin Nana Gyekye a.k.a. Wanonwin, Nana Kodua, Nana Aduanahene and Abusuapanin Nana Darkwah.

Sorry to say, stupid as those she had hoodwinked were, they abided by her orders, the last minute discovery of which led to the emergency decision to call off the one week funeral celebrations on the very morning of the day it was scheduled to take place. This is how God works in favour of his chosen one to avert bloodshed to ensure His purpose for Barima Tweneboa Kodua V comes to fruition despite all the challenges from the evil ones.

From the little said I had an inner feeling while cogitating about how stupidly these hypnotised Ananangya royals have become, that I should publish this article to rebuke them by exposing their wickedness, weakness and lack of gumption. My inner feelings have always been attributed to God talking to me or directing me. This has always been my belief.

This woman in question has been posting voice recordings on WhatsApp lambasting Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua and his false enstoolment by Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and his gang of accomplices. However, in another breath, she had instructed these same Ananangya royals opposing the legality and eligibility of Dr Yaw Sarfos accession to the Kumawu Kodua Stool to invite him to perform the necessary traditional rites befitting a departed chief. What does she mean to tell me and my fans? Is she not consciously giving recognition to, propping up, and strengthening Dr Yaw Sarfos enthronement although as illegal as it is?

God through my cogitation advised me to tell those depraved Ananangya royals dancing to the tune of the music and the pull of strings by that woman in Switzerland as though they were puppets, the following biblical message.

1 Kings 3:16-28

16 One day two women[a] came to King Solomon, 17 and one of them said:

Your Majesty, this woman and I live in the same house. Not long ago my baby was born at home, 18 and three days later her baby was born. Nobody else was there with us.

19 One night while we were all asleep, she rolled over on her baby, and he died. 20 Then while I was still asleep, she got up and took my son out of my bed. She put him in her bed, then she put her dead baby next to me.

21 In the morning when I got up to feed my son, I saw that he was dead. But when I looked at him in the light, I knew he wasnt my son.

22 No! the other woman shouted. He was your son. My baby is alive!

The dead baby is yours, the first woman yelled. Mine is alive!

They argued back and forth in front of Solomon, 23 until finally he said, Both of you say this live baby is yours. 24 Someone bring me a sword.

A sword was brought, and Solomon ordered, 25 Cut the baby in half! That way each of you can have part of him.

26 Please dont kill my son, the babys mother screamed. Your Majesty, I love him very much, but give him to her. Just dont kill him.

The other woman shouted, Go ahead and cut him in half. Then neither of us will have the baby.

27 Solomon said, Dont kill the baby. Then he pointed to the first woman, She is his real mother. Give the baby to her.

28 Everyone in Israel was amazed when they heard how Solomon had made his decision. They realized that God had given him wisdom to judge fairly.

I have reproduced the entire bible message in case readers could not reach for their bible to get the message. God is by this message trying to convey to the deceived Ananangya royals that if their section of the Ananangya family members were true royals of matrilineal lineage to Barima Tweneboa Kodua I, the originator of the Kumawu Kodua Stool, they would not have succumbed to the evil machinations by that Jezebel in Switzerland to behave totally irresponsibly as they schemed to, same as the woman before King Solomon pleading for the child to be cut into two, thus, killed.

I shall be back to tell the full true story of those Ananangya royals following that Jezebel residing in Switzerland if they dared me to. I am not only able to research historical facts but also, have oral knowledge of issues pertaining to the Kumawu chieftaincy and certain persons since my extended family background gives me rich information. My fathers uncle, Nana Osei Akromah, who died about sixty years ago, lived in Old Ananangya where my eldest three half-siblings lived. I know what I am talking about and I shall not hesitate to take on any liar as far as God gives me strengthen and health to do so.

The mentioned saboteurs should bury their heads in shame for exhibiting that wicked African/Ghanaian mentality of sabotaging for the simple reason of having not been the one in the limelight. The public must be your judge, oh ye Ananangya royals overflowing with jealousy to the point of scheming to harm innocent persons from within your royal family.

Rockson Adofo

(Written on Saturday, 24 June 2017)
Constitution will be amended, but current proposal wont be endorsed: Oli

CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli has said that the constitution will be amended, but the amendment proposal registered at the Legislature-Parliament will not be endorsed.
Tema, June 23, GNA - The National Labour Commission (NLC) has retrained the workers on the Tema Port Expansion Project from engaging in any illegal strike.

In its ruling dated 23 June 2017, the Commission said,' The respondent Union are further restrained from engaging in any illegal action of any kind'

The China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), which is at the executing the port expansion project, had petitioned the NLC to seek clarifications on its contractual obligations to workers and the Union.

The NLC also retrained the Union and workers of L'aine Services Limited from coercing CHEC to directly employ them.

'That is no privity of contract between L'aine Service and CHEC and hence it shall not be lawful for the workers of L'aine Service either acting by themselves or their representatives to seek to negotiate conditions of service directly with CHEC.'

The workers had demanded permanent employment status as some had attempted to begin a process of engaging some senior staff members of CHEC but an official of company who pleaded anonymity said,' CHEC lack the legal capacity do so.'

According to the official, the workers were aware of the ruling of the NLC hence their decision to seek national attention by embarking of yesterday's illegal strike.

The Tema Port Expansion Project site had experienced two labour unrest but could not truncate the progress of work as they were short lived.

The 1.5-billion-dollar project when completed would turn the Tema habour into a mega size port capable of accommodating many and larger container ships as well as improve cargo handling.

The main shareholders are: the Ghana Ports and Harbours' Authority and Meridian ports Services.

GNA
Accra - June 24, GNA - A Girls' Education Network (GEN) forum has been launched at the Accra Technical Training Institute at Kokomlemle by the Greater Accra Regional Girls Educational Unit.

The programme brought together the Municipal and Metro Girls Educational Officers within the Region including; some Non-Governmental Organizations working on issues concerning girls' education.

Mrs Bernice Ofori, Deputy Regional Director of Education in an opening address said girls' education which had been their concern was unfortunately subdued by some cultural practices.

As a result, she said the forum was to promote their education to make them assertive in both schools and society.

Speaking on the terms of reference of Girls Education Network (GEN), Mrs Christiana Azure Ayinzoya, Regional Girls' Education Officer for the Greater-Accra Educational Office and Co-Ordinator of the forum said they would launch the Girls' Education Network for Greater-Accra Region, following the launch of the National (GEN) at Koforidua on May 29, 2017.

Mrs Christiana Ayinzoya added subsequent governments had made efforts to improve education for all in Ghana, especially girls education, based on which the Girls Educational Unit was created in 1997 to promote girls education by bringing girls apar with boys.

For years now, the Unit has been working to ensure that there is retention of girls in schools to perform and transit smoothly to the higher levels.

She explained that the girls education unit had a mandate to promote girls education by running activities that would motivate girls and parents to stay in school.

Mrs Ayinzoya added that as a result, NGOs were also supporting the education of girls in Ghana.

They also considered issues of supporting pregnant girls to give birth before allowing them to go back to school while their parents took care of the babies.

The Unit therefore deemed it necessary to bring the NGOs together so that a Network is formed and be known as 'Girls' Education Network' to promote education of girls in Ghana.

In attendance was Madam Dzifa Abla Gomashie, former Deputy Minister for Creative Arts.

The forum was chaired by Mrs Grace Agyepong Dankyira, Regional Basic Schools Coordinator.

GNA
Bamako (AFP) - Mali's government and armed groups which signed a 2015 peace deal have relaunched talks aimed at speeding up its implementation after several delays, they told AFP Saturday.

The accord signed in 2015 aimed at curbing separatist uprisings in Mali's north after a 2012 rebellion was hijacked by jihadists, throwing the nation into chaos.

But several of its key planks have yet to be fully implemented, while jihadists continue to roam the north and centre of the country, despite being ousted from key northern towns by a French-led military intervention in 2013.

Malian lawmaker Mohamed Ould Matali said the government, the armed groups which support it -- known as the "Platform" -- and the former rebels of the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA) had sat down for talks.

"It went well. We recognised that things are dragging and have fixed a new timeline to implement the peace deal," he told AFP.

Ilad Ag Mohamed, representing the former rebel alliance, confirmed the new timeline and said several dates had been set for rolling out key measures of the deal.

Mixed patrols between pro-government armed groups and the former rebels in the northern city of Kidal, where the army does not have a presence for security reasons, would be organised by July 20, he said.

Meanwhile the putting into place of remaining so-called "interim authorities," bodies supposed to pave the way for elections to be held when security improves, would be done by the end of July, he added.

Kidal is still in the hands of the former rebels, and when asked when the Malian state would return to the area, Ag Mohamed said the "lines would move" by July 20. He said a technical team would meet next week on how to facilitate the return of populations who fled when the city was taken over.

The office of prime minister Abdoulaye Idrissa Maiga confirmed he had attended the meeting and that there was "common agreement" on the points discussed.

Mali on Wednesday delayed a constitutional referendum due to be held on July 9 in the face of heavy political opposition and street protests, as detractors said such a vote could not be held safely and democratically in the country's north.
I have been having nightmares over this incident in the last couple of hours, since I read about the same. And I keep hoping against hope that, somehow, this incident would in the end turn out not to have really happened as allegedly narrated by the victim. But these days in Ghana, it has become extremely difficult to differentiate the behavior of a well-trained and taxpayer-salaried uniformed official from an ordinary citizen in the street, as it were. The incident we are talking about involves two cotenants who allegedly had an argument over the placement or location of a garbage bin in the corridor they both shared. One of these cotenants, we are told, was a man and the other a woman.

Well, apparently unbeknownst to the male tenant, his female cotenant was the lover or girlfriend of one of three, or so, police officers who had first responded to the womans call for help. She had claimed to have been physically assaulted by her cotenant, Mr. Bright Badu, during the course of an argument over the placement of the garbage bin. But Mr. Badu says that he had only unintentionally hit the chin of his cotenant while gesturing during the course of their argument (See Cop Forces Suspect to Drink Blood DailyGuideAfrican.com / Modernghana.com 6/18/17). Now, we cannot simply take Mr. Badus version of the story at face value, although the Superintendent in charge of the case has reportedly confirmed the occurrence of the incident.

Whatever be the real substance or details of the case, the fact of the matter is that the unnamed officer involved had absolutely no right, whatsoever, to force the suspect, Mr. Bright Badu, to drink the officers blood because his bleeding body had allegedly been caused by his scuffle with the suspect, in the course of effecting the arrest of the latter. Alas, as if forcing the criminal suspect to drink the officers blood was not bizarre and criminal enough, the unnamed officer would also stab Mr. Badu multiple times in different parts of his body, we are told.

Now, what bothers me is the fact that according to Superintendent Kwaku Duah, the officer in charge of the case, which reportedly occurred at Fiapre, near Sunyani, the Brong-Ahafo capital, the officer involved in the incident has recently been transferred to an unnamed remote village,in order to ensure that investigations are not compromised. Now, I find this turn of events to be rather bizarre because it clearly appears as if an official attempt is being made to cover up the incident, with the hope that it will go away and die a natural death,as a result of its being secreted under media radar.

One can perfectly understand a trial venue for the case being moved or changed to ensure a remarkable modicum of judicial and jury neutrality, but to officially send the criminal suspect cop into hiding just as full investigations into the case are beginning to gain public traction, pretty much tells of a brazen attempt by the Brong-Ahafo Police Commander, DCOP Techie-Poku who, by the way, has reportedly vowed to sanction the officer involved in the blood-drinking episode, if the criminal act of which he has been accused turns out not to bear scrutiny, to strategically prejudice the outcome of the case in favor of one of his boys, as it were.

Whatever disciplinary sanctions are exacted from Officer Dracula, it is hoped that his case will be rigorously prosecuted in court. Merely beating up Mr. Badu would have been serious enough of a crime, even in the context of the alleged criminal suspects resistance of an arrest by a peace officer. But to personally and savagely stab a criminal suspect a multiplicity of times just because the suspect had allegedly assaulted the lover or girlfriend of the arresting officer, is tantamount to the officers literally taking the law into his own hands. We shall be watching proceedings, and will not hesitate to speak our mind or tell it like it is.

It is quite obvious that the officer involved in this case has absolutely no business playing a cop. Not even a concert-party cop. Rather, he deserves to be locked up in a prison cell for quite a considerable amount of punitive time. In the age of riotously rampant incidents of mob-lynching all over the country, the last breed of cop Ghanaians need or deserve is a Dracula cop.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
Tarkwa (W/R), June 24, GNA - The Tarkwa Nsueam Assembly has organised aday's training workshop for stakeholders within the Municipality on the Local Governance Act.

The training, which was attended by Assembly members and Heads of Departments was to help them to identify the major changes in the Local Governance Act and also enrich their decision making process.

In an address, Mr Gilbert Kennedy Asmah, Municipal Chief Executive (MEC) for Tarkwa Nsueam explained that the Local Government Landscape was fast changing with the primary objective of stepping up inclusiveness, participation and ensuring greater and more acceptable level of accountability and transparency on the side of duty bearers.

According to him in 2010, government undertook a major review of the decentralised programme and that one emerging issue that arose was the need to harmonise the various legislations on local government and decentralisation.

The MCE said since the changes were effected, it had become difficult for practitioners especially those at the district and municipal levels to properly understand the Act and apply it.

He said to overcome those challenges, the local governance Act 2016 was enacted to amend the District Assembly Common Fund, 1993 (Act 455), Local Governance Act, 1993 (Act 462), Local Governance Service Act, 2003 (Act 656), National Development Planning System Act, 1994 (Act 480) and the Internal Audit Agency Act, 2003 (Act 658).

The Act 936, he said provided for ease of reference and addressed the inconsistencies and contradictions in the previous Act.

Mr Asmah noted that it also embodied lessons and emerging developments in the Local Governance that have been realised over the years.

The MCE was hopeful that the stakeholders would understand the local governance system and deepen their working with it after the training.

Speaking at the programme, Professor John Victor Mensah, facilitator from the University of Cape Coast, institute for Development Studies, stressed that the pervious provisions in the Act were not comprehensive enough.

He said for instance, with the inclusion of local government service in the process, the role of the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) in the local governance had some specific sources of framing to support their activities.

"This time round instead of Assemblies sending their by-laws to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development they have to submit them to RCC, and they will have to review them in line with the constitution of Ghana".

He said such by-laws should be gazetted and published in the daily newspapers before it could be implemented as laws.

Prof. Mensah said copies of the by-laws should also be given to courts to serve as reference points for them when they were dealing with such issues.

He emphasised that with the new changes, the various Assemblies and Heads of Departments would improve on their performance and work effectively and efficiently to meet the needs of the populace.

GNA

By Erica Apeatua Addo, GNA
The Managing Director of Airtel Ghana and international business leader, Lucy Quist, has challenged young entrepreneurs to create and operate businesses that will create prosperity beyond themselves.

She shared her thoughts and insights on the impact young entrepreneurs can make on the continent through scalable businesses during talk session at Workshed as part of The Bold New Normal Tour.

The multiple award winning business leader, was emphatic on the role and the potential of businesses, and for that matter entrepreneurs in building economies.

As part of her opening statement during the hour-long interaction, she succinctly stated that, Throughout time, one thing that is certain is that economies have been built by businesses. Somehow, in our part of the world we have come to this expectation that government will build our economies and countries for us, they dont.Work outputs create prosperity, government alone cannot do that.

She posited that the responsibility of government was to provide an enabling environment for businesses to thrive. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand are to take advantage of the policies, laws and local conditions to build relevant businesses that will grow the economy and bring prosperity to people.

After challenging the perception on the role of government, Lucy Quist went on to challenge all entrepreneurs to have a better appreciation of their environment, industries and economies if they are to build businesses that make real economic impact.

If we are going to be the architects of a more prosperous continent, we need to understand what is going on around us.We need to have relevant numbers at our finger tips as we plan our businesses and think of how we are going to make them grow on a much larger scale to fit into the bigger picture.

She cited the growth of the services sector and decline of the Agric and Industry sectors in Ghana as examples of local situations that entrepreneurs can consider in creating businesses that will fill the gaps in the economy.

We have gaps that we need to fill and we need our young minds to think about how we can make these other sectors (agriculture and industry) grow to create prosperity for our people.

The session at Workshed was also an opportunity to discuss how young entrepreneurs can start and grow scalable businesses through a model that outlives them, creates prosperity for more people and breaks boundaries.Lucy Quist also encouraged entrepreneurs within the same industry tocollaborate and push for policies that will bring about growth within their space. The discussions were based on The Bold New Normal; an ideaLucy Quist shares in her TedxEuston Talk in 2016.

Speaking on the event, Andrew Bimpong a co-founder of Workshed, hosts of the event, stated that, Lucy touched on pertinent ideas about the entrepreneurship journey, the entrepreneurship space and doing business in Ghana at large. Through the key insights she shared we have come to understand that for startups to have a voice in a country like Ghana, it is better we come together to form strong collaborations that will advocate for the right posture from government.

Certainly, the Bold New Normal is the way forward for the African Entrepreneur and we atWorkshed are proud to be a part of this move."

Under The Bold New Normal, Lucy Quist advocates for Africans to take bold actions towards African prosperity. She believes that with a change in the visions, language and mindset of its people, Africa can take bold actions to create prosperity for itself.

The Bold New Normal Tour is a series of interactive speaking sessions with Lucy Quist. The talks focus on how young entrepreneurial minds can take bold steps away from the norm and create prosperity for themselves, their country and continent.

The first session was held at Workshed, a co-working space for young entrepreneurs located in Spintex, Accra that dedicates itself to enabling the growth of business.

The events under this tour will be held at key locations where Lucy Quist can meet and interact with young entrepreneurial minds.

ABOUT LUCY QUIST

Lucy Quist is an international business leader and a technology professional. She believes that innovation through STEM is a requirement for developing countries to accelerate development. She advocates for greater participation of young people in STEM as the foundation for accelerated development.

She is a transformative leader who is passionate about realising the potential of young people. She is also a highly sought-after public speaker, a multiple award-winning personality, a mother and a wife.

Learn more about her on lucyquist.com
The Lagos state Police Command has arrested six suspected armed robbers terrorising residents at Agbara road, Atan-Ota in Ogun and Lagos state respectively.

The hoodlums were apprehended by operatives of the command on patrol at Progress Hotel situated along Agbara road.

The suspects, Lawal sikini, Segun seda; lanre bello; Lawal mayowa; Azeez Mustapha and Tijani quryum specialize in snatching vehicles, handbags and other valuables from unsuspecting members. Items recovered include a knife, a locally made pistol and a live cartridge.

A green Peugeot 206 with no registration number, which they used for their operations between Lagos and Ogun state was also recovered.

The suspects, found with exhibits have made confessional statements and are giving useful information to the police to track other gang members

According to the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, investigations are ongoing and effort is on to arrest other gang members.

Famous-Cole therefore advised members of the public to be vigilant as they go about their daily activities.
24.06.2017 LISTEN

Nollywood actor, Yomi Fash-Lanso, has joined the likes of on-air-personality, Daddy Freeze, to hunt the activities of some self glorified Pastors in Nigeria.

The actor in a chat with Punch Newspaper, bemoan the high rate at which some Nigerian Pastor now move around with Security men just because they are scared.

Yomi while attacking these men of God pointed that he was a made a deacon in his church some years back but that did not stop him from speaking the truth.

Our pastors go about with armed personnel and I ask myself a question, who wants to kill or kidnap a pastor? Is he not a man of God? They know that what they are doing is not good, if not they would not move about with armed personnel. If you are truthful to Gods calling, who would want to kidnap you? If you dont have the notion to harm anyone, then you do not need armed personnel. I was conferred as a deacon in my church a few years back but it would not stop me from talking.

If they go around with armed personnel because of the wealth they seem to have, how did they come about the wealth? Is it not from our tithe and offering? They cannot try it in America. A pastor in South Africa is rotting in jail because he molested underage girls. I am sure that if it was in Nigeria, we would not hear anything. Nothing would happen because we have built our society around people and not laws. It is wrong.

Nathan in the bible went to King David to convey Gods message without any fear or compromise but our pastors cant do so. We are in this mess in Nigeria because our pastors are not talking. If we are going to count the true men of God in Nigeria, they would not be up to two among the thousands that we have. Only a few of them can look in the eye of corrupt men in government and speak the truth because they would not want to lose their worldly possession. .

They know all the rogues we have in government, the people that are putting us in total blackness. These people attend their churches but they are not talking to them which mean that these pastors are thieves and rogues as well. Until we start speaking the truth from the church, we are not going to make any head way in Nigeria,
Nigerian women are famous for their mysterious look, passionate character and... the talent to choose and wear stunning evening dresses! Remember those major social events when you couldnt follow what someone was saying because there were so many striking beauties walking around in truly royal evening outfits?!

We have collected photos of Nollywood's celebrity appearances on the red carpet for true connoisseurs!

Do you want to look like a celebrity? Buy evening dresses on JIji - the choice is larger and brighter, the prices are lower, and the deals are as fast and safe as possible!

Install free updated Jiji app now - a "God mode" for your online-shopping!

Osas Ajibade

Osas made a fantastic appearance at the AMVCAs; she was wearing her pink strapless evening dress by Toju Fojeh.

She rocked her dress with a silver clutch and simple black and silver earrings. She had her nude minimalistic makeup done by Doranne Beauty.

The plainness of accessories and makeup only enhanced the chic of the luxurious ball gown and made Osas look like a beauty queen!

Damilola Attoh

Gorgeous Damilola came to the AMVCAs 2016 accompanying her husband, Chris Attoh, who was giving the award. Damilola looked classy but glamorous in her high-neck slit print dress.

She complemented her look with T-strap high-heel sandals.

To complete her look, she added a colorblock box clutch. Her hairstyle with lots of curls looked fresh and unconventional.

Sonia Ogbonna

Sonia impressed the audience with her bold Beyonce-style look designed for her by Fablane by Derin specially to wear at the award ceremony. Her refined white lacy outfit deliciously showed off some skin through sheer patches.

Stephanie Idahosa

Stephanie Linus chose her fav Lisa Folawiyo outfit for her debut at the AMVCA. She looked as fresh as a daisy on the red carpet!

Dakore Akande

Dakore Akande looked incredibly yummy in her vibrant bright outfit  a Funke Adepoju beautiful dress.

A pair of Mobos shoes and Zoyas Jewels jewelry completed her look.

Mercy Aigbe-Gentry

Some people say, Mercy Aigbe-Gentry was definitely the most refined and stylish lady on the red carpet at the ceremony. She was wearing a House of Luminee silver beaded dress and some simple accessories and makeup. She was really dressed to kill!

Anna Ebiere

Another yummy mummy Anna Banner Ebiere amazed everyone at the AMVCAs with her stylish dress designed by Moses Ebite of MoAshy.

She proudly wore a Tarik Ediz blue dress with a sexy lacy top and a cute train detail.

To complement her look, Anna took a BCBG clutch, Jimmy Choo shoes and had her makeup done by Dave Sucre. She Really rocked!

Genevieve Nnaji

Genevieve Nnaji is still remembered for the mind-blowing outfit she wore to 2016 AMVCAs.

This year she wore a Tope FnR custom outfit - a simple but striking dress with a cowl backline. Her stylist was Veronica Odena while her hair was done by Debola Falana of Dfalana Artistry.

Lilian Esoro-Franklin

Lilian Esoro-Franklin also looked gorgeous in her maternity outfit consisting of a House of Dorothy Bridals yellow cape dress with Swarovski crystals.

Eku Edewor

The host Eku Edewor was wearing a stunning piece by Tsemaye Binite with lovely off-shoulder sleeves.

Ekus makeup was done by Debola Falana and the hair was made by Lewa Studios.

Caroline Danjuma

Caroline Danjuma looked unbelievably sexy in her nude Bunmi Million dress demonstrating all of her delicious curves. Caroline styled her hair in a big bun to make an accent on her yummy body.

Adesua Etomi

Adesua Etomi got the Best Actress award at the AMVCAs and she was also noticed for rocking a bright green dress with a giant bow from April by Kunbi. That was an impeccably royal look!

Ini Edo

Nollywood actress Ini Edo was wearing a white dress with a lace insert in front and on the sleeves.

It made her look a lot like a bride especially from the back where the dress featured an incredibly long train.

Minnie Dhlamini

Minnie Dhlamini, South African TV personality, co-hosted the show wearing a custom piece from Gert Johan Coetzee and white and pink heels featuring pretty details on the shoulder and the train.

Yemi Alade

Music star Yemi Alade rocked a multi-colour custom outfit from Iconic Invanity. Her stylist was the House of Tangerine. Her outfit boldly combined traditional colourfulness with timeless classiness.

Choose the best branded evening dresses on Jiji - its a great option for every evening!

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Source: Legit.ng
Dahal urges NEA Chief Ghising to end power outage in Far-Western region

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has urged Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Managing Director Kulman Ghising to immediately end load-shedding in Far-Western region.
- Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state has pleaded with all Nigerians to support the Acting President Yemi Osibanjo

- He said for the days he has been in acting capacity he has made much impact in Nigeria

- He said Nigeria is presently in a trying period but all Nigerians should put hands on deck to make the country come out of its present state

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state has called on Nigerians to support Acting President Yemi Osibanjo so as to ensure a more united and peaceful nation.

The governor made the call on Friday in Asaba during the commissioning of a private broadcast radio station, Bridge Radio 98.7 FM.

Legit.ng reports that Governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki, accompanied by some of his aides, attended the commissioning exercise.

According to Okowa: "Acting President Yemi Osibanjo within the last few days has been working tirelessly to unite us as a nation and we need to support him in whatever ways we can.

Governors Okowa of Delta and Godwin Obaseki of Edo state during the commissioning of the radio station in Asaba on Friday

"Information is power, that is why we are happy that this station is coming on air this time in our nation's history; information is power when you disseminate the right information, because a misinformed man is dangerous to the society.

READ ALSO: Arrest those who signed quit notice now - Arewa youths tell Osinbajo

We should properly educate our people for us to have a more united country, the press can make or mar this nation depending on what voices that connect the people."

While stating that people should be allowed to speak freely, Governor Okowa said: "Even when the people are allowed to speak freely, such speeches should be tailored to unite us as a nation rather than destroy our country, because, we are in trying times as a nation.

We are in recession and there are different ethnic groups speaking with different voices that do not tend to unite us as a people."

The governor, who was accompanied to the commissioning exercise by the member representing Ika federal constituency in the national assembly, Victor Nwokolo and other government functionaries, used the occasion to charge the media to mould a better society, stating that the media should be a veritable vessel to curb cultism and drug abuse.

He disclosed that his administration, apart from empowering Deltans to be self-sufficient, has also provided the enabling environment for the private sector to thrive, assuring that the state will continue to be an investors' haven.

Edo state governor in a brief speech, said communication is very vital for a better society to be achieved, stating: "It is so important that our media houses adopt global technology standards and that is what we are witnessing here.

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We are very glad that this is happening because, you are going to use this medium to inspire a new generation of people; I have no doubt that is going to be a successful venture."

Earlier, the Chief Executive Officer of Bridge Radio, Dr Henry Nzekwu had in a welcome speech, said the station will offer quality broadcast to Nigerians, adding that the station is designed to provide a voice for the people through quality programming and world class technology.

He commended Governor Okowa's administration for providing the enabling environment for investment to thrive in the state, assuring that the station will continue to partner government to ensure a progressive and peaceful state.

Watch this Legit.ng video

Source: Legit.ng
- A serving federal judge has been accused by the EFCC of unlawful enrichment to the tune of N99,650,000

- Hyeladzira Nganjiwa, was on Friday, June 23, arraigned before Justice A.A. Akintoye of the Lagos State High Court, Igbosere

- He denied the charges and the case was adjourned till October 6 and 10 for commencement of trial

Hyeladzira Nganjiwa, a serving judge of the Federal High Court, was on Friday, June 23 arraigned before Justice A.A. Akintoye of the Lagos State High Court, Igbosere, by EFCC, for alleged unlawful enrichment to the tune of $260,000 and N8,650,000.

The judge who is attached to the Bayelsa Division of the Federal High Court, was arraigned on a 14 count charge.

His arraignment followed the dismissal of a preliminary objection he filed to challenge the jurisdiction of the court to try him.

However, the prosecution said that despite being a serving judge, Mr Nganjiwa had no immunity from criminal prosecution.

READ ALSO: House of representatives refuse invitation by EFCC to its members

Mr Oyedepo the prosecuting counsel said: I therefore urge this court to dismiss the preliminary objection and order Justice Nganjiwa to proceed into the dock for his arraignment."

In her ruling the judge, Mrs Akintoye, upheld Mr Oyedepos argument and dismissed Justice Nganjiwas preliminary objection.

This court, having been properly constituted, has the power to try this case. The notice of preliminary objection, I hold, is therefore misconceived and same is hereby dismissed, she said.

According to Premium Times, Mr Nganjiwa pleaded not guilty to all 14 counts.

However, in a short ruling, the judge said she was inclined to grant Justice Nganjiwa bail on self-recognisance in view of his status as a serving judge.

READ ALSO: EFCC grills ex-COAS Kenneth Minimah over arms deals

She directed the accused judge to deposit his passport in the custody of the Chief Registrar of the Lagos State High Court within seven days or that the EFCC should deposit same if the passport was still in its custody.

Thereafter adjourned till October 6 and 10 for commencement of trial.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the special assistant to the president on prosecution, Mr Okoi Obono-Obla has revealed the next step the federal government will take concerning the judges earlier dragged to court for alleged corruption.

Obono-Obla revealed that one of the judges recently recalled from suspension by the National Judicial Council will be charged this week with offences bordering on receiving gratification from lawyers.

Watch this Legit.ng video of the EFCC march against corruption below:

Source: Legit.ng
- Junaid Mohammed says the arrest of Arewa youths over the quit notice to Igbo would lead to crisis in the North

- Mohammed blames federal government for its irresponsibility in its selective handling of the threats from the southern and northern regions of the country

- His claim was backed by Alhaji Tanko Yakassai who also blamed the federal government for not tackling the threats by the IPOB on time

The call for the arrest of Northern youths, who signed the Igbo eviction notice, has been greeted with extreme repugnance by a second republic lawmaker and Northern elder statesman Dr. Junaid Mohammed.

According to Mohammed, the arrest of Arewa youths over the quit notice to Igbo, would lead to crisis in the North.

Mohammed made this known on Friday, June 23, in an interview with Vanguard.

He said that the federal government demonstrated irresponsibility in its selective handling of the threats from the southern and northern regions of the country.

Junaid Mohammed says any attempt to arrest Arewa youths will lead to problems

READ ALSO: Those calling for the expulsion of Igbo from the north are suffering from a blood lust - Fani-Kayode

He said: The threat to arrest the youth, in my opinion, is not only counter-productive but also inappropriate.

This is because ideally, with the position of things, every Nigerian has the right to live and conduct their businesses in any part of the country.

But the Federal Government left their toes behind when they allowed the IPOB, which is being financed by the Igbo political and business elites both in the country and in the Diaspora to be issuing statements freely.

Therefore, any attempt to arrest Arewa youths will lead to problems. I am resident in Kano State and the last time the Kaduna State Government brought up the issue of arrest, there would have been violence if an attempt to arrest anybody by the police had been made.

Mohammeds assertion was also supported by the chairman of Northern Elders Council, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, who blamed the federal government for not tackling the threats by the IPOB on time.

Tanko said the threat by IPOB led to the present crisis.

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He said: I believe that the Federal Government was somewhat late in addressing the threats issued by the Igbo.

These threats by both the North and South are unconstitutional and illegal because every Nigerian has the right to live and work in any part of the country he or she chooses.

I think the Igbo should not allow a man, who was not even born during the civil war to incite violence in the country. Both the Hausa and the Igbo are well travelled traders and if this country splits today, that opportunity is gone, a market of 180 million people. All the regions will suffer for it.

Legit.ng earlier reported that Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state had ordered that the youths be arrested. But up till now, no arrest has been made.

Meanwhile, watch video of Nnamdi Kanu addressing followers in Isiama Afara, Abia state

Source: Legit.ng
Dalit man fined Rs. 2000 for touching cowshed of upper caste

A Dalit man of Chededaha Village Council in Bajura district has been fined Rs 2000 for touching a cowshed belonging to a person from so-called upper class.
- Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma the Archbishop of Enugu Ecclesiastical Province has called on the federal government to make peace reign in every part of the country

- Chukwuma said government should take proactive measure to solve the issue of the Arewa quit notice on time

- He as well said that the hunger in the land is the root cause of the politicians moving from one political party to another

Rev Emmanuel Chukwuma, the Archbishop of Enugu Ecclesiastical Province Enugu Diocese, has blasted President Muhammadu Buhari government over its inability to arrest the Arewa youths that gave Igbos living in the region quit notice.

Chukwuma expressed displeasure on Friday, June 23, while he said that those who gave Ndigbo three months to quit the northern part of the country were still walking freely without the Buharis government doing the needful.

He also reacted to the pro-Biafra agitators over the recently held sit at home to mark Biafra day and he urge them to look for other ways of carrying out their agitation, rather than a sit at home.

Popular bishop blasts President Buhari governments inability to arrest Arewa youths

READ ALSO: Any attempt to arrest Arewa youths will lead to problems  Junaid Mohammed

Guardian reports that he further condemned the quit order, saying the inability of the Federal Government to arrest those behind it was a serious signal to danger.

This is worst than what Kanu was being persecuted for. This Synod hereby appreciates, however, the statement of some elders in the north in condemning the actions of these unscrupulous youths.

We, however, warn that we will not tolerate what happened in 1966 to reoccur or else this country will be in total disarray.

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We are warning that our Igbo should be allowed to do their business anywhere, as others, and if the situation becomes unbearable for them, they should come back, but we will demand for referendum for us to be on our own, he stated.

Legit.ng recalls that the youths from the South-South zone of the country under the aegis of Oil & Solid Mineral Producing Area Landlords Association of Nigeria (OMPALAN) have condemned the Arewa group for the quit notice issued to Igbos.

A statement credited to the coalition of Northern youths, calling on the Igbos to quit the North before October 1st had been circulated.

Watch this Legit.ng TV Video of Biafra supporters celebrating 50 years remembrance of their beloved Biafra:

Source: Legit.ng
- The Nigerian government has begun training unemployed graduates as tax officers

- Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, revealed this on Friday, June 23 said 27 Nigerians

- They are to be recruited as Community Tax Liaison Officers to boost tax revenue generation

There is some good news for many Nigerian graduates. The government says it has commenced training of unemployed graduates recruited as Community Tax Liaison Officers to boost tax revenue generation.

Kemi Adeosun, the Minister of Finance revealed this on Friday, June 23 and said 27 Nigerians were being trained as a pilot set for the programme.

The selected persons, drawn from the N-Power programme, are undergoing training at the Federal Treasury Academy, Abuja.

READ ALSO: Application for N-Power graduate recruitment scheme surpasses 1 million in one week

Mrs Adeosun also explained that the trainees are being trained in preparation for the recruitment of 7,500 graduates.

She said: We want to run this pilot edition early, so we can see how much they have learned, how good our training materials are, so that when we get the 7 ,500 graduates, we will be ready."

Earlier, the government had announced that it would recruit 7,500 graduates as Community Tax Liason Officers to raise tax awareness and boost tax revenue among Nigerians.

Through the programme, Mrs. Adeosun noted, the federal government expects to increase the number of taxpayers by 35 per cent, from 14 million to about 17 million in two years.

Meanwhile, the total number of graduate applicants in the N-Power job recruitment scheme as at June 18, is 753,307 thus exceeding the total number of both graduate and non-graduate applicants in 2016 by 2,307.

READ ALSO: Federal Government recruitment programs 2017

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job creation, Mr Afolabi Imoukhuede, disclosed this to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Asaba, Delta, on Sunday describing the figure as landmark.

He said that the figure for 2017 was generated barely five days after the application was opened on June 14, while the applications for the previous year were got during the two and half months it was opened.

Watch this Legit.ng video on the Nigerian's navy requirement:

Source: Legit.ng
Delay in solar lamp installation causes inconvenience to public

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has started the second phase of installing 1,285 solar street lamps from last week. But the works are not progressing smoothly, as evidenced by the lamp posts laid along the footpaths beside freshly dug pits in different parts of the city these days.
- Wike says the ex-cabinet members should hand over to permanent secretaries in their ministries

- The announcement was made on Saturday, June 24 by his aide on new media Nwakaudu

- Two commissioners had left the cabinet before the sacking of the entire executive council

Governor of Rivers state Nyesom Wike has dissolved the State Executive Council.

Channels Television reports that the development was made public by the governors special assistant on electronic media Simeon Nwakaudu.

According to a statement by Nwakaudu on Saturday, June 24, Wike directed all the sacked commissioners to hand over to the permanent secretaries in their respective ministries.

READ ALSO: President Buhari to return to Nigerian within the next week - Aides

The governor expressed his appreciation to them for their service to Rivers state while they were in office and wished them well in their future endeavours.

The development comes just a day after Wikes commissioner for information and communications Austin Tam George resigned his appointment.

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Just days before that, Governor Wike had sacked his commissioner of works Bathuel Harrison on Thursday, June 22.

Legit.ng had earlier reported that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia state had also dissolved the state executive council, including commissioners and special advisers as well as senior special assistants.

The Secretary to the State Government was also affected.

The permanent secretary, Government House Onyii Wamah announced the dissolution in a statement posted on the governments website on Friday, June 16 night.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video of a Nigerian expressing his regret at voting the All Progressives Congress

Source: Legit.ng
- Kwankwaso hints that President Buhari's health cannot stop his second term

- The ex-All Progressive Congress says he does not see a problem in President Buhari going for a new term

- Kwankwaso recently got bashed for opposing calls for the arrest of Arewa youths that issued quit notice to Igbos

Former Kano state governor Rabiu Kwankwaso has said President Muhammadu Buhari should go for a second term in office.

Kwankwaso said this in an interview with Leadership newspaper which was published on Saturday, June 24.

He said: Of course, President Muhammadu Buhari is going for second term and if hes going for second term he should be allowed to go for second term. What is the problem in that? I dont see any problem with that.

READ ALSO: Police IG calls for death sentence or life imprisonment for kidnappers

Kwankwaso said the northern elders stopped an attempt to prevent President Buahri from going for a second term.

Of course, thats what Im telling you. Second term of Mr. President, so many people, some close to him wanted to uproot him, we said no, he said.

Kwankwaso brushed aside President Buharis health status, saying it does not stop him from running for a second term.

...Because you see somebody smiling doesnt mean hes well. Because somebody is in the hospital, it doesnt mean that somebody who is not in the hospital is healthier than him.

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"So, I dont think we should be going into the details of that. Only God knows who is sick. Only God knows who will die, and we should leave it at that.

Legit.ng recently reported that Kwanwakso, a presidential hopeful, came under fire for opposing the call for the arrest of the northern youths who issued a three-month notice to Igbo people living in the region.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state had ordered that the youths should be arrested after nothing had been done for days.

On Thursday, June 22 in Abuja, Kwankwaso reportedly declared his opposition to the call for the arrest of the youths.

Instead, he urged that the youths should be engaged in dialogue.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video of a Nigerian man expressing his regret over voting in the APC

Source: Legit.ng
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Dying of diarrhea

Each year, during wet monsoons or the cold, dry winter, parents flock to the emergency and OPD units at the Kanti Childrens Hospital, infants afflicted with severe diarrhea in tow.
Indian leader Aiyar in political meetings

Senior Indian National Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has been meeting political leaders in Kathmandu.
Massive fire breaks out at ply factory in Morang

A massive fire broke out at a ply factory in Budiganga Village Council-2 of Morang district on Saturday.
Mummy issues

Army reconnaissance sergeant and secret pilferer of ancient antiquities, Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) and his buddy Chris (Jake Johnson) have just stumbled upon something huge.
Your browser does not support the video tag.

Britains deadliest fire in more than a century raced from floor to floor, forcing residents to decide: Wait for rescuers or disobey orders and try to escape?

Were stuck on the 23rd floor! Rania Ibrahim yelled from her balcony. Meriam Antur was woken by the sound of sirens. Mohammed and Omar Alhajali, brothers and Syrian refugees, left their apartment together. Just get out of the house, Aalya Mosess daughter told her. A fridge blew up on the fourth floor in Apartment 16, starting the fire. GRENFELL TOWER Were stuck on the 23rd floor! Rania Ibrahim yelled from her balcony. Meriam Antur was woken by the sounds of sirens. My daughter said to me: Just get out of the house, Aalya Moses said. A fridge blew up in Apartment 16, starting the fire. GRENFELL TOWER

4th FloorApt. 11

Aalya Moses was having trouble sleeping just before 1 a.m., when she heard frantic knocking. Her neighbor, Behailu Kebede, said his refrigerator had caught fire.

He looked so scared, so frightened, Ms. Moses said. I phoned my daughter and she said to me, Just get out of the house.

She passed firemen going up the stairs. Outside, she saw that the blaze had spread from her neighbors unit and raced up the side of the building.

Ms. Mosess fourth floor apartment Fire started here Spread of fire Your browser does not support the video tag.

13th Floor Apt. 105

Miguel Alves was in the elevator when it stopped on the fourth floor and opened to a thick cloud of smoke.

He ran upstairs to his 13th-floor apartment to get his children. The authorities told his wife, who was already outside, that they should stay there.

But the message didnt reach them in time, and they escaped down the stairs, he told The Guardian.

Escape route Elevator Your browser does not support the video tag.

14th FloorApt. 112

Toxic smoke began to make escape difficult. Mohammed and Omar Alhajali, Syrian refugees and brothers, tried to escape together from the 14th floor.

But they became separated in the stairwell. It was too dark in the corridor, and the smoke was too thick, Omar said.

He continued and was rescued by firefighters. Mohammed turned back and was trapped.

Back to apartment Where the brothers lived Your browser does not support the video tag.

19th Floor

Others decided to stay. A neighbor told Meriam Antur that she had to wait in her 19th-floor apartment with her two young children.

Ms. Antur waited as smoke filled up the hallway. I got into my flat and put a towel in the door and started to pray, she said.

Firefighters eventually arrived and led them down  three of the 65 people they rescued that morning.

Hallway 19th floor Your browser does not support the video tag.

23rd Floor

At 1:38 a.m., Rania Ibrahim broadcast a disturbing live video from the top floor, where she and others were trapped.

Your browser does not support the video tag. Rania Ibrahim/Facebook

She called out from her balcony: Were stuck on the 23rd floor! Hello!

Top floor West side of building Your browser does not support the video tag.

Ms. Ibrahim opened the door to a hallway thick with smoke, and at least one person rushed in.

Your browser does not support the video tag. Rania Ibrahim/Facebook

Ms. Ibrahim is among dozens who are missing and presumed dead.

1:55 A.M. Celeste Thomas

Outside, crowds watched as the building burned.

Less than an hour after the fire started, most of the floors on the northeast corner of the building were engulfed.

People stood at their windows as flames approached their apartments.

20th FloorApt. 173

Please pray for me and my mum, Khadija Saye messaged her friend from the 20th floor. She was one of the first victims identified by police.

Just after 4 a.m., a woman could be heard screaming from the 11th floor. People on the ground shouted to fill her bathtub with water until firefighters arrived.

As late as 5 a.m., a man on the eighth floor was seen waving a white flag. It is unclear whether he managed to escape.

Your browser does not support the video tag. Humraz Khan/Facebook

As dawn rose, the fire still burned. It was not brought under control until more than 24 hours after it began.
Nepalis paying more for fuel despite fall in global prices

Nepali consumers are being forced to pay more for gasoline despite a sharp fall in global prices because Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has not been implementing the automated pricing system it launched two and a half years ago.
From Paul Craig Roberts Website



Trump, Twitter Bird, Tweet

(Image by pixabay.com) Details DMCA



On June 21 the editorial board of the Washington Post, long a propaganda instrument believed to be in cahoots with the CIA and the deep state, called for more sanctions and more pressure on Russia.

One second's thought is sufficient to realize how bad this advice is. The orchestrated demonization of Russia and its president began in the late summer of 2013 when the British Parliament and Russian diplomacy blocked the neoconned Obama regime's planned invasion of Syria. An example had to be made of Russia before other countries began standing up to Washington. While the Russians were focused on the Sochi Olympic Games, Washington staged a coup in Ukraine, replacing the elected democratic government with a gang of Banderite neo-nazi thugs whose forebears fought for Hitler in World War II. Washington claimed it had brought democracy to Ukraine by putting neo-nazi thugs in control of the government.

Washington's thugs immediately began violent attacks on the Russian population in Ukraine. Soviet war memorials were destroyed. The Russian language was declared banned from official use. Instantly, separatist movements began in the Russian parts of Ukraine that had been administratively attached to Ukraine by Soviet leaders. Crimea, a Russian province since the 1700s, voted overwhelmingly to separate from Ukraine and requested to be reunited with Russia. The same occurred in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

These independent actions were misrepresented by Washington and the presstitutes who prostitute for Washington as a "Russian invasion." Despite all facts to the contrary, this misrepresentation continues today. In US foreign policy, facts are not part of the analysis.

The most important fact that is overlooked by the Washington Post and the Russophobic members of the US government is that it is an act of insanity to call for more punishment and more pressure on a country with a powerful military and strategic nuclear capability whose military high command and government have already concluded that Washington is preparing a surprise nuclear attack.

Are the Washington Post editors trying to bring on nuclear Armageddon? If there was any intelligence present in the Washington Post, the newspaper would be urging that President Trump immediately call President Putin with reassurances and arrange the necessary meetings to defuse the situation. Instead the utterly stupid editors urge actions that can only raise the level of tension. It should be obvious even to the Washington Post morons that Russia is not going to sit there, shaking in its boots, and wait for Washington's attack. Putin has issued many warnings about the West's rising threat to Russian security. He has said that Russia "will never again fight a war on its own territory." He has said that the lesson he has learned is that "if a fight is unavoidable, strike first." He has also said that the fact that no one hears his warnings makes the situation even more dangerous.

What explains the deafness of the West? The answer is arrogance and hubris.

As the presstitute media is incapable of reason, I will do their job for them. I call for an immediate face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin at Reykjavik. Cold War II, begun by Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama, must be ended now.

So, where is President Trump? Why is the President of the United States unable to rise to the challenge? Why isn't he the man Ronald Reagan was? Is it, as David Stockman says, that Trump is incapable of anything except tweeting?

Why hasn't President Trump long ago ordered all intercepts of Russian chatter gathered, declassified, and made public? Why hasn't Trump launched a criminal prosecution against John Brennan, Susan Rice, Comey, and the rest of the hit squad that is trying to destroy him?

Why has Trump disarmed himself with an administration chosen by Russiaphobes and Israel?

As David Stockman writes, Trump "is up against a Deep State/Dem/Neocon/mainstream media prosecution" and "has no chance of survival short of an aggressive offensive" against those working to destroy him. But there is no Trump offensive, "because the man is clueless about what he is doing in the White House and is being advised by a cacophonous coterie of amateurs and nincompoops. So he has no action plan except to impulsively reach for his Twitter account."

Our president twitters while he and Earth itself are pushed toward destruction.
Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"Rob Kall's book is amazing. He's created a real breakthrough, visionary how-to for a sustainable, quality future. Like Saul Alinski's Rules for Radicals, this book is destined to become a classic must-read for all those concerned with social, economic, and environmental justice in today's interconnected world. Story shapes the world and our world needs new stories if we are to survive and thrive. The story of the bottom-up evolution and revolution is one that can change individuals, groups, businesses, religions, and governments for the positive as it shows how bottom-up inclusiveness, connectedness, collaboration, empathy, innovation, and freeform creativity can help unleash the great potentials for good inherent in our very nature. If you want to improve things in your world and the world, first read this book, then apply the suggestions. Change is sure to come."



Pamela Jaye Smith, mythologist and author of InnerDrives, Power of the Dark Side, Symbols* Images* Codes* and award-winning writer-producer-director
Progressive Content Not Found

Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing.



To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here.
From American Conservative



Free Syrian Army fighters in Saqba, a suburb of Damascus

(Image by Photo: Freedom House) Details DMCA



Three-term Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a member of both the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, has proposed legislation that would prohibit any U.S. assistance to terrorist organizations in Syria as well as to any organization working directly with them. Equally important, it would prohibit U.S. military sales and other forms of military cooperation with other countries that provide arms or financing to those terrorists and their collaborators.

Gabbard's "Stop Arming Terrorists Act" challenges for the first time in Congress a U.S. policy toward the conflict in the Syrian civil war that should have set off alarm bells long ago: in 2012-13 the Obama administration helped its Sunni allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar provide arms to Syrian and non-Syrian armed groups to force President Bashar al-Assad out of power. And in 2013 the administration began to provide arms to what the CIA judged to be "relatively moderate" anti-Assad groups -- meaning they incorporated various degrees of Islamic extremism.

That policy, ostensibly aimed at helping replace the Assad regime with a more democratic alternative, has actually helped build up al Qaeda's Syrian franchise al Nusra Front into the dominant threat to Assad.

The supporters of this arms-supply policy believe it is necessary as pushback against Iranian influence in Syria. But that argument skirts the real issue raised by the policy's history. The Obama administration's Syria policy effectively sold out the U.S. interest that was supposed to be the touchstone of the "Global War on Terrorism" -- the eradication of al Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates. The United States has instead subordinated that U.S. interest in counter-terrorism to the interests of its Sunni allies. In doing so it has helped create a new terrorist threat in the heart of the Middle East.

The policy of arming military groups committed to overthrowing the government of President Bashar al-Assad began in September 2011, when President Barack Obama was pressed by his Sunni allies -- Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar -- to supply heavy weapons to a military opposition to Assad they were determined to establish. Turkey and the Gulf regimes wanted the United States to provide anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons to the rebels, according to a former Obama Administration official involved in Middle East issues.

Obama refused to provide arms to the opposition, but he agreed to provide covert U.S. logistical help in carrying out a campaign of military assistance to arm opposition groups. CIA involvement in the arming of anti-Assad forces began with arranging for the shipment of weapons from the stocks of the Gaddafi regime that had been stored in Benghazi. CIA-controlled firms shipped the weapons from the military port of Benghazi to two small ports in Syria, using former U.S. military personnel to manage the logistics, as investigative reporter Sy Hersh detailed in 2014. The funding for the program came mainly from the Saudis.

A declassified October 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency report revealed that the shipment in late August 2012 had included 500 sniper rifles, 100 RPG (rocket propelled grenade launchers) along with 300 RPG rounds and 400 howitzers. Each arms shipment encompassed as many as 10 shipping containers, it reported, each of which held about 48,000 pounds of cargo. That suggests a total payload of up to 250 tons of weapons per shipment. Even if the CIA had organized only one shipment per month, the arms shipments would have totaled 2,750 tons of arms bound ultimately for Syria from October 2011 through August 2012. More likely it was a multiple of that figure.

The CIA's covert arms shipments from Libya came to an abrupt halt in September 2012 when Libyan militants attacked and burned the embassy annex in Benghazi that had been used to support the operation. By then, however, a much larger channel for arming anti-government forces was opening up. The CIA put the Saudis in touch with a senior Croatian official who had offered to sell large quantities of arms left over from the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. And the CIA helped them shop for weapons from arms dealers and governments in several other former Soviet bloc countries.

Flush with weapons acquired from both the CIA Libya program and from the Croatians, the Saudis and Qataris dramatically increased the number of flights by military cargo planes to Turkey in December 2012 and continued that intensive pace for the next two and a half months. The New York Times reported a total 160 such flights through mid-March 2013. The most common cargo plane in use in the Gulf, the Ilyushin IL-76, can carry roughly 50 tons of cargo on a flight, which would indicate that as much as 8,000 tons of weapons poured across the Turkish border into Syria just in late 2012 and in 2013.

One U.S. official called the new level of arms deliveries to Syrian rebels a "cataract of weaponry." And a year-long investigation by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed that the Saudis were intent on building up a powerful conventional army in Syria. The "end-use certificate" for weapons purchased from an arms company in Belgrade, Serbia, in May 2013 includes 500 Soviet-designed PG-7VR rocket launchers that can penetrate even heavily-armored tanks, along with two million rounds; 50 Konkurs anti-tank missile launchers and 500 missiles, 50 anti-aircraft guns mounted on armored vehicles, 10,000 fragmentation rounds for OG-7 rocket launchers capable of piercing heavy body armor; four truck-mounted BM-21 GRAD multiple rocket launchers, each of which fires 40 rockets at a time with a range of 12 to 19 miles, along with 20,000 GRAD rockets.

The end user document for another Saudi order from the same Serbian company listed 300 tanks, 2,000 RPG launchers, and 16,500 other rocket launchers, one million rounds for ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, and 315 million cartridges for various other guns.

Those two purchases were only a fraction of the totality of the arms obtained by the Saudis over the next few years from eight Balkan nations. Investigators found that the Saudis made their biggest arms deals with former Soviet bloc states in 2015, and that the weapons included many that had just come off factory production lines. Nearly 40 percent of the arms the Saudis purchased from those countries, moreover, still had not been delivered by early 2017. So the Saudis had already contracted for enough weaponry to keep a large-scale conventional war in Syria going for several more years.

By far the most consequential single Saudi arms purchase was not from the Balkans, however, but from the United States. It was the December 2013 U.S. sale of 15,000 TOW anti-tank missiles to the Saudis at a cost of about $1 billion -- the result of Obama's decision earlier that year to reverse his ban on lethal assistance to anti-Assad armed groups. The Saudis had agreed, moreover, that those anti-tank missiles would be doled out to Syrian groups only at U.S. discretion. The TOW missiles began to arrive in Syria in 2014 and soon had a major impact on the military balance.

This flood of weapons into Syria, along with the entry of 20,000 foreign fighters into the country -- primarily through Turkey -- largely defined the nature of the conflict. These armaments helped make al Qaeda's Syrian franchise, al Nusra Front (now renamed Tahrir al-Sham or Levant Liberation Organization) and its close allies by far the most powerful anti-Assad forces in Syria -- and gave rise to the Islamic State.

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From Creators



Donald Trump - Caricature

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What's the matter with these people? The Trumpsters in the White House and Congress, I mean.

Start with The Donald himself, a guy who can't pass a mirror without casting an adoring eye at his own reflection. What is it about him that requires the top officials of his government to humiliate themselves publically in the White House cabinet room, making them try to outdo each other in a groveling Worship-a-thon of praise for this magnificence?

And what's wrong with his Cabinet members? One after another, the Vice President, Chief of Staff, Treasury Secretary, Secretary of State and all the other supposedly-powerful luminaries of the Government of the United States of America were called upon in June's televised cabinet session to say their name, then meekly offer their smarmiest praise of Trump's integrity, agenda and manly leadership. This spectacle of forced adulation of "The Leader" was so eerily insane that even North Korea's Kim Jong Un would've been too embarrassed to orchestrate it!

Yet Trump went even further in his flight from reality. Not satiated by the string of superlatives from his cabinet of sycophants, he resorted to stroking his own ego, opening with the fanciful claim that Americans are "seeing amazing results" from his presidency. Shifting into overdrive, the chief proclaimed that "never has there been a president -- [except maybe FDR] who's passed more legislation, who's done more things than what we've done."

Uh... no, Mr. President... not actually, not even close. I realize you don't "believe" in facts, but here's one to sober you up: The Trump White House has produced no major legislation. Zero.

You're right, however, that we Americans are seeing truly "amazing results" from your six months on the job: We're amazed that in such a short time your so-called presidency is mired in conflicts of interest, constitutional quagmires, erratic behavior, ideological arrogance, tweeted ignorance, lame policy proposals and -- let's admit the obvious -- your own incompetence. If President Trump and his apologista in Congress wonder why they're consistently getting such miserable job approval ratings from the public, they should take a deep breath, hold their noses, and actually look at the god-awful policies they're pursuing.

For example, they're intentionally pushing a Draconian health care scheme that would cause widespread suffering for non-rich Americans and even deaths, while also slipping another tax giveaway of nearly a trillion dollars to corporations and wealthy investors. It's so ugly that Trump, who originally said he was "100 percent behind this," now calls the bill "mean."

And the one widely-popular idea that Trump promised -- a trillion-dollar investment to create good jobs for repairing America's collapsing infrastructure -- has turned into a scam. His actual proposal is to give $800 million in tax credits to Wall Street investors, hoping they'll put money into infrastructure projects. It's like promising to feed the oats to horses, hoping they'll pass through some seeds for the birds to peck out.

Also, remember his promise to crack down on Wall Street greed heads? Now, he and Congress are pushing a bill to coddle the banksters by removing consumer protections that restrict Wall Street greed.

But he is creating new jobs for 4,000 lucky Americans. In Afghanistan. The 16-year war there has been an interminable, unequivocal disaster for the U.S. and our troops. But rather than being a commander-in-chief, Trump has washed his hands of that presidential responsibility, becoming a wimpy delegator-in-chief by handing off responsibility to the military brass. They're now shipping 4,000 more troops into a hellish war the American people do not support.

The greatest, overriding failure of Trump and Congressional leaders is that they have no vision, no big ideas, no moxie and no understanding of grassroots people's democratic idealism. Saying "Make America Great" over and over again is easy. Any gasbag can say it. But doing it takes real leadership, and the people now in charge just can't measure up. Sad.


Thanking our military It is a great example of an individual taking the initiative and developing his own way to express his gratitude for the service and sacrifice of our military ...

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American hugging soldier and "thanking him for your service"

Two scenarios I encountered this morning plus an article I read yesterday, though separate and distinct seem to reflect to this observer what we may have become as a people.

The first scenario occurred after boarding a commuter train this morning. I observed an encounter between a lady and the trains conductor. Being in earshot it seemed the woman was short the cash to make the trip where she needed to get off. The conductor told her, "I can take you to --------" and essentially no further -which I realized was two stops before she needed to get off- and the same destination I needed to get off. I then asked the woman how much she needed and gave her the $5 to give to the conductor.

Afterward we struck up a short conversation and she related she took this same train each day to get to work, usually had the exact fare and most of the time it was the same conductor. So he knew her as a regular passenger. Yet in this instance he was refusing to let her ride the additional two stops which was necessary for her to get to work on time.

The whole encounter stuck in my head. The conductor was legally correct. The fare was thus and she didn't have it. Yet him having seen her previously as a regular passenger wouldn't that alone be enough to let her ride the additional two stops? Why be so harsh with no apparent empathy to her plight? Why not show some kindness rather than "I can take you to-------"?

I wondered is the conductor's action typical of what we Americans have become or is he an aberration?

The other scenario was a discussion I had relating to Otto Warmbier, the American student who in a coma had just been released from prison by North Korea who died a week later in the University of Cincinnati hospital.

I related I saw the headline of his death but hadn't followed the details. The other person in our discussion had followed the Warmbier story saying he'd been in prison and in a coma for over a year after he'd been found guilty by North Korea of stealing a propaganda poster while trying to leave the country with it. However the discussion was short lived as I had to catch the aforementioned commuter train. I've since read up on the story though all MSM accounts.

The North Korean's said they released Warmbier as a "humanitarian gesture" that the coma was a result of botulism and aspirin combination. The U. of Cincinnati hospital said there was no sign of botulism as well as no signs broken bones or other physical trauma. However Warmbier's family contends he was brutally tortured by the evil regime.

Think about it. Warmbier was a good looking, white 22 year old American, a former U. of Virginia student who died in his youth and killed at the hands of the hated North Korean regime. Who in America is going to believe the evil North Korean's?

I came to believe Warmbier's death was the headline story of the week in the MSM.

How about Saudi Arabia the Wahhabi regime whose ideology gave birth to ISIS, who behead homosexuals, treat women as chattel and brutalize and torture with impunity. They're our favorite monarchy in the Middle East who Trump just signed a $110 billion arms deal that could be worth $350 billion over 10 years.

Then of course there's America's other favorite in the Middle East, Israel, who kill Palestinian's in Gaza and torture Palestinian's in its jails, all with impunity. As an added "plus" both countries share America's hated of Iran.

What denunciation do we see or hear about these two American favored regimes by our government or its complicit MSM? Nothing. So what do most Americans think about Israel or Saudi Arabia? If they do what do they think about the innocents these countries kill? Could most Americans locate them on a map?

Lastly I read an article titled, "Thank You for Your Killing" [1] by Jacob G. Hornberger who wrote, "One of the most interesting bromides to enter the American political lexicon after the 9/11 attacks has been the line that Americans have been taught to say to American soldiers: 'thank you for your service'.

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From Consortium News

On April 17, about 1,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails launched a hunger strike that lasted well over a month, demanding basic human rights -- an end to the denial of family visits, proper medical care and treatment, access to higher education, and an end to solitary confinement, administrative detention, and imprisonment without charge or trial.

Israel continued to ignore prisoner demands while intensifying their abuse and collective punishment. According to the human rights group, Addameer, "Over the past five decades well over 800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned or detained by Israel, equivalent to about 40% of the total Palestinian territories male population."

Today about 6,500 people are still imprisoned, including some holding world records for the longest periods in detention of political prisoners. In the words of Palestinian hunger strike leader Marwan Barghouti, "Rights are not bestowed by an oppressor. Freedom and dignity are universal rights that are inherent in humanity, to be enjoyed by every nation, and all human beings. Palestinians will not be an exception. Only ending occupation will end this injustice and mark the birth of peace."

I interviewed Palestinian human rights activist, Arab Barghouti, about the recent hunger strike led by his father, Marwan Barghouti.

Dennis Bernstein: I understand you just met with representatives for congresswoman Barbara Lee. Tell us about the meeting. What was the purpose.

Arab Barghouti: I handed them a letter from me personally to the congresswoman, Barbara Lee. We are trying get attention of the American officials, of the American Congress, of any influential political high profile people who can help us raise the awareness and put some pressure on the Israeli government on this issue. The hunger strike has been going for long now.

DB: Tell us more about the the strike and the strikers, led by your father.

AB: This was one of the biggest hunger strikes in the modern history. Some 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners participated in it. My father, Marwan Barghouti, happens to be the leader of the hunger strike and he's a Palestinian political leader who has been in Israeli prisons for 15 years.

DB: Fifteen years. How old are you?

AB: I'm 26.

DB: You're 26, so your dad has been in prison most of your life.

AB: Yeah, more than half of my life.

DB: Did you see him arrested?

AB: I actually still remember when I was a little kid, 11 years old, the Israeli soldiers came to our house, took over the house, and put the Israeli flag on our balcony, put me with my two siblings and my mother in one bedroom. And we used to ask for permission to go to the kitchen to eat, or to go the bathroom. At that time the Israeli military was...

DB: Did they arrest your dad at that point?

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From Reader Supported News



GEORGE WALLACE 1968 booster plate

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"With resignation, but with resolve, I hereby end forty years of Democratic rule of this House." -- Democratic Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, January 4, 1995, on the Floor of the House of Representatives

When Alabama governor George Wallace stood on the steps of the Alabama Statehouse and spoke the words that would define him until the day he died, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever," he spoke as Democrat, not as a Republican.

As Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, another Alabama native with deep ties to the Confederacy, uses his power as attorney general of the United States to roll back decades of advancements in civil rights law, he is doing so as a Republican, not as a Democrat.

For 100 years after the end of the Civil War, white believers in the Confederacy refused to vote for Republicans. Lincoln, of course, had been a Republican, and that's all they needed to know. The South voted as a solid, reliable block for the Democratic Party well into the 1960s.

The Democratic party and the U.S. commercial media disarmingly called southern Democrats "Dixiecrats." All too often they were Klansmen, white supremacists, and segregationists.

When Gephardt handed Gingrich the gavel, major media political pundits called it a "Republican revolution" and a backlash against First Lady Hillary Clinton's attempts at healthcare reform. In reality it was the embodiment of Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy. White southern segregationist voters were shifting their allegiance away from the Democratic Party and toward the Republican Party.

Nixon, Goldwater and like-minded Republican conservatives understood two things: the Republican party was and always had been more demographically white, and with the Democratic Party working hard to help Black leaders achieve political power, the Republican Party was a better fit for the segregationists. The passing of the gavel in 1995 was really a passing of the Confederacy from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.

When fingers get pointed on the American political left at the "corporate Democrats" or the "progressives," the fingers often miss the point. The Confederacy is gone, and with it the historic Democratic Congressional majorities. Tweaking the message won't fix that. It's going to take more.

In the 1930s, the Democratic Party was the party of Eleanor Roosevelt; it was also the party of Strom Thurmond. A marriage of political convenience between natural political adversaries. In historical terms, an often disagreeable partnership between slavery defenders and abolitionists, the John Birch/Jim Crow crowd, blacks, and those they referred to as "high-minded white people" (progressives).

Today the Democratic Party, while remarkably diverse, leans in ideological terms mostly on white progressives, along with Labor and African Americans. Those are the two largest and most politically significant blocks in the party.

This leaves the Democratic Party with uphill climb and a weight on their back. The Republican Party today is the party of white voters, by far the largest electoral block in the country. The Democrats need a viable white strategy, an argument, a rationale that white voters can grasp to comprehend the injustice and futility of Republican neo-segregationism.

Which leads us to the core of Democratic Party's dysfunction. The inability of African Americans and progressives to collaborate. African Americans don't trust white progressives, even when their political fortunes and often their lives depend upon it. The Sanders/Clinton split put the rift on full display. No fingers pointed.

Sure, the Democratic Party needs to consider whether they can, as Jill Abramson put it, "Turn the party over to the donors" and still have any voters left. They also need to understand that marketing is not ideology. (Note: Jon Ossoff failed to grasp that.)

But the biggest hurdle for the black and white/progressive party base is to accept that their very political survival is absolutely, positively tied to their ability to collaborate and achieve consensus.

The Democratic Party can make it without John Birch, but not while fighting like children amongst themselves.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
Quake survivors alloted 1,500 taxicab licences

The government completed the process of distributing licences for operating taxicab to the survivors of April 2015 Gorkha earthquake on Friday.
At a party full of Jesuses, Easter finally takes her holiday back.

The first season of American Gods is over after only eight episodes, but they were episodes brimming with stories, beautiful shots and conversation-starting scenes. If nothing else (though as we've seen, there is so much else), showrunners Fuller and Green have gotten people talking about their outstanding new series.

(Spoilers below.)

Bilquis wants her power back. (YouTube)

Like other episodes, Mr. Nancy wants to tell a story. This one is about the Old God we've been missing since Episode 2, Bilquis. What we didn't see at the beginning of the show was the intense struggle Bilquis faced and the deal she made to regain her power.

Even in its season finale, the show displays the same patience that has made its shots gorgeous and its stories fascinating from the first minute. In "Come to Jesus," Mr. Nancy's story of Bilquis reveals an Old God suffering the same, forgotten fate as Wednesday and the others. From ancient Bliquis to disco-Bilquis, she struggled to hold onto her followers and keep power. She even fell victim to the pillaging of Daesh, who destroyed her temples and posted the videos online. Like Vulcan, she found salvation in the New Godsby making a toxic deal with Technical Boy.

The moral of the story, according to Mr. Nancy? Wednesday needs a queen. The queen Wednesday chooses is not Bilquis, but a new face in the show, a god who is not only forgotten but whose praise has been stolen by none other than Jesus Christ, superstar.

Easter's Easter party. (YouTube)

Easter's (Kristin Chenoweth) grand Easter party celebrates the vernal equinox, the coming of Spring and herself, a.k.a. Ostara. Ostara is the god of Spring in Germanic traditions because her name is also the name of the month when Spring begins. Chenoweth's Ostara shares the frustrations of Wednesday and Bilquis but also feels replaced by the many, many Jesus Christs in attendance.

Ostara was one of the novel's best introductions because most readers were guilty of worse than forgetting her: they, as Wednesday explains in the show, were never aware of her at all because Easter became Jesus's day a couple of millennia ago. "It's religious Darwinism," Media says, praising adaptation over nostalgia. Technical Boy put it more bluntly: "You're old as f*ck. Things are never going back to the way they were."

Jesus sipping drinks on the pool. (YouTube)

Hearing that sentence, a viewer is faced with a conflict: Wednesday and the Old Gods are the good guys in the show, but can any of them, or us, really argue with Technical Boy's point? Can we really cheer for a bunch of washed-up gods whose power is lacking and whose relevance is questionable? Can we cheer for gods who require complex blood sacrifices when it's so much easier to welcome the future and pray through our screens? Can we, watching this series on TV (or streaming it to a laptop or however we're watching) and reading and writing about it later on tablets and phones, genuinely side with the kin of ancient Odin?

In answer to these questions and the challenges of Mr. World & Co., Wednesday and Ostara finally demonstrate the power they've bragged about for seven hours of the show. Adaptation might have kept Media strong, but her strength shrinks in the face of the old as Ostara strips the land of its blossoms and postpones the Spring entirely.

Give it back to them when they pray for it, Wednesday tells her.

As Bilquis ignores the threats of Technical Boy and rides a bus to House on the Rock, Wednesday and Ostara follow up the sacrifice of Vulcan with the second shot of the war. After all of the asides for characters whose histories aren't explored in Neil Gaiman's novel, it's difficult to predict where, exactly, we are in the story and where Season 2 might pick up. With the sides growing, the characters converging on Wisconsin and Shadow and Laura reunited, next season will bring even more clashes and more stories from both sides of the war.

Follow American Gods on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Watch all eight episodes now on Starz.

READ MORE ABOUT FILM/TV:

REVIEW | Kindness comes from the gods in the time-traveling 'AMERICAN GODS' Ep. 7

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HBO announces 4 'Game of Thrones' spinoffs: what could they be?
BookingJini Inc has emerged as one of the best start-up venture and has been shortlisted in the thrive 30 category.

BookingJini makes it to the Thrive 30

PR-Inside.com: 2017-06-24 12:05:47

Press Information

Bookingjini

JMD Regent Square, Levels 5, 6 and 7,Heritage City, Gurugram, 122001



Gourab Nandy

Relationship Manager

9439491151

email

https://bookingjini.com





# 394 Words

JMD Regent Square, Levels 5, 6 and 7,Heritage City, Gurugram, 122001Relationship Manager9439491151

In a recently concluded prelims competition on start-ups by NASSCOM, BookingJini Inc has emerged as one of the best start-up ventures and has been shortlisted in the "Thrive 30". Every year NASSCOM conducts this competition and awards the top 5 with a corpus amount to lead their business in the right direction. Thrive 30 has its preliminary rounds conducted in eight cities with over 2000 new business entering the competition periphery. From the list of 2000 top 30 are awarded a place in the finals where they would be allowed to continue their business with the allocation of funds by NASSCOM. The main motto is to facilitate, promote, support and incubate 10000 start-ups by 2023. BookingJini, a direct hotel booking company which aims to resolve the quintessential hoteliers grief has made it big in the world of start-ups. With over 500+ hotels under its belt, BookingJini has found tremendous success within 1 year of its operation. It has its headquarters in Gurugram, Haryana and is considered as one of the best start-ups in the direct hotel booking sector. The journey began in October,2016 and within a span of 8 months the company has gained a foothold in the hotel booking space. Start-ups from all over India have attended the elite programme conducted by NASSCOM and BookingJini is the sole representative from Odisha. Speaking on this magnificent achievement, the company CEO, Sibasish Mishra was quoted,"Hailing from Odisha, the idea of starting our booking engine came into existence when we heard about the dilemmas of the small hotels. We really needed to address this issue as fast as we can, so that hotels regain what they have lost in the long run. Hence, the idea of BookingJini was born". Apart from offering Hotel Booking Engine and Channel Manager, the company also offers takes care of their clients through digital marketing services. From designing their website to internet promotion the company is devoted to help the hotels in every possible way. Just after the news of Thrive 30 broke out, the CTO of the company, Mr. Trilochan Parida was discussing about their future prospects. "We have planned to start our AI chat bot named LISA(Lexical Integrated Syntax Analyzer) which would function like a personal assistant. Apart from LISA the company already has rolled out their Mobile App known as Jini App, which would facilitate and ease the customers stay in hotels.
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.




Aroma Bravo earns the approval of serious coffee lovers thanks to the balanced flavors of its best-selling medium dark roast coffee.

Contact

Charles C Harmon Co LLC

***@gmail.com

888-582-6650 Charles C Harmon Co LLC888-582-6650

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-- Medium dark roast coffees attract a lot of fans because they are the right balance between the lighter and darker roast degrees. Being in the mid-range level has given this roast an advantage, according to Aroma Bravo Coffee and Tea. The Nevada-based organic brand can easily confirm this, considering that its own medium dark roast coffee beans have been selling well on Amazon.com.Since debuting late last year, the brand's medium dark roast has successfully gained the approval of many coffee lovers online. Even serious aficionados with the most discriminating tastes have developed a fondness for the coffee's soft acidity, mild aroma and smooth chocolatey flavor.The overall balanced taste of this medium dark roasted coffee has earned high marks from customers as well. Achieving a good balance of flavors is not an easy feat especially with this degree of roast, so to be praised by fellow coffee lovers mean so much for the team at Aroma Bravo."The whole process of cultivating, harvesting, roasting and packaging gourmet coffee consumes a lot of time and effort, but we do it because we want to deliver the best coffee beans to our valued consumers," a brand spokesperson remarked.He further talked about what it takes to produce excellent coffee beans in a highly saturated market."There's no doubt that the coffee market is getting more and more saturated. What sets us apart from the competition is our true passion for producing the best coffee beans." the spokesperson remarked.This starts with the organic Arabica beans used, which are exclusively sourced from organic farms in the mountains of Marcala, Honduras. The beans undergo thorough screenings so that only the best ones are shipped back to the USA. Once they arrive, Aroma Bravo's master roasters implement small batch roasting techniques so that the quality, consistency, and characteristic flavors of a medium dark roast are faithfully produced. The result is a rich, full-bodied roasted coffee with a mellow chocolatey flavor and a clean finish."We are so proud to have this special roast on our product lineup. We hope that you'll love the delicious Honduran origins and balanced taste of our medium dark roasted beans, which are especially made for the complete enjoyment of all coffee lovers around the world." The brand spokesperson concluded.More details about the medium dark roast coffee at https://www.amazon.com/ review/R1PVC8HHIB049Z/ ref=cm_cr_rd... Aroma Bravo offers the best coffee beans from Honduras. Grown in organic farms and roasted in small batches, Aroma Bravo Gourmet Coffee is highly recommended for coffee lovers.
Special Canada Day Sale at Genus Jewels from July 1 to 8: Avail Amazing Discounts!

By: Genus Jewels

Gemstone Jewelry Ontario

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Genus Jewels

admin@genusjewels.com Genus Jewels

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-- "Genus Jewels", the online affordable jewelry and collectibles giant has announced yet another amazing offer this Canada Day. Customers can avail huge discounts on items at their online store from July 1 to 8. The company is going to celebrate this Canada Day in style by giving their customers yet another chance to wear cool and save big. The first week of July is going to be opportune time for those who have wished for a few number of trendy ornaments, but never got a good price that fits into their budget.Genus Jewels has always been the middleclass working women's friend. They design items that a working lady would love to wear at her workplace. Each jewelry item carries the latest fashion needs and looks astoundingly well and pretty expensive too, which it is not. If you are fond of beautiful jewelry items but your budget doesn't give you the freedom to go for your choice all the time, then you must consider Genus Jewels fashion products. They never disappoint their customers in terms of design and price. A fantastic collection of modern fashion items and accessories is there waiting for you. Visit their web store to purchase some of your favorites at huge discounts between July 1 and 8.Genus Jewels is a Canadian departmental store that offers an excellent range of fashionable ornaments and collectibles specifically for middle class working women, who mostly prefer budget-friendly items. The store gives huge discounts most of the year to help their customers get sensible deals all the time. All products are 100% original and FREE Shipping is available in Ontario.To explore more, you may check out their online store: https://www.genusjewels.com/ Business-Residential Address:Suite 107 11-300 Earl Grey Drive Ottawa, Ontario, K2T 1C1
In December 2015 Hawaii Fed Judge Michael Seabright's clerk threatened to destroy a request for a Grand Jury and later pretended to submit it to the Grand Jury. In May 2017 its discovered that the Grand Jury Affidavit was never processed.

Contact

JD Benish-Codefore Publishing.

***@aol.com JD Benish-Codefore Publishing.

End

-- Codefore Publishing editor Jim Benish said that in December 2015 he submitted a Citizens Affidavit (authorized by the US Constitution)to the Federal Court District of Hawaii. He said that almost immediately he received a letter from the Court Clerk that the Affidavit could not be accpeted and that if it was not retrieved from the court all the documents would be distroyed.Benish said he called the clerk to inquire as to what authority she had to justify distroying a court document. The clerks answer was, "Its a general opinion."Benish sent an email directly to Judge Seabright asking him the same question. "Under what authority gives your clerk the authority to distroy court documents or communications to a Federal Grand Jury./" "And was this threat authorized by you/" Benish said he did not receive a reply directly from Seabright but in January 2016 he received a phone message from Seabrights clerk that the Affidavit would be processed and given to the Grand Jury.Benish said that over a year later it appeard that no investigation had begun as no witnesses had been contacted, nor had any of the victims been contacted.In May of 2017 Benish sent an email to Seabright's clerk Lian Abernathy asking for some sort of document that would prove that the affidavit had been transmitted to the Grand Jury. Abernathy responded that she could not provide any documents relative to a Grand Jury Investigation.Benish said that several emails with Abernathy transpired and finally in one of them, Abernathy admitted that she did not process the Affidavit at all but instead made a phone call to the US Attorney's office and did not remember who she spoke with.In an effort to verify what Abernathy had said, Codefore Publishing processed a Freedom of Information request to the Court, the FBI and the Hawaii US Attorney's office. All responded that it was confidential and could not provide any documents. Codefore also checked in the PACER web site. PACER is a site that contains links to all court documents filed with the HI Federal court.There was no Affidavit or Grand Jury Document registered in the PACER web site.Benish said that concealing, distroying or altering Court Documents is a Federal Crime punishable by 3 years in prison. The investigation is ongoing.This case can be viewed in its entirity on a 4 part video documentary on Youtube. https://youtu.be/ I_bbOFGD80Y Interviews can be scheduled at codefore@aol.com
In Sakeys supernatural thriller Afterlife (Thomas & Mercer, July), two FBI agents die and enter a realm where they battle a centuries-old satanic entity.

Im dead. Its okay. Just a fragment of dream knowledge, the way you recognize someone is your sister even though shes wearing your best friends face. Im dead, but still in Chicago. The buildings are familiar but dark. The streets are packed with motionless cars. Everyone is gone.

No. With that same dream certainty, I realize its me thats gone. Everyone else is herethe cars have drivers, the sidewalks bustlebut being dead, Im at a right angle to the world.

Im not frightened. It isnt a nightmare. Until I wake up. The dream becomes a nightmare when I see my sleeping wife, and imagine being in the same space, the same house, the same bed, and yet not able to see her, talk to her, touch her.

The best stories are the ones with roots creeping into the sticky dark parts of our psyches. This dream had that juice. There was a book there.

But I wasnt sure I should write it, for two reasons. The first is that I had just wrapped up a trilogy that began with Brilliance, in which one percent of humanity are born savants, able to do things the other 99 of us only dream of. Film rights went in a seven-figure deal with Will Smith attached. I earned an Edgar nomination. The trilogy has sold well over a million copies. So there was a temptation to continue writing in the Brilliance universe instead of breaking new ground.

The second reason not to write it was that it scared mescared me huge. The notion was sprawling, complicated, and weird. Would anyone be interested? How to drag a dream onto the page in a way that was thrilling and visceral? It took months of banging head-shaped holes in the wall before I found the answer. I didnt want to write a dreamI wanted to write a myth.

Myths are born of the sticky dark. Thats why the truest have survived thousands of years. They present fictional answers to primal questions: Why do tragic things happen? Which is stronger, love or death? What if death is just the beginning?

I wanted to write a modern myth of the afterlife, rooted in science and philosophy. Forget heaven and hell, judgment or divine agency; I built existences nested like Russian dolls, each revealing one beyond. What turned a dream into a nightmare was imagining being near my wife without being able to interact with her, so I knew the book would be a love story. Because myths need monsters, I knew that the protagonists would be modern-day monster hunters: FBI agents. And the monster? Hed be something else entirely. A beast born of both the living world and the echoes that follow.

This book, my ninth, was by far the hardest Ive written. Many days I hated myself for not taking the sensible option. Every time I sat down at the keyboard, I was afraid. Maybe thats why I love it so much.

I hope it messes with your dreams.
RJP-Nepal will withdraw support to govt: Tripathi

Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal leader Hridayesh Tripathi has said the party will withdraw its support to the government led by Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Last Weeks Most Popular Reviews

The most-read reviews on publishersweekly.com last week were...

#1 The Village of Round and Square Houses

#2 What to Do About the Solomons

#3 A Gathering of Ravens

#4 Landscape with Invisible Hand

#5 Go Away, Big Green Monster!

From the Newsletters

Tip Sheet

Grant Ginder, author of The People We Hate at the Wedding, picks 10 book characters we love to hate.

Childrens Bookshelf

A new John Green novel, Turtles All the Way Down, is coming on October 10, with a 1.5 millioncopy first print run.

BookLife Report

Indie authors explain how to promote books on the cheap.

PW Daily

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Podcasts

Week Ahead

PW senior writer Andrew Albanese talks about a breakthrough moment in library e-book lending on the eve of the 2017 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.

More to Come

A preview of graphic novel programming at ALA 2017 in Chicago, plus a discussion of a Vulture essay on kids graphic novels, PWs manga feature article, and new Marvel woes.

PW FaithCast

Joanne Cacciatore, author of Bearing the Unbearable, explains why grief is often perceived as unimportant in todays culture.

PW Radio

Actor and playwright Wallace Shawn discusses his new book, Night Thoughts. PW senior editor Peter Cannon previews our most anticipated mysteries and thrillers for fall.

Blogs

ShelfTalker

Fabulous opening sentences of 2017.
Star Gazer Lands at Clarkson Potter

The editor-in-chief of Astronomy magazine, David Eicher, sold world rights to a nonfiction book called Galaxies. Jenni Zellner at Clarkson Potter won the book at auction from Laura Biagi at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency. Biagi said the book was pitched as Atlas Obscura for galaxies and reveals their inner workings and the most fascinating facts and newest discoveries about them. The book is slated for fall 2019.

Simonet Gets Rubber Stamped at FSG

After a four-house auction, Farrar, Straus & Girouxs Joy Peskin won North American rights to Andrew Simonets debut YA novel, The Rubber Room. The novel follows two high schoolers, Jason and Meili, who connect after winding up in detention. Rebecca Stead at the Book Group, who represented Simonet in the two-book deal, said that Meili, who hails from Hong Kong, is plotting a dangerous path back to her affluent life abroad, and Jason dreams of escaping his poverty and isolation. Simonet has previously worked as a choreographer for a number of theater groups; he also founded and ran, for a number of years, the dance program at Lawrenceville High School in New Jersey. The Rubber Room is scheduled for fall 2018.

Dodd Closes Quad at HQN

As part of a four-book deal, bestselling author Christina Dodd signed with HQN Books to write a new trilogy that will launch with a novel called Dead Girl Running. The North American rights agreement was negotiated by HQNs Dianne Moggy and William Morris Endeavors Mel Berger, with HQN associate editor Allison Carroll lined up to edit. HQN said the trilogy will follow an enigmatic woman with a scar from a gunshot on her forehead and a severe case of amnesia that leaves her unsure of her own sanity. Dodd has written more than 60 novels and, according to HQN, there are more than 15 million copies of her books in print. Dead Girl is slated for May 2018.

Kensington Inks Fluke for Seven Figures, Lands Forces First Historical

In a seven-figure world rights agreement, Joanne Fluke inked a three-book contract with Kensingtons John Scognamiglio to write a trio of new books featuring her popular protagonist, Hannah Swensen. Fluke is an established cozy mystery author, and her books featuring Swensen have been adapted into a string of television movies (by the Hallmark Channel) called Murder, She Baked; the TV series features follows the Minnesota bake shop owner and amateur sleuth, who partners with a local detective to help solve crimes. The first book slated under this agreement, Raspberry Danish Murder, is slated for March 2018, and will mark the 22nd title in the book series. Fluke was represented by Meg Ruley at the Jane Rotrosen Agency.

In another acquisition at Kensington, bestselling romance author Marie Force closed a two-book North American mass market paperback rights agreement with Martin Biro for her first historical romance series. Force, who Kensington said has sold more than six million books worldwide, will launch the Edwardian-era series with Duchess by Deception in February 2019. Kensington said Duchess follows a duke who has a deadline to marry and disguises himself to win the heart of a woman who disdains the aristocracy. Force did not use an agent in the deal.

Da Capo Takes Bolgers War

Robert Pigeon at Da Capo took world rights, in a preempt, to Daniel P. Bolgers Our Year of War. E.J. McCarthy, who has an eponymous shingle, represented Bolger. The book, scheduled for October, is about two brothers who fought together in Vietnam. The publisher said Chuck and Tom Hagel were in the same platoon and, during the Tet Offensive, saved each others lives. The book follows the brothers, who had disparate views on the war, from Nebraska to Vietnam and back home, where their disagreement over the Vietnam War mirrored a divided America. (Chuck Hagel went on to become a U.S. senator and the secretary of defense, while Tom Hagel went on to a law career, first as a public defender and then as a professor.)

Hoang Brings Debut to Berkley

Debut author Helen Hoang closed a world rights agreement for three books, set to launch a new series, with Berkley. Cindy Hwang acquired the titles from Kim Lionetti at the BookEnds Literary Agency. The first book, The Kiss Quotient, is set for June 2018 and, per Berkley, is about a woman with Aspergers who hires a male escort to help her learn to be a girlfriend. The second and third books in the series are set for winter 2018 and summer 2019, respectively.
Songs of Themselves

A trio of memoirs debuting on our Hardcover Nonfiction list explore issues of personal and cultural identity. In Hunger, at #11, Bad Feminist author Roxane Gay boldly confronts societys cruelty toward and denigration of larger individuals (particularly women), our starred review said.

Comedian Eddie Izzard writes about coming to terms with his gender identity and recognizing that he was transgender at a young age in Believe Me, at #13, a book our review calls funny and painful, and ultimately uplifting.

And in You Dont Have to Say You Love Me, at #20, novelist and poet Sherman Alexie remembers his complicated mother, Lillian, who kept the family together despite dire poverty on the Spokane Reservation, our review said, in a fine homage to the vexed process of growing up.

(See all of this week's bestselling books.)

Both Sides Now

Two new books take opposing views of Donald Trumps presidency. Understanding Trump by Newt Gingrich, with a foreword by Eric Trump, debuts at #1 in Hardcover Nonfiction and #2 in the country overall. Gingrich calls the 45th president one of the most remarkable individuals to ever occupy the White House, praising his familiarity and comfortableness with everyday Americans.

No Is Not Enough by Naomi Klein, subtitled Resisting Trumps Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need, debuts at #15 on our Trade Paperback list. Klein writes that Trumps cabinet of billionaires and multimillionaires tells us a great deal about the administrations underlying goals, calling the changes in Washington a naked corporate takeover, one many decades in the making.

Feel the Heat

Samin Nosrats debut cookbook, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, with illustrations by Wendy MacNaughton, returns to our Hardcover Nonfiction list for the first time since its pub week, at #21. The book, which is in its fifth printing after eight weeks on sale, continues to garner coverage from outlets including the New York Times, Bon Appetit, and NPR.

New & Notable

Tom Clancy: Point of Contact

Mike Maden

#2 Hardcover Fiction, #6 overall

Madens Clancy universe debut is a taut, exciting thriller that should reassure fans that the state of the franchise is strong.

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

#18 Hardcover Fiction

This collaboration between speculative fiction author Stephenson and historical novelist Galland, our review said, is a fascinating experiment in speculation and metafiction that never loses sight of the human foibles and affections of its cast.

The Little French Bistro

Nina George

#20 Hardcover Fiction

The author of the international blockbuster The Little Paris Bookstore returns with a novel of self-discovery set on the coast of Brittany.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units 1 Camino Island John Grisham Doubleday 95,986 2 Understanding Trump Newt Gingrich Center Street 37,553 3 Al Franken, Giant of the Senate Al Franken Twelve 26,625 4 Astrophysics for People in a Hurry Neil deGrasse Tyson Norton 24,216 5 Make Your Bed William H. McRaven Grand Central 23,460 6 Tom Clancy: Point of Contact Mike Maden Putnam 22,080 7 The Woman in Cabin 10 Ruth Ware Scout 21,718 8 Oh, the Places Youll Go! Dr. Seuss Random House 21,279 9 Bill OReillys Legends and Lies: The Civil War David Fisher Holt 19,700 10 Milk and Honey Rupi Kaur Andrews McMeel 19,176

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.
How do booksellers, particularly small independent stores, respond to books that not only challenge their ability to host an event but likely offend their own political or moral principles?

At a BookExpo panel entitled Selling Controversial Books, a group of independent booksellers offered differing views on dealing with inflammatory books and their authors. The discussion, moderated by Chris Finan of the American Booksellers for Free Expression, also revealed differing views among booksellers about the nature of censorship in their business. Some questions raised (or implied) during the discussion by the panel and members of the audience include: Can declining to sell or stock a book be described as an act of free speech by a bookseller? When is a decision not to offer a book simply a merchandising decision and can it somehow undermine First Amendment protections? Whats an independent bookstore to do in a time of political upheaval?

A panel of booksellers that included Vanessa Martin of City Lights Books in San Francisco, Mitch Kaplan of Miamis Books & Books, and Lissa Muscatine of Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., cited a short list of controversial books and authorsamong them The Satanic Verses, Madonnas Sex, the Elders of Zion, and more recently, Milo Yiannopouloss upcoming Dangerousthat presented a range of challenges to indie booksellers.

For instance, an audience member asked, who pays for extra security when a store hosts an inflammatory author: the store or the publisher? Sometimes, Muscatine said, controversial authors bring their own security for public events, but sometimes the store pays.

Kaplan recapped his stores history of dealing with complaints about a book, including complaints about not carrying a book. His first store, he said, didnt carry the Bible. That was our first experience of controversy, he said. So we started carrying the Bible. At Books & Books, he said, its a book-by-book decision about what to sell or not sell. He noted that Books & Books proudly stood tall with publishers and continued to sell The Satanic Verses. Madonnas Sex, he said, sold out, so they kept a copy and let people take a look at it for $1, and donated the money to charity.

When the lawyer for Casey Anthony, the mother acquitted of murdering her daughter, was slated to appear at Books & Books to promote his book Presumed Guilty: Casey Anthony: The Inside Story, Kaplan said his store was inundated by calls protesting the appearance of baby killers.  In another instance, an appearance by terrorism expert Malcolm Nance to promote his book, The Plot to Hack America, attracted hecklers.

The panel repeatedly emphasized that the ultimate decision depends on the store and how they see themselves and their community, as Kaplan put it. But when the discussion turned to Yiannopoulos and his controversial book Dangerous (dropped by Simon & Schuster and due to be self-published July 4), there was some disagreement over what that caveat actually means in practice.

From the audience, Christin Evans, co-owner of the Booksmith in San Francisco and a director of Keplers in Menlo Park, suggested that the panel (and the ABA) wanted it both ways. She said that, while the ABA tells bookstores that it is an individual stores decision whether to sell or not sell a book, the organization (as well as this panel, she said) criticizes stores that decline to carry inflammatory books. She cited reactions to Booksmiths so-called boycott of Simon & Schuster over Dangerous and Yiannopoulosa person who has harassed people on Twitter and suppressed the speech of others, she saidas an example.

According to Evans, her stores boycott of S&Sreally more a protest gesture than an actual boycottwas essentially a reduction in spending on certain S&S titles while continuing to spend on other S&S authors the store supports. She characterized the symbolic boycott as an act of free speech on the part of the Booksmith staff, as well as a show of support of the community the store serves. Were in a very left-leaning area, and the boycott was a postelection reaction to the Yiannopoulos book. We wanted to take an activist stand, she said.

Responses from the panel that were critical of Evanss stores protest seemed, as she had suggested, contradictory.

Kaplan called the Booksmith effort a slippery slope. Panelist Vanessa Martin said a boycott was not for City Lights, even though she noted earlier that the store doesnt carry books by conservative author Bill OReilly and would not special order one if someone requested it.

Muscatine, on the other hand, said, We dont want publishers telling us what to sell, and I wont tell publishers what to publish. She explained that you assert and defend your principles and you decide what you will tolerate. She said her store chose to respond to the controversy around Yiannopoulos by reinforcing our principles as overtly as we could. We offered teach-ins on topics such as race, and we work to diversify our staff and our inventory.

Muscatine also seemed skeptical of the Booksmith boycott, noting that we dont want to be in the business of upending the First Amendment case by case.
The 2017 American Library Association Annual Conference officially got underway on Friday evening, June 23, with a special guest: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In a short address, Emanuel welcomed librarians to his city, and offered words of support amid the steep political challenges facing the profession.

I want to stand up in front of you and say thank you for what you do every day, Emanuel said. Acknowledging President Trumps proposal to eliminate virtually all library funding, the mayor, a former chief-of-staff for President Barack Obama, urged librarians to stand tall, and insisted that libraries have never been more important than today, as they lay the common foundations for Americans at a time when Americans are becoming increasingly polarized.

Emanuel also took a moment to talk about the vital role libraries play in Chicago: offering citizenship centers for all residents (not just new citizens); free homework in English and Spanish; new media centers for adolescents and teenagers; employment centers; language instruction programs; and a program that is co-locating newly constructed public library branches, designed by top architects, in neighborhood high schools, as well as senior and veterans housing complexes.

 I'm telling you, your work is appreciated and never been needed more. Stay strong in what you do. 

Its no longer just about booksit's about using the Internet to explore in the world, Emanuel observed. I know these are difficult times, not just financially. When you have a national government that is eliminating funding for libraries, it can feel like your work is going unappreciated. I'm telling you: your work is appreciated and never been needed more. Stay strong in what you do.

More than 20,000 librarians, vendors, and publishers are expected in the ALAs home base of Chicago through June 27 for the conference, which will feature more than 2,500 events, including 1,500 professional programs, and hundreds of author talks, over five days. On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton will deliver the conferences closing keynote.

The conference is the first for ALA since Donald Trump took office and proposed eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services and virtually all library fundingas well as the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanitiesalong with deep cuts in other key areas, including education funding and broadband support.

Like Emanuel, in her opening remarks, ALA outgoing president Julie Todaro referenced the battle librarians face.

The infrastructure weve created, and the work that we've done and continue to do, is attempting to be rolled back or discontinued, she noted, adding that her spirits have been lifted by the advocacy work of librarians and their supporters. We have a lot left to do, and we can achieve a lot if we sustain the levels of advocacy that we saw this past year [and] still stay focused and engaged in the very big picture.

She also urged librarians to continue to stand up for their core values. As we kick off the conference, we need to remember that ours is a noble profession dedicated to combating ignorance and intolerance, she said. Now more than ever, we are proud to be on the front lines of that. We need to stay committed to equity, and diversity, and inclusion in what we do. And we need to ensure that our spaces are safe spaces for everyone, and as welcoming as they can be.
In a charged political climate that has seen even the Big Five publishers step gently into the ideological fray, a few indie publishers whose bread and butter has always been left-wing publishing are working together, for the mutual benefit of all.

Book publishers Verso Books, Haymarket Books, and Seven Stories Press and socialist quarterly magazine Jacobinthe most widely-read socialist publication in America, with upwards of 35,000 print subscribers and more than a million unique website visitors per monthare the tight-knit center of a small group of independent publishers that consider themselves part of a burgeoning radical left. The publishers and magazine have, Verso marketing manager Anne Rumberger explained, pooled their forces and resources in order to reach what they see as a newly radicalized segment of the American book market.

We most closely collaborate with Haymarket and Jacobin on marketing, and with Haymarket, Jacobin, and Seven Stories on web development, Rumberger said. We also share tables at book fairs and festivals with Haymarket and PM Press, and are hoping to collaborate more with Seven Stories and Beacon [Press] on blog content. So were all supporting each other in different ways.

In other words, and in a neat twist of irony, theyre using capitalism to spread economic theories and political ideologies that are rooted in anything but. Rumberger rattled off a number of other publishers in this general orbit, some that Verso works with and some that are simply like-minded: Counterpoint Press and AK Press in the U.S. and, in the U.K., Repeater Books, Polity Books, and Zed Books. Verso, Jacobin, and Haymarket, accompanied by Seven Stories, are at its nexus.

Since our web developers are also working with Haymarket and with Jacobin and with Seven Stories, were sharing a lot of the costs involved in back-end development. We now have the same e-commerce back-end to our websites, Rumberger said. In terms of marketing, well share lists with each otherwell promote a Jacobin issue along with a Jacobin book, for instance, and well [send to] email addresses from some of their subscribers, while theyll [send to] some of oursso were collaborating in terms of how we do our online marketing.

This is helpful for Verso, which, Rumberger said, has neverin spite of its nearly 50-year history and strong financial resourcesbeen featured on an Indie Next bestseller list or nominated for an Indie Next pick. Its helpful, too, for Jacobin, whose book line, Jacobin Books, launched at Verso in 2014. (Like Versos other books, Jacobin titles are distributed by Penguin Random House.)

Another joint endeavor went public a few hours after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. On January 20, Verso, Jacobin, and Haymarket cohosted The Anti-Inauguration, an event at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C., featuring speeches from Intercept founding editor Jeremy Scahill, Princeton assistant professor of African-American studies Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, journalist Anand Gopal, Guardian columnist Owen Jones, and author Naomi Klein. (Klein went on to publish her latest book, No Is Not Enough, with Haymarket, after publishing her previous book with Simon & Schuster.) The events speeches were collected in a free e-book, also called The Anti-Inauguration, available on the websites of both Haymarket and Verso.

The presses in this orbit also frequently share authors and editors. The wager is that there are more people out there who are hungry for left-wing ideas than [there] are currently available [books], said John McDonald, Haymarkets academic, conference, and events coordinatorand that cross-pollination will work to the publishers mutual benefit. Amplifying all our voices doesnt do us any disservice at allit actually expands the layers of people who are exposed to all the ideas that we benefit from. To use the crude language of marketing, theres a market out there that is bigger than any of us can saturate by ourselves. Its not like were fighting over crumbs of a pie.

Jason Farbman, who came from Haymarket last year to Jacobin, where he now runs outreach and publicity, had a similar take. Broadly, were all together on the left, and we have a shared set of politics about where we want to see the world, but we have it in very different spaces, he said, adding that, for example, while Versos strength is on the academic side, Haymarkets is in the world of activismso Jacobin writers and editors who go on to work on books for Haymarket, as many have, reach different audiences than does the Jacobin Books line at Verso. This allows for us to collaborate in a way that doesnt feel like were constantly competing.

The publishers money is where their mouths are, too. In 2016, Jacobin staff unionized. AK Press, which specializes in anarchist literature, is worker-managed. Position Development, which built the back-end for Verso, Haymarket, Jacobin, and Seven Stories, is worker-run.

Even the less ideological of these presses are finding a union fortuitous. Beacon Press associate publisher Tom Hallock, while clarifying that Beaconwhich has a religious parent organizationdoes not identify as leftist, noted that he has seen sales patterns change drastically since the election, with an upswing in backlist books about social justice, race in America, and social movements. As for giving shout-outs to each others books, and awards, and news via social media and blogs, hes all for it.

It may seem odd that publishers working in the same intellectual space would band together rather than compete. But for these publishers, one thing is clear: book sales are not an end, but a means to communicate their political beliefs. And working together to buoy all of their books, and the concepts contained therein, can only help on the long-term path to achieving bigger and harder-to-attain goals.

Generally speaking, its pretty hard to look around in American society and find a place where you can get socialist information, McDonald said. Its a fight. If we dont actually defend what little we have left, its going to be taken awayand we happen to believe that we deserve even more than we have.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified the year in which Jacobin Books launched.
A dystopian novel, a magical prequel, historical novels, and a story collection: this falls literary fiction has enough prizewinners and bestsellers for everyone.

Top 10

Five-Carat Soul

James McBride. Riverhead, Sept. 26

The National Book Award winners story collection tells of a legendary Civil Warera toy, five strangers thrown together, an American president inspired by an overheard conversation, and the Five-Carat Soul Bottom Bone Band members recounting stories from their messy lives.

Forest Dark

Nicole Krauss. Harper, Sept. 12

The author of The History of Love offers a novel of metamorphosis and self-realization. In present-day Israel, two visiting Americansone a young wife, mother, and novelist, the other an elderly philanthropistexperience existential crises and transcendence.

In the Midst of Winter

Isabel Allende. Atria, Oct. 31

Allendes latest novel begins with a minor traffic accidentwhich becomes the catalyst for a love story between two people who thought they were in the winter of their lives.

Little Fires Everywhere

Celeste Ng. Penguin Press, Sept. 12

Mia Warren, an enigmatic artist and single mother, rents a house from the picture-perfect Richardson family. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the alluring mother-daughter pair and Mias mysterious past.

Manhattan Beach

Jennifer Egan. Scribner, Oct. 3

Anna, sole provider for her mother and her severely disabled sister, meets a man who may hold clues to her fathers disappearance.

The Ninth Hour

Alice McDermott. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Sept. 19

The National Book Award winner relates a tale of an aging nun aiding the widow and unborn child of a young immigrant in Catholic Brooklyn in the early part of the 20th century.

Red Clocks

Leni Zumas. LB/Boudreaux, Jan. 16

In Zumass novel, abortion is once again illegal in America, in-vitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty, and property to every embryo.

The Rules of Magic

Alice Hoffman. Simon & Schuster, Oct. 10

In this prequel to Hoffmans bestseller Practical Magic, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique.

Sing, Unburied, Sing

Jesmyn Ward. Scribner, Sept. 5

When the father of Leonies children is released from prison, Leonie packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out for Parchman farm, on a journey rife with danger and promise.

The World Goes On

Laszlo Krasznahorkai, trans. by George Szirtes, Ottilie Mulzet, and John Batki. New Directions, Nov. 15

These 11 stories from the Man Booker International winner range from the banks of the Ganges to a Portuguese marble quarry.

Literary Fiction Listings

Akashic

The Book of Love and Hate by Lauren Sanders (Oct. 3, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-1-61775-582-8). Jennifer Baron, a failed speed skater, tries to stay sober after her Olympic downfall. Shes running her fathers business, a billion-dollar foundation, when he mysteriously disappears. Soon shes invited to a conference that turns out to be a covert meeting with her father and a corporate spy.

Algonquin

Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin (Aug. 22, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-61620-504-1). Aviva Grossman, an ambitious congressional intern in Florida, has an affair with her bossand blogs about it. Slut-shamed, she becomes a late-night talk show punch line, anathema to politics. She sees no way out but to change her name and move to a remote town in Maine.

Archipelago

Twist by Harkaitz Cano, trans. by Amaia Gabantxo (Oct. 3, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-0-914671-82-4). In the politically charged Basque country in the 1980s, two ETA militants are brutally murder by the Spanish army. Their friend and fellow activist, Diego Lazkano, who revealed his comrades to the authorities, has been tormented by guilt ever since.

Atlantic Monthly

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt (Aug. 1, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0-8021-2659-7) recasts a famous murder case. On the morning of August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden calls out to her maid: someones killed Father. Shifting among the perspectives of the unreliable Lizzie; her older sister, Emma; the housemaid Bridget; and the enigmatic stranger, Benjamin, the events of that fateful day are slowly revealed.

Atria

In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende (Oct. 31, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-5011-7813-9) begins with a minor traffic accidentwhich becomes the catalyst for an unexpected love story between two people who thought they were deep into the winter of their lives.

Little Broken Things by Nicole Baart (Nov. 21, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-5011-3360-2). A suspenseful novel for fans of Liane Moriarty and Amy Hatvany uncovers an affluent suburban family whose carefully constructed facade starts to come apart with the unexpected arrival of an endangered young girl.

Bellevue

Wolf Season by Helen Benedict (Oct. 10, trade paper, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-942658-30-6). A hurricanes destruction of a small New York town changes the lives of three women: Rin tries to protect her blind daughter and three wolves under her care; Naema, an Iraqi doctor, faces life-threatening injuries; and Beth raises a troubled son while her Marine husband is deployed.

Bloomsbury USA

All the Dirty Parts by Daniel Handler (Aug. 29, hardcover, $22, ISBN 978-1-63286-804-6). High schooler Cole runs cross country, sketches, jokes around with his friends. But none of this quite matters next to the allure of sex. As Cole gets a not-quite-savory reputation around school, Handlers novel looks at the erotic impulses of this all-too-typical young man.

Catapult

A Loving, Faithful Animal by Josephine Rowe (Sept. 12, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-936787-57-9). On New Years Eve, 1990, in a small Australian town, Rus father, a Vietnam War veteran, has disappeared. This time Ru thinks he might be gone for good. Rowes debut novel is a portrait of one family searching for what is redeemable from the ruins of war.

Montpelier Parade by Karl Geary (Aug. 22, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-936787-55-5). Vera is beautiful, wealthy, and unknowable; Sonny is young and hungry for the world. The moment they meet in 1980s Dublin will change the course of their lives. Gearys debut novel is about desire, grief, ambition, art, and the choices we must make.

Coffee House

The Dolls Alphabet by Camilla Grudova (Oct. 10, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-1-56689-490-6). Dolls, sewing machines, tinned foods, mirrors, malfunctioning bodiesthe stories in this collection are by turns childlike and naive, grotesque and very dark.

In the Distance by Hernan Diaz (Oct. 10, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-56689-488-3). A young Swedish immigrant finds himself penniless and alone in gold rushera California. He travels East in search of his brother, moving on foot against those pushing West. Driven back again and again, he meets naturalists, criminals, religious fanatics, swindlers, and lawmen, and his exploits turn him into a legend.

Counterpoint

A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton (Aug. 15, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-61902-922-4) is a tale of love and the consequences of American racial disparity spanning three generations of a New Orleans family.

Deep Vellum

The Imagined Land by Eduardo Berti, trans. by Charlotte Coombe (Oct. 10, trade paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-941920-61-9). Berti conjures a star-crossed love story in prerevolutionary China. The desires of a young girl, visited in her dreams by her grandmothers ghost, clash with the strict expectations of her parents, exploring the balance between modernity and tradition, mysticism and memory.

Delacorte

The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin (Jan. 16, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-101-88680-9). The author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue and The Aviators Wife presents a portrait of the close friendship and powerful creative partnership between two of Hollywoods earliest female superstars: Frances Marion and Mary Pickford.

Ecco

The Twelve-Mile Straight by Eleanor Henderson (Sept. 12, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-242208-8). Cotton County, Ga., 1930: two babiesone light-skinned, the other darkare born to a white sharecroppers daughter. Those living on the farm must contend with their complicity in a series of events that leave a man dead and a family irrevocably fractured. 75,000-copy announced first printing.

The Vanishing Princess by Jenny Diski (Dec. 5, trade paper, $15.99, ISBN 978-0-06-268571-1) is the only story collection from Diski, who died of cancer in April 2016. The collection channels both the social examination of her nonfiction and the dreamlike landscapes of her novels. 10,000-copy announced first printing.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Fresh Complaint by Jeffrey Eugenides (Oct. 3, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-374-20306-1). The first collection of short fiction from the Pulitzer Prizewinning author ranges from the reproductive antics of Baster to the account of a young travelers search for enlightenment in Air Mail (selected by Annie Proulx for The Best American Short Stories 1997), with characters in the midst of personal and national crises.

The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott (Sept. 19, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-374-28014-7) sketches a portrait of the Irish-American experience by the National Book Awardwinning author. Sister St. Savior, an aging nun, appears, unbidden, to aid a widow and the unborn child of a young immigrant following a fire in Catholic Brooklyn in the early part of the 20th century.

The Seventh Function of Language by Laurent Binet, trans. by Sam Taylor (Aug. 1, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-374-26156-6). Paris, 1980. The literary critic Roland Barthes dies after lunch with the presidential candidate Francois Mitterrand. The world of letters mourns a tragic accident. But what if it wasnt an accident? What if Barthes was murdered? A genre-bending read from the author of HHhH.

Graywolf

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (Oct. 3, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-55597-788-7). In this short story collection, Machado bends genre to shape narratives that map the realities of womens lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.

Grove

Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro (Jan. 9, hardcover, $24, ISBN 978-0-8021-2704-4). Maggie, married for 20 years and an emerging writer, begins corresponding with one of her literary idols. What begins as a platonic exchange between two like-minded intellectuals transforms into something dangerous, an erotically charged liaison that challenges Maggies commitment to husband, family, and her deeply held moral and spiritual beliefs.

TheMystery.doc by Matthew McIntosh (Oct. 3, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0-8021-2491-3). A young writer attempts to write the follow-up to his first novel, searching for a form that will express the world as it has become. Pop-up ads, search results, web chats, snippets of conversation, lines of code, and film and television stills mix with alchemical manuscripts and classical works of literature.

Harlequin/Mira

Say My Name by Allegra Huston (Jan. 9, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-7783-3071-4) is a debut novel about a woman in a stale, 20-year marriage who embarks on an affair with a much younger man and discovers a new, adventurous self. 80,000-copy announced first printing.

Harlequin/Park Row

Hanna Who Fell from the Sky by Christopher Meades (Sept. 26, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-0-7783-2873-5). Hanna has never been outside her secluded community. On her 18th birthday, Hanna will become the fifth wife of a man more than twice her age. But days before the wedding, Hanna meets Daniel, a stranger who challenges her to question her fate and follow her own will. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

Harper

Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss (Sept. 12, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-243099-1) is a novel of metamorphosis and self-realization from the author of The History of Love. In present-day Israel, two visiting Americansone a young wife, mother, and novelist, the other an elderly philanthropistexperience existential crises and transcendence. 150,000-copy announced first printing.

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich (Nov. 14, hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-269405-8). In this dystopian novel, the National Book Awardwinning author of The Round House paints a portrait of a young woman fighting for her life and her unborn child against oppressive forces that manifest in the wake of a cataclysmic event. 150,000-copy announced first printing.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Miss Kopps Midnight Confessions by Amy Stewart (Sept. 5, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-544-40999-6). The author of Girl Waits with Gun and Lady Cop Makes Trouble continues her fictionalized journey into the real lives of the forgotten but extraordinary Kopp sisters. 60,000-copy announced first printing.

Kensington

Firefly Cove by Davis Bunn (Dec. 26, hardcover, $21.95, ISBN 978-1-4967-0832-8). Doctors told Lucius he had a bad ticker, but the determined boy hung on and surprised everyone. Now, at 28, his time is finally running out. So he returns to the one place he ever felt happythe California seaside town of Miramar Baynear the only woman he ever truly wanted.

Knopf

The Misfortune of Marion Palm by Emily Culliton (Aug. 8, hardcover, $25.95, ISBN 978-1-5247-3190-8). This debut follows a Brooklyn Heights wife and mother who has embezzled a small fortune from her childrens private school and makes a run for it, leaving behind her trust fund poet husband, his maybe-secret lover, her two daughters, and a school board who will do anything to find her.

Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo (Aug. 22, hardcover, $25.95, ISBN 978-0-451-49460-3). Set in Nigeria, this novel gives voice to both husband and wife as they tell the story of their marriageand the forces that threaten to tear it apart.

Lenny

Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang (Aug. 1, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-399-58938-6). This debut collection bridges generations and continents, moving from the fraught halls of a public school in Flushing, Queens, to the tumultuous streets of Shanghai, China, during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s.

Little, Brown

The Good People by Hannah Kent (Sept. 19, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-316-24396-4). Hedged in by gossip and joined by their desperation, three women in 19th-century Ireland are drawn together in the hope of rescuing a child from a superstitious community determined to rid itself of the strange and unknowable. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

The World of Tomorrow by Brendan Mathews (Sept. 5, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-316-38219-9). Three brothers are caught up in a whirlwind week of love, blackmail, and betrayal that culminates in an assassination plot, set against the dramatic backdrop of 1930s New York. 75,000-copy announced first printing.

LB/Boudreaux

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas (Jan. 16, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-316-43481-2). Abortion is illegal in America, in-vitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty, and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five very different women navigate these new barriers alongside age-old questions surrounding motherhood, identity, and freedom. 50,000-copy announced first printing.

Milkweed Editions

The Mannequin Makers by Craig Cliff (Sept. 12, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-57131-127-6). Excitement is rare in Marumaru, New Zealand. When a young Maori man arrives one day in 1903announcing the imminent visit of a famous strongmanthe entire town turns out to greet him, save one.

Morrow

The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash (Oct. 3, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-06-231311-9). Set in the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina in 1929 and inspired by actual events, this is the chronicle of an ordinary womans struggle for dignity and her rights in a textile mill, a tale of courage in the face of oppression and injustice. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

New Directions

The World Goes On by Laszlo Krasznahorkai, trans. by George Szirtes, Ottilie Mulzet, and John Batki (Nov. 15, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0-8112-2419-2). In these 11 stories from the Man Booker International winner, a traveler encounters a giant of a man on the banks of the Ganges, and a child laborer in a Portuguese marble quarry wanders off into a surreal realm utterly alien from his daily toils.

Norton

The Burning Girl by Claire Messud (Aug. 29, hardcover, $25.95, ISBN 978-0-393-63502-7). Julia and Cassie have been friends since nursery school, sharing everything including their desire to escape the limitations of their small Massachusetts hometown. But in adolescence, their paths diverge, and Cassie sets out on a journey that will put her life in danger and shatter her oldest friendship.

New York Review Books Classics

Katalin Street by Magda Szabo, trans. by Len Rix (Sept. 5, trade paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-68137-152-8). From the author of The Door, this is a tale about a group of friends and lovers torn apart by the German occupation of Budapest during WWII, investigating the ways in which we inflict suffering on those we love.

Penguin Press

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (Sept. 12, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-7352-2429-2). Mia Warren, an enigmatic artist and single mother, arrives in the idyllic bubble of Shaker Heights with her teenage daughter, Pearl, and rents a house from the picture-perfect Richardson family. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the alluring mother-daughter pair and Mias mysterious past.

Putnam

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin (Jan. 9, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-7352-1318-0). Its 1969 in New York City, and a traveling psychic claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. Four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness sneak out to hear their fortunes. Though the siblings keep the dates secret from one another, their prophecies inform their next five decades.

Random House

Brass by Xhenet Aliu (Jan. 30, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-399-59024-5) is a debut novel about the stark realities behind the American Dream. A waitress at the Betsy Ross Diner, Elsie hopes her nickel and dime tips will add up to a new life. Then she meets Bashkim, at once worldly and naive, a married man who left Albania to chase his dreams.

The Golden House by Salman Rushdie (Sept. 5, hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-399-59280-5). When the aristocratic Golden family moves into Greenwich Village, their past is a mystery. The narrator is an aspiring filmmaker who decides the Golden family will be his subject. He gains the trust of this strange family, even as their secrets gradually unfold.

Green by Sam Graham-Felsen (Jan. 2, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-399-59114-3). Boston, 1992. Dave (who longs to be called Green) is the white boy at his mostly black middle School, where he is lonely, constantly taunted, and desperate to fit in. Daves life takes a turn for the better when he befriends Marlon, who lives in the public housing around the corner from Daves gentrifying block.

Restless

Beyond the Rice Fields by Naivo, trans. by Allison M. Charette (Oct. 3, trade paper, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-63206-131-7). The first novel from Madagascar to be translated into English, Naivos story delves into the upheavals of the nations colonial past through the twin narratives of a slave and his masters daughter.

Riverhead

Five-Carat Soul by James McBride (Sept. 26, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-7352-1669-3). In the National Book Awardwinners story collection, an antiques dealer discovers that a legendary toy commissioned by Civil War Gen. Robert E. Lee now sits in the home of a black minister in Queens. And members of the Five-Carat Soul Bottom Bone Band recount stories from their own messy lives.

Scribner

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan (Oct. 3, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-4767-1673-2). Anna works at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, sole provider for her mother and her severely disabled sister. At a night club, she meets Styles, the man she visited with her father before he vanished, and she begins to understand the reasons her father might have disappeared.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (Sept. 5, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-5011-2606-2). When the white father of Leonies children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on a journey rife with danger and promise.

Seven Stories

Passage by Khary Lazarre-White (Sept. 26, hardcover, $21.95, ISBN 978-1-60980-783-2) is the story of Warrior, a young black man navigating the snowy winter streets of Harlem and Brooklyn in 1993. Surrounded by deep family love and a sustaining connection to his history, he confronts the urban forces that surround himboth supernatural and humanincluding some that seek his very destruction.

Simon & Schuster

Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka (Aug. 1, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-5011-4437-0). When popular high schooler Lucinda Hayes is murdered, no one in her sleepy Colorado suburb is untouchednot the boy who loved her too much; not the girl who wanted her perfect life; not the officer assigned to investigate her murder. These three characters must each confront their darkest secrets.

The Mountain by Paul Yoon (Aug. 15, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-1-5011-5408-9). Yoon spins six thematically linked stories, across several continents and time periods, with characters connected by their traumatic pasts, newly vagrant lives, and quests for solace in their futures.

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman (Oct. 10, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-5011-3747-1). In this prequel to Hoffmans bestseller Practical Magic, Susanna Owens knows that her children are dangerously unusual: difficult Franny, with blood red hair; Jet, who can read other peoples thoughts; and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.

Soho

Solar Bones by Mike McCormack (Sept. 19, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-1-61695-853-4). It is All Souls Day, and the spirit of Marcus Conway sits at his kitchen table and remembers. In flowing, relentless prose, Conway recallsin a single sentencehis life in rural Ireland: as a boy and man, father, husband, citizen.

Sourcebooks Landmark

If the Creek Dont Rise by Leah Weiss (Aug. 22, trade paper, $15.99, ISBN 978-1-4926-4745-4). In a North Carolina mountain town filled with moonshine and rotten husbands, Sadie Blue is the latest girl to face a dead-end future at the mercy of a dangerous drunk. When a stranger sweeps in, Sadie begins to think there might be more to life than being Roys wife.

St. Martins

The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs by Janet Peery (Sept. 19, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-250-12508-8). On a summer evening in the blue-collar town of Amicus, Kans., the Campbell family gathers for a birthday dinner for their ailing patriarch. When Billy, the youngest siblingwith a history of addiction, grand ideas, and misdemeanorspasses out, the family takes up the unfinished business of Billys sobriety.

Tin House

Kiss Me Someone by Karen Shepard (Sept. 12, hardcover, $19.95, ISBN 978-1-941040-75-1). Shepards collection is inhabited by women who walk the line between various states: adolescence and adulthood, stability and uncertainty, selfishness and compassion. They navigate the obstacles that come with mixed-race identity and instabilities in social class, and they use their liminal positions to leverage power.

Two Lines

A Working Woman by Elvira Navarro, trans. by Christina MacSweeney (Oct. 10, trade paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-931883-65-8). In this novel about feminine friendship, potent sexuality, and madness, Elena transcribes the ravings of her roommate Susana, acting as part therapist, part confessor while Susana recounts the shocking tale of her boyfriend, the only person who will fulfill her singular sexual appetites.

Unnamed

After the Flare by Deji Bryce Olukotun (Sept. 12, trade paper, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-944700-18-8). After a solar flare knocks Earth offline, Nigeria has the only operating space program, and the future depends on engineer Kwesi Bracket and his team.

Viking

A Column of Fire by Ken Follett (Sept. 12, hardcover, $36, ISBN 978-0-525-95497-2). After the first two books of the Kingsbridge series, The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, the saga continues with Folletts new epic.
The poetry oracle offered us a vision in which the all-knowing spirits advised us to save our money for early September and make room on our poetry shelves, because clearly were going to need it.

Top 10

The Complete Poems of A.R. Ammons: Vols. 1 & 2

A.R. Ammons, edited by Robert M. West. Norton, Oct. 31

The rich, startling body of work of this American innovator is authoritatively presented as a whole for the first time, including more than 100 previously uncollected poems.

Dont Call Us Dead

Danez Smith. Graywolf, Sept. 5

Smith transcends elegy in this intimate, humorous, and biting collection in which he writes of desire, mortality, white supremacy, and more.

I Know Your Kind

William Brewer. Milkweed, Sept. 12

Appalachian poverty and American opioid addiction receive empathetic treatment in Brewers blistering yet beautiful debut collection.

Madness

Sam Sax. Penguin, Oct. 3

Sanity, heterosexuality, masculinity, normality, and more come under scrutiny in Saxs debut, an exploration of addiction, desire, and mental health.

Ordinary Beast

Nicole Sealey. Ecco, Sept. 12

Sealeys lithe, musical, and elegant debut turns particularities of race, sexuality, gender, myth, history, and embodiment into a universal examination of the human condition.

semiautomatic

Evie Shockley. Wesleyan Univ., Sept. 5

Insisting on the power of art, Shockley traces the various forms of violence that cross racial, ethnic, gender, class, sexual, national, and linguistic boundaries.

Sky Country

Christine Kitano. BOA, Sept. 12

Using family history as a springboard, Kitano illuminates aspects of the immigrant experience and speaks for the silenced and displaced.

Unaccompanied

Javier Zamora. Copper Canyon, Sept. 12

Zamora contends with the realities of borders and immigration, having traveled himself unaccompanied from El Salvador to the U.S. at age nine.

Were On: A June Jordan Reader

Edited by Christoph Keller and Jan Heller Levi. Alice James, Sept. 12

This volume of poetry, prose, letters, and more reveals the depth of Jordans expansive political vision and moral witness.

While Standing in Line for Death

CAConrad. Wave, Sept. 12

Responding to the murder of his boyfriend, Conrad developed a new series of (Soma)tic poetry rituals, detailed here along with their resulting poems.

Poetry Listings

Akashic

Miami Century Fox by Legna Rodriguez Iglesias, trans. by Eduardo Aparicio (Nov. 7, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-1-61775-589-7). This smart, delightful, and seductive dual-language (Spanish and English) collection by the 2017 winner of the Paz Prize for Poetry is a loving and sly portrait of Miami and the immigrant experience in the 21st century.

Alice James

Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar (Sept. 12, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-1-938584-67-1). This highly anticipated debut boldly confronts addiction and traces the strenuous path of recovery. Akbar details craving, control, the battle for sobriety, and the questioning of the self and its instincts within the context of this constant fight.

Were On: A June Jordan Reader, edited by Christoph Keller and Jan Heller Levi (Sept. 12, trade paper, $21.95, ISBN 978-1-938584-35-0). Poet, activist, and essayist Jordan (19362002) was a prolific, pioneering black American writer of expansive political vision and moral witness. Featuring poetry, prose, letters, and more, this volume reveals the scope, complexity, and novelty of her work.

Arktoi

Hanging on Our Own Bones by Judy Grahn (Aug. 15, trade paper, $18.95, ISBN 978-0-9890361-3-9) gathers seven nine-part poems from throughout the Lambda Award winners illustrious career. Grahn weaves real-life with goddess mythology to construct modern interpretations of the lamentation form and arouse a meaningful social critique.

Atria/37 Ink

Wild Beauty: New and Selected Poems by Ntozake Shange (Nov. 14, hardcover, $21, ISBN 978-1-5011-6993-9). The poet, novelist, and playwright draws from her experience as a feminist black woman in America to craft unapologetic, deeply emotional, groundbreaking poems in English and Spanish about pain, beauty, and color.

Birds LLC

R E D by Chase Berggrun (Nov. 7, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-0-9914298-8-2). Erasing Bram Stokers Dracula all the way down to its psychoanalytic residue, Berggrun unearths a narrative of both gender transition and the uncanny political and metaphysical transitions entailed by the metamorphosis of individual into chorus.

BOA

The Living Theatre by Bianca Tarozzi, trans. by Jeanne Foster and Alan Williamson (Nov. 14, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-942683-51-3). In this first U.S. publication, the celebrated Italian poet vividly chronicles Italys rich history from her childhood memories of WWII under Mussolini, through harsh postwar conditions and mid-century changes, to the present.

Sky Country by Christine Kitano (Sept. 12, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-942683-43-8) channels real and imagined immigration experiences of family members from Korea and Japan. Kitanos poems speak for the historically silenced and displaced, and elicit longing for home and hunger for human connection.

Carnegie Mellon Univ.

Sometimes Were All Living in a Foreign Country by Rebecca Morgan Frank (Oct. 17, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-0-88748-625-8) blurs personal and regional histories through the paths of tornadoes, guns, suburban sprawl, and the urge to escape the place from where one comes. Frank voices the perpetual outsiders search for a sense of place.

City Lights

Heaven Is All Goodbyes: Pocket Poets No. 61 by Tongo Eisen-Martin (Sept. 12, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-0-87286-745-1) ranges from corner store to dilapidated school, downtown alley to prison, recording the voices that struggle in postindustrial black America. Eisen-Martin captures the choir living in oppression and transience, invisible to and dismissive of the mainstream bourgeoisie.

Invocation to Daughters: City Lights Spotlight No. 16 by Barbara Jane Reyes (Nov. 14, trade paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-0-87286-747-5). Writing in an English inflected with Tagalog and Spanish, the feminist experimental poet offers prayers, psalms, and odes for Filipina girls and women trying to survive and make sense of their own situations.

Coach House

My Ariel by Sina Queyras (Oct. 10, trade paper, $17.95, ISBN 978-1-55245-354-4) reimagines and engages directly with Sylvia Plaths classic text, poem by poem. Queyras investigates and breaks open the cultural norms and poetic forms and procedures that can define womens lives.

Coffee House

Beneath the Spanish by Victor Hernandez Cruz (Oct. 10, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-56689-489-0) probes how languages intersect and inform each other, as well as how language and music shape experience. Cruz moves from his native Puerto Rico to Manhattan and Morocco, singing his personal history.

Thousands by Lightsey Darst (Nov. 14, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-56689-492-0). In these precise, rich, confessional poems, Darst wrangles with the types of common moments in life that tend to feel forbidding, overwritten, underwritten, or silenced.

Copper Canyon

Barbie Chang by Victoria Chang (Nov. 14, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-55659-516-5) explores racism, sexism, and the disillusionment of love through a reimagining of Barbie. Chang unmasks Barbies cultural artifice, raising to greater prominence the struggles of Asian-American experience

Unaccompanied by Javier Zamora (Sept. 12, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-55659-511-0). The author was nine years old when he traveled 4,000 miles unaccompanied, from El Salvador to the U.S., to be reunited with his parents. He imbues the hot-button political issues of immigration and border crossings with heart-wrenching intimacy and firsthand experience.

Ecco

Ordinary Beast by Nicole Sealey (Sept. 12, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-0-06-268880-4). Virgin Islandsborn and Florida-raised, Sealey examines race, sexuality, gender, myth, history, and embodiment in these intellectual, experiential, and playfully subversive poems. Sealys eyes are ever open to the natural world, to the pain and punishment of existence, to the origins and perils of humankind.

Faber & Faber

Stranger, Baby by Emily Berry (Aug. 7, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-0-571-33132-1) expresses love, anger, tenderness, and violence in poems powered by grief. Berrys poems relate mourning, recrimination, exhilaration, and the space where familiarity meets strangeness and despair becomes a kind of celebration.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

A Scattering and Anniversary by Christopher Reid (Oct. 10, hardcover, $23, ISBN 978-0-374-25426-1) pairs the U.K. poets 2009 collection, a lamentation for his late wife, with new poems written to commemorate the 10th anniversary of her death. Reid explores the stages of grief and the emptiness that remains after bereavement.

So Where Are We? by Lawrence Joseph (Aug. 22, hardcover, $23, ISBN 978-0-374-26667-7) encounters the 21st centurys issues of political economy, labor and capital, racism, and war. Joseph presents an intimate, sensuous language of beauty and love for the post-9/11 era.

Four Way

The Children Are Reading by Gabriel Fried (Sept. 5, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-1-935536-94-9). These poems are written through the lens and with the cadences of children (or adults trying to remember being children). Fried inhabits childhood spaces, physical and imaginative, through the looking-glass of grownup longing.

Starshine & Clay by Kamilah Aisha Moon (Sept. 5, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-1-935536-95-6). Addressing tough circumstances tenderly, Moon writes what we inherit in life, what we create, what shapes us, and whats possible. Imbued with a tenacious hope, Moons poems run the gamut between human striving and suffering.

Graywolf

Advice from the Lights by Stephen Burt (Oct. 3, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-55597-789-4). Stephen is sometimes Stephanie and sometimes wonders how his past and her past are their own collective memory. Burts collection is part nostalgia, part confusion, and part ongoing interrogation of the nature of adulthood.

Dont Call Us Dead by Danez Smith (Sept. 5, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-55597-785-6) confronts America, where every day is too often a funeral and rarely a miracle. Striving to replace grief and suspicion with love and longevity, Smith writes of desire, mortality and an HIV positive diagnosis, as well as forms of racial violence, particularly police brutality.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Collected Poems by Galway Kinnell (Dec. 5, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0-544-87521-0) brings together for the first time the lifes work of this Pulitzer Prize winner, MacArthur Fellow, and National Book Award winner. Spanning 65 years of intense, inspired creativity, this volume, which includes previously uncollected poems, is an essential collection.

HMH/Mariner

Silencer by Marcus Wicker (Sept. 5, trade paper, $15.99, ISBN 978-1-328-71554-8) crosses the personal and the political as modern hip-hop meets traditional verse. In Wickers Midwest the muzzle is always on, and silence and daily microaggressions chafe at the faith of a young man grieved by images of gun violence and police brutality.

Knopf

Love in the Last Days: After Tristan and Iseult by D. Nurkse (Sept. 12, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-451-49480-1). The former poet laureate of Brooklyn reconsiders the Tristan and Iseult story as an earthy yet elegant contemporary requiem. Nurkse produces an Iseult who has more power than she wants over Tristans imagination, and a Tristan who early on recognizes his fate.

Poet in Spain by Federico Garcia Lorca, trans. by Sarah Arvio (Nov. 7, hardcover, $40, ISBN 978-1-5247-3311-7). This is a major new translation of the poetry of Lorca.

Milkweed Editions

I Know Your Kind by William Brewer (Sept. 12, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-57131-495-6). Selected for the 2016 National Poetry Series by Ada Limon, this blistering debut reveals the depths of the American opioid epidemic and poverty in Appalachia. Brewer demonstrates empathy for the lost and the bereaved, the enabled and the enabler, the addict and the burdened family.

The Interrogation by Michael Bazzett (Sept. 18, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-57131-493-2). In this darkly humorous and unsparingly honest catechism of the self, Bazzett ponders the cruelties and wonders of a modern life. These poems are surreal and vulnerable, suffused with yearning, uncertainty, and desire.

Morrow

A Good Cry: What We Learn from Tears and Laughter by Nikki Giovanni (Oct. 24, hardcover, $19.99, ISBN 978-0-06-239945-8) offers readers an intimate, affecting, and illuminating look at Giovannis personal history and the mysteries of her heart. She describes the joy and peril of aging, recalls the violence of her parents life, and pays homage to her influences and students.

New Directions

Magnetic Point: Selected Poems by Ryszard Krynicki, trans. by Clare Cavanagh (Sept. 15, trade paper, $18.95, ISBN 978-0-8112-2500-7). With this splendid selection from a half-century of marvelous poems, a major Polish poet appears in English at last. A distinctive combination of mysticism, compression, and wit shapes Krynickis writing, from the early dissident poems to his late haiku.

Time of Gratitude by Gennady Aygi, trans. by Peter France (Dec. 15, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-0-8112-2719-3). This moving collection from Aygi, compiled by his longtime translator and friend, pays tribute to some of the writers and artists who sustained the great Russian poet through hardships from the 1960s into the early 1990s.

New Issues Poetry & Prose

Subwoofer by Wesley Rothman (Oct. 17, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-936970-50-6) makes audible the deep bass of history through poems of vibrant, honest listening. Rothman explores the ways that race, privilege, history, and music comment on one another, and intertwine.

Nightboat

Silk Poems by Jen Bervin (Oct. 3, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-1-937658-72-4) takes silk as subject and form, exploring its cultural, scientific, and linguistic complexities. Bervins composition corresponds to the DNA structure of silk, modeled on the way a silkworm applies filament to its cocoon.

Some Beheadings by Aditi Machado (Oct. 3, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-1-937658-73-1) examines the geophilosophy of lyric poetry. Machado projects her mind into the landscape, asking three questions: How does thinking happen? What does thinking feel like? How do I think about the future?

Norton

The Complete Poems of A.R. Ammons: Vol. 1, 19551977 by A.R. Ammons, edited by Robert M. West (Oct. 31, hardcover, $49.95, ISBN 978-0-393-07013-2). One of the 20th centurys most innovative and enduring bodies of poetry is collected in its entirety for the first time, from Ammonss visionary 1955 debut through his daring work of the 1970s.

The Complete Poems of A.R. Ammons: Vol. 2, 19782005 by A.R. Ammons, edited by Robert M. West (Oct. 31, hardcover, $49.95, ISBN 978-0-393-25489-1). The second volume rounds out Ammonss rich middle phase and startling later work. The complete edition offers authoritative texts of every published poem and includes more than 100 previously uncollected poems.

Sun in Days by Meghan ORourke (Sept. 19, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-0-393-60875-5) gives voice to the experience of illness, the permanence of loss, and recuperative moments of grace. ORourke considers the frailty of the body, the longing for a child, and the philosophical questions raised when the biological self goes dramatically awry.

Omnidawn

from unincorporated territory [lukao] by Craig Santos Perez (Oct. 3, trade paper, $17.95, ISBN 978-1-63243-041-0). Native Chamorro poet Santos Perez unveils the fourth book in his series about his homeland, Guahan (Guam), and his current home, Hawaii. He utilizes eco-poetic, decolonial, diasporic, indigenous, documentary, epic, and avant-garde modes to weave stories of creation, birth, migration, food sovereignty, and parenting.

Of Annunciations by Ewa Chrusciel (Oct. 3, trade paper, $17.95, ISBN 978-1-63243-039-7) maps the biblical event of annunciation onto the current migration crises. Chrusciels series of prayers, laments, and lullabies quivers on the brink between openness to the other and the terror the other brings out in us.

Penguin

Madness by Sam Sax (Oct. 3, trade paper, $18, ISBN 978-0-14-313170-0). Selected for the 2016 National Poetry Series by Terrance Hayes, Saxs debut explores and explodes the linkages between desire, addiction, and the history of mental health. These poems trouble the static categories of sanity, heterosexuality, masculinity, normality, and health.

Rift of Light by William Logan (Oct. 3, trade paper, $18, ISBN 978-0-14-313182-3). The dry, witty, skeptical, dark, and acidic poems of Logans 11th collection prove a constant and informing delight. A master of free verse as well as formal poetry, Logan showcases powerful feeling embedded in language.

Penguin Press

Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver (Oct. 10, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-0-399-56324-9). The Pulitzer Prize winner presents a personal selection of her best work in this definitive collection spanning more than five decades. Oliver provides readers with an extraordinary collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much treasured observations of the natural world.

Princeton Univ.

Radioactive Starlings by Myronn Hardy (Oct. 17, hardcover, $45, ISBN 978-0-691-17709-0). In these formally varied poems, Hardy explores the complexities of transformation, cultures, and politics, as well as divergences between the natural world and technology, asking what progress means when it destroys the places that sustain us.

Sarabande

Witch Wife by Kiki Petrosino (Dec. 12, hardcover, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-946448-03-3) captures the poet conjuring spells, obsessive incantations to exorcise or celebrate memory, to mourn the beloved dead, to conjure children or keep them at bay, and to faithfully inhabit ones given body. Petrosinos poems are also concerned with womanhood in America, particularly women of color.

Saturnalia

The Bosses by Sebastian Agudelo (Oct. 17, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-0-9899797-4-0) focuses on the seen and unseen authority figures who dictate the boundaries of our lives, contemplating power structures from a historical exploration of the role authority plays in our lives to the current managerial culture.

Ugly Duckling

Commodore by Jacqueline Waters (Oct. 1, trade paper, ISBN 978-1-937027-91-9). In this book about care, Waters reveals both its multidirectionality and the hierarchy it creates. The poems are about coming very close to your subject, intent on discerning shades of sentiment, full of nostalgia for things you didnt really enjoy when they happened.

Univ. Of Iowa

Attributed to the Harrow Painter by Nick Twemlow (Nov. 1, trade paper, $18, ISBN 978-1-60938-541-5) reckons with fatherhood, the violence of nostalgia, poetry, and the commodity world of visual art as his poems frantically cycle through responses to the speakers sons remark on a painting by Julian Schnabel that it looks like garbage.

Supply Chain by Pimone Triplett (Nov. 1, trade paper, $18, ISBN 978-1-60938-537-8). Equal parts celebration and lament for the mechanisms humans shape and are shaped by, Tripletts extravagantly musical works reveal the poet as an entangled mediator among registers of public and private, intimate and historical, voicings.

Univ. of Pittsburgh

Darwins Mother by Sarah Rose Nordgren (Nov. 1, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-0-8229-6516-9). With a keen sense of irony that rejects anthropocentrism, and an imagination that is both philosophical and playful, Nordgren delivers poems marked by a tireless curiosity about the intricate workings of life, consciousness, and humankinds place in the universe.

Wave

In the Still of the Night by Dara Wier (Oct. 10, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1-940696-56-0). This raw and fluid exploration of grief records Wiers reckoning with the unraveling of her world and her new consciousness after a great loss, doing so with intelligence, clarity, honesty, and immediacy.

While Standing in Line for Death by CAConrad (Sept. 12, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1-940696-54-6). After his boyfriend Earths murder, Conrad developed new (Soma)tic poetry rituals to overcome his depression. This new book details those rituals and their resulting poems, along with other political actions and exercises that testify to poetrys ability to reconnect alienated humans to their planet.

Wesleyan Univ.

semiautomatic by Evie Shockley (Sept. 5, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-8195-7743-6) insists that art can feed the spirit and reawaken the imagination. Shockleys poems trace a vast web of connections between the kinds of violence that affect people across racial, ethnic, gender, class, sexual, national, and linguistic boundaries.

Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated the title of the book Starshine & Clay.
The Pardee RAND Graduate School (PardeeRAND.edu) is home to the only Ph.D. and M.Phil. programs offered at an independent public policy research organizationthe RAND Corporation.
Shree Airlines receives 3rd Bombardier

Nepals largest helicopter operator, Shree Airlines welcomed its third Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) on Friday. The 70-seater CRJ-700 arrived at Tribhuvan International Airport from Europe via Dubai, the company said. Shree Airlines expects to put the first two 50-seater jets into commercial operation within a few weeks.
Although courts of first instance have rejected their discrimination suits against the Russian national air carrier Aeroflot, aggrieved stewardesses Irina Iyerusalimskaya and Yevgenia Margurina have no intention of giving up their fight.



And while the self-proclaimed leaders of a group of nearly 500 female Aeroflot flight attendants who have lost bonus payments for not meeting standards on size, age, or appearance are waiting for appeals courts to hear their cases, they have taken the matter to the court of public opinion.

They have launched an online petition asking Aeroflot customers to support their cause that garnered 1,000 signatures in its first five days.



"I regularly fly Aeroflot," one signer wrote in the comments section. "And I want to continue flying with them. And I want to fly in safety, with professionals -- not with some dolls flirting with men."

Another supporter noticed that Aeroflot's entire board of directors is composed of men and suggested that they be replaced when they reach 40 -- or immediately if they have beer bellies.



"I am against lookism and bodyshaming," a third signatory wrote. "Women were not created to please the eyes of male passengers, whose attitudes can clearly be seen by some of the comments here."

A significant number of comments on the petition are from unsympathetic men arguing along the lines that "a pretty stewardess is part of the pleasant experience of flying."

Iyerusalimskaya and Margurina made headlines in February when they filed their suits, alleging discrimination because of Aeroflot's rules penalizing female flight attendants deemed too "old, fat, or ugly."



"They told us that only the young and thin will fly abroad for Aeroflot," Magurina said at the time. Aeroflot flight attendants earn lucrative bonuses for working international flights. And, according to company's regulations, female attendants wearing dress size 48 or larger or those over the age of 40 are relegated to domestic flights.



They told RFE/RL that all flight attendants were compelled last August to be photographed, weighed, and measured -- ostensibly because the company was ordering new uniforms. On the basis of those sessions, flight attendants were approved or disqualified from working international flights.



The 480 who found themselves disqualified mockingly dubbed themselves the STS -- the Russian abbreviation for the words "old, fat, and ugly."



In April, two separate Moscow courts rejected the lawsuits, in which the plaintiffs sought to have the rules annulled, as well as compensation for lost remuneration and damages. A court rejected Iyerusalimskaya's complaint, saying it was filed too long after the rules took effect. A separate court rejected Magurina's case, saying that it is not the court's role to determine whether discrimination has occurred. This ruling surprised lawyer Ksenia Mikhailichenko, who is representing both women.



"In the Labor Code it is written that in cases of discrimination, the fact of discrimination is established by the courts," Mikhailichenko told RFE/RL. "But the court now says, 'no.' My question for the court is where is discrimination to be determined, if not in the courts?"

In Magurina's case, Aeroflot lawyers brought to court a document claiming that each additional kilogram of stewardess costs the carrier 759 rubles ($12.70) a year.



Their appeals are set for July and August.



Nonetheless, Magurina told RFE/RL's Russian Service she believes the suits have prompted Aeroflot to act. She said that while previously the airline had blacklisted some 480 female flight attendants from working the lucrative routes, now some 120 of them have been "rehabilitated, as our leaders like to say."



"Next to their names there are interesting notes such as 'occasionally exceeds the weight norm' or 'is working on her image,'" Magurina said. "They were photographed again and their list of eligible destinations was expanded."



Magurina said she personally has been requalified for flights to some foreign destinations like Tbilisi and Baku. Iyerusalimskaya remains restricted to Russia.





Lawyer Mikhailicheko said that the Aeroflot matter is significant for Russia, which has the legal concept of discrimination but proving actual cases has been difficult.



"We do not have special rules for proving discrimination, which is a lapse in our Criminal Procedural Code," she said. "In Europe and the United States, the burden of proof lies with the employer [to demonstrate there was no discrimination]. Although in several countries the court can divide the burden between the employer and the employee. Here, the entire burden is with the employee and this makes things very hard. The employee doesn't have access to documents and it is practically impossible to call witnesses because fellow employees are reluctant to testify against their employers."



Moreover, she added, Russian courts routinely award very small sums in damages in discrimination cases, making process of proving discrimination even less appealing.



Magurina remains determined, however.



"If we are not able to settle this question in [Russia], then we will just have to turn to the European Court of Human Rights," she said.



(Written in Prague by RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson on the basis of reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service.)

Original story in Russian
One down, 57 to go.

That's the scorecard students in the town of Jajce in Bosnia-Herzegovina held after their protests pushed the government to drop plans to force them into an ethnically divided school after a year-long campaign.

Flush with that success, the students have vowed to continue their struggle against segregation in 57 other schools, claiming the system fosters ethnic tensions from an early age.

"We want quality education, not division," said Faruk Gutic, a member of the Association of High School Students of Bosnia and Herzegovina. "We want to work. Don't let us fall back to 20 years in the past."

Separating students within the same building along ethnic lines to learn curriculums in Bosnian, Serbian, or Croatian came about following the Balkan war of the 1990s, which was sparked by a wave of nationalism that swept through the country during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

It's now more than 20 years after the brutal war that pitted Bosnian Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims, or Bosniaks, against each other, but reconciliation has been slow.

Pock-marked walls, riddled with bullets from the 1992-95 conflict that left almost 100,000 dead and displaced more than 2 million people, are a constant reminder of how deep the schism between Bosnia's three main ethnic groups is.

Interethnic tensions still run high in the country and the political discourse, including in the media, includes the frequent use of hate speech. Short-term solutions that were put in place to calm tensions after the war remain, as do many Bosniak, Croat, and Serb nationalist parties that derive their power from mutual distrust.

One of those solutions was the so-called "two schools under one roof" policy.

Many displaced Bosnians didn't want to reintegrate into communities where they might be neighbors with those who opposed them during the war. As a compromise to complete segregation, some schools were set up with two different systems under the same roof.

The practice allows separate school boards to develop specific curriculums taught by teachers from their own ethnic group. While the buildings are shared, some have students go to school in different shifts, while in others children actually enter the building via separate entrances.

Croat and Bosniak kids even use different toilets.

"I think the children and their parents are hostage to an unscrupulous political game, and we will only see the consequences of this in 10 or 15 years," a former Jajce student and activist, Samir Beharic, said last year.

The system remains even though the Federation Constitutional Court ruled in 2014 that it is discriminatory and the United States and international agencies such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have voiced their opposition to the practice.

"Ending all forms of ethnic segregation in schools is probably one of the most important tasks for Bosnia and Herzegovina," European Commission against Racism and Intolerance Chairman Christian Ahlund said in a recent report on the practice.

"It is absolutely vital in order to build an inclusive society and to spare future generations the curse of ethnic divisionism and hatred," he added.

Ambassador Jonathan Moore, the head of the OSCE's mission to Bosnia, congratulated the students in a tweet following their victory.

"Congratulations to the secondary school graduates in #Jajce and thanks for seeking #QualityEducation," he wrote.

Student protests have echoed the sentiments of Western institutions opposed to the practice.

In a recent demonstration, some held signs reading: "Segregation is a bad investment." Others read: "We are here to create the future, not to repeat the past."

Education Minister Katica Cerkez acknowledged the problem when she met with students recently, but cautioned that change would take time and patience.

"The initiative by the students is understandable, but they are highlighting a problem facing the entire Bosnia-Herzegovina and it can't be solved in a few quick steps," she said.

"This is a deep problem in our society and it is defined by the constitution and our laws," Cerkez added.

Dennis Gratz, a federal lawmaker from Sarajevo, went a step further and on June 20 proposed a law to ban segregation in schools.

"This is a rule that will unequivocally determine that every form of physical division of persons, especially students and professors during classes, extracurricular activities, and breaks, is segregation and discrimination, and that the federation has the competencies and the duty to ban such a practice -- not from the perspective of education, but out of a duty to protect human rights and civic freedoms," Gratz said.

That does little to quell the dissent from inside the student body.

Student leaders, spurred by their first taste of success, said they are going to press on in other parts of the country to stop the practice.

"We don't hate each other and the fact that politicians are trying to instill this hatred in us is wrong," said Adnan Brajamovic, a student from Sarajevo.
PARACHINAR, Pakistan -- Pakistani officials say the death toll from twin explosions in the northwestern town of Parachinar has risen to 67, bringing total deaths from multiple attacks across Pakistan on June 23 to at least 85.

The death toll could rise further as local government and hospital officials in Parachinar said on June 24 that many of the victims of the attacks are in critical condition.

Dr. Zulfiqar Ali, an official at a state-run hospital, told RFE/RLs Radio Mashaal that they had received 261 victims from the twin attacks, with dozens in critical condition.

Ali said 61 people with severe injuries were airlifted to a hospital in Peshawar, a main city in Pakistans northwest.

The Sunni extremist group Lashkar-e Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the blasts at a crowded market in Parachinar, a predominantly Shiite town in the Kurram Tribal Agency. Kurram has a history of sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Police say the two blasts went off almost simultaneously near a bus terminal at Parachinars Tori market that was packed with people buying food to break their Ramadan fast.

The second blast occurred as people rushed to help those injured in the first explosion.

Three others were killed in Parachinar hours later when security officers opened fire to disperse demonstrators who gathered to condemn the attacks and demand authorities provide better security.

Local elders say police opened fire at protesters, but authorities insist that officers fired into the air.

RFE/RL's correspondent in Parachinar says that all markets and shops were closed on June 24 in a protest of authorities failure to provide security.

In the southwestern city of Quetta, 13 people, including seven policemen, were killed and 20 injured in a suicide car bombing on June 23. Two different militant groups -- a breakaway Taliban faction and the Islamic State -- claimed the Quetta attack.

On the evening on June 23, unknown attackers gunned down four police officers at a roadside restaurant in the southern port city of Karachi.

The latest wave of violence hit Pakistan as people prepare to celebrate the festival of Eid marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on June 26.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and the BBC
Tbilisis ruling Georgian Dream party has taken a curious position to justify its proposal for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in the former Soviet republic.

In most countries, opponents of same-sex marriage base their arguments on religious doctrine, tradition, parenting concerns, or moral arguments.

But Irakli Kobakhidze, Georgias parliamentary speaker and head of the state constitutional commission, says Georgian Dream mainly wants to amend the constitutions definition of marriage to prevent certain groups from stirring up homophobic and anti-Western sentiment.

Kobakhidze made the remarks in testimony to Georgias parliamentary committee for human rights and civil integration.

We do respect the rights and interests of every group, including minorities, Kobakhidze told the committee on June 8. Accordingly, this amendment wont become grounds for discrimination.

But Beka Gabadadze, a gay rights activist with the Tbilisi-based LGBTQI Association Temida, says Georgian Dream lawmakers are responsible for stirring up homophobia by campaigning for the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Its political homophobia itself, Gabadadze told RFE/RL. Georgian Dream includes conservative politicians who are homophobic themselves. The chairman of the parliament is afraid to admit that they are homophobic and are trying to pass homophobic laws.

What I can say myself, as a gay man, is that their campaign is reinforcing negative stereotypes and raising homophobic feedback, Gabadadze said. When they are going village-to-village and describing this kind of constitutional amendment, it is increasing the level of homophobia.

The measure is among dozens of constitutional amendments proposed by Georgian Dream's supermajority on a highly polarized political landscape, with others aimed at shifting to a parliamentary system, adopting proportional voting, and and altering the definition of Georgia as a "social state."*

Gabadadze predicts the number of hate crimes against homosexuals will increase if the marriage amendment is approved, as expected, by the 115 Georgian Dream lawmakers in the 150-seat parliament.

And he blames Georgian Dream politicians for pushing the issue of same-sex marriage onto the national agenda by making it a campaign promise in the October 2016 general election.

The LBGT movement in Georgia has never campaigned to legalize same-sex marriage or same-sex civil union before, Gabadadze said, adding that same-sex marriage already is expressly forbidden under Georgias Civil Code.

Its true that homophobia in Georgian society is very strong, so they are using this kind of political homophobia to increase their political strength in the country," Gabadadze said. "We know that these kinds of statements about gay marriage or these kinds of issues appear in Georgian politics when it is an election period or there is a political crisis.

Indeed, studies during the past 15 years suggest that of all the minority groups in Georgia, homosexuals are under the greatest pressure -- with more than 80 percent of survey respondents expressing strong negative attitudes toward homosexuality.

Social research on homophobia in Georgia shows that attitudes toward gays are strongly influenced by traditional stigmas, taboos, and values promoted by the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Those studies also show that psychological and physical violence often accompany widespread homophobia that is backed by traditional ideologies and a Soviet legacy of condemnation.

Gays in Georgia also often face domestic violence within their own families when they reveal their homosexuality.

As a result, many homosexuals in Georgia avoid coming out publicly at all -- impeding their ability to defend their own rights.

Redefining Marriage

Georgias constitution currently states that marriage shall be based on equality of rights and free will of spouses. It does not expressly state that marriage can be agreed only between opposite sexes.

However, the draft amendment proposed by Georgian Dream defines marriage as a union between a woman and a man...based on equality of rights and the free will of spouses."

In April, after the government drafted the constitutional amendment, 11 prominent NGOs in Georgia issued a joint call for language to be included that would allow other forms of co-living to be regulated by law. That would leave open the possibility that same-sex civil partnerships could be legalized in the future.

But Gabadadze says it is highly unlikely that Georgian Dream will open the door to same-sex civil partnerships in Georgia.

The Council of Europes Venice Commission endorsed the idea in a June 16-17 session, saying that the provisions of the equality of marriage should not be interpreted to exclude the recognition of the union of persons with the same sex.

The Venice Commission also noted that the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) requires member states to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples, and that nonrecognition of the legal status of relationships between same-sex partners appears to amount to a violation of the European human rights charter.

Georgia, like any other Council of Europe member state, is obliged to comply with ECHR standards and, thererfore, must provide legal recognition (such as civil unions or registered partnerships for same-sex couples)," the commission said.

David Zedelashvili, an expert on human rights and constitutional law at the Free University of Tbilisi, said a constitutional ban on gay marriage without the introduction of legally recognized civil partnerships would damage Georgias human rights record.

That would cause problems for Georgian Dream s pro-Europeanism goal of closer integration and eventual membership in the European Union.

A study published in 2016 by the Heinrich Boll Foundation praised Georgia for making significant progress on the legislative level against a background of exacerbating homophobic attitudes toward the gay community.

It said legislative progress included an amendment to the Criminal Code so that hate-motivated attacks against homosexuals can be classified as hate crimes.

But it concluded the new laws protecting the rights of gays in Georgia were a result of the countrys declared pro-Western course rather than an informed choice of the political elite or a sign of a changing society.

*CORRECTION: This article has been changed from its original version to describe among the proposed amendments a change to the definition of Georgia as a "social state," not as a "welfare state."
Toomaj Salehi's lyrical support for protesters in Iran has landed him behind bars before, but this time the popular rapper's fortune-telling has fans and family members fearing for his life.

Just days before his September 30 arrest, the 32-year-old Salehi released his latest music video, in which he makes foreboding predictions about the future of Iran's clerical regime if it continues its violent crackdown against ongoing anti-government demonstrations.

"I am the predictor, the fortune teller," he raps in the video for Omen, which shows him reading the patterns left in his coffee cup and warning that brute force will not prevail.

"I saw a cage in the coffee grounds -- a lion was hunting a jackal," he explains, alluding to a fairy tale about wisdom defeating physical strength. "We will rise from the bottom and target the top of the pyramid."

Salehi goes on to warn that the regime's protectors -- including the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Basij paramilitary forces, the Intelligence Ministry, and the state media -- will all get their day in court.

Salehi followed up on the new video by posting on social media images of him standing alongside protesters and chanting against security forces in his native city in Isfahan Province. The rapper, an ethnic Lur who was arrested last year after releasing other songs critical of the government, offered to turn himself in if protesters detained in his hometown of Shahinshahr were released.

In subsequent posts, he called the provincial authorities "cowardly vermin" and "scum who suppress and arrest [innocent] people."

Shortly afterward, Salehi went missing and has not been heard from since.

State media reported on September 30 that Salehi had been arrested, and a news agency close to the IRGC published a photo of the blindfolded rapper inside a car.

A short video later released by a press club associated with Iran's state broadcaster purports to show the rapper admitting he made a mistake.

But the reports' claims he had been caught while "illegally exiting the western borders of the country" have been fiercely disputed, and the video confession has been labeled a fake by some and a coerced confession by others.

Family members as well as Salehi's official Twitter account have said the rapper was, in fact, arrested in the southwestern Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, hundreds of kilometers from Iran's western border.

In a statement, Salehi's uncle Eghbal Eghbali said his nephew was in the province's city of Borujen on the morning of September 30 when he wrote saying "suspicious things" were happening outside his home. Soon after, Salehi stopped communicating. Eghbali said he learned from Salehi's neighbors and friends that security personnel had arrived to take the rapper away.

Later on September 30, a prosecutor in nearby Isfahan Province was quoted by the Meezan news agency, which is close to Iran's judiciary, as saying Salehi was arrested "in one of the provinces of the country." The prosecutor alleged the rapper had played a key role in "creating disturbances and inviting and encouraging the recent disturbances in Isfahan Province and in Shahinshahr."

The official IRNA news agency, meanwhile, quoted a judiciary official from Isfahan Province as saying Salehi stood accused of "propagandistic activity against the government, cooperation with hostile governments, and the formation of illegal groups with the intention of creating insecurity in the country."

Thousands of Iranians, many of them from the younger generation, have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died shortly after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran's hijab law requiring that women cover their hair.

As the protests have continued, the authorities have intensified their crackdown, resulting in the deaths of at least 305 people, including 41 children, according to the latest figures released by the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) on November 6.

Salehi is among the hundreds of prominent young voices, including activists, artists, and athletes, who have been arrested for speaking out against the states bloody crackdown on the protests. Overall, activists estimate thousands of people have been arrested by the authorities since the rallies erupted.

Faced with a potential existential threat to Iran's clerical rule, 227 of 290 Iranian lawmakers this week called for even greater force by urging the judiciary to "deal decisively" with those behind the protests.

In recent years, Salehi has gained notoriety for his open opposition to the country's leadership, using his music and social media presence to take on issues that resonate with Iranian youths.

In the song Normal, he highlights the effects of poverty, saying "Our children sleep hungry at night" and asking Iran's leaders how their conscience can let them sleep.

The song Rathole, released in 2021, accuses members of the media and art community both inside and outside Iran of being an "ally of the tyrant," a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In another song, he blasts Tehran's close relationships with Moscow and Beijing, asking: "Haven't you robbed us enough? Now, you want to give away half [of our resources] to China and the rest to Russia."

Salehi was detained in September 2021 after security agents raided his home in Isfahan, with Human Rights Watch decrying the detention of the artist for "exercising his right to freedom of expression."

Salehi was charged with "spreading propaganda against the state," but after more than a week was released on bail. In January, he was sentenced to six months in prison but was released on a suspended sentence in February.

While out, he continued his work and released Omen amid the states increasingly violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.

"Someone's crime was dancing with her hair in the wind," he raps. "Someone's crime was that she was brave and criticized."

Listing a litany of violent acts carried out by the authorities against protesters, Salehi asks, "How many young people did you kill building a tower for yourself?" and predicts that next year, the 44th year of the clerical regime's rule, will be its "year of failure."

Salehi's arrest has led to widespread condemnation inside and outside Iran, and his advocates have spread the #FreeToomaj hashtag on Twitter to shed light on his situation.

His family has said they do not know Salehi's whereabouts or health, leaving them wondering if he is even alive.

But the authorities have shed some light on the fate of another Iranian rapper arrested shortly before Salehi. The judiciary announced on November 7 that Saman Yasin, a rapper from Kermanshah Province -- a northwestern region with a significant Kurdish population and that has been a focus of the government crackdown -- has been accused of waging "warfare" against Iran and acting against the country's security.

Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, with contributions by RFE/RL senior correspondent Michael Scollon
The U.S. military said on June 23 that a crisis hotline with Russia set up to avoid accidental clashes in Syria is still being used, despite Moscow's threat earlier this week to suspend it.

"The deconfliction line is open and it is in use," said Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The remarks were the latest indication of an easing of tensions in the wake of last weekend's U.S. shootdown of a Syrian government jet as it dropped bombs on U.S.-backed forces in Syria.

After the incident, Russia had warned it would treat coalition aircraft flying west of the Euphrates River in Syria as potential targets and track them with missile systems and military aircraft.

Despite that warning, officials said Russia used the line to notify the U.S. military on June 23 about a "surprise mass missile strike" against Islamic States targets using cruise missiles fired from Russian ships in the Mediterranean.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters


Russia says it has completed the withdrawal of its troops from the strategic southern city of Kherson two days after Moscow announced the surprise pullout, while an overnight Russian rocket attack killed six civilians in Mykolayiv, local officials said.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that it had finished the pullout from the city on the western bank of the Dnieper River at 5 a.m. on November 11 and not a single unit of military equipment was left behind.

The announcement would appear to contradict Ukrainian reports that thousands of Russian troops were still on the western bank of the Dnieper.

Ukrainian officials said Moscows forces had no choice but to flee Kherson, yet they remained cautious, fearing an ambush.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on November 10 that it would take Russia at least a week to withdraw, telling Reuters in an interview that Russia had 40,000 troops in the Kherson region and that it still had forces in the city.



Ukrainian Army chief Valeriy Zaluzhniy said that Kyiv could not yet confirm whether Russia was indeed pulling out from the southern Kherson region but said that Ukrainian forces were continuing their advance.

Kherson controls both the only land route to Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula and the mouth of the Dnieper, which bisects Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's public broadcaster quoted local residents as saying on November 11 that the Antonivskiy bBdge, the only nearby road crossing from Kherson city to the Russian-controlled eastern bank of the Dnieper, has collapsed.

The Suspilne broadcaster published a photograph showing whole sections of the bridge missing. The next road crossing across the Dnieper is more than 70 km from Kherson city.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the bridge's collapse.

Recapturing the city could provide Ukraine a launching pad for supplies and troops to try to win back other lost territory in the south, including Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.

The General Staff said retreating Russian forces have been looting homes and destroying critical infrastructure, while forcibly evicting residents from the settlements still under their control.

"The Russian invaders continue to loot the settlements from which they are retreating. The enemy is also attempting to damage power lines and other elements of the transport and critical infrastructure of the Kherson region as much as possible," the military said, adding that Russian mines continue to wound civilians.

"In the village of Zelenivka, the enemy forbade residents to move around and is reinforcing the system of defensive lines. In Tyahinka and Kozatskiy, the occupiers mined roads and infrastructure elements, there are instances of detonations [harming] the civilian population," the military reported.

Six civilians were killed in a Russian rocket attack on Mykolayiv overnight, the mayor of the southern Ukrainian city said on November 11, as Ukrainian troops continued their advance in the direction of Kherson.

The mayor of Mykolayiv, Oleksandr Sienkovych, said on November 11 that the people were killed when Russian rockets hit a residential area of the city, destroying a five-story building.

"As of 10 a.m., six people were killed by the impact of the attack on the residential building," Sienkovych said.

Fierce fighting continues in Bakhmut and Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region as well as in the adjacent Luhansk region, the military said, adding that heavy Russian shelling pounded about 20 settlements in the Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, and Mykolaiyv regions.

In his nightly address late on November 10, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said: "Today we have good news from the south. The number of Ukrainian flags returning to their rightful place within the framework of the ongoing defense operation is already dozens. He added that 41 settlements have been liberated.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa
Silence descends

By the time I huff and haul my way up Swoyambhu, the Gyanmala Bhajan Khaala is just about wrapping up their morning session.
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Around 100 people protested on June 23 in the Belgrade city center against the government following the inauguration of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Protesters carried banners such as: "Stop the dictatorship" and "Not our president." (RFE/RL's Balkan Service)
The Ukrainian military has said that two soldiers were killed and two wounded in the eastern part of the country despite a cease-fire that began on June 23.

In a statement posted on Facebook on June 24, the military accused antigovernment rebels of firing artillery rounds in both the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The statement did not provide details about the casualties.

The two sides and representatives of Moscow and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agreed on the cease-fire on June 21. It is intended to last until August 31 to allow locals to harvest crops.

Representatives of the Russia-backed rebels on June 24 accused government forces of violating the cease-fire 10 times, adding that information about the purported violations had been sent to the OSCE monitors.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed more than 10,000 lives since it began in early 2014, shortly after Moscow annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea.

With reporting by AFP
When making judgments about who is lying and who is telling the truth, new research shows that White people are more likely to label a Black person as a truth-teller compared with a White person, even though their spontaneous behavior indicates the reverse bias. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

"In our research, we document that White perceivers actually selected the truth response more for Black targets than White targets in a lie detection task, suggesting that they are over-correcting for their anticipated racial bias," explains E. Paige Lloyd of Miami University, lead author on the research.

"Critically, though, when White perceivers could not easily control their responses, we observed clear evidence of anti-Black bias," she adds. "In other words, White perceivers initially show an impulse to call Blacks liars, but then over-correct for this later in the judgment process."

Despite the importance of being able to distinguish honesty from deceit, considerable research shows that we are incredibly bad at making this judgment. In general, people typically show a so-called truth bias, erring on the side of caution and assuming that people are more likely to be telling the truth.

But does this truth bias hold for people of different races? Lloyd and colleagues conducted a series of experiments to find out.

In three related experiments, the researchers randomly assigned White participants to watch a set of videos in which Black and White college students described their acquaintances. The participants saw each of the individuals in the videos twice -- in one case the individual was lying and in the other he was telling the truth.

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For each video, the participant determined whether the student was telling the truth or a lie. After watching all of the videos, they completed a survey measuring the extent to which internalized reasons (e.g., "It is important to my self-concept to be nonprejudiced toward Black people") and extrinsic reasons (e.g., "I act in a nonprejudiced way toward Black people because I want to avoid disapproval from others") motivated them to respond without prejudice.

The results from all three experiments were clear: Participants were more likely to identify the Black students in the videos as truth-tellers compared with the White students. And motivations to respond without prejudice seemed to be the primary driver of this truth bias.

Data from another experiment indicated that both Black and White participants showed this truth bias for Black individuals -- however, motivations to respond without prejudice only played a role in predicting White participants' responses.

Together, these experiments provide consistent evidence for a truth bias in White participants' explicit judgments about Black individuals, but would their spontaneous behavior also show this bias?

As in previous studies, Lloyd and colleagues asked a group of White participants to make judgments about deception, but this time the researchers also recorded the participants' eye movements. Underneath each video, a "truth" response box and a "lie" response box appeared -- participants determined the appropriate response in each video and clicked on the corresponding box.

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Again, participants' deliberative judgments (i.e., the response box they clicked) showed a larger truth bias when the individual in the video was Black as compared to White. But their eye movements told a different story: They were faster to look at the "lie" box when the person in the video was Black compared with when he was White.

"This finding is important because many real-world lie detection judgments are made under time pressure or in less-than-ideal circumstances -- such as fatigue or distraction -- where the ability to correct for an initial impulse is not possible," says Lloyd.

In all, these findings shed light on an important aspect of social interactions, particularly those between people from different racial groups:

"Americans, and especially White Americans, often struggle to understand and to consider their potential role in creating and enacting prejudice. Some people deny the existence of racial prejudice, while others work hard to avoid expressing anti-Black attitudes," Lloyd explains.

"Understanding situations in which prejudice correction attempts are successful, are unsuccessful, and, as we observe in our work, are even counter-productive is important," she adds. "In contexts ranging from policing to classrooms to juries it is necessary to better understand when and how prejudice is likely to impact consequential, even life or death, decisions of trust."
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, the so-called STEM subjects, are traditionally male dominated and it is well established that females remain underrepresented in such programmes to this day. This gender discrepancy has been a hot topic among researchers and advocates who seek to understand this phenomenon to ultimately close or at least reduce the gap. For the few females who successfully end up in STEM programmes, one would assume they overcame the barriers and are less prone to stereotype views. But is this so?

Professor Bernhard Ertl from the Universitat der Bundeswehr Munchen, in Germany et.al. took a closer look at this topic in their recent study "The Impact of Gender Stereotypes on the Self-Concept of Female Students in STEM Subjects with an Under-Representation of Females" published in Frontiers for Psychology.

The study involved 296 women from different German universities who are all enrolled in a STEM programme with less than 30% females. It aimed at investigating the impact of stereotypes and the role of family, school and society on the self-concept of females already studying these scientific subjects. Stereotypes impact a person's self-assessment and lower their sense of competence, ability and self-confidence, i.e. the self-concept.

"We were astonished that stereotypes about STEM still corrupt the self-concept of female students who already crossed several barriers and found their way into a STEM subject with a quite low proportion of females." states Professor Ertl.

Even though the students participating in the study presumably had good grades in STEM, stereotypes still corrupted their self-concept. The STEM career path is considered untypical by many of the students' social environments and in some instances, was met with surprise or even scepticism. One of the reasons for this might lie in stereotypes that attribute girls' achievements to diligence instead of talent.

Professor Ertl expands "Stereotypes are grounded in society and therefore it is important for us to know the effect of our stereotypes on individuals' self-concepts, achievements and career decisions." The study points to the fact that family can have a negative impact on female students' self-concept and initiatives that directly seek to support the students may actually backfire and reinforce the stereotypical views instead.

Indirect support has proven to be more effective. This involves for instance giving children the opportunity to have positive experiences in science related subjects or by giving them the chance to meet role models that are enthusiastic about their STEM professions. Such measures may boost the self-concept of female students in STEM programmes, more so than direct encouragement.

To conclude, study co-author Professor Manuela Paechter highlights the key learnings from the study for education "We should realise that supporting students may have ambiguous effects. Consider this paradox: If we perceive a student as not sufficiently gifted by the standards of our implicit stereotypes, we may communicate this opinion subconsciously whilst at the same time giving them support. Even if well intentioned, such behaviour will foil the hoped-for effects. Instead, teaching subjects like physics while linking them to how they explain daily life phenomena could attract more girls (and also more boys). "
Scientists have called for action. The scientific journal Nature ecology & evolution have published a joint statement from scientists at Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, University of Copenhagen and North Carolina State University. The scientists call attention to a serious lack of data on the worldwide distribution of disease-causing organisms. Without this knowledge, predicting where and when the next disease outbreak will emerge is hardly possible. Macroecologists hold the expertise to create the needed data network and close the knowledge gaps.

We lack fundamental knowledge about the global distribution of a wide range of disease-causing species from viruses and bacteria to parasites. The joint warning, published in the scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, comes from scientists in Denmark and the US. Lead-author Assistant professor Anna-Sofie Stensgaard from Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, explains, "Today, we know less about where disease-causing organisms occur, than the global distribution of most mammals, birds and even ants. Without this basic knowledge it is very hard to predict if, for instance, certain bacteria or parasites, transmitted via mosquitoes or other bloodsucking insects, are likely to spread or not, and what measures we must take in order to prevent this."

Scientists have registered more than 2100 organisms worldwide known to make people sick. Of these, 355 are defined as clinical important and collectively kill almost 10 million people each year, mainly in the tropics. This disproportion has great implications for global health and economy. Yet, we only have detailed knowledge about less than 17 of these diseases' distribution.

"For most disease-causing viruses, bacteria and parasites we know only which countries they can be found in, not their prevalence, nor how they are changing through time. And even these terribly coarse data are often privately held. We are really still in the dark, ignorant about the species most likely to do civilization in," says co-lead author Professor Rob Dunn from North Carolina State University.

Networks, similar to the one the scientists call for, already exists for other organisms. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), for instance, is a platform to collect and make huge amounts of biodiversity data accessible. GBIF includes 700 million records of animals, fungi and plants shared by 977 institutions worldwide.

It is possible to close the knowledge gabs, because we hold the expertise to set up the needed network of databases. What we lack is recognition of the threat we face until it is established. I am sure, when people realise this, that time, money and collaboration among experts from crosscutting disciplines will not be hard to get. But until then, we cannot foresee how disease-spreading organisms move, interact and emerge due to climate changes, intensified agriculture or urbanization, says senior-author Professor Carsten Rahbek.
James Cook University marine scientists are calling for an extension of go-slow zones in turtle habitats to reduce boat strikes on the threatened creatures.

JCU's Dr Takahiro Shimada was part of a joint team from JCU and the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection that created and implemented the study. They tracked 18 green and 20 loggerhead turtles, in some cases for more than two-and-a-half years.

He said the team concentrated on the Moreton Bay area of Brisbane, as this is where most turtle strikes happen in Queensland. Dr Shimada said that many shallow and all deeper areas in the bay are not go- slow zones.

"At the time the regulations were brought into effect, it wasn't possible to track turtle habitats as accurately as we can now. So we set out to document where the turtles actually are," he said.

The scientists found the turtles they tracked were present throughout the bay, and stayed mostly in water less than five metres deep.

"On the east side of the bay, most of their habitat is covered by go-slow zones, but almost none of their habitats in the rest of the bay are covered," said Dr Shimada.

He said turtles are at risk when they surface to breathe, rest or when basking at or near the surface. They can also be struck when there is not enough depth for a hull or motor to pass over them safely. Dr Shimada said the animals were not agile enough to get out of the way of a fast-approaching vessel.

"We know that reducing the speed of boats significantly decreases the risk of collisions with turtles and dugongs and other air breathing animals," he said.

Dr Shimada said that if all shallow zones in Moreton Bay were designated as go-slow zones, nearly half or more of the turtle habitats could be protected.

"If we did that and added a small buffer zone from shallow water extending into deeper water, up to 95 percent of the habitat would be covered."

Dr Shimada said the team were very mindful that human recreational and commercial use of Moreton Bay was valuable and that it was inevitable that compromises would have to be made.

"Effective management for recovery of a population doesn't necessarily require the elimination of a particular source of mortality but rather that the mortality is low enough to allow the population to recover. Management agencies will need to balance the needs for reducing boat strikes with the use of the resource by the community," he said.
Toxins produced by three different species of fungus growing indoors on wallpaper may become aerosolized, and easily inhaled. The findings, which likely have implications for "sick building syndrome," were published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

"We demonstrated that mycotoxins could be transferred from a moldy material to air, under conditions that may be encountered in buildings," said corresponding author Jean-Denis Bailly, DVM, PhD, Professor of Food Hygiene, National Veterinary School of Toulouse, France. "Thus, mycotoxins can be inhaled and should be investigated as parameters of indoor air quality, especially in homes with visible fungal contamination."

The impetus for the study was the dearth of data on the health risk from mycotoxins produced by fungi growing indoors. (image: microscopic view of a sporulating Aspergillus, showing numerous light spores that can be easily aerosolized and inhaled together with mycotoxins. credit: Sylviane Bailly.)

In the study, the investigators built an experimental bench that can simulate an airflow over a piece of contaminated wall paper, controlling speed and direction of the air. Then they analyzed the resulting bioaerosol.

"Most of the airborne toxins are likely to be located on fungal spores, but we also demonstrated that part of the toxic load was found on very small particles -- dust or tiny fragments of wallpaper, that could be easily inhaled," said Bailly..

The researchers used three fungal species in their study: Penicillium brevicompactum, Aspergillus versicolor, and Stachybotrys chartarum. These species, long studied as sources of food contaminants, also "are frequent indoor contaminants," said Bailly. He noted that they produce different mycotoxins, and their mycelia are different from one another, likely leading to differences in the quantity of mycotoxins they loft into the air. (Mycelia are the thread-like projections of fungi that seek nutrition and water from the environment.)

The findings raised two new scientific questions, said Bailly. First, "There is almost no data on toxicity of mycotoxins following inhalation," he said, noting that most research has focused on such toxins as food contaminants.

Second, the different fungal species put different quantities of mycotoxins in the air, "probably related to mycelium organization," but also possibly related to the mechanisms by which mycotoxins from different fungi become airborne -- for example via droplets of exudate versus accumulation in spores. Such knowledge could help in prioritizing those species that may be of real importance in wafting mycotoxins, he said.

Bailly noted that the push for increasingly energy efficient homes may aggravate the problem of mycotoxins indoors. Such homes "are strongly isolated from the outside to save energy," but various water-using appliances such as coffee makers "could lead to favorable conditions for fungal growth," he said.

"The presence of mycotoxins in indoors should be taken into consideration as an important parameter of air quality," Bailly concluded.
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Two hurt in NC-UML clash

Two cadres of Nepali Congress (NC) were injured in a clash with the CPN (UML) cadres at Budhiganga Municipality-3 in Bajura Saturday.
Synchrony Financial, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a consumer financial services company in the United States. It provides credit products, such as credit cards, commercial credit products, and consumer installment loans. The company also offers private label credit cards, dual cards, co-brand and general purpose credit cards, short- and long-term installment loans, and consumer banking products; and deposit products, including certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, money market accounts, and savings accounts to retail and commercial customers, as well as accepts deposits through third-party securities brokerage firms. In addition, it provides debt cancellation products to its credit card customers through online, mobile, and direct mail; healthcare payments and financing solutions under the CareCredit, Pets Best, and Walgreens brands; payments and financing solutions in the apparel, specialty retail, outdoor, music, and luxury industries; and point-of-sale consumer financing for audiology products and dental services. The company offers its credit products through programs established with a group of national and regional retailers, local merchants, manufacturers, buying groups, industry associations, and healthcare service providers; and deposit products through various channels, such as digital and print. It serves digital, health and wellness, retail, home, auto, powersports, jewelry, pets, and other industries. Synchrony Financial was founded in 1932 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.
Yoga for all!

Let us all congratulate our King Deuba for finally moving to Baluwatar at five in the morning. Maybe this is the first time His Majesty has woken up this early in his life.
Matador Resources Company, an independent energy company, engages in the exploration, development, production, and acquisition of oil and natural gas resources in the United States. It operates through two segments, Exploration and Production; and Midstream. The company primarily holds interests in the Wolfcamp and Bone Spring plays in the Delaware Basin in Southeast New Mexico and West Texas. It also operates the Eagle Ford shale play in South Texas; and the Haynesville shale and Cotton Valley plays in Northwest Louisiana. In addition, the company conducts midstream operations in support of its exploration, development, and production operations; provides natural gas processing and oil transportation services; and offers oil, natural gas, and produced water gathering services, as well as produced water disposal services to third parties. As of December 31, 2021, its estimated total proved oil and natural gas reserves were 323.4 million barrels of oil equivalent, including 181.3 million stock tank barrels of oil and 852.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The company was formerly known as Matador Holdco, Inc. and changed its name to Matador Resources Company in August 2011. Matador Resources Company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
The following companies are subsidiares of Cigna: Accredo Health Group, Accredo Health Incorporated, Alegis Care, Allegiance Life & Health Insurance Company, Allegiance Re, American Retirement Life Insurance Company, Benefits Management Corp., Bravo Health Mid-Atlantic, Bravo Health Pennsylvania, Brighter, CareAllies, CareCore National LLC, Central Reserve Life Insurance Company, Ceres Sales of Ohio, Choicelinx, Cigna & CMB Life Insurance Company Limited, Cigna Apac Holdings Limited, Cigna Arbor Life Insurance Company, Cigna Beechwood Holdings, Cigna Behavioral Health, Cigna Behavioral Health of California, Cigna Behavioral Health of Texas, Cigna Bellevue Alpha, Cigna Benefits Financing, Cigna Brokerage & Marketing (Thailand) Limited, Cigna Cedar Holdings, Cigna Chestnut Holdings, Cigna Corporate Services, Cigna Data Services (Shanghai) Company Limited, Cigna Dental Health, Cigna Dental Health Plan of Arizona, Cigna Dental Health of California, Cigna Dental Health of Colorado, Cigna Dental Health of Delaware, Cigna Dental Health of Florida, Cigna Dental Health of Illinois, Cigna Dental Health of Kansas, Cigna Dental Health of Kentucky, Cigna Dental Health of Maryland, Cigna Dental Health of Missouri, Cigna Dental Health of New Jersey, Cigna Dental Health of North Carolina, Cigna Dental Health of Ohio, Cigna Dental Health of Pennsylvania, Cigna Dental Health of Texas, Cigna Dental Health of Virginia, Cigna Elmwood Holdings, Cigna Europe Insurance Company S.A.-N.V., Cigna European Services (UK) Limited, Cigna Finans Emeklilik ve Hayat A.S., Cigna Global Holdings, Cigna Global Insurance Company Limited, Cigna Global Reinsurance Company, Cigna Global Wellbeing Holdings Limited, Cigna Global Wellbeing Solutions Limited, Cigna HLA Technology Services Company Limited, Cigna Health Corporation, Cigna Health Management, Cigna Health Solutions India Pvt. Ltd., Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company, Cigna HealthSpring, Cigna Healthcare Holdings, Cigna Healthcare Mid-Atlantic, Cigna Healthcare of Arizona, Cigna Healthcare of California, Cigna Healthcare of Colorado, Cigna Healthcare of Connecticut, Cigna Healthcare of Florida, Cigna Healthcare of Georgia, Cigna Healthcare of Illinois, Cigna Healthcare of Indiana, Cigna Healthcare of Maine, Cigna Healthcare of Massachusetts, Cigna Healthcare of New Hampshire, Cigna Healthcare of New Jersey, Cigna Healthcare of North Carolina, Cigna Healthcare of Pennsylvania, Cigna Healthcare of South Carolina, Cigna Healthcare of St. Louis, Cigna Healthcare of Tennessee, Cigna Healthcare of Texas, Cigna Healthcare of Utah, Cigna Holding Company, Cigna Holdings, Cigna Holdings Overseas, Cigna Hong Kong Holdings Company Limited, Cigna Insurance Middle East S.A., Cigna Insurance Public Company Limited, Cigna Insurance Services (Europe) Limited, Cigna Intellectual Property, Cigna International Corporation, Cigna International Health Services, Cigna International Health Services BVBA, Cigna International Health Services Kenya Limited, Cigna International Health Services SDN BHD, Cigna International Services, Cigna International Services Australia Pty. Ltd., Cigna Investment Group, Cigna Investments, Cigna Korean Chusik Hoesa, Cigna Laurel Holdings, Cigna Legal Protection UK Ltd., Cigna Life Insurance Company of Canada, Cigna Life Insurance Company of Europe S.A.- N.V., Cigna Life Insurance Company of New York, Cigna Life Insurance New Zealand Limited, Cigna Linden Holdings, Cigna Magnolia Holdings, Cigna Myrtle Holdings, Cigna Nederland Alpha Cooperatief U.A., Cigna Nederland Beta B.V., Cigna Nederland Gamma B.V., Cigna Oak Holdings, Cigna Palmetto Holdings, Cigna Poplar Holdings, Cigna Sequoia Holdings, Cigna Spruce Holdings GmbH, Cigna Taiwan Life Assurance Company Limited, Cigna Walnut Holdings, Cigna Willow Holdings, Cigna Worldwide General Insurance Company Limited, Cigna Worldwide Insurance Company, Cigna Worldwide Life Insurance Company Limited, CignaTTK Health Insurance Company Limited, Connecticut General Corporation, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, CuraScript Inc., E-2 CIGNA CORPORATION - 2018 Form 10-K, ESI Mail Pharmacy Service Inc., ESI Partnership, ESI Resources Inc., Express Scripts Holding Company, Express Scripts Inc., Express Scripts Pharmaceutical LLC, Express Scripts Pharmacy Inc., Express Scripts Strategic Development Inc., FirstAssist Administration Limited, Firstassist Insurance Services Ltd, Great-West Healthcare of Illinois, Grown Ups New Zealand Limited, Health-Lynx LLC, HealthSource, HealthSpring, HealthSpring Life & Health Insurance Company, HealthSpring of Alabama, HealthSpring of Florida, HealthSpring of Tennessee, KDM Thailand Limited, LINA Financial Services, LINA Life Insurance Company of Korea, Life Insurance Company of North America, Loyal American Life Insurance Company, MCC Independent Practice Association of New York, Manipal Cigna Health Insurance Company Limited, Medco Containment Life Insurance Company, Medco Health Services Inc., Medco Health Solutions Inc., NewQuest, NewQuest Management Northeast, Olympic Health Management Services, Oz Parent, PT Asuransi Cigna, Provident American Life and Health Insurance Company, Qualcare, Qualcare Alliance Networks, Qualcare Captive Insurance Company Inc. PCC, Qualcare Management Resources Limited Liability Company, RHP (Thailand) Limited, Scibal Associates, Sterling Life Insurance Company, Tel-Drug, Tel-Drug of Pennsylvania, Temple Insurance Company Limited, United Benefit Life Insurance Company, Verity Solutions Group, Zurich Insurance Middle East, and eviCore 1 LLC.

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Intrepid Potash, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the extraction and production of the potash in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Potash, Trio, and Oilfield Solutions. The Potash segment offers muriate of potash or potassium chloride for use as a fertilizer input in the agricultural market; as a component in drilling and fracturing fluids for oil and gas wells, as well as an input to other industrial processes in the industrial market; and as a nutrient supplement in the animal feed market. The Trio segment provides Trio, a specialty fertilizer that delivers potassium, sulfate, and magnesium in a single particle. The Oilfield Solutions segment sells water for use in the oil and gas services industry; and offers potassium chloride real-time mixing services on location for hydraulic fracturing operations and trucking services. The company also offers salt for use in animal feeds, industrial applications, pool salts, and treatment of roads and walkways for ice melting or to manage road conditions; magnesium chloride for use in the deicing and dedusting of roads; brines for well development and completion activities in the oil and gas industry; and metal recovery salt, a combination of potash and salt to enhance the recovery of aluminum in the aluminum recycling processing facilities. Intrepid Potash, Inc. was founded in 2000 and is based in Denver, Colorado.
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.
Wells Fargo & Company, a diversified financial services company, provides banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management. The Consumer Banking and Lending segment offers diversified financial products and services for consumers and small businesses. Its financial products and services include checking and savings accounts, and credit and debit cards, as well as home, auto, personal, and small business lending services. The Commercial Banking segment provides financial solutions to private, family owned, and certain public companies. Its products and services include banking and credit products across various industry sectors and municipalities, secured lending and lease products, and treasury management services. The Corporate and Investment Banking segment offers a suite of capital markets, banking, and financial products and services to corporate, commercial real estate, government, and institutional clients. Its products and services comprise corporate banking, investment banking, treasury management, commercial real estate lending and servicing, equity, and fixed income solutions, as well as sales, trading, and research capabilities services. The Wealth and Investment Management segment provides personalized wealth management, brokerage, financial planning, lending, private banking, and trust and fiduciary products and services to affluent, high-net worth, and ultra-high-net worth clients. It also operates through financial advisors. Wells Fargo & Company was founded in 1852 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. operates as an omni-channel specialty retailer of various products for home. It offers cooking, dining, and entertaining products, such as cookware, tools, electrics, cutlery, tabletop and bar, outdoor, furniture, and a library of cookbooks under the Williams Sonoma Home brand, as well as home furnishings and decorative accessories under the Williams Sonoma lifestyle brand; and furniture, bedding, lighting, rugs, table essentials, and decorative accessories under the Pottery Barn brand. The company also provides home decor products under the West Elm brand; kids accessories under the Pottery Barn Kids brand; and an organic bedding to multi-purpose furniture under the Pottery Barn Teen brand. In addition, it offers made-to-order lighting, hardware, furniture, and home decors inspired by history under the Rejuvenation brand; and women's and men's accessories, travel, entertaining and bar, home decor, and seasonal items under the Mark and Graham brand, as well as operates a 3-D imaging and augmented reality platform for the home furnishings and decor industry. The company markets its products through e-commerce websites, direct-mail catalogs, and retail stores. It operates 544 stores comprising 502 stores in 41states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico; 20 stores in Canada; 19 stores in Australia; 3 stores in the United Kingdom; and 139 franchised stores, as well as e-commerce websites in various countries in the Middle East, the Philippines, Mexico, South Korea, and India. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
The Department of Homeland Security is turning to data scientists to improve screening techniques at airports.

On Thursday, the department, working with Google, will introduce a $1.5-million (U.S.) contest to build computer algorithms that can automatically identify concealed items in images captured by checkpoint body scanners.

The U.S. government is putting up the money, and the six-month contest will be run by Kaggle, a site that hosts more than 1 million data scientists that was recently acquired by Google.

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Although data scientists can apply any technique in building these algorithms, the contest is a way of capitalizing on the progress in a technology called deep neural networks, said the Kaggle founder and chief executive, Anthony Goldbloom. Neural networks are complex mathematical systems that can learn specific tasks by analyzing vast amounts of data. Feed millions of cat photographs into a neural network, for instance, and it can learn to recognize a cat.

Companies like Google and Facebook use the technology to do things like identify faces in online images, recognize commands spoken into smartphones and translate one language into another. But the possibilities extend well beyond smartphone apps and other online services.

Earlier this year, Kaggle ran a $1-million contest to build algorithms capable of identifying signs of lung cancer in CT scans, helping to fuel a larger effort to apply neural networks to health care. Now, the hope is that neural networks can also help automated systems read body scans with greater accuracy, so checkpoint workers can spend less time pulling passengers aside and patting them down.

We started by trying to figure out what was a dog and what was a cat, said Goldbloom, referring to the growing community of companies, academics and other researchers working with neural networks. Now, were moving into more serious territory.

John W. Halinski, a former deputy administrator at the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) who now works as a security consultant, welcomed the crowdsourcing idea because it could draw on the skills of any data scientist. This is increasingly important, he said, as airport security consolidates around just a few large corporations.

There are a lot of people out there that are good at solving difficult problems, said John Fortune, a program manager in the Department of Homeland Securitys science and technology arm.

Homeland Security and other organizations are working on ways to improve the technologies used at airport checkpoints, with the TSA set to roll out new CT systems that can automatically identify items hidden in passenger baggage, and at least one company, Smiths Detection, exploring the use of neural networks at security checkpoints.

In theory, neural networks can accelerate the evolution of airport security, mainly because such systems can learn so quickly from data, relying less on individual rules and code painstakingly built by engineers.

To help data scientists and machine-learning researchers train their algorithms, Homeland Security is supplying more than 1,000 three-dimensional body scans.

The department is not sharing scans of the more than 2 million people screened each day at U.S. airports. Instead, TSA workers volunteered to help create the data for the contest from scratch, repeatedly walking through a set of test scanners at a laboratory in New Jersey. In some cases, the workers carried concealed items through the scanners, and these images were carefully labelled.

By analyzing this data, neural networks and other algorithms can learn to pinpoint concealed items on their own. Jeremy Achin, a founder and the chief executive of the data analysis company DataRobot, said that neural networks were well suited to such a task.

But he also warned that the technology could make mistakes and that in some cases it could be vulnerable to bad actors. Research has shown that after analyzing the performance of an image-recognition system driven by a neural network, miscreants could mark or otherwise alter items in ways that fool the system into seeing things that are not there  or failing to see things that are.

For those reasons, the immediate aim is not to build technology that replaces human screeners but to find a way of removing some of the burden from those screeners, Goldbloom said.

In the world of health care, researchers see deep learning as something that can augment the talents of doctors, not replace them. The same thinking applies in airport security, at least in the short term.

But the hope is that this technology and others, over time, will significantly improve this security-checkpoint task and others, including passenger baggage scans, cargo scans and face recognition.

When identifying risk items in a piece of luggage or through a body scan, todays algorithms arent bad, said Anthony Roman, a former commercial pilot who runs the risk-management firm Roman & Associates. But false positives will be driven way down. We may in the next 10 to 15 years reach a point where all this is automatic.

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At 29, Michelle German is part of a generation increasingly frustrated by the rising cost of housing that shuts young professionals, less affluent residents and newcomers out of the citys well-serviced, transit-connected neighbourhoods.

German shares a house downtown with three roommates. Shes a senior manager with Evergreen, a non-profit environmental sustainability agency, and she describes herself as a good saver. But she cant imagine ferreting away the cash to buy a home  at least not in the foreseeable future.

She told the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Tuesday that its time for her cohort to speak out, to turn frustration and anger into action.

In terms of . . . advocacy, were not pulling our weight, she later said to the Toronto Star.

But that is changing, say planners and social policy experts. They say that Torontos YIMBY ranks are already rising. YIMBYs are young urbanites responding to the citys affordability challenges with a yes-in-my-backyard response to denser development. They are demanding family-sized condos, the conversion of single-family houses to duplexes and triplexes and secondary suites in neighbourhoods where their equity-rich parents generation are rattling around in near-empty homes.

Absolutely there is a growing anger and frustration, said University of British Columbia Professor Paul Kershaw, whose research on generational inequality inspired an awareness campaign called, Generation Squeeze, aimed at putting millennial issues on the political radar.

Generation Squeeze will be speaking out more in Ontario as the provincial election approaches next June, he said. It is challenging the pervasive idea that high home prices are a good news story when, increasingly, the rising cost of housing is crushing younger generations, who are also facing declining incomes.

Hard work doesnt pay off the way it used to for young adults, said Kershaw. Forty years ago, a first-time Ontario homebuyer would take five years on average to save the 20 per cent down-payment for a home. Today it takes 15 years.

Embarrassment is a big issue where people are looking at where their parents were when they were young adults and theyre feeling like I am not as far ahead, he said.

Children of immigrants are keenly aware that their parents sacrificed so they could have more in Canada.

When you meet people in community centres, cafes and pubs, in quiet moments people will share this concern: How am I failing? This is a huge thing to be hearing in a country like Canada, he said.

Its not a single generations problem and it requires intergenerational solutions, said Kershaw. Younger adults are adapting their expectations  living in smaller spaces, commuting farther to their jobs. In exchange for letting baby boomers continue to build the equity that secures their retirement, millennials need policies that enhance other parts of their lives such as child care.

German says renting longer could in itself be limiting millennials from participating publicly in the solutions.

The (rental) culture you live in is somewhat temporary. You might not change the light fixtures in your apartment, you might not paint the walls and you might not join the residency association, said German.

Homeowners feel ownership over their space or their neighbourhood. They feel compelled to speak out, to protect whats theirs, she said.

Her Annex neighbourhood is among Torontos most desirable. At one time, many of the homes were divided into apartments. But most have been converted back to single-family, said German.

Members of the Annex Residents Association are mostly older but they consider themselves YIMBYs, said the groups chair David Harrison. He acknowledges that some developers would disagree.

We say, YIMBY but if you dont agree with us then were NIMBY, he said. Were not against development, we just dont want crazy development  buildings that are too big, too dense.

Harrison has his own term for condos. He calls them human storage units. He cites the already overcrowded subway among the key reasons for limiting density along Bloor St.

The residents association recently fought a proposal for a 42-storey building on Bloor St. near Madison Ave.

The final answer is its going to 29 stories. There will be two- and three-bedroom units. We want to find a way to accommodate young families, said Harrison, who says hes sympathetic to the housing plight of the next generation, having recently helped his daughters buy homes.

He would like younger members in the association but participation is a challenge for neighbourhood associations across the city.

The Annex population has ranged from 12,000 to 16,000 since the Second World WAr, he said. But the association mailing list has only 400 names.

Young people tend to have other responsibilities. Young parents, they give what they can, he said.

Not far from the Annex, Chris Spoke, 31, rents an old shoebox above a store with his girlfriend near College St. and Dovercourt Rd. for about $1,500 a month. He has his sights set on home ownership but doesnt see how it will happen.

Even if you look at condo prices, if you want to have a couple of kids the amount of square footage you need in the city is out of my budget, he said.

Spoke, who works in the tech sector, is the founder of Toronto Housing Matters. So far its a name, website and monthly speaker series aimed at fostering a growing, dynamic and affordable Toronto.

For Toronto to remain affordable, particularly to younger people, first-time homebuyers, new Canadians and renters we need . . . to increase the supply of housing and keep prices reasonable, Spoke said.

Spoke hopes the speaker series is a stepping stone to a more active organization that penetrates city hall with a pro-development, pro-housing supply agenda.

We want to be more of an activist movement than a Ted Talks for housing issues, he said.

You cant have it both ways, said Spoke. If were going to be a country thats open to immigration and open to refugees and also open to new generations, these people need to live somewhere and often that means your neighbourhood is going to have to intensify.

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The best red Burgundy falls somewhere between hot sex and falling in love  momentarily at least. And its always more feather than whip, which is why it fetches stratospheric prices. Burgundys top wine, Romanee-Conti, actually sells for thousands of dollars per bottle  if you can get your paws on it. The minuscule production is on strict allocation.

But that wine is, quite simply, Pinot Noir. All of Burgundys better reds are  and have been for centuries. Today, winemakers all over the world try their hand at this grape variety, inspired by Burgundys best. But its a difficult variety to work with  in the field and in the winery.

Pinot Noir is thin skinned, so its sensitive to extreme in temperatures; its very tightly clustered so its very prone to disease; and picking days are essential  too early and its pretty nasty, too late and its mushy and jammy, says Norman Hardie, owner and winemaker at Norman Hardie Winery, one of Ontarios better Pinot Noir producers.

Then in the winery, its delicate too. Over-extraction creates hardness and bitterness while under-extraction gives you nothing at all but maybe a nice rose. And it can dry out in the barrel very quickly too. So youve got to nail perfection every step of the way.

But the prospect of nailing perfection keeps winemakers all over the planet toiling away with Pinot Noir  at least in chillier regions. Pinot Noir prefers cool climates.

Other than Burgundy and Ontario, Germany and cooler parts of New Zealand, Argentina, Oregon, California, and even Italy can produce it well, with each region teasing its own expression.

In Burgundy, Pinot Noir tends to taste of tinned strawberries and violet (especially when young) but always has an earthy, savoury underpinning that comes to the fore as it matures. Italian and German versions of this variety are similarly savoury.

Ontario Pinot Noir reminds me of cranberry and beetroot more than anything. New Zealand and Argentinian styles are often searingly crisp and all about tart red berries. And California and Oregon produce riper styles, often with smoky or nutty notes from wood aging.

But dont take my word for it. Taste for yourself with this ready-made crash course; its a selection of five Pinot Noirs. Theyre not top-tier Burgundy, but theyre all inspired expressions of the variety from each of their respective regions. And importantly, theyre each priced well enough to leave money in your pocket for other things  such as great Canadian salmon to grill alongside. After all, summer starts this week.

Burgundy

2015 Bouchard Pere & Fils Bourgogne Pinot Noir, Burgundy, France (LCBO 605667 $20.20 in stores and online)

Bouchard Pere & Fils is a large producer in Burgundy that both grows its own fruit and buys in grapes from other growers to bottle a broad range of wines  from top-tier bottlings to this very fine entry-level drop. Made from the excellent 2015 vintage, it offers a well-toned core of crisp red and black berries imbued with roast squab, forest floor flavours and a touch of graphite. Lovely wine to pour with a summer meal if youre looking for easy elegance.

Score: 90+

Ontario

2015 Southbrook Vineyards Triomphe Organic Pinot Noir, VQA Niagara Peninsula, (Winery only, $29.95 + $1 shipping anywhere in ON with code JUNE50. Call 1-888-581-1581 or go to wineclub.southbrook.com)

This wine was awarded gold medal as best Pinot Noir at the 2017 Ontario Wine Awards, so it is very much worth tasting. So I arranged the shipping offer above since its not available at the LCBO. This wine starts with a muted damson nose before sliding all suave and polished over the palate with a crush of cranberry and gentle minerality. Great tension between open-handed fruit and elegant restraint. Well done, Ontario.

Score: 92+

New Zealand

2015 Villa Maria Private Bin Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand (LCBO 146548 $19.95 in stores only)

Marlborough is well known for its full-throttle Sauvignon Blanc but also makes an electric style of Pinot Noir  and heres a classic example. The lean, taut fruit calls to mind sour cherries and redcurrants with traces of salinity and tea leaves on the finish. This Pinot Noir offers the quenching, mouth-watering style that sets off protein-rich dishes, but isnt quite as fun sipped solo.

Score: 88

Oregon

2015 Erath Pinot Noir, Oregon (LCBO 394718 $24.95 in stores and online)

Relatively rich and forward, this wine erupts with a blaze of black cherry and super-ripe plum aromas before saturating the palate with almost robust black cherry laced with red meat, coffee and pomegranate followed by a long, slow grilled meat finish. Its got the pale colour and crisp acidity of Pinot Noir, but tasted blind it could almost pass as a Syrah with all that ripe fruit and meatiness. But thats Oregon for you.

Score: 90

California

2014 Rodney Strong Estate Vineyards Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, Sonoma County (Vintages Essential 954834 $26.35 in stores and online)

Rodney Strong makes very good value wines, and this Pinot Noir from the cooler Russian River Valley is no exception. Its super ripe but not jammy with a robust crush of black and red raspberries, warm smoked plums and baking spices before tapering to a long dark chocolate finish. While its certainly a fuller-bodied expression of Pinot Noir, the fine structure and lively acidity retains Pinot Noirs hallmark elegance.

Score: 92

Carolyn Evans Hammond is a Toronto-based wine writer. She is also a London-trained sommelier and two-time bestselling wine book author. Reach her at carolyn@carolynevanshammond.com

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For much of Canadas modern history, the Far North was widely regarded as a great white wasteland, periodically brought to mind by gold rushes, lost expeditions or Robert Services The Cremation of Sam McGee.

Until, that is, the arrival in 1974 of Justice Thomas Berger and the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry he chaired.

In a country with a rich history of royal commissions and judicial inquiries, its worth recalling  as Canada this year celebrates the 150th anniversary of Confederation  what was by most accounts the most influential of them all.

The pipeline inquiry made an environmental and social justice icon of Berger, turned Canadian eyes north for probably the first time, and produced a report regarded as the first iteration of an Indigenous charter of rights.

We are now at our last frontier, Berger wrote in a letter accompanying his 1977 report to the federal government. It is a frontier that all of us have read about, but few of us have seen. Profound issues, touching our deepest concern as a nation, await us there.

The North is a frontier, but it is a homeland too, a homeland of the Dene, Inuit and Metis, as it is also the home of the white people who live there. And it is a heritage, a unique environment that we are called upon to preserve for all Canadians.

Berger had been commissioned by the federal government to investigate the environmental, social and economic impacts of a proposed gas line  the biggest project in the history of free enterprise.

The Canadian Arctic Gas Pipeline Ltd. consisted of more than two dozen Canadian and American producers and had proposed a route from the Prudhoe gas fields in Alaska through the Yukon and the Mackenzie River Valley of the Northwest Territories and south to Alberta.

The government, in appointing him, likely had no idea how seriously Berger would take the assignment.

He travelled extensively and took his commission to 35 communities  hearing from Dene, Inuit, Metis and non-Indigenous residents  to gauge public reaction.

Along with hearing from a parade of experts, he gave unprecedented voice to Indigenous people whose traditional lands would be affected.

For the first time, we provided funds to aboriginal people to put them on something like an equal footing with industry, he would later say.

I went to all the aboriginal communities, I said, OK, Im here. Ill stay as long as you want me to. I want to know what you think about this. You live here, its going to affect you, its your future.

And Canadians grew used to the idea that aboriginal people did have something to say and they were going to say it.

Berger understood that decisions of merit require not just facts and expert opinion, but the right process, a commitment to democracy and a feeling among all participants that theyd been heard.

The Canadian Arctic had been home for more than 5,000 years to paleo-eskimos who crossed the Bering Strait or sea ice from from Siberia. Over time, they moved east across the North, adapting hunting techniques to new environments.

Starting in the 16th century, European expeditions came looking for the Northwest Passage, a shortcut to the Far East. In the 18th century, whalers and traders arrived. As usual, missionaries followed, then the RCMP  along with a motley of fur traders, adventurers and prospectors  as the new country of Canada pushed west and north into what was once known as Ruperts Land.

In 1896, in the Yukon basin, George Carmack and his Tagish companions found the richest concentration of placer gold the world had ever known. And the Klondike gold rush was on.

Ever since, the conflict between Indigenous traditional life and resource development in the North played out.

After the Second World War, oil and gas exploration moved steadily northward. And in 1967, large natural gas reserves were discovered in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, which ignited the pipeline proposals that Berger would consider.

Before hearings began, Berger set out criteria for funding various parties  guidelines that legal groups observed would become the gold standard for future participant-funding decisions.

His report, Northern Frontier, Northern Homeland, became a bestseller after it was issued in 1977.

In it, Berger proposed that no construction take place for 10 years, so that Inuvaluit, Dene and Metis land claims could be settled. His recommendation and the evidence on which it was based provided a basis for Northern land-claim negotiations that would take place over the ensuing quarter-century.

He also concluded, in language resonating with sensitivity to local concerns, that the northern Yukon was too susceptible to environmental harm for a project of such magnitude to pass through that part of the route.

The Northern Yukon is an arctic and sub-arctic wilderness of incredible beauty, a rich and varied ecosystem inhabited by thriving populations of wildlife, Berger wrote to the government.

On the Old Crow Flats, in the Mackenzie Delta, and along the Beaufort Sea coast, I have seen the immense flocks of birds that migrate in their thousands to this arctic area each summer.

I have seen the white whales swimming in the shallow coastal waters . . .I have seen the Porcupine caribou herd in early summer at its calving grounds in the Northern Yukon and the Bathurst herd at its wintering grounds north of Great Slave Lake.

And in every native village I have see the meat and fish, the fur and hides that the people have harvested from the land and water.

Berger did more than turn Canadian eyes north to the Yukon, Northwest Territories and what would become Nunavut.

The original pipeline plans were eventually shelved.

Alastair Lucas wrote last year on an Alberta law blog that the The 35-year northern gas pipeline saga has shaped Canadian environmental and related aboriginal law in a number of ways.

Procedural fairness and aboriginal consultation principles were advanced. Perhaps most important, basic values, including early articulations of sustainability, precaution and ecological integrity, values that underpin much of modern Canadian environmental law, were affirmed.

In her contribution to a book on commissions of inquiry and policy change, Frances Abele wrote that the Berger Inquiry was significant in the peaceful revolution that has changed the political map and adjusted the balance of power in northern Canada.

Berger, in fact, became such an influential Canadian figure that when Cambridge University set up a Canadian Studies Program in 2004, he was invited to give the inaugural lecture.

He later said he hoped his work had helped make Canadians a good deal more aware of the North.

Of that there is no doubt.

The Carcross Parrot

If Canadian journalism has an iconic yarn, it is probably the story of Dennis Bell and his Carcross Parrot, a tale that could really only have been set in the Yukon.

Bell worked for The Canadian Press. He aspired to be the European correspondent in London. He was, as bad luck and unfair fate had it, marooned in the bureau in Vancouver.

Legend had it that drink had been taken on the evening when a brooding Bell, stuck for a story to file, recalled a recent assignment hed been on in Carcross, Yukon.

Inspiration struck.

Bell wrote a story about the oldest, meanest, ugliest, dirtiest bird north of the 60th parallel. The bird  which coincidentally bore the same initials as Bells employer  was better than 100 years old and had spent most of its life in a bar, surviving fires, blizzards and the torments of generations of sots.

Once upon a time, the parrot drank. Then it got religion and sobered up under the encouragement of a teetotalling proprietor. He replaced the racy sea chanties that had been its repertoire with Onward, Christian Soldiers.

The parrot had become something of a zealot, couldnt stand drunks and, as Bell reported, now squawked at any that crossed his path to Go to hell!

Anyway, once on the wires, Bells story was picked up by the AP and Reuters and flashed around the world. Editors loved it. They wanted more.

And squadrons of reporters were dispatched to Carcross from around the globe. Happily, it wasnt the easiest place to get to, so Bell  fuelled by the terror of imminent disaster  had a little time with which to work.

A second brainstorm hit him. He had to kill the parrot.

A quick phone call to the sympathetic hotel manager arranged the details of an avian funeral and the birds interment.

Crisis solved. And even better, Bell had his second scoop  a report on the tragic and untimely passing of the parrot, just as the world was beating a path to his Yukon doorstep.

For generations of CP reporters who followed, the tale of the Carcross Parrot was much admired and often told. But never topped.

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One thing for certain, we know they all promise to be bold.

I have put together a bold plan, says Guy Caron.

I have a bold and unapologetic . . . social democratic vision, says Jagmeet Singh.

Peter Julian is also bold and unapologetic, in his social democratic platform.

We must be bold and progressive, says Niki Ashton.

Charlie Angus sounded bold, although he broke from the bold-fest by choosing other words.

These are your five candidates for leader of the federal NDP and they made something of a stealth visit to downtown Toronto Thursday night, offering their progressive pedigrees at an all-candidates debate sponsored by the United Steelworkers.

Four federal MPs, from British Columbia (Julian), northern Manitoba (Ashton), northern Ontario (Angus), Quebec (Caron) and a wild card from Ontario provincial ranks (Singh).

They are hardly setting the country on fire, but for students of Canadian politics they represent a huge shift underway, even if it is happening largely under the radar.

This is a federal NDP that appears determined to shift hard to the left and shuck any vestige of the tepid, disastrous drift to the centre under Tom Mulcair in 2015.

This is a party that needs to be daring and embrace a social democratic era that is personified by Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn, and decidedly not Mulcair.

It was likely no coincidence that the biggest cheer of the night came for Ashton, when she invoked the names of the two, rumpled old white guys who have proved, with varying degrees of success, that social democracy or flat-out socialism can be paraded as a platform, not pushed into a dark closet.

Ashton calls herself an old millennial and is the furthest from the Corbyn-Sanders persona in this race. She likes to shout out words like repression, oppression, and racism. She talks about standing up to the rich and joining movements and she tells New Democrats its as easy as ABC, Ashton, Bernie, Corbyn.

For one night, she pulled it off, but her stridency will likely wear thin because there really are only shades of grey between the candidates.

There are other reasons for the party to return to its roots.

They were out-lefted, by Justin Trudeau in 2015, but Trudeau has since left much fertile ground on the progressive side of the spectrum, whether it be broken promises on electoral reform or transparency, or stalled reforms to the environment or Indigenous reconciliation.

If one wants to see what the federal New Democrats will likely put on the table for voters in 2019, the template is in British Columbia.

It will pledge real electoral change.

It will work toward Indigenous decolonization and real reconciliation, not the symbolic reconciliation so far favoured by Trudeau.

It will take a much tougher line on pipelines and climate change.

It will aggressively tax the rich and impose tough levies on real estate speculators.

It will pledge to overturn economic inequality and pledge solutions to precarious employment, rejecting Finance Minister Bills Morneau acceptance of it as a fait accompli.

There will no longer be talk of balanced budgets. There will be no more kid gloves with corporate taxes. They will likely push to lower the voting age to 16.

But for the moment, the party has problems.

Few Canadians are engaged in this leadership race, and even those who follow federal politics would be hard-pressed to name the five candidates.

Thursdays debate was the only one scheduled in the GTA  a region where it must rebound if it is to be relevant after the 2019 vote  but it drew little attention.

New Democrats in British Columbia have no time to focus on this race. They are on the cusp of government in an ongoing political drama on the West Coast.

That saga is also drawing all the attention of Alberta New Democrats who are consumed with what an NDP-Green alliance in B.C. will do about a major pipeline expansion that has federal approval.

Manitoba New Democrats are focused on choosing Ojibwa Wab Kinew, a rapper, broadcaster and author, as its next leader.

And now comes summer, when trips to the lake, barbecues and summer humidity choke off interest in politics.

One insider predicted Friday this race will come down to a few key weeks in September.

The man or woman who wins this will be the candidate who stakes a solid, unshakable foundation on the progressive left and resists the drift to the centre at all costs.

Tim Harper writes on national affairs. tjharper77@gmail.com , Twitter: @nutgraf1

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OTTAWACanadas top soldier, Gen. Jonathan Vance, is expected to issue a directive in the coming days encouraging military personnel to attend Pride events in uniform.

Sources are describing the measure as part of a larger effort to make the military more diverse and inclusive, which includes reaching out and interacting with different communities.

News of the pending directive comes after Vice-Admiral Ron Lloyd, head of the navy, issued his own order this week that lets sailors wear their uniform at Pride events without having to ask permission.

Military personnel generally have to seek authorization to wear their uniforms to public events.

Lloyd marched in last years Pride parade in Toronto, and says he recently met with members of the LGBT community who identified the requirement as a barrier to closer relations between the two sides.

Lloyd says making the military more open to Canadians of different ethnicities, religion, sexual orientation will make it stronger in the long run.

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Ottawa is asking the Federal Court to review two items in the latest Human Rights Tribunal ruling that said Canada was still discriminating against Indigenous children over the delivery of services.

After a lengthy legal fight, the tribunal ruled in January 2016 that Canada was breaking the law by not making equitable health and social services payments to Indigenous children living on reserves. A series of non-compliance orders from the tribunal has been issued to the federal government for failure to abide by the ruling. The last one was issued at the end of May.

Health Minister Jane Philpott said they are seeking clarity from the Federal Court on two specific aspects of the ruling: that requests for services must be processed within 12 to 48 hours, and that they be processed without case-conferencing.

We fundamentally agree with the intents and principles behind the (CHRT) decision and are absolutely committed to addressing these issues, said Philpott. There are two small pieces of the decision we are concerned about and just wanted to go back to them and get some clarification on them because there was some concern as to possibly whether or not their recommendations would be in the best interests of First Nations kids.

Philpott denied it was an appeal, calling it a review of two aspects of it.

I think it is technically considered a review of the decision but not the entire decision, just two points in the decision, she said.

Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society of Canada, who, along with the Assembly of First Nations, has fought Ottawa regarding their failure to deliver equitable services to Indigenous kids, called the move appalling.

They are appealing. There is nothing called a clarification, Blackstock said. If the federal government was seeking just a clarification from the tribunal themselves, why wouldnt they just ask? They havent asked us. Ive been meeting with them regularly, and they have never raised this.

On May 26 the tribunal slammed the governments slow reaction to their January 2016 ruling, saying it squandered any chance of preventing the deaths of two Wapekeka First Nations girls, Jolynn Winter, 12, and Chantell Fox, 12. The two took their lives in early January. Their remote, fly-in community is in desperate need of mental health supports for youth.

As for the 48-hour time frame, Philpott said decisions in the vast majority of cases can be made during that span.

There are some cases where it could be potentially dangerous, unsafe or unwise in making a decision too quickly, a certain amount of clarity needs to be sorted out to make sure its in the best interest of kids that a rapid decision is not the wrong decision, she said.

Regarding forgoing case-conferencing, Philpott said, as a family doctor, she knows you often have to consult with others to make sure the right care is in place.

By allowing officials to collaborate and bring together all the right resources, we felt that perhaps needed some clarification, she said. It is essentially a clarification that is being sought, and a letter is going to the tribunal. If we were too rigidly follow these issues and not allow opportunities for case conferencing, it could be a worse outcome for kids.

Blackstock said the tribunals reference to case conferences is all about money. There shouldnt be case-conferencing about who pays before a child receives service. She said it has never been an issue that doctors shouldnt discuss patient care and once that care is designed for that child, then the service should be provided without a further case conference.

I dont get this . . . . We need to look at this more closely, but we will clearly be in federal court, Blackstock said.

The tribunal is worried about long delays before children receive services some delays can mean life and death.

The most important thing is the kid. This last week, we dealt with a case in our office of a little girl with cystic fibrosis and required a machine for breathing. Her family had gone through all the processes and has been denied. They came to us as a last resort. We brought it to the attention to Health Canada, and they were able to provide the service, Blackstock said.

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Craig Weaver was walking his dog through High Park earlier this month, when he heard the caterpillars feasting.

They were everywhere, he said.

All you could hear was crunching.

Weaver thought gypsy moths were the culprit; the pests have been chewing through Toronto tree leaves for more than 20 years.

But a surprise intruder has caught the city off guard this year: inchworms.

We werent expecting this at all, said Ray Vendrig, manager with Torontos urban forestry department.

You may have seen inchworms, properly called cankerworms, dangling from silk threads around the city this year.

Theyre a relatively rare visitor; this is the first cankerworm infestation since 2000.

The citys website says cankerworms have caused significant defoliation in High Park, Glen Stewart ravine, Glen Davies ravine, Baby Point, Etobicoke Creek Ravine and parts of the Don Valley Ravine.

The hungry caterpillars also hit Mississauga, Hamilton and Burlington, said Jessica McEachren, Missisaugas manager of forestry.

You cant necessarily plan for these guys, said McEachren. She said Mississauga sprayed a bacterial insecticide in some areas to prepare for cankerworms, but they were not expecting so many.

With a roughly 10-year cycle, a cankerworm invasion is a hard thing to anticipate, Vendrig said, particularly because the eggs are tiny and hidden in tree tops.

After they hatch, larvae spend about two weeks munching through leaves before dropping to the ground.

The feeding frenzy is pretty much over by now, however, and the caterpillars are either hanging off trees or have burrowed underground forming a cocoon, said Vendrig.

While some trees may look ravished, they will likely sprout new leaves soon, he said.

Generally, with cankerworm, trees will rebound, he said.

Toronto was planning for a gypsy moth infestation this year, and sprayed the Btk insecticide over certain areas in the spring

Gypsy moth infestations are much more common in the city. Vendrig says theyre much more destructive; the moths spend seven to eight weeks feeding on tree leaves, while cankerworms only feed for about two.

Vendrig says they had great success with spraying for gypsy moths this year, and said those caterpillars are under control.

Vendrig said staff has been responding to calls about cankerworms for the past few weeks, and are taking note of affected trees.

In the fall, staff will come back and wrap a sticky band around tree trunks, he said, to capture the cankerworms as they go to lay their eggs in the upper branches. The citys website provides information on how people can band their own trees.

McEachren said that while healthy trees will bounce back from the cankerworms, growing a new set of leaves take a lot of energy.

This has to be a multiple-year thing, thats for sure, she said.

Janet McKay, executive director of the non-profit Leaf, said shes seen a lot of defoliated trees this year. She said the rainy spring has been a big benefit for the citys trees, but says its important to be aware of things such as winter salt or construction that can impose stress on urban forests and make it harder for trees to bounce back from defoliation.

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Need a drink? Or a doctor?

Fear not. Ontarios Liberal government is pulling out all the stops to prevent any work stoppages from breaching the labour peace.

That means letting public sector workers have their way on pay these days.

Teachers came first, in February, months before their contracts were due to expire. Next came OPSEU workers, well in advance of their deadline. Then supervisory staff. The LCBO is in the on-deck circle with a weekend strike deadline, and doctors are next up after swearing off any job actions during a new round of negotiations.

Its not so much pattern bargaining as pattern settling  a pattern corresponding to the election calendar as Premier Kathleen Wynne braces for the next campaign less than a year away.

What price labour peace? Consider it the cost of politics  and economics.

The political calculus is that Wynne is making the most of rising revenues to bankroll the latest settlements.

But theres also an economic calculation at play, because those workers cashing in now are just catching up after being frozen out during recent years of budget deficits and austerity.

Theres a good argument, in good times, for giving those workers their due after asking them to sacrifice during tough times. Ontario has been leading the country and much of the industrialized world in economic growth recently, and cascading tax revenues have brought the budget back into balance  with fiscal room to spare for pent-up payroll demands.

But theres no question the government has topped up its generosity with alacrity: It keeps making the first move with pre-emptive and utterly unexpected offers that union leaders couldnt refuse.

The more delicate dance centres on Ontarios most powerful non-unionized workers movement  the Ontario Medical Association. After years of sniping, the OMA and the government have finally reached an entente.

Or more precisely, another one  after last years agreement fell apart. Back then, the OMA agreed to a 2.5-per-cent increase (more than other workers are getting), but a restive membership turned it down. That followed a failed mediation effort by former chief justice Warren Winkler, who had recommended half that amount (1.25 per cent) in early 2015, mindful that doctors bill more than $11 billion and act as gatekeepers in a $54-billion health-care system.

Then, and now, the sticking point was a lack of binding arbitration. But what stuck in the craw of most doctors was their belief that Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins was sticking it to them by publicly exposing the excessive billings of several hundred highly paid specialists earning more than $1 million a year, at the expense of lesser-paid family practitioners.

Hell hath no fury like a doctor scorned  especially by another doctor. That Hoskins is a physician criticizing the big money earned by his fellow doctors has exasperated OMA members.

In the wake of an OMA civil war that toppled its executive, Hoskins lost a battle of his own in the Ontario cabinet. He had long resisted doctors demands for arbitration, arguing that Queens Park must maintain control of rising billings lest they come at the expense of other priorities such as home care. His stated condition for any concession on arbitration was that doctors form a true union  thus giving up their right to tax shelters through incorporation.

But with an election on the horizon, Wynnes team concluded it could not risk antagonizing 36,000 doctors with a direct pipeline to the provinces patients, nor cope with work-to-rule tactics. Stressing that she is the daughter of a doctor, Wynne reached out personally to the OMAs new leadership while Hoskins laid low.

There is still no final deal, merely a framework for future negotiations, culminating in mediation and arbitration if needed. The OMA notes seven other provinces and territories allow arbitration for doctors, but B.C. famously reversed an order deemed too expensive. And Ontarios doctors are already the best-paid physicians in Canada, which may be why the last mediator wasnt persuaded they merited a massive pay hike.

That same mindset  more money and even more politics  will govern last-minute negotiations this weekend between the publicly owned LCBO and its OPSEU workers, who can walk out as of 12:01 a.m. Monday. Chances are they will reach an eleventh-hour deal Sunday night, as they have in past negotiations.

Whether its safeguarding drinks or doctors, the only certainty is that Wynnes Liberals are trying to moderate their exposure to risk.

Martin Regg Cohns political column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. mcohn@thestar.ca , Twitter: @reggcohn

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BERLINAs Europe heads into what is expected to be a record hot summer, many of its leaders are basking in an extraordinary glow of political good fortune, or perhaps it is good luck.

Either way, with global relations rocked to its core this year by the chaotic U.S. presidency of Donald Trump, theyll take it.

Here in Germany, Angela Merkel has an 11-point polling lead in her campaign to win a fourth term as chancellor. Her party currently stands at 36 per cent; far down the list is Germanys far-right party at only nine per cent. In neighbouring France, newly elected President Emmanuel Macron  Merkels new best friend  has just led his party to an overwhelming majority in Frances National Assembly.

Perhaps foreshadowing Germanys vote in September, Europes far-right parties have fared poorly in recent elections in Austria, the Netherlands, Britain and, most recently, France. In addition, economic growth throughout much of Europe is expanding faster than projected.

That wasnt what many observers predicted for Europe in 2017. To the contrary, there were fears that the Brexit vote in Britain last June and Trumps victory in November would usher in a period of far-right, nationalist politics.

But that has not happened. Polls suggest that Trumps disruptive presidency has horrified most Europeans and has made them more likely to vote for leaders whom they see as moderate.

This has meant an apparent changing-of-the-guard in terms of the traditional leadership of the western alliance. A deepening relationship between Germany and France  between Merkel and Macron  will have serious implications. Instead of Trump, these European leaders will increasingly be seen as the most credible standard bearers of the worlds liberal and democratic order.

Merkel suggested this in a campaign rally last month. Europe, she said, could no longer rely on the U.S. or Britain as reliable partners: We Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands.

That prompted some American observers, and Trump critics, to speculate that Merkel  as Barack Obama once seemed to suggest  could be the new leader of the free world.

Within Germany, with all of its history, that is not seen as realistic. That is perhaps why a Franco-German partnership is regarded as more viable in defending the democratic liberal order.

Ulrich Brueckner, a professor specializing in European integration at Stanford University in Berlin and California, says that Germanys role  as a country of engineers  is to work with others and defend the rule of law.

In an interview, he said: As nice as it is to have a shining star, young and energetic, who gives sentimental speeches, it doesnt fix a thing and Angela Merkel knows that. Having Merkel be the last woman standing when it comes to this, its good to have her. But she cannot fix the problems of the European Union or the problems of other countries. She should not even try  and she wouldnt.

Toward the end of this week, European leaders met in Brussels and there was clearly a bounce in their step. This burst of optimism even extended to one of Europes most serious challenges, Britains Brexit vote.

As negotiations began over the details of the proposed divorce, European Council president Donald Tusk suggested that its not too late for Britain to change its mind and remain within the European Union. Quoting lyrics from a John Lennon song, Tusk said: You may say Im a dreamer, but Im not the only one.

But his remarks likely fit into the same category as that other bit of breathtaking Brexit news this week.

When the Queen opened the new session of the U.K. parliament on Wednesday, she wore a hat decorated with an arc of papal blue flowers each with a yellow disc at its centre, and this created a storm on Twitter.

In the words of the right-wing Daily Mail newspaper, her hat looked suspiciously like the European Union flag, prompting the BBC to quote another Twitter posting: Nice to see queenie dressed as the EU flag.

However, in this resurgent European summer of 2017, it will likely take a few more cold winters before we know whether Queenie and John Lennon were actually onto something.

Tony Burman is former head of Al Jazeera English and CBC News. Reach him @TonyBurman or at tony.burman@gmail.com .

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BELGRADE, SERBIASeveral dozen Serbian gays, lesbians and transgender people marched on Saturday in Belgrade, hailing the expected election of a first openly gay prime minister as historic for the Balkan country.

Activists gathered at a pride event in the city centre under heavy police protection. They carried banners reading we want life worthy of humans or support matters.

Serbias gay community has faced pressure and violence from extremist groups in the staunchly conservative nation. Activists demanded on Saturday that the authorities do more to curb anti-gay sentiments following recent incidents against transgender people.

Meanwhile, Serbian lawmakers convened to launch proceedings needed for the election of Ana Brnabic as the new premier. If confirmed, the 41-year-old Brnabic will become Serbias first female and openly gay prime minister.

That is something historical for Serbia and groundbreaking, said gay activist Predrag Azdejkovic. We expect to have a meeting with the prime minister and to tell her what we want from her government.

He added that we want more, better and quicker (response) especially from the police but also from the jurisdiction and courts.

The march in Serbia coincided with the weekends celebration of WorldPride in Madrid.

Brnabic is expected to take office next week after a parliamentary vote. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic proposed the U.S. and U.K.-educated business and marketing expert Brnabic after he switched from premier to president in April.

Analysts say Brnabics nomination is Vucics tactic to please the West after his recent apparent shift toward Russia. He has formally proclaimed European Union membership a strategic goal.

A ruling official Aleksandar Martinovic said in parliament on Saturday he expected Brnabics government to continue Vucics policies of EU integration, while also deepening ties with Russia and China.

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DAMASCUS, SYRIAThe Syrian government released Saturday hundreds of detainees including some who backed the insurgency against President Bashar Assad on the eve of a major Muslim holiday.

Hours after the release, a car bomb exploded in a rebel-held northern town near the border with Turkey killing and wounding dozens of people, according to the opposition Civil Defence in Idlib, also known as the White Helmets, and the Britain-based opposition monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The explosion at a market in Dana, killed at least 10 people, including children, and wounded 30, according to the Observatory. The blast came hours after an explosion in the town killed two people and wounded others.

Explosions in rebel-held parts of northern Syria are not uncommon and similar blasts have killed scores over the past months.

Justice Minister Hisham al-Shaar told reporters that the 672 people released on Saturday included 91 women. He said of those released, 588 were freed in the capital Damascus, Assads seat of power.

Al-Shaar added that the release came in a bid to sustain national reconciliations efforts and the homelands unity.

The release comes on the eve of Eid el-Fitr, the feast that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Syrian authorities usually release detainees on major holidays.

Tens of thousands of people have been detained since Syrias crisis began in March 2011. The conflict has killed some 400,000 people and displaced half the countrys population.

Syrian government forces have been gaining ground around the country under the cover of Russian airstrikes and now control the five largest cities. The push has led to so-called reconciliations in areas around Syria in which opposition fighters either surrendered in exchange for amnesty or moved to rebel-held areas in northern Syria.

Among those released in Damascus was 45-year-old Abdul-al-Rahman Ali who used to finance opposition fighters.

I was wrong and every person makes mistakes. I have repented and returned to embrace my homeland, he said.

A woman who identified herself as Um Akram wiped away her tears as she waited for her son who had been jailed for more than three years. I am glad for the release of my son, she said as she stood with her husband outside the headquarters of Assads ruling Baath Party in Damascus where part of the release occurred.

The womans husband stressed that his son is ready to join the military service.

Ibrahim Barakeh, 64, from al-Ghouta in the countryside of Damascus, said he has been in jail for 16 months on a change of funding terrorists. Thank God for being released. I was wrong. I will try to return to al-Ghouta to join my wife and son, he added referring to a suburb of Damascus.

In northern Syria, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces released some 200 Daesh, also known as ISIS, members in Raqqa province at the request of tribal leaders in the region, according to the Observatory.

The Observatory said all those released in the town of Tabqa and the city of Raqqa and its suburbs had no blood on their hands and had jobs with Daesh such as preachers or employees in the extremist group civilian institutions.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have been marching inside Raqqa since June 6, under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, with the aim of liberating Daeshs de facto capital of the extremists.

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ISTANBULTurkish authorities announced Saturday they will not allow the Istanbul Pride march to take place on Sunday  the third year in a row the celebration has been banned. The move prompted criticism from rights groups and fears of possible violence, as Pride organizers said they would defy the ban.

For more than a decade, the Istanbul Pride has attracted tens of thousands of participants, making it one of largest gatherings celebrating gay, lesbian and transgender rights and diversity in the Muslim world.

Unlike other Muslim countries, homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey. However, lesbian, gay and transgender activists say they lack legal protections and face widespread social stigma in the nation that is heavily influenced by conservative and religious values.

The Istanbul governors office said the Pride march would be banned to keep public order and for the safety of participants and tourists. It said the area around central Taksim Square, where the march begins, was not designated for demonstrations.

Read more: Turkey detains activists, uses tear gas to break up gay pride gathering

The volunteer-organized Pride committee said the ban violates domestic and international law limiting the right to peaceful assembly. It asked the governors office to reconsider and fulfil its obligations by providing security precautions.

The city government also said very serious reactions by different segments of society were raised against the march.

This week, like last year, ultra-nationalist and conservative groups said they would not allow the Pride march to take place even if the authorities allowed it. LGBTI activists said the ban legitimizes threats and hate speech under the guise of protecting the publics sensitivities.

Amnesty International expressed deep worry following the ban and said Turkish authorities violated freedom of expression and assembly in a routine and arbitrary way.

Turkey should protect rather than ban Pride marches, Amnesty said, adding it would make sure to document developments on Sunday.

Up to 100,000 people took part in 2014s Pride march, making it one of the largest LGBTI Pride events in a predominantly Muslim nation. The following year, authorities banned the march in a surprise move citing public order and dispersed the crowds.

In 2016, the march was again banned amid a spate of deadly attacks blamed on Daesh, also known as ISIS, or on outlawed Kurdish militants. LGBTI activists still attempted to converge on Taksim Square, leading to skirmishes with police. A state of emergency declared after last summers failed coup has further limited public gatherings.

Organizers believe the celebrations in 2015 and 2016 were banned because they coincided with Islams holy month of Ramadan and say authorities are using security as an excuse to ban the parades instead of taking measures to deal with the threats against those participating.

Sundays planned march coincides with the Eid holiday, marking the end of a month of fasting for Ramadan.

(The bans are) a reflection of the increasingly conservative and majoritarian policies of the government, said Murat Koylu, of the Ankara-based Kaos GL, a group promoting LGBTI rights.

The Pride Week events and parade, held in Istanbul since 2003, allowed the LGBTI community to try and break the stigma and assert their rights, including demands for explicit bans on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The fact that the existing political power is not making the necessary changes in the constitution, and the fact that they have discourse against us might encourage people who are already (trans) phobic, said Seyhan Arman, a 37-year-old transgender woman and performer.

The Turkish government insists there is no discrimination against individuals based on their sexual orientation, and that laws barring discrimination on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity or religion protect all citizens. It also insists that perpetrators of hate crimes are prosecuted.

The violence against us has existed since the day we were born. It starts in the family, it continues at the university, in the working life, said Deniz Sapka, a 27-year-old transgender woman originally from the southeastern province of Hakkari, who goes by that surname to avoid recognition by family members. We are people who have always experienced a state of emergency. We experience it from our birth.

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The first Brexit discussions took place this week with the European Union quickly handing Britain its backside. If the opening capitulation on the sequencing of talks is an indication, its going to be a brutal negotiation for Team GB.

The poor showing isnt much of a surprise, given Britain is now the sick man of Europe. How quickly things have changed; two years ago it was Europe on its knees.

Despite leaving this era-defining mess in his wake, former British Prime Minister David Cameron should be forgiven for putting his countrys membership in the Europe Union to a vote a year ago.

With Camerons (unexpected) June 2015 majority weighed down by the promise of a referendum, it was a question of when, not if, the vote would be called. And while no politician looks to sell into a down market, Cameron reckoned Europes 2016 would be as bad, or worse, than its torrid 2015. A quick vote was the Europhile prime ministers best chance.

A million migrants had spilled into the continent that summer and hundreds of thousands more were expected to follow. Islamists were profiting from Europes undefended internal borders to launch strikes, culminating in the savage siege of Paris Bataclan theatre. Noisy populists on the left and right were using these and other political failures to hammer the established order. The continent was reeling.

Camerons mistake was to think his continental colleagues would be in a mood to give him what he wanted in a negotiation. They werent. Europe couldnt afford the luxury of dealing with Britains problems. Camerons loss and subsequent resignation left Theresa May to pick up his pieces.

For a while the comparison with Europe continued to trade in Britains favour. The U.K. economy remained resilient. The continent continued to struggle with migrants, terror and tepid economies. With each attack or factory closure the shouts for a Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, or Beppe Grillo grew louder.

And then ... silence.

The populists have, by and large, been seen off. In France, neophyte Emmanuel Macron led his untested centrist movement into power, and in Germany Angela Merkel is once again a safe bet for reelection. The spine of Europe is newly stiffened.

Meanwhile, Theresa May squandered the Cameron majority in her own poorly executed gamble. To add insult to Mays ignominy, the British economy is now the worst performing in the G7. Would the referendum vote return a different result today, now that Europe is in rude(r) health? Possibly.

The reversal of Europe and Britains fortunes is a timely reminder that everything in politics is a certainty, until it isnt. Its also proof that answers to sharp problems can be found in the centre, as opposed to the margins of political discourse. Above all, its a symbol of how quickly things can change when the population is fed up with the status quo.

And Britain, circa June 2017, suddenly has the look and feel of a frustrated place.

The horrific fire in Londons Grenfell Tower provided a gruesome precis of the challenges facing the country. Austerity, while necessary to restore trust in public finances, has produced victims, people who have frequently been ignored by the political class. If their angry reaction to the fire is any indication, they wont be silent much longer.

Its not a great time for Britains political class to be distracted  as they now are  by more proximate partisan concerns. With no stable governing coalition at the ready both the Conservatives and Labor are preparing for a return to the polls.

It is in this fragile environment the government of the day must play its weak Brexit hand. No pressure; it is only the most important negotiation in the countrys history. A poor result could be the shock that triggers a political realignment.

The Macron example must surely be tempting for those Tory and Labour moderates put off by the extreme wings of their parties, i.e. the ultras who painted the country into its unenviable corner. Would moderates put country ahead of party if the government comes back with no deal, or a poor deal? And would anyone in Europe be ready to listen to them?

Its tempting to say it could never happen. Then again, lots of people were saying the same thing in 2015, when the present Europe looked an impossibility.

Andrew MacDougall is a London-based columnist and commentator. He was director of communications for prime minister Stephen Harper.

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Re: Womans racist outburst speaks volumes, Paradkar, June 21

Womans racist outburst speaks volumes, Paradkar, June 21

As primary health-care providers serving racialized communities, we are all too familiar with the racism experienced on a daily basis towards both our clients and racialized service providers.

We know that racism  whether its overt, institutional or systemic  measurably harms peoples health. Anti-Black racism in particular creates major disparities in health outcomes for Black people living in the GTHA.

Ontarios community health centres, Aboriginal health access centres and partner organizations challenge racism every day by putting health equity at the centre of what we do. We are committed to creating spaces for safe, anti-oppressive and anti-racist health care  including in the waiting room.

With the rise of divisive populist politics, these situations are likely to escalate. Primary health care organizations across Ontario need access to better resources and staff training to tackle racism when and where it arises. We call on Ontarios anti-racism directorate and ministry of health and long-term care to work with us to take action now.

Notisha Massaquoi, executive director, Womens Health in Womens Hands community health centre and Cheryl Prescod, executive director, Black Creek community health centre; co-chairs, Anti-Black Racism Strategy Group, Association of Ontario Health Centres

We are absolutely disgusted by the vicious racist vitriol spouted at a local Mississauga clinic. My husband and I have had numerous immigrant doctors from many lands. In the course of our lifetime, we have also been cared for by many in both clinical and hospital settings. Every one of them has been top notch and very well educated.

We are both white, our ancestors coming from England, France and Ireland, who thank God settled here many years ago. We raised our children to accept and respect all people. Our grandchildren are being taught the same.

Please, let us stop this gut-wrenching racism in its tracks. Canada stands for inclusive acceptance of all people from every corner of the Earth.

Marlane and Tim Tibbs, Mississauga

Racist rant signifies nothing, Letters, June 21

Im astonished by the letters from Thomas Gault and Max DeSouza.

First, those deep biases are not based on limited anecdotal evidence; they are based on the common, everyday experiences of regular people navigating their lives.

Second, DeSouza's suggestion that multiculturalism is alive and well, despite some hiccups along the way, is pure fantasy, especially if he thinks systemic problems in health care, policing, justice and employment systems are merely hiccups.

There isnt nearly enough space here to refute all of their misconceptions but a good starting point is this quote from Shree Paradkars column: Racism is structural, systemic and largely invisible except to those who experience it.

Consider: police carding and killings of people of colour, disproportionate prison populations, disgraceful treatment of First Nations people for decades, people with foreign-sounding names or accents being dismissed by potential employers and the ubiquitous, sorry you dont have Canadian job experience. The list goes on and on.

Canada is certainly in the top few countries for quality of life and positive outcomes from immigration, but to blindly promote it as perfect in every way does no one any good.

David McMillan, Toronto

As I watched the video of the womans rant at the walk-in clinic in Mississauga, my reactions ran from shock to disbelief to outrage to embarrassment that something like this could happen in Canada. But in the end, what I felt was sadness that her child was being raised in such a toxic atmosphere of anger, bitterness and hatred.

Dorothy Graves, Mt. Hope, Ont.

Shree Paradkar quite properly calls out the Mississauga clinic racist. Sadly, in doing so, she also meanly stereotypes the English. It seems we still have work to do.

Allan Portis, Toronto

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For Canadas 150th birthday bash, the skies will light up with dazzling fireworks  a tradition dating back to when Canada became a confederation.

The ostentatiousness of this spectacle will be greatly anticipated by many, feared by some  mainly dogs  and probably compared to past fireworks presentations that elicited oohs and ahhsin the past, most notably the display known as the Symphony of Fire, the grandest pyrotechnics competition that lit up the Toronto skyline on Canada Day for 14 years.

Sponsored by tobacco company Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, the international fireworks competition saw four countries compete each year. The event was held in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Each entry would present its submission over four nights. The spectacular displays, which lasted about 30 minutes, were set to music, and could be heard simultaneously on selected radio stations. The music ranged from classical to rock n roll and was choreographed by the fireworks companies representing various countries.

At the end of the competition, after the winner was announced, a grand finale was held when each participating nation was given six minutes to wow the crowd.

When the Symphony of Fire debuted on Canada Day in 1987, more than 50,000 people showed up at Ontario Place to watch team Canada, led by Patrick Brault, owner of Concept Fiatlux, a Montreal fireworks company, open the event. The other countries competing that first year were France, the United States and Spain. During that first festival, two million spectators turned out at Ontario Place on the fifth night and ate up the sky candy.

Read more:Revitalized section of Ontario Place finally reopens

Businesspeople and community members from the media and the arts judged the competition. The winner was decided based on colour, co-ordination and presentation.

That first year France won the coveted gold medal and Canada secured the silver.

There were a few fireworks of another kind among the competing teams as personalities clashed, recalls radio host Lisa Brandt, who emceed the Toronto event for several summers.

Brandt, described one of these incidents in her blog. In it, she recalls the year a member of the American team was manhandled a bit because he tried to take a swing at Benson & Hedges event co-ordinator Doug Henderson.

The American team freaked out when they didnt win, she said.

The U.S. approach to the competition was to launch as many fireworks as possible to a patriotic song. There was no finesse, no art, just loud, brash propping of everything they had, while the Italians, for example would use a beautiful piece of classical music and time everything to the nanosecond, she says.

The Rothmans, Benson & Hedges sponsorship of the popular event would soon fizzle leading to the fireworks competitions ultimate demise. Federal legislation passed in 2000 prohibited tobacco companies from sponsoring cultural and sporting events and Benson & Hedges reluctantly announced in November 2000 that it would no longer sponsor the Symphony of Fire in any of the Canadian cities.

The company told the Ontario Place Corp., which hosted the Toronto event, that it was free to launch its own fireworks program. But if the corporation managed to find funding, it could no longer use the name Symphony of Fire, which was owned by Benson & Hedges.

Pizza Pizza stepped up to sponsor a similar festival in Ashbridges Bay in 2001. The 20-minute kaleidoscope of colour called the Festival of Fire, attracted other sponsors including the Labatt Brewing Company Ltd., Mix 99.9 radio station and the Toronto Police Services.

Ontario Place did launch its own Festival of Fire show in 2003 with a shift to more domestic performers. Called the Canada Dry Festival of Fire, it ran until 2011, for three to four nights, with fireworks shot into the sky from a 200-metre lake freighter. It was choreographed to themed music that represented various countries and was heard on CHFI radio.

It was the choreography between the fireworks and the music that made this fireworks festival concept so successful. And the timing was so important. One of the organizers of the Festival of Fire, Fiatlux, told the Star on July 1, 2008 that a team of designers in Montreal worked for three months to get the musical soundtracks in sync with the fireworks at Ontario Place.

Our timing is down to one-hundredth of a second. Thats what we can control each of the fireworks shells down to when were working with the music, Jeff Chappell said.

In line with that years Canada Day theme, skywatchers were told to expect a lot of regal golds, as well as reds and whites, which would include a representation of a Canadian flag.

If you think about the sky as a giant canvas, we try to paint it on the left and right side with red and in the middle of the white for the illusion of a flag, Chappell said.

The last Festival of Fire took place in 2011. The Ontario government closed Ontario Place in 2012.

This July 1, for the 150th celebrations, Torontonians can look forward to more kaleidoscopes of colour exploding overhead in proclamation of our patriotic pride.

The City of Toronto is hosting fireworks at four locations: Nathan Phillips Square  which is hosting A four-day festival  Mel Lastman Square, Humber Bay Park West and Scarborough Civic Centre.

The music selection for the fireworks is dynamic, current and celebratory, said Justine Palinska, supervisor, special events marketing, economics and development and culture with the City of Toronto. The theme is To Canada With Love.

Meanwhile, Harbourfront is hosting a brilliant display of fireworks, said publicist Victoria Lord. Starting at dusk, fireworks set to music will burst over Lake Ontario. Its inspired by a weekend festival titled Our Home On Native Land. The four-day festival, running June 30 through July 3, will celebrate the creative contributions of Indigenous and new Canadians to the artistic and cultural fabric of Canada, Lord says.

Share your story suggestions at OnceUponACity@thestar.ca . To search more about this story or your story go to thestar.com/archives . To purchase or browse more photos go to starstore.ca/collections/once-upon-a-city , or visit us on Facebook at facebook.com/TorontoStarArchives or on Twitter: @StarHistoricPix.

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He's one of the few U.S. government officials that President Donald Trump can't fire on a whim.

And that independence might help explain why Richard Cordray, 58, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, has been so aggressive -- and successful -- in cracking down on illegal debt-collection practices, improper mortgage-foreclosure tactics and deceptive credit-card marketing by banks like Citigroup Inc. (C) - Get Free Report

Unlike the heads of the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission, Cordray doesn't answer to a board or commission. And unlike former FBI Director James Comey, Cordray can't be replaced without cause prior to his term's expiration in 2018. Nor does Congress have the ability to slash the CFPB's budget, as industry-friendly lawmakers have done in the past to blunt the enforcement efforts of the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In the six years since its creation, the bureau has wrested more than $12 billion of consumer relief and penalties from banks and other financial firms. Cordray's disclosure of improper account openings at Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) - Get Free Report ultimately led to the departure of the San Francisco-based bank's CEO, John Stumpf.

But rather than applaud the CFPB for its successes, Trump and the banking industry want to rein Cordray in. The Treasury Department said in a report this month that the agency was prone to "regulatory abuses and excesses." And the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on June 8 passed a bill that would give the president the ability to fire the CFPB director and subject the agency to Congressional budget appropriations.

"What's going on is more an objection to the way the CFPB is carrying out its mission than a principled position about what agency structure is ideal," said Brian Marshall, policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform, which advocates for tougher regulation.

According to the Treasury report, the bureau got $565 million in transfers from the Fed in 2016. That figure, from a regulator that didn't previously exist, is roughly on par with the SEC's entire enforcement budget.

The CFPB was set up in 2011, the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and longtime big-bank critic. Under Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general and five-time Jeopardy! champion, the agency has passed rules specifying the boundaries of safe mortgage lending while expanding the definition of which financial-product sales might be considered unfair or deceptive.

Indeed, says Marshall, banks may have avoided making many risky loans due to the CFPB's oversight, thus forgoing profit opportunities worth "multiples" of the $12 billion of penalties imposed.

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In other words, the question is whether the CFPB's governance structure makes it more effective as a regulator, not less.

"While opportunity costs represent a cost to the bank, such lost profits do not necessarily reflect a loss to society," the CFPB wrote in a 2013 report. "For example, it may be true that consumer benefits from avoiding those transactions are equal or greater than the loss in bank profits."

Risk-avoidance could also spare the banks -- and their shareholders -- the often-delayed costs of consumer lawsuits and fines. The Wall Street Journal reported in March 2016 that big banks had paid at least $110 billion in fines for their role in the mortgage crisis of the late 2000s. And those figures don't include multibillion-dollar settlements reached subsequently with Germany's Deutsche Bank and other firms.

The CFPB's press office didn't respond to requests for comment.

On Thursday, June 22, the American Bankers Association and other financial-industry trade groups sent a public letter to lawmakers arguing that the CFPB should be overseen by a five-person, bipartisan commission. Such an arrangement would provide a "balanced and deliberative approach to supervision" while reducing "uncertainty and instability for consumers."

In other words, the banking industry -- with its armies of lawyers, consultants and lobbyists -- would have an easier time pushing back against an aggressive regulator. The five-person structure would also insulate the agency from "dramatic political shifts" each time a new president comes along, according to the letter.

The American Bankers Association represents big U.S. lenders including Wells Fargo and Citigroup as well as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) - Get Free Report and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) - Get Free Report

Dick Bove, a five-decade veteran analyst at Rafferty Capital Markets in Lutz, Fla., says banks faced virtually no enforcement of consumer-protection laws prior to the CFPB's creation. The Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and other regulators focused instead on firms' ability to weather big losses and pay back depositors.

"The fear among bankers is that there's this guy out there, and he can do whatever he wants, and nobody can stop him," Bove said in an interview. "I would be afraid too if I were a bank."
You wouldn't blame Europe for feeling a bit overshadowed this week, with not even a landslide victory by Emmanuel Macron's En Marche party in France's parliamentary elections interrupting the onslaught of headlines from the United Kingdom.

Still, here's what made headlines in both Britain and Europe this week:

Brexit One Year On:

Brexit celebrated its first birthday Friday, with many still wondering what exiting the EU really means. Prime Minister Theresa May famously said "Brexit mean Brexit", but a year later the direction of the U.K.'s divorce is still unknown. Negotiators met for the first time Monday, June 19, with the U.K. losing its first point, agreeing to first negotiate a divorce deal, then move on to a future trading relationship. On Thursday, during a summit of European leaders May unveiled her plan for EU citizens living in the U.K., saying that EU nationals that have lived in Britain for five years would be given full rights and those that arrived before Article 50 was triggered would be given a chance to hit the five-year mark. EU leaders criticized the move, insisting that European citizens living in the UK should be able to uphold their rights in the European Court of Justice.

Key Number: -15%. The pound, which has been described by HSBC as the defacto opposition to the government, was volatile this week. It has lost 15% since June 23, 2016, ending the week at $1.27198.

Read more:

https://www.thestreet.com/story/14192887/1/brexit-one-year-later-domestic-stocks-still-hurting.html

https://www.thestreet.com/story/14186434/1/sterling-tumbles-as-bank-of-england-governor-challenges-government-s-cake-and-eat-it-brexit-aim.html

U.K. Government Open But Is It Functional?

The U.K. Prime Minister has barely put a foot right since she called the snap poll in April in order to strengthen her position in Brexit negotiations. On Wednesday, Queen Elizabeth II's subdued (some might argue subversive, if you factor-in the Euro-themed hat she wore in favor of her normal Crown) opening of parliament that shredded many of May's key election pledges and snubbed a state visit for U.S. President Donald Trump. The opening of parliament came at a tricky time for Prime Minister Theresa May, who is said to have not yet formed a deal with Northern Ireland's DUP to ensure a majority government, leaving her exposed.

Key Number: -13. May lost 13 in the June 8 snap election, bringing her Conservative Party down to 318 seats, below the 326 needed for a majority in the House of Commons.

Read more:

https://www.thestreet.com/story/14188699/1/trump-s-u-k-visit-looks-to-be-delayed-after-queen-fails-to-mention-it-in-opening-of-parliament.html

A Fire That Shocked A Nation

The horror of the Grenfell tower continued to absorb the U.K. this week. The death toll is now expected to be more than 79. The Metropolitan Police on Friday identified a Hotpoint fridge/freezer as the cause of the fire that swept through the high rise building last week. Whirlpool Corp. WHR, which owns Hotpoint, is urging customers to check their appliances for safety reasons. The police said they are also considering manslaughter charges for those associated with the cladding and the insulation that was used on the building, which are thought to have been the reason why the fire spread so quickly. "Preliminary tests show the insulation samples collected from Grenfell Tower combusted soon after the tests started. The initial test on the cladding tiles also failed the safety tests," Detective Superintendent Fiona McCormack said.

Key Number: 600. About 600 high rises in the U.K. are thought to have cladding, the government said Thursday. Downing Street said it had identified 11 tower blocks across eight local authority areas with similar ACM cladding to that used at the North Kensington tower.

Read More:

https://www.thestreet.com/story/14193390/1/hotpoint-advises-customers-to-check-fridge-freezers-following-grenfell-fire.html

Allez! France's Employment Growth Hits 10-Year High and GDP Is Upgraded

France's job creation hit its highest point since the 2008 financial crisis, influential economic data tracker IHS Markit reported Friday. Simultaneously, France's own economic statistics agency Insee, upgraded French economic growth for the second time in under a month, declaring that gross domestic product increased 0.5% in the first quarter, up from an initial estimate of 0.3% and an earlier revision to 0.4%. The move came days after France's new President Emanuel Macron secured a landslide victory in the weekend's parliamentary election.

Key Number: $75 billion. Macron Monday flew into the Paris Air Show victorious after his win. Boeing claimed a victory over Airbus at the show with aircraft orders and commitments worth $75 billion at list prices.

Read More:

https://www.thestreet.com/story/14192863/1/allez-france-s-employment-growth-hits-10-year-high-and-gdp-is-upgraded.html

Raise a Glass to Clooney

The world's largest drink maker Diageo DEO on Wednesday picked up a new company from an unlikely source - George Clooney. U.K.-based Diageo bought Clooney's tequila brand Casamigos in a $1 billion deal. Diageo will pay $700 million initially with a further $300 million depending on the brand's performance. Casamigos was founded by Clooney and two of his friends in 2013. The three founders of the brand will continue to promote the brand. Diageo's other tequila brands include Don Julio, DeLeon and Peligroso. The move by Diageo was hailed as a good one by analysts that welcomed the addition of a premium alcohol to its stable. "If you asked us four years ago if we had a billion-dollar company, I don't think we would have said yes," Clooney told CNBC in an email.

Key Number: $200 million. Clooney is expected to get more than $200 million from the deal, and he might need it. Clooney and his esteemed wife Amal, a famed human rights lawyer, just welcomed twins. It is estimated that the cost of raising a child born this year is around $233,000.

Read More:

https://www.thestreet.com/video/14190768/george-clooney-s-casamigos-bought-in-billion-dollar-deal.html

Editors' pick: Originally published June 23.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is the best big-screen phone yet, thanks to its versatile dual cameras, S Pen improvements and beautiful 6.3-inch screen.

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 is a big-screen phone that commands your attention  and not just because it's a sequel to a device the company was forced to recall. It's because the Note 8 ushers in a new class of smartphones that is super-premium.

Priced between $930 and $960 (depending on the carrier), Samsung's new phablet has the loftiest price tag of any mainstream Android handset yet. But the Note 8 tries to justify its high price with the first dual-camera setup ever on a Samsung phone; the biggest screen ever offered by Samsung, at 6.3 inches; and a host of new tricks for the S Pen. The Note 8 also offers more RAM than the Galaxy S8 and S8+, as well as a smart new way to multitask.

Is all of that worth about $80 to $100 more than the already large-and-in-charge Galaxy S8+? After living with the Note 8 for more than a week, I would say "yes."

We've updated our review of the Galaxy Note 8 based on our in-depth smartphone drop tests. See the results below.

Design: The pinnacle of phablets

With its curved Infinity Display that goes from nearly edge to edge, the glass front of the Galaxy Note 8 is simply stunning. In fact, it makes other big-screen phones like the LG V30, Google Pixel XL and iPhone 7 Plus look downright dowdy.

I know what you're wondering: Is 6.3 inches too big? Not really, and I have pretty small hands. That's because this phone has the same narrow 18.5:9 aspect ratio as the Galaxy S8 and S8+. I found I could reach across the screen with my thumb, but because the Note's design is so tall, I sometimes had to reposition the phone in my hand to target items on the top or bottom of the display.

Samsung purposely made the curves on this screen less severe than those on the S8 or S8+, which gives you more usable real estate for the pen. I dig these more slanted edges, as they also help visually differentiate the Note 8 from its siblings. However, I do wish Samsung would offer more color options in the U.S. to make this phone truly pop. U.S. carriers are offering midnight black and orchid gray, but I want to see the gold and blue versions that are available overseas arrive stateside, too.

Around the back, you'll find the dual-lens cameras and a fingerprint reader to the right of the flash. I'm not a fan of this somewhat awkward placement, as it would be easier if the sensor were beneath the camera. It also didnt always work on the first try; fortunately, you can log in via facial recognition or iris scanning.

MORE: Which Carrier Has the Best Note 8 Deal?



Measuring 6.4 x 2.9 x 0.34 inches and weighing 6.9 ounces, the Note 8 is on the heavy side, but it feels pretty balanced in my hand. By comparison, the S8+ is slightly shorter, at 6.3 inches, but significantly lighter, at 6.1 ounces. That's to be expected, though, because the Note 8 carries a stylus.



Durability: It could be tougher

As with the Galaxy S8, the Note 8 is water-resistant. It's also pretty tough; I accidentally stepped on the screen, and it didn't crack.

But to get a better sense of the phone's durability, we tested the toughness of the Galaxy Note 8 by dropping it on its face onto wood from a height of 4 feet and 6 feet; we then dropped it on its edge and face onto concrete from 4 feet; we then dropped it on its edge and face from 6 feet onto concrete.

Samsung's phablet withstood 4- and 6-foot drops on its face onto a wood surface without any difficulty. A 4-foot fall on its edge onto concrete caused some minor scratches on the bottom edge, but a 4-foot drop on its face cracked the screen in a number of places, including in front of its front-facing camera, which gave selfies a very artistic look. A 6-foot face drop onto concrete caused the Note 8's screen to start flashing white, black and green, and the touch screen was completely unresponsive.

As a result, the Note 8 earned a low toughness score of 4.3 out of 10. To see the results of other smartphones, as well as our complete scoring methodology, check out our smartphone drop tests.

Galaxy Note 8 Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally Price $930 to $960, depending on carrier

Display: A big and beautiful canvas with more purpose

The 6.3-inch Infinity Display on the Note 8 makes your jaw drop even before you put it in your hands, and Samsung devised a clever new way to make the most of the phone's billboard-like real estate.

For starters, the Note 8's screen is deliciously colorful. I was mesmerized by the multifaceted silver armor of Cyborg in the Justice League trailer, as well as his piercing red eye. When playing Mortal Kombat X, I marveled at how grotesquely awesome the gooey brains of my splayed enemy looked when they spilled out of his head.

MORE: The Best Smartphones Available Right Now



In our lab tests, the Note 8's display covered 204.8 percent of the sRGB color gamut. By comparison, the Moto Z2 Force's OLED screen hit 199.7 percent, and the LG G6's LCD displayed 134 percent. The Note 8's display delivers accurate hues, too, as it registered a Delta-E score of 0.5; a score of 0 is perfect. The Z2 Force notched 1.06, and the LG G6 scored 1.1.

Because the Note 8's panel supports HDR (high dynamic range), you should be able to enjoy better contrast and more colors when streaming HDR content.

To maximize this phone's ultrawide screen, Samsung introduced a feature called App Pair with the Note 8. When you swipe in from the right side of the screen, you can launch two apps on the screen at once  side by side or on top of each other, depending on how you hold the phone. It's also pretty easy to create pairs.

I liked being able to have the Email app open on the left and the Calendar app on the right, or the browser on one side and YouTube on the other.

Dual Cameras: Amazing photos, great flexibility

Samsung isn't just playing catch-up with the dual cameras on the Note 8. It has leaped ahead of the iPhone  at least for now. That's because both 12-megapixel cameras on this device offer optical image stabilization; the iPhone 7 Plus' telephoto lens doesn't have that feature.

What can you do with these dual shooters? For starters, you get a 2x optical zoom with a simple tap on the screen. In Union Square, I could easily zoom in on a statue from afar without losing any detail.

You also get a new Live Focus mode, which is similar to the Portrait mode on the iPhone 7 Plus, which blurs the background and makes your subject pop. But only the Note 8 lets you adjust the intensity of this effect both before and after you snap the photo.



I felt like a pro when I snapped an image of purple flowers in front of a fountain. The iPhone 7 Plus did a better job than the Note 8 of blurring the background more consistently through the frame, but I liked that I could control how much of the fountain I could see.



I also really like the Dual Capture feature on the Note 8, which snaps both a close-up and a wide-angle photo at the same time, and then lets you toggle between both views in the gallery. One pic I took of the New York City skyline looked so good that a woman sitting next to me on the bus asked me to text it to her. Even in a moving vehicle, the picture turned out fairly sharp, thanks to the optical image stabilization.

My only complaint is that I sometimes had to tap more than once on the screen to switch between the close-up and wide-angle views.

In terms of image quality, the Note 8 delivered the same type of remarkably sharp and colorful pics that made the Galaxy S8 our top camera phone.

Compared with a shot taken with the iPhone 7 Plus, a Note 8 photo of trees and a statue in Union Square had richer greens and slightly more refined details around the edges when zoomed in. However, as with most iPhone photos, its colors were warmer than the Note 8's, and the Samsung image ran a bit cooler and nearly blew out some of the highlights.



S Pen: Neat new tricks (with some kinks)

Samsung has been broadening the appeal of the S Pen for the past few years, and the Note 8 takes it to the next level.

For starters, you can now take up to 100 pages of notes using the Screen Off memo feature. You just take out the pen and start writing. It's easy to pin notes to the always-on display and to edit notes in place. I found this feature handy when crossing off items on my to-do list and shopping lists.

The coolest new S Pen feature is Live Message, which turns your scribbles into animated GIFs to share with others. For example, I wrote "Love you" on top of a photo with a fun sparkle pen tip and then tried to send it to my wife via text message. I say "tried" because I got an error message that said "Maximum total size of attachments exceeded." Strangely, other times, I didn't get that error, so it might depend on the size of the image captured.

The other noteworthy new S Pen feature is the ability to translate full sentences into different languages just by hovering the pen above the screen. This worked well when I visited the French site Le Monde and highlighted a few rows of text.

For those so inclined, the S Pen remains a viable tool for sketching and drawing. I handed the Note 8 off to a colleague to create a couple of sketches, and he found the pen to be fairly accurate. However, he wished that the pen offered more nuanced control, as the Apple Pencil does on the iPad.

Battery Life: Surprisingly good

We'll have to wait and see whether the Note 8's battery lives up to Samsung's safety claims, but I can say that the phone lasts quite a long time on a charge. Although the battery's 3,300-mAh capacity is a bit lower than that of the battery inside the ill-fated Note 7, as well as the battery in the Galaxy S8+ (both 3,500 mAh), it turned in excellent results.

On the Tom's Guide Battery Test, which involves continuous web surfing over 4G on 150 nits of screen brightness, the Note 8 lasted a very strong 11 hours and 11 minutes on T-Mobile's network. That's even better than the 11:04 that the S8+ turned in and the 10:39 runtime from the S8, both also tested on T-Mobile. It's possible that the Note 8's extra RAM makes it slightly more efficient.

MORE: Smartphones with the Longest Battery Life

By comparison, the iPhone 7 Plus lasted 10:38, and the Moto Z2 Force ran for 10:23. The LG G6 mustered only 8:39.

Performance: More RAM, serious power

The Note 8 has the same Snapdragon 835 processor as other current Android flagships, but it ups the ante with 6GB of RAM. Most other phones make do with 4GB of RAM; exceptions include the OnePlus 5, which comes with up to 8GB of RAM.

In everyday use, the Note 8 was very swift, whether I was jumping right into the camera from the lock screen instantly (just double-press the home button) or playing Injustice 2 with silky-smooth frame rates. However, there were more than a couple of times when I had to tap the screen more than once for the phone to do what I wanted.

On Geekbench, which measures overall performance, the Note 8 scored 6,564 on the multicore portion of the test. That's better than the Galaxy S8 (6,124), a bit better than the Moto Z2 Force (6,489) and just slightly faster than the OnePlus 5 with 8GB of RAM (6,542).

When it comes to graphics performance, the Note 8 more than holds its own. It notched 39,834 on the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited test, which beat the Galaxy S8 (35,903) and edged out the Z2 Force (39,807) and the OnePlus 5 (39,576).

Software: Bixby is underrated

Other than the added capabilities of the S Pen and the App Pair feature for split-screen multitasking, Bixby is the highlight software feature on the Note 8, which runs Android 7.1.1. It's best not to think of Bixby as a direct Siri competitor but rather more of a personal assistant that speeds up tasks that typically take multiple taps.

For instance, I said, "Capture a screenshot, and show it to me in the gallery," and the Note 8 did both tasks in succession successfully. I also liked that I could add specific items to my to-do list by saying them aloud, such as "Add 'approve vacation day' to my task list." At first, Bixby thought I said "A prove," but the mistake was easy to correct.

MORE: Galaxy Note 8: Features to Enable and Disable

The other main highlight is the Apps Edge menu, which makes it easy to pull up your favorite apps without having to go back to the home screen. You can also quickly access your favorite contacts from this menu.

Accessories Aplenty

The Galaxy Note 8 has a new design, so you're definitely going to need a new case for this 6.3-inch monster. The good news is that there are plenty of options to choose from already, including a suede-like Alcantara cover that's available in multiple colors. My favorite is green.

MORE: 11 Best Galaxy Note 8 Accessories

The Note 8 also supports a new version of the Gear VR headset ($129) for people who want to get into virtual reality. The headset comes with a motion controller to make the VR experience more immersive.

DeX Station

If you want to leverage the full power of the Note 8 on a bigger screen, check out the DeX Station, which costs about $125. With this dock, you can run Android apps on a full-size HD monitor, and get a desktop-like experience with a mouse and keyboard connected to the peripheral. More developers are starting to support this accessory, including Zoom, which lets you seamlessly continue your conference call after you plug the phone into the dock.

Bottom Line

Spending nearly $1,000 on a smartphone seems a bit nuts when you can get a very good phone, like the OnePlus 5, for less than $500. But the Note 8 isn't just very good  it is awesome. The combination of its glorious 6.3-inch Infinity Display, excellent dual cameras and more versatile S Pen makes it the big-screen phone to beat. Some people may want to wait for the iPhone 8, but if you're an Android fan, you need look no further.

The Note 8 could be better in some ways. The fingerprint sensor is located in an awkward spot, and the Live Message feature (as novel as it is) doesn't always work the way it should. Then, there's the price. If you don't have a need for the S Pen and you just want a big screen, you'll be plenty happy with the $850 Galaxy S8 Plus. But I'd spend the extra dough on the Note 8 simply because of its dual-lens camera and what you can do with it.

Credit: Shaun Lucas/Tom's Guide


Arcadis, a leading global design and consultancy firm for natural and built assets, said it has appointed Dr Kamiran Ibrahim as the new chief executive for its Middle East operations effective July 1.

Dr Ibrahim currently holds the position of managing director for UAE and Oman and will succeed Graham Reid, who has accepted a position at RES Group in the UK, said a statement from Arcadis.



Dr Ibrahim joined Hyder Consulting in the UK in 2003 and moved to the Middle East in 2006. Prior to the Arcadis' acquisition of Hyder Consulting in 2014, Dr Ibrahim held a number of senior executive leadership roles, including that of regional business director for teotechnics/tunnelling and regional managing director for the utilities/water sector.



Following the Arcadis acquisition, he assumed two regional roles at Arcadis - managing director of Qatar and the global business leader for water - prior to his current role leading the growth of the UAE and Oman businesses.



Dr Ibrahim is a civil engineer with over 30 years experience in business development and operations within contracting and consultancy firms across the Middle East, Africa and Europe.



He has a proven ability to drive and implement operational success in large international organisations. He holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Civil Engineering, a Master of Science degree in Highways and Traffic Engineering (MSc), and a PhD in Civil Engineering (Geotechnics).



Throughout his professional career, he has had key leadership involvement in the design and management of numerous high-profile international projects, aimed at improving quality of life of the people within their respective localities.



Stephan Ritter, Arcadis' executive board member responsible for Europe, UK, the Middle East and Global Excellence Centers, said: "We are grateful for Reids contribution to the integration of our activities in the Middle East and for building a resilient business in challenging times. Graham led the region with a strong focus on clients and successful project execution. We wish Graham all the best in his new role."



Welcoming Dr Ibrahim into the fold, Ritter said his unique combination of relentless client focus, outstanding track record and business acumen were amongst his strongest attributes.



"His significant leadership capability and deep understanding of the Middle East region, as well as Arcadis clients and people, make him a natural successor. I am delighted that he has accepted the CEO role in the Middle East, he added.



On his appointment, Dr Ibrahim said: "I am passionate about leading multi-disciplinary teams to overcome clients business challenges, and I am committed to bringing the very best of Arcadis to our clients."-TradeArabia News Service
Sohar airport joins Oman's list of hubs for international airlines as two carriers have received approval to fly directly to the city, said a report.



According to Oman's aviation authority, Air Arabia and Qatar Airways plan to start direct services from Sohar, Times of Oman reported.



Dates for the start of international flights will be announced soon.



Meanwhile SalamAir, Omans first budget airline, said it will be flying thrice a week from Salalah to Sohar from June 28, while also increasing services to Muscat to 31 times a week, the report said.



Sohar airport was opened by Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Salim Al Futaisi, minister of Transport and Communications, as part of 44th National Day celebrations in November 2014, and Oman Air operated an inaugural flight to mark the official opening.
- Jubilee Mombasa gubernatorial candidate Suleiman Shahbal has accused Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho of underhand tactics ahead of the August General Election

- Shahbal accused Joho of threatening billboard companies if they hosted his campaign ad on their billboards

- Shahbal also alleged that the governor had paid youths to deface and pull down his boards in Mombasa

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho's bitter political rival has accused him of underhand tactics to win the seat in the August General Election.

Jubilee Mombasa gubernatorial candidate Suleiman Shahbal on Friday, June 23, claimed Joho has threatened billboard companies from hosting his campaign advertisement on their billboards.

READ ALSO: Supporter 'rides' with Hassan Joho after branding expensive car with governor's campaign merchandise

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho.

READ ALSO: Why this UhuRuto campaign song has sharply divided Central Kenya(video)

Shahbal in a statement seen on social media seen by TUKO.co.ke, alleged the governor had threatened Magnet Ventures and Adsite of license cancellation if they put up his billboards.

Shahbal said the billboard companies have now refused to advertise his campaign fearing repercussions from the governor.

''My opponent has run scared with our rising popularity and threatened billboard companies with license cancellation should they host my billboards,

''The companies, Magnet Ventures and Adsite have refused to take my billboards. We today issued a statement to remind my opponent that Billboards dont vote! It is the people who vote, and we are with the people,'' Shahbal said.

READ ALSO: MP aspirant promises to buy diapers for residents after pleading with men to sire children

Jubilee Mombasa gubernatorial candidate Suleiman Shahbal on Friday, June 23, claimed Joho has threatened billboard companies from hosting his campaign advertisement on their billboards.

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Shahbal also claimed that Joho had hired youths to deface and destroy his billboards in Mombasa.

The gubernatorial aspirant vowed to take action on the youths and said he will not be intimidated by Joho and his unfair tactics.

''Nothing can stop us from winning, threats and intimidation wont work! We warn the County administration, who are operating with impunity, to stop threatening advertising companies with license cancellation should they allow me to advertise on billboards! My opponent has also set up a special unit to tore down our campaign posters and banners,

'' We will deal with them. You can't muzzle the voice of the masses,'' he said.

Shahbal and Joho are set for a grueling battle for the gubernatorial seat in August but their chance of winning the seat could be threatened by Wiper Party's Hassan Omar who is also eyeing the seat.

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PLO Lumumba speaks about the Raila conspiracy :

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Many people have been left without pipe-borne water in northern and eastern parts of Trinidad and some areas in Tobago.

The Water and Sewerage Authority indicates this is a result of an impact to twelve of its plants due to adverse weather, which has caused flooding in some areas.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman says that Government will take needed measures to bring Ukrainian roads to proper condition within 5-7 years.

The Ukrainian Prime Minister states this during Government Question Hour meeting held in Parliament today, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

95% of the roads are in poor condition, and this did not happen yesterday or two years ago, it was systemic underfinancing and abuses [of power] that had been in the country for decades," Groysman said.

According to him, at present large-scale construction and reconstruction of Ukrainian roads have been resumed.

"We can bring Ukrainian roads to proper condition within 5-7 years, and for this we need to develop the economy so that we can increase spending on the Ukrainian roads," Groysman added.

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The National Security Council of Ukraine will soon consider a bill on the reintegration of the occupied territories.

Representative of Ukraine in the working subgroup on humanitarian issues of the Trilateral Contact Group on the settlement of situation in Donbas, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Iryna Gerashchenko wrote this on her Facebook page.

"The bill on the reintegration of the occupied territories remains in the focus of attention and discussion, and it will be soon discussed at the National Security and Defense Council and the parliamentary informal Minsk platform, which is created in the Verkhovna Rada and includes members of all factions, except for Samopomich faction. In Minsk, the draft law will not be discussed, of course, because it is Ukraine's sovereign right to improve its legislation for the resumption of sovereignty and territorial integrity," Gerashchenko wrote.

She also noted that the text of the bill was not discussed during the visit of President Poroshenko to the U.S. and Brussels, but the international partners agreed with the position of the Ukrainian side on the reintegration of Donbas.

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The agreements with the U.S. on signing of two agreements in the defense sphere will contribute to a political decision of the White House on granting Ukraine lethal weapons.

Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Valeriy Chaly said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"As for the agreements, the first one relates to mutual defense purchases, the second agreement - to the conduct of research and development work. Both documents will promote military and technical cooperation and also simplify entry of the American weapon products into the Ukrainian market and, accordingly, the Ukrainian products to the U.S. market," the Ukrainian diplomat noted.

He stressed that these agreements "will help implement the political decision [concerning weapons for Ukraine], which is not yet accepted by the White House." At the same time, according to the results of the meeting, he said that serious changes are now taking place in the approaches of the U.S. administration.

The ambassador also recalled that both houses of the United States Congress supported the provision of lethal weapons to Ukraine.

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Members of the European Parliament after a visit to Donbas will insist on consideration of the issue of ecology, a possible technogenic catastrophe of this region, at a meeting of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee, which will be held in autumn in Ukraine.

First Vice-Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Iryna Gerashchenko informed this on Facebook on Friday.

"The issue of ecology, a possible technogenic catastrophe in Donbas, will be one of the key issues at a meeting of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee, which will be held in autumn in Ukraine. Members of the European Parliament Petras Austrevicius and Anna Fotyga will insist on this. Together with Ambassador of Slovenia to Ukraine Natasa Prah, Ambassador of Croatia Tomislav Vidosevic, Ambassador of Portugal Maria Cristina Serpa de Almeida and MP Mariya Ionova, they visited Donbas today," the first vice-speaker wrote.

According to her, the members of the European Parliament and the representatives of the diplomatic missions together with Ukrainian MPs visited Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant and participated in the expanded meeting with the participation of local authorities, government officials and deputies.

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry received an invitation to visit Ukraine in the near future.

Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Valeriy Chaly said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"President [Petro Poroshenko] invited several ministers to visit Ukraine. Obviously, official announcements will be made later, but I can say that the US Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Energy are expected to come this year," the ambassador said.

According to him, such visits "will certainly give an opportunity to reach concrete solutions." Now the work on preparation of relevant agreements and decisions is taking place.

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A group of experts from Ukraine and the Federal Republic of Germany has created the Ukrainian-German Expert Dialogue, the task of which will be a frank discussion of the Ukrainian-German relations.

Expert on Ukraine of the German Council on Foreign Relations Wilfried Jilge said this in comments to Ukrinform.

"The dialogue was initiated by the Robert Bosch Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia under the German Council on Foreign Relations and the International Renaissance Foundation in Kyiv in order to gather prominent foreign policy experts, who are familiar with the specifics of our relations, to discuss foreign political identities and develop creative solutions to current problems," he said.

The inaugural meeting took place in Berlin last week. This format involves participation of ten experts on both sides. The meetings are planned to be held twice a year, with the involvement of the wide circle of specialists, politicians, historians, scientists. The first working meeting should be held in late autumn in Ukraine.

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Dear all,I hope to see many of you during the upcoming ESSIC annual scientific meeting in Budapest, September 21-23 2017.A lot is happening in the world of chronic pelvic pain and bladder pain syndrome. Several new treatment modalities are under research and much is being learnt from more extended clinical studies. Many items will be presented and discussed when we meet. With your help ESSIC is in the process of being built into the World Scientific Society on these topics.Come and meet the new Board Members and join the discussion also on the administrative and educational developments.Budapest is a wonderful city and those who have visited before will agree with me. The local host Prof Sandor Lovasz is well known to us and a longstanding authority in the field.So take your agenda and block the dates. It will be worthwhile.JJWyndaeleESSIC PresidentDear Guests & Friends,It is my pleasure and honour having the chance to organize the Annual Meeting of ESSIC 2017 in Budapest, Hungary.This country offers a quite good example of a territory with a low detection rate of IC/BPS and insufficient cooperation between urologists, gynaecologists and GPs. Therefore, having the ESSIC meeting in Budapest is a big opportunity for us to reverse this trend. I am confident Budapest will be a proper venue for this challenging conference and health professionals will certainly deliver new and inspiring ideas. ESSIC is furthermore the right organization to discuss, collect and share new thoughts, ideas, and innovations; new generations of doctors are expected to contribute with alternative and original proposals in this medical area.Besides this uniquely inspiring scientific programme, it is worth mentioning that Budapest is a beautiful capital, with a 2000 year old history; it also offers magnificent buildings and stunning views from both sides of the Danube. Budapest therefore has all it takes to become for you a pleasurable journey; you may even end up considering to come back to the city for a long family holiday. Looking forward to welcoming you all in Budapest on September 2017. Warmest Regards,Sandor Lovasz MD. PhD.






After 14 years the ICS annual meeting is returning to Italy, and once again we will be in Florence!



We are excited to host the most renowned international experts in the research and the treatment of pelvic organs and pelvic floor dysfunctions, with particular regard to incontinence. The meeting is multidisciplinary, bringing together all the professionals working in the field: urologists, gynaecologists, neurologists, physiotherapists, nurses, midwives and basic scientists.



The 2017 Scientific Committee is planning sessions on the pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment of incontinence and other dysfunctions of the pelvic organs and of the pelvic floor. Rehabilitation, medical and surgical treatments will be discussed as well as basic and translational research. The role of new technologies will also be explored.



The convention centre, Fortezza da Basso, has been recently renovated and is now one of the most modern and comfortable congress venues in Italy. The Fortezza is located within walking distance from the heart of the beautiful art city of Florence where you can lose yourself in the ancient Florentine streets full of arts, handicrafts, fashion and wonderful local cuisine! Take a trip among the colour and flavours of Italian history and tradition. The Mediterranean and Tuscan atmosphere will accompany the discovery of such unexpected beauties that only a city such as Florence can offer.



Florence has always been the centre of cultural exchanges; we believe it is the perfect city to host the ICS meeting!



We look forward to meeting you in Florence in September 2017!



Giulio Del Popolo

Annual Meeting Chair



Enrico Finazzi Agro

Local Scientific Programme Chair
Join host, Dr. Heather Maxwell for a wonderful hour of supberb pah-African music. UN Superdad Okyeame Kwame speaks with Heather and shares his new single about the importance of fathers. Also, listen at the bottom of the hour to Heather's feature story on "Sounds Unseen" - a photographic memoir on display at St. Anne's Warehouse in Brooklyn by artist Sarah Hickson.
Albania holds parliamentary elections Sunday after the country's two largest political parties set aside decades of bitter rivalry and reached a landmark agreement aimed at furthering efforts to eventually join the European Union.

The country of 2.9 million people, slightly smaller than Belgium, joined NATO in 2009 and earned EU candidate status in 2014 but has struggled with key reforms vital for the bid to advance  with the election process at the top of the list.



Seeking a second term, 52-year-old Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama argues that Sunday's vote  closely watched by international observers  could be a pivotal moment in the country's history.



These elections in Albania will either open the door to the European Union, giving us a seat at the negotiating table, or we can again slam it shut ourselves, he said.



Albania is hoping to launch EU membership talks later this year.

On Friday thousands of supporters gathered in three cities where the three main contending parties or coalitions  Rama's Socialists, opposition Democratic Party of Lulzim Basha and Socialist Movement for Integration of Petrit Vasili  held their final rallies, peacefully.

Saturday and Sunday are considered are pre-election silent days when politicians must suspend campaigning.

Landmark compromise

Rama's Socialists and Lulzim Basha's Democratic party reached agreement in May, ending a three-month parliamentary boycott by the opposition, which charged that election rules had been open to manipulation.



The overhauled rules delayed the election date by one week and handed the opposition greater oversight. The move was introduced together with a battery of other legal reforms considered important for European integration.



Not everyone, however, was happy with the compromise.



It sparked a heated spat between Rama's governing party and its ally, the Socialist Movement for Integration, or LSI and its leader Ilir Meta, Albania's president-elect.

The LSI has been the country's coalition kingmaker in the past two elections, in 2009 and 2013, first siding with the Democrats and then the Socialists.



Both the Socialists and the Democrats insist they will not join the LSI in another coalition.



Quiet campaign

All main parties campaigned on a reform agenda, pledging faster economic growth, pay hikes and a further reduction in unemployment, which currently stands at a little over 14 percent.



The May compromise produced an unusually quiet election campaign, with parties scaling down budgets and ending a modern tradition of large public rallies and giant banners on buildings.



The battle migrated to social media, where campaign events were streamed live.



A total of 18 political parties and groups will field candidates for the 140 seats in parliament. Some 6,000 police officers will be on duty for election security, while more 300 international observers will monitor the electoral process.
Inside Brazil's Indigenous Reserve 124, Chief Geraldo Apurina walks along a muddy footpath, past towering trees as yet untouched by Amazon loggers.

Much of the land around the reserve has been cleared of trees. Grazing land for cattle now stretches as far as the eye can see from the highway, destroying what used to be the mighty Amazon rainforest.

"Thirty years ago, this was all untouched forest," said Cosme da Silva, a local activist with the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) in Boca do Acre, in the southwest corner of Amazonas state.

"Today all of this has been taken over by 'grileiros' [land grabbers] who destroyed it to raise cattle," Silva told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from the passenger seat of a 4x4 truck driving past deforested land and into the reserve.

As politicians plan a radical shift in how land for Brazil's 900,000 aboriginal people is demarcated, environmentalists say places like Reserve 124, where territory is formally owned by indigenous communities, represent the best chance to save endangered forests.

"I am certain we are better at preserving the forests than other nearby communities," said Apurina, standing on the porch of his hand-built home inside the reserve, as chickens pecked for scraps in his shaded yard.

Harvest without harm

The Apurina indigenous community received formal ownership of the 450 square kilometers (175 square miles) of land in 1988 when Brazil emerged from a military dictatorship and signed a new constitution guaranteeing indigenous rights.

Prior to demarcation, residents constantly faced violence from ranchers and farmers who wanted the land, said Maria Jose Apurina, 40, a mother of four and the chief's wife.

"I've seen blood spilled [for this]," she said, sitting in her wooden home. "But now that we have the land it's better for our children. ... This is our place."

Reserve residents, who number around 800, make a living fishing and hunting on the land and harvesting nuts and acai berries that grow there naturally, said Apurina, 57.

"We only harvest the nuts  we don't harm the trees," he said  a claim backed up by research.

Forest in the Amazon where indigenous communities formally own their land is much better protected than similar nondemarcated areas, according to a study by American scientists in Peru's rainforest published in April, backing the findings of two previous studies.

In Brazil's Amazon, an area larger than Germany has been deforested since 1988, according to government data.

After years of declines, the rate of deforestation shot up by 29 percent last year compared with the rate in 2015, according to Brazil's National Space Research Institute (INPE).

At this rate, environmentalists say, the government will not be able to meet its goal of net zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2030.

Forests controlled by indigenous people, in contrast, are among the best protected in Brazil, Luciano Evaristo, a senior official with the Brazilian government's environmental enforcement agency (IBAMA), told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

And demarcating land for indigenous communities is among the cheapest strategies for protecting the Amazon, he said.

'Indians should decide'

But formal plans to allocate new lands for indigenous people have been on hold for months, and indigenous leaders are concerned that political moves will thwart their claims.

Lawmakers are planning a major transformation in Brazil's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), the government agency that has sought to protect tribes by guaranteeing their land so they can preserve their cultures.

The body is ineffective, beholden to "external interests," and makes its land demarcation decisions based on flawed data, according to a report on FUNAI's future from lawmakers and published in May.

FUNAI's budget has been cut by more than 40 percent in the past year. The organization is outdated, say rural lawmakers, who have proposed changes in how it demarcates land, including opening indigenous reserves to mining companies.

"There are Indians who want to become miners and producers, and they should have the freedom to decide for themselves," Congressman Nilson Leitao, the report's author and a leading figure in Brazil's rural lobby, said in May.

"FUNAI has been overprotective and paternalistic. ... The Indians could be living on a big mine while their people die of hunger," he said of communities often steeped in poverty.

Waiting for land

Francisco da Silva de Araujo, 56, is an indigenous leader from the community of Valparaiso, whose ancestral land in the Amazon basin has not been formally demarcated.

He said proposed changes at FUNAI could spell the end to his people's hope of owning their own land, hurting Amazon conservation efforts in the process.

"We have been fighting to have our land demarcated since 1991," Araujo said following a meeting with FUNAI officials in Amazonas state about his tribe's long-standing claim. "We are very worried about these changes at FUNAI."

His community has been facing regular incursions from outsiders who have been coming to cut down trees, Araujo said.

Without formal land rights, there isn't much the two dozen extended families in his community can do to protect the forest.

"Grileiros have invaded the area," Araujo said. In one case, farmers armed with scythes threatened indigenous residents.

Wagner Gallo, a local FUNAI official in Amazonas state, said budget cuts and proposed political changes have hurt the agency's ability to help people like Chief Araujo.

Even before the latest budget cuts, the organization was struggling, the government official said. In the region around Boca do Acre it has laid off about 15 percent of staff.

"The numbers show that demarcating land for the indigenous is the best way to protect the forest," Gallo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation following a meeting with Araujo and other indigenous leaders.

"The communities themselves often protect the forest  when someone invades, they report it," Gallo said. "But there are economic interests eyeing indigenous land."
Cameroon has dispatched its defense minister to its northern border with Nigeria following a recent series of suicide bomb attacks that has left dozens dead. Militant group Boko Haram is believed to be behind the carnage. The central African state says the bombers have infiltrated markets and mosques as end of Ramadan feast draws near.

Medical staff at the Mora hospital on Cameroon's northern border with Nigeria have attended to at least 50 people injured in six suicide bomb attacks in the towns of Mora and Kolofata within 24 hours. Among the medical staff brought in from the neighboring town of Maroua is Dr. Jean Daniel Essam Sime.

He says they are struggling to save the life of a woman who was brought to them with parts of her abdomen and legs cut off, as well as a breast feeding 40-day old baby whose hands were injured.

Security stepped up

Among the wounded is 37-year old self defense group member Younoussa Ousmanou. He says he got wounds from explosives detonated by one of the bombers. He says two of his colleagues died. Ousmanou says he is going back to join other members of the self defense groups in protecting their villages.

He says they noticed that attacks had increased during Ramadan and decided to assist the military by intensifying control along the border zones with Nigeria where most of the suspects come from. He says they work round the clock in groups of ten dispatched to all road junctions and all entrances to their villages.

Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the far north region of Cameroon says the six teenage suicide bombers, including 3 females, came from Nigeria to target areas with crowds of people. He says 15 suicide bomb attacks have killed dozens in Mora and Kolofata within the past 10 days.

He says while waiting for Cameroon's defense headquarters in Yaounde to take more drastic measures to stop suicide bombing, he has instructed the military in his region to create security belts around border zones and in affected villages to assure the security of all. He says the military should double vigilance, be very rigorous in control and seal all border zones used by suicide bombers.

Clerics instructed to be watchful

Moussa Oumarou, president of the Cameroon Association of Muslim Dignitaries and Imams says they have sent members to the area to educate the population and instruct local Muslim clerics to be watchful. He says the attacks are increasing because terrorists use the holy month of fasting to deceive young Muslims that if they die fighting for Allah they will go straight to paradise.

Oumarou says it is imperative for Muslim leaders to teach all of their faithful, especially the youths that terrorists are using Islam to kill and destroy. He says the population should be made to understand that Islam is synonymous to peace and tolerance and has nothing to do with radicalization.

Saturday Cameroon dispatched its minister of defense, Joseph Beti Assomo, and its top military leadership to the northern border with Nigeria to reinstate peace and security as Muslims prepare to celebrate the end of Ramadan.

The UNHCR reports that the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria and its spill over to neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger has caused the displacement of more than 2.7 million people and killed 25,000.
The Islamic State group is rapidly expanding in parts of Afghanistan, advancing militarily into areas where it once had a weak presence and strengthening its forces in core regions, according to Afghan and U.S. officials.

Depending on the location, the proliferation of IS has drawn varied resistance from the Afghan military, U.S. air support and ground troops, local militias, Taliban forces and other militant groups.

Attacking IS has become such a priority in the country, that disparate forces sometimes join together in the ad-hoc fight, with Afghan and U.S. forces finding themselves inadvertently supporting the enemy Taliban in battling IS.

Confusion leads to mistakes

All too often, officials say, mistakes are made due to confusion on the ground.

Afghan army planes on Wednesday night accidentally air dropped vital supplies of food and water to IS militants in the Darzab district of northern Jouzjan province instead of to their own besieged troops, provincial police chief, Rahmatullah Turkistani told VOA. The supplies were meant to help Afghan forces that are countering twin attacks by IS and Taliban militants but were used instead by IS.

It's not getting better in Afghanistan in terms of IS, U.S. Chief Pentagon Spokeswoman Dana White told VOA this week. We have a problem, and we have to defeat them and we have to be focused on that problem.

Reinforcements for the IS cause reportedly are streaming into isolated areas of the country from far and wide. There are reports of fighters from varied nationalities joining the ranks, including militants from Pakistan, India, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Russia and Central Asian neighbors.

Confusing scenarios

Still, the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISK) as IS is known in Afghanistan remains a fragmented group composed of differing regional forces with different agendas in different parts of the country.

IS-K is still conducting low-level recruiting and distribution of propaganda in various provinces across Afghanistan, but it does not have the ability or authority to conduct multiple operations across the country, a recent Pentagon report said. But where it operates, IS is inflicting chaos and casualties and causing confusing scenarios for disparate opponents.

In the Tora Bora area, where IS has made a strong stand in recent days, local villagers and militias joined with Taliban to rout IS. IS regained ground after a few days, leading to U.S. military air attacks on IS positions in conjunction with Afghan intelligence instructions and army operations.

IS fighters reportedly have fled from mountain caves of Tora Bora, where al-Qaida's leader Osama bin Laden hid from U.S. attack in 2001.

Families displaced

IS fighters were also reportedly advancing in neighboring Khogyani district, displacing hundreds of families, according to district officials. It is one of several areas in Nangarhar province, near the Pakistani border, where IS has been active for over two years.

Fierce clashes in the Chaparhar district of Nangarhar last month left 21 Taliban fighters and seven IS militants dead, according to a provincial spokesman. At least three civilians who were caught in the crossfire were killed and five others wounded.

IS has overpowered Taliban in some parts of Nangarhar because the Taliban dispatched its elite commando force called Sara Qeta (Red Brigade) to other parts of the country, including some northern provinces to contain the growing influence of IS there, Wahid Muzhda, a Taliban expert in Kabul, told VOA.

Recruiting unemployed youths

IS has also expanded in neighboring Kunar province, where, according to provincial police chief, it has a presence in at least eight districts and runs a training base, where foreign members of IS, train new recruits.

Hundreds of miles from Nangarhar, IS is attempting to establish a persistent presence in several northern provinces where it has found a fertile ground for attracting militants and recruiting unemployed youths, mostly between the age of 13 and 20.

IS has been able to draw its members from the Pakistani Taliban fighters, former Afghan Taliban, and other militants who believe that associating with or pledging allegiance to IS will further their interests, according to the Pentagon report.

Hundreds of militants have joined IS ranks in northern Jouzjan and Sar-e-Pul province where local militant commanders lead IS-affiliate groups in several districts.

Darzab district



Qari Hekmat, an ethnic Uzbek and former Taliban militant who joined IS a year ago, claims to have up to 500 members, including around 50 Uzbek nationals who are affiliated with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)  previously associated with al-Qaida and Taliban in Afghanistan.

IS and Taliban are reportedly fighting over the control of Darzab district in Jouzjan which they stormed this week from two different directions and besieged scores of government forces. The Taliban has reportedly captured the center of the district while IS militants control the city outskirts.

Afghanistan faces a continuing threat from as many as 20 insurgent and terrorist networks present or operating in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, including IS, the Pentagon said.

In areas where the government has limited influence and control, IS attempts to emerge and expand there, Ateequllah Amarkhail, an analysts and former Army general in Kabul told VOA.

Hit-and-hide strategy

IS has also claimed responsibility for several recent attacks in urban areas, however, with a hit-and-hide strategy that is proving effective. And it is engaging too in more skirmishes with U.S. forces that initially were sent to the country to help Afghan forces halt the spread of Taliban.

Three American service members based in eastern Afghanistan were killed in April during operations targeting IS militants, according to the Pentagon.

"ISIS-K remains a threat to Afghan and regional security, a threat to U.S. and coalition forces, and it retains the ability to conduct high-profile attacks in urban centers, the Pentagon said.
President Michelle Bachelet asked for forgiveness from Chile's indigenous Mapuche people on Friday for "errors and horrors" committed by the state and announced plans to give them more power and resources.

In the midst of growing tension between the Mapuche and loggers and farmers in Chile's south-central provinces, the center-left president said she would send a project to Congress creating an Indigenous Peoples' Ministry.

Cash would be dedicated to building roads and providing drinking water in remote areas, as well as programs to more rapidly transfer land to indigenous people that they claim as their ancestral home, she said.

"We've failed as a country," Bachelet said from La Moneda presidential palace in capital Santiago.

"I want, solemnly and with humility, to ask forgiveness from the Mapuche people for the errors and horrors committed or tolerated by the state in our relation with them and their communities."

Around 600,000 Mapuche live in Chile, many in the forested, hilly provinces of Araucania and Bio Bio, roughly 400 miles south of Santiago.

Ever since the Chilean army invaded the territory of the Mapuche in a brutal campaign in the late 1800s, Mapuche relations with the state and settlers of European descent have been fractious.

The Mapuche accuse the state and private companies of taking their ancestral land, draining its natural resources, and using undue violence against them. Their communities are among the poorest in Chile.

In recent years, acts of arson against forestry companies and other industries, often attributed to disgruntled Mapuche, have accelerated in the region.

While Bachelet's announcement will likely draw support from some Mapuche and elements of her base, it may not be welcomed by industry groups and tough-on-crime conservatives in Chile's divided south. Several congressmen from Araucania and Bio Bio did not attend Bachelet's ceremony in protest.

The new measures closely follow an announcement by the Vatican that Pope Francis will visit Chile in 2018, a trip that will include a visit to the heavily Mapuche city of Temuco.

"We will have, I hope, good news to give him," Bachelet said.
After starting work in a hotel kitchen, Zhai Meiqin began selling furniture and built a billion-dollar conglomerate, but she took great pride in being recognized this week for driving a new phenomenon in China: philanthropy.

Zhai, one of China's richest women and president of the privately owned HeungKong Group Ltd., said she never forgot her humble upbringing in Guangzhou in southern China, where her father was an architect and her mother worked in a store.

This made her determined to help others, and she started donating to charity shortly after setting up the business with her husband in 1990.

As their business grew, taking in real estate, financial investment and health care, Zhai broke new ground in 2005 by establishing China's first nonprofit charitable foundation.

Since then, the HeungKong Charitable Foundation has helped an estimated 2 million people, by funding 1,500 libraries, providing loans for women to start businesses, and funding orphans, single mothers, handicapped children and the elderly.

"I realized there were a lot of poor people in China and this drove me to earn more money so I could help them," said Zhai, 53, who was one of nine philanthropists named Thursday as winners of the 2017 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.

Zhai and her husband, Liu Zhiqiang, whose HeungKong Group with 20,000 staffers has made them worth about $1.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine, are known for being leaders of the culture of philanthropy in China.

Their foundation was listed as number 001 by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Zhai said at the end of 2015 there were 3,300 registered nonprofit charitable foundations in China.

Next generation

"By setting up the foundation, I wanted to encourage other people, other entrepreneurs, to also donate to charity," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview from Guangzhou translated by her daughter.

"Now I want to make sure that the next generation continues this culture of philanthropy in China," she added, with two of her four children taking an active role in her foundation.

The other philanthropists to win the Carnegie Medal  which was established in 2001 and is awarded every two years  came from around the globe.

The list included India's education-focused Azim Premji, Canadian-born social enterprise pioneer Jeff Skoll and American-Australian lawyer and former World Bank Group President James Wolfensohn.

The winners were chosen by a committee made up of seven people representing some of the 22 Carnegie institutions in the United States and Europe.
Leftist rebels in Colombia said Saturday that they had released two Dutch journalists they had kidnapped earlier this week.

Reporter Derk Johannes Bolt and cameraman Eugenio Ernest Marie Follender were released early Saturday to a delegation of Colombian human rights officials in a rural area of Norte de Santander state.

A tweet from Colombia's Marxist ELN rebel group said the two "have been released in perfect condition."

Bolt said after his release that the two men had been treated well.

The men were snatched Monday in El Tarra, the northeast region of the Andean nation.

ELN, Colombia's second-largest rebel group, is in talks with the government to end five decades of war. FARC, the largest rebel group, signed a peace deal last year with the government.

Leftist rebels began fighting a guerrilla war to topple Colombian governments in 1964, and more than 220,000 people have been killed. The rebels used drug trafficking and kidnappings for ransom to fund their war.
A Pakistani army spokesman said Saturday that the military had beefed up the monitoring of Pakistan's border with Afghanistan after insurgents carried out attacks Friday on three major Pakistani cities  Quetta, Parachinar and Karachi.

Major General Asif Ghafoor said the attacks had been traced to rebel sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

In addition, the Pakistani army said it conducted counterterrorism raids overnight in Peshawar, killing three terrorists and arresting 12 suspects.

Officials in Pakistan said Saturday that the death toll from the attacks in the three Pakistani cities had risen to more than 80.

Nearly 100 people were injured in the attacks, which began in the southwestern city of Quetta, where the death toll was at 14, with 20 wounded. Senior police officers apparently were the target, with at least seven officers among the dead.

Both the Islamic State group and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack on Quetta.

Hours later, two bombs went off back to back in the northwestern town of Parachinar, targeting a crowded market in the semiautonomous Kurram tribal district near the Afghan border. The death toll in Parachinar was at least 67, Dr. Sabir Hussain, an official at a hospital in Parachinar, told The Associated Press.

Sajid Turi, a member of parliament from the area, told local journalists that a low-intensity blast occurred during afternoon rush hours, before a second powerful bomb exploded.

The lawmaker said he anticipated the death toll would increase. Hospital sources said more than 260 wounded people had been brought in from the scene, and more than 60 were listed in critical condition.

The population in the area where the deadly blasts occurred is predominantly Shi'ite Muslims.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the Parachinar blasts.

Later Friday evening, gunmen in the port city of Karachi attacked police officers at a roadside restaurant, killing five.
With snipers on the roof and armored vehicles surrounding the Council building, Europes leaders met in Brussels with security topping the summit agenda. EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said leaders had agreed on greater cooperation in intelligence sharing and defense spending.

We are spending half of the military budget of the U.S. but our efficiency is 15 percent. So there is room for improvement and thats exactly what we decided today, Juncker said.

Migrants issue

Outside a band of refugees called Syrians Got Talent aimed to send a musical message to EU leaders  that they should stand up for migrant rights.

Not all of Europe shares that sentiment. The EU is taking legal action against Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic for refusing to accept refugee quotas.

More than 81,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in 2017, and close to 2,000 have died so far.

French President Emmanuel Macron, attending his first EU summit, said Europe would look to address the causes of the crisis.

He said it is a long-term challenge whose long-term solution is to stabilize Africa, and the near and Middle East.

WATCH: EU agrees to defense cooperation

Optimism in the EU

Despite the challenges there is a renewed optimism in the bloc, says Professor Anand Menon of the U.K. in a Changing Europe program at Kings College London.

And the Eurozones growing again. So all that looks good, Menon said. But what I would say is the fundamental structural problems that confront the European Union, whether its the migration crisis, whether its the Eurozone crisis, whether its the problem of democratic backsliding in countries like Hungary and Poland, are no nearer being solved than they were last year. And they will come back again.

Britains exit from the bloc was also discussed. EU leaders described Prime Minister Theresa Mays offer on the future rights of European citizens living in Britain as below expectations, signaling tough negotiations ahead.
The Israeli Air Force launched a strike in Syria after several projectiles were fired out of the war-torn country into the Golan Heights region Saturday, Israeli officials said.

The air raid targeted two Syrian regime tanks in the northern part of Golan Heights, an Israeli army spokesman said.

The spokesman also said Israel protested to the U.N. agency that oversees a 1974 cease-fire between the two countries because the projectiles were an unacceptable violation of Israeli sovereignty.

The military said no one was injured in the incident, but asked civilians to avoid the area surrounding the border with Syria.

Israel hasn't played an active role in the war in Syria, but has responded in the past when the fighting spilled over across the Syrian border.

In April, Israel shot down what it called a target over the Golan Heights. Israel annexed the Golan area following the Six-Day War in 1967, but the move was never recognized by the international community.
Istanbul's governor has banned a gay pride parade in the city for the second straight year, citing threats from conservative Muslim groups.

Last week, the ultra-nationalist Alperen Hearths group said it would stop the march from happening Sunday in Taksim Square if authorities took no action to cancel the parade.

On Saturday, the governor's office announced it would not give permission to the parade organizers out of concern for the safety of the marchers and tourists in the city.

It said a number of groups had serious reactions to the march, which was planned to coincide with the first day of the Islamic feast of Eid al-Fitr, and urged citizens against continuing with the parade in violation of the ban.

The march was cancelled last year after bombings by the Islamic State group and Kurdish militants raised security levels. Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse people who marched in spite of the warnings.

Unlike some other Muslim countries, there is no law in Turkey forbidding homosexuality. The parade has been held since 2003, and drawn peaceful crowds of more than 100,000 people.
Developments in Washington, D.C., on Friday include President Donald Trump who said he thinks the relationship between the special counsel and fired FBI director is 'very bothersome,' and signs a bill making it easier to fire underperforming VA workers accused of wrongdoing.

Trump: Friendship Between Leader of Russia Probe, Fired FBI Director 'Very Bothersome' -- In his first televised face-to-face interview in six weeks, President Donald Trump said it is very bothersome that the man leading the probe into possible ties between his campaign and Russia is friends with former FBI Director James Comey. Trump told Fox News Channel's Fox and Friends that special counsel Robert Mueller is very, very good friends with Comey, which is very bothersome.

Trump Signs Bill to Facilitate Firing of Federal VA Workers Accused of Wrongdoing -- Trump signed into law Friday a bill that will make it easier to fire Department of Veterans Affairs employees, a development that has union officials concerned the measure could be misused for political purposes. The signing is the latest step in an effort by the Trump administration to strengthen an agency that provides health care and other services to millions of military veterans.

Analysts: Russia's Military Threats Mainly Bluster, but Conflict Risk Rising -- A series of close encounters this month over the Baltic Sea and U.S. shoot-downs of Russian allies' aircraft in Syria have triggered concerns among defense analysts that any direct incident between Russia and the United States, even if accidental, could quickly spiral out of control. Reports say a Russian fighter jet and a U.S. spy plane on Monday came within two meters of each other, a situation deemed "unsafe" by the U.S. military.

US Mayors: Look to Us, Not Washington, for Results -- Think Washington, D.C., and your statehouse are irredeemable and unproductive? Look to city hall for answers. That's the message from the nation's mayors six months in to Trump's presidency. We don't have time to argue about ideological positions. We have to find real solutions for problems, said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who will take over this weekend as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors as it convenes in Miami Beach, Florida.
The exterior insulation on almost three dozen high-rise buildings in England has failed fire safety tests, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Cladding samples failed fire safety tests Saturday at 34 apartment buildings in cities including London, Manchester, Plymouth and Portsmouth, government officials said. Tests are continuing, an official said.

The tests were initiated following the recent deadly London fire at Grenfell Tower. Grenfell's exterior insulation is thought to have been responsible for the rapid acceleration of the blaze, resulting in the deaths of at least 79 people, fire officials said.

News of the failed safety tests came as the London borough of Camden evacuated four residential high-rise buildings, containing 650 households, late Friday because of fire safety concerns.

Camden officials said hotel rooms would be provided for residents after fire authorities said people would be unsafe in case of fire. Residents can expect to be out of their homes for three to four weeks while upgrades are made, local officials said.

Grenfell Tower and those buildings evacuated Friday are all part of government-run, low-cost, public housing developments.

The buildings in Camden have the same combustible exterior insulation that was used at Grenfell Tower.

Many residents who were quickly evacuated complained about confusion and lack of information. A few residents were refusing to leave.

The British government estimates up to 600 other high-rise buildings in the country could face the same problem as the Camden residential towers.

The Grenfell Tower blaze is the subject of a criminal investigation, London police spokeswoman Fiona McCormack said Friday, with officers "looking at every criminal offense from manslaughter onwards."

The concrete apartment building had recently been extensively renovated, with the work including a new coating of exterior insulation. Some survivors of the fire claim that cheap materials were used for the cladding. Others contend substandard maintenance practices also were responsible for the disaster.

Investigators have traced the source of the fire to a refrigerator in one of the fourth-floor apartments. The particular model of that Hotpoint brand of appliance has not been sold for at least five years. Spokesmen for the manufacturer, which is owned by the U.S. firm Whirlpool, said the company was addressing the matter and cooperating fully with the official investigation.

Police spokeswoman McCormack said the exterior insulation on the ill-fated building failed safety tests meant to measure its flammability. Investigators also have been checking on companies that installed the material, both at Grenfell Tower and other locations in Britain.
VOAs Salem Solomon appeared on The Correspondents program hosted by Mil Arcega to discuss the ongoing food security crisis in Africa. Below are some of Arcegas questions and Solomons answers, along with additional information about this crisis.

Whats the latest news about food insecurity in Africa? Where is the situation getting better, and where is it getting worse?

Answer: There has been promising news coming from Somalia and South Sudan. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET)  a U.S.-funded body that tracks food insecurity around the world  releases regular reports on affected areas.

One highlight in their most recent update is the effectiveness of early detection of food insecurity and aggressive responses. Airdropping food to restricted places in South Sudan, for example, has helped decrease the death toll that would otherwise have occurred.

However, about 4 million people have been displaced because of conflict in South Sudan, and humanitarian organizations warn that 45,000 people in the two counties in Unity State where famine has been declared, Leer and Mayendit, are still in desperate need of food aid. This is an increase of 25,000 people since just last month.

If assistance doesnt come, these areas could easily slip back into famine.

A similar phenomenon is occurring in Somalia, where rainfall in May was better than the previous month. Still, the overall rainy season was 30 percent to 60 percent below a typical season, and farmers are struggling to keep crops alive.

Overall, 3.2 million people in Somalia are at risk, 350,000 children are malnourished and 70,000 children are severely malnourished. Famine has been averted for now, but FEWS NET forecasts that much of the country will remain at Phase 4, which is defined as a food security emergency, through September.

In Northeastern Nigeria, it was learned earlier this week that approximately half of the much-needed food aid never reached the victims of Boko Haram who are so badly in need. This occurred because of diversion, according to a government statement, which is another way of saying it was likely stolen.

As a result, many of the 8.5 million people who need food assistance after fleeing the extremist group will be unable to get food.

Food prices continue to spike, and the country is entering whats known as the lean season, which lasts through September. That typically means food hardship increases because the country is between harvests. The good news is that Boko Haram has been severely degraded, and attacks have decreased compared to the past few years.

Its become common to call these man-made crises. How does conflict exacerbate the food insecurity in these countries? Are terror groups taking advantage of the situation?

Answer: All four of the countries experiencing the most critical food insecurity  Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen  are either at war or under attack by an insurgent group. In this context, both large-scale and subsistence farmers have been forced to flee their land. This harms the countries food supplies and makes what food is available that much more expensive. For example, a VOA reporter in Somalia determined that the price of a kilo of tomatoes nearly doubled within the span of one week. In the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, staple food items, such as rice, maize, millet and sorghum, are 50 percent more expensive than they were last year.

Both terror groups and, sadly, government forces in some places have used food and access to food as a weapon of war. In northeast Nigeria, Boko Haram insurgents have occupied farmland, burned crops and destroyed irrigation systems. In South Sudan, government forces have prevented food from reaching rebel strongholds to starve the local population into submission.

Meanwhile, in Somalia, the terror group al-Shabab has, in some cases, distributed food aid to people who are living in areas it controls. They have used this assistance as a way of recruiting young people and winning the hearts and minds of the local population. They want to be seen as the protector and use access to food to bolster this image.

Is the international community doing enough? What about the U.S.? How will budget cuts to foreign aid affect these efforts in Africa and Yemen?

Answer: The short answer is no, the international community is not doing enough. Thats according to the U.N., which said earlier this year that it needs $6.1 billion to avert a hunger crisis in the four affected countries. By the beginning of June, only $2.2 billion had been pledged by international donors.

In the U.S., there has been some good news recently. Nearly $1 billion was added to the 2017 fiscal year omnibus bill in emergency relief for famine. This money will help.

But globally, there is a lot of concern about a perceived shift by the U.S. away from playing a leadership role in international aid.

For example, the Trump administrations proposed 2018 budget calls for cutting USAID funding by 31 percent and consolidating the program within the State Department. Some published reports have suggested that the budget would eliminate FEWS NET, which is the most important tool available worldwide for monitoring and sounding the alarm when food insecurity is about to occur.

In a hearing last week, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa discussed the famine response. Humanitarian groups voiced deep concern over the proposed budget cuts. In particular, Tony P. Hall, executive director emeritus at the Alliance to End Hunger, said he was very worried about the potential cuts.

But Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, a Republican who chairs the committee, said he was confident that these cuts will not happen as proposed. He stressed that Congress writes the budget, not the president.

What are the other factors that contribute to food insecurity across the continent? What role do climate change and weather events, such as El Nino and La Nina, play?

Answer: People in each region were discussing do not live with a safety net. Thats in the best of times. If a crop fails or a rainy season doesnt come as expected, they risk starvation.

The effects of climate change have particularly impacted people in the Sahel region of Africa, which stretches from Senegal and Mauritania on the west coast to Ethiopia and Eritrea on the east coast. It has been well documented that the Sahara desert is expanding southward, and bodies of water, such as Lake Chad, are drying up. Countries are witnessing some of the hottest average annual temperatures on record.

On top of this, the El Nino weather pattern event of 2015 and 2016 caused a massive drought in Eastern and Southern Africa. Following that, La Nina, another weather pattern, resulted in worsening drought in some places and flooding in others.

What were seeing is people who are living on the edge, as many subsistence farmers in Africa are, being pushed over the edge by these climate events.

What has VOA done so far to report about this crisis? How is the Africa Division covering this issue?

Answer: In launching the Hunger Across Africa project, we hoped to provide a comprehensive look at one of the most important stories facing the continent right now. Months ago, we knew we would devote a good number of reporting and editing resources to covering this story. But we wanted to make sure our audience got the big picture along with the incremental coverage that wed provide through our daily reporting.

We have focused on explaining how food insecurity works based on the work of FEWS NET. We also wanted to provide an easy-to-access archive of coverage. So, we categorized stories by type (for example, root causes and solutions) and by country. And we created an infographic that provides at-a-glance details from one country to the next.
Peru's Prime Minister Fernando Zavala was sworn in as finance minister on Friday, taking on the task of reviving the faltering economy and defusing conflict with the right-wing opposition that toppled the outgoing finance minister.

Centrist President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski appointed Zavala to manage the economy of the world's second-biggest copper producer while keeping him in his post as prime minister. A government source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Thursday that Zavala would only head the finance ministry temporarily.

Zavala, a 46-year-old former executive at brewer SABMiller, served as finance minister in 2005 and 2006 when Kuczynski was prime minister and is a widely respected economist with a diplomatic style.

"Wishing the best for Minister Zavala for the good of our country," opposition lawmaker and president of Congress Luz Salgado told Zavala on Twitter in a rare cordial exchange.

The cabinet shuffle caps weeks of mounting friction with the opposition-controlled Congress that delivered a vote of no-confidence to the outgoing finance minister over accusations he tried to pressure the comptroller to approve a controversial contract.

Markets in Peru, where a free-market economy has been in place for a quarter century, have remained stable.

But Kuczynski's political vulnerability threatens to disrupt his ability to govern effectively in the remaining four years of his five-year term. Economic growth in Peru has slowed sharply after a graft scandal and heavy flooding.

Kuczynski's party has just 17 seats in the 130-member Congress, while his former electoral rival Keiko Fujimori's right-wing populist party controls 72. Four ministers, including two of Kuczynski's closest advisers, have already stepped down amid controversy since he took office.

Kuczynski's decision to task Zavala with running both the finance ministry and the cabinet suggests Kuczynski does not have a pool of trusted economists to draw from, said Pedro Tuesta, the chief Latin American analyst for 4Cast-RGE.

"It says a lot about the lack of candidates," said Tuesta.

Kuczynski, a 78-year-old former Wall Street trader, took office with promises to cut taxes and bolster infrastructure projects to jump start domestic demand. But a graft scandal over Brazilian builder Odebrecht and heavy flooding derailed those plans.

The central bank now expects a 2.8 percent economic expansion this year, down from 3.9 percent in 2016.

On Thursday, in an apparent bid to placate the opposition, Kuczynski said it was time to evaluate pardoning Fujimori's imprisoned father, former autocratic president Alberto Fujimori.
A new peace deal between the Bangui government and 13 major rebel groups in the Central African Republic is being met with criticism and skepticism domestically.

The agreement signed Monday in Rome promised an immediate cease-fire in exchange for political representation for the rebels.

The new accord followed a series of peace deals signed by armed groups in the CAR during 2014 and 2015. All fell apart.

"As one of the armed group representatives said, 'We have signed a good paper,' " said Igor Acko, the U.S. Institute of Peace's national program specialist in Bangui. "But the only worry is that it can remain just a 'good paper.' "

Acko received word of the new deal while in Bambari in central CAR, and said he went directly to members of the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic, one of the country's major armed groups. The militia members told him they were not aware of the deal or its contents.

"So they are waiting for their representative to come back, and they will ask about the content, and they will think [decide] if they fully follow or they don't," Acko said.

Battle in Bria

Just hours after the accord was signed, fighting broke out in Bria, the country's center of diamond mining, nearly 600 kilometers from the capital. The town's mayor said more than 100 people were killed, and the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said 43 wounded people required hospital treatment.

With dozens of houses burned to the ground in Bria, more than 40,000 people are displaced and are relying on humanitarian assistance. Across the country, more than 100,000 people have been displaced since last month, when violence increased.

Since cycles of inter-religious and intercommunal violence began in 2013, hundreds of thousands of people have been uprooted from their homes in CAR, a former French colony that is one of the world's poorest nations.

Lewis Mudge, who does research on the Central African Repulic for Human Rights Watch, said the fighting in Bria does not bode well for the accord signed in Rome. He noted that the previous deals all collapsed very quickly.

Members of civil society in CAR are most concerned about the new deal's failure to discuss issues of justice and accountability arising from the conflict. Some are concerned this could be a first step toward granting amnesty to the rebels, which would be seen as an affront to the victims of months of escalating violence.

Need for justice is 'clear'

Mathias Barthelemy Morouba , who runs the Central African Human Rights Observatory, said his group does not oppose a peace deal, but does not see the Rome accord as a substitute for justice.

"Those who committed these reprehensible acts must be brought to justice," Morouba said. "That's clear."

The new deal calls for establishment of a truth-and-reconciliation commission, but that assurance failed to sway Mudge of Human Rights Watch.

"Truth telling is all nice and good, but it can never come in the place of free and fair trials that hold perpetrators accountable," he said. "If we can stop the fighting, that's a very good thing, but I'm not convinced that this deal is putting accountability first."

The only way to break CAR's cycles of violence, Mudge said, is to "finally hold some of these individuals to account."

Morouba criticized U.N. peacekeeping forces in the country for not taking more aggressive action against rebel groups.

"Why aren't they protecting the civilian population?" he asked. "They have all the means to neutralize these bandits. Why haven't they done that?"

On the streets of Bangui, maintenance worker Kevin Vreka, 35, agreed, and said the U.N. force, known as MINUSCA, should be doing much more to stop the rebels' violent tactics.

U.N. peacekeepers "are there to secure the country," Vreka said. "They are in the countryside, but they do nothing. The United Nations, what did it come to Bangui to do? They do nothing ... except harass our women!"

'Nothing is going to change'

Carlos Bunju, a translator for a Chinese company in the capital, does not expect the peace deal to accomplish anything.

"Whatever they do, nothing is going to change," Bunju said. "Because some people, some armed groups, they want some part in the government, but other people, they're not going to allow them. They're going to fight over and over."

The armed groups are battling over CAR's natural resources, Bunju said: "That's all they want. They don't see the people. And even though they come and we allow them to be a part of the government, I don't think there's going to be any change. If they love this country, they're not going to fight anymore."

Iloua Banoua, 58, a tailor, had not heard about the new accord either, but for him, it's simple: "We want peace. We don't want violence. Peace is the purity of each country; without it, we can't live."
Water temperatures in the northwestern Mediterranean are increasing much faster than global averages, threatening the survival of several species, French researchers said.

Weekly water temperature readings by researchers at the Villefranche-sur-Mer oceanography laboratory have shown that Mediterranean surface water temperatures have increased by 0.7 degree between 2007 and 2015.

The researchers, who believe their findings apply to an area that includes Spain, France and Italy, also said in a note summarizing their study that the water's acidity has increased by nearly 7 percent.

"The acidification and warming up of the water are due to carbon dioxide emissions from human activities," French CNRS researcher Jean-Pierre Gattuso told Reuters.

He added that about a quarter of mankind's carbon dioxide emissions are absorbed by the oceans, making the water more acidic.

Gattuso said that plankton tend to migrate north in order to maintain an optimum temperature, but that is not possible in the Mediterranean, which is connected to the Atlantic Ocean only via the narrow Strait of Gibraltar.

"It's a dead-end here, so species could disappear," Gattuso said, noting a particular threat to the posidonia oceanica seagrass, known locally as Mediterranean tapeweed, which produces oxygen and forms an important fish habitat.

He said that at the same time, more grouper and barracuda had been seen in the Mediterranean, as it becomes more like a subtropical sea.

Gattuso said the acidification would become a problem in a few decades for marine organisms that have a skeleton or a calcium shell, such as oysters, mollusks, snails and corals.

Mediterranean mussels, popular in restaurants, could disappear in 2100, he said.
Two senior U.S. senators are asking Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to investigate reports that U.S. military interrogators worked with forces from the United Arab Emirates accused of torturing detainees in Yemen.

Arizona Senator John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the ranking Democrat, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, called the reports "deeply disturbing."

The reports were revealed in an investigation by The Associated Press published Thursday.

That same day, McCain and Reed wrote a letter to the defense secretary asking him to immediately review the reported abuse and what U.S. forces knew.

"Even the suggestion that the United States tolerates torture by our foreign partners compromises our national security mission by undermining the moral principles that distinguish us from our enemies  our belief that all people possess basic human rights," the senators wrote Mattis. "We are confident that you find these allegations as extremely troubling as we do."

The AP's report detailed a network of secret prisons across southern Yemen where hundreds are detained in the hunt for al-Qaida militants and held without charges. American defense officials confirmed to the AP that U.S. forces have interrogated some detainees in Yemen but denied any participation in, or knowledge of, human rights abuses.

Defense officials told the AP that the department had looked into reports of torture and concluded that its personnel were not involved. The American officials confirmed that the U.S. provides questions to the Emiratis and receives transcripts of their interrogations.

The 18 lockups are run by the UAE and by Yemeni forces it created, according to accounts from former detainees, families of prisoners, civil rights lawyers and Yemeni military officials. At the Riyan airport in the southern Yemeni city of Mukalla, former inmates described shipping containers smeared with feces and crammed with blindfolded detainees. They said they were beaten, roasted alive on a spit and sexually assaulted, among other abuses. One witness, who is a member of a Yemeni security force, said American forces were at times only yards (meters) away.

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Friday that the allegations are "completely untrue" and a "political game" by Yemeni militias to discredit a Saudi-led coalition that includes the UAE. It says it does not run or oversee any prisons in Yemen, and that any such facilities are under "the jurisdiction of the Yemeni legitimate authorities."

Most of the clandestine sites are run by either the Hadramawt Elite or Security Belt, Yemeni forces that were created, trained and financed by the UAE. Officially, they are under the authority of Yemen's internationally recognized government, but multiple Yemeni government officials told the AP they have no control over them and they answer to the Emirates.

At least five of the prisons are located in coalition bases and directly run by the Emirates, according to four senior Yemeni government and military officials, former detainees and families of prisoners.

At Riyan airport prison, six former detainees described hundreds of prisoners held in shipping containers at the site and gave extensive accounts of abuses, saying the officers in charge and conducting interrogations were Emiratis. Families held frequent protests outside Riyan seeking news about loved ones imprisoned there. Several relatives of prisoners told the AP that they spoke repeatedly with the Emirati officer in charge of the site, who identified himself only by a pseudonym, Abu Ahmed, trying to secure their relatives' release.

The UAE is among the critical allies that the U.S. relies on in the fight against al-Qaida. The U.S. views the militants' branch in Yemen as a direct terrorist threat to Americans.

"We request that you direct an immediate review of the facts and circumstances related to these alleged abuses, including U.S. support to the Emirati and Yemeni partner forces that were purportedly involved," the lawmakers wrote. "We also request that you conduct a thorough assessment of what, if anything, U.S. forces knew about these alleged abuses or subsequently learned about them."

McCain, a Navy pilot during the Vietnam War, was captured after his plane was shot down in 1967. He was imprisoned for more than 5 years and tortured repeatedly before he was released in 1973. In the Senate, McCain has criticized harsh treatment of terror suspects by the CIA at "black site" prisons and was a key sponsor of the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act prohibiting inhumane treatment of prisoners.

The lawmakers requested a Defense Department briefing on its findings as soon as possible.
The Muslim leader in Bosnias Serb-dominated Republika Srpska says security is improving for his followers, although harsh poverty remains an intractable issue as they prepare to observe Eid al-Fitr, the religious holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

There is no more desecration of the Muslim tombstones, which used to happen often after the war, Mufti Osman Kozlic told VOAs Bosnian Service in an exclusive interview.

However, if Muslim youths remain impoverished, he said, theyll be increasingly vulnerable to extremist ideologies and recruitment by radical groups such as the Islamic State (IS).

Hundreds had gone to Syria

In previous years, IS leaders tailored their propaganda to lure impoverished young Muslims affected by the small Balkan nations high youth unemployment rate and intermittent political paralysis.

Hundreds of Bosnians traveled to Syria to fight alongside IS militants before Bosnia banned travel to Syria and Iraq in 2013; that same year, Sarajevo began prosecuting fighters returned home from the battlefield.

Since 2016, according to Bosnian security officials and counterterror experts, Bosnian Muslims have all but stopped traveling to fight.

The biggest problem among Muslims in Srpska is poverty, they can barely make ends meet, Kozlic said, adding that both preventing radicalization, and deradicalizing returning extremists, requires cooperation by all regional stakeholders.

It is not up to the Muslim leaders only, he said.

Restoring mosques

The 2016 restoration and reopening of the Ferhadija Mosque in Banja Luka was significant symbol not only for Muslims in Srpska, but for all Muslims, for all citizens of Srpska, Kozlic told VOA. It is so because it meant a big step in reconciliation, and peace.

On May 7, reconstruction of Arnaudija, a 16th century Ottoman-era mosque, the last of 15 that were destroyed during the 1992-95 war in Banja Luka, finally got underway.

Both Arnaudija and Ferhadija mosques were under the protection of UNESCO until the war, but were both razed May 7, 1993. During the war, almost all of the mosques in parts of Bosnia held by Bosnian-Serb forces were destroyed.

The holiday after the holy Ramadan arrives is happiness, Kozlic said. If one is a real Muslim, during the Ramadan fast you must detoxify together with ones body and ones soul as well, by getting rid of hatred, envy, bad deeds toward any living being.

In Bosnia, where Muslims represent the largest faith community, militant Islam was nearly nonexistent until the 1990s Balkan wars, when radicalized Arab Muslim mercenaries intervened to help battle Serb forces. Some foreign extremists who stayed in Bosnia embraced a radical brand of Islam that Bosnias Grand Mufti Husein Kavazovic has adamantly opposed.

The 1995 Dayton Accords, which ended the bloody 1990s conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, split the country into two semi-independent entities, the Republika Srpska and a Muslim-Croat Federation, linked by a weak federal government.

This story originated in VOAs Bosnian Service. Some information is from Reuters.
Authorities in Saudi Arabia said they averted a plot targeting the Grand Mosque in Mecca during the final hours of Ramadan.

A man accused of planning the attack on Islam's holiest places blew himself up in Mecca during a gunfight with police, Saudi Interior Ministry officials said Saturday.

Five people, including one woman, were arrested in a series of police raids in Mecca and in the kingdom's Red Sea port of Jeddah, police said.

The five people arrested were thought to be part of the same militant group, but there was no word on the identity or affiliation of the bomber who blew himself up on Friday. Saudi authorities stopped short of naming the Islamic State group as the source of the terror plot, but IS has a long history of antipathy toward the Saudi royal family.

Security operations continuing

Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry spokesman, Major General Mansur al-Turki, told state-owned Al Arabiya Television the incident in Mecca was not the first potential terror attack that security forces had averted recently, but added, "We hope it is the last, especially concerning the Grand Mosque."

Al-Turki gave no further details, but said security operations were continuing.

Both Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah condemned the alleged plot against Mecca, which Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said was another sign that "terrorism is rampant and growing now across the whole world."

Messages of support for Saudi Arabia, as well as worldwide condemnation of any violence aimed at the Grand Mosque, poured in from throughout the Arab world.

The alleged terror plot leader had been staying in an apartment near the Grand Mosque for several weeks, authorities said. Anticipating a possible attack during the last hours of Ramadan, police raided the suspect's hideout Friday.

Blast collapsed building

After an exchange of gunfire seen by bystanders and Muslim pilgrims visiting Mecca, the alleged bombmaker set off an explosion that killed him and collapsed the three-story building where he was living in the central part of the city, in the Ajrad al-Masafi neighborhood.

The blast injured six foreign visitors to Mecca and five police officers, authorities said.

There was no word on when or how the plotters' attack on the Grand Mosque was to have taken place.

Sunday marks the feast of Eid al-Fitr in Saudi Arabia and most of the Muslim world, a celebration that brings to a close the holy month of Ramadan, a time of fasting and prayers.

Security officials in Saudi Arabia have been on alert during the final week of Ramadan for possible attacks by jihadists who oppose the Saudi royal family's stewardship of the holy sites of Islam. The Islamic State group has carried out a number of deadly attacks in the kingdom in recent years, but did not immediately take responsibility for the blast in Mecca.

Islamic State is believed to have carried out a suicide attack last year, on the eve of Eid al-Fitr, near the Prophet's Mosque in the city of Medina. Four Saudi security officers were killed during that incident.

The Grand Mosque in Mecca, the largest Muslim house of worship in the world, surrounds Islam's holiest place, the Kaaba  the black cube that Muslims around the globe turn toward when they kneel to pray.
As the flames engulfed the room where Luis Huaman was trapped inside a warehouse in Peru's capital, he made a call to his mother in a desperate plea for help.



Nearly a day later, the fire was still raging and there was no sign of the 19-year-old.



At least four people were missing Friday after a warehouse filled with tons of combustibles caught fire. Relatives of two men trapped in the blaze said both were locked inside the rooms where they were working when the fire broke out. Cellphone video obtained by a local television channel showed another now missing man desperately kicking a door in a futile bid to escape.



"They locked them in, which is criminal,'' President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said as he covered his mouth with a paper mask to protect himself from the fumes. "They were practically slave workers.''

The fire cast a critical light on Peru's little regulated and vast informal employment sector, which encompasses as much as 70 percent of the nation's workforce.



"Peru doesn't have enough labor inspectors for the thousands of businesses that exist and for the other enormous number that operate off the books,'' said Kardy Villavicencio, a lawyer and labor rights expert.



The fire broke out Thursday afternoon and leaden clouds of smoke continued to fill the air just 15 blocks from Peru's presidential palace 20 hours later.



Temperatures inside the building reached up to 800 degrees Celsius (1,472 Fahrenheit), firefighter commander Fernando Campos said. Firefighters said it was likely the worst blaze they had encountered since a 2001 fire that killed 277 people.

Police said they had been unable to locate the building's owner.



Cesar Herrera said his 21-year-old nephew, Jovi Herrera, was one of those missing. He said his nephew had phoned begging for help to find the key to the room he was locked in.



"Help me, I'm going to die,'' Herrera quoted the young man as pleading.



Bertha Villalobos, the mother of Huaman, said she also got a frantic call from her son telling her he was stuck in a locked room. She said he had told her previously about being locked in while working, and she always made him food to take, knowing he would be stuck inside.



"My son told me the owner would lock them in,'' she said.
First Lady Melania Trump has hired a new chief usher to oversee the White House residence staff, bringing in a high-level employee from the Trump Organization's Washington hotel to fill the slot.

Timothy Harleth served as the director of rooms at the Trump hotel, and at the White House he will oversee about 90 staff members who run operations at the facility.

I am so pleased that Timothy will be joining our team, Trump said in a statement. He was selected because of his impressive work history and management skills. My husband and I know he will be successful in this vital role within the White House.

The chief usher serves as manager of the building and assists the president's family with decorating and logistics in the residential portion.

I am so honored at the opportunity to serve the first family in their new home, Harleth said. I look forward to applying my experience with hospitality, leadership, and political protocol in order to ensure the first family's needs are met, while also protecting and preserving the rich history of the White House.

Harleth is filling a position left open earlier this year when the White House let go of Angella Reid, who'd served as chief usher since 2011. She was the first woman to hold the position.

The White House has had a chief usher since the end of the 19th century, when a primary duty was ushering in guests to meet the president and first lady.
The Trump administration has authorized the sale of unarmed surveillance drones to India, the manufacturer said Friday, as the two nations leaders prepare for their first face-to-face meeting.



India initiated its request to buy 22 Guardian MQ-9B unmanned aircraft for maritime surveillance last year. The deal is estimated to be worth about $2 billion. The offer is still subject to congressional approval.

Modi visits this week



The green light from the administration marks a further deepening in defense ties as Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.



Modis two-day visit to Washington, which starts Sunday, takes place amid uncertainty over the relationship because of differences on trade and other issues.



So far in his presidency, Trump has focused on outreach to China, Indias strategic rival, as he looks to Beijing to rein in North Korea. But Washington and New Delhi share concerns about Chinas rise as a military power.



India reportedly wants the drones for surveillance of the Indian Ocean, waters that Chinas navy increasingly traverses after establishing its first overseas base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti. Indias archrival Pakistan would also likely be opposed to the drone sale.



We are pleased that the U.S. government has cleared the way for the sale of the MQ-9B Guardian to the Indian government, Linden Blue, CEO of the manufacturer, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, said in a statement. Blue added that it would significantly enhance Indias sovereign maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific.

Military sales date to 2008

Since 2008, India has signed more than $15 billion in U.S. defense contracts, including for C-130J and C-17 transport aircraft, P-8I maritime patrol aircraft, Harpoon missiles and Apache and Chinook helicopters.



Ashley Tellis, an expert on South Asia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the U.S. decision to offer the Guardian aircraft to India is significant as the U.S. has a standing policy of declining export of such advanced drones other than to allies involved in combined operations with U.S. forces.



There could still be pushback from Congress. While there is bipartisan support for closer U.S.-India security ties, some lawmakers remain wary of the export of U.S. drone technology to non-allies.
So where, you may ask, is President Donald Trump most comfortable these days?

Well in his previous life as a real estate mogul, you might have guessed he was most at home safely ensconced in Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, maybe tucking into one of those with well-done steaks with ketchup on the side.

But now as president? How about Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Trump seemed very much at ease during his campaignlike rally in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday.

It is always terrific to be able to leave that Washington swamp and spend time with the truly hard working people, Trump told the crowd. We call them American patriots. Amazing people.

Loyal supporters, yet weak polls

Trumps happy return to his base is understandable given his standing in most public opinion polls.

Five months after taking office, the presidents approval rating hovers near 40 percent, a low mark for a president this early in his term. But numerous surveys also suggest that for the most part, Trumps core supporters, like those who turned out in Cedar Rapids this week, are hanging with him, and the president was appreciative.

We have made a journey together like no other, ever, in the history of this country, Trump said. We are straightening out through common sense and through a good heart, we are straightening out our country. We are straightening out our country.

Trumps rally came the day after Karen Handel gave the president and Republicans in general a boost with her special election victory in Georgia, a race Democrats thought they could win.

Trump boasted to the crowd about the incredible progress his administration has already made and once again put the media in his crosshairs.

These people are being driven crazy. Crazy. I mean they have phony witch hunts going against me. They have everything going. And you know what, all we do is win, win, win.

Democrats question strategy

Handels victory in Georgia put some Democrats in a funk.

Since Trump became president, Republicans have won four of five special congressional elections. And even though Democrats have lost by smaller margins in what are usually Republican-leaning districts, many have expressed disappointment that a strategy that relies heavily on demonizing Trump does not seem to be working.

There is tremendous unrest out there and although Democrats did not win today, 2018 is a completely different story, Representative Joe Crowley of New York, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said.

But others vowed to keep the focus on Trump.

Today in the White House we have perhaps the worst and most dangerous president in the history of our country, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said.

Some Democrats believe it is time for a younger generation of Democratic leaders to take over.

We are a party that stands up for working families and the middle class, Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton told the Associated Press. Yet many of them are not voting for us. So its time for change.

The Democratic losses in special House races despite Trumps weakness in the polls has sparked some soul-searching.

I think that there is this larger quandary that the Democratic Party has in terms of it is trying to figure out how to reconcile its centrist and progressive bases, Emory University analyst Andra Gillespie said. She expects some really tough conversations within the party over the next several months.

WATCH: Trump reconnects with his base

Russia probe

For their part, many Republicans are hoping that their special election victories this week in Georgia and South Carolina will help to refocus national attention on their congressional agenda, including a health care overhaul and tax reform.

But the president himself may have gotten in the way of that this week when he settled the question of whether there were any White House tape recordings of his meetings with former FBI Director James Comey.

Trumps tweet that there were no recordings came on the same day as Senate Republicans made public their health care reform proposal, complicating what they hoped would be a focused rollout of their plan.

The president wants to move past the Russia probe, but it is proving to be difficult.

I do think it is hard when there is the drip, drip, drip of news against you to stop that, John Fortier of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington said. And so finding some other things to talk about and changes of staff, I think those are things that might help. But this is a serious matter at this point and they will have to deal with this for a while.
A court in Belgium has convicted eight princesses from the United Arab Emirates of mistreating their servants during a stay at a luxury Brussels hotel.

The women, members of Abu Dhabi's ruling al-Nahyan family, each received suspended 15-month sentences for human trafficking and degrading treatment. Princess Sheikha Hamda Al-Nahyan and her seven daughters were fined $184,000 each.

The defendants, who did not appear in court but were represented by lawyers, were acquitted of an additional charge of inhuman treatment.

The case stemmed from a visit to Brussels by the princesses nearly 10 years ago, during which they rented the fourth floor of what was then the Conrad Hotel for several months. A family servant slipped out of the hotel and complained to Belgian police about her treatment.

Prosecutors said the 23 servants, many of them African, had to work around the clock, with some sleeping on the floor, for substandard wages.
The U.N.'s office of the high commissioner for human rights has condemned the destruction of the historic al-Nuri mosque by Islamic State militants in the battle-scarred Iraqi city of Mosul, calling it a war crime.

The U.N. human rights office says the destruction of the ancient monument on Wednesday is just the latest in a long list of atrocities perpetrated by Islamic State militants. The group has been responsible for the widespread destruction of religious sites, including churches, mosques, shrines, tombs and graves in Iraq and Syria.

Human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani calls the intentional destruction of the al-Nuri mosque an attack on the religious and cultural heritage of the Iraqi people and the world.

Timbuktu mosque destroyed

International humanitarian law clearly prohibits such attacks, Shamdasani said. Perpetrators who target these objects while being aware of their religious and historical character may be held accountable for war crimes, as in the groundbreaking Timbuktu case at the International Criminal Court.

In July 2012, Islamist rebels, allied with al-Qaida in northern Mali destroyed a 15th century mosque in Timbuktu.

Shamdasani tells VOA it is believed IS, also known as ISIL, blew up the mosque to prevent the approach of Iraqi security forces.

IS 'increasingly desperate'

"This has been one of the tactics that ISIL has been using, Shamdasani said. As you know, they use human shields. They have also deliberately set fire to oil fields, to factories, to a whole host of civilian objects to prevent the approach of Iraqi security forces. And, from what I understand from colleagues on the ground, they appear to be getting increasingly desperate as the Iraqi security forces are closing in on them. So, their methods are becoming increasingly monstrous.

The United Nations reports IS militants are holding around 100,000 civilians as hostages in the old city of eastern Mosul as Iraqi forces escalate their military offensive to retake the city.
The U.S. military coalition fighting the Islamic State group would welcome a concerted effort by the Syrian government or its Iranian-backed partner forces to defeat IS in its remaining strongholds in eastern Syria, a U.S. spokesman said Friday.

Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the coalition, told reporters at the Pentagon that the U.S. goal is to defeat IS wherever it exists. If others, including the Syrian government and its Iranian and Russian allies, want to fight the extremists as well, then "we absolutely have no problem with that," he said, speaking from Baghdad.

"If it looks like they are making a concerted effort to move into ISIS-held areas, and if they show that they can do that, that is not a bad sign," Dillon said, referring to forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "We are here to fight ISIS as a coalition, but if others want to fight ISIS and defeat them, then we absolutely have no problem with that."

Washington severed diplomatic relations with Syria during the Obama administration, which insisted that Assad "must go." More recently, Assad has strengthened his position, regaining key territory from weakened opposition forces.

Tight quarters

The battle space in Syria is getting more crowded and complex as IS-held territory shrinks, raising questions about how the various parties will interact with or avoid one another. Syrian government troops, for example, have reached the Iraqi border in an area where IS leaders have been gathering. The area is far from the main battle lines of Syria's civil war.

The U.S. so far has shunned any cooperation with Assad and has partnered instead with local Arab and Kurdish forces in fighting IS. Those local forces, which the U.S. calls the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, are currently fighting to recapture the extremists' self-declared capital of Raqqa.

Last weekend, for the first time, the U.S. shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had dropped bombs near the SDF. Two other times this month, the U.S. has shot down Iranian-made drones in southern Syria that were deemed to pose a threat to U.S. and partner forces.

Key remaining IS territory includes the cities of Deir el-Zour and Abu Kamal, along the Euphrates River valley.

Dillon said that as Syrian government forces move toward Abu Kamal, "if they want to fight ISIS in Abu Kamal and they have the capacity to do so, then that would be welcomed. We as a coalition are not in the land-grab business. We are in the killing-ISIS business. That is what we want to do, and if the Syrian regime wants to do that and they're going to put forth a concerted effort and show that they are doing just that in Abu Kamal or Deir el-Zour or elsewhere, that means that we don't have to do that in those places."
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Friday announced changes to a $10 million government grant program, narrowing its focus around efforts to combat Islamist extremism.

In an update to awards announced in January by former President Barack Obamas administration, the department released a new list of grant recipients and amounts, shifting money to law enforcement offices and away from groups that combat U.S.-based extremism.

Reuters reported in February that President Donald Trumps administration wanted to revamp the program to focus solely on Islamist extremism.

Homeland changes criteria

A DHS spokeswoman said the department changed the grant criteria after the release of the initial list to consider whether applicants would partner with law enforcement, had experience implementing counter-extremism prevention programs, and would be able to continue after the awards were spent.

Top-scoring applications that were consistent with these priorities remained as awardees, while others did not, said DHS spokeswoman Lucy Martinez.

Three local law enforcement offices in California, Washington state and Minnesota were among the new awardees, receiving grants totaling $1.2 million.

A spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriffs Office in California said it would use the money to address extremism on all fronts, not just Islamist violence. Sergeant Ray Kelly cited violent clashes between right-wing and left-wing demonstrators that recently erupted in the city of Berkeley as an example of local extremism in the county.

Kelly said the office would use the grant money to train officers to better recognize and address signs of alienation that make young people vulnerable to extremism, with the help of behavioral health counselors already on staff.

Muslim group, Life After Hate lose funds

The Muslim Public Affairs Council, a nonprofit group that works to improve public understanding and policies that affect American Muslims, said the Trump administration revoked its nearly $400,000 grant because the group did not meet the criteria of working with law enforcement to counter violent extremism.

The revised list also omitted several original awardees focused on U.S.-based extremism, such as Life After Hate, which tries to steer young people away from far-right extremism.

Christian Picciolini, a co-founder of Life After Hate, told Reuters his group was planning to use its $400,000 grant to scale up its counselor network of former extremists to meet the highly increased requests for our services since Election Day.

The current administrations lack of focus on domestic white extremist terrorism, let alone its denial to even acknowledge it exists, is highly troubling, Picciolini wrote in an email.
A deadly heat wave that has claimed at least six lives in parts of the American Southwest continues.

While temperatures cooled off Friday in Los Angeles, residents are bracing for a long, hot summer.

Planes were grounded for a time in Phoenix earlier this week, as temperatures in parts of the U.S. Southwest soared to 45 degrees Celsius and higher, from Tucson, Arizona, to Palm Springs, California.

Cooling stations, community centers

People have tried their best to stay cool, using community cooling stations in parks and community centers throughout the region.

An air-conditioned senior center in the Los Angeles suburb of Canoga Park offered companionship and relief from the heat.

Four women relaxed over a game of dominoes, while in another part of the center, a dozen women kept active in a tap-dancing class.

They are fine indoors, center director Karin Haseltine said, but she warned too much activity outside on hot days could be hazardous for both seniors and young children.

Haseltine said many seniors also worry about the cost of air-conditioning.

They cant turn it on because the bill is so expensive, she said.

Inside the center, where it is cool, seniors were staying active, taking tap dancing classes and doing yoga.

Deaths blamed on heat

Scattered fires have burned throughout the West, and several deaths in Nevada, Arizona and California have been blamed on intense heat.

Animals are in danger, too.

Zoo workers have been hosing down the elephants at the Phoenix Zoo. Authorities also warn parents and pet owners not to leave animals or children in cars, where temperatures can quickly soar to deadly levels.

At an air-conditioned center in Los Angeles, senior volunteer Rosalie said people are making the best of being indoors.

The dont have to worry about being uncomfortable, getting ill, she said, and can have lunch and activities with friends.

Others are doing what they can to stay cool outdoors, from lounging in the shade to splashing in public fountains.

Makeshift hydration stations are offering bottled water. Near-record-high temperatures are expected through early next week, and people say they are prepared for more heat this summer.
The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan has stepped down.

Laurel Miller left the office Friday without a replacement being named.

The departure of the special envoy comes at the same time the U.S. is preparing to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan in its continued fight against the Taliban insurgency.

Politico, the news website, reported Friday that diplomats thought the special envoy's office was closing Friday, with its responsibilities being folded into the State Department's South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau.

Later Friday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement that he had not yet made a decision about the future of the office. Tillerson has indicated he plans to reduce the number of special envoys in the State Department, which is facing potential budget cuts of up to 30 percent.


Central Africa could see more corruption and violence as a result of a recent decision by a key U.S. regulator to stop enforcing rules requiring companies to avoid the use of conflict minerals in their products, according to some members of the U.S. senate and activists.

Opponents of the change say the rules helped reduce violence in mining areas of of the Democratic Republic of Congo. A provision of the U.S. Dodd-Frank law, section 1502, required companies to verify that their products do not use tantalum, tin, gold, or tungsten that came from operations that benefit armed rebel groups blamed for human rights abuses. These materials are used to make high-tech products, including smart phones, laptops, and tablets.

Some business groups complain that the regulations are burdensome and ineffective in stopping violence.

Democratic senators protest

Acting Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Michael Piwowar, said in April that the SEC no longer would enforce the rules on conflict minerals. That prompted five Democratic senators to write a joint letter to the SEC criticizing the change. The SEC press office would not comment on the letter or the conflict minerals issue.

Carly Oboth of Global Witness, calls the change a gift to armed groups. She says consumers and shareholders have come to expect companies to avoid conduct that makes conflict worse, so firms that do not follow these norms risk damage to their reputation and profit. In a VOA interview, Oboth said Global Witness is an international organization working to break the link between natural resources, conflict and corruption around the world.

Arvind Ganesan of Human Rights Watch told a senate hearing the rule is not a panacea, but is a useful tool to limit continuing violence and abuses. He blames the unrest on numerous armed groups including foreign-backed rebels, and the Congolese army that have killed, raped, pillaged, the area and forced children to serve as soldiers as they seek to gain or maintain control of lucrative gold mines. Ganesan also says suspending the rule could put responsible firms that take the trouble and expense to comply with the law at a financial disadvantage.

'Mixed' record

Rick Goss of the Information Technology Industry Council told the same senate subcommittee that the 1502 rules have a mixed record in cutting funding to armed groups in the DRC and reducing violence in the DRC.

While the rules have deprived armed groups of revenue from certain illicit funding sources, it is notoriously hard to determine the exact impact. He also says the rules have unintentionally hurt employment for some of the very poor people who work in mines. Goss urged the Congress to carefully amend the law rather than scrap it.
Pakistan's claim this week that it shot down an Iranian drone that had crossed into its airspace is heating up tensions already on the rise over cross-border skirmishes and diplomatic rifts over alleged militancy, analysts say.

"This is an unfortunate situation as it will only increase the mistrust which already exists between Pakistan and Iran," Zubair Iqbal, an analyst at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, told VOA.

Both sides of the porous 900-kilometer (560-mile) Pakistan-Iran border have long been rife with drug smugglers, separatists and militant movements. The drone apparently went down Tuesday in violence-racked Balochistan, Pakistan's southwestern province, where insurgents and nationalists are active in launching attacks against government interests and neighboring countries.

"The drone was hit by the Pakistan Air Force as it was unidentified and flying around 3-4 kilometers inside Pakistani territory," Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

No comment from Tehran

The Iranian government remained quiet about the incident, although some Iranian media outlets have quoted Pakistani newspapers on the drone claim.

An anti-Iran Sunni Muslim militant group  Jaish al-Adl, or the Army of Justice  claimed responsibility for an attack in Iran last month that killed 10 Iranian border guards.

Iran responded by warning Pakistan it would hit militant hideouts inside the fellow Muslim country if it failed to curb militancy. Consequently, Iran and Pakistan formed a joint commission in May to secure borders and control militancy.

Iran also beefed up security measures along the boundary with Pakistan and frequently has used drones to monitor the region since the attack.

The "IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] Air and Space force has been using the early-generation drones to track drug traffickers and militant groups such as Jaish al-Adl on the eastern borders with Pakistan," Babak Taghvaee, a military expert based in Malta, told VOA.

Iqbal suggested the drone might have entered Pakistan by "mistake" because "there's a tension in the region, and all the countries are trying to enhance their intelligence capabilities."

Iran-India ties

Geopolitical developments in the region also have strained relations.

Iran's robust ties with India make Pakistan uncomfortable. Islamabad accuses Iran of allowing its soil to be used by Indian spy agency RAW to sponsor, recruit and arm separatists and insurgents in Balochistan and infiltrate Pakistan with Indian spies via the border with Iran.

Iran seems exasperated about Jaish al-Adl's alleged hideouts in Balochistan and about Pakistan's alleged role in promoting Sunni-Shi'ite proxy wars in the region.

The diplomatic rift seemed to widen further after Pakistan accepted a role in the 39-nation Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism initiated by Iran's regional rival, Saudi Arabia. Pakistan's former army chief, General Raheel Sharif, was named to lead the alliance, which Iran sees as a move against it.

While Pakistan has tried to remain neutral in the recent dispute between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and even ventured into an unsuccessful effort to negotiate a settlement, the country is seen to be leaning toward Riyadh. Security analysts point out that Pakistan didn't hesitate to gun down the Iranian drone.

"Pakistan never seemed to have any issues with Iranian drones [in the past]. Gunning down an Iranian drone might be an effort to prove loyalty to Riyadh," Taghvaee said.
Cambodian activists fighting plans to transform Phnom Penhs largest lake into a luxury development made a tactical decision when they took to the streets: put women on the frontline to show a gentle face and prevent violence.

But it was wishful thinking.

The women of Boeung Kak Lake, once home to a thriving community, have been kicked, manhandled, threatened and jailed, one of many land battles globally where women are bearing the brunt of the crackdown on protesters.

We are mostly women because we are more gentle so we face less violence. This is our strategy, said Im Srey Touch, a 42-year-old activist from Boeung Kak Lake.

If we let men participate in our protests, we let them stand behind us or outside, and we stand in the front to reduce the likelihood of violence.

Evictions began in 2007

In fact, as the number of people killed in land conflicts around the world soars, more than half of the dead have been women, rights watchdogs say.

In Phnom Penh the conflict began in 2007 when nearly 4,000 families were stripped of their housing rights after the Cambodian government leased the Boeung Kak Lake area in the nations capital to make way for an upmarket mini city.

Since then, the lake has been filled with sand and most of the 4,000 families evicted, with little to no compensation, amid complaints about the social and environmental impact.

Over the years, more than a dozen activists protesting the evictions have been arrested, most of them women through whom land is passed down in many parts of Cambodia.

Whose courts?

In February, a court sentenced Tep Vanny, the most high-profile lake activist, to two and a half years in jail for inciting violence and assaulting security guards.

Rights observers say the government is using the courts and jails to muzzle activists, including those defending their land rights against government officials and their business cronies.

It is a signal to civil society that We can come after you whenever we want. The courts are ours. We can make anything we say about you stick, said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Asia for New York-based nonprofit Human Rights Watch.

The government of Minister Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) rejects such criticism and says it respects due process.

The court makes decisions based on the constitution and, like every open society, the court provides justice to everyone no matter who they are, said government spokesman Phay Siphan.

Long history of land disputes

Amnesty International has criticized the Cambodian government for bending the law to their will to crack down on dissent. It said 42 criminal cases have been brought against the Boeung Kak Lake activists since 2011.

Nobody believes Tep Vanny was assaulting these security guards, said Robertson, who accused the judges of being stooges of the CPP.

Home to 15 million people, impoverished Cambodia has a long history of disputes over land rights, many dating back to the 1970s when the communist Khmer Rouge regime destroyed property records, and all housing and land became state property.

Cambodia began to privatize land after 1989, when Hun Sens CPP-led government shed its communist past and courted foreign investment, paving the way for economic land concessions.

After privatization, land prices started going up, and people were at risk of land grabbing by companies, the state and well-connected individuals, said Naly Pilorge, director of the nonprofit Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO).

LICADHO says the lack of a publicly available land register detailing boundaries means authorities could confiscate land, claiming that affected families were living on state property.

Between 2000 and 2014, about 770,000 Cambodians were affected by land conflicts, according to charges presented by lawyers at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

Because Cambodia is lawless ... with close ties between companies, government, the military and police, its a recipe for violence, Pilorge said by phone from Phnom Penh.

A broken family

Despite the court cases and jail time, the Boeung Kak Lake women persist. They protest loudly and lie on the ground when ringed and roughed up by authorities. They are arrested in groups, sometimes just two, and, once, 13 of them.

Pilorge says authorities now appear to be trying a new tack, turning their energies onto Vanny on whom it is taking its toll.

During a brief recess before her guilty verdict Feb. 23, the 37-year-old divorcee who was arrested last August described the impact of her detention on her son, 11, and daughter, 13.

I lost my role as a mother. I have a broken family. My child is sick, she said, adding that she could not be there for her daughters surgery to remove her appendix.

During the last hearing, my daughter cried until she fainted ... I am a mother but Im in prison. I cant take care of her, she said.

Activists suspect authorities are using her in a bid to silence other activists ahead of local elections this month and next years national vote.

A lake activist who was arrested with Vanny last year, Sophea Bov, was convicted for insulting authorities and fined $20. So far Bov has refused to pay the fine, Pilorge said, but no one has come for yet although the judge could imprison her.

She was hoping that if she refused to pay the fine, she could go to prison to be with Vanny. Imagine where they are now, to think like that, Pilorge said. As human beings, we grow and we become stronger with challenges ... these women have been tested, and theyve overcome a lot of obstacles.


Nevien Shehadeh, 19, was one of many Muslim women who chose Le'Jemalik Salon and Boutique in New York's borough of Brooklyn on Friday to prepare for the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

The beauty salon, designed by owner Huda Quhshi to cater mostly to Muslim women, opened in January in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn.

"I actually only started wearing the hijab one year ago," said Shehadeh, an undergraduate studying math and economics at Fordham University in New York. "I always wanted to, but I wasn't ready. It was actually during Ramadan last year, one week before Eid, that I had this feeling to wear the hijab."

Shehadeh, a Palestinian-American, was with her two sisters, Shireen, 26, and Nisrien, 18, and aunt, Najah, 37. They reminisced about meeting Quhshi two years ago when the beauty entrepreneur was hired to do makeup at a family wedding.

Quhshi, 37, said that as a Yemeni-American whose cultural norms often barred women from the workplace, she did not think creating a space where conservative Muslim women could receive beauty services in a comfortable environment was possible.

Between Wednesday and Friday, Quhshi said she received 48 customers for Eid services.

"Most salons aren't all women," said Shehadeh, who plans to celebrate Eid on a Staten Island beach with her family on Sunday, marking the end of Islam's holy month of Ramadan. "Here we feel comfortable. We're not paranoid of someone walking in."

About 3.3 million Muslims live in the United States, according to Pew Research Center data, many of whom will celebrate Eid, one of the two most important festivals on the Islamic calendar.

"The beginning of Ramadan was really quiet. It was so slow. It was to the point that I thought of closing for Ramadan," Quhshi said. "Then, all of a sudden, we got so many bookings that we have had to turn people away."

When women arrive at the salon, they are invited to sit on a circular, ivory couch studded with jewels.

Saloon doors lead to a private space where customers post up for pampering in peach and white chairs.

Some get their hair cut and colored. Others have their makeup done or hijab styled by Quhshi and her staff of six. A pedicure station operates as a henna haven.

Shehadeh admired her haircut and blow-out in the ornate mirror.

"We're here to get pampered for the holiday," Shehadeh said. "Even though we don't show our hair, it feels good to do it for yourself."


Zimbabweans go to the polls to elect a new president in 2018, but the countrys political future remains uncertain. The only president Zimbabweans have known is Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the southern African country since 1980.

But political opposition is rising against the 93-year old president, and many observers are looking at the upcoming 2018 elections as a critical benchmark for many Zimbabweans who will either vote to elect a new leader, or stay with the revolutionary Zanu-PF party, which is embroiled in factionalism.

In a recent interview with VOAs Esther Githui-Ewart of the TV program Africa 54, African Union Ambassador to the U.S., Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, who is from Zimbabwe, said shes hopeful about Zimbabwes future.

Zimbabweans are very resilient people, said Dr. Chihombori-Quao. Who would have thought we would still be standing with everything that weve gone through? Zimbabweans will make it.

As Zimbabweans consider their voting choices for president in 2018, Ambassador Chihombori urged her fellow citizens and all those around the Continent to be proactive and not just stand by the sidelines.

My message to Zimbabweans particularly those in the diaspora, I encourage them to participate in the electoral process - we need parliamentarians, we need new parties coming in, said the Ambassador. So I encourage the citizens of Zimbabwe to get involved. Dont just sit and fire charges at the governments. It is not just Zimbabweans, this is true of all African countries. Dont just sit and complain about whats happening at home.

Zimbabwe has been under targeted sanctions from several western countries, including the US, for alleged human rights abuses and lack of political transparency, all of which the government has denied. President Mugabe has been pushing for the removal of what he has called unjust sanctions.

"So you have sanctions, we have sanctions (laughs) and this American the imperialist at the top of it all," President Mugabe said in an interview.

Ambassador Chihombori, who has challenged the effectiveness of the sanctions, urged Africans to be more independent of western assistance in the form of aid.

We as Africans, weve got to move away from this aid mode that we seem to have been perpetually in. We need to get ourselves in a position where we can be self-sufficient, Dr. Chihombori stressed. So our relationship at this point tends to be dictated in some cases the need for aid. Weve got to get away from that.

Ambassador Chihombori would not respond directly to allegations that President Mugabe has failed the country, as many have alleged, but said such accusations against governments and leaders is not unique to Zimbabwe.

I cannot answer the question as to whether he [President Mugabe] has failed or been good for Zimbabwe, Ambassador Chihombori said. What I can tell you is whats happening in Zimbabwerising of the opposition is nothing new. It is happening everywhere, even here in this country [U.S.]. That is just the nature of the political process. I dont think we should single out Zimbabwe and say what is happening there is unique.

In recent years, President Mugabe has been seeking sporadic treatment in Singapore, raising questions among Zimbabweans on how long he can hang on to power. As for how strongly Zimbabweans want President Mugabe and the Zanu-PF party succeeded by an opposition party, Chihombori said only time will tell.

We have elections. Lets see what happens.

Zimbabwes economy continues to face challenges amidst lack of investors and a cash crunch that has forced banks to reduce daily withdrawal limits to as low as $50 a day.

(Story Reported by Esther Githui-Ewart, VOA Africa 54)
A Kenyan appellate court, dismissing a complaint by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, ruled Friday that presidential election results announced at the polling station level are final.

"The lowest voting unit and the first level of the declaration of presidential election results is the polling station," said Justice William Ouko of the Kenyan Court of Appeal. "The declaration form containing those results is the primary document, and other forms subsequent to it are only tallies of the original and final result as recorded at the polling station."

In April, the Kenyan High Court made a similar ruling, but the electoral commission asked the appeals court to overrule the judgment. The electoral commission questioned the integrity of its officers in charge of polling station returns.

Ouko dismissed that argument, calling it "hypocritical" for the commission to doubt its workers.

Disputes over the outcome marred Kenya's last two presidential elections. The 2007 dispute triggered intercommunal fighting that killed more than 1,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more from their homes.

'Cure the mischief'

Felix Odhiambo, Kenya country director of the nonprofit Electoral Law and Governance Institute in Africa, said Friday's ruling discourages tampering with election results.

"It will cure the mischief that has been identified in the past, where the electoral commission unilaterally alters and changes the election results at the national tallying center, and most fundamentally it gives credence to the finality and sanctity of the vote," Odhaimbo said.

Ouko called on the electoral commission to hold a credible election in line with the country's Constitution.

"The responsibility of the appellant to deliver a credible and acceptable election in accordance with the Constitution is so great, awesome, and it must approach and execute it with absolute fitness, probity and integrity," he said.

Kenya is scheduled to hold a general election August 8. President Uhuru Kenyatta is running for a second term against challengers who include former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.


A view of the tasting room at Old Westminster Winery. (Lauren Swann)

There were soil pits, barrel rooms, vineyard tours, breweries and a distillery as a group of wine bloggers and other industry professionals enjoyed a three-day immersion in the best of Marylands burgeoning alcoholic beverage industry. This was Taste Camp, an opportunity for beverage writers to explore Maryland, and for Marylands producers to strut their stuff before an international audience.

A sparkling Friday morning started with sparkling gruner veltliner petillant-naturel, or pet-nat, from Old Westminster Winery. Pet-nat is catnip for wine nerds these days, and the wine did not disappoint. It was an ideal refresher as Old Westminsters Drew Baker introduced the thirsty writers to Burnt Hill, the winerys new vineyard site under development. (I wrote last week about the work to assess the site and plan the vineyard.)

[Before the vines go in, its busy down on Old Westminsters Farm]

Were on top of the world here, Baker said, with just a little exaggeration as he pointed toward the Blue Ridge Mountains visible 40 miles to the west. Theres plenty of breeze and sunshine, natures antibiotics. He then led the group down the slope to where his father, Jay Baker, had dug a six-foot hole with a backhoe.

How many of these wine nerds have ever hopped in a hole as deep as they are tall to see whats happening below the surface? Baker said.

Taste Camp was started in 2009 by wine writer Lenn Thompson, founder and editor of Cork Report, an online magazine based on Long Island. It was a counterpoint to the Wine Bloggers Conference, an annual gathering of writers that tends to be focused on the West Coast. (The bloggers conference, started in 2008, was held in Virginia in 2011 and New Yorks Finger Lakes in 2015, but has been west of the Rockies all other years.) In contrast, Thompson held Taste Camp in more unheralded regions, such as Vermont, Niagara (in Canada and in New York) and Quebec.

There is so much good  even great  wine being made in places that arent the normal or traditional places in North America, Thompson says. California, Oregon and Washington dont have a monopoly on wine thats worth drinking.

And while the bloggers conference attracts hundreds of attendees and is quite commercial, Taste Camp remains small. This years group included 32 participants who came from as far as California, Ottawa and Quebec City, as well as Michigan, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.



A view of the tasting room exterior at Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Md. (Courtesy Black Ankle Vineyards)

On Saturday, the group visited Black Ankle Vineyards in Mount Airy, the winery that ignited Marylands wine renaissance a decade ago. There they did vertical tastings of each vintage of Black Ankles Crumbling Rock Bordeaux-style blend and its Leaf Stone Syrah. Then they took a vineyard tour at Big Cork Winery in Rohrersville with winemaker Dave Collins before tasting samples from several wineries of central and western Maryland. The program concluded Sunday morning with a tasting at Boordy Vineyards in Hydes, with wineries from the Eastern Shore joining in. I was able to participate on Friday and Sunday.

[Put this on your shopping list: The bargain red wine of the year]

Its not often that we are able to present our wines to local wine advocates who are passionate enough to spend their weekend traveling to and learning about a relatively unknown wine region, says Phineas Deford, Boordys vice president. The Boordy 2016 Albarino was a crowd favorite, and a bargain at $20. I also enjoyed the 2014 Cabernet Franc Reserve and 2013 Landmark Reserve, a Bordeaux-style blend, lighter bodied reds than most wineries make, but with delicious, sustained flavor. A 2015 Cabernet Franc from Chateau Bu-De on the Eastern Shore had more weight and density, but showed similar finesse.

Wine was not the only potent potable on the menu. Taste Campers also visited McClintock Distillery in Frederick, where they tried the Forager Gin and other spirits. Tenth Ward Distilling poured a smoked corn white whiskey and a caraway rye that Thompson said really tasted like rye bread. Gray Wolf Distillery of St. Michaels and Miscellaneous Distillery of Mount Airy participated in the tasting at Boordy.

For the Taste Campers, the weekend was an opportunity to try wines and spirits they cant get at home.

It gives me a perspective of the potential across the country, says Richard Auffrey, a Boston-based writer and founder of the Passionate Foodie blog. Auffrey said he hopes his readers will learn to enjoy their local wines and spirits through his reporting on Maryland and other regions. And someday, maybe these wines will be available in Massachusetts.

Remy Charest, a writer in Quebec City, has attended every Taste Camp. I cant say I walk out of here with a clear sense of what direction Maryland wants to go, he said, as he prepared to drive back to Canada from Boordy. But theres great potential here. Its beautiful country. Visiting is a no-brainer.

I asked Thompson why he organizes Taste Camp every year, and he seemed taken aback by the question.

I get to see some friends every year and let them in on a secret about an emerging wine region, he said. And when were tasting wines and I see their eyes widen and their pens start scribbling notes quickly, thats awesome.
Dear Readers: We are right in the middle of mosquito season! What can you do? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov) has some good hints:

 Standing water is our enemy when battling mosquitoes. Mosquitoes lay eggs in trays under flowerpots and in buckets and trash cans. Search for and dump out standing water.

 Make sure screens on windows fit correctly. Keeping windows closed and running a fan or an air conditioner is good for keeping mosquitoes out of your home.

 Cover up completely when outside. Long-sleeved shirts and long pants are best.

 Treat with DEET. The CDC recommends using a mosquito repellent with DEET because it lasts a long time and is safe when used as directed.

 Apply sunscreen first, then mosquito repellent.

Read up on mosquito control, and talk to your doctor and pediatrician for more information.

Dear Readers: Anne and Anthony sent a picture, via email, of their precious Yorkie, Diva.

Diva is almost 10 years old. She limps on her left front leg a little, so they take her to physical therapy once a month. And Diva loves to go shopping with her mommy!

To see Diva and our other Pet Pals, visit Heloise.com and click on Pet of the Week.

Dear Heloise: I would like to suggest that restaurants allow senior citizens (65 and older) to order from the kids menu.

I realize that the kids menu does not often offer the healthiest food, but we are seasoned enough to know how to eat healthy.

Many older folks cannot eat the amount of food some of these restaurants serve, dont like to eat leftovers and dont want to waste food. Thank you.

Millie in Colorado Springs

Millie in Colorado Springs: Restaurant portions are huge these days! Another hint is to ask your server if you can split a meal in two, to share with your dining partner.

P.S. Tip a little extra if the server accommodates your wishes.

Dear Heloise: For holding skeins of yarn, use large, empty plastic canisters of disinfecting wipes.

The lid comes off easily, and the end of the yarn can be threaded through the hole in the lid.

A Reader, via email

Reader: Reuse and repurpose? Wonderful!

Dear Heloise: Every time I change the sheets on our queen-size bed, trying to determine which way the sheet goes takes me so long. So I put a small safety pin in the top left corner of all my fitted sheets. Problem solved, and time saved.

Millie F., Elida, Ohio

Dear Heloise: Toss the packs of moisture-wicking desiccants found in many shipping packages and medicines into your boxes of silver jewelry or flatware, and be amazed at their tarnish protection.

Also, make online purchases? Dont toss those air-filled plastic pillows. Place them in stored handbags to keep your bags shapes like new.

J.T., 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.
THE DISTRICT

Man with ax attacks by Benning Road stop

D.C. police officers said they had to use pepper spray to subdue a man who on Friday used an ax to attack another man outside the Benning Road Metro station in Northeast Washington.

Police said the suspect refused to comply when officers instructed him to lie on the ground. When officers used pepper spray to subdue him, authorities said, the man charged toward the police in an aggressive manner. Authorities then took him to the ground and placed him under arrest.

Police said the ax attack began about 10:30 p.m., but officials were unable to detail how the incident transpired.

They said the victim, who lives in the District, was taken to a hospital by D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services. He was treated for a laceration to his upper body. His injuries were reportedly not life-threatening, said Doug Buchanan, a spokesman for D.C. Fire and EMS.

A police report gave no motivation for the attack. The report said 12 officers responded to the call.

The suspect, whom police did not name, was taken into custody. Charges were pending.

 Rachel Chason

Argument leads to supermarket stabbing

An argument between two employees in a storage room of a Giant Food near the Van Ness Metro station on Thursday ended with one worker stabbing the other with a large knife used to cut watermelons, D.C. police said.

The victim, in his 40s, was hospitalized in serious condition with three stab wounds, according to police, including one in the abdomen that fractured his ribs and caused extensive internal injuries.

Fred Allen Irby, 28, of Southeast, was arrested at the store and charged with assault with intent to kill. The store in the 4300 block of Connecticut Avenue NW closed for several hours after the incident.

An arrest affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court on Friday said Irby and the victim began arguing about 5 p.m., with the victim alleging Irby rarely did any work. At least one worker tried to intervene by getting between the two men. Police said the suspect retrieved the knife from a cooler and attacked the victim.

 Peter Hermann

MARYLAND

Police name gunman in shooting-suicide

Prince Georges County police have identified the suspect accused of fatally shooting a Hyattsville man on Friday before turning the gun on himself.

In a news release, police said Jabari Ball, also of Hyattsville, shot Delonta Surratt, 29, after an argument. Authorities did not provide information on the nature of the argument. They said Surratt was in a relationship with the 20-year-old Halls mother.

Hyattsville City Police were called to the 5500 block of 45th Avenue in Hyattsville about 10 a.m. Friday after reports of gunshots, according to the news release. There they found Surratt, who had been shot multiple times, in an apartment building hallway. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

About a half-hour later, officers with the Riverdale Park Police Department responded to a report of gunshots in the 5700 block of 48th Avenue in Riverdale Park, where they found Ball suffering from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot. He also was pronounced dead at the scene.

 Rachel Chason

Attacker gets 13 years in MS-13 stabbing

An MS-13 gang member who admitted his role in a vicious attack that left a victim hospitalized for 10 days was sentenced Thursday to more than 13 years in prison, federal and local law enforcement officials announced.

U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte of the District of Maryland sentenced Celvin Eulice Ramos-Mejia (also identified as Ramos-Meija), 21, of Columbia, to 160 months in prison and three years of supervised release for conspiring and attempting to murder on behalf of the gang.

Looking to boost his status in the gang, Ramos-Mejia took part in a June 6, 2016, attack with others MS-13 gang members, according to his plea agreement. The group repeatedly stabbed someone in Greenbelt whom they took to be a rival gang member, prosecutors said.

 Ellie Silverman

VIRGINIA

Two children found in pool; one dead

One child is dead and a second is in critical condition after the two were found Saturday in a pool at a Sterling home, according to a news release from the Loudoun County Sheriffs Office.

Authorities said a family member found both children, a 2-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy, about 10:43 a.m. in a pool at a residence on Acorn Court. Both were unconscious.

Loudoun sheriffs deputies and the Loudoun County Fire and Rescue Department responded to the home.

Both children were taken to the Lansdowne campus of Inova Loudoun Hospital. The girl died at the hospital. The boy was transferred to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he was in critical condition.

The incident is under investigation.

 Sharif Hassan

THE REGION

Fare hike, new service starts Sunday on Metro

Starting Sunday, most Metro riders will pay 10 to 25 cents more per ride on trains and buses.

There will be a 10-cent increase for trains running during rush hour and a 25-cent increase for rides during off-peak hours. Fares for local bus routes will increase by 25 cents.

A weekly schedule that reduces service in the evenings and on weekend mornings also will go into effect Sunday. The adjusted hours are meant to ease the transit agencys financial struggles.

Beginning Sunday, train service Monday through Thursday will operate 5 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. On Fridays, trains will run 5 a.m. to 1 a.m., and on Saturdays, 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. On Sundays, trains will run 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

This changes from Metros previous hours: 5 a.m. to midnight weekdays and 7 a.m. to midnight weekends.

During rush hour, trains will run every eight minutes on most lines, rather than every six minutes. Trains between Grosvenor and Silver Spring on the Red Line will run every four minutes. Red Line trains outside that zone will run every eight minutes.

The Blue Line will see an increase in service, with trains running every eight minutes during rush hour, compared with every 12 minutes.

Rush Plus Yellow Line service between Franconia-Springfield and Greenbelt will be discontinued; all Yellow Line trains will operate between Huntington and Mount Vernon Square during rush hour.

 Rachel Chason
Ketumile Masire, a cattle herder turned statesman who, as president of Botswana from 1980 to 1998, helped solidify his countrys standing as one of the most richly thriving nations in Africa, died June 22 at a hospital in the capital city of Gaborone. He was 91.

His death, announced in a statement by his family, was reported by the Associated Press. The cause was not disclosed.

Mr. Masire was widely heralded as a model leader in a model nation on a continent where poverty, corruption and violence had crushed many hopes for stability and prosperity.

We have seen the promise of a new Africa whose roots are deep here in your soil, for you have been an inspiration to all who cherish freedom, U.S. President Bill Clinton declared to Mr. Masire during a visit to Gaborone in 1998.

Clinton noted that in 1966 when Botswana  then known as Bechuanaland  obtained independence from Britain, it had two miles of paved roads and a single public high school. Its chief export was beef.

Ketumile Masire in 2000. (Antony Njuguna/Reuters)

The discovery of diamond reserves transformed the countrys prospects, and under Mr. Masire and his predecessor, Seretse Khama, the nation used its revenue to build roads and schools, to improve health care and expand access to clean water, to advance farming techniques and to extend life spans.

Khama, who had been the first president of independent Botswana, was featured in last years film A United Kingdom, starring David Oyelowo, with Rosamund Pike portraying the white Englishwoman Khama married in defiance of British authorities.

Mr. Masire  a self-described farmer who has been drawn into politics  was credited with leading his landlocked nation through a drought that dragged on for much of the 1980s. In 1989, he shared the Africa Prize for Leadership, valued at $100,000, from the charitable organization the Hunger Project in recognition of the food distribution efforts that helped the country avoid starvation during the crisis.

He navigated a delicate relationship with South Africa, Botswanas neighbor to the south. While South Africa was Botswanas major economic partner, Botswana opposed the apartheid system of racial segregation under which South Africans were ruled for decades before its dismantlement in the early 1990s.

He had to walk a line [in] a really rough neighborhood, said Chester Crocker, a Georgetown University professor and former assistant secretary of state for African affairs. He had to get along with everybody, without sacrificing his principles.

While many other African nations suffered under dictatorship, Botswana featured a robust democracy with little if any noticeable corruption. The political inclusivity Mr. Masire fostered, Crocker said, is a magic formula, and its too rare in Africa and elsewhere.

The stability of Botswana allowed its tourism industry to flourish in times of economic prosperity, with many visitors coming to witness its wildlife.

Ketumile Masire in 2001. (Alexander Joe/AFP via Getty Images)

Mr. Masire  often known as Quett  was born in Kanye, in southern Botswana near the South African border, on July 23, 1925. In his youth, he was a herder before enrolling in a primary school at 13, according to a statement from Botswanas government announcing his death.

Crocker said Mr. Masire worked the land in a country that may go years without rain and learned a profound sense of self-reliance. He received a scholarship to attend a secondary school in South Africa that was said to have trained many leaders of the first government of independent Botswana.

After both of his parents died when he was in his early 20s, he suspended his education to become a teacher to support his siblings. He was a headmaster before saving enough money to purchase a tractor and pursue farming, distinguishing himself with modern agricultural techniques.

He also worked as a newspaper journalist, an activity that along with his community involvement helped draw him into politics. He served on tribal and regional councils and was a founder and secretary general of the Botswana Democratic Party, now the countrys dominant political party. According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography, he once traversed 3,000 miles of the Kalahari Desert to attend two dozen meetings over two weeks.

Before becoming president, Mr. Masire had served in roles including minister of finance and development planning and vice president.

After leaving office, he advised other African leaders and chaired an international panel that probed the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Crocker credited him with making important contributions to peace efforts in Congo and, more recently, Mozambique.

In his retirement, Mr. Masire established the Sir Ketumile Masire Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that seeks to improve agriculture, governance and childrens health in the region. He also tended the cattle on his ranch.

Mr. Masires wife, Gladys Olebile Molefi Masire, whom he married in 1958, died in 2013. They had six children. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

We have a saying in Botswana: A man is never strong until he says what he believes and gives other men the chance to do the same, Mr. Masire once told The Washington Post. I am proud to say without a doubt . . . we are a strong democracy.
Dozens of Baltimore business owners are suing city officials, including the police department and former mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, saying they mishandled the citys response to the riots in 2015.

In a nearly 700-page complaint filed in federal court last week, more than 60 plaintiffs say city officials failed to prevent the looting and rioting that erupted after the arrest and death of Freddie Gray in April 2015, despite warnings the city would experience violence.

More than 380 businesses, including many located south of North Avenue in West Baltimore, were damaged or destroyed. Property losses were estimated at nearly $13 million.

The plaintiffs are suing under the Maryland riot act statute, which allows parties to bring a claim against the city for property damage during civil unrest. They name Rawlings-Blake and former police commissioner Anthony Batts, who were in office at the time of the riots, current Mayor Catherine Pugh, the City Council, city police and the state as defendants. They are seeking an unspecified amount in damages.

The plaintiffs allege that Rawlings-Blake took too long to sign an executive order implementing the citys emergency plan to protect city residents and property.

Widespread rioting was well underway, and much of the property that the executive order was passed to protect was already being destroyed, they write.

They say the citywide curfew imposed the next day and the arrival of the Maryland National Guard and other state resources came too late.

[Rioting rocks Baltimore: Hogan declares emergency, activates Guard]

This lawsuit is the result of the City and the other Defendants failing to do right by these property and business owners, Peter K. Hwang, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. The City and other Defendants failed them when they adopted a policy of restraint and issued stand-down orders, caring more about the public perception that they feared would result with increased police presence than preventing what were clearly preventable riots.

A lawyer listed for the city in court records, Batts and a spokesman for Pugh did not respond to requests for comment. Rawlings-Blake declined to comment.

The lawsuit includes a detailed timeline leading up to the riots, beginning with Grays arrest on April 12, 2015, and including public statements, memos and emails in which officials describe their concerns about the potential for violence.

Gray, 25, died after suffering a severe spinal cord injury in police custody. States Attorney Marilyn Mosby filed criminal charges against six police officers. All pleaded not guilty. None were convicted.

The plaintiffs describe protests that began outside the Western District police station after Grays arrest. The complaint includes public comments from Batts and Gov. Larry Hogan acknowledging, days before the riots in Baltimore, other protests that became violent elsewhere in the nation, including in Ferguson, Mo.

The plaintiffs note that leave for police officers was canceled the weekend before Grays funeral. The riots erupted on the day of the funeral.

[At Grays funeral, outrage over way in which he died]

The plaintiffs say officers were instructed to stand down during the rioting. They quote from a Baltimore police union after-action report in which the union said officers were told looting is expected. Let it happen.

On the day the union released the report, a spokesman for Rawlings-Blake called it a trumped-up political document full of baseless accusations, finger-pointing and personal attacks. Batts said no one in his command gave an order to stand down.

The plaintiffs quote Rawlings-Blake saying at a news conference that we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.

She was speaking about property damage near Camden Yards during a protest on April 25, two days before the more widespread riots.

The quote drew national attention. On April 27, after the riots and looting had erupted, she said her words had been mischaracterized.

I made it very clear that we balance a very fine line between giving peaceful protesters space to protest, she said at the second news conference. What I said is, in doing so, people can hijack that and use that space for bad. I did not say we were accepting of it.

Hwang said the city used underhanded tactics to try to trick these business and property owners into signing releases to limit liability.

The Baltimore Development Corp. started the Baltimore Business Recovery Initiative to provide financial assistance to businesses damaged during the riots. But the plaintiffs say the Storefront Recovery Grant Program offered $5,000 to individual businesses, and required business owners to waive any claims against the city.

These waiver provisions were only included when applicants  many of whom could not speak or read English  were provided with hard copies of the applications and asked to sign, the plaintiffs say.

Baltimore Development Corp. President William Cole said Wednesday he did not remember the legal details of the recovery programs. He referred questions to the citys law department.

The plaintiffs were among the businesses owners who did not sign the waivers.

John Chae, one the plaintiffs, owned Fireside North Liquors on North Avenue. He said he was attacked by looters with bottles and bricks, knocking him unconscious. He woke up to find his store on fire.

Ive lost so much, my livelihood, he said. Ive got to get something returned so I can get my life back.

Chae expressed frustration at city officials, who he said did not offer support to rebuild.

Chae said his liquor store suffered about $500,000 in damage, which insurance didnt fully cover. He said he sold the property but hasnt recouped his losses.

He has since opened a UPS store in Baltimore County to provide for his family, including a son who was born just before the riots. He has no plans to return to Baltimore.

Why would I? he said.


Jerry Dyson, one of the few remaining residents of Howard Manor, leans against a wall of the building. (Bill OLeary/The Washington Post)

Howard Manor was a bustling residential complex for decades, but these days it is a hulking brick edifice suffused in eerie silence, a five-story ghost building of vacant apartments near Howard University in a gentrifying area of Washington. The financially struggling school, which owns the complex, has been aggressively trying to empty the building of dozens of low- and moderate-income tenants, saying it wants to renovate the 67-year-old structure for a new population of renters.

The clearing-out effort began months ago, and now almost everybody who lived there is gone.

Almost.

Jerry Dyson, 82, a retired newspaper production worker, is the sole occupant of the fourth floor, where 14 of 15 apartments are shuttered. He likes to recite part of a Bible verse, John 14:2, in jest. Stepping off an elevator, he moseyed down the dimly lit hallway toward his door, his footfalls and mellow voice echoing in the emptiness as he passed one vacant unit after another.

In my Fathers house are many mansions, he muttered ruefully.

Upstairs, P.J. Green-Young, a 60-year-old substitute teacher  a petite bolt of energy who talks and walks on fast-

forward  strode in the warm, stuffy air of the tiled fifth-floor hallway and pointed at long-locked doors, fondly remembering ex-neighbors: Paul . . . Susan . . . Kurt . . . Professor S. . . . Oh, Im telling you, we used to be so familial in here.

Today she is alone on the floor, an adamant holdout, one of just three tenants left in a decaying complex of 70-plus apartments.

They refuse to leave, despite what Dyson and Green-Young described as high-pressure tactics by the real estate management company hired by Howard University to move people out.

The historically black university is trying to reverse years of financial troubles from lower revenue at Howard University Hospital, higher expenditures for student financial aid and a reduction in federal money.

[Howard University signs deal to turn Meridian Hill dorm into luxury rentals]

With its financial health in question, the university continues to look to its real estate assets as sources of revenue. The university, for instance, struck a $22 million deal to convert a residence hall next to Meridian Hill Park on 16th Street NW into luxury rentals.

But in a city where tenants enjoy some of the strictest legal protections in the country, Dyson, Green-Young and another Howard Manor resident  a woman in her 30s who did not want to be interviewed  cannot be evicted as long as they behave properly in the building and pay their rents on time, according to their attorney, Blake A. Biles. The university disagrees, asserting that the tenants rental agreements are no longer valid.

Jerry Dyson, right, and P.J. Green-Young, two of the remaining three residents of Howard Manor, which Howard university wants to redevelop. (Bill OLeary/The Washington Post)

So they are in a curious standoff  curious not only because Dyson and Green-Young, both African Americans of limited means, said they are content to keep living in a mausoleum-like building, but because the landlord seeking to remove them, in the name of redevelopment, is a 150-year-old university with a revered legacy in the black community.

I would assume that any institution of higher learning, especially Howard, would feel committed to serving the people in its community as well as its students, said Biles, a retired partner in the white-shoe law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, which is representing the three Howard Manor tenants pro bono.

Responding to Biless remark, a Howard spokeswoman said in an email that modernization efforts across our real estate portfolio are critical to advancing Howards mission to create an educational environment in which all students can thrive.

Dyson, who grew up in Washington, moved to Howard Manor in 1991, after he retired. Green-Young, a native Chicagoan, has lived in the building for 16 years, starting when she was a graduate student in Howards School of Divinity.

Theirs is a town-and-gown dispute in an age of lucrative D.C. property values.

Are you all right, dear? Green-Young asked Dyson one recent morning. She was visiting him in his rent-controlled efficiency unit, for which he pays $239 a month. Dyson, shuffling across the cramped apartment, seemed anxious as he reached for his blood-pressure gauge on a shelf.

One-ninety-four over a hundred, he said after a moment, glancing at his friend and grimacing.

Ooo, thats not good, she whispered.

Not good, said Dyson, sinking his lean frame into a chair. Later, he said: They tried their damnedest to get us out. Even pushed me into a heart problem. You see me taking my blood pressure? I wasnt doing that five months ago.

A tide of gentrification

Gentrification in the nations capital, largely a downtown phenomenon in the early aughts, has spread in all directions, including toward Howard Manor, at Georgia Avenue and Girard Street NW, on the northern edge of Howards campus. The influx of affluent newcomers to Washington has led to skyrocketing rents and real estate values  a boon for land owners and developers of luxury apartments and condos, but a life-altering disruption for deep-rooted residents who are being priced out of their neighborhoods.

Opened in 1950, Howard Manor was long an affordable residence for people in need of inexpensive housing. The complex was filled with Howard graduate students, young faculty members and others affiliated with the school and its hospital, including nurses, technicians, clerical and blue-collar workers, and retirees.

But that was before the universitys current financial distress, and before the tide of gentrification began rolling into Columbia Heights and other neighborhoods around the campus, creating profitable real estate opportunities.

[Howard University Hospital shows symptoms of a severe crisis]

Crystal Brown, Howards vice president of communications, said repeatedly in recent weeks that she was trying to arrange for someone in the schools real estate office to speak about Howard Manor. She eventually said that an interview could not be scheduled. Instead, she asked for a list of questions and responded broadly in emails.

Howard Manor needed to be modernized, Brown wrote. For safety reasons, it was determined that occupants needed to vacate the building during the modernization process. No promises were made that they could move back in when the work is finished. Rather, Brown said, the university created a comprehensive relocation program, offering residents payment abatement and forgiveness, counseling and relocation services as well as substantial financial assistance.

The financial help included confidential cash payments in the low- to mid-five figures, Dyson and Green-Young said.

A property management company, Zalco Realty, headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., was hired by Howard in January 2015 to handle the work of emptying the building. Zalcos president, Arthur N. Dubin, declined to be interviewed, referring questions to the university.

One complication that Zalco apparently faced involved the strong protections given to renters in the District by city law. Biles, the tenants attorney, said that in most cases, when a renter in Washington signs a lease, it can be renewed and modified but cannot be terminated unless the tenant chooses to leave or violates the rental terms.

And because it was built before 1975, Howard Manor is subject to the Districts rent-control rules, which means the university could increase rents for existing tenants only by a relatively small amount each year, based on the Labor Departments consumer price index.

When a rent-controlled apartment is vacated, however, the landlord usually is allowed to raise the rent by as much as 30 percent for new tenants. Moreover, in the case of Howard Manor, if the complex is substantially rebuilt, the university could seek a rent-control exemption.

Pricing has not yet been set for the modernized building, Brown said in an email, adding that the new Howard Manor will optimally serve University stakeholders as occupants, including faculty members, students and staff employees.

Eerie stillness

Green-Young and Dyson said that at least two-thirds of Howard Manors 70-plus apartments were occupied in fall 2015, when Zalco began peppering tenants with letters and phone calls, informing them that they would have to move. Many of the tenants were left with the impression that they had no clear right to keep their apartments, Dyson and Green-Young said.

The two holdouts said they also werent completely aware of their tenant rights until community activists, including affordable-housing advocates, became aware of what was happening at Howard Manor, and lawyer Biles volunteered to help them. The standoff hasnt yet shifted to a courtroom.

Zalco wasnt legally obligated to fully explain to residents what their rights as tenants were. And the company did not do so in numerous letters and notices reviewed by The Washington Post. Instead, it offered an array of relocation services, provided updates on the rapidly advancing renovation plan, and urged residents to contact a mortgage banker at any area bank and submit your documents to become qualified to purchase a home.

Green-Young, whose rent for a one-bedroom is similar to Dysons, said of Zalco: They were calling our cellphones. They were calling our landlines. They came to peoples doors. If they could, they came by peoples jobs, if they worked on the campus. And they were just bombarding us with: Howard is closing the building! You have to get out! So why dont you let us assist you? 

P.J. Green-Young, one of the last remaining residents of Howard Manor, stands in one of the buildings stairwells. (Bill OLeary/The Washington Post)

By the early part of this year, nearly everyone in Howard Manor had packed up and left. Dyson and Green-Young said that, like their neighbors, they were offered money in return for moving. Neither would specify the amount. It was enough to go out and pay cash for a new Toyota, put it that way, said Dyson, adding: I didnt try to persuade anyone to stay. I told them, Do whats best for you  that was my thing. And I also let them know that I would be the last one to leave, okay?

Because they have been told by their attorney that under D.C. law their leases cannot be terminated as long as they abide by their rental terms, Dyson and Green-Young said, they have been dutifully mailing rent checks to Zalco each month. And Zalco has been promptly sending the checks back, uncashed.

Asked about the rent checks, Brown, the Howard spokeswoman, said in an email that none of the remaining occupants have current license agreements, meaning valid leases. She did not elaborate on why Howard thinks the rental agreements are no longer in force, saying only that the university is not accepting any payments from the tenants.

Meanwhile, in its spooky stillness, once-vibrant Howard Manor now brings to mind a low-rent version of the Overlook Hotel in Stephen Kings The Shining.

When you start hearing Redrum! Redrum! in the halls, Biles quipped, youll know its time to get out.

Said Dyson, Yeah, well, what you do is, you take your equalizer with you wherever you go in this place. Stepping to a counter in his apartment, he said, You know, your gun, your knife. He smiled coyly. Now, I dont have either of those, but. . . . And from the counter he lifted a set of nunchaku and waved them in the air.

Green-Young wanted to point out something in the basement, and she led the way in twilight through a warren of low-

ceilinged, subterranean hallways until she arrived in the laundry room.

See?

She had affixed handwritten notes to a broken washing machine and a busted dryer.

One: Saturday eve. Machine inoperable. 13 May 2017. Owes me $1.00.

The other: Sunday eve. 21 May 2017. Dryer not working. Owes = $1.00.

Two dollars total, she said in a tone of defiance. Thats what they owe me.
Washingtonians have soured on Metro, with chronic delays and shutdowns changing how more than 2 in 5 of them get around town, but they are not giving up on the beleaguered subway.

A slight majority supports a regionwide sales tax to boost funding for the transit system, with big majorities opposing service cuts and fare increases to raise the money it needs, according to a new Washington Post poll.

The survey of District residents finds 53 percent support a regional sales tax to fund Metro, making it the most popular of five proposals that are being weighed by local leaders to stabilize the systems finances. Attitudes in Washington are similar to those in suburban Virginia and Maryland in separate Post polls this spring, where residents have expressed modest support for a sales tax and mixed or weak support for other options.

[Read full poll results | How the poll was conducted]

The D.C. poll finds the second-highest support  47 percent  for increasing Metro funding from Maryland, Virginia and the District through tax increases or cutting other programs. Fewer residents, 38 percent, support a new property tax on buildings and homes with proximity to Metro stations, while 34 percent favor increasing fares and 19 percent support reducing the frequency of trains and buses.





The poll illustrates the extent to which Metros chronic safety and reliability issues and, more recently, its extensive rebuilding program, have upended riders routines and damaged the systems image. More than half, 52 percent, now rate the subway system as not so good or poor, up from 20 percent who said so in a Post poll in 2013.

The survey results are not surprising when you consider all that Metro and its riders have been through over the past few years, Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld said. Where Im focused is on whats in front of us, as we advance our Back2Good program, retire bad rail cars, improve the infrastructure, and work to establish dedicated funding for this system.

By almost every measure, Metro is a safer and more reliable system that it was just a few months ago, and we have every intention of remaining laser-focused on improving service and winning customers back, Wiedefeld said.

[As Metro mulls financial woes, Maryland residents lean toward regionwide sales tax]

SafeTrack, Metros year-long rehabilitation program that concludes Sunday, was geared toward restoring Metros track infrastructure to a state of good repair. Initiatives such as this years Back2Good program, meanwhile, aim to cut down on the frequency of rail-car-related disruptions, the cause of three in five delays.

More than 4 in 10 District residents  42 percent  say delays and shutdowns in the past two years have changed the way they regularly get to work and around the city. The disruptions have been felt across different parts of the city and high- and low-income groups, but they are most common among African Americans younger than 40. A 57 percent majority of this group says Metros delays and shutdowns have led them to change how they typically get around town.





By the end of 2016, Metros average weekday ridership had dropped to 639,000 trips, more than 100,000 below the systems 2009 peak. More recently, for the period from July 2016 through March, there was a 9 percent slide in rail ridership from the same span the previous fiscal year. Last July, with SafeTrack in full effect, the aggressive maintenance program combined with chronic reliability issues and other factors to deprive the rail system of one in five riders.

Support for a Metro sales tax is uneven across different parts of the city, and also ranges across racial lines and financial circumstances. Sixty-four percent of whites support a regional sales tax, while African American residents are split: 47 percent support a tax and 49 percent are opposed. And while support stands at 64 percent among those who say they are getting ahead financially, it dips to 50 percent among those who have just enough to maintain their standard of living and to 43 percent among those who are falling behind.





When somebody starts talking about taxing me again, no, said Jacquelyn Couser, 58, a Ward 7 resident who lives in Southeast. Its a no  its an absolute no. Raise the fares. Let the people who ride the system pay for the system.

Couser said that as a single mother of four, she is saddled with student loans and finds it hard to keep up financially, even with her job as a psychiatric technician for the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health.

Taxes kill me every year, said Couser, who stopped riding Metro in 2009. She pointed to the Districts 5-cent plastic bag fee as an example of the high costs of living in the city.

Jim Pollock, 74, a Ward 3 resident who lives in Upper Northwest, said he understands the regressive nature of a sales tax, meaning those with lower incomes shoulder much of the burden. Still, he said, he favors a sales tax as the most effective way to raise the funds the system needs.

[Metro GM proposes new business model and $500 million a year in extra funding to save D.C.-area transit agency]

Wiedefeld has said the agency needs $15.5 billion over 10 years to keep the system safe and reliable. He has proposed $500 million a year in permanent dedicated funding from the region for equipment and maintenance.

Most elected officials and leaders agree the agency needs more money, but theres no consensus on how to raise it.

Were used to taxes  like it or not, said Pollock, who is retired and describes Metro as terrific. Hes opposed to the idea of a special property tax.

I think that penalizes those people who live at a place [where they had] no idea there was going to be a Metro station there, he said. I dont think they should bear a burden for the region.

D.C. residents support for a regional sales tax is consistent with feelings in Northern Virginia, where the same share  53 percent  of residents support such a measure, according to a May Washington Post-Schar School poll . The margin is closer in suburban Maryland, where residents stand 50 to 47 in favor of the tax in a March Washington Post-University of Maryland poll , within the surveys margin of error .

[Slim majority of Northern Virginians favor regionwide sales tax to fund Metro]

A sales tax faces steep political hurdles in Virginia, however, with some Republicans decrying the proposal as a non-starter in a state with a GOP-controlled legislature. Some Marylanders, particularly in Prince Georges County, also have reservations about the idea, arguing that the regressive nature of the sales tax more acutely affects lower-income residents.

Fare increases are deeply unpopular as a means to ease financial woes  opposed by margins of 30 percentage points in the District and 40 points in Maryland. Northern Virginians are more receptive to the idea but still reject it by a 10-point margin. Reducing train and bus frequency, meanwhile, is the least popular proposal in the District, with 78 percent of residents opposing it, joining 71 percent of suburban Marylanders and 69 percent of suburban Virginians.

The polls also illustrate dramatic deterioration in Metros image across the Washington area. In 2013, about 7 in 10 residents in the District, suburban Maryland and Virginia rated the Metro system as good or excellent. This year, fewer than half of residents in each give Metro positive marks, with negative ratings of the system more than doubling.

On the sales tax issue, support varies by ward  70 percent support it in Northwest Wards 1 and 3, as do 59 percent in Wards 2 and 6 from Georgetown to Capitol Hill, and half of residents of Ward 4, positioned at the Districts northern corner. But support falls to 37 percent in Ward 5 in Northeast, and in Wards 7 and 8, 41 percent support a dedicated sales tax while 56 percent oppose it.

Divisions in support for the Metro sales tax across wards track closely with racial and income differences across the city, but the poll finds that race, geography and financial standing each factor in support for the measure.

Weve got enough taxes in the District that we dont have any representation about, said

Shirley Holliday Estes, 69, a resident of Ward 7. And youre going to ask me to pay for a sales tax thats going to benefit everybody else, but we dont have representation in Congress? So no, I dont want no sales tax.

Pollock, however, said the region that has been so mindful of the decline in service needs to give Metro a chance to heal.

If you are going to be critical of Metro because of its safety features, then youre going to have to let Metro one way or another correct those if it is of the mind, he said. Its leadership has recently seemed to be of the mind.

The Washington Post poll was conducted June 15-18 among a random sample of 901 adults living in the District, reached on cellular and landline phones. The margin of sampling error for overall results is plus or minus four percentage points.

Emily Guskin contributed to this report.
Ricardo Molina helps pass out food to residents of El Cenizo outside of the community center. (Matthew Busch/Matthew Busch For The Washington Post)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday that the Trump administration fully supports Texass harsh new ban on sanctuary cities, and the Department of Justice will help defend it against a federal court challenge next week.

Lawyers for the tiny border city of El Cenizo, the League of United Latin American Citizens and major cities such as Dallas and Austin say the law requiring them to detain immigrants for federal deportation agents is patently unconstitutional for a number of reasons. On Monday, they will urge U.S. District Court Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio to block the law from taking effect Sept. 1.

The state of Texas argues that the government is within its rights to bar localities from interfering with immigration enforcement. Under the law, officials could lose their jobs, police chiefs could go to jail, and governments could face fines of up to $25,500 a day if they adopt or enforce policies that prevent law enforcement officers from asking about a persons immigration status or complying with requests to detain immigrants, a job that has been chiefly the responsibility of federal agents.

President Trump has made a commitment to keep America safe and to ensure cooperation with federal immigration laws, Sessions said in a statement. Texas has admirably followed his lead by mandating state-wide cooperation with federal immigration laws that require the removal of illegal aliens who have committed crimes.

Luis Roberto Vera, Jr. the national general counsel for the League of United Latin American Citizens, which is a plaintiff in the case, said the Texas law is discriminatory because it primarily targets Hispanics, one of the states largest groups.

El Cenizo Mayor Raul Reyes. El Cenizo is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that will seek to temporarily halt Texas sanctuary cities ban before it takes effect Sept. 1. (Matthew Busch/Matthew Busch For The Washington Post)

Its a continuation of Donald Trumps war on Mexicanos, Vera said. Thats the sad part about this.

The faceoff comes amid rising tensions nationwide over the Trump administrations crackdown on immigration and its relentless march forward despite a string of losses in federal courts.

On Friday, congressional aides said House Republicans are advancing a bill that would withhold some federal grant money from so-called sanctuary cities; give greater legal weight to immigration detainers, which are requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to local jails to hold immigrants who are being targeted for deportation; and shield local governments from lawsuits related to detainers. A second bill would increase penalties against deported immigrants who return illegally.

Sponsor Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said the bills, which could be voted on as early as Wednesday, crack down on dangerous sanctuary policies that needlessly put innocent lives at risk.

But advocates say ICE is arresting many immigrants who do not pose a threat to public safety, such as a Falls Church woman deported to El Salvador last week. Some members of Congress have raised concerns about spending limited federal dollars to deport otherwise law-abiding immigrants, who are often parents of U.S. citizens.

Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.) criticized the GOP-led House for conjuring up red-meat partisan political bills  like deporting immigrants  despite the major issues facing this country at this time.

Hundreds of local jurisdictions, from county sheriffs to major cities such as New York, have adopted sanctuary policies that limit their cooperation with ICE, the agency that detains and deports immigrants.

Protesters line the balconies of the state Capitol rotunda to protest a bill already passed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that compels local police to enforce federal immigration law. (Ricardo Brazziell/AP)

Sanctuary cities say aiding immigration agents deters immigrants from reporting crime and could lead to racial profiling and deportations for minor offenses. In Houston, which sought to join the El Cenizo lawsuit Friday, police noted a sharp decline in reports by Hispanics of sexual assault and violent crime in the first three months of 2017, compared to the same period last year.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) says the law would enhance public safety by ensuring that sanctuary cities turn over immigrants who have been arrested for crimes. He and others have cited cases in which immigrants have been released and reoffended.

As a candidate, Trump campaigned against sanctuary cities. On Jan. 25, days after he took office, he issued an executive order vowing to strip federal funding from those cities that refuse to enforce immigration law.

In April, a federal judge in San Francisco temporarily halted that order after the city and Santa Clara County filed a lawsuit and the Trump administration acknowledged that its crackdown was far narrower than the president and his aides had indicated.

Ten states  including Texas  have backed the Trump administration in the San Francisco case.
SAUDI ARABIA

Grand Mosque attack foiled, officials report

Saudi security forces foiled a suicide attack on the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca on Friday, cornering the would-be attacker in an apartment, where he blew himself up, the Interior Ministry said.

In a statement read on state television, the ministry said that three cells had planned the attack on worshipers and security forces at the mosque as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan nears its climax.

The trapped would-be suicide bomber exchanged fire with security forces, then set off explosives when he was surrounded in a house in the central Mecca neighborhood of Ajyad al-Masafi near the mosque that had been used as the base for the attack, the ministry said.

The building collapsed, injuring six foreigners and five members of the security forces.

Earlier in the day, security forces fatally shot a wanted man at a suspected Islamist militant hideout in Meccas al-Aseelah neighborhood. The ministry said a third cell had been broken up in the Red Sea city of Jiddah, but gave no further details.

Five suspected militants, including a woman, were arrested, it said.

 Reuters

IRAQ

Troops push into heart of Mosuls Old City

Iraqi forces battled their way Friday along two streets that meet in the heart of Mosuls Old City, saying they aimed to open routes for civilians to flee the Islamic States last stand there.

U.S.-trained urban warfare units are leading the fight in the maze of narrow alleyways of the Old City, the last district in the hands of the Sunni Islamist insurgents.

Iraqi authorities are hoping to declare victory in the northern Iraqi city in the next few days during the Muslim Eid holiday, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

A U.S.-led international coalition is providing air and ground support in the eight-month-old offensive to drive the militants from their de facto capital in Iraq.

About 7,000 civilians were brought out of the Old City during the day, the Iraqi state news website said.

 Reuters

COLOMBIA

Country on verge of rebel disarmament

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said the nation is on the verge of completing a historic feat: All guerrillas in the countrys largest rebel group will soon have turned in their weapons.

Santos told business leaders in France on Friday that he expects the United Nations to declare that 100 percent of rebel arms have been delivered to the peacekeeping mission.

Santos added that with the final weapons turnover, the oldest guerrilla force in Latin America no longer exists.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, signed a peace accord to end the regions longest-running conflict last year and is becoming a political party.

 Associated Press

5 people electrocuted in pool at water park in Turkey: Five people were electrocuted at a water park in northwest Turkey, including two teenagers and a 12-year-old, Turkish media reports said. The three youngsters were exposed to an electrical current in the pool in the town of Akyazi in Sakarya province, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The parks 58-year-old manager and his 30-year-old son were killed when they jumped into the pool to try to save the children, according to the private Dogan News Agency.

Saudi prince gives $67 million to fight cholera in Yemen: Saudi Arabias crown prince has donated $66.7 million to combat a cholera epidemic in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting in a war blamed for causing a humanitarian disaster. The donation by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman went to the U.N. Childrens Fund and the World Health Organization, a statement by the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information said. The money will help them respond effectively to the cholera situation in Yemen, through a combination of water, sanitation and health care activities, it said. The number of suspected cases of the disease had reached 179,548 by June 20, with 1,205 deaths, according to the WHO.

Fireworks explosion injures 10 in central Mexico: Mexican authorities said 10 people were injured by a fireworks explosion in central Mexico. The government of Mexico state said the blast happened during a religious pilgrimage in the town of Cerrito Tixmadeje. The state Red Cross reported via Twitter that victims suffered first-, second- and third-degree burns. Multiple Mexican media outlets reported that the explosion occurred in a pickup truck.

Indian toilet charity renames village after Trump: A toilet charity has renamed an Indian village after President Trump as part of a promotional push to raise cash and support for better sanitation. Aid group Sulabh International, which says it has built 1.5 million toilets across the country, has set up Trump Village signs around the small community in the northern state of Haryana. Neither the White House nor the Trump familys commercial empire has given permission for the rebranding of the village.

 From news services
THE UNITED STATES will need a secure and reliable force of nuclear weapons for a long time to come. But to maintain them in good form requires a sizable commitment of resources and brainpower: The nuclear weapons enterprise is a vast complex of laboratories and design and manufacturing facilities, relying on thousands of people who build and operate the planes, submarines and missiles, as well as care for the warheads. Nothing can be allowed to go wrong, but zero defects can hardly be taken for granted.

The story of a small but important laboratory at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is a case in point. Known as Plutonium Facility 4, the laboratory produces and tests the grapefruit-size nuclear pits that are at the cores of warheads. An investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative media organization, the results of which were published in The Post on June 19, described years of safety concerns about the facility, which was ordered temporarily shut down in 2013 because of fears it was ill-equipped to prevent an accident.

On the afternoon of Aug. 11, 2011, the media organization reported, a nuclear technician positioned eight rods of plutonium inside what is called a glove box, a sealed container allowing technicians to handle the plutonium without contamination. The technician wanted to take a photograph for senior managers. Upon returning from a lunch break, a supervisor saw the rods were dangerously close together, raising the prospect of a criticality accident, an uncontrolled chain reaction in which fissionable material such as plutonium releases energy and generates a deadly burst of radiation. On seeing the error, the supervisor ordered the technician to reach into the box and move the rods apart. This was also an error that may have increased, rather than decreased, the chances of a criticality accident. In the end, the material did not go critical, but the consequences were dire: Almost all the criticality specialists at the lab responsible for keeping workers safe decided to quit. The Center for Public Integrity reported that the lab, now slowly resuming operations, continues to suffer an acute shortage of engineers specializing in keeping the plutonium from fissioning out of control, as well as other safety issues.

This is a problem that the Trump administration should not neglect. The lab is a link in a sizable chain that must be maintained if the United States is going to carry out the ambitious trillion-dollar nuclear weapons modernization program launched in the Obama years. The Pentagon has set a long-term goal of making 50 to 80 plutonium pits a year, a torrid pace that could probably be reduced. But the safety concerns at the lab have clearly impaired this work, forcing deferral of manufacture and testing of plutonium cores, and over the longer term, that could affect the future of the arsenal.

The administration is now conducting a nuclear posture review, a good opportunity to set priorities. President Trump and Congress will, hopefully, make choices about what kinds of nuclear weapons will be required in the decades ahead, and for what missions. It goes without saying that a credible deterrent force also means paying attention to safety, down to the last glove box.
Regarding the June 20 Metro article Congressman advocates for gun carrying, even in D.C.:

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) needs to have a serious talk with the Alexandria police officers who responded to the June 14 shooting. He should ask them what would have been their reaction to having an unidentified person running around carrying a gun. They might tell him that they probably would have assumed he was a second attacker unless he somehow could identify himself as a good guy.

Last year in Prince Georges County, a man started shooting at a police station and a plainclothes officer was killed because other officers could not recognize him.

George Bogart, Alexandria
This weeks Post article about the rosy outlook for D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) on the eve of her 2018 reelection campaign sent me rushing to the archives for a column I wrote in May 2009 about then-Mayor Adrian Fentys reelection prospects in the lead-up to the Sept. 14, 2010, Democratic primary. Now I am trying to shake the sense of having lived through something like this before.

According to a new Post poll, Bowser enjoys a 67 percent voter approval rating, suggesting she is far and away the favorite among the possible seekers of her current job. She also seems to be on top of the issues that mean most to voters.

But so was Fenty at a similar stage in his first, and last, term as mayor.

He was, in fact, in better shape.

Fenty had a $2 million reelection campaign kitty and a donor list to make mayoral wannabes weep with envy.

Business interests, lobbyists and developers were falling over themselves to find favor with His Honor. No serious opponents loomed.

He was heading into a reelection bid on the strength of a winning track record, having crushed mayoral front-runner and then-council chairman Linda W. Cropp and capturing all 142 precincts in the 2006 Democratic mayoral campaign.

He continued to work the crowds, leaving no voters hand unshaken, no photo op unexploited. Every D.C. government good deed came with a credit-taking Fenty news release.

As with Bowser today, Fenty in 2009 was riding high.

Yet on Primary Day 2010, he was brought low.

Can history repeat itself?

To state the obvious, Muriel Bowser is not Adrian Fenty.

True, Bowser is described in some D.C. political circles as Fenty Lite. That labeling stems from the fact that so much of Bowsers political fundraising and campaign infrastructure  as well as key Bowser administration staffers  appear to have been passed down from Fenty.

So, too, Fentys persona?

Some of the haughtiness that crept into Fentys bearing after a year as mayor seems to be present in Bowsers demeanor. A cloak of self-importance seems to have enveloped her, as it did Fenty. A glimpse of his scorn for the media is detected in her. A fawning staff, also carefully cultivated by Fenty, keeps Bowsers company.

The trappings of his job may have caused Fenty to lose his bearings. But it was his governance and optics that got him off the rails.

He elevated dog parks and bike lanes above needs deemed more essential by many African American Democrats. He left himself open to charges of steering contracts to his fraternity brothers  an allegation that caused me personal anguish since Fenty and I are members of the same fraternity. I was, as with so much in this life, well before his time. But thats another story.

He made hiring decisions that were spectacularly bad, and he refused to consider the possibility that Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee wasnt always right.

His abrasive style, and aloofness from the people who put him where he was, proved costly. By the time 2010 arrived, his poll numbers were significantly under water.

And Bowser?

To start: Folks still underestimate her. She is an astute, hard-working and canny politician.

But Bowser operates with a keen sense of peril, knowing that only a handful of folks  her mom, Joan Bowser (my junior high school classmate and one of the citys savviest political observers), her dad, Joe, brother and a few close friends who have passed the test of time  have her best interests at heart.

The rest are opportunists, and straphangers, along for the ride, who will run to the nearest exit at the first sign of trouble.

And hence the flaw that Bowser shares with Fenty:

They begin to think they are the smartest persons in the room, and that they can control what happens next.

He couldnt and didnt. She cant and wont.

Go back to her glowing poll numbers.

Look closely at where Bowser gets whacked: on combating homelessness and curbing the influence of wealthy political donors. Unrelated? Hardly.

They go to the heart of what some voters find troubling about Bowser: She doesnt manage, she presides, choosing to float above it all, rather than drilling down to learn what is or isnt working and why.

Her administrations talking points on homelessness suggest everything is hunky-dory. Folks on the ground know better. Putting roofs over heads is not the same as getting people on the way to self-sufficiency. You cant learn that from the mayors suite, or do anything about it from there, either.

So go fight the problem of rodents, while deeply entrenched contract steering, pay to play, preferential treatment  the ugly stuff of city government  continues. It stinks to high heaven. Its a stench that should penetrate the executives office.

But not if the mayor is above it all, as was Fenty when the roof fell in.

Deja vu? How do you do?

Read more from Colbert Kings archive.
The June 19 editorial A smart step on pensions said Pennsylvanias new law on pensions would give most new state employees a choice of three retirement savings options similar, in varying degrees, to the defined-contribution plans common in the private sector. But two of the options are based on a defined-benefit model with a 401(k)-style defined-contribution component. These plans are not similar to the 401(k) option common in the private sector.

Pennsylvania lawmakers wanted to preserve a large portion of the retirement plan as defined-benefit, knowing it provides a superior retirement vehicle for workers. The default option for workers is the better of the two pension options.

It is important to note that even if you can take your 401(k) with you when changing jobs, it still fails to provide any measure of security in retirement for most American families. The average total 401(k) balance in Pennsylvania is $40,719. Costs are an important factor, for sure, but we should also ask about the quality of life we want retirees to experience and the burden on our social services and communities if people cannot afford to retire.

The majority of state pension plans offer some type of portability. We shouldnt allow misconceptions about portability to drive decision-making and destroy actual retirement security.

Bailey Childers, Washington

The writer is executive director of the National Public Pension Coalition.
People arrive for the opening night of Shakespeare in the Park's production of Julius Caesar at Central Park's Delacorte Theater on June 12 in New York. (Bryan R. Smith/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

Im sympathetic to Catherine Rampells concerns in her June 20 op-ed, The plays not the thing, about protests against this summers Julius Caesar. But I cant help thinking that the Public Theater exercised questionable judgment in its decision to depict the most dramatic moment in the play in such a way that might be construed as an assassination in effigy.

Its now common knowledge that John Wilkes Booth, who had participated in a Manhattan benefit performance of the tragedy in November 1864, regarded Abraham Lincoln as a latter-day Caesar and defined himself as a new-world Brutus. And given that precedent, its not unreasonable, even for those who regard the current occupant of the White House as unfit for office, to feel that this production veered perilously close to suggesting that another Booth-like lofty scene would be, in Hamlets words, a consummation devoutly to be wished.

John F. Andrews, Santa Fe, N.M.

The writer is president of the Shakespeare Guild.
Its all under control: Mattis is in charge. That, or words to that effect, is what U.S. national security officials have been telling European allies in recent days. Dont worry. There wont be any surprises. The defense secretary is making all the big decisions.

A similar message is being repeated in Washington. This month, Jim Mattis told a Senate panel that the president had given him the authority to make all of the ground-level military decisions in Afghanistan, including decisions about troop deployment: I will set the U.S. military commitment, he said. No one was surprised. Its now common knowledge that the president does not read complex security briefings, so the decision to hand off to his top commander has a certain logic.

To many, this solution is appealing. Certainly some of the Europeans who have heard this form of reassurance feel better, and probably a lot of Americans do, too. After all, the world is dangerous. A U.S. strike plane shot down a Syrian government fighter jet this week and the Syrian government has promised to retaliate. Tensions are high on the Korean Peninsula. The war in Afghanistan isnt over.

With so many crises on the horizon, it seems like a good time to leave competent military experts in charge. Except that it isnt  because it never is.

On the contrary, Mattis in charge is a formula for disaster, but not because Mattis is flawed or experts are bad. Mattis is a remarkable public servant, and experts are fundamental to good government. There should be more of them. Their input should be valued and respected. The Trump administrations failure to use them, especially in foreign policy, will someday be remembered as one of its most catastrophic failures.

But a U.S. foreign policy run by military technocrats will have the same deep flaws as the governments run by economic technocrats that are sometimes installed in countries engulfed by economic crisis. A foreign policy, like an economic policy, can succeed only if it has political backing. Difficult decisions will be accepted by the public only if they have political legitimacy. Military decisions in particular should be part of a carefully thought-out strategy, one that has been cleared by Congress, debated in public and discussed not only in the Pentagon but also in the State Department and the other institutions, staffed by experts, that we have created for this purpose.

Its appealing, of course, to let the Pentagon make decisions about troop levels in Afghanistan. The Pentagon has a better understanding of that war than the White House, especially this White House. But decisions about troop levels are tactical, not strategic. If we decide to send more soldiers to Kabul, who will take on the task of explaining the larger purpose of that war? Who will tell the American people how it is serving long-term U.S. interests? If soldiers die in Afghanistan, who will explain to their families why their sacrifice was justified? Those arent tasks for the defense secretary, however competent. Those are tasks for elected officials, men and women who have been chosen by a democratic political process exactly for that purpose.

A military policy run solely by the Pentagon creates confusion, too. U.S. allies may be relieved to hear the Pentagons quiet offers to protect them. But if Americas allies are listening to Mattis, Americas enemies are watching the White House, and they will make decisions based on the presidents behavior, not that of his defense chief. Russia will have noticed Trumps chilly treatment of Europe and his attacks on Sweden and Germany. North Korea will have heard his demands for more money from South Korea. The gap between the Pentagons worldview and that of the White House is so wide that it is actually dangerous: It may lull allies into complacency, while luring enemies into adventurism.

Its far from clear, in any case, that the Pentagon has all the answers. Military authority is one of the few forms of authority that we all still respect, and the patriotism and dedication of decorated generals cannot be questioned. But do we want them running the United States relationships with the rest of the world? Step back for a minute and ask yourself how many American foreign policy successes can be attributed to the U.S. military in recent years  and count how many foreign policy failures were its fault. The peaceful end of the Cold War, the reconstruction and reintegration of ex-communist Europe  these were largely the work of diplomats, politicians and civil society working together. The disastrous occupation of Iraq  this was the work of the Defense Department, which deliberately cut out the State Department.

Once again, I respect Mattis and am glad that hes there. But lets not pretend that his leadership can substitute for the void in the White House, the absence of strategy, tactics and rational thought in the foreign policy apparatus in the Trump administration.

Read more from Anne Applebaums archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook.
Five months into Donald Trumps administration, only the unwise doubt the presidents intelligence.

Just ask former FBI director James B. Comey, who, in addition to being fired by Trump, has been redefined by the president as a dishonest leaker who might have lied were it not for nonexistent tapes of their conversations.

Wait, what?

It takes a craven sort of cunning to pull that one off. One day, Comey, a man admired for his brilliance and integrity, is investigating possible collusion in the 2016 presidential race between Russia and the Trump campaign. The next, hes watching his professional life unravel on television and reading that hes not to be trusted.

Trump didnt stop at upending the mans career, cutting short his FBI directorship by six years. He next tweeted that Comey better hope there were no tapes (quotation marks his) of their private conversation that subsequently became the focal point of congressional investigations.

(Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

There were tapes?!

Of course, there were no tapes. Did anyone really think there were? Well, yes, there could have been tapes  just as there could have been a legitimate Trump University. To the credulous goes the nation.

But no president ever admits to tapes, at least not until a subpoena becomes inevitable. Or, as in this case, when the House Intelligence Committee demands such tapes, if they exist.

They dont, Trump finally tweeted after more than a month of suspense-building hedging. But caveat trumptor : The president says he doesnt personally have any recordings of the conversation, but who knows, what with all the surveillance around these days?

The media, alas, had no choice but to entertain the possibility that there were tapes. Like it or not, theres no ignoring a presidents statements. Thus, television anchors and pundit panels have devoted hundreds of hours to examining the what, ifs and buts of the illusory tapes: What would it mean if they existed? What would it mean if they didnt? Was Trump bluffing? Was he trying to intimidate Comey?

No doubt enjoying the scramble to his latest manufactured distraction, Trump chided reporters: Youre going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer. Perhaps. But then, life with Trump is a roller coaster of anticlimaxes.

Trump supporters, I suspect, knew all along that he was bluffing. Theyre in on the joke, which is actually a Southern tradition  goofing on the media, saying outrageous stuff for the pleasure of watching reporters write it down. Who cares what reporters think, anyway, goes the thinking.

To them, Trump was taunting Comey the way they wish they could, giving him the what-for. You think youre so tall. Toying with media and other elites has become the sport of both commoners and the king these days. When Trump isnt playing king, hes happy to be the court jester. With a shrug of his shoulders and a smirkish smile, he conveys whatever.

We tend to forget, too, that Trump is a professional bluffer. We keep thinking hes the president of the United States. Thats his title, but his identity is Donald J. Trump, television star, celebrity wheeler-dealer, a man who grabs what he wants. Everything he says or does should first be considered in this context.

Poor Comey. Burdened with seriousness, he wore a black tie to a circus.

When he testified earlier this month before the Senate Intelligence Committee, saying that Trump suggested that he drop his investigation of Michael Flynn, that he wrote memos about his interactions and leaked them to the media because he feared Trump might lie about them  he was obviously telling the truth.

Otherwise, why admit to the leak  otherwise known as discreet information-sharing, which, you may as well know, makes the world go round. It also occurred post-firing and after Trumps tweet about the tapes.

Yet Trump, who denies everything, has managed to create a fictional narrative that not only justifies his dangling bluff but also gilds it as a moral victory: He tweeted about tapes to make sure leaker Comey would be honest when he testified.

Well now.

It takes a certain kind of intelligence to spin a yarn so counterintuitive and defiantly false that some people will believe it anyway. Alternatively, Trump could be just as confused as he hopes others will be.

Read more from Kathleen Parkers archive, follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook.
Ted Gup, an author and journalism professor, is writer-in-residence at Durham University in Britain.

We know numbers can be numbing. Take the number 4,000. That is roughly how many are estimated to have died last year from drug overdoses in my home state of Ohio. Thats 60 percent of American deaths in all the years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Or half a million, the tally of overdoses nationwide from opioids and other drugs since 2000  more than the number of Americans killed in World War II. As the totals grow, so does the numbness.

So take the number one. Thats the number of sons I have lost to heroin.

One more number: 21. That is how many years he lived.

The fact that five years have passed since he was found lifeless on the floor means nothing each time I see his picture, pass others his age laughing or holding hands, or attend my students graduations. The number one  his name was David  cannot be rounded up or down. It is absolute, like the loss itself.

Still, there are other numbers to consider now. There is the number 95  that is the percentage by which President Trump originally proposed slashing the budget of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

That same month, the coroner in Dayton, Ohio, ran out of space for the overdoses. In my hometown of Canton, they had to use cold storage trailers. In Akron  where my son died amid his college texts, his homework and a scarcely worn new suit  a 1-year-old was added to the list of fatalities.

That Trump backed away from those draconian cuts does not mask his callous disregard or the message it sent. He still proposes millions in cuts to the high-intensity drug trafficking program and the drug-free communities program, reducing funding for addiction treatment and research. And repealing the Affordable Care Act would erode coverage for addiction treatment.

Flashback: I just want to let the people of New Hampshire know that Im with you 1,000 percent. That was candidate Trump sympathizing with an audience staggered by loss.

On the campaign trail, Trump also promised he would pull out of the Paris climate agreement, roll back regulations on industry and challenge NATO. On those promises, he is making good. Not so on his pledge to the traumatized citizens of New Hampshire  site of the first primary and home to the second-highest rate of drug deaths.

Ohio, ground zero of the drug plague, was instrumental in putting Trump in the White House. Indeed, one political historian, Kathleen Frydl, has written of an Oxy Electorate (referencing the opioid OxyContin) whose overdose-plagued families helped propel Trump to the White House.

Time for another number: More than 100 Americans have died from overdoses every day since Trumps inauguration, outpacing deaths from terrorism worldwide.

Overdoses are not just a pet project of grieving parents like myself, but a profound threat to the nation at large. Yes, there is the endless barrage of pleas to 911, the coroners calls to unsuspecting parents, the classmates left brokenhearted, the funerals and the bedrooms left just as they were. (Our Davids ashes are on a closet shelf.) But beyond the tugging at heartstrings, drug overdoses pose a threat to who we are as a nation, what value we place on human life and how seriously we take the notion of community.

As a nation, we seem fixated on the foreign and the sudden, incapable of focusing on what is near and constant. If the drug fatalities were all suffered in a single 9/11-like attack, we would be consumed; the steady seepage of lives scarcely moves us. The failure to address the drug epidemic is not an anomaly but a case study in the shortcomings of human attention and political accounting. From global warming to deteriorating infrastructure, from declining schools to the hollowing out of the middle class, the incremental gets short shrift. It seems beyond our political grasp and communal will.

Besides, ours is a constituency without clout, a disparate base that is not easily rallied to political effect, but which cuts across class, race, age, religion and party affiliation. Tears are the common denominator. We make for good TV in the primaries when cameras pan our grief and the earnest faces of candidates mouthing commitment. And we apparently make for easy targets when the budget knives come out. At both the federal and state levels, spending on the crisis has almost always been flat or reduced, even as the death toll soars.

How is it that we as a nation can give so little attention to a problem of such magnitude, one that any actuary knows poses a far more imminent threat than terrorism, that takes more lives than guns or cars or suicide? The political landscape resonates with the rhetoric of compassion but is defined by minimal engagement, official neglect and government inaction. In this, Trump is only the most visible of hypocrites, the betrayer in chief. We fret endlessly about national security and distant perils as we strive to bury our own in city, town and countryside, resigned to lip service and official indifference. For those of us already collateral casualties of this crisis, it is impossible not to wonder what sum is sufficient to sound the alarm and secure a meaningful response. For me, the number was one.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke testifies during the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2018 budget request for the Interior Department on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 20. (Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency)

While Americans were distracted by the promised horrors of the GOPs secret health-care bill, the president was continuing his quiet assault on our public lands, this time through eviscerating budget cuts [At Senate hearing, Zinke defends $1.6 billion cuts at Interior Dept., news, June 21]. Applauded, as ever, by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the new plan is to compensate for the proposed cuts by opening up our pristine lands to oil and gas exploration. Dr. Seuss proves to be a visionary indeed, as these are Lorax moments if ever weve seen them.

To add insult to injury, our president also proposes a devastating $370 million cut to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in the tradition of his proclaimed hero, Andrew Jackson. A year ago, the country was discussing the removal of Jackson from the $20 bill, in acknowledgment of his cruel and shameful Native American policies; now, President Trump has dusted off Jacksons portrait and hung it in the Oval Office, to be looked to, presumably, for daily inspiration! O Hamlet, what a falling off was there!

Rosemary Donaldson, Falls Church

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinkes proposal to remove 4,000 employees is probably smart. Why pay people to safeguard our national heritage when youre planning to give big chunks of it away?

Many of the cuts would come in the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. The Bureau of Indian Education would see a 12 percent reduction, and social service and welfare programs for Native Americans would see a $23.3 million reduction.

This affects us all, but especially Native Americans. American Indians have been dealing with forked tongues for more than 300 years. Crooked politicians, speculators, extraction specialists, et al. I doubt that this experience will be of much help in dealing with this administration and this Congress. Every effort will be made to convince the American public that they asked for it.

Charles W. Pickett, Upper Marlboro
Sally Q. Yates served in the Justice Department from 1989 to 2017 as an assistant U.S. attorney, U.S. attorney, deputy attorney general and, briefly this year, as acting attorney general.

In todays polarized world, there arent many issues on which Democrats and Republicans agree. So when they do, we should seize the rare opportunity to move our country forward. One such issue is criminal-justice reform, and specifically the need for sentencing reform for drug offenses.

All across the political spectrum, in red states and blue states, from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and the Koch brothers to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and the American Civil Liberties Union, there is broad consensus that the lock them all up and throw away the key approach embodied in mandatory minimum drug sentences is counterproductive, negatively affecting our ability to assure the safety of our communities.

But last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rolled back the clock to the 1980s, reinstating the harsh, indiscriminate use of mandatory minimum drug sentences imposed at the height of the crack epidemic. Sessions attempted to justify his directive in a Post op-ed last weekend, stoking fear by claiming that as a result of then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.s Smart on Crime policy, the United States is gripped by a rising epidemic of violent crime that can only be cured by putting more drug offenders in jail for more time.

That argument just isnt supported by the facts. Not only are violent crime rates still at historic lows  nearly half of what they were when I became a federal prosecutor in 1989  but there is also no evidence that the increase in violent crime some cities have experienced is the result of drug offenders not serving enough time in prison. In fact, a recent study by the bipartisan U.S. Sentencing Commission found that drug defendants with shorter sentences were actually slightly less likely to commit crimes when released than those sentenced under older, more severe penalties.

Contrary to Sessionss assertions, Smart on Crime focused our limited federal resources on cases that had the greatest impact on our communities  the most dangerous defendants and most complex cases. As a result, prosecutors charged more defendants with murder, assault, gun crimes and robbery than ever before. And a greater percentage of drug prosecutions targeted kingpins and drug dealers with guns.

During my 27 years at the Justice Department, I prosecuted criminals at the heart of the international drug trade, from high-level narcotics traffickers to violent gang leaders. And I had no hesitation about asking a judge to impose long prison terms in those cases.

But theres a big difference between a cartel boss and a low-level courier. As the Sentencing Commission found, part of the problem with harsh mandatory-minimum laws passed a generation ago is that they use the weight of the drugs involved in the offense as a proxy for seriousness of the crime  to the exclusion of virtually all other considerations, including the dangerousness of the offender. Looking back, its clear that the mandatory-minimum laws cast too broad a net and, as a result, some low-level defendants are serving far longer sentences than are necessary  20 years, 30 years, even mandatory life sentences, for nonviolent drug offenses.

Under Smart on Crime, the Justice Department took a more targeted approach, reserving the harshest of those penalties for the most violent and significant drug traffickers and encouraging prosecutors to use their discretion not to seek mandatory minimum sentences for lower-level, nonviolent offenders. Sessionss new directive essentially reverses that progress, limiting prosecutors ability to use their judgment to ensure the punishment fits the crime.

(Daron Taylor/The Washington Post)

Thats a problem for several reasons. First, its fiscally irresponsible and undermines public safety. Since 1980, the U.S. prison population has exploded from 500,000 to more than 2.2 million, resulting in the highest incarceration rate in the world and costing more than $80 billion a year. The federal prison population has grown 700 percent, with the Federal Bureau of Prisons budget now accounting for more than 25 percent of the entire Justice Department budget. That has serious public safety consequences: Every dollar spent imprisoning a low-level nonviolent drug offender for longer than necessary is a dollar we dont have to investigate and prosecute serious threats, from child predators to terrorists. Its a dollar we dont have to support state and local law enforcement for cops on the street, who are the first lines of defense against violent crime. And its a dollar we dont have for crime prevention or recidivism reduction within our prison system, essential components of building safe communities.

But just as significant are the human costs. More than 2 million children are growing up with a parent behind bars, including 1 in 9 African American children. Huge numbers of Americans are being housed in prisons far from their home communities, creating precisely the sort of community instability where violent crime takes root. Indiscriminate use of mandatory minimum sentencing has caused many Americans to lose faith in the criminal-justice system, undermining the type of police-community relationships that are so crucial to making our streets safer.

While there is always room to debate the most effective approach to criminal justice, that debate should be based on facts, not fear. Its time to move past the campaign-style rhetoric of being tough or soft on crime. Justice and the safety of our communities depend on it.
Why is it that in order for the modern-day victim of a religious hate crime to merit sympathy, he or she must have distanced him- or herself from the possibility of having been pious?

The June 19 Metro article Remains thought to be missing girls included a quote that described Nabra Hassanen, a 17-year-old Muslim girl, as not ordinarily religiously observant. Should we assume the impossibility of intersection between spirituality and individuality, as though the devout practice of Islam would extinguish modern-day American values?

Had Nabra been described as more stereotypically religious or, better yet, not been judged on her level of spirituality altogether, she would run the risk of being categorized as the other  cue a diminishing lack of outrage. Reducing Nabras intentions for attending prayers to wanting to socialize  characterizing her mosque as a social hub for teens  also perpetuates this ultimatum between religiosity and societal belonging. There is no need to distance marginalized victims from that which marginalizes them. Nabras short life would be better respected by not theorizing that a young Muslim girls effervescent social nature would better justify her presence at her place of worship rather than the shuddering premise of her practicing her own faith.

Hufsa Husain, Austin
A University of Virginia student was killed by the North Koreans for maybe trying to steal a poster [Warmbier dies days after his return in a coma, front page, June 20]. Politicians condemn this and say we will not and cannot tolerate this despicable behavior.

The same sort of stuff was said in 1968 when North Korea attacked and shot up the USS Pueblo, a U.S. Navy surveillance ship, and held the crew prisoner for 11 months (one crew member died). North Korea still has our ship, using it as a tourist attraction and as a propaganda message on how North Korea did and can beat the Americans.

Most citizens today probably have never heard of this incident. So, almost 50 years later, North Korea still has captive a commissioned U.S. Navy vessel, and all the loud words and sanctions over the years have produced nothing but a growing nuclear power. Teddy Roosevelt said to speak softly and carry a big stick. We speak loudly today and carry a bag of threats that will never have the North Koreans quaking in their boots. Sadly, they are onto us.

Greg Ewell, Mount Pleasant, S.C.
Avik Roy is president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity and a former policy adviser to Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and Marco Rubio.

The Senate health-care legislative draft  officially titled the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017  will, if passed, represent the greatest policy achievement by a Republican Congress in generations.

Given that Democrats have filled the airwaves with wild claims that the bill amounts to mass murder, it may feel jarring to think of the bill as a historic achievement. But it is.

For decades, free-market health-reform advocates have argued that the single best idea for improving U.S. health care is to maximize the number of Americans who can afford to buy health insurance for themselves, instead of having to depend on the government or their employer. The Senate bill transforms the American health insurance landscape in this direction.

For four years, thanks to Obamacare, Americans who buy their own coverage have been under tremendous economic pressure. The Democrats health law, on average, doubled the underlying cost of premiums for these individuals. Some premiums quadrupled. Deductibles and co-payments have skyrocketed as well. While the laws premium and cost-sharing subsidies cushioned the blow for those near the poverty line, childless adults making more than $30,000 a year have gotten hammered.

In many places where there were once a half-dozen insurers competing for Americans business, individual insurance markets have collapsed. In 2018, there will be more than 1,000 counties with one or zero insurers participating in the exchanges. In 2010, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that 23 million people would be enrolled in Obamacares exchanges by now. The actual number is closer to 10 million.

The Senate bill contains a plethora of measures that will lower premiums and bring competition back to the market. In particular, the bill would end Obamacares destructive practice of massively overcharging young people for their coverage by overregulating the prices at which they can buy coverage. The bill provides resources to states that will help stabilize insurance markets, especially for vulnerable populations, in ways that will bring premiums down for the healthy.

The Senate bill repeals Obamacares Medicaid expansion  an expansion that has trapped more than 12 million people in a program that researchers have shown has health outcomes no better than being uninsured. In its stead, the Senate bill offers low-income Americans robust tax credits to buy affordable private health insurance, just as those formerly enrolled in Obamacares exchanges will be able to.

The Senate bill also substantially improves the structure of the tax credits in the House bill by adjusting their value to account for those who need more financial assistance due to ill health, old age or costly location.

The end result will be a thriving, consumer-driven individual insurance market, with as many as 30 million participants, available to the healthy and the sick and the young and the old, whose successes will lay the groundwork for future efforts at entitlement reform.

But thats not to say that the Senate bill punts entitlement reform into future legislation. The bill not only replaces Obamacare; it also reforms the legacy Medicaid program by giving states the option of pursuing a block grant or a per-capita allotment for their Medicaid populations.

Block grants have long been a goal of conservative policy reformers; per-capita caps were first proposed by President Bill Clinton in 1995. Democrats are screaming about how per-capita caps will reduce Medicaid spending  by about 1 to 2 percent over the next decade  but they are silent about the dozens of tools that the Senate bill gives states to manage their Medicaid programs more efficiently and effectively.

One note of caution: The Senate bill does not at this moment contain a continuous-coverage or waiting-period provision to compensate for the lack of a mandate. This is something that the bills authors are likely to include later but in the near term will worsen the score expected to be released by the Congressional Budget Office next week.

That CBO score was already going to be bad on coverage numbers because the CBO wont give Republicans credit for the way they improve health-insurance markets. The CBO believes that by merely repealing Obamacares individual mandate, Republican legislation will reduce the number of people with health insurance in 2026 by about 18 million.

Credible experts on both sides of the aisle are skeptical of the CBOs projections. The agency has yet to adjust its overly static thinking. That means GOP senators will soon have to endure a new flurry of headlines claiming that their bill will reduce the number of people with health insurance by 18 million or more.

Senate Republicans should stand strong. If this bill passes Congress and is signed by the president, its likely that more people will have health insurance in five years than do today but in a market with lower premiums, lower taxes and a more fiscally sustainable future. History will remember these Republicans for that.
The end of the Supreme Court term looms, and with it the prospect  the terrifying prospect  of a retirement. Specifically, the retirement of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who will turn 81 next month and is the longest-serving current justice, named to the high court almost 30 years ago.

So if Kennedy is inclined to retire, it is hard to begrudge him that choice. But his departure would be terrible for the court and terrible for the country. It could not come at a worse time. Any court vacancy these days, under a president of either party, triggers a battle between liberal and conservative forces. Kennedys retirement would unleash nomination Armageddon, given the feral political environment and the pivotal role he plays on the closely divided court.

To understand the impact of Kennedys departure, just look back to his selection to fill the seat vacated by Justice Lewis Powell. Like Kennedy now, Powell was the ultimate swing justice; his was the key fifth vote for liberals on issues including abortion rights and affirmative action, topics as charged then as they are today.

President Ronald Reagans original choice to take Powells place was conservative federal appeals court judge Robert Bork. The ferocious confirmation fight that ensued  and resulted in Borks rejection  still echoes in todays unceasing warfare over judicial nominations. Kennedys unanimous confirmation  he was Reagans third choice, after Douglas Ginsburgs nomination fizzled over disclosures that he smoked marijuana with law students  calmed only the immediate furor.

Imagine, then, a Kennedy retirement in this partisan and unstable political landscape. It could make the Bork fight look like a kindergarten squabble. With President Trump under investigation by the special counsel and his approval rating mired below 40 percent, his incentive may be to cater to his base with a pick as far to the right as possible, an instinct enabled by the Republicans move, during the confirmation of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.

Justice Kennedy, perhaps it is unfair to pile all this onto your shoulders, but is it really wise to subject an already divided country to even more turbulence?

And to another nomination by this president, with his evident ignorance of the role of the judiciary and disdain for judicial independence?

Your career has been characterized by insistence on civility, respect for the dignity of all individuals and commitment to the rule of law  qualities absent in our president. Just read Trumps tweets and ask yourself: Do I really want my successor named by this man?

No need to look back to the campaign, and his repugnant comments about the Mexican judge presiding over the Trump University fraud lawsuit. Just consider the presidents tweets about judicial rulings in the case that has now reached your own court. He blasted the so-called judge; assailed slow and political courts; and, most alarming, suggested that blood would be on the judiciarys hands if a terrorist incident took place while his travel ban was being delayed.

The hearing didnt get much attention, but consider, too, the Trump appellate court nominees who came before the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month. One, Kentucky lawyer John Bush, nominated to the 6th Circuit, posted pseudonymous writings on a political blog that touched on President Barack Obamas Kenyan heritage, referred to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as Mama Pelosi and suggested that someone should gag the House speaker. In another post, Bush described slavery and abortion as the two greatest tragedies in our country and said they relied on similar reasoning and activist justices at the U.S. Supreme Court, first in the Dred Scott decision, and later in Roe. Query whether you, Justice Kennedy, would count as one of those activist judges, having joined the controlling opinion that kept Roe v. Wade from being overturned in 1992?

Another nominee, Damien Schiff, nominated to the Court of Federal Claims, used a different blog to denounce anti-bullying efforts for teaching gayness in public schools, and to criticize the courts ruling in Lawrence v. Texas  thats your ruling, Justice Kennedy  striking down state laws criminalizing homosexual sodomy.

Oh, and also, to observe that it would seem that Justice Kennedy is (and please excuse the language) a judicial prostitute, selling his vote as it were to four other justices in exchange for the high that comes from aggrandizement of power and influence, and the blandishments of the fawning media and legal academy.

Justice Kennedy, does the president who chose this man really deserve to name your replacement?

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PRESIDENT TRUMPS nominee for U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia is being widely praised. Jessie K. Liu, a former line attorney in that office who is deputy general counsel for the Treasury Department, is described by lawyers who know her as smart, serious and hard-working . This is a critical office that has too long been without a permanent head, so we hope for speedy confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

But, at the risk of sounding churlish, we must lament how the Districts congressional representative has been completely frozen out of the process that settled on Ms. Liu. It was another reminder that D.C. residents, U.S. citizens who pay taxes and go to war for their country, are denied the vital say in their government that is enjoyed by residents of states.

The District has no senators who can exercise their prerogative under the blue slip process of the Senate Judiciary Committee that requires senators to sign off on nominees for federal district court judges and U.S. attorney offices before they are considered. So previous presidents of both parties carved out a role for Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D): Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama allowed her to recommend officials in the same manner as Democratic senators, and Republican President George W. Bush extended her the courtesy of being consulted, informing her of the candidate before nomination and soliciting her opinion. This time Ms. Norton, her spokesman told us, was informed of the nomination only shortly before it was made public.

What makes the Districts disenfranchisement all the more troublesome is that no other jurisdiction is as affected by its U.S. attorney as the District is. The office not only is responsible for the prosecution of federal crimes but also has jurisdiction over D.C. crimes committed by adults. The District is the only place in the United States, including U.S. territories, that does not have complete authority to prosecute local crimes. As Ms. Norton wrote to Mr. Trump in May in her unsuccessful plea for a role in the nomination process, There is no law enforcement issue of greater importance to D.C. residents on which they have less say than the prosecution of local crimes.

We trust that Ms. Liu, once confirmed and in office, will understand the need for local cooperation and make it a priority.
Silicon Valley and its associated start-ups are often described as having a Peter Pan mentality. High jinks are indulged, and an adolescent atmosphere is encouraged. Smart young (or young-seeming) makers develop apps that approximate adult forms of labor and turn their companies into gold. Like J.M. Barries creation, these Peters tend to be childish, boastful and a bit irritating to be around. But they can take you on an exciting adventure.

How better to describe recently deposed Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick, the 40-year-old bro who once joked about a service called boob-er, bragged that he enjoyed pissing people off and took his company from nothing to a $70 billion valuation in under a decade?

As it turns out, you cant stay in Neverland forever. And this week, we watched in real time as Uber and its leadership discovered what it takes to grow up. A major catalyst seems to have been the realization that in business, as in everyday life, other people matter. There was also the growing understanding that, after a while, adolescence gets old.

The calls for change originated with rank-and-file employees such as engineer Susan Fowler, who got fed up enough with harrassment, sexism and poor management to finally to blow the whistle. Her detailed, damning blog post about Ubers toxic culture kicked off waves of commiseration and, in the end, a change of leadership at the top.

There also were the everyday Uber drivers, undervalued and unlistened-to, who were bold enough to call out a callous employer. It was a struggling drivers recording of Kalanick telling him that some people dont like to take responsibility for their own s--- that prompted the CEOs public acknowledgement that he needed to grow up.

From person to person the outrage spread, down even to common riders, who (rarely, but every so often!) looked up and decided that they didnt want to support a business that ran the way Uber did. Some simply popularized the #DeleteUber hashtag. After the company was accused of undermining a work stoppage called by New York taxi drivers being held in solidarity with immigrant travelers, managers were flooded with so many complaints that apologetic form letters were sent out begging riders to give the service another chance. Kalanick himself was forced to rethink his position on President Trumps business advisory council.

It would be naive to be too high-minded about all this. People started to matter more to Uber, yes, but they began to matter most when they affected the businesss bottom line. It was only when it stopped being profitable to put up with Peter Pan that the grown-ups in the room  Ubers board and investors  decided that he had to go. And even so, the shift isnt happening without pushback. Shortly after Kalanicks ouster, notes and petitions for his reinstatement started to circulate among Uber employees: Uber is TK and TK is Uber ;  Nobody is perfect [but] hes critical to [Ubers] future success.

It seems there are still a good number of Lost Boys (and Girls) who think a tolerance for misconduct is key to advancement and who might prefer to remain in extended childhood, even at the expense of co-workers, employees and the community at large. And its more evidence (as if we needed it) that investors will tolerate all manner of misdeeds for a chance at fantastical profits.

Yet theres some reason to feel encouraged, too. The support Travis petition has gotten signatures from only a small fraction of Ubers network of 15,000 employees, suggesting an appetite for a move into the real world. Most of the company seems to understand that at a certain point its time to grow up. Investors may be willing to do almost anything for a chance at a unicorn, but theyre coming to realize that sexism, sexual harassment and an anything-goes culture arent the best roads to success.

Kalanicks exit is a positive development, but this story is far from over. The next challenge will be to prove that its possible for a company like Uber to build and prosper with a leader whos more Wendy than Peter Pan. If it can, perhaps more of Silicon Valleys perpetual children will grow up and follow suit.
As reported in the June 21 Metro article Mother of 2 is deported to El Salvador despite governors efforts, Liliana Cruz Mendez was finally deported to her native El Salvador. Immigration and Customs Enforcement found it necessary to rid us of a mother of two young children, someone who had been here since 2006. A minor driving offense was her undoing. She came here as so many do: fleeing violence and without the requisite money or information needed to become legal.

Are these really the people we should be targeting? Was Ms. Mendez a threat to our economy or our well-being? What has happened to our humanity?

Yes, laws are meant to be followed, but there is always some discretion that can be applied. And our immigration laws are woefully in need of overhauling. Yes, remove the criminals and rapists. But leave the hard-working, tax-paying people who help fuel our economy and make our community a richer place to live.

Madeline Helbraun, Falls Church
Matti Friedman is a journalist in Jerusalem and the author, most recently, of Pumpkinflowers.

Last year, the American novelists Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman and Dave Eggers led a group of writers to bear witness to the crisis in Iraq, confronting the fate of that country during and since the American occupation  the hundreds of thousands of dead, the vanished minorities, the chaos spreading across the region. The resulting anthology adds up to a piercing, introspective look at what it means to be American in the 21st century.

Im kidding! Reporting on Iraq is bothersome, and so is introspection. Instead, they came to bear witness to the crisis in the West Bank and Gaza, where thousands of reporters, nongovernmental organization staffers, activists and diplomats hover around a conflict with a death toll last year that was about a third of the homicide number in Baltimore. Its the kind of Mideast conflagration where writers can sally forth in an air-conditioned bus, safely observe the natives for a few hours and make it back to a nice hotel for drinks.

The resulting anthology, Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation, includes essays by American and international authors such as Eggers, Mario Vargas Llosa, Colum McCann and Colm Toibin  an impressive list  with a few locals thrown in. The visitors were shown around by anti-occupation activists and wrote up their experiences. Edited by Chabon and Waldman, the 26 essays here constitute a chorus of condemnation of Israel.

[Book review: Herzls Vision, Herzl and the founding of Israel]

Kingdom of Olives and Ash, by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman (Harper Perennial)

Chabon, for example, interviews a Palestinian American businessman about life in the West Bank  the byzantine permit system, the 1,001 humiliations of undemocratic rule. Another essay looks at a village of impoverished shepherds, Susiya, in the shadow of an Israeli settlement. Geraldine Brooks describes a stabbing in Jerusalem. We meet children detained by troops, people made to wait at checkpoints and others scarred in different ways by the military occupation that began here after the 1967 war.

Ive seen the West Bank from many angles over more than two decades in Israel, as a soldier at checkpoints and as a reporter passing through them with Palestinians, and I know the injustices of the situation are real and worth attention from knowledgeable observers. What we get here, though, is a peculiar product. The visiting writers arent experts  most seem to have been here for only a few days, and some appear quite lost.

Chabon and Waldman tell us on the very first page of a visit to Israel in 1992, which they remember vividly as a time of optimism, when the Oslo accords were fresh and untested. But their memory must be playing tricks, because the Oslo accords happened in the fall of 1993. Chabon and Waldman, who live in Berkeley, Calif., are accomplished writers, but the reader needs a few words about what theyre up to here. Do they have special expertise to offer? Israel is probably the biggest international news story over the past 50 years, so is there a reason they decided the world needs to know more about it and not, say, Kandahar, Guantanamo, Congo or Baltimore?

The essays vary in tone and quality, but experienced journalists covering the Israel/Palestine story will recognize the usual impressions of reporters fresh from the airport. Cute Palestinian kids touched my hair! Beautiful tea glasses! I saw a gun! I lost my luggage, and that seems symbolic! Arabs do hip-hop! The soldiers are so young and rude! The writers interview the same people who are always interviewed in the West Bank, thinking its all new, and believe what theyre told. Chabon, for example, waxes sarcastic that in the West Bank you can spend months in administrative detention if you forget your ID card at home. But that isnt true.

Everything is described with a gravitas suggesting that the writers havent spent much time outside the worlds safer corners. Eggers devotes two whole pages to an incident on the Gaza border, where one Israeli guard said he couldnt pass and then a different one came and let him through. Dave, if youre reading this, I hope youre okay.

[Book review: Israel: Is It Good for the Jews? by Richard Cohen]

We arent told, curiously, who paid for this project. But we learn that it was organized by a group called Breaking the Silence, one of many NGOs funded by Europeans and Americans to critique Israeli policy. These particular activists line is that theyre Israeli veterans, which Israelis know not to take seriously  we have a compulsory draft, and most Israelis are veterans. But it impresses foreigners. The hosts choreography becomes evident the more you read, because the writers keep going back to the same street in Hebron, the same village near the same settlement, the same checkpoint activist. They avoid Palestinian extremists and average Israelis, so it looks like all Palestinians are reasonable and all Israelis arent.

We get comparisons to American racism and to South African racism, learn that Israelis dont use water cannons because theyre not cruel enough, and hear Zionism described as a settler ideology with prominent colonial features under the cover of the Torah narrative. We learn from Vargas Llosa that a small number of Israeli Jews are righteous, which he thinks is an old feature of Jewish life. The rest of us, apparently, are blinded by propaganda, passion, or ignorance. Jews reading this might wonder how they became characters in a morality play by Vargas Llosa, but we neednt worry  his criticism is an act of love.

I know space in these projects is limited, especially with all the love that needs to fit, but the Syrian catastrophe unfolding a 90-minute drive from the West Bank could have used a few more words  half a million people are dead, and millions of others have been displaced. Does this affect the thinking of the Israelis and Palestinians next door? Are Israeli decisions influenced by the bloody outcomes of power vacuums in Sinai, Iraq and Libya? What will replace the occupation? In Gaza, it was Hamas  will it be Hamas in the West Bank? If Israels police leave East Jerusalem, could the city become Aleppo? These are some of the big questions of 2017.

But the writers here arent addressing them, which raises another question: What is this book about?

What its really about is the writers. Most of the essays arent journalism but a kind of selfie in which the author poses in front of the symbolic moral issue of the time: Here I am at an Israeli checkpoint! Here I am with a shepherd! Thats why the very first page of the book finds Chabon and Waldman talking not about the occupation, but about Chabon and Waldman. After a while I felt trapped in a wordy kind of Kardashian Instagram feed, without the self-awareness.

[Book review: The Crisis of Zionism, by Peter Beinart]

Whatever this anthology set out to be, Kingdom of Olives and Ash is an unintentional group portrait of a certain set of intellectuals. Would they like a curated trip to a foreign country? Sign them up! Do they think a few days is enough to pass judgment on the participants in a century-old conflict? They do! These people are taken somewhere, and they go. Someone points, and they look. They can be trusted not to ask whos pointing, whos with them on the bus or whos paying for the gas.

Once upon a time, in a different America, Mark Twain left on a steamer for a tour of the Holy Land. He had grumpy opinions about foreigners but didnt spare the people with him on board: the pompous, the addled, the hypocrites. He immortalized them in 1869 as The Innocents Abroad. Twain would never have joined anyones chorus, and we can only imagine what he would have done with the people on this tour  their easily manipulated attention, their blind spots, their belief that they arent flawed observers of life but a kind of global morality police. But there was no Twain on this bus.
David Rank served in the U.S. Foreign Service from 1990 to 2017. The opinions expressed here are his own.

This month, I resigned from the State Departments Foreign Service, stepping down as the senior U.S. diplomat in China and ending a 27-year career. I served five presidents  three Republicans and two Democrats  and, like my colleagues throughout the Foreign Service, took pride in the tradition of loyal, nonpartisan service. I also took seriously my oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and the obligations that came with representing the American people.

When the administration decided to withdraw from the Paris agreement on climate change, however, I concluded that, as a parent, patriot and Christian, I could not in good conscience be involved in any way, no matter how small, with the implementation of that decision.

Over my career, I had close calls with bullets and rocket-propelled grenades, but also knew colleagues who were less fortunate. I watched from my window as a crowd surrounding our embassy howled for vengeance after an accidental U.S. airstrike. My father died while I was in Taiwan, my mother while I was in Afghanistan. I missed the birth of my first child and my only sons senior year in high school.

After all of that, some people have asked if I am upset or angry about how my career came to an end. But the primary emotion I feel in leaving is gratitude. Gratitude to the colleagues who served with me and who went through similar experiences. Gratitude that I was able to leave the profession I loved on my own terms. Gratitude to partners from around the world who have worked with the United States for so many years to advance our common goals. And primarily, gratitude to the people of the United States, who gave me the honor to serve them and the country I love for so many years.

But, also, I worry.

I worry about the impact my departure will have on colleagues who remain. Many of these colleagues, some with decades of contributions ahead of them, share my dismay not just at the decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement but also at the unraveling of 70 years of bipartisan foreign policy that has made the world and the United States safer and more prosperous. Rather than encourage them to follow my example, I hope my departure will send a message on their behalf so that they can continue to work within the system to make things a little bit better, a little bit at a time. That work will always be honorable work and, I suspect, will be more important than ever in the coming years.

I worry about the frequently politically motivated portrayal of those who work for the American people as members of some mythical elite, separate and suspicious. Such false characterizations drive talented Americans away from public service or discourage them from entering it in the first place. My experience has been that those who work for America look like America. For my part, I certainly never felt particularly bicoastal. I was raised in a decidedly working-class town south of Chicago. My wife grew up showing hogs and cutting corn out of beans. Like many of my colleagues, I am a product of a public education, from grade school to grad school.

I worry about the denigration of expertise at a time when a complex world demands it more than ever. The scientific consensus on climate change is rock-solid, and yet, at a national level, we remain unable to act. Until recently, we used science to persuade others to take responsible action. Now, we muzzle science as the world wonders if we value empirical evidence at all. Saying I am not a scientist has become a way to avoid making hard choices. Even if you do not share my views on the moral requirement for action or on our obligation to our children, our inability to address climate change at the national level should concern you from the perspective of national security. The Defense Department has identified climate change as an urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources such as food and water. In other words, an enemy that must be addressed.

And, finally, I worry at the erosion of the bipartisan consensus on the need for U.S. leadership. It was this leadership, underpinned by the values we shared with our allies, that led to the defeat of European fascism and brought the Cold War to an end. Without U.S. leadership, the global economic system would be less transparent and less open, and the American people  and people around the world  would be less prosperous. Today, whether the challenge is our changing climate or the Islamic State, the world still needs leadership. If that leadership does not come from us, it will come from elsewhere. Others will shape the rules. Others values will drive the debates. Other researchers will make the breakthroughs, other businesspeople will make the deals and other workers will get the jobs. And the American people will be poorer for it.
Steven V. Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University and is the author of From Every End of This Earth: 13 Families and the New Lives They Made in America.

Manpreet Tiwana is a Punjabi-speaking police officer in the farming community of Kerman, Calif. She describes her importance to the areas many immigrant residents: They found somebody who can communicate with them, and they can tell their issues to. They want to lay it out and tell me all their problems.

Tiwanas role goes far beyond listening to immigrant complaints, Ali Noorani writes in There Goes the Neighborhood: Officer Tiwanas service humanized law enforcement for her community, and humanized South Asians for the broader community. She was a bridge between both worlds.

This example embodies the core argument advanced by Noorani, a child of Pakistani immigrants who heads the National Immigration Forum, an outspoken advocate for immigrant rights. Often locals worry that newcomers will take their jobs. But fear of foreigners is rooted in cultural anxiety, not just economic anxiety, Noorani stresses. Foes of immigration worry about losing their identities, not just their incomes.

[How blighted urban areas transform into trendy, gentrified communities]

Nooranis answer is to draw on institutions such as the police, and people like Tiwana, to build bridges that connect communities, not walls that divide them. In analyzing President Trumps exploitation of anti-immigrant sentiment during the 2016 election, the author writes: The fear of the other wasnt necessarily the immigrant next door. It was the immigrant theyd never seen.

Noorani is not an accomplished writer. His prose lacks flavor, and his narrative lacks structure. This is sort of a memoir, sort of a journal, sort of a policy prescription. But his message is strong and valid.

Right now, too many Americans  and media  assume, There goes the neighborhood when immigrants become a part of their communities, he writes. Until conservative white America sees the cultural (and demographic) changes in their neighborhoods as a net positive to their lives, this will remain the assumption and the identity wars will only worsen.

In Nooranis view, three kinds of institutions are best suited to demonstrate the benefits of immigration: law enforcement agencies, faith communities and commercial enterprises. His organization has formed a coalition called Bibles, Badges and Businesses for Immigration Reform, and he tours the country discovering examples that make his point.

Take Margaret Mims, the first female sheriff of Fresno County in Californias Central Valley, an agricultural area that has attracted immigrant families for generations. Today Laotians, Punjabis and Hispanics have joined the previous groups  Basques and Italians, Slavs and Armenians  and she has made it a priority to hire officers who reflect this diversity.

Every citizen is safer, she argues, if all residents have confidence in their police and cooperate with them. If immigrants are afraid of law enforcement, Mims says, they cant thrive, having to look over their shoulder all the time [and] wondering if they are going to be deported.

In Logansport, Ind., a Trump stronghold, Noorani profiles the Rev. Zach Szmara, who took over a failing church filled with a few little old ladies, renamed it Bridge Community Church and reached out to the areas growing Hispanic population.

The church provided the only legal clinic for immigrants within 50 miles, and the pews started filling up. Today three flags, American, Mexican and Guatemalan, adorn the churchs back wall, and Szmara says, The more we got to know people who were different than us, the more we realized it was Gods heart.

Business is the third leg of Nooranis strategy, and he cites Wells Fargo, which, months after 9/11, went out on a limb in the face of heated criticism and started accepting a document issued by the Mexican government to all its citizens residing in America, regardless of immigration status. For the first time, undocumented workers could open bank accounts, and two years later, the company added audio-capable ATMs that recognized Spanish.

[Beloved childrens author speaks out about her detainment at U.S. airport]

Within three years, more than 500,000 accounts had been opened using the Mexican document. Monica Lozano, publisher of La Opinion, the countrys oldest Spanish-language newspaper, said of Wells Fargos foresighted decision: They werent just opening up checking accounts they were empowering the community.

These are all good examples that will, hopefully, ease the cultural anxiety Noorani writes about. But he shies away from discussing a key dimension of Trumps appeal: racism. A significant portion of the American electorate felt their country had been taken away, he writes, but he doesnt complete the thought. Taken away by whom? Lets be honest. Many of those voters believe that their country has been overrun by dark-skinned, foreign-language-speaking aliens.

While it is wildly unfair to call all Trump supporters racists, it is equally inaccurate to ignore that the president deliberately inflamed racist impulses to win the election.

Moreover, Noorani lacks a larger perspective. Trump is a very American figure. Anti-immigrant fears didnt start with globalization and werent triggered by the election of Barack Obama. Throughout our history, spasms of nativist hostility have erupted against each new group arriving on our shores: Germans and Jews, Irish and Italians, Japanese and Chinese.

Hispanics and Muslims are now the objects of this animosity, and the language directed against them is the same thats been used to demonize newcomers for more than two centuries: This group will degrade our culture and alter our identity. But todays targets can take comfort from the clear lessons of history.

Immigrants do change our culture  for the better. They reenergize and revitalize our civic spirit. The haters are always wrong, and the haters will eventually lose. Tiwana and Noorani himself prove that truth.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seen here in a file photo, will visit the White House on Monday. (Mikhail Metzel/AP)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet for the first time with President Trump at the White House on Monday, part of a two-day no-frills visit to the capital that will include little of the pomp of the prime ministers earlier trips during the Obama administration.

The White House said the two leaders will seek to advance common priorities for the U.S.-India partnership, a list that includes fighting terrorism, promoting economic growth and expanding security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

Officials on both sides have tried to set low expectations for the meeting, casting it as a way for the two men  who have previously spoken by phone  to get to know each other.

Indian diplomats in Washington emphasized the commonalities between the leaders, citing Modis business sensibilities and populist appeal. White House aides focused on something even more Trumpian.

They are the worlds mostfollowed political leaders on social media, a senior administration official told reporters at a background briefing on the meeting, before quickly adding: President Trump is slightly ahead of Modi.



As of Saturday morning, Trump had 32.7 million Twitter followers, with Modi clocking in at 31 million.

That shows the kind of leaders they are: Both are innovators; both are business executives, said the administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the visit. I think theyll find a lot of common ground.

Modis goal is to create a special bond with Trump, the prime ministers aides said.

Without chemistry, there is no physics, one Indian official said.

New Delhi has been alarmed by Trumps courting of Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he hosted at his Mar-a-Lago winter estate in April, officials in India said. White House officials dismissed suggestions that the administration has ignored India.

Modis visit will lack the type of public display of affection that marked his visit to the Obama White House in 2014, when he and then-President Barack Obama visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial together.

But Trump aides said that Modi, after meetings with the president, will also be treated to a cocktail reception and a working dinner at the White House, the first for a foreign leader under Trump.

The White House is very interested in making this a special visit, the senior administration official said. Were seeking to roll out the red carpet.

That official said much of the focus of the bilateral meetings would be on counterterrorism and security, noting that the administration hopes to elevate India as a major defense partner on par with our closest allies and partners.

The United States is Indias second-largest defense supplier, and a $2 billion deal for the United States to sell 22 unarmed drones to India to protect its vast coastline was recently approved by the Trump administration.

Modi, 66, has made his reputation as a strong  some say authoritarian  leader who has made his countrys economic progress the hallmark of his administration, trotting the globe to drum up foreign investment. In that, hes likely to find common ground with Trump.

Unlike the president, however, Modi enjoys widespread popularity at home, polls show.

In recent months, however, India has seen a string of high-profile incidents of Hindu extremism and intolerance that includes clashes between Hindus and Muslims and lynching of victims accused of eating beef, as cows are sacred to Hindus. Modi, himself a Hindu nationalist, has been criticized for not speaking out against this violence  and even implicitly encouraging it. He recently tapped a firebrand monk known for his anti-Muslim rhetoric as leader of a key state.

Trump has been previously bullish on the potential of Indias fast-growing economy, viewing it as a good place for foreign investment. The Trump Organization has licensed the presidents name to five real estate projects in India, and Trump visited Mumbai on business before becoming president.

They could either hit it off amazingly or fall out completely. Theyre both strong personalities, and both of them have a rather exalted opinion of themselves, said Rajiv Kumar, an economist and author of the book Modi and His Challenges.

Both are fairly focused on dealmaking, Kumar said, Trump as a businessman and Modi from his time as chief minister of the

business-friendly Indian state of Gujarat.

Yet Trump has been unpredictable with New Delhi so far. He made a point to call Modi in March after his Bharatiya Janata Party garnered a key win in the populous state of Uttar Pradesh, seen as a likely bellwether for Modis reelection hopes in 2019.

But the president also was highly critical  some argued unfairly so  of India and China during his speech when he announced this month that the United States would be pulling out of the Paris accord on climate change.

Trump wrongly asserted that India made its participation in the agreement contingent on billions and billions and billions of foreign aid.

The countrys foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, later dismissed Trumps remarks as completely not true, and Modi has made it clear during recent meetings with European leaders that the country will stay the course on its commitment with or without the United States.

Already, India has pulled back from building coal-fired power plants and is expected to meet its goal of having 40 percent of its energy from renewables well before the target of 2030.

On the economy, India and U.S. bilateral trade has nearly doubled in the past decade, to $115 billion, but the trade deficit of $30 billion remains a matter of concern.

Trump has also ordered a review of the highly skilled H-1B worker visa program, a key priority of for the Indian IT industry, with its tech workers getting an estimated 70 percent of those coveted visas in 2015, according to a 2016 report by the Department of Homeland Security.

The senior Trump administration official emphasized that no changes have been made to that visa program so far and declined to speculate on the outcome of the review.

During the campaign, he very much was in touch with the Indian American community, the official said of the president. He has expressed very positive feelings and said if he won, India would find a true friend in the White House. Hes not new to India.

Gowen reported from New Delhi. Philip Rucker contributed to this report.
President Trump and his allies are waging their most aggressive effort yet to help Senate GOP leaders pass an expansive health-care bill next week, but the endeavor encountered new resistance Friday when a fifth Republican senator said he does not support the bill as is.

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) announced that he could not vote for the legislation without revisions, singling out the measures long-term spending cuts to Medicaid as the reason for his opposition. The announcement caught some Republicans in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells orbit by surprise.

It also prompted a Republican super PAC to plan a seven-figure advertising campaign in Nevada to pressure Heller  raising the specter of an ugly intraparty fight that could serve as a harbinger of the political clashes to come during next years midterm elections.

As the vote-counting effort intensifies, Trump, who has said he supports the bill but it needs more negotiation, is trying to build consensus both in public and behind the scenes. On Thursday, he called Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), one of the five GOP holdouts, to speak with him about his proposed changes, according to White House officials and a Trump ally with knowledge of the conversation.

McConnell (Ky.) is now scrambling to save a bill that aims to repeal and replace major parts of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He released it Thursday morning after writing it in secret for weeks with a small group of aides. After keeping the White House at a distance during the bills crafting, McConnell is suddenly more dependent on Trump  mainly to apply political pressure on skeptical conservatives.

At the same time, McConnell is seeking a separate way of winning wary GOP moderates over whom Trump holds little political influence, such as Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska.), who oppose the bills blockage of federal funding to Planned Parenthood, among other things.

Hes looking at how to bridge a gap that seems to be insurmountable and try to find a way to get this, Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), a defender of the bill, said in a Friday interview.

McConnell is hoping to bring the bill to a vote next week, after it receives a score from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO will estimate how many people could lose coverage under the plan and what impact it would have on insurance premiums and the federal budget deficit.

But he can afford to lose only two votes from the pool of 52 GOP senators, with all Democrats united against it and Vice President Pence ready to break a 50-50 tie.

Its that very, very narrow path, Trump said in an interview with Fox News Channel broadcast Friday. But I think were going to get there.

The White Houses strategy is to continue to let McConnell take the lead. Trump is involved only as an encourager, as he was with Cruz on the Thursday phone call. He is not offering or cutting deals, those familiar with the situation said.

Pence is also playing a supporting role. He has hosted meetings with individual senators to discuss their concerns with the overhaul.

1 of 20 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  The scene on Capitol Hill as Senate Republicans revealed their health-care bill View Photos Senate Republicans released a health-care bill that would curtail federal Medicaid funding, repeal taxes on the wealthy and eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood as part of an effort to fulfill a years-long promise to undo former president Barack Obamas signature health-care law. Caption Senate Republicans released a health-care bill that would curtail federal Medicaid funding, repeal taxes on the wealthy and eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood as part of an effort to fulfill a years-long promise to undo former president Barack Obamas signature health-care law. June 22, 2017 Reporters wait outside the Mansfield Room in the U.S. Capitol as GOP senators get their first look at new health-care legislation. Most Republican senators were given their first opportunity to look at the proposed overhaul of former president Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act during the closed-door meeting. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Wait 1 second to continue.

Heller is seen as a bellwether for how the bill is perceived across the country. He is facing reelection next year in a swing state where Democrat Hillary Clinton defeated Trump but where there is also an active Republican base, which turned out overwhelmingly for Trump during the battle for the GOP presidential nomination. Nevada is among 31 states and the District of Columbia that expanded Medicaid under the ACA.

I cannot support a piece of legislation that takes away insurance from tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nevadans, Heller said at a news conference in his home state Friday, where he was joined by Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval.

[Several GOP governors voice doubt about health-care bill just released by Senate]

Heller said he is particularly worried about making sure that states that expanded Medicaid under the ACA can continue to provide insurance to low-income Americans. He said the current bill would cap Medicaid payments at a growth rate that wont keep up with the true cost of medical care and could force states to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year to keep people insured.

Heller said he was open to voting for the legislation  but only if leaders agree to changes before a procedural vote scheduled for Tuesday. The changes he seeks, particularly his call for higher growth rates, could alienate conservatives and threaten the delicate balance McConnell is still trying to strike.

Soon after Heller announced his opposition, Katie Walsh, Trumps former deputy chief of staff, confirmed that the super PAC she now advises  America First Policies  is planning a seven figure advertising buy in Nevada targeting Heller. If more GOP senators come out against the bill, they could be targeted in the coming days as well, she said.

Multiple Republicans familiar with the Senate GOP leaderships strategy, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations, said there is a particular focus on winning over two of the four GOP senators who issued a joint statement of disapproval on Thursday: Cruz and Ron Johnson (Wis.). The other two, Mike Lee (Utah) and Rand Paul (Ky.), are seen by leadership as likelier to vote no.

One of the Republicans argued that Trump holds political sway over Cruz and Johnson. The former is up for reelection in 2018 and is hoping to avoid a serious primary challenge; the latter unexpectedly won a second term last fall thanks to Trumps strong showing in Wisconsin.

The phone conversation between Cruz and Trump was described by the White House officials and Trump ally as substantive and encouraging. It was about hearing each side out and getting a better sense of where things stand, they said. A Cruz spokeswoman declined to comment on the call.

Cruz is pushing to eliminate more Obamacare regulations and wants to allow people to buy insurance plans across state lines, among other things. He said Thursday that he believes there is an agreement to be reached.

Speaking of Cruz, Lee, Paul and Johnson, Trump said on Fox News: Its not that theyre opposed. Theyd like to get certain changes.

The White House sees Johnson as a likely ally on tax reform and wants to work with him on that. White House officials view his concerns on McConnells bill as more about taxes than health care.

Johnson and McConnell have not always enjoyed a warm working relationship, according to several GOP aides familiar with their relationship who were granted anonymity to speak candidly. Johnson was frustrated after McConnell and his allies nearly wrote off his chances of winning reelection in 2016. In the months since, Johnson has agitated for a bigger role in Senate GOP circles, particularly on health care.

Many of Johnsons complaints about the draft bill have been about McConnells secretive process rather than the substance of the policies. He complained about the speed of the process and the lack of information on Thursday.

Some in GOP leadership believe he can be swayed through careful lobbying, including by a fellow Wisconsinite: House Speaker Paul D. Ryan.

Ryans chamber passed its own bill and is invested in trying to get a bill to Trumps desk. The speaker supported Johnson throughout his campaign with donations, including money for the state party, and by joining Johnson on a four-day bus tour of Wisconsin that included a rally with Pence.

Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said Ryan and Johnson are in frequent contact about issues that affect Wisconsin and it would be surprising if they didnt talk about Obamacare repeal and replace.

McConnell is operating on the understanding that Collins and Murkowski are less prone to being swayed by pressure from Trump or other national political figures. They have cultivated reputations as independent senators willing to buck the national party in favor of the interests of their home states. So, McConnell will have to find a way to make the substance of the bill more appealing to them to win their votes.

Collins is among the moderates who might join Heller in rejecting the bill over cuts to Medicaid. She has said she is waiting to see the CBOs estimate on how many people stand to lose coverage and how premiums would be affected.

As for the Planned Parenthood provision, Collins said she expects that she and Murkowski will push an amendment to strike it if it is not removed before the bill hits the Senate floor.

Some Republicans predict privately that McConnell has a better chance of winning over Murkowski than Collins. Murkowski has traditionally been more aligned with leaderships interests in her 14 years in the Senate. Her father was a senator, and in her early years in the chamber, McConnell helped advance her into a junior leadership post. Having just won her own reelection last year, Murkowski has more political freedom to maneuver than Collins, who has flirted with running for governor next year.

Collins has spent more than 20 years forging a singular brand of political standing, emulating her political idol, Margaret Chase Smith, the Republican senator who was one of Joe McCarthys sharpest critics in the early 1950s.

Collins and Murkowski have become close allies. When they band together, they are a force to be reckoned with  and McConnell has learned that lesson the hard way. In early 2014, the Republican leadership expected the two moderate women in their caucus to join Democrats and make the politically tough vote to end a Cruz-led filibuster and allow a final decision on raising the debt ceiling. But the women, tired of being taken for granted, refused.

The vote remained open for an extra 45 minutes, just shy of the votes needed, until McConnell, who faced a strong primary challenge that year, relented, and his entire leadership team joined the two women in breaking the filibuster.

Now, the question is whether more senators will join those who oppose the health-care bill in its current form. Each new senator who chooses to do what Heller did on Friday makes the overall task before McConnell and Trump that much harder.

Certainly it complicated things, Toomey said.

Ashley Parker and Paul Kane contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPost
The stark divide among Republicans on reshaping the nations health system came into full view over the past few days.

Formally unveiled Thursday, the Senate Republican plan came under immediate friendly fire from within Majority Leader Mitch McConnells GOP conference. The Kentucky Republican has just a few days to navigate the perilous path in trying to appease one bloc of holdouts without losing votes from another bloc.

It sets up a final frenzy of negotiation, as McConnell has determined he will finish with the legislation one way or another by the end of this month. If hes not careful, the GOP leader could end up being lambasted by conservatives and liberals alike for cutting narrow deals to try to buy off votes from individual senators in a similar manner used for passing the Affordable Care Act.

McConnell can afford to lose only two of the 52 Republicans in the Senate, but as the week went on, he had many more holdouts than that.

The highest-profile defection, for now, came from Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who is usually a go-along-get-along acolyte to party leadership.

But Heller faces the most difficult reelection next year of any Republican, and his states governor, Brian Sandoval (R), is extremely popular and remains a staunch supporter of the current funding structure for Medicaids expansion, which allowed nearly 300,000 Nevada residents to get health coverage.

Its simply not the answer, he said Friday, with Sandoval at his side. He left some wiggle room to possibly support a rewritten draft but he made clear that his concerns went beyond just the proposed Better Care Reconciliation Acts phaseout of federal support for the Medicaid expansion beginning in 2021. He questioned the plans protection for guaranteed coverage for critical conditions and other proposals.

Its going to be very difficult to get me to a yes, Heller said.

His comments came after a quartet of Senate conservatives announced opposition to the legislation as written, shortly after McConnell released the plan Thursday. An additional handful of senators have expressed concerns about various provisions in the 142-page draft.

One of those conservatives, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), received less attention than Heller but made clear just how far apart the two sides are in a nearly 900-word letter Friday to his constituents about the proposal. No, the Senate healthcare bill released [Thursday] does not repeal Obamacare. It doesnt even significantly reform American healthcare, Lee wrote.

He went on to outline a demand that would in some ways undermine the very structure of the bill, allowing states to completely opt out of the law and create their own health-care systems. Its the sort of demand that conservatives like but will be fiercely opposed by Democrats, as well as some Republicans, who fear that it would create too much chaos in the marketplace.

Republicans are acknowledging that they expect to know by Tuesday  Wednesday at the latest  whether they have the votes to pass the plan. If he can do it, McConnell then must spend the rest of the summer working with the House to see whether they can pass the Senate bill in whole, or negotiate a new compromise.

All of this makes the coming weeks initial vote  a simple parliamentary motion to begin debate  the critical test of support that will signal whether the legislation rises or falls.

We take great care in doing the whip process, so we know before we go to the floor how the votes will turn out, so well know that before that happens, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), the majority whip, said Thursday.

Until now, McConnell has said very little in public, operating what could be called a strategy of political risk minimization.

His secretive process has been criticized loud and clear from Republicans and Democrats, with most of it directed at him. He does not mind taking media lashes if it keeps the heat focused on him and not his Republican colleagues. He did so last year when he absorbed most of the Democratic attack for refusing to consider the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Merrick Garland, while his Republican incumbents faced little criticism about it on the campaign trail.

The legislation will be in public view just a few days before the key votes, and by Friday the issue will be resolved, avoiding the long and politically debilitating negotiations that Democrats went through in 2009 and 2010.

But Democrats got a law passed, a really big one that went on to provide insurance to tens of millions of people, and they are now, after years of passively defending the ACA, fully engaged in promoting its benefits and trying to make Republicans look like mean-spirited accountants attempting to balance the books on the backs of the poor.

McConnell must decide if he wants to cut side deals to win or if a good-faith effort that comes up short is a better path forward politically.

So far the proposal includes only a modest $2 billion for a new funding stream to fight the opioid epidemic, an issue critical to a pair of Midwestern Republicans, Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) and Rob Portman (Ohio).

Once the Congressional Budget Office issues its report in the next few days about the proposals financial impact, McConnell will have a better sense of how many billions of dollars more in opioid funding could secure Portman and Capitos votes.

Will Nevada get a specific carve-out on Medicaid funding to win over Heller?

Thats what McConnells nemesis, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), did in 2009 to win over wavering Democrats to pass the ACA. Reid included a provision that provided full federal funding for the Medicaid expansion just to Nebraska, winning the vote of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who saw the initial proposal as an unfunded mandate.

The proposal was blasted as the Cornhusker Kickback and was eventually nixed. The final version of the law had 100 percent funding for all states for three years and then phased down to 90 percent federally subsidized funds for Medicaids expansion.

This bill is a legislative train wreck of historic proportions, McConnell said the day that Reid, Nelson and other Democrats unveiled the final package just before Christmas 2009.

Now, McConnell faces a similar dilemma.

Read more from Paul Kanes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Workmen prepare an electronic screen for the Indian tech firm Infosys, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,in January. (Jason Alden/Bloomberg) (Jason Alden/Jason Alden/Bloomberg)

They were going to be Indias gilded generation.

When P.R. Sujoy became a software engineer, he thought his life was made. It was a job his father, a former government employee who prized stability above all, could brag about to nosy relatives. It came with a highflying salary, enough for a mortgage and to start a family. So when his company suddenly asked him to resign, Sujoy refused.

Im an IT guy. Thats all I do, he said.

Eventually he was fired, and Sujoy became one more worker in Indias IT sector facing an uncertain future.

Information technology services account for 9.5 percent of the countrys gross domestic product, according to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), but now, after decades of boom, the future of the industry seems precarious. Since May, workers groups have reported unusually numerous layoffs. The Forum for IT Employees (FITE) estimates that 60,000 workers have lost their jobs in the past few months.

Employees are being rated as poor performers so companies can get rid of them, said FITEs Chennai coordinator, Vinod A.J.

IT companies and some government officials say the numbers have been exaggerated, but industry experts say the countrys digital wunderkinds have much to fear.

For the first time, companies are touching middle management, said Kris Lakshmikanth, chief of a recruitment firm called Head Hunters India. Usually in IT, people grow with the industry. Every two or three years, salaries increase, and everyone gets promotions. Thats the norm. In more than 20 years, I have not seen managers being sacked. Now it is happening everywhere  Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad.

Bias against Indians abroad is also compounding workers fears of layoffs and downsizing at home.

President Trump has stoked anxiety among Indian techies, who make up the majority of applicants for the H-1B visa program for highly skilled foreign workers. Trump has talked about sharply restricting H-1Bs, and this year the number of applications dropped a staggering 16 percent as companies prepared for Trumps immigration cutbacks. Instead, Indian outsourcing companies such as Infosys started recruiting Americans, bowing to Trumps calls for America First.

For years, India has been the worlds back office. Its booming IT industry has taken care of Silicon Valleys menial jobs. According to IBEF, 67 percent of the worlds IT work is outsourced to India. Here, workers are fast, cheap and compliant. They code basic apps, do maintenance work on office software and test websites to make sure every click takes users to the corresponding page. In exchange, they get stable salaries, enough to rise up the social ladder.

Over the past three decades, cities have swelled to accommodate this newly minted middle class. Residential towers and industrial parks have risen for Indias 3.9 million IT workers, and bars and restaurants have multiplied. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has seized upon the success of the IT sector, calling for an Internet connection in every village as part of an $18 billion Digital India plan.

Vinod said companies are masking layoffs as voluntary resignations based on poor performance ratings. They put pressure on employees every day, saying: Resign  or we will terminate you, he said. It allows the company to downsize without giving the proper compensation.

A former employee at Cognizant, Uthamacholan R. said he was asked to resign after he received a low performance rating from someone who had never worked with him. I was rated by my managers manager, who didnt even know what my job title was, he said.

Others at his company had also been rated unfairly and then pressured to hand in resignations based on poor appraisals, he said. They are given quotas  like out of 10 people, you have to give two poor ratings.

Cognizant did not reply to The Washington Posts requests for comment.

In an email, an Infosys spokeswoman said there had been no layoffs, only performance-related separations.



Industry leaders dismissed reports of layoffs, saying the media had exaggerated a few isolated cases. Sangeeta Gupta, a spokeswoman at the National Association of Software and Services Companies, an industry trade organization, said that yearly performance appraisals are designed to keep the workforce trim. This, she said, was crucial in an industry where technological advances such as automation and artificial intelligence quickly make many jobs and skill sets obsolete.

Companies make every effort to re-skill employees who do not perform well, and if they cannot meet expectations, then they are asked to resign, she said. But talk of forced resignations and mass layoffs, she said, was not even remotely close to the truth.If youre a publicly listed company, theres no way you can lie about shedding employees and get away with it, she said.

Amid the rumpus over jobs, Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister of electronics and information technology, met with industry leaders June 18. At a news conference afterward, he said that companies were not laying off staff. In fact, he said, many firms are hiring.

The Modi government scaled back plans to train 500 million workers in a variety of industries by 2022 as part of its Skill India program, after training targets were missed. IT Ministry spokesman Narendra Nath Kaul said that the government is working to create digital jobs but that individuals are responsible for gaining needed new skills.

What do they think? That theyll be kept on? he said of IT workers who had lost their jobs. Because of their attitudes, they are considered irrelevant by the industry.

Sujoy and others are looking for new jobs, but are shocked by the new uncertainty.

There should be some protection for us, he said. I could get another job now, and they could fire me just as easily.

Read more:

How will Trumps rules on foreign worker visas affect Indians?

The end of the line for Indian outsourcers. Or a new beginning?

H-1B visas: India fights back

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
The Israeli air force struck three Syrian army targets in the Golan Heights on Saturday, after errant fire from the Syrian side landed in Israeli-controlled territory.

Israels military spokesman said that 10 projectiles fired from Syria landed in open areas on the Israeli-controlled side of the Golan Heights. Israels government said the fire was a result of fighting in Syria and not intentionally aimed at Israeli soldiers or civilians.

In response, an Israeli aircraft hit two Syrian army tanks and a heavy-machine-gun position on the Syrian side of the buffer zone that separates the two countries, the spokesman said.

The Israel Defense Forces released aerial video of the airstrikes. The spokesman did not say whether the errant fire from Syria consisted of mortar rounds, artillery shells or bullets.

Syrian media reported that at least two people were killed as a result of the Israeli strikes on the outskirts of the Syrian farming town of Quneitra, which is visible from the Israeli side and has been a scene of frequent clashes in the six-year conflict between anti-government forces and the Syrian army.

Israeli soldiers patrol near the border with Syria after projectiles fired from the war-torn country hit the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on Saturday. Israel carried out retaliatory strikes on Syrian army targets, its military said. (Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

[Israeli forces kill 4 Islamic State allies in Golan Heights firefight]

Syrias state news agency, quoting a Syrian army communique, alleged that the Israeli strikes coincided with an attack by militants in the area and suggested that Israel was aiding the Islamist forces, according to Reuters news agency.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli retaliatory strike made our policy clear: We are not willing to accept any spillover or leakage of fire from any front. We will respond with force to any fire on our territory.

On Saturday, Israel lodged a complaint about the errant fire to the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force, a peacekeeping mission operated by international troops that monitors the 1974 buffer zone between Israel and Syria.

Read more:

50 years after the Six-Day War, Israels pre-1967 borders are still a hot topic. Heres why.

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
The terror militia used poison gas grenades in the battle for Mosul on several occasions  and the islamists are possibly gathering sufficient nuclear material to create a dirty bomb. Experts are alarmed.

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The pulse is stable. A beeping sound registers every heartbeat. The bed in the quarantine area of the emergency hospital Erbil-West is enclosed with foil. American doctors from the World Health Organization (WHO) just finished the decontamination protocol on the female patient.

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She will survive, states Dr. Lawan Miwan, the medical director of the clinic, she is lucky. Yusra A. is one of 15 poison gas victims who receive treatment in Erbil, the capital city of Erbil Governorate and of Iraqi Kurdistan, in Northern Iraq. Blisters disfigure her body; her eyes are red and burning. The 55-year old has to vomit repeatedly.

She has endured this condition for three months. Like 700,000 other refugees from the heavily embattled ISIS-controlled city of Mosul and her fellow patients, she now lives in one of the refugee camps in the northern highlands of Iraq.

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Yusras fate never made international headlines. Maybe they dont want to frighten the international public, muses Dr. Miwan during his conversation with WELT AM SONNTAG, because it was without a doubt poison gas from Islamic State arsenal my patients came into contact with.

Yusra A. became victim to a poison gas attack by the Islamic State. She is treated in a hospital in Erbil Quelle: Frank Franke

The 15 chemical weapons victims who were hospitalized by doctors from the International Red Cross and by American chemical weapons experts from WHO during the first two weeks of March in the West Erbil Emergency Center, were all civilians hailing from the Eastside of the Northern Iraqi metropolis that had been freed weeks earlier.

Initially 12 patients - five children, three women and four men - were hospitalized in the intensive care unit of the Erbil Hospital between March 1st and March 4th. Erbil is located 90 kilometers east of Mosul in the relatively safe Kurdistan. In the second week three more chemical weapons victims arrived, as was recently confirmed by Sara Alzawqari, the Iraqi representative of the International Red Cross, to WELT AM SONNTAG. All patients were apparently first decontaminated before they were transferred to U.S. specialists for treatment.

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Dr. Miwan states that all patients immediately displayed symptoms typical of contact with chemical weapons. Furthermore they reported that they had sensed a strong garlic-like odor in the air - a clear indication of the so-called mustard gas, first deployed as a biological weapon by German soldiers in World War I.

Miwan continues: Meanwhile the WHO team confirmed to me that sulphur mustard had been used.

According to the victims the grenades containing the liquid biological warfare agent were launched on March 1st and 2nd and in a second wave of attacks a week later and emanated from an area on the Westside of Mosul that at the time was exclusively controlled by IS.

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Two involved separate entities, a security administration and another organisation, confirmed these findings independently of each other to the newspaper.

Preliminary tests demonstrate that the biological agent in question does not stem from decades old remnants of secret Syrian and Iraqi government arsenals.

It is clear that the secured samples were not industrially produced but apparently mixed together by IS chemists.

"Looking at the samples and analyses, it seems that it is a rather makeshift production of low quality, but still lethal and harmful, states an international expert who wishes to remain anonymous since his organization does not have a mandate to officially name Islamic State as the source of this chemical weapon attack.

Following the chemical weapons shelling the WHO activated an already existing emergency plan, stated the organisation. Furthermore the International Red Cross distributed specialized emergency kits for the treatment of sulphur mustard victims to hospitals near Mosul, confirmed ICRC spokeswoman Alzawqari, Mosul is already a catastrophe for civilians. Our clinic is located just one kilometer from the actual frontline. We experience almost uninterrupted grenade shelling and air raids. And now also chemical weapon.

As a matter of fact there are strong indicators that the jihadist militia al-Nusra also has been working for quite some time on obtaining sarin. On June 20, 2013 analysts from the American Defense Intelligence Agency sent a secret report to then-Deputy Director, David Shedd that started with the dramatic sentence: al-Nusra maintained a sarin production cell: its programme is the most advanced sarin plot since al-Qaidas pre-9/11 effort.

The 5-page briefing, the existence of which was eventually confirmed by the Obama White House, went on to state: arrests in Iraq and Turkey have slowed the cells operations. Nevertheless we asses the situation as such that they will continue their efforts to produce chemical weapons.

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The actual IS poison gas attack in Mosul is not a singular occurrence, as a study by IHS Conflict Monitor demonstrates. Since the first incident in July 2014, Conflict Monitor has recorded at least 71 allegations of the Islamic State using CW -(41 in Iraq) - and 30 in Syria, states Columb Track, chief analyst of the London-based think tank. Most of the attacks happened in and around Mosul. Until the beginning of the reconquest offensive, the city, still home to one million long suffering residents, 100,000 of them as involuntary human shields for the terrorists, was the center of the Islamic States chemical weapons production, states Strack.

Only New York Times wrote about the IHS investigation, which was largely ignored otherwise.

One of these attacks is also mentioned in a report, dated 2016, and produced by a collaborative investigative panel formed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations. It states: There was sufficient information to conclude that Islamic State militants were the only entity with the ability, capability, motive and the means to use sulfur mustard gas in Marea on 21 August, 2015.

IS had used 130mm caliber artillery grenades filled with toxic gas to shell the Syrian city, 80 kilometers from Aleppo. 50 civilians were injured during the attack.

The American aid organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) already reported IS poison gas attacks in the Mosul region in autumn of last year. They state that grenades were fired on September 20th and 21st and again on October 6th and 10th, aimed at the town of Qayyarah and the nearby air force base used by the American Air Force as well as French and Australian forces. Several residents and local militia members noted the characteristic smell of garlic and complained about typical sulphur mustard symptoms. Due to the ongoing fighting, the injured could not be taken to hospitals. Therefore toxicological confirmation of the use of the suspected chemical weapon could not be produced.

Quite possibly the IS chemical weapon stockpile will not pose the biggest risk in the coming final battle for Mosul. According to IHS Conflict Monitor, the terrorists, surrounded and ready for martyrdom, may be in the possession of enough radioactive material to build a homemade nuclear charge, a so-called dirty bomb. IS controlled Mosul for three years.

Medical and industrial sources of radioactive material are present within territory held by the Islamic State, for example, at the Hazim al-Hafid Hospital, a specialist oncology and nuclear medicine facility in Mosul, said Karl Dewey, CBR analyst at IHS Janes. In July 2014, the Islamic State also acquired approximately 40 kilograms of low-grade nuclear material from the University of Mosul. It is unknown whether IS built a dirty bomb but comments made by Islamic State supporters suggest that members have at least thought about the idea, Dewey said.

Is his emergency clinic equipped to deal with this possibility, the WELT AM SONNTAG reporter asks Dr. Miwan. The doctor hesitates, then sighs softly: We live in a completely crazy world - we have to be ready for everything. Just everything.

Translation: Marion Renk-Rosenthal

Lesen Sie auch Air strike in Syria The Fog of War

Lesen Sie auch Air strike in Syria We got a fuckin problem
March 1968: Vietnamese civilians allegedly murdered by US troops in My Lai Quelle: Getty Images

Reporter Seymour Hersh was just 32 years old when he became a legend. In late 1969, he revealed that U.S. soldiers had massacred over 100 civilians -- including women, children and old men -- in the small village of My Lai in South Vietnam. Several informants had long tried unsuccessfully to find a journalist to report on the slaughter, which had actually taken place in early 1968 in an area known within U.S. Army as "Pinkville." After Hersh published his first article on My Lai, he spoke with one of the participants, who expressed surprise that the media had kept quiet for so long. Pinkville has been a word among GIs for a year Ill never cease to be amazed that it hasnt been written about before. It was a crucial lesson for Hersh. Enormous scandals, he learned, can be common knowledge within an institution like the U.S. Army and still the general public knows nothing of it. And sometimes, journalists hear about these stories but fail to follow up. Indeed, it became an insight that became a leitmotif of Hershs career: Write stories that others don't want to write, read or believe. To this day, most of Hershs work focuses on overreach and abuse by the U.S. government in its deployment of the nation's powerful intelligence agencies and military -- and how that power is often used to cover up scandals.

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The risk of such scandals is always heightened in times of war. Such as Iraq. The U.S. invaded the country in 2003 on the search for chemical weapons that, as Washington had previously insisted to the international community, were sure to be found.

As they had in Vietnam, U.S. troops committed war crimes in Iraq as well. In Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, they systematically tortured and abused inmates in addition to humiliating them by photographing them naked and bound.

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Hersh was the first journalist to report on the Abu Ghraib scandal as well. The U.S. government had tried to keep the scandal under wraps, seeking to prevent documents, photos and other evidence from reaching the public. But sources provided the material to Hersh, knowingly breaking U.S. law to do so.

Pulizer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh, ca. 1970s Quelle: picture alliance / Everett Colle

Now 80 years old, Seymour Hersh has proved to be an almost obsessive reporter during his career, willing to go to great lengths to overcome obstacles. And he has seldom demonstrated a willingness to compromise -- a characteristic that hasn't always made him friends at the publications for which he has worked, including the New Yorker and the New York Times. He has pushed more than one editor to their limits. His reporting on U.S. President Barack Obama was just as critical as it was on Nixon, the Bushes or Clinton. In an article two years ago, he wrote that some within the Obama administration knew that Osama bin Laden was living under the protection of Pakistani intelligence in Abbottabad long before the raid to kill him was ultimately launched.

The story led to a falling out between Hersh and the editor-in-chief of the New Yorker and it was ultimately published in the renowned London Review of Books. In another story for the same publication, he quoted from a secret Congressional report, which claimed that the CIA, during the Obama administration, had developed a "Rat Line" to smuggle weapons from Libya to Syria in order to support militias fighting against the regime of Bashar Assad. The fake companies established as part of the Rat Line, Hersh wrote, were later thought to have been used by the Turkish secret service to arm Islamist militias inside of Syria.

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As has been the case so often in his professional life, Hersh was harshly criticized for his most recent stories about Syria, about Obama, and about bin Laden. Many say he goes too far and relies too heavily on anonymous sources. Crucially, though, no source who is actively working for a government can reveal classified information on the record without incurring considerable personal risk. That holds true in Germany as well.

As has always been his practice, Hersh has told Welt am Sonntag the identities of all the sources he quotes anonymously in his story about Trump's retaliatory strike against Syria. The paper was thus able to speak independently to the central source in the U.S.

Hersh had also offered the article to the London Review of Books. The editors accepted it, paid for it, and prepared a fact checked article for publication, but decided against doing so, as they told Hersh, because of concerns that the magazine would vulnerable to criticism for seeming to take the view of the Syrian and Russian governments when it came to the April 4th bombing in Khan Sheikhoun. Hersh had met a few times with Stefan Aust when he was editor of Der Spiegel and followed his career. According to Hersh, he knew Aust to be someone who was unafraid of the consequences of publishing stories that, when verified and checked, he knew to be true. It was a natural move to send the story, as edited, to him.

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It was a situation that Seymour Hersh had experienced before. At the very beginning of his career, no publication wanted to print his My Lai story either.

What exactly happened in western Syria on April 4, 2017, when Khan Sheikhoun was bombed, is still not entirely clear. The events continue to be obscured by the thick fog of war.

A Russian-Syrian-Iranian alliance is fighting against militia groups, both jihadist and otherwise, in the Idlib region. All parties to the war have one thing in common: They reject democracy and view journalists as enemies, making it extremely difficult to report freely from this battlefield.

As such it is quite surprising that, just hours after the attack on Khan Sheikhoun, politicians and the majority of media outlets had established such a clear picture of what had happened: that Assad's troops had attacked the town with the dreaded poison gas sarin. But the town is under the control of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a militia affiliated with al-Qaida. It is impossible to know precisely how freely people can move about -- including doctors and members of Syrian relief organizations -- in this region and how openly they can report on the war.

Even in the very first interviews that were said to have come directly from Khan Skeikhoun, all of those interviewed agreed that sarin had been used. One doctor in town, who was quoted frequently throughout the day, took the time to film extensive video footage, conduct Skype interviews and, shortly after the attack, tweet: OUR HOSPITAL GETTING FULL FROM THE SARIN ATTACK TODAY. ANYONE THAT WANTS EVIDENCE, I WILL VIDEO CALL YOU.

It is in fact quite difficult to ascertain at first glance whether sarin, another toxic gas or a chemical agent was used. The first reporter from a Western newspaper to reach the town worked for the British Guardian. His article included several quotes from people who claimed to be eyewitnesses: "We could smell it from 500 meters away," one said, referring to the gas. Yet sarin is odorless.

To clear up the contradictions and questions, an independent investigation on site is needed. Were that to happen, it would be quite possible to determine if sarin was used, but such a process takes time in an active war zone like Idlib. Yet on April 6, when the American military launched cruise missiles at the Syrian airport, the process of initiating an independent investigation hadn't even been started.

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By bombing the Syrian airport, Trump set the tone for how the attack on Khan Sheikhoun would ultimately be interpreted and America's Western allies quickly concurred with the president's viewpoint. France published a classified intelligence report that claimed there were no doubts that Assad's military had deployed sarin. Two hours earlier, then-French President Francois Hollande had already committed to this position. He and German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a joint statement about the massacre with chemical weapons following the American retaliatory strikes. "President Assad bears sole responsibility for this development," the statement read. "His repeated use of chemical weapons ... demanded sanctions." Their position was clear.

Ultimately, though, it is up to a United Nations commission to decide whether an attack in Syria should be considered a war crime. The commission was formed in 2011 to investigate the war in Syria. The statement it issued after the April 4 attack was carefully worded, and the commission has been silent since.

Members of the Geneva-based Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic are also aware of the complexities of the situation in the war zone. Analyzing, comparing, verifying and rebutting statements, data and reports takes time.

It was a different organization, though, that pushed to the forefront to provide the quick answers everyone was asking for: the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an intergovernmental organization financed by the signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention that works together with the United Nations. The organization has become more careful since Syrian rebels took an OPCW team hostage in 2014 and after the April attack, an OPCW team traveled not to the location of the presumed gas attack, but to the neighboring country of Turkey. Team members were able to observe the autopsies of three alleged victims of the poison gas attack. An NGO had delivered the bodies to the hospitals, though OPCW will not publicly comment on the identity of the NGO. Samples from the bodies were provided to two separate laboratories, which independently confirmed indications of sarin or sarin-like substances.

In criminal proceedings, though, which are similar to the process followed by the UN in determining a war crime, it is a fundamental principle that all evidence be under the control of investigators at all times. That didn't happen in this case. Indeed, the UN Syria commission doesn't intend to report its version of events to the General Assembly until September, after it investigates all sources, particularly those on site in Khan Sheikhoun. Fighting through the fog of war to discover the truth takes time.

But on April 4, when the U.S. president awoke and saw photos of dead babies and decided to respond immediately, the final results of a thorough investigation were as far away as peace in Syria.

Asked, if government lies still make him as angry as in his first days of his career, Hersh replied: It is more than being upset about lying  its about the reluctance of us in the press to hold the men and women who run the world's governments to the highest possible standards. We have a President in America today who lies repeatedly about the most meaningless of information, but he must learn that he cannot lie about the intelligence relied upon before authorizing an act of war. There are those in the Trump administration that understand this, which is why I learned the information I did. If this story creates even a few moments of regret in the white house it will have served a very high purpose.

Translation: Charles Hawley

Lesen Sie auch Syria Trumps Red Line

Lesen Sie auch Battle for Mossul The Islamic States Horror Arsenal
It was March 2020, and the world was closing down as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. At first, the news of...
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Europe

Slovakian VW autoworkers strike

Around 70 percent of Volkswagen (VW) employees at three VW factories in Slovakia began a 12-day strike Tuesday. They are seeking a 16 percent pay increase and have rejected managements offer of a 4.5 percent rise this year and 4.2 percent next year together with bonus payments.

Bloomberg reported that workers gathered on the first day of the strike at VWs Bratislava factory holding placards reading, Dont Humiliate Us and We Do the Maximum, You do the Minimum. VW is Slovakias largest employer.

Greek municipal workers strike over job security

On Monday, municipal workers held a protest at the Ministry of the Interior in Athens. The POE-OTA union members were demanding that municipal employees on temporary contracts be made permanent. Other municipal workers occupied garbage truck facilities over the same issue.

Around 80 of the protestors at the Interior Ministry briefly occupied the building. They left after being promised a meeting with Panos Skourletis, the Syriza government Interior Minister, on Tuesday. The Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left) government was elected on anti-austerity program in January 2015 only to impose the savage demands of the EU, IMF and European Central Bank.

The day after the protest municipal workers held a 24-hour strike. POE-OTA has called a 24-hour Pan-Hellenic strike of local government employees for June 26.

Wildcat walkouts by UK Royal Mail staff

Royal Mail staff at four sorting offices took wildcat action last week. On June 15, around 70 staff in Canterbury in southeast England walked out following the suspension of six of their colleagues for their opposition to job overloading.

On June 16 in Scarborough in northeast England, Royal Mail staff walked out after management reneged on an agreement over an offer of extra hours. Staff had believed the extra hours were permanent but found out it was only on a trial run for a few weeks so management could test out the arrangement.

Employees at the Whitechapel delivery office in east London walked out after management deducted money from a female colleagues pay after she allegedly took sick leave rather than annual leave because of childcare problems. Workers at the Carmarthen office in Wales walked out briefly in response to managements attempts to push through cuts.

Italy hit by transport strikes

A series of strikes by transport workers hit Italy at the end of last week, affecting bus, train and air travel. Three union bodies, Cub-Sgb, Usi-Ait and Cobas Lavoro private, called the strikes to protest moves to privatise the transport sector and to call for improved working conditions.

Strikes began on the evening of June 15 and continued throughout the next day as different sectors came out on strike for different periods. In Rome, the Metro and Roma-Lido train line were affected. Train and bus services in various Italian cities including Milan and Florence were affected.

Airport and air cabin crew took part in the action. The Alitalia airline had to cancel scores of international and domestic flights. The Italian government is seeking to hive off parts of the rail system to private buyers while also looking for a buyer for the failing Italia airline, which is currently under state management.

University academic staff strike in Manchester, UK

Teaching staff at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) took 48-hour strike action Tuesday and Wednesday to protest the closure of its campus in Crewe, Cheshire. University bosses plan to shut its Crewe campus in August 2019, threatening 370 jobs, including 160 teaching jobs, on the grounds that it is no longer academically or financially sustainable.

The University and College Union (UCU) has appealed to management to accept voluntary redundancies, bemoaning that the university has rejected its request to postpone redundancies, carry out further talks and involve ACAS to try to solve the dispute.

MMU is the fifth largest university in the UK, comprising among other faculties the famous Manchester school of Art. Half of its teaching staff are on zero hours contracts.

London teachers strike against plans to turn their schools into academies

National Union of Teacher (NUT) members at Drayton Green primary school held a two-day strike beginning Tuesday. NUT members at Dormers Wells High School began a three-day strike the same day. Both west London schools are being made into academies, which are government-funded but privately run institutions, akin to charter schools in the US.

British Airways air cabin crew to strike

More than 1,000 cabin crew working for British Airways (BA) mixed fleet are to hold a two-week strike beginning July 1. The members of the Unite union have carried out 26 days of strikes over poverty pay rates. The mixed fleet cabin crew are part of a two-tier wage scheme, which was introduced with the agreement of Unite.

The stoppage had been called after BA refused to restore concessionary flights and bonuses to some staff who had taken part in strikes. The union called off a four-day strike due to have begun June 16 and agreed to talks under the auspices of the government reconciliation service. The talks resulted in no agreement, with management refusing to make concessions.

Walkout by French TV staff

Technicians and journalists working for France 24, the international news and current affairs network based in Paris, walked out on June 15. The 120-plus staff, members of the CFTC union, staged at 24-hour strike and picketed the companys headquarters.

They took the action after the company reneged on a 2015 agreement over so-called unsocial hours, i.e., working weekends and night shifts. Originally, the agreement had reduced the working day from 8 hours to 7 hours for those working unsocial hours over staff health concerns.

However, France 24 began to pressure some individual staff to sign amended contracts negating the shorter working hours contract over unsocial hours. This led to the walkout by staff across the company.

Dutch rail staff strike

Rail staff, employed by state rail company NS at the central stations in The Hague and Zwolle, held a four-hour strike beginning Monday morning. Members of FNV Spoor were protesting plans by NS to break up the state company. The plans include outsourcing regional lines along with store and restaurant facilities. The workers were also demanding the assignment of two conductors on double decker trains.

Spanish dockers strike continues

Spanish dockers are continuing to strike over deregulation. They are striking on alternate hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week. The walkout affected the ports of Algeciras, Valencia, Bilbao, Seville and Santander.

The CETM union called the strikes after talks with the port employers body, Enesco, broke down. The Popular Party government at the behest of the European Union is forcing through the abolition of the SAGEPS dock labour scheme, which afforded dockers a degree of job security and relatively better wages.

The union called off previous planned strikes, and the current action was only called over disagreements over the number of jobs to be cut and the amount in wage reductions to be implemented. Further alternate hourly strikes are scheduled for June 26, 28 and 29 with further dates in July.

Strike threat by Irish crane operators

Irish crane operators voted by a 93 percent majority on a 77 percent turnout for strike action. They are seeking a 27 (US $30) an hour pay rate.

Previously members of the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU), the crane operators recently switched to Unite after SIPTU refused to press their case. Around 90 percent of the more than 200 crane operators in the country are Unite members.

The vote follows a mass sick-in earlier this month. Talks under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission were due to be held this week, but employers have been served a notification of the strike action, which could begin from June 27.

Unite is already trying to row back from action, with Unite regional officer Tom Fitzgerald telling the Irish Independent newspaper, If the employers engage with us there wont be strike action. The union made clear if the strike went ahead it would be limited to selective strike action.

Turkish workers oppose victimizations

Some 25 workers at the German owned AKG Thermotechnik in Izmir have been dismissed after protesting low wages and poor conditions at the factory.

The Birlesik Metal-Is union was granted a certificate to represent the majority of the workforce. Following the dismissal of eight workers, who are leaders of the union, other workers protested outside the factory and 17 of them held a sit-in but were removed by riot police and then dismissed.

Ukrainian rail workers protest/subhead]

Last week rail workers belonging to the Free Trade Union of Railway Workers of Ukraine held a protest demanding substantial pay increases. They gathered outside the offices of Ukrainian Railways and the protest continued overnight.

Africa

Kenyan nurses continue strike

26,000 Kenyan nurses are continuing their strike into a third week over the resistance of the Council of Governors to sign and apply the agreed 2016 Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Religious organisations have come in alongside the Council of Governors to persuade the nurses to return to work. Catholic hospitals are continuing to provide a health service to patients affected by the national strike. They have doubled their intake of patients with two patients in a bed in an attempt to break the strike.

The nurses union, the Kenyan National Union of Nurses, rejects the claim of the Council of Governors that the strike is illegal. While governors implement an illegal no-work, no-pay rule they are instructing the county payroll managers not to pay workers union dues into their unions.

Kenyan doctors return to striking over Collective Bargaining Agreement

Around 200 doctors in Nairobi who took part in the 100-day national strike have been denied pay for that period. As members of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, they had fought for the implementation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

They resumed their strike Tuesday over not being paid since December, with some going without pay even longer. The state governor claims he has not received funds from the central government to pay wages, and he refuses to pay for the period of the strike.

Malawi civil servants plan to strike for wage increase

Malawi civil servants are planning to strike if there is no response in negotiations for a 45 percent wage rise. The Civil Servants Trade Union (CSTU) negotiations with the government have broken down as the states representatives have not made an offer other than a 10 percent increase based on merit.

The public-sector strike threat comes on top of a six-month strike of college lecturers and university academics. President Peter Mutharika declared if employees are not happy with their pay, they should apply to the private sector.

The Malawian economy is under the supervision of the International Monetary Fund, which claims that states wages bill cannot be sustained because of low tax receipts.

Nigerian government threatens to break doctors strike

Around 160 state medical doctors in the Nigerian state of Kogi have been on strike since June 5 over failed promises by the administration to pay outstanding wages.

Kogis Health Commissioner has now begun a campaign to recruit 230 doctors claiming they will be employed as additional medics. The doctors union, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), says the new doctors will be used to replace striking medics.

South African gold mining firm sacks half its workforce after wildcat strike

Half the 4,000-strong workforce at Sibanye Golds Cooke gold mine in South Africa have been sacked after miners went on a wildcat strike over the reduction of food they are allowed to take down the pit. Sibanye claims the miners were using food to feed criminal gangs that are known to stay underground without surfacing for up to a month.

A confrontation erupted between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) over support for the strikers. The NUM claimed AMCU members attacked and injured NUM members who crossed picket lines and called on police to defend its members.

Out of the dismissed miners, 700 are NUM members and 500 belong to AMCU. The NUM led a violent attack on striking platinum miners, members of the NUM breakaway union, AMCU, at the Marikana Mine in August-September 2012. Police dispatched by the African National Congress (ANC), on behalf of the mine bosses, killed 41 striking miners.

South African miners strike over bargaining forum breakup

National Union of Mineworkers members went on strike at the Msobo Coal mine in Mpumalanga province South Africa on Tuesday. The NUM says it is opposed to the breaking up of the national bargaining forum at the Chamber of Mines.

The forum had represented the big coal mining companies such as Anglo American and Glencoe in negotiations. Each company will now negotiate on its own basis. The NUM initially claimed a victory when Msobo Coal said it would not pull out of the forum but the company subsequently reversed its position.
Women who carry genetic mutations in the "breast cancer genes," called BRCA1 and BRCA2, have about a 70 percent chance of developing breast cancer in their lifetimes, according to a new study.

The findings are based on an analysis of nearly 10,000 women with mutations in either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene, mutations that are known to increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. The new study is more rigorously designed than some earlier research that looked at how much the risk for these cancers increases in women who have these genetic mutations.

But the new study also found that breast cancer risk in women with these mutations could vary  by as much as twofold  depending on whether the women had specific mutations within their genes. In addition, having close family members with the disease also indicated a greater increase in risk, the study found.

The findings suggest that health professionals who council women who have BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations about their risk of breast cancer should take into account both a patient's family history and the particular location on the gene of the individual's mutation, the researchers said. [6 Foods That May Affect Breast Cancer Risk]

The findings "demonstrate the potential importance of family history and mutation location in risk assessment" of breast cancer, the researchers said.

Prior to the study, scientists knew that women with mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene are at increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer. Previous studies have estimated that the lifetime risk of breast cancer ranges from 40 to 87 percent for women with BRCA1 gene mutations, and 27 to 84 percent for women with BRCA2 gene mutations, according to the researchers. In contrast, the average American woman has about a 12 percent chance of developing breast cancer by age 85, according to the Susan G. Komen foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds breast-cancer research.

Story continues

Many earlier studies on this topic were "retrospective," meaning they included information from women with these mutations who already had breast or ovarian cancer. Those studies used information about the women's family history to help estimate the genetic risk of these diseases. But these estimates could have errors if patients did not provide accurate family histories  for instance, if the women misremembered or didn't know that a certain relative had breast cancer.

Accurate estimates of women's breast and ovarian cancer risk are important because they can help inform patients' decisions about when to start getting breast or ovarian cancer screenings, and whether to undergo procedures to prevent cancer. Those procedures can include having a double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer.

The new study involved 9,856 women from Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand who had undergone genetic testing and were found to have genetic mutations in either the BRCA1 or BRCA 2 gene. Of these women, about 4,800 had been diagnosed with either breast or ovarian cancer before the study started, while about 5,000 of the women had not been diagnosed with either type of cancer. The women were followed for about five years to see if they developed cancer.

Most of the women were in their 40s or 50s at the start of the study, although they ranged in age from younger than 20 to older than 70 years old. [5 Key Nutrients Women Need as They Age]

The study found that:

Among women who had not been diagnosed with breast cancer before the study, those with BRCA 1 mutations faced a 72 percent chance of developing breast cancer by age 80, and the BRCA2 carriers had a 69 percent chance of developing breast cancer by age 80.

Among women who had not been diagnosed with ovarian cancer before the study, the BRCA1 carriers faced a 44 percent chance of developing the disease by age 80 and the BRCA2 carriers faced a 17 percent chance of developing it.

Among women who'd already had breast cancer in one breast, the risk of developing cancer in the other breast within 20 years was 40 percent for BRCA1 carriers and 26 percent for BRCA2 carriers.

The rate of new breast cancer cases increased rapidly among younger women, but leveled off around ages 30 to 40 years old for BRCA1 carriers and 40 to 50 years old for BRCA2 carriers.

The rate of new ovarian cancer cases was low for young women but rose as women reached their 40s and 50s.

The study also found that women with two close relatives who had breast cancer (a close relative could be a sister, mother or aunt) were twice as likely to develop breast cancer by the age of 70, compared to those women with no close relatives with breast cancer. And women with genetic mutations located at a certain spots within the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes were around 1.5 to 2 times more likely to develop breast cancer, compared to women with mutations located at other places in the genes.

The researchers noted that their analysis excluded women who had already undergone a mastectomy (to reduce the risk of breast cancer) or surgery to remove their ovaries and fallopian tubes (to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer). But the study was not able to take into account whether the women used certain medications, such as the estrogen-blocker tamoxifen, to reduce their risk of breast cancer.

The study is published today (June 20) in the journal JAMA.

Original article on Live Science.

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Bodo (Nigeria) (AFP) - Under a leaden sky in oil-rich southern Nigeria, young men hang around with nothing to do, covering their noses from the noxious fumes of the polluted swamp.

The sight in Bodo, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Port Harcourt, is repeated in communities elsewhere in the maze of creeks that criss-cross Ogoniland.

One year after the launch of a much-heralded clean-up programme, the oil slicks which blackened the waters, killed the fish and ruined the mangroves remain untouched.

Locals, deprived of their livelihoods from fishing and farming, and with the billions of dollars extracted from under them channelled elsewhere, are angry and frustrated.

"The progress made on the Ogoni clean-up is known only to the government," said Fegalo Nsuke, from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People pressure group.

"The people of Ogoni still cannot have access to safe drinking water, not to talk of electricity, basic schools and roads," he told AFP.

- Environmental disaster -

In January 2015, there were hopes Ogoniland's luck was changing after Shell agreed to pay 55 million ($70 million, 63 million euros) in compensation to more than 15,500 Bodo people.

The Anglo-Dutch energy giant also agreed to start a clean up of two devastating oil spills in 2008, following a three-year British legal battle that was settled out of court.

In June 2016, Nigeria's Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo formally launched the project, which the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said could take 30 years.

So far, however, only $10 million of the initial $1 billion programme has been released.

Since then, a governing council and trust fund have been set up, and a project coordinator appointed, but no equipment has been moved to the sites, residents say.

Drinking water is still not fit for human consumption.

"The fact is that Ogoni still drinks poisoned water and remains polluted and these cannot be changed by internal processes and media promotions," said Nsuke.

Story continues

"Our people are frustrated," added Livinus Kiebel, chairman of the Bodo council of chiefs.

"The environment is completely devastated."

- Fish and carcinogens -

Ignatius Feegha, 41, used to catch fish as a child in the waterways of the Niger Delta.

"I used to wake up around 5:00 am with my father to fish and would come back with baskets of fish before going to school," said the civil servant.

Today, fishermen are lucky to catch even periwinkles.

Standing near a jetty, Buddy Pango holds up a plastic bottle filled with discoloured water as the heavens open and a boat heading to the Bonny Island natural gas plant speeds by.

"We can't see no fish in this water because the water is stained with crude oil," he said. "Before we can get some fish, we (must) go to the ocean and it is very far."

In places like Ogale, wells and boreholes are contaminated with the carcinogen benzene at levels more than 900 times above the recommended World Health Organization limit.

Signs beside boreholes warn residents not to drink the water.

"Every week, at least five people die because of cancer and respiratory diseases," said community leader Dandyson Nwawala.

- Clean-up suspended -

Roman Catholic priest Father Abel Agbulu, who has been mediating between Shell's Nigerian subsidiary and Bodo locals, said the clean-up could have started earlier but for opposition from some youths.

He said the youths who were unemployed insisted on being paid the money instead of allowing Shell to give the job to contractors.

"The youths said they wanted money instead. So Shell, which had already engaged two companies to do the job, had to back out," he added.

Agbulu said Shell was not ready to give cash to the youths and since they would not allow the contractors to handle the job, decided to suspend the clean-up.

The head of the government-appointed Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), Marvin Dekil, said training local workers in the required skills is taking time.

"We don't want... to rush it and get it done in a wrong way," he explained.

In the meantime, some locals have taken matters into their own hands and begun planting trees to try to restore the damaged mangroves.

The United Nations Development Programme's representative in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, visited Ogoniland last week and called for patience.

"This is a very technical investment, it is not a rural type of investment where you are going to see houses built within a short period of time," he said.

How long they will have to wait is anyone's guess.
Australian military spy planes will start flying missions over the southern Philippines to help in the fight against Islamic militants terrorising the area, the government said Friday.

Fighters linked to the Islamic State (IS) group have been battling troops for a month around Marawi city in the Mindanao region in a conflict that has claimed hundreds of lives.

Canberra, which has an extensive defence cooperation program with Manila, said two high-tech AP-3C Orion aircraft will provide surveillance support to the Philippine military.

"The regional threat from terrorism, in particular from Daesh and foreign fighters, is a direct threat to Australia and our interests," said Defence Minister Marise Payne, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"Australia will continue to work with our partners in Southeast Asia to counter it."

She recently spoke with her Philippine counterpart, Secretary of Defense Delfin Lorenzana, about how Australia could help and "we agreed the best way to defeat terrorism in our region is for us to work together".

The versatile AP-3C Orion's usually patrol maritime borders and played a prominent role in searching for missing Malaysian Airlines plane MH370, which went down in the remote Indian Ocean off Australia in 2014.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law across Mindanao, home to 20 million people, on May 23 immediately after fighters flying the IS flag rampaged through Marawi.

Their assault on the city ignited an unprecedented urban war, which Duterte has warned is part of an IS campaign to establish a base in Mindanao.

The fighting has left Marawi, the most important Muslim city in the Philippines, largely in ruins.
Police identified a body found in a Texas landfill as that of 14-year-old Kaytlynn Cargill Thursday. Cargill had been missing since Monday when she left her family's home to walk her dog and never returned.

Cargills body was found Wednesday in a landfill in Arlington about three miles away from her familys apartment. The medical examiners office confirmed the body belonged to Kaytlynn Thursday, though they had not yet released the cause and manner of her death. Police had also not yet identified a suspect.

Read: Why Was Nabra Hassanen Killed? Road Rage May Have Caused Muslim Teens Death

We are shocked and saddened with this tragic news, Bedford Police Lt. Kirk Roberts said in a press release Thursday. We will pursue every lead, leave no stone unturned and bring the person or persons responsible for Kaytlynns death to justice.

Kaytlynn was last seen at around 6:20 p.m. Monday while walking her dog near her familys apartment. According to flyers issued after Kaytlynn went missing, Kaytlynn tied the dogs leash to a fence in a dog park and asked friends to watch the dog but never returned. When she didnt come back home, her parents left to search for her and reported her as a missing person to Bedford Police, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

But police never issued an Amber Alert for Kaytlynn.

At this time, we have no reason to believe she is in any danger and we do not have any reason to suspect foul play is involved in her disappearance, the Bedford Police Department said in an initial Facebook post Tuesday. Due to this, an Amber Alert is not authorized.

Police said they made that decision based on interviews with Kaytlynns friends.

The kids she was with have been giving us different stories and were checking every lead, Lt. David Smith said Wednesday.

In the hours after her body was discovered, a GoFundMe page was set up by a friend of Kaytlynns family. Within the first 12 hours, the page had raised $9,560. During a memorial Thursday night at Central Junior High School in Euless, where Kaytlynn had attended school, about 100 teachers and friends gathered to sing Amazing Grace in honor of the teen.

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She was this carefree girl, Bayleigh Wagoner, a friend of Kaytlynns who played in the school band with her, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She could make you laugh whenever. If she saw that you were sad or if you didnt have a smile on your face, she would start telling jokes just to make you smile. I just cant believe this happened to her.

Read: Conrad Roys Family And Friends React To Michelle Carters Manslaughter Conviction

I didnt know her personally, but every time I saw her in the hallway she always had a bright smile on her face, another student, Brooke Kirkland, told the paper. This just breaks my heart. Nobody deserves this. She had her whole life ahead of her. She had prom. She was going to be able to drive in two years. Shell never get to experience any of that. I just want to cry.

Police asked anyone with information relating to Kaitlynn to contact the department at 817-952-2440 or get in touch with the Tarrant County Crime Stoppers team at 817-469-TIPS.

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Donald Trump addresses a crowd during the debut event for the Dreamliner 787-10 at Boeing's South Carolina facilities: Sean Rayford/Getty Images

The South Carolina Boeing plant where President Donald Trump spoke about saving American jobs is laying off almost 200 workers, the company says.

Boeings South Carolina assembly plant has notified employees that they will be off the company's payrolls from 25 August, company spokeswoman Lori Guntr told The Independent.

The layoffs are part of a larger effort to cut costs at Boeing, where intense competition with rival manufacturer Airbus has forced the company to lower prices and make savings. Orders for the companys signature 777 jet have also slowed, with production down nearly 60 per cent from its peak.

The company told employees in December that it would resort to layoffs as a last resort. But they went on to announce some workers would be made redundant at their Washington plant in March, and the first-ever round of layoffs at the South Carolina plant were declared on Friday.

We have gone through a variety of other ways of improving competitiveness at the South Carolina site, including voluntary layoffs and costs reductions, Ms Guntr said. ...We had exhausted all of those and we still were not at the level that our business requires.

The layoffs come just months after Mr Trump addressed crowds at the South Carolina plant and assured them he would put our great people back to work.

"My focus has been all about jobs. And jobs is one of the primary reasons I'm standing here today as your president," Mr Trump said. "And I will never, ever disappoint you.

The President campaigned heavily on creating more jobs for Americans, and has frequently touted the number of jobs he says his administration has created.

The US economy added about 600,000 jobs in the first four months of Mr Trumps presidency, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. In the four month before his election, it added about 840,000.

Last month, the Carrier manufacturing plant where Mr Trump claimed he had saved 1,100 jobs  and promised to create even more  announced it would be cutting more than 600 jobs by the end of the year.

I am appreciative of what took place, Carrier employee Robert James told The Daily Beast. But there are still 500-some people who are going to be unemployed. And he bragged about saving 1,100 jobs.
Caught with a bag of cash and an electronic device used to communicate with his handlers, a former government official with years of military and intelligence experience is accused of spying for China.

Kevin Mallory of Leesburg, Virginia is charged with providing defense-related information to a foreign government and lying to federal agents.

Mallory allegedly provided several classified government documents to a Chinese contact, who initially claimed affiliation with a prestigious Shanghai think tank, in exchange for cash. Documents filed by federal prosecutors depict Mallory, an experienced Chinese-speaking former operative, as a bumbling spy who executed his treason clumsily.

Mallorys career spanned decades and multiple government agencies. After graduating from Brigham Young University in 1981, he served as active duty military and then an Army reservist for several years. From 1987 to 2013, he worked for different government agencies and U.S. defense contractors  as well as the CIA, according to a report in the Washington Post. He held a top secret security clearance for much of that time and was posted to regions including Iraq, China, and Taiwan.

It was only this year that Mallory allegedly began to stray from the straight and narrow, according to court documents. A Chinese handler posing as an employee of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS) made contact with Mallory during trips to China in March and April.

The SASS is a reputable and internationally known think tank. But it also maintains a close working relationship with the Shanghai State Security Bureau, a regional office of the Ministry of State Security, Chinas intelligence arm.

In the following weeks, Mallory allegedly provided classified documents to Chinese intelligence officials in exchange for $25,000.

The FBIs affidavit describing Mallorys espionage activity appears to indicate that the former CIA officer tried to cover up his crimes. After he was stopped at Chicagos OHare airport returning from Shanghai with $16,500 in undeclared cash in one of his bags, Mallory approached American intelligence agencies to describe his meetings in Shanghai with individuals he described as Chinese intelligence officers.

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Having been caught with a payment that investigators believe was in exchange for classified government information, Mallory disclosed his contacts with the Chinese intelligence officers and may have offered his services as a double agent in order to conceal his alleged espionage on behalf of Beijing. The FBI affidavit never claims he offered to serve as a double agent, but in approaching an unspecified government agency with a communications device provided to him by the Chinese, Mallory appears to have made an overture to an American intelligence agency.

He had a security clearance, he had apparently also worked at CIA, so he knew what he was doing, said Peter Mattis, a former government analyst and now a fellow at the Jamestown Foundations China Program.

But then Mallory made what Mattis called a stupid mistake.

The FBI affidavit filed in a Virginia federal court this week paints a picture of extraordinary technical incompetence by Mallory and his alleged Chinese handlers. Mallorys Chinese contacts supplied him with a communications device  likely a smart phone  to exchange messages and allegedly transfer classified documents.

In a May 24 meeting with FBI agents, Mallory showed off the device and demonstrated how to move from a normal to secure messaging mode. When he toggled over to the secure mode, he was surprised to find that it displayed a history of his secure messages. Mallory seems to have assumed they would be deleted.

Mallory voluntarily turned the device over to the bureau for a forensic analysis. When the bureaus technical experts dug into it, they were able to recover additional secure messages exchanged between Mallory and his Chinese contacts.

In an exchange of messages on May 3, 2017, Mallorys handler asked why the documents had been blacked out at the top and bottom. The black was to cross out the security classification (TOP SECRET//ORCON//, Mallory replied. I had to get it out without the chance of discovery. Unless read in detail, it appeared like a simple note.

Two days later, Mallory discussed his motives with his handler: Your object is to gain information, and my object is to be paid. His handler replied: My current object is to make sure your security and try to reimburse you.

The FBI analysis also discovered four documents on the phone, three of which are described in court documents as government materials. One is top secret; the other two are classified as secret. The affidavit provides no hint as to what the documents contain.

Mattis told Foreign Policy that the scope, scale and potential impact of Chinese intelligence operations has been of primary concern to U.S. national security agencies for years.

Chinese think tanks, including SASS, often work closely with the Ministry of State Security. Chinas spy arm prefers to meet sources inside China, and social science academies provide a useful front for intelligence and influence operations.

Chinese think tanks can be used to invite someone over who is either a person of interest or a source, said Mattis. That person comes over and gives a talk, and theyll be met and have meetings with the local state security element or the Peoples Liberation Army.

But some intelligence-linked Chinese think tanks also maintain a known presence in Washington. One of those is the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, which bills itself as a comprehensive research institution but which is also an official numbered bureau of the Ministry of State Security, functioning rather like the CIAs Open Source Center.

The institute actively engages in the Washington think tank ecosystem and also invites U.S. officials and academics for events in Beijing. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan Washington think tank, has co-hosted numerous cybersecurity dialogues with the Chinese institute in recent years.

For more than two decades, the institute has sent a fellow to Washington, who stays for a year or two, according to Mattis. I guess some people find value in talking with them, he said. I have mixed feelings on that score.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
George Anthony and Cindy Anthony  the parents of Casey Anthony, who was acquitted of the 2008 murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony  filed a lawsuit this week against a bank that issued a foreclosure notice on their Florida home in April.

According to U.S. Bank, the couple owes nearly $129,000 plus interest on the home and hasnt made a payment in more than six years. Caylee Anthony lived with her mother and grandparents at the home at the time of her death.

The couple filed the lawsuit Monday in the Orange-Osceola Circuit Court, the Orlando Sentinel reported Thursday. The lawsuit alleges that the couple fulfilled the terms of a settlement agreement reached in 2015, adding that U.S. Bank willfully ignored the previous agreement, according to records reported by the paper.

Read: Casey Anthony's Parents About To Lose Family Home In Foreclosure

The lawsuit claims that George Anthony and Cindy Anthony were not notified by U.S. Bank that they had failed to meet the terms of the settlement before a foreclosure notice was issued, according to the Sentinel. Cindy Anthony is reportedly listed as the owner of the Orange County property.

The Orlando Sentinel reported details of the complaint about the foreclosure earlier this month. It states that Cindy Anthony, mentioned as borrower in the complaint, defaulted under the note and mortgage by failing to pay the payment due January 1, 2011 as modified by the loan modification agreement, and all subsequent payments.

It further stated that the couple owes the bank the unpaid principal balance of $128,852.06 that is due on the note and mortgage, together with interest from December 1, 2010.

George Anthony and Cindy Anthony reportedly maintain no contact with their daughter, who was accused in 2008 of killing Caylee Anthony using chloroform and disposing of the childs body in woods close to the familys home.

Read: Nancy Grace Speaks Out Following Casey Anthony Baby Drama

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Following a six-week trial in 2011, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter of a child. During an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw not long after their daughters acquittal, the couple revealed that neither knew for certain whether Casey Anthony killed the toddler.

Truthfully, to this day, I dont know, to be honest, said Cindy Anthony.

Do I want to believe that Caylee was back there? I dont want to believe it, but Im going by what investigators have told me, George Anthony said. All I know is that Caylee is not with us anymore.

The couples attorney, Mark Lippman, did not immediately return International Business Times request for comment regarding the lawsuit.

Cindy and George Anthony

Photo: Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty Images

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Tehran (AFP) - Chants against the Saudi royal family and the Islamic State group mingled with the traditional cries of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" at Jerusalem Day rallies across Iran on Friday.

The annual show of solidarity with the Palestinians, during which hundreds of thousands of Iranians take to the streets, was launched by the Islamic republic's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and is now also marked by its allies across the Middle East.

This year's commemoration coincided with an intensifying battle for influence in the region between Shiite Iran and its Sunni arch rival Saudi Arabia, which severed diplomatic relations with Tehran in January 2016.

"Death to the House of Saud and Daesh (IS)," the demonstrators chanted. "Death to America", "Death to Israel", "Death to the UK".

Iran has been heavily involved in the war against IS in both Iraq and Syria, where it has trained and advised militias to fight the jihadists.

On Sunday, Iran fired six 750-kilometre (470-mile) range missiles at an IS base in eastern Syria, days after the jihadist group claimed twin bombing and shooting attacks in Tehran that left 17 people dead.

On Friday, Iran's Revolutionary Guards displayed some of the same Zolfaghar missiles used in the strike at Valiasr Square in the heart of the capital, alongside a 2,000-kilometre (1,250-mile) range Qadr missile.

Iran's ballistic missile programme has been the subject of persistent concern in Washington and the target of repeated US sanctions.

Some demonstrators burnt Israeli and American flags, while others carried a coffin plastered with a picture of US President Donald Trump and the slogan: "Death to America, death to the House of Saud."

In a speech to the crowd in the capital, parliament speaker Ali Larijani called Israel the "mother of terrorism".

"The displacement of millions of Muslims by the Zionist regime is unprecedented in the history of all terrorist groups," he said.

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- Anti-Rouhani slogans -

President Hassan Rouhani, who joined the march through Tehran, hit out at a new sanctions bill approved by the US Senate, while videos on social media showed a small group of protesters chanting hostile slogans.

Reformist sites posted videos showing hardliners shouting "down with liar" and "down with the American cleric".

They warned that Rouhani could face the same fate as Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, Iran's first elected president after the 1979 Islamic revolution, who was impeached by parliament in 1981, less than two years later.

One video showed Rouhani's security guards rushing him into his car while others prevented protesters from approaching.

Last week, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had warned those who created "polarisation" could face the same fate as Bani-Sadr, without giving names.

The rare protest on Friday came one month after a mob attacked Rouhani's car when he visited a mine in northern Iran where 43 miners had been killed in an accident.

Other videos showed First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri and outspoken MP Ali Motahari being heckled by angry protesters.

Rouhani's three female deputies were first to respond on Twitter.

"The ugly action of a small group insulting the president cannot damage national unity... and the strong support for Mr Rouhani," wrote Massoumeh Ebtekar, the president's deputy on environmental affairs.

"Insulting the president on Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day is an unbefitting response by the extremists to the nation's choice," tweeted Zahra Ahmadipour, vice president for cultural heritage and tourism.

The interior ministry issued a statement saying an investigation into the "illegal" actions was under way.

Also for Jerusalem Day, Iranian authorities unveiled a large panel at Palestine Square in central Tehran, counting down "the days left until the destruction of Israel".

The figure of 8,411 days -- or just over 23 years -- on the panel is based on a speech which Khamenei gave nearly two years ago predicting Israel would no longer exist by 2040.
Srinagar (India) (AFP) - A civilian was killed and several wounded Thursday in Indian-administered Kashmir when security forces opened fire on a crowd gathered for the funeral of three rebels slain overnight in clashes with soldiers, police said.

Thousands of villagers poured onto the streets for the funeral, chanting slogans against Indian rule and pelting stones at soldiers who responded with bullets and pellet fire, a police officer said.

S. P. Vaid, director general of police for the territory, confirmed a protester was killed in the exchange.

Another police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least a dozen others were injured by pellets fired by government forces to disperse the angry crowd.

On Wednesday night soldiers and counter-insurgency police surrounded a residential area where they suspected armed militants were hiding out, triggering a fierce exchange of fire.

Scores of residents then emerged from their homes to pelt stones at the soldiers in a bid to help the militants escape, a police officer said.

"Three terrorists were killed and three weapons recovered from the site," army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said earlier Thursday.

Witnesses said the army blew up the house where the militants were hiding in Kakapora, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of the main city of Srinagar.

One soldier was also injured in the gun battle, police said.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947 and both claim the territory in its entirety.

Rebel groups have for decades fought the roughly 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the territory, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Officials say dozens of young people have joined the rebels since last July, when the killing of a popular rebel commander by security forces sparked months of deadly anti-India protests.

Rebel attacks on government forces have increased since then while the army has also intensified counter-insurgency operations.
A U.S. coal company is firing back at John Oliver after the Last Week Tonight host slammed its CEO in a June 18 show.

On Wednesday, Murray Energy filed suit against Oliver, HBO, and Time Warner for defamation. The lawsuit accuses Oliver of hosting a "false and malicious broadcast" and of carrying out a "meticulously planned attempt to assassinate the character and reputation" of Bob Murray, the Ohio company's chief executive.

SEE ALSO: Richard Branson: Business leaders are 'baffled' by Trump on climate change

Oliver's show also skewered President Trump's pro-coal platform and promises to revive the long-suffering industry. The Trump administration has made a big spectacle in recent months of championing coal while sidelining efforts to address climate change.

President Trump and Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, have often invited hardhat-wearing miners on stage to celebrate the rollback of key federal regulations  including orders to reduce carbon emissions and toxic air pollution from coal plants and limit water contamination from surface mining operations.

Like Trump and Pruitt, Murray has frequently accused the former Obama administration of waging a "war on coal" that's led to steep losses in mining jobs and waning coal production. The 77-year-old magnate has blamed his industry's troubles  including widespread bankruptcies and mine closures  on President Obama's "evil agenda," though energy experts say coal's misfortunes have more to do with cheap natural gas.

On his HBO show, Oliver poked holes in Trump's claims that his administration can erase the coal industry's broader economic problems and revive thousands of jobs. He also stressed the serious, and sometimes fatal, harm that coal miners can face while in the mines  including those owned by Murray Energy.

In 2007, safety lapses at Murray Energy's Crandall Canyon mine in Utah resulted in the "needless deaths" of nine miners and rescuers, the U.S. Labor Department found. Federal regulators in 2015 accused Murray Energy of attempting to silence miners who filed confidential safety complaints to regulators.

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President Trump signs a resolution in February disapproving a rule addressing the impacts of surface coal mining operations on "surface water, groundwater, and the productivity of mining operation sites."

Image: Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images

The coal company in recent years also terminated health benefits  including medical, prescription drug, and life insurance  for hundreds of its employees, a decision it largely blamed on Obama-era policies.

Oliver, in his characteristically over the top way, called Murray a "geriatric Dr. Evil" who is "on the same side as black lung."

The talk-show host pointed to a satirical article in the United Mine Workers of America's journal describing a squirrel hopping onto Murray's porch and telling him, "You shouldn't be operating your very own mines." To drive home his point, Oliver brought out a person in a giant squirrel costume.

Murray CEO Bob Murray speaks to reporters in 2007 near Huntington, Utah, during the Crandall Canyon mine disaster.

Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

"Bob Murray, I didn't really plan for so much of this piece to be about you, but you kinda forced my hand on that one," Oliver said.

He clearly anticipated the suit, saying: "And I know you're probably going to sue me over this. But, you know what? I stand by everything I said."

Murray Energy took him up on that offer. The lawsuit, filed in a West Virginia circuit court, seeks financial damages and a court order barring rebroadcasts of the Last Week Tonight segment.

"The false and defamatory statements in this broadcast severely and destructively impact Mr. Murray, and all of Murray Energy ... as well as coal mining itself," Murray Energy said in a press release.

An HBO spokesman told the Associated Press that the show didn't violate Murray Energy's rights or those of Murray.
From the moment they were born until the time they were 13-months old, twins Jadon and Anias McDonald never spent a moment apart. The boys were born the rarest of rare: Only one in 2.5 million sets of twins are craniopagus, or conjoined at the head. In merely surviving, the twins had defied the odds. Forty percent of such twins are stillborn, while one-third die within the first 24 hours after birth. But Jadon and Anias made it  forcing their parents Nicole and Christian McDonald to decide whether to separate the boys.

That decision led them to the operating room at the Childrens Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, New York, where on Oct. 13, 2016, a team of more than 30 medical professionals led by pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. James Goodrich would spend 27 hours in an attempt to give Anias and Jadon a shot at having independent lives.

Read: Conjoined McDonald Twins Post-Surgery Photos Show Road To Recovery

The preparation for the surgery began long before the operating room doors opened. The team met with Anias and Jadons parents in January 2016  even before meeting the boys to exchange perspectives and review the situation. From then on, Goodrich and the rest of the specialists mapped out potential issues, carefully analyzing everything and anything that could go wrong once the surgery was underway.

The one thing we knew, which was certainly amplified here, was to expect the unknown, Dr. Oren Tepper, the director of craniofacial and aesthetic surgery programs at Montefiore and the lead plastic surgeon on the team, told International Business Times. When you do face those issues, you know theyre coming. You dont know what they are, but you know theyre coming.

20170614_CNNTWINS_729A

Photo: Mark Kauzlarich for CNN

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The separation surgery was Goodrichs seventh, none of which have been similar or uncomplicated.

Weve never been given an easy case where its just conjoined bones and skin, Goodrich told IBT. All of these kids have had pretty significant anatomy issues and none of them have been the same.

Read: How Doctors Choose Which Conjoined Twin To Save

In the case of Jadon and Anias, the challenge for Goodrich came in the midst of the surgery when it became apparent that one of the twins was much more significantly conjoined than the pre-surgery MRIs suggested. Goodrich had to face the possibility that one or both of the boys might not make it through the surgery and was forced to decide whether to proceed or stop. With the help of all the specialists on the team, Goodrich ultimately decided to continue.

The anatomy of the veins had changed pretty dramatically, said Goodrich. Making the decision to bite the bullet and go through with it was very complex. If you lose control of the bleeding, it can be very fast, very profuse and it can be lethal.

Twenty-seven hours and four stages of surgery later, the boys had, for the first time ever, two distinct bodies. Jadon, however, fared better during the surgery, while Anias required additional procedures after his heart rate and blood pressure dropped significantly during the operation.

I brought Jadon upstairs, and I dont know if the parents had thought or envisioned not seeing both boys together, said Tepper. It was this moment of obvious joy for the family, but still, the anxiety of knowing Anias was still in the operating room.





Nicole McDonald was finally able to hold Jadon four days after the surgery when he finally awoke. Having always been connected to Anias before then, it was the first time the mother had ever held her son. She recalled to CNNs Sanjay Gupta that holding Jadon alone was one of the most profound moments of her life.

As a mother you know, when you hold your child, you know every bit of their face, she recalled. Well his face also encompassed Anias. So it was my first moment of relearning his face.

You dont realize, and Ive been through this now a number of times, the psychological impact of parents with conjoined twins, of seeing them separate, Goodrich told IBT. Ive only experienced it as a surgeon but in each and every case when parents see them apart in separate beds its an enormously emotional moment.

After the boys left Montefiore, they were taken to a rehabilitation facility at Blythedale Childrens Hospital in Valhalla, New York, where their journey was just beginning. Goodrich explained that in the case of conjoined twins, one child always emerges as the more dominant twin, as is evident in the boys recovery.

Once youre separated, youre basically back to infancy at birth, he told IBT. You have no head control. You havent learned how to sit up or stand, or certainly how to walk. In this case, Jadon, who has been the stronger of the two, has really sailed.

Goodrich said Jadon had reached the point where he was ready to begin walking.

Anias has been slower, Goodrich said. His motor control is behind his brother but theres really no reason he shouldnt be able to catch up.

Tepper recalled his visit to the boys on Wednesday to check in on their progress.

I saw both boys yesterday, Tepper told IBT. One of the uncertainties is what kind of motor movement they would have. We expected some motor weakness on one side of the boys, but Jadon was sitting up eating. He wasnt favoring one hand, he was using both.

Thats the beauty of plasticity in really young children, said Goodrich. They are really doing extremely well.

CNNs Separated: Saving the Twins will air Jun. 23, 2017 at 10 p.m. EST.

McDonald Twins

Photo: Nicole McDonald/Facebook

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By Ginger Gibson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jack Abramoff, a high-profile American lobbyist who served four years in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to bribing U.S. government officials, has officially returned to lobbying, according to documents he filed with the Justice Department.

Abramoff's filing, saying that in December he worked to set up a meeting between Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso and then-President-elect Donald Trump, was the first to show that he has resumed work as a lobbyist.

Federal law requires Americans acting on behalf of a foreign entity - either as a lobbyist or doing other messaging work - to register with the Department of Justice. While Abramoff told Justice that he accepted no payment for his work on behalf of Nguesso, the filings are a clear indication that he believes he met the legal definition of lobbying.

Had Abramoff done lobbying work for domestic companies before December, he would have had to disclose that to Congress. He has made no such disclosures.

In his filing with the Justice Department, Abramoff said he did not succeed in arranging a meeting between Nguesso and Trump in Palm Beach, Florida.

Abramoff in 2006 pleaded guilty to felony counts of conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion. His name became synonymous with government corruption, and Democrats attacked their Republican opponents who had ties or had received campaign donations from him.

In addition to bribing government officials, Abramoff was accused of defrauding clients who were Native American tribes lobbying about reservation casinos. Abramoff was released from federal prison in 2010 and was then subject to three years on probation.

The work that Abramoff did for Nguesso is described by the former lobbyist as a one-off incident.

According to Abramoff, Congo officials enlisted Iancu Costel, a consultant in Romania, with the goal of improving U.S. relations, expanding trade, getting help fighting Boko Haram and stemming illegal immigration to the U.S. In turn, Costel asked Abramoff to help.

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Abramoff said in the filing that he contacted Republican U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher for assistance in trying to arrange the meeting. According to Abramoff, Rohrabacher was the only government official he spoke with while helping Nguesso.

In his disclosure, Abramoff said he did not plan to work with Costel again.

An Abramoff attorney pointed to the filings when asked for comment. Neither Costel nor a spokesman for Rohrabacher could immediately be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Leslie Adler)
New York (AFP) - Bill Cosby is planning to hold a series of "town hall" meetings to talk to young people about his experiences with the US courts, his spokesman said Thursday, less than a week after his sex assault trial ended with a hung jury.

"We are still in the planning stages... we are looking at the cities where we could make this happen. We don't have a date yet," the spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, told AFP after outlining the plans on a local television show in Alabama.

Wyatt said Cosby's camp had received hundreds of calls from people who wanted to hear the comedian talk to young men about the US court system.

"They need to be aware that these things can happen to them, if they can happen to Bill Cosby," he said.

"This issue can affect any young person, especially young athletes of today, and they need to know what they are facing when they are hanging out and partying," Wyatt told WBRC's "Good Day Alabama" program.

On Saturday, a judge in Pennsylvania declared a mistrial in the case that saw Cosby, who turns 80 in July, accused of drugging and molesting a woman in 2004, after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict after days of deliberations.

One juror, who was not identified, told ABC that there were two holdouts on the 12-member panel who "were not moving, no matter what."

The trial has irrevocably damaged the legacy of Cosby, once a towering figure in US popular culture best known for his seminal role as a lovable father and obstetrician on hit 1984-92 TV series "The Cosby Show."

Around 60 women have publicly accused the Emmy-winning actor in recent years of being a serial sexual predator, alleging that he drugged and assaulted them over a span of 40 years across the United States.

But the allegations made by Andrea Constand were the only criminal case brought against him as most of the alleged abuse happened too long ago to prosecute.

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Her case was initially settled by a civil suit but re-opened in 2015, when Pennsylvania prosecutors claimed that new evidence had come to light.

Wyatt accused the prosecutor, Kevin Steele, of reopening the case to satisfy his personal "political ambition."

"Mr Cosby wants to get back to work," the spokesman said.

Free on a $1 million bail, Cosby -- who says he is legally blind -- did not testify at the trial.

Prosecutors have pledged to retry the case. The judge has said he hopes that would begin within four months.
Herzliya (Israel) (AFP) - Israel's defence minister on Thursday accused Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas of trying to spark a fresh conflict between the Jewish state and Abbas's longtime rivals Hamas.

Avigdor Lieberman said Abbas, head of the secular Fatah movement that rules the occupied West Bank, was trying to increase tensions by cutting payments for electricity and other services in Gaza.

"Abu Mazen didn't make a one-time cut," Lieberman told the annual Herzilya security conference near Tel Aviv, referring to Abbas by his nickname.

"His intention is actually to continue cuts and in a few months to stop paying for fuel, medicines, salaries and many other things."

"In my opinion the strategy is to hurt Hamas and also to drag Hamas into a conflict with Israel," he said.

Islamists Hamas seized Gaza from Fatah in 2007 and the two Palestinian factions have had hostile relations since.

The Abbas-led Palestinian Authority had nonetheless continued to pay for electricity and some other services in Gaza.

Abbas recently announced the PA would no longer pay Israel to supply electricity to Gaza, prompting Israel to stop deliveries this week.

The move threatened to leave the two million Gazans with as little as two hours of power a day, prompting warnings of risks of Hamas retaliation.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars in Gaza since 2008, most recently in 2014.
Mr Trump's love-hate relationship with the media has been a feature of his presidency: Getty

In the great scale of things, it may not be the most awful thing that The Independent was asked to leave Karen Handels final election campaign event in Georgia. By itself, it may not matter when a journalist is told they cannot film the candidate because of security.

Alone, it may not be so bad when that same reporter is then made to wait in a glassed-off buffet area (without being offered anything to eat; so much for southern hospitality), the police are called, and the entire episode is videod by a Handel supporter, presumably in an attempt to intimidate.

Yet we were not the only outlet to be treated this way on the eve of the special election in Georgia 6th congressional district. A reporter from the liberal-leaning ThinkProgress said she was prevented from attending Handels final event after quizzing her about the the Republicans healthcare bill. Meanwhile, a journalist from the conservative Free Beacon, was escorted from a rally of Democrat Jon Ossoff. Ossoffs campaign was apparently upset about a story on how many miles the candidate lived outside the districts boundaries.

The @FreeBeacon has been told that it is not welcome at tonight's @ossoff event pic.twitter.com/lzXfForIGG  Brent Scher (@BrentScher) June 20, 2017

Taken together, all of this adds to a disturbing trend. Since the Donald Trump launched his campaign for the White House, the media has found itself being increasingly sidelined, attacked and mocked.

Trump himself repeatedly referred to the press following his campaign as terrible people and scum, and accused them of peddling fake news. And he would watch, with an apparent sense of glee, as his supporters would turn to the media, sitting in the press area, and boo and hiss.

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It would be wrong to pretend Trump is unique is his derision for the media, or to think the way in which the mainstream media is frequently condemned and ridiculed is especially new. Barack Obamas administration prosecuted reporters over stories he considered damaging to national security, and locked up whistleblowers who leaked information.

And as the silly, counter-productive behaviour of the Ossoff campaign shows - the Free Beacons story was an entirely legitimate and smart piece of enterprise reporting - such shutting down of access is not limited to the Republicans.

But since Trump entered the White House, the war against the media has stepped up. Last month, a reporter from the Guardian was assaulted by a Republican congressional candidate in Montana. The politician was charged, and eventually apologised, but many conservatives applauded his actions.

In Montana - ladies and gentlemen, I must do something. I must join the chorus of people condemning what happened out there, leading talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, said on one of his shows. This manly, obviously studly Republican candidate in Montana took the occasion to beat up a pajama-clad journalist, a pajama boy journalist out there.

My day in summary:



Asked @karenhandel about unpopular health care bill.



Got blocked from Handel campaign events https://t.co/0Zi7onNXFb  Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) June 19, 2017

Attendant to Trumps insulting of the media, is a near farcical controversy about the way the White House now disseminates information. For decades, a televised briefing by the White House press secretary has been a daily fixture of the political firmament of Washington DC.

But no more. Trump and his cohorts now decide, sometimes on the spur of the moment, whether such briefings will be on the record, on background, whether cameras will be allowed or whether - in this rich multimedia age - the American people will have to make do an audio recording of the spokesperson answering questions.

Its usually hard to get people who are not journalists, fired up about issues such as press freedom.

For most, the issue does not intrude into their lives. The US is not Mexico, or Pakistan, or Honduras. Journalists are not murdered by hit men and their bodies dumped in the streets. Newspaper offices are not ussualy set on fire.

Yet the freedom of the press - an issue that the US frequently likes to lecture other counties about - needs to be everyones concern. Ordinary members of the public don't, in the most part, have the opportunity to quiz their local mayor, or elected official, or the CEO of a multinational, let along the President. That is what the media is for.

Anything that stops the media doing its job, even something as seemingly petty as preventing a reporter from attending a campaign rally, undermines this. And if our politicians cant handle such scrutiny, they should get another job. Trump included.
Barack Obama was referred to as the 'Tehran Candidate' by William Bradford: Getty Images

A senior US Energy Department official appointed by the Trump administration once described Barack Obama as a Kenyan creampuff, Mark Zuckerberg as an arrogant, self-hating Jew and climate scientists as cultists and nuts, according to a report.

William C Bradford, director of the Departments Office of Indian Energy, also appeared to believe Mr Obama might refuse to step down after his two terms of office, asking what will we do? Is a military coup the only answer?

The messages were posted on a since-deleted Twitter account, @Brute_Bradford, The Washington Post revealed.

Previously Mr Bradford caused controversy when he wrote an article claiming some academics who criticised US foreign policy were Islamist Fifth Columnists who could be treated as unlawful combatants and subjected to coercive interrogation, trial, and imprisonment.

In an email to the Post, Mr Bradford, who previously was the attorney general of the Chiricahua Apache Nation, admitted the account was his and said he regretted the remarks.

As a minority and member of the Jewish faith, I sincerely apologise for my disrespectful and offensive comments, he said.

These comments are inexcusable and I do not stand by them.

Now, as a public servant, I hold myself to a higher standard, and I will work every day to better the lives of all Americans.

Mr Obama was a particular target for the messages, which echoed the bogus claims by so-called Birthers, once led by Donald Trump, that the Democrat was not born in the United States and was therefore not entitled to be US President.

I think Obama was given his mission in Tehran long ago, and it suits him just fine. How else can a Kenyan creampuff get ahead, he tweeted in December last year.

Another message that month said: No one listens to the Tehran Candidate any more. He should slink away

In February 2016, after Mark Zuckerberg said people should not vote for Mr Trump, Mr Bradford asked: Who is this little arrogant self-hating Jew to tell anyone for whom to vote.

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It also appears Mr Bradford is very much a member of the climate science denial wing of the Trump administration.

Soon, climate change cultists will be pitied as the nuts they always were, he tweeted.

Other messages included one saying the controversial decision to intern Japanese Americans during World War II was necessary.

Mr Bradford also rejected the idea that women should be allowed to have frontline roles in the military and gave a lethal warning to anyone who might decide to try to conscript female members of his family.

Women have no business in combat. Period, he tweeted in February. Republicans pandering on this issue. Disgusting. Ill shoot anyone who comes for my daughters.

In 2015, Mr Bradford resigned as an assistant professor at the West Point military academy after writing an article in which he claimed that some American academics critical of US foreign policy were Fifth Columnists for Islamist terrorists engaged in psychological warfare  against their own people.

This radical development  employment of psyops [psycological operations] by American elites against Americans  is celebrated in the Islamic world as a portent of US weakness and the coming triumph of Islamism, he wrote.

That a trahison des professeurs is responsible for the creation of the most important strategic weapon in the Islamist arsenal is a serious charge that must be developed and defended

Bizarrely he referred to these academics as Cloaca, an acronym he appears to have invented meaning critical law of armed conflict academy. It is also a word meaning a sewer or a cavity at the end of some animals digestive tract.

Cloaca scholarship and advocacy that attenuates US arms and undermines American will are psyops, which are combatant acts, he wrote.

Consequently, if these acts are colourable as propaganda inciting others to war crimes, such acts are prosecutable.

Cloaca members are thus combatants who, like all other combatants, can be targeted at any time and place and captured and detained until termination of hostilities.

As unlawful combatants for failure to wear the distinctive insignia of a party, Cloaca propagandists are subject to coercive interrogation, trial, and imprisonment.

Law schools and journalists who helped propagate the academics views were also lawful targets given the causal connection between the content disseminated and Islamist crimes incited.

Shocking and extreme as this option might seem, Cloaca scholars, and the law schools that employ them, are  at least in theory  targetable so long as attacks are proportional, distinguish non-combatants from combatants, employ non-prohibited weapons, and contribute to the defeat of Islamism, the man newly appointed as a senior Energy Department official wrote.

The National Security Law Journal later apologised for publishing the article, which it said was an "egregious breach of professional decorum".
To ease low back pain, you may want try a downward dog: A new study suggests that doing yoga may be as effective as physical therapy for reducing low back pain.

The study looked at a specific yoga routine designed by experts. Some yoga poses could be harmful to the back.

About 10 percent of U.S. adults have chronic low back pain, according to the study, published today (June 19) in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. And around 80 percent of U.S. adults will experience low back pain at some point in their lives, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Low back pain can have a large effect on people's lives: It's a leading reason why people miss work, the NIH says. In addition, low back pain appears to take a larger toll on people of racial and ethnic minority groups and on poorer people, according to the study. [5 Surprising Facts About Pain]

The most common nondrug treatment for low back pain is physical therapy, which involves individually tailored routines of stretching and strengthening exercises, according to the study. But many patients report that they aren't satisfied with the treatments that health care providers recommend.

In the new study, the researchers at Boston Medical Center wanted to see how yoga stacked up to physical therapy as a treatment for low back pain. Several meta-analyses and randomized controlled trials have found that yoga can be effective for easing low back pain, but yoga had never been directly compared to physical therapy.

More than 300 people with low back pain from low-income, racially diverse neighborhoods were included in the study. The study subjects had all experienced low back pain for at least three months, and in the previous week, had rated their pain at least a 4 on a scale of 0 to 10. In addition, all the people in the study had "nonspecific" low back pain, meaning that it wasn't due to a specific cause, such as a pinched nerve.

The researchers randomly assigned the people in the study to the yoga group, the physical therapy group or the control group. Over a 12-week period, the people in the yoga group attended weekly, 75-minute yoga classes, while those in the physical therapy group went to hour-long physical therapy sessions 15 times. In the control group, patients were given educational materials about how to cope with low back pain, but did not attend any classes.

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The researchers noted that the yoga group followed a routine that was devised using input from yoga experts and previous studies looking at yoga and back pain. In other words, it was a specialized type of yoga class. There are yoga poses that could injure the back, studies have shown.

At the end of the 12-week period, the researchers found that the yoga classes were as effective as physical therapy in reducing pain, improving function and lowering people's use of pain medications. For example, yoga patients reported, on average, a 2.1-point decrease in pain on the pain scale, and physical therapy patients reported a 2.6-point decrease. The people in the control group reported a 1.3-point decrease on the pain scale, on average.

In addition, the improvements were maintained in the people who continued with either yoga or physical therapy for a year following the study. [Mind Games: 7 Reasons You Should Meditate]

One limitation of the research was that less than half of the people in the study attended at least three-quarters of the assigned yoga or physical therapy sessions. In an editorial published alongside the study in the same journal, Dr. Douglas Chang, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of California, San Diego, and Dr. Stefan Kertesz, an associate professor of preventive medicine at the University of Alabama School of Medicine, said that future studies should investigate why so many of the participants failed to attend all the sessions.

In addition, the authors of the editorial noted that the improvements that the yoga and physical therapy patients reported were small, and only half of the yoga patients and one-third of the physical therapy patients reported improvements.

The study was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, which is a part of the National Institutes of Health.

Originally published on Live Science.

Editor's Recommendations
Actress Carrie Fisher had a number of drugs in her system, including cocaine and MDMA, when she went into cardiac arrest before her death in December. But how do these drugs affect the heart?

Fisher experienced what appeared to be a cardiac arrest at the end of a long flight on Dec. 23. Toward the end of the flight, she vomited and then became unresponsive, according to a toxicology report released Monday (June 19). She was rushed to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, but suffered another cardiac arrest, which is when the heart suddenly stops beating. Fisher died on Dec. 27 at age 60.

According to the new report, Fisher tested positive for cocaine, methadone, alcohol and opiates when she arrived at the hospital. Further tests after her death revealed that she had likely consumed cocaine no earlier than 72 hours before her arrival at the hospital, according to the report from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. These postmortem tests also suggested she had taken heroin and MDMA (also known as ecstasy), but doctors could not determine the dose or timing of the use of these drugs. [9 Weird Ways You Can Test Positive for Drugs]

Ultimately, the medical examiner said it was difficult to determine the role drugs played in Fisher's death. The cause of her death was listed as "sleep apnea and other underdetermined factors," and the report also noted other that she had other health conditions, including heart disease. The manner of death was undetermined, the report said.

Many drugs can have harmful effects on the heart, which could lead to problems such as an abnormal heart rate and even a heart attack, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).

For example, cocaine, amphetamine and MDMA are stimulant drugs that affect the central nervous system and can lead to increased blood pressure, rapid heart rate and changes in body temperature, the AHA says.

In particular, cocaine use has been linked with a number of harmful cardiovascular effects. A 2012 study found that people who reported using cocaine at least once a month had higher blood pressure, stiffer arteries and thicker heart-muscle walls than people who didn't use the drug. All of these factors can lead to an increased risk of a heart attack, the researchers in that study said. In fact, the researchers called the addictive substance the "perfect heart attack drug." Cocaine can also increase the risk of heart rhythm problems and sudden cardiac arrest, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

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Combining cocaine with alcohol can be particularly dangerous, because the two substances react to form the chemical cocaethylene, which is particularly toxic to the heart, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Similar to cocaine, MDMA has been linked with heart attacks in some people. For example, in 2003, the American College of Emergency Physicians published a report describing the case of a 27-year-old man who had a heart attack after taking MDMA. Use of this drug of may also reduce the efficiency of the heart's pumping, according to NIDA.

In contrast to stimulant drugs, which increase heart rate, heroin can slow a person's breathing and heart rate, sometimes to dangerously low levels, according to NIDA. The risk of this happening is higher when a person takes too much of the drug (overdose) or when heroin is combined with other drugs, like alcohol, NIDA said.

People who inject heroin may also develop bacterial infections in the tissue lining the heart, as well as the heart values. These types of infections can be life-threatening, leading to heart failure, in which the heart is not able to pump enough blood for the body, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd, released a statement to People magazine connecting her mother's death to drug use. "My mom battled drug addiction and mental illness her entire life. She ultimately died of it," Lourd was quoted as saying. "She was purposefully open in all of her work about the social stigmas surrounding these diseases," Lourd said.

Fisher's brother, Todd Fisher, said that his sister's drug addiction and bipolar disorder "slowly but surely put her health in jeopardy over many, many years," according to the Los Angeles Times.

Original article on Live Science.

Editor's Recommendations
Former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzeneggar has teamed up French President Emmanuel Macron in a new video pledging to make "the planet great again" in a swipe at US President Donald Trump.

Both Mr Macron and Mr Schwarzeneggar are known for their outspoken criticism of Mr Trump's decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate change agreement.

The historic 2015 agreement signed by 195 countries and ratified by 147 aims to reduce carbon emissions and contain global warming. But after Mr Trump withdrew US participation, it will no longer include the world's second largest polluter.

Mr Macron - who along with a number of other European leaders has decried the decision to have America withdraw from the deal - has called on US scientists to emigrate to France. He has needled Mr Trump by using the phrase "Make our planet great again" - a riff on the US President's campaign slogan of "Make America great again".

As for Mr Schwarzeneggar, he is a noted supporter of climate-friendly policies and in a video posted earlier this month he said that "one man cannot destroy our progress".

In the latest video - viewed nearly 1.5 million times - Mr Schwarzenegger said that he and Mr Macron had been talking about environmental issues and a green future together.

The footage was posted on Twitter with the former film star and California governor saying he was truly honoured to meet Mr Macron, adding that the pair would work together for a clean energy future.

The 10-second clip runs for the full duration with the caption: With President Macron, a great leader!

It ends with Macron bringing out his new catchphrase: We will deliver together to make the planet great again.

Mr Macron has also promised to play an active role in a campaign aimed at securing a global pact to protect the human right to a clean and healthy environment.

He made the pledge at a meeting at Sorbonne University on Saturday where politicians, legal experts and activists presented him with draft proposals for such a pact.

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On the basis of this draft proposal, I pledge to act ...so that the work initiated continues, so that we reach a text, convince our partners, place these efforts under the aegis of the U.N ... and from September have the basis of a world environment pact, Mr Macron told his audience.

The pact should eventually be put to the United Nations for adoption and impose legally-binding obligations on signatory states, its drafters - comprising legal experts from several countries - have said.

Attendees at the Sorbonne included former Mr Schwarzenegger and former United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon. It was chaired by former prime minister Laurent Fabius, who chaired the 2015 conference on climate change.

Agencies contributed to this report
Republican senators rolled out their much-anticipated health care bill Thursday after weeks of secrecy. Many Democrats and Republicans did not know what was in the bill that could overhaul one-sixth of the economy. The Democrats across the board did not like what they saw, calling it mean, but neither did some Republicans.

Four GOP senators, in particular, released a statement stating they arent ready to support the bill. They are Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

READ: Does New Health Care Bill Cover Preexisting Conditions? [READ FULL TEXT]

Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor, the statement read. There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current health care system, but it does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs.

The bill was designed to be a budget reconciliation instead of new legislation and thus would need only a simple majority of Senate to pass the bill, as opposed to the customary 60-vote majority. The current make-up of the Senate is 52-48 in favor of Republicans. That means Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can only lose two Republican votes in order to pass the bill. In the case of a 50-50 tie, Vice President Mike Pence casts the deciding vote.

The bill is meant to be the first step in repealing former President Barack Obamas Affordable Health Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The bill calls for deep cuts to Medicaid and entitlement programs. It would also take money out of the marketplaces that the Affordable Care Act created. For Paul and the other three senators, the bill does not go far enough in cutting health care spending and dismantling the Affordable Care Act.

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It needs to look more like a repeal of Obamacare rather than that were keeping Obamacare, Paul told the Washington Post Thursday. The bill looks like we are going to keep all of the Obamacare subsidies  in fact, we may well exceed the Obamacare subsidies. Thats a problem. The bill establishes new money.

Other Republican senators thinks the bill goes too far in its cuts.

I have serious concerns about the bills impact on the Nevadans who depend on Medicaid, said Nevada Senator Dean Heller to the New York Times Thursday.

READ: Can You Stay On Your Parents Health Insurance? The Secretive Senate Obamacare Repeal

Others like Maines Senator Susan Collins, a more moderate Republican, and West Virginias Shelley Moore Capito were also less than thrilled with the bill.

McConnell wants to pass the bill before the July 4 recess, so the bill most likely will hit the floor next week. The bill has not yet been scored by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office on its possible effects. The short time in which to look at and change the bill has also irked some Senators.

"It'll be hard to pass the bill  lot of differing points of view  and one week may not be enough time," Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah told CNN Thursday.

Related Articles
DvSnf7 dsRNA is an unusual insecticide. You dont spray it on crops. Instead, you encode instructions for manufacturing it in the DNA of the crop itself. If a pesky western corn rootworm comes munching, the plants self-made DvSnf7 dsRNA disrupts a critical rootworm gene and kills the pest.

This last step is called RNA interference, or RNAi, and the Environmental Protection Agency last week approved the first insecticide relying on it. Just a few years ago, RNAi was the hot, new biotechnology generating both hype and controversy. But its first approval as an insecticide has been surprisingly low-key. The EPAs decision attracted little attention from the press or even from environmental groups that reliably come out against new genetically modified crops.

The first product DvSnf7 dsRNA will show up in is SmartStax Pro, a line of genetically modified corn seeds made in collaboration between two agricultural giants, Monsanto and Dow. The RNAi part comes from Monsanto, which has its eye on a number of RNAi applications. Monsanto expects corn seed with RNAi to be on the market by the end of this decade.

Recommended: What Mormon Family Trees Tell Us About Cancer

For some corn farmers, this cant come soon enough. The western corn rootworm is known as the billion dollar pest because of the damage it wreaks on cornfields. And it keeps becoming resistant to the toxins farmers throw against it. First it was spray-on pesticides; then it was corn genetically modified to make the Bt toxin, a technology also commercialized by Monsanto. When I go out and I talk to farmers, says Joseph Spencer, an entomologist at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, you talk about Bt resistance and invariably the moment will come where they say, Well have the RNAi soon and thatll take care it. To cover all the bases, SmartStax Pro will contain both Bt and DvSnf7 dsRNA.

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RNAi is useful because it can be highly specific: Its supposed to, in theory, turn off one specific gene in one specific species while leaving others unharmed. Plants and animals naturally use this process to silence their own genes. And scientists have previously harnessed RNAi to create genetically modified crops, like apples and potatoes that dont brown because their browning gene is silenced. With Monsanto and Dows genetically modified corn, however, the DvSnf7 dsRNA is actually silencing a gene in another living organism, the western corn rootworm. Rather than modifying itself, it modifies its environment.

The Center for Food Safety, along with other groups, vocally opposed the apples and potatoes modified through RNAi. Bill Freese, CFSs science policy analyst, admits they were caught a bit off guard by the EPAs decision with RNAi in corn. The EPA only allowed for 15 days of public comment, and the agency did not post its proposed decision in the Federal Register. Its not the first time the EPA has approved pesticides quietly like this, but Freese argues the unprecedented use of RNAi as insecticide should have merited more public scrutiny.

We need to treat these things carefully because we really cant just afford to throw them away.

The EPA was the last of three agenciesalong with the FDA and USDAthat signed off on the safety of DvSnf7 dsRNA. Critics often point to a 2011 paper to question the safety of tinkering with RNAi. In that study, Chinese scientists found naturally occurring RNA molecules from rice circulating in the bloodstream of people eating it. That paper has gotten a lot of criticism, and scientists have had trouble replicating its findings.

The real problem, says Freese, goes beyond RNAi itself. Theres faddish interest in the latest technology, says Freeze. It often neglects the basic issues of the unhealthy practices used in planting corn. Rotating crops, for example, rather than planting corn multiple years in a row in the same field can cut down on the western corn rootworm problem.

Recommended: Trump's Presidency Is Losing Its Legitimacy

Spencer, the entomologist in Illinois, also stresses the importance of rotating crops and planting refuges of non-genetically modified corn. Hes seen what happened to Bt, when overplanting of Bt corn led to resistance.With RNAi, farmers get a new tool and a fresh start. We need to treat these things carefully because we really cant just afford to throw them away, he says. (Spencer has received funding from Monsanto for his research into western corn rootworms.)

Western corn rootworm is just the beginning of Monsantos ambitions for RNAi. Robb Fraley, the companys chief technology office, ticked off the other RNAi products in the pipeline: a soybean that makes oil containing omega-3 and an insecticide that kills mites harming honeybees. I would put RNA in the suite of really advanced, next-generation technologies that are adding to the excitement from a research perspective, he says.

In recent years, CRISPR has displaced RNAi as the newest darling of genetic engineering. (Monsanto has licensed CRISPR, too.) Getting technology from the lab into the field takes time. SmartStax Pro, when it is on the market in a few years, will finally be RNAi pest-control technologys entry into the real world, and it could just be the beginning.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
NEW YORK, NY  DECEMBER 04: Travis Hamonic #3 of the New York Islanders skates against the St. Louis Blues at the Barclays Center on December 4, 2015 in Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

If the New York Islanders are going to make a move for someone like Matt Duchene or Alex Galchenyuk, they have plenty of cap space now to make a splash.

After acquiring Jordan Eberle for Ryan Strome earlier this week, general manager Garth Snow has dealt defenseman Travis Hamonic to the Calgary Flames for first- and second-round picks in 2018 and a second rounder in either 2019 or 2020.

The move leaves New York with a little over $9 million in cap space, per Cap Friendly. It also comes a year after Hamonic rescinded a trade request to be closer to his family in Manitoba. At locker clean out day last season, the defenseman said the health issues with a family member had stabilized and he would be remaining with the Islanders.

Limited to only 49 games in 2016-17 due to injury, Hamonic didnt have his best year with the Islanders, but when healthy hes a dependable blue liner that was trusted with shutting down the star forwards of opponents. Hell look good on Glen Gulutzans second pairing to fill out a nice top four in Calgary with Mark Giordano, T.J. Brodie and Dougie Hamilton. He also comes with a very team-friendly contract that pays him for three more seasons at a $3.857 million cap hit.

Theres no doubt that this deal improves Calgarys blue line, but if youre GM Brad Treliving, youre hoping that a strong blue line will really help Mike Smith bounce back.

      

Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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California's Department of Justice added Texas, South Dakota, Alabama, and Kentucky to the state's travel ban Friday. The ban prohibits state employees from traveling to states that have passed laws discriminating against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals and their families.

The new ruling expands the number of states affected by the ban to eight. California officials, under then-Attorney General Kamala Harris, have already banned state-funded travel to Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Kansas in February. The latest states added to the ban were targeted by the current California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.

"Our country has made great strides in dismantling prejudicial laws that have deprived too many of our fellow Americans of their precious rights, Becerra said in a statement released by the California Department of Justice. "Sadly, that is not the case in all parts of our nation, even in the 21st century."

READ:LGBTQ Rally: DC And Country Celebrate Pride, Trump Stays Silent

"I am announcing today that I am adding four states to the list of states where California-funded or sponsored travel will be restricted on account of the discriminatory nature of laws enacted by those states," the statement continued.

Becerra said that new laws that have been enacted in the states that he's targeted in this new travel ban have sent the country "several steps back" and that the new ban is an active attempt by the state to support the LGBTQ community's rights in a proactive way.

"While the California DOJ works to protect the rights of all our people, discriminatory laws in any part of our country send all of us several steps back," Becerra said. "That's why when California said we would not tolerate discrimination against LGBTQ members of our community, we meant it.

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The law enacted by California falls under AB 1887, which went into effect on Jan. 1 and "prohibits state-funded and state-sponsored travel to states with laws that authorize or require discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression or against same-sex couples or their families."

READ:What Is The First Amendment Defense Act? Controversial Bill Under Donald Trump Could Pass, Discriminating Against LGBTQ Americans

This comes days after Texas Gov. Greg Abbot signed into law a controversial bill June 15 that ensured child welfare agencies will get government support even when they discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or religion. This law mirrors similar laws enacted by South Dakota and Alabama.

Kentucky was included in the California travel ban because the state enacted a law in March that could allow student-run organizations in colleges and schools to discriminate against classmates based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

"These discriminatory laws in Texas, North Carolina, South Dakota, and other states are completely out of step with the values that make California the vibrant economic powerhouse that it is," Richard Zbur, a prominent LGBTQ lawyer said, according to a report Friday by CNN. "[I]t is imperative that California continue to denounce those actions publicly and financially."

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Photo: (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that a future war waged by Israel against Syria or Lebanon could draw thousands of fighters from countries including Iran and Iraq.

His comments indicated that the same array of Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias - but not countries - currently fighting in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad could take part in any future conflict with Israel.

Tensions have risen between Hezbollah and its longtime foe Israel in recent months since Donald Trump became U.S. president with his tough talk against Iran. Israel's air force chief said his country would use all its strength from the start in any new war with Hezbollah.

"The Israeli enemy must know that if an Israeli war is launched against Syria or Lebanon, it is not known that the fighting will remain Lebanese-Israeli, or Syrian-Israeli," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

"This doesn't mean there are states that might intervene directly. But this could open the way for thousands, even hundreds of thousands of fighters from all over the Arab and Islamic world to participate - from Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said.

Nasrallah has repeatedly warned Israel against attacking Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Shi'ite group is based, and from where it sends fighters to support Assad against insurgents.

Experts on the group say the warnings are part of a policy of deterrence that has also included revealing some of its military capabilities.

Nasrallah said in recent months Hezbollah's rocket arsenal can hit any military target in Israel, which is Lebanon's southern neighbor.

He said any Israeli war with Lebanon or the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, would be "very costly" and that Israel would not be able to win.

Israel has targeted senior Hezbollah commanders in air raids on Syrian soil. But there has been no major confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon since a month-long war between the two sides in 2006.

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(Reporting by Laila Bassam and John Davison; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Hillary Clinton in March 2017. (Photo: Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

Hillary Clinton didnt mince words Friday when it came to the Senate Republicans newly unveiled health care legislation.

Forget death panels. If Republicans pass this bill, theyre the death party, the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate tweeted.

Clinton linked to a story from the liberal think tank Center for American Progress that claimed that the GOP bill would result in thousands of more health-related deaths if enacted.

That claim is based on projections that fewer people will be able to afford insurance under the bills provisions. The legislation phases out the 2010 Affordable Care Acts Medicaid expansion, which greatly expanded insurance coverage, funded in part through tax increases the GOP bill repeals. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Offices evaluation of the similar House bill, 23 million fewer people would be insured in 10 years than under current law. The CBO report on the Senate bill is expected next week.

Forget death panels. If Republicans pass this bill, they're the death party. https://t.co/jCStfOaBjy  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 23, 2017

In recent days, Clinton has repeatedly railed against Republican efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Earlier Friday, she also touted former President Barack Obamas lengthy statement urging the public to fight the GOP bill.

.@BarackObama is right.

This is a critical moment about choosing people over politics.

Speak out against this bill.https://t.co/mApxdKASlC  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 23, 2017

She has also sought to link the legislation directly to the Republican foe she unsuccessfully battled last year.

If youre waiting for the right moment to call your senator about Trumpcare, the moment is now, Clinton wrote Thursday. Dont wait until its too late.

Her Friday afternoon message focusing on the Senate bills Medicaid cuts echoed Sen. Bernie Sanders, her Democratic rival from last year.

If you throw 23 million people off of health insurance, if you cut Medicaid by over $800 billion, there is no question but that thousands of Americans will die, Sanders said Thursday on CNN.

Read more from Yahoo News:
A network of secret prisons in southern Yemen run by the United Arab Emirates or Yemeni forces was used to detain and torture people allegedly associated with terrorist groups, reported the Associated Press Thursday. One method used to torture detainees was referred to as the grill, which described an individual being tied to a spit and spun around a circle of fire. Former inmates also described being sexually assaulted.

We could hear the screams, a former inmate held for six months told the AP. The entire place is gripped by fear. Almost everyone is sick, the rest are near death. Anyone who complains heads directly to the torture chamber.

According to the Human Rights Watch, 49 people have been detained in the Aden and Hadramawt areas of Yemen. Among those detained, four were children. Yemeni forces and UAE forces abducted these people to interrogate them about associations with terror organizations such as ISIS and al-Qaida. At least 18 locations have been recorded by compiling testimonies from former detainees as well as from military officials. They have been kept a secret from Yemens government.

yemen

Photo: Getty Images

Since 2015, a military coalition led by Saudi forces has supported Yemen in its civil war against rebels. The United States has supported this coalition.

United States defense officials said American forces interrogated detainees in Yemen, but they did not participate in any torture. No abuse occurred when U.S. forces were present, according to senior military officials.

Read: Qatar Crisis Explained: What You Need To Know About Tensions In The Gulf

We always adhere to the highest standards of personal and professional conduct, said Chief Defense Department spokeswoman Dana White to AP. We would not turn a blind eye, because we are obligated to report any violations of human rights.

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The UAE has denied the accusations of secret prisons used for interrogations and torture.

You dont effectively fight extremist groups like al-Qaida or ISIS by disappearing dozens of young men and constantly adding to the number of families with missing loved ones in Yemen, said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. The UAE and its partners should place protecting detainee rights at the center of their security campaign if they care about Yemens long-term stability.

Former detainees at these secret prisons were interviewed about their time there. They described being beaten, sexually assaulted and subjected to a torture device called the grill, among other occurrences. When detainees are placed on the grill, they are tied to a spit and spun around a circle of fire.

One former prisoner, who was never questioned by United States military personnel, but who was beaten by Yemeni officials, spoke about his time there.

I would die and go to hell rather than go back to this prison, he said. They wouldnt treat animals this way. If it was bin Laden, they wouldnt do this.

waterboarding

Photo: Getty Images

Although the United States denied its involvement in the direct torture of those held in these secret Yemeni prisons, in the past, U.S. officials have been accused of torture abroad.

In a series of memos released by Barack Obama in 2009, the world learned that the CIA under the Bush administration was allowed to torture suspects held in secret facilities around the world. Among the approved torture techniques listed were cramped confinement, facial slaps and waterboarding. Waterboarding, one of the most notorious forms of torture, occurs when a person is tied to a bench with their feet elevated and is then blindfolded. Upon being blindfolded, the torturers cover the cloth with water to create the sensation of drowning.

Since then, waterboarding has been ruled as torture.

Read: Yemen Conflict Update: Over 400,000 Children Suffering From Malnutrition, 2.2 Million People Require Urgent Care

Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University, drew a parallel between the allegations of torture by the UAE in Yemen, saying, The UAE was one of the countries involved in the CIA's torture and rendition program. These reports are hauntingly familiar and potentially devastating in their legal and policy implications.

In Yemen, U.S. forces send questions to forces holding the detainees, who then send videos with their answers, said Yemeni Brigadier General Farag Salem al-Bahsani, commander of the 2nd Military District. According to him, the United States provides a list of the most wanted suspects to help UAE and Yemeni forces during arrests. U.S. officials have confirmed these reports.

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(Reuters) - A single live Asian carp, a species of invasive fish that has infested the Mississippi River and is seen as a threat to the Great Lakes, has been caught in a waterway beyond a barrier designed to keep them out, state officials said on Friday. The 28-inch (71-cm), eight-pound (3.6-kg) silver carp was discovered in the Illinois Waterway on Thursday in a gill net being used by a commercial fisher, according to a joint statement by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee. The fish was caught nine miles (14 kg) from Lake Michigan, marking the second time in eight years of monitoring that a silver or bighead Asian carp has been found behind electric barriers, the two agencies said. It was sent to Southern Illinois for additional analysis. "It is important to note that this preliminary finding does not confirm that a reproducing population of Asian carp currently exists above the electric dispersal barriers or within the Great Lakes," the statement said. Asian carp, which can weigh up to 100 pounds (45 kg), dominate broad sections of the Mississippi River, the lower Missouri River, the Ohio River and the Illinois River. Environmentalists fear their voracious appetites could threaten the food chain for other aquatic life. Lawmakers have vowed to fight a proposal by President Donald Trump to de-fund a program called the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative intended to help eight states in the region recover industrial sites in harbors, block invasive species like the Asian carp and stem fertilizer run-off from farmland. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depps comment about President Donald Trump could cost him. The actor-turned-musician talked about assassinating the president at the Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom Thursday.

Depp, 52, was aware his comments would be controversial. This is going to be in the press, and it will be horrible... he said, talking to the audience. When was the last time an actor assassinated a President? Depp added: I want to clarify. I'm not an actor. I lie for a living. However, it's been a while, and maybe it's time.

READ: Johnny Depp Criticized For Joking About Trump Assassination, Twitter Reacts To Controversial Remark

He was likely referencing actor John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 while he was at the theater.

As of now, Depps statements havent effected any of his endorsements, but they have the potential to. With an estimated net worth of $200 million, Depp reportedly makes $20 million for each film and is one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. Estimates from Celebrity Net Worth claimed he could rake in as much as $100 million annually.

Some of his fortune comes from endorsements. He became the face of the Dior Sauvage fragrance campaign in 2015. He also has endorsements with Infinitum Nihil and Man Ray. He was reportedly paid $3 to $5 million to appear in the Dior ads, Womens Wear Daily wrote at the time.

Johnny Depp reminiscing when an actor assassinated the @POTUS. He should be more concerned about his fading career! pic.twitter.com/j6XLELp9Uk  Trump Super PAC __ (@TrumpSuperPAC) June 23, 2017

Johnny Depp is a mainstream eccentric. Its quite a contradiction, and it is the key conundrum that perfume houses are permanently trying to solve: How to please everyone  to maximize sales  and at the same time be unique, novel, original  to cut through the market noise, Louise Rosen, founder and chief executive officer of The Message Inc., a Paris-based consultancy for luxury brands, told WWD in 2015. A somewhat dark, serious, respected actor, [he is] a man who has values, a man of integrity.

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Of course, the White House had da much different reaction when Depp talked about assassinated the president, saying the actors statement was sad Friday.

They added: President Trump has condemned violence in all forms and its sad that others like Johnny Depp have not followed his lead. I hope that some of Mr. Depp's colleagues will speak out against this type of rhetoric as strongly as they would if his comments were directed to a democrat elected official.

READ: Whats Amber Heard Up To Now? One Year After Johnny Depp Domestic Violence Allegations

The Secret Service was briefed about the actors statement. For security reasons, we cannot discuss specifically nor in general terms the means and methods of how we perform our protective responsibilities, Secret Service staff assistant Shawn Holtzclaw told CNN Friday.

Depp divorced from wife Amber Heard in August 2016. Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love, they said in a joint statement at the time. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm.

Johnny Depp

Photo: Getty Images

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By Julia Jacobs

(Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday ordered two Wisconsin youth correctional facilities to reform conditions for their detainees, who are subjected to pepper spraying and "likely unconstitutional" confinement, according to court documents.

The preliminary injunction requires the Wisconsin Department of Corrections to reach an agreement on detainee treatment with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Juvenile Law Center, which in January sued the state over conditions at the Lincoln Hills School for Boys and the Copper Lake School for Girls.

As many as 20 percent of detainees at the facilities are held in solitary confinement for all but one or two hours each day, the lawsuit alleged, and officers "repeatedly and excessively" use pepper spray and routinely handcuff detainees.

The state argued that the "restrictive housing" employed at the centers should not be considered solitary confinement, and that the use of pepper spray and restraints was not excessive, according to a brief filed by the defendants last month.

U.S. District Judge James Peterson wrote in Friday's decision that the state should aim to limit isolation time to a maximum of five to seven days, reduce or eliminate the use of pepper spray, and only employ mechanical restraints when needed to ensure safety.

Peterson added that allowing detainees only one hour outside a cell per day is "likely unconstitutional." He ordered the parties in the lawsuit to agree within two weeks on how to improve conditions at the facilities, which share a campus in Irma in northeastern Wisconsin.

The plaintiffs filed the motion asking for the preliminary injunction in April.

"We felt the kids were in such harm that, even before the resolution of the lawsuit, we were asking the court to take immediate action," said Jessica Feierman, attorney for the Juvenile Law Center.

Wisconsin Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook said in a statement on Friday that the department has been working to implement reforms at the centers and will use the two-week period to further that work.

The facilities, which held 174 inmates as of last week, according to state documents, have been subject to scrutiny before. In 2015, the state's attorney's office and the FBI began investigating allegations about the facilities, including child neglect and sexual assault. Law enforcement agents raided Lincoln Hills at the end of the year, local media reported.

(Reporting by Julia Jacobs in Chicago; Editing by Patrick Enright and Jonathan Oatis)
Pilton (United Kingdom) (AFP) - British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn got a rapturous welcome from tens of thousands of revellers at the Glastonbury music festival on Saturday.

The Labour leader took to the stage just before the Kaiser Chiefs at a festival that took a political turn this year, two weeks after a general election.

"Another world is possible," the 68-year-old veteran socialist, who wore a blue shirt over white trousers, told the crowd in a speech that focussed on his pacifist, environmentalist, anti-racist policies.

Corbyn also pledged his support for refugees and young people and said that the politics of US President Donald Trump would be "put back in a box".

Among the signs held up by festival-goers were "JC Hope" written in a red heart and "Jeremy Corbyn New Era", while some wore T-shirts with Corbyn's face.

As he did during the election campaign, Corbyn also quoted a poem by 19th-century British revolutionary poet Percy Bysshe Shelley saying: "Rise, like lions after slumber... In unvanquishable number".

Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives lost their parliamentary majority in the June 8 election, while Labour came second but made major gains -- partly thanks to young voters enthused by the Labour leader.

Corbyn said young people were getting involved in politics for the first time "because they were fed up with being told they don't matter and that their generation was going to pay more to get less".

Corbyn describes Labour is now a "government in waiting" and has said he will push for new elections.

May faces a crucial test in a confidence vote in parliament next week on her legislative programme and will be forced to resign if she loses it.

At Glastonbury on Friday, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke told May to "shut the door on the way out", as the crowd broke out in a chant of "Oh, Jeremy Corbyn".
A 10-year-veteran with the Los Angeles Police Department was taken into custody Thursday in connection with the string of scandals surrounding the LAPD's cadet program.

Read: 3 Teen Police Cadets Steal 2 Cruisers and Lead Officers on Wild Chase: Cops

Officer Robert Cain, 31, was arrested for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old female cadet, who was arrested last week for her role in the theft of three police cruisers, and a wild police chase that ended in a crash.

I find the actions of Cain, if they are proven, to be despicable," Police Chief Charlie Beck, who arrested the officer personally, said Thursday. "I find them to be absolutely inconsistent with the ethics and standards of the Los Angeles Police Department, and they are criminal."

The connection between Cain and the 15-year-old cadet was discovered through phone records and text messages, according to police.

Cain, who was not affiliated with the cadet program, worked as the equipment room operator at the 77th Street Division.

Officials suspect Cains relationship with the cadet may have allowed the teens to sign out the cruisers, along with other police equipment such as stun guns, bulletproof vests and police radios.

The equipment, checked out under a vacationing officer's name, was then used by the seven cadets to pull over drivers and impersonate officers, Beck said.

The roles each cadet played in the incident remains unclear, despite Cain only being suspected of sexual involvement with one of them.

The 15-year-old girl, who is said to have been in a month-long relationship with Cain, was one of four cadets arrested most recently.

Beck said the alleged sexual acts did not occur at the police station and the relationship was consensual.

The initial three cadets were arrested after two police cruisers were found to have been stolen last week. Thirty patrol units were dispatched to recover the two stolen cruisers, found parked side-by-side.

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The teens then led police on a wild chase that ended when two police cars crashed into buildings. No one was injured.

Upon their arrest, one of the teens admitted to a third car they stole in May, parked at another cadets home nearby.

Read: Cop Once Named 'Officer of the Year' Arrested for Allegedly Distributing Child Porn

The youth programs, designed for at-risk teens who want to one-day become police officers, have been suspended at both the 77th Street Division and at Pacific Division, both stations where teens have been arrested.

Officials told InsideEdition.com they are continuing to look into the nature of the relationship between Cain and the 15-year-old cadet.

Cain has since been arrested for suspicion of unlawful sex with a minor. Details surrounding his future court dates and information about legal representation are not yet clear.

Watch: Woman Seen Fighting Off Armed Carjackers in Astonishing Video Says She Forgives Attackers

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An explosion targeting a police vehicle in Pakistan's southwestern Quetta city on Friday killed at least 13 people and injured around 20 others, officials said.

The blast, in front of the office of the Quetta police chief, was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, according to the SITE monitoring group.

There was no immediate explanation for the dual claims. Islamic State Khorasan Province, the Middle Eastern group's affiliate in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been known to work with the myriad of Pakistani militant groups in previous attacks, including with JuA.

Friday's attack in Quetta, the capital of insurgency-wracked Balochistan province, "targeted a police pick-up in front of the IG (Inspector General) office", said senior police official Mohammed Tariq.

"A motorcycle was also destroyed in the explosion," he said.

"The death toll has climbed to 13," Fareed Ahmed, medical superintendent at Civil Hospital told AFP, with around 20 injured, most by shrapnel. Police officials said nine policemen were among the dead.

At the hospital, worried children stood by the bloodstained cots of wounded relatives, and Pakistani soldiers visited injured colleagues.

Stunned survivors could give few details about the attack. "I was sitting on a chair. There was an explosion. I got injured and fell down," said one victim, Gulzar Ahmad.

Pakistan has been battling Islamist and nationalist insurgencies in mineral-rich Balochistan, the country's most restive province, since 2004, with hundreds of soldiers and militants killed in the fighting.

Bordering Iran and Afghanistan, it is the largest of Pakistan's four provinces, but its roughly seven million inhabitants have long complained they do not receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth.

A greater push towards peace and development by Pakistani authorities has reduced the violence considerably in recent years.

The push includes starting work on a massive Chinese infrastructure project -- the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor -- which gives Beijing a route to the Arabian Sea through Balochistan's deep sea port of Gwadar.

Beijing is ramping up investment in its South Asian neighbour as part of a plan unveiled in 2015 that will link its far-western Xinjiang region to Gwadar port with a series of infrastructure, power and transport upgrades.
Little Women: LA star Matt Grundhoffer admitted he cheated on his wife, Briana Renee, in Wednesdays episode of the Lifetime series. Last season, he promised Renee he would never cheat on her again, even though he sent sexual messages over social media to dozens of women when she was pregnant with their son. This time, however, the cheating was arguably worse because Grundhoffer became physical with the mystery woman.

Renee, 36, confronted Grundhoffer about the cheating allegations during a cast trip to Alaska. Before that, cast member Terra Jole told Renee her husband was spotted at the hotel with another woman for hours. He didnt return to the room he shared with Renee until 5 a.m.

READ: Little Women LA Star Briana Renee Deserves Cheating Husband Matt Grundhoffer, Plastic Martyr Says

You shouldnt be talking to this woman when youre supposed to be coming up to your room. You totally just said, F--- it! Renee screamed in the video.

When she asked what else happened? he said, Nothing. Nothing else happened I didnt smoke weed.

He continued: Nobody else puts up this with much s--- when theyre married to someone.

Briana Renee

Photo: Lifetime

In a camera confessional, co-star Jasmine Ortega Sorge detailed how Grundhoffer tried to put the blame on his wife. Briana keeps questioning Matt. And instead of him calming her down and talking to her like a husband should be hes turning it around on her, making it her fault, and its the sickest thing ever, Ortega Sorge explained.

During the argument, Grundhoffer tried to shift the blame from himself, once again, by tell the cast of Little Women: LA that his wife said nasty things about them. But the girls didnt buy it and Ortega Sorge bluntly asked if he had sex with the other woman.

Like why are you twisting the story? Shes asking about something else that happened, Ortega Sorge said, before asking: So you didnt do anything with that woman, at all? Nothing?

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Briana Renee

Photo: Lifetime

When he admitted that they kissed, but didnt have sex, Renee exploded. Youre sick! she responded. Were getting divorced!

On her personal Instagram account, Renee refused to address the cheating scandal. Coming up: Our Alaska trip is rockier than the mountains behind us I cannot explain nor will I excuse what is to come on #littlewomenla, she wrote hours before the episode aired.

READ: Little Women LA Star Briana Renee Slams Husband Matt Grundhoffer On Instagram

She admitted Grundhoffer wasnt the best husband on Fathers Day. Happy Fathers Day @grundy1976 He's not perfect but he's an amazing (step) daddy... #happyfathersday #love #family1st, she captioned of photo of him with their son, Maverick Jax, and daughter Leiana, who she had from a previous relationship.

Like Renee, Grundhoffer didnt respond to the cheating scandal. Instead, he celebrated their sons birthday. One year ago today @briana.renee and I were blessed when @maverickjax was brought into this world, he wrote. I can't believe how tiny he was! Happy birthday to the happiest, most handsome baby boy in the world! Daddy loves you with all my soul.

Dont miss Little Women: LA when it airs at 9 p.m. EDT on Lifetime.

Briana Renee

Photo: Lifetime

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By Raju Gopalakrishnan and Manuel Mogato MANILA/MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) - Before they formed one of the most dreaded militant groups in the Philippines and pledged loyalty to Islamic State, the Mautes were a wealthy, political family in the southern region of Mindanao, largely influenced by the matriarch, Farhana. Soft-spoken and reserved, 60-year-old Farhana Maute owns property in Mindanao and in Manila, and runs a construction business, say people who know the family and security analysts who have scrutinized its background. Almost unknown two years ago, the Mautes are now the biggest and most deadly among Islamic State groups in the southern Philippines and are at the forefront of a month-long battle with the military for control of Marawi, a Mindanao town. Regional governments fear that the brutal urban warfare, in which 360 people have been killed, reflects Islamic State's intention to establish a caliphate in Southeast Asia. Farhana Maute was related to politicians in her hometown of Butig, near Marawi, and was considered somewhat of a kingmaker because of her wealth and influence. And like many clans in the lawless area, the Mautes maintained a private militia that included Farhana's seven sons, the analysts said. When the Mautes got involved in a dispute with Butig Mayor Dimnatang Pansar over the award of civil contracts, it erupted into a brutal clan feud, a clash so common to Mindanao it has its own name, rido. Other militant groups in the southern Philippines joined the Mautes, and they formed a joint front in Marawi against government troops. "TERRORIST IMAGERY" Joseph Franco, a research fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies who has worked with several Philippine military chiefs, said that early last year, the Mautes projected themselves as followers of Islamic State, or IS, to "spook and coerce the Pansars". "That tactical use of terrorist imagery took on a life of its own," he said. "And now we have this Maute Group, who call themselves IS-Ranao." Ranao is an old name for the Lanao region of Mindanao, where Marawi and Butig are located. Although known to be a deeply religious Muslim, there was no evidence that Farhana Maute was radicalized, Franco said. "She is only a businesswoman," a former military officer who lives in Marawi told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. "But, her clan was involved in a bitter political dispute with the mayor of Butig. And that probably got her into trouble." Two of the sons, Omarkhayam and Abdullah, had been educated in the Middle East, but it is uncertain when they morphed from being scions of a wealthy family to becoming hardened Islamists. [nL3N1J61PU] Still, Farhana Maute was related to the former military head of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a rebel group that the government signed a peace deal with in 2014. She was deeply influenced by him, said Rommel Banlaoi, a security expert who advises the Philippines police. "Many Muslims in Mindanao, strictly speaking, they already have what I call embedded radical ideas," he said, adding that the Mautes provided a training camp for associates of the MILF near Butig. "They were criminals who morphed into militancy," Banlaoi said of the Mautes. Other analysts said at least some of Farhana's wealth would have been diverted to the Maute Group's alleged illicit activities. It was not possible to seek comment from the Maute family. Both Farhana and her husband Cayamore, an engineer, were arrested earlier this month in separate parts of Mindanao and it was not immediately clear who their lawyers were. The sons are believed to be fighting in Marawi. Islamic State's news agency, Amaq, has said its fighters control large parts of Marawi City, but has not commented specifically on the Maute. 'ROYAL FAMILY' Mohamad Ampuan, a Marawi native who has settled in Manila, said he knew Farhana Maute and several of her sons, and believed they were primarily religious-minded. He said he had not seen any of them since 2010, when he moved north. Ampuan was speaking in a bazaar selling mobile phones and accessories in the crowded Novaliches suburb of Manila, where Philippine military intelligence reports have said Farhana or some of her sons owned stalls. All the stall-owners in the Salam Bazaar are from Marawi, but Ampuan said the family did not own any property there. He said Farhana was fluent in Arabic and English and he considered the Mautes a "royal family". "The Mautes are fighting for Allah," he said. "They want a society faithful to Allah." Marawi residents and analysts said Farhana has considerable influence on her sons, perhaps more than her husband, Cayamore. He has two other wives. "She is the central figure, but not in terms of planning and preparing attacks," said Rohan Gunaratna, a regional counter-terrorism expert. "The mother and father are patrons of the group, but father less, mother more." A neighbor, Marawi city councillor Khana-Anuar Marabur Jr., said the Mautes were "good people back then", before they started the current round of violence in Marawi. He said Farhana was a good mother, and was generous and approachable. "The father is strong," Marabur said. "He is like the tiger. But someone owns the tiger." (Reporting by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Manuel Mogato; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Mexico City (AFP) - Mexico may have a problem with violence, but its government says it is not the second most violent country in the world, as US President Donald Trump has claimed on Twitter.

The Mexican foreign ministry pointed instead to places like Honduras, Venezuela, Belize, Colombia and Brazil as countries with higher murder rates, in a statement released late Thursday.

Trump had posted earlier: "Mexico was just ranked the second deadliest country in the world, after only Syria. Drug trade is largely the cause. We will BUILD THE WALL!"

He appeared to be referring to a May 9 report from the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, which said that Mexico's 2016 murder rate was second only to Syria's.

The IISS pointed to Mexico's heavily militarized war on drugs and its attempts to crush powerful drug cartels.

"It is very rare for criminal violence to reach a level akin to armed conflict," the IISS report said.

Mexico's foreign ministry acknowledged that the drug trade was "the most important cause of violence in Mexico."

But it described it as "a shared problem that will end only when its root causes are dealt with: the high demand for drugs in the United States and the offer from Mexico (and other countries)."

"We must stop blaming each other," it added.

Mexico had already said in May that the IISS report was based on faulty methodology, saying such comparisons should be based on United Nations crime figures that include central and south American countries.

US-Mexico relations have been testy since Trump took office in January after a campaign in which he vowed to build a wall along the shared border, bashed Mexican immigrants as drug dealers and rapists, and promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada.

The wall remains a rallying cry among Trump's supporters, but the proposal -- estimated to cost anywhere from $8 to $40 billion -- has found little support in Congress.

Mexican officials have derided Trump's claim that Mexico will pay for the wall's construction.

Talks with Canada and Mexico to overhaul NAFTA are expected to start in August.
Dean Heller joins four other GOP senators in opposition of legislations latest draft, which can only afford two Republican defectors in order to pass

Nevada senator Dean Heller said he cannot support healthcare legislation in which millions of Americans would lose their insurance. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

Nevada senator Dean Heller has become the fifth Republican to come out in opposition to the current draft version of the Senate healthcare bill.

Heller, who faces re-election in 2018 in the Democratic-leaning state, said on Friday: I cannot support a piece of legislation that takes away insurance from tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nevadans.

A comparative moderate, Heller supports the expansion of Medicare that was included in the Affordable Care Act.

The Nevada senator joins four other Republicans in expressing opposition to the draft bill as it is currently written.

Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, oppose the current version of the bill for being too similar to Obamacare. However, these four conservatives expressed their willingness to support changes with Paul explicitly stating he was open to negotiations.

To pass the Senate, with unanimous Democratic opposition expected, Republicans can only afford two defectors. Several other Republicans, including moderate Susan Collins of Maine, are still undecided about the legislation.

The draft bill was unveiled on Thursday by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell as the upper chambers response to the American Health Care Act, the Obamacare repeal legislation passed by the House in May.

The Senates proposal would eliminate or reduce key benefits provided by the Affordable Care Act; lower taxes for the wealthy; strip funding from the womens reproductive health provider Planned Parenthood; and dramatically cut and restructure the Medicaid public health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans.

Much of the architecture of the Houses American Health Care Act has been left intact.



The draft bill is expected to be subject to negotiations over the coming days, and Senate majority whip John Cornyn told reporters on Thursday that McConnell could file the final bill as late as Tuesday and that it would encompass additional conversations and ideas between now and then as Republicans try to earn the necessary support within their caucus.

The Congressional Budget Office is expected to release its score of the bill early next week, estimating how many millions of Americans stand to lose their insurance. The score for the House bill projected that 23 million people would lose their insurance, whilst cutting the federal deficit by $119bn over a decade.
In this handout photo provided by the Israel Government Press Office (GPO), Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Jared Kushner on 21 June 2017 in Jerusalem, Israel: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO via Getty Images

Journalists were ordered not to photograph Jared Kushner while he is in Israel on a quick visit trying to broker a peace deal for father-in-law Donald Trump.

It is unclear at this time who gave the order, but reports indicate that an Associated Press cameraman was prevented from filming Mr Kushner's arrival at the office of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.

Another cameraman was told to delete the memory card in his camera, which reportedly contained images of Mr Kushner's arrival and from Mr Netanyahu's office.

There is no indication this was for security reasons or whether it was US or Israeli authorities gave the order.

The problem extended to the actual meeting as well. Officials would not comment on what the pair would specifically discuss.

The former real estate executive's visit lasted less than a day, but the timing coincided with Mr Netanyahu's announcement that construction had begun on the first new Israeli settlement in 25 years.

Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian official told Reuters that the real question" is whether the Trump administration "will tell Israel that it is enough and they have to stop immediately all settlement activities, or they will accept this Israeli provocation?

Palestinian Authority Leader Mahmoud Abbas visited the White House in May during which the pair discussed settlements and a two-state solution.

The New York Times reported that Mr Kushner's family, who are Orthodox Jewish, are old family friends of Mr Netanyahu and have contributed money in the past to Israeli settlements.

A short video of the video was released in which Mr Netanyahu said the meeting was an "opportunity to pursue our common goals of security, prosperity and peace."

I know of your efforts, the presidents efforts, and I look forward to working with you to achieve these common goals," said Mr Netanyahu.

Mr Kushner said that the President "sends his best regards and its an honour to be here with you.

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The White House, managing expectations, said that Mr Kushner and envoy Jason Greenblatt will have to make "many visits" because forging a historic peace agreement will take time.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in a news conference just ahead of the meeting that part of it is to figure out how to make incremental change that results in a lasting peace...part of this is really to utilise the trust that has been built up, and not have these negotiations out in public".

To date, Mr Kushner has kept a low profile in the White House - only appearing on camera once since his appointment as an adviser - despite being at the centre of the FBI investigation into Trump campaign aides' alleged ties to Russia.

Mr Kushner was reportedly already a person of interest for FBI investigators over his meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak in December - prior to Mr Trump taking office. In that meeting Mr Kushner was said to have suggested setting up a backchannel of communication with Moscow at a Russian diplomatic facility in the US.

He also had a pre-Inauguration meeting with the head of state-owned Russian development bank Vnesheconombank - Sergei Gorkov. The bank had sanctions imposed upon it after Russias annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Mr Kushner was still head of his familys real estate business at the time of the meeting with Mr Gorkov. He only stepped down from the position after Mr Trump took office and he was appointed his father-in-laws senior advisor.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un: Reuters

A North Korean state-run newspaper has called Donald Trump a "psychopath" and suggested the US President would be willing to launch a nuclear strike against Pyongyang to distract from America's own domestic problems.

The comments, made in an article in the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, came after an American student who had been jailed in North Korea died following a medical evacuation. Mr Trump responded to 22-year-old Otto Warmbier's death by condemning the North as a "brutal regime", and he has himself described dictator Kim Jong-un as a "madman".

Relations were already strained over the dictatorship's nuclear ambitions. The regime has increased missile tests in recent months, drawing international condemnation.

"South Korea must realise that following psychopath Trump ... will only lead to disaster," Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North's Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, wrote.

The article suggested the US President was considering launching a strike against the North because he was facing a "tough situation" in the US.

South Korean president Moon Jae-in is set to visit Mr Trump in Washington next week. The meeting  the first since Mr Moon took office in May  will consider the threat posed by the North.

Mr Moon called Pyongyang an "irrational regime" in an interview with CBS.

Mr Warmbier, a student at the University of West Virginia, died on Monday after returning to the US in a coma. He had spent 17 months in detention in the secretive state.

The 22-year-old was arrested in North Korea in January 2016 while travelling with a tour group. He was arrested for stealing a propaganda sign from a hotel and sentenced to 15 years hard labour.

A spokesman in Pyongyang was quoted by Reuters as saying the death was "a mystery".
AFP/Getty Images

A former White House official has said that they think the Obama administration mishandled its response to Russias efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.

It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend, the official from Barack Obamas White House told the Washington Post of his role in determining how the White House should handle their knowledge that the Kremlin was trying to undermine the integrity of the US electoral process. I feel like we sort of choked.

The Obama White House was notified about Moscows campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election was on orders from Vladimir Putin in August, but was hesitant to make that knowledge public, according to that investigation by the Washington Post.

Thats at least in part because Donald Trump, then a Republican nominee whom many thought had almost no chance of beating Democrat Hillary Clinton, had repeatedly said that the election was being rigged. With those allegations repeatedly airing on cable news covering the Trump campaign, Mr Obama was hesitant to divulge the Russian influence for fear of giving the appearance that the US government was also interfering.

But the slow response was also a result of confidence in Ms Clintons campaign winning the election. Throughout the fall, as November crept closer, Democrats saw many signs that their candidate would ultimately win: She had three strong debate performances against Mr Trump, polls showed her with an impressive lead most of the time, and Mr Trump appeared to have an incredible capacity for inflicting harm on his campaign just by making controversial remarks on stage.

The Obama administration considered retaliatory measures against Moscow after they learned about the extent of the meddling, including potentially compiling a personal dossier on Vladimir Putin that could be released to embarrass him. They also considered planting cyber weapons in Russian infrastructure that could harm those services. They ultimately landed on modest sanctions, and expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the country in December.

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The cyber weapons plan was given a green light, but those efforts hadnt come to fruition by the time Mr Obama left office, and Mr Trump took over responsibility for those efforts.

Those measures have been criticised as being weak compared to what the Kremlin did.

The punishment did not fit the crime, Michael McFaul, Mr Obamas ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, told the Washington Post. And US policymakers now  both in the White House and Congress  should consider new actions to deter future Russian interventions.

Mr Obamas former aides say that the threat was taken very seriously by that White House, and note that the President himself brought the issue up during a meeting with Mr Putin. The Russian president denied the allegations, and said that the US didnt have proof that his government was directly involved.

Mr Trumps campaign has been under investigation for potential collusion with Russia in the effort, but the President has adamantly denied any wrongdoing on his part.
ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian citizen sentenced to death for spying in Pakistan has admitted espionage and filed a mercy petition with the chief of army staff, the Pakistan military said on Thursday, a statement India dismissed as a farce. Former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav was arrested last year in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan, the site of a long-running conflict between the Pakistan military and separatist insurgents. "Commander Jadhav has admitted his involvement in espionage, terrorist and subversive activities in Pakistan and expressed remorse at the resultant loss of any precious lives and extensive damage to property due to his actions," Pakistan's military said in a statement, adding that he had asked for mercy on "compassionate grounds". India dismissed the Pakistan military's statement as an attempt to influence the proceedings of the World Court where India has sought justice for Jadhav. It renewed its demand for consular access to Jadhav and the grant of visas to his family to meet him in prison. "The details and circumstances of the alleged mercy petition by Mr Jadhav are not clear and even the fact of its existence is doubtful, shrouded as the proceedings against Mr Jadhav have been in opacity," the Indian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Ties between the nuclear-armed bitter foes remain difficult and on Thursday there was fresh fighting on the disputed border in Kashmir, at the heart of 70 years of animosity. Armed intruders from Pakistan crossed the Line of Control or the de facto border separating Kashmir between the two countries and killed two Indian soldiers, the Indian military said on Friday. Fighting on the border has flared through the summer and the Indian army has vowed firm action to avenge the losses. After Jadhav was sentenced to death in April, India asked the World Court for an injunction to bar the execution, arguing that he was denied diplomatic assistance during what it terms as an unfair trial. The World Court ordered Pakistan in May to delay Jadhav's execution. It argued that Islamabad violated a treaty guaranteeing diplomatic assistance to foreigners accused of crimes. Pakistan authorities say Jadhav confessed to being assigned by India's intelligence service to organize espionage and sabotage in Baluchistan "aiming to destabilize and wage war against Pakistan". Baluchistan is at the center of a $57 billion Chinese-backed "Belt and Road" development project that first focused on Chinese firms building roads and power stations but is now expanding to include setting up industries. In a transcript released by Pakistan, Jadhav says disrupting the Chinese-funded projects was a main goal of his activities. (Reporting by Saad Sayeed in ISLAMABAD, Sanjeev Miglani in NEW DELHI and Fayaz Mukhari in SRINAGAR. Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday he supported efforts to quickly act on legislation to impose new sanctions on Russia and Iran that passed the Senate nearly unanimously but has stalled in the House. Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, "has indicated he wants to get moving on this quickly, and we want to honor that," Ryan said at his weekly news conference. The Countering Iran's Destabilizing Activities Act, which also includes new sanctions against Russia, passed the Senate 98-2 last week, a vote that looked like it might complicate President Donald Trump's desire for warmer relations with Moscow. The measure must pass the House before it can be sent to Trump to sign into law or veto. The House parliamentarian found that the legislation violated a constitutional requirement that any bill affecting government revenues must originate in the House, something known as a "blue slip" violation. Democrats said they were skeptical about the explanation, noting that previous "blue slip" issues had been resolved in a matter of minutes. Kevin Brady, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters he had sent the Senate a solution clearing the way for it to take the bill back, change it and move it forward. Ben Cardin, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Reuters the change did not appear to substantively alter the legislation and that staff was reviewing it to determine how to move ahead. Senior Senate Democratic aides said any bill involving sanctions or fines could be interpreted as affecting U.S. revenues. Trump's fellow Republicans hold a larger majority in the House than in the Senate. Some lawmakers and congressional aides said the White House was concerned about a provision that would require Trump to obtain Congress' approval before easing any sanctions on Russia. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged Congress last week to ensure that any sanctions package would give Trump the flexibility to adjust sanctions. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the administration would not take a position before the bill advanced through the House. However, he acknowledged the White House needed to work with Congress on some areas of the measure. Ryan said he did not yet know if it would go through the formal markup debate and amendment process. Democrats have said that process could delay the bill for months. Asked if he supported the policy in the bill, Ryan said he supported sanctions. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Leslie Adler)
DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi security forces on Friday foiled a suicide attack on the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, cornering the would-be attacker in an apartment, where he blew himself up, the Interior Ministry said. In a statement read on state television, the ministry said that three cells had planned the attack on worshippers and security forces at the mosque as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan nears its climax. The trapped would-be suicide bomber exchanged fire with the security forces, then set off explosives when he was surrounded in a house in the central Mecca neighborhood of Ajyad al-Masafi near the mosque that had been used as the base for the attack, the ministry said. The building collapsed, injuring six foreigners and five members of the security forces. Earlier in the day, security forces had shot dead a wanted man at another suspected Islamist militant hideout in Mecca's al-Aseelah neighborhood. The ministry also said a third cell had been broken up in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, but gave no further details. Five suspected militants including a woman were arrested, it said. The month of fasting ends with the Eid-al-Fitr holiday, expected to be on Sunday. Saudi monarchs usually spend the last 10 days of Ramadan in Mecca. Al Arabiya broadcast live footage of Muslim worshippers praying in the mosque, with no interruption. It was not immediately clear who was behind the plot to attack the mosque, but the Islamic State group, which wants to establish a theocratic caliphate ruled according to strict Islamic law, had in the past carried out attacks in the kingdom. In May last year, Saudi security forces shot dead two alleged Islamic State fighters outside Mecca, and two others blew themselves up outside Mecca. (Reporting by Sami Aboudi and Omar Fahmy; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, followed by Majority Whip John Cornyn: AP

Senate Republicans have finally unveiled a draft of their Obamacare replacement bill, which Democrats were quick to condemn.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing for a vote before senators leave Washington, DC for the Fourth of July recess. But with some Republicans already saying they arent ready to support the legislation, there is uncertainty over whether that is possible. To pass the bill, Mr McConnell can only afford to lose two yeas.

What is the new healthcare bill?

Senate Republican leadership released a discussion draft of their healthcare bill on Thursday, saying that there will be ample opportunity for senators to analyse, discuss and provide their thoughts before the legislation goes to the floor for a vote.

The measure aims to repeal and replace Obamacare, officially known as the Affordable Care Act. The House of Representatives narrowly passed its own Obamacare repeal and replacement bill in May.

What is in the new healthcare bill?

 The elimination of the individual mandate, which says that all Americans must have health insurance or pay a tax penalty.

 The repeal of the employer mandate, which requires companies with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance or pay a penalty.

 Deeper cuts to Medicaid  a healthcare programme for the poor. Speaking on the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asserted that the Senate's version would end Medicaid as we know it by decreasing federal support for the programme even more than the House bill, which cut it by more than $800bn, he said.

 A longer phase out of Medicaid expansion. The House bill discontinues the extra federal funds for Medicaid expansion starting in 2020. But the Senate bill begins phasing out this increased funding starting in 2021 and restores it to pre-Obamacare levels by 2024.

 A cap on the amount states can receive from the federal government for Medicaid for the first time in the programmes history.

 A new system of federal tax credits to help people afford their premiums. Under Obamacare, tax credits are primarily based on income, age and geography, benefitting lower- and moderate-income people who purchase insurance on the exchanges. The Houses bill factors in age, but not income, when determining how much financial assistance to provide people. Meanwhile, the Senates measure considers age, income and geography, but apparently people would need to be lower-income than under the ACA to receive them.

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 Defunding of Planned Parenthood for one year. This could be an issue for Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The bill also prohibits people from using tax credits to purchase plans that offer coverage for abortion services.

 An additional $2 billion in fiscal year 2018 for states to confront the opioid crisis.

 Funding to continue cost-sharing reduction payments for health insurers through 2019. The payments help offset costs for insurers in exchange for offering more affordable coverage to low-income Americans.

 More flexibility for states to roll back the ACAs insurance regulations and consumer protections. But in a departure from the House's bill, states can't opt of regulations that currently prevent insurers from charging people with pre-existing conditions more for their medical coverage.

 The ability for insurers to charge older adults five times more than younger people. Obamacare currently lets insurers charge older people only three times more.

 The repeal of almost all of the taxes that were implemented to help the government pay for Obamacare. In both the House and Senate bills, the cuts to spending on Medicaid and other programmes would go toward funding a substantial tax cut for the healthcare industry and the wealthy.

 The suspension of the so-called Cadillac tax, a fee levied on expensive employer health plans, through 2025.

Where can I read it?

You can read the draft of the healthcare bill on several news sites. It is also posted here, on Republican Senator Tom Cotton's website.
A bipartisan group of senators urged President Donald Trump on Friday to move ahead on delayed arms sales to Taiwan amid congressional concern the White House is ready to curry favor with Beijing at Taipeis expense.

Four Republicans and four Democrats wrote a letter to Trump urging him to maintain firm U.S. support for Taiwan, including providing weapons it needs to defend itself against China, regardless of Washingtons diplomatic initiatives with Beijing.

We urge you to adopt a policy of regular and consistent support for Taiwans self-defense efforts and not allow concerns about China to take precedence over Taiwan, according to the letter obtained by Foreign Policy.

The senators also cite a small number of pending arms sales to Taiwan. The administration has yet to formally notify Congress about those sales, a critical step in proceeding with an arms deal.

We urge your administration to send those notifications to Congress immediately, the letter states. While modest in scope, they represent an important marker in maintaining consistent U.S. support for Taiwan.

Washingtons backing for Taipei is particularly important given that China has intensified its economic coercion and military intimidation tactics against Taiwan since the election of President Tsai Ing-wen, raising tensions in the Taiwan Strait, the senators wrote.

The letter reflects anxiety in Taiwan, and among some U.S. officials and lawmakers that Trump could undercut four decades of support for Taipei, by design or neglect. In April, Trump told Reuters that he would consult with Chinese President Xi Jinping before speaking to Taiwans president to avoid causing difficulty for Beijing.

Hes a friend of mine. Hes actually a  I think hes doing an amazing job as a leader, and I wouldnt want to do anything that comes in the way of that. So, I would certainly want to speak to him first, Trump said in the Reuters interview.

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The presidents comments, and the administrations silence on the pending arms package, have raised fears in Washington that Trump could be ready to grant concessions to China without getting much in return. The president has already indicated he would be willing to back off of trade disputes or other contentious issues if China scaled back its economic ties to the North Korean regime.

Since his election in November, Trumps stance toward China and Taiwan has shifted radically and left diplomats in Asia confused. Shortly after his electoral victory, Trump seemed to signal he was ready to confront China over Taiwan when he broke with long-established protocol and took a phone call from Taiwans president. But he later backed off from more calls and has dropped his threats of trade retaliation against China.

Under a long established One China policy, the United States only recognizes the government of Beijing. But it also provides weapons to Taiwan for its self-defense and engages in a degree of ambiguity when it comes to dealing with the government in Taipei.

The letter sent Friday was signed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the majority whip, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).

In Fridays letter to Trump, the senators said the United States also needed to consult closely with Taiwan as it will soon need major military hardware, including new fighter jets, submarines, missile defense and electronic warfare systems.

The lawmakers proposed ending the practice of putting off U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and bundling them in a package at more convenient political moments. The approach, dating back to 2008, has proven counter-productive for both the United States and Taiwan and ended up rendering the process overly politicized, the letter states. Instead, the senators said the arms sales should proceed at a regular and routine pace without trying to finely calibrate the timing.

Photo credit: SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images
By Lisa Lambert

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nurses, teachers and other public-sector workers expecting their outstanding student loans to soon disappear under a U.S. debt-forgiveness program could be in for a surprise, with a government report on Thursday showing loan servicers may have mishandled the process for many borrowers.

President Donald Trump has called for eliminating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, where the loans of borrowers working for government, non-profits or the military are wiped out after 10 years of consistent payments. The program started in 2007, making this the first year of forgiveness for many loans.

The report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) found cases where servicers did not provide information or gave wrong or confusing information, leading borrowers to believe they would receive forgiveness when in truth they were not eligible.

Some borrowers were not told their loans were not part of the program, their repayment plans were wrong, or their employers were not considered a public service, according to the CFPB. Also, some servicers under-recorded qualifying payments or did not tell borrowers that loan consolidations wipe out payment histories, pushing forgiveness farther into the future.

The Education Department, which contracts servicers, did not respond to a request for comment. CFBP Student Loan Ombudsman Seth Frotman said agency examiners are asking servicers about issues that the report identified to help prevent future problems.

Once deemed eligible, the loans transfer to the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) for servicing. Many students encounter glitches and delays from their previous servicer then, CFPB found. PHEAA referred reporters to the Education Department.

The program allows borrowers to move out from under the shadows of debt, said Frotman, adding that many plan to save for homes or their children's education after their loans end.

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More than 430,000 people are enrolled in the program and nearly 30 percent owe more than $100,000, data shows. The CFPB said that around two-thirds of those at least wanting to enroll earn less than $50,000 a year.

Seeking to make college affordable, then-President Barack Obama moved the country's $1.4 trillion student loans from banks to the government. He also expanded the public-sector program so that graduates would not be discouraged by large loan payments from taking often low-paying jobs that serve the community.

Critics say the program is too broad and generous, keeping taxpayers from recouping millions of loaned dollars. Trump and fellow Republicans frequently say government should "get out of the business of student loans."

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
In a surprising move, the State Department reportedly is getting rid of its special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Several reports on Friday indicate the move came without warning, even to rank-and-file diplomats at the State Department. But even if the efforts to eliminate the office are ham-fisted, it could be a smart move, helping eliminate redundancies at State that hamper effective coordination on South and Central Asia.

Former President Barack Obama began to slowly phase out the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) as he drew down U.S. military presence in the region. But it was designed to be a slow and deliberate process. This appears to be anything but.

Weve long planned for SRAP to go away, but the intention was for the policy to be transferred responsibly, one U.S. diplomat told Politico. This happened on less than 24 hours notice.

One State Department source speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the State Department was mulling the move, but said it hadnt yet made a final decision. The Wall Street Journal first reported State will eliminate the office on Friday. The State Department press office didnt immediately respond to request for comment.

The wisdom or folly of getting rid of the office, first led by Richard Holbrooke, is hotly debated by former officials and experts.

Several former senior U.S. officials and military commanders told Foreign Policy that it could marginalize the administrations attention on the region just as it considers bulking up its troop presence in Afghanistan, where the United States and its NATO allies have been fighting for 16 years.

David Barno, former senior American commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, called it a bad move, saying it takes away a single focal point in the State Department that looks at Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan as a whole. It also undercuts States clout in Afghanistan.

The military now is in effect back in the drivers seat in dealing with Afghanistan, he said. These arent just military problems, they certainly dont have just military solutionsI dont think this is going to help us solve the problem, he said.

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James Cunningham, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2012 to 2014, said having an SRAP made his job a lot easier when he was Washingtons man in Kabul, and it didnt appear to crowd out other bureaus.

It was helpful, theres no doubt about that, he told FP.

But other regional experts say it could be a good move, helping streamline policies between offices in the State Department that have overlapping and redundant responsibilities.

I dont know why people are spun up about this, this is the right move, said Alyssa Ayres, former deputy assistant secretary of state for south Asia. Shed suggested as much three years ago.

She told Foreign Policy the SRAP office created a parallel structure with the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, which also oversees Afghanistan and Pakistan. It also hollowed the bureau out as veteran diplomats were transferred to the new SRAP office.

It was like creating a big doughnut hole in the middle of a bureau, she said.

But getting rid of SRAP would work better if the South and Central Asian Bureau were firing on all cylinders. That bureaus leadership ranks remain empty, five months into the Trump administration, in large part because the president hasnt yet appointed an assistant secretary of state to lead the office. The acting assistant secretary of State, William Todd, was moved on June 12 to a key human resources and Foreign Service management post, leaving the Bureau without even interim leadership.

Another advantage to keeping the special envoy position: It would free up the bureau to focus on other issues. Afghanistan is not the totality of our interests in South Asia, Cunningham said.

One former Af-Pak envoy said the move is the type of reshuffling common to new administrations.

Each administration, based on personalities and prominence of issues, bends or adjusts the permanent structure of its agencies to its needs, said James Dobbins, SRAP from 2013 to 2014 and now at RAND Corporation.

The SRAP post was first created in the early days of former President Barack Obamas administration in 2009 to treat Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single issue: The porous border provided refuge for terrorists and sally points for insurgents battling U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan.

Dobbins said dissolving the SRAP could be counterbalanced if they appoint strong diplomats in other posts to carry on more weight. A lot depends on who they make the new assistant secretary, he said.

The move comes as Tillerson aims to reform the State Department and as the administration pushes for about a one-third cut to Americas diplomacy and foreign aid budget.

This article was updated Friday, June 23, at 4:36 p.m. to include comments from former senior U.S. officials.

Photo credit: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images
In what could have been a major attack on the largest mosque in the world, authorities in Saudi Arabia prevented it when security forces surrounded a house where a potential attacker was hiding, officials said. At least 11 people, including five policemen, were wounded when the suspect blew himself up, Saudi interior ministry said, according to reports.

Five people, including one woman who were suspected to be involved in the attack plot were arrested. The attack was planned by three groups  two based in Mecca and one based in Jeddah  the ministry said, according to reports.

Some images were circulated on social media which showed an alley filled with bricks and debris apparently from a blast.

Read: ISIS Targets Jakarta Bus Station In Double Suicide Bombings Just Days Before Ramadan

This was not the first mosque targeted during the holy month of Ramadan. Earlier this week, militants attacked the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, Iraq on Wednesday with the Islamic State group (ISIS) allegedly responsible for it. The ancient landmark with its famous leaning minaret was where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a "caliphate" in 2014.

Aerial photos showed the mosque and its minaret were largely destroyed.

Last week in the U.K., a 47-year-old van driver hit worshippers who were leaving from Finsbury Park Mosque in London after evening prayers. The incident left one dead and 11 injured, the police said.

The Metropolitan Police Service said the attacker was arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism including murder and attempted murder in the immediate aftermath of the incident, the Guardian reported.

The rising attacks on mosques during the month of Ramadan is reportedly due to extremists' believing the month is a good time to attack, targeting mosques crowded with people. Deakin University counterterrorism expert Greg Barton told news.com.au "the risk of terror attacks being carried out 'on mosques ... or large sporting events where there are lots of people' was increased during Ramadan, particularly on the 'Night of Power.'"

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The "Night of Power" is the the holiest day in the Islamic calendar, which this year was Wednesday evening. Known in Arabic as Laylat al-Qadr, it marked the night during the holy month of Ramadan that Muslims believe was when the Prophet Muhammad received the first revelations of the Quran.

While it's considered to be the best time in the year to pray for blessings and forgiveness by Muslims worldwide, extremist groups like ISIS exploit the date to urge brutal acts of violence, Fox News reported.

Barton added: "Its supposed to be a time for peace, reconciling with family and friends, and asking for forgiveness but for IS, in this kind of perverse way, its an even better time to launch a terror attack."

Read: Airline Data Could Be Target Of Criminals, Terrorists

Pro-ISIS messages were reportedly said to be circling on encrypted apps such as Telegram in recent days which were calling on Muslims to "wake up, the war is starting, particularly in the wake of the mosque attack in London.

Last year too, when the "Night of Power" fell on July 2, there was a message pushing for "calamity everywhere for the nonbelievers" that was being widely shared

There was also a message from the spokesman of Islamic State calling on followers to launch attacks on the U.S. and Europe during Ramadan, according to Reuters.

A recent report from the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, as reported by the Telegraph, argued ISIS was seeking to use Ramadan as an occasion to reorient its strategy with attacks both in its core arena of operations in Iraq and Syria as well as abroad.

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By Timothy Mclaughlin and Julia Jacobs (Reuters) - The man charged with stabbing an airport police officer in Michigan unsuccessfully attempted to purchase a gun before the attack, which is being investigated as an act of terrorism, federal officials said on Thursday. The suspect, Amor Ftouhi, 49, of Quebec, Canada, has been charged in federal court with violence at an international airport for stabbing Jeff Neville, an officer at the Bishop International Airport in Flint, in the neck on Wednesday. Neville underwent surgery and is expected to recover. "It is a good news story that we have an individual who attempted to buy a gun in the United States and was unsuccessful," David Gelios, special agent in charge of the Detroit division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told reporters. Gelios declined to provide details on where Ftouhi attempted to buy the gun or what type of gun he tried to purchase. The 12-inch, serrated knife Ftouhi used in the attack was bought in the United States, he said. Ftouhi's attorney, Joan Morgan, did not immediately respond to request for comment. Ftouhi, originally from Tunisia and who holds dual Tunisian-Canadian citizenship, legally entered the United States from Lake Champlain, New York, on June 16 before making his way to Flint, Gelios said. Ftouhi targeted a city with an international airport, but Gelios declined to say why Flint was chosen. Fouthi, who was not on the radar of U.S. or Canadian authorities before the attack, was in Michigan as early as June 18, Gelios said. U.S. and Canadian investigators are probing his travel before the attack. U.S. officials have conducted around 20 interviews and located Ftouhi's car in the Flint airport parking lot, Gelios said. According to the criminal complaint, Ftouhi yelled in Arabic "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) before stabbing Neville on Wednesday. In Montreal, Ftouhi lived in a modest white-brick building in a working-class neighborhood popular with North African immigrants called the Petit Maghreb. Ftouhi has lived in the building with his wife and three children for close to six years, his landlord, Luciano Piazza, told Reuters. He worked intermittently as a truck driver, according to U.S. court records. Piazza said he does not know the family well, but has never had any problems with them. Asked by a CTV News reporter Thursday whether Ftouhis arrest could fuel anti-Muslim sentiment, Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard said the Muslim community bears some responsibility for preventing acts of violence committed by Muslims. "You cannot disconnect this type of event, terrorism, from Islam in general," he said. (Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin and Julia Jacobs in Chicago; Additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Washington (AFP) - Russian and US military officials are still using a special hotline to communicate about operations in Syria, a US official said Friday, days after Moscow said it was severing the connection.

Russia on Monday said it would stop using the so-called "deconfliction" line in response to a US pilot shooting down a regime war plane in northern Syria, with Moscow accusing Washington of failing to issue a warning.

But Colonel Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the US-led coalition, told reporters in a video call that "the deconfliction line is in use."

"It is in use to make sure that... our air crews and ground forces are safe," he said.

The Russian defense ministry said Friday it had conducted a "surprise mass missile strike" against IS targets, using cruise missiles fired from the Mediterranean.

Dillon would not say if Russia had used the line to warn the Americans ahead of the strike, but a US defense official confirmed to AFP that it had.

Sunday's shoot-down saw a US pilot fire on a regime warplane as it "dropped bombs" on US-backed local forces.

Moscow quickly said it would stop using the line, but the reality is that the communication channel is a vital link between Russia and the United States to make sure the two powers avoid mishaps in Syria's confusing battlespace.

After the United States launched a cruise missile attack on a regime air base in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons strike on civilians, Moscow made a similar threat in April.

But it later emerged that Russia and the United States continued to use the hotline even after Moscow said it was hanging up.
Beirut (AFP) - Syrian regime forces on Friday broke into the eastern Deir Ezzor province for the first time since 2014, a monitor said, after seizing territory from Islamic State group jihadists.

Government forces control part of Deir Ezzor city and the adjacent military airport, but IS holds the vast desert province and most of the provincial capital.

"Backed by Iranian, Lebanese and Iraqi fighters, the Syrian army entered Deir Ezzor province from the southeast, near the Iraqi border," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He said the pro-government forces had advanced eight kilometres (five miles) into the province.

They are now just 12 kilometres (less than eight miles) from the key T2 oil pump, which lies on a pipeline extending from Iraq through central Syria to its western coastline.

Syria's desert, known as the "Badiya", extends over 90,000 square kilometres (35,000 square miles) from central Syria to the borders with Iraq and Jordan to the east and southeast.

Much of the Badiya has been held by IS, but Syria's army has been chipping away at it for months.

In addition to capturing key oil fields and infrastructure, government forces are keen to break IS's stranglehold on regime-held districts of Deir Ezzor city.

An estimated 100,000 civilians are living under IS siege.

Earlier this month, Syrian government forces reached the eastern border with Iraq for the first time since 2015.

By Friday, according to the Observatory, army troops were in control of an 85-kilometre (53-mile) stretch of the frontier.

The government's advance has created tensions along the border, where US-led coalition forces are using a garrison to train anti-IS fighters.

On June 8, a US warplane shot down a drone after it dropped munitions near At-Tanaf, after other incidents where the coalition fired on pro-regime forces on the ground as they approached the garrison.

And last Sunday, a US fighter jet downed a Syrian government warplane in the country's north for the first time in the six-year conflict.

More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011 before turning into a complex war involving regional and international players.
By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Trump administration filed court papers on Friday to support a Texas state law that would punish so-called "sanctuary cities" and is seeking to argue in court hearings next week in favor of the legislation it says will help keep America safe.

On Monday, a Texas border town and some of the state's biggest cities will ask a U.S. federal judge to halt the state law known as Senate Bill 4, arguing it is unconstitutional, violates human rights and illegally diverts police resources from fighting local crime to enforcing U.S. immigration law.

The Republican-backed law in Texas, the U.S. state with the longest border with Mexico, takes effect on Sept. 1. It calls for jail time for police chiefs and sheriffs who fail to cooperate in U.S. immigration enforcement.

It was the first such legislation approved by a state since Republican Donald Trump, who backs a crackdown on illegal immigration, became president in January.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a "statement of interest" with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio, saying the law will facilitate cooperation between the state and federal authorities.

President Trump has made a commitment to keep America safe and to ensure cooperation with federal immigration laws," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton welcomed the filing and said in a statement the Department of Justice plans to be involved in all court proceedings on SB 4.

Plaintiffs including border town El Cenizo, the city of San Antonio and others, have said SB 4 is an extraordinary intrusion into the way they govern.

"Under SB 4, local entities must enforce federal immigration law and must do so regardless of whether such enforcement will divert resources away from more pressing police needs," they said in court filings.

The law allows police to ask about immigration status during a lawful detention.

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Supporters have said immigrants who do not break the law have nothing to fear. Critics contend it allows police to detain people for up to 48 hours for immigration checks, even for minor infractions such as jay-walking.

Police chiefs of the state's biggest cities have come out against SB 4.

The bill's Republican sponsor has said in legislative debate there are no local authorities in Texas at present that he considers a "sanctuary city," a place that shields immigrants in the country illegally.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by David Gregorio)
By Julia Harte and Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Friday announced changes to a $10 million government grant program, narrowing its focus around efforts to combat Islamist extremism.

In an update to awards announced in January by former President Barack Obama's administration, the department released a new list of grant recipients and amounts, shifting money to law enforcement offices and away from groups that combat U.S.-based extremism.

Reuters reported in February that President Donald Trump's administration wanted to revamp the program to focus solely on Islamist extremism.

A DHS spokeswoman said the department changed the grant criteria after the release of the initial list to consider whether applicants would partner with law enforcement, had experience implementing counter-extremism prevention programs, and would be able to continue after the awards were spent.

"Top-scoring applications that were consistent with these priorities remained as awardees, while others did not," said DHS spokeswoman Lucy Martinez.

Three local law enforcement offices in California, Washington state and Minnesota were among the new awardees, receiving grants totaling $1.2 million.

A spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff's Office in California said it would use the money to address extremism "on all fronts," not just Islamist violence. Sergeant Ray Kelly cited violent clashes between right-wing and left-wing demonstrators that recently erupted in the city of Berkeley as an example of local extremism in the county.

Kelly said the office would use the grant money to train officers to better recognize and address signs of alienation that make young people vulnerable to extremism, with the help of behavioral health counselors who are already on staff.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council, a nonprofit group that works to improve public understanding and policies that affect American Muslims, said the Trump administration revoked its nearly $400,000 grant because the group "did not meet the criteria of working with law enforcement to counter violent extremism."

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The revised list also omitted several original awardees focused on U.S.-based extremism, such as Life After Hate, which tries to steer young people away from far-right extremism.

Christian Picciolini, a co-founder of Life After Hate, told Reuters his group was planning to use its $400,000 grant to scale up its counselor network of former extremists to "meet the highly increased requests for our services since Election Day."

"The current administration's lack of focus on domestic white extremist terrorism, let alone its denial to even acknowledge it exists, is highly troubling," Picciolini wrote in an email.

(Reporting by Julia Harte and Dustin Volz; Editing by Bill Rigby and Bill Trott)
By Julia Harte and Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Friday announced changes to a $10 million government grant program, narrowing its focus around efforts to combat Islamist extremism.

In an update to awards announced in January by former President Barack Obama's administration, the department released a new list of grant recipients and amounts, shifting money to law enforcement offices and away from groups that combat U.S.-based extremism.

Reuters reported in February that President Donald Trump's administration wanted to revamp the program to focus solely on Islamist extremism.

A DHS spokeswoman said the department changed the grant criteria after the release of the initial list to consider whether applicants would partner with law enforcement, had experience implementing counter-extremism prevention programs, and would be able to continue after the awards were spent.

"Top-scoring applications that were consistent with these priorities remained as awardees, while others did not," said DHS spokeswoman Lucy Martinez.

Three local law enforcement offices in California, Washington state and Minnesota were among the new awardees, receiving grants totaling $1.2 million. None of the offices immediately responded to calls for comment on Friday about the grants.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council, a nonprofit group that works to improve public understanding and policies that affect American Muslims, said the Trump administration revoked its nearly $400,000 grant because the group "did not meet the criteria of working with law enforcement to counter violent extremism."

"While we have developed working relationships with law enforcement agencies in the past to improve officer training and the reporting of hate crimes, we have never conflated this work with community responses to issues of vulnerability and alienation," said MPAC in a statement.

The revised list also omitted several original awardees focused on U.S.-based extremism, such as Life After Hate, which conducts research and outreach to steer young people away from far-right extremism.

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Christian Picciolini, a co-founder of Life After Hate, told Reuters his group was planning to use its $400,000 grant to scale up its counselor network of former extremists to "meet the highly increased requests for our services since election day."

"The current administration's lack of focus on domestic white extremist terrorism, let alone its denial to even acknowledge it exists, is highly troubling," Picciolini wrote in an email.

(Reporting by Julia Harte and Dustin Volz; Editing by Bill Rigby)
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U.S. food safety regulators have put a stop to fresh beef imports from Brazil, following earlier reports that meatpackers in the countryone of the world's largest beef exportershad allowed rotten, salmonella-tainted meat to be shipped abroad.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Thursday that it had suspended, until further notice, all imports of fresh beef from Brazil following "recurring concerns about the safety of the products intended for the American market."

Since March, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) had been inspecting 100% of all meat products arriving in the U.S. from Brazil. FSIS has since blocked about 11% (or 1.9 million pounds) of the beef from entering the country, because of public health concerns, sanitary conditions, and animal health issues.

According to the USDA, the refusal rate is substantially higher than the rejection rate of 1% of shipments from the rest of the world.

The new ban on Brazilian meat imports will continue "until the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture takes corrective action which the USDA finds satisfactory," the USDA said.

"Ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply is one of our critical missions, and it's one we undertake with great seriousness," said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.





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Abu Dhabi (AFP) - The UAE on Friday advised Qatar to take a list of stern demands drawn up by its neighbours seriously or the diplomatic crisis in the Gulf would turn into a "divorce" with Doha.

Anwar Gargash, the United Arab Emirates state minister for foreign affairs, issued the warning more than two weeks into the oil-rich region's worst diplomatic crisis in years.

He also accused Qatar of leaking a document containing the demands by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, which have cut diplomatic ties with the gas-rich state accusing it of sponsoring terrorism.

Qatar strongly denies such charges.

The demands have not been officially unveiled but Doha-based Al-Jazeera news channel said overnight Thursday they were handed to Qatar by Kuwait, which is mediating in the crisis.

According to the document posted on social media, the Saudi-led coalition demands that Qatar closes down Al-Jazeera, downgrades diplomatic ties with Iran and shuts a Turkish military base in the emirate.

"The leak (of the demands by Qatar) is an attempt to abort the mediation in a childish act that we have grown accustomed to from our brother," Gargash wrote on Twitter.

"It would be wiser that (Qatar) deal seriously with the demands and concerns of the neighbours or a divorce will take place," he said.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia and the UAE led a severing of all links with Qatar for allegedly supporting groups, including some backed by Iran, "that aim to destabilise the region".

Egypt, Bahrain and other allies followed.

Saudi Arabia regularly accuses Iran, its regional rival, of interference throughout the Middle East.

As well as cutting diplomatic ties, Qatar's neighbours closed their air space to Qatari carriers and blocked the small but gas-rich emirates' only land border, vital for its food imports.

"The brother (Qatar) must realise that the solution for its crisis lies not in Tehran or Beirut or Ankara or Western capitals or in media outlets, but in regaining the trust of its neighbours," Gargash said.

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"It is not possible to accept that the brother continues as the Trojan horse" in the Gulf or as a funder and "platform for an extremist agenda", he added.

Earlier this week, a foreign diplomat told AFP the crisis had reached a "stalemate" and "won't end soon".

Ankara and Washington have also been trying to help broker a solution to the crisis within the Gulf Cooperation Council which groups Qatar with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
New York (AFP) - The United States announced Thursday a halt to all imports of fresh beef from Brazil, the world's second-largest producer, citing "recurring" concerns after large shipments failed food safety tests.

The ban will remain in place until satisfactory corrective actions are taken, the US Department of Agriculture said in a statement that will again put the reputation of Brazil's industry under the spotlight.

All meat imported to the US from Brazil has been inspected since March, when some of the country's top meat producers became embroiled in a tainted-meat scandal.

During that time, the US food safety and inspection service rejected 11 percent of Brazilian fresh beef, compared with only one percent of quantities from other nations, it added.

"My first priority is to protect American consumers," US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said.

"That's what we've done by halting the import of Brazilian fresh beef."

Antonio Camardelli, president of Brazil's Meat Exporters Association (Abiec), said the loss was potentially "incalculable".

But he blamed the problems on a reaction to some components of a foot-and-mouth disease vaccine that Brazil uses, which had become visible in the US inspections.

Camardelli said producers had asked the Brazilian government to resolve the problem in a meeting with their US counterparts.

But since the enhanced US inspection measures kicked in, 106 lots -- approximately 1.9 million pounds (861,825 kilograms) -- of Brazilian beef products were refused entry to the US "due to public health concerns, sanitary conditions, and animal health issues."

"It is important to note that none of the rejected lots made it into the US market," the Department of Agriculture said, noting that the "Brazilian government had pledged to address those concerns, including by self-suspending five facilities from shipping beef to the US."

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"Today's action to suspend all fresh beef shipments from Brazil supersedes the self-suspension," it added.

Brazil's beef production is surpassed only by the United States, according to USDA data.

But in March the South American country's industry was rocked by investigators' accusations that 21 meat processing companies used chemicals to hide the smell of rotting meat and bribed health inspectors to pass off their products as safe.

About 20 countries -- including Hong Kong and China, the biggest importers of Brazilian beef -- as well as the European Union, fully or partially closed their doors to the country's meat imports.

After the bans, Brazil's average daily meat exports plunged 19 percent in a week, or $11.7 million, according to the trade ministry, before client countries agreed to resume imports after fierce haggling.

Meat exports brought in more than $13 billion to the Brazilian economy in 2016. The industry employs six million people.
Washington (AFP) - The United States on Thursday accused pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine of a campaign of "violence and harassment" against unarmed OSCE teams monitoring the conflict.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Washington is "deeply concerned" about the situation, describing the rebels as "Russian-led, Russian-funded and Russian-trained."

A ceasefire between Ukrainian troops and the separatists is to come into effect this weekend, under the watchful gaze of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

But previous truces in the two-year-old conflict have broken down, and Washington accuses Moscow of intimidating OSCE monitors to cover up what is going on on the ground.

Nauert said that in a June 20 incident, separatist forces had fired at retreating OSCE vehicles, and noted that an American paramedic had been killed in an explosion in April.

"The incidents are part of a broader effort to keep the international community from seeing what is happening in eastern Ukraine," she alleged.

"We call on Russia to use its influence to end this campaign of intimidation and honor its commitment to allow free, full and safe access to the OSCE monitors."
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez left her post on Wednesday to run for a seat in a controversial new congress, drawing praise from her boss as a "tiger" for her feisty defense of the socialist government. Historian and deputy foreign minister Samuel Moncada will replace her, President Nicolas Maduro said, announcing the diplomatic shake-up in a speech on state TV. "She truly deserves the recognition of the entire country because she has defended Venezuelan sovereignty, peace and independence like a tiger," Maduro said of Rodriguez, who had been Venezuela's top diplomat since the end of 2014. "Congratulations comrade! Job well done." Like some other senior Maduro allies, Rodriguez will now be running for a seat in a new Constituent Assembly in an election set for July 30. Venezuela's opposition is boycotting the vote, saying it is rigged in Maduro's favor and intended purely to keep the ruling Socialist Party in power despite its current unpopularity. The president says the new assembly, a super body with powers to rewrite the constitution and override other institutions, is necessary to bring peace after nearly three months of anti-government unrest that have killed 75 people. Outgoing foreign minister Rodriguez has been a diehard envoy for Maduro, even trying to crash a meeting of regional bloc Mercosur after Venezuela's suspension and lambasting critics of her government in often colorful language. (Reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Silene Ramirez; Editing by Sandra Maler; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne)
Physicist Stephen Hawking addresses an audience at the Starmus Festival via video. (Starmus via YouTube)

British physicist Stephen Hawking has repeatedly warned us that we have just a century or two to move off Earth, and he just shared his vision for how to do it.

Hawking laid out a timetable this week during a lecture titled The Future of Humanity, presented to an audience of 3,000 attending the Starmus Festival in Trondheim, Norway.

He said a base could be established on the moon within 30 years to serve as a gateway to the rest of the solar system. Settlers could follow up with a Mars base within 50 years. But Hawking went on to call for setting an even speedier schedule for space exploration.

The 75-year-old, wheelchair-riding physicist recalled President John F. Kennedys vision of putting Americans on the moon by the end of the 1960s  a deadline that was met with the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

A goal of a base on the moon by 2020, and a manned landing on Mars by 2025 would reignite the space program and give it a sense of purpose in the same way that President Kennedys target did in the 60s, he said, using his computer-generated voice. The spin-off to this would be an increase in the public recognition of science generally.

Eventually, humans could take one-way trips to potentially habitable exoplanets as close as Proxima Centauri b.

This is long-term thinking, Hawking said. And by long-term, I mean hundreds or thousands of years. It wont be easy.

Space settlers would have to carry along a whole new ecosystem that will survive in an environment we know very little about, and we will of course need to consider transporting several thousands of people, animals, plants, fungi, bacterla and insects, he said.

Why do it? Hawking and some other deep-thinkers, including SpaceX founder Elon Musk, say its only a matter of time before our home planet experiences a potentially civilization-ending crisis  whether its nuclear war, catastrophic climate change, a global pandemic or an asteroid strike.

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Establishing settlements beyond Earth would serve as an insurance policy, but it would also mark a giant leap in what Hawking regards as a 21st-century brand of manifest destiny. During the Starmus talk, he said the cosmos is where I believe our ultimate destiny lies.

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon as well as the Blue Origin space venture, are of a similar mind. Musk has said his lifes passion is to turn humanity into a multi-planet species, while Bezos has said his success with Amazon is fueling a personal vision to have millions of people living and working in space.

Last year, Musk laid out his own decades-long plan for sending millions of settlers to Mars, starting in the 2020s. Last week, he said hes getting ready to update the plan with further details.

But when it comes to thinking long-term, Hawkings talk in Norway outdid Musks talk in Mexico. Although interstellar travel isnt practical today, Hawking said it should be possible to come up with the required technologies over the next 200 to 500 years.

Among the options could be the beam-driven propulsion system that scientists and engineers are trying to develop for Breakthrough Starshot, a project thats supported by Hawking as well as deep-pocketed funders such as Russian billionaire Yuri Milner.

Breakthrough Starshot aims to send swarms of mini-probes toward the Alpha Centauri star system, powered by arrays of laser-equipped antennas. The trip is projected to take 20 years, and could include a flyby past Proxima Centauri b.

If we succeed, we will send a probe to Alpha Centauri within the lifetime of some of you here today, Hawking told the crowd in Trondheim.

He said other options could include fusion drives or antimatter drives.

Hawking didnt address how his expansive (and expensive) space vision would be financed. Setting up bases on the moon and Mars is likely to cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and the cost of interstellar flight could well be astronomical.

The physicist did give a nod to commercial space efforts during his talk, noting that hes still looking forward to taking a suborbital ride into space aboard Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.

I believe it is up to scientists like me, together with innovative commercial entrepreneurs, to do all we can to promote the excitement and wonder of space travel, he said.

President Donald Trump has also said he wants to see a speed-up in the pace of space exploration. American footprints on distant planets are not too big a dream, Trump told a joint session of Congress in February.

However, Hawking has sharply criticized Trump for his stance on climate change. At one point he noted that it takes 4.3 years for radio transmissions to reach the Alpha Centauri system, and joked that if there are beings alive on Alpha Centauri today, they remain blissfully ignorant of the rise of Donald Trump.

At another point, Hawking referred to Trump in his reply to the anticipated criticism that we should be focusing our resources on saving our own planet rather than looking for a different home in the cosmos.

I am not denying the importance of fighting climate change and global warming, unlike Donald Trump, who may just have taken the most serious and wrong decision on climate change this world has seen, Hawking said. I am arguing for the future of humanity, and the long-term strategy to achieve this.

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(Reuters) - The U.S. Marine Corps said on Friday it resumed flight operations for Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35B fighter jets after temporarily suspended operations a day ago because of software problems.

The jets are from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211 based at Air Station Yuma in Arizona.

Mark Wise, commanding general of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing had decided on Thursday to suspend flight operations after because of "anomalies" in the autonomic logistics information system (ALIS) software upgrade.

The software issues have been mitigated, the U.S. Marine Corps said in a statement.

The Joint Program Office (JPO) said that JPO and Lockheed Martin Corp have made the software fix, without giving details of what measures were taken.

A 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing spokesman had told CNN on Thursday that the suspension of the fighter jets was not related to performance or safety of the aircraft. U.S. Senator John McCain had said the suspension was concerning. (http://cnn.it/2rWNOHh)

U.S. President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials have criticized the F-35, the Pentagon's most expensive program, for its many delays and cost overruns.

Earlier in June, a quarter of the operating F-35 fleet was grounded because of irregularities in the pilots' oxygen supplies.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru and Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Eric Meijer)
Turkish media quoted the countrys Finance Minister Naci Agbal Friday, saying that Israel has paid total compensation of $20 million to the families of people killed during an IDF raid in 2010 on a Turkish flotilla that attempted to break Israels maritime blockade around the Gaza Strip.

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The blockade was set up in an effort to stop materials entering the enclave that could be used for terror activities by Hamas.

Ten people aboard the Mavi Marmara flotilla were killed by IDF gunfire after the Israeli commandos were set upon and attacked immediately after descending onto the ship. Footage from the incident showed what were originally believed to be peace activists began battering the IDF soldiers with metal clubs, attacking them with axes and knives and even throwing one of them overboard.

Activists attack IDF soldiers (Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

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The payment , which will be divided among the 10 families, comes some nine months after Israel pledged to provide the compensation, one of Ankara's conditions for the rapprochement deal reached between Israel and Turkey.

"Compensation has been paid to the families of those who lost their lives during the Mavi Marmara attack," Turkish broadcasters quoted Agbal as saying.

Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit

After relations between Turkey and Israel broke down in the aftermath of the incident, in June 2016 the two countries said they would normalize ties in a reconciliation deal driven by the prospect of lucrative Mediterranean gas deals as well as mutual fears over security risks in the Middle East.

The ship was boarded after repeated attempts to have it sail to the Israeli port of Ashdod so that their "humanitarian aid" could be sent to Gaza via the proper channels.

Photo: AFP

After the vessel was inspected after the incident, an investigative committee headed by Former Supreme Court Justice Ya'akov Turkel was established to examine the circumstances further. The committee's report, which came out in 2011, said that IHH activists cut the railings of the ship with circular saws to create steel rods with which to attack the soldiers, despite attempts from vessel's crew to stop them.

The captain of the ship reported that he was shocked by the "considerable number of weapons" which were on the ship.

Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan named a new ambassador to Israel in November last year, reciprocating a move by the Israelis, in a move towards restoring diplomatic ties between the once-close allies.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that a future war waged by Israel against Syria or Lebanon could draw thousands of fighters from countries including Iran and Iraq.

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His comments indicated that the same array of Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias but not countriescurrently fighting in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad could take part in any future conflict with Israel.

Nasrallah speaks to his supporters at an event marking Resistance and Liberation Day in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon (Photo: Reuters)

Tensions have risen between Hezbollah and its longtime foe Israel in recent months since Donald Trump became US president with his tough talk against Iran. Israel's air force chief said his country would use all its strength from the start in any new war with Hezbollah.

"The Israeli enemy must know that if an Israeli war is launched against Syria or Lebanon, it is not known that the fighting will remain Lebanese-Israeli, or Syrian-Israeli," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

"This doesn't mean there are states that might intervene directly. But this could open the way for thousands, even hundreds of thousands of fighters from all over the Arab and Islamic world to participatefrom Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said.

Nasrallah has repeatedly warned Israel against attacking Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Shi'ite group is based, and from where it sends fighters to support Assad against insurgents.

Experts on the group say the warnings are part of a policy of deterrence that has also included revealing some of its military capabilities.

Nasrallah said in recent months Hezbollah's rocket arsenal can hit any military target in Israel, which is Lebanon's southern neighbor.

He said any Israeli war with Lebanon or the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, would be "very costly" and that Israel would not be able to win.

Israel has targeted senior Hezbollah commanders in air raids on Syrian soil. But there has been no major confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon since a month-long war between the two sides in 2006.
The World Jewish Congress and the leading Jewish group in Hungary objected Friday to Prime Minister Viktor Orban's praise for Miklos Horthy, the World War II-era leader who allied Hungary with Nazi Germany.

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WJC President Ronald Lauder said his organization would always condemn "deplorable actions" like Horthy's and rejected any attempts to excuse or justify them.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (Photo: AFP)

"The horrors that Admiral Horthy inflicted on the Jewish community of Hungary by stripping them of their rights and their humanity, and his role in the deportation and murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews, can never be excused," Lauder said.

In a speech on Wednesday, just hours before he hosted Lauder in Parliament, Orban called Horthy and other Hungarian leaders "exceptional statesmen" for leading the country after the traumatic disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I.

Orban's comments were also criticized by Andras Heiszler, president of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, who said the Horthy era's anti-Semitism "cannot be put as an example for future generations."

Several busts and statues of Horthy have been erected in the past few years, mostly on private property.
- U.S says all former presidents in Ghana have the right to special travel privileges

- This follows earlier claims by the U.S. embassy in Ghana that former presidents will be queuing for visas

- Click here for the latest stories in Ghana

The U.S. government has stepped down on its resolve to revoke special travel permits to all former presidents and members of parliament in Ghana.

U.S. backs down on calls against special travel permits for former presidents

READ ALSO: All illegal Ghanaian immigrants in Saudi Arabia to be repatriated to Ghana

The embassy had recently been criticized for taking this decision as a leading member of the parliament select committee on foreign affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa fumed that government will ensure that the American government respects it politicians.

Read the full statement below

Under U.S. law, travelers seeking a non-immigrant visa for travel to the United States must generally appear in person for an interview with a consular officer.

U.S. law also designates limited exceptions under which the visa interview may be waived, such as for diplomats and officials traveling on official government business.

However, under U.S. law, when a diplomat or official applies for a new visa for personal travel, that applicant must appear in person for an interview.

This is not a new policy.

In such limited and special circumstances as having a former president come in, we have procedures established to ensure the appropriate courtesies are extended.

When a diplomat or official applies for a visa for personal travel, it is neither necessary nor appropriate for the applicant to be accompanied to the interview by protocol assistants. As a general policy, only visa applicants are allowed in the waiting room. Our communication to the Government of Ghana was meant to clarify this policy.

READ ALSO: All illegal Ghanaian immigrants in Saudi Arabia to be repatriated to Ghana

We will continue to work with the government to facilitate legitimate personal and official travel

Do you have any story to share with YEN? Get featured! We are available on Facebook and email via info@yen.com.gh

Source: YEN.com.gh
1. Yes. Taxpayers are funding its operation; they should have a voice in the naming process.

2. Yes. The city should operate with a spirit of inclusivity. Residents will be responsive.

3. No. Public input can be problematic; rejection of suggestions can be divisive for residents.

4. No. Residents elect council members to make decisions on their behalf. No input is needed.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say whether public input would be more of a benefit or a hindrance.

Vote

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By Benjamin Jumbe

The government of Turkey has expressed willingness to support Uganda in its efforts to resettle refugees.

Turkey is currently the leading refugee host country in the world with a total of about 4 M refugees with majority coming from Syria.

Now Turkish ambassador to Uganda Sedef Yavuzalp says Turkey is ready to offer technical assistance and capacity building for Ugandan officials.

He urges government to ensure the MOU on setting up a coordination office for the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency is cleared for signing to ensure more development and humanitarian assistance to Uganda.
Since Donald Trump became president, commentary about his public statements, tweeting habits, predilections and even his personality has become something of a national pastime.

Some in the professional psychiatric community have been moved to join in, offering their own expert analysis on why the president says what he says and does what he does.

But should they? Not according to the American Psychiatric Association, which years ago adopted a rule for its 37,000 licensed members against offering a public opinion about the mental health or general psychological makeup of a public figure.

Its known as the Goldwater Rule, and in the era of President Trump, its suddenly the subject of vigorous discussion  most recently at a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association last month in San Diego.

Here are some details on the debate:

Q: What is the Goldwater Rule?

A: Its officially known as Section 7.3 of the American Psychiatric Associations code of ethics.

This is how the organizations ethics committee defines it: On occasion psychiatrists are asked for an opinion about an individual who is in the light of public attention or who has disclosed information about himself/herself through public media. In such circumstances, a psychiatrist may share with the public his or her expertise about psychiatric issues in general. However, it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.

Q: So why is it called the Goldwater Rule?

A: The rule dates back to an incident during the 1964 campaign between Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson and his Republican challenger, Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona.

Throughout the campaign, Democrats and even some Republicans relentlessly assailed Goldwater as a demagogue and a leader of right-wing extremism.

In September 1964, Fact Magazine, which is now defunct, published The Unconscious of a Conservative: A Special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater. The magazine queried about 12,300 psychiatrists on whether Goldwater was psychologically fit to be president. Only about 2,400 psychiatrists responded to the magazines request, and of those about 1,200 said Goldwater was unfit for the job.

In 1966, two years after being trounced in the election, the Arizona senator sued the magazine for libel, and a federal jury awarded him $75,000 in punitive damages. Four years later, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the case.

Although the American Psychiatric Association had no direct involvement in the case, some viewed it as a blemish on psychiatry. So in 1973, the new rule was adopted by the groups ethics board. Members who break it could be kicked out of the organization but do not lose their medical licenses.

Q: So theres been talk about re-evaluating the rule?

A: Indeed.

In the decades after the rule went into effect, little debate took place over its merits. Then came the 2016 presidential election.

As Trump and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, battled in a vitriolic campaign, some members of the American Psychiatric Association broke the rule and voiced concerns about what they described as Trumps erratic and impulsive behavior.

They said it would be a disservice to the public to not speak out.

Maria A. Oquendo, then-president of the association, responded with an open letter to members in August.

We live in an age where information on a given individual is easier to access and more abundant than ever before, particularly if that person happens to be a public figure, she wrote. With that in mind, I can understand the desire to get inside the mind of a presidential candidate.

But she argued that if psychiatrists were allowed to make diagnoses without seeing a patient, the public could lose confidence in the field and mental health patients could feel stigmatized by their own diagnoses and less inclined to seek help.

Simply put, breaking the Goldwater Rule is irresponsible, potentially stigmatizing, and definitely unethical, she wrote.

Q: Did Trumps victory elevate discourse on the issue?

A: Yes. Shortly after Trump entered the White House, more than two dozen prominent psychiatrists wrote a letter to the editor of The New York Times expressing discontent with the Goldwater Rule.

Silence from the countrys mental health organizations has been due to a self-imposed dictum about evaluating public figures, they wrote. But this silence has resulted in a failure to lend our expertise to worried journalists and members of Congress at this critical time. We fear that too much is at stake to be silent any longer.

Q: How did the American Psychiatric Association react to the letter?

A: It strongly pushed back.

In a March statement, the organization reaffirmed its support for the Goldwater Rule.

It was unethical and irresponsible back in 1964 to offer professional opinions on people who were not properly evaluated and it is unethical and irresponsible today, Oquendo said in March.

In the past year, we have received numerous inquiries from member psychiatrists, the press and the public about the Goldwater Rule. We decided to clarify the ethical underpinnings of the principle and answer some of the common questions raised by our members. APA continues to support these ethical principles.

During a recent interview, Dr. Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, a consultant to the associations ethics committee, said a physician cant arrive at a diagnosis without an examination that considers underlying causes of an individuals behavior, including medical conditions.

For example, someone with diabetes could act erratically or confused because their blood sugar levels need to be adjusted, she said.

Also, publicly discussing someones mental state without an examination is potentially stigmatizing for those with mental illness and could lead them to avoid treatment for fear of having their condition publicly discussed or out of concern about the methods of diagnosis.

Q: What about the dissenters?

A: Its a silly rule, said Lance Dodes, a Los Angeles psychiatrist and retired clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, who was among those to sign the letter. The APA is not protecting Donald Trump; theyre protecting themselves.

Dodes, a former member of the association, believes Trumps presidency could hurt national security.

He has an antisocial personality disorder, Dodes said. This is not difficult to diagnose.  Its clear to see.

John Zinner, a clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at George Washington University, says many Americans are scared and concerned about Trumps behavior, and that his field has a responsibility to speak out.

People are afraid he could create havoc due to his impulsiveness, Zinner said.

Q: So where do things stand now?

A: The rule remains in place.

In May, at its annual meeting in San Diego, the association held a panel discussion weighing the pros and cons of the rule.

Ultimately it was an effort to create a public discourse around the issue.

Ellen Covey, a professor in the department of psychology at the University of Washington, says it is appropriate for mental health professionals to condemn specific patterns of behavior such as habitual lying, blatant disrespect for others, self-contradiction and erratic behavior as inappropriate for a person holding a public office.

But thats different than making a diagnosis, she said.

Such behavior patterns can be pointed out without the need to label them as a specific psychopathology, she said. The behavior speaks for itself.
MADISON  An invasive fruit fly has been threatening crops of Wisconsin berry growers since it first arrived in 2010. Now University of Wisconsin researchers are trying to pinpoint when and where the fruit-loving pest is most active within plants.

UW-Madison fruit crop entomologist Christelle Guedot said they began studying the movements of the bug known as spotted wing drosophila within berry plants last summer. She said they found adult flies are most active in the evening hours.

Theyre active between something like 6 and 9 p.m. is when theyre most active during the day, she said. Then, were also trying to figure out where those flies are within the crop. Are they mostly in the canopy? The center of the crop? Or are they down by the ground?

Guedot said the research could give berry growers a better idea of when spraying insecticides is most effective. She said theyll also look at whether temperature and humidity play a role in their distribution.

But, then we also want to see if theres movement, she said. Do we have those flies that are active in the evening  could they be more towards the ground? Or is it in the morning that we get those few flies that are more towards the ground and then they move up during the day?

Results of the study should be available by the end of this year. Tiffany Chadwick, executive director of the Wisconsin Berry Growers Association, said their nearly 90 members have been contributing money towards research to help identify management practices to control damage from the invasive fruit fly that can cause fruit to deteriorate, change its appearance and ultimately cause fruit to be unmarketable.

Until that research is being done, a number of our growers have decided to just stop producing raspberries at this time because its just been too consuming of their time to try to deal with the issue, Chadwick said.

Eric Carlson, who owns Blue Vista Farm in Bayfield, said spotted wing drosophila has increased his production costs. In an interview earlier this spring, he said the organic insecticide he sprays on raspberries costs around $450 per quart. On average, Carlson sprays 4 to 6 ounces per acre.

A farmers got to spray every week to control for SWD, he said. At some point, you have to decide whether or not youre going to continue spraying.

As summer draws to a close each year, Carlson gauges whether he continues to manage the invasive fruit fly on the number of customers.

There arent enough people coming, and were not selling enough fruit to justify this expense, he said. All that fruit thats out in the field is inedible in a way because its all going to get infected.

Guedot said Wisconsin is among four other states involved in a larger project researching organic management strategies for the invasive fruit fly. The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded around $2 million to Wisconsin, Georgia, Oregon, Michigan and Florida to study spotted wing drosophila.

As part of that, Wisconsin received around $40,000 to test different combinations of homemade and commercial baits to attract the fruit-loving pest. If the old saying is that one can catch more bees with honey, Guedot said, theyve found they can catch more of the invasive fruit flies with a combination of sugar, yeast and commercial lures.

What we found is that we had the yeast and sugar combined with that Scentry lure that we bought commercially thats available for anybody to purchase on a commercial level  those two together provided higher trap catches, she said.

The results are being used for monitoring only at this time.

Right now, we cannot use those baits to do some kind of mass trapping or attract and kill strategies, she said. This was the basis of a bigger project with colleagues in other states to really have the most effective one to see if we can then use that for more management practices.

Guedot said the results may advance efforts to trap and kill the bug down the line.
The jury in the trial of St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez was deadlocked for almost a week before acquitting him on all charges for the shooting death of Philando Castile.

Nearly a week after a jury found Yanez not guilty on second-degree manslaughter and felony weapons charges, one of the jurors has given MPR News the first detailed account of what took place during deliberations.

The juror spoke with MPR News host Tom Weber on the condition that he remain anonymous, because he said he is afraid of retribution. During deliberations, the jury was deadlocked for days before reaching its unanimous verdict to acquit Yanez on all counts.

This juror discussed the group members mindsets during deliberation but declined to make public how he voted each day.

What happened to Philando is not OK to any of us. Nobody felt good about any part of this, the juror said. We were just asked to do a job and we did it, and I think every one of us is proud of how we acted, but nobody felt good. Nobody was OK with it.

Castiles death and Yanezs trial held the nations attention since that fatal traffic stop last July. But the goal of jury selection is to find a group of people who dont know much about the case and who have no preconceived opinions on it. Jurors are to consider only whats presented in court.

The juror whos now speaking out didnt know who Philandos mother Valerie Castile was when she stood up and walked out of the courtroom right when the verdict was announced.

Heres one jurors account of how the trial went down and what he has taken away from it all.

From deadlock to unanimous

Jurors were quick to decide Yanezs acquittal on felony weapons charges. The juror said photos of Castiles body showed that Yanez was aiming away from the two passengers, Diamond Reynolds and her 4-year-old daughter.

Jurors couldnt agree on the manslaughter charge for days, though.

What we were looking at was some pretty obscure things to a lot of people, like culpable negligence. You think you might know what it means: Its negligent, but maybe pretty bad negligence. Well, its gross negligence with an element of recklessness ... We had the law in front of us so we could break it down.

It just came down to us not being able to see what was going on in the car. Some of us were saying that there was some recklessness there, but that didnt stick because we didnt know what escalated the situation: was he really seeing a gun? We felt [Yanez] was an honest guy ... and in the end, we had to go on his word, and thats what it came down to.

On his takeaways

Overall, I think if anybodys handling this the right way, it would be Philandos mom. I think if you want to make a change, you cant go after jury or a police officer. I think you need to go after the law. I dont know what that means. Ive been thinking about it this week. I dont know how you go about doing that. Do you run for city council?

I feel like Obama said it best when he was leaving office: Just get involved. I dont know if that means contacting your representative or your congressman or picking up a book and going to law school. I dont know you do it, but I think people should figure out a way to make a difference. They should get involved.

Go after the law. Dont go after people. There are some situations where people are clearly guilty and then yes. But in situations like this, its the law. Its the law that people need to go after.
Stay out of politics.

This is the warning politicians tell clergy of several denominations when they are challenged by them on moral or ethical grounds.

A current issue is the crisis of climate change. For example, when Pope Francis published his document, On Care of Our Common Home, then presidential candidates, and Catholics, Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush, politely told the pope that he had no business speaking on this political issue.

When politicians speak this way, they demonstrate an ignorance of their own faith. Religion is not a private set of limited beliefs but rather a way of life that touches everything. In fact, before Christians were called Christians, they were called followers of The Way.

From the first pages of the Bible, God says that creation is good, its for the good of all humans, and all+humans are to be good stewards of all of creation. The damage to creation that global warming causes is well documented. Religious leaders ought to be compelled by their faith to speak out about it.

The Global Catholic Climate Movement is speaking out as it celebrates the second anniversary of the popes document on climate change. This international movement of more than 400 organizations hopes to mobilize more than 1 million Catholics to pledge to keep the popes message alive.

The pledge reads: Answering Pope Francis urgent call, I pledge to pray for and with creation, live more simply, advocate to protect our common home.

Another concern of Christianity  as well as Judaism, Islam and Buddhism  is the poor. God loves everyone, but the poor need his help more to survive in this world. Catholic theology calls it Gods preferential option for the poor.

One may object to this phrase, but the Bible is full of references of this concern for the poor. That is why the pope states that every new political proposal needs to be evaluated by how it effects the poor. The effect of global warming on the poor is also well documented. It is destroying the homes of the poor on island nations and causing many of the poor in other nations to become refugees.

In the current debates about health care and the budget, religious leaders need to speak out, as these are fundamentally moral issues that have enormous consequences for the poor.

There is another issue that religious leaders are speaking about  the repeal of the Johnson Amendment. The amendment, named for then Sen. Lyndon Johnson, was passed in 1954 as an addition to the tax code. It essentially states that nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations lose their tax-exempt status if they endorse political candidates.

The title for this proposed bill to repeal the Johnson Amendment is called the Free Speech Fairness Act. At this years National Prayer Breakfast, President Donald Trump supported the bill by saying he wants to get rid of, and totally destroy, the Johnson Amendment.

At first glance, it may seem like a good idea  Free Speech Fairness sounds so American. Yet polls show both the general public and clergy oppose churches endorsing political candidates.

Why? Imagine what would happen if a pastor endorsed a political candidate from the pulpit. Or imagine whether a group of elders asked the congregation to endorse either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton for president. The majority vote would win. Soon St. Prozac Church would become two churches  The United St. Prozac Church of Republicans and the United St. Prozac Church of Democrats.

Christian churches, at their best, contain people of diverse races, occupations, incomes and political opinions. There is one thing that is supposed to keep them together  a deep commitment to Jesus Christ. For many people, this commitment is not deep enough to survive the endorsement of political candidates.

The American way of life is a blessing for churches. Preachers can speak about any issue. Congregations can argue about what legislation is consistent with their way of life. Yet when it comes to endorsing political candidates, this is the one case that most Americans want churches to stay out of politics.
Some Wisconsin business leaders say introducing highway tolling in the state could harm its economy, even as top lawmakers cite the idea as a possible linchpin to negotiations over the states next budget.

The opposition from the states business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, and other groups illustrate part of the challenge facing lawmakers and Gov. Scott Walker if they want to introduce tolling to pay for road construction and repairs.

Lawmakers and Walker aim to pass the states next two-year budget in coming weeks. Their disagreement on how to address a lack of revenue for roads and bridges is the biggest hurdle to the budgets passage in the face of a July 1 deadline.

Supporters of tolling say it would create a long-term revenue source for Wisconsins interstates. Many were built in the 1960s and have outlived their original lifespans, meaning they must be fully rebuilt at a cost of billions of dollars.

But whether or not its a financial boon to the state, tolling could bring new challenges, according to critics in the states tourism, hospitality and manufacturing sectors. They say tolling could deter tourists and increase costs to transport goods.

Other concerns center on how tolling could affect highway access. Depending on how it were implemented, tolling could upend the business models of roadside restaurants, convenience stores and hotels, critics fear.

The response calls into question whether statehouse Republicans will ultimately back tolling in the face of criticism from some of their most powerful  and deep-pocketed  allies.

It also illustrates the array of hurdles that await if Wisconsin attempts what no other state has done: convert a non-tolled U.S. interstate into one that is fully tolled.

The states influential business lobby, WMC, said in a recent statement that it is greatly concerned about the impact tolling will have on the cost to move manufactured goods and agricultural products.

Tom Diehl, president of the Association of Wisconsin Tourism Attractions, calls tolling a bad idea that will deter tourists from coming to the state. Diehl also questioned the premise that out-of-state motorists would foot much of the bill for tolling.

Youre going to start ripping off the general public going to and from work every day, Diehl said.

Not all groups representing transportation-reliant businesses oppose tolling. Some agricultural groups have signaled an openness to it.

Tamas Houlihan, director of the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association, said his group is convinced the state needs more revenue for roads and bridges.

We have asked our elected officials to consider all options for increasing revenue for transportation, Houlihan said. We leave it to the legislators whether any particular option, such as tolls, should be part of the ultimate solution.

It would create more problems

Highway tolling in Wisconsin likely would require federal approval, which state Assembly Republicans have proposed to seek. Current law only permits states to begin tolling in very limited forms, such as adding toll lanes to existing highways. However, a federal program allows states to toll interstates on a broader scale if they apply and are accepted for it.

If approval were granted to begin tolling, it would take at least four years to implement, according to a state Department of Transportation study released in December.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, has said tolls should be considered as part of the next state budget. Speaking of ongoing budget negotiations, Fitzgerald said tolling could kind of bring this whole thing together at the end if enough members think its viable. Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, said Senate Republicans have discussed tolling but not all senators are on board.

Both Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, through statements from their spokespersons, told the Wisconsin State Journal this week that theyve heard from groups concerned about tolling but still consider it an option.

Walker has insisted hes not pushing tolls but said he would consider them under certain circumstances.

As Walker and lawmakers have spoken publicly about tolling in recent weeks, the states hospitality industry has led the charge against the concept.

We oppose barriers to travelers from out of state coming to our state to spend their dollars, said Trisha Pugal, president of the Wisconsin Hotel and Lodging Association.

Ed Lump, CEO of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, said tolling is not a solution to the states transportation funding problems.

It would create more problems, Lump said.

Lump fears toll roads could lead to the creation of privatized roadside rest stops or service areas that can include gas stations or restaurants, such as what exist on tollways in other states. Such stops would hurt existing roadside businesses, he said.

If tolling causes highway access to be restricted or exits to be removed, thats another concern, Lump said. Tollways once were built with limited access points to minimize the number of toll booths required.

But such concerns are minimized in the era of electronic tolling, according to tolling advocate Bob Poole, who has advised the U.S. Department of Transportation and various state DOTs, including Wisconsins. He also co-founded the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank.

New technology has changed tolling

Tolls now can be collected electronically, with no toll booths  or immediate payment  needed. Vehicle transponders collect information about which vehicles use the highway and when and where. For vehicles without transponders, cameras capture vehicle license plates.

Such infrastructure doesnt come cheap. The DOT study released in December estimated up-front capital costs for tolling Wisconsins interstates would be as much $400 million.

The conditions Walker has publicly laid out to consider tolling are that they must be collected from motorists entering the state and they must be paired with a reduction in the states vehicle registration fee or in gas taxes paid by Wisconsin residents.

Tolling only motorists entering Wisconsin is not feasible, according to Poole. He said collecting tolls only along state lines almost certainly would violate the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, meaning it would be struck down in court.

Poole also said an across-the-board gas tax cut would be difficult to implement because it would drain funding for non-interstate roads. But a more limited gas tax cut  perhaps in the form of a rebate for Wisconsin motorists who pay tolls  might be feasible, he said.

Bill McCoshen, who lobbies for the states Dairy Business Association, said many business groups understand the state needs more money for roads and would support a modest gas tax increase.

Its simpler to do it that way, McCoshen said.

But Walker has said he would veto such an increase, and Fitzgerald has said Senate Republicans wont override the governor.

McCoshen said his association wouldnt rule out tolling as an option. But he noted it would not be a fix for the next state budget, since it would take years to bring tolling online and start collecting revenue.
TOMAH  Daniel Seehafer asked cadets to raise their hands if they planned to pursue law enforcement careers.

Three-fourths of the hands went up, which is exactly what Seehafer wanted to see.

Theres a need for this, he said. We wanted to be able to plant seeds.

Seehafer, department commander for the Wisconsin American Legion, said promoting law enforcement was the goal of last weeks Wisconsin American Legion Law Enforcement Academy held at the Wisconsin State Patrol Academy at Fort McCoy. Thirty-seven teenagers between their junior and senior years of high school spent a week at the academy learning about law enforcement techniques and careers in the law enforcement field.

The academy was co-sponsored by the American Legion and Wisconsin Professional Police Association. Eighty students filled out applications that included an essay on why they wanted to attend.

The week coincided with verdicts in two high-profile trials in which police officers were acquitted in fatal shootings, and cadet Anthony Taylor said hes concerned about the image of police.

People have been bashing the cops constantly on the internet, said Taylor, a student at Beloit Memorial High School. Thats all I see. Thats all my friends talk about  how nasty the cops are.

He acknowledged there are cases when police officers make bad judgments and must be held accountable but believes most officers conduct themselves in good faith.

People bash all the cops, and I think thats unnecessary  theyre here to help you out, and people just dont see that, he said.

Cadet Kelsey Meston of Rockland said she has wanted to be a police officer since she was four years old even though nobody in her family works in law enforcement. She wants to be a deputy sheriff.

That has been my lifelong dream, said Meston, a student at Bangor High School. I have always been enthusiastic about becoming a police officer.

Students took 32 hours of classes that covered K9 units, bomb squads, crime scene investigation, drug/drunk driving enforcement and community policing. Law enforcement professionals from across the state served as instructors and mentors, and Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel spoke to cadets Thursday night. He took students through a case he worked as an assistant district attorney in Waukesha County to show how crimes are investigated and the factors to determine how charges are filed.

Taylor said he didnt realize there were so many different law enforcement careers, ranging from patrol officers to crime lab technicians to crime data analysts. After hearing all the different branches of law enforcement, he still wants to serve on the front line.

I want to be a patrol officer, he said. Theyre the ones who stop the stuff from happening.

Meston enjoyed meeting people from different parts of the state.

I know I made some life-long friendships here, she said. Im from a village, so its intriguing to see people coming from bigger cities. ... Its wonderful to see them coming together. Were all here for the same reason.

Ozaukee County Sheriff Jim Johnson, who served as one of the instructors, said law enforcement needs young people. He said fewer young people are pursuing law enforcement careers and that the academy gives law enforcement an opportunity to present itself in a positive light.

He said the cadets, a roughly equal number of boys and girls, have responded.

These kids are smart; theyre eager to do stuff, Johnson said. They reaffirmed my faith in kids of the future.

These kids are smart; theyre eager to do stuff. They reaffirmed my faith in kids of the future. Jim Johnson, Ozaukee County sheriff
LEXINGTON  Mental health services including counseling and substance abuse therapy are available at Plum Creek Medical Group through a new health care provider.

Jason Dillard, who recently received a Masters of Science in Education degree through the University of Nebraska-Kearneys Clinical Mental Health Counseling program, began working at Plum Creek Medical Group June 1. He is a provisionally licensed mental health practitioner and a provisionally licensed alcohol and drug counselor.

He said the term "provisional" means he is at the first level of experience, but also means there is someone to oversee his work.

Dillard is trained to address mental health, behavior health, adjustment disorders, drug and alcohol issues, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) and matters related to couples, families and kids.

Dillard is not entirely new to the clinic. He completed a 10-month internship at PCMG, prior to his official employment.

Going further back in Dillards life, he was delivered by Dr. Joe Miller, and grew up in Lexington, graduating from Lexington High School in 2006.

Dillard said he reconnected with Miller, who has long been influential in his life, during his wedding reception in 2015 and talk about life and career led Miller to comment, "Ive always wanted to have a counselor in the clinic."

The following spring, Dillard approached Miller with an internship proposal. They talked back and forth and figured out a plan, which included Sue Kloch, an experienced counselor, as a supervisor. Dillard presented his proposal before PCMGs board of providers for approval.

"The hardest part was getting this room cleaned out," said Dillard of readying the office space he occupies.

"I saw a client the first day I started," said Dillard of the unpaid internship. He was at the clinic two days a week and logged in over 600 hours of counseling. "At the busiest I was seeing 14 clients a week in those two days," he said.

Dillard said his internship also served as a trial to see if having an on-site mental health counselor would be a good fit for the clinic. "You dont have a lot of counselors in doctors offices," he said.

"It was a way for us to have 10 months to figure out how to make this work," said Dillard. It was agreed ahead of time that if it didnt work, they could each go their separate ways with no hard feelings.

Because Dillard had previous experience working at Richard Young in Kearney, he knew that was also a possibility, but he said he wanted to try something different, especially because that facility only offers acute or short term care.

Dillard said 60 percent of mental health disorders are diagnosed in the family health setting. If a loved one passed away, a person lost their job or a family member was deported the topics might come up during a medical visit. A doctor encountering patients in those situations could walk with the person down the hall to introduce the patient to Dillard. If they dont talk immediately, they could at least set up an appointment. One of the hardest parts, the initial introduction, would have already taken place.

Dillard said many times when a primary care physician makes a mental health referral the patient neglects to set up the appointment and there may be lag in follow up to see if a visit happens.

Dillard said being in a doctors office removes some of the stigma of seeking mental health care. When people come to the clinic to be treated, those who see them do not know why they are there and which medical provider they intend to see.

"It frees the doctors and I get to help someone in my area of expertise," said Dillard. "What goes on doesnt go past this clinic," he said.

Dillard said he feel this model of health care is something that will become more prevalent in the future. "I feel like the future of health care is beyond family practice, that the model will be to create a place with all specialists under one roof for a whole health facility."

Dillard said a University of Nebraska Medical Center study indicates that one in five people have a mental health disorder.

Dillard said the majority of what he sees is depression and anxiety, along with substance abuse. "I really enjoy working with not only those who struggle with substance abuse disorders, but also the probation aspect of it," said Dillard.

He said studies suggest that 50 percent of people who are schizophrenic or bi-polar also have a substance abuse disorder. Because of that it makes sense to see someone who is licensed in both areas, instead of only dealing with one part of the problem or trying to see two separate counselors.

A person doesnt have to doctor at PCMG to see Dillard, but should be aware that a physician or physician assistant will sign off on the visit.

When it comes to insurance, Medicaid and Blue Cross Blue Shield cover the services of someone who is provisionally licensed, said Dillard. He helped create the forms used to track services, which are also used for billing purposes.

Although Dillard cannot prescribe medicine, doctors at the clinic can, which is another reason it makes sense to have a mental health counselor linked with the medical clinic said Dillard.

Dillard graduated from Lexington High School in 2006 and went on to attend the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he studied sociology and philosophy as double majors. He graduated in 2010.

Next, Dillard worked at Richard Young in Kearney for 13 months as a recovery specialist in the acute psychiatry unit. It is a place where individuals who are a danger to self or others are hospitalized short term. His duties included making rounds to see patients every 15 minutes, leading groups and meeting needs, including verbal de-escalation.

"It was a very good experience," he said.

Dillards next position was managing a group home for Development Services in Kearney. Dillard said he worked with seven individuals ranging in age from 12 to 65 who had autism, developmental delays, behavioral issues or traumatic brain injury.

This job gave Dillard the push to go back to school as it had too much stress and too many hours with an inconsistent schedule.

"I loved the individuals," Dillard said, noting that he took it hard when one of the people he worked with unexpectedly passed away.

Dillard said UNK was an excellent school for his training. "Almost all of my professors have an active practice. They are not only teaching, but practicing almost daily," said Dillard. He said that knowledge that comes from working in the field was helpful.

UNK is one of only two programs in Nebraska nationally accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, also known as CACREP. Dillard said the program required 60 hours of coursework and was thorough in diagnosis and assessment and how to use the information to treat a client/patient.

"Theres something about Lexington. I love the diversity," said Dillard of why he is glad to be working in his hometown. He said can see patients who speak other languages through the aid of an interpreter.

Dillard is married to Megan Thomas, whose parents also reside in Lexington, and they have a four-month-old child.
Robert Dean Beyl died June 20, 2017 in Fayetteville, Ark.

Bob requested that his body be donated to Genesis Legacy of Life for education and research. A memorial service will be held at a later date. Family suggests that memorials go to the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation or a local charitable organization of your choice.

He was born March 29, 1951 in Lexington to Harold Bud Beyl and Caryl Beyl. Bob graduated from Lexington High School in 1969. He studied photography at Denver Technical College. While in Denver he married Charla Gertig and adopted her two year old son Joseph. To this union a son, Jeremiah Beyl, was born.

Shortly after marriage Bob and Char returned to the Beyl family farm southeast of Lexington. After several years of farming, Bob and family moved to Columbus, Mont., where he owned and operated Eagles Nest Photography and Floral. In 1995 he moved to Denver, where he worked as a carpenter and was a Muck Truck dealer. At retirement he moved to Fayetteville to join his longtime companion, Cheryl Blew.

Over the years he made many trips to Bonaire to pursue scuba diving and underwater photography. Bob had a passion for fishing whenever and wherever he could. He had a cabin at Lake McConaughy for many years and most recently fished Beaver Lake and other lakes around Fayetteville.

Bob made lifelong friendships wherever he lived. He was known for his loving and giving nature and his big smile.

Bob is survived by his son Jeremiah, Denver; two sisters, Janice (Al) Cochran, Raymond and Fran (Bob) Neben, Orlando, Fla., his longtime companion, Cheryl Blew, Fayetteville, Ark., and her two sons, Tanner and Brandan (Kara) and family. He also leaves nephews and nieces and his special friends and fishing partners Bill and Linda Burns of Lexington.

He was preceded in death by his parents Bud and Caryl Beyl and his son Joseph Beyl.
This website is inclusive of tolerant people of all faiths, without exception. Neither anti-Semitism nor Islamophobia nor homophobia should ever be acceptable to anyone. We must all strive to live in peace and harmony with each other, regardless of religious affiliations, or none. Intolerance is the mother of strife and conflict.   Mark Alexander

We Britons are Europeans!Wir Briten sind Europaer! Nous, les Britanniques, sommes europeens !  Mark AlexanderEmail me at:markalexander.librabunda@gmail.com
Guest pastor to speak at Hollister church

HOLLISTER  The Hollister Presbyterian Church will observe the Sacrament of Holy Communion at 11 a.m. on Sunday. The Rev. Janne Goldbeck will be the guest speaker. The church is at 2461 Central Ave. in Hollister. Visitors are welcome and invited to attend. For more information, contact Linda at 208-733-9183.

Ascension bids farewell to interim minister

TWIN FALLS  Ascension Episcopal Church will celebrate the conclusion of The Rev. Neal Collins interim ministry on Sunday. Collins has been Ascensions interim minister since July 2016. A coffee hour gathering to thank him for his service will take place following worship.

The service of Holy Communion will be at 9 a.m. on Sunday. Childcare will be available at 8.45 a.m. for children 7 years and younger. Youth age 7 and older are invited to join parents for the worship service. Ascension Cafe, the adult discussion group, will not be held this week. Djembe Drumming (simple drumming in community) will take place at 6:45 p.m. on Monday. All are invited to attend. For information, or if you need a drum supplied, please call 208-961-1349. Ascension Episcopal Church, 371 Eastland Drive N., is handicapped accessible. For more information, go to episcopaltwinfalls.org or call 208-733-1248.

Mama Dragon member visits Unitarian Fellowship

TWIN FALLS  What does radical love look like for mothers of LGBTQIA children? When religion asks the impossible, what is the answer? How can faith, family and LGBTQIA communities be celebrated and championed? Guest speaker Jen Blair will talk to members of the Magic Valley Unitarian Fellowship at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday about her experiences as an LDS mother and an active member of the Mama Dragons organization. Mama Dragons is an organization that exists to inspire and empower mothers of LGBTQIA children.

Newcomers of all religious paths or none at all are welcomed to attend. The Fellowship meets at 588 Addison Ave. W. in Twin Falls. The building is handicapped accessible. Please park in the rear of the building. Child care is available.
Cassia County

Felony sentencings

Jeremiah Ben Schmidt; felony flee or attempt to elude a police officer in a motor vehicle, guilty, $245.50 costs, two years drivers license suspended, one year six months determinate time, two years six months indeterminate time, 303 days credited.

Angela Kim Maynez; felony drug trafficking in methamphetamine or amphetamine (400 grams or more) amended possession of felony controlled substance, guilty, $345.50 costs, $151.57 restitution, three years probation, two determinate time, five years indeterminate time, 13 days credited, 100 hours community service, penitentiary suspended.

Catarina Jane Valero; felony burglary, guilty, $245.50 costs, one year determinate time, three years indeterminate time; felony forgery, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.

Logan John Urrizaga; felony batteryaggravated by use of a deadly weapon or instrument, guilty, $745.50 costs, three years determinate time, twelve years indeterminate time, retained jurisdiction, penitentiary suspended.

Rodney Shane Egan; felony possession of controlled substance, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; felony destruction, alteration or concealment, guilty, $745.50 costs, $100 restitution, 30 months probation, two years determinate time, two years indeterminate, 139 days credited, penitentiary suspended; misdemeanor drug paraphernaliause or possess with intent to use, dismissed on motion of prosecutor, $100 restitution.

Logan John Urrizaga; felony burglary, guilty, $245.50 costs, three years determinate time, seven years indeterminate time, retained jurisdiction, penitentiary suspended.

Jason Jernigan; felony witnessintimidates, threatens, harasses or prevents from testifying in criminal or juvenile case, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor assault, guilty, $150 fine, $157.50 costs, 60 days jail, 11 days credited.

Felony dismissal

Logan John Urrizaga; felony possession of controlled substance, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.

Driving under the influence sentencing

Logan John Urrizaga; misdemeanor driving under the influence, guilty, $300 fine, $202.50 costs, 180 days drivers license suspended, 120 days jail, nine days credited; misdemeanor controlled substancepossession of marijuana, guilty, 120 days jail, nine days credited.
ALBION  At a mountain man rendezvous a fair trade occurs whenever two people feel pleased with the outcome after bartering for goods or services.

And during the Oregon Trail Muzzleloaders annual rendezvous on a mountainside near Albion this weekend, a generous amount of supplies of all kinds changed hands  and everyone left smiling.

About 150 members from muzzleloader clubs in Idaho and nearby states were expected over the weekend.

We are just reliving history and keeping nostalgia and history alive, Jay Edmons, of Buhl, said about the annual event. Beside we just like to play this way and get out of town.

Shane Waters forked over $45 in crisp bills to Christine Rowley, both of Burley, for a new medium blue shirt that she hand-sewed in the period style of 1840s trapper attire.

Rowley is known officially as one of the traders because she has many handmade clothing items and accessories for sale, and she sets up shop during the rendezvous to peddle her wares.

Although Rowley takes cash and credit cards, she also trades, especially with childrens clothing. Kids tend to change sizes before their clothes are worn out.

Rowley said people often upgrade their supplies and clothing the longer they are in the club, so they often trade the old items to new members just starting out.

Rowley was born into the mountain man lifestyle and loves to shoot, an activity featured prominently during the event along with knife and tomahawk throwing.

The club gives away four guns a year to winners, adding to its allure.

I out-shot the men when I was nine-months pregnant, and three days later I had my middle daughter, Rowley said.

As Waters tucked his new shirt under his arm he wandered a couple of camps over to investigate the hand-tooled leather shooting pouches, walking sticks and toys made by Jerome resident Dan Kelley.

He picked up a small wooden puzzle in the shape of a cowboy boot and attempted to solve it.

Kelley was sitting in the shade reworking a shooting pouch and powder horn that he had just traded to Jerome resident Bob Bracken for three coats.

I got the fur coat for my wife but she didnt like it, Bracken said. So it went to the trade.

Bracken wandered around holding a double-barrel 12-guage shotgun from the late 1800s that hed picked up for $150. He considered it his best trade to date.

I tried to talk him out of the gun, Kelley said, but he wont budge.

Kelley considers the coats he received from Bracken to be the best deal hes made.

Theyre all good trades, he said.

Lerry Heath of Glenns Ferry said the rendezvous are reminiscent of the annual trading done by Native Americans and the trappers in the 1800s.

The rendezvous were an important affair, and trading was a process that started with the drinking of whiskey, he said, as he pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels stashed in a hollowed-out log at the front of the tee-pee.

Every trading session began with a cup of whiskey, the first one free.

The trappers would bring pelts that would be traded for supplies like alcohol, sugar, black powder, blankets, pistols and lead.

The trappers also traded beads and anything that would be looked upon with favor by women, Edmons said.

A beaver pelt was the standard unit of measurement for a trade, and some of the most valuable items were sewing needles, metal pans and powder-blue beads.

It was a really important time, Edmons said. They couldnt just go to the store so it was the time where they got restocked for the year.

If members of the club have a talent for making an item, it becomes good bartering material for other items they may need to make their camps more comfortable or authentic to the era.

Edmons best deal came when he traded a necklace for what he thought was a rolled-up elk robe, but it turned out to be a bison hide.

Never unrolling it  Edmons took the robe to Leigh Kelley of Shoshone, who tans hides.

Because bison robes are the Cadillac of robes, Edmons said, much more valuable than elk due because of the warmth and larger size.

Camp tales, Heath warned, tend to grow a little larger as the day wears on.

Take everything you hear, he said, and filter it through a sieve.
This appeared in the Lewiston Tribune:

Face it, Idaho: Youre at the crossroads. Either you do something to address the states chronic early childhood education void.

Or you settle back and watch the rest of the country pass you by.

Again.

Idaho is among seven states that spends nothing toward pre-kindergarten programs. It relies on federal support for Head Startwhich reaches about a quarter of the children who qualifyand the private childcare sector.

But according to the latest KidsCount survey, that left 69 percent of Gem States youngest children not engaged in some kind of quality learning in 2013-15an increase from 64 percent in 2009-11.

In fact, KidsCount said this marked one of the few measurements of childhood well-being where Idaho lost ground.

Welcome to the rear of the national class, Idaho.

That 69 percent puts you 50th among the 50 statesdown from 46th place four years earlier. By contrast, Washington ranks 39th.

Idaho has lost ground because it stood still while others have gained. Across the country, state support for early childhood education rose $564 million last year. For example, Utah stepped forward with a hybrid program encouraging private investment in pre-kindergarten through a pay for success model. Four years ago, KidsCount ranked Utah 41st in the percentage of its young children left underserved. Today, the Beehive State placed 33rd.

Magnifying the effect of Idahos pre-K policyor lack thereofis a low-wage economy that often requires both parents to work but still leaves quality childcare beyond their wherewithal.

When youngsters arrive for the first day of kindergarten, about 46 percent of them are not ready to learn. Theyre not familiar with the alphabet, unable to count to 20 and may not fully understand colors or shapes. That can create a cycle of academic failure and frustration.

Or worse.

Earlier this year, retired Idaho 3rd District Court Judge Gregory Culet pointed to one common denominator among the people who appeared before him on felony charges: They were not ready or prepared to learn when they started school.

Helping those kids catch up is expensive and not always successful. Hence the logic that by intervening earlier, each $1 spent on early childhood education will reap a $7 return later.

Idaho Gov. C.L. Butch Otter isnt buying it. He has kept his focus on reforming what Idaho now hasK-12 and higher educationrather than expanding it. With 19 months left to his term, Otter is limping along toward lame duck status. Meanwhile, the political climate seems to be changing.

For instance, Senate Education Committee Vice Chairman Steven Thayn, R-Emmett, emerged from a 2015 seminar staged by the James A. and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy and the Andrus Center for Public Policy more amenable to the idea.

At an informational legislative hearing earlier this year, Lt. Gov. Brad Littleone of three Republicans seeking his partys gubernatorial nominationcalled the evidence in favor of pre-K compelling. ... Its a no-brainer that with a robust pre-K program, were going to have more kids prepared for kindergarten, and that reading proficiency at the end of third grade is going to go up.

Idaho is following up on the Utah model, approving a law that would allow private corporations to invest seed money in early childhood learning.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation issued a three-year, $450,000 grant that will enable a steering committee of pre-K advocates to build public support for an Idaho program.

All of which led the National Institution for Early Education Research toward this optimistic view: Idaho has been focused on the future.

Maybe it is.

Maybe it isnt.

Either way, keep your eyes on next years election and whether voters demand Otters successor shed the current administrations lethargy.
TWO Australian spy planes will start flying missions in Mindanao in the fight against Islamist extremists terrorizing the area, a move that the Palace and the Defense Department welcomed Friday.

Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella, however, emphasized that the government was capable of bringing down the Islamic State-inspired Maute group in Marawi City, where fighting erupted May 23.

Like the President said, were quite capable at this stage, Abella said. We welcome any support, but at this stage we take the lead, along with the regional states around us.

Our defense officials are in close coordination with their Australian counterparts in their offer of providing surveillance support, he added.

Abella said that the two Australian spy planes is another way to boost the militarys capabilities in the ongoing fight against extremist groups.

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In every military operation, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capability are very important, he said.

The Australian government on Friday said its spy planes would start flying missions over Mindanao as a way to help Manila counter the terrorist threat.

Fighters linked to the Islamic State group have been battling troops for a month around Marawi City in a conflict that has claimed hundreds of lives.

AIR SUPPORT. Student-activists shout anti-martial law slogans during a protest in Manila on June 23, 2017, calling for President Rodrigo Duterte to end the martial law. The fighting began on May 23 when hundreds of militants rampaged through Marawi, the most important Muslim city in the mainly Catholic Philippines, waving the black flags of the Islamic State (IS) group. Top photo shows a file photo of a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion taking off at RAAF Pearce Base in Perth. AFP

Canberra, which has an extensive defense cooperation program with Manila, said two high-tech AP-3C Orion aircraft will provide surveillance support to the Philippine military.

The regional threat from terrorism, in particular from Daesh and foreign fighters, is a direct threat to Australia and our interests, said Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

Australia will continue to work with our partners in Southeast Asia to counter it.

She recently spoke with her Philippine counterpart, Secretary of Defense Delfin Lorenzana, about how Australia could help and we agreed the best way to defeat terrorism in our region is for us to work together.

The versatile AP-3C Orions usually patrol maritime borders and played a prominent role in searching for missing Malaysian Airlines plane MH370, which went down in the remote Indian Ocean off Australia in 2014.

With these AP-3Cs from the ADF, our troops can benefit from enhanced airborne surveillance of the area any time of the day thereby improving operations on the ground, said Lorenzana.

The Defense chief said, however, that the deployment of the Orion surveillance planes will not require the embedding of ADF personnel with Filipino troops on the ground.

Earlier, the United States military also provided technical assistance to the Philippines in the form of air surveillance to assist ground troops pinpoint the exact location of terrorist snipers hiding in trenches and bunkers.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law across Mindanao, home to 20 million people, on May 23 immediately after fighters flying the IS flag rampaged through Marawi.

Their assault on the city ignited an unprecedented urban war, which Duterte has warned is part of an IS campaign to establish a base in Mindanao.

The fighting has left Marawi, the most important Muslim city in the Philippines, largely in ruins. With Francisco Tuyay, Sara Susanne Fabunan and AFP

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ITS EASIER for American tourists to travel to North Korea than to Cuba. Its also more dangerous, as the death this week of college student Otto Warmbier after 17 months of North Korean captivity shows.

But never mind the absurdity of President Donald Trumps reimposition of travel restrictions to a relatively open and safe island 90 miles off the American coast. To prevent future deaths and protect US national security, Congress should ban US tourist travel to Kim Jong Uns reclusive police state.

This file photo taken on Feb. 29, 2016 and released by North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency on March 1, 2016 shows US student Otto Frederick Warmbier (right), who was arrested for committing hostile acts against North Korea, speaking at a press conference in Pyongyang. Warmbier died June 19, 2017 of severe brain damage, following 18 months of captivity in North Korea. His family has asked that no autopsy be performed on the body of the US student who died days after being evacuated in a coma from North Korean detention. AFP

True, North Korea is not exactly a popular destination for US tourists. Of the 100,000 foreigners who visited North Korea in 2016, slightly more than 1 percent were American (most were Chinese).

North Koreas efforts to spark a tourist boomincluding by loosening its restrictions on US tourists in 2010have been a bust.

What US travelers to North Korea have provided the regime, unfortunately, is a ready supply of hostages. These Americans are then used as pawns in diplomatic negotiations with the US.

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Over the last decade, at least 17 US citizens have been detained in North Korea, and three remain in captivity.

A bipartisan bill in the House of Representatives would ban US tourist travel and penalize those who seek to arrange it. (Travel for other purposeshumanitarian assistance, for instancewould still be possible on a case-by-case basis.) Congress should pass it speedily.

The US should also make clear to South Korea that, under current conditions, plans to use a North Korean ski resort in the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics in Seoul would be seen less as a peace gesture to the North than as a slap in the face to Americans.

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In the past few months, China has announced two new crackdowns on research misconduct  one of which could lead to executions for scientists who doctor their data.

Scientists have been sounding alarms for years about the integrity of research in China. One recent survey estimated that 40 percent of biomedical papers by Chinese scholars were tainted by misconduct. Funding bodies there have in the past announced efforts to crack down on fraud, including clawing back money from scientists who cheat on their grants.

This month, in the wake of a fake peer review scandal that claimed 107 papers by Chinese scholars, the countrys Ministry of Science and Technology proclaimed a no tolerance policy for research misconduct  although its not clear what that might look like. According to the Financial Times, the ministry said the mass retractions seriously harmed the international reputation of our countrys scientific research and the dignity of Chinese scientists at large.

But a prior court decision in the country threatened the equivalent of the nuclear option. In April courts approved a new policy calling for stiff prison sentences for researchers who fabricate data in studies that lead to drug approvals. If the misconduct ends up harming people, then the punishment on the table even includes the death penalty. The move, as Nature explained, groups clinical trial data fraud with counterfeiting so that if the approved drug causes health problems, it can result in a 10-year prison term or the death penalty, in the case of severe or fatal consequences.




'There are no events in the current feed' - USGS (June 24, 2017)*





For this entire region to have no significant earthquakes in a day is curious by itself though this could just be a lull before a big one, who knows?





But on this same day today, June 24, comes the shocking, even bizarre news that a tragic landslide in China has occurred without any strong wind, typhoon nor earthquake triggering it.





Maybe the Chinese authorities should really get into the very bottom of this. Who knows at this time of our lives in a world in chaos if something more sinister is going on?





Waking up Marinduque?





More importantly, a new and urgent lesson to be gained from this landslide could open the eyes at last of people living in certain island provinces particularly those where a network of dams in mine sites exist. Abandoned earth dams that have been long declared, even by USGS, 'in imminent danger of collapse'. That's in addition to areas that have been declared areas 'prone to landslides and floods'. Exactly the situation in the island of Marinduque, where else, the one that seemingly just went back to sleep again?





We're just running out of time, don't you think?





China landslide buries houses, scores missing





AFP/Getty Images




Embattled South Africas President Jacob Zuma on Thursday said he was confident that the Southern African Biggest economy will emerge soon from its recession.

South Africas economy fell into a recession for the first time since 2009 after it contracted for a second straight quarter in the first three months of 2017.

This situation is of serious concern to the government, Zuma told parliamentarians in Cape Town.

Im very positive that we are going to come out of this technical recession quicker than we believe.

Africas most-industrialized country has undergone sluggish growth in recent years and in April it lost its investment grade credit rating from Fitch and Standard & Poors.

Despite the recession, Zuma said his government would forge ahead with a costly deal to build new nuclear infrastructure.

Government is still intent on pursuing the nuclear new-build program at a pace and scale that the country can afford, he said.

The country is likely to miss its 1.3 percent growth target this year and may have to curb spending to stick to its budget framework, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said last week.

Zuma, whos due to step down as leader of the ruling African National Congress in December and whose presidential term ends in 2019, has survived a series of corruption scandals.
Botswanas former President Ketumile Masire passed away at the age of 91 on Thursday, the government said in a statement.

It is my sad duty to formally inform the nation of the passing away of our Former President Sir Ketumile Masire, Botswanas President, Lt. General Seretse Khama Ian Khama posted on Facebook.

Sir Ketumile died peacefully at Bokamoso Private Hospital surrounded by his family.

In remembrance of Sir Ketumile, the President has declared a three day period of mourning, stating from Friday which shall run through to Sunday June 25, 2017, during which flags shall fly at half mast, as they will also do on the day of the funeral.

Masire was the first vice-president of Botswana. He went on to lead the landlocked country, taking the baton from the first president Sir Seretse Khama.

The 91-year old Masire who was Botswanas longest serving president has been praised for cementing stability in the country and laying the foundations for its economic success.

He also got involved in trying to resolve regional disputes, including supporting the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.

After stepping down in 1988, he worked as a mediator in a number of conflicts including in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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BUILDING THE LA RAZA 'The Race' WELFARE STATE ON MIDDLE AMERICAS' BACKS: Months ago, the Biden administration publicly defended their proposal to begin providing federal identification cards to border crossers and illegal aliens who they plan to release into American communities. The goal of the proposal is to make securing public benefits easier.
About Me Don Cuevas My blog name has nothing to do with my history of underground activity. It's a quirk of geographic coincidence. View my complete profile
For picture posts from 2010 and earlier, see the Earlier Picture Posts Page
With signs bearing slogans like Trumpcare is no care and Bleed the poor for the greed of the rich a group of around 40 rallied Friday in front of the Missoula office of Sen. Steve Daines, there to protest the U.S. Senates draft of a health care bill that was released to the public less than a day earlier.

The Senate bill was fashioned by a select group of senators without public input after the House passed the American Health Care Act last month. The bills are pitched as changes by the Republican-controlled Congress to the Affordable Care Act passed under President Barack Obama.

Erin Erickson of Missoula Rises said Friday's plan had originally been to go into Daines Missoula office and stay until demonstrators were able to speak on the phone with either the senator or Brad Kehr, his legislative assistant on health care matters.

However, the group arrived to find the Front Street office closed, with a note from staff taped to the front door saying staffers were currently out.

We have to sway his vote to no, Erickson said, adding that it was important for Daines to know his job is on the line if he does not protect Montana.

A spokesperson for Daines office said the Missoula office wasnt aware of the rally until after it concluded, and would have had staff present to listen to the group if they had been.

The Senate bill as currently written would tighten restrictions on who is eligible for health insurance premium subsidies, phase out Medicaid expansion funding and cap the amount of money states receive in federal Medicaid funding each year.

It would continue to require insurers to accept people with pre-existing conditions, but would allow individual states to waive requirements for insurers to cover essential health benefits which include costs of certain emergency services and hospitalizations, maternity care, mental health treatment and prescription drugs.

Senate leadership indicated they want the bill to be voted on as early as next week.

Katie Waldman, press secretary for Daines, said the senator has not made a decision about the draft text, and that hes still reviewing the 142-page bill and taking input from Montanans about the issue.

Daines has announced a telephone town hall meeting on June 28 at 6:15 p.m. to talk about the draft legislation. Anyone interested in listening in to that meeting can text SenatorDaines to 828282 or call any of his offices to register.

After the text was released Thursday, Sen. Jon Tester came out against the bill, saying Montanans will lose Medicaid funding if it passes and that it will make it more difficult to receive coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Tester, a Democrat, has a town hall meeting about health care in Great Falls on Saturday. It will be held at the Montana Electric Cooperatives Association at 501 Bay Drive at 6:30 p.m.

***

Jenny Montgomery, who owns Montgomery Distillery, said at Friday's rally the proposed cuts to Medicaid in the draft bill mean it cant be allowed to pass.

Health care is going to get more expensive, she said, despite Republicans' insistence that their alternative will lower insurance premiums. We are just not seeing what was promised.

Montgomery said she was particularly worried about the access to health care in more rural Montana communities, and the effect any change would have on the health care industry in the state.

Were not only looking at public health, were looking at jobs, she said. This is a matter of life and death.

Micah Nielsen of Montana Women Vote encouraged the crowd to come to phone-banking events to speak to other people in the state as well as their elected representatives about the bill.

Health care is a human right, she said. Every single day, from now until we kill this bill, call both of our senators.
MISSOULA  John Richard Strauch Sr. has joined his beloved wife of almost 59 years, Marjorie, for eternity.

Born in South Farmington, West Virginia, on Nov. 20, 1932, to Katherine and Joe Strauch, John joined the Air Force immediately following graduation from high school. Having very high math scores in testing he was trained as a meteorologist and was stationed in London for three years. Upon discharge he returned home and found various jobs such as being trained as a bricklayer, finishing pools, building yachts and working in a box factory in Baltimore, Maryland. He was employed by the United States Weather Service beginning Oct. 24, 1955, in Dayton, Ohio, then at the Atomic Energy Site west of Idaho Falls, Idaho, on Aug. 12, 1956.

Meeting a young music teacher at a Valentine YWCA party, John found his soulmate and married her six months later on July 20, 1958, at Grace M.E. Church in Butte. The couple moved to Pocatello, Idaho, in May 1959 where John served as a meteorologist at the airport.

After four years in Pocatello the couple and two year old son Rick moved to Missoula where John continued his career with the Weather Service, first as a Forecaster, and later as a Fire Weather Forecaster where he often went on site with the fire firefighters. During these years a daughter Roxann and a son Rob were added to the family. In 1988 John retired for the first time. He later worked as a fire spotter on a mountain near Ovando and then for the state of Montana in Smoke Management forecasting for slash burning. He served in various capacities regarding air quality for the Missoula valley.

When Marjorie became unable to function independently, John became a twenty four hour caregiver. As had been throughout their marriage John was a loving husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. He became the unofficial Mayor of Trout Haven Acres upon the passing of longtime resident Leonard Carpenter. Even with Marjorie being in need of such care, they both spent many enjoyable hours at their Rock Creek property with their family and friends. Every Labor Day the Rock Creek Trout Haven residents were invited to a picnic to celebrate the wonderful summer and friendships made over the years. John saw to it that no one was left out and all were welcomed.

Four days after his beloved Marjorie passed, John received a shocking diagnosis, he, for his familys sake, fought a courageous battle. Alas, a cure was not to be. His children were with him in the weeks before his passing whether in the hospital or at home.

John will be missed by his son Rob of Missoula with wife Alyssa and children Melodee, Cody, Caleb, and Ashlee; by daughter Roxann Woods of Cody, Wyoming with husband Jared and children Daniel and Ruby; and son Rick of Toledo, Ohio with wife Lena and children Barbara, Robyn (Mark) Goss, and Kyle.

Great-grandchildren are Sophia, Katherine, Noah, and Antonio. Johns brother Joe and sister Barbara (Mike ) Restano reside in Pittsburgh and sister Margaret Hoover lives in Toledo, Ohio.

Johns sister-in-law Barbara (Bob) OBrien knows first hand the kind of generosity John had, during her time as a college student she resided in Marj and Johns home. His kindness to the Towell, Trethewey, and OBrien families will remain in their hearts always.

John with his infectious smile brought many sighs from the ladies when the Minister said, You may kiss your bride. His smile has been mentioned many times over the years by people who spoke of Johns welcoming spirit. His children all possess that welcoming spirit and have their own special memories of his smile.

Johns body has been cremated and his ashes will be spread from the rocks above Duncs Lagin. He is at peace which is much deserved.

If wishing to make a memorial donation, please consider Audio Books for the Blind at the Montana State Library in Helena.
Missoula Mayor John Engen addressed employees at what is now called Missoula Water Company on Friday, marking the first day of city ownership over the utility  and of Missoula joining every other city and town in the state in controlling its own water distribution system.

So as of midnight this morning, you all own a water company along with me and 70,000 other souls, Engen said in the water companys conference room. And this process has never been about me, it's always been about us. It's been about ensuring that we can take care of this system that you've been taking care of for a very long time.

About 40 people, including Missoula Water employees, City Council members, and city employees helping with the transition sat around the room and ate pizza and salad while Engen spoke. Missoula Water offices were closed Friday for the transition.

After years of court battles that kept employees in a state of uncertainty about their job stability and the future of the company, Engens speech invited everyone to move forward together.

Im grateful to have you on the team, Engen said. Im grateful to have you as part of the family of the city of Missoula and engaged in what we do every day, which is service.

On Thursday, the city paid $83.87 million for Mountain Water and $6.8 million to developers who did unpaid work for the company during the condemnation hearing. The city acquired the utility after suing the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that bought Mountain Water in 2011, on eminent domain charges.

Wayne Davis, the head meter reader at Missoula Water, said he and his coworkers are happy to finally to move on from all of the legal battles.

It was a long, grueling struggle, but its over, and we can get back to work now, Davis said.

Other employees did not want to comment, and the mayors office originally said Engen's remarks to employees would be private. Because Missoula Water is now city-owned, the meeting was opened to reporters.

Engen said he is available to answer any questions to employees, and his door is always open.

I am at your disposal and at your service, Engen said. As it turns out, I work for you, not the other way around.
HELENA  Environmental groups plan to crash the homecoming in Montana next week of President Donald Trump's Interior Department secretary with billboards, television ads and speeches to pressure him on issues from national monuments to sage grouse.

Ryan Zinke is scheduled to address the Western Governors Association's annual conference Tuesday in the town of Whitefish, which he represented as a state lawmaker from 2009 to 2011.

He will be welcomed by billboards urging him not to touch the Upper Missouri River Breaks, one of two dozen national monuments he's reviewing to eliminate or scale back protections.

Television ads will air during the conference telling him to leave alone a conservation plan by the Obama administration and 11 Western states to protect the sage grouse, an imperiled bird.

Advocates will give speeches in a downtown Whitefish park the day before Zinke's address, calling on the interior chief to better protect public lands.

"Welcome home," said Larry Epstein, a member of a group renting the billboards that supports the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. "We hope to get the attention of Secretary Zinke and the Western governors."

Eleven governors, their staffs, lobbyists, business representatives and special interest groups will meet in the resort town near Glacier National Park on topics that include the Endangered Species Act, forest management and ties with Canada.

Zinke spokeswoman Heather Swift and the Department of Interior press office did not return email queries for comment.

Supporters of the Trump administration's plans to review and possibly loosen existing land and wildlife protections are dismayed by the heavy investment that environmentalists are making to confront Zinke on his home turf.

Ron Poertner, one of about 120 ranchers, farmers and landowners who live in or use the Upper Missouri River Breaks and favor reducing the size of the 590-square-mile national monument, said they can't compete with that level of organization and money.

"We're haying, we're still spraying weeds, we're still doing farm work," Poertner said. "To say, 'Let's take a bus and do some counter-protesting,' there's no way."

The Montana monument, created in 2001 just before President Bill Clinton left office, includes federal, state and private land that surrounds a 149-mile stretch of the Missouri River that is mostly unchanged since Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery traversed it in the early 1800s.

Zinke is reviewing it and 23 other monuments in a report that will recommend whether they should be resized or eliminated.

Opponents of changes, such as Epstein's Hold Our Ground group, say the review is a waste of taxpayer money by rehashing already settled arguments. Supporters like Poertner are worried they'll be squeezed off the land and say presidents have too much power to unilaterally designate national monuments.

Zinke's Interior Department also is reviewing the land-use policies implemented in 2015 as a way of preventing even stricter policies to protect the sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act.

The conservation group Western Values Project is launching a television ad campaign for the Western Governors Association meant to ratchet up pressure on both Zinke and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.

"It appears Secretary Zinke wants to scrap all the work done by Western communities, coalitions, sportsmen and women, wildlife managers, private landowners, and industry groups," Executive Director Chris Saeger said in a statement. "If Governor Bullock has an audience with Secretary Zinke next week, he must use it to insist that Interior continue with the sage grouse plans."
As a sociologist and legal scholar, I struggle to explain the boundaries of free speech to undergraduates. Despite the First Amendment  I tell my students  local, state and federal laws limit all kinds of speech. We regulate advertising, obscenity, slander, libel and inciting lawless action to name just a few. My students nod along until we get to racist and sexist speech. Some cant grasp why, if we restrict so many forms of speech, we dont also restrict hate speech. Why, for example, did the Supreme Court on Monday rule that the trademark office cannot reject disparaging applications  like a request from an Oregon band to trademark the Slants as in Asian slant eyes.

The typical answer is that judges must balance benefits and harms. If judges are asked to compare the harm of restricting speech  a cherished core constitutional value  to the harm of hurt feelings, judges will rightly choose to protect free expression. But perhaps its nonsense to characterize the nature of the harm as nothing more than an emotional scratch; thats a reflection of the deep inequalities in our society, and one that demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of how hate speech affects its targets.

Legally, we tell members of traditionally disadvantaged groups that they must live with hate speech except under very limited circumstances. The KKK can parade down Main Street. People cant falsely yell fire in a theater but can yell the N-word at a person of color. College women are told that a crowd of frat boys chanting no means yes and yes means anal is something they must tolerate in the name of (someone elses) freedom.

At the same time, our regime of free speech protects the powerful and popular. Many city governments, for instance, have banned panhandling at the behest of their business communities. The legal justification is that the targets of begging (commuters, tourists and consumers) have important and legitimate purposes for being in public: to get to work or to go shopping. The law therefore protects them from aggressive requests for money.

Consider also the protections afforded to soldiers families in the case of Westboro Baptist anti-gay demonstrations. When the Supreme Court in 2011 upheld that churchs right to stage offensive protests at veterans funerals, Congress passed the Honoring Americas Veterans Act, which prohibits any protests 300 to 500 feet around such funerals. (The statute made no mention of protecting LGBTQ funeral attendees from hate speech, just soldiers families).

So soldiers families, shoppers and workers are protected from troubling speech. People of color, women walking down public streets or just living in their dorm on a college campus are not. The only way to justify this disparity is to argue that commuters asked for money on the way to work experience a tangible harm, while women catcalled and worse on the way to work do not  as if being the target of a request for change is worse than being racially disparaged by a stranger.

In fact, empirical data suggest that frequent verbal harassment can lead to various negative consequences. Racist hate speech has been linked to cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and requires complex coping strategies. Exposure to racial slurs also diminishes academic performance. Women subjected to sexualized speech may develop a phenomenon of self-objectification, which is associated with eating disorders.

These negative physical and mental health outcomes  which embody the historical roots of race and gender oppression  mean that hate speech is not just speech. Hate speech is doing something. It results in tangible harms that are serious in and of themselves and that collectively amount to the harm of subordination. The harm of perpetuating discrimination. The harm of creating inequality.

Instead of characterizing racist and sexist hate speech as just speech, courts and legislatures need to account for this research and, perhaps, allow the restriction of hate speech as do all of the other economically advanced democracies in the world.

Many readers will find this line of thinking repellent. They will insist that protecting hate speech is consistent with and even central to our founding principles. They will argue that regulating hate speech would amount to a serious break from our tradition. They will trivialize the harms that social science research undeniably associates with being the target of hate speech, and call people seeking recognition of these affronts snowflakes.

But these free-speech absolutists must at least acknowledge two facts. First, the right to speak already is far from absolute. Second, they are asking disadvantaged members of our society to shoulder a heavy burden with serious consequences. Because we are free to be hateful, members of traditionally marginalized groups suffer.
As of this writing, there have been 848 recorded violent assaults in Washington, D.C. Congressman Steve Scalise was one of them.

If it continues it will be 1,600 by the end of the year, or approximately five violent assaults a day. We will never read of those 1,600 other people assaulted. Our nation is in a furor over one man because he was a government official, a congressman playing softball in that neighborhood.

Little do we ever hear of all the other violence in Washington, D.C., each and every day. It is usually expected, and usually ignored. That violence is constant because of the high concentration of unemployed youth, drug addiction and sexual abuse, causing the hopelessness of the poor who live there.

Our media made a national event over someone getting their hip shot up, because he represents a special class. His notoriety in this tragedy is a warning bell that needs to be rung. He was playing softball in Washington, D.C. It happens every day. The poor also play softball in that neighborhood, and also get shot at in Washington, D.C., mostly African-American.

I wonder if this is why I hear the accusation of racism, which seems irrational.

Mike Donohue,

Kalispell
Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi []
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
CALISTOGA -- In a symbolic measure, the City Council approved a resolution in support of the Paris Climate Accord on Tuesday.

Mayor Chris Canning said many cities in California are adopting similar resolutions, and Calistoga has a Climate Action Plan in place that is in accord with the resolution.

Among priority climate projects for Calistoga are implementing the Green House Gas Emissions Reduction Measures included in the citys Climate Action Plan, work on the construction of Calistogas segment of the Napa Valley Vine Trail and implement the Calistoga Active Transportation Plan in order to improve and enhance walkways and bicycle trails.
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SATELLITE BEACH, Florida  The last lowest tide of 2017 will occur on Saturday, June 24, 2017, which will be a great opportunity to explore the reef made up of rare sabellariid worm rock in Satellite Beach, Florida, before it is covered with beach renourishment sand in late 2018 or 2019.



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Saturdays very low tide is due to a New Moon which is the counterpart of the Full Moon that brought King Tides earlier in June. The -1.08 feet low tide will occur at 2:35 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

But dont worry if you cant make it to the beach on Saturday. Another, slightly less low tide (-0.99 feet), will occur on Sunday, June 25, 2017, at 3:28 p.m.

The rare reefs diverse ecosystem is home to juvenile fish, green sea turtles, macro-algae, and mollusks.

Work is already underway on a barge located just offshore to lay down an artificial reef further out in deeper waters to replace the natural reef that will be covered up with sand during a $42 million beach renourishment project.

To explore the reef rock, free public parking is available at Pelican Beach Park, 1525 Highway A1A in Satellite Beach, Florida. There is also some public parking available on Shell Street located just south of Pelican Beach Park.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHTrkP1ksf8?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0]

Photo and video credit: Brevard Times (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
Posted by Mark Williams | June 24, 2017





By Ben Harrington

Fiat is a marque you'd be forgiven for not instantly associating with mid-size pickup trucks. And yet, here we have the Italian manufacturer's entry into the one-ton (meaning it can carry about 2,000 pounds) pickup class, the global 2017 Professional Fullback.

If you happen to be a connoisseur of mid-size pickups sold outside the U.S., this vehicle may look familiar to you, and there's a good reason for that. Fiat and Mitsubishi signed a manufacturing agreement a couple of years ago; the Fullback is the first pickup fruit from that collaboration.

Exterior

Essentially, the Fullback is the well-established Mitsubishi L200 (one of the more popular mid-size pickups in the world) with a couple of subtle alterations, such as Fiat badging.

The Fullback's grille is pretty much the only other component you'll find that differs from the L200. It's a horizontal, subtle affair that some customers may prefer over the Mitsubishi's vertically slashed front end.

At more than 17 feet long and more than 70 inches wide, the Fullback is a big vessel to drive. Regular United Kingdom parking spaces stand no chance of accommodating it. A backup camera comes as standard on higher trim levels of the Fullback, but optional parking sensors cost around $300 (at current exchange rates). Considering how essential they are and how much equipment the Fullback comes with, making parking sensors optional seems quite odd to us.

The obvious advantage of the Fullback's size is not only its bed, which is an ample 60 by 58 inches that easily swallows a Euro-style pallet. It also provides plenty of space in the cabin, especially in the backseat; colleagues and children alike will thank you.

Interior

Interior trim and refinement is more than satisfactory if you look at it from a work-truck point of view. The four-wheel-drive high-low gear selector is now a simple click wheel, so no need to wrestle with a second gear shift lever in the console. Plastics are rugged, as you'd expect in this type of vehicle, and slightly lacking in imagination when compared to other Fiat models.

One area where the Fullback is a let-down is its infotainment system. LX models have a Kenwood touchscreen that's fiddly and difficulty to use. Anyone trying to pair it to a smartphone is out of luck; the system doesn't recognize them and can't even charge them.

Powertrain/Capacities

Fiat keeps things simple with the Fullback: There are only two trim levels, SX and LX. The SX is powered by a 150-horsepower, turbo-diesel 2.4-liter inline-four mated to a six-speed manual transmission. The more expensive LX has the same engine, but it produces 180 hp and can be mated to either the six-speed manual or a five-speed automatic.

The engine is an all-aluminum turbo-diesel producing either 280 or 317 pounds-feet of torque, depending on which trim you order. Maximum towing capacity is more than 6,000 pounds in the LX in addition to the 2,000 pounds that can be carried in the bed.

The 180-hp Fullback returns 39.8 mpg on combined city/highway driving with the manual. On a full tank, Fiat claims a factory-estimated range of 650 miles from its 19.8-gallon tank; however, if you do the math using the 39.8 mpg figure, the range is nearly 800 miles.

Unfortunately, the downside of an all-aluminum engine, from our experience, is the noise. The Fullback's cabin is well-insulated, but when standing outside the truck, you can hear the diesel rattle, making noise that's reminiscent of older technology. While the sound does dissipate as the engine warms up, we'll never describe it as refined.

How It Rides

With the bed empty, the Fullback does an admirable job of keeping things level thanks to some serious chassis stiffening and an up-to-date 4WD system taken from Mitsubishi's global Shogun SUV.

The Fullback excels at handling and ride. It's stiff without being harsh, so there's no wallowing around corners, and it soaks up bumps without bouncing around  even with a load. Long road trips are as comfortable as traveling in a large sedan.

Pricing

Prices for the Fullback in England range start at $33,765 for the SX and $37,030 for the LX, based on current exchange rates. That's comparable to its L200 sibling, but the Fullback offers fewer choices.

Additionally, where Mitsubishis come with a five-year warranty, the Fiat gets just a three-year program. It seems like a bizarre way of selling two virtually identical vehicles, but that's possibly offset by more attractive finance options.

Cars.com photos by Ben Harrington
























Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-23 17:06:10|Editor: ying

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HONG KONG, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong "can be very proud of itself" for its achievements during the past 20 years, and "these achievements will take us to Hong Kong," Eric Berti, consul general of France in the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions (SARs), said.

"We have about 800 French companies currently present in Hong Kong, 30 percent of which are big companies. We also have a growing French community here, which has doubled to over 20,000 people since 2008, Berti said in a recent interview with Xinhua. "It shows the capacity of attraction of Hong Kong."

In retrospect of Hong Kong's development since its return to China in 1997, Berti first referred to "great achievements" in the fields of trade and finance, and then focused on the SAR's important role in linking China and the rest of the world.

"For foreign companies, especially for French companies, it is very important to be able to settle here for the wide Chinese market," he said. "So for us, Hong Kong is both an important market and a place where you can find rule of law, good infrastructure and good services, and can be based to conquer Asia."

To China, Hong Kong is also a place of great importance, Berti said. "It is a super-connector, as (HKSAR Chief Executive) CY Leung often mentioned. It is really a link between Western countries and China."

The French diplomat praised Hong Kong as "the best of two worlds, of both China and the West," and attributed it to the success of the "one country, two systems" arrangement.

"Definitely the concept of one country, two systems' has been a great success in the last 20 years," he said. "It is a success for Hong Kong because it retains its own judiciary, currency ... It allows all the exchanges (between China and the West) and allows Hong Kong to have a great autonomy within Chinese sovereignty."

Berti, who assumed office as the consul general in September 2015, said that he was impressed by Hong Kong as far back as 20 years ago on his first trip to the city. "The first time I came to Hong Kong was in 1997, just weeks after the handover ... I could stay one day here, and I was very impressed by the dynamism of the city."

He recalled concerns at that time in the West about Hong Kong's development after its return, but said that "when you look back 20 years later, you can see that most of the concerns have not been realized, because the region developed well, meet the challenge, cross crises in a very stable way, and kept growth."

The word "dynamism" was repeatedly used by the consul general during the interview to describe various aspects of Hong Kong, including finance, trade, city management, culture and art.

"I must say I am very impressed by Hong Kong for its efficiency. It is a city of 7.3 million inhabitants on a small surface because a large part of the region is kept as nature ... and (it has) the capacity to organize the community with a very efficient transportation system," Berti said. "It is a very dynamic city, which has always been very important to it as an economic hub."

He added that Hong Kong "is also becoming an art center, welcoming cultures from various countries."

While being a dynamic metropolis, Hong Kong has also succeeded in keeping some of its specific lifestyle and traditions, Berti said, citing horse-racing as an example. "Horse-racing is a long-lasting tradition in Hong Kong and remains very dynamic now. I like on Wednesday evening and on Sunday to go to the races," said the consul general, who has a photo taken at one of Hong Kong's racecourses showcased at his office in the Central District.

"The relationship between France and Hong Kong has lasted from the mid 19th century ... We have companies of all the sectors in Hong Kong, including finance, retailing, logistics, restaurants, and so on," Berti said, adding that the two sides are also looking for new opportunities for cooperation, and France is "very optimistic about the future of this relationship."

The French diplomat pointed to the Belt and Road Initiative as a potential opportunity for cooperation. The Belt and Road "is a very interesting initiative. It gives a wide perspective for the future for both China and Western countries. Definitely France will be part of it," he said, adding that France and Hong Kong can combine their strengths in fields such as finance and port logistics, as well as their wide network of companies in other countries, to develop this initiative.

On the challenges Hong Kong may face in its future development, Berti said that the main challenge may be competition from surrounding cities, "so Hong Kong must improve innovation." He proposed further cooperation between France and Hong Kong in developing new capacities such as FinTech.

On Hong Kong's prospect and its relations with the Chinese mainland, Berti said that Hong Kong is able to adapt to new environment, and "it is a good thing for both places that China takes advantage of Hong kong to develop the country and Hong Kong also benefits from the wide Chinese market and exchanges with the mainland."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-23 19:48:25|Editor: ying

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TALUQAN, Afghanistan, June 23 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 Taliban militants have been killed in clashes in Takhar province, an army spokesman in the northern Afghan region said on Friday.

Taliban group commander Mullah Shakor is also among those killed in clashes for the control of Darqad district over the past two days and several more militants sustained injuries, Abdul Khalil said.

Taliban militants who have be active in the strategically important Darqad district along the border with Tajikistan haven't commented on the situation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-23 22:51:04|Editor: An

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A joint inquiry meeting on the enforcement of the Product Quality Law, as part of the ongoing 28th session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, is held in Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2017. Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, attended the meeting on Saturday. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lawmakers on Friday called for the prompt revision to the Product Quality Law at the ongoing bi-monthly session of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.

The current law was first adopted in 1993 and amended in 2000.

The law lags behind development and does not address the emerging problems in online shopping, said Huang Huahua, a member of the committee, while reviewing a report on the law's implementation at a panel discussion.

The report said that a series of problems such as low-quality products and outdated standards had remained, especially in rural areas and online purchases.

New business models such as the sharing economy, e-commerce and internet economy are challenging the existing supervision model, which require new tools, said Wang Minwen, also a member of the committee.

Wang suggested that a punitive compensation rule and product tracing mechanism be introduced in the new amendment.

Huang Qifan, vice chairman of the NPC's Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, said the revision should be carried out as soon as possible or it could constitute a barrier to the country's development.

Huang also called for the integration of the country's product quality requirements with international standards.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 02:27:57|Editor: yan

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ADDIS ABABA, June 23 (Xinhua) -- An Ethiopian court on Friday convicted 16 people for committing and involving in terror acts on behalf of the Patriotic Front Ginbot-7 rebel group.

According to the verdict by the federal high court of Ethiopia, the 16 convicted individuals were found to have been working for the outlawed armed group between 2012 and 2015 in Ethiopia's second largest Amhara regional state.

The 16 were found guilty of recruiting members and disseminating categorized security information for the rebel group. Based in Ethiopia's neighbor Eritrea, Ginbot-7 has been outlawed by the Ethiopian government.

The court sentenced four of the defendants to 4 years and 6 months of imprisonment and passed 4 years and 2 months of imprisonment on three others, while nine others were freed from the case for reasons attributed to their family condition and their previous criminal status.

Ethiopia's Amhara region was in a state of unrest for most of the second half of 2016 for reasons including a rumored disgruntlement of reallocation of a district to neighboring region. The region has been a major target by Ginbot-7 in its member recruiting efforts over the years.

Ethiopia and Eritrea have been locked in a state of uneasy armed standoff with each side blaming the other for supporting rebel groups as proxies.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 02:53:08|Editor: Liangyu

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Lebanon's President Michel Aoun (1st R) meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (2nd L) in Beirut, capital of Lebanon, on June 23, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

BEIRUT, June 23 (Xinhua) -- China advocates more actions to curb the deterioration of a refugee crisis in the Middle East and find a solution as soon as possible, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday.

Wang made the remarks at a press conference after meeting with his Lebanese counterpart Gebran Bassil in Beirut during an one-day visit to Lebanon.

He noted that refugees are not migrants, and the international community should strive to create appropriate conditions, through seeking a more swift solution to hot-button issues, for the refugees to return to their homes.

Bassil said Lebanon is under huge pressure in hosting refugees, mostly from Syria, adding that the world should understand and support Lebanon's legal requests on the refugee problem.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Lebanon is currently hosting 1.03 million Syrian refugees who fled their war-torn country since the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad started in March 2011.

Earlier in the day, the Chinese top diplomat held a meeting with Lebanon's President Michel Aoun, during which both expressed willingness to expand the bilateral cooperation.

Aoun praised the Belt and Road Initiative by China, adding that Lebanon expects to see the revival of the ancient Silk Road. He said Lebanon is ready to actively participate in the initiative in a bid to boost economic and cultural exchanges.

The president also hailed what China has done for the stability of Lebanon and the Middle East, and welcomed China, Lebanon's largest trade partner, to invest more in the region.

Wang said he believed all parties and religions in Lebanon would continue dialogue and negotiations to keep national unity and maintain security and stability, thus providing useful experiences in how different civilizations could coexist peacefully.

Wang said, in light of the good momentum in Sino-Lebanese economic and trade relations, China is willing to enhance the bilateral cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

In a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Wang mentioned that Lebanon is an important hub of the Chinese initiative, as it owns unique advantages which China appreciates. He said China is willing to establish more programs with Lebanon to realize mutual benefits.

Hariri thanked China for supporting Lebanon in hosting Syrian refugees and conducting peacekeeping operations in southern Lebanon, while calling for increased cooperation with China on financing infrastructure projects such as highways and railways.

Wang also met with Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who praised China's support to Lebanon and the Arab world, which he said has contributed to achieving regional peace.

Berri also expressed gratitude to China for its deployment of a peacekeeping operation force in southern Lebanon.

Since 2006, China has maintained a peacekeeping operation force in southern Lebanon, tasked with missions such as mine-sweeping, project construction and humanitarian assistance.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 02:58:10|Editor: ZD

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WASHINGTON, June 23 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States reaffirm their commitment to achieving the goal of "complete, verifiable, and irreversible" denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, according to a statement released on Friday.

"The two sides are ready to continue their efforts to this end, including by fully and strictly implementing relevant UNSC resolutions, and by promoting relevant dialogue and negotiation," said the statement released after the First Round of China-U.S. Diplomatic and Security Dialogue.

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi co-chaired the dialogue with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

China and the United States also reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, according to the statement.

In addition, the two sides decided to maintain communication and cooperation regarding the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

Fang Fenghui, a member of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the CMC Joint Staff Department, also participated in the dialogue.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 03:03:14|Editor: MJ

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BERLIN, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government has issued international arrest warrants for five former managers and technological developers of Germany's largest automotive manufacturer Volkswagen, German media reported.

The alleged offenses include fraud, conspiracy and violating the U.S. environmental regulations.

The lawyer of the former head of development Heinz-Jakob Neusser, who is among the managers under investigation, told the German press agency dpa on Friday that this step by the U.S. justice authorities did not come as a surprise.

She called the development an "expectable consequence" of the charges brought up in the U.S.

This warrant is a consequence of the processing of the emissions scandal that started in 2015, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to VW for the manipulation of diesel emissions.

Volkswagen, so far, has paid over 22 billion euros (24.64 billion U.S. dollars) compensation in settlements.

Interpol conducts the search and the five men accused by the U.S. courts cannot leave Germany for fear of arrest in another country, according to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, reporting that the men cannot be arrested in Germany.

While the extradition agreement between Germany and the U.S. in general allows for the transfer of persons convicted of or charged with a crime, it is only applicable to non-German citizens.

Interpol and the U.S. authorities have not commented on the situation.

The emissions scandal is also still under investigation in Germany. The public prosecutor's office in Brunswick, close to the Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, leads investigations of almost 40 VW employees including the five managers, who now face the arrest warrant issued by the U.S. system of justice.

In the beginning of 2017, a former VW manager was arrested at the airport in Miami, Florida, by the FBI. He assumed a leading position in the VW group until March 2015, responsible for environmental matters in the U.S.

The manager is not eligible to be released on bail, since the U.S. courts fear he would flee to Germany. His trial is expected to start in January 2018.

Volkswagen agreed to pay 4.3 billion U.S. dollars in criminal and civil penalties to settle its emissions cheating scandal involving about 590,000 diesel vehicles in the United States earlier this year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 03:23:33|Editor: MJ

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by Hummam Sheikh Ali

DAMASCUS, June 23 (Xinhua) -- While some people suspect the recent surge in terror attacks in Europe is linked to the defeats of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, others believe that terrorists are only motivated by the need to send out political messages.

Dozens of people have been killed since March in a spate of terror attacks that has spread through the United Kingdom, France and Belgium, in which the terror suspects used vehicles, knives, and explosives to mow down pedestrians, attack police and blow up innocent people. Terror attacks have also rocked Egypt, Iran and Somalia recently.

Ahmad Ashqar, a Syrian political analyst, told Xinhua that as the U.S.-led coalition has intensified its strikes against IS militants, the terror group and its sympathizers are compelled to launch more terror attacks in retaliation so to send out a message that they cannot be defeated.

"With all major powers fighting it, the IS is not in its best conditions, particularly now that it's being targeted and hunted down in its strongholds of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq," Ashqar said.

Many European countries are part of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, which has been striking IS in Syria since 2014 and has escalated its offensives recently, he explained.

Two weeks ago, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) unleashed a wide-scale offensive against the IS in Raqqa, the de facto capital of the terror group in Syria.

After capturing several neighborhoods in eastern and western Raqqa, the SDF and allied troops have recently seized the southern bank of Euphrates River, which enables them to lay siege to Raqqa from four directions.

The SDF said on Friday that the IS militants have lost control in Raqqa, and "are moving around the city like cockroaches."

Meanwhile, Iraqi government troops, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, advanced onto the Old City of Mosul, the de facto capital for IS terrorists in Iraq. It is only a question of time for the city to be liberated from the IS occupation.

However, IS militants still feel their self-declared rule cannot be demolished by "earthly powers," and believe their past terror tactics to cause panic will work, Ashqar explained.

"This is why they have resorted to escalating their attacks in Europe, which I think are desperate attempts to tell the world that they are still here and capable of targeting the core of your secure countries," he said.

Even if the IS was wiped out in Syria and Iraq, its followers will continue terror activities around the world, especially in the countries supporting the U.S. in the anti-IS battles, Ashqar noted.

"We could still see suicide bombings following the defeat of IS, our communities and even the West will have to wait for a relatively long time before the situation is fully contained and IS becomes history," he said.

However, other observers say the real reasons behind the recent wave of terror attacks in Europe are much more complicated.

They also pointed out that terrorist groups like IS and al-Qaida, have long targeted the West.

Maher Ihsan, also a Syrian political analyst, told Xinhua that even at the peak years ago, IS terrorists and its sympathizers did stop launching strikes against targets in Western countries, including the U.S. and Europe.

Terror groups like IS are "fuelled by sectarian hatred and hidden political agendas", has "under-the-hood funding" and are "manipulated by foreign intelligence apparatus," Ihsan said.

"Any decision to carry out a bombing in this country or that, will not be taken solely by the group, but by the powers controlling it," he explained, adding that terror attacks demand logistical support, information and planning as well as cash.

According to Ihsan, the change in the political climate could be the real reason behind the surge in terror attacks around the world, not only in Europe.

Even in places other than the West, terrorist attacks also take place. He gave an example of the recent IS-claimed twin bombing attacks that rocked Iran's capital Tehran, in which 12 people were killed early the month.

"Iran has been safe for a very long time and far from the explosions of the terrorist groups, but if we take a look at the timing, we will find that such acts happened due to the rapprochement between Tehran and Doha at the time of the Gulf crisis with Qatar," Ihsan said.

He was referring to the crisis since early the month when a Saudi Arabia-led Arab alliance cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of harboring extremists and having close ties with Iran, a Saudi rival.

The bombings in Iran have sent out a clear message that the growing relations between Iran and Qatar are unacceptable to some countries which are trying to isolate the tiny Gulf island state, the Syrian analyst said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 03:43:42|Editor: yan

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by Ronald Ssekandi

KAMPALA, June 23 (Xinhua) -- African leaders meeting on Friday at the just concluded international refugee summit have said bad governance is responsible for the refugee influx that parts of the continent are facing.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni who convened the meeting dubbed Solidarity Summit said bad governance by those in leadership and a lack of a credible opposition are partly to blame for the conflicts on the continent that forced people to flee to other countries.

The summit was convened together with the UN to raise funds to address the refugee crisis that Uganda is facing.

Uganda is now Africa's leading refugee-hosting country, having jumped from the eighth largest refugee-hosting country in the world in mid-2016 to the third largest today, after Turkey and Pakistan.

UN figures show that the country hosts more than 1.2 million refugees from neighboring South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi, and Rwanda among others. Of these, more than 900,000 are from South Sudan.

Museveni said all this could be avoided if politicians both in leadership and in opposition desist from sectarian tendencies.

"Bad politics, utilizing the pseudo-ideology of opportunistically exploiting identity of religion or tribes is behind most of these crises. The ideology of sectarianism in Africa must be condemned," Museveni told the meeting.

"The leaders, both in government and opposition, of the suffering countries have a very serious historic responsibility to end this hemorrhage and suffering of the poor African people affected," he said.

Zambian leader Edgar Lungu said there is need for Africa to invest in peace, noting that the suffering of people must end.

REGIONAL HOTSPOTS

Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said his country is on the move towards creating peace. Since 2007, African Union peace keeping troops have been deployed to help stabilize the country.

Museveni said regional organizations and the UN are supposed to help end the crises on the continent citing the endless fighting in eastern DRC.

"The ICGLR and the UN have been totally unuseful on this longstanding tragedy in that area," Museveni said. ICGLR is the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, a regional body charged to ensure among others peace in the region.

Several efforts by ICGLR and the UN to wipe out the fighting over the years have not yet yielded results. UN has a peacekeeping mission in the DRC, one of the countries that generates thousands of refugees to her neighbors.

The Ugandan president also urged the Burundi government to respect commitments made by the East African Community to bring an end to the fighting in the country.

In South Sudan, fighting is still going on inclined on tribal lines. Millions of South Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries, with Uganda hosting majority of them.

Over 900,000 South Sudanese refugees are in Uganda after fighting broke out in December 2013 between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and his then deputy Riek Machar.

The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres who also attended the refugee summit said everything must be done to end the conflict in South Sudan and praised Uganda for accepting many South Sudanese refugees.

Museveni briefed the meeting that President Kiir has mandated him to deal with certain aspects of the South Sudanese crisis.

Museveni recently has been meeting both South Sudanese government officials and rebels with the aim of ending the fighting.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 03:48:47|Editor: MJ

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by Ndumiso Mlilo

JOHANNESBURG, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday called on his compatriots, South African business community and international investors to invest in his country.

Speaking at the South Africa-Zimbabwe Business Conference in Johannesburg, Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe has improved the business environment and made it friendly to investors.

"We are here with colleagues in order to expose opportunities available in Zimbabwe. We wish to expose and explain any perception even negative ones about Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is endowed with various trade and investment opportunities which cut across value chains," he said.

Presidents of Zimbabwe and South Africa last year signed Bi-National Commission Agreement. The Zimbabwean vice president said there is a need for continued strengthening of cooperation in investment and trade between the two nations.

He reiterated that Zimbabwe has and is in the process of improving the ease of doing business. There are nine bills that have been drafted to ease of doing business in the country.

Zimbabwean Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said they have been getting financial assistance in the South African government institutions like the Industrial Development Corporation, Development Bank of Southern Africa and Public Investment Corporation.

"We are now looking for big volumes of financial assistance from the South African government. We are also working towards normalizing relation with Breton Woods Institutions (IMF and World Bank)," Chinamasa said.

South African Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mphakama Mbete said the two governments should continue to engage to improve the economies and the livelihoods of the people.

"There is a strong affinity which bonds us together. South Africa and Zimbabwe should pull together for the betterment of the people," Mbete said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 03:53:52|Editor: yan

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RIYAHD, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Interior Ministry spokesperson announced on Friday the foiling of a terror attack that targeted the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

The operation was plotted by a terror group located in three sites, one in Jeddah and two in Mecca, Al Arabiya local news quoted the spokesperson as saying.

It said the police raided the two areas in Mecca, including one near the central area of the mosque.

One of the terrorists resisted the arrest by shooting at the forces and finally blew himself up, the report said. The blast injured six expatriates and five policemen.

The raids are part of a nationwide war against terrorism. The country has seen many deadly blasts in recent years, most of them were carried out by Islamic State militant group.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 03:58:57|Editor: yan

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QUITO, June 23 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and 12 injured on Friday in a traffic crash on a highway, said the country's emergency system, ECU 911.

A passenger bus and a car crashed shortly before 8 a.m. local time on the highway linking the northeastern Ecuadorian province of Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas with the coastal province of Los Rios.

The incident was reported on the ECU 911 line and technical personnel and emergency rescue units were dispatched.

Witnesses said that passengers had to leave the bus by breaking windows or through an emergency exit, on the top of the overturned vehicle.

ECU 911 reported four deaths initially, but another passenger later died of his injuries. The injured have been sent to four local hospitals for treatment.

The highway remained closed to vehicle traffic while the rescue work continued.

Traffic accidents are a major cause of death in Ecuador, with local authorities blaming inexperienced drivers driving at excessive speeds.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 04:14:12|Editor: yan

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TIRANA, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Businesses and individuals who have outstanding debts not only in banks, but also in other public and private institutions will be officially identified, sources from the Bank of Albania (BoA) informed Friday.

The central bank said it has drafted a bill that opens the way to the establishment of the National Credit Bureau.

The bureau will have much more detailed information on the financial background of each individual having a debt and it will contain information not only on the debts that individuals have in banks, but also on the obligations they have on unpaid bills of electricity, water or telephone bills, sources from BoA said.

Local media reported Friday that the bureau will operate with a pointing system similar to that of the driving license.

Thus for individuals who are not correct in paying off debts or bills, there will be a drop in points.

This pointing system will enable banks and other financial institutions to have an accurate risk profile for every citizen or business.

The bases for establishing a national credit bureau are laid out by an agreement signed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Albanian government, sources said.

The purpose of this institution is to reduce bad credit and prevent the creation of new problematic loans, as banks will find it easier to identify citizens and businesses that are not correct in paying off debts.

Sources from the Bank of Albania also told local media that the draft was completed and was distributed to interest groups. Immediately after comments or suggestions by interested parties, it will enter the approval procedure and it is expected that the bureau will soon become effective.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 04:34:21|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned Friday that more than 5.6 million children are at increased risk of contracting waterborne diseases, such as cholera and diarrheal infections, as the rainy season begins in conflict-affected areas of countries around Lake Chad.

The threat of disease outbreaks in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria coincides with growing regional insecurity and increased population movements particularly in Nigeria's northeast, while flooding and muddy roads are expected "to severely limit humanitarian access to remote areas for several weeks," said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF's Director for Emergency Programs.

Across the Lake Chad region, UNICEF and its partners are working in communities at higher risk of cholera outbreaks to teach families about the effects of the disease and practical steps to help avoid infection, he said.

In Niger, Cameroon and Chad, essential drugs and bars of soap have been prepositioned in warehouses close to IDP (internally displaced persons) camps in case of a cholera outbreak, said Fontaine.

The water, sanitation and hygiene response in the Lake Chad Basin has received less than 20 percent of the 80 million U.S. dollars required to meet urgent needs in 2017.

Despite the lack of funding, this year UNICEF aims to provide 2.7 million people with a basic supply of water needed to survive, Fontaine added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 04:44:25|Editor: yan

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RIYADH, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia announced on Friday a grant of 66.7 million U.S. dollars to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to respond to the cholera outbreak in Yemen, Saudi Press Agency has reported.

The grant was provided as request by UNICEF and WHO to respond effectively to the cholera crisis in Yemen, through a combination of water, sanitation and healthcare projects, the report said.

The death toll from cholera in war-torn Yemen has increased to 1,205 by June 20, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 04:49:29|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, June 23 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday condemned the terrorist attacks in Pakistan, calling for bringing perpetrators to justice.

On Friday afternoon local time, twin bombings ripped through a market place in Parachinar, the capital city of Pakistan's northwest tribal region of Kurram, killing at least 18 people and injuring over 100 others.

Earlier in the day, an explosive-laden vehicle rammed into a check post near a police chief's office in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta, reportedly killing 12 people and wounding over a dozen others.

"The Secretary-General extends his condolences to the families of the victims and wishes the injured a speedy recovery," said a statement released by his spokesperson.

"He expresses his solidarity with the people and Government of Pakistan and its efforts to fight terrorism and violent extremism," it added.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks yet.
Combo photo provided by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 28, 2017 shows the test-firing of a new type of anti-aircraft guided weapon system. Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), recently supervised the test-firing of a new type of anti-aircraft guided weapon system of the DPRK army, local official media said on Sunday. (Xinhua/KCNA)

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States reaffirm their commitment to achieving the goal of "complete, verifiable, and irreversible" denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, according to a statement released on Friday.

"The two sides are ready to continue their efforts to this end, including by fully and strictly implementing relevant UNSC resolutions, and by promoting relevant dialogue and negotiation," said the statement released after the First Round of China-U.S. Diplomatic and Security Dialogue.

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi co-chaired the dialogue with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

China and the United States also reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, according to the statement.

In addition, the two sides decided to maintain communication and cooperation regarding the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

Fang Fenghui, a member of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the CMC Joint Staff Department, also participated in the dialogue.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 05:50:05|Editor: yan

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by Osma Radi, Omar Othmani

GAZA, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Cakes are the favorite food of the Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip when they prepare for Eid al-Fitr, a three-day festival that Muslims worldwide celebrate the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting.

Although this year's Eid al-Fitr, which will start on Sunday, has been clouded by the worsening economic situation in Gaza, the markets in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave are still overcrowded, as trade has reached its peak during Ramadan.

In Omar Al Mukhtar Street and the nearby Zawya popular market in Gaza City's downtown, store keepers offer a wide range of goods, including clothing, footwear, household items and candies, to attract as many as customers as possible.

Young people, who see Eid al-Fitr as an opportunity to earn money, put dozens of tables in the main streets of Gaza to sell sweets, nuts and festival cakes.

Abu Salah Abu Sidu, an old man who was shopping around the market, told Xinhua that he had bought plenty of cakes as Eid gifts for his extended family which has 13 members.

He said a kilo of cakes stuffed with dates cost between 15 and 28 shekels (8 U.S. dollars).

Um Mahmoud Badr, a female customer in the market, said she preferred to buy flour, semolina, butter, sugar and dates to bake cakes at home to save money.

For her part, baking cakes at home makes her children more cheerful and brings more joy to the family.

Another favorite delicacy of Eid al-Fitr in Gaza is salted fish, better known as fesikh, which is eaten on the first day of the festival.

Fatma Khadr, a mother of seven children, said salted fish is a "holy thing" for her family and most of the residents in the Gaza Strip for breakfast on the first day of Eid al-Fitr.

However, Sameh al-Sakani, 25, who has been selling salted fish for eight consecutive years, complained that the economic recession in Gaza has led to a reduction in fish sales, as the financial capacity of customers is very limited.

Khamis al-Tabtibi, a clothes merchant, said he only sold 30 percent of his total merchandise for Eid al-Fitr this year despite the price-cutting campaigns.

He said this year is especially difficult, considering the 30 percent cut of the salaries of government employees.

Gaza has suffered an economic recession since Israel imposed a blockade in 2007, right after Islamic Hamas Movement violently seized control of the enclave.

Years of blockade has exacerbated shortages in Gaza, where unemployment rate, the highest in the world, reached 41.7 percent by the end of 2016, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

In addition to economic deterioration, Gaza also suffers the lack of basic services, such as the shortage of about 70 percent of its electricity needs and serious drinking water pollution.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 07:28:17|Editor: MJ

Pakistani government and security officials attend a funeral of security personnel killed in a suicide blast in Quetta, southwestern Pakistan, on June 23, 2017. Earlier on Friday morning, an explosive-laden vehicle rammed into a check post outside a senior police officer's office in Pakistan's southwest city of Quetta, leaving at least 11 people killed and over a dozen others injured. (Xinhua/Asad)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 08:07:03|Editor: MJ

People wearing traditional Swedish costumes attend an event celebrating Midsummer at Skansen Park in Stockholm, capital of Sweden, on June 23, 2017. A huge crowd of Swedes, many wearing traditional Swedish clothes, celebrated Midsummer here on Friday as they performed folkdances around a Maypole. Midsummer, marking the Summer Solstice, has been celebrated in Sweden since the early days of Christianity. (Xinhua/Rob Schoenbaum)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 10:11:23|Editor: MJ

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DAMASCUS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were killed Friday night when a rocket fired by rebels hit a crowded street in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, a medical source in the city told Xinhua.

The rocket, fired by rebels in the countryside of Aleppo, slammed into the al-Furqan street, while people jam-packed the place in preparation for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr feast, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Dozens were wounded in the attack, mostly women and children, some of whom are in critical conditions. Syria's national TV confirmed the incident, which has become rare since the army wrested control over the former rebel-held part east of Aleppo in December last year.

However, the rebels staying in the countryside frequently fire rockets and mortar shells into the city, which had suffered from deadly attacks when the rebels were in control of eastern Aleppo.
Photo shows Eric Berti, consul general of France in the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, in an interview with Xinhua on June 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Wang Shen) HONG KONG, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong "can be very proud of itself" for its achievements during the past 20 years, and "these achievements will take us to Hong Kong," Eric Berti, consul general of France in the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions (SARs), said. "We have about 800 French companies currently present in Hong Kong, 30 percent of which are big companies. We also have a growing French community here, which has doubled to over 20,000 people since 2008, Berti said in a recent interview with Xinhua. "It shows the capacity of attraction of Hong Kong." In retrospect of Hong Kong's development since its return to China in 1997, Berti first referred to "great achievements" in the fields of trade and finance, and then focused on the SAR's important role in linking China and the rest of the world. "For foreign companies, especially for French companies, it is very important to be able to settle here for the wide Chinese market," he said. "So for us, Hong Kong is both an important market and a place where you can find rule of law, good infrastructure and good services, and can be based to conquer Asia." To China, Hong Kong is also a place of great importance, Berti said. "It is a super-connector, as (HKSAR Chief Executive) CY Leung often mentioned. It is really a link between Western countries and China." The French diplomat praised Hong Kong as "the best of two worlds, of both China and the West," and attributed it to the success of the "one country, two systems" arrangement. "Definitely the concept of one country, two systems' has been a great success in the last 20 years," he said. "It is a success for Hong Kong because it retains its own judiciary, currency ... It allows all the exchanges (between China and the West) and allows Hong Kong to have a great autonomy within Chinese sovereignty." Berti, who assumed office as the consul general in September 2015, said that he was impressed by Hong Kong as far back as 20 years ago on his first trip to the city. "The first time I came to Hong Kong was in 1997, just weeks after the handover ... I could stay one day here, and I was very impressed by the dynamism of the city." He recalled concerns at that time in the West about Hong Kong's development after its return, but said that "when you look back 20 years later, you can see that most of the concerns have not been realized, because the region developed well, meet the challenge, cross crises in a very stable way, and kept growth." The word "dynamism" was repeatedly used by the consul general during the interview to describe various aspects of Hong Kong, including finance, trade, city management, culture and art. "I must say I am very impressed by Hong Kong for its efficiency. It is a city of 7.3 million inhabitants on a small surface because a large part of the region is kept as nature ... and (it has) the capacity to organize the community with a very efficient transportation system," Berti said. "It is a very dynamic city, which has always been very important to it as an economic hub." He added that Hong Kong "is also becoming an art center, welcoming cultures from various countries." While being a dynamic metropolis, Hong Kong has also succeeded in keeping some of its specific lifestyle and traditions, Berti said, citing horse-racing as an example. "Horse-racing is a long-lasting tradition in Hong Kong and remains very dynamic now. I like on Wednesday evening and on Sunday to go to the races," said the consul general, who has a photo taken at one of Hong Kong's racecourses showcased at his office in the Central District. "The relationship between France and Hong Kong has lasted from the mid 19th century ... We have companies of all the sectors in Hong Kong, including finance, retailing, logistics, restaurants, and so on," Berti said, adding that the two sides are also looking for new opportunities for cooperation, and France is "very optimistic about the future of this relationship." The French diplomat pointed to the Belt and Road Initiative as a potential opportunity for cooperation. The Belt and Road "is a very interesting initiative. It gives a wide perspective for the future for both China and Western countries. Definitely France will be part of it," he said, adding that France and Hong Kong can combine their strengths in fields such as finance and port logistics, as well as their wide network of companies in other countries, to develop this initiative. On the challenges Hong Kong may face in its future development, Berti said that the main challenge may be competition from surrounding cities, "so Hong Kong must improve innovation." He proposed further cooperation between France and Hong Kong in developing new capacities such as FinTech. On Hong Kong's prospect and its relations with the Chinese mainland, Berti said that Hong Kong is able to adapt to new environment, and "it is a good thing for both places that China takes advantage of Hong kong to develop the country and Hong Kongalso benefits from the wide Chinese market and exchanges with the mainland."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 11:26:47|Editor: MJ

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LOS ANGELES, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Governor of the U.S. state of Arizona Doug Ducey on Friday declared a state of emergency in response to increased wildfire activity in the state.

The governor authorized 200,000 U.S. dollars of emergency funds and requested the State Emergency Council to provide additional resources as needed to the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.

The state of emergency would last until additional funds were made available when the next fiscal year begins on July 1, according to the declaration issued by Ducey.

The declaration also said the state was experiencing an unusually active fire season with high temperatures and winds.

Arizona has seen more than 12 large wildfires since April.

"We thank the many brave men and women who have stepped up and responded to wildfires around Arizona," Ducey told local KVOA TV station. "I'm issuing today's declaration to make sure they have every resource needed to do their jobs and protect our communities."

Meanwhile, local KNAU radio reported Friday that the heavy wildfire smoke from the San Francisco Peaks in the Flagstaff area, a city 640 km northeast to Los Angeles, forced local health department to issue an urgent recommendation to advise residents to limit outdoor exertion.

In addition, those with heart or lung disease, asthma, as well as young children and the elderly should avoid going outside entirely, the recommendation said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 11:31:51|Editor: MJ

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by Edna Alcantara, Wu Hao

CANCUN, Mexico, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The relations between Ecuador and China will "become stronger, closer and more energetic" in many areas, said Ecuadorian Minister for Foreign Affairs Maria Fernanda Espinosa.

In a recent interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the 47th Regular Session of the Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly in Cancun, Espinosa said that China has been a great economic and political partner.

The minister said China has contributed to the "transformation of our energy matrix" and Ecuador's productive sector. "We will continue in this way and deepen our friendly relations," she said.

In commercial terms, Espinosa said that Ecuador is seeking to expand the exports of primary materials as well as value-added products to Asian markets, especially China.

For the moment, banana and shrimp are the main agricultural products Ecuador exports to China. It has been hoping to increase shipments of mango, cacao, fish flour and balsa wood.

"We have great expectations and a commitment to improve our export basket, including with value-added products," she said.

Espinosa also introduced new areas of cooperation between Ecuador and China, including defense, renewable energy and tourism.

"We want to attract Chinese tourists to Ecuador," said Espinosa, indicating Chinese people are entitled to visit the country visa free.

Espinosa said that her country will prominently push for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development while it holds the rotating presidency of the G77 plus China in 2017.

"There is a broad agenda covering areas such as the financing for the 2030 Agenda. It is important to count on adequate financing, which is adapted to the needs and development levels of each country. This is crucial. The climate change is also important as disarmament and peace," she explained.

The G77, established in 1964, is now a coalition of more than 130 developing UN member states plus China. The group is the largest inter-governmental organization of developing countries within the UN, aiming to promote collective economic interest and gain leverage within the international community.

The group's chairmanship rotates on a regional basis among countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean and is held for a one year term.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 12:11:59|Editor: Liangyu

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DHAKA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 16 people were killed and about a dozen injured when a truck carrying day laborers veered off the road in Bangladesh's northern Rangpur district, a police official said on Saturday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 12:47:04|Editor: Yang Yi

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U.S. President Donald Trump (R) meets with Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi in Washington D.C. June 22, 2017. Yang Jiechi was in Washington D.C. to attend the first round of China-U.S. diplomatic and security dialogue. (Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States reached an important consensus on the development of bilateral relations and security issues at a high-level dialogue held Wednesday in the U.S. capital of Washington D.C..

The First Round of China-U.S. Diplomatic and Security Dialogue, which was described by both sides as "constructive" and "fruitful," represents a major step in implementing the consensus reached by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump during their meeting in Florida in April.

Looking ahead, the two sides pledged to expand mutually-beneficial cooperation and manage differences on the basis of mutual respect, all in a bid to promote the steady development of China-U.S. relations in the long term.

FREQUENT DIALOGUES

Following Wednesday's dialogue, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said such talks "provide an opportunity to consider how we're going to engage and how we're going to live with one another over the next 40 years.

"The action items we have agreed upon today have set a foundation for additional areas of cooperation and we look forward to our next interaction at this level and between our two presidents," said the top U.S. diplomat.

Emphasizing the importance of high-level exchanges, China and the United States expressed their willingness to achieve a positive outcome for the Hamburg meeting between the two Presidents in July and Trump's state visit to China later this year.

Meeting with Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi at the White House on Thursday, Trump said he looked forward to meeting with Xi in Hamburg and visiting China. He also hoped that these high-level interactions will further promote the development of U.S.-China relations.

PRODUCTIVE MILITARY RELATIONSHIP

At the dialogue, China and the United States recognized that their military-to-military relationship is an important component in the bilateral ties. The two sides agreed that the relationship between the militaries of the two powers should be "constructive, pragmatic, and effective," according to a statement released Friday.

China and the United States are committed to implementing the annual military exchange program and enhancing high-level engagements, starting with the visits between the two defense ministers and the visit of the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff to China as soon as possible.

The two sides also "reaffirm the importance of building mutual understanding, and of reducing the risk of miscalculation between our two militaries," said the statement.

MAINTAINING COORDINATION ON KOREAN PENINSULAR ISSUE

At the dialogue, China the United States agreed to work closely on the Korean Peninsula's nuclear issue.

Both countries reaffirmed their commitment to achieving the goal of "complete, verifiable and irreversible" denuclearization on the Peninsula.

"The two sides are ready to continue their efforts to this end, including by fully and strictly implementing relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, and by promoting relevant dialogue and negotiation," said the statement.

The two countries also reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining peace and stability on the Peninsula, according to the statement.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 12:52:07|Editor: MJ

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DHAKA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 16 people were killed and eight others injured as a cement-laden truck veered off a road in Rangpur district, some 304 km off capital Dhaka, on Saturday morning, a local police official said.

"The accident left 16 people dead on the spot and eight others injured," the Rangpur district police official told Xinhua.

The official not to be named said the truck carrying dozens of Muslim Eid holiday makers went off the road and ended up in a ditch at about 5:00 a.m. (local time).

According to the official, the victims are mostly day laborers who were returning to their village homes from capital Dhaka to celebrate Eid.

A survivor told journalists that the truck driver went to sleep asking his helper to drive the truck slowly.

But the helper drove speedily and could not keep control over the steering, said Ahmed who narrowly escaped the accident.

The Muslim majority Bangladesh will celebrate Eid-ul Fitr, the holiest and biggest religious festival among the world's Muslims, on or around June 26 or 27 based on the sighting of the new moon.

Millions of Bangladeshis, braving every conceivable discomfort on creaky and congested transport, are now flocking to village homes to celebrate Eid-ul Fitr, the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 13:02:10|Editor: ZD

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Water level rises after heavy rain in Biancheng Township of Huayuan County, central China's Hunan Province, June 23, 2017. Heavy rain has hit Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Hunan since Thursday. (Xinhua/Long Enze)

CHANGSHA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Rain lasting for two days in central China's Hunan Province has left two people dead and 466,500 people suffering losses, while authorities on Friday closed all major tourist spots.

The rain damaged hundreds of houses in Hunan and 24,600 hectares of farmland were flooded. The two deaths occurred in Yongshun County, where a house collapsed on Friday burying two children, aged 7 and 5, according to the provincial civil affairs department.

The rain disrupted traffic in several towns. The civil affairs department is still investigating casualties and losses, while aid to the affected areas.

The Hunan provincial tourist commission closed more than 10 destinations, including Zhangjiajie National Forest Park and Fenghuang river town. The commission warned tourists against traveling, camping or picnicking near rivers or on hillsides.

The local weather observatory forecast that the rain would become heavier on Saturday, and last till Wednesday.

In east China's Jiangxi Province, the provincial weather observatory on Saturday issued a red alert for rain, the highest level in the four-tier weather alert system. Heavy rain since Tuesday has forced the evacuation of 14,000 people to safer places.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 14:53:05|Editor: ZD

People take part in the annual Swedish Midsummer Festival in Manhattan, New York, June 23, 2017. At this unique celebration, adults and kids come together to picnic in the grass, decorate the midsummer pole, make flower wreaths, play traditional games and dance to authentic fiddle music. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 16:23:03|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Giant panda "Jiao Qing" waits for boarding a chartered flight at an airport in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2017, to leave for Berlin Zoo in Germany. "Meng Meng", a four-year-old female panda, and "Jiao Qing", a seven-year-old male, will settle in their new home in Berlin on a 15-year research mission. (Xinhua)

CHENGDU, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Giant pandas Meng Meng and Jiao Qing took a Lufthansa cargo flight from their home in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, for a 12-hour flight to Berlin on Saturday morning.

The plane took off at 9:35 a.m., taking the pandas and 1,000 kilograms of bamboo, apple and a large number of biscuits.

They were accompanied with two keepers from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and a senior vet from Berlin Zoo.

The keepers said that apples and Wotou, a Chinese steamed bread, are the pandas' favorite food, which can help them relieve their tension and irritability during the long journey.

Their plane will make a stop-over for refueling in Novosibirsk, Russia before arriving in Berlin Saturday afternoon local time.

Four-year-old female panda Meng Meng and seven-year-old male panda Jiao Qing were in good health before the flight. Meng Meng is not yet adult panda. She is expected to be mated with Jiao Qing, after she turns six years old.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Germany. The pandas were sent as envoys of China-Germany friendship. They will live in Berlin Zoo for the next 15 years.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 16:23:04|Editor: Zhou Xin

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MAPUTO, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The Mozambican Association of Women in Legal Career launched on Friday in Maputo the first national fair that is expected to help the population nationwide in need of legal assistance.

Eulalia Ofmane from the association said that despite the objective of reaching 800 people in this fair, they are expecting most of the beneficiaries to be women.

"Nampula province will probably have the majority of beneficiaries but that will depend, later, we will be able to see where the majority of the beneficiaries come from," said Eulalia.

Eulalia mentioned Nampula because it is the most populated province of the country, but she believed that the outcome may be different at the end of the two-day fair.

The association is also partnering with the National Institute of Legal Aid that provides free assistance to people with no resources to hire a lawyer.

"Both institutions provide free legal assistance, and the difference lies in the beneficiaries, for our association most of the clients are women," said Eulalia.

This campaign is expected to help the Mozambican government achieve its goal of having 250,000 people legally assisted by 2019 from the current level of 180,000 people.

The number of people facing challenges to get legal assistance is particularly high in rural areas, where the majority of Mozambicans live.

The Association of Women in Legal Career was created in 1995 to guide women pursuing this career as well as to provide legal assistance to people in need. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 17:08:15|Editor: Zhou Xin

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SAO LOURENCO, Brazil, June 24 (Xinhua) -- A small Brazilian city, once famous for its mineral water springs, is now welcoming tourists with new attractions -- a specialty coffee with unique taste and quality.

Besides enjoying the natural beauty of Sao Sourenco, a city located in Brazil's southeastern state of Minas Gerais, tourists from around the world are also flocking to a coffee shop at the city center to take a sip of the local coffee, which has a history of over 100 years.

The coffee sold in Junior's shop was grown at a farm located in the mountainous region of southern Minas Gerais, the soil and climatic conditions of which are favorable to coffee growth.

Meanwhile, Sao Lorenco is famous throughout Brazil for its natural spring water, which also helps to explain why the region produces much of the best coffee in the country.

"The coffee here has acidity and sweetness, and does not need sugar," said Helcio Junior, director and the fourth generation coffee farmer running the coffee shop Unique Cafes.

The good quality of local coffee has greatly boosted the development of tourism in the region, said Junior, who dedicated himself after graduating from university to transforming his family business from a coffee bean exporter to a specialty coffee producer.

In 2005, a coffee sample from the farm won the first place in the "Cup of Excellence," an annual competition held in several countries to identify the highest quality coffee produced, with a world record of 95.85 points on a scale of 0 to 100.

Brazil is the world's largest producer and exporter of coffee. Coffee plantations are mainly located in the southeastern states of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Parana.

According to the Brazilian Association for the Coffee Industry, every single major coffee brand uses Brazilian coffee in its blend.

However, Brazil has, for decades, oriented its export of coffee as a commodity instead of a specialty product, therefore it has lost the marketing game when it comes to promoting its own brand.

"I started to roast our own coffee in 2005, when I entered our family business," Junior said.

"Before that, our company had only planted and produced green coffee beans, and starting to roast coffee means that our own coffee product enters the domestic market," Junior said.

According to Junior, his family has been exporting coffee beans to Japan, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Canada, Australia and the United States.

"We have entered the Chinese market in recent four to five years, and we have opened a coffee shop in Shanghai," he said.

Junior believes that his specialty coffee has a promising prospect in the Chinese market.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 18:08:37|Editor: Zhou Xin

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CAIRO, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Egypt strongly condemned on Saturday a failed terror attack on the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca that left 11 persons injured.

"Egypt pledged support for Saudi Arabia to face any attempt that undermines its peace and stability," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said that three cells had planned the attack on worshippers and security forces at the mosque.

The foiled attack came while the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is about to end, with millions of Muslims spending the last ten days of the month worshipping in the holy mosque.

"Any attempt to attack the Grand Mosque, destination for Muslims and the holiest site in Islam, during the holy month of Ramadan signaled disregard of heinous terrorist groups for the moderate teachings of Islam," the foreign ministry statement added.

Egypt called on the international community to unify efforts to uproot terrorism and dry up its funding sources, added the statement.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the planned attack.

In May last year, Saudi security forces shot dead two alleged Islamic State fighters outside Mecca, and two others blew themselves up outside Mecca.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 18:14:01|Editor: Zhou Xin

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TEHRAN, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Saturday strongly condemned a recent foiled terrorist attack on the Grand Mosque in the Saudi holy city of Mecca, Tasnim news agency reported.

"The plot by a number of criminal terrorists to attack Masjid al-Haram (the Grand Mosque in Mecca) that ended in failure has once again proved that the current unbridled growing terrorism targets religions, geographies, races or nationalities indiscriminately," the Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said in a statement.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran once again warns all states and particularly regional countries against this hideous and sinister phenomenon (of terrorism)," Qasemi was quoted as saying.

He urged all regional nations to remain vigilant against terrorism and make "unceasing efforts" to fight this symbol of enmity, hatred and violence.

Saudi Interior Ministry announced on Friday that the Arab state has foiled a terror attack that sought to target the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

The operation was plotted by a terror group located in three sites, one in Jeddah and two in Mecca. It said the police raided the two areas in Mecca, including one near the central area of the mosque.
South Korea| 2017-06-24 19:14:22|Editor: Zhou Xin

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by Yoo Seungki

SEOUL, June 24 (Xinhua) -- A South Korean political big shot has stressed the need for a basic income policy and firmer welfare in addition to lower workweek to achieve an inclusive growth in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era.

"Correlation between inclusive growth and the Fourth Industrial Revolution is deep," said Lee Jae-myung, mayor of Seongnam, a city to the southeast of South Korean capital Seoul, in an interview with Xinhua Friday.

Lee, who competed with President Moon Jae-in in the ruling Democratic Party's primary for last month's presidential race, was scheduled to attend the 11th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as Summer Davos.

The Summer Davos would last from June 27 to 29 in China's northeastern coastal city of Dalian, with over 2,000 prominent leaders from politics, business, civil society and the arts set to join.

The meeting will be held under the theme of "Achieving Inclusive Growth in the Fourth Industrial Revolution." Lee will attend the "Social Security Net 4.0" session to make his presentation on his city's basic income policy and how to ensure social security net in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

"The Fourth Industrial Revolution triggers an extreme development of technology, most of the profits from which are concentrated on a small fraction of capitalists," said Mayor Lee.

Lee pointed out the predicted drop in the number of jobs people can get as the extremely developed technology exponentially increases the productivity, which the mayor said could come closer to zero. It would result in falling decent jobs.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution can bring a better future to humankind by dramatically increasing the productivity, connecting more people to digital networks and undoing the environmental damage which the previous industrial revolutions had done.

Intelligent robots, artificial intelligence, big data, self-driving cars and mobile supercomputing are such examples, which are developing at a very rapid speed.

The dark side of the promising revolution would be the exponentially falling jobs, caused by the super-high efficiency, and the lower number of capitalists than the current one would bear all the fruits people generate.

To tackle the side effects of the fresh revolution, Mayor Lee said, inclusive growth will be required as its core is set at a fair opportunity and a fair distribution of the profits a society makes.

"A basic income policy must be introduced and the existing fiscal welfare program must be strengthened to address the potential peril of the revolution," said Lee.

The falling number of jobs, Lee said, should be dealt with by lower working hours that would increase the number of employees. He put his claims into a historical context, saying the lower workweek was historically the solution to similar problems that occurred during the previous industrial revolutions.

The Seongnam mayor was a pioneer in the adoption of a basic income policy, which is a regular cash payment to all residents unconditionally and without means test. Lee introduced a basic income for the younger generation of his city, called "Youth Dividend."

The Seongnam city brought in various fiscal welfare policies to realize inclusive growth, which Lee said should be a new paradigm of economic development. Without inclusive growth, an inefficiency of the capitalism will deepen, he said.

Thanks to such policies, Lee had won a number of CEO awards in contrast to his well-known image of a belligerent politician. The mayor made a meteoric rise in the latest presidential race, caused by the unprecedented presidential impeachment, over his outspoken comments on the ousted president.

Touching on the Chinese economy, Lee said the world's No. 2 economy has developed at an exponential speed and is still growing at a fast pace above 7 percent.

As seen in the growth paths of the economies of South Korea and Japan, Lee said, a number of side effects could emerge from the rapid growth. But, Lee noted that the correction period would be followed by firmer and stronger fundamentals of the economy.

"China's economy is currently nearing the transition period," said Lee, adding the economy will transform itself into a new stage of growth as the adjustment firms the economy.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 19:14:24|Editor: Zhou Xin

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YANGON, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar military has handed over 67 under-aged child soldiers to their families in Yangon,the Defense Services office said Saturday.

Along with their national ID cards, the 67 child soldiers aged between 10 and 18 were allowed to return to their families at a ceremony on Friday, the office said in a press release.

This was the 14th time that child soldiers were discharged since 2012, bringing the total to 877 of those handed back by the military so far.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 19:24:29|Editor: Zhou Xin

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TIKRIT, Iraq, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Ten people were killed and six others wounded on Saturday in a roadside bomb explosion while fleeing their homes in a town seized by Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's northern Kirkuk province, a security source told Xinhua.

The incident took place in the morning when the families, who fled the town of Hawijah in southwestern Kirkuk, were moving on a road in the mountainous Himreen area, some 50 km east of Tikrit, the capital city of the neighboring Salahudin province, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Most of the killed and wounded were women and children, the source said.

They were seeking help from security forces outside the besieged town of Hawijah, the source added.

The civilians in the IS-held town of Hawijah were prevented from leaving their homes by the IS militants who used them as human shields during armed military attacks.

Hundreds of people were killed by roadside bombs planted by IS militants in the past months, while they were trying to flee the areas seized by the extremist IS militants.

The incident came as Iraqi security forces, backed by the anti-IS international coalition, were simultaneously conducting a major offensive to dislodge IS militants from their major stronghold in western Mosul in northern Iraq.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 19:29:31|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- China upgraded its geological disaster alert to the second highest on Saturday following a landslide in southwest China's Sichuan Province that has left more than 100 people missing.

Local authorities should take extra precautions against geological disasters in rain-affected areas including mountains and tourist attractions, said the Ministry of Land and Resources.

The ministry also told local authorities to strengthen monitoring and early-warning systems, and prepare emergency response plans.

The landslide from a high part of a mountain in Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba hit Xinmo Village at about 6 a.m.on Saturday, blocking a 2-km section of a river and burying over 100 people.

The provincial government has launched the highest level of disaster relief response and sent rescue teams to the site.

More than 300 rescuers with excavators and life-detection instruments have been sent to the site, according to local authorities.

China's national weather observatory continued a yellow alert for rain on Saturday, with more heavy rain expected across the country in the next few days.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 19:34:33|Editor: Zhou Xin

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PYONGYANG, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has urged South Korea to start dialogue without making Pyongyang stopping its nuclear and missile programs as a precondition.

The Consultative Council for National Reconciliation made the appeal on Friday, the Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday.

"Are you ready to come out for a dialogue with the DPRK, without raising 'the north's nuclear issue?'" said the DPRK official organ in charge of dealing with inter-Korean relations.

"South Korean authorities do not hesitate to reveal their scheme for sanctions against and pressure on the DPRK, finding fault with its legitimate step for bolstering the nuclear force for self-defense," it said.

Other demands for working on national reconciliation include stopping military exercises with the United States, ending collaborations with foreign countries on inter-Korean issues, rejecting UN sanctions and releasing a dozen DPRK women allegedly kidnapped by the South Korean intelligence services, said the council.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said that he would start dialogue with Pyongyang if the latter stops its nuclear and missile programs.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 19:39:38|Editor: Zhou Xin

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DUBAI, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) top diplomat said on Saturday that he believes in the ability of the newly appointed Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman to "modernize and develop" the region.

The 31-year old Saudi Crown Prince "brings the hopes of a young generation that looks forward to modernization and development," Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said on twitter.

On Friday, the Saudi-led coalition, which severed ties with Qatar on June 5, issued a list of 13 demands for Doha to end the crisis, including reducing its ties with Iran and closing the Al-Jazeera TV station.
Refugees from South Sudan wait to be settled outside the Khour Al-Waral refugee camp in Al-Salam locality, some 69-kilometers south of Rebek, capital of White Nile State, Sudan, May 18, 2017. The Khour Al-Waral refugee camp accommodated 50,000 refugees. The majority of them are from Upper Nile State of South Sudan on the border with Sudan. (Xinhua/Mohamed Babiker)

by Ronald Ssekandi, Samuel Egadu

KAMPALA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Countries and donor agencies at an international refugee summit in Uganda on Friday pledged 358 million U.S. dollars to cater for the over 1.2 million refugees in Uganda.

The European Union, the United States, China, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank are among those that pledged to raise the funds at the Solidarity Summit convened by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"I thank all the countries which have contributed. You have really saved lives. These poor people will perish if they don't get support," said Museveni.

"We shall continue to open our doors for these children and women from our neighbors," he added.

Guterres called for increased humanitarian and development assistance to Uganda to address the refugee crisis.

"International solidarity with Uganda is not a matter of generosity, it's a matter of justice," said Guterres.

Uganda is now Africa's leading refugee-hosting country, having jumped from the eighth largest refugee-hosting country in the world in mid-2016 to the third largest now, after Turkey and Pakistan.

UN figures show that the country hosts more than 1.2 million refugees from neighboring South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda among others. Of these, more than 900,000 are from South Sudan.

Relief agencies say such numbers are placing excessive pressure on state and host community resources, especially social services like health and education.

Uganda and the UN hope to raise 8 billion dollars to cater for refugees in the East African country over the next four years.

OPEN DOOR REFUGEE POLICY

Uganda was hailed for its open door refugee policy. Those entering as refugee are given a piece of land to cultivate and those who have skills and capital are allowed to work.

"I have seen Uganda's borders open, I have seen the hearts of the Ugandan people open. But not all doors are open in the world. Not all refugees are accepted, some are rejected, and sometimes in countries much richer than Uganda," said Guterres.

"It is absolutely essential to recognize this enormous effort and not to let Ugandan people down," he said.

Other speakers at the summit, including the officials from Zambia, Somalia and Gabon, also applauded Uganda for its gesture, noting that they are ready to share experiences in hosting refugees.

Gabonese President Ali Bongo called for the creation of a fund to help handle issues regarding refugees.

Experts warn that Uganda's refugee policy may fail if the huge influx continues coupled with limited funding to the survival of the refugees.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 20:10:05|Editor: Zhou Xin

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DAMASCUS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- A total of 672 detainees were released from Syrian prisons on Saturday, a day ahead of the Eid al-Fitr feast, state news agency SANA reported.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 20:15:08|Editor: Zhou Xin

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NEW DELHI, June 24 (Xinhua) -- India's election commission, an independent body entrusted to conduct elections, Saturday disqualified a local minister in Madhya Pradesh state for submitting wrong accounts of election expenditure, officials said.

According to officials, Narottam Mishra, a leader of ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), has been debarred from contesting polls for three years.

He has allegedly resorted to corrupt practices and paid for publication of news during 2008 local elections in his favour, officials said. The new local elections are likely to be held in the central Indian state in December 2018.

Mishra, holding ministries of water resources, legislative affairs and public relations, is considered as number two in the government headed by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

"I didn't give any money to the media. There is no evidence. My lawyer is studying the order. Will move to high court (if need be)," he told media.

The opposition parties have demanded his resignation.

India's poll panel has the power to disqualify a candidate if he files wrong account of his expenses.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 20:15:09|Editor: Zhou Xin

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LAGOS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian authorities have beefed up security with the deployment of massive policemen across the country for the Sallah celebration.

Nigeria's Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, on Friday ordered top police officers to deploy policemen ahead of the Muslims Eid el Fitr celebration.

National police spokesperson Jimoh Moshood said the operation would cover recreation centers, public places and critical infrastructure and public utilities.

He said federal highway patrol teams, Safer Highway patrol, and anti-crime patrol teams had been deployed on major roads and highways nationwide.

Moshood said police officers were under strict instructions to be civil, polite and firm in carryout their duties.

He said Special Police deployments would be made to flash points.

In restive northeast Borno State, the police announced a restriction on movement of vehicles during the upcoming Eid celebration in Maiduguri and Jere Local Government Areas of the state.

Victor Isuku, a police spokesperson said the restriction will include the use of motor vehicles, tricycles, bicycles and animals except those on essential duties.

The restriction is necessary in view of recent security concerns, he added, noting that Muslim faithfuls are advised to pray at Eid prayer grounds close to their homes.

He advised residents to be security conscious and report strange happenings to security agents.

The restriction is the first since 2015, following successes recorded by the military against the Boko Haram insurgents.

Recently, the insurgents had intensified attacks especially suicide bombings in public places.

At least 17 persons were killed after five suspected female suicide bombers attacked Kofa Community near Dalori on Monday.

Also, on Tuesday, a convoy of vehicles was attacked along Maiduguri-Damboa road leading to the death of a policeman and a truck driver.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 20:30:17|Editor: Zhou Xin

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PARIS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- A second French journalist succumbed to injuries caused by a mine explosion in Mosul, Iraq, the foreign ministry said Saturday.

Veronique Robert was killed earlier this week while she was covering the international coalition's combat to retake the Islamic State (IS) stronghold in Mosul for a program broadcast by state-run France 2 television.

She was repatriated to France for treatment but she succumbed to her wounds, the ministry added.

The mine explosion also killed French journalist Stephan Villeneuve and Iraqi reporter Bakhtiyar Haddad on June 19.
I don't know how many young women come to this blog or how many are parents of teenage or young adult women, but here are some safety tips from Kelsey's Army:

T

I

P

S

1. Trust your instincts - If something feels wrong then something probably is wrong.2. Know your surroundings - know who and what is around you.3. Always have a plan for where you would go and what you would do if a situation arises.4. Be willing to make a scene in order to be noticed.5. Let someone know where you are going and when you will be back.Remember the acronym TIPS:ake Chargenform others of your whereaboutsrepare for any situationurvival Mentality (role play situations so you will respond should they happen)For more information, go to Kelsey's Army
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 21:20:33|Editor: Liangyu

Syrian detainees are released in Damascus, capital of Syria, on June 24, 2017. A total of 672 detainees were released from Syrian prisons on Saturday, a day ahead of Eid al-Fitr feast, state news agency SANA reported. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

DAMASCUS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- A total of 672 detainees were released from Syrian prisons on Saturday, a day ahead of Eid al-Fitr feast, state news agency SANA reported.

The report said the detainees were from several Syrian provinces, adding that they were released after pledging "not to carry out any act that undermines the safety of the homeland."

The authorities gathered the detainees and released them from the al-Baath Party branch in the capital Damascus, after Justice Minister Hisham al-Sha'ar met with them and gave a speech.

Inside the complex, each detainee carried his identification card and other related documentations in a plastic pack, when al-Sha'ar said their release was "a real chance to think again and re-embrace the homeland."

Women and their children, as well as young men, were among the released, according to reporters invited to cover the event.

Some of them have spent more than three years in prison, while others for a few months only, depending on the charges.

The government usually releases some detainees, mostly with misdemeanors or jailed for political reasons, ahead of the Eid occasion.

The political opposition has repeatedly urged the government to release what it said were tens of thousands of detainees, who were captured against the backdrop of the six-year war.

In February, Amnesty International accused the Syrian authorities of hanging thousands of prisoners and dumping bodies in mass graves in the notorious military prison of Saydnaya, which was repeatedly denied by government officials including President Bashar al-Assad.
Islamic State prisoners, who were pardoned by a council that is expected to govern Raqqa once the group is dislodged from the Syrian city, stand in Ain Issa village, north of Raqqa, Syria June 24, 2017. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

DAMASCUS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- A total of 672 detainees were released from Syrian prisons on Saturday, a day ahead of Eid al-Fitr feast, state news agency SANA reported.

The report said the detainees were from several Syrian provinces, adding that they were released after pledging "not to carry out any act that undermines the safety of the homeland."

The authorities gathered the detainees and released them from the al-Baath Party branch in the capital Damascus, after Justice Minister Hisham al-Sha'ar met with them and gave a speech.

Inside the complex, each detainee carried his identification card and other related documentations in a plastic pack, when al-Sha'ar said their release was "a real chance to think again and re-embrace the homeland."

Women and their children, as well as young men, were among the released, according to reporters invited to cover the event.

Some of them have spent more than three years in prison, while others for a few months only, depending on the charges.

The government usually releases some detainees, mostly with misdemeanors or jailed for political reasons, ahead of the Eid occasion.

The political opposition has repeatedly urged the government to release what it said were tens of thousands of detainees, who were captured against the backdrop of the six-year war.

In February, Amnesty International accused the Syrian authorities of hanging thousands of prisoners and dumping bodies in mass graves in the notorious military prison of Saydnaya, which was repeatedly denied by government officials including President Bashar al-Assad.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 21:40:48|Editor: An

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ADDIS ABABA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia's flagship Chinese-built Hawassa Industrial Park has proved successful in just less than a year as it has attracted various world-class textile and apparel companies to the east African country.

One among the renowned companies that have shown interest in the Hawassa Industrial Park is PVH, a company known for marketing diversified portfolio of brands including Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. The company has already established its first manufacturing industry in the Hawassa industrial park.

The industrial zone has so far welcomed 18 companies that have already started operations inside the industrial park. Six of them are presently exporting their products to the international market.

The east African country has targeted to generate 1 billion U.S. dollars annually once the park starts operations at its full potential.

Built by China Civil Engineering Corporation (CCECC), the Hawassa industrial park, located in Ethiopia's southern city of Hawassa, some 275km south of the capital Addis Ababa, was initially completed in a record time of nine months back in July 2016.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, speaking at a ceremony marking the park's official operation commencement on Monday, said that his country's favorable business environment is drawing a growing number of foreign investors and huge Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

The premier further asserted that the Hawassa industrial park can be seen as a "foundation in Ethiopia's ambition to be the manufacturing hub of the African continent."

The Ethiopian Investment Commission has also announced its plan to replicate the best lessons obtained from the Hawassa Industrial Park to other parks being built across the country.

The Ethiopian government highly believes that the development of industrial parks is the major path for the country to realize its vision of becoming manufacturing powerhouse in the African continent.

In this regard, the country has budgeted more than one billion U.S. dollars for the construction of industrial parks in the second five-year Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP-II) period, effective from 2015 to 2020.

The Ethiopian government expects the development of industrial parks throughout the country would increase the share of the manufacturing sector to the country's agriculture sector dominated GDP, in which the manufacturing sector stood at only 5 percent for many years.

After proved successful by attracting PVH to the flagship Hawassa industrial park as an anchor company, the Ethiopian Investment Commission has planned to replicate this plan further to Mekele and Kombolcha industrial parks that are expected to be operational by the end of this month.

Mekelle and Kombolcha Industrial Parks, located some 783km and 252km north of the capital Addis Ababa respectively, are also under construction by Chinese companies.

The Ethiopian Investment Commission is eyeing on Vanity Fair and H&M, among other companies, to make establishment in the two parks that are dedicated to the textile and apparel sector.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 21:50:50|Editor: Zhou Xin

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PYONGYANG, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) warned Saturday that the United States could start a second Korean War anytime, on the eve of the 67th anniversary of the outbreak of the three-year war.

The United States "is driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war by massively bringing its strategic assets one after another to put under its complete control the peninsula, which is of geographical importance in realizing its regional and global hegemony," said a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Tensions remain high on the Korean Peninsula due to the U.S. threat to launch military strikes against Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.

The commentary said "the U.S. hostility and war hysteria against the DPRK are getting evermore undisguised," accusing the commander of the 2nd division of the U.S. forces in South Korea of claiming that American troops would come back any time to fight.

"This shows that the U.S. remains unchanged in its sinister design although 67 years have passed," it added.

The Korean Peninsula remains technically in a state of war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace agreement.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 22:05:55|Editor: Zhou Xin

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KHARTOUM, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Sudan on Saturday condemned the terrorist plot which targeted the Holy Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

"The Sudan's Foreign Ministry expresses its strong condemnation of the terrorist attempt which targeted Friday the Holy Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia," Sudan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry expressed Sudan's solidarity with Saudi Arabia for any measures it adopts to preserve the security and safety of its citizens and the visitors of the Holy mosque against all forms of terrorist and criminal acts.

The statement also praised the vigilance and readiness of Saudi security forces which foiled the terrorist plot, describing it as "a crime contradicting all religious and humanitarian values."

Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said on Friday that security forces thwarted a terrorist plot targeting the Holy Mosque in Mecca.

According to the spokesman, Saudi security forces arrested five suspects, including a woman.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 22:05:56|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Sun Lingjun, 35, is looking forward to the upcoming Summer Davos meeting in northeast China's port city of Dalian, Liaoning Province.

Representing Dalian locals at the forum, the entrepreneur will have access to nearly all conferences but the closed-door sessions, a rare opportunity for him to rub shoulders with global opinion-makers.

"I am eager to hear new insights and incorporate them into our strategies and operations," he said.

Sun believes the meeting will give a push to his company, Dalian CheeringTech, which made more than 6 million yuan (around 900,000 U.S. dollars) from sales and services of its primary product, the world's smallest smart camera controller, in Europe, the United States and other overseas markets last year.

FAVORABLE TRADE WINDS BLOWING STRONG

Sun's enthusiasm for Summer Davos, officially the Annual Meeting of the New Champions, is echoed across the country. Over 2,000 figures from politics, business, civil society, academia and the arts will assemble in the city from June 27 to 29 to discuss topics from inclusive growth to the new industrial revolution.

Established by the World Economic Forum in 2007, the meeting is held each year in China, alternating between Dalian and Tianjin.

Summer Davos has been good for Dalian, reshaping the landscape of regional economy and strengthening the port's trade with other markets. The city has become a financial, shipping and logistics center for northeast China and beyond.

"By hosting Summer Davos, Dalian has become an international city, a showpiece of reform and opening up and a center of economic growth," said Guo Xikun, an official coordinating the meeting.

Dalian registered 6.5 percent economic growth in 2016, the only city with any significant growth in the whole province. The city imported nearly 180 billion yuan of goods last year, and exported over 160 billion yuan, more than half of the province's total.

Summer Davos has brought the world to doors of many local firms.

"We are based in Dalian but think of ourselves as a global business," Sun said. Around 95 percent CheeringTech business came from overseas last year and Sun is now helping other companies raise funds via websites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter.

A local manufacturer of numerical control machines, Dalian Guangyang Science & Technology Engineering has products that compete with global leaders.

"We have mastered the core technology of an area once seen as a weak link in China's manufacturing sector and we are now expanding into the international arena," Guangyang's chairman Yu Dehai said.

SMOOTH SAILING AHEAD

"Foreign firms see Summer Davos as a bellwether of China's economy and external policies," said Lawrence Lin, managing director of Orix Corporation's China branch.

The Tokyo-based financial multinational set up its China headquarter in Dalian in 2009 when the meeting was held there for the second time. In 2015, it increased its registered capital by 300 million U.S. dollars, encouraged by growth prospects.

"The decision to invest more in China has been very good for our company," Lin said. Orix's global revenue grew 13.1 percent in the last fiscal year and net profits rose by 5 percent.

Following Orix, other foreign investors began to set up businesses in Dalian. Temasek, a Singapore investment company, established a joint venture and spent 1 billion yuan building an IT park, which is now home to branches of IBM and Konica Minolta, among others. Woon Yun Ling, senior general manager of the park, said the company plans to spend another 200 million yuan on expansion.

During the Meeting of the New Champions two years ago, Dalian reached investment agreements worth 3.4 billion U.S. dollars with foreign companies, including Goodyear, Maflow, Pfizer and SoftBank Group, in areas including finance, manufacturing and e-commerce. To date, 18,600 foreign-funded companies have invested more than 100 billion U.S. dollars in Dalian.

Lin's company is considering patent cooperation with a local research institute and hopes to assist in the reorganization of state-owned enterprises.

"The industrial potential and R&D capability of the city and broader northeastern China are attractive to overseas investors," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 22:26:04|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BEIRUT, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri condemned on Saturday a terrorist plot that targeted the Grand Mosque in Mecca, according to a statement by his media office.

Hariri called the terror plan on Friday "diabolical," saying it "deviated from the Islamic teachings," as the Grand Mosque is "the holiest and purest place for Muslims."

He also praised the swift efforts of Saudi security forces to thwart the plot, adding that Lebanon stands alongside Saudi Arabia, its leadership and its people in the face of terrorism.

On the same day, Hezbollah also denounced the foiled plot, describing it as a "shameful bid."

In a statement released by its media department, the Lebanese party said the attempt has a link to "the blood-filled crimes committed in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 23:06:34|Editor: An

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (C back) gives a speech while presiding over a symposium on poverty relief in Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, June 23, 2017. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

TAIYUAN, June 24 (Xinhua) -- While China has seen 55.64 million rural people lifted out of poverty in more than four years, "abject poverty" remains, and so President Xi Jinping has put himself on the frontline.

Abject poverty persists in areas around old revolutionary bases, ethnic minority regions, border areas, and places with poor infrastructure, delicate environmental conditions and frequent natural disasters.

A MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB

The Lyuliang mountain region in north China's Shanxi Province is just such an area. It was an important staging-post on Xi's visit to Shanxi from Wednesday to Friday.

In Zhaojiawa, a hillside village of mud huts, on Wednesday morning, Xi went into a hut and took a seat on the kang, a brick bed heated by fire, once widely used in the countryside but rarely seen nowadays.

"Let's chat," Xi said to Liu Fuyou and his wife, both over 70 years old, inviting them to sit beside him on the kang.

"Are you still able to do farm work? Is the drought serious this year? Your children work away from the village. Do they help you out?" the President asked.

"Our family made less than 7,000 yuan (1,024 U.S. dollars) last year. We earned about 500 yuan by growing grain. The rest came from the government," said Liu, who lives with his 92-year-old mother. His five children left the village when they married.

Xi turned to local officials: "What are you doing for this family? How many such cases are there in this county?"

"We are ready to resettle them in a better area. There are 3,537 people in 115 villages in similar situations," answered Wang Zhidong, Party chief of Kelan County which administers Zhaojiawa.

"How much will be spent on the resettlement? What are the new houses like? What will the villagers do after relocation?" Xi continued. His questions were every bit as detailed in another two households.

Precision is a key word in Xi's war on poverty, taking the right measures, at the right time, in the right way, according to the situation .

China has set 2020 as the target year to finish building a moderately prosperous society, which means complete eradication of poverty. The task becomes more difficult and costly as the process nears its end.

There must be better support and more effective measures, Xi told a symposium in Taiyuan, Shanxi's capital on Friday.

The central authorities coordinate the entire program, provinces take responsibility, while cities and counties ensure implementation of policies. Party and government chiefs hold the responsibility for all the work.

People stricken by extreme poverty must join the "moderately prosperous society" along with the rest of the nation, Xi said.

ACCOMPLISH GREAT THINGS

Lyuliang was just the latest stop on Xi's tour of the most needy regions since becoming general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in 2012.

In Xi's mind, if rural China, particularly those impoverished areas, is left behind, there will be no "moderately prosperous society."

The CPC must put people first and use socialism to concentrate resources and accomplish big things, Xi said during the tour.

"The Party and government serve the people. It is our duty to give people better lives," he said.

At Zhaojiawa, Xi visited the office of the poverty-alleviation team.

The office is in an abandoned mud shack, once occupied by villagers who had left the village. On the wall were charts and analyses.

"The team work and live here. We will not leave until the village is free of poverty," said Jia Yuchun, the county official in charge of the work.

Like Jia, more than 770,000 officials from government, universities, state-owned enterprises and civil associations work hard in the countryside across the nation.

"The policies of the CPC Central Committee are in line with the situation. As long as we implement the policies, progress can be made," Jia said when responding to Xi's questions on the difficulties of the job.

At Songjiagou New Village in Kelan County, Xi trudged through the rain to see the new houses for those to be relocated. Roads, water, broadband and cable televisions are in place. Schools, clinics, public squares and libraries have been built.

"I lived in the shack with no water. Now I live in a new house without having spent any money," said villager Zhang Guiming. "The CPC cares for me. I will always stand by the CPC."

Xi said it was just the first step. People must really settle down and become comfortable after relocation.

"The CPC Central Committee can lead the people to unite to shake off poverty and become comfortable," Xi told the villagers and called on them to, "roll up your sleeves and work harder, together with the CPC Central Committee."

A FOE THAT CAN BE DEFEATED

By 2020 people in rural areas should have no more worries about food and clothing, be guaranteed education, basic medical care and housing. Disposable income will increase faster than the national average. All the rural population will rise above the poverty line.

The government should focus more on the poorest areas in terms of funds and programs. Public services, infrastructure and medical care must be guaranteed, Xi told the symposium attended by Party chiefs of Qinghai, Shanxi and Yunnan, as well as Tibet Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Party chiefs of some poverty-stricken prefectures, cities and counties also attended to report on their progress.

Xi talked about developing industries that benefit people in the poorest areas. Transportation, water resources and ecological protection should engage as many poor people as possible.

The rich east of the country and central government departments must do more, he said, adding that efforts should be made to prevent corruption and fraud.

"As long as we pay great attention, think correctly, take effective measures and work in a down to earth way, abject poverty is absolutely conquerable," Xi said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 23:21:37|Editor: Liangyu

Indian military personnel arrive at site of a militant attack in outskirts of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, June 24, 2017. A junior level officer of paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was killed and another wounded Saturday after militants attacked them in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said. (Xinhua/Javed Dar)

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, June 24 (Xinhua) -- A junior level officer of paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was killed and another wounded Saturday after militants attacked them in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said.

The attack took place in the evening at Pantha Chowk bypass area in Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

"Militants this evening attacked our vehicle at Pantha Chowk area during which two of our troopers were wounded," Rajesh Yadav, a CRPF spokesman in Srinagar told Xinhua. "Later on, of the two wounded, an officer succumbed to his wounds, while as the constable is under treatment."

Reports said a civilian was also wounded in the firing incident.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 23:21:39|Editor: Liangyu

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HELSINKI, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila said Finland has difficulty in accepting a system where the European Commission would control non-European Union (EU) investments in Finland.

Talking to Finnish media late Friday, Sipila commented on the ideas promoted by France that the Commission would be able to "x-ray" investments from non-EU countries.

"This kind of linkage is futile," Sipila said, especially in the bioproduct sector. There are currently several major Chinese investment plans pending in the bioproduct sector in Finland.

However, Sipila added that he would understand the "x-raying" of investments in the branches that are critically important to security.

In the EU summer summit convened this week in Brussels, the EU leaders were split on the issue. In the end, the summit agreed that the Commission will evaluate the need for a system to look into ways of "recognizing unfair situations in trade."

Besides Finland, the French idea was criticised mostly by the other Nordic countries, Britain and the Netherlands.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 23:21:43|Editor: yan

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MANILA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has unilaterally declared an 8-hour truce in the besieged southern Philippine city of Marawi starting at 6 a.m.local time on Sunday, a military spokesman announced.

Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said in a text message to reporters that the military has decided to declare a stop of military offensives against the Islamist militants with links to Islamic State (IS) holed up in some parts of the city.

"To give reverence to the supposed peaceful, joyous and festive spiritual celebration, the AFP upon the approval of the AFP Chief of Staff intends to declare a stop in our current operations in the city on that day to serve as a gesture of our strong commitment and respect to the Muslim world particularly to the local Muslims of Marawi City," Padilla said.

He said the so-called "humanitarian pause" in the military's offensive operations "will only cover a halt in our employment of our capabilities."

The truce ends at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Padilla said.

The Muslim world will be celebrating Eid al-Fitr, an important religious holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.

Fighting broke out in the city on May 23 when militants occupied many facilities and houses in the city, prompting the military to launch a counter offensive. Clashes continue as troops try to crush up to 100 militants that are still holed up in Mosques and houses in some parts of the city.

The month-long firefight has drove away the city's more than 200,000 residents and has killed nearly 400 people, including 69 soldiers and policemen.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 23:41:53|Editor: Liangyu

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PARIS, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Richard Ferrand, ex-minister for territorial planning on Saturday was elected to lead lawmakers representing President Emmanuel Macron's ruling camp in the lower house of parliament, the Republic on The Move party (LREM) announced.

"I thank the deputies for their confidence. As president of the Republic on The Move group, I will devote myself to the promise of renewal of political practices," Ferrand said in a statement.

"We have a strong obligation to succeed. The French people no longer want intentions, they want results," he added.

Previously a Socialist, Ferrand, 54, was the first politician who quit the political mainstream to support President Macron's bid, before becoming the head of his presidential campaign.

For his new mission, he is expected to orchestrate the work of 308 lawmakers, majority of whom are new and untested faces with which France's youngest head of state wants to breathe a new life into the country's political life that has been engulfed by fraud scandals.

In May, Ferrand joined Macron's first executive staff. Shortly after his nomination, he has been under fire over allegations of suspected financial deals.

Earlier press reports claimed that he struck rental deal with a company owned by his partner when he managed a medical insurance group in western France for the 1998-2012 period.

Public prosecutor had launched an inquiry into the allegedly corruption affair that the former minister had denied.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-24 23:51:59|Editor: Liangyu

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KIGALI, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Saturday called on Rwandans to actively work together as a team as they participate in activities that uphold social and economic development of the country.

He made the remarks while addressing thousands of residents of Gasabo and Kicukiro districts in the capital city of Kigali, who participated in the monthly community work, locally known as "Umuganda."

"Citizen Participation is essential for economic growth. Meaningful socio-economic development is best achieved through hard working with a common goal to produce an optimal outcome. Together we can build a strong and prosperous Rwanda," he said.

Kagame emphasized that there is the need for deliberate policies to promote social and economic inclusion, as well as policies that enhance democracy and accountable government.

"We should not minimize the impact of Umuganda, everyone's contribution is proof of what we can achieve working together. Rwandans have to stand together to ensure the country's prosperity."

Umuganda is held in communities across Rwanda every last Saturday of every month and it has become a norm among Rwandan citizens where they use the platform to develop their communities.

During the community work, Kagame joined residents to plant trees in Nyandungu wetland recreation and eco-tourism park along the Kigali special economic zone.

The park seeks to conserve environment, create green jobs and promote tourism.

According to the ministry of local government of Rwanda, the monetary value of Umuganda is equivalent to an average annual budget for two districts.

The small central African country targets to increase the current average annual GDP growth rate from the current 5.4 percent to more than 10 percent, with an eye to reaching upper middle income status by 2035.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-25 00:42:16|Editor: Liangyu

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ROME, June 23 (Xinhua) -- A measles death case of a six-year-old boy in the northern Italian city of Monza has sparked renewed controversy over vaccines in Italy.

The child's immune system was compromised because he had leukemia and contracted measles from his two older siblings, who had not been vaccinated.

Italy has seen a dropoff in immunizations in recent years due to highly organized "no-vax" campaigns claiming that vaccines can cause autism, and that they are a plot hatched by greedy multinationals.

The populist Five Star Movement, currently the leading party in Italy, has in the past endorsed the "no-vax" position.

"Such cases would not happen today if immunization coverage were adequate and if parents vaccinated their children," Italian Pediatrics Society vaccines commissioner, Susanna Esposito, told Italian news agency ANSA on Friday.

"The little boy had acute lymphoblasetic leukemia, a disease which today has an 85 percent chance of recovery in similar cases," Lombardy Welfare Councillor Giulio Gallera said in a statement announcing the child's death late on Thursday.

"I reiterate that herd immunity, that is, vaccinating over 95 percent of children, is the only way to protect those with compromised immune systems," Gallera wrote.

Measles has the potential for large outbreaks wherever immunization coverage has dropped below the necessary threshold of 95 percent of the population, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

This is the case right now in Italy and Romania, both of which are experiencing the largest measles outbreaks in Europe, the WHO has warned.

There have been 3,074 cases of measles in Italy since the beginning of the year, 89 percent of them among unvaccinated people and with 40 percent of cases landing patients in hospital, according to the Italian health ministry's weekly bulletin on what it says is an ongoing measles epidemic.

There is no specific treatment for measles and while most people recover within two to three weeks it can cause serious complications, including blindness, encephalitis, pneumonia, and death.

It is globally still one of the leading causes of childhood mortality, and the only way to prevent it is by immunization, according to the WHO.

"It is extremely painful to comment on the death of a six-year-old boy... who probably could have been saved from leukemia but who was killed by measles," Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin said in a statement.

"This happens... when herd immunity is lacking," wrote Lorenzin, whose measure raising from four to 12 the number of mandatory vaccines for young children went into effect on June 7.

"We must respect medicine and scientific truth for the good of our children," the health minister wrote. The new vaccines law includes immunization against highly contagious diseases such as polio, meningitis, measles, and rubella.

It makes completing these vaccinations a pre-requisite for children to attend school, and imposes fines on parents who don't comply. The measure sparked protests in Italy's north, with 130 families in the Alto Adige region saying they would rather claim political asylum in nearby Austria than vaccinate their kids.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-25 00:47:22|Editor: An

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) shakes hands with his Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani during their meeting in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on June 24, 2017. (Xinhua/Dai He)

KABUL, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani on Saturday pledged to enhance cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

Wang Yi, on a visit here, expressed the hope that both countries will continue to support each other on issues of core interest and deepen cooperation in anti-terror fight. He also said China welcomes Afghanistan to actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Wang reaffirmed China's steadfast support for the Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation process. He reiterated that China supports the revival of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group of Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the United States and supports the activation of the work of the liaison group between the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Afghanistan, which will help create favorable atmosphere for the peace process.

Rabbani pledged that Afghanistan will actively take part in the Belt and Road Initiative, strengthen cooperation with China in fight against terrorism and take firm actions to crack down on the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement" terrorist group.

He appreciated China's constructive role in helping push forward his country's peace and reconciliation process and vowed continuous efforts in this regard in whatever circumstances.

He also expressed gratitude for the active role China has played in the efforts of Afghanistan and Pakistan in improving ties.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-25 03:23:02|Editor: yan

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MAPUTO, June 24 (Xinhua) -- President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi on Saturday used his position to represent the Mozambican nation to express condolences to Botswana for its loss of the former president, Ketumile Masire.

In his message the president highlights the contribution Masire made to the African continent, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and particularly to Mozambique.

Nyusi said that Masire was a true friend to Mozambique in his contribution to strengthen bilateral cooperation, friendship between the people of both nations, which cannot go unnoticed.

"He provided a fundamental support to Mozambique in tortuous moments when we were building the trajectory of the country," reads the presidency message.

Nyusi admits that there were times that Mozambicans themselves doubted if they should continue the fight, but the late former president Masire always gave a helping hand to support the country.

"In the name of the Mozambican people and my own, I would like to send through you your Excellency, to the people of Botswana and the mourning family our condolences, "the message reads.

Nyusi went on to say that the loss is irreparable not only for the mourning family and the Botswana people but also for the SADC community, the African people and all those that love peace.

In the message Nyusi also mentioned the readiness of Masire to help resolving the recent political conflict that Mozambique had suffered in the last couple of years.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-25 04:18:14|Editor: An

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Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) shakes hands with Pakistani top foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz during their meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, on June 24, 2017. (Xinhua/Liu Tian)

ISLAMABAD, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Saturday that tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan are not conducive to their stability and development as well as regional cooperation, calling on both countries to meet each other halfway so as to improve bilateral ties.

Wang made the call during his meeting with Pakistani top foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz. He said that Pakistan and Afghanistan should send the international community a positive signal that the two sides are willing to restore mutual trust and conduct cooperation through bilateral channels.

Wang also said that China supports the two sides in seeking to establish a crisis managing mechanism as quickly as possible so as to properly deal with contingencies and to form a trilateral meeting system among foreign ministers of China, Afghanistan and Pakistan in order to enhance dialogue and cooperation in all areas.

For his part, Aziz said that Pakistan is willing to intensify communication and improve relations with the Afghan side and to support the political reconciliation process in Afghanistan as these are in line with both countries' common interests.

The advisor said that the Pakistani side has made political and diplomatic efforts on the issue and is willing to activate relevant dialogue mechanisms and channels, adding that it requires the two sides to meet each other halfway.

He added that Pakistan is willing to form the trilateral foreign ministers meeting system and Pak-Afghan crisis managing mechanism through negotiations to enhance talks and cooperation and properly handle divergences.

On China-Pakistan ties, Wang said that Pakistan is China's all-weather strategic cooperative partner and the relationship is a unique one in China's foreign relations and is tested by history.

He added that China is willing to improve strategic communication and strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with Pakistan in order to maintain the two countries' common interests.

The Chinese foreign minister highlighted that counter terrorism is an important content of bilateral relations and expressed thanks to the Pakistani side for its firm support for China's fight against the violent terrorist group the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement."

Wang also hailed Pakistan's important contribution to the international counter terrorism cause as it is in the frontline of global fight against terror.

Aziz said that international counter terrorism situation is getting tougher recently as terror incidents have occurred more frequently, and Pakistan has suffered a lot from terrorist attacks. He pledged that Pakistan will make greater efforts to fight against terrorism of all forms together with the international community.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-25 04:38:23|Editor: Liu

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SAN FRANCISCO, June 24 (Xinhua) -- A new study reveals the possibility that a specific protein binds to stretches of DNA, namely deoxyribonucleic acid, and pulls it into droplets that shield the genetic material inside from the molecular machinery of the nucleus that reads and translates the genome.

A host of proteins and other molecules sit on the strands of human DNA, controlling which genes are read out and used by cells and which remain silent.

This aggregation of genetic material and controlling molecules, called chromatin, makes up the chromosomes in our cell nuclei; its control over which genes are expressed or not is what determines the difference between a skin cell and a neuron, and often between a healthy cell and a cancerous one.

Parts of the genome are loosely coiled in the nucleus, allowing cells to access the genes inside, but large sections are compacted densely, preventing the genes form being read until their region of the genome is unfolded again.

These compacted regions, known as heterochromatin, are formed by a protein known as HP1-alpha and similar proteins.

The new study, by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, tries to answer the question that how HP1-alpha segregates this off-limits DNA from the rest of the nucleus.

Graduate student Adam Larson of Geeta Narlikar, professor of biochemistry and biophysics and senior author of the study published this week in the journal Nature, was trying to purify HP1-alpha, and noticed that the liquid in his samples was growing cloudy.

For protein scientists, this is typically bad news, suggesting that proteins that should dissolve in water are instead clumping together into a useless mass.

Larson thought the clumps might actually be useful. Previous work had shown that the role of HP1-alpha is to sequester long strands of DNA into very small volumes.

What if this was exactly the sort of clumping he was seeing in the tube? He took the samples to the lab across the hall from Narlikar's, where Roger Cooke, professor emeritus of biochemistry and biophysics, helped him examine under the microscope what could have been just a tangled molecular mess.

Instead, Larson and Cooke saw clouds of delicate droplets floating around in the water, like a freshly shaken mix of oil and vinegar.

To see how and why the HP1-alpha formed droplets, the researchers produced different mutant versions of the protein, watching which separated out.

By watching which parts of the protein were important for forming droplets, and using X-rays to monitor changes in the protein's shape, they found that the protein nearly doubles in length when small phosphate residues are added in certain locations.

"The molecule literally opens up," Narlikar was quoted as saying in a news release. It exposes electrically charged regions of the protein, which stick together, turning dissolved pairs of proteins into long chains that clump together into droplets.

The fact that such a drastic change in shape comes from such a small modification may allow the cell to tightly regulate where and when HP1-alpha silences genes, Narlikar said, noting that "this provides a very simple explanation for how cells prevent access to genes."

HP1-alpha had a reputation as a difficult protein to work with: get any solution too concentrated, and the protein would clump out. But if the protein was supposed to clump, according to Narlikar, "a lot of things we couldn't explain started to make sense."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-25 04:38:25|Editor: Liangyu

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by Eric J. Lyman

ROME, June 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced earlier this month that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change, but Italy's prime minister Paolo Gentiloni said he plans to keep pushing Trump to change his mind.

Trump, Gentiloni, and other leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) are gearing up for the G20 Summit in the northern German city of Hamburg on July 7-8.

Of the 20, the U.S. is the only one that has said it would reject the Paris deal, which was agreed to by nearly 200 countries -- including the U.S. -- two years ago in the French capital.

The G20 is composed of large industrialized economies, plus major economies in transition, such as Brazil, China, and India.

Gentiloni indicated this year's summit will be the first major diplomatic showdown since Trump's June 1 announcement about the Paris Agreement, the first global pact to confront the problem of climate change.

"On the occasion of the next G20 ... we will renew the pressure on the U.S. president to review his position on the Paris Agreement," Gentiloni said earlier this week.

Gentiloni rose to prominence beyond Italy's borders at May's Group of Seven summit, which Italy hosted.

Reporters were told that Gentiloni pushed hard to persuade Trump to remain part of the Paris Agreement when the two met in Sicily.

After Trump's announcement that the U.S. planned to withdraw and would seek to renegotiate the Paris deal, Gentiloni was one of three leaders -- along with French President Emanuele Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- to co-author a public letter, saying that the Paris deal "cannot be renegotiated."

Key observers said they expected an about-face from Trump at the G20 talks, though they applauded Gentiloni's stance.

"It is entirely appropriate for world leaders to continue to hold the U.S. accountable for its commitments to the Paris Agreement," Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, the head of global climate and energy policy for WWF, said in an interview.

Jennifer Morgan, executive director for Greenpeace International, said she was encouraged by Gentiloni's remarks.

"Gentiloni is aligned with many other world leaders who will keep moving ahead," Morgan told Xinhua.

"If Trump wants to shoot himself in the foot by ignoring the advice of leading scientists, economists, security officials, and even the will of his own citizens, this statement helps show he will have to do it alone," she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-25 04:43:27|Editor: yan

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ANKARA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Some 57 suspects were arrested during a major operation launched by Turkish police on Saturday, state-run Anadolu agency reported.

The operation targeted bus terminals, train stations, airports and sea ports across 81 provinces in Turkey, the General Security Directorate said in a written statement.

It started ahead of the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.

Altogether 12,072 officers, backed by aircraft, marine vessels and sniffer dogs, participated in the operation.

Police also seized seven weapons, four shotguns and some narcotic drugs in the raids. Some 164 other suspects wanted for small crimes were held separately.
As if the failure to enact meaningful legislation related to ethics and corruption was bad enough, lawmakers this year also failed to take care of an item that's historically been as routine as the arrival of summer: pass sales tax extension legislation for county governments.

It may not sound like an exciting measure, but it's vital to the functioning of local governments throughout the state, including in Cayuga County.

The sales tax extender is legislation that allows an extra 1 percent of sales tax collections for county governments. Under the archaic system that is New York state government, the Legislature and the governor must enact these extenders into law even though they've been in place for years. It's an annoyance, but historically has by no means been a source of worry.

What has happened in 2017 is that some people in the state Assembly got the brilliant idea to hold these extenders hostage to the issue of mayoral control over New York City schools. And while there was some shouting in the final days of the session about the impropriety of this tactic, it was not enough on anyone's part to get something done.

What does that mean? Potentially, it could be disaster for local budgets, which count on sales tax revenue as one of the major funding sources for basic operations. The magnitude of this cut would be disastrous in terms of forcing substantial service cuts or property tax increases or both.

In the wake of their failure to do their jobs last week, many legislators told their constituents not to worry. They'd come back to Albany at some point and clean this mess up.

That's not acceptable. With the pressures local governments are under from unfunded mandates, the state tax cap, dried-up federal and state funding and more, uncertainty is a huge enemy. And if this sales tax measure gets dragged into the late summer or fall, the budget process could be severely impaired.

Our advice to county legislators, town supervisors and council members, mayors, trustees and city councilors is to get on the phone to make some calls and send some emails demanding that their legislators insist on getting this done early in the summer.

And then they need to make sure this ridiculous exercise in dysfunctional politics is never used again.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-25 05:38:35|Editor: yan

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AMMAN, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Jordan announced Sunday as the start of Eid al-Fitr, said top religious authority Saturday.

Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, frees Muslims from fasting to share the joy of the celebrations with community members.

Jordanian authorities said they are prepared for any emergencies, with planned inspection of crowded places to ensure public safety.

In accordance with the teachings of Islam, the holiday starts on the first day after the new moon was sighted at sunset.

The spot of crescent was announced this year in the presence of scholars, astronomy experts and officials at a ceremony.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-25 05:58:44|Editor: Liangyu

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LONDON, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Tourism chiefs announced Saturday they have released an interactive map to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Potter book next Monday.

VisitBritain, the country's official tourism office, is celebrating the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by showcasing what makes Britain a magical destination for international tourists.

The interactive online map highlights magical sites across Britain which have inspired some of the world's greatest literature and legends, from Harry Potter to Sherwood Forest, famed as the home of Robin Hood, and the legendary King Arthur to Scotland's Loch Ness Monster.

VisitBritain Director Patricia Yates said: "From Glenfinnan Viaduct in Scotland where the Harry Potter's Hogwarts Express travelled, to Professor McGonagall's classroom at Durham Cathedral, to exploring the Forbidden Forest at Warner Bros Studio, Harry Potter's Britain is the stuff of magic."

"Harry and his wizarding world continue to hold generations of readers from across the globe spellbound, firing up imaginations and inspiring people to explore locations and landscapes and experience the wonder themselves."

Attracted by culture and heritage, overseas travellers who visit Britain's castles or historic houses spend more than 10 billion U.S. dollars annually exploring cultural venues.

Film and literature are also powerful motivators for travel, with more than a third of potential visitors to the UK wanting to see places featured on screen, says VisitBritain.

VisitEngland has named 2017 the Year of Literary Heroes to shine the spotlight on England's literary destinations and anniversaries. Anniversaries include the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death, the 125th anniversary of the first Sherlock Holmes book, and the 75th anniversary of Enid Blyton's Famous Five.

Latest statistics for 2017 show that there were a record 11.8 million overseas visits to the UK from January to April, up 11 percent on the same period in 2016. Overseas visitors spent nearly 8 million dollars during the period, up 14 percent.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-25 06:13:49|Editor: Liangyu

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LIVERPOOL, June 24 (Xinhua) -- British Prime minister Theresa May and top military brass were in Liverpool Saturday to lead the nation in paying tribute to Britain's servicemen and women on National Armed Forces Day.

The Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward, represented Queen Elizabeth. Soldiers from the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and military veterans took part in a day of events which started with a gun salute at Liverpool's historic Pier Head waterfront where the Royal Navy's type-23 frigate warship, HMS Iron Duke, was docked.

Military villages were created in Liverpool to host public displays, including warplanes, helicopters, diving tanks, inflatable boats, tanks, a field hospital, simulators and marching military bands.

Around Britain, a record of events took place, including parades, military displays and community fetes.

"Our world-leading Armed Forces work day and night to defend our country and our way of life, both at home and abroad," May said in Liverpool.

"In the aftermath of the Manchester attack, military personnel played a vital role on British streets, providing visible reassurance. And further afield they continue to take the fight to Daesh in Iraq and Syria, helping to drive the terrorists back and give ordinary people in those countries the chance to rebuild their lives."

Local media reported that May was booed and heckled in Liverpool, a Labour stronghold city as she was escorted by Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson.

Defense Secretary Sir Michael Fallon, also in Liverpool, said: "Today is a valuable opportunity to give something back to the Armed Forces community, which works so hard to keep us safe each and every day."

British armed forces are currently involved in over 20 operations in some 25 countries.
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Ste Madeleine police foil possible homicide

Police say the man, only hours before, had beaten a woman at the house where he was arrested.

Late Wednesday night they responded to a report of a domestic violence situation at Golconda Settlement but when they arrived, they found a woman who was badly beaten but the alleged perpetrator had left the house.

A team comprising Sgt Sankar, PC Boodram and PCs Figaro and Sankar returned to the area at about 5.30 am on Thursday on surveillance.

While waiting, the police saw a 37-year-old construction worker enter the yard of the house.

He was arrested as he was about to enter the house. Upon searching him, police found the gun, the ammunition and the ski mask.

He was taken into custody and several charges are expected to be laid against him .

Head of the Southern Division Snr Supt. Zamsheed Mohammed praised the officers for their dedication to duty in preventing a possible crime.
Two guns found in La Romaine

The brother of one of the men was shot last week in La Romaine but survived the attack . According to a police report, at about 4.50 am on Thursday, police executed a search warrant at the house at Grace Lane, La Romaine. During the search, they found one Taurus pistol and an extended magazine with 14 rounds of 9 mm ammunition. One man was arrested.

Police later conducted a similar search at a house a short distance away and also recovered a Beretta pistol and one magazine with seven rounds of 40.mm ammunition. A second man was arrested in connection with the discovery.
Wife to go on trial for husbands murder

She is now unable to walk and was was taken before Justice Althea Alexis-Windsor in a wheelchair.

On Thursday a jury was empanelled. Jagmohan was charged with murder but in May 2010, she was freed by a San Fernando magistrate after a preliminary inquiry. However she was re-arrested and charged on instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Former attorney general Senior Counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj was given a fiat to prosecute the woman.

Jagindranans body was found in a drain off a gravel road at Lalbeharry Trace, Debe on June 25, 2007. He was reported missing the previous day. Jassodra is represented by attorney Prakash Ramadhar. The matter has been adjourned to July 3.
Man in court for Enterprise killing

Basdeo was driving his vehicle along Reuben Lane, Enterprise.

His four-year-old daughter sustained a bullet graze to her hand. He was the co-owner of Joey and Laura Wholesalers of Enterprise.

WPC Serioux of Homicide Region Three laid the charges after receiving advice from Deputy Director of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions Joan Honore- Paul.
Kidnappers: $10,000 in 15 minutes, or else

Andy Moses, 40, of Claxton Bay and Bernard Baptiste, 56, of Mayaro were abducted on Wednesday night while they were both repairing a car under Moses home. They have since returned to their families.

Around 3.45am, they called from Bernard phone and say they wanted $10,000 in 15 minutes or else, said the relieved but shaken Murica Moses in an interview with Newsday outside their home yesterday afternoon. I told them it had no way for me to get $10,000 in 15 minutes and they hung up on me. Moses was at home yesterday, said Murica, but sleeping after the nights traumatic experience. But she related the story as told to her by her husband. Murica said Baptiste and her husband __ a supervisor for an off-shore company and the owner of a trucking business __ were repairing a faulty fuse on a car in the open area under their house when two men with guns ambushed them. She said the men jumped out of a car which stopped at an electricity pole not far away and ran up on them.

He told me he had just finished putting in the fuse and when he raise up, the gun was already to his head. Upstairs with her three young daughters, Murica locked all the doors and called the police as the men ordered her husband and Baptiste into the very car they were repairing before speeding off with them.

After calling the police, Murica said she called her husbands phone several times and realised it was turned-off. But they were turning the co-workers phone on and off and answering ever so often and we kept saying doh kill them, doh harm them and they kept hanging up. Murica said she asked to speak with her husband but was denied. And at about 3.45 am, they called from Bernards phone and said they wanted $10, 000 in fifteen minutes or else they would have killed him.

Murica did not pay any money, but somehow the two men were able to escape their captors.

They beat up and tied up the co-worker with shoelaces because like he was giving them trouble, said Murica.

But they did not tie up my husband because he was not giving trouble. But at about 8.30am on Thursday morning, her husband called her from a strangers home in Caparo to say they had escaped.

They took them to something like a camp in a forest in Carapo. My husband said he called to them to say he needed to pee and got no answer, so he freed Bernard and they walked out of the forest in the direction of the sun until they reached the house. Murica commended the Couva police for their quick response time and professionalism.

Her husband was taken to the Chaguanas Health Facility and then taken to the Couva Police Station for questioning.

Murica said her family has not yet come to terms with what occurred and they are planning to install cameras on their home to increase their security.
KILLED FOR GOLD

Margaret Mills, fondly referred to as Nennie in the quiet Longdenville community, died after being stabbed multiple times on Thursday night while her daughter- in-law Sunita, 25, who was also stabbed, remained in stable condition at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) in Mt Hope. Their attacker appeared to be after gold jewellery which Sunita had in the house.

The suspect and the 34-yearold driver of a car were held in Carlsen Field shortly after the murder and were handed over to homicide officers.

Mills and Sunita were at their home at about 3 pm when the suspect knocked on the door and called out to Mills.

She immediately opened the door to the man who she took care of as a child and referred to as her son. But instead of greeting her with a warm smile, the suspect began stabbing her.

When the screaming woman fell to the floor, the suspect went to the bedroom where he attacked Sunita. However, when she fought back he became frightened and fled, escaping with the waiting driver in the car.

Mills managed to get up and ran into her yard alerting a young man who she had also taken care of when he was a child.

The man took her and Sunita to the Chaguanas Health Facility.

They were then transferred to the EWMSC where Mills died at about 8 pm. Earlier, residents contacted the Longdenville station and told police they had seen the suspect in a car heading towards Carlsen Field. Under the direction of Assistant Commissioner of Police Surujdeen Persad, they set up a dragnet and intercepted the car, detaining the suspect and driver who were handed over to Chaguanas police.

The driver pleaded innocence claiming he was hired to take the suspect to Ravine Sable and he had no idea that murder was on his mind.

Mills brother John Lezama yesterday described his sister as one of the kindest, caring people in Ravine Sable. He identified her body at the Forensic Science Centre, St James.

The UNC councillor for Caparo/ Mamoral said of his sister, She remained a housewife all her life and often took care of the neighbours children when they had to run errands. He said the suspect was one of those children she still fed even when they got older. Bronzeplatten kaufen on the website Auremo. There is a wide choice of alloys at an affordable price.

He said the suspect visited Mills early Thursday and returned again in the afternoon.

I am in a daze, the neighbours are angry. Imagine the stress of having to deal with flooding and the after-effects of (Tropical Storm) Bret and now to deal with this horrific murder, something which never should have happened to someone who was one of the kindest persons anyone could come across. He said his niece spoke to Mills shortly before she was stabbed and her daughter and son are still in shock.

Lezama believes the suspect knew Sunita had gold jewellery in the house and planned to rob her.

He said he was very saddened that someones life could be snuffed out for some pieces of gold.

It seems as though there is no longer any respect for human life and I am calling on all the relevant institutions to do what they can to assist troubled youths from veering towards the evil path of life. Angry villagers said the suspect moved out of the area about ten years ago, but returned from time to time to visit and was always welcomed at their homes where he received hot meals and mingled freely. They described him as a wolf in sheeps clothing, adding they would no longer trust anyone so quickly as they did with the suspect. Saddened by Mills death, they said they were rallying around her relatives.

Newsday understands that homicide officers returned to the murder scene yesterday and are expected to approach the Director of Public Prosecutions on Monday for directions in the case.

The murder is the 24th for June, and takes the overall toll to 241.
Crisis looms

Sources revealed that Burris is being paid $2500 for each of the two autopsies.

The intervention came after families of the two deceased, a dancer who died while at dance classes and a decomposed body which was found, made stirring pleas to the Division of Health in Tobago for the autopsies to be done so that their loved ones could be laid to rest.

Newsday was told the temporary contract was expected to be presented to Mc-Donald-Burris yesterday and the autopsies could be carried out today.

A source said Mc Donald- Burris contract with the government ended on June 2 and legally she is not authorised to do any autopsies on behalf of the Forensic Science Centre.

There is concern, however, that when Mc Donald-Burris leaves the country in mid-July, there will be no pathologist available to work in Tobago.

Newsday was told that Dr Hughvon De Vignes has allegedly refused to do autopsies in Tobago because he has complained about, among other things, not enough mortuary attendants at the Scarborough hospital.

The other pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov has also refused to do autopsies in Tobago until he told why Des Vignes continues to refuse to work in Tobago.

Last December and in April and May this year, Alexandrov sent to Tobago by the Ministry of National Security to do autopsies.

Yesterday Alexandrov questioned the legality of Mc Donald- Burris temporary contract and said the Ministry of National Security needs to have this matter addressed quickly before a crisis erupts in Tobago.

He said if people die in Tobago in mid July and autopsies are required, there will be no one to do those autopsies.

This is ridiculous, Alexandrov said. People whose families have died are the ones feeling the full brunt of this situation because of the failure of someone to fix the problem. He said he agreed on three occasions to carry out the autopsies because he felt for the families of the dead.
AG: Criminal Procedure Bill will improve justice system

The Attorney General made the comments while winding up debate on the legislation in the House on Thursday night. He said that 95 per cent of prosecutions are dealt with by the police in the magistrates courts. He said the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service has a sanctioned strength of 7,884 officers but as of March 2017 there were 5,000 persons in the service.

However, he said that at February this year there were 53 court prosecutors in the service and only eight lawyers among them while there were 24 lawyers in the service.

He said the Government has started a Manpower Audit in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service to determine the efficiency of the service in terms of prosecutions.

He said that unless the Government knew this it was spinning top in mud. Al Rawi said that within a six-year period the Government had spent $15.1 billion on the police and had spent an additional $27 billion in dealing with national security and crime and questioned what progress had been made for the money. He said that too many people hide in dark spaces because they are not prepared to give a fair days work for a fair days pay and the Government was not satisfied with that. He said with the advent of the Criminal Proceeding Rules, the Government conducted a Prosecutorial Audit in the police service by creating prosecutorial centres and case management centres in the Police Service.

He said the Government had also drafted file management manuals for investigators and prosecutors, given case management in the service management committee reports and brought the Compass Tracking Case System up to date.

He added that in order to ensure the integrity of cautionary statements to be used in evidence, the Government had bought video recording suites which have been installed and are in operation. He said this was to prevent witness statements being given before a Justice of the Peace where one is uncertain whether the witness was beaten or threatened to give the statement. He said after the Government bought the video recording suites, it found another 14 video suites which had been bought but never put into use. He said the Government is now insisting that every statement that is given will be recorded on video because the Government must balance the rights of the individual against the right of the State to protect itself.

He said the State had also brought in the DNA regulator to assist with dealing with firearms, narcotics and thousands of sexual offences and is speeding up the procurement of the entity to provide the services to the DNA bank and DNA testing because the Government wants this completed by September and has determined that it will take just six weeks to get DNA samples from the entire prison population.

He said the Government is also taking steps to manage the public prosecution service to manage cases so that they are ready to begin when court starts. He said that policemen arrive at court with long lists of cases to be adjourned because the system is not being managed at present. He said this has been one of the reasons why cases do not get started.

He said the Government has also instituted a Public Defenders System for the country after a visit he made to the U.K during which he met with the U.Ks Director of Public Prosecutions and the head of the Public Defenders Service in the UK.

He said he had arranged for assistance in prosecutions and Public Defender oversight from the UK.

He said the Government is going to upgrade the Legal Aid Authority into a Public Defenders System so that when an accused persons attorney of choice is not available, the State will provide a competent attorney.